Monday, December 31, 2012

Scientists challenge current theories about natural habitats and species diversity

Dec. 30, 2012 ? How can a square meter of meadow contain tens of species of plants? And what factors determine the number of species that live in an ecosystem? Science journal has defined this as one of the 25 most important unresolved questions in science, both for its importance in understanding nature and due to the value of natural ecosystems for humankind. The value of goods and services provided by natural ecosystems is estimated to exceed the GDP of our planet.

For over 50 years, conventional ecological theories have predicted that the number of species that can coexist in a given area increases with the heterogeneity of the environmental conditions in the habitat. This premise was examined in a study conducted by research students Omri Allouche and Michael Kalyuzhny, guided by Prof. Ronen Kadmon from the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with Prof. Gregorio Moreno-Rueda and Prof. Manuel Pizarro from Universidad de Granada.

The researchers claim that in a heterogeneous environment -- where there are many different types of habitats -- there are fewer resources and less suitable area available to each species, making them more vulnerable to local extinction. This leads to the hypothesis that excessive habitat heterogeneity may actually reduce the number of species.

This hypothesis was examined using mathematical models and empirical analyses of natural ecosystems. Its predictions were examined with a meta-analysis of tens of datasets of plant and animal species from various localities worldwide.

Both the theoretical results and the data analyses supported the researchers' hypothesis that habitat heterogeneity may increase the rate of species extinctions and therefore reduce the number of species that inhabit the ecosystem.

These findings are very important for the conservation of biodiversity, since the current practice is to conserve areas of maximal habitat heterogeneity and even to take measures to increase habitat heterogeneity. The study shows that this conventional approach may lead to negative results, especially in the case of landscapes of limited size, which is typical of nature reserves.

Ecosystems and the species they consist of are under increasing pressure of human activity. In these conditions, skillful and intelligent management of natural landscapes is vital. This study provides scientists and policy makers with important insights for the selection and management of areas for conservation.

The study, Area-heterogeneity tradeoff and the diversity of ecological communities, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. It was funded by the Israel Science Foundation and by Israel's Ministry of Science and Technology.

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

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


Journal Reference:

  1. O. Allouche, M. Kalyuzhny, G. Moreno-Rueda, M. Pizarro, R. Kadmon. Area-heterogeneity tradeoff and the diversity of ecological communities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; 109 (43): 17495 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1208652109

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/qQW6huT_mlg/121230143021.htm

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Video: Obama: ?Puzzling? why Susan Rice was targeted

A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/50321667#50321667

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If cut, fiscal deal will pale against expectations

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Whether negotiated in a rush before the new year or left for early January, the fiscal deal President Barack Obama and Congress cobble together will be far smaller than what they initially envisioned as an alternative to purposefully distasteful tax increases and spending cuts.

Instead, their deal, if a deal they indeed cut, will put off some big decisions about tax and entitlement changes and leave other deadlines in place that will likely lead to similar moments of brinkmanship, some in just a matter of weeks.

Republican and Democratic negotiators in the Senate were hoping for a deal as early as Sunday on what threshold to set for increased tax rates, whether to keep current inheritance tax rates and exemptions and how to pay for jobless benefits and avoid cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.

An agreement would halt automatic across-the-board tax increases for virtually every American and perhaps temporarily put off some steep spending cuts in defense and domestic programs.

Gone, however, is the talk of a grand deal that would tackle broad spending and revenue demands and set the nation on a course to lower deficits. Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner were once a couple hundred billion dollars apart of a deal that would have reduced the deficit by more than $2 trillion over ten years.

Republicans have complained that Obama has demanded too much in tax revenue and hasn't proposed sufficient cuts or savings in the nation's massive health care programs.

In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" that aired Sunday, Obama upped the pressure on Republicans to negotiate a fiscal deal, arguing that GOP leaders have rejected his past attempts to strike a bigger and more comprehensive bargain.

"The offers that I've made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me," Obama said.

The interview was taped Saturday while aides to the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., were engaged in negotiations in the Capitol in hopes of having something to present senators as early as Sunday.

"I was modestly optimistic yesterday, but we don't yet see an agreement," Obama said, referring to his mood Friday. "And now the pressure's on Congress to produce."

The trimmed ambitions of today are a far cry from the upbeat bipartisan rhetoric of just six weeks ago, when the leadership of Congress went to the White House to set the stage for negotiations to come.

"I outlined a framework that deals with reforming our tax code and reforming our spending," Boehner said as the leaders gathered on the White House driveway on Nov. 16.

"We understand that it has to be about cuts, it has to be about revenue, it has to be about growth, it has to be about the future," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said at the time. "I feel confident that a solution may be in sight."

And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered a bold prediction: "There is no more let's do it some other time. We are going to do it now."

That big talk is over for now.

Senate negotiators were haggling over what threshold of income to set as the demarcation between current tax rates and higher tax rates. They were negotiating over estate limits and tax levels, how to extend unemployment benefits, how to prevent cuts in Medicare payments to doctors and how to keep a minimum income tax payment designed for the rich from hitting about 28 million middle class taxpayers.

But the deal was not meant to settle other outstanding issues, including more than $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years, divided equally between the Pentagon and other government spending. The deal also would not address an extension of the nation's borrowing limit, which the government is on track to reach any day but which the Treasury can put off through accounting measures for about two months.

That means Obama and the Congress are already on a new collision path. Republicans say they intend to use the debt ceiling as leverage to extract more spending cuts from the president. Obama has been adamant that unlike 2011, when the country came close to defaulting on its debts, he will not yield to those Republican demands.

As the day ended Saturday, there were few signs of success on a scaled-back deal. But no one was declaring a stalemate either.

Lawmakers have until the new Congress convenes to pass any compromise, and even the calendar mattered. Democrats said they had been told House Republicans might reject a deal until after Jan. 1, to avoid a vote to raise taxes before they had technically gone up, and then vote to cut taxes after they had risen.

Republicans said they were willing to bow to Obama's call for higher taxes on the wealthy as part of a deal to prevent them from rising on those less well-off.

Democrats said Obama was sticking to his campaign call for tax increases above $250,000 in annual income, even though he said in recent negotiations he said he could accept $400,000. There was no evidence of agreement even at the higher level.

Obama, who once proposed nearly $1.6 trillion in tax revenue over 10 years, would get about half of that if he succeeded in getting a $250,000 threshold over 10 years. At a $400,000 level, the revenue figure drops to about $600 billion over a decade.

Republicans want to leave the estate tax at 35 percent after exempting the first $5 million in estate value. Officials said the White House wants a 45 percent tax after a $3.5 million exemption. Without any action by Congress, it would climb to a 55 percent tax after a $1 million exemption on Jan. 1. Obama's proposal would generate more than $100 billion in additional revenue over 10 years.

Democrats stressed their unwillingness to make concessions on both income taxes and the estate tax, and hoped Republicans would choose which mattered more to them.

Associated Press writer David Espo contributed to this article

Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

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Associated Press writer David Espo contributed to this article.

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Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cut-fiscal-deal-pale-against-expectations-140658299--politics.html

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Wake Up...to Live!: Is Your Communication Style Insulting or Inspiring?

Is Your Communication Style Insulting or Inspiring?

Is your communication style insulting, belittling, or inspiring? ?When writing comments in the first person, it guarantees me not to exclude myself from what is being discussed. ?Thus, I take on the responsibility to what I write or say. ?I don't direct the comment to someone else. ?Rather I try to influence. ?For instance, "when I am not expressing my own creative potential, I focus on blame in a relationship instead of?focusing?on creativity." ?I take on the responsibility personally.

On the other hand, if I write in third person, I direct the comment to others so that now I am more of a judge and?juror than someone trying to support and uplift. ?For example, "when people aren't expressing their own potential, they focus blame on the relationship instead of focusing on their creativity." ?Do you see the difference? ?Do you feel the difference?

Many of us say and believe we are inspiring others into awareness; but when it really comes down to it, we are judging others; we are not inspiring others. ?I do this myself probably more often than I should. ?Here's another example; but this one is in second person: "As you waste your breath complaining about life, someone out there is breathing their last." ?How do you feel when you read this? ?To me, this one sounds as though the person writing is belittling me and pointing fingers; rather than inspiring me.

Of course, there is a time and place to write and talk in second and third person for sure. ?And, to get a point across, sometimes people need a wake up call with the second person - kind of in your face direct wake up call. ?Third person may be a little more gentle. ?Nonetheless, it is still talking about you and me rather than about the writer.

Why did I write about first, second, and third person pronouns? ?For sometime now, I have been scanning through posts from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. ?For a while, I couldn't understand why I would get agitated and then "hide" certain posts. ?Me, the curious cat, needed to uncover why this subtle physiological arousal was happening. ?Always interested in communication and relationships especially after reading Marshall B. Rosenberg's books,?Speak Peace in a World of Conflict and Nonviolent Communication, I started to figure out that it is not what is being said but how it is being said. ?Thus, some posts would inspire me and others would agitate me.

To sum up, is your communication style insulting, pointing fingers, or inspiring? ?Just remember that you, me, and they must remember the importance of communication - tone of voice, pronouns and words used, and physiology expressed. ?Additionally, how we communicate things may be more important than what we communicate depending on the purpose of the communication.

A note: This is quite a simplified explanation in regards to communication; but it brings out the basics. ?Using the various pronouns can also be very inspiring. ?So give your words some thought before you verbally express them. ?Or, rather, have your purpose in mind about the conversation you desire. ?Setting an intention, ultimately, will set the tone of the conversation.

?

Source: http://www.wakeuptolive.com/2012/12/is-your-communication-style-insulting.html

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Sunday, December 30, 2012

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I will think This Interesting ,and you can see Labor Day Recipes ? Desserts Feature Details . The end of summer is here and you want to enjoy a last blow out picnic with your friends and family. These desserts will have you in and out of the kitchen in no time and all them pack well for your picnic at the park.

Make these desserts a day or so ahead of time and sit back and enjoy the time you will save with your friends and family on this holiday.

This book also includes the History of Labor Day.

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ITC Judge recommends Samsung post 88 percent value bond, import bans in Apple patent case

If you're keeping track of the multiple, and let's face it, tiresome Samsung / Apple patent debacle, a document that just turned up at the ITC might spell more trouble for the Korean manufacturer. It's a publicly redacted version of Judge Pender's recommendations, and pertains to the October ruling that deemed Samsung borrowed four of Cupertino's designs. The most iconic being design patent D618,678 (that which you see above). The others include multi-touch patent 7,479,949 (which was tentatively invalidated) along with two other patents (RE41,922 and 7,912,501) relating to graphic display elements and audio hardware detection. If the recommendations are adopted -- and FOSS Patents suggests this is entirely possible -- Samsung could face a US import ban after a 60 day presidential review, an order prohibiting "significant" sales of infringing products in America along with a posting a bond for 88 percent of the entered value of mobile phones (plus 32.5 percent for media players and 37.6 percent for tablets) that include the breaching design features. Pender has, however, reportedly cleared several Samsung "designarounds" which, if implemented to satisfaction, would mean the tech giant could continue trading. For now though, the recommendations are awaiting the Commission's review.

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Via: FOSS Patents

Source: ITC (Doc ID 500118)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/29/itc-document-recommends-samsung-post-88-percent-value-bond/

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Nuclear Roulette - Society, Politics, and the Planet - Discussion Group

Nuclear Roulette: The Truth About the Most Dangerous Energy Source on Earth
By Mark Karlin, Truthout | Interview

Attached File ?Nuclear Roulette.jpg ??204.75K ??2 downloads
According to Chelsea Green, the publisher of the new book Nuclear Roulette:
Each new disaster demonstrates that the nuclear industry and governments lie to "avoid panic," to preserve the myth of "safe, clean" nuclear power, and to sustain government subsidies. Tokyo and Washington both covered up Fukushima's radiation risks and - when confronted with damning evidence - simply raised the levels of "acceptable" risk to match the greater levels of exposure.

Nuclear Roulette dismantles the core arguments behind the nuclear-industrial complex's "Nuclear Renaissance." While some critiques are familiar - nuclear power is too costly, too dangerous, and too unstable - others are surprising: Nuclear Roulette exposes historic links to nuclear weapons, impacts on Indigenous lands and lives, and the ways in which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission too often takes its lead from industry, rewriting rules to keep failing plants in compliance. Nuclear Roulette cites NRC records showing how corporations routinely defer maintenance and lists resulting "near-misses" in the US, which average more than one per month.
Truthout interviewed the book's author, Gar Smith:

Mark Karlin: The first part of your book covers 14 arguments against nuclear power. Let's talk about a couple, starting with one that is a bit inclusive of most of the others. What are the catastrophic dangers of nuke plants that you detail in Chapter 4?

Gar Smith: Atomic energy is impractical on many levels. Nuclear power has proven too costly to survive without massive government support and taxpayer bailouts. Nuclear power is inherently unreliable because reactors must be regularly shut down to replace used fuel assemblies. Reactors also experience "unplanned shutdowns," which means they can be offline more than 10 percent of the time. In 2011, the NRC's own records revealed at least 75 percent of US reactors were routinely leaking radioactive tritium.

Nuclear reactors are not energy efficient. They produce far more heat than they can possibly use. It takes as much as 500,000 gallons of water per minute to keep these plants cool. Even then, around two-thirds of the heat is wasted and needs to be spilled into nearby waterways or into the atmosphere. A reactor is like a sports car built to travel 600 miles per hour in a world where the speed limit is 60 mph. To operate it safely, you need to have your foot on the brakes - at all times. And good luck if the brakes fail.

The world now has experienced three catastrophic events in three decades - with explosions, fires and meltdowns at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Add to that the increasing number of accidents as aging reactors in the US and around the world continue to crack, leak and fail. Whether the industry likes it or not, it is inevitable that nuclear accidents are going to increasingly make the evening news.

Mark Karlin: We hear so much nuclear industry talk of new and improved reactors. What is the reality behind that claim?

Gar Smith: While there are new designs, as yet, none of them have been built or fully tested. Most of the so-called Generation IV reactors will probably never be built. The new AP1000 reactors under construction in Georgia and South Carolina have fundamental design flaws that prompted the former chair of the NRC to vote against granting them a license. Construction of Georgia's two AP1000 Vogtle reactors (supported with billions in taxpayer-backed loan guarantees) has been plagued by shoddy construction and second-rate building materials.
In addition to the proposed new reactors (which would operate at temperatures two to three times greater than existing plants), the Department of Energy is providing funds to kick-start something called a small modular reactor. These "mini-nukes" could be housed inside a two-car garage but would probably be placed underground. Dispersing these small reactors across the landscape would increase security risks, magnify supply-and-transportation hazards, and do nothing to reduce the danger of reactor accidents and routine releases of radioactivity.
Let's be clear: nuclear plants don't generate electricity. They produce only three things: vast amounts of heat (which is used to spin the turbines that generate electricity), radioactive fallout (in the form of "permissible" leaks that have been linked to thyroid tumors and childhood leukemia) and tons of radioactive garbage.
Recently, nuclear power has been promoted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels, but even if atomic power were carbon-free (which it is not), relying on nuclear to eliminate even half of the world's climate-warming CO2 emissions would require building 32 new reactors a year. That's not gonna happen.

Mark Karlin: In the 50s and 60s, there was a large European and United States anti-nuclear movement that included massive protests against nuke bombs and plants. What happened? Nuclear power hardly is in the news anymore except when there is a meltdown such as at Fukushima.

Gar Smith: Well, many of those protests were staged to halt construction of new reactors. Once the reactors were up and running, the protests lost their purpose. As to the general lack of critical news, that could have something to do with the fact that the major networks are corporate and have consolidated to just a few over the years. Their interests are corporate.
When the fallout from Fukushima reached the West Coast, the public was assured that the iodine-131 in the rainwater had a radioactive half-life of "only" six days. But if you really want to know how long an isotope remains hazardous, multiply the half-life by ten.

Mark Karlin: Truthout recently ran an excerpt from Nuclear Roulette about industry-government public relations to promote nuclear power. How does this manifest itself?

Gar Smith: A nuclear engineer once observed: "Nuclear power can be safe and nuclear power can be cheap. Just not at the same time." The nuclear disasters in Pennsylvania, Ukraine and Japan all demonstrated a common response from industry and government - a pattern of hubris, denial and deception. The basic premise is that the technology will never fail. When it does fail, you deny a problem exists. Finally, when the problem spins out of control, you resort to deception to avoid accountability.
Following the Fukushima meltdowns, the White House falsely assured the public the fallout would not reach the US. The Environmental Protection Agency then failed to release evidence that its RadNet monitors detected radioactive iodine and cesium in West Coast rainwater. In Japan, when radiation levels rose above "safe" levels, Tokyo responded by raising the "allowable" exposure to radiation. The US did the same. The US has cut back its monitoring of fallout from daily detection to quarterly tests. With the Fukushima meltdowns still not contained, this is indefensible.

Mark Karlin: What is President Obama's current position on nuclear energy development?

Gar Smith: It was George W. Bush who tried to create a so-called "nuclear renaissance" by expediting the reactor licensing and promising the industry billions of dollars in government handouts. President Obama initially outdid Bush, offering to double the amount of the government's nuclear bailout. While Obama has made important commitments to funding renewable energy programs, he still remains wedded to the nuclear lobby. Fukushima provides the most egregious example.
Following the triple meltdown, Tokyo closed all of its reactors. (Two were subsequently restarted, but their days are numbered since it's been discovered they are sitting atop an active earthquake fault.) Japan publicly announced plans to permanently close all its reactors by 2030, but suddenly had an abrupt change of mind. What happened? According to reports in the Nikkei News Service, Secretary of State Clinton informed then-Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda that Japan's anti-nuclear plan posed a problem for America's "energy strategy." He was advised not to abandon the nuclear path.

Mark Karlin: In Nuclear Roulette, you address the perils of aging reactors. What is the magnitude of this danger in the United States?

Gar Smith: In 2008, a government study found "degraded conditions" in aging US reactors were responsible for 70 percent of the industry's "potentially serious safety problems." Despite these warnings, the nuclear industry successfully pressured the NRC to begin extending the 40-year operating life of 52 aging US reactors to 60 years. In June 2012, the NRC met to consider extending some operating permits for up to 80 years - twice the reactors' intended operating life.

Mark Karlin: How cozy is the NRC with the industry it regulates?

Gar Smith: As a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama called the NRC "a moribund agency ... captive of the industry that it regulates." There are good people in the NRC but, too often, the NRC (like other government agencies) acts less like a watchdog and more like an enabler. Thanks to this regulatory-industrial complex, the NRC has repeatedly rewritten the rulebook to allow failing plants to receive passing grades.
A 2011 investigation by the Associated Press revealed how the NRC had been "working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation's aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them."
Mark Karlin: You have a chapter on near misses and unbelievable mishaps. What are some of them?

Gar Smith: There have been more than 50 major nuclear disasters around the world over the last 60 years - including fires, explosions and meltdowns that resulted in deaths, mass evacuations and permanent contamination of downwind lands. At least 11 workers have been killed in US reactor accidents. Three Army technicians were killed in an explosion at a government reactor in Idaho in 1961 (their bodies had to be buried in lead-lined coffins). Another eight workers were killed in a series of three explosions over a 14-year span at the Surry reactor in Virginia.
In addition to these fatalities, there have been scores of near misses. In 1975, a worker using a candle to check for air leaks accidentally set fire to the Browns Ferry plant in Alabama. The fire burned for more than seven hours and one of the two reactors suffered a near-meltdown.

In 1981, California's two San Onofre reactors were closed to repair 6,000 damaged steam generator tubes. During the restart, the plant caught fire, knocking out one of the plant's two emergency backup generators. In February 2012, a similar steam-tube problem caused a release of radioactive hydrogen gas that again shut down San Onofre's reactors. Despite a second hydrogen leak in October, the plant's operators have asked the NRC for permission to restart one reactor and run it for five months at 70 percent power to "see if it is safe."

In 2002, inspectors in Ohio discovered a "hole in the head" of the reactor vessel at the Davis-Besse plant. The corrosion was so extensive it posed the imminent danger of a massive explosion and radiation release.
It's important to note that the Fukushima reactors were designed and built by General Electric, and 23 of these "Fukushima-style" reactors are currently installed at 16 sites in 12 US states. When Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast, it knocked out five reactors in its path - including three GE Fukushima-style reactors. The Nine Mile Point reactor was shut down, the Fitzpatrick reactor caught fire, and flooding at the Oyster Creek reactor came within six inches of disabling the spent fuel pool cooling pumps. (If these had failed, the NRC's recommended "fix" was to use a "fire hose" to cool the plant.)

Nuclear power is exponentially more dangerous than any other energy source. Reactors were designed to operate on a more benign planet - not in a world torn by record earthquakes, epic solar flares, extreme hurricanes, floods, fires and droughts.

Mark Karlin: You conclude with a section on alternatives to nuclear power. What are some of the major ones, and why aren't we moving aggressively forward with them?

Gar Smith: I'm glad you asked that question. For all the attention on the downsides of nuclear power, it's important to note that the last third of the book is devoted to solutions.
Wind energy is the world's fast-growing energy sector. The potential for land-based wind power is estimated to be 20 times greater than the world's current electric power consumption. While it took 24 years to build the last US reactor, a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine can be installed in a single day and will be producing electricity in a matter of weeks. In California, 100,000 rooftop solar panels are generating more than 1 gigawatt of clean electricity.
These technologies are being abetted by new structural approaches ranging from mixed-tech microgrids to municipal ownership and production. And there are policy options that promise to increase efficiency, reduce consumption and usher in an age of "energy democracy" where energy is produced locally by homeowners instead of commercial utilities.

Just look at Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel was a nuclear advocate until Fukushima happened. Now she has closed eight of the country's 17 reactors and plans to complete the transition from nuclear energy by 2022. In two years, Germany has added more than ten gigawatts of solar power to the grid and has opened powerful wind farms off the coast.

What stands in the way? A powerful and entrenched elite dominates US energy policy. The growing disparity of wealth has transformed the US. Our struggling democracy has been replaced by a strangling plutocracy. Like every other corporate energy provider, the nuclear industry is deeply embedded in the economic and political life of the US. Whenever great wealth and power is allowed to accumulate, those who profit from this concentration inevitably seek to defend and extend their control - regardless of the cost to public health, democracy or even the long-term well being of the planet.

Mark Karlin: Ernest Callenbach and Jerry Mander write in the foreword to Nuclear Roulette: "It will be an auspicious start to our new century if we can encourage a revitalized movement to stop all nuclear production and immediately close down every nuclear facility - military and civilian. Then we can dedicate our skills and resources to finding true solutions to the real challenges of our time: evolving a sustainable, energy-wise, and peaceful society." What would make such a transformation in our culture and politics possible?

Gar Smith: Individuals have already begun the transition from fossil fuels to clean renewables. The dig-it-up/burn-it/dump-it approach to energy is being challenged by the new technologies that harvest the clean, free energy that pours from the sky in the form of sunbeams and breezes.

The world is not only running out of cheaply obtainable fossil fuels; we're also running out of high-grade uranium ore. Because all these mineral resources are finite, some kind of transition is inevitable. The only question is, how much damage will we inflict on human and planetary health in the meantime?

We really need to turn our focus toward decommissioning our reactors. Sure, decommissioning is a long and costly process, but it is infinitely more affordable than cleaning up the aftermath of a single nuclear meltdown. Decommissioning one reactor can cost $10 billion over ten years, but cleaning up the mess at Fukushima is expected to take 30 years and cost $137 billion.

What might the future look like? Take a look at Saudi Arabia. Even the Saudi royal family can see the writing on the wall. The kingdom recently announced plans to install 54,000 milliwatts of clean, renewable power over the next 20 years.

Source: http://jwsoundgroup.net/index.php?/topic/15081-nuclear-roulette/

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Art Insurance Losses from Hurricane Sandy May Reach $500 Million ...

Two months after Hurricane Sandy caused severe flooding in many Chelsea galleries, the bill for the art world?s recovery is shaping up to be hefty. By mid-November, AXA Art Insurance, one of the largest art insurers, estimated that it would be paying out $40 million, and a Reuters report last week quoted industry estimates suggesting that insurance losses for flooded galleries and ruined art may come to as much as $500 million ? or the rough equivalent of what the art insurance business takes in each year. That would amount to the largest loss the art world and its insurers have ever sustained.

Included in this half-billion-dollar total, Reuters reported, is a claim for losses sustained on work by the pop artist Peter Max, whose works on paper are said to have been stored in a warehouse that was flooded. Reuters, quoting unnamed sources, put the claim on Mr. Max?s work at $300 million (although Mr. Max?s Web site, unlike those of many other artists affected by Sandy, made no mention of storm-related losses as of Friday). A message left for the representative listed on Mr. Max?s Web site was not returned on Friday.

In a telephone interview on Friday, Filippo Guerrini-Maraldi, the executive director of fine art at R.K. Harrison, a London-based insurance broker whose clients include several Chelsea galleries, said that the industry-wide figure ? which he estimated at between $400 million and $500 million ? covered the physical damage to the galleries themselves as well as art losses.

?Chelsea got hit hard,? Mr. Guerrini-Maraldi said, ?and there were other consequential losses. Because many of the galleries lacked power for a while, and because it then got cold in New York, things that needed to be in a controlled environment were affected. Works on wood, for example ? we?re seeing those kinds of claims.?

The scope of the claims could have other ramifications for art dealers and insurers, including higher insurance rates. Mr. Guerrini-Maraldi guessed that the rate increases could be as much as 5 to 10 percent, reversing recent rate reductions caused by competition and rate wars in the art insurance business.

?A lot of underwriters have felt that art insurance was a good business to be writing,? Mr. Guerrini-Maraldi said, ?because it?s profitable, and because losses are rare ? although when they do happen, they can be big. Already, we?re seeing that cost reductions are out. People are holding their prices firm, and I?m convinced that we will see a rise in the coming months.?

Meanwhile, a recent visit to Chelsea suggested that gallery owners? initial estimates that the area would be fully back in business by mid-December were overly optimistic. While some street-level galleries were up and running, others were shuttered, and at several, signs posted on their doors said that only authorized workers could enter. Construction crews and gallery staff could be seen through the windows, working on walls and shelving, with no art in sight.

Source: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/art-insurance-losses-from-hurricane-sandy-may-reach-500000-million/

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Senate renews warrantless surveillance act

2 hrs.

The U.S. Senate Friday voted?overwhelmingly in favor of keeping a?George W. Bush-era surveillance law that will allow continued warrantless surveillance of Americans for the next five years.

The Senate's 73-23 vote on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is an extension of the warrantless wiretapping law that grants legal immunity to telecommunications providers in order to continue to assist intelligence agencies with monitoring communications.

In addition to phone calls, text messages and emails may also be obtained by investigators for counterterrorism purposes, an easy assertion for law enforcement to make, Gizmodo reports.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet rights advocacy organization, claimed in a statement that the act "allows the government to get secret FISA court orders???orders that do not require probable cause like regular warrants???for any emails or phone calls going to and from overseas. The communications only have to deal with "foreign intelligence information," a broad term that can mean virtually anything. And one secret FISA order can be issued against groups or categories of people???potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of Americans at once."

"Incredibly, the Senate rejected all the proposed amendments that would have brought a modicum of transparency and oversight to the government's activities," the EFF said?Friday?after the vote.

The bill is now headed for President Obama's desk where he is expected to sign it. Although an identical bill elicited contentious debate in 2008, a different political climate made passage much easier now.

"This is the last opportunity for the next five years for the Congress to exercise a modest measure of real oversight over this intelligence surveillance law," Sen. Ron Wyden,?D-Oregon, told the press before the vote. "It is not real oversight when the United States Congress cannot get a yes or no answer to the question of whether an estimate currently exists as to whether law abiding Americans have had their phone calls and emails swept up under the FISA law."

Wyden had introduced an amendment to the bill that would have forced the National Security Agency?to disclose how many Americans had been affected by FISA. Since 2009 the agency has refused to share that information on the basis that it would violate the privacy of those affected.?

Copyright 2012?TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/senate-renews-warrantless-surveillance-act-1C7753034

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Mobile Miscellany: week of December 24th, 2012

Mobile Miscellany week of December 24th, 2012

If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, we stumbled upon a sneak peek of Sony's promised Jelly Bean update and XDA University opened its doors to educate others about the curious world of Android customization. Not to stop there, Nokia unleashed a new entry-level handset for those in mainland China. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of December 24th, 2012.

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of December 24th, 2012

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/29/mobile-miscellany-week-of-december-24th-2012/

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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Basic question about Windows 8 UI - Computers, Math, Science ...

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Basic question about Windows 8 UI
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 8:39 pm?? ?Post subject: Basic question about Windows 8 UI Reply with quote

Ok, to start off, I have zero experience with the new Windows 8 Metro UI and at first look it is intimidating. My father-in-law just got a Windows 8 laptop this evening and he's extremely frustrated with the UI. He is 60 years old, grumpy and not very keen when it comes to PCs. My question is: "How to get a classic Windows UI in the Windows 8 environment?" I briefly Googled the issue but was directed to download third-party software that would display the classic UI. I'm scared to mess around too much with someone else's device for fear of screwing it up.
I root Android phones and tablets and write my own programs so I do have technological knowledge but not enough to feel confident in tackling this issue myself. Is there an option in the settings that would enable this feature? Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, any help will be greatly appreciated! Smile
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 10:39 pm?? ?Post subject: Reply with quote

I really do believe Windows 8 is better that 7. That's the good news. The bad news is things are spread out in a relatively illogical fashion. This creates a steeper learning curve than it did with 7. It's been frustrating, even for someone like me who's been using Windows for years. Just try utilizing the PDF functions of their built-in reader and you'll see the hoops you have to go through to print, increase print size or rotate documents. That said, it does seem the only way to revert back to a W7 UI in W8 is to use the 3rd party programs.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 4:43 am?? ?Post subject: Reply with quote

I think Windows 8 has dumbed it down too much (which in a way makes it confusing for people!) and if I wanted my PC to behave and look like a phone - I would ditch my PC and use my phone exclusively. They even call software apps.... eh? My step father (in his mis 60's) tonight has also just got a laptop with Windows 8 and I already regret the choice. Thinking to just wipe it and install his precious Windows XP. But that takes know how too.. which I can do.. but just like you, don't want to risk what is not my property.

Wish I had a better solution for you.. as for me.. I am choosing to remove myself from the situation as my frustration with him is getting to undesirable levels.

Good luck.

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Polish bishop who built secret communist-era churches dies at 94

WARSAW (Reuters) - Retired Polish Archbishop Ignacy Tokarczuk, who built churches in secret in defiance of the communist authorities, becoming a folk hero for many, has died at the age of 94, PAP news agency said on Saturday.

One of the Soviet bloc's more colorful anti-communist clerics, Tokarczuk clandestinely built hundreds of churches under the noses of the officially atheist government in the 1960s and 1970s.

"While Ignacy Tokarczuk was bishop of Przemysl, more than 400 churches and chapels were built in the diocese despite the lack of building permits from the communist authorities," Episcopate Chairman Archbishop Jozef Michalik said on the website of the Przemysl Archdiocese.

"He will be remembered for his uncompromising stance in defence of the institution of the Catholic Church despite frequent harassment by the security service of the Polish People's Republic."

The typical ruse was for a parishioner in the staunchly Catholic Przemysl region, in southeastern Poland, to get a building permit from the authorities to build a farmhouse, whose interior was then secretly fitted out as a house of worship.

When volunteer builders from the parish had everything in place, they would affix a small steeple to the roof under the cover of darkness, and a new church was created.

Communist security troops were routinely sent to the churches after they were discovered but, faced with the embarrassing prospect of demolishing a structure built by local volunteers, the authorities frequently gave in.

Despite constant surveillance and harassment, including visa denials preventing trips to Rome, Tokarczuk actively supported anti-communist dissident groups in the 1970s and the Solidarity movement that emerged in 1980.

The Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, Solidarity evolved into a 10-million-strong pro-democracy movement which the communists tried to crush.

Tokarczuk died on Friday in Przemysl.

(Reporting by Rob Strybel; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/polish-bishop-built-secret-communist-era-churches-dies-134507876.html

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Video: Putin Signs Adoption Ban

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50315585/

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Hope Echoes: 7 Quickly Taken Thoughts About Christmas Week

Jennifer Fulwiler hosts this meme.? Go visiting.

1. We celebrated my family Christmas on Sunday in Quincy.? My sister and her husband and son, my brother without his family, my son and husband and Mom and me were the extent of the crowd.? Mom cooked for us.? She lost the cherry crisp she had made.? It was found up in the pantry on a high shelf.? It made for a fun party game, if one discounts the worry about Mom's memory.

We played our family card game--pitch which is a bidding game that is a little like euchre and a little like bridge and is a real game on it's own.?

We gave Mom a new snazzy black cane and a new vacuum sweeper.? We took the old clunker home.? It weighs a ton (the old one).

2. Sunday was also my 34th wedding anniversary.? To couples planning a wedding at Christmas, I say don't.? The anniversary almost always gets crowded in by Christmas. This year we went out to eat at Red Lobster the night before. But, the anniversary comes and goes and Christmas overtakes it.

3. Monday was Christmas Eve.? The old crabby cat got us up at before the crack of dawn.? I had to get a few groceries and we went out for lunch.

4. Christmas was lovely. I am now a Kindle reader.? I hope I like that.

We had a feast.? It is a repeat of Thanksgiving, but a once a year treat that I serve twice.? Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry sauce, salad, and pumpkin pie.
The dining room looked lovely.? And someday when I don't have a dining room again, I want to remember this one.

5. Wednesday it was supposed to snow.? We dodged a bullet and sent the snow south.? I am concerned about how dry it is.? They are predicting a second year of drought.? A little more snow would help the ground to moisten up a bit, so I do hope it snows this winter.?

6. And I went up to Quincy again to meet with my mom and the lawyer to get some things about her finances straightened out. It is hard to reach this point where we have to admit that Mom is no longer able to entirely handle her own affairs.? She is still driving, I wish she would plan to give that up.? But, she is already saying that she will drive if seh can pass the test again in June. She will be 92. Oh my!

7.? And once again, I didn't get a puppy for Christmas.? I reflect that may be a good thing.

Source: http://hopeechoes.blogspot.com/2012/12/7-quickly-taken-thoughts-about.html

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Obama uses summit to turn up heat on republicans (Powerlineblog)

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Jobless claims fall to lowest in almost 4-1/2 years

21 hrs.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid fell last week to nearly its lowest level in 4 1/2 years, a sign that the labor market is healing.?

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised to show 1,000 more applications than previously reported.?

After spiking in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which ravaged the East Coast in late October, the weekly levels of new claims have now dropped to their lowest levels since the early days of the 2007-09 recession. The four-week moving average fell 11,250 last week to 356,750, the lowest since March 2008.?

That suggests the surge in layoffs since the recession may have run its course, although companies still are adding to their payrolls at a lackluster pace.?

The report included a caveat, at least for the latest week. President Barack Obama declared Monday a holiday for federal workers and many state offices followed suit and were unable to provide complete data for last week's jobless claims. Data for 19 states was estimated, a Labor Department official said. Fourteen of those states submitted their own estimates, which tend to be fairly accurate because the state officials work with a significant amount of data, the Labor Department official said.?

Besides the federal holiday, there were no special factors influencing week's claims data, the department official said.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/jobless-claims-fall-lowest-almost-4-1-2-years-1C7657760

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Friday, December 28, 2012

Camila Alves and Matthew McConaughey: Parents Again!

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Ford Barraged by C-Max Hybrid MPG Claims

Ford C-Max

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First Hyundai and Kia suffered the slings and arrows of overestimated fuel economy figures, and now Ford is taking heat over the efficiency claims of their C-Max Hybrid-- but this time, the real world discrepancies are considerable.

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The buzzkill for Ford is huge: the C-Max has gone from being the quickest selling hybrid in history to becoming a poster child for inaccurate fuel economy claims. Even automotive journalists are disgruntled over the real world MPG numbers produced by the small hatchback; Automotive News scribe Larry P. Vellequette reports an average indicated 35.5 mpg on his personal C-Max, while Consumer Reports says the 20 percent divide they've witnessed between published numbers and actual MPGs is the largest discrepancy they've measured in any current model.

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While a recent class-action lawsuit is-- ahem, fueling further woes for Ford, the Blue Oval's biggest challenge will be restoring credibility among potential buyers.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/auto-blog/ford-gets-heat-over-cmax-fuel-economy-claims?src=rss

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Amazon most satisfying website to shop: survey

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc remained the best website for shopping online while JC Penney Co Inc suffered the largest drop in customer satisfaction of any major online retailer this holiday season, according to a survey released on Thursday.

Flash sale sites Gilt.com and RueLaLa.com were among the worst performers in online shopping satisfaction this season, according to ForeSee's Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index.

"The importance of satisfying them and giving a great consumer experience is going to pay back huge dividends in terms of profitability for these retailers," said Larry Freed, president and chief executive officer of ForeSee, which measures customer satisfaction for companies, including retailers.

Amazon has held the highest score in each of the eight years of the index, due in part to the wide variety of merchandise it offers and a site that is easy to use.

"They've really done a great job in setting the standard for everybody else," Freed said of Amazon.

Amazon's score was again 88 out of 100, while Gilt.com and Fingerhut.com shared the lowest score of 72. LLBean.com had the second-highest ranking, 85, up 4 points from a year earlier.

A score of 80 or higher is considered strong, Freed said.

JC Penney's score fell to 78 from 83.

"They've struggled a lot in their stores as they've tried to reinvent themselves a bit and that's carried over a little bit to the website," Freed said.

Other retailers that saw their ForeSee satisfaction scores drop included Apple Inc - down to 80 from 83 - and Dell Inc, which fell to 77 from 80.

At Apple, as the popular tech company has brought out more products, navigating the site has become more of an issue, said Freed. Improving the functionality of the site would give it the biggest boost, he said.

No. 1 U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which is trying to grow its online sales, scored a 78 for its Walmart.com website, down from 79 in 2011. Rival Target Corp's website scored 79, up from 76 last year, when it had some struggles after taking over control of the site from Amazon.

As for those flash sale sites coming in at the low end of the scores, Freed noted that some are trying to grow beyond the premise of flash sales, which offer a limited amount of marked down merchandise at specific times.

"It works for some kinds of consumers, it's not going to work for every kind of consumer," said Freed. "Their models today are going to work and they're going to have a chance to be successful, but at the end of the day it's not the right answer for everybody."

ForeSee's 2012 report was based on more than 24,000 surveys collected from visitors to websites of the 100 largest online retailers from Thanksgiving to Christmas, up from 40 retail sites in prior years.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amazon-most-satisfying-website-shop-survey-050250095--finance.html

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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Putin says he will sign anti-US adoptions bill

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the final Cabinet meeting of the year in the government headquarters in Moscow, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Government Press Service)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the final Cabinet meeting of the year in the government headquarters in Moscow, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Government Press Service)

(AP) ? Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he will sign a controversial bill barring Americans from adopting Russian children, while the Kremlin's children's rights advocate recommended extending the ban to the rest of the world.

The bill is part of the country's increasingly confrontational stance with the West and has angered some Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point.

The law would block dozens of Russian children now in the process of being adopted by American families from leaving the country and cut off a major route out of often-dismal orphanages. The U.S. is the biggest destination for adopted Russian children ? more than 60,000 of them have been taken in by Americans over the past two decades.

"I still don't see any reasons why I should not sign it," Putin said at a televised meeting. He went on to say that he "intends" to do so.

UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia, while only 18,000 Russians are now waiting to adopt a child. Russian officials say they want to encourage more Russians to adopt Russian orphans.

Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov on Thursday petitioned the president to extend the ban to other countries.

"There is huge money and questionable people involved in the semi-legal schemes of exporting children," he tweeted.

Kremlin critics say Astakhov is trying to extend the ban only to get more publicity and win more favors with Putin. A graduate of the KGB law school and a celebrity lawyer, Astakhov was a pro-Putin activist before becoming children's rights ombudsman and is now seen as the Kremlin's voice on adoption issues.

"This is cynicism beyond limits," opposition leader Ilya Yashin tweeted. "The children rights ombudsman is depriving children of a future."

The bill is retaliation for an American law that calls for sanctions against Russian officials deemed to be human rights violators.

The U.S. law, called the Magnitsky Act, stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in jail after being arrested by police officers whom he accused of a $230 million tax fraud. The law prohibits officials allegedly involved in his death from entering the U.S.

Kremlin critics say that means Russian officials who own property in the West and send their children to Western schools would lose access to their assets and families.

Putin said U.S. authorities routinely let Americans suspected of violence toward Russian adoptees go unpunished ? a clear reference to Dima Yakovlev, a Russian toddler for whom the adoption bill is named. The child was adopted by Americans and then died in 2008 after his father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours. The father was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

The U.S. State Department says it regrets the Russian Parliament's decision to pass the bill, saying it would prevent many children from growing up in families.

Astakhov said Wednesday that 46 children who were about to be adopted in the U.S. would remain in Russia if the bill comes into effect.

The passage of the bill follows weeks of a hysterical media campaign on Kremlin-controlled television that lambasts American adoptive parents and adoption agencies that allegedly bribe their way into getting Russian children.

A few lawmakers claimed that some Russian children were adopted by Americans only to be used for organ transplants and become sex toys or cannon fodder for the U.S. Army. A spokesman with Russia's dominant Orthodox Church said that the children adopted by foreigners and raised outside the church will not "enter God's kingdom."

Critics of the bill have left dozens of stuffed toys and candles outside the parliament's lower and upper houses to express solidarity with Russian orphans.

___

Mansur Mirovalev contributed to this report

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-27-Russia-US-Adoptions/id-6778b377300f45a08ec37f0fbcc691c2

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