Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/phsmall.asp?phid=45072
ncaa brackets 2012 odd lamar d antoni fashion star andrew bird lizzie borden
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
New Pentax camera is rugged - and a bit odd-looking
2 hrs.
If you're looking for a rugged point-and-shoot to take with you on vacation, you could do worse than the latest from Pentax ? if you can get past the rather loud design of the things.
The new WG-3 ticks the usual ruggedness boxes: Waterproof to 45 feet, handles a drop from 6 feet?and can withstand being sat on by a full-sized human being. What the WG-3 adds is a much brighter lens and a secondary display for statistics about the environment.
That new lens is a 4x zoom compared with the WG-2's 5x, but its maximum aperture of F/2 is far better than its predecessor's or any of the other rugged cameras we've shared word about?this week. Combine that with a back-illuminated 16-megapixel sensor that can go up to 6400 ISO, and you've got quite an all-purpose picture-taking machine.
The WG-3's new ambient readings display can show cardinal directions, elevation or depth ? handy when you're going from a mountain?peak to coral reef?in the tropics. Puzzlingly, the display is on the front of the camera, probably because your elevation isn't usually critical to the composition of the shot.
There are two downsides to the WG-3. One is what you see ? the WG series has never been low-key, but the level of flair on this model borders on ridiculous. Be careful in the jungle or a tropical bird or beetle might just try to befriend it. Fortunately, it comes in sober black as well.
The other trouble is that it's a bit on the high end price-wise at $300, or $350 with built-in GPS. Not everyone is willing to pay that kind of premium for a point-and-shoot, although from the specs it appears this Pentax is worth the money. (There's also a cheaper WG-10 that will be available in April, but it makes a few too many compromises for our taste.) The cameras ship in March, so you've got plenty of time to decide.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC?News Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/new-pentax-camera-can-take-hit-if-you-can-take-1B8168195
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Murdoch apologies for "offensive" Netanyahu cartoon
LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch apologised on Monday for a "grotesque" cartoon in his London-based Sunday Times newspaper depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a bloody wall trapping the bodies of Palestinians, after complaints from Jewish groups.
The image, which shows Netanyahu holding a trowel dripping blood, was published on Holocaust Memorial Day and carried the caption "Israeli elections. Will cementing peace continue?"
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the cartoon was "shockingly reminiscent of the blood libel imagery more usually found in parts of the virulently anti-Semitic Arab press".
The so-called "blood libel" - accusations that Jewish peoples murder children and use their blood in rituals - go back centuries and have led to persecution and attacks.
The wall image by the weekly paper's cartoonist Gerald Scarfe was a reference to the barrier that Israel has been building for a decade on West Bank territory.
The project was launched at the height of a Palestinian uprising and was billed as a way to stop suicide bombers from penetrating the country.
The Sunday Times's acting editor was due to meet Jewish community leaders in Britain on Tuesday to express his regrets over the cartoon, said a spokesman for Murdoch's News International, the paper's publisher.
Murdoch said Scarfe had never reflected the opinions of the Sunday Times. "Nevertheless, we owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon," he said in a Twitter message.
The Board of Deputies, representing Jewish communities in Britain, said it had lodged a complaint over the image with the Press Complaints Commission, an industry-run watchdog.
"Its use is all the more disgusting on Holocaust Memorial Day, given the similar tropes levelled against Jews by the Nazis," the board added.
The paper denied the cartoon was anti-Semitic, saying it was aimed at Netanyahu and not the Israeli people. It said the timing of its publication was linked to the victory of Netanyahu's party in last week's Israeli elections.
"The last thing I or anyone connected with the Sunday Times would countenance would be insulting the memory of the Shoah (the Holocaust) or invoking the blood libel," said Martin Ivens, who was appointed as the paper's acting editor earlier this month.
"We are however reminded of the sensitivities in this area by the reaction to the cartoon and I will of course bear them very carefully in mind in future," he added.
Ivens was expected to tell Jewish leaders that the cartoon was a case of "bad taste and extremely bad timing", the News International spokesman said.
Scarfe told Britain's Jewish Chronicle he had been unaware it was Holocaust Memorial Day on Sunday and regretted the timing of the cartoon's publication.
(Editing by Jon Hemming)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/murdoch-apologies-offensive-netanyahu-cartoon-075747154--finance.html
day 26 new hunger games trailer sasquatch david choe national wear red day gunner kiel gunner kiel
Mistrust of government often deters older adults from HIV testing
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Enrique Rivero
erivero@mednet.ucla.edu
310-794-2273
University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
One out of every four people living with HIV/AIDS is 50 or older, yet these older individuals are far more likely to be diagnosed when they are already in the later stages of infection. Such late diagnoses put their health, and the health of others, at greater risk than would have been the case with earlier detection.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 43 percent of HIV-positive people between the ages of 50 and 55, and 51 percent of those 65 or older, develop full-blown AIDS within a year of their diagnosis, and these older adults account for 35 percent of all AIDS-related deaths. And since many of them are not aware that they have HIV, they could be unknowingly infecting others.
Various psychological barriers may be keeping this older at-risk population from getting tested. Among them are a general mistrust of the government for example, the belief that the government is run by a few big interests looking out for themselves and AIDS-related conspiracy theories, including, for example, the belief that the virus is man-made and was created to kill certain groups of people.
Now, a team of UCLA-led researchers has demonstrated that government mistrust and conspiracy fears are deeply ingrained in this vulnerable group and that these concerns often but in one surprising twist, not always deter these individuals from getting tested for HIV. The findings are published in the peer-reviewed journal The Gerontologist.
"Our work suggests that general mistrust of the government may adversely impact peoples' willingness to get tested for HIV/AIDS," said Chandra Ford, an assistant professor of community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the study's primary investigator. "HIV/AIDS is increasing among people 50 and older, but there's not a lot of attention being paid to the HIV-prevention needs of these folks. Older adults are more likely to be diagnosed only after they've been sick, and as a result, they have worse prognoses than younger HIV-positive people do.
"Also, the CDC recommends that anyone who's in a high-risk category should be tested every single year," she said. "These findings mean that the CDC recommendations are not being followed."
The researchers sought to test the association between mistrust of the government, belief in AIDS conspiracy theories and having been tested for HIV in the previous year. For the cross-sectional study, they worked with data from 226 participants ranging in age from 50 to 85. Participants were recruited from three types of public health venues that serve at-risk populations: STD clinics, needle-exchange sites and Latino health clinics.
Of the participants, 46.5 percent were Hispanic, 25.2 percent were non-Hispanic blacks, 18.1 percent were non-Hispanic whites and 10.2 percent were of other races or ethnicities. The data were collected between August 2006 and May 2007.
The researchers found that 72 percent of the participants did not trust the government, 30 percent reported a belief in AIDS conspiracy theories and 45 percent had not taken an HIV test in the prior 12 months. The more strongly participants mistrusted the government, the less likely they were to have been tested for HIV in the prior 12 months.
Several of the findings surprised the researchers for example, the fact that HIV testing rates among this population were not higher at the locations where the participants were recruited, given that these locations attract large numbers of people with HIV.
"This finding is concerning because the venues all provide HIV testing and care right there," Ford said.
And there was an even bigger, perhaps counterintuitive surprise. The more strongly participants believed in AIDS conspiracy theories, the more likely they were to have been tested in the previous 12 months.
"We believe they might be proactively testing because they believe it can help them avoid the threats to personal safety that are described in many AIDS conspiracies," Ford said. "For instance, if I hold these conspiracy beliefs and a doctor tells me I tested negative, I might get tested again just to confirm that the result really is negative."
By contrast, individuals who reported mistrusting the government may not have been tested because the venues where they were recruited were, in fact, government entities, Ford said.
The study has some weaknesses. For instance, the study design did not allow the researchers to determine whether the participants held their beliefs before or after being tested; thus, the researchers couldn't tell what prompted their mistrust of the government or conspiracy beliefs. Also, it's possible that the prevalence of these theories is higher in this group than it is in the general public and that some participants may have been afraid to tell the truth.
The next step in the research is to study other groups of older adults to determine if these views are more widely held than just among the at-risk population the researchers studied.
###
Steven P. Wallace, Sung-Jae Lee and William Cunningham, all of UCLA, and Peter A. Newman of the University of Toronto co-authored the study.
The National Institute of Mental Health (5 RO1 MH069087, 5K01MH085503, R34MH089719); the UCLA Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research Center for Health Improvement of Minority Elderly (RCMAR/CHIME), under a grant from the National Institute on Aging (P30-AG02-1684); the UCLA AIDS Institute; the UCLA Center for AIDS Research (CFAR); the California Center for Population Research (5R24HD041022); and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA030781) funded this study.
The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health is dedicated to enhancing the public's health by conducting innovative research; training future leaders and health professionals; translating research into policy and practice; and serving local, national and international communities.
The Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research Center for Health Improvement of the Elderly (RCMAR/CHIME) is part of the effort to reduce health disparities between minority and non-minority older adults. It does so by increasing the number of researchers who focus on the health of minority elders; enhancing the diversity in the professional workforce by mentoring minority academic researchers for careers in minority elders health research; improving recruitment and retention methods used to enlist minority elders in studies so that research can accurately identify and work toward solutions to health disparities; and creating culturally sensitive health measures that assess the health status of minority elders with greater precision and increase the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve their health and well-being. A central coordinating center provides logistical support to the RCMAR centers, facilitates communication and collaboration, and oversees dissemination activities designed to reach the larger research and health professional communities, public policymakers and consumers. The coordinating center is also the national clearinghouse for measurement tools, instruments, publications, community activity, pilot research and other resources developed by RCMAR investigators.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
[ | 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: 29-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Enrique Rivero
erivero@mednet.ucla.edu
310-794-2273
University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
One out of every four people living with HIV/AIDS is 50 or older, yet these older individuals are far more likely to be diagnosed when they are already in the later stages of infection. Such late diagnoses put their health, and the health of others, at greater risk than would have been the case with earlier detection.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 43 percent of HIV-positive people between the ages of 50 and 55, and 51 percent of those 65 or older, develop full-blown AIDS within a year of their diagnosis, and these older adults account for 35 percent of all AIDS-related deaths. And since many of them are not aware that they have HIV, they could be unknowingly infecting others.
Various psychological barriers may be keeping this older at-risk population from getting tested. Among them are a general mistrust of the government for example, the belief that the government is run by a few big interests looking out for themselves and AIDS-related conspiracy theories, including, for example, the belief that the virus is man-made and was created to kill certain groups of people.
Now, a team of UCLA-led researchers has demonstrated that government mistrust and conspiracy fears are deeply ingrained in this vulnerable group and that these concerns often but in one surprising twist, not always deter these individuals from getting tested for HIV. The findings are published in the peer-reviewed journal The Gerontologist.
"Our work suggests that general mistrust of the government may adversely impact peoples' willingness to get tested for HIV/AIDS," said Chandra Ford, an assistant professor of community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the study's primary investigator. "HIV/AIDS is increasing among people 50 and older, but there's not a lot of attention being paid to the HIV-prevention needs of these folks. Older adults are more likely to be diagnosed only after they've been sick, and as a result, they have worse prognoses than younger HIV-positive people do.
"Also, the CDC recommends that anyone who's in a high-risk category should be tested every single year," she said. "These findings mean that the CDC recommendations are not being followed."
The researchers sought to test the association between mistrust of the government, belief in AIDS conspiracy theories and having been tested for HIV in the previous year. For the cross-sectional study, they worked with data from 226 participants ranging in age from 50 to 85. Participants were recruited from three types of public health venues that serve at-risk populations: STD clinics, needle-exchange sites and Latino health clinics.
Of the participants, 46.5 percent were Hispanic, 25.2 percent were non-Hispanic blacks, 18.1 percent were non-Hispanic whites and 10.2 percent were of other races or ethnicities. The data were collected between August 2006 and May 2007.
The researchers found that 72 percent of the participants did not trust the government, 30 percent reported a belief in AIDS conspiracy theories and 45 percent had not taken an HIV test in the prior 12 months. The more strongly participants mistrusted the government, the less likely they were to have been tested for HIV in the prior 12 months.
Several of the findings surprised the researchers for example, the fact that HIV testing rates among this population were not higher at the locations where the participants were recruited, given that these locations attract large numbers of people with HIV.
"This finding is concerning because the venues all provide HIV testing and care right there," Ford said.
And there was an even bigger, perhaps counterintuitive surprise. The more strongly participants believed in AIDS conspiracy theories, the more likely they were to have been tested in the previous 12 months.
"We believe they might be proactively testing because they believe it can help them avoid the threats to personal safety that are described in many AIDS conspiracies," Ford said. "For instance, if I hold these conspiracy beliefs and a doctor tells me I tested negative, I might get tested again just to confirm that the result really is negative."
By contrast, individuals who reported mistrusting the government may not have been tested because the venues where they were recruited were, in fact, government entities, Ford said.
The study has some weaknesses. For instance, the study design did not allow the researchers to determine whether the participants held their beliefs before or after being tested; thus, the researchers couldn't tell what prompted their mistrust of the government or conspiracy beliefs. Also, it's possible that the prevalence of these theories is higher in this group than it is in the general public and that some participants may have been afraid to tell the truth.
The next step in the research is to study other groups of older adults to determine if these views are more widely held than just among the at-risk population the researchers studied.
###
Steven P. Wallace, Sung-Jae Lee and William Cunningham, all of UCLA, and Peter A. Newman of the University of Toronto co-authored the study.
The National Institute of Mental Health (5 RO1 MH069087, 5K01MH085503, R34MH089719); the UCLA Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research Center for Health Improvement of Minority Elderly (RCMAR/CHIME), under a grant from the National Institute on Aging (P30-AG02-1684); the UCLA AIDS Institute; the UCLA Center for AIDS Research (CFAR); the California Center for Population Research (5R24HD041022); and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01 DA030781) funded this study.
The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health is dedicated to enhancing the public's health by conducting innovative research; training future leaders and health professionals; translating research into policy and practice; and serving local, national and international communities.
The Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research Center for Health Improvement of the Elderly (RCMAR/CHIME) is part of the effort to reduce health disparities between minority and non-minority older adults. It does so by increasing the number of researchers who focus on the health of minority elders; enhancing the diversity in the professional workforce by mentoring minority academic researchers for careers in minority elders health research; improving recruitment and retention methods used to enlist minority elders in studies so that research can accurately identify and work toward solutions to health disparities; and creating culturally sensitive health measures that assess the health status of minority elders with greater precision and increase the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve their health and well-being. A central coordinating center provides logistical support to the RCMAR centers, facilitates communication and collaboration, and oversees dissemination activities designed to reach the larger research and health professional communities, public policymakers and consumers. The coordinating center is also the national clearinghouse for measurement tools, instruments, publications, community activity, pilot research and other resources developed by RCMAR investigators.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/uoc--mog012913.php
aretha franklin stevie wonder new orleans weather new orleans weather sparkle sacagawea new hope baptist church
Video: Truck overturns, narrowly missing motorcyclist
In what appears to be a terrifying brush with death, a motorcyclist stopped at an intersection in eastern China narrowly missed being flattened by a truck that overturned.
According to RT.com, the accident?caught on video by surveillance cameras?occurred on Jan. 22 in Xushi Village in the city of Linhai, Zhejiang province.
The heart-stopping footage shows the truck begin to tip while making a sharp left turn. The rider, who was stopped in the crosswalk, walks back his motorcycle and dismounts just before the truck slams into the ground, hitting the bike and barely missing him. (Amazingly, the motorcyclist appears to be annoyed that the truck hit his bike rather than concerned for the truck's driver, at least initially.)
The driver later said he was driving approximately 10 kph, and there was nothing he could do to stop the truck from overturning.
No injuries were reported.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/truck-overturn-motorcycle-video-162740900.html
peyton manning 49ers andy pettitte tyler clementi kevin kolb sarah shahi george clooney rutgers
Deal of the Day ? HP Pavilion p6-2355 Core i3 desktop and 20? LED-backlit LCD monitor
Monday’s LogicBUY Deal is the HP?Pavilion p6-2355 Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-core desktop bundle with the 20″ W2072a LED-backlit LCD monitor for?$564.98. ?Features: 8GB RAM 1TB Hard Drive and DVD burner Intel HD 2500 graphics 802.11n WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet USB 3.0 ports Windows 8 (64 bit) $709.98 – $120 instant savings – ?$15?coupon code = $564.98 [...]
arnold schwarzenegger revenge revenge adam shulman adam shulman peanut butter recall jason aldean
Support for Japan's Abe government rises to two-thirds: poll
TOKYO (Reuters) - Support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government rose by 4.7 percentage points to two-thirds of voters in the month since his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) returned to power, a poll by the Kyodo news agency showed on Sunday.
The poll, conducted on Saturday and Sunday, showed that support for the government rose to 66.7 percent, an apparent sign of approval for his efforts to boost the economy with a mix of easy monetary policy and fiscal spending.
The rise came after the Bank of Japan announced on Tuesday its most determined effort yet to end years of economic stagnation, saying it would switch to an open-ended commitment to buying assets next year and double its inflation target to 2 percent under pressure from Abe.
Ahead of an election to the upper house in summer, 37.2 percent of respondents said they would vote for the LDP, followed by 12.1 percent for the nationalist Japan Restoration Party (JRP) led by a former Tokyo governor. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), ousted in last month's lower house election, stood at 8.8 percent.
The poll showed 62.0 percent supporting the Bank of Japan's 2 percent inflation target and 63.3 percent backing the government's handling of the Algeria hostage crisis, in which 10 Japanese nationals were killed.
Abe has made clear he hopes to become Japan's first long-term leader since Junichiro Koizumi's rare 2001-2006 term. The country was led by five different prime ministers in the five years up to the defeat last month of the DPJ's Yoshihiko Noda.
(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori and Linda Sieg; Editing by Ron Popeski)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/support-japans-abe-government-rises-two-thirds-poll-105600616--business.html
apple store down apple live blog ohio primary cell phone jammer g8 summit netanyahu aipac
Monday, January 28, 2013
Study finds significant microorganism populations in middle and upper troposphere
Public release date: 28-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: John Toon
jtoon@gatech.edu
404-894-6986
Georgia Institute of Technology
Bugs in the Atmosphere
In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, researchers used genomic techniques to document the presence of significant numbers of living microorganisms principally bacteria in the middle and upper troposphere, that section of the atmosphere approximately four to six miles above the Earth's surface.
Whether the microorganisms routinely inhabit this portion of the atmosphere perhaps living on carbon compounds also found there or whether they were simply lofted there from the Earth's surface isn't yet known. The finding is of interest to atmospheric scientists, because the microorganisms could play a role in forming ice that may impact weather and climate. Long-distance transport of the bacteria could also be of interest for disease transmission models.
The microorganisms were documented in air samples taken as part of NASA's Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) program to study low- and high-altitude air masses associated with tropical storms. The sampling was done from a DC-8 aircraft over both land and ocean, including the Caribbean Sea and portions of the Atlantic Ocean. The sampling took place before, during and after two major tropical hurricanes Earl and Karl in 2010.
The research, which has been supported by NASA and the National Science Foundation, was scheduled to be published online January 28th by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We did not expect to find so many microorganisms in the troposphere, which is considered a difficult environment for life," said Kostas Konstantinidis, an assistant professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "There seems to be quite a diversity of species, but not all bacteria make it into the upper troposphere."
Aboard the aircraft, a filter system designed by the research team collected particles including the microorganisms from outside air entering the aircraft's sampling probes. The filters were analyzed using genomic techniques including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gene sequencing, which allowed the researchers to detect the microorganisms and estimate their quantities without using conventional cell-culture techniques.
When the air masses studied originated over the ocean, the sampling found mostly marine bacteria. Air masses that originated over land had mostly terrestrial bacteria. The researchers also saw strong evidence that the hurricanes had a significant impact on the distribution and dynamics of microorganism populations.
The study showed that viable bacterial cells represented, on average, around 20 percent of the total particles detected in the size range of 0.25 to 1 microns in diameter. By at least one order of magnitude, bacteria outnumbered fungi in the samples, and the researchers detected 17 different bacteria taxa including some that are capable of metabolizing the carbon compounds that are ubiquitous in the atmosphere such as oxalic acid.
The microorganisms could have a previously-unidentified impact on cloud formation by supplementing (or replacing) the abiotic particles that normally serve as nuclei for forming ice crystals, said Athanasios Nenes, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
"In the absence of dust or other materials that could provide a good nucleus for ice formation, just having a small number of these microorganisms around could facilitate the formation of ice at these altitudes and attract surrounding moisture," Nenes said. "If they are the right size for forming ice, they could affect the clouds around them."
The microorganisms likely reach the troposphere through the same processes that launch dust and sea salt skyward. "When sea spray is generated, it can carry bacteria because there are a lot of bacteria and organic materials on the surface of the ocean," Nenes said.
The research brought together microbiologists, atmospheric modelers and environmental researchers using the latest technologies for studying DNA. For the future, the researchers would like to know if certain types of bacteria are more suited than others for surviving at these altitudes. The researchers also want to understand the role played by the microorganisms and determine whether or not they are carrying on metabolic functions in the troposphere.
"For these organisms, perhaps, the conditions may not be that harsh," said Konstantinidis. "I wouldn't be surprised if there is active life and growth in clouds, but this is something we cannot say for sure now."
Other researchers have gathered biological samples from atop mountains or from snow samples, but gathering biological material from a jet aircraft required a novel experimental setup. The researchers also had to optimize protocols for extracting DNA from levels of biomass far lower than what they typically study in soils or lakes.
"We have demonstrated that our technique works, and that we can get some interesting information," Nenes said. "A big fraction of the atmospheric particles that traditionally would have been expected to be dust or sea salt may actually be bacteria. At this point we are just seeing what's up there, so this is just the beginning of what we hope to do."
###
The Georgia Tech team also included Natasha DeLeon-Rodriguez and Luis-Miguel Rodriguez-R from the Georgia Tech School of Biology, Terry Lathem from the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and James Barazesh and Michael Bergin from the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The Georgia Tech team received assistance from researchers Bruce Anderson, Andreas Beyersdorf, and Luke Ziemba with the Chemistry and Dynamics Branch/Science Directorate at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
This research was supported, in part, by NASA grant number NNX10AM63G, by a GAANN Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education, a NASA-NESSF fellowship, and by a National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NASA, the Department of Education or the NSF.
[ | 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: 28-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: John Toon
jtoon@gatech.edu
404-894-6986
Georgia Institute of Technology
Bugs in the Atmosphere
In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, researchers used genomic techniques to document the presence of significant numbers of living microorganisms principally bacteria in the middle and upper troposphere, that section of the atmosphere approximately four to six miles above the Earth's surface.
Whether the microorganisms routinely inhabit this portion of the atmosphere perhaps living on carbon compounds also found there or whether they were simply lofted there from the Earth's surface isn't yet known. The finding is of interest to atmospheric scientists, because the microorganisms could play a role in forming ice that may impact weather and climate. Long-distance transport of the bacteria could also be of interest for disease transmission models.
The microorganisms were documented in air samples taken as part of NASA's Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) program to study low- and high-altitude air masses associated with tropical storms. The sampling was done from a DC-8 aircraft over both land and ocean, including the Caribbean Sea and portions of the Atlantic Ocean. The sampling took place before, during and after two major tropical hurricanes Earl and Karl in 2010.
The research, which has been supported by NASA and the National Science Foundation, was scheduled to be published online January 28th by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We did not expect to find so many microorganisms in the troposphere, which is considered a difficult environment for life," said Kostas Konstantinidis, an assistant professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "There seems to be quite a diversity of species, but not all bacteria make it into the upper troposphere."
Aboard the aircraft, a filter system designed by the research team collected particles including the microorganisms from outside air entering the aircraft's sampling probes. The filters were analyzed using genomic techniques including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gene sequencing, which allowed the researchers to detect the microorganisms and estimate their quantities without using conventional cell-culture techniques.
When the air masses studied originated over the ocean, the sampling found mostly marine bacteria. Air masses that originated over land had mostly terrestrial bacteria. The researchers also saw strong evidence that the hurricanes had a significant impact on the distribution and dynamics of microorganism populations.
The study showed that viable bacterial cells represented, on average, around 20 percent of the total particles detected in the size range of 0.25 to 1 microns in diameter. By at least one order of magnitude, bacteria outnumbered fungi in the samples, and the researchers detected 17 different bacteria taxa including some that are capable of metabolizing the carbon compounds that are ubiquitous in the atmosphere such as oxalic acid.
The microorganisms could have a previously-unidentified impact on cloud formation by supplementing (or replacing) the abiotic particles that normally serve as nuclei for forming ice crystals, said Athanasios Nenes, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
"In the absence of dust or other materials that could provide a good nucleus for ice formation, just having a small number of these microorganisms around could facilitate the formation of ice at these altitudes and attract surrounding moisture," Nenes said. "If they are the right size for forming ice, they could affect the clouds around them."
The microorganisms likely reach the troposphere through the same processes that launch dust and sea salt skyward. "When sea spray is generated, it can carry bacteria because there are a lot of bacteria and organic materials on the surface of the ocean," Nenes said.
The research brought together microbiologists, atmospheric modelers and environmental researchers using the latest technologies for studying DNA. For the future, the researchers would like to know if certain types of bacteria are more suited than others for surviving at these altitudes. The researchers also want to understand the role played by the microorganisms and determine whether or not they are carrying on metabolic functions in the troposphere.
"For these organisms, perhaps, the conditions may not be that harsh," said Konstantinidis. "I wouldn't be surprised if there is active life and growth in clouds, but this is something we cannot say for sure now."
Other researchers have gathered biological samples from atop mountains or from snow samples, but gathering biological material from a jet aircraft required a novel experimental setup. The researchers also had to optimize protocols for extracting DNA from levels of biomass far lower than what they typically study in soils or lakes.
"We have demonstrated that our technique works, and that we can get some interesting information," Nenes said. "A big fraction of the atmospheric particles that traditionally would have been expected to be dust or sea salt may actually be bacteria. At this point we are just seeing what's up there, so this is just the beginning of what we hope to do."
###
The Georgia Tech team also included Natasha DeLeon-Rodriguez and Luis-Miguel Rodriguez-R from the Georgia Tech School of Biology, Terry Lathem from the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and James Barazesh and Michael Bergin from the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The Georgia Tech team received assistance from researchers Bruce Anderson, Andreas Beyersdorf, and Luke Ziemba with the Chemistry and Dynamics Branch/Science Directorate at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
This research was supported, in part, by NASA grant number NNX10AM63G, by a GAANN Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education, a NASA-NESSF fellowship, and by a National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NASA, the Department of Education or the NSF.
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/giot-sfs012313.php
rockies ashley judd second degree murders bobby petrino brian dunn vin scully petrino fired
Athina et hayat en chair et en Os?La Positive Attitude! | Self ...
Thanks! Share it with your friends!
Le r?dicule ne tue pas?Illustration par la vid?o! LOOOOOOL
Find Self Improvement Golden Nuggets Here
Loading
- Rating:
- Views:541 views
- Tags: -
- Categories: Uncategorized
Comments
Write a comment Cancel reply
Source: http://selfimprovement.advancedstrategicmarketing.com/?p=1594
lawrence o donnell magic johnson jetblue pilot solicitor general neighborhood watch dennis rodman dodgers sale
Sunday, January 27, 2013
orpitasingh: Stepparenting & Blended Families 2013: The Enlightened
Buy on the merchant's on-line searching and browse reviews. If you are making an attempt to find The Enlightened Stepmother: Revolutionizing the Role with discount deals. This is the simplest deal for you. Where you may notice these item is by online shopping stores? Read the review on The Enlightened Stepmother: Revolutionizing the Role Now, it's special worth. Therefore do not lose it.What you need to know about your new family before you become part of it. How to get off to the right start. (It's hard to change a relationship once you've taken the path of least resistance.) How to prevent, rather than cure, the stepmom's classic pitfalls. What you need to recognize about your relationship with your husband's children. How to handle relationships between your kids and his. Why you need to give your marriage top priority. How to make sure others are aware that this is your life too. Why you need to develop a working relationship with your stepchildren's mother. How to understand the inevitable stages every stepfamily passes through. How to overcome the guilt of not loving -- or even liking -- your stepchildren. How to avoid feeling guilty in circumstances over which you have no control. Why a successful stepfamily is as unique as every stepmom.
The Enlightened Stepmother: Revolutionizing the Role
by Perdita K. Norwood, Teri Wingender 
(37)
New!: $16.99 $11.35 (as of 01/23/2013 21:56 PST)
150 Used! | New! from $0.01 (as of 01/23/2013 21:56 PST)
Stepparenting & Blended Families
Becoming a stepmother is a life-altering event in any woman's life. The issues are extraordinarily complex and women are overwhelmingly unprepared. Yet concerns usually focus on the effect remarriage has on the children. The Enlightened Stepmother approaches the subject from a totally new perspective -- that of the stepmother. Based on information -- sometimes controversial -- from stepmoms of all ages, occupations and lifestyles, who know from experience what works, what doesn't and why --
AND MUCH MORE
- Rank: #138637 in Books
- Published on: 1999-03-01
- Released on: 1999-03-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.07" h x 1.14" w x 5.20" l, .76 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 464 pages
Source: http://hotstepparentingblendedfamilies583.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-enlightened-stepmother.html
aretha franklin whitney houston paul williams paul babeu kevin costner budweiser shootout animal house invincible
Source: http://orpitasingh.blogspot.com/2013/01/stepparenting-blended-families-2013.html
ibooks author gabrielle union mark wahlberg merle haggard ladainian tomlinson pipa keystone xl
Despite falls, Wagner edges Gold for 2nd US title
Ashley Wagner falls to the ice during the senior ladies free skate program at the U.S. figure skating championships, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Ashley Wagner falls to the ice during the senior ladies free skate program at the U.S. figure skating championships, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Ashley Wagner competes in the senior ladies free skate program at the U.S. figure skating championships in Omaha, Neb., Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Gracie Gold performs a jump in her senior ladies free skate program at the U.S. figure skating championships in Omaha, Neb., Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Gracie Gold competes during the senior ladies free skate program at the U.S. figure skating championships, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Gracie Gold competes during the senior ladies free skate program at the U.S. figure skating championships, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) ? Luck, strong will, maybe even a little generosity from the judges.
The details really don't matter. All anyone will remember is that Ashley Wagner now has something in common with Michelle Kwan.
Wagner became the first woman since Kwan in 2005 to win back-to-back titles in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, managing to hold off up-and-comer Gracie Gold despite two falls Saturday night.
"To join that type of a club with Michelle is absolutely an honor, and I'm so pleased with myself that I was able to accomplish that," Wagner said. "That was one of my main goals this season. I wanted to say I was a repeat national champion. I definitely lucked out at this competition.
"Knowing that, it only pushes me more to have the rest of the season be nice and solid."
Wagner finished with 188.84 points, about two ahead of Gold. Gold won the free skate ? posting the second-highest score ever at the U.S. meet, no less. But the 17-year-old had too much ground to make up after a dismal performance Thursday night in the short program left her in ninth place, more than 13 points behind Wagner.
"This is my first U.S. Championships and it was horrifying at the beginning. But now it's been amazing," said Gold, who won the U.S. junior title last year. "I'm so proud of myself that I was able to come back after that very, very rough short program and to put out that long program that's the best I've ever done."
Agnes Zawadzki dropped from second to third after falling on her a triple flip.
Earlier Saturday, Olympic silver medalists and 2011 world champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White won their fifth straight dance title, matching a U.S. record. Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir won the pairs title.
There is something about defending the title that brings out the worst in the American women. Since 1990, Kwan is the only other woman to win consecutive titles (granted, she did win eight straight). Six women have won the last seven crowns, and the reigning champion has almost always had a total meltdown. Rachael Flatt is the only defending champ who even managed to stay on the podium the next year.
"I don't think anyone could have prepared me for how difficult this national championships was going to be," Wagner said.
Wagner, though, is made of stern stuff. She's been rock solid since moving to California to train with John Nicks in the summer of 2011. She won the U.S. title last year, had the best finish by an American at worlds since 2007 and won the silver medal last month in the Grand Prix final.
And she sure looked loose as she came out from the dressing rooms, clapping along with the crowd to Zawadzki's "Rhapsody in Blue" music. Her opening triple flip-double toe loop-double toe combination was gorgeous, drawing oohs and aahs from the crowd. She also did a triple loop in and out of a spread eagle ? incredibly difficult.
But she didn't have her usual fire, almost as if she was skating not to lose rather than skating to win.
"I was feeling great that first half," Wagner said. "Then I started to overthink it a little.
She was off-balance in the air on a triple lutz, and couldn't right herself in time to save it. With a triple loop only seconds later, she didn't have time to regroup and she tumbled to the ice on that one, too.
Wagner was subdued as she waited for her marks, surely thinking she'd blown her chance to repeat. At 21, though, Wagner is a far more complete skater than Gold, and that's what made the difference. Skating to "Samson and Delilah," Wagner told a story while Gold just skated and jumped.
When her score was announced and she saw she was still in first, a look of surprise crossed her face before she smiled.
"I was very uncertain as to what was going to happen, waiting for those scores to come up. I knew the program as whole, aside from the two mistakes, was very solid," Wagner said. "It's definitely not the type of win, not the performance I had imagined myself having. But the fact I was able to repeat as champion with those two performances, that's something to be proud of."
Gold's performance was something to be proud of, too.
Better yet, something to build on.
With blonde good looks and a made-for-the Olympics name, Gold has all the makings of that "next big thing" the United States has been craving. That she can skate only fueled the hype, and some were ready to put her on the Sochi medals stand after she won the U.S. junior title last year and finished second in the junior world championships.
But she's been wildly inconsistent this year, winning the silver medal at Cup of Russia after falling apart at Skate Canada. After botching her short program Thursday, she needed a dazzling performance just to have a chance at one of the spots on the world championships team.
She came through, posting a 132.49 that was the second-highest score for a free skate at nationals. Sasha Cohen scored 134.03 in 2006, the year she won her only U.S. title.
"I stopped focusing on what was around me ? the crowd, the screaming, the other skaters, the pressure, the expectations. I let it all go," Gold said. "I just pictured myself at my rink in Chicago and even the practices here ? how I would skate if I was practicing. Just the feel of the knees, the feel of the ice, one thing at a time.
"I didn't get over my head with thoughts or expectations. I just went out there and skated like I know how to skate."
Gold's jumps are fabulous, easily the best of the entire field. Maybe the whole world. They're done with power, and her combinations are so smooth she looks like a stone skipping across the water. She did seven triples, and even Kim Yu-na would be impressed with her triple lutz-triple toe loop combination.
But skating is both sport and art, and Gold is going to have to add some substance between the jumps if she wants the prize to match her name. Her footwork was basic and most of her spins were adequate, and she didn't display that passion that makes a good program great.
"They pushed me," Gold said, looking at Wagner and Zawadzki. "After that short program, I didn't want to compete. But I knew I had a lot of competitors and I had to push through."
Associated Pressnew orleans weather sparkle sacagawea new hope baptist church associated press foster friess new orleans hornets
Michael Buble's Wife Is Pregnant!
Michael Buble & wife Luisana Lopilato are expecting! Plus, see more stars who are expecting
arik armstead sag awards red carpet torrey pines nhl all star game 2012 pollyanna samuel adams snowy owl
Automobile Getting Time ? How to Take Advantage of Employed ...
Auctions for employed vehicles can offer you with mounds of opportunities to purchase a excellent vehicle without having spending as well significantly cash. It is extremely crucial, however, to prepare oneself before acquiring into an auction so that you would be in a position to actually get a great deal and not finish up wasting your cash on a badly conditioned automobile. It is important for you to know how to take benefit of employed automobile auction to make the most out of your car purchasing. Here are some essential suggestions for wiser spending on employed automobile auction.
Prior to going to a employed vehicle auction, you have to be certain about the type of auction you are going into. Generally, car auctions are organized by the police, the government or auction lots. The cars sold right here might come from the surplus of government autos, repossession, or impounding. You have to comprehend that you are getting automobiles as is, and there are no warranties. Returning the vehicle right after buying it would be really difficult and therefore when you buy one, you actually have to certain of its top quality.
Check out the schedule of the utilized vehicle auction. A great auction must have a period for preliminary inspection and you must certainly go there to be certain that the auction is worth going to. While you might not be capable to test drive cars throughout the inspection you can certainly take a look at each and every nook and cranny of the automobiles and it is very best to take advantage of this chance. Mark on your mind three or so automobiles that you would contemplate so you would have just the correct quantity of alternatives for bidding throughout the actual utilized vehicle auc
tion.
List down the Automobile ID numbers of the vehicles that you seem to be interested in. Once you get residence, you can search for the Vehicle ID on Carfax to verify out its background report. A minimal fee would be charged, but this is definitely worth the search simply because it will let you see how much the automobile has been use, if it has a clean record, or if it has been taken cared of by its previous owners.
When you go to a utilized car auction, bring a extended an auto guide such as the Kelley Blue Book so that you can go about looking for automobiles with a guide at hand. Such publications are useful in giving you the values of several car models in the course of trade-in, which could aid you in finding out regardless of whether you are giving a good bid or not. Have in mind all the fees of bidding ? you have to spend buyer?s premium (from five to ten percent of the bid), or a registration fee for the auction.
Have a functioning spending budget when buying a automobile at utilized car auction. By setting a ceiling for your price range, you will stop yourself from bidding a lot more than you can afford. Some people tend to overbid out of their pride to win a bid even if the vehicle does not really expense as much.
Vehicle auctions are great venues to discover automobiles if you are on a price range. But just before obtaining into one, it is important to know how to take advantage of used vehicle auction to be sure that you would not end up losing both your cash and the opportunity to drive a decent automobile.
gabby giffords geithner gabrielle giffords juliette lewis chelsea handler mitch daniels shirataki noodles
On Mars, Dry Ice 'Smoke' Carves Up Sand Dunes
The seasonal thawing of carbon dioxide ice near Mars' north pole carves grooves in the region's sand dunes, three new studies reveal.
The discovery, made using observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft (MRO), reinforces that the Red Planet's surface continues to be transformed today, even though Mars' volcanoes have died out and its liquid surface water apparently dried up long ago.?
"It's an amazingly dynamic process," Candice Hansen of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., lead author of one of the studies, said in a statement. "We had this old paradigm that all the action on Mars was billions of years ago. Thanks to the ability to monitor changes with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, one of the new paradigms is that Mars has many active processes today."
MRO photographed dunes in Mars' far northern latitudes using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, or HiRise. The images revealed a number of grooves appearing in the dunes as the northern spring took hold and progressed. [Dry Ice 'Smoke' Moves Mars Sand (Video)]
The phenomenon is driven by the springtime thawing of a surface layer of frozen carbon dioxide, also known as dry ice.
This thawing occurs first on the ice layer's underside, which is in contact with the warming ground, researchers said. The dry ice sublimes from a solid state to a gaseous one, and pressure builds as more and more gas is produced and trapped.?
Eventually, cracks form in the ice and some of the carbon dioxide gas breaks free, forming temporary grooves in the dune as it hisses out.
The escaping gas also carries sand, which forms dark streaks as it spills across the dry ice covering the dune. These dark fans disappear as the seasonal ice evaporates, and Martian winds erase most of the newly formed grooves before the next winter and springtime roll around.
The grooves are smaller versions of the "gullies" MRO has spotted on other, steeper Martian dunes, which were apparently formed in a similar way, researchers said. And similar processes have been observed near the Red Planet's south pole.
"It is a challenge to catch when and how those changes happen, they are so fast," Ganna Portyankina of the University of Bern in Switzerland, lead author of another one of the studies, said in a statement. "That's why only now we start to see the bigger picture that both hemispheres actually tell us similar stories."
The three new studies, which appear in the journal Icarus, were based on observations made by MRO over three Martian years, or about six Earth years. The papers document a variety of seasonal changes on Mars, including the dune grooves and the distribution of water frost, which is blown around by springtime winds.
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall?or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook?and?Google+.?
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mars-dry-ice-smoke-carves-sand-dunes-143425987.html
Honey Boo Boo Child marilyn monroe Nathan Adrian London 2012 Synchronized Swimming London 2012 hurdles Taylor Kinney Beach Volleyball Olympics 2012
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Timeshare Executive Headhunter Keith Trowbridge, Executive ...
Fort Myers, FL (January 25, 2013) ? Keith W. Trowbridge, Ph.D., President and CEO of Executive Quest, Inc., executive headhunters in the timeshare, vacation ownership, and fractional industry, http://www.execq.com/keith.htm, reports the company has been busy even with the pressures of today?s economy. ?Executive Quest?s international presence has been a strong contributor to its success this past year,? said Trowbridge. He has a team with in depth knowledge of and optimistic expectations concerning the timeshare industry?s executive employee needs. This, and Executive Quest?s business practices and standards of conduct continue to strengthen the company?s position worldwide.
Much of Executive Quest?s headhunting strength now lies in its international presence with timeshare executive employee searches last year in such places as Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, Russia, the Caribbean, Dominican Republic, Mexico, the US, and Canada. Executive positions in these searches included directors, vice presidents, senior vice presidents in finance, HR, sales/marketing, property management, as well as project directors and call center managers, executive housekeepers, and national account executives.
Executive Quest soon will be starting its annual executive timeshare/vacation ownership/fractional salary study for 2012, http://www.execq.com/salarystudy.htm, which is free to all salary study participants as well as to members of Executive Quest?s resume management services program http://www.execq.com/store.htm.
Trowbridge writes a free monthly on-line newsletter with a subscription of better than 22,000 timeshare industry professionals that includes a calendar of upcoming industry conferences and events along with other timely industry articles. To subscribe, go to http://www.execq.com and click on the green ?Subscribe? button.
About Executive Quest, Inc.
Keith Trowbridge, Ph.D., who spent 35 years in the vacation ownership business as a developer, has spent the last 18 years in the head hunting business with his company, Executive Quest, Inc., a timeshare/fractional/ vacation ownership/ hospitality industry executive search firm with clients worldwide.
Inquiries can be made to http://www.execq.com, to Keith Trowbridge by phone at 239-454-1100 or keith@execq.com, or to Jim Perkins at 936-856-3983 or? jim@execq.com
Contact
Keith Trowbridge
Executive Quest, Inc.
239-454-1100
deron williams jarhead montrose marshawn lynch earthquake bay area clear channel drexel
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Irvine real estate and a case study of - Dr. Housing Bubble Blog
The housing market is continuing the trend from 2012 with home sales picking up and inventory disappearing into the sunset.? Today I wanted to dig deep into a high in demand area in Orange County, Irvine.? What is useful about this market is that it has a little bit of everything including flippers, foreign money buyers, big money investors, and families looking to buy.? What is incredible is how deep inventory has declined in this and many other similar markets.? A big city like Irvine also gives us solid Census data to dig into to examine incomes and housing demographics.? What is interesting is that the low inventory is adding a tremendous amount of pressure creating a sense that we are back to the early 2000s.? Looking at sales figures shows another interesting side to the current housing market.
Irvine case study of disappearing inventory
The first chart I wanted to examine is total inventory over the last two years:
Inventory available for sale in Irvine has fallen by a stunning 70 percent.? This big decline in inventory coupled with low rates and investor demand has pushed prices back up:
Down by 20 percent from the peak but up 32 percent from 2003.? What is more pronounced here is the lack of housing coming onto the market for sale.? When we look at sales volume, we see a jump from the bottom but in context, we realize that most of the pressure is coming from the supply side:
In 2005 there was a month with over 600 sales.? Today we are at roughly 290.? Of course when compared to the last few years you will see a massive jump upwards in Irvine:
The dynamic is interesting when Zillow puts the estimated Irvine home price at around $616,000.? Let us look at the latest household income data:
The median household income in Irvine is $87,484.? This would put the ratio of household income to home price at over 7 versus the 3.5 nationwide figures.? The cost of living in California has been very high for many years.? This is nothing new.? But what you have in an area like Irvine is big investor demand. ?Many are from outside of the United States.? That income does not even show up in Census data but it certainly adds to the pressure on those few homes that are on the market.
Irvine has 39,015 owner occupied housing units.? The latest data shows that 231 homes are for sale with a median list price of $750,000:
At least inventory jumped a bit in the last month from a low of 191.? Two years ago it was closer to 800.? The number of distressed properties in Irvine is up to 320.? Now given that only 231 homes are on the market, this does make a difference.
But why would banks alter their current behavior?? The current setup is working well to inflate prices back up without having to worry much about weak income growth.? What I find interesting however is that even with sales higher, they are still relatively weak.? Why?? For one, lending standards are still tighter and believe it or not, you still have to qualify for loans in the market today.? This is why you see sales volume being weak.? Another possibility is the number of those qualified to buy is still fairly low.? This ties into the following trend in the United States:
The middle class has gotten much smaller in the last 40 years.? More have been thrown into lower income brackets but also, those in upper-income brackets have increased.? In places like California this is much more pronounced.? Think of Irvine, a city where the current median list price is above $700,000 yet the typical family pulls in $87,000.? Seeing current selling volume at these levels signifies that more of the frenzied action with bidding wars and multiple offer situations is coming from:? qualified buyers, foreign money, and cash investors.? You think this is a normal market?? I?ll leave you with this:
?(OC Register) When Tanya and Patrick Courchaine recently made an offer for $615,000 on a house in Anaheim Hills, they were up against 18 other buyers.
The couple figured they?d have it in the bag. In addition to offering $40,000 over the asking price and a healthy down payment, they went the extra mile to promote themselves ? with a PowerPoint slideshow.
They lost to a cash buyer.
?We were very disappointed,? said Tanya Courchaine, 42, an IT operations supervisor. ?I convinced myself that with $40,000 over and 20 percent down we were going to get it for sure.?
Bidding wars are raging in Orange County and elsewhere, making home shopping especially frustrating for those seeking properties under $750,000. Low inventory is driving the competition. And homebuyers are going head-to-head against investors, who typically pay cash.
The California Association of Realtors said last month a dramatic shortage of homes for sale in California has created an especially tough market for first-time buyers, with nearly 6 in 10 homes selling with multiple offers.?
For those seeking properties under $750,000?? $40,000 over asking plus a PowerPoint presentation.? Welcome to Orange County home buying!
Did You Enjoy The Post? Subscribe to Dr. Housing Bubble?s Blog to get updated housing commentary, analysis, and information.
bully bohemian rhapsody bohemian rhapsody spike lee carson daly heejun han donovan mcnabb
Algeria terror leader preferred money to death
This image from video provided by the SITE Intel Group made available Thursday Jan. 17, 2013, purports to show militant militia leader Moktar Belmoktar. Algerian officials scrambled Thursday Jan. 17, 2013 for a way to end an armed standoff deep in the Sahara desert with Islamic militants who have taken dozens of foreigners hostage, turning to tribal Algerian Tuareg leaders for talks and contemplating an international force. The group claiming responsibility ? called Katibat Moulathamine or the Masked Brigade ? says it has captured 41 foreigners, including seven Americans, in the surprise attack Wednesday on the Ain Amenas gas plant. Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould Kabila said the roughly 20 well armed gunmen were from Algeria itself, operating under orders from Moktar Belmoktar, al-Qaida's strongman in the Sahara. (AP Photo/SITE Intel Group) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS PICTURE. MANDATORY CREDIT: SITE Intel Group
This image from video provided by the SITE Intel Group made available Thursday Jan. 17, 2013, purports to show militant militia leader Moktar Belmoktar. Algerian officials scrambled Thursday Jan. 17, 2013 for a way to end an armed standoff deep in the Sahara desert with Islamic militants who have taken dozens of foreigners hostage, turning to tribal Algerian Tuareg leaders for talks and contemplating an international force. The group claiming responsibility ? called Katibat Moulathamine or the Masked Brigade ? says it has captured 41 foreigners, including seven Americans, in the surprise attack Wednesday on the Ain Amenas gas plant. Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould Kabila said the roughly 20 well armed gunmen were from Algeria itself, operating under orders from Moktar Belmoktar, al-Qaida's strongman in the Sahara. (AP Photo/SITE Intel Group) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS PICTURE. MANDATORY CREDIT: SITE Intel Group
This Oct. 8, 2012 satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows the Amenas Gas Field in Algeria, which is jointly operated by BP and Norway's Statoil and Algeria's Sonatrach. Algerian special forces launched a rescue operation Thursday at the plant in the Sahara Desert and freed foreign hostages held by al-Qaida-linked militants, but estimates for the number of dead varied wildly from four to dozens. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe)
In this image made from video, a group of people believed to be hostages kneel in the sand with their hands in the air at an unknown location in Algeria. Algerian de-mining teams were scouring a gas refinery on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013 that was the scene of a bloody four-day standoff, searching for explosive traps left by the Islamist militants who took dozens of foreigners hostage. The siege left at least 23 captives dead, and the American government warned that there were credible threats of more kidnapping attempts on Westerners. (AP Photo/Ennahar TV) ALGERIA OUT, TV OUT
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) ? Moktar Belmoktar is known abroad as the man who orchestrated the abduction of scores of foreigners last week at a BP-operated plant in the remote, eastern corner of Algeria, in a raid that led to many of their deaths.
In the Sahara at least up until this week he was, ironically, known as the more pragmatic and less brutal of the commanders of an increasingly successful offshoot of al-Qaida. The question now is has he evolved into an international terrorist every bit as violent as his rivals, or did the Algeria operation go very differently than he intended?
Belmoktar, a 41-year-old Algerian known in Pentagon circles as "MBM," just split off from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, to start his own franchise.
Over the past decade, AQIM has kidnapped dozens of foreigners, including diplomats, aid workers, field doctors and tourists. Although Belmoktar's hostages are forced to endure months of privation and live with the constant threat of execution, those who have dealt directly with him say his cell has never executed a captive, according to hostage negotiators, a courier sent to collect proof-of-life videos, senior diplomats and security experts interviewed for this article.
The notable exception was the 2011 kidnapping of two French nationals from a bar in the capital of Niger, both of whom were killed when the French military tried to rescue them. It's unclear if the two died from friendly fire, or were executed by their captors in a situation that closely mirrors the chain of events in Algeria, where combat helicopters strafed the compound in an effort to liberate the hostages, killing both kidnappers and victims.
Belmoktar prefers to trade his hostages for money, experts have said, and global intelligence unit Stratfor says he can get an estimated $3 million per European captive. The money allowed him to build one of the best-financed arms of AQIM. It may explain how he was able to strike out on his own six weeks ago to create "The Masked Brigade," whose inaugural attack was launched inside Algeria.
"MBM is more along the lines of, how do I negotiate and put extra money in my pocket?" says Rudolph Atallah, the former head of counterterrorism for Africa at the Pentagon, who has spent years tracking the terror network in this Sahelian country. "The others are purists."
Belmoktar is a contrast to his more ruthless colleague, Abou Zeid, who beheaded a British national and executed a 78-year-old Frenchman in 2010 in retaliation for a raid attempting to save him that killed six militants.
Up until December of last year, both men were emirs of their own "katiba," or brigade, in AQIM. Though they are both from southern Algeria, they have chosen to embed themselves in northern Mali, in the immense, ungoverned desert which ranges from feather-soft dunes to flat, rocky plains. And both have made tens of millions of dollars by kidnapping French, Canadian, Spanish, Swiss, German, English and Italian nationals.
The contrast between the two is captured in the recently published memoir of Robert Fowler, a Canadian diplomat who was kidnapped by Belmoktar in 2008 in Niger, where he had been sent as a United Nations special envoy. Fowler was tied up and shoved into a pickup truck and the blows he suffered as his body was banged against the metal during the multi-day journey to Mali caused a compression fracture in a vertebra.
Fowler's ordeal could have been much worse. He describes how on April 21, 2008, he was driven to a rendezvous point. The same day, Abou Zeid's troops arrived with two women, one of them on the point of death.
Belmoktar went to inspect the women, and returned to where Fowler was sitting with a "thunderous look on his face," he wrote. Belmoktar asked to be passed dysentery pills from the medical kit, and ran back to give them to 77-year-old Marianne Petzold, a retired German teacher, and Swiss national Gabriella Burco Greiner.
When Fowler saw the two "the shock was physical. I recoiled with horror at the sight of those small, troubled white faces, twisted with pain."
One had been bitten by a scorpion, and her arm had ballooned and turned black. She would later spend six weeks in the hospital getting skin grafts to replace the necrotized flesh, he writes in "A Season in Hell." They both suffered from dysentery, and Abou Zeid had refused to give them the medicine that their governments had sent during their negotiation. At the moment that they were supposed to be released, Abou Zeid decided that he was not ready to free them, and an argument ensued between him and Belmoktar.
The same man who masterminded the recent horror in Algeria last week was visibly disturbed, wrote Fowler. He said it was Belmoktar who intervened, overruling Abou Zeid to free the two, ordering the drivers to take off across the trackless desert.
"If you are kidnapped by Belmoktar you would most likely live ? and you could not say the same thing for Abou Zeid: All the hostages killed between 2006 and 2012 were killed by Abou Zeid. You don't want to be in a position of describing him as the 'noble savage.' But I do think his thought process is less distorted by ideology," says Geoff Porter, founder of North Africa Risk Consulting, a political risk firm specializing in the Sahara region, who has tracked Belmoktar for years. "
However, long before this week's attack in Algeria, Belmoktar had also shown brutality. His men attacked a military base in Mauritania in 2005, killing over a dozen soldiers, said Dakar, Senegal-based analyst Andrew Lebovitch. And he's twice been sentenced to death in absentia in Algeria for the killing of customs officials and border guards, according to Abdel Bari Atwan's upcoming book "After Bin Laden."
His trajectory up until last week was nearly identical to that of Abou Zeid. Like Abou Zeid, he joined the Armed Islamic Group, or GIA, an Algerian extremist organization which arose in the aftermath of the 1991 election, which was voided by the secular government after an Islamic party won. He then joined the GIA's offshoot, the GSPC, a group that carried out suicide bombings against Algerian government targets. In 2006, when the group became part of al-Qaida, changing its name to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, both Abou Zeid and Belmoktar became the head of individual brigades.
Belmoktar claims he trained in Afghanistan in the 1990s, including in one of Osama Bin Laden's camps. It was there that he reportedly lost an eye, earning him the nickname "Laaouar," Arabic for 'One-eyed.' Research by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation claims Belmoktar became the conduit between the core al-Qaida and AQIM.
But early on, there were signs that Belmoktar was not in step with the gratuitous violence that characterized both the GIA and the GSPC, as well as AQIM. A diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy in Algiers quotes Algerian sources who say that at different times, Belmoktar denounced both GIA and AQIM tactics because they caused many civilian casualties.
Last December, after rumors of a growing rift with Abou Zeid, Belmoktar announced that he was leaving AQIM and creating his own group, "The Masked Brigade." His close associate, Oumar Ould Hamaha, told the AP that Belmoktar wanted to create a pan-Saharan movement, and the North African chapter was too narrowly focused on countries in the Maghreb, or North Africa.
It came as the United Nations was getting ready to authorize a military intervention to take back Mali's north from Islamic extremists, including Belmoktar's group. When France began airstrikes on Jan. 11, destroying a training camp, several weapons depots and a base known to be used by Belmoktar's men in the northern Malian town of Gao, Hamaha raged that now their jihad would go "global."
It was only a few days later in the tiny town of Ain Amenas in far eastern Algeria that turbaned men claiming allegiance to Belmoktar descended on a natural gas complex, operated in partnership with BP and took hundreds of hostages in the most ambitious terrorist operation the North Africa had ever seen. They forced the hostages to wear explosives. Belmoktar issued a statement saying the dozens of captives would be killed if France didn't halt its military incursion in Mali.
No one will ever know what would have happened if Algeria or other governments agreed to negotiate. Instead, the Algerians sent in helicopters, pounding the compound, and in the bloodbath that ensued, at least 32 militants and 23 captives were killed, according to the Algerian government. It's unclear how many were killed by friendly fire, and how many were executed by Belmoktar's men.
One of the people that knows him best says these events in Algeria signal that Belmoktar has chosen to walk down the path of Abou Zeid.
Moustapha Chaffi has been the main hostage negotiator on many of the kidnappings carried out by both Belmoktar and Abou Zeid. It was he who was waiting to receive Fowler and the two women on April 21, 2008. He confirmed that Belmoktar ran to give them the dysentry pills, and later insisted they be released.
"Before he led this operation in Algeria, that was the sentiment I had, that Belmoktar was less brutal," Chaffi said by telephone on Friday. "Now I find myself thinking that they are all terrorists. That they all take hostages. That they are all fanatics. So to draw a difference between them is really, really relative. There's in fact no difference anymore."
__
Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Dakar, Senegal and Cassandra Vinograd in London contributed to this report.
Associated Presseric johnson eric johnson big east tournament ashley olsen new apple tv sun flare love hewitt
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)