Tuesday, January 31, 2012

INVESTING AMID VOLATILITY | PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM

Home ? Most Recent Stories

31 January 2012 by Cullen Roche 4 Comments

John Woods, Chief Investment Officer, at Citi Private Bank joined CNBC Europe to discuss his approach for investing in a volatile market. ?He sees the Euro crisis continuing with a depression in parts of Europe and continuing turmoil. ?He offers some global macro ideas for navigating the volatile market. ?His favorite picks:

  • US Investment grade debt
  • Japanese equities
  • Underweight emerging markets
  • Underweight China
  • Buy Yen vs the USD

Source: CNBC

Source: http://pragcap.com/investing-amid-volatility

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Monday, January 30, 2012

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi calls for changes to constitution (Reuters)

DAWEI, Myanmar (Reuters) ? Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on Sunday for changes to the military-drafted constitution in her first political trip since ending a boycott of the country's political system last year and announcing plans to run for parliament.

Thousands of people lined the roads shouting "Long live mother Suu" as her motorcade moved through the rural coastal region of Dawei about 615 km (380 miles) south of her home city,

Yangon, the main business centre.

The trip, only her fourth outside Yangon since her release from years of house arrest in November 2010, demonstrates the increasingly central role of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate as the Southeast Asian state emerges from half a century of isolation.

"There are certain laws which are obstacles to the freedom of the people and we will strive to abolish these laws within the framework of the parliament," Suu Kyi said to cheers from supporters after meeting officials of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in Dawei.

The NLD, though well known in the country, has had limited real political experience. It won by a landslide a 1990 election, a year after Suu Kyi began a lengthy period of incarceration, but the then regime ignored the result and detained many party members and supporters.

The NLD boycotted the next election, held in 2010 and won by a military-backed party after opposition complaints of rigging.

Her address on Sunday offered the most extensive detail yet of the policies she would bring to parliament.

In particular, she said she wanted to revise a 2008 army-drafted constitution that gives the military wide-ranging powers, including the ability to appoint key cabinet members, take control of the country in a state of emergency and occupy a quarter of the seats in parliament.

"We need to amend certain parts of the constitution," she said, adding the international community was poised to help Myanmar "once we are on an irreversible road to democracy."

She also said fighting between government soldiers and ethnic minority rebels had to be resolved. There has been heavy fighting recently in Kachin state but rebellions have simmered in many other regions since independence from Britain in 1948.

"Diversity is not something to be afraid of, it can be enjoyed," Suu Kyi said.

Although she has not started to campaign formally for the April 1 by-elections, the speech outside her office to supporters waving party flags and wearing T-shirts showing her face felt like a campaign stop.

"She's becoming more and more explicitly political and talking about the importance of policies," said a diplomat in the crowd. "I think it is the best speech I have heard from her."

"GREAT TRANSFORMATION"

Suu Kyi and her allies are contesting 48 seats in various legislatures including the 440-seat lower house in by-elections that could give political credibility to Myanmar and help advance the end of Western sanctions.

Business executives, mostly from Asia, have swarmed into Yangon in recent weeks to hunt for investment opportunities in the country of an estimated 60 million people, one of the last frontier markets in Asia.

Myanmar is also at the centre of a struggle for strategic influence as the United States sees a chance to expand its ties there and balance China's fast-growing economic and political sway in the region.

The visit to Dawei gives rural voters a rare glimpse of 66-year-old Suu Kyi, a symbol of defiance whose past trips outside Yangon were met with suspicion and violence by the former junta, which handed power to a nominally civilian parliament in March.

But many of the same generals who dominated the junta now lead a government on a dramatic reform drive, freeing hundreds of political prisoners, loosening media controls, calling for peace with ethnic insurgents and openly engaging with Suu Kyi and other opposition figures.

As a result, this trip was very different to one last July to Bagan, north of Yangon, where she was trailed by undercover police and kept a low profile, fearful of a repeat of an attack on her motorcade in 2003 in which 70 supporters were killed.

Suu Kyi told the World Economic Forum in Davos last week that Myanmar had not yet reached its "great transformation," but the elections in April could bring that point closer.

Many believe the turning point for Suu Kyi came on August 19, when she and President Thein Sein met in the capital, Naypyitaw. The president has since repeatedly urged parliament to pursue reforms, while Suu Kyi has voiced support for his government.

Many Burmese speculate that a senior government role, possibly even a cabinet post, awaits Suu Kyi, the daughter of assassinated independence hero General Aung San.

But to get there, much work lies ahead.

Her party has limited resources. Its headquarters are cramped and crumbling. Its senior ranks are filled with ageing activists. And there are questions over how much influence it can wield in a year-old parliament stacked with military appointees and former generals.

Her supporters, however, say her presence would bring a powerful pro-democracy voice to a chamber where many members remain reluctant to speak their mind.

"She will be able to do more inside the parliament than if she remained on the outside. There are some crucial things to do urgently concerning ethnic issues and political changes," said Ko Htin Kyaw, a dissident who was arrested in 2007 and freed in an amnesty this month.

(Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/wl_nm/us_myanmar_suukyi

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

British police arrest 5 in tabloid bribery probe

A news camera films the offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

A news camera films the offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

The offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

A traffic warden writes a ticket outside the offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

The offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

The offices of News International company headquarters in London, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012. British police on Saturday arrested four people, including a police officer, on suspicion of corruption as part of an ongoing investigation into police bribery by the now defunct News of the World tabloid newspaper, and the police said the arrests were made as a result of information provided by Murdoch's News Corp., and officers were searching the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

(AP) ? The criminal investigation into British tabloid skullduggery turned full force on a second Rupert Murdoch publication Saturday, with the arrest of four current and former journalists from The Sun on suspicion of bribing police.

A serving police officer was also held, and authorities searched the newspaper's offices as part an investigation into illegal payments for information.

The arrests spread the scandal over tabloid wrongdoing ? which has already shut down one Murdoch paper, the News of the World ? to Britain's best-selling newspaper.

London police said two men aged 48 and one aged 56 were arrested on suspicion of corruption early in the morning at homes in and around London. A 42-year-old man was detained later at a London police station.

Murdoch's News Corp. confirmed that all four were current or former Sun employees. The BBC and other British media identified them as former managing editor Graham Dudman, former deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, current head of news Chris Pharo and crime editor Mike Sullivan.

A fifth man, a 29-year-old police officer, was arrested at the London station where he works.

Officers searched the men's homes and the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence.

The investigation into whether reporters illegally paid police for information is running parallel to a police inquiry into phone hacking by Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World.

Police said Saturday's arrests were made based on information provided by the Management and Standards Committee of Murdoch's News Corp., the internal body tasked with rooting out wrongdoing.

News Corp. said it was cooperating with police.

"News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated," it said in a statement.

In an email to staff after the arrests, Tom Mockridge ? chief executive of Murdoch's British operation, News International ? said the internal investigation into wrongdoing at The Sun "is well advanced."

"News International is confronting past mistakes and is making fundamental changes about how we operate which are essential for our business," Mockridge said.

"Despite this very difficult news, we are determined that News International will emerge a stronger and more trusted organization," he added.

Thirteen people have now been arrested in the bribery probe, though none has yet been charged. They include Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Murdoch's News International; ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson ? who is also Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief; and journalists from the News of the World and The Sun.

Two of the London police force's top officers resigned in the wake of the revelation last July that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the cell phone voicemail messages of celebrities, athletes, politicians and even an abducted teenager in its quest for stories.

Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid amid a wave of public revulsion, and the scandal has triggered a continuing public inquiry into media ethics and the relationship between the press, police and politicians.

An earlier police investigation failed to find evidence that hacking went beyond one reporter and a private investigator, who were both jailed in 2007 for eavesdropping on the phones of royal staff.

But News Corp. has now acknowledged it was much more widespread.

Last week the company agreed to pay damages to 37 hacking victims, including actor Jude Law, soccer star Ashley Cole and British politician John Prescott.

The furor that consumed the News of the World continues to rattle other parts of Murdoch's media empire.

As well as investigating phone hacking and allegations that journalists paid police for information, detectives are looking into claims of computer hacking by Murdoch papers.

News Corp. has admitted that the News of the World hacked the emails as well as the phone of Chris Shipman, the son of serial killer Harold Shipman. And The Times of London has acknowledged that a former reporter tried to intercept emails to unmask an anonymous blogger.

News Corp. is preparing to launch a new Sunday newspaper ? likely called the Sunday Sun ? to replace the News of the World.

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-28-EU-Britain-Phone-Hacking/id-2813b6667b934649878d382d4910a8c6

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Fetal Armor: How the Placenta Shapes Brain Development (preview)

Feature Articles | Mind & Brain Cover Image: February 2012 Scientific American MagazineSee Inside

Scientists are finding that the placenta is far more than a passive filter


Image: Norman Barker

The placenta is unique among organs?critical to human life yet fleeting. In its short time of duty, it serves as a vital protective barrier to the fetus. The organ?s blood vessels?which resemble tree roots in this image by Norman Barker, associate professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine?also deliver essential oxygen and nutrients from the mother to her developing baby. Still, the placenta has been vastly underappreciated. Scientists are taking a closer look and finding that it is much more than a simple conduit: it actively protects the fetus and shapes neurological development.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Claudia Kalb, a former senior writer for Newsweek, is a freelance science journalist based in Washington, D.C.


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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=64f9d31331684688bf77e6b4b813834b

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US judge denies bid to block NV mustang roundups (AP)

RENO, Nev. ? A federal judge in Nevada who handed horse protection advocates a rare victory last fall has rejected their latest request to block government roundups of free-roaming mustangs in the West, saying they'll have to go to Congress if they think the animals are being treated inhumanely and need more protection.

U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben granted a temporary restraining order on Aug. 30 that cut short by a day a roundup near the Nevada-Utah line after he determined a helicopter flew too close to a horse in violation of the law.

But he said during a hearing in Reno Thursday that he was denying a new injunction request from the Texas-based Wild Horse Freedom Federation partly because the Bureau of Land Management has made some positive changes since then. He also said he can't issue injunctions based on speculation about future abuses.

"This court is really not in a position to be the overseer of the BLM," McKibben said. "This court is not going to police all gathers in the U.S. or even all gathers in the district of northern Nevada."

"This Court is not Congress, not an administrative agency. We are not the first branch of government. We are not the second branch. We're here to consider grievances," he said.

His ruling was a disappointment to horse protection advocates who were buoyed by his court order last fall when he took the BLM to task for its actions at the Triple B complex roundup near the Nevada-Utah line northwest of Ely, Nev.

"Your honor, you are the last vestige of hope here," said Gordon Cowan, a lawyer for the group. "Basically, there is no other accountability."

Erik Petersen, a Justice Department lawyer representing BLM, said the agency took McKibben's earlier order seriously and responded with its own internal review of the Triple B roundup "in great part in response to this court's ruling on the temporary restraining order."

The law already dictates the horses be treated humanely but the agency now has "a half dozen specific instructions" or guidelines for roundup contractors to follow, including prohibiting helicopters from flying too close to animals, Petersen said.

The BLM said in a formal review made public in December that some mustangs in the Triple B complex were whipped in the face, kicked in the head, dragged by a rope around the neck, and repeatedly shocked with electrical prods, but the agency concluded none of the mistreatment rose to the level of being inhumane. BLM Director Bob Abbey did, however, determine additional training is needed for the workers and contractors involved.

The government's wild horse program is intended to protect wild horse herds and the rangelands that support them. About 33,000 wild horses live in 10 Western states, of which about half are in Nevada. Under the program, thousands of horses are forced into holding pens, where many are vaccinated or neutered before being placed for adoption or sent to long-term corrals in the Midwest.

Animal rights advocates complain that the roundups are inhumane, but ranchers and other groups say they're needed to protect fragile grazing lands that are used by cattle, Bighorn sheep and other wildlife.

Petersen said the Triple B roundup ended the day after McKibben's previous order on Aug. 30. He said BLM has no plans to resume that roundup ? the only one specifically targeted in the group's original lawsuit filed last year.

But Cowan said he said there's no question BLM eventually will return to the area for another roundup.

"They finished it to avoid your temporary restraining order," Cowan said. "They are coming back whether they say it or not. Triple B is not over," he said.

If that happens, McKibben said the issue will be ripe again for legal challenge. He repeated several times that he couldn't understand why the critics won't acknowledge BLM is taking steps to treat the horses more humanely.

"Is your position that absolutely nothing constructive has happened ... that everything done so far is basically meaningless?" he asked Cowan, who answered "yes" each time.

"I don't happen to agree," the judge said. "I think frankly that hurts your argument."

Cowan said that's the group's position because group Vice President Laura Leigh continues to observe abuse of horses at other gathers.

McKibben said the new BLM guidelines were an improvement.

"While they have not resulted in the embodiment of new rules or regulations, I see some positive things that happened between the time we were in court before and today," he said.

"I would strongly urge the Bureau of Land Management to proceed in that direction. But that's a decision that must be made by the first branch (Congress)."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_us/us_wild_horses_lawsuit

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Friday, January 27, 2012

Gingrich donor is casino mogul, Israeli hardliner (AP)

ATLANTA ? He's an ardent supporter of Israel. A megabillionaire casino mogul whose Las Vegas Sands Corp. is under federal investigation. And the self-proclaimed "richest Jew in the world."

Sheldon Adelson is also, far and away, the biggest patron of Newt Gingrich's surging Republican presidential bid. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have pumped $10 million into a political action committee backing Gingrich that is run by the former House speaker's onetime aides. Campaign finance experts say the two $5 million contributions are among the largest known political donations in U.S. history.

No other candidate in the race for president appears to be relying so heavily on the fortune of a single donor. It's been made possible by last year's Supreme Court rulings ? known as Citizens United ? that recast the political landscape by stripping away restrictions on contributions and how outside groups can spend their money.

Sheldon Adelson is Citizens United come to life.

"The bottom line is that it creates that potential for one person to have far more influence than any one person should have," said Fred Wertheimer, president of the campaign finance watchdog group Democracy 21.

When any candidate is beholden to a single donor for so much money, Wertheimer said, "it opens the door to corruption and influence peddling." Wertheimer said the infusion of cash would raise questions about any decision Gingrich would make that touches on gambling, for example. And similar questions could be raised about Gingrich's Mideast policies.

Indeed, without recent disclosures by news organizations, voters would not have even known about the large contributions until campaign filings due Feb. 20. That would be long after a number of key primaries.

The outsized contributions are stirring some unease among the evangelical Protestant voters whom Gingrich is counting on to help him defeat Mitt Romney. Richard Land, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, called the gambling cash fueling Gingrich's bid "discomforting."

Land said Gingrich should make clear what his views are on legalized gambling.

Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said the candidate believes it is a states' rights issue and does not gamble.

Friends say Adelson and Gingrich met when Gingrich was House speaker and Adelson was lobbying to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Gingrich backed the legislation and the two bonded over a shared hardline stance on Israel.

In Cocoa, Fla., Gingrich on Wednesday called Adelson "very deeply concerned about the survival of Israel" and the threat of a nuclear Iran. Asked if he had promised Adelson anything, Gingrich replied that he pledged "that I would seek to defend the United States and United States allies."

Those who have followed Gingrich's career say he has long staked out a tough stance on Israel that predates his friendship with Adelson.

Gingrich "has been one of the few politicians who has had the courage to tell the truth about Israel," said Morton Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America. "I think that is why they became such good friends."

In December, Gingrich proclaimed the Palestinians "an invented people." Israel's Haaretz daily reported later that month that Adelson approved of the remarks. And Gingrich has said that one of the first executive orders he would sign if elected president would move the American Embassy to Jerusalem.

Through a spokesman, Adelson declined an interview request from The Associated Press.

His rags-to-riches story as the son of poor Ukrainian immigrants in Dorchester, Mass., is well-known lore in the pro-Israeli circles he inhabits and where his philanthropy is legendary.

Adelson entered the business world as a 12-year-old selling newspapers. He began to make his fortune when he founded Comdex, a trade show that became a staple for the computer industry. He then moved into the casino industry. His gambling empire stretches from Las Vegas to Macau and Singapore and includes the Venetian and Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas.

The FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating Adelson's company for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to a filing with the SEC. The company denies any wrongdoing and says the investigation stems from the allegation of a disgruntled employee.

The son of a cab driver, Adelson now ranks as the eighth wealthiest person in America, according to Forbes Magazine, which places his net worth at $21.5 billion.

Last year, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel, said it received its largest private donation ever ? a $25 million gift ? from Adelson. Since 2007, he has donated more than $100 million to Birthright Israel, a group that sends young adult Jews from the United States and other countries on 10-day trips to Israel.

Adelson is an outspoken supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and owns a widely read, right-wing Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom, which is distributed at no cost throughout Israel and is supportive of Netanyahu.

The hefty donations to Gingrich's presidential bid aren't the first checks he's written to help the former Georgia congressman. He ponied up more than $7 million to help get Gingrich's conservative political group American Solutions for Winning the Future off the ground.

The first $5 million donation from Adelson came at a critical juncture for Gingrich's campaign as he entered South Carolina, stung by a humbling fifth-place finish in New Hampshire's Republican primary. The Adelson money to Winning Our Future, a pro-Gingrich PAC led by former Gingrich aide Rick Tyler, helped finance a 28-minute movie bashing Mitt Romney's tenure at the helm of the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Gingrich was able to leverage the support into a double-digit win in South Carolina over Romney.

Presumably pleased with his investment, Adelson doubled down in Florida, where the next Republican contest will take place Jan. 31. This week, Adelson's wife chipped in another $5 million. The money is quickly going right back out the door.

Tyler told the AP that Winning Our Future had made a $6 million ad buy in Florida. A spot is planned to take aim at Romney's health care plan as governor of Massachusetts and its connection to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, Tyler said.

___

Associated Press writers Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Brian Bakst in Cocoa, Fla., and Jack Gillum in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Shannon McCaffrey: http://www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich_casino_mogul

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

World's most powerful X-ray laser creates 2-million-degree matter

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2012) ? Researchers working at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have used the world's most powerful X-ray laser to create and probe a 2-million-degree piece of matter in a controlled way for the first time. This feat, reported in Nature, takes scientists a significant step forward in understanding the most extreme matter found in the hearts of stars and giant planets, and could help experiments aimed at recreating the nuclear fusion process that powers the sun.

The experiments were carried out at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), whose rapid-fire laser pulses are a billion times brighter than those of any X-ray source before it. Scientists used those pulses to flash-heat a tiny piece of aluminum foil, creating what is known as "hot dense matter," and took the temperature of this solid plasma -- about 2 million degrees Celsius. The whole process took less than a trillionth of a second.

"The LCLS X-ray laser is a truly remarkable machine," said Sam Vinko, a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University and the paper's lead author. "Making extremely hot, dense matter is important scientifically if we are ultimately to understand the conditions that exist inside stars and at the center of giant planets within our own solar system and beyond."

Scientists have long been able to create plasma from gases and study it with conventional lasers, said co-author Bob Nagler of SLAC, an LCLS instrument scientist. But no tools were available for doing the same at solid densities that cannot be penetrated by conventional laser beams.

"The LCLS, with its ultra-short wavelengths of X-ray laser light, is the first that can penetrate a dense solid and create a uniform patch of plasma -- in this case a cube one-thousandth of a centimeter on a side -- and probe it at the same time," Nagler said.

The resulting measurements, he said, will feed back into theories and computer simulations of how hot, dense matter behaves. This could help scientists analyze and recreate the nuclear fusion process that powers the sun.

"Those 60 hours when we first aimed the LCLS at a solid were the most exciting 60 hours of my entire scientific career," said Justin Wark, leader of the Oxford group. "LCLS is really going to revolutionize the field, in my view."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. S. M. Vinko, O. Ciricosta, B. I. Cho, K. Engelhorn, H.-K. Chung, C. R. D. Brown, T. Burian, J. Chalupsk?, R. W. Falcone, C. Graves, V. H?jkov?, A. Higginbotham, L. Juha, J. Krzywinski, H. J. Lee, M. Messerschmidt, C. D. Murphy, Y. Ping, A. Scherz, W. Schlotter, S. Toleikis, J. J. Turner, L. Vysin, T. Wang, B. Wu, U. Zastrau, D. Zhu, R. W. Lee, P. A. Heimann, B. Nagler, J. S. Wark. Creation and diagnosis of a solid-density plasma with an X-ray free-electron laser. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature10746

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/Sy_k9Jy-9Ck/120125132612.htm

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Daniel A. Bell: Memo from Davos: Down with Democracy!

We are familiar with the truism that multinational corporations are too large and powerful and cannot adequately be controlled by democratically elected politicians. MNCs constantly complain about rigid labor regulations; they want the right to fire workers at will, because otherwise they won't survive in a ruthlessly competitive market. Moreover, the pace of technological change has increased exponentially the last few years, and the need for labor flexibility has become ever more pressing. If rigid labor regulations hold up the need for innovation, the MNC will pack up its bags and move to a country that is more "welcoming" to big business. From a democratic perspective, the problem is clear. The ultimately controlling power should lie in the hands of the people and their elected representatives. But here it seems the MNCs have more power; the laws of the country must conform to the dictates of MNCs, rather than to the people's will. In his State of the Union address yesterday, President Obama tried to reassert the people's authority: he said he would change the tax code to punish companies that move jobs overseas, and reward companies that return jobs to the United States.

But what makes sense from a democratic perspective may not make sense from a moral point of view. Or so it was suggested earlier today at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos. In two sessions (open to the reporting press) with CEOs of major MNCs, it was surprising (to me) the extent to which the CEOs appealed to moral (rather than strictly economic) arguments to justify their ways. John T. Chambers, the CEO of Cisco, argued that the best performing companies also tend to engage in substantial corporate philanthropy. His own company gave away $299 million last year. He didn't explain the connection between profit-making and philanthropy, but perhaps the point is that being known as a "good" company increases the motivation of employees to be productive; and perhaps the regulatory authorities are more likely to be supportive of "good" companies.

The issue of job creation seemed even more fundamental to the moral outlook of the CEOs. Several CEOs emphasized that they create jobs and they should be given the conditions to do so. But job creation also involves destruction, or, as they put it, disruption. Duncan Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext, pointed out that restructuring of his company required 20,000 job cuts. But he added that such restructuring was done with a vision of more growth, particularly in emerging markets. Put in moral terms, the loss of some jobs is justified because it allows for the creation of more jobs. The problem, from a democratic perspective, is that the jobs are often created in other countries.

But what if the total number of jobs is greater than the number of jobs lost, isn't that a good result? As Patricia A. Woertz, CEO of the agricultural conglemerate Archer Daniels Midland put it, economic growth that adds jobs wherever they happen is a positive. And governments that try to prevent that process -- like President Obama in the name of protecting jobs at home -- should presumably be condemned from a moral point of view. That is, they should be condemned from the point of view of theories of universal moral reasoning that value human well-being regardless of national boundaries (assuming that they create more jobs than they destroy, globally speaking). Democrats who value nation-based collective self-determination may side with President Obama. But the clash may not be between good guys and bad guys, but rather between competing systems of morality.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-a-bell/memo-from-davos_b_1232758.html

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Drug May Slow Early Prostate Cancer: Study (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Jan. 24 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that Avodart, a drug used to treat an enlarged prostate gland, may help slow the progression of early stage prostate cancer, reducing the need for aggressive treatment in some men.

Prostate cancer can grow and spread slowly, which is why some men are urged to engage in so-called watchful waiting when the cancer is first diagnosed. Avodart (dutasteride) may help such men feel comfortable with surveillance as opposed to radical treatment, the researchers noted.

"The concept of active surveillance is gaining traction in most parts of the world," said study author Dr. Neil E. Fleshner, head of the division of urology at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. Still, some men are uncomfortable with doing nothing in the face of a cancer diagnosis, he said. "By using this drug, we can improve the proportion of men who remain committed to the surveillance."

The findings are published online Jan. 25 in The Lancet.

According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, one out of every six men in the United States will develop prostate cancer in his lifetime. But because many of those cancers are low-grade, most will die of something else.

Avodart belongs to a class of drugs called 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. These drugs work by interfering with the effects of certain male hormones on the prostate. In the three-year study, prostate cancer progressed in 38 percent of 144 men with early prostate cancer who were treated with Avodart and 48 percent of the 145 men who received a placebo.

Men seem less anxious about the cancer diagnosis when they are doing something more proactive, Fleshner said. "The drug augments active surveillance and avoids most of the side effects associated with surgery and radiation," he said. Prostate removal surgery and/or radiation can lead to impotence and incontinence, he said.

The medication does have side effects, however, including reversible breast enlargement and tenderness and some sexual dysfunction.

"We know that we are over-treating prostate cancer," said Dr. Louis Potters, chairman of radiation medicine at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Manhasset, N.Y.

"In the U.S., patients have a tendency to hear the word 'cancer,' and want to treat it right away," he said. "In these men with early prostate cancer, we can now say, 'Let's put you on this medication, and see what happens over the next couple of months.'"

However, some experts have concerns about 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently issued a warning that men who take these drugs to treat enlarged prostate glands may be at increased risk for high-grade prostate cancer.

Dr. Ryan Terlecki, an assistant professor of urology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., said this may dampen enthusiasm for use of the drug to treat cancer.

"The overall role that these medications will play for urologists will decrease," Terlecki said. Doctors will likely begin looking toward noninvasive and/or non-medical treatments such as the use of thermal heat to cope with some of the symptoms of prostate conditions, he added.

More information

Learn more about prostate cancer at the American Cancer Society.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120124/hl_hsn/drugmayslowearlyprostatecancerstudy

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Iran summons Danish ambassador over EU oil embargo (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran's foreign ministry summoned the Danish ambassador on Tuesday to complain about the European Union's "illogical decision" to ban imports of Iranian oil, the official IRNA news agency said.

Denmark holds the rotating presidency of the 27-member EU, which decided on Monday to ban Iranian oil imports as part of the West's efforts to put pressure on Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

(Reporting by Mitra Amiri; Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/wl_nm/us_iran_sanctions_ambassador

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

European crisis to slow world economy, IMF says

(AP) ? A recession in Europe will slow the global economy this year, the International Monetary Fund predicted Tuesday, while urging world leaders to focus on growth more than budget cuts.

The IMF forecasts global growth of 3.25 percent this year, slower than the 4 percent pace it projected in September.

The 17 nations that share the euro will shrink 0.5 percent this year. In September, the IMF had predicted 1.1 percent growth for the region.

Europe's recession should have only a modest impact on the United States. The IMF projects 1.8 percent growth for the year, unchanged from its September estimate.

Steep budget cuts will slow growth further and undermine market confidence, the IMF said. The global lending organization's message runs counter to the push for budget cuts advocated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"The world recovery, which was weak in the first place, is in danger of stalling," Olivier Blanchard, the fund's chief economist, said at a news conference. "The epicenter of the danger is Europe."

European governments should avoid extreme austerity measures ? spending cuts and tax increases ? in weaker economies, such as Italy and Spain, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook. And healthier European countries whose governments are facing lower interest rates "should reconsider the pace" of their short-term budget cuts.

"The good news," Blanchard said, is that "with the right set of measures, the worst can be avoided, and the world can be set back on track."

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde made a similar argument Monday during a speech in Berlin.

Many European governments do need to cut deficits, Blanchard said, "but at an appropriate pace."

It may take two decades or longer to pay off the debts accumulated during the 2008 financial crisis and global recession, Blanchard cautioned. He notes that it took that long to pay off the debts Europe ran up during World War II.

European governments should also build up the region's permanent bailout fund, Blanchard said. That's necessary to support larger nations, such as Italy and Spain, that are paying high interest rates on their debts.

Last week, the IMF said it is seeking $500 billion to boost its own resources in the event more lending is needed in Europe or elsewhere.

European banks, meanwhile, are cutting back on lending in order to boost their capital reserves, the fund said. That's likely to hammer Central and Eastern European economies this year, which depend heavily on European bank loans.

The cutbacks will also slow growth in many Asian economies, the IMF said. European banks finance a big chunk of that region's exports.

Still, the hit to China will be relatively modest: It is forecast to grow 8.2 percent this year, down from the fund's earlier projection of 9 percent.

The IMF said U.S. policymakers should take steps to rein in the long-term costs of government health programs and Social Security, the federal public pension system. But those cuts should be phased in over the long-term. Immediate cuts could slow the economy further.

One reason the IMF expects the U.S. economy to remain sluggish is because governments at all levels will likely cut back on spending. The IMF assumes the Social Security payroll tax and extended unemployment benefits will extended for the full year. Last month, Congress agreed to extend them only through February.

Without a full extension of both measures, the U.S. economy will fare much worse, the IMF said.

Lagarde warned Monday that the world economy faced the risk of a painful recession this year. She called on policymakers to avoid the stalemates that prevented Europe and the United States from resolving difficult budget and economic problems last year.

"It is not about saving any one country or any one region," she said. "It is about saving the world from a downward economic spiral."

The IMF's projections followed a similar mark-down in global growth estimates last week by its sister lending organization, the World Bank.

The 187-member IMF conducts economic analysis and provides emergency lending to countries in financial distress.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-24-IMF-World%20Economy/id-fdb421e8e5a14a36939d40a1672d0fe3

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Cruise ship captain: I was told to perform fatal maneuver

Divers find the body of a woman in the ship as pressure grows to speed up the salvage operation. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.

By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

Updated at 4:00 p.m. ET: GIGLIO, Italy --? The operators of the Costa Concordia faced questions over their share of the blame for the shipwreck, as divers recovered another body from the stricken liner Sunday, bringing the known death toll to 13.

Captain Francesco Schettino is accused of steering the cruise ship too close to shore while performing a maneuver known as a "salute" in which liners draw up very close to land to make a display.

Schettino, who is charged with multiple manslaughter and with abandoning ship before the evacuation of 4,200 passengers and crew was complete, has told prosecutors he had been instructed to perform the maneuver by operator Costa Cruises.

Prosecutors say he steered the massive ship within 150 meters of the Tuscan island of Giglio, where it struck a rock that tore a large gash in its hull, letting water flood in and causing the 114,500-ton ship to capsize.

It is now lying on its side on an undersea ledge, half-submerged and posing a growing environmental threat with the risk that it could slide into deeper waters.

As the days have passed, there have been growing questions about the ultimate responsibility for the accident, which Costa Cruises has blamed on "unfortunate human error" and placed firmly on the shoulders of the captain. It has suspended Schettino and will not be paying his legal fees.

Costa chief executive Pier Luigi Foschi has said that ships sometimes engage in "tourist navigation" in which they approach the coast but that this is only done under safe conditions and he was not aware of any riskier approaches so close to the shore.

Costa is a unit of Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise line operator.

According to transcripts of his hearing with investigators leaked to Italian newspapers, Schettino told magistrates Costa had insisted on the maneuver to please passengers and attract publicity.

"It was planned, we were supposed to have done it a week earlier but it was not possible because of bad weather," Schettino said, according to the Corriere della Sera daily.

"They insisted. They said: 'We do tourist navigation, we have to be seen, get publicity and greet the island'."

He said he had performed similar maneuvers regularly over the past four months on the Costa Concordia and on other ships in the Costa fleet along the Italian coast line which is dotted with small islands that are popular with tourists.

"But we do it every time we do the Sorrento coast, Capri, we do it everywhere," he said.

Foschi, who visited Giglio Sunday, declined to respond to Schettino's latest comments.

"As an investigation by magistrates is currently underway, we cannot give out any information," he said.

Seemingly minute shifts in the position of the cruise ship that partially sank in an Italian port is hampering the underwater search for 21 passengers and crew missing for more than a week. NBC's Michelle Kosinki reports from Giglio, Italy.

Identifying victims
As the search continued into a ninth day, divers found the body of a woman on a submerged deck near the bow of the vessel, bringing the total number of known dead to 13, only eight of whom have been identified.

Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off this Tuscan island, a top rescue official said Sunday, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than the 20 previously announced.

Civil protection official Francesca Maffini told reporters the victim found on Sunday was wearing a life vest and was found in the rear of a submerged portion of a ship by a team of fire department divers. The unidentified body was being removed from the ship.

Earlier, Italian authorities raised the possibility that the real number of the missing was unknown because some unregistered passengers might have been aboard. As of Sunday, 19 people are listed as missing, but that number could be higher.

"There could have been X persons who we don't know about who were inside, who were clandestine" passengers aboard the ship, Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the rescue effort, told reporters at a briefing on the island of Giglio.

Gabrielli said that relatives of a Hungarian woman have told Italian authorities that she had telephoned them from aboard the ship and that they haven't heard from her since the accident. He said it was possible that a woman's body pulled from the wreckage by divers on Saturday might be that of the unregistered passenger.

But in addition to the body recovered on Sunday, the body found on Saturday and those of three men found a few days earlier, have yet to be identified, because the corpses were badly decomposed after so much time in the water. Gabrielli said they have identified the other eight bodies: four French, an Italian, a Hungarian, a German and a Spanish national.

Until Sunday, authorities had said that 20 people are still missing.

DigitalGlobe

The Costa Concordia ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy, resulting in the evacuation of thousands of passengers as the ship began heavily listing.

Broken black box
Meanwhile, police divers, carrying out orders from prosecutors investigating Schettino for suspected manslaughter and abandoning the ship, swam through the cold, dark waters to reach his cabin. State TV and the Italian news agency ANSA reported that the divers located and remove his safe and two suitcases. His passport and several documents were also pulled out, state media said.

Searchers inspecting the bridge Saturday also found a hard disk containing data of the voyage, Sky TG24 TV reported.

Italian newspapers have also published photographs of the Costa Concordia apparently performing the "salute" close to other ports including Syracuse in Sicily and the island of Procida, which is near Naples and Schettino's hometown of Meta di Sorrento.

Schettino said the fatal maneuver was originally intended to bring the ship half a mile from the shore, "but then we brought it to 0.28" (of a nautical mile), he said.

Investigators have said the actual point of impact was much closer to the shore but establishing the exact sequence of events could be complicated by problems with the recording equipment used to track the ship's progress.

Schettino said the black box on board had been broken for two weeks and he had asked for it to be repaired, in vain.

In the hearing, Schettino insisted he had informed Costa's headquarters of the accident straight away and his line of conduct had been approved by the company's marine operations director throughout a series of phone conversations.

As soon as he realized the scale of the damage, he called Roberto Ferrarini, marine operations director for Costa Cruises.

"I told him: I've got myself into a mess, there was contact with the seabed. I am telling you the truth, we passed under Giglio and there was an impact," Schettino said.

"I can't remember how many times I called him in the following hour and 15 minutes. In any case, I am certain that I informed Ferrarini about everything in real time," he said, adding he had asked the company to send tug boats and helicopters.

He acknowledged, however, not raising the alarm with the coastguard promptly and delaying the evacuation order.

"You can't evacuate people on lifeboats and then, if the ship doesn't sink, say it was a joke. I don't want to create panic and have people die for nothing," he said.

Costa Cruises Chief Executive Pier Luigi Foschi says Schettino delayed issuing the SOS and evacuation orders and gave false information to the company headquarters.

"Personally, I think he wasn't honest with us," Foschi told Corriere della Sera Friday. He said the first phone conversation between Schettino and Ferrarini took place 20 minutes after the ship hit the rock.

As the death toll rises from the Costa Concordia, the ship's captain is fighting back against allegations that he abandoned his post. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

Documents from his hearing with a judge say he had shown "incredible carelessness" and a "total inability to manage the successive phases of the emergency."

Taped conversations show ship's officers told coastguards who were alerted by passengers that the vessel had only had a power cut, even after those on board donned lifevests.

According to transcripts of his questioning by prosecutors leaked to Italian media, he said that immediately after hitting the rock he sent two of his officers to the engine room to check on the state of the vessel.

Holding out hope
Meanwhile, family members of a couple from the state of Minnesota still missing after last week's cruise ship wreck say they've been meeting in Italy with rescue workers.

In an email statement sent Saturday night to news organizations, relatives of Jerry and Barbara Heil say the captain in charge of the operation indicated he wasn't ready to give up hope that the missing can be found.

The family members say they and relatives of others missing from the Costa Concordia accident were taken out near the ship and allowed to place flowers in the water honoring their loved ones. They say the workers stopped what they were doing and saluted during the tribute.

The Heil family says it's grateful for the efforts from the workers trying to find the missing.

The search had been halted for several hours early Sunday, after instrument readings indicated that the Concordia has shifted a bit on its precarious perch on a seabed just outside Giglio's port. A few yards away, the sea bottom drops off suddenly, by some 65-100 feet, and if the Concordia should abruptly roll off its ledge, rescuers could be trapped inside.

The effort to find survivors and bodies has postponed an operation to remove heavy fuel in the Concordia's tanks; specialized equipment has been standing by for days.

Light fuel, apparently from machinery aboard the capsized ship, was spotted in nearby waters, authorities said Saturday.

Environment experts have warned that contamination of the pristine waters around Giglio, which is in the middle of a national marine park, is already under way and it is imperative to start recovering the fuel oil as soon as possible.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/22/10210202-cruise-ship-captain-says-he-was-told-to-perform-fatal-maneuver

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Simon Cowell breaks off engagement

Simon Cowell's trip down the aisle is getting postponed.

In an interview with UK newspaper the Daily Mirror, the "X Factor" judge reveals that he and his fiancee, Mezhgan Hussainy, are taking a break from both their relationship and their wedding plans.

PHOTOS: See which Idol alums are engaged or have kids

"It's quite a complicated relationship. We have had a break from each other, and we are still incredibly close," the 52-year-old Brit explains in Sunday's Mirror . "I'm vulnerable. It's not on, it's not off, it's somewhere in the middle. I don't know if I will ever get married, but I am happy."

  1. More Entertainment stories
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      Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert brought his "exploratory committee," and satirical love for Super PACs, to South Carol...

    2. Exclusive: 'Hoarding' threatens to end a marriage
    3. Who knew?! President Obama can sing
    4. Singer Etta James dies at 73
    5. Planking! 'Family Matters'! 'Idol' auditions get odd

PHOTOS: Celebrity engagements

Cowell and Hussainy met on the set of American Idol in 2003, where she was working as a makeup artist, and the couple got engaged in February 2010. At the time, Cowell, who's known for his emotionless demeanor, made it clear that he was very much over the moon.

"I'm smitten with Mezghan, I think she's the one," he gushed to the British TV host Piers Morgan. "She's very special...You know when you've found somebody very special."

PHOTOS: Revisit Simon's last season on Idol

But in Sunday's Mirror, Cowell alludes that the spark has fizzled out and he's regretting his remarks from two years ago.

Addressing his heartfelt quip on "Piers Morgan," Cowell says, "I have been pretty good about not talking about my private stuff, but I got caught up in the moment."

Copyright 2012 Us Weekly

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46095115/ns/today-entertainment/

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Golden Nuggets: All Business For The 49ers - Niners Nation

Last week, I had something not entirely unlike a a battle speech in the Golden Nuggets, prior to the game against the New Orleans Saints. There won't be anything like that today ... no theatrics, nothing. We're a team of destiny, and none of you need to get pumped up for this game. More than that, our San Francisco 49ers beat the New York Giants once before - this is business as usual, nothing more. I'm just going to get to your gameday links, and then get to sleep, with hopes of waking up just before kickoff. Here's the links, and as always, GO NINERS!

A quick look at the weather report for Sunday's NFC Championship Game (Examiner.com)

New York Defense Not As Intimidating As Some Say (SB Nation Bay Area)

49ers v. Giants, matchup to watch (SacBee.com)

Star-divide

The nation wants a Giants/Pats Super Bowl ... or do they? (BayAreaSportsGuy,com)

Giants finally arrive in S.F. after flight delay (CSNBayArea.com)

Easy to see why Smith is succeeding (ESPN.com)

Character-laden coach builds new 49ers identity (SFGate.com)

49ers fans are most overrated in the NFL (N.Y. Daily News) (PressDemocrat.com)

Ex-Giants WR Tyree sees red (and gold) at Empire State Building (NFL.com)

49ers-Giants: Matchups to watch (CSNBayArea.com)

Giants vs. 49ers: matchups (Yahoo.com)

Niners, Giants about to add to rich postseason rivalry (PressDemocrat.com)

Andrew Iupati making his mark (Scout.com)

Spencer's kindness strikes chord with lifelong 49ers fan (CSNBayArea.com)

Underdog fight (49ers.com)

Being a Sheep

Be sure to follow @NinersNation on Twitter as well as on Facebook. You can follow SB Nation Bay Area on Twitter @sbnbayarea and also on Facebook. My personal Twitter is @ninnyjams.

If you're new here, you can register for a free account to participate in the discussion and create your own fanposts here at Niners Nation and across our entire network of 300+ sports blogs.

Source: http://www.ninersnation.com/2012/1/22/2724675/49ers-links-nfc-championship-preview-giants-news

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Italy aims to stabilize cruise ship as weather worsens (Reuters)

GIGLIO, Italy (Reuters) ? Italian authorities hope to stabilize the wrecked cruise ship Costa Concordia as worsening weather on Friday could cause it to shift deeper into the sea, delaying plans to pump oil out of the vessel to prevent a possible environmental disaster.

Six days after the 114,500 ton ship capsized off the Tuscan coast, hopes of finding anyone alive in the partially submerged hulk have all but disappeared and the cold waters around the ship have become rougher.

Attention is now turning to how to remove 2,300 tons of fuel, with bad weather threatening to make the ship even more precarious on the rocky ledge where it is resting.

Environment Minister Corrado Clini told parliament he had urged the ship's operator, Costa Cruises, to take all possible measures to anchor the ship to prevent it from sliding deeper into the sea.

"If the ship slides, we hope that it doesn't break into pieces and that the fuel tanks do not open up," he said.

Clini said there was a risk that the ship could sink to 50 to 90 meters below the reef it is now on, creating a major hazard to the environment in one of Europe's largest natural marine parks.

Eleven people are known to have died out of more than 4,200 passengers and crew aboard when the ship struck a rock just meters from the shoreline, tearing a large gash in the side of the hull. As many as 24 are still unaccounted for.

"The ship is a labyrinth. It's gigantic and it's lying on its side in the water. It's a miracle that so many survived," said Modesto Dilda, head of one of the diving teams.

The ship's captain Francesco Schettino has been placed under house arrest, accused of causing the accident by sailing too close to the rocky shore and then abandoning ship before the evacuation was complete.

The ship's operators have suspended him and said they considered themselves "the damaged party" in the accident, which industry experts say could turn out to be the biggest maritime insurance claim in history.

On Thursday, SkyTG24 broadcast a tape of what was described as a conversation between coastguard officials and the bridge of the Concordia which appeared to show officers telling authorities they had suffered only a blackout more than 30 minutes after the impact.

Italian media also devoted considerable attention to a female Moldovan crew member who was on board but not on duty. Several reports said she had been seen on the bridge with Schettino.

In an interview with a Moldovan television station, the woman, 25 year-old Domnica Cemortan, praised Schettino's "extraordinary" handling of the situation. Costa said she had embarked normally on January 13 in Civitavecchia and was properly registered.

SEARCH RESUMES

Holes were blasted into the wrecked liner on Thursday to allow divers to continue the search for bodies, but none was found. "It's important to continue our search. Family members find it important to have the body of the loved one they've lost because it gives them closure. We understand this," said Dilda.

Only after that search is called off are salvage crews expected to begin pumping the fuel out of the wreck, a process that will probably take at least two weeks.

Clini said Costa Cruises had been instructed to ensure steps are taken to limit the damage if the ship's fuel tanks rupture, including putting in place some 1,000 meters of pollution barriers.

The Italian cabinet will discuss new regulations on Friday to prevent big cruise ships from taking risky routes and passing too close to islands or shorelines, Clini said.

(Additional reporting by Radu Marinas in Bucharest, Silvia Ognibene in Grosseto; Editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/wl_nm/us_italy_ship

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

REL, Inc. teams with NYU-Poly to create lightweight, ultra durable automotive brake rotor

REL, Inc. teams with NYU-Poly to create lightweight, ultra durable automotive brake rotor [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 19-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kathleen Hamilton
hamilton@poly.edu
718-260-3792
Polytechnic Institute of New York University

REL, Inc. teams with NYU-Poly to create lightweight, ultra durable automotive brake rotor

Researchers at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) and Michigan-based REL, Inc., are creating a next-generation aluminum composite brake rotor potentially weighing 60 percent less than today's cast iron rotors with triple the life expectancy.

Due to expense, today's composite brakes have been reserved for motorcycles, race cars and high-performance sports cars, but this new, fiber reinforced, metal matrix composite (MMC) brake rotor aims at the mass market. It will be easier to manufacture, and the fiber reinforcements will provide longer life span.

The researchers also estimate that their composite rotor will shave approximately 30 pounds from a mid-size sedan a significant advantage in an industry facing fleet a fuel economy requirement of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

REL, Inc., a developer of MMC transportation and aerospace components, received a $150,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the National Science Foundation to develop the initial product design, material and manufacturing process. The company tapped the expertise of NYU-Poly Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor Nikhil Gupta and his Composites Materials and Mechanics Lab to develop the technology for automotive application. The collaboration will result in a prototype, first-of-its-kind rotor that may revolutionize a market valued at $10 billion annually.

Manufacturers have long sought to improve the durability and performance of automotive brakes, which are subject to tremendous temperature and pressure changes.

Gupta and REL are developing a one-piece brake rotor uniquely tailored to meet the extreme and variable temperature and loading conditions. Most of today's brake rotors are made of cast iron, which offers strength but at a cost of weight. Iron also doesn't adapt well to the demands placed on different sections of the rotor. A brake rotor has three functional zones, each of which requires a material with distinct strain and thermal properties to function optimally. Temperature and pressure changes across the rotor surface are a major cause of wear, warp and brake failure.

The team will replace the traditional rotor material with a high-temperature aluminum alloy reinforced with functionally graded ceramic particles and fibers to create a lightweight but extremely durable material that can be customized to best serve each section of the rotor.

"These functionally graded materials allow us to create the optimal composition for each part of the rotor," Gupta explained. "The hybrid material allows us to provide reinforcement where additional strength is needed, increase high-temperature performance, and minimize stress at the interfaces between the zones. Together, this should boost rotor life significantly, reducing warranty and replacement costs, and the weight savings will improve the vehicle's fuel efficiency."

"As auto companies strive to meet increasingly high efficiency and low emissions targets, there's a tremendous business opportunity in creating novel lightweight components which reduce overall vehicle weight and increase vehicle performance", said Adam Loukus, vice president of REL, Inc. "Professor Gupta is highly regarded in MMC research and analysis, and his expertise backed by the resources of NYU-Poly is an ideal complement to our goals for this exciting project."

"This is a valuable opportunity for our students to gain real-world business experience," Gupta added. "Working closely with the REL team, they will understand the demands of the automotive component development process."

In addition to the automotive market, the composite rotors may benefit military fleets, where up-armored vehicles operate at weights well above their design capacity. While the development of lightweight armor remains a long-term goal for the military, any weight savings on the vehicles themselves will immediately improve fleet efficiency, which can be critical to mission success where fuel delivery is difficult.

Gupta and the team at REL expect to complete a functional rotor prototype within 12 months.

###

About Polytechnic Institute of New York University

Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly Polytechnic University), an affiliate of New York University, is a comprehensive school of engineering, applied sciences, technology and research, and is rooted in a 158-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship: i2e. The institution, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. In addition to its main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it also offers programs at sites throughout the region and around the globe. Globally, NYU-Poly has programs in Israel, China and is an integral part of NYU's campus in Abu Dhabi. For more information, visit http://www.poly.edu.

About REL, Inc.

REL of Calumet, Michigan, specializes in designing and building Custom Automated Equipment and manufacturing Advanced Lightweight Composite Materials. REL has developed and deployed new and innovative MMC products in motorcycle braking applications, lightweight survivability materials and high temperature insulation materials. REL's vertically integrated approach to manufacturing MMCs has made composites more cost effective and thereby is expanding the use of MMC materials in targeted markets. For more information, visit http://www.relinc.net.

Note to Editors:

To download an image, visit http://research.poly.edu/~resourcespace/?c=510&k=0da2e1409d

Contacts:

Kathleen Hamilton, NYU-Poly
718-260-3792 office
347-843-9782 mobile
hamilton@poly.edu

David Bekkala, REL, Inc.
906-337-3018 office
david@relinc.net

Joshua Chamot, NSF
703-292-7730
jchamot@nsf.gov



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REL, Inc. teams with NYU-Poly to create lightweight, ultra durable automotive brake rotor [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 19-Jan-2012
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Contact: Kathleen Hamilton
hamilton@poly.edu
718-260-3792
Polytechnic Institute of New York University

REL, Inc. teams with NYU-Poly to create lightweight, ultra durable automotive brake rotor

Researchers at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) and Michigan-based REL, Inc., are creating a next-generation aluminum composite brake rotor potentially weighing 60 percent less than today's cast iron rotors with triple the life expectancy.

Due to expense, today's composite brakes have been reserved for motorcycles, race cars and high-performance sports cars, but this new, fiber reinforced, metal matrix composite (MMC) brake rotor aims at the mass market. It will be easier to manufacture, and the fiber reinforcements will provide longer life span.

The researchers also estimate that their composite rotor will shave approximately 30 pounds from a mid-size sedan a significant advantage in an industry facing fleet a fuel economy requirement of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

REL, Inc., a developer of MMC transportation and aerospace components, received a $150,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the National Science Foundation to develop the initial product design, material and manufacturing process. The company tapped the expertise of NYU-Poly Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor Nikhil Gupta and his Composites Materials and Mechanics Lab to develop the technology for automotive application. The collaboration will result in a prototype, first-of-its-kind rotor that may revolutionize a market valued at $10 billion annually.

Manufacturers have long sought to improve the durability and performance of automotive brakes, which are subject to tremendous temperature and pressure changes.

Gupta and REL are developing a one-piece brake rotor uniquely tailored to meet the extreme and variable temperature and loading conditions. Most of today's brake rotors are made of cast iron, which offers strength but at a cost of weight. Iron also doesn't adapt well to the demands placed on different sections of the rotor. A brake rotor has three functional zones, each of which requires a material with distinct strain and thermal properties to function optimally. Temperature and pressure changes across the rotor surface are a major cause of wear, warp and brake failure.

The team will replace the traditional rotor material with a high-temperature aluminum alloy reinforced with functionally graded ceramic particles and fibers to create a lightweight but extremely durable material that can be customized to best serve each section of the rotor.

"These functionally graded materials allow us to create the optimal composition for each part of the rotor," Gupta explained. "The hybrid material allows us to provide reinforcement where additional strength is needed, increase high-temperature performance, and minimize stress at the interfaces between the zones. Together, this should boost rotor life significantly, reducing warranty and replacement costs, and the weight savings will improve the vehicle's fuel efficiency."

"As auto companies strive to meet increasingly high efficiency and low emissions targets, there's a tremendous business opportunity in creating novel lightweight components which reduce overall vehicle weight and increase vehicle performance", said Adam Loukus, vice president of REL, Inc. "Professor Gupta is highly regarded in MMC research and analysis, and his expertise backed by the resources of NYU-Poly is an ideal complement to our goals for this exciting project."

"This is a valuable opportunity for our students to gain real-world business experience," Gupta added. "Working closely with the REL team, they will understand the demands of the automotive component development process."

In addition to the automotive market, the composite rotors may benefit military fleets, where up-armored vehicles operate at weights well above their design capacity. While the development of lightweight armor remains a long-term goal for the military, any weight savings on the vehicles themselves will immediately improve fleet efficiency, which can be critical to mission success where fuel delivery is difficult.

Gupta and the team at REL expect to complete a functional rotor prototype within 12 months.

###

About Polytechnic Institute of New York University

Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly Polytechnic University), an affiliate of New York University, is a comprehensive school of engineering, applied sciences, technology and research, and is rooted in a 158-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship: i2e. The institution, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. In addition to its main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it also offers programs at sites throughout the region and around the globe. Globally, NYU-Poly has programs in Israel, China and is an integral part of NYU's campus in Abu Dhabi. For more information, visit http://www.poly.edu.

About REL, Inc.

REL of Calumet, Michigan, specializes in designing and building Custom Automated Equipment and manufacturing Advanced Lightweight Composite Materials. REL has developed and deployed new and innovative MMC products in motorcycle braking applications, lightweight survivability materials and high temperature insulation materials. REL's vertically integrated approach to manufacturing MMCs has made composites more cost effective and thereby is expanding the use of MMC materials in targeted markets. For more information, visit http://www.relinc.net.

Note to Editors:

To download an image, visit http://research.poly.edu/~resourcespace/?c=510&k=0da2e1409d

Contacts:

Kathleen Hamilton, NYU-Poly
718-260-3792 office
347-843-9782 mobile
hamilton@poly.edu

David Bekkala, REL, Inc.
906-337-3018 office
david@relinc.net

Joshua Chamot, NSF
703-292-7730
jchamot@nsf.gov



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/pion-rit011912.php

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