Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166647857?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Taiwan leader calls for artistic freedom in China (AP)
TAIPEI, Taiwan ? Taiwan's president urged China on Friday to respect the artistic freedom of outspoken Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who was detained for nearly three months earlier this year and is currently confined to Beijing.
"He's an artist and should have the freedom to express his artistic views," President Ma Ying-jeou said after viewing Ai's exhibition at a Taipei museum. "This is also the core value of Taiwan."
Ma said he deplored that Chinese police detained Ai at the Beijing airport on April 3 as the conceptual artist was about to depart for Taiwan to prepare for the exhibit.
The detention came during a sweeping Chinese crackdown on activists and sparked an international outcry over China's deteriorating human rights situation. Ai was released in June but is prohibited from leaving Beijing.
China's government says Ai was detained on tax evasion charges. However, activists say he is being punished for his often outspoken criticism of the authoritarian government.
The exhibit at Taipei's Fine Arts Museum, titled "Ai Weiwei, Absent," focuses on the political significance of the artist's inability to attend.
The exhibit of 21 works, which opened last month and runs through late January, includes a white marble-made helmet and a surveillance camera, which Ai created to mock China as a police state. Another piece consists of 1,000 bicycles piled in layers, reflecting his perception of the rapid pace of Chinese social change.
The exhibit in Taiwan has a political significance of its own. Unlike the communist mainland, the island of 23 million people is a freewheeling democracy with few restrictions on expression.
"The distance between Taiwan and China will be determined by their views on human rights protection," Ma said. "When our views get closer, the two sides will move closer."
Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, but China still claims the self-ruled island a part of its own territory. Since Ma took office in 2008, tensions between the two sides have dropped to their lowest point in decades.
Ma has pushed for economic engagement with Beijing, but refuses to have political dialogue.
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
US awaits release of 3 students held in Egypt (AP)
PHILADELPHIA ? Three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo and ordered released by an Egyptian court are in the midst of being processed by authorities there, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said Friday.
Katharina Gollner-Sweet, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, told The Associated Press that Derrik Sweeney, Luke Gates and Gregory Porter are being processed for their eventual release one day after a court ordered them released from police custody, according to information from Egyptian officials.
"According to the latest information that the Egyptians gave out they were ordered released in the court but they are in an administrative out-processing stage," Gollner-Sweet said. "We are continuing to provide normal consular services."
The three U.S. college students, who attend the American University in Cairo, were arrested on the roof of a university building near Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Sunday. Officials accused them of throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters.
A court in Egypt ordered the release of the students, a lawyer in Philadelphia confirmed Thursday.
Attorney Theodore Simon, who represents Porter, a 19-year-old student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said he spoke by phone with Porter, describing the student's demeanor as "calm and measured, demonstrating a maturity well beyond his 19 years."
"He was extremely thankful and appreciative for our efforts and the unconditional support of his mother and father," Simon said.
Porter is from Glenside, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia.
Sweeney's mother, Joy Sweeney, said she is "absolutely elated" at the news of her 19-year-old son's release.
"I can't wait to give him a huge hug and tell him how much I love him," she said, adding that the news of the court order was the best Thanksgiving gift.
The 21-year-old Gates is a student at Indiana University.
His parents released a statement Thursday through the school, saying they were "extremely happy" to hear that their son would soon be released.
"This has been a difficult situation, and while we are disappointed that he will be held a few days longer to complete administrative procedures related to his release, we're confident he will be home soon," Bill and Sharon Gates wrote.
The State Department released a statement saying it was trying to independently confirm the reports of the students' release.
Earlier Thursday, Egypt officials said the Abdeen Court in Cairo had ordered their release. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media. They did not say when the students would be released.
Joy Sweeney said she wasn't sure when her son, a student at Georgetown University, would be returning to their home in Jefferson City, Mo.
"If he can find his passport (then he'll leave) tomorrow, if not, it won't be until Monday," she said.
She said the U.S. consul general in Egypt, Roberto Powers, recommended that her son leave Egypt as soon as possible.
"He also conveyed that that was what Derrik had conveyed to him that he wanted to do. He was enjoying his experience but (was) ready to be done with it," Sweeney said.
Derrik Sweeney interned for U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., earlier this year. Luetkemeyer's spokesman Paul Sloca, said the congressman is "extremely pleased that he's safe and coming home, especially on Thanksgiving."
Sweeney said she had not prepared for a Thanksgiving celebration, although a friend had taken her some food. She said the idea of a Thanksgiving feast had seemed "absolutely irrelevant" before the news of her son's pending freedom.
Asked what she thought her son would take away from his arrest, Sweeney said she thought he would make something useful of it.
"I'm sure that he'll put a life-lesson learning experience into a positive story," Sweeney said. "He's a writer, he will write about this experience."
___
Associated Press reporter Ed Donahue in Washington contributed to this report. Hadeel Al-Shalchi reported from Cairo.
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Saturday, November 26, 2011
Walking Dead's Sarah Wayne Callies: Lori's Afraid Rick and Shane Might Kill Each Other (omg!)
The secret is out!
In last week's episode of The Walking Dead, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) finally came clean to Rick (Andrew Lincoln), not just about being pregnant, but also that she had had an affair with his best friend Shane (Jon Bernthal). (To be fair, they both thought Rick was dead.)
The Walking Dead Boss: Shane's living on borrowed time -- but hasn't worn out his welcome yet
Now, Lori and Rick will face a challenge more treacherous than ravenous zombies: saving their marriage, a task complicated by Lori's pregnancy. Is it Rick or Shane's kid? TVGuide.com chatted with Callies to get her take on the venomous threesome.
Now that Rick knows about the affair, how will that change things between them?
Sarah Wayne Callies: Andy and I have been playing with the idea for a while that Rick has known for a long time and it was a test of whether or not Lori would be honest with him and when and why. It actually opens the door for things to begin to heal for them. He deeply needed to hear her say that she thought he was gone. She wasn't secretly burning a candle for Shane for the last eight years of their marriage.
You say he needed to hear that, but do you think that's the truth? Lori doesn't have any feelings for Shane?
Callies: I don't think Shane ever crossed Lori's mind as anything other than a dear friend until she was in his arms the night that Atlanta fell. There's something about memory that's really tricky, that when you go back to an event in your mind, it can actually change. Lori's having a much harder time putting it out of her mind and putting Shane out of her mind than she ever would've anticipated, given that it was really just a purely physical thing at its inception.
Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman: Lori's surprising results are only the beginning
How will Shane react to the pregnancy? Will he assume it's his?
Callies: That's her biggest fear right now, because there's no way to be sure whose baby it is, unless it turns out that she's two months pregnant and it happened before Rick was shot. But at this point, there's no timeline, so she's really afraid. Quite frankly, one of the reasons that she considered terminating the pregnancy is because it has the ability to tear these men apart, and that has huge implications not just to her personal life, but to everyone's safety. There's a part of her that's afraid they might kill each other. This is the kind of thing men kill each other over.
What will Shane do to cement himself in Lori's life?
Callies: For a while now, Shane has been trying to protect her and Carl (Chandler Riggs), and has been doing that from a distance and trying to take Rick's place. He's posturing. I'm thinking of the Planet Earth films, where the men of a species are trying to demonstrate to the females that they're bigger, stronger and better. Shane has a new level of investment in Lori's safety, if he does believe it's his child that she's carrying, and that means Rick's protection of Lori has to be that much more complete. It all gets very futile. At a certain point, this culture has devolved into a place where, as a woman, maybe you have to decide who you're with based on who can keep your child alive, rather than who's the best communicator, or who makes the best spaghetti Bolognese.
The Walking Dead: Can the survivors coexist with the family at Hershel's farm?
The Walking Dead's community has regressed to caveman-like conditions. Who can build fire? Who can protect you? That's who you should be with.
Callies: That's exactly right. We talked a lot in the first season about a certain Camelot prospective. You have three people who really do love each other equally. The longer we go on, the more it feels medieval, where there are moments where Lori looks at these guys and goes, "Jesus Christ, if I'm not careful, one of you is actually going to throw me over your shoulder and ride off on a horse with me." [Laughs] It's kind of amazing, especially coming from a woman who six weeks ago was driving a station wagon and shopping at Walmart.
Will Rick use Lori's pregnancy as a card to play to be able to stay on the farm?
Callies: The effect it has on him is more about the need to stay, not just because there's safety, but the need to stay close to the only person who practices medicine, veterinarian or no, and the need to make things right with Hershel (Scott Wilson) and the need to be able to make a home there. The pregnancy heightens all of that because Lori is not going to be able to run forever. There's a time bomb growing in her.
The Walking Dead's Laurie Holden: Andrea greatly admires Shane
How will the survivors deal with the barn in the midseason finale?
Callies: It speaks a lot to what we were discussing before about Rick and Shane. When people find out what's going on, there are very different perspectives on how we should proceed because there are different perspectives on what the true danger is. Is the true danger a bunch of walkers in the barn? Is the true danger Hershel throwing us off his farm? Could Hershel even do that? We outnumber them, we're armed, and who do we become if we make that kind of decision? Those become the questions that are raised with the barn and it deeply, deeply, deeply divides people. The whole thing blows sky-high.
The first half of the season is interesting because you have the illusion of safety for a minute, for a few episodes. You have people experiencing the problems you'd have when you're not necessarily running for your life every second. What the barn does is bring us back into a world where everybody realizes that we're not safe and we're not going to be safe. While it's the end of the first segment of the second season, the second half of the season has a very different character because of what the barn represents and how the situation is handled.
The Walking Dead's midseason finale airs Sunday at 9/8c on AMC.
Related Articles on TVGuide.com
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Canned cranberries: traditional as homemade turkey (AP)
CHICAGO ? In an era where there are television networks devoted to home cooking and dietitians warn against the dangers of processed foods, the love of canned cranberry seems to be a bit of dietary discord.
Devotees of canned cranberry sauce say the reasons begin and end with the past, and that the sight of the glistening can-shaped tube of jelly conjures up memories of Thanksgiving meals of long ago.
"It looks like a log of happiness," said Shannon Ervin, a 24-year-old mother of three in Harahan, La., who can't remember a Thanksgiving when canned cranberry sauce wasn't served.
Ocean Spray, the nation's largest producer of cranberry sauce, reports that of the 86.4 million cans it sells a year, 72 million of them are sold between September and the end of December.
On Facebook, groups devoted to canned cranberry sauce have popped up. Nicholas Mackara and a friend, Alexandra Shephard, launched one a few years back called, "Cranberry Sauce in the shape of the can makes my Thanksgiving."
There's also one entitled, "When Cranberry Sauce comes out of the can with ridges," and another called "Cranberry Sauce is only good if it's in the shape of a can." That one includes the motto: "If it ain't from a can, it's garbage."
"I think the ridges are the most important part," said Mackara, 21, of Clementon, N.J. "Then you know it definitely came from a can and our mom didn't make her own (cranberry) sauce and put it in a cylinder shape before we got there."
Sandy Oliver, a food historian, said it would be hard to overstate the importance of canned cranberry sauce to some families, particularly for a holiday in which even the slightest change in the menu is viewed as a treasonous offense.
"You don't mess with Thanksgiving," said Oliver, co-author of "Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipes and History, from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie." "If you grew up with canned cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving, that is what will taste right for you at the table and if you do something else it is going to be at variance with your childhood memory."
As a result, normally sophisticated eaters load up their plates with the same green bean casseroles, Jell-O salad ? heavy on the mini marshmallows ? and the white bread stuffing their parents piled on their plates when they were busy kicking their brothers and sisters under the table.
"My aunt one year brought over the homemade kind and nobody but her ate it," said Heather Hoffman, a 24-year-old Chicago teacher, who has had canned cranberry sauce since her grandmother served it when she was a little girl.
Robert Sietsema has heard those kinds of comments before. The New York writer recently included canned cranberry sauce among his five worst Thanksgiving dishes for a blog on the Village Voice and can't believe anybody would eat canned cranberry sauce if they didn't have to.
"I hate it, it's just awful," said Sietsema. "To begin with, nobody eats things from cans any more if they can afford not to." Especially, he says if it's "some kind of freak Jell-O."
Maybe so. But Alexandra Shephard arrived at her parents' house in Williamsburg, Va. from her home in Orlando, Fla., this week fully expecting the familiar sight of cranberry sauce sliding from the can to a dish.
"I remember how intrigued I was at the lump of red jelly stuff that retained the shape of a can," said Shephard, who started the Facebook page with Mackara a couple years back. "I don't remember actually eating it (but) I remember it was always at the table."
Her father, she said, would only eat the canned sauce so eventually she got her courage up and tried homemade cranberry sauce even though she knew she didn't like the taste of the bitter little red berries. And she liked them, precisely because it didn't taste like cranberries.
She looks at it as a feat of engineering that the can-shaped sauce can keep its figure for hours. And she eats it because, just as Oliver suggested, she likes the uncranberryness of sauce, from the texture to the sweet taste.
For Bruce Scheonberger, presentation is everything. That helps explain why the 54-year-old Toledo attorney was eager to share a technique that ensures the cranberry sauce he puts on the table this Thanksgiving will look exactly the same as it always has.
After completely opening one end of the can, he makes a small opening in the other end. "You blow in it gently and it slides out and retains all of its ridges," he said. "I have it sitting straight up like a can."
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Friday, November 25, 2011
Obama welcomes transfer of power by Yemen's Saleh (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the United States welcomed the signing by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh of an accord under which he immediately transferred power to the country's vice president.
"This represents an important step forward for the Yemeni people, who deserve the opportunity to determine their own future," Obama said in a statement.
Under the agreement, signed with the Yemeni opposition at a ceremony hosted by Saudi King Abdullah in the capital Riyadh, Saleh transferred his powers to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, ahead of an early election. In return he will receive immunity from prosecution.
"For ten months, the Yemeni people have courageously and steadfastly voiced their demands for change in cities across Yemen in the face of violence and extreme hardship," the president said.
Hundreds were killed during protests to overthrow Saleh that erupted amid the Arab Spring that saw the collapse of regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, amid fear Yemen's al Qaeda wing may exploit the ensuing instability and take deeper root.
"The United States urges all parties to move immediately to implement the terms of the agreement, which will allow Yemen to begin addressing an array of formidable challenges and chart a more secure and prosperous path for the future,' Obama said.
(Reporting by Alister Bull; editing by Anthony Boadle)
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Rats help Colombia sniff out deadly landmines
BOGOTA?? In a laboratory on the grounds of a police-guarded complex, 11 white-furred rats wait their turn to impress trainers and perhaps receive a bit of sugar as reward.
The rodents could play an important role in making conflict-wracked Colombia safer. They are in the final stages of a training program to find landmines that kill or injure hundreds of people each year in Colombia.
The government project, which began in 2006, trains specially bred rats to detect the metals used in landmines, thousands of which have been laid during the country's decades-long conflict with left-wing guerrillas.
Colombian scientists decided to use rats because, like the dogs more traditionally used in land mine detection, they have a highly developed sense of smell. But the rats are lightweight and unlikely to detonate mines.
The rats are first taught to recognize voice commands and the specific smells of metals used in landmines, and then to work in large, outdoor areas, where the rodents will sniff and scratch when they find mines, as watchful handlers who will be well-trained in demining stand close by.
It has taken government scientists five generations of rats to be confident their training program is thorough enough to begin sending rats out into the countryside.
In the laboratory, an element of instinct has been built into the training, with baby rats scurrying after their mothers in plastic mazes during practice sessions. The mothers show their young how finding the dead end containing the same wires and metal pieces used in landmines can earn you a treat.
"These rats will be a great help, and will provide great input to those trying to carry out demining," said Erick Guzman, the police official and former canine handler who now is responsible for much of the rats' outdoor training.
"We are hoping that this generation will be ready at the beginning of next year to be tested in a real environment," he added as his favorite rat Sophie perched on his shoulder.
Landmines a constant menace
Experts say it is impossible to estimate the number of undetonated mines which remain in Colombia, but their impact is horrifying real.
In the first half of 2011, for example, mines killed 40 people and injured another 247, government statistics show. That compared with 535 dead and injured throughout 2010.
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Experts confirm that most mines are planted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), other guerrilla groups and criminal gangs to deter security forces. The government says 31 of the country's 32 provinces may contain mines.
"Contrary to what you see in other countries that have signed the Mine Ban Treaty, mines continue to be planted in our country ... while other countries continue to get the number of mines down, ours goes up," Luisa Fernanda Mendez, the scientific director of the rat program said.
Landmines are a pressing problem for security forces. More than half, or 63 percent, of land mine victims are military and police personnel, according to government figures.
Land mine clearance in Colombia is unusually slow-going because mines are sown in very close proximity to each other in rural areas only, making clearance operations treacherous.
The Colombian government cleared less than a tenth of a square mile in all of 2010, but uncovered a total of 194 explosive devices.
Non-government organizations (NGOs) in Colombia have until recently only been allowed to help land mine victims, not to mount demining operations themselves.
"Currently there is no humanitarian demining process except the one undertaken by the armed forces ... we have objections to that demining because, in our judgment, the process is not compatible with international standards for humanitarian demining," said Alvaro Jimenez, the national coordinator of the Colombian Campaign Against Mines.
"Demining should be a development carried out in service of the community, and the community should participate in all the steps."
The Organization of American States hopes to help NGOs expand their fledgling demining operations. They have mounted a program, to be completed by the end of the year, to train and accredit NGO demining teams to work in Colombia.
But despite any critiques of the government's current demining effort, rat project director Mendez has high hopes.
"If we do not begin to master the demining process, we will never complete the terms of the treaty, and moreover, we'll never have a free countryside," she said, while giving the rat crawling up the sleeve of her lab coat an affectionate pat.
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45419101/ns/world_news-americas/
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Travelport claims court win over American Airlines
DALLAS?? Travelport Ltd. Said Tuesday that a federal judge tossed out most of American Airlines' antitrust lawsuit against the flight-information provider and online travel agent Orbitz.
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Travelport, which owns nearly half of Orbitz, said the judge dismissed American's claims that the company monopolizes distribution of airline fare and flight information to travel agents.
American said, however, that the judge allowed its main antitrust claims to proceed. The ruling was issued by a U.S. district court in Fort Worth, Texas, where American is based.
Along with its stake in Orbitz, Travelport runs other companies called global distribution systems that provide airline information to travel agents. American wants to provide information about flights directly to travel agents and cut out the middleman in many cases.
The outcome could change the way airline tickets are sold to business travelers, who are more likely than vacationers to use a travel agent.
American argues it can tailor information more to business travelers' needs ? for example by sending them offers about destinations or amenities that they've bought before. The distribution companies claim that American wants to push them out of the way and reduce competition.
American, a unit of AMR Corp., filed the antitrust lawsuit against Travelport, Orbitz and another distribution company, Sabre, in April.
Travelport said Tuesday that the judge dismissed four of American's claims, including that Travelport monopolized distribution of flight information to travel agencies and conspired with travel agencies to control ticket distribution.
Atlanta-based Travelport predicted it would win on the one remaining American charge ? that Travelport monopolizes access to travel agents who subscribe to Travelport's services.
American claimed that the judge's ruling would let it go ahead with claims against Sabre, and separate claims "that Sabre and Travelport each has unlawfully monopolized the market for the provision of airline booking services to their respective subscribers."
In afternoon trading AMR shares fell 5 cents to $1.69. Orbitz Worldwide Inc. rose 2 cents to $2.92.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45403616/ns/travel-news/
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Analysis: Crisis casts doubt on China rebalancing plans (Reuters)
BEIJING (Reuters) ? China has been forced into self-help mode after a series of international crises have hollowed out its export markets and left it feeling like the only man standing.
But Beijing may not have time to administer its ideal medicine -- a project to spur domestic demand.
Instead, policymakers may be spurred to action by a sharp weakening in the domestic picture -- and the measures they choose are likely to err on the side of growth at any cost, rather than much-needed restructuring.
"My concern is that when we look at the numbers they are very reminiscent of early 2008 and that was not a good scene," said Arthur Kroeber of economics consultancy Dragonomics. He asserts that weaknesses in steel demand and construction are signs that all is not well in China.
"They see things slowing down so they will do what they can, which means all rebalancing will be kicked down the road," Kroeber said. "They are more interested in retaining growth through the channels they have."
Or, as China's vice premier Wang Qishan put it this week: "An unbalanced recovery would be better than a balanced recession."
Already, bank lending is reviving, after months of a credit crunch that starved China's private sector -- the most productive in terms of jobs and taxes -- forcing more and more companies to turn to underground banking and loan sharks for funds.
This week, China confirmed it is pressing ahead with a vast spending plan for so-called "strategic sectors."
Other measures by which China might stimulate growth include a pilot VAT tax reform and some reduction of fees to smaller firms -- both of which should help the private sector which had been left out in the cold during the past three years of emphasis on big, state-owned firms.
There are voices calling for serious structural reform -- sometimes from surprising quarters. Prominent newspapers carried an editorial from an Agricultural Bank of China economist saying that a stronger yuan would help China transform its economic model, and another editorial from a vice minister of industry saying that the overseas crises would force Chinese industry to raise its competitiveness.
Long Yongtu, the man who negotiated China's entry to the World Trade Organization, told Reuters that provincial leaders support a greater opening of the economy.
LOOK TO YOUR OWN HOUSE FIRST
Internationally, the financial crises roiling the West are expected to hit China's export sector, which still accounts for about 15 percent of GDP and employs millions in the coastal regions.
But worryingly, the latest HSBC purchasing managers' index showed that while new orders for exports held their ground, overall orders had their biggest drop in a year and a half -- implying that domestic demand is as much a concern as exports.
China's factory sector shrank the most in nearly three years in November, data released on Wednesday showed [ID:nL4E7MN0EA].
China has long said it wants to reorient the economy toward more sustainable, consumer-led growth. But the huge stimulus it launched to stave off a slowdown during the global financial crisis of 2008 -- a program totaling about $650 billion -- had the opposite effect. It transferred more of the nation's assets to the less productive state sector.
Return on investment in China is falling fast, in yet another sign that deferring restructuring can only eke out a few more years of rapid growth.
"I think it will take another 3-5 years before we see a real rebalancing. At the moment, growth is very much driven by investment," said Kevin Lai, senior economist at Daiwa Capital Markets in Hong Kong.
"If you talk about investment ratio close to 50 percent, that's too high."
But driving demand is a long-term project. Among other things, it would require structural changes to give more space to the private sector, and would include better welfare and health programs so that China's savers are willing to spend more of their cash.
"The bottleneck for GDP growth is not supply. The Chinese economy is oversupplied with goods. The shortage is demand," Li Daokui, an advisor to China's central bank, said at a conference last week.
This time around, China has confirmed it wants to see a staggering 10 trillion yuan ($1.57 trillion) put into strategic industries over the next five years, most of that through corporate spending and bank lending rather than direct government stimulus.
TARGETED SECTORS
The targeted sectors include alternative energy, biotechnology, new-generation information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, advanced materials, alternative-fuel cars and energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies -- all buzzwords for the new, more sustainable Chinese economy.
But the details of where exactly the money would be spent remain foggy. Some of the likely big ticket items include nuclear power and rail investment, but the latter has been scaled back due to the Railway Ministry's high debt levels and a fatal crash. Even China's most ambitious nuclear investment scenario would not require that much spending.
Arguably, what China's high-tech sector needs is more competition and protection for intellectual property advances, not companies with connections being force-fed cash.
Past experiences provide a sober lesson. A few years ago, China eagerly promoted its solar power sector as a sign of its commitment to new energy and jobs at home. But what actually happened is that most of the panels produced headed overseas due to lack of domestic incentives for solar power.
Now that overseas markets have weakened, the solar power sector is reeling from overcapacity and plummeting prices.
($1 = 6.3608 Chinese yuan)
(Additional reporting by Nick Edwards and Kevin Yao in BEIJING; Editing by Don Durfee and Richard Borsuk)
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Babies who eat fish before 9 months are less likely to suffer pre-school wheeze
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Public release date: 22-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
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But pre-natal paracetamol and first-week antibiotics increase risk
Children who started eating fish before nine months of age are less likely to suffer from pre-school wheeze, but face a higher risk if they were treated with broad spectrum antibiotics in the first week of life or their mother took paracetamol during pregnancy. Those are the key findings from a large-scale Swedish study published in the December issue of Acta Paediatrica.
Researchers analysed responses from 4,171 randomly selected families, who answered questions when their child was six months, 12 months and four-and-a-half years of age.
"Recurrent wheeze is a very common clinical problem in preschool children and there is a need for better medical treatment and improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms" says lead author Dr Emma Goksor from the Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. "The aim of our study was to identify both important risk factors and protective factors for the disease.
"Our demographic analysis suggests that the responses we received were largely representative of the population as a whole and we believe our findings provide useful information on three important factors involved in pre-school wheeze."
The study examined children who had had three or more episodes of wheezing in the last year, including those who did and did not use asthma medication (inhaled corticosteroid), comparing them with children who did not wheeze. The wheezy sample was further broken down into children who only developed episodic viral wheeze when they had colds and multiple trigger wheeze, where children also wheezed when they didn't have a cold, reacting to factors such as allergens, tobacco smoke or exercise.
Key findings of the study include:
Overall prevalence
- One in five of the children had at least one episode of wheezing and one in 20 had recurrent wheeze (three or more episodes) over the last year. Of these, three-quarters had used asthma medication and just over half reported doctor-diagnosed asthma.
- More than half of the children with recurrent wheeze had episodic viral wheeze (57%) and 43% had multiple-trigger wheeze.
Fish consumption before nine months of age
- Eating fish before the age of nine months almost halved the likelihood of suffering recurrent wheeze at 4.5 years. The fish most commonly eaten was white fish, followed by salmon and flat fish.
- The authors have previously reported that fish, which is thought to contain properties that reduce allergy risks, is beneficial in both eczema in infancy and allergic rhinitis at pre-school age. Other research has suggested a protective effect on the development of asthma.
Antibiotic treatment in the first week of life
- Being treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics in the first week was associated with double the risk of recurrent wheeze at 4.5 years. Just 3.6% of the children in the no wheeze group had received antibiotics, compared with 10.7% of those who had experienced three or more episodes.
- When this was broken down into subgroups, the risk was even higher in children with multiple-trigger wheeze, while the risk of episodic viral wheeze was not statistically increased.
Use of paracetamol during pregnancy
- Less than a third of the mothers (28.4%) had taken some medication during pregnancy, with 7.7% of the total taking paracetamol and 5.3% only taking paracetamol.
- The prevalence of prenatal paracetamol exposure in the wheeze group using asthma medication was 12.4% and taking paracetamol during pregnancy increased the risk by 60%.
- The effect was particularly noticeable in the multiple-trigger wheeze group, where it more than doubled the risk.
"The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors for pre-school wheeze, with particular reference to prenatal paracetamol use, early exposure to antibiotics and fish consumption. A secondary aim was to analyse possible differences between multiple-trigger wheeze and episodic viral wheeze.
"Our findings clearly show that while fish has a protective effect against developing pre-school wheeze, children who had antibiotics in the first week of life and whose mothers took paracetamol during pregnancy faced an increased risk, particularly of multiple-trigger wheeze."
###
You can read the articles free online at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02411.x/pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02403.x/pdf
Notes to editors
Preschool wheeze impact of early fish introduction and neonatal antibiotics. Goksr et al. Acta Paediatrica. 100, pp1561-1566. (December 2011) DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02411.x
Prenatal paracetamol exposure and risk of wheeze at preschool age. Goksr et al. Acta Paediatrica. 100, pp 1567-1571. (December 2011) DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02403.x
A Swedish version of this press release is available on request.
Acta Paediatrica is a peer-reviewed monthly journal at the forefront of international paediatric research. It covers both clinical and experimental research in all areas of paediatrics including: neonatal medicine, developmental medicine, adolescent medicine, child health and environment, psychosomatic paediatrics and child health in developing countries. http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/APA
Wiley-Blackwell is the international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, with strengths in every major academic and professional field and partnerships with many of the world's leading societies. Wiley-Blackwell publishes nearly 1,500 peer-reviewed journals and 1,500+ new books annually in print and online, as well as databases, major reference works and laboratory protocols. For more information, please visit http://www.wileyblackwell.com or our new online platform, Wiley Online Library (http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com), one of the world's most extensive multidisciplinary collections of online resources, covering life, health, social and physical sciences, and humanities.
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Public release date: 22-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Annette Whibley
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Wiley-Blackwell
But pre-natal paracetamol and first-week antibiotics increase risk
Children who started eating fish before nine months of age are less likely to suffer from pre-school wheeze, but face a higher risk if they were treated with broad spectrum antibiotics in the first week of life or their mother took paracetamol during pregnancy. Those are the key findings from a large-scale Swedish study published in the December issue of Acta Paediatrica.
Researchers analysed responses from 4,171 randomly selected families, who answered questions when their child was six months, 12 months and four-and-a-half years of age.
"Recurrent wheeze is a very common clinical problem in preschool children and there is a need for better medical treatment and improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms" says lead author Dr Emma Goksor from the Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. "The aim of our study was to identify both important risk factors and protective factors for the disease.
"Our demographic analysis suggests that the responses we received were largely representative of the population as a whole and we believe our findings provide useful information on three important factors involved in pre-school wheeze."
The study examined children who had had three or more episodes of wheezing in the last year, including those who did and did not use asthma medication (inhaled corticosteroid), comparing them with children who did not wheeze. The wheezy sample was further broken down into children who only developed episodic viral wheeze when they had colds and multiple trigger wheeze, where children also wheezed when they didn't have a cold, reacting to factors such as allergens, tobacco smoke or exercise.
Key findings of the study include:
Overall prevalence
- One in five of the children had at least one episode of wheezing and one in 20 had recurrent wheeze (three or more episodes) over the last year. Of these, three-quarters had used asthma medication and just over half reported doctor-diagnosed asthma.
- More than half of the children with recurrent wheeze had episodic viral wheeze (57%) and 43% had multiple-trigger wheeze.
Fish consumption before nine months of age
- Eating fish before the age of nine months almost halved the likelihood of suffering recurrent wheeze at 4.5 years. The fish most commonly eaten was white fish, followed by salmon and flat fish.
- The authors have previously reported that fish, which is thought to contain properties that reduce allergy risks, is beneficial in both eczema in infancy and allergic rhinitis at pre-school age. Other research has suggested a protective effect on the development of asthma.
Antibiotic treatment in the first week of life
- Being treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics in the first week was associated with double the risk of recurrent wheeze at 4.5 years. Just 3.6% of the children in the no wheeze group had received antibiotics, compared with 10.7% of those who had experienced three or more episodes.
- When this was broken down into subgroups, the risk was even higher in children with multiple-trigger wheeze, while the risk of episodic viral wheeze was not statistically increased.
Use of paracetamol during pregnancy
- Less than a third of the mothers (28.4%) had taken some medication during pregnancy, with 7.7% of the total taking paracetamol and 5.3% only taking paracetamol.
- The prevalence of prenatal paracetamol exposure in the wheeze group using asthma medication was 12.4% and taking paracetamol during pregnancy increased the risk by 60%.
- The effect was particularly noticeable in the multiple-trigger wheeze group, where it more than doubled the risk.
"The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors for pre-school wheeze, with particular reference to prenatal paracetamol use, early exposure to antibiotics and fish consumption. A secondary aim was to analyse possible differences between multiple-trigger wheeze and episodic viral wheeze.
"Our findings clearly show that while fish has a protective effect against developing pre-school wheeze, children who had antibiotics in the first week of life and whose mothers took paracetamol during pregnancy faced an increased risk, particularly of multiple-trigger wheeze."
###
You can read the articles free online at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02411.x/pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02403.x/pdf
Notes to editors
Preschool wheeze impact of early fish introduction and neonatal antibiotics. Goksr et al. Acta Paediatrica. 100, pp1561-1566. (December 2011) DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02411.x
Prenatal paracetamol exposure and risk of wheeze at preschool age. Goksr et al. Acta Paediatrica. 100, pp 1567-1571. (December 2011) DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02403.x
A Swedish version of this press release is available on request.
Acta Paediatrica is a peer-reviewed monthly journal at the forefront of international paediatric research. It covers both clinical and experimental research in all areas of paediatrics including: neonatal medicine, developmental medicine, adolescent medicine, child health and environment, psychosomatic paediatrics and child health in developing countries. http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/APA
Wiley-Blackwell is the international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, with strengths in every major academic and professional field and partnerships with many of the world's leading societies. Wiley-Blackwell publishes nearly 1,500 peer-reviewed journals and 1,500+ new books annually in print and online, as well as databases, major reference works and laboratory protocols. For more information, please visit http://www.wileyblackwell.com or our new online platform, Wiley Online Library (http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com), one of the world's most extensive multidisciplinary collections of online resources, covering life, health, social and physical sciences, and humanities.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/w-bwe112211.php
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011
5 Reasons Selling Your Business Is Like Thanksgiving Dinner ...
I had a professor in graduate school who once compared the world of business to Thanksgiving dinner. His comment was directed at a room full of students who, at the time, were intent on climbing the corporate ladder. According to him, those of us who were willing to work hard and get advanced degrees would have the ability to leave the chaos and humiliation of ?the little kids? table? (supervisory and front line management positions) and graduate to sitting with the grown-ups (director level and above). And wasn?t that what we all aspired to?
In lieu of another tired business analogy that revolves around sports or military strategy, here are five reasons why selling your business is like Thanksgiving dinner.
An emotional outburst can ruin an otherwise lovely gathering.
I?ve often thought of my professor?s description of the little kids? table as I?ve watched small-business owners go through the process of selling. It is not uncommon to see tears, yelling and tantrums on the sell side of a deal. The buyer, who brings almost no emotional baggage to the table, rarely exhibits such behavior.
Selling a business is an emotionally charged event. So much so that I have rarely seen an instance where a business owner doesn?t ?lose it? at some point during the process. Anyone familiar with the process knows that an emotional issue can kill a deal just as quickly as any detail uncovered on a financial statement.
There are books and organizations dedicated to helping business owners anticipate and overcome the emotional challenges that come with selling a business. If you haven?t reached a point where you can be objective about your business, discuss its strengths and weaknesses openly, and see it for what it is during the sale process ? namely an asset with market value ? then you may not be ready to sell.
There?s no substitute for experience.
Grandmothers make the best Thanksgiving dinners, hands down. This is presumably because they?ve prepared the meal 30 times before they become grandmothers. Successful business sales take place with a team of experienced professionals who are both generalists and specialists in their field ? including lawyers, accountants, financial planners and intermediaries.
Small-business owners tend to be extraordinarily successful do-it-yourselfers. When my husband and I started our coffee business I decided I would take care of payroll myself. How hard could it be, I reasoned, and why not save the $45 per month I was going to pay a service to do it? Somewhere along the road to employing 14 baristas, I should have started filing my employee withholding monthly instead of quarterly. Being a newbie, I didn?t realize this until I got a nasty letter from the Internal Revenue Service saying that I was behind and that if I didn?t get current they would seize everything I owned. Oops.
When it comes to selling your business, don?t go it alone. The cost of inexperience is simply too high.
Timing is critical.
The real trick to Thanksgiving dinner is getting everything to the table piping hot at the same time. And so it goes with selling a business. Most business owners pick an inopportune time to sell that is based on their personal wants and needs, rather than when the business will get the most interest from buyers ? and the best price on the open market. It can be difficult to do, but the best time to sell is when your business is going gangbusters and your industry shows plenty of opportunity for growth.
Good manners are expected.
Like the passing of dishes around the table at Thanksgiving dinner, the process of selling a business consists of a series of careful exchanges ? an orderly back and forth between buyer and seller, managed so that everyone is satisfied.
If you?ve represented your business as having $2 million in annual sales and $350,000 in owner?s benefit, you will be asked to please pass every financial statement, tax return and sales receipt to support that claim in due diligence. Refusing to do so, or not relinquishing those items in their entirety, in proper order and in a timely manner is not acceptable. It?s the equivalent of throwing mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving.
Everyone looks forward to dessert.
Thanksgiving dinner without the pumpkin pie would be a major letdown. Building a successful business that has no transferable value seems equally disappointing. Selling your business and cashing out after years of hard work is the ultimate reward. Prepare yourself and your business well for the day you will leave, and when you do, you will savor a slice of success that many business owners never enjoy.
Barbara Taylor is co-owner of a business brokerage firm, Synergy Business Services, in Bentonville, Ark. Here is her guide to selling a business.
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Egypt Cabinet offers to resign but protests go on (AP)
CAIRO ? Egypt's civilian Cabinet offered to resign Monday after three days of violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Tahrir Square, but the action failed to satisfy protesters deeply frustrated with the new military rulers.
The Health Ministry and a doctor at an improvised field hospital on the square said at least 26 people have been killed and 1,750 wounded in the latest violence as activists sought to fill the streets for a "second revolution" to force out the generals who have failed to stabilize the country, salvage the economy or bring democracy.
Throughout the day, young protesters demanding the military hand over power to a civilian government fought with black-clad police, hurling stones and firebombs and throwing back the tear gas canisters being fired by police into the square, which was the epicenter of the movement that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
By midnight tens of thousands of protesters were in the huge downtown square.
The clashes have deepened the disarray among Egypt's political ranks, with the powerful Muslim Brotherhood balking at joining in the demonstrations, fearing that turmoil will disrupt elections next week that the Islamists expect to dominate.
The protests in Tahrir and elsewhere across this nation of some 85 million people have forced the ruling military council as well as the Cabinet it backs into two concessions, but neither were significant enough to send anyone home.
The council issued an anti-graft law that bans anyone convicted of corruption from running for office or holding a government post, a move that is likely to stop senior members from the Mubarak regime from running for public office.
Hours later, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf submitted its resignation to the council, a move that was widely expected given the government's perceived inefficiency and its almost complete subordination to the generals.
Protesters cheered and shouted "God is great!" when the news arrived of the Cabinet resignation offer, but they almost immediately resumed their chant of "The people want to topple the field marshal" ? a reference to military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
"We are not clearing the square until there is a national salvation government that is representative and has full responsibility," said activist Rami Shaat, who was at the site.
The council released a statement late Monday calling for a national dialogue to "urgently study the reasons for the current crisis and ways to overcome it."
The statement, carried by Egypt's state news agency, said the military deeply regrets the loss of life and has ordered the Justice Ministry to form a committee to investigate the incidents of the past few days. The military said it ordered security forces to take measures that would protect demonstrators, who have the right to peaceful protest.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the United States was deeply concerned about the violence and urged restraint on all sides so Egypt could proceed with a timely transition to democracy.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also deplored the loss of life and called on authorities "to guarantee the protection of human rights and civil liberties for all Egyptians, including the right to peaceful protest," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Amnesty International harshly criticized the military rulers in a new report, saying they have "completely failed to live up their promises to Egyptians to improve human rights."
The London-based group documented steps by the military that have fallen short of increasing human rights and in some cases have made matters worse than under Mubarak.
"The euphoria of the uprising has been replaced by fears that one repressive rule has simply been replaced with another," according to the report, issued Tuesday.
The report called for repeal of the Mubarak-era "emergency laws," expanded to cover "thuggery" and criticizing the military. It said the army has placed arbitrary restrictions on media and other outlets.
Egyptian security forces have continued to use torture against demonstrators, the report said, and some 12,000 civilians have been tried in military trials, which it called "unfair."
In many ways, the protests in Tahrir bore a striking resemblance to the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak. The chants are identical, except that Tantawi's name has replaced Mubarak's.
"The people want the execution of the marshal," protesters screamed Monday. The hallmark chant of "erhal," or "leave," that once was aimed at Mubarak is now meant for Tantawi, his defense minister for 20 years.
Some of the protesters demanded that the generals immediately step down in favor of a presidential civilian council.
"If the military steps down, then who will be left to run the country until elections are held?" said Ahmed Fathy, a 27-year-old dentist who prefers a date for the handover rather than the departure of the military now. "The military can strike back by turning the nation against us."
About 5,000 to 7,000 protesters were in Tahrir Square for most of the day but the number rose to around 30,000 after nightfall ? nowhere near filling it but displaying the strength of the movement despite the military's tireless campaign to marginalize the youths who drove Mubarak from office.
Protesters also marched in other cities, including thousands of students in the coastal city of Alexandria.
Unlike in January and February when the demonstrators were united against Mubarak, the latest protests reflect political divisions and Egypt's growing economic hardships and tenuous security.
Islamists led by the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest and best-organized political group, are not taking part in the protests this time, a stand that has been widely seen as motivated by a desire not to get involved in anything that could disturb parliamentary elections that are due to start Nov. 28 and conclude in March.
But the Brotherhood, whose supporters gave muscle to the protesters in January and February, may have underestimated the appeal of the secular-minded activists and the depth of anger over the military rulers' failings and the inefficiency of the Cabinet that the generals support.
To many of the protesters, the Brotherhood and its allies, mainly the ultraconservative Salafis, are more keen on winning parliamentary seats than the future of the nation.
That so many protesters are in Tahrir Square without the participation of the Islamists could provide the liberal pro-reform groups with a boost that would fuel their movement in the face of the military's perceived intransigence.
"We don't need them," Zeinab Kheir, a lawyer and an activist, said referring to the Brotherhood, vilified by many activists as an opportunistic, self-serving group.
"We want the (military) council to leave immediately so we can continue our revolution, which the military sold out," said Mohammed Ali, a shoemaker among the protesters. "A civilian Cabinet from the square is what we want."
The divisions between the secularists and Islamists surfaced in the square Monday when senior Brotherhood leader Mohammed el-Beltagy was heckled by protesters who threw water bottles at him. He hurriedly left.
However, moderate Islamists from two groups ? the Wasat, or Centrist party, and supporters of presidential hopeful Abdel-Monaem Abul Fetouh ? said they would take part in a big protest dubbed "National Salvation" planned for Tuesday.
Throughout the day, the sounds of gunfire crackled around Tahrir Square, and a constant stream of injured protesters ? bloodied from rubber bullets or overcome by tear gas ? were brought on motorbikes into makeshift clinics on sidewalks, where volunteer doctors scrambled from patient to patient.
A morgue official said the toll had climbed to 24 dead since the violence began Saturday ? a jump from the toll of five dead around nightfall Sunday, reflecting the ferocity of fighting. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the numbers.
Since Mubarak fell and the military took over, Egypt's revolution has been mired in frustration and confusion. Activists and many in the public accuse the generals of seeking to hold on to power, and they fear that the military will dominate the next government no matter who wins the election. Many Egyptians are also frustrated by the failure of the military and the caretaker government to conduct any real reforms, halt widespread insecurity or salvage a rapidly worsening economy.
The military says it will hand over power only after presidential elections, which it has vaguely said will be held in late 2012 or early 2013.
On Monday, a group of 133 diplomats from the Foreign Ministry took the rare step of issuing a petition demanding that the military commit to hold presidential elections and transfer power by 2012.
"What does it mean, transfer power in 2013? It means simply that he wants to hold on to his seat," said protester Mohammed Sayyed, referring to Tantawi.
Sayyed carried two rocks as he took cover from tear gas in a sidestreet off Tahrir Square. He wore a bandage on his head after being hit by what he said was a rubber bullet.
"I will keep coming back until they kill me," he said. "The people are frustrated. Nothing changed for the better."
___
Associated Press writers Ben Hubbard, Aya Batrawy and Maggie Michael contributed to this report.
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Monday, November 21, 2011
World Meeting of Body Art: Painted Bodies Transformed Into Art In Venezuela (PHOTOS)
The Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela ? Artists are using paint, ornaments and glitter to transform the human body into artwork at a festival in Venezuela.
The annual World Meeting of Body Art involves body painting, tattoo art, performances and workshops. Participants from 18 countries are sharing their creations at the festival in Caracas.
Participants had their bodies painted in bright hues from orange to lime green. Vines appeared to wind down the shoulders of one woman, and a man posed as a statue with his skin painted to look like marble.
Venezuelan artist Ivan Hernandez Rojas says the "body is a canvas with infinite possibilities."
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Separating signal and noise in climate warming
Friday, November 18, 2011
In order to separate human-caused global warming from the "noise" of purely natural climate fluctuations, temperature records must be at least 17 years long, according to climate scientists.
To address criticism of the reliability of thermometer records of surface warming, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists analyzed satellite measurements of the temperature of the lower troposphere (the region of the atmosphere from the surface to roughly five miles above) and saw a clear signal of human-induced warming of the planet.
Satellite measurements of atmospheric temperature are made with microwave radiometers, and are completely independent of surface thermometer measurements. The satellite data indicate that the lower troposphere has warmed by roughly 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit since the beginning of satellite temperature records in 1979. This increase is entirely consistent with the warming of Earth's surface estimated from thermometer records.
Recently, a number of global warming critics have focused attention on the behavior of Earth's temperature since 1998. They have argued that there has been little or no warming over the last 10 to 12 years, and that computer models of the climate system are not capable of simulating such short "hiatus periods" when models are run with human-caused changes in greenhouse gases.
"Looking at a single, noisy 10-year period is cherry picking, and does not provide reliable information about the presence or absence of human effects on climate said Benjamin Santer, a climate scientist and lead author on an article in the Nov. 17 online edition of the Journal of Geophysical Research (Atmospheres).
Many scientific studies have identified a human "fingerprint" in observations of surface and lower tropospheric temperature changes. These detection and attribution studies look at long, multi-decade observational temperature records. Shorter periods generally have small signal to noise ratios, making it difficult to identify an anthropogenic signal with high statistical confidence, Santer said.
"In fingerprinting, we analyze longer, multi-decadal temperature records, and we beat down the large year-to-year temperature variability caused by purely natural phenomena (like El Ni?os and La Ni?as). This makes it easier to identify a slowly-emerging signal arising from gradual, human-caused changes in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases," Santer said.
The LLNL-led research shows that climate models can and do simulate short, 10- to 12-year "hiatus periods" with minimal warming, even when the models are run with historical increases in greenhouse gases and sulfate aerosol particles. They find that tropospheric temperature records must be at least 17 years long to discriminate between internal climate noise and the signal of human-caused changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
"One individual short-term trend doesn't tell you much about long-term climate change," Santer said. "A single decade of observational temperature data is inadequate for identifying a slowly evolving human-caused warming signal. In both the satellite observations and in computer models, short, 10-year tropospheric temperature trends are strongly influenced by the large noise of year-to-year climate variability."
###
DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: http://www.llnl.gov
Thanks to DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115331/Separating_signal_and_noise_in_climate_warming
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Sunday, November 20, 2011
3M Camcorder Projector CP45
The 3M Camcorder Projector CP45 ($300 street) has a bit of an identity problem. According to 3M, when it introduced the first generation 3M Camcorder Projector Shoot 'n Share CP40 ($299 list, 3 stars) the company thought of it as a pico projector with a camcorder, but a lot of people who buy it see it as a camcorder with a projector. I could argue either way, or just call it a fun toy that will let you take photos and video and project them too.
That said, given that 3M manufactures projectors rather than cameras, and the camcorder side has more in common with camera phones than full fledged camcorders, treating it as a projector makes more sense.
As a projector, the CP45 has less in common with 3M's other pico projectors, like the 3M Pocket Projector MPro150 ($350, 3.5 stars) than with more consumer-oriented choices like the Ray Pico Projector ($249 direct, 2.5 stars). The 3M MPro150, like the Editors' Choice Optoma PK301 Pico Pocket Projector ($400 street, 4 stars), can connect to either a composite video source or to a computer's VGA port. The CP45, like the Ray Pico Projector, connects to composite video sources only, making it a consumer projector.
The good news if you want to use the CP45 for business is that you can still use it for presentations. One choice is to save the presentation as a set of JPG files and then move the files to the projector. You can move them on a microSD or microSDHC card or by connecting to a computer using the supplied USB cable, letting the computer recognize the CP45's memory as a USB drive, and then copying the files. You can also connect by USB cable to copy video and photo files from CP45 to your computer.
A second choice for Windows is to use the included customized version of ArcSoft MediaConverter 3 to covert PowerPoint slides into movies. Not so incidentally, MediaConverter can also convert most video file formats on your computer to a format the CP45 can play.?
Projector (and Camcorder) Basics
The CP45 offers SVGA (800 by 600) native resolution, and a red-green-blue LED light source rated at 20,000 hours and meant to last the life of the projector. By definition, as a pico projector, it's small and light enough to fit in a shirt pocket, at 0.95 ?by 2.0 by 4.9 inches (HWD) and just 7 ounces.
The physical design is suitably slick, with a shiny white case and your choice of a red or black highlight. The front is defined by the projector lens. The top includes a 2.4-inch LCD display that you can use as a monitor while taking photos and video and also use as a display for playback if you'd rather not use the projector. The control panel, for both the projector and camcorder functions, is below the LCD, and surprisingly easy to use.
The right side includes a thumbwheel focus control, microSD card slot, and power switch. The camera lens and tripod socket are on the bottom. The USB port on the left side doubles as a power connector, letting you charge the unit while it's connected to your computer or plugged into a power outlet with the included power adaptor. The only other connectors are a mini HDMI port and a mini-plug jack.
Note that the HDMI port is for output only. The camcorder takes videos at up to 720p (1280 by 720) resolution, which is well above the projector resolution. The HDMI port lets you connect to, say, an HDTV, so you can play back the image at full resolution.
The single mini-plug is for both audio output and composite video input using the supplied cable with RCA phono connectors for video and stereo audio. Unfortunately, having one connector for both functions can be a problem. As with most pico projectors, the built-in audio offers far too little volume to be useful, so you'll usually want to use a headset or external sound system. With an external source already plugged into the AV jack, however, there's no place left to plug in, which means you'll have to bypass the projector's AV input and connect the sound system directly to the source.?
Brightness and Image Quality
I tested the CP45 with a FIOS set-top box and a Blu-ray player as well as with videos I took with its built-in camcorder and with photos from its 5-megapixel still camera. The 20-lumen rating translates to being bright enough to watch a 40-inch-wide image comfortably for only a short time, even in theater-dark lighting. If you want to watch a full-length movie, you'll probably want to stay with a smaller image.
Image quality earns the same broad brush description as with virtually every other pico projector, which is to say that it's good enough to be usable, but well short of impressive. One potentially annoying distraction was a flickering white line I saw at the top of the screen whenever I used an external source. The line didn't show in any of the video I took with CP45 itself however.
I also saw what looked like unusually obvious judder (the jerky movement that shows in filmed scenes because of the industry standard 24 frames per second for film) as well as a particularly obvious rainbow effect (the tendency for light areas to break up into little red-green-blue rainbows when an object moves on screen). The rainbow artifacts are obvious enough with the CP45 so that anyone who's sensitive to the effect will probably find it annoying.
On the plus side, the projector handles skin tones well and does a reasonably good job with shadow detail (details based on shading). It also does relatively better with photos than video, since the jumpiness and rainbow effect related to movement don't come into play.?
Other Issues
Along with the maximum 720p resolution, an important limitation for the camcorder side of the CP45 is the frame rate, at only 30 frames per second (fps) rather than the 60 fps you'd expect in an HD camcorder. Also, as with the 3M CP40, image stabilization was an issue, with the camera producing a jumpy image even when I held it still. The combination translates to video that I found acceptable when projecting with the CP45, but annoying to watch when I moved the MP4 format clips to a computer and used QuickTime to watch them.
Probably the best way to set your expectations for the camcorder side of the CP45 is to think of it as a camera phone without the phone. It can take usable photos and video, and it's small and light enough to carry with you all the time, but it's no match for a full-fledged camcorder.
As a projector, on the other hand, it offers usable, if flawed, image quality, the ability to show video from memory so you don't need to carry a separate video source, and it works as a camcorder too. It also earns extra points for synergy?combining features that enhance each other?which, ultimately, is what makes it worth considering. It's not hard to find better camcorders and better projectors. But by letting you take video or photos and then project them from the same device, the 3M Camcorder Projector CP45 adds a level of convenience?and fun?that you can't get from carrying around two separate products.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/YZurZg9n6No/0,2817,2396579,00.asp
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