Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
stanford football guy fieri Jill Kelley hope solo hope solo tesla model s tesla model s
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Johnson City resident Georgita Washington, a 10-year breast cancer survivor, sai...
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://www.facebook.com/JohnsonCityPress/posts/10152020607589745
lawrence of arabia denver nuggets new jersey devils torn acl derrick rose injury st louis news correspondents dinner
Page Not Found - Yahoo!
Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! homepage or look through a list of Yahoo!'s online services.
Please try Yahoo Help Central if you need more assistance.
Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/oddlyenough
paczki lent la times heart attack grill KTLA Ash Wednesday 2013 ted nugent
Netflix Max hands-on: Jellyvision's take on your movie queue
Being a Netflix subscriber is almost like being cursed -- sure, you have access to untold troves of streaming TV shows and films, but how do you choose what to watch? The burden of choice weighs heavily on the indecisive Netflix user, trapping them in a labyrinth of enticing categories, familiar recommendations and episode backlogs. Admit it, you don't know jack about picking out a good flick, which is exactly why Netflix created Max, a comedic recommendation engine that gamifies movie night with quick choices, mini games and quirky humor.
Netflix Vice President of Product Innovation Todd Yellin caught up with us at E3 earlier this month to give us a brief demo of the upcoming feature. Yellin parked us in front of a PS3 to demonstrate, pointing out that our screen's topmost category had been replaced by a larger banner. "My mother wanted me to be a lawyer," the Play Max prompt reads. "But my dream is to help you find great stuff to watch." Quirky. Yellin tells us that this is one of several boiler plates the streaming menu provides to lure users into trying Max. A cheeky button beneath the dialogue encourage us to "live our dreams" and give the content recommendation game a spin. Sure, why not?
Filed under: Gaming, Internet, Software, HD, Sony
dr oz sag awards rajon rondo brazil Dick Van Dyke pro bowl victoria azarenka
Saturday, June 29, 2013
#Vols coach visits ?Boro, says Thompson will play as freshman #NCAA #Sports
#Vols coach visits ?Boro, says Thompson will play as freshman #NCAA #Sports
| The Daily News Journal Tennessee coach, Cuonzo Martin dribbles behind seven-year-old Johnny Efferle during the S.H.O.T. (Statewide Hoops Outreach Tour) Clinic on Thursday at Blackman High School. / HELEN COMER/DNJ?? Cuonzo Martin says Darius Thompson will get early shot at UT The Tennessean all 3 news articles?? |
Source: feedproxy.google.com
Derecho Man Of Steel Reviews accuweather Nintendo Direct pirate bay Pretty Little Liars weather radar
Kenya raises 2013 tea output forecast on good weather
By Duncan Miriri
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya has raised its tea production and export earnings projections for this year thanks to good weather, while prices were expected to rise in the second half of the year, the regulator Tea Board of Kenya said on Friday.
The east African producer, which is the world's biggest exporter of black tea, expects to produce 410-415 million kg of tea, up from 369 million kg last year, the board said.
It expects earnings to rise to 120 billion shillings up from 112 billion shillings last year and higher than the board's estimate in January for earnings of 116 billion shillings. Tea is one of Kenya's main sources of hard currency.
"The weather has been good. We have had good rains throughout the year and we don't have frost or any other adverse weather conditions," Peter Kibiku, the board's research and information manager, told Reuters.
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference, he said the average price per kg was expected to rebound in the second half of this year after slipping to $2.87 per kg in the first half from $3.02 per kg in the same period last year.
"Going forward we are going to see an upward trend particularly during the third quarter of the year," he said.
He said the cold season had already set in, which normally leads to a drop in production and a spike in prices.
Prices of tea have risen over the last five years on the back of the commodities boom driven by higher demand in emerging markets like China and India.
Samuel Ogola, the technical services manager at the board, said higher prices had boosted farmer income, which was being re-invested and helping lift production.
"There is a lot of rehabilitation of farms that were not well taken care of," he said. "There is a bit of expansion. Quite a number of middle and large estates are replacing old tea bushes with new high yielding clones and those are driving production."
The main risk facing the Kenyan tea industry was an over-reliance on black tea, he said, adding farmers should consider diversifying into other products, such as purple and green teas.
The east African nation was also cultivating new markets in Africa. Its main buying nations are Egypt, Pakistan and Britain.
"We are looking at the west of Africa like Nigeria, Niger, Ghana and Mali. They are mainly not very good tea drinkers but the demand is substantial based on our initial research," he said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-raises-2013-tea-output-forecast-good-weather-124837681.html
DNS Changer ernest borgnine ESPYs 2012 venus williams Freeh Report direct tv Savages
Friday, June 28, 2013
The Coal Lobby's Fight for Survival
For a century, coal dominated America's energy landscape, cheaply fueling the factories of the Rust Belt and lighting up homes across the country. King Coal also enjoyed almost unrivaled influence in Washington. On Capitol Hill, the muscular coal lobby routinely rolled its opponents. In particular, the clout of the coal lobby?and the money it doled out?was a major reason Congress has never enacted a serious climate-change law.
Now all that's changing. Coal is under siege from forces beyond its control. Its dominant place in the American economy is slipping?and so, for the first time in a century, is its ability to get what it wants from Washington. There are two big reasons for this. The first is economic: Over the past two years, as a glut of cheap natural gas has flooded the U.S. energy market, coal has been pushed out. The second is more existential: The world is waking up to the fact that pollution from coal-burning plants is the chief cause of global warming. Although some coal companies still deny that, governments around the world don't?and they are pushing policies to end coal's use. In the U.S., President Obama is deploying the full force of his executive authority to crack down on climate change. Coal is now reckoning with its role in global warming, whether it likes it or not.
Obama made that plain this week with his sweeping speech laying out a climate plan that could devastate the U.S. coal industry. New Environmental Protection Agency regulations will at the very least freeze construction of coal plants and likely lead to the shutdown of existing plants. "Power plants can still dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into the air for free," Obama said. "That's not right, that's not safe, and it needs to stop. So today, for the sake of our children, and the health and safety of all Americans, I'm directing the Environmental Protection Agency to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants."
Once upon a time, such an announcement?a shot across the bow of King Coal?would have been political suicide. No more. The mine is collapsing.
To understand how the coal lobby has foundered, look at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the coal-advocacy coalition that for the past five years has been the most public and aggressive face of the industry. ACCCE was born in Washington in 2008 out of the merger of two older coal advocacy groups for the express purpose of fighting a Senate climate-change bill. Since then, the group has spent tens of millions of dollars annually on television advertising celebrating the role of so-called "clean coal" in the economy and slamming EPA regulations that could hurt coal.
Last year, in the heat of the presidential campaign, ACCCE hired a new CEO, Robert "Mike" Duncan, the ultimate old-school Republican operator. A former head of the Republican National Committee and regional chairman of George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, Duncan cofounded American Crossroads, Karl Rove's super PAC juggernaut that helped drive the 2010 GOP takeover of the House. Duncan also brought a personal touch to coal advocacy: The Appalachia native is the grandson of two Kentucky coal miners.
Duncan took over just as ACCCE was supercharging the role of coal in the 2012 campaign. In October, just ahead of the presidential debates, the group launched a $35 million ad campaign attacking Obama for shutting down coal plants, destroying jobs, and hobbling the nation's economy. The lobby conducted nonstop TV, Facebook, and Web video campaigns, it sent its "citizen army" to rally for Mitt Romney in coal country, and it ignited the narrative that Obama was waging a "war on coal." It was a culmination of the coal industry's multiyear push against the Obama administration's energy policies, and coal threw everything it had against him. From 2008 to 2012, the industry nearly quadrupled its political contributions, directing 90 percent of its money toward Republicans.
The effort to get Obama out of the White House was a total failure. He won reelection comfortably, carrying all the key swing states that produce the most coal: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, and Virginia, leaving the industry with but a giant swath of scorched earth.
The lobby was left in disarray. "They hit the panic button," said an energy consultant who once worked as a contractor for ACCCE and who like many who spoke with National Journal asked to remain anonymous out of respect for Duncan and the lobby.
ACCCE responded with a staffing purge. In the first half of this year, Duncan fired or didn't renew the contracts of a slew of top coalition officials, including three vice presidents and the senior vice president for communications. In January, ACCCE put out a request for proposals to 51 Washington strategy and PR firms, looking for a consultant who could help stanch the bleeding and forge a new message. Duncan's pick for the job was JDA Frontline, led by a trio of seasoned Republican strategists?Jim Dyke, Kevin Sheridan, and Kevin Madden. JDA president Dyke is a former RNC spokesman who worked in the George W. Bush administration. Sheridan, a wiry, intense political operative, most recently served as vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's communications director. Madden, the affable and polished former chief spokesman for Romney's 2008 campaign was also an adviser to the GOP candidate's 2012 effort. In May, Sheridan moved over to ACCCE's corporate headquarters full time to work on a new plan for the old industry. In the coming weeks, the group will roll out a new public-relations and lobbying blitz aimed at resetting its message and defusing antagonism with the administration. Instead of saturating Fox News with "war on coal" ads, the group will send Duncan on cable news and the editorial-board circuit to talk about coal's role in the economy and how to create a "path forward" for with new technology.
Behind the scenes, however, the coal companies and the consultants who represent them in Washington are often at loggerheads. Privately, many people working for the coal lobby concede that time has finally come for coal to face up to climate change. They don't want the coal industry to look like a science-denying dinosaur?a charge that's also been leveled against many Republicans on the far right. They recognize that the game has changed, with a new energy market and administration that will regulate them against their will. They believe it's time to stop the war, engage the enemy, and to ask it for help, both in developing environmental regulations and researching the new technology. But that thought turns the stomach of the corporate chiefs at some of the country's oldest coal companies?the titans used to the halcyon days of coal power.
Here's how a longtime Republican energy strategist put it: "When you can't make the phone call saying, 'Don't fuck with me anymore,' you have to change what you're doing."
IN DECLINE
The numbers tell the story of coal's fall. Since 2004, the share of U.S. electricity from natural gas jumped from 16 percent to 26 percent, while the share from coal plummeted from 51 percent to 40 percent, according to the Energy Department. Last year coal production fell to just 37 percent of the power mix, although it picked up slightly when natural-gas prices rose?a signal that should prices rise again, coal could regain some of its lost ground. Of course, that's a circumstance over which coal has no control, and, meanwhile, Obama's climate rules will all but ensure electric utilities won't invest in new coal plants.
The fact is, coal is a smaller piece of the economy than it once was. At the heart of coal's 2012 campaign message was an assertion that new EPA coal rules would cost millions of jobs. But, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are only 84,000 U.S. jobs in coal mining. While miners will surely suffer if coal continues to decline, the hard political fact is that the number of people employed in the industry just isn't enough to make a difference in a national election. The coal industry hopes that even if U.S. coal production shuts down, it could find salvation in overseas markets, by exporting coal to China and Europe. But Obama put the kibosh on that this week, too. He called on all world governments to end public funding for coal-fired power plants?a move the U.S. can enforce through its influence in organizations like the World Bank. "That definitely sent a signal that the U.S. doesn't support coal in the world," said Jennifer Morgan, an analyst with the World Resources Institute, a think tank.
Between the boom in natural gas, the force of the new regulations, and the diminished political clout of coal country, "I don't think they're having an existential crisis," another D.C. energy strategist said about the coal lobby. "I think they're already dead, and just don't know it yet."
That's left energy lobbyists in Washington openly questioning ACCCE's future; many say it might not be around a year from now. By all accounts, the only way for coal to carve a future for itself will be to do something that would gall many GOP operatives?ask the Obama administration for help.
Many also question whether Duncan, the ultimate Republican political operative, who started out by hiring Romney campaign staffers, is the right man for the job. Former Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher lives in coal-rich southwest Virginia, and he knows the politics of coal all too well. In 2009, he negotiated for coal to get huge carve-outs in a House climate-change bill, but his constituents voted him out of office anyway, just for backing the bill. Boucher, who now consults at the law firm Sidley Austin, said of Duncan, "I was puzzled by that. It seems that in hiring him, the organization moved to the right at a moment when the country is not moving to the right."
For coal to save itself, "it would be a very important first step to open a dialogue with the Obama administration and expand their support to strong Democratic and Republican centrist politicians," says Merribel Ayres, president of Lighthouse Consulting Group, a firm that advises many of the nation's biggest energy companies on lobbying and PR strategy.
"Fighting like it's a war is very different from trying to forge a truce," Ayres says. "Forging the game plan for a truce is very different than designing a battle plan."
THE LIFELINE
The term "clean coal" is tricky one; it can mean different things, depending on whom you ask. Coal is a dirty fuel. It doesn't just spew carbon dioxide, it also produces toxic pollutants such as mercury, which is associated with birth defects and neurological disorders, and sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain. Thanks to a 1990 clean-air law, the coal industry is required to fit its smokestacks with filters and scrubbers that "clean" those toxins from the coal. And for a lot of the coal industry, that's what "clean coal" means. Last year, ACCCE sent out a mobile classroom?a van outfitted with examples of such filters and scrubbers?to "clean-coal" rallies in swing states to make the case that the industry has already invested in clean-coal technology. But smokestacks and scrubbers don't do anything about coal's carbon dioxide emissions?the stuff that causes climate change. And right now, there is no affordable technology to clean the carbon out of coal.
As it happens, a group of scientists are working on just that?a breakthrough technology called "carbon capture and sequestration," which would do pretty much what the name says. Carbon capture, installed in a coal-fired power plant, pulls the global-warming pollution from burning coal and sequesters it by injecting it deep into underground caverns. The good news for the coal industry is that carbon capture exists and that it works. The bad news is that for now, it's far too expensive to be deployed on a commercial scale. For a coal plant to install carbon-capture technology today would send the price of coal-fired electricity soaring.
"A breakthrough in affordable carbon capture is the lifeline for coal," said Alex Trembath, an energy analyst with the Breakthrough Institute, a California think tank, and the coauthor of a report out this week titled "Coal Killer: How Natural Gas Fuels the Clean Energy Revolution."
"There's still a lot of coal with us, but to use it, we have to make [carbon capture] affordable and cheap. That's a big if. But if the coal industry wants to survive, they've got to get together about carbon pollution, and think seriously about carbon capture."
Success is far from guaranteed. The Energy Department has been trying to find a breakthrough in carbon capture since the George W. Bush administration, and has so far spent more than $5 billion on the effort, but many scientists doubt the technology will ever work.
Affordable carbon-capture technology is coal's moon shot. Because the research is so expensive and the chance of a breakthrough so far off, only one entity is investing significantly in finding a solution: the U.S. government. Specifically, it's an Energy Department lab called ARPA-E, which stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The lab is modeled after the Defense Department's DARPA, which developed the Internet and other breakthrough technologies. ARPA-E's mandate is to find the 21st-century equivalent of an energy moonshot: cheap, affordable, reliable energy that won't contribute to global warming.
ARPA-E is also a signature Obama program. The funding to start the lab came from the president's 2009 stimulus law, part of $40 billion invested in clean-energy programs?the same funds Republicans derided as "green pork." ARPA-E was also a favorite of Steven Chu, Obama's first-term Energy secretary, a physicist who has devoted his career to fighting climate change and who earned the coal industry's undying enmity when he delivered a 2007 speech declaring "coal is my nightmare."
ARPA-E does groundbreaking work, but a study by the Electric Power Research Institute concluded that it would take $1 billion of government spending annually, for a decade, on carbon research to achieve a breakthrough. Last year, ARPA-E's entire budget was $400 million.
But other federal agencies are getting in on the carbon-sequestration act as well. On the heels of Obama's climate-change speech, the Interior Department announced that the U.S. Geological Survey will release the first-ever national geologic carbon sequestration assessment?in other words, the government is researching where carbon can be captured and stored underground, in a possible future fueled by carbon-capture coal plants.
The irony is extreme: The coal industry is deeply allied with the Republican Party and worked tirelessly to eject Obama from office. But its salvation may rest with his administration.
ADMITTING THE PROBLEM
Until this year, the members of ACCCE?companies such as Peabody Energy, American Electric Power, and Murray Energy?had almost never even talked about climate change and had shown little interest in working with the Obama administration. There are signs that attitude is shifting.
Earlier this month, I sat down with Duncan and ACCCE's senior lobbyist, Paul Bailey, at their downtown Washington office, a suite of sleek glass-walled rooms trimmed with silver and filled with all-white furniture, to discuss the lobby's new approach.
Duncan, with his campaign background, broad smile, and ease with talking points, will spend the coming months on Fox News and CNN, at town-hall talks and newspaper editorial-board meetings, trying to sell new, post-2012 coal talking points. But Bailey, a quiet wonk-cum-lobbyist who thinks and speaks with nuance and precision?about climate science, environmental policy, and the legal implications of EPA's climate regulations?will have the harder job. As the coal industry makes its first overtures to the Obama administration, it's Bailey who has gone to the White House, and it's Bailey who will represent coal in meetings with EPA.
I asked them, "Is coal having an existential crisis?"
Bailey looked thoughtful. "Is this our Nietzsche moment?" he mused.
"It's our Mark Twain moment," said Duncan. "The reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated."
Asked if burning coal causes climate change, Duncan had the air of a man ready to admit he has a problem.
"I'm not going to sit here and deny carbon and the concerns that are out there," he said.
The words were innocuous enough, but the message it conveyed was anything but. The industry that for so long stood on war footing with this administration sounds prepared to sue for peace. In fact, Duncan appears to have a surprisingly good command of climate science. He can speak comfortably, for example, about the number of parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that scientists say will push the Earth to a so-called climate tipping point, a wonky, divisive subject on which it's highly unusual to find a former RNC chair and current coal lobbyist so conversant.
Duncan added, "The concerns are there. We want to offer solutions that keep us competitive in the world, make us secure, provide jobs for people, and have the best environmental footprint."
Earlier, in a conversation with Duncan late last year, I asked him how that might happen. The Republican coal lobbyist brought up Obama's pet clean-energy research lab. "They're doing some great research on this at ARPA-E," Duncan said. "It could make a difference for the country."
Bailey also has high hopes for ARPA-E. "There are technologies that are just over the horizon. There are all sorts of ways to reduce carbon in the air." Bailey has discussed inviting scientists from the ARPA-E labs to ACCCE's annual board meeting in November, to talk to the group's members about how their research can help.
Meanwhile, Bailey is gearing up to pay a visit to EPA, the same agency that coal companies spent months lambasting on the campaign trail. "We'd just like to start a conversation with them," he said.
While Republicans in the Senate have so far held up the confirmation of Gina McCarthy, Obama's pick to head EPA and thus to oversee the climate regulations, Bailey hopes she could be receptive to coal's entreaties to at least put out looser rules, with a longer time frame.
"The relationship between [Obama's first-term EPA chief] Lisa Jackson and coal was not good. We hope that if Gina McCarthy is confirmed, we'll have a better relationship with EPA."
THE DIVIDE
But it's far from certain how receptive ACCCE's member companies will be to a visit from ARPA-E's scientists, or to a push from Washington consultants to openly acknowledge coal's contribution to climate change, or to the idea of going hat in hand to EPA. The lobbying coalition is composed of a mix of companies?coal producers, electric utilities, and railroads, which transport coal?with a wide range of views on carbon, climate science, and the Obama administration. By all accounts, the groups have often struggled to find consensus. One former contractor to ACCCE put it this way: "Talk about a coalition that hates each other."
And the issue of climate change could cleave the coalition entirely.
One of ACCCE's most important members is Ohio-based Murray Energy, the nation's largest privately owned coal producer. "There is no relationship between the utilization of coal and climate change," company spokesman Gary Broadbent wrote to me in an e-mail. "Our members of Congress, and particularly the Obama administration, confuse scientific facts and evidence with their own beliefs."
And what about the idea that carbon-capture technology can save coal?
"The government has already spent substantially on carbon capture and storage ("CCS") technology, and we have not made progress," Broadbent wrote. "The promise of CCS technology is used by politicians to pretend that they are doing something for the coal industry, when they are not."
Electric utilities are another story entirely. ACCCE member American Electric Power, an Ohio-based company which owns the nation's largest fleet of coal-fired power plants, has been expecting Obama's climate-change announcement for months, and company officials have been meeting with EPA to negotiate the terms of the climate rules.
These officials praised McCarthy for working with them. "Early on, Gina brought us in to talk about the rules," John McManus, AEP's vice president of environmental services, told me earlier this year. "We talked about timing, technology, and cost. My sense is that Gina is listening, has an open mind; she wants to hear the concerns of the regulated sector."
AEP's answer to the climate-change rules has been more adaptive than antagonistic: Rather than accuse Obama of waging war on coal, it is simply closing its coal plants and turning to natural gas. "We support fuel diversity for the U.S., which means keeping coal in the mix for generation, but we also will be retiring a significant amount of coal-fueled generation in the next few years and expect that we won't been building any additional coal-fueled plants in the next few decades," said AEP spokeswoman Melissa McCarthy.
To survive, the coal lobby will likely have to show more of that flexibility.? The internal divides make it hard for the coal lobby to advocate for itself, but it's trying. The first step will be ACCCE's new summer campaign, which will involve far more conciliatory rhetoric and far less anti-Obama bombast.
It will also involve less money. For the past five years, ACCCE has fought for coal with huge television ad campaigns, with lavish annual budgets sometimes exceeding $40 million. But for coal to save its own life, the industry will need a lot more than new talking points. It will need to wake up to an entirely different reality, one that it accepts?not denies.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/coal-lobbys-fight-survival-060025322.html
NFL schedule 2013 Boston Explosion West Texas American Airlines Carlos Arredondo Pat Summerall Martin Richard
OS X Mavericks Finder tabs and tags de-clutters and organizes your Mac
Following the early previews of OS X Mavericks delivered by select media outlets, we're starting to see them broken down a little further and the latest covers the tabs and tags feature in Finder. Finder tabs takes cues from the web browser by combining many finder windows into one. Macworld's Jason Snell takes us through it:
"Each tab behaves like its own Finder window; you can adjust the view settings of each one accordingly, so one tab can show an icon view, another a list view, and so on."
And, with tags, it works just as you might expect it to. Adding a tag to a file means you can group your stuff together however you like, and then find it all by tag. It can be likened to the way we tag articles here on iMore, or at any of the Mobile Nations sites:
"Borrowed from the world of blogging and social networking, tags form a simple, arbitrary method of categorizing information. On a blog, you might add a bunch of tags to every post to indicate its subject matter. This has the benefit of letting users quickly find all the blog posts about a particular subject."
It's a great in-depth read on how tabs and tags operates, and to the right user could add significantly to their workflow. As Snell points out, it's unlikely that casual users will ever pull off the cmd+click operation to bring up a new Finder tab, and that's just fine. I'm pretty sure tabs and tags are going to help get a better handle of the mess that is my Mac, what say the rest of you?
Source: Macworld
     |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/ox_Z5ZtqO6Q/story01.htm
cyprus cyprus Bracketology Erin Go Bragh St Patrick lisa vanderpump Dancing With the Stars 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Solar power heads in a new direction: Thinner
June 26, 2013 ? Most efforts at improving solar cells have focused on increasing the efficiency of their energy conversion, or on lowering the cost of manufacturing. But now MIT researchers are opening another avenue for improvement, aiming to produce the thinnest and most lightweight solar panels possible.
Such panels, which have the potential to surpass any substance other than reactor-grade uranium in terms of energy produced per pound of material, could be made from stacked sheets of one-molecule-thick materials such as graphene or molybdenum disulfide.
Jeffrey Grossman, the Carl Richard Soderberg Associate Professor of Power Engineering at MIT, says the new approach "pushes towards the ultimate power conversion possible from a material" for solar power. Grossman is the senior author of a new paper describing this approach, published in the journal Nano Letters.
Although scientists have devoted considerable attention in recent years to the potential of two-dimensional materials such as graphene, Grossman says, there has been little study of their potential for solar applications. It turns out, he says, "they're not only OK, but it's amazing how well they do."
Using two layers of such atom-thick materials, Grossman says, his team has predicted solar cells with 1 to 2 percent efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity, That's low compared to the 15 to 20 percent efficiency of standard silicon solar cells, he says, but it's achieved using material that is thousands of times thinner and lighter than tissue paper. The two-layer solar cell is only 1 nanometer thick, while typical silicon solar cells can be hundreds of thousands of times that. The stacking of several of these two-dimensional layers could boost the efficiency significantly.
"Stacking a few layers could allow for higher efficiency, one that competes with other well-established solar cell technologies," says Marco Bernardi, a postdoc in MIT's Department of Materials Science who was the lead author of the paper. Maurizia Palummo, a senior researcher at the University of Rome visiting MIT through the MISTI Italy program, was also a co-author.
For applications where weight is a crucial factor -- such as in spacecraft, aviation or for use in remote areas of the developing world where transportation costs are significant -- such lightweight cells could already have great potential, Bernardi says.
Pound for pound, he says, the new solar cells produce up to 1,000 times more power than conventional photovoltaics. At about one nanometer (billionth of a meter) in thickness, "It's 20 to 50 times thinner than the thinnest solar cell that can be made today," Grossman adds. "You couldn't make a solar cell any thinner."
This slenderness is not only advantageous in shipping, but also in ease of mounting solar panels. About half the cost of today's panels is in support structures, installation, wiring and control systems, expenses that could be reduced through the use of lighter structures.
In addition, the material itself is much less expensive than the highly purified silicon used for standard solar cells -- and because the sheets are so thin, they require only minuscule amounts of the raw materials.
John Hart, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and art and design at the University of Michigan, says, "This is an exciting new approach to designing solar cells, and moreover an impressive example of how complementary nanostructured materials can be engineered to create new energy devices." Hart, who will be joining the MIT faculty this summer but had no involvement in this research, adds that, "I expect the mechanical flexibility and robustness of these thin layers would also be attractive."
The MIT team's work so far to demonstrate the potential of atom-thick materials for solar generation is "just the start," Grossman says. For one thing, molybdenum disulfide and molybdenum diselenide, the materials used in this work, are just two of many 2-D materials whose potential could be studied, to say nothing of different combinations of materials sandwiched together. "There's a whole zoo of these materials that can be explored," Grossman says. "My hope is that this work sets the stage for people to think about these materials in a new way."
While no large-scale methods of producing molybdenum disulfide and molybdenum diselenide exist at this point, this is an active area of research. Manufacturability is "an essential question," Grossman says, "but I think it's a solvable problem."
An additional advantage of such materials is their long-term stability, even in open air; other solar-cell materials must be protected under heavy and expensive layers of glass. "It's essentially stable in air, under ultraviolet light, and in moisture," Grossman says. "It's very robust."
The work so far has been based on computer modeling of the materials, Grossman says, adding that his group is now trying to produce such devices. "I think this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of utilizing 2-D materials for clean energy" he says.
This work was supported by the MIT Energy Initiative.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/8FVH4mhCcNE/130626153926.htm
kristen stewart Shirley Bassey adele Oscars 2013 barcelona vs real madrid renee zellweger catherine zeta jones
Babies can read each other?s moods, study finds
June 27, 2013 ? Although it may seem difficult for adults to understand what an infant is feeling, a new study from Brigham Young University finds that it's so easy a baby could do it.
Psychology professor Ross Flom's study, published in the academic journal Infancy, shows that infants can recognize each other's emotions by five months of age. This study comes on the heels of other significant research by Flom on infants' ability to understand the moods of dogs, monkeys and classical music.
"Newborns can't verbalize to their mom or dad that they are hungry or tired, so the first way they communicate is through affect or emotion," says Flom. "Thus it is not surprising that in early development, infants learn to discriminate changes in affect."
Infants can match emotion in adults at seven months and familiar adults at six months. In order to test infant's perception of their peer's emotions, Flom and his team of researchers tested a baby's ability to match emotional infant vocalizations with a paired infant facial expression.
"We found that 5 month old infants can match their peer's positive and negative vocalizations with the appropriate facial expression," says Flom. "This is the first study to show a matching ability with an infant this young. They are exposed to affect in a peer's voice and face which is likely more familiar to them because it's how they themselves convey or communicate positive and negative emotions."
In the study, infants were seated in front of two monitors. One of the monitors displayed video of a happy, smiling baby while the other monitor displayed video of a second sad, frowning baby. When audio was played of a third happy baby, the infant participating in the study looked longer to the video of the baby with positive facial expressions. The infant also was able to match negative vocalizations with video of the sad frowning baby. The audio recordings were from a third baby and not in sync with the lip movements of the babies in either video.
"These findings add to our understanding of early infant development by reiterating the fact that babies are highly sensitive to and comprehend some level of emotion," says Flom. "Babies learn more in their first 2 1/2 years of life than they do the rest of their lifespan, making it critical to examine how and what young infants learn and how this helps them learn other things."
Flom co-authored the study of 40 infants from Utah and Florida with Professor Lorraine Bahrick from Florida International University.
Flom's next step in studying infant perception is to run the experiments with a twist: test whether babies could do this at even younger ages if instead they were watching and hearing clips of themselves.
And while the talking twin babies in this popular YouTube clip are older, it's still a lot of fun to watch them babble at each other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_JmA2ClUvUY
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/ttEOJhEX-Xk/130627102835.htm
Shailene Woodley Kim Kardashian baby name Erik Spoelstra college board bill russell michael jordan stephen colbert
?MythBusters? revisit previously busted case
TV 
5 hours ago
What "MythBusters" fans want, "MythBusters" will give! In 2007, the hit Discovery show took on the case of the "Bifurcated Boat." A man who was driving a speedboat had crashed into a channel marker, and the accident had nearly split the boat in two. Sounds like speed was involved, right? Maybe not. The man claimed that he was going just a measly 25 MPH.
"MythBusters" to the rescue! With some tests, the gang busted the tale after their model boat merely glanced off their marker with little damage. But viewers complained about the bust, so the show is now revisiting the myth in its 10th season, and Discovery is sharing an exclusive look at the second attempt to bust the myth with TODAY.com.
"Our results were less than spectacular," Grant Imahara admits in the clip. "But according to you fans, that's because our methodology was totally wrong!"
"Because we didn't do it on water!" Kari Byron adds in the video.
Testing damage to a boat and not using a body of water of some sort? No wonder fans wanted a redo!
And it turns out there were some other problems too when testing the myth the first time. (Including an accident involving dropping one boat. Oops!) Take a look at some of the blunders, as well as what the "MythBusters" plan to do to make this attempt more accurate:
"MythBusters" airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Discovery.
apple dividend snow white and the huntsman snow white and the huntsman rupaul drag race walking dead comic kratom broncos
A stepping-stone for oxygen on Earth
June 26, 2013 ? For most terrestrial life on Earth, oxygen is necessary for survival. But the planet's atmosphere did not always contain this life-sustaining substance, and one of science's greatest mysteries is how and when oxygenic photosynthesis -- the process responsible for producing oxygen on Earth through the splitting of water molecules -- first began. Now, a team led by geobiologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has found evidence of a precursor photosystem involving manganese that predates cyanobacteria, the first group of organisms to release oxygen into the environment via photosynthesis.
The findings, outlined in the June 24 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), strongly support the idea that manganese oxidation -- which, despite the name, is a chemical reaction that does not have to involve oxygen -- provided an evolutionary stepping-stone for the development of water-oxidizing photosynthesis in cyanobacteria.
"Water-oxidizing or water-splitting photosynthesis was invented by cyanobacteria approximately 2.4 billion years ago and then borrowed by other groups of organisms thereafter," explains Woodward Fischer, assistant professor of geobiology at Caltech and a coauthor of the study. "Algae borrowed this photosynthetic system from cyanobacteria, and plants are just a group of algae that took photosynthesis on land, so we think with this finding we're looking at the inception of the molecular machinery that would give rise to oxygen."
Photosynthesis is the process by which energy from the sun is used by plants and other organisms to split water and carbon dioxide molecules to make carbohydrates and oxygen. Manganese is required for water splitting to work, so when scientists began to wonder what evolutionary steps may have led up to an oxygenated atmosphere on Earth, they started to look for evidence of manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis prior to cyanobacteria. Since oxidation simply involves the transfer of electrons to increase the charge on an atom -- and this can be accomplished using light or O2 -- it could have occurred before the rise of oxygen on this planet.
"Manganese plays an essential role in modern biological water splitting as a necessary catalyst in the process, so manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis makes sense as a potential transitional photosystem," says Jena Johnson, a graduate student in Fischer's laboratory at Caltech and lead author of the study.
To test the hypothesis that manganese-based photosynthesis occurred prior to the evolution of oxygenic cyanobacteria, the researchers examined drill cores (newly obtained by the Agouron Institute) from 2.415 billion-year-old South African marine sedimentary rocks with large deposits of manganese.
Manganese is soluble in seawater. Indeed, if there are no strong oxidants around to accept electrons from the manganese, it will remain aqueous, Fischer explains, but the second it is oxidized, or loses electrons, manganese precipitates, forming a solid that can become concentrated within seafloor sediments.
"Just the observation of these large enrichments -- 16 percent manganese in some samples -- provided a strong implication that the manganese had been oxidized, but this required confirmation," he says.
To prove that the manganese was originally part of the South African rock and not deposited there later by hydrothermal fluids or some other phenomena, Johnson and colleagues developed and employed techniques that allowed the team to assess the abundance and oxidation state of manganese-bearing minerals at a very tiny scale of 2 microns.
"And it's warranted -- these rocks are complicated at a micron scale!" Fischer says. "And yet, the rocks occupy hundreds of meters of stratigraphy across hundreds of square kilometers of ocean basin, so you need to be able to work between many scales -- very detailed ones, but also across the whole deposit to understand the ancient environmental processes at work."
Using these multiscale approaches, Johnson and colleagues demonstrated that the manganese was original to the rocks and first deposited in sediments as manganese oxides, and that manganese oxidation occurred over a broad swath of the ancient marine basin during the entire timescale captured by the drill cores.
"It's really amazing to be able to use X-ray techniques to look back into the rock record and use the chemical observations on the microscale to shed light on some of the fundamental processes and mechanisms that occurred billions of years ago," says Samuel Webb, coauthor on the paper and beam line scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University, where many of the study's experiments took place. "Questions regarding the evolution of the photosynthetic pathway and the subsequent rise of oxygen in the atmosphere are critical for understanding not only the history of our own planet, but also the basics of how biology has perfected the process of photosynthesis."
Once the team confirmed that the manganese had been deposited as an oxide phase when the rock was first forming, they checked to see if these manganese oxides were actually formed before water-splitting photosynthesis or if they formed after as a result of reactions with oxygen. They used two different techniques to check whether oxygen was present. It was not -- proving that water-splitting photosynthesis had not yet evolved at that point in time. The manganese in the deposits had indeed been oxidized and deposited before the appearance of water-splitting cyanobacteria. This implies, the researchers say, that manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis was a stepping-stone for oxygen-producing, water-splitting photosynthesis.
"I think that there will be a number of additional experiments that people will now attempt to try and reverse engineer a manganese photosynthetic photosystem or cell," Fischer says. "Once you know that this happened, it all of a sudden gives you reason to take more seriously an experimental program aimed at asking, 'Can we make a photosystem that's able to oxidize manganese but doesn't then go on to split water? How does it behave, and what is its chemistry?' Even though we know what modern water splitting is and what it looks like, we still don't know exactly how it works. There is a still a major discovery to be made to find out exactly how the catalysis works, and now knowing where this machinery comes from may open new perspectives into its function -- an understanding that could help target technologies for energy production from artificial photosynthesis. "
Next up in Fischer's lab, Johnson plans to work with others to try and mutate a cyanobacteria to "go backwards" and perform manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis. The team also plans to investigate a set of rocks from western Australia that are similar in age to the samples used in the current study and may also contain beds of manganese. If their current study results are truly an indication of manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis, they say, there should be evidence of the same processes in other parts of the world.
"Oxygen is the backdrop on which this story is playing out on, but really, this is a tale of the evolution of this very intense metabolism that happened once -- an evolutionary singularity that transformed the planet," Fischer says. "We've provided insight into how the evolution of one of these remarkable molecular machines led up to the oxidation of our planet's atmosphere, and now we're going to follow up on all angles of our findings."
Funding for the research outlined in the PNAS paper, titled "Manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis before the rise of cyanobacteria," was provided by the Agouron Institute, NASA's Exobiology Branch, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship program. Joseph Kirschvink, Nico and Marilyn Van Wingen Professor of Geobiology at Caltech, also contributed to the study along with Katherine Thomas and Shuhei Ono from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/Jr95gYiRb8g/130626153924.htm
thomas kinkade pat summit brewers matt cain adastra holocaust remembrance day chesapeake energy
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Ines Di Santo, Bridal Designer, Introduces LUXE Collection (PHOTOS)
Ines Di Santo is known for her stunning trumpet and mermaid-style couture gowns, and while every fashion-forward bride would probably love to strut down the aisle in one of them, they can retail for more than $10,000 -- a pretty penny for even the biggest wedding budget.
That's why we were thrilled to learn that the beloved couturier is releasing a new line, LUXE by Ines Di Santo, featuring gowns priced between $2,400 and $5,500 (still a pretty penny but closer to the average bride's dress budget).
Click through the slideshow below to see the collection, then head to your nearest bridal salon to try one on in July.
Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Weddings on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/ines-di-santo_n_3497725.html
mike wallace mike wallace Paul Bearer Valerie Harper brandi glanville White Smoke Kwame Kilpatrick
Texas carries out its 500th execution since 1982
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) ? Texas marked a solemn moment in criminal justice Wednesday evening, executing its 500th inmate since it resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.
Kimberly McCarthy, who was put to death for the murder of her 71-year-old neighbor, was also the first woman executed in the U.S. in nearly three years.
McCarthy, 52, was executed for the 1997 robbery, beating and fatal stabbing of retired college psychology professor Dorothy Booth. Booth had agreed to give McCarthy a cup of sugar before she was attacked with a butcher knife and candelabra at her home in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas. Authorities say McCarthy cut off Booth's finger to remove her wedding ring.
It was among three slayings linked to McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist who became addicted to crack cocaine.
She was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m. CDT, 20 minutes after Texas prison officials began administering a single lethal dose of pentobarbital.
In her final statement, McCarthy did not mention her status as the 500th inmate to be executed or acknowledge Booth or her family.
"This is not a loss. This is a win. You know where I'm going. I'm going home to Jesus. I love you all," she said, while looking toward her witnesses, who included her ex-husband, her attorney and her spiritual adviser.
As the drug started to take effect, McCarthy said, "God is great," before closing her eyes. She took hard, raspy, loud breaths for several seconds before becoming quiet. Then, her chest moved up and down for another minute before she stopped breathing.
Texas has carried out nearly 40 percent of the more than 1,300 executions in the U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. The state's standing stems from its size as the nation's second-most populous state as well as its tradition of tough justice for killers.
With increased debate in recent years over wrongful convictions, some states have halted the practice entirely. However, 32 states have the death penalty on the books. Though Texas still carries out executions, lawmakers have provided more sentencing options for juries and courts have narrowed the cases for which death can be sought.
Outside the prison, about 40 protesters gathered, carrying signs saying "Death Penalty: Racist and Anti-Poor," ''Stop All Executions Now" and "Stop Killing to Stop Killings." As the hour for the execution approached, protesters began chanting and sang the old Negro spiritual "Wade in the Water."
In recent years, Texas executions have generally drawn fewer than 10 protesters. A handful of counter-demonstrators who support the death penalty gathered in another area outside the prison Wednesday.
Executions of women are infrequent. McCarthy was the 13th woman put to death in the U.S. and the fourth in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to resume. In that same period, more than 1,300 male inmates have been executed nationwide, 496 of them in Texas. Virginia is a distant second, nearly 400 executions behind.
McCarthy's lawyer, Maurie Levin, had asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the punishment, arguing black jurors were improperly excluded from McCarthy's trial by Dallas County prosecutors. McCarthy is black; her victim white. All but one of her 12 jurors were white. The court denied McCarthy's appeals, ruling her claims should have been raised previously.
Prosecutors said McCarthy stole Booth's Mercedes and drove to Dallas, pawned the woman's wedding ring she removed from the severed finger for $200 and went to a crack house to buy cocaine. Evidence also showed she used Booth's credit cards at a liquor store.
McCarthy blamed the crime on two drug dealers, but there was no evidence either existed.
DNA evidence also tied McCarthy to the December 1988 slayings of 81-year-old Maggie Harding and 85-year-old Jettie Lucas. Harding was stabbed and beaten with a meat tenderizer, while Lucas was beaten with both sides of a claw hammer and stabbed.
McCarthy, who denied any involvement in the attacks, was indicted but not tried for those slayings.
McCarthy is a former wife of Aaron Michaels, founder of the New Black Panther Party, and he testified on her behalf. They had separated before Booth's slaying.
In January, McCarthy was just hours away from being put to death when a Dallas judge delayed her execution.
McCarthy was the eighth Texas prisoner executed this year. She was among 10 women on death row in Texas, but the only one with an execution date. Seven male Texas prisoners have executions scheduled in the coming months.
___
Follow Juan A. Lozano at http://www.twitter.com/juanlozano70.
___
Associated Press videographer John Mone contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-carries-500th-execution-since-1982-234152447.html
Houston fire oklahoma titanic After Earth storm chasers killed Mookie Blaylock Alexis Wright
Judge taking no action in Jackson guardianship
FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2011 file photo shows Paris Jackson on stage at the Michael Forever the Tribute Concert, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. A judge overseeing a guardianship of Michael Jackson's children said Tuesday June 25, 2013, that he was making no changes to oversight of the children after receiving an investigator's report on their well-being and speaking with lawyers for their guardians, Katherine and TJ Jackson. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, file)
FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2011 file photo shows Paris Jackson on stage at the Michael Forever the Tribute Concert, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. A judge overseeing a guardianship of Michael Jackson's children said Tuesday June 25, 2013, that he was making no changes to oversight of the children after receiving an investigator's report on their well-being and speaking with lawyers for their guardians, Katherine and TJ Jackson. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, file)
FILE - This Jan. 27, 2012 file photo shows, from left, Blanket Jackson, Paris Jackson, and Prince Michael Jackson at the opening night of the Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour in Los Angeles. Paris Jackson is physically fine after being taken to a hospital early Wednesday, June 5, 2013, an attorney for Jackson's mother said. Perry Sanders Jr. writes in a statement that Paris Jackson is getting appropriate medical attention and the family is seeking privacy. Fire and sheriff's officials confirmed they transported someone from a home in Paris' suburban Calabasas neighborhood for a possible overdose but did not release any identifying information or additional details. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg, file)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A judge said Tuesday that he will make no changes to the guardianship of Michael Jackson's three children after receiving an investigator's report on their well-being and meeting with attorneys for their caretakers.
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ordered the inquiry after 15-year-old Paris Jackson was hospitalized on June 5. Authorities reported she took Motrin pills and cut her arm with a kitchen knife.
The judge ordered an investigator to interview Jackson's children and report back to him.
Beckloff also met with attorneys for the children's guardians, grandmother Katherine Jackson and their adult cousin TJ Jackson.
"I'm taking no further action," Beckloff told attorneys for Jackson' estate.
The decision was announced during a hearing at which Howard Weitzman, an attorney for the estate, raised the issue of potential harm to the singer's daughter that might come with unsealing "salacious details" of a choreographer's recent molestation allegations against the pop superstar.
Beckloff told attorneys he will consider which portions of Wade Robson's complaint to unseal and inform attorneys of his decision. Robson claims the acts occurred when he was a child.
Another hearing will be held to determine if Robson can pursue that allegation.
Perry Sanders Jr., an attorney for Katherine Jackson, has said Paris Jackson is physically fine and receiving proper medical attention. He has not provided further updates on her condition.
Sanders and Charles Shultz, an attorney for TJ Jackson, have said the judge's inquiry was an expected move and they supported his decision.
___
Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP
Associated PressAlabama Shakes Safe Haven Rita Ora Meteor Russia jay z Oscar Pistorius Carnival Triumph
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Microsoft Keeps Apple-Bashing In Nokia Ads - Business Insider
It seems like Microsoft is trying to take Samsung's title as the official Apple-bashing smartphone provider.
The last string of ads for the Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 920,?and now the Nokia Lumia 925?are all about panning iPhone users. This time around, they are compared to pale skinned, red eyed, zombies not because of their Apple fanboy-dom, but rather because of the iPhone's supposedly poor photo quality.
The commercial is just plain weird though. And it doesn't even show off the what the Nokia phone can actually do as far as photo quality. Instead, the spot just makes claims that the iPhone takes bad photos.
Watch:
Picking on the iPhone is hardly new. While ad agency 72andSunny made it cool for Samsung, Nokia marketers actually slammed Apple in 2007 after it dropped the iPhone price by $200 and only allowed customers who had bought their phone 14 days prior to the cost drop to receive a refund.
Nokia took out an ad on Google that read "Sorry, Early Adopters" that appeared alongside the search term "iPhone price drop."
Last year, Nokia released a series of alleged smartphone beta test videos that aimed to prove that iPhones were subpar. A voiceover at the end of the black and white videos said, "If you ever thought that maybe your smartphone wasn't all it's cracked up to be, that's because it wasn't."
Strangely, all of the videos in the series except for the finale exclaiming in color that "the smartphone beta test is over"?have since been taken off YouTube?and the accompanying website www.smartphonebetatest.com leads to nothing.
Then came a dull spot in October 2012 panning Apple?for only selling smartphones in two colors whereas Nokia Lumias offer a larger variety:
And in April, Nokia released another ad mocking Galaxy and iPhone users' rivalry.
?
We get what Nokia is doing, but is it working?
Samsung employed this strategy very well, but even it has moved on from only bashing its rival. Comparing iPhone enthusiasts to zombies might not be enough to get Lumias off the shelves.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-keeps-apple-bashing-in-nokia-ads-2013-6
florida state meghan mccain wilson chandler bristol motor speedway prometheus grand canyon skywalk tonga
Docking Plan at Pier 36 Gets Chilly Reception From CB3 | The Lo ...
Pier 36, which includes the Basketball City complex, is getting into the boating business.?? Not everyone is overjoyed.
Image via Pier36nyc.com.
Since opening last summer at Pier 36, at the end of Montgomery Street, Basketball City has been a ?special events? hot spot.? The 70,000 square foot facility, which hosts recreational sports leagues, has been rented by many private groups, including Google, Nike, Blackberry and the Bike Expo.? Now the city is preparing to utilize Pier 36 for a new purpose: boat docking.
Back in April, the NYC Economic Development Corp. signed a five year contract with BillyBey, the company that runs the East River Ferry Service, to manage seven berthing sites, including Pier 36.? In partnership with the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, the New Jersey-based firm is now developing plans for ?transportation, maritime operations, recreation, educational, commercial, non-profit, historic, and cultural related opportunities? at the sites.
Earlier this month, officials from the EDC and BillyBey went before Community Board 3?s parks committee to discuss their plans and to solicit feedback. The session did not go particularly well.? CB3 members were taken aback mostly? because it?s the first they?d heard of the plans, which were announced by the city April 9.? ?This project never should have been (put out to bid) without the community board being approached,? said CB3 member Anne Johnson.? Another community board member, Lisa Kaplan, said it seemed odd that the city would not have mentioned the initiative since EDC officials meet almost weekly with members of CB3 regarding the Seward Park Mixed-Use Development Project.
Donald Liloia, an executive with BillyBey, said he had come to the committee meeting to hear what the Lower East Side community wants to see from DockNYC, the entity that?s been created to manage the sites.? But CB3 members declined to have a conversation about potential uses at Pier 36 until the city came back to the board to explain why they weren?t in the loop.
As Liloia noted during the meeting, Basketball City is already touting the facility?s ferry and boat dock capabilities (see the aerial photo/diagram posted above from Pier36NYC, a web site set up to promote the venue as ?New York?s Premier Event Space.?? We contacted the EDC last week to find out more about the plans at the East River pier.? Here?s what we learned:
- ?BillyBey?s responsibilities will include managing, maintaining, licensing and marketing multiple berthing facilities. As an experienced ferry and marine facilities operator ? including operations of the East River Ferry and World Financial Center ferry terminal ? BillyBey will bring expertise to this area.?
- Dock NYC will consider a variety of uses at the piers, including: ?transportation, maritime operations, recreation, educational, commercial, non-profit, historic, and cultural related opportunities. Uses will vary from site to site and will depend on both the type of programming inquiries, physical infrastructure and availability of space at each site.?
- As for community engagement: the ?EDC sought feedback on uses specifically from the community board at the meeting (this month), and has conducted similar conversations with other community boards with a DockNYC facility. We are awaiting a formal resolution from the CB, which we will take into consideration.? All members of the public are encouraged to utilize DockNYC?s marketing materials and website, once it launches, to coordinate activities. DockNYC welcomes programming suggestions from all parties, including to but not limited to the community board.?
Pier 36 features a 15,000 square foot deck.
There?s a long history of controversy surrounding East River access.? Back in the 1980?s, State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver successfully sued the city, arguing that Pier 36 should be reserved for community use. The Dinkins administration wanted to utilize the area for refueling and storage.? In recent years, Basketball City faced opposition from community groups on the grounds that the facility was serving upscale residents and people from other communities, rather than the mostly low-income population living along the East River.
Pier 35, just to the south of Pier 36, is destined to become an eco-park.
One group that fought for more public access at Basketball City was the two Bridges Neighborhood Council.? In an interview, Kerri Culhane, the organization?s associate director, praised Basketball City for offering need-based scholarships for its basketball clinics.? On the issue of Pier 36 berthing, she agreed with some members of the community board who noted that many docking uses were bound to be geared toward a high-end clientele.? ?We would like to see waterfront access,? she said, ?but in the context of neighborhood needs.?? She mentioned educational programs as one worthy use of the pier.
Culhane and CB3 members also indicated they?d like the docking program to be considered in the context of the broader East River redevelopment project. Pier 35, just south of Basketball City, is destined to become an Eco-Park.? Some versions of the plan at that location have included docking.? To the north, the Parks Department is in the midst of designing a large new park at Pier 42, which also would include various maritime uses.
We placed a call to Basketball City owner Bruce Radler regarding this story. He did not call back.
?
cleveland plain dealer john scott barry sanders barry sanders jimmie johnson juan pablo montoya crash chardon high school shooting
Monday, June 24, 2013
Customized Tablet For Restaurants E La Carte Raises $13.5M From Intel Capital And Others
E la Carte, a company that develops a tableside tablet for the restaurant and related hospitality industries, has raised $13.5 million in Series B funding led by Intel Capital with participation from Romulus Capital. The startup had previously raised over $5 million from Lightbank, SV Angel, Dave McClure, Joshua Schachter, and others.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/OU1NVnwh6vs/
act supreme court ellen page nelson mandela dexter dexter Demi Lovato
Resilience in the wake of Superstorm Sandy
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 24-Jun-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Eric Young
young-eric@norc.org
703-217-6814
NORC at the University of Chicago
Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey reveals new information about the importance of social and community bonds in recovery from a disaster like Superstorm Sandy
Chicago, June 24, 2013The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has released results of a major survey exploring resilience of people and neighborhoods directly affected by Superstorm Sandy.
The study reveals the importance of social factors such as neighborhood bonds and social supports in coping with the storm and its aftermath.
Striking landfall in the United States on October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy affected large areas of coastal New York and New Jersey, devastated communities, killed more than 130 people, and caused tens of billions of dollars in property damage.
"The impact of the storm is being felt to this day as the long process of recovery continues," said Trevor Tompson, director of the AP-NORC Center. "Our survey data powerfully illustrate how important the help of friends, family, and neighbors can be in getting people back on their feet after natural disasters. These crucial social bonds are often overlooked as policy discussions tend to focus on the role that official institutions have in fostering resilience."
With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted a national survey of 2,025 individuals including an oversample of 1,007 interviews with residents in the NY and NJ region affected by Superstorm Sandy.
The survey had two central objectives:
- To systematically measure the impact of the storm on individuals and neighborhoods and to assess the level of recovery six months after the storm.
- To learn how neighborhood characteristics and social factors relate to recovery and resilience.
Critical findings of the survey include:
- The most important sources of help before, during, and after the storm were friends, family, and neighbors, with first responders seen as equally important in the affected regions.
- Organized charities such as The Salvation Army, and food banks as well as relief organizations like the Red Cross were seen as very helpful and important in the wake of the storm in the regions most affected by the storm.
- By contrast State and federal governments and utility companies were seen as significantly less helpful by those in the affected region.
- Residents of the region affected by Sandy report extensive impacts beyond the physical damage, including prolonged effects on daily living and social relationships, with many individuals and neighborhoods continuing to struggle.
- The storm brought out the best in neighbors, with reports of many people sharing access to power, food and water, and providing shelter. Just seven percent report that the storm brought out the worst in their neighbors.
- Americans supported the victims, with 54 percent of Americans donating food, money, clothing or other items to help, with 63 percent of people in the affected regions doing the same.
- About two-thirds of Americans support government assistance in rebuilding, with a smaller majority supporting buyouts in areas susceptible to natural disasters.
- In areas affected by the storm, people relied heavily on both face to face communication and on technology, with cellphones cited as the most common way to communicate during the storm. Email and Facebook were used by about one-third of residents and Twitter by a small percentage.
- In the most severely hit areas, 80 percent of people relied on face to face communications, followed by cellphone, landlines, email, Facebook, and Twitter.
"Superstorm Sandy tested the resilience of New York and New Jersey," said Dr. Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation. "As the region works to rebuild and to better prepare for future storms, the results of this poll can inform our thinking and planning in a way that will ensure greater resilience. The poll shows that family, neighborhood and community are vital components of responding to shocks and stresses and bouncing back stronger."
About the Survey
The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Survey Research titled "Resilience in the Wake of Superstorm Sandy" was conducted from April 9 through June 2, 2013. The affected region was defined as 16 counties in New York and New Jersey which all received a FEMA impact rating of "very high" based on a composite indicator of wind, storm surge, and rain. The overall margin of error for the national sample was +/- 4.0 percent.
###
Additional information, including the Associated Press stories and the survey's complete topline findings, can be found on the AP-NORC Center's website at http://www.apnorc.org.
NORC at the University of Chicago is an independent research organization headquartered in downtown Chicago with additional offices in the University of Chicago campus, the D.C. Metro area, Atlanta, Boston, and San Francisco. NORC also supports a nationwide field staff as well as international research operations. With clients throughout the world, NORC collaborates with government agencies, foundations, education institutions, nonprofit organizations, and businesses to provide data and analysis that support informed decision making in key areas including health, education, crime, justice, energy, security and the environment. NORC's more than 70 years of leadership and experience in data collection, analysis, and disseminationcoupled with deep subject matter expertiseprovides the foundation for effective solutions to issues confronting society.
The Associated Press (AP) is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from the AP. Founded in 1846, the AP today is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering. The AP considers itself to be the backbone of the world's information system, serving thousands of daily newspaper, radio, television, and online customers with coverage in text, photos, graphics, audio and video.
The Rockefeller Foundation aims to achieve equitable growth by expanding opportunity for more people in more places worldwide, and to build resilience by helping them prepare for, withstand, and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses. Throughout its 100 year history, The Rockefeller Foundation has enhanced the impact of innovative thinkers and actors working to change the world by providing the resources, networks, convening power, and technologies to move them from idea to impact. In today's dynamic and interconnected world, The Rockefeller Foundation has a unique ability to address the emerging challenges facing humankind through innovation, intervention and influence in order to shape agendas and inform decision making.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 24-Jun-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Eric Young
young-eric@norc.org
703-217-6814
NORC at the University of Chicago
Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey reveals new information about the importance of social and community bonds in recovery from a disaster like Superstorm Sandy
Chicago, June 24, 2013The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has released results of a major survey exploring resilience of people and neighborhoods directly affected by Superstorm Sandy.
The study reveals the importance of social factors such as neighborhood bonds and social supports in coping with the storm and its aftermath.
Striking landfall in the United States on October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy affected large areas of coastal New York and New Jersey, devastated communities, killed more than 130 people, and caused tens of billions of dollars in property damage.
"The impact of the storm is being felt to this day as the long process of recovery continues," said Trevor Tompson, director of the AP-NORC Center. "Our survey data powerfully illustrate how important the help of friends, family, and neighbors can be in getting people back on their feet after natural disasters. These crucial social bonds are often overlooked as policy discussions tend to focus on the role that official institutions have in fostering resilience."
With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted a national survey of 2,025 individuals including an oversample of 1,007 interviews with residents in the NY and NJ region affected by Superstorm Sandy.
The survey had two central objectives:
- To systematically measure the impact of the storm on individuals and neighborhoods and to assess the level of recovery six months after the storm.
- To learn how neighborhood characteristics and social factors relate to recovery and resilience.
Critical findings of the survey include:
- The most important sources of help before, during, and after the storm were friends, family, and neighbors, with first responders seen as equally important in the affected regions.
- Organized charities such as The Salvation Army, and food banks as well as relief organizations like the Red Cross were seen as very helpful and important in the wake of the storm in the regions most affected by the storm.
- By contrast State and federal governments and utility companies were seen as significantly less helpful by those in the affected region.
- Residents of the region affected by Sandy report extensive impacts beyond the physical damage, including prolonged effects on daily living and social relationships, with many individuals and neighborhoods continuing to struggle.
- The storm brought out the best in neighbors, with reports of many people sharing access to power, food and water, and providing shelter. Just seven percent report that the storm brought out the worst in their neighbors.
- Americans supported the victims, with 54 percent of Americans donating food, money, clothing or other items to help, with 63 percent of people in the affected regions doing the same.
- About two-thirds of Americans support government assistance in rebuilding, with a smaller majority supporting buyouts in areas susceptible to natural disasters.
- In areas affected by the storm, people relied heavily on both face to face communication and on technology, with cellphones cited as the most common way to communicate during the storm. Email and Facebook were used by about one-third of residents and Twitter by a small percentage.
- In the most severely hit areas, 80 percent of people relied on face to face communications, followed by cellphone, landlines, email, Facebook, and Twitter.
"Superstorm Sandy tested the resilience of New York and New Jersey," said Dr. Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation. "As the region works to rebuild and to better prepare for future storms, the results of this poll can inform our thinking and planning in a way that will ensure greater resilience. The poll shows that family, neighborhood and community are vital components of responding to shocks and stresses and bouncing back stronger."
About the Survey
The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Survey Research titled "Resilience in the Wake of Superstorm Sandy" was conducted from April 9 through June 2, 2013. The affected region was defined as 16 counties in New York and New Jersey which all received a FEMA impact rating of "very high" based on a composite indicator of wind, storm surge, and rain. The overall margin of error for the national sample was +/- 4.0 percent.
###
Additional information, including the Associated Press stories and the survey's complete topline findings, can be found on the AP-NORC Center's website at http://www.apnorc.org.
NORC at the University of Chicago is an independent research organization headquartered in downtown Chicago with additional offices in the University of Chicago campus, the D.C. Metro area, Atlanta, Boston, and San Francisco. NORC also supports a nationwide field staff as well as international research operations. With clients throughout the world, NORC collaborates with government agencies, foundations, education institutions, nonprofit organizations, and businesses to provide data and analysis that support informed decision making in key areas including health, education, crime, justice, energy, security and the environment. NORC's more than 70 years of leadership and experience in data collection, analysis, and disseminationcoupled with deep subject matter expertiseprovides the foundation for effective solutions to issues confronting society.
The Associated Press (AP) is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from the AP. Founded in 1846, the AP today is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering. The AP considers itself to be the backbone of the world's information system, serving thousands of daily newspaper, radio, television, and online customers with coverage in text, photos, graphics, audio and video.
The Rockefeller Foundation aims to achieve equitable growth by expanding opportunity for more people in more places worldwide, and to build resilience by helping them prepare for, withstand, and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses. Throughout its 100 year history, The Rockefeller Foundation has enhanced the impact of innovative thinkers and actors working to change the world by providing the resources, networks, convening power, and technologies to move them from idea to impact. In today's dynamic and interconnected world, The Rockefeller Foundation has a unique ability to address the emerging challenges facing humankind through innovation, intervention and influence in order to shape agendas and inform decision making.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/natu-rit062413.php
2013 lincoln mkz burger king mary j blige google project glass google goggles one tree hill projectglass stock act
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)