BlackBerry has announced that BlackBerry Messanger for iPhone is coming today, but you may still have to wait a bit before you get to use it. While the app will launch in the App Store today, BlackBerry is implementing a waiting system similar to Mailbox. BlackBerry detailed the process of signing up for BBM for iPhone in a post on their Inside BlackBerry blog:
BBM Roll Out Details:
Download BBM – the easiest way is to visit BBM.com from your Android or iPhone browser
Once you install the app, open it, and enter your email address to hold your spot in line
We will email you as soon as you reach the front of the line and can start using BBM
BBM.com isn't currently live, mind you. Right now it shows a bizarre series of emoticons that makes us want to punch our screens. But it should be live at some point soon-ish. We hope. Maybe. Sigh.
If you previously signed up at BBM.com, BlackBerry says that you can start using BBM without waiting. However, BlackBerry wants to get as many people using BBM as they can as soon as possible, so users who didn't sign up in advance shouldn't have to wait too long.
(Unless you're in Africa, in which case Samsung has arranged for 3 days of exclusivity. No, that's not a typo.)
BBM for iOS was originally announced in May, but was delayed following the leak of the Android app. While you wait to finally use BBM on your iPhone, check out our hands-on impressions of the app.
Are you looking forward to finally using BBM on your iPhone, are you annoyed that you'll need to wait, or... what's BBM?
[Warning: This story contains spoilers from The Walking Dead's "Infected" episode.]
The survivors of The Walking Dead faced two new threats Sunday in the second episode of its fourth season, after Patrick, who succumbed to a flu and turned overnight, terrorized the gated community of the prison.
During the hour, Zombie Patrick attacks what used to be his own community, spreading both the flu (which seemingly has also taken out the pigs) and turning more members of the group into walkers. As for the source of the virus, that continues to remain a mystery -- as does just who is baiting the undead to the weakening gates of the prison.
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with showrunner Scott M. Gimple to dissect the episode.
The flu has spread to Karen -- does that narrow down the origins of the virus to either animals or water?
One thing I really dug about this story when we were talking about it [in the writers' room] is that because of the third-world situation that they're in -- it's almost medieval -- they don't get to know; they don't have a lab to take samples and look at stuff under microscopes. They need to roll with it and figure it out in a really difficult situation to do so. And the audience has to, too.
Carol (Melissa McBride) is now charged with caring for two young girls, Lizzie and Mika. What will she do differently after losing Sophia now that she's arming everyone?
She lost her daughter in a horrible way, and she absolutely got the memo regarding everything that happened with that. Carol was already teaching the children at the prison how to protect themselves at all costs to make sure that they don't become victims [like Sophia ultimately was]. With these two girls, she's going to continue that. It hits her now in a much deeper way -- these are her daughters now for all intents and purposes, and suddenly she's a mom again. She was pretty determined even before she was in that position, so it's only going to get more intense that way.
Mika, the younger of the sisters, reveals that Lizzie is "messed up, not weak." In the comics, Sophia grappled with sanity while she was at the prison. Is this a remix of her story with Carl?
Yes. There's a couple things going on there that's taking elements of various stories from the prison and elsewhere in the comic. In the comic, Sophia winds up essentially becoming Maggie's daughter. Kids wind up with other people in the comic. That was something that absolutely came from the comic. Yes, Sophia in the comic, after losing Carol, was not completely looking at the world the right way; she didn't even remember Carol very quickly in the comic, which happened at the farm. A lot of this stuff is subliminal. Having read the comic as much as I have, even after the fact, I realized something that Robert [Kirkman] did. One of my favorite covers of all-time of The Walking Dead was Carl and Sofia holding hands in front of the fences with the walkers. I'm sure that that influenced stuff in [episodes] 401 and 402. That contrast of innocence with threats and death -- there's a whole lot of remixing going on there.
The group is now divided between those who have been exposed to the flu, leaving Michonne (Danai Gurira), Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Carl (Chandler Riggs) split from the rest of the group. How will that change the leadership within the prison?
The council is getting broken up, and all stability at the prison -- all these things that they built -- are being challenged and compromised. The momentum to this is not good for them holding on to what they have.
The group thinks someone is leaving mice near the fence -- which could be another threat from within their walls. How long can this group stay at the prison?
It looks like that might be what's going on; that's what they're speculating it is. They're going to be tested. The thing I love is that you find safety in this world. You find these walls, and then those walls start closing in on you. And what the hell do you then?
Someone is feeding rats to the walkers and drawing them to the fences of the prison. Could Bob (Larry Gilliard Jr.) be connected to this? We don't know much about him before Daryl brings him to the prison.
There's a lot of speculation online with that, and I shall not comment! But I will say that Bob does have a lot going on under the surface.
Michonne starts crying while holding Rick's baby, Judith. She was a mother in the comics. Could we see more of her backstory in flashbacks this year?
Michonne's story is very much tied in to finding out more about how she became who she is. One of my goals was to explore all of these characters to the nth-degree. Michonne has a lot of mystery about her. And as a reader of the comic and that Michonne one shot -- which wasn't in the comic -- and even a viewer of the show, I want to find out more about these characters, and I want to know how Michonne wound up the Michonne we know and love.
Why does Carl tell Rick (Andrew Lincoln) that Carol is teaching the kids how to defend themselves after she asked him not to?
He's his father's son, and that shows the strength of their relationship. Even though Carl did share this information, he also shared that he thought Rick should let her continue doing what she's doing. He did it with a recommendation and to maybe surprise this sad moment that Rick knows his son is right and that Carol is right. What we were shooting for was to see these two on the same page. Carl has not been totally down with the changes that have happened to his life and has moved away from being a soldier. But he is down with being his father's son; he appreciates that. To see Rick go toward Carl's line of thinking is a strong family moment for them.
Was there any part of that that was Carl manipulating Rick in order to get his gun back?
No way.
Considering the path that Carl was on at the end of season three when it was a question of whether he was going to be more like the Governor (David Morrissey) or his father, it seemed like it could have been in line with his dark leanings.
That's the goal: to show even though he still has that desire to be the soldier, he still wants to be his father's son and he wants to follow his dad's lead. There has been a change in Carl that Rick fostered that he enacted.
Rick (Andrew Lincoln) realizes he can't continue to take a back seat anymore and resumes carrying his holster and gun. How will he change going forward?
We started him off in a very peaceful place -- as peaceful as you can get on this show. He's achieved something for his family and for himself and the people around him. Clara said to him, "It's almost like a curse -- you don't get to come back from the things you've done." From the time he got back from there, that pig -- one of the symbols of what he achieved with his farm life -- had died. Things are getting taken away from him: There goes the farm, there's a gun in his son's hand, and he'd taken that gun out of his hand, and things are slowly being taken away from him. All the things he's achieved, he's going to be challenged whether he can hold on to them. Whether it's his identity, his family, his relationship to the people in the prison, it's all coming to a head very quickly.
The prison is very susceptible now to the walkers. How much longer can they stay there?
We've shown from the beginning that they have to do this regular maintenance on those fences -- meaning taking out walkers at fences. They're a little busy right now, and they're not at full strength but they need to be. They have a big problem coming up. We've talked about different locations this season, so who knows what can happen. Who knows, maybe they'll pull it off and maybe that requires another location. Maybe other locations come from them not pulling it off. It comes to a head sooner than later.
Tyreese finds Karen (Melissa Ponzio) has been killed and dragged outside, where her body -- and David, who was also sick -- were burned. Were these preventative slayings, or is someone targeting people who are sick with the flu?
Those were the two sickest people who were put away from everybody else. We also know some weird and scary things have been going on at the prison. So was it because they were sick? Was it because they were easy targets set away from everyone? I can only speculate along with you even though I totally know the answer (laughs).
It seems like there's a murder within the walls of the prison. Could whoever burned Karen's and David's bodies be the same person who is trying to force the group out of the prison from within? There's the origin of the flu, the rat bait at the fences …
Totally possible. Maybe, maybe not! It's a totally lame answer. But I will tell you this: It will be answered sooner rather than later.
Tyreese (Chad Coleman) had this peaceful approach to living in this world -- with Karen. How will her death change him?
That is a terrific question. We don't know Tyreese's full story, but the way he carries himself, he hasn't lost much the same way that some other people have since the turn. He hasn't lost his wife -- I'm not saying he had one -- but compared to Rick, he hasn't had these crushing losses. This is a very defining moment for him; it's his first big loss. Everybody has lost something, and everybody has lost this world, but for Tyreese, this is the first big loss he's had. It will change him, and it's going to deeply affect him. We're going to see those effects right at the start of the next episode.
Who do you think is behind the two slayings? Do you think the flu, fence bait and killings is the work of the same person? Hit the comments below with your thoughts. The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
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The custom-built "roleplay" system was designed and implemented by Eric Martindale as of July 2009. All attempts to replicate or otherwise emulate this system and its method of organizing roleplay are strictly prohibited without his express written and contractual permission; violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
I live in L.A., a land of 20-lane interchanges, parking lots the size of football stadiums, and mind-bending, soul-crushing, life-altering traffic. Every day, I meet people who don't even know we have a public transit system and see places in my neighborhood without any sidewalks. This is because, a half-century ago, my city decided to redesign itself for cars, not humans.
Ranches like Double J Feeders in Ault, Colo., are feeling the industry contraction, whether it's caused by epic drought, scarce feed supplies, harsh winters or wild price volatility.
Luke Runyon/Harvest Public Media/KUNC
Ranches like Double J Feeders in Ault, Colo., are feeling the industry contraction, whether it's caused by epic drought, scarce feed supplies, harsh winters or wild price volatility.
Luke Runyon/Harvest Public Media/KUNC
Over the last 20 years, the number of sheep in the U.S. has plummeted by half. The sheep industry has actually been declining since the late 1940s, when it hit its peak.
The sharp drop in production has left ranchers to wonder, "When are we going to hit the bottom?"
Some sheep are raised for their wool, others primarily for food. Consumption of both products — lamb meat and wool — have been declining in the U.S.
If you look at the tags on clothes in your closet, chances are quite a few pieces will be blended with synthetic fibers: nylon, rayon and polyester. As these human-made fibers have become more prevalent and inexpensive, people are wearing less and less wool.
The same goes for lamb. In the early 1960s, the average person in the U.S. ate about 4.5 pounds of lamb a year. That has dropped to less than 1 pound in 2011.
At the same time as the American sheep industry's decline, Australian and New Zealand wool and lamb imports are way up, squeezing into niche markets that America's sheep producers are having a hard time filling.
Ranchers are feeling the industry contraction, whether it's caused by epic drought, scarce feed supplies, harsh winters or wild price volatility.
Farmers markets and demand for locally sourced food is helping sheep farmers find a niche.
Luke Runtyon/Harvest Public Media/KUNC
Farmers markets and demand for locally sourced food is helping sheep farmers find a niche.
Luke Runtyon/Harvest Public Media/KUNC
"The numbers are just way down — and [there are] less sheep ranchers, just in general," says Albert Villard, a sheep rancher in Craig, Colo.
Blizzard and drought the past three years have culled Villard's herd to its lowest point in a long time. Building it back up hasn't been easy.
"The industry as a whole, I think, is trying to get the numbers up, but there's so many factors as to why," Villard says. "I don't think you can blame any one thing."
Double J Feeders outside Ault, Colo., which is one of just a handful of lamb feeding operations in the country, feels the decline too. The feedlot can hold up to 50,000 sheep at any given time and fattens them up before slaughter.
One part of the decline could be the changing agricultural landscape across the country. Farms have grown larger and more technologically advanced, and there are fewer small family farms today than ever before.
"Thirty or 40 years ago, every farmer in the winter time would buy 1,000 lambs, run them out on the beet tops, corn — whatever — and then they'd market those lambs in the spring. Well, all that has changed," says Jeff Hasbrouck, the owner of Double J Feeders.
Most farms aren't fenced in any more, Hasbrouck says, and have grown so large that maintaining a sheep herd makes no economic sense. It's more trouble than it's worth for a large crop grower.
Another problem that has plagued the industry is lamb's perception by the average consumer. Longtime sheep producers put the blame on the meat fed to soldiers all the way back in World War II.
"Those troops were fed canned mutton and when they came home they said, 'No more lamb, no more sheep. Don't eat any of it.' And that's where we saw the steady decline," says Brad Anderson, livestock supply manager for Mountain States Rosen, a large co-op that markets lamb to meatpacking companies and locks in prices.
Sheep numbers tanked even faster 20 years ago when Congress ended subsidies for sheep ranchers with the repeal of the National Wool Act in 1993. The removal of those subsidies sent the sheep industry into wild market swings and stayed volatile for years. The increased risk, Anderson says, pushed many ranchers out of business.
Today, ranchers who are left face new problems like wolf attacks. Peter Orwick, director of the American Sheep Industry Association, says an attack this year in Idaho left more than 100 sheep dead.
"In spite of having herders out there, the wolves still come right in, the horses scream, the dogs lay down and whine and they ran sheep over a cliff," Orwick says.
But there is hope for sheep producers. Because many sheep and lamb operations tend to be small, the growth in farmers markets and local food has benefited sheep ranchers. One-third of all lamb sold in the U.S. now is direct sale from producer to consumer, according to the American Sheep Industry Association. There's plenty of room for growth in big cities, too.
"It's ethnic communities. Every major metropolitan city in the U.S. has a large immigrant neighborhood," Orwick says. "Where are the people coming from? Where they prefer lamb. It's their meat."
As the face of America changes, ranchers will be watching those new markets to see whether or not they grow fast enough to keep their industry from shrinking even further.
The potential of straw for the energy mix has been underestimated
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
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Contact: Tilo Arnhold presse@ufz.de 49-341-235-1635 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
Study: Straw could supply energy to several millions of households in Germany
This news release is available in German.
Leipzig. Straw from agriculture could play an important role in the future energy mix for Germany. Up until now it has been underutilised as a biomass residue and waste material. These were the conclusions of a study conducted by the TLL (Thueringian regional institute for agriculture), the DBFZ (German biomass research center) and the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ). According to them, from a total of 30 million tons of cereal straw produced annually in Germany, between 8 and 13 million tons of it could be used sustainably for energy or fuel production. This potential could for example provide 1.7 to 2.8 million average households with electricity and at the same time 2.8 to 4.5 million households with heating. These results highlight the potential contribution of straw to renewable sources of energy, scientists state in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Applied Energy.
For their respective study, scientists analysed the development of residual substances resulting from German agriculture. Accounting for 58 per cent, straw can be regarded as the most important resource, and yet so far it has hardly been used for energy production. From 1950 to 2000 there was a noticeable rise in the cultivation of winter wheat, rye and winter barley in Germany which then remained relatively constant. To remove any bias from weather fluctuations, the average values were taken from 1999, 2003 and 2007. On average, approx. 30 megatons of cereal straw per year were produced in these years. Due to the fact that not all parts of the straw can be used and the fact that straw also plays an important role as bedding in livestock farming, only about half of these 30 megatons are actually available in the end.
Sustainable use
It must be taken into consideration that cereal straw plays an important role in the humus balance of soils. For this reason some of the straw must be left scattered on the agricultural land to prevent nutrients from being permanently extracted from the soil. To calculate the humus balance of soils three different methods of calculation were tested by the team of scientists. Depending upon the method of calculation used, 8, 10 or 13 megatons of straw can be used sustainably every year for energy production i.e. without causing any disadvantages to the soils or other forms of utilisation. "To our knowledge this is the first time that a study like this has been conducted for an EU country, demonstrating the potential of straw for a truly sustainable energy use, while taking into account the humus balance", stresses Prof. Daniela Thraen, scientist at the DBFZ and the UFZ.
Greenhouse gas balances depend on utilisation forms
It can thus be said that straw can contribute to the future energy mix. The degree to which it will contribute to greenhouse gas reduction however will depend on how the straw is used. A reduction compared to fossil fuels can be somewhere between 73 and 92 percent when using straw for the generation of heat, combined heat and power generation or as second-generation biofuel production. The different greenhouse gas balances cast a differentiated light on the EUs goal of covering ten percent of transportation sector's energy use by using biofuels. Once again the study emphasizes how the use of bioenergy needs to take into account various factors. Given the conditions prevalent in Germany, the use of straw in combined heat and power generation would be best for the climate. "Straw should therefore primarily be used in larger district heating stations and/or combined heat and power stations, but technology must be developed for an environmentally-friendly utilisation", stresses Dr. Armin Vetter from TLL, who has been operating a straw-fuelled power station for 17 years.
Role model Denmark
According to the summary of the new study, straw-based energy applications should be developed in Germany in particular in those regions with favourable conditions and appropriate power plants. Even if we wouldn't be spinning straw into gold in the foreseeable future, it would still make an important contribution to the energy turnaround. Looking across the border shows us what is feasible when the course is optimally set: currently Denmark is still considered to be the world leader in straw-based energy applications. 15 years ago a master plan was introduced there, ensuring in the meantime in Germanys northern neighbouring country that over 5 billion kilowatt hours of energy per year is generated from straw.
Tilo Arnhold
###
Publications:
Christian Weiser, Vanessa Zeller, Frank Reinicke, Bernhard Wagner, Stefan Majer, Armin Vetter, Daniela Thraen (2013): Integrated assessment of sustainable cereal straw potential and different straw-based energy applications in Germany. Applied Energy, Available online 30 July 2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.07.016
The study was funded by the BMU the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety within the program Promoting projects to optimise biomass energy use".
Conference:
Five years BMU funding program "Promoting projects to optimise biomass energy!" 14. - 15.11.2013 in Leipzig
Basic information on the sustainable use of residual substances from agriculture for generating energy (Series of articles within the BMU-funding program Biomass energy use"):
The potential of straw in the federal states and administrative districts in Germany:
http://strohpotenziale.dbfz.de/
TLL (Thueringian regional institute for agriculture) is responsible as a specialized authority on agriculture for the sovereignty and enforcement of agricultural law. Beyond that, it offers various services as a competence center for agricultural and food production in the form of consultation based on applied and practice-oriented research. The focus thereby is on an efficient and environmentally-friendly production of food-, feed- and non-food-products.
http://www.thueringen.de/de/tll
The DBFZ (German biomass research center) works as a central and independent mastermind in the field of the energetic use of biomass on the question of how limited available biomass resources can contribute sustainably and most efficiently to the existing and above all to a future energy supply. In the context of its research work the DBFZ identifies, develops, follows up, assesses and demonstrates the most promising fields of application for bioenergy and particularly outstanding and positive examples together with partners in research, economics and the community.
http://www.dbfz.de
At the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) scientists are interested in the wide-ranging causes and impacts of environmental change. They conduct research on water resources, biodiversity, the impacts of climate change and adaptation strategies, environmental and biotechnologies, bioenergy, the behaviour of chemicals in the environment and their effects on health, modelling and sociological issues. Their guiding motto: our research serves the sustainable use of natural resources and helps towards long-term food and livelihood security in the face of global change. The UFZ has over 1100 employees working in Leipzig, Halle und Magdeburg. It is funded by the federal government, as well as by the State of Saxony and Saxony Anhalt.
http://www.ufz.de/
The Helmholtz Association contributes to finding solutions for large and pressing issues in society, science and the economy through excellence in the following six areas of research: energy, earth and the environment, health, key technologies, structure of matter, transport and aerospace. With almost 35,000 employees and coworkers in 18 research centres and an annual budget of approx. 3.8 billion Euros the Helmholtz Association is the largest scientific organization in Germany. Work is conducted in the tradition of the renowned natural scientist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894). http://www.helmholtz.de/
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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.
The potential of straw for the energy mix has been underestimated
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Tilo Arnhold presse@ufz.de 49-341-235-1635 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
Study: Straw could supply energy to several millions of households in Germany
This news release is available in German.
Leipzig. Straw from agriculture could play an important role in the future energy mix for Germany. Up until now it has been underutilised as a biomass residue and waste material. These were the conclusions of a study conducted by the TLL (Thueringian regional institute for agriculture), the DBFZ (German biomass research center) and the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ). According to them, from a total of 30 million tons of cereal straw produced annually in Germany, between 8 and 13 million tons of it could be used sustainably for energy or fuel production. This potential could for example provide 1.7 to 2.8 million average households with electricity and at the same time 2.8 to 4.5 million households with heating. These results highlight the potential contribution of straw to renewable sources of energy, scientists state in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Applied Energy.
For their respective study, scientists analysed the development of residual substances resulting from German agriculture. Accounting for 58 per cent, straw can be regarded as the most important resource, and yet so far it has hardly been used for energy production. From 1950 to 2000 there was a noticeable rise in the cultivation of winter wheat, rye and winter barley in Germany which then remained relatively constant. To remove any bias from weather fluctuations, the average values were taken from 1999, 2003 and 2007. On average, approx. 30 megatons of cereal straw per year were produced in these years. Due to the fact that not all parts of the straw can be used and the fact that straw also plays an important role as bedding in livestock farming, only about half of these 30 megatons are actually available in the end.
Sustainable use
It must be taken into consideration that cereal straw plays an important role in the humus balance of soils. For this reason some of the straw must be left scattered on the agricultural land to prevent nutrients from being permanently extracted from the soil. To calculate the humus balance of soils three different methods of calculation were tested by the team of scientists. Depending upon the method of calculation used, 8, 10 or 13 megatons of straw can be used sustainably every year for energy production i.e. without causing any disadvantages to the soils or other forms of utilisation. "To our knowledge this is the first time that a study like this has been conducted for an EU country, demonstrating the potential of straw for a truly sustainable energy use, while taking into account the humus balance", stresses Prof. Daniela Thraen, scientist at the DBFZ and the UFZ.
Greenhouse gas balances depend on utilisation forms
It can thus be said that straw can contribute to the future energy mix. The degree to which it will contribute to greenhouse gas reduction however will depend on how the straw is used. A reduction compared to fossil fuels can be somewhere between 73 and 92 percent when using straw for the generation of heat, combined heat and power generation or as second-generation biofuel production. The different greenhouse gas balances cast a differentiated light on the EUs goal of covering ten percent of transportation sector's energy use by using biofuels. Once again the study emphasizes how the use of bioenergy needs to take into account various factors. Given the conditions prevalent in Germany, the use of straw in combined heat and power generation would be best for the climate. "Straw should therefore primarily be used in larger district heating stations and/or combined heat and power stations, but technology must be developed for an environmentally-friendly utilisation", stresses Dr. Armin Vetter from TLL, who has been operating a straw-fuelled power station for 17 years.
Role model Denmark
According to the summary of the new study, straw-based energy applications should be developed in Germany in particular in those regions with favourable conditions and appropriate power plants. Even if we wouldn't be spinning straw into gold in the foreseeable future, it would still make an important contribution to the energy turnaround. Looking across the border shows us what is feasible when the course is optimally set: currently Denmark is still considered to be the world leader in straw-based energy applications. 15 years ago a master plan was introduced there, ensuring in the meantime in Germanys northern neighbouring country that over 5 billion kilowatt hours of energy per year is generated from straw.
Tilo Arnhold
###
Publications:
Christian Weiser, Vanessa Zeller, Frank Reinicke, Bernhard Wagner, Stefan Majer, Armin Vetter, Daniela Thraen (2013): Integrated assessment of sustainable cereal straw potential and different straw-based energy applications in Germany. Applied Energy, Available online 30 July 2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.07.016
The study was funded by the BMU the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety within the program Promoting projects to optimise biomass energy use".
Conference:
Five years BMU funding program "Promoting projects to optimise biomass energy!" 14. - 15.11.2013 in Leipzig
Basic information on the sustainable use of residual substances from agriculture for generating energy (Series of articles within the BMU-funding program Biomass energy use"):
The potential of straw in the federal states and administrative districts in Germany:
http://strohpotenziale.dbfz.de/
TLL (Thueringian regional institute for agriculture) is responsible as a specialized authority on agriculture for the sovereignty and enforcement of agricultural law. Beyond that, it offers various services as a competence center for agricultural and food production in the form of consultation based on applied and practice-oriented research. The focus thereby is on an efficient and environmentally-friendly production of food-, feed- and non-food-products.
http://www.thueringen.de/de/tll
The DBFZ (German biomass research center) works as a central and independent mastermind in the field of the energetic use of biomass on the question of how limited available biomass resources can contribute sustainably and most efficiently to the existing and above all to a future energy supply. In the context of its research work the DBFZ identifies, develops, follows up, assesses and demonstrates the most promising fields of application for bioenergy and particularly outstanding and positive examples together with partners in research, economics and the community.
http://www.dbfz.de
At the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) scientists are interested in the wide-ranging causes and impacts of environmental change. They conduct research on water resources, biodiversity, the impacts of climate change and adaptation strategies, environmental and biotechnologies, bioenergy, the behaviour of chemicals in the environment and their effects on health, modelling and sociological issues. Their guiding motto: our research serves the sustainable use of natural resources and helps towards long-term food and livelihood security in the face of global change. The UFZ has over 1100 employees working in Leipzig, Halle und Magdeburg. It is funded by the federal government, as well as by the State of Saxony and Saxony Anhalt.
http://www.ufz.de/
The Helmholtz Association contributes to finding solutions for large and pressing issues in society, science and the economy through excellence in the following six areas of research: energy, earth and the environment, health, key technologies, structure of matter, transport and aerospace. With almost 35,000 employees and coworkers in 18 research centres and an annual budget of approx. 3.8 billion Euros the Helmholtz Association is the largest scientific organization in Germany. Work is conducted in the tradition of the renowned natural scientist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894). http://www.helmholtz.de/
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Share
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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.
ATF is held annually at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands casino, hotel and convention complex
This year’s edition of the Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) in Singapore will debut a new three-day event dubbed Animation Lab, the event's organizers announced Monday.
Intended to help promote the region’s burgeoning animation industry, the program will seek to bring together Asian animation producers, who are seeking investment and funding opportunities, with international broadcasters and financiers, who are interested in both the growing animation talent and market opportunity of the region.
ATF organizers say the program will be open to all individuals or companies that have new animation projects in the planning or production stage, and will give them a platform to engage in closed-door pitches to various participating international commissioners.
International TV pros signed on to take part include Henrietta Hurford-Jones, director of children’s programming at the BBC Worldwide.
"The aim is always to try and grow the international CBeebies brand as well as our children’s portfolio worldwide,” Hurford-Jones said in a statement. “I would be delighted to find creative partners in Asia to potentially develop exciting new children’s content with.”
Also on hand to take pitches and meetings will be, Barbara Uecker, head of programming and acquisitions for children's TV at Australia’s ABC TV, and Nicole Keeb, head of international co-productions and acquisitions for children and youth programming at Germany’s ZDF Enterprises GmbH, along with her colleague Arne Lohmann, vice president of ZDFE.junior.
AFT says additional network execs will be added to the Animation Lab roster in the coming weeks.
AFT is Asia’s most established TV and cross-platform content market for buyers and sellers from the region and afar. This year’s event, ATF’s 12th edition, will take place Dec. 3-6 at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands casino, hotel and convention complex.
Borders were secure in the Rose Garden on Friday as President Obama announced his choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
Forming a gender divide in the front row were VIP administration enforcers -- all male -- sitting to the president’s left. To his right, a row of top White House advisers, all women. In between, an expanse of green lawn.
The placement of power was an accident of title-clusters, but the visual arrangement made White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and Tina Tchen, chief of staff to Michelle Obama, laugh out loud when they realized what was up.
The two women, both energetic advocates for diversity in Obama’s world, sat in folding chairs next to the president’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser (Lisa Monaco); national security adviser (Susan Rice); domestic policy adviser (Cecilia Munoz); and environmental adviser (Nancy Sutley). In Washington’s pecking order, the women are powerful players, but staff.
Across the grass, some of Obama’s Cabinet members, instructed to sit in seats marked with cards that said “Cabinet Affairs,” appeared oblivious that they had formed a lineup of graying men, all of whom had been approved by the Senate to manage governance.
Seated were Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director James Comey, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Under Secretary of Homeland Security Rand Beers, plus Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.
Obama mentioned that the nominee they came to see, former Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson, would succeed a woman, former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, if confirmed to lead DHS. (Napolitano -- a Democrat from a conservative border state with a record of being tough on undocumented immigrants -- became president of the University of California's 10 campus system in September.)
To clear any successor through the Senate in a second term is an important goal for the president. After filling the top job, an estimated 40 percent of DHS leadership positions will still need permanent appointees.
Johnson’s thin record on border enforcement, disaster response, and immigration issues -- while seen as gaps by some senators -- may prove helpful during his Senate hearing, especially as Obama makes a final push this year to enact an immigration reform measure. Lacking that expertise, Johnson can be something of a blank slate, leading GOP senators to focus on his role in the administration’s counterterrorism policies. Democrats, unhappy that the Obama administration’s annual deportations of undocumented immigrants have outstripped the record of the George W. Bush administration, would face in Johnson, as they did with Napolitano, someone whose explanations hinge on existing law.
The Senate confirmed Johnson in 2009 to be the Defense Department’s top lawyer. Having cleared that bar before, administration officials expect he can win support again, especially from key Republican senators who believe tough border enforcement must be part of any immigration overhaul.
“When I directed my national security team to be more open and transparent about how our policies work and how we make decisions, especially when it comes to preventing terrorist attacks, Jeh was one of the leaders who spoke eloquently about how we meet today's threats in a way that [is] consistent with our values, including the rule of law,” said Obama, flanked by Johnson and Vice President Joe Biden.
“Jeh also knows that meeting these threats demands cooperation and coordination across our government. He's been there in the Situation Room, at the table, in moments of decision, working with leaders from a host of agencies to make sure everyone is rowing in the same direction,” the president added.
The White House appeared sensitive Friday to suggestions that Johnson lacked experience managing anything as large as DHS, an entity created by Congress after 9/11 by merging a tangle of missions carried out by more than 240,000 federal employees. The president’s aides predicted that once the administration explained Johnson’s record, any lingering concerns in the Senate would fade.
Obama took the first crack at the salesmanship, implicitly suggesting through his choice of an audience that Johnson would soon be seated in the row of Cabinet guardians who can operate across ideological borders and keep the country safe.
“Jeh has experienced leading large, complex organizations,” the president said. “As a member of the Pentagon's senior management team, first under Bob Gates and then under Leon Panetta, he helped oversee the work of more than 3 million military and civilian personnel across the country and around the world. And I think it's fair to say that both former Secretaries Gates and Panetta will attest to the incredible professionalism that Jeh brings to the job and the bipartisan approach that appropriately he takes when it comes to national security.”
That the president’s announcement took place a day after the government reopened suggested a hastily scheduled event. That was underscored when Johnson mentioned that his wife and children were absent from the Rose Garden milestone because they had all planned to visit a son at Los Angeles’s Occidental College, for parents’ weekend.
“Thanks to the costs of a nonrefundable airline ticket,” the nominee joked, “they could not be in two places at once.”
GENEVA (AP) — A new global treaty could eliminate within three decades the commercial use of mercury in everything from batteries, paints and skin-lightening creams to utility plants and small-scale gold mining, the head of the U.N.'s environment agency said Thursday.
Achim Steiner, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, describes the Minamata Convention on Mercury as a major game-changer for a naturally occurring element that tends to accumulate in fish and work up the food chain.
The agreement still needs ratification by dozens of country, and includes a concession to countries with small-scale gold mining — one of the biggest sources of pollution.
The first new global convention on environment and health for nearly a decade was formally adopted as international law to little notice worldwide at a gathering of 92 nations in Japan last week.
India and Russia did not sign, but China and the EU did and the United States intended to but couldn't last week because of the government shutdown.
Steiner says the treaty, which still requires ratification by at least 50 of the nations which signed the treaty in Japan, could accomplish its aim of curbing harmful emissions of mercury anywhere from about 2025 to 2050. It would do that through banning new mercury mines and phasing out existing ones, imposing control measures on air emissions and regulating artisanal or small-scale gold mining.
"Essentially, what we have managed to do is to persuade the international community to send a very clear signal — the use of mercury in industrial processes, in cosmetics, in medical equipment, is essentially over," Steiner told reporters in Geneva. "It doesn't mean that all mercury will disappear tomorrow."
But nations with artisanal and small-scale gold mining operations, one of the biggest sources of mercury releases, will only be required to draw up national plans within three years of the treaty entering force and then to reduce and — if possible — eliminate the use of mercury in such operations.
Mercury poses the greatest risk of nerve damage to pregnant women, women of child-bearing age and young children. It can also cause brain and kidney damage, language impairment and memory loss. There are no safe limits for the consumption of mercury and its compounds, according to the U.N.'s World Health Organization.
The treaty was named for the southern Japanese city of Minamata, where a severe neurological disorder caused by mercury poisoning was discovered in the late 1950s, caused by methylmercury escaping from the city's industrial wastewater.
The illness, now known as Minimata disease, sickened people who ate contaminated fish, killed hundreds and left many more badly crippled. About 12,000 people have demanded government compensation.
We get the sense Microsoft wants to distance itself from the original Surface RT. After taking a $900 million hit on unsold inventory, the company held a press event where it saved the Surface 2 for last and billed it as a major redesign. "Surface 2 is not subtle, but a revamp," Surface GM Panos ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will declare the glitches in a new healthcare website "unacceptable" on Monday and outline ways for consumers to sign up for insurance while his team scrambles to fix problems that have tainted the rollout of his signature healthcare law.
Fresh from two weeks of budget battles that have consumed Washington, Obama will hold an event at 11:25 a.m. (1525 GMT) in the White House Rose Garden with consumers, small business owners, and pharmacists who have been affected by the new law.
The move is the highest-profile step in a broad damage control effort that the administration has launched since technical problems with the website, healthcare.gov, have prevented Americans nationwide from signing up for a program that will largely define Obama's domestic policy legacy.
"The president will directly address the technical problems with HealthCare.gov - troubles that he and his team find unacceptable - and discuss the actions he has pushed for to make it easier for consumers to comparison shop and enroll for insurance while work continues around the clock to improve the website," a White House official said on Sunday.
The president will say the product itself and the goal behind it - insuring millions of uninsured Americans - are good despite the problems that have plagued its rollout.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services said in a blog post it was bringing in a "tech surge" of people from inside and outside government to help iron out glitches in the online insurance exchanges that are a central part of the program known as "Obamacare," which launched on October 1.
Obama's event, the HHS blog, and comments from Democrats on Sunday television news shows demonstrated a full-on push to offset criticism from Republicans and opponents of the law who say its rollout is representative of wider issues.
Republicans in Congress have chastised Obama's top health adviser, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, for declining their invitation to testify about the glitches to an oversight panel on October 24.
Officials stressed on Sunday that the problems were being addressed.
"I think that there's no one more frustrated than the president at the difficulty in the website," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Obama told aides in a recent Oval Office meeting that the administration had to take responsibility for the fact that the website was not ready on time.
Administration officials are expected to travel the country in the coming weeks to encourage people to sign up on the exchanges, targeting areas where there are high percentages of uninsured, according to one official.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is expected to provide private health coverage to an estimated 7 million uninsured Americans through the new online marketplaces that opened for enrollment in all 50 states on October 1.
But the website, the administration's online portal for consumers in 36 states, was hobbled by problems including error messages, garbled text and delays loading pages.
COMMITTED TO DOING BETTER
Administration officials blame the problems partly on an unexpectedly high volume of visitors in its first 10 days. According to HHS, there were more than 19 million visits to the website.
"We are committed to doing better," the department said in its blog post on Sunday.
Despite the problems, it said, other parts of the system were functioning well.
"Individuals have been able to verify their eligibility for credits, enabling them to shop for, and enroll in, low- or even no-cost health plans," the department said.
"We have updated the site several times with new code that includes bug fixes. Our team has called in additional help to solve some of the more complex technical issues we are encountering."
Late on Saturday the White House reported nearly half a million Americans had applied for health insurance through the federal and state exchanges provided by Obamacare.
Many Republicans were criticizing the program long before its rocky launch. A 16-day partial government shutdown that ended last week was precipitated by Republican demands to delay or defund Obamacare.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who led that campaign, vowed on Sunday to step-up his opposition, even though his tactics have been called a mistake by members of his own party.
"I would do anything, and will continue to do anything, to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare," Cruz said on ABC's "This Week."
Lew said the program's test would be in January, when the actual coverage starts for people who have enrolled by December 15.
"I think that if we get that right, everyone will regret that the early weeks were choppy on the website. But the test is: are people getting coverage and are they getting the care that they need? And we're confident we're going to be on track to do that," Lew said on NBC.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, acknowledged problems with the Obamacare launch, but said they should be understood in the context of the program's size.
"Any system that deals with that many millions of people frequently does have a glitch," Pelosi told ABC News' "This Week."
"It has to be fixed, but what doesn't have to be fixed is the fact that tens of millions more people had access to affordable quality health care and no longer will have a pre-existing condition bar you from getting affordable health care."
Obama said in an interview with National Public Radio on October 1 that he was prepared for some problems in the early months of Obamacare as healthcare exchanges were launched.
(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, Margaret Chadbourn, David Morgan, and Steve Holland; Editing by Eric Walsh)
I have a female and male chracter slot open for a roleplay. Please check out The Disease. Follow me down the path I will walk beside you Guiding and showing you the way I will not leave you I will be standing on the path watching you If you ever feel alone Close your eyes You will see 6 sets of foot prints 2 belonging to you, 4 to me Then you will know that I have not left you
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf... And the strength of the Wolf is the Pack
News this week that Twitter's senior vice president of engineering, Christopher Fry, raked in $10.3 million last year confirmed what many already knew: Silicon Valley is an economic bubble where the competition to hire in-demand engineers is greatly inflating some pay packages. However, the high salaries awarded to many in the tech industry comes at the price of worsening inequality in the Bay Area.
In its first public financial statement in preparation for an IPO, Twitter revealed that Fry's package consisted of a $145,513 salary and $100,000 bonus, with the bulk of compensation coming from stock awards. His payday ranked just behind that of Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, at $11.5 million.
Silicon Valley -- home to tech giants Apple, Twitter, Google, and Facebook, as well as venture-capital-funded tech startups -- is awash with cash. A recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed that Silicon Valley employees are among the highest paid in the country, with the average worker in San Mateo County earning $3,240 per week -- more than three times the national average, and $1,100 more per week than the average employee in Manhattan. By comparison, the average salary for all professions in the Bay Area is $66,070, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Reuters this week quoted Iain Grant, a recruiter at Riviera Partners, which specializes in placing engineers at venture-capital backed startups, as saying that more than three-quarters of candidates who took VP of engineering roles at his client companies over the past two years received total cash compensation in excess of $250,000. Many also received stock grants totaling 1 to 2 percent of the company.
Some, like PandoDaily's Farhad Manjoo, argue that Silicon Valley's engineering salaries are finally getting fair, thanks to the high-stakes bidding wars between companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. While many react with envy at anecdotes of Silicon Valley perks -- the free cafeterias, laundry services, haircuts, employee shuttles, and even leases on Teslas designed to lure new hires -- Manjoo offers a warning:
As the industry's biggest start-ups all go public, their stock options will lose their appeal... and that's going to hurt employees' bottom lines. If you're in the trenches at one of these companies, you'd be wise to realize that your bosses are nothing without you. Ask for more money. Sure, the perks sound fun. But I've had those free lunches. They're not as nice as a better paycheck.
Menlo Park, Calif.-based Robert Half agrees, saying that even in the current job market, Silicon Valley companies cannot skimp on pay. The staffing firm warns that "top salaries are just as important now as in a hotter economy. This is particularly true since each worker is being asked to do more, making every position critical. And, with tighter staffs, the impact of someone leaving is magnified."
But the attention focused on highly compensated engineers like Twitter's Fry and others obscures the fact that Silicon Valley also mirrors the national trend of widening inequality. In an in-depth article, Hamish McKenzie paints an uncomfortable picture of Silicon Valley's ugly rich-poor gap. McKenzie quotes a study by Working Partnerships USA:
Silicon Valley hasn't added any net new jobs in 16 years; that about 31 percent of jobs in Silicon Valley pay $16 an hour or less; and that from 2000 to 2010, the portion of middle class households in Silicon Valley dropped from 62 percent to 55 percent. In the same period, the number of households making less than $10,000 more than doubled, and the cost of every major household expense category increased faster than wages.
Chris Benner, associate professor in Human and Community Development at the University of California, Davis, confirms that "the Bay Area is 'one of the worst in the country' for the gap between the rich and poor." With their high salaries, tech workers are driving up housing costs in the area, making it difficult for low-income families to get by. "[But] most tech people don't think about it," Benner says of the inequality problem.
Quirky singer Ke$ha made an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and talked about her past lives and having a ghost exorcised from her va-jay-jay. The singer showed off her newly-trim body and killer legs, rocking newly multi-color locks! Last night Ke$ha told Jimmy Kimmel about the treacherous conditions she endured on her way to his ...
Copyright - Stupid Celebrities Gossip 2013. If you see this content on any other website, it has been stolen. Please report.
If you've ever floated a ping-pong ball atop the warm blast from a hair dryer, you'll appreciate this video that endeavors to explain the physics behind how the same phenomenon occurs with jets of water.
Compared to a juggling busker on the street, keeping just a single ball suspended in the air isn't that impressive a feat. Until you dive into the explanations of how complex fluid dynamics and even Bernoulli's principle—which keeps planes in the air—factors into this naturally occurring liquid ballet. You'll never look at your garden hose the same way again. [Physics Central Buzz Blog]
Pacific ocean temperature influences tornado activity in US, MU study finds
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Christian Basi basic@missouri.edu 573-882-4430 University of Missouri-Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. Meteorologists often use information about warm and cold fronts to determine whether a tornado will occur in a particular area. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that the temperature of the Pacific Ocean could help scientists predict the type and location of tornado activity in the U.S.
Laurel McCoy, an atmospheric science graduate student at the MU School of Natural Resources, and Tony Lupo, professor and chair of atmospheric science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, surveyed 56,457 tornado-like events from 1950 to 2011. They found that when surface sea temperatures were warmer than average, the U.S. experienced 20.3 percent more tornados that were rated EF-2 to EF-5 on the Enhanced Fuijta (EF) scale. (The EF scale rates the strength of tornados based on the damage they cause. The scale has six category rankings from zero to five.)
McCoy and Lupo found that the tornados that occurred when surface sea temperatures were above average were usually located to the west and north of tornado alley, an area in the Midwestern part of the U.S. that experiences more tornados than any other area. McCoy also found that when sea surface temperatures were cooler, more tornadoes tracked from southern states, like Alabama, into Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana.
"Differences in sea temperatures influence the route of the jet stream as it passes over the Pacific and, eventually, to the United States," McCoy said. "Tornado-producing storms usually are triggered by, and will follow, the jet stream. This helps explain why we found a rise in the number of tornados and a change in their location when sea temperatures fluctuated."
In the study, McCoy and Lupo examined the relationship between tornadoes and a climate phenomenon called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). PDO phases, which were discovered in the mid-1990s, are long-term temperature trends that can last up to 30 years. According to NASA scientists, the current PDO phase has just entered into a "cool" state.
"PDO cool phases are characterized by a cool wedge of lower than normal sea-surface ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific and a warm horseshoe pattern of higher than normal sea-surface temperatures extending into the north, west and southern Pacific," McCoy said. "In the warm phase, which lasted from 1977 to 1999, the west Pacific Ocean became cool and the wedge in the east was warm."
In 2011, more than 550 deaths occurred as a result of tornadoes, resulting in more than $28 billion in property damage, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. McCoy says that with her findings, officials may be able to save lives in the future.
"Now that we know the effects of PDO cool and warm phases, weather forecasters have another tool to predict dangerous storms and inform the public of impending weather conditions," McCoy said.
The research will be presented at the National Weather Association Conference this fall.
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Pacific ocean temperature influences tornado activity in US, MU study finds
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Christian Basi basic@missouri.edu 573-882-4430 University of Missouri-Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. Meteorologists often use information about warm and cold fronts to determine whether a tornado will occur in a particular area. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that the temperature of the Pacific Ocean could help scientists predict the type and location of tornado activity in the U.S.
Laurel McCoy, an atmospheric science graduate student at the MU School of Natural Resources, and Tony Lupo, professor and chair of atmospheric science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, surveyed 56,457 tornado-like events from 1950 to 2011. They found that when surface sea temperatures were warmer than average, the U.S. experienced 20.3 percent more tornados that were rated EF-2 to EF-5 on the Enhanced Fuijta (EF) scale. (The EF scale rates the strength of tornados based on the damage they cause. The scale has six category rankings from zero to five.)
McCoy and Lupo found that the tornados that occurred when surface sea temperatures were above average were usually located to the west and north of tornado alley, an area in the Midwestern part of the U.S. that experiences more tornados than any other area. McCoy also found that when sea surface temperatures were cooler, more tornadoes tracked from southern states, like Alabama, into Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana.
"Differences in sea temperatures influence the route of the jet stream as it passes over the Pacific and, eventually, to the United States," McCoy said. "Tornado-producing storms usually are triggered by, and will follow, the jet stream. This helps explain why we found a rise in the number of tornados and a change in their location when sea temperatures fluctuated."
In the study, McCoy and Lupo examined the relationship between tornadoes and a climate phenomenon called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). PDO phases, which were discovered in the mid-1990s, are long-term temperature trends that can last up to 30 years. According to NASA scientists, the current PDO phase has just entered into a "cool" state.
"PDO cool phases are characterized by a cool wedge of lower than normal sea-surface ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific and a warm horseshoe pattern of higher than normal sea-surface temperatures extending into the north, west and southern Pacific," McCoy said. "In the warm phase, which lasted from 1977 to 1999, the west Pacific Ocean became cool and the wedge in the east was warm."
In 2011, more than 550 deaths occurred as a result of tornadoes, resulting in more than $28 billion in property damage, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. McCoy says that with her findings, officials may be able to save lives in the future.
"Now that we know the effects of PDO cool and warm phases, weather forecasters have another tool to predict dangerous storms and inform the public of impending weather conditions," McCoy said.
The research will be presented at the National Weather Association Conference this fall.
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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.
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We get the sense Microsoft wants to distance itself from the original Surface RT. After taking a $900 million hit on unsold inventory, the company held a press event where it saved the Surface 2 for last and billed it as a major redesign. "Surface 2 is not subtle, but a revamp," Surface GM Panos ...
Quirky singer Ke$ha made an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and talked about her past lives and having a ghost exorcised from her va-jay-jay. The singer showed off her newly-trim body and killer legs, rocking newly multi-color locks! Last night Ke$ha told Jimmy Kimmel about the treacherous conditions she endured on her way to his ...
