Friday, November 30, 2012

Nanobiotechnology: Versatile 3-D nanostructures using DNA 'bricks'

ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2012) ? Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have created more than 100 three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures using DNA building blocks that function like Lego? bricks -- a major advance from the two-dimensional (2D) structures the same team built a few months ago.

In effect, the advance means researchers just went from being able to build a flat wall of Legos?, to building a house. The new method, featured as a cover research article in the 30 November issue of Science, is the next step toward using DNA nanotechnologies for more sophisticated applications than ever possible before, such as "smart" medical devices that target drugs selectively to disease sites, programmable imaging probes, templates for precisely arranging inorganic materials in the manufacturing of next generation computer circuits, and more.

The nanofabrication technique, called "DNA-brick self-assembly," uses short, synthetic strands of DNA that work like interlocking Lego? bricks. It capitalizes on the ability to program DNA to form into predesigned shapes thanks to the underlying "recipe" of DNA base pairs: A (adenosine) only binds to T (thymine) and C (cytosine) only binds to G (guanine).

Earlier this year, the Wyss team reported in Nature how they could create a collection of 2D shapes by stacking one DNA brick (42 bases in length) upon another.

But there's a "twist" in the new method required to build in 3D.

The trick is to start with an even smaller DNA brick (32 bases in length), which changes the orientation of every matched-up pair of bricks to a 90 degree angle -- giving every two Legos? a 3D shape. In this way, the team can use these bricks to build "out" in addition to "up," and eventually form 3D structures, such as a 25-nanometer solid cube containing hundreds of bricks. The cube becomes a "master" DNA "molecular canvas"; in this case, the canvas was composed of 1000 so-called "voxels," which correspond to eight base-pairs and measure about 2.5 nanometers in size -- meaning this is architecture at its tiniest.

The master canvas is where the modularity comes in: by simply selecting subsets of specific DNA bricks from the large cubic structure, the team built 102 3D structures with sophisticated surface features, as well as intricate interior cavities and tunnels. "This is a simple, versatile and robust method," says Peng Yin, Ph.D., Wyss core faculty member and senior author on the study.

Another method used to build 3D structures, called DNA origami, is tougher to use to build complex shapes, Yin said, because it relies on a long "scaffold" strand of DNA that folds to interact with hundreds of shorter "staple" strands -- and each new shape requires a new scaffold routing strategy and hence new staples. In contrast, the DNA brick method does not use any scaffold strand and therefore has a modular architecture; each brick can be added or removed independently.

"We are moving at lightning speed in our ability to devise ever more powerful ways to use biocompatible DNA molecules as structural building blocks for nanotechnology, which could have great value for medicine as well as non-medical applications," says Wyss Institute Founding Director Don Ingber, M.D., Ph.D.

The research team led by Yin, who is also an assistant professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), included Wyss Postdoctoral Fellow Yonggang Ke, Ph.D., and Wyss Graduate Student Luvena Ong. Another contributor was Wyss Core Faculty member William Shih, Ph.D., who also holds appointments at HMS and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The research was supported by the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Y. Ke, L. L. Ong, W. M. Shih, P. Yin. Three-Dimensional Structures Self-Assembled from DNA Bricks. Science, 2012; 338 (6111): 1177 DOI: 10.1126/science.1227268

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/vLlavqeyh0Q/121129143259.htm

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Tagliabue holds Saints bounties hearing in DC

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and lawyers for the league and the players' union have wrapped up a hearing in the Saints bounties case.

Tagliabue is overseeing the latest round of player appeals in Washington.

Former Saints assistant Mike Cerullo, a key witness in the NFL's investigation, was scheduled to speak Thursday. Former New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is to participate in Friday's session.

Two Saints players who were suspended, linebacker Jonathan Vilma and defensive end Will Smith, have said they plan to attend when Williams is there.

Vilma's lawyer attended Thursday's day-long hearing at an office building. Tagliabue and lawyers who attended Thursday declined comment when they left.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tagliabue-holds-saints-bounties-hearing-dc-150939530--nfl.html

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Kipling Seoul Laptop Large Backpack True Blue ? Travel & Leisure

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Risk of childhood obesity can be predicted at birth

ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2012) ? A simple formula can predict at birth a baby's likelihood of becoming obese in childhood, according to a study published today in the open access journal PLOS ONE.

The formula, which is available as an online calculator, estimates the child's obesity risk based on its birth weight, the body mass index of the parents, the number of people in the household, the mother's professional status and whether she smoked during pregnancy.

The researchers behind the study hope their prediction method will be used to identify infants at high risk and help families take steps to prevent their children from putting on too much weight.

Childhood obesity is a leading cause of early type 2 diabetes and heart and circulatory disease, and is becoming more common in developed countries. According to NHS figures, 17 per cent of boys and 15 per cent of girls aged two to 15 in England are classified as obese.

The researchers developed the formula using data from a study set up in 1986 following 4000 children born in Finland. They initially investigated whether obesity risk could be assessed using genetic profiles, but the test they developed based on common genetic variations failed to make accurate predictions. Instead, they discovered that non-genetic information readily available at the time of birth was enough to predict which children would become obese. The formula proved accurate not just in the Finnish cohort, but in further tests using data from studies in Italy and the US.

"This test takes very little time, it doesn't require any lab tests and it doesn't cost anything," said Professor Philippe Froguel, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, who led the study.

"All the data we use are well-known risk factors for childhood obesity, but this is the first time they have been used together to predict from the time of birth the likelihood of a child becoming obese."

The 20 per cent of children predicted to have the highest risk at birth make up 80 per cent of obese children. The researchers suggest that services such as dieticians and psychologists could be offered to families with high-risk infants to help them prevent excessive weight gain.

"Once a young child becomes obese, it's difficult for them to lose weight, so prevention is the best strategy, and it has to begin as early as possible," said Professor Froguel. "Unfortunately, public prevention campaigns have been rather ineffective at preventing obesity in school-age children. Teaching parents about the dangers of over-feeding and bad nutritional habits at a young age would be much more effective."

Although common genetic variants did not prove to be helpful for predicting childhood obesity, the researchers say about one in 10 cases of obesity are caused by rare mutations that seriously affect appetite regulation. Tests for these mutations could become available to doctors in the next few years as the cost of DNA sequencing technology falls.

The Imperial researchers conducted the study in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Oulu, Finland; Harvard University in the US and the University of Verona, Italy. The work was funded by the Medical Research Council, Imperial College London, the University of Oulu and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

The obesity risk calculator is available online at http://files-good.ibl.fr/childhood-obesity/

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Imperial College London.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Anita Morandi, David Meyre, St?phane Lobbens, Ken Kleinman, Marika Kaakinen, Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, Vincent Vatin, Stefan Gaget, Anneli Pouta, Anna-Liisa Hartikainen, Jaana Laitinen, Aimo Ruokonen, Shikta Das, Anokhi Ali Khan, Paul Elliott, Claudio Maffeis, Matthew W. Gillman, Marjo-Riitta J?rvelin, Philippe Froguel. Estimation of Newborn Risk for Child or Adolescent Obesity: Lessons from Longitudinal Birth Cohorts. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (11): e49919 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049919

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/3L_guxH0ow4/121128182739.htm

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Ex-NBC Universal head Zucker named new CNN chief

FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007, file photo, Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer of NBC Universal, is seen at the 60th anniversary celebration of NBC's Meet the Press at the Newseum in Washington. CNN on Thursday named former NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker as its new top executive, searching for a way to turn around the original cable news network as it has lagged behind rivals Fox News Channel and MSNBC.Zucker will start in January, based in New York and reporting to Phil Kent, who runs all of the Turner networks for parent company Time Warner. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007, file photo, Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer of NBC Universal, is seen at the 60th anniversary celebration of NBC's Meet the Press at the Newseum in Washington. CNN on Thursday named former NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker as its new top executive, searching for a way to turn around the original cable news network as it has lagged behind rivals Fox News Channel and MSNBC.Zucker will start in January, based in New York and reporting to Phil Kent, who runs all of the Turner networks for parent company Time Warner. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

(AP) ? Incoming CNN President Jeff Zucker said Thursday that he intends to make the network more "vibrant and exciting" while broadening the programming on television's original but struggling cable news outlet.

The former NBC Universal chief's long-rumored selection as CNN president was announced Thursday. He'll start in January and report to Phil Kent, who runs all the Turner networks for parent company Time Warner.

Zucker will lead a large and profitable news organization with 23 separate businesses worldwide that has come to be defined by problems at the flagship U.S. network, particularly in prime time. CNN has never been able to solve the conundrum of how to keep viewers on quiet news days, while Fox News Channel and MSNBC have passed it by with combative programming that appeals to political partisans.

"The key is that CNN remain true to its ideals of great journalism but at the same time be vibrant and exciting," Zucker said. "Just because you're not partisan doesn't mean you can't be exciting."

He said it was premature to offer specifics. Although he said it was his goal to beat Fox and MSNBC in the ratings, it was important to note that he sees the television competition more broadly.

"News is not just about politics and war," he said.

CNN this summer said it was developing a program featuring celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, and Zucker cited it as some of the new thinking he's hoping to see.

Kent said it was essential for CNN to build a base of hardcore fans who will stick with the network no matter the news of the day. Both Kent and Zucker said CNN has no plans to retreat from its stance of unbiased reporting.

"CNN does not have an identity problem," Kent said. "CNN knows what it is and what its identity is. If anything, CNN has an execution problem."

During this election year, CNN is averaging 763,000 viewers in prime time on weekdays, up 2 percent from 2011, according to the Nielsen Co. Fox is averaging 2.5 million, up 13 percent from last year, and MSNBC is at 1.1 million, a 22 percent increase.

Anderson Cooper is CNN's best-known news anchor, with a news show that airs at 8 and 10 p.m. Eastern time. Piers Morgan hosts a nightly talk show modeled after Larry King's. Wolf Blitzer, Erin Burnett, Candy Crowley, Soledad O'Brien and Sanjay Gupta are among the network's most popular personalities.

Kent said he was seeking someone with news and television management experience who could be a magnet for talent. Zucker shot to fame in TV as executive producer of the "Today" show at the start of its morning dynasty in the 1990s. He was less successful as NBC's entertainment president. As chief of NBC Universal, he couldn't turn the flagship company around but oversaw a profitable and growing stable of cable networks.

Zucker replaces Jim Walton, who announced this summer that he was leaving.

Zucker said he took note of the opportunity after Walton's announcement but didn't inquire about it until being contacted by Kent after Labor Day. Their discussions grew more serious during the past few weeks, he said.

While familiar with CNN, he said in an interview that "I have watched it with a slightly different eye more recently. Obviously, there's a tremendous amount of fantastic work that goes on here."

Zucker was behind the ill-fated move of Conan O'Brien to the "Tonight" show, with Jay Leno's brief and disastrous stay in prime time. But an unorthodox Zucker personnel decision ? recruiting Meredith Vieira to replace Katie Couric on "Today" ? was a big winner.

A brash and opinionated executive, Zucker rubbed many people in the Hollywood power structure the wrong way. But Kent said he was interested only in Zucker's news experience.

"Whether Jeff Zucker was the best leader for NBC's entertainment division was irrelevant to me," he said.

Since leaving NBC Universal after its purchase by Comcast Corp., Zucker has helped Couric launch a daytime talk show. Couric said she was excited for Zucker's opportunity "and equally excited for CNN."

Roger Ailes, top executive at Fox News, offered a welcome to Zucker on Thursday.

"I have known Jeff for a quarter of a century and he is one of the most experienced executives in the business," Ailes said. "He is a talented producer with solid strategic skills and I'm sure he'll make a difference at CNN. I wish Jeff the best."

Tom Johnson, president of CNN during the 1990s, called Zucker's hiring a "splendid choice."

"I would hope it would be a return to CNN where news trumps all programming so CNN gets back to its basics of being a breaking news network," Johnson said.

There was no word on the futures of Ken Jautz and Mark Whitaker, who have been running the flagship network on a day-to-day basis since Walton's departure. Zucker will also have management control over HLN, CNN International and the CNN.com website.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-11-29-TV-CNN-Zucker/id-29a1b1bd6c774adca534cda2838ac4af

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Create A Profitable Online Store Course: An Interview With The ...

online store

Have you ever wondered how people and businesses go about selling their products on the internet and if it?s difficult create an online store? Steve Chou used to wonder the exact same things before he became a father five years ago. He wanted to find a way for his wife to quit her job to become a stay at home mom without losing one entire income stream. Through a lot of research, trial and error, and ultimately success, they started their own profitable online store and impressively made over $100,000 in the first year! After achieving success and getting numerous questions from people seeking advice on how to do the same, Steve founded the Create A Profitable Online Store Course.

He?s spent a lot of hours building out the course and has been featured in many media outlets including The New York Times and MSNBC. I?ve known Steve for years and recently met up with him in Denver. Curious to learn more about his business he shared with me his thoughts in the following interview.

What?s the number one hurdle people face when trying to start their own online store or business? What are some other obstacles people face?

Steve:The #1 hurdle that most people face is finding the right niche to pursue.?There is a delicate balance of demand vs competition that must be taken into consideration when deciding what to pursue.?If either your niche is too competitive or if there isn?t enough demand, you won?t be successful.The other big obstacle that most shopowners face is getting people in the door and traffic to their website.

How do you build a reputation of trust around your online store so that people are willing to input their credit card or Paypal information and make a purchase?

Steve: There are many ways to build trust.? First off, it?s important to add trust logos near forms fields where people are entering in sensitive information.?Also, adding real customer testimonials around key decision points is essential as well.?But overall, if you have a good looking website, that usually speaks volumes about your store credibility.

Tell us about how you decided to price your online store product at $499? Talk about the value you believe it provides. Is there a money back guarantee?

Steve: There is no other course out there that provides the level of personal support that my course provides. Every week, I hold office hours where I answer questions live.?In addition, I?m constantly adding new content to the course so the material will never go stale.?We are currently at over 100 videos and over 40 hours of video content that pretty much covers everything you need to know.?And you receive a lifetime membership to the site as part of your course fees.

Who is your typical buyer of your product? What is their demographics (gender, age, employment status, current income levels, etc)? What do you think their motivations are for buying your product?

Steve: Basically, my course appeals to anyone who wants to take control over their life and become their own boss. Due to the demographics of my blog, I attract a lot of couples who want to start a family and stay at home with their kids. But overall, anyone who has the desire to start their own business should consider signing up.

You currently make over $100,000 from your online store and are on track for a new record year. Is the figure in revenues, operating profits, or net profits?

Steve: We made 100K in profit during our first year of business and it continues to grow in the double and triple digits every year.

Is there a profitability point in time where you will be willing to quit your day job in order to spend more time with your family and do whatever else you enjoy doing? Is there some type of personal savings goal you have in mind that covers X amount of years of living expenses perhaps?

Steve: For me, quitting my job is not about the money at this point.? Between my businesses, I already make more money than I need.?The key for me is keeping my mind stimulated so I don?t get bored.?Right now, I design microprocessors at my day job and it forces me to use my brain.

If your store?s profitability is irrelevant for quitting your job, then what holds you back from quitting your day job? You mentioned you like your job and find it to be quiet cushy, however, surely there are other things you?d rather do?

Steve: Currently, I?m trying to figure that out. I?m not the type of person that can play tennis or golf every day or travel 9 months out of the year.?I need constant mental stimulation.?If I ever quit my day job, I?d probably start another business.

If you are a normal person who can generate over $100,000 in revenue over a few short years, why don?t others do the same with the advancement and ubiquity of the internet?

Steve: I believe that everyone can do it.?However, there are very few people that have the necessary persistence. That is why it is so important to find a mentor who can provide you with guidance so you avoid making silly mistakes.

Tell us about a time, or times when the online business didn?t go so well. What did you do to carry on? Did you ever want to shut the business down or neglect it for a while?

Steve: Our online store had the luxury of being profitable since day one.?The beauty of the internet is that it doesn?t cost much money to start and maintain a website.?Therefore, we never ever considered shutting the business down. While there were many slow periods in the beginning, once we got into a groove the business kind of snowballed.

Untemplaters, if you want to learn more about Steve, check out his blog?My Wife Quit Her Job, where he writes about his experiences running his online wedding linens store.

To learn more about Steve Chou?s Create A Profitable Online Store Course, please click on the banner below:

Profitable Online Store Course

?

Copyright 2012. Original content authorized only to appear on Untemplater.com. Thank you for reading!

Source: http://untemplater.com/business/entrepreneurship/create-a-profitable-online-store-course-founder-interview/

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Earl Marriott Mariner honoured at B.C. football awards

Earl Marriott Secondary football player Felix Wang was honoured at the B.C. High School Football Provincial Awards Banquet Tuesday for his work on the field, in the classroom and in the community.

Wang, who arrived at Earl Marriott from China in Grade 9 with minimal English-language comprehension and no knowledge of football, was honoured with the Kevin Chin Memorial Award, which goes to the ?top overall student athlete.?

Wang carries a 90-per-cent average in the classroom, volunteers as a peer tutor and also at Peace Arch Hospital and with United Way. Additionally, he is heavily involved in his church, placed in the Top 25 in the Waterloo Math Contest, and is a captain on Marriott?s football team.

?Felix?s record speaks loudly of his commitment to academics, athletics and community,? said EMS football coach Michael Mackay-Dunn, who called the honour ?a super award for one of our top student/athletes.?

In his letter to the award selection committee, Wang said he had ?no idea what (football) was? at first, and at his first practice, he simply copied what others did.

?But I really enjoyed it. After a couple of weeks, my physical ability became better? my grades went up, (and) I spoke more in class, and actually had some basic conversations with English speakers,? he wrote.

?There is no such thing in the world that can match playing football? the benefit and the fun it brings to us is invaluable.?

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Source: http://www.peacearchnews.com/sports/181062761.html

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Obama to appeal to public on 'fiscal cliff'

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama plans to make a public case this week for his strategy for dealing with the looming fiscal cliff, traveling to the Philadelphia suburbs Friday as he pressures Republicans to allow tax increases on the wealthy while extending tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or less.

The White House said Tuesday that the president intends to hold a series of events to build support for his approach to avoid across-the-board tax increases and steep spending cuts in defense and domestic programs. Obama will meet with small business owners at the White House on Tuesday and with middle-class families on Wednesday.

The president's visit to a small business in Hatfield, Pa., that makes parts for a construction toy company will cap a week of public outreach as the White House and congressional leaders negotiate a way to avoid the tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The trip will mark Obama's first public event outside the nation's capital since winning re-election.

Both sides warn the so-called "fiscal cliff" could harm the nation's economic recovery, but an agreement still appears far from assured. The White House and congressional Republicans have differed on whether to raise revenue through higher tax rates or by closing tax loopholes and deductions.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has pushed for raising additional revenue through the reducing of tax loopholes instead of raising tax rates on wealthy Americans. The White House has countered that the president will not sign legislation that extends current tax rates for the top 2 percent of income earners, or those households with incomes over $250,000.

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, a conservative Republican who opposes Obama's plan to increase taxes on the wealthy, said that while a presidential visit to his state "is always welcome," he remains staunchly against Obama's strategy for avoiding the fiscal cliff crunch.

"The president seems absolutely determined to inflict a tax increase on the American people," Toomey told CNN on Tuesday. He said Obama and congressional Democrats must come up with cuts in entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Obama, only weeks after winning re-election, has signaled his intention to rally the public to pressure Congress to support his agenda, an approach that helped him win passage of a payroll tax cut extension and prevented interest rates on millions of federal student loans from doubling last summer.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in an email to supporters after the election that the president's volunteer base was crucial to his re-election but said it was not aimed "just to win a campaign. We have more progress to make, and there's only one way to do it: together."

Following the election, Obama aides asked supporters to record YouTube videos discussing the need to have the wealthiest Americans pay more in taxes. Some of the people who shared their stories on YouTube planned to join Obama at the White House on Wednesday.

On Friday, Obama will tour and deliver remarks at The Rodon Group manufacturing facility in Hatfield, Pa., offering the company up as an example of a business that depends on middle-class consumers during the holiday season. The company manufactures parts for K'NEX Brands, a construction toy company whose products include Tinkertoy, K'NEX Building Sets and Angry Birds Building Sets.

Congressional Republicans, led by Boehner, have expressed openness to discussing additional revenue but oppose any plan that raises tax rates on the wealthy. They argue that the higher rates would also hurt some small businesses and hinder economic growth.

Republicans have called for changes to the tax code to eliminate tax breaks and loopholes that primarily benefit the wealthy. Several key Republican lawmakers have also said they would not be bound by a no-tax-increase pledge that they have adhered to in the past.

Boehner and GOP leaders planned to meet Wednesday with members of a bipartisan coalition of former members of Congress and business leaders that has advocated cuts in spending in major health care programs as well as changes in the tax code to raise more money but also to lower rates.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-appeal-public-fiscal-cliff-110417560--finance.html

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Egypt protests continue in crisis over Mursi powers

CAIRO (Reuters) - Hundreds of demonstrators were in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a sixth day on Wednesday, demanding that President Mohamed Mursi rescind a decree they say gives him dictatorial powers, while two of Egypt's top courts stopped work in protest.

Five months into the Islamist leader's term, and in scenes reminiscent of the popular uprising that unseated predecessor Hosni Mubarak last year, police fired teargas at stone-throwers following protests by tens of thousands on Tuesday against the declaration that expanded Mursi's powers and put his decisions beyond legal challenge.

Protesters say they will stay in Tahrir until the decree is withdrawn, bringing fresh turmoil to a nation at the heart of the Arab Spring and delivering a new blow to an economy already on the ropes.

Egypt's Cassation and Appeals courts said they would suspend their work until the constitutional court rules on the decree, which has further damaged Mursi's already testy relationship with the country's judges.

In a speech on Friday, Mursi praised the judiciary as a whole but referred to corrupt elements he aimed to weed out.

A spokesman for the Supreme Constitutional Court, which declared the Islamist-led parliament void earlier this year, said on Wednesday that it felt under attack by the president.

"The really sad thing that has pained the members of this court is when the president of the republic joined, in a painful surprise, the campaign of continuous attack on the Constitutional Court," said the spokesman Maher Samy.

Senior judges have been negotiating with Mursi about how to restrict his new powers, while protesters want him to dissolve an Islamist-dominated assembly that is drawing up a new constitution and which Mursi protected from legal review.

Any deal to calm the street will likely need to address both issues. But opposition politicians said the list of demands could grow the longer the crisis goes on. Many protesters want the cabinet, which meets on Wednesday, to be sacked, too.

Mursi's administration insists that his actions were aimed at breaking a political logjam to push Egypt more swiftly towards democracy, an assertion his opponents dismiss.

"The president wants to create a new dictatorship," said 38-year-old Mohamed Sayyed Ahmed, who has not had a job for two years. He is one of many in the square who are as angry over economic hardship as they are about Mursi's actions.

"We want the scrapping of the constitutional declaration and the constituent assembly, so a new one is created representing all the people and not just one section," he said.

The West worries about turbulence in a nation that has a peace treaty with Israel and is now ruled by Islamists they long kept at arms length. The United States, a big donor to Egypt's military, has called for "peaceful democratic dialogue".

Two people have been killed in violence since the decree, while low-level clashes between protesters and police have gone on for days near Tahrir. Violence has flared in other cities.

WRANGLES

Trying to ease tensions with judges, Mursi said elements of his decree giving his decisions immunity applied only to matters of "sovereign" importance, a compromise suggested by the judges in talks.

That should limit it to issues such as declaring war, but experts said there was much room for interpretation. The judges themselves are divided, and the broader judiciary has yet to back the compromise. Some have gone on strike over the decree.

The fate of the assembly drawing up the constitution has been at the centre of a wrangle between Islamists and their opponents for months. Many liberals, Christians and more moderate Muslims have walked out, saying their voices were not being heard in the body dominated by Islamists.

That has undermined the work of the assembly, which is tasked with shaping Egypt's new democracy. Without a constitution in place, the president's powers are not permanently defined and a new parliament cannot be elected.

For now, Mursi holds both executive and legislative powers. His decree says his decisions cannot be challenged until a new parliament is in place. An election is expected in early 2013.

"If Mursi doesn't respond to the people, they will raise their demands to his removal," said Bassem Kamel, a liberal and former member of the now dissolved parliament that was dominated by Mursi's party, a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

He said Tuesday's protest showed that Egyptians "understood that the Brotherhood isn't for democracy but uses it as a tool to reach power and then to get rid of it".

Protecting his decisions and the constituent assembly from legal review was a swipe at the judiciary, still largely unreformed since Mubarak's era.

One presidential source said Mursi wanted to re-make the Supreme Constitutional Court after it declared the parliament void, which led to its dissolution by the then ruling military.

Both Islamists and their opponents broadly agree that the judiciary needs reform, but Mursi's rivals oppose his methods.

The courts have dealt a series of blows to Mursi and the Brotherhood. The first constituent assembly, also packed with Islamists, was dissolved. An attempt by Mursi in October to remove the unpopular general prosecutor was also blocked.

In his decree, Mursi gave himself the power to sack the prosecutor general and appoint a new one, which he duly did.

(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egyptians-challenge-mursi-nationwide-protests-084731842.html

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY: CO Shopkeepers Hope for Black

Will Black Friday push retailers into the black?? Whether it is hundreds of Colorado Hostess employees pushed out of their jobs by stubborn union demands, or hundreds more Colorado Vestas employees living under uncertainty regarding special government credits propping up their employer, Colorado citizens faced another year of weak growth, high unemployment, stagnant wages, and rising taxes.? How this will play out in the important holiday retail season is TBD, but we are not holding our breath.

Tomorrow, the Conference Board will publish November?s consumer confidence numbers, which may help guide estimates of 2012 holiday sales. Last month?s result was a weak 72.2 (registering below consensus estimates of 73).? To give some context to that number, the November number at the end of George W. Bush?s first term was 92, and it trended above 100 in eight of the nine months following his re-election.? Those numbers are a sign of a nation confident in the direction of its economy, and on a more granular level, families confident in their individual economic conditions.? Why is this important?? Because U.S. consumer spending still drives our economy, and to a certain extent, the global economy.

A deeper look into October?s sentiment numbers show a nation with a sharply negative outlook on its economic condition.? A scant 16.5% of those surveyed for the October report felt that US business conditions were ?good,? while 33.1% answered that business conditions were ?bad.?? What will tomorrow?s numbers show?? We will be watching at 8:00 Mountain Time.? We hope it?s positive news for Colorado?s small business owners.

?

Source: http://coloradopeakpolitics.com/2012/11/26/small-business-saturday-co-shopkeepers-hope-for-black-consumer-confidence-lags/

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Dannielynn Birkhead Stars in Guess Ad Campaign

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/11/dannielynn-birkhead-stars-in-guess-ad-campaign/

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Syrian planes bomb olive press, many killed

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, the Union of Syria?s Victory Battalions prepare a rocket in Aleppo, Syria, on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, the Union of Syria?s Victory Battalions prepare a rocket in Aleppo, Syria, on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Colonel Abu al-Furat, commander of the battle of the trenches revolutionaries, third left, speaks in Aleppo, Syria, on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

In this image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a Syrian rebel fires his weapon during clashes with government forces in Aleppo, Syria on Monday, Nov. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a Syrian rebel fires his weapon during clashes with government forces in Aleppo, Syria, on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Colonel Abu al-Furat, commander of the battle of the trenches revolutionaries, second left, speaks in Aleppo, Syria, on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

(AP) ? Syrian warplanes bombed an olive press factory in the country's north on Tuesday, killing and wounding dozens of people, including farmers who were waiting to convert their olives to oil, activists said.

Two activist groups ? the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees ? said the targeted factory is west of the city of Idlib. The LCC says at least 20 people were killed and many others wounded in the raid, while the Observatory said "tens were killed or wounded."

Both groups depend on a network of activists on the ground around the country.

President Bashar Assad's regime has been launching intense air raids on rebels in recent months, mostly in Idlib, the nearby province of Aleppo, Deir el-Zour to the east and suburbs of the capital Damascus.

The most recent air raids have killed hundreds of people, including eight children on Sunday in the village of Deir al-Asafir near the capital, Damascus.

"It is a sign of despair," said Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut. He added that the regime forces are overstretched, and the air force is being used in areas that the army cannot easily reach.

"This is mass punishment. The regime is striking at civilian areas to make the people pay a price for not standing against advancing opposition forces," Khashan said. "The regime is desperate and wants to make the price of its opponents' victory costly."

Olive oil is a main staple in Syria. Tens of thousands of tons are produced annually.

Fadi al-Yassin, an activist based in Idlib, told The Associated Press by telephone that dozens of people had gathered to have their olives pressed when the warplanes struck, causing a large number of casualties.

It was not immediately clear why the olive press was targeted. "It was a massacre carried out by the regime," said al-Yassin.

"Now is the season to press oil," said al-Yassin, noting that many olive press factories are not functioning in the area because of the fighting in the region. A large number of people were at the one near the city of Idlib.

"Functioning olive press factories are packed with people these days," he said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said that evidence has emerged that an airstrike using cluster bombs on the village of Deir al-Asafir near Damascus killed at least 11 children and wounded others on Sunday. Cluster bombs have been banned by most nations.

"This attack shows how cluster munitions kill without discriminating between civilians and military personnel," said Mary Wareham, arms division advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Due to the devastating harm caused to civilians, cluster bombs should not be used by anyone, anywhere, at any time."

The Observatory also reported heavy fighting on the southern edge of the strategic rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan, captured from government troops last month.

The town is on the highway that links the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest, a commercial center that has been the scene of clashes between rebels and troops since July.

The Observatory and al-Yassin said air raids on Maaret al-Numan killed at least five rebels.

The LCC said a shelling fell on the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp Tuesday, killing a boy and wounding another.

Also, Syria's state-run TV said a car rigged with explosives went off in the Damascus suburb of Artouz, killing at least two people and wounding four.

Syria's conflict started in March 2011 as an uprising against Assad's regime, but quickly morphed into a civil war that has since killed more than 40,000 people, according to activists.

Assad's regime blames the revolt on a foreign conspiracy. It accuses Saudi Arabia and Qatar, along with the United States, other Western countries and Turkey of funding, training and arming the rebels, whom it calls terrorists.

On Tuesday, the pro-government daily Al-Watan published a list with names of 142 Arab and foreign "terrorists," whom it said were killed in Syria over the past months.

The paper said Syria submitted the list to the U.N. Security Council last month.

The list had names from 18 countries. It listed 47 from Saudi Arabia, 24 Libyans, 10 Tunisians, nine Egyptians, six Qataris and five Lebanese.

International journalists who visit rebel-held areas say foreign fighters are taking part in the battles against Assad's forces. Western officials say there is little doubt that Islamist extremists from outside Syria, some associated with the al-Qaida terror network, have made inroads in Syria as instability has spread.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-27-ML-Syria/id-1b3b33f2982a40868adf78d26f8155cd

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Shrubs lend insight into a glacier's past

ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2012) ? The stems of shrubs have given researchers a window into a glacier's past, potentially allowing them to more accurately assess how they're set to change in the future.

Their findings have been published 27 November in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, and show how a glacier's history of melting can be extended way past the instrumental record.

Much like the rings on a tree stump indicate how old it is, measuring the width of rings on the stem of a shrub can give a good indication of how well it has grown year on year. Under extreme environmental conditions, such as those close to a glacier, a shrub's growth relies heavily on summer temperatures, meaning the ring-width of a shrub can be used a proxy for glacial melting, which also relies heavily on summer temperatures.

Lead author of the study, Allan Buras, said: "In warm summers, shrubs grow more compared to cold summers. In contrast, a glacier's summer mass balance is more negative in warm summers, meaning there is more melting compared to cold summers.

"Big rings in shrubs therefore indicate comparably warm summers, and thus a strongly negative summer mass balance -- in other words, more melting."

The researchers, from the University of Greifswald, tested this theory on a local icecap in the Scandic Mountains of southern Norway. They took 24 samples of shrubs from a site close to the glacier and analysed their ring-widths.

Monthly precipitation and temperature data from a local climate station were retrieved from the Norwegian Meteorological Office, and the summer mass balance of the glacier, from 1963 to 2010, was retrieved from the existing literature.

Each of these data sets was then statistically tested to see if there was a correlation between them. The results showed a robust and reliable correlation between the ring-width of shrubs and the summer melting of the glacier.

"Our results show that it is possible to reconstruct glacier summer mass balance with shrub ring-width series and it is therefore theoretically possible to extent records of summer mass balance into the past," Buras continued.

The shrubs that were collected in the study were relatively young, only allowing for reliable reconstructions over the past 36 years, meaning they could not be used to extend the record of the glacier; however, the researchers are confident that this could have been achieved if longer-lived shrubs were selected.

Most of the available data on the mass balance of glaciers only spans several decades and there is some data missing, mainly because most glaciers are situated in hard-to-reach arctic and alpine areas.

With the possibility to extend the instrumental records of summer mass balance, researchers may gain a better understanding of how glaciers behave in the summer, which they can use to calibrate and verify their existing models.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institute of Physics.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Allan Buras, Martin Hallinger, Martin Wilmking. Can shrubs help to reconstruct historical glacier retreats? Environmental Research Letters, 2012; 7 (4): 044031 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044031

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/OBMn89C92Ik/121126192759.htm

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Monday, November 26, 2012

Beara poet Leanne honoured at UCC Alumni Awards

Leanne O?Sullivan and Dr Michael Murphy. Pic: Ger McCarthy

BEARA poet Leanne O?Sullivan was among the outstanding achievers in the arts, business, medicine and volunteering who were honoured by UCC at the 2012 UCC Alumni Achievement Awards recently.

Arts graduate, Leanne has made a very considerable reputation for herself as a poet despite her youth.

Leanne has published two collections of poetry Waiting for my Clothes (2004) when she was still an undergraduate student at UCC and Cailleach: The Hag of Beara (2009).

Her third collection The Mining Road is due out next year.

Her poetry has been acclaimed for the extraordinary power of its language and the maturity of vision and she has won many prestigious international poetry awards.

The annual UCC Alumni Achievement Awards Programme honours alumni who have obtained ?extraordinary distinction and success in their chosen fields?.

More than 60 distinguished UCC alumni have been honoured since the Awards Programme was established in 1997.

UCC President Dr Michael Murphy said, ?It gives me great pleasure to present an Alumnus Achievement Award to those graduates whose outstanding accomplishments have brought great hour to their alma mater.

?We regard our graduates as our global ambassadors and a valuable resource to the University?.

Source: http://westcorktimes.com/home/?p=13787

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Ultimate Preparedness Library ? Manuals, Guides, and Resources ...

You are here: Home / General / Ultimate Preparedness Library ? Manuals, Guides, and Resources for Survival, Self Reliance, Emergency Preparedness



Ultimate Preparedness Library - Manuals, Guides, and Resources for Survival, Self Reliance, Emergency PreparednessBefore the existence of modern day conveniences like electricity, water treatment, air conditioning, mass food production, and just-in-time transportation delivery systems people still lived long and healthy lives.

For thousands of years humanity has thrived on knowledge that has been passed down from parent to child, teacher to student, and master to apprentice.

These are but a handful of the many essential life skills that have been learned, passed on and utilized for survival and self reliance for generations, well before the advent of computers, cell phones, and pizza delivery.

While much of this knowledge has been lost through mankind?s many conflicts and technological advancements, much of it has also been preserved by dedicated practitioners, experts and authors who understand the value of the information they possess.

The most basic skills that were required to maintain a decent lifestyle only a hundred years ago are now taken for granted by a society dependent on just-in-time delivery and mass-scale food production.With millions of people already overwhelming the system by taking more out than is being put in, and geo-political tensions across the globe rising because of a battle for resources that has spanned the history of the human race, it?s only a matter of time before something goes wrong.

In fact, every so often, somewhere in the world, it does go wrong. And when it does, people are often left impoverished and struggling to survive. But, despite whatever strife may befall a city, or country or continent, there are always those people who are able to adapt and change because of an already established knowledge base.

Whether it?s growing food because the cost to acquire it from somewhere else becomes prohibitive, or being able to protect your land from looters during civil disorder, or having to evacuate your home and never come back because of a massive disaster ? there are people who have been through it. They?ve shared their stories and the strategies that got them through hard times.

A Comprehensive Collection of Resources for Emergency Preparedness, Homesteading, & Living a Self Reliant Lifestyle

Becoming self reliant and acquiring the skills of our ancestors is not only a lifestyle choice that can lead to a sense of self worth, fullfilment and well-being, but prepares you for a time when the world as we know it today becomes difficult, if not impossible to sustain.

Most people simply don?t see the value in learning how to thrive on their own and survive in an emergency, but because you?re still reading this there?s a strong possibility that you?re not like "most" people.

Assembling such a library yourself could take months, costing you a lot of time, energy and money. If you were to puchase these books and manuals in print form you?d spend upwards of $1000.

As a member, you?ll receive full lifetime access to read, download, store and print over one hundred (100) absolutely essential books, preparedness manuals, self reliance guides and informational resources that provide?


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AP IMPACT: Will NYC act to block future surges?

Think Sandy was just a 100-year storm that devastated New York City? Imagine one just as bad, or worse, every three years.

Prominent planners and builders say now is the time to think big to shield the city's core: a 5-mile barrier blocking the entryway to New York Harbor, an archipelago of man-made islets guarding the tip of Manhattan, or something like CDM Smith engineer Larry Murphy's 1,700-foot barrier ? complete with locks for passing boats and a walkway for pedestrians ? at the mouth of the Arthur Kill waterway between the borough of Staten Island and New Jersey.

Act now, before the next deluge, and they say it could even save money in the long run.

These strategies aren't just pipe dreams. Not only do these technologies already exist, some of the concepts have been around for decades and have been deployed successfully in other countries and U.S. cities.

So if the science and engineering are sound, the long-term cost would actually be a savings, and the frequency and severity of more killer floods is inevitable, what's the holdup?

Political will.

Like the argument in towns across America when citizens want a traffic signal installed at a dangerous intersection, Sandy's 43 deaths and estimated $26 billion in damages citywide might not be enough to galvanize the public and the politicians into action.

"Unfortunately, they probably won't do anything until something bad happens," said CDM Smith's Murphy. "And I don't know if this will be considered bad enough."

Sandy and her 14-foot surge not bad enough? By century's end, researchers forecast up to four feet higher seas, producing storm flooding akin to Sandy's as often as several times each decade. Even at current sea levels, Sandy's floodwaters filled subways, other tunnels and streets in parts of Manhattan.

Without other measures, rebuilding will simply augment the future destruction. Yet that's what political leaders are emphasizing. President Barack Obama himself has promised to stand with the city "until the rebuilding is complete."

So it might take a worse superstorm or two to really get the problem fixed.

The focus on rebuilding irks people like Robert Trentlyon, a retired weekly newspaper publisher in lower Manhattan who is campaigning for sea barriers to protect the city: "The public is at the woe-is-me stage, rather than how-do-we-prevent-this-in-the-future stage."

He belongs to a coterie of professionals and ordinary New Yorkers who want to take stronger action. Though pushing for a regional plan, they are especially intent on keeping Manhattan dry.

The 13-mile-long island serves as the country's financial and entertainment nerve center. Within a 3-mile-long horseshoe-shaped flood zone around its southernmost quadrant are almost 500,000 residents and 300,000 jobs. Major storms swamp places like Wall Street and the site of the World Trade Center.

Proven technology already exists to blunt or virtually block wind-whipped seas from overtaking lower Manhattan and much of the rest of New York City, according to a series of Associated Press interviews with engineers, architects and scientists and a review of research on flooding issues in the New York metropolitan area and around the globe.

These strategies range from hard structures like mammoth barriers equipped with ship gates and embedded at entrances to the harbor, to softer and greener shoreline restraints like man-made marshes and barrier islands.

Additional landfill, the old standby once used to extend Manhattan into the harbor, could further lift vulnerable highways and other sites beyond the reach of the seas.

Even more simply, the rock and concrete seawalls and bulkheads that already ring lower Manhattan could be built up, but now perhaps with high-tech wave-absorbing or wave-reflecting materials.

Seizing the initiative from government, business and academic circles have fleshed out several dramatic concepts to hold back water before it tops the shoreline. Two of the most elaborate proposals are:

? A rock causeway, with 80-foot-high swinging ship gates, would sweep five miles across the entryway to inner New York Harbor from Sandy Hook, N.J., to Breezy Point, N.Y. To protect Manhattan, another shorter barrier is needed to the north, where the East River meets Long Island Sound, and another small blockage would go up near Sandy Hook. This New Jersey-side barrier and a network of levees on both ends of the causeway could help protect picturesque beach communities like Atlantic Highlands, in New Jersey to the west, and the Rockaways, in New York City to the east. This so-called outer barrier option was conceived for a professional symposium by the engineering firm CH2M HILL, which last year finished building a supersized 15-mile barrier guarding St. Petersburg, Russia, from Baltic Sea storms.

? An extensive green makeover of lower Manhattan would install an elaborate drainage system beneath the streets, build up the very tip by 6 feet, pile 30-foot earthen mounds along the eastern edge, and create perimeter wetlands and a phalanx of artificial barrier islets ? all to absorb the brunt of a huge storm surge. Plantings along the streets would help soak up runoff that floods the city sewers during heavy rains. This concept was worked up by DLANDSTUDIO and Architecture Research Office, two city architectural firms, for a museum project.

What's missing is not viable ideas or proposals, but determination. Massive projects protecting other cities from the periodic ravages of stormy seas usually happened after catastrophes on a scale eclipsing even Sandy.

It took the collapse of dikes, drowning deaths of more than 1,800 people, and evacuation of another 100,000 in 1953 for the Dutch to say "Never again!" They have since constructed the world's sturdiest battery of dikes, dams and barriers. No disaster on that scale has happened since.

It took the breach of levees, a similar death toll, and flooding of 80 percent of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to marshal the momentum finally to build a two-mile barricade against the Gulf of Mexico.

A handful of seaside New England cities ? Stamford, Conn.; Providence, R.I.; and New Bedford, Mass. ? have built smaller barriers after their own disasters.

However, New York City, which mostly lies just several feet above sea level, has so far escaped the horrors visited elsewhere. Its leaders have been brushing off warnings of disaster for years.

Retired geologist Jim Mellet of New Fairfield, Conn., recalls hearing a story told to him by the late Bill A. O'Leary, a retired city engineer at the time: He and other engineers, concerned about battering floods, had approached power broker Robert Moses more than 80 years ago to ask him to consider constructing a gigantic barrier to hold back storm tides at the entrance to the city's Upper Bay.

Moses supposedly squashed the idea like an annoying bug. "According to Bill, he stood there uninterested, with his arms folded on his chest, and when they finished the presentation, he just said, 'No, it will destroy the view.'" Or perhaps he was already mulling other plans for the same site, where he would build the Verrazano Narrows Bridge years later.

Many city projects, like the Westway highway plan of the 1970s and 1980s, died partly because of the impact they would have on the cherished view of water from the congested cityscape. Imagine, then, the political viability of a project that might further block access to the harbor or the view of the Statue of Liberty from the tip of Manhattan.

"I can assure that many New Yorkers would have strong opinions about high seawalls," said an email from a retired New York commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bud Griffis, who was involved in the permitting process for the failed Westway.

However, global warming and its rising sea levels now make it harder simply to shrug off measures to shield the city from storms. Sandy drove 14-foot higher-than-normal seas ? breaking a nearly 200-year-old record ? into car and subway tunnels, streets of trendy neighborhoods, commuter highways and an electrical substation that shorted out nearly all of lower Manhattan.

The late October storm left 43 dead in the city, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn estimated at least $26 billion in damages and economic losses. The regional cost has been estimated at $50 billion, making Sandy the second most destructive storm in U.S. history after Katrina.

Yet heavier storms are forecast. A 1995 study involving the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers envisioned a worst-case storm scenario for New York: High winds rip windows and masonry from skyscrapers, forcing pedestrians to flee to subway tunnels to avoid the falling debris. The tunnels soon flood.

With its dense population and distinctive coastline, New York is especially vulnerable, with Manhattan at the center.

The famous island can be pounded by storm surges from three sides: from the west via the Arthur Kill, from the south through the Upper Bay, and from the Long Island Sound through the East River. Relatively shallow depth offshore allows storm waters to pile up; the north-south shoreline of New Jersey and the east-west orientation of Long Island further channel gushing seas right at Manhattan.

Some believe that Sandy was bad enough at least to advance more serious study of stronger protections. "I think the superstorm we had really put the fear of God into people, because no one really believed it would happen," said urban planner Juliana Maantay at Lehman College-City University of New York.

But nearly all flood researchers interviewed by the AP voiced considerable skepticism about action in the foreseeable future. "In a half year's time, there will be other problems again, I can tell you," said Dutch urban planner Jeroen Aerts, who has studied storm protections around the world.

William Solecki, a Manhattan-based Hunter College planner who has been at the center of city and state task forces on climate change, guessed that little more will be done to prevent future flooding beyond "nibbling at the edges" of the threat.

In recent years, the city has been enforcing codes that require flood-zone builders to keep electrical and other critical systems above predicted high water from what was until recently thought to be a once-in-a-century storm. Sealing other key equipment against water has been encouraged. The city has tried to keep storm grates free of debris and has elevated subway entrances. The buzz word has been making things more "resilient."

But this approach does little to stop swollen waters of a gigantic storm from pouring over lower Manhattan. "Resiliency means if you get knocked down, this is how you get back up again," huffs activist Trentlyon. "They just were talking about what you do afterward." He said Sandy's flood water rose to 5 feet at street level in Chelsea, where he lives on the western side of lower Manhattan.

The city has at least toyed with the idea of barriers and even considered various locations in a 2008 study. "I have always considered that flood gates are something we should consider, but are not necessarily the immediate answer to rush toward," said Rohit Aggarwala, a Stanford University teacher who is former director of the New York mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability.

Unswayed by Sandy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his assistants have been blunter. Bloomberg said barriers might not be worthwhile "even if you spent a fortune."

Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said no specific measures ? whether more wetlands, higher seawalls or harbor barriers ? have been ruled out because "there's no one-size-fits-all solution." But he compared sea barriers to the Maginot Line, the fortified line of defenses that Germany quickly sidestepped to conquer France at the beginning of World War II.

"The city is not going to be totally stormproof, but I think it can be very adaptable," he added. He said that new flood maps informed by Sandy are being drawn up, and he suspects they will extend the zones where new developments must install critical equipment above flood level.

Computer simulations indicate that hard barriers, which have worked elsewhere around the world, would do a good job of shielding New York neighborhoods behind them. But they'd actually make flooding worse just outside the barriers, where surging waters would pile up with nowhere to go.

The patriarch of this research is Malcolm Bowman, a native New Zealander who leads a passionate cadre of barrier researchers at Stony Brook University on the northern shore of Long Island. His warnings have mostly gone unheeded. "I feel like a biblical prophet crying in the wilderness: 'The end is near!'" Bowman said.

Unbowed, he continues to preach against incremental measures. "If you get a storm and a big oak tree falls on your house, then whether you fix your gutter doesn't matter," he said.

In recent years, his logic has finally begun to resonate a bit more. Nicholas Kim, an oceanographer with engineering firm HDR HydroQual who studied with Bowman in the 1980s, said his mentor has been thinking about barriers since then: "Everybody said, 'You're crazy!' But now it's becoming clear that we need protection."

Even massive structures don't shield everyone, though. A 2009 four-barrier study co-authored by Kim found that in a simulated storm, barriers still failed to protect large swaths of Queens and sections of other outlying boroughs with a total of more than 100,000 people.

Researchers also have predicted at least a modest additional one-foot rise of stormy seas as water piles up outside the barriers. "If you're the guy just outside the barrier, and you're paying taxes and you're not included, you're not going to be very happy," said oceanographer Larry Swanson at Stony Brook University.

How such barriers would affect water movement, silt and marine life also remains an open question requiring further study for each case.

The scale and costs of hard barrier schemes have further put off many critics. After flooding from Hurricane Irene last year, city representatives asked Aerts, the Dutch planner, to compare the cost and benefits of barriers to existing approaches. His initial analysis will not be finished until February, but his early cost estimate for barriers and associated dikes for New York City is $15 billion to $27 billion ? comparable to that of the record-setting $24 billion Big Dig that reshaped Boston's waterfront ? not to block storms, but to unblock traffic and views of the waterfront.

Barrier defenders counter by pointing to the cost of storm damages. Stony Brook meteorologist Brian Colle said: "When you think of the cost of a Sandy, which is running in the billions, these barriers are basically going to pay for themselves in one or two storms." Advocates say tolls on trains or cars riding atop a barrier could help finance the project.

While appealing for rebuilding, Council Speaker Quinn also has said that "the time for casual debate is over" and called for a bold mix of resiliency with grander protective structures. She has estimated the cost of her plan at $20 billion.

Other massive protection schemes, like the green makeover of lower Manhattan, also would probably run into the billions. And soft protections are meant only to defuse, not stop, rising waters. Sandy battered parts of Long Island behind barrier islands and wetlands.

Nor is it clear that Manhattan has enough space to fashion more extensive wetlands of the sort that help protect the Gulf Coast, however imperfectly. "New York is too far gone for wetlands," said Griffis, the retired Army Corps commander for New York.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has announced he will spearhead efforts to request a corps study of whether barriers or other options would work better. However, it remains unclear if Congress would be willing to fund such a study, which would undoubtedly take several years and cost millions of dollars.

And even before a dime has been appropriated, the corps is lowering expectations. Says spokesman Chris Gardner: "You can't protect everywhere completely at all times."

___

Associated Press National Writer Adam Geller and AP researcher Julie Reed contributed to this report.

___

The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate(at)ap.org

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-impact-nyc-act-block-future-surges-175541122--finance.html

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jugindarsharma8: Shopping and Product Reviews: Will Traditional ...

The popularity of online shopping has been seen by many as a threat to the existence of traditional shopping. Their argument is based on the recent widespread closure of established brands like Sears and Best Buy. But can we really say that traditional shopping is dying?

In 2011, even though the U.S economy was sluggish, shopping grew by 15% over the previous year. In addition, about 35% of Americans now have smartphones which enable them to purchase goods and services over the internet and this figure is expected to rise significantly in subsequent years. In actual fact, about half of smartphone users have used their phones for one purchase or the other. On Christmas day of 2011 alone, about 6.8 million iOs and Android smartphones were activated. Top internet retailer, Amazon, recorded a whooping net sale of $48.08 billion in 2011 which represents 40.6% increase over $32.20 billion recorded in 2010. This figure is expected to rise in 2012 and subsequent years. What then is the implication of all these to physical retailing?

Since many people now decide to shop over the internet due to the benefits derivable in doing so like convenience, easy access to market, price comparison, avoidance of crowd, better prices and so on, can we really say that that the traditional way of shopping is being threatened? In my own opinion, technology will enhance the traditional method and not kill it. The popularity of video cassette recorder (VCR) in the 80's was seen by many as a threat to movie theaters then, but today, the film industry has been strengthened by the new technology and the demand for films has increased.

Moreover, when the email became very popular, a lot people thought that the traditional postal service would die, but today, it is waxing stronger. The point I'm driving at here is that, if traditional shop owners can embrace new technology, shopping on the internet would not be a threat to them but a blessing.

If physical retailers can monitor shopping behavior through the use of Wi-Fi signals from smartphones, they would be able to compete favorably in a fast-changing world. They can use technology to measure loyalty, make better staffing decisions, improve store layouts, reduce wait times in checkout lines and so on. Online shopping has come to stay but it is not a threat to traditional shopping because many consumers still value some of its features like quality of customer service, the experience of trying and buying products, how products are displayed and so on.

Olushola Otenaike is an online shopping expert.

Source: http://mysoupbaby.blogspot.com/2012/11/will-traditional-shopping-die-because.html

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Source: http://jaimelloyd.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/shopping-and-product-reviews-will-traditional-shopping-die.html

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Source: http://vasqueztyrell6849.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/shopping-and-product-reviews-will-traditional-shopping-die.html

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Source: http://dresser-microelectronics.blogspot.com/2012/11/shopping-and-product-reviews-will.html

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Source: http://jugindarsharma8.blogspot.com/2012/11/shopping-and-product-reviews-will.html

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