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2016-40/3982/en_head.json.gz/18763

Comet ISON speeds toward the sun: 'Giving us quite a ride' Latest News Did Trump misuse $258,000 from his own charity? How emergency phone alerts are going to become even more useful How to pick a password manager There are three possible ways the comet could react to the sun's gravitational pull: it could survive, break up into chunks, or dissolve into dust. If one of the first two happens, viewers will be able to catch a glimpse. By Irene Klotz, Reuters In this frame grab, comet ISON, left, approaches the sun on Monday. ISON, which was discovered a year ago, is making its first spin around the sun and will come the closest to the super-hot solar surface on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday at 1:37 p.m. EST. AP Photo/NASA View Caption About video ads of A comet that left the outer edge of the solar system more than 5.5 million years ago will pass close by the sun on Thursday, becoming visible in Earth's skies in the next week or two - if it survives."There are three possibilities when this comet rounds the sun," Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in an interview posted on NASA's website."It could be tough enough to survive the passage of the sun and be a fairly bright, naked-eye object," he said. Could you pass Astronomy 101? Take the quiz! The second possibility is that the sun's gravity could rip the comet apart, creating several big chunks. Space photos of the day: Comets "As long as there are pieces there, we'll see something," Carey Lisse, senior research scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday.The third option: If the comet is very weak, it could break up into a cloud of dust and be a complete bust for viewing."This comet is giving us quite a ride. It's going to be hard to predict exactly what's going on," Lisse said. "As a betting man, I think it's not going to survive solar passage," he added.Comet ISON, as the object is known, was due to pass just 730,000 miles (1.2 million km) from the surface of the sun at 1:37 p.m. EST/1837 GMT on Thursday.At that distance, the comet will reach temperatures approaching 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) - hot enough to vaporize not just ices in the comet's body, but dust and rock as well."While it may seem incredible that anything can survive this inferno, the rate at which ISON will likely lose mass is relatively small compared to the actual size of the comet's nucleus," Lowell Observatory astronomer Matthew Knight said in a NASA interview.Scientists estimate that ISON needs to be about 219 yards (200 meters) to survive its close encounter with the sun. The most recent measurements indicate the comet is more than twice that size, and perhaps as big as .75 miles (1.2 kilometers).It helps that ISON will not be staying in the solar furnace for long. When it zips around the sun, it will be moving at about 217 miles per second (349 km per second.)ISON appearsThe comet was discovered last year by two amateur astronomers using Russia's International Scientific Optical Network, or ISON.It was extraordinarily bright at the time, considering its great distance beyond Jupiter's orbit, raising the prospect of a truly cosmic spectacle as it approached the sun.Heat from the sun causes ices in a comet's body to vaporize, creating bright distinctive tails and fuzzy looking, glowing bodies. The closer comets come to the sun, the brighter they shine, depending on how much ice they contain.Comets are believed to be frozen remains left over from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago.The family of comets that ISON is from resides in the Oort Cloud, which is located about 10,000 times farther away from the sun than Earth, halfway to the next star.Occasionally, an Oort Cloud comet is gravitationally nudged out of the cloud by a passing star and into a flight path that millions of years later brings it into the inner solar system. Computer models show ISON is a first-time visitor."You need comets in order to build the planets and this comet has been in deep freeze in the Oort Cloud for the last 4.5 billion years," Lisse said."Comet ISON is a relic. It's a dinosaur bone of solar system formation," he said.Oort Cloud comets have passed by Earth before, and sun-grazing comets are common. Comet ISON, however, is unique."We have never seen a comet like this, a comet that is both dynamically new from the Oort Cloud and in a sun-grazing orbit," said astrophysicist Karl Battams, with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington."It has been behaving strangely," Battams said, noting recent flares and changes in brightness that could be signs the comet is fragmenting.Regardless of what happens, "it's already been a huge victory for science," he said.(Editing by Kevin Gray and Paul Simao) Comet with two tails? Comet ISON could provide fascinating spectacle. Cosmic daredevil comet ISON will pass sun this week

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Dangerous helicopter bird strikes on the rise, FAA warns In this Wednesday, April 14, 2004, file photo, Parkview Samaritan helicopter pilot Brad Wilson checks the rotor blade for damage after being struck by a bird while flying, just one mile from Community Hospitals of Williams County, in Bryan, Ohio, the destination landing pad to transport a patient. (Carla Allshouse / The Bryan Times via AP, File) Joan Lowy, The Associated Press Published Sunday, December 27, 2015 3:06PM EST WASHINGTON -- The crew of a Dallas police helicopter was searching for a capsized boat last March, when there was a loud explosion and wind rushed through a huge hole in the windshield. The pilot, Sgt. Todd Limerick, put a hand over one eye, his face covered in blood and Plexiglass shards. He kept his other hand on the controls until the co-pilot, Cpl. Laurent Lespagnol, took over and landed the aircraft. "My first thought was that we had been shot. My second was the engine blew up," Lespagnol said in an interview. It wasn't until they had landed that they found the cause wedged between the cockpit seats -- a 3-pound American coot, a duck-like bird. Reports of helicopter bird strikes are up dramatically in recent years, including incidents, like the one in Dallas, that damage the aircraft and create the potential for crashes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. In 2013, there were 204 reported helicopter bird strikes, a 68 per cent increase from 2009 when there were 121 reports and an increase of over 700 per cent since the early 2000s, said Gary Roach, an FAA helicopter safety engineer. The increase is due partly to greater awareness among pilots about the importance of reporting bird strikes since the January 2009, when US Airways Flight 1549 was ditched in New York's Hudson River after the airliner's two engines sucked in geese. But another reason is that populations of large bird species are generally on the rise in North America, creating the potential for more dangerous strikes. The Canada goose population in the U.S. and Canada increased from about 500,000 in 1980 to 3.8 million in 2013, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. During the same time period, the North American snow goose population increased from about 2.1 million to 6.6 million. Other large-bird species with rising populations include bald eagles, wild turkeys, turkey vultures, American white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, Sandhill cranes, great blue herons and ospreys. Despite the increase in big birds and overall bird strikes, the number of incidents in which airliners and other fixed-wing planes suffered serious damage from a bird strike has been dropping, in part because of efforts to keep airports and their surroundings free of large birds. The reverse is true of helicopters, which fly at lower altitudes around lots of birds. "We're getting more severe damage, more frequent cases of birds penetrating the windshield and the risk of pilot incapacitation that could cause fatalities for everybody there," Roach told a recent meeting of FAA's aviation rulemaking advisory committee. He cited the example of a helicopter pilot in the Gulf Coast region who was flying at about 1,000 feet and 115 mph when two ducks slammed through the windshield and hit him in the face. The pilot had so much bird gore on his face, he couldn't immediately breathe or see. Some of his teeth were knocked out, his jaw wouldn't close for a month and he needed stitches. But he still managed to land the helicopter without injuring any of the other five people on board. The report on the incident read: "Bird strike. Landing uneventful," Roach said. "But that really didn't represent what was going on in the cockpit." In another instance, a bird came through the windshield and knocked the pilot unconscious, but a passenger on board was qualified to fly the helicopter and landed the aircraft, he said. Roach and his colleagues at FAA's helicopter directorate are urging that a special industry committee be established with government backing to examine whether there should be changes in the standards for helicopter construction and operation to better protect against bird strikes. The committee would also investigate whether technology is available to quickly disperse birds in the way of helicopters, possibly using strobe lights. Current FAA regulations, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, require airliner windshields and airframe surfaces to withstand the impact of a 4-pound bird, and the tail to withstand an 8-pound bird. For helicopters weighing more than 7,000 pounds windshields must withstand a 2.2 pound bird. But no bird-strike safety standards exist for helicopters weighing less than 7,000 pounds, or about 90 per cent of the U.S. fleet, including all tour and medical helicopters. "The data we have is showing we have been very, very lucky, and it's only a matter of time before we start seeing fatalities," said Jorge Castillo, regulations and policy manager for FAA's rotorcraft directorate. One of the most deadly helicopter bird strikes occurred on Jan. 4, 2009, when a red-tailed hawk smashed through the windshield of a Sikorsky S-76C ferrying oil-rig workers. Damage created by the bird shut off fuel to the aircraft's engines, sending it spiraling into a Louisiana swamp and killing eight of the nine people on board. An engineer for the Helicopter Association International, which represents operators, told the advisory committee that air medical services are reporting about one helicopter bird strike a week. The association "would welcome the opportunity to investigate and possibly address this situation," said David York, the group's vice-president for regulations. "We have to recognize there is a growing problem ... Right now, there are no miracle cures." The advisory committee urged Roach to refine his proposal, to make sure it wasn't duplicative of other efforts involving bird strikes and commercial airliners, and return in March. More News from Sci-Tech U.S. authorities list 7 Hawaii bee species as endangered Europe's comet chaser Rosetta concludes mission

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Print Email Font ResizeHumanlike violence in other animals is rareBy Marc BekoffPosted: 01/06/2013 01:00:00 AM MSTIn the depressing and sad wake of the recent ghastly tragedy in Newtown, Conn., the details of which are easily available and too horrific to repeat here, a number of people have asked me, "What can we learn about human violence from nonhuman animals?" I've written some on this topic before, but, given recent acts of heinous human violence in addition to the ongoing wars in which we're engaged, it's worth revisiting what we know about the social behavior of nonhuman animals (animals) and also adding some new information from the results of recent detailed scientific research. In a nutshell, we shouldn't be blaming other animals for our violent and evil ways and we truly are "born to be good." When discussing violent behavior in humans newscasters and other people quite often refer to those who commit these acts as "animals" or say they're "acting like animals." However, this dismissal is based on a lack of knowledge about the latest scientific research on animals that clearly shows that individuals of many species are far more cooperative, peaceful, kind, compassionate, empathic, and nice than previously thought. However, regardless of mounting scientific evidence that nonhumans are predominantly cooperative, peaceful, and fair and on occasion display social justice, media hype often portrays other animals as being far more violent and war-like than they really are. Cruelty, violence, and warlike behaviors in other animals are extremely rare. Advertisement An important essay by columnist John Horgan that was published in 2010 in Scientific American summarizes much of what is known about warfare in great apes and other primates. Horgan is especially concerned with what is called the "demonic male" theory that states "both male humans and chimpanzees, our closest genetic relatives, are 'natural warriors' with an innate predisposition toward 'coalitionary killing,' which dates back to our common ancestor." Horgan summarizes what is actually known as follows: "All told, since Jane Goodall began observing chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe National Park in 1960, researchers have directly observed 31 intergroup killings, of which 17 were infants.... researchers at a typical site directly observe one killing every seven years ... my criticism -- and that of other critics I've cited -- stems from science, not ideology. The evidence for the demonic-males theory, far from extraordinary, is flimsy." Consider also what world renowned primatologist Jane Goodall wrote about violence in wild chimpanzees in her landmark book "The Chimpanzees of Gombe:" " . . . it is easy to get the impression that chimpanzees are more aggressive than they really are. In actuality, peaceful interactions are far more frequent than aggressive ones; mild threatening gestures are more common than vigorous ones; threats per se occur much more often than fights; and serious, wounding fights are very rare compared to brief, relatively mild ones." And, along these lines, Robert W. Sussman, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, and his colleagues Paul A. Garber and Jim Cheverud, reported in 2005 in The American Journal of Physical Anthropology that for many nonhuman primates, more than 90 percent of their social interactions are affiliative rather than competitive or divisive. Positive emotions lie at the core of human nature just as they do for other animals: We're born to be good. We're also learning a lot about moral behavior in very young children. For example, researchers who study child's play, like Ernst Fehr, of the University of Zurich, and Anthony D. Pellegrini, of the University of Minnesota, have discovered that basic rules of fairness guide play, and that egalitarian instincts emerge very early in childhood. Indeed, while playing, children learn, as do other young animals, that there are right and wrong ways to play, and that transgressions of fairness have social consequences, like being ostracized. Research has also shown that six-month-old babies know right from wrong. And, of course, there's University of California psychologist Dacher Keltner's wonderful book called "Born To Be Good" in which he shows that positive emotions lie at the core of human nature just as they do for other animals. In my own interests in how we can rewind our hearts and better and more closely connect with other nature I argue that rewilding is all about being nice, kind, compassionate, empathic, and harnessing our inborn goodness and optimism. As I noted in an interview with the Huffington Post, there's so much new research showing that across cultures humans are really much nicer than we ever give them credit for. It's that relatively few who wage wars, kill people, harm children, and they get in the news. However, probably 99.9 percent of the people in the world are nice, kind, generous, and beneficent, and that's what we're discovering in nonhuman animals. I've been teaching a course on animal behavior and conservation at the Boulder County Jail for more than 12 years and when an inmate says to another prisoner, "You're acting like an animal", I always say, "You just complimented him!", and this leads to fruitful discussions about what we know about the social behavior of other animals and who we really are. So, do animals fight with one another? Yes they do. Do they routinely engage in cruel, violent, warlike behaviors? Not at all; they're extremely rare. Thus, we can learn a lot about who we really are from paying attention to what we are learning about the social behavior of other animals, and harness our own innate goodness to make the world a better place for all beings. We all must work together for a science of peace and build a culture of empathy, and emphasize the positive and prosocial (voluntary behavior to benefit another) side of our and other animals' character. It's truly who we and other animals are and it's about time we focus on the good side of human and animal nature. There really is hope if we pay attention to what we know and push aside misleading sensationalist media that misrepresents us and other animals. Marc Bekoff is has published numerous books including "Wild justice: The moral lives of animals" (with Jessica Pierce) and writes regularly for Psychology Today (http://psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions).Print Email Font ResizeReturn to Top RELATED

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Print Email Font ResizeLongmont's fiber-optic loop is already attracting customers, even before a formal business plan has been announcedCity Council will soon get look at a preliminary business planBy Tony Kindelspire Longmont Times-CallPosted: Broadband workshop for businesses What: Vince Jordan will explain to businesses what their options are for plugging into the city's fiber-optic loop When: 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, May 9 Where: Longmont City Council chambers, inside the Civic Center at 350 Kimbark St. Open to: All Longmont-area businesses To RSVP: Space is limited. Contact Wendi at 303-651-0128 or by email at wendi@longmont.org. LONGMONT -- Longmont's fiber-optic loop is lighting up. With no promotion and no outreach to businesses, a few have already signed up to become subscribers to the city's loop, and another 40 or so have contacted Vince Jordan, broadband services manager for Longmont Power & Communications. "I emailed Vince asking when I could get on," said Michael Jurey, network/telecommunication specialist for Longmont Clinic. "Luckily, the loop ran right by Longmont Clinic. On our side of the street no less." Jurey said the city's network is three times faster than the speeds the clinic got before at a cost savings of $1,600 a month. This week, Longmont Power and the Longmont Area Economic Council will host a workshop telling businesses how they can get piped into the network. Then, a week from Tuesday night the city's fiber optic loop will be the main topic of discussion at the Longmont City Council meeting. "We are bringing to council a business plan to build out all of Longmont," Jordan said. "It's the whole enchilada." The fact that there has so far been only limited rollout is due to economics. Currently, the installations are being paid for from a reserve fund that Longmont Power has built up over the years leasing portions of its fiber-optic loop to entities such as Longmont United Hospital and a third-party provider that services the school district. Those leases bring in about $250,000 annually, Jordan said. A vault containing a fiber optic splice box where connections to customers are made is seen in the alley Tuesday in Longmont. ( For 2013, the Longmont City Council authorized LPC to use $375,000 of that reserve fund to begin connecting businesses and residents to the loop. Under the current model, Jordan said LPC has a "build threshold" of 21/2 years of payback time. That means that if a business that signs up to use the city's loop can pay back the cost of connecting to it within 21/2 years or less, that business won't be charged for the connection. If the payback time is more than 21/2 years, then the business will have to make up the difference. "We are going to do some residential this year but our focus is really going to be on the commercial, because that's the biggest benefit to the community right now," Jordan said. And while nearly 1,300 Longmont businesses are within 500 feet of the city's fiber loop, that doesn't mean that they're all easily hooked up to it. "You could be 500 feet away, but I've got to do two road crossings? That gets expensive," Jordan said. Other factors are also being considered when businesses apply to become subscribers, he said. "We are prioritizing with the businesses we are working with right now," Jordan said. "We're really focused on economic development, so the ones that will put the most dollars (they save on broadband costs) back into their business, those are the ones we're working with first." Jordan wouldn't reveal exactly what Longmont Power's business plans are for building out the entire city, saying he wants to deliver that message in person at the upcoming City Council meeting. But he said that just using reserves to fund the build-out and then continuing to build out as new revenues are generated from new customers would take decades to get anyone who wants it access to the loop. To expedite the build-out, extra up-front dollars will have to be allocated, but where those dollars will come from is yet to be determined, Jordan said, adding that ultimately, the decision will lie with City Council. Money savings and speed are two of the big reasons businesses have been inquiring about the network so far, Jordan said, but those aren't the only reasons. Longmont Power and Communications Outside Plant Engineer J.J. Brockert drills a hole through the wall of the Pumphouse Brewery and Restaurant to install fiber Tuesday. The high-speed connection will be used to supply wireless internet to customers. "We're symmetrical," he said. "Our uploads and downloads are the same. I'm finding that's setting us apart more than anything else." Under the current price structure, businesses can get 50 megabits per second, symmetrical, plus eight email boxes for $154.95 per month. One hundred Mbps, symmetrical, plus 15 email boxes is $299.95 per month, and 250 Mbps, symmetrical, plus 20 email boxes is $499.95 per month. Another early adopter to the city's loop is the Pumphouse, of which Longmont Mayor Dennis Coombs is co-owner. The brewpub and restaurant has signed up for the 100 Mbps symmetrical package. "We use it for two reasons," said one of the other three owners, Dave D'Epagnier. "No. 1 is our business functions -- we process credit cards with it ... just normal day-to-day business activities. Plus, it's a big place, and we could have 50 customers that are using the broadband all at once." The other thing that attracted him and the other owners was that the business was finally able to tap into the city-owned network after so many years of having to buy high-speed service from a commercial provider. And that is all thanks to the voters, D'Epagnier said. The city's 17-mile fiber loop was first put in 16 years ago -- its $1.1 million price tag paid for by Platte River Power Authority. The original plan was for a private-sector company to provide high-speed connectivity to residents and businesses using the city's infrastructure. But an early partner in the project went bankrupt, and in 2005 the Colorado Legislature passed a law prohibiting municipalities from accessing their own fiber, even though they owned it, without a vote of its residents authorizing it. The first time it came before Longmont voters, in 2009, 56 percent of them voted against it. But in 2011 it came back again and 61 percent of voters approved allowing Longmont Power to explore ways to best use the loop. That yes vote came despite a nearly a half-million dollar advertising campaign from existing telecommunication providers who were urging a "no" vote. Tony Kindelspire can be reached at 303-684-5291 or at tkindelspire@times-call.com. Longmont Power & Communications Outside Plant Engineer J.J. Brockert marks a wall before installing an Optical Network Terminal, a device that will convert the fiber optic cable connection to ethernet Tuesday at Chamber of Commerce building in Longmont. To watch a video, visit www.timescall.com.

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Researchers Discover New Geothermal Clean Energy Process 34 comment(s) - last by MrPoletski.. on Jul 21 at 8:49 AM MIT says process could provide 10% of the electricity needs in America by 2050 Generating power from resources that don't create pollution is a major area of research around the world. The more power we can create from methods that have low pollution and don’t require fossil fuels, the less we as a nation will have to rely of foreign oil. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have unveiled a new method of capturing more heat from low-temperature geothermal resources. According to the researchers, this type of geothermal resource is capable of generating pollution-free electrical energy. The researchers are working to determine if the new method can safely and economically extract and convert heat from the geothermal resources into electricity. The ultimate goal of the project is to be able to produce electricity without generating greenhouse gas emissions and tap a currently unused underground geothermal resource. PNNL Laboratory Fellow Pete McGrail said, "By the end of the calendar year, we plan to have a functioning bench-top prototype generating electricity. If successful, enhanced geothermal systems like this could become an important energy source." According to an analysis conducted at MIT, the new power generating method cold produce 10% of the energy needed by the U.S. by 2050. The new process uses a special liquid that the researchers developed called a biphasic fluid. When the fluid is exposed to heat brought to the surface from water circulating through moderately hot underground rock the biphasic fluid undergoes a thermal cycling. This thermal cycling can be harnessed to power a turbine that generates electricity. The scientists have developed a nanostructured metal-organic heat carrier called MOHCs that are able to boost the capacity of the generators to levels near that of steam cycle. The advancement was discovered while working on an unrelated project at the labs. McGrail said, "Some novel research on nanomaterials used to capture carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels actually led us to this discovery. Scientific breakthroughs can come from some very unintuitive connections." RE: Breaking News!!!..... aromero78 Thats not a bad idea. Maybe you could try to capture the heat and methane coming off of the waste too? Parent

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4/5/201102:41 PMThomas ClaburnNewsConnect Directly0 commentsComment NowLogin50%50% Feds Probe Mobile App PrivacyPandora, an online music service, got hit with a subpoena that appears to be part of an investigation into the information sharing processes of apps that run on Apple and Android mobile platforms.(click image for larger view)Slideshow: Best Mobile Apps For Busy ProfessionalsFederal prosecutors in New Jersey are investigating how mobile apps use personal data, according to an unnamed source cited in a story by the Wall Street Journal. A spokesperson for the Office of the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing any ongoing investigation. But on Monday, Pandora, an online music service that distributes mobile music apps, confirmed that earlier this year it had been "served with a subpoena to produce documents in connection with a federal grand jury, which we believe was convened to investigate the information sharing processes of certain popular applications that run on the Apple and Android mobile platforms." Pandora revealed that it had received the subpoena in a financial filing with the SEC. The company noted that while it was not a specific target in the investigation, it could nonetheless incur costs to comply with the subpoena and might be dragged into litigation. The revelation follows a series of reports by the Wall Street Journal about online privacy. In October, the paper found that the 10 most popular Facebook apps were sending Facebook UIDs (user IDs) to at least 25 data collection and advertising firms. In December, it found that 56 out of 101 popular smartphone apps transmitted the phone's unique device ID number without consent and that almost as many transmitted location data. These findings have piqued the interested of regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice and have prompted at least one lawsuit already. The Federal Trade Commission has been backing a do-not-track proposal and legislators like Senator Jay Rockefeller say that basic privacy rules are necessary. In all likelihood, the era of self-regulation for mobile and online apps will soon end. While privacy rules may provide a framework to punish those acting in bad faith, they're not likely to ensure individual privacy. Without a complete source code review by a third-party -- something that's not likely to happen -- it's relatively easy for an ill-intentioned developer to spirit information out of a user's phone. A simple method would be to cache sensitive data and transmit it, perhaps in encrypted or obfuscated form, a month or two after installation. Even with a mobile operating system like Android, which requires users to authorize network access in apps, the fundamental problem is that personal and financial data be used both legitimately and illegitimately and it's not always possible to divine intent from raw data.

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Home > Gaming > Electronic Arts: No backwards compatibility in… Electronic Arts: No backwards compatibility in PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 By The introduction of the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4, whatever they may be called, will be more than just a shift to new technology. Improved graphics, artificial intelligence, an emphasis on social networking, digital distribution, and streaming services are the pillars of the next round of big-budget game making. The mystery surrounding these unnamed commercial computers is what they won’t do. What aspects of console design will go the way of the dodo with the next round of machines? According to Electronic Arts, backwards compatibility – the ability to play games from the previous generation of console – is one common feature that will likely disappear. “An important thing to remember is that next-gen consoles will most likely not be backwards compatible,” Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen said during a Tuesday question and answer session at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. For Electronic Arts, the lack of backwards compatibility should help the company cut down costs, particularly on server maintenance. With backwards compatibility taken out of the new Microsoft and Sony consoles, it won’t have to maintain catalogue games’ online multiplayer for as long a time. EA has already increased the frequency of server closures. The lack of backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 discs makes sense for both companies from a variety of business perspectives. In the case of Sony, since Orbis/PlayStation 4 is abandoning the PlayStation 3’s Cell process, backwards compatibility is likely impossible at a hardware level. More than that, though, Sony and Microsoft can resell many recent titles as digital downloads by not supporting physical copies. According to EA, the decision will impact adoption of the new hardware in both positive and negative ways. “[If] you [play] multiplayer on a game, you’ll most likely not be able to play with someone on a different generation,” said Jorgensen. “And so if you’re a FIFA player and the soccer season’s starting in August, and all your friends are playing FIFA, you’re going to want to be on the same box that they’re on. So if they all go out and buy a gen-four box [Ed: what EA is referring to is Xbox 720/PlayStation 4] if it comes out at Christmas, then you’ll most likely do it. If they all hold on and continue to play on third-generation, you’ll probably not see that box purchase until after the soccer season’s over. And I think that works for us positively in both ways. It helps us continue to sell gen-three products, and it will help us sell gen-four product as that cycle finally gets into place.”

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/ Solar Powered Login or create an account to earn points. Solar Powered Advantages of Solar Powered Electric Fences There are many choices when it comes to electric fence supplies. One such option is a solar powered electric fence. Solar powered electric fences have some advantages over traditional electric fences. Solar fences are easily installed, and are a great option when installing in remote areas and in areas without easy access to electricity. They otherwise work just as other electric fence systems. Solar fences work in many different environments, but they do require significant exposure to sunlight. About once a month, you should check to see if the solar panels are still receiving adequate sunshine. It’s important to remember that when the seasons change, the direction of sunlight can change also. Solar electric fences are great for containing livestock, particularly in remote areas. Containing livestock to a specific area can help to improve the quality of soil in that area due to the animal fertilizer. Solar electric fences require a solar electric fence charger and a battery. Many of these fences are able to stay charged for eight weeks, even when the solar panel doesn’t receive direct sunlight. Another great advantage to solar is that they often last for years. Solar powered electric fences are very efficient at keeping your animals and property safe and contained. 1 Item(s) Position Name Price Battery Storage Box This is a product to contain and protect your 12 volt DC battery when using a battery and/or solar powered energizer. Learn More

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Carbon breakthrough earns Nobel Prize for physics The Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to Manchester-based scientists Andre Geim (pictured) and Konstantin Novoselov for their experiments with graphene, a flake of carbon expected to play a large role in electronics. REUTERS - Two Russian-born scientists shared the 2010 Nobel Prize for physics for showing how carbon just one atom thick behaved, a breakthrough with implications for areas from quantum physics to consumer electronics. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both with the University of Manchester, conducted experiments with graphene, a new form of carbon that is both the thinnest and strongest material known. "Since it is practically transparent and a good conductor, graphene is suitable for producing transparent touch screens, light panels and maybe even solar cells," the committee said. Novoselov, 36, is a dual British-Russian citizen while Geim, 51, is a Dutch citizen. The pair extracted the super-thin material from a piece of graphite such as that found in ordinary pencils, using adhesive tape to obtain a flake that was only one atom thick. "Playfulness is one of their hallmarks, one always learns something in the process and, who knows, you may even hit the jackpot," the committee said in its release. The material is almost completely transparent yet so dense that not even the smallest gas atom can pass through it. It also conducts electricity as well as copper. The academy said that graphene offered physicists the ability to study two-dimensional materials with unique properties and made possible experiments that can give new twists to the phenomena in quantum physics. "Also a vast variety of practical applications now appear possible including the creation of new materials and the manufacture of innovative electronics," it said. Mentioning a few possible applications, the academy said graphene transistors were expected to become much faster than today's silicon ones and yield more efficient computers. The prize of 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.5 million), awarded by the Nobel Committee for Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, was the second of this year's Nobel prizes. Thomson Reuters predicted in 2008 that Geim and Novoselov were likely winners. David Pendlebury of Thomson Reuters makes predictions every year based on a citation index -- looking at how often a particular researcher's published studies are used as the basis of work by other researchers. The full report is available at http://science.thomsonreuters.com/nobel. British fertility scientist wins Nobel Prize for medicine Nobel Prize season opens in Stockholm Nobel Physics laureate Georges Charpak dies at 86

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StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Becomes Biggest PC Game Launch of the Year Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty achieved a day-one sales milestone of more than 1 million copies sold worldwide, making it the best-selling PC game of 2010 within its first 24 hours of availability. The game went on to sell a total of more than 1.5 million copies in its first 48 hours, setting the record for fastest-selling strategy game of all time.StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released simultaneously in North America, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on July 27. More than 8,000 stores throughout the world opened their doors at midnight to celebrate the release, and Blizzard Entertainment developers were present at several locations to commemorate the event with players and sign copies of the game."We launched StarCraft II in 11 different languages and on 5 different continents because we wanted to make sure as many players as possible were able to log on and play on day one," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're pleased that so many people around the world have already picked up a copy of the game, and we look forward to welcoming even more players to Battle.net in the weeks and months ahead." "GameStop had more than 3,000 stores open at midnight, so our StarCraft players got a jump start on playing the epic experience Blizzard consistently delivers with its games," said Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop. "StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is officially GameStop's fastest-selling PC game since Blizzard launched World of Warcraft®: Wrath of the Lich King in 2008."StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the sequel to Blizzard Entertainment's 1998 hit StarCraft, which has been hailed by players and critics worldwide as one of the top real-time strategy games of all time. Sporting a vibrant 3D-graphics engine, StarCraft II once again centers on the clash between the protoss, terrans, and zerg, with each side deploying legions of veteran, upgraded, and new unit types. Unparalleled online play for StarCraft II is available through a new version of Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment's world-renowned gaming service. Battle.net has been redesigned from the ground up to be the premier online gaming destination for Blizzard gamers, with several enhancements and new features, such as voice communication, cloud file storage, leagues and ladders, achievements, stat-tracking, and more.The solo campaign for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty continues the epic saga where it left off in StarCraft: Brood War. The story line chronicles the exploits of marshal-turned-rebel-leader Jim Raynor and features both familiar faces and new heroes. Players are able to tailor the experience, choosing their own mission path and selecting technology and research upgrades to suit their playing style throughout the 29-mission campaign. Several challenge-mode mini-games are also included, with focused goals designed to ease players into the basics of multiplayer strategies.For more information on StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, visit the official website at www.starcraft2.com. Steven Hopper PCMac Beta for StarCraft 2’s final expansion, Legacy of the Void, rumored for end of March StarCraft Universe Kickstarter ends with $84K pledged StarCraft Universe reaches Kickstarter goal Fan-made MMO Starcraft Universe now seeks Kickstarter funds StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty is 50% off until March 11th

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WHY GARTNER Select a Gartner site Gartner.com Gartner Japan Gartner Accessibility Press Release Share: STAMFORD, Conn., August 28, 2012 View All Press Releases Gartner Says Bring Your Own Device Programs Herald the Most Radical Shift in Enterprise Client Computing Since the Introduction of the PC The rise of bring your own device (BYOD) programs is the single most radical shift in the economics of client computing for business since PCs invaded the workplace, according to Gartner, Inc. Every business needs a clearly articulated position on BYOD, even if it chooses not to allow for it.BYOD is an alternative strategy that allows employees, business partners and other users to use personally selected and purchased client devices to execute enterprise applications and access data. For most organizations, the program is currently limited to smartphones and tablets, but the strategy may also be used for PCs and may include subsidies for equipment or service fees."With the wide range of capabilities brought by mobile devices, and the myriad ways in which business processes are being reinvented as a result, we are entering a time of tremendous change," said David Willis, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "The market for mobile devices is booming and the basic device used in business compared to those used by consumers is converging. Simultaneously, advances in network performance allow the personal device to be married to powerful software that resides in the cloud."Mobile innovation is now driven more by consumer markets than business markets. Affordability is not only putting very powerful technology in the hands of consumers, but those consumers are also upgrading at a much faster rate. An organization may better keep up with mobile technology advancements by aligning to the consumer, rather than the much slower pace of business technology adoption, with its long cycle of detailed requirements analysis, established refresh rates, and centralized procurement heritage. Consumers also enjoy equipment and domestic service pricing that often matches the best deals that an enterprise can get on behalf of its users.In a BYOD approach, users are permitted certain access rights to enterprise applications and information on personally owned devices, subject to user acceptance of enterprise security and management policies. The device is selected and purchased by the user, although IT may provide a list of acceptable devices for the user to purchase. In turn, IT provides partial or full support for device access, applications and data. The organization may provide full, partial or no reimbursement for the device or service plan."Just as we saw with home broadband in the past decade, the expectation that the company will supply full reimbursement for equipment and services will decline over time, and we will see the typical employer favor reimbursing only a portion of the monthly bill," said Mr. Willis. "We also expect that as adoption grows and prices decline employers will reduce the amount they reimburse." While BYOD programs can reduce costs, they typically do not. As businesses look to drive ever more capability to the mobile device, the costs of software, infrastructure, personnel support and related services will increase over time. Once companies start including file sharing, business applications and collaboration tools, the costs to provide mobile services go up dramatically. Gartner believes that IT's best strategy to deal with the rise of BYOD is to address it with a combination of policy, software, infrastructure controls and education in the near term; and with application management and appropriate cloud services in the longer term. Policies must be built in conjunction with legal and HR departments for the tax, labor, corporate liability and employee privacy implications. Gartner recommends that companies start with a standard policy that would apply anywhere, and create customized versions by country if necessary. "BYOD is not for every company, or every employee. There will be wide variances in BYOD adoption across the world — by geography, industry and corporate culture," said Mr. Willis. "Most programs are at the employee's discretion — they decide if they want to opt in. For the vast majority of companies it is not possible to force all users into a bring your own (BYO) program without substantial financial investments — and considerable support from senior management." Despite the inherent challenges, Gartner believes that we are likely to see highly successful BYOD programs in the coming years. Many businesses will expand beyond smartphones and tablets and embrace BYO for personal computers. Beyond PCs, it is likely that users will discover new uses for emerging devices not initially understood by IT planners, much like we saw with the iPad. "It won't stop with bring your own PC," said Mr. Willis. "Bring your own IT is on the horizon. Once these new devices are in the mix, employees will be bringing their own applications, collaboration systems, and even social networks into businesses." Additional information is available in the Special Report "Bring Your Own Device: New Opportunities, New Challenges." The Special Report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/ipad-media-tablet/bring-your-own-device.jsp. The Special Report includes top-level advice and addresses every part of the BYOD strategy: from planning, to policy, to project management, to cost estimations. Gartner analysts drive deeper into the business case and the question of whether BYOD saves money, and assess the state of the art in management and security technologies. Gartner analysts will examine key issues for BYOD at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo. About Gartner Symposium/ITxpoGartner Symposium/ITxpo is the world's most important gathering of CIOs and senior IT executives. This event delivers independent and objective content with the authority and weight of the world's leading IT research and advisory organization, and provides access to the latest solutions from key technology providers. Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of attendees' annual planning efforts. IT executives rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use IT to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. Additional information for Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2012 in Orlando, October 21-25, is available at www.gartner.com/symposium/us. Members of the media can register for the event by contacting Christy Pettey at christy.pettey@gartner.com. Additional information from the event will be shared on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Gartner_inc and using #GartnerSym. Upcoming dates and locations for Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2012 include:August 28-30, Cape Town, South Africa: www.gartner.co.za October 3-5, Tokyo, Japan: www.gartner.com/jp/symposium October 10-12, Goa, India: www.gartner.com/in/symposium October 21-25, Orlando, Florida: www.gartner.com/us/symposium October 29-31, Sao Paulo, Brazil: www.gartner.com/br/symposium November 5-8, Barcelona, Spain: www.gartner.com/eu/symposium November 12-15, Gold Coast, Australia: www.gartner.com/au/symposium March 5-7, 2013, Dubai, UAE: www.gartner.com/technology/symposium/dubai/ Contacts Christy Pettey christy.pettey@gartner.com Rob van der Meulen rob.vandermeulen@gartner.com About Gartner Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. The company delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the valuable partner to clients in approximately 10,000 distinct enterprises worldwide. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, and has 8,100 associates, including more than 1,700 research analysts and consultants, and clients in more than 90 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com. Comments or opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual contributors only, and do not necessarily represent the views of Gartner, Inc. or its management. Readers may copy and redistribute blog postings on other blogs, or otherwise for private, non-commercial or journalistic purposes. This content may not be used for any other purposes in any other formats or media. The content on this blog is provided on an "as-is" basis. Gartner shall not be liable for any damages whatsoever arising out of the content or use of this blog. Gartner Blog Network IT Glossary Peer Insights © Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

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(Vol. 30, No. 21) Adoption of Label-Free Technologies Surges Methodologies Like SPR and ITC Are Saving Researchers Time and Money Sue Pearson, Ph.D. Click Image To Enlarge + Molecular model of coagulation factor X binding to adenovirus type 5 (based on cryoelectron microscopy data): Adenovirus is in blue and factor X in purple. [GE Healthcare] There is an explosion of biophysical methods being used in the discovery phase of biotherapeutics, according to Fredrik Sundberg, director of strategic market development at GE Healthcare. “Label-free technologies including surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) are becoming more widespread. This is because scientists are more aware of how to interpret the data from these techniques, and are using them for designing better biological drugs and vaccines. Also, these are real-time assays, which can offer significant time savings,” Sundberg explained at the recent “Developments in Protein Interaction Analysis” (DiPIA) meeting in Barcelona. Noxxon Pharma is just one of the many companies using label-free technology for discovery and preclinical development. “Aptamers are oligonucleotides that bind and efficiently inhibit target molecules in a manner conceptually similar to antibodies,” reported Christian Maasch, Ph.D., director of biophysical analysis. “They are identified by an in vitro selection process. Conventional RNA or DNA aptamers are susceptible to degradation by ubiquitous nucleases. A stabilized aptamer, Eyetech’s Macugen, has been approved by the FDA as an intravitreal injection for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration. “Noxxon has developed chemical entities based on mirror-image RNA oligonucleotides, which we call Spiegelmers®. These don’t occur in nature, are not metabolized, and do not hybridize with native nucleic acids. “We are using SPR to support lead candidate identification and preclinical development, including hit analysis, kinetic evaluation, selectivity determination, and epitope mapping to characterize their binding activities, search for potential antidrug antibodies, and detect plasma protein binding.” Using these applications of SPR the company has identified two lead candidates, NOX-E36 and NOX-A12, that have been tested in Phase I trials. NOX E36 (MCP 1 antagonist) is going to be developed to treat diabetic complications such as nephropathy. NOX A12 (SDF 1 antagonist) can be used to mobilize hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow and to treat hematological and solid tumors. “We believe the Spiegelmer technology combines the benefits of small molecule drugs and biopharmaceuticals, including the easily scalable chemical manufacturing process, the exceptional target specificity, and inhibitory potency. In preclinical, as well as clinical studies, we have confirmed that the beauty of Spiegelmers, besides their exceptional stability, is that they don’t activate the innate immune responses like conventional oligos can and are eliminated by the kidneys as intact product with a half-life of more than 40 hours. The recent progress in the clinics shows that Spiegelmers are well suited for further drug development, which is planned to be partnered at later stages.” Cancer-Causing Enzyme Acts during DNA Replication Five Ways to Improve Host-Cell Protein Assay Performance Bioluminescent AMP Detection

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StemCells, Inc. Executive Vice President Ann Tsukamoto, Ph.D., to Make Keynote Address at 2013 Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa's Scientific Symposium October 10, 2013 09:00 ET | Source: StemCells, Inc. NEWARK, Calif., Oct. 10, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StemCells, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEM), the leading stem cell company developing novel cell-based therapeutics for disorders of the central nervous system, announced today that Ann Tsukamoto, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Scientific and Strategic Alliances at StemCells, will make the keynote address at the Scientific Symposium of the 2013 Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa, to be held October 14-16 in La Jolla, Calif. In her address, "Human Neural Stem Cells from Discovery to Clinic," Dr. Tsukamoto will describe the compelling preclinical data that underlie the Company's clinical trials targeting disorders in the brain, spinal cord, and eye, and the encouraging early data from these clinical trials. Dr. Tsukamoto is scheduled to speak at 8:05 a.m. Pacific Time on October 16, at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. "Harnessing the potential of cell-based therapy presents many challenges," said Dr. Tsukamoto. "We at StemCells have taken a meticulous approach to developing our proprietary neural stem cell technology. We have carefully followed the science, and have generated and published a robust body of scientific data, including a number of preclinical proof-of-principle studies in well-accepted animal models. The early clinical data from a number of our Phase I/II trials is encouraging as the data is beginning to confirm much of what we have seen in the animal models." Dr. Tsukamoto has been working on stem cells for over 25 years. She joined StemCells in 1998, and under her direction, the Company isolated its proprietary HuCNS-SC® cells (purified human neural stem cells) and successfully transitioned into clinical development for a range of CNS indications. Prior to joining the Company, Dr. Tsukamoto was a co-discoverer of the human hematopoietic stem cell and is a named inventor on seven issued US patents. The Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa is a three-day conference organized by the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), and the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM). The conference is aimed at bringing together senior members of the regenerative medicine industry with the scientific research community to advance stem cell science into cures. The conference's nationally recognized Scientific Symposium, which will be held on October 16, is attended by leading scientists and researchers and will showcase leading academic research in the field of regenerative medicine. The conference's Regen Med Partnering Forum, the only partnering meeting organized specifically for the regenerative medicine and advanced therapies industry, will be held October 14-15. Please visit http://stemcellmeetingonthemesa.com/ for more information. StemCells, Inc. is a sponsor of the 2013 Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa. About StemCells, Inc. StemCells, Inc. is engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of cell-based therapeutics and tools for use in stem cell-based research and drug discovery. The Company's proprietary HuCNS-SC® cells (purified human neural stem cells) are currently in development as a potential treatment for a broad range of central nervous system disorders. In a Phase I clinical trial in Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD), a fatal myelination disorder in children, the Company has shown preliminary evidence of progressive and durable donor-derived myelination in all four patients transplanted with HuCNS-SC cells. The Company is conducting a Phase I/II clinical trial in chronic spinal cord injury in Switzerland, Canada and the United States, and has reported positive interim data for the first three patients. The Company is also conducting a Phase I/II clinical trial in dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in the United States. In addition, the Company is pursuing preclinical studies in Alzheimer's disease, with support from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). StemCells also markets stem cell research products, including media and reagents, under the SC Proven® brand. Further information about StemCells is available at http://www.stemcellsinc.com. Apart from statements of historical fact, the text of this press release constitutes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. securities laws, and is subject to the safe harbors created therein. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the clinical development of the Company's HuCNS-SC cells; the Company's ability to commercialize drug discovery and drug development tools; and the future business operations of the Company. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this news release. The Company does not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof. Such statements reflect management's current views and are based on certain assumptions that may or may not ultimately prove valid. The Company's actual results may vary materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties to which the Company is subject, including the fact that additional trials will be required to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the Company's HuCNS-SC cells for the treatment of any disease or disorder; uncertainties regarding the ability of preclinical research, including research in animal models, to accurately predict success or failure in clinical trials; uncertainties regarding the Company's ability to obtain the increased capital resources needed to continue its current and planned research and development operations; uncertainty as to whether HuCNS-SC cells and any products that may be generated in the future in the Company's cell-based programs will prove safe and clinically effective and not cause tumors or other adverse side effects; uncertainties regarding the Company's ability to commercialize a therapeutic product and its ability to successfully compete with other products on the market; and other factors that are described under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 and in its subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K. Rodney Young StemCells, Inc. Ian Stone Russo Partners other press releases by StemCells, Inc. StemCells, Inc. and Microbot Medical Ltd. Announce Strategic Merger StemCells, Inc. Announces Termination of Phase II Pathway Study Following Review of Data StemCells, Inc. to Report 12-Month Cohort I Data from its Phase II Pathway Study May 10, 2016 10:00 StemCells, Inc. Announces 1-for-12 Reverse Stock Split StemCells, Inc. to Participate in the 3rd Annual Growth Capital Expo MicroCap Investor Conference in Las Vegas, NV newark, California, UNITED STATES StemCells, Inc. Logo

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Obamacare Site Glitches Shine Spotlight On Canadian IT Giant CGI The Huffington Post Canada Posted: 10/10/2013 1:35 pm EDT Updated: 10/10/2013 1:35 pm EDT Share A Montreal-based information technology giant has found itself in the middle of an uproar over glitches in the newly-launched Obamacare website, with some pundits ready to blame Canada.CGI Federal, a division of CGI Group, the world’s sixth-largest IT firm, holds the principal contract to develop and run the federal HealthCare.gov website. The site hosts the health care exchanges where Americans in 36 U.S. states can sign up for subsidized health care. (The remaining states are building their own health care exchanges.)The U.S. government has paid CGI at least $88 million U.S. to build and support the federal exchange, the Washington Post reports.But glitches plagued the CGI-built website from the moment it launched Oct. 1. “Blank boxes where security questions are supposed to appear. Pleas to ‘be patient.’ Error messages galore. Notices that ‘the system is busy right now.’ Web pages timing out before they load. Garbled lines of text riddled with stray question marks,” Reuters reported.And the glitches had a substantial impact. According to an AP-GfK poll, three-quarters of visitors to the site reported problems signing up.The Obama administration attributed the issues to overwhelming demand. The federal site received more than 8 million visitors in its first week, the U.S. government said.But there may be deeper, structural problems with the site, some IT experts say. They say the site’s design is fundamentally flawed, loading too many different files when users carry out certain functions on the site, like creating a new account.“It’s a bug in the system, a coding problem,” said Jhoti Bansal, CEO of application performance management firm AppDynamics.“We are spending 24 hours a day, seven days a week working with our client and working with our partners in order to stabilize the enrolment [process] and finish the roll-out of this very complex project,” CGI spokesperson Lorne Gorber told the Globe and Mail.All the same, the company has come in for criticism in the U.S.“The (U.S.) government tends to contract with firms that are better at securing contracts than they are at developing web sites,” the U.S. edition of The Huffington Post quipped.Some observers and pundits who oppose Obamacare see ominous signs in the choice of CGI as the contractor for HealthCare.gov, as the company also has contracts administering public health care systems in Canada.“The company is deeply embedded in Canada’s single-payer system,” the Washington Examiner reported. “CGI has provided IT services to the Canadian Ministries of Health in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Saskatchewan, as well as to the national health provider, Health Canada.”CGI “has been a darling of the Obama administration, which since 2009 has bestowed it with $1.4 billion in federal contracts,” the paper stated.The Globe and Mail notes that one CNBC pundit began a recent segment with the question, “Should we immediately go to war with Canada over the CGI thing?”No, responded former Vermont governor Howard Dean in the segment. Dean argued technical glitches are to be expected when a complex website like this is launched.“It happen[ed] in almost every tech roll-out that I’ve seen over a long period of time,” he said.CGI has benefited greatly from Obamacare. Its stock is up more than 30 per cent over the past year, and has seen its health care revenues grow 90 per cent in that time, the Globe reports. Also on The Huffington Post Obamacare Haters of Peter Bensen, McDonald's chief financial officer, said on a conference call last year that Obamacare will cost the company and its franchisees $140 million to $420 million per year. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, told NPR in January that Obamacare is "like fascism." He then told HuffPost Live that he regretted making that comparison. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) John Schnatter, CEO of Papa John's, said in August that Obamacare will cost the company $0.11 to $0.14 per pizza. But he has maintained that Papa John's offers and will continue to offer health insurance to all of its employees. (Photo by Diane Bondareff/Invision for Papa John's International/AP Images) David Overton, CEO of the Cheesecake Factory, told CBS in December that Obamacare "will be very costly" and "most people will have to [raise prices] or cheapen their product" in response. Dina Barmasse-Gray, the Cheesecake Factory's senior vice president of human resources, said in a statement to The Huffington Post: "We have the highest regard for the wellbeing of our staff members, and have offered health insurance to our staff members who work at least 25 hours per week for many years. Because of our long history of providing health benefits, and based on our current analysis of the new requirements, we do not believe the Affordable Health Care Act will have a material impact on us." Boeing lobbied unsuccessfully against a new Obamacare fee, according to the Wall Street Journal. And it is generally concerned about Obamacare's costs. "Boeing agrees with the intent of the Affordability Care Act – to provide increased access to coverage, to improve quality, and in the long run, to help manage the overall cost of the health care system," Boeing spokesman Joseph Tedino said in a statement provided to The Huffington Post in March. "However, while the details and implications of the ACA continue to emerge, the net financial impact to Boeing since the inception of law and for the foreseeable future is negative." (Photo by Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images) Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE, told Bloomberg Businessweek last year that he plans to respond to Obamacare by selling cheaper meats and hiring more part-time workers. He also told Newsmax he plans to build fewer restaurants in response. (Photo by Erik S. Lesser/Getty Images) Jimmy John's CEO Jimmy John Liautaud told Fox News last year that he plans to cut his workers' hours in order to avoid having to offer them health insurance under Obamacare. "We have to bring them down to 28 hours [per week]," he said. "There's no other way we can survive it." obamacare glitches obamacare cgi contract cgi group cgi obamacare contract cgi federal obamacare website glitches obamacare website problems Here's everything you need to know about Obamacare's error-plagued websites CGI Group Extends Global Footprint - Analyst Blog Analysis: IT experts question architecture of Obamacare website Click here to view Conversations

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NewsPeopleNews The inventor who's putting blimps back on the radar If all goes to plan, we could see a fully British-built airship crossing the Atlantic as early as 2014 Jerome Taylor @jerometaylor Monday 12 September 2011 23:00 BST The inventor who's putting blimps back on the radar Susannah Ireland In the far corner of an unlit office on an industrial estate in Bedfordshire, David Burns is sitting in front of a bank of flickering computer screens, his hands grasping a joystick and multiple throttle levers. In front of him is a digital mock-up of an airport on the east coast on America. As he pushes the throttle forward the camera slowly begins to move down the airfield before lifting off into the sky above."There she goes," he says. "All you need is about 30 knots to get her off the ground and she's away."The "she" this softly spoken Scottish pilot is referring to is a computer-simulated version of what will soon be the first fleet of commercial airships to be built in Britain for more than 80 years.Mr Burns is a test pilot for Hybrid Air Vehicles, a British engineering company that is pioneering a comeback of the dirigible behemoths of yesteryear with a modern twist that will make them both safer and significantly more efficient than their predecessors.The Cranfield-based company, that struggled for years to be taken seriously by the aviation industry, has just signed a multimillion-pound contract with a Canadian firm to supply a brand new range of heavy-lift airships that will carry goods to remote areas of the Arctic, where roads are non-existent.They will be used mainly in the mining industry to ship in heavy equipment and take away raw material from some of the most remote communities in North America. The first generation of 300ft-long (91m) ships will be able to lift up to 20 tons but there are plans for vessels that could lift ten times that.It sounds like something straight out of a Philip Pullman novel – giant airships floating near silently through the ice-cold skies of the Arctic – but if all goes to plan we could see a fully built British airship crossing the Atlantic as early as 2014.Except don't call it an airship. "We're really trying to get away from that word," says Gordon Taylor, the company's Canadian-born, smooth- talking marketing director. "If anything they're closer to airplanes, there's a fundamental difference. We like to call them hybrid air vehicles because they amalgamate both the technology of an aeroplane and an airship."Mr Taylor's discomfort is understandable. For decades enthusiasts and logistics experts have argued in favour of a return of Zeppelins as an efficient and more than feasible form of transport that could be a vital bridge between commercial jets and slow-moving ocean liners.But ever since the Hindenburg caught fire in 1937 as it docked in New Jersey, both the public and investors have been terrified of revisiting such a form of transport.In many ways our fear is unfounded. Neither cars nor aircraft were anything like as safe in the 1930s as they are now and yet we never gave up on them when disaster struck. Equally when The Titanic sunk we didn't abandon ocean liners. But when the Hindenburg crashed to the ground, so did the entire airship industry. What made that tragedy different was that the hydrogen-filled airship ignited and crashed in front of a host of film cameras and photographers at a time when the modern media has just started to wield unparalleled influence.Fast forward 70 years and the new generation of hybrid airships coming on to the market are a very different breed from their predecessors. The Zeppelins of the past were built on a rigid aluminium frame out of cotton, silk and ox-gut and were often filled with highly flammable hydrogen. They were notoriously leaky and had none of the navigation or metrological equipment now use to ensure comfortable flying. Hybrid Air Vehicles' new ships are filled with entirely inert helium into a Kevlar-reinforced semi-rigid balloon that loses less than three per cent of its gas every year. The balloon itself is aerodynamically shaped like an oversized wing, providing lift as it moves forward. Four engines add extra power, allowing it to take off and land on anything from gravel, sand, ice and water.Barry Prentice, a professor of supply chain management at the University of Manitoba, builds, tests and studies airships. He describes the plan to supply northern Canada with a fleet of the vehicles as "a tipping point" that will herald the return of commercial Zeppelins."For decades there has been a complete lack of confidence in airships as a mode of transport but the mining industry is exactly the sort of investment you need to encourage others to follow suit," he says."Say you discover a gold mine in a remote corner of the Arctic, the first thing you have to do is build a road. It's an incredibly expensive process and once the mine is finished the road is useless."Airships change all that. Once it catches on and is shown to work, the idea will spread."Ironically, it was the US military that first took a punt on airships and generated enough confidence in the idea to give it traction in the 21st century.Because of secretive contractual commitments Hybrid Air Vehicles can't talk about it. But it is a matter or public record that the Bedford firm – alongside American arms giant Northrop Grumman – won a half-billion-dollar contract last year to build three surveillance blimps that will give the US military unparalleled eavesdropping abilities over battlefields.The so-called Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicles (LEMVs), which can hover at 20,000ft for 21 days, are packed with sophisticated computers and listening devices that military chiefs hope will allow them to send real-time intelligence to troops on the ground within 15 seconds.It might sound counter-intuitive to have a giant inflatable balloon floating above a battlefield bristling with weaponry but defence tests have shown that the blimp is virtually indestructible.The inert helium is at such a low pressure that even if the blimp is holed by bullets it would take days to seep out (though 20,000ft is well beyond the range of anything not rocket-fuelled anyway). Surface to air missiles, meanwhile, bounce off without exploding and the ship cannot be detected by radar.One defence industry official who saw the tests conducted on a prototype said: "We shot at it with 120 half-inch armour-piercing rounds and three days later the balloon was still flying. It's a remarkable piece of kit."The exact timing of when the balloons will be combat ready has not been released publicly but industry sources have told The Independent that they expect the first ship tobe above Afghanistan before the start of the timetabled 2012 troop withdrawals. The first blimp is already being assembled in the States and could be up and running by the end of the year. For those in the industry the hope is that the arrival on heavy-lift Zeppelins both on the battlefield and in the Arctic could pave the way for the return of luxury cruise liners in the sky.It is a pitch that Hybrid Air Vehicles's Gordon Taylor has clearly rehearsed."Imagine you're with 400 of your best friends," he says with a wry smile. "You head down to Regent's Park International and board one of our vessels at 11am on a Thursday morning. There's fine dining, cocktails, stately rooms and dinner dances."The flight across the Atlantic takes 30 hours so there's no jet lag. The only thing you'd need to worry about it how to get over the hangover from all those cocktails."It's hard to argue with that.Airship milestones* The airship began life as a symbol of modernity, with Ferdinand von Zeppelin's pioneering ships criss-crossing the skies of Europe at the turn of the century. When war broke out, airships were used for reconnaissance on the Western Front, and Zeppelin raids on British towns killed hundreds.* The age of the airship came crashing down in 1937 when the German passenger ship Hindenburg burst in to flames in the skies above New Jersey, killing 36 people; all in front of newsreel cameras.* The aeroplane supplanted the airship, though blimps continued to be used for surveillance, filming and advertising. More about: Hybrid Cars And Electric Cars

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Washington Post | October 3, 2006 By Peter Whoriskey BOCA CHICA KEY, Fla. -- Drones are better known for their role in pursuing military targets, but scientists here are poised to launch them into the raging vortexes of hurricanes. The small, unmanned aircraft will explore the storms at low levels that are too dangerous for "hurricane hunter" aircraft to probe. Meteorologists hope the information gathered will provide new details about wind speeds at the Earth's surface and how a hurricane feeds itself on the warmth of the ocean. "It's impossible for manned flights to fly at the levels we'd like because of the safety risks," said Joseph Cione, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's lead scientist on the pilot project. "This is the portion of the hurricane that we really don't know that much about." The drones, known as Aerosondes, have a wingspan of 10 feet and can be launched from an automobile with the aid of a rooftop launcher. The car, with a launcher strapped to the roof, reaches about 60 mph, at which point the aircraft is released by a latch. The planes are remarkably light, but also remarkably sturdy. An Aerosonde flew into Tropical Storm Ophelia last year, recording temperature, humidity and wind speeds. Now the aim is for similar measurements from hurricanes. Five Aerosondes are waiting here for a hurricane to form. The $300,000 for the project comes from NOAA and NASA. "If we lose the aircraft, that is part of the process," said Peter Bale, an Aerosonde representative. Despite all the satellite and radar imagery available to scientists, what happens in the portion of the hurricane nearest the ocean is relatively undocumented. The piloted hurricane hunter airplanes typically fly into hurricanes at 10,000 feet up, nearly two miles above the surface, sometimes dropping to as low as 5,000 feet. The risks rise as the planes descend. The Aerosonde, by contrast, is expected to be able to drop to 500 feet or less over the ocean. The data collected are expected to provide immediate help for meteorologists trying to estimate a hurricane's wind speeds at the Earth's surface. In the longer term, the information is also expected to help scientists better understand the air-sea connection in hurricanes and to make more accurate predictions of their intensity, one of the most urgent challenges facing meteorologists today. While scientists have dramatically improved their understanding of the movement of hurricanes -- their storm-track forecasts have improved substantially -- predictions about intensity have lagged. This season, Tropical Storm Ernesto was forecast to become a hurricane in Florida. Airports closed. Students in South Florida had two days off. But Ernesto's predicted fury never materialized -- the feared storm proved to be a meteorological dud. The predictions have underestimated storms, too. In 2004, Hurricane Charley startled scientists when it blossomed from Category 2 to Category 4 in a very short time. "Why did that happen? Scientifically, we really don't know," Cione said. While scientists know that hurricanes derive their power from the warmth of the ocean, what's far less clear are the conditions at the point where the hurricane touches the ocean, which is where the energy transfer takes place. For example, scientists had long assumed that the difference between air temperatures and ocean temperatures were small -- less than 1 degree Celsius. But recent research by Cione and others, based on ocean buoys that just happened to be under a hurricane, showed that the temperature difference has been two or three times that. The significance of the temperature difference is "huge," Cione said, because the amount of energy flowing from the water into the hurricane partly depends on it. The drones, he hopes, will render more clues about this portion of the hurricane. While scientists have reams of satellite and other data collected from storms, little of it provides even basic information about the nexus of the air and ocean. The Aerosondes can stay aloft for as long as 20 hours. Sensors on the wing will transmit basic meteorological information to the National Hurricane Center and NOAA's Hurricane Research Division about what is happening at the stormy surface. According to a NOAA statement: "Continuous observation of temperature, moisture, and wind structure of the near-surface hurricane environment has never been documented in a hurricane." Prison Planet.tv - The Premier Multimedia Subscription Package: Download and Share the Truth! E-MAIL THIS LINK Enter recipient's e-mail: << HOME Infowars.com is Copyright 2006 Alex Jones | Fair Use Notice HOME

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India readying database in five languages on its traditional knowledge Jeetha D’Silva First Published: Fri, Nov 02 2007. 11 30 PM IST Updated: Fri, Nov 02 2007. 11 30 PM IST Mumbai: Stung by extensive patenting of traditional knowledge, India plans to try and secure areas it considers indigenous, from traditional medicines to yoga. It is in the process of developing a database of such knowledge in five languages— English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese—to ensure that authorities dealing with intellectual property rights in foreign patent offices do not wrongfully grant patents to Indian products or processes. “We hope that through these efforts we will be able to prevent misappropriation of traditional knowledge,” says D.C. Katoch, deputy adviser (ayurveda), department of ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha and homeopathy (Ayush) in the ministry of health and family welfare. The department will offer free access to the database for other patent offices as long as that information is not provided to outside parties. According to Katoch, the United States Patent and Trademark Office is interested in subscribing to the database library, which contains information on traditional medicinal systems such as ayurveda, siddha, unani as well as yoga. The Indian government’s efforts have been focused on the US because that is where most legal battles over patents have been fought. The US patent office didn’t immediately return an email query for comment. In recent years, India has fought for the revocation of patents awarded by the US patent office on turmeric and basmati, and a neem patent granted in Europe. More recently, the Indian government has objected to the grant of yoga-related copyrights, patents on yoga accessories, and yoga trademarks. A 2003 study by the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources claimed that some 7,000 patents worldwide are based on Indian indigenous knowledge. Intellectual property experts believe that the database can help document traditional knowledge in a structured manner. Prabuddha Ganguli, intellectual property consultant and lawyer, says it can help establish “prior art”, or information relevant to claims of originality already in the public domain at the time of application for a patent. If an invention has been described in prior art, a patent on that invention is not valid. By that logic, traditional knowledge—including instances such as turmeric and neem—cannot be patented because they have been used in India for centuries . “The database could become an important source of prior art which is significant for the purposes of patenting inventions that are linked in some way to traditional knowledge,” Ganguli says. Others, however, believe that India’s efforts may lack merit. Elizabeth Kadetsky, a US-based yoga trainer and author of a book about Iyengar yoga, says to say yoga is a part of India’s traditional knowledge is unconscionable. Even yoga in India has relied on the traditional knowledge of others, she says, citing German body-culture movements, Sufism as practised by Muslims and even the New Age movement from the Americans. “Modern yoga as practised in India would not exist without the influences of such diverse sources,” she says. More Topics: Patent | US | Yoga | Unani | Ayurveda | Read more from Livemint Arvind Kejriwal claims honest officers being removed systematically Reliance Communications’ CEO Vinod Sawhny steps down Kolkata Test: Bhuvneshwar Kumar wrecks New Zealand with five-wicket haul Editor's PicksCognizant reveals corruption probe in US, replaces presidentReliance Jio vs incumbents : Trai seeks daily updates on network congestion Kotak Mahindra Bank to buy BSS Microfinance for Rs139 croreFrom the WebSponsored Links by Revcontent

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Home > Press > NanoDynamics Forms Strategic Partnership with Nanocyl Agreement to Expand Applications and Commercial Use of Nanocyl S.A.'s Single, Double and Mutiwall Carbon Nanotubes in North America NanoDynamics Forms Strategic Partnership with Nanocyl S.A., Europe's Leading Carbon Nanotube Manufacturer and Developer Buffalo, NY | March 03, 2005 NanoDynamics, a leading nanotechnology organization and manufacturer of superior nanomaterials, announced today that it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Nanocyl S.A., the leading manufacturer and developer of carbon nanotubes in Europe, to expand the applications and commercial use of Nanocyl S.A.'s single, double, and multiwall carbon nanotubes in North America. Additionally, NanoDynamics will provide technical support and expertise in applications development to users of these advanced materials. Nanocyl S.A. specializes in the production and functionalization of nanotubes, enabling it to integrate carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into polymers, metals and biomaterials. The two kinds of carbon nanotubes currently in existence are Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes (SWNT) and Multi Wall Carbon Nanotubes (MWNT). Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes have unique electrical, thermal and strength properties and are being evaluated in electronic applications. Multiwalled Nanotubes are already under evaluation in structural applications such as aerospace, automotive and sporting goods. Nanocyl also introduced Double Wall Carbon Nanotubes (DWNT) in 2003, which are showing some superior advantages to SWNT and MWNT. "This partnership is particularly exciting because we are combining Nanocyl S.A.'s ability to manufacture and tailor a range of high quality carbon nanotube products with NanoDynamics' experience in identifying near-term commercial markets for nanomaterials in North America" commented Dr. Alan Rae, Vice President of Market and Business Development for NanoDynamics. "We feel that NanoDynamics will help guide Nanocyl's products into development programs in research quantities and subsequently into product qualification while ensuring that all US regulatory guidelines are met." Olivier Decroly, Global Business Development Manager, at Nanocyl S.A., is enthusiastic about the involvement of NanoDynamics in the promotion of Nanocyl products. "NanoDynamics is heavily involved in the electronics technology roadmapping organizations such as NEMI and has strong customer contacts in the critical fields where our products will be used. These critical fields include semiconductors, sensors, interconnect and thermal interface materials, as well as non-electronic application areas such as reinforced polymers for engineering and biological applications. This partnership will enable us to strengthen our activities in North America." About Nanocyl S.A. Nanocyl S.A. is a spin-off company, founded in February 2002, which emerged from the University of Namur and Liege (Belgium) and is supported by individual and institutional investors. The purpose of Nanocyl S.A. is to develop new business for the supply of specialty Carbon Nanotubes based on an existing and expanding portfolio of intellectual property. Nanocyl S.A. is one of the first companies to be established in Europe for the commercial supply of this family of novel material. Currently, pilot production is dedicated to associated laboratories and selected industrial partners. Nanocyl S.A. is investing in production equipment, laboratories and process development at its facility in order to supply commercial quantities of carbon nanotubes. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.nanocyl.com. About NanoDynamics NanoDynamics, Inc. is a leading company in the field of nanotechnology and manufacturer of superior nanomaterials that will dramatically improve the form, function and performance of a wide range of both industrial and consumer products. The Company is uniquely positioned, utilizing proprietary and protected technologies, to commercially manufacture economical, high quality nanomaterials that will enable revolutionary advancements in industries including electronics, semiconductors, consumer products, fuel cells, transportation, energy and biotechnology. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.nanodynamics.com. Berns Communications Group, LLC Stacy Berns/Michael McMullan Copyright � NanoDynamics If you have a comment, please Contact us. Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

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Home > Press > International Malaria Research Consortium Combines Technologies and Expertise From Two Continents to Tackle Deadly Disease Research teams from three academic institutions and two private sector companies on two continents have come together to form the "International Malaria Research Consortium for the development of novel classes of antimalarials", (the "Consortium"). International Malaria Research Consortium Combines Technologies and Expertise From Two Continents to Tackle Deadly Disease Toronto, ON | Posted on November 3rd, 2010Research teams from three academic institutions and two private sector companies on two continents have come together to form the "International Malaria Research Consortium for the development of novel classes of antimalarials", (the "Consortium") a bold initiative to develop novel classes of drugs against malaria, a deadly disease in desperate need of new treatments. Each of the Consortium's five partners brings unique capabilities spanning the spectrum from academic research to commercial development, and significantly - their existing technologies to the table. Through an extensive program design process, the parties hit upon unique combinations of these existing technologies that, combined with new drugs to be developed under the program, represent entirely new approaches to treating and potentially even eradicating this disease. "It was a fascinating process to see different organizations with deep knowledge in their individual fields coming together and combining this knowledge to create innovative new approaches to the treatment of this disease" - Prof. Virander Chauhan, Director, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology-New Delhi."Creative leverage" is a term that comes to mind in describing this program. Iin addition to developing new therapeutics, we are also bringing together existing technologies developed by the partners and combining them in new ways such that one will have the potential to boost the effectiveness of another. - Dr. Lakshmi P. Kotra, Director, Center for Molecular Design and Preformulations, University Health Network and University of Toronto. In a field that has seen very few new drugs introduced in the past 30 years, and where most of these drugs have lost effectiveness due to the emergence of drug resistant malaria strains, this program endeavors to develop entirely new classes of drugs, and furthermore will seek to develop drugs that, by their design, will hinder the emergence of drug resistance. With funding from the International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada Inc. (ISTPCanada) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Government of India, these new therapies will be developed and refined. Led by the site directors of each partner, Lakshmi Kotra at University Health Network/University of Toronto (Consortium lead in Canada), David Bell at Therapure Biopharma, Jitendra Verma at Lifecare Innovations, Asif Mohammed at the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Consortium lead in India), and R. Mahesh at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, this program brings together a dynamic and talented groups of world-class scientists for a common cause of advancing basic research discoveries to preclinical development. This consortium brings their combined drug development expertise to the discovery and development of new compounds against targets in the parasite that causes malaria. Current projects include the development of drugs against three malaria targets that the academic groups have researched extensively. This research is combined with the state-of-the-art tools and expertise in computer modeling, medicinal chemistry, nanoformulations and drug conjugation technologies from the consortium partners to advance potential drugs into IND enabling studies. The consortium has already made excellent progress since its activities started in April, 2010 and looking to expand the scope of the efforts with additional partners to advance the mission to develop clinically viable new antimalarials. One example of this technology combination process is embodied in an objective to treat a form of malaria that resides in the liver. This form of the disease can re-emerge months or years after the initial infection to cause new illnesses in that individual. Additionally this form of the disease can re-introduce malaria into local populations where it had previously been eliminated - frustrating permanent eradication efforts. To tackle this problem the program will combine new drugs developed with existing technologies designed to deliver drugs to the liver in an effective form. Other technology harnessed under the program will allow antimalarial drugs to be released slowly over long periods of time. This slow release gives the potential for a "one pill cure", a long sought after goal in anti-malarial drug development programs as it would allow the most effective utilization of often limited medical resources. Malaria is one of humanities most devastating illnesses with an estimated 247 million cases worldwide in 2008 and almost one million deaths, mostly among children. In Africa a child dies every 45 seconds of Malaria and the disease accounts for 20% of all childhood deaths. Furthermore drug resistance is steadily undermining the effectiveness of existing treatments - driving the need for new therapies.####About Therapure BiopharmaTherapure Biopharma Inc. is an integrated biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures, purifies, and packages therapeutic Protein Characterization. Therapure Biopharma is also a specialist in therapies derived from hemoglobin, a blood protein. As a Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturers Therapure Biopharma applies scientific, manufacturing, and downstream Purification of Protein expertise with an intimate understanding of advanced biology, complex proteins, and regulatory processes to develop effective and innovative solutions to advance products from discovery to market. About University Health Network University Health Network consists of Toronto General, Toronto Western and Princess Margaret Hospitals. The scope of research and complexity of cases at University Health Network has made it a national and international source for discovery, education and patient care. It has the largest hospital-based research program in Canada, with major research in cardiology, transplantation, neurosciences, oncology, surgical innovation, infectious diseases, and genomic medicine. University Health Network is a research and teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto. About International Centre for Genetic Engineering Biotechnology (ICGEB) The ICGEB is an autonomous, intergovernmental organization with its headquarters in Trieste, Italy and two other components in New Delhi, India and Cape Town, South Africa; in addition, ICGEB currently has 57 full Member countries. The ICGEB provides a scientific and educational environment of the highest standard and conducts innovative research in life sciences for the benefit of developing countries. It strengthens the research capability of its members through training and funding programs and advisory services and represents a comprehensive approach to promoting biotechnology internationally. About Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) The Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani is an all-India Institute for Higher Education. The research group at BITS has expertise in synthetic chemistry and drug delivery areas with a strong track record of research in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery related areas. About Lifecare Innovations Lifecare Innovations is an R&D intensive company specializing in controlled release pharmaceuticals employing an array of novel drug delivery technologies. Lifecare Innovations is engaged in the development of number of these controlled release drugs in collaboration with national institutions. These are under various stages of development. Predominant among these are a range of antifungals. In addition, in-house developments for commercialization of technologies have led to the successful launch of several drugs in the market by Lifecare Innovations. For more information, please click here Contacts:Thomas Wellner, President and CEOTherapure Biopharma Inc.+1 905 286-6204 Copyright © Therapure Biopharma Nanobiotechnology

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Great Backyard Bird Count set for this weekend Birders will have a chance this weekend to participate in an annual study that�s going global this year. Birders will have a chance this weekend to participate in an annual study that�s going global this year. The 16th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) takes place Friday through Monday, and scientists are asking for help to count birds on their migratory routes. Anyone can watch birds at any location for at least 15 minutes, tally the numbers of each species they see and report their findings online at Birdcount.org. Last year, participants of the GBBC submitted 104,151 checklists (a record) with 17.4 million individual bird observations, according to the GBBC website. This year could be even bigger with the introduction of new technology. New features include interactive maps and using smartphones to upload bird counts through an eBird BirdLog app. Bob Gould, president of the Lower Neuse Bird Club, said flocks of birds already are making their way to New Bern to fuel up for the migration north. Red-winged blackbirds, common grackles and some brown cowbirds are now very active, he said. �They have decimated feeders,� he said. �They are coming in the hundreds every day. They tend to congregate here. It�s pre-migration time for them.� More red-breasted nuthatches seem to have shown up this winter than usual, Gould said. They usually stay farther north, he said. Gould said he enjoys the GBBC each year and thought it would be a fun activity for kids and a way for parents to get their children involved in birding. �The idea is to try not to count the same bird more than once,� he said. �That is sometimes difficult.� All of the data collected during the GBBC will be used as a base to evaluate migration trends, Gould said. �It is a way to get an idea of how certain species of birds are doing,� he said. �It�s not an exact science, but I find it enjoyable.� Jim Oldham, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited, and his wife, Carol, participate in the GBBC each year. �It�s entertaining to watch birds,� Oldham said, �and it is a citizen science project, collecting data and putting it online; and it can be a family-oriented activity.� People can visit the GBBC website Friday to see bird observations taking place around the world and contribute their own tallies. Global participation will be made possible through eBird, a real-time online checklist program that the Cornell Lab and Audubon are integrating into the GBBC for the first time this year. John Fitzpatrick, Cornell Lab director, said he was eager to see how many of the world�s 10,240 bird species will be reported this year. �We're looking forward to this historic snapshot of birds that that will be reported from around the world,� Fitzpatrick said in a statement. �We need as many people as possible to help build the wealth of data that scientists need to track the health of bird populations through time.� To learn more, visit Birdcount.org. The count also includes a photo contest and a prize drawing for participants who enter at least one bird checklist online. The Great Backyard Bird Count is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon, with Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada and sponsored in part by Wild Birds Unlimited. Eddie Fitzgerald can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at eddie.fitzgerald@newbernsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @staffwriter3.

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World Renowned Scientist Dr. Brenda Milner Receives Dan David Prize Released: 13-Feb-2014 1:00 PM EST Source Newsroom: McGill University Dr. Brenda Milner Newswise — Dr. Brenda Milner, an active researcher at the age of 95 at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, has been awarded the 2014 Dan David Prize for her fundamental contributions to the science of memory and the brain. Dr. Milner is widely recognized as one of the founders of cognitive neuroscience–the field that brings together brain and behavior. Dr. Milner, who is the Dorothy J. Killam Professor of Psychology, shares the Prize for the category Present: “Combatting Memory Loss”, with Peter St. George-Hyslop (University of Cambridge) and John A. Hardy (University College, London). All three have made outstanding contributions to the understanding of memory loss and continue to pioneer the way forward to finding a solution.“I am absolutely delighted to have received the Dan David Prize with Dr. St. George-Hyslop and Dr. Hardy,” said Professor Milner. “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Dan David Foundation and the review committee for this tribute.” Each year, the Dan David Foundation, headquartered at Tel Aviv University, awards three prizes of $1 million for outstanding scientific, technological, cultural or social achievements. The prizes are awarded within the context of past, present and future time dimensions. This year’s categories are Past: “History and Memory”, Present: “Combating Memory Loss”, and Future: “Artificial Intelligence, The Digital Mind.” "On behalf of the McGill community, I congratulate Prof. Milner on this remarkable achievement. Receiving the Dan David Prize is a true testament to Prof. Milner’s distinguished career and seminal discoveries in the area of memory systems.” said Prof. Suzanne Fortier, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill. “We are very proud that her important work continues to be recognized on the international stage and thank the Dan David Foundation for their award to Professor Milner” As part of Mr. David’s legacy and desire to inspire future generations, awardees are required to donate 10% of the prize money to scholarships for graduate students in their respective fields.“Receiving the Dan David Prize is a wonderful honour for Dr. Milner,” said Dr. Guy Rouleau, Director of the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre. “This award recognizes her immense contributions to science and it speaks to her own personal commitment to training and providing opportunities for future generations of scientists.” For more than six decades, Dr. Milner’s creativity and precision in developing methodology to study amnesic and other patients have led her to conclusions that radically changed the way we think about memory. Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel credits Dr. Milner with taking the critical step of merging the fields of neurobiology and psychology to form this new field that has spawned a vast body of research in human cognition. Importantly, her research has also had a profound and continuing influence on clinical domains in the development of tests to assess, diagnose, and treat people with brain disorders resulting from traumatic injury and degenerative diseases, and from psychiatric illness.In 2009, Dr. Milner announced The Brenda Milner Foundation, which underpins her commitment to future scientists and provides opportunities for those around the world to experience the dynamic academic and clinical environment at The Neuro. The Foundation will support and foster young researchers in the field of cognitive neuroscience through postdoctoral fellowships at The Neuro. Her scientific contributions have been recognized by more than 20 honorary degrees and many prestigious awards from Canadian and international scientific societies. She is a fellow of the Royal Society (UK), the Royal Society of Canada and the National Academy of Sciences (USA), and has received numerous prizes and awards including the International Balzan Prize, the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize and the NSERC Award of Excellence. The prizes will be awarded on May 18, 2014 at Tel Aviv University.For more information about the Dan David Prize and to watch the Prize Announcement Video: http://www.dandavidprize.org/.The NeuroThe Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital — The Neuro, is a unique academic medical centre dedicated to neuroscience. Founded in 1934 by the renowned Dr. Wilder Penfield, The Neuro is recognized internationally for integrating research, compassionate patient care and advanced training, all key to advances in science and medicine. The Neuro is a research and teaching institute of McGill University and forms the basis for the Neuroscience Mission of the McGill University Health Centre. Neuro researchers are world leaders in cellular and molecular neuroscience, brain imaging, cognitive neuroscience and the study and treatment of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and neuromuscular disorders. For more information, visit theneuro.com. Permalink to this article

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Bermudez:Research Jump to: navigation, search Home Contact Internal Lab Members Publications Research Protocols Our general theme is to exploit various forms of self-assembly to achieve nanoscale materials with responsive properties, at the intersection of materials science and biotechnology. We have largely, though not exclusively, focused our attention on biopolymer systems composed of nucleic acids and/or polypeptides, to benefit from tunable interactions with unmatched precision. These and other well-defined macromolecules are the natural choices for studying self-assembly in solution or at interfaces, with obvious implications for sensors and drug/gene delivery. Solution self-assembly I. DNA-based assembly is promising approach to circumvent limitations of traditional gene and drug delivery, potentially eliminating the need for polycation condensation. Our efforts have demonstrated the importance of DNA's mechanical properties at the nanoscale [1,2], as well as pioneering the use of DNA nanostructures as therapeutic delivery vehicles [3]. More recently, we have begun to explore the role of kinetics on self-assembly. II. Viruses and virus-based particles provide opportunities to use recombinant DNA/protein engineering methods to control presentation of reactive groups, to introduce asymmetry, and to incorporate stimulus-responsive motifs at the nanoscale. We have explored the third aspect to endow virus particles with precisely defined functionality [4]. Such levels of control are often difficult, if not impossible, to achieve with more traditional inorganic nanoparticles. Potential applications include biosensors and intracellular probes. Interfacial self-assembly I. The engineering of surfaces that are capable of controlling cell adhesion has been widely explored, and is largely limited to patterning strategies. In nearly all of these works, such systems are inherently static. By contrast, the cellular micro-environment is dynamic and is remodeled by biochemical reactions and biophysical forces. We have borrowed this concept from Nature to create self-assembled polymeric films that exhibit lateral (i.e., in-plane) diffusive motion [1]. Cells placed on these films are sensitive to the dynamic presentation of ligands, presenting a unique way to control their adhesion and spreading behavior [2]. II. Room-temperature ionic liquids (ILs) exhibit a unique set of properties due to their highly charged character, generating interest across scientific disciplines. We have been examining the combination of charged surfactants with ILs, which results in a rich interfacial behavior [3,4]. We employ traditional measures of surface activity in addition to extremely sensitive surface science techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Fundamental investigations of surface thermodynamics, phase separation, kinetics, etc. are currently being revisited in the context of ILs. A more recent effort has been to explore the phase behavior of stimulus-responsive macromolecules in these novel solvents. Retrieved from "http://www.openwetware.org/wiki/Bermudez:Research" Harry Bermudez

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Crown Audio Celebrating 65th Anniversary (Includes Video) Jul. 09, 2012, by PSW Staff RSS Related Tags Heritage And History, Harman, Crown Audio, Power Amplifiers Kelley Technologies Selects JBL Control Contractor Loudspeakers For Aliante Station Casino & Hotel Crown Audio Debuts HiQnet Band Manager Software App For Portable PA System Configuration & Control Crown Introduces Updated Macro-Tech i Series Amplifiers With Increased Power & Dual Port Capability From humble beginnings in 1947, Crown Audio has grown to become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of power amplifiers. Crown’s history traces back to 1947 and an Elkhart, Indiana minister named Clarence C. Moore (1904-1979). Moore, a longtime radio enthusiast, had spent the early part of the ’40s in Quito, Ecuador working for HCJB, a non-profit Christian broadcasting and engineering group. Following his return to the United States, he felt the desire to supply Christian broadcasters like HCJB with quality electronic products. As a result, Moore founded International Radio and Electronics Corporation (IREC) in 1947 and converted a former chicken coop into the budding manufacturer’s first production facility. The company’s early reputation was built on a family of rugged and compact open-reel tape recorders designed to operate reliably when used by missionaries in remote, often-primitive regions of the world. After modifying and distributing several existing models (Magnecord, Recordio, Pentron and Crestwood) for the first couple of years, Moore obtained a patent in 1949 for a groundbreaking invention: the world’s first tape recorder with a built-in power amplifier (15 watts). Eventually, Moore’s wife and co-founder, Ruby (deceased 2002), suggested that ‘International Radio and Electronics Corporation’ was too long a name for the company. Since IREC had by this point produced vacuum tube tape recorders branded ‘Royal’ and ‘Imperial’, in addition to the fact that the emblem on those products was a fancy crown, she felt that the company should simply be called Crown. Her husband agreed, and, in the 1960s, the company’s name was changed to ‘Crown International, a division of International Radio and Electronics Corporation’. Finally, in 1975, the stockholders voted to change the name of the corporation to Crown International, Inc. Clarence C. Moore In the 1960s, the introduction of the DC300 high-powered, solid-state amplifier offering 150 watts per channel at eight ohms and AB+B circuitry moved Crown into a leadership position in worldwide power amplifier markets. In the 1970s, Crown launched the PSA-2 power amplifier with a built-in computer to maximize performance of its output transistors. Product diversification began with the introduction of the line of Pressure Zone Microphones (PZM) and TEF audio analyzer. With the implementation of Grounded Bridge circuitry in the 1980s, Crown offered an innovation providing lower distortion, less thermal stress, higher acoustic output, greater reliability, superior power density and audio quality, Grounded Bridge circuitry was integral to the engineering of the Macro-Tech and Micro-Tech amplifier lines. The 1990s found Crown developing computer-controlled audio systems with the IQ System. In 1997, the company added another new milestone in audio technology with the introduction of the K2 amplifier featuring Balanced Current Amplifier circuitry offering innovative thermal and energy efficiencies. Acquired by Harman International in March of 2000, Crown has continued to move forward, producing numerous innovative designs, including the CTs Series amplifier line for the installed sound markets, Crown’s next-generation IQ System, now called IQ Network, and the I-Tech Series touring amplifiers. Crown International Senior VP of R&D Gerald Stanley, who originally joined the company in 1964 as a tape recorder line technician and amplifier design engineer, comments on Crown’s success over the years. “In an era of cookbook designs and buggy software, it would seem that the most basic lessons of history have been forgotten,” he says. “Crown’s recipe is simple: design, build and service each product as if you were the customer. This approach not only drives the product to excellence, it drives the people to be the best that they can be.” (Thanks to Crown for this report.) Related: Crown DC300 Amplifier Leads The Solid-State Revolution A Conversation With Product & Technology Wizard Gerald Stanley Inside The Powered By Crown Monitoring & Control Solution The Development Of The Crown I-Tech 4x3500HD Four-Channel Amplifier Filed in Sound Reinforcement Topics: AV, Feature, Blog, Video, Study Hall, Amplifier, AV, Manufacturer, Power, Sound Reinforcement, Tags: Heritage And History, Harman, Crown Audio, Power Amplifiers

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Biological Clocks Control Cell Division in Bacteria A team of biologists has unraveled the biochemistry of how bacteria so precisely time cell division, a key element in understanding how all organisms from bacteria to humans use their biological clocks to control basic cellular functions. The discovery, detailed in the February 19 issue of the journal Cell, provides important clues to how the biological clocks of bacteria and other "prokaryotic" cells"”which lack cell nuclei"”evolved differently from that of "eukaryotic" cells with nuclei that comprise most other forms of life, from fungi to plants and animals. "A major question in biology is how the circadian clock machinery is different in bacteria than it is in plants, animals and fungi," said Susan Golden, a professor of biology at UC Sana Diego, who headed the study. "We looked at how the biological clock controls when bacterial cells divide"”in bacteria, there's a period of four hours where the cells are not allowed to divide"”and we identified the structural changes in a key protein that controls this action." Golden and her colleagues from UCSD, MIT, Michigan State University and Texas A&M University probed cell division in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus. That organism had been studied extensively by the Golden lab and other researchers, who found that the timing of cell division, patterns of gene expression and compaction of the chromosome are controlled by the circadian clock. What was unknown was precisely how the circadian clock in bacteria controlled cell division. Using time-lapse microscopy, Golden and her colleagues discovered that the clock proteins KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC in bacteria control the action of a key protein called FtsZ, preventing it from going to the middle of the cell and forming a ring necessary for cell division. After four hours has elapsed, the clock proteins allow FtsZ to move toward the center of the cell and change structurally to form this ring. "This complex of proteins is at the heart of the bacterial clock controlling cell division," said Golden. "There are two cycles, the cell cycle and the circadian cycle, that need to mesh for organisms to function. What we learned from this study is how these two cycles with different timing periods interact, and that the mechanisms that control the timing of cell division in bacteria are different than they are in eukaryotic cells." Golden added that knowledge of the mechanisms of how organisms from bacteria to humans control the timing of their cell division and other processes has application to many human problems resulting from disorders in the circadian clock. "Understanding the basic mechanisms of the biological clock is vital to our daily lives as many people suffer from some problem in their daily sleep cycle," said Golden. "The biological clock in humans plays a central role in whether we gain or lose weight, when we fall asleep and wake up, how likely we are to have accidents and how we respond to disease." The other co-authors of the paper were Guogang Dong and Yong-Ick Kim of UCSD; Qiong Yang and Alexander van Oudenaarden of MIT; Qiang Wang and Katherine W. Osteryoung of Michigan State; and Thammajun Wood of Texas A&M. Their study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Image Caption: Circadian clock protein KaiC, at center of clock, controls the timing of cell division in bacterial colonies around the clock's periphery.l

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Scientists: Copenhagen Accord Doomed To Fail The loose framework and "unambitious" carbon-cutting pledges of the Copenhagen accord means that the treaty will more than likely fail to reach its target of limiting global warming to just 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), claim Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) members. In an opinion piece published Wednesday in the online journal Nature, PIK researchers Joeri Rogelj, Malte Meinshausen, and their colleagues say that it is more likely that the average worldwide climate will increase by a minimum 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100. In fact, the study places the odds of that happening at "greater than 50-percent." Furthermore, they claim that "nations will probably meet only the lower ends of their emissions pledges in the absence of a binding international agreement," that worldwide emissions could increase by 20-percent over the next 10 years, and even if countries agreed to reduce emissions by half within the next 40 years, "there is still a 50% chance that warming will exceed 2°C." The Copenhagen Accord, which was put together on the final day of the 2009 summit, has been approved by 120 countries. While it established the 2 degrees Celsius goal, it drew criticism for not setting time limits or milestones along the way, and was enacted on a strictly volunteer basis. It has also created tension between developing and developed nations over how much of a burden the wealthier countries should bear for the enactment of anti-climate change policy. The next round of United Nations-led climate negotiations is set for December 2010 in Cancun, and according to what Meinshausen told BBC News, it will feature very important negotiations. "In an ideal world, if you pull off every possible emission reduction from the year 2021 onwards, you can still get to get to 2C if you're lucky," Meinshausen said. "But it is like racing towards the cliff and hoping you stop just before it." Nature Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) United Nations Climate Change Framework

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STM Unveils 3D, Full-Color Model of British Columbia The manufacturer of the solid-terrain models uses digital elevation and imagery data obtained from Earth-orbiting satellites or airborne sensors for the selected geographic area. FILLMORE, Calif. & VICTORIA, British Columbia /BUSINESS WIRE/ -- Solid Terrain Modeling (STM), manufacturer of the "world's most accurate 3D solid-terrain models," unveiled a stunning new model of the entire province of British Columbia (BC) at the historic Crystal Garden in Victoria, BC. The 3D, full-color model is 40 by 74 ft., larger than a doubles tennis court, and is the "world's largest" physical-terrain model ever created from digital-data sources. The model can be viewed from many levels and allows visitors to see BC as it actually appears from outer space, with every geographic feature in vivid color and exquisite detail.The model is the centerpiece of the new "BC Experience" geographic discovery center, and is located under the beautiful glass-and-iron canopy of the Crystal Garden. The BC Experience allows visitors to navigate through the physical and cultural wonder that is British Columbia. The grand opening for the "BC Experience" will be held on Monday, June 26.What the BC Model Looks Like The BC model is a literal transcription of the best geophysical data that modern science can provide and offers visitors the unique opportunity to see how our planet looks from space. The most remarkable feature is its accurate representation of the curvature of the Earth. Because of the curvature, viewers on lower levels see the great arc of the horizon rather than the ends of the model.To appreciate both the big picture and the exquisite details included in the model, visitors can view it from various levels and locations to take in all of the natural splendor of BC—the beautiful mountain ranges, wide valleys, penetrating fjords, mighty rivers and their tributaries, blue lakes, and green islands—all in vivid color. They can even see the contours of the ocean floor beneath the coastal waters. Evidence of glaciers, earthquake-prone fault lines, agriculture, forestry, cities, and even roads can be seen clearly.To augment the information provided by the model, fourteen flat-screen electronic GeoStations are mounted on balcony railings surrounding the model. The touch-screen GeoStations provide visitors with instant access to in-depth geographic information on scores of locations in British Columbia.How the BC Model Was Built Consisting of 100 separate curved panels, the model was created from digital elevation and imagery data obtained from Earth-orbiting satellites. Using the elevation data, the panels were carved from high-density foam by STM's highly calibrated custom cutting machines. The completed panels were spray coated white and then, using the imagery data, an image of the geographic area was applied directly to the surface of each panel by STM's unique printing machine. Because each panel was individually shaped to accurately represent the curvature of the Earth, no two panels are the same shape. The finished panels were assembled onsite and installed over an intricate steel grid that includes individual supports for each panel. These supports allow each panel to be adjusted so that it fits perfectly with the adjacent panels.Technical Information About the BC Model The BC model is unique in both size and shape. It was manufactured from than 260 million elevation data points and is covered by more than 100 billion droplets of ink. At a scale of 1:99,000, the terrain on the model surface is vertically exaggerated by 50% while the curvature is an accurate one-to-one representation of the Earth. This model represents approximately 1/190th or 0.52% of the Earth's surface.The model's 100 panels are arranged in a 10-by-10 array, with each panel having a unique shape. The overall shape of the model is defined by a section of a sphere divided into panels along "great circle" lines. A "great circle" is a cartographic concept that provides the shortest distance between two points and is defined as the intersection of a plane that passes through two points on the surface of the sphere and the center of the sphere.Each panel of the model was cut along the great circle lines created by planes that pass through the center of the sphere and the corner points of each panel. The result is that the panels fit together almost seamlessly and any visible seams between panels appear as long, smooth curves when viewed from above, with the long edges providing the most pronounced effect.The source data for the model was processed by WorldSat International and is of two distinct types: a digital elevation model, which provides height measurements on the surface of the Earth, above or below sea-level, at regular intervals of about 90 m, and satellite photographs collected by the U.S. Geological Survey's LandSAT 7 sensor. The LandSAT imagery was mosaiced (stitched together) and color balanced by Robert Stacey of WorldSat. Once the master files for elevation and color were completed, they were cut into 100 sections and reprojected from the standard system of latitude/longitude into 100 panel-specific coordinate systems that combine the differential horizontal and vertical scaling factors along with the curvature of the Earth.About Solid Terrain Modeling and STM Models Lawrence Faulkner and Mark Fisher spent 10 years developing a revolutionary, patent-pending technology to produce the world's most accurate, full-color, 3D solid models of geographic terrain. In August 2000, they founded Solid Terrain Modeling Inc. to bring their spectacular models to the marketplace.To produce a model, STM uses digital elevation and imagery data obtained from Earth-orbiting satellites or from airborne sensors for the selected geographic area. The elevation data controls STM's highly calibrated cutting machine as it carves the model into high-density plastic foam. Then imagery data controls STM's huge printing machine as it applies the image directly onto the model's surface. (Other images, such as maps, photos, graphics, and text can also be printed on a model.) The result is an exact replica of the geographic area, in breathtaking detail and in brilliant color.STM models are used by law firms, emergency response groups (e.g., fire, police, and search and rescue), land management offices (e.g., construction, civil engineering, real estate, and recreation), developers, transportation agencies, utilities (e.g., oil, gas, and hydro), architects, museums, military, government agencies (e.g., federal, state, and municipal), the U.S. Department of Defense, and others.Solid Terrain Modeling is located at 340 Fillmore St., Fillmore, CA 93015. Phone is 805-524-7307. Fax is 805-524-1973. For additional information, check the company's Web site. Bookmark it:

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http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Social-networks-growing-as-news-sources-3900341.php Social networks growing as news sources By Benny Evangelista Published 5:22 pm, Thursday, September 27, 2012 The percentage of Americans who get their news via Facebook and other social networks has doubled in the past two years, a trend that makes traditional TV news and print newspapers even more vulnerable to losing their audiences, a new study says. A poll conducted in May and June showed about 19 percent of adults in the United States said they saw news or news headlines on a social-networking site the previous day, compared with just 9 percent in 2010, according to the Pew Research Center. That trend cuts across almost all age and racial demographics, but is particularly apparent in adults under 30: Almost as many people learned about news the previous day on a social-networking site (33 percent) as on TV (34 percent), while only 13 percent read it in either the printed or digital versions of a newspaper. "The transformation of the nation's news landscape has already taken a heavy toll on print news sources, particularly print newspapers," the report said. "But there are now signs that television news - which so far has held onto its audience through the rise of the Internet - also is increasingly vulnerable, as it may be losing its hold on the next generation of news consumers." About 55 percent said they watched a TV news program the day before they were polled. But among adults younger than 30, only 34 percent had watched a TV news program the previous day, down from 49 percent in 2006. And just 23 percent said they read a print newspaper, a slight drop from the 26 percent recorded in 2010, but a larger decline compared with 47 percent who did so in 2000. Phones and tablets Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are reshaping how people get news. The percentage of people who learned about news stories online remained at 34 percent between 2010 and 2012. "However, the percentage who regularly get news on a cell phone, tablet or other mobile device has nearly doubled since 2010, from 9 percent to 15 percent," the report said. That increase is driven by the rapidly growing portion of people who access the Internet on their mobile devices. In 2012, 55 percent said they went on the Internet through a cell phone, tablet or other mobile devices, compared with 31 percent in 2010. "The percentage regularly getting news from a social-networking site, such as Facebook, Google Plus or LinkedIn, also has increased dramatically - from just 2 percent in 2008, to 7 percent in 2010 and 20 percent currently," the study said. And those trends are also affecting the use of search engines for finding news. "Search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo continue to be the largest single tool in finding news online, but the substantial growth in their use between 2008 and 2010 has leveled off," the report said. Twitter's numbers Twitter, however, has not been as big a beneficiary of the news consumption shift. Previous studies showed only 13 percent of adults ever used Twitter or read tweets. But the latest Pew study said Twitter "barely registers as a news source," with just 3 percent of the general public saying they regularly got their news through the microblogging service, and 4 percent said they "sometimes get the news there." Yet, for those who use Twitter, the service is an important news source: 27 percent said they now regularly receive news from reading tweets, up from 17 percent in 2010. The study relied on a representative sample of about 3,000 adults interviewed by phone and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. Read The Technology Chronicles blog at: www.blog.sfgate.com/ techchron

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Rumor: Premium PSN Service to be Revealed at E3 VG247 is reporting that Sony is preparing to reveal a premium PSN service requiring a subscription fee at E3 2010, citing a "highly-placed source." Sony's Kaz Hirai had previously stated that Sony had been "studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services [of the PlayStation Network]." Sony VP Peter Dille later confirmed that the company was looking at a premium service, but did not announce anything at the time. According to VG247's source, Sony might offer a free PSN title from a selection of "two to four" each month to paying subscribers, which could cost "less than £50 per year," which is around $73. VG247 also claims that a music streaming service similar to Spotify will be announced as well, which is thought to be able to run in the background over games. Cross-game chat, a long-awaited feature for the PSN, will supposedly be available to all users if it is announced. E3 2010 kicks off in Los Angeles, CA on June 15. Chatty monchipeters Did you just say Sony's "quality of service"? Are you a comedian? PSN is broken, but again you get what you pay for. ... radioactivez0r Makes sense that you won't pay for a service that you won't use, but that's hardly a reason for them NOT to offer it. radioactivez0r If you're actually paying $50/year, you aren't trying very hard. Visit Chatty to Join The Conversation

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Angry Birds' Rovio self-valued at $1 billion, may seek IPO in 2012 The developer of Angry Birds has revealed that it's valued at over $1 billion, and could file for an IPO as early as 2012. Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment's chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka has revealed that his company is probably worth more than $1 billion, and could file for an initial public offering as early as next year. The Finnish developer makes additional revenue via advertising, in-game purchases, and physical merchandise, and recently acquired the animation studio, Kombo. The company is currently hiring in both the U.S. and China, and Vesterbacka noted that he "is weighing more acquisitions.""We're insanely profitable,” Vesterbacka told Bloomberg Television in a recent interview. "We are very, very profitable. We're not a publicly traded company yet, but we can fund our own growth."Vesterbacka also revealed that the company is working on a "20-year plan" for the Angry Birds brand, across multiple distribution channels.He claims that the smash-hit mobile game currently has about 150 million "active users," and asserts that merchandise sales account for somewhere between ten and twenty percent of the business. Factor in the upcoming Angry Birds movie plans and a number of past and present promotional tie-ins with other entities like Starbucks and Barnes & Noble, and Vesterbacka's supposition that Rovio could have "a good shot at being the first entertainment brand that has a billion fans," doesn't seem like a complete pipe dream. Chatty Vogerl Economy Bubble? In the IT Sector? Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. kwperley Personally I see a pretty massive parallel between the dot.com days and all these disposable games. Zynga and Rovio... kwperley As have I, and never given Rovio a penny... Go android! (and go Ad Free!) Visit Chatty to Join The Conversation

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Wednesday, 28 August 2013 03:39 A bird of two tales Roger Tory Petersen called it, “one of the most breathtaking of the world’s weirdest birds,” and it was John James Audubon’s “rose-coloured curlew.” But the name that has stuck is roseate spoonbill. The roseate spoonbill is one of only six species of spoonbills in the world. It is the only one found in the New World and the only one with the fantastic pale pink to bright rose coloration. These unique waders can stand nearly three feet tall and have a wingspan of more than four feet. Adults have a greenish featherless head and a large spatulate bill. Their necks are white with a tuft of pink feathers in breeding season. The white spills onto the back and breast but is quickly replaced with a pinkish, rosy hue. The color runs the gamut from a pale pink to a brilliant rose pink. The saturation is diet dependant. The crustaceans the birds feed on, feed on algae that contain carotenes and other pigments that ultimately produce the color in the feathers. The roseate spoonbill ranges primarily from the Gulf States south to Chile and Argentina. The collection of feathers for the millinery trade in the mid to late 1800s decimated spoonbill populations along with many egrets and herons. In the 1940s, they were granted protection and had habitat set aside for them. They have been making a steady comeback across most of their range. The Everglades, however, once a stronghold for roseate spoonbills, is once again seeing a precipitous decline in numbers. The culprit according to a piece by Rene Ebersole in Audubon Magazine is poor water management. Spoonbills in the Everglades were making steady recovery until around 1979 when wetlands were drained and ditched to create housing developments and roads. That was followed by “upgrading” the canal system and increasing pumping stations to divert water for agricultural purposes. The spoonbill’s intuitive clock tells it that when water levels begin to fall in November and December, it is nesting time. In the natural order of things, when the eggs hatch about three weeks later, the fish and aquatic invertebrates that the spoonbill feeds on (and feeds to its chicks) will be concentrated in the shallow pools prevalent during the dry season. Unfortunately, it has been common practice for water managers, working to keep those new developments dry, to open gates and spill water into the bay, which in turn floods the shallows where the spoonbills would be feeding making it impossible for the adults to feed the chicks. According to the article, flood control and agriculture still take precedence over a balanced ecosystem, but the tide may be changing, at least enough to give the spoonbills a fighting chance. Audubon Florida executive director Eric Draper noted that science was helping to inform water policy in the Everglades. The first phase of a new “spreader canal” that helps redistribute water into the bays and estuaries was opened in January, and bridges are beginning to be punched through the Tamiami Trail, a road that forms the northern boundary of the Everglades Park and acts as a dam keeping the natural flow of water out. Time will tell if these policies continue and if they will be enough to revive the dwindling spoonbill population. The flip side of that equation is that in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Georgia, Roseate spoonbills appear to be expanding their nesting range northward. I have seen pictures this summer of post-nest dispersal from Black Bayou National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Louisiana, Red Slough in southeastern Oklahoma and Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina. (Don Hendershot is a writer and naturalist. He can be reached a This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..) « Tour planned for historic and eco-friendly estate in Cashiers Balancing grades, world-class training no problem for SCC Early College student »

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PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYER REVIEWS Review: The Best iPhone Universal Remote Apps By Daniel Kumin • Posted: Oct 12, 2010 Like some 40 million other people, I love my iPhone. It’s always with me, serving as everything from trail-finder to stock ticker to guitar tuner to, occasionally, mobile phone. While fumbling in the dark with the minimum three or four remote controls that my ever-shifting A/V system requires just to watch a movie, I’ve often wondered if there was “an app for that.” The answer is at least a half-dozen apps designed to turn an iPhone (or iPod Touch or iPad) into a powerful universal remote handset, or iMote, have been launched upon a sea bobbing with some 100,000-plus other apps. But first, some of you ask, “What’s an app?” (Perhaps you’ve just returned from an extended vacation in Bishkek.) Apps are small, specialized software applications — the 100,000-plus number grows by some hundreds every day — designed to run on Apple’s iPhone/iPod touch/iPad hardware. Since the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad is in fact a remarkably powerful and versatile touchscreen computer, apps perform tasks as varied as gaming, GPS navigation, social networking, scientific measurement, music making, and anything else you’ve imagined doing on a computer — and a great deal you probably haven’t imagined. Apps get downloaded from Apple’s iTunes Store, pretty much just as the latest opus by Lady Gaga does. Lots of apps are free, some cost just a dollar or two, and a few cost more than that. Now, when it comes to the iPhone/iPod touch/ iPad (I’m going to use simply “iPhone” from here on to represent all three), it doesn’t take a genius to see that this device would make an irresistible touchscreen controller for just about any A/V system. Trouble is, the iPhone doesn’t transmit infrared (IR) signals, the sort that virtually all TVs, receivers, Blu-ray Disc players, and other audio/video components use for remote control. What the iPhone does talk is Bluetooth (a short-range radio protocol, mostly used to link wireless headsets/controllers to cellphones) and wireless IP via Wi-Fi, the same standard your home network router, not to mention Starbucks and McDonalds, uses to connect wireless-ready laptop computers and other devices. If all A/V components were IP-networked, the problem would be solved: The iPhone could talk to them directly over an existing wireless home network, an increasingly universal feature of middle-American life. Alas, most are not — though more and more A/V receivers are, and brands such as Pioneer are already offering their own free iPhone apps to control them directly. But that doesn’t help the un-networked 99 percent. Consequently, every maker of an A/V control app so far, including the four we’ve rounded up for review here, has opted for a hardware/ software solution: The software is the app, and the hardware is a module that translates your thumb’s wishes into IR codes your components can recognize. Functionally, none is very different from a conventional, hardware universal remote, whether aftermarket or packed with an A/V receiver. You set up each by loading the IR codes to match your particular gear, either from onboard or online databases, and the blanks left by any missing commands must then be “learned” from the original hardware remotes. That’s the common thread, but as we’ll see, the patterns into which these makers have woven it are as varied as the carpets in the openair markets back in Bishkek. NEXT: Page 2 »

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Home | Help | Contact Us | Español HomeAbout STRIScientific StaffResearchAcademic ProgramsConservationVisit UsSite ToolsDatabasesWebcast Safety & Security Home Elisabeth K.V. Kalko, STRI staff scientist and head of the Institute of Experimental Ecology at the University of Ulm in Germany, died in her sleep on Monday, September 26 during a visit to the Kilimanjaro project of the German Research Foundation (DFG) in Tanzania. Eli's sudden death was completely unexpected as everything seemed to be fine the evening before. The cause of her death is still unknown. She is survived by parents Jürgen and Rosemarie Kalko, her brother Joachim and partner professor Marco Tschapka, all residing in Germany. Kalko obtained a first degree in biology from the Universität Tübingen in Germany, followed by a doctorate in 1991. She held a NATO post-doc at SI´s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, and STRI. She worked on the DFG programs on tropical diversity and Neotropical bats, and a Heisenberg postdoc in Tübingen. Click photo to view more images.At STRI, Kalko joined as research associate, and in 1999, she was appointed staff scientist. Since 2000, she held a joint appointment as director and full professor at the Institute of Experimental Ecology at the University of Ulm in Germany. She was also research associate with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Since then she published about 100 articles with STRI, and brought a great number of students to do bat research on Barro Colorado and other sites of the country. In 2006 Kalko was awarded for best university teaching in natural sciences (Landeslehrpreis) in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The award was in part granted as a recognition for her research conducted with her students at STRI. Kalko was a member of the German National Committee on Global Change Research (2002-2011), and was elected for life to the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (2006). From 2005-2011, she served as vice-president of the Society of Tropical Ecology, and from 2008 on she was a member of the Senate Commission on Biodiversity of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The same year, Kalko became head elect of Diversitas Germany. As editor-in-chief of the international tropical ecology journal Ecotropica, she strengthened the journal's profile considerably. During the early 2000's, she was one of the most prominent experts in the areas of bat community ecology, echolocation and bat behavior. In his message to the STRI community, director Eldredge Bermingham expressed deep regrets for losing “A close friend and one of the most passionate, intelligent and productive scientists in our community and among bat researchers worldwide...” Her study areas covered temperate zones, particularly Europe, and the tropics, mainly Central- and South America (Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru) and Africa (Tanzania, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana.) STRI will hold a memorial event in the near future. If you wish, send your comments to calderom@si.edu Related Links: Elisabeth Kalko's staff page University of Ulm, Elisabeth Kalko homepage Elisabeth Kalko on Wikipedia Bats cry out loud to detect their prey (PLoS One, 30 April 2008) Bats limit arthropods and herbivory in a tropical forest (Science, 4 April 2008) Dispatch from Panama: Hanging Out with the Bat Lady The Call of the Panama Bats Batwomen of Panama Video: Bat Women of Panama Visit Us Barro Colorado Galeta Field Courses STRI McGill Visiting Scientists Panama Info

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TechNewsWorld > Business > Deals | Netflix, DreamWorks Team in Huge Original Content Deal By Peter Suciu • E-Commerce Times • ECT News Network Jun 17, 2013 3:53 PM PT Video streaming service Netflix on Monday announced a new, multiyear partnership with DreamWorks Animation whereby it will bring many of the studio's beloved characters to the TV market via a branded collection of shows. Marking the largest deal for original first-run content in Netflix's history, the partnership will include more than 300 hours of new programming and give DreamWorks Animation a way to greatly expand its TV production and distribution. In fact, this will be the first time DreamWorks Animation's characters will be introduced into the television market in this way. The new shows will be inspired by characters from DreamWorks Animation's hit franchises -- including Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon -- as well upcoming feature films. It will also incorporate the vast Classic Media library that DreamWorks acquired in 2012. The first series are expected to begin airing in 2014. Netflix will premiere these new shows in all the territories it operates in, including 40 countries in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and Europe. 'A Premium Pay TV Network' The new DreamWorks content will build on the studio's hit franchises and serve as a way to help promote upcoming feature films while also increasing the original content offerings available on Netflix. Previously, the streaming service had provided original content including the acclaimed drama House of Cards; recently, it began airing the most recent season of the cult series Arrested Development. "Netflix has always been a content aggregator, and with the growth of the streaming services, they've grown into much more of premium pay TV network for the 21st century," said Dan Cryan, head of digital media for market research firm IHS iSuppli. "The way this streaming process has evolved is much the way the network TV process has evolved," Cryan added, "but in a much shorter period." The deal could also allow Netflix to fill a void that was recently created when another content deal ended. "The DreamWorks deal is important for Netflix, which recently lost Nickelodeon content to Amazon Prime Instant Video," Greg Ireland, research manager for multiscreen video at IDC, told the E-Commerce Times. "Not only will this deal bring more kids' content to Netflix and help replace the content lost when the Nickelodeon deal expires, it also continues Netflix's commitment to offering original content which isn't available on other services." Netflix did not respond to our request for further details. Content Shift In many ways, Netflix has actually followed the same path as traditional network and cable channels in slowly building its original offerings. "It started by buying cheap syndication rights on a nonexclusive basis, and moved to more expensive rights and paying for exclusivity," Cryan told the E-Commerce Times. "They've walked away from the exclusives when it wasn't making sense. Now it is moving to original content that they are paying for." With cable, satellite and the Internet now all competing for eyeballs, it seems that the original content is also becoming increasingly important in not just attracting but keeping an audience. "Right now, original content is more about retention and churn among existing customers," said Joel Espelien, senior analyst at The Diffusion Group. "This approach has been well-proven by HBO, and we think that's where the OTT services are taking their cues right now when it comes to original content strategy," he added, referring to what are known as over the top content services. "You have to distinguish between platforms and the content itself," Espelien told the E-Commerce Times. "We do think consumers are accustomed to having multiple content sources, and OTT will be no different." Netflix and Its Competitors Just as cable TV viewers have other options to get premium TV, so too is there competition when it comes to streaming services. In this way, the exclusive content is what differentiates one from another. "Ultimately, you will see a portion of consumers subscribing to several of these services at once," Espelien added. "We believe that all of the major OTT platforms -- video-game consoles, smart TVs and iSTBs -- will offer access to multiple service choices over time." In this way, the partnership with DreamWorks is similar to how cable networks have tried to get exclusives of their own. What this could mean is that Netflix could become more like an HBO or a Showtime, where viewers might opt for both services to see that exclusive content. In this case, viewers need HBO for Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, for instance, but must have Showtime to catch Dexter and The Borgias. "Netflix and Amazon are both going after exclusive content deals, which means consumers will either have to choose between the services or subscribe to both much in the way some pay TV subscribers pay for both Showtime and HBO," said Ireland. The alternative, of course, is to wait for DVD -- as people do when they don't want to pay for the premium channels. "HBO has been making its top shows available on DVD for years," said Cryan. "It creates incremental revenue for them. That is what it is. The more important question is what this move to exclusive -- as Amazon and Hulu make the same move -- will do for Netfllix. "If they get it right, and that is a big 'if,' then these services stop being substitutional to one another," he added. Essentially, it becomes a matter of how many consumers will pay for more than one premium subscription, and whether it can be justified by the available content. 'A New Golden Age' In any case, just as these exclusive deals can help Netflix retain eyeballs, it could be worth content creators' while to provide those exclusive offerings as a way of building hype and generating interest. The key, of course, is ensuring that the right partnership is put in place. "Dreamworks is in a great position to develop OTT as an additional outlet for original programming," Espelien said. "The growth and competition among OTT providers is generally a great thing for producers of high-quality original content. "You have more buyers in the market, and more demand for new, original programming," he added. "The next several years could be a new golden age for both Hollywood and consumers, as all of these platforms fight to put 'must see' TV onto their services." Multiple Winners Given that most Blu-ray players and many smart TVs now provide access to the over the top content, meanwhile, actually receiving it won't be that much of an issue, either. "Devices such as Roku and various smart TVs will provide access to multiple services, provided the consumer signs up for a subscription to each service," noted Ireland. However, while consumers may pay for cable and opt to pay for bundled services, Netflix and its competitors could create a situation where consumers already feel they're paying enough. Even with its exclusives, in other words, there may eventually be a saturation point. "There are going to be multiple winners in the OTT service space," TDG's Espelien concluded. "Obviously Netflix is the leader today, but Amazon and Hulu are also very strong alternatives. We think content providers have some room to experiment in this area and should avoid getting locked into a long-term relationship with any one provider at this stage." More by Peter Suciu

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BBC brings iPlayer video-on-demand to Xbox Live The BBC's video service, seen as one of the UK's most successful tech developments of recent years, is now available on Xbox Live. Steve Ranger in European Technology, March 20, 2012, 9:15 PM PST The BBC has launched a version of its iPlayer video-on-demand service for Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming platform. iPlayer gives users free access to BBC programmes for a seven day period after they have been broadcast. Users will require a free Xbox live account to access the service, and Xbox 360 owners with Kinect will also be able to play programmes using hand gestures and voice recognition. Other video-on-demand services such as 4oD are already available on Xbox Live. The iPlayer service is seen by many as one of the UK's most successful tech developments of recent years, giving viewers free on-demand access to the BBC's content across 450 platforms and devices including PCs, internet-connected TVs, iPad and iPhone, Android devices, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii and cable TV services. Sales of tablets and internet-connected televisions helped push the number of radio and TV shows streamed using BBC's iPlayer close to two billion during 2011. And while computers still accounted for two-thirds of the 1.94 billion streams sent during the year, the BBC has said the fastest growing platforms for iPlayer were tablets and internet-connected TVs. While iPlayer began as a PC based service, the BBC has seen 433 million requests - one in four on the TV, with this expected to grow to over 50 per cent of requests. The BBC is working on a pilot of a global iPlayer product, which has to date been made available on iPad, iPod and iPhone in 16 markets in Western Europe, Canada and Australia. Last month the BBC revealed that the number of Australian subscribers to global iPlayer is now larger than the second and third countries combined (Germany and Holland), accounting for 20 per cent of its global revenue. In Australia the most popular shows on iPlayer - which has a monthly subscription fee of AU$9.49 or AU$89.99 a year - are Doctor Who and Charlie and Lola, as well as cult comedy Gavin and Stacey. The BBC is also working on 'Project Barcelona' which will allow users to download and keep - for a fee - its programmes. About Steve Ranger Steve Ranger is the UK editor of TechRepublic, and has been writing about the impact of technology on people, business and culture for more than a decade. Before joining TechRepublic he was the editor of silicon.com. See all of Steve's content @steveranger

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The reactions by politicians to this news have come off like bad attempts at satire. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Commission, has said that he will make Hanford cleanup a priority during upcoming confirmation hearings for the next energy secretary. Inslee assured residents that the leaks posed no immediate danger. “We were told this problem was dealt with years ago, and was under control,” Inslee said after the initial announcement. There is so much impotence behind those words that you can almost see the governor shrugging his shoulders. After all, Inslee knows as well as anybody that the larger problem of Hanford was not dealt with years ago. Nor is it adequately being dealt with now. Hanford is the worst kind of mess: the kind that humanity is capable of making, but not capable of cleaning up. It was the home of the world’s first full-scale plutonium reactor and the epicenter of American nuclear production during the Cold War. Now the 586-square-mile campus is the subject of the largest environmental cleanup operation the United States government has ever undertaken. There are other sites in America with long nuclear histories—places like Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, Yucca Mountain. But none have become sprawling disasters with quite as much panache as Hanford. The entire city of Los Angeles could fit rather comfortably within Hanford’s borders in southeastern Washington, but the human and environmental consequences of Hanford have spread beyond those borders, across Washington and Oregon. A decade ago a rash of radioactive tumbleweeds blew across the nearby plains. In the early 1960s, an irradiated whale was killed off the Oregon coast, having apparently been contaminated by nuclear waste flowing down the Columbia River. Hanford does not have the feel of a seeping hellscape—the problems there are slow-developing and spread out—but it does have a real effect on the environment and people around it. Over the last 20 years, Hanford has also become something else: a tourist destination. If you want to see just how big the reservation is, or get an idea of how much work remains to be done there, you can sign up for an official government tour of the site. About 60 public tours are offered per year. The tours are free, but highly sought after. Last year, registration opened at midnight on March 6, and closed by 5 a.m. As American citizens over the age of 18, my girlfriend Janelle and I were eligible. We managed to land a couple of tickets for an afternoon in May. The night before our tour, we drove the three hours from Seattle, east through the Cascade Mountains and south across the deserts of Eastern Washington, to Richland, a city that along with neighboring Pasco and Kennewick, forms the Tri-Cities metro area. Tri-Cities, which grew out of Hanford, has a combined population of about 200,000. Even today, 10 perfect of the workforce is employed, one way or another, by Hanford. Janelle’s father grew up here in a house on the Columbia River during the height of the Cold War, back when you had to have an official reason to move to Richland. He tells stories about metal boxes outside neighborhood homes, inside which Hanford employees would leave urine samples to be collected overnight by the government like mail. He went to Richland High School, whose mascot was the Bombers and whose logo was, and remains, a mushroom cloud. We ate dinner in a brewpub called Atomic Ale. I drank an International Proton Pale Ale and opted not to follow it up with a Plutonium Porter. Our tour of the most contaminated nuclear-waste site in the United States began at a strip mall off a two-lane highway leading out of Richland. The tour headquarters was nestled among nondescript office spaces, a coffee shop, and a jewelry store called Indian Eyes. Inside tour headquarters, we were greeted by a pair of smiling women in polo shirts. They reminded us that cellphones, cameras, and other recording devices would not be permitted on tour. They handed us paper badges with our names printed over a landscape of sagebrush and blue skies, and directed us into a fluorescent-lit room with museum-style posters on the walls and chairs aligned before a television screen where an introductory video was playing on loop. “Hanford offers everything a storyteller could want,” said the narrator, including “intrigue” and “patriotism.” The term science faction was used to describe something—perhaps everything—about the site. Before December 1942, Hanford was just the name of a town on the Columbia River with a population in the hundreds.That’s when a team of military officers and Du Pont company engineers canvassed the entire country looking for the perfect place to secretly produce uranium on a large scale for the next phase of the Manhattan Project. They settled on the Hanford site because the nearby Grand Coulee Dam would meet high electricity needs, because the Columbia River rushed with the freezing, fast water needed to cool potential reactors, and because there weren’t any population centers for miles in any direction (in case something went wrong; there was always the looming specter of something going wrong). The government gave the residents of the town of Hanford and neighboring White Bluffs, along with members of the Wanapum, Nez Perce, and other local tribes, a month to pack their things and say goodbye to home forever. Soon afterward, Hanford became the third-largest city in Washington. Almost none of the 50,000 people who lived and worked on the site knew what they were building. I noticed a blown-up black-and-white photograph on the wall beside where we were sitting. The image showed some of those early Hanford workers standing under a poster that read “A Physically Fit Worker Is a SAFE Worker.” The workers, who were brought to Hanford from all over the country, looked happy in whatever giant high-ceilinged room they were standing in. Maybe it was the 10,000 capacity dance hall. And maybe they are simply happy to be indoors, out of the high, dust-blowing winds that drove so many of their ranks to quit. But there were also reasons to stay at Hanford. The pay was good, and so was the sense of doing something important for one’s country during wartime. Plus there was a baseball field, a bowling alley, two movie theaters, and—more discretely—gambling and prostitution. The first loop of the introductory video concluded with a series of nature scenes. Eagles soared over the low mountains and salmon rushed proudly through the Columbia River. Today Hanford is “making a new kind of history,” the narrator proclaimed. The implication of this statement was that cleaning up the sprawling radioactive mess at Hanford is in itself a triumphant endeavor. Possibly as triumphant as ending World War II with a bomb made from plutonium developed here. Viewing Hanford’s cleanup as the next phase in its history is a way of reframing the narrative: Instead of undoing a man-made disaster, we are merely continuing a man-made triumph. We conquered nature by splitting the atom, then conquered it some more by splitting many more atoms. Finally, we can assert our dominance over nature once and for all by undoing the consequences of those actions. This is the glory of man. There are a couple of problems with this story. One is that a great many people do not regard nuclear weapons as quite so triumphant. Another is that nuclear waste can not be willed out of existence as easily as it is created. The first problem was not touched upon at all in my time at Hanford. As the people there would have it, the Manhattan Project saved America in World War II, consequences be damned or at the very least, consequences be worth it. The second problem is why we were there. Not only does nuclear waste not go away, but it takes on a variety of forms—it gets sludgey and turns solid and seeps into the ground. This was something made clear to us over and over and over again at all stops on the tour. However triumphantly Hanford wants to portray itself outwardly, and however massive and ambitious an undertaking the cleanup project actually is, it will always feel temporary and insufficient. That’s because compared to plutonium, it is. Slowly, the room filled up. Most of the folks on our tour were from around the Northwest. Some were even Hanford employees who had never seen the parts of the site that they don’t work on. It was a sunny day. As we got on the bus, our tour guide asked if anybody was coming from Seattle and about half of us raised our hands. “You might get a tan,” he said. “You might get an even better tan when we get to Hanford.” ***There are 200 square miles of contaminated groundwater under Hanford. Every day that water moves closer to the Columbia River. Not coincidentally, there are also 177 massive storage tanks on the site, each built to hold between 55,000 and more than 100,000 gallons of nuclear waste. Our first stop was at one of these tanks, which, even in the middle distance, was ominous and metallic and looked sort of like a giant industrial-sized swimming pool. Next to the tank were some scattered pieces of construction equipment and an unglamorous temporary building. We were met at a landing above the tank by a man who said he first came to Hanford as a TV news reporter, but eventually took a job for one of the many contractors at the site. According to the Hanford website, his company is tasked with “retrieving, treating, storing, and ultimately disposing of the approximately 53,000,000 gallons of nuclear and chemical waste stored in these tanks at the Site.” The company is innocuously and indirectly but also somehow reasonably called Washington River Protection Solutions. Standing before an info-crammed poster, the Washington River Protection Solutions man walked us through the three kinds of radioactive waste that might be found in the tanks: solid, liquid, and a sludge that everybody insisted on always describing as “peanut-butter-like.” Then he got into the history of the tanks. They are divided into two classes: “single-shell” and “double-shell,” and grouped into large sections called “tank farms.” The first set of 149 “single-shell” tanks was constructed between 1943 and 1964. Hanford estimated that 67 of those have leaked. Last week’s announcement makes 73. But a little leakage is nothing, really, when you consider the fact that during those years, Hanford actually produced more waste than the tanks could hold anyway. The leftovers were either sent to “holding facilities,” or dumped into massive trenches. Cheat SheetA speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).By clicking "Subscribe," you agree to have read the Terms of Use and Privacy PolicySubscribeThank You!You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reasonBetween 1968 and 1986, Hanford added 28 “double-shell” tanks to the site. These are considered a great deal safer (none of them have leaked). Crews are in the process of transferring all the waste from single-shell tanks into double-shell tanks, starting with the most accessible waste in the most vulnerable tanks, then moving on to the lower priority and more highly challenging waste. The man said all of the liquid waste had been removed. But the peanut-butter waste and solid waste are great deal more challenging and require the use of chemicals, robots, and other fancy technologies. He pointed to the little temporary building outside the tank. That’s where experts control the robots from, he said. The ultimate goal of all this, as determined by a legal contract known as the Tri-Party Agreement (the parties are the Department of Energy, the EPA, and the state of Washington), is to turn all the highly radioactive waste at Hanford, whether liquid or solid or sludge, into a more stable glass form by the year 2052. This will be done through a process called vitrification. And don’t worry, a vitrification plant is under construction now, and you will see it later on your tour and it will be fully operational by 2022. But the PR man’s tone was hardly certain. Nothing is certain, he openly declared. He had a goatee and his hair was carefully gelled and even his smile seemed to belie a sort of grand humility at the scope of how much remained to be done. Things change. Millions of dollars and labor hours are being spent moving nuclear waste from bad tanks into good tanks. Then millions more will be spent on vitrification. But single-shell or double shell, peanut butter or glass, it will still be nuclear waste. There is no getting rid of it. There is only finding more convenient, less uncomfortable ways to deal. It’s like if instead of boulders, Sisyphus was carrying buckets full of irradiated mud. When construction on the vitrification plant began, it was widely assumed and legally required that the resulting stabilized glass-waste would be transported from Hanford to Yucca Mountain in Nevada for relatively safe storage. But the Obama administration put a hold on construction at Yucca Mountain in 2009. On one hand, this was a disaster for Hanford—yet another obstacle placed in front of cleanup. On the other hand, bureaucratic holds and legal battles (protracted as they may be), feel small compared to the scope of a problem that only begins with 50 million gallons of nuclear and chemical waste. ***The desert inside of Hanford was just like the desert outside of Hanford. The clouds above were enormous and white, giving the sky a cinematic look. The low mountains sloped up easily from the dirt and the Columbia River rolled in and out of site to the north of the highway. Every once in awhile somebody spotted a coyote scurrying past along the side of the road, and the whole bus leaped in its seat. But I never managed to catch a glimpse of one. I was either looking down at my notebook or out at the vastness of the site, which itself felt completely arbitrary. We could have been anywhere. This could have been be anywhere.Our bus plodded along until all of a sudden the road before us was divided by a guard tower. We were now somewhere: entering the 300 Area, which, like most of Hanford, is highly secured. A few people in hard hats milled about, and there were some low buildings and chain-link fences. As we pulled up to the guard tower, I got the sense of being in an alien movie, and not just because Hanford is divided into numbered “areas.” Everything was simultaneously ominous and banal, surreal and familiar. Here we were in a vast expanse of desert, nothing significant visible in any direction, except these minor defenses and nondescript governmental trappings. Our tour guide warned us that bomb-sniffing dogs might board the bus soon. I couldn’t tell whether that was meant to be a real warning or just a bit of atmospheric fun. In any case, the dogs were not called in. We were waved through as easily as if we were entering a parking garage. Occasionally, we saw little patches of desert marked with caution tape and tarps and other indications of work in progress. From the highway, they almost looked like miniature architectural digs sprung up at random from the dirt. In the early days of Hanford, workers would simply haul what they perceived as low-level waste—stuff like contaminated tools or uniforms—out into the desert and bury it. Record keeping was less than rigorous, and pollution was not a concern whatsoever, so long as everything seemed like it was a safe distance from where people were gathering. Now, because nobody bothered to write down where anything was, Hanford crews are engaged in the ongoing and seemingly never-ending task of finding all this stuff, combing all 586 square miles of the site in search of buried toxic treasures. Hearing all this from my comfortable seat on the bus, I kept coming back to the idea that Hanford is more than simply a mess to clean up; that the nuclear project cannot be undone with the same speed and triumphalism with which it was initially carried out. Really it can never be completely undone. We talk about stabilizing waste and vitrification and Yucca Mountain—20-, and 30-, and 40-year timelines. But the scope of the current damage at the site can only be guessed at. The long-term implications are even less predictable. Uniforms buried at random in the desert make a pretty good metaphor for the fact that Hanford is an essentially dynamic problem, in other words a human problem. The consequences of minimally regulated plutonium production aren’t just long-lasting, they are long-evolving. ***Late in 2010, crews with the contractor Washington Closure Hanford were set to begin demolition on what had once been the most radioactive structure on the site: Building 324. Located less than half a mile from both the city of Richland and the Columbia River, Building 324 housed a pair of “hot cells,” which are three-story enclosures that scientists use to perform remotely operated tests of highly unstable materials. One of those cells, B-Cell, was so radioactive in the 1990s that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that “an unprotected person standing inside could have received a fatal dose in less than two seconds.” By 2010, the building’s worst radioactive material had been removed. But when Washington Closure Hanford tested the ground under the site, it found radiation levels significantly higher than surrounding soil, which itself was already contaminated. Needless to say, demolition on Building 324 has not resumed. The site is “currently being deactivated,” says the Hanford website. There are similar stories to tell about buildings all over the site, messy stories about government bureaucracy and highly radioactive equipment and the troublesome permanence of nuclear waste. The process of producing plutonium at Hanford required the constant transport of highly unstable materials from one facility to another to another, which made containing the mess basically impossible.The plutonium production process began in the reactor cores, where uranium rods were overwhelmed with neutrons so that their chemical composition changed, creating, on each rod, a trace amount of plutonium. The rods were then dumped into giant pools of water, which caused some of the radiation to decay away, further isolating that plutonium. Next, the irradiated rods were hauled by train to a place called the T-Plant, where they were exposed to a chemical cocktail that caused them to dissolve and that allowed scientists to extract the plutonium. The gallons upon gallons of highly toxic chemicals left over from this process were stored in massive single-shell tanks. The plutonium was sent to a place called the Plutonium Finishing Plant. When Hanford stopped producing plutonium for good in the late 1980s, it was left with more than 100,000 irradiated rods that had yet to be dissolved at the T-Plant. With nowhere to put them—Hanford’s last working reactor shut down rather abruptly after the Chernobyl incident—officials settled on the K Basins, a pair of million-gallon, water-filled tanks that were built in the 1950s. The K-Basins are located about 400 yards from the Columbia River. By the 1980s they were already in decay—not built to last more than 20 years, and not built to store such high-level nuclear waste. It didn’t take long for crews to discover that the basins were leaking. Further, the rods inside were dissolving into the water, resulting in yet another variety of nuclear sludge. Crews spent a decade removing the 2,100 tons of as-yet-undissolved rods, and then three more years vacuuming 47 cubic yards of sludge out of the more damaged East Basin and dumping it in the less-damaged, and now retrofitted, West Basin. Today, the rods are sitting in a building at Hanford, awaiting vitrification and eventual storage at a national repository to be determined. ***The first nuclear reactors came into view at a point where the Columbia River bent gently, the way a child might have drawn a river winding across a sheet of construction paper. The buildings were so unassuming that at first I didn’t realize what I was seeing. They looked like little factories, or maybe granaries spaced out along the riverfront. Spaced out, we learned, in order to minimize the risk in a potential air attack on Hanford.The reactors had silver roofs that glistened in the sun. But these were not their real roofs. These were cocoons—heavy metallic seals that served the dual purpose of guarding the decommissioned reactors from the elements and guarding the elements from the bad stuff inside the reactors. When a reactor was totally sealed, it was referred to as “fully cocooned.” The technology has been reproduced for use at Chernobyl. This was what the man in the video meant by science faction. We were on our way to the historic B-Reactor, which our tour guide described as “pretty much the beginning of the atomic age on this planet.” This was the world’s first large-scale plutonium processing site, the heart of Hanford’s early operations, built in just 13 months. It was, we were told, Fermi's atom-splitting feat in Chicago replicated at a scale of 200 million. The plutonium used in the world’s first nuclear explosion was processed in the B-Reactor. So was the plutonium that went into the construction of the nuclear bomb Fat Man, which was detonated over Nagasaki. Where most of Hanford had the air of a massive construction project, the B-Reactor felt more like a time capsule—a living museum full of lead, asbestos, and mercury. There were high ceilings crossed by catwalks, flashing red lights, and massive control panels with dozens of unmarked knobs and buttons. The walls were painted seafoam green, and men in blue shirts and khaki pants stood around to ask questions. Wandering around the B-Reactor felt a bit like wandering around the industrial lair of a James Bond villain from one of the early Sean Connery movies. Long hallways with mysteriously closed-off sections marked by signs that said “Caution: Radioactive Activity.” Giant pipes and tubes everywhere. The reactor itself, a massive gridlike metal and graphite structure, 36 feet high. It was more science faction, a monument to human potential—including the latent potential for self-destruction. Modern Hanford is not as quaint or as permanent as the B-Reactor. Most of the new buildings are low-slung bungalows and trailers, put in place with the optimistic notion that one day they will no longer be necessary. After the B-Reactor, we visited a bungalow on the outskirts of the Plutonium Finishing Plant, which operated as the last stop in production until 1989—and which since then has been considered one of Hanford’s most contaminated sites. It was here that the plutonium produced in Hanford’s reactors was isolated and converted into hockey-puck-size discs ready for transport. Now the main task at the Plutonium Finishing Plant is erasing the Plutonium Finishing Plant—the Tri-Party Agreement states that it must be completely leveled by 2016. When production ceased, 20 tons of corrupted material were left behind. Before the plant is demolished, the radioactive equipment inside must be removed and stored safely. Some of that material has been shipped to various nuclear-waste disposal sites in South Carolina, Nevada, and New Mexico. Much of it still remains at Hanford. We learned about all this from inside the bungalow, where the walls were lined with posters that all made excessive use of the words SAFE, SAFELY, SAFETY. Jargon-heavy P.A. announcements were piped into the room for effect from the Plutonium Finishing Plant, which we could see out the window through a tangle of chain-link fences and barbed wire. Despite the official language used on the tour, the denuclearization of the plant and other similar tasks around Hanford came off more like industrial projects than patriotic missions. The very blandness of the various modern Hanford facilities we entered confirmed this. If we couldn’t truly grasp the scope of the cleanup effort, at least we could make it mundane enough to deal with on a daily basis. This attitude was especially visible in the manner of the government contractors who were carrying out the actual work. There was no mystique surrounding nuclear waste, just respect for the physical threat it posed. You got the sense that Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco were just ordinary American industry towns where people talked about half-lives as casually as Detroiters might talk about internal combustion.Author Paul Loeb said as much in his 1984 book Nuclear Culture: Living and Working in the World’s Largest Atomic Complex. Loeb, who researched and wrote his book when Hanford was still fully operational, called the phenomenon “atomic banality.” He interviewed one early Hanford employee who said that he could “just as easily have been working in a coal plant.” High-level chemistry and physics went hand in hand with blue jeans and hard hats. Our tour guide began his career at Hanford as a union pipefitter. ***The banality of Hanford is part of what makes it a uniquely American place. Hanford is a historic triumph—a testament to American ingenuity and determination on the level of NASA’s greatest achievements. One could even call it the ultimate step toward manifest destiny. Here in the American West, we conquered the most powerful forces in the universe—the very forces that set off the Big Bang—and turned them into an industry not so different from coal or steel. And just like coal and steel, plutonium was produced by decent, hardworking people who put their heads down and didn’t ask too many questions about the physical dangers of their jobs. The problem was that the government leaders who conceived of Hanford and then ran the place, did not ask questions either. The assumption was that America would always be smart enough to outpace nature. If we could split the atom and build the bomb, we could certainly mitigate the consequences at home. But hubris is also an American phenomenon. We are just as stupid as we are powerful. Our failings are at least as great as our strengths.In his Harper’s essay “Buried Suns,” David Samuels interviewed longtime employees of the Nevada Test Site, where America detonated 928 nuclear bombs over 40 years. Samuels wrote this about the workers: “Their literal, factual accounts of stemming procedures and postshot operations were often delivered with a deadpan humor that suggested a shared cosmic joke burbling just below the surface.” You get a similar sense at Hanford. You can have a sense of humor, and you can act like Hanford is no different from any other industrial workplace, but you can’t really escape the cosmic burbling, the creeping sense of your own smallness. After the Plutonium Finishing Plant, we were driven to a massive and highly elaborate landfill officially known as the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, or ERDF. The ERDF contains more than 10 million tons of low-level nuclear waste, ranging from contaminated soil dug up around the decommissioned reactors to building materials from torn-down structures on the site. Standing on a low cliff, we watched lines of bulldozers push dirt over discarded equipment in a massive pit. We learned that eventually, all of the bulldozers themselves would be buried in pits like this too, because radiation contaminates everything it touches. But what about the bulldozers used to bury the bulldozers, I wanted to ask. Doesn’t this go on forever? The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like despite the names of the contractors working there—Washington River Protection Solutions, Washington Closure Hanford, etc.—Hanford was not a problem to be solved, or a site that could ever truly be closed. The best you could hope for was maintenance and coping. The mess was too sprawling, too permanent. After the ERDF we drove past a yard filled with huge unfamiliar metallic objects. They were the spent reactor cores from nuclear submarines. The Navy sent them up the Columbia River to Hanford from its base in Bremerton, Washington, for lack of a better place to store them. The last thing thing we saw on our tour was the beginning of the vitrification plant, which has been under construction for more than a decade and is not even fully designed yet. This is the crown jewel and the cornerstone of Hanford cleanup, but it has also been a subject to various missteps and cost overruns. The plant, officially called the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, will cost more than $12 billion to complete—and when that day comes (ideally in 2017), it will be the world’s largest chemical treatment facility, consisting of four nuclear facilities spread over 65 acres. The vitrification plant will be expected to process more than 50 billion gallons of hazardous waste at a cost of more than $70 billion. Ideally, the resulting glass form of waste will be stable enough to sit for the next few thousand years without doing things like leaking into the ground and contaminating the surrounding environment. This would be a far better reality for Hanford than its current state of carefully supervising tanks full of nuclear stew. But the glass product is a long ways and a lot of money away from existence, and when it does exist, it will still be nuclear waste. You can fold a piece of paper in half so many times until it just won’t budge. The result might be a little bit sturdier and cover a little less surface area—but it will still be the same piece of paper. It will still have to go somewhere. The bus ride from the Vitrification Plant back to tour headquarters was long. I looked out across the desert, which felt far away from everything, and wondered what would come of this place in thousands of years. Hanford was built and operated in a time when existential fear of a nuclear apocalypse was a relatively normal feeling. But that kind of ending for humanity did not seem viable anymore. The sludge sitting in those tanks, and the slow decay it wrought seeping deeper and deeper into the ground, seemed far more ominous.We watched a movie about scientific research being done on the Hanford reservation and filled out a survey about the tour experience. All of the questions felt like filler except for one. The question reminded me of why Hanford began offering tours in the first place: to answer criticisms about lack of transparency at the site. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,100 years. The ongoing work at Hanford was not intended to be a solution. There would be no solution. There would only be maintenance; there would only be the gradual arrival at a workable compromise with nature as we unleashed it. The survey asked: “How would you rate the progress of Hanford’s cleanup efforts from what you saw today?” READ THIS LIST1Hanford’s Nuclear Waste ProblemEric NusbaumAboutAdvertiseContactJobsHelpPrivacyCommunity PolicyTerms & ConditionsCopyright & Trademark© 2016 The Daily Beast Company LLC

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http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/A-lot-riding-on-latest-BlackBerry-offering-4237433.php A lot riding on latest BlackBerry offering Positive reviews about product accompanied by concerns about timing 10:02 am, Saturday, October 1, 2016 Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, announces that the company will now be known as BlackBerry, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The new BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) less Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, announces that the company will now be known as BlackBerry, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 in New York. The new BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb ... more NEW YORK — Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled new, versatile BlackBerrys after excruciating delays allowed Apple, Samsung and others to build commanding leads in an industry that is redefining society. But the first phone won't come out in the United States until March, and one with a physical keyboard will take at least a month longer. The stock fell 12 percent after Wednesday's kickoff, despite mostly positive reviews about the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. There's concern the phone isn't coming out sooner, and there's worry BlackBerry 10's advances won't be enough to turn the company around. In a move underscoring the stakes riding on its make-or-break product lineup, RIM used the occasion to announce that it is changing the company's name to BlackBerry. It's a pioneering brand that lost its cachet not long after Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone, which reset expectations for what a smartphone should do. Pioneered in 1999, BlackBerry became a game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness. It changed the culture by allowing on-the-go business people to access wireless email. President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with his BlackBerry. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things." It was so addictive at times that it was nicknamed "the CrackBerry." As the BlackBerry began to cross over to consumers, rivals came out with a new generation of phones that could do more than just email and messaging, starting with the iPhone and followed by devices running Google's Android system. Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient. RIM promised a new system to catch up, using technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. But it has taken more than two years to unveil new phones that are redesigned for the new multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers are now demanding. CEO Thorsten Heins, who one year ago replaced longtime executives who had presided over BlackBerry's fall, formally unveiled the much-delayed smartphones and software Wednesday in New York. Simultaneous events were held in Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg, New Delhi and Jakarta, Indonesia. The first device in the new crop of revamped BlackBerrys will be the Z10 — pronounced "zee-10" in the U.S. and "zed-10" elsewhere. As RIM previously disclosed, it will have only a touch-screen keyboard, like Apple Inc.'s trend-setting iPhone and most phones running Android, including Samsung Electronic Co.'s popular Galaxy line. Although the Z10 will go on sale Thursday in the U.K. and next Tuesday in Canada, it won't be available in the U.S. until March. The Q10 will follow and will have a physical keyboard, a feature that has kept BlackBerry users loyal over the years because it makes typing easier. RIM said the Q10 will start going on sale on some global carriers in April, but it couldn't say when U.S. carriers will have it. Heins said U.S. carriers need more time to test the devices. All the major U.S. carriers plan to sell the new BlackBerrys. Verizon Wireless said the Z10 will be available for $200 with a two-year service agreement, in line with what other major smartphones cost. In Canada, it will cost about $150 with a three-year contract. Frank Boulben, RIM's chief marketing officer, said some of the delay in the U.S. stems from specific testing requirements imposed by the Federal Communications Commission. There was a similar delay when the iPhone first came out, though subsequent models were released more quickly after their announcements. The U.S. has been one market in which RIM has been particularly hurting, even as the company is doing well in many places overseas. According to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the U.S. market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012. The iPhone and Android now dominate. BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said the new phones' tardy arrival in the U.S. threatens to cause even more BlackBerry users to defect. By the time the Z10 goes on sale in the U.S., Gillis suspects many people will be waiting to see what Google plans to unveil in mid-May at an annual conference that usually includes new gadgets and an Android software update. Speculation of a new iPhone also may be building by then. Wednesday's event flopped on Wall Street. RIM's stock fell $1.88 to $13.78. The stock has more than doubled from its nine-year low of $6.22 in September, but is still nearly 90 percent below its peak of $147 reached in 2008, when the iPhone was still a novelty trying to break into the mainstream. Despite their limited availability until March, the new BlackBerrys will be hailed in a commercial Sunday during CBS's telecast of the Super Bowl. RIM declined to say how much it is paying, but some 30-second spots have been sold for as much as $4 million.

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Oceans more tainted with mercury Study: human activity has doubled or tripled levels of mercury worldwide. Aug. 6, 2014 | Updated 3:09 p. m. WASHINGTON — In much of the world’s oceans, levels of the metal mercury are double to triple what they were before the industrial revolution, a new study says. Researchers found there’s more mercury from human sources — mostly burning fossil fuels and mining for gold — than scientists had thought. The study assessed inorganic mercury, which in the ocean gets converted into the toxic methylmercury found in seafood. When pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children eat too much methylmercury-tainted seafood, there’s an increased risk of nervous system problems in the developing child. The new results don’t provide any immediate conclusions about eating fish, says Carl Lamborg of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. His study is published today in the journal Nature. “Everywhere on the planet is contaminated with mercury to some extent,” he said. His study found that mercury concentration varied by depth, generally higher at the surface and mid-level depths than in deep water. But in the North Atlantic, high concentrations reached even deeper than 3,300 feet. In general, mercury levels between the surface and 330 feet deep were more than triple pre-industrial times levels, Lamborg said. Between 330 and 3,300 feet deep, they were about 150 percent greater than the levels from more than a century ago. But they were only about 10 percent higher at depths greater than 3,300 feet, except for the North Atlantic. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s ocean mercury from man-made sources is in water that’s shallower than 3,300 feet, the study found. The study is important and will help scientists eventually understand how mercury gets into the marine food chain and us, said University of Michigan Earth sciences professor Joel Blum, who wasn’t part of the study. ,oceans ,water crisis ,aquapocalypse

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You are hereHome › The case for change › Which system is better? If it is accepted that the continued use of two mutually incompatible systems is unacceptable, then clearly the only way to resolve the situation is to standardise on one single system and cease using the other system. The question which then arises is: which system should the UK standardise on? In theory, the UK could choose either system. We could revert to using exclusively the imperial system and discontinue the use of metric units – that is, go back to the pre-1965 situation. Alternatively, we could complete the changeover to the metric system and discontinue the use of imperial units. In practice, because there is already extensive "unseen" metric usage within industry and commerce, to revert to exclusive use of the imperial system would cause considerable problems: Industry would have to redesign many of its products and invest in new machinery, increasing production costs. British subsidiaries of foreign-based companies might be reluctant to change and could simply close down their British operation and relocate to metric countries. British-made goods would cease to meet international specifications, and exports would suffer – possibly catastrophically. Defence co-operation within NATO would be jeopardised. International obligations would have to be renegotiated – provided that other governments were willing to agree. A considerable part of the population would need to be educated in how to calculate using imperial units. Most mathematics and science textbooks and other teaching material would need to be replaced and syllabuses revised. The reality is that reversion to exclusive use of the imperial system is not a practical alternative. If the current muddle of two systems is to be resolved, it can only realistically be done by completing the changeover to the metric system and ceasing to use imperial units. Completion of the changeover would have many benefits in addition to resolving the current muddle. Once understood, the metric system is simple and easy to use. This is because: It is primarily decimal (thus avoiding the need to calculate in multiples and submultiples of 3, 12, 14, 16, 20, 1760, 5280 etc – not to mention the squares and cubes of these values). It handles orders of magnitude consistently: the prefixes such as "k" (meaning kilo- or thousand) and "c" (meaning centi- or hundredth) have the same meaning for all weights and measures. It handles dimensions consistently: For example, there is a clear relationship between metres and hectares (a hectare is the area of a square 100 m x 100 m) while there is an obscure relationship between yards and an acre (an acre is one chain x one furlong or 22 yards x 220 yards). There is a clear relationship between the litre and cubic centimetres (1 : 1 000) while there is no clear relationship between pints and cubic inches (1 : 34.66) - or between pints and a cubic foot (1 : 49.95). Britain would be using the same system as most of the rest of the world (apart from the United States of America). This would benefit both British travellers abroad and overseas visitors to Britain – both of whom would no longer need to keep converting. Join UKMA What is metric? Why metric? Practical Help The case for changeThe mess we're in Problems arising from two systems Which system is better? Principles of changeover Resistance to change What about free speech? Cost of changing Road signage About UKMA Responses to public consultations Follow @UKMetric © Copyright UK Metric Association 2013; The association is not responsible for external sites

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Top UN green official defends conclusions of landmark climate change reportHimalayas 6 February 2010 – The great weight of science still supports the findings in a landmark 2007 report from a United Nations-backed panel of experts that global warming is man-made, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said today following recent attacks from climate change sceptics over a mistake in the assessment. Defending the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) against criticism for a mistake made in its 2007 report over the rate at which the Himalayan glaciers would melt, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said that the panel has drawn upon the expertise of thousands of the best scientific minds for some 22 years. “It is quite right to pinpoint errors, make corrections, and check and re-check sources for accuracy and credibility,” Mr. Steiner wrote in an opinion piece published in Turkey's English-language Today's Zaman. However, the “time has really come for a reality check,” said Mr. Steiner, noting that the IPCC has acknowledged the need for stringent and transparent quality-control procedures to minimize any such risks in future reports. “The overwhelming evidence now indicates that greenhouse-gas emissions need to peak within the next decade if we are to have any reasonable chance of keeping the global rise in temperature down to manageable levels,” he said. “Any delay may generate environmental and economic risks of a magnitude that proves impossible to handle.” Mr. Steiner warned that even without climate change the fact remains that a global transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient future is necessary, given the world's population is rise from 6 billion to 9 billion in the next 50 years. “We need to improve management of our atmosphere, air, lands, soils, and oceans anyway,” he said. “What is needed is an urgent international response to the multiple challenges of energy security, air pollution, natural-resource management, and climate change.” He concluded that rather than undermining the IPCC's work, efforts should be re-doubled to support its task in assembling the science and knowledge for the fifth assessment report in 2014. News Tracker: past stories on this issue Climate change deal marks an 'essential beginning,' Ban says As carbon dioxide levels hit 15 million year high, UN urges action to curb greenhouse gas emissions UN officials optimistic of Paris climate accord’s entry into force by year’s end Modernizing sub-Saharan Africa’s farming systems can boost livelihoods, help feed the world – UN On World Day, UN spotlights role of maritime transport as backbone of global economy UN highlights agriculture's potential to help address climate change and antimicrobial resistance Amina J. Mohammed, former Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development

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Home / Science News Scientists develop tabletop particle accelerator By Kristen Butler, UPI.com | June 21, 2013 at 5:35 PM Follow @upi Comments The latest tabletop particle accelerator, from University of Texas at Austin, can generate energy and speeds previously only available at major multimillion dollar facilities hundreds of meters long. "We have accelerated about half a billion electrons to 2 gigaelectronvolts over a distance of about 1 inch," said Mike Downer, professor of physics. "Until now that degree of energy and focus has required a conventional accelerator that stretches more than the length of two football fields. It’s a downsizing of a factor of approximately 10,000." A gigaelectronvolt is a unit of measure for the amount of energy gained or lost by an electron. With the success of the 2-GeV accelerator, Downer says he expects 10-GeV accelerators of a few inches to be developed in the next few years, and 20-GeV accelerators within a decade. The 2-GeV accelerator is groundbreaking in its ability to produce X-rays of femtosecond duration, the time scale on which molecules vibrate and the fastest chemical reactions occur. To do this, physicists used the Texas Petawatt Laser, one of the most powerful lasers in the world. Former UT Austin physicist Toshiki Tajima and the late UCLA physicist John Dawson conceived the idea of laser plasma acceleration in the late 1970s. But experiments since the early 1990s remained limited by the power of their lasers. Maximum energy had been stuck at about 1 GeV for years. In particular, the petawatt laser was powerful enough to enable scientists to use gases much less dense than those used in previous experiments. Their findings are published in the journal Nature Communications. With power rising to a level previously only found at large-scale facilities, scientists will be able to observe atomic structures in great detail in labs worldwide, opening research possibilities to more people. "I don’t think a major breakthrough is required to get there," Downer said. "Companies are now selling petawatt lasers commercially, and as we get better at doing this, companies will come into being to make 10 GeV accelerator modules. Then the end users, the chemists and biologists, will come in, and that will lead to more innovations and discoveries." Applause spreads through an audience like a virus 'Sheep-eating' plant blooms in U.K. Study says 9/11 led to 'terrorism-induced smoking' BigBrain: Ultra-high resolution 3D map of human brain

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Tropes vs. Women video no. 1 lands Thursday, 7 March 2013 23:56 GMT By Phil Owen Share on: The first edition of Anita Sarkeesian’s video series on video game tropes about female characters has been posted, and it’s all about the Damsel in Distress cliche. Sarkeesian performs a thorough examination of the trope from its roots in other media to its appearance in the early days of gaming and beyond. The Tropes vs. Women project, which aims to expose systemic sexism of all sorts within games, earned a lot of notoriety last year when Sarkeesian launched a Kickstarter for it and experienced some, eh, harassment for, apparently, trying to take sexism seriously. The Kickstarter was wildly successful, though, and today we get to see the fruits. You can definitely see where that money went, as production values are high. Check it out:

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News US Unveils Plan to Keep Terrorists from Getting Nuclear Materials - 2004-05-26 October 29, 2009 9:22 PM The United States Wednesday announced a new global program to remove high risk nuclear materials from reactors that could pose a threat to the international community. The United States will be working with Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency on this program. U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham told reporters the United States is concerned that nuclear materials could fall into the hands of terrorists or, "a madman whose ambition is to destroy a world capital." "One area that clearly has arisen as an area of priority is the need for us, in affect, to undertake a global cleanout of those radiological materials that remain in the world that either are not sufficiently secured or are of such highly dangerous composition that they require further attention," he said. "Today I announced a Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which my department will be heading up on behalf of President Bush and the United States government." The United States is putting up $450 million to start the program in partnership with Russia and the IAEA. The plan is to remove, store or convert dangerous nuclear materials from hundreds of research reactors worldwide. It calls for the repatriation of unused highly enriched uranium of Russian origin by the end of next year and all spent nuclear fuel by the end of the decade. It is estimated that around 200 research reactors are coming to the end of their life span. The head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, told the news conference that dangerous materials had to be controlled because of the threat posed by the global nuclear black market. Mr. Abraham said a major international conference would take place later this year to examine how to collect and secure material in places where a broader international effort was needed. Back to top

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News Archive Shop Windows to the UniverseYoung Voices for the Planet DVD in our online store includes 8 films where students speak out and take action on climate change. RSS Feeds The shuttle Columbia landing after mission STS-58. The drag chute is deployed to slow the shuttle down. Microgravity News and Research Page Shuttle Returns Safely News story originally written on May 7, 1998 The shuttle Columbia recently returned after 16 days in space. Some interesting things happened upon landing! First, five of the seven crew members were carried off of the shuttle in stretchers. Scientists hoped that by keeping the crew members off their feet, their weightless state would be preserved. That way, scientists could do some immediate medical tests.There were many other scientists waiting at the landing site. In fact, 200 researchers awaited Columbia's arrival so they could begin dissecting the animals that had traveled aboard the shuttle. Scientists would work with 2,000 fish, snails, crickets and other rodents that flew as part of Columbia's Neurolab. A few dozen baby rats were also of interest. It was a race against gravity: the sooner the astronauts and animals could be tested, the greater the chance of seeing microgravity's effect on the nervous system. You may wonder why there was all of this fuss upon Columbia's landing. The Neurolab that was aboard this mission is of extreme importance. Beyond expanding our knowledge of the neurological system (the most complex system of the body composed of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves and sensory organs), the Neurolab is likely to aid in advances in many medical areas. Areas in which we are likely to advance due to research aboard the Neurolab are motion sickness, vertigo, orthostatic intolerance, muscular dystrophy, and even insomnia. Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!Our online store includes books on science education, classroom activities in The Earth Scientist, mineral and fossil specimens, and educational games! Windows to the Universe Community NewsOpportunities You might also be interested in:Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity KitCheck out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more1999--A Year in Review...It was another exciting and frustrating year for the space science program. It seemed that every step forward led to one backwards. Either way, NASA led the way to a great century of discovery. Unfortunately,...moreSTS-95 Launch: "Let the wings of Discovery lift us on to the future." The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 2:19 p.m. EST, October 29th. The sky was clear and the weather was great as Discovery took 8 1/2 minutes to reach orbit for the Unitied...moreMoon Found Orbiting Asteroid A moon was discovered orbiting the asteroid, Eugenia. This is only the second time in history that a satellite has been seen circling an asteroid. A special mirror allowed scientists to find the moon...moreU.S. is Fed Up with Russia Will Russia ever put the service module for the International Space Station in space? NASA officials are demanding an answer from the Russian government. The necessary service module is currently waiting...moreMore on Recent Coronal Mass Ejection During a period of about two days in early May, 1998, the ACE spacecraft was immersed in plasma associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME). The SWICS instrument on ACE, which determines unambiguously...moreMother Nature's Air Conditioning J.S. Maini of the Canadian Forest Service has referred to forests as the "heart and lungs of the world." Forests reduce soil erosion, maintain water quality, contribute to atmospheric humidity and cloud...morePlanetary Alignment 2002In late April through mid-May 2002, all five naked-eye planets are visible simultaneously in the night sky! This is includes Mercury which is generally very hard to see because of its proximity to the...more

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NASA STS-134 Tweetup Blog Entries Posted on May 27, 2011 at 6:54 pm by Mindi Capp. Being Selected NASA hosted its first shuttle launch Tweetup in May 2010 for the STS-132 mission. A second launch Tweetup was held in February 2011 for the STS-133 mission. As an active follower of the @NASA twitter account, I’d seen posts about both of these events and the unique experiences the Tweetup participants had taken part in. So when a call for applicants for the STS-134 Tweetup went out, it piqued my interest. The sign-up time period was only 24 hours long, and on a whim, I thought I’d sign up. With over 4,000 applicants and only 150 slots to fill, I really didn’t think I’d have a chance to actually get selected. But I thought, “why not, might as well give it a shot.”So, when I received the email telling me that I’d been selected, I couldn’t believe it! After checking the calendar, I eagerly responded to accept the invitation. And then the waiting game began. The launch date that was originally planned for April 19 slipped to April 29 because of a scheduling conflict with the arrival of a Progress re-supply vehicle at the space station. Luckily, the NASA team organizing the Tweetup was able to shift the Tweetup dates. Hotel, flights and rental car were booked, and I was ready to start my STS-134 Tweetup adventure! STS-134 Tweetupparticipants received this poster as part of their Tweetup goodie bag. Tweetup Day One The first day of the Tweetup was a whirlwind filled with presentations, tours and getting to meet a lot of really awesome space enthusiasts! After scoping out a prime spot near the front of the Tweetup tent, meeting everyone at my table, and setting up my laptop, it was time for the day’s events to begin. NASA public affairs officer John Yembrick welcomed everyone and kicked things off by having all 150 Tweetup participants introduce themselves. Hearing everyone’s background and where they were from was a fun ice-breaker. After lunch, a group of NASA scientists and engineers presented on a variety of topics. We learned about the different layers of a spacesuit, exciting science experiments taking place on the space station, and what it takes to keep everything on track to get a space shuttle mission off the ground. Astronaut Clay Anderson was the rock star of the day though. Hearing him speak about what it’s like to orbit the planet was amazing. Next up for the day was a tour of some of the facilities at Kennedy Space Center. The highlight of the tours for me was definitely getting to go inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. The VAB is one of the largest buildings in the world. Originally built for assembly of the Saturn V rockets that took astronauts to the moon, it’s currently used for shuttle assembly. During the tour, I overheard a fellow tweep call the building a “cathedral to exploration,” and I couldn’t agree more with the comparison. The sheer size of the building inspired such an incredible sense of awe. And to think of the history, of all of the rockets that have been assembled there, it was truly an honor to be walking on such hallowed ground. A trip to watch the retraction of the Rotating Service Structure (the gantry on the launch pad that protects the shuttle and allows for payload packing) had to be scrubbed due to thunderstorms. So it was back to the hotel for the evening. Time to rest up and dream of a shuttle launch! Standing inside the Vehicle Assembly Building is amazing Pictures don’t do it justice! Tweetup Day Two — Launch Day! Didn’t get much sleep last night! Too excited about seeing the launch today! We kicked off the morning with a group photo near the famous countdown clock. The STS-134 Tweetup participants pose for a picture next to the countdown clock. Then it was back to the tent to hear from astronaut Ricky Arnold and astronaut and Associate Administrator for Education Leland Melvin. Both had really inspiring stories of what led them to NASA and how education played a key role in their career choices. LEGO designer Daire McCabe spoke to us about the LEGO kits heading to the space station aboard space shuttle Endeavour. The astronauts are going to assemble the kits, and kids on Earth can watch videos of the assembly and build along with the astronauts. I’m excited to see what kind of creative masterpieces the astronauts build without the constraints of gravity. After a visit from weather officer Patrick Barrett, who gave us an optimistic report on launch time weather, the group headed out to the Saturn Causeway to watch the Astrovan with the crew drive by on their way to the launch pad. This was something I was looking forward to almost as much as getting to see a launch. Waving to a group of people just hours before they rocket off of the planet is a pretty amazing thing to do. As we waited for the Astrovan, there were rumblings of a possible launch delay. Some of the press corps were getting updates and things weren’t sounding too promising. But then we saw the van heading our way and our hopes lifted. As the van approached, we began to cheer and the excitement was palpable. Then the van turned directly in front of us and headed to a parking area behind mission control. We knew this wasn’t a good sign. After sitting for a few minutes, the van came back to the causeway and turned back toward the crew quarters, away from the launch pad. Launch delayed. We later learned that a problem with an auxiliary power unit caused the scrub. Tests were being run, and no one was sure how long the delay would last. 24 hours? 48 hours? Longer? No one knew. Everyone packed up their things and said their goodbyes. By the time we left the Tweetup tent, we’d learned that the delay would be at least 48 hours. My flight home to Chicago was scheduled for the next morning, and the timing wouldn’t work for me to extend my stay in Florida. I headed back home hoping for a longer delay to allow me to come back for another shot at seeing a launch. Launch Day, Take Two The launch date for STS-134 was rescheduled to Monday, May 16. Unfortunately, I was unable to go back to Florida to see the launch in person. Almost 80 of the original 150 Tweetup participants were able to make the trip though, and I followed along via Twitter as they trekked back to Florida. Early in the morning of launch day, I started following tweets from the press site and could sense the excitement building. A group of tweeps made signs that said “No U-Turns” and “Launchpad ” to point the Astrovan in the right direction and avoid any more disappointing turnarounds. No U-turns were made and space shuttle Endeavour lifted off on time at 8:56 a.m. EDT. Watching the launch on television was a little bittersweet. I wish I could have been there to see it in person and feel the vibration of launch from only three miles away. But I was also excited for all of my new Tweetup friends who were able to have such an amazing experience. Living vicariously through their tweets, pictures and videos made the launch special, even if I wasn’t there to witness it in person. NASA Tweetup participantswatch from the press site as space shuttle Endeavour and her crew head intospace. STS-135 Tweetup! Want to experience a space shuttle launch Tweetup for yourself? NASA recently announced that it will be holding a Tweetup event for the final space shuttle launch! Go on fun tours, hear from cutting-edge NASA researchers and astronauts, and watch from only three miles away as space shuttle Atlantis launches to space! Registration will open at noon EDT on June 1, 2011, and will be open for 24 hours. Tweet your registration and keep an eye out for a confirmation email. 150 lucky participants will be selected! For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/connect/tweetup/tweetup_ksc_07-07-2011.html.And be sure to follow @NASA for all of the latest NASA news via Twitter. http://twitter.com/#!/NASA This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged STS-134, Tweetup on May 27, 2011 by Mindi Capp. Moonbuggy Madness Posted on April 12, 2011 at 6:47 pm by . A few years ago, in 2007, I wrote the feature article “International Teams Join Moonbuggy Race” about the first international teams, from Canada and Germany, to join the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race. In the short time since, the international participation in the race has grown astoundingly with multiple teams from multiple countries designing and racing! This year, more than 70 teams from 22 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, India and Russia took part in the race. I and other moonbuggy workers who were stationed at one of the course’s toughest obstacles — the “Luna-tic” Curve — witnessed some spectacular spills at Friday’s race. One moonbuggy toppled backwards when the front of the buggy came up the first mound in the obstacle but couldn’t make it over. Others took the near 90-degree curve too fast and skidded sideways. The obstacles in the course push the moonbuggies to their limit. It’s fascinating to see where moonbuggy designs both fail and succeed. The buggies’ performances are testaments to students’ ingenuity and engineering. Hungry for more NASA Great Moonbuggy Race details? Check out the offical NASA Great Moonbuggy Race webpage for photos, video and the list of winners. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged General on April 12, 2011 by . The Big Impact of Three Small Letters Posted on April 6, 2011 at 3:45 pm by . A Q&A profile about NASA intern Stephen Pace was posted this week on NASA’s For Students Higher Ed webpage. When I was reading through and editing Pace’s answers, I felt compelled to highlight here for students his story about how his GPA almost kept him out of grad school. Pace was an A student in high school but primarily a C+ student in college. In his last year at Virginia Tech he decided he wanted to go on to graduate school, but the low GPA that resulted from his C+ study habits was a problem. He hadn’t planned on going to graduate school until that last year, so GPA wasn’t something he had worried that much about. As part of his senior design class, Pace helped design a futuristic aircraft as an entry in the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics University Student Aircraft Design Competition. He discovered he enjoyed aircraft design and that he wanted to do more of it and that he wanted to continue with a graduate degree. Unfortunately, the GPA was below the requirement to be accepted into graduate school at Virginia Tech, and his application was rejected. While disappointed, Pace worked hard on the NASA challenge in senior design class, and that hard work paid off, literally. Pace and his team members won the $5,000 cash first prize, coming in on top among 15 university undergraduate teams from around the world. After the win, Pace petitioned the university to reconsider his graduate school application based on his role in the team’s success in the contest. The response from the deciding official was no. The success in the contest showed that Pace would make a good engineer but a low GPA didn’t bode well for a successful graduate school experience. Disappointed yet again, Pace didn’t give up! He did some research and found out about a program that would allow him to take graduate-level courses in a non-degree granting program, regardless of undergraduate GPA. “I took the same graduate-level courses I would have taken as if I had been accepted into the master’s aerospace engineering program,” Pace said. “After a year of graduate study, my graduate-level GPA was sufficient for acceptance into the graduate school and I was admitted. After another year of graduate study, I had completed all of the courses and requirements and earned my master’s degree in aerospace engineering in 2010. If I had never gotten involved in the NASA-sponsored aircraft design competition, I most likely would not have found my focus in aircraft design and be inspired to go on to graduate school.” While writing up Pace’s profile that story about GPA stuck out to me, and I thought it was one that students out there might need to read because it demonstrates just how important things like GPA and NASA projects can be in directing and determining next steps. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged General on April 6, 2011 by . A Good Reason to Wake Up Early Posted on April 6, 2011 at 2:22 pm by . Taking Up Space welcomes guest blogger Joel Stein, a student at Virginia Tech and an intern at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Stein participated in the March 4, 2011, in-flight education downlink with astronauts on the International Space Station. Joel Stein enjoys a light moment prior to the downlink withthe space station. Image Credit: Emmett Given/NASA Waking up at 4 a.m. is difficult for any college student, but Friday I had a particularly strong incentive to get up that early with the opportunity to speak with astronauts aboard the International Space Station. I was specifically asking (astronaut) Al Drew whether there was anything his training failed to prepare him for in space. I arrived at the Huntsville Operations Support Center at Marshall Space Flight Center at 5, where Joe Charbonnet and I were briefed on logistics for communicating with the ISS. At 6:08, we received a phone call from the ISS. So what is it like speaking with people 300 kilometers above you? Beyond acknowledging that this would likely be the most expensive conversation I would have in my life, I had to adjust to hearing numerous echoes caused by the lag between the audio in our headsets and voices in the room. While I was warned about this in the briefing, I was disoriented at first when someone would seemingly cut off the astronauts in conversation because there was less lag in the phone through which we were speaking than in the headsets we were listening through the rest of the time. Once I got accustomed to the numerous voices, speaking with the astronauts on the ISS was like speaking with friends over Skype, though the occasional weightless somersault reminded me they were in freefall. The crew was fun to talk to and it was interesting to hear about life and operations on the ISS. From inside NASA’s Payload Operation Center, Joel Steintalks on the telephone to astronauts on the space station. Image Credit: Emmett Given/NASA This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged General on April 6, 2011 by . Buckling Barrels to Build Better Rockets Posted on March 18, 2011 at 2:36 pm by . NASA is going to crush a giant can. The “can” is a 27.5-foot-wide-by-20-foot-tall, barrel-shaped section similar to the space shuttle external tank. The “crushing” is the application of potentially more than 1 million pounds of force on the barrel. At some point in the test, the force being applied to the barrel will cause the barrel to buckle. It’s that point that NASA engineers want to understand. They’ve used computer models to predict it and now they want to test it out. Does the moment at which the computer says the cylinder will buckle prove to be right? Imagine taking your foot and stepping on a soda can. The soda can will buckle and bend and eventually crush underneath your weight. That’s the same thing NASA is doing here, except bigger! They want to know the exact point at which the giant aluminum lithium tank buckles. Launch vehicles experience pressure from all directions during a launch, whether it is due to the vehicle’s weight, thrust, aerodynamic pressure, and so on. Launch vehicles have to be built to withstand these millions of pounds of pressures, or loads, from multiple directions. This test is a critical part of that research. I took a tour this week of the Structural and Dynamics Engineering Test Laboratory, where the oversize experiment is being conducted the morning of March 23 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Ala. Guiding me on the tour were NASA test engineers Dee VanCleave and George Olden. Dee and George are part of the Structural Strength Test Group at Marshall. These two and the whole Structural Test Group team have been preparing for this test for more than a year. Something of this magnitude took a lot of pre-planning. During the tour they told us how they had to manufacture larger tools just to do the necessary tasks to prepare the barrel (or test article, as it’s more officially known) and the facility for the test. The results of the test will help NASA and commercial partners develop lighter launch vehicles. Today’s rockets are more robust than they have to be because the standards being used to make them are decades old. The findings from this research would be applied to the design and the development of rockets and aircraft — or anything with a buckling critical cylindrical structure, George explained. The Load Test Annex where the test will happen was built decades ago during the development of the Saturn V rocket. It was used in the late ’70s in the structural testing of the space shuttle external tank. Testing for the International Space Station, and other shuttle-related projects, took place in the adjoining Load Test Annex Extension. But the LTA is geared toward structural test projects of a larger magnitude — large like the Saturn V and large like the external tank. The test is a big deal — literally, of course, but also in terms of the data NASA will gain. The data from this research will be used to make launch vehicles lighter, which means they are cheaper to launch and that they could carry more cargo. It’s also interesting to me to see a facility that was used in the testing of moon rockets and in the development of the space shuttle come back to life. You can participate in a live webcast of the event via the MSFC Ustream channel, which will include video, Facebook and Twitter updates, beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT the day of the event. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc During the two-hour live stream you can see the test and also hear from the people behind it. Dee and George will be there talking about what’s going on and about some of the smaller-scale research that led up to this point. Also aired will be interviews with Dr. Mark Hilburger, senior research engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center and the principal investigator behind the project, and Mike Roberts, an engineer in Marshall’s Structural Strength Test branch and Marshall’s lead for this test activity. Check out also the Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Facebook page and the @nescnews Twitter feed. Want to know more? Background information on the test and the research behind it can be found in the NASA news feature “NASA Readies for World’s Largest Can Crusher Test” and in the NASA Media Advisory about the event. There’s also an article from the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, or NESC who has requested the test, explaining how preliminary tests on smaller eight-foot cylinders confirm launch vehicle weight and cost savings. The NESC also published an article detailing the purpose of the Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor project. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged General on March 18, 2011 by . NASA Values Education Posted on March 17, 2011 at 3:04 pm by . Taking Up Space welcomes guest blogger Joe Charbonnet, a student at Georgia Tech and an intern at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Charbonnet participated in the March 4, 2011, in-flight education downlink with astronauts on the International Space Station. From inside NASA’s Payload Operations Center, Joe Charbonnet(center) talks to the astronauts on the International Space Station. On eitherside of Charbonnet are NASA intern Joe Stein and NASA writer Heather R. Smith,who also talked to astronauts during the call. Image Credit: Emmett Given/NASA Participating in the downlink with the STS-133 and Expedition 26 crew was a truly special experience. Beyond just the undeniable and perhaps cliché “cool factor” of being in a control room surrounded by people simultaneously monitoring six display consoles and wearing a headset while talking to astronauts in space, the event was enlightening in the insight that it provided to the perspective of our astronauts. It was commented that given the cost of having the ear of eight astronauts for 25 minutes, this is likely the most expensive phone call I will have ever made in my life. It is a testament then to the value that we put on education here at NASA, that this opportunity was deemed worthy of those resources. I believe that the astronauts themselves endorsed this value when Captain Steve Bowen said that the inspiration of young people to pursue the sciences is the most valuable accomplishment to come out of spaceflight so far. I can think of no better way to invest our time and resources at NASA than encouraging the pursuit of scientific discovery and exploration that can liberate the minds and spirits of our youth. I was particularly struck by Mission Specialist Nicole Stott’s answer to the question of which missions from spaceflight’s history she would most like to have flown on. In responding that she would most like to fly on the missions that she has, in fact, flown during her career, she reminded me that despite its recent relative lack of media coverage, spaceflight is still exceptionally rare and that each mission is extremely valuable. We have made a mere handful –less than 200 — manned trips into space. We are making excitingly new and significant discoveries each time we fly and truly blazing the way for future generations of astronauts to make bounds beyond what we can conceive of at this time. And though not quite as select a group as the Mercury Seven, today’s astronauts will still be seen as the venerable pioneers of the frontier of space. This was a thought that had not occurred to me until hearing Mission Specialist Stott’s answer, and consequently was one of the most intellectually enlightening points of the downlink for me personally. I also was struck by the heavy focus that robotics received in the blog readers’ questions. A full 20 percent of the questions explicitly discussed robotics in space, and I believe that that shows great promise for this field of study as we as a society progress technologically. I think that the response to the question which I asked Colonel Eric Boe really set the stage for that line of discussion throughout the half hour. By responding that our progress in the development of robots today is analogous to that of computers 50 years ago, he conjectured a future in which robotics plays an integral role in not just spaceflight but everyday life. This is an exciting implication of the progress that NASA has made towards technology that could one day be considered essential to life on Earth. As Mission Specialist Stott later pointed out, robots are primarily a convenience — albeit a tremendous one — at this point in our spaceflight systems. From the prospective of these astronauts, one day soon we will have robots contributing not only in ways that humans couldn’t perform physically, but also in roles that are imperative to life in space. It was also refreshing, if not totally unexpected, to see the unabashed joy these astronauts have to be doing what they do. Be it the “stupid astronaut tricks” that Commander Steve Lindsey spoke of and the crew needed little prompting to perform, or Colonel Cady Coleman’s comment that the thing that she most likes to look for on Earth is the absence of political boundaries, it is clear the astronauts are aware of the greatness of their opportunity. It is also loud and clear (or 5×5 in Communications parlance) that they come to space to have fun, to do important science, to inspire, and to be inspired. Joe Charbonnet adjusts his headset in preparationfor the downlink event. Image Credit: Emmett Given/NASA This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Astronauts, downlink, General, STS-133 on March 17, 2011 by . With Two Seconds to Spare Posted on March 4, 2011 at 10:26 pm by . The education downlink with the STS-133 and International Space Station crew went off this morning without a hitch. Voice checks were good. We started on time. We made it through all 20 questions with just enough time to say a sincere and heartfelt thanks to the crews for talking to us when our time drew to a close. The astronauts gave great answers to questions about robotics, the legacy of the space shuttle, what it’s like in microgravity and how they tackle problems in space. We’ve got it all on video, and we will be sharing their responses and those videos here on the blog. For now, a few pictures from the event and the promise of more to come. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Astronauts, downlink, General, STS-133 on March 4, 2011 by . Downlink Tips From Up Above Posted on March 3, 2011 at 8:50 pm by . In preparation for tomorrow’s downlink interview with the STS-133 crew we thought it would be fun to talk to an astronaut who’s participated in the in-flight conversations with students and hear what the experience is like for the astronauts. We know what it’s like for students, but what do astronauts think about talking with students from space? So we asked astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, who I’ve blogged about before. Dottie was a mission specialist on the STS-131 space shuttle mission in 2010. During the mission she participated in two education downlinks: one with more than 1,000 students gathered at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey Bay, Calif., and one with students in Gibsonville, N.C., from the auditorium at Eastern Guilford High School. One of the first things I asked Dottie was to compare the experience of talking to students while standing flat-footed at their school and talking to them with feet floating in the air. How is that experience different for the astronaut being interviewed? Dottie said the space environment lends the conversation to more improvisational moments. “When you’re on Earth and you’re trying to talk about space, it’s hard to make the demonstrations because you’re not in 0 g and you’re in the 1 g environment. I think you can still make (a) great impact (on Earth). It’s just maybe you want to show some clips of video or show some pictures of people that are working or doing things in space to illustrate what you’re trying to talk about. … “Having now been in space it’s a lot easier to be excited when you’re there in space. I’m always excited about our space program, but I just think when you’re there floating around you don’t even have to work at the excitement energy, while here (on Earth) you might put a little more effort. … You can’t help but be excited while you’re in space!” We talked about if any moments stood out from either of the in-flight downlinks in which Dottie participated. “I remember a student asking what type of science we were doing in space, and (I) just tried to explain to them there is all the different spectrums of science from your physical and chemical sciences, to engineering, to astronomy, especially with AMS (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) coming, but also there are some other astronomy payloads that are up there, to biological on humans, plants and animals, so that all of the sciences that they learn in school happen on the International Space Station, and it really is a science lab. “It’s hard to tell students about all those payloads because a lot of the investigations are at a post-graduate level but wanting to get them interested in these different sciences that they’re going to have the opportunity to study in school so I remember trying to think ‘how could I put that into something that they know right now at middle school (level)’ and put it into their words because they haven’t maybe even been exposed to some of these sciences yet, so that’s hard. That was a hard question for me! “And then of course the easier questions that are always fun are what are your favorite foods or what are you eating in space, how do you sleep there. We got those on both of the downlinks we did.” Dottie said she tried to make the downlink personal to the students and the school they were talking with. She wanted to make a personal connection with them so they would know that the astronauts were interested in them too and not focused only on answering their question. “We knew before we were flying who we were going to be talking to, and so while I was quarantined I just got some information about the high school so we could kind of give a little shout-out to the school and know their mascot, maybe know the names of a couple of the teachers that were going to be there just so the kids see that you’re trying to be invested in them too,” Dottie said. “When we were on orbit and actually doing (the downlink), since it is kids, we tried to also show that we were having a lot of fun up there because if you just answer the question, if you just tuck you feet under a handrail and look like you’re standing there then the kids don’t really understand that you’re in space. So Clay (Anderson) hung upside down from one area, and we did some flips and Dex (Commander Alan Poindexter) was throwing food to us, and so we were just trying to make it interactive but also just demonstrate ‘hey, we’re really in space.’” Dottie had one piece of advice for me tomorrow: speak clearly into the phone. “It was helpful to have that list of questions because sometimes it’s hard to understand the kids. When they get to the mic they get excited or they get nervous or maybe they get too close to the mic. A couple of the questions were actually difficult to understand. Some kids came through much more clearly then others. I wanted to be able to answer the question with the student’s name in the question and make sure I was answering the right type of question. So I think it will be easier for you guys because you’ll speak very clear, and if there’s any miscommunication with the question you can repeat it. It’s harder to get kids (to repeat it) because then they move away from the mic. They ask their question then they move away, they don’t even wait for the answer, and part of that is just the nature of the (event). I think it will be good for your event. I think you’ll have an easier time.” We closed out our talk with talking about the importance of in-flight education downlinks for inspiring and exciting students about space and human spaceflight. “They are definitely important events,” Dottie said. “We do, when we’re on orbit, take a couple of minutes to collect up some items to make demonstrations. We take them seriously too, and we get to have some fun and we appreciate that too. Of course we were all once their age so we want to inspire them. It’s a fun event for us too.” This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Astronauts, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, downlink, General, STS-133 on March 3, 2011 by . The Time Has Come Posted on March 2, 2011 at 9:12 pm by . The launch of STS-133 meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To me and to the team behind this blog and other NASA.gov education content, it meant we were much, much closer to having our long-distance phone call to the International Space Station. We’ve been planning the education downlink with this crew for about six months and are so excited that it’s finally here! The plan is that two NASA interns and I will talk with the crew early in the morning on Friday, March 4, asking them as many questions as we can during the 25-minute downlink. This downlink event is unique for several reasons. First, we used social media to poll students about what questions they’d most like to see asked. We also involved students by allowing NASA interns to give us their question ideas as well. It’s unique also because we’ll be talking to the entire shuttle crew plus Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Cady Coleman. That’s a total of eight astronauts! I’m not even sure how they’ll all fit in the camera shot! Another way it’s unique is that we’ll be talking to the astronauts from inside NASA’s Payload Operations Center, or POC (pronounced pock). The Payload Operations Center is the science command post for the space station, located at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The POC manages the operations of science and research experiments aboard the station. The downlink will be streamed live on NASA TV. The current time is 6:08 a.m. CST. Watch here and on the NASA Taking Up Space Facebook page and @NASAblogTUS feed on Twitter for changes and updates. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged General on March 2, 2011 by . Seeing the Shuttle Launch Posted on March 2, 2011 at 6:41 pm by . Image Credit: David Hitt “Whew. That was close. Everything was looking ideal for launch and then there was a problem and then we were in a hold with less than two minutes to fix the problem. Then the Shuttle Range Office gave the green light, just in the nick of time. We counted backwards from 10 to 1, and she launched!” Those were my thoughts Thursday as I reflected on watching the STS-133 launch. It’s still crazy to me to think about it. It was a gorgeous day in Florida. But a perfect Florida day doesn’t necessarily mean a perfect launch day so I didn’t want to let the beautiful weather fool me. NASA was saying weather conditions were at 90 percent “go.” A couple of us even commented that we couldn’t recall ever seeing it that high. We had a great time all afternoon leading kids in launching rockets and in building and experimenting with robotic fingers and hands. Then it was time to head over to the pier to watch the launch. Earlier in the day, we used folding chairs to stake out a place on the pier, and the kind folks around us helped secure our spot. We all got in place with the kids in our group up close to the pier, the adults standing behind them and all eyes looking east toward the launch pad. A couple of us hovered around a two-way radio listening to mission control updates. In one of the updates it was announced that there was a problem. The STS-133 launch blog reported: “The Range Safety Officer reports the Eastern Range is ‘no-go’ due to problems with its central command computer. Standby to see if the issue is resolved.” The decision was made to come out of the nine-minute hold but to stop the clock again at T minus five minutes to give the range more time to fix the problem. More time, it turns out, was a little more than two minutes. Two minutes?!? No pressure or anything, right? We, on the pier, and as I can imagine all who were watching live and on NASATV, were on pins and needles! Finally the call came through. The Range Safety Officer had given the green light for launch. Discovery was going to launch! Yea!! Image Credit: David Hitt The next two minutes passed quickly. In unison we slowly counted 3-2-1. The first thing I recall seeing — the thing that told me the shuttle had indeed launched — was billowing smoke and steam and then I saw flames. I saw a bright streak moving slowly upward and for some reason this was surprising to me. I’ve watched many launches on NASA TV where the camera stays focused on the orbiter the whole time but I had never really seen or appreciated the flame before. These flames were fierce and bright and powerful. After just a few seconds, the shuttle and the flames disappeared behind a group of clouds, briefly reappeared, and then disappeared for good. What were left were a swirling smoky contrail and a large group of smiling happy adults and children already retelling their experience — the pins and needles, the smoke, the flame, the excitement of having seen the last launch of Discovery and having participated in a historical event that they’ll remember the rest of their lives. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged General, STS-133 on March 2, 2011 by . Page 1 of 3123» Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger downlink Student Launch Projects Authors Mindi Capp NASA Home

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gallondaily Gallon Environment Letter – the daily edition – a policy letter from the Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment Monthly Archives: March 2012 Report claims photovoltaic power is the greenest of all Posted by gallondaily in According to a just-released report from a California environmental group “Photovoltaics provide the most long-term, abundant, sustainable source of electricity generation available”. The report, Clean and Green: Best Practices in Photovoltaics, reports on environmental as well as health and safety risks in manufacturing photovoltaic panels. It concludes that many manufacturers are outperforming standards set for emissions, are reducing water use and reusing water on their own initiatives, and are participating in voluntary international programs related to worker safety. By presenting best practices, the environmental group As You Sow hopes to further improve sustainaility aspects of PV manufacturing and assist purchasers to identify PV panels made to the highest standards. The best news is that the group concludes that, despite some concerns about the toxic substances used in PV panel manufacturing, PV still out performs all other energy sources from an environmental perspective. The 30 page report is available at http://www.asyousow.org/publications/2012/AsYouSow_BestPracticesinPhotovoltaics_PressRelease_20120328.pdf Ontario Budget mostly ignores environment It is difficult to assess the reason but today’s Ontario budget contains less for the environment than any provincial or federal budget in recent years. Maybe the McGuinty Liberal government has been reading too much into those headlines that state that environment has suffered a major decline in public policy importance, even though more than 40% of Canadians are still significantly concerned about the environment and understand the environment – economy connection. The only energy or environment-related initiative to make today’s Budget speech is a plan to cap the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit at 3000 kilowatt-hours per month, meaning that the amount of electricity discount received by commercial and industrial users will be significantly reduced. GallonDaily sees that as a small but significant move in the right direction for full-cost pricing of electricity. The Budget also announced that: the Drive Clean vehicle emissions program is a proposed candidate for delivery through a Delegated Administrative Authority (DAA) model, ie. private sector administration with administrative costs recovered from vehicle fees. That despite the fact that Drive Clean has been a vehicle for scandal and, GallonDaily predicts, could easily be one again. the ministry of the Environment has funding to manage hazardous wastes through a new grant program under the Selected Household Hazardous Waste Initiative. Funding was allocated to support the collection and management of some selected wastes through retail locations, such as pharmacies. The ministry is working on options for continued management of these wastes at a reduced cost. GallonDaily notes that this is one of the areas that has got caught up in the problems of the Ontario extended producer responsibility initiative and that a revamping of the program is overdue. for the Ministry of Natural Resources, new legal requirements for permitting, licensing, and the stewardship of Crown land and resources are proposed as part of the Budget. These legislative amendments would change requirements, business lines and delivery structures within the ministry to enable a shift to permit by rule rather than individual authorizations; empower the Minister of Natural Resources to delegate approval to third parties; and adjust the frequency or scale of future resource planning activities. for municipalities, the Budget states that the government remains committed to working with its municipal partners to help ensure the sustainability of core municipal infrastructure. Roads, bridges, water systems and wastewater systems account for approximately 70 per cent of the replacement value of municipal public infrastructure in Ontario, and are a critical component of a strong economy. Funding for municipal infrastructure has totaled approximately $13 billion since 2003. GallonDaily is disappointed, though not surprised, that this government has apparently not made a move towards full cost pricing of municipal infrastructure as proposed by former federal Liberal Finance Minister Paul Martin and as legislated but never implemented by the former Ontario Progressive Conservative government. programs within the Ministry of Natural Resources are being redesigned to shift more financial and management responsibility to agencies outside of the provincial government. A list of these initiatives can be found at http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/budget/ontariobudgets/2012/ch1.html#c1_ministryONRT fees for water takings will increase fees for environmental Certificates of Approval and other permits are likely to increase on a scale yet to be determined. fees for tracking of hazardous waste will increase, apparently on an ongoing basis. Where past GallonLetter Budget reviews have identified more than a dozen significant environmental initiatives, the above are all we have found so far in the 2012 Ontario Budget. If you are interested in digging further, the budget can be found at http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/budget/ontariobudgets/2012/ Environment and energy: virtually tied in US poll Environmental protection is rising again in US public opinion, according to a Gallup poll conducted earlier this month. The poll results indicate that 47% of Americans say production of energy supplies should be prioritized while 44% say environmental protection should be. Like many pollsters, Gallup states that environment has fallen below energy as a US public opinion priority in recent years. GallonDaily, with a longer memory than most pollsters, suggests that the fact that environment has remained over 40% as a public opinion priority during the entire past decade and into this decade suggests that environment has finally come of age and that a significant percentage of the public, even in the US, consider that protecting our environment should remain a priority even during an economic downturn. In the 1980’s environment was a priority for less than 5% of the public. The Gallup poll results are summarized in a very readable form at http://www.gallup.com/poll/153404/Americans-Split-Energy-Environment-Trade-Off.aspx?utm_source=tagrss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=syndication Oil production data Debates on environmental issues are best when informed by facts. Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration released piles of information on world oil production. GallonDaily found it interesting to note that, in 2011, Canada produced only about one third as much oil as the United States itself. In 2011 Canada produced 22% of the oil produced in North America, Mexico produced 18%, and the United States produced 60%. On a global scale, Canada produced 4% of world oil production. Canada’s production is 3.67 million barrels per day, compared to production of 10.1 million barrels per day in the United States. Canadian refinery capacity is 2.0 million barrels per day compared to 17.7 million barrels per day refinery capacity in the U.S. Despite rhetoric one often hears from Canadian sources, the Energy Information Administration states that OPEC countries still control about 70% of the world’s proven oil reserves and they produce 41% of the world’s oil supply. Gallon Environment Letter will be covering more of the useful data provided by the Energy Information Administration in upcoming issues. The latest data on the major players supplying the world oil market is at http://www.eia.gov/energy_in_brief/world_oil_market.cfm Scam conference Emails and websites touting scam conferences are becoming more common. For some reason many of these fake conferences purport to be on environmental topics. The reasons for these fake conference invitations are not always clear but are most often associated with extracting money from registrants or verifying email addresses. One that very recently came by email to GallonDaily’s attention is the Global Warming International Conference 2012, purportedly to be held in London, UK, from 20th to 24th April 2012. According to the scamwarners.com website, this conference is a fake and even the conference hotel, which has a very sophisticated looking website ready to take your booking, does not exist. GallonDaily intends to launch a service in the near future which will, for a small fee, verify whether or not an environmental conference is genuine. In the meantime we invite readers to ask questions about any environmental conferences that they wish to have verified. We will do our best to provide the information within 2 working days of the request for information. You can view the invitation for the fake Global Warming International Conference 2012 at http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&p=91433 Concern over endocrine disruptors raised a notch A review article published recently by the peer-reviewed journal Endocrine Reviews is raising further concern about endocrine disrupting chemicals. One of the main findings reported in the article is that EDCs do not follow the traditional relationship between dose and response, “the dose makes the poison”, that is seen in many toxic chemicals. Instead, EDCs, which are chemicals which mimic natural hormones, are non-monotonic, which means that exposure to very small doses may cause a significant response in the body of mammals, including humans. The paper lists non-monotonic dose-response curves not only from bisphenol A but also for atrazine, dioxins, hexachlorobenzene, methyl paraben, nicotine, nonylphenol, PCBs, perchlorate, sodium fluoride, tributyltin oxide and other substances some of which are commonly found in products or the environment at very low levels. The authors: encourage scientists and journal editors to publish data demonstrating NMDRCs and low-dose effects, even if the exact mechanism of action has not yet been elucidated. further recommend greatly expanded and generalized safety testing and surveillance to detect potential adverse effects of this broad class of chemicals. Before new chemicals are developed, a wider range of doses, extending into the low-dose range, should be fully tested. The full article and an abstract are available at http://edrv.endojournals.org/content/early/2012/03/14/er.2011-1050.abstract Cosmetic safety issues heading for big debate Draft legislation to give the US Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the ingredients of cosmetics may soon be discussed by a Congressional committee. The legislation stands essentially no chance of passage but the debate between the industry and Republican members of Congress on one side and environmental and consumer advocates along with some Democrats on the other side could become very heated with high media profile. The bill, known as the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011, H.R. 2359, includes provisions to: establish labeling requirements; establish a safety standard that provides a reasonable certainty of no harm from exposure to a cosmetic or an ingredient in a cosmetic and that protects the public from any known or anticipated adverse health effects associated with the cosmetic or ingredient; and requires the FDA to issue guidance prescribing good manufacturing practices for cosmetics and ingredients. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics states “It’s up to Congress to close gaping holes in the outdated federal law that allows cancer-causing chemicals in baby shampoo, hormone disruptors in fragrance and lead in lipstick.” The cosmetics industry is less than enthusiastic about the proposed legislation. The bill can be found at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr2359ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr2359ih.pdf The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics position in support of the bill can be found at http://safecosmetics.org/section.php?id=74 An industry view can be found by searching for 2359 on the personalcaretruth.com website and especially at http://personalcaretruth.com/2011/07/personal-care-truth-responds-to-cosmetics-bill-hr2359-safe-cosmetics-act-of-2011/ Environment Minister Peter Kent tries to reassure Canadians In remarks today to the Globe conference, Canada’s Environment Minister Peter Kent seemed to be trying to reassure Canadians that the federal government continues to take science and environmental protection especially seriously. Key points included: Our work is rooted in science, measurement, monitoring, analysis and the enforcement of rigorous rules and standards. At Environment Canada, we are convinced that our status as a world-class regulator requires us to innovate at all levels of our operations, all the time. The role of government is . . . to work to remove the barriers and impediments to growth and ensure the health and safety of our citizens and our shared environment. People on either side are passionate about their position and are rooted in a deep desire to protect and preserve. . . All of these positions have merit and none are paramount. If there is one word that characterizes Canada I believe it is “diversity”. Diversity of people and cultures. Diversity of beliefs and ideology… Diversity of geography and opportunity. The federal government’s role is to find common place among divergent perspectives and develop effective public policy. My job as Environment Minister is not to shut down industry or deny development of our natural resources. . .My job is to ensure that Canada’s industrial operations are subject to robust environmental scrutiny. Environmental assessments are required at all levels of government on projects big or small. Every jurisdiction doing its part to protect the environment by imposing what amounts to overlapping, duplicative and inefficient regulatory burden. But that process can get slow and bulky pretty fast. It’s always important to remember that when you’re talking about environmental rules–less can be more. And quantity should never be confused with quality. We at Environment Canada take our role as a “world-class regulator” very, very seriously. The rule of “one project, one review,” reduces expensive duplication and if anything, makes that one review even more focused and more stringent. We’re also using that same practical strategy to frame our domestic strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent over 2005 levels by 2020. GallonDaily’s response: institutions are measured by what they do, not what they say they do. We will be listening more closely than usual to the March 29th federal budget. The Minister’s speech to GLOBE 2012 can be found at http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=6F2DE1CA-1&news=BB188B8A-58E9-4CC0-8E6D-327D0675E1A3 More shoppers want green packaging: survey A survey of consumers indicates that more shoppers want to see greener packaging, according to data collected by Perception Research Services in the United States. Findings include: the percentage who would like to see more environmentally friendly packaging has increased from 28% in 2010 to 36% in 2012. 59% state that seeing environmental claims on packaging positively impacts their behavior, to either buy more of the brands they usually do, or switch to other brands. roughly half of shoppers continue to notice environmental claims at a high level. the number that report that there is not enough environmental information on packages has increased from 20% in 2010 to 26% this year. the number who say they are confused by all the different environmental claims has increased from 12% in 2010 to 20% this year. More data are available in the Perception Research Services press release at http://www.prsresearch.com/about-prs/announcements/article/packaging-and-the-environment-shoppers-say-please-help-me/ Insulated window glass that darkens or lightens electronically People love buildings with huge expanses of glass so that they can see what is going on in the outside world. However, buildings with large expanses of window typically get too hot in summer and can lose too much heat in winter. Window shades are often used to mitigate against the effects of too much sun entering the enclosed space. A new product called SageGlass overcomes most of the heat and light transmission problems. Windows made of SageGlass can be made darker or lighter manually or automatically. At their darkest, SageGlass windows reduce visible light transmission by 98%. They are also LEED qualified, helping builders and building owners score up to 8 LEED points in 5 categories. LEED is rapidly becoming the dominant standard for energy efficient buildings in North America. SageGlass is not the only product of its kind but it does appear to be taking a significant share of the market for both commercial and residential windows in new construction. GallonDaily suggests that it is certainly a window glass product that is worth looking into. Details can be found on the manufacturer’s site at http://sageglass.com/ Recent articles Canada 2nd worst on water performance, says Conference Board of Canada A commentary on drinking water fountains in the US Trudeau environment and economy policy thin on details California climate initiative may impact Ontario & Quebec Green Roads New report applies broad definition of e-waste that potentially targets appliance manufacturers Our consumption of rubber is leading to Asian deforestation Only a little for the environment in the 2015 Canadian Government Budget The State of Sustainability 2015 Energy has the potential to be a leader in the new economy Menu About GallonDaily and Gallon Environment Letter Follow GallonDaily via Email

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Mars (One) Needs Payloads from the ok-but-nothing-too-heavy dept. mbone (558574) writes Mars One has announced that their first, unmanned, lander, targeted for 2018, needs payloads. Along with their 4 experiments, and a University experiment, they have two payloads for hire: "Mars One offers two payload opportunities for paying mission contributors. Proposals can take the form of scientific experiments, technology demonstrations, marketing and publicity campaigns, or any other suggested payload. 'Previously, the only payloads that have landed on Mars are those which NASA has selected,' said Bas Lansdorp, 'We want to open up the opportunity to the entire world to participate in our mission to Mars by sending a certain payload to the surface of Mars.'" The formal Request for Proposals for all of this is out now as well. marsone O3b Launches Four More Satellites To Bring Internet To 'Other 3 Billion' from the from-above dept. An anonymous reader writes "O3b Networks is aiming to provide internet access through satellite, to the "other three billion" people in under-served equatorial regions (Africa, the Pacific, South America). O3b launched four more satellites [Thursday], to add to the four they already have in orbit. This is a very international effort; a Russian Soyuz rocket went up from South America, carrying satellites built in France. There's a video of the rocket and payloads coming together and a video of the rocket launch. There's also an academic paper describing using the O3b system from the Cook Islands in the Pacific, giving an idea of what it does and those all-important ping times." Arecibo Radio Telescope Confirms Extra-galactic Fast Radio Pulses from the Romulan-morse-code dept. schwit1 writes: "The Arecibo radio telescope has confirmed the existence of fast radio pulses. "Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are bright flashes of radio waves that last only a few thousandths of a second. Scientists using the Parkes Observatory in Australia recorded such events for the first time, but the lack of any similar findings by other facilities led to speculation that the Australian instrument might have been picking up signals originating from sources on or near Earth. The discovery at Arecibo is the first detection of a fast radio burst using an instrument other than the Parkes radio telescope. The position of the radio burst is in the direction of the constellation Auriga in the Northern sky. "Our result is important because it eliminates any doubt that these radio bursts are truly of cosmic origin," continues Victoria Kaspi, an astrophysics professor at McGill University in Montreal and Principal Investigator for the pulsar-survey project that detected this fast radio burst. "The radio waves show every sign of having come from far outside our galaxy – a really exciting prospect." Exactly what may be causing such radio bursts represents a major new enigma for astrophysicists. Possibilities include a range of exotic astrophysical objects, such as evaporating black holes, mergers of neutron stars, or flares from magnetars — a type of neutron star with extremely powerful magnetic fields." Be warned: All of the above theories could also be wrong. These fast radio flashes could just as easily turn out to be something entirely unpredicted. etphoneyou Child Thought To Be Cured of HIV Relapses, Tests Positive Again from the poor-kid dept. An anonymous reader writes: The Mississippi child, who was born with HIV passed from her mother, received HIV treatment for 18 months after her birth. In the course of over two years after the treatment, her blood indicated no trace of the virus or of HIV-specific antibodies, leading many to hope that she may have been cured completely. Earlier this month, however, the virus was detected again. Nearly 4 years old, the child is once more being given HIV treatment, and scientists are trying to figure out how she could have gone so long before relapsing. Asteroid Mining Bill Introduced In Congress To Protect Private Property Rights from the you-can't-take-the-sky-from-me dept. MarkWhittington writes: "Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) announced on Thursday that he was introducing a bill along with Rep, Derek Kilmer (D-WA) called the American Space Technology for Exploring Resource Opportunities in Deep Space (ASTEROIDS) Act of 2014 (PDF). The act is designed to protect the private property rights for entities mining asteroids and to otherwise encourage asteroid mining. The bill is in apparent reaction to efforts by companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries to locate and mine Earth approaching asteroids for their resources. The crucial part of the short piece of legislation states that the resources mined from an asteroid would be the property of the entity undertaking the operation. This language gets around the provision of the Outer Space Treaty that says states are forbidden to establish national sovereignty over celestial bodies, which would be a prerequisite to the United States allowing a private entity to own an asteroid. It rather grants mineral rights to the asteroid, something the treaty does not mention. There is no enforcement mechanism in the event of a dispute with another country, however." backronym Hair-Raising Technique Detects Drugs, Explosives On Human Body from the charge-and-detect dept. sciencehabit writes Scientists have found a way to combine Van de Graaff generators with a common laboratory instrument to detect drugs, explosives, and other illicit materials on the human body. In the laboratory, scientists had a volunteer touch a Van de Graaff generator for 2 seconds to charge his body to 400,000 volts. This ionized compounds on the surface of his body. The person then pointed their charged finger toward the inlet of a mass spectrometer, and ions from their body entered the machine. In various tests, the machine correctly identified explosives, flammable solvents, cocaine, and acetaminophen on the skin. Peer Review Ring Broken - 60 Articles Retracted from the I-scratch-your-back-you-publish-my-paper dept. blackbeak (1227080) writes The Washington Post reports that the Journal of Vibration and Control's review system was hijacked by a ring of reviewers. 60 articles have been retracted as a result. "After a 14-month investigation, JVC determined the ring involved “aliases” and fake e-mail addresses of reviewers — up to 130 of them — in an apparently successful effort to get friendly reviews of submissions and as many articles published as possible by Chen and his friends.'On at least one occasion, the author Peter Chen reviewed his own paper under one of the aliases he created,' according to the SAGE announcement." SpaceX Wins FAA Permission To Build a Spaceport In Texas from the go-ahead-and-build dept. Jason Koebler writes SpaceX just got approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to build a 56.5-acre spaceport along the Gulf of Mexico on the Texas-Mexico border—a huge step toward actually making the spaceport a reality. Wednesday, the FAA, which handles all commercial space launch permitting in the United States, issued what's known as a "Record of Decision" that suggests the agency would allow the company to launch 10 Falcon 9 rockets and two Falcon Heavy rockets per year out of the spaceport, through at least 2025. Hints of Life's Start Found In a Giant Virus from the that's-a-big-one dept. An anonymous reader points out this update on the world's largest virus, discovered in March. Chantal Abergel and Jean-Michel Claverie were used to finding strange viruses. The married virologists at Aix-Marseille University had made a career of it. But pithovirus, which they discovered in 2013 in a sample of Siberian dirt that had been frozen for more than 30,000 years, was more bizarre than the pair had ever imagined a virus could be. In the world of microbes, viruses are small — notoriously small. Pithovirus is not. The largest virus ever discovered, pithovirus is more massive than even some bacteria. Most viruses copy themselves by hijacking their host's molecular machinery. But pithovirus is much more independent, possessing some replication machinery of its own. Pithovirus's relatively large number of genes also differentiated it from other viruses, which are often genetically simple — the smallest have a mere four genes. Pithovirus has around 500 genes, and some are used for complex tasks such as making proteins and repairing and replicating DNA. "It was so different from what we were taught about viruses," Abergel said. The stunning find, first revealed in March, isn't just expanding scientists' notions of what a virus can be. It is reframing the debate over the origins of life." The Oatmeal Convinces Elon Musk To Donate $1 Million To Tesla Museum from the carreon-should-donate-too dept. Ars Technica notes (as does Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman) that Elon Musk has agreed to donate $1 million towards the restoration of Nikola Tesla's old lab as a museum, a project that Inman has been pushing for some time now. And if you happen to get there in a Tesla, you're in luck: Musk is also planning to install one of his company's superchargers in the parking lot. (At the other end of the east coast, you can visit a very different kind of Tesla museum.) Mathematicians Solve the Topological Mystery Behind the "Brazuca" Soccer Ball on Thursday July 10, 2014 @09:26AM from the nature-is-scrambling-to-keep-up dept. KentuckyFC (1144503) writes "In the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, teams used a new kind of ball called the Telstar made from 12 black pentagonal panels and 20 white hexagonal panels. This ball has icosahedral symmetry and its own molecular analogue in the form of C60, the famous soccer ball-shaped fullerene. In 2006, a new ball called the TeamGeist was introduced at the World Cup in Germany. This was made of 14 curved panels that together gave it tetrahedral symmetry. This also had a molecular analogue with tetrahedral symmetry among the fullerenes. Now teams at the current World Cup in Brazil are playing with yet another design: the Brazuca, a ball constructed from six panels each with a four-leaf clover shape that knit together like a jigsaw to form a sphere. This has octahedral symmetry. But here's question that has been puzzling chemists, topologists and..errr...soccer fans: is there a molecular analogue of the Brazuca? Or put another way, can fullerenes have octahedral symmetry? Now a pair of mathematicians have finally solved this problem. They've shown that fullerenes can indeed have octahedral symmetry just like the Brazuca, although in addition to hexagonal and pentagonal carbon rings, the ball-shaped molecules must also have rings of 4 and 8 carbon atoms. The next stage is to actually synthesis one of these fullerenes, perhaps something to keep chemists occupied until the 2018 World Cup in Russia." Study: Why the Moon's Far Side Looks So Different from the good-side dept. StartsWithABang writes 55 years ago, the Soviet probe Luna 3 imaged the side of the Moon that faces away from us for the first time. Surprisingly, there were only two very small maria (dark regions) and large amounts of mountainous terrain, in stark contrast to the side that faces us. This remained a mystery for a very long time, even after we developed the giant impact hypothesis to explain the origin of the Moon. But a new study finally appears to solve the mystery, crediting the heat generated on the near side from a hot, young Earth with creating the differences between the two hemispheres. The Video Game That Maps the Galaxy from the hint:-not-pacman dept. An anonymous reader writes "Video game designers and astronomers have been working different ends of the same problem: how to chart a galaxy full of stars. Astronomers start with observation, finding new and better ways to look into the sky and record what they can see. Game devs take the limited data we have as a starting point, and assume that everything else in the galaxy obeys roughly the same rules. They generate the rest of the galaxy procedurally from this data. But the information flow isn't simply one-way. As developers like David Braben improve their galaxy-creation models, astronomers can look at the models and see where they match (or not) with further observations, allowing them to improve their own scientific models in the process. "'The conflicts that show up are generally due to simplifications made in the models, for which new observations can provide improved guidelines. There's a continuously evolving and developing understanding of space, in which both models and observations play important roles.' ... Elite's model has expanded Braben's understanding of planet formation and distribution. Braben boasts that his games predicted extra-solar planets ('These were pretty close to those that have been since discovered, demonstrating that there is some validity in our algorithms'), and that the game's use of current planet-formation theories has shown the sheer number of different systems that can exist according to the rules, everything from nebulous gas giants to theoretically habitable worlds."" Cosmic Mystery Solved By Super-sized Supernova Dust from the now-developing-super-sized-cosmic-broom dept. astroengine writes: 'How cosmic dust is created has been a mystery for some time. Although the textbooks tell us that the dusty stuff that builds the planets — and, ultimately, the complex chemistry that forms life (we are, after all, made of 'star stuff') — comes from supernova explosions, astronomers have been puzzled as to how delicate grains of dust condense from stellar material and how they can possibly survive the violent shock waves of the cataclysmic booms. But now, with the help of a powerful ground-based telescope, astronomers have not only watched one of these supernova 'dust factories' in action, they've also discovered how the grains can withstand the violent supernova shock. "When the star explodes, the shockwave hits the dense gas cloud like a brick wall," said lead author Christa Gall, of Aarhus University, Denmark. "It is all in gas form and incredibly hot, but when the eruption hits the 'wall' the gas gets compressed and cools down to about 2,000 degrees. At this temperature and density elements can nucleate and form solid particles. We measured dust grains as large as around one micron (a thousandth of a millimeter), which is large for cosmic dust grains. They are so large that they can survive their onward journey out into the galaxy (PDF)." The surprising size of the measured dust particles means they can better survive the supernova's shockwave. This research has been published in the journal Nature. Blueprints For Taming the Climate Crisis from the pump-all-of-our-smog-into-the-sun dept. mdsolar sends this story from the NY Times: Here's what your future will look like if we are to have a shot at preventing devastating climate change. Within about 15 years every new car sold in the United States will be electric. ... Up to 60 percent of power might come from nuclear sources. And coal's footprint will shrink drastically, perhaps even disappear from the power supply. This course, created by a team of energy experts, was unveiled on Tuesday in a report for the United Nations (PDF) that explores the technological paths available for the world's 15 main economies to both maintain reasonable rates of growth and cut their carbon emissions enough by 2050 to prevent climatic havoc. It offers a sobering conclusion: We might be able to pull it off. But it will take an overhaul of the way we use energy, and a huge investment in the development and deployment of new energy technologies. Significantly, it calls for an entirely different approach to international diplomacy on the issue of how to combat climate change. A Brain Implant For Synthetic Memory from the paging-dr-soong dept. the_newsbeagle (2532562) writes "People who have experienced traumatic brain injuries sometimes lose the ability to form new memories or recall old ones. Since many veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan suffered TBIs, the U.S. military is funding research on an implantable device that could do the job of damaged brain cells." Lofty goals: "To start, DARPA will support the development of multi-scale computational models with high spatial and temporal resolution that describe how neurons code declarative memories — those well-defined parcels of knowledge that can be consciously recalled and described in words, such as events, times, and places. Researchers will also explore new methods for analysis and decoding of neural signals to understand how targeted stimulation might be applied to help the brain reestablish an ability to encode new memories following brain injury. ... Building on this foundational work, researchers will attempt to integrate the computational models ... into new, implantable, closed-loop systems able to deliver targeted neural stimulation that may ultimately help restore memory function." Physicists Spot Potential Source of 'Oh-My-God' Particles from the giant-alien-particle-acceleration-experiment dept. sciencehabit (1205606) writes For decades, physicists have sought the sources of the most energetic subatomic particles in the universe — cosmic rays that strike the atmosphere with as much energy as well-thrown baseballs. Now, a team working with the Telescope Array, a collection of 507 particle detectors covering 700 square kilometers of desert in Utah, has observed a broad 'hotspot' in the sky in which such cosmic rays seem to originate. Although not definitive, the observation suggests the cosmic rays emanate from a distinct source near our galaxy and not from sources spread all over the universe. cosmicray Buzz Aldrin Pressures Obama For New Space Exploration Initiative from the one-small-tweet-for-man dept. MarkWhittington writes: While he has initiated the social media campaign, #Apollo45, to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the first moon landing, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin is also using the occasion to campaign for an expansion of American space exploration. According to a Tuesday story in the Washington Post, Aldrin has expressed the wish that President Obama make some sort of announcement along those lines this July 20. The idea has a certain aspect of deja vu. Aldrin believes that the American civil space program is adrift and that some new space exploration, he prefers to Mars, would be just the thing to set it back on course. There is only one problem, however. President Obama has already made the big space exploration announcement. Aldrin knows this because he was there. President Obama flew to the Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010, with Aldrin accompanying as a photo op prop, and made the announcement that America would no longer be headed back to the moon, as was the plan under his predecessor George W. Bush. Instead American astronauts would visit an Earth approaching asteroid and then, decades hence, would land on Mars. The Billionaire Mathematician from the not-enough-room-in-the-margin-for-all-these-benjamins dept. An anonymous reader writes Dr. James Simons received his doctorate at the age of 23. He was breaking codes for the NSA at 26, and was put in charge of Stony Brook University's math department at 30. He received the Veblen Prize in Geometry in 1976. Today, he's a multi-billionaire, using his fortune to set up educational foundations for math and science. "His passion, however, is basic research — the risky, freewheeling type. He recently financed new telescopes in the Chilean Andes that will look for faint ripples of light from the Big Bang, the theorized birth of the universe. The afternoon of the interview, he planned to speak to Stanford physicists eager to detect the axion, a ghostly particle thought to permeate the cosmos but long stuck in theoretical limbo. Their endeavor 'could be very exciting,' he said, his mood palpable, like that of a kid in a candy store." Dr. Simons is quick to say this his persistence, more than his intelligence, is key to his success: "I wasn't the fastest guy in the world. I wouldn't have done well in an Olympiad or a math contest. But I like to ponder. And pondering things, just sort of thinking about it and thinking about it, turns out to be a pretty good approach." A Box of Forgotten Smallpox Vials Was Just Found In an FDA Closet from the thanks-for-making-me-feel-safe dept. Jason Koebler writes: The last remaining strains of smallpox are kept in highly protected government laboratories in Russia and at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. And, apparently, in a dusty cardboard box in an old storage room in Maryland. The CDC said today that government workers had found six freeze-dried vials of the Variola virus, which causes smallpox, in a storage room at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland last week. Each test tube had a label on it that said "variola," which was a tip-off, but the agency did genetic testing to confirm that the viruses were, in fact, smallpox. Another Dementia Test Oversold from the basic-statistics-claims-another-victim dept. An anonymous reader writes: Many prominent news organizations, including the BBC, are reporting on a study (PDF) that claims a new blood test is 87% accurate in predicting which patients will develop cognitive impairment. It's hailed as a major step forward in efforts to fight dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately, reality isn't quite so impressive. An article at MedPage Today explains all of the statistical facts that the mainstream press glosses over: "Only about 10% of patients of patients with MCI convert to clinical dementia per year. With nearly 30% of positive results false (remember, the specificity was 71%) as well as 15% of negative results false, most of the positive results in such a group will be false. Yes, it's time once again for a tutorial in positive predictive values. If we have 100 MCI patients and a 10% conversion rate, then 10 of them will develop dementia. These are the true positives. There will be 90 true negatives — the ones who don't convert. But with a specificity of 71%, the test will falsely identify 29% of the 90 true negatives, or 26, as positive. Meanwhile, with a false negative rate of 15%, only nine (rounding up from 8.5) of the 10 true positives will be correctly identified. ... It's easy to get a high negative predictive value when the annual event rate is 10%. If I simply predict that no one will convert, I'll be right 90% of the time." Wireless Contraception from the just-connect-to-you-local-contraeptive-hotspot dept. Kittenman writes: The BBC is carrying information on a type of contraception (funded in part by Bill Gates) that takes the form of a microchip, inserted under the skin. The chip releases contraceptive hormones to the body until wirelessly advised not to do so. This device has several interesting applications and issues associated with it. The researchers are already working on making the device secure against unauthorized transmissions. There's also the issue of making it easier for governments to control population levels. The chip will be available from 2018. This correspondent will watch the issues with interest. Mapping a Monster Volcano from the shhh-it's-sleeping dept. bmahersciwriter (2955569) writes In one of the biggest-ever seismology deployments at an active volcano, researchers are peppering Mount St Helens in Washington state with equipment to study the intricate system of chambers and pipes that fed the most devastating eruption in U.S. history. This month, they plan to set off 24 explosions — each equivalent to a magnitude-2 earthquake — around around the slumbering beast in an effort to map the its interior with unprecedented depth and clarity. Blue Shield Leaks 18,000 Doctors' Social Security Numbers on Tuesday July 08, 2014 @08:05AM from the measure-twice dept. itwbennett (1594911) writes "The Social Security numbers of roughly 18,000 California physicians and health-care providers were inadvertently made public after a slip-up at health insurance provider Blue Shield of California, the organization said Monday. The numbers were included in monthly filings on medical providers that Blue Shield is required to make to the state's Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC). The provider rosters for February, March and April 2013 included the SSNs and other sensitive information and were available under the state's public records law." Ten copies were requested under the public records law. blueshield ESA Shows Off Quadcopter Landing Concept For Mars Rovers from the drop-that-anywhere dept. coondoggie writes Taking a page from NASA's rocket powered landing craft from its most recent Mars landing mission, the European Space Agency is showing off a quadcopter that the organization says can steer itself to smoothly lower a rover onto a safe patch of the rocky Martian surface. The ESA said its dropship, known as the StarTiger's Dropter is indeed a customized quadcopter drone that uses a GPS, camera and inertial systems to fly into position, where it then switches to vision-based navigation supplemented by a laser range-finder and barometer to lower and land a rover autonomously. Ancient Bird With Largest Wingspan Yet Discovered from the we're-going-to-need-more-seed dept. sciencehabit writes Fossils unearthed at a construction project in South Carolina belong to a bird with the largest wingspan ever known, according to a new study. The animal measured 6.4 meters from wingtip to wingtip, about the length of a 10-passenger limousine and approaching twice the size of the wandering albatross, today's wingspan record-holder. Like modern-day albatrosses, the newly described species would have been a soaring champ. Tractor Beam Created Using Water Waves from the get-over-here dept. KentuckyFC writes The idea that light waves can push a physical object is far from new. But a much more recent idea is that a laser beam can also pull objects like a tractor beam. Now a team of Australian physicists has used a similar idea to create a tractor beam with water waves that pulls floating objects rather than pushes them. Their technique is to use an elongated block vibrating on the surface of water to create a train of regular plane waves. When the amplitude of these waves is small, they gradually push the surface of the water along, creating a flow that pushes floating objects with it. However, when the amplitude increases, the waves become non-linear and begin to interact with each other in a complex way. This sets up a flow of water on the surface in the opposite direction to the movement of the waves. The result is that floating objects--ping pong balls in the experiment--are pulled towards the vibrating block, like a tractor beam. eduanu Interview: Edward Stone Talks About JPL and Space Exploration from the listen-up dept. samzenpus writes We recently had a chance to sit down with Edward Stone, Former Director of JPL, and ask him about his time as a project scientist for the Voyager program and the future of space exploration. In addition to our questions, we asked him a number of yours. Read below to see what professor Stone had to say. FDA: We Can't Scale To Regulate Mobile Health Apps from the hard-work-is-hard dept. chicksdaddy writes Mobile health and wellness is one of the fastest growing categories of mobile apps. Already, apps exist that measure your blood pressure and take your pulse, jobs traditionally done by tried and true instruments like blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes. If that sounds to you like the kind of thing the FDA should be vetting, don't hold your breath. A senior advisor to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that the current process for approving medical devices couldn't possibly meet the challenge of policing mobile health and wellness apps and that, in most cases, the agency won't even try. Bakul Patel, and advisor to the FDA, said the Agency couldn't scale to police hundreds of new health and wellness apps released each month to online marketplaces like the iTunes AppStore and Google Play. Cassini's Space Odyssey To Saturn from the mission-of-the-rings dept. An anonymous reader writes in with this look at the amazingly successful Cassini mission and the discoveries it has made. Scientists says Cassini is helping them understand how our solar system developed. Of the astronomically profound discoveries it's made over a decade of circling, the startling hint this April of a new moon being formed in the rings of Saturn is merely the latest. Indeed, the spacecraft Cassini — which inserted itself into orbit around the giant gas planet in July, 2004 — has transmitted imagery and sensory data back to Earth that has given us a new understanding of our bejewelled neighbour three doors down. "It's one of the most successful (space) missions probably ever," says University of Toronto astrophysicist Hanno Rein, whose own work has been significantly informed by the tiny craft's output. Consciousness On-Off Switch Discovered Deep In Brain from the green-light-red-light dept. An anonymous reader writes "One moment you're conscious, the next you're not. For the first time, researchers have switched off consciousness by electrically stimulating a single brain area. Although only tested in one person, the discovery suggests that a single area – the claustrum – might be integral to combining disparate brain activity into a seamless package of thoughts, sensations and emotions. It takes us a step closer to answering a problem that has confounded scientists and philosophers for millennia – namely how our conscious awareness arises. When the team zapped the area with high frequency electrical impulses, the woman lost consciousness. She stopped reading and stared blankly into space, she didn't respond to auditory or visual commands and her breathing slowed. As soon as the stimulation stopped, she immediately regained consciousness with no memory of the event. The same thing happened every time the area was stimulated during two days of experiments. edugwu A Tour of One of the World's Only Underwater Labs With Fabien Cousteau from the under-the-sea dept. An anonymous reader writes Having completed his 31-day stretch underwater, Fabien Cousteau, grandson of famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, shows off his underwater laboratory to PBS in this video. When asked about his observations' Fabien said' "It's just amazing, we've seen so much new behavior that I've never seen before. Fish sleeping in sponges, a goliath grouper attacking a barracuda, never seen that before, I don't think anyone has ever caught it on film before. Christmas tree worms, spawning and giving off this milky smoke like stuff off. I mean it's just science fiction, it's really amazing down here. And that's why we're down here, my grandfather used to say, in order to film a fish you must become a fish. So we're trying to get as close as we can to becoming fish." Study: Whales Are Ecosystem "Engineers" from the starting-from-the-top dept. An anonymous reader writes Researchers had previously thought that, being excessively uncommon and migrant, whales didn't have much of an effect on the more extensive marine environment. However, a new study distributed in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment gives whales a role as "engineers" of the oceans. In the study, scientists from the University of Vermont suggest that the 13 types of extraordinary whale have an essential and positive impact on the capacity of seas, on carbon storage, and on the state of fisheries around the globe. "The decline in great whale numbers, estimated to be at least 66% and perhaps as high as 90%, has likely altered the structure and function of the oceans, but recovery is possible and in many cases is already underway," researchers wrote in an article announcing their investigation. Newly Spotted Frozen World Orbits In a Binary Star System from the a-little-chilly dept. An anonymous reader writes A newly discovered planet in a binary, or twin, star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth is expanding astronomers' notions of where Earth-like planets can form. At twice the mass of Earth, the planet orbits one of the stars in the binary system at almost exactly the same distance at which Earth orbits the sun. However, because the planet's host star is much dimmer than the sun, the planet is much colder than Earth. "This greatly expands the potential locations to discover habitable planets in the future," said Scott Gaudi, professor of astronomy at Ohio State. "Half the stars in the galaxy are in binary systems. We had no idea if Earth-like planets in Earth-like orbits could even form in these systems." When Beliefs and Facts Collide from the what-do-you-think dept. schnell writes A New York Times article discusses a recent Yale study that shows that contrary to popular belief, increased scientific literacy does not correspond to increased belief in accepted scientific findings when it contradicts their religious or political views. The article notes that this is true across the political/religious spectrum and "factual and scientific evidence is often ineffective at reducing misperceptions and can even backfire on issues like weapons of mass destruction, health care reform and vaccines." So what is to be done? The article suggests that "we need to try to break the association between identity and factual beliefs on high-profile issues – for instance, by making clear that you can believe in human-induced climate change and still be a conservative Republican." eduyale Two Earth-Like Exoplanets Don't Actually Exist from the there-go-my-retirement-plans dept. Two suspected exoplanets, Gliese 581g and 581d, have been shown to not exist, and are instead misinterpretations of data from starspot activity. From the article: "Gliese 581g doesn't exist," said lead author Paul Robertson of Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania. Neither, he said, does another planet in the same solar system, known as Gliese 581d, announced in 2009—less clearly hospitable to life, but still once seen by some astronomers as a possible place to find aliens. ... What's happening, they say, is that magnetic disturbances on Gliese 581's surface — starspots — are altering the star's spectrum in such a way that it mimics the motion induced by a planet. The star itself rotates once every 130 days, carrying the starspots with it; the disputed planets appeared to have periods of almost exactly one half and one fourth of the 130-day period. When the scientists corrected for the starspot signal, both planets disappeared. Oklahoma's Earthquakes Linked To Fracking from the evil-masterminds-should-invest-in-natural-gas dept. An anonymous reader writes Oklahoma has already experienced about 240 minor earthquakes this year, roughly double the rate at which California has had them. A recent study (abstract) has now tied those earthquakes to fracking. From the article: "Fracking itself doesn't seem to be causing many earthquakes at all. However, after the well is fracked, all that wastewater needs to be pumped back out and disposed of somewhere. Since it's often laced with chemicals and difficult to treat, companies will often pump the wastewater back underground into separate disposal wells. Wastewater injection comes with a catch, however: The process both pushes the crust in the region downward and increases pressure in cracks along the faults. That makes the faults more prone to slippages and earthquakes. ... More specifically, the researchers concluded that 89 wells were likely responsible for most of the seismic activity. And just four wells located southeast of Oklahoma City were likely responsible for about one-fifth of seismic activity in the state between 2008 and 2013." peakoil NASA Approves Production of Most Powerful Rocket Ever from the because-rockets dept. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, NASA has given a green light to the production of a new motor, dubbed the Space Launch System, intended to enable deep space exploration. Boeing, prime contractor on the rocket, announced on Wednesday that it had completed a critical design review and finalized a $US2.8-billion contract with NASA. The last time the space agency made such an assessment of a deep-space rocket was the mighty Saturn V, which took astronauts to the moon. ... Space Launch System's design called for the integration of existing hardware, spurring criticism that it's a "Frankenstein rocket," with much of it assembled from already developed technology. For instance, its two rocket boosters are advanced versions of the Space Shuttle boosters, and a cryogenic propulsion stage is based on the motor of a rocket often used by the Air Force. The Space Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group and frequent NASA critic, said Space Launch System was "built from rotting remnants of left over congressional pork. And its budgetary footprints will stamp out all the missions it is supposed to carry, kill our astronaut program and destroy science and technology projects throughout NASA." What Came First, Black Holes Or Galaxies? from the it's-the-one-that-respresents-the-chicken dept. StartsWithABang (3485481) writes "It was one of the most hotly contested questions for decades: we first expected and then found supermassive black holes at the centers of practically all large galaxies. But how did they get there? In particular, you could imagine it happening either way: either there was this top-down scenario, where large-scale structures formed first and fragmented into galaxies, forming black holes at their centers afterwards, or a bottom-up scenario, where small-scale structures dominate at the beginning, and larger ones only form later from the merger of these earlier, little ones. As it turns out, both of these play a role in our Universe, but as far as the question of what came first, black holes or galaxies, only one answer is right." Polymer-Based Graphene Substitute Is Easy To Mass-Produce from the set-off-some-graphene-fireworks-to-celebrate dept. Zothecula writes: For all the attention graphene gets thanks to its impressive list of properties, how many of us have actually encountered it in anything other than its raw graphite form? Show of hands. No-one? That's because it is still difficult to mass-produce without introducing defects. Now a team at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology has developed a graphene substitute from plastic that offers the benefits of graphene for use in solar cells and semiconductor chips, but is easy to mass-produce (abstract). kaist Study: People Would Rather Be Shocked Than Be Alone With Their Thoughts from the still-your-mind dept. sciencehabit writes "How much do we hate being alone with our own thoughts? Enough to give ourselves an electric shock. In a new study, researchers recruited hundreds of people and made them sit in an empty room and just think for about 15 minutes. About half of the volunteers hated the experience. In a separate experiment, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to push a button and shock themselves rather than just sit there quietly and think. One of the study authors suggests that the results may be due to boredom and the trouble that we have controlling our thoughts. "I think [our] mind is built to engage in the world," he says. "So when we don't give it anything to focus on, it's kind of hard to know what to do." !junkscience Researchers Create Walking, Muscle-Powered Biobots 33 from the franken-bot dept. Zothecula writes If you're going to deploy robots in biological settings – for example, inside the body – it makes a lot of sense to build those robots out of actual biological body parts. Muscle, for example, is a very effective, biodegradable replacement for an electric actuator that can run in a nutrient-rich fluid without the need for any other power source. Bio-robotics experts in Illinois have demonstrated a bio-bot built from 3-D printed hydrogel and spinal muscle tissue that can "walk" in response to an electrical signal. Their next step will be trying to incorporate neurons that can get the bot walking in different directions when faced with different stimuli. How Did Those STAP Stem Cell Papers Get Accepted In the First Place? from the don't-press-send dept. bmahersciwriter writes The news team at the scientific journal Nature turns its investigative power on the journal itself. The goal: to try and understand how two papers that made extraordinary claims about a new way to create stem cells managed to get published despite some obvious errors and a paucity of solid evidence. The saga behind these so-called STAP cells is engaging, but sadly reminiscent of so many other scientific controversies. New Class of Stars Are Totally Metal, Says Astrophysicist from the hit-the-lights dept. KentuckyFC writes Stars form when clouds of gas and dust collapse under their own gravity, generating enough heat and pressure to fuse the atoms inside them together. When this cloud of dust and gas is the remnants of a supernova, it can contain all kinds of heavy elements in addition to primordial hydrogen, helium and lithium. Now one astrophysicist has calculated that a recently discovered phenomenon of turbulence, called preferential concentration, can profoundly alter star formation. He points out that turbulence is essentially vortices rotating on many scales of time and space. On certain scales, the inertial forces these eddies create can push heavy particles into the calmer space between the vortices, thereby increasing their concentration. In giant clouds of interstellar gas, this concentrates heavy elements, increasing their gravitational field, attracting more mass and so on. The result is the formation of a star that is made entirely of heavy elements rather than primordial ones. Astrophysicists call the amount of heavy elements in a star its "metallicity". Including preferential concentration in the standard model of star formation leads to the prediction that 1 in 10,000 stars should be totally metal. Now the race is on to find the first of this new class of entirely metal stars. Solar-Powered Electrochemical Cell Used To Produce Formic Acid From CO2 from the give-me-your-carbon dept. Zothecula writes Rising atmospheric CO2 levels can generally be tackled in three ways: developing alternative energy sources with lower emissions; carbon capture and storage (CCS); and capturing carbon and repurposing it. Researchers at Princeton University are claiming to have developed a technique that ticks two of these three boxes by using solar power to convert CO2 into formic acid. With power from a commercially available solar panel provided by utility company Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G), researchers in the laboratory of Princeton professor of chemistry Andrew Bocarsly, working with researchers at New Jersey-based start-up Liquid Light Inc., converted CO2 and water to formic acid (HCOOH) in an electrochemical cell. usanj eduprinceton Tibetans Inherited High-Altitude Gene From Ancient Human from the breathing-easy dept. sciencehabit writes A "superathlete" gene that helps Sherpas and other Tibetans breathe easy at high altitudes was inherited from an ancient species of human. That's the conclusion of a new study, which finds that the gene variant came from people known as Denisovans, who went extinct soon after they mated with the ancestors of Europeans and Asians about 40,000 years ago. This is the first time a version of a gene acquired from interbreeding with another type of human has been shown to help modern humans adapt to their environment. Hierarchical Membrane For Cleaning Up Oil Spills from the what-about-anarchist-membranes dept. rtoz (2530056) writes Whenever there is a major spill of oil into water, the two tend to mix into a suspension of tiny droplets, called an "emulsion." It is extremely hard to separate them, and they can cause severe damage to ecosystems. Now, MIT researchers have discovered a new, inexpensive way of getting the two fluids apart again. This new approach uses membranes with hierarchical pore structures. The membranes combine a very thin layer of nanopores with a thicker layer of micropores to limit the passage of unwanted material while providing strength sufficient to withstand high pressure and throughput. Unintended Consequences For Traffic Safety Feature from the airbag-inflates-with-pure-mercury dept. An anonymous reader writes: Traffic engineers had a problem to solve: too many pedestrians were getting hit by cars while using the crosswalks at intersections because they didn't know when the 'WALK' sign would change. Their solution was simple: implement a countdown timer. Countless cities have now adopted these timers, but it turns out to have an undesired consequence: motor vehicle crashes are actually increasing at intersections where the countdown timer is used. Researchers think this is because pedestrians aren't the only ones who see the timers. Drivers see them too, and it provides them with information on when the light will change. Then they anticipate the change by either speeding up to beat a change to red light, or anticipating a green light in order to get through before the pedestrians can move into the road. The researchers suggest finding some way to hide the countdown from the drivers, perhaps through the use of an audio countdown that would be difficult to hear from inside a car. Alleged 'Bigfoot' DNA Samples Sequenced, Turn Out To Be Horses, Dogs, and Bears from the film-at-never dept. sciencehabit writes: In North America, they're called Bigfoot or Sasquatch. In the Himalayan foothills, they're known as yeti or abominable snowmen. And Russians call them Almasty. But in the scientific laboratory, these elusive, hairy, humanoid creatures are nothing more than bears, horses, and dogs. That's the conclusion of a new study—the first peer-reviewed, genetic survey of biological samples claimed to be from the shadowy beasts. To identify the evolutionary source of each sample, the team determined the sequence of a gene—found inside the mitochondria of cells—that encodes the 12S RNA, which is often used for species identification. Unlike standard DNA, mitochondrial genes are passed only from mother to offspring. Seven of the samples didn’t yield enough DNA for identification. Of the 30 that were sequenced, all matched the exact 12S RNA sequences for known species, the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Ten hairs belonged to various bear species; four were from horses; four were from wolves or dogs; one was a perfect match to a human hair; and the others came from cows, raccoons, deer, and even a porcupine. Two samples, from India and Bhutan, matched polar bear 12S RNA—a surprising finding that Sykes is following up on to determine whether some Himalayan bears are hybrid species with polar bears. bobosad India Launches Five Foreign Satellites from the high-five dept. vasanth writes: "India has put into orbit five foreign satellites, including one built by France two from Canada and one each from Singapore and Germany. The PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) has so far successfully launched 67 satellites, including 40 foreign ones, into space. The PSLV costs about 17 million USD and the cost is seen as a major advantage India has over other countries in terms of commercial launches. When talking about the cost of the project, the Prime Minister of India noted that the launch was cheaper than Hollywood film Gravity. space Favorite unit of length? yard, still sticking to it kiloparsec nanomoreorlessmeter mille passuum Anther option for which this poll is too short huh ? I live on zero dimensions, you insensitive clod !" Read the 8 comments | 1300 voted

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CrunchBoardPost Your Job With TechCrunch And Reach 19M TC Readers Post Your Job Today! microsoft windows Microsoft makes its Edge browser safer for the enterprise Microsoft zaps Windows 10 Anniversary Update login freezing bug Microsoft teases what looks like a black Surface Book 2 Microsoft says its Edge browser is still more energy-efficient than its competitors Google’s mysterious new Fuchsia operating system could run on almost anything Google starts experimenting with quantum-secure connections in Chrome How Android gets to 100% market share No matter how you slice it, Apple and WebRTC need each other Chrome For iOS Is Now Faster And Crashes 70% Less Often Apple is screwing up HomeKit; here’s how they can fix it New Google Tilt Brush demo shows what it’s like to paint with friends in VR Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb On Microsoft. And It's Made of Chrome. Posted Jul 7, 2009 by MG Siegler (@parislemon) New Sharp LED-backlit LE700 TVs: not fancy enough? Wow. So you know all those whispers about a Google desktop operating system that never seem to go away? You thought they might with the launch of Android, Google’s mobile OS. But they persisted. And for good reason, because it’s real. In the second half of 2010, Google plans to launch the Google Chrome OS, an operating system designed from the ground up to run the Chrome web browser on netbooks. “It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,” Google writes tonight on its blog. But let’s be clear on what this really is. This is Google dropping the mother of bombs on its chief rival, Microsoft. It even says as much in the first paragraph of its post, “However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.” Yeah, who do you think they mean by that? And it’s a genius play. So many people are buying netbooks right now, but are running WIndows XP on them. Windows XP is 8 years old. It was built to run on Pentium IIIs and Pentium 4s. Google Chrome OS is built to run on both x86 architecture chips and ARM chips, like the ones increasingly found in netbooks. It is also working with multiple OEMs to get the new OS up and running next year. Obviously, this Chrome OS will be lightweight and fast just like the browser itself. But also just like the browser, it will be open-sourced. Think Microsoft will be open-sourcing Windows anytime soon? As Google writes, “We have a lot of work to do, and we’re definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision.” They might as well set up enlistment booths on college campuses for their war against Microsoft. Google says the software architecture will basically be the current Chrome browser running inside “a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.” So in other words, it basically is the web as an OS. And applications developers will develop for it just as they would on the web. This is similar to the approach Palm has taken with its new webOS for the Palm Pre, but Google notes that any app developed for Google Chrome OS will work in any standards-compliant browser on any OS. What Google is doing is not recreating a new kind of OS, they’re creating the best way to not need one at all. So why release this new OS instead of using Android? After all, it has already been successfully ported to netbooks. Google admits that there is some overlap there. But a key difference they don’t mention is the ability to run on the x86 architecture. Android cannot do that (though there are ports), Chrome OS can and will. But more, Google wants to emphasize that Chrome OS is all about the web, whereas Android is about a lot of different things. Including apps that are not standard browser-based web apps. But Chrome OS will be all about the web apps. And no doubt HTML 5 is going to be a huge part of all of this. A lot of people are still wary about running web apps for when their computer isn’t connected to the web. But HTML 5 has the potential to change that, as you’ll be able to work in the browser even when not connected, and upload when you are again. We’re starting to see more clearly why Google’s Vic Gundotra was pushing HTML 5 so hard at Google I/O this year. Sure, part of it was about things like Google Wave, but Google Wave is just one of many new-style apps in this new Chrome OS universe. But there is a wild card in all of this still for Microsoft: Windows 7. While Windows XP is 8 years old, and Windows Vista is just generally considered to be a bad OS for netbooks, Windows 7 could offer a good netbook experience. And Microsoft had better hope so, or its claim that 96% of netbooks run Windows is going to be very different in a year. Google plans to release the open source code for Chrome OS later this year ahead of the launch next year. Don’t be surprised if this code drops around the same time as Windows 7. Can’t wait to hear what Microsoft will have to say about all of this. Good thing they have a huge conference next week. Google Founded Google is a multinational corporation that is specialized in internet-related services and products. The company’s product portfolio includes Google Search, which provides users with access to information online; Knowledge Graph that allows users to search for things, people, or places as well as builds systems recognizing speech and understanding natural language; Google Now, which provides information … Search, Email, Blogging Platforms, Information Technology, Video Streaming, Software Website http://www.google.com/ Full profile for Google Microsoft Founded http://www.microsoft.com Full profile for Microsoft Google Chrome OS Description Google Chrome OS is an open source PC operating system. The operating system is based on Linux and runs only on specifically designed http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-chrome-os-faq.html Full profile for Google Chrome OS Newsletter Subscriptions microsoft windows google-chrome google chrome os Microsoft Google Popular Posts Posted Jul 7, 2009 CrunchBoard

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AU Other editions Palm Treo review: The Good Improved battery life; built-in VGA camera; SDIO expansion slot; speakerphone; runs Palm OS 5.1; one-handed navigation; supports multiple e-mail accounts; world phone. The Bad Cramped keyboard; display isn't high resolution; headphone jack isn't standard size. The Bottom Line Handspring's parting shot, the Treo 600, is one of the better blends of phone and PDA that we've seen to date. CNET Editors' Choice Review summaryNo other company has done more to advance the concept of the all-in-one communicator than Handspring with its innovative Treo line. Though it will soon be subsumed by Palm, Handspring is still shaking things up with the Treo 600, a wholly new design that adds a camera, an expansion slot, and other new ingredients to an already potent blend of phone and wireless PDA. The big news isn't that the Treo 600 can do all this--other devices can too. It is that the Treo 600, which will be available from Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T Wireless, and Verizon for about $500 with service, does all of them well.Editor's note: We have changed the rating in this review to reflect recent changes in our rating scale. Click here to find out more. At the time of its debut, the Treo 300 was arguably one of the best phone/PDA designs available in the United States, but because of its PDA leanings, it suffered a little as a phone and was a bit awkward to hold it against the ear. The Treo 600, by contrast, resembles a full-bodied candy bar-style phone. Overall, it's only about 3 percent smaller than the Treo 300 (2.4 by 4.4 by 0.9 inches, not including the antenna), though it weighs slightly more (6 ounces). But because of its design, the Treo 600 seems more compact, and it fits more comfortably in your hand and your pocket. One small gripe: Without the signature Treo flip cover, the screen, though recessed, tends to get covered with fingerprints and dust quickly. While our test unit didn't have one, the final version will include a protective sleeve for those who want to use it. By far, the biggest design innovation is the rocker switch with a center button, which Handspring refers to as the five-way. This navigational button is similar to the ones found on many phones and Palm Tungsten handhelds, and it allows you to control nearly all of the Treo 600's functions--not just the phone features--with one hand. It works amazingly well. The applications included with the device, such as the POP3 mail program, the Blazer browser, the P-Tunes MP3 player, and the Kinoma video player, are already enabled for the five-way; many others are in the works. The backlit keyboard is another story. It's significantly smaller than even the miniature keyboards on competing devices. The rounded, asymmetrical keys and some smart software compensate a little, but we found it difficult to adjust to the cramped keyboard, though we use BlackBerrys on a daily basis. Still, it's acceptable for short URLs or text messages and is a reasonable trade-off to keep the size and weight down. The jog dial on the side is gone, replaced by volume buttons for the ringer and the phone only. A separate switch atop the Treo turns all device sounds on and off; with the latter, the mobile goes into vibrate mode. Also on top is a power switch, an SDIO expansion slot for adding memory or accessories such as a Wi-Fi adapter, and a metal stylus. At the opposite end is the headphone jack, which unfortunately uses the space-saving minijack that we've derided on other compact PDAs such as the HP iPaq 1940. On the back are the VGA camera lens and a second speaker tuned specifically for the vastly improved ring tones and alarms, as well as the speakerphone. While no cradle is included, this is a relatively minor omission, considering most people will be satisfied with the compact charger and USB syncing cable. The Treo 600 gives you the best of both worlds; it has the features of both a power PDA and a high-end phone for voice and data. There are numerous ways to initiate a call with the Treo 600, but most users will punch the application key that launches the touch-screen dial pad. From there, the five-way provides quick access to Favorites (speed dial), Contacts, the call log, and other applications. You can also dial using the numeric keys on the minikeyboard. If that's your preference, you can then replace the virtual dial pad--which shows up by default when you power on--with a custom background. On the handheld side, the Treo 600 is fairly well appointed. It has a 144MHz ARM processor; 32MB of memory (8MB are occupied by ROM); and a 2.5-inch, 3,375-color LCD. Though the passive-matrix screen is very bright, it's still difficult to read in direct sunlight and certainly isn't the equal of the high-resolution displays found on today's Palm handhelds and Sony CLIEs. The Treo 600 runs Palm OS 5.1.2H, and in addition to Contacts, it includes all of the standard PIM applications (Calendar, To Do List, Memo Pad), which you can synchronize with Windows PCs or Macs. Continue to next page With improved speed, better cameras (plus optical image stabilization), and a pressure-sensitive... The Note 5 boasts a redesigned stylus and a giant screen -- and a price tag to match.... With metal materials and competitive specs, the well-priced Nexus 6P comes out swinging. The new iPhone 7 is faster, lasts longer, shoots better and can survive a brief bath.... Discuss: Palm Treo 180

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Seeking water and sanitation projects for Environmental Challenge Reed Elsevier offers $75,000 in prize money for winning proposals to help the developing world By Emmy Stevens Posted on 21 March 2013 Share story: The Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge awards prize money to two projects that best demonstrate how they can provide sustainable access to safe water or sanitation where it is presently at risk. Projects must have clear practical applicability, address identified needs and advance related issues such as health, education or human rights. This is the third year that Reed Elsevier (Elsevier's parent company) has held this challenge. How to enterThe Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge is open to individuals or organizations operating in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Projects must advance sustainable access to safe water or improved sanitation where it is presently at risk and include the following criteria:Be replicable, scalable and sustainable and set a benchmark for innovationHave practical applicabilityAddress non-discrimination/equity of accessInvolve and impact a range of stakeholdersHave local/community-level engagementApplications will be accepted through April 15. For more information, visit the Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge website and apply here. There is a $50,000 prize for the first place entry and a $25,000 prize for the second place entry. Applicants gain access to Elsevier's scientific online publications and databases, and the winning projects will be highlighted in Elsevier journal Water Research.This year, the challenge ties in with the United Nation's declaration of 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation.It also contributes to the Water for Life Decade (2005-15) established by the UN General Assembly in support of the Millennium Development Goal to reduce by half the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.And it ties into Elsevier's aim to facilitate the exchange and dissemination of scientific information – in this case, information on improving access to a sustainable water supply and sanitation.Sharing knowledge in a fragmented fieldElsevier publishes 26 percent of the world's scientific literature in the field of water resources, helping experts share knowledge of today's most sophisticated methods and technologies while understanding the underlying issues that affect the water supply.For example, the new journal Water Resources & Economics addresses the financial and economic dimensions affecting the use of water resources, be it water extraction, pollution or allocation, across different economic sectors like agriculture, energy, industry and urban water supply as well as between local, regional and transboundary river basins.Dr. Christiane Barranguet, Executive Publisher of Aquatic Sciences at Elsevier, explained that in order to boost efficiency, augment supply and create new technologies for water reuses, "water and wastewater research topics need to be shared and evaluated in a discussion forum (for) all the different players in the field of water research, ranging from microbiologists to engineers, city planners and policy makers."She said Elsevier continuously looks for new partnerships "to develop water from a highly fragmented field of research to an integrated scientific discipline":By collaborating closely with the principal players in the generation, dissemination and policy applications of water.By working with scientific institutes, societies, industry and NGOs.By organizing conferences, webinars and innovative competitionsBy providing scientists in developing countries with free or low-cost access to the latest water research.Partnerships produce new resourcesThe Environmental Challenge itself is based on partnerships. One of the judges is Dr. Mark van Loosdrecht, Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier's journal Water Research and recent winner of the 2012 Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize for his breakthrough contributions in creating sustainable solutions in the field of wastewater treatment.At the 2012 World Water Week in Stockholm in August, the 2012 Environmental Challenge winners were announced as part of a joint sponsorship with Elsevier. Dr. Barranguet took the opportunity to introduce four new water journals in cooperation with the International Water Association (IWA) and a research report Elsevier produced in collaboration with the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) was released: The Water and Food Nexus: Trends and Development of the Research Landscape.The report analyzes the major trends in water and food-related article output at international, national and institutional levels. It's based on the analysis of Scopus citation data by Elsevier's SciVal Analytics team . The aim of this report is to provide a transparent view of the water research landscape and the key players in the field, which is becoming more dynamic, complex and, in some places, fragmented. The report clearly shows that water research is growing in new places and becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, where collaboration is a key factor in producing high impact research.The RE Environmental Challenge was launched in January at the International Water Summit in Abu Dhabi, organized by Reed Exhibitions, a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier. And the Challenge will draw on expertise of the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) community through the Dutch WASH Alliance, which will provide judges for the competition.[divider]2012 Winners and their ProjectsThe winner of the $50,000 first prize was "Iron-amended Biosand Water Filter in Nepal,"developed by Tommy Ngai, Director of Research Learning at the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST). The project modifies conventional Biosand Filters with iron particles to remove all three classes of water contaminants, including viruses, and bring safe drinking water to two impoverished rural villages in Nepal. Over a period of two years, 150 filters will be installed, and CAWST will update its educational material and hold workshops to promote the technology. The project will benefit over 1,000 people in the two villages and has the potential to be scaled to help millions over the next 10 years.Diagram of the Iron-Amended Biosand Filter being used to treat drinking water in Nepal (Credit: Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology)The $25,000 second prize was awarded to "Sustainable Sanitation in Urban Slums of Africa," developed by Lindsay Stradley of Sanergy. The project will expand a pilot project in Nairobi to ensure that hygienic sanitation becomes accessible and affordable through a network of small-scale, high-quality sanitation centres close to homes. In Kenya 8.5m people live in slums with 80 per cent of the communities lacking access to adequate sanitation. Sanergy toilets are franchised to local entrepreneurs and stimulate the local economy by turning waste into products—organic fertilizer sold to farms, and electricity sold to the national grid. The prize money will be used to expand the current pilot project in Nairobi.Trained and equipped Fresh Life Front Line staff collect the waste daily — a critical part of Sanergy's "franchise, collect, convert" model (Credit: Sanergy) Youngsuk 'YS' Chi, Director of Corporate Affairs for Reed Elsevier, with winners Tommy Ngai, Director of Research Learning, CAWST, and Lindsay Stradley, Operations & Consumer Marketing, Sanergy (Photo by Fredrik Sjögren)[divider]The Author Emmy Stevens, Corporate Responsibility Associate for Reed Elsevier, is managing the 2013 Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge. She is based in London. Share story: Back to top

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MIT survey: Climate change tops Americans' environmental concerns Results are dramatic shift from three years ago CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--According to a recent MIT survey, Americans now rank climate change as the country's most pressing environmental problem--a dramatic shift from three years ago, when they ranked climate change sixth out of 10 environmental concerns. Almost three-quarters of the respondents felt the government should do more to deal with global warming, and individuals were willing to spend their own money to help. "While terrorism and the war in Iraq are the main issues of national concern, there's been a remarkable increase in the American public's recognition of global warming and their willingness to do something about it," said Stephen Ansolabehere, MIT's Elting R. Morison Professor of Political Science. The survey results were released Oct. 31 at the seventh annual Carbon Sequestration Forum, an international meeting held at MIT that focuses on methods of capturing and storing emissions of carbon dioxide--a major contributor to climate change. Ansolabehere's colleagues on the work are Howard Herzog, principal research engineer in MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE), LFEE research associates Thomas E. Curry and Mark de Figueiredo, and Professor David M. Reiner of the University of Cambridge. The findings are a result of two surveys, the first administered in September 2003 and the follow-up in September 2006. Each survey included about 20 questions focusing on the environment, global warming and a variety of climate-change-mitigation technologies. In designing and administering the surveys, the research team collaborated with Knowledge Networks, a company that specializes in Internet-based public opinion surveys. More than 1,200 people answered each survey (with no overlap between the two groups of respondents). Comparing results from the two surveys provides insights into how public awareness, concern and understanding have changed--or not changed--during the past three years. The environment continues to rank in the middle of the list of "most important issues facing the U.S. today." However, among 10 environmental problems, global warming (or climate change) now tops the list: Almost half the respondents put global warming in first or second place. In 2003, the destruction of ecosystems, water pollution and toxic waste were far higher priorities. There is also an increased sense that global warming is an established problem. In the 2006 survey, 28 percent of the respondents agreed that it is a serious problem and immediate action is necessary--up from 17 percent in 2003. All together, almost 60 percent of the 2006 respondents agreed that there's enough evidence to warrant some level of action. The other big change is a substantial increase in people's willingness to spend their own money to do something about it. In 2003, people were willing to pay on average $14 more per month on their electricity bill to "solve" global warming. In 2006 they agreed to pay $21 more per month--a 50 percent increase in their willingness to pay. Could $21 make a real difference? Assuming 100 million U.S. households, total payments would be $25 billion per year. "That's real money," said Herzog. "While it cannot solve the whole problem, it can certainly make significant strides." For context, Ansolabehere pointed out that the U.S. Department of Energy's budget for energy R&D is now about $2 billion per year. "Another reading of this outcome is that people want not a little bit more spent but rather a lot more spent to solve this problem--and they're willing to pay," he said. The MIT team undertook the original survey in 2003 to find out what the public thought about carbon capture and storage (CCS), an approach that Herzog and his LFEE colleagues had been studying for more than a decade. The team was not surprised to find that more than 90 percent of the respondents had never heard of CCS. The 2006 survey showed similar results. In general, the respondents' understanding of climate change and possible mitigation technologies showed little change between 2003 and 2006. In terms of their technology preferences, in 2006 most still recommended using more wind and solar energy and increasing efficiency, but more were willing to consider CCS and nuclear energy as possible approaches. "It's not that people have learned something fundamental about the science, but they've come to understand that this problem is real," said Ansolabehere. "It takes a prolonged discussion of a complex topic like this really to move public concern, and what's happened over the past three years has got to continue." The researchers plan to analyze the survey results in more depth, in particular to test for correlations between answers to questions and the economic, political, geographical and other demographic characteristics of the respondents. This research was supported by the MIT Carbon Sequestration Initiative (sequestration.mit.edu/CSI/index.html). For more details about the surveys and their results, go to sequestration.mit.edu/research/survey2006.html. Written by Nancy Stauffer, MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment thomson@mit.edu @MIT http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice More on this News Release MIT Carbon Sequestration Initiative 7th Annual Carbon Sequestration Forum POLICY/ETHICS

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A genetic mutation allows Hudson River fish to adapt to PCBs NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine IMAGE: Researchers discovered a mutation in tomcod living in the Hudson River that enables the fish to survive in waters heavily contaminated with PCBs. view more Credit: Mark Mattson of Normandeau Associates, Inc. NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2011 - A research group led by a New York University School of Medicine scientist discovered a genetic variant that allows a fish in the Hudson River to live in waters heavily polluted by PCBs. In a study published in the February 18, 2011, online issue of Science, they report that a population of Hudson River fish apparently evolved rapidly in response to the toxic chemicals, which were first introduced in 1929, and were banned fifty years later. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications, especially as electrical insulators. "We've found evolutionary change going on very quickly due to toxic exposure, and just one gene is responsible for it," says Isaac Wirgin, a population geneticist, associate professor of environmental medicine at NYU School of Medicine, and the study's lead investigator. "There are not many examples of this in the scientific literature." General Electric released approximately 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River from 1947 to 1976. The Atlantic tomcod, Microgadus tomcod, is a common bottom-feeding fish in the Hudson that is not usually eaten by humans. The fish, which typically reaches a length of 10 inches, had long been known to survive exposure to PCBs, and levels of the chemical in its liver are among the highest reported in nature. However, scientists did not understand the biological mechanism that allowed the tomcod to survive chemical exposures that kill most other fishes. Dr. Wirgin and scientists at NOAA Fisheries Service in New Jersey and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts spent four years capturing tomcod from contaminated and relatively clean areas of the Hudson River during the winter months, when tomcod spawn in the river. The fish were screened for genetic variants in a gene encoding a protein known to regulate the toxic effects of PCBs, which is called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor2, or AHR2. This gene also is involved in mediating the effects of other halogenated hydrocarbon compounds, a group that includes PCBs. Slight alterations--the deletion of only six base pairs in DNA of the AHR2 gene--appear to protect tomcod from PCBs, according to the study. Normally, when unaltered AHR2 binds to PCBs, it triggers a cascade of reactions that transmit the toxic effects of the compound. However, the study found that PCBs bind poorly to the variant AHRs, which apparently blunts the chemicals' effects. Tomcod from cleaner waters occasionally carried mutant AHR2, suggesting that these variants existed in minor proportions prior to PCB pollution, says Dr. Wirgin. After the chemical was released, tomcod carrying the mutation had an advantage over others in the population because PCBs otherwise lead to lethal heart defects in young fish. The study's findings suggest that this advantage drove genetic changes in these fish over some fifty years. "We think of evolution as something that happens over thousands of generations," says Dr. Wirgin. "But here it happened remarkably quickly." ### The study co-authors are: Nirmal K. Roy and Matthew Loftus, the NYU School of Medicine; R. Christopher Chambers, the NOAA Fisheries Service, Highland, New Jersey; and Diana G. Franks and Mark E. Hahn, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. About NYU School of Medicine: NYU School of Medicine is one of the nation's preeminent academic institutions dedicated to achieving world class medical educational excellence. For 170 years, NYU School of Medicine has trained thousands of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history and enrich the lives of countless people. An integral part of NYU Langone Medical Center, the School of Medicine at its core is committed to improving the human condition through medical education, scientific research and direct patient care. The School also maintains academic affiliations with area hospitals, including Bellevue Hospital, one of the nation's finest municipal hospitals where its students, residents and faculty provide the clinical and emergency care to New York City's diverse population, which enhances the scope and quality of their medical education and training. Additional information about the NYU School of Medicine is available at http://school.med.nyu.edu/. Lorinda Klein lorindaann.klein@nyumc.org @NYULMC http://nyulangone.org/ More on this News Release Tagged Tomcod from the Hudson River (IMAGE)

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Magnet family convenes in Marseille -Sabina Griffith Magnet family convenes in Marseille The ''magnet family united'' in front of the Marseille conference venue, Parc Chanot.It is with obvious respect that the visitors moved through the hallways and portals of the ancient Basilica of Saint-Maximin, where organist Pierre Bardon played Bach's Toccata and Fugue on the pipes of the 250 year old organ. The mastery of the fugue has not lost its fascination. The organ concert and the subsequent banquet in the festively illuminated courtyard of the adjacent convent were the closing chord of the 22nd Magnet Technology (MT) Conference that that took place in Marseille last week. First established in 1965, the MT is the world's largest gathering in this field. Every two years it brings together the world's foremost experts on magnet technology in order to advance various applications: from the MRI machines that allow for the non-invasive examination of the human body; to high-energy particle physics; and finally on to fusion, where "superconducting magnet technology is critical to future commercial exploitation," as ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima stated in the conference's opening speech on Monday 12 September. 935 participants, 979 submitted abstracts, 632 papers, 600 posters, 130 oral presentations ... this 22nd edition of the Magnet Technology conference broke all records.In the year when the world celebrates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of superconductivity and the 50th anniversary of applied superconductivity, ITER—as the project that will push the boundaries of existing magnet technology in a wide variety of areas—had the honour of hosting the MT conference. And with a record number of 935 participants, 979 submitted abstracts, 632 papers, 600 posters and 130 oral presentations, this 22nd edition of the Magnet Technology conference broke all records. "I think what we're seeing here is genuine growth in the interest in magnet technology," conference Chairman Neil Mitchell stated. "This might be due to the steady climb in commercial activity for magnets which is about 20% per year," Mitchell added. In his plenary talk "A century of critical temperature," the Grand Seigneur of Magnet Technology Martin Wilson gave an entertaining summary of the developments in the field over the past 100 years. In one highlight, he described the "birth hour" of applied superconductivity during the the 1987 meeting of the American Physical Society. "News had spread about the breakthrough of high-temperature superconductors and everybody wanted to hear more about this thrilling news. Lectures were given and discussed until 2 a.m. and there was almost no way to get into the packed rooms." This event later made it into the history books as the "Woodstock of Physics." ''I think what we're seeing here is genuine growth in the interest in magnet technology,'' commented conference Chairman Neil Mitchell.Fifty years later, the technology is well established, but R&D never stops; this 22nd edition of the MT conference featured papers on the development of applications using the new generation of High Temperature Superconductors. "The MT is a forum for exchange of information where, in particular, the companies working on industrialization of discoveries interact with the clients who want to use the products," explained Neil Mitchell. "It's not only new discoveries, but also improved techniques for manufacturing old technologies that comes up. The interfacing nature of the conference makes it popular." In a special ceremony on Monday, this year's IEEE awards for continuing and significant contributions in the field of applied superconductivity were presented. This year's winners were: Yukikazu Iwasa, from MIT's Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory, for his pioneering work on techniques for making superconducting joints between NbTi and Nb3SN wires (and, more recently, MgB2 wires)Alvin Tollestrup, from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, for his efforts in leading the pioneering design, testing and commissioning of 1,000 superconducting magnets for the Tevatron at Fermi LabBernard Turck, from the CEA in Cadarache, for the invention of the Tore Supra conductor and his major role in the commissioning of the Tore Supra superconducting magnet system which has been in operation for more than 20 years Finally on Friday, 16 September, before the participants made their way back to homes in the east and the west, the stage was clear to invite all assembled to the 23nd Magnet Technology conference that will take place in 2013. "See you in Boston!" Follow this link to the official MT-22 website. return to the latest published articles

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Ubuntu Edge crowd sourced campaign raises $5 million inside three days Canonical's efforts to get the public to fund their upcoming Linux-based Ubuntu Edge smartphone have started on the right foot. The campaign on the Indiegogo site has now raised over $5 million, as of this post, in less than three days, and is well on its way to making its $32 million goal with time to spare. Canonical offered people a way to get the smartphone for just $600 on the first day of the campaign but now the company has issued an update to make some changes in its donation tiers. Originally, people would have to donate $830 to get one unit of the Ubuntu Edge after the first day, but now, there are a number of different price tiers that are available before the $830 level is reached. The update states, "We’ll offer a limited number of phones at each level, and as each tier runs out the next ones will be made available, so act quickly to get the best deal!." People who already spent $830 on the phone will be refunded the difference from a lower priced tier after the campaign is complete. The $10,000 tier is also still available that will allow a person to get one of the first 50 units of the Ubuntu Edge off the assembly line, along with email access to the developers and engineers that will be building the device and its apps. So far, just four people have donated that much money. Just a reminder: the Ubuntu Edge will dual boot both Ubuntu and Android and will have a 4.5 inch screen, a quad-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, a huge 128 GB of space for internal storage and an eight megapixel rear camera. The smartphone is supposed to be released in May 2014. Source: Indiegogo | Image via Canonical UbuntuUbuntu edgeLinuxSmartphoneCanonical Microsoft offers tips to adapt Windows 8 apps for Windows 8.1 preview TechSpot: Building a Small Form Factor Gaming System Ubuntu OTA-13 lands with new keyboard languages and more Elementary OS 'Loki' 0.4 stable has been released Ubuntu now supports popular React Native for first-class webapps

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Home Careers Careers 18 May 2005 Gaining ground QUAINT fishing villages, dairy farms and self-reliant people&colon; the New England area was once an attractive place for manufacturers to locate their factories. But over the last few decades the factories have moved overseas, leaving behind a region struggling to find a new economic driver. Could biotechnology provide that push? For the southernmost New England states – Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island – the answer is definitely yes. Boston has become a biotech magnet for the region, drawing intellect, federal research funds and private investment, and where it has led, surrounding areas have followed. The northernmost New England states – Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine – have further to go and are less developed, but each has one or more major universities and they all qualify for federal aid to help them develop a tech-oriented workforce. Boston may be New England’s biotech star but the whole region is going along for the ride too. The southern states Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island Massachusetts has become a place where biotech and big pharmaceutical companies can cross-pollinate with ease, especially in Boston. In the last five years, a number of international pharma companies, including Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis and Dutch drug conglomerate Akzo Nobel, have set up operations close to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Boston has become to European pharma companies what Hollywood became to the movie industry,” says Richard Horan, executive director of the Samuel Slater Technology Fund, a seed-stage venture investment organisation for Rhode Island firms. Complementing this, Boston’s universities, institutions and teaching hospitals were awarded more research dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2003 than any other city. Rhode Island is so close to Boston that it could be a suburb, but the small state has its own biotech muscle. In West Greenwich, Amgen is spending &dollar;1.5 billion to build what will eventually be the world’s largest protein factory. It will produce Enbrel, a drug used by over 280,000 people worldwide to treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. “There is quite a rich support network here for start-up companies,” says Jason Harry, president and CEO of Afferent Corporation in Providence, pointing to financial backing from the state government and the academic influence of Brown University and the University of Rhode Island. Afferent, which develops devices that relieve pain by stimulating nerve receptors, has attracted over &dollar;4 million in venture capital and approximately &dollar;2 million in NIH funding. Connecticut, home of prestigious Yale University, is also well situated, being close to both New York city and Boston. The state’s biotech sector employed about 18,000 people in 2003, according to biotech industry group Connecticut United for Research Excellence. A number of companies have sprung out of Yale University School of Medicine and the University of Connecticut. One of these, Rib-X Pharmaceuticals in New Haven, is developing new classes of antibiotics to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They have a promising drug starting phase I clinical trials this year to treat deadly drug-resistant infections such as the MRSA superbug. The northern states Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont If the southern states have the advantage of location, the northern states have further to go to cultivate biotech as a major industry. These are some of the nation’s least scientifically and technologically oriented states, and all qualify for a federal aid scheme known as the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which gives grants for science and technology education to states that have historically received less federal R&D funding. Yet these states already have much of what they need to get their biotech industries off the ground. Each has at least one renowned university, and a labour force capable of transferring from other sectors. Just as manufacturing was once a driver of the economy, so was fishing, so it is no surprise that marine biotech is a focus of the region. Sea Run Holdings in Freeport, Maine, moved from fish farming to biotech when its biologists realised that salmon blood could provide a clotting factor for humans. “The idea came from years of working with fish and seeing no fish bleed to death,” says Sea Run’s chief operating officer, Evelyn Sawyer. The US army has been testing Sea Run’s clotting patch as a way to treat soldiers in the field, and the company expects the product to be approved by the FDA this year. Fish can regenerate damaged spinal neurons, and Sea Run is also exploring whether salmon blood proteins can help mammalian spinal cord neurons do the same. New Hampshire’s state slogan is “Live Free or Die”, and it embodies the region’s self-reliant nature. But the small state knows it can’t go it alone, and so often partners with Maine and Vermont to promote the region. New Hampshire residents are among the few in the US who do not pay state income tax, so there are no funds to lure biotech companies, says Paula Newton, president of the New Hampshire Biotechnology Council. But the state does have cheap housing, is home to Dartmouth College, and has a concentration of biotech companies that promoters are calling the BioSeacoast Life Sciences Cluster. Woomera Therapeutics, on the BioSeacoast, is developing tests and treatments for small-cell lung cancer and breast cancer. The company has an antibody in development that targets a protein found on the cancerous cells. Landlocked Vermont is known for beautiful scenery, but the long winters and isolated location mean it is not for the faint-hearted, and it has only around 600,000 residents. With few big employers, one of the state’s major revenue streams is the federal research money of around &dollar;80 million that the University of Vermont Medical School in Burlington brings in each year. Despite this investment, biotech is a fledgling industry here compared with other sectors such as information technology and environmental remediation, says Paul Hale, executive director of the Vermont Technology Council. One rising star is Burlington-based BioMosaics, which is developing tests for cancer proteins in the blood, including one that can be used for early detection of primary liver cancer. “There is quite a rich support network here for start-ups” New England has a strong regional identity, but each state has its own set of strengths. All have to contend with brain drain to tech-rich Boston, says Christopher Allen, professor of chemistry at the University of Vermont and director of the state’s EPSCoR programme. But while it is natural for young people to want to work in a city like Boston when they leave college, Allen says he thinks they will come back to the gentler pace of the other states when they are ready to raise families, bringing with them the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to further the region’s economic development. A Massachusetts firm is developing a brain implant that translates thoughts into movement for people paralysed with spinal cord injuries. Based on discoveries made by John Donoghue (New Scientist, 22 February 2003, p 36) and his colleagues at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, the device uses a chip the size of a small aspirin tablet implanted in the brain area responsible for limb movement. The company, Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, is running a clinical trial of the technology, and late last year, it announced that the technology had allowed a quadriplegic patient to control a prosthetic limb, operate a computer, and change television channels. Cyberkinetics plans to use its technology to develop a thought-controlled wheelchair, and eventually to allow patients to use their own limbs again. Other groups have developed similar technology, but the implanted chip gives patients more control over physical objects, say the researchers. Magazine issue 2500, published 21 May 2005 Previous articleJoin the tea party Next articleFeedback

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A View from David Talbot The U.N. Isn’t Regulating the Internet–but Governments Still Exert Control A vote on new International Telecommunications Regulations means no change in terms of control over the Internet Is the U.N. now somehow regulating the Internet now that its International Telecommunications Union—after a two week meeting in Dubai that centered largely on whether it should include the Internet in its telephone-centric regulations—has today declared the existence of a new global telecom treaty?No. First, the United States, Canada, and many European nations declined to sign the new International Telecommunications Regulations. Some 89 countries were in favor and 55 opposed or abstained. If you go to the actual new wording of the regulations–which haven’t been changed since 1988–and search for “Internet” you find it mentioned in fairly bland language within a one-page nonbinding resolution. The fact that it’s even mentioned at all might be read as the first effort to bring the Internet – currently overseen by private sector and engineering groups— under governmental and U.N. control in the future. But governments don’t need any U.N. language to exert a great deal of control, as they do already by filtering and other means such as those documented here by academic researchers. The United States, before walking out of the vote Thursday, had managed to keep out language that might force content providers to pay to send out their traffic, much as you pay to make an international phone call (see “A Budding War Over Internet Economics”). But other wording about security and spam were left in – which some felt could be used as a basis for (further) national repression and censorship in the future.Hamadoun Touré, secretary general of the ITU, declared in a statement: “History will show that this conference has achieved something extremely important. It has succeeded in bringing unprecedented public attention to the different and important perspectives that govern global communications. There is not one single world view but several, and these views need to be accommodated and engaged.”Right. I’m MIT Technology Review’s senior writer, interested in a wide range of topics including climate change, energy, and information and communication technologies. Recent projects have included traveling to China to write about GMO crop… More development there, and Germany to explore how they’ll try to ramp up renewable power while closing down nuclear plants. My 2008 feature on the Obama campaign’s social-networking operation was selected for The Best Technology Writing 2009.

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Vampire bats can sense the heat of blood flowing in the veins of their prey Biologists have identified infrared sensors that allow vampire bats to detect a potential victim's veins from 20cm away Scientists have found that vampire bats have infrared-sensing 'pit organs' that they use to detect blood vessels in prey animals. Photograph: Pascual Soriano/PA Alok Jha, science correspondent Wednesday 3 August 2011 13.18 EDT Last modified on Wednesday 10 February 2016 10.49 EST Vampire bats use infrared sensors on their lips to locate blood vessels in their prey, scientists have discovered. The specialised nerve cells are similar to the pain-sensing cells in the human tongue, skin and eyes, which allow us to sense the sting of chilli peppers and high temperatures. Vampire bats are the only mammals known to feed entirely on blood, and they need a daily supply to survive. They eat at night, creeping up on sleeping cows, goats or birds before sinking their razor-sharp teeth into veins and sucking up several tablespoons of blood. The animals have excellent hearing and eyesight and use high-pitched calls to help them navigate. Biologists have known for some time that the bats can detect blood vessels from up to 20cm away, but it was not clear how they did it quickly enough to strike and retreat without alerting their prey. David Julius, a physiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, led a team of scientists examining tissue from wild vampire bat populations in South America. They found that the upper lips of the animals were covered with a specific form of the heat-detecting molecule TRPV1. Whereas this molecule normally helps animals detect temperatures above 43C, in vampire bats the threshold was reduced to around 30C, allowing them to pinpoint the heat radiating from warm veins near the surface of their prey. "The vampire bat makes these two different forms of the molecule, one of which is specifically involved in detection of infrared radiation," said Julius. His results were published in Nature on Thursday. Humans have a longer version of the gene that makes TRPV1, which contributes to our ability to detect levels of heat that could result in pain. The molecule also makes damaged tissue hypersensitive to temperature and pressure. "When you have a tissue injury such as sunburn, there are all these inflammatory mediators that get produced and then they act on different molecules on the sensory nerve ending to increase our sensitivity to pain," said Julius. "The reason you want to do that is because, when you have an injury, you want to make sure you really protect that area and guard it." Julius added that the discovery of TRPV1 in vampire bats had helped biologists place the animal more accurately on the evolutionary tree, by looking for other animals that have a similar version of the gene that encodes it. "For some time, people thought that bats were more closely related to rodents because of their anatomical features," he said. "In more recent years, with the advent of genomic methods, there have been a number of groups that postulated the fact that bats are more closely related to this other superorder. Bats are not as closely related to rodents and humans as they are to dogs, cows and whales."

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The personal diaries of Emma Darwin have gone online and span about sixty years of her life. The diaries provide us with a great deal of information on the family life of Charles Darwin, his wife, Emma, and their children. The 60 pocket diaries contain appointments, illnesses, family visits, and a wealth of other information on Darwin's personal life. "These books were found in a cardboard box in an old cupboard about 20 years ago," said the director of Darwin Online, Dr John van Wyhe. "People weren't really interested in the day-to-day Darwin then, just the Origin of Species." The diaries are available online at darwin-online.org.uk. Here you will find each page of Emma's diaries scanned and presented in an easy to navigate presentation. NB - Darwin scholars will be most pleased to discover that Emma's handwriting is far more legible than that of her husband, Charles. February 27 2007 - Another Darwin movie is in the works. Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas, and writer John Collee ("Master and Commander") are working on a movie about Charles Darwin based on the book: "Annie's Box" written by Darwin's descendant Randal Keynes. The movie will focus on the relationship between Darwin and his wife and children, especially his first daughter Annie, who died in 1851 at age 10. Randal Keynes said: "I find it a very moving story. I'm so glad they are doing a film because I think it is important and helpful for people to understand Darwin the man and his feelings for his wife and his children. The film will focus on that and it will be good to see Darwin's life from that point of view." He added: "Darwin's experience with his daughter and her death, and his feelings afterwards influenced some of his most important ideas. I wrote the book to explain them to other people." Thomas expects to start shooting the movie next year on location at Down House. The movie is planned for release in 2009, the bicentennial of Darwin's birth. February 12 2007 - Children follow in Darwin’s Footsteps. Charles Darwin and his family were active members of the local community around Downe and we are celebrating his life in events, both public and private with the help of partners in the World Heritage Site bid and the Heritage Lottery Fund. In the 2 local schools which Darwin helped to fund, the children are making posters of the birds they see and looking at how their beaks help them eat different foods and their feet help them survive in different habitats. In a public event Natural History Museum staff are helping local people discover earthworms which Darwin studied throughout the area and we are helping the scientists develop an easy to use a new identification guide. The partnership is awaiting the decision of UNESCO in late June 2007 about its World Heritage bid. For more information on the World Heritage Site: http://www.darwinatdowne.co.uk For more information about the area in Darwin’s time: http://www.darwinswildlife.co.uk February 3, 2007 - Darwin honored in his hometown. In the city of Shrewsbury, where Charles Darwin was born in 1809, a series of "Welcome Signs" have been put up around the city boundary to commemorate their famous son. The signs also highlight the month-long Darwin Festival that takes place each February. January 8, 2007 - Darwin geological exhibit to go on display. The University of Cambridge's Sedgwick Museum has been awarded a £519,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant to set up an exhibition of geological specimens collected by Charles Darwin during his voyage on HMS Beagle. Dr David Norman, director of the Sedgwick Museum, said: "We are extremely pleased by this news from the HLF. Very few people realize that Darwin considered himself primarily as a geologist for the first 20 years of his remarkable scientific career. Bringing this period in his life to public attention for the first time and emphasizing how this energetic and inquisitive young man worked and developed as a scientist will generate a great deal of excitement." More than 3,000 geological specimens along with Darwin's notes will be on display. The exhibit will open in time for Darwin's bicentennial in February of 2009. December 22, 2006 - Darwin check is discovered. A check signed by Charles Darwin has been discovered after being hidden behind an old photograph in Christ's College Library, Cambridge. Dr John van Wyhe, a bye-fellow at Christ's College in Cambridge, is responsible for this rare find. "During visits to the Old Library I was curious to know if this signature was just a scrap of paper cut from a letter, or if it was written on a document still preserved, though sealed inside the frame." After being granted permission to open the frame, conservation officer Melvin Jefferson carefully pried it open. Van Wyhe said: "On opening the frame Melvin found the Darwin signature to be the endorsement on the back of a cheque. The entire cheque had been carefully folded and preserved so that just the signature on the book could be seen through the mount. The cheque is from the Union Bank of London, made out by Darwin to self for £100 on March, 21 1872." In today's terms, that amount of money would be the equivalent of about £6,000. The photograph had originally been given to an associate of Darwin, Frederick Dyster, and was believed to have been framed with the check folded inside in 1909. The picture was donated to Christ's College in 1934. November 14, 2006 - Darwin movie being planned. Screenwriter Chase Palmer is planning on making a movie based on the novel "Evolution's Captain: The Dark Fate of the Man Who Sailed Charles Darwin Around the World," written by Peter Nichols. The movie is to be called "Evolution's Captain", and will focus on the thirty year relationship between Charles Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, the captain of HMS Beagle. Production is due to begin once Palmer's current movie project, "Number 13", is finished. October 19, 2006 - Darwin's works go online. Dr. John van Wyhe, a researcher at Christ's College in Cambridge England, has started a very ambitious project to place the entire works of Charles Darwin on the Internet. He says he got the idea for the website when he was studying in Asia and found it difficult to research Darwin on the web. Although just half complete right now, the website already includes many of Darwin's notebooks and manuscripts which appear online for the very first time. Some of the gems you'll find on the website include: a first edition of the "Journal of Researches" better known as "Voyage of the Beagle", "The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle", multiple editions of "On the Origin of Species", "The Descent of Man", and Darwin's field notebooks from the Galapagos Islands. The website also includes the largest Darwin bibliography ever produced. The project, which is run by Cambridge University, has digitized some 50,000 pages of text and 40,000 images of original publications. All of it searchable! John van Wyhe says the archive is expected to be complete by 2009 - the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. The website is free to everyone and includes German, Danish and Russian translations as well. October 14, 2006 - Evolution is rejected in Poland. Poland's deputy education minister, Miroslaw Orzechowski, will not allow Darwin's Theory of Evolution to be taught in Poland's schools. Orzechowski said that "The theory of evolution is a lie, a mistake that we have legalized as a common truth," and "We must not teach lies, just as we must not teach evil in the place of good and ugliness in the place of beauty." Teachers in Poland fear there could be a backlash if they continue to teach evolution in schools, and fear they will have a difficult time moving up the ranks in Poland's education system. Last week a high school in the city of Lodz had removed posters showing the evolution of man from Australopithecus to Homo Sapiens. In a move to counter the Education Ministry's anti-evolution message, Poles have emphasized a message from the late pope John Paul II, who in a speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1996 said: "Truth cannot contradict truth." October 4, 2006 - Darwin's clock controversy. In the village of Downe, where Charles Darwin wrote "On the Origin of Species", a minor controversy has erupted. It seems the clock for St. Mary the Virgin church is in much need of repair, but the Vicar is said to have used Darwin's good name to raise the £3,000 needed to repair the church clock. Residents of Downe complained that the Vicar's claim that Darwin himself donated money to the church is entirely unfounded. The Reverend Tim Hatwell sees the complaint as a bit overdone and claims the Darwin connection to the church was a slightly tongue in cheek remark. A leaflet circulated by the Vicar to residents of Downe inviting them to contribute to the church's Victorian clock has this sentence included: "although we are not sure whether Darwin contributed to its installation, he certainly would have seen it as he walked through the village and heard it as it struck the hour." Reverend Hatwell said: "I was not and would not try and claim any religious significance of Darwin's involvement in the church but the church in those days had a social significance in the village it perhaps doesn't have now." September 14, 2006 - Stolen Darwin book returned. Amir Ladak, of Ealing England, admitted stealing a first edition of Darwin's "On the Origin of the Species" from Down House in February of 2004. He returned the book in July and was fined £3,000 at Croydon Crown Court on September 11th. He also has to perform 100 hours of community work. The book is estimated to be worth £100,000, but who can really put a price on such a treasure? He was caught after fingerprints from the dust cover of a Graham Greene book at Sothebys he stole were matched to fingerprints taken at Down House where the book was stolen. Chief Inspector Ian Gallehawk said: "In reality the book is priceless because it is absolutely irreplaceable. We were dealing with a national treasure and although the theft took place several years ago it wasn't something that was ever forgotten." The book, one of 300 first editions printed, was signed by Darwin who gave it as a gift to his friend and fellow scientist Sir Charles Lyell. English Heritage, which received the book from Bromley police last month, is not sure when they will display the book at Down House again. July 22, 2006 - Darwin monument to be erected. The Governor of New South Wales in Australia, Marie Bashir, will unveil a Charles Darwin monument at the city of Wallerawang on September 5, 2006. The monument is being erected by the National Trust to commemorate Darwin's two day visit to Wallerawang in 1836 during his voyage on HMS Beagle. The Lithgow Council and Delta Electricity have teamed up with the National Trust to make the Darwin monument possible. July 21, 2006 - Darwin's Meadow in decline. Several generations of Charles Darwin's descendants have just completed a survey of the meadows around Down House, where Darwin wrote "On the Origin of Species". Around 150 years ago Darwin completed a survey of plant species in these meadows, and today that survey has been replicated. One of the larger meadows, Great Puckland's Meadow, has experienced a 16% decline in plants - from 142 to 119 species. This reduction has been attributed to changes in farm practices over the past 150 years. "While scientists tend to focus on rare or unusual species, we have studied what is in essence a rather ordinary piece of grassland, it is this ordinariness that makes it significant." said Johannes Vogel, keeper of botany at the Natural History Museum, one of the scientists involved in replicating the study. The only new species in the field was the Beaked Hawk's-Beard. What makes this survey unique is the fact that a comparison can be made with Darwin's survey results from 150 years ago - a very rare opportunity. There are also a large variety of mosses and fungi in the surrounding meadows, but this survey left them out because they wanted to keep true to Darwin's primary interest in just flowers, plants and grasses. The survey team will be working with English Heritage to restore Great Puckland's Meadow to its original state in Darwin's day. July 21, 2006 - HMS Beagle to be rebuilt. A descendant of Lieutenant John Lort Stokes, who accompanied Charles Darwin on his voyage around the world aboard HMS Beagle, is planning to rebuild the famous ship. David Lort-Philips, a scientist from Lawrenny, Pembrokeshire, and his partner, commercial yacht master Peter McGrath, have started the Beagle Project Pembrokeshire. They are working on the £3,300,000 plan to recreate a full-size version of HMS Beagle. Mr. Lort-Phillips, who still lives on the farm once managed by his ancestor, plans on having the ship ready by 2009 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. Construction is expected to take about 14 months to complete. If the funds are raised, the new Beagle will be built by shipwrights in Milford Haven. The new Beagle will be a fully functioning ship but with a modern interior and will sail with a crew of university professors, science professionals, and students to undertake scientific research around the world. June 23, 2006 - Darwin's Tortoise died today. When Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands in 1835 he captured three tortoise and took them with him. The one which would eventually become known as Harriet, was just five years old at the time. The story (which is disputed by some) goes that Darwin took Harriet back to England with him and gave her to the Bishop of Llandaff in Wales, from here she found her way to the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane, Australia, and then spent her last years living at Steve Irwin’s zoo in Beerwah, Queensland, Australia. She died at the age of 176 of a heart attack on June 23rd, weighed 150 kg, and was the oldest living animal in captivity. June 8, 2006 - Darwin collection is purchased. The Kohler Darwin Collection, which includes nearly everything Darwin published from 1829 onwards, has been bought by the Natural History Museum in London for about £1,000,000 British pounds. The collection consists of about 3,500 items, which include 470 editions of "On the Origin of Species" and a rare copy of Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle, bound in original cloth, and a map of the Falkland Islands from the Beagle voyage. The science director for the Natural History Museum, Richard Lane, said: "This acquisition makes the Museum the ultimate Darwin resource. Darwin brought about a revolution in how humans think about themselves and the natural world. Combining this collection with our existing holdings give us an unprecedented insight into how the theory of evolution developed, and how Darwin worked." It will take about three years to move, catalogue, and conserve the collection, and it will become part of a major Darwin exhibition planned for 2008. May 23, 2006 - Darwin's childhood home to be restored. The Mount, Darwin's childhood home in Shrewsbury, is currently occupied by the District Valuer and Valuation Office Agency. But plans are being drawn up to convert the house back to its original condition from when Charles Darwin lived there and open it up to the public. The Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council hopes to have the restoration complete by the year 2009 - Darwin's bicentennial. Negotiations have started with the Valuation Office Agency to have them vacate the premises, but if these fail the council plans to use a compulsory purchase order to force them to vacate the house.

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Bill Gates and Steve Jobs May 30, 2007 at 7:05 pm PT To create a new standard, it takes something that’s not just a little bit different, it takes something that’s really new and really captures people’s imagination and the Macintosh, of all the machines I’ve ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.” —Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 1984 If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth–and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.” –Steve Jobs, 1996 Soon the great Silicon Valley soap opera will come full circle. Not since Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously interviewed Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates as a possible suitor during the “Macintosh Dating Game” back in 1983 have the two men appeared in a joint bill. And in a few moments, the two will share a stage again for the first time in more than 20 years for what promises to be a historic discussion. Live coverage to follow … [Note: The liveblog below has been updated with content from our transcript of the conversation] 7:15 p.m PDT: Tonight’s conversation is prefaced by a short film of previous Gates/Jobs appearances. First up: The Macintosh Dating game, circa 1983. [Ah, they looked so much younger then…] And finally Gates and Jobs joking together at D in 2005. 7:20 p.m.: Gates and Jobs onstage. Walt recognizes the other two bachelors from the “Macintosh Dating Game”: Mitch Kapor and Fred Gibbons, who are both in the audience. Walt: “Before we get started, there were some pioneers–of course, we have the pioneers here on the stage, but there were some other really important pioneers in the video we just saw and a couple of them are here in the audience. Mitch Kapor, who is a regular, could you just stand up, wherever you are? There he is. And Fred Gibbons, who has not come to D before, but is here tonight.” Kara: So let’s get started. I wanted to ask, there’s been a lot of mano-a-mano/catfight kind of thing in a lot of the blogs and the press and stuff like that, and we wanted to–the first question I was interested in asking is what you think each has contributed to the computer and technology industry, starting with you, Steve, for Bill, and vice versa. Steve: Well, you know, Bill built the first software company in the industry and I think he built the first software company before anybody really in our industry knew what a software company was, except for these guys. And that was huge. That was really huge. And the business model that they ended up pursuing turned out to be the one that worked really well, you know, for the industry. I think the biggest thing was, Bill was really focused on software before almost anybody else had a clue that it was really the software. Kara: Was important? Steve: That’s what I see. I mean, a lot of other things you could say, but that’s the high order bit. And I think building a company’s really hard, and it requires your greatest persuasive abilities to hire the best people you can and keep them at your company and keep them working, doing the best work of their lives, hopefully. And Bill’s been able to stay with it for all these years. Walt: Bill, how about the contribution of Steve and Apple? Bill: Well, first, I want to clarify: I’m not Fake Steve Jobs. [Peals of laughter.] What Steve’s done is quite phenomenal, and if you look back to 1977, that Apple II computer, the idea that it would be a mass-market machine, you know, the bet that was made there by Apple uniquely–there were other people with products, but the idea that this could be an incredible empowering phenomenon, Apple pursued that dream.Then one of the most fun things we did was the Macintosh and that was so risky. People may not remember that Apple really bet the company. Lisa hadn’t done that well, and some people were saying that general approach wasn’t good, but the team that Steve built even within the company to pursue that, even some days it felt a little ahead of its time–I don’t know if you remember that Twiggy disk drive and… Steve: One hundred twenty-eight K. 7:35 p.m.:Walt notes that the Mac broadened the base of who could use computers. “I actually looked at an Apple ad from 1978. It was a print ad. That shows you how ancient it was. And it said, thousands of people have discovered the Apple computer. Thousands of people. And it also said, you don’t want to buy one of these computers where you put a cartridge in. I think that was a reference to one of the Atari or something.” Steve: Oh, no. … We had some very strange ads back then. We had one where it was in a kitchen and there was a woman that looked like the wife and she was typing in recipes on the computer with the husband looking on approvingly in the back. Stuff like that. Walt: How did that work for you? Steve: I don’t think well. Walt:There was actually some Microsoft software in that Apple II computer. You want to talk about what happened there, how that occurred? Bill: Yeah. There had been the Altair and a few other companies–actually, about 24–that had done various machines, but the ‘77 group included the PET, TRS-80 … Walt: Commodore? Bill: Yeah, the Commodore PET, TRS-80 and the Apple II. The original Apple II BASIC, the Integer BASIC, we had nothing to do with. But then there was a floating-point one where–and I mostly worked with Woz on that. [Steve interrupts Bill – like an old married couple, these two] “Let me tell this story … My partner we started out with, this guy named Steve Wozniak. Brilliant, brilliant guy. He writes this BASIC that is, like, the best BASIC on the planet. It does stuff that no other BASIC’s ever done. You don’t have to run it to find your error messages. It finds them when you type it in and stuff. It’s perfect in every way, except for one thing, which is it’s just fixed-point, right? It’s not floating-point. So we’re getting a lot of input that people want this BASIC to be floating-point. And, like, we’re begging Woz, please, please make this floating point. [Great moment here, seeing Jobs so animated about something so, let’s face it, geeky. Jobs, in a sense, almost trades places with Gates here.] Walt: Who’s we? How many people are in Apple? Steve: Well, me. We’re begging Woz to make this floating-point and he just never does it. You know, and he wrote it by hand on paper. I mean, you know, he didn’t have an assembler or anything to write it with. It was all just written on paper and he’d type it in. He just never got around to making it floating-point. Kara: Why? Steve: This is one of the mysteries of life. I don’t know, but he never did. Walt: Microsoft, if I remember correctly from what I’ve read, wasn’t Microsoft one of the few companies that were allowed to even have a prototype of the Mac at the time? Steve: Yeah. What’s interesting, what’s hard to remember now is that Microsoft wasn’t in the applications business then. They took a big bet on the Mac because this is how they got into the apps business. Lotus dominated the apps business on the PC back then. Bill: Right. We’d done just MultiPlan, which was a hit on the Apple II, and then Mitch did an incredible job betting on the IBM PC and 1-2-3 came in and, you know, ruled that part of the business. So the question was, what was the next paradigm shift that would allow for an entry? We had Word, but WordPerfect was by far the strongest in word processing dBase database. … So we made this bet that the paradigm shift would be graphics interface and, in particular, that the Macintosh would make that happen with 128K of memory, 22K of which was for the screen buffer, 14K was for the operating system. So it was … Walt: 14K? Walt: The original Mac operating system was 14K? Bill: 14K that we had to have loaded when our software ran. So when the shell would come up, it had all the 128K. Steve: The OS was bigger than 14K. It was in the 20s somewhere. Kara: Bill, what did you think would happen after the disasters at Apple and Steve left? Bill: After the 512K Mac was done, the product line just didn’t evolve as fast–Steve wasn’t there–as it needed to. And we were actually negotiating a deal to invest and make some commitments and things with Gil Amelio. No, seriously. So I was calling him up on the weekend and all this stuff and next thing I knew, Steve called me up and said, don’t worry about that negotiation with Gil Amelio. You can just talk to me now. And I said, “Wow.” Steve: Gil was a nice guy, but he had a saying. He said, “Apple is like a ship with a hole in the bottom leaking water and my job is to get the ship pointed in the right direction.” [Walt notes Jobs’s statement in the 1997 video about competition with Microsoft being destructive.] Steve: If the game was a zero-sum game where if Apple wanted to win, Microsoft had to lose, then Apple was going to lose. But Apple didn’t have to beat Microsoft. It had to remember what Apple was. Microsoft was the biggest software developer around, and Apple was weak. So I called Bill up. [ Interesting. Steve says the developer relationship between Microsoft and Apple is one of the best Apple has.] [Ah, the obligatory “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” reference.] Kara: And do you look at yourselves as rivals now? Today as the landscape has evolved–and we’ll talk about the Internet landscape and everything else and other companies that have [gone] forward, but how do you look at yourselves in this landscape today? … You watch the commercials, right? Steve: The art of those commercials is not to be mean, but it’s actually for the guys to like each other. Thanks. PC guy is great. Got a big heart. [Nice little moment we’ve got going here. Bill’s smiling and rolling his eyes a bit. Clearly has a sense of humor about the whole thing. Then:] Bill: His mother loves him. Steve: PC guy’s what makes it all work, actually. Walt: How often is Apple on your radar screen at Microsoft in a business sense? Bill: Well, they’re on the radar screen as an opportunity. In a few cases like the Zune, if you go over to that group, they think of Apple as a competitor. They love the fact that Apple’s created a gigantic market and they’re going to try and come in and contribute something to that. [Love it. Apple trying to “contribute” something to the MS ecosystem] Steve: And we love them because they’re all customers. [Bahahahaha. Man, Jobs is quick on his feet] Kara: Steve, how do you look at Microsoft from an Apple perspective? [Jobs recycles his “Apple is about beautiful software in a beautiful box” comments from the earlier session today.] “The big secret about Apple, of course–not-so-big secret maybe–is that Apple views itself as a software company and there aren’t very many software companies left, and Microsoft is a software company. And so, you know, we look at what they do and we think some of it’s really great, and we think a little bit of it’s competitive and most of it’s not. You know, we don’t have a belief that the Mac is going to take over 80% of the PC market. You know, we’re really happy when our market share goes up a point and we love that and we work real hard at it, but Apple’s fundamentally a software company and there’s not a lot of us left and Microsoft’s one of them.” Walt:Was there something you might have done differently where you could have had a bigger market share for the Mac. Is there something you regret? Steve: There’s a lot of things that happened that I’m sure I could have done better when I was at a Apple the first time and a lot of things that happened after I left that I thought were wrong turns, but it doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter and you kind of got to let go of that stuff and we are where we are. So we tend to look forward. And, you know, one of the things I did when I got back to Apple 10 years ago was I gave the museum to Stanford and all the papers and all the old machines and kind of cleared out the cobwebs and said, let’s stop looking backwards here. It’s all about what happens tomorrow. Because you can’t look back and say, well, gosh, you know, I wish I hadn’t have gotten fired, I wish I was there, I wish this, I wish that. It doesn’t matter. And so let’s go invent tomorrow rather than worrying about what happened yesterday. Kara:How do you look at the landscape at this moment and what’s happening especially in the Internet space? Steve: I think it’s super healthy right now. I think there’s a lot of young people out there building some great companies who want to build companies, who aren’t just interested in starting something and selling it to one of the big guys, but who want to build companies. And I think there’s some real exciting companies getting built out there. Some next-generation stuff that, you know, some of us play catch-up with and, you know, some of us find ways to partner with and things like that, but there’s a lot of activity out there now, wouldn’t you say? Bill: Yeah, I’d say it’s a healthy period. The notion of what the new form factors look like, what natural interface can do, the ability to use the cloud, the Internet, to do part of the task in a complementary way to the local experience, there’s a lot of invention that the whole approach of start-ups, the existing companies who do research, we’ll look back at this as one of the great periods of invention. Walt:You’re the guys who represent the rich client, the personal computer, the, you know, big operating system and all that In five years, is the personal computer still going to be the linchpin of all this stuff? Bill: Well, you can say that it will be predicted that it won’t be. You know, the network computer took this over about, whatever, five years ago we disappeared. Remember the single-function computer? There was somebody who said that these general purpose things are kind of a dumb idea. … The mainstream is always under attack. The thing that people don’t realize is that you’re going to have rich local functionality, I mean, at least our bet, whereas you get things like speech and vision, as you get more natural form factors, it’s a question of using that local richness together with the richness that’s elsewhere. And as you look at the device, say, that’s connecting to the TV set or connecting in the car, there are lighter-weight hardware Internet connections, but when you come to the full screen rich, you know, edit the document, create things, you know, I think we’re nowhere near where we could be on making that stronger. Walt:What are the devices you might carry around five years from now? Bill: I don’t think you’ll have one device. I think you’ll have a full-screen device that you can carry around and you’ll do dramatically more reading off of that. Kara: Light. Bill: Yeah. I mean, I believe in the tablet form factor. I think you’ll have voice. I think you’ll have ink. You’ll have some way of having a hardware keyboard and some settings for that. And then you’ll have the device that fits in your pocket, which the whole notion of how much function should you combine in there, you know, there’s navigation computers, there’s media, there’s phone. Technology is letting us put more things in there, but then again, you really want to tune it so people know what they expect. So there’s quite a bit of experimentation in that pocket-size device. But I think those are natural form factors and that we’ll have the evolution of the portable machine. And the evolution of the phone will both be extremely high volume, complementary–that is, if you own one, you’re more likely to own the other. Steve:It will be the PC maybe used a little more tightly coupled with some back-end Internet services and some things like that. And, of course, PCs are going mobile in an ever greater degree. So I think the PC is going to continue. This general purpose device is going to continue to be with us and morph with us, whether it’s a tablet or a notebook or, you know, a big curved desktop that you have at your house or whatever it might be. So I think that’ll be something that most people have, at least in this society. In others, maybe not, but certainly in this one. But then there’s an explosion that’s starting to happen in what you call post-PC devices, right? You can call the iPod one of them. There’s a lot of things that are not. … I think there’s just a category of devices that aren’t as general purpose, that are really more focused on specific functions, whether they’re phones or iPods or Zunes or what have you. And I think that category of devices is going to continue to be very innovative and we’re going to see lots of them. Walt: Is the iPhone and some of these other smart phones–and I know you believe that the iPhone is much better than these other smart phones at the moment, but are these things–aren’t they really just computers in a different form factor? I mean, when we use the word phone, it sounds like… Steve: We’re getting to the point where everything’s a computer in a different form factor. So what, right? So what if it’s built with a computer inside it? It doesn’t matter. It’s, what is it? How do you use it? You know, how does the consumer approach it? And so who cares what’s inside it anymore? Walt: So what are the core functions of the device formerly known as the cellphone, whatever we want to call it? Bill: How quickly all these things that have been somewhat specialized, the navigation device, the digital wallet, the phone, the camera, the video camera, how quickly those all come together, it’s hard to chart out. But eventually, you’ll be able to pick something that has the capability to do every one of those things. And yet, given the small size, you still won’t want to edit your homework or edit a movie on the screen of that size. And so you’ll have something else that lets you do the reading and editing and those things. Now, if we could ever get a screen that would just roll out like a scroll, you know, then you might be able to have the device that did everything. Kara: Outside the computing area, what are the exciting areas in the Internet space at all that you’re looking at that’s interesting to each of your companies and in general for you? Any social networking, any kind of the Wikis, those kind of things, things we’ve talked about in the past couple–today, essentially? Steve: You know, we’re working on some things that I can’t talk about … [But they will restore a sense of childlike wonderment to our lives, right?] Steve: There’s a zillion interesting things going on on the Internet. The most interesting things to me are these incredible new services that people are bringing up … There’s a lot of them surrounding entertainment, but there’s a lot of them that have to do with just sort of figuring how to navigate through life a little more efficiently. And I think, you know, it’s really great when you show somebody something and you don’t have to convince them they have a problem this solves. They know they have a problem, you can show them something, they go, oh, my God, I need this. And I think you’re going to see a lot of things like that happen over the next year or two. Walt: Bill, you weren’t here, but Steve showed a new function of Apple TV that brings YouTube directly to the TV. Is there going to be more of that from you? Do you see yourself the way Bill says, as an enabler of entertainment or, I mean, putting aside your Disney role, but your Apple role? Steve: I mean, I think people want to enjoy their entertainment when they want it and how they want it, on the device that they want it on. So ultimately, that’s going to drive the entertainment companies into all sorts of different business models. And that’s a good thing. I mean, if you’re a content company, that’s a great thing. More people wanting to, you know, enjoy your content more often in more different ways, that’s why you’re in business, but the transitions are hard sometimes. And, you know, the music industry, it turned out that the Internet got fast enough to download songs pretty easily. There was no legal alternative and maybe they made some bad choices in how they reacted to that, but, you know, they’re still trying to make the transition to a very different way of doing business, or ways of doing business while they’re under attack from piracy. And we can all highlight some of the mistakes that have been made, but, you know, still, it’s a tough job. And Hollywood, I think, you know, has watched what’s happened in music, learned some things to do, some things not to do, but, you know, they’re still trying to map this out. How do they make some of these transitions, some new business models, different platforms, allowing their customers way more freedom on when they want to watch stuff and how they want to watch it. And I think there’s a tremendous amount of experimentation and thought going on that’s going to be good. It’s going to be really good if you’re a content owner. Walt: In the offing in the next four or five years, is it possible there’s a new paradigm for organizing the user interface of the personal computer? Bill: One of the things that’s been anticipated for a long time is when 3D comes into that interface. And there was a lot of experimentation, sites on the Internet where you’d kind of walk around and meet people, but in fact, the richness, the speed, it just didn’t sustain itself. Now we’re starting to see with some of the mapping stuff, a few of the sites, that the quality of that graphics, the tools and things, are getting to the point where 3D can really come in. So I’d definitely say that when you go to a store, bookstore, you’ll be able to see the books lined up, you know, the way you might be interested in or lined up the way they are in the real store. So 3D is a way of organizing things, particularly as we’re getting much more media information on the computer, a lot more choices, a lot more navigation than we’ve ever had before. And we can take that into this communications world where the PC is playing a much more central role, kind of taking over what was the PBX, sort of one of the last mainframes in the business environment. That will be a big change that will come to it. And as we get natural input, that will cause a change. … Software is doing vision and so, you know, imagine a game machine where you’re just going to pick up the bat and swing it or the tennis racket and swing it. Walt: We have one of those. Kara: Yeah. Wii. Bill: No, that’s not it. You can’t pick up your tennis racket. And swing it. Bill: You can’t sit there with your friends and do those natural things. That’s a 3D positional device. This is video recognition. Kara: Steve? I know you’re working on something, it’s going to be beautiful, we’ll see it soon. Walt: And you can’t talk about it. Steve: Yeah. Walt: Bill discusses all his secret plans. You don’t discuss any. Steve: I know, it’s not fair. But I think the question is a very simple one, which is how much of the really revolutionary things people are going to do in the next five years are done on the PCs or how much of it is really focused on the post-PC devices. And there’s a real temptation to focus it on the post-PC devices because it’s a clean slate and because they’re more focused devices and because, you know, they don’t have the legacy of these zillions of apps that have to run in zillions of markets. And so I think there’s going to be tremendous revolution, you know, in the experiences of the post-PC devices. Now, the question is how much to do in the PCs. And I think I’m sure Microsoft is–we’re working on some really cool stuff, but some of it has to be tempered a little bit because you do have, you know, these tens of millions, in our case, or hundreds of millions in Bill’s case, users that are familiar with something that, you know, they don’t want a car with six wheels. They like the car with four wheels. They don’t want to drive with a joystick. They like the steering wheel. And so, you know, you have to, as Bill was saying, in some cases, you have to augment what exists there and in some cases, you can replace things. But I think the radical rethinking of things is going to happen in a lot of these post-PC devices. Kara:What’s the greatest misunderstanding in your relationship? Steve: We’ve kept our marriage secret for over a decade now. [Rimshot! Laughter and applause.] Kara: Canada. That trip to Canada. [Audience still roaring. More laughter and applause] Bill: It’s been fun to work together. I actually kind of miss some of the people who aren’t around anymore. You know, people come and go in this industry. It’s nice when somebody sticks around and they have some context of all the things that have worked and not worked. The industry gets all crazy about some new thing, you know, like, there’s always this paradigm of the company that’s successful is going to go away and stuff like that. It’s nice to have people seeing the waves and waves of that and yet, when it counted, to take the risk to bring in something new. Steve:You know, when Bill and I first met each other and worked together in the early days, generally, we were both the youngest guys in the room, right? Individually or together. I’m about six months older than he is, but roughly the same age. And now when we’re working at our respective companies, I don’t know about you, but I’m the oldest guy in the room most of the time. And that’s why I love being here. … And, you know, I think of most things in life as either a Bob Dylan or a Beatles song, but there’s that one line in that one Beatles song, “you and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.” And that’s clearly true here. [That may come across as cheesy here in print, but honestly it wasn’t. It was pretty touching. Watch the video and you’ll see Jobs emotional and, if only for a very brief moment, vulnerable. ] And after that tender moment, we’re on to the Q&A … Question: Hi. I’m Jesse Kornbluth, HeadButler.com. But you’re not the youngest guys in the room anymore, it’s perhaps appropriate to ask you a question about legacy, each of you. Bill, even your harshest critic would have to admit that your philanthropy work is, you know, planet-shaking, incredible, and could be, if you make it, a second act so amazing that it would dwarf what you’ve actually done at Microsoft. If you had to choose a legacy, what would it be? And Steve, do you look at Bill and you think, gee, that guy is so lucky he had a company so rich with talent that he didn’t have to personally come in every day and save it and, you know, I wish I had the opportunity? Kara: OK. He’s not going to answer that one. Walt: Bill? Bill: Well, the most important work I got a chance to be involved in, no matter what I do, is the personal computer. You know, that’s what I grew up, in my teens, my 20s, my 30s, you know, I even knew not to get married until later because I was so obsessed with it. That’s my life’s work. And it’s lucky for me that some of the skills and resources–but I put skills first–that I was able to develop through those experiences can be applied to the benefit of the people who haven’t had technology, including medicine, working for them. So it’s an incredible blessing to have two things like that. But the thing that I’ll, you know, if you look inside my brain, it’s filled with software and, you know, the magic of software and the belief in software and, you know, that’s not going to change. Steve: So your question was about whether I wish I didn’t have to go into Apple every day? Jesse: No, if you envied Bill a bit, this second act that he has. Steve: Oh, no. I think the world’s… Kara: You want to do anything else. Steve: I think the world’s a better place because Bill realized that his goal isn’t to be the richest guy in the cemetery, right? That’s a good thing and so he’s doing a lot of good with the money that he made. You know, I’m sure Bill was like me in this way. I mean, I grew up fairly middle-class, lower middle-class, and I never really cared much about money. And Apple was so successful early on in life that I was very lucky that I didn’t have to care about money then. And so I’ve been able to focus on work and then later on, my family. And I sort of look at us as two of the luckiest guys on the planet because we found what we loved to do and we were at the right place at the right time and we’ve gotten to go to work every day with super bright people for 30 years and do what we love doing. And so it’s hard to be happier than that. You know, your family and that. What more can you ask for? And so I don’t think about legacy much. I just think about being able to get up every day and go in and hang around these great people and hopefully create something that other people will love as much as we do. And if we can do that, that’s great. More coverage at The Wall Street Journal Text and video coverage of the complete Steve Jobs and Bill Gates interview: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Prologue Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Part 1 Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Highlight Reel Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Session Transcript Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Session Photos 1 of 18 Back Next Walt and Kara with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at D5 Tagged with: Apple, Bill Gates, interview, Microsoft, Steve Jobs All D Conferences D: All Things Digital Conferences The D Conference D11 Dive Into Mobile Dive Into Mobile 2013 Dive Into Media Dive Into Media 2013 AsiaD D Conference Mailing List Sign up for News about D Conferences

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The lost souls of telecommunications history We've all heard the phrase "ahead of their time" to describe famous inventors … Matthew Lasar - Feb 9, 2010 5:30 am UTC Meet you in the middle Field was absolutely passionate about connecting North America to Europe via an underwater line. But it wasn't like there were an oversupply of consultants who knew how to do this sort of thing, so Field wound up relying on an "expert" who insisted that narrowband cables would do the trick. Visionaries often don't notice the enormous and obvious impediments to realizing their technological dreams, road blocks obvious to more practical people. A thin connection also appealed to Field because it was difficult to find a single ship that could carry the approximately 2,500 tons of cable needed to complete a connection from New Foundland to Ireland. In 1857 two frigates set sail from opposite coasts, planning to meet in the middle of the Atlantic to complete the circuit. But the cable snapped on one boat about 350 miles out. So Field raised some more money and came up with an alternate plan. This time the two ships would start from the center of the Atlantic, then head to their respective land points. Unfortunately, the cable lines snapped twice. Finally, in 1858, on the fourth try, a connection was made. Riotous celebrations erupted around the United States—New York's City Hall almost burned down during the torch-bearing party sponsored by the city. But within weeks of the announced breakthrough, it became clear that the line didn't actually work. That narrowband cable was, well, too narrow. Even worse, the system ran at too high a voltage. It took another eight years of promotion (the Civil War was bad for telecom investment) for Field to raise the cash he needed to run a thicker line from North America to Europe. At last, in 1866, Cyrus Field triumphed. His Trans-Atlantic Cable worked. It earned him 1,000 pounds on the first day and plenty thereafter ... which he invested in railroad stocks that failed and left him bankrupt. And what had he proven? That the private sector did not have the resources or capital to take on enormous projects like this. For the rest of the 19th century, it was the British Empire, which now understood the value of the electrical telegraph, that carried the baton for underwater development. What often characterizes "visionaries," historians David E. Fisher and Marshall John Fisher have written, is their lack of vision. "It is a popular idea that people of genius see farther and clearer than other people," they note, "but perhaps the truth is actually the opposite." Visionaries often don't notice the enormous and obvious impediments to realizing their technological dreams, road blocks obvious to more practical people. Nowhere is this irony more obvious than in the story of television. Puir Johnnie John Logie Baird, inventor of mechanical television, is one of the great charity cases of telecommunications history. Baird came into this vale of tears in 1888, a chronically ill misfit raised in a small town near Glasgow. Whenever his name was mentioned, relatives referred to the lad as 'puir [poor] Johnnie.' Historians Fisher and Fisher are kind to Baird in their masterful history of TV, The Tube. They don't call him a crackpot, even though he blew up a Scottish city's power supply while trying to alchemize diamonds out of cement. For the next two decades RCA and the networks threw every possible roadblock at FM. Following that incident, it appears that Baird turned to inventing and entrepreneurship because he knew that no reputable organization was ever going to hire him again. He got involved with a concoction for hemorrhoids that made the condition worse, a glass rustless razor that cut him "rather badly," as he later confessed, and pneumatic shoes, the balloons of which blew up in his feet. But it is people like Baird who sometimes create the future, usually because there's nothing else for them to do. Sitting in a library one day, he read a book about photo electronics. Then and there it occurred to him that since scientists had been theorizing the possibility of television since the decade of his birth, somebody ought to get around to making one that could be sold to consumers. So in 1923 he began building a silhouette device that transmitted an image via an electrical circuit. Like The Blob, his gizmo-in-progress absorbed whatever happened to be around—a hatbox, scissors, tea chest, bicycle lamp lens, some darning needles, sealing wax, and glue. Baird's TV "grew and filled my bedroom," he later wrote. "Electric batteries were added to it, wireless valves and transformers and neon lamps appeared, and at last to my great joy I was able to show the shadow of a little cross transmitted over a few feet." The rest of the John Logie Baird story is of him promoting his discovery with some success. But by the time he opened the first TV studio, Bell Labs, Philo Farnsworth, and Vladimir Zworkin had developed fully electrical cathode ray television, making Baird's breakthrough historically important but technologically outdated. Finally realizing which way the wind had shifted, he rushed to catch up, pioneering again in color projection. But Baird "ignored or denied the growing value of the cathode ray tube for too long (until the late 1930s)," writes the historian C.H. Sterling, "and held on to hopes for his mechanical alternative." He died of a stroke in 1946. Perhaps you think this cruel fate greets only Scottish tinkerers, clueless American financiers, and myopic Canadians. Alas, it also befell one of the greatest engineers of the 20th century. Frequency machinations One evening in November of 1935, a group of skeptical scientists gathered at the Engineer's Building in mid-Manhattan to hear Edward Howard Armstrong, pioneer of the Super Heterodyne receiver, outline the possibilities for a new kind of broadcasting, called "Frequency Modulation," or FM for short. Affectionately called "The Major" because of his service during the First World War, Armstrong patiently read his paper to the audience, then signaled to an assistant. "Now, suppose we have a little demonstration," he said. The frenetic sound of a radio receiver filled the air, searching for the signal of his experimental station, W2AG. When the frequency finally came in, the audience sat back in hushed amazement. They heard, as one historian wrote, "a dead, unearthly silence, as if the whole apparatus had been abruptly turned off," and it spoke worlds of significance to The Major's listeners. They knew that, sitting in the middle one of the noisiest and most electrified places in the world, any signal carried by the conventional amplitude modulation system (AM) would be thick with the bête noir of the broadcaster: static. Yet here was Armstrong's FM radio station, airing the clear pouring of a glass of water and deep reverberation of an Oriental gong. Some of the technicians in Armstrong's audience became true believers that night, but others kept their distance. They knew it would take a fortune to develop a commercially viable FM technology competitive with the legacy AM system. And the dominant manufacturer of AM, the Radio Corporation of America, had already set its sights on rolling out television. Although RCA CEO David Sarnoff admired Armstrong, he saw FM as a potential competitor with TV for licenses, especially for the audio component of the system. For the next two decades RCA and the networks threw every possible roadblock at FM. They got the Federal Communications Commission to limit FM broadcast power to 1,200 watts. They persuaded the agency to allow AM station managers to buy FM licenses and simply copy their AM broadcast schedules, instead of requiring them to produce original programs that would highlight FM's superior audio sound. Page: 1 2 3 Next → Matt writes for Ars Technica about media/technology history, intellectual property, the FCC, or the Internet in general. He teaches United States history and politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Email matthew.lasar@arstechnica.com Twitter @matthewlasar

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Want to see what patents Microsoft holds? Here’s how Posted by Janet I. Tu Microsoft today made good on a pledge from earlier this year that it would publish by April 1, on the Web, information that would allow anyone to determine which patents the company owns. The company today is launching its “patent tracker tool,” which allows users to download the entire list of patents owned by Microsoft or its subsidiaries, or to search by region, patent number or patent title. For more details of any particular patent, the user will then have to turn to tools provided by the issuing government. For instance, for patents issued in the U.S., people can use the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Web-based search tool. The company plans to update the tracker tool regularly, though a schedule for the updates hasn’t been set yet. Microsoft’s patent tracker tool fulfills a pledge made by the company’s general counsel, Brad Smith, last month. He had said that Microsoft would make clear its own patent holdings, while urging other companies to do the same. It’s part of a push the company is making toward reforms in the U.S. patent system. Microsoft is calling for increased transparency in the current system, a loser-pays rule in patent litigation as a way of curbing what it calls frivolous lawsuits, and improved quality on patents by raising the bar on how patents are examined for approval by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. “Transparency around patent ownership will help prevent gamesmanship by companies that seek to lie in wait and ‘hold up’ companies rather than enable a well-functioning secondary market,” Smith wrote in a blog post about the tracker tool. “Of equal importance, transparency is a prerequisite to enforceability of patent licensing pledges, whether to standards bodies or to the world at large. Quite simply, without transparency it is impossible to determine if a company is in fact abiding by those commitments.” Microsoft and other tech companies are currently embroiled in patent battles that span the globe — some of them involving whether companies are living up to licensing pledges — even as many of the companies and government officials talk of a need for further patent reforms. In recent years, there’s also been a marked increase in the number of patent lawsuits filed by patent-assertion entities — sometimes referred to as “patent trolls” — companies that don’t manufacture or produce products but instead assert patents as a business model, according to a Reuters report. | More in Microsoft | Topics: patent tracker tool, patents COMMENTS

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Published on BWI Airport - Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (http://bwiairport.com) Home > About BWI > Content > BWI Marshall Airport Highlights Solar Energy Project, Other Energy Performance Improvements BWI Marshall Airport Highlights Solar Energy Project, Other Energy Performance Improvements Solar Panels for Airport’s Daily Garage Among Many “Green” Measures Executives from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Pepco Energy Services today showcased a new solar energy project at the Airport. The 505 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) system, one part of a comprehensive energy performance program, was recently installed on the top level of the BWI Marshall Airport Daily Garage. "BWI Marshall Airport is an international gateway to Maryland and the entire National Capital region,” said Governor Martin O'Malley. "By investing in smart, innovative solutions like this solar initiative, we are creating jobs and making real progress towards our goal of generating 20 percent of our State's energy needs from renewable sources by 2022." The 505 kW solar project installed on a canopy system on the top level of the BWI Marshall Daily Garage is designed to produce over 600,000 kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity each year. The solar power generation equipment ties directly to the Airport’s electrical distribution system. The project was designed to reliably produce energy for more than 20 years. “This green project is another important, high-profile demonstration of our commitment to renewable energy and environmental stewardship,” said Paul J. Wiedefeld, Executive Director of BWI Marshall. “The solar project created both environmental and economic benefits for BWI Marshall.” The BWI Marshall solar project is one measure in a broad energy efficiency program for the Airport. In 2010, BWI Marshall initiated a contract with Pepco Energy Services to develop a program that would create significant energy and operational savings. Pepco Energy is nearing completion on specific energy conservation measures throughout the Airport. “Everyone at Pepco Energy Services is proud of our continuing relationship with the Maryland Aviation Administration and the opportunities that it has provided us to reduce the MAA’s carbon footprint and to create an award winning solar energy system,” said David Weiss, Pepco Energy Services’ Chief Operating Officer. “Helping our clients cut their energy costs while reducing their impact on the environment is always a major goal of any project that we undertake. The fact that this project was awarded the Maryland Quality Initiative 2012 Green Sustainability Environmental Award for Excellence is further recognition of that commitment.” Beyond the solar project, other energy performance measures include: comprehensive lighting improvements, water conservation measures, central utility plant improvements, and enhanced controllers on escalators and moving sidewalks. The infrastructure improvements and renewable technologies will help BWI Marshall to conserve energy, reduce environmental impact, and save money. The majority of the cost of the work will be realized from energy and utility savings over the term of the contract. The BWI Marshall energy performance program reflects the goals of Maryland’s Smart, Green and Growing initiative. Introduced by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley in October 2008, Maryland’s Smart, Green and Growing program was created to strengthen the State’s leadership role in fostering smarter, more sustainable growth and inspire action among all Marylanders to achieve a more sustainable future. The initiative brings together State agencies, local governments, businesses and citizens to create more livable communities, improve transportation options, reduce the State’s carbon footprint, support resource based industry, invest in green technologies, preserve valuable resource lands, and restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

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Samsung Unveils New Smartwatch That Makes Calls But Ramon Llamas, an analyst at research firm IDC, said many things have to go right for smartwatches to succeed. Llamas said the devices need to offer a range of useful applications that justify carrying around – and charging – another digital device. “It can’t just be notifications of how many incoming messages you have,” he said. “Health applications seem to be the low-hanging fruit.” For starters, the Gear will work with sporting and fitness apps such as RunKeeper, which tracks runs and other workouts. Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi believes it ought to do more, such as monitor a user’s pulse and other health information. Other sensors, she said, could also authenticate a user’s identity when making payments or detect locations so users could share their whereabouts with their friends. “The watch is smart, but not as smart as it could be,” Milanesi said. “It doesn’t look like Samsung pushed the envelope as much as I hope Apple will. Right now, it looks like (Gear) will just provide you with an extra screen that is more convenient to look at than to have to take out a larger device. I don’t think that’s what consumers want.” The Gear goes on sale in the United States and Japan with prices starting at $299. That is about twice the price of currently available devices such as the Sony SmartWatch and the Pebble, which was funded through more than $10 million pledged by individuals on fundraising website Kickstarter. Another startup, also funded through Kickstarter, hopes to launch a standalone watch called Omate TrueSmart that comes with built-in cell connectivity. Samsung Electronics Co.’s smartwatch uses Google’s Android operating system, just like many of the phones and tablets made by the South Korean electronics company. << previous 1 2 3 next >> Posted by FanningCommunications on Oct 1st, 2013 and filed under Literature & Electronic.

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Arotech’s Realtime Technologies Delivers New Research Vehicle Simulator To WMU Filed Under: Arotech, Deaprtment of Civil and Construction Engineering, Open Cockpit Vehicle Simulator, Realtime Technologies, Training And Simulation Division, Western Michigan University ROYAL OAK — Realtime Technologies, a part of Arotech Corp.’s Training and Simulation Divison, said Friday that it had delivered and installed a new open cockpit vehicle simulator to Western Michigan University’s Department of Civil and Construction Engineering. Realtime Technologies worked with WMU professor Valerian Kwigizile on the delivery of the simulator and training of him and his staff. Kwigizile’s research interests include transportation modeling and planning, motorized traffic safety, simulation and operations, non-motorized traffic safety and operation, application of intelligent transportation systems, air quality analysis, GIS application in transportation engineering and transit safety and operations. WMU will use the driving simulator in its Transportation Research Laboratory, led by Kwigizile, to study the interaction between drivers and roadway infrastructure. Studies on human behaviors as well as new designs of roadway geometry will be conducted. Western Michigan University, with an enrollment of nearly 25,000, is classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a university with high research activity, WMU offers more than 240 degree programs, including 30 at the doctoral level. It attracts students from every state in the union and 95 other nations. In addition to the main campus in Kalamazoo, WMU has seven regional locations in Michigan, one of which is in Royal Oak. Realtime Technologies delivered a new open cockpit vehicle simulator, the features of this simulator include passive steering and pedals, projected dash, 180 degree FOV LCD in a open cockpit single seat configuration. Realtime Technologies has provided its unique and powerful “SimVista” (scenario development tools) along with “SimCreator” (core vehicle simulation software) and “SimSimulator” (high fidelity vehicle model) for the University’s varied human factors research needs. Other key components are the scenario control subsystem that includes autonomous traffic simulation, scripted events, relational behaviors and environmental controls. This subsystem also collects data and performs measurement functions of the simulator for research analysis. The visual subsystem handles all real time visual rendering processes, including animated and static objects in the scene. This makes what the driver sees out the window seem very realistic. The visual component is able to render VRML or OpenFlight databases in real time. The audio software and hardware provide audio cues to match what the driver would expect under the conditions being simulated. Synthesized sounds include engine, wind, tire whine, and noise from other vehicles. Founded in 1998, RTI is based in Royal Oak, Michigan and has a satellite office in South Jordan, Utah. Arotech’s Training and Simulation Division develops, manufactures, and markets advanced high-tech multimedia and interactive digital solutions for engineering, use-of-force, and driver training simulations for military, law enforcement, security, municipal and private industry personnel. The division’s fully interactive driver-training systems feature state-of-the-art vehicle simulator technology enabling training in situation awareness, risk analysis and decision-making, emergency reaction and avoidance procedures, and conscientious equipment operation. The division’s use-of-force training products and services allow organizations to train their personnel in safe, productive, and realistic environments. The division provides consulting and developmental support for engineering simulation solutions. The division also supplies pilot decision-making support software for the F-15, F-16, F-18, and JSF aircraft, as well as simulation models for the ACMI/TACTS air combat training ranges. Arotech’s Training and Simulation Division consists of FAAC Inc. (www.faac.com) and its divisions IES Interactive Training (www.ies-usa.com), and Realtime Technologies (www.simcreator.com). Arotech Corp. (Nasdaq: ARTX) provides defense and security products for the military, law enforcement and homeland security markets, including multimedia interactive simulators and trainers and advanced zinc-air and lithium batteries and chargers. Arotech operates through two major business divisions: Training and Simulation, and Battery and Power Systems. Arotech is incorporated in Delaware, with corporate offices in Ann Arbor, and research, development and production subsidiaries in Alabama, Michigan, and Israel. For more information on Arotech, visit http://www.arotech.com.

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iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2 to Be Equipped with 8-Megapixel Rear Cameras Mac Rumors Mac Rumors Oct 2, 2013 Juli Clover Oct 2, 2013 Read Source Apple's fifth-generation iPad and second-generation iPad mini may receive a significantly improved camera, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The current iPad and iPad mini both come equipped with a 5-megapixel rear camera with an f/2.4 aperture, which could be upgraded to an 8-megapixel camera with a larger aperture, similar to the camera included in the iPhone 5s. Though Apple has historically placed less emphasis on its tablet cameras compared to its iPhone cameras, the iPad camera is due for an upgrade. The fourth-generation iPad and the iPad mini both use the same 5-megapixel camera that was introduced with the third-generation iPad back in March of 2012.We predict Apple (US) will launch new iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 (so called retina iPad mini) in 4Q13. As the tablet market becomes increasingly competitive, Apple could upgrade the camera as a selling point for the new iPad in a bid to increase competitiveness. We expect the upgrade will include 8MP rear camera, up from 5MP, and larger aperture. Lens module ASP will rise 10-20% on this optics spec upgrade.If the new iPads receive a camera that is similar to the camera in the iPhone 5s, it will allow the tablets to capture higher quality low-light pictures. It is likely that Apple will include some of the same camera features as well, introducing Slo-Mo video, for example, which allows the capture of 120fps slow motion video. A notable exception will be the True Tone flash that was included with the iPhone 5s, as the iPad and the iPad mini do not come equipped with flash capabilities, and it is not clear whether the improved iPad cameras will also utilize the larger sensor that debuted in the iPhone 5s. Both the fifth-generation iPad and the second-generation iPad mini are expected to be released before the end of the year, though recent reports have suggested that supplies of the iPad mini 2 will be severely constrained. The iPad mini will ship with a Retina display, while the fifth-generation iPad will take on a slimmer mini-style design. Get the latest tips & apps for your Smartphone

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Nevermore is a game by Flash Paradise for the Nintendo VR. It is based off of the Nevermore series of Flash Games. The gameplay is a platformer. All the character can do is walk and jump, but when walking up to NPCs, he or she will talk to them. Also, other objects like switches and hats can be used in the same manner. The story is broken up into three parts, which are called "episodes" despite it not being an episodic game. Episode 1: An Old Treasure The game begins with a small boy named Olek who lives in a small little town. The owner of the nearby store requests him to "stretch his legs" by chasing a squirrel, which he does. After that, the owner says that the shopkeeper wanted to tell Olek something, so he goes over to the market. The owner of the other store tells Olek about an ancient little map that shows where treasure is in the mines. He then tells Olek it shouldn't be too much trouble for Olek to go and find the treasure. Olek heads out of the village past the lake to the great wall leading to the rest of Nevermore. After climbing over the wall, he finds himself in the Skyrail Station, which has skylifts leading to the rest of Nevermore. None of the skylifts are open, so he climbs all the way to the roof and jumps out, landing in some king of ruins. Olek traverses through the ruins and finds a sign saying "Secret Clifftop Pirate Hideout. Go Away." Olek isn't one to be scared, however, so he intrudes on the pirate hideout anyway. More coming Episode 2: The Long Path Episode 3: Elder's Faraway City Retrieved from "http://fantendo.wikia.com/wiki/Nevermore?oldid=524479" Nintendo VR Games

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Carbon and Communities Acid Rain Revisited Mercury Matters Long-term Trends at the HBEF Lectures & Public Events About HBRF Hubbard Brook Research Foundation / About HBRF The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation supports the world’s leading study of forested ecosystems. What is the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study? About the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF) is a nonprofit organization established in 1993 to support the work of scientists at the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study in central New Hampshire. HBRF’s mission: “…to promote the understanding and stewardship of ecosystems through scientific research, long-term monitoring and education.” In its role as friend, HBRF: helps provide affordable housing and laboratory facilities to scientists works to protect land and other research resources in the valley conducts educational programs, tours and lectures advocates for continued research funding, especially for long-term ecosystem monitoring; As a public policy group: HBRF uses its Science Links program to bridge the gap between science and public policy, working with Hubbard Brook scientists to communicate the results of their research to government, the media, environmental and other public-interest groups, and the general public in an effort to inform policy decisions. Hosts the HBRF Roundtable. “Science Links and the HBRF Roundtable programs help bridge the gap between ecosystem science and public policy.” For 43 years, hundreds of scientists working at the 7,600-hundred acre Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire have studied the ecological patterns and processes that characterize forests in eastern North America, assembling a massive, uninterrupted data record of meteorology, hydrology, biogeochemistry, forest growth, and population dynamics of key wildlife species. Quite simply, what goes on in bowl-shaped Hubbard Brook valley is the longest running, most comprehensive ecosystem study in the world. The continuing ecological record has proven to be invaluable for identifying and helping to solve vexing environmental problems and for pursuing significant new research questions. The variety of scientific endeavors known collectively as the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study has become a world force in ecosystem thinking. View web site for Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study. Over the years, hundreds of scientists, representing more than 40 universities, government agencies, and other institutions, have conducted research at Hubbard Brook. Over 90 Ph.D. dissertations, 52 Master’s theses, 44 Senior Honors theses, 1,260 scientific papers and numerous books have been published based on studies conducted at Hubbard Brook. Since precipitation and stream studies were initiated in 1963, scientists have collected more that 40,000 water samples at Hubbard Brook. Each water sample is typically analyzed for 17 different chemical constituents. Monitoring is conducted on a year-round basis with support from the USDA Forest Service, National Science Foundation, and private funding sources. The monitoring program includes, in part: A network of meteorological stations and stream-flow gauges, measuring rainfall, snowpack, and stream flow in nine watersheds in the Hubbard Brook valley; Chemical analyses of the nutrients and acidity of rain, snow, and stream water; Measurements of forest growth and species composition; Below-ground measurements of microbial activity, root activity, soil water, and soil; Water levels, groundwater flow, water chemistry, and biology in Mirror Lake; and Abundances of forest bird, mammal, amphibian, snail, and insect populations. About the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest: The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is a beautiful, 3,070-hectare (7,600-acre) forest in the White Mountain National Forest of New Hampshire that was set aside by the United States Forest Service in 1955 and dedicated to the long-term study of forest and aquatic ecosystems. The first stream at the forest was fitted with measuring devices in 1956, and since then eight more watersheds have been added to the Study, where water samples, stream flows, soil profiles, and other scientific measurements are taken by Forest Service personnel on a weekly basis. Neatly stacked rows of thousands of water samples are testament to the on-the-ground efforts of countless researchers and technicians over nearly half a century. These samples and other data represent a treasure trove for scientists seeking to understand the long-term changes that occur to forests. The forest is managed and monitoring is conducted by the year round staff of the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Research Station. A long term Ecological Research Site: Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest is one of 24 national Long-Term Ecological Research Site. The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network was established by the National Science Foundation in 1980 to support research on long-term ecological phenomena in the United States. The Network is a collaborative effort involving more than 1800 scientists and students investigating ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. The Network promotes synthesis and comparative research across sites and ecosystems and among other related national and international research programs. HBRFAbout HBRF Where We’re Located About HBRF Publications You Can Help! Find Us © 2013 Hubbard Brook Research Foundation Back to Top

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Brighter Neptune Suggests a Planetary Change of Seasons About the Release Fast Facts Help/Glossary Below are explanations of the Fast Facts that accompany our images. Not all Fast Facts will appear in every news release. This section describes the object that is the subject of an image or science discovery. These facts include: A name or number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. This can be a descriptive name (Crab Nebula, Whirlpool Galaxy) or an abbreviation and number (M1, NGC 1952) that reflects its designation in any one of many catalogs of astronomical objects. In those examples, for instance, the M would show that an object is listed in the Messier Catalog, while the NGC would indicate the New General Catalogue. The type of astronomical object being presented. Astronomers classify objects according to their properties with varying levels of detail, such as star, planet, nebula, cluster, galaxy, etc. Within these broad classifications are finer divisions: spiral galaxy, elliptical galaxy, irregular galaxy, etc. The position of the object in the sky. A celestial coordinate system maps positions in the sky similar to the geographic coordinate system used on the surface of the Earth. It provides a consistent way to locate celestial objects with any telescope. For objects showing substantial motion on the sky over a relatively short time, such as planets, the position — when stated — is given at the time of the observations. Positions are often not reported for moving objects. The "epoch" of the celestial coordinates. The coordinates must refer to a particular date because they are relative to the orientation of the Earth in space. Earth's rotation axis changes over thousands of years. The measurements of an object's coordinates on the sky 100 years ago will not be identical today. J2000 refers to the coordinates based in the year 2000. Astronomers use the J2000 coordinates along with the date of observation to calculate the correct coordinates. R.A. Right ascension is one of two coordinates (with declination) used by astronomers to locate stars and other celestial objects in the sky. Right ascension is comparable to longitude, but is measured and displayed in units of time: hours (h), minutes (m), and seconds (s) because the entire sky appears to pass overhead over a period of 24 hours. The zero hour corresponds to the apparent location of the Sun with respect to the stars at the time of the vernal (spring) equinox (approximately March 21). Declination is one of two celestial coordinates (with right ascension) required to locate an astronomical object, such as a star, on the celestial sphere. Declination is the measure of angular distance of a celestial object north or south of the celestial equator and is comparable to latitude. Declination is measured and displayed in angular units: degrees (°), minutes (') and seconds (") of arc. Traditionally, a constellation is a pattern of stars in the sky, with names often based on mythological themes. Astronomers now divide the sky into 88 distinct constellations defined by exact boundaries. Every location on the celestial sphere falls in one of these formal constellations. Leo (the Lion) is one example of the 88 constellations formally identified by astronomers. Distance The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU), the average distance between the Sun and Earth, about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. Distances between stars are usually measured in light years, the distance that a particle of light will travel in a year — about 6 trillion miles or 10 trillion km. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs, with one parsec equal to 3.26 light-years. For objects whose distance changes over a relatively short time, such as planets, the distance is given at the time of the observation. This value refers to the physical size of an astronomical object and/or to the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. Because the sky appears "flat" from Earth, the apparent size of the object must be described in terms of how much of the sky it covers. To do this, astronomers split the sky into angles. The full sky is 360 degrees, or a circle. Both the Moon and Sun appear to take up the same amount of space on the sky — about 0.5 degrees, or 30 arcminutes — and thus have similar apparent sizes. When we know the distance to an object, however, we can also give a true, physical size. For instance, the physical diameter of the Moon is 2,159 miles (3,475 km), and the physical diameter of the Sun is about 870,000 miles (1.4 million km). These items describe the data used to produce the images being presented and to analyze the object. HST Proposal A detailed description of the observations, their scientific justification, and links to the data available in the Hubble archive. Science Team The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. The Hubble Space Telescope instrument used to produce the data. Find more information about Hubble's instruments at Nuts and Bolts. The individual filters that were used in the science observations and to reconstruct the image. Filters in Hubble's cameras isolate a portion of the light from the object. Comparing observations in different filters allows a more detailed analysis of the object under study. Exposure Dates The dates that Hubble made its observations. Each science program typically requires many separate exposures and observations, sometimes over a long period of time, even many years. Individual observations can vary from a few seconds to many minutes. Exposures can be combined into a single observation with a cumulative time of many hours or even days. These terms relate to the news release describing a science discovery or photo release presenting a Hubble image. Release Credit The formal credit listing institutions and individuals responsible for the content. The individual cited is usually the investigator primarily responsible for the data or analysis or the formal Principal Investigator (PI) of the Hubble observing proposal. Others responsible for the science results or images being presented. The date the release content became public. A brief description of the methods used to convert Hubble data into the color image being presented. The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. Diameter of Object See Dimensions. Visual Magnitude A value representing the apparent brightness of a celestial object as seen from Earth. For historical reasons, fainter stars have numerically larger magnitude. Back to top

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NASA's Hubble Reveals a New Class of Extrasolar Planet The full news release story: View this image Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have come up with a new class of planet, a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. It's smaller than Uranus but larger than Earth. Zachory Berta of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and colleagues made the observations of the planet GJ1214b. "GJ1214b is like no planet we know of," Berta said. "A huge fraction of its mass is made up of water." The ground-based MEarth Project, led by CfA's David Charbonneau, discovered GJ1214b in 2009. This super-Earth is about 2.7 times Earth's diameter and weighs almost seven times as much. It orbits a red-dwarf star every 38 hours at a distance of 1.3 million miles, giving it an estimated temperature of 450 degrees Fahrenheit. In 2010, CfA scientist Jacob Bean and colleagues reported that they had measured the atmosphere of GJ1214b, finding it likely that it was composed mainly of water. However, their observations could also be explained by the presence of a planet-enshrouding haze in GJ1214b's atmosphere. Berta and his co-authors used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to study GJ1214b when it crossed in front of its host star. During such a transit, the star's light is filtered through the planet's atmosphere, giving clues to the mix of gases. "We're using Hubble to measure the infrared color of sunset on this world," Berta explained. Hazes are more transparent to infrared light than to visible light, so the Hubble observations help tell the difference between a steamy and a hazy atmosphere. They found the spectrum of GJ1214b to be featureless over a wide range of wavelengths, or colors. The atmospheric model most consistent with the Hubble data is a dense atmosphere of water vapor. "The Hubble measurements really tip the balance in favor of a steamy atmosphere," Berta said. Since the planet's mass and size are known, astronomers can calculate the density, of only about 2 grams per cubic centimeter. Water has a density of 1 gram per cubic centimeter, while Earth's average density is 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter. This suggests that GJ1214b has much more water than Earth does, and much less rock. As a result, the internal structure of GJ1214b would be an extraordinarily different world than our world. "The high temperatures and high pressures would form exotic materials like 'hot ice' or 'superfluid water,' substances that are completely alien to our everyday experience," Berta said. Theorists expect that GJ1214b formed farther out from its star, where water ice was plentiful, and migrated inward early in the system's history. In the process, it would have passed through the star's habitable zone, where surface temperatures would be similar to Earth's. How long it lingered there is unknown. GJ1214b is located in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus, and just 40 light-years from Earth. Therefore, it's a prime candidate for study by the planned James Webb Space Telescope. A paper reporting these results has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal and is available online. CONTACT David Aguilar / Christine Pulliam Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass. daguilar@cfa.harvard.edu / cpulliam@cfa.harvard.edu Zachory Berta zberta@cfa.harvard.edu

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New Projects Help 3-D Printing Materialize By editor Originally published on July 7, 2012 7:57 am Transcript SCOTT SIMON, HOST: You may have heard of 3-D printers. These are computer controlled machines that create three-dimensional objects from a variety of materials. They've been kind of a novelty for a while but now they are being discovered by everyday consumers. Jon Kalish reports. JON KALISH, BYLINE: Sean Hurley works for a software company called Autodesk. Not long ago the door on his clothes dryer at home developed a problem. It wouldn't stay shut, which made it impossible to use the dryer. SEAN HURLEY: The little clip when you shut the door that locks it is just a half-inch flat little piece of plastic with a little channel it. That's all it was. Thirty-nine bucks. KALISH: Yep, 39 bucks to replace a little piece of plastic. So Hurley used his computer to design the part and then made it on a 3-D printer. Problem solved. Hurley knew how to do this because he knows how to use software to make a 3-D model. But for those of us who don't have that kind of computer chops, Hurley's company makes free software that fills in the gap. HURLEY: 123D Catch allows somebody to use a regular camera and capture photos that generate a 3-D model. It's kinda like magic. KALISH: And if even that seems too involved, there are now multiple sites on the Internet that offer free 3-D models for a variety of consumer items. For example, if the headband on your headphones breaks, you can have a new one printed from one of these free files. And more and more of these files are being made available every day. New Yorker Duann Scott had one of those pricey Bugaboo baby strollers. When a part in the locking mechanism broke he was told it would cost $250 to fix it. Scott spent all of five minutes creating a 3-D model of the broken plastic part and had it printed in a stronger material: stainless steel. The cost: $25. DUANN SCOTT: It came back just under two weeks later and I put it in the stroller and it worked straight away. And I documented it so that anybody could fix their stroller using my experience. And I made the three files available for download for free so anyone else can repair it. And I don't get any money from it. I just want people to fix their stroller in the same way I could. KALISH: 3-D printers and other digital fabrication machines are allowing designers and consumers to bypass the traditional factory and create goods on a much smaller scale. But even if you skip the factory, you'll still need access to expensive digital fabrication technology such as laser cutters and CNC routers. Ponoko is one of several companies that can take a customer's own design, or one made by a professional, and fabricate consumer goods made from a variety of materials, including metals, wood and felt. The company has 15 different production facilities in the United States. At their Wellington, New Zealand headquarters Ponoko staffer Richard Borrett showed off a pair of stools made from birch plywood. RICHARD BORRETT: This is one of the first products that came to our showroom when we first launched CNC cutting. He's managed to nest two of the stools onto one sheet of birch ply. And that all slots together, no fasteners. It's a complete sort of flat-pack design and you pop the pieces out and slot it all together. (SOUNDBITE OF CNC MILLING MACHINE) KALISH: A few blocks from Ponoko's office in Wellington, parts for a wooden chair are being cut on a CNC milling machine at Victoria University. Two graduates of the university's design program started the SketchChair project, which allows people with absolutely no artistic or computer skills to design their own chairs. The open source software they use not only figures out how to construct the chair but also creates a computer file that tells a CNC router how to cut out the parts. Tiago Rorke is one of the designers behind SkechChair. TIAGO RORKE: We weren't so much interested in trying to create a brand of furniture. Like, we were a little bit more interested in taking the model of open source software development and apply that to product design. You know, it's not just the SketchChair software which will be available for free but the designs themselves. And so, it takes it away from being about the original sole authorship but more about people working collaboratively through a community and I guess sharing their ideas is a big part of it. KALISH: If you'd like to digitally fabricate a table to go with your chair, there are free designs available from the AtFab project, which was started by architects in Lexington, Kentucky. They also give away files to make cabinets and beds. Of course, most people don't have access to an expensive CNC milling machine, but there's a web site called 100 Thousand Garages that serves as a matchmaker for consumers and woodworkers who use these digital fabrication technologies. For NPR News, I'm Jon Kalish. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.View the discussion thread. © 2016 KRVS

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Weird Stuff 10 Alleged Underwater Alien UFO Bases Marcus Lowth June 13, 2016 Sometimes referred to as USOs (Unidentified Submerged Objects) or UUOs (Unidentified Underwater Objects), sightings of strange lights and crafts emerging from, or descending into, the seas, oceans, and lakes around the world are quite widespread. Some UFO researchers and investigators even claim that there are underwater alien bases present in the vicinity of these aquatic sightings. Here are 10 of the most interesting claims. 10 Underwater Base Off The Coast Of Malibu Photo credit: Fade to Black via YouTube California has been a UFO hot spot for years, so when it was theorized that a structure discovered 600 meters (2,000 ft) below the water 10 kilometers (6 mi) off the coast of Malibu was in fact an alien base, it didn’t come as that much of a surprise. The structure has a distinct oval shape and what appears to be flat top. It measures approximately 5 kilometers (3 mi) wide, and there also seem to be pillars holding up the main “roof” of the mysterious anomaly. These pillars look to be spaced evenly apart, almost as if it were an entrance of sorts. The alleged alien base was first brought into the public arena when Jimmy Church, who hosts the radio show Fade To Black, acted upon information given to him by a listener, who went by the name of “Maxwell.” Maxwell gave coordinates from Google Earth that showed something he believed may be an artificial structure. Church, with his design team, obtained as many different angles of the structure as they could. Church stated that after investigating all of these angles, he very much believes this structure is indeed artificial, even going as far as to say it could be the “holy grail” for ufologists. Of course, not everyone subscribes to this theory. Earthquake geologist David Schwartz, for example, states that the alien base is most likely nothing more than part of the continental shelf, further stating that he didn’t see “anything special” in the pictures. Ben Hansen, a former FBI agent and an expert in pictures and video, also warned that people should be cautious how they interpret Google Earth images, stating they are pieced together from different sources and can often be misleading. 9 Underwater Base Off Puffin IslandWales Numerous sightings of strange lights leaving and entering the sea around Puffin Island, Wales, has led some ufologists to believe that the area may be home to an underwater alien base. A spate of sightings in early 1974 were particularly interesting to investigators. All spoke of not just lights, but solid objects that were seen leaving the sea near the island. UFO investigator Phil Hoyle stated that he has heard and read various unconnected reports concerning Puffin Island and that all of them tell the same story and describe the same type of phenomenon. He also stated that alleged alien abductees close to the area have reported that their abductors were humanoid and told them they came from a base under the sea near the island. There are even some theories that the area itself may be the ancient legendary kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod and that these humanoids are their descendants. Hoyle believes that the ties to an ancient site and the current UFO activity shouldn’t be downplayed, stating that according to his research, there is an 80 percent increase in such activity on or around ancient sites worldwide. 8 UFO Base Under Lake Ontario In December 2013, MUFON published a report from a Hamilton resident who claimed to have seen several strange, glowing orbs hanging over Lake Ontario. He also claimed to have seen these orbs on the lake several times prior, and what’s more, he believes that there is an alien base under the water. He is far from the first person to have made such an assertion. In August 1981, five witnesses who were driving alongside Lake Ontario early one evening saw a dome-shaped craft flying over the water. They followed the craft for some time before seeing it begin to descend and enter the water, disappearing from their sight. Perhaps the stories of an underwater alien base, stem from the 1977 book The Great Lakes Triangle by Jay Gourley, who made note that many planes and people had disappeared over Lake Ontario, not to mention the many UFO sightings of the area. Another book, Underground Alien Bases, released in 2012 and written by the somewhat strange “Commander X,” has also perpetuated the legend of the alien base under the lake. It features within its pages several accounts of sightings on and around the lake and the assertion that an alien fortress of one kind or another lies under the water. However, none of the accounts can be verified by a secondary source and so are left open to debate as to how reliable they are. 7 Flight Corridor To Underwater BaseNorth Island, New Zealand North Island in New Zealand has been witness to many strange objects entering the sea, with activity stretching out to some of the offshore islands around the area. UFO researchers state that the area is a hot spot for such activity, with locals claiming that the area is a flight corridor to an underwater base for the strange craft that exist there. Between January and March 1995, there were dozens of sightings of these objects coming and going in the area. These were not limited to nighttime, with many of the objects being witnessed during the daylight hours. One particular daylight sighting on March 9, 1995, stands out. It began with two fishermen who witnessed a bright, silver, ball-shaped craft that seemed to glow or pulse as it moved and emitted a strange red stream behind it. The two men saw the object for less than 10 seconds before it vanished from their sight. Around two minutes later, however, there were sightings of what seemed to be the same object by the control towers at both Hamilton International and Rotorua Airports. Further supporting the incident were several reports that were phoned in to a local radio station from concerned residents, who all described a very similar object in the bright, sunny sky. 6 Pacific Ocean ‘Humming’ Is Actually Marine Life Breaking Wind In the case of the alleged underwater alien base in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, the mainstream scientific explanation is actually stranger than that of the ufologists. According to a research team led by Simon Baumann-Pickering, the low humming sound that has had people searching for bases and installations for over two decades is nothing more than sea creatures releasing gases from their swim bladders—essentially breaking wind. UFO researchers have almost entirely rejected this assertion. The humming has been studied and debated since 1991 by scientists and UFO investigators alike, when it was first observed by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Ufologists argue that rather than being a sound of the natural world, the sounds are more akin to those of electrically powered artificial structures. To them, this is proof of the existence of top secret underwater bases, which are quite probably extraterrestrial, given the advanced technology that would be required to build and operate such an underwater building. Other theories include that the humming could be generated by marine vessels or an unknown geological phenomena. 5 Strange Lights And Sounds In Puerto Rico The island of Puerto Rico has had numerous accounts of UFO sightings, particularly along its northeastern coastline, where strange craft have been seen both emerging out of and disappearing into the water for years. There is also a strong US Navy presence on the island, and stories from locals and US expats alike state that the US military at the very least is monitoring the strange activity on the waters along the coast. Experienced ufologist and researcher Nick Redfern recently told of an ex–civil defense employee who had witnessed a strange craft emerge from the waters off the Puerto Rican coast. It steadily rose up into the air before shooting off at speed. Another account came to Redfern from a local police officer, who stated that the US Navy had spent considerable time tracking an underwater craft along the northeastern coast of the island. There have been numerous claims and theories that the immediate coastline of this Caribbean island is home to underwater alien bases, perhaps none more specific than those of investigative journalist Jorge Martin. Martin stated that using NOAA satellite images, they found several anomalies around the island which suggested artificial structures. Martin stated that these structures were unusually large and precisely rectangular and were generally on the eastern and southern coast of the island. He also claimed that coming off many of these structures, there appeared to be what looked like tunnels leading to other structures and even to the mainland. What is interesting is that in the Puerto Rican city of Ponce during the late 1980s, local residents were complaining to authorities that they could hear loud rumbling, which seemed to be coming from beneath the ground. It was reported that the sounds were similar to those you might expect to hear when heavy machinery was operated. The sounds seemed to stop after several days. One of the places on the mainland that Martin’s tunnels appeared to connect to was the city of Ponce. 4 Ancient Alien Base At Lake Titicaca The predominantly still waters of Lake Titicaca on the borders of Peru and Bolivia are not only the world’s highest navigable waters, but also host to a plethora of UFO activity and according to some, home to an advanced and possibly ancient alien base. The ancient city of Tiwanaku, considered to be one of the oldest cities in the world, sits on the southeastern shore of Lake Titicaca. Ufologists, ancient astronaut theorists in particular, state that the advanced level of agriculture, irrigation, and astronomy as well structures that suggest advanced building techniques leads them to believe that an extraterrestrial race once resided here. Numerous texts and statues have also been found in the immediate vicinity of the lake, which seem to depict ancient Mesopotamian underwater gods—gods that they claim were from an alien civilization that once resided under the still waters of Lake Titicaca. Recently, a video surfaced on YouTube shot by a group of Italians who were on a spiritual journey of sorts in the region. As they pointed their camera out to the still, blue waters of Lake Titicaca, what appeared to be a large submerged object was seen slowly making its way away from the shore. It appeared to be disc-shaped object, and as it moved through the water, its shape remained the same, suggesting that it is indeed solid. If there was an ancient alien underwater base below the surface of Lake Titicaca, perhaps this video may suggest that it is very much still in use. 3 Underwater Alien Base At Guantanamo Bay According to a former US Marine who served at Guantanamo Bay in the late 1960s, there is an underwater alien base off the Cuban coast. Furthermore, the Marine claimed that of the many UFO sightings of strange objects going in and out of the water, the US military has even managed to capture several on film. He also states that he and his colleagues were under strict instructions not to talk about the strange activity they witnessed there. The Marine claimed that the craft he witnessed appeared to be made of a “dull” metal with a series of blue lights. When they would enter the water, the blue lights could still be witnessed but would grow fainter and fainter, suggesting to him that whatever the object was, it was descending deeper into the water. Perhaps coincidentally, around 140 kilometers (90 mi) north of the US base in Gulf Breeze, Florida, there have been several UFO sightings that seem to match the descriptions of the craft as described by the unnamed marine, and may suggest they are originating from the same place. One particular sighting came in November 1987, when Ed Walters claimed that he witnessed a strange object fly overhead from the coast. It emitted a bright, blue light that “trapped” him in its beam. He stated that while he was caught in it, everything around him was blue, and he could not move. Walters did manage to take several pictures of the craft. Hundreds of witnesses came forward to say they, too, had seen the strange object that evening. There is debate over the credibility of his account. MUFON seemed to believe the sighting was genuine, while others have stated that the photographs were obvious fakes. In a strange twist, years after Walters’ claims, an investigation into his story was said to have discovered a model craft very similar to the object that Walters stated he had photographed in a house where he once resided. Supporters of his claims, however, argue that this model is an obvious “plant” to discredit him. 2 Increased UFO Sightings At Lake ErieCleveland, Ohio Lake Erie, one of the five great lakes of North America, has a long history of strange lights and unexplained phenomena. However, the area around Cleveland, Ohio, has experienced an increase in UFO sightings over the years. The 2011 book Eerie Erie: Tales of the Unexplained from Northwest Pennsylvania by Robin Swope examines and investigates numerous MUFON reports. Many of these reports speak of UFOs seen “crashing” into the water of Lake Erie. One particular reports from 1988 alleged a strange craft landed on the lake when it was iced over. The landing was witnessed by Sheila and Henry Baker, who made a report to the local Coast Guard. As the mysterious craft landed, there were strange sounds heard coming from the ice as well as a series of blue and red lights from the craft itself. There also appeared to be several strange triangular objects jettisoned from the descending object. These triangles seemed to move purposely around in all directions along the icy surface of the lake. Suddenly, the sounds on the ice stopped, and the craft and the mysterious triangles vanished, suggesting that they had indeed found their way below the ice and under the water. According to a report in 2007 that ran on News Channel 5 in Cleveland, the area had seen no less than 20 UFO sightings in only two years. There are a great many videos on YouTube that claim to show some of these UFOs over Cleveland. Local UFO researcher Richard Lee stated that the UFOs seem to take particular interest in any new building projects undertaken in the area. Once a new project begins, according to Lee, there is usually a UFO sighting in the immediate vicinity not long after. Are they coming from their alleged base in Lake Erie? 1 Lake Baikal—Scene Of An Underwater Battle With Aliens Photo credit: Inaki LLM The ancient Lake Baikal in Siberia is said to be the deepest lake on the planet and has a history of UFO activity as well as alleged sightings of aliens underneath the water by Russian military divers. These sightings date back to the Soviet era, but since the end of the Cold War, the reports have come into the public domain. Many of the accounts tell of a huge “mothership” hovering above the expanse of water and even of humanoid beings in strange, shiny suits climbing down from these ships and into the water. Former Soviet naval officer and ufologist Vladimir Azhazha claimed to have leaked top secret files relating to an incident in 1982. He stated that military divers, who were on standard training exercises in the area, witnessed huge underwater craft that moved with a speed they had never seen before. Several days later, the story took an even more bizarre twist when divers witnessed several strange beings under the water. They wore shiny suits and what appeared to be a small, advanced oxygen masks. According to the alleged leaked documents, the unit was ordered to capture these strange creatures. When they attempted to do so, however, they were fought off with what appeared to be an advanced sonar wave weapon that ultimately killed three of the seven divers. The remaining four, now terrified and injured from their attempts detain the strange crew, retreated and made their report to superiors. In 2009, photographs taken from aboard the International Space Station seemed to show two distinct saucer-shaped anomalies in the region, fueling further speculation that an extraterrestrial presence was under Lake Baikal and even the possibility that these “saucers” were the craft that had been witnessed nearly three decades earlier by the Soviet diving unit. Marcus Lowth—writer at Me Time For The Mind—http://www.metimeforthemind.com/Me Time For The Mind on Facebook—https://www.facebook.com/MeTimeForTheMind/ Marcus Lowth Marcus Lowth is a writer with a passion for anything interesting, be it UFOs, the Ancient Astronaut Theory, the paranormal or conspiracies. He also has a liking for the NFL, film and music. Read More: Twitter Facebook Me Time For The Mind Weird Stuff 10 Societies Buried Beneath Your Feet Weird Stuff Top 10 Unusual Ancient Weapons Weird Stuff 10 Long Awaited Conspiracy Theories Weird Stuff 10 More Incredibly Bizarre Mental Disorders

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USTREAM Broadcaster: Live Video Broadcasting Comes to the iPhone No, there isn't a family guy USTREAM channel, I just couldn't resist. Earlier this month, we had discussed the new Video Broadcasting iPhone app called 'Knocking' that brought live streaming to the iPhone. Despite being one of the first to enter the AppStore with streaming video, it was only able to do iPhone to iPhone broadcasting. Unfortunately we learned that it was somewhat of a disappointment, considering it hardly ever worked right. If you've had a Jailbroken iPhone for awhile now, you may recall the USTREAM apps that had been available via Cydia. These apps were eventually pulled from Cydia and we had seen no activity since. Today, USTREAM has released an official App, available now in the AppStore, that enables live broadcasting from you iPhone to the USTREAM's web service. The iPhone app gives you the option to both stream live as well as share video as a recording. The app works via both 3G and Wi-Fi, and it even works on both the iPhone 3G and 3GS. It's a little laggy on the 3G, which is expected, but it works flawlessly. (Well almost, the audio is a little bit delayed, again this is on the 3G so it might be better on a 3GS.) You also have the ability to tweet your videos, share on facebook, and participate in live chats for your broadcast. USTREAM has said to be working on adding more social features to the application soon. Ustream, established March 2007, is a website which consists of network of diverse channels providing a platform for lifecasting and live video streaming of events online.[3] The website has over 2,000,000 registered users who generate 1,500,000+ hours of live streamed content per month with over ten million unique hits per month. It received $11.1 million in Series A funding for new product development from DCM and investors Labrador Ventures and Band of Angels. USTREAM these days, is more known for its live broadcasts of shows like Diggnation and the Brian Bushwood Show. More and more celebrities are using USTREAM now as well, such as Bands, Artists, Actors, MTV Icons, and so on, drawing anywhere from 2,000-80,000+ viewers at one time. Everything is interactive and the broadcasters usually watch the chat room fill with questions and try to answer them. Not only do all of these networks seem to flock to USTREAM these days, but what made USTREAM so popular in the first place was "during the 2008 United States presidential election, the website was used by nearly all the main candidates to help their campaign, by allowing a larger amount of voters to ask political questions." Now YOU can start your own broadcast from your iPhone. If only it had a front facing camera All of this seems to coincide with the release of Knocking, and how it somehow removed the rule of "no live streaming" from Apple's List of Commandments. Perhaps this means we will see more apps coming out that support such streaming features. Will they finally loosen those ropes? We'll see, maybe Sling will come back. USTREAM Live Broadcaster requires an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS running OS 3.1 or later and is available as a free download from the App Store.

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John Legere Named as Chief Executive Officer of T-Mobile USA September 19, 2012 by @sleepy2009 Leave a Comment Deutsche Telekom (OTCQX: DTEGY), one of Europe’s leading telecommunications and information technology service companies and the parent company of T-Mobile USA, today announced that John Legere, a 32-year veteran of the U.S. and global telecommunications and technology industries, has been named Chief Executive Officer of its T-Mobile business unit, effective September 22. He succeeds Jim Alling, who has served as interim CEO since June and will return to his position as T-Mobile’s Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Legere, 54, is the former CEO of Global Crossing, where he successfully transformed the company to become a leading provider of IP services worldwide. Under his direction, the company completed the world’s first integrated global IP-based network, achieved near-perfect network operations and significantly improved customer satisfaction. “John is a talented and proven executive who brings a successful track record of leading and operating consumer- and business-focused telecommunications and technology companies,” said René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. “As T-Mobile moves forward with its strategic initiatives to improve its market position, including expanding its network coverage and initiating LTE service, John has obviously the right skillset to lead the business into the future. John’s experience in the telecommunication and technology industries at Global Crossing and Dell will enhance T-Mobile’s ability to deliver superior mobile experiences for our customers as the Company continues to strengthen its business. I am delighted to welcome John to T-Mobile and look forward to working with him to make T-Mobile a stronger competitor.” “I am thrilled to join T-Mobile and lead the Company at such a pivotal time,” said Mr. Legere. “T-Mobile is taking a number of significant steps to revitalize the business and I look forward to leading our team and partners to accelerate these efforts to become a force in our industry.” Prior to joining Global Crossing, Mr. Legere was CEO of Asia Global Crossing, a Microsoft, Softbank and Global Crossing joint venture. Before that, Mr. Legere served as Senior Vice President of Dell Computer Corporation, where he was President of the Company’s operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, as well as in the Asia-Pacific region. From 1983 to 1998, Mr. Legere worked at AT&T, where he served in a number of senior positions, including President of AT&T Asia, President of AT&T Solutions Outsourcing and head of global corporate strategy and business development. He began his career at New England Telephone in 1980. A Massachusetts native, Mr. Legere received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Massachusetts. He earned a master’s degree in science as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Additionally, he received his Master of Business Administration degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) and completed Harvard Business School’s Management Development Program in 1989. Mr. Legere is a competitive runner and marathoner and uses his running as a means to support various charitable causes. He has raised more than $1.2 million in eight recent Boston Marathon runs for cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute where he is also a Board Trustee. Mr. Legere is on the Board of the New York Road Runners and NYC Marathon, Achilles International and Shoe4Africa. “On behalf of Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile, I want to thank Jim for his effective leadership during his term as interim CEO. Jim is an instrumental member of our team and will continue to play a key role in guiding our strategic direction. We are pleased that T-Mobile will continue to benefit from his leadership and experience as he resumes his position as COO,” continued Mr. Obermann. Filed Under: Apps, Blackberry, BlackBerry OS, Devices, Featured, News, Press Release Tagged With: blackberry, CEO, John Legere, RIM, T-mobile, T-Mobile USA

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AircraftEurocopter UH145 wins US$3 billion contractMike HanlonJuly 2nd, 200612 picturesView gallery - 12 imagesJuly 2, 2006 EADS has landed the hotly contested contract to supply the U.S. Army’s next-generation Light Utility Helicopters (LUH) in a deal worth up to US$ 3 billion. The French-German company teamed with Sikorsky Aircraft to win the contest with its Eurocopter UH-145, a military version of the EC145. The UH145 flies at 131 kts, has a range of 370 nm, endurance of 3.4 hrs and can carry 2 pilots and 8 passengers. Its unique attributes include an antitorque rotor mounted on a high tailboom for safety and a set of aft-mounted clamshell cabin doors. UH145 production will move from Germany to the United States as part of the deal which is the first major win for EADS as a prime contractor for the US military.The prize of the LUH contract has caused enormous effort by the four contractors vying for a larger slice of the rich U.S. defence market.The other prime contestants were the US139, a variant of the twin-engine AB139 helicopter from AgustaWestland, the Bell 412 from Bell Helicopter and the NOTAR-equipped Explorer from MD Helicopters. The NOTAR (no tail rotor) system involves an antitorque system that reduces noise, increases safety and enables the helicopter to operate in spaces normally inaccessible to other aircraft.Though the LUH award is the first major defence contract for EADS, it has more than two decades experience as a helicopter supplier to U.S. agencies the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.The UH145 exceeds the LUH contract requirements of a 217 nm range and 2.8 hours of operational flight time with its range of 370 nm and 3.4 hours endurance. It will be used by Army and Army National Guard units for a wide range of light utility missions, including medical evacuation, passenger and logistics transportation, as well as homeland security operations. The U.S. Army is planning to acquire over 350 LUH platforms to replace aging UH-1 and OH-58 aircraft.EADS North America leads the contract winning UH-145 team of companies that includes four primary partners, among them its American Eurocopter business unit, which will handle the helicopter’s production, assembly and delivery and Sikorsky Aircraft as well as WestWind Technologies and CAE USA.The EADS Group includes the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the world's largest helicopter supplier Eurocopter and the joint venture MBDA, the leading international missile producer in the global market. EADS is the major partner in the Eurofighter consortium, is the prime contractor for the Ariane launcher, develops the A400M military transport aircraft and is the largest industrial partner for the European satellite navigation system Galileo.View gallery - 12 imagesNew AtlasEurocopter UH145 wins US$3 billion contract1 / 12 #MBDA #VTOL

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New scientific challenges and goals for ESA's Living Planet Program ESA announces a new science strategy for the future direction of its Living Planet Programme, addressing the continuing need to further our understanding of the Earth System and the impact that human activity is having. The Changing Earth: New Scientific Challenges for ESA's Living Planet Programme focuses on the most fundamental challenge facing humanity at the beginning of the 21st century � that being global change. As we begin to understand more about the Earth as a system, it is very apparent that human activity is having a profound and negative impact on our environment. For example, our understanding of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, and the strong link between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and temperature both point to human activity leading to a warmer world, unlike anything seen over the last million years. A better knowledge of the Earth System and the impact that increasing human activity is having is of crucial importance in providing the basis for the management of our environment and our ability to derive sustainable benefit. Since observing the Earth from space first became possible more than forty years ago, satellite missions have become central to monitoring and learning about how the Earth works. Looking to the future, the new strategy for ESA's Living Planet Programme aims to assess the most important Earth-science questions to be addressed in the years to come. It outlines the observational challenges that these raise, and the contribution that the Agency can make through the programme. Volker Liebig, ESA Director of Earth Observation stated, "These challenges will guide ESA's efforts in providing essential Earth-observation information to all relevant user communities, in close cooperation with our international partners." Underpinning the new strategy is a set of ambitious objectives, which include: Launch a steady flow of missions addressing key issues in Earth science. Provide an infrastructure to allow satellite data to be quickly and efficiently exploited in areas of research and applications. Provide a unique contribution to global Earth Observation capabilities, complementing satellites operated by other agencies and in-situ observing systems. Provide an efficient and cost-effective process whereby science priorities can be rapidly translated into space missions, adequately resourced with associated ground support. Support the development of innovative approaches to instrumentation. ESA has been dedicated to observing the Earth from space ever since the launch of its first meteorological mission, Meteosat, back in 1977. Following the success of this first mission, the subsequent series of Meteosat satellites developed by ESA and operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), together with ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat have been providing us with a wealth of invaluable data about the Earth, its climate and changing environment. Since its conception in the 1990s, ESA's Living Planet Programme has grown to include the family of Earth Explorers, the well-established meteorological missions and the development of the space component for GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), which is a joint initiative between the European Commission and ESA. When the Living Planet Programme was first established a new approach to satellite observations for Earth science was formed by focusing on the missions being defined, developed and operated in close cooperation with the science community. By involving the science community right from the beginning in the definition of new missions and introducing a peer-reviewed selection process, it is ensures that a resulting mission is developed efficiently and provides the exact data required by the user. So far, this approach has resulted in the selection six Earth Explorer missions with another six currently under assessment study. Two Earth Explorer satellites are scheduled for launch next year � GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) and SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity). While the Earth Explorer series forms the science and research element of the Living Planet Programme the so-called Earth Watch element is designed to facilitate the delivery of Earth-observation data for use in operational services. Earth Watch includes the well-established meteorological missions with EUMETSAT and new missions focusing on the environment and civil security under GMES. Within this element of the programme, the MetOp mission, which was jointly established by ESA and EUMETSAT, will be Europe's first polar-orbiting weather satellite when it is launched in October. Although the Earth Watch element of the programme is designed to provide data that underpins operational services, it will also contribute significantly to Earth science, in particular through the collection of longer time series of observations than those provided by research missions. In turn, the Earth Explorers will provide new understanding that paves the way for new operational services. This synergy is also highlighted in the Living Planet Programme's strategy for the coming years. With the Living Planet Programme's new strategy in place, ESA will build on past success by continuing to play a central role in developing the global capacity to understand planet Earth, predict environmental changes and help mitigate the negative effects of global change on the population.

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Chasing a Dream Made of Waste By MATTHEW L. WALD and ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO; Matthew L. Wald reported from Jennings, La., and Alexei Barrionuevo from Chicago. The sun shone brightly on the crowd gathered at the rusting old oil refinery here, as company officials showed off diagrams explaining how they planned to turn weeds and agricultural wastes into car fuel. Government officials gave optimistic speeches. In the background, workers prepared a new network of pipes, tanks and conveyor belts. That was in October 1998, when ethanol from crop wastes seemed to be just around the corner. It still is. Last February, company officials gathered here once again, to break ground on a plant designed to make ethanol by yet another method. At the time of the first ceremony, the Energy Department was predicting that ethanol produced from cellulosic waste would be in the market by about 2009 in the same volume as ethanol from the conventional source, corn. But no company has yet been able to produce ethanol from cellulose in mass quantities that are priced competitively with corn-based ethanol. And without the cellulosic ethanol, the national goal for ethanol production will be impossible to reach. ''Producing cellulosic ethanol is clearly more difficult than we thought in the 1990s,'' said Dan W. Reicher, who was assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy at the time of the first ceremony and who spoke here then. To be sure, swarms of innovators, venture capitalists and government officials are optimistic. Over the last year, money has begun to pour in from all corners -- government, private foundations, venture capitalists and Wall Street -- to sort out the myriad production problems preventing cellulosic ethanol from becoming a reality. And recent advances in gene sequencing have raised hopes for a breakthrough in mass producing the enzymes needed to do the work. If making the technology work to produce ethanol from cellulose was important in the 1990s, it is even more critical now. Because of growing concerns about oil imports and climate change, Mr. Reicher said, ''it is essential that we figure this out, and fast.'' Mounting concerns over excessive demands for corn as both food and fuel only add to the urgency. In January, President Bush set a goal of producing 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels, probably mostly ethanol, by 2017. But the more than six billion gallons of ethanol that will be produced this year have already helped push corn to its highest price in years, raising the cost of everything from tortillas to chicken feed. Poor people in Mexico have protested against the higher prices, and now China and India are starting to suffer from food inflation. So why has no one figured out a way to make ethanol from materials like the sugar cane wastes engineers are working with here? In fact, engineers at several companies have done that -- but only at the lab level. One company, Iogen, has a pilot plant running in Ottawa and hopes to build a larger operation soon. Abengoa, a Spanish company, says it plans to open a plant in northern Spain late this year, and wants to build a factory in Kansas. Broin Companies, of Sioux Falls, S.D., is planning to expand a corn ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, to use cellulose as well. But everyone is still struggling to develop a method that is cost competitive with corn ethanol -- not to mention competing with gasoline and other fuels from oil without subsidies. The pilot plant that opened here in 1998, after the first ceremony, ''worked like a charm,'' said Russell Heissner, a biofuels expert at Celunol, the company building the Jennings plant. But Celunol, then called BC International, shut it after a few months because of a lack of money and because it could not figure out how to turn the process into a commercial-scale project. Now the company is building a much larger plant to tackle another part of the cellulosic puzzle. The broad concept is the same everywhere. Yeast is used to turn sugar into alcohol, a process learned thousands of years ago. The easiest way to get sugar is from sugar cane. Corn provides carbohydrates, long chains of starch that are easily broken into sugars. Mr. Heissner is hopeful that stems, stalks, wood chips and other materials will replace the corn. The founding brew master at Harpoon, a Boston beer brand, Mr. Heissner later designed and built microbreweries and pubs. That experience is relevant. Beer is made from barley, a seed, or cereal grain, like corn. It is exposed to warmth and moisture that resemble the conditions for germination, and the barley begins to produce an enzyme that converts its starch into sugar. The brew master roasts the barley to kill the plant, but the enzyme continues to convert the starch to sugar. Hops are added for flavor, and then yeast is added to convert the sugar to alcohol. Cellulose is also made up partly of sugars, but they are linked tightly in a more complicated chain. Breaking them up requires several enzymes. Most processes start with using steam and sulfuric acid on the feedstock, which can be corn stems and leaves, switch grass, wood chips -- or bagasse, the material left when sugar cane is processed and which is being used here in Jennings. Manufacturers rely on a variety of organisms to make the necessary enzymes. They are the product of gene splicing, turning out enzymes in quantities far greater than any natural organism would. 1

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Eyes in the Sky II > GIT Web Course > Module 3 > Week 11 > Eyes on Deforestation Week 11: Using Satellite Data to Investigate Deforestation Eyes on Deforestation NASA's Role in Studying Deforestation top of page Eyes on Deforestation Clockwise from top left: Undisturbed Amazonian tropical rain forest (photo credit: Don Deering); deforestation stage 1 (photo credit: D. Morton); deforestation stage 2 (photo credit: D. Morton); deforestation stage 3 (photo credit: G. van der Werf).Tropical forests cover less than ten percent of our planet's land surface, but are home to more than half of all species on Earth. The incredibly rich biodiversity of these forests provide a wide variety of resources for the entire world, including food supplies, shelter, spices, raw industrial materials, powerful medicines, and more. However, the delicate balance and productivity of these tropical forest ecosystems are being jeopardized by widespread deforestation. In fact, it is believed that rain forests could completely disappear within the next 100 years if deforestation continues at its current rate. Deforestation occurs for many different reasons. Building roads, creating open land for agriculture and livestock, harvesting lumber, and urban sprawl are among the most common causes of deforestation. Wildfires and overgrazing can also contribute to lack of new forest growth. Much like the benefits of tropical forests, the impacts of deforestation are felt all around the world. Deforestation has been linked to social conflict, economic losses, decreased plant and animal habitat and biodiversity, soil infertility, changes in precipitation patterns, and global climate change. top of page NASA's Role in Studying Deforestation Part of Mato Grosso, Brazil on August 6, 1992, captured by the Thematic Mapper on NASA's Landsat 5 satellite (top) and the same area on July 28, 2006, captured by the ASTER instrument on NASA's Terra satellite (bottom). Satellite technology is one of the key components in the effort to monitor, study, and limit the extent of deforestation. The images to the right are false-color satellite images showing changes in vegetation in the Mato Gosso region of Brazil. In these images, red indicates vegetation, and the brightness of the color indicates the density of the vegetation. The most striking difference between the two images is the widespread clearing of forests—seen as gray-beige rectangles—that occurred between 1992 and 2006. Satellites allow scientists to observe large tracts of land over long periods of time. Using the Landsat satellites, NASA has been documenting deforestation and land cover changes in the Amazon since the 1970s. Ecosystem models and data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites help scientists understand time variations in the exchange of carbon between forests and the atmosphere. Satellite data are also used to study how aerosols from fires, like the ones that are used to clear forested areas, impact climate and weather. Satellite observations of tropical forests are made at multiple wavelengths. NASA has developed hyperspectral sensors for observing over 200 closely spaced wavelengths of light reflected from tropical forests. Unlike multispectral sensors that detect electromagnetic energy in broad groups of wavelengths, a hyperspectral sensor detects hundreds of narrow, contiguous slices of the spectrum, so that there are no gaps in coverage. The most effective wavelengths for studying vegetation are those at the red end of the visible spectrum or longer. Red wavelengths are used to measure "greenness" since healthy plants will absorb red (and near infrared) wavelengths for photosynthesis, and stressed plants will reflect more of those wavelengths back into space. Even longer wavelengths (e.g., microwave and radar) are able to penetrate clouds and haze to observe the rainforests below and monitor changes in land cover and usage. Use the resources below to learn more about tropical forests, deforestation, and the use of satellites to monitor and control the damage. top of page Resources NASA Earth Observatory Feature Article: Tropical Deforestation NASA Article: Tropical Deforestation Affects Rainfall in the U.S. and Around the Globe NASA Article: NASA Funded Studies Suggest Strategies for Reducing Deforestation Carbon Emissions CNN Video: Deforestation in the Rainforest FAO's State of the World's Forests Report NASA Earth Observatory Feature Article: Stealing Rain from the Rainforest « Previous Page Next Page » Eyes in the Sky II GIT Web Course PreCourse Activities Intro to Color Imaging Getting to Know Multispectral Imaging Using ImageJ to Detect Change About Eyes in the Sky | Last Modified: February 10, 2011 | printer friendly | Shortcut to this page: http://serc.carleton.edu/44662

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The Green Life: The New Face of Nuclear Power? « Green Your DIY: Crafts from Trash | | Help Rebuild Japan...Right Now » The New Face of Nuclear Power? In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster and subsequent radioactivity scares, the term "nuclear power" has become significantly more shudder-worthy. Both Germany and Japan are planning to phase out nuclear power entirely, and the United States is starting to question the overall safety of its reactors as well. And while nuclear power is becoming increasingly associated with radioactive contamination and Chernobyl-esque wastelands in the public psyche (or atomic zombie apocalypses in the 13-year-old male psyche), the term may be too broad to be synonymous with potential for danger. Nuclear fission, which entails splitting the atomic nuclei of heavy elements like uranium, is responsible for powering all of the world's nuclear reactors. It is also responsible for catastrophic meltdowns, potential contamination from radioactive waste, and a slew of comic book fantasies about glowing rats and superpowers. But some believe that another favorite topic of science fiction writers, fusion power, may be a safe way to sate our growing energy appetite despite the reputation of its punier cousin. Scientists believe that nuclear fusion, in which the nuclei of light elements like hydrogen are shoved together to produce massive amounts of energy, may be a feasible way to generate most of our nation's electricity within a half-century or less. Current plans propose using gargantuan magnets or high powered lasers to contain fusion reactions, with the resultant heat being used rotate steam turbines, just like in modern fission reactors. The difference is that while current fission reactors require the unsustainable mining of rare, radioactive, and incredibly dangerous elements like plutonium for fuel, fusion reactors would require only hydrogen isotopes that could be readily extracted from our essentially inexhaustible reserves of seawater, scientists claim. And according to a New York Times article, we could expect to see the first working fusion reactor in just 20 years at an investment of $30 billion. Though that's a considerable amount of money, many believe that it's small price to pay for a sustainable technology that could supply massive amounts of power for the world's swelling population and alleviate our worries about mutant shark people for good. The foremost fusion power research group, ITER, is currently working on a magnetic fusion reactor. If you are interested in the technology, stare at this diagram for a while and nod your head in understanding. --Colin Griffin in Business and Money, Current Events, Technology atomic, Chernobyl, contamination, energy, environment, fission, fusion, Germany, hydrogen, ITER, Japan, mining, nuclear, plutonium, power, radioactive, reactor, science fiction, uranium TrackBack URL for this entry:http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b96069e2014e89d76f3d970d Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The New Face of Nuclear Power?:

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Digg Dialogg: Kevin Rose Talks to Marissa Mayer by Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins | Jul 31, 2009 | 0 comments You can say many things about the Digg community (and in the past, I’ve been known to say … well, many things), but you can’t say that they don’t come up with interesting questions for the frequent high-profile guests on Kevin Rose’s Digg Dialogg series. Here are the questions: “Do you ever get disturbed at what you see as most searched topics?” “With products like Google Docs, Voice, Wave as well as Chrome OS, Google seems to strongly encourage the move to the cloud. However, a lot of users do not have fast internet access and have relatively low bandwith caps. Do you consider Internet Service Providers as a major bottleneck in the user experience of a cloud-oriented system? If so, what do you think can be done fix or circumvent that potential problem?” “What are you going to do with all the data you are collecting on your users?” “What happened to the 10th to the 100th promise Google made on its last birthday to put $10 million into the best ideas submitted to Google and winnowed by a vote of the public with final selections made by a panel selected by Google? The initial decision-making was to have come in December, then it was delayed due to the huge response… and now it appears to have gone by the wayside. (This is very disappointing for all who trusted Google to honor its funding promise.)” “How do you feel about Bing? I believe the search engine has some very positive features. Does Google plan on implementing any significant changes in response to Bing’s release?” “What product that Google has in beta are you most excited about at the moment?” “What do you think of Wolfram|Alpha?” “Who do you think is Google’s biggest threat?” “Could you please take us through a day in the life of “the boss"?” “Is Google Skynet?” Interesting responses? RELATED: How one company migrated its IT system based on user feedback | #Inforum16In response to Bing, Mayer said: “We always welcome competition, and Bing is a very strong competitor.” In response to Wolfram-Alpha: “Spring was a really exciting time for search. There are lots of people inventing new things, and trying new things. We had a couple big launches in search our self, with Google Squared and Toolbelt. We asked ourselves ‘What happens when you change how search works?’ It changes the paradigms of search and shows us how early we are in search.” Is Google Skynet: “We’re rooting for John Conner. What concerns me the most about the Internet is the concept of anonymity. There is very few things you can do anonymously in the real world, and increasingly the same is true of the Internet. I think overall that’s a good thing – it creates accountability and responsibility.” About Latest Posts Get someMark 'Rizzn' HopkinsMark “Rizzn” Hopkins was the Founding Editor of SiliconANGLE, as well as the creator of and Executive Producer for theCUBE. He has since left the company to found the digital agency Roger Wilco and take a partnership with Barista Ventures. He’s a Bitcoin early adopter, as well as a blogging, podcasting and social media pioneer. Prior the founding of SiliconANGLE, Hopkins worked as Associate Editor at Mashable during its formative years. Prior to his career in startups and media, he worked as a developer for large corporations like Nokia, IBM, Apple and Cox Communications. Hopkins lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife and two children. Get someLatest posts by Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins (see all) Dr. Bitcoin On: Finding Satoshi - March 6, 2014 Ask Dr. Bitcoin: What Happened to the Spot Price Last Night? - December 18, 2013 Dr. Bitcoin On: Bitcoin isn’t banned in China, only legally defined. - December 8, 2013 Name*

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Headlines > News > Picture of the Day - A Piercing Eye in the Sky Picture of the Day - A Piercing Eye in the Sky Published by Matt on Tue Aug 3, 2010 4:28 pm via: Hubble ESA ESA, NASA, Hubble, Picture Of The Day, Astronomy, Planetary Nebulae, Constellation of Centaurus, NGC 3918 This dramatic image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the planetary nebula NGC 3918, a brilliant cloud of colourful gas in the constellation of Centaurus, around 4900 light-years from Earth. A Piercing Eye in the Sky. Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA In the centre of the cloud of gas, and completely dwarfed by the nebula, are the dying remnants of a red giant. During the final convulsive phase in the evolution of these stars, huge clouds of gas are ejected from the surface of the star before it emerges from its cocoon as a white dwarf. The intense ultraviolet radiation from the tiny remnant star then causes the surrounding gas to glow like a fluorescent sign. These extraordinary and colourful planetary nebulae are among the most dramatic sights in the night sky, and often have strange and irregular shapes, which are not yet fully explained. NGC 3918’s distinctive eye-like shape, with a bright inner shell of gas and a more diffuse outer shell that extends far from the nebula looks as if it could be the result of two separate ejections of gas. But this is in fact not the case: studies of the object suggest that they were formed at the same time, but are being blown from the star at different speeds. The powerful jets of gas emerging from the ends of the large structure are estimated to be shooting away from the star at speeds of up to 350 000 kilometres per hour. By the standards of astronomical phenomena, planetary nebulae like NGC 3918 are very short-lived, with a lifespan of just a few tens of thousands of years. The image is a composite of visible and near-infrared snapshots taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The filters used were F658N, F814W, F555W and F502N, seen in red, orange, green and blue respectively. The image is about 20 arcseconds across. Ready for liftoff: Ariane 5 rolls out to the launch zone for its dual-payload flight Hundreds of fires burn across western Russia as Seen from Space

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Shoring Up The Nation's Crumbling Coastlines By editor Originally published on January 28, 2013 10:20 am Transcript IRA FLATOW, HOST: Hurricane Sandy battered the coastline here in New York and New Jersey. Take the city of Long Beach on Long Island. In 2006, the city council unanimously rejected a plan to construct 15-foot-high dunes on the beach there, saying that the 15-foot-high dunes would block ocean views, lower property values, affect surfers' waves. And then Sandy hit and cost some $200 million in damage. Would dunes have spared that Long Beach, that damage? Possibly, because several neighboring communities that did build dunes escaped the worst of Sandy's wrath. What's our next step? Do we abandon the most vulnerable barrier islands, allowing them to be shifted or swallowed up by the sea? Or do we fortify our beachside communities with more mega-dunes, sea walls and jetties? A little bit of both? As for your favorite summer beach spot, with those picturesque dunes topped by sand fences and beach grass, it might not even be there today if engineers didn't dump sand on it every once in a while. What's more, some geologists say we're running out of sand to do that. So for the rest of the hour we're going to talk about changing coastline, preserving our beaches, protecting the cities beyond them, some of the engineering and design challenges there. Let me introduce my guests. Jeff Williams, a senior scientist emeritus at the U.S. Geological Survey at Woods Hole Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He joins us from WCAI. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY, Dr. Williams. JEFF WILLIAMS: Well, thank you, Ira, glad to be here. FLATOW: Robert Young is director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina and a professor of coastal geology there. He joins us from WCQS in Ashville. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY, Dr. Young. ROBERT YOUNG: Thanks, great to be with you. FLATOW: Keith Watson is a coastal engineer and project manager for the Philadelphia district of the Army Corps of Engineers. He joins us by phone. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY, Mr. Watson. KEITH WATSON: Thank you very much, glad to be here. FLATOW: Thank you. Let me ask Jeff Williams. Would our northeast beaches just disappear if we stopped taking care of it? Would all the sand wash away if we didn't keep adding sand to it? WILLIAMS: Well, I think we're under a new reality with climate change. We're seeing increased storm activity. We're seeing accelerated sea level rise. And so what has been the norm in the past I don't think is going to be the norm in the future. So in the future, I think we can expect to see more major storms like Sandy. We're going to see an acceleration in sea level rise for this part of the world. And so I think we're under a need to look at all of these and plan for the future. FLATOW: Rob Young, New Jersey Governor Christie said he wanted to employ beach engineering to bring the beaches back. What is beach engineering? What does that mean? YOUNG: Well, primarily, I think he was speaking about trying to rebuild the beaches through beach nourishment, where you add sand and build sand dunes and essentially try and keep the beaches in place by adding sand to them and rebuilding them. New Jersey has also in the past had a history of building things like very large seawalls and groins and other coastal engineering structures and attempt to protect the property and to hold the shoreline in place. FLATOW: Keith Watson, as a coastal engineer and project manager at the Army Corps of Engineers, what does beach engineering mean to you? WATSON: Well, at the Corps of Engineers, we are in the business of building projects to reduce damages from coastal storms. Most of our projects involve the soft alternative, meaning beach fill with dunes. The dunes are the primary feature that add the protection to reduce the damages from the large coastal storms that occur. We also have some areas within inlets that we have constructed, stone seawalls where there were no beaches to protect the communities. FLATOW: But Hurricane Sandy wiped out many of these dunes and even just plowed the stone seawalls into people's homes. WATSON: Well, I am not aware of any of the Corps seawalls that actually were plowed into anyone's home. Ours held up very well. The two in the Philadelphia district that were constructed in the Hereford Inlet and Townsends Inlet on the north sides of North Wildwood, Hereford Inlet and Avalon fared very well in the storm. In fact, they kept waves from crashing on the homes and the infrastructure that are right behind them. FLATOW: Well, we actually went out ourselves and have video of walls in people's homes, so... WATSON: And where was that? FLATOW: This was in New York. WATSON: Oh, up in New York, OK. I was not aware of that. FLATOW: But it's not a Corps project. It was not a Corps project. What's your opinion, Jeff Williams, about the best way to protect the beaches or the homes on them or to - what should be done for the new reality? WILLIAMS: Well, I think what needs to be done is to recognize that was has happened in the past, as far as shore protection, is not something that's necessarily going to happen in the future. A lot of the techniques of protecting the shoreline, such as beach nourishment were developed following the Ash Wednesday storm in 1962. Clearly, the next 50 years is going to be very different than the last 50 years. And I think we need to take a larger look at the shoreline, not only the New Jersey-New York shoreline but all of the shorelines and start to identify areas that are most vulnerable and then have a discussion as to what that shoreline is going to - is likely to look like in the next 50 years to 100 years and what, if anything, can we do about it. Clearly, some areas, it probably makes sense to build hard structures, if you have urban infrastructure such as New York. Other areas where recreation is important, it might make sense to do beach nourishment projects. But frankly, many areas along the coast, very low-elevation areas that are highly vulnerable, it might not make sense to rebuild in those areas because we're going to see recurrent losses from storms from the result of sea-level rise in the future. And it just doesn't make sense to keep putting federal money, state money into rebuilding those areas. And the other limiting factor on beach nourishment is we know from geologic and geophysical surveys out on the continental shelf that the quantity of really high-quality sand for beach nourishment is very limited. It's a very finite resource. And so if we want to truly have a sustainable coast, we need to recognize that we can't necessarily rely on beach nourishment for decades and decades into the future. There just isn't enough high-quality material to use for beach nourishment. FLATOW: We're talking about coastlines this hour on SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR. I'm Ira Flatow talking with Jeff Williams, Robert Young and Keith Watson. Rob, you've been a vocal critic of rebuilding efforts - dumping sand on beaches, calling - or they say beach nourishment. Why are you so critical of these things? YOUNG: I guess I was primarily been critical of the approach. You know, I'm not saying that coastal communities don't have a right to do beach nourishment, and I'm not suggesting that we should send in the storm troopers and force folks to abandon the coast. You know, the question is how we do this. We have 3,600 miles of shoreline on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast, approximately. You know, we can't afford to hold all of it in place, and we can't afford to protect all of it with federal tax dollars by doing beach fill projects and coastal engineering. We just simply can't afford to do that. And if we are going to spend federal money on some of these projects, we need a national plan for how we're going to do this. So we spend the money in the places where it makes the most sense, does the least amount of environmental damage, gives us the best chance to adapt to long-term sea-level rise. And the way we spend the money right now is we spend it in the place that got hit by the last storm, and, you know, that's reactive and not proactive, and it's the wrong way to do this. FLATOW: And so where should we be spending it then? YOUNG: Well, that's a good question, and I'm, you know, I'm not sure that I can give you a definitive answer. But the Senate on Monday is probably going to authorize spending about $3.5 billion for future coastal construction projects for shoreline protection and risk reduction. And the vast majority of that money has to be spent in the North Atlantic division of the Corps, and it's mostly going to be spent probably in New Jersey and New York. Is that the best place to spend the money? I'm not sure that it is. If we're going to be spending that kind of money, we should have a national perspective. We should - there are a lot of vulnerable shorelines in the United States of America. And we need to bring the best science to the table. We need to have long-term planning. And we don't need to be doing this in emergency spending bill. We need to develop a national plan for how we're going to do this. FLATOW: Mm-hmm. So you're not just saying this because you're not in the northeast? And that money would be going to the northeast. YOUNG: Let me just say that there are some beaches in my home state of North Carolina, like the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where we've been trying to hold North Carolina Highway 12 in place for a couple of decades, where I think we're wasting federal money as well. So I'm not turf guarding here. You know, I think that the best thing for us to do is to take a national approach and let the chips fall where they may, and if we're going to spend these federal dollars. FLATOW: All right. We're going to take a break and come back, talk about - some more about rebuilding the beaches, what's the best way to do that. Our number, 1-800-989-8255 is our number. You can also tweet us @scifri, S-C-I-F-R-I. Reengineering our thinking after this break. Stay with us. I'm Ira Flatow. This is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) FLATOW: This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. We're talking this hour about the new normal; the rising ocean water, as in more intense storms of the future, how our coastlines will cope. Can we engineer our way out of this and to find a solution? Or is it time to retreat? My guests are Jeff Williams of the U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole; Robert Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University; Keith Watson, a coastal engineer, project manager for the Philadelphia district of the Army Corps of Engineers. Keith, what will the Corps do with that $3.5 billion? WATSON: Well, Ira, back to one of the points Mr. Young was making earlier, that the North Atlantic division, and specifically the Jersey Shore, has over 30 million people living within a two-hour drive and all the economics that goes behind that. The shoreline is, you know, developed and the people are there and the society is there. The Corps of Engineers is asked to come in to do studies, to look at how to reduce damages from storms to the infrastructure and the people there. And that's why we're doing our projects. Sea level rise is part of that. Sea level rise is included in the analysis we do. Our projects are authorized for 50 years for each one of the project locations. And the benefits to cost are weighed, and then the projects get authorized for construction only if they demonstrate that they're going to protect more damages than they're going to cost over to 50 years. FLATOW: Is it possible to engineer and build a beach that could resists a storm of the strength of Sandy one more time, or a few hits in the future of a few of those storms? WATSON: Well, unfortunately, we just had Sandy come. And the areas that - along Long Beach Island, for instance, that had the federal project completed saw virtually no damage from the storm the size of Sandy, which along that stretch, you could argue a few of the parameters of the storm. But it's either the first or second in order the storm to ever hit that area. And, you know, those areas that had the federal project saw very little damage. FLATOW: And... WATSON: One mile down the shore, you have millions and - hundreds of millions of dollars damage on the rest of the island. FLATOW: Was that due because there were very strong sand dunes in there for - protective sand dunes growing for years? WATSON: There's only one area that had a very large sand dunes not federally constructed on that island and - actually, two, Ship Bottom and Barnegat Light, were the two areas. Barnegat Light probably have some of the largest dunes on the Jersey Shore for any other communities. But the only other areas that did not take significant damage from the ocean were Harvey Cedars and Surf City and this area in Long Beach township known as Brant Beach where we had constructed the federal project. FLATOW: What was the - describe for us that project that you were talking that resisted Sandy. WATSON: Sure. In those communities on Long Beach Island, they were constructed beach fills. They have dunes with a berm and a foreshore slope constructed in front of them to protect the dune as the storm waters are rising. The dunes are approximately 22-foot elevation. It's based on North Atlantic - North American Vertical Datum of '88. So the dunes were substantial. They did take significant erosion from Sandy but did do their jobs to significantly reduce the damages behind us. FLATOW: Mm-hmm. And is it possible to do that up and down the whole coastline? Is that desirable? WATSON: We - well, for the corps, we're going to work in areas that we've been authorized to. And each one of the studies have to have - and, again, I've said - analysis period of 50 years. We take into accounts sea level rise and the availability of sand for that reach. I'm going to go to Mr. Williams' point about the sand resources. Right now, for all the projects we have, we have enough sand resources. In the future, the projects need to be re-evaluated just for that. One of the reasons is for that. FLATOW: Because there's not enough sand. Why is there not enough sand anymore? WATSON: Well, that would be a question for Mr. Williams. FLATOW: Jeff, do you want to answer that? WILLIAMS: Yeah. Let me just say that the - basically, the beaches that we have, the barrier beaches that we have now, for the most part, are just several thousand years old. And there's no new sediment that's coming down the rivers or coming from the continental shelf to really feed those beaches. And so what we have are all that we're going to get. And as sea level rose, we have to remember that at the end of the last glacial period, sea level was about 400 feet lower than where it is at the present time. As the climate warmed and sea level rose naturally, a lot of that sand that was out on the continental shelf got carried landward, and that's what constructed the beaches that we have now. But as a result, the continental shelf is fairly devoid in many places - particularly along the New Jersey coast - fairly devoid of sand deposits that might be used for beach nourishment. FLATOW: So the - I'm sorry. WILLIAMS: There are some shoals out there that contain sand that can be used, and that's what the Corps has been using. But those shelves are very limited, and once they're dredged and that material is brought up on the beach, they don't replenish themselves. That sand, as a resource, is essentially gone. YOUNG: Ira, can I add one more thing here? FLATOW: Sure. Please... YOUNG: You know, I think that, you know, the debris to which Corps projects protected infrastructure during Sandy, you know, still needs to be evaluated from a very rigorous scientific perspective. And we may find out that they did play an important role. But the real issue here is, you know, whose job is it to pay for the protection of that private property along the Jersey shore? Is it the job of federal taxpayers to pay for this? And should federal taxpayers be paying for the protection of private property along every beach in America? And, you know, we're told that it's, you know, it's worth the money because these coastal economies are so vibrant and so vigorous. And, you know, I forget what the number that Governor Christie quoted from New Jersey. Something like $32 billion a year in tourism, you know? And our point has always been that if these coastal economies are so critical and so vibrant in generating so much income, then they ought to be able to pay for these projects themselves. It should not be the job of federal taxpayers to step in there and assume the job of covering the risk for people who choose to continue to live in vulnerable coastal areas. I'm not suggesting that we order them off the beach. I'm just suggesting that if they decide to continue to invest in those areas, they shouldn't expect taxpayers to cover the risk. FLATOW: Could you make regulations for getting the money that you build higher up? Maybe on, you know, pilings of 10 feet above the sea level that might protect you from the next flood. YOUNG: I mean, obviously, elevating structures is a good idea, and we've heard a lot of people talking about doing that along the Jersey coast. But, you know, if you elevate your home and the barrier island around and is disappearing underneath you, that's not going to help. And so along with elevating the houses, you know, primarily, what we're talking about right now is trying to hold the shoreline in place in front of those houses despite rising sea level and despite the future of coastal storms. And we know this is going to happen. We know these solutions are temporary. So, you know, in order to make wiser decisions at the coast, I think we need to allow markets to play a greater role in deciding where it makes sense to rebuild and where it doesn't. And as long as federal taxpayers are absorbing all of the risks of those decisions by piling money back into these communities and by putting the beaches back and maintaining those beaches in place, then, you know, there's no disincentive of rebuilding. FLATOW: Why did the shoreline move? WATSON: I think a point that needs to be made about that is the beaches aren't only there for the folks that are there, living there. They're also used by everyone else in the country that comes to the beaches for recreation, tourism and all the other reasons that they're there. We can have debate on where the federal dollar is to be spent, but we can have that debate on just about anything that the federal government does. The Corps of Engineers doesn't decide. We only act when we're called upon to protect the areas that it's, to our rules and regulations, is justified to do the work, from a federal investment standpoint. YOUNG: Yes, but those beach communities are reaping all of the economic benefits. And so, you know, in America, we believe in markets and we believe in allowing markets to play a role in setting property values and, you know, deciding where it makes sense to build an economy. And in this case, the fact that federal taxpayers continue to subsidize maintaining those beaches in front of those homes means that we are in - that's a false economy, in effect. And you're right. Other Americans like to go to those beaches, but we go to those beaches and we leave our money. We don't leave those beaches with money. And, you know, the beaches - to get back to your question, Ira, the beaches are moving because sea level is rising. And so, you know, the shoreline is naturally trying to slide landward with rising sea level. And if there was no development there, the beaches would not disappear, you know? Some shorelines like the Barrier Islands off the coast of Virginia are moving very rapidly in response to rising sea level. But the beaches don't disappear. The beaches are still there. You know, the beaches start to disappear when you have roads, seawalls or development. And then the beaches, when sea level rises and the coastline tries to retreat, the beaches themselves disappear in front of that development. And so beach nourishment projects, fill projects, are an effort to maintain those beaches in front of the investment property. And if the investment property were not there, the beaches that the rest of the Americans would like to visit would be there. It's just that the houses wouldn't be there. FLATOW: Mm-hmm. 1-800-989-8255 is our number. Is that the $3.5 billion? I got only about a minute left. Is that - can be enough to nourish and rebuild all those beaches along the East Coast, Keith Watson? WATSON: The amount of monies that are in the bill that's pending in Congress would be enough for us to repair the beaches that are damaged and construct the other federally authorized projects within New Jersey. I can only speak for the territory that, you know, I am in charge of. But I think also for the entire North Atlantic division. YOUNG: Since about the 1930s, Ira, we've spent around $1 billion total on all of the beach building projects in New Jersey. We tracked this in a database at the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines. So that's $1 billion in 2012 dollars to rebuild all of the beaches through the last several decades in New Jersey. So actually, $3.5 billion is a huge amount of money. I mean, they can rebuild every beach from Delaware to Connecticut, and there's going to be money left over. You know, I'd really to know what they're going to do with that money. And it's not spelled out in the authorization bill. FLATOW: All right. We run of time. I'd like to thank my guest, Jeff Williams, senior scientist emeritus for the U.S. Geological Survey at Woods Hole Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts; Robert Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina, and professor of coastal geology there; Keith Watson, coastal engineer and project manager for the Philadelphia district of the Army Corps of Engineers. Thank you all for taking time to be with us today. WILLIAMS: Thank you, Ira. FLATOW: You're welcome. WATSON: Thank you, Ira YOUNG: Thank you. FLATOW: I'm Ira Flatow. This is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.View the discussion thread. © 2016 Tri States Public Radio

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LEONARDO’S BRIDGE: Part 3. “Vebjørn Sand and Variations on a Theme by Leonardo” Posted by Bulent Atalay of Author, National Geographic Books; author, Smithsonian Books; Professor. UMW and UVA. on February 3, 2013 (13) More » The Ultimate Fusion of Form and Function. The blue hour photo shows Leonardo’s Bridge inspired by a 500-year old sketch. “One of the five coolest bridges in the world,” declared Wired Magazine (2005). The photo above appeared previously in the author’s book, Leonardo’s Universe (National Geographic Books, 2009) Vebjørn Sand is a contemporary Norwegian artist, who divides his time between the United States and Norway. In 1996, in viewing a special exhibition of drawings and replicas of Leonardo’s inventions, Mr. Sand became transfixed by the shear beauty and modernity of a bridge the Renaissance master had sketched in a notebook — a bridge he proposed building in Istanbul 500 years earlier. On his return to Oslo, he approached the Norwegian Public Roads Administration offering a partnership in building a variation of Leonardo’s bridge in Norway. Rare among public utility works anywhere, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration is known to operate with a policy of promoting art in public spaces. Nonetheless, finding receptive officials willing to resurrect a half-millennium old design planned for Turkey and implement it in Scandinavia had to be a pleasant surprise for Mr. Sand. Soon an ideal partnership would develop between the resourceful artist and the enlightened Public Roads Administration. Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO (Completed in 1965). Leonardo’s original design for a single-arch bridge made of stone and long enough to span the 240 m (800-ft) width of the Golden Horn in Istanbul, called for a “pressed bow structure.” This is the mathematical shape described as an “inverted parabola” or “a parabola that spills water.” The parabolic structure supports the weight of the roadway draped over it by pressing down and outward against the bridge’s abutments that are anchored in terra firma. More generally, the silhouette of the bridge in Leonardo’s drawing suggests that a pair of parabolas with different steepness is superposed. The area between the wider parabola, located above, and the steeper parabola (below) creates an elegantly tapered parabola, resembling the upper reaches of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis (built between 1963-65). The roadway in Leonardo’s drawing is draped over the supporting parabolic structure. THE BRIDGE IN ÅS Mr. Sand and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration agreed that Leonardo’s design could be adapted for a pedestrian/bicycle bridge over Highway E-18, connecting Oslo and Bergen and about 20 km southwest of Oslo. Leonardo’s original specs for the Golden Horn would be scaled down to roughly 1/3 for the Ås site. The roadway would measure 360 feet in length. Between 1996 and 2001, the Leonardo Bridge Project team performed systematic design and structural load tests in close collaboration with architects and engineers. Both a Leondardesque stone bridge and a laminated-wood version were developed and tested. In the end, the bridge in Ås would be created as a steel-reinforced structure, comprised of laminated wood. It was fortuitous that the technology to build massive structures out of laminated Norwegian Spruce had already been developed in forest-rich Norway. For the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, laminated wood had been employed in the construction of a cavernous arena. In the creation of the Leonardo Bridge precisely shaped components could be prefabricated, then assembled with the use of cranes. A set of three parabolic supports were created for the bridge, a central component supporting the roadway, and two others stabilizing the central parabola. The roadway would rest on metal pillars of varying lengths (visible in the photos below). A pair of images showing the assembling of the Leonardo Bridge (2001). All the Photos, compliments of the Leonardo Bridge Project. Night and day views of Leonardo’s Bridge over Highway E-18, twenty-km from Oslo. BRIDGES BUILT OF ICE After spearheading the building of the Leonardo Bridge in Ås, Mr. Sand and the Leonardo Bridge Team launched a program to build bridges on each of the earth’s continents. Several Leonardo Bridges already have been created of ice. Ices bridges around the world. Top: The UN Plaza (2007); Copenhagen (2009); Bottom: Greenland (2009); Antarctica 2005. During the first decade of the 21st century, the Leonardo Bridge Project Team built a series of four ice bridges. At any level, they are works of art, far more aesthetic than utilitarian, and far more fleeting than permanent, but they all resonate with strong symbolism. They represent bridging space and time, ethnic and cultural differences, or in Sand’s words, “…touch something eternal.” The four ice bridges seen in the array above were intended to promote the “LIVE ICE” Project, calling attention to the fragility of the Earth’s ice cover. • Ice Bridge in Copenhagen created for the Climate Conference in late 2009. The spire in the background belongs to the Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center (formerly the Church of St. Nikolaj) • Ice Bridge at the UN Plaza, New York, 2007 • Ice Bridge in Greenland in early 2009 • Ice Bridge in Antarctica 2005. An amalgam of water and crushed ice hacked at the site is poured into prefabricated metal forms and allowed to freeze. When the forms are removed, left behind is an ice bridge with the graceful design inspired by Leonardo’s original drawing. PARABOLIC SUPPORT Ultimately, Leonardo’s bridge exhibits the “pressed bow design,” or an “inverted parabola” (in the language of calculus, a “parabola that spills water”). Its shape is described by a simple quadratic equation, including a leading negative sign to insure that the parabola “spills water,” and a coefficient employed as a “Dilation Factor”, that determines the steepness. “Let no man who is not a mathematician read the elements of my work.” — Leonardo Leonardo’s self-portrait (c. 1510), Turin Royal Library. Leonardo did not know very much formal mathematics, but he had abiding respect and love for mathematics. He would have had no understanding of the analytic geometry and calculus, areas of mathematics that would be formulated during the 17th century by Descartes, Newton and Leibnitz, and used in describing curves, and calculating optimal shapes. Yet he demonstrated an intuitive feel for mathematical shapes and patterns. The hyperbolic spiral appears in the curls of his subjects’ hair, and in the eddies in flowing water. He knew the parabola well, having recognized a century before Galileo that the trajectory of a projectile is a parabola. This is seen in his drawings. He illustrated the book de Divina Proportione (“The Divine Proportion”) for his mathematician friend, Luca Pacioli, demonstrating again that mathematical intuition. The more one studies Leonardo, the more one realizes that he was in the business, not of predicting the future, but of inventing the future. It would not be until the Industrial Revolution that the materials and the mechanical power would become available for Leonardo’s mental inventions, his dreams, to be fully realized. By the late 19th century the use of steam and electrical power, of new materials and techniques, of steel girders, high tensile strength cables made his idea more practical. But, Leonardo had realized four hundred years earlier that the parabolic arch would be the key to distributing the weight, especially with the widening footholds. One of the most celebrated bridges of the 20th century, built in the 1930s, is the Sydney Harbor Bridge, spanning a waterway of 503 m (1650 ft). A pair of parabolic structures, one above the other, is used in suspending a flat roadway, rather than supporting it from below. A truss-system of cross-arms in a saw-tooth pattern gives it a more slender overall silhouette, and minimizes the steel required. Sydney Harbor Bridge, featuring a parabolic system of supports for the suspended roadway. Just to the left, the Sydney Opera House which appears to complement the bridge with its own parabolic sails. Photo, Murray Lines of Sydney. Daniel Levy had written in a 1999 edition of Time Magazine, “A bridge that Leonardo designed in 1502…is scheduled for construction outside Oslo and there is talk of building similar bridges in Des Moines, Iowa and Istanbul itself.” The bridge in Norway was built, and indeed opened with pomp and circumstance by no other than Queen Sonja in 2001. An array of ice bridges have been built across the world. And Leonardo is one step closer to getting his bridge built in Istanbul. The bridge in Iowa, unhappily, fell through, deemed, “…too modern for our times.” Melinda Iverson and Vebjørn Sand For informative discussions and for photos of the Leonardo Bridge Project I am deeply grateful to my friends Vebjørn Sand and Melinda Iverson. Vebjørn is the visionary artist who spearheaded the building of Leonardo’s Bridge in Ås, and subsequently the ice bridges in other parts of the world. Melinda is the International Projects Producer for the Leonardo Bridge Project, Inc., charged with developing the group’s projects around the world and writing, designing and curating events related to the Leonardo Bridge Project/LIVE ICE and Vebjørn’s other public art projects. See the website, http://www.leonardobridgeproject.org/ Finally, I am grateful to my friend, Murray Lines, who shared the photo of Sydney Harbor for this article. So far in this series: LEONARDO’S BRIDGE: Part 1. “The Master of all Trades” LEONARDO’S BRIDGE: Part 2. “A Bridge for the Sultan” LEONARDO’S BRIDGE: Part 3. “Vebjørn Sand and Variations on a Theme by Leonardo” Still to come: Part 4. “Hakan Kiran and Variations on a theme by Leonardo” In October 2012 the Turkish Government announced through the public media plans to build Leonardo’s Bridge over the Golden Horn (Haliç). The Istanbul based Architectural Firm of Hakan Kiran, that has been garnering an impressive international reputation for its bold works in Turkey and Europe, was awarded the commission that Leonardo sought in 1502. Hakan Kiran, his wife Tülin Kiran, along with Chief Architect A. Ulvi Altan, have been working on variations of Leonardo’s Bridge. The timing is auspicious with Mr. Altan currently serving as the President of the Mediterranean Society of Engineers and Architects (SEAMED). The group operates under the auspices of the scientific organization Réseau Méditerranéen des Ecoles d’Ingénieurs (RMEI). Under Mr. Altan’s leadership, SEAMED itself is rapidly growing into a unique institution in its collaborative efforts on the Leonardo da Vinci Bridge Project (LDV Bridge). The group’s motto, “Bridging Cultures and Sharing Heart,” would have pleased Leonardo. The bridge for the Golden Horn is still in design stage, but it is in decidedly good hands! ETSUKO_LEGERE September 2, 1:30 pm Valuable post , I was enlightened by the details – Does anyone know where my assistant could get a fillable CMS 1490S example to fill out ? Jasmine wang Retford, Notts., Uk October 20, 2013, 2:13 pm Hi Bulent, A very informative article.. great work. I just came across your article, and forward it to a great friend of mine. I took a photo of Mathematical Bridge in July and thought of an article about an old bridge in China I learned at school. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anji_Bridge and one of my friends great uncle built this one : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Yangtze_River_Bridge, unforturnately both of them were built without Leonardo’s help, Marco Polo didn’t tell him 😀 keep up your great work, back soon. micro job http://www.sleekservice.com May 23, 2013, 11:02 am I really like and appreciate your weblog post.Much thanks once more. Want more. Maria Ocampos February 24, 2013, 11:09 am An informative article from the beginning to the end, with good photos to illustrate it, the one in Oslo is so simple and well illuminated, while the ice ones besides being ecological, are beautiful and ephemeral. About Leonardo, what can I said, but remember his words..”Let no man (or women, politically correct) who is not a mathematician read the elements of my work” So I only will say that his idea of a bridge made of a single arch over the Golden Horn, was indeed a creative one, lets pray it will be done in harmony with the magic environment Thanks for sharing your knowledge about Leonardo! Ghislaine Scarici February 12, 2013, 4:22 pm Dear Bulent, What a fascinating article! Leonardo was a genius. The details you presented are remarkable. Congratulations for your interesting works, you enriched my knowledge. Wireless Bridge website February 12, 2013, 2:13 am I just came onto your post and found it quite interesting. I am also associated with IP Camera Software, Ruckus Wireless and enjoy to read the stuff on the same as its rarely found on internet. Thanks again for writing such a good post. Didi Massoud February 9, 2013, 1:41 pm Leonardo da Vinci was a great visionary I did not know that this project could be done today I appreciate that this architecture is highlighted by the image Well done my friend Bulent Atalay February 9, 2013, 2:40 pm Thank you for the note from the Loire Valley in France. You live close to Amboise, I believe, where this ornament to our species is buried. Unhappily, after his crypt was disturbed during the French Revolution, and his remains were thrown into a common grave, they cannot be identified. John Maenhout Maldegem Belgium February 8, 2013, 2:15 pm It surprised me that Leonardo did not know much formal mathematics, and yet he was able to create such designs. Centuries later he inspires others with his designs. Dear Bulent, thanks to your research I have come to a deeper appreciation of the great master Leonardo da Vinci. Thank you for your work on National Geographic. February 8, 2013, 2:31 pm Hello John, Leonardo used to tell his apprentices, “Learn from nature, not from each other.” Five hundred years later, we learn from, and appreciate what we can learn from nature. Regarding his mathematics, in the 1490s he put aside painting, in order to learn mathematics from Fra Luca Pacioli. No doubt, he quickly surpassed Pacioli, but it was his intuitive understanding, rather than the formal training that allowed him to bring together the mathematics, art, architecture… His study of anatomy, however, was all his own work. He did anatomical studies (although it was illegal in those days) and illustrated the human body with greater understanding than any anatomist ever. Thanks again, John. Bulent Caroline Carver Falmouth, VA February 6, 2013, 8:51 am I loved reading this series about Leonardo’s bridge, his invention of the future, as you so eloquently explain. Norway’s promotion of art in public spaces in partnership with the Public Roads Administration is impressive, and I hope we will see Leonardo’s bridge over the Golden Horn in our lifetime. Remarkable! February 6, 2013, 9:16 am Thank you for the comment, Caroline. I am impressed by Hakan Kiran and his architectural firm in Istanbul. I think they will do justice to Leonardo’s dream. (See Hakan Kiran Architecture / Bold steps from tradition to the future…http://bit.ly/X3vCnb) Melinda Iverson February 4, 2013, 2:37 pm Can’t wait for the next section!! Wonderful!!

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Q&A With National Geographic Museum’s ‘Croc Keeper’ Posted by Caroline Gerdes of NG Young Explorers on February 2, 2016 (0) More » Baby alligators at National Geographic Museum. (Photo by Mark Thiessen) Last week, National Geographic Museum at National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, D.C. opened its family-friendly, interactive exhibit, “Crocs: Ancient Predators in a Modern World.” “Crocs” explores a family of species that has flourished for more than 200 million years, and showcases the diversity of forms the group has taken during that time period. Visitors can interpret croc calls, create 3-D animations, and test their strength against a croc on a modified force gauge. The exhibit also features dioramas with both models and living crocodiles. Yes, live crocodiles just a few blocks from the White House. Thankfully, they didn’t come alone. Jake Woods, a zookeeper from Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland (the accredited zoo in Pennsylvania where the exhibit was created), has come to D.C. and is taking care of National Geographic HQ’s new residents. He recently answered some questions about his wild life and “Crocs: Ancient Predators in a Modern World.” Jake Woods with a display crocodile in the National Geographic Museum. (Photo by Shakita Tucker) What does your job with the current “Crocs” exhibit entail? A lot of feeding and maintenance of the animals—they’re crocodilians, so they do have a nice, healthy appetite. Also keeping things clean—there’s a lot of water, so making sure the pumps and filters and stuff like that are all working as they should. It’s a very highly interactive exhibit so there are lots of buttons, lots of TV screens, lots of things like that. I need to make sure all of that stuff is working as well. How did you get this gig? I was a biology major in college but I kind of geared it more toward ecology and animal studies. And then out of college I got an internship with a zoo in Kentucky that’s an all-reptile zoo. Then, right after there, I hooked up with Clyde Peeling’s, and I will have been there three years in April. In all of your years dealing with reptiles have you ever had any close calls? I work with big guys like our Komodo dragons and a couple really big alligators. I work with venomous stuff. Things like that. But, we’ve all been trained very well. We’re trained to handle any situation. I still have all my fingers and things like that. So, no close calls [laughs]. What can you tell us about the exhibit? What kind of crocs are featured? We have four live species with the exhibit. Right when you walk in, the first ones you’re going to see are these slender-snouted crocodiles from Western Africa. And then we have six baby alligators. The baby alligators are only about five months old right now. They’re pretty cute and adorable when you watch them swim around. We also have one of the most endangered croc species: the Siamese crocodile. The biggest animal that we have here is a six-foot-long African dwarf crocodile, also from Western Africa. He’s a pretty good-looking guy, a pretty hefty guy, but he’s not going to get any bigger because these crocs only get to be five or six feet long. He’s 36 so he’s getting up there, but he’ll live another 20 or 30 years easily. I’m sorry, how old? He’s 36 right now, but he can be in his 50s or 60s, no problem. Wow. They live a long time. How did you get them to D.C.? They were brought from our zoo. We got special shipping containers for them. We loaded them up, and then we drove them down here, and then got them into their exhibit as soon as we could. Is there anything else you would like to add about the exhibit? Small kids can come in and see the animals moving around. There’s lots of things you can touch or play with. People that are older—20s, 30s, 40s, on up—there are interactive things to learn from. The whole family can enjoy it. With live crocodiles, fossils, and interactive displays, “Crocs” puts museum going on a whole new … scale. (Image courtesy National Geographic Museum) [This interview has been condensed and edited.] Catch “Crocs: Ancient Predators in a Modern World” at National Geographic Museum between now and May 9, 2016.

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Computer's Screen Inspired First Video Game, 'Space War' By editor Originally published on July 1, 2013 6:11 pm Transcript ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: We've been talking occasionally with inventors about what inspired their creations. Today, a computer scientist in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fifty-one years ago, one of the first digital video games was born out of his imagination. STEVE RUSSELL: My name is Steve Russell, sometimes known as Slug. In 1961, I was working for the MIT Artificial Intelligence Project, and a new computer got given to MIT by its maker, the Digital Equipment Corporation. And it was all transistorized, so it was relatively reliable, and it had a CRT display on it. CRT is the initials for cathode ray tube, the tube that was used before flat panels came for television. And it was also developed a lot in World War II for radar. So I thought this was interesting and a couple of things made it even more interesting. One was Professor Marvin Minsky had written a little program that displayed three spots on the screen, and they influenced each other and generated a sort of kaleidoscope display. It was interesting for an hour or two, but after a while you realize that eventually everything decayed into a random pattern. So I started talking up the idea that a better demonstration was needed. And the space race was very much in the news at the time. And so I started talking up the idea of a spaceship trainer that would teach people how to fly a spaceship. And what I got going was a display which showed two spaceships on the screen, and it had some random stars in the background. To add a little motivation to learning how to fly a spaceship, we added torpedoes, and we consciously designed it to be a game. We called it "Space War!" And when everything got working, I decided that was pretty good, so I added an exclamation point. SIEGEL: That's Steve Russell, creator of "Space War!" an early digital video game. It premiered for the public at the 1962 Science Open House at MIT. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) SIEGEL: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.Related Program: All Things Considered from NPRView the discussion thread. © 2016 WHQR

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People August 2013 Steven Webster has been installed as vice president engineering and flight operations, a new position at American Eurocopter. He will be responsible for engineering, certifications, flight operations and the lean/continuous improvement programs. A 28-year helicopter industry veteran, he joins from AVX Aircraft, where he was technology director and program manager for military aircraft development programs. He has also worked at AgustaWestland and Bell Helicopter (including the company’s Xworx research and development operation). In Europe, Eurocopter has reassigned Matthieu Louvot as head of support and services from his previous position as head of strategy and company development. He will report to Dominique Maudet, head of global business and services. Louvot joined Eurocopter in April 2010 after starting his career with the General Inspectorate of Finance in the French finance ministry. Astronics Corporation has named Dale Farr rotary sales manager for its Max-Viz enhanced vision systems (EVS). Farr was previously with Erickson Air-Crane as aviation safety manager and tanker pilot. He brings more than 30 years of civilian and military rotary-wing experience to Astronics, flying multiple helicopters in aerial firefighting, EMS and offshore operations, according to Elliott Troutman, executive vice president. Farr retired from the U.S. Army in 2001 as a CW4 when he was serving as a military standardization instructor pilot. He is a member of the Helicopter Association International Safety Committee. CAE’s new group president of Civil Simulation Products, Training and Services is Nick Leontidis, a 25-year employee with the company. He replaces Jeff Roberts, who is leaving. Leontidis moves from executive vice president of the Strategy and Business Development division. His wide international experience includes China, where he was responsible for building CAE’s sales and relationships. Merex, a global support provider for U.S.-manufactured legacy defense platforms including aircraft, helicopters and their respective engines, has appointed Stuart Reid as director, International Business development. He will be responsible for developing key international markets. Reid’s previous post was as program manager for strategic growth programs within CIRCOR International’s aerospace division. Calvin Rieb has joined Professional Resources In System Management (PRISM) as its helicopter aviation services program manager, while Jenna Albrecht has been appointed as safety analyst for business aviation. Rieb has 11 years of aviation safety management experience and is an experienced U.S. Army medevac pilot, while Albrecht has a master’s degree in safety science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She also holds a variety of flight certificates and ratings including commercial pilot and certified flight instructor (CFI). Bell Helicopter’s new chief financial officer is Al Vetere, previously the company’s vice president of financial military programs. Vetere has led some of the company’s largest contract negotiations with the U.S. government, with his 30 years of experience contributing to two-multi year contracts on the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey program. John Garrison, Bell Helicopter’s president and CEO, praised Vetere’s “vast knowledge of finance and business management as well as military contracts.”

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| Carbon Nanotubes | Nanomedicine | Nanomaterials | Dendrimers | Nanoanalysis | Nanooptics and Nanophotonics Potential Of Carbon Nanotubes As Weapons Against Cancer Published on June 26, 2009 at 7:39 PM Written by AZoNanoJun 26 2009 Carbon nanotubes, one of the original engineered nanomaterials, also may prove to be among the most versatile, as numerous teams of investigators continue to develop novel nanotube-based therapeutic and diagnostic tools. Over the past month, three new research papers have highlighted the potential of nanotubes as weapons against cancer. Reporting its work in the journal Biomacromolecules, a group headed by James R. Baker, Jr., M.D., University of Michigan, describes its success in linking single-molecule nanoparticles known as dendrimers to the surface of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. The resulting combination nanomaterial is highly stable, readily disperses in water, and is biocompatible. The dendrimers that Dr. Baker’s group uses function as targeting agents that deliver the nanotubes specifically to tumor cells that overexpress high-affinity folic acid receptors. Although other research teams also have developed methods for targeting nanotubes to tumors, this approach holds particular promise because dendrimers also can be modified to carry drugs and imaging agents as well as targeting agents. As a result, explained Dr. Baker, who heads one of the 12 National Cancer Institute Cancer Nanotechnology Platform Partnerships, this current research provides a one-step method for adding multiple functions to carbon nanotubes without the need for developing complex new methods for modifying the nanotubes. Efforts to develop carbon nanotubes for use in cancer applications also received a boost from work presented in a set of two papers published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics. In these papers, a team of investigators led by Alex Biris, Ph.D., and Vladimir P. Zharov, Ph.D., D.Sc., University of Arkansas at Little Rock, describes methods for detecting, tracking, and killing cancer cells in real time with carbon nanotubes. In their first paper, the investigators demonstrate that they can use a technique known as Raman spectroscopy to track carbon nanotubes as they move through a living animal. “Until now, nobody has been able to fully understand and study in vivo and in real time how these nanoparticles travel through a living system,” said Dr. Biris. “By using Raman spectroscopy, we showed that it is possible not only to monitor and detect nanomaterials moving through the circulation, but also to detect single cancer cells tagged with carbon nanotubes. In this way, we can measure their clearance rate and their biodistribution kinetics through the lymph and blood systems.” Related StoriesModern Methods of Particle Characterization - Supplier Data By MicromeriticsCancer Cooking Lesson, A Basic Look At How Nanotechnology Can Be Used To Physically Destroy Cancer Cells and Cure The Body of CancerMulti-Functional Nanoparticles and Their Role in Cancer Drug Delivery – A ReviewDr. Zharov emphasized that in vivo Raman flow cytometry is promising for the detection and identification of a broad spectrum of various nanoparticles with strong Raman scattering properties, such as cells, bacteria, and even viruses. “Before any clinical application of nanoparticles, it is imperative to determine their pharmacological profiles,” he said. “This tool will provide this function as a supplement or even as an alternative to the existing methods.” In this project, Drs. Biris and Zharov and colleague Ekaterina I. Galanzha, M.D., injected a single human cancer cell containing carbon nanotube material in the tail vein of a test rat. They were able to follow the circulation of the carbon nanotubes in the blood vessels to the rat’s ear, tracking the cell through the rat’s bloodstream, lymphatic system, and tissue with a Raman spectrometer. In their second paper, Drs. Biris and Zharov show that once carbon nanotubes reach tumors and their location is pinpointed using another technique known as time-resolved infrared thermal imaging, the nanotubes can be turned into miniature heaters through laser irradiation. The hot nanotubes then bake the tumors to death from the inside out. This set of experiments demonstrates that the cancer-killing process affects only the nanotube-labeled cancer cells, which disintegrate and die within a matter of hours after treatment. The investigators believe that this approach could be particularly useful for treating small tumors, tumor margins, and micrometastases. Dr. Baker’s work, which is detailed in the paper “Multifunctional dendrimer-modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes: synthesis, characterization, and in vitro cancer cell targeting and imaging,” was supported by the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, a comprehensive initiative designed to accelerate the application of nanotechnology to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. Investigators from Donghua University in Shanghai, China, and the University of Georgia also participated in this study. Drs. Biris and Zharov’s work, which was supported with funding from the National Cancer Institute, is detailed in the papers “In vivo Raman flow cytometry for real-time detection of carbon nanotube kinetics in lymph, blood, and tissues” and “Nanophotothermolysis of multiple scattered cancer cells with carbon nanotubes guided by time-resolved infrared thermal imaging.” Investigators from Louisiana State University also contributed to the second paper. Graphene & Nanotubes

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A 2-hour, 14-minute walk into history Sentinel Staff The Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility at 4:17 p.m. EDT with 20 seconds of descent fuel remaining for the landing, about 4 miles from the original target.The plan called for astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to get some rest before exploring the lunar surface, but they elected to sleep later. After 6 1/2 hours spent donning their portable life-support systems, they were ready to step out onto the moon's surface.10:55 p.m. Armstrong places a television camera onto the lunar module ladder, then sets foot on the moon. The event is viewed live on television by an estimated 600 million people. He immediately scoops up some lunar soil and places it in a bag attached to his spacesuit.11:15 p.m.Aldrin follows Armstrong out on the moon.The two men deploy a second television camera. An American flag is raised.A plaque is unveiled with the inscription: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon July, 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."The astronauts deploy an experiment that is designed to measure the flux of electrically charged particles emitted in space by the sun. They set an aluminum-foil sheet on a pole facing the sun for 77 minutes. The foil is then collected for laboratory analysis to determine the composition of solar winds.The astronauts spend about six minutes setting up a seismometer to help determine the moon's internal structure and record meteoroid impacts and tectonic disturbances. The experiment is powered by solar panels by day and equipped with small heaters to help it survive the 300-degrees-below-zero lunar night.The astronauts spend about four minutes deploying a laser-beam reflector about 10 feet from the seismometer. The reflector array is designed to allow very precise measurements of the point-to-point distance from Earth to the moon. Scientists are primarily looking for previously unmeasurable variations in the orbit and rotation of Earth and the moon.Both crewmen evaluate their ability to move around on the surface, examine the lunar module and take pictures of the terrain. They range out to about 100 feet from the lunar module. They speak live with President Richard Nixon. They collect lunar material to be transported back to Earth in airtight containers.1:09 a.m.Armstrong and Aldrin re-enter the lunar module, have a meal and sleep for eight hours before preparing to lift off.SOURCE: NASA EXCLUSIVE: Q & A with Buzz Aldrin Apollo 11: These men helped make it happen Central Floridians reflect on where they were when Eagle landed

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Election Section Computer chip designer loses key ruling Tuesday June 05, 2001 SAN FRANCISCO — Computer chip designer Rambus Inc. has lost a crucial round in its legal fight to enforce patent claims that could generate $1 billion in royalties. A federal judge in Virginia on Friday dismissed Rambus’ allegations that German chip maker Infineon Technologies infringed on patents for chip designs that help accelerate the speed of video game consoles and personal computers. The ruling represented a significant setback for Los Altos-based Rambus, which is pursuing a dozen patent infringement claims against Infineon, Hyundai and Micron. The chip makers are suing Rambus for breach of contract and seeking to invalidate Rambus patents. Investors reacted swiftly to the news, released shortly before the stock market closed for the week. The Nasdaq Stock Market temporarily halted trading in the stock. When trading resumed, Rambus’ shares plunged $3.55, or 19.6 percent, to close at $14.60. However, they regained some of those losses in the after-hours session, rising 92 cents. The outcome of the patent battles will have a huge impact on Rambus’ fortunes. If Rambus prevails, the company could collect $1 billion in annual royalties from chip sales, estimated Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Mark Edelstone, who downgraded Rambus’ stock on Friday’s news. Rambus is on a pace to generate about $100 million in royalties during its current fiscal year. The adverse ruling could force Rambus to lower the royalties charged its licensees, which include Samsung, Hitachi, Toshiba and NEC. “If the courts rule these patents are invalid, you have to wonder how long these other companies are going to want to pay royalties,” Edelstone said. Rambus earned $21.1 million on revenues of $66 million during the first half of its fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Royalties accounted for 77 percent of the company’s revenues during the period. Rambus intends to appeal Friday’s ruling. “Rambus will continue to fight to protect our intellectual property,” CEO Geoff Tate said. “Though Rambus is a relatively small company, we will not be cowed by the aggressive tactics of some industry giants who would take our innovations without any compensation.” The company, which holds more than 100 patents worldwide, will get its next chance to prove its case against Infineon in a European trial scheduled to begin May 18. Several chip patents recently issued to Rambus aren’t affected by Friday’s ruling, according to the company. Rambus’ unusually high royalty rates helped provoke the legal confrontation. In the Virginia trial, Rambus executives disclosed that the company charges a 3.5 percent royalty for one of its memory chip designs, about three times the industry average. The higher royalty expense can make the difference between a profit and loss for chip makers. ——— On The Net: http://www.rambus.com Links we like:

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The Rise Of The Renting And Sharing Economy Could Have Catastrophic Ripple Effects New York City's new "citi bike" bike-sharing program.Omar Rawlings (cc) via FlickrIn America, home ownership is losing ground to the rental cohort, and new internet-based services like Airbnb, Rent the Runway, Zipcar, and TaskRabbit – just to name a few – have enabled the rise of the "renting and sharing economy." Now, "rent" is becoming the new "own," according to market strategists at ConvergEx Group, who warn that the ripple effects of such a trend could be "catastrophic." "Americans of every demographic are flocking to services like Airbnb, Taskrabbit, and Bag Borrow or Steal for one overwhelming reason: Renting and sharing allow us to live the life we want without spending beyond our means," the strategists write in a note to clients. "Not all of it is intentional, mind you: Low cash flow (or none at all) is most certainly driving many customers to rent rather than buy. But it’s also becoming quite trendy; consumers are either unwilling or unable to afford big-ticket purchases – whether it be a house for $500,000 or a new dress for $500." The strategists point to projections that suggest the "sharing" and "rental" economies will generate $3.5 billion in revenue in 2013, and grow to as big as $110 billion over the next few years. What's to blame? A few main effects are at play here, according to the ConvergEx team: (1) the bursting of the housing bubble and the attendant rise in personal bankruptcies; (2) lower disposable incomes as wage growth in America remains elusive; and (3) the introduction of new apps and websites in the past few years that enable more renting and sharing opportunities. "The potential impacts of renting/leasing as a long-term trend, though, are worrisome: Renting and sharing could lead to lower home sales (and, subsequently lower home values and net worths), as well as lower auto and retail sales," write the strategists. "The ripple effects could also be catastrophic: Adjusting to a consumer who does not necessarily buy, but rather rents, would necessitate a shift in production, sales, and even employment structures. Everything interesting in economics happens at the margin, so if the nth consumer chooses to rent an apartment instead of buying a house or making do with a car-share program instead of purchasing a new vehicle, then demand for new houses and cars drops." For the ConvergEx team, even more worrying than the rise of renting and sharing at the expense of ownership are the underlying reasons driving consumers to rent and share more. "The crisis-sparked renting and sharing economy could have an effect similar to that of the Depression, in which the consumer psyche is morphed to constantly imagine a worst-case-scenario," they write. "The recent recession, arguably, could be fostering a generation of 'renters' and 'sharers' (as opposed to 'savers') who are wary of potentially risky investment vehicles or financial instruments. Recent urbanization trends in the U.S. population could be the first signal of this: Cities are the hubs of the renting and sharing economy, after all." That's why the behavior of the Millennials — the generation often parametrized as having been born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, will be key to watch. "As it stands, the rental economy will probably prosper for a bit longer as this cohort pays back student loans and finds higher-paying jobs," say the ConvergEx strategists. "But as they approach their 30s and beyond, it’s not overly optimistic to expect them to make the big-ticket purchases they couldn’t before. Some will be renters for life, of course, but many will come to appreciate the value of owning: Taking out a mortgage for a home typically results in lower monthly payments than rent, for example." Click here to see the rise of the renting and sharing economies in charts » Click here to see the rise of the renting and sharing economies in charts » In America, home ownership is losing ground to...

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NASA schedules final space shuttle mission By the CNN Wire Staff STORY HIGHLIGHTSAtlantis is slated to launch on July 8It will be the final flight for the space shuttle program (CNN) -- Thirty years after the space shuttle program began, the final space shuttle flight is slated to take place on July 8, NASA said Friday. The Space Shuttle Atlantis will make the program's final voyage on a mission to deliver supplies and spare parts to the international space station, the agency said. Chris Ferguson, a veteran of two shuttle missions, will command the flight, set to launch at 11:40 a.m., NASA said. The Atlantis mission will be the 135th and final mission for the program. The 12-day mission will deploy an experiment to examine how satellites could be robotically refueled in space, and the crew also will return an ammonia pump that recently failed on the space station, NASA said. The Space Shuttle Endeavour is on a mission to the space station and is set to return to Earth on June 1, the same day that Atlantis is scheduled to roll out to the launch pad. The shuttle program's end, and the uncertainly surrounding the future of NASA and the U.S. space program, have been hot topics in recent months. Michael D. Leinbach, NASA's shuttle launch director, acknowledged last week that "the mood is a little bit downcast" in the space agency, especially with some NASA employees recently getting notices warning them that they could lose their jobs.

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Economic Costs of Climate Change 'Will Affect Every American' Published on Thursday, October 18, 2007byOne WorldEconomic Costs of Climate Change 'Will Affect Every American' byHaider RizviNEW YORK - Independent economists and environmentalists are warning of dire consequences for the U.S. economy if policy makers fail to take urgent action on climate change. "Climate change will effect every American economically in a significant and dramatic way," said Matthias Ruth, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research. In a new study released this week, Ruth observed that further delays in tackling climate change would not only cause greater damage to the U.S. economy, but would also raise the future cost of dealing with natural disasters. The authors of the study, entitled "The U.S. Economic Impacts of Climate Change and the Costs of Inaction," say their efforts to analyze the economic research done in the past and pull in other relevant data make the study the first of its kind. The costs of climate change inaction is likely to be much higher than the required spending on cuts in carbon emissions, the report's authors said, adding that the United States can expect to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in damage to its infrastructure, agriculture, and manufacturing sector if more isn't done soon to slow climate change. "We're making billions of dollars of infrastructure investments every year and often without taking impacts of climate change into account," said Ruth, stressing there was a "strong need for action across all sectors." The report concludes that the real economic impact of climate change is "fraught with hidden costs," which will vary regionally and will put a strain on public sector budgets. For example, the combined impacts of storms on the United States since 1980 have surpassed $560 billion. Hurricane Katrina alone accounted for nearly $200 billion in economic losses. According to Ruth and other researchers, more frequent and intense storms -- as many climate scientists have predicted -- will raise the price tag even higher. But storm damage is just one factor in what is fast becoming a cascade of costs, the report said. Estimates suggest that in the U.S. West and Northwest, the cost of fire suppression and property damages will run in the billions due to changes in precipitation patterns and snow pack. The Great Plains can expect to experience increased frequency and severity of flooding and drought, resulting in additional billions of dollars in damages to crops and property. The already sinking water levels will go lower in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system, driving up shipping costs and severely impacting the Midwest manufacturing sector. Sea level rise and storm surges will eat away valuable property along the Atlantic coast -- a single storm surge event can cost $2 billion to $6.5 billion. And drought will take firmer hold of the South and Southwest, with costly impacts on agriculture, industry, and households. For the Central Valley in California alone, the economy-wide loss during the driest years is predicted to be around $6 billion. Ruth's report does not offer any total costs to the U.S. economy because the methodology for calculating that does not yet exist. Climate science is well-established, but the economics of climate change impacts is still in its infancy. There is a great deal of work still to be done to build robust economic models, Ruth said, urging policy makers not to wait to formulate a national policy for action to mitigate emissions and adapt to already unavoidable impacts of climate change, in an effort to minimize the overall costs. The energy sector not only has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, but also needs to be decentralized to become efficient and buffer it from severe weather events, the report said. Other recommendations included simple market mechanisms such as pricing of water or dropping the tax exemption on fertilizer to get immediate environmental benefits. While many industrialized countries seem willing to adopt a global approach in dealing with the threat of climate change, the Bush administration has given no indication of joining the rest of the international community. It remains outside the fold of the Kyoto treaty and has flatly rejected calls -- even from its allies -- to agree to mandatory caps on carbon emissions. In a parallel move to a UN-sponsored summit on climate change, the Bush administration recently organized a separate meeting of those representing the most industrialized nations. But as many had expected, the meeting in Washington offered no meaningful results, according to climate activists in the United States and abroad. © 2007 One World

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History Falsifies Climate Alarmist Sea Level ClaimsBy CFACTwww.CFACT.orgDecember 9, 2013TweetSea levels are rising rapidly! Coastal communities are becoming more vulnerable to storms and storm surges! Small island nations are going to disappear beneath the waves! Climate alarmists have been making these claims for years, trying to tie them to events like “Superstorm” Sandy, which was below Category 1 hurricane strength when it struck New York City in October 2012, and Typhoon Haiyan, which plowed into the low-lying central Philippines in November 2013. For alarmists, it does not seem to matter that the strength and frequency of tropical storms have been decreasing in recent years, while the rate of sea level rise has fallen to about 7 inches per century. Nor does it seem to matter that the lost lives and property have little to do with the storms’ sheer power. Their destructive impact was caused by their hitting heavily populated areas, where governments had not adequately informed citizens of the size and ferocity of imminent storm surges, too few people had evacuated – and people, buildings and emergency equipment were insufficiently prepared to withstand the furious storm onslaughts. The alarmist cries are not meant to be honest or factual. They are intended to generate hysterical headlines, public anxiety about climate change, and demands for changes in energy policies and use. China is rapidly becoming one of the richest nations on Earth. It is by far the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide, which alarmists claim is causing “unprecedented” storms and sea level rise. And yet at the recent UN-sponsored climate talks in Warsaw, China led a walkout of 132 Third World countries that claim First World nations owe them hundreds of billions of dollars in “reparations” for “losses and damages” allegedly resulting from CO2 emissions. The Obama Administration brought (perhaps “bought” is more apt) them back to the negotiating table, by promising as-yet-unspecified U.S. taxpayer money for those supposed losses. Details for this unprecedented giveaway will be hammered out at the 2015 UN-sponsored climate confab in Paris, safely after the 2014 U.S. mid-term elections. Meanwhile, a little history will be instructive. In 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama proclaimed, “This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow.” He was actually right. Sea level rise has slowed, but not because of CO2 emissions, which are still increasing. Mother Nature cannot be bought. Sea level changes over relatively recent geologic and human history demonstrate that alarmist claims do not withstand scrutiny. Sea levels rose significantly after the last ice age, fell during the Little Ice Age (LIA), and have been rising again since the LIA ended around 1850. In fact, Roman Empire and Medieval port cities are now miles from the Mediterranean, because sea levels actually fell during the Little Ice Age. During the deepest part of the last ice age, known as the Wisconsin, sea levels were about 400 feet lower than at present. As Earth emerged from the Wisconsin some 18,000 years ago and the massive ice sheets started to melt, sea levels began rising. Rapid sea level rise during the “meltwater pulse phase,” about 15,000 years ago, was roughly5 meters (16 feet) per century – but then slowed significantly since the Holocene Climate Optimum, about 8,000 years ago. Those rising oceans created new ports for Greek and Roman naval and trade vessels. But today many of those structures and ruins are inland, out in the open, making them popular tourist destinations. How did that happen? The Little Ice Age once again turned substantial ocean water into ice, lowering sea levels, and leaving former ports stranded. Not enough ice has melted since 1850 to make them harbors again. The ancient city of Ephesus was an important port city and commercial hub from the Bronze Age to the Minoan Warm period, and continuing through the Roman Empire. An historic map shows its location right on the sea. But today, in modern-day Turkey, Ephesus is 5 km from the Mediterranean. Some historians erroneously claim “river silting” caused the change, but the real “culprit” was sea level change. Ruins of the old Roman port Ostia Antica, are extremely well preserved – with intact frescoes, maps, and plans. Maps from the time show the port located at the mouth of the Tiber River, where it emptied into the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Battle of Ostia in 849, depicted in a painting attributed to Raphael, shows sea level high enough for warships to assemble at the mouth of the Tiber. However, today this modern-day tourist destination is 2 miles up-river from the mouth of the Tiber. Sea level was significantly higher in the Roman Warm Period than today. An important turning point in British history occurred in 1066, when William the Conqueror defeated King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. Less well-known is that, when William landed, he occupied an old Roman fort now known as Pevensey Castle, which at the time was located on a small island in a harbor on England’s south coast. A draw bridge connected it to the mainland. Pevensey is infamous because unfortunate prisoners were thrown into this “Sea Gate,” so that their bodies would be washed away by the tide. Pevensey Castle is now a mile from the coast – further proof of a much higher sea level fewer than 1000 years ago. Before modern Italy, the region was dominated by the famous City States of the Mediterranean, among which is Pisa, with its picturesque Cathedral Square and famous Leaning Tower. Located near the mouth of the Arno River, Pisa was a powerful city, because maritime trade brought goods from sailing ships right into the port. Its reign ended after 1300 AD, the onset of the Little Ice Age, when sea levels fell and ships could no longer sail to her port. Once again, some say “river silting” was the cause. However, Pisa is now 7 miles from the Tyrrhenian Sea, with large meanders upstream from Pisa and little meandering downstream. When a river is “at grade,” the downstream gradient is as low as possible, as with the meandering Mississippi River and delta in Louisiana. Rivers with a strong downstream gradient flow to the sea in a direct route, with few meanders, as with the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The facts of history are clear. Sea level was 400 feet lower at the end of the Wisconsin Ice Age, 18,000 years ago. Sea levels rose rapidly until 8,000 years ago. As recently as 1066, when the Normans conquered England, sea levels were quite a bit higher than today. During the Little Ice Age, 1300 to 1850 – when temperatures were the coldest during any time in the past 10,000 years – snow and ice accumulated in Greenland, Antarctica, Europe, and glaciers worldwide. As a consequence, sea levels fell so much that important Roman Era and Medieval port cities (like Ephesus, Ostia Antica and Pisa) were left miles from the Mediterranean. Since the Little Ice Age ended about 160 years ago, tide gauges show that sea level has risen at a steady rate – with no correlation to the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Sea level is a dynamic property in our planet’s climate cycles, which are closely linked to changes in solar energy output and other natural factors. It is unlikely to change in response to tax policies that make energy more expensive and economies less robust – no matter what politicians in Washington, Brussels, or the United Nations might say. Much to their chagrin, Mother Nature doesn’t listen to them. She has a mind of her own. Note: Published on December 1, 2013 at CFACT.org, by contributing author, Robert Endlich http://www.cfact.org/2013/12/01/history-falsifies-climate-alarmist-sea-level-claims/#sthash.0zyikMdC.dpuf Copyright ©2013 Read more by CFACTTweetSend us and/or the Author your comments and questions about this article. CFACT covers a wide variety of issues. Our approach to each reflects our mission: “To enhance the fruitfulness of the earth and all of its inhabitants.” We accomplish this through four main strategies-- -Prospering Lives. CFACT works to help people find better ways to provide for food, water, energy and other essential human services. -Promoting Progress. CFACT advocates the use of safe, affordable technologies and the pursuit of economic policies that reduce pollution and waste, and maximize the use of resources. -Protecting the Earth. CFACT helps protect the earth through wise stewardship of the land and its wildlife. -Education. CFACT educates various sectors of the public about important facts and practical solutions regarding environmental concerns. Visit CFACT's website at www.CFACT.org Home Current Issue About Us Cartoons Submissions Subscribe Contact Links Humor Archive Login Please send any comments, web site suggestions, or problem reports to webmaster@conservativetruth.org

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Xbox 360 Failures: The Inside Story Stephen Kamizuru (Blog) - September 8, 2008 11:01 AM 73 comment(s) - last by psychobriggsy.. on Sep 13 at 8:36 PM (Source: Kristopher Kubicki) Dean Takahashi delves in to the causes of the Red Ring of Death In a meticulously researched 11,000 word article, Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat has written about the chronological series of events that led to the hardware failures faced by the Xbox 360. Often called the “Red Ring of Death”, it is a condition that describes when three flashing red lights light up the front of an Xbox 360 indicating hardware failure. The article describes how the business need to be first to market influenced all decisions resulting in compromised hardware quality. Early warnings were ignored as Microsoft was determined to launch their console first. According to Takahashi, Microsoft’s engineers started working on the Xbox 360 at least a year after Sony’s engineers began work on the PlayStation 3, yet Microsoft wound up shipping a year ahead of Sony. Although we were repeatedly assured all was fine it was thanks to gamers and the media Microsoft was dragged kicking and screaming in to admitting there was a problem. Takahashi reports in August 2005 during the early stages of the Xbox 360’s development warnings were already being raised but were ignored. An engineer raised his hand and said, “Stop. You have to shut down the line.” This wasn’t just a brief moment. The engineer spoke up repeatedly. According to the article that engineer, who remains anonymous, had deep experience in manufacturing. When production results were really off kilter, stopping a line and tracing a problem back to its roots was the answer. Managers and executives, higher-ranking engineers ignored the warnings and decided to go forward. At the time, 68 out of every 100 Xbox 360s made were not working. Worse still, when the first batch of the system's three-core CPUs rolled off the line, only 16 percent worked. Microsoft mandated the Xbox 360 had to be smaller, if only to fit in the smaller homes in Japan, a key target market. There was a constant tug of war between the industrial designers, who wanted something small and the engineers, who wanted to pack a lot of performance into the Xbox 360. The more powerful the system was, the bigger the box had to be to provide air flow for heat-sensitive components. Incremental changes to a finalized design appear to have caused many problems. According to the article, Microsoft decided late to add a hard disk drive. They also came up late with a plan to add wireless controllers. Many of these decisions resulted in reduced airflow causing the overheating that caused so many Xbox 360s to fail. On November 22, 2005 the Xbox 360 launched and the consoles began to fail immediately. In July of 2007, Microsoft publicly admitted there was a problem and took a corresponding financial hit of more than $1 billion to fix it. Prior to that acknowledgement, Takahashi reports that Microsoft had taken returns on 1.2 million of the roughly 11.6 million shipped Xbox 360s. According to Takahashi, there was no single reason for the failures. Many of the problems could be blamed on the ATI graphics chip, which could overheat so much it warped the motherboard. This put stress on bad solder joints, causing them to fail early in the machine’s life. Sometimes the heat sinks on top of the GPU were put on the wrong way, resulting in heat problems. Finally, games would sometimes crash because of sub-par memory. The implications of the “Red Ring of Death” issue are being felt to this day. In Takahashi’s own words: The Xbox 360’s defect problem will go down as one of the worst snafus in consumer electronics history. Microsoft argues being first to market was worth the compromises. Microsoft’s top game executive, Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment & Devices group, said at a dinner in July that Microsoft’s own research shows that gamers have largely forgiven the company for defective Xbox 360s. Bach also said in July 2008, “It has given us a leg up in a number of places that are super important. It has given us a leg up with game developers. It has given us a leg up from an economics perspective. It helped us expand Xbox Live quickly.” What Microsoft sacrificed was the good will of consumers, who are critical for establishing a lasting platform. It remains to be seen whether the benefits of launching the Xbox 360 first will exceed the consequences of releasing a faulty product. RE: Think today not yesterday sjvlad I just had to send in my 360 2 months ago because it red ringed. This is now the 4th one I have. I'd say it's still perhaps a problem? Parent Warranty Report Pegs Xbox 360 Failure Rates at 16 Percent Microsoft Extends Warranty of Xbox 360's Afflicted With RROD to Three Years, Offers Apology

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Google Bids $900 Million for Nortel's 6,000 Networking/Wireless Patents Tiffany Kaiser - April 5, 2011 2:13 PM 16 comment(s) - last by Taft12.. on Apr 6 at 11:47 AM (Source: montrealgazette.com) Google is looking to purchase the remaining 6,000 networking and wireless patents from Nortel in order to produce a deeper portfolio and avoid patent litigation Google has recently offered $900 million for Nortel Networks' remaining 6,000 networking and wireless patents. Nortel Networks is a multinational telecommunication equipment manufacturer from Canada. In January 2009, the company filed for bankruptcy. Since then, Nortel has been selling different areas of the company off in order to restructure its debt. For instance, Genband bought Nortel's VOIP business in February 2010. Now, Google is looking to purchase the remaining 6,000 networking and wireless patents from Nortel in order to produce a deeper portfolio and to "stave off increasingly rampant patent litigation." Google has mentioned that it is patent poor and could use a broader portfolio to stay competitive. "One of a company's best defenses against this kind of litigation is to (ironically) have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services," said Kent Walker, Google's senior vice president and general counsel. As of right now, Google is dealing with a lawsuit from Oracle, which is an open and integrated hardware and software systems company. Oracle claims that Google's Android platform uses Java code illegally, which is covered in its patents. A deeper patent portfolio would have saved Google from this copyright infringement lawsuit. As of right now, Google is the most interested buyer in the early stages of the patent auction. According to recent reports, the deal is a "stalking horse asset sale agreement," which allows other companies to bid against Google before the auction, where Google is the starting point. According to J.P. Morgan analysts, Apple has also shown interest in the auction. More specifically, Apple is looking to compete with Google for Nortel's patents for 4G wireless communications called Long Term Evolution (LTE). Research in Motion may be another bidder in the upcoming auction. Nortel's patent auction is expected to begin in June, as long as U.S. and Canadian courts approve it. "If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community - which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome - continue to innovate," said Walker. Google is also in the midst of considering a $700 million purchase of ITA Software Inc., which may prompt an antitrust investigation of Google's web dominance by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department. Comments Threshold -1 RE: Google getting too big too fast? MeesterNid Well, if they begin exhibiting anti-competitive practices I suppose someone on the receiving end of those will sue. The thought that just because they are big and successful they should get sued is patently absurd. Parent FTC May Launch Antitrust Investigation of Google's Internet Dominance Android Customers to Get Japan's Cell Phone Credit Card Tech Verizon's LTE Keeps Rolling

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60 comment(s) - last by Reclaimer77.. on Feb 1 at 6:29 PM Google is a close ally of the President and he's not above plugging it's social network President Obama is perhaps the most technology-savvy president to date. While the POTUS (President of the United States) has made plenty of controversial stands [1][2][3] over his presidency, he has made some changes that should be unilaterally welcomed and commended, such as the We the People White House webpage [press release], which allows citizens to create petitions directed at the White House and Congress. The President has a special love for Google Inc. (GOOG), whom he appointed his official "video secretary". Aside from broadcasting State of the Union addresses on YouTube, something that would surely give the Founding Fathers cause to chuckle, and pushing legislation via YouTube, he's also gotten into Google+ of late. Google+ is Google's social network rival to the ubiquitous Facebook. Unlike the Facebook's privacy-be-you-know-what policies, Google+ focuses on discretely sharing content with select circles of friends. Today at 5:30 President Obama will host a "hangout" answering questions he's received in the past couple weeks on his YouTube channel. A Google+ Hangout [Image Source: webbROI] The President promises to answer the top rated questions, but the chat will likely provoke controversy, if previous chats on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are any indication. In those prior sessions some accused the President of dodging the highest rated questions -- many of which were admittedly "tough" -- instead cherry-picking "layup" questions that were easy to answer and/or made him look good. The President's support of Google also raises some eyebrows given Google's clever use of the "Double Irish" and "Dutch Sandwich" (legal) tax evasion strategies, funneling money through Ireland, the Netherlands and Bermuda, courtesy of federal loopholes, to avoid paying federal income taxes on its profits. These strategies reportedly saved Google $1B USD in 2011 and cut the company's effective tax rate to 18.8 percent, far less than the standard 35-40 most small businesses pay on earnings. Google officially raised almost a million dollars for the President's election bid. This follows in the line of other key corporate friends of the President, such as General Electric Comp. (GE) -- a more extreme tax evader who made $14B USD in profit in 2010, yet received a tax refund of $3.2B USD back from the federal government. Obama appointed GE CEO Jeff Immelt to lead his jobs board -- which helps decide federal tax policy -- also in 2010. Obama also appointed John Doerr and (Intel Corp. (INTC) CEO) Paul Otellini to his jobs council -- both of whom are board members at Google. Google is known for its informal corporate motto "Don't be evil." Sources: Google+, Bloomberg, CNN Comments Threshold -1 RE: blah blah blah quote: I don't want to reward criminality. However, what I do want to encourage is proper, orderly and productive integration into our society. Given what you've said, how is giving them citizenship NOT rewarding criminality? Parent Productive Integration. That's the key here. It is one thing to come to America, work odd jobs and send your money back overseas. It is another to come to America, start a business, employ others (even if it isn't completely kosher), become involved in your community etc. and raise a family. That's the difference I'm talking about for simplicity's sake.Have you ever look at how hard it is to get a visa if you were a Mexican?http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb...To become a naturalized citizen, you must first live in America for five years under a visa. That is, unless you join the Military, get married or a few other things. The majority of people are going to have to get a visa and work.It is _hard_ to get that visa. Read the page, read the steps. It is neigh impossible for the average Mexican to get one--assuming they can comprehend the requirements due to their lack of education.From all I read and see, Mexico is a broken country. A desert of lost dreams, empty hope and burned out solidarity. I know this is not completely true as I know some successful Mexicans in their own country but this is easily an exception to the rule. The wealth gap in America is broad but it is nothing like it is there.So, what we have is a mass exodus of people looking for hope. Many of these people will not fall within the "productive integration" category, but some will. Those that do I think should be given a chance to make amends for their less than legal means of entry to continue providing what they have for years to our great country. Parent quote: Have you ever look at how hard it is to get a visa if you were a Mexican? It has to be. Blastman you write as if we can sustain unlimited numbers of immigrants. Or just an unlimited population in general. We can't. Some would argue we've already reached the tipping point on immigrant numbers. With tens of millions of people living here, using our services, while not paying taxes and sending a lot of their money back to Mexico to their families. This hurts our economy and isn't fair to the legal citizens of this nation.You aren't arguing for immigration reform. You're flat out talking about a wide open border. Parent quote: You aren't arguing for immigration reform. You're flat out talking about a wide open border. I'm not at all. This is what I said: quote: Many of these people will not fall within the "productive integration" category, but some will. The net result will be a much smaller figure than we see now. Parent Obama's Decision to Punt on Oil Pipeline Pleases Almost no One Google Talks About Google+'s Progress, User Activity GE: $14B USD Profits, Pays No Taxes For Last Year, Gets $3.2B Tax Benefit Obama Gives Intel CEO a Spot on Jobs Council

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PC Makers: Windows 8 May Not Be All It's Cracked Up to Be Tiffany Kaiser - August 21, 2012 12:17 PM 122 comment(s) - last by Major HooHaa.. on Sep 14 at 11:42 AM Acer and other PC makers lower forecasts for second half 2012 PC shipments While many PC makers saw the coming of Windows 8 as an opportunity for growth and increased competition against Apple, those feelings are slowly fading. Acer Inc., Quanta Computer Inc. and Compal Electronics Inc., three major PC makers, have all lost hope in Windows 8 being the savior of PC sales for the second half of fiscal year 2012. This opinion differs from those heard by the same PC makers earlier this year, who were happy to show off Windows 8 laptops, all-in-ones and ultrabooks at the Computex trade show in Taipei. Acer even said that Windows 8 PCs would bring growth to his company once again. But these opinions changed as PC makers see no customer enthusiasm for personal computers running the Windows 8 operating system. Another issue, according to analysts and the PC makers, is that Windows 8 laptops and ultrabooks will likely be much too expensive upon release. J.T. Wang, CEO of Acer, said he has grown unsure of the Windows 8 ecosystem. His company is lowering its expectations for PC sales upon Windows 8's release. "Originally, we were expecting very high growth in the second half," said Wang. "We're still waiting for a sign of consumer enthusiasm." Analysts are changing their sales forecasts as well, mainly due to the fact that some believe it'll take three to four financial quarters for consumers to get onboard with Windows 8. It won't take off right away. Rather, Microsoft will have to seek out developers for more applications in order to grab consumer interest. While the PC turf isn't looking so hot, mobile devices may not be so disappointing. The price of touchscreens and tablets running Windows 8 may be an issue, especially because there are many cheaper alternatives, but consumers have shown greater enthusiasm for Microsoft's Surface tablet. Windows 8 has been a pretty controversial topic. The main issue seems to be the user interface, formerly called Metro. It features colorful tiles that represent different applications on the home screen. The change was a hopeful move to attract new users (perhaps those normally enticed by Apple's colorful and friendly-looking operating systems). However, Microsoft is looking to change the name of Metro after a recent discovery -- a German retailer called Metro AG threatened to sue. Windows 8 will be released to the public on October 26. Source: ETrade Comments Threshold -1 What an understatement... Win 8 will turn out to be Loser 8 from all indications. This is a typical case of Microsucks trying to force their distorted view of the world down consumer's throats and charging them for the "favor". It will be good for Gates and his cronies to get an expensive reality check. "If you look at the last five years, if you look at what major innovations have occurred in computing technology, every single one of them came from AMD. Not a single innovation came from Intel." -- AMD CEO Hector Ruiz in 2007 Microsoft Looks to Scrap "Metro" Codename Windows 8 Hits RTM, Paves Way for October 26 Consumer Launch August 1, 2012, 12:36 PM Windows 8 Gets Official for October Release, Surface to Sell a "Few Million" Acer Embraces Windows 8 with New Tablets, Ultrabooks, and All-in-Ones June 3, 2012, 11:29 PM

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/ 2016-03-02 In its February 12, 2016, issue, Science magazine published the results of a new study conducted at Vanderbilt University, USA. Although at first sight the article appeared to be about inherited diseases, the title, “The phenotypic legacy of admixture between modern humans and Neanderthals,” showed that it contained evolutionist propaganda. John A. Capra, a geneticist from Vanderbilt University who headed the research, made the following comparison: “We discovered and replicated associations of Neandertal alleles with neurological, psychiatric, immunological, and dermatological phenotypes. ... Our results establish that archaic admixture influences disease risk in modern humans …” This statement by Capra that Neanderthals shared similar diseases to us is an important one, and evidence that, in fact, refutes the theory of evolution. Different cultures and different physical characteristics Man has been exposed to various diseases down the ages, and genetic features of these have come down to the present day by being handed on from one generation to another. Such genetic sensitivities, described as “inherited,” strengthen the probability of that disease appearing, but it is meaningless to herald this as evidence of evolution. Different human societies have lived in different places throughout history, and these societies have sometimes come together and interbred. The situation we see in Anatolia today or in the USA are stark examples of this: Asian, European and African people have intermarried and intermingled. The point requiring attention here is that despite individual differences, these people are all “human.” The fact they possess different cultures or physical properties does not make them distinct life forms or mean that they have to be classified as “advanced” or “primitive.” Such thinking is erroneous and racist. However, some people trying to justify the colonialist policies of the 19th century in the legal sphere claimed that the “White European” race (Germanic and Anglo-Saxon) was the “most modern” and “most highly developed” of the current human races. The result was the idea that the indigenous populations of Africa and Australia were supposedly closer to animals, and led to the development of the unbelievable idea that their elimination would make a positive contribution to the development of mankind, according to the processes of evolution. The Scourge of Racism That Began with Haeckel Living things were first classified by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel, who placed white Europeans at the top of this classification of his own invention. This perverse and evolutionist view of Haeckel’s came to be accepted as “the role of the races in the progress of civilizations.” The concept of race was first proposed by a German physician, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840). He classified mankind under five headings – Caucasian (the white race), Mongolian (the yellow race), Malayan (the brown race), Ethiopian (the black race) and American (the red race): Haeckel arranged this concept of race on a hierarchical basis, placing Europeans at the top, while placing the Vedda people indigenous to Sri Lanka, Aboriginal Australians and the natives of Rhodesia in present-day Zimbabwe at the bottom. These ideas were so influential that many racists foolishly described marrying such people and having children with them as “falling off the evolutionary ladder” and even suggested that this would be exceedingly damaging to mankind as a whole. Similar to these preposterous ideas from the past, some supporters of evolution are currently seeking to portray the admixture with Neanderthals as something undesirable. This is of course a grave error, and the scientific evidence shows that Neanderthals were fully-fledged human beings. At this point, it will be useful to remind people of some of the scientific evidence concerning the invalidity of the Darwinist mentality that seeks to portray Neanderthals as “primitive:” The Neanderthals Had Superior Characteristics to Those of Present-Day Humans Their large skull size refutes the Darwinist idea of the Neanderthals as “primitive man.” The volume of the Neanderthal skull was approximately 1700 cc, which is some 200 cc larger than that of a present-day man. This demolishes the evolutionist idea of classifying human beings as primitive or advanced based on skull volumes. According to the basic principles of evolutionist ideology, Neanderthals, with their larger brains, should be regarded as superior to present-day man, and that would represent an enormous contradiction for the theory of evolution. In addition, archeological research has shown that the Neanderthal's social lives were no different to those of present-day humans. The Neanderthals were a human race that has since become extinct. Erik Trinkaus, an expert on the Neanderthals, admits this as follows: “… there is nothing in Neanderthal anatomy that conclusively indicates locomotor, manipulative, intellectual, or linguistic abilities inferior to those of modern humans. …” (Erik Trinkaus, "Hard Times Among the Neanderthals", Natural History, Vol. 87, December 1978, p. 10.) There is no doubt that because the Neanderthals were a human race, they possessed the same features as modern races. Neanderthal Man was a talented maker of tools and a skilled hunter. He even engaged in music and art. They had a cultural and social structure, just as societies do today, and had religious beliefs. (Nicholas Comninellis, Creative Defense, Evidence Against Evolution, Master Books, 2001, p. 194) The civilization established by the Neanderthals was therefore no fundamentally different to present-day civilizations. What Does the Fact We Share the Same Genes as the Neanderthals Mean? First and foremost, it is genetically impossible to describe Neanderthals as a separate species. The Neanderthal genome project has revealed that, like us, they had 23 pairs of chromosomes. What we see in evolutionist sources, however, is the bafflement on the part of Darwinists in the face of this finding that we share common genes; Darwinists have long described the Neanderthals as a separate species. The discovery that we shared the same disease genes of course means that we are disposed to the same diseases. To say that these genes have passed down to us from the Neanderthals is a natural hereditary outcome; these genes are not specific to the Neanderthals, but are quite widespread among all humans. The Neanderthals Were Not a Primitive Species, But Human Beings Like Us The social life of the Neanderthals was no different to that of human beings alive today. Archeological research has revealed that this human race used musical instruments, sewed clothes and engaged in artistic endeavors such as painting and sculpture. Indeed, in terms of physical features, the Neanderthals were superior to us; their bodies were larger and stronger, and, contrary to the claims of evolution, their brains were larger than ours. Different Races: Geographic Isolation and Humans with Different Appearances People living in different parts of the world naturally look different to one another: In other words, they have different phenotypes; this is known as geographic isolation. Aborigines, Eskimos and Africans live in very different regions far from one another yet these races and the white European race all share common genes. Europeans, who have enjoyed more advanced technology and material means throughout the course of history, have always described other races whom they do not like the look of as “backward,” and have always regarded themselves as “modern” and hence, superior to everyone else. In practical terms, this racist mindset that found an alleged justification in Darwinian ideology has represented the foundations for genocide, colonialism, systematic and ruthless exploitation and served as a rationalization for treating those who were different to themselves with the utmost contempt. CONCLUSION: The Neanderthals Are an Ancient Human People The way that evolutionists classify different human races as “advanced” or “primitive” is devoid of any genetic or biological foundation. Indeed, archeological findings have shown that Neanderthals possessed a highly social civilization. It is abundantly obvious that they were no different to present-day human races. The Neanderthals were human beings, just like us, who even suffered the same diseases, enjoyed civilized lives and in the passage of time, ultimately vanished from the face of the Earth.

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Home > Mobile > MagicJack’s Making Cell Phone Fees Disappear MagicJack’s Making Cell Phone Fees Disappear By Dena Cassella The company behind the magicJack, the cheap Internet phone gadget that’s been heavily promoted on TV, has made a new version of the device that allows free calls from cell phones in the home, in a fashion that’s sure to draw protest from cellular carriers. The new magicJack uses, without permission, radio frequencies for which cellular carriers have paid billions of dollars for exclusive licenses. YMax Corp., which is based in Palm Beach, Fla., said this week at the International Consumers Electronics Show that it plans to start selling the device in about four months for $40, the same price as the original magicJack. As before, it will provide free calls to the U.S. and Canada for one year. The device is, in essence, a very small cellular tower for the home. The size of a deck of cards, it plugs into a PC, which needs a broadband Internet connection. The device then detects when a compatible cell phone comes within 8 feet, and places a call to it. The user enters a short code on the phone. The phone is then linked to the magicJack, and as long as it’s within range (YMax said it will cover a 3,000-square-foot home) magicJack routes the call itself, over the Internet, rather than going through the carrier’s cellular tower. No minutes are subtracted from the user’s account with the carrier. Any extra fees for international calls are subtracted from the user’s account with magicJack, not the carrier. According to YMax CEO Dan Borislow, the device will connect to any phone that uses the GSM standard, which in the U.S. includes phones from AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA. At a demonstration at CES, a visitor’s phone with a T-Mobile account successfully placed and received calls through the magicJack. Most phones from Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. won’t connect to the device. Borislow said the device is legal because wireless spectrum licenses don’t extend into the home. AT&T, T-Mobile and the Federal Communications Commission had no immediate comment on whether they believe the device is legal, but said they were looking into the issue. CTIA — The Wireless Association, a trade group, said it was declining comment for now. None of them had heard of YMax’s plans. Borislow said YMax has sold 5 million magicJacks for landline phones in the last two years, and that roughly 3 million are in active use. That would give YMax a bigger customer base than Internet phone pioneer Vonage Holdings Corp., which has been selling service for $25 per month for the better part of a decade. Privately held YMax had revenue of $110 million last year, it says. U.S. carriers have been selling and experimenting with devices that act similarly to the wireless magicJack. They’re called “femtocells.” Like the magicJack, they use the carrier’s licensed spectrum to connect to a phone, then route the calls over a home broadband connection. They improve coverage inside the home and offload capacity from the carrier’s towers. But femtocells are complex products, because they’re designed to mesh with the carrier’s external network. They cost the carriers more than $200, though some sell them cheaper, recouping the cost through added service fees. YMax’s magicJack is a much smaller, simpler design.

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Home > Web > State of the Web: 5 laws every Internet user needs… State of the Web: 5 laws every Internet user needs to know By Despite what you may have heard, the Web is not the Wild West. This isn’t ‘Nam, as The Big Lebowski‘s Walter Sobchak so wisely proclaimed. There are rules. And to be a responsible Web citizen, it is important for us to understand what these rules are. To get a better sense of the legal landscape, we spoke with Trevor Timm, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who provided his insights on the handful of laws every Internet users needs to know. 1. Digital Millennium Copyright Act What it is: Enacted in 1998 by President Bill Clinton, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (or DMCA) is the primary law governing the use of copyrighted content in the U.S. It establishes a system for removing copyrighted works that are being used improperly, and dictates who’s responsible when this happens (as it so often does). Why it’s good: “By far, the best part of DMCA is its ‘safe harbor’ provisions, which basically states that websites aren’t liable for for the copyright infringement of their users, as long as they meet certain requirements,” says Timm. “That part of the DMCA is what has allowed companies like Google and Facebook to thrive over the last decade.” Why it’s bad: The takedown system of DMCA is good in that it requires rightsholders to go after specific pieces of copyrighted content, says Timm. “But the problem is, it can be abused — it’s being abused more than it ever has in history, right now.” This is because websites must take down content for a certain period of time, regardless of the validity of the claim, in order to securely keep their safe harbor protections. As a result, websites “always err on the side of the copyright holder,” says Timm, which can lead to legitimate free speech being censored for as much as two weeks without recourse — plenty of time to keep bad information out of the news cycle. Law in action: Your YouTube video is taken offline because it includes a Justin Bieber track playing in the background. Bottom line: DMCA has its faults — but it’s much better than some of the alternatives that have come before Congress. 2. Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 What it is: Enacted in 1986, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) extended the prohibition of government wiretap laws from phone lines to computers. The law governs everything from email to instant messages to cloud storage files. Why it’s good: ECPA is a good example of the government doing the right thing to protect its citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures. Why it’s bad: “It was written before the World Wide Web was invented,” says Timm, so it’s now woefully out of date. For example, ECPA mandates that an online communication or file that’s held by a third-party (like Google, Facebook, or Dropbox) for more than 180 days is “abandoned,” since, at the time it was written, Web-based email was still a novelty. But because of this provision, your six-month-old communications and files may be accessed by the courts with only a subpoena rather than a probable-cause warrant. Law in action: Law enforcement agents gain access to the last three years of your Gmail communications as a routine part of an investigation. Bottom line: A number of Congressmen are working to update ECPA to eliminate the 180-day abandonment provision, which would in turn require police and prosecutors to obtain a warrant before snooping your chat logs. 3. Patriot Act What it is: A monster piece of legislation, the Patriot Act is the paramount anti-terrorism legislation in the U.S. — and easily one of the most controversial laws on the books. For Internet users, three mechanisms of the Patriot Act are of foremost importance: national security letters, pen register, and trap-and-trace orders — legal mechanisms we often refer to as warrantless wiretaps. National security letters are used by organizations like the FBI to obtain information about your communications, such as who you’re contacting and how often, without the need for a warrant. Both pen registers and trap-and-trace orders are also used to gather this information — sender and recipient names, phone numbers, email address — in real-time. No probable cause warrant is needed, since neither access the contents of messages, only the messages’ surrounding information. Why it’s good: Champions of the Patriot Act argue that, prior to its passage, the wiretap laws in the U.S. were outdated, and that tools like pen registers and trap-and-trace allow law enforcement authorities to better protect U.S. national security in a more connected world, where suspects have a greater number of ways to communicate. Why it’s bad: In general, the Patriot Act has greatly reduced the privacy and Fourth Amendment rights protections for Americans and the people with whom we communicate. National security letters, pen registers, and trap-and-trace lie at the heart of that erosion, since they lessen judicial oversight for what amounts to wiretapping. Documents obtained by the ACLU at the end of September show that use of pen registers and trap-and-trace has increased more than 600 percent since 2001, as of the end of 2011. Law in action: The FBI demands to see all your phone cell phone records for the past five years from your wireless provider, no questions asked. Bottom line: National security is an issue of indisputable importance. But in the case of the Patriot Act’s warrantless wiretapping mechanisms, there’s no denying that it has limited U.S. civil rights in a profound and, many would say, unconstitutional way. 4. FISA Amendments Act What it is: The FISA Amendments Act is an expansion of the warrantless wiretapping powers granted to President George W. Bush. First passed in 2008, and up for reauthorization by Congress this year, the FISA Amendments Act specifically targets foreign intelligence, and removes the requirement for the U.S. government to specify who and what is being targeted The purpose of these warrantless wiretaps is simply “to acquire foreign intelligence information,” according to the law’s text. Why it’s good: Like the Patriot Act, supporters of the FISA Amendments Act — which includes a majority of Members in the House as well as the Obama administration — say that the law is needed to protect the U.S. from external threats to our national security. Why it’s bad: “It allows the government to get these secret court orders, kind of like general warrants, where they can get hundreds — or potentially millions of people — under a dragnet-type surveillance for up to one year,” explains Timm. “So they could target whole countries that have anything to do with our foreign intelligence information.” In other words, “if you’re talking about politics on the phone, they could potentially wiretap your communications.” Critics warn that the FISA Amendments Act essentially gives the U.S. government unlimited spying powers, on both foreign nations and U.S. citizens. FISA Amendments Act champions say that concerns about the liberties of those who live outside the U.S. are invalid because foreign nations do not enjoy protections under the U.S. Constitution. Law in action: The National Security Agency has had to build the largest data center in the U.S. to handle the massive influx of communications gathered under the FISA Amendments Act and other wiretapping mechanisms. Bottom line: As with the Patriot Act, the FISA Amendments Act does appear to help protect U.S. national security. The problem is that it does so at the expense of individual liberties of countless people in the U.S. and around the world. 5. Communications Decency Act (Section 230) What it is: Passed in 1996, the Communications Decency Act (CDA) as a whole was a wretched piece of legislation. And much of it has since been struck down by the Supreme Court due to its restrictions to free speech, thanks to efforts by the EFF and the ACLU. However, one important part, known as Section 230, remains. This provision removes the liability of “interactive websites” — think YouTube, Reddit, any blog, social network, or other site with commenting — for things said by Web users. In other words, if you write on Facebook that I’m a car thief when I’m not, Section 230 says that I can’t sue Facebook for your lie — I can only sue you. Why it’s good: Like DMCA “safe harbor,” Section 230 has essentially allowed many of the most popular websites and online services to exist without being sued into oblivion. “Basically, it offers a legal shield to all sorts of bloggers, and is what has allow Google, and Facebook, and Craigslist, and all these sites to thrive,” says Timm. After all, “Facebook’s legal costs would be in the trillions of dollars if they had to worry about what 900 million people were saying.” Why it’s bad: Critics of Section 230 argue that it is too protective, and leaves little recourse for anyone who is genuinely harmed by the comments of other Web users, especially in cases of anonymous commenting. Law in action: The comments section of any website (especially YouTube). Bottom line: Without CDA’s Section 230, the Web as we know it would likely not exist due to an avalanche of libel lawsuits. Image via Aleks Melnik/Shutterstock

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HOME ARCHIVE SEARCH NEWS SERVICE LETTERS ABOUT DV Think Tanks and the Brainwashing of America by Harold Williamson More than 60 American scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, signed a statement that accused the Bush administration of suppressing or manipulating scientific evidence in order to promote their right-wing political agenda. The statement was issued in February along with a full report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and it can be viewed at their web site. The UCS substantiated their claims with internal government documents and interviews with current and former government officials. They found a "well established pattern of suppression and distortion of scientific findings by high-ranking Bush administration political appointees across numerous federal agencies." According to the UCS, "There is evidence that the administration often imposes restrictions on what government scientists can say or write about 'sensitive' topics." They went on to say that, "In this context, 'sensitive' applies to issues that might provoke opposition from the administration's political and ideological supporters." The UCS concluded: "There is significant evidence that the scope and scale of the manipulation, suppression, and misrepresentation of science by the Bush administration is unprecedented." All this may be unprecedented in American history, but it is not without precedent in world history. The true believers within the the Bush administration and its supporters have revived the medieval mindset of the Dark Ages -- a time when scientific findings were suppressed, manipulated, and distorted to fit the insular precepts of revealed truth by scholastic thinkers who thrived on public ignorance and ruled by intimidation. Modern-day scholastic thinkers include the influential members of the various right-wing institutes, widely known as "think tanks," that date back to the early '70s as part of a dedicated effort by the more extreme elements of the corporate sector to crush the democratizing movements of the '60s. When former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta was interviewed by Charlie Rose on Feb. 21, he said that over one billion dollars has been invested over the past decade in Washington "think tanks" such as the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute. But the problem with "think tanks" is that they promote an ideology that is based on a "brains-in-vats" worldview. "Brains in vats" is a theory of epistemology, a branch of philosophy that studies the extent and validity of knowledge and its presuppositions. This theory states that it cannot be proven that one is not a disembodied brain being kept alive in a vat while being wired to a machine and programmed to perceive reality as something different from what actually exists. The worldview that emerges amounts to nothing more than a virtual fantasy that has no basis in fact. The blueprint for the Bush doctrine of preemptive war and the dream of a new global Pax Americana is the product of just such a think tank -- the Project for the New American Century. By promoting this virtual brains-in-vats worldview using a complicit corporate media, the Bush administration effectively brainwashed US public opinion completely off the international spectrum in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Since average US citizens were not privy to the classified pre-war intelligence, the validity of which is now under investigation, it was necessary to have faith in the judgment of the Bush administration as to whether or not Iraq was an imminent threat. But it is now clear that regarding the alleged stockpiles of WMD, Iraq was in compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1441, and UN inspections had effectively curtailed Saddam Hussein's WMD programs. The threat that was perceived by the Bush administration did not exist in fact. It was merely a schoolboy's bad dream, and the subsequent invasion of Iraq has turned into a real nightmare for both the Iraqi and American people. However, it is flirting with ecological disaster to ignore or manipulate scientific facts in order to make them conform to a political ideology. Ever since the dawn of the Age of Reason, scientists have known that the discovery of one ugly fact is all that is needed to scrap a beautiful theory. Scientists follow their reason as far as it will allow while not pretending certainty in matters that cannot be demonstrated. But apparently the Bush administration believes that rigorous science has no place in their faith-based political agenda where there is no room for doubt. Besides, the invasion of Iraq was successfully sold to a credulous American public based solely on groundless allegations. So, if Americans can be brainwashed to put their lives and money on the line without any proof of evidence, who needs science? Harold Williamson is a Chicago-based independent scholar. He can be reached at: h_wmson@yahoo.com. Copyright (C) 2004, Harold Williamson. All rights reserved. Other Articles by Harold Williamson Bully for the Bush Doctrine: A Natural History Perspective HOME

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@d:tech Gets Real Kenneth Hein, Senior Editor The tone of @d:tech World, in New York Nov. 8-10, should be decidedly different from shows of the past, according to those involved with the conference.The reason for this change is a drought in the cash flow department. As client companies' budgets have grown smaller and venture capital funding has gone away, many suppliers within the industry have found it necessary to lay off staff or shut their doors. It seems as though for the first time Internet marketing suppliers' horizons are now no longer endless."The whole moniker nowadays is the path to profitability," said Darian Heyman, co-founder of Beyond Interactive, Ann Arbor, MI, a digital advertising agency. "Companies are more worried about more immediate profitability issues."Beyond Interactive would know as well as anyone. It cut 63 people from its total domestic staff of 225.Heyman said one of the major differences is that client companies will be less likely to buy into the grand schemes and future capabilities that will likely be pitched to them."In the past, companies were more open-minded," he said. "Now they are more discerning about following through on things. [They are more interested in] the short term. They demand more immediate gratification."Companies within the industry echo these thoughts as they move toward the goal of profitability. Internet loyalty provider FreeRide.com laid off 45 percent of its staff; MyPoints.com unloaded 123 employees; and Promotions.com announced it was letting go 13 percent of its 180-person staff. All three companies cited that they were looking to streamline in order to be more profitable.Some employees may wonder if they still will have their jobs at the show's close. WiredEmpire, a licenser of e-mail marketing tools, went out of business in late September and didn't tell employees at the Direct Marketing Association's net.marketing Conference & Exhibition in Boston until the last minute.The out-of-work employees left behind a piece of paper with a hand-drawn tombstone that read "R.I.P. 9-25-00. Those who never take a shot have no chance to score." Parent company Marketing Services Group Inc. had eliminated all 53 jobs at the company.The party scene may be affected by these changes as well. In the past, Internet companies such as DoubleClick threw lavish bashes complete with fabulous venues, all-you-can-eat shellfish, top-shelf liquor and not a name badge in sight.But those days may be gone, Heyman said. "I'm curious about the party scene to see if it's come back down to earth. I went to one event where there were performances from Cirque du Soleil and glasses of Veuve Clicquot being passed out," he said. "I'm assuming that's not going to be happening as much."It isn't all doom and gloom, though. Despite the current fallout, Jupiter Communications Inc., New York, predicted earlier this year that online advertising revenue would quadruple by 2005. The numbers released in a report called for online ad revenue to top more than $16.5 billion by 2005, up from $3.5 billion in 1999.The survey found that marketers planned to increase Internet ad spending at a higher rate than other mediums. Seventy-three percent of those Jupiter surveyed said they would increase online ad spending over the next year."Ad spending is still well on track to exceed two and a half or three times last year," said Jason Hester, content director at @d:tech World, which is operated by eMarketWorld, Richmond, VA."It's part of the accelerated business cycle this industry is in. It's grown so fast that when we do hit bumps it's faster and harder, but we are recovering faster as well."@d:tech hasn't felt the pinch as the number of show exhibitors are up 25 percent from the number of companies at the May show in San Francisco. There are 175 companies scheduled to exhibit. Attendance is also expected to be 25 percent higher as Hester is expecting approximately 4,000 attendees."Things have changed some, but everything I'm hearing from my speakers, even ones from companies that have had layoffs, is that they are in high spirits," said Hester.Regardless of the current conditions, Lisa Cohen, a spokeswoman for marketing technology and customer acquisition network L90, Los Angeles, sees this as the must-attend show of the season. "There are so many conferences, but at this one in particular we look to really extend brand. It's an important one because all of the players are there. It's a good mix of advertisers and Web publishers. It's a good chance to get in people's faces in person and let them know how our company can help them become profitable," said Cohen. Real-time targeting brings yield management to mobile Christmas gets Real Simple Marketing That Also Solves a Real-Life Problem News Byte: Epsilon Aims to Create Real-Time Conversations @d:Tech Hit With Cancellations Next Article in News Physicians Essential in DTC Marketing Equation Sign up to our newsletters

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