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Monday, November 28, 2011
Germany, France plan quick new Stability Pact: report (Reuters)
BERLIN (Reuters) ? France and Germany are planning a quick new pact on budget discipline that might persuade the European Central Bank to ramp up its government bond purchases, Welt am Sonntag reported on Sunday.
Echoing a Reuters report on Friday from Brussels, the Sunday newspaper said the French and German leaders were prepared to back a deal with other euro countries that might induce the ECB to intervene more forcefully to calm the euro debt crisis.
The newspaper report quoted German government sources as saying that the crisis fighting plan could possibly be announced by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the coming week.
In an advance release before publication, Welt am Sonntag said that because it would take too long to change existing European Union treaties, euro zone countries should just agree among themselves on a new Stability Pact to enforce budget discipline - possibly implemented at the start of 2012.
It could be similar to the Schengen Agreement which applies to EU countries that choose to take part and enables their citizens to enjoy uninhibited cross border travel. Among the countries in the Stability Pact, there would be a treaty spelling out strict deficit rules and control rights for national budgets.
The European Central Bank should also emerge more as a crisis fighter in the euro zone, Welt am Sonntag wrote, saying that while governments cannot tell the independent ECB what to do, the expectations are clear.
"Based upon these measures, there should be a majority within the ECB for a stronger intervention in capital markets," Welt am Sonntag said. It quotes a central banker as saying: "If the politicians can agree to a comprehensive step, the ECB will jump in and help."
The ECB, which cannot directly finance governments, has been buying Italian and Spanish bonds on the open market since August to try to keep down borrowing costs for the euro zone's third and fourth largest economies.
Yields on Italian and Spanish debt have nonetheless climbed in recent weeks, despite the ECB intervention and the appointment of a new technocrat government in Rome and the election of the conservative Popular Party in Madrid.
In Brussels on Friday, euro zone officials said a push by euro zone countries toward very close fiscal integration could give the ECB the necessary room for maneuver to scale up euro zone bond purchases and stabilize markets.
France's Journal du Dimanche newspaper said reforms to Europe's economic governance would be the focus of a speech which Sarkozy will deliver in the Mediterranean port of Toulon on Thursday.
"The European Commission could take on supra-national powers," said one French presidency source, according to the newspaper, saying that Brussels would supervise the decisions of countries at risk of default, provided they request this.
"National parliaments will retain the initiative over the (policy) efforts to be made," one French negotiator told the paper.
The European Commission, the EU executive arm, put forward proposals on Wednesday to grant it intrusive powers of approval of euro zone budgets before they are submitted to national parliaments, which, if approved, would effectively mean ceding some national sovereignty over budgets.
Berlin, meanwhile, is pushing to change the European Union treaty so that a country could be sued for breach of EU budget rules in the European Court of Justice.
Le Figaro said there was resistance within Sarkozy's government to allowing France's budgets to be submitted for scrutiny by an "intergovernmental conference" in Brussels, but the president would seek to rally support for this.
A closer fiscal union could eventually pave the way for joint debt issuance for the euro zone, where countries would be liable for each others' debts.
Germany strongly opposes the joint issuance idea fearing spendthrift countries would piggyback on its low borrowing costs - meaning no gain for the virtuous and no pain for the sinners.
(Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels and Daniel Flynn in Paris; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; editing by Elizabeth Piper/Ruth Pitchford)
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
Tentative deal moves the NBA lockout closer to end (AP)
NEW YORK ? With a Christmas Day tripleheader on everyone's wish list and a tentative labor agreement in place, NBA owners and union officials went back to work Saturday, relaying details of the deal with hopes of cementing it quickly.
After a 149-day lockout that ultimately will cost the league approximately a half-billion dollars in losses, a marathon bargaining session produced a handshake agreement earlier in the day ? actually, just a few hours before daybreak.
Commissioner David Stern still must sell his owners on an agreement that could change the way they do business. And the players, looking beat and beaten, face a tougher healing process in approving a pact that significantly limits their earnings.
But considering everything owners sought when these negotiations opened with a contentious meeting at the All-Star break in February 2010, perhaps they will feel relieved they got as much as they did.
Players' association executives Derek Fisher and Maurice Evans hardly looked enthused about the agreement as they sat next to executive director Billy Hunter on the same side of a conference table with Stern, Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver and Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the league's labor relations committee.
But at least they weren't sitting in a courtroom, where they appeared headed less than two weeks earlier.
Just 12 days after talks broke down, Stern and Hunter appeared together after 3 a.m. Saturday to announce the 10-year deal, with either side able to opt out after the sixth year. It leaves the NBA with its second shortened season (the first was the 50-game 1998-99 season), with the hope of getting in 66 games instead of a full 82-game schedule.
Stern said he expects the labor committee to endorse the deal and recommend it to the full board for approval.
The players' side has revealed little of its feelings about the deal, noting the pending antitrust litigation in its desire to keep details quiet. But players always preferred to be on the court, rather than in it, and now they finally have the chance ? starting Christmas Day.
For the season openers, it would be Boston at New York, Miami at Dallas and Chicago at the Lakers ? sorry, little guys, the big markets still rule Christmas.
Now, the regular season would end one week later and push back NBA finals a week, potentially setting up a Game 7 on June 28, 2012.
The deal also calls for no hard salary cap, no rollbacks of existing salaries and contracts can still be fully guaranteed. Owners had called for all of that, seeking a route to profitability after saying they lost $300 million last season, and believing they would create a level of parity that had been missing.
But players' annual raises were trimmed from 10.5 percent for those re-signing with their own teams and 8 percent for those leaving to 7.5 percent and 4.5 percent respectively. Rules implemented to curb spending by teams over the luxury tax will limit some of their options in free agency.
Owners relented slightly on their previous insistence that players receive no more than 50 percent of basketball-related income after they were guaranteed 57 percent in the old CBA. The target is still a 50-50 split, but with a band from 49 percent to 51 percent that gives the players a better chance of reaching the highest limit than previously proposed.
"I appreciate what Billy and Derek and the players have compromised on because it will allow us, as a small market, to be competitive and create more parity across all 30 teams," Holt said. "We are really excited. We are excited for the fans. We're excited to start playing basketball for the players and for everybody involved."
Details were provided to owners Saturday afternoon in what would be described as a largely congratulatory teleconference. A person with knowledge of the meeting told The Associated Press that some owners said they wished certain issues ? usually ones specific to smaller markets ? were addressed, but many were simply relieved the process was nearing an end.
"The way the deal shakes out, particularly the system issues, there's something in there for every owner to hate," the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the pact still needs to be ratified. "A number of the small market owners may feel bad that they were not protected the way they thought they were going to be protected. Having said that, virtually all of them say it's better to play than not to play or lose the season."
Players filed an amended antitrust lawsuit in Minnesota on Monday that could have earned the players billions but surely would have come at the cost of at least the entire 2011-12 season.
The sides said all along the only way to a deal was through negotiating. They got back together Tuesday, setting the way for the pivotal meeting that began Friday.
"I think we saw a willingness of both sides to compromise yet a little more and to reach this agreement," Silver said. "We look forward to opening on Christmas Day and we are excited to bring NBA basketball back and that's most important."
Now, players must drop a lawsuit against the league and reform their disbanded union before they can vote on the deal. Hunter said it could take anywhere from three days to a week to get that completed.
Once the pact is approved, it would pave the way for training camps and free agency to open simultaneously Dec. 9, setting off a chaotic flurry of activity that could leave coaches running practices with different players arriving each day. There could be an even larger pool of free agents if teams use the amnesty clause, which allows them to waive one player during the deal and have 100 percent of his salary taken off the cap and the tax.
President Barack Obama gave a thumbs-up when told about the tentative settlement after he finished playing basketball at Fort McNair in Washington on Saturday morning.
Because the union disbanded, a new collective bargaining agreement can only be completed once the union has reformed. Drug testing and other issues still must be negotiated between the players and the league, which also must dismiss its lawsuit regarding the legality of the lockout.
"We're very pleased we've come this far," Stern said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."
A number of minor issues remain unsettled, such as sponsorship patches being added to jerseys and how the preseason should work.
Some major matters ? like revenue sharing, which the NBA has said it will not really dive into until a new CBA is complete ? remain on the table as well. Meetings on that issue take place every few days, and the person briefed on the status of the NBA's discussions said many teams are not thrilled by the notion of paying both a luxury tax and into a revenue-sharing pool.
When the NBA returns, owners hope to find the type of parity that exists in the NFL, where the small-market Green Bay Packers are the current champions. The NBA has been dominated in recent years by the biggest spenders, with Boston, Los Angeles and Dallas winning the last four titles.
"I think it will largely prevent the high-spending teams from competing in the free-agent market the way they've been able to in the past. It's not the system we sought out to get in terms of a harder cap, but the luxury tax is harsher than it was. We hope it's effective," Silver said.
"We feel ultimately it will give fans in every community hope that their team can compete for championships."
Owners locked out the players July 1, and the sides spent most of the summer and fall battling over the division of revenues and other changes owners wanted in a new collective bargaining agreement. They said they lost hundreds of millions of dollars in each year of the former deal, ratified in 2005, and they wanted a system where the big-market teams wouldn't have the ability to outspend their smaller counterparts.
Players fought against those changes, and scored some concessions at the end. The full midlevel exception of $5 million a year for four years will be available to all teams as long as the signing doesn't take them more than $4 million over the tax, and the "mini midlevel" for taxpayers was increased to $3 million a year for three years.
"This was not an easy agreement for anyone. The owners came in having suffered substantial losses and feeling the system wasn't working fairly across all teams," Silver said. "I certainly know the players had strong views about expectations in terms of what they should be getting from the system. It required a lot of compromise from both parties' part."
Stern denied the antitrust litigation was a factor in accelerating a deal, but things happened relatively quickly after the players filed.
"For us the litigation is something that just has to be dealt with," Stern said. "It was not the reason for the settlement. The reason for the settlement was we've got fans, we've got players who would like to play and we've got others who are dependent on us. And it's always been our goal to reach a deal that was fair to both sides and get us playing as soon as possible, but that took a little time."
___
Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: twitter.com/Briancmahoney
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CO2 climate impacts reassessed
25 November 2011
Last updated at 10:48 ET
Global temperatures could be less sensitive to changing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels than previously thought, a study suggests.
The researchers said people should still expect to see "drastic changes" in climate worldwide, but that the risk was a little less imminent.
The results are published in Science.
Previous climate models have tended to used meteorological measurements from the past 150 years to estimate the climate's sensitivity to rising CO2.
From these models, scientists find it difficult to narrow their projections down to a single figure with any certainty, and instead project a range of temperatures that they expect, given a doubling of atmospheric CO2 from pre-industrial levels.
The new analysis, which incorporates palaeoclimate data into existing models, attempts to project future temperatures with a little more certainty.
Lead author Andreas Schmittner from Oregon State University, US, explained that by looking at surface temperatures during the most recent ice age - 21,000 years ago - when humans were having no impact on global temperatures, he, and his colleagues show that this period was not as cold as previous estimates suggest.
"This implies that the effect of CO2 on climate is less than previously thought," he explained.
By incorporating this newly discovered "climate insensitivity" into their models, the international team was able to reduce uncertainty in its future climate projections.
The new models predict that given a doubling in CO2 levels from pre-industrial levels, the Earth's surface temperatures will rise by 1.7C to 2.6C (3.1F to 4.7F).
That is a much tighter range than the one produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 2007 report, which suggested a rise of between 2.0C to 4.5C.
The new analysis also reduces the expected rise in average surface temperatures to just over 2C, from 3C.
The authors stress the results do not mean threat from human-induced climate change should be treated any less seriously, explained palaeoclimatologist Antoni Rosell-Mele from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, who is a member of the team that came up with the new estimates.
But it does mean that to induce large-scale warming of the planet, leading to widespread catastrophic consequences, we would have to increase CO2 more than we are going to do in the near future, he said.
"But we don't want that to happen at any time, right?"
"At least, given that no one is doing very much around the planet [about] mitigating CO2 emissions, we have a bit more time," he remarked.
Whether these results mean that the global temperatures will be less responsive to falling CO2 is unclear. "I don't think we know that, to be honest," remarked Dr Rosell-Mele.
Gabriele Hegerl, from the University of Edinburgh, is cautious about the result in her perspective piece published in the same issue of Science.
She says that this is just one particular climate model, and "future work with a range of models would serve to strengthen the result".
Climatologist Andrey Ganopolski, from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, went further and said that he would not make such a strong conclusion based on this data.
"The results of this paper are the result of the analysis of [a] cold climate during the glacial maximum (the most recent ice age)," he told BBC News.
"There is evidence the relationship between CO2 and surface temperatures is likely to be different [during] very cold periods than warmer."
Scientists, he said, would therefore prefer to analyse periods of the Earth's history that are much warmer than now when making their projections about future temperatures.
However, although good data exists for the last million years, temperatures during this time have been either similar to present, or colder.
"One should be very careful about using cold climates to [construct] the future," he added.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/science-environment-15858603
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St Maarten finds local lionfish tainted with toxin
FILE- In this July 2006 file image released by NOAA Undersea Research Center, a lionfish swims at a depth of about 130 feet, roughly 55 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Conservationists in St. Maarten are warning islanders not to eat lionfish after tests found a naturally occurring toxin in the flesh of the candy-striped invasive species that is causing ecological damage across the region, officials said Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Doug Kesling/NOAA Undersea Research Center, file)
FILE- In this July 2006 file image released by NOAA Undersea Research Center, a lionfish swims at a depth of about 130 feet, roughly 55 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Conservationists in St. Maarten are warning islanders not to eat lionfish after tests found a naturally occurring toxin in the flesh of the candy-striped invasive species that is causing ecological damage across the region, officials said Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Doug Kesling/NOAA Undersea Research Center, file)
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) ? Conservationists in St. Maarten are warning islanders not to eat lionfish after tests found a naturally occurring toxin in the flesh of the candy-striped invasive species, officials said Thursday.
The findings have dealt a blow to the tiny Dutch territory's efforts to contain the spread of the venomous predator, a native of the Indian and Pacific oceans that has colonized large swaths of the region after a few apparently escaped a Florida fish tank in 1992.
Following the lead of other Caribbean islands, St. Maarten had hoped to promote the species as batter-fried or grilled delectables to slow their spread. They were found in the Dutch territory's waters in July 2010 and have been multiplying and gobbling up native fish and crustaceans ever since. Lionfish were first detected in the Bahamas in 2004 and rapidly spread south into the warm waters of the Caribbean.
But Tadzio Bervoets, chief of St. Maarten's Nature Foundation, said nearly half of the football-sized lionfish captured in local waters were found to have a biotoxin that can lead to ciguatera poisoning, a rarely fatal but growing menace that has long been known in the Caribbean, South Pacific, and warmer areas of the Indian Ocean.
Ciguatera poisoning is caused by eating some subtropical and tropical fish predators, including grouper, snapper and barracuda, which live by reefs and accumulate toxins through their diet. They accumulate the toxin in their flesh from eating smaller fish that graze on poisonous algae.
People who have eaten infected fish can experience abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, tingling and numbness. Most patients recover in a few days. In rare, worst cases there is paralysis and even death.
No one has gotten sick from eating lionfish in St. Maarten, but the territory typically has more than a dozen cases of ciguatera poisoning each year from people eating barracuda and jacks.
St. Maarten's waters have long suffered from high levels of ciguatoxin, so Bervoets said the test results on lionfish were not a complete surprise.
Nonetheless, he added that island officials "were very much hoping that the results were negative."
"This means that we cannot safely promote lionfish as an edible species" in St. Maarten as officials are doing elsewhere, he said.
Across the Caribbean, governments and conservation groups have been sponsoring fishing tournaments, encouraging anglers to go after slow-swimming lionfish and marketing it to restaurants and diners, hoping to stave off an already severe crisis.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have had no official reports of illness associated with the consumption of lionfish filets.
"But in endemic areas of ciguatera, toxins have been detected at levels exceeding FDA guidance and therefore could cause illness if consumed," said FDA spokesman Douglas Karas. "The Virgin Islands is one of those areas."
In recent months, the U.S. agency has collected more than 186 lionfish from the waters around the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Of these, scientists have tested 74 fish to date, with 26 percent confirmed to contain ciguatoxins at levels exceeding FDA guidance, according to Karas.
William Coles, chief of environmental education with the U.S. Virgin Islands Division of Fish and Wildlife, said the U.S. territory's fishermen know well where ciguatoxins accumulate and avoid catching fish in those endemic areas.
"So we have about the same level of concern with lionfish that we do with any other fish. But it's still a major concern," Coles said.
Across the region, it remains to be seen exactly how much impact fishing and marketing of lionfish can have. For now, it's the only hope in sight.
Scientists are still researching what keeps lionfish in check back home in their native range even as they're going gangbusters in the Caribbean, mostly untouched by the local sharks, moray eels and grouper.
Lionfish, which carry venom in a flowing mane of spines and can deliver painful stings, have also colonized swaths of the Eastern Seaboard.
Bervoets said he and his staff spend much of their free time hunting lionfish and encourage others to "hunt them and eradicate them in any which way they can."
"They are definitely multiplying. That's why it's such a shame we can't eat them here," he said Thursday in a telephone interview from St. Maarten.
___
David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd
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Saturday, November 26, 2011
How much crazier can Black Friday get?
Shoppers stop to look at a display while shopping at Dadeland Mall, Friday, Nov. 25 2011, in Miami. Early signs point to bigger crowds at the nation's malls and stores as retailers like Macy's and Target opened their doors at midnight. (AP Photo/ Lynne Sladky)
Shoppers stop to look at a display while shopping at Dadeland Mall, Friday, Nov. 25 2011, in Miami. Early signs point to bigger crowds at the nation's malls and stores as retailers like Macy's and Target opened their doors at midnight. (AP Photo/ Lynne Sladky)
A Black Friday shopper takes a rest with purchases at Northpark Mall in Ridgeland, Miss., on Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/The Clarion-Ledger, Vickie D. King) NO SALES
A consumer rests herself and her bags in Herald Square during the busiest shopping day of the year, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011, in New York. Some of the nation's major chain stores opened late Thursday, competing for holiday shoppers on the notoriously busy Black Friday to kick off a period that is crucial for the retail industry. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Black Friday shoppers line up outside of a Kmart store in Salem, Ore., early Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Statesman-Journal, Timothy J. Gonzalez)
This photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff?s Office, shows Jerald Allen Newman, 54, after his arrest Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, at a Walmart store in Buckeye, Ariz. Buckeye police are coming under fire for a video posted online Friday that shows Newman on the floor of the store with a bloody face after police took him to the ground. Police say he was resisting arrest but his wife and witnesses say he was just trying to protect his grandson during a chaotic rush for discounted video games. (AP Photo/Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Pepper-sprayed customers, smash-and-grab looters and bloody scenes in the shopping aisles. How did Black Friday devolve into this?
As reports of shopping-related violence rolled in this week from Los Angeles to New York, experts say a volatile mix of desperate retailers and cutthroat marketing has hyped the traditional post-Thanksgiving sales to increasingly frenzied levels. With stores opening earlier, bargain-obsessed shoppers often are sleep-deprived and short-tempered. Arriving in darkness, they also find themselves vulnerable to savvy parking-lot muggers.
Add in the online-coupon phenomenon, which feeds the psychological hunger for finding impossible bargains, and you've got a recipe for trouble, said Theresa Williams, a marketing professor at Indiana University.
"These are people who should know better and have enough stuff already," Williams said. "What's going to be next year, everybody getting Tasered?"
Across the country on Thursday and Friday, there were signs that tensions had ratcheted up a notch or two, with violence resulting in several instances.
A woman turned herself in to police after allegedly pepper-spraying 20 other customers at a Los Angeles-area Walmart on Thursday in what investigators said was an attempt to get at a crate of Xbox video game consoles. In Kinston, N.C., a security guard also pepper-sprayed customers seeking electronics before the start of a midnight sale.
In New York, crowds reportedly looted a clothing store in Soho. At a Walmart near Phoenix, a man was bloodied while being subdued by police officer on suspicion of shoplifting a video game. There was a shooting outside a store in San Leandro, Calif., shots fired at a mall in Fayetteville, N.C. and a stabbing outside a store in Sacramento, N.Y.
"The difference this year is that instead of a nice sweater you need a bullet proof vest and goggles," said Betty Thomas, 52, who was shopping Saturday with her sisters and a niece at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, N.C.
The wave of violence revived memories of the 2008 Black Friday stampede that killed an employee and put a pregnant woman in the hospital at a Walmart on New York's Long Island. Walmart spokesman Greg Rossiter said Black Friday 2011 was safe at most of its nearly 4,000 U.S. stores despite "a few unfortunate incidents."
Black Friday ? named that because it puts retailers "in the black" ? has become more intense as companies compete for customers in a weak economy, said Jacob Jacoby, an expert on consumer behavior at New York University.
The idea of luring in customers with a few "doorbuster" deals has long been a staple of the post-Thanksgiving sales. But now stores are opening earlier, and those deals are getting more extreme, he said.
"There's an awful lot of psychology going on here," Jacoby said. "There's the notion of scarcity ? when something's scarce it's more valued. And a resource that can be very scarce is time: If you don't get there in time, it's going to be gone."
There's also a new factor, Williams said: the rise of coupon websites like Groupon and LivingSocial, the online equivalents of doorbusters that usually deliver a single, one-day offer with savings of up to 80 percent on museum tickets, photo portraits, yoga classes and the like.
The services encourage impulse buying and an obsession with bargains, Williams said, while also getting businesses hooked on quick infusions of customers.
"The whole notion of getting a deal, that's all we've seen for the last two years," Williams said. "It's about stimulating consumers' quick reactions. How do we get their attention quickly? How do we create cash flow for today?"
To grab customers first, some stores are opening late on Thanksgiving Day, turning bargain-hunting from an early-morning activity into an all-night slog, said Ed Fox, a marketing professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Midnight shopping puts everyone on edge and also makes shoppers targets for muggers, he said.
In fact, robbery appeared to be the motive behind the shooting in San Leandro, about 15 miles east of San Francisco. Police said robbers shot a victim as he was walking to a car with his purchases around 1:45 a.m. on Friday.
"There are so many hours now where people are shopping in the darkness that it provides cover for people who are going to try to steal or rob those who are out in numbers," Fox said.
The violence has prompted some analysts to wonder if the sales are worth it, and what solutions might work.
In a New York Times column this week, economist Robert Frank proposed slapping a 6 percent sales tax on purchases between 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving and 6 a.m. on Friday in an attempt to stop the "arms race" of earlier and earlier sales.
Small retailers, meanwhile, are pushing so-called Small Business Saturday to woo customers who are turned off by the Black Friday crush. President Barack Obama even joined in, going book shopping on Saturday at a small bookstore a few blocks from the White House.
"A lot of retailers, independent retailers, are making the conscious decision to not work those crazy hours," said Patricia Norins, a retail consultant for American Express.
Next up is Cyber Monday, when online retailers put their wares on sale. But on Saturday many shoppers said they still prefer buying at the big stores, despite the frenzy.
Thomas said she likes the time with her sisters and the hustle of the mall too much to stay home and just shop online.
To her, the more pressing problem was that the Thanksgiving weekend sales didn't seem very good.
"If I'm going to get shot, at least let me get a good deal," Thomas said.
___
Associated Press Writers Julie Walker in New York, Christina Rexrode in Raleigh, N.C., John C. Rogers in Los Angeles and Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed to this report
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Food inflation at 9.01 pct y/y on Nov 12 - govt (Reuters)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? India's food price index rose 9.01 percent and the fuel price index climbed 15.49 percent in the year to Nov. 12, government data on Thursday showed.
In the previous week, annual food and fuel inflation stood at 10.63 percent and 15.49 percent, respectively.
The primary articles price index was up 9.08 percent, compared with an annual rise of 10.39 percent a week earlier.
India's inflation in October hovered above 9 percent for the 11th month, in further evidence of the central bank's inability to achieve a breakthrough in its fight against price rises.
India's central bank raised interest rates last month for the 13th and possibly the final time in a tightening cycle that began 18 months ago, on hopes that persistently high inflation will finally begin to ease from December.
(Reporting by Matthias Williams and Abhijit Neogy; editing by Malini Menon)
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Georgia Business Owner Posts Signs on Trucks: ?Company Policy ...
A Georgia business owner is stirring up controversy after he put signs on his truck saying, ?Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone.? Bill Looman, of U.S. Cranes, LLC, says most of the feedback he?s received has been positive ? ?about 20 to 1.?
News Channel 11 reported:
A west Georgia business owner is stirring up controversy with signs he posted on his company?s trucks, for all to see as the trucks roll up and down roads, highways and interstates:
?New Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone.?
?Can?t afford it,? explained the employer, Bill Looman, Tuesday evening. ?I?ve got people that I want to hire now, but I just can?t afford it. And I don?t foresee that I?ll be able to afford it unless some things change in D.C.?
Looman?s company is U.S. Cranes, LLC. He said he put up the signs, and first posted pictures of the signs on his personal Facebook page, six months ago, and he said he received mostly positive reaction from people, ?about 20-to-one positive.?
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Friday, November 25, 2011
Thanksgiving event is another first for Gabrielle Giffords (Los Angeles Times)
Japan looks to future with earnest crown prince (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Over the past few weeks, Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito has been in the public eye as rarely before, whether tipping a wine glass in toasts at a state banquet or conferring imperial decorations as he stands in for Emperor Akihito, who has been in hospital.
Naruhito's prominence while his 77-year-old father recovers from what court officials say is a mild case of pneumonia has given Japan a fresh look at the scholarly, unassuming man who likes animals and watching sumo wrestling with his 9-year-old daughter, Aiko.
Whereas Emperor Akihito had a relatively clear role to play when he ascended the Chrysanthemum throne, trying to heal the wounds of a war waged across Asia in the name of his father, Emperor Hirohito, Naruhito, 51, may find it harder to forge a path of his own.
And Naruhito may also have to carve out a role largely on his own. His 47-year-old wife, Crown Princess Masako, has suffered from depression brought on by the stress of palace life and unfulfilled demands she bear a male heir, and her public appearances have been sporadic for nearly eight years.
Emperor Akihito took the throne in January 1989 when he was 55, after a similar period of filling in for his father.
Royal watchers said Naruhito would bring to the job an unusual range of experience for a Japanese royal, including studying at Oxford University for a period, which he once said were some of the best years of his life.
"He's very serious," said Miiko Kodama, a professor at Musashi University in Tokyo.
"He's done a lot of studying, written some scholarly reports, and when he makes up his mind about what kind of emperor he wants to be, he'll slowly and steadily work to achieve it. The issue is his wife."
Some of Naruhito's interests may appear innocuous or plain dull -- he has studied medieval transport and espouses environmental causes -- and, like the rest of his family, he has generally shunned the slightest hint of controversy.
But some royal watchers say that within the limits, he has actually broken new ground for the imperial family by publicly calling for more men to be hands-on fathers, and by taking up a global cause such as clean water.
In addition, he married Masako, a Harvard- and Oxford-educated diplomat, overcoming the opposition of palace officials, and Masako's doubts, by promising to "protect her with all his might" from the strains of life in a monarchy traditionalists say originated more than 2,000 years ago.
After she faded under the denial of her hopes to use her diplomatic experience, he shocked the nation with unusually blunt remarks in her defense, earning a rebuke from his younger brother and some sorrowful remarks from the emperor.
Some years ago, tabloid magazines even speculated that he might abdicate, or that the two might divorce.
"Part of what's going on here is that there are people in Japan who clearly do not like Naruhito, in no small part because they don't like Masako," said Kenneth Ruoff, director of the Center for Japanese Studies at Portland State University and author of a book on Emperor Hirohito.
"FAMILY OF ACTION"
Such conservatives favor Naruhito's younger brother, Prince Akishino, and his family, partly because his wife Kiko, who has never had a career and fulfills all her public duties, better fits notions of traditional womanhood. In addition, they have a son, Hisahito, who is third in line for the throne.
"But the fact of the matter is that Naruhito will be the next emperor, unless he himself decides that he doesn't want to do it. I suspect that's highly unlikely," Ruoff said.
The success of Emperor Akihito's move to make the family "middle class" means there may be little for his son to do other than continue in that mold.
"Under Emperor Hirohito, at first, the imperial family was prayed to. Now they're a family of action -- they go out to disaster areas and comfort people, things like that," said Midori Watanabe, an imperial family commentator.
"The crown prince will talk it over with Masako and find something they can do for the people. I imagine they're thinking of this even now."
Some clues may be found in the role taken by the family after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami killed about 20,000 people.
The emperor went on television in an unprecedented address to the people, calling on them to work together to overcome the "difficult times." All the royals, including Masako, have visited the disaster area more than once.
Should Naruhito ascend the throne in the near future, he may oversee recovery from the crisis, said Kodama. Support for environmental conservation may also be a priority.
Simply being there in a time of change could also be enough.
"They serve in some intangible but still significant sense as a unifying force," said Ruoff.
"So in one sense, when he came on television during the earthquake, that was the quintessential sense of him playing that sort of unifying role."
(Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Robert Birsel)
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On the Trail of the Orchid Child
Scientific papers tend to be loaded with statistics and jargon, so it is always a delightful surprise to stumble on a nugget of poetry in an otherwise technical report. So it was with a 2005 paper in the journal Development and Psychopathology, drily entitled ?Biological Sensitivity to Context,? which looked at kids? susceptibility to their family environment. The authors of the research paper, human development specialists Bruce J. Ellis of the University of Arizona and W. Thomas Boyce of the University of California, Berkeley, borrowed a Swedish idiom to name a startling new concept in genetics and child development: orkidebarn.
Orkidebarn means ?orchid child,? and it stands in contrast to maskrosbarn, or ?dandelion child.? As Ellis and Boyce explained in their paper, dandelion children seem to have the capacity to survive?even thrive?in whatever circumstances they encounter. They are psychologically resilient. Orchid children, in contrast, are highly sensitive to their environment, especially to the quality of parenting they receive. If neglected, orchid children promptly wither?but if they are nurtured, they not only survive but flourish. In the authors? poetic language, an orchid child becomes ?a flower of unusual delicacy and beauty.?
Sensitive Souls
Inside the small world of scientists who study genetics and child development, the notion of the orchid child was stunning. The idea of resilient children was hardly new, nor was the related idea that some kids are especially vulnerable to the stresses of their world. What was novel was the idea that some of the vulnerable, highly reactive children?the orchid children?had the capacity for both withering and thriving. They appeared to be extremely sensitive to home and family life, for better or worse. Is it possible, scientists wondered, that genes underlie this double-edged childhood sensitivity?
Ellis and Boyce?s paper launched a search both for those genes and for the risk pathways that might lead to bad outcomes such as delinquency, substance abuse and mental illness. Most of the work initially focused on the genes that behavioral geneticists call the ?usual suspects??and it paid off. Studies soon showed that genes linked to particular enzymes or brain chemical receptors, if combined with family stress or maltreatment, can lead to a slew of behavioral problems or mood disorders. These links have now been verified again and again, and scientists are searching for additional genes that might play a role in this exquisite childhood sensitivity.
But where to look? If one is looking for genes that might be linked to unhappy lives, the genetics of heavy drinking is a place to start. That was the reasoning of behavioral geneticist Danielle M. Dick of Virginia Commonwealth University, who, with 13 other scientists from around the world, has been exploring a gene called CHRM2. CHRM2 has already been implicated in alcohol dependence, which is in the same group of disruptive behaviors as childhood conduct disorders and antisocial behavior. What?s more, the gene codes for a chemical receptor involved in many brain functions, such as learning and memory, so the gene might also be involved in behavioral disorders. Dick and her colleagues recently decided to test the idea.
The team of researchers took DNA samples from a group of more than 400 boys and girls who have been part of a larger child development study since before kindergarten and analyzed variations in their CHRM2 gene. These kids did not have behavioral problems at the start; they were a representative sample from communities in three U.S. cities. The youngsters have been studied every year since kindergarten, and they were around age 17 at the time of this new study. The scientists collected information on the teenagers? misbehavior?delinquency, aggression, drug abuse, and so on?from both the mothers and the kids themselves. They also asked the teens how much their parents knew about their lives?such as their whereabouts, who they hung out with, what they did with their time, and how they spent their money. They wanted to get a general idea of how closely these kids were monitored by their parents in their daily comings and goings as a way of measuring parental nurturing, indifference or neglect.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=e72102b6980905e9cc27eb873806b67c
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Canada oil sands output to triple by 2035: report (Reuters)
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) ? Production from the oil sands will more than triple over the next quarter century, to 5.1 million barrels per day, Canada's national energy regulator said in a report released on Tuesday.
In a look at energy production and consumption through 2035, the National Energy Board said output from the oil sands, the largest source of U.S. oil imports, will continue to expand from around 1.5 million bpd currently as new mining and thermal projects tap the resources.
The oil sands of northern Alberta are the world's third biggest crude reserves, behind only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, but the largest open to private investment.
The NEB said its forecast also assumes oil prices will rise slowly through to 2035, reaching $115 a barrel in 2010 dollars, a level that provides a reasonable profit even for expensive new mining and upgrading projects such as those operated by Suncor Energy Inc, Royal Dutch Shell and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
The board also estimates that Canadian oil exports will rise to 5 million bpd by 2035 from about 2 million currently, with most of the additional supply coming from oil sands projects.
However the board cautioned that its forecast assumes markets and infrastructure will be available to handle the additional production. That outlook comes despite a U.S. decision delaying the approval of TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas by as much as 18 months.
The NEB said total production of Canadian crude oil would rise to 6 million barrels a day by 2035, double current levels. Though most will come from the oil sands, output from oil shale reserves like the Bakken field in Saskatchewan will also help bolster the total.
($1=$1.04 Canadian)
(Reporting by Scott Haggett; editing by Rob Wilson)
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In NH, Obama to push for payroll tax cut extension (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Targeting Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail, President Barack Obama is heading to New Hampshire, a political battleground, to begin a year-end push to extend payroll tax cuts.
During a speech Tuesday at a Manchester high school, the president was to argue that a failure to extend the tax breaks would hurt middle-class families already struggling amid a shaky economy, effectively daring congressional Republicans to block a measure and thus increase taxes.
"If we don't act, taxes will go up for every single American, starting next year. And I'm not about to let that happen," Obama said Monday, previewing the message he was expected to deliver.
The White House says a middle-class family making $50,000 a year would see its taxes rise by $1,000 if the payroll tax cuts are not extended.
The president's trip follows the collapse of the special congressional deficit-reduction supercommittee, which failed to reach a deal on $1.2 trillion in cuts ahead of a Wednesday deadline. Democrats had hoped to tuck the payroll tax extension, as well as a renewal of jobless benefits for the unemployed, into a supercommittee agreement.
With that option seemingly off the table, the White House plans to make a full-court press for a separate measure to extend the payroll tax cuts before they expire at the end of the year ? and set up Republicans as the scapegoat if that doesn't happen.
Republicans aren't wholly opposed to the extension. In fact, party members sent the White House a letter in September stating that extension of the payroll tax cut is one element of Obama's $447 billion jobs bill where the two sides may be able to find common ground.
Some Republicans worry that the tax cut extension would undermine the solvency of Social Security, and others are opposed to any effort to pay for the renewal by taxing the wealthiest Americans.
Last year's cut in the 6.2 percent payroll tax, which raises money for Social Security, was accomplished with borrowed money. The White House has been vague on exactly how it wants to see another round of cuts paid for; spokesman Jay Carney on Monday said only that the money should come from "asking millionaires and billionaires to pay a little bit extra."
A senior administration official said the president would not insist on the cuts being paid for immediately. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal administration strategy.
The 2 percent payroll tax cut expiring in December gave 121 million families a tax cut averaging $934 last year at a total cost of about $120 billion, according to the Tax Policy Center. Economists say allowing the cuts to expire would harm an economy already hobbled by 9 percent unemployment.
Obama wants to cut the payroll tax by another percentage point for workers, at a total cost of $179 billion, and cut the employer share of the tax in half as well for most companies, which carries a $69 billion price tag.
The issue could appeal to independent voters in low-tax New Hampshire, the presidential swing state Obama won in 2008. With Republican candidates blanketing the state with an anti-Obama message ahead of the Jan. 10 primary, the president and his surrogates, including Vice President Joe Biden, are seeking to steal some of the spotlight for their economic message.
It's been nearly two years since Obama visited New Hampshire. And on Tuesday, he'll find a state that has shifted distinctly to the right since his 2008 victory. Recent polls show that, if the election were held today, Obama would lose by roughly 10 percentage points to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Romney is expected Tuesday to begin airing his first television ads in New Hampshire, and they will criticize Obama's economic record.
___
Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in Manchester, N.H., contributed to this report.
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Libya's NTC unveils new government line-up (Reuters)
TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) on Tuesday named a new government featuring several surprise appointments that suggested the line-up was aimed at trying to soothe rivalries between regional factions.
Earlier, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor conceded that the captured son of Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, may be tried in Libya rather than in The Hague, meaning he faces the death penalty if convicted.
In forming a government, the NTC faced the tricky task of trying to reconcile regional and ideological interests whose rivalry threatens to upset the country's fragile stability, three months after the end of Gaddafi's 42-year rule.
"All of Libya is represented," prime minister Abdurrahim El-Keib told a news conference as he unveiled the line-up. "It is hard to say that any area is not represented."
The new cabinet will include as defense minister Osama Al-Juwali, commander of the military council in the town of Zintan.
Juwali appeared to have staked his claim to the job after his forces captured Saif al-Islam at the weekend and flew him to their hometown.
The foreign minister was named as Ashour Bin Hayal, a little-known diplomat originally from Derna, in eastern Libya.
His appointment was unexpected as diplomats had predicted the job would go to Libya's deputy envoy to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi, who had rallied diplomats to turn against Gaddafi early in the revolt against his rule.
Hassan Ziglam, an oil industry executive, was named as finance minister, and Abdulrahman Ben Yezza, a former executive with Italian oil major ENI, was made oil minister.
PROSECUTION
Libya is struggling to build new institutions out of the wreckage of Gaddafi's one-man rule, when corruption was rampant and state institutions were left to decay.
The Hague-based ICC has indicted Saif al-Islam for crimes against humanity. But chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said on a visit to Tripoli that Saif al-Islam could be tried inside Libya as long as the trial complies with ICC standards.
"Saif is captured so we are here to ensure cooperation. Now in May, we requested an arrest warrant because Libyans could not do justice in Libya. Now as Libyans are decided to do justice, they could do justice and we'll help them to do it, so that is the system," he told reporters on his arrival in Tripoli.
"Our International Criminal Court acts when the national system cannot act. They have decided to do it and that is why we are here to learn and to understand what they are doing and to cooperate."
Libyan officials have promised a fair trial but the country still has the death penalty on its books, whereas the severest punishment the ICC can impose is life imprisonment.
"The law says the primacy is for the national system. If they prosecute the case here, we will discuss with them how to inform the judges and they can do it. But our judges have to be involved," said Moreno-Ocampo.
Saif al-Islam was captured in an ambush deep in the Sahara desert and is now being held in the town of Zintan, in the Western Mountains region where his captors are based.
An NTC spokesman in Tripoli had described the arrest of Saif al-Islam, the last of Muammar Gaddafi's offspring whose whereabouts had been unaccounted for, as "the last chapter in the Libyan drama."
An official in Zintan told Reuters steps were already underway for Saif al-Islam's prosecution. "A Libyan prosecutor met with Saif (on Monday) to conduct a preliminary investigation," said Ahmed Ammar.
(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Hisham El Dani in Tripoli, Oliver Holmes and Taha Zargoun in Zintan; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111122/wl_nm/us_libya
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Griffin O'Neal pleads guilty to DUI (AP)
SAN DIEGO ? Griffin O'Neal, the son of actor Ryan O'Neal, has pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of drugs stemming from a head-on crash that injured another motorist.
The San Diego Union-Tribune ( http://bit.ly/tHTGso) says O'Neal pleaded guilty Tuesday to driving under the influence and possession of a firearm by a felon, both felonies. He also acknowledged he has a 1992 conviction for shooting into an unoccupied vehicle.
Prosecutors say O'Neal was on drugs Aug. 2 when he veered into oncoming traffic and collided with another vehicle in San Diego County.
Defense attorney Heather Boxeth said at a previous hearing that her client had been trying to help his half-brother Redmond O'Neal, who had been arrested on suspicion of heroin possession the same day.
Griffin O'Neal faces up to four years in prison.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Yemen president of 33 years quits amid uprising (AP)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia ? Yemen's authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed Wednesday to step down amid a fierce uprising to oust him after 33 years in power. The U.S. and its powerful Gulf allies pressed for the deal, concerned that a security collapse in the impoverished Arab nation was allowing an active al-Qaida franchise to gain a firmer foothold.
Saleh is the fourth Arab leader toppled in the wave of Arab Spring uprisings this year, after longtime dictators fell in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The deal gives Saleh immunity from prosecution ? contradicting a key demand of Yemen's opposition protesters.
Seated beside Saudi King Abdullah in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Saleh signed the U.S.-backed deal hammered out by his country's powerful Gulf Arab neighbors to transfer power within 30 days to his vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. That will be followed by early presidential elections within 90 days.
He was dressed smartly in a dark business suit with a matching striped tie and handkerchief, and he smiled as he signed the deal, then clapped his hands a few times. He then spoke for a few minutes to members of the Saudi royal families and international diplomats, promising his ruling party "will be cooperative" in working with a new unity government.
"This disagreement for the last 10 months has had a big impact on Yemen in the realms of culture, development, politics, which led to a threat to national unity and destroyed what has been built in past years," he said.
Protesters camped out in a public square near Sanaa's university immediately rejected the deal, chanting, "No immunity for the killer." They vowed to continued their protests.
President Barack Obama welcomed Saleh's decision, saying it is an important step forward for the Yemeni people. He urged all involved to move immediately to implement the agreement. Obama said the U.S. would stand by the Yemeni people "as they embark on this historic transition" to realize their aspirations for a new beginning, and he acknowledged "important work" done by Gulf allies.
Saleh has clung to power despite the daily mass protests calling for his ouster and a June assassination attempt that left him badly wounded and forced him to travel to Saudi Arabia for more than three months of hospital treatment. He was burned over much of his body and had shards of wood embedded in his chest by the explosion that ripped through his palace mosque as he prayed.
Shortly before Saleh inked the agreement, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the president told him he will travel to New York for medical treatment after signing it. He didn't say when Saleh planned to arrive in New York, nor what treatment he would be seeking.
Since February, tens of thousands of Yemenis have protested in cities and towns across the nation, calling for democracy and the fall of Saleh's regime. The uprising has led to a security collapse, with armed tribesmen battling security forces in different regions and al-Qaida-linked militants stepping up operations in the country's restive south.
For months, the U.S. and other world powers pressured Saleh to agree to the power transfer proposal by the Gulf Cooperation Council, and he agreed then backed down several times before. All the while, the uprising raged, security and the economy deteriorated. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula grew more bold, even seizing some territory.
Even before the uprising began, Yemen was the poorest country in the Middle East, fractured and unstable with a government that had weak authority at best outside the capital Sanaa.
Security is particularly bad in southern Yemen, where al-Qaida militants ? from one of the world's most active branches of the terror network ? have taken control of entire towns, using the turmoil to strengthen their position.
The nation of some 25 million people is of strategic value to the United States and its Gulf Arab allies, particularly Saudi Arabia. It sits close to the major Gulf oil fields and overlooks key shipping lanes in the Red and Arabian seas.
Saleh addressed the country's troubles without mentioning the demands of protesters who have filled squares across Yemen calling for his ouster, often facing deadly crackdowns from his security forces.
He also struck out at those who strove to topple him, calling the protests the protests a "coup" and the bombing of his palace mosque that seriously wounded him in June "a scandal."
Saleh said his ruling party will be "among the principal participants" in the proposed national unity government that is to be formed between his party and opposition parties, who also signed the deal.
Protests leaders have rejected the Gulf proposal from the beginning, saying it ignores their principle demands, which include instituting democratic reforms and putting Saleh on trial. They say the opposition political parties that signed the deal are compromised by their long association with Saleh's government.
Sanaa protest organizer Walid al-Ammari said the deal "does not serve the interests of Yemen."
"We will continue to protest in the streets and public squares until we achieve all the goals that we set to achieve," he said.
The plan Saleh agreed to calls for a two-year transition period in which a national unity government will amend the constitution, work to restore security and hold a national dialogue on the country's future.
The unarmed protesters have held their ground with remarkable resilience, flocking to the streets of Sanaa and other Yemeni cities and towns to demand reforms and braving a violent crackdown by government forces that has killed hundreds.
Their uprising has at times been hijacked by Yemen's two traditional powers ? the tribes and the military ? further deepening the country's turmoil. Breakaway military units and tribal fighters have been battling in Sanaa with troops loyal to Saleh in fighting that has escalated in recent months.
___
Hubbard reported from Cairo. Anita Snow contributed to this report from the United Nations.
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Super Saturnian storm
Tempest?s life span captured by Cassini spacecraft
Web edition : 3:04 pm
Like a snake swallowing its tail, a giant storm wrapped itself around Saturn in December and stuck around for more than 200 days. The Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn captured the thundering menace in images released by the Cassini team on November 17.
This false-color image, captured on January 12, depicts the tempest?s tail coiled around the northern hemisphere, marked by a giant hole torn into the deeper layers of Saturn?s atmosphere (blue oval in the upper left). Also visible is the shadow of Saturn?s tiny moon Enceladus (lower left beneath the rings [blue line]).
Scientists liken this storm to a volcanic explosion on Earth and are stumped by Saturn?s weather patterns, which seem to produce these outbursts every two or three decades.
Now the longest-lasting observed storm, the behemoth?s birth and evolution are revealed in a series of images that chronicle the storm?s evolution.
Found in: Atom & Cosmos
Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336399/title/Super_Saturnian_storm_
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A new practical strategy for magnetic-force-microscope cantilevers with high isotropic coercivity
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uZ5iXIjoFBWHsmAu6dbMwCsNLKCjr7a0p3LASjVWhieePmLWDTACTBCEjZ3JMw6tws90w-N4RkXKhJCDJSgcbNPDpwdLN5WrK3u78FRuY=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 22-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: LI Guoqing
gqli@swu.edu.cn
86-134-360-25440
Science in China Press
A magnetic force microscope (MFM) can determine the distribution of stray fields at a level of tens of nanometers near the surface of magnetic films, and therefore is an effective tool for observing the domain structures in magnetic grains of submicrometer size. At present, the coercivity of normal MFM cantilevers is about 0.3 kOe. Being affected by the magnetism of the measured material, the stability of these cantilevers is unsatisfactory. By applying a FePt layer, the coercivity can reach ~10 kOe. However, the accompanying high-temperature (over 750C) annealing spoils the resolution owing to the growth of the grains and the subsequent increase in tip radius. It is essential for the fabrication of a high-performance MFM cantilever to obtain larger coercivity at lower annealing temperature.
The group of Professor LI Guoqing at Southwest University of China proposed a novel method to tackle this problem. With inadequate annealing at 500C, a kind of hard/soft composite was formed in Fe60Pt40 films. The strong interaction of the exchange spring between the hard phase and soft phase contributes to larger coercivity exceeding 5 kOe as the sample is magnetized along any direction (see Fig. 1). The annealing temperature is lower, and the magnetic properties are isotropic. Cantilevers coated with this kind of material have improved stability. The research results were published in Scientia Sinica Phys, Mech & Astron, 2011, Vol 41(10), as a paper entitled 'Structure and magnetic properties of FexPt100-x films'.
By researching the properties of (001) textured Fe-Pt hard/soft composite on MgO(001) substrate, the group found the coercivity is favorable even if the sample is magnetized along the hard axis of the hard phase. A so-called tri-domain model was used to schematize the mechanism in view of the slight coherent strain near the hardsoft interface (see Fig. 2).
With a coating of this kind of hard/soft composite, the MFM resolution is better than 13 nm. This research has initiated the design of the coating layer for the MFM cantilever by choosing an off-stoichiometric composition and a matching lower annealing temperature to generate the exchange spring. The adequate saturation magnetization of the Fe-enriched alloy satisfies the sensitivity of the MFM cantilever. These efforts will benefit the fabrication of an excellent MFM cantilever. This research project was partially supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
###
See the article: Jiang D M, Chen Y C, Xiang H, et al. Structure and magnetic properties of FexPt100-x films (in Chinese). Scientia Sinica Phys, Mech & Astron (Chinese Ver), 2011, 41(10): 11561165
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 22-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: LI Guoqing
gqli@swu.edu.cn
86-134-360-25440
Science in China Press
A magnetic force microscope (MFM) can determine the distribution of stray fields at a level of tens of nanometers near the surface of magnetic films, and therefore is an effective tool for observing the domain structures in magnetic grains of submicrometer size. At present, the coercivity of normal MFM cantilevers is about 0.3 kOe. Being affected by the magnetism of the measured material, the stability of these cantilevers is unsatisfactory. By applying a FePt layer, the coercivity can reach ~10 kOe. However, the accompanying high-temperature (over 750C) annealing spoils the resolution owing to the growth of the grains and the subsequent increase in tip radius. It is essential for the fabrication of a high-performance MFM cantilever to obtain larger coercivity at lower annealing temperature.
The group of Professor LI Guoqing at Southwest University of China proposed a novel method to tackle this problem. With inadequate annealing at 500C, a kind of hard/soft composite was formed in Fe60Pt40 films. The strong interaction of the exchange spring between the hard phase and soft phase contributes to larger coercivity exceeding 5 kOe as the sample is magnetized along any direction (see Fig. 1). The annealing temperature is lower, and the magnetic properties are isotropic. Cantilevers coated with this kind of material have improved stability. The research results were published in Scientia Sinica Phys, Mech & Astron, 2011, Vol 41(10), as a paper entitled 'Structure and magnetic properties of FexPt100-x films'.
By researching the properties of (001) textured Fe-Pt hard/soft composite on MgO(001) substrate, the group found the coercivity is favorable even if the sample is magnetized along the hard axis of the hard phase. A so-called tri-domain model was used to schematize the mechanism in view of the slight coherent strain near the hardsoft interface (see Fig. 2).
With a coating of this kind of hard/soft composite, the MFM resolution is better than 13 nm. This research has initiated the design of the coating layer for the MFM cantilever by choosing an off-stoichiometric composition and a matching lower annealing temperature to generate the exchange spring. The adequate saturation magnetization of the Fe-enriched alloy satisfies the sensitivity of the MFM cantilever. These efforts will benefit the fabrication of an excellent MFM cantilever. This research project was partially supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
###
See the article: Jiang D M, Chen Y C, Xiang H, et al. Structure and magnetic properties of FexPt100-x films (in Chinese). Scientia Sinica Phys, Mech & Astron (Chinese Ver), 2011, 41(10): 11561165
[ | 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/sicp-anp112211.php
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