Griffin Ship Search Is On As Divers Look Around Lake Michigan

ON LAKE MICHIGAN NEAR POVERTY ISLAND, Mich. ? Divers began opening an underwater pit Saturday at a remote site in northern Lake Michigan that they say could be the resting place of the Griffin, a ship commanded by the 17th century French explorer La Salle.

U.S. and French archaeologists examined sediment removed from a hole dug near a timber slab that expedition leader Steve Libert discovered wedged in the lakebed in 2001. They found a 15-inch slab of blackened wood that might have been a human-fashioned "cultural artifact," although more analysis will be required to determine whether it was part of a vessel, project manager Ken Vrana said.

Libert, who has spent about three decades searching for the Griffin (also known by its French equivalent Le Griffon), said he hoped that by Sunday, the excavation would reach what sonar readings indicate is a distinct shape beneath several feet of sediment. The object is over 40 feet long and about 18 feet wide ? dimensions similar to those the Griffin is believed to have had, Vrana said.

But he said it was too early to declare the site a shipwreck, let alone the object of their quest.

"Soon we will find out whether our assumption is correct or not," Vrana said aboard the Proud Maid, a 45-foot commercial fishing boat that ferried journalists and crew members to the search area near Poverty Island in Michigan waters north of the entrance to Green Bay. "We've got to get those test pits dug and hit (the) structure, because anything else is pure speculation."

After meeting with team members Saturday night, he told reporters that "within a couple of days we should know" whether a ship graveyard lies beneath the surface.

Although Libert and his associates have dived at the site numerous times and conducted several surveys with remote sensing equipment, they hadn't conducted archaeological excavations until receiving a permit from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources this month after years of legal squabbles. The agency claims ownership over all Great Lakes shipwrecks in the state's waters, although it acknowledges France would have rights to the Griffin because it was sailing under the authority of King Louis XIV.

Taking part in the dive Saturday were Michel L'Hour, director of the Department of Underwater Archaeological Research in the French Ministry of Culture and a noted authority on shipwrecks, and associate Olivia Hulot. The U.S. leaders said they hoped the visitors, with their knowledge of design and construction features of French ships from the 17th and 18th century, could help confirm whether the Griffin had been found.

"The Griffin is very important to the early history of America," L'Hour said in an interview before taking his first look at the site. "If this is the Griffin, it will teach us many things."

Rene Robert Cavelier de la Salle ordered the Griffin built near Niagara Falls in 1679 to support his quest for what was widely ? but erroneously ? believed to be a passageway to China and Japan. It was the first European-style vessel to traverse the upper Great Lakes, crossing Lake Erie and venturing northward to Lake Huron, then across Lake Michigan to the eastern shore of modern-day Wisconsin.

La Salle ordered the ship to return for more supplies and to deliver a load of furs, while he continued his journey by canoe. The Griffin was never heard from again. There are various theories about its fate, but none that have been proven. Libert, who spent years studying the writings of La Salle and a companion, believes it sank in a fierce storm only a few miles after setting sail.

Libert said Saturday the recovery of the slab of wood and prospects for reaching what may be the ship's hull shortly were promising signs.

"Right now I'm pretty excited, from what I know so far," he said, but added: "Scientific (proof) is 100 percent. It's not 99.9 percent."

___

Follow John Flesher on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JohnFlesher

Also on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/16/griffin-ship-search_n_3450299.html

george zimmerman website edmund fitzgerald uss enterprise white house easter egg roll 2012 andy cohen

Solar-powered plane lands near Washington

Solar Impulse, piloted by Andr? Borschberg, takes flight during the second leg of the 2013 Across America mission, at dawn, Wednesday, May 22, 2013, from Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. The solar powered aircraft is scheduled to land at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Thursday May 23. The plane's creators, Bertrand Piccard and Borschberg, said the trip is the first attempt by a solar airplane capable of flying day and night without fuel to fly across America. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Solar Impulse, piloted by Andr? Borschberg, takes flight during the second leg of the 2013 Across America mission, at dawn, Wednesday, May 22, 2013, from Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. The solar powered aircraft is scheduled to land at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Thursday May 23. The plane's creators, Bertrand Piccard and Borschberg, said the trip is the first attempt by a solar airplane capable of flying day and night without fuel to fly across America. (AP Photo/Matt York)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A solar-powered plane nearing the close of a cross-continental journey landed at Dulles International Airport outside the nation's capital early Sunday, only one short leg to New York remaining on a voyage that opened in May.

Solar Impulse's website said the aircraft with its massive wings and thousands of photovoltaic cells "gracefully touched down" at 12:15 a.m. EDT after 14 hours and four minutes of flight from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Dulles in Washington's Virginia suburbs.

Pilot Bertrand Piccard was at the controls for the last time on the multi-leg "Across America" journey that began May 3 in San Francisco. His fellow Swiss pilot, Andre Borschberg, is expected to fly the last leg from Washington to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport in early July, the web site added.

It's the first bid by a solar plane capable of being airborne day and night without fuel to fly across the U.S, at speeds reaching about 40 mph. The plane opened by flying from San Francisco via Arizona, Texas, Missouri and Ohio onward to Dulles with stops of several days in cities along the way.

Organizers said in a blog post early Sunday that Piccard soared across the Appalachian mountains on a 435-mile (700-kilometer) course from Cincinnati to the Washington area, averaging 31 mph (50 kph). It was the second phase of a leg that began in St. Louis.

The plane, considered the world's most advanced sun-powered aircraft, is powered by about 12,000 photovoltaic cells that cover its enormous wings and charge its batteries during the day. The single-seat Solar Impulse flies around 40 mph and can't go through clouds; weighing about as much as a car, the aircraft also took longer than a car to complete the journey from Ohio to the East Coast.

Despite its vulnerabilities to bad weather, Piccard said in a statement that the conclusion of all but the final leg showed that sun-powered cross-continent travel "proves the reliability and potential of clean technologies."

Organizers said fog at Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport was a concern that required the ground crew's attention before takeoff just after 10 a.m. Saturday. The crew gave the plane a gentle wipe-down with cloths because of condensation that had formed on the wings.

"The solar airplane was in great shape despite the quasi-shower it experienced" before takeoff from Cincinnati, the web site added.

Washington was the first East Coast stop before the final planned leg to New York.

Organizers said the flight into the nation's capital was an emotional one for Piccard as it was his last on the cross-country flight before Borschberg has the controls on the final trek to New York.

At each stop along the way, the plane has stayed several days, wowing visitors. Organizers said a public viewing of the aircraft would be held Sunday afternoon at Dulles.

As the plane's creators, Piccard and Borschberg, have said their trip taking turns flying the aircraft solo was the first attempt by a solar airplane capable of flying day and night without fuel to fly across America. They also called it another aviation milestone in hopes that the journey would whet greater interest in clean technologies and renewable energy.

The Swiss pilots said in a statement that they expected to participate in an energy roundtable and news conference Monday with U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz about the technology. They have said the project's ultimate goal is to fly a sun-powered aircraft around the world with a second-generation plane now in development.

Borschberg also said in a statement Sunday that the pilots are eyeing 2015 for a worldwide attempt, adding their 'Across America' voyage had taught them much as they prepare.

___

Online:

http://www.solarimpulse.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-16-Solar%20Plane/id-ed847fec932f487cb9981eb6eeef179f

hoosiers temperance world bank kim kardashian flour bomb hunger games box office

Rules for the world of economics

Public release date: 10-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr. Matthias Herdegen
herdegen@uni-bonn.de
49-228-735-570
University of Bonn

At Uni Bonn, a standard work on international economic law in English has been written

A Swedish energy corporation sues the Federal Republic for damages based on its change in energy policy? The EU is against the import of beef from America that has been treated with hormones? Such problematic cases from global trade, investment and business relationships are governed by "international economic law." Law professor Prof. Dr. Matthias Herdegen from the University of Bonn studies the principles of this complex matter, and he has now presented them in a book with more than 500 pages.

On 30 June 2011, the German Bundestag ratified the country's exit from nuclear energy. The costs of this change in energy policy ("Energiewende") are hotly disputed. Mostly, this is about building new high-voltage power lines. But it might get even more expensive the Federal Republic might have to pay large amounts of damages to the Swedish corporation Vattenfall, says Prof. Dr. Matthias Herdegen, Director of the Institute of Public Law and the Institute of International Law at the University of Bonn. This is because Germany has submitted to treaties according to which the investments of foreign companies enjoy guaranteed protection.

The Bonn law professor has been studying the legal principles of cross-border economic life for years, and he has collected the results in his new handbook "Principles of International Economic Law". Prof. Herdegen says, "International economic law is a demanding matter that attracts the brightest students." But the matter is as important as it is complex, he explains. "You really cannot understand the business section of a daily newspaper anymore if you do not study these issues."

An international Arbitral Tribunal will decide

International economic life is governed not only by the rules of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO), but also by a complex network of many other bi- and multilateral treaties. That is the case also with regard to Sweden, the home of the Vattenfall energy corporation, which has an ownership interest in three nuclear power stations in Schleswig-Holstein, two of which were subject to mandatory shutdown in 2011. "International economic law essentially comprises three areas," explains Prof. Herdegen. "Trade regulations, currency law, and the protection of foreign investments." In the case of Vattenfall, e.g., the provisions of the European Energy Charter Treaty apply. Now, the "International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes" in Washington D.C. must decide whether according to this treaty, Germany will have to pay damages to Sweden. "It might, e.g., decide that the "Energiewende" corresponds to a violation of legitimate expectations or constitutes partial expropriation. If so, Germany would have to compensate the company."

International Economic law does not prevent any country from making its own policy choices, Prof. Herdegen added, but it requires that they must conform to "fair and equitable" treatment i.e., by acting as partners and in proportion. This, e.g., also applies to the import of genetically modified products or of beef from animals treated with hormones. While both of these are completely taken for granted in the U.S., it keeps causing controversy in Germany or at the EU from time to time. "A State may restrict the importation of goods if health risks for the population are suspected," explains Prof. Herdegen. "However, international economic law requires that this be justified on the basis of available scientific expert opinions and not just based on vague fears or opposition from consumers."

Good governance is a key principle

To Prof. Herdegen, good governance a well-managed administration and government is a 'key principle' of the international economic order. This enhancement of good governance does not only benefit the economic actors, but also the citizenship at large, "If the interactions between a state and foreign countries and investors are governed by the rule of law, fairness and transparency, these standards will also transfer to the interactions of this state with its citizens. We call that the 'spill-over effect'." A second pillar is the fact that, according to Herdegen, "International economic law is no longer perceived as a one-way street. We are observing increased interplay with the standards of human rights, environmental, social and labor law." In the author's opinion, there have been additional major changes in the mutual interactions of politics and economy since the start of the global financial crisis and the national debt crisis in the Euro region. "The state has become the central actor again a position that some held to be outdated." The Bonn expert summarized this as follows, "The state will never be capable to replace the market. But the market must also always be a legally regulated environment."

###

Publication: Herdegen, Matthias: Principles of International Economic Law. Oxford University Press, 536 pp., 95 (hardcover), 39.99 (paperback).

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Matthias Herdegen
Director Institute of Public Law and Institute of International Law
Ph. +49 228 / 73-5570 or 73-5580
Email: herdegen@uni-bonn.de

---

[ | 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: 10-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr. Matthias Herdegen
herdegen@uni-bonn.de
49-228-735-570
University of Bonn

At Uni Bonn, a standard work on international economic law in English has been written

A Swedish energy corporation sues the Federal Republic for damages based on its change in energy policy? The EU is against the import of beef from America that has been treated with hormones? Such problematic cases from global trade, investment and business relationships are governed by "international economic law." Law professor Prof. Dr. Matthias Herdegen from the University of Bonn studies the principles of this complex matter, and he has now presented them in a book with more than 500 pages.

On 30 June 2011, the German Bundestag ratified the country's exit from nuclear energy. The costs of this change in energy policy ("Energiewende") are hotly disputed. Mostly, this is about building new high-voltage power lines. But it might get even more expensive the Federal Republic might have to pay large amounts of damages to the Swedish corporation Vattenfall, says Prof. Dr. Matthias Herdegen, Director of the Institute of Public Law and the Institute of International Law at the University of Bonn. This is because Germany has submitted to treaties according to which the investments of foreign companies enjoy guaranteed protection.

The Bonn law professor has been studying the legal principles of cross-border economic life for years, and he has collected the results in his new handbook "Principles of International Economic Law". Prof. Herdegen says, "International economic law is a demanding matter that attracts the brightest students." But the matter is as important as it is complex, he explains. "You really cannot understand the business section of a daily newspaper anymore if you do not study these issues."

An international Arbitral Tribunal will decide

International economic life is governed not only by the rules of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO), but also by a complex network of many other bi- and multilateral treaties. That is the case also with regard to Sweden, the home of the Vattenfall energy corporation, which has an ownership interest in three nuclear power stations in Schleswig-Holstein, two of which were subject to mandatory shutdown in 2011. "International economic law essentially comprises three areas," explains Prof. Herdegen. "Trade regulations, currency law, and the protection of foreign investments." In the case of Vattenfall, e.g., the provisions of the European Energy Charter Treaty apply. Now, the "International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes" in Washington D.C. must decide whether according to this treaty, Germany will have to pay damages to Sweden. "It might, e.g., decide that the "Energiewende" corresponds to a violation of legitimate expectations or constitutes partial expropriation. If so, Germany would have to compensate the company."

International Economic law does not prevent any country from making its own policy choices, Prof. Herdegen added, but it requires that they must conform to "fair and equitable" treatment i.e., by acting as partners and in proportion. This, e.g., also applies to the import of genetically modified products or of beef from animals treated with hormones. While both of these are completely taken for granted in the U.S., it keeps causing controversy in Germany or at the EU from time to time. "A State may restrict the importation of goods if health risks for the population are suspected," explains Prof. Herdegen. "However, international economic law requires that this be justified on the basis of available scientific expert opinions and not just based on vague fears or opposition from consumers."

Good governance is a key principle

To Prof. Herdegen, good governance a well-managed administration and government is a 'key principle' of the international economic order. This enhancement of good governance does not only benefit the economic actors, but also the citizenship at large, "If the interactions between a state and foreign countries and investors are governed by the rule of law, fairness and transparency, these standards will also transfer to the interactions of this state with its citizens. We call that the 'spill-over effect'." A second pillar is the fact that, according to Herdegen, "International economic law is no longer perceived as a one-way street. We are observing increased interplay with the standards of human rights, environmental, social and labor law." In the author's opinion, there have been additional major changes in the mutual interactions of politics and economy since the start of the global financial crisis and the national debt crisis in the Euro region. "The state has become the central actor again a position that some held to be outdated." The Bonn expert summarized this as follows, "The state will never be capable to replace the market. But the market must also always be a legally regulated environment."

###

Publication: Herdegen, Matthias: Principles of International Economic Law. Oxford University Press, 536 pp., 95 (hardcover), 39.99 (paperback).

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Matthias Herdegen
Director Institute of Public Law and Institute of International Law
Ph. +49 228 / 73-5570 or 73-5580
Email: herdegen@uni-bonn.de

---

[ | 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/2013-06/uob-rft061013.php

wisconsin recall wisconsin recall doris day buffalo sabres texas news kim mulkey sarah palin today show

Mandela still in hospital in serious condition

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Former President Nelson Mandela's condition remains serious but stable on Monday, his third day in a Pretoria hospital, the South African government said.

"His condition is unchanged," the office of President Jacob Zuma said in a brief statement.

Mandela, who is 94 years old, was taken to a hospital early Saturday to be treated for a recurring lung infection. At that time, Zuma's office described the anti-apartheid leader's condition as "serious but stable."

On Sunday, members of Mandela's family were seen visiting the hospital where the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate is believed to be staying.

Mandela, also known by his clan name Madiba, has been hospitalized several times in recent months. During a hospital stay that ended April 6, doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and drained fluid from his chest.

"President Jacob Zuma reiterates his call for South Africa to pray for Madiba and the family during this time," the presidential statement said.

On April 29, state television broadcast footage of a visit by Zuma and other leaders of the ruling African National Congress to Mandela's home. Zuma said then that Mandela was in good shape, but the footage - the first public images of Mandela in nearly a year - showed him silent and unresponsive, even when Zuma tried to hold his hand.

Mandela has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during 27 years as the prisoner of the white racist government. The bulk of that period was spent on Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town where Mandela and other prisoners spent part of the time toiling in a stone quarry.

Mandela was freed in 1990 and won election to the presidency in the country's first all-race elections in 1994. He was seen by many around the world as a symbol of resolve and reconciliation for his sacrifice in confinement as well as his peacemaking efforts during the tense transition that saw the demise of the apartheid system.

The former leader retired from public life years ago and had received medical care at his Johannesburg home until his latest transfer to a hospital.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mandela-still-hospital-serious-condition-090234771.html

randy moss superbowl commercials OJ Brigance What Time Does The Superbowl Start 2013 Psalm 91 Super Bowl 2013 Commercials Evasi0n

Globally, people resigned to little privacy online

A sign displays the Apple logo outside of the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Friday, June 7, 2013. A leaked document has laid bare the monumental scope of the government's surveillance of Americans' phone records ? hundreds of millions of calls ? in the first hard evidence of a massive data collection program aimed at combating terrorism under powers granted by Congress after the 9/11 attacks.The companies include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

A sign displays the Apple logo outside of the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Friday, June 7, 2013. A leaked document has laid bare the monumental scope of the government's surveillance of Americans' phone records ? hundreds of millions of calls ? in the first hard evidence of a massive data collection program aimed at combating terrorism under powers granted by Congress after the 9/11 attacks.The companies include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

This undated photo made available by Google shows failed drives that are destroyed at a data center in St. Ghislain, Belgium. Google says it destroys malfunctioning storage drives on site to protect user data. (AP Photo/Google, Connie Zhou)

The Facebook "like" symbol is illuminated on a sign outside the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Friday, June 7, 2013. A leaked document has laid bare the monumental scope of the government's surveillance of Americans' phone records ? hundreds of millions of calls ? in the first hard evidence of a massive data collection program aimed at combating terrorism under powers granted by Congress after the 9/11 attacks. The companies include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? U.S. government snooping does not surprise global Internet users, who say they already have few expectations of online privacy as governments increasingly monitor people's digital lives and Internet companies often acquiesce.

Privacy activists concerned over the U.S. National Security Agency's selective monitoring of Internet traffic called on people to better protect their digital data. But most people eschew encryption and other privacy tools and seemed resigned to the open book their online lives have become.

"It doesn't surprise me one bit. They've been doing it for years," said Jamie Griffiths, a 26-year-old architect working on his laptop in a London cafe. "I wouldn't send anything via email that I wouldn't want a third party to read."

From Baghdad, to Bogota, Colombia, many said they already censor what they write online and assume governments are regularly spying, be it as part of global counter-terrorism or domestic surveillance efforts.

"The social networks and email have always been vulnerable because tech-savvy people know how to penetrate them," said Teolindo Acosa, a 34-year-old education student at Venezuela's Universidad Central who was leaving a cybercafe in Caracas.

Leaked confidential documents show the NSA and FBI have been sifting through personal data by directly accessing the U.S-based servers of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, AOL, Skype, PalTalk, Apple and YouTube.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that the surveillance did not "target" U.S. citizens or others living in the U.S. ? which does not mean their communications were not caught up in the dragnet.

But that didn't dampen the outrage of people who resent what they consider Washington's self-anointed role as the world's policeman.

"To the United States, everyone is suspicious, even the pope!" said leftist Colombian Sen. Alexander Lopez. "Everyone is under observation these days and this should be taken up by the United Nations."

Lopez said he has no plans to close his Google and Microsoft email accounts. He figures he'll be spied on no matter what he does.

The revelation of global data vacuuming could hurt U.S. technology companies if Internet users become disillusioned and abandon them in favor of homegrown alternatives that offer greater security.

U.S. privacy activist Christopher Soghoian said he finds it "insane" that so many politicians outside the United States use Gmail accounts.

"This has given the NSA an advantage over every other intelligence system in the world. The Americans don't have to hack as much, because everyone in the world sends their data to American companies," he said.

Hossam el-Hamalawy, a blogger with Egypt's Revolutionary Socialists, one of the Egyptian groups that helped spearhead the 2011 uprising, said the dearth of locally developed Web tools means many are simply stuck with U.S. sites, even if they know the government is monitoring them.

"The problem is that there is no alternative," he said. "If you don't use Facebook, what is the alternative social network available for the Internet user who is not an IT geek?"

Soghoian predicted an increasing push by governments and companies in Europe in particular, where privacy has been a much bigger issue for voters than in the United States, away from storing data in U.S.-based server farms.

Indeed, under U.S. law it is not illegal for the NSA to collect information on foreigners.

The disclosure of the NSA data-vacuuming program known as PRISM is only the latest "of many U.S. government programs created to infringe on personal freedoms," said Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza, a technology policy professor at FGV think tank in Rio de Janeiro.

Going back well into the 20th century, the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand ran a secret satellite communications interception network that became known as Echelon and searched information including telexes, faxes and emails, according to experts including U.S. journalist James Bamford. The system was the subject of a 2001 European Parliament inquiry.

According to a U.N. report released this week, such surveillance has been on a global upsurge with governments increasingly tapping into online personal data and even discouraging online anonymity by passing laws prohibiting it.

The governments of China, Iran, Bahrain are among other nations that already aggressively oversee online activity, in many cases putting people in prison for political blog posts and other messages.

Israel's attorney general in April upheld a practice allowing security personnel to read email accounts of suspicious individuals when they arrive at the airport, arguing it prevents militants from entering the country.

China has long imposed tight control over media and spied on private communications among its citizens, especially government critics and activists, sifting through their email, listening in on their phone conversations and snooping on their cyber activities.

Major Internet companies employ internal reviewers who regularly censor content posted by users and scrub off offensive language, including political topics the authorities do not wish to be publicly discussed.

South Korea, one of the most wired countries in the world, has a law that allows authorities to ask telecommunications companies without a court order to provide information such as names, resident registration numbers, addresses and phone numbers of their subscribers. But this doesn't involve the substance of conversations users had using communications software provided by the companies.

Ko Young-churl, a journalism professor and communications expert at Jeju National University in South Korea, said most South Koreans are complacent about security for their personal data online ... "and most South Koreans don't realize authorities could use such tools against them."

The U.N. report said such activity has been expanding as technology advances, and that countries should prioritize protecting people's online rights.

"In order to meet their human rights obligations, States must ensure that the rights to freedom of expression and privacy are at the heart of their communications surveillance frameworks," the report reads.

Its author, Guatemalan Frank La Rue, calls for legal standards to ensure "privacy, security and anonymity of communications" to protect people including journalists, human rights defenders and whistleblowers.

___

Associated Press writers Vivian Sequera in Bogota, Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Jill Lawless in London, Bradley Brooks in Sao Paulo, Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas, Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad and Tony G. Gabriel in Cairo contributed to this report. Jack Chang contributed from Mexico City.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-06-08-NSA-Phone%20Records-World%20Reax/id-ea3302e2e8494a918843c11743ec1246

Ada Lovelace

Spring cleaning: Win a Samsung BT S Pen

Here's one you don't see every day. I've had this Samsung BT S Pen on my desk for months now. It's a larger S Pen than you get with the Galaxy Note 2 or Note tablets, and it also serves as a Bluetooth headset. Not a particularly great one -- I've tried it -- but it at least works.

You know the drill. Leave a comment on this post, and we'll pick a winner after midnight EDT tonight. We'll announce all the winners later this week.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/LKi5quJOYcg/story01.htm

the maldives harper lee mega millions numbers the fray seahawks new uniforms 2012 tornadoes in dallas anchorman 2

You Must Read These Tips Before Starting Your Oklahoma City ...

The final thing you need would be to damage the structure of your home and have a residence that displays plenty of badly completed DIY home improvement projects. Why it?s vital you are alert to what to do prior to beginning a task that?s. This informative article provides you with the data you must be on your way to an A+ handyman.

Preparing in advance of time often increases the success of home improvement projects. Waiting before the last second can be disastrous. Planning will help assembling your shed reach an effective conclusion.

Furniture was fitted by avoid, that is, unless you know you are not going to ever sell your home. Custom furniture does seem great; nevertheless, it?s extremely expensive and may well not fit into your next home.

Create quick curb appeal. An awesome remodeling thought for your pathway is always to remove it and devote some bricks instead. That job, though simple, will require a bit of labor. Hire your self a jackhammer to obtain gone concrete walkways. Once that?s done, you?ll have a level and stable area ready for keeping the pavers.

Get exhaust fans for the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room. By venting moisture to the outside, you?ll reduce steadily the possibility of difficulties with mildew and mold. Venting the moist air will also help prevent condensation from building up inside the walls of your house, which may possibly cause the walls to rot.

Make sure to allow enough room for all your resulting dust to accumulate, when you are planning a do it yourself project. Demolition can create lots of material that needs to be located. By thinking ahead, you?ll be sure you know in which this chaos goes, so you don?t have little junk loads building up all over.

Make sure that the trees and bushes near your home are not too close. Origins could dig during your house?s foundation and could cause leaks and breaks. Make an effort to move the flowers which are near your home further away. If your trees are small, they can be moved by you as long as the main ball continues to be attached.

It?s maybe not essential to buy art at the store, decide to try something different like some tiles. By finding two different colors of tile (e.g. white and blue) and adding them in a color-alternating routine, you are able to give your walls a unique, individualized touch of creativity.

Always buy more than you require, when you?ve to buy stones. When you?re working with brick, it could be hard to find new stones that match the old ones in color or texture. When it comes to stone changes often what is ?in?. You?ll have an easier time coordinating your original bricks if you buy excessive bricks to store.

Lots of houses lose a considerable amount of heating and cooling through the windows in their home. Installing yet another glaze to bigger windows is a great solution to conserve energy, hence reducing your energy costs.

If your house improvement job is big enough it is in addition crucial to consider hiring a dumpster so you may dump the chaos more easily. There is nothing worse than wasting a lot of time and energy wanting to pick up in pretty bad shape that is too large for your typical trash container. Check to make sure there is room for your dumpster or what the Oklahoma City ordinance is for having it on the road. Renting a in Oklahoma City is fairly straight forward. When you call to order it, they could help you determine the correct size. Intend to have the dumpster slipped off the afternoon your project begins. Often it is possible to keep them for up to a couple of weeks without extra cost.

Knowing how to do it properly, your home?s lifespan increases. this information from this article will help you intend on what you?re likely to do this is. dumpster container

Source: http://www.mikehorn.com/blog/?p=23014

fox mole manson bubba watson recent earthquakes fbi most wanted list stuttering james van der beek

Long-lost giant fish from Amazon rediscovered

Apr. 22, 2013 ? A professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, N.Y., has put aside nearly a century and a half of conventional wisdom with the rediscovery of a species of giant Amazonian fish whose existence was first established in a rare 1829 monograph only to be lost to science some 40 years later.

Dr. Donald Stewart, a fisheries professor at ESF, found evidence in the monograph of a second species belonging to the genus Arapaima, air-breathing giants that live in shallow lakes, flooded forests and connecting channels in the Amazon River basin. For 145 years, biologists have thought that Arapaima consisted of a single species whose scientific name is A. gigas. But Stewart rediscovered a second species that he describes in the March issue of the journal Copeia, published by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.

"In a sense, this forgotten fish has been hiding in plain sight in this old monograph but that monograph is so rare that it now resides only in rare book collections of a few large museums," Stewart said. "I was truly surprised to discover drawings that revealed a fish very different from what we consider a typical Arapaima."

Part of the apparently rare fish's story remains a mystery, however, as scientists don't know if it still exists in the wild. "Scientists have had the impression that Arapaima is a single species for such a long time that they have been slow to collect new specimens. Their large size makes them difficult to manage in the field and expensive to store in a museum," Stewart said.

Arapaima can grow to three meters in length (about 10 feet) and weigh as much as 200 kilograms (440 pounds).

This different species was originally named A. agassizii in 1847 by a French biologist but a catalog published in 1868 considered it to be the same species as A. gigas. That second opinion was widely accepted and, since then, no scientist has questioned that view.

But Stewart has had doctoral students studying the conservation of Arapaima in both Brazil and Guyana. For those studies, it was important to be clear about the taxonomy of the fishes being studied in each country. In an effort to determine if they were really all one species, Stewart began to review taxonomic literature from the early 1800s, including the monograph that was published the year Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as the seventh president of the United States.

"What is remarkable is that this fish was not re-discovered swimming in the Amazon but, rather, on the pages of a rare monograph from 1829 that described its anatomy in great detail," Stewart said.

The fish described in the monograph had been collected in the Brazilian Amazon about 1819 and carried to Munich, Germany, as a dried skeleton. There the Swiss biologist Louis Agassiz, who was just beginning his career and later became a professor of zoology at Harvard University, supervised a technical illustrator in drawing the complete skeleton in great detail. At that time, however, he applied the name Sudis gigas to the drawings. That rare skeleton was in a museum in Germany until World War II, when it was destroyed by a bomb dropped on the museum. "To this day, we do not know the precise locality where the fish was collected because the German scientist who collected it died before indicating where he found it, and nobody has found a second specimen," Stewart said. "So, all that exists to know the status of A. agassizii is the original drawings of its bones."

Stewart said those drawings reveal numerous distinctive features that leave little doubt it should be considered a valid species. Those features include details related to the fish's teeth, eyes and fins.

The previously recognized Arapaima species is known by the common names "pirarucu" in Portuguese and "paiche" in Spanish. Because they rise to the surface to breathe every 5 to 15 minutes, they are easy to locate and fishermen harpoon them to sell their valuable meat or to feed their families. That combination of high value and vulnerability has led to widespread depletion of their populations and they are now listed as endangered.

The mystery surrounding the recently rediscovered fish's current status is not surprising, Stewart said, because there are still vast areas of Amazon basin where no specimens of Arapaima have been collected for study.

He expects the diversity of the genus to increase further with additional studies. Two more previously described species -- A. arapaima from Guyana and A. mapae from northeastern Brazil but outside the Amazon basin -- also should be recognized as valid. He is working on redescriptions of those species. He also has another paper due to be published soon that describes a new species of Arapaima from the central Amazon. That latter paper will bring the total number of Arapaima species to five. He anticipates that more species could be discovered as biologists working in South America begin to make new collections in unstudied areas.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, via Newswise.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Donald J. Stewart. Re-description of Arapaima agassizii (Valenciennes), a Rare Fish from Brazil (Osteoglossomorpha: Osteoglossidae). Copeia, March 2013, Vol. 2013, No. 1, pp. 38-51 [link]

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/tQx80ynG988/130422111110.htm

alicia sacramone

Feds halt funding for $361M pipeline

BOX ELDER, Mont. (AP) ? Federal officials temporarily stopped funding a $361 million water pipeline for a Native American reservation in Montana after learning that millions of project dollars were missing and a Chippewa Cree leader in charge of the project steered federal dollars to a company he owns.

The tribe has since replaced the missing money, but federal funding for the pipeline won't resume until tribal leaders show they have permanently fixed the problems, Bureau of Reclamation regional director Michael J. Ryan said.

"While we commend the tribe for restoring the funds soon after the shortage and for self-reporting the issue, this reallocation of funds without consultation is a serious non-compliance matter with potentially long-lasting implications," Ryan said in a March 18 letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Pipeline funding is controlled by the Bureau of Reclamation, which is part of the Interior Department. Bureau spokesman Tyler Johnson confirmed that the agency's inspector general is conducting an investigation, but Johnson declined to provide details.

The irregularities are among several alleged corruption issues on the Rocky Boy's reservation in northern Montana, said Kenneth Blatt St. Marks, a former tribal chairman. Marks said he reported the missing pipeline funds to the Bureau of Reclamation and that he is cooperating with the inspector general and with federal prosecutors in an investigation into alleged corruption on the reservation.

"There's millions and millions and millions of dollars missing here," claimed St. Marks, whom Ryan also identified as having a potential conflict of interest in the pipeline project. "This reservation is upside down."

Calls to tribal officials were referred to attorney Dan Belcourt, who said he was not authorized by acting tribal chairman Richard Morsette to comment on the pipeline project or St. Marks' allegations. Belcourt released a brief statement Saturday on behalf of tribal leaders that said they are "actively working with BOR on the issues raised in that letter."

"The tribe and BOR share a common goal of seeing the Rocky Boy's/North Central Montana Regional Water System project through to completion," the statement said.

Congress approved the project in 2002 to bring reliable drinking water to the poverty-stricken reservation in the shadow of Montana's Bear Paw mountains. Construction began in 2006, and when it is completed, the pipeline will run about 50 miles from Lake Elwell, serving as many as 30,000 people on and off the reservation.

Congress originally estimated the project's cost at $228 million. That has since risen to $361 million due to inflation and rising costs.

It was unclear what effect a funding delay would have on constructing the pipeline, which is now 22 percent complete. As of last year, the bureau had allocated $96 million in addition to $10 million allocated by Congress.

St. Marks said that, as then-tribal chairman, he discovered at a Dec. 31 meeting with tribal leaders that $3.5 million was missing from Chippewa Cree bank accounts for the water project. Johnson declined to confirm the amount missing, saying it was part of the investigation.

No one could explain where the money went, St. Marks said. The meeting was held at the Chippewa Cree Construction Corp., the company that heads the project.

St. Marks reported the missing funds to the Bureau of Reclamation. In January, the Chippewa Cree Business Committee ? the tribe's governing council ? replaced the money with cash from other tribal enterprises, he said.

It still is not clear what happened to the missing money.

Tony Belcourt is CEO of the construction company and head of the pipeline project. Belcourt also co-owns MT Waterworks, a company formed in 2010 that was awarded a $633,000 contract by the tribal construction corporation he heads to supply pipe for the project.

St. Marks said he fired Belcourt as the construction corporation's CEO after the Bureau of Reclamation learned of that conflict of interest. But the eight other members of the ruling Chippewa Cree Business Committee reinstated Belcourt while St. Marks was on a trip to Washington, D.C.

That reinstatement, and St. Marks' ownership in another company that was awarded a separate $1.9 million contract for the pipeline, prompted Ryan in his letter to tell the tribe to correct the ethics violations.

"We request that the tribe take immediate corrective action to remedy these apparent conflicts of interest," Ryan wrote. He did not elaborate on what action the tribe had to take.

Belcourt, a former state legislator, declined to comment Friday and referred questions to his cousin, tribal attorney Dan Belcourt, who said he was not authorized to comment.

St. Marks was the owner of Arrow Enterprises, a private construction company that was awarded the $1.9 million contract before he became the tribe's chairman. St. Marks said he turned over the company to his wife to end any conflict of interest.

But Johnson, of the Bureau of Reclamation, said the federal agency has not accepted that arrangement and the agency is requesting action to resolve the conflict.

In his letter, Ryan said the Chippewa Cree's accounting of project funds was not accurate and lacked supporting data such as bank statements, balance sheets and expense statements. Johnson said Friday that the tribe has submitted additional financial information and corrected its accounting.

Still, Ryan gave the tribe until April 29 to resolve the rest of the problems and avoid more funding delays.

St. Marks became tribal chairman in November but was impeached in March by the business committee, which leveled seven charges against him ranging from inappropriate sexual comments to an employee to trading in two tribal vehicles so he could buy a sport-utility vehicle for personal use.

St. Marks denied the charges. He claimed he was impeached for cooperating with the federal investigation and for asking questions about the finances of some of the tribe's biggest enterprises: its casino, health clinic and an online lender.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-feds-halt-funding-361m-pipeline-161203080.html

Monsters University nfl playoff schedule Rex Ryan tattoo Alaska earthquake green bay packers houston texans houston texans

??????? teXet TM-7047HD 3G ? 3G ? HD-???????? ...

?????????? ???????, 05:36

teXet ? ???? ????????? ???? ?? ????. ? ?????????? ????? ? ?????? ?????? - ??????, ? ??? ??? ????????? ?? ????? ???????? ?? ???. ??? ? ????????: "??? ??????? ??? ??????".

????????, ????? ??? ?????? ? ???? - ????????? ?????????, ????????? ??????, ? ??????????? ??????? ? ????????? ?????? ???????! (?) ???

Source: http://forums.ferra.ru/index.php?showtopic=55540

bolton muamba crystal cathedral sxsw st. patrick s day brandon lloyd

Memories of shootings return for Newtown runners

BOSTON (AP) ? Laura Nowacki had rushed to help the shooting victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. As a first responder, the pediatrician was stunned at the horror she encountered.

Just four months later, she hurried out of Boston with her husband and four children, anxious to keep them safe after the deadly explosions near the finish line of the historic marathon she had just completed.

The race was supposed to help Nowacki recover from the shock of the Newtown shootings that killed 20 children and six educators ? and from which her 10-year-old daughter fled uninjured. Instead, it brought the painful memories back.

About 40 minutes after she completed the Boston Marathon on Monday, two explosions near the finish line killed three people and injured more than 170.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/memories-shootings-return-newtown-runners-072021448--spt.html

brandon lloyd celtic thunder fabrice muamba collapse prometheus trailer patrice oneal shamrock slainte

Finishing school, Chinese style

Be polite even though I'm super rich and busy? Sara Jane Ho puts China's very important people to a global test.?

By Peter Ford,?Staff Writer / April 10, 2013

Chinese women have a chat near a plum tree at a public park in Beijing Sunday.

Andy Wong/AP

Enlarge

How?s this for a Chinese start-up? Finishing school.

Skip to next paragraph Peter Ford

Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

Recent posts

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

Sara Jane Ho, a well-groomed young woman from Hong Kong, has just launched what she calls Beijing?s first ?high end boutique finishing school? to teach China?s nouveau riche how to behave.

Good manners are not necessarily deeply instilled in your average Chinese citizen, and here I am being as polite as Ms. Ho teaches her students to be. But as she points out, only 50 years ago, people here ?were fighting to get to the front of the food ration line, for survival. They were not thinking of manners.?

Today, though, wealthy Chinese businesswomen, housewives, and ladies of leisure are anxious to learn the social skills of their Western counterparts. And for a cool $15,000 for a 12-day course, Ho will initiate them into the mysteries of foreign etiquette at her Institute Sarita.

She has the background ? both a business degree from Harvard and an etiquette diploma from the Institute Villa Pierrefeu, a Swiss finishing school ? and she covers all the bases.

One moment her clients, gathered in Ho?s plush offices in the Park Hyatt Residences in downtown Beijing, will be learning what ?black tie? means; the next moment they are practicing the correct pronunciation of ?Louis Vuitton? or being given the ?Introduction to Expensive Sports? course, which explains why they ought to enjoy horseback riding.

Predictably, perhaps, for women accustomed to eating even the grandest banquet with a simple pair of chopsticks, laying a Western table and learning how to handle knives and forks are especially puzzling skills. Nor does Ho make it easy: Her students have to remember such arcane details as the difference between the fork for extracting snails from their shells and the fork used to eat oysters.

But Ho says she also hopes to give etiquette a deeper meaning, to teach ?the philosophy behind the mechanics.?

?Good manners go along with good morals,? she preaches, with a nod to Confucius. ?Virtuous people do not commit murder ? and nor do they behave in obnoxious ways when they travel.?

In the end, she points out, good manners are the same the world over once you get past such questions of which hand you should hold your fork in. ?Good manners means respect for other people,? says Ho, and that is something that some of China?s new rich find even harder to learn than how to distinguish a Californian Chardonnay from a Bordeaux claret.

?I tell them [my clients] that they have to treat people as people no matter who they are speaking to,? she says. ?You are not above other people just because you are in a rush or have more money. But that takes a long time to learn.??

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/OvY17L2r11o/Finishing-school-Chinese-style

new york rangers nfl mock draft 2012 norfolk island michael brockers lisa marie presley florida panthers tannehill

Japanese Finance Ministry Warns Surge In JGB Volatility May Lead ...

If Friday's session is any indication of what to expect in a few minutes when JGB trading resumes, we are about to have a doozy of a session on our hands (especially with Interactive Brokers already announcing all intraday margins on all Japanese products for Monday trading have been lifted). As a reminder, the 10Y JGB suffered only its second most volatile trading day ever this past Friday when the yield plunged by half (!) to 0.30%, then doubled in a matter of minutes to 0.60% - a 13 sigma move - and the bond trading session was interrupted by two trading halts when it seemed for a minute that the BOJ may lose all control of the bond market. Well, judging by the absolutely ridiculous moves in the USDJPY as of this moment, with the pair soaring 70 pips in a matter of seconds, we are about to have precisely the kind of insanely volatile session that the Japanese Finance Ministry itself warned may lead to a wholesale selloff in JGBs, offsetting even the New Normal Mrs Watanabe kneejerk which is to merely frontrun the BOJ in buying JGBs. Why? Because with implied vol exploding, VaR-driven models will tell banks to just dump bonds as they have become too volatile to hold on their books. The problem is that with trillions and trillions of JGBs held by banks, insurance companies and pension firms, there just not may be anyone out there to buy them.

This is from the October 26, 2012 minutes of the Meeting of JGB market special participants, just as the insanity known as Abenomics was being first revealed to the world.

Another thing to be noted here is the fact that as a risk management method, many domestic financial institutions adopt the VaR approach, which is designed to calculate the amount at risk on the basis of volatility. Under the present circumstances, we can determine the amount at risk to be small because of not great volatility. But if the volatility moves up or down in the order of 0.5% to 1.5%, it will increase the amount at risk, forcing domestic financial institutions to reduce their JGB holdings.

0.5% or 1.5%? Try ten times that. The chart below shows the implied vol of the 10Y JGB in recent days. If any financial institution still adhering to a VaR approach hasn't puked its bond holdings, it will shortly.

Perhaps it is not, then surprising, that the one rhetorical question the MOF had was the following:

Here, we have one question. What will happen to interest rates payable on 15-Year Floating-Rate Bonds or Nonmarketable JGBs for Retail Investors in case the 10-Year Bond auctions are suspended?

Yes, what will happen if the BOJ has managed to literally break the bond market?

?

Away from the dramtic shifts in JGBs, the last 3 days have seen the 2nd largest weakening in JPY in 25 years...

?

...and most notably the relationship between JPY (as a funding currency for every and any risk trade around the world) has experienced a rather interesting transition change in the last month...

Green Oval = Normal: JPY weakness funds FX carry to buy stocks and thus bond yields rise.

Orange Oval = Transition: unwinding of those trades led to JPY strength...

Red = New correlation: the BoJ drops the shock-and-awe hand grenade and confirms JPY investors' concerns that their wealth is being destroyed - the Treasury buying begins and stocks get sold.

...or perhaps the 'strength' in JPY relative to EUR in recent weeks (the ultimate JPY carry trade) is now being squeezed back to reconnect with the US equity market

?

Perhaps the post-Lehman decoupling between USDJPY and the long-end of the JGB curve is back... which means JGBs imply 110 USDJPY is coming. Interestingly the collapse in the JGB curve took it back to the same time when USDJPY was here last - mid 2009...

?

?

Charts: Bloomberg

Average:

Your rating: None Average: 4.8 (12 votes)

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-07/japanese-finance-ministry-warns-surge-jgb-volatility-may-lead-sharp-bond-selloff

annette funicello margaret thatcher farrah abraham

Too Short: Charged With Four Misdemeanors After Arrest, Failed Escape Bid

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/too-short-charged-with-four-misdemeanors-after-arrest-failed-esc/

Daniel Inouye steelers

A 'light switch' in the brain illuminates neural networks

Friday, April 5, 2013

There are cells in your brain that recognize very specific places, and have that as one of their main jobs. These cells, called place cells, are found in an area behind your temple called the hippocampus. While these cells must be sent information from nearby cells to do their job, so far no one has been able to determine exactly what kind of nerve cells, or neurons, work with place cells to craft the code they create for each location. Neurons come in many different types with specialized functions. Some respond to edges and borders, others to specific locations, others act like a compass and react to which way you turn your head.

Now, researchers at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have combined a range of advanced techniques that enable them to identify which neurons communicate with each other at different times in the rat brain, and in doing so, create the animal's sense of location. Their findings are published in the 5 April issue of Science.

"A rat's brain is the size of a grape. Inside there are about fifty million neurons that are connected together at a staggering 450 billion places (roughly)," explains Professor Edvard Moser, director of the Kavli Institute. "Inside this grape-sized brain are areas on each side that are smaller than a grape seed, where we know that memory and the sense of location reside. This is also where we find the neurons that respond to specific places, the place cells. But from which cells do these place cells get information?"

The problem is, of course, that researchers cannot simply cut open the rat brain to see which cells have had contact. That would be the equivalent of taking a giant pile of cooked spaghetti, chopping it into little pieces, and then trying to figure out how the various spaghetti strands were tangled together before the pile was cut up.

A job like this requires the use of a completely different set of neural tools, which is where the "light switches" come into play.

Neurons share many similarities with electric cables when they send signals to each other. They send an electric current in one direction ? from the "body" of the neuron and down a long arm, called the axon, which goes to other nerve cells. Place cells thus get their small electric signals from a whole series of such arms.

So how do light switches play into all of this?

"What we did first was to give these nerve arms a harmless viral infection," Moser says. "We designed a unique virus that does not cause disease, but that acts as a pathway for delivering genes to specific cells. The virus creeps into the neurons, crawls up to the nucleus of the cell, and uses the nerve cell's own factory to make the genetic recipe that we gave to the virus to carry."

The genetic recipe enabled the cell to make the equivalent of a light switch. Our eyes actually contain the same kind of biological light switch, which allows us to see. The virus infection converts neurons that have previously existed only in darkness, deep inside the brain, to now be sensitive to light.

Then the researchers inserted optical fibres in the rat's brain to transmit light to the different unidentified cells that now had light switches in them. They also implanted thin microelectrodes down between the cells so they could detect the signals sent through the axons every time the light from the optical fibre was turned on.

"Now we had everything set up, with light switches installed in cells around the place cells, a lamp, and a way to record the activity," Moser said.

The researchers then turned the lights on and off more than ten thousand times in their rat lab partners, while they monitored and recorded the activity of hundreds of individual cells in the rats' grape-sized brains. The researchers did this research while the rats ran around in a metre-square box, gathering treats. As the rats explored their box and found the treats, the researchers were able to use the light-sensitive cells to figure out which cells were feeding information to the place cells as the rat's brain created the map of where the rat had been.

When the researchers put together all the information afterwards they concluded that there is a whole range of different specialized cells that together provide place cells their information. The brain's GPS ? its sense of place ? is created by signals from head direction cells, border cells, cells that have no known function in creating location points, and grid cells. Place cells thus receive both information about the rat's surroundings and landmarks, but also continuously update their own movement, which is actually independent on sensory input.

"One mystery is the role that the cells that are not part of the sense of direction play. They send signals to place cells, but what do they actually do?" wonders Moser.

"We also wonder how the cells in the hippocampus are able to sort out the various signals they receive. Do they 'listen' to all of the cells equally effectively all the time, or are there some cells that get more time than others to 'talk' to place cells?"

###

Norwegian University of Science and Technology: http://www.ntnu.edu

Thanks to Norwegian University of Science and Technology for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 106 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127609/A__light_switch__in_the_brain_illuminates_neural_networks

huntsville al channel 2 news adrienne bailon yelp stock honda classic news channel 5 nashville weather

Time spin-off highlights risks facing magazines

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? From Sports Illustrated to People to its namesake magazine, Time Inc., was always an innovator. But now when the troubled magazine industry is facing its greatest challenge, the company Henry Luce founded is struggling to find its way in a digital world.

Time Warner Inc.'s decision to shed its Time Inc. magazine unit last week underscores the challenges facing an industry that remains wedded to glossy paper even as the use of tablet computers, e-readers and smartphones explodes.

Although the new devices might seem to present an array of opportunity for Time Inc.'s 95 magazine titles, many publishers have found the digital transition troublesome. Digital editions of magazines represented just 2.4 percent of all U.S. circulation in the last half of 2012, or about 7.9 million copies, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

Although that number more than doubled from a year earlier, it's hardly gangbusters growth, considering that the number of tablets in the U.S. also more than doubled last year to 64.8 million, according to research firm IHS.

The fact that so few tablet owners are buying magazines on their devices is a concern because both ad and circulation revenue from print editions have fallen more than 20 percent since their peak near the middle of the last decade. And, according to forecasts, there's no recovery in sight.

"We have to get much better at capturing those (digital) readers," said Mary Berner, president of The Association of Magazine Media.

Before publishers can accomplish that, they need to address a number of problems, experts say. First, the range of free content on the Web has given some readers the impression that it's not necessary to pay for the digital versions of magazine stories. Also, there's no industry standard for pricing. Publishers aren't in agreement over whether to include free access to digital copies as part of a print subscription.

There are technical challenges, too. It's been difficult for magazine makers to create compelling digital editions that fit every screen size and resolution.

Berner acknowledges that customer confusion is part of what's preventing the magazine industry from selling more digital copies. She is working with industry players like Time Inc., Hearst Corp., Conde Nast and Meredith Corp. to standardize both the format of magazines and the way they are sold.

"There used to be a couple ways you used to be able to get a magazine: you could subscribe or buy it at the newsstand. Now there's 25 ways. Joe Average consumer just isn't that clear on it yet," she said. "The confusing part is hurting."

Advertisers are making matters worse. The ad industry has been slow to warm to the notion that they still need to pay top dollar to advertise in the tablet editions of magazines, even though much cheaper website ads are just a finger-swipe away.

But many magazines still command significant premiums. A full-page ad in Elle magazine, for instance, costs $155,680 to reach the readers of 1.1 million copies, or about $141 for every 1,000, according to a rate card that the magazine posted online.

Compare that to a 30-second ad during this year's Super Bowl, which ?at most? cost $37 per 1,000 TV households, or $4 million to reach 108 million TV sets, according to CBS. A typical website ad costs in the single-digit dollars per 1,000 viewers, although pricing varies by ad size and other features.

Magazine insiders say the price of their ad space is worth it because ads reach a targeted, engaged audience that actually wants to see the commercial come-ons. Even so, advertisers bristle at the idea that tablet editions command the same price premium as print pages.

"The costs per thousand are out of whack," said George Janson, director of print for GroupM, a subsidiary of advertising agency giant WPP, whose clients include Ikea, Mars Inc., Marriott and Xerox. "The advertising challenge is there haven't been a lot of metrics. There's very little accountability. That's starting to change now at the advertisers' insistence."

The magazine industry's slim but growing digital subscriber base could help convince advertisers of the value of magazines. Research firm eMarketer predicts that while print magazine ad revenue will remain flat at about $15.1 billion from 2011 to 2016, digital magazine ad revenue will grow from $2.7 billion to $4.1 billion over the same period.

"Tablets have reinvigorated magazine ad revenues," said eMarketer spokesman Clark Fredricksen.

But even as overall magazine advertising revenue grows, it's not expanding nearly as fast as U.S. ad spending as a whole. The predicted turnaround won't return the industry to pre-recession levels ?and it may come too late for Time Warner Inc.

Revenue at its Time Inc. unit slipped to $3.4 billion in 2012, about 38 percent below its peak in 2004. Operating profit declined to $420 million, down by more than half of the $934 million posted eight years earlier.

Analysts say spinning off the magazines into a separate, publicly traded company reduces Time Warner's risk. On Friday, two days after Time Warner announced the spin-off, its shares hit a 52-week high of $57.85.

Tony Wible, an analyst with Janney Capital Markets, said the spin-off frees Time Warner from the uncertainty of the magazine industry's digital transition.

"It has the potential to save money, increase revenue per ad, improve measurement, and increase distribution," he wrote in a research note, "but it also competes with a growing number of free online publications and there may be few ad slots in the new medium."

In other words, it's better for parent Time Warner to separate itself now.

Reed Phillips, the CEO of media company advisory firm DeSilva + Phillips, said that for the parent company, there is too much risk involved if the magazines stay.

"Will you come out on the other end as large and as profitable as the current company? There's a lot of concern," he said. "Because of the volatility, that's why Time Warner wants to spin off Time Inc."

Meanwhile, magazine publishers are carefully parsing consumer behavior data to learn how they might make digital magazines more attractive to readers and advertisers. They want to know which ads attract consumers and how long readers engage with an ad. They are trying to learn how people read magazines (So far, it's still front to back). It's still not clear whether such data is valuable to advertisers and worth paying more.

"This is a fairly early stage business," said Liz Schimel, the chief digital officer at Meredith Corp., which was in talks to combine with Time Inc. before talks were called off. "We're still in lots of conversations about models and features and metrics."

Magazines don't have a lot of time to figure the digital transition out. TV and digital ad spending is growing quickly, and there are more ways than ever to track down consumers and get a company's message in front of them.

"It's not just print and TV and radio," said Brenda White, a senior vice president in charge of publishing industry ad spending at Starcom USA, a subsidiary of ad agency giant Publicis Groupe, whose clients include Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. "There are all these different digital channels: mobile, tablets, social. Publishing companies have had to evolve their business models to keep up."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/time-spin-off-highlights-risks-facing-magazines-143712231--finance.html

whitney houston funeral live pat buchanan slither

Looking ahead at the year to come | The Sauce | Bringing you the ...

By Martin Conboy

As we know, economic strategists often make wildly inaccurate forecasts. At the beginning of 2011 for example, the sages were predicting that the Australian stock market would break through the 5000 barrier. In reality, it was closer to 4000 at the end of the year, falling 15% instead of rising as predicted.

This year 2013 the pundits are predicting the market to more or less stay level. However as I write the market has already broken through the 5000-point barrier. This breakthrough is an important psychological barrier as it relates directly to the missing ingredient in our economy and that is confidence.

Adding weight to this is a measure of consumer confidence, by the Melbourne Institute and Westpac Bank, that surged to its highest in 26 months in February as consumers become more optimistic about the economy and their own finances, suggesting past interest rates cuts might finally be lifting spirits.

The Reserve Bank of Australia lowered interest rates four times in 2012. The official cash rate is now at 3%, which is as low as rates fell to during the global financial crisis. Most economists are predicting that the RBA will cut further, although given the news above it would seem to suggest that rates might stabilize.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said a rally on local share markets and better current economic news from overseas may have helped boost consumer sentiment.

??Sentiment may have been buoyed by a strong start to the year for financial markets,?? he said. ??News from offshore has also been broadly supportive. The report is welcome news with the solid gain in confidence the most promising sign yet that lower interest rates are starting to generate more positive traction with consumers.?

The other issue that we have to deal with this year is a federal election, I?m not sure why but businesses seem to become very shy about making business investment decisions in an election year, I can only suppose it relates to what people perceive will happen to the economy after one side or the other gets into power. The election will be fought on a number of issues and as the year rolls ahead we will hear more on this front. The challenge for businesses is that the fog will not clear until after the election in September. That?s a long time for an economy to be in a holding pattern.

Having said that there are some external factors that will have an influence on our economy. The Australian dollar is still strong relative to other currencies as Australia is still being seen as a safe haven. There are some pundits who believe that Australian dollar could trade as high as US $1.25 this year. This will negatively impact industry especially in the manufacturing, education, tourism sectors that are still suffering from the effects of a high dollar.

Moreover when it comes to outsourcing as I have stated on many occasions our high dollar only amplifies how much less expensive it is to consider offshoring ones business processes. On the other hand if our dollar rises too much it could put pressure on the mining sector as our raw materials would become prohibitively expensive. Besides being seen as a safe haven this contrasts with the fact that almost every other country in the world wants to devalue its own currency and we only have to look to what?s happening currently in Japan as evidence of that.

There is no doubt about the health of the Chinese economy and veracity of its economic statistics. It recently released export figures that showed a jump of 14.1% over the past year. The increase didn?t however match goods movements? reports on imports by trading partners according to UBS. Other statistics which should conform to ?Benford?s law? do not.(Benford?s Law could be used as an indicator of accounting fraud) Benford?s law has been used to show that the macro economic data the Greek government reported to the European Union before entering the Eurozone was shown to be probably fraudulent, albeit he is after the country joined. These inconsistencies do not prove China is manipulating data, but it is anecdotal evidence.

The US economy slowdown from mid-2012, partly due to the US election and the unprecedented focus on the outcome seems to be behind us now as is the fiscal cliff for the moment and their economy is starting to show signs of picking up. The Dow Jones is just below its record high, and some indices are at new highs. The Dow Jones Transport index is seen as a reflection of the state of the US economy. It consists of 20 companies involved in various transport related activities: airlines, railroads, trucking and delivery services dominate the index. It recently reached a record high, which should mean that the US economy is getting stronger. Thus we should see a modestly strengthening US economy as we move into 2013 and that is a good thing.

The real risk for the global economy is Europe, specifically Spain and Greece who are in a depression, the Eurozone?s fiscal compact is not working and any further austerities measures will only make things worse with unsustainable levels of unemployment in some European countries. There is a ticking time bomb in sovereign bonds that will soon need to be refinanced. There seems to be a propensity for European Governments to ignore some of the issues and somehow muddle their way out of the mess.

The other lucking issue will be the Middle East, which is showing no signs of stabilizing as well as new fronts opening up in North Africa in the war against terrorists.

So on balance and with all due consideration I think we will see further growth in outsourcing from the Australian market, as predicted in our 2012 Australian BPO industry report. I also believe that we will see the rise of the back-office and shared services as a way for Australian organisations to take layers of cost out of their operating structure to offset the high cost of doing business in Australia.

Source: http://thesauce.net.au/looking-ahead-at-the-year-to-come/

mitch daniels