Feelings toward New Year's Eve are split into three groups: 'Love it,' 'Hate it' or 'Meh.' If you fit into the second category, you not only loathe the holiday, but you're against any Hallmark cards, stuffed animals, overpriced all-you-can-drink-and-eat shindigs at the Olive Garden, and the cheesy romantic movies that celebrate the end of the year. However, while Hollywood may be the best (worst?) at exploiting the sappiness of the midnight kiss, there are plenty of flicks out there which depict the ugly side of New Year's, where promising events or potential hook-ups turn into absolute disasters. Alas, for the New Year's Eve hater (or general cynic), Moviefone presents the Worst New Year's Eve Moments in Movie History.
Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook
SAN FRANCISCO ? Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd's efforts to impress an HP event hostess included showing her his checking-account balance holding over $1 million, according to a letter detailing the sexual harassment allegations that led to his ouster.
The letter was obtained late Thursday by The Associated Press after the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that Hurd's lawyers, who had attempted to keep it confidential, didn't show that disclosing it would violate California privacy rights. The ruling said information that is only "mildly embarrassing" is not protected from public disclosure.
The letter, it added, does not contain trade secrets about the Palo Alto-based technology company or non-public financial information. Some sentences concerning Hurd's family were ordered redacted.
Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred sent the letter last year on behalf of Jodie Fisher, who was hired as a contract employee to help with HP networking events and who later accused Hurd of sexual harassment.
Although an HP investigation did not find any evidence to support the harassment claim, it uncovered inaccurate expense reports for his outings with Fisher. Hurd was ultimately forced out in August 2010. He now works as co-president at rival Oracle Corp.
Allred alleged in the letter that, while Fisher was ostensibly hired an HP event hostess in late 2007, she was really brought on to accompany Hurd to HP events held out of town. Throughout 2008 and 2009, Hurd made it clear he expected to have a sexual relationship with Fisher, using his "status and authority as CEO of HP," Allred alleged.
Allred claimed that Hurd made several sexual advances toward Fisher, which Fisher rejected. In 2008, while walking with Fisher in Madrid, Hurd stopped at an ATM and showed her his checking-account balance "to impress her," according to the letter.
After Fisher rejected him a final time in October 2009, she was not hired for any future HP events, Allred alleged.
Allred also alleged that in March 2008, Hurd told Fisher that HP was likely to purchase technology services vendor EDS. HP announced the $13 billion acquisition in May of that year.
HP shareholder Ernesto Espinoza had sued to have the letter unsealed. Hurd's attorney, Amy Wintersheimer, said his lawyers had requested that the letter be kept confidential because "it is filled with inaccuracies."
"The truth is, there never was any sexual harassment, which HP's investigation confirmed, and there never was any sexual relationship, which Ms. Fisher has confirmed," Wintersheimer said in a statement.
Both Allred and Hewlett-Packard Co. had no comment on the letter's contents.
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
6 Responses to ?Economic Cycles and Investing?
KJMClark Says:
December 28th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Now you need one for long (demographic) waves. As in, Generation A grows up during a crash, saves strongly, creates conditions for growth. Generation B thinks their parents are foolish Scrooges, spends, increasing growth but building up debt. Generation C sees grows up during debt-fueled growth, enjoys the good times, but then has to deal with the crash. Repeat.
B_Lev Says:
December 28th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
A number of the cycle charts show ?rising inflation? as a characteristic of an economy slowing/ entering a recession. At the same time, the charts suggest stocks and commodity prices start falling. Is this contradiction apparent?
Why are prices increasing during a recession when (presumably) velocity slows? Outside of the 70?s stagflation or Volcker ?ringing out? inflation by inducing a recession (contractionary monetary) in the early 80?s, why would we associate a recession with increasing prices? Text Book. Inflation is expansionary. Right?
Gen C! woop!
orvil tootenbacher Says:
December 28th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
nice qualitative charts. do they stand up to actual market data? if so, let?s see it.
machinehead Says:
December 29th, 2011 at 8:29 am
Beware of overly general charts ? such as the 2nd (red & green) one.
Finance during early recession and bear market? How did that work out for y?all in 2008?
royrogers Says:
December 29th, 2011 at 9:31 am
so when does the bond yields start rising when central bankers don?t want it to rise ??
ralphwl Says:
December 29th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
I find this helpful. Investment professionals know this but it?s helpful to see visually. The problem that I see is identifying where you are currently in the cycle. I thought I knew but I am not so sure anymore?.
Read More: Cameron Moore (F - UAB), Lasan Kromah (G - George Washington), George Washington Colonials, UAB Blazers
The George Washington Colonials just can't seem to get off their current slide, extending their losing streak to seven games in a row after falling to the UAB Blazers 56-49. While the Colonials were hoping to end their struggles on a struggling UAB team, it was UAB who ended their own struggles. George Washington was able to score only 16 points in the first half, trailing by 10.
In the second half, George Washington was to put together 33 points and outscore UAB, but the Blazers also put up another 30 points to easily hold their lead over the Colonials. Lasan Kromah had a near double-double for George Washington, scoring 15 points, getting nine steals, and bringing down five rebounds but it wasn't enough. Cameron Moore was unstoppable for the Blazers, scoring 19 points and out rebounding the entire George Washington team by himself with 24 rebounds.
For more on the George Washington basketball team, be sure to stick to SB Nation DC.
Posted in Dirty Army Strong, Edmonton, Hollywood, The Dirty | December 28th, 2011
THE DIRTY ARMY: Nik, while I was listening to the radio I was shocked to hear the news that Mike Comrie and Hilary are thinking of relocating to Canada once the baby arrives.? Duff: ?I?m not the first person in Hollywood to have a baby. Other people have found a way to deal with it and I think I will, too. If it gets too much, we pack up and move, I guess. Mike and I talk about that sometimes. I don?t know? Toronto? Maybe Edmonton!? Hilary?s doesn?t want her child to experience the chase from the paparazzi that she deals with on a daily basis in Hollywood.? I know I?m not the only one who thinks this is the most retarded decision ever (if it?s even true). I?d rather have my child grow up in a high class environment then be around a bunch of low class bottle rats. I?ve been to Deadmonton a lot, its a dirty, smelly, over all a failure of a city. Its a murder capital for crying out loud. Drugs are everywhere! I know drugs are in every city but Deadmonton has it bad. Like come on. Your thoughts on this Nik?
My daughter Press will never date their kid, so its best they move to Deadmonton. Mike is family money so they do whatever his family tells them.- nik
BEIJING (Reuters) ? The senior Chinese official who helped defuse a standoff with protesting villagers has told officials to get used to citizens who are increasingly assertive about their rights and likened erring local governments to red apples with rotten cores.
Zhu Mingguo, a deputy Communist Party secretary of southern Guangdong province, last week helped broker a compromise between the government and residents of Wukan village. Ten days of protests over confiscated farmland and the death of a protest organizer drew widespread attention as a rebuff to the stability-before-all government.
Speaking to officials about Wukan and other protests, Zhu said these were not isolated flare-ups, the Guangzhou Daily, the official paper of the provincial capital, reported on Tuesday.
"In terms of society, the public's awareness of democracy, equality and rights is constantly strengthening, and their corresponding demands are growing," Zhu told a meeting on Monday about preserving social stability, the paper said.
"Public consciousness of rights defense is growing, and the means used to defend rights are increasingly intense," said Zhu. "Their channels for voicing grievances are diverse, and there is a tendency for conflicts to become more intense."
Zhu also cited protests by migrant factory workers who complained about ill-treatment. These areas where unrest erupted had won praise as "advanced units" - showcases of growth and harmony, noted Zhu.
Not so, he said.
"In these areas there were many problems that were not swiftly identified, and when they erupted, the consequences were even more serious," said Zhu, referring to the response by local officials.
"Like apples, their hearts were rotten even if their skins were red, and when the skins broke, there was a real mess."
FENDING OFF RISKS OF UNREST
Red is the color of the ruling Communist Party, and Zhu's comments reflected debate within it about warding off risks of unrest from an increasingly unequal and diverse society.
In recent days, Chinese courts have jailed two dissidents for nine and 10 years respectively, underscoring the government's determination to silence critics whom it fears will channel discontent into organized opposition to one-party rule.
That concern is magnified by preparations for a party congress in late 2012, when the central leadership will retire and make way for a new generation.
Zhu put much of the blame for the recent unrest on local administrators. In Wukan, he said, officials had sold off more than two thirds of the village land, without providing for residents' welfare.
"Now, where are the state cadres who remember that farmers don't have land for their food?" Zhu told the meeting. "When do they think of the hardships of ordinary people."
"If these complaints had been dealt with sooner, would they have ever caused such a big ruckus?"
The protests in Wukan ended after officials made concessions over the seized farmland and the death of a village leader, Xue Jinbo, whose family suspects he was beaten in custody.
Villagers denounced local officials as corrupt and heartless throughout their months-long dispute, which erupted in rioting in September. But they ended up welcoming province officials led by Zhu as brokers who finally stepped in to forge compromise.
The officials agreed to release three men held over the land protest in September, when a government office was trashed, and to re-examine the cause of Xue's death, protest organizers said.
(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ron Popeski)
Thanks to Shoshana for passing along one of the various end-of-the-year articles on 22-year-old Rory McIlroy. This one, penned by the Irish Independent?s Dermot Gilleece, reveals an interesting quote from the U.S. Open champ about his playing career:
Like when he explained why he had no plans to buy his own aircraft. ?You?ve got to fly 300 hours a year to make financial sense of it,? he said. Then, when I pointed out that P?draig Harrington made such a purchase in the belief it would extend his playing career, McIlroy replied: ?I don?t plan to be playing tournament golf in my forties.?
Surprising and not so surprising (both about the plane and not playing in his 40s). Let?s not make too much of it, though. After all, there?s plenty of time for him to change his mind. Say he?s won 17 majors (or one short of the record if Tiger ends up passing Jack Nicklaus) just before his 40th birthday, will he keep competing in quest of the 18th?
McIlroy also discusses that his mind is focused on the upcoming year?s majors, starting with the Masters, of course. He?s learned from some of his mistakes in 2011. For example, he?ll share a house with his parents instead of with his pals from Northern Ireland ? probably a good idea, not just for the emotional support his mom and dad will provide, but much less chance for distractions.
Meanwhile, Rory told Brian Keogh of the Irish Golf Desk that his Masters meltdown might have triggered his decision to ultimately switch management companies this fall, leaving ISM?s Chubby Chandler for the smaller, Dublin-based firm, Horizon:
He even concedes that his public humiliation may have played a part in his ditching of manager Chubby Chandler for Dublin based Horizon and a move to make more decisions for himself.
He said: ?It might have set the wheels in motion in some way. I was getting advice from left, right and centre after the Masters. From people I was close to and from people that just wanted to offer some sort?of help.
?I really had to filter everything through and try and make decisions myself. Sometimes I felt I let people make decisions for me instead of taking my career into my own hands and deciding this is what I want?to do, this is where I want to go.?That day at the Masters helped me do that.
?I think the biggest thing was listening to myself. You can take so much advice from so many different people. Actually listening to your own (inner voice). I said after the Masters I was very honest with myself and I needed to do some things with my golf game.
12/24/11 China (China Aid) - Members of a house church in coastal Zhejiang province determined to celebrate Christmas despite government orders forbidding them from doing so were beaten and detained for a second day on Saturday, which was Christmas Eve day.
The move against the Hongtang village house church in Huangtianfan township, Dongyang county, is part of an annual escalation of persecution against Christians in China during the Christmas season.
On Friday morning, as members of the Hongtang church were preparing for their Christmas meeting, they were attacked by police and village government and Communist Party officials and officials from the Religious Affairs Bureau, who specifically warned the church not to hold any Christmas celebrations on Saturday. In the attack, some believers were beaten, including Brother Luo Sennian, who was punched in the face.
On Saturday at 10 a.m., police and religious affairs bureau officials gathered outside the Hongtang church, standing guard. When dozens of church members showed up and started worshiping, the officials barged in shouting, ?This is an illegal religious gathering!? They started shoving equipment around, destroying furniture, and driving the believers out of the meeting place.
Police beat and bloodied Brother Luo and his 23-year-old son, Luo Kaikai, then took them, Brother Luo?s wife, Chen Weiquan, and another woman believer, Zhao Hongjuan, to the local police station where they were detained and interrogated for 9-1/2 hours for ?holding an illegal religious gathering.?
...
[Full Story]
This entry was posted on Monday, December 26th, 2011 at 8:40 am and is filed under Asia, China, Countries, News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Twitter sur votre mobile ? Cliquez ici m.twitter.com!
Passer cette ?tape
Connexion
Connexion
Rejoignez Twitter !
Alternative Energy is out! bit.ly/oJguMf ? Top stories today via @sudarkoff @nathanchantrell @zorislavova @sidngouveair @braedlauguyIl y a environ 15 heuresvia Paper.li
War and genocide in the former Yugoslavia will be thrust back into the spotlight this month with the release of In the Land of Blood and Honey, a film written and directed by Angelina Jolie. In often harrowing detail, the film depicts a complex, gripping story of love and deception set against a backdrop of mass murder, rape, and ethnic cleansing.
For many Americans the wars in the Balkans are a distant memory. Yet almost 20 years after the start of that conflict peace may be fracturing. Last month, the UN envoy in Kosovo called the situation "extremely volatile" and warned of the need for greater international attention.
The prospect of further violence in the Balkans is a serious matter. Much has changed in the world, however, since war began there in 1992 -- and for the better. Atrocities still happen with alarming consequences, as recent events in Syria and elsewhere have shown. Yet as we head into 2012, it is important to recognize how far the global framework to prevent genocide and protect civilians has advanced.
Much more can and ought to be done. As Ms. Jolie's film illustrates, the world was far too slow to react to the terrible crimes taking place in the Balkans (and elsewhere). But recognizing the successes that have been achieved in the years since will help advance that goal, by making it clear that progress can happen and that protecting civilians and reining in the excesses of war is not a hopeless enterprise.
What has changed over the last 20 years? Two key innovations stand out: one an idea, the other institution. The institution is the International Criminal Court, and its predecessors, the international tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. The idea is the "Responsibility to Protect." Together, they mark critical steps on humanity's long road toward a more just and peaceful world.
In 1992, when war erupted in the Balkans, no international war crimes trials had been held since the aftermath of the Second World War. The Nuremburg trials are rightly heralded as a milestone in the road from impunity to punishment for those who commit terrible acts in war. But their legacy was long left unrealized. Only after the Balkan wars, and later the horrifying genocide in Rwanda, shocked the conscience of the world did the international community respond with new tribunals to try the perpetrators of grave crimes.
Then came the birth of the International Criminal Court in 2002. Unlike the Rwanda and Yugoslav tribunals, the ICC is a standing court with a broad jurisdiction. It is still a fledging institution, however, and major powers like the US lie beyond its reach. But like Nuremburg before it, the ICC is a milestone: the first-ever permanent international criminal court, and consequently the first that can, at least in principle, deter mass atrocities from occurring. To date, it has indicted some two dozen individuals and held several trials.
International criminal courts are primarily reactive: they are designed to try and sentence those who have already committed bad acts. Preventing bad acts from occurring is always better than punishing perpetrators. And that is where the second key innovation comes in: the idea of a "Responsibility to Protect" those who are threatened with mass atrocities.
The Responsibility to Protect is a standard or norm of behavior for governments, not rule of international law. It is, in other words, an idea about what a responsible state in the 21st century must do. But it is not just an ideal; it marks a change in the meaning of sovereignty, one that was endorsed by the member states of the UN in 2005.
The Responsibility to Protect has three components. A state has a responsibility to protect its population from grave crimes; the international community has a responsibility to assist a state in doing so; and, most controversially, if a state manifestly fails to protect its citizens, the international community has a responsibility to intervene. The central notion is that states exist to serve and protect their citizens. If they cannot do so, others will protect their citizens for them -- coercively if necessary.
The NATO-led intervention this year in Libya combined elements of both the ICC and the Responsibility to Protect. In Resolution 1970, the UN Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC, empowering it to investigate crimes committed during the violence there. The Security Council also expressly invoked the Libya's responsibility to protect its citizens. And a few weeks later the Security Council authorized military action to protect civilians, which successfully ousted the Gaddafi regime in October.
Whether Libya is the augur of a new era or a controversial overreach by NATO is hotly debated. But what cannot be denied is that today, unlike two decades ago, there is a system in place to combat mass atrocities that is both multilateral and permanent.
This system will not always be deployed, of course: Syria, brutally cracking down on rebellion within its borders, has not been treated as Libya was. Yet the Assad regime is increasingly isolated, facing sanctions even from the Arab League and censure around the world. The standards of state behavior -- and the expectations of the responsibility of neighbors--are changing.
If war breaks out again in the Balkans in 2012, it will sadden all who strive for a better, more peaceful world. No idea or institution can stop violence when a party is determined to engage in it.
Yet as bleak as this may seem, the world has taken important steps forward from 1992. This is not cause for celebration; there is still much work to be done, as In the Land of Blood and Honey powerfully reminds viewers. But especially now, in an election year in which many political leaders will counsel an American retreat from the world stage, we must preserve and build on these essential elements in the long struggle to protect civilians from brutality.
Kal Raustiala is director of the Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations at UCLA and a professor of law at UCLA Law School
Comprehensive study makes key findings of ocean pH variationsPublic release date: 21-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robert Monroe or Mario Aguilera scrippsnews@ucsd.edu 858-534-3624 University of California - San Diego
Some organisms already experiencing ocean acidification levels not predicted to be reached until 2100
A group of 19 scientists from five research organizations have conducted the broadest field study of ocean acidification to date using sensors developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.
The study, "High-Frequency Dynamics of Ocean pH: A Multi-Ecosystem Comparison," is reported in the Dec. 19 issue of the journal PLoS One. It is an important step toward understanding how specific ecosystems are responding to the change in seawater chemistry that is being caused as the oceans take up extra carbon dioxide produced by human greenhouse gas emissions, said its authors.
"These data represent a critical step in understanding the consequences of ocean change: the linkage of present-day pH exposures to organismal tolerance and how this translates into ecological change in marine ecosystems," the authors wrote. "These pH time series create a compelling argument for the collection of more continuous data of this kind."
Ocean acidification research is a relatively new study topic as scientists have only appreciated the potential extent of acidification within the last decade. As greenhouse gas emissions have accelerated in the past century, the oceans have taken up about a third of the carbon dioxide produced by human activities. That excess beyond natural levels increases amounts of carbonic acid in seawater. Acidification also limits the amount of carbonate forms that are needed by marine invertebrates such as coral and shelled organisms to form their skeletons.
Though many lab simulations of this effect have been performed recently, including at a new acidification laboratory in development at Scripps, there have been few comparable field studies. Using sensors recently developed at Scripps, the researchers surveyed marine ecosystems ranging from coral reefs in the South Pacific Ocean to volcanic CO2 vent communities in the Mediterranean Sea.
They found that in some places, such as Antarctica and the Line Islands of the south Pacific, the range of pH variance is much more limited than in areas of the California coast subject to large vertical movements of water known as upwellings. In some of their study areas, they found that the decrease in seawater pH being caused by greenhouse gas emissions is still within the bounds of natural pH fluctuation. Some areas already experience daily acidity levels that scientists had expected would only be reached at the end of the 21st Century.
This study is important for identifying the complexity of the ocean acidification problem around the globe. Our data show such huge variability in seawater pH both within and across marine ecosystems making global predictions of the impacts of ocean acidification a big challenge. Some ecosystems such as coral reefs experience a daily range in pH that exceeds the predicted increase in pH over the next century. While these data suggest that marine organisms may be more adapted to fluctuations in pH than previously thought much more research is needed to determine how individual species will respond over time. Importantly, these new sensors allow us continuously and autonomously monitor pH from remote parts of the world and thus provide us with important baselines from which we can monitor future changes caused by ocean acidification.
Because many in the marine chemistry community have expressed concerns that ocean acidification could happen too rapidly for some organisms to adapt, the researchers said that this finding is an important step toward identifying the mechanisms some marine organisms have developed in order to cope. They also said that knowledge of actual pH ranges in various ecosystems should improve assumptions about future pH levels that can only rely on broad generalizations about seawater chemistry. Furthermore it could guide future lab and field studies that investigate the limits of resistance and resilience in various marine communities.
The researchers used "SeaFET" sensors developed at Scripps by marine chemistry researcher Todd Martz. The sensors can measure pH and temperature in the top 70 meters (230 feet) of the ocean. Since 2009, Martz's team has constructed 52 SeaFETs, which have been used by 13 different research groups to study individual ecosystems.
"This collaboration was not planned; it just naturally formed as several of my colleagues requested replicates of a pH sensor that I built while working as a postdoc in Ken Johnson's group at MBARI," said Martz. "When I arrived at Scripps, we re-engineered my prototype design and since then I have not been able to keep up with all of the requests for sensors. Because every sensor used in this study was built at Scripps, I was in a unique position to assimilate a number of datasets, collected independently by researchers that otherwise would not have been in communication with each other. Each time someone deployed a sensor, they would send me the data and eventually it became clear that a synthesis should be done to cross-compare this diverse collection of measurements."
Deployed in the ocean over the course of months or years, the sensors are also able to record important data about how pH fluctuates over time. As data accumulates, the researchers suggested that the field data could identify ocean regions especially vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification or areas that provide natural protections to organisms at risk.
"Such knowledge could enable protection, management, and remediation of critical marine habitats and populations in the future," wrote the authors.
Despite surveying 15 different ocean regions, the authors noted that they only made observations on coastal surface oceans and that more study is needed in deeper ocean regions farther away from land. Martz noted that large-scale programs like Argo, in which a network of more than 3,000 floats distributed throughout the oceans, measure fundamental data.
"The Honeywell DuraFET pH sensor used in the SeaFET has been a great tool for characterizing shallow sites from moorings and for use in shipboard underway systems," Martz said. "The next challenge will be observing the pH of the entire ocean from top to bottom without using ships. I am really excited about the prospect of adding these sensors to mobile autonomous platforms like profiling floats, gliders, and drifters. In fact we continue to work with Ken Johnson and MBARI to make this a reality. I think you can expect to see a pH sensor sending back data from an Argo-type profiling float at some point in 2012."
###
Report contributors included lead author Gretchen E. Hofmann of UC Santa Barbara; Jennifer Smith, Uwe Send, Lisa Levin, Yuichiro Takeshita, Nichole N. Price, Brittany Peterson and Christina A. Frieder of Scripps; Paul Matson, Emily B. Rivest and Pauline Yu of UC Santa Barbara; Kenneth Johnson of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute; Fiorenza Micheli and Kristy Kroeker of Stanford University; Adina Paytan and Elizabeth Derse Crook of UC Santa Cruz; and Maria Cristina Gambi of Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy. Funding for instrument development and related field work came from several sources including the National Science Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the University of California, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, the WWW Foundation, Scott and Karin Wilson, the Rhodes family, and NOAA.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Comprehensive study makes key findings of ocean pH variationsPublic release date: 21-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robert Monroe or Mario Aguilera scrippsnews@ucsd.edu 858-534-3624 University of California - San Diego
Some organisms already experiencing ocean acidification levels not predicted to be reached until 2100
A group of 19 scientists from five research organizations have conducted the broadest field study of ocean acidification to date using sensors developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.
The study, "High-Frequency Dynamics of Ocean pH: A Multi-Ecosystem Comparison," is reported in the Dec. 19 issue of the journal PLoS One. It is an important step toward understanding how specific ecosystems are responding to the change in seawater chemistry that is being caused as the oceans take up extra carbon dioxide produced by human greenhouse gas emissions, said its authors.
"These data represent a critical step in understanding the consequences of ocean change: the linkage of present-day pH exposures to organismal tolerance and how this translates into ecological change in marine ecosystems," the authors wrote. "These pH time series create a compelling argument for the collection of more continuous data of this kind."
Ocean acidification research is a relatively new study topic as scientists have only appreciated the potential extent of acidification within the last decade. As greenhouse gas emissions have accelerated in the past century, the oceans have taken up about a third of the carbon dioxide produced by human activities. That excess beyond natural levels increases amounts of carbonic acid in seawater. Acidification also limits the amount of carbonate forms that are needed by marine invertebrates such as coral and shelled organisms to form their skeletons.
Though many lab simulations of this effect have been performed recently, including at a new acidification laboratory in development at Scripps, there have been few comparable field studies. Using sensors recently developed at Scripps, the researchers surveyed marine ecosystems ranging from coral reefs in the South Pacific Ocean to volcanic CO2 vent communities in the Mediterranean Sea.
They found that in some places, such as Antarctica and the Line Islands of the south Pacific, the range of pH variance is much more limited than in areas of the California coast subject to large vertical movements of water known as upwellings. In some of their study areas, they found that the decrease in seawater pH being caused by greenhouse gas emissions is still within the bounds of natural pH fluctuation. Some areas already experience daily acidity levels that scientists had expected would only be reached at the end of the 21st Century.
This study is important for identifying the complexity of the ocean acidification problem around the globe. Our data show such huge variability in seawater pH both within and across marine ecosystems making global predictions of the impacts of ocean acidification a big challenge. Some ecosystems such as coral reefs experience a daily range in pH that exceeds the predicted increase in pH over the next century. While these data suggest that marine organisms may be more adapted to fluctuations in pH than previously thought much more research is needed to determine how individual species will respond over time. Importantly, these new sensors allow us continuously and autonomously monitor pH from remote parts of the world and thus provide us with important baselines from which we can monitor future changes caused by ocean acidification.
Because many in the marine chemistry community have expressed concerns that ocean acidification could happen too rapidly for some organisms to adapt, the researchers said that this finding is an important step toward identifying the mechanisms some marine organisms have developed in order to cope. They also said that knowledge of actual pH ranges in various ecosystems should improve assumptions about future pH levels that can only rely on broad generalizations about seawater chemistry. Furthermore it could guide future lab and field studies that investigate the limits of resistance and resilience in various marine communities.
The researchers used "SeaFET" sensors developed at Scripps by marine chemistry researcher Todd Martz. The sensors can measure pH and temperature in the top 70 meters (230 feet) of the ocean. Since 2009, Martz's team has constructed 52 SeaFETs, which have been used by 13 different research groups to study individual ecosystems.
"This collaboration was not planned; it just naturally formed as several of my colleagues requested replicates of a pH sensor that I built while working as a postdoc in Ken Johnson's group at MBARI," said Martz. "When I arrived at Scripps, we re-engineered my prototype design and since then I have not been able to keep up with all of the requests for sensors. Because every sensor used in this study was built at Scripps, I was in a unique position to assimilate a number of datasets, collected independently by researchers that otherwise would not have been in communication with each other. Each time someone deployed a sensor, they would send me the data and eventually it became clear that a synthesis should be done to cross-compare this diverse collection of measurements."
Deployed in the ocean over the course of months or years, the sensors are also able to record important data about how pH fluctuates over time. As data accumulates, the researchers suggested that the field data could identify ocean regions especially vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification or areas that provide natural protections to organisms at risk.
"Such knowledge could enable protection, management, and remediation of critical marine habitats and populations in the future," wrote the authors.
Despite surveying 15 different ocean regions, the authors noted that they only made observations on coastal surface oceans and that more study is needed in deeper ocean regions farther away from land. Martz noted that large-scale programs like Argo, in which a network of more than 3,000 floats distributed throughout the oceans, measure fundamental data.
"The Honeywell DuraFET pH sensor used in the SeaFET has been a great tool for characterizing shallow sites from moorings and for use in shipboard underway systems," Martz said. "The next challenge will be observing the pH of the entire ocean from top to bottom without using ships. I am really excited about the prospect of adding these sensors to mobile autonomous platforms like profiling floats, gliders, and drifters. In fact we continue to work with Ken Johnson and MBARI to make this a reality. I think you can expect to see a pH sensor sending back data from an Argo-type profiling float at some point in 2012."
###
Report contributors included lead author Gretchen E. Hofmann of UC Santa Barbara; Jennifer Smith, Uwe Send, Lisa Levin, Yuichiro Takeshita, Nichole N. Price, Brittany Peterson and Christina A. Frieder of Scripps; Paul Matson, Emily B. Rivest and Pauline Yu of UC Santa Barbara; Kenneth Johnson of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute; Fiorenza Micheli and Kristy Kroeker of Stanford University; Adina Paytan and Elizabeth Derse Crook of UC Santa Cruz; and Maria Cristina Gambi of Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy. Funding for instrument development and related field work came from several sources including the National Science Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the University of California, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, the WWW Foundation, Scott and Karin Wilson, the Rhodes family, and NOAA.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
CAIRO (Reuters) ? Protesters and security forces fought in Cairo on Sunday, the third day of clashes that have killed 10 people and exposed rifts over the army's role as it manages Egypt's promised transition from military to civilian rule.
Soldiers and police manned barriers on some streets around Tahrir Square, the hub of the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak and again convulsed by violence as protesters demand the generals who took charge in February quit power.
Police in riot gear made brief forays beyond their barriers and were met by a surge of protesters pelting them with rocks. Police appeared to have taken over the frontline from soldiers.
Troops in riot gear were filmed on Saturday beating protesters with long sticks even after they had fallen to the ground. A Reuters picture showed two soldiers dragging a woman lying on the ground by her shirt, exposing her underwear.
The violence has overshadowed a staggered parliamentary election, the first free vote most Egyptians can remember, that is set to give Islamists the biggest bloc.
Some Egyptians are enraged by the army's behaviour. Others want to focus on voting, not street protests.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will retain power even after the lower house vote is completed in January, but has pledged to hand over to an elected president by July.
"Down with Tantawi," about 1,000 protesters chanted late on Sunday, referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi who heads the army council and who was Mubarak's defence minister.
Some youths had earlier hulred rocks and petrol bombs at lines of security forces. Riot police appeared to have moved to the frontline instead of soldiers.
An army source said 164 people had been detained.
Hundreds of protesters were in Tahrir on Sunday, although traffic was flowing through the square coming from streets not blocked and away from the violence. Most of the clashes have been in streets leading off the square.
BOUTS OF VIOLENCE
One group of activists approached those hurling stones to urge them to stop, but they refused, citing the deaths of 10 people as a reason not to "negotiate." Other activists handed over to the army people they said were making petrol bombs.
A hardcore of activists have camped in Tahrir since a protest against army rule on November 18 that was sparked by the army-backed cabinet's proposals to permanently shield the military from civilian oversight in the new constitution.
Bouts of violence since then, including a flare-up last month that killed 42, have deepened frustrations of many other Egyptians, who want an end to protests. They see the military as the only force capable of restoring stability.
"There are people who wait for any problem and seek to amplify it ... The clashes won't stop. There are street children who found shelter in Tahrir," said Ali el-Nubi, a postal worker, adding the army should have managed the transition better.
Reuters television footage showed one soldier in a line of charging troops firing a shot at fleeing protesters on Saturday, though it was not clear whether he was using live rounds.
The army said it does not use live ammunition. It has also said troops had tackled only "thugs," not protesters.
A building near Tahrir with historic archives was gutted on Saturday by a fire. Some people tried to gather up any remaining, partially charred documents to save them.
The Health Ministry said 10 people had been killed in the violence since Friday and 505 were wounded, of which 384 had been taken to hospital. Most of the deaths happened on Friday or early Saturday. No deaths were reported on Sunday.
CONCRETE BARRIER
The latest bloodshed began after the second round of voting last week for parliament's lower house. The staggered election began on November 28 and will end with a run-off vote on January 11.
The Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties repressed in the 30-year Mubarak era have emerged as strong front-runners.
The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said it had received about 40 percent of votes cast for party lists in the second round of voting last week. The strict Salafi al-Nour Party said its list received about 35 percent.
Despite their commanding position built, it is unclear whether the two rival Islamist groups will form an alliance in parliament, as they have each spoken warily of the other.
The leadership of the Brotherhood is cautious of a wholly Islamist ruling coalition, which Egyptians from other political trends might view as divisive and polarising in a period when they think broader national unity is needed. Nour politicians accuse the Brotherhood of compromising Islamic values.
(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad, Alexander Dziadosz and Shaimaa Fayed; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Sophie Hares)
Things may not be as grim for Jerry Sandusky as they seem, Philadelphia Weekly informs us today. The reasons for that are codified into Pennsylvania law:
1.) Trial judges are required to instruct jurors to factor in how long it took for victims to report their allegations of sex abuse to authorities, even though that time difference is known to have no relevance to the truth of their claims.
2.) Expert testimony in sex assault cases is not permitted.
Regarding the former, here is the text of the relevant statute for juror instruction, per Philadelphia Weekly:
The evidence of [name of victim]'s [failure to complain] [delay in making a complaint] does not necessarily make [his] [her] testimony unreliable, but may remove from it the assurance of reliability accompanying the prompt complaint or outcry that the victim of a crime such as this would ordinarily be expected to make.
Now, there have been numerous reports that sexual assault victims are unlikely to come forward right away, with The New York Times even reporting that the grand jury's subpoena power is what finally compelled a number of Sandusky's alleged victims to tell investigators their stories. And, as the PW story notes, "there is no proven correlation between delay in reporting assault and an alleged victim's likelihood to tell the truth."
Pennsylvania, unlike many other states, has a full-time state legislature. That lawmaking branch has a whopping 253 members. It had no trouble giving itself a pay raise in the dark of night a few years back. But it can't be bothered to move quickly to change a stupid, antiquated law like that.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that prohibits the use of expert testimony in a sex abuse case. I'll let Philadelphia Weekly's Tara Murtha explain why that prohibition is stupid:
Without an expert to set the jury straight on the sometimes counterintuitive ways a "typical" victim of sexual assault may respond?keeping it a secret; believing an assailant's emotionally manipulative declarations of love; responding to the assailant's efforts to continue the relationship?the jury is ill-equipped to place a victim's testimony into proper context.
Instead of using what we know from decades of research to give jurors context to analyze alleged victims' testimony, juries are left to make judgments from unfair, and largely incorrect, societal biases.
According to Murtha, a bill that would allow expert witnesses to testify in sex abuse cases has passed the state House in Pennsylvania by a 197-0 margin. But it's been sitting in committee in the state Senate since June. Stewart Greenleaf, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, took time out from his busy schedule to explain to Murtha that he was still looking at it, saying he wants to "fine-tune" it. That he has such reservations at a time like this must be music to Jerry Sandusky's ears.
UPDATED: According to Diane Moyer, the legal director for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, Pennsylvania is alone in not allowing expert testimony in sex abuse cases because of precedents established by the state Supreme Court. "They have held that it is within the province of a lay person to understand victim behavior," she told me over the phone. "It is an embarrassment."
PA's Backward Expert-Witness Law Creates Advantage for Jerry Sandusky [Philadelphia Weekly] Bill would permit experts to testify about sex abuse victim behavior [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]
Nexus S phones get updated with Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Sprint kills Carrier IQ on its phones, and you can use Siri to get Best Buy product information.
Eager to compete with rival DeNA, Japan?s Gree has just released new details on its global social gaming platform. The borderless system will give users a single sign-on so they can play games on the network wherever they are and regardless of phone.
The platform won?t be available until the second quarter of 2012, well behind DeNA/Ngmoco?s currently available Mobage platform. For developers, the system will give game makers a target platform to build free-to-play games that can use Gree?s global payment solution and out-of-network cross-promotional opportunities. The idea is to create a social mobile game platform that makes it easier for games to be discovered and spread in a viral fashion. Gree can give developers access to a network with more than 150 million registered gamers around the world.
Gree will make the software development kit available for both iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) and Android games.
?This new Gree platform continues to show the commitment we have to building a truly global, free-to-play ecosystem for mobile developers. Our goal is to offer the best social gaming experience to players around the world,? said Yoshikazu Tanaka, chief executive and founder of Gree. ?Gree worldwide has the largest cross-platform network and this is a step closer to our goal of reaching one billion users.?
The SDK will have seamless cross-platform integration and analytics tools. Gree will launch an app discovery portal with new social tools. Users will be able to access features such as leaderboards and achievements.
Available in Q2 of 2012, the new platform will provide developers worldwide with a seamless iOS and Android integration process, as well as rich analytics tools. The unified iOS and Android APIs and app discovery portal will offer games with the next generation of social tools and interaction, and continue to provide all of the most popular gaming features such as leaderboards and achievements. Gree acquired OpenFeint in April 2011 and it offers more than 7,500 games for smartphones.
Gree has been growing fast. Between 2008 and 2010 Gree claims to have seen its sales growth rate increase by more than 4,000 percent. It has 26 million registered users in Japan and, thanks to its acquisition of OpenFeint in April 2011, now boasts 145 million users worldwide. After the announcement of the $104 million acquisition, the two companies explained that they would be creating ?a global ecosystem of distribution channels for game developers.?
In addition to OpenFeint, which is a wholly owned subsidiary, Gree also has partnership agreements with two very popular social networks in Asia. In April, Gree announced a partnership with Project Goth, the company behind Mig33, a mobile social network with 47 million users worldwide, but with a particular focus on emerging markets like South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
?
Next Story: Carrier IQ now under scrutiny from officials in Germany &?UK Previous Story: Check out Samsung?s transparent and flexible concept tablet?(video)
VANCOUVER, British Columbia ? Confined to a wheelchair, in constant pain and unable to bathe without help, a 63-year-old grandmother has forced the issue of assisted suicide into Canadian courts for the third time in two decades.
Gloria Taylor has Lou Gehrig's disease, a rapidly progressive, invariably fatal neurological affliction.
"It is my life and my body and it should be my choice as to when and how I die," she said before going to the British Columbia Supreme Court last Thursday to challenge Canada's ban on assisted suicide, a crime carrying a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.
It has been nearly 20 years since another Lou Gehrig's disease sufferer, Sue Rodriguez, gripped Canadian hearts with her court battle for the right to assisted suicide. She lost her appeal but took her own life with the help of an anonymous doctor in 1994, aged 44.
In 1993, a Saskatchewan farmer, Robert Latimer, put his quadriplegic daughter Tracey in his pickup truck, attached an exhaust hose and watched her die. He said the 12-year-old functioned at the level of a three-year-old, living in pain, unable to walk, talk or feed herself.
Convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, after numerous appeals Latimer's conviction was upheld and he began serving his sentence in 2001. He was paroled a year ago.
In the latest case now unfolding, Taylor's lead lawyer, civil liberties defender Joe Arvay, argued to the court that assisted suicides were taking place despite the ban, a practice he likened to the illegal "back-alley abortions" of the past.
Taylor and her family won't testify, but she sat in the courthouse in her wheelchair. She has told reporters she can't even wash herself unaided or perform basic household chores. She called it "an assault not only on my privacy, but on my dignity and self-esteem."
She frequently uses a respirator. "I fear that I will eventually suffocate and die struggling for air like a fish out of water," she said.
Opponents argue that allowing assisted deaths could lead to abuses of the elderly and infirm. Dr. Will Johnston of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Canada fears people could be pushed toward death when their lives are no longer convenient for others.
Supporters draw support from the Royal Society of Canada, the country's senior scholarly body. Its panel of professors and specialists in medical ethics and health law said in a report issued Nov. 15 that assisted death in Canada should be regulated and monitored rather than criminalized.
"A significant majority of the Canadian population appears to support a more permissive legislative framework for voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide," the report said.
It said assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington and Montana, while in England and Wales the policy does not stipulate that every case must be prosecuted.
Johnston called the report "a euthanasia manifesto disguised as an impartial report."
Sheila Tucker, a lawyer with the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, says the issue is back on the agenda because with the passage of time various jurisdictions have gained working experience with the legalities of assisted dying.
Johnston countered that Canadian political attitudes had not changed ? that only last year Parliament voted 228-59 against changing the law to allow doctors to help people die "once the person has expressed his or her free and informed consent to die."
The British Columbia Supreme Court is expected to rule early next year, but Tucker is sure the decision will go to the Canadian Supreme Court, meaning no change in the law can be expected before next winter at the earliest.
December 28th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Now you need one for long (demographic) waves. As in, Generation A grows up during a crash, saves strongly, creates conditions for growth. Generation B thinks their parents are foolish Scrooges, spends, increasing growth but building up debt. Generation C sees grows up during debt-fueled growth, enjoys the good times, but then has to deal with the crash. Repeat.
December 28th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
A number of the cycle charts show ?rising inflation? as a characteristic of an economy slowing/ entering a recession. At the same time, the charts suggest stocks and commodity prices start falling. Is this contradiction apparent?
Why are prices increasing during a recession when (presumably) velocity slows? Outside of the 70?s stagflation or Volcker ?ringing out? inflation by inducing a recession (contractionary monetary) in the early 80?s, why would we associate a recession with increasing prices? Text Book. Inflation is expansionary. Right?
Gen C! woop!
December 28th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
nice qualitative charts. do they stand up to actual market data? if so, let?s see it.
December 29th, 2011 at 8:29 am
Beware of overly general charts ? such as the 2nd (red & green) one.
Finance during early recession and bear market? How did that work out for y?all in 2008?
December 29th, 2011 at 9:31 am
so when does the bond yields start rising when central bankers don?t want it to rise ??
December 29th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
I find this helpful. Investment professionals know this but it?s helpful to see visually. The problem that I see is identifying where you are currently in the cycle. I thought I knew but I am not so sure anymore?.