Natural and man-made disasters can befall any region, state, city or individual organization.? A disaster does not just mean a hurricane or a 9/11; a fire contained to your building could spell disaster for your business.? Don't make the mistake of thinking that the unthinkable won't happen to your company.? It is precisely that type of thinking that will make an emergency situation even more dire.
Sound the alarm for your company if it does not already have a plan in place for dealing with a disaster.? Prepare your people, your facilities, your policies and procedures, and your data and resources now for potential crises that could occur later.
Emergency management guidelines
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) supplies extensive information for preparing your business for a disaster via its Ready.gov site and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Here are some of the highlights.
Establish a planning team
The...(register to read more)
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LaunchPort is finally releasing a sleeve for the new iPad, which makes it compatible with the company's inductive charging gear. It goes on sale in September for a hefty $149, and of course, you'll also need at least one $199 tabletop or wall mount to connect it to. The sleeve also works with the iPad 2, and if you're thinking about getting one, be quick -- it's only a matter of time before resonance charging renders inductive juicing a little passé.
It looks like Nokia's strategy to become the go-to company for location-based services is gaining traction, as anonymous sources of Reuters suggest that Amazon will tap the Finnish company to provide mapping data for its upcoming tablet. The report contends that location-aware features will be core to Amazon's Kindle Fire successor, which is widely expected to debut on September 6th. If true, the move represents a continuation of Amazon's desire to create an ecosystem that's far removed from Google own content offerings. On the plus side, it brings the possibility that some excellent offline navigation capabilities may be in the pipeline. Whatever the case may be, we're sure to know the truth very shortly.
TRES MARIAS, Mexico (Reuters) - Two U.S. officials shot and wounded by Mexican federal police just south of the capital were CIA officers, security sources say, and the attack could badly hurt U.S.-Mexico cooperation in a war against drug cartels if found to be a deliberate ambush.
The pair of experienced officers were on their way to a Mexican Marine base on Friday, working with local authorities on a training mission, when federal police riddled their armored van bearing diplomatic plates with bullets.
The men, traveling with a Mexican Marine captain, were wounded and taken to a hospital for treatment, though their injuries were not life threatening. Television footage showed the vehicle strafed with bullet marks, its tires and rear window shot out.
A dozen federal police officers detained and questioned over the attack have been ordered held in custody for 40 days, and in initial statements to federal prosecutors they claimed they confused the Americans for criminals.
However, eyewitnesses at a bend in the road outside the small town of Tres Marias told Reuters the gunmen were dressed in plain clothes and carried rifles. They said they pursued the Americans firing from unmarked cars trying to box them in and on foot -- a classic style of gangland hits in Mexico.
"We had no idea at all they were police. They looked like criminals," said one woman who witnessed the incident but asked not to be named for fear of repercussions.
Witnesses said the CIA driver made impressive evasive maneuvers which likely saved their lives, and they believe they heard hundreds of bullets fired, estimating the incident lasted around six minutes.
One media report said shell casings from AK-47s, which are not used by Mexican police and are a weapon of choice for drug cartel members, were found at the scene, which could suggest the police were working in tandem with gangs.
Tres Marias is close to the city of Cuernavaca, a weekend retreat that has been badly hit by drug violence in recent years. In 2009, Mexican Marines shot dead leading cartel boss Arturo Beltran Leyva, alias "The Beard," in Cuernavaca based on information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
U.S. and Mexican officials are probing last week's incident to ascertain whether it was a mix-up, or more sinister.
A Mexican official close to the investigation who asked not be identified said the CIA officers were within a few miles of the Marine base when they were shot by the men in civilian clothes.
The CIA declined to comment on the incident.
One U.S. official familiar with inquiries into the incident said that there are a "whole lot of unanswered questions" and that future dealings between the United States and Mexico could be seriously affected if the United States concludes that a major cover-up is going on.
DELIBERATE AMBUSH?
Mexico's police services have been plagued by cases of corruption and officers working for hire for cartels in recent years, amid a surge in violence that poses a major challenge for incoming President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Roadside shootings have been a feature of the violence linked to drug gangs that has overshadowed President Felipe Calderon's six years in office. Gangs have been known to set up fake military checkpoints to ambush rivals.
Last year, two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were shot by hitmen on a major Mexican highway. One of the agents died.
Calderon promised on Tuesday to get to the bottom of how the pair were shot by federal police officers.
Speaking alongside the U.S. ambassador in Mexico, Calderon said the shooting incident should not hinder bilateral efforts to fight Mexico's violent drug cartels.
"We can't allow these things to happen, whether it is because of negligence, lack of training, lack of trust or complicity," Calderon said.
Major U.S. agencies including the CIA, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration operate out of the embassy in Mexico City.
Under the "Merida Initiative" which began in 2008, U.S. agents have trained Mexican police and soldiers to help them with Calderon's war on traffickers. Washington has also supplied Mexico with equipment including Black Hawk helicopters and surveillance gear.
Much of the training and hardware has gone to the Marines, an elite force that operates out of Mexico's Navy Ministry and has captured or killed several major drug traffickers. However, the United States has also trained the federal police.
During Calderon's six-year offensive against cartels, there have been more than 55,000 drug-related murders. More than 3,000 police and soldiers have died, although many were involved with the gangs.
(With reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Dave Graham in Mexico City; Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
To Merrill Averill and Paul McGothin, two 60-something marketing executives from Ossining, N.Y., a rumbling tummy equates to the fountain of youth. They practice an extreme calorie restriction because they believe that eating less is the secret to living longer. Now a new study published in the online version of the journal Nature casts doubt on that idea.
In the late 1980s, scientists set out to test the theory that dietary restriction could extend the life span of long-lived primates, as decades of studies had found it did in mice and other lower organisms. If true, this would strongly imply that the same assumptions could be made about humans.
Two independent teams -- one at the U.S. National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md., and the other at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in Madison, Wis., each placed rhesus monkeys on diets that contained 30 percent fewer calories than normal and have periodically provided updates on the health and longevity of the animals.
As the latest Nature dispatch found, the NIA monkeys fed a calorie-restricted diet didn't live any longer than monkeys on a higher-calorie diet. No matter what they ate, maximum lifespan seems to hover around 40 years of age. Half the monkeys that began the study as youngsters were still alive, but the researchers say, based on survival patterns, they predict the remaining calorie-restrictors and controls will all live to be about the same age.
Monkeys that started the diet in their youth did show a trend toward a delay in the onset of age-associated disease. Interestingly, the strict diet appeared to decrease the risk of cancer and possibly diabetes but slightly increased the risk of cardiovascular disease.
"It is likely that calorie restriction alters cellular pathways that contribute to cancer differently than it does those pathways leading to metabolic dysfunction," said Dr. Julie Mattison, an author of the paper. "Given the experimental design, it is possible that pathways leading to cancer are impacted earlier or to a greater extent than others."
And the dieting monkeys also enjoyed improved health. For example, eating a restricted diet made them slimmer than those in the control group, and if they began the diet in middle age (16-23 years old for monkeys) they had lower blood fat and blood sugar levels compared to the nondieters. Male dieters of all ages had lower cholesterol levels than the controls.
Conflicting Results
These latest findings are at odds with the WNPRC study in which calorie-restricted monkeys have far outlived the controls. Floyd Chilton, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest University Medical Center, said the study design might account for some of the disparities.
For one thing, the Wisconsin monkeys subsisted on a diet that shared many of the same unhealthy aspects of a typical Western diet, such as a high amount of sugar, whereas the NIA primates were fed a much healthier diet and were also given vitamin supplements.
"The NIA monkeys were already eating so healthy to begin with, the calorie reduction may not have provided much more of a health advantage," Chilton said.
Mattison said this could be a limitation. "Certainly quality of the food and the nutrient composition/ratios could factor into the equation. Because calorie restriction is causing a metabolic stress, it is reasonable to speculate that a nutritionally complete and balanced diet would be better for the organism, regardless of the quantity," she said.
Another difference: The NIA monkeys were given two meals a day on a schedule while the Wisconsin monkeys ate whenever they pleased. Both groups were also genetically quite diverse; since each study included a relatively small number of individuals ? 70 divided between calorie restriction and control groups ? the genetic variations might have further skewed results.
Making Sense
The caloric restriction theory has been around since the 1930s, when Cornell researchers found it extended the lives of lab mice by about 40 percent. Since then, restricted eating has been found to increase the lifespan in a variety of species from worms to dogs. Researchers assume it works because being in a state of slight hunger acts as a mild but persistent stressor that somehow makes an organism more resistant to the effects of aging. Taking in fewer calories also slows metabolism, which may in turn slow down the aging process.
Whatever the mechanisms may be, Chilton says the two primate studies are heroic and should be respected for being the first long-term investigations to provide clues about how humans might respond to eating a sparse diet. Nevertheless, the debate will certainly continue.
"We didn't see the miracle change in longevity we've seen in rodents and other primitive animals, but questions about the effects of calorie restriction on aging are far from answered," he said.
As for Averill and Paul McGothin, they say these recent findings don't shake their faith in calorie restriction in the least. They plan on continuing with the diet and spreading the gospel through their organization, CR Society International.
"At my recent physical exam my doctor told me I am in remarkable shape," McGothin says. "That's all the proof I need."
(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday that its Kindle Fire tablet accounts for 22 percent of U.S. tablet sales and that the device is sold out.
The tablet hit stores last November at a cost well below that of Apple Inc's market-leading iPad.
Amazon is holding a press event next week in Santa Monica, California, fueling speculation it will launch new tablet devices.
Since the Kindle Fire launch last year, Google Inc has introduced a seven-inch tablet called Nexus 7, which has been selling well. Barnes & Noble Inc's Nook Tablet, introduced last autumn, has also been popular.
Amazon said its Kindle Fire is sold out, but its statement did not say when the device would be back in stock, nor how many Amazon has sold.
Since the launch of the tablet last year, Amazon's top-selling products have all been digital products such as music, videos and movies, Amazon said.
(Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
The Europeans are in the same position as the Americans when it comes to the rules on compensation when flights are cancelled or passengers are refused boarding. As from 2004, there have been a unified set of rules to ensure that everyone gets the same treatment no matter which country they are flying in or to ? for the record, comparable rules apply to train services and other forms of public transport although the substance of the rules varies, e.g. the detail of rights on trains are not the same as those applying to maritime and river transport. This article only addresses the rights available to citizens of an EU Member State. Even if an American is a passenger on a European flight in Europe, none of these rights apply. The only remedies come under international treaties. However, Americans in Europe do get an indirect benefit.
The first and most obvious consumer right is to receive comprehensive information in a timely manner. If a problem arises hours before boarding is due, airlines should notify passengers by sms, Facebook or some other means to minimize inconvenience and avoid travel to the airport. Once you have arrived and presented yourself for boarding within the time limit, you?re entitled to compensation if the plane is overbooked and you cannot get a seat, even if you have cheap air tickets. The current practice is as follows. The airline first calls for volunteers who are prepared to give up their seats for an agreed amount of compensation. If no one volunteers, you must be offered a full refund or re-routing to your destination at the earliest possible time. For these purposes, a full refund includes the cost of flying you home if the purpose of your journey is now frustrated, e.g. you were flying to attend a friend?s wedding and you will miss it. If you choose a refund or re-routing, compensation must also be paid. This is up to 600 Euro depending on the distance you were due to fly. If your seat is upgraded, you cannot be asked to pay a higher ticket price. If you agree to accept a downgrade, the airline must refund the difference in seat price even if you had cheap air tickets.
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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands intercepted a Spanish airliner with two fighter planes and then sent security forces to surround it on the tarmac at Amsterdam's airport in a hijack scare caused by a loss of radio contact.
The plane, flown by Spanish carrier Vueling from Malaga in Spain to Amsterdam with about 180 passengers on board, had lost radio contact with air traffic control, a spokesman for the military police told Reuters.
"There was no communication with the crew at all," Martijn Peelen, military police spokesman, said. "My colleagues are still talking to the (plane's) captain to find out what caused the communication failure."
Peelen said that as soon as the plane landed at Schiphol airport, it was surrounded by security forces and a negotiator was sent to talk to the crew.
"After the negotiator spoke to the captain we were certain there were no hijackers on the plane," Peelen said.
The plane had been intercepted and escorted by two F-16 fighters sent by the Dutch Defence Ministry.
"The scrambling of fighter jets was part of a standard emergency procedure after the plane failed to communicate," said an official of the NATO Western military alliance. NATO's Combined Air Operations Centre had notified the Dutch military after being alerted by air traffic controllers to the loss of contact.
Passengers had to remain on board the plane for hours while it was searched by police, but were later allowed to disembark and board buses.
"We first realized something was wrong when we started circling above Rotterdam over and over, and the captain told us there was some problem in Schiphol. We spent about four hours on the ground after arriving," said Erna, a passenger, who asked that her surname not be used.
A spokeswoman for the airline, Vueling, said: "There was never any danger. There was a lack of communication between the pilot and the tower and the airport has activated the security protocol."
(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac, Thomas Escritt, Gilbert Kreijger and Madrid Newsroom; Editing by Peter Graff)
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A team led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have made the first-ever mechanical device that can measure the mass of individual molecules one at a time.
This new technology, the researchers say, will eventually help doctors diagnose diseases, enable biologists to study viruses and probe the molecular machinery of cells, and even allow scientists to better measure nanoparticles and air pollution.
The team includes researchers from the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech and Commissariat l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, Laboratoire d'?lectronique des technologies de l'information (CEA-LETI) in Grenoble, France. A description of this technology, which includes nanodevices prototyped in CEA-LETI's facilities, appears in the online version of the journalNature Nanotechnology on August 26.
The device?which is only a couple millionths of a meter in size?consists of a tiny, vibrating bridge-like structure. When a particle or molecule lands on the bridge, its mass changes the oscillating frequency in a way that reveals how much the particle weighs.
"As each particle comes in, we can measure its mass," says Michael Roukes, the Robert M. Abbey Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering at Caltech. "Nobody's ever done this before."
The new instrument is based on a technique Roukes and his colleagues developed over the last 12 years. In work published in 2009, they showed that a bridge-like device?called a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) resonator?could indeed measure the masses of individual particles, which were sprayed onto the apparatus. The difficulty, however, was that the measured shifts in frequencies depended not only on the particle's actual mass, but also on where the particle landed. Without knowing the particle's landing site, the researchers had to analyze measurements of about 500 identical particles in order to pinpoint its mass.
But with the new and improved technique, the scientists need only one particle to make a measurement. "The critical advance that we've made in this current work is that it now allows us to weigh molecules?one by one?as they come in," Roukes says.
To do so, the researchers analyzed how a particle shifts the bridge's vibrating frequency. All oscillatory motion is composed of so-called vibrational modes. If the bridge just shook in the first mode, it would sway side to side, with the center of the structure moving the most. The second vibrational mode is at a higher frequency, in which half of the bridge moves sideways in one direction as the other half goes in the opposite direction, forming an oscillating S-shaped wave that spans the length of the bridge. There is a third mode, a fourth mode, and so on. Whenever the bridge oscillates, its motion can be described as a mixture of these vibrational modes.
The team found that by looking at how the first two modes change frequencies when a particle lands, they could determine the particle's mass and position, explains Mehmet Selim Hanay, a postdoctoral researcher in Roukes's lab and first author of the paper. "With each measurement we can determine the mass of the particle, which wasn't possible in mechanical structures before."
Traditionally, molecules are weighed using a method called mass spectroscopy, in which tens of millions of molecules are ionized?so that they attain an electrical charge?and then interact with an electromagnetic field. By analyzing this interaction, scientists can deduce the mass of the molecules.
The problem with this method is that it does not work well for more massive particles?like proteins or viruses?which have a harder time gaining an electrical charge. As a result, their interactions with electromagnetic fields are too weak for the instrument to make sufficiently accurate measurements.
The new device, on the other hand, does work well for large particles. In fact, the researchers say, it can be integrated with existing commercial instruments to expand their capabilities, allowing them to measure a wider range of masses.
The researchers demonstrated how their new tool works by weighing a molecule called immunoglobulin M (IgM), an antibody produced by immune cells in the blood. By weighing each molecule?which can take on different structures with different masses in the body?the researchers were able to count and identify the various types of IgM. Not only was this the first time a biological molecule was weighed using a nanomechanical device, but the demonstration also served as a direct step toward biomedical applications. Future instruments could be used to monitor a patient's immune system or even diagnose immunological diseases. For example, a certain ratio of IgM molecules is a signature of a type of cancer called Waldenstr?m macroglobulinemia.
In the more distant future, the new instrument could give biologists a view into the molecular machinery of a cell. Proteins drive nearly all of a cell's functions, and their specific tasks depend on what sort of molecular structures attach to them?thereby adding more heft to the protein?during a process called posttranslational modification. By weighing each protein in a cell at various times, biologists would now be able to get a detailed snapshot of what each protein is doing at that particular moment in time.
Another advantage of the new device is that it is made using standard, semiconductor fabrication techniques, making it easy to mass-produce. That's crucial, since instruments that are efficient enough for doctors or biologists to use will need arrays of hundreds to tens of thousands of these bridges working in parallel. "With the incorporation of the devices that are made by techniques for large-scale integration, we're well on our way to creating such instruments," Roukes says. This new technology, the researchers say, will enable the development of a new generation of mass-spectrometry instruments.
"This result demonstrates how the Alliance for Nanosystems VLSI, initiated in 2006, creates a favorable environment to carry out innovative experiments with state-of-the-art, mass-produced devices," says Laurent Malier, the director of CEA-LETI. The Alliance for Nanosystems VLSI is the name of the partnership between Caltech's Kavli Nanoscience Institute and CEA-LETI. "These devices," he says,"will enable commercial applications, thanks to cost advantage and process repeatability."
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California Institute of Technology: http://www.caltech.edu
Thanks to California Institute of Technology for this article.
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I have to admit I am hooked on cappuccino. So much so that I bought my own cappuccino machine (from Starbucks of course), not content to have to get in my car to drive to my local coffee shop. I have other reasons too since I am very particular about using organic milk and just a little whip cream and cinnamon on top. I am not alone in this category, If you have ever been to a Starbucks you will know what I mean. Next time you are in line at Starbucks take a moment to listen to the requests customers are making about their drink preferences. The Barista?s at Starbucks have no qualms with this practice, in fact they pride themselves in making your beverage exactly as you wish, jotting notes on the cup to ensure your perfect drinking pleasure.
There is no doubt that coffee is a racket and the capitalists have figured out a way to turn a simple 95 cent beverage into a $4.00 indulgence. Starbucks is the leader in this category and Jeff Pierce recently asked me to review the astrology chart for the company after the stock made a significant pullback in July. We were looking for a good stock to add to our Astrology Traders weekend update and thought Starbucks might be good for a long term long position. The astrology confirmed the pullback and offered a buying opportunity for our subscribers on August 2nd. We have a nice 11% gain so far on our trade and here is an except form our Astrology Traders newsletter on July 29th:
Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX)
Jeff sees a strategy with Starbucks that could be unfolding very soon. The company has shown strength over the years and just recently pulled back to an area that could present a good entry for a long term position. The company reported an earnings miss last week and the stock made a significant gap down. The astrology showed a Jupiter square Jupiter (setback for the stock) when the company reported earnings last week. Transiting Pluto will form a grand trine to Mars and Jupiter in the IPO chart suggesting a very strong bullish trend starting in mid November. The stock could have another?pullback into August 2nd?where there could be an opportunity to start scaling into the stock, however Jeff likes a long position near Friday?s close. Jeff and I both feel this is a long term hold opportunity.
The stars in the sky look pretty promising for Starbucks, especially in the Fall when transiting Pluto (rules coffee) will make a grand trine to Mars and Jupiter in the IPO chart. Watch for a potential pullback in September to either add to or establish a long position. Become a subscriber and learn more about this and other stocks we are watching.
Karen Starich?is a contributor to?zentrader.ca?who uses astrology to forecast events in the financial markets. Check out?Astrology Traders?for specific dates and in-depth analysis of future events in the various markets she covers.
Team of researchers finds a link between cold European winters and solar activityPublic release date: 27-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Professor Dr. Frank Sirocko sirocko@uni-mainz.de 49-613-139-22714 Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
Studies of Germany's largest river reveal a correlation between periods of low activity of the sun and regional cooling
Scientists have long suspected that the Sun's 11-year cycle influences climate of certain regions on Earth. Yet records of average, seasonal temperatures do not date back far enough to confirm any patterns. Now, armed with a unique proxy, an international team of researchers show that unusually cold winters in Central Europe are related to low solar activity - when sunspot numbers are minimal. The freezing of Germany's largest river, the Rhine, is the key.
Although the Earth's surface overall continues to warm, the new analysis has revealed a correlation between periods of low activity of the Sun and of some cooling - on a limited, regional scale in Central Europe, along the Rhine. "The advantage with studying the Rhine is because it's a very simple measurement," said Professor Dr. Frank Sirocko, lead author of a paper on the study and Professor of Sedimentology and Palaeoclimatology at the Institute of Geosciences of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. "Freezing is special in that it's like an on-off mode. Either there is ice or there is no ice."
But how to find this information? Easily done: From the early 19th through the mid-20th centuries, riverboat men used the Rhine river for cargo transport. And so docks along the river have annual records of when ice clogged the waterway and stymied shipping. The scientists used these easily accessible documents, as well as other additional historical accounts, to determine the number of freezing episodes since 1780. Sirocko and his colleagues found that between 1780 and 1963, the Rhine froze in multiple places fourteen different times. "The sheer size of the Rhine river means it takes extremely cold temperatures to freeze over making freezing episodes a good proxy for very cold winters in the region," Sirocko said.
Mapping the freezing episodes against the solar activity's 11-year cycle, a cycle of the Sun's varying magnetic strength and thus total radiation output, Sirocko and his colleagues determined that ten of the fourteen freezes occurred during years when the Sun had minimal sunspots. Using statistical methods, the scientists calculated that there is a 99% chance that extremely cold Central European winters and low solar activity are inherently linked. "We provide, for the first time, statistically robust evidence that the succession of cold winters during the last 230 years in Central Europe has a common cause," Sirocko said.
"With the new paper, Sirocko and his colleagues have added to the research linking solar variability with climate," said Thomas Crowley, Director of the Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment, and Society, who was not involved with the study. "There is some suspension of belief in this link," Crowley said, "and this study tilts the argument more towards thinking there really is something to this link. If you have more statistical evidence to support this explanation, one is more likely to say it's true."
When sunspot numbers are down, the Sun emits less ultraviolet radiation. Less radiation means less heating of Earth's atmosphere, which sparks a change in the circulation patterns of the two lowest atmospheric levels, the troposphere and stratosphere. Such changes lead to climatic phenomena such as the North Atlantic Oscillation, a pattern of atmospheric pressure variations that influences wind patterns in the North Atlantic and weather behavior in regions in and around Europe. "Due to this indirect effect, the solar cycle does not impact hemispherically averaged temperatures, but only leads to regional temperature anomalies," said Stephan Pfahl, a co-author of the study who is now at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich. The authors show that this change in atmospheric circulation leads to cooling in parts of Central Europe but warming in other European countries, such as Iceland. "Sunspots do not necessarily cool the entire globe; their cooling effect is more localized," Sirocko said.
In fact, studies have suggested that the extremely cold European winters of 2010 and 2011 were the result of the North Atlantic Oscillation, which Sirocko and his team now link to the low solar activity during that time. The 2010 and 2011 European winters were so cold that they resulted in record lows for the month of November in certain countries. Some who dispute the occurrence of anthropogenic climate change argue that this two-year period shows that Earth's climate is not getting any warmer. But climate is a complex system, Sirocko said. And a short-term, localized dip in temperatures only temporarily masks the effects of a warming world. "Climate is not ruled by one variable," said Sirocko. "In fact, it has at least five or six variables. Carbon dioxide is certainly one, but solar activity is also one."
Moreover, the researchers also point out that, despite Central Europe's prospect to suffer colder winters every 11 years or so, the average temperature of those winters is increasing and has been for the past three decades. As one piece of evidence of that warming, the Rhine river has not frozen over since 1963. Sirocko said such warming results, in part, from climate change. To establish a more complete record of past temperature dips, the researchers are looking to other proxies, such as the spread of disease and migratory habits. "Disease can be transported by insects and rats, but during a strong freezing year that is not likely," said Sirocko. "Also, Romans used the Rhine to defend against the Germanics, but as soon as the river froze people could move across it. The freezing of the Rhine is very important on historical timescales."
However, it wasn't the Rhine that first got Sirocko to thinking about the connection between freezing rivers and sunspot activity. In fact, it was a 125-mile ice-skating race he attended over 20 years ago in the Netherlands that sparked the scientist's idea. "Skaters can only do this race every 10 or 11 years because that's when the rivers freeze up," Sirocko said. "I thought to myself, 'There must be a reason for this,' and it turns out there is."
###
Publication
Sirocko, F., H. Brunck, and S. Pfahl (2012), Solar influence on winter severity in central Europe, Geophysical Research Letters, 39, L16704
DOI:10.1029/2012GL052412
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Team of researchers finds a link between cold European winters and solar activityPublic release date: 27-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Professor Dr. Frank Sirocko sirocko@uni-mainz.de 49-613-139-22714 Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
Studies of Germany's largest river reveal a correlation between periods of low activity of the sun and regional cooling
Scientists have long suspected that the Sun's 11-year cycle influences climate of certain regions on Earth. Yet records of average, seasonal temperatures do not date back far enough to confirm any patterns. Now, armed with a unique proxy, an international team of researchers show that unusually cold winters in Central Europe are related to low solar activity - when sunspot numbers are minimal. The freezing of Germany's largest river, the Rhine, is the key.
Although the Earth's surface overall continues to warm, the new analysis has revealed a correlation between periods of low activity of the Sun and of some cooling - on a limited, regional scale in Central Europe, along the Rhine. "The advantage with studying the Rhine is because it's a very simple measurement," said Professor Dr. Frank Sirocko, lead author of a paper on the study and Professor of Sedimentology and Palaeoclimatology at the Institute of Geosciences of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. "Freezing is special in that it's like an on-off mode. Either there is ice or there is no ice."
But how to find this information? Easily done: From the early 19th through the mid-20th centuries, riverboat men used the Rhine river for cargo transport. And so docks along the river have annual records of when ice clogged the waterway and stymied shipping. The scientists used these easily accessible documents, as well as other additional historical accounts, to determine the number of freezing episodes since 1780. Sirocko and his colleagues found that between 1780 and 1963, the Rhine froze in multiple places fourteen different times. "The sheer size of the Rhine river means it takes extremely cold temperatures to freeze over making freezing episodes a good proxy for very cold winters in the region," Sirocko said.
Mapping the freezing episodes against the solar activity's 11-year cycle, a cycle of the Sun's varying magnetic strength and thus total radiation output, Sirocko and his colleagues determined that ten of the fourteen freezes occurred during years when the Sun had minimal sunspots. Using statistical methods, the scientists calculated that there is a 99% chance that extremely cold Central European winters and low solar activity are inherently linked. "We provide, for the first time, statistically robust evidence that the succession of cold winters during the last 230 years in Central Europe has a common cause," Sirocko said.
"With the new paper, Sirocko and his colleagues have added to the research linking solar variability with climate," said Thomas Crowley, Director of the Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment, and Society, who was not involved with the study. "There is some suspension of belief in this link," Crowley said, "and this study tilts the argument more towards thinking there really is something to this link. If you have more statistical evidence to support this explanation, one is more likely to say it's true."
When sunspot numbers are down, the Sun emits less ultraviolet radiation. Less radiation means less heating of Earth's atmosphere, which sparks a change in the circulation patterns of the two lowest atmospheric levels, the troposphere and stratosphere. Such changes lead to climatic phenomena such as the North Atlantic Oscillation, a pattern of atmospheric pressure variations that influences wind patterns in the North Atlantic and weather behavior in regions in and around Europe. "Due to this indirect effect, the solar cycle does not impact hemispherically averaged temperatures, but only leads to regional temperature anomalies," said Stephan Pfahl, a co-author of the study who is now at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich. The authors show that this change in atmospheric circulation leads to cooling in parts of Central Europe but warming in other European countries, such as Iceland. "Sunspots do not necessarily cool the entire globe; their cooling effect is more localized," Sirocko said.
In fact, studies have suggested that the extremely cold European winters of 2010 and 2011 were the result of the North Atlantic Oscillation, which Sirocko and his team now link to the low solar activity during that time. The 2010 and 2011 European winters were so cold that they resulted in record lows for the month of November in certain countries. Some who dispute the occurrence of anthropogenic climate change argue that this two-year period shows that Earth's climate is not getting any warmer. But climate is a complex system, Sirocko said. And a short-term, localized dip in temperatures only temporarily masks the effects of a warming world. "Climate is not ruled by one variable," said Sirocko. "In fact, it has at least five or six variables. Carbon dioxide is certainly one, but solar activity is also one."
Moreover, the researchers also point out that, despite Central Europe's prospect to suffer colder winters every 11 years or so, the average temperature of those winters is increasing and has been for the past three decades. As one piece of evidence of that warming, the Rhine river has not frozen over since 1963. Sirocko said such warming results, in part, from climate change. To establish a more complete record of past temperature dips, the researchers are looking to other proxies, such as the spread of disease and migratory habits. "Disease can be transported by insects and rats, but during a strong freezing year that is not likely," said Sirocko. "Also, Romans used the Rhine to defend against the Germanics, but as soon as the river froze people could move across it. The freezing of the Rhine is very important on historical timescales."
However, it wasn't the Rhine that first got Sirocko to thinking about the connection between freezing rivers and sunspot activity. In fact, it was a 125-mile ice-skating race he attended over 20 years ago in the Netherlands that sparked the scientist's idea. "Skaters can only do this race every 10 or 11 years because that's when the rivers freeze up," Sirocko said. "I thought to myself, 'There must be a reason for this,' and it turns out there is."
###
Publication
Sirocko, F., H. Brunck, and S. Pfahl (2012), Solar influence on winter severity in central Europe, Geophysical Research Letters, 39, L16704
DOI:10.1029/2012GL052412
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
LOS ALTOS, Calif. ? It?s about 20 minutes into my lunch interview with Aaron Levie, co-founder of Box, at the headquarters of the online data storage company, and he still doesn?t have any food.
?Are you eating?? I ask, awkwardly swirling Thai noodles onto my fork.
Like someone swerving out of the way of oncoming traffic, he abruptly shifts from a lengthy ramble on the short history of cloud computing and responds: ?For your own sake, I?m not going to eat. I speak too quickly, and my food would be splattered all over the table.?
Mr. Levie, 27, the chief executive of Box, always operates on fast forward. He talks quickly. Walks quickly. Thinks quickly.
Even his clothing displays a need for speed. Mr. Levie doesn?t own a single pair of dress shoes. Instead, he opts for Asics or Puma sneakers with bright orange or pink laces, which he wears daily with a dark suit. ?Sneakers help me walk faster,? he says. ?Plus, it reminds me that we?re fighting for the end user ? the consumer ? because they wear sneakers, too!?
His career and his start-up have also grown at warp speed.
Just seven years ago, while attending the University of Southern California?s Marshall School of Business, Mr. Levie founded Box from his dorm room with Dylan Smith. Mr. Levie programmed the site, and Mr. Smith, who is now the company?s chief financial officer, played online poker to finance the business. (Until recently, the company was known as Box.net.)
The founders learned to identify the 3 percent of people who were ?terrible poker players? and beat them, Mr. Levie said. ?If you played against eight screens at a time, it basically just becomes statistical.?
After a brief stint in Seattle, Box moved to Oakland and operated out of a garage belonging to Mr. Levie?s uncle. For seven months, a small group of programmers lived and worked there among pizza crusts and Coca-Cola cans.
Now, Box is one of the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley. It has more than 500 employees and supplies cloud storage services to more than 11 million people and 125,000 businesses. It has raised $200 million from notable investors, including the Texas billionaire Mark Cuban, SAP Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. And revenue has more than doubled every year since Box was founded in 2005, although the company does not disclose the amount.
Sean Andersen, director of interactive services at Six Flags Entertainment, said he chose Box because of its ability to adapt for businesses. ?I first met Aaron at a trade show, and at the time, he was literally having two conversations at once,? Mr. Andersen said. ?They have this iteration cycle where they are changing and improving their product at a much faster scale than others.?
Mr. Levie talks about his business the way an ardent ?Star Trek? fan explains his favorite episode. As he sees it, enterprise computing, or software for companies, is at a pivotal moment as businesses move from clunky, in-house systems to Web-based ones operating in the cloud.
?If you think about the market that we?re in, and more broadly just the enterprise software market, the kind of transition that?s happening right now from legacy systems to the cloud is literally, by definition, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,? he says. ?This is probably going to happen at a larger scale than any other technology transition we?ve seen in the enterprise. Larger than client servers. Larger than mainframes.?
The business potential, he adds, seems limitless: ?We think we are just 1 percent into that transition.?
To Mr. Levie, mobile is the biggest driver of change. Before, legacy systems used to be connected to Windows computers, and people printed out most of their documents. Now, printers are giving way to iPhones and iPads, all of which are connected to the cloud.
?All of a sudden, if you think about the entire ecosystem of connected devices that can pull down information, access content and allow me to share and work and communicate, the vast majority now are not Windows computers,? he says. ?They are iPhones. They are iPads. They are Android devices. Mobile is the catalyst that can actually re-evaluate and re-engineer your entire I.T. strategy.?
This is where he expects most of his company?s growth to come. As chief information officers of Fortune 500 companies continue to switch from mainframes and allow employees to work remotely from mobile devices, including tablets and laptops, the cloud and services like Box will become all the more important.
While Mr. Levie runs a multimillion-dollar business and oversees hundreds of employees, he is still a 20-something tech geek. In Silicon Valley, where he is often described as ?the son of the mad professor from ?Back to the Future,??? he arrives at the office around noon and works until 3 a.m. After work, he goes home and plays video games to ?wind down.?
The company?s headquarters are infused with his youthful energy. A bright yellow slide spirals from the second floor to the lobby. Swings hang from the ceiling of meeting areas. Hundreds of stuffed unicorns litter the office, sitting on chairs, above computer monitors and abandoned in the hallway.
All of this, Mr. Levie says, helps employees remember that they are fighting for the consumer. He believes this philosophy separates Box from its competitors.
?This is the thing that we think will always keep us competitive with enterprise incumbents,? he says, noting that traditional enterprise software is often clunky and confusing. He says Box tries to ?fight the man? by making software from a consumer standpoint so it can easily be downloaded to any device and remain secure.
I reminded him that technically, he is ?the man.? As if momentarily placing a finger on a spinning record, he pauses for a millisecond, looks up and says, ?Oh, yeah,? before turning down a new street in his mind to explain the importance of security in cloud software.
But ?the man? is different in this case. Even with the colorful sneakers and boyish looks, the young chief executive stands out for his philosophy, which he demonstrates on his personal Twitter account with jokes about cloud computing and other technologies.
In a recent post on Twitter, he wrote: ?Blogs made it hard for me to read full articles. Now tweets make blogs hard to read. Soon, I?ll only be able to consume shapes.?
Or, taking a jab at smart guys like him: ?Start-ups are for people that wanted to run marathons, cage fight and hunt alligators, but were born with asthma.?
This past week's top story: Gallstone disease is becoming more prevalent in overweight boys and girls, says research.Lab Notes: Overweight Kids More Prone to Gallstones; Women with Alzheimer?s Fare Worse Than Men is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog
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With the residence simply being the only most high-priced point any kind of us will probably ever acquire, creating alterations, upgrades or renovations to it can be an alarming offer. What if it is going wrong? What happens if we make the wrong selections? This information will help you sort throughout the rights and wrongs with many great tips and concepts for your own home enhancement projects.
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OSLO, Norway (AP) ? A chapter of a terror case that has haunted Norway for 13 months ended Friday as confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was declared sane and sent to prison for bomb and gun attacks that killed 77 people and injured 200 others last year.
After deliberating for two months, a five-judge panel in Oslo's district court handed down a sentence of "preventive detention" of at least 10 years and a maximum of 21 years for the right-wing extremist. However, such sentences can be extended under Norwegian law as long as an inmate is considered dangerous.
Breivik, a 33-year-old Norwegian on a mission to expel Muslims from Europe, set off a car bomb that killed eight people outside government headquarters in Oslo and he then killed 69 others in a shooting rampage on Utoya island, where young members of the governing Labor Party had gathered for their annual summer camp. Breivik says he would appeal an insanity ruling but accept a prison term.
Here are some questions and answers about the case.
Q: Was Breivik's guilt in question?
A: Essentially, no. He admitted to the attacks and nothing in the criminal investigation suggested there was anyone else involved. He rejected criminal charges out of principle, saying he did not recognize the court's authority because it represents a political system that supports multiculturalism. But that argument didn't sway the court, and the same goes for his claim that the killings were justified to protect Norway from becoming overrun by Muslims. Breivik probably knew these were hopeless arguments, because he didn't spend much time on them during the trial, focusing instead on trying to prove that he is a political terrorist and not a madman.
Q: What were the possible outcomes?
A: The key question for the Oslo court to decide was whether Breivik was sane enough to be held criminally responsible for the attacks. If declared insane, he would have been committed to involuntary psychiatric care, indefinitely. But Breivik was deemed sane by the judges and sentenced to "preventive detention." Unlike a regular prison sentence ? which can be no longer than 21 years in Norway ? that confinement option can be extended for as long as an inmate is considered dangerous to society. It also offers more programs and therapy than an ordinary prison sentence. Norway, like nearly all of Europe, doesn't have the death penalty.
Q: So what happens to Breivik now?
A: Breivik will be taken back to Oslo's Ila Prison, where he has been held in isolation for most of the time since his arrest. The prison built a psychiatric ward just for Breivik in case he was declared insane.
Q: What are the conditions like at Ila? Is it like a two-star hotel?
A: Outside Scandinavia, it may seem that way, though prison spokeswoman Ellen Bjercke pointed out that the biggest hardship of being incarcerated lies in the fact that you cannot leave. The conditions inside are secondary to the loss of freedom, she said. Norway takes pride in its humane penal system, and living conditions in Norwegian prisons are probably far better than in most other countries. For example, other prisoners at Ila have access to school that offers courses from primary grade to university level courses, a library, a gym, work in the prison's various shops and other leisure activities. Because Breivik is held in isolation, without contact with other prisoners, he doesn't have access to those things. In compensation, Ila has given him three cells instead of one. Each is about 86 square feet (8 square meters.) One has gym equipment, another has a bed and the third a desk with a laptop computer. For at least one hour a day, he has access to a small courtyard surrounded by barbed wire.
Q: Will Breivik ever get out?
A: Legal experts say it's unlikely Breivik will ever be released but no one can say for sure. One thing is certain though: it won't happen for as long as Norwegian authorities consider him dangerous to society. Breivik can challenge a "preventive detention" sentence every five years. One of the reasons Breivik's attacks were presented in such gruesome detail during the trial was so that the horror of Oslo and Utoya would be well-documented for the day Breivik asks to be released. "Legally speaking, he could of course theoretically be a free man in some years. But realistically speaking he would be incarcerated for perhaps the rest of his life," said Lasse Qvigstad, a former Oslo chief prosecutor.
Q: How does the appeals process work?
A: In Norway, both prosecutors and the defendant can appeal all or parts of the ruling. Breivik's lawyer said Thursday that he will appeal if he's declared insane but would accept a prison term. An appeals trial would likely be held early next year.
Q: So why did Breivik want to be sent to prison? Wouldn't he get off easier with an insanity ruling?
A: Breivik wants to be seen as a political terrorist, or as he calls himself, a "militant nationalist." During the trial he said that being sent to an insane asylum would be the worst thing that could happen to him and accused Norwegian authorities of trying to cast him as sick to deflate his political views. His lawyers say Breivik is already at work writing sequels to the 1,500-page manifesto he released on the Internet before the attacks.
___
Associated Press writer Julia Gronnevet and AP senior producer David Mac Dougall contributed to this report.
Natural and man-made disasters can befall any region, state, city or individual organization.? A disaster does not just mean a hurricane or a 9/11; a fire contained to your building could spell disaster for your business.? Don't make the mistake of thinking that the unthinkable won't happen to your company.? It is precisely that type of thinking that will make an emergency situation even more dire. 
I have to admit I am hooked on cappuccino. So much so that I bought my own cappuccino machine (from Starbucks of course), not content to have to get in my car to drive to my local coffee shop. I have other reasons too since I am very particular about using organic milk and just a little whip cream and cinnamon on top. I am not alone in this category, If you have ever been to a Starbucks you will know what I mean. Next time you are in line at Starbucks take a moment to listen to the requests customers are making about their drink preferences. The Barista?s at Starbucks have no qualms with this practice, in fact they pride themselves in making your beverage exactly as you wish, jotting notes on the cup to ensure your perfect drinking pleasure.
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Public release date: 27-Aug-2012
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