Sunday, 30 June 2013

Vice President Joe Biden rouses Virginia Democrats, gives GOP a tea party label

RICHMOMD, Va. ? Vice President Joe Biden continued a busy political pace Saturday, appearing with Virginia?s Democratic gubernatorial candidate at the swing state?s premier party fundraiser and ridiculing this fall?s conservative Republican statewide ticket as extreme captives of tea party ideology.

Biden brought about 1,000 Democrats to their feet repeatedly at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner barely four months ahead of the nation?s only competitive governor?s race. His appearances at state fundraisers haved evoked speculation that he is laying his footing for a 2016 presidential bid.

?Ladies and gentlemen, we stand for equal rights and women?s rights,? Biden said. ?With virtually zero support from the Republicans, the president and I have moved the country from the worst recession since the Great Depression to 38 months of private-sector growth.?

With Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe at his side, Biden took aim at McAuliffe?s opponent, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who won the GOP nomination with strong tea party support and his socially conservative ticket mates.

?There is so much they stand for that is so at odds with the value set of Virginians,? Biden said.

The vice president warned that a GOP victory in Virginia would only galvanize the tea party?s grip on the GOP in Congress, where he said even longtime moderate Republicans are fearful of a primary challenge if they don?t do the tea party?s bidding.

?They are so afraid of a challenge by the tea party that they vote against what is the right vote. Imagine what they will do to Barack and me if Terry McAuliffe loses,? he said.

A McAuliffe victory, he said, would ?send a strong signal to Republicans across America that there?s no reason to be afraid of these extreme guys.?

Before speaking to activists who paid $175 or more per ticket, Biden joined McAuliffe, a longtime confidante of Bill and Hillary Clinton, in surprising patrons at a Richmond restaurant, shaking hands before wolfing down two plates of fried whiting.

Among other campaign events this season, Biden aided Democratic Rep. Ed Markey in a Massachusetts special election ? Markey won, thus keeping Secretary of State John Kerry?s old seat in Democratic hands ? and held a series of closed-door ?donor-maintenance? events in Washington.

Sen. Tim Kaine, elected on the same Virginia ballot as President Barack Obama last fall, said it?s too early for Democrats to take sides in a potential nomination contest between Biden and Hillary Clinton, but he counseled both to try pragmatism over progressive partisanship.

?I think the Virginia Democratic success model is, we?ll let the other guys be the ideology people and we will be the work-together, compromise, make-things-happen party. That?s been the model that has allowed Dems to win,? said Kaine, like McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman.

In speeches warming up the crowd, Kaine and Sen. Mark Warner congratulated gay-rights activists for the ruling that cleared the way for same-sex marriages in 13 states but not in Virginia, where a 7-year-old amendment to the state Constitution prohibits it. And both hailed the immigration reform bill that they supported ? it now faces an uncertain future in a conservative Republican-led House.

The Cuccinelli campaign joined the Virginia GOP in using Biden?s visit as an occasion to attack the ticket for Obama?s clean-energy initiative, warning that it will devastate Virginia?s struggling coal industry and drive up utility bills.

?With no economic plan or message to tout, Vice President Biden and Terry McAuliffe doubled down on an empty strategy of division and false attacks tonight,? the campaign said in a statement that referred to the ?Obama/Biden/McAuliffe War On Coal? and government-run healthcare as ?harmful to job growth and economic opportunity in Virginia.?

State GOP Chairman Pat Mullins called it ?the most anti-coal slate of candidates ever fielded in the history of Virginia,? a distinction intended to lock up the rural, rugged but independent southwestern tip of the state for the GOP in a neck-and-neck governor?s race.

Republicans weren?t alone in protesting Biden?s trip. About three dozen environmental activists opposed to construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline stood on a street corner as Biden?s motorcade passed, waving placards that read ?Say No to Big Oil? and chanting ?Hey, Joe, you ought to know, Keystone pipeline?s got to go.?

Source: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/jun/30/vice-president-joe-biden-rouses-virginia-democrats/

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The Debriefing (Unqualified Offerings)

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Saturday, 29 June 2013

Bagpipes play up a storm in Pakistan's boomtown

One Pakistani city has turned into a boom town by manufacturing and exporting a diverse array of products from bagpipes to replica Civil War uniforms. NBC's Amna Nawaz reports from Sialkot, Pakistan.?

By Amna Nawaz, Correspondent, NBC News

SIALKOT, Pakistan ? It's not a sound you expect to hear in Pakistan. And yet, here we stand, in the heart of the country's Punjab province, listening to the theme song from ?The Titanic? played on traditional bagpipes.

The Pakistani teenager serenading us with the soaring wails of this iconic Scottish instrument?was taught to play by his father, who was taught by his father before him.

And his bagpipe was made right here in Sialkot, a city of 3 million that's emerged as the world's leading manufacturer of the instrument. More than 100,000 locally made bagpipes are exported every year.

M.H. Geoffrey's factory is one of over a dozen in the city. His grandfather began the business when a British army officer, part of the colonial forces in the region in the 19th century, approached him to get his own bagpipe fixed.

"My grandfather not only fixed that one, he made?two more!" Geoffrey said.

Today, Geoffrey's company makes and exports nearly 3,000 bagpipes a year.

In a narrow, high-ceilinged room covered in sawdust and lit by an over-sized skylight, five workers squat before their lathes, expertly churning out intricately carved bagpipe parts. When the power goes out, as it often does in Pakistan, a single generator spurts to life, filling the room with a deafening hum.

Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images file

Ibrahim, the son of Farooq Ahmad, owner of the Imperial Bagpipe Manufacturing Company, tests a bagpipe at a bagpipe factory in Sialkot, Pakistan.

Every piece is handcrafted. Every bagpipe is hand-assembled. The cheapest bagpipes cost around $100; the most expensive, over $1,000. But Geoffrey, like many local businessmen, has also found other niche markets.

A combination of cheap textiles and skilled seamstresses prevalent in Sialkot led to the costume wing of his company. They now make, sell and export hundreds of replica U.S. Civil War uniforms every year.

The vintage, leather goods wing followed soon after ? manufacturing everything from footballs to cleats.

?Anything you need made? We can make it here. Anything at all,? Geoffrey said.

Sialkot is an anomaly in Pakistan?s economy. In a country where taxes aren?t regularly collected, power companies can?t produce sufficient electricity, and the currency continues to lose value, Sialkot?s business community decided to go its own way.

Ten years ago, business leaders pooled their resources to construct the nation?s first privately funded airport. It now boasts the country?s longest runway and more than 30 domestic and international flights a week. Last year alone, more than 6,000 tons of locally produced exports were flown out.

Those products run the gamut from bagpipes and costumes to medical instruments and sporting goods.

Companies around the world have long tapped into Sialkot?s manufacturing prowess for access to cost-effective, high-quality goods. Nike, Adidas and Puma all have contracts here. A walk down one main market street reveals over a dozen medical instrument and surgical supply storefronts, all selling local goods.

Sheikh Abdul Majid, the chairman of the local chamber of commerce, said Sialkot?s exports brought in more than $1.4 billion last year, and the local economy had grown by 10-15 percent every year for the last five years.

The IMF estimates the national economy, by comparison, may grow by just 3.5 percent this fiscal year. Across the country, fewer than a million Pakistanis pay income taxes.

Majid said?all local exports were taxed, with the money re-invested into the city.

Farooq Naeem / AFP - Getty Images file

A Pakistani laborer prepares components to make bagpipes at a bagpipe factory in Sialkot, on April 14, 2011.

?We?ve fixed roads, built schools, even put in sewage systems with the money we?ve been able to bring in,? he said. ?And we plan to continue doing that, every year.?

For a new national government, elected largely on its promise to right an upended economy, the secrets to Sialkot?s success could prove useful.

Much voter frustration centered on 20-hour power cuts in parts of the country, a failure of the previous government to tackle corruption, and a lack of any clearly articulated plan to address either.

After just one month on the job, the new leaders? plans for emergency cash infusions to the power sector and increasing tax revenues are beginning to take shape. However, economists say an economic revival on a national level could take years.

Back in Sialkot, Geoffrey said business had never been better. Bagpipe sales now make up half of their revenue, and with the addition of online sales, his costume orders have grown exponentially.

?My sons are now learning the business, helping me to run it,? Geoffrey said. ?One day, this whole business will be given to the next generation ? the fourth generation to run it.?

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Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663309/s/2df607a8/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C290C191744460Ebagpipes0Eplay0Eup0Ea0Estorm0Ein0Epakistans0Eboomtown0Dlite/story01.htm

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Cher: Tom Cruise was one of my top 5 lovers

Celebs

23 hours ago

IMAGE: Cher

Rob Kim / Getty Images

Cher says Tom Cruise makes her list of best lovers.

They're both famous names, but did you forget Cher and Tom Cruise were once an item? The singer, 67, confessed on Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live" Thursday that she still ranks the movie star, who's now 50, among her top 5 lovers.

"He wasn't a Scientologist then!" Cher told host Andy Cohen. "It was pretty hot and heavy for a little minute."

Cher and Cruise dated in the mid-1980s when he was in his early 20s, before his first marriage to actress Mimi Rogers, who reportedly introduced the actor to Scientology.

When Cohen asked Cher to name her all-time best lover, she stumbled, saying "well, a lot of them kinda came in first. I've had just the greatest lovers ever."

When asked where Cruise ranked, she was quick to say, "Well he ... was in the top five."

Cohen showed Cher a number of photos of famous people, including Cruise and asked her to say the first thing that came to her mind about each one.

Elvis Presley, Cher said, invited her to stay with him once for a weekend, and she refused, "but I wish I'd gone," she said. Of "Moonstruck" co-star Nicolas Cage, Cher said, "Aw, I love him. But he's crazy!" Of producer Phil Spector, she said "he paid me $25 for a year's work. My mother didn't believe I was working." Of Michael Jackson, she hesitated, saying "I have too much information."

Cher will appear on TODAY Monday with Savannah Guthrie, and is scheduled to reveal some big news in advance of her comeback album, "Closer to the Truth," which hits stores in September.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/cher-tom-cruise-was-one-my-top-5-lovers-6C10486630

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Cox flareWatch beta brings IPTV with 60 HD channels, cloud DVR for $35 monthly

Cox flareWatch TV beta brings IPTV with 60 HD channels, cloud DVR for $35 monthly

While everyone tries to figure out what the future of TV looks like, Variety reports Cox Cable has crossed over to offering internet TV service to customers in Orange County. flareWatch beta testers can buy a Fanhattan Fan TV set-top box for $99 (up to three per household) and sign up for a TV package that features 90 live TV channels (60 in HD) and includes the usual favorites like ESPN / ESPN2, AMC, CNN, Nickelodeon and TNT, with video on-demand coming soon. DVR recordings take place in the cloud, with 30 hours of storage available for each subscriber.

There is one notable limitation however, as with cable company provided TiVo DVRs, streaming services like Hulu and Netflix are not available. Cox already cloud based storage under the MyFlare brand name, and Variety also mentions the company plans to expand it with music and game services. Other providers have hinted at offering IPTV options and Comcast launched an IPTV test at MIT, but this is the first one publicly available from a major company. If you live in the area, demonstrations are available at several locations, check out the site at the link below and a preview video after the break.

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Source: Variety, watchFlare

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/29/cox-flarewatch-iptv/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Friday, 28 June 2013

Office 365 Is Now A Programmable Service For Rapid App Delivery

P1110723Microsoft is offering new capabilities for building business apps with Office 365 and Windows Azure -- part of a larger effort to offer services that can leverage its cloud environment for rapid build out. Rapid delivery was one of the themes Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer discussed on the first day at the Build conference.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/1ooVLDfiu9U/

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New maps depict impact of HIV in America

June 27, 2013 ? Today, on National HIV Testing Day, the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University launched its annual update of AIDSVu, including new interactive online maps that show the latest HIV prevalence data for 20 U.S. cities by ZIP code or census tract. AIDSVu also includes new city snapshots displaying HIV prevalence alongside various social determinants of health -- such as poverty, lack of health insurance and educational attainment.

AIDSVu -- the most detailed publicly available view of HIV prevalence in the United States -- is a compilation of interactive online maps that display HIV prevalence data at the national, state and local levels and by different demographics, including age, race and sex. The maps pinpoint areas of the country where the rates of people living with an HIV diagnosis are the highest. These areas include urban centers in the Northeast and the South, and visualize where the needs for prevention, testing, and treatment services are the most urgent.

"Our National HIV/AIDS Strategy calls for reducing new HIV infections by intensifying our efforts in HIV prevention where the epidemic is most concentrated. AIDSVu provides a roadmap to identifying those high-prevalence areas of the HIV epidemic and showing where the local testing resources are located," says Patrick S. Sullivan, PhD, DVM, professor of epidemiology at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, and the principal researcher for AIDSVu. "The addition of new city data means that AIDSVu now displays data from 20 U.S. cities. This expanded city information is critical because most HIV diagnoses in the United States occur in cities."

The free, interactive online tool's new data and features include:

  • National maps displaying 2010 data at the state-and county-level, the most recent national HIV prevalence data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
  • Interactive maps of HIV prevalence data by census tract for Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
  • New ZIP code level maps for five U.S. cities -- Memphis, Orlando, San Diego, Tampa and Virginia Beach; and updated ZIP code maps for Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles County, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Palm Beach, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan and Washington, D.C.
  • HIV prevalence maps alongside social determinants of health -- poverty, lack of health insurance, median household income, educational attainment and income inequality -- in side-by-side map views for 20 cities, in addition to the existing state views.

AIDSVu maps illustrate the geographic variations in the HIV epidemic across the United States:

  • The national map shows significantly higher rates of people living with HIV in the Northeast and the South than in much of the rest of the country. AIDSVu's city maps demonstrate that, in many cities, there is a pattern of heavily impacted urban cores with relatively lower impact in areas further from city centers.
  • The data on AIDSVu's maps can be viewed by race/ethnicity. AIDSVu shows that HIV disproportionately affects black and Hispanic/Latino Americans, and that these disparities exist in both major metropolitan areas and rural areas.
  • AIDSVu also provides downloadable and printable resources -- including slide sets of the various map views available on the site -- to help those who work in HIV prevention and treatment educate others about the U.S. epidemic.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Emory Health Sciences.

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


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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/gExrqg0VsxY/130627142555.htm

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Marc Andreessen: Beijing Should Be Another Silicon Valley, But?.

marc andreessenMarc Andreessen, the Netscape co-founder and namesake behind venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said that he’s skeptical that efforts globally to recreate the Silicon Valley ecosystem will succeed. Even the most promising city and rival to the U.S.’s Silicon Valley, Beijing, faces lots of potential complications because laws around contracts aren’t as straightforward as they could be, he said. Outside of the U.S., Beijing is one of the cities that is able to consistently produce tech giants like Baidu (although Alibaba’s headquarters are in Hangzhou and Tencent is based in Shenzhen). “China should be another United States from an economic standpoint. Beijing should be another Silicon Valley,” he said in an interview at 500 Startup’s Pre-Money conference today in San Francisco. “I think the early indicators have been promising. There are some amazing stories like Alibaba and Tencent.” Bet he went on, expressing some doubt in the country’s ability to set up a transparent system of contracts and law that make it easy for entrepreneurs to protect their work. “I worry about the system — the ability to sustain the process and have a system. A lot of it has to do with the same frustrations we’re hearing from Chinese entrepreneurs. There are still issues with the rule of law and basic contract law. There are still issues with IP integrity,” he said. “They have the idea that there can be a free economy without free speech, which I think is not true.” It’s a common complaint I’ve heard in the Beijing-based community myself. There isn’t the same practice or habit of ‘acq-hires’ in China. Instead, the major powers like Tencent may go in and directly copy small startups instead of trying to acquire or lure them in first. As controversial as the process of ‘talent acquisitions’ may be in the West, they also form a safety net for talent product managers or engineers to try new ideas. At the same time, the Chinese government has erected a massive ‘Great Firewall’ of surveillance and censorship over online discourse in the country. While Andreessen says this might not be sustainable over the long-term, the effort has actually helped domestic companies so far, with protections enabling products like Baidu’s search engine to succeed at Google’s loss or market share or monitored social networking platforms like Tencent’s WeChat or Sina Weibo to grow while U.S. products like Facebook and Twitter are unable to

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/icK20eLxz3A/

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Senate backs border amendment to immigration bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a $46 billion plan to increase federal law enforcement efforts at the U.S. border with Mexico, a move aimed at winning bipartisan passage this week of a comprehensive immigration bill.

The amendment approved by the Senate aims to double, to around 40,000, the number of U.S. agents patrolling the southwestern border, complete the construction of 700 miles of border fence and enable the purchase of high-tech surveillance and other equipment to detect illegal border crossings.

The Senate backed the border security amendment by a vote of 69-29, with 15 of 46 Republicans joining all 52 Democrats and two independents.

None of the top four Senate Republican leaders voted for the amendment, however, in a sign of continuing divisions within the party over immigration legislation that provides a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented residents.

"I don't know how any Republican could look a TV camera or a constituent in the eye and not say that this amendment strengthens ... the border and makes our border more secure," said Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who helped write the amendment.

Corker added that if a majority of Republicans voted against the bill, which it did, "Democrats are going to own the border security issue," which has long been argued by Republicans.

Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa countered that he was skeptical that the 20,000 additional border security agents actually would be hired over the next 10 years.

He also said the amendment "makes bold promises that may throw more money at the border, but there's no accountability to get the job done."

Republican opposition to a comprehensive immigration bill like the Senate's runs deep in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where no guarantees have been given that legislation will be advanced to legalize and ultimately allow citizenship for the 11 million undocumented residents.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Vicki Allen and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-senate-backs-border-amendment-immigration-bill-163622408.html

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Motorola's new smartphone leaked, reportedly being tested on Sprint 4G

Mystery Motorola smartphone appears for real, reportedly being tested on Sprint 4G

That long-teased Motorola X phone might be approaching an official release, if you believe what you're staring at above. Phone Arena says it received the glare-heavy photo from a source that's testing it for Sprint's LTE network. We've already seen official FCC documents pointing to a Now Network future for the Motorola smartphone, while other filings tally with the shape of the device seen here. Aside from a first look at the device sans hardware-disguising casing, there's nothing more to cement rumored specs, although it appears that it will arrive with a screen around the 4.5- to 4.7-inch region -- a size that's suddenly starting to look pretty middle-of-the-road.

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Source: Phone Arena

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/motorola-x-phone-leak-sprint/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Thursday, 27 June 2013

OSIRIS-REx team member selected by White House as a Citizen Science Champion of Change

OSIRIS-REx team member selected by White House as a Citizen Science Champion of Change [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
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Contact: Nancy Jones
nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov
301-286-0039
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Dolores H. Hill from the Lunar and Planetary Lab of the University of Arizona, Tucson is the recipient of the Citizen Science Champions of Change Award for her work on "Target Asteroids!"

"Target Asteroids!" is part of the communication and public engagement efforts of NASA's Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer or OSIRIS-REx mission. Amateur astronomers will help better characterize the population of near-Earth objects, including their position, motion, rotation and changes in the intensity of light they reflect. Professional astronomers will use this information to refine theoretical models of asteroids, improving their understanding about asteroids similar to the one OSIRIS-REx will encounter, recently named asteroid (101955) Bennu.

Hill was honored on Tuesday, June 25 at a White House ceremony. According to the Champions of Change website, the Champions of Change event "honors people and organizations which have demonstrated exemplary leadership in engaging the broader, non-expert community in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) research."

The award highlights the importance of citizen science. Citizen science offers the public opportunities to contribute to cutting edge scientific research. For scientists, citizen science programs provide additional means to acquire, process and analyze data to achieve great results in research projects.

The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program. OSIRIS-REx will launch in 2016, rendezvous with asteroid (101955) Bennu in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona is the principal investigator. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the mission for the Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver will build the spacecraft.

NASA recently announced an agency Grand Challenge to find all asteroid threats to human population and know what to do about them. It is an effort to reach beyond traditional boundaries and encourage partnerships and collaboration especially with citizen scientists with a variety of organizations to solve this global problem.

Part of NASA's Fiscal Year 2014 budget includes an asteroid strategy that will help protect the Earth, advance exploration capabilities and technologies for human spaceflight, and help better utilize space resources.

###

To read Dolores Hill's Champions of Change Blog, visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/06/25/target-asteroids-citizen-science-tracking-near-earth-asteroids-science-and-humanity.

More information about NASA's asteroid programs can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

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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.


OSIRIS-REx team member selected by White House as a Citizen Science Champion of Change [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Nancy Jones
nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov
301-286-0039
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Dolores H. Hill from the Lunar and Planetary Lab of the University of Arizona, Tucson is the recipient of the Citizen Science Champions of Change Award for her work on "Target Asteroids!"

"Target Asteroids!" is part of the communication and public engagement efforts of NASA's Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer or OSIRIS-REx mission. Amateur astronomers will help better characterize the population of near-Earth objects, including their position, motion, rotation and changes in the intensity of light they reflect. Professional astronomers will use this information to refine theoretical models of asteroids, improving their understanding about asteroids similar to the one OSIRIS-REx will encounter, recently named asteroid (101955) Bennu.

Hill was honored on Tuesday, June 25 at a White House ceremony. According to the Champions of Change website, the Champions of Change event "honors people and organizations which have demonstrated exemplary leadership in engaging the broader, non-expert community in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) research."

The award highlights the importance of citizen science. Citizen science offers the public opportunities to contribute to cutting edge scientific research. For scientists, citizen science programs provide additional means to acquire, process and analyze data to achieve great results in research projects.

The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program. OSIRIS-REx will launch in 2016, rendezvous with asteroid (101955) Bennu in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona is the principal investigator. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the mission for the Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver will build the spacecraft.

NASA recently announced an agency Grand Challenge to find all asteroid threats to human population and know what to do about them. It is an effort to reach beyond traditional boundaries and encourage partnerships and collaboration especially with citizen scientists with a variety of organizations to solve this global problem.

Part of NASA's Fiscal Year 2014 budget includes an asteroid strategy that will help protect the Earth, advance exploration capabilities and technologies for human spaceflight, and help better utilize space resources.

###

To read Dolores Hill's Champions of Change Blog, visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/06/25/target-asteroids-citizen-science-tracking-near-earth-asteroids-science-and-humanity.

More information about NASA's asteroid programs can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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/nsfc-otm062613.php

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Is the 136-year-old London Metal Exchange ready for a woman CEO?

By Susan Thomas and Veronica Brown

LONDON (Reuters) - Whisper it: The next chief of the London Metal Exchange (LME), where only men take part in the shouted, testosterone-fuelled trading of materials like copper, may be a woman who prides herself on speaking softly.

Industry sources say Harriet Hunnable, managing director of metals at the CME Group , is among potential candidates to be LME chief executive when Martin Abbott leaves the post at the end of this year.

"That's a super compliment," Hunnable, said this week when asked about talk of her candidacy. "But I'm enjoying my role at CME group and I've got a lot of things to do here."

The self-described "most quietly spoken fix-it lady in the metals business" declined to comment further.

A new CEO appointment would come at a time of major upheaval at the 136-year-old institution - a legacy of Britain's former manufacturing clout - that remains the world's biggest marketplace for aluminum, copper, lead, zinc, tin and nickel.

The LME was sold to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing last year for $2.2 billion in a move reflecting China's new industrial prominence.

For now, men in business suits conduct often raucous "open-outcry" trading around a circular "ring" at the LME's Leadenhall St. headquarters in London's City business district, observing traditions that date to the exchange's coffee house origins.

There was a woman ring trader but she left.

Much trade on the LME is done electronically or by telephone, rather than in the ring itself, and women are active as traders, clients and exchange staff.

FIX-IT SKILLS MUCH NEEDED

Fix-it skills are much in need at the LME just now.

Fury is growing among its industrial clients, who blame the exchange for letting agonizingly long queues build up for material they have bought via the LME and want to withdraw from warehouses in the global network it oversees.

They say LME rules allow firms running warehouses to make money by building up big stocks and charging for storage while they deliver metal out at a limited rate.

"With Abbott, the big proponent of no change, leaving, the LME is in a better position to make changes to placate customers," one metals industry source said.

The issue of warehouse backlogs almost derailed the takeover last year.

The latest complaints this week came from The Beer Institute, which represents global brewers and their suppliers struggling to get aluminum for cans at a reasonable price.

It wants an end to the "restrictive and outdated warehousing rules and practices that are interfering with normal supply and demand dynamics" and changes to bring the LME's warehousing practices in line with other global commodity exchanges.

Meanwhile the CME, where Hunnable works, is looking at expanding its warehouse network as its COMEX copper contract eats into the LME's dominance in global copper futures.

"IT COULD BE A HE, IT COULD BE A SHE"

HKEx Chief Executive Charles Li, asked in Hong Kong about the search for a new LME head, replied: "It could be a he, it could be a she."

"Everything is on the table," he told Reuters on the sidelines of LME Week Asia, an industry gathering now under way in Hong Kong.

"We have some very, very high caliber individuals. We have a great franchise and we have great world class leaders. We are very lucky and we are in discussions."

With European regulators ready to impose new rules on financial markets, the LME's Chief Operating Officer Diarmuid O'Hegarty is well placed. A solicitor, he became LME executive director of regulation and compliance in 2004, deputy chief executive in 2008 and COO earlier this year.

"He is a strong contender," one metals industry source said.

Other possibilities are Martin Pratt, chief operating officer at metals trader Triland, and Gavin Prentice, former managing director and global head of sales for Marex Spectron.

But most sources say it's likely that the next CEO will come from another exchange.

Romnesh Lamba, HKEx co-head of global markets division, said the new CEO was unlikely to come from the Hong Kong exchange and he or she would have to meet British and European regulatory requirements. He ruled himself out as a contender.

(Additional reporting by Melanie Burton in Hong Kong; Editing by Anthony Barker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/136-old-london-metal-exchange-ready-woman-ceo-155706794.html

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Sprint launching Samsung ATIV S Neo with unlimited LTE for $150 after rebate this summer

Image

There may not be too many mobile-focused surprises at Microsoft Build, as Sprint has just let slip its two biggest pieces of news. In addition to HTC's 8XT, the company will carry Samsung's latest Windows Phone 8 handset, the ATIV S Neo at some point in the near future. The ATIV S followup comes with a 4.8-inch HD display, a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM and a 2,000mAh battery, as well as unspecified WiFi, NFC and Bluetooth features. There's no word about on-board storage, but the release specifically mentions a microSD card slot, so we'd assume you can add either 32 or 64GB more storage to the unit.

On the imaging front, there's an 8-megapixel primary camera with an LED flash, as well as a 1.9-megapixel front-facing lens with "Manga Camera" and "Beauty Shot" apps to transform your selfies and smooth away those wrinkles. The phone will also have "international roaming," meaning that owners won't suffer the pain of traveling to CDMA-phobic parts of the world like Europe. Dan Hesse's big Yellow Network isn't talking about a release date beyond "summer," but when this handset does make it to stores, it'll set you back $149.99 with a two-year, unlimited LTE deal after the customary $50 mail-in rebate.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/NpajW-mkbGw/

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Wednesday, 26 June 2013

Razer's Surround Software Could Turn Regular Headphones Into 7.1 Cans

Razer's Surround Software Could Turn Regular Headphones Into 7.1 Cans

We'd all love to be able to blast sound to the high heavens, but sadly, most of us lack the space and/or patient neighbors willing to put up with it. Well today, gaming gear giant Razer is announcing new software that it claims will be able to turn your ordinary headphones into a professional-grade set that emulates 7.1 channel sound. And from now until the end of the year, the software is free, so why not give it a shot?

Razer's new Surround software uses what's called "virtual surround sound" to create the effect of being actually physically bounded by a seven-channel array of speakers. It accomplishes this magic using processing algorithms that tweak the audio signal coming out of your computer before your headphones drivers actually reproduce the sound.

Razer's Surround Software Could Turn Regular Headphones Into 7.1 Cans

Razer claims that the software will work with any set of headphones, but you'll have to run a calibration program before the effect will work properly. In theory, this could work, but as with any tech that claims to turn one thing into something else it is not, we'll believe it when we hear it.

Now the software isn't exactly "free" per se. In exchange for the software, Razer is asking that users make a contribution to Child's Play, a charity that supports children in hospitals. Seems like a worthy cause. If you wait until 2014 to buy the software, you'll pay the regular cost of $20 to Razer. Bottom line: If you're into PC gaming, but not into spending a lot on gaming headset, the Surround software seems like it could be worth a shot.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/razers-surround-software-could-turn-regular-headphones-571816919

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Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Two mutations triggered an evolutionary leap 500 million years ago

June 24, 2013 ? Evolution, it seems, sometimes jumps instead of crawls. A research team led by a University of Chicago scientist has discovered two key mutations that sparked a hormonal revolution 500 million years ago.

In a feat of "molecular time travel," the researchers resurrected and analyzed the functions of the ancestors of genes that play key roles in modern human reproduction, development, immunity and cancer. By re-creating the same DNA changes that occurred during those genes' ancient history, the team showed that two mutations set the stage for hormones like estrogen, testosterone and cortisol to take on their crucial present-day roles.

"Changes in just two letters of the genetic code in our deep evolutionary past caused a massive shift in the function of one protein and set in motion the evolution of our present-day hormonal and reproductive systems," said Joe Thornton, PhD, professor of human genetics and ecology & evolution at the University of Chicago, who led the study.

"If those two mutations had not happened, our bodies today would have to use different mechanisms to regulate pregnancy, libido, the response to stress, kidney function, inflammation, and the development of male and female characteristics at puberty," Thornton said.

The findings were published online June 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Understanding how the genetic code of a protein determines its functions would allow biochemists to better design drugs and predict the effects of mutations on disease. Thornton said the discovery shows how evolutionary analysis of proteins' histories can advance this goal, Before the group's work, it was not previously known how the various steroid receptors in modern species distinguish estrogens from other hormones.

The team, which included researchers from the University of Oregon, Emory University and the Scripps Research Institute, studied the evolution of a family of proteins called steroid hormone receptors, which mediate the effects of hormones on reproduction, development and physiology. Without receptor proteins, these hormones cannot affect the body's cells.

Thornton's group traced how the ancestor of the entire receptor family -- which recognized only estrogens -- evolved into descendant proteins capable of recognizing other steroid hormones, such as testosterone, progesterone and the stress hormone cortisol.

To do so, the group used a gene "resurrection" strategy. They first inferred the genetic sequences of ancient receptor proteins, using computational methods to work their way back up the tree of life from a database of hundreds of present-day receptor sequences. They then biochemically synthesized these ancient DNA sequences and used molecular assays to determine the receptors' sensitivity to various hormones.

Thornton's team narrowed down the time range during which the capacity to recognize non-estrogen steroids evolved, to a period about 500 million years ago, before the dawn of vertebrate animals on Earth. They then identified the most important mutations that occurred during that interval by introducing them into the reconstructed ancestral proteins. By measuring how the mutations affected the receptor's structure and function, the team could re-create ancient molecular evolution in the laboratory.

They found that just two changes in the ancient receptor's gene sequence caused a 70,000-fold shift in preference away from estrogens toward other steroid hormones. The researchers also used biophysical techniques to identify the precise atomic-level mechanisms by which the mutations affected the protein's functions. Although only a few atoms in the protein were changed, this radically rewired the network of interactions between the receptor and the hormone, leading to a massive change in function.

"Our findings show that new molecular functions can evolve by sudden large leaps due to a few tiny changes in the genetic code," Thornton said. He pointed out that, along with the two key changes in the receptor, additional mutations, the precise effects of which are not yet known, were necessary for the full effects of hormone signaling on the body to evolve.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/eBlUGA6HrNo/130624152617.htm

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Supreme Court halts use of key part of voting law

Ryan P. Haygood, director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, talks outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, about the Shelby County v. Holder, a voting rights case in Alabama. Charles White, the national field director for the NAACP is second from right and Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund is at right. The Supreme Court says a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act cannot be enforced until Congress comes up with a new way of determining which states and localities require close federal monitoring of elections. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Ryan P. Haygood, director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, talks outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, about the Shelby County v. Holder, a voting rights case in Alabama. Charles White, the national field director for the NAACP is second from right and Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund is at right. The Supreme Court says a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act cannot be enforced until Congress comes up with a new way of determining which states and localities require close federal monitoring of elections. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley talks with reporters in Montgomery, Ala., Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Bentley applauded a ruling by a deeply divided Supreme Court on Tuesday that halted enforcement of the federal government's most potent tool to stop voting discrimination over the past half century, saying it does not reflect racial progress. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Attorney General Eric Holder expresses disappointment in the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in the Alabama voting rights case, Shelby County v. Holder, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, at the Justice Department in Washington. The court declared unconstitutional a provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act that determines which states and localities must get Washington's approval for proposed election changes. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Representatives from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund stand outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, awaiting a decision in Shelby County v. Holder, a voting rights case in Alabama. The Supreme Court says a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act cannot be enforced until Congress comes up with a new way of determining which states and localities require close federal monitoring of elections. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he talks about the Supreme Court's ruling on the Voting Rights Act as he speaks at the 75th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established the minimum wage in 1938, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. Biden said the Obama administration will do everything in its power to ensure fair voting in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling stopping part of the Voting Rights Act enforcement. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

(AP) ? A deeply divided Supreme Court threw out the most powerful part of the landmark Voting Rights Act on Tuesday, a decision deplored by the White House but cheered by mostly Southern states now free from nearly 50 years of intense federal oversight of their elections.

Split along ideological and partisan lines, the justices voted 5-4 to strip the government of its most potent tool to stop voting bias ? the requirement in the Voting Rights Act that all or parts of 15 states with a history of discrimination in voting, mainly in the South, get Washington's approval before changing the way they hold elections.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for a majority of conservative, Republican-appointed justices, said the law's provision that determines which states are covered is unconstitutional because it relies on 40-year-old data and does not account for racial progress and other changes in U.S. society.

The decision effectively puts an end to the advance approval requirement that has been used to open up polling places to minority voters in the nearly half century since it was first enacted in 1965, unless Congress can come up with a new formula that Roberts said meets "current conditions" in the United States. That seems unlikely to happen any time soon.

President Barack Obama, the nation's first black chief executive, issued a statement saying he was "deeply disappointed" with the ruling and calling on Congress to update the law.

But in the South, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said that, while the requirement was necessary in the 1960s, that was no longer the case. He said, "We have long lived up to what happened then, and we have made sure it's not going to happen again."

The advance approval, or preclearance, requirement shifted the legal burden and required governments that were covered to demonstrate that their proposed election changes would not discriminate.

Going forward, the outcome alters the calculus of passing election-related legislation in the affected states and local jurisdictions. The threat of an objection from Washington has hung over such proposals for nearly a half century. Unless Congress acts, that deterrent now is gone.

That prospect has upset civil rights groups which especially worry that changes on the local level might not get the same scrutiny as the actions of state legislatures.

Tuesday's decision means that a host of state and local laws that have not received Justice Department approval or have not yet been submitted can take effect. Prominent among those are voter identification laws in Alabama and Mississippi.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, said his state's voter ID law, which a panel of federal judges blocked as discriminatory, also would be allowed to take effect.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissenting from the ruling along with the court's three other liberal, Democratic appointees, said there was no mistaking the court's action.

"Hubris is a fit word for today's demolition" of the law, she said.

Reaction to the ruling from elected officials generally divided along partisan lines.

Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said in a news release, "The practice of preclearance unfairly applied to certain states should be eliminated in recognition of the progress Mississippi has made over the past 48 years."

But Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the only black lawmaker in Mississippi's congressional delegation, said the ruling "guts the most critical portion of the most important civil rights legislation of our time."

Alabama Gov. Bentley, a Republican, pointed to his state's legislature ? 27 percent black, similar to Alabama's overall population ? as a sign of the state's progress.

The court challenge came from Shelby County, Ala., a Birmingham suburb.

The prior approval requirement had applied to the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. It also covered certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan. Coverage was triggered by past discrimination not only against blacks, but also against American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaska Natives and Hispanics.

Obama, whose historic election was a subtext in the court's consideration of the case, pledged that his administration would continue to fight discrimination in voting. "While today's decision is a setback, it doesn't represent the end of our efforts to end voting discrimination," the president said. "I am calling on Congress to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls."

Congress essentially ignored the court's threat to upend the voting rights law in a similar case four years ago. Roberts said the "failure to act leaves us today with no choice."

Congressional Democrats said they are eager to make changes, but Republicans were largely noncommittal.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he expects Republicans to block efforts to revive the law, even though a Republican-led Congress overwhelmingly approved its latest renewal in 2006 and President George W. Bush signed it into law.

"As long as Republicans have a majority in the House and Democrats don't have 60 votes in the Senate, there will be no preclearance. It is confounding that after decades of progress on voting rights, which have become part of the American fabric, the Supreme Court would tear it asunder," Schumer said.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department "will not hesitate to take swift enforcement action, using every legal tool that remains available to us, against any jurisdiction that seeks to take advantage of the Supreme Court's ruling by hindering eligible citizens' full and free exercise of the franchise."

Those federal tools include other permanent provisions of the Voting Rights Act that prohibit discrimination and apply nationwide. But they place the burden of proof on the government and can be used only one case at a time.

The Obama administration and civil rights groups said there is a continuing need for the federal law and pointed to the Justice Department's efforts to block voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas last year, as well as a redistricting plan in Texas that a federal court found discriminated against the state's large and growing Hispanic population.

The justices all agreed that discrimination in voting still exists.

But Roberts said that the covered states have largely eradicated the problems that caused them to be included in the first place.

"The coverage formula that Congress reauthorized in 2006 ignores these developments, keeping the focus on decades-old data relevant to decades-old problems, rather than current data reflecting current needs," the chief justice said.

Ginsburg countered that Congress had found that the prior approval provision was necessary "to prevent a return to old ways."

Instead, "the court today terminates the remedy that proved to be best suited to block that discrimination," she said in a dissent that she read aloud in the packed courtroom.

Ginsburg said the law continues to be necessary to protect against what she called subtler, "second-generation" barriers to voting. She identified one such effort as the switch to at-large voting from a district-by-district approach in a city with a sizable black minority. The at-large system allows the majority to "control the election of each city council member, effectively eliminating the potency of the minority's votes," she said.

Justice Clarence Thomas was part of the majority, but wrote separately to say anew that he would have struck down the advance approval requirement itself.

Civil rights lawyers condemned the ruling.

"The Supreme Court has effectively gutted one of the nation's most important and effective civil rights laws. Minority voters in places with a record of discrimination are now at greater risk of being disenfranchised than they have been in decades," said Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The decision comes five months after Obama started his second term in the White House, re-elected by a diverse coalition of voters.

The high court is in the midst of a broad re-examination of the ongoing necessity of laws and programs aimed at giving racial minorities access to major areas of American life from which they once were excluded. The justices issued a modest ruling Monday that preserved affirmative action in higher education and will take on cases dealing with anti-discrimination sections of a federal housing law and another affirmative action case from Michigan next term.

The Alabama county's lawsuit acknowledged that the measure's strong medicine was appropriate and necessary to counteract decades of state-sponsored discrimination in voting, despite the Fifteenth Amendment's guarantee of the vote for black Americans.

But it asked whether there was any end in sight for a provision that intrudes on states' rights to conduct elections and was considered an emergency response when first enacted in 1965.

The county noted that the 25-year extension approved in 2006 would keep some places under Washington's oversight until 2031. And, the county said, it seemed not to account for changes that include the elimination of racial disparity in voter registration and turnout or the existence of allegations of race-based discrimination in voting in areas of the country that are not subject to the provision.

___

Associated Press writers Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Miss., and Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala. contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-25-Supreme%20Court-Voting%20Rights/id-e94eb837595b4026be5d87fc2a3e07ae

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Ailanthus tree's status as invasive species offers lesson in human interaction

June 24, 2013 ? An exotic tree species that changed from prized possession to forest management nightmare serves as a lesson in the unpredictability of non-native species mixing with human interactions, according to researchers.

"There are other invasive tree species in Pennsylvania, but the ailanthus, by far, has been here longer and does more damage than any other invasive tree," said Matthew Kasson, who received his doctorate in plant pathology and environmental microbiology from Penn State. "It's the number one cause of native regeneration failure in clearcuts in Pennsylvania."

Kasson, who is a post-doctoral researcher in plant pathology, physiology and weed science at Virginia Tech, said that William Hamilton, a pioneer botanist who corresponded with William Bartram and Thomas Jefferson, imported the first ailanthus altissima -- Tree-of-Heaven -- a tree native to China, from England sometime between 1784 and 1785 and cultivated the tree on his estate, the Woodlands, in Philadelphia. The deciduous tree, which grows rapidly, often to a height of 50 feet, has become one of the biggest forest management problems, especially since the 1980s, according to the researchers.

Kasson and colleagues report in a recent issue of the Northeastern Naturalist thatailanthus can invade quickly in areas where large, continuous stands of trees are cut down -- clearcuts -- and displace slower-growing native plants. The spread of ailanthus in Pennsylvania occurred in spurts that seem to be connected with stages of human development, particularly during cross-state transportation projects, Kasson said.

While the tree was initially isolated to the properties of a few botanists and wealthy plant collectors, commercialization of ailanthus after 1820 coupled with railroad construction projects that connected the eastern and western parts of the state in the mid-1800s intensified its spread, according to Kasson, who worked with Matthew Davis, lab assistant and Donald Davis, professor of plant pathology, both of Penn State.

In the 1980s, widespread gypsy moth infestation in Pennsylvania led to the death or near death of large stands of oak trees in the state forests, especially in south-central Pennsylvania. Crews that cut down the trees built roads to reach the sites, which became avenues for the spread of ailanthus. From 1989 to 2004 the number of Ailanthus trees on inventory plots increased from 76 million to 135 million.

In parts of the state forests there were no roads in areas associated with the gypsy moth devastation," said Kasson. "During these timber salvage operations, crews are building roads and moving a lot of soil and seed."

The researchers found one or two older female ailanthus trees near areas where foresters removed trees following the gypsy moth infestation, but also discovered that most of the ailanthus trees started to grow shortly after the clearing operation. The older seed-producing trees were often found upwind from the sites of the recent ailanthus growth. Kasson said this indicates that following the clearcut ailanthus grew faster than competing species and quickly dominated these forests.

Kasson said recent mining and drilling operations in Pennsylvania forests may also cause the species to expand.

"New roads are being constructed into these active drilling sites," said Kasson. "These drilling operations could lead to future spread."

Previous research may have also underestimated how long ailanthus can live, according to Kasson. While prior studies estimated that ailanthus's lifespan was between 50 to 75 years, the tree routinely lives longer than 100 years.

The researchers conducted tree-ring studies of ailanthus in all the counties where the tree grows in Pennsylvania, as well as several surrounding states. The researchers used these studies, along with historic surveys and reports on plant species in the state, to determine age and growth patterns.

Ailanthus, which is also calledChinese sumac or stinking sumac, grows in 60 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, according to the researchers -- nine more counties than reported in previous studies. The research also suggests that the incidence of ailanthus in Pennsylvania's northern-tier counties, where the tree has been historically absent, will likely increase like previous ailanthus expansions in southern parts of the state.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources supported this work.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/8ry7-txpLx8/130624133134.htm

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Monday, 24 June 2013

Rebuilding project finally comes together for Jays

Toronto Blue Jays' Jose Bautista, right, and Melky Cabrera celebrate scoring on an RBI-double by Edwin Encarnacion against the Baltimore Orioles during third-inning baseball game action in Toronto, Sunday June 23, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)

Toronto Blue Jays' Jose Bautista, right, and Melky Cabrera celebrate scoring on an RBI-double by Edwin Encarnacion against the Baltimore Orioles during third-inning baseball game action in Toronto, Sunday June 23, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)

Toronto Blue Jays' Munenori Kawasaki, bottom, is forced out at first on a double play by Baltimore Orioles' Travis Ishikawa during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Saturday June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/the Canadian Press, Chris Young)

Toronto Blue Jays' Munenori Kawasaki reacts after being forced out at first by Baltimore Orioles' Travis Ishikawa in a double play during the fifth inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Saturday June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/the Canadian Press, Chris Young)

Toronto Blue Jays Munenori Kawasaki, left, bows to Jose Bautista as they celebrate their 4-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles in a baseball action in Toronto, Saturday June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/the Canadian Press, Chris Young)

Toronto Blue Jays' Jose Bautista pads up before first inning of a baseball action against Baltimore Orioles in Toronto, Saturday, June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)

(AP) ? Riding their longest winning streak in almost 15 years, the Toronto Blue Jays are getting ready to welcome four-time All-Star Jose Reyes back to the lineup.

Not that anyone's rushing him, mind you.

That's a big change from two weeks ago, when the moribund Blue Jays were desperate for the return of Reyes, a dynamic shortstop and former NL batting champion who's been sidelined since early April with a severely sprained left ankle.

"We haven't decided anything yet," manager John Gibbons said Sunday in response to a question about the timing of Reyes' return. "It's kind of a day-to-day thing. You want to bring him back to screw it up?"

No one wants to mess with the winning chemistry Toronto is enjoying right now ? not even in the case of Reyes. With a franchise record-tying 11 straight wins, the Blue Jays are on the best streak by any big league team since Detroit won 12 in a row back in 2011.

Behind exceptional starting pitching, timely hitting and an all-but-untouchable bullpen, Toronto has won 15 of its past 18, outscoring opponents 102-52 in that span.

"I've been waiting for this since the season started," slugger Edwin Encarnacion said after hitting his 21st homer and driving in four runs in Sunday's 13-5 rout of Baltimore. "I believe in this team so I knew things had to change, things had to become good for us. That's the way right now and we enjoy it, enjoy the moment. I'm not surprised by this. I know this team is good and I know we can do it."

Belief was harder to come by when Reyes' lengthy absence, and a host of other problems, threatened to derail a highly- anticipated season for the Blue Jays, who haven't made the playoffs since winning back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.

Even before spring training, Toronto was pegged as a favorite for the Fall Classic after an offseason overhaul that added Reyes, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle in a massive trade with Miami, and reigning NL Cy Young award winner R.A. Dickey in a deal with the New York Mets.

But the Blue Jays stumbled to a 10-21 start and were stuck nine games below .500 (27-36) after losing to the Chicago White Sox on June 10.

Eleven wins later, Toronto is above .500 for the first time all season and has a new lease on life in the hyper-competitive AL East, where all five teams boast winning records.

"It was a battle early on, we all know that," Gibbons said after his team thumped the Orioles for its third straight series sweep. "We always figured it was just a matter of time before we started playing better, and it lasted longer than we expected. But that's all behind us now and we're rolling along."

Blue Jays relievers have allowed just six earned runs in their past 76 innings. The starters, meanwhile, have allowed two earned runs or fewer in eight of the past 10 games, posting an ERA of 2.25.

"You want to get here as early as possible because it's a lot of fun being here, being on this streak," Johnson said after beating Baltimore Sunday for his first victory of the season. "You just want to keep playing good baseball and keep the winning going."

The turnaround also means Toronto can afford more patience when it comes to Reyes' minor league rehab. While many thought he'd be back Monday for a three-game series at division rival Tampa Bay, general manager Alex Anthopoulos said Sunday that Reyes might not return until Thursday, when the Blue Jays begin a pivotal four game set at Fenway Park against the AL East-leading Red Sox.

Like Reyes, Johnson is one of several Blue Jays players to miss time with injuries, sitting out 31 games with a sore right triceps. Third baseman Brett Lawrie (left ankle), starters Brandon Morrow (forearm) and J.A. Happ (knee, head), and late-inning reliever Sergio Santos (triceps) all remain out of action.

But with Johnson healthy again, Reyes close to a return, Encarnacion swatting home runs and a once-leaky defense starting to look sharp, the rebuilt Blue Jays are finally hitting their stride.

Orioles outfielder Adam Jones, limited to just a pair of singles in Toronto's weekend sweep, said he welcomed another contending team into the AL East mix.

"It shows that this division is getting better, it's heating up," Jones said. "It's good, it's good for this division. We all have to maintain it through the end of this month, throughout the All-Star break and then the second half should be pretty fun."

For a while, it looked as though the Blue Jays might miss out on all that fun. After 11 straight wins, there's reason to smile in Toronto.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-24-Streaking%20Blue%20Jays/id-f847873da90f4bd799c30d2afd47c9e1

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