Father Andrew Greeley, novelist and Catholic critic, dies

By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Father Andrew M. Greeley, an outspoken Roman Catholic priest who wrote more than 50 novels and publicly feuded with his superior John Cardinal Cody, died at the age of 85 in his Chicago home, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

"Father Andrew Greeley was the most influential American Catholic sociologist of the 20th century," said Father Tom Reese, a senior analyst at the National Catholic Reporter. "He was the first to show how Humanae Vitae, the encyclical on birth control by Pope Paul VI, split the church and made the laity question church authority."

Greeley had been silenced in 2008, when he suffered a fall after his clothing got caught in the door of a taxi as it pulled away. A resulting brain injury left him unable to write or make public appearances, according to his niece, Laura Durkin.

He died in his sleep early Thursday morning, his spokeswoman, June Rosner, said.

A proponent of reform within the Catholic Church, Greeley also wrote more than 100 works of non-fiction, including "Priests: A Calling in Crisis" and "The Catholic Revolution: New Wine in Old Wineskins and the Second Vatican Council."

"He was first and foremost a parish priest ... his parish were the people who read his columns and his books," said Durkin. "He was a priest and he loved the church."

Greeley's sometimes racy fiction dealt with some of the challenges facing the church. "The Priestly Sins," published in 2004 during the height of the sex abuse scandal, focused on an idealistic priest after he reported child abuse by a fellow priest.

Greeley, who recently celebrated his 59th anniversary as a priest, criticized church leadership over its position on birth control and the handling of the sexual abuse crisis.

"He served the church all those years with a prophetic voice and with unfailing dedication, and the church he and our parents taught us to love is a better place because of him," read a family statement, supplied by Rosner.

Greeley - who had a person website, http://www.agreeley.com/ - had masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago, and was a research associate with the university's National Opinion Research Center and a professor of sociology at the University of Arizona.

Greeley is survived by a sister, five nieces, two nephews and 18 grand nieces and nephews.

'WEAKNESS FOR WORDS'

Many of Greeley's novels were best sellers. "The Cardinal Sins" in 1981 sold more than 3 million copies, according to a statement from the University of Chicago. It is the story of an archbishop who fathers a child.

Greeley famously feuded with Cardinal Cody of Chicago - whom he called a monster, crazy and "one of the most truly evil men I have ever known" - but denied Cody was the basis for the "Cardinal Sins" archbishop.

"People like stories. We are all story tellers," Greeley once told Reuters. "I'm convinced that people followed Jesus because he was a good storyteller."

His writings also covered education, sex, ethnicity, euthanasia, politics, war and other topics, and his engaging manner made him a sought-after interview subject on television.

"I suppose I have the Irish weakness for words gone wild," Greeley told the New York Times. "Besides, if you're celibate you have to do something."

His books made him wealthy and he owned an apartment in a posh downtown skyscraper. He responded to criticism of his wealth by telling People magazine. "What I do with my money is between me and God and the IRS. I think I'm generous with it. I'm willing to face God on the way I've spent it."

Greeley established a $1 million endowment at the University of Chicago for Catholic studies. He also gave money for scholarships to the Chicago archdiocese.

"Father Greeley could be irritatingly smart and a touch righteous, and some of his romantic novels bordered on the silly, but he dreamed a very special American Catholic democratic dream and we Catholics would have done well to have listened to him more closely," said David O'Brien, a historian of U.S. Catholicism and a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio. "He has been sorely missed since an accident silenced his public voice."

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski, John O'Callaghan and Bill Trott; Editing by Scott Malone and Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/father-andrew-greeley-novelist-catholic-critic-dies-165638499.html

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Fanhattan plans living room invasion with versatile Fan TV set-top box (video)

Fanhattan, maker of video-streaming tablet and smartphone apps, now has a set-top box to call its own. It's called Fan TV, and combines live web streaming, TV and cloud-based DVR functionality in a single device. The interface is very simple and clean -- you navigate through a TV-based UI, as you'd probably expect, with a tiny multi-touch remote driving the experience. The main device, designed in partnership with Yves Behar of OLPC fame, is also quite compact. Spec details are light, but we do know that the system runs on Android, and features limited connectivity, including Ethernet and HDMI. According to a The Next Web report, Fanhattan is planning to sell Fan TV through cable TV providers, rather than directly to consumers. The company isn't sharing its content and distribution partners yet, but more details will surely become public before the expected US launch later this year. There's also no mention of price. For a closer look, check out the promo video after the break.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Fanhattan

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/30/fanhattan-fan-tv-stb/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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CA-NEWS Summary

Baghdad blasts kill 14, extending sectarian bloodshed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Six explosions battered Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 14 people and extending a descent into the worst sectarian violence since the civil war five years ago. The bloodletting reflects increasing tensions between Iraq's majority Shi'ite political leaders and the Sunni minority, many of whom believe they have been unfairly treated since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni.

Afghanistan's Karzai denounces Taliban for killing countrymen

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban are killing Afghans and making a mockery of their claim to be fighting foreign invaders, President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday. A series of attacks in different parts of the country, including areas long considered largely free of militant violence, is raising worry about the ability of Afghan forces to maintain security after most foreign troops leave.

Besieged Syria rebels plead for help, Assad confident

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels under siege in a town near the Lebanese border issued a desperate appeal on Thursday for reinforcements and medical supplies as government troops and Lebanese guerrillas pounded their defences. Alongside a military offensive on Qusair and rebel-held Damascus suburbs, President Bashar al-Assad tried to drive home diplomatic advantage; he highlighted his foreign alliances in announcing the arrival of anti-aircraft missiles from Russia and militia from Lebanon's Hezbollah, and declared his willingness to attend a Geneva peace conference with his squabbling opponents.

Russian forces kill three suspected rebels in Dagestan shootout

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - Russian special forces killed three suspected insurgents on Thursday in a private house in the restive Republic of Dagestan, security officials said. A group of suspected militants were surrounded in the house near Khasavyurt, 90 km (56 miles) west of the regional capital Makhachkala, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a statement.

Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader finally shows remorse for killings

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A leader of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge expressed remorse on Thursday for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people during the "Killing Fields" regime in the 1970s and accepted responsibility for the first time during court proceedings. "I am responsible for what happened during the time of Democratic Kampuchea," Nuon Chea told the United Nations-backed tribunal, referring to the name of the country during the period, when he was the party's second-in-command.

Hollande reform defiance sparks German anger

PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande's insistence that the EU executive can't "dictate" reforms to France has outraged Angela Merkel's conservatives, hours before the German leader was due in Paris for talks. Unveiling reform recommendations for the 27-nation European Union on Wednesday, the European Commission urged Hollande to rein in public spending, revamp pensions and cut labor costs in return for a two-year reprieve on budget deficit cuts.

Analysis: Hungary hails victory of 'Orbanomics' but there's a cost

BUDAPEST/PRAGUE (Reuters) - The leaflets dropping into Hungarians' mailboxes this month told citizens the economy has turned a corner, whatever foreign critics might think. Emblazoned with the red, white and green of the national flag, the government-funded brochure hailed the steps conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban had taken. "Hungary is doing better," it read.

Pakistani Taliban pick new number two after drone strike: sources

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban militants have chosen a new deputy commander to replace their previous second-in-command who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in the North Waziristan region, sources in the militant group said on Thursday. The previous deputy commander, Wali-ur-Rehman, was killed in an attack by a missile-firing U.S. drone aircraft in the militant stronghold of North Waziristan, on northwest Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, on Wednesday, Pakistani security officials and militants said.

Man appears in London court over killing of British soldier

LONDON (Reuters) - Michael Adebowale, 22, appeared in a London court on Thursday charged with the killing of a British soldier on a busy London street last week, which the prosecutor said would be tried as a terrorist act. Adebowale was charged late on Wednesday with the murder of Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old serving soldier, in Woolwich in south-east London on May 22. He also faces a charge of possessing a firearm, a 9.4mm revolver, with intent to cause others to believe that violence would be used.

Troops patrol Myanmar city after violence, Muslims hide

LASHIO, Myanmar (Reuters) - Hundreds of Muslim families sheltered in a heavily guarded Buddhist monastery on Thursday after two days of violence in the northern Myanmar city of Lashio left Muslim properties in ruins and raised alarm over a widening religious conflict. About 1,200 Muslims were taken to Mansu Monastery after Buddhist mobs terrorized the city on Wednesday, a move that could signal the resolve of a government criticized for its slow response to previous religious violence.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-003013611.html

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UK police: Man charged in UK soldier's murder

LONDON (AP) ? Police have charged a man with murder in the killing of a British soldier in a suspected Islamic extremist attack in broad daylight on a London street.

Michael Adebowale, 22, was charged late Wednesday by counterterrorism officers and will appear in court on Thursday, police said. He is one of two main suspects in the killing of Lee Rigby, 25, who was struck by a car and stabbed to death last week near his barracks in southeast London's Woolwich district.

Gruesome images that emerged after the attack showed two men wielding bloody knives and meat cleavers. Both men were shot and wounded by police.

Suspect Michael Adebolajo, 28, remains hospitalized in stable condition. Adebowale was discharged from a hospital Tuesday and taken into custody. Adebowale also was charged with a firearms offense related to possessing a 9.4 mm revolver with the intent "to cause persons to believe that unlawful violence would be used," police said in a statement announcing the charges.

The charges, coming just hours after police said Rigby's autopsy showed he died from "multiple incised wounds," shed further light on the frenzied attack.

Witnesses reported seeing the soldier struck by a car, then set upon by two men wielding long knives and cleavers. Adebolajo, bloodied and clutching a cleaver, was seen in a video boasting about the attack and railing against the government.

The attack has raised questions about whether Britain's intelligence services could have done more to prevent Rigby's murder. British officials said the two main suspects had been known to them for some time as part of previous investigations.

Kenyan police have said they believed Adebolajo, a British citizen, had earlier associated with a radical Kenyan Muslim cleric who tried to help him join an al-Qaida-linked rebel group in neighboring Somalia.

Police said an inquest on Rigby's death will open Friday. In Britain, inquests are conducted to establish the circumstances surrounding unexpected or violent deaths.

Ten people have been arrested in the case, including the two main suspects. Two were released and several others have been set free on bail pending further inquiries.

One of the men arrested for questioning in the case released a statement through his lawyer Wednesday proclaiming his innocence. Hayden Allen, 21, said he wanted to send his condolences to Rigby's family.

"My family are wholly uninvolved," said Allen, who has not been charged and is free on bail. "I ask that the police continue to investigate and that my family be allowed without harassment to continue their lives."

Rigby's murder has raised racial enmities in many parts of England, with far-right groups mobilizing to protest. The English Defense League, a right-wing group with strong anti-Islam leanings, has held a series of protests, while Muslim community organizations have reported a surge in attacks and harassment.

One mosque in the northern England town of Grimsby was firebombed, and the word "ISLAM" was daubed in big red letters across the Royal Air Force Bomber Command memorial in London's Green Park, near Buckingham Palace.

Two people have been charged in the arson attack. It was unclear who was responsible for the graffiti.

Hackers have also posted a purported list of English Defense League leaders and supporters online. The list was at least partially genuine, according to English Defense League supporter Glen Warren, 32, whose name and phone number were among those posted.

Amid the unrest, British prison officers have been warned to be on the lookout after a hostage drama blamed on extremist Muslim inmates, British newspapers reported Wednesday.

An email to high-security prisons and young offenders' institutes warned that Sunday's incident at Full Sutton detention facility in the northern England region of Yorkshire was linked to religious extremism and warned of an increased risk of attacks at other institutions, according to several British papers, including The Yorkshire Post and The Times.

"Three Muslim prisoners took an officer hostage in an office. Their demands indicated they supported radical Islamist extremism," the letter was quoted as saying. "All staff are reminded to remain vigilant to the increased risk of potential attacks on prison officers inspired by these and last Wednesday's events."

The hostage-takers' demands have not been disclosed. Britain's Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the email.

___

Associated Press writer Raphael Satter contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-police-man-charged-uk-soldiers-murder-235645124.html

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Taylor Swift Introduces New Perfume as "Sweet, Sophisticated"

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/taylor-swift-introduces-new-perfume-as-sweet-sophisticated/

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Motorcycle injuries worsen with weaker helmet law

FILE - In this June 12, 2008 file photo, Randy Knauff takes off from work without a helmet on his motorcycle in Harmony, Pa. Across the nation, motorcyclists opposed to mandatory helmet use have been chipping away at state helmet laws for years while crash deaths have been on the rise. Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia require all motorcyclists to wear a helmet, 28 states, including Pennsylvania, require only some motorcyclists _ usually younger or novice riders _ to wear a helmet, and three states have no helmet use law. States have been gradually repealing or weakening mandatory helmet laws for nearly two decades. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

FILE - In this June 12, 2008 file photo, Randy Knauff takes off from work without a helmet on his motorcycle in Harmony, Pa. Across the nation, motorcyclists opposed to mandatory helmet use have been chipping away at state helmet laws for years while crash deaths have been on the rise. Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia require all motorcyclists to wear a helmet, 28 states, including Pennsylvania, require only some motorcyclists _ usually younger or novice riders _ to wear a helmet, and three states have no helmet use law. States have been gradually repealing or weakening mandatory helmet laws for nearly two decades. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The average medical claim from a motorcycle crash rose by more than one-fifth last year in Michigan after the state stopped requiring all riders to wear helmets, according to an insurance industry study. Across the nation, motorcyclists opposed to mandatory helmet use have been chipping away at state helmet laws for years while crash deaths have been on the rise.

For more than 40 years, Michigan required all motorcycle riders to wear helmets. State legislators changed the law last year so that only riders younger than 21 must wear helmets. The average insurance payment on a motorcycle injury claim was $5,410 in the two years before the law was changed, and $7,257 after it was changed ? an increase of 34 percent, the study by the Highway Loss Data Institute found.

After adjusting for the age and type of motorcycle, rider age, gender, marital status, weather and other factors, the actual increase was about 22 percent relative to a group of four comparative states, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin, the study found.

"The cost per injury claim is significantly higher after the law changed than before, which is consistent with other research that shows riding without a helmet leads to more head injuries," said David Zuby, chief research officer for the data institute and an affiliated organization, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The data institute publishes insurance loss statistics on most car, SUV, pickup truck and motorcycle models on U.S. roads.

While other studies have shown an increase motorcycle deaths after states eliminate or weaken mandatory helmet requirements, the industry study is the first to look specifically at the effect of repealing helmet requirements on the severity of injuries as measured by medical insurance claims, Zuby said.

Some states have sought to mitigate the repeal or loosening of mandatory helmet laws by setting minimum medical insurance requirements, but "that doesn't even come close to covering the lifelong care of somebody who is severely brain-injured and who cannot work and who is going to be on Medicaid and a ward of the state," said Jackie Gillan, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, which backs mandatory helmet requirements for all riders.

Jeff Hennie, vice president of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation, dismissed the study, saying the insurance industry views helmets as "the silver bullet that's going to change the landscape of motorcycle safety." He said insurers are upset because "life has gotten more expensive for them and they have to pay out more."

"The fact is our highways are bloody," Hennie said. "This (the Michigan helmet law change) doesn't make helmets illegal. ... No one is forcing anyone to ride without a helmet."

Vince Consiglio, president of American Bikers Aimed Toward Education of Michigan, blamed the increase in the severity of injuries on bikers who don't take safety courses required to obtain a special motorcycle license. He said bikers without motorcycle licenses have made up an increasingly larger share of fatalities and injuries in recent years.

But Gillan said the study "clearly shows there is no such thing as a free ride, and the public is paying the cost for this."

There's no way to know how many of the Michigan claims involved motorcyclists not wearing helmets, the study said. But another recent study by the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute found a significant increase in motorcyclists involved in crashes who weren't wearing helmets after the law changed. From April 13, 2012, the first full day after the change took effect, through the end of the year, 74 percent of motorcyclists involved in crashes were wearing helmets, compared with 98 percent in the same period for the previous four years, the study found.

Nationally, motorcycle deaths have risen in 14 of the past 15 years, and appear to have reached an all-time high of more than 5,000, according to an analysis by the Governors Highway Safety Association of preliminary 2012 data.

Currently, 19 states and the District of Columbia require all motorcyclists to wear a helmet, 28 states require only some motorcyclists ? usually younger or novice riders ? to wear a helmet, and three states have no helmet use law. States have been gradually repealing or weakening mandatory helmet laws for nearly two decades.

In 1967, to increase motorcycle helmet use, the federal government required that states enact helmet laws in order to qualify for certain federal safety programs and highway construction aid. The federal incentive worked. By the early 1970s, almost all states had motorcycle helmet laws that covered all riders. In 1976, Congress stopped the Transportation Department from assessing financial penalties on states without helmet laws, and state lawmakers began repealing the statutes.

In 1991, Congress created new incentives for states to enact helmet and seat belt laws, but reversed itself four years later.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sent observers to states last year to count how many motorcyclists wore helmets, found that 97 percent of motorcyclists in states with universal helmet laws were wearing helmets compared with 58 percent of motorcyclists in states without such coverage.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-30-Motorcycle%20Helmets-Injuries/id-046bb550bb2147f39f0def51372bbccb

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The Cost of Wind Energy: Part II

In Part I, we explored past and present wind costs and noted rapid inflation. This was the first step in an exploration of David Roberts' claim that renewable electricity was less expensive than nuclear generated electricity, but there are many other factors that I did not touch on or barely mentioned in Part I that require further exploration.

Nuclear reactors typically generate ninety percent of their faceplate electrical capacity. That ninety percent is called "capacity factor". ?Reactors are typically taken off line for maintenance at periods when electrical demand is not at its peak, thus reactors are almost always available when consumers demand electricity.

In contrast, wind generators typically produce electricity at a capacity factor of about thirty percent. To equal the gross electrical output of a nuclear reactor, three wind generators producing equivalent nameplate capacity would be required, but it is more complex than that. If those three wind generators produce constant electricity ninety percent of the time, then the cost of wind would simply be three times the cost of one wind generator. This cost itself would take the cost of wind into the same range as the cost of nuclear power or higher, but there are more costs associated with wind. In the first place, wind does not blow at constant speeds even over a large area. More wind generators are required to compensate for periods of slow wind, but there are also periods of very slow wind or no wind at all. During periods of slow wind, more wind generating capacity is required to keep electrical output from wind installations up.

Mark Z. Jacobson claims that by spreading wind facilities over Texas, Oklahoma, ?Kansas, and New Mexico and linking them with high voltage power lines something like a reliable power source can be accomplished eighty percent of the time.?Five wind generating facilities with the same nameplate capacity as one nuclear power plant would be spread over the four states and linked by high voltage power lines. Even then it would fall short of goals twenty percent of the time. Jacobson does not tell us how much his scheme would cost, but it would be a pretty penny. Day time winds drop in speed as temperatures soar in Southwestern states such as Texas. As temperatures soar, the demand for air conditioning swells as well, thus the generating output of Jacobson's wind system is poorly matched to Texas electrical demand in the summertime. Some backup must be found to Jacobson's already expensive wind system.

In 2007, when I was arguing with Roberts, I pointed out the problem of wind fluctuation and the need for backup. One of Roberts' readers responded that the wind system could simply be connected to the grid and fluctuations could be covered as they already are on the grid. Fluctuations on the grid are covered by so called spinning reserve. That is, power plants that are kept running without covering load. If a power plant is suddenly taken off line, or if consumer demand rises quickly, spinning reserve is brought on line and begins to supply electrical energy, but spinning reserve requires fossil fuel backup. If our goal is to have one hundred present replacement of fossil fuels as the energy source for the grid, we will have to eliminate fossil fuels from our backup mix.

Furthermore, studies of wind penetration of the grid suggests that wind displaces natural gas at low levels of penetration and only begins to displace coal when wind penetration rises above twenty percent of electrical demand. When wind penetration arises above twenty percent, the cost of electricity begins to rise as well. For relatively small wind penetration levels, wind simply supplements other electrical generating systems. For example, in the Pacific Northwest, wind is matched to electricity generated by water driven turbines along the Columbia River. Wind, when it is blowing, is a useful tool in managing the Columbia River electrical generation system. Unfortunately, the wind stops blowing sometimes. Which means water pools created by Columbia River dams will have to be drawn down in order to meet electrical demand. Sometimes this wind failure lasts for a week or more. If the wind failed in other parts of the country where there is less hydroelectric generation capacity, relying on conventional grid resources would mean relying on fossil fuel generated electricity.

Since wind tends to displace natural gas fired generators first, it means very limited effect on grid CO2 output. As wind penetration rises, the cost of electricity rises as well. As wind penetration rises, the challenge of locating good wind generation facility sites becomes more and more difficult as the best sites are used first. Eventually, adding new sites means adding very little real world generation capacity. Adding new wind powered electrical generation facilities becomes more and more expensive per unit of output. Thus, continued use of the current grid system to backup wind does not offer a satisfactory and inexpensive means of shutting down the emission of greenhouse gases.

If the conventional grid offers no solution to the problem of wind in a post carbon world, are there alternative backup systems that can solve this problem? Several technologies have been proposed as offering means to backup wind. These include pump storage, compressed air storage, and batteries. Pump storage involves pumping water to the top of a mountain and storing it in a reservoir. As electrical demand rises, the water can be released back down the mountain to run through an electrical turbine at the mountain base. The water can be transferred between two pools, one at the base of the mountain and the other at the top of the mountain, however water evaporates from the pool therefore new water has to be added to the bottom pool. A huge amount of water would be required to provide backup electrical generating capacity to wind in the United States.

Water is not a land efficient energy source. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has dammed virtually all of the rivers that flow through the Tennessee Valley. They allow their water to flow through turbines to generate electricity. These dams produce together about five percent of the electricity generated by TVA. In order to backup wind generation virtually every mountain top in Tennessee would have to leveled and turned into a lake. This would not entirely please conservationists and environmentalists. In addition, the waters of Tennessee's rivers are committed to a variety of uses including navigation, recreation, wildlife preservation, and household water.?The pump storage approach would draw water from all of these commitments and utilize it to generate electricity. Because water evaporates from lake surfaces, the amount of water that the system discharges would be significantly less than the amount of water that currently flows through the river. If enough reservoirs were built, evaporation would greatly diminish the flow of water from the Tennessee River so that by the time the river reaches it's mouth, very little water would be released into the Ohio River. Thus, pump storage does not offer a suitable backup for wind generated electricity.

Compressed air storage is a second backup scheme proposed by wind advocates. In a compressed air storage system, air is drawn into an underground chamber under pressure. When the wind is blowing, but consumers do not want the electricity generated, then the electricity is used to pump air into a storage chamber.?At the time that wind is not blowing, the air is released through turbines which then power generators.?There is a major problem with the compressed air storage approach. Compressed air pumped into underground chambers heats up. As the air comes into contact with the walls of the chamber, some of the heat is released into the walls of the chamber and from the walls of the chamber into the earth. When the air is discharged, it expands and as it expands, its temperature drops. Humidity in the air freezes as the air chills. As the air blows through turbines. ice particles are blown along with the air. The turbines are struck by the ice particles and are damaged by them. Think of the compressed air system as a heat pump which chills the air to be discharged. The loss of heat in the stored air is an inefficiency that cost us forty percent of the electrical energy used to pump the air into the underground chamber. In order to increase the amount of energy into the exiting air and melt the ice particles, natural gas is burned in the air stream. This does increase the generating power of the system, but also leads us back to the problem of CO2 discharge. Thus, compressed air storage is expensive, inefficient, and not an entirely useful decarbonation tool.

Finally, wind advocates note batteries as the third backup technology, but current battery technology would be too expensive and otherwise unsatisfactory for a wind backup technology even when significant advances in battery technology are factored in. The battery backup picture does not look promising.

Highly efficient batteries are expensive, while inexpensive batteries are not efficient. For example, lead acid batteries i.e. batteries used in cars are heavy, that is, they use lots of material, but they hold a relatively small charge especially when their size is considered. It is certainly conceivable that the efficiency of lead acid batteries can be increased in the future, but even if they are ten times more efficient they still would be heavy and require a considerable amount of material. Lead batteries also do not have long useful lives and must be replaced every few years.?Lead batteries even if made ten times more efficient would not be satisfactory power sources for automobiles or trucks.

High temperature batteries may weigh less and have longer lives, but like lead batteries, they may not be satisfactory energy sources.?It remains to be seen whether high temperature batteries can be made efficient enough to serve as backup to wind generated electricity, but I am not going to put my money on it yet. At any rate, high temperature batteries are probably going to be quite expensive compared to nuclear sources.

Although lithium batteries are useful for small mobile devices, it is doubtful that they would be equally useful for large scale backup of wind generated electricity because of their cost. Lithium batteries are relatively lightweight, but improving their efficiency is proving challenging.

Are there any technologies that I have not mentioned that could backup wind generators? Some time ago, on "Nuclear Green" I offered a brief study on the use of Molten Salt Reactors as backup for wind. Molten Salt Reactors would seem to offer a possible route to solving all of the problems associated with wind backup, but they offer a problem as wind backup, namely that Molten Salt technology would not simply function as a wind backup, but as a wind replacement as well. Therefore, if you start building large numbers of Molten Salt Reactors there would be no need for wind generators which are not very useful to begin with.

Source: http://theenergycollective.com/charlesbarton/226156/cost-wind-part-ii

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Harry Reid: GOP Needs to Rid Itself of Tea Party Republicans

Harry Reid lashed out at the Tea Party again today.
The Senate Majority leader said he thinks it?s time for the Republican Party to rid itself of Tea Party Republicans.

Two years ago Harry Reid the Tea Party will disappear.

But they didn?t.

The Las Vegas Sun reported, via Free Republic:

Reid was clear about the limits of his filibuster fight.

?End the filibuster? No, I don?t think we should get rid of the filibuster,? he said. ?It works both ways. I?m not here beating the drum to change the filibuster for everything. It has its place, but it shouldn?t be abused.?

Reid said the key to solving what he has labeled as Republican obstruction is for the party to rid itself of so-called Tea Party Republicans.

In the wide ranging, 30-minute interview, Reid also disputed a recent claim by Sen. Bob Menedez that the Senate does not have 60 votes to pass the Gang of 8?s immigration reform bill, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

Too bad for Harry Reid ? 44% of voters support the Tea Party today.

?

Source: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/05/harry-reid-republican-party-needs-to-rid-itself-of-tea-party-republicans/

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Americans gather to honor fallen service members

ATLANTA (AP) ? Americans gathered at memorials, museums and monuments and the president laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery to honor fallen service members on Memorial Day, as combat in Afghanistan approaches 12 years and the ranks of World War II veterans dwindle.

"Let us not forget as we gather here today that our nation is still at war," President Barack Obama said after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

"When they give their lives, they are still being laid to rest in cemeteries in quiet corners across our country, including here in Arlington," he said. He told the stories of three soldiers who had died. Each had been devoted to their mission and were praised by others for saving lives.

Hours later, veterans from conflicts from World War II to Afghanistan and Iraq gathered in Atlanta to dedicate a new veterans' park. Soldiers, airmen, Marines and seamen looked on as veterans and military family members sprinkled soil, sand and water from battlefields and waterways across the world.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Rick Lester called it "a reminder of our country's timeline of freedom." A 26-year veteran with multiple tours in Vietnam, Germany and Korea, Lester conceived the ceremony as a way to honor living veterans and those who never made it home.

The pilot recalled in detail the numbers of men lost on missions he flew in Vietnam. "All I can think about is how those were some of the greatest guys I ever met and what they would have done for this country once they got back," he said.

The soil and sand ranged from Revolutionary battlefields like Lexington and Concord to Tikrit in Iraq. There was none from the Civil War, Lester said, because "that was a time that our country was divided."

Battlefield remnants were mixed in a helmet Lester's father wore on D-Day in France in 1944. They were sprinkled from cups that his uncle, a Marine, used in World War II. His father lived. His uncle was killed in action.

Susan Jimison poured water collected from the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean.

Her brother, Mark Clotfelter, was a helicopter pilot shot down June 16, 1969, in Vietnam. The 22-year-old was later confirmed dead. Jimison was 14 at the time and recalled how a politically unpopular war affected the way her brother's death was treated. "Nobody talked about it," she said.

It wasn't until many years later that she started trying to learn about his military service and those who served alongside him. Now, she's married to a man, Michael Jimison, who flew with him, and she's writing a book about their company.

It's important, she said, for Americans to learn the personal stories behind military history and international conflict. "My brother died doing what he loved doing," she said.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined military leaders and others at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Manhattan. He later encouraged New Yorkers to celebrate the day and the good weather but also "remember the sacrifice that was made so that we could be here."

At the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, about 20 bicyclists clustered around veteran and museum volunteer Tom Blakey. The paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division jumped at Normandy on D-Day ? June 6, 1944 ? and in May 1945 helped liberate the work camp at Wobbelin in northwest Germany.

"Most of us wondered why we were there, killing people and being killed," he said. "We didn't do anything to deserve it. When we got to that camp and saw what was there, the lights came on."

The cycling group makes regular weekend training runs, and on Monday started a Memorial Day ride about seven miles away at the national cemetery in Chalmette, where the Battle of New Orleans ? the last in the War of 1812 ? was fought.

Once again aboard the historic USS Hornet, 83-year-old Dale Berven reflected on his tour of duty in Korea as a naval aviator as he took in the commemoration. As the bugle corps warmed up, Berven looked out from the now-decommissioned aircraft carrier docked in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco, which ferried him around the world in a goodwill tour in 1954, the year after the Korean War ended.

At just 23 years old, Berven said he flew dozens of sorties as a lieutenant junior grade with the 91st Fighter Squadron.

"I was young and single, I had volunteered and I wanted to do that type of work," said Berven, now a docent at the USS Hornet Museum. "That is how people are now. They're not drafted, so you have 18-, 19-year olds who are giving up their lives for the freedom of this country. We ought to honor all those service men and women and not bring politics into it."

In South Sioux City, Neb., a statue honoring a Navy dog handler was unveiled in his hometown. The statue of Petty Officer 1st Class John Douangdara (dwung-DEHR'-ah) and his dog, Bart, is part of a five-acre dog park that's named for Douangdara. Douangdara died along with 29 other Americans in August 2011 when a military helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.

Across much of New England, several days of heavy rain gave way to sunny skies for parades in towns large and small.

In Portland, Maine, kids and even pets displayed the Stars and Stripes as veterans, youth groups law enforcement officials and civic organizations paraded to Monument Square to the tunes of a marching band, sirens from a police car and the rumble of motorcycles.

For some veterans, it was a somber event.

Richard Traiser, a Marine injured when his tank came under attack in Vietnam, helped deliver a three-volley salute with the Marine Corps League.

Memorial Day gives those who served an opportunity to get together and remember friends who didn't make it.

"I think about them a lot, especially the people I lost in my platoon," Traiser said. "I don't dwell on it in a morbid way, but it's on your mind."

In Connecticut, a Waterford man who was killed in the Vietnam War was honored with a hometown park area named for him. Arnold E. Holm Jr., nicknamed "Dusty," was killed when his helicopter was shot down on June 11, 1972.

The holiday weekend also marked the traditional start of the U.S. vacation season. AAA, one of the nation's largest leisure travel agencies, expected 31.2 million Americans to hit the road over the weekend, virtually the same number as last year. Gas prices were about the same as last year, up 1 cent to a national average of $3.65 a gallon Friday.

At the American Airpower Museum on Long Island, N.Y., a program honored Women Air Service Pilots, or WASPs, who tested and ferried completed aircraft from factories to bases during World War II. Thirty-eight died during the war, including Alice Lovejoy of Scarsdale, N.Y., who was killed on Sept. 13, 1944, in a midair collision over Texas.

Women have made their way up the ranks in the regular military since then, exhibited in Wisconsin, with retired Air Force Maj. Gwen Sheppard becoming the first woman to serve as the grand marshal of the Milwaukee Memorial Day parade.

"It's very important that we recognize not only their contribution to American history, but women's history," said Julia Lauria-Blum, curator of the WASP exhibit at the museum. "These women really blazed a path. And most important, they gave their lives serving their country and must be honored like anyone else on Memorial Day."

__

Associated Press writers David Sharp in Portland, Maine; Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans; Garance Burke in San Francisco, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/americans-gather-honor-fallen-members-091220037.html

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Formula for turning cement into 'metal'

May 27, 2013 ? In a move that would make the Alchemists of King Arthur's time green with envy, scientists have unraveled the formula for turning liquid cement into liquid metal. This makes cement a semi-conductor and opens up its use in the profitable consumer electronics marketplace for thin films, protective coatings, and computer chips.

"This new material has lots of applications, including as thin-film resistors used in liquid-crystal displays, basically the flat panel computer monitor that you are probably reading this from at the moment," said Chris Benmore, a physicist from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory who worked with a team of scientists from Japan, Finland and Germany to take the "magic" out of the cement-to-metal transformation. Benmore and Shinji Kohara from Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute/SPring-8 led the research effort.

This change demonstrates a unique way to make metallic-glass material, which has positive attributes including better resistance to corrosion than traditional metal, less brittleness than traditional glass, conductivity, low energy loss in magnetic fields, and fluidity for ease of processing and molding. Previously, only metals have been able to transition to a metallic-glass form. Cement does this by a process called electron trapping, a phenomena only previously seen in ammonia solutions. Understanding how cement joined this exclusive club opens the possibility of turning other solid normally insulating materials into room-temperature semiconductors.

"This phenomenon of trapping electrons and turning liquid cement into liquid metal was found recently, but not explained in detail until now," Benmore said. "Now that we know the conditions needed to create trapped electrons in materials we can develop and test other materials to find out if we can make them conduct electricity in this way."

The results were reported May 27 in the journal the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences in the article "Network topology for the formation of solvated electrons in binary CaO-Al₂O₃ composition glasses."

The team of scientists studied mayenite, a component of alumina cement made of calcium and aluminum oxides. They melted it at temperatures of 2,000 degrees Celsius using an aerodynamic levitator with carbon dioxide laser beam heating. The material was processed in different atmospheres to control the way that oxygen bonds in the resulting glass. The levitator keeps the hot liquid from touching any container surfaces and forming crystals. This let the liquid cool into glassy state that can trap electrons in the way needed for electronic conduction. The levitation method was developed specifically for in-situ measurement at Argonne's Advanced Photon Source by a team led by Benmore.

The scientists discovered that the conductivity was created when the free electrons were "trapped" in the cage-like structures that form in the glass. The trapped of electrons provided a mechanism for conductivity similar to the mechanism that occurs in metals.

To uncover the details of this process, scientists combined several experimental techniques and analyzed them using a supercomputer. They confirmed the ideas in experiments using different X-ray techniques at Spring 8 in Japan combined with earlier measurements at the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source and the Advanced Photon Source.

Research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and the Academy of Finland.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/MfQRusVckro/130527153703.htm

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Eurasian Lynx Cub Born At Nashville Zoo (PHOTOS)

The Nashville Zoo announced the birth of a female Eurasian lynx cub this week, joining three other lynx at the zoo. The cub was born on May 4.

?The cub arrived on its estimated due date based on the data the keepers collected, and she?s now being hand-raised by our animal care staff," the zoo's mammal curator, Connie Philipp, said in a statement. "She will eventually join an educational outreach program at another zoo.?

All photos courtesy of Amiee Stubbs Photography. (Story continues after photos)

• (<a href="http://www.amieestubbs.com/" target="_hplink">Photo courtesy of Amiee Stubbs Photography</a>)

• (<a href="http://www.amieestubbs.com/" target="_hplink">Photo courtesy of Amiee Stubbs Photography</a>)

• (<a href="http://www.amieestubbs.com/" target="_hplink">Photo courtesy of Amiee Stubbs Photography</a>)

• (<a href="http://www.amieestubbs.com/" target="_hplink">Photo courtesy of Amiee Stubbs Photography</a>)

• (<a href="http://www.amieestubbs.com/" target="_hplink">Photo courtesy of Amiee Stubbs Photography</a>)

Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) are classified as "least concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Although the illegal skin trade remains the leading threat to the species, their population trend is considered stable.

The lynx population is estimated to be around 8,000 in Europe, but significantly higher in Russia and Central Asia.

The Nashville Zoo also welcomed the birth of three clouded leopards in May.

(H/t ZooBorns)

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/28/eurasian-lynx-cub-photos_n_3337221.html

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Victory Energy completes 320-acre lease agreement

Victory Energy Corp. has acquired a 320-acre lease in Glasscock County near Midland through Aurora Energy Partners LLC.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Austin-based Victory Energy (OTCQB: VYEY) announced that Aurora Energy Partners owns a 50 percent interest in the property, according to a Tuesday news release.

Victory Energy, founded in 1982, is an oil and gas company that acquires and explores oil and natural gas properties through a partnership with West Lake Hills-based Aurora Energy, according to the company's website.

In 2012, Victory Energy shifted its focus to the expansion of high-value, low-risk, multi-well properties within the Permian Basin of West Texas and the adjoining area of southeastern New Mexico, officials said.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_30/~3/0tHGjhGs0Oc/victory-energy-completes-320-acre.html

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Team Thompson

As many of you saw on Facebook a few weeks ago, the home I grew up in caught fire and burned down. Although we no longer live there, I was shocked at the emotions I felt. It makes me sad to know that I can never drive past and show my kids where I grew up. The home sat on 2 acres of land, so someone will probably clear the trees, subdivide the land and build multiple homes there. I don't think I can ever go back, knowing that my home isn't there. The first few days after it burned, I was struggling to get over it.....then I met up with my family in El Paso for the weekend - it was like therapy for me to be with them.
Afterall, it was just a house....my family is my home.
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I wrote this little memory a few years ago about the house and thought I would share it... a tribute to the house that raised me.....

Seeing that we moved from the Clark?s Landing home in 1987, when I was only four years old, I don?t have many memories there. Almost every one of my childhood memories was in our Vale Spring home. The Tudor-style exterior of the house was so beautiful and unique to the houses around it. Instead of a front porch, the house had what we called, the ?cave? where Muffin spent a lot of her time. The hand-carved front door was breathtaking; although only strangers came to the front door (everyone else knew the
back door was the main entrance). When we moved to the house, it didn?t have a garage. Dad designed an extra large two-car garage and promptly had it built. The back of the garage was always filled with dad?s treasures of old victrolas, pianos, bicycles and lawnmowers. Travis spent many summers fixing lawnmowers, go-carts, and 4-wheelers back in the garage.

Our Vale Spring house was situated on the most perfect plot of land in all of Oakton, Virginia.The house was at the end of a cul-de-sac so we had some great road to play on. Dad set up a basketball hoop and a street light so we could play in the evening. On the 4th of July Travis and Stanley set off fireworks on the cul-de-sac; Travis drove his go-cart up and down the street; and we had a good ?practice road? where I learned to ride my bike. The hill in our front yard was great for sledding in the winters. The house?s chimney was perfect to practice hitting tennis balls and sometimes lacrosse balls (until one went stray and broke a window!) The windows were huge and Susan would use them to practice her cheerleading in the reflection. Our home was situated on two acres of land that was perfect for campouts, a tire swing, a zip wire, the clubhouse and a big deck for all of mom?s parties. Stan always took advantage of the peaceful woods where he would go bird watching.

I remember the day we moved into the Vale Spring house. Our whole family pulled into the driveway in our van that was hauling a trailer load of stuff. I remember going down to the basement and getting lost in all the rooms. The basement rooms had green or red outdoor carpeting and some rooms had paisley velvet wallpaper. Mom and dad did a lot of renovations in that house. In fact, the basement had a lot of phases during the seventeen years we lived there. One of the basement rooms was long and narrow with fake stained-glass windows. We all imagined that it must have been a chapel of some sort, but we used it as a toy room. Eventually, dad split the room to be his office and the other half was a kitchen. Since the basement was so big and we didn?t use all the space, mom and dad turned it into an apartment for BYU couples interning in D.C. Before the apartment though, we would roller skate all around the basement. I have a lot of really good memories in the Vale Spring basement. We had some fun parties in the game room playing arcades and pool; and watching movies in the family room.

Of all the rooms in Vale Spring, the kitchen was the social center of the house. Everyone would migrate to the kitchen, pull up a chair and hang out. The room was so busy that dad had to refinish the hardwood floors several times. Family prayer took place every night on the kitchen floor and we all had ?assigned? spots to kneel. Muffin and/or Tiger Lily would join us in prayer, but they were usually more of a distraction. =) We baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies several nights a week (and popped popcorn on the other nights of the week!). Everything happened in the kitchen around our big Oak table. It was at the kitchen table that mom did her mending; dad shined shoes; we did our homework; we all played card games together; and read scriptures as a family.
The Vale Spring home will always have a special place in my heart. Maybe one day, we could all get together and buy it back.

Source: http://byuthompsons.blogspot.com/2013/05/as-many-of-you-saw-on-facebook-few.html

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Recession's fallout: Spending per student falls for first time ever

Seth Perlman / AP

Protesters of Mayor Rahm Emmanuel's plan to close dozens of city schools rally in the rotunda at the Illinois State Capitol last week.

By Allison Linn, TODAY

The amount of money spent per public school student fell in 2011 for the first time since the Census Bureau began keeping records more than three decades earlier, as economic woes finally caught up with educational realities.

?This is clearly the fallout from the Great Recession,? said Michael Petrilli, executive vice president of The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank. ?

The recession officially ran from December 2007 to June of 2009, but experts say there was some lag time before things like the housing bust began really hurting tax revenues, in turn crimping state and local budgets.

In addition, the federal government?s economic stimulus plan helped offset some of the initial tax revenue drops, so it took some time before state and local lawmakers had to tackle one of the least popular options: Cutting education funding.

?They tried to insulate education spending as best they could ? but you just can?t protect it 100 percent,? said Mike Griffith, school finance consultant for the Education Commission of the States, which provides data and analysis for state education systems.

Both liberal and conservative education policy experts agree that the drop was driven more by harsh economic realities rather than ideological preferences.

?It?s a tax issue at this point,? said Kim Rueben, a senior fellow with the Tax Policy Center and an expert on the economics of education.

U.S Census Bureau

Spending per pupil has historically risen each year.

The 50 states and Washington, D.C. spent $10,560 per student in 2011, according to the most recent Census data, a less than 1 percent drop from 2010. Though tiny, it marked the first drop in per-pupil spending since the Census Bureau began collecting annual data in 1977.

Overall, public elementary and secondary school systems spent $595.1 billion in 2011, down 1.1 percent from 2010. It was the second year in a row that total expenditures fell. The data is not adjusted for inflation.

Many experts expect funding levels per student will stabilize and perhaps even start rising in the next few years, as improving economic conditions and a better housing market translates into higher tax revenues.

But they don?t expect dramatic improvements. And already, many say funding reductions have forced some school districts to take unprecedented steps, including cutting teachers.

?There (have) actually been declines in education employment, which is really different than in prior recessions, where state and local government has actually protected employment more,? Rueben said.

In addition, Griffith said schools have had to trim in other ways, such as reducing or charging for extracurricular activities and cutting transportation, technology and capital spending on things like building maintenance.

Others have had to take more drastic measures. In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is locked in a heated battle over a decision to close 50 schools as the district faces a $1 billion deficit.

School districts have dealt with recessions before, but in the past Griffith said wealthier areas were often able to offset tax revenue cuts by passing levies or coming up with other funding options for schools. That meant that across the nation, spending per student has historically continued to rise even if certain districts saw spending fall.

This time, he said, so many districts were forced to make cuts that the national numbers finally reflected the hit. Nevertheless, some of the nation?s wealthiest areas were still likely able to maintain strong funding, potentially exacerbating the gap between rich and poor districts.

??The wealthy districts can go to the voters,? Griffith said. ?The poorer communities aren?t able to do that.?

In general, state funding for education varies widely. States including New York, Washington, D.C. and Wyoming spent more than $15,000 per pupil in 2011, while Utah, Oklahoma and Mississippi spent less than $8,000 per student that year.

Rueben said funding per student can be higher because of an investment in quality education, but also for reasons having little to do with instruction. Some states have smaller school districts and thus more overhead costs, or a higher cost of living that translates into bigger salaries.

And when spending rises, it?s not necessarily translating into more resources in the classroom. In the coming years, Rueben and others also noted that more education funding is likely to be allocated to teacher pensions and health care benefits, potentially leaving less for classroom instruction.

Some say one potential silver lining to the nation?s education funding woes could be that states start thinking about smarter ways to spend money, such as combining administrative costs or using cheaper online learning options where appropriate.

Paul E. Peterson, director of Harvard University?s program on education policy and governance, said his data has shown a very small positive correlation between how much is spent per student and how well they do.

?It?s costing us a lot more, but are we getting anything out of it? That?s the question,? he said.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2c6a871f/l/0Llifeinc0Btoday0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A50C260C184489560Erecessions0Efallout0Espending0Eper0Estudent0Efalls0Efor0Efirst0Etime0Eever0Dlite/story01.htm

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How do we locate the spatial position of sounds? Mechanism responsible for creation of giant synapses discovered

May 27, 2013 ? Humans and most mammals can determine the spatial origin of sounds with remarkable acuity. We use this ability all the time -- crossing the street; locating an invisible ringing cell phone in a cluttered bedroom. To accomplish this small daily miracle, the brain has developed a circuit that's rapid enough to detect the tiny lag that occurs between the moment the auditory information reaches one of our ears, and the moment it reaches the other. The mastermind of this circuit is the "Calyx of Held," the largest known synapse in the brain. EPFL scientists have revealed the role that a certain protein plays in initiating the growth of these giant synapses.

The discovery, published in Nature Neuroscience, could also help shed light on a number of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Enormous synapses enable faster communication

Ordinarily, neurons have thousands of contact points -- known as synapses -- with neighboring neurons. Within a given time frame, a neuron has to receive several signals from its neighbors in order to be able to fire its own signal in response. Because of this, information passes from neuron to neuron in a relatively random manner.

In the auditory part of the brain, this is not the case. Synapses often grow to extremely large sizes, and these behemoths are known as "Calyx of Held" synapses. Because they have hundreds of contact points, they are capable of transmitting a signal singlehandedly to a neighboring neuron. "It's almost like peer-to-peer communication between neurons," explains EPFL professor Ralf Schneggenburger, who led the study. The result is that information is processed extremely quickly, in a few fractions of a millisecond, instead of the slower pace of more than 10 milliseconds that occurs in most other neuronal circuits.

Identifying the protein

To isolate the protein responsible for controlling the growth of this gigantic synapse, the scientists had to perform painstaking research. Using methods for analyzing gene expression in mice, they identified several members of the "BMP" family of proteins from among more than 20,000 possible candidates.

To verify that they had truly identified the right protein, the researchers disabled BMP protein receptors in the auditory part of a mouse brain. "The resulting electrophysiological signal of the Calyx of Held was significantly altered," explains Le Xiao, first author on the study. "This would suggest a large anatomical difference."

The scientists then reconstructed the synapses in three dimensions from slices that were observed under an electron microscope. Instead of a single, massive Calyx of Held, which would encompass nearly half the neuron, the 3D image of the neuron clearly shows several, smaller synapses. "This shows that the process involving the BMP protein not only causes that one synapse to grow, but also performs a selection, by eliminating the others," says Schneggenburger.

Synaptic connectivity, the key to many psychiatric puzzles

The impact of this study will go well beyond increasing our understanding of the auditory system. The results suggest that the BMP protein plays an important role in developing connectivity in the brain. Schneggenburger and his colleagues are currently investigating its role elsewhere in the brain. "Some neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism, are characterized by the abnormal development of synaptic connectivity in certain key parts of the brain," explains Schneggenburger. By identifying and explaining the role of various proteins in this process, the scientists hope to be able to shed more light on these poorly understood disorders.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/pcV52sCRTSQ/130527100630.htm

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How To Update The Style Of Your Property With Small Projects

How To Update The Style Of Your Property With Small Projects

A lot of people see redecorating as impossible to perform alone. Stories of home remodeling failures may make people avoid trying. Home improvement may be fairly easy. This information will provide recommendations on several ways for you to easily enhance your home.

Should you be looking to produce a simple, inexpensive improvement to your house, consider planting a tree. A properly landscaped yard can significantly improve your home?s value. You have to prepare for a tree to get bigger. A tree in the perfect place can also cut cooling costs by almost forty percent.

When possible, you must tackle home repairs right whenever you realize there?s a difficulty. You could possibly tolerate the damage that takes place. Avoid achieving this. Systems within your home are connected, which means damage can often spread quickly. A little bit issue can blossom into a huge problem.

Get attractive looking drywall using a simple sponge! Instead of sanding out your drywall?s seams, require a sponge directly to them. After a couple of tries, you will discover a wet sponge to become equally as successful in smoothing the seams of your own drywall as light sanding is. However, a sponge permits you to steer clear of the biggest problem with sanding ? dust.

Know what youre using to unclog your drains. A number of them are incredibly harsh. Crystallized cleaners can keep to the pipes and corrode them. Be sure to select drain cleaners that work well well with the type of septic tank you might have.

If professional designers are from your budget, perform a little research yourself. You can get a lots of information and inspiration from books, magazines and websites. A magazine layout serves as the inspiration for your own home?s design. You might also have the capacity to get other tips for projects at the same time.

Are you having difficulty growing grass in particular parts of your yard? Purchase grass seed to create your lawn look fresh. Provided that your have spots inside your lawn, your yard won?t look its best. Get the work done to have a better lawn.

It will save you money and help the environment during projects by reusing items. Why not paint cabinetry to freshen it? You can enhance your cabinets into a more modern look by replacing the handles or knobs. Also you can paint tile as an alternative to replacing it.

To enhance your bathroom, consider replacing the faucet. A lot of people fail to understand that they have the ability to replace their bathroom faucet all by themselves. Just about any faucet comes with simple directions, and can be installed by homeowners with ease.

Refinishing the hardwood flooring at your residence can increase the value. It is a pretty big job, although not one that?ll strain your abilities. Local hardware stores sometimes offer classes, along with the equipment necessary to get the job done. Refinishing offers you a method to make the floors look good, and it?s thousands of dollars less expensive than installing an all-new floor.

If you wish add the illusion more space to your bedroom or living space, get it done the way in which experts in interior design do. Simply pull the furnishings into the centre of the space and then make space across the walls. This makes your living space look bigger as well as giving the area a much more contemporary feel.

The better effort you add to your decor, the better. You don?t would like to rush when you find yourself redesigning the inside and exterior of your house the time and effort that you put in is going to be rewarded in the end.

As you can see at this point, redesigning is thought of as impossible by many folks. People try bettering their home but usually fail. Even when there are many failures, redesigning isn?t as hard as numerous people believe. Just keep these tips at heart as you begin any project.

Thanks for reading. For tons of home improvement articles or visit www.handles4doors.co.uk

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Source: http://www.jwopenmarket.com/how-to-update-the-style-of-your-property-with-small-projects/

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Gay soccer player Robbie Rogers joins LA Galaxy

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Until about a month ago, Robbie Rogers had no interest in being one of the highest-profile openly gay athletes in the world.

Rogers didn't want the pressure or attention, and he was weary of soccer itself. After coming out and simultaneously retiring in February, the former MLS champion and U.S. national team player planned to devote himself to fashion school and family, not soccer or social change.

Rogers told The Associated Press he changed his mind when he realized how much he still loved his sport ? and how much good he could do by playing it instead of standing on the sideline.

"I don't know what I was so afraid of," Rogers said. "It's been such a positive experience for me. The one thing I've learned from all of this is being gay is not that big of a deal to people."

Rogers joined the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer on Saturday, agreeing to a multiyear contract in another step by openly gay athletes in professional sports.

The 26-year-old Rogers recently thought he would never pull on another jersey, imagining nonstop scrutiny and criticism. His concerns were eased by the strong support he received from family, fans and players, including Galaxy star Landon Donovan.

Now Rogers is eager to be more than a footnote. He is determined to thrive as the league's first openly gay player.

"People are just really growing and accepting and loving," Rogers said. "Those other things are just not that important to them. I think as the younger get older and the generations come and go, I think times are just becoming more accepting."

The two-time defending champion Galaxy traded top scorer Mike Magee to acquire Rogers, an MLS veteran who spent the last two seasons in England. He trained with the Galaxy in recent weeks and hoped to continue his career in his native Southern California. The Galaxy made it happen by giving up the popular Magee in a trade with the Chicago Fire, who held Rogers' MLS rights.

"I want to get back to soccer, which is what I love," Rogers said. "I get to do something I love, and I get to help people and be a positive role model. I'm really excited to set a great example for other kids that are going through the same thing I went through. It's a perfect world for me, a perfect world."

Coach Bruce Arena thinks Rogers already is in decent shape despite 18 months with little match experience. Arena figures Rogers could be a strong contributor to the Galaxy by July, but he could play in any upcoming match.

"Certainly the league, and I think the fans, are going to be receptive in a real positive way," Arena told the AP. "But we're not in this to pioneer social issues. We're trying to win games as a team, and we're trying to produce the best team we can. Robbie has shown us that he has the potential to still be a real good player in our league, and that's what we're hopeful of."

Rogers is mindful of the place he'll take in the culture when he steps on the field this summer, but the skilled, speedy winger is even more excited to contend for MLS titles and another chance to play the U.S. national team ? a stark contrast from his plans earlier this year when he was accepted to the menswear program at the London College of Fashion.

"I had a lot of fear to come back to the game," Rogers said, remembering countless instances of homophobia everywhere from the stands to locker rooms. "I was just afraid I was putting myself in an environment that in the past had affected my mental health because I always felt like an outcast. I felt that I couldn't be myself."

"But it's been amazing," he added. "It's been normal, just as it should be. I'm a soccer player. I happen to be gay, but I'm a professional soccer player, and I have been since I was 18, 19. ... I'm just really excited to go back to the game, and excited to deal with these stupid stereotypes that are out there with athletes and the gay community, just a bunch of different things."

He's certainly not alone in this movement. NBA veteran Jason Collins came out late last month, and Rogers spoke with Collins on the day of the center's announcement.

U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe, who plays for Lyon in France, came out last year before the London Olympics. She's expected to join the Seattle team of the new National Women's Soccer League in mid-June.

Brittney Griner, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft by the Phoenix Mercury, and Seimone Augustus of the Minnesota Lynx are among that league's openly gay players. Sheryl Swoopes, a retired WNBA All-Star and current college coach, came out in 2005 during her playing days.

But any day now, Rogers is likely to become the first openly gay male athlete to play in North America's biggest professional leagues, a fact that's still a bit surprising to both Rogers and Collins.

"I would have thought more athletes would have taken that step, I guess," Rogers said. "People have seen how accepting everyone has been of Jason's and my story. I think it's going to take just more time and more athletes coming out. It's all about seeing that it's not something to be afraid of. It's not going to hurt your career."

While MLS has a fraction of the NBA's popularity, Rogers has the potential to be more influential than Collins or featherweight boxer Orlando Cruz, who has won two fights since coming out last year. Collins is a journeyman basketball player without a contract for next season, while Rogers is an accomplished international soccer player in his prime.

Rogers won an NCAA title at Maryland in 2005 and an MLS title with Columbus in 2008 while making the all-league first team. He has played sparingly over the past two years for English clubs Leeds and Stevenage after leaving the Crew in December 2011.

But his workouts at the Galaxy's training complex in Carson, Calif., were enticing enough, even if Rogers acknowledged he's "definitely a bit rusty right now."

The Galaxy will work on getting Rogers back into top form, and they'll also support him in his conspicuous new role.

"It's going to take him a little time," said Arena, also the Galaxy's general manager. "He's got to adjust to the Galaxy. He's got to get himself in better form with the ball and his fitness. That takes time for any player, as we've witnessed with Landon over the last six to eight weeks. It's going to take some time. We hope Robbie can turn the corner quickly."

Rogers is joining his league's highest-profile team, with Donovan and Irish captain Robbie Keane leading a roster expected to contend for a third straight championship. After six years as David Beckham's home before the English midfielder's departure last December, the Galaxy know all about the spotlight that will be cast on Rogers.

"There's obviously going to be attention, and I think that we are no stranger to that," Galaxy President Chris Klein told the AP. "I think the biggest piece of this is the maturity of Robbie, and we're quite confident in that. We're there to stand behind him as an organization. He has shown to be a guy that has a tremendous amount of character and integrity, and I think he's going to fit our organization really well."

The deal is a risk for the Galaxy, who traded a beloved fan favorite for Rogers. Magee, a Chicago native, has won two titles and scored eight postseason goals in four years with the Galaxy, and he leads the club with six goals this season.

But Los Angeles is enticed by the potential of Rogers, who has played 18 times for the U.S. national team, scoring two goals. He dreams of playing for the American team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but knows it won't happen unless he excels with the Galaxy.

Rogers immediately felt comfortable training with the Galaxy and resuming his friendship with Donovan, meeting the U.S. national team star for coffee. He's also confident his attacking game on the wing can help the Galaxy, who haven't replaced Beckham's bending passes from the flank this season.

"They've been very accepting to me and very cool with me," Rogers said. "I'm just excited to get on the road with these guys and continue the season."

Aware that a whirlwind of attention is approaching, Rogers plans to lean on his faith. He also hopes his decision to use soccer as a platform for tolerance and acceptance leads more gay athletes to come out, even while his primary focus is on the game he has loved since his youth.

"You're just going to be treated the same as any other athlete," he said. "It's going to take time, but it's inevitable that the time will come when you're solely judged on your performance. That's going to happen. You can't put a time frame on it, but I think it's in the near future because I really have felt a shift in our society and acceptance in our sports world. I honestly think in the next few years, it's not going to be an issue."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gay-soccer-player-robbie-rogers-joins-la-galaxy-150250188.html

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