The Arctic in a Pool: Simulator Grows Sea Ice

This winter, flowers bloomed in the northern Canadian city of Winnipeg. But not the verdant blooms that might come to mind; these were frost flowers.

The University of Manitoba opened a sea ice simulator last year to see how ice forms on the open water of the frigid poles, and how it affects the local climate and plant life.

The $1.5 million Canadian ($1.46 million USD) Sea-ice Environmental Research Facility's 30-foot-long (9 meters) pool ? the centerpiece of the project ? is where the researchers sprinkle salt, water and environmental contaminants, then watch how the sea ice grows.

The facility runs during the winter, when the outdoor temperature is below 28.9 Fahrenheit (minus 1.7 degrees Celsius), the temperature at which ice forms.

"The real beauty is we can add [chemical or biological] tracers to it and use the sensors to monitor it in real time," said Feiyue Wang, an environmental chemist who leads the facility.

"As an experimental scientist, I always like to do control experiments. What if we hold some variables constant? What if we change them? You can't do that in the Arctic," Wang told OurAmazingPlanet.

Ice experiments

Frost flowers are one of the types of ice they can grow at the facility. These structures form around salt on the surface of the ice, and host a wealth of microbes that can survive in harsh Arctic environments. Previous research found that they contain far more salt than the surrounding waters.

"If they can concentrate salt, they can concentrate other chemicals in seawater," Wang said, adding that pollutants would be among the chemicals.

The challenge is trying to track down these structures. In the isolated north, scientists rely on remote sensing from satellites to take their research vessel to the correct location. However, it's difficult to pick out the frost flowers from the surrounding ice. [10 Things You Need to Know About Arctic Sea Ice]

At the facility last year, the researchers watched frost flowers over three days using one particular band of radiation. Their goal was to figure out how to position the sensor to best see the flowers. A paper on the research, led by the University of Manitoba's Dustin Isleifson will be published in a future issue of the journal Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

Future plans

More research papers are forthcoming on acidity in the sea ice environment, as well as how carbon is exchanged with the ice, which would help tease out the effects of climate change from carbon dioxide on the Arctic ocean environment.

Within the next few years, the researchers aim to enhance their "simulation" by taking a sheet of ice from the Arctic and laying it inside the pool to do controlled bacteria studies.

The researchers are also laying the groundwork for a facility expansion that would allow them to study oil spills in the sea ice environment. The first concrete step will be to obtain funding, which the researchers are working on now.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arctic-pool-simulator-grows-sea-ice-151034430.html

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Eat,drink+be Kerry: Layered Red Velvet, Coffee and Chocolate ...

Just one look at this cake and I want to dive right in!

It ticks all my boxes with its combo of Nespresso Ristretto coffee, chocolate and cream cheese icing. You'll spend a bit of time making it but the response will be fabulous. Definitely a special occasion dessert.

Masterchef Runner up 2012 Julia Taylor, a Brisbane gal, created the recipe.

Layered cakes used to be a bit old hat, but have become very popular since Martha Stewart featured university student Kaitlin Flannery creating the infamous Rainbow-layered Cake.

This cake doesn't have as many layers (a time blessing) but it certainly has plate appeal. Here's how to make it.

RED VELVET CAKE:

125g unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 tbs cocoa powder
50ml red food colouring
400g plain flour (2 1/2 cups)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pre-heat oven to 180C. Grease and line two 20cm cake tins. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl down after each addition. Add cocoa powder and red food colouring, starting on slow speed until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mix and buttermilk until just combined.

Mix together the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda in a small bowl and quickly fold through the cake batter. Pour batter into two tins and bake for 18-20 minutes or until risen and springy to the touch. Cool and take out of tins; reserve for cake assembly.

CHOCOLATE AND NESPRESSO RISTRETTO CAKE:

125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
150g dark chocolate (70%), melted
125g egg yolks (approx. 6)
1 tsp vanilla extract
180g egg whites (approx. 6)
90g caster sugar
pinch salt
125g plain flour

Pre-heat oven to 165C. Grease and line two 20cm cake tins.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then slowly add the cooled melted chocolate to the mix, followed by the egg yolks and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites to soft peaks, slowly adding the sugar and salt ? this gives a meringue base. Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the chocolate mixture, then 1/2 the flour. Follow with the remaining meringue and flour and divide among the two tins. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until just springy to the touch ? the cake will be slightly undercooked and fudgy. Cool and remove from tins; reserve for cake assembly.

NESPRESSO RISTRETTO SYRUP:

4 x 20ml shots of Ristretto (4 capsules ? 80ml)
70ml water
70g caster sugar
In a small saucepan, bring the espresso, water and sugar to the boil. Simmer gently until reduced by half.

CREAM CHEESE ICING:

200g unsalted butter
2 x 375g packets cream cheese
1kg pure icing sugar
Cream the butter in a free-standing mixer until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and continue to whip until the mixture has no lumps ? this may take some time if the cream cheese is cold. Slowly add the icing sugar, remembering to scrape down the bowl occasionally.

TO DECORATE:

Using a serrated knife, trim the tops off the four cakes. Keep the tops of the red velvet cakes for crumb decoration. With a pastry brush (or teaspoon), gently soak the two chocolate cakes with the Ristretto syrup. Place one red velvet cake onto a plate or cake stand, and place a layer of icing on top about 1cm thick. I like to use a piping bag for evenness but a flat knife or a spatula are fine. Top with a Ristretto-soaked chocolate cake, then more icing. Repeat with the remaining red velvet and Ristretto chocolate cakes. Cover the sides and top of the cake with a thin layer of icing and place in the fridge to chill. This is the base coat or ?dirty ice? for the cake.

Once chilled, take the cold cake and cover with a second layer of icing. This works best with the cake cold and icing at room temperature, so the icing is easy to spread. Whiz the red velvet cut-offs to crumbs in a blender and use to decorate the cake if desired. I love cutting a heart-shaped stencil out of baking paper and dusting a red heart on top with the crumbs!

Kerry Heaney

Disclaimer: This is not a paid post.

Source: http://eatdrinkandbekerry.blogspot.com/2013/02/layered-red-velvet-coffee-and-chocolate.html

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Video: Maria's Observation: You Can't Fight the Fed

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50979330/

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Trust makes you delusional and that's not all bad

Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Hilary Hurd Anyaso
h-anyaso@northwestern.edu
847-491-4887
Northwestern University

Trusting partners remember transgressions in ways that benefit the relationship

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Trust fools you into remembering that your partner was more considerate and less hurtful than he or she actually was.

New research from Northwestern University and Redeemer University College (Ontario, Canada) is the first to systematically examine the role of trust in biasing memories of transgressions in romantic partnerships.

People who are highly trusting tended to remember transgressions in a way that benefits the relationship, remembering partner transgressions as less severe than they originally reported them to be. People low on trust demonstrated the opposite pattern, remembering partner transgressions as being more severe than how they originally reported them to be.

"One of the ways that trust is so good for relationships is that it makes us partly delusional," said Eli J. Finkel, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Northwestern.

Laura B. Luchies, lead author of the study, said the current psychological reality of your relationship isn't what actually happened in the past, but rather the frequently distorted memory of what actually happened.

"You can remember your partner as better or as worse than he/she really was, and those biased memories are important determinants of how you think about your partner and your relationship," she said.

Researchers have long known that trust is crucial to a well-functioning relationship.

"This research presents a newer, deeper understanding," Finkel said. "It reveals that trust yields relationship-promoting distortions of the past."

Said Luchies, assistant professor of psychology at Redeemer University College: "If you talk to people who really trust their partner now, they forget some of the negative things their partner did in the past. If they don't trust their partner much, they remember their partner doing negative things that the partner never actually did. They tend to misremember."

###

"Trust and Biased Memory of Transgressions in Romantic Relationships" was published online in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In addition to Luchies and Finkel, co-authors include Jennifer Wieselquist; Caryl E. Rusbult of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Madoka Kumashiro of Goldsmiths, University of London; and Paul W. Eastwick of the University of Texas at Austin.

NORTHWESTERN NEWS: www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Hilary Hurd Anyaso
h-anyaso@northwestern.edu
847-491-4887
Northwestern University

Trusting partners remember transgressions in ways that benefit the relationship

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Trust fools you into remembering that your partner was more considerate and less hurtful than he or she actually was.

New research from Northwestern University and Redeemer University College (Ontario, Canada) is the first to systematically examine the role of trust in biasing memories of transgressions in romantic partnerships.

People who are highly trusting tended to remember transgressions in a way that benefits the relationship, remembering partner transgressions as less severe than they originally reported them to be. People low on trust demonstrated the opposite pattern, remembering partner transgressions as being more severe than how they originally reported them to be.

"One of the ways that trust is so good for relationships is that it makes us partly delusional," said Eli J. Finkel, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Northwestern.

Laura B. Luchies, lead author of the study, said the current psychological reality of your relationship isn't what actually happened in the past, but rather the frequently distorted memory of what actually happened.

"You can remember your partner as better or as worse than he/she really was, and those biased memories are important determinants of how you think about your partner and your relationship," she said.

Researchers have long known that trust is crucial to a well-functioning relationship.

"This research presents a newer, deeper understanding," Finkel said. "It reveals that trust yields relationship-promoting distortions of the past."

Said Luchies, assistant professor of psychology at Redeemer University College: "If you talk to people who really trust their partner now, they forget some of the negative things their partner did in the past. If they don't trust their partner much, they remember their partner doing negative things that the partner never actually did. They tend to misremember."

###

"Trust and Biased Memory of Transgressions in Romantic Relationships" was published online in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In addition to Luchies and Finkel, co-authors include Jennifer Wieselquist; Caryl E. Rusbult of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Madoka Kumashiro of Goldsmiths, University of London; and Paul W. Eastwick of the University of Texas at Austin.

NORTHWESTERN NEWS: www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/nu-tmy022713.php

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Sanctions relief offered in Iranian nuclear talks

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) ? World powers, fearful of scuttling negotiations beginning this week with Iran, are offering the Islamic republic some small new sanctions relief in return for curbing its nuclear program. But officials warned Monday that it's unlikely that any compromise will be reached soon.

Negotiators set low expectations for the latest round of high-level diplomatic talks to begin Tuesday in Kazakhstan's largest city ? the first since last June's meeting in Moscow that threatened to derail delicate efforts to convince Iran to stop enriching uranium to a level close to that used for nuclear warheads.

The stakes couldn't be higher: the Obama administration is pushing for diplomacy to solve the impasse but has not ruled out the possibility of military intervention in Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon. And Israel has threatened it will use all means to stop Iran from being able to building a bomb, potentially as soon as this summer, raising the specter of a possible Mideast war.

Tehran maintains it is enriching uranium only to make reactor fuel and medical isotopes, and insists it has a right to do so under international law. It has signaled it does not intend to stop, despite harsh international sanctions on its oil and financial sectors, and U.N. nuclear inspectors last week confirmed Iran has begun a major upgrade of its program at the country's main uranium enrichment site.

The clerical regime's refusal frustrates the international community, which has responded by slapping Iran with a host of economic sanctions that U.S. officials said have, among other things, cut the nation's daily oil output by 1 million barrels and slashed its employment rate. But, in a twist, negotiators now hope that easing some of the sanctions will make Tehran more agreeable to halting production of 20 percent enriched uranium ? the highest grade of enrichment that Iran has acknowledged and one that experts say could be turned into warhead grade in a matter of months.

Negotiators from the six world powers ? United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany ? also want Iran to suspend enrichment in its underground Fordo nuclear facility, and to ship its stockpile of high-grade uranium out of the country.

"We are pleased that they have come together for talks because it's been eight months since Moscow. We wanted to come together for talks earlier than this," said Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is leading the negotiations. "What's important to us is that they engage in these negotiations and take seriously what we've put on the table.

"No one is expecting everyone to walk out of here with a deal, but if we can have some forward momentum and they can show a willingness to take a confidence-building step, that's very important," Mann told reporters on Monday. He described the world powers' newest gambit as "a good offer" but declined to say what it would include.

A senior U.S. official at the talks said some sanctions relief would be part of the offer to Iran but also refused to detail it. The new relief is part of a package that the U.S. official said included "substantive changes ? whether you'd call them super-substantial, I'll leave to history." The official acknowledged reports earlier this month that sanctions would be eased to allow Iran's gold trade to progress, but would neither confirm nor deny they are included in the new relief offer, and spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic talks more candidly.

But at the same time, the senior U.S. official also noted the possibility that Iran would face new pressures if it fails to comply with international concerns. That could include toughening the impact of the sanctions already in place by enforcing them more strictly, or imposing new sanctions altogether as Iran moves forward with its program.

Western powers have hoped that the Iranian public would suffer under sanctions so badly that the government would feel a moral obligation to slow its nuclear program. The U.S. official attributed the decline in Iranian currency, the rial, and the decrease in oil production to Western sanctions.

Iran has been unimpressed with earlier offers by the powers to provide it with medical isotopes and lift sanctions on spare parts for civilian airliners, and new bargaining chips that Tehran sees as minor are likely to be snubbed as well. Iran insists, as a starting point, that world powers must recognize the republic's right to enrich uranium.

In a sign that Tehran is in no hurry to reach a compromise, Iran's foreign minister has no plans to meet with officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency Tuesday when he visits Vienna to attend an unrelated conference. Diplomats in Vienna suggested the decision by Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi reflects a deadlock on the agency's attempts to probe Tehran's atomic work. IAEA officials recently suggested related talks needed to pause after dragging on without results. The diplomats demanded anonymity because their information was confidential.

Still, last week, Salehi spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the Almaty talks could provide an important "opportunity" so long as the two sides were dealing with each other as equals and making offers of "same level, same weight."

"We will offer ways for removing possible concerns and ambiguities to show our goodwill, if Western countries, especially the U.S., fully recognize the nuclear rights of countries, which shows their goodwill," Mehmanparast told reporters in Tehran.

In London, Secretary of State John Kerry said an Iran with nuclear weapons was "simply unacceptable" and warned the time limit for a diplomatic solution was running out.

"As we have repeatedly made clear, the window for a diplomatic solution simply cannot remain open forever," said Kerry, on his first international tour as America's top diplomat. "But it is open today. It is open now and there is still time but there is only time if Iran makes the decision to come to the table and to negotiate in good faith. We are prepared to negotiate in good faith, in mutual respect, in an effort to avoid whatever terrible consequences could follow failure and so the choice really is in the hands of the Iranians. And we hope they will make the right choice."

An analysis released Monday by the International Crisis Group concluded that the web of international sanctions have become so entrenched in Iran's political and economic systems that they cannot be easily lifted piece-by-piece. It found that Tehran's clerical regime has begun adapting its policy to the sanctions, despite their crippling effect on the Iranian public. Doing so, the analysis concluded, has divided the public's anger "between a regime viewed as incompetent and an outside world seen as uncaring."

"As far as Iran is concerned, it is too late to reverse course. The massive sanctions regime is in place, warts and all, and not about to be removed," the analysis concluded. It recommended that the world powers "devise a package of incentives, including some less than complete degree of relief, that is politically as well as legally achievable and that genuinely addresses Iranian concerns."

Several diplomats in Almaty said any major breakthrough in the negotiations likely won't come until after Iran's presidential elections in June ? especially if the world powers refuse to offer anything that Tehran can use to show as some kind of major concession by the West.

__

Associated Press Writers Peter Leonard, George Jahn in Vienna and Cassandra Vinograd in London contributed to this report. Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/larajakesAP

.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sanctions-relief-offered-iranian-nuclear-talks-195942311--politics.html

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Reap The Amazing Skin Benefits Of This Special Tea | Food Trients

By Dr. Rosenberg

Reap The Amazing Skin Benefits Of This Special Tea

Many of the patients I see have chronic skin issues, like eczema.?? Other patients are simply interested in looking their best.? They want to know how to restore a youthful look to their skin ? improve the tone, color and maybe even get rid of some of those ?laugh lines?.? Recently, I started telling my patients about the benefits of drinking a special type of tea to help with these very issues.? If you have eczema, or just want to look younger, you?ll want to know about the skin benefits of this ancient tea?

Ancient Tea Improves Skin Youthfulness

Many patients seem shocked when I tell them about research out of Japan?s Shiga University of Medical Sciences, which showed a certain tea?s ability to improve eczema and restore youthfulness to skin.? That?s right, just simple tea, not some expensive, anti-aging serum.? Drinking a few cups of this special tea a few times a day has been shown to have amazing skin benefits which include:

• Brighter, improved color
• Diminished/clearing of dark, age spots
• Diminished wrinkles
• Improved tone and resiliency
• Effective sunscreen

This special tea is called?oolong?? or?wu liang ??after the Chinese tea leaf harvester of the same name who created it many centuries ago. The name means Black Dragon which it is also called.?? You may know oolong tea as ?Chinese restaurant tea?, because it is the type of tea frequently served in Chinese restaurants with meals.

Oolong is a delicately flavored tea from the same?Camelia sinensis?family as white, green, and black teas.? The difference between them lies in how early or late their tea leaves are harvested.???? Oolong tealeaves are harvested later than the leaves used to make white or green tea with black being harvested the latest.

Oolong tea possesses many of the same, healthy properties of green tea with just slightly less antioxidants.? However, the antioxidants that oolong tea does have do the same thing as green tea ? fights free radical formation, which causes oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress is what damages cellular DNA and speeds up the aging process. In skin, this aging, DNA damage shows up as dark spots.? I frequently see these ?age spots? in my older patients.? DNA skin damage also results in wrinkles that are caused from the breakdown in skin cells.? As it ages, skin loses the ability to knit itself back together and results in wrinkles.

In research out of the University of California, only 15 days consumption of oolong tea showed an amazing 50% reduction in free radicals.? Other research shows that the antioxidant value of oolong tea may be increased, though, by steeping the tea in hotter water, for a longer time.

In fact, in one patient of mine, I noticed a distinct brightening and smoothing of her skin after she had started drinking oolong tea after only about 3 weeks.? Even her skin tone/elasticity seemed more resilient giving her a younger appearance.

Oolong Shown To Improve Eczema

Atopic dermatitis, or eczema, is a chronic skin condition associated with rash, itching, redness, swelling, and sometimes infection of lesions from scratching at them.? In the Shiga University research, published in?Archives of Dermatology, researchers noted that the frequently stubborn condition of eczema showed remarkable improvement in over half of the people tested.

And, these results were in eczema sufferers where traditional treatments like Benadryl, prednisone and other corticosteroids had failed. In their research, drinking 3 cups of brewed oolong tea per day yielded these results:

• Relieved itching
• Relieved swelling
• Relieved redness
• Reduced scarring

Now, I wouldn?t suggest to my eczema patients to forego their traditional treatments and just drink oolong tea.? Nor would I tell my patients wanting to improve their skin?s youthfulness to just rely on a few cups of oolong a day.? Keeping a healthy skin routine is always important.

Yet, the research is compelling enough to me, as a dermatologist, that I feel confident in recommending that you might add some oolong tea to your daily routine. Its antioxidant properties have a lot of benefit for your entire body as well ? helping to decrease triglycerides/bad LDL cholesterol, lower blood sugar and blood pressure.? Just be sure not to load your oolong tea with skin-damaging table sugar.? Use stevia, or even the new monk fruit sweetener, if you like a little sweetness.

If you have eczema, or just want brighter, younger looking skin, 2-3 cups of oolong tea could make a big difference for the appearance of your skin.

Stay Well

Dr. Mark A. Rosenberg, MD Dr. Mark Rosenberg received his doctorate from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1988 and has been involved with drug research since 1991. With numerous certifications in several different fields of medicine, psychology, healthy aging and fitness, Dr. Rosenberg has a wide breadth of experience in both the public and private sector with particular expertise in both the mechanism of cancer treatment failure and in treating obesity. He currently is researching new compounds to treat cancer and obesity, including receiving approval status for an investigational new drug that works with chemotherapy and a patent pending for an oral appetite suppressant. He is currently President of the Institute for Healthy Aging, Program Director of the Integrative Cancer Fellowship, and Chief Medical Officer of Rose Pharmaceuticals. His work has been published in various trade and academic journals. In addition to his many medical certifications, he also personally committed to physical fitness and is a certified physical fitness trainer.

Source: http://www.foodtrients.com/inside/reap-the-amazing-skin-benefits-of-this-special-tea/

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J. Cole Calls Born Sinner Release Date 'A Bad Move'

Rapper tells MTV News his label is 'cool with' extra LP planning.
By Rob Markman

J. Cole
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702658/j-cole-born-sinner-update.jhtml

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One perk gone: Yahoo says no to telecommuting

Disgruntled Yahoo! employees leaked an internal memo from human resources in which CEO Marissa Mayer bans telecommuting, saying "speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home." NBC's Mara Schiavocampo reports.

By Martha C. White

Updated?12:00 p.m. ET - Silicon Valley firms are known for cushy perks: free food, bringing your dog to work and so on. But starting in June, Yahoo employees will lose the benefit of working from home. According to an internal memo leaked on Friday to The Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD.com by numerous disgruntled Yahoo employees, the new policy calls for workers ?physically being together.?

?We need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices... Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home,? reads the memo from Jacqueline Reses, a private equity veteran brought on board by Mayer in September to be the company?s HR boss.

?Hiring, managing and incentivizing talent will be of key importance,? Reses said in the press release announcing her hire.

Although Yahoo beat Wall Street expectations and reported an increase in revenue last month, this recent good news follows a long stretch of poor performance and management turmoil. Some have speculated that Yahoo?s no-telecommuting policy could be a defensive move, a way to lower the embattled tech giant?s headcount without undertaking formal layoffs.?

Shortly after CEO Marissa Mayer took the helm in July, she implemented changes like free lunch, free phones and other perks reminiscent of her former employer, Google. Earlier this month, a Business Insider list of top U.S. employers ranked Yahoo eighth, behind second-place Google but ahead of Microsoft, which came in 14th.

This new policy might make holding onto that spot harder. It drew a scathing response on Twitter and blog comment threads, with many users saying that keeping a stable of unproductive workers is a management failure, and that the policy would prompt a brain drain. (A handful of smaller tech companies used the news as a chance to recruit, inviting frustrated Yahoo! employees to come work ? on a flexible schedule ? for them instead.)

Others defended Mayer, saying an all-hands-on-deck approach was the only way to keep the company's new momentum going.

In her short stint at Yahoo, this isn?t the first time Mayer?s work-life balance choices have been criticized. After giving birth to her first child last fall, Mayer planned to be back at work in only a week or two.

Carley Roney, co-founder of the parent company for TheBump.com, told TODAY that Yahoo!?s policy change could convey an ?anti-parent? sentiment. Yahoo did not respond to the question of whether?new mom Mayer sometimes works from home. "We don't comment on rumors or internal matters," a company spokeswoman said via email.

The Yahoo memo made it clear that workers shouldn?t expect a lot of wiggle room or exceptions. ?For the rest of us who occasionally have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration,? Reses said.

Studies that have tried to determine whether working from home helps or hurts productivity have drawn mixed conclusions. A study in June by Wakefield Research found that 43 percent of people said they watched TV while ?working? from home, and roughly a quarter each admitted to taking a nap or knocking back a drink on the clock.

But a paper published just last week out of Stanford University said performance increased 13 percent when employees of a Chinese travel agency were allowed to work from home on a trial basis. ?[A]bout 9 percent was from working more minutes per shift (fewer breaks and sick-days) and 4 percent from more calls per minute (attributed to a quieter working environment),? researchers wrote. When the company ended the trial and extended the work-from-home option to the rest of its people, performance rose 22 percent.

What's more, there is a correlation between working from home and higher pay. Census Bureau data released last year found that part-time telecommuters earned a median $22,800 more than those who physically go to work every day.

A Bureau of Labor Statistics report published in June found that telework is making inroads into the American labor market, albeit slowly. About a quarter of survey respondents said they worked from home at least some of the time.

?Evidence also reveals that an increasing number of jobs in the American economy could be performed at home if employers were willing to allow employees to do so,? researchers wrote.?Technology-related jobs were mentioned as top prospects for telework. Hurdles, when they existed, tended to stem from management reluctance rather than technological limitations.

Based on the BLS?s findings, though, Mayer?s new edict could be a blessing in disguise for Yahoo workers. Working from home ?is not unequivocally helpful in reducing work-family conflicts,? the report said. ?Instead, telecommuting appears to have become instrumental in the general expansion of work hours... and/or the ability of employers to increase or intensify work demands among their salaried employees.?

Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/02/25/17087086-one-perk-gone-yahoo-says-no-to-telecommuting?lite

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APNewsBreak: Taliban attacks not down after all

FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2012 file photo, an Afghan solider, left, stands guard at the scene of a suicide attack in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province south of Kabul, Afghanistan. The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan incorrectly reported a decline in Taliban attacks last year, and officials said Tuesday that there was actually no change in the number of attacks on international troops from 2011 to 2012. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2012 file photo, an Afghan solider, left, stands guard at the scene of a suicide attack in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province south of Kabul, Afghanistan. The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan incorrectly reported a decline in Taliban attacks last year, and officials said Tuesday that there was actually no change in the number of attacks on international troops from 2011 to 2012. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2013 file photo, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta speaks during his last news conference as defense secretary. at the Pentagon. The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan incorrectly reported a decline in Taliban attacks last year, and officials said Tuesday that there was actually no change in the number of attacks on international troops from 2011 to 2012. In mid-December, Panetta said "violence is down," in 2012, and that Afghan forces "have gotten much better at providing security" in areas where they have taken the lead role. He said the Taliban can be expected to continue to attack, "but overall they are losing." (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The American-led military coalition in Afghanistan backed off Tuesday from its claim that Taliban attacks dropped off in 2012, tacitly acknowledging a hole in its widely repeated argument that violence is easing and that the insurgency is in steep decline.

In response to Associated Press inquiries about its latest series of statistics on security in Afghanistan, the coalition command in Kabul said it had erred in reporting a 7 percent decline in attacks. In fact there was no decline at all, officials said.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is among the senior officials who had publicly repeated the assertion of an encouraging drop-off in Taliban attacks last year, was disturbed to learn of the error, said his spokesman, George Little.

"This particular set of metrics doesn't tell the full story of progress against the Taliban, of course, but it's unhelpful to have inaccurate information in our systems," Little said.

A coalition spokesman, Jamie Graybeal, attributed the miscounting to clerical errors and said the problem does not change officials' basic assessment of the war, which they say is on a positive track as American and allied forces withdraw.

The 7 percent figure had been included in a report posted on the website of the coalition, the International Security Assistance Force, on Jan. 22 as part of its monthly update on trends in security and violence. It was removed from the website recently without explanation. After the AP asked last week about the missing report, coalition officials said they were correcting the data and would re-publish the report. As of Tuesday afternoon it had not reappeared.

U.S. and allied officials have often cited declining violence as a sign that the Taliban have been degraded and that Afghan forces are in position to take the lead security role when the last U.S. combat troops leave Dec. 31, 2014.

In mid-December, Panetta said "violence is down" for 2012 and Afghan forces "have gotten much better at providing security" in areas where they have taken the lead. He said the Taliban could be expected to continue to attack, "but overall they are losing."

Little said Panetta was briefed only "very recently" on the erroneous data.

U.S. and alliance officials try to measure progress against the Taliban from a variety of angles. Those include, for example, indications that the Taliban have lost much of their influence in population centers.

"The fact that 80 percent of the violence has been taking place in areas where less than 20 percent of the Afghan population lives remains unchanged," Little said.

The Taliban have lost a good deal of territory since a 2010 surge of U.S. forces in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, and they failed to recover it during the past two fighting seasons. Even so, they are resilient, and they are expected to severely test Afghan forces as the U.S. and its coalition partners step further into the background this year and complete their combat mission next year.

Many people, including coalition officials, have cautioned against the heavy reliance on statistics in assessing war progress. Yet the figures often are highlighted when they fit the narrative being promoted by leaders in Washington and other allied capitals.

"It is disturbing that, after 10 years of war, no reliable count of trends in violence exist even in terms of deaths, the most visible form of violence and one that is only a small portion of the actual causes and patterns of violence in the war," Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in February 2012.

Graybeal did not fully explain erroneous reporting of 2012 Taliban attacks by the International Security Assistance Force. It was not clear, for example, at what point the data errors began or who discovered them.

"During a quality control check, ISAF recently became aware that some data was incorrectly entered into the database that is used for tracking security-related incidents across Afghanistan," Graybeal said earlier.

He said an audit determined that portions of the data from unilateral Afghan military operations were "not properly reflected" in the trends ISAF had reported in its monthly updates.

"After including this unilateral ANSF (Afghan National Security Force) data into our database, we have determined that there was no change in the total number of EIAs (enemy initiated attacks) from 2011 to 2012," Graybeal said.

"This was a record-keeping error that we recognized and have now corrected," he added.

While ISAF routinely reports trends in Taliban attacks, it does not reveal exact numbers of attacks. Judging from its illustrative charts, however, it appears that there were more than 28,000 Taliban "enemy initiated" attacks in 2011.

The coalition defines enemy initiated attacks as those by small arms, mortars, rockets and improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. But it does not include IEDs that are found and cleared before they explode.

Trends in Taliban attacks are one yardstick used by ISAF to measure war progress. Others include the state of security in populated areas, the number of coalition and Afghan casualties, the level of economic activity, the degree to which civilians can move about freely and the performance of Afghan security forces.

Graybeal said that even though the number of 2012 Taliban attacks was unchanged from 2011, "our assessment of the fundamentals of campaign progress has not changed. The enemy is increasingly separated from the population, and the ANSF are currently in the lead for the vast majority of partnered operations."

___

Follow Robert Burns on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-26-US-Insurgent-Attacks-Error/id-59fe6f0e278f4101b7edbc7cee25ba9b

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Maine gas prices up another penny

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Gas prices in Maine continue to rise, but at a slower rate than the nation as a whole.

Price-monitoring website MaineGasPrices.com reports Monday that in-state prices ticked up a little more than a penny in the past week, to an average of $3.84 per gallon.

Nationally, prices rose almost three cents to about $3.72 per gallon.

The cost of gas in Maine is now seven cents per gallon higher than this time last year and 29 cents higher than a month ago. Nationally, prices have jumped 42 cents per gallon in the last month.

A company analyst says prices may linger at current levels for some time.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/maine-gas-prices-another-penny-160459212.html

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High School/Local College Sports Roundup for Feb. 23, 2013

February 23, 2013 10:42PM

Updated: February 24, 2013 2:21AM

Boys Basketball

No. 9 Rich East 83, Rich Central 48: Brandon Cole scored 20 points and Don Henderson added 11 to pace visiting Rich East (17-6, 8-2) in the Southland. Jamaal Murray led Rich Central (10-14, 5-5) with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Boys Indoor Track & Field

Thornwood Invitational: Kenneth Allen prevailed in the 50-yard dash (5.52 seconds) and Larry Moore was first in the 60-yard low hurdles (7.93) as Thornwood (147 points) finished second behind Evanston (166) in the six-team meet. Other winners for the Thunderbirds included Wole Daramola in the mile run (5 minutes, 5.28 seconds) and Donte Briggs in the long jump (20 feet, 1/4 inch). Lincoln-Way West?s Nick Hinton was tops in the high jump (5-10).

Girls Indoor Track & Field

Lockport Invitational: Marist?s Kelly Carollo was the top area performer by virtue of victories in the high jump (5-2) and pole vault (9-6). Other winners included Marian Catholic?s Imani Haynes in the 55-meter hurdles (8.80), Stagg?s Nellie Bonham in the shot put (33-11) and the Lockport foursome of Aubrey Elwood, Emmie Hahn, Kim Johnson and Bianca Wiemeyer in the 2-mile relay (10:18.26). St. Ignatius (100.50) won first place, with Lockport (64) coming in second and Marist (47) fourth in the 12-team field.

Men?s Basketball

CCAC Championship

Cardinal Stritch 84, St. Xavier 75: Brad Karp posted game highs with 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead St. Xavier (28-5) in Milwaukee. Anthony Grant added 12 points for the Cougars and Jack Krieger had 11.

South Suburban 131, Columbia 35: Coach John Pigatti earned his 200th career win at South Suburban, which ended the regular season with a 27-3 record. In seven seasons, Pigatti is 200-39 at the school. Michael Harris and Kadeem Thornton had 20 points each for the Bulldogs.

Contributing: Josh Krockey

Source: http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/sports/18432581-419/high-schoollocal-college-sports-roundup-for-feb-23-2013.html

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Japan coastguard says more China ships in disputed waters

TOKYO: Japan said three Chinese surveillance ships entered its territorial waters off disputed East China Sea islands on Sunday, hours after one of Beijing's fisheries patrol boats sailed into the zone.

The three marine surveillance ships entered the 12-nautical-mile territorial zone off Uotsuri, one of the Senkaku islands, shortly before 1:00 pm (0400 GMT), the Japan Coast Guard said in a statement.

The incident came hours after Japan said a Chinese fisheries patrol boat briefly entered the territorial waters off another disputed island on Sunday morning.

Beijing claims the Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, which it calls the Diaoyus.

The incidents were the latest in a series since Tokyo nationalised three islands in the chain in September, in what it said was just an administrative change of ownership.

The same Chinese fisheries patrol ship briefly entered the territorial zone on Saturday, as Japan's leader vowed he would not tolerate Beijing's incursions into the area.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was on his first visit to the United States since he took office in late December, said Japan "simply cannot tolerate any challenge now and in the future" to its control of the islands.

"No nation should make any miscalculation or underestimate the firmness of our resolve," Abe said Friday in Washington.

But speaking after White House talks with President Barack Obama, Abe also cautioned that "I have absolutely no intention to climb up the escalation ladder".

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Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2013/Feb-24/207697-japan-coastguard-says-more-china-ships-in-disputed-waters.ashx

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Flipping the 'off' switch on cell growth: Protein uses multiple means to help cells cope when oxygen runs low

Feb. 22, 2013 ? A protein known for turning on genes to help cells survive low-oxygen conditions also slows down the copying of new DNA strands, thus shutting down the growth of new cells, Johns Hopkins researchers report. Their discovery has wide-ranging implications, they say, given the importance of this copying -- known as DNA replication -- and new cell growth to many of the body's functions and in such diseases as cancer.

"We've long known that this protein, HIF-1?, can switch hundreds of genes on or off in response to low oxygen conditions," says Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., a molecular biologist who led the research team and has long studied the role of low-oxygen conditions in cancer, lung disease and heart disorders. "We've now learned that HIF-1? is even more versatile than we thought, as it can work directly to stop new cells from forming." A report on the discovery appears in the Feb. 12 issue of Science Signaling.

With his team, Semenza, who is the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Institute for Cell Engineering and Institute for Genomic Medicine, discovered HIF-1? in the 1990s and has studied it ever since, pinpointing a multitude of genes in different types of cells that have their activity ramped up or down by the activated protein. These changes in so-called "gene expression" help cells survive when oxygen-rich blood flow to an area slows or stops temporarily; they also allow tumors to build new blood vessels to feed themselves.

To learn how HIF-1?'s own activity is controlled, the team looked for proteins from human cells that would attach to HIF-1?. They found two, MCM3 and MCM7, that limited HIF-1?'s activity, and were also part of the DNA replication machinery. Those results were reported in 2011.

In the new research, Semenza and his colleagues further probed HIF-1?'s relationship to DNA replication by comparing cells in low-oxygen conditions to cells kept under normal conditions. They measured the amount of DNA replication complexes in the cells, as well as how active the complexes were. The cells kept in low-oxygen conditions, which had stopped dividing, had just as much of the DNA replication machinery as the normal dividing cells, the researchers found; the difference was that the machinery wasn't working. It turned out that in the nondividing cells, HIF-1? was binding to a protein that loads the DNA replication complex onto DNA strands, and preventing the complex from being activated.

"Our experiments answered the long-standing question of how, exactly, cells stop dividing in response to low oxygen," says Maimon Hubbi, Ph.D., a member of Semenza's team who is now working toward an M.D. degree. "It also shows us that the relationship between HIF-1? and the DNA replication complex is reciprocal -- that is, each can shut the other down."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. M. E. Hubbi, Kshitiz, D. M. Gilkes, S. Rey, C. C. Wong, W. Luo, D.-H. Kim, C. V. Dang, A. Levchenko, G. L. Semenza. A Nontranscriptional Role for HIF-1? as a Direct Inhibitor of DNA Replication. Science Signaling, 2013; 6 (262): ra10 DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.2003417

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/XQflXj1NWK4/130223111517.htm

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Gran Turismo 6 will be released on the PS3 ? Report | Gamechup ...

Most people are expecting Gran Turismo 6 to be released on the PS4, but that may not be true.

Michael Denny,?senior vice-president of Sony WWS, has let it slip that GT6 will be for the PlayStation 3. He revealed that the system will get more games and they haven?t stopped focusing on past consoles.

?Look at the games coming out on the PlayStation 3?like The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls,?GT6, and then on the third-party side of things another fantastic Assassin?s Creed, GTA,? he revealed in an interview with Silicon Republic.

?It?s important for our content to have that kind of longevity because, as I was saying [about the PS Vita], the games that come through are going to get better and better over time.?

Now maybe it could be a cross generation title, released on both the PS3 and PS4, but for now it looks like it is definitely coming to the PS3. The system?s install base combined with the series? potential to rack up massive sales, ensures this.

This should be a pretty disappointing thing for people who want to see technological progression, since we have already how Polyphony have struggled on the PS3 when it comes to executing their vision. If this title turns out to be cross gen, that would please both groups.

It could also be a slip up from Michael Denny, but considering he was talking about unreleased games like TLuS and Beyond: Two Souls, it seems otherwise.

Drive Club is the racing game that was announced for the PS4, and it looks pretty damn good too.

Source: http://www.gamechup.com/gran-turismo-6-will-be-released-on-the-ps3-report/

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Practical Secrets For Gaming Computer ? An IntroTop Tips And ...

Brought to you by Deryazaenku Sehuazteeon ? Nothing special here, merely a simple DVD reader and burner with solid performance for a low price. Today i7 Desktop PC has had some major improvement over the previous desktop PC. I feel that now you can?t deny that choosing because right specs to your Custom Gaming PC build is difficult and painstaking process. A few days ago, I finished building my new computer, which I now reference as Alpha Blue Ten (First Computer with Blue LED?s this season) or Alpha for short. It also costs much, much less. Today, a lot from the PC games are designed with graphics which are more life-like.

For anyone wondering concerning the different kinds of connectors for monitors, what resolution means and how to find the top resolution settings, or simple issues with a monitor, these submissions are for you. There are no huge files to download, no DVDs to purchase, no complex installation instructions to follow along with, and little time to be wasted making arrangements. You can easily upload the crooks to a Picasa web album (Which are free) in the XMB Photo Viewer, then just access them via your PC. Renting could be good, particularly if you only have a little starting up investment, but you must maintain your rental payment to help keep the place. gaming desktops The more memory you have available, the smoother your gaming experience will become. If guess what happens type of ram your motherboard are able to use and you discover how much it supports, but you?re still unclear about what ram is for, I am here to help you.

While programs like internet browsers don?t even task just one core, the kind of programs an individual embarking on this path typically uses will make great utilization of four cores. There gathers a great deal of junk data within the application which tends to make process slower. Digital Storm Custom-Build PC. ? Speed of Processor. Contact person: Fedrick Patrick. Engineering is consistently improving and receiving more efficient and cost-effective.

Plug in all the components such as the keyboard and mouse. You won?t ought to worry about your motherboard supporting this ram as it?s accepted by vertically all motherboards on industry today. Kensington and Logitech still produce quality trackball mice, and users still find them appealing and comfortable. If one needs to focus on high-performance media like DVD burning and rewriting, and they should pay attention to the desktop pc?s optical drive. If you never keep up, keep an eye out, since you may just get left behind. Highly recommend true.

Computer gaming has quickly evolved from something very nerdy to some mainstream culture, where every computer has at least one game placed on it. 1 channel means the best and left front satellites, nearly everywhere surround satellites, a center speaker and a sub-woofer. CNET, Hard ? OCP, Maximum PC, Mobile PC, PC World, Computer Gaming World, Computer Shopper, and PC Gamer editors have chosen Velocity Micro systems as some of the industry?s best-performing, highest-quality, and many reliable PCs. and yes already defraged and virus scaned so need another idea. Let?s search on the three principal causes somebody would want to build a custom gaming computer:. There a variety of wonderful contemporary gaming PC cases models from sleek gold to any or all black versions or futuristic reddish and black variations.

Source: http://bereakirk.com/practical-secrets-for-gaming-computer-an-intro/

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Office of Energy Development gets the go-ahead

February 22, 2013 Updated Feb 22, 2013 at 12:45 AM EST

Binghamton, NY (WBNG Binghamton) Signs of disapproval scattered the audience as the Broome County Legislature approved the creation of the Office of Energy Development.

The signs, along with 200 signatures urging the legislators to take a closer look, didn't sway the majority.

On top of approval, legislators also agreed to send $100,000 in funding from their hotels and motels tax.

The office requires $200,000 a year. The other $100,000 will be funded through the Industrial Development Agency.

The IDA will provide a total of $200,000 over the next two years.

The office's goal, according to Broome County Executive Debbie Preston, is to research and offer ideas on cheaper energy solutions.

The operation has been in operation with two staff members since Jan. 2. This was possible without legislature approval through temporary salary funds outlined in the county budget.

Just last week, the office held a seminar for local businesses.

Some legislators say they have confidence in what the office will offer.

"They just had a seminar seven days ago, ten days ago," Broome County Chairman Jerry Marinich said. "They originally had a room for 65 people, not big enough. [They] went to 80 people, not big enough. They had to turn some businesses away from coming to that seminar, which tells me is it a duplicate of services, or is not everyone getting the information?"

Other legislators sided with those holding signs.

"To the extent this office is going to be involved in energy efficiency, we can do that in house," Broome County Minority Leader Dan D. Reynolds said. "You don't need to create an additional layer of government to do that."

Reynolds also added that he doesn't feel it is right to use taxpayer money for something that he says is promoting natural gas development.

One audience member from Citizen Action said his job now is to hold the office accountable.

Marinich said the legislature will review the office and if it isn't meeting their standards, they can always vote to pull the funding.

Source: http://www.wbng.com/news/local/Office-of-Energy-Development-gets-the-go-ahead-192418441.html

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Scientist returns fire in GOP?s War on Science

Scientist returns fire in GOP?s War on Science.

Politico:

A scientist nibbled away at Sen. Rand Paul on Friday after the Kentucky Republican blasted his research on schools of fish as wasteful federal spending.

?He got the funding wrong and the species wrong, and he misrepresents the work we?ve done,? Princeton science professor Iain Couzin told POLITICO. ?He?s done some serious cherry-picking here. That?s one study, we?ve had a series of studies that have taken many years.?

On Fox News on Thursday night, Paul said the military has spent $5.2 million studying goldfish and advocated yanking funding for such programs to cut the budget.

?In the military they have $5.2 million they spent on goldfish ? studying goldfish to see how democratic they were and if we could learn about democracy from goldfish,? Paul said on Fox. ?I would give the president the authority to go ahead and cut all $5 million in goldfish studies.?

The problem: if President Obama had the authority to ?authority to go ahead and cut? funding for military goldfish studies, he?d be able to cut zero studies. The species being studied is the golden shiner. But I suppose ?goldfish? sounds more ridiculous, so Rand figured he?d lie and go with that.

Unfortunately, that?s not the only fact Paul stretched or got wrong, which was pretty much everything. Couzin said that the research was for applications in artificial intelligence and robotics. Understanding how simple intelligences like fish work together would be tremendously important in fighting oil spills and radioactive leaks, for example.

?Our work aims to understand the principles of collective control in animal groups and what this can inform us about collective robotics,? he said. ?It has nothing at all to do with human politics.?

Couzin also said that the $5.2 million figure cited by Rand was false. Funding for the project is mixed, with a portion coming from federal grants. You assume the rest would come from private industry, which would benefit from the research as well.

?If you think about it, schools of fish have been on the planet for much longer than we have and they?ve evolved to find solutions to problems. They can sense the environments in ways that we simply didn?t know how to do that,? Couzin said. ?From ant colonies to schooling fish, it?s not that complicated but the feats they can achieve are extraordinary. The collective of a whole can solve problems in ways individuals cannot.?

He added: ?Perhaps Sen. Paul should read our papers before he comments on them and perhaps he should consider more broadly how science can help society.?

Or maybe the next time Paul feels the need to act like an ignorant blowhard on Fox, he should check the impulse toward demagoguery and just not do it.

Source: http://quickhits.tumblr.com/post/43807110826/scientist-returns-fire-in-gops-war-on-science

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Chain pulled on flies in Chinese public toilets

Authorities in China are looking to wipe out dingy public toilets with proposed rules to limit the number of flies and flush away bad smells, Beijing said.

Public toilets in China are generally badly maintained, particularly at public transport locations.

But draft regulations released by the health ministry this week say no more than one fly per square metre will be allowed in toilets within buildings, while in free-standing facilities three flies per square metre are permitted.

The proposed rules also set standards for design, layout and management of public toilets, including classifications for odours.

The new regulations stipulate that if a toilet is used by an equal number of men and women, there should be twice as many stalls for females.

The move comes after a group of 20 women made headlines last year when they marched into a men's public toilet in the southern city of Guangzhou carrying colourful placards calling for equal waiting times for both sexes.

Authorities in Beijing last year unveiled new rules stipulating that the city's public toilets should contain no more than two flies?apparently a more exacting standard than the health ministry regulations released this week.

(c) 2013 AFP

Source: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-chain-flies-chinese-toilets.html

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Pragmatism in Florida

IN THE hierarchy of Obamacare haters, Rick Scott, the Republican governor of Florida, ranked near the top. In 2009 the former hospital executive bankrolled ads warning of government-run health care, with horror stories from Canada and Britain. In 2010 Mr Scott campaigned with the promise to scuttle the health law. Florida led states? efforts to challenge Obamacare in court. When the Supreme Court upheld the law in June, Mr Scott declared, ?This is just another burden the federal government has put on American families and small businesses.?

Though conservatives despaired over the ruling, some took comfort in the fact that it gave states the option of rejecting a major part of the law: the expansion of Medicaid, which funds health care for the poor. Given the choice, Mr Scott declared that Florida would opt out of the Medicaid expansion. He even wrote a column titled, "More Medicaid? No Thanks."

So Mr Scott's announcement on February 20th that he would, after all, expand Medicaid is, to say the least, a blow to conservatives. ?He has squandered his credibility as an opponent of Obamacare?, wrote Cato?s Michael Cannon, who served on Mr Scott?s gubernatorial transition team. The move is ?a huge threat to Florida's financial future?, declared Americans for Prosperity. "Terribly disappointed" is how Erick Erickson summed up his reaction. Conservatives are displeased, but they should not be surprised.

The maths are too obvious to ignore. Mr Scott will expand Medicaid for only three years (he says), when the federal government will cover the full bill. So in 2016, for example, Washington will pump an extra $6.7 billion into Florida?s Medicaid programme, 49% more than would've been spent had Florida not expanded the programme, while the state's tab will increase by less than 1%.

Florida has 1.3m uninsured adults who will be newly eligible for Medicaid, according to the Urban Institute. Without an expansion, 995,000 would be without insurance, eligible for neither Medicaid nor the subsidies to buy insurance on a federal exchange. (Mr Scott has drawn the line at creating his own health exchange.) ?While the federal government is committed to paying 100% of the cost of new people in Medicaid,? Mr Scott explained, ?I cannot, in good conscience, deny the uninsured access to care.?

The politics are obvious, too. Barack Obama won Florida in November, and Mr Scott is up for re-election next year. His tea-party inspired governing has so far led to dismal approval ratings, so he has begun to reverse course in some areas. In the case of Medicaid expansion, the governor was lobbied hard by the state's hospitals.

During the debate over health reform, hospitals agreed to payment cuts in exchange for the promise of more insured patients. But without a Medicaid expansion, this is a bum deal. Florida?s hospitals, in particular, stand to benefit from a bigger Medicaid programme?Medicaid payments to hospitals would jump by $33.6 billion from 2013 to 2022. This 31% increase is larger than that of any other state.

Though it is unlikely to quiet his conservative critics, Mr Scott can at least claim to have gotten something in return for his reversal?a waiver from the feds allowing him to privatise the management of Medicaid. This may not have been an explicit trade, but the timing of the two announcements certainly makes it seem that way. In a sop to conservatives, Mr Scott also declared that Medicaid expansion would expire after three years. But this seems unlikely to happen. Whoever is governor of Florida in 2017 will not want to yank insurance away from 1m people.

Mr Scott is not the only Republican to support Medicaid?s expansion. The governors of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota and Ohio have said they will expand Medicaid, too. As more of them come around, the pressure mounts on hold-outs to get their slice of the pie. When such a sweet deal is on offer, it is tough to resist.

(Photo credit: AFP)

Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/02/medicaid-and-obamacare?fsrc=rss

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Obama says Immigration leak won't hurt reform talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama denied on Wednesday that the leak of a backup immigration bill being drafted by the White House would hurt Senate negotiations on immigration reform and he confidently predicted Congress would pass legislation.

Republicans involved in a bipartisan Senate group working on an immigration overhaul package responded with criticism when details of the administration's plan surfaced in weekend news reports, despite Obama's promise to withhold his legislative proposals while lawmakers crafted their own.

"It certainly didn't jeopardize the entire process. The negotiations are still moving forward," Obama told San Antonio's KWEX television station, an affiliate of the Spanish-language network Univision, in an interview at the White House. He dismissed such news leaks as a common occurrence in Washington.

However, Obama reiterated a warning that he would be prepared to submit his own immigration bill if efforts in Congress fail.

Seeking to ease tensions with Republicans, Obama on Tuesday reached out directly to three U.S. senators - Marco Rubio, John McCain and Lindsey Graham - part of a "Gang of Eight" Republicans and Democrats working on an immigration deal.

The White House, meanwhile, denied it had intentionally leaked its own "Plan B" for revamping U.S. immigration laws.

Obama emphasized in last week's State of the Union address the importance of creating a clear path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally.

Many Republicans stress there must first be measurable progress in securing U.S. borders, a condition hard for the president to accept if it drags out the legalization process.

The White House, however, is counting on Republicans feeling pressure to move swiftly on immigration reform after they were chastened by Latino voters' rejection in the November election.

Obama, asked in the Univision interview about record deportations during his tenure, did not offer any prospect for curbing such efforts.

"What I can promise is that we are going to get comprehensive immigration reform, but my job is to carry out the laws that are already in place," Obama said.

(Reporting By Matt Spetalnick)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-says-immigration-leak-wont-hurt-reform-talks-034801521.html

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