Investing In Housing...Again | Wall Street Oasis

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Source: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/investing-in-housingagain

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Video: Redefining the Business of Beauty

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50225999/

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Overnight Video: President Obama's Speech in Newtown (Little green footballs)

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Green Blog: Reimagining the Coral Market

In the international trade in live coral, most of which ships to the United States for ornamental marine aquariums, the source is quickly shifting from wild harvesting to farming, researchers report in a new study.

This shift suggests that, contrary to the conventional view that the live coral trade is a threat to coral reef ecosystems, the buying and selling of corals could help create a powerful incentive for protecting reefs in many small island communities, these scientists say.

?The difference in a year is staggering,? said the study?s lead author, Andrew Rhyne, an assistant professor of marine biology at Roger Williams University and a research scientist at the New England Aquarium.

Particularly in Indonesia, the world?s largest supplier of stony corals and home to more coral reef areas than any other nation, many producers have ?learned that if you collect a really beautiful, interesting coral, if you export that, you get to export it one time,? Dr. Rhyne said. ?If you keep it and farm it, you get to export it forever.?

Published last week in the Conservation Letters journal, the study comes less than a month after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration proposed listing 66 species of coral as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

The paper documents trends in American imports of stony corals from 1990 to 2010, and found that a majority of corals imported to the United States are still collected from the wild, but a small but growing fraction comes from aquaculture.

From 1990 until around 2007, the volume of coral reef livestock imported into the United States climbed by more than 8 percent a year. Imports fell sharply after 2007, by about 9 percent annually ? a trend that the researchers attribute to the global economic downturn, a likely increase in domestic aquaculture production and advances in lighting and filtration technology that allow hobbyists to keep smaller tanks with less live rock.

Imports of corals in the genus Acropora, which are among the easiest to cultivate and the most widely farmed, dropped most sharply. ?Other taxa are going to catch up,? Dr. Rhyne said, ?but this will take a bit of time.?

The threat to corals remains dire, however. ?The big picture is that coral reefs are in crisis,? said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, the organization that pushed for NOAA?s recent action by filing a petition to list 83 coral species under the Endangered Species Act.

The gravest threats, including ocean acidification, rising ocean temperatures and disease, are linked directly or indirectly to greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change, NOAA says.

?Then layered on top of it are all the local threats that corals have suffered from over the last century or more,? like water quality issues, overfishing, coastal development, and destructive collection practices, Dr. Wolf said.

Commercial trade in stony and reef-building corals has been regulated under the international treaty known as Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, for nearly 30 years. At this point, according to NOAA?s Coral Reef Conservation Program, a failure to address carbon dioxide emissions and the impacts of climate change could in the long term ?make many other management efforts futile.? Yet local issues cannot be ignored, it adds.

In its assessment of the major threats to reefs, ?there is evidence that alleviating more local stressors can help improve resiliency for many coral species,? the agency says.

?Everybody wants to protect the reefs,? said Dr. Rhyne, whose co-authors for the paper were scientists affiliated with Boston University, the New England Aquarium and the environmental group Conservation International. ?The argument comes in how you best go about doing that.?

Dr. Rhyne and his colleagues describe coral farming in small island communities as a potential tool for conservation at the local level. But it?s a tool they worry ?is at risk of being lost due to the well-intended but rigid rules of the E.S.A.?

Although production methods vary, many coral farmers use a process known as fragmentation, or ?fragging,? which involves cutting or collecting small segments of live coral. These segments can come from wild reef colonies, damaged reefs or from previously ?fragged? mature corals.

The segments can then be planted in large tanks on land, where they are eventually cut up and affixed to concrete for transplanting offshore. Smaller operations like those maintained in villages in the Solomon Islands may initially cultivate fragments on a boat, and then lower them into the ocean to grow on racks, Dr. Rhyne said. Ornamental pieces can be ready for sale within four months.

Coral farming is not only a business endeavor. Since the 1990s, scientists have worked to develop coral nurseries for restoration projects. In 2009, the federal government awarded more than $3.3 million for an effortto plant at least 5,000 colonies of the Acropora species staghorn and elkhorn, which NOAA has just proposed reclassifying as endangered. (They have been listed as threatened since 2006.)

Part of the goal is to both repopulate degraded areas and increase the genetic diversity of reefs along the Florida coast, with the expectation that a reef seeded with 35 nursery-raised Acropora colonies a year could restore the reef?s coral cover to 1970s levels in a decade, compared with the estimated 30 years or more that it takes for natural recovery.

Commercial growers, of course, have different aims. Coral farmers, Dr. Rhyne said, can develop product lines based on the colors or shapes that consumers like, perceive as rare and are willing to pay top dollar for ? up to about $500 per piece, according to the study, or hundreds of dollars per kilogram of biomass.

?This is one reason for the massive change,? he said. ?Growing corals is fast, not that technically difficult, and allows the exporter to save the best-looking pieces and make copies of them.?

Indonesia?s shift away from wild harvesting even as other exporters (notably Australia) expand theirs, is hardly due to chance. As Dr. Rhyne put it, ?We have some stick and some carrot in play here.?

The country has been working with NOAA, the Ocean Foundation and the Indonesia Nature Foundation to improve its coral trade. Most production in the country has already moved to sites clustered around major airports, and the country is on track to source some of the most common types of coral entirely from aquaculture within a few years, Dr. Rhyne said.

That means a greater supply of coral for restoring damaged reefs, too, said one of the co-authors, Michael Tlusty, director of research for the New England Aquarium. Indonesia and the Philippines jointly supply 85 percent of the world?s coral reef products; Indonesia requires 10 percent of any coral producer?s output to be transplanted to the wild.

?If the country as a whole sells a million of pieces of coral,? Dr. Tlusty said, ?there are 100,000 pieces that are available to be used for restoration projects.?

The notion that aquaculture practices are verifiably sustainable and that protections under the Endangered Species Act would be overly rigid stirs some skepticism. ?It?s not just that once a coral gets listed, all trade stops,? Dr. Wolf said. ?The point of listing these corals as endangered or threatened is giving them the kind of safety net that they need so that we have corals into the future.?

NOAA, she added, has the flexibility to restrict imports based on its assessment of whether trade is harming the corals listed as threatened.

Dr. Rhyne?s team acknowledged in last week?s study that the aquarium trade ?has the potential to cause overharvesting, collateral damage to coral reef habitat and introduction of exotic species.?

But in a year of only modest progress on international climate agreements, the researchers said, the Endangered Species Act protections may be like a Band-Aid fix for a broken bone.

?We?re taking this sort of E.S.A. action to get at the issue of climate change,? Dr. Tlusty said. ?It?s one of these things where we?re not taking the real big, significant action, and then we?re doing these little tiny things, hoping that would be best.?

In NOAA?s final management report on the proposed listing, released Nov. 30, the agency ranked 19 threats to reef-building corals generally, and found ornamental trade to be of low importance. Still, Dr. Rhyne said, if the potential ecological, social and economic benefits of the live coral trade are to be realized over the long term, more information and closer data tracking will be necessary.

Dr. Wolf, too, urges close study. ?Trade has proven to be a threat to many corals, and there needs to be a high level of accountability and documentation of trade, including aquaculture,? she said.

The driving question, she said, is this: ?Are these corals that are proposed as threatened or endangered ? are they indeed threatened by that trade??

?If so, let?s ban or limit trade on those corals, because it doesn?t do anybody any good ? it doesn?t do the reefs any good, it doesn?t do the people that are harvesting them any good ? if what they?re harvesting is just declining to extinction.?

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/finding-a-place-for-coral-farms-in-a-changing-ocean/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Domino's founder sues feds over health care law - | News for Yuma ...

DETROIT (AP) - The founder of Domino's Pizza is suing the federal government over mandatory contraception coverage in the health care law.

Tom Monaghan, a devout Roman Catholic, says contraception isn't health care but a "gravely immoral" practice.

He filed a lawsuit Friday in federal court. It also lists as a plaintiff Domino's Farms, a Michigan office park complex that Monaghan owns.

Monaghan offers health insurance that excludes contraception and abortion for employees. The new federal law requires employers to offer insurance including contraception coverage or risk fines.

Monaghan says the law violates his rights, and is asking a judge to strike down the mandate. There are similar lawsuits pending nationwide.

A message left Saturday for Monaghan's attorney, Richard Thompson, was not immediately returned.

The government says the contraception mandate benefits women.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.kswt.com/story/20353058/dominos-founder-sues-feds-over-health-care-law

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Insect-eating bat outperforms nectar specialist as pollinator of cactus flowers

Friday, December 7, 2012

Of the two bat species known to visit the flowers of the cardon cactus in Baja California, one depends entirely on nectar and is highly specialized to feed from the flowers, which are adapted for pollination by bats. The other is an insect-eating bat best known for its ability to hear the footsteps of large insects and scorpions and capture them on the ground.

In a surprising result, scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found that the insect-eating pallid bat is a more effective pollinator of the cactus flowers than the nectar-feeding specialist, the lesser long-nosed bat.

"The lesser long-nosed bat is highly specialized for nectar-feeding and was thought to be the primary pollinator of the cardon cactus. But when we measured their effectiveness, we found that the pallid bat actually delivers about 13 times as much pollen per visit," said Winifred Frick, a research scientist at UC Santa Cruz. Frick is first author of a paper on the new findings published online in American Naturalist.

The study highlights the complex nature of the mutually beneficial relationships between plants and their pollinators, which in most cases have evolved together over long periods of time. There are often conflicts of interest between the partners, according to coauthor Kathleen Kay, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz.

"What is actually happening in terms of how species are mutually interacting can be more complicated than what meets the eye," Kay said. "You would think the coevolved species would be a better pollinator than a naive interloper. But the adaptations for nectar-feeding of the lesser long-nosed bat are to enable it to get more nectar, not for it to do a better job pollinating."

Frick said several factors may explain the difference between the two bat species in pollination effectiveness. The lesser long-nosed bat is able to hover at the open cactus flowers and uses its long tongue to extract the nectar, transferring pollen from one flower to another in the process. The pallid bat, in contrast, has to land on the flowers and plunge its head deep inside to get to the nectar, resulting in longer visits and more copious accumulations of pollen on its head. In addition, the lesser long-nosed bat relies on pollen as a source of protein and regularly grooms itself during a night of flower visits, removing some of the pollen from its fur and eating it.

Frick, a bat ecologist, had observed pallid bats visiting cardon cactus flowers during earlier research projects in the area and knew that the bats often had pollen on them. For the new study, she teamed up with Kay, an expert in pollination biology and plant evolution. They monitored cactus flowers at 14 study sites in Baja California, working with a team of student assistants from Mexico and UC Santa Cruz. The cardon cactus is a large columnar cactus and is the dominant plant species in the study area. When the researchers saw a bat visit a flower, they would identify the species, climb a ladder to the flower, remove the stigma, and count the number of pollen grains the bat had delivered. They also took data on the number of flower visits by each of the two species at each study site.

The results showed that the pallid bats not only delivered more pollen per visit on average, but in some areas were frequent enough visitors to be more effective pollinators overall than the lesser long-nosed bats.

Plants that are adapted for bat pollination have large, sturdy flowers that bloom at night. The lesser long-nosed bat belongs to a large family of nectar-feeding bats that are important pollinators, especially in tropical habitats. The pallid bat, in contrast, is the only nectar feeder known in its mostly insect-eating family, which is the largest and most widespread family of bats.

"A lot of pollinators come from lineages that are quite old and have been coevolving with plants for a long time," Kay said. "You might think that a new pollinator would not be a good pollinator, but in this case it's actually a better pollinator because it's not well adapted for nectar-feeding. It's exciting to get a glimpse of what the initial stages might be in the evolution of a novel feeding behavior."

Frick said she has video of a pallid bat attacking a large moth on a flower, so it's not hard to imagine how the insect-eating pallid bats might have discovered the sweet nectar hidden inside cactus flowers.

Kay noted that many animals that visit flowers are just feeding without pollinating the flowers or otherwise benefiting the plants. There are also examples of invasive pollinators that disrupt a coevolved plant-pollinator relationship and do a worse job of pollination. "In this case it's the evolutionarily newer pollinator doing a better job, and I haven't seen that before," she said.

The lesser long-nosed bats were effective pollinators of cardon cactus flowers at many of the study sites. But the study found considerable variation between sites, and because the lesser long-nosed bat is migratory, there may be variability from year to year as well, Frick said. The greater variability of the migratory lesser long-nosed bats could make the resident pallid bats especially important as pollinators of cardon cactus.

"The lesser long-nosed bat is an adequate pollinator, but there is a lot of variation in where they occur. We would like to look at that variation over several years," Frick said.

###

University of California - Santa Cruz: http://www.ucsc.edu

Thanks to University of California - Santa Cruz for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125804/Insect_eating_bat_outperforms_nectar_specialist_as_pollinator_of_cactus_flowers

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Taking it Home for November 25 Youth Class: Thinking of Death ...

?

The question is not whether we will die but how we have lived.

? Joan Borysenko, psychologist

Talk about the quote. What does it mean to you?

WHAT WE DID TODAY

Today?s Big Question was ?What happens when you die?? We talked about some different answers to the question which come from a variety of belief systems. We heard what a Unitarian Universalist minister said when he had cancer and expected to die soon. We found out that UUs talk more about heaven- and hell-like situations on Earth and what to do about them, than we talk about an afterlife. That is because many UUs believe we live on after life through what we did when we were alive?as well as in the memories of our families and friends. We also explored rituals to memorialize people after they die.

ANSWERING TODAY?S BIG QUESTION

What do family members have to say about the question: ?What happens when we die??

What does your family do so relatives who have died live on, through you?

VISIT THE DEAD

Go to a cemetery and look at the gravestones. What can you learn from them? Do those messages help the people buried there live on? Are there flowers and mementos? Why do people put them there?

SHARED SEARCH

Go through a family photo album or ?family tree.? Choose somebody you know little about who has died. Find out as much as you can about that person so they can live on through you.

REFLECT ON YOUR BELIEFS

Ask another big question: Is anything worth dying for? Patrick Henry was a famous patriot who said, ?Give me Liberty or Give me Death.? Was he right? What do you think is worth dying for?

PHOTO CHALLENGE

Photograph a cycle of life and death. You might start with a seed, photograph a flower as it grows through the summer, and photograph it again when it dies in a frost. You might photograph spring buds and then beautiful dying leaves.

FIND OUT MORE

Bereaved Children: A Support Guide for Parents and Professionals by Earl A.Grollman (Beacon, 1996) offers insight into how children and adolescents experience death and grieving and how adults can help them through such experiences. The book presents ways children and adults might bring various faith perspectives to the subject of death.

?

A Unitarian Universalist minister who has written extensively on this session?s Big Question is Rev. Forrest Church. Obtain Love and Death: My Journey through the Valley of the Shadow (Boston: Beacon Press, 2008) from the UUA Bookstore (at www.uuabookstore.org/) in hardcover or paperback or as an audio CD.

?

A 2008 Time magazine article (at www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1842627,00.html) details one scientist?s attempts to find out what happens after death.

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'Blindsided': Iowa girls' loved ones reel over bodies

A community comes together to mourn the death of two missing Iowa girls after their bodies were discovered. KWWL's Shelley Russell reports.

By David Pitt and Ryan J. Foley, The Associated Press

EVANSDALE, Iowa --?The families of two young cousins missing for five months still were hoping the girls would come home, maybe even for Christmas, until the sad news arrived that two bodies had been found.

Autopsies by the state medical examiner's office are under way, but the remains are believed to be those of Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins, who were 10 and 8 when they vanished July 13 while riding their bicycles, Black Hawk County sheriff's Capt. Rick Abben said.?

"This 100 percent blindsided us and it absolutely did them as well," said Sara Curl, a friend of the girls' families and organizer of several community events to support them.?

She said the families were spending time with each other Thursday trying to cope with the news. The Collins family put up a tree and decorated it for Elizabeth, she said.?

Curl helped put together a vigil for the girls Thursday night, one of many community activities that will be needed to help people heal in the days ahead, she said.?

"I think everybody just needed to be together," she said. "Everybody was just wandering around going about their day not knowing how to handle things."?

The vigil was held around a Christmas tree set up to honor the girls ? with the hope they would be home for Christmas to see it ? said Tammy Marvets, whose husband, Randy, came up with the idea. She said her 7-year-old son went to school with Elizabeth and rode the same bus.?

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Kelly Borel, of Waterloo, Iowa, puts an ornament on a tree during a vigil for missing Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins.

"He's pretty upset. He says, 'Mom, I just want to cry.' I said, 'It's OK to cry, honey,'" Marvets said.?

Hunters found the bodies Wednesday in a wildlife area in northeastern Iowa, about 25 miles from Evansdale where the girls were last seen. Authorities found their bikes and a purse near a recreational lake in the city, and their disappearance sparked a massive search and kidnapping investigation involving the FBI, state and local police.?

Abben said Thursday at a news conference that investigators are "confident" the bodies are those of Lyric and Elizabeth, based on evidence found at the scene and a preliminary investigation. He noted that the bodies are small in stature and authorities "have no one else that's missing in this area."?

Abben said investigators were leaning toward reclassifying the case as a homicide investigation but would wait for the results of the autopsies before proceeding. He declined to say whether the bodies had been concealed or how long investigators thought they had been there. Relatives have not gone to see the bodies, and "there's no reason for them to do so," Abben said.?

Officers from several agencies scoured fields, woods and ditches near the Seven Bridges Wildlife Area for any possible evidence in the case. Deer hunters apparently stumbled on the remains Wednesday in the secluded area, which is intersected by the Wapsipinicon River and is a popular spot for hunting and fishing.?

Abben said investigators would continue combing the area for clues for several days and the park would remain closed to the public until at least Monday. "We will gather whatever is out there," he said.?

The news of the girls' likely deaths hit hard throughout northeastern Iowa, which had rallied behind them and their families in the five months since they disappeared. Some residents in Evansdale, which is 90 miles northeast of Des Moines, had been holding out hope that they would be found alive.?

"We are all grieving. We hurt for the families, and believe me it touches the community deeply because it is a small community," said Jeff Rasanen, pastor of the Faith Assembly of God Church in Evansdale. "It's a sad time. We were just praying for a much better outcome."?

In a posting on her Facebook page Thursday, Heather Collins, Elizabeth's mother, said it was not the outcome the family wanted but now "we know our girls are dancing up with our savior." Collins thanked the community for an outpouring of support.?

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Micayla Weber, of Waterloo, Iowa, holds a candle during a vigil for missing cousins Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins.

When Zuhra Hodzic, 25, of Waterloo, saw that Facebook message, she was heartbroken. Hodzic was a volunteer on searches for the girls and other community activities.?

"You're left with a blank," she said searching for the words and fighting back tears. "It's heartbreaking. It's devastating."?

For her and many others at the vigil Thursday, the focus turns now to finding who is responsible.?

"Our community deserves justice, and I hope our FBI agents and cops and everybody involved gets for us what we deserve and that's justice for the whole family and all of us," she said.?

At the girls' schools, additional counselors were available Thursday for students and others, according to Sharon Miller, the Waterloo schools spokeswoman. Lyric would have been in fifth grade at Kingsley elementary in Waterloo and Elizabeth would have been in fourth grade at Poyner school in Evansdale.?

The two were being watched by their grandmother at Collins' home in Evansdale when they went for a bike ride on that summer afternoon. Surveillance footage and witnesses have confirmed that they were riding nearby. Hours later, after they didn't return, relatives reported the girls missing. A firefighter soon found their bikes near Meyers Lake, and a search that involved hundreds of volunteers and several police agencies ensued.?

An FBI dive team brought in special equipment to search the lake days later, and the case was reclassified as an abduction after no sign of the girls emerged. Months passed ? as did each girl's birthday ? without any news as police chased thousands of tips and explored theories about what could have happened. Volunteers held prayer vigils and hung pictures of the girls. An anonymous donor last week pledged $100,000 for information leading to their return and the conviction of those responsible for their disappearance, on top of the $50,000 authorities had announced.?

Authorities had asked hunters to look for the girls in remote woods and fields this fall.?

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Oil & Gas - Argentina - Argentina watch: YPF road show, R?o Negro concessions, new Mendoza company

By David Casallas?/?Business News Americas

In a presentation to executives and investors at Argentina's embassy in London, YPF (NYSE: YPF) chief executive Miguel Galuccio announced the NOC has ...

...

This news article is one of hundreds published daily by Business News Americas about the commodities, markets, movements, companies, projects, economics and politics integral to the development of Latin America. Including news and insight from South America, Central America and the Caribbean, BNamericas includes oil & gas insight and forecasts for business opportunities in Argentina. The business development service focuses on major projects, active companies, such as Chevron Corporation, YPF S.A., Ecopetrol S.A., Yacimientos Petrol?feros Fiscales Bolivianos and Banco Central de Bolivia; and business and sales contacts, providing networking opportunities with leading executives throughout Latin America.

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Greenland ice sheet carries evidence of increased atmospheric acidity

ScienceDaily (Dec. 7, 2012) ? Research has shown a decrease in levels of the isotope nitrogen-15 in core samples from Greenland ice starting around the time of the Industrial Revolution. The decrease has been attributed to a corresponding increase in nitrates associated with the burning of fossil fuels.

However, new University of Washington research suggests that the decline in nitrogen-15 is more directly related to increased acidity in the atmosphere.

The increased acidity can be traced to sulfur dioxide, which in the atmosphere is transformed to sulfuric acid, said Lei Geng, a UW research associate in atmospheric sciences. Following the Industrial Revolution, sulfur dioxide emissions increased steadily because of coal burning.

"It changes the chemical properties of the lower troposphere, where we live, and that can have a lot of consequences," Geng said. He presented his findings on Dec. 7 at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

The gradual buildup of acidity in the atmosphere over a century got a boost around 1950 with a sharp increase in nitrogen-oxygen compounds, referred to as NO_x, mainly produced in high-temperature combustion such as occurs in coal-fired power plants and motor vehicle engines. NO_x is easily converted to nitric acid in the atmosphere, further increasing the acidity.

NO_x carries a chemical signature -- the abundance of nitrogen-15, one of two nitrogen isotopes -- which changes depending on the source. That means it is possible to distinguish NO_x that came from a forest fire from NO_x produced as a result of lightning, soil emissions, car exhaust and power plant emissions. The level of nitrogen-15 can be measured in nitrates that formed from NO_x and were deposited in ice sheets such as those in Greenland.

Current evidence indicates NO_x from coal-fired power plant and motor vehicle emissions likely carries more nitrogen-15 than NO_x produced by natural sources, so nitrogen-15 levels in deposited nitrate could be expected to go up. However, those levels actually went down in the late 1800s, following the Industrial Revolution, Geng said. That's because increasing sulfuric acid levels in the atmosphere triggered chemical and physical processes that allowed less nitrogen-15 to remain in vaporized nitrate, which can be carried to remote places such as Greenland.

The growing acidity in the atmosphere was occurring decades before acid rain was recognized as a threat, particularly in industrial areas of North America.

Core samples from Greenland ice sheets reflect a correlation between nitrogen-15 levels and atmospheric acidity, Geng said. Data he studied came primarily from a core that is part of combined research between UW and South Dakota State University, funded by the National Science Foundation.

Geng noted that the core reflects a decline in signals for both NO_x and sulfur dioxide emissions in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. The signals increased again following the Depression until the early 1970s, when Western nations experienced an economic downturn and an oil shortage. Shortly after that, the Clean Air Act in the United States began to have an impact on vehicle and power plant emissions.

"We've seen a huge drop in sulfate concentrations since the late 1970s," Geng said. "By 2005, concentrations had dropped to levels similar to the late 1800s."

Ice core data show nitrate levels have stabilized during that time, he said, because while emission levels from individual vehicles might have decreased substantially, the number of vehicles has increased significantly.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington. The original article was written by Vince Stricherz.

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

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Little Ladybug Guest Dessert Feature ? SWEET DESIGNS ? AMY ...

We are back with another great party from down under. Gerri and Carole from Little Birdie Events?styled a garden themed dessert table for their client?s daughter?s first birthday party. They used a pink, mint green and sunshine yellow color palette. Sweet treats included ?garden? macarons, ladybug lollipops, rhubarb & custard bon bons,?sugar cookies with edible image ladybugs and ombre pink cupcakes. Scroll down for the vendor credits.

Photography by Little Birdie Events.

??

VENDOR CREDITS:

Concept, design, styling: Little Birdie Events Food and drink labels, personalised chocolate stickers: Little Birdie Events Printable bunting and sign: Fairydust Stylish Stationery
Cupcakes: The Cupcake Parlour
Cake: Cakes by Judy C
Macarons: Marche du Macaron
Cake: Crumbs of Comfort Strawberries & Cream Lollipops: Sweet Style

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Apple quietly hires security guru who may have saved Windows Vista

Apple has had to take security more seriously when a larger user base and the cloud have opened up greater risks. Thanks to a just-discovered hire, we now know 1 Infinite Loop isn't messing around. While many of us were fixated on new iPhones in September, the company was quietly recruiting Kristin Paget as a Core OS Security Researcher. She's had stints at eBay and Google, but she's best-known for helping Microsoft while she was a security researcher at IOActive: not only did her team burst the bubble of Windows Vista engineers who thought their code was airtight, the group ultimately delayed the entire OS release to get security up to snuff. Given that Vista avoided most of the malware chaos that affected Windows XP even after Service Pack 2, Paget bodes well for the future protection of Apple's platforms. Just don't expect her to talk shop when she's a security expert at a firm that tends to really, really value its secrecy.

[Image credit: Kristin Paget, Twitter]

Filed under: Internet, Software, Apple, Microsoft

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Oil drops on bleak outlook for Europe economy

The price of oil is dropping after the European Central Bank predicted a bleak year ahead for the region's economy but stopped short of offering new measures to boost growth

Benchmark oil fell $1.80, or 2 percent, on Thursday to $86.08 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, fell $1.87 to $106.94 per barrel in London.

The ECB left its key interest rate unchanged at a record low, and the bank cut its 2013 economic forecast for the region to negative from positive.

The 17 countries that use the euro currency are in a recession after a massive debt crisis followed by government spending cuts and tax hikes that have hurt growth.

Price Futures Group analyst Phil Flynn said Draghi's comments "kind of shocked the market." Stimulus measures that have been put in place by central banks in several countries were intended to help economic growth. Traders embraced them with expectations that demand for energy products would strengthen.

Draghi's statement overshadowed a positive report on U.S. unemployment claims. The Labor Department said applications for benefits fell slightly last week to a level consistent with modest hiring.

At the pump, the average retail price of gasoline was flat at a national average of $3.38 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service. That's nearly 11 cents more than a year ago.

In other energy futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange:

? Heating oil fell 5 cents to $2.94 per gallon.

? Wholesale gasoline fell 3 cents to $2.60 per gallon.

? Natural gas rose 1 cent to $3.71 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Associated Press

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Obamacare rhetoric guts Papa John's reputation

YouGov

The reputation of Papa John's, Applebee's and Denny's took a hit after high-ranking representatives came out against Obamacare.

By Ben Popken, TODAY contributor

The brand perception of Papa John's, Applebee's and Denny's took a beating after high-ranking representatives of the companies said Obamacare would force them to stop building restaurants, cut worker hours and raise prices.

After the comments, on a scale from 100 (totally positive) to -100 (totally negative), Papa John's score fell from 32 to 4, Applebee's score fell from 35 to to 5, and Denny's went from 10 to zero, then back to 6, according to a new survey.

Rachael Rothman, Susquehanna Financial Group analyst, shares her outlook on the restaurant operator, and explains why she downgraded the stock to "neutral" and maintains a $58 price target.

Along with everyone else, the casual dining restaurant?sector has been struggling to cope with the effects of the economic downturn. For example, Darden Restaurants, which operates Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse, on Tuesday lowered financial?expectations, sending shares down 10.7 percent. Prior to that the company had been leading the industry.

In October, Darden experimented with using more part-time employees in an effort to avoid Obamacare costs. A flurry of negative media coverage ensued. On Thursday the company will announce that it won't be reducing any full-time employees to part-time status. The company cited the bad publicity around its workforce tests, along with promotions that weren't working, when it lowered its profit outlook for the year on Tuesday.

The reputation results come from an online YouGov BrandIndex survey of 5,000 adults 18+ who had eaten at casual dining restaurants in the past month. The survey asked respondents if they've heard anything in the last two weeks positive or negative about the brand and gives a score from 100 to -100. A score of zero means equally positive and negative feedback.

While correlation is not causation, there was a noted dropoff in the BrandIndex scores after the company figures made remarks about how the Affordable Care Act -- or Obamacare -- was going to hurt their?business.

For instance, Papa John's founder John Schnatter estimated in an August 1 earnings call that Obamacare costs would add $.11 to $.14 in costs to every pizza.

"Let's say fuel goes up, which it does from time to time, and we have to raise delivery charges," said Schnatter in the Aug. 1 earnings call. "We don't like raising delivery charges, but the price of fuel is out of our control, as is Obamacare. So if Obamacare is, in fact, not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs. And, of course, strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders' best interest."

In November,?Schnatter told a college class that?he supposed Papa John's franchises would decide to cut worker hours to avoid paying health insurance. Under the Affordable Care Act, employers have to provide health insurance for employees working over 30 hours a week or face fines.

Reached for comment, Papa John's told TODAY that Papa John's franchises are independently owned and operated and decisions about hiring and wages were up to individual franchise owners.?Andrew Varga, chief marketing officer of Papa John?s, told TODAY?the publicized YouGov BrandIndex?findings "were?contradicted by the results of BrandIndex?s own general population study which showed a significant improvement in reputational scores" for the pizza chain.

Despite the drubbing the brand has taken in the press and social media following Schnatter's remarks, which Lance Tucker, Papa John's CFO told TODAY have been "misquoted and mis-reported," the company said "there is also no change in its current positive sales or earnings guidance."

CEO of an Applebee's franchise running 40 Applebee's restaurants, Zane Tankel, caught flack after he told Fox Business News that the Affordable Care Act would cost millions and force them to stop building restaurants. Voice and email messages left for Tankel were not returned.

Denny's franchise owner in West Palm Beach, Fla., John Metz, told the Huffington Post?that Obamacare would force him to charge each customer 5 percent?extra to offset the costs. Per company instructions on this issue, calls to Met'z franchisor headquarters were referred to an external PR firm, which did not return a request for comment.

Both Applebee'sand Denny's released statements saying they while they respected the free speech rights of their franchise owners, the comments by Tankel and Metz did not reflect corporate opinions or positions.

Mary Ellen Muckerman, head of strategy at international brand consultancy Wolf Ollins, told TODAY that "Franchises are just as close to the brand as the corporate parents." Political statements per se are not forbidden, but the question is, "are the statements consistent with the overall brand purpose?" said Muckerman.

Luke Kachersky, Director of Research?at The Center for Positive Marketing at Fordham University, told TODAY, "Modern branding has shifted from positioning in terms of brand benefits to positioning in terms of values. The reason for this change, ostensibly, is that sharing values with your customers opens up an avenue toward a more authentic and enduring relationship."

Brand experts say that when the brand?communication?is inconsistent with its core principals, the brand is subject to flux,?diminishment -- or even erasure. That can lead to the consumer's brand preferences?to getting plucked off by another stronger, more confident brand, and a decline in sales.

"A brand is just a collection of ideas," Barbara Findlay Schenck, author of "Branding for Dummies,"?told TODAY. ?"When suddenly the brand message shifted to political stances, bottom line prices, price increases and staff cutbacks, the inconsistency rocked brand strength, confidence, and preference."

?

Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2012/12/05/15677347-anti-obamacare-rhetoric-guts-papa-johns-and-applebees-reputations?lite

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Infants learn to look and look to learn: Model explains crucial links among looking, learning, and memory

ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2012) ? Researchers at the University of Iowa have documented an activity by infants that begins nearly from birth: They learn by taking inventory of the things they see.

In a new paper, the psychologists contend that infants create knowledge by looking at and learning about their surroundings. The activities should be viewed as intertwined, rather than considered separately, to fully appreciate how infants gain knowledge and how that knowledge is seared into memory.

"The link between looking and learning is much more intricate than what people have assumed," says John Spencer, a psychology professor at the UI and a co-author on the paper published in the journal Cognitive Science.

The researchers created a mathematical model that mimics, in real time and through months of child development, how infants use looking to understand their environment. Such a model is important because it validates the importance of looking to learning and to forming memories. It also can be adapted by child development specialists to help special-needs children and infants born prematurely to combine looking and learning more effectively.

"The model can look, like infants, at a world that includes dynamic, stimulating events that influence where it looks. We contend (the model) provides a critical link to studying how social partners influence how infants distribute their looks, learn, and develop," the authors write.

The model examines the looking-learning behavior of infants as young as 6 weeks through one year of age, through 4,800 simulations at various points in development involving multiple stimuli and tasks. As would be expected, most infants introduced to new objects tend to look at them to gather information about them; once they do, they are "biased" to look away from them in search of something new. In other words, an infant will linger on something that's being shown to it for the first time as it learns about it, and that the "total looking time" will decrease as the infant becomes more familiar with it.

But the researchers found that infants who don't spend a sufficient amount of time studying a new object -- in effect, failing to learn about it and to catalog that knowledge into memory -- don't catch on as well, which can affect their learning later on.

"Infants need to dwell on things for a while to learn about them," says Sammy Perone, a post-doctoral researcher in psychology at the UI and corresponding author on the paper.

To examine why infants need to dwell on objects to learn about them, the researchers created two different models. One model learned in a "responsive" world: Every time the model looked away from a new object, the object was jiggled to get the model to look at it again. The other model learned in a "nonresponsive" world: when this model looked at a new object, objects elsewhere were jiggled to distract it. The results showed that the responsive models"learned about new objects more robustly, more quickly, and are better learners in the end," says Perone, who earned his doctorate at the UI in 2010. The model captures infant looking and learning as young as 6 weeks. Even at that age, the UI researchers were able to document that infants can familiarize themselves with new objects, and store them into memory well enough that when shown them again, they quickly recognized them.

"To our knowledge, these are the first quantitative simulations of looking data from infants this young," the authors write.

The results underscore the notion that looking is a critical entry point into the cognitive processes in the brain that begin in children nearly from birth. And, "if that's the case, we can manipulate and change what the brain is doing" to aid infants born prematurely or who have special needs, Perone adds.

"The promise of a model that implements looking as an active behavior is that it might explain and predict how specific manipulations of looking over time will impact subsequent learning," the researchers write.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, grant number 5R01MH62480.

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Journal Reference:

1. Sammy Perone, John P. Spencer. Autonomy in Action: Linking the Act of Looking to Memory Formation in Infancy via Dynamic Neural Fields. Cognitive Science, 2012; DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12010

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/Brnd3d4qiY4/121204145347.htm

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I Want My Auto T/A Back! - DIYMA Car Audio Forum

Recently I switched out a Pioneer DEH-80PRS for the OEM deck I had and a Rockford Fosgate 3Sixty.3. Everything is good and all but, God DAUMN, do I apparently suck at setting this thing up.

First off, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with four different cross over topologies. Butterworth, Linkwitz, etc - how the hell am I supposed to know which one is the most appropriate?

But, more importantly, without auto T/A I have to do the ole 'measuring tape to the ear' maneuver and it just doesn't sound right, compared to the auto T/A results I was getting with the Pioneer.

Are there some special tricks I'm supposed to use to get perfect T/A? Do any of you guys have references on different cross-over types that I could use to interpret what I should choose in that regard?

Source: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/general-car-audio-discussion/140279-i-want-my-auto-t-back.html

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Self-Defense For Women! | Jackies Womens Interest Bazaar - Jonas ...

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Source: http://preetysharma538.blogspot.com/2012/12/self-defense-for-women-jackies-womens.html

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Get Free Store Credit from Target with a Strange Return Loophole

Target runs a lot of stores, and few stores offer the same promotions and pricing?even if they're only miles away. As a result, if you find an item cheaper at one store you can easily return it at another for a higher price if you "lose" your receipt.

I bought a pair of pajamas and exercise pants in a hurry at Target a few weeks ago and the pants turned out to be too small. I actually lost my receipt, but happened to be at a different target a few weeks later and brought the pants back anyway. I was going to buy more stuff at the store anyway, so I didn't mind receiving store credit. I only paid about $10 for each pair of pants but when I got my store credit I received an extra $15 back because the pants weren't on sale at that Target. I told the employee that I didn't pay that much, but because I didn't have a receipt he said that's how much he had to give me.

After researching Target's pricing a little further, I found that a lot of deals vary from store to store. If you buy something on discount and try to return it after the sale or at another store without a receipt, the store has to go by the current price. Target's policies for no receipt returns also come with a small deduction from that current price, but in my case I still ended up with more money than I spent. While this isn't something I recommend taking advantage of, as you're basically taking Target's money, if you lose your receipt on a sale item you should either wait for that sale to pass or return the items to a different store. That way you should at least get what you paid for them instead of incurring a deduction.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/v2qdlv6X_No/get-free-store-credit-from-target-with-a-strange-return-loophole

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Kpop Roleplay?

Is anyone interested in doing a 1x1 kpop roleplay? I've been waiting around for one to surface, but from my snooping around on the site, I noticed that most of the roleplays related to kpop are either super old or died before even getting off the ground. I know I can't be the only lover of korean culture on this site!

I was thinking more on the lines of a kpop/kdrama sort of dealio. I'd really like for it do be based around korean teens who are influenced in some way by kpop. These are my ideas (so far), but I'm open to other ideas as well:

-A Kpop idol (male) is being schooled at a prestigious and expensive school of music. One day after hours, he is heading back from a late-night dance practice to his dorm. He notices that one of the lights is on in one of the other dance rooms and goes to investigate. There, he sees a girl (with short hair) practicing some dance moves and is impressed. However, he doesn't see the face of nor gets the name of the girl before he leaves. The next day, the idol guest stars on a show that holds open auditions for boys who want to be kpop idols. While judging a contestant, he recognizes the dance as the same dance he'd seen the girl practicing the night before. Just as he is about to point out her gender, she explains her situation (will be specified later) and decides to keep her gender a secret, even after she is chosen as one of three boys that will be mentored under him.
---The kpop idol has a rough personality, but isn't mean. He goes out of his way to help those around him, but his attitude and rude way of doing this make him seem heartless and mean. He is very misunderstood but also very talented.
---The girl is headstrong, fiery, and a little bit insecure. She will fight tooth and nail to get what she wants, but she fears that she isn't good enough to succeed in her dream. She is easy to pick on and is often bullied by the two other boys.
---The two other boys are more like characters that get in the way of things. They're both extremely rude - think of them like the evil stepsisters of the girl - and get what they want by tearing other people down.

-Two kpop idols-in-training go through a period of uncertainty. They work for the same company, but have not met before. After the guy finishes his dance practice, his room is taken by the girl. While dancing, she accidentally spills water over some of his expensive, forgotten belongings and ruins them. He walks in while she is cleaning up and demands she compensates. However, since she is new to the company, she is low on money and cannot pay him back. They make a deal that she will be his personal servant for a month and half of the debt will become void. If she cannot pay the rest of the money by the end of the month, she must continue work a second month in order to pay off the rest of the debt.
---The guy is cold and insensitive. He feels as though people only like him for his talent and not for his personality. He is actually very lonely and is seeking for someone to grow close to him. He can be extremely affectionate to those he cares about.
---The girl is dedicated but in over her head. She has a habit of always giving herself too much to do, flustered, and clumsy - this doesn't mean, however, that she isn't smart. She is talented, but the company seems to fear that her personality will ruin their reputation.

-After a late-night concert, the lead singer of a kpop girl-group is walking home and is attacked by a couple of muggers. She is saved by a mysterious and handsome boy, but just as he is writing his phone number on her palm, a reporter spots her and snaps her picture. The next day, news that the two are dating has sprung up around the country and her manager is horrified at the false allegations. In order to dodge a risky situation, the manager steals the boy's number from the singer's phone and hires him as a kpop-trainee. Surprisingly, the boy is talented and shows potential even when they first meet. Later on, the singer is at home and has a visitor ringing the doorbell. She opens the door to see the boy with a suitcase, who lets himself in and moves in with her, explaining that they'll be living together until news of their relationship dies down.
---The singer is a delicate, kind girl who enjoys pleasing others. She is very naive and innocent and often trusts people too easily. Aside from these attributes, she is respectable, morally-strong, and a hard-worker.
---The boy is someone veiled in mystery. He almost seems to be the reincarnation of Romeo as he quickly falls in love with the singer. He enjoys playing with people's feelings but doesn't view love as something real.... yet.

PM me or reply to this post if you are interested!
Just FYI, I am looking for someone to play the male role. This someone should be qualified in writing and have experience in it.
Thanks! (:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/ts6wJy9x6m4/viewtopic.php

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