Nielsen: Over 50 percent of US mobile users own smartphones, Android and iPhone sitting pretty

Smartphones crossed an important milestone in March, based on Nielsen's estimates. Just over half of cellphone owners in the US -- 50.4 percent, to be exact -- had a smartphone of some kind, making dumbphones the minority for the first time. The smartphone tale of the tape shows that the OS split has largely tapered off since February. Android has only moved slightly and still sits atop the heap, claiming 48.5 percent of users, but Apple hasn't had to worry given that 32 percent of smartphone owners use an iPhone. As is increasingly becoming the familiar story, other platforms trailed well behind: RIM's BlackBerry sat at 11.6 percent, while Windows Mobile, at 4.1 percent, was more popular than its Windows Phone successor's 1.7 percent. Apple can still claim to be the top-selling individual smartphone maker in the country, suggesting Samsung hasn't translated its worldwide lead to the US just yet.

Nielsen: Over 50 percent of US mobile users own smartphones, Android and iPhone sitting pretty originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 May 2012 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The best way to Fully Automate Your Web site Which means you Do ...

Which means you do not possess a method of controlling all of the consumer responses coming via your inbox I can relate, remember to christian louboutin shoes allow me discuss a private story.

When I first started my on-line business, I did not determine what an autoresponder was, and I was intimidated by environment one particular up on my internet site. I simply had an HTML type create that will deliver e-mail handle of individuals that needed my publication straight to my inbox. I can only think about the quantity of funds that I was leaving around the table. I?d no means of responding back to my potential clients. When I noticed a newsletter signup come into my inbox, I would copy and paste a reply back again to them.

The instances have changed. Not only will be the over scenario not acceptable, but there?s no way it is possible to successfully grow your company with out an autoresponder.

Immediately after all, since you now have your website set up to sell your e-book, you might be gonna need to have a method to manage the different types of correspondence being sent to you from prospective clients.

Autoresponders are an productive and affordable innovation (software program system) designed to ?respond? to any messages a web site gets. Thousands of on-line businesses use autoresponders to mail a confirmation ?thank you? discover when any person registers with their email deal with around the site. Consider them as an answering device to your web site.

Employing an autoresponder is a critical element to having an effective ebook company. Not merely do you should react to messages and inquiries, you should put into action an e-mail product sales marketing campaign to promote your book. Should you had been to try to manage the e-mails your self, the process will ultimately become impractical and extremely time consuming. You could employ someone to answer them, but whenever your site is receiving a number of hundred hits a day with an typical of 50% registering to receive a lot more data; you would need to hire a number of people thus christian louboutin shoes creating the cost very prohibitive. In organization, ?time is income and funds is time?, and on the internet, and autoresponder could be the only answer.

In case you do not have an autoresponder, you are going to lose product sales, and lots of them. If you are not utilizing an automobile e mail plan to acquire these non-committals to return for your web site, you are going to not be able to sell your e book to them. It really is genuinely as easy as that.

How does an autorepsonder work By using the details you input in to the applications, the Autoresponder will automatically answer any e mail or sign-up your web site receives. You are able to even plan many different responses and how many times you wish to deliver your customers an email; plus any sales receipts, download data and access, help issues can all be successfully handled by an autoresponder. Clearly if there is a support scenario, you or your webmaster will must step in and fix the problem, however the autoresponder can effortlessly allow the client know that an individual will be emailing them quickly to help.

As a result of the nature of your business (e-book product sales), you will need various email autoresponses based on the circumstance. A typical list of responses for an e-book product sales internet site may possibly incorporate some or all of the following:

1) Thanks reaction for visiting and signing up;
2) Free of charge newsletter emailed to all sign-ups;
3) Particular supply email messages to entice obtain;
4) Obtain notification|invoice;
5) Thanks for purchasing;
6) Informing of your newest e-book;
7) Offer you free course|bonus for signing up;
Notification of difficulties|grievances obtained from buyers;
9) Notification of feedback received.

Fundamentally the utilizes in the system are endless, christian louboutin shoes actually something that you simply would want emailed to a number of consumers may be handled by way of an autoresponder. And just like the practically limitless utilizes, there are a huge number of autoresponder businesses vying to manage your e-business correspondence.

Numerous web sites have totally free autoresponder applications obtainable which handle minimum email jobs; even so because you?re attempting to sell ebooks, you must look for a method or services that will not restrict the abilities of the emails. Make sure you get unlimited e-mail dimension furthermore you?ll need the potential to deliver numerous email messages to the exact same person more than a time frame. Don?t forget, the purpose for sending a number of email messages over a program of time is depending on the fact that almost all buyers (about 60% ? 70%) do not acquire on their initial check out. If they?re thinking about finding out more about your e-book, they are going to sign up for far more info. And this really is when you use an autoresponder to ship a number of specific information e-mails to drive people reluctant customers back to your website for that christian louboutin shoes acquire. You will also want to have the potential to trace your emails to assess the usefulness of such a campaign.

The messages you may wish to mail will rely on the purpose to the must reply. A single way you are able to manage this by getting multiple e mail addresses to your internet site.

If you need to have extra addresses, do not hesitate to set them up and rely on them; the more you categorize your customer?s e-mails, the greater you, your webmaster and your autorepsonder program will operate. The autoresponder will understand the distinction among newsletter sign-ups, consumer logins, purchases, and so forth. This is all configured within the program, as is delivering notification e-mails for receipt of a customer?s inquiry at certainly one of your detailed e mail addresses. Again, you or your webmaster will manually have to solution any inquiries received at a web site outlined tackle. Unfortunately at this moment in time, autoresponders can?t go through and answer e-mails. I would envision that sometime within the not also length long term this will become a possibility. One can usually hope!

Now you recognize why autoresponders are an critical otherwise essential ingredient in developing a successful, functioning, 24|7 e-book sales site. Making use of one will aid improve your sales, drive these hesitant potential customers back again for your website and take care of those every day tasks connected with getting a professional and courteous Net business. Providing excellent consumer services is a significant company creating device, particularly for on the internet corporations whenever a customer assesses you and your christian louboutin shoes website more rapidly than you comprehend.

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Forex investments * Faqs ? Vero Beach Tattoo. Deuces Wild ...

What exactly is FOREX?

FOREX stands for this currency exchange market, that is a worldwide financial market exactly where foreign currencies tend to be dealt. The foreign exchange market commenced inside Seventies and is now the greatest fiscal market place on the globe, with the common every day revenues of US$1.Nine billion. Which is twenty five periods how much daily exercise upon all of the Us all stock markets.

Each Foreign exchange trade consists of simultaneously buying one forex along with marketing an additional. By way of example, if you feel the actual Dollar may climb in accordance with the particular dollar, you?ll position any Euro/Dollar trade. The foreign exchange technique might then buy the Dinar and then sell a similar quantity of the Buck. And then, when you need to close your situation, you?d probably location the Dollar/Euro business. This could find the Dollar and sell the Euro. In the event the Dollar got gone up contrary to the Greenback, you would make a profit, but if it acquired gone down in accordance with the actual Dollar you would create a decline.

What foreign currencies tend to be dealt?

Most of the earth?s stock markets are available to industry, nevertheless the majority of industry action requires a gaggle of main values, including the US Buck, the Pound, the Yen, the particular Switzerland Franc and also Sterling.

Where is the foreign exchange market situated?

In contrast to many financial markets around the world, Forex trading just isn?t centralized with an swap. Alternatively that operates on a basis known as the interbank marketplace or older the Counter-top (Non-prescription). As each Forex trading involves two reciprocal investments (buy one forex and then sell an additional), these are carried out digitally with any kind of dealer who?s prepared to accept the business.

Who is able to buy and sell within the Foreign exchange?

Typically, entry to forex trading has been limited to banking organisations, such as main finance institutions, business financial institutions along with expenditure finance institutions. For this reason this is run on a process referred to as the interbank marketplace.

However, the quantity of neo lender members in the Forex market, such as international organizations, funds supervisors, funds agents and private speculators, is increasing quickly. And thanks to the actual comparatively tiny amount of funds forced to open up a trading consideration (usually $500) Foreign exchange can be checking in order to a lot more people continuously. In case you are above Eighteen, have internet connection the sufficient funds to open an investing account, the field of Currency trading will be on hand.

Just when was the foreign currency market available for investing?

As Forex doesn?t can be found inside a standard exchange, it?s the just Round-the-clock monetary market place in the world. Currency trading will begin every single day in Sydney then goes worldwide because significant global real estate markets inside Tokyo, Birmingham as well as The big apple wide open.

To put it differently, there?s always traders someplace on the planet who are make an effort to investing foreign currencies. Which means you may make trades and reply to significant interpersonal, financial along with politics occasions day and nite. Nevertheless, you will find there?s quick sleep period coming from close up regarding trading on the United states fiscal marketplace on Friday till investing will begin around australia on Mon day. Nonetheless, because of the period variances around the world, this era simply can last for about 48 hours.

What is a trading margin?

Forex trading positions come in a lot of $100,1000. When you provide that amount of money to cover your role when you can industry, the market would once once again always be restricted to banking institutions along with other institutional people. So brokerages established the principle associated with perimeter trading. In essence they allow visitors to buy and sell $100,Thousand hindrances of currency whether they can provide an part of security towards prospective deficits.

As an example, they may permit individuals to industry over a margin of 1% (compared, standard stock agents usually have to have a 50% perimeter). Which means that they can trade $100,000 obstructs, furnished their accounts includes at least $100,000 by 1% = $1000. One thousand dollars will guard the dealer in opposition to any kind of potential deficits that their client can make (forex ideals hardly ever fluctuate by greater than 1% within a morning). If your company?s accounts can be decreased simply by deficits (i.e. lowering the broker?s protection down below suitable ranges), your specialist can near just about all positions along with demand one more deposit just before even more investments can be produced.

Trading margin lets people to regulate immeasureable forex wiith fairly small quantities of funds (often Fifty, Hundred as well as 200 occasions how much money they have expended). This may lead to massive benefits, yet boosts the probability of shedding the majority of or perhaps your growth capital.

Simply how much will it cost?

Due to the trading border made available from most Foreign exchange brokers, it?s possible to open up a forex account and acquire started out buying and selling which has a comparatively small amount of money.

Forex trades are made in plenty of $100,Thousand. Nonetheless, most Forexs brokes will provide you with the influence percentage all the way to 100:A single, so that you will find the ability to control any $100,1000 have business dealings with as few as $1000 with your consideration. A few brokerages will provide influence associated with 2 hundred:One particular or perhaps 500:1, that allows you to definitely start with as low as $500 or perhaps $250 in your consideration.

Even so, please remember that despite the fact that increased control enables you to improve your profit potential, additionally, it enhances the danger issue. The greater the control ratio, smaller exchanging variation that will be required to eliminate the trading cash. Consequently choose the quantity of power that you use prudently.
For new dealers, it might be safer to begin with control of 20:One or 60:One particular. This will likely improve the volume you need to available a free account, however it will certainly decrease the probability of discovering your exchanging funds go away as a result of small change in the price of a currency exchange.

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China: Dissident may apply to study in U.S.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Friday that blind dissident Chen Guangcheng could apply to study abroad, a move praised by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and suggesting an end may be near to a diplomatic standoff between Beijing and Washington.

But rights activists sounded a note of caution, saying Beijing could move slowly on granting Chen permission to leave out of fear that appearing soft might embolden other challengers to Communist Party rule before a power handover late this year.

An announcement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry followed a dramatic and very public appeal by Chen, who spoke by phone to a congressional hearing on his case and asked to be allowed to spend time in the United States after fleeing 19 months of extra-judicial captivity in his home village.

"If he wants to study abroad, he can apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen," ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in a brief statement, adding that Chen was still being treated in hospital.

Clinton, in Beijing for strategic and economic talks, said the U.S. ambassador to Beijing, Gary Locke, had spoken to Chen again on Friday when he had confirmed he wanted to go to the United States to study, along with his family.

"Over the course of the day, progress has been made to help him have the future that he wants and we will be staying in touch with him as this process moves forward," she said.

"This is not just about well-known activists; it's about the human rights and aspirations of more than a billion people here in China and billions more around the world and it's about the future of this great nation and all nations," Clinton added.

U.S. officials said they now expect American diplomats and doctors to have regular access to Chen, who campaigned against forced abortions under China's "one-child" policy.

They also said that checks had shown that Chen had three broken bones from his escape, and his foot was put in a cast.

UNIVERSITY FELLOWSHIP

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Chen had been offered a fellowship by a U.S. university, where he can be joined by his wife and two children. New York University said it had invited Chen to be a visiting scholar at its law school.

Nuland also said Washington expected Beijing to deal quickly with Chen's application to travel abroad. "The United States government would then give visa requests for him and his immediate family priority attention," she said in a statement.

While some activists said China could drag its feet on Chen, Bob Fu of the Texas-based advocacy group ChinaAid said in a statement on Friday that "Chen is so widely popular now, Beijing probably wants him in New York as soon as possible."

The crisis erupted on April 22, after Chen made a dramatic escape from his rural home, where he was effectively under house arrest, and made his way to Beijing and sought refuge at the U.S. Embassy.

He stayed there for six days until Wednesday when U.S. officials took him to a Beijing hospital after assurances from the Chinese government that he and his family would receive better treatment and could move out of Shandong province, where rights activists said they had suffered surveillance and abuse.

But within hours, Chen, 40, had changed his mind, scuppering what had seemed to be a delicately constructed deal between Chinese and U.S. diplomats to allow him to receive treatment for a broken foot, and be reunited with his wife and children.

Chen, in translated comments, also told the congressional that villagers who had helped him were "receiving retribution" and he was most concerned about the safety of his mother and brothers.

"Chen's frail mother remains detained, his brother Chen Guangfu and nephew Chen Kegui will be sentenced, and the netizens who helped Chen escape, like He "Pearl" Pierong, still face charges," ChinaAid, the main source of information about Chen while he was at the U.S. Embassy, said in a statement.

The issue cast a shadow over this week's visit to Beijing by Clinton for talks intended to improve ties between the world's two biggest economies.

Despite the friction, a U.S. official said China would raise foreign ownership limits in domestic joint-venture securities firms and allow them to trade commodities and financial futures in a move to further liberalize capital markets. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said China had also made significant reforms to its currency regime, long a bone of contention.

Clinton told Chinese President Hu Jintao ties were the strongest they had ever been. Nevertheless, Beijing has accused the United States of meddling in its affairs in the Chen case.

Chinese human rights lawyer Tang Jitian cautioned that the authorities could easily hold up the paperwork to delay Chen's departure from China. China's security forces might not be as keen as its diplomats for a quick exit.

"How it will play out we don't know. For instance, getting the approval for the paperwork to go, there are many potential pitfalls," said Tang. "We can't be 100-percent optimistic."

U.S. officials said they did not know when Chen might leave but said they had no reason to believe it would be this weekend.

STARBUCKS-SIPPING TROUBLEMAKER

The Obama administration has come under criticism for its handling of the matter, particularly from Republicans such as House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

"U.S. officials made a mistake by escorting Chen away from the safety of the U.S. embassy and into an uncertain fate," she said. "The State Department must press China to carry out its commitments. We cannot assume that this saga has been resolved."

Congressmen Chris Smith and Frank Wolf, both Republicans, hope to grill senior U.S. officials as soon as next week.

Chen himself was attacked by one of China's main official newspapers, which accused him of being a pawn of U.S. subversion of Communist Party power and described U.S. Ambassador Locke as a backpack-wearing, Starbucks-sipping troublemaker.

"Chen Guangcheng has become a tool and a pawn for American politicians to blacken China," the Beijing Daily said.

The dissident's village remained under lockdown. Guards chased away two Reuters reporters who attempted to enter the village on Friday. The four heavy-set guards ran slowly, yelling at the reporters as their car drove away.

The Chen case comes at a tricky time for China, which is engaged in a leadership change. The carefully choreographed transition has already been knocked out of step by the downfall of ambitious senior Communist Party official Bo Xilai in a scandal linked to the apparent murder of a British businessman.

(Additional reporting by Beijing, Hong Kong and Washington bureaux; Writing by Mark Bendeich and Nick Macfie; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and David Brunnstrom)

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Biden says no 'stagnation' in employment numbers

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Can't have it both ways

Reuters

The death of linebacker Junior Seau has triggered a flurry of comments and articles regarding the future of football.? Former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner has said that he would prefer that his sons not play football (before later that same day saying he would ?love? for them to play).? ESPN, a network that pays billions of dollars for the right to televise football games, is showcasing on the NFL home page of its website a column that makes the case for not letting our sons play football.? One of the men who currently plays the game, Ravens safety Bernard Pollard, believes football will be extinct in 20 to 30 years.

But here?s the point everyone who is pointing the Seau suicide as a key crossroads for football is badly missing:? The NFL already has arrived at the crossroads, and the NFL has embarked on the path of safety.

Against the wishes of most players and fans.

It happened in 2009 ? nearly a year after Ashley Fox of ESPN.com made her own personal decision to not let her then-unborn son play football ? when Congress grilled Commissioner Roger Goodell and others regarding head injuries.? That relatively minor investment of political resources served as the proverbial shot across the bow, compelling the NFL to make a flurry of changes aimed at reducing the number of concussions that occur during games, diagnosing more effectively the players who have sustained concussions, and ensuring that players who have suffered concussions are not allowed back onto the field until their concussions have fully healed.

Does more need to be done?? Absolutely, and I?ve been at the front of the line (to the chagrin of more than a few readers) arguing for further changes, especially as it relates to the development of safeguards and redundancies strong enough to override the all-powerful head coach when a player like Mike Vick has ?dirt on his face? or when Colt McCoy clearly had been (as ESPN used to famously call it) ?jacked up.?

But the challenge isn?t simply to get coaches, who are driven to win and are driven crazy when rules regarding concussions keep their best players out of action, to accept the new realities of football.? Players and, ultimately, the fans must buy in, too.

As one PFT commenter recently pointed out, current players are complaining about efforts to take hard hits out of the game at a time when former players are suing the NFL for, in part, letting them hit each other too hard.? For some former players, the concussion issue becomes a convenient vehicle for venting about the fact that today?s owners and players are making obscene amounts of money, and that not enough of it is being shared with the men who made the game what it is.? Current players, however, continue to play the game without reservation or hesitation.? Indeed, 253 draft picks and hundreds more undrafted players unanimously accepted the offers of employment that have come their way in the last 10 days.

And so, at a time when so many voices are clamoring for football to change even more, the men who play the game don?t want it to.? For example, Pollard?s headline-generating prediction didn?t come from his belief that some external body will outlaw the sport, but from a concern that efforts by the NFL to make the game safer will kill it.? ?This is football,? Pollard said.? ?It?s not powder puff.? When Nike unveiled their new uniforms, I?m surprised they didn?t have flags on the side. . . .? You?re taking away the game of football.? If a quarterback throws an interception, get his butt down or run to the sidelines.? If you?re going to try to make a tackle, I?m going to look for you.? I promise you, I?m going to look for you.?

The fans have a role in this, too.? As the NFL has tried to make the game safer, the folks who devote money and/or time to watching it have complained, almost as loudly as the players.? Those same fans, who love the hits and the intensity of the sport, can?t then wring their hands and gnash their teeth when men who know that the sport entails a significant risk of getting hurt actually, you know, get hurt.

In the end, how far must the NFL go to protect players from themselves?? We remain a nation of risk-takers; in many ways, taking risks helped make our country what it is.? And we routinely take far greater risks for far less money than NFL players receive.

Hell, we even spend good money to take risks, whether it?s jumping out of airplanes or climbing rock walls or driving motorcycles, with or without helmets.? (Ashley Fox doesn?t mention in her column whether she?ll let her son engage in any of those activities.? Eventually, however, she?ll lose her vote.)

If grown men, who now can?t say they don?t know the risks of playing football, choose to play, why should anyone stop them?? And even if enough parents are actually able to steer that 14-to-18-year-old with testosterone pumping through his body away from playing football to the point where there is no high school football, the best of the best young athletes will nevertheless be recruited to learn football at the college level, at which point the wishes of mom and/or dad will go out the window ? especially if playing football pays for tuition and expenses that mom and/or dad otherwise couldn?t afford.

Though plenty of men choose to play college football because they hope to play pro football and not because they want a college education, plenty of men know that football ultimately serves its purpose by providing a college education that they otherwise wouldn?t be able to obtain.? And if, in the end, the decision comes down to the risk of incurring CTE on a gridiron or encountering an IED on a dirt road in Afghanistan, plenty of men will gladly embrace the risks of playing college football.

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Greeks reject eurozone austerity in 'earthquake' vote

Greek voters dealt a blow to eurozone hopes that Athens will stick to its austerity commitments as parties opposing more cuts, including neo-Nazis, won almost 60-percent support in an election Sunday.

According to updated exit polls, the two main parties suffered heavy losses, with the conservative New Democracy and the left-wing Pasok getting just 32.0 to 34.5 percent between them, down from 77.4 percent at the last polls in 2009.

New Democracy, led by Antonis Samaras, remained the largest party but it fell short of an absolute majority in parliament.

Samaras, as leader of the biggest party, will be tasked with forming a new government by the president, but observers say he will have difficulty forming an administration able to maintain Greece's austerity drive and implement more cuts demanded by the country's creditors.

"We are ready to assume the responsibility of forming a national salvation government with two exclusive goals: to keep the country in the euro and amend the policies of the memorandum," Samaras said late Sunday.

Athens has already committed to finding in June another 11.5 billion euros ($15 billion) in savings in the next two years.

New Democracy obtained about a fifth of support this time, well short of the share needed for an absolute majority in parliament and down from 33.5 percent three years ago.

The other main player Pasok saw its score decimated, polling only 13-14 percent compared to nearly 44 percent in the last elections. The party even looked set to be relegated to third place by the leftist Syriza, which scored 15.5-17.0 percent, more than triple its 4.6 percent of 2009.

"The ruling parties have been struck by an earthquake," shadow foreign minister Panos Panagiotopoulos said on television channel Mega.

Panayotis Petrakis, economics professor at Athens University, expressed hope however that new French president-elect Francois Hollande "would prevent Europe treating us too harshly. There is still a little room for manoeuvre."

Petrakis told AFP that the most likely outcome was another "government of technocrats" headed again by outgoing premier Lucas Papademos, or fresh elections.

Evangelos Venizelos, Pasok leader and the finance minister who negotiated the second bailout, called for a "national unity government" among pro-European parties but admitted this will be "clearly difficult."

Neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn was also set to enter parliament for the first time since the end of the military junta in 1974, with 6.5-7.5 percent, making it the sixth-biggest party in the 300-seat chamber with some 20 lawmakers.

Leader Nikos Michaloliakos said his party would fight against "world usurers" and the "slavery" of an EU-IMF loan agreement he likened to a "dictatorship".

"The time for fear has come," he said.

Independent Greeks, a new right-wing party set up by New Democracy dissident Panos Kammenos, polled around 11 percent to become the fourth-biggest party, followed by the communist KKE on 8.0-9.5 percent.

The Democratic Left, a Europhile new leftist party, notched up 5.5-6.5 percent. In total seven parties were set to enter parliament compared with just five after the last election.

Both Pasok and ND have said they want the "troika" of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank to cut Greece more slack in their two bailout deals worth worth 240 billion euros ($314.0 billion).

But with voters angry at the austerity cuts demanded in response, many of the smaller parties, including possible kingmaker Syriza, want to tear up the agreements.

The communist KKE party want to leave the eurozone and the neo-Nazis say they want to stop servicing Greece's debts, an aim shared by Kammenos who wants to turn to Russia to prop up the country.

"The parties that signed the memorandum (with the EU and the IMF) are now a minority. The public verdict has de-legitimised them," Syriza head Alexis Tsipras said, calling the election a "message of overthrow".

Greece's creditors, not least paymaster-in-chief Germany, the main proponent of austerity before growth, have little appetite to loosen the bailout terms, let alone consider a third rescue.

In ominous comments widely quoted by Greek newspapers on Saturday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that if Greece's new government deviated from its commitments, the country would "bear the consequences."

"Membership of the European Union is voluntary," he said in Cologne.

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Fahd al-Quso Dead: Airstrike Kills Senior Al-Qaida Leader In Yemen

SANAA, Yemen -- An airstrike Sunday killed a top al-Qaida leader on the FBI's most wanted list for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole warship, Yemeni officials said. The airstrike resembled earlier U.S. drone attacks, but the U.S. did not immediately confirm it.

Fahd al-Quso was hit by a missile as he stepped out of his vehicle, along with another al-Qaida operative in the southern Shabwa province, Yemeni military officials said. They were speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with military regulations.

The airstrike came as the U.S. and Yemen cooperate in a battle against al-Qaida in southern Yemen.

Al-Quso, 37, was on the FBI's most wanted list, with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in the 2000 bombing in the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured.

He served more than five years in a Yemeni prison for his role in the attack and was released in 2007. He briefly escaped prison in 2003 but later turned himself in to serve the rest of his sentence.

A telephone text message claiming to be from al-Qaida media arm confirmed al-Quso was killed in the strike.

Al-Quso was also one of the most senior al-Qaida leaders publicly linked to the 2009 Christmas airliner attack. He has allegedly met with the suspected bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in Yemen before he left on his way to execute his failed bombing over Detroit.

In December 2010, al-Quso was designated a global terrorist by the State Department, an indication that his role in al-Qaida's Yemen branch had grown more prominent.

Local Yemeni official Abu Bakr bin Farid and the Yemeni Embassy in Washington confirmed al-Quso was killed in Rafd, a remote mountain valley in Shabwa. It is the area where many of al-Qaida leaders are believed to have taken cover, including the U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, killed in a U.S. airstrike in Yemen last year.

Yemeni government officials reported that Al-Quso and al-Awlaki were killed in an airstrike in 2009 in Rafd, but they both resurfaced alive.

Al-Quso was known for his ability to move in disguise. He was from the same tribe as al-Awlaki, and local tribesmen said he was a close aide. He studied ultraconservative Salafi Islam as a teenager in northern Yemen, then returned home to learn welding.

The White House and the State Department had no immediate comment.

Yemen's government has been waging an offensive on al-Qaida militants, who have taken advantage of the country's political turmoil over the last year to expand their hold in the south.

The new Yemeni president has promised improved cooperation with the U.S. to combat the militants. On Saturday, he said the fight against al-Qaida is in its early stages.

Al-Quso's association with al-Qaida dated back more than a decade, when he met with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Bin Laden allegedly told him to "eliminate the infidels from the Arabian Peninsula."

From there he rose through the ranks. He was assigned in Aden to videotape the 1998 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, but he fell asleep.

Despite the lapse, the local leader, Nasser al-Wahishi, declared him the regional leader in Aden. He was also believed to have played a prominent role in al-Qaida's attack and capture last year of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province.

Government troops are trying to drive al-Qaida out of Zinjibar.

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Blind activist: What did he do to rile Beijing?

?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "progress had been made" on a deal over the future of Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident at the center of an international firestorm. NBC's Ian Williams reports.

By NBC News Beijing

BEIJING ? Although blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has been cast into the international spotlight since his April 22 escape from house arrest and subsequent journey to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, he still remains an unfamiliar name ??even to the majority of Chinese citizens, thanks to the country?s tight control of the press and social media.?

On Friday, the U.S. and China seemed to have forged the outlines of a tentative deal to end the diplomatic standoff that would let Chen travel to the U.S. with his family for a university fellowship. In the meantime, Chen?s fate still hangs in the balance.

So what exactly did he do to anger Chinese authorities so much in the first place? It all began with Chen?s foray into social activism nearly 16 years ago, when he began fighting against the Linyi government.?

---

Challenging authority

Born on Nov. 12, 1971, Chen and grew-up in a small village called Dongshigu, near Linyi City in the eastern Shandong Province, approximately 400 miles from Beijing. He lost his sight after a severe fever when he was only a few months old.?

He enrolled in Qingdao High School for the Blind in 1994 and graduated in 1998. It was during this time that he had his first experience questioning authority. ?

Deal nears on China activist Chen as US offers college fellowship

In 1996 Chen traveled to Beijing to challenge the Linyi government?s illegal taxing of disabled people even though a 1991 law exempted them from taxes. He won the appeal.?

He kept fighting and in 1997 he irritated the local government again by appealing on behalf of his fellow villagers in a Beijing court to stop Linyi from breaking land laws.

Chen pursued these cases all without a formal law degree; he was a self-taught lawyer who had studied acupuncture and massage at the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine from 1998 to 2001. His mother originally wanted him to become a masseur, the most common job for blind men in China, but he insisted on taking law classes on the side.

In September 2003, Chen sued the company that runs the Beijing subway system for making him buy subway tickets, despite the fact that the law said the subway should be free for disabled people. Chen again won the lawsuit.

Chinese crackdown on dissident's family and friends

Fighting abusive enforcement of the one-child policy
But what really brought Chen into the crosshairs of the Chinese government were his efforts to expose harsh illegal measures by local authorities in his hometown, Linyi, ?as they enforced China?s strict population control policy known as the ?one-child policy.??

Chen married Yuan Weijing in 2003 and their first son was born that year; in August 2005, they had a daughter. Some say the fact that they had two children, in defiance of China?s one-child policy, explains why Chen became interested in protesting family planning. ?

In 2005, the Linyi government started a campaign to "strictly enforce" the one-child policy by arresting and beating up women who broke the family planning law, forcing them to have abortions or sterilizations, heavily fining them and even arresting the relatives of those who had escaped to other cities. Chinese national laws prohibit such harsh acts.

Chen and Yuan investigated the cases and filed a class action lawsuit, while also revealing the brutality to the media.?The lawsuit was rejected, but through Chen?s work the brutality of Linyi officials was exposed and drew attention from both domestic and international press.?

(In particular, a Washington Post story in 2005, ?Who Controls the Family???first drew international attention to Chen?s crusade.?And apparently in thanks for that story, one of Chen?s first calls to the international media after leaving the U.S. embassy this week went to the Washington Post). ? ?

China censors 'Shawshank' as Clinton heads to Beijing amid dissident drama

Jail, then oppressive house arrest
After Chen refused negotiations with local officials to cease his activism, Chen was taken away by the police in March 2006. He was then officially arrested in June, and sentenced to four years and three months in prison for "destruction of property and disturbing public order." His trial was a controversial one because his lawyers were detained by Yinan police on the eve of the trial, leaving him defenseless in court.

During his jail sentence, in July 2008, his wife Yuan issued a public letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao, in which she said: "I hope the country?s leader can feel the insult and helplessness I have in my everyday life. I hope the leader will listen to a jailed blind man?s concern about the country?s future."?

Chen was released from prison in 2010, but then he and his wife were subjected to house arrest which included constant 24-hour video surveillance. In February 2011 he smuggled out a video showing his life under house arrest.?

?I was in a small prison, and now I am in a larger prison," Chen says to the camera in the hour-long video, which shows security agents peering over walls into the family?s home. ?

According to another video Chen released after his recent escape from house arrest, he estimated that authorities spent as much as 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) to keep him locked up.

True belief in the rule of law
During his one-and-half year long house detention, hundreds of people, including both Chinese and foreign journalists, lawyers, friends and human rights advocates, attempted to visit Chen but were all driven away, often violently by the thugs watching him day and night.?

In December 2011, Hollywood actor Christian Bale made an effort to see him along with a CNN crew and he was shoved away.?

Chen?s supporters say that ultimately his goal is to see that China lives up to the rule of law that already exists there.?

Blind dissident's case a 'hot potato' for US-China relations

"Chen Guangcheng is someone who really believes in rule of law, and he wants to put what?s written in the law into practice," said Zeng Jinyan, a long-time friend of Chen family and also a human rights activist. "While so many people who can see are still talking about securing personal safety, Chen, a blind man, is already in action."?

"People who know Chen say he is a Gandhi-esque figure and has a deep optimism that China will inevitably become a country ruled by law,? professor Susan L. Shirk, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of California in San Diego, told NBC News. ?He is not a dissident, agitating for a change in government ? he just wants China to enforce its own laws." ?

Many people attribute Chen?s ordeal to local government enforcement, arguing what they do is out of the ordinary, while many other believe it?s an order from the very top.?

"Evidently, local officials in Linyi concluded that Chen would somehow threaten local stability if he were free to move about and speak up. Beijing did not intervene even when it realized that the actions of the Linyi officials were creating a national and international embarrassment,? Kenneth Lieberthal, a China expert based in Beijing, told NBC News. ?The enormous reluctance by Beijing to intervene in these types of local decisions is the rule, not the exception."?

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Scientists aim to kill lung tumors

Public release date: 4-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr. Rajkumar Savai
rajkumar.savai@innere.med.uni-giessen.de
49-603-270-5313
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Enzyme regulates the division of tumor cells and blood vessel growth in the cancer tissue

This release is available in German.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death throughout the world. Standard treatment methods do not usually result in long-term recovery. In addition to the proliferation of the tumour cells, the growth of blood vessels controls tumors development. The blood vessel growth is controlled by several signalling molecules. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim and Justus Liebig University Giessen have discovered a molecule that plays a key role in this process. They succeeded in reducing tumour growth in their experiments by blocking the phosphodiesterase PDE4.

Lung cancer mainly affects smokers; however the disease can also be caused by contact with carcinogenic substances like asbestos. Chemotherapy or radiotherapy often prove insufficient in treating the disease. Hence, scientists are engaged in an intensive search for ways of halting the growth of lung tumours. The blood vessels that supply the tumour with nutrients offer a potential point of attack.

New blood vessels form to ensure an adequate supply of nutrients to the growing tumour. The growing tissue is immediately penetrated by blood vessels. The growth of the blood vessels is regulated by the tumour cells using a complex signal cascade, which is triggered initially by a low oxygen content (hypoxia) in the tumour tissue. "This state, which is known as hypoxia prompts the activation of around 100 genes in the tumour cells," explains Rajkumar Savai, research group leader at the Max Planck institute. "In addition to the growth of blood vessels, hypoxia also stimulates the proliferation of lung cancer cells." Three molecules play a particularly important role in this process. The activation of the genes at the beginning of the cascade is triggered by the transcription factor HIF and a messenger molecule, cAMP, is involved again at the end of the cascade. The researchers examined the third molecule that acts as a link between these two molecules in detail.

The molecule in question is a phosphodiesterase, PDE4. The scientists from Bad Nauheim and Giessen were able to demonstrate in their study that various sections of PDE4 have binding sites for HIF.

The researchers then tested the influence of a PDE4 blockade on the cells from ten different cell lines, which are characteristic of around 80 percent of lung cancers, in the laboratory. The rate of cell division in the cells treated with a PDE4 inhibitor was significantly lower and the HIF level also declined as a result.

The effect in the tumour bearing mice was particularly obvious. To observe this, the Max Planck researchers implanted a human tumour cell line under the skin of nude mice and treated the animals with the phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor.

Tumour growth in these animals declined by around 50 percent. "Our microscopic analysis revealed that the blood vessel growth in the tumours of the mice that had been treated with the inhibitor was significantly reduced. We also observed indicators of decelerated cell division in the tumour cells. Overall, the tumour growth was strongly curbed."

Werner Seeger, Director of the MPI and Medical Director of the JLU University Hospital Giessen, reports: "We were able to show that PDE4 plays an important regulation function in cell division in lung tumours and in the development of blood vessels in cancer. Therefore, we hope that we have found a starting point for the development of a treatment here." In the view of tumour specialist Friedrich Grimminger, Chairman of the Department of Medical Oncology in Giessen, it may be possible in future to combine the inhibition of PDE4 with traditional radiotherapy or chemotherapy. In this way, the effect of the traditional treatment measures could be reinforced and patient prognoses may improve as a result. However, further laboratory studies are required before clinical tests can be carried out.

###

Original publication: S. Pullamsetti, G. Banat, A. Schmall, M. Szibor, D. Pomagruk, J. Hnze, E. Kolosionek, J. Wilhelm, T. Braun, F. Grimminger, W. Seeger, R. Schermuly, R. Savai: Phosphodiesterase-4 promotes proliferation and angiogenesis of lung cancer by crosstalk with HIF. Oncogene (2012). doi:10.1038/onc.2012.136

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 4-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr. Rajkumar Savai
rajkumar.savai@innere.med.uni-giessen.de
49-603-270-5313
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Enzyme regulates the division of tumor cells and blood vessel growth in the cancer tissue

This release is available in German.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death throughout the world. Standard treatment methods do not usually result in long-term recovery. In addition to the proliferation of the tumour cells, the growth of blood vessels controls tumors development. The blood vessel growth is controlled by several signalling molecules. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim and Justus Liebig University Giessen have discovered a molecule that plays a key role in this process. They succeeded in reducing tumour growth in their experiments by blocking the phosphodiesterase PDE4.

Lung cancer mainly affects smokers; however the disease can also be caused by contact with carcinogenic substances like asbestos. Chemotherapy or radiotherapy often prove insufficient in treating the disease. Hence, scientists are engaged in an intensive search for ways of halting the growth of lung tumours. The blood vessels that supply the tumour with nutrients offer a potential point of attack.

New blood vessels form to ensure an adequate supply of nutrients to the growing tumour. The growing tissue is immediately penetrated by blood vessels. The growth of the blood vessels is regulated by the tumour cells using a complex signal cascade, which is triggered initially by a low oxygen content (hypoxia) in the tumour tissue. "This state, which is known as hypoxia prompts the activation of around 100 genes in the tumour cells," explains Rajkumar Savai, research group leader at the Max Planck institute. "In addition to the growth of blood vessels, hypoxia also stimulates the proliferation of lung cancer cells." Three molecules play a particularly important role in this process. The activation of the genes at the beginning of the cascade is triggered by the transcription factor HIF and a messenger molecule, cAMP, is involved again at the end of the cascade. The researchers examined the third molecule that acts as a link between these two molecules in detail.

The molecule in question is a phosphodiesterase, PDE4. The scientists from Bad Nauheim and Giessen were able to demonstrate in their study that various sections of PDE4 have binding sites for HIF.

The researchers then tested the influence of a PDE4 blockade on the cells from ten different cell lines, which are characteristic of around 80 percent of lung cancers, in the laboratory. The rate of cell division in the cells treated with a PDE4 inhibitor was significantly lower and the HIF level also declined as a result.

The effect in the tumour bearing mice was particularly obvious. To observe this, the Max Planck researchers implanted a human tumour cell line under the skin of nude mice and treated the animals with the phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor.

Tumour growth in these animals declined by around 50 percent. "Our microscopic analysis revealed that the blood vessel growth in the tumours of the mice that had been treated with the inhibitor was significantly reduced. We also observed indicators of decelerated cell division in the tumour cells. Overall, the tumour growth was strongly curbed."

Werner Seeger, Director of the MPI and Medical Director of the JLU University Hospital Giessen, reports: "We were able to show that PDE4 plays an important regulation function in cell division in lung tumours and in the development of blood vessels in cancer. Therefore, we hope that we have found a starting point for the development of a treatment here." In the view of tumour specialist Friedrich Grimminger, Chairman of the Department of Medical Oncology in Giessen, it may be possible in future to combine the inhibition of PDE4 with traditional radiotherapy or chemotherapy. In this way, the effect of the traditional treatment measures could be reinforced and patient prognoses may improve as a result. However, further laboratory studies are required before clinical tests can be carried out.

###

Original publication: S. Pullamsetti, G. Banat, A. Schmall, M. Szibor, D. Pomagruk, J. Hnze, E. Kolosionek, J. Wilhelm, T. Braun, F. Grimminger, W. Seeger, R. Schermuly, R. Savai: Phosphodiesterase-4 promotes proliferation and angiogenesis of lung cancer by crosstalk with HIF. Oncogene (2012). doi:10.1038/onc.2012.136

---

[ | 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.

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Happy birthday, Adele! Singing sensation is 24

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters file

Adele holds her six Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 12.

By Rachel Brethauer, E! Online

"Rumor Has It" someone's turning 24 today. Yes, the record-breaking, multi-platinum queen of breakup songs is having a birthday!

The supertalented singer and songwriter kicked off her career with a bang, receiving two Grammy awards in 2009 for her first album, 19.

It hasn't all been awards and accolades, though -- her blockbuster second album, 21, was all about heartbreak, and in 2011, Adele had to cancel a number of tour dates in order to undergo microsurgery on her vocal cords.

But she was back with a bang at the 2012 Grammys, giving an amazing performance and walking away with a record-tying six awards. And the megahits just keep on coming -- Ms. Adkins recently snagged 18 Billboard Award nominations!

PHOTOS: Fashion Spotlight: Adele

We can't wait to see what she does next. Perhaps a happy birthday this year will lead to a happy album next year? No matter what this songbird does, we're sure it'll be music to our ears.

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PFT: Hargove is key player in bounty case

Getty Images

With Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma and Saints defensive end Will Smith claiming that they had no involvement in any type of bounty program, former Saints defensive end Anthony Hargrove becomes a key figure in the looming appeal process.

Originally interviewed by NFL Security when the league first investigated the claims of a bounty against Brett Favre in 2010, Hargrove denied the allegations.? In early March, Hargrove reiterated, in somewhat vague terms, his position that he had no involvement in a bounty system.

?I have made many mistakes in my life and have paid dearly for some of them, and the late hit and the comments were both mistakes, in my opinion,? Hargrove said, in reference to hitting Favre low and exclaiming ?Favre is out of the game!? Favre is done!? Favre is done!? thereafter.? ?But players all over the league do the same thing every Sunday, make late hits and say stupid things.? But I can say with absolute certainty that neither the late hit nor the comment have anything whatsoever to do with the issue being so hotly discussed in the media.?

On Wednesday, the NFL?s announcement of the various player suspensions mentioned that Hargrove has signed a ?declaration? (it?s like an affidavit, but it?s not signed in the presence of a notary) in which he ?established not only the existence of the program with the Saints, but also that he knew about and participated in it,? and that he ?told at least one player on another team that Vikings quarterback Brett Favre was a target of a large bounty.?

On Thursday, lawyer Mary Jo White described generally the contents of Hargrove?s declaration.? ?In it, he acknowledges the nature of the program and his participation in it,? White said.? ?And, which was really the thrust of the declaration, that he was told to lie about it and he did when he was asked about it in 2010 by the NFL investigators.?

White said Hargrove identified the person who told him to lie, but White declined to reveal the information.

And that highlights the primary disconnect with this process.? The NFL wants the media and, in turn, the public to have confidence in the investigation, but the NFL wants the media and, in turn, the public to simply take the NFL at its word.? At some point, there must be full disclosure of all relevant facts, if the NFL wants the media and, in turn, the public to approve the process.

This includes disclosing the full Hargrove declaration, along with all other evidence that proves the players who have been suspended did what they are accused of doing.? Given that the players who have been suspended are challenging their punishments and, at least as to Vilma and Smith, professing their innocence, far more is needed than mere summaries or conclusions.

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Limitless: The Brain-Doping Movie We All Know Was Inspired by Adderall [Video]

More »

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Please Let This Bluetooth Gamepad for Smartphones Be Real [Gaming]

The iPhone might be nibbling away at Nintendo's market share, but there are still plenty of games that are damn near unplayable with a touchscreen. Physical buttons are the way to go, and if Levelup's Bluetooth ROAM controller is legit, they won't be able to take our money fast enough. More »

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Bar bouncers using Facebook to verify IDs?

17 hrs.

Helen A.S. Popkin

Here in the United States, legislators push bills to prevent employers from demanding their employees' Facebook passwords, while others OK a controversial cybersecurity bill that would allow feds access to your profile without judicial oversight. Indeed, having a?Facebook profile is getting all kinds of complicated here in the U.S., where at least one district court recently ruled the Facebook "Like" doesn't count as free speech.?

It could be worse, however. You could live in the United Kingdom, where your Facebook profile might?get in the way of your drinking, the BBC reports.? Rogue bouncers in the UK?are demanding nightclub patrons hand over their smartphones at the door so their Facebook profiles can be compared with possibly?fake IDs:?

It happened to Charlotte Neal, 20, who said there had been a few times where bouncers had asked to see her phone.?Charlotte said bouncers had checked that her Facebook name matched her driving license.

"I kind of just logged onto it [Facebook] and showed him the screen and then he didn't question it any further," explained Charlotte.?

"When it happened the first time I didn't really think anything of it.?"Then I thought, 'Hang on, is this really how you're supposed to check how old I am?' But I was out and I wanted to get in the club so I just agreed."

Given the?notoriously?spotty AT&T coverage here in New York City, club patrons could spend half the night in line as iPhone after iPhone attempts to load Facebook. *shudder* That's bad for drinking?and bad for?the economy.?

So it was with a sigh of relief that I learned via?Michael Evans, CEO of the NYC-based?USPA Nationwide Security, that no,?Facebook is not how bouncers are supposed to check how old Charlotte, or any other club patron is, at least here in the U.S. He doubts it's standard practice in the UK either.?

"There's not anything on a Facebook page that would help us verify someone's identity," Evans said. He should know -- his firm specializes in all manner of security, from bodyguards to bouncers. Club security under USPA's employ use TeleCheck, a scanning service which confirms an ID's validity by scanning the bar code, Evans said. It's far more reliable than Facebook.?

"Anyone can make a Facebook page using anyone's photo and match it to an ID. And that's not going to hold up on court," he said.

Depending on the state, bars ? and even bartenders who serve the underage patrons ? face hefty fines and/or criminal charges. The UK, where the drinking age is 18, has similar fines, so it's just not good business sense.?"I have a feeling it's not any business that's using Facebook," Evans hypothesized. "It's probably security guards on their own trying to be innovative."?

True enough, the BBC says it was contacted by several nightclub doormen defending the Facebook confirmation practice. "I believe the fine for letting in an underage person is ?5,000," one nightclub doorman told the BBC.?"Why is it so wrong for people to have to prove the ID is actually them? If you're not doing anything wrong you shouldn't have a problem."

Hmmm ? that "If you're not doing anything wrong you shouldn't have a problem" argument sure comes up a lot when people are talking about Facebook and (lack of) privacy. Here it fails for the very obvious reason that people lie on the Internet, and that includes on?Facebook.?

Studies show plenty of?parents let their kids lie about their age to join Facebook, which requires members to be 13 or older. If Facebook ID verification were to become standard practice, a lied-about?age on a profile could actually backfire, and make a real ID look fake. All it takes is one bouncer demanding a driver's license/Facebook comparison and bam! That's you,?not getting into the club.?

For the good of the U.S., lets hope?this trend never hops the pond.?

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about online privacy, then asks you to join her on?Twitter?and/or?Facebook. Also,?Google+.?Because that's how she rolls.

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Decades of data show spring advancing faster than experiments suggest

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Plants are leafing out and flowering sooner each year than predicted by results from controlled environmental warming experiments, according to data from a major new archive of historical observations assembled with the help of a NASA researcher.

Researchers use experiments that manipulate the temperature of the environment surrounding small plots of plants to gauge how specific plants will react to higher temperatures. The observed plant responses can then be incorporated into models that predict future ecosystem changes as temperatures around the globe continue to rise. But when a group of scientists compared these results to a massive new archive of historical observations, they found that the warming experiments are dramatically underestimating how plants respond to climate change.

The results were published online in the journal Nature on May 2. In addition to quantifying how a broad collection of plant species have responded to date to rising temperatures, the study suggests that the way warming experiments are conducted needs to be re-evaluated.

"This suggests that predicted ecosystem changes -- including continuing advances in the start of spring across much of the globe -- may be far greater than current estimates based on data from warming experiments," said Elizabeth Wolkovich, who led the interdisciplinary team of scientists behind the new research while she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego. "The long-term records show that phenology is changing much faster than estimated based on the results of the warming experiments. This suggests we need to reassess how we design and use results from these experiments."

Benjamin Cook, of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University, New York, worked with Wolkovich to create the massive new archive of long-term, natural phenology observations to gauge the accuracy of the phenological predictions based on these plant warming experiments. The archive includes data from 1,558 species of wild plants on four continents. The historical records showed that leafing and flowering will advance, on average, five to six days per degree Celsius -- a finding that was consistent across species and datasets. These data show that estimates based on data from warming experiments are underpredicting advances in flowering by eight and a half times and advances in leafing by four times. The authors expect the data archive to be an important benchmark in future phenology studies.

"These results are important because we rely heavily on warming experiments to predict what will happen to ecosystems in the future," said Cook, who helped bring together a research team including support from the National Center on Ecological Analysis and Synthesis to build the archive of real-world observations. "With these long-term observational records you may be able to pick up a shift in a plant community over a few years that you wouldn't be able to observe in an experiment."

The study of phenology, the timing of annual plant events such as the first flowering and leafing out of spring, provides one of the most consistent and visible responses to climate change. Long-term historical records, some stretching back decades and even centuries, show many species are now flowering and leafing out earlier, in step with rising temperatures. Because these records aren't available everywhere and predicted future warming is often outside the range of historical records, ecologists often use controlled experiments that create warmer conditions in small plots to estimate how different species will respond to expected temperature increases.

The timing of plants' flowering and leafing out in spring is not only a basic, natural indicator of the state of the climate. Predicting plant responses to climate change has important consequences for human water supply, pollination of crops and overall ecosystem health.

Wolkovich, Cook and colleagues suggest a number of potential reasons the estimates based on experimental data have underpredicted the plant response to higher temperatures. There could be additional effects of climate change not mirrored in the controlled experiments, or from the fact that the methods used to create warmth in the studies could be creating counteracting effects such as drying out soils or reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the plants.

"Continuing efforts to improve the design of warming experiments while maintaining and extending long-term historical monitoring will be critical to pinpointing the reasons for the differences, and will yield a more accurate picture of future plant communities and ecosystems with continuing climate change," Wolkovich said.

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NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Thanks to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for this article.

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Gamma ray optics: a viable tool for a new branch of scientific discovery

ScienceDaily (May 4, 2012) ? There has been a surprise discovery of ?significant? refraction of gamma rays which opens the door to nuclear photonics and the use of high energetic light beams to investigate the atomic nucleus.?? Isotope specific gamma ray microscopes could remotely search for harmful nuclear materials or provide less destructive and more selective medical imaging.

Scientists at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) have demonstrated for the first time that gamma rays, a highly energetic form of light produced by radioactive decay of atomic nuclei and amongst other used to kill cancer cells can be bent. In a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, the team used a version of the common classroom experiment with glass prisms, similar to the one employed by Newton in 1665, to find bending or 'refraction' at the highest energies ever recorded.

Their discovery overturns decades of theoretical predictions and opens the door to a new field of science called nuclear photonics. By bending and focusing the rays into concentrated beams, gamma ray microscopes could remotely scan for dangerous nuclear material in ships or trucks, monitor nuclear waste or provide selective, less destructive medical imaging for cancer diagnostics and treatment.

The refraction of light occurs when it passes from one medium to another causing it to change speed. The manipulation of light rays, used by Galileo in 1609 to build his famous telescopes, is also possible for other forms of radiation as long as you can refract them sufficiently. However, as you move up the energy radiation spectrum to x-rays, the amount of refraction decreases. As a result it wasn't until the end of the 20th century when researchers combined hundreds of optical lenses that they were able to build the focusing instruments for x-rays that are used today in facilities such as the Diamond Light Source and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility to probe materials on the nano-scale.

Whilst x-ray science has proved a major source of scientific insight and discovery, the chances of finding sufficient refraction in gamma rays were thought too small to pursue with significant research. However this assumption was purely theoretical. So scientists from the ILL and the Ludwigs-Maximilians University of Munich decided to test it.

As well as being the flagship centre for neutron science with one of the world's most brilliant neutron beams, ILL also houses one of the most intense gamma ray sources in Europe [1] and a suite of highly sensitive instruments to measure refraction very precisely. The gamma rays produced using ILL's PN-3 facility [2] were analysed through two silicon crystals, the first pre-selecting them as they came out of the reactor and directing them into a very narrow and parallel beam. Further along the instrument, a silicon prism is placed at height where it refracts half of the gamma ray beam. The refraction of this half beam is then detected by a second silicon crystal and compared with the other half of unrefracted gamma rays.

What they found was as the energy of the gamma rays increases the falling refraction values which had decreased into small minus numbers, suddenly flipped sign and started to increase towards larger positive refraction values similar to that of visible light. These were much higher values than anyone expected. The researchers now believe that by replacing the silicon prisms with higher refracting materials like gold, they can bring refraction up to a level where it can realistically be manipulated for optical techniques. These potential applications are based on gamma rays' ability to easily penetrate material, even thick layers of lead, and the fact they can distinguish between isotopes of the same element.

Dr Michael Jentschel, research scientist at ILL: "20 years ago many people doubted you could do optics with x-rays -- no one even considered that it might be possible for gamma-rays too. This is a remarkable and completely unexpected discovery with significant scientific implications and practical applications. These include isotope specific microscopy with benefits across the scientific disciplines, through to direct medical treatment and even tools to address major national security issues."

Potential applications include:

? More selective and less destructive medical imaging techniques achieved by enriching a particular isotope in a cancer and monitoring where it goes

? Improved production and trialling of new, more targeted radioisotopes for cancer treatment

? Remote characterisation of nuclear materials or radioactive waste -- gamma rays' high penetration would allow you to scan for nuclear material in ships or trucks, or analyse and monitor nuclear waste in secure containers without ever having to open them up

With this valuable property now demonstrated in gamma rays, the focus falls on the development of suitable gamma rays sources to develop this technique into working tools. Presently there exists a lack of dedicated sources for gamma rays comparable to the x-ray synchrotrons at ESRF or Diamond.

However, in recent years the announcement that the Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility in Magurele, Romania, outside of Bucharest will contain a new higher photon energy gamma source has re-triggered interest. Dr Jentschel and his colleagues believe that their discovery of the possibility of optical manipulation of gamma ray beams could improve the sensitivity of experiments at ELI by 3-6 orders of magnitude.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), via AlphaGalileo.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. D. Habs, M. G?nther, M. Jentschel, W. Urban. Refractive Index of Silicon at ? Ray Energies. Physical Review Letters, 2012; 108 (18) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.184802

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.

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