Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Peculiar parasitoid wasp found on rare sawfly developing in ferns

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A mysterious parasitoid wasp was found in the B?hmerwald (Northeast Austria) and reared in the garden of the amateur entomologist Ewald Altenhofer of Gross Gerungs municipality, Austria. The parasitoid was identified by Kees van Achterberg, senior researcher at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands, as the rare Seleucus cuneiformis. It is the first time that a tip of its biology was discovered. The study was published in the open access journal Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

The parasitoids reared by Mr Altenhofer belong to the peculiar genus Seleucus. The reared parasitoid Seleucus cuneiformis is known from only a few countries in Europe and is new to Austria. The host is the fern sawfly Blasticotoma filiceti, the only member of the family Blasticotomidae in Europe. The family is considered to be one of the oldest extant families of the true sawflies. This particular sawfly was previously known only from the region near Linz since 1973 and this is the second find reported for the fauna of Austria.

The larvae of B. filiceti live in the stems of ferns in a small chamber, or gall, that they induce themselves for their protection. They feed on the nutrients in the phloem fluids and may produce foam on the outer side of the gall. The larvae have a true ant trophobiosis, or ants can live in symbiosis based on food for protection, the only known occurrence of this phenomenon within the Hymenoptera. The Myrmica ants receive fluids through some holes connected to the stem gall of the larva.

During the rearing experiments, important notes on the previously unknown biology of the parasitoid wasp were recorded. Four weeks after the sawflies emerged from the gall, the adults of Seleucus cuneiformis also started appearing, which continued over a period of two weeks. Interestingly, the parasitoid females at first had a droplet-shaped rear body characteristic for males. During the course of the first day the metasoma got expanded into the very elongate shape typical of females, which is of use to inject their eggs into the galls of the sawflies.

###

Achterberg C van, Altenhofer E (2013) Notes on the biology of Seleucus cuneiformis Holmgren (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Ctenopelmatinae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 31: 97?104. doi: 10.3897/JHR.31.4204

Pensoft Publishers: http://www.pensoft.net

Thanks to Pensoft Publishers for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127456/Peculiar_parasitoid_wasp_found_on_rare_sawfly_developing_in_ferns

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Microsoft announces Build 2013 to be held June 26-28 in San Francisco

Microsoft announces Build 2013 to be held June 2628

Developers, virtually mark your Windows Phone calendars: Microsoft announced that Build 2013, the company's developer conference, will be held from June 26th to 28th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Specifically, Microsoft announced that it will be sharing details and future plans for Windows, Azure, Visual Studio "and more," so there'll be plenty of goodies to be had during the event. Registration opens on April 2nd, but in the meantime, head to the official sites below for more information.

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Source: The Official Microsoft Blog

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Yemeni gunmen open fire, wound Red Cross employee

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/yemeni-gunmen-open-fire-wound-red-cross-employee-122014777.html

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Snow, wintry rain: Messy Monday for East Coast

In the first days of spring, people across the Midwest are digging out of a major snowstorm that barreled across the country, dropping over a foot of snow on St. Louis. Today more snow is expected up and down the East Coast. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reports.

By Alastair Jamieson and Erin McClam, NBC News

It?s the winter that wouldn?t die.

Five days into spring, a winter storm raked the Midwest and Northeast on Monday, turning commutes messy and threatening to dump up to 4 inches of snow around Philadelphia and Washington.

The good news: Temperatures hovering at or just above freezing should hold accumulations down.

?The roads are in pretty good shape this morning because, after all, it is March,? Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel said from Frederick, Md.

More coverage from weather.com

During the morning drive, the storm was dropping snow across a curlicue swath of the country, from the Mid-Atlantic coast back through the southern Great Lakes and down into the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky and Tennessee.

In New York and parts of New Jersey, a winter weather advisory was in effect starting at 6 a.m. EDT. Snow and rain showers were expected to continue through late afternoon and wind down by early evening.

In Philadelphia, rain during the morning commute was expected to change to a wintry mix that will last for most of the day. Untreated roads could turn slippery, said Brittney Shipp, a meteorologist for NBC affiliate WCAU.

Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images

A woman removes snow from her driveway Monday in Silver Spring, Md. A messy Monday is in store for millions along the East Coast.

Inside the Washington Beltway, forecasters called for a mix of rain and snow, with accumulations of less than an inch. North and west of the capital, 2 to 4 inches of snow was expected ? and perhaps as much as 8 inches west of Interstate 81.

Over the weekend, the same storm system pounded parts of the Rocky Mountains east to the Ohio Valley. Denver got almost a foot of snow, and Goodland, Kan., reported 15 inches.

On Friday, a qualifying match for the 2014 World Cup outside Denver was played in near-blizzard conditions ? so much snow that officials had to bring in a yellow-and-purple soccer ball.

The United States beat Costa Rica 1-0, and Costa Rica has asked the governing body of soccer to order a replay.

A storm system blanketed the Midwest in snow, while thunderstorms and wind gusts slammed the South, NBC's Janel Klein reports.

This story was originally published on

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BREAKING Huge DHS Military Equipment Movement on Train in AZ March 2013 Martial Law!

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Monday, March 25, 2013

DOMA: the clash over marriage benefits

The Supreme Court will hear whether federal law can bar same-sex married couples from receiving the same benefits that heterosexual spouses do.

By Warren Richey,?Staff writer / March 24, 2013

In this photo, Edith Windsor speaks during an interview late last year in her New York City apartment. Windsor has found some notoriety as her challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act will be heard by the United States Supreme Court.

Richard Drew/AP

Enlarge

The second major gay rights case at the Supreme Court involves a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act of 1996.

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The law restricts the receipt of more than 1,100 federal benefits to man-woman marriages. In essence, DOMA bars same-sex married spouses from obtaining the same federal benefits received by heterosexual married spouses.

Same-sex couples argue that the federal restriction violates their right to equal treatment.

The issue arises in the case of New York resident Edith Windsor, who says she was wrongly denied a marital exemption from the federal estate tax because of her same-sex marriage.

Ms. Windsor and Thea Spyer lived together for 44 years and were formally married in Canada in 2007. Ms. Spyer died two years later.

Although their marriage was recognized as legal in their home state of New York, under DOMA the Internal Revenue Service did not consider their same-sex relationship a marriage. Without the marital exemption to the federal estate tax, Windsor owed $363,000 in federal estate taxes.

If the couple had been a man and a woman rather than two women, Windsor would have owed no federal tax.

A federal judge agreed with Windsor, and ruled that DOMA violated her constitutional rights. The Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, in a 2-to-1 decision, went even further. It found that gays and lesbians are entitled to a higher level of legal protection. Under that standard, DOMA must be struck down, the court said.

In his brief urging the court to overturn that decision, Washington lawyer Paul Clement says that Congress has the power to define marriage as part of a uniform system of distributing federal benefits and that the law is not discriminatory.

"DOMA does not bar or invalidate any state law marriage, but leaves states free to decide whether they will recognize same-sex marriages," Mr. Clement writes. "DOMA simply asserts the federal government's right as a separate sovereign to provide its own definition for purposes of its own federal programs and funding."

Lawyers for Windsor say that when states allow same-sex couples to marry, the federal government must recognize those unions as legal marriages and allow equal access to federal benefits for same-sex spouses.

"The question presented here is a narrow one: is there a sufficient federal interest in treating married gay couples differently from all other married couples for all purposes under federal law? There is not," Roberta Kaplan of New York writes in her brief urging the court to declare DOMA unconstitutional.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/gJ4IasV3yuQ/DOMA-the-clash-over-marriage-benefits

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Catalyst in a teacup: New approach to chemical reduction

Mar. 24, 2013 ? Taking their inspiration from nature, scientists at the University of New South Wales have developed a new method for carrying out chemical reduction -- an industrial process used to produce fuels and chemicals that are vital for modern society.

Their catalyst-based approach has the big advantages that it uses cheap, replenishable reagents and it works well at room temperature and in air -- so much so, it can even be carried out safely in a teacup.

The research, by a team led by Associate Professor Stephen Colbran, of the UNSW School of Chemistry, has been published as the cover of the journal, Angewandte Chemie.

The catalyst they designed mimics the activity of naturally occurring enzymes that catalyse reduction, such as alcohol dehydrogenase in yeast, that helps produce alcohol from sugar.

"Industrial chemical reduction processes underpin human existence, but are unsustainable because they irreversibly consume reagents that are made at prohibitively high energy cost," Dr Colbran says.

"We believe our new biomimetic design may have wide applications in chemical reduction."

Chemical reduction involves the addition of electrons to a substance, and is the basis of making many fuels, including the sugars that plants produce during photosynthesis.

In industry, molecular hydrogen and reactive reagents such as sodium borohydride are used as reducing agents during the production of pharmaceuticals, agrichemicals and ammonia for fertiliser.

"Manufacture of these substances is energy costly, leads to the release of carbon dioxide and they are difficult to handle and store," Dr Colbran says. "So we decided to look at nature to see how nature does it."

The team combined a transition metal complex containing rhodium with a Hantzsch dihydropyridine -- an organic donor of a hydride ion similar to biological nicotinamides -- to produce the new bio-inspired catalyst. They tested it on a common process -- reduction of imines -- and were surprised to find it worked in ambient conditions with more than 90 per cent efficiency in most cases.

Dr Colbran even tested it out in a teacup. "I thought it would be a bit of fun. And it makes a serious point -- our catalyst system is very easy to use."

By coincidence, the research comes exactly a century after Alfred Werner won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on the structures of transition metal complexes. As well, his PhD supervisor, Arthur Hantzsch, discovered the way to synthesise dihydropyridines.

"It has only taken 100 years to combine the work of doctoral adviser and student into one molecule," Dr Colbran says.

A future aim is to try to convert the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, into the renewable fuel, methanol, much more efficiently.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of New South Wales.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Alex McSkimming, Mohan M. Bhadbhade, Stephen B. Colbran. Cover Picture: Bio-Inspired Catalytic Imine Reduction by Rhodium Complexes with Tethered Hantzsch Pyridinium Groups: Evidence for Direct Hydride Transfer from Dihydropyridine to Metal-Activated Substrate (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 12/2013). Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2013; 52 (12): 3283 DOI: 10.1002/anie.201301157

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/sapSPw1VCVg/130325111214.htm

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Paint-on plastic electronics: Aligning polymers for high performance

Mar. 24, 2013 ? Semiconducting polymers are an unruly bunch, but University of Michigan engineers have developed a new method for getting them in line that could pave the way for cheaper, greener, "paint-on" plastic electronics.

"This is for the first time a thin-layer, conducting, highly aligned film for high-performance, paintable, directly writeable plastic electronics," said Jinsang Kim, U-M professor of materials science and engineering, who led the research published in Nature Materials.

Semiconductors are the key ingredient for computer processors, solar cells and LED displays, but they are expensive. Inorganic semiconductors like silicon require high temperatures in excess of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and costly vacuum systems for processing into electronics, but organic and plastic semiconductors can be prepared on a basic lab bench.

The trouble is that charge carriers, like electrons, can't move through plastics nearly as easily as they can move through inorganic semiconductors, Kim said. Part of the reason for this is because each semiconducting polymer molecule is like a short wire, and these wires are randomly arranged.

"Charge mobility along the polymer chains is much faster than between the polymers," Kim said.

To take advantage of the good conduction along the polymers, research groups have been trying to align them into a charge-carrying freeway, but it's a bit like trying to arrange nanoscopic linguine.

Kim's group approached the problem by making smarter semiconducting polymers. They wanted a liquid polymer solution they could brush over a surface, and the molecules would automatically align with one another in the direction of the stroke, assembling into high-performance semiconducting thin-layer films.

First, they designed the polymers to be slippery -- ordinary polymers glom together like flat noodles left in the fridge, Kim said. By choosing polymers with a natural twist, the team kept them from sticking to one another in the solution. But in order to align during the brushstroke, the polymers needed to subtly attract one another. Flat surfaces would do that, so the team designed their polymer to untwist as the solvent dried up.

They stopped the unaligned polymers from forming large chunks by adding flexible arms that extended off to the sides of the flat, wire-like polymer. These arms prevented too much close contact among the polymers while the bulkiness of the arms kept them from snagging on one another. Polymers with these properties will line up in the direction of an applied force, such as the tug of a paintbrush.

"It's a big breakthrough," Kim said. "We established a complete molecular design principle of semiconducting polymers with directed alignment capability."

And it works. The team made molecules that matched their design and built a device for spreading the polymer solution over surfaces such as glass or a flexible plastic film. The force from the silicon blade, moving at a constant speed across the liquid polymer, was enough to align the molecules.

The team then built the semiconducting film into a simple transistor, a version of the electronic components that make up computer processors. The device demonstrated the importance of the polymer alignment by showing that charge carriers moved 1,000 times faster in the direction parallel to the silicon blade's brushstroke than they did when crossing the direction of the stroke.

"By combining the established molecular design principle with a polymer that has a very good intrinsic charge carrier mobility, we believe it will make a huge difference in organic electronics," he said. "We are currently developing a versatile fabrication method in order to realize high-performance and paintable plastic electronics in various length scales from nanometers to meters."

Kim believes that the technique will work equally well with atomic-scale pen nibs or large trowel-like applicators for making electronics of all sizes such as LED displays or light-absorbing coatings for solar cells.

The paper is titled "A molecular design principle of lyotropic liquid-crystalline conjugated polymers with directed alignment capability for plastic electronics."

The work is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Two authors of the paper were partly supported by National Science Foundation and WCU program of National Research Foundation of Korea. The university is pursuing patent protection for the intellectual property and is seeking commercialization partners to help bring the technology to market.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan, via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Bong-Gi Kim, Eun Jeong Jeong, Jong Won Chung, Sungbaek Seo, Bonwon Koo, Jinsang Kim. A molecular design principle of lyotropic liquid-crystalline conjugated polymers with directed alignment capability for plastic electronics. Nature Materials, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nmat3595

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/top_news/top_science/~3/X00oDu4TX2Q/130324151830.htm

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn't

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn'tAs I mentioned in last week's installment of the Week in Gaming Apps, I spent the better part of this week moving all of my stuff from one place to another place. I figured the rest of the team might step up Monday through Wednesday, which is why there are only app reviews for Thursday and Friday. I suppose they were all getting ready for PAX East, so they're excused.

Speaking of excuses, this week's gaming apps are all brought to you by the letter Apple. Sorry, my Android friends, but my various Android devices are still in one of the many boxes surrounding me at the moment, so I was forced to spend what little free time I had playing excellent games on my iPad.

Pretty sure some of them are on Android though, or coming to Android. Eventually Android will completely take over and we'll look back on today and laugh.

What did I manage to play this week?

iOS

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn'tAlien Hive ? Free [also on Android]

A lovely little sliding puzzle game with a hint of evolution. Create combos to evolve pieces into more advanced pieces, see how far you can get. Rather engrossing.

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn'tSolitaire Blitz ? Free

A diabolical timed solitaire game that lets you compete with friends in competitions. It's the devil. Run from it. It will eat your soul.

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn'tNitro ? Free

A colorful little racing game with real0time multiplayer and a lot of charm.

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn'tThe Wizard of Oz ? Free

It's the social game from Facebook in mobile form. As long as it still has the Munchkin cam (and it does), I'm in.

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn'tUnmechanical ? $2.99

Teotl Studios and Talawa Games' wonderfully atmospheric puzzle adventure is a steal on iOS.

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn'tFetch ? $4.99

A truly enchanting adventure game about a boy rescuing his dog from strange robotic dog-oppressors. One of the most charming games on the iPad.

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn'tBobbing ? $.99 [also on Android]

An action-puzzler with a gravity-reversing mechanic AND a color-change mechanical, making it twice as challenging and four times as entertaining.

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn'tMini Golf Match-Up ? Free [also on Android]

It's mini golf with friends, with brightly-colored courses and turn-based multiplayer rounds. Not a big golf fan myself, but I'm really liking this.

App Reviews for the Week of March 16-22

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn't

When I Imagine Cyberpunk-Style Hack Battles, This is What I See

Since the early days of the Cyberpunk pen-and-paper role-playing setting, I've been fascinated by the idea of highly-skilled computer hackers roaming the plains of cyberspace looking for a fight; More ?

The Little Week in Gaming Apps That Probably Couldn't

All the Fun of Quick Time Events, Without Those Pesky Events

Everybody loves quick time events, those timed button presses utilized in today's high-tech interactive entertainment programs to help the user feel a modicum of control over grand cinematic sequences. More ?



Source: http://kotaku.com/5992052/the-little-week-in-gaming-apps-that-probably-couldnt

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Senate Passes Budget (WSJ)

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WVSBDC offers small business workshop in Putnam County ...

3/22/2013?
WINFIELD, W.Va. ? A workshop on ?Business Fundamentals? is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon, Tuesday, April 9, in Winfield. The workshop is part of the West Virginia Small Business Development Center (WVSBDC) training and business coaching program Three Step Jump Start to help small business owners receive the right information at the right time.

The workshop will be held in the Putnam County Chamber of Commerce, 5664 State Rt. 34 in Winfield. To register, call Dreama Wolfingbarger at 304-957-2083 or email dreama.l.wolfingbarger@wv.gov. ?

Registration is required at least two days in advance. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance.

Three Step Jump Start helps entrepreneurs and small business owners in West Virginia accelerate their potential success by learning the structure and services provided by WVSBDC. The first step is to view the Three Step Jump Start video on the agency?s website, www.wvsbdc.org.

Individuals can then attend the Business Fundamentals workshop, designed specifically for start-ups and new businesses. The workshop provides essential information on what an entrepreneur needs to know to start a business successfully. There is a $35-per-person fee per workshop.

After completing the workshop, interested entrepreneurs or business owners may schedule an appointment with WVSBDC for one-on-one coaching sessions. The WVSBDC coaches provide assistance with business plan development, financial statement preparation, cash flow analysis and other services.

The WVSBDC is part of the West Virginia Development Office and creates economic impact through offering entrepreneurs and small businesses cost-effective business coaching and technical assistance. The West Virginia SBDC is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Catherine Zacchi?
304-957-9340?
catherine.m.zacchi@wv.gov?
?
?
?

Source: http://www.wv.gov/news/Pages/WVSBDCofferssmallbusinessworkshopinPutnamCountyRegisterforApril9sessiononbusinessfundamentals.aspx

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

ThyssenKrupp deems Steel Americas bids low, wants talks: paper

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp was surprised by the low value of bids for its Cia Siderurgica do Atlantico mill in Brazil and is seeking talks with bidders to raise the offer prices, the Agencia Estado news agency reported Saturday.

The two main bidders, Brazil's Cia Siderurgica Nacional and the Luxembourg-based Latin American steelmaker Ternium SA , counted on ThyssenKrupp's wanting to sell the money-losing mill quickly to drive down the cost of buying it, Agencia Estado said, citing a source with access to the negotiations.

CSN is offering $3.8 billion for the CSA mill, which makes steel slabs, and a rolling mill in the U.S. state of Alabama. The two plants make up ThyssenKrupp's Steel Americas unit. CSA's slabs are shipped to Alabama for processing into coil steel for automobiles and other manufactured products. ThyssenKrupp paid 12 billion euros ($15.5 billion) to build the two mills.

The CSA mill, which opened only three years ago just outside of Rio de Janeiro, is 73 percent owned by ThyssenKrupp and 27 percent by Brazilian iron ore giant Vale SA . Both CSN and Ternium see CSA as a way to get new steel making capacity at well below the $10 billion it would cost to build a new mill in Brazil from scratch, the agency reported.

Brazil's state development bank BNDES is considering financing the winning bidder for CSA, though the guarantees offered as collateral to the bank by CSN are not yet considered sufficient, Agencia Estado reported, citing unnamed sources.

The government of Rio de Janeiro favors a purchase by Ternium because it is afraid that CSN's controlling shareholder Benjamin Steinbruch will move the company's headquarters to Sao Paulo as he did with CSN, depriving the state of some tax revenue, the paper reported.

A ThyssenKrupp spokesman in Germany declined to comment on the Agencia Estado report and said that the sale is going as planned. The company hopes to complete the sale of its CSA stake by the end of the company's fiscal year on September 30, he added.

A CSN press spokesman in Sao Paulo declined to comment, and a Ternium spokeswoman in Buenos Aires declined to comment as well.

The BNDES press office did not answer calls outside of normal business hours.

(Reporting by Jeb Blount, additional reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff in Duesseldorf; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thyssenkrupp-deems-steel-americas-bids-low-wants-talks-181203791--finance.html

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Build Your Career Master Plan with a Mind Map

Build Your Career Master Plan with a Mind MapA career plan is a map that guides you to where you really want to go professionally. While there are several approaches to career planning and mapping your way to your next job, a mind map is an excellent tool for brainstorming and organizing your career ideas?especially if you're not sure yet what you want to do.

As Farnoosh writes on the Prolific Living blog, mind maps help you visually and textually organize your thoughts in a way that gives you a structure, linking related concepts. You can use a mind map to brainstorm and discover your career purpose.

This example includes what Farnoosh calls the "foundational pillars" of your career plan?things you need to explore and answer to find your ideal career and plan where you want to go. They include:

  • Current job or role
  • Career goals and dreams (short and long term)
  • Your big why: Why you want to do the work
  • Core values: Values you're not willing to compromise on, such as flexibility or integrity
  • Limits and boundaries: What you're not willing to do or whom you wouldn't want to work with
  • Top strengths
  • Desired strengths
  • Education investment in yourself: What you're willing to invest for yourself and career
  • Execution strategies: What you might do (e.g., change jobs) to accomplish your plan
  • Role models
  • Ideal client or company
  • Ideal professional self: Describe how you want to see yourself and been seen as professionally

As you fill out the answers to these, no doubt other branches and levels will surface, creating a wide web of ideas to help you get a clearer picture of not only where you want to go but also, perhaps, how to get there.

The Power of Mind Maps to Build Your Career Master Plan | Prolific Living

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/eaiA0g3YOaQ/build-your-career-master-plan-with-a-mind-map

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House votes to shut down guaranteed pension plan (tbo)

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High gas prices persist despite US oil boom

The U.S. is increasing its oil production faster than ever, and American drivers are guzzling less gas. But you'd never know it from the price at the pump.

The national average price of gasoline is $3.69 per gallon and forecast to creep higher, possibly approaching $4 by May.

"I just don't get it," says Steve Laffoon, a part-time mental health worker, who recently paid $3.59 per gallon to fill up in St. Louis.

U.S. oil output rose 14 percent to 6.5 million barrels per day last year ? a record increase. By 2020, the nation is forecast to overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's largest crude oil producer. At the same time, U.S. gasoline demand has fallen to 8.7 million barrels a day, its lowest level since 2001, as people switch to more fuel-efficient cars.

So is the high price of gasoline a signal that markets aren't working properly?

Not at all, experts say. The laws of supply and demand are working, just not in the way U.S. drivers want them to.

U.S. drivers are competing with drivers worldwide for every gallon of gasoline. As the developing economies of Asia and Latin America expand, their energy consumption is rising, which puts pressure on fuel supplies and prices everywhere else.

The U.S. still consumes more oil than any other country, but demand is weak and imports are falling. That leaves China, which overtook the U.S. late last year as the world's largest oil importer, as the single biggest influence on global demand for fuels. China's consumption has risen 28 percent in five years, to 10.2 million barrels per day last year.

"There's an 800-pound gorilla in the picture now ? the Chinese economy," says Patrick DeHaan, chief petroleum analyst at the price-tracking service GasBuddy.com.

U.S. refiners are free to sell gasoline and diesel to the highest bidder around the world. In 2011, the U.S. became a net exporter of fuels for the first time in 60 years. Mexico and Canada are the two biggest destinations for U.S. fuels, followed by Brazil and the Netherlands.

Two other factors are making gasoline expensive:

? High oil prices. Brent crude, a benchmark used to set the price of oil for many U.S. refiners, is $108 per barrel. It hasn't been below $100 per barrel since July. On average, the price of crude is responsible for two-thirds of the price of gasoline, according to the Energy Department.

? Refinery shutdowns. Refineries temporarily close in the winter, when driving declines, to perform annual maintenance. That lowers gasoline inventories and sends prices higher nearly every year in the late winter and spring.

Rising gasoline prices act as a drag on the economy because they leave less money in drivers' wallets to spend on other things. But because average prices have remained in a consistent range ? between $3 and $4 per gallon since the end of 2010 ? economists say their effect on growth has been minimal.

Drivers in Connecticut, New York and Washington, D.C., are paying $3.92 or more per gallon on average, according to the Oil Price Information Service. Drivers in Rocky Mountain states, where refineries can tap low-priced crude from the U.S. and Canada, are paying far less. Gas costs $3.42 or less in Wyoming, Utah and Montana.

For the year, prices are forecast to average $3.55 per gallon, slightly lower than last year's record average of $3.63. The peak for 2013, likely to come this spring, is expected to fall slightly short of last year's peak of $3.94.

A major reason cited for high gasoline prices over the last two years ? fighting and political tensions in the Middle East and North Africa ? doesn't apply this year. Libyan production has returned after collapsing during the country's revolution two years ago. And higher production from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia has made up for Iran's declining output in the face of Western sanctions.

David Haeussermann, a police dispatcher in Tampa who recently paid $3.56 per gallon to fill his Kia Rondo, hasn't had a raise in six years. He says higher prices for gasoline and food in recent years have prompted him to cut back on dinners out and to settle for less fancy food at home. He doesn't understand why gasoline costs so much, but by now he's used to it.

"Three-dollar gas seems to be a dream right now," he says.

The good news is that the national average price is 15 cents lower than last year at this time, because of slightly lower oil prices and less concern over the situation in the Middle East. But disruptions at refineries or pipelines, or threats to oil supplies around the world, could send gasoline prices sharply higher at any moment, analysts say.

Lafoon, the St. Louis man, consolidates trips and drives as little as possible to blunt the effect of high prices. And he never fills all the way up. It is an exercise in what he calls "magical thinking" ? that prices aren't really what they are.

Hey, it's worth a try.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/29d8a13a/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Chigh0Egas0Eprices0Epersist0Edespite0Eus0Eoil0Eboom0E1C90A0A70A42/story01.htm

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Friday, March 22, 2013

Nike profit tops Wall Street estimates, shares rise

By Nivedita Bhattacharjee

(Reuters) - Nike Inc's quarterly profit beat Wall Street's expectations, as margins increased and world-wide future demand for its apparel and shoes rose, sending its shares up 8 percent.

Global orders for Nike-branded shoes and clothing scheduled for delivery from March through July 2013, known as futures orders, rose 6 percent compared to orders reported for the same period last year. In North America, the company's biggest market, orders increased 11 percent.

The company also saw a turnaround in future demand in Greater China, with orders rising 4 percent, after falling in the previous two quarters.

"They turned China much faster than we thought," said Brian Yarbrough, consumer discretionary analyst for Edward Jones.

Yarbrough said this turnaround was important as China is among Nike's highest margin markets. Lower shipping costs and high price tags help the company make more money on their products in that region, he said.

"In China, we are seeing progress against our strategy to reset the marketplace but we still have more to do before we can capture its long-term growth potential," Nike Chief Executive Mark Parker said on a conference call with analysts.

Nike had been stuck with excess inventory in China and was finding it difficult to tackle intense competition and frequent promotional sales by local brands. Distributors and retailers were also wary of an uncertain global economy.

Shares of the Beaverton, Oregon-based company rose to $57.93 Thursday in extended trade. They closed at $53.60 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Paul Swinand, an analyst with Morningstar, said one of the biggest challenges for Nike is to grow in its more mature markets. He said strong demand in North America shows it is able to do that.

Nike also posted its first growth in gross margins in around two years, with margins rising 30 basis points in the quarter. High costs of raw material and labor pressured the company's margins over the past couple of years and Nike had been fighting it by raising prices on merchandise.

"Gross margin benefited from the combination of pricing actions and easing material costs, which more than offset higher labor costs," the company said.

For the third quarter ended February 28, the company earned $662 million, or 73 cents a share, compared with $569 million, or 61 cents a share last year. Analysts, on average, expected earnings of 67 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 9 percent to $6.2 billion.

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nike-profit-tops-wall-street-estimates-shares-rise-215314126--finance.html

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US stocks rise ahead of Federal Reserve meeting

In this Tuesday, March 19, 2013, photo, Trader Craig Spector works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stock markets moved higher Wednesday March 20, 2013 as investors set aside their apprehension over the financial fate of Cyprus and looked ahead to the Federal Reserve for its assessment of the U.S. economy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

In this Tuesday, March 19, 2013, photo, Trader Craig Spector works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stock markets moved higher Wednesday March 20, 2013 as investors set aside their apprehension over the financial fate of Cyprus and looked ahead to the Federal Reserve for its assessment of the U.S. economy. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

U.S. stocks rose strongly Wednesday ahead of a decision by the Federal Reserve about whether to push ahead with aggressive measures to boost the economy.

Concern eased about a possible financial crisis in Cyprus. The Mediterranean nation needs a bailout to avoid defaulting on its financial obligations.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 59 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,514 as of 10:38 a.m. Eastern time.

Indexes closed narrowly mixed Tuesday despite rising uncertainty in Cyprus. Anyone watching "would conclude that the market decided Cyprus is overblown as an issue," said Brian Gendreau, a strategist at Cetera Financial Group.

Gendreau said traders had been concerned about what precedent might be set by Cyprus' efforts to avoid a crisis. But the nation's unusual status as an international financial haven makes it an unlikely roadmap for future rescue efforts.

"I think the market's going to start looking at other things," he said.

The Fed will issue a policy statement and economic forecasts after it wraps up a two-day meeting Wednesday afternoon. The economic recovery is broadening, but Chairman Ben Bernanke says he doesn't want to endanger the momentum as the global economic climate remains uncertain.

Highlighting the choppy nature of the recovery, FedEx reported sharply lower quarterly earnings and says it will cut capacity to Asia with so many businesses tightening their belts and using ground transport. FedEx is seen as a bellwether for the broader economy because air shipments are tied closely to the pace of business activity.

FedEx sank $5.58, or 5 percent, to $100.88.

Adobe soared after reporting strong first-quarter earnings. The company, which makes Adobe Reader and Photoshop, said it was picking up more subscriptions to online versions of its software products. The stock rose $1.25, or 3 percent, to $42.

Cyprus was negotiating with international lenders for support for its ailing financial system. Without a bailout deal, Cyprus' banks would collapse, devastating the country's economy and potentially forcing it to exit the euro currency group. That could roil global financial markets.

Fear about Cyprus dominated trading Monday, when the Dow lost 62 points; and Tuesday, when indexes closed mixed. Attention had returned to Europe after several months' respite, during which traders focused on the strengthening U.S. economy and drove stocks to multi-year highs.

Over the previous two years, concerns about a breakup of the euro currency often dominated trading of U.S. stocks. The jitters receded after central banks provided enough extra cash to help prop up Europe's commercial banks.

In other trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9, or 0.6 percent, to 1,557. The Nasdaq composite index rose 20, or 0.6 percent, to 3,248.

Among the other stocks making big moves:

? General Mills rose $1.15, or 2 percent, to $47.57 after saying its fiscal third-quarter profit rose 2 percent. The food company is benefiting from recent acquisitions.

? Williams-Sonoma soared after the home goods retailer said its fourth-quarter net income jumped 9 percent and beat expectations. The stock rose $3.84, or 9 percent, to $49.06.

___

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-20-Wall%20Street/id-0b4e0a447a634830b54ea05e0e7b482d

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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Saving places: Not easy with a scorched Earth budget | Strange ...

The trail to popular Wallace Falls above Gold Bar, beach walks on Whidbey Island?s Keystone Spit, and boat trips to Long Island in Willapa Bay ? with the magic experience of watching elk emerge from mists and an ancient cedar forest ? have been made possible by a below-the-radar federal program.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which has pumped $462 million into saving places in Washington, will live or die depending on which or two rival budget proposals before Congress is adopted.

A plan offered by the Senate Budget Committee, chaired by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., would fund the LWCF to the tune of $900 million over the next 10 years.? The Fund gets money by taking a chunk of oil and gas revenues flowing into the federal treasury from leasing on public lands owned by American taxpayers.

But a budget offered by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee, decimates conservation spending:? The LWCF has already taken an 80 percent cut that ?left barely any funding at all to do important conservation work,? said Alan Rowsome, director of conservation funding for The Wilderness Society.

Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., who retired in January, defended the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, and used money for such projects as the Mountains-to-Sound Greenway.

The LWCF helped put together the Mountains-to-Sound Greenway, creating multiple recreation opportunities along the I-90 corridor.? It paid to protect Protection Island, a famed bird rookery near Port Townsend that was targeted for real estate development.? Keystone Spit and Crockett Lake, just south of Coupeville ferry terminal, were similarly preserved.

Over the last three decades, the Fund had a key defender in Congress ? Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., a power on the House Appropriations Committee almost from the day he hit Congress in 1977.? But Dicks retired from Congress in January.

In 1981, President Reagan?s ultraconservative Interior Secretary James Watt tried to abolish the LWCF.? Dicks and Oregon Rep. Les AuCoin persuaded the Appropriations Committee to save the Fund.? An angry Watt called Dicks and threatened to fly to Tacoma and campaign against him.? Dicks, initially nervous, basked in adulation.

Watt was asked at a hearing, by Oregon Rep. Jim Weaver, whether we should preserve places for future generations.? The deeply evangelical Interior Secretary delivered a famous answer:??? ?I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns.?

The newly elected, Republican-run ?Tea Party Congress? in 2011 tried to zero-out the Land and Water Conservation Fund.? Dicks rallied support and the LWCF survived on a 216-213 vote.? One state Republican, Rep. Dave Reichert, voted to preserve the fund.? Three other GOP House members from this state voted to axe it.

The anti-LWCF vote by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler was surprising, given her Southwest Washington district.? Money from the Fund ransomed (from Weyerhaeuser) 800 acres of ancient cedar forest on Long Island.? The LWCF made possible the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge, which preserved habitat for the endangered white tail deer along the Columbia River in Wahkaikum County.

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., voted against the Land and Water Conservation Fund despite places preserved in her Southwest Washington district.

Dicks was honored Wednesday by Futurewise, the statewide conservation group that has sought to preserve farms, forests and beaches.

?We?ve had at least five or six major projects that the Fund made possible by the Fund,? said Dicks, speaking with particular pride of the Mountains to Sound Greenway.? He has been working with Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, in an effort to get LWCF money to help protect national parks from the impacts of budget sequestration.

?The parks have lost $136 million due to sequestration,? said Dicks.? (Olympic and Mt. Rainier National Parks have each lost more than $600,000 in already-stretched budgets.)

The Land and Water Conservation Fund will get little mention in news stories out of Washington, D.C.? It is, however, a big deal in this Washington.

Source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/03/20/saving-places-not-easy-with-a-scorched-earth-budget/

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Passing reference in 'Argo' rankles New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? "Argo" mentions New Zealand just once in passing, but the four-word reference is rankling Kiwis five months after the Oscar-winning film was released in the South Pacific nation.

Even Parliament has expressed its dismay, passing a motion stating that director Ben Affleck "saw fit to mislead the world about what actually happened."

Other countries, too, have felt slighted by the fictionalized account of how a group of Americans were furtively sheltered and secreted out of Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But nations such as Iran and Canada were much larger participants in the historical event the movie depicts.

The strong reaction in New Zealand indicates the country remains insecure about its own culture, said Steve Matthewman, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Auckland. People are prone to bouts of unwarranted outrage when somebody from abroad says something bad about the country, he said, and simpering enjoyment when they say something good.

"It's touched a really raw nerve," Matthewman said. "We do seem in New Zealand to be oversensitive to how the rest of the world perceives us."

The movie's New Zealand reference may not be totally fair but has an element of truth. It comes after 13 minutes when CIA agent Tony Mendez, played by Affleck, asks supervisor Jack O'Donnell what happened to a group of Americans when the U.S. Embassy was stormed.

"The six of them went out a back exit," O'Donnell replies. "Brits turned them away. Kiwis turned them away. Canadians took them in."

Some in New Zealand have taken those words as implying the country did nothing to help. Published interviews indicate that diplomats from Britain and New Zealand did help by briefly sheltering the Americans, visiting them and bringing them food, even driving them to the airport when they left.

Yet those interviews also indicate that both countries considered it too risky to shelter the Americans for long. That left the Canadians shouldering the biggest risk by taking them in.

Lawmaker Winston Peters, who brought last week's uncontested motion before Parliament, said New Zealanders are unfairly portrayed as "a bunch of cowards," an impression that would be given to millions who watch the movie.

"It's a diabolical misrepresentation of the acts of courage and bravery, done at significant risk to themselves, by New Zealand diplomats," he said.

During Oscar media interviews last month, Affleck told reporters: "Let me just start by saying I love New Zealand, and I love New Zealanders." He added that "I think that it's tricky. You walk a fine line. You are doing a historical movie and naturally you have to make some creative choices about how you are going to condense this into a three-act structure."

Affleck could not be reached for comment this week.

Matthewman said the reference may have provoked New Zealanders because the country prides itself on being generous and hospitable. People have a reputation for doing things like picking up hitchhikers and inviting them into their homes for a week, he said.

Small countries like New Zealand that are far from the world's centers of power are often shaped by bigger countries like the U.S. and often look to them for affirmation, Matthewman said. It's interesting to note the different reaction Affleck got in Britain, Matthewman said, which was arguably equally maligned in the movie.

"They give the guy a BAFTA in Britain and bash him in New Zealand," he said, referring to the best director prize Affleck won at the British Academy Film Awards.

Some in Britain, however, have criticized "Argo's" reference to that country, and some in Canada are upset the CIA gets credit at the expense of the Canadians, a claim backed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. And Iran is planning to sue Hollywood for the movie's alleged "unrealistic portrayal" of that country, according to Iranian media reports.

Yet while Iran and Canada are central parts of the movie, the New Zealand reference could easily be missed ? at least by outsiders.

Patrick Gower, the political editor for TV3, one of two main television news stations in New Zealand, wrote in a blog that Affleck should apologize after he "deliberately slammed" the country.

"Some people will say I'm being oversensitive here," he wrote. "But in my opinion, what Affleck has done just isn't right."

The controversy was not reflected in box-office receipts. "Argo" has done well in New Zealand, earning just over $1 million. As of this week, the film has earned $92.3 million internationally and $135 million in North America.

National carrier Air New Zealand has even extended an olive branch to Affleck by offering to fly him to the country as its guest. Airline spokeswoman Marie Hosking said this week it has yet to hear back from him.

Prime Minister John Key, meanwhile, has tried to sound a note of reason.

"New Zealand, I think, sees itself as a country that always wants to lend a hand to help people," he told reporters recently. "But in the end, this is Hollywood, and they do make movies. And a bit like when they transfer a book to a movie, often it's a little bit different. So, look, I think we've made our point and we should probably move on."

But the country doesn't seem ready to move on quite yet.

___

Follow Nick Perry on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nickgbperry

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/passing-reference-argo-rankles-zealand-063946444.html

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More an immigrant holiday, St. Patrick's Day has come home to Ireland (+video)

Writer Jason Walsh in Dublin says he cannot recall the modern-day holiday hoopla in the Ireland of his youth.?

By Jason Walsh,?Correspondent / March 17, 2013

Children dressed as St. Patrick in a St. Patrick's Day parade in Limerick, Ireland.

Peter Morrison/AP

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Half a million people will parade in Dublin today to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but since when did Irish people celebrate this holiday?

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March 17 has always meant a lot to the Irish diaspora, particularly those who themselves had left the country seeking a better life abroad. It was a day to celebrate Irishness, to reminisce about home, and to stand together in solidarity. Public gatherings, and particularly parades, have always been part of the annual celebration of Irishness.

In recent years, though, St. Patrick's Day has come home: The Irish, the actual Irish in Ireland, now celebrate St. Patrick's Day with as much enthusiasm as their cousins in the US and Britain. Half a million people will take to the streets of Dublin today to watch the parade.

In fact, it's not just St. Patrick's Day, it's now a week-long?St. Patrick's Festival. Slick branding, float parades, giant green foam hands, buildings lit in green, fun fairs, stand-up comedy, and street performers: This is not how I remember things.

As a child in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the 1980s, St. Patrick's Day was little more than one of many days of religious observance. Church-goers went to church and wore shamrocks on their lapels, and Irish republicans paraded, much to the chagrin of pro-British unionists. My family was not religious so we didn't do much, though we did pin shamrocks to our jackets.

Later, but still a child, in the Republic of Ireland it was much the same, though the parades were less politically-charged state affairs.

In neither case did leprechaun hats, green beer, and the rest of the tidal wave of Paddywhackery feature. Of course, memory is notoriously?faulty, but I think it's unlikely I mistook pious Mass-goers with hard-partying fun-seekers. Difficult as it is to believe, in Ireland St. Patrick's Day was once a day of temperance, with the only overindulgence being in sugary-sweets as a kind of cheating break from severe Lenten fasting.

Reportedly things weren't much different in rural Ireland. My colleague Cian Ginty grew-up in Mayo in the west of Ireland and the parades he remembers were not slick affairs.

"Tractors. That's my memory of St Patrick's Day. You get tractors, or at least used to in parades in the country down here," he says.

It's not that I'm a killjoy. If people want to have a New York-style parade, floats and all, through Dublin and then head to an Irish pub, authentic or otherwise, it's no skin off my nose. Headlines such as St. Paddy's Day FAILS: Beer, Booze And Barfing?get on my nerves, but that's life. If I was to react to everything that irked me I'd have had an embolism years ago.

Nor am I a Catholic seeking a return to the true meaning of St. Patrick's Day. After all, what is the meaning of St. Patrick's Day? He didn't drive snakes out of Ireland and his explanation of the Trinity using a shamrock is a romantic fabrication from the eighteenth century.?Patrick the man, if his confession is anything to go by, cut a pious and stern figure, arguably closer to Protestant Rev. Ian Paisley than the green-festooned and cheery miter-wearing?bishop that we Irish tend to portray him as.

Bernie Whelan, second-generation Irish living in Britain, says she remembers when St. Patrick's Day had real meaning to the London Irish. Today, though, the Irish are just like everyone else.

?"The Irish community in North London has dispersed. I was an advice worker in the London Irish women's center in Stoke Newington until it closed. To be honest couldn't justify funding any more," she says.

As Ireland has modernized, the ongoing economic crisis notwithstanding, the idea of a unique Irish ethnicity has come to look increasingly threadbare. There is, no doubt, such a thing as Irish culture, but Ireland is also part of the modern, developed world and shares a universal culture with the rest of Europe, the US, and other countries. Irish identity, at least the version long defined by political oppression and poverty makes less sense than ever.

This hasn't stopped the marketing, though. In fact, the absence of bombs and bullets makes Irishness much easier to sell, abroad and at home, even if the beer-soaked mawkishness is now harder to explain. And so, on St. Patrick's Day we're told that everyone has a bit of Irish in them. Actually, they don't. Don't take it as an insult, it's just a fact. Besides, despite the attempt to turn Irishness into some kind of universal character trait, it's really just a nationality and, like all nationalities, means less than we tend to ascribe to it.

One thing, though: It's Paddy's day, not Patty. Patty is a female name, and don't start on the Patrick doesn't contain the letter "d". The Irish-language (Gaelic to you) P?draic does.

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day if you like. Have fun. Just don't for a moment think it's authentic.

As for me? ?I'll be celebrating that we're just like everyone else.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/SuIz4lgX7pU/More-an-immigrant-holiday-St.-Patrick-s-Day-has-come-home-to-Ireland-video

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Can intraplate earthquakes produce stronger shaking than at plate boundaries?

Mar. 20, 2013 ? New information about the extent of the 1872 Owens Valley earthquake rupture, which occurs in an area with many small and discontinuous faults, may support a hypothesis proposed by other workers that these types of quakes could produce stronger ground shaking than plate boundary earthquakes underlain by oceanic crust, like many of those taking place along the San Andreas fault.

Published estimates of the 1872 Owens Valley earthquake in southeastern California put the quake at a magnitude 7.4-7.5 to 7.7-7.9. Early work indicates the Owens Valley fault is ~140 kilometers long, and ~113 kilometers ruptured in 1872. Recent work comparing magnitude estimates from reported shaking effects versus fault rupture parameters suggests that the Owens Valley surface rupture was either longer than previously suspected, or that there was unusually strong ground shaking during the event. Colin Amos of Western Washington University and colleagues tested the hypothesis that the 1872 rupture may have extended farther to the south in Owens Valley. They conclude that the 1872 Owens Valley earthquake did not trigger additional rupture in the Haiwee area, indicating that the 1872 rupture was not likely significantly longer than previously reported.

Amos and colleagues dug trenches in the southwestern Owens Valley area to look at the prominent Sage Flat fault east of Haiwee Reservoir. The trench data, combined with dating of the exposed sediment, allowed them to preclude the southern extent of the 1872 rupture from the Sage Flat area and identify two other much older surface-rupturing earthquakes in the area 25,000 to 30,000 years ago. The evaluation of their trench site suggests that the only recent ground disturbance, possibly coincident with the 1872 earthquake, was mostly weak fracturing that may have resulted from ground shaking -- rather than triggered slip along a fault. Soil liquefaction -- the conversion of soil into a fluid-like mass during earthquakes -- likely occurred at other nearby saturated wetlands and meadows closer to the axis of the valley.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Seismological Society of America, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Journal Reference:

  1. B. Amos, Andrew T. Lutz, Angela S. Jayko, Shannon A. Mahan, G. Burch Fisher, and Jeffrey R. Unruh. Refining the Southern Extent of the 1872 Owens Valley Earthquake Rupture through Paleoseismic Investigations in the Haiwee Area, Southeastern California Graphic Colin. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 2013 (in press)

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/Jwcs8Psf0Bs/130320155224.htm

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