Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/P6Y4gQJIjCE/
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Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Fergie: Josh Duhamel ?Wanted to Knock Me Up from Our First Date?
?He?s going to be an amazing father. He?s got natural parenting instincts. He wanted to knock me up from our first date. He?s ready.?
Monday, April 15, 2013
Scientists find resilience in shelled plants exposed to ocean acidification
Monday, April 15, 2013
Marine scientists have long understood the detrimental effect of fossil fuel emissions on marine ecosystems. But a group led by a UC Santa Barbara professor has found a point of resilience in a microscopic shelled plant with a massive environmental impact, which suggests the future of ocean life may not be so bleak.
As fossil fuel emissions increase, so does the amount of carbon dioxide oceans absorb and dissolve, lowering their pH levels. "As pH declines, there is this concern that marine species that have shells may start dissolving or may have more difficulty making calcium carbonate, the chalky substance that they use to build shells," said Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez, a professor in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology.
Iglesias-Rodriguez and postdoctoral researcher Bethan Jones, who is now at Rutgers University, led a large-scale study on the effects of ocean acidification on these tiny plants that can only be seen under the microscope. Their research, funded by the European Project on Ocean Acidification, is published in the journal PLoS ONE and breaks with traditional notions about the vitality of calcifiers, or creatures that make shells, in future ocean conditions.
"The story years ago was that ocean acidification was going to be bad, really bad for calcifiers," said Iglesias-Rodriguez, whose team discovered that one species of the tiny single celled marine coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi, actually had bigger shells in high carbon dioxide seawater conditions. While the team acknowledges that calcification tends to decline with acidification, "we now know that there are variable responses in sea corals, in sea urchins, in all shelled organisms that we find in the sea."
These E. huxleyi are a large army of ocean-regulating shell producers that create oxygen as they process carbon by photosynthesis and fortify the ocean food chain. As one of the Earth's main vaults for environmentally harmful carbon emissions, their survival affects organisms inside and outside the marine system. However, as increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide causes seawater to slide down the pH scale toward acidic levels, this environment could become less hospitable.
The UCSB study incorporated an approach known as shotgun proteomics to uncover how E. huxleyi's biochemistry could change in future high carbon dioxide conditions, which were set at four times the current levels for the study. This approach casts a wider investigative net that looks at all changes and influences in the environment as opposed to looking at individual processes like photosynthesis.
Shotgun proteomics examines the type, abundance, and alterations in proteins to understand how a cell's machinery is conditioned by ocean acidification. "There is no perfect approach," said Iglesias-Rodriguez. "They all have their caveats, but we think that this is a way of extracting a lot of information from this system."
To mirror natural ocean conditions, the team used over half a ton of seawater to grow the E. huxleyi and bubbled in carbon dioxide to recreate both present day and high future carbon levels. It took more than six months for the team to grow enough plants to accumulate and analyze sufficient proteins.
The team found that E. huxleyi cells exposed to higher carbon dioxide conditions were larger and contained more shell than those grown in current conditions. However, they also found that these larger cells grow slower than those under current carbon dioxide conditions. Aside from slower growth, the higher carbon dioxide levels did not seem to affect the cells even at the biochemical level, as measured by the shotgun proteomic approach.
"The E. huxleyi increased the amount of calcite they had because they kept calcifying but slowed down division rates," said Iglesias-Rodriguez. "You get fewer cells but they look as healthy as those under current ocean conditions, so the shells are not simply dissolving away."
The team stresses that while representatives of this species seem to have biochemical mechanisms to tolerate even very high levels of carbon dioxide, slower growth could become problematic. If other species grow faster, E. huxleyi could be outnumbered in some areas.
"The cells in this experiment seemed to tolerate future ocean conditions," said Jones. "However, what will happen to this species in the future is still an open question. Perhaps the grow-slow outcome may end up being their downfall as other species could simply outgrow and replace them."
###
University of California - Santa Barbara: http://www.ucsb.edu
Thanks to University of California - Santa Barbara for this article.
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Friday, April 12, 2013
Is An Always-On Xbox Indefensible Or Is Taking To Twitter Just The Wrong Way To Defend It?
After a very public defense of rumors about the next Xbox's always-on Internet requirements, a new report claims that Microsoft creative director Adam Orth is no longer with the company. In a series of Twitter posts, Orth defended the move by countering that "every device" is now constantly connected, and then delivered a low-blow when someone responded suggesting always-on connectivity might not work great for customers in rural locations.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HU1Vhh8KJ7E/
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Europe indicates it's sticking with austerity. But is that working?
Herman Van Rompuy said on Monday that Europe would hold the course on austerity, but experts say there has been too little focus on growth and a lack of actual reforms.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew (l.) shakes hands with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy after a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Monday. Mr. Van Rompuy indicated that, despite US urging otherwise, Europe plans to stick with its austerity policies in the eurozone's periphery.
Virginia Mayo/AP
EnlargeThis week European Council President Herman Van Rompuy reaffirmed the European government's commitment to the austerity measures it has required of its struggling periphery. But experts say that austerity has only worked to an extent, due to too little focus on growth and a lack of actual reforms.
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Mr. Van Rompuy on Monday met with US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew in Brussels. But while Mr. Lew and the US encouraged Europe to shift away from its austerity policies towards more growth-oriented ones, Van Rompuy said that Europe was committed to its austerity-centric approach.
"European economies face high levels of debt, deep structural medium-term challenges and short-term economic headwinds that we need to confront," he said. "We have made significant progress in correcting internal imbalances in the euro zone since the second half of last year. But there is no room for complacency."
But much of Europe ? particularly the five eurozone countries known as the PIIGS: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain ? continues to suffer. Three years after the EU and IMF intervened by promising financial backing and long-term economic growth in exchange for the short-term pain of austerity measures, one of the countries, Greece, is in a spiral dive while three others ? Spain, Portugal, and Italy ? are seriously struggling.
'No concern for growth'
"For all countries, and particularly for Greece and Italy, the focus has been on the short-run increases in tax revenues and not on the long-run consequences of austerity," says Evi Pappa, an economics professor at the European University Institute in Florence.
"For economies in recession, sheltering growth is a key factor. But the Greek government, for instance, has been single-mindedly concerned with collecting taxes no matter what, and there has been no concern for growth," she says.
The Greek economy, whose malaise eventually infected neighboring Cyprus, reacted to austerity in a very different way than what the EU and IMF had anticipated. Hit by lower wages, unemployment and uncertainty, Greek businesses and citizens sharply reduced spending. That led to an overall reduction in incomes and consumption, thus causing Athens to collect lower tax revenues than expected. In turn, that prompted further tax increases and spending cuts by the government, effectively trapping the economy in a declining loop.
According to projections made by the International Monetary Fund at the beginning of the austerity policies in 2010, the Greek GDP should have been $323 billion in 2012. Instead, it was only $255 billion, 21 percent lower.
In addition, there is increasing evidence that the very main goal of austerity ? setting a stable trend towards balanced budgets ? has not been achieved.
Data compiled by Ugo Arrigo, a professor of government finance at the University of Milan Bicocca, show for example that the Italian government, through its austerity measures, expected to improve its net debt position by $64 billion in 2012. However, when the final 2012 data was released in February, the actual improvement turned out to be only $19 billion, less than 30 percent of the original goal.
The situation is not better elsewhere. While the IMF estimated at the beginning of austerity policies, in 2010, that the PIIGS would on average carry a debt to GDP ratio of 106 percent by 2012, the latest data put the actual figure closer to 125 percent.
Re-evaluating austerity
"The reality is that it was not easy to see it coming. Economists did not have much experience of austerity policies in developed countries," says Giles Merritt, secretary general at the Brussels-based think tank Friends of Europe. "The EU turned out to be a lot more sensitive to those policies than previously thought."
Europe's institutions have not been blind to the complaints. The IMF itself published two papers in October and January ? one authored by its chief economist ? in which it discussed how European economies contracted more than it had originally forecast.
And the IMF and the EU have held an ongoing re-evaluation of the policy options available. For instance, the deficit targets for several countries, including Spain, Ireland and Portugal, have been relaxed in an attempt to foster growth.
And while so far the costs of austerity have been higher and the rewards lower than expected, the policy also brought about some positive change. Although the recession meant that government finances did not improve, the bite of austerity did force governments to start cutting some of the inefficient spending.
"Government finances in the euro periphery are structurally better," agrees Uri Dadush, director of the International Economics Program at the Carnegie Endowment.
That bodes well for the PIIGS' economic health in the future, says Vincenzo Scarpetta, a political analyst at Open Europe, a London based think tank. "In the longer term, structural reforms will yield results," he says. "In Italy the pension reform was a good one, and there were other reforms that at least partially did what was needed."
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"Cult" canceled by CW
BERLIN, April 11 (Reuters) - Bayern Munich have received more than 200,000 ticket requests for their Champions League semi-final game in Munich, thousands of which were made before they advanced against Juventus, the club said on Thursday. "We have been updating the figure constantly and at the moment it stands at 200,000 ticket requests for the semi-final home leg," a Bayern Munich official told Reuters. Bayern's stadium fits only 69,000 and that includes the 39,500 ticket holders and any fans travelling with their opponents. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cult-canceled-cw-010759541.html
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T-Mobile improves its bid for MetroPCS, prompts MetroPCS to delay its vote
While executives at T-Mobile and MetroPCS may be ready to close their merger, some shareholders aren't -- major advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services has been recommending that MetroPCS investors vote against the deal unless T-Mobile can sweeten the pot. Consider it sweetened. T-Mobile's parent Deutsche Telekom has made a "final offer" that would slash the debt owed by the post-merger company by $3.8 billion (to $11.2 billion), reduce the interest rate on that debt by half a point and prevent Deutsche Telekom from selling its shares in the merged firm for 18 months, rather than the original six. The reshuffled finances may not sound very exciting on the surface, but they're enough to put MetroPCS in a tizzy: the carrier is delaying a shareholder vote on the deal from April 12th to the 24th to allow for some reevaluations. There's no guarantees that the new offer is enough to please the naysayers. Still, we'd venture that T-Mobile will get a warmer reaction than the last time it tried a corporate alliance.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, T-Mobile
Via: Bloomberg
Source: Deutsche Telekom IR (Twitter)
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/lC_h8cIAGrs/
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Thursday, April 11, 2013
Gunman holding firefighters killed; 4 hostages OK
An EMT works in the back of an ambulance as it leaves an Suwanee, Ga., subdivision after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
An EMT works in the back of an ambulance as it leaves an Suwanee, Ga., subdivision after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A police officer runs after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013 in Suwanee, Ga. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A group of people huddle together after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013 in Suwanee, Ga. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A police officer clears a path for an ambulance after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013 in Suwanee, Ga. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A police officer leaves the scene after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013 in Suwanee, Ga. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostage suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
SUWANEE, Ga. (AP) ? A gunman who was having financial problems held four firefighters for hours in a suburban Atlanta home, demanding his cable and power be turned back on, before being shot dead when SWAT members stormed the house, authorities said Wednesday. The hostages had cuts and bruises from explosions officers set off to distract the gunman before moving in, but they will be fine, a fire official said.
Minutes before the police announcement on the resolution, a huge blast could be heard a quarter-mile away from the home, shuddering through the Suwanee neighborhood, setting off car alarms.
Earlier Wednesday, five firefighters responded to what seemed like a routine medical call and were eventually taken hostage by an unidentified suspect inside the house, police said. The gunman released one of the firefighters to move a fire truck but held the other four.
Dozens of police and rescue vehicles surrounded the home and a negotiator was keeping in touch with the gunman, police said. The situation remained tense until the blast rocked the neighborhood of mostly two-story homes and well-kept lawns. Residents unable to get into their neighborhood because of the police cordon flinched and recoiled as the enormous blast went off.
Soon after the stun blast, officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect and a SWAT member was shot in the hand or arm, but should be fine, said Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Edwin Ritter. Ritter would not saw how the gunman was fatally shot, saying it was being investigated.
"The explosion you heard was used to distract the suspect, to get into the house and take care of business," Ritter said in a news conference minutes after the resolution. He said the situation had gotten to the point where authorities believed the lives of the hostages were in "immediate danger."
The gunman, who has not been identified, demanded several utilities be restored, Ritter said. According to public records, the home is in foreclosure and has been bank-owned since mid-November.
"It's an unfortunate circumstance we did not want this to end this way," Ritter said. "But with the decisions this guy was making, this was his demise."
Firefighters were able to use their radios to let the dispatch center know what was going on, said Fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge said, and Ritter said officials decided to "get control of the situation" and do it swiftly.
Rutledge said the medical call seemed routine and firefighters did not believe there was any danger. One engine and one ambulance responded. Ritter said authorities didn't yet know if the suspect may have faked a heart attack or some other problem to bring the firefighters to his home.
"Our firefighters responded to a call they respond to hundreds of times, and that's a medical emergency," Rutledge said.
Two ambulances could be seen leaving after the gunfire ended.
Asked what kind of weapon or weapons the suspect had, Ritter said he didn't immediately know. He said investigators were in the house where the suspect's body remained.
---
Lucas reported from Atlanta.
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