Buoyed by Obama, leaders press for climate action

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Hurricanes, floods, droughts and a newly climate-conscious Barack Obama are helping boost efforts around the world to fight climate change.

Top political and financial leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos say recent natural disasters, along with Obama's inauguration announcement this week that he's making the battle against rising temperatures a pillar of his second term, could rev up the glacially slow climate pact negotiations and revive fundraising for global action to cool the planet.

"Unless we take action on climate change, future generations will be roasted, toasted, fried and grilled," International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde told participants at Davos.

The U.N.'s climate chief, Christiana Figueras, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that Obama's emphasis on climate "definitely is a political boost." She said Hurricane Sandy and drought in the Midwest last year helped push climate change back onto the U.S. political debate.

"We also need to see clearly much more engagement from the United States, we need to a confirmation from the new leadership in China that they remain on course and are willing to engage further. From the Europeans, we need to see that they also remain on course," Figueras said. "And then all of the emerging economies, in addition to China, need to begin to explore the opportunities that they have."

The U.N. climate talks, now two decades in the making, have so far failed to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that most scientists say are warming the Earth.

Participants at the Davos forum ? which identifies extreme weather as one of the top three risks to the global economy ? called for global action.

Until now, rich and poor countries have accused U.S. leaders of hampering the global fight against climate change, which scientists say is causing a rise in temperatures and sea levels, threatening island nations and other low-lying areas, and shifting weather patterns to produce more droughts, floods and devastating storms.

Figueras, the daughter of a former Costa Rican president, and Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla both said their country could serve as an example.

"Costa Rica is already producing 90 percent of the energy we are consuming from renewable sources," Chinchilla told AP. "We are encouraging the policies of many different companies ? many are already adopting the right policies. For example, in the agricultural sector, we already have coffee which is certified carbon-neutral coffee."

European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard called the battle against global warming the greatest economic challenge of this century.

Several CEOs of major banks and businesses said there have been robust discussions at Davos on potential private financing for "green" technologies to produce cleaner sources of energy.

So far, nations have ponied up about $30 billion toward the $100 billion a year goal by 2020 set at Copenhagen's U.N. climate talks in 2009.

A U.N. climate conference in Doha, Qatar, agreed in December to extend the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that limits the greenhouse gas output of some rich countries, and agreed to adopt a new global climate pact by 2015. But hopes for stronger U.S. leadership in the ongoing U.N. climate talks were dimmed when legislation to cap emissions stalled in Congress.

"We're coming out of two years of climate silence," said Fred Krupp, president of the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund. "The impacts of extreme weather are now affecting everybody in the wallet."

Krupp said while no one is going to invest in unprofitable new technologies, a growing number of clean-energy investments are highly profitable.

Nations also agreed at the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen to set a goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). But because of inaction, Figueras said, the world is now on "somewhere between a 4 and 6 degree (Celsius) trajectory."

"But the door is not closed," she quickly added. "We have the technology, we have the capital. We have the possibility."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says one of his top hopes for 2013 is to reach a new agreement on climate change.

"Slowly but steadily, we are coming to realize the risks of a carbon-based economy," he told the forum Thursday. "Those supposedly longer-term issues are actually silent crises with us today: the death of children from preventable diseases; the melting of the polar ice caps because of climate change. ... Let not our inaction today lead to harsh judgment tomorrow."

Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose foundation focuses on climate change and other environmental issues, said Obama's inauguration speech gave a welcome lift toward collective action.

"That can only be positive, because we need to have the U.S. on board," he told the AP.

But Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said despite Obama's speech there would still be resistance.

"While the president and his colleagues will pursue what we believe is an aggressive climate change policy, they're not going to get it through the Congress," Donahoe predicted. "It's going to be done on a regulatory basis ... and that's going to create a different approach to dealing with this very important but controversial subject."

___

Heilprin can be reached at www.twitter.com/JohnHeilprin

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/buoyed-obama-leaders-press-climate-action-204335220--finance.html

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The 3D fireworks of a star

Public release date: 24-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: SINC
info@agenciasinc.es
34-914-251-820
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology

In 1901 the star GK Persei gave off a powerful explosion that has not stopped growing and astonishing ever since. Now a team of Spanish and Estonian astronomers has reconstructed the journey of the emitted gas in 3D which, contrary to predictions, has hardly slowed down its speed of up to 1,000 km/s after all this time.

Thanks to the images captured from the Isaac Newton Telescope and the Nordic Optical Telescope in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain), a European team of astronomers has constructed a three dimensional map of the remnant of a nova, or in other words, what was left of the star after its explosion. The results have just been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

The protagonist of this story is the star GK Persei situated at 'just' 1,300 light years away from Earth. It is also known as Nova Persei 1901 because a strong thermonuclear eruption occurred on its surface on the 21st February 1901. On that day astronomers observed how its brightness suddenly increased to such an extent that it became one of the brightest stars in the skies.

The surprising thing is that the explosion created remaining material made up of gaseous knots, which become visible in 1916. "From then the visual spectacle has been similar to that of a firework display seen in slow motion," claims Miguel Santander, researcher at Spanish National Observatory and coauthor of the study.

After patient work to gather images, the team was able to measure the movements of more than 200 knots as well as the radial velocity using the Doppler effect, which allows to determine if they are getting closer or moving further away from us. In this way the 3D map of the nova was created and its dynamic was analysed.

"Such data are rarely available in astrophysics because as a general rule apparent expansion or, in other words, in the layout of the sky, the majority of objects cannot be seen," outlines another of the authors, Romano Corradi, from the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands.

An unexpected result

In any case, the main result of this work "is that the gas seems to be moving further away in a ballistic or free manner and is hardly slowing down, contrary to what was thought in previous studies," comments the lead author of the investigation, Tiina Liimets of the Tartu Observatory in Estonia.

Until now it was thought that the gas from the explosion would slow down "significantly" due to the large quantity of matter in its path that the star has expelled previously. However, its speed has remained between a range of 600 and 1000 kilometres per second.

Long before the explosion in 1901, more than one hundred thousand years ago, GK Persei had already undergone a massive transformation from a red giant to a white dwarf. This process expelled its external layers forming a planetary nebula, which is a giant gas cloud within which the nova is now growing in 3D.

###

References:

T. Liimets, R.L.M. Corradi, M. SantanderGarca, E. Villaver, P. Rodrguez-Gil, K. Verro, I. Kolka. "A three-dimensional view of the remnant of Nova Persei 1901 (GK Per)". Astrophysical Journal 761(1): id. 34, December 2012.

---

[ | 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: 24-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: SINC
info@agenciasinc.es
34-914-251-820
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology

In 1901 the star GK Persei gave off a powerful explosion that has not stopped growing and astonishing ever since. Now a team of Spanish and Estonian astronomers has reconstructed the journey of the emitted gas in 3D which, contrary to predictions, has hardly slowed down its speed of up to 1,000 km/s after all this time.

Thanks to the images captured from the Isaac Newton Telescope and the Nordic Optical Telescope in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain), a European team of astronomers has constructed a three dimensional map of the remnant of a nova, or in other words, what was left of the star after its explosion. The results have just been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

The protagonist of this story is the star GK Persei situated at 'just' 1,300 light years away from Earth. It is also known as Nova Persei 1901 because a strong thermonuclear eruption occurred on its surface on the 21st February 1901. On that day astronomers observed how its brightness suddenly increased to such an extent that it became one of the brightest stars in the skies.

The surprising thing is that the explosion created remaining material made up of gaseous knots, which become visible in 1916. "From then the visual spectacle has been similar to that of a firework display seen in slow motion," claims Miguel Santander, researcher at Spanish National Observatory and coauthor of the study.

After patient work to gather images, the team was able to measure the movements of more than 200 knots as well as the radial velocity using the Doppler effect, which allows to determine if they are getting closer or moving further away from us. In this way the 3D map of the nova was created and its dynamic was analysed.

"Such data are rarely available in astrophysics because as a general rule apparent expansion or, in other words, in the layout of the sky, the majority of objects cannot be seen," outlines another of the authors, Romano Corradi, from the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands.

An unexpected result

In any case, the main result of this work "is that the gas seems to be moving further away in a ballistic or free manner and is hardly slowing down, contrary to what was thought in previous studies," comments the lead author of the investigation, Tiina Liimets of the Tartu Observatory in Estonia.

Until now it was thought that the gas from the explosion would slow down "significantly" due to the large quantity of matter in its path that the star has expelled previously. However, its speed has remained between a range of 600 and 1000 kilometres per second.

Long before the explosion in 1901, more than one hundred thousand years ago, GK Persei had already undergone a massive transformation from a red giant to a white dwarf. This process expelled its external layers forming a planetary nebula, which is a giant gas cloud within which the nova is now growing in 3D.

###

References:

T. Liimets, R.L.M. Corradi, M. SantanderGarca, E. Villaver, P. Rodrguez-Gil, K. Verro, I. Kolka. "A three-dimensional view of the remnant of Nova Persei 1901 (GK Per)". Astrophysical Journal 761(1): id. 34, December 2012.

---

[ | 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/2013-01/f-sf-t3f012413.php

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In Order To Live With People, Canines Evolved To Love Carbs

Got spaghetti? Dogs digest starch more efficiently than their wolf ancestors, which may have been an important step during dog domestication.

Lauren Solomon/iStockphoto.com/Nicholas Moore /Courtesy of Nature

Got spaghetti? Dogs digest starch more efficiently than their wolf ancestors, which may have been an important step during dog domestication.

Lauren Solomon/iStockphoto.com/Nicholas Moore /Courtesy of Nature

These days, a trip down the dog food aisle of your local pet store or supermarket can be a little overwhelming. There are hundreds of brands out there, catering to ? let's be honest ? every dog owner's taste: everything from generic kibble to organic nuggets.

There are even dog food cookbooks and specialty gourmet shops for people who want their pets to eat as well ? or better ? than they do.

How did we get here? The first step happened thousands of years ago, when meat-eating wolves evolved to tolerate people ? and their more starchy, plant-based diet.

If you listen to my story on Morning Edition, you'll hear about Erik Axelsson. He's an evolutionary geneticist at Uppsala University in Sweden. (You'll also hear some pretty cool wolf howls.)

Now, dog food wasn't on Axelsson's mind when he started looking for genetic differences between dogs and wolves. During his research, Axelsson found changes between wolves and dogs in genes related to the nervous system. But he also noticed something else: "Three key genes involved in the digestion of starch also look differently in dogs and wolves."

Axelsson says he expected to find differences in nervous system genes since dogs behave very differently from wolves. But the ability to digest starch?

"That was surprising," Axelsson says. "I mean, no one's really been hypothesizing about any such changes. On the other hand, it makes sense."

It makes sense because some researchers, including Axelsson, speculate that wolves first became domesticated when people settled down and started farming.

The hungry wolves would have been attracted by their garbage dumps full of food scraps. But Axelsson says to take advantage of this convenient new food supply, the wolves would have to adapt not just to being near people, but also to eating their food, which now included starchy grains and vegetables.

So any wolves who could digest starch would have had an advantage. Axelsson thinks today's domesticated dogs are probably descended from them. His comparison of the wolf and dog starch genes are published this week in the journal Nature.

UCLA evolutionary biologist Robert Wayne has very different ideas about how and when dogs became domesticated. But he says Axelsson's findings about starch digestion are fascinating new piece of the story.

Wayne believes dogs and people got together more than 30,000 years ago, when we were still hunting, not farming. He says it could have been the leftover animal carcasses that drew wolves to humans.

Then, when farming started, it wasn't just dogs that had to deal with a more starchy diet. "Humans might have likewise adapted to such carbohydrate-rich diets, after they transitioned from more of a meat-eating diet," Wayne says.

In other words, dogs and humans would have undergone similar genetic changes at around the same time. Axelsson says this is a really striking example of parallel evolution. "Both dogs and humans have adapted to a similar environment," Axelsson says, "and that environment was probably created by the development of agriculture."

Axelsson says because dog and human history is so closely tied together, there may be other examples of our adapting in similar ways. This makes him think that studying dog genetics could provide insights into human physiology and disease.

And as dogs have adapted, so has dog food. Most brands are relatively high in carbs, and have a lot less protein than meat.

I'll never think of my dog's kibble the same way again.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/01/23/170103080/in-order-to-live-with-people-canines-evolved-to-love-starchy-foods?ft=1&f=1007

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'Workaholics' Give You A Tricked-Out Tour Of 'The 'Vo'

We check out the guys' custom ride, complete with 'state of the art' manual antenna, secret stash.
By James Montgomery

Anders Holm and "The Vo" on the set of "Workaholics"
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1700671/workaholics-the-vo-comedy-central.jhtml

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Stocks Mixed As SodaStream Tries To Break Out ... - Investors.com

Stocks remained narrowly mixed in early-afternoon action Tuesday, but were well off their session lows.

The Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 both traded near the day's highs, gaining 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively. The Nasdaq edged down 0.1%. Volume continued to track down sharply from Friday's levels, which were boosted by options expirations.

SodaStream International (SODA) was up 2% in big turnover, but it had popped as much as 6% intraday. The move had taken SodaStream past a 50.08 buy point from a three-weeks-tight pattern. It's now back below that trigger. The Israeli maker of in-home soda machines has been earning spots in the IBD 50 lineup and IBD's Stock Spotlight screen. It was featured in a Stock Spotlight column in Monday's IBD.

In M&A news, Dell (DELL) rose 3% as published reports said Microsoft (MSFT) might invest $1 billion to $3 billion as part of a leveraged buyout of the ailing PC maker. Dell regained its 200-day moving average last week amid buyout chatter, but it still remains nearly 30% off its February peak. Microsoft fell a fraction. It's also consolidating below its 200-day line.

On the earnings front, Google (GOOG) slid less than 1% in strong volume ahead of its quarterly report after the market's close. Analysts see EPS up 11% to $10.52, as sales rise 52% to $12.36 billion. Google, which has been consolidating since October, has dropped to its 50-day moving average.

Kansas City Southern (KSU) jumped 4% in heavy turnover, striking a fresh all-time high. The railroad said fourth-quarter EPS rose 19% to 92 cents, topping forecasts, as revenue grew 7% to $568 million, also above expectations. The stock has gapped up beyond a buying range established by a recent buy point at 84.08.

Apple (AAPL), which reports earnings Wednesday, was down a fraction and holding below 500 after giving up a modest early gain. Volume was coming in below average. Analysts see EPS dipping 2% to $13.42, which would be Apple's first decline in quarterly profit in years.

In economic news, existing-home sales slowed to an annualized rate of 4.94 million in December, according to the National Association of Realtors. That was below forecasts for 5.1 million and down from November's 5.04 million pace.

Source: http://news.investors.com/investing-markets-update/012213-641430-stock-market-today-mixed-in-lower-volume.htm

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Apple?s Tim Cook Sees ?Huge Opportunity? For iPad In Mac Cannibalization

Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to questions about the issue of potential cannibalization of Mac sales by iPad devices on today's earnings call, a question made more timely by the fact that Mac sales were down considerably on the quarter. He reiterated that supply constraints are leading to fewer sales, but also tackled cannibalization as a broad topic, noting that there is opportunity there for the iPad in a couple of important ways.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/rK5vehXUCo4/

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Sales Firm Expanding- 10 FULL TIME ENTRY LEVEL POSITIONS ...

?

Basic Job Info

?

Location

US-SC-Greenville

?

Employment Type

Full-Time

?

Relocation Covered

False

Job Description

10 entry level sales, advertising, and sales account manager positions open.

SCBusinessConsulting.org

"The edge in sales and marketing"

SC Business Consulting is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing sales and marketing firms in?Greenville, SC. Due to increased client demand we will be opening 3 new offices by the end of the year so we have several entry level sales account manager positions open. We are conducting immediate interviews for candidates with exemplary work ethic, ambition, and highly competitive nature. The account manager position is considered an entry level position as posted, meaning thorough training is provided so they are a part of the SCBC team as it grows through out the year!

Our account managers are the face of our clients to their high priority customers and small to medium business demographic, and specialize in new business acquisition and customer retention. Because our Fortune 500 clients trust us to represent their reputation we provide extensive training in cutting edge sales techniques, product knowledge, and business psychology. Combining that training with relationship based selling and upholding the utmost integrity allows the account managers to not only succeed professionally but to gain pride in their position. Candidates with a sports background and leadership experience will do extremely well at SCBC!

Duties in the account management position include:

-- Customer relationship building

-- Create client loyalty through personal attention

-- Territory management

-- Manage small to medium accounts

-- Providing sales and marketing presentations

-- Reporting marketing data and feedback to the client

-- Relaying state of the art technology updates to customers

-- New customer acquisition

-- Consult priority customers given to us by the client

-- Client branding

-- Account updates

-- Contract overview

-- No Telemarketing- Cold Calling

Benefits include:

-- Rapid advancement opportunity

-- Health benefits

-- Work in an exciting and friendly environment

-- Weekly Bonus Structure

-- Travel opportunities (optional)-- Relocation options (optional)

-- Career advancement opportunities in Management, Consulting, and Sales

-- Exceptional long term compensation packages
(this is not 100% commission position)

?

Job Requirements

* Authorized to work in the U.S.

* College degree or relevant work experience.

* Sales and/or marketing experience a plus, but not a requirement.

* Competitive and proactive attitude.

* Confident demeanor.

* Strong student mentality.

We have begun the interviewing process. To be considered for the position click the "apply now" button below. In addition, feel free to contact us at (864) 233-5690 or?please click on the web address to find out more information: scbusinessconsulting.org

Best of luck in your job search!

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Careers.org gives you access to over a million jobs and career opportunities across the US including in Greenville. Find your perfect job and apply directly through a simply online application process

Source: http://jobs.careers.org/job/JHN42S5Y31DV5BWLD74/Sales-Firm-Expanding--10-FULL-TIME-ENTRY

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