Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/181369015?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Video: NATO: Afghan roadside bomb kills three troops
Tsunami debris washing up in U.S.?
Nearly 10 months after Japan's devastating tsunami, scientists say what may be some debris is starting to wash up on the U.S. West Coast. Lee Cowan reports. Also, Oceanographer Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer joins to discuss.
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsVideoEarlyShow/~3/PJJdhB8njcw/
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TheRealBeesley: @mikefrostlpn I add money to google wallet with my visa all the time :) Is that what you mean? Just click on the card and add funds.
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@mikefrostlpn I add money to google wallet with my visa all the time :) Is that what you mean? Just click on the card and add funds. 
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Giuliana Rancic Returns to Work After Double Mastectomy
Giuliana Rancic is officially back to work after recovering from her breast cancer surgery. Just two weeks after undergoing the double mastectomy and reconstruction, Rancic returned to the E! News set Dec. 27.
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
UK's Prince Philip remains in hospital (AP)
LONDON ? Britain's Prince Philip will spend a fourth night in hospital Monday, as he recovers from treatment for a blocked coronary artery.
Queen Elizabeth II's 90-year-old husband is making "good progress," but will remain under observation at Papworth, a specialist heart hospital in Cambridge, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said Monday.
The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with policy, said there are no details on when Philip may be released.
Philip underwent a successful coronary stent procedure at the specialist hospital, where he was taken Friday after complaining of chest pains.
"The Duke of Edinburgh continues to make good progress from the procedure. He remains in hospital under observation and in good spirits," the spokesman said.
It was the most serious health scare suffered by Philip, who is known to be active and robust. He has continued to appear at many engagements, most recently taking a 10-day tour of Australia with the queen.
He missed the Royal Family's traditional Boxing Day shooting party on Monday at the queen's private Sandringham estate in Norfolk, an event he usually leads.
Six of Philip's grandchildren, including Princes William and Harry, visited him Sunday in the hospital.
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New Freedom mayor resigns to take district judge seat
Mayor Jeff Joy will replace District Judge Walter P. Reamer.
Jeff Joy (Submitted)
York, PA - New Freedom Mayor Jeff Joy has announced his resignation to take a position as a district judge.Joy, who was elected in November to replace District Judge Walter P. Reamer, will resign as of Tuesday. He served 10 years as New Freedom's mayor and two years on borough council. He will also resign as chairman of the Southern Police Commission.
Borough council members will appoint a replacement mayor, Joy said. That person will serve for one year, and a replacement for the second remaining year of his term will be selected in the next election, he said.
Also of interest
? York County, Pa., boroughs offer tasty slice of small-town life.
Source: http://www.ydr.com/rss/ci_19621439?source=rss
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Online shopping jumps 16.4 pct on Christmas Day (AP)
NEW YORK ? A growing number of shoppers apparently need only the briefest of breaks before diving back in, especially if they can log in to shop.
IBM found that online shopping jumped 16.4 percent on Christmas Day over last year, and the dollar amount of those purchases that were made using mobile devices leaped 172.9 percent.
IBM tracks shopping at more than 500 websites other than Amazon.com, which is the largest. It found a huge increase in the number of shoppers making their purchases with iPhones, iPads and Android-powered mobile devices.
In fact, nearly 7 percent of all online purchases were made using iPads, just 18 months after the tablet computers were released by Apple Inc., said John Squire, chief strategy officer for IBM's Smarter Commerce unit.
The online uptick was continuing on Monday. As of 3 p.m. Eastern time, shopping was up 10 percent over Dec. 26, 2010. And the expectation was that the pace of buying would increase as the day wore on and consumers clicked on sales at various retailers.
Squire said consumers were chasing sales on both Sunday and Monday. The data did not show what portion of purchases was made using gift cards.
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Obamas spending low-key Christmas Eve in Hawaii (AP)
HONOLULU ? President Barack Obama and his family are easing into vacation mode, spending a low-key Christmas Eve out of the spotlight.
The president spent his first morning in Hawaii at a multimillion-dollar vacation home his family rents in the Kailua Beach area, near Honolulu. He skipped his standard early morning gym workout, and headed to the golf course later Saturday.
First lady Michelle Obama, meanwhile, got into the Christmas spirit by helping track Santa for NORAD. The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been telling anxious children about Santa's whereabouts every year since 1955.
The White House said Mrs. Obama answered several calls from children around the country who wanted to know how close Santa was to their homes.
The Obamas were to spend Christmas Eve at home with a close circle of family and friends that typically joins the president for his annual Hawaiian vacation. They include Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who lives in the state with her family, and several friends the president has known since high school.
The president's annual December trip to the state where he was born and mostly raised almost didn't happen. He had planned to arrive in Hawaii on Dec. 17, but delayed his departure while Congress worked its way through a stalemate over extending payroll tax cuts.
A deal was finalized Friday morning. Hours later, the president boarded Air Force One for Hawaii to meet his wife and daughters, who traveled ahead of him.
Obama's first order of business when he arrived was taking his wife out to dinner. The couple joined a few friends at Morimoto restaurant, one of their favorite dining spots on the island of Oahu.
The president has no public events planned in Hawaii. A small group of advisers accompanied him to brief him on domestic and international developments.
The Obamas are expected to return to Washington shortly after New Year's Day.
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Helen Mirren to Pay a Royal Visit to Glee (omg!)
Helen Mirren will guest-star on Glee ? but you'll have to listen closely to catch her.
The Oscar winner for The Queen will provide the inner voice of a character in what is potentially a recurring gig, TVLine reports. Mirren recorded the "long and hilarious monologues" two weeks ago and later surprised the cast on set, a source tells the site.
Check out photos of Helen Mirren
The part was written for Mirren, and the show's producers asked Eric Stoltz, a frequent Glee director and Mirren's The Passion of Ayn Rand co-star, to pitch it to her.
Mirren's episode will air Jan. 17 and will also feature The Real Housewives of Atlanta's NeNe Leakes as new swim coach Roz Washington.
Are you excited to hear Helen Mirren? Whose inner dialogue would require the dame's efforts?
Related Articles on TVGuide.com
- Check out photos of Helen Mirren
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Obama wants payroll tax extended for entire year (AP)
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama, rebuffed by Congress on a yearlong extension of a Social Security payroll tax cut, said Saturday that it would be "inexcusable" for lawmakers not to lengthen the short-term deal when they return from their holiday break.
The measure, passed by the Senate shortly before the president spoke briefly at the White House, would extend the tax cut and long-term jobless benefits for just two months ? a partial victory for Obama that also sets the stage for another fight in February.
While pleased by the Senate vote, Obama said "it would be inexcusable for Congress not to further extend this middle class tax cut for the rest of the year. It should be a formality, and hopefully it's done with as little drama as possible when they get back in January."
He added, "This really isn't hard. There are plenty of ways to pay for these proposals."
The renewal of the 2-percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax for 160 million workers and unemployment benefits averaging about $300 a week for the additional millions of people who have been out of work for six months or more is a modest step forward for Obama's year-end jobs agenda.
As a condition for GOP support of the payroll tax measure, Obama has to accept a provision that forces him to decide within 60 days whether to approve or reject a proposed a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that promises thousands of jobs.
Obama made no reference to the pipeline in his remarks.
The bill awaits House action next week.
"I'm looking forward to the House moving forward and getting this done when they get back on Monday," Obama said.
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Gingrich 2.0: Ex-speaker offers new Newt for 2012 (The Arizona Republic)
Saturday, December 17, 2011
6 ways Mitt Romney is trying to prove he's 'human' (The Week)
New York ? Goodbye, Rombot. Hello, sensitive human? Here's how Team Romney is trying to make the super-rich, often-wooden candidate seem like the rest of us
"Meet Mitt Romney, human," says Reid J. Epstein in Politico. With the GOP nomination seemingly fading from sight, Team Romney has been working overtime to soften the so-called "Rombot" candidate who's been on display all year. The push to "humanize" Romney ? a strategy his campaign team disavows ? has its skeptics. But it's pretty clear, says Ashley Parker in The New York Times, that the often "inscrutable, overly polished, and occasionally robotic" candidate "is striving mightily to humanize himself just three weeks before the first round of voting begins." How? Here are six ways:
1. Deputizing his family
The humanizing effort began last week with a spate of TV ads emphasizing Mitt the Family Man. And to "show his softer side," says Philip Rucker in The Washington Post, Romney "has been campaigning more frequently with his wife, Ann, and their family." He's had various of his five sons introduce him at events, and is telling more personal anecdotes about his family life. The subtext may be a swipe at thrice-married GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich, but it's also tactically "good to remind Iowans of how strong he is from a family standpoint," says unaligned Iowa GOP congressman Steve King.
SEE MORE: How Romney could lose to Gingrich... just like Romney's dad lost to Nixon
?
2. Sending his wife to talk about his unseen side
Beyond featuring wife Ann in ads, Romney is sending her out to smaller private fundraisers to talk about "the side of Mitt people don't see or don't hear about." In other words, says Jessica Grose in Slate, "she's trying to make Mitt seem less stiff, and more fun." It might work, but if she wants to improve on "her first attempt at Mitt humanization circa 2007," Ann Romney is going to have to be a little more "specific, intimate, and revealing." It's nice that Mitt stood by her through breast cancer and multiple sclerosis, but Ann will have to "up the personal disclosures if she wants to crack that lacquered image that most people have of her husband."
3. Talking about his Mormonism
The Dec. 10 debate marked the first time in four years that Romney brought up being a Mormon, and he's only upped the religion talk since, discussing his stints as a missionary in France and as a stateside counselor to struggling Mormons. In "racing to humanize a distant and sometimes awkward politician...," say Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman in Politico, Team Romney just "smashed personal red lines the candidate spent decades erecting." He's even joking about his religion, claiming that he "encouraged the guys" who created the lewd, satirical Broadway hit The Book of Mormon, "because I thought that'd be really helpful."
SEE MORE: Romney's big weakness: Speaking French?
?
4. Talking (maybe too much) about his hardships
Mitt's Mormon remembrances included new details about his two-year missionary stint that weren't even in his autobiography. Insisting he wasn't "living high on the hog" in France, Romney told a crowd on Sunday that he'd subsisted on $110 a month, in bare-bones apartments often without refrigerators, showers, or even toilets. Instead of toilets, he had "little pads on the ground, OK?" he elaborated. "You know how that works, all right. There was a chain behind you with a bucket ? it was a bucket affair." I get that he's trying to "shed his robotic image,"?says Zeke Miller in Business Insider. But that's "a definitional case of the phrase 'Too Much Information'."
5. Meeting the press more
After facing criticism for avoiding the press, and then blowing an on-air chat with Fox News'?Bret Baier, Romney has dramatically boosted his access to reporters. More is needed, American University political scientist Leonard Steinhorn tells the Boston Herald. "If he wants to humanize himself, he better work as quickly as possible and work as many media outlets as possible," especially Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Romney himself seems cool to the idea, telling the Herald he'd "much rather have a setting that's fun, and give-and-take."
SEE MORE: The radical dangers of Mitt Romney's America
?
6. Talking about how equally un-human his rivals are
Romney's estimated $200 million in wealth may make him seem removed from everyday Americans, but he "doesn't want to be cast as the only rich person in the race for the Republican presidential nomination," says Brian Montopoli in CBS News. On Wednesday Romney pointed out that Gingrich is also "a wealthy man, a very wealthy man," adding that "if you have a half a million dollar purchase from Tiffany's, you're not a middle class American." Zing! Gingrich is worth at least $6.7 million.
View this article on TheWeek.com
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?Goodbye, With. Hello, Path 2.? Morin Migrates Users to New App
Dave Morin and Path's secondary standalone app With "is winding down", according to a tweet, email, and blog post from Path. "Now tweet who you're with directly from Path", the email explains. The encouraged migration signals the end of Path's experiment with a stripped down, single feature experience. Details are sparse but this looks like an early warning to With users that the app will be sunsetted soon, though it still currently functions.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/sdQgYzCXE9Q/
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Serious Style for Your Everyday-Carry Bag with J. W. Hulme Co.
It doesn’t matter if your everyday bag is a small gear bag or big enough for a 17″ laptop, you’ll find a bag at J. W. Hulme Co. that fits your needs.? They’ve been around for more than 100 years, making duffle bags, briefcases, and sporting and hunting gear.? They handcraft bags from fine leathers [...]
Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/12/16/serious-style-for-your-everyday-carry-bag-with-j-w-hulme-co/
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The truth hurts: LHC breaks supersymmetry's beauty
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Greek lawmakers expected to pass austerity budget (AP)
ATHENS, Greece ? Greece's lawmakers were set Tuesday to pass next year's budget, one that extends tough austerity measures that have already left Greeks struggling as the country tries to slash its debts and pull itself out of a severe recession.
With three parties, including the country's majority socialists and their rival conservatives, involved in Greece's new coalition government, the budget is expected to pass with an overwhelming majority in a midnight vote.
It foresees a fourth year of recession in 2012, although it also projects a primary surplus ? a surplus excluding interest payments on debt ? of 1.1 percent of gross domestic product.
Greece's debt troubles have roiled the euro, with Europe's single currency facing its largest crisis since it went into circulation in 2002. The Standard & Poor's ratings agency placed 15 of the 17 eurozone countries on notice for possible downgrades. The only two it left out were Cyprus, whose bonds have near-junk status, and Greece, whose low ratings suggest it is likely to default on its debts soon anyway.
On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged changes to the EU treaty that would centralize decision-making on spending and borrowing for the eurozone. Tighter political and economic coordination among euro countries is seen as a precursor to further financial aid from the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, or some combination.
Greece has been relying for financial survival on billions of euros (dollars) in rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund since May 2010. In return for the first bailout, the country imposed a series of harsh austerity measures, including salary and pension cuts and repeated rounds of tax hikes that have left the country mired in a deep recession.
Despite the measures, the government found itself persistently missing the fiscal targets set out in its first bailout. A second rescue package worth euro130 billion ($175 billion) was put together in October, and includes plans for private creditors to write off 50 percent of their Greek bonds, potentially cutting the country's debt by euro100 billion. Negotiations on the details of the deal are expected to extend into the new year.
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
Ancient dry spells offer clues about the future of drought
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 5-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Adam Voiland
adam.p.voiland@nasa.gov
301-614-6949
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
As parts of Central America and the U.S. Southwest endure some of the worst droughts to hit those areas in decades, scientists have unearthed new evidence about ancient dry spells that suggest the future could bring even more serious water shortages. Three researchers speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco on Dec. 5, 2011, presented new findings about the past and future of drought.
Pre-Columbian Collapse
Ben Cook, a climatologist affiliated with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City, highlighted new research that indicates the ancient Meso-American civilizations of the Mayans and Aztecs likely amplified droughts in the Yucatn Peninsula and southern and central Mexico by clearing rainforests to make room for pastures and farmland.
Converting forest to farmland can increase the reflectivity, or albedo, of the land surface in ways that affect precipitation patterns. "Farmland and pastures absorb slightly less energy from the sun than the rainforest because their surfaces tend to be lighter and more reflective," explained Cook. "This means that there's less energy available for convection and precipitation."
Cook and colleagues used a high-resolution climate model developed at GISS to run simulations that compared how patterns of vegetation cover during pre-Columbian (before 1492 C.E.) and post-Columbian periods affected precipitation and drought in Central America. The pre-Columbian era saw widespread deforestation on the Yucatn Peninsula and throughout southern and central Mexico. During the post-Columbian period, forests regenerated as native populations declined and farmlands and pastures were abandoned.
Cook's simulations include input from a newly published land-cover reconstruction that is one of the most complete and accurate records of human vegetation changes available. The results are unmistakable: Precipitation levels declined by a considerable amount -- generally 10 to 20 percent -- when deforestation was widespread. Precipitation records from stalagmites, a type of cave formation affected by moisture levels that paleoclimatologists use to deduce past climate trends, in the Yucatn agree well with Cook's model results.
The effect is most noticeable over the Yucatn Peninsula and southern Mexico, areas that overlapped with the centers of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations and had high levels of deforestation and the most densely concentrated populations. Rainfall levels declined, for example, by as much as 20 percent over parts of the Yucatn Peninsula between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E.
Cook's study supports previous research that suggests drought, amplified by deforestation, was a key factor in the rapid collapse of the Mayan empire around 950 C.E. In 2010, Robert Oglesby, a climate modeler based at the University of Nebraska, published a study in the Journal of Geophysical Research that showed that deforestation likely contributed to the Mayan collapse. Though Oglesby and Cook's modeling reached similar conclusions, Cook had access to a more accurate and reliable record of vegetation changes.
During the peak of Mayan civilization between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E., the land cover reconstruction Cook based his modeling on indicates that the Maya had left only a tiny percentage of the forests on the Yucatn Peninsula intact. By the period between 1500 C.E. and 1650 C.E., in contrast, after the arrival of Europeans had decimated native populations, natural vegetation covered nearly all of the Yucatn. In modern times, deforestation has altered some areas near the coast, but a large majority of the peninsula's forests remain intact.
"I wouldn't argue that deforestation causes drought or that it's entirely responsible for the decline of the Maya, but our results do show that deforestation can bias the climate toward drought and that about half of the dryness in the pre-Colonial period was the result of deforestation," Cook said.
Northeastern Megadroughts
The last major drought to affect the Northeast occurred in the 1960s, persisted for about three years and took a major toll on the region. Dorothy Peteet, a paleoclimatologist also affiliated with NASA GISS and Columbia University, has uncovered evidence that shows far more severe droughts have occurred in the Northeast.
By analyzing sediment cores collected from several tidal marshes in the Hudson River Valley, Peteet and her colleagues at Lamont-Doherty have found evidence that at least three major dry spells have occurred in the Northeast within the last 6,000 years. The longest, which corresponds with a span of time known as the Medieval Warm Period, lasted some 500 years and began around 850 C.E. The other two took place more than 5,000 years ago. They were shorter, only about 20 to 40 years, but likely more severe.
"People don't generally think about the Northeast as an area that can experience drought, but there's geologic evidence that shows major droughts can and do occur," Peteet said. "It's something scientists can't ignore. What we're finding in these sediment cores has big implications for the region."
Peteet's team detected all three droughts using a method called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. They used the technique on a core collected at Piermont Marsh in New York to search for characteristic elements -- such as bromine and calcium -- that are more likely to occur at the marsh during droughts.
Fresh water from the Hudson River and salty water from the Atlantic Ocean were both predominant in Piermont Marsh at different time periods, but saltwater moves upriver during dry periods as the amount of fresh water entering the marsh declines. Peteet's team detected extremely high levels of both bromine and calcium, both of them indicators of the presence of saltwater and the existence of drought, in sections of the sediment cores corresponding to 5,745 and 5,480 years ago.
During the Medieval Warm Period, the researchers also found striking increases in the abundance of certain types of pollen species, especially pine and hickory, that indicate a dry climate. Before the Medieval Warm Period, in contrast, there were more oaks, which prefer wetter conditions. They also found a thick layer of charcoal demonstrating that wildfires, which are more frequent during droughts, were common during the Medieval Warm Period.
"We still need to do more research before we can say with confidence how widespread or frequent droughts in the Northeast have been," Peteet said. There are certain gaps in the cores Peteet's team studied, for example, that she plans to investigate in greater detail. She also expects to expand the scope of the project to other marshes and estuaries in the Northeast and to collaborate with climate modelers to begin teasing out the factors that cause droughts to occur in the region.
The Future of Food
Climate change, with its potential to redistribute water availability around the globe by increasing rainfall in some areas while worsening drought in others, might negatively impact crop yields in certain regions of the world.
New research conducted by Princeton University hydrologist Justin Sheffield shows that areas of the developing world that are drought-prone and have growing population and limited capabilities to store water, such as sub-Saharan Africa, will be the ones most at risk of seeing their crops decrease their yields in the future.
Sheffield and his team ran hydrological model simulations for the 20th and 21st centuries and looked at how drought might change in the future according to different climate change scenarios. They found that the total area affected by drought has not changed significantly over the past 50 years globally.
However, the model shows reductions in precipitation and increases in evaporative demand are projected to increase the frequency of short-term droughts. They also found that the area across sub-Saharan Africa experiencing drought will rise by as much as twofold by mid-21st century and threefold by the end of the century.
When the team analyzed what these changes would mean for future agricultural productivity around the globe, they found that the impact on sub-Saharan Africa would be especially strong.
Agricultural productivity depends on a number of factors beyond water availability including soil conditions, available technologies and crop varieties. For some regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers found that agricultural productivity will likely decline by over 20 percent by mid-century due to drying and warming.
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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: 5-Dec-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Adam Voiland
adam.p.voiland@nasa.gov
301-614-6949
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
As parts of Central America and the U.S. Southwest endure some of the worst droughts to hit those areas in decades, scientists have unearthed new evidence about ancient dry spells that suggest the future could bring even more serious water shortages. Three researchers speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco on Dec. 5, 2011, presented new findings about the past and future of drought.
Pre-Columbian Collapse
Ben Cook, a climatologist affiliated with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City, highlighted new research that indicates the ancient Meso-American civilizations of the Mayans and Aztecs likely amplified droughts in the Yucatn Peninsula and southern and central Mexico by clearing rainforests to make room for pastures and farmland.
Converting forest to farmland can increase the reflectivity, or albedo, of the land surface in ways that affect precipitation patterns. "Farmland and pastures absorb slightly less energy from the sun than the rainforest because their surfaces tend to be lighter and more reflective," explained Cook. "This means that there's less energy available for convection and precipitation."
Cook and colleagues used a high-resolution climate model developed at GISS to run simulations that compared how patterns of vegetation cover during pre-Columbian (before 1492 C.E.) and post-Columbian periods affected precipitation and drought in Central America. The pre-Columbian era saw widespread deforestation on the Yucatn Peninsula and throughout southern and central Mexico. During the post-Columbian period, forests regenerated as native populations declined and farmlands and pastures were abandoned.
Cook's simulations include input from a newly published land-cover reconstruction that is one of the most complete and accurate records of human vegetation changes available. The results are unmistakable: Precipitation levels declined by a considerable amount -- generally 10 to 20 percent -- when deforestation was widespread. Precipitation records from stalagmites, a type of cave formation affected by moisture levels that paleoclimatologists use to deduce past climate trends, in the Yucatn agree well with Cook's model results.
The effect is most noticeable over the Yucatn Peninsula and southern Mexico, areas that overlapped with the centers of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations and had high levels of deforestation and the most densely concentrated populations. Rainfall levels declined, for example, by as much as 20 percent over parts of the Yucatn Peninsula between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E.
Cook's study supports previous research that suggests drought, amplified by deforestation, was a key factor in the rapid collapse of the Mayan empire around 950 C.E. In 2010, Robert Oglesby, a climate modeler based at the University of Nebraska, published a study in the Journal of Geophysical Research that showed that deforestation likely contributed to the Mayan collapse. Though Oglesby and Cook's modeling reached similar conclusions, Cook had access to a more accurate and reliable record of vegetation changes.
During the peak of Mayan civilization between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E., the land cover reconstruction Cook based his modeling on indicates that the Maya had left only a tiny percentage of the forests on the Yucatn Peninsula intact. By the period between 1500 C.E. and 1650 C.E., in contrast, after the arrival of Europeans had decimated native populations, natural vegetation covered nearly all of the Yucatn. In modern times, deforestation has altered some areas near the coast, but a large majority of the peninsula's forests remain intact.
"I wouldn't argue that deforestation causes drought or that it's entirely responsible for the decline of the Maya, but our results do show that deforestation can bias the climate toward drought and that about half of the dryness in the pre-Colonial period was the result of deforestation," Cook said.
Northeastern Megadroughts
The last major drought to affect the Northeast occurred in the 1960s, persisted for about three years and took a major toll on the region. Dorothy Peteet, a paleoclimatologist also affiliated with NASA GISS and Columbia University, has uncovered evidence that shows far more severe droughts have occurred in the Northeast.
By analyzing sediment cores collected from several tidal marshes in the Hudson River Valley, Peteet and her colleagues at Lamont-Doherty have found evidence that at least three major dry spells have occurred in the Northeast within the last 6,000 years. The longest, which corresponds with a span of time known as the Medieval Warm Period, lasted some 500 years and began around 850 C.E. The other two took place more than 5,000 years ago. They were shorter, only about 20 to 40 years, but likely more severe.
"People don't generally think about the Northeast as an area that can experience drought, but there's geologic evidence that shows major droughts can and do occur," Peteet said. "It's something scientists can't ignore. What we're finding in these sediment cores has big implications for the region."
Peteet's team detected all three droughts using a method called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. They used the technique on a core collected at Piermont Marsh in New York to search for characteristic elements -- such as bromine and calcium -- that are more likely to occur at the marsh during droughts.
Fresh water from the Hudson River and salty water from the Atlantic Ocean were both predominant in Piermont Marsh at different time periods, but saltwater moves upriver during dry periods as the amount of fresh water entering the marsh declines. Peteet's team detected extremely high levels of both bromine and calcium, both of them indicators of the presence of saltwater and the existence of drought, in sections of the sediment cores corresponding to 5,745 and 5,480 years ago.
During the Medieval Warm Period, the researchers also found striking increases in the abundance of certain types of pollen species, especially pine and hickory, that indicate a dry climate. Before the Medieval Warm Period, in contrast, there were more oaks, which prefer wetter conditions. They also found a thick layer of charcoal demonstrating that wildfires, which are more frequent during droughts, were common during the Medieval Warm Period.
"We still need to do more research before we can say with confidence how widespread or frequent droughts in the Northeast have been," Peteet said. There are certain gaps in the cores Peteet's team studied, for example, that she plans to investigate in greater detail. She also expects to expand the scope of the project to other marshes and estuaries in the Northeast and to collaborate with climate modelers to begin teasing out the factors that cause droughts to occur in the region.
The Future of Food
Climate change, with its potential to redistribute water availability around the globe by increasing rainfall in some areas while worsening drought in others, might negatively impact crop yields in certain regions of the world.
New research conducted by Princeton University hydrologist Justin Sheffield shows that areas of the developing world that are drought-prone and have growing population and limited capabilities to store water, such as sub-Saharan Africa, will be the ones most at risk of seeing their crops decrease their yields in the future.
Sheffield and his team ran hydrological model simulations for the 20th and 21st centuries and looked at how drought might change in the future according to different climate change scenarios. They found that the total area affected by drought has not changed significantly over the past 50 years globally.
However, the model shows reductions in precipitation and increases in evaporative demand are projected to increase the frequency of short-term droughts. They also found that the area across sub-Saharan Africa experiencing drought will rise by as much as twofold by mid-21st century and threefold by the end of the century.
When the team analyzed what these changes would mean for future agricultural productivity around the globe, they found that the impact on sub-Saharan Africa would be especially strong.
Agricultural productivity depends on a number of factors beyond water availability including soil conditions, available technologies and crop varieties. For some regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers found that agricultural productivity will likely decline by over 20 percent by mid-century due to drying and warming.
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/nsfc-ads120511.php
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Russians vote in election test for Vladimir Putin (Reuters)
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) ? Vladimir Putin's ruling party could see its vast parliamentary majority cut back in elections that began Sunday in the icy tundra and sparsely-populated swathes of Russia's far east.
At polling stations from the Arctic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, the election will indicate the scope of fatigue with Putin's 12-year rule just three months before he asks voters to endorse his return to the Kremlin as president.
Russians interviewed by Reuters across the world's biggest country gave a mixed picture. Some expressed disgust with a parliamentary election they said was likely to be rigged while others said they supported Putin and his United Russia party.
"I support United Russia. I like Putin. He is the strong leader we need in our country," said Nikolai, a 33-year-old customs officer in Vladivostok, a port city of 600,000 people on the Pacific and the biggest city in Russia's Far East.
Some voters said they would vote for Just Russia or the Communists because they were disillusioned with Putin and his party, a trend that could cost United Russia dearly.
Polls show Putin's party is likely to win a majority but less than the 315 seats it currently has in the 450-seat lower house of parliament, known as the Duma.
If it gets less than two-thirds of seats, Putin's party would be stripped of its so called constitutional majority which allows it to change the constitution and even approve the impeachment of the president.
Opposition parties say the election is unfair because the authorities support United Russia with cash and television air time while they say vote rigging will be employed to boost United Russia's result.
Supporters say the former-KGB spy saved Russia during his 2000-08 presidency from the chaos of the immediate post-Soviet era and supplied the longest and steepest economic boom in a generation. He also crushed a rebellion in the southern region of Chechnya that tested the fabric of a federation spanning 9,000 Km (5,600 miles) from the Baltic to the Pacific.
Russian customs officers held the director of an independent election watchdog for 12 hours at a Moscow airport Saturday. The United States said it was concerned by "a pattern of harassment" against the watchdog.
PUTIN'S PARTY
Putin remains by far Russia's most popular politician and the 59-year old leader is the ultimate arbiter between the clans which control the world's biggest energy producer.
But his party has had to fight against opponents who have branded it as a collection "swindlers and thieves" and a growing sense of unease among voters at Putin's grip on power.
"I shall not vote. I shall cross out all the parties on the list and write: 'Down with the party of swindlers and thieves,'" said Nikolai Markovtsev, an independent deputy in the Vladivostok city legislature.
"These are not elections: this is sacrilege," he said, adding that the biggest liberal opposition bloc had been barred from the vote by the authorities.
Opponents say Putin has crafted a brittle political system which excludes independent voices and that Russians are growing tired of Putin's cultivated tough man image.
An outburst of boos and whistling at Putin by fans at a Moscow martial arts fight and a sharp fall in opinion poll ratings during the election campaign had raised concerns Putin may be losing his legendary political touch.
FAR EAST
Putin is almost certain to win the March 4 presidential election but signs of disenchantment are extremely worrying for the Kremlin's political managers. Putin's self-portrayal as the anchor of Russian stability hinges on his popularity.
In an attempt to reinvigorate his party, which President Dmitry Medvedev is leading into the election as part of a job swap announced in September, Putin has sent his closest allies to lead United Russia in some of Russia's 83 regions.
Conquered by the Eastern Slavs under the tsars in the 18th and 19th centuries, Russia's far east covers an area almost twice the size of India but has just 6.3 million inhabitants.
Russians in the region braved temperatures as low as minus 41 degrees Celsius (minus 42 Fahrenheit) to vote eight hours before polls opened in Moscow.
Chukchi reindeer herders living across the Bering Sea from Alaska began voting in late November as did some oil workers on rigs pumping the lifeblood of Russia's $1.9 trillion economy.
Putin sent First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov to his native Far East to lead the ruling party's campaign in an area where one local journalist angered Medvedev during the campaign by appearing to imply the Far East was not even part of Russia. ($1 = 30.8947 Russian roubles)
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
Unemployment: the drip, drip, drip of good news
The latest jobs numbers are another modest boost for the US economy. The best employment trend, though, may be what you don't see.?
The once-vaunted American jobs machine is moving again.
Skip to next paragraph Laurent BelsieBusiness Editor
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Not fast ? and with the zip of a tricycle rather than a sports car. Still, after 14 consecutive months of job gains, the United States is again headed in the right direction, at least on the employment front.
It's getting easier to pick out bright spots: retail employment up 50,000 in November; professional and business services, up 33,000; healthcare, gains once again. Even the dramatic and unexpected fall of the unemployment rate from 9.0 percent to 8.6 percent ? a mixed signal because half the improvement was due to workers leaving the workforce (a bad sign) ? suggests that more Americans are finding work than the Labor Department's survey of employers is picking up.
"It does seem likely that the payroll survey is underestimating the improvement in the labor market," writes Nigel Gault of IHS Global Insight in an analysis. "The big picture shows an economy that has picked up steam in the second half of the year."
A big part of the improvement, though, is happening below the surface. American managers are getting better.
Faced with the longest and worst downturn in postwar history, which started four years ago this month, and a snail's pace recovery, they are finding ways to boost the profits of their companies to record and near-record levels. This goes far beyond the onetime improvements from big layoffs and other cost-cutting measures that took place early on in the Great Recession. This is the patient application of business principles that boost the bottom line.
A recession helps to sort out good managers from those who don't have good rapport with either customers or employees, says James Hertlein, managing director of the Houston office of Boyden, a global executive search firm based in?Hawthorne,?N.Y. After a downturn, "all of these became more important and far more visible. Today, people have a more hands-on approach. They have a better sense of what 's really happening in their organizations. They're listening more to their customers."
"We've seen our clients upgrade their executive talent through these cycles," he adds.
Companies appear willing to pay for good managers. Last year, the median base salary for MBAs rose to $94,500, according to the nonprofit Graduate?Management?Admission Council, which owns the GMAT entrance exam for business school. That was higher than the figure in 2007, before the Great Recession.
None of this is headline-grabbing stuff. It's as slow and boring as the recovery itself. But an amazing thing happens with managers who get really good with tricycles. They grow up.
When a better economy allows them to graduate to a sports car, watch out world. American business will be ready to roar.?
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/N1SHMlSx5hg/Unemployment-the-drip-drip-drip-of-good-news
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Searching across the Atlantic for clues (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The euro zone will once again serve as the source of Wall Street's angst, as investors look to a summit of the region's political leaders for decisive solutions for the ballooning debt crisis.
Stocks posted their best week in more than two years this week, driven by central bank efforts to provide cheaper dollar loans to struggling European banks.
In addition, the new head of the European Central Bank said on Thursday the ECB stands ready to act more aggressively to fight Europe's debt crisis if political leaders agree to much tighter budget controls at the December 9 summit.
But Wall Street investors can be forgiven for feeling like they've been in this position before. Markets seesawed throughout the fall, guided by prevailing sentiment out of Europe.
"Next week it will be all focused on the upcoming Friday summit. But don't forget this is the fifteenth summit we've had now during the euro zone crisis, and every one the market gets excited, gets excited and then boom - it gets disappointed," said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York.
Until now, the ECB has resisted prodding from markets and world leaders to step in as the lender of last resort. European credit market yields have soared in recent weeks on concerns that the euro zone could break up or one or more countries would default on their debt.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would meet next Monday to outline joint proposals for the summit.
Investor optimism over apparent progress by euro zone leaders towards taming their debt problems helped propel the S&P 500 (.SPX)(.INX) 7.4 percent higher for the week, its best weekly performance since March 2009. The best performers in the last week were companies with more international sales, according to Bespoke Investment Group, an investment adviser in Harrison, New York.
While volatility remains high as markets remain susceptible to any negative headlines coming out of the euro zone, investors appear satisfied for the time being that the region's leaders will remain on track in tackling the crisis.
THEIR LEHMAN MOMENT
"We've seen some policy changes which suggest they are finally beginning to understand that they've got a problem," said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York.
"They are finally recognizing that this is their Lehman moment, and they have got to do the same sort of things that we did back in the 2007 to 2009 period."
With markets swings closely tied to sentiment about the progress made in the euro zone, investors have been forced to weigh the region's fiscal stability with U.S. stocks that are seen as cheap by many analysts.
Recent corporate outlooks and analyst projections have been painting a less rosy picture, with estimates for fourth-quarter S&P earnings growth tumbling over the past two months as well as a near-record high ratio of negative corporate preannouncements to positive ones, according to Thomson Reuters Proprietary Research.
Even if European leaders continue on a path that investors have cheered, the difficulty in putting plans in place may throw cold water on investor optimism. Borrowing costs in major nations such as Italy and Spain remain at levels considered unsustainable in Europe's slow-growth economy.
"I don't know that the market just rallies straight through into the end of the year because whatever solution they come up with will be hard to implement," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York.
"It will be politically hard, it will be economically hard and you will be facing the very real threat of a recession -- a pretty deep recession in Europe in the first half of next year -- because of all the uncertainty that is being created right now."
The U.S. economic calendar for next week is light, with the ISM services report, weekly initial jobless claims and the trade balance among the highlights.
(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
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Red Sox bring out Bobby Valentine as new manager (AP)
BOSTON ? Bobby Valentine is the 45th manager of the Boston Red Sox.
The 61-year-old former Rangers and Mets skipper was introduced Thursday during a news conference at Fenway Park.
Valentine takes over a team that blew a nine-game lead in the AL wild-card race to miss the playoffs for the second straight season.
General manager Ben Cherington praised Valentine's passion for the game and desire to win. Cherington says, "I'm very confident that we found the right person."
The Fenway lights were on, and the scoreboard welcomed Valentine to Boston.
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Friday, December 2, 2011
Study shows deeper meltdown at Japan nuke reactor (AP)
TOKYO ? A new simulation shows that debris from melted fuel rods may have seeped deeper into the floor of one of Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear reactors than previously thought, to within a foot from breaching the crucial steel barrier.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the disabled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, said Wednesday that its latest simulation showed that fuel at the No. 1 reactor may have eroded part of the primary containment vessel's thick cement floor. The fuel came within a foot of the container's steel wall, but has been somewhat cooled.
The nuclear crisis following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused massive radiation leaks and the relocation of some 100,000 people.
TEPCO still aims to bring the plant to "cold shutdowns" by year's end.
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Monday, November 28, 2011
China 'keen' to invest in West's infrastructure (AP)
BEIJING ? China's sovereign wealth fund wants to invest in improving neglected U.S. and European roads and other infrastructure to spur global growth, the fund's chairman said in comments published Monday.
The announcement reflects a shift in strategy for the $410 billion fund, which was created in 2007. Until now, it has limited its investments mostly to small stakes in publicly traded companies to avoid stirring political opposition overseas.
China Investment Corp. wants to begin in Britain by teaming up with fund managers or investing directly in infrastructure projects, Lou Jiwei said in a commentary in London's Financial Times newspaper.
"China is keen to get involved" in improving U.S. and European infrastructure, which "badly needs more investment," Lou wrote. He cited energy, water, transport, digital communications and waste disposal but gave no indication of possible projects or the size of Chinese investment.
Some commentators in both Europe and China have suggested Beijing might use its $3.2 trillion in foreign reserves to gain leverage on political or trade issues at a time when other governments urgently want investment.
CIC was created to invest abroad in hopes of earning a better return on China's foreign reserves, the bulk of which are in U.S. and European government bonds. It says investments are made on commercial rather than political grounds.
The move into infrastructure probably reflects CIC's commercial views, rather than those of the government, said Citigroup economist Minggao Shen. He said it could help CIC earn a more stable profit and reduce Beijing's exposure to U.S. and European government bonds amid volatile markets.
Some Chinese commentators have called for Beijing to reduce its exposure to the financial woes of Western governments by buying fewer bonds. China is Washington's biggest foreign bondholder, with $1.15 trillion in Treasury debt as of September.
"There is a general thought that maybe China should not invest in U.S. Treasurys or European sovereign bonds. Instead, why can't we hold direct assets in the economy?" Shen said.
By investing in individual projects, he said, "you don't have to depend on government guarantees and it should be affected less by the sovereign debt crisis."
CIC faced criticism over the performance of investments made just as the financial crisis was developing. But its results have improved and the fund reported an 11.7 percent return on assets last year.
Lou stressed that CIC is a commercial investor and wants to make a profit.
"CIC believes that such an investment, guided by commercial principles, offers the chance of a win-win solution for all," he wrote.
Lou gave no indication in which other countries the CIC might invest but cited an estimate that the United States needs to spend at least $2.2 trillion in infrastructure repairs or rebuilding.
"Free of the inflationary pressure that afflicts many emerging economies, the U.S. and Europe should make substantial investment," he said. "We cannot count on developing countries to deliver a stable economic recovery on their own."
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Online:
China Investment Corp.: http://www.china-inv.cn
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