Tony Mckenna: Bitcoin: A Brave New World

Since the mid-'90s the Internet has revolutionized the world. I am old enough to remember the place before. A place in which children used to send thank-you notes for birthday presents by post, where you would need to go out to rent a film from the local video store, or make a trip to a news stand in order to pick up a paper which contained yesterday's news.

But the Internet opened up a new type of world; a virtual one where you can send emails without needing to step outside and post a letter; where you can find out how your friends are via Twitter feeds or Facebook updates -- avoiding the rigmarole of actually knocking on a door and asking; where relationships and even marriages are realized online without the participants ever even meeting in 'real' life.

In fact -- across cyber space whole communities are formed -- manifested in and through digital cities where avatars enjoy virtual lives, travel to virtual workplaces, create virtual families and even endure virtual deaths. In the limitless void of the e-ther, every real world action receives its ghostly cybernetic echo, generating a strange and wonderful realm through the looking glass of your own computer terminal.

But what if the boundaries between the virtual space and the real one began to dissolve? What if things from the one realm started to cross over into the other?

If your knee jerk reaction is to think that sounds like the fantastical stuff of science fiction then I urge you to think again. It is closer than you think! Ladies and gentleman (roll of the drum)... take a look at Bitcoin!

Bitcoin is a form of virtual currency. Nothing new or particularly remarkable in that, mind you, as for ages computer geeks have been creatively designing their own forms of virtual currency in order to pay for virtual products - players using pixelated doubloons to acquire digital weaponry for on-line medieval role-playing games, for instance. But what is unique about Bitcoin -- is that it is the first peer-to-peer virtual currency which can also be used to buy actual real world products. Since its inception in 2008, Bitcoin has proved more and more viable; it is increasingly accepted by merchants and individuals across the world, and even a few major companies such as WikiLeaks.

As it operates peer-to-peer, Bitcoin effectively cuts out the middle man. Under this model
you could send a transfer of money from Boston to London without a portion of it going to your bank or an organization like Western Union. The transaction provides an unmediated link between sender and receiver. Over time they would save a great deal of money. And all that is required is an Internet IP address.

But this lack of regulation, say its critics, means that Bitcoin is open to all forms of abuse. Already it has been linked to 'deep web' black market sites -- sites like the infamous Silk Road which allows buyers to anonymously order various hard drugs while maintaining user anonymity. A crypto-currency like Bitcoin which need not pass through any bank accounts is conducive to invisibility.

The FBI have speculated, should Bitcoin continue to grow, it 'might logically attract money launderers, human traffickers, terrorists, and other criminals who avoid traditional financial systems.' In addition, should the currency depreciate as a result of sudden crisis, there is no central bank or state-sponsored support its users might rely on to help it to stabilize. Indeed there were ominous signs of this when in 2011, and again this April, the Bitcoin 'bubble' seemed to burst and a panic sell-off ensued which caused Bitcoin to lose its liquidity.

Its advocates are more optimistic, however. Mihai Alisie, editor of Bitcoin Magazine, acknowledges that criminal elements may try to take advantage of Bitcoin, but argues this is no different from any other product -- 'You have a knife, and with that knife you can put butter on your bread or you can kill someone. But you make the tool bad or good.'

And the argument which suggests any major currency must require some form of central banking organization is inevitably damaged by the nature of the current economic crisis -- which was very much bank driven. Most recently the crisis has claimed its latest victim -- Cyprus. The president there made the controversial announcement that the bailout for the country's banks would, in part, be paid for by seizing money from the accounts of depositors -- and when this was rejected by the parliament, a levy was placed on substantial deposits, while withdrawals were limited along with overseas transfers.

The sense of not having power over their own money caused a great number of Cypriots to start buying up bitcoins as a means of better controlling their finances. As a consequence, Cyprus will soon become the first place in the world to feature a Bitcoin ATM machine.

Nevertheless, in light of its sudden economic depreciation this year, many critics suggest that Bitcoin is in terminal decline. And they might well be right. But this also misses the point. What is most significant about Bitcoin is the idea of it. True, this particular incarnation may well cease to exist in the near future. But money has never stopped evolving -- from its early forms where crops like barley were used as currency, or sea shells, to later variations which lead to metal coinage and then paper notes and checks.

The idea of a peer-to-peer virtual currency floated across vast swathes of international populations irrespective of borders could well be the next stage in the evolution of money -- its brave new world.

?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-mckenna/bitcoin-currency_b_3267952.html

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Dr. Joyce Brothers Passes Away At 85 (VIDEO)

Dr. Joyce Brothers Passes Away At 85 (VIDEO)

Dr. Joyce Brothers, a columnist, psychologist, and television personality, has died at the age of 85. The adorable star was very popular on television, where she answered questions about relationships and even sex in a charming way. Dr. Joyce Brothers is credited with being the first of television advice shows, being labeled the mother of ...

Dr. Joyce Brothers Passes Away At 85 (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/05/dr-joyce-brothers-passes-away-at-85-video/

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Rushmore.fm Wants To Fix The Music Industry, Ex-Virgin Group Online Boss Named As CEO

Rushmore.fm, a new London-based startup founded by Fictive Kin and Betaworks, is de-cloaking somewhat today with what sounds like the rather lofty but noble mission to fix the music industry. Described as a "music ecosystem", the (currently) invite-only site initially consists of a Wikipedia-like music resource where you're encouraged to contribute and follow content, although the site's broader aim is to connect music fans "directly and effortlessly with the artists and labels they love", and in doing so make it easier to make a living from music.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/4ZVEsRcAXlY/

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What Can We Build with All the Lego Bricks in the World?

Since 1958, 472 billion Lego bricks have been made. And even though most of those bricks are hardly bigger than your finger, 472 billion of anything is a ridiculous number. So what could you build with all the Lego bricks in the world? Surprisingly a lot. Like 74 Empire State buildings a lot.

There really needs to be more huge Lego structures in the world. Hell, there just needs to be more Lego in everyones life.

Imagine it, if 50,000 Lego bricks could create a 104-foot tall Lego Tower, 472 billion could practically build you a spaceship. Or a bridge to space. Of course, the Lego bridge might just end up crushing itself but hey, whatever, more Lego is always good.

[Movoto via DesignTAXI]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/what-can-we-build-with-all-the-lego-bricks-in-the-world-505033576

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US retail sales rise in April on cars, clothing

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Americans increased their spending in April at retail businesses, buying more cars and clothes while paying less for gas. The rebound from a weak March suggests consumers may help boost economic growth again this spring.

Retail sales edged up 0.1 percent in April from March, the Commerce Department said Monday. That's an improvement from a 0.5 percent decline in March, which was the largest drop in nine months.

The April gain was stronger when taking out the effect of lower gas prices, which reduced sales at gas stations 4.7 percent ? the largest decline since December 2008. The retail sales report is not adjusted for price changes.

When excluding gas station sales, retail spending rose 0.7 percent. And core retail sales, exclude gas, autos and building supplies, increased 0.5 percent. Economists pay close attention to core sales because they strip out the most volatile categories.

Sales of autos rose 1 percent in April, rebounding from a 0.6 percent drop in March. Sales at clothing stores increased 1.2 percent and sales at general merchandise stores, a category that covers department stores, rose 1 percent. Sales were also strong at building materials and garden supply stores and electronics and appliance stores.

Consumers increased their spending in April, despite paying higher Social Security taxes that has reduced their paychecks this year. Their spending will likely add to economic growth in the April-June quarter. Consumer spending makes up roughly 70 percent of economic activity.

"This is a good start to the second quarter," said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. "The rest of the year is expected to rise further on stronger household finances."

The economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate from January through March, up from a 0.4 percent rate in the October-December quarter of 2012. The gain was largely because of the fastest growth in consumer spending in more than two years.

But most of the increase came from greater spending at the start of the quarter. Consumers cut back sharply on retail spending in March, while paying more for utilities to heat their homes during a colder-than-usual month.

Some economists worried that the weak month of spending in March was a sign that the tax increase was starting to catch up with the consumer.

But other factors appear to have made the consumer more resilient.

Steady job growth helped offset some of the pain from the tax increase. The economy added 165,000 jobs in April. And it has created an average of 208,000 jobs a month since November. That's well above the monthly average of 138,000 for the previous six months.

Cheaper gas is leaving consumers with more disposable income. The national average price has risen slightly over the past week to $3.58 a gallon. But it is still 21 cents lower than the peak price reached on Feb. 27.

And a surging stock market and increases in home prices may be making consumers feel wealthier and more inclined to spend.

The economy is benefiting from the Federal Reserve's aggressive stimulus actions, which have lowered borrowing costs for consumers and businesses and helped lift the stock market to record highs. The Fed has said it plans to keep short-term interest rates at record lows at least until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-05-13-Retail%20Sales/id-2aa87cd78479468e886472780f2a5734

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Syria-linked group blamed in Turkey blasts; 43 die

REYHANLI, Turkey (AP) ? In one of the deadliest attacks in Turkey in recent years, two car bombs exploded near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing 43 and wounding 140 others. Turkish officials blamed the attack on a group linked to Syria, and a deputy prime minister called the neighboring country's intelligence service and military "the usual suspects."

The blasts, which were 15 minutes apart and hit the town of Reyhanli's busiest street, raised fears that Turkey could increasingly be drawn into Syria's brutal civil war.

Turkey already hosts Syria's political opposition and rebel commanders, has given shelter to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees and in the past retaliated against Syrian shells that landed in Turkey.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said the assailants were from Turkey, but were linked to Syria's intelligence service.

"We have to a great extent completed our work toward identifying the assailants," he told reporters. "We have established that the organization and assailants have links to the pro-regime mukhabarat (intelligence) organization."

He did not name the group, but said the aim of the attack was to pit Turks against Syrian refugees in Reyhanli.

Earlier, another deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc said: "Our thoughts are that their mukhabarat and armed organizations are the usual suspects in planning and the carrying out of such devilish plans," he said.

Arinc said the attacks were still being investigated, but that If it's proven that Syrian was behind the attack, Turkey would "do whatever is necessary," without specifying if that included military action.

One of the car bombs exploded outside the city hall while the other went off outside the post office. Reyhanli, a main hub for Syrian refugees and rebels in Turkey's Hatay province, is just across the border from Syria's Idlib province. Private NTV television, citing unnamed security sources, said the explosions were remote-controlled and that plastic explosives were used.

Images showed people frantically carrying the wounded through the rubble-strewn streets to safety. Black smoke billowed from a tall building.

The explosions came days before Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to travel to the U.S. for talks, which are expected to be dominated by the situation in Syria. The car bombings also follow allegations by Erdogan the Syrian regime has fired about 200 missiles tipped with chemical weapons.

Syrian mortar rounds have fallen over the border before, but if the blasts turn out to be linked to Syria it would be by far the biggest death toll in Turkey related to its neighbor's civil war.

Syria shares a more than 500-mile (800-kilometer) border with Turkey, which has been a crucial supporter of the Syrian rebel cause. Ankara has allowed its territory to be used as a logistics base and staging center for Syrian insurgents.

Atalay said 43 people were killed and 140 others were wounded in the blasts. There was no immediate information on the identities or nationalities of the victims.

The bombings" will increase the pressure on the U.S. president next week to do something to show support to Turkey when Erdogan visits him in Washington," said Soner Cagaptay, an expert on Turkey at the Washington Institute. "Washington will be forced to take a more pro-active position on Syria, at least in rhetoric, whether or not there is appetite for such a position here."

Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center, said the attack may force Turkey to take action.

"It?should be a defining moment for Turkey," Shaikh said. "It has been supporting the rebels, and there has been strong rhetoric. But this may be a moment where it really has to assert itself ? if it is the Assad regime (behind the bombings), and it is quite conceivable it is."

Turkey's opposition criticized the government's policy on Syria, saying its active support of the rebels had put the country's security at risk.

"Erdogan's discourse of hatred toward Assad and provocations against the administration in Damascus is coming back to us in the form of attacks and provocations," said Devlet Bahceli, chairman of a nationalist opposition party.

The force of Saturday's explosions gutted some buildings, and the charred shells of cars littered the streets.

"Three buildings partly collapsed and became unusable," Talat Karaca, who witnessed the second explosion from his rooftop, told The Associated Press by telephone. "We couldn't approach the scene for a long time because of the blaze."

Khawla Sawah, the medical director of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations in Reyhanli, said the town's main hospital was full and many of the wounded were taken to the nearby city of Antakya and to a clinic set up by the Syrian medical relief group on Reyhanli's outskirts. The center received 11 wounded, including one Turk and 10 Syrians.

She said some of the injured told her that the cars that exploded had Syrian license plates.

Both Sawah and another witness, Suzan Alhasoglu, said the incident raised tension in Reyhanli with angry youths attacking Syrians cars and other targets.

"The authorities are asking Syrians to stay home and not drive around in Syrian cars," Sawah said. "Syrian doctors at the Reyhanli hospital were asked to go home too."

Turkey's military released a statement condemning the attack and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed from Berlin that Turkey would act.

"Those who for whatever reason attempt to bring the external chaos into our country will get a response," he said.

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara issued a statement condemning the "murderous attack" in Reyhanli and said Washington "stands with the people and government of Turkey to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice."

The main Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned the attack and said it stands together with the "Turkish government and the friendly Turkish people."

The coalition sees "these heinous terrorist acts as an attempt to take revenge on the Turkish people and punish them for their honorable support for the Syrian people," it said.

The frontier area has seen heavy fighting between rebels and the Syrian regime. In February, a car bomb exploded at a Syrian border crossing with Turkey, just a few kilometers from Reyhanli, killing 14. Turkey's interior minister at the time blamed Syria's intelligence agencies and its army for involvement.

Four Syrians and a Turk are in custody in connection with the Feb. 11 attack at the Bab al-Hawa frontier post. No one has claimed responsibility, but a Syrian opposition faction accused the Syrian government of the bombing, saying it narrowly missed 13 leaders of the group.

In that bombing, most of the victims were Syrians who had been waiting in an area straddling the frontier for processing to enter Turkey.

Tensions also flared between the Syrian regime and Turkey after shells fired from Syria landed on the Turkish side, prompting Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. to send two batteries of Patriot air defense missiles each to protect their NATO ally.

___

Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara. Associated Press writers Ezgi Akin in Ankara, and Bassem Mroue, Yasmine Sakher and Karin Laub in Beirut contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-linked-group-blamed-turkey-blasts-43-die-202225997.html

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Four new genetic risk factors for testicular cancer identified

May 12, 2013 ? A new study looking at the genomes of more than 13,000 men identified four new genetic variants associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer, the most commonly diagnosed type in young men today. The findings from this first-of-its-kind meta-analysis were reported online May 12 in Nature Genetics by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

The discovery of these genetic variations -- chromosomal "typos," so to speak -- could ultimately help researchers better understand which men are at high risk and allow for early detection or prevention of the disease.

"As we continue to cast a wider net, we identify additional genetic risk factors, which point to new mechanisms for disease," said Katherine L. Nathanson, MD, associate professor in the division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics within the department of Medicine. "Certain chromosomal regions, what we call loci, are tied into testicular cancer susceptibility, and represent a promising path to stratifying patients into risk groups -- for a disease we know is highly heritable."

Tapping into three genome-wide association studies (GWAS), the researchers, including Peter A. Kanetsky, PhD, MPH, an associate professor in the department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, analyzed 931 affected individuals and 1,975 controls and confirmed the results in an additional 3,211 men with cancer and 7,591 controls. The meta-analysis revealed that testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) risk was significantly associated with markers at four loci -- 4q22, 7q22, 16q22.3, and 17q22, none of which have been identified in other cancers. Additionally, these loci pose a higher risk than the vast majority of other loci identified for some common cancers, such as breast and prostate.

This brings the number of genomic regions associated with testicular cancer up to 17 -- including eight new ones reported in another study in this issue of Nature Genetics.

Testicular cancer is relatively rare; however, incidence rates have doubled in the past 40 years. It is also highly heritable. If a man has a father or son with testicular cancer, he has a four-to six-fold higher risk of developing it compared to a man with no family history. That increases to an eight-to 10-fold higher risk if the man has a brother with testicular cancer.

Given this, researchers continue to investigate genetic variants and their association with cancer.

In 2009, Dr. Nathanson and colleagues uncovered variation around two genes -- KITLG and SPRY4 -- found to be associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer. The two variants were the first striking genetic risk factors found for this disease at the time. Since then, several more variants have been discovered, but only through single GWAS studies.

"This analysis is the first to bring several groups of data together to identify loci associated with disease," said Dr. Nathanson, "and represent the power of combining multiple GWAS to better identify genetic risk factors that failed to reach genome-wide significance in single studies."

The team also explains how the variants associated with increased cancer risk are the same genes associated with chromosomal segregation. The variants are also found near genes important for germ cell development. These data strongly supports the notion that testicular cancer is a disorder of germ cell development and maturation.

"TGCT is unique in that many of the loci are very good biological candidates due to their role in male germ cell development," said Dr. Nathanson. "Disruptions in male germ cell development lead to tumorigenesis, and presumably also to infertility. These conditions have been linked before, epidemiologically, and genes implicated in both of our prior studies, but this study reinforces that connection."

This study was supported in part by Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health grant (R01CA114478).

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/9BSwT38EXEM/130512141208.htm

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Good Things About Contracting Personal Injury Attorneys ? Hot ...

When you are the victim of a personal injury and are pursuing legal action, there are numerous advantages to hiring a personal injury attorney. If you have been injured in an accident and are uncertain if you are qualified to pursue damages, you should also consult a personal injury attorney.

A lot of people make the mistake of consulting attorneys that do not specialize in injuries; if you don?t seek out a personal injury attorney, you may end up paying legal fees for advice that is not detailed. Personal injury attorneys have extensive exposure to event the most difficult cases, and can provide the best insight to what is the best avenue for you to pursue.

Often, large law firms employ several attorneys focusing on different areas of personal injury; generally these firms offer excellent services. You may pay a higher price for an attorney that focused on a specific area, but the service quality is well worth it. Otherwise, you may turn out paying significant legal fees without receiving any compensation for your injuries.

Generally, personal injury attorneys are proficient on collecting proper documents and in educating clients on every detail of a case. They will personally collect documents and interview doctors and police officers involved in the case, and they will teach you all of your options throughout the case. Some personal injury attorneys will even hire a private investigator for your case.

Generally, you could expect a lot more from a personal injury attorney, specifically when it is time for you to be compensated. Thus to their extensive knowledge and experience, personal injury attorneys can determine appropriate actions; generally they will know if a case should be settled out of court or not, and how much compensation you must need.

The easiest way to find a very good personal injury attorney is through a referral service or by asking a friend or relative. You ought to, however, always conduct your own research while searching for a good personal injury attorney.

Well I hope this helps you gain some insight about how to find the right attorney amongst all the Atlanta Personal Injury Attorney you?ll find in our fine city.

Source: http://hotarticledepot.com/good-things-about-contracting-personal-injury-attorneys-2/

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One by one, homes in Calif. subdivision sinking

LAKEPORT, Calif. (AP) ? Scott and Robin Spivey had a sinking feeling that something was wrong with their home when cracks began snaking across their walls in March.

The cracks soon turned into gaping fractures, and within two weeks their 600-square-foot garage broke from the house and the entire property ? manicured lawn and all ? dropped 10 feet below the street.

It wasn't long before the houses on both sides collapsed as the ground gave way in the Spivey's neighborhood in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco.

"We want to know what is going on here," said Scott Spivey, a former city building inspector who lived in his four-bedroom, Tudor-style dream home for 11 years.

Eight homes are now abandoned and 10 more are under notice of imminent evacuation as a hilltop with sweeping vistas of Clear Lake and the Mount Konocti volcano swallows the subdivision built 30 years ago.

The situation has become so bad that mail delivery was ended to keep carriers out of danger.

"It's a slow-motion disaster," said Randall Fitzgerald, a writer who bought his home in the Lakeside Heights project a year ago.

Unlike sinkholes of Florida that can gobble homes in an instant, this collapse in hilly volcanic country can move many feet on one day and just a fraction of an inch the next.

Officials believe water that has bubbled to the surface is playing a role in the destruction. But nobody can explain why suddenly there is plentiful water atop the hill in a county with groundwater shortages.

"That's the big question," said Scott De Leon, county public works director. "We have a dormant volcano, and I'm certain a lot of things that happen here (in Lake County) are a result of that, but we don't know about this."

Other development on similar soil in the county is stable, county officials said.

While some of the subdivision movement is occurring on shallow fill, De Leon said a geologist has warned that the ground could be compromised down to bedrock 25 feet below and that cracks recently appeared in roads well beyond the fill.

"Considering this is a low rainfall year and the fact it's letting go now after all of these years, and the magnitude that it's letting go, well it's pretty monumental," De Leon said.

County officials have inspected the original plans for the project and say it was developed by a reputable engineering firm then signed off on by the public works director at the time.

"I can only presume that they were checked prior to approval," De Leon said.

The sinkage has prompted county crews to redirect the subdivision's sewage 300 feet through an overland pipe as manholes in the 10-acre development collapsed.

Consultant Tom Ruppenthal found two small leaks in the county water system that he said weren't big enough to account for the amount of water that is flowing along infrastructure pipes and underground fissures, but they could be contributing to another source.

"It's very common for groundwater to shift its course," said Ruppenthal of Utility Services Associates in Seattle. "I think the groundwater has shifted."

If the county can't get the water and sewer service stabilized, De Leon said all 30 houses in the subdivision will have to be abandoned.

The owners of six damaged homes said they need help from the government.

The Lake County Board of Supervisors asked Gov. Jerry Brown to declare an emergency so funding might be available to stabilize utilities and determine the cause of the collapse. On May 6, state Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, wrote a letter of support asking Brown for immediate action. The California Emergency Management Agency said Brown was still assessing the situation.

On Wednesday, the state sent a water resources engineer and a geologist to look at the problem. Sen. Dianne Feinstein sent a representative the next day.

Lake County, with farms, wineries and several Indian casinos, was shaped by earthquake fault movement and volcanic explosions that helped create the Coast Ranges of California. Clear Lake, popular for boating and fishing, is the largest fresh water lake wholly located in the state.

It is not unusual for groundwater in the region to make its way to the surface then subside. Many natural hot springs and geysers receded underground in the early 1900s and have since been tapped for geothermal power.

Homeowners now wonder whether fissures have opened below their hilltop, allowing water to seep to the surface. But they're so perplexed they also talk about the land being haunted and are considering asking the local Native American tribe if the hilltop was an ancient graveyard.

"Someone said it must be hexed," said Blanka Doren, a 72-year-old German immigrant who poured her life savings into the house she bought in 1999 so she could live on the rental income.

The home shares a wall with her neighbor, Jagtar Singh ? who had two days of notice to move his wife, 4-year-old daughter and his parents before the hill behind the back of his home collapsed ? taking the underside of his house and leaving the carpet dangling.

Doren is afraid that as Singh's house falls it will take hers with it. Already cracks have spread across her floors.

Damaged houses in the subdivision have been tagged for mandatory removal, but the hillside is so unstable it can't support the heavy equipment necessary to perform the job.

"This was our first home," said Singh, who noticed a problem in April when he could see light between the wall and floor of his bedroom. A geotechnical company offered no solutions.

"We didn't know it would be that major, but in one week we were gone," he said.

So far insurance companies have left the owners of the homes ? valued between $200,000 and $250,000, or twice the median price in the county ? dangling too. Subsidence is not covered, homeowners said. So until someone figures out whether something else is going on, they'll be in limbo.

"It's a tragedy, really," contractor Dean Pick said as he took photos for an insurance company. "I've never seen anything like it. At least that didn't have the Pacific Ocean eating away at it."

___

To reach Tracie Cone: www.twitter.com/TConeAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/one-one-homes-calif-subdivision-sinking-162144171.html

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Hello....Is There Anybody Out There?

Copyright ? 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow.

We're talking with Jill Tarter, chair for SETI Research, and with Saul Perlmutter, a Nobel Prize winner in physics, about search for extraterrestrial life and about the expanding universes and, Jill, we're finding all these exoplanets now, you know, soft planets around other stars. Does that increase the odds that we might find?

JILL TARTER: Well, I think that's been a game-changer. Until the early '90s, we didn't know whether any other stars would have planets. And life, at least life as we know it, appears to be a planetary phenomenon. So now the fact is we know there are other planets out there. It looks like almost every star probably has planet or two or three. And that means that we can redirect our search with the radio telescopes. We're no longer just trying to figure out, hmm, that star might be a good host for planets. We now know there are planets there. So that's where I point my radio telescope.

FLATOW: You know, could there - now, the planets are so far away, could you find this civilization that if the signal takes so long to get here, that it no longer exists, the civilization itself?

TARTER: Well, if we're going to detect a signal, it's going to be because on average technologies, and that's really what we're searching for. Technology is our proxy for intelligence. If we're going to find the signal, be successful, it's only because technological civilizations survive for a very long time. And so when you're talking about a long-term survival, the fact that it could take up to 100,000 years for a signal to cross from one side of our galaxy to the other is in fact not a very long time. And if they were there to send the signal, they're probably still there.

FLATOW: Mm-hmm. Let's go to the audience for some questions. Yes, sir.

CARL HEWITT: Carl Hewitt from iRobust. My question is about the politics at SETI. And that is, what do we understand about why they might want to communicate with us? To take your fish analogy, if I were a very smart fish out there, I can see why I'd be very motivated not to be detected by the humans on this planet.

(LAUGHTER)

TARTER: What do we know about extraterrestrial politics? Absolutely nothing.

(LAUGHTER)

TARTER: There may be no one else out there. We may be alone.

HEWITT: Or they may - might not want to be detected by us.

TARTER: That's also possible, or it might turn out that as one tries to go from being an emerging technology, such as we are, to being an old, stable technology, there might be a real problem. We might have a bimodal distribution. We might have a lot of young civilizations' technologies and a few that made it to the old. And perhaps, learning about the old technology and the fact that they survived when you're a young technology might help you get through. And so maybe there's some prime directive that says, for the good of the emerging technologies, we should make ourselves known. I don't know.

FLATOW: Or...

TARTER: Your scenario could be just as correct.

HEWITT: Or maybe as Carl Sagan used to talk about, people are finally listening to "I Love Lucy" some place out in another star.

(LAUGHTER)

FLATOW: Things are leaking out that we didn't think about.

TARTER: Absolutely. And we have this bubble of information about us that is expanding one light year per year. This radio broadcast is going to leak off this planet and four years from now, it will reach the nearest star. But we've only been doing that for, again, a short period, 100 years?

FLATOW: Right.

TARTER: We have a galaxy that's 10 billion years old. We have - so they'd have to be pretty close to us in order to have found...

FLATOW: And that's what's fascinating about the recent exoplanets is that they are so close. That if they had intelligent life, we could communicate in two ways within one of our lifetimes, could we not?

TARTER: Yes. There are certainly planets that are close enough to have detected our early radio signals, television broadcasts and transponded back.

FLATOW: Mm-hmm. All right. Let's go to a question here. Yes, sir.

ROSS: Yes. I'm Ross, and I was wondering about the Fermi paradox which I believe said something about if they're out there, why aren't they here, and if you guys could comment. Thank you.

TARTER: Let me phrase - paraphrase what the Fermi paradox is. Fermi postulated that if there was ever another technological civilization within our galaxy any time, any place, that obviously, that technology would quickly, in terms of galactic lifetime, have developed the ability to travel between the stars, and they would do so and they would colonize the galaxy in a time very short compared to the lifetime of the galaxy. But they're not here, and therefore when you phrase this as a paradox, the only solution to that paradox would be to say there could never have been another technology anytime, any place. We're the first. If, indeed, you can make that statement, set it up as a strong paradox. Then you're entitled to a strong conclusion.

But I would claim we can't say that they're not here, and I'm not talking about alien abductions and medical experiments or any of that pseudo-science. What I'm simply saying is we have so poorly explored our local environment, that they could well be here, even if you're talking about big, wet, biology boldly going in starships. You know, there are a couple of places in our neighborhood, the Lagrangian points, where we've looked and could probably rule out bright, shiny Battlestar Galacticas. But we certainly can't rule out small, dark things.

We just got, in February, surprised by a big rock, 20 meters across, that came into the atmosphere and - at Chelyabinsk, and surprised the hell out of everyone. There was another rock that, in the same timeframe, that we knew was coming, but we don't - when we can't find 20-meter rocks coming our - right at us, think about how little we know about our local neighborhood.

FLATOW: And how much of the ocean there is they could land in, and we'd never see them, as the Earth - yes, you have a question, there. Stand up and...

CARRIE ANN: Yeah. Hi. I'm Carrie Ann(ph). I'm a student here. I was wondering if there's any program sending out signals that other - that are systematically trying to contact other civilizations that might be out there, whether it'll be 100,000 years from now that they'll get them, beyond just our radio and TV shows.

TARTER: So we have leakage radiation, but we don't have any systematic transmission. And that's because we're not real good at 10,000-year plans.

(LAUGHTER)

TARTER: If you're going to transmit, it does no good to transmit for two years, because your signal will reach an intended audience and go by them in a two-year period. They'd have to be looking at you in just the right way, at just the right moment. So if you take transmission seriously, you've go to be in it for the long term, which means I think we have to grow up before it's time to transmit. I think it's an easier job to listen. We should listen first. And then, as we begin to have the capability to take this long look at the future - which we need to do for so many reasons, for so many other challenges on this planet - transmission might be in our future.

FLATOW: Let me give you both the blank-check question I give to a lot of my guests, and that is: If you had unlimited funds, if you had a blank check, Jill, and you wanted to continue and give up raising the money because you have the money now and you now could spend it, what would you do with it? What do we need? What technology? What ideas? What would you do with all that blank check?

TARTER: Well, actually, my check is rather modest, because I can't claim to tell you that know exactly what the right thing to do is. I can tell you that of order, a few to $10 million a year could be very well spent expanding the kinds of things we know how to do. But what if the right thing to be looking for - and I'd love to have that money, by the way. I mean, I'll take your check right now.

(LAUGHTER)

FLATOW: Of course. I have the check in my pocket, yeah.

TARTER: OK. But I wouldn't spend huge amounts on it. I wouldn't - because we can't guarantee success. It might be zeta rays that we should be looking for. I don't know what zeta rays are.

FLATOW: I was going to ask you. I missed that one. What is it?

TARTER: Yeah, right. Right. But it's a technology we haven't yet invented. It's the kind of physics that Saul is going to eventually lead to our understanding thereof. And then we'll be able to build the zeta-ray technology and use it, and we will. I mean, we always reserve the right to get smarter, so we'll keep doling what we know about wanting to be able to do in the future, adding things we don't yet know about. So my check is fairly modest.

FLATOW: Modest, yeah. Is yours modest, Saul?

SAUL PERLMUTTER: I've one reasonably modest one, if you count the new space telescope. There is a - for a long time, we've developed a plan, you know, the community has developed a plan for a - it's now called WFIRST, which was the, you know, astronomy's top-priority, decade-old survey, which is basically a much, much wider field Hubble Space Telescope. You can actually see, you know, much larger fraction of the sky at one time. And we know that that would allow us to take the next big step forward towards exploring dark energy.

But I think your big check version actually comes back to saying, I think it would be more what Jill's saying, which is that we just have to make sure that we keep the basic science coming, so that we keep inventing the next-wave thing about the world, and then that's going to help us, you know, to do the long steps.

FLATOW: Mm-hmm. So you know what those zeta rays are when you find them. Yes.

ALEX MANGUM: Hi. My name is Alex Mangum(ph). How do we know that they can receive the radio signals? How do we know that they don't have a different type of technology?

TARTER: Well, actually, that's a question that we were just discussing. We don't know what the right technology is. We can assume that a civilization, when it begins to develop technology, will want to explore its universe. And they might develop optical telescopes and radio telescopes and infrared telescopes and X-ray telescopes, and all the other wonderful things we do to explore the cosmos. And then we look within what nature does, and we try and find ways that you can transmit information over interstellar distances, the simplest answers.

And we presume that their physics is the same as our physics, and that they're - in their quest to explore the universe they live in, they will possibly have invented what we have. If they haven't invented it yet, if they're younger and less capable than we are, then we can't detect them over interstellar distances. We'll detect civilizations that have more capability than ours, that are older than we are.

FLATOW: This is SCIENCE FRIDAY, from NPR. Yes, ma'am, up there at the microphone. You're next.

SHANNON: Hi. My name is Shannon. I was wondering - speaking of big rocks coming toward the Earth, there is an organization that is asteroid detection and deflection, with former astronauts...

TARTER: B612.

SHANNON: B612 - right - with Scott Hubbard and Ed Lu. Are you working together? And also, Ira, when will you have them on the show?

(LAUGHTER)

TARTER: I'm cheering them on.

FLATOW: We've had them on. We've talked - astronaut. Yeah, we talked asteroid detection and deflection. So are you working with them?

TARTER: Yeah. They're very good friends, and I'm cheering them on, because they're also out there trying to raise money for their spacecraft. Yeah. The dinosaurs aren't with us anymore because they didn't have a space program.

(LAUGHTER)

TARTER: We would be foolish to go the same way. I'm looking for every way we can to make sure that we actually have a long future. And I see SETI as an investment in that long future.

FLATOW: Saul, before we go, we have a couple of minutes left. As a Nobel Prize-winner - you, as a Nobel Prize-winner - I'd like to know, what's the best perk you get, benefit you get winning a Nobel Prize?

(LAUGHTER)

PERLMUTTER: Well, there's no question that the single biggest perk that you get is a parking spot right in the middle of campus, at the university.

(LAUGHTER)

PERLMUTTER: You know, growing up in a big city, you know, that has got to be the ultimate.

FLATOW: For life, huh? You get it for life?

PERLMUTTER: Oh, yes. At least, as far as I know.

(LAUGHTER)

FLATOW: You haven't checked today. That's great. I think we have time for one more question. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: So I'm thinking about the Big Bang, and is there another sort of metaphor that you would use instead of the Big Bang? If the balloon doesn't work and the Big Bang doesn't work, what would be a better metaphor?

PERLMUTTER: Well, I was joking when I said the Big Soup. And I think that in some sense, though, that when you go back in time, that's about as far as we know that we - the period that we can actually talk about is a period in which things were very, very dense and right on top of each other. And, you know, it's - I don't think it's going to catch on, to be honest.

FLATOW: For some reason, the big Mulligatawny just doesn't have the same ring.

(LAUGHTER)

TARTER: A clam chowder of the universe.

PERLMUTTER: It has to be a lumpy soup, because, you know, we have to be able to form things where the lumps are, you know, so that we get to be here, eventually, So, it's not...

FLATOW: Yeah.

TARTER: Cosmic clam chowder?

PERLMUTTER: Yeah, exactly. It's...

FLATOW: Cosmic clam chowder.

PERLMUTTER: It can't be consomme. It has to be more of a clam chowder. Yeah.

FLATOW: Yeah, yeah. But it is something that is hard for people to grasp, that you could have something from nothing, that empty space is not empty, really. Right?

PERLMUTTER: That's right. I mean, that aspect itself is mindboggling, you know, to begin with, that we can't actually have an empty space. We have this very busy, boiling turmoil of what we ordinarily would consider to be completely empty. And, of course, you know, when it comes down to it, even if you get back to that first instant in your description, you call something a Big Bang or a Big Soup, that begs the question, right? Because it doesn't get to - what we really want to know is, how do we get that soup? And, you know, I think that maybe one of these - well, we don't know if it's an, you know, endless question.

FLATOW: Mm-hmm. And that is something everybody's been trying to think about for years. I mean, everybody's been trying to answer that question, what - you know, where did it all begin?

PERLMUTTER: I almost imagine that it might define what it means to be a human being, that, you know, you walk out of your cave, you know, at night, and you look up in the stars and you fund yourself asking that, and Jill's question.

FLATOW: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, I want to thank both of you for taking time to be with us to be with us today. We're happy to allow you time to talk to our audience and to think about what the future is and where we're going, where we came from. These are certainly questions you hope that people think about, right? I mean, you don't have trouble explaining it very - you don't have much trouble. Is it easy for you would explain this whole idea of dark energy?

PERLMUTTER: Well, as you can hear, you know, it's almost trivial. It's...

(LAUGHTER)

FLATOW: All right. Well, we'll leave with that. Thank you, Saul Perlmutter. He is a Nobel-winner in physics and professor of physics at UC Berkley, also senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. And also with us is Jill Tarter, chair of the SETI research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Thank you both for taking time to be with us today.

TARTER: It's been a pleasure.

Copyright ? 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/10/182861378/?ft=1&f=1007

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Website Marketing Tips That Anyone Can Follow. - Maynas Eric

Many business have found that they prefer Internet marketing over any other type of marketing available. From running up websites, to sending emails, to setting up social media accounts, today there are a huge number of ways to market your business online. Look at this article to find out how you can use Online marketing to your advantage.

When marketing your product, it is important that you have a FAQ. For all questions or issues on the site, you should have a good response that helps to alleviate any concerns the customer may have. You can word your questions so that your replies promote your products as solutions.

You can trick your readers into clicking on the ads you have by creating an image that is discreet and that will link your readers to a product page. It is possible to utilize text that is similar to that used in your articles and insert the image toward the end of your articles. You should create something that won?t look like an advertisement.

TIP! Keep an eye on competitors and their tactics, and react accordingly. Could you see yourself being tempted by their products, even though you of course should be supporting your own? Then they?re doing something right, and you should be learning from their strategies.

To convince people to purchase the products you are selling, consider sending them a content page filled with product information and maybe even a video. Customers like to feel that they are making an informed decision before purchasing your product. This demonstrates that you aren?t just after a sale, but that you want to make sure they are well informed about a particular product before deciding whether or not they want to purchase it.

Earn more subscribers to make bigger profits. Try split testing to see what sort of web design works the best. Offer one version of your webpage to one group and another version to another group. You?ll discover which methods are working best when you look at the subscription numbers for each site version.

Always be prepared to cover any questions that your guests may have. People visit your site looking for information, and if you do not give them the answer to their question, they will move on. Providing them with detailed information satisfies them and will make it so they may buy from you.

TIP! A FAQ (frequently asked questions) section on your website is a convenience that your customers will appreciate. This will enable your customers to get answers quickly and will make your site more user friendly, in general.

Try to minimize the use of AJAX and Flash so customers are not overwhelmed or bombarded with them on your site. Though you may like the visual and interactive appeal, they do nothing for your search engine rankings. Flash is unnecessary for SEO purposes, and a successful Internet site can engage customers without it.

Offer special sales on your site?s check-out page. For example, you can offer products at half-price if the customer orders a certain amount. Most customers enjoy getting a bonus and this tactic also helps you get rid of slow selling items.

Do everything you can to stay abreast of the latest trends on the Internet and the social media outlets. Keep pace with all the rapid changes and improvements on the Internet so you can always be ready to get your services placed in front of as many eyes as possible.

TIP! When designing a website, focus on creating comprehensive and high-quality content. Your website needs to inform readers about your products or services in the quickest, most engaging way possible, so they will be less likely to surf away.

You may be able to enhance your website?s appeal by doing some research on psychology studies that analyze how the design of a web page and the use of Internet promotion elements influence a person?s opinion of the site. Some of the psychological factors that effect how you perceive things can impact what you read online and what you click on. If you understand the negative and positive ways these factors can affect a person?s judgment, you can use the information to maximize your website?s appeal, thereby increasing your potential for profit.

Your website should be coded in a way that links are easily visible. The last thing you want on your website are hard to find links and lack of usability for your audience.

Don?t spend too much for advertising. You don?t want to spend any money on advertising that won?t help out your business. Banner advertising is a form of advertisement that might be more likely to pay back your investment, so you reap benefits from those hard-earned dollars.

TIP! If you give your customers the chance to subscribe to your company?s Ezine, you?ll be able to use it as an effective element of your marketing mix. Your goal will be to develop an Ezine that your customers will see as the voice of your company so you can build a long-term relationship with them.

Internet promotion is not as hard to understand as you think. Try the tips here if you want to make your online presence known by marketing to a particular customer base. Most consumers like getting information through the Internet these days, which is why Internet promotion is ideal for expanding your business.

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Source: http://www.maynaseric.com/website-marketing-tips-that-anyone-can-follow

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Immigration debate creates dilemma for Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's prospects for a sweeping legislative victory this year now rest almost solely on the immigration overhaul working its way through Congress. But immigration's tricky politics have created a dilemma for a president fighting for an issue he considers central to his legacy.

If Obama is too closely aligned with the legislation, it could scare away Republicans wary of appearing to hand the president a win. But if he stays on the sidelines and the overhaul runs into trouble on Capitol Hill, Obama likely will be criticized for not using his presidential powers to fight for votes, as he was following the recent failure of gun control measures he championed.

In the coming weeks the White House will test whether Obama can take on a more public role in the immigration debate after largely ceding the issue to Congress for much of the year. The president will ramp up his immigration-related travel this spring and summer, including a trip this week to Mexico and Costa Rica. The White House also is planning to use Spanish-language media to bolster public support for a comprehensive bill.

Still, Obama signaled during a White House news conference Tuesday that his primary talking point will be that he's backing a bill drafted by the Senate's so-called Gang of Eight, a group of four Democrats and four Republicans.

"I've been impressed by the work that was done by the Gang of Eight," Obama said. "The bill that they produced is not the bill that I would have written ? there are elements of it that I would change ? but I do think that it meets the basic criteria that I laid out from the start."

Immigration reform gained little traction in Congress during Obama's first term, in part because of opposition from GOP lawmakers. But the November election changed the political calculus for some Republicans, who watched Hispanic voters overwhelmingly side with Obama and Democrats as they increased their share of the national electorate.

At the request of the Gang of Eight, Obama kept a low-profile as the Senate working group set about the delicate task of crafting a draft bill earlier this year. The potential damage caused by White House involvement was underscored when a copy of Obama's own draft bill was leaked in February, raising suspicions among Republicans about his motivations and threatening to upend the effort.

But now that the Gang of Eight bill is public and is winning some Republican support, White House advisers say there's less risk in Obama taking on a larger public role in the debate too.

The focus on immigration in the capital comes as rallies are expected in dozens of cities around the country Wednesday in what has become an annual cry for easing the nation's immigration laws.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a favorite of conservatives and potential GOP presidential candidate in 2016, is one if the bill's architects, as is Arizona's Republican Sen. John McCain. And even in the Republican-led House, where an immigration overhaul faces a steeper challenger, the Gang of Eight measure has won praise from House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

The bill would strengthen border security, allow tens of thousands of new high- and low-skilled workers into the country, require all employers to check their workers' legal status and provide an eventual path to citizenship for some 11 million immigrants now here illegally.

The measure is similar to the immigration principles Obama outlined in January during a visit to Las Vegas, his only immigration-focused trip of the year, though there are key differences. For example, the Senate bill makes the pathway to citizenship contingent on securing the border, which Obama opposes, and does not recognize gay couples, which Obama supports.

Many immigration advocates say they support Obama getting more involved in the debate as the draft bill weaves its way through the Senate Judiciary Committee, and likely to the Senate floor.

"He needs to be an advocate and push for the bill in the Senate to make sure this gets done," Eliseo Medina of the Service Employees International Union said of the president. "We need continued sustained pressure from all facets."

McCain also welcomed the prospect of a more proactive Obama, saying the president is committed to being heavily engaged. But the Arizona Republican, who has spoken with Obama about the immigration negotiations several times in recent weeks, added that the president "doesn't want to harm the passage of the bill either. And I believe him."

But some Republicans remain suspicious of the president's efforts and say he's trying to sink the bill in order to use the legislative failure for political gain.

"I think the president wants to campaign on immigration reform in 2014 and 2016," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in an interview with CBS News. "I think the reason the White House is insisting on a path to citizenship for those who are here illegally is because the White House knows that insisting on that is very likely to scuttle the bill."

Obama advisers insist he would rather be able to claim victory on the immigration overhaul that has eluded him than use a failure as leverage in the midterm elections ? a proposition that has no guarantee of working in his favor.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-debate-creates-dilemma-obama-201331096.html

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IBM and the world's tiniest film

IBM has created the world's smallest film. "A Boy and His Atom" features, you guessed it, atoms as the main stars.?

By Associated Press / May 1, 2013

In this undated image taken from video and provided by IBM, carbon monoxide molecules are arranged on the screen to form the IBM logo, in what IBM claims to be the world's tiniest stop-action movie.

IBM/AP Photo

Enlarge

Scientists have taken the idea of a film short down to new levels. Molecular levels.

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IBM's film, A Boy and His Atom: The World's Smallest Movie

IBM says it has made the tiniest stop-motion movie ever ? a one-minute video of individual carbon monoxide molecules repeatedly rearranged to show a boy dancing, throwing a ball and bouncing on a trampoline.

Each frame measures 45 by 25 nanometers ? there are 25 million nanometers in an inch ? but hugely magnified, the movie (included below) is reminiscent of early video games, particularly when the boy bounces the ball off the side of the frame accompanied by simple music and sound effects.

The movie is titled "A Boy and His Atom."

Videos showing atoms in motion have been seen before but Andreas Heinrich, IBM's principal scientist for the project, said Tuesday this is the first time anything so small has been maneuvered to tell a story.

"This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world," Heinrich said. "The reason we made this was not to convey a scientific message directly, but to engage with students, to prompt them to ask questions."

Jamie Panas of Guinness World Records said Guinness certified the movie as "Smallest Stop-Motion Film."

IBM used a remotely operated two-ton scanning tunneling microscope at its lab in San Jose, Calif., to make the movie earlier this year. The microscope magnifies the surface over 100 million times. It operates at 450 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (268 degrees below zero Celsius).

The cold "makes life simpler for us," Heinrich said. "The atoms hold still. They would move around on their own at room temperature."

Scientists used the microscope to control a tiny, super-sharp needle along a copper surface, IBM said. At a distance of just 1 nanometer, the needle physically attracted the carbon monoxide molecules and pulled them to a precisely specified location on the surface.

The dots that make up the figures in the movie are the oxygen atoms in the molecule, Heinrich said.

The scientists took 242 still images that make up the movie's 242 frames.

Heinrich said the techniques used to make the movie are similar to what IBM is doing to make data storage smaller.

"As data creation and consumption continue to get bigger, data storage needs to get smaller, all the way down to the atomic level," he said.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Pr4es0ZnxJA/IBM-and-the-world-s-tiniest-film

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House committee to hold hearing on marathon attack

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A House committee will hold a hearing next week on the bombing at the Boston Marathon that killed three and wounded more than 200 others.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis is among those invited to testify at the hearing, to be held on May 9 by the House Homeland Security Committee.

The panel's chairman, Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, says the session will be the first in a series of hearings looking at the ways federal, state and local officials communicated with their counterparts at other agencies regarding the bombing suspects before and following the event.

McCaul says the marathon bombing was an attack by radical Islamist terrorists.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-01-Marathon-Congress/id-50c0e94e248e410b8165bd832243cd6a

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Amphibians living close to farm fields are more resistant to common insecticides

May 1, 2013 ? Amphibian populations living close to agricultural fields have become more resistant to a common insecticide and are actually resistant to multiple common insecticides, according to two recent studies conducted at the University of Pittsburgh.Amphibian populations living close to agricultural fields have become more resistant to a common insecticide and are actually resistant to multiple common insecticides.

In a study published today in Evolutionary Applications, the Pitt researchers demonstrate, for the first time, that tadpoles from populations close to farm fields are more resistant to chlorpyrifos -- one of the most commonly applied insecticides in the world, often sold as "Dursban" or "Lorsban." In addition, a related study published in February shows that tadpoles resistant to chlorpyrifos are also resistant to other insecticides.

"While we've made a lot of progress in understanding the ecological consequences to animals that are unintentionally exposed to insecticides, the evolutionary consequences are poorly understood," said study principal investigator Rick Relyea, Pitt professor of biological sciences and director of the University's Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology. "Our study is the first to explore how amphibian populations might evolve to be resistant to insecticides when they live in places that have been sprayed for many years."

The Pitt researchers used newly hatched tadpoles collected from nine populations of wood frogs living at different distances from agricultural fields. They tested the frogs' resistance when exposed to chlorpyrifos, which is used against insects, and Roundup Original MAX?, which is a common herbicide used against weeds.

Relyea and his Pitt collaborators exposed the tadpoles from each of the nine populations to environments containing either no pesticides, chlorpyrifos, or Roundup?. After 48 hours, they measured how well the populations survived.

"Wood frogs living close to agricultural land were more likely to have been exposed to pesticides for many generations compared to those living far from agriculture; the latter frog populations likely experienced little or no exposure to pesticides," said Rickey Cothran, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in Relyea's lab. "Although populations differed in their resistance to Roundup?, populations closer to fields were not more resistant to the herbicide."Wood frogs living close to agricultural land were more likely to have been exposed to pesticides for many generations compared to those living far from agriculture.

"Because chlorpyrifos kills in a way that is similar to many other insecticides, higher resistance may have been favored each time any insecticide was sprayed," said Pitt alumnus Jenise Brown (A&S '09), a coauthor of the study and a former undergraduate researcher in Relyea's lab. "In contrast, herbicides have a variety of ways that they kill organisms, which may make it harder for animals to be resistant when exposed to different herbicides over many years."

In a related study, published online Feb. 21 in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Relyea's Pitt research team examined whether wood frog populations that were resistant to chlorpyrifos might also be resistant to other insecticides. This phenomenon, said Relyea, happens commonly in pest species when farmers switch pesticides from year to year, but little is known about how this switching of pesticides affects amphibians.

Using three commonly applied pesticides that have similar chemical properties -- chlorpyrifos, carbaryl, and malathion -- the Pitt researchers exposed 15 populations of wood frog tadpoles to high concentrations of each insecticide. They found that wood frog populations with resistance to one insecticide also had resistance to the other insecticides.

"This has a beneficial outcome," said Jessica Hua, the lead author of the second study and a graduate student in Relyea's lab. "While it doesn't mean that pesticides are beneficial to amphibians, our work does suggest that amphibians can evolve to resist a variety of pesticides and therefore improve their survival."

As they hypothesized in the study published today, the researchers suspect that the reason for this cross-resistance is that chlorpyrifos kills in a way that is similar to many other insecticides. Thus, evolving higher resistance to one insecticide may provide higher resistance to others.

"This finding may buffer an amphibian population from suffering the consequences of exposures to new, but similar-acting chemicals," said Aaron Stoler, a coauthor of the second paper and a graduate student in Relyea's lab.

In the future, Relyea and his team plan to study the genetic mechanisms that underlie increased resistance in amphibians and determine whether increased resistance occurs in additional animal species that are not the targets of pesticides.

The article published today in Evolutionary Applications is titled "Proximity to agriculture is correlated with pesticide tolerance: Evidence for the evolution of amphibian resistance to modern pesticides." The article published Feb. 21 in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry is titled "Cross-tolerance in amphibians: Wood frog mortality when exposed to three insecticides with a common mode of action."

Funding for both studies was provided by a National Science Foundation grant to Relyea. Funding for the second study was also provided by Pitt's G. Murray McKinley Research Fund to Hua and Stoler. The experiments were conducted at Pitt's Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology from 2009 to 2012.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pittsburgh.

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Journal References:

1. Rickey D. Cothran, Jenise M. Brown, Rick A. Relyea. Proximity to agriculture is correlated with pesticide tolerance: evidence for the evolution of amphibian resistance to modern pesticides. Evolutionary Applications, 2013; DOI: 10.1111/eva.12069
2. Jessica Hua, Rickey Cothran, Aaron Stoler, Rick Relyea. Cross-tolerance in amphibians: Wood frog mortality when exposed to three insecticides with a common mode of action. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 2013; 32 (4): 932 DOI: 10.1002/etc.2121

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/muOC77Pa4ps/130501132058.htm

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Earthquake measuring 5.7 strikes northwest Pakistan: USGS

BERLIN, April 29 (Reuters) - Barcelona will try every trick in the book to overturn a 4-0 first-leg deficit against Bayern Munich in their Champions League semi-final return leg on Wednesday, honorary Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer warned on Monday. Bayern crushed the Spaniards last week in a surprisingly one-sided encounter but Beckenbauer, former player, coach and president of Germany's most successful club, warned that Barcelona were not ready to surrender. "Barca will try everything to throw Bayern off balance," he told Bild newspaper. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/earthquake-measuring-5-7-strikes-northwest-pakistan-usgs-073559420.html

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Microsoft reportedly working on Mohoro, an Azure-hosted remote desktop service

Microsoft is plumbing the depths of cloud computing yet again with the development of what could be a pay-per-use desktop virtualization service called Mohoro. According to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, Mohoro is essentially Azure's answer to Remote Desktop, but as a hosted service. Intended for "companies who want thin clients or to run legacy apps on new PCs," her source states that, "With Mohoro, you click a few buttons, deploy your apps, use Intune to push out configuration to all of your company's devices, and you're done," thus skipping the need for server infrastructure. As Foley points out, however, Azure-hosted virtual machines aren't currently set up to run Windows clients under Microsoft's licensing terms. What's more, Mohoro development is reportedly in its early days, and as such, Foley speculates that it won't be a reality until much later -- she's guessing the latter half of 2014.

Filed under: Networking, Microsoft

Comments

Source: ZDNet

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/02/microsoft-mohoro-virtualization-service/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Automation Alley Announces County Execs, Mayor To Speak At Awards Gala

Thursday, September 08, 2011 Automation Alley Announces County Execs, Mayor To Speak At Awards Gala
TROY ? Automation Alley announced Thursday that the executives of Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties, as well as the Mayor of Detroit, will be keynote speakers at the 2011 Annual Awards Gala. Addressing the 2011 Automation Alley Annual Awards Gala will be: Detroit Mayor Dave Bing Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson In addition, Automation Alley Executive Director Ken Rogers will deliver remarks, and the evening will be emceed by Peter Carey. The cost to attend is $150 per person for members and $200 per person for non-members. The Awards Gala will take place Friday, October 14, at MGM Grand Detroit. For more information, click on AutomationAlley.Com a>>
Author: Staff Writer Source: MITechNews.Com

Source: http://www.mitechnews.com/articles.asp?id=13615

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Premium Quality Installations Of Garage Doors In Noblesville ...

Premium Quality Installations Of Garage Doors In Noblesville

0 views This article is copyright free and is published in Storage Garage ? Home Improvement Joined: Jun 05, 2012

2550 articles

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Source: http://www.zuarticles.com/article-details/premium-quality-installations-of-garage-doors-in-noblesville.html

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