phoney onerousness: June 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

2012 NBA Draft Grades: ESPN's Chad Ford Gives Thunder An A

Anneli Rufus: When Did Mall Food Go Glam?

Mall food has gotten really fancy lately.

When I was a kid and spent long lugubrious days hanging out with my friends at malls in LA -- Del Amo, Carson, Fox Hills -- eating was a major activity, along with slouching around the indoor gardens, riding the escalators up and down for hours, and buying sequin-studded T-shirts off the sale racks. We ate at the food courts, naturally -- because they were pretty much our only options, and because tacos and Orange Julius and frozen yogurt were all we wanted anyway. One rare super-deluxe occasions (such as when accompanied by relatives from out of town) we bought sandwiches at Honey Baked Ham.

Things have changed. While food courts are still ubiquitous, some malls have gone luxury-gourmet.

This week I attended a party at the Westfield San Francisco Centre where the chefs from its restaurants served up everything from pork rillettes to peach panna cotta to melt-in-your-mouth, light-as-air Chinese spun-sugar "dragon beard" candy, a 2,000-year-old tradition seldom seen in the States.

The Westfield's food offerings include artisanal pizza baked in a handcrafted Neapolitan Stafano Ferrara oven at Cupola, ice-cream profiteroles and cannel? de Bordeaux baked daily at La Boulange du Dome, filet mignon tartare and Perigord black-truffle-and-Brie steak burgers at Lark Creek Steak, plum-dressed Singaporean-style sashimi salad at Straits, and more. TV chef Martin Yan's M.Y. China restaurant is set to open at the mall this fall. At the party, M.Y. China insiders theatrically tossed hand-pulled noodles to the crowd's delight.

It's a far cry from Orange Julius. But more and more malls are going glam, despite this economy. Maybe it's because mall days are a mini-"staycation," so a $52 USDA Prime boneless ribeye steak at Lark Creek after stocking up on sneakers at Adidas makes up for the fact that we aren't going to Rio this year. Or maybe it's because palates, even mall-going palates, are getting more savvy every day -- especially in food-centric cities such as San Francisco, where the Westfield party launched an annual month-long festival known as SFChefs.

Dining options at the Mall of America include the Napa Valley Grille, whose French-trained chef prepares truffled BLTs, Scottish salmon, and black figs with prosciutto and burrata. The Dubai Mall in Dubai features many fancy options, including a new TWG Tea Salon, which features black velvet chairs, crisp white table linens, handcrafted glass walls, Italian marble floors and crystal lamps.

At the Westfield, many restaurants are arranged under a vast cathedral-like dome -- an architectural marvel that you just wouldn't expect to see in the same place where you shop for underwear. But nothing is as it used to be -- so bring on the dragon beards.

All photographs were taken by Kristan Lawson, used with his permission.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anneli-rufus/mall-food_b_1637670.html

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Five best features of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

1 hr.

Rosa Golijan

Google announced Jelly Bean, also known as Android 4.1, on Wednesday. The shiny new operating system brings new features such as a speedier interface, a new Camera app, offline voice typing, significantly improved notifications, a Siri-like voice search, Google Now and more.?Here are the features we've enjoyed using the most so far.

Project Butter
There's been a lot of talk about something called "Project Butter" during the Google I/O developers conference?and unsurprisingly the whole thing doesn't have anything to do with dairy products. Instead it's what Google has labeled the under-the-hood improvements which keep?Jelly Bean running ??I couldn't resist this line, I'm sorry ??like butter.

Buffering tweaks, increased frame rates, a system which keeps rendering and touch input events in sync better, and touch prediction come together to make everything run just a little bit more nicely. (Yes, Jelly Bean actually?tries to predict where you'll touch the screen next.)

It's tough to tell how much of a difference Project Butter will truly make, but based on a bit of time with a Nexus 7 tablet running Jelly Bean, it seems as if Jelly Bean runs more smoothly than prior Android versions. amd?it's important for Google to take steps to make the Android experience as smooth as possible.

Offline voice typing
How annoying is it when you can't dictate something to your phone because you don't have a cellular or Wi-Fi data connection? Jelly Bean makes this pesky issue a thing of the past with offline voice typing.

When your device has a poor data connection or no connection at all, voice-to-text tasks are crunched locally instead of in the cloud.?

So how good is it? Good enough and speedy enough. The reason that companies like Google and Apple put?voice recognition in the cloud in the first place is that it makes it easier to run your voice against thousands of samples in the blink of an eye. So it's no surprise that the offline voice-to-text is slightly less accurate than the cloud-based version, which has been my experience.

Google Now
I have a hunch that we'll be talking about Google Now a lot in the future. It's Google's attempt to predict what you'll need and get it to you before you even realize you need it. In theory, your device should learn your habits, interests and so on, and then offer up relevant traffic, weather and point-of-interest information.

I don't know whether it's the lousy Wi-Fi and cellular connection I get in this part of San Francisco or whether Google Now just has to get to know me better before taking charge of my life, but for whatever reason I am not being offered much information. We'll circle back and chat about this feature after I've used it more, but I'm willing to label it as one of Jelly Bean's best attributes?based on its potential alone.

Voice search
S-Voice, the Siri competitor included on the Samsung Galaxy S III, was a total letdown in my opinion, but?Google's handling things much better.

Google's voice search is now powered?by Knowledge Graph, meaning that you'll receive what Google deems to be the best?answer?to your query first, followed by relevant web results. In some quick tests, Google's voice search definitely made Siri look terrible, as the iOS-based assistant has a bad habit of simply offering to search teh web for you in situations where Google already has an answer.

Notifications
I may be an iOS fangirl who is so attached to her iPhone that she sleeps with it right next to her head, but even I have to admit that Google's definitely doing something right with notifications.

In Jelly Bean,?the notification bar can do more than ever. It can now expand, to show you a portion of your inbox, rather than just the number of emails waiting for you. (Yes, this is similar to one of the display options for email notifications in iOS, but those can't be compacted?with a touch.)

Google Now cards also appear in the notifications tray, meaning that you can view relevant information just by opening the notifications rather than having to switch apps.

The changes to notifications are small touches, but based on some time with a Galaxy Nexus running Jelly Bean, it's easy to see that the time and frustrations they'll save you will quickly add up.

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/technology/gadgetbox/five-best-features-android-4-1-jelly-bean-851747

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The East Africa Oil and Gas Conference 12-14 November 2012, Intercontinental, Nairobi, www.eaog-summit.com

Posted on 29 June 2012 by AfricaBusiness.com

The East Africa Oil and Gas Summit (EAOG-Summit) is co-hosted by the Ministry of Energy Kenya and Global Event Partners (K) Ltd. This 3 day strategic conference is the only oil and gas conference held in East Africa with such a prestigious steering committee of government and industry partners.

The organisers of EAOG-Summit have offices in London and Nairobi and the full support of the Kenyan Government, ensuring the event welcomes all the major international and regional players. EAOG-Summithas the government and industry support to become the leading international hub for trade and investment in the rapidly expanding East African Oil & Gas market.

Investors and industry experts from across the oil and gas industry will unite investors and industry experts to share their knowledge and explore current challenges and investment opportunities in the region.

The Organisers

EAOG-Summit is organised by Global Event Partners (K) Ltd which is part of Global Event Partners Ltd headquartered in London. Global Event Partners (K) Ltd benefits from major support and ownership from our esteemed Partner Dr. MukhisaKituyi, Chairman of Global Event Partners (K) Ltd. DrKituyi is the immediate former Member of Parliament for Kimilili constituency in Bungoma North District of Western Province, he served as Minister for Trade and Industry and is currently the Director of the Kenya Institute for Governance.

As a group, Global Event Partners has more than 40 years? experience of delivering events of the highest quality and at the highest level for the oil & gas industry, specifically working in Africa for the past 12 years. As a team we have developed events for Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, East, West and South Africa, regional events for the African Petroleum Producers Association as well as global events such as the World Gas Conference..

If you would be interesting in creating a media partnership for this event, then we would be delighted to hear from you.

Rosie Topp

Global Event Partners
London Office
20-22 Bedford Row
London WC1R 4JS
Tel: +44 20 3488 1193
Mobile UK: +44 7581 130130
Email: rtopp@gep-events.com

Source: http://africabusiness.com/2012/06/29/the-east-africa-oil-and-gas-conference-12-14-november-2012-intercontinental-nairobi-www-eaog-summit-com/

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Hardwood Vs Laminate Flooring: What to Consider Before Purchasing

If you are puzzling over updating your home with new flooring in webster city, then you?ve got a vital call before you. you will need to make your mind up which kind of flooring are going to be best for your home and your personal desires. 2 of the foremost common choices that you simply is also considering are wood flooring and laminate floors. to settle on between the 2, you must take into account their edges and judge which kind most accurately fits your necessities.

Benefits of wood flooring

Wood floors are a good choice for owners who wish to feature beauty to their homes. one in all the best edges of hardwood flooring is what quantity it will increase a home?s aesthetic charm, therefore if you are looking for traditional beauty, then this can be a good choice. additionally to enhancing your home?s beauty, hardwood flooring also will assist you to extend the worth of your property. several consumers searching for homes can love the planning of wood flooring, in order that they are going to be way more doubtless to {offer|to provide|to present|to administer|to allow|to convey|to grant|to relinquish} you a better offer if you select this upgrade for your house.

Benefits of Laminate Floors

While wood flooring are known for his or her classic beauty, laminate flooring can even be stunning, and its main profit is that it doesn?t value nearly the maximum amount as wood will. Laminate flooring is kind of sturdy, and it will even be created to seem like wood, stone, or tile. If you?ve got a smaller budget for your flooring upgrade, then this can be a good choice which will find yourself saving you a good deal. many owners love how engaging and sensible this selection is.

Consider the Drawbacks

While each kinds of flooring have some nice edges, you must conjointly take into account the drawbacks before you create a call and rent a flooring contractor. When it involves wood, the most downside for several folks is that the expense. additionally, it will need refinishing from time to time, therefore this can be one more expense to the initial purchase expense. When it involves laminate floors, the most downside is that its style choices are restricted. though there are several designs to settle on from initially, {you will?t|you cannot} build changes shortly such as you can once you sand and re-stain wood through the refinishing method.

Decide what?s vital

You?ll need regarding|to contemplate} all of those things before you?ll build a call about that flooring choice is best for you. If you do not care regarding value and easily wish the simplest, then wood is also higher for you. If you are looking to save lots of however still desire a nice look, then laminate may well be the higher choice. regardless of what, simply positive|confirm|certify|ensure|make certain|check that} that you simply sit down and believe it before you rent a flooring contractor to create sure you get floors that may work for your family and your desires.

Source: http://www.giulianinelmondo.com/?p=178

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Head of JPMorgan unit retires with $57.5 million

By msnbc.com staff

Ina Drew, the former chief investment officer at JPMorgan Chase who oversaw the London office where the bank lost billions on a botched trade has walked away with about $57.5 million, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Drew, who resigned from the bank May 14, is keeping $17.1 million in unvested restricted shares and about $4.4 million in options, the report said. If she had been terminated from the bank she would have been required to forfeit that money, Bloomberg reported.

Drew?s unrestricted shares of common stock are worth about $23.7 million based on the May 14 closing price, $9.7 million in deferred compensation and $2.6 million in pension pay as of Dec. 31, according to the report. In total, her stock, pension and deferred pay come to about $57.5 million, Bloomberg said.

However, Drew may not receive her full compensation amount.

When he appeared before lawmakers earlier this monthto explain his bank?s multi-billion dollar losses, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the trading debacle will lead to ?clawbacks? -- efforts to recover compensation paid to employees whose performance was later found to have harmed the company and shareholders.

Dimon said it?s ?likely, though subject to board [approval], that there will be clawbacks,? he said, adding that for senior staff those clawbacks would be ?for bad judgment.?

?It?s pretty extensive,? Dimon said, adding that the board will review every single person involved. The firm?s new clawback policies have not been used yet, he said.

Roy C. Smith, a professor of finance at New York University?s Stern School of Business, noted that Drew?s compensation had been earned over her three decades at the bank, and so any clawback provisions would only apply to her compensation over the past two years, as the clawback provisions were only introduced in the past two years.

?Part of what was paid may be taken away, but it?s likely to be a few million and not the whole amount,? he said.

More money and business news:

Follow msnbc.com business on Twitter and Facebook?

Source: http://marketday.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/29/12484398-head-of-jpmorgans-trading-unit-retires-with-575-million?lite

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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Rewriting quantum chips with a beam of light

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

The promise of ultrafast quantum computing has moved a step closer to reality with a technique to create rewritable computer chips using a beam of light. Researchers from The City College of New York (CCNY) and the University of California Berkeley (UCB) used light to control the spin of an atom's nucleus in order to encode information.

The technique could pave the way for quantum computing, a long-sought leap forward toward computers with processing speeds many times faster than today's. The group will publish their results on June 26 in Nature Communications.

Current electronic devices are approaching the upper limits in processing speed, and they rely on etching a pattern into a semiconductor to create a chip or integrated circuit. These patterns of interconnections serve as highways to shuttle information around the circuit, but there is a drawback.

"Once the chip is printed, it can only be used one way," explained Dr. Jeffrey Reimer, UCB professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the study co-author.

The team ? including CCNY Professor of Physics Carlos Meriles and PhD graduate students Jonathan King of UCB and Yunpu Li of CCNY? saw a remedy for these problems in the emerging sciences of spintronics and quantum computing.

They have developed a technique to use laser light to pattern the alignment of "spin" within atoms so that the pattern can be rewritten on the fly. Such a technique may one day lead to rewritable spintronic circuits.

Digital electronics and conventional computing rely on translating electrical charges into the zeros and ones of binary code. A "spintronics" computer, on the other hand, would use the quantum property of electron spin, which enables the electron to store any number between zero and one.

Imagine this as if the electron were a "yin-yang" symbol in which the proportions of the dark and light areas?representing values from zero to one?could vary at will. This would mean that multiple computations could be done simultaneously, which would amp up processing power.

Attempts at using electrons for quantum computing have been plagued, however, by the fact that electron spins switch back and forth rapidly. Thus, they make very unstable vehicles to hold information. To suppress the random switching back and forth of electrons, the UCB and CCNY researchers used laser light to produce long-lasting nuclear spin "magnets" that can pull, push, or stabilize the spins of the electrons.

They did this by illuminating a sample of gallium arsenide ? the same semiconductor used in cell phone chips ? with a pattern of light, much as lithography etches a physical pattern onto a traditional integrated circuit. The illuminated pattern aligned the spins of all the atomic nuclei, and, thus, their electrons, at once, creating a spintronic circuit.

"What you could have is a chip you can erase and rewrite on the fly with just the use of a light beam," said Professor Meriles. Changing the pattern of light altered the layout of the circuit instantly.

"If you can actually rewrite with a beam of light and alter this pattern, you can make the circuit morph to adapt to different requirements," he added. "Imagine what you can make a system like that do for you!"

###

City College of New York: http://www2.ccny.cuny.edu

Thanks to City College of New York 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 400 time(s).

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Atlanta Foreclosures Have Reached An All Time High | South Jersey ...

Based on RealtyTrac, Georgia has one of the top foreclosure rates in the country, as well as is ranked as being the 4th worst state in the country when it comes to the number of foreclosures happened in 2011. In fact, even though many other cities as well as states observed a little decrease in the quantity of foreclosures in the year 2011, Atlanta, Georgia observed a 1% raise.

For many people, this is incredibly not so good news. No one wants to forfeit their property and it?s an indicator that the economy isn?t recovering like everyone has hoped that it would. For a lot of, nonetheless, there is some good news. Those people are the ones that like to invest in Atlanta foreclosures.

Atlanta foreclosures are a good selection for those people who are considering creating a long-term investment. Despite the fact that cities such as Atlanta have been hit hard by the poor economy, this is an place that is noted for its business as well as commerce. As such, when the economy rebounds, so will the Atlanta area, as well as those people who had the experience to invest in Atlanta real estate will find that they have property that has some great value. It?s just going to take some time before the increase in property prices occur.

Something that you need to consider if you?re thinking about investing in Atlanta foreclosures is the fact that Georgia features a very high rate of distressed foreclosure houses. This means that these properties have been abused or vandalized. You do need to be ready to invest in improving the property if you would like your investment to pay off in a few years. If you plan on purchasing homes in foreclosure and also renting them to tenants, then you?re going to need to improve the property eventually.

If you are looking for a great source for Atlanta foreclosures, you?ll find that there are numerous places that you may look online. You don?t need to pay for this information, so avoid sources claiming you should pay a membership fee or perhaps finders charge. Choose a free service that lists all of the foreclosures that you are interested in via a single database.

When you need more details, just simply take a look at Atlanta foreclosure.

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Poll: One-quarter uncommitted in White House race

WASHINGTON (AP) ? They shrug at President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. They're in no hurry to decide which one to support in the White House race. And they'll have a big say in determining who wins the White House.

One-quarter of U.S. voters are persuadable, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll, and both Obama and Romney will spend the next four months trying to convince these fickle, hard-to-reach individuals that only he has what it takes to fix an ailing nation.

It's a delicate task. These voters also hate pandering.

"I don't believe in nothing they say," says Carol Barber of Ashland, Ky., among the 27 percent of the electorate that hasn't determined whom to back or that doesn't have a strong preference about a candidate.

Like many uncommitted voters, the 66-year-old Barber isn't really paying attention to politics these days. She's largely focused on her husband, who just had a liver transplant, and the fact that she had to refinance her home to pay much of his health bill. "I just can't concentrate on it now," she says before adding, "If there were somebody running who knows what it's like to struggle, that would be different."

John Robinson, a 49-year-old general contractor from Santa Cruz, Calif., is paying a bit more attention, but is just as turned off by both candidates.

"I'm just bitter about everybody. They just keep talking and wavering," said Robinson, a conservative who backed the GOP nominee in 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain, but is undecided between Obama and Romney. "There's nothing I can really say that's appealing about either one of them."

To be sure, many of the 1-in-4 voters who today say they are uncommitted will settle on a candidate by Election Day, Nov. 6.

Until then, Obama and Romney will spend huge amounts of time and money trying to win their votes, especially in the most competitive states that tend to swing between Republicans and Democrats each presidential election. Obama and Romney face the same hurdle, winning over wavering voters without alienating core supporters they need to canvass neighborhoods and staff telephone banks this fall to help make sure their backers actually vote.

"It presents an interesting challenge to the campaigns," said Steve McMahon, a founding partner in Purple Strategies, a bipartisan crisis management firm. "Moving to the middle means winning these voters, but it also means creating problems with your base."

Obama has sought to straddle both the left and the middle by announcing policies that expand access to contraception and allow immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children to be exempted from deportation and granted work permits if they applied.

Both issues are popular with his core supporters and centrist voters. The president also is promoting a list of what he says are bipartisan measures that would help homeowners, veterans, teachers and police officers, and he accuses Republicans of causing gridlock by refusing to act on them. It's a pitch intended for independent-minded voters frustrated by inaction in Washington.

Romney has broadened his tea party-infused message from the GOP primary and softened his tone as he looks to attract voters from across the political spectrum.

He abandoned the harsh immigration rhetoric on Thursday when he pledged to address illegal immigration "in a civil but resolute manner" while outlining plans to overhaul the green card system for immigrants with families and end immigration caps for their spouses and minor children. In doing so, he risked inflaming conservatives who make up the base of the Republican Party.

Overall, the poll found that among registered voters, 47 percent say they will vote for the president and 44 percent for Romney, a difference that is not statistically significant.

Those totals include soft support, though, meaning people who lean toward a candidate as well as those who said they could change their minds before November. The poll showed that these persuadable voters are equally apt to lean toward Obama, Romney, or neither, with about one-third of them in each camp.

The survey also showed that these voters are more likely than others to say they distrust both Romney and Obama on the major issues. They are far more likely to think the outcome of the election won't make a big difference on the economy, unemployment, the federal budget deficit or health care.

Party politics and wedge issues have dubious weight with this group. The poll found more independents fall into this category than partisans. The partisans who are persuadable are more likely to be in the ideological middle than either liberal Democrats or conservative Republicans. Seventeen percent of persuadables say they consider themselves supporters of the tea party.

The poll also found that demographically, they are more likely to be members of Generation X (between the ages of 30 and 49) than other registered voters. Many, 71 percent, have not graduated college. They are a bit more likely to have lower incomes than all registered voters. Fifty-two percent of persuadables have incomes below $50,000, compared with 44 percent of all voters.

On other characteristics ? gender, religious preference and race ? they're split similarly to other registered voters.

The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted June 14-18, 2012 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,007 adults nationwide, including 878 registered voters and 228 persuadable voters. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. For registered voters it is 4.2 points and for persuadable voters it's plus or minus 8.3 points.

___

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

___

Online:

AP-GfK poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

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Friday, June 22, 2012

S.Africa rand drops after Fed stimulus disappoints

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90 still missing after boat capsizes off Indonesia

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) ? A boat carrying about 200 people capsized south of Indonesia and scores were feared drowned Thursday in an apparent attempt to reach Australia to seek asylum. Indonesian and Australian navies launched efforts to rescue survivors.

An Australian navy patrol boat and three cargo ships had rescued 110 survivors by late Thursday and were taking them 200 kilometers (120 miles) south to the Australian territory of Christmas Island, Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman Jo Meehan said.

She declined to comment on any bodies discovered. She said the patrol boat would return to the scene of the sinking to continue the search for survivors through the night.

The boat capsized about halfway between Christmas Island and Indonesia, Meehan said.

It was not immediately clear where the passengers were from.

Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, is closer to Indonesia than the Australian mainland. It is a popular target for a growing number of asylum seekers, many from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, who attempt to reach Australia on overcrowded fishing boats from Indonesia ? sometimes with deadly consequences.

"There's about 40 on the hull and the rest are in the water," Western Australia state Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said earlier. "Some of the very early reports suggest that up to 75 people may have drowned, but I do stress that they're unconfirmed at this stage."

O'Callaghan said bodies had been seen in the water. "We can't confirm that they've died, but it's likely," he said.

Western Australian police were being sent to Christmas Island to attempt to identify bodies, he said.

Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency, said two Indonesian warships had been dispatched to scene. He said Indonesia has sent notice to all cargo ships passing near the area to help, but he was not sure whether any had reached the disaster scene.

Prakoso said the boat was reportedly carrying 206 people, but added that he could not yet say their country of origin or from where they departed.

Australia sent a defense aircraft equipped with life rafts, an Australian Customs Service surveillance aircraft and two navy patrol boats.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who is seeking ways to stem the flow of asylum seekers to Australia, discussed the apparent tragedy with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Brazil where they are both attending a United Nations environment summit.

"At this stage, details are sketchy but what is apparent is there has been a large loss of life at sea," she said. "This is a very distressing and tragic incident."

In December 2010, an estimated 48 people died when an asylum seeker boat broke up against Christmas Island's rocky coast.

Last December, about 200 asylum seekers were feared drowned after their overcrowded ship sank off Indonesia's main island of Java.

___

Associated Press Writer Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Video: Sandusky not called to testify as defense rests

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New frontiers for coyotes may bring more Lyme disease

Expanding predator populations could explain an uptick in infections

Web edition : 12:51 pm

Coyotes expanding into new territories across North America may be driving a surge in Lyme disease.

It?s often deer that municipalities blame for raising the risk of human infection with the tick-transmitted Lyme bacteria. Yet records from the past three decades link rising numbers of Lyme cases not with booming deer populations but with spreading coyotes, says ecologist Taal Levi, now at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y.

As coyotes have trotted into new ranges, red foxes have retreated, Levi and his colleagues find. Coyotes don?t pack a landscape as tightly or kill and cache rodents in flush times as foxes do. So a red fox fade-out allows more little rodents to survive, including white-footed mice and others known as hospitable hosts for the Lyme pathogen and the ticks that spread it. This scenario ? coyotes in, foxes out, small rodent numbers up ? could be fueling the spread of Lyme disease, the researchers suggest online June 18 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Connecting coyotes and foxes with the disease ?is quite a fresh idea,? says Jean Tsao of Michigan State University in East Lansing. Some ecologists have put forth the more general idea that changing predators might let the small rodents boom and the disease flare up, but not with these specific animals.

Lyme disease has become the most commonly reported disease that is spread by an animal in the United States. Probable and confirmed cases totaled about 30,000 in 2010. Most of these cases showed up in 12 states, in the upper Midwest or Northeast, and Levi reports that some of these states have seen dramatic flare-ups of Lyme disease between 1997 and 2007: a 380 percent increase in Minnesota and 1,300 percent in Virginia.

Lyme infections cause flulike symptoms and can be successfully treated when caught early. But some infections can linger or repeatedly reappear over the course of years, causing pain and other problems that disrupt everyday life.

The disease doesn?t spread directly from person to person. Instead a small Ixodes tick passes along the bacterial pathogen. Sometimes misleadingly called deer ticks, these little menaces actually bite a wide range of creatures.

To test the idea that predators of small rodents might influence the disease increase, Levi and his colleagues pieced together state information on wildlife sightings and hunting from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. In the first four of those states, Lyme cases climbed as coyote populations rose and red foxes declined, hunter records suggested. Deer records, however, didn?t show any consistent pattern.

Researchers also zoomed in on regions within a state where possible. A decade of wildlife sightings recorded in five regions of Wisconsin, for example, suggests red fox populations dwindled as Lyme incidence climbed.

The pattern of coyotes replacing red foxes fits with other research showing that the foxes won?t make dens when coyotes move into the neighborhood.?

Next, Tsao says, she?d like to know whether rodent populations actually did increase. Also, she would want to see whether experiments, and not just observational data, support the link between fox declines and disease increase.

The new study adds to evidence suggesting that culling deer in the Northeast is unlikely to reduce Lyme disease in most places, says Lyme disease ecologist Richard Ostfeld, also of the Cary Institute, who was not involved in the new study. Deer kills may lower risk on islands and in enclosures, but free-ranging populations with lots of alternative animals to bite are different. ?Reducing the herd by even as much as 60 or 70 percent likely won?t do squat to the tick population,? Ostfeld says.

Found in: Environment and Life

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Your moon base here? Sun-washed crater rim has big vistas, but little water.

A team using observations from a lunar orbiter studied 'the living daylights' out of the Shackleton Crater, near the moon's South Pole. Their findings suggest scant water would be available to supply a lunar base there.

By Pete Spotts / June 20, 2012

De Gerlache Crater, Shackleton Crater, Sverdrup Crater, Shoemaker Crater, Faustini Crater, Cabeus Crater, and Nobile Crater, as imaged by NASA

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

Enlarge

If you want to set up a base on the moon, and if plenty of local water-ice is a must, you may want to scratch Shackleton Crater from the list of possible locations.

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That is the implication of a new study based on observations from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

As a site for a lunar base, the rim of Shackleton has a lot going for it. Positioned at the moon's South Pole and just off center of the moon's slightly tilted axis of rotation, the crater's rim receives sunlight for virtually an entire lunar "day," 27.32 Earth days.

That's important for minimizing exposure to the frigid temperatures of the moon's nearly 14-day "night" at lower latitudes ? think 243 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The sunlight also provides a near-continuous source of energy to power a moon base. Indeed, some researchers have proposed building a large infrared telescope ? best served chilled ? on the crater's shadowed floor and powering it with solar arrays on the rim.

For its part, water is desirable not only for human survival, but also as a source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel. Observations over the past 15 years, however, have proved inconclusive regarding the presence of water ice at Shackleton.

The latest LRO data indicate "that water is not there ... in a way that would facilitate human exploration," says planetary scientist Maria Zuber, who led the team analyzing the data.

If the signatures the team saw in the soils on the crater floor do indicate water, how much water might there be? Roughly 100 gallons ? enough to fill two or three residential rain barrels ? spread over a surface of about 133 square miles. Leave the swim-suit at home.

"This is not like Mars," says Dr. Zuber, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, in an interview. On the red planet, explorers would find thick layers of icy soil in many locations just by turning over a shovelful or two of topsoil.

Using the lunar orbiter's laser altimeter, which measures the intensity of laser light reflected from the surface as well as the topography of the surface, Zuber?s team found that what some had interpreted as evidence for possible water-ice deposits is far more likely to signal mere rock and soil.

And while water ice remains a possible explanation for evidence seen in the soil on the crater floor, at best it would make up only about 22 percent of the top few hundred-thousandths of an inch of the soil. Data from the LRO's radar yielded no evidence of thick near-surface ice layers, which the device is capable of detecting.

Useful quantities of water or no, Shackleton is a remarkable feature in its own right. Estimated at about 3.6 billion to 3.7 billion years old, the ding in the moon's crust is 13 miles in diameter and 2.6 miles deep. It sits in a broader depression known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin ? a region of keen interest to planetary scientists working to understand how such a feature could form and what its effect is on the structure of the moon's interior.

Hints that Shackleton, as well as other polar craters, might harbor water ice first emerged in 1998, when an instrument aboard NASA's Lunar Prospector mission detected signatures from the surface indicating higher-than-expected levels of hydrogen in polar regions, including in Shackleton Crater.

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SanDisk announces Extreme Pro microSD cards for smartphones and tablets, quick speeds starting at $60

Touting the "world's fastest mobile memory card" moniker, SanDisk has unveiled the Extreme Pro microSDHC line of storage add-ons for your smartphone or tablet. The outfit is advertising 95MB/s read and 90MB/s write speeds for the UHS Class 1 memory cards -- clocking in a bit faster than Samsung's Ultra High Speed offerings for LTE devices. The cards are now available in either 8GB or 16GB capacities and will hit your wallet for $59.99 or $99.99, depending on your preference. Naturally, you'll want to make sure that your device is compatible with the duo before pulling the trigger, which can be done via the source link below.

Continue reading SanDisk announces Extreme Pro microSD cards for smartphones and tablets, quick speeds starting at $60

SanDisk announces Extreme Pro microSD cards for smartphones and tablets, quick speeds starting at $60 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

AP Exclusive: Feds: Design led to nuke plant woes

FILE - A March 1, 2010 file photo, shows the San Onofre nuclear power plant in north San Diego County, Calif. Federal regulators say design flaws appear to be the cause of excessive wear in tubing that carries radioactive water through the San Onofre nuclear power plant. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File)

In this Sunday, June 17, 2012 photo, Elmo Collins, regional administrator of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, poses for a photo in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. The NRC is holding a public meeting to discuss the state of the San Onofre nuclear power plant on Monday in San Juan Capistrano. After months of investigation, federal regulators have determined that design flaws appear to be the cause of excessive wear in tubing that carries radioactive water through the power plant. (AP Photo/Grant Hindsley)

In this Sunday, June 17, 2012 photo, Elmo Collins, regional administrator of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, speaks during an interview in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. The NRC is holding a public meeting to discuss the state of the San Onofre nuclear power plant on Monday in San Juan Capistrano. After months of investigation, federal regulators have determined that design flaws appear to be the cause of excessive wear in tubing that carries radioactive water through the power plant. (AP Photo/Grant Hindsley)

In this Sunday, June 17, 2012 photo, Elmo Collins, regional administrator of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, appears during an interview in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. The NRC is holding a public meeting to discuss the state of the San Onofre nuclear power plant on Monday in San Juan Capistrano. After months of investigation, federal regulators have determined that design flaws appear to be the cause of excessive wear in tubing that carries radioactive water through the power plant. (AP Photo/Grant Hindsley)

CAPISTRANO BEACH, Calif. (AP) ? After months of investigation, federal regulators have determined that design flaws appear to be the cause of excessive wear in tubing that carries radioactive water through California's troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant, a top federal regulator said.

The twin-reactor plant between Los Angeles and San Diego has been idle since January, after a tube break in one of four, massive steam generators released traces of radiation. A team of federal investigators was dispatched to the plant in March after the discovery that some tubes were so badly corroded that they could fail and possibly release radiation, a stunning finding inside the virtually new equipment.

Flaws in fabrication or installation were considered as possible sources of the rapid tube decay but "it looks primarily we are pointed toward the design" of the heavily modified generators, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regional Administrator Elmo Collins told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday.

Collins couldn't rule out that one or more of the generators, installed in a $670 million overhaul in 2009 and 2010, might have to be replaced.

Eight tubes failed during earlier pressure tests in the Unit 3 reactor and "we have not seen that in the industry before," Collins said.

"It's these four steam generators that either have, or are susceptible to, this type of problem," Collins said, referring to the unusual damage caused when alloy tubes vibrate and rattle against each other or brackets that hold them in place.

So far, a fix has remained elusive.

"It's not too hard to frame up the problem," he added. "The answers are very difficult, or they already would have emerged."

The disclosure will rivet new attention on a series of alterations to the equipment design, including the decision to add 400 tubes to each generator and installing V-shaped supports that were intended to minimize tube wear and vibration.

It's possible operator Southern California Edison could face penalties stemming from the federal investigation, Collins said.

The generators were designed to meet a federal test to qualify as "in-kind," or essentially identical, replacements for the original generators, which would allow them to be installed without prior approval from federal regulators.

An environmental group, Friends of the Earth, has claimed Edison misled the NRC about the changes that it has identified as the likely culprit in excessive tube wear. The federal agency previously disputed that charge, but Collins said that's under review as part of the investigation.

Inside the guts of the machinery, the original steam generators and the replacements "look substantially different," Collins added.

The NRC is scheduled to discuss its findings Monday evening at a meeting near the plant.

Collins said safety would remain the first consideration at San Onofre. About 7.4 million Californians live within 50 miles of San Onofre, which can power 1.4 million homes.

"These are significant technical issues. They are not resolved yet," Collins said.

Cracked and corroded generator tubing has vexed the nation's nuclear industry for years.

Decaying generator tubes helped push San Onofre's Unit 1 reactor into retirement in 1992, even though it was designed to run until 2004. The following year, the Trojan nuclear plant, near Portland, Ore., was shuttered because of microscopic cracks in steam generator tubes, cutting years off its expected lifespan. Westinghouse Electric Corp. weathered a legal battle with five utilities in the 1990s that wanted the company to replace steam generators it manufactured for the Beaver Valley nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania after tubing corroded.

But the troubled San Onofre generators, manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, might be a unique case because of the extensive modifications. Only one other U.S. nuclear plant uses Mitsubishi generators, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station, about 20 miles north of Omaha, but its generators are smaller than those at San Onofre and have not displayed excessive tube decay, federal officials say.

The cause of the unusual wear has been eagerly anticipated, as Edison prepares to submit a proposal to the NRC to restart one or both of the reactors. The company has suggested the reactors would run for a test period under reduced power to reduce vibration.

"The phenomenon that we think causes this tube-to-tube interaction is definitely proportional to the power," Collins said. "At least in some theoretical sense, that might be part of the answer."

The company has announced that 510 tubes have been plugged, or retired from use, in the Unit 2 reactor, and 807 tubes in its sister, Unit 3. Each of the generators has nearly 10,000 tubes, and the number retired is well within the limit allowed to continue operation.

What's at issue is why so many tubes degraded so quickly, when the design changes were intended to improve the plant's performance and longevity.

The steam generators ? two in each reactor ? function something like a car radiator, which controls heat in the vehicle's engine. The generator tubes circulate hot, radioactive water from the reactors, which then heats non-radioactive water surrounding them. That makes steam, which is used to turn turbines to make electricity.

The tubes have to be thin enough to transfer heat, but thick enough to hold up under heavy pressure. They represent a critical safety barrier ? if a tube breaks, there is the potential that radioactivity can escape into the atmosphere. Also, serious leaks can drain protective cooling water from a reactor.

The trouble began to unfold in January, when the Unit 3 reactor was shut down as a precaution after a tube break. Traces of radiation escaped at the time, but officials said there was no danger to workers or neighbors. Unit 2 had been taken offline earlier that month for maintenance, but investigators later found unexpected wear in tubes in both units.

The NRC has said there is no timetable to restart the reactors.

Edison has been facing pressure from some nearby communities and anti-nuclear activists that have raised safety concerns, while the company looks for a solution to the tube problem and a path to restarting the plant, an important source of power in Southern California. The design of the generators is also under congressional scrutiny.

The plant is owned by SCE, San Diego Gas & Electric and the city of Riverside. The Unit 1 reactor operated from 1968 to 1992, when it was shut down and dismantled.

----

Follow Michael R. Blood at http://twitter.com/MichaelRBloodAP

Associated Press

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