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House Passes Violence Against Women Act (talking-points-memo)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/288104579?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Mastermind of UK's 'Great Train Robbery' dies

Popperfoto / Getty Images

Detectives inspect the Royal Mail train from which over 2.6 million pounds was stolen, on Aug. 8, 1963, in Cheddington, Buckinghamshire, England.

By Clare Hutchison, Reuters

LONDON -- The mastermind behind Britain's "Great Train Robbery," a 1963 heist that turned its perpetrators into celebrities, has died at age 81, local media reported Thursday.

Bruce Reynolds died in his sleep at his home in London after a period of ill health, reports from news media including the BBC said, citing comments from Reynolds' son, Nick.

Paul Popper / Popperfoto / Getty Images

A photo issued by Scotland Yard on Aug. 2, 1963, shows Bruce Reynolds, who has died at home in London.

His death came just months before the 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery, which was at the time Britain's largest robbery.

In August 1963, Reynolds, along with an 11-member gang, tampered with railway track signals and stopped a Royal Mail night train travelling from Glasgow to London carrying letters, parcels and large amounts of cash.

Reynolds and his men stormed the train and made off with 2.6 million pounds, equivalent to about 40 million pounds or $61 million in today's money.

Train driver Jack Mills was struck over the head during the robbery. He died seven years later, and many people believed the injuries he sustained during the heist contributed to his death.

Most of the gang members were caught and given prison sentences totaling more than 300 years, but Reynolds evaded capture, fleeing Britain with his wife and son. He spent five years as a fugitive in places as far afield as Canada and Mexico.

On his return to Britain, Reynolds was caught by police and sentenced to 25 years in prison, of which he served just 10.

Reynolds later found fame as an author after penning his memoirs, titled "Autobiography of a Thief."?

His accomplice Ronnie Biggs achieved similar notoriety after he escaped from the prison where he was serving a 30-year jail sentence for his part in the robbery.

Biggs spent 36 years on the run, leading a playboy lifestyle in South America, before finally surrendering to British police in 2001. Biggs was freed in 2009 on health grounds.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17132265-mastermind-of-britains-great-train-robbery-dies-at-81?lite

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Seals take scientists to Antarctic's ocean floor

By Pauline Askin

SYDNEY | Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:54pm EST

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Elephant seals wearing head sensors and swimming deep beneath Antarctic ice have helped scientists better understand how the ocean's coldest, deepest waters are formed, providing vital clues to understanding its role in the world's climate.

The tagged seals, along with sophisticated satellite data and moorings in ocean canyons, all played a role in providing data from the extreme Antarctic environment, where observations are very rare and ships could not go, said researchers at the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystem CRC in Tasmania.

Scientists have long known of the existence of "Antarctic bottom water," a dense, deep layer of water near the ocean floor that has a significant impact on the movement of the world's oceans.

Three areas where this water is formed were known of, and the existence of a fourth suspected for decades, but the area was far too inaccessible, until now, thanks to the seals.

"The seals went to an area of the coastline that no ship was ever going to get to," said Guy Williams, ACE CRC Sea Ice specialist and co-author of the study.

"This is a particular form of Antarctic water called Antarctic bottom water production, one of the engines that drives ocean circulation," he told Reuters. "What we've done is found another piston in that engine."

Southern Ocean Elephant seals are the largest of all seals, with males growing up to six meters (20 feet) long and weighing up to 4,000 kilograms (8,800 lbs).

Twenty of the seals were deployed from Davis Station in east Antarctica in 2011 with a sensor, weighing about 100 to 200 grams, on their head. Each of the sensors had a small satellite relay which transmitted data on a daily basis during the five to 10 minute intervals when the seals surfaced.

"We get four dives worth of data a day but they're actually doing up to 60 dives," he said.

"The elephant seals ... went to the very source and found this very cold, very saline dense water in the middle of winter beneath a polynya, which is what we call an ice factory around the coast of Antarctica," Williams added.

Previous studies have shown that there are 50-year-long trends in the properties of the Antarctic bottom water, and Williams said the latest study will help better assess those changes, perhaps providing clues for climate change modeling.

"Several of the seals foraged on the continental slope as far down as 1,800 meters (1.1 miles), punching through into a layer of this dense water cascading down the abyss," he said in a statement. "They gave us very rare and valuable wintertime measurements of this process."

(Reporting by Pauline Askin, Editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/7PoVWXaCnQ0/us-australia-antarctic-seals-idUSBRE91P03020130226

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94% Barbara

All Critics (53) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (50) | Rotten (3)

Hoss is fantastic. Barbara is ice cold at the start, understandably so. Yet Hoss makes her sympathetic.

[Leaves] you drained and horrified.

Sometimes, the sun shines and the wind blows fresh and the very elements that make for intense hardship also open a window on intense joy.

Hoss is mesmerizing as a woman who holds it all together to the point of losing herself.

It's one terrific film, as smart, thoughtful and emotionally involving as just about anything that's out there.

It's a quiet film built of careful details.

This well acted political melodrama, set during the Cold War, is Germany's entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

Hoss' outstanding performance is a deep well of subtle yet unmistakable motives and reactions.

A crafty filmmaker, Petzold gives us information in increments. During the first half of his movie, which he co-wrote, we are all but left to our own devices; yet it is fascinating, and appropriate.

Worth seeing ... both for Petzold's singular aesthetic and for Hoss, who as usual is a riveting presence.

A well-observed, compelling, and evocative character piece, haunted by the ghosts of Germany's recent past.

Feels like total immersion into the sights, stresses, and the subtle solidarity among middle-class professionals living in the workers' paradise that Petzold's parents fled.

[R]esides somewhere in an unsatisfying borderland between drama and thriller, never quite catching fire as either...

A superbly crafted low-boil drama that gets its hooks into you the old-fashioned way, through character, and highlights the difficulties and cost of living by principles.

Subtly intriguing and ambiguous, it's filled with suspicion and subterfuge.

Despite the limited scope of its predictable narrative, "Barbara" remains a compelling character study thanks to Nina Hoss's enigmatic performance in the title role.

Christian Petzold's latest thriller threatens to cross over the line from minimalism to nihilism.

Both insightful and poignant, but not mawkish...an intriguing character study set against the backdrop of a dark time in history.

The plotting, the planning and the deepening relationships don't make for kinetic action, but they are the foundation for a smart, engrossing film.

No quotes approved yet for Barbara. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/barbara_2012/

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Sequester-related job cuts could prove costly

Mark Koba , CNBC ? ? ? 15 hrs.

Without a deal in place yet to avoid Friday's sequester ? the start of mandatory cuts in defense and discretionary spending ? companies with U.S. government contracts must figure out which workers will likely be laid off as the funds to keep them on the payroll will disappear.

The federal government spends more than $500 billion a year? or roughly 14 percent of the federal budget ? on private-sector contractors, and an estimated 7.5 million people are employed through government contracts.

Hundreds of thousands of workers face being let go after Friday in order to reach reductions in defense by $500 billion and nondefense by $700 billion to reduce the deficit this year and over the next decade by at least $1.2 trillion.

In many cases, it won't be easy, said Connie Bertram, a labor and employment lawyer at Proskauer, as firms have to consider issues like benefit packages, accrued leave pay and possible legal action from laid-off workers.

"Sequestration can't be used as a tool to lay people off. Firms have to follow state and federal laws when it comes to letting people go," Bertram said. "That means they have to justify the layoff beyond sequestration in many cases. A worker would have to be told why he or she is being let go."

Read More: Are You Ready for Pain of Sequestration?

"Given the scope of program cutbacks, the risk of litigation is high," Bertam said. "Contractor employees often work in highly specialized fields, so if entire programs are eliminated or substantially reduced, it will be difficult for former employees to find comparable employment. This is a recipe for workers to sue the firm."

"And If you're making a decision between two people, the one let go could legally challenge it," Bertam added.

Deciding how to pay laid-off or furloughed workers is major headache for companies.

"Do they get unpaid leave or take a reduction pay scale or work only certain hours of the week? Do salaried workers become hourly workers and lose health benefits? There's a lot to consider," Bertram said.

The list of government contractors is long, and it's not just defense companies like Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin. Companies like Verizon, AT& T and Hewlett-Packard are among government contractors.

And their role is often dominant. The Department of Energy spends 90 percent of its budget on contractors that manage the agency's sites and other duties, according the Government Accountability Office.

At this point, it's difficult to know what action to take for workers and sequestration, said Randy Belote, a Northrup Grumman spokesman.

"We can't really plan what workers might or might not need to be laid off because we just don't know," Belote said. "We are waiting to hear from the Defense Department which areas will shut down."

"Obviously we have communicated to our workers the possibility of layoffs or furloughs, but we haven't put anything in place yet to plan for who might be let go," Belote said Tuesday.

Read More: 5 Reasons Not to Worry About Sequestration

Companies would be wise to take at least one action now ? and possibly save money and avoid legal headaches ? instead of waiting, said Dave Kurtz, a partner in Edwards Wildman's Labor & Employment group. He said firms should be issuing WARN notices to workers.

That's the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires most employers to provide a 60-day notice in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs to nonunion workers.

"The White House has issued a wavier on WARN because of sequester, but it's not clear if that's completely legal, so firms would be wise to issue one now," Kurtz said. "Otherwise they could face legal action from workers and the associated costs."

Those costs could be an economic hot potato between Congress and the contractors, said Bertram.

"As part of the White House waiver, they said firms could add costs associated from not issuing WARN notices to their contracts and charge the government," Bertram said. "But Congress is balking at that, so it's in [the companies'] best interests to get them out, even if sequestration doesn't happen."

Union workers at firms with government contracts could also take legal action as a result of a sequester, said Kurtz.

"Those workers could, through their unions, file unfair labor suits against the firms because of sequestration," Kurtz said.

"But the irony is that those actions would likely end up in front of the Labor Relations Board but because of sequestration, there wouldn't be anyone there to hear their case," said Kurtz.

What's left between now and Friday and possibly beyond if a deal to stop the sequester is not reached is a lot of agony for everyone, say experts.

"Workers laid off will likely go into their savings if they have any or use their retirement funds to live and lose their health benefits," said Kurtz. "it's not a pretty picture."

"The sequester could impact companies for a long time and close down whole areas of production," said Bertam. "And imagine if a worker is told he's not coming back even if the sequester ends. It won't be easy trying to find another job."

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/sequester-related-job-cuts-could-prove-costly-firms-1C8568899

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Russian Meteor Likely an Apollo Asteroid Chunk

These guys are smoking dope, don't believe a word they say

Is that supposed to be funny or just plain ignorant?

1. The name of the country is Colombia, not Columbia.
2. Colombia isn't a big marijuana producer or consumer. Paraguay and Mexico are the big producers, and the biggest consumers (by population percentage) in America are the US and Canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_cannabis_use_by_country [wikipedia.org]
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/06/daily-chart-16 [economist.com]

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/-g6BfaPN_vk/story01.htm

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Aereo branches out to the 19 million people in greater New York and PA

Aereo's fledgling broadcast streaming service is getting a huge boost today with the news that it's now available to the 19 or so million residents in the New York "designated market area." In short, that means that it can now be used in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania as well as within the five boroughs. Aereo's still intending to reach a further 22 cities later this year, and you'll soon be able to see adverts for the service popping up all over NYC -- so if your luddite colleagues suddenly start talking about "this Aereo TV thingy," you know why.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/P5m3ghXusbw/

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HP sells webOS operating system to LG Electronics

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) ? Hewlett-Packard says it is selling its webOS operating system technology to South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Hewlett Packard Co. and LG said on Monday that LG will use webOS to support its "smart TV" technology. Like smartphones, smart TVs are web-connected and allow for more interaction between the device and its user. LG and rival Samsung Electronics showed off smart TV models earlier this year ahead of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

HP bought the struggling smartphone maker Palm Inc. for nearly $1 billion in 2010, hoping Palm's webOS would boost its standing in the mobile market. This did not happen.

In late 2011, HP made webOS available as open-source software for anyone to use or modify for free.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-25-Hewlett-Packard-WebOS/id-3ac4393a93484d0aac78c121cb0d8f0d

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Hollande says France to miss 2013 growth target

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? France's economy, Europe's second-biggest, will grow by less than previously thought in 2013, President Francois Hollande confirmed Tuesday.

While on a six-hour visit to Greece, Hollande said "everyone knows that for 2013, we will not reach our target, which was 0.8 percent."

He said a new growth target will be announced by the end of next month.

France is waiting for the European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, to release its economic forecasts for the 27-country EU on Friday.

Based on those figures and a review by a top French economic advisory panel, the government will be able to produce what Hollande termed "incontestable" estimates by the end of March.

France's economy stalled in 2012 as a slowdown in Europe dented activity at a time when the government is enacting deficit-reduction measures. France contracted by 0.3 percent in the final quarter of 2012 from the previous three-month period. If it contracts again in the first quarter of 2013, it will be back in recession ? officially defined as two straight quarters of negative growth.

Earlier, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also said his country would have to revise its growth forecast downwards for this year. "At the European level, things aren't going all that well now, we are going to have to revise downward," he said on RTL radio.

The economy of the 17 EU countries that use the euro is in recession. In the final quarter of 2012, a contracted by a quarterly rate of 0.6 percent.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hollande-says-france-miss-2013-growth-target-124946917--finance.html

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News media relations with Obama hit low ebb over golf weekend

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON | Tue Feb 19, 2013 6:01pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Relations between the White House and the correspondents who cover it, always edgy and adversarial, have hit a low ebb in a dispute over whether the press should have access to the president during his downtime.

The news media are still demanding answers for a White House decision over the weekend to bar reporters from seeing any part of President Barack Obama's Florida golf vacation, including his first-ever round with Tiger Woods.

In a formal protest, the White House Correspondents' Association cited history and tradition in arguing that the public interest is ill-served by shielding the president from the press.

"There is a very simple but important principle we will continue to fight for today and in the days ahead: transparency," said Ed Henry, a Fox News correspondent who is president of the White House Correspondents' Association.

White House spokesman Jay Carney pushed back against questions about access during his daily news briefing on Tuesday.

Carney, a former White House correspondent for Time magazine who covered the presidencies of Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush, said he understood the concerns but doubted there had ever been a White House press corps completely satisfied with its access.

"We work very closely with all of you to try to provide access to the president. I would note that when I was covering President Bush, George W. Bush, I was on his first trip on Air Force One ... He came back and spoke to the pool. That was his first trip. For the next three years that I covered the president, he never came back again," Carney said.

The golf episode came as tension was already building between reporters and the White House press office about the flow of information as Obama begins his second term.

Obama has called his administration the most transparent in history, but the president himself has sharply reduced a fixture of White House press coverage, the brief question-and-answer session that reporters have used for decades to get the president's take on fast-moving daily events.

MORE GRUMBLING

Martha Joynt Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University in Maryland who studies the presidency, said Obama held only 107 brief question-and-answer encounters with the media in his first four years, compared with 354 by George W. Bush in his first term.

Instead, Obama has relied heavily on television and print interviews, many of them with media outlets that target certain audiences. He has granted 674 interviews, mostly television.

After the White House fielded press complaints about the inaccessible Obama-Woods golf round at a private Florida club, Obama did in fact speak to reporters on Air Force One on Monday night on his return to Washington.

But he touched off more grumbling because the press office stipulated that all of Obama's comments must be considered off the record and thus not usable.

Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren lashed out against reporters for going along with the restrictive terms, writing on her "Gretawire" blog: "The press caved -Pathetic!"

"The press should have said when offered OFF THE RECORD face time with the president, ?thanks but no thanks ... we will wait until the president is willing to talk to the American people since that is our job. No secret conversations,'" she said.

Previous presidents have avoided the White House press corps, some more successfully than others. The Obama White House has been less reliant than other administrations on the major media because of its whitehouse.gov website and its use of social media like Flickr and Twitter to distribute content.

"Every administration tries to get the advantage in their relationships with news organizations," said Kumar. "With this administration you have a variety of new media and those organizations helped propel them into office. They had a good sense of how to use social media and they've tried to work it as they govern."

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Eric Beech)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/PoliticsNews/~3/3aPkX_Xanlk/us-usa-obama-media-idUSBRE91I1BT20130219

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Engage Your Readers with a Call to Action - How to Blog a Book

Blogging Basics for Aspiring Authors: Lesson 14

Every blog post should have a goal. You should want to accomplish something with that post?to get your readers to think, feel, experience, or consider. If you accomplish that goal, you also should be able to ask you readers to do something. You should be able to provide a ?call to action? and receive a response.

With a blogged book, however, every post is tied to the goal, or purpose, of your book. When you wrote the pitch for your book, or when you considered your own purpose for writing the book, you should have gotten clear on the purpose of your book. This is your book?s goal.

The Goal of Your Book

Indeed, every book has a goal?something you as an author want it to accomplish. Maybe it is supposed to provide your readers with 10 steps to better eating habits, a shared experience of the10 years you spent living on a dude ranch in Texas or a thought-provoking story in which aliens teach humans how to rebuild the hole in the Earth?s ozone layer. More than likely your book?s goal is closely tied to your own purpose in writing the book.

That purpose should be clear in your book pitch. If it?s not, you may meander and get off track when writing your book. You may not provide your readers with what they want or need. That?s why I suggest creating a pitch before you write your book. It hones your idea and helps you get clear on your goals and on the goals of your book. Then every post you publish of your blogged book will carry out that goal.

Use a Call to Action

If your goal is clear in each post, you can ask your readers to do something. You can clearly call them to action. In some cases, in particular with a blogged book, your call to action might be as simple a ?Subscribe to my blog?s RSS feed.? In other cases, it might be, ?Leave a comment,? ?Tell me how can I improve my blogged book,? or ?Do you have similar experiences to share with me? If so, please leave me a comment.? Later, when your book is finished, your call to action will be, ?Buy my book.?

More often than not, however, your readers must feel they receive some benefit by taking action. This is the What?s-In-It-For-Me (WIIFM) element. Why should they do what you say? The WordPress plugin CommentLuv was created for this purpose. If it is installed on a blog, each time a reader leaves a comment, the link to that person?s last blog post (assuming they have a blog) is included with their comment. Because bloggers want to share the links to their posts as often as possible so they might attract new readers, this serves as an enticement to leave a comment.

With every post, be sure you consider your blogged book?s goal. Ask yourself: Did I fulfill my book?s goal with this post? Then, ask yourself if there is a call to action you can include at the end of your post. Tell readers what you want them to do next?even if it is simply to share your post on Twitter of Facebook (and make it simple to do this).

Delete these calls to action in your final manuscript, of course. As you publish your blogged book posts online, though, they will help you engage your readers. And in some cases you can check to see if you are achieving your book?s goal?if anyone is, in fact, taking action.

I?ll be sharing a lot more information about blogging books, and ebooks in particular, when I speak at the first live Digital Publishing Online Intensive. I?d love it if you would register for the event! You can attend from the comfort of your home and learn from me and eleven other digital publishing experts will be speaking along with me, such as:

• Kathleen Gage ? Internet Marketing Mentor
• Lynne Klippel ? Expert Book Coach & Publisher
• Laura West ? The Creative Thought Leader
• Daniel Hall ? Serial Entrepreneur and Webinar Master
• D?vorah Landsky ? Book Marketing Expert
• Lou Bortone ? The Video Master
• Marnie Pehrson ? Founder of Ignite Point
• Sue Painter, The Confident Marketer
• Jim Kukral ? Best-Selling Marketing Author & Professional Speaker
• Bob Jenkins ? Internet Marketing Business Teacher
• Kristen Eckstein ? Expert Publishing Consultant

Also, bestselling author Guy Kawasaki will be the keynote speaker, and he?ll be giving away copies of his newest book, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book. If you are interested, here?s a coupon code for $50 off the current registration price: NINA50. You can register using this link: bit.ly/DPOI-NA

How?s that for a call to action? Anyone moved to act?

?

Source: http://howtoblogabook.com/2013/02/19/engage-your-readers-with-a-call-to-action/

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Desde hoy Microsoft prepara la migraci?n de Hotmail hacia Outlook.com

Cambios

Casi 300 millones de cuentas comenzar?n su traslado hacia el nuevo servicio de Microsoft, que completar? el proyecto, cuando desaparezca por completo el servicio de Messenger, reemplazado por el de Skype.

19 de Febrero de 2013 10:27

Por: Medios

Microsoft quiere afianzar su lugar en los servicios de correo electr?nico, en el que el Gmail de Google va ganando terreno a toda velocidad. Para ello, la empresa de Bill Gates comienza este martes la migraci?n autom?tica de las cuentas de correo Hotmail al nuevo sistema Outlook.com, un paso que se prolongar? durante seis meses m?s y al que, posteriormente, se acabar? agregando tambi?n Skype, adquirido en 2011.

Una opci?n disponible desde el pasado julio del 2012 para todos los usuarios de Hotmail a trav?s de una opci?n de su correo, pero que a partir de ahora se producir? inexorablemente para quienes manejan el popular correo electr?nico, que utilizan en la actualidad cerca de 300 millones de personas en todo el mundo, tras aumentar en 60 millones su base de usuarios, y que es, junto con Yahoo y Gmail, uno de los principales servicios globales de e-mail.

Precisamente es hacia Gmail en concreto, y Google en general, a quien se dirigen este ?ltimo movimiento de Microsoft . Y sus ataques. En los ?ltimos meses, los de Bill Gates criticaban a Google por su falta de privacidad y por el uso que da la compa??a del buscador a la informaci?n de sus usuarios. Y prometen, en consecuencia, un sistema sin banners publicitarios y con mayor control del usuario sobre sus correos.

"Tu privacidad no est? en venta", afirmaba el director de servicios online de Microsoft, Stefan Weitz, en un comunicado que sonaba a eslogan al presentar esta nueva etapa de concentraci?n de Hotmail y Outlook.com. "La gente considera que revisarlos para vender anuncios est? fuera de los l?mites", apostillaba.?

Fuente: La Voz de Galicia

IMPORTANTE: Los comentarios publicados son de exclusiva responsabilidad de sus autores y las consecuencias derivadas de ellos pueden ser pasibles de las sanciones legales que correspondan. Aquel usuario que incluya en sus mensajes alg?n comentario violatorio del reglamento ser? eliminado e inhabilitado para volver a comentar.

Source: http://elsolonline.com/noticias/view/164527/desde-hoy-microsoft-prepara-la-migracion-de-hotmail-hacia-outlook-com

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Burger King Twitter account hacked

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Source: http://tech.uk.msn.com/news/burger-king-twitter-account-hacked-3

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DFL colleagues push Oberstar for U.S. transportation chief (Star Tribune)

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Affordable fuel cells closer: Synthetic molecule first electricity-making catalyst to use iron to split hydrogen gas

Feb. 17, 2013 ? To make fuel cells more economical, engineers want a fast and efficient iron-based molecule that splits hydrogen gas to make electricity. Online Feb. 17 at Nature Chemistry, researchers report such a catalyst. It is the first iron-based catalyst that converts hydrogen directly to electricity. The result moves chemists and engineers one step closer to widely affordable fuel cells.

"A drawback with today's fuel cells is that the platinum they use is more than a thousand times more expensive than iron," said chemist R. Morris Bullock, who leads the research at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

His team at the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis has been developing catalysts that use cheaper metals such as nickel and iron. The one they report here can split hydrogen as fast as two molecules per second with an efficiency approaching those of commercial catalysts. The center is one of 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers established by the DOE Office of Science across the nation in 2009 to accelerate basic research in energy.

Fuel cells generate electricity out of a chemical fuel, usually hydrogen. The bond within a hydrogen molecule stores electricity, where two electrons connect two hydrogen atoms like a barbell.

Fuel cells use a platinum catalyst -- essentially a chunk of metal -- to crack a hydrogen molecule open like an egg: The electron whites run out and form a current that is electricity. Because platinum's chemical nature gives it the ability to do this, chemists can't simply replace the expensive metal with the cheaper iron or nickel. However, a molecule that exists in nature called a hydrogenase (high-dra-jin-ace) uses iron to split hydrogen.

Bullock and his PNNL colleagues, chemists Tianbiao "Leo" Liu and Dan DuBois, have taken inspiration for their iron-wielding catalyst from a hydrogenase. First Liu created several potential molecules for the team to test. Then, with the best-working molecule up to that point, they determined and tweaked the shape and the internal electronic forces to make additional improvements.

One of the tricks they needed the catalyst to do was to split hydrogen atoms into all of their parts. If a hydrogen atom is an egg, the positively charged proton that serves as the nucleus of the atom would be the yolk. And the electron, which orbits around the proton in a cloud, would be the white. The catalyst moves both the proton-yolks and electron-whites around in a controlled series of steps, sending the protons in one direction and the electrons to an electrode, where the electricity can be used to power things.

To do this, they need to split hydrogen molecules unevenly in an early step of the process. One hydrogen molecule is made up of two protons and two electrons, but the team needed the catalyst to tug away one proton first and send it away, where it is caught by a kind of molecule called a proton acceptor. In a real fuel cell, the acceptor would be oxygen.

Once the first proton with its electron-wooing force is gone, the electrode easily plucks off the first electron. Then another proton and electron are similarly removed, with both of the electrons being shuttled off to the electrode.

The team determined the shape and size of the catalyst and also tested different proton acceptors. With the iron in the middle, arms hanging like pendants around the edges draw out the protons. The best acceptors stole these drawn-off protons away quickly.

With their design down, the team measured how fast the catalyst split molecular hydrogen. It peaked at about two molecules per second, thousands of times faster than the closest, non-electricity making iron-based competitor. In addition, they determined its overpotential, which is a measure of how efficient the catalyst is. Coming in at 160 to 220 millivolts, the catalyst revealed itself to be similar in efficiency to most commercially available catalysts.

Now the team is figuring out the slow steps so they can make them faster, as well as determining the best conditions under which this catalyst performs.

This work was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Science.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

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Journal Reference:

1. Tianbiao Liu, Daniel L. DuBois, R. Morris Bullock. An iron complex with pendent amines as a molecular electrocatalyst for oxidation of hydrogen. Nature Chemistry, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1571

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/matter_energy/physics/~3/XzD42vuHiWY/130217134237.htm

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Insurance - Jamaica - Debt-ridden Jamaica agrees to terms to obtain US$750mn funding from IMF

By Ulric Rindebro - Friday, February 15, 2013

Debt-ridden Jamaica has accepted the terms of an agreement with the IMF to gain access to a much needed US$750mn funding arrangement, according to an...

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This news article is one of hundreds published daily by Business News Americas about the commodities, markets, movements, companies, projects, economics and politics integral to the development of Latin America. Including news and insight from South America, Central America and the Caribbean, BNamericas includes Insurance insight and forecasts for business opportunities in Jamaica. The business development service focuses on major projects, active companies, such as and business and sales contacts, providing networking opportunities with leading executives throughout Latin America.

Source: http://member.bnamericas.com/news/insurance/debt-ridden-jamaica-agrees-to-terms-to-obtain-us750mn-funding-from-imf1

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Marco Rubio Is Taking a Spring Trip to Israel (Sound Familiar?)

ROTTERDAM (Reuters) - Defending champion Roger Federer suffered a shock 6-3 7-5 defeat by Frenchman Julien Benneteau, who has yet to lift a tour title during his 13-year career, in the World Indoor Tournament quarter-finals on Friday. The top seed struggled throughout with his first serve and was broken three times in the opening set. Benneteau, 31, broke again early in the second set before the world number two, backed by a capacity crowd of 10,500, broke back. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/marco-rubio-taking-spring-trip-israel-sound-familiar-184958204.html

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Minnesota Basketball Coach Tubby Smith Dances to Ke$ha After Tremendous Win

You might not be a big fan of Ke$ha, but hopefully you are a fan of things that are awesome. Tubby Smith dancing after his?Minnesota Gophers' remarkable 58-53 overtime win over No. 19 Wisconsin on Thursday night certainly qualifies.

That's all you need to know to understand this video. The head coach and his players hit the locker room and were feeling pretty good.?

OK, they were euphoric.?

Let's be adults here: Sometimes, the only thing to do when you are hit with sudden exuberance is bust out the dancing shoes and drop some monster moves.?

Seeing as how Smith was without a proper dance floor, he improvised like a pro. Ke$ha's?"Die Young" comes on, and the young men go wild. That's when Smith does a dance I have only seen at weddings when uncles have had one too many trips to the open bar.?

There is something so wonderful about seeing amateur athletes like college basketball players enjoy a big win as a reward for their tireless efforts.?

However, watching their coach bust out a dandy of a dance may win the day as far as postgame celebrations are concerned.?

Someone get this guy on Dancing with the Stars.?

?

Hit me up on Twitter for more sweet moves.?

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1530741-minnesota-coach-tubby-smith-dances-to-keha-after-tremendous-win

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Ecuador leader heavily favored to win re-election

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa gives a thumbs up to supporters as he stands with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, not in picture, on a balcony at the government palace in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013. Correa is running for another term in tomorrow's presidential election. Members of the National Assembly will also be elected. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa gives a thumbs up to supporters as he stands with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, not in picture, on a balcony at the government palace in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013. Correa is running for another term in tomorrow's presidential election. Members of the National Assembly will also be elected. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Supporters of Ecuador's President Rafael Correa attend his closing campaign rally in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. Correa, 48, who is running for re-election has brought political stability to a traditionally unruly nation that cycled through seven presidents in a decade, from 1997-2007. If re-elected on Sunday, this four-year term will be his last unless the constitution is changed. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

In this Jan. 28, 2013 photo, a girl plays on the terrace of her home where clothes dry where an election campaign flag flies in support of the reelection of President Rafael Correa in Quito, Ecuador. Correa is running for reelection on Sunday, Feb. 17. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

People attend the closing campaign rally of Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa, not in picture, in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. Presidential elections in Ecuador are scheduled for Feb. 17. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

People attend a rally of Ecuador's President and candidate for re-election Rafael Correa, next to an image of him, right, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. Presidential elections in Ecuador are scheduled for Feb. 17. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) ? Rafael Correa, a dynamic, polemical economist whose leftist government has won broad backing from the lower classes as it leads Latin America in social spending, is expected to sail to a second re-election Sunday as the Andean nation's president.

His leading opponent, former Banco de Guayaquil executive president Guillermo Lasso, trailed Correa in pre-election polls by more than 20 points in the field of eight candidates.

Correa, 48, has brought uncharacteristic political stability to an oil-exporting nation of 14.6 million people that cycled through seven presidents in the decade before he first took office in 2007.

He won re-election in April 2009 after voters approved a constitutional rewrite that mandated a new ballot, and he would be legally barred from running again following a victory Sunday.

To avoid a run-off, Correa needed a simple majority or 40 percent of the vote plus a 10-point margin over the No. 2 vote-getter.

Correa, a graduate of the University of Illinois-Champaign, focused his campaign on increasing tax revenue and social services. Lasso promised to be friendlier to foreign investment, lower taxes on job-creating companies and roll back actions taken under what Correa calls his "21st century socialism," such as a 5 percent tax on capital removed from Ecuador.

A champion of big government in the mold of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez but less radical, Correa has endeared himself to the lower classes by making education and health care more accessible, building or improving 7,820 kilometers (4,870 miles) of highways and, the government says, creating 95,400 jobs in the past four years.

Correa's critics, including leading international human rights groups, consider him an intolerant bully who arbitrarily wields his near-monopoly on state power against anyone who threatens what he sees as his "citizens' revolution."

Correa has eroded the influence of opposition parties, the Roman Catholic Church and the news media and used criminal libel law to try to silence opposition journalists. Critics decry his stacking of the courts with friendly judges and the government's prosecution of indigenous leaders for organizing protests against Correa's opening up of Ecuador to large-scale mining without their consent.

Oil prices that have been hovering around $100 a barrel have been a blessing for Correa. Petroleum accounts for more than half Ecuador's export earnings and have allowed it to lead the region in 2011 in public spending as a portion of gross domestic product at 11.1 percent, according to the United Nations.

Voters like Fabian Garzon, a 48-year-old messenger and cleaner, credit Correa with significantly improving their lives.

Garzon now has what he's always dreamed of: his own apartment, which he is buying with a $24,000 government mortgage issued by an institution created by Correa's government. His monthly salary, meanwhile, has more than doubled over the past four years, from $200 to $450, and payments for his social security, vacation and other government-mandated contributions are being made regularly.

"I worked 25 years without having my own house and at this age, thank God, I'm able to own my own home," Garzon said.

In all, 1.9 million people receive $50 a month from the state.

Critics complain that the popular handouts to single mothers, needy families and the elderly poor, along with other subsidies, have bloated the government.

The number of people working for the government has burgeoned from 16,000 to 90,000 during Correa's current term, Ecuador's non-governmental Observatory of Fiscal Policy said in a December report.

Correa also has been unable to stop a growing sensation of vulnerability in a country where robberies and burglaries grew 30 percent in 2012 compared with the previous year.

Correa gained a reputation as a maverick early on, defying international financiers by defaulting on $3.9 billion in foreign debt obligations.

He has also kept the United States at arm's length, and upset Britain and Sweden in August by granting asylum at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the online spiller of leaked U.S. government secrets who is wanted for questioning in Sweden for alleged sexual assault.

Correa has cozied up to U.S. rivals Iran and China. The latter is the biggest buyer of Ecuador's oil and holds $3.4 billion in Ecuadorean debt, Finance Minister Patricio Rivera says.

___

Associated Press writer Gonzalo Solano contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-17-Ecuador-Election/id-0c7671a862f44daf9057841d006d6577

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Obama gets personal in pushing middle-class agenda

President Barack Obama on Friday afternoon closed out his post-State of the Union three-state tour with a unusually personal speech in his hometown of Chicago, Ill. There, he advocated the need for strong families as well as successful and safe communities to help create upward mobility for the nation's most impoverished.

Obama, speaking at Chicago's Hyde Park Academy, called for the promotion of marriage and fatherhood, contrasting the two-parent household with his own upbringing.

"Don't get me wrong," he said. "As the son of a single mom who gave everything she had to raise me with the help of my grandparents, you know, I turned out okay." Obama commended the single mothers in the audience, but added, "At the same time, I wish I'd had a father who was around and involved."

Obama's father, a central figure in his memoir "Dreams of My Father," and Obama's mother divorced shortly after Barack Obama's birth.

The president on Friday reiterated his State of the Union proposal for universal preschool to help create strong communities that help promote upward mobility?part of an effort to build "ladders of opportunity."

Obama said, "Government alone can?t solve these problems of violence and poverty ... everybody has to be involved."

The president also spoke about the recent gun violence in Chicago where the murder of high-school student Hadiya Pendleton, who had performed at Obama's inauguration about one week prior to her being killed by gunfire, caught the attention of the nation as well as the White House.

First lady Michelle Obama attended Hadiya's funeral, and Hadiya's parents sat with the first lady during the president's State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

Obama said Friday that Chicago's gun violence rate is "the equivalent of a Newtown every four months," referencing the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

But he conceded that in some places in America, there is little opportunity for young men, especially, who feel as if their "future only extends to the next street corner."

Obama suggested that the new initiatives outlined in his State of the Union can help create opportunities for inner-city youth: raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour; universal preschool; and a plan to revitalize neighborhoods?including 20 to be labeled "Promise Zones"?with the help of federal assistance.

Obama's Chicago visit completes his three-state sweep to promote the agenda he laid out in the State of the Union. The president pressed his manufacturing proposals in Asheville, N.C., on Wednesday and advocated for his universal preschool program Thursday in Decatur, Ga.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-push-middle-class-agenda-address-guns-chicago-150746113--politics.html

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Mysterious tycoon's mega-yacht makes waves in NYC

Robert Frank , CNBC ? ? ? 19 hrs.

On Wednesday, a private yacht sailed slowly and quietly up the Hudson River and docked near midtown Manhattan.

This wasn't just any yacht, however. It was Eclipse -- the largest private yacht in the world. And its presence is sure to touch off a frenzy of speculation about its owners and future.

Seeing Eclipse docked off the midtown piers is the boating world equivalent of seeing a blue whale swim up the Hudson in the dead of winter. It just doesn't happen -- or hasn't happened. Eclipse's owner, the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, is famously private and averse to publicity. Eclipse is almost always kept in the rarified preserves of Monaco, Cannes, Portfino or St. Bart's, visible to other billionaires but rarely the hoi polloi.

By docking the boat in Manhattan, under the gaze of millions and a horde of media companies, Abramovich is, to say the least, inviting attention.

A spokesman for Mr. Abramovich declined to comment on the boat or its owner's reasons for being in Manhattan. But several dock workers and officials who have been briefed on the boat say it is scheduled to be in town until mid-April.

Some speculate that Abramovich may be using the boat as a temporary residence, since it is more secure and can better accommodate his large security force than a New York coop or hotel. Abramovich's partner, Dasha Zhukova, has announced that she is pregnant, and due in the spring.

More from CNBC: The world's largest yachts 2012

Eclipse has a crew of more than 60 people and a battalion of security cameras and sensors. It has two helicopter pads, two pools and a submarine.

At 533-feet, it remains the largest yacht in the world. But it may hold the title only for a few more months. A new yacht, called Azzam, is being built for a MIddle East billionaire that could be 590 feet.

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/mysterious-russian-tycoons-mega-yacht-makes-waves-nyc-1C8391075

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Tax Returns Done: scfr's Personal Finance Blog

February 13th, 2013 at 06:59 pm

I prepare my brother's tax return as well as my own household's. All returns are now completed. I still need to transfer money to DH's SEP IRA and our Roths (we always wait until the return is completed), and mail in our federal return. Yup - Just like creditcardfree, I have to use snail mail this year. According to Turbo Tax it's because of Form 8889, distributions from an HSA but no contributions. (No contributions this year because I started getting medical insurance from my employer spring 2011 so we no longer have a HDHP making us ineligible to contribute.) It feels good to scratch this fairly big financial task off of the "To Do" list!

Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments ?

Source: http://scfr.savingadvice.com/2013/02/13/tax-returns-done_101076/

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What green algae are up to in the dark

Feb. 14, 2013 ? How green algae produce hydrogen in the dark is reported by biologists at the Ruhr-Universit?t Bochum in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Biologists have uncovered a mechanism for the production of the gas which has not been examined in depth before; as researchers are mostly interested in light-driven hydrogen synthesis.

"Hydrogen could help us out of the energy crisis," says Prof. Dr. Thomas Happe, head of the working group Photobiotechnology. "If you want to make green algae produce more hydrogen, it is important to understand all the production pathways."

Green algae produce hydrogen under stress -- even in the dark

Single-celled green algae of the type Chlamydomonas are microscopically small organisms: ten of them fit side by side on a human hair. In some ways, microalgae are not so very different from higher plants, such as trees. For example, they also perform photosynthesis. Unlike land plants, they can use light energy for the production of molecular hydrogen H₂. "However, Chlamydomonas and co only form hydrogen under stress," says Thomas Happe. "The disposal of the energy-rich gas serves as a kind of overflow valve so that excess light energy does not damage the sensitive photosynthetic apparatus." Chlamydomonas can also produce hydrogen in the dark. Although this fact has been known for decades, H₂ synthesis in the absence of light has barely been studied because much less of the gas is produced in the dark than in the light. Moreover, it is complicated to isolate large quantities of the key enzyme of the dark-reaction, the so-called pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase. The RUB researchers nevertheless tackled the project.

Hydrogen production in the dark mimicked in vitro

Happe's team reconstructed the core of the dark hydrogen production in vitro, thus demonstrating the underlying mechanism. In order to get to the proteins involved, the researchers had these produced by bacteria. First they introduced the corresponding genes of the green algae into the gut bacterium Escherichia coli, for example, the gene for the pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase. E. coli then produced the proteins according to this blueprint. Happe's team isolated them from the bacterial cells and examined them like a construction kit. In the test tube, the biologists analysed how different combinations of proteins interacted with each other under specific environmental conditions.

"Ancient enzyme" discovered

In so doing, they found out that, under stress in the dark, the algae switch to a metabolic pathway which is normally only found in bacteria or single-celled parasites. "Chlamydmonas has an evolutionarily ancient enzyme," explains Jens Noth from the working group Photobiotechnology. "With the help of vitamin B1 and iron atoms, it gains energy from the breakdown of sugars." This energy is then used by other green algal enzymes, the hydrogenases, to form hydrogen. The unicellular microalgae switch on this metabolic pathway when they suddenly encounter oxygen-free conditions in the dark. Because, like humans, the green algae need oxygen to breathe if they cannot draw their energy from sunlight. The formation of hydrogen in the dark helps the cells to survive these stress condition. "With this knowledge, we have now found another piece of the puzzle to get an accurate picture of H₂ production in Chlamydomonas," says Thomas Happe. "In future, this could also help to increase the biotechnologically relevant light-dependent H₂ formation rate."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ruhr-University Bochum.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. J. Noth, D. Krawietz, A. Hemschemeier, T. Happe. Pyruvate:Ferredoxin Oxidoreductase Is Coupled to Light-independent Hydrogen Production in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2012; 288 (6): 4368 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M112.429985

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