Google SVP Andy Rubin took to Twitter again today, not to delete one of his tweets but to publish a brand new one, saying Android saw 3.7 million activations in two days (Christmas day and the day before). He also posted it on his Google+ account, just in case you were wondering.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/RI6HlINASU8/
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ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2011) ? Nevada, the "Silver State," is well-known for mining precious metals. But scientists Dennis Bazylinski and colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) do a different type of mining.
They sluice through every water body they can find, looking for new forms of microbial magnetism.
In a basin named Badwater on the edge of Death Valley National Park, Bazylinski and researcher Christopher Lef?vre hit pay dirt.
Lef?vre is with the French National Center of Scientific Research and University of Aix-Marseille II.
In a recent issue of the journal Science, Bazylinski, Lef?vre and others report that they identified, isolated and grew a new type of magnetic bacteria that could lead to novel biotech and nanotech uses.
Magnetotactic bacteria are simple, single-celled organisms that are found in almost all bodies of water.
As their name suggests, they orient and navigate along magnetic fields like miniature swimming compass needles.
This is due to the nano-sized crystals of the minerals magnetite or greigite they produce.
The presence of these magnetic crystals makes the bacteria and their internal crystals--called magnetosomes--useful in drug delivery and medical imaging.
The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Energy and the French Foundation for Medical Research.
"The finding is significant in showing that this bacterium has specific genes to synthesize magnetite and greigite, and that the proportion of these magnetosomes varies with the chemistry of the environment," said Enriqueta Barrera, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.
While many magnetite-producing bacteria can be grown and easily studied, Bazylinski and his team were the first to cultivate a greigite-producing species. Greigite is an iron sulfide mineral, the equivalent of the iron oxide magnetite.
"Because greigite-producing bacteria have never been isolated, the crystals haven't been tested for the types of biomedical and other applications that currently use magnetite," said Bazylinski.
"Greigite is an iron sulfide that may be superior to magnetite in some applications due to its slightly different physical and magnetic properties. Now we have the opportunity to find out."
Researchers found the greigite-producing bacterium, called BW-1, in water samples collected more than 280 feet below sea level in Badwater Basin. Lef?vre and Bazylinski later isolated and grew it leading to the discovery that BW-1 produces both greigite and magnetite.
A detailed look at its DNA revealed that BW-1 has two sets of magnetosome genes, unlike other such bacteria, which produce only one mineral and have only one set of magnetosome genes.
This suggests that the production of magnetite and greigite in BW-1 is likely controlled by separate sets of genes. That could be important in the mass production of either mineral for specific applications.
According to Bazylinski, the greigite-producing bacteria represent a new, previously unrecognized group of sulfate-reducing bacteria that "breathe" the compound sulfate rather than oxygen as most living organisms do.
"With how much is known about sulfate-reducing bacteria, it's surprising that no one has described this group," he said.
Working with Bazylinski and Lef?vre on the project are David Pignol of the French National Center of Scientific Research and University of Aix-Marseille II; Nicolas Menguy of Pierre and Marie Curie University, France; Fernanda Abreu and Ulysses Lins of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Mihaly P?sfai of the University of Pannonia, Hungary; Tanya Prozorov of Ames Laboratory, Iowa; and Richard Frankel of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
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(Reuters) ? Shoppers found a mixed bag of bargains and so-so deals on Monday, as a day off for many Americans lured some out for what was likely to be the third-busiest shopping day of the holiday season.
Chains were also hoping that shoppers coming in to redeem the millions of gift cards given as presents might be willing to spend a bit more cash of their own.
Many retailers were still relying on bargains to entice shoppers on the day after Christmas.
In 2010, chains rang up about $62 billion in sales during the final week of the year, about 12 percent of the total for the holiday season, despite some major snowstorms.
"This year we'll blow through that, with about $72 billion in sales for this retail 'second season,'" said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners.
Retailers could sell as much as $29 billion worth of merchandise on Monday alone, eclipsing the $27 billion in sales on Black Friday, Johnson said on Monday morning, as he saw parking lots at suburban malls and outlet malls filling up.
Some areas such as Chicago's Michigan Avenue had smaller morning crowds than on the busy day after Thanksgiving.
Internet offers were popular, especially on Christmas, when most stores were closed. Target Corp, for example, offered $10 off online orders of $50 or more on Christmas.
Online sales on Christmas Day rose 16.4 percent from 2010, and were up 10 percent as of 3 p.m. EST on December 26, according to IBM.
The National Retail Federation expects holiday season sales to rise 3.8 percent to a record $469.1 billion, slower than last year's growth but stronger than its preseason forecast.
The potential shopping boom comes as a weak labor market that has dragged on the economy shows signs of a turn. The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits hit a 3-1/2-year low in the week shortly before Christmas, and consumer sentiment scaled a six-month high in December, with more Americans optimistic about the economic outlook.
Still, U.S. consumer spending, which accounts for about two-third of U.S. economic activity, rose less than expected in November.
This year marked the first time in six years that the day after Christmas fell on a Monday. Some dubbed it "Mega Monday" as the day takes on more prominence for shoppers, especially those who have the day off.
Shoppers who made their way to Saks Fifth Avenue in Boston's Prudential Center mall said the 60 percent and 70 percent discounts were well worth fighting the crowds.
"It was a stampede at 8 a.m.," said Sarah Klein, 46, a teacher from Cambridge, who said people were grabbing fistfuls of discount handbags when the doors opened.
THIRD-BUSIEST SHOPPING DAY
Four in 10 Americans plan on hitting stores over the next few days, while 46 percent have no plans to shop, according to a poll from Consumer Reports. Of those who said they planned to shop, 82 percent said the biggest draw was post-holiday sales, 47 percent wanted to redeem gift cards and 31 percent expected to return gifts.
This year, December 26 is expected to be the third-busiest sales day, trailing Black Friday and Friday, December 23, according to ShopperTrak, which measures retail and mall foot traffic.
As procrastinators finished shopping in the days just before Christmas, December 23 overtook December 17 as the second-busiest day so far, said Bill Martin, founder of ShopperTrak.
ShopperTrak predicted that up to 60 percent more shoppers will visit stores on December 26 than on the same day last year.
Among the deals offered on Monday, JC Penney Co Inc had coupons for $10 off purchases of $25 or more, while Gap Inc's Old Navy offered those spending $20 in its stores a coupon worth $10 toward a future purchase.
Still, some shoppers were not impressed with the deals.
Catherine Arora, 33, who was visiting Boston from Australia, said sales back home are much bigger on the December 26 Boxing Day holiday.
"So far, the sales are a bit underwhelming," she said while out hunting for clothes and shoes.
Retailers may have a glut of winter clothing due to warmer-than-usual weather, but they made smart bets on other items, meaning they should not have to resort to lots of steep discounts to clean out inventory, experts said.
Ken Ucho, a retired principal who now lives in La Porte, Indiana, said he came back to Chicago to shop and had few crowds to avoid early in the morning.
After visiting a number of stores, including Macy's and Bloomingdale's, Ucho, 69, said he saw crowds only at the upscale Neiman Marcus.
GIFT CARDS
Another Consumer Reports poll found that 113 million Americans received gift cards last holiday season, and that 62 percent of adults planned to give them as gifts this year.
Retailers hope that people redeeming gift cards will buy merchandise at full price and spend more than the value of the cards they are using.
"The best and the smartest retailers do put together promotions and merchandising in such a way to convince the consumer to spend more than what their gift card was," said John Squire of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative.
The Hodgson family, from Cleveland, was in Boston for the holiday and decided to go shopping together on Monday rather than exchanging gifts. Siblings Matt, 29, Chris, 26, and Catie, 21, said they had some gift cards to use from relatives and expected their spending to top the cards' values.
Dawn Babbi, 26, said retailers had to have strong offers to get her to shop this year, especially as she does more of her shopping online, where she has found good discounts.
"I came out for discounted Christmas wrap for next year," Babbi said as she shopped at Target in Plattsburgh, New York, on Monday. "Why pay full price when you can get it half price?"
(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Additional reporting by Lauren Keiper in Boston, James Kelleher in Chicago, Phil Wahba in Plattsburgh and Dena Aubin in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Dan Grebler)
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All Critics (44) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (3) | DVD (1)
It should appeal to dance mavens, and to folks who have no idea what a pas de deux is.
The power and intelligence of Bausch's approach, which at times seems more cerebral than sensual, is communicated.
An intimate and ravishingly filmed tribute to German dancer Pina Bausch.
We are among these dancers in their pain and joy and longing. We hear them breathe, feel the heat of their skin, smell their sweat, sense the pounding of their hearts, the ache in their thighs and feet.
A tribute to Pina Bausch, one of modern dance's most groundbreaking choreographers, pic lets the artist's work speak for itself via big, juicy slabs of performance.
Wim Wenders' stylish 3D mirrors the bizarrely captivating world of choreographer Pina Bausch.
Thanks to 3D technology it's dance film quite unlike any other, which was filmmaker Wim Wenders' intention, and it's a transporting experience for the uninitiated and the cognoscenti alike.
...filmmaking as glorious music.
An amazing and appealing 3D documentary by the inimitable Wim Wenders on the innovative dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch.
A movie that does more than demolish the invisible wall between film and dance; it breaks the barrier that intervenes, even at a live performance, between seat and stage.
Less a strict documentary than a heartfelt - and visually gorgeous - celebration of Bausch's work and her mode of working.
Pina belongs in the rare category of adventurous material matched with a thrillingly immersive form -- suck it, Avatar.
Beyond a nostalgic tribute for cognoscenti, this visually stunning film is a terrific introduction. It will be an essential resource and inspiration for future dance fans.
An interest in modern dance isn't necessary to enjoy the film.
No es una pel?cula sobre Pina Bausch sino para Pina Bausch, una suerte de hermoso tributo o regalo que le hacen (y que nos hacen) sus bailarines de la mano de un director que filma como los dioses.
Richly cinematic, using the camera to direct our attention, change our perspective, and significantly alter our sense of the space and the shape of the dancer's bodies.
Unlike so many 3D films, Pina is a prime example of how big a difference the process can make to the film-going experience.
By virtue of its subject alone, enthusiasts of modern dance will devour Pina. If it was in a bottle, they'd drink every drop; if it was in a squeeze-tube, they would rub it on their skin.
More Critic ReviewsNo quotes approved yet for Pina. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pina_3d/
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The top 25 teams in The Associated Press? college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Dec. 25, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one
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FRANKFURT (Reuters) ? Volkswagen has agreed to grant workers in Germany a rest from e-mails relentlessly filling the inboxes of their Blackberry devices out of hours.
Europe's biggest carmaker and the body that represents its workers have agreed to have the e-mail function deactivated at night, a spokesman for the company said, confirming an earlier report in a German newspaper.
Workers will only receive e-mails from half an hour before the start of flex-time working hours until half an hour after they end, but will still be able to receive and make phone calls.
Daily Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung this week cited works council member Heinz-Joachim Thust as saying that 1,154 pay-scale employees at Volkswagen's six plants in Germany have a smartphone device furnished by the company.
The works council sought to counter any expectation that employees should be reachable all the times, thanks to their indispensable "CrackBerry" gadgets, which could heighten the risk of burnout, a psychological syndrome that some studies have said causes almost 10 million sick days a year in Germany.
So far, the response to the decision to deactivate e-mails at night has been very positive, VW's Thust told Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung.
The move comes two months after millions of customers of the Blackberry -- made by Research in Motion -- were frustrated by a three-day global service disruption, showing how much many rely on continuous, reliable e-mail and instant messenger service.
Volkswagen, which has about 400,000 employees worldwide, aims to overtake Japan's Toyota as the world's biggest carmaker by 2018 by selling 10 million vehicles per year.
The group logged 7.51 million deliveries for the first 11 months of this year, after a 15 percent gain in November.
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Mike Nesbit)
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WASHINGTON ? Stuck in a stalemate, President Barack Obama and his Republican rivals are slugging it out in Washington rather than reaching for a holiday season accord to prevent payroll taxes from going up on 160 million workers.
The tax increases, as well as cuts to Medicare doctors' fees and a lapse in jobless benefits, are due Jan. 1. They are looming even though the combatants agree that they shouldn't happen. Instead, the warring factions have painted themselves into a corner.
House Republicans are demanding that the Senate join negotiations to produce an agreement within days; Senate Democrats insist no talks will take place before the House approves a stopgap measure to buy more time.
A House vote Tuesday scuttled a bipartisan Senate deal for a two-month extension of all three policies: the payroll tax cuts, jobless benefits and Medicare fees.
After the House killed the Senate measure on a 229-193 vote, Obama signaled he'll use his presidential megaphone to try to force Republicans controlling the House into submission.
"Now let's be clear," Obama said at the White House. "The bipartisan compromise that was reached on Saturday is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on Jan. 1. The only one."
The Obama campaign promptly took to Twitter and Facebook to fight it out. With their candidate's poll numbers rising, Democratic operatives seemed almost giddy at the prospect of a prolonged battle.
"The response was overwhelming," said a White House official requiring anonymity to discuss Obama's political efforts.
Republican lawmakers relished the battle as well, though some of them are too inexperienced to know that presidents ? regardless of party ? usually win such high-profile fights, like President Bill Clinton did over a 1995-96 government shutdown or President George W. Bush did in skirmishes on anti-terror policies.
House Republicans instead rallied around a plan passed last week that would have extended the payroll tax cut for one year. But that version also contained spending cuts opposed by Democrats and tighter rules for jobless benefits.
If legislation isn't passed by New Year's Day, payroll taxes will go up by almost $20 a week for a worker making a $50,000 salary. Almost 2 million people could lose unemployment benefits as well, and doctors would bear big cuts in Medicare payments.
Whatever the stakes, there was little indication that Republicans would get their wish for negotiations with the Senate any time soon. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued a statement saying he would be happy to resume talks on a yearlong measure ? "but not before" the House ratifies the two-month bill and sends it to Obama for his signature.
Given Obama's remarks and Reid's refusal to negotiate, it was unclear what leverage Republicans had in the year-end standoff. It appeared likely the partisan disagreement could easily persist past Christmas and into the final week of the year.
A little-noticed element of the brawl was that the House-Senate parliamentary situation, which can be a critical factor, is all messed up. The Senate adjourned Saturday until Jan. 23 except for so-called pro forma sessions in which legislative business ? like responding to the House moves ? is basically impossible unless all 100 senators agree. That's never a sure thing.
The standoff was sowing confusion among business executives, who were running out of time to adapt to any new payroll tax regimen. Even the Senate's proposed two-month extension was creating headaches because it contained a two-tiered system geared to ensuring that higher-income earners paid a higher rate on some of their wages, according to a trade group.
"There's not time enough to do that in an orderly fashion," said Pete A. Isberg, president of the National Payroll Reporting Consortium trade group. "We're two weeks away from 2012." He wrote a letter to congressional leaders this week warning that the Senate bill "could create substantial problems, confusion and costs."
Meanwhile, Medicare announced Tuesday that, as it has in the past when doctors' reimbursements have been cut through congressional inaction, it would withhold physicians' payments for two weeks in January to avoid passing on a 27 percent cut in Medicare fees. The hope is that the problem gets fixed by then.
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Public release date: 23-Dec-2011
Share ] Contact: Simon Levey
s.levey@imperial.ac.uk
44-020-759-46702
Imperial College London
If all the UK's discarded wrapping paper and Christmas cards were collected and fermented, they could make enough biofuel to run a double-decker bus to the moon and back more than 20 times, according to the researchers behind a new scientific study.
The study, by scientists at Imperial College London, demonstrates that industrial quantities of waste paper could be turned into high grade biofuel, to power motor vehicles, by fermenting the paper using microorganisms. The researchers hope that biofuels made from waste paper could ultimately provide one alternative to fossil fuels like diesel and petrol, in turn reducing the impact of fossil fuels on the environment.
According to some estimates 1.5 billion cards and 83 square kilometres of wrapping paper are thrown away by UK residents over the Christmas period. They currently go to landfill or are recycled in local schemes. This amount of paper could provide 5-12 million litres of biofuel, say the researchers, enough to run a bus for up to 18 million km.
"If one card is assumed to weigh 20g and one square metre of wrapping paper is 10g, then around 38,300 tonnes of extra paper waste will be generated at Christmas time," said study author Dr Richard Murphy from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London. "Our research shows that it would be feasible to build waste paper-to-biofuel processing plants that give energy back as transport fuel."
Co-author and PhD student Lei Wang, also from Imperial's Department of Life Sciences, said: "The fermentation process could even cope with festive paper and card which has been 'contaminated' with the likes of glitter and sellotape. The cellulose molecules in sellotape would be broken down into glucose sugars and then fermented into ethanol fuel, just like the paper itself. Insoluble items like glitter are easy to filter out as part of the process."
Dr Murphy added: "People should not stop recycling their discarded paper and Christmas cards because at the moment there is no better solution. However, if this technology can be developed further, waste paper might ultimately provide a great, environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels. There's more work to do to assess the effectiveness and benefits of the technology, but we think it has significant potential."
In the study, published this month in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Energy and Environmental Science, the researchers describe how they fermented different types of paper and cardboard in the laboratory to assess how chemically and economically feasible it is to turn them into ethanol fuel. They found that it is not only possible in laboratory experiments but should be economically viable on a large scale as well.
Across the year, around 60 per cent of the UK's waste paper is collected for recycling or other waste management schemes, which equates to around 8 million tonnes. The scientists say that using a well-tested fermentation method and a novel cocktail of efficient and cheap chemical enzymes, their system could be scaled up to the size of existing industrial processing plants and be used to convert 2000 tonnes of waste paper per day into biofuels.
There is already an urgent need for councils to prevent reusable materials like cardboard and paper being sent to landfill sites, saving money and avoiding unnecessary waste, a message echoed by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson in a speech about Recycle for London's Nice Save campaign this week. This new research shows that in addition to recycling, waste materials can be used to generate energy, and some of that can be as valuable vehicle fuel.
High grade ethanol, such as that made in this study, can be (and already is) blended with fossil-based petrol to make a fuel with lower greenhouse gas balance than conventional petrol for cars and vans, and can also be used to power large diesel vehicles like buses and trucks, if modifications are made to their engines. This approach is already used in Brazil, the USA and the EU, among other regions, where ethanol biofuels are being made from sugar cane, grain and other crops. Most of the UK's biofuel is currently imported from abroad.
The authors of this study are now analysing the environmental performance of bioethanol made from waste paper using life cycle assessment (LCA) and comparing it with the conventional transport fuel petrol. LCA is an environmental management tool that evaluates the 'cradle-to-grave' effects of a product for its influence on a range of environmental impact categories, including its ability to contribute to climate change or soil acidification or to cause algal blooms in fresh water.
###
1. Journal reference: Wang L, Sharifzadeh M, Templer R and Murphy RJ
"Technology performance and economic feasibility of bioethanol production from various waste papers" is published in Energy and Environmental Science DOI: 10.1039/C2EE02935A
2. The maths:
(1) Bioethanol predicted from using Christmas waste is 5.2-12 million
L, energy content of ethanol is 22 MJ/L
(2) Economy mileage for a diesel bus is 39 L/100km (Wikipedia info)
Diesel energy content is 38.6 MJ/L
Bus running needs 15 MJ/km
(3) Bus using bioethanol can run 1.47 km/L
(4) Distance of bus running is 7.6-18 million km
(5) Times travelling to moon (distance is 0.38 million km) is 20-47
times
3. Globally, the annual bioethanol production from waste paper and cardboard has been estimated by Shi et al. to be in the order of 80 billion litres and world annual consumption of paper products in 2010 (400 million tonnes) could potentially amount up to 129 billion litres if all used papers were completely converted to bioethanol. These estimates suggest waste paper derived bioethanol could deliver a considerable potential to displace a useful proportion of petroleum demand. Overall, this comprehensive techno-economic analysis shows that bioethanol production from waste papers can be economically feasible.
[ | 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: 23-Dec-2011 Share ] Contact: Simon Levey
s.levey@imperial.ac.uk
44-020-759-46702
Imperial College London
If all the UK's discarded wrapping paper and Christmas cards were collected and fermented, they could make enough biofuel to run a double-decker bus to the moon and back more than 20 times, according to the researchers behind a new scientific study.
The study, by scientists at Imperial College London, demonstrates that industrial quantities of waste paper could be turned into high grade biofuel, to power motor vehicles, by fermenting the paper using microorganisms. The researchers hope that biofuels made from waste paper could ultimately provide one alternative to fossil fuels like diesel and petrol, in turn reducing the impact of fossil fuels on the environment.
According to some estimates 1.5 billion cards and 83 square kilometres of wrapping paper are thrown away by UK residents over the Christmas period. They currently go to landfill or are recycled in local schemes. This amount of paper could provide 5-12 million litres of biofuel, say the researchers, enough to run a bus for up to 18 million km.
"If one card is assumed to weigh 20g and one square metre of wrapping paper is 10g, then around 38,300 tonnes of extra paper waste will be generated at Christmas time," said study author Dr Richard Murphy from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London. "Our research shows that it would be feasible to build waste paper-to-biofuel processing plants that give energy back as transport fuel."
Co-author and PhD student Lei Wang, also from Imperial's Department of Life Sciences, said: "The fermentation process could even cope with festive paper and card which has been 'contaminated' with the likes of glitter and sellotape. The cellulose molecules in sellotape would be broken down into glucose sugars and then fermented into ethanol fuel, just like the paper itself. Insoluble items like glitter are easy to filter out as part of the process."
Dr Murphy added: "People should not stop recycling their discarded paper and Christmas cards because at the moment there is no better solution. However, if this technology can be developed further, waste paper might ultimately provide a great, environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels. There's more work to do to assess the effectiveness and benefits of the technology, but we think it has significant potential."
In the study, published this month in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Energy and Environmental Science, the researchers describe how they fermented different types of paper and cardboard in the laboratory to assess how chemically and economically feasible it is to turn them into ethanol fuel. They found that it is not only possible in laboratory experiments but should be economically viable on a large scale as well.
Across the year, around 60 per cent of the UK's waste paper is collected for recycling or other waste management schemes, which equates to around 8 million tonnes. The scientists say that using a well-tested fermentation method and a novel cocktail of efficient and cheap chemical enzymes, their system could be scaled up to the size of existing industrial processing plants and be used to convert 2000 tonnes of waste paper per day into biofuels.
There is already an urgent need for councils to prevent reusable materials like cardboard and paper being sent to landfill sites, saving money and avoiding unnecessary waste, a message echoed by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson in a speech about Recycle for London's Nice Save campaign this week. This new research shows that in addition to recycling, waste materials can be used to generate energy, and some of that can be as valuable vehicle fuel.
High grade ethanol, such as that made in this study, can be (and already is) blended with fossil-based petrol to make a fuel with lower greenhouse gas balance than conventional petrol for cars and vans, and can also be used to power large diesel vehicles like buses and trucks, if modifications are made to their engines. This approach is already used in Brazil, the USA and the EU, among other regions, where ethanol biofuels are being made from sugar cane, grain and other crops. Most of the UK's biofuel is currently imported from abroad.
The authors of this study are now analysing the environmental performance of bioethanol made from waste paper using life cycle assessment (LCA) and comparing it with the conventional transport fuel petrol. LCA is an environmental management tool that evaluates the 'cradle-to-grave' effects of a product for its influence on a range of environmental impact categories, including its ability to contribute to climate change or soil acidification or to cause algal blooms in fresh water.
###
1. Journal reference: Wang L, Sharifzadeh M, Templer R and Murphy RJ
"Technology performance and economic feasibility of bioethanol production from various waste papers" is published in Energy and Environmental Science DOI: 10.1039/C2EE02935A
2. The maths:
(1) Bioethanol predicted from using Christmas waste is 5.2-12 million
L, energy content of ethanol is 22 MJ/L
(2) Economy mileage for a diesel bus is 39 L/100km (Wikipedia info)
Diesel energy content is 38.6 MJ/L
Bus running needs 15 MJ/km
(3) Bus using bioethanol can run 1.47 km/L
(4) Distance of bus running is 7.6-18 million km
(5) Times travelling to moon (distance is 0.38 million km) is 20-47
times
3. Globally, the annual bioethanol production from waste paper and cardboard has been estimated by Shi et al. to be in the order of 80 billion litres and world annual consumption of paper products in 2010 (400 million tonnes) could potentially amount up to 129 billion litres if all used papers were completely converted to bioethanol. These estimates suggest waste paper derived bioethanol could deliver a considerable potential to displace a useful proportion of petroleum demand. Overall, this comprehensive techno-economic analysis shows that bioethanol production from waste papers can be economically feasible.
[ | 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/2011-12/icl-gtw122311.php
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Anticipating Oracle's earnings report, with Rick Sherlund, Nomura Securities head of technology research.
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Oddee.com:
Yes, "Twlight" is popular.
Yes, the fans are rabid.
Yes, Oddee.com has compiled some examples to prove the craze has gotten bloody crazy.
Read the whole story: Oddee.com
'; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/04/10-creepy-examples-of-twilight-craziness_n_1128472.html
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LONDON (AP) ? WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted permission by judges Monday to continue his legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations ? but was warned that his chances of success are slim.
At a hearing at London's High Court, senior judges John Thomas and Duncan Ouseley said Assange would be allowed to apply to Britain's Supreme Court to argue that Europe's process of carrying out extradition was flawed.
The WikiLeaks' chief now has 14 days to submit a written request for a hearing at the country's highest court, Gareth Peirce, a lawyer for Assange, said outside court.
The decision means Assange won't face immediate deportation, and is likely to spend a second Christmas living under curfew at a supporter's country estate in eastern England.
Assange's legal team argue that police and prosecutors ? like the Swedish prosecutor seeking to bring Assange back to the country for questioning ? are not a proper judicial authority, and shouldn't have the right to order extraditions.
Judges said Assange's lawyers had raised a legal question of "general public importance," which is necessary to win an audience at the Supreme Court. But Thomas added that the appeal's "chances of success may be extraordinarily slim."
Assange, who listened attentively and scribbled notes throughout the hearing, was cheered by a small group of supporters ? including several demonstrators from the nearby Occupy London encampment ? as he left the court.
"The High Court has decided that an issue that arises from my own case is of general public importance and may be of assistance in other cases and should be heard at the Supreme Court," Assange said on the steps of the courthouse.
"I think this is the right decision and I am thankful. The long struggle for justice for me and for others continues," he said.
Assange, 40, leads the foundering WikiLeaks anti-secrecy movement, which has been hit with a series of legal and financial setbacks. He was accused of rape, coercion and molestation following encounters with two Swedish women in August 2010. Swedish authorities issued a European Arrest Warrant on rape and molestation accusations, and Assange was arrested in London in December 2010.
Assange was released on bail on the condition that he lives under curfew and wears an electronic tag.
In February, Judge Howard Riddle ruled that Assange can be extradited to Sweden to face questions about the allegations, rejecting his claims that he would not receive a fair trial there.
Assange appealed against the decision. He also insists that the sexual encounters were entirely consensual, and legal in the context of English law.
Judges said Monday that they believed Assange would have faced charges if the incidents had taken place in Britain.
Per E. Samuelsson, Assange's Swedish lawyer, hailed the court's decision to allow him to continue his legal fight.
"This is positive news for Julian Assange and means he will remain in the U.K. while the court assesses his appeal," Samuelsson said. "It is something we have fought for."
Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer representing the two women bringing sex crime charges against Assange, called the decision regrettable.
"My clients have waited for over a year for a legal conclusion of this and now they will have to wait even longer," Borgstrom said. "Then it will still end with Assange being transferred to Sweden. The rules are very clear about this."
"I regret he himself doesn't choose to hand himself over," Borgstrom added.
He said the two women had hoped that the case would have been settled at Monday's hearing. "Now they have to wait for another few months. We are hardened by now, but of course this is still stressful," he said.
Peirce said a panel of three Supreme Court judges will review Assange's appeal for a hearing at the court. If accepted, it could be several more months before his fate is decided conclusively. However, if the judges reject the plea for a hearing, Assange could be sent to Sweden within 10 days, she said.
The High Court judges appealed to their colleagues at the Supreme Court to resolve the case as speedily as possible.
"We would, for obvious reasons, ask that the point is decided as quickly as possible," Thomas told the hearing.
Outside the court, masked members of the hacker group Anonymous and supporters of the Occupy protest ? some of whom wore the cartoon-style masks that have become synonymous with the demonstration, mingled with WikiLeaks activists.
One banner draped over railings outside the court read "Free Assange. Free Manning," referring to U.S. Army analyst Bradley Manning who is in custody at Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas, suspected of disclosing secret intelligence to WikiLeaks.
_____
Associated Press writer Malin Rising in Stockholm contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration says it has full confidence in the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, despite comments he made about anti-Semitism that prompted angry responses from Jewish groups and Republicans.
Howard Gutman, who is Jewish and whose father survived the Holocaust, told a European Jewish gathering last week that some hatred of Jews reflected hostility toward Israel's treatment of Palestinians. He said it was different from traditional anti-Semitism.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday that Gutman would remain in his post.
Toner said Gutman spoke as ambassador, yet expressed his own views. He declined to say if the administration disagreed with those views.
The White House on Saturday condemned anti-Semitism in all forms. Gutman did as well.
Jewish groups expressed outrage. Some Republican presidential candidates have demanded Gutman's resignation.
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ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2011) ? Individuals and courts deal more harshly with people who actively commit harm than with people who willfully allow the same harm to occur. A new study finds that this moral distinction is psychologically automatic. It requires more thought to see each harmful behavior as morally equivalent.
People typically say they are invoking an ethical principle when they judge acts that cause harm more harshly than willful inaction that allows that same harm to occur. That difference is even codified in criminal law. A new study based on brain scans, however, shows that people make that moral distinction automatically. Researchers found that it requires conscious reasoning to decide that active and passive behaviors that are equally harmful are equally wrong.
For example (see below), an overly competitive figure skater in one case loosens the skate blade of a rival, or in another case, notices that the blade is loose and fails to warn anyone. In both cases, the rival skater loses the competition and is seriously injured. Whether it is by acting, or willfully failing to act, the overly competitive skater did the same harm.
The neuroscience of ethical dilemmas Fiery Cushman employs behavioral experiments, online surveys, and functional magnetic resonance imaging to figure out how the brain has evolved to process moral dilemmas and make moral judgments."What it looks like is when you see somebody actively harm another person that triggers a strong automatic response," said Brown University psychologist Fiery Cushman. "You don't have to think very deliberatively about it. You just perceive it as morally wrong. When a person allows harm that they could easily prevent, that actually requires more carefully controlled deliberative thinking [to view as wrong]."
In a study published in advance online in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Cushman and his co-authors presented 35 volunteers with 24 moral dilemmas and lapses like the one involving the figure skaters. For specific lengths of time the volunteers would read an introduction to the incident, a description of the character's moral choices, and a description of how the character behaved. Then they'd rate the moral wrongness of the behavior on a scale from 1 to 5. All the while, Cushman and his co-authors, who were at Harvard University at the time, tracked the blood flow in the volunteers' brains with functional magnetic resonance imaging scans.
Cushman expected to confirm what he had observed in behavioral experiments and published in 2006: that people employed conscious reasoning to arrive at the usual feeling, which is that actively caused harm is morally worse than the passively caused harm.
Figuring he had a clever way to prove it physiologically, he and his team compared the brain scans of people who judged active harm to be worse than passive harm to the scans of people who judged them as morally equal. His assumption was that those who saw a moral difference did so by explicit reasoning. Such people should therefore have exhibited greater activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex than those who saw no moral distinction. But to Cushman's surprise, the greater levels of DPFC activity lay with those who saw active harm and passive harm as morally the same.
"The people who are showing this distinction are actually the ones who show the least evidence of deliberative, careful, controlled thinking," he said, "whereas the people who show no difference between actions and omissions show the most evidence of careful deliberative controlled thinking."
Social judgment
Cushman emphasized that his research does not suggest which moral judgment is right. But it is notable that our legal system enshrines the belief that active harm is worse than passive harm.
As one example, he cites a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Vacco v. Quill) in which the court ruled that given explicit permission from a patient, a doctor cannot directly euthanize the patient, such as with an overdose of morphine, but the doctor can follow a patient's directive to cease life support or other treatment. In the case, the district court in New York initially ruled the way the Supreme Court ultimately did, but the appeals court in between ruled that euthanasia and ending life support were essentially the same.
Cushman said his new findings may be useful because they describe the mechanisms underlying how they, and perhaps society in general, arrive at moral judgments. Drawing on the metaphor offered by authors Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel in their ethics book Blind Spots, he suggests that the extra thought required to judge passive harm as morally wrong might be analogous to a blind spot.
Much as drivers learn to look over their shoulder before changing lanes, he said, people may want to examine how they feel about passive harm. Especially in specific, real-life situations, they may still conclude that active harm is worse, but they'll at least have compensated for the automatic bias his research suggests is there.
In addition to Cushman, other authors include Dylan Murray, Shauna Gordon-McKeon. Sophie Wharton, and Joshua Greene. The research was supported by the Arete Initiative and the National Science Foundation.
Full example: Active or passive
Setup
Kelly is a figure skater trying out for the Olympics. The final spot on the team will go to either her or Jesse, depending on the outcome of a competition. When Kelly goes to the pro shop to pick up her skates, she sees Jesse's skates lying on the counter.
Harmful act
Harmful omission
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The 4G-flavored Galaxy Nexus has been spotted by the gadget paparazzi yet again. This time, attention was focused on what the Verizon branding will add in the way of obligatory software detritus. Fortunately, these photos prove that the ICS-minted phone should be able to shrug off most of these annoyances. In the shot above, the Verizon Backup Assistant app's disable button is all lit up, beckoning to be forever removed from your visible app list. Check out a full gallery of the Big Red bloat at the source below.
Verizon apps crash the Galaxy Nexus party, are quickly shown the door originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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NEW YORK ? Online music provider Spotify is adding free apps to its service to broaden its reach and expand what people can do with its vast trove of digital tunes.
Spotify Inc. said Wednesday that it is adding apps from Rolling Stone and Billboard magazines, Internet radio service Last.fm, and a slew of others. The Swedish company, which launched its service in the U.S. in July, is also letting developers build new Spotify apps, though it will vet each one.
At a launch event in New York City, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner called Spotify the "ultimate jukebox." With the apps, Spotify might be betting that it'll be more than that. That is, a music platform that people keep coming back to so they can share with friends, read reviews or find nearby concerts.
Spotify has 10 million active users, 2.5 million of whom pay for its service.
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