Seals take scientists to Antarctic's ocean floor

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Elephant seals wearing head sensors and swimming deep beneath Antarctic ice have helped scientists better understand how the ocean's coldest, deepest waters are formed, providing vital clues to understanding its role in the world's climate.

The tagged seals, along with sophisticated satellite data and moorings in ocean canyons, all played a role in providing data from the extreme Antarctic environment, where observations are very rare and ships could not go, said researchers at the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystem CRC in Tasmania.

Scientists have long known of the existence of "Antarctic bottom water," a dense, deep layer of water near the ocean floor that has a significant impact on the movement of the world's oceans.

Three areas where this water is formed were known of, and the existence of a fourth suspected for decades, but the area was far too inaccessible, until now, thanks to the seals.

"The seals went to an area of the coastline that no ship was ever going to get to," said Guy Williams, ACE CRC Sea Ice specialist and co-author of the study.

"This is a particular form of Antarctic water called Antarctic bottom water production, one of the engines that drives ocean circulation," he told Reuters. "What we've done is found another piston in that engine."

Southern Ocean Elephant seals are the largest of all seals, with males growing up to six meters (20 feet) long and weighing up to 4,000 kilograms (8,800 lbs).

Twenty of the seals were deployed from Davis Station in east Antarctica in 2011 with a sensor, weighing about 100 to 200 grams, on their head. Each of the sensors had a small satellite relay which transmitted data on a daily basis during the five to 10 minute intervals when the seals surfaced.

"We get four dives worth of data a day but they're actually doing up to 60 dives," he said.

"The elephant seals ... went to the very source and found this very cold, very saline dense water in the middle of winter beneath a polynya, which is what we call an ice factory around the coast of Antarctica," Williams added.

Previous studies have shown that there are 50-year-long trends in the properties of the Antarctic bottom water, and Williams said the latest study will help better assess those changes, perhaps providing clues for climate change modeling.

"Several of the seals foraged on the continental slope as far down as 1,800 meters (1.1 miles), punching through into a layer of this dense water cascading down the abyss," he said in a statement. "They gave us very rare and valuable wintertime measurements of this process."

(Reporting by Pauline Askin, Editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/seals-scientists-antarctics-ocean-floor-035440809.html

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The Note's Must-Reads for Monday, February 25, 2013

The Note's Must-Reads are a round-up of today's political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S. newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com

Compiled by ABC News' Jayce Henderson and Amanda VanAllen

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The Boston Globe: " New group seeks to 'strengthen progressive movement'" Two top political consultants to President Obama are forming a public advocacy group funded by donations from wealthy individuals and corporations. It is aimed at making political and legislative changes at the federal and state levels. The Organizing for Action says it will be nonpartisan and steer clear of election activity, although the line between issue disputes and electoral politics can be fuzzy. The first of an expected wave of ads on gun control, for example, has targeted only Republicans. LINK

SEQUESTER CUTS: ABC News' Rick Klein: " President Obama Faces 'Cliff Fatigue' in Latest Budget Fight" Hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk. Delays await at airports. Padlocks are ready at national parks. The nation will suffer greater risk of wildfires, workplace deaths, and even surprise weather events, if government predictions are to be believed. Our entire military readiness and superiority are at risk. What if nobody cares? LINK

The Hill's Bernie Becker: " White House details state-by-state impact of looming sequester cuts" The White House escalated its efforts to pressure congressional Republicans on sequestration, releasing new reports that showed the state-by-state impact of some $85 billion in automatic spending cuts. President Obama's administration for days has been stressing the real-world implications of the spending cuts, which start going into effect on Friday, and has increasingly tried to bring that message directly to voters. LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Paul West: " As Federal cuts near, White House trades blame with Republicans" With no progress evident in Washington's latest budget battle, the White House opened a new front Sunday by releasing state-by-state estimates on the effects of about $85 billion in spending reductions. The across-the-board cuts are scheduled to take effect Friday, but the two sides appear more eager to pin blame than to avert a potential economic crisis. LINK

The New York Daily News' Dan Hirschhorn: " Dems and Republicans take to Sunday morning airwaves to point fingers as sequester cuts loom" Billions of dollars in automatic cuts are set to hit government spending this week - and Washington is in full hysteria over who's to blame and just how bad it will really be. Democrats and Republicans took to the airwaves Sunday, each in a last-ditch attempt to blame the other for the so-called "sequester" cuts and to debate the impact on Americans' everyday lives. Democrats said Republicans haven't come to the table with a serious compromise to the replace the automatic cuts. LINK

USA Today's Susan Davis: " Sequester: 'Collateral damage' of budget war may be huge" Coming soon, the lines at airport security might get longer, the hours of service at Head Start centers might get shorter and the FBI might have fewer agents tracking down bad guys. These are only a few of the potentially sweeping effects of the latest battle in the ongoing two-year budget war between President Obama and a divided Congress. Across-the-board spending cuts totaling $85 billion start kicking in Friday if Washington doesn't act. LINK

The Wall Street Journal's Janet Hook and Peter Nicholas: " Fresh Front in Budget Battle" Already looking past the current budget impasse gripping the capital, congressional leaders are quietly considering a deal to avert a government shutdown next month-but at the cost of prolonging across-the-board spending cuts. Attention is beginning to shift from Friday, when the broad cuts known as the sequester kick in, to the next budget deadline: Congress must pass a so-called continuing resolution by the end of March to keep funding government operations. LINK

The New York Times' Jonathan Weisman: " Budget Impasse Signals a Shift in G.O.P.'s Focus" With Congress unlikely to stop deep automatic spending cuts that will strike hard at the military, the fiscal stalemate is highlighting a significant shift in the Republican Party: lawmakers most keenly dedicated to shrinking the size of government are now more dominant than the bloc committed foremost to a robust national defense, particularly in the House. That reality also underscores what Republicans, and some Democrats, say was a major miscalculation on the part of President Obama. LINK

The Washington Post's Zachary A. Goldfarb and Paul Kane: " White House releases state-by-state breakdown of sequester's effects" The White House on Sunday detailed how the deep spending cuts set to begin this week would affect programs in every state and the District, as President Obama launched a last-ditch effort to pressure congressional Republicans to compromise on a way to stop the across-the-board cuts. But while Republicans and Democrats were set to introduce dueling legislative proposals this week to avert the Friday start of the spending cuts, known as the sequester, neither side expected the measures to get enough support to pass Congress. LINK

TEA PARTY: The Washington Times' Seth McLaughlin: " Tea partyers fight for right-thinking GOP" Though years in the brewing, the internal fight over the direction of the Republican Party has exploded onto front pages and political talk shows this month after strategist Karl Rove announced the formation of a new political action committee designed to promote more electable candidates. Fed up with what they see as a sellout of their small-government agenda and tired of Election Day disappointments, tea partyers and many conservatives are firing back. LINK

IMMIGRATION: Politico's Kate Nocera: " Congress facing signs of immigration roadblocks" The push for immigration reform on Captiol Hill has been in overdrive thus far in 2013, but last week's recess serves as a reminder - if one was needed - that the issue is far from settled. On the face of things, there's plenty of momentum in Congress: The Senate Gang of Eight hopes to have a bill by mid-March; labor and business groups agreed on basic principles for low-skill workers; and a series of congressional hearings on the topic already have begun in earnest. LINK

BOOKMARKS: The Note: LINK The Must-Reads Online: LINK Top Line Webcast (12noon EST M-F): LINK ABC News Politics: LINK George's Bottom Line (George Stephanopoulos): LINK Follow ABC News on Twitter: LINK ABC News Mobile: LINK ABC News app on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad: LINK

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/notes-must-reads-monday-february-25-2013-081101115--abc-news-politics.html

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South China Morning Post Headlines MAC Marketing Deceit ...

Supposed homebuyers Chris and Amanda Lee were exposed as employees of MAC Marketing Solutions in Vancouver [image and caption accompanying the SCMP article]

?A senior executive at a Vancouver marketing firm was forced to resign after employees of the company were caught posing as the daughters of rich Chinese property buyers in interviews with TV reporters.
The deception was intended to create the impression that Chinese buyers were still queuing up to buy into Vancouver?s teetering real estate market, which has long been fuelled by money from China and is now rated as the second least-affordable city in the world, behind Hong Kong, according to the Demographia consultancy.?
?
?The scandal erupted after a series of news reports this month, sourced to MAC Marketing, suggested that an influx of Chinese buyers would give the Vancouver property market a boost over the Lunar New Year period. That would have been in contrast to statistics from the local real estate board showing that prices have been steadily falling in Vancouver for the past eight months.?
?
?TV news crews at an open house for the new Maddox apartments in downtown Vancouver on February 9 were introduced to two buyers supposedly from China to support the notion of a Lunar New Year boost, who identified themselves as sisters Chris and Amanda Lee. In an interview with CTV, Chris Lee said: ?I?m from China, and that is my sister, Amanda. So, we are looking for a place together.?
She told the reporter their parents were visiting Vancouver for Lunar New Year and were bankrolling the sisters? purchase of an apartment. ?So, if we like this place, we have to tell them and they make the decision. Yes, really, Chinese people like to buy at this time [Lunar New Year].?
A similar story was carried by CBC, featuring Chinese house hunters Chris and Amanda Lee.
Two days earlier, a story predicting a Lunar New Year boost in property sales was carried by The Vancouver Sun newspaper, quoting McNeill.
However, an anonymous local real estate blogger known as the Rainforest Whisperer last week questioned whether the sisters were authentic Chinese buyers, after another internet posting showed that an ?Amanda Lee? worked for MAC on the Maddox project.?
?
?MAC was eventually forced to admit that both the ?Lee sisters? were its employees, and that they weren?t even sisters. MAC hasn?t revealed the true identity of ?Chris Lee?.
?We regret we did not do a better job at ensuring full transparency with those interviewed and apologise for any misunderstanding this may have caused,? MAC said last week.
McNeill told the newspaper : ?I don?t know if it was an overzealous employee or if this happened in a formalised way.?
In announcing the resignation on Wednesday, McNeill refused to reveal the identity of the executive who quit.
?McNeill owes an explanation to the media [whom MAC duped], to the broader real estate community [whose reputation MAC has irrevocably damaged], and to the general public [the ultimate targets of this fraud],? the Rainforest Whisperer wrote.?
?
?The average price of a detached house in the core district of Vancouver West topped out at C$2.25 million (HK$17.13 million) last May. It has since fallen by more than 11 per cent.?
?
- from ?Bogus buyers exposed in scam to boost property market in Vancouver?, South China Morning Post, 22 Feb 2013 [hat tip to numerous readers who alerted us to this via comments or e-mails]

The SCMP article carries some big messages, regardless of veracity:
1. The Vancouver RE market is falling.
2. Sellers are desperate enough to attempt subterfuge.
3. Buyer beware (moreso than usual).
This fiasco is turning out to be a spectacular back-fire for MAC Marketing and will quite probably have?deleterious effects on?the entire Vancouver RE industry.
Ongoing kudos to Whisperer for detecting the blatant deceit.
Regular readers know that we have always maintained that off-shore buyers of Vancouver RE, along with the vast majority of local buyers, have been buying on the premise of ever rising prices.
Now news is getting out that prices are falling.
And the knowledge of the seller desperation implied by this marketing deceit could have a more profound negative effect on buyer sentiment than any of us had initially guessed.
Do you see why we maintain that falling prices will beget falling prices?
- vreaa

Original story covered here:
CTV TV News Featured ?Condo Buyers? Actually Marketers Of Very Same Condos!
VREAA 13 Feb 2013

Source: http://vreaa.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/south-china-morning-post-headlines-mac-marketing-deceit-bogus-buyers-scam-teetering-market-steadily-falling-prices/

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Early results signal decisive victory for Cypriot conservative

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypriot conservative leader Nicos Anastasiades has sealed a convincing victory in Sunday's presidential run-off vote, according to early results, in a boost for investor hopes of a swift financial rescue for the near-bankrupt nation.

Anastasiades, who favors hammering out a quick deal with foreign lenders, took 58 percent of the vote after 30 percent of the vote was counted, well ahead of Communist-backed rival Stavros Malas, who has attacked the austerity terms accompanying a rescue.

Exit polls had also showed the 66-year-old lawyer scoring a decisive win. He consistently held an at least 15-point lead as results trickled in, making it highly unlikely the 45-year-old geneticist Malas would be able to catch up.

Jubilant supporters waved Greek and Cypriot flags and honked car horns outside Anastasiades's campaign headquarters in Nicosia as the results poured in.

Financial markets are hoping for an Anastasiades victory to speed up a joint rescue by the European Union and International Monetary Fund before the island runs out of cash and derails fragile confidence returning to the euro zone.

Anastasiades will take the reins of a Mediterranean nation ravaged by its worst economic crisis in four decades, with unemployment at a record high of 15 percent. Pay cuts and tax hikes ahead of a bailout have further soured the national mood.

"We have to choose between the lesser of two evils," said Georgia Xenophondos, a 23-year-old receptionist who voted for a third contender in the first round and voted for Anastasiades this time, but is wary of backing more austerity.

"We are already damaged by it, and I don't know if we can take anymore," she said. "We've hit poverty, unemployment and lost respect from the EU - things we didn't see five years ago."

About half a million Cypriots were eligible to vote, but many abstained or cast blank votes in protest.

Talks to rescue Nicosia have dragged on eight months since it first sought help, after a Greek sovereign debt restructuring saddled its banks with losses. It is expected to need up to 17 billion euros in aid - about the size of its entire economy.

Virtually all rescue options - from a bailout loan to a debt writedown or slapping losses on bank depositors - are proving unfeasible because they push Cypriot debt up to unmanageable levels or risk hurting investor sentiment elsewhere in the bloc.

German misgivings about the nation's commitment to fighting money-laundering and strong financial ties with Russia have further complicated the negotiations.

European officials want a bailout agreed by the end of March, ensuring no honeymoon period for the new president, who will be sworn in on February 28 and assume power on March 1.

Longstanding anger over the island's 40-year-old division into the Greek-speaking south and Turkish north has been relegated to a distant second behind the country's financial quagmire as an election issue this year.

(Writing by Deepa Babington; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cyprus-votes-president-clock-ticks-bailout-deal-000647202.html

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Google laptop for those who live in cloud

Is the world ready to live in the cloud?

Google is betting yes, unveiling Thursday morning its widely rumored touch-screen Chromebook, a high-end laptop designed to propel the shift toward a computing model where most of our applications and data live online.

The Chromebook Pixel, starting at $1,299, represents the most ambitious push into hardware yet for the Mountain View search giant, which designed and built the computer in-house. Its touch-screen capability, flash hard drive, fast processor and super high-resolution display put the product in head-to-head competition with the top offerings of chief rivals Apple and Microsoft.

But the Pixel's use of Google's Chrome operating system, lightweight software that relies on online processing, services and storage, represents a move in a distinct direction. It's a path that may well lead to the future, where all of our computing is done online. It's just not clear yet whether it looks enough like the present to be a breakthrough product.

Earlier versions of the Chromebook were positioned largely as second computers, accompaniments to a full-fledged desktop or laptop. At a San Francisco news conference Thursday, Chrome Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai argued that the Pixel is itself a primary device, at least for power users who already do most of their computing online.

Rethinking laptops

"The idea was rethinking everything in the laptop," he said. "To design something that we believed was the best laptop possible for these users, people who want to live in the cloud."

Pichai said Google intends to earn a profit from the product, but it's trying to sell more than a new computer. The company is trying to sell a new way of computing: Shifting more of it online means nudging more people into Google's Web services, including the Google Drive applications that compete with the popular Microsoft Office suite.

At this point, though, it's unclear how large the market will be for the Pixel. Earlier versions of the Chromebook generally ran in the $200 to $300 range, a low enough price to justify some obvious sacrifices.

Most notably, applications written specifically for Microsoft or Apple's dominant computer operating systems don't work on Chromebooks. That includes popular software like Photoshop, Reader and Final Cut, as well as competing Web browsers.

The other big drawback is that use is limited when a primarily Web-based device runs offline, as anyone with a Wi-Fi-only tablet will quickly learn riding BART (where the Wi-Fi almost never works these days - ahem, WiFi Rail of Sacramento).

Google has made significant strides in these areas since late 2010, when it handed journalists Chromebook prototypes that didn't even have an accessible hard drive.

Notably, Google's suite of online productivity tools, Google Drive, now automatically stores 100 of the most recently accessed documents to the Chromebook drive. That enables users to continue working productively when they're offline on BART, airplanes or mountaintops. The number of files will go up to 1,000 in the weeks ahead.

In addition, Chromebook users will soon be able to open popular Microsoft file types like Word and Excel in their browsers, edit the documents and e-mail them back in their original format. (Previously, you could only open a Microsoft file and edit it as a Google document. Users still won't be able to create a Word or Excel document from scratch.)

Meanwhile, a growing number of developers are building online versions of their products that run within the Chrome browser, known as Web apps, including Dropbox, Evernote and TweetDeck (to name three of my favorites). Google hopes to continue getting more developers to do so.

Too big a cost?

Still, a clear gap remains between the usability of a Chromebook Pixel and, say, a MacBook Pro with Retina display. And yet the latter starts at just $50 more. The MacBook Air and many Windows laptops cost far less.

The advantage of an online operating system is that it starts up in a flash, runs software and security updates automatically and shouldn't require as much hardware storage and processing power.

But as long as we live in a world without ubiquitous Internet access, and where developers find it more profitable to write software for better-known operating systems, it's not clear that those are big enough advantages to offset the downsides. At least not without a steep discount.

A Pixel portrait

Some fact and figures about the new Chromebook Pixel computer:

-- It features an Intel Core i5 processor, 4 gigabytes of RAM and a high-resolution screen that just edges out Apple's MacBook Pro with Retina display in terms of pixel density. A terabyte of free online space on Google Drive is included for three years.

-- The entry-level, Wi-Fi-only model includes a 32-GB solid-state drive and starts at $1,299.

-- The top-end model, with a 64-GB flash drive and Verizon LTE wireless service, is $1,449.

-- Design improvements in the keyboard and touch-pad are aimed at making it comfortable to use over long periods. A set of three microphones boost noise-canceling during operations such as video chats.

-- In tests, the fully charged battery lasted more than five hours.

-- The Pixel can be ordered at https://play.google.com/store or Bestbuy.com, and is expected to ship in the first week of April.

Source: http://feeds.sfgate.com/click.phdo?i=46899b823968a2a00962d988d6ae4ef9

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Science Explains Why the Silent Treatment Works when Dealing with Jerks (and Why It's Healthier for You, Too)

When dealing with jerks and trolls both online and off, you have a choice: you can engage and try to get them to see the error of their ways, or you can avoid them, ignore them, and move on with your life. Most of us already know that ignoring jerks is the best way to deal with them, but a new study from Baruch College (CUNY) brings the point home, and explains why it's better for your health, too.

The study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (available at the link below) may fall into the "science proves what we already knew was true" category, but there's an interesting spin on the results: not only is ignoring obnoxious people more effective at silencing them than actually speaking to them or engaging them in a discussion, it's healthier and less mentally draining on you as well.

The research is the result of two studies that examined 120 people who were asked to either chat with or ignore people who were asked to be either likable and congenial, or rude and offensive to the survey participant. The participants didn't know which type of person they would meet when the interaction started. After four minutes with each type of person, the participants were given a private room and given a thought exercise which required their concentration. The participants who ignored the offensive people fared better in the exercises than the people who engaged or tried to talk to them. The inverse was true with the likable people: participants who talked up the nice people instead of ignored them performed better on the tests.

Ultimately, the research concluded that you're not doing yourself any favors by responding to rude people or people who make you angry. You also get the side benefit that the best weapon against those types of people is ostracism. The researchers note that it can be difficult to overcome our natural impulse to engage when someone converses with us or says something that triggers us, but shunning is a more powerful weapon against jerks than argument. To read the abstract (or view the full study if you have access to Sage Journals), hit the link below.

When silence is golden: Ostracism as resource conservation during aversive interactions | The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships via The Vancouver Sun

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/257CUeqCFTI/science-explains-why-the-silent-treatment-works-when-dealing-with-jerks-and-why-its-healthier-for-you-too

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Red Sox open exhibition season with sweep of Northeastern, Boston College

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Source: www.nashuatelegraph.com --- Friday, February 22, 2013
FORT MYERS, Fla. ? Joel Hanrahan last started a regular-season game in 2007, so pitching the top of the first was an unusual experience for Boston?s new closer. About a half-hour before the Red Sox took on Northeastern in the first game of a doubleheader Thursday, Hanrahan wasn?t completely sure what to do. ?Should I get going? Should I wait? But I took it kind of as a real game when I was warming up,? he said. ?I took my normal 18 pitches to get ready for a game, walked in the dugout, grabbed a drink of water and went out. It wasn?t bad.? Hanrahan struck out two hitters in the first inning, and the Red Sox beat Northeastern 3-0 in the first exhibition game of spring training. ...

Source: http://feeds.nashuatelegraph.com/~r/sports/redsox/~3/EFthkPl4aN0/red-sox-open-exhibition-season-with-sweep.html

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FOR KIDS: Meteor explodes over Russia

Surprise: No one saw it coming

By Janet Raloff

Web edition: February 21, 2013

Enlarge

This streak of light shows the meteor?s entry into Earth?s atmosphere. It was photographed by a European weather satellite.

Credit: EUMETSAT

Mother Nature provided a surprise light show over Russia early on February 14. That?s when a major meteor entered Earth?s atmosphere. The object was originally 17 meters (55 feet) in diameter. That?s as wide as a 5-story building is high. It had also weighed a whopping 10,000 metric tons, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA).

The meteor was traveling about 65,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) per hour. It created a brilliant streak as it traveled across the sky for nearly 33 seconds. The meteor then exploded about 20 to 25 kilometers (12 to 15 miles) above Earth?s surface.

Visit the new?Science News for Kids?website?and read the full story:?Meteor explodes over Russia

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348512/title/FOR_KIDS_Meteor_explodes_over_Russia

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PayPal Here Is Coming To The UK, Its First Market In Europe, Armed With A New Way To Read Your Card

Make way for one more player in the European mobile payments space, and a big one at that. Today, the online payments giant PayPal announced that from this summer it will be rolling out PayPal Here in the UK, its first foray into the European market, equipped with a new piece of hardware to accomodate the chip-based cards prevalent in this part of the world.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2agSy_2SYQE/

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Horse Walker as Equestrian Equipment | CulturaPopulara.ro

There are lots of individuals who show their fondness with their pets. Even so, a great deal the others nice looking after a horse for a pet. Ranches are common in a variety of places. Horses are the majority of the times used not merely as chosen animals but are treated for professional and at times for industrial uses as well. As they seek to become full fledged equestrians, people look for some formal education with regards to rearing horses. Part of the instruction includes learning the appropriate equestrian equipment. Among that are the horse walker and the horse tack.

Horse Walker for Equestrian Workouts

For a person who is unquestionably significant in getting on with discussing then and horses its stabling, you need to know how important the horse walkers can be. What benefits could be taken out from the horse master? For one, the horse runner is a known equestrian equipment to keeping time when training or practicing your horses and in the make an effort to ask them to cool-down after having a long day?s drive. Among the rest of the uses of a horse runner is for halter breaking and the other is for nursing back the health of the animal should any condition has occurred. The use of a horse walker is definite to make then more and the horse tougher physically able. Moreover, the operation of a horse runner before any journey starts up would mean that the dog would be able to focus at the job that?s on hand when it is taken out of the firm and get to be added up.

The Kinds of Horse Walkers

There are several types of horse walkers to pick from nevertheless the common denominator among them is that they have the exact same functions. A number of these horse master forms are capable of handling four around six horses at confirmed time. Likewise, there are horse walkers which are put up for sale available in the market and are able to focus on all numbers of animals to be used out for a journey.

The typical models of the horse walkers include the flatly stuffed and quickly built ones right there on the website. Nevertheless, for many other features, you can find people who could be purchased alongside roofs and fence. Different controls and speeds may also be contained in the characteristics. The horse walkers require the forward and reverse motions also.

On the other hand, the higher end types of the horse walkers permit the removing of the pressure from all elements of the human anatomy of the horse which are also susceptible to damage. More over, this equestrian equipment stops it from bucking specially in relatively open fields. It?s important that it completely heals, If the dog gets any wound. With this equestrian equipment, such can be done. Be certain that the equestrian gear has enough room that will allow the pet to relax particularly all through long flights.

Safety must be a top priority as always. Inquire on the safety measures which come together with the purchase. As they are educated enough in the area you may even seek the support of the experts in horse rearing. Make sure that it?d work well both for you whilst the trainer and for your horse, before you purchase any horse master. technical employment agency

In: Aparitii editoriale | | Link ????? 13 vizualizari

Source: http://culturapopulara.ro/?p=23467

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ZUMBATHON | Mauldin Sports & Recreation, Organizations, Family ...

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

Source: http://ahmedrazu505.blogspot.com/2013/02/zumbathon-mauldin-sports-recreation.html

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Trial opening for Israel's former foreign minister accused of fraud, breach of trust

JERUSALEM - Israel's hard-line former foreign minister is standing trial on charges of fraud and breach of trust.

Avigdor Lieberman is accused of trying to advance the career of a former diplomat who relayed information to him about a criminal investigation into his business dealings.

Following years of investigations into Lieberman's dealings, charges were filed in January and Lieberman stepped down from his post a short time later. He denies any wrongdoing.

The trial is scheduled to begin later Sunday.

Lieberman was re-elected to parliament on a joint ticket with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but has indicated that he would quit politics if convicted in the case. That would shake up Israeli politics because Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu faction are powerful political players.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/world/191573661.html

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Marco Rubio's ?working class family? home on sale fo $675,000 ...

During his rebuttal to the State of the Union address the other night, in addition to responding to a different SOTU address than the rest of us watched and having the Most Awkward Drink of Water Ever Ever, Marco Rubio talked about living ?in the same working class neighborhood? he grew up in.

Our friends at Estately.com who are, apparently, Eclectablog & LOLGOP fans, sent along a link to Senator Rubio?s real estate posting on their site for the house he lives in. His house is for sale and the sales price is a whopping $675,000. It?s a nice house with a swimming pool and everything. But, at a sales price of over two-thirds of a million dollars, it?s clear that Rubio?s neighborhood is hardly ?working class?, at least not any longer.

Yet, here?s what ?the future of the Republican Party? had to say on Tuesday night:

Mr. President, I still live in the same working class neighborhood I grew up in. My neighbors aren?t millionaires. They?re retirees who depend on Social Security and Medicare. They?re workers who have to get up early tomorrow morning and go to work to pay the bills. They?re immigrants, who came here because they were stuck in poverty in countries where the government dominated the economy. The tax increases and the deficit spending you propose will hurt middle class families. It will cost them their raises. It will cost them their benefits. It may even cost some of them their jobs.

They may not be millionaires but they sure aren?t ?working class? if Sen. Rubio?s house is any indication.

If you look through the images, you?ll see Sen. Rubio?s dog photobomb one of them:

And, wait, is that a bottle of Poland Springs water?! Why, yes it is!

At the end of the day, I really don?t give a damn what kind of house Marco Rubio lives in. I am fully aware that most members of Congress are very wealthy. That?s just how our system seems to work. But, please, Senator Rubio, do not lie to us, especially not when it?s so easily disprovable.

No wonder your throat was so parched the other night. Just like when your friend Rep. Paul Ryan couldn?t quench his thirst during his debate with Vice President Joe Biden, it seems to be a clear indication that you?re lying to the American people. After all, a dry mouth is one of the top signs that someone is telling a lie.

Look for any indication that the speaker has a dry mouth, a common side effect of lying. This can include lip licking, frequent swallowing or repetitious small sips of a beverage.

Mmm hmm. No surprise there at all.

[Photos courtesy of Estately.com, used with permission]

Source: http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/02/marco-rubios-working-class-family-home-on-sale-fo-675000-come-see-the-photos.html

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Olympian Pistorius charged with murder

In this Nov. 4, 2012 photo, South African Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp, believed to be his girlfriend, at an awards ceremony, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was taken into custody and was expected to appear in court Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013, after a 30-year-old woman who was believed to be his girlfriend was shot dead at his home in South Africa's capital, Pretoria. (AP Photo/Lucky Nxumalo-Citypress) SOUTH AFRICA OUT

In this Nov. 4, 2012 photo, South African Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp, believed to be his girlfriend, at an awards ceremony, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was taken into custody and was expected to appear in court Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013, after a 30-year-old woman who was believed to be his girlfriend was shot dead at his home in South Africa's capital, Pretoria. (AP Photo/Lucky Nxumalo-Citypress) SOUTH AFRICA OUT

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, center. leaves the Boschkop police station, east of Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013 en route to appear in court charged with murder. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was taken into custody and was expected to appear in court Thursday after a 30-year-old woman who was believed to be his girlfriend was shot dead at his home in South Africa's capital, Pretoria. (AP Photo/Chris Collingridge) SOUTH AFRICA OUT

FILE - This is a Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012 file photo of South Africa's Oscar Pistorius as he reacts after finishing first in a men's 400-meter heat during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics, London Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius was charged Thursday Feb. 14. 2013 with the murder of his girlfriend who was shot inside his home in South Africa, a stunning development in the life of a national hero known as the Blade Runner for his high-tech artificial legs. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2012 file photo, South Africa's Oscar Pistorius starts in the men's 400-meter semifinal during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius was charged Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013, with the murder of his girlfriend who was shot inside his home in South Africa, a stunning development in the life of a national hero known as the Blade Runner for his high-tech artificial legs. Reeva Steenkamp, a model who spoke out on Twitter against rape and abuse of women, was shot four times in the predawn hours in the home, in a gated community in the capital, Pretoria, police said. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus, File)

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius leaves the Boschkop police station, east of Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013 en route to appear in court charged with murder. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was taken into custody and was expected to appear in court Thursday, after a 30-year-old woman who was believed to be his girlfriend was shot dead at his home in South Africa's capital, Pretoria. (AP Photo/Chris Collingridge) SOUTH AFRICA OUT

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius was charged Thursday with the murder of his girlfriend who was shot inside his home in South Africa, a stunning development in the life of a national hero known as the Blade Runner for his high-tech artificial legs.

Reeva Steenkamp, a model who spoke out on Twitter against rape and abuse of women, was shot four times in the predawn hours in the house, in a gated community in the capital, Pretoria, police said.

Hours later after undergoing police questioning, Pistorius left a police station accompanied by officers. He looked down as photographers snapped pictures, the hood on his gray workout jacket pulled up, covering most of his face. His court hearing was originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon but has been postponed until Friday to give forensic investigators time to carry out their work, said Medupe Simasiku, a spokesman for the prosecution.

South Africans were shocked at the killing. But while Pistorius captured the nation's attention with his Olympic dreams, police said there was a history of problems involving him.

There have "previously been incidents at the home of Mr. Oscar Pistorius," said police spokeswoman Brigadier Denise Beukes. Police in South Africa do not name suspects in crimes until they have appeared in court but Beukes said that the 26-year-old Pistorius was at his home at the time of the death of Steenkamp and "there is no other suspect involved."

"Yes, there are witnesses and there have also been interviews this morning," Beukes told reporters outside the gated complex where Pistorius lived. "We are talking about neighbors and people that heard things that happened earlier in the evening and when the shooting took place."

Pistorius' father, Henke, declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press, only saying "we all pray for guidance and strength for Oscar and the lady's parents."

Neither Pistorius' agent Peet van Zyl nor coach Ampie Louw could be reached while Pistorius' own cellphone went straight to an answerphone service.

Pistorius' former coach, Andrea Giannini, said he hopes it was "just a tragic accident." Gianni said he believed that Pistorius had been dating Steenkamp for "a few months."

"No matter how bad the situation was, Oscar always stayed calm and positive," Giannini told the AP in Italy. "Whenever he was tired or nervous he was still extremely nice to people. I never saw him violent."

Pistorius owned guns and tweeted a photo of himself at a shooting range in November 2011, bragging about his score.

"Had a 96% headshot over 300m from 50shots! Bam!" he tweeted.

Police said that earlier reports that Steenkamp may have been mistaken for a burglar by Pistorius did not come from the police. Several local media outlets had initially reported that the shooting may have been accidental.

Beukes said there had been previous incidents and "allegations of a domestic nature" at the home of the Olympic star and double-amputee runner, who is one of South Africa's and the world's most famous sportsmen and made history at the London Games last year by being the first double-amputee runner to compete at the Olympics.

"I'm not going to elaborate on it but there have been incidents (at Pistorius' home)," Beukes said.

Capacity Relations, a talent management firm, earlier named model Steenkamp as the victim of the shooting. Police spokeswoman Lt. Col. Katlego Mogale told the AP that officers received a call around 3 a.m. after the shooting.

A 9 mm pistol was recovered and a murder case opened against Pistorius.

Pistorius enjoyed target shooting with his pistol and an online advertisement featuring him for Nike read: "I am a bullet in the chamber." An article in January 2012 in The New York Times Magazine described him talking about how he pulled a pistol to search his home when his alarm went off the night before an interview. At Pistorius' suggestion, he and the journalist went to a nearby target range where they fired at targets with a 9 mm pistol. At one point, Pistorius told the writer: "If you practiced, I think you could be pretty deadly."

Asked how often he went target shooting, Pistorius replied: "Just sometimes when I can't sleep."

On Thursday, Mogale said when police arrived at Pistorius' house they found paramedics trying to revive a 30-year-old woman, who had been shot four times. Mogale, who was speaking to the AP from the scene, said the woman died at the house.

Police have still not released the name of the woman, but the publicist for Steenkamp confirmed in a statement that the model was dead.

"We can confirm that Reeva Steenkamp has passed away," Steenkamp's publicist Sarit Tomlinson said. "We are in communication with people on the scene, please wait for official statements, as there is too much speculation at this moment in time. We will provide further information as soon as we are able to provide accurate information as to what transpired.

"Our thoughts and prayers go to the Steenkamp family, who have asked to have their privacy respected during this difficult time, everyone is simply devastated. She was the kindest, sweetest human being; an angel on earth and will be sorely missed."

Tomlinson said Steenkamp, known simply as Reeva, was one of FHM's (formerly For Him Magazine) 100 Sexiest Women in the World for two years running, appeared in countless international and national advertisements and was one of the celebrity contestants on Tropika Island of Treasure, filmed in Jamaica.

On Twitter, she tweeted messages urging women to stand up against rape alongside her excitement about Valentine's Day. "What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow?" she tweeted. "It should be a day of love for everyone."

Mogale and Beukes said the victim's family had not yet identified the body.

Pistorius made history in London last year when he became the first double-amputee track athlete to compete in the Olympic Games, propelling him to the status of an athletics superstar.

Having had both his legs amputated below the knee before his first birthday because of a congenital condition, he campaigned for years to be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes. Having initially been banned because of his carbon fiber blades ? which critics said gave him an unfair advantage ? he was cleared by sport's highest court in 2008 and allowed to run at the top events.

He competed in the 400 meters and on South Africa's 4x400 relay team at the London Games, making history after having his selection confirmed on South Africa's team at the very last minute. He also retained his Paralympic title in the 400 meters in London.

South Africa's Sports Confederation and Olympic committee released a statement on Thursday saying they had been "inundated" with requests for comment but were not in a position to give out any details of the shooting.

"SASCOC, like the rest of the public, knows no more than what is in the public domain, which is there has been an alleged fatal shooting on the basis of a mistaken identity and an apparent assumption of a burglary," the South African Olympic committee said. "The organization is in no position to comment on the incident other than to say our deepest sympathy and condolences have been expressed to the families of all concerned."

The International Paralympic Committee also said it wouldn't comment in detail apart from offering its condolences to the victim's family.

"This is a police matter, with a formal investigation currently underway," the IPC said. "Therefore it would be inappropriate for the IPC to comment on this incident until the official police process has concluded. The IPC would like to offer its deepest sympathy and condolences to all families involved in this case."

South Africa has some of the world's highest murder rates, with nearly 50 people killed each day in the nation of 50 million. It also has high rates of rape, other assaults, robbery and carjackings.

U.N. statistics show South Africa has the second highest rate of shooting deaths in the world, second only to Colombia.

___

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa. Associated Press writer Michelle Faul contributed to this report from Johannesburg.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-14-Pistorius-Shooting/id-4edfabc51b054ae4822a542c012ac246

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Golf, Rugby Sevens, At Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games

Golf and rugby sevens will be among 36 sports to be played at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, a year before they appear at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

TO2015 CEO Ian Troop made the announcement during a quarterly report conference call on Tuesday.

The Toronto Star reports the program includes all 28 Olympic sports set for the Rio 2016 Games, along with the Pan-Am only sports such as softball, baseball and bowling.

Men's softball will reportedly be played at the Pan Ams for the first time since 2003. It made its Pan Am debut in 1979.

Troop also announced that the Games remain on budget with $647 million for capital bills and $767 million for operations, totalling $1.441 billion.

Troop added that TO2015 has reached 65 per cent of its targeted sponsorship revenue of $102 million, adding they've already received almost double the sponsorship Guadalajara got for the 2011 Pan Am Games.

The Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games run July 10-26, 2015.

Write or read comments about this article

Source: http://www.gamesbids.com/eng/other_news/1216136487.html

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US companies restocked at slower pace in December

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. companies restocked their store shelves and warehouses at a slower pace in December, a sign of caution as sales weakened. Slower restocking was a major drag on the economy in the final three months of last year.

The Commerce Department says business inventories ticked up 0.1 percent in December from November, below the 0.2 percent pace the previous month and the smallest increase since last June.

Total sales for wholesalers, retailers and manufacturers increased only 0.3 percent, down from a 0.9 percent clip in November.

Slower rebuilding of inventories means factories produced less, lowering overall economic output.

One silver lining: if sales keep growing, companies may have to restock more quickly in the January-March quarter, boosting growth. A separate report Wednesday showed retail spending ticked up in January.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-13-Business%20Inventories/id-dc6ecf41a5484794a38e37e7af10236e

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Synthetic circuit allows dialing gene expression up or down in human cells

Feb. 11, 2013 ? Scientists who built a synthetic gene circuit that allowed for the precise tuning of a gene's expression in yeast have now refined this new research tool to work in human cells, according to research published online in Nature Communications.

"Using this circuit, you can turn a gene from completely off to completely on and anywhere between those two extremes in each cell at once. It's a nice tool if you want to know what happens at intermediate levels of gene expression. There has been no such system so far, but now it is available for mammalian cell research," said senior author G?bor Bal?zsi, Ph.D., associate professor in The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Systems Biology.

Present options for altering gene expression in human cells are blunt instruments by comparison. Knocking out a gene eliminates its expression completely. Inhibiting it with RNA interference dials it partially down and can affect other genes. Inserting a gene expression vector into cells overexpresses the gene, but it's usually uncontrolled. Commercially available versions can switch a gene on or off, but cannot precisely dial between these extremes.

"For cancer research, the system will allow scientists to test the boundaries of a gene known to confer resistance to a drug in cancer cells by dialing its expression to different levels and treating the cells with the drug," said first author Dmitry Nevozhay, M.D. Ph.D., instructor in Systems Biology.

"Likewise, such a system would allow personalized gene therapy, by precisely tuning the therapeutic gene level expression depending on disease progression and the patient's need," Nevozhay said.

In microbial or yeast biology research scientists have started to understand and manipulate gene function quantitatively, almost like we understand electronic circuits, Bal?zsi said. "This makes research in those areas more amenable to engineering and mathematical characterization, -- but that's not true for human cells, and part of the problem is that tools that tune gene expression have been lacking."

A step-by-step guide for others to build mammalian synthetic gene circuits By refining their circuit to work in a human breast cancer cell line, the team demonstrated that their approach can be used in mammalian cells while offering a step-by-step guide that other researchers could follow to build other synthetic circuits for use with other genes.

"With all of our steps reported, if someone wants to build another type of gene expression switch, or oscillator, they could build the circuit in fast-growing yeast cells, where it can be engineered and optimized quickly and reliably," Bal?zsi said. "Once you know it works in yeast, you know the steps to make it function in human cells. This process is similar to extensive testing of NASA's space operations on Earth before actually carrying them out in space."

Synthetic biologists apply engineering principles to design and build new biological systems for predefined purposes.

In yeast, Bal?zsi and colleagues synthesized a gene circuit designed to control the level of gene expression precisely using the tetracycline repressor.

They made the promoter for the repressor identical to the promoter for the reporter gene yEGFP encoding the green fluorescent protein. This caused a negative feedback loop, creating a linear dependence of the yEGFP level on the tetracycline analog in the growth medium.

Tunable control of gene expression in mammalian cells

The researchers modified the synthetic network, which initially did not work at all in human cells. A computational model suggested a strategy to optimize the network for mammalian cells.

Several modifications improving transcription, translation and intracellular localization of the regulator protein were added to the synthetic network one at a time. Each one bolstered the network's output in human cells, until it finally achieved a linear dose response of gene expression to the tetracycline analog doxycycline.

Among the additions made to the circuit:

* Addition of an intron (non-coding DNA), which when inserted into genes can increase their expression in mammalian cells.

* Codon optimization in the repressor and reporter genes.

* Introduction of a nuclear-localization sequence, to take the circuit into the cell nucleus, where it can influence gene expression.

* Addition of the Kozak sequence, which improves gene expression in mammalian cells by enhancing translation.

* Promoter optimization, which maximizes the gap between full and basal expression.

Finally, they used the same circuit to control expression of an additional red fluorescence protein gene called mCherry as proof of concept for regulating other genes.

His synthetic gene circuit research won Bal?zsi a National Institutes of Health New Innovator Award in 2009, one of only 54 such grants made nationally that year to fund bold ideas with the potential to quickly translate research into improved human health.

"This research is not possible without the New Innovator Award," Bal?zsi said. "It allows you to explore off the beaten path. We aren't looking directly at the next obvious step towards curing cancer or discovering new molecular interactions.

"Yet, we believe steps that don't seem obvious today are crucial for tomorrow's therapies. We've outlined a set of engineering steps that will help us better understand and control gene expression to improve cancer treatment or develop new approaches to gene therapy," he said. "Traditional funding mechanisms would not have done it."

He also received an MD Anderson seed grant to launch his research.

Co-authors with Bal?zsi and Nevozhay is Tomasz Zal, Ph.D., of MD Anderson's Departments of Immunology and of Molecular and Cellular Oncology.

Research was funded by the NIH Director's New Innovator Award (1DP2 OD006481-01), a grant from the National Cancer Institute (R01 CA137059) and an MD Anderson Institutional Research Grant.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Dmitry Nevozhay, Tomasz Zal, G?bor Bal?zsi. Transferring a synthetic gene circuit from yeast to mammalian cells. Nature Communications, 2013; 4: 1451 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2471

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/~3/6UCLaW65tEg/130212100600.htm

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Oil falls below $97 amid ample supply

BANGKOK (AP) ? The price of oil slipped back below $97 a barrel Tuesday after a sharp rise the day before as supply remains ample and demand tepid.

Benchmark oil for March delivery was down 13 cents to $96.90 at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract on Monday gained $1.31 to finish at $97.03 a barrel on the Nymex as the euro strengthened against the dollar.

A strong euro tends to result in higher oil prices by making crude priced in dollars cheaper for traders using currencies other than the greenback.

On Friday, new figures showed the U.S. trade deficit fell nearly 21 percent in December from November, the smallest trade deficit in nearly three years, due largely to plunging oil imports. Production of oil is surging in the U.S., weighing on the price of U.S. crude oil.

"Our exports of oil products jumped by $10 billion last year and will more than likely see bigger improvements this year. We're bringing in less crude from other countries," Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks and Opinions, said in a market commentary. "It's all good for the US, but we're getting high on our own supply and keeping it cheap. This means there's less demand for crude wherever we can send our cheap cargoes."

In London, Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, rose 5 cents to $117.26 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:

? Wholesale gasoline rose 0.8 cent to $3.029 a gallon.

? Natural gas rose 0.6 cent to $3.285 per 1,000 cubic feet.

? Heating oil was almost unchanged at $3.231 a gallon.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-12-Oil-Prices/id-09da8905c6c44745b86d96a1a44ad991

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After Growing Revenue 270% Last Year, Personalization Startup Sailthru Raises $19M From Benchmark, Adds Bill Gurley To Board

Personalization startup Sailthru has been growing rapidly, with revenues increasing 270 percent over the last year. With that in mind, the company has raised $19 million in new Series B financing led by Benchmark. Along with the funding, the company is adding Benchmark general partner Bill Gurley to its board of directors.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/WZFPRxf9kAc/

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Hi! Long time listener first time caller. I seen a post about 6 months back with a link to a site that was about to battle Goku vs Superman. Do you remember the sight and what was the outcome of that battle. Thanks from Kelowna, BC Canada

Hi! Long time listener first time caller. I seen a post about 6 months back with a link to a site that was about to battle Goku vs Superman. Do you remember the sight and what was the outcome of that battle. Thanks from Kelowna, BC Canada ? asked by Anonymous

Source: http://www.iheartchaos.com/post/42819517384

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Fugitive's rant puts focus on evolving LAPD legacy

FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 8, 2013 file photo, officers in a patrol car keep watch in front of the West Los Angeles police station as yellow tape prohibits the parking of cars in front of the station in response to threats by former LAPD officer Chris Dorner. Dorner's claim that his career as a Los Angeles police officer was undone by a racist conspiracy at the department comes at a time when it's widely held the LAPD has moved beyond the troubled racial legacy of Rodney King and the O.J. Simpson trial. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 8, 2013 file photo, officers in a patrol car keep watch in front of the West Los Angeles police station as yellow tape prohibits the parking of cars in front of the station in response to threats by former LAPD officer Chris Dorner. Dorner's claim that his career as a Los Angeles police officer was undone by a racist conspiracy at the department comes at a time when it's widely held the LAPD has moved beyond the troubled racial legacy of Rodney King and the O.J. Simpson trial. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

FILE - In this Thursday, May 1, 2008 file photo, Los Angeles Police Officers stand near "Phraselators" as they monitor May Day protesters gathering downtown to call for immigration reform in Los Angeles. The department is using new tactics and technology, including the "Phraselators" which can broadcast to a crowd in different languages, in hopes of overcoming the memory of the previous year's violent event. Christopher Dorner's claim that his career as a Los Angeles police officer was undone by a racist conspiracy at the department comes at a time when it's widely held the LAPD has moved beyond the troubled racial legacy of Rodney King and the O.J. Simpson trial. (AP Photo/Ric Francis)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Fugitive ex-Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner's claim in an online "manifesto" that his career was undone by racist colleagues conspiring against him comes at a time when it's widely held that the police department has evolved well beyond the troubled racial legacy of Rodney King and the O.J. Simpson trial.

Dorner, who is suspected in a string of vengeance killings, has depicted himself as a black man wronged, whose badge was unjustly taken in 2008 after he lodged a complaint against a white female supervisor.

"It is clear as day that the department retaliated toward me," Dorner said in online writings authorities have attributed to him. Racism and officer abuses, he argued, have not improved at LAPD since the King beating but have "gotten worse."

Dorner's problems at the LAPD, which ended with his dismissal, played out without public notice more than four years ago, as the department gradually emerged from federal oversight following a corruption scandal. At the time, the officer ranks were growing more diverse and then-Chief William Bratton was working hard to mend relations with long-skeptical minorities.

"This is no longer your father's LAPD," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declared in 2009, after the federal clampdown was ended.

Civil rights attorney Connie Rice said the department should review the Dorner case and his claims, while stressing that she is not defending the suspect in any way and is shocked by the attacks.

She said the 10,000-member force headquartered in a glass-walled high-rise in downtown Los Angeles has entered a new era.

"The open racism of the days before is gone," said Rice, who closely tracks racial issues inside the department and has faced off against the LAPD in court. "The overall culture has improved enormously."

Police say Dorner shot and killed a couple in a parking garage last weekend in Irvine, the beginning of a rampage he said was retribution for his mistreatment at LAPD. A search for him continued Saturday, centered on the mountain town of Big Bear Lake, where his burned-out pickup truck was found Thursday.

The woman who died was the daughter of a retired police captain who had represented Dorner in the disciplinary proceedings that led to his dismissal. Hours after authorities identified Dorner as a suspect in the double murder, police believe he shot and grazed an LAPD officer and later used a rifle to ambush two Riverside police officers, killing one and seriously wounding the other.

"This is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD," Dorner wrote in a 14-page online manifesto.

On Friday, a community of online sympathizers formed, echoing complaints against police that linger in some communities. One Facebook page supporting Dorner, which had over 2,300 fans by Friday evening, said "this is not a page about supporting the killing of innocent people. It's supporting fighting back against corrupt cops and bringing to light what they do."

The LAPD was once synonymous with violent and bigoted officers, whose culture and brand of street justice was depicted by Hollywood in films like "L.A. Confidential" and "Training Day."

In 1965, 34 people died when the Watts riots, triggered by a traffic stop of a black man by a white California Highway Patrol officer, exposed deep fractures between blacks and an overwhelmingly white law enforcement community.

In the 1980s, gang sweeps took thousands of youths into custody. The O.J. Simpson trial deepened skepticism of a department already tarnished by the videotaped beating of King, the black motorist who was hit with batons, kicked repeatedly and jolted with stun guns by officers who chased him for speeding. Rioting after a jury with no black members acquitted three of the LAPD officers on state charges and a mistrial was declared for a fourth lasted three days, killing 55 people.

In the Rampart scandal of the late 1990s, scores of criminal convictions were thrown out after members of an anti-gang unit were accused of beating and framing residents in a poor, largely minority neighborhood. A handful of officers were convicted of various crimes and the scandal led to federal oversight that lasted eight years.

Much has changed: Whites now make up roughly a third of the department and, while under federal authority, LAPD moved to require anti-gang and narcotics officers to disclose their finances and worked on new tools to track officer conduct.

When Bratton announced in 2009 he was stepping down, he said he hoped his legacy would be improved race relations. "I believe we have turned a corner in that issue," he said.

Dorner's own case in some ways reflects the diversity of the LAPD: the superior he accused of abuse was a woman and the man who represented him at his disciplinary hearing was the first Chinese-American captain in department history.

When Dorner, a Naval reservist, returned to LAPD after deployment to the Middle East in 2007, a training officer became alarmed by his conduct, which included weeping in a police car and threatening to file a lawsuit against the department, records show.

Six days after being notified in August 2007 that he could be removed from the field, Dorner accused the training officer, Sgt. Teresa Evans, of kicking a severely mentally ill man in the chest and left cheek while handcuffing him during an arrest.

However, his report to internal affairs came two weeks after the arrest, police and court records allege. Civilian and police witnesses said they didn't see Evans kick the man, who had a quarter-inch scratch on his cheek consistent with his fall into a bush. A police review board ruled against Dorner, leading to his dismissal.

Online, Dorner tells a different story. He argues he was "terminated for doing the right thing."

"I had broken their supposed 'Blue Line.'. Unfortunately, It's not JUST US, it's JUSTICE!!!" he wrote. Dorner said in the posting that his account was supported by the alleged victim. He also claims the board that heard his case had conflicts because of ties to Evans, the training officer.

Rice was quick to point out that while the LAPD culture has improved, there are still what she calls pockets of bad behavior.

That was echoed by Hector Villagra, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

"There has definitely been improvement from those dark days," Villagra said. "We are in a vastly different place, but there still are opportunities for improvement in this and any other police department."

___

Associated Press writer Gillian Flaccus contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-09-LA%20Police%20Shootings-LAPD's%20Legacy/id-4429b563d95d487da44120120ec5e855

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Scientists discover how the world's saltiest pond gets its salt

Feb. 7, 2013 ? Jay Dickson and Jim Head have gathered time-lapse photography and other data about the sustained salinity of Antarctica's Don Juan Pond, the most saline natural body of water on earth. Their findings, published online in Scientific Reports, suggest that such ponds could be possible on Mars.

Antarctica's Don Juan Pond might be the unlikeliest body of water on Earth. Situated in the frigid McMurdo Dry Valleys, only the pond's high salt content -- by far the highest of any body of water on the planet -- keeps it from freezing into oblivion.

Now a research team led by Brown University geologists has discovered how Don Juan Pond gets the salty water it needs to exist.

Using time lapse photography and other data, the researchers show that water sucked out of the atmosphere by parched, salty soil is the source of the saltwater brine that keeps the pond from freezing. Combine that with some fresh water flowing in from melting snow, and you've got a pond able to remain fluid in one of the coldest and driest places on Earth. And because of the similarities between the Dry Valleys and the frozen desert of Mars, the findings could have important implications for water flow on the Red Planet both in the past and maybe in the present.

The study, by James Dickson and James Head from Brown, Joseph Levy from Oregon State, and David Marchant from Boston University, is published in Nature Publishing Group's open access journal, Scientific Reports.

The research represents the most detailed observations ever made of Don Juan Pond. "It was a simple idea," Dickson said of the team's approach. "Let's take 16,000 pictures of this pond over the course of two months and then see which way the water's flowing. So we took the pictures, correlated them to the other measurements we were taking, and the story told itself."

What the pictures showed was that water levels in the pond increase in pulses that coincide with daily peaks in temperature, suggesting that the water comes partly from snow warmed just enough by the midday sun to melt. But that influx of fresh water doesn't explain the pond's high salt content, which is eight times higher than that of the Dead Sea. For that explanation, the researchers looked to a second source of liquid documented in the photos.

The second source comes from a channel of loose sediment located to the west of the pond. Previous research had found that sediment to be high in calcium chloride salt. To see if that was the source of the pond's salt, the researchers set up a second time-lapse camera to monitor the channel and synchronized the pictures with data collected from nearby weather stations.

The pictures show dark streaks of moisture called water tracks forming in the soil whenever the relative humidity in the air spiked. Similar water tracks also form on a cliff face north of the pond. What's forming these tracks is the salt in the soil absorbing any available moisture in the air, a process known as deliquescence. Those water-laden salts then trickle down through the loose soil until they reach the permafrost layer below. There they sit until the occasional flow of snowmelt washes the salts down the channel and into the pond.

When the team saw how closely correlated the appearance of water tracks was to their humidity readings, they knew the tracks were the result of deliquescence and that the process was key to keeping the pond salty enough to persist.

The findings refute the dominant interpretation of Don Juan Pond's origin. Since the pond's discovery in 1961, most researchers had agreed that its briney waters must be supplied mainly from deep in the ground. However, these new images show no evidence at all that groundwater contributes to the pond.

Implication for Mars

Head and Dickson mainly study the geology of bodies other than Earth, so they approach Antarctica as a model for the cold, dry desert of Mars. What they have learned about Don Juan Pond could tell us something about the possibilities for flowing water on Mars, both in the past and in the present.

The images of water tracks at Don Juan Pond look a lot like features recently imaged on Mars called recurring slope lineae, the researchers say. The features appear on Mars as dark streaks that seem to flow downslope on cliff faces. They often recur in the same places at the same times of year, hence their name. Some scientists believe these streaks indicate some kind of flowing brine, the best evidence yet that there might be flowing water on present day Mars.

The research in Antarctica strengthens the view that these lineae on Mars are indeed formed by flowing brine. Frost has been observed on Mars, suggesting that the atmosphere contains at least a little water vapor. There have also been chloride-bearing salts detected on Mars, which would be capable of the same kind deliquescence seen in Antarctica. And importantly, the processes at Don Juan Pond require no groundwater, which is not thought to exist currently on Mars.

"Broadly speaking, all the ingredients are there for a Don Juan Pond-type hydrology on Mars," Dickson said. It's not likely that there's enough water currently on Mars for the water to form ponds, but stronger flows in Mars's past might have formed plenty of Don Juan Ponds.

"Don Juan Pond is a closed basin pond and we just documented a couple hundred closed basins on Mars," Head said. "So what we found in Antarctica may be a key to how lakes worked on early Mars and also how moisture may flow on the surface today."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.

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. James L. Dickson, James W. Head, Joseph S. Levy, David R. Marchant. Don Juan Pond, Antarctica: Near-surface CaCl2-brine feeding Earth's most saline lake and implications for Mars. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01166

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/nasa/~3/WVmjivQRu98/130207131711.htm

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No more Saturday mail? Postal Service plans cuts

Mail carrier Bruce Nicklay walks along East Third Street in Winona, Minn., delivering letters to homes Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013. The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion annually, the financially struggling agency says. (AP Photo/Winona Daily News, Andrew Link)

Mail carrier Bruce Nicklay walks along East Third Street in Winona, Minn., delivering letters to homes Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013. The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion annually, the financially struggling agency says. (AP Photo/Winona Daily News, Andrew Link)

Postmaster General and CEO Patrick R. Donahoe speaks during a news conference at U.S. Postal Service headquarters on Wednesday Feb. 6, 2013 in Washington. The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service says it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to disburse packages six days a week. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Charts show U.S. Postal Service operating losses and total mail volume since

In this Saturday Dec. 19, 2009 file photo, U. S. Post Office letter carrier Tim Bell delivers the mail during a snow storm in Havertown, Pa. The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service says it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion a year. In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday Feb. 6, 2013, the service is expected to say the Saturday mail cutback would begin in August. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

Postmaster General and CEO Patrick R. Donahoe speaks during a news conference at U.S. Postal Service headquarters on Wednesday Feb. 6, 2013 in Washington. The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service says it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to disburse packages six days a week. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? We could soon be seeing the end of Saturday mail delivery.

The Postal Service has announced plans to cut back to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages to stem its financial losses in a world where the Internet has dramatically altered how we communicate and pay our bills.

"Our financial condition is urgent," Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe declared Wednesday.

The way the Postal Service describes it, the move allows the service to change with the times in hopes of eventually operating in the black.

But efforts by the service to make cutbacks before have been stymied by Congress.

Some questions and answers about the Postal Service plan:

___

Q: What is the plan and when would it take effect?

A: Beginning in early August, mail would be delivered to homes and businesses only from Monday through Friday but would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays.

Post offices now open on Saturdays would remain open and delivery of packages of all sizes would continue six days a week.

Packages have been a bright spot for the agency. Package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials said, while the delivery of letters and other mail has plummeted.

___

Q: Why has the Postal Service decided to cut back its delivery schedule?

A: Money.

The Postal Service suffered a $15.9 billion loss in the past budget year and has forecast more red ink in 2013. It says it expects to save $2 billion annually with the Saturday cutback. The Postal Service, an agency independent of government, does not receive tax money for its operations but is subject to congressional control over major aspects.

The majority of the service's red ink comes from a 2006 law forcing it to pay about $5.5 billion a year into future retiree health benefits, something no other agency does. Without that payment ? $11.1 billion in a two-year installment last year ? and related labor expenses, the mail agency sustained an operating loss of $2.4 billion for the past fiscal year, lower than the previous year.

The Postal Service is in the midst of a major restructuring throughout its retail, delivery and mail-processing operations. Since 2006, it has cut annual costs by about $15 billion, reduced the size of its career workforce by 193,000, or 28 percent, and consolidated more than 200 mail-processing locations, officials say.

____

Q: What has been the reaction to the plan?

A: It has been met with vigorous objections from farmers, the letter carriers' union and plenty of lawmakers.

Alaska Democratic Sen. Mark Begich called it "bad news for Alaskans and small business owners," who he said need timely delivery to rural areas.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was disappointed, questioned the savings estimate and worried that the loss of Saturday service might drive customers away.

"The Postal Service is the linchpin of a $1 trillion mailing and mail-related industry that employs more than 8 million Americans in fields as diverse as direct mail, printing, catalog companies, magazine and newspaper publishing and paper manufacturing," she said. "A healthy Postal Service is not just important to postal customers but also to our national economy."

Despite that opposition, the Postal Service clearly thinks it has a majority of the American public on its side. The service's market research indicates that nearly 7 in 10 people support the switch as a way to reduce costs, Donahoe said.

And two Republican lawmakers said they had sent a letter to leaders of the House and Senate in support of the elimination of Saturday mail. It is "common-sense reform," wrote Rep. Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

____

Q: Can the Postal Service really make this change?

A: It thinks so. Over the past several years, the Postal Service has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages ? and it repeatedly but unsuccessfully has appealed to Congress to approve the move.

The proposed change is based on what appears to be a legal loophole. Congress has long included a ban on five-day-only delivery in its spending bills, but because the federal government is now operating under a temporary spending measure rather than an appropriations bill, the Postal Service's Donahoe says it's the agency's interpretation that it can make the change itself.

"This is not like a 'gotcha' or anything like that," he said. The agency essentially wants Congress to keep the ban out of any new spending bill after the temporary measure expires March 27.

Might Congress try to block the idea?

"Let's see what happens," Donahoe said. "I can't speak for Congress."

___

Q. What do regular mail customers think?

A. Reaction has been mixed, with some people criticizing the decision and others saying it would have little or no impact on them.

"It is bad news, a bad decision, let me tell you," Konstantine Christov, 73, said while riding the El train in Chicago. "You can read the mail much more quietly on Saturday. I get news from my bank. I can plan for next week. If I need to pay my bills I have more time to do it."

"The mail isn't that important to me anymore. ... I don't sit around waiting for it to come," said James Valentine, the owner of an antiques shop in Toledo, Ohio. "It's a sign of the times. ... It's not like anyone writes letters anymore."

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer C. Kerr and Nedra Pickler, researcher Monika Mathur and broadcast correspondent Jerry Bodlander in Washington and AP writer David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-07-Postal%20Cuts-QandA/id-b7075061a34147cbb323d069dff221ca

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