Between extremes in the weather, the proliferation of diseases and pests, and the growth of plants through the years, our landscapes evolve ? and usually need help at one time or another.
The drought and intense heat of the past two summers alone are changing the area landscape.
We recently asked readers to send in their landscape problems for suggested solutions from area landscape designers and architects. In the coming weeks, we?ll feature some of the scenarios in the hopes that they?ll help others whose yards are in a similar situation.
This week, Wichita independent landscape architect Teri Andreas Farha helps Katie Mitchell-Koch with her backyard.
Problem: loss of pine trees in backyard
My family just moved to Wichita in July. The previous owners of our house said there used to be six pine trees along the back that provided privacy and interest. They were cut down due to disease, and we need something new back there! Hopefully something that would provide height quickly for privacy along the back fence (I?d say we have ?an unattractive view?). There are three things that inspire me in landscaping: using native plants for wildlife and water conservation, autumn color and incorporating edibles.
? Katie Mitchell-Koch
Landscape factors: east Wichita, west side of the house, full sun, electrical lines above back fence, 30 feet long.
Solution: a living privacy fence
Planting a living fence is a great way to screen unwanted views and provide privacy for you and your family while enjoying your backyard. This living fence can take on a formal look or a more natural one, depending on your taste.
Since you indicated a love for natives, I would suggest a more natural-looking screen, planting in a zigzag pattern and in groups of two to five.
I would also suggest planting a mixture of evergreens and deciduous plant material, keeping in mind that the deciduous trees will lose their leaves in winter, but the branching structure of the tree will still provide a screen as well as visual interest. By planting a variety of plant material, you can avoid the possibility of a disease taking out the entire living fence (which is what happened to the row of pine trees that had to be removed. In fact, I would avoid pines altogether, as they are being damaged by pine wilt and tip blight).
And the final thing you need to consider is the height of the electrical lines along the back of your lot. Planting anything that gets tall enough to interfere with the lines should be avoided.
Plant list
A wide variety of plant materials will work in your living screen. I have narrowed the choices down to a few evergreen trees, a few deciduous trees and a few shrubs. These plants all require little watering once established, will provide good cover and food source for wildlife, and will provide excellent fall color as well as winter interest in the form of berries and evergreen foliage.
I have selected plants that are all moderate to fast growers. For more money, you can order them in larger sizes for faster results. Otherwise, be patient, water well the first two years, and you?ll have a beautiful living privacy fence before you know it!
Evergreen trees: Easter red cedar, Keteleeri juniper, Spartan juniper, Emerald Green arborvitae and (one of my favorites) Wichita Blue juniper
Funding Coordinator Jobs at Finn Church Aid in Kenya 2012
Job title: Regional Funding Coordinator in East and Southern Africa Regional Office, Nairobi, Kenya Closing Date: Friday, 05 October 2012
Finn Church Aid is Finland?s biggest development co-operation organisation and the second biggest organisation in Finland working in humanitarian aid. Finn Church Aid is a member of the ACT Alliance (ACT), an alliance of faith-based development and humanitarian aid organisations forming one of the world?s largest aid organisations.
Finn Church Aid (FCA) is looking for a
Regional Funding Coordinator in the East and Southern Africa Regional Office ? based in Nairobi, Kenya
Duties and responsibilities:
Active responsibility for broadening FCA regional funding mix from international donors in close coordination with the Regional Representative, operational units and the Global Grants unit at FCA Headquarters. Tasks include proactively soliciting and cultivating donor relations, funding proposals, grants management, project monitoring, reporting and quality controlling. Monitor international grant opportunities from institutional donors including EuropeAID, ECHO, UN agencies, USG, Diplomatic Mission/embassies, private sector, trusts & foundations. Identify and coordinate opportunities for funding in line with FCA?s strategic priorities and country programmes in the region. Build the capacity of expatriate and local staff in the field office to meet various donor requirements. Build relationships with (I)NGOs, institutional donors, and other national or regional organizations and potential donors in Haiti, including ECHO, EU Commission, and UN Agencies, Fundraising and advocacy coordination with the sister organizations of FCA and ACT Alliance members and others, Provide strategic input as a FCA representative on various networks (APRODEV, CONCORD), Undertake other duties as designated.
Competence and Personal Requirements: Demonstrable experience in fundraising for international development NGOs with specific expertise in institutional funding instruments. Relevant experience working in developing countries including experience in capacity building or training At least 3 years professional experience in development and fundraising Advanced university degree in Business Management, International Relations, Development Studies or related fields; Good knowledge or proven experience in project management, including project financial management, Good understanding of humanitarian aid and development cooperation approaches and standards, Willingness to travel to project implementation sites, Excellent oral and written communications skills in English.
We also appreciate that you: Are flexible and capable of working in challenging circumstances in a multicultural environment, Are an excellent communicator and active networker, Have good problem-solving skills. Excellent inter-personal skills, and proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships, negotiate, and Strong cross-cultural skills and versatility in dealing with different types of partnerships; Personal integrity with an honest and open personal demeanor;
This is a National post and potential candidates must be Kenyan Nationals or have a valid work permit for Kenya. For more information please contact Scolastica Ndurungi, +254 787807660 or Scolastica.ndurungi@kua.fi.
How to apply:
Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and CV to recruitment.esaro@kua.fi and mark e-mail ?FC Kenya / candidate?s surname?. Deadline for applications is 5 October 2012
Fuel economy EPA highway (mpg): 23 and EPA city (mpg): 15
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2011 Ford Glen Burnie, MD
Most Windows Phone enthusiasts have their sights set on large trophy-like targets, but if you have more modest goals in mind, then US Cellular's latest acquisition might be just what the doctor ordered. If the device pictured above looks familiar, that's because it should. Rebranded as the Render, most of you know this handset as the ZTE Orbit, an entry-level device that features a 4-inch 800 x 480 display, a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, a 5-megapixel camera and Windows Phone 7.5 Tango. So, if US Cellular is your wireless carrier of choice and you're seriously crushing on Windows Phone, the ZTE Render will run you $80 after a $100 mail-in rebate.
The Spanish government has updated its taxation code this week clarifying the situation of online gambling taxes in the country. The new tax code states that players are able to deduct losses from their online gambling winnings when completing their annual tax statements.
This summer Spain has adopted a new law that regulates online gambling and online poker in the country. The law will require players to pay taxes on online gambling winnings. However, what the law does not state is if players will have to pay taxes on gross winnings or just income.
Due to this confusion many players stayed away from online gambling or decided to play at unregulated operators in order to avid having to pay taxes on all winnings cashed in despite the fact that overall they might have finished the year in a loss.
This week the Spanish government rectified this confusion and updated its tax code stating that losses can be deduced from online gambling winnings meaning that taxes will only have to be paid on pure income not gross revenue.
The new tax code adopted in the country will be valid retroactively meaning that players won't have to pay taxes on revenue generated after June this year when the country's online gambling law has been adopted. This event is good news for online gamblers that until now refrained from playing due to the fear of large taxes.
Poker players will be the ones who will benefit the most from the rectified tax code. Up until this moment online poker players would have been forced to pay high taxes on any winning originating from poker without having the possibility to deduct tournament fees or rake.
It's expected that this decision will boost the Spanish online gambling and online poker market. After the adoption of the new online gambling law, many Spanish players have decided to stop playing due to the fact that Spanish licensed online poker rooms were forced to separate their Spanish players from international players.
Tags: Spain, Spanish Online Gambling Legislation, Spanish Online Gambling Tax, European Online Gambling Legislation, Europe
The digital music revolution officially hit 30 years ago, on Oct. 1, 1982. While you may be surprised to learn?that the heralds of the coming age were, in fact, the Bee Gees, it probably comes as less of a shock to learn that Sony was at the very heart of it. After years of?research and an?intense period of?collaboration with Philips, Sony shipped the world's first CD player, the CDP-101. Music???and how we listen to it???would never be the same.
Today the CD player might be seen as something of a relic, since our smartphones, iPods and satellite radios provide seamless access to not only our entire music libraries, but to nearly every artist or track available. We can dictate any song or album to an app and have it playing in seconds, or download a new single by visiting an artist's Facebook page.
In such a world, the idea of carrying around a disc loaded with just 10 or 12 tracks and switching it out every hour sounds positively stone-age.?But the MP3 and streaming media are not just the CD's replacements, but its descendants. The future of music in fact made its unofficial debut, believe it or not, in the hands of the Bee Gees.
It was on the BBC show Tomorrow's World in 1981?that the Bee Gees publicly?demonstrated CD technology (and a new album, Living Eyes) for the first time. Artists were excited about the format ? the prospect of a high-quality, track-separated, non-degrading medium was enticing, though many were still skeptical of digital encoding. But music industry heavies like David Bowie and renowned conductor Herbert von Karajan were quick to embrace it, and soon the likes of Dire Straits would hit a million sales and cement the CD's position?as the new standard for music.
That triumph was a long time coming: development of the format began in the '70s, when both Sony and Philips were independently doing research on an digital,?optical disc format to replace cassette tapes and records. Early work at Sony was led by Norio Ohga, who bravely bore the skepticism of his comrades in order to create and demonstrate the earliest versions in 1976 and 1978.
Meanwhile, Philips was on the same track, so to speak. Their original version, an evolution of the laserdisc, was a whopping 20cm in diameter, but after reflection they brought the size of their prototype down to 11.5cm ? the same size, measured diagonally, as a cassette tape.
In 1979, the two companies decided to work together. They set up a task force of less than a dozen people ? engineers who didn't know if they could trust each other. After breaking the ice, however, the team worked for a year and?managed to arrive at a set of standards, called the "Red Book." The manufacturing process and method of encoding were contributed by Philips, while Sony created the digital error-correction that made reading the data reliable.
The new technology was privately inaugurated in 1980, and the first modern CD pressed was Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony." The next year, the Bee Gees went on the BBC, and the year after that the CD as we know it today was born.
That October of 1982, the CDP-101 made its debut in Japan alongside the first run of CD albums, led by Billy Joel's 52nd Street. The device was expensive: ?168,000, ?about $730 at the time, or almost twice that when adjusted for inflation. But home audio wasn't cheap then, and there was a market eager to snap up the new, high-fidelity audio format.
The engineers behind it?had really had a task: everything about the system was brand new. As Jacques Heemskerk, one of the senior Philips engineers on the project, told the BBC in 2007:
It was revolutionary in many fields???the optics were new, the disc was new. At the start of development there wasn't even a laser that would work well enough for our needs.?The most advanced laser at the time had a lifespan of only 100 hours.
So the cost was justified by the complexity and novelty of the hardware. Other manufacturers, like Toshiba, Kenwood, and of course Philips, would produce variant CD players over the course of the next year.?
The first CDs to market, with the notable exception of Billy Joel, were mostly classical. In fact, the capacity of the CD was raised during development from 60 to 74 minutes in order to accommodate Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The creators of the format knew that classical music lovers were more likely to appreciate (and more likely?to pay for) the increased quality of the CD system.?
The pop and rock market, however, was still in love with cassettes, which were more portable and more ubiquitous than ever. 1979 had brought the first Walkman, and cassette players were now standard equipment in car radios. The CD was, for the moment, strictly for the home, where your nice speakers and amp would make the improved fidelity sing. Even there, to this day, some audiophiles swear by vinyl records and an all-analog setup.
It wasn't until later in the '80s that things really took off. Dire Straits'?Brothers In Arms?sold a million CDs in 1985, suggesting that the format had finally hit its stride. It wasn't long before other artists were selling millions upon millions of their albums in CD format. The Discman, introduced in 1984, and the CD-ROM format, enabling computers to read the discs, further accelerated uptake.
The rest, as they say, is history. Since that time, hundreds of billions of CDs have been shipped and sold ? the numbers are near-impossible to track, since the easily duplicated?digital data led to an enormous increase in piracy and counterfeiting, not to mention the billions of copies and mix-CDs made by normal users.
Music CDs?peaked in 2000 with global sales estimated?at around 2.5 ?billion. Soon (legal) digital downloads began to replace physical media for many music buyers. Though its numbers are on the decline,?CDs are still produced today on the order of hundreds of millions, and it will be many years yet before the world's CD factories shut their doors.
The size and shape of the CD, as well as its capacity, portability, and versatility, have been a major factor in how music has been developed and consumed for decades. Albums were written to fill it, new formats like the DVD were made in imitation of it, and entire new trends in media resulted from it. The Compact Disc started the digital revolution for music in the '70s, and we're still feeling the effects.
Devin Coldewey is a?contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.
A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled that Google's Motorola Mobility unit cannot enforce a patent injunction that it obtained against Microsoft in Germany, diminishing Google's leverage in the ongoing smartphone patent wars.
The injunction would have barred Microsoft from "offering, marketing, using or importing or possessing" in Germany some products including the Xbox 360 and certain Windows software.
The ruling against the German injunction came from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard said the company was pleased with the ruling. A representative for Google's Motorola unit declined to comment.
Brian Love, a professor at Santa Clara Law school in Silicon Valley, said the decision helps Microsoft counteract a favorable dynamic for Google in Germany.
"To some extent Germany has a reputation as place you can go and get an injunction relatively easy," Love said.
The current Xbox 360 is the market-leading console in the United States. Microsoft is expected to unveil its next generation Xbox video game console in 2013.
Microsoft has said that Motorola's patents are standard, essential parts of its software and that Motorola is asking far too much in royalties for their use. Google closed on its $12.5 billion Motorola Mobility acquisition this year.
Microsoft sued Motorola in the United States in 2010, and Motorola then filed a lawsuit in Germany. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced plans to move its European distribution center to the Netherlands from Germany ahead of a possible injunction.
After a court in Mannheim issued the sales ban, U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle granted Microsoft's request to put the German order on hold earlier this year. According to Robart, the ruling would remain in effect until he could determine whether Motorola could appropriately seek a sales ban based on its standard essential patents.
In its ruling on Friday, a three-judge 9th Circuit unanimously upheld Robart's order. Since Microsoft had already brought a lawsuit against Motorola for breach of contract in the United States, U.S. courts have the power to put the German injunction on hold, the 9th Circuit said.
"At bottom, this case is a private dispute under Washington state contract law between two U.S. corporations," the court ruled.
European regulators are investigating claims that Motorola over-charged Microsoft and Apple Inc for use of its patents in their products and thereby breached antitrust rules.
The case in the 9th Circuit is Microsoft Corporation vs. Motorola Inc, Motorola Mobility Inc and General Instrument Corporation, 12-35352.
(Additional reporting by Malathi Nayak in San Francisco and Bill Rigby in Seattle; Editing by Gary Hill and Richard Chang)?
(c) CopyrightThomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at:?http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp?
There are lots of main reasons why many parents choose to homeschooling their kids instead of benefiting from the traditional public or private educational method. One particular factors are philosophical, cost-effective, racial, non secular or governmental. A few mothers and fathers believe not open not private universities handle your meaningful belief program they really want involved in their children's education and learning. Various other mother and father cite 'utter discontentment together with either the particular programs or teacher's over-all knowledge? because factors behind home school their kids. Living Georgia with your loved ones and you are therefore studying the option of home school your young ones, permit me to direct you through the complete procedure. Georgia homeschool guidance contain both lawful as well as programs prerequisites that must end up being met in order for your young children in order to gain their own high-school level.
Georgia homeschool legal requirements
In line with the countrywide regulations of education and learning as well as the Atlanta office associated with Education, a young child must see college or be homeschooled until this extends to Sixteen yrs . old. If you plan to be a stay-at-home parent and you desire to home school your son or daughter, you need possibly high-school diploma or degree or perhaps GED. They are Georgia homeschool law. If you don't meet up with these kind of specifications, but you're even now determined for the home schooling make a difference, you could work with a tutor for your children. Another legitimate prerequisite will be the submission in the Commitment of Purpose. This is a yearly type which includes to be submitted simply no later than May 31st, as well as around Four weeks when you have began homeschooling. This Report have to be filled up with information on your own child's name, the age, the actual teacher, his/her informative abilities, the house address (the actual address of the house college), your designed course and also other extra-curriculum activities along with dates.
Georgia homeschool curriculum prerequisites
To meet this program specifications, educational routines must incorporate looking at, maths, technology reports, history of craft, words disciplines and sociable research. The the least a single academic evening is actually four and a half time associated with guidelines regarding A hundred and eighty days inside the total educational yr. The academic law connected with Atlanta obligates the tutor to help post attendance record over a every year base; whilst they assure you, it is for the top if you send it in monthly. Home-schooled youngsters likewise has to be sent to many forms involving assessments to enable your instructor to follow the development. After each and every academics calendar year, your child's trainer increases the standardised analyze which will be a rating software of their school achievement. Your instructor furthermore ought to distribute an evaluation report back to the actual Ga Office involving Schooling.
Georgia homeschool tutor's requirements
Regardless of your cause, realize that home school of one's youngsters is really a full time career. Which means that should you decide in order to commit yourself completely in your children's education and learning, it may need a large level of your time, this means you will need to approach as well as carry out each and every course, every single issue, every single activity, and each evening. If you can't do everything alone, you can make an attempt to question guidance - you can easily get the best Georgia homeschool instructor. All you have to perform can be question a few officials in the Ga Office involving Instruction for the list of homeschool trainers near your home regarding house. Make sure to verify the particular recommendations of most tutors and pick the correct one for your kids, because their training is just too big valuable to become put in vain.
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FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Lufthansa's efforts to cut costs will be thwarted by higher fuel prices and a weak economy this year, the chief executive of Germany's leading airline said.
The company launched a savings program - dubbed SCORE - earlier this year to boost annual earnings by 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) by the end 2014, compared with 2011.
"Due to the headwinds we face, the progress we have made is not visibly reflected, as we had hoped, in our financial result," Christoph Franz said in an employee newsletter on Friday.
The airline - whose business is caught between low-cost rivals such as easyJet in Europe and Gulf carriers such as Emirates in the premium long-haul market - has said it has identified more than 1 billion euros in potential cutbacks in its passenger airline business alone.
It announced this month that it will merge its European and German domestic routes under a new low-cost brand.
While SCORE will reach its target this year, Franz said high jet fuel prices and the weak economy, as well as fees and costs for materials, were mitigating its effects.
"Therefore we have to work harder to achieve SCORE's planned earnings improvement of 1.5 billion euros in the end," he said.
Shares of Lufthansa turned negative on the news and were down 1.4 percent at 10.59 euros by 1113 GMT. The DAX index <.gdaxi> of leading German stocks was down 0.4 percent.
The airline is negotiating with labor representatives of cabin crew, who held a series of rolling strikes several weeks ago, resulting in the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights.
(Reporting By Marilyn Gerlach; Editing by Pravin Char)
NASA sees sun unleash a wide, but benign, CMEPublic release date: 28-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Hendrix Susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov 301-286-7745 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
The sun erupted with a wide, Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME) on Sept. 27, 2012 at 10:25 p.m. EDT. CMEs are a phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later, affecting electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. Experimental NASA research models estimate that the CME is traveling at around 700 miles per second and will reach Earth on Sept. 29.
CMEs of these speeds are usually benign. In the past, similar CMEs have caused auroras near the poles but have not caused disruption to electrical systems or significantly interfered with GPS or satellite-based communications systems.
The CME is associated with a fairly small solar flare that was measured as C-class, which is third in strength after X- and M-class flares. The flare peaked at 7 p.m. EDT and came from an active region on the sun labeled AR 1577.
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NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center is the United States Government official source for space weather forecasts.
What is a CME?
For answers to this and other space weather questions, please visit the Spaceweather Frequently Asked Questions page: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/spaceweather/index.html
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
NASA sees sun unleash a wide, but benign, CMEPublic release date: 28-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Susan Hendrix Susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov 301-286-7745 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
The sun erupted with a wide, Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME) on Sept. 27, 2012 at 10:25 p.m. EDT. CMEs are a phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later, affecting electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. Experimental NASA research models estimate that the CME is traveling at around 700 miles per second and will reach Earth on Sept. 29.
CMEs of these speeds are usually benign. In the past, similar CMEs have caused auroras near the poles but have not caused disruption to electrical systems or significantly interfered with GPS or satellite-based communications systems.
The CME is associated with a fairly small solar flare that was measured as C-class, which is third in strength after X- and M-class flares. The flare peaked at 7 p.m. EDT and came from an active region on the sun labeled AR 1577.
###
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center is the United States Government official source for space weather forecasts.
What is a CME?
For answers to this and other space weather questions, please visit the Spaceweather Frequently Asked Questions page: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/spaceweather/index.html
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
Kabbage, which provides working capital to online merchants, is announcing that Scott Thompson, CEO of ShopRunner, former President of PayPal, and former Yahoo CEO is joining its board of directors. Considering Thompson's experience in the payments and financial services world, this is a big win for Kabbage. Thompson is currently the CEO of ShopRunner, a shopping network that offers an Amazon Prime-like service to merchants. Thompson joined ShopRunner shorty after he resigned from his position as CEO of Yahoo. Prior to ShopRunner, he was CEO of Yahoo. Thompson left Yahoo in May for personal reasons, amidst controversy over claims in his resume and experience. And Thompson was previously the President of PayPal from 2008 to early 2012, and prior to that he was PayPal?s Chief Technology Officer.
Since 1949 the Leukemia and Lymphoma society has raised more than $875,000,000 to fund research leading to treatment, and in the past 24 years that work has paid off with survival rates for blood cancer patients doubling and tripling and in some cases quadrupling.
But the work never ends. Just ask Phong La.
This is not how 26 year old Phong La expected to spend a gorgeous fall day. Accompanied by his sister, he?s meeting for the first time with Dr. Todd Doyle, a radiation oncologist who?ll map out his course of radiation treatment. That?s because Phong is recovering from lymphoma, diagnosed in March.
For two years Phong suffered knee pain. But it wasn?t until this past March he got a diagnosis -lymphoma.
?I didn?t even know what to say. I didn?t know what to think. I thought he was kidding with me. I mean, I?m 26 years old diagnosed with lymphoma in my knee,? said Phong.
Lymphoma usually affects the lymphatic system ? In rare cases it affects the soft tissue of the knee. Chemotherapy quickly followed.
?The radiation is a sort of insurance card to clean up any cancer cells that might have survived the chemo.
Despite his ordeal, Phong turned his attention to others.
With time on his hands during recovery, and encouraged by friends, he began fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Association. He blasted through his first goal of $5,000, well on his way to raising $10,000.
Phong was lucky. Shortly before his diagnosis a friend encouraged him to get health insurance. Without it, and help from his family, he?d be destitute. In fact, all the money friends donated to him, he?s put toward his fundraising goal.
You can help Phong reach his goal and join hundreds of others this Saturday at Siena College for Light the Night.
A big fundraiser sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
This image provided by NASA shows shows a Martian rock outcrop near the landing site of the rover Curiosity thought to be the site of an ancient streambed, next to similar rocks shown on earth. Curiosity landed in a crater near Mars' equator on Aug. 5, 2012, on a two-year mission to study whether the environment could have been favorable for microbial life. (AP Photo/NASA)
This image provided by NASA shows shows a Martian rock outcrop near the landing site of the rover Curiosity thought to be the site of an ancient streambed, next to similar rocks shown on earth. Curiosity landed in a crater near Mars' equator on Aug. 5, 2012, on a two-year mission to study whether the environment could have been favorable for microbial life. (AP Photo/NASA)
This image provided by NASA shows shows a Martian rock outcrop near the landing site of the rover Curiosity thought to be the site of an ancient streambed. Curiosity landed in a crater near Mars' equator on Aug. 5 on a two-year mission to study whether the environment could have been favorable for microbial life. (AP Photo/NASA)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The NASA rover Curiosity has beamed back pictures of bedrock that suggest a fast-moving stream, possibly waist-deep, once flowed on Mars ? a find that the mission's chief scientist called exciting.
There have been previous signs that water existed on the red planet long ago, but the images released Thursday showing pebbles rounded off, likely by water, offered the most convincing evidence so far of an ancient streambed.
There was "a vigorous flow on the surface of Mars," said chief scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology. "We're really excited about this."
The discovery did not come as a complete surprise. NASA decided to plunk Curiosity down inside Gale Crater near the Martian equator because photos from space hinted that the spot possessed a watery past. The six-wheeled rover safely landed Aug. 5 after a nail-biting plunge through the Martian atmosphere. It's on a two-year, $2.5 billion mission to study whether the Martian environment could have been favorable for microbial life.
Present day Mars is a frozen desert with no hint of water on its radiation-scarred surface, but geological studies of rocks by previous missions suggest the planet was warmer and wetter once upon a time.
The latest evidence came from photos that Curiosity took revealing rounded pebbles and gravel ? a sign that the rocks were transported long distances by water and smoothed out.
The size of the rocks ? ranging from a sand grain to a golf ball ? indicates that they could not have been carried by wind, said mission scientist Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.
Though Curiosity did not use its high-tech instruments to drill into the rocks or analyze their chemical makeup, Grotzinger said scientists were sure that water played a role based on just studying the pictures.
It's unclear how long the water persisted on the surface, but it easily could have lasted "thousands to millions of years," said mission scientist Bill Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley.
Curiosity chanced upon the dried-up streambed while driving to Glenelg, an intriguing spot where three types of terrain meet. Its ultimate destination is Mount Sharp, a mountain rising from the center of crater floor, but it was not expected to travel there until the end of the year.
Finding past water is a first step toward learning whether the environment could have supported microbes. Scientists generally agree that besides water and an energy source such as the sun, organic carbon is a necessary prerequisite for life.
While an ancient streambed holds promise as a potentially habitable environment, scientists don't think it's a good place to preserve the carbon building blocks of life. That's why the rover will continue its trek to the foothills of Mount Sharp where there's a better chance of finding organics.
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Alicia Chang can be followed at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia
We recently reviewed an article authored by Ms. Julie Bolt, 10 Disruptive Enterprise Tech Companies (http://www NULL.businessinsider NULL.com/10-disruptive-enterprise-tech-companies-2012-9?op=1), which was published on September 25, 2012 on the Business Insider web site. We confess that we tweeted about this article before we read it, which, in retrospect, we ought not to have done. The fact is that we do not agree with some of the points in this article, and, further, we are cautious about the type of sweeping statements that we found throughout the article.
The point here is what are present standards, to use a tech phrase, ?best of breed? techniques as regards MARCOM for enterprise IT ISVs? This publication, Business Insider is, admittedly, not connected to any one tech software provider, but, nevertheless, the 10 firms that are discussed in this article are, to some extent, implicated in what we can?t help but take to be quite a bit of hyperbole. Here?s an example: ?Cloud computing has put unlimited computing power in the hands of everyone at very low cost.? (quoted from ?10 Disruptive Enterprise Tech Companies? as published on Business Insider web site and written by Ms. Julie Bort). Here?s another: ?Software-as-a-service has become a safe and reliable alternative to on-premise software?(ibid). Here?s just one more: ?Google generates about $1 billion a year on its five enterprise products. That?s a drop in the bucket compared to its full revenue stream, but it?s had a significant impact on competitors like Microsoft?(ibid).
For the record, we question each one of these three assertions. The last is particularly troubling. We, ourselves, took a look at Google?s 10-Q as filed with the US SEC on June 30, 2012 and could not find a single specific mention of these ?enterprise? products. We DID find mention of $434 Million in sales of ?other? products in the revenue statement, but no specific mention of these ?enterprise? products.
But we are not looking at this article as an opportunity to contest someone else?s truth; rather, we are looking at this article as an example of what we take to be an unfortunate enterprise IT ISV MARCOM trend, which works to create market movement through editorial content that exaggerates small kernels of potentially factual information into great big snow balls of vaporware.
We are cautious, at best, about this trend, and, at worst, concerned at its present proliferation. We think there is enough factual, positive, meat to the bones of the businesses portrayed in this article to make for an informative article without all the exaggeration. Hopefully someone will make the effort required and tell us something we really need to know about each of this businesses.
?IMB Enterprises, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2012 All Rights Reserved
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Acne breakouts are the most common skin problem with which so many people are suffering. Typically it is categorized like moderate, severe or gentle. Even though it is not really fatal, this leads to ugly alterations in the entire physical appearance of the individual who is struggling with it. Proper pimples reduction treatment method can certainly prevent your emotional and physical scarring, which are associated with this particular. Acne not only diminishes your self-esteem, and also leads to long lasting scarring.
A healthful dermis along with free from pimples is important for your social interaction, especially if you are young person. Acne can't be completely prevented or avoided; here are several beneficial ideas that can be ideal for bad spots lessening, such as:
? ?Face washing: Just before going to bed, it's essential to carefully clean the make-up through facial skin to avoid the blocking of pores of the skin. Strenuous or unpleasant washing or skin rubbing should also be prevented. Rather than all these smoothly clean your face with gentle soap and water twice daily, rinse out your skin carefully and completely pat it to dry out.
? ?Make-up: Despite the fact that there was no evidence, that helps the concept that the make-up may lead to zits, still it's necessary to be away from cosmetics, that have essential oil solutions. And as well stay away from products and solutions those consist of isopropyl myristate, lanolins, D & C red eyes, sodium lauryl sulphate and laureth-4.
It's very secure to work with noncomedogenic or even nonacnegenic and it is recommended to prevent using excessive make-up.
? ?Face clothes, makeup brushes and also cushions: Pillows can come in contact with facial skin when you're in deep sleep, therefore it is safer to make use of fully clean covers with regard to cushions. Additionally, the face towels ought to be often washed and maintained clean. If you utilize filthy pillowcases as well as other toiletries, then that could harbors harmful bacteria and also germs that cause skin disease such as pimples and itchiness. Same as these, utilize clean cosmetic brushes for make-up.
? ?Healthful Diet plan: For acne reduction, adhere to a well-balanced diet plan which contains nourishing substances. This can fight against formation of the acne. Components which present in your food may determine the skin condition. Extreme amounts of Sugar and also soaked food items may interrupt the balance of natural oils creation and they may also reduce strength of skin pores to fight against all toxic aspects, which could affect it in our daily program. By consuming more vegetables and also fruits you can decrease the possibilities for occurrence of pimples.
? ?Decrease Stimulating elements: You need to reduce intake of coffee, tea and also sugars for acne reduction. These all can increase the creation of natural oils.
? ?Exposure To The Sun: Skin ought to be protected against exposure to the sun as it can dry the skin. Exposure to the sun while you are within some acne treatments may bring some unwanted side effects.
Acne treatment Orange County offers you effective skin care services to satisfy all your needs. To know more about other skin care services that we offer, you can consult dermatology Orange County.
Making the healthy choicePublic release date: 26-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Deborah Williams-Hedges debwms@caltech.edu 626-395-3227 California Institute of Technology
Caltech-led scientists find that competition between 2 brain regions influences the ability to make healthy choices
PASADENA, Calif.Almost everyone knows the feeling: you see a delicious piece of chocolate cake on the table, but as you grab your fork, you think twice. The cake is too fattening and unhealthy, you tell yourself. Maybe you should skip dessert.
But the cake still beckons.
In order to make the healthy choice, we often have to engage in this kind of internal struggle. Now, scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have identified the neural processes at work during such self-regulationand what determines whether you eat the cake.
"We seem to have independent systems capable of guiding our decisions, and in situations like this one, these systems may compete for control of what we do," says Cendri Hutcherson, a Caltech postdoctoral scholar who is the lead author on a new paper about these competing brain systems, which will be published in the September 26 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
"In many cases, these systems guide behavior in the same direction, so there's no conflict between them," she adds. "But in other cases, like the all-too-common inner fight to resist the temptation of eating the chocolate cake, they can guide behavior toward different outcomes. Furthermore, the outcome of the decision seems to depend on which of the two systems takes control of behavior."
A large body of evidence shows that people make decisions by assigning different values to the various options, says Antonio Rangel, a professor of economics and neuroscience and the senior author of the paper. To make their decisions, people select the choice with the highest value. "An important and controversial open questionwhich this study was designed to addressis whether there is a single value signal in the brain, or if there are instead multiple value signals with different properties that compete for the control of behavior."
According to the single-value hypothesis, Rangel explains, the ability to say no to the chocolate cake depends on just one system that compares values like healthiness and taste. But the multiple-value hypothesis suggests that there are different systems that process different values. The ability to turn down the cake therefore depends on whether the brain can activate the appropriate systemthe one that evaluates healthiness. If you do not want the cake, it means you place a higher value on health than on taste and your brain acts accordingly.
In the study, the researchers asked 26 volunteers to refrain from eating for four hours prior to being tested. During the experiment, a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine was used to measure the brain activity of the hungry participants while they decided how much they were willing to pay for different snacks, which were shown on a computer screen. The items, including foods like chips and vegetables, varied in taste and healthiness. The subjects were explicitly asked to make their choices in one of three conditions: while attempting to suppress their desire to eat the food, while attempting to increase their desire to eat the food, or while acting normally. The volunteers could do whatever they wanted to control themselvesfor example, focusing on the taste (say, to increase their desire to eat something delicious but unhealthy) or the healthiness of the item (to reduce that urge).
After a four-second period, the participants placed real bids for the right to buy the items that reflected the value they placed on the food.
The researchers found that activity in two different brain areas correlated with how much the participants said they wanted an item, as indicated by their bids. The two regions were the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), which sits behind the temples, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), which is in the middle of the forehead just above the eyes.
Significantly, the two areas played very different roles in the self-regulation process. When volunteers told themselves not to want the food, the dlPFC seemed to take control; there was a stronger correlation between the signals in this area and behavior, while the signals in the vmPFC appeared to have no influence on behavior. When the volunteers encouraged themselves to want the food, however, the role of each brain region flipped. The vmPFC took control while the signals in the dlPFC appeared to have no effect.
The researchers also found that the brain's ability to switch control between these two areas was not instantaneous. It took a couple of seconds before the brain was able to fully ignore the conflicting region. For example, when a volunteer tried to suppress a craving, the vmPFC initially appeared to drive behavior. Only after a couple of secondswhile the participant tried to rein in his or her appetitedid the correlation between bids and vmPFC activity disappear and the dlPFC seem to take over.
"This research suggests a reason why it feels so difficult to control your behavior," Hutcherson says. "You've got these really fast signals that say, go for the tempting food. But only after you start to go for it are you able to catch yourself and say, no, I don't want this."
Previous work in Rangel's lab showed that when dieters made similar food choices, their decisions were controlled only by the vmPFC. The researchers speculate that because dieters are more accustomed to self-control, their brains do not show the neural struggle seen in the new study. If that is the case, then it may be possible that people can improve their self-control with more practice.
###
In addition to Hutcherson and Rangel, the other authors on the Journal of Neuroscience paper are Hilke Plassmann from the cole Normale Suprieure in France and James Gross of Stanford. The title of the paper is "Cognitive regulation during decision making shifts behavioral control between ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal value systems." This research was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Written by Marcus Woo
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Making the healthy choicePublic release date: 26-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Deborah Williams-Hedges debwms@caltech.edu 626-395-3227 California Institute of Technology
Caltech-led scientists find that competition between 2 brain regions influences the ability to make healthy choices
PASADENA, Calif.Almost everyone knows the feeling: you see a delicious piece of chocolate cake on the table, but as you grab your fork, you think twice. The cake is too fattening and unhealthy, you tell yourself. Maybe you should skip dessert.
But the cake still beckons.
In order to make the healthy choice, we often have to engage in this kind of internal struggle. Now, scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have identified the neural processes at work during such self-regulationand what determines whether you eat the cake.
"We seem to have independent systems capable of guiding our decisions, and in situations like this one, these systems may compete for control of what we do," says Cendri Hutcherson, a Caltech postdoctoral scholar who is the lead author on a new paper about these competing brain systems, which will be published in the September 26 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
"In many cases, these systems guide behavior in the same direction, so there's no conflict between them," she adds. "But in other cases, like the all-too-common inner fight to resist the temptation of eating the chocolate cake, they can guide behavior toward different outcomes. Furthermore, the outcome of the decision seems to depend on which of the two systems takes control of behavior."
A large body of evidence shows that people make decisions by assigning different values to the various options, says Antonio Rangel, a professor of economics and neuroscience and the senior author of the paper. To make their decisions, people select the choice with the highest value. "An important and controversial open questionwhich this study was designed to addressis whether there is a single value signal in the brain, or if there are instead multiple value signals with different properties that compete for the control of behavior."
According to the single-value hypothesis, Rangel explains, the ability to say no to the chocolate cake depends on just one system that compares values like healthiness and taste. But the multiple-value hypothesis suggests that there are different systems that process different values. The ability to turn down the cake therefore depends on whether the brain can activate the appropriate systemthe one that evaluates healthiness. If you do not want the cake, it means you place a higher value on health than on taste and your brain acts accordingly.
In the study, the researchers asked 26 volunteers to refrain from eating for four hours prior to being tested. During the experiment, a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine was used to measure the brain activity of the hungry participants while they decided how much they were willing to pay for different snacks, which were shown on a computer screen. The items, including foods like chips and vegetables, varied in taste and healthiness. The subjects were explicitly asked to make their choices in one of three conditions: while attempting to suppress their desire to eat the food, while attempting to increase their desire to eat the food, or while acting normally. The volunteers could do whatever they wanted to control themselvesfor example, focusing on the taste (say, to increase their desire to eat something delicious but unhealthy) or the healthiness of the item (to reduce that urge).
After a four-second period, the participants placed real bids for the right to buy the items that reflected the value they placed on the food.
The researchers found that activity in two different brain areas correlated with how much the participants said they wanted an item, as indicated by their bids. The two regions were the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), which sits behind the temples, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), which is in the middle of the forehead just above the eyes.
Significantly, the two areas played very different roles in the self-regulation process. When volunteers told themselves not to want the food, the dlPFC seemed to take control; there was a stronger correlation between the signals in this area and behavior, while the signals in the vmPFC appeared to have no influence on behavior. When the volunteers encouraged themselves to want the food, however, the role of each brain region flipped. The vmPFC took control while the signals in the dlPFC appeared to have no effect.
The researchers also found that the brain's ability to switch control between these two areas was not instantaneous. It took a couple of seconds before the brain was able to fully ignore the conflicting region. For example, when a volunteer tried to suppress a craving, the vmPFC initially appeared to drive behavior. Only after a couple of secondswhile the participant tried to rein in his or her appetitedid the correlation between bids and vmPFC activity disappear and the dlPFC seem to take over.
"This research suggests a reason why it feels so difficult to control your behavior," Hutcherson says. "You've got these really fast signals that say, go for the tempting food. But only after you start to go for it are you able to catch yourself and say, no, I don't want this."
Previous work in Rangel's lab showed that when dieters made similar food choices, their decisions were controlled only by the vmPFC. The researchers speculate that because dieters are more accustomed to self-control, their brains do not show the neural struggle seen in the new study. If that is the case, then it may be possible that people can improve their self-control with more practice.
###
In addition to Hutcherson and Rangel, the other authors on the Journal of Neuroscience paper are Hilke Plassmann from the cole Normale Suprieure in France and James Gross of Stanford. The title of the paper is "Cognitive regulation during decision making shifts behavioral control between ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal value systems." This research was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Written by Marcus Woo
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
The Spanish government has updated its taxation code this week clarifying the situation of online gambling taxes in the country. The new tax code states that players are able to deduct losses from their online gambling winnings when completing their annual tax statements.
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Public release date: 28-Sep-2012
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Since 1949 the Leukemia and Lymphoma society has raised more than $875,000,000 to fund research leading to treatment, and in the past 24 years that work has paid off with survival rates for blood cancer patients doubling and tripling and in some cases quadrupling.