Saturday, 31 December 2011

Viewers Respond On Facebook To Geisinger's No-Tobacco Policy

Geisinger Health System, one of our area's largest employers, says starting February 1st, it will no longer hire people who use tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and chewing or smokeless tobacco.

Within moments of the announcement being posted on WNEP's Facebook page,the online social site exploded with responses, topping over 700 comments.

Some supported the decision with Dave writing "I agree with this move and they are only copying what the Cleveland Clinic has done for years".

Sarah wrote "I wouldn't hire smokers either and that's my right as a business owner".

Some were outraged; Katie posted "What a great way in keeping that nine percent unemployment rate rolling hooah!".

Christine wrote "I hope none of you smoker haters don't need a doctor or nurse who smokes to save your life".

Stephanie wrote "What right does anyone have to tell me where I can smoke once I'm off the clock?".

Many called this flat out discrimination, however Geisinger says this policy is legal in 20 states, including Pennsylvania and is not discriminatory.

Attorney Mark Powell, who deals in labor and employment law, says it's all about what's protected by law.

"There's no federal protection for smokers," said Powell. "We have federal employee rights against discrimination but smoking is not a protected class."

Geisinger's current policy bans smoking on its properties and says this further step is to promote a healthier lifestyle.

Applicants to Geisinger will be tested for nicotine, however those who fail are welcome to re-apply in six months as long as they are nicotine free.

Joel Stephenson works for Community Medical Center in Scranton, which is under going a merger with Geisinger.

He's a smoker but understands what Geisinger is doing.

"Since we're trying to take care of all the patients, then the doctors should be able to take care of themselves, even the nurses and everything," said Stephenson.

Source: http://www.wnep.com/wnep-lacka-viewers-respond-on-facebook-to-geisingers-notobacco-policy-20111228,0,3577519.story?track=rss

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North Korea vows no softening despite new leader

(AP) ? North Korea warned the world Friday there would be no softening of its position toward South Korea's government after Kim Jong Il's death as Pyongyang strengthened his son and heir's authority with a new title: Great Leader.

North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission said that the country would never deal with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, a conservative who stopped a no-strings-attached aid policy toward the North in 2008.

The stern message also said North Korea was uniting around Kim Jong Un, referring to him for the first time with the title Great Leader ? previously used for his father ? in a clear message of continuity. It was the latest incremental step in a burgeoning personality cult around the son following the Dec. 17 death of Kim Jong Il.

The younger Kim on Thursday was pronounced Supreme Leader of the ruling party, military and people at a massive public gathering on the final day of official mourning for his father.

The top levels of government appear to have rallied around Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s, in the wake of his father's death. Still, given his inexperience and age, there are questions outside North Korea about his leadership of a nation engaged in delicate negotiations over its nuclear program and grappling with decades of economic hardship and chronic food shortages.

"We declare solemnly and confidently that the foolish politicians around the world, including the puppet group in South Korea, should not expect any change from us," the National Defense Commission said. "We will never deal with the traitor group of Lee Myung-bak."

In a bellicose voice, a female news anchor for state TV read the National Defense Commission statement, saying the "evil misdeeds" of the Lee administration reached a peak when it prevented South Koreans from visiting North Korea to pay respects to Kim Jong Il, except for two delegations led by a former first lady and a business leader, both of whose husbands had ties to North Korea.

North Korea had said foreign official delegations would not be allowed at the funeral but that it would welcome any South Koreans who wanted to travel to pay respects to Kim.

"Even though we lost Kim Jong Il, we have the dear respected Kim Jong Un," Kang Chol Bok, a 28-year-old officer of the Korean People's Internal Security Forces, told The Associated Press. "We will turn our profound sorrow into strength and courage."

The North's statement is a warning for Seoul not to take the new leadership lightly, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.

"It is also raising the stakes in case the South wants better relations so Pyongyang can extract greater concessions" during any later talks, Koh said. He added that it's "too early to say the North is dashing hopes for reforms."

While blasting the South's leader, the North also offered a bit of hope for improved ties with the South, saying it "will continue to push hard toward the path of improved relations."

But it added that any better ties won't be "based on the deceitful ploys South Korea is employing by mixing 'toughness' and 'flexibility.'" Seoul has signaled a change in its approach toward Pyongyang in recent months, saying it will be more flexible in dealing with the North.

South Korea's Unification Ministry will maintain its North Korea policy and not react to every statement out of Pyongyang, according to a ministry official who declined to be identified citing the sensitivity of the relations between the countries.

On Thursday, a somber Kim Jong Un stood with his head bowed at the Grand People's Study House, overlooking Kim Il Sung Square, named for his grandfather, who founded modern North Korea. A huge crowd of mourners gathered below.

Kim Jong Un was flanked by top party and military officials, including Kim Jong Il's younger sister, Kim Kyong Hui, and her husband, Jang Song Thaek, who are expected to serve as mentors of their young nephew.

"The father's plan is being implemented," Ralph Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS, a Hawaii-based think tank, said of the transfer of power. "All of these guys have a vested interest in the system and a vested interest in demonstrating stability. The last thing they want to do is create havoc."

Titles are important in North Korea and part of the myth-building surrounding the Kim family legacy.

Kim Il Sung, the country's first and only president, retains the title Eternal President even after his death.

Kim Jong Il held three main positions: chairman of the National Defense Commission, general secretary of the Workers' Party and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army. According to the constitution, his position as chairman of the National Defense Commission made him Supreme Leader of North Korea.

Kim Jong Un was made a four-star general last year and appointed a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party. Since his father's death, North Korean officials and state media have given him a series of new titles: Great Successor, Supreme Leader and now Great Leader.

___

Associated Press writers Foster Klug, Scott McDonald and Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. Follow AP's North Korea coverage at twitter.com/APklug and twitter.com/samkim_ap.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-30-AS-Kim-Jong-Il/id-ac2fdf675db84880b30c862ffd590be7

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Friday, 30 December 2011

Grauman's Chinese: Movie star prints' futures not set in cement

Grauman's Chinese Theatre is hallowed Hollywood tourist ground, the famed site where silver-screen stars such as Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra literally cemented their legends by making hand- and footprints in concrete. On a recent November morning, those movie icons were joined by three gigantic rodents: Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Or, more precisely, as Alvin, Simon and Theodore are cartoon characters, by three anonymous guys in chipmunk suits who stuck their "paws" in wet cement while their squeaky, high-pitched version of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" blared over the sound system. Some of the goop stuck to Theodore's belly fur.

The pace of paw and other print-making at Grauman's has taken off in recent months. The complex has hosted 11 ceremonies so far this year for actors including Robert Duvall, Jennifer Aniston, Mickey Rourke and the young cast of the "Twilight" movies ? Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart. Kobe Bryant, French DJ David Guetta and the Smurfs also have dipped their digits in cement.

That's the largest number of ceremonies the theater has held since its opening in 1927, when nine individuals put their prints in cement. The influx has raised concern among some film buffs, who believe that Lautner's cinematic oeuvre doesn't exactly compare to, say, John Barrymore's or Jack Nicholson's. And with limited space available in the forecourt, some say the theater owners should be pickier about who they allow into the landmark.

Donald Kushner, a movie producer who bought the legendary theater with entrepreneur Elie Samaha in May from Warner Bros. and Viacom Inc., acknowledged that the theater has been holding more ceremonies ? which are paid for by movie studios and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Some of the older prints are deteriorating, he said, and will have to be removed from the forecourt to be preserved. But he added that not all the new prints are getting prime real estate in front of the theater, so don't look for the Chipmunks or the Smurfs there.

"They're not going in the forecourt. They weren't real ceremonies ? they were mock ceremonies," said Kushner. Though he said he was still uncertain where the blocks would end up, he surmised that all of the "kids' stuff" would be displayed at the Chinese 6 theaters, located in the adjacent Hollywood & Highland mall complex and operated by Kushner and Samaha.

Plans also are in the works to relight the forecourt and restore old theater signs to resemble their 1930s appearance. The theater is also trying to entice movie studios to hold after-parties for their premieres in the lobby of the Chinese 6, hiding the concession stands with curtains and bringing in other decorative elements to transform it into what owners describe as a "ballroom." (Many premieres are already held at Grauman's, but the after-parties are typically staged at nearby restaurants or hotels.)

Kushner also said he wants to broaden the range of individuals the theater pays tribute to in the forecourt to include athletes and musicians. He revealed that Grauman's is in preliminary talks with boxer Muhammad Ali and is also speaking with the family of Michael Jackson about a square that could use the imprints of a shoe and glove the pop star donned in some of his music videos.

Currently, forecourt honorees are selected by a committee made up of the theater's executives who evaluate "the impact someone has had on cinematic history and how they have contributed to cinema today," said the cinema's director of operations, Alwyn Kushner, daughter of Donald Kushner. Still, most of the ceremonies seem to be tied to the release of an honoree's new film ? Rourke, for one, got his square less than two weeks before the November opening of "Immortals," a sword-and-sandals epic in which he starred. His tablet, along with Aniston's July imprint and a November block stamped by some "West Side Story" 1961 film cast members, have yet to be placed in the forecourt.

"It has nothing to do with who is an authentic, for-the-ages star," said Richard Schickel, a film critic and movie historian. "That has deteriorated. It's obviously driven entirely by what is hot at this moment, publicity and money. I guess it's kinda nice, but it's not the ultimate accolade for a movie actor."

Studios are willing to cough up the dough for the ceremonies ? $25,000 for "cement and labor" directly to Grauman's, plus around $20,000 to cover costs of the ceremony, according to an executive familiar with the process who requested anonymity to preserve relations with the theater ? because they feel the event carries strong promotional value.

"We used it as the kickoff for our advertising campaign and all of the public appearances," said Nancy Kirkpatrick, president of worldwide marketing for Summit Entertainment, which released "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 1" last month. "It's absolutely a big deal, and we knew the fans would be excited to go there and visit the actors' squares."

Donald Kushner insisted that the ceremonies are not a "real big revenue source, but are good for the Grauman's brand and tradition." The company that handles publicity for the theater boasted in a recent press kit that the November print ceremonies and AFI Film Festival ? also held at Grauman's ? resulted in "over 15 million TV hits" and "$3.5 million publicity value" in one week.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame, which runs up and down the city sidewalk near Grauman's and is run by the nonprofit Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, charges $30,000 for its honors. About two dozen terrazzo stars with a famous person's name are installed each year. The selection committee is composed of 36 entertainment industry professionals.

Grauman's began the practice of having public figures leave their prints in 1927, when silent-film star Norma Talmadge accidentally stepped into wet cement. Sid Grauman saw a business opportunity in the mishap and decided to ask the theater's principal investors ? of which Talmadge was one ? to follow in the tradition. Soon, studios began paying to be included as well. There are about 200 squares currently in the forecourt.

"Basically, it was all the important stars in the films of the time until 1960, when things changed dramatically and they started bringing in more modern, younger stars," explained Marc Wanamaker, a Hollywood film historian and photo archivist. He noted that with each generation, there's been chatter about whether certain inductees are worthy of a square. "There's been controversy with purists saying, 'How dare you put Tom Cruise next to Marilyn Monroe?'"

Kushner says the theater will need to begin taking out some imprints in the near future. "Some of the handprints are going to have to be removed so we can preserve them," he said. "Some of them, like Groucho Marx, have almost disappeared."

Asked if permanent or even temporary removal might upset some of the honorees, their families or fans, Kushner replied: "Whatever. In three or four years, those squares won't exist anyway, because they're disintegrating. They'll eventually find their place."

amy.kaufman@latimes.com

Source: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-graumans-20111229,0,1604031.story?track=rss

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droidfeed: Which Android Devices Did You Receive This Holiday Season? http://t.co/utmNQoKU #android

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Thursday, 29 December 2011

Israeli airstrikes kill Gaza militant

Israel carried out a series of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip late Tuesday, killing a Palestinian militant wounding others. Israel said it targeted militants before they could carry out an attack on the border between Israel and Egypt.

Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said the militant was killed and another two injured in the explosion when a rocket hit his motorcycle Tuesday evening.

The Islamic Jihad, a violent Palestinian group that frequently fires rockets and mortars at Israel, said the he was a former member. The Israeli military said in a statement it targeted a "terror squad," without elaborating.

Another airstrike hit a Hamas police vehicle later Tuesday, injuring one Hamas officer and four others in the car, the Gaza health official said.

The Israeli military said it targeted "members of a global jihad terror group that were planning to attack the border."

In a statement, the military gave a list of the militants' names and said one of them used to be in Hamas before joining an even more radical jihadi group.

Such Israeli air attacks have been relatively rare since the end of a three-week Israeli war against Gaza militants three years ago.

It said the military will "not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians and soldiers, and will operate against anyone who uses terror against Israel."

In August, Palestinian militants who apparently sneaked out of Gaza into the Egyptian Sinai desert attacked Israelis on a border road in Israel, killing eight. Israeli forces pursuing the militants killed six Egyptian soldiers by mistake, setting off a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

Also Tuesday, a hard-line Israeli group said it was launching plans for a new tourist center at the site of a politically sensitive archaeological dig in a largely Arab neighborhood outside Jerusalem's Old City, drawing fire from Palestinian officials.

The project's sponsor, the Elad Foundation, said the new visitors center and parking garage will be built above a section of the excavation area known as the City of David, leaving the ruins below accessible. Construction, which must pass several zoning committees, was still several years away.

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Israeli archaeologists at the City of David, named for the biblical monarch thought to have ruled from the spot 3,000 years ago, are investigating the oldest part of Jerusalem.

The site is just outside the Old City walls at the edge of the neighborhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem, the part of the city the Palestinian Authority says it wants as the capital of a hoped-for state.

Israeli construction in east Jerusalem is regularly subject to international criticism. Critics say the new plan will cement Israel's hold on Silwan and could destabilize the volatile neighborhood, where Palestinian residents clash on occasion with Jewish residents and police.

___

Additional reporting by Matti Friedman in Jerusalem.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45794905/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Lions coach doesn't care who Packers may rest

updated 5:09 p.m. ET Dec. 26, 2011

ALLEN PARK, Mich. - Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz isn't fretting over circumstances beyond his control.

He said Monday he doesn't worry if the Green Bay team the Lions will face on Sunday at Lambeau Field will rest key players now that the Packers have clinched home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

Schwartz also said he isn't concerned about possible playoff scenarios for his Lions, who secured their first postseason berth since the 1999 season with a 38-10 victory over San Diego on Saturday.

The Lions are in the running for the No. 5 seed in the NFC, which would mean playing at the winner of Sunday's game between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys.

"Particularly being a wild card like we are, to get through the NFC, you're going to have to win three games," Schwartz said. "All three of those are going to be good teams. The only thing we can do is worry about ourselves and preparing the very best we can this week and not worrying about scenarios or all those other things. They'll have a team for us to play. We'll be ready for them."

Schwartz said the Lions' preparation for Green Bay won't be impacted much by the possibility backup quarterback Matt Flynn could start if Aaron Rodgers is kept out of harm's way.

The Packers played without four injured starters, including offensive tackles Bryan Bulaga and Chad Clifton, in a 35-21 victory over Chicago on Sunday night. The Lions haven't beaten Green Bay on the road since 1991.

"We can't control who they play or what objectives they have in the game," Schwartz said. "It doesn't change our objectives or anything else. Obviously, if we're preparing for a different quarterback, you need to be ready for that, but their offense isn't going to change. They are what they are. It's not like some other situations we've seen. You go to Minnesota, another division opponent, you have one quarterback and then a very different skill set in a different quarterback."

Schwartz gave no indication that the Lions might rest some nicked-up players against Green Bay.

"It's football," he said. "We're going to try to win the game. Any game they put in front of us, we're going to try our best to win."

Schwartz dismissed the notion the Lions are happy to merely be in the playoffs after 10 consecutive losing seasons, including 0-16 three years ago. He noted recent history, with three of the last six Super Bowl champions being wild cards.

"There is an advantage to playing at home and getting byes and things like that, but it's certainly been proven that it can be done," Schwartz said. "A lot of that starts this week. You look at those teams, it wasn't just what they did when they got in the playoffs, it's where they were at the end of the season. Green Bay last year needed to win their last two just to get in.

"That's why it puts a little bit more importance on games like this. You want to go in with momentum, you want to go in with wins, you want to go in healthy. To be in is obviously the most important thing. After that, everybody has a chance."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Brees already among the greats

Tanier: Drew Brees deserves to be seen as more than a runner-up MVP. He is a future Hall of Famer, and he should be acknowledged as one of the best quarterbacks, not just of this generation, but of any generation.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45791861/ns/sports-nfl/

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Arkansas Wedding Dresses: Big Sales at Six Bridal Boutiques

Image by Shutterstock.com

There are six wedding dress sales happening now in Arkansas - dresses as low as $99 - so make your appointments ASAP.

For all you brides-to-be who are strapped for cash after spending too much on others for Christmas, here's a belated present: Big sales on wedding dresses at six Arkansas bridal boutiques.

Danielle's Bridal in Clarksville: Wedding dresses are marked down as low as $99 during a winter sale going on through Jan. 14.?All gowns are on sale, including new gowns.?For more info click here.?To make an appointment call (479) 754-5885.

Always & Forever in Fort Smith: Check out its semi-annual sample sale, starting today (Dec. 26). For info click here, call (479) 646-1997 or e-mail info@alwaysforeverbridal.com.

Proposals Boutique in Little Rock: A wedding gown sample sale, running through Jan. 31, offers prices from 30-75 percent off. To learn more click here or call (501) 661-4696.

Low's Bridal & Formal in Brinkley: Low's is having its semi-annual half-price sale through Jan. 28 with couture gowns at 65 percent to 75 percent off.?Call (870) 734-3244 to schedule an appointment. For more information click here.

Jessica's Bridal & Formal in Bay (near Jonesboro): Wedding gowns will be as much as 75 percent off, making some as afforadable as $99. For more info click here or call (870) 781-3334.

MaRu in Pine Bluff: The store, which is closing, is selling its collection of 250 designer wedding gowns (sizes 4-24) off the rack at 40 percent off through the middle of January.?For more info click here or e-mail owner Betty Higman at BHigman1@ATT.net.

Source: http://www.inarkansas.com/28419/arkansas-wedding-dresses-big-sales-at-six-bridal-boutiques

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Thursday, 22 December 2011

Ask and Answer Questions About Traveling with Pets

Ask and Answer Questions About Traveling with PetsEvery day we're on the lookout for ways to make your work easier and your life better, but Lifehacker readers are smart, insightful folks with all kinds of expertise to share, and we want to give everyone regular access to that exceptional hive mind. Help Yourself is a daily thread where readers can ask and answer questions about tech, productivity, life hacks, and whatever else you need help with.

Pets are part of the family too, and if you are traveling to visit family over the holidays then you need to make arrangements for Fido and Mr. Whiskers. Whether you are boarding your pets, taking them on the road trip, or flying with them, ask and answer questions about traveling with pets in the comments.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5869398/ask-and-answer-questions-about-traveling-with-pets

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Sunday, 30 October 2011

Gaddadi son Saif al-Islam finds friends in desert (Reuters)

AGADEZ (Reuters) ? Muammar Gaddafi's fugitive son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi can expect a warm welcome and even help hiding among the desert communities south of Libya which were long courted by his father.

Alienated further from the West by a war which risks unsettling a fragile regional peace, some were ready to defy an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant and shelter the son of a man who for years promoted the kinship of Saharan peoples.

"We are ready to hide him wherever needed," said Mouddour Barka, a resident of Agadez in northern Niger.

"We are telling the international community to stay out of this business and our own authorities not to hand him over -- otherwise we are ready to go out onto the streets and they will have us to deal with," he added.

Earlier this week hundreds joined a communal prayer at Agadez's main mosque in memory of Gaddafi and to ask for God's blessing for his children.

A senior Libyan official said on Thursday Saif al-Islam, 39, fearing the same fate as his slain father, was trying to arrange an aircraft to fly him from a desert refuge into the custody of the ICC, the world's top war crimes court.

His location remains unclear but Libyan and other sources have suggested he is somewhere in the mountainous border region between Niger and Mali, two African countries which have signed the Rome Statute of The Hague-based court.

BROTHER COUNTRIES

Niger's government in the capital Niamey has vowed to meet its ICC commitments but 750 km (400 miles) north in a region where cross-border allegiances among Tuareg nomads often outweigh national ties, the picture looks different.

"I am ready to welcome him in. For me his case is quite simply a humanitarian one," said Mohamed Anako, president of the council of Agadez region, a barren stretch of land almost the same size of France.

"Libya and Niger are brother countries and cousins. You find the same communities in Libya as you do in northern Niger -- so we will welcome him in," said Anako, who said only that he had heard "talk" of Saif al-Islam being in the area.

Aided by local Tuareg guides in a region Niger concedes is too vast for its forces to patrol effectively, Saif al-Islam could remain hidden almost indefinitely in the mountains that straddle the borders of Niger, Algeria and Mali.

Libya's southern neighbors learned to live with Gaddafi, accepting his largesse despite exasperation at his vision of a trans-Saharan people, rhetoric which prompted concerns over their territorial integrity in a region where borders are already porous.

For northern communities in both Niger and Mali, the NATO-backed Libyan war that removed Gaddafi has brought nothing but trouble, with thousands of African migrant workers and armed Tuaregs who fought for the fallen dictator turning up at their door.

This has sparked new concerns over stability in countries which have only in the past two years won respite from years of off-on Tuareg rebellions sometimes goaded on by Gaddafi.

While the security consequences for the region may take months to become clear, the build-up in recent weeks of 500 armed pro-Gaddafi fighters in the Kidal region of Mali by the Nigerien border may offer an opportunity for Saif al-Islam.

"He could be anywhere in the border region around Niger, Mali or Algeria," said a ministerial source in Mali.

"But hundreds of Libyan soldiers, all of Malian origin, are sheltering in Kidal, where they came in convoys commanded by pro-Gaddafi colonels. He would be safer among his own in Mali," the source added.

(Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako; writing by Mark John)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/ts_nm/us_libya_saif_tuaregs

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Dragonflies literally scared to death of fish

Just the mere presence of a predator can stress out dragonfly larvae enough to kill them ? even if the dragonflies are out of the predator's reach and completely safe, a new study shows.

Biologists at the University of Toronto placed juvenile dragonfly (Leucorrhinia intacta) larvae and their predatory fish together in aquarium tanks. The two were separated so that although the dragonflies could see and smell their predators, the fish could not actually reach or eat the dragonflies.

"What we found was unexpected ? more of the dragonflies died when predators shared their habitat," study researcher Locke Rowe, chairman of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the university, said in a statement.

The dragonfly larvae that were exposed to predatory fish or aquatic insects whose presence may have also caused the larvae stress had survival rates 2.5 to 4.3 times lower than those that had not been exposed to either stressor.

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Rowe and colleagues then conducted another experiment to determine whether stressful conditions influence dragonfly metamorphosis. "We allowed the juvenile dragonflies to go through metamorphosis to become adult dragonflies, and found those that had grown up around predators were more likely to fail to complete metamorphosis successfully, more often dying in the process," Rowe said.

The results showed that 11 percent of the larvae that were exposed to fish died before reaching adulthood, compared with only 2 percent of larvae that went through metamorphosis in a predator-free environment.

"As we learn more about how animals respond to stressful conditions ? whether it's the presence of predators or stresses from other natural or human-caused disruptions ? we increasingly find that stress brings a greater risk of death, presumably from things such as infections that normally wouldn't kill them," Rowe said.

The findings can be used as a model for future studies on the harmful and potentially lethal effects of stress on living organisms, the researchers suggested.

The study was recently published in the journal Ecology and is highlighted in the journal Nature this week.

You can follow LiveScience writer Remy Melina on Twitter @remymelina. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience? and on Facebook.

? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45081079/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Saturday, 29 October 2011

Confident Cain plans to cut back campaign events

Republican Presidential candidate, Herman Cain campaigns in Talladega, Ala., Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Republican Presidential candidate, Herman Cain campaigns in Talladega, Ala., Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Republican Presidential candidate, Herman Cain campaigns in Talladega, Ala., Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

(AP) ? Presidential candidate Herman Cain isn't lacking in confidence about his 2012 prospects.

It's been weeks since he's set foot in first-voting Iowa or New Hampshire, yet he says he expects to finish first or second in each state.

He's also predicting victory in South Carolina, which will hold the South's first presidential contest in 2012. And that win, he says, will set the stage for him to capture the GOP nomination.

But Cain also says he plans to "dial back" his campaign and media appearances in order to avoid missteps. Since climbing in the polls, he's had a series of fumbles and has had to clarify comments on abortion, immigration and terrorism suspects.

Cain appeared Saturday at a Samford University football tailgate in Alabama.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-10-29-Cain/id-41200b1403944c93bb1a01dc399ac3b7

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Italians, Greeks skeptical over euro zone rescue plan (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? A deal struck by euro zone leaders on Thursday to contain the region's dangerous debt crisis was greeted skeptically in the two countries most in the firing line, Greece and Italy, with some saying politicians were dreaming.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi submitted an ambitious set of reforms intended to boost growth and cut debt as part of the deal, but analysts questioned the ability of his fractious coalition to implement the plan.

In Greece, opposition politicians and citizens feared further painful belt-tightening and years of recession, showing little enthusiasm for a plan for banks and insurers to accept a 50 percent loss on their Greek government bonds.

Berlusconi's pledges include raising the retirement age and making it easier for firms to lay off staff but few expect a scandal-ridden government with a poor track record of pushing through reforms to be able to do so while battling for survival.

"It's hard to believe that yesterday's intentions can really be transformed into the biggest plan of market reforms Italy has ever put on paper," Antonio Polito wrote in the Corriere della Sera daily, pointing to coalition tensions and lack of faith in the government.

An editorial in the left-leaning La Repubblica daily described the plan as a "book of dreams."

In a sign of the challenges Berlusconi faces, Italy's biggest trade union CGIL responded by pledging to fight the reform plans and called on smaller unions to unite against "targeted attacks" on Italian workers.

"We're ready to propose unified action," CGIL secretary Susanna Camusso told La Repubblica.

PROVOCATION

Even the smaller and more moderate unions CISL and UIL said they would participate in strikes if Italy's strict job protection rules were at stake.

"Touching redundancies seems like a provocation at a time when the country needs cohesion," said CISL leader Raffaele Bonanni.

Berlusconi submitted the hastily constructed package of reforms as a "letter of intent" to the EU summit, promising a much-delayed economic development plan by November 15 and other measures to increase growth and balance the budget by 2013.

They formed part of a euro zone deal aimed at drawing a line under spiraling debt problems that have threatened to unravel the European single currency project.

After dodging the worst of the financial crisis in recent years, Italy has moved to the center of the debt crunch this year as its bond yields soared to near unsustainable levels. Only intervention from the European Central Bank has prevented them from sliding out of control.

Investors have fretted about Italy's chronically sluggish growth and the sustainability of its 1.9 trillion euro debt, which at 120 percent of GDP is second only to Greece's in the euro zone.

Berlusconi's fast-mushrooming list of problems -- including sex scandals, legal troubles, a public spat with his economy minister and increasingly mutinous allies -- have further undermined confidence among investors.

Berlusconi's Northern League ally, on whom he relies on for a parliamentary majority, has refused to budge on some parts of pension reform and has openly questioned whether the government can see out its term ending in 2013. Analysts say early elections are likely in spring next year.

Still, some analysts said Berlusconi's plans went beyond expectations and European stock markets surged to a 12-week high on relief following the deal by European leaders.

IMPLEMENTATION

The spread between 10-year Italian and German government bonds narrowed to less than 370 basis points on Thursday after hovering around levels close to 400 last week.

"It's at least going in the right direction and going faster than we thought," said Gilles Moec, economist at Deutsche Bank.

"A lot will depend on the actual implementation and the timetable."

Analysts welcomed measures on potential job cuts in the public sector and moves to make it easier for companies to lay off people in times of economic difficulty although they met less support on Rome's streets.

"Making it easier to fire employees doesn't help people at all. They should target large assets, those who have more need to pay more in this moment of crisis," said one Rome resident, who did not wish to be named.

Unicredit analyst Chiara Corsa said that the move to facilitate redundancies should have been coupled with a broadening of the unemployment benefit system.

"In addition, more incisive action on the pension system, with more stringent requirements for the access to seniority pensions, or even their abolishment as originally requested by the ECB, would have been desirable," she added.

In Greece, citizens hit by several rounds of austerity, including hefty pay and pension cuts and tax hikes, responded with similar criticism to the EU deal.

Prime Minister George Papandreou said the agreement meant that the country's debt burden would now be sustainable, but people on the streets saw little reason to celebrate.

"I don't feel saved," said teacher Pantelis Abeloyannis, 47, a father of three who is struggling to make ends meet and pay his mortgage following heavy pay cuts.

"The banks are not paying for us today. They are just returning a part of the profit they have made from us all these years."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/bs_nm/us_italy

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Friday, 28 October 2011

The Breast Cancer You May Not Know About (ContributorNetwork)

Inflammatory Breast Cancer is very rare, but very aggressive.

I am alive today because my doctors had an icon on their desktop to remind them to be alert to IBC. Unfortunately, the incidence of this aggressive breast cancer is increasing in the United States.

You don't have to have a lump to have breast cancer.

Most of what we are taught about breast cancer does not apply to Inflammatory Breast Cancer. It does not make a lump. It nests inside dense breast tissue and does not typically show up on a mammogram. We are taught that breast cancer doesn't hurt, but Inflammatory Breast Cancer usually does. A heavy, swollen breast that feels warm and sore could be IBC. Many Inflammatory Breast Cancer cases are missed because the symptoms are mistaken for mastitis. Know all the symptoms of IBC, and if you have even one, make sure your doctor screens for Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer strikes women and men of all ages, most often younger women.

The median age for an IBC diagnosis is between 45 and 55. It has been diagnosed in men and in pregnant and lactating women. The youngest woman on record to be diagnosed with the disease was 12. It is vitally important for parents to encourage our sons and daughters to be aware of their bodies, and to talk to us if anything seems amiss. It is never too early to teach our children to take care of themselves.

Inaccurate diagnosis results in lethal treatment delays.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer spreads quickly, because unlike other breast cancers is originates in the lymph tissue. Lactating women often assume that their symptoms are mastitis, and miss the opportunity to fight the disease before it spreads. Inflammatory Breast Cancer is always diagnosed at Stage III or Stage IV, because by the time it shows symptoms it has progressed. Timely diagnosis and treatment is key to survival.

You don't need to be frightened, just aware. Knowledge is power.

Know your body, know your breasts, and teach your children to do the same. If you go to the hospital with chest pain, a responsible doctor will screen for a cardiac event. If you notice anything unusual happening to your breast, make sure that Inflammatory Breast Cancer is ruled out.

Share this information with every woman you know. You may save a life. I personally know of more than one Inflammatory Breast Cancer survivor who is alive today because someone in her life was aware.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111027/us_ac/9150251_the_breast_cancer_you_may_not_know_about

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Thursday, 27 October 2011

'Magnetic tongue' ready to help produce tastier processed foods

ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2011) ? The "electronic nose," which detects odors, has a companion among emerging futuristic "e-sensing" devices intended to replace abilities that once were strictly human-and-animal-only. It is a "magnetic tongue" -- a method used to "taste" food and identify ingredients that people describe as sweet, bitter, sour, etc. A report on use of the method to taste canned tomatoes appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Antonio Randazzo, Anders Malmendal, Ettore Novellino and colleagues explain that sensing the odor and flavor of food is a very complex process. It depends not only on the combination of ingredients in the food, but also on the taster's emotional state. Trained taste testers eliminate some of the variation, but food processors need more objective ways to measure the sensory descriptor of their products. That's where electronic sensing technologies, like E-noses, come into play.

However, current instruments can only analyze certain food components and require very specific sample preparation. To overcome these shortcomings, Randazzo and Malmendal's team turned to nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) to test its abilities as "a magnetic tongue."

The researchers analyzed 18 canned tomato products from various markets with NMR and found that the instrument could estimate most of the tastes assessed by the human taste testers. But the NMR instrument went even farther. By determining the chemical composition, it showed which compound is related to which sensory descriptor. The researchers say that the "magnetic tongue" has good potential as a rapid, sensitive and relatively inexpensive approach for food processing companies to use.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Anders Malmendal, Claudia Amoresano, Roberta Trotta, Ilaria Lauri, Stefano De Tito, Ettore Novellino, Antonio Randazzo. NMR Spectrometers as ?Magnetic Tongues?: Prediction of Sensory Descriptors in Canned Tomatoes. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2011; 59 (20): 10831 DOI: 10.1021/jf203803q

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/0Tt5-suvDHg/111026122416.htm

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FDA: studies do not tie Chantix to mental problems

(AP) ? Federal health officials said Monday that Pfizer's anti-smoking drug Chantix did not increase psychiatric problems like depression and suicidal thoughts in two studies, though the findings are not definitive.

The Food and Drug Administration has been investigating reports of mood disorders and erratic behavior among Chantix patients since 2007. The agency said in a statement that two federally-funded studies involving more than 26,000 patients did not show an increased rate of psychiatric hospitalizations among Chantix patients, compared with those using nicotine patches and smoking cessation treatments.

FDA regulators stressed that the studies only recorded psychiatric problems that resulted in hospitalization, meaning many issues likely went unreported. Additionally, the studies by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense were not large enough to pick up very rare side effects.

Groups like the Federal Aviation Administration have already banned the drug for pilots and air traffic controllers due to side effects that could interfere with their work.

The agency said it is continuing to study the problems and recommends patients consult their doctors if they experience side effects with the drug. Pfizer is conducting its own large-scale study of Chantix behavioral effects, but the results won't be available until 2017.

"Healthcare professionals should advise patients and caregivers that the patient should immediately stop taking Chantix and contact a healthcare professional if agitation, hostility, depressed mood, or changes in behavior or thinking that are not typical for the patient are observed," the FDA said in an online statement.

More than 8.9 million people in the U.S. have filled prescriptions for Chantix since it was approved in May 2006. Last year Pfizer reported $755 million in sales for the drug, a decline of 14 percent since its peak sales of $883 million in 2007.

Shares of Pfizer Inc. rose 30 cents to $19.36, tracking broader increases on the S&P 500.

Chantix works by binding to the same spots in the brain that nicotine does when people smoke, blocking nicotine from those spots but causing release of a "feel-good" chemical, dopamine. The drug's label already carries a boxed warning, the most serious type, listing possible side effects including hostility, agitation, depression and suicidal thoughts and behavior.

New York-based Pfizer Inc. said in a statement: "We are reviewing this important information for smokers provided by the FDA."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-10-24-Smoking%20Drug-FDA/id-fadf5d1f3e2f49a492867ccfbf738fe2

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Wednesday, 26 October 2011

UFC 137 video: B.J. Penn takes his own road to the Nick Diaz fight

B.J. Penn's camp is about tech savvy as it gets, so to no one's surprise the Penn folks have turned out some great videos to rival what's on Countdown to UFC 137.

Make sure to check out Yahoo! Sports' exclusive blog with the former UFC lightweight and welterweight champ.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-137-video-B-J-Penn-takes-his-own-road-to-t?urn=mma-wp8544

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Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Researchers ID genetic mutation associated with high risk of age-related macular degeneration

Researchers ID genetic mutation associated with high risk of age-related macular degeneration

Monday, October 24, 2011

Age- related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe visual loss among the elderly. Researchers had previously identified several relatively common genetic variants which together predict a person's increased risk for AMD, but a significant number of persons without the disease also have these variants. Now, for the first time, investigators have been able to clearly show a specific rare mutation called CFH R1210C that predicts a very high risk of disease and is extremely uncommon among individuals who do not have the disease. Although it is a rare variant, accounting for about 1% of the total cases, it is highly related to familial disease and earlier age of onset. This research is published online and in an upcoming print edition of Nature Genetics. The paper is a collaborative effort between investigators from Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"Our paper shows that there is a genetic variant that confers high risk of the development of AMD; this finding not only clearly links CFH gene dysfunction to disease, but also might help to identify people who need to be screened more closely," said first author, Soumya Raychaudhuri, MD, PhD, a researcher in the Divisions of Genetics and Rheumatology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.

Prior to this publication, it was known that genetic variation within the CFH gene influenced risk of AMD in individuals. In this study, researchers conducted sequencing and genotyping of CFH in 2,423 AMD cases and 1,122 controls in the laboratory of senior author Johanna M. Seddon, MD, ScM, Professor of Ophthalmology at Tufts University School of Medicine and Director of the Ophthalmic Epidemiology and Genetics Service at Tufts Medical Center. They identified a rare, high-risk mutation resulting in an arginine to cysteine substitution in the CFH protein. This mutation is associated with loss of function of the CFH protein and its discovery suggests that loss of CFH function can drive AMD risk. It was associated with advanced AMD with visual loss and many of the patients also had numerous drusen, which are the early hallmarks of AMD.

"The discovery of this rare but penetrant variant strongly associated with disease also points the way to developing new and effective treatments for high risk individuals," said Seddon.

Collaborators in this research included investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins University.

###

Brigham and Women's Hospital: http://www.brighamandwomens.org

Thanks to Brigham and Women's Hospital for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114552/Researchers_ID_genetic_mutation_associated_with_high_risk_of_age_related_macular_degeneration

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Songs to Read the Steve Jobs Biography By [Steve Jobs]

Steve Jobs loved music, evident from conversations and his guests at Apple events. Now his biography is out, part of which is devoted to music. As such, we've put together a Spotify playlist of Steve's favorites, past and present. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-sCfIDRKrnk/songs-to-read-the-steve-jobs-biography-by

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Monday, 24 October 2011

Crop scientists now fret about heat not just water

CHICAGO | Sun Oct 23, 2011 10:19pm EDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Crop scientists in the United States, the world's largest food exporter, are pondering an odd question: could the danger of global warming really be the heat?

For years, as scientists have assembled data on climate change and pointed with concern at melting glaciers and other visible changes in the life-giving water cycle, the impact on seasonal rains and irrigation has worried crop watchers most.

What would breadbaskets like the Midwest, the Central Asian steppes, the north China Plain or Argentine and Brazilian crop lands be like without normal rains or water tables?

Those were seen as longer-term issues of climate change.

But scientists now wonder if a more immediate issue is an unusual rise in day-time and, especially, night-time summer temperatures being seen in crop belts around the world.

Interviews with crop researchers at American universities paint the same picture: high temperatures have already shrunken output of many crops and vegetables.

"We don't grow tomatoes in the deep South in the summer. Pollination fails," said Ken Boote, a crop scientist with the University of Florida.

The same goes for snap beans which can no longer be grown in Florida during the summer, he added.

"As temperatures rise we are going to have trouble maintaining the yields of crops that we already have," said Gerald Nelson, an economist with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) who is leading a global project initially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to identify new crop varieties adapted to climate change.

"When I go around the world, people are much less skeptical, much more concerned about climate change," said David Lobell, a Stanford University agricultural scientist.

Lobell was one of three authors of a much-discussed 2011 climate study of world corn, wheat, soybean and rice yields over the last three decades (1980-2008). It concluded that heat, not rainfall, was affecting yields the most.

"The magnitude of recent temperature trends is larger than those for precipitation in most situations," the study said.

"We took a pretty conservative approach and still found sizable impacts. They certainly are happening already and not just something that will or might happen in the future," Lobell told Reuters in an interview.

CONCERNS GROWING

Scientists at an annual meeting of U.S. agronomists last week in San Antonio said the focus was climate change.

"Its impact on agriculture systems, impacts on crops, mitigation strategies with soil management -- a whole range of questions was being asked about climate change," said Jerry Hatfield, Laboratory Director at the National Soil Tilth Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

"The biggest thing is high night-time temperatures have a negative impact on yield," Hatfield added, noting that the heat affects evaporation and the life process of the crops.

"One of the consequences of rising temperatures ... is to compress the life cycle of that plant. The other key consequence is that when the atmosphere gets warmer the atmospheric demand for water increases," Hatfield said.

"These are simple things that can occur and have tremendous consequences on our ability to produce a stable supply of food or feed or fiber," he said.

Boote at the University of Florida found that rice and sorghum plants failed to produce grain, something he calls "pollen viability," when the average 24-hour temperature is 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius). That equates to highs of 104 F during the day and 86 F at night, he said.

DOES SCIENCE HAVE AN ANSWER?

The global seed industry has set a high bar to boost crop yields by 2050 to feed a hungry world. Scientists said that the impact of heat on plant growth needs more focus and study.

"If you look at a lot of crop insurance claims, farmers say it is the lack of water that caused the plant to die," said Wolfram Schlenker, assistant professor at Columbia University.

"But I think it's basically different sides of the same coin because the water requirement of the plant increases tremendously if it's hot," he said.

"The private sector understands the threats coming from climate change and have significant research programs in regards to drought tolerance. They focus less on higher temperatures, but that's a tougher challenge," Nelson said.

"We are responding with a number of initiatives...the primary one is focusing on drought tolerance," said John Soper, vice president in charge of global seed development for DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred, a top U.S. seed producer.

Pioneer launched a conventionally bred drought-tolerant corn hybrid seed in the western U.S. Corn Belt this spring, selected for its yield advantage over other varieties.

"We have some early results in from Texas that show that is exactly how they are behaving. They currently have a 6 percent advantage over normal products in those drought zones," Soper said.

Roy Steiner, deputy director for agricultural development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said the foundation is focused on current agricultural effects of climate change.

"It's amazing that there are still people who think that it's not changing. Everywhere we go we're seeing greater variability, the rains are changing and the timing of the rains is creating a lot more vulnerability," Steiner said.

"Agriculture is one of those things that needs long-term planning, and we are very short-cycled thinking," he said. "There are going to be some real shocks to the system. Climate is the biggest challenge. Demand is not going away."

(Editing by Peter Bohan)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/xeFqfx5UGCQ/us-climate-crops-idUSTRE79N07420111024

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Insight: NY gas drillers' victory soured by tough new rules (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The end of a drilling ban in New York was meant to be a new dawn for energy companies. After years of waiting, they would finally be able to exploit the richest deposit of natural gas in the country.

But as companies delve into new regulations for drilling in New York, they're discovering a bitter reality: half the land they had leased for drilling may now be out of bounds.

In proposed new rules for drilling, which are expected to be finalized early next year, the state has imposed an off-limits buffer around its waterways due to environmental concerns about the effects that drilling will have on water supplies.

The buffers are as much as 20 times larger than neighboring, industry-friendly Pennsylvania.

After looking at maps of thousands of potentially forbidden acres, some companies are considering leaving the state altogether, Reuters has discovered.

Royal Dutch Shell, which has leased about 90,000 acres for drilling in New York, reckons that 40 percent of that land could be off limits under the proposed laws, a company source told Reuters after Shell completed modeling of its acreage in the state.

"We are looking at a potentially significant impact," the source said.

Inflection Energy, a small independent company with 15,000 acres in New York, is reconsidering drilling there after studies showed that about 60 percent of its acreage might not be drillable.

"It is forcing us to change our business model," said Inflection chief executive Mark Sexton. "If the regulations go ahead we will allocate more resources to Pennsylvania than New York. Originally we had planned to focus more on New York."

Inflection had aimed to increase leased land to 50,000 acres.

The revelation of the stiff restrictions on drilling near aquifers and waterways, a previously unreported aspect of environmental regulations proposed this summer, is the latest set-back for shale drillers in New York, where unusually fierce local opposition has stunted development.

It also highlights how tougher state regulations could rein in the rampant expansion of natural gas produced using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a controversial technique to extract gas from shale rock deep below the surface by blasting it with chemical-laced water.

ENVIRONMENTAL SET-BACKS

The moratorium on drilling New York's portion of the huge Marcellus Shale gas deposit -- which extends south through Pennsylvania and West Virginia -- was put in place as environmentalists warned that drilling fluids used in fracking and methane could find their way into underground water sources and taint supply for millions of homes across the state.

The gas industry denies the link and had hoped that a concerted campaign to dispel fears about the impact of fracking would help turn New York policy in their favor.

"This (lease buying) was all done without the knowledge that the DEC was going to propose these increased setbacks," said Thomas West, an attorney in Albany New York who represents oil and gas companies. "It has a significant impact on the drillability of this acreage."

Some New York land has been off limits for years. The state has gone to great lengths to protect its drinking water from the chemicals used in fracking, far more than other gas-producing regions in the United States.

The long wait to drill has hit some companies hard, after they bet the wrong way on New York.

Norse Energy moved its headquarters to Buffalo, New York, four years ago, expecting to find fortune drilling the Marcellus. But after investing $100 million in New York, Norse laid off half its staff last month; its shares on the Oslo stock market have lost nearly all their value.

Norse, which owns leases on 180,000 acres in New York, is also considering leaving the state.

"We are in survival mode. We bet a lot on New York opening up for development and are now talking to the creditors on a regular basis," Norse executive vice president Dennis Holbrook said.

Even before the regulations were proposed, companies have been leaving the state. Last year, Talisman Energy, one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus shale, moved its U.S. headquarters from Buffalo to Warrendale, Pennsylvania.

JOBS VS WATER

Governor Cuomo wants to lift the ban on fracking by next year, hoping to replicate an energy boom which is already underway and creating jobs in neighboring Pennsylvania.

But Cuomo must reconcile a spiraling economy and the need to boost jobs with concerns that fracking is harmful to the environment and New York's precious fresh water.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation has recommended that no drilling take place within 500 feet of New York's 18 primary aquifers, within 4,000 feet of the New York City and Syracuse watersheds and within 2,000 feet of rivers or streams.

In Pennsylvania, home to part of the Marcellus, the buffer from rivers and streams is 100 feet, with plans to extend this to 300 feet.

Cuomo's motives are clear: allowing fracking in New York could add nearly 55,000 jobs and $1.7 billion in revenue, the DEC said in a report in September.

But, with proposed regulations open to a ninety day comment period, parties are calling for stricter regulations that could leave even more land out of bounds to drillers.

"In a perfect world the setbacks need not be that far, but incidents will happen," said John Williams, a ground water expert at the U.S. Geological Survey.

A blow-out at a Chesapeake Energy natural gas well in Pennsylvania in April caused fracking fluids to spill into local waterways, heightening the debate about the safety of the chemicals used in the process. In New Jersey, just south of New York, fracking has been banned.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is calling for a seven-mile buffer from elderly underground water pipes that feed the state's major cities and traverse potentially busy drilling areas in the Marcellus.

Under the current proposed regulations, there are no buffers around New York's aqueducts.

"These tunnels were not designed to withstand this type of subsurface activity," said DEP commissioner Carter Strickland in a statement this month. "By the time one knows there is a problem, it may be too late to avoid serious impacts."

Parties have until December to put their comments to the DEC, after which regulations will be finalized. Drilling permits could be issued as early as mid-2012.

"What is interesting is the growing strength and intensity of public opposition to fracking," Eric Goldstein, a lawyer with the National Resources Defense Council, said after attending a public meeting on fracking in Albany this month.

"It would be nonsensical policy to put the priceless water supply infrastructure for half the state's population at risk for the potential gains from fracking."

(Reporting by Edward McAllister; Editing by Alden Bentley)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111021/bs_nm/us_newyork_shale

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Sunday, 23 October 2011

Meet Monroe and Moroccan Scott Cannon!

"I don't think I understood the enormity or the magnitude of what it really does to your body," she explained. "It's not just, oh you don't look pretty and you have a bump."

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/GRFHZ6xCMoY/

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Saturday, 22 October 2011

German satellite expected to hit Earth on weekend

Undated artist rendering provided by EADS Astrium shows the scientific satellite Rosat. The German Aerospace Center said the retired satellite is hurtling toward the atmosphere and pieces could crash into the earth as early as Friday. Spokesman Andreas Schuetz told The Associated Press on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011 that most of the satellite named ROSAT, which is about the size of a minivan, will burn up during re-entry. (AP Photo/EADS Astrium)

Undated artist rendering provided by EADS Astrium shows the scientific satellite Rosat. The German Aerospace Center said the retired satellite is hurtling toward the atmosphere and pieces could crash into the earth as early as Friday. Spokesman Andreas Schuetz told The Associated Press on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011 that most of the satellite named ROSAT, which is about the size of a minivan, will burn up during re-entry. (AP Photo/EADS Astrium)

BERLIN (AP) ? German scientists say they expect pieces of a defunct satellite hurtling toward the atmosphere to hit Earth this weekend.

Andreas Schuetz, a spokesman for the German Aerospace Center, said Friday the best estimate is still that the ROSAT scientific research satellite will impact sometime Saturday or Sunday.

The center says parts of the minivan-sized satellite will burn up during re-entry but up to 30 fragments weighing a total of 1.87 tons (1.7 metric tons) could crash into the Earth with a speed of up to 280 mph (450 kph).

The satellite orbits the Earth every 90 minutes and scientists can only say that it could hit Earth anywhere along its path, between 53-degrees north and 53-degrees south ? a vast swath of territory that includes much of the planet outside the poles.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-10-21-Falling-Satellite/id-23f29f9fa8e44598a71dda989c4c66cb

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