Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/281754907?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, January 31, 2013
University cafeteria goes trayless to save energy and food
Jan. 29, 2013 ? If you need any evidence of the impact of student research on life at American University's campus, look no further than something that's missing.
Trays.
Following a 2009 study at American University's main dining hall that showed a significant reduction in food waste and dishes used when trays were removed, trays have mostly gone the way of beanies and sock hops.
Now, for the first time, a new paper coauthored by AU professor Kiho Kim and AU environmental studies graduate Stevia Morawski, provides hard evidence of big energy savings as well as a 32 percent reduction in food waste. The article, "Quantifying the Impact of Going Trayless in a University Dining Hall," was published in the Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition.
"Our concern was that all of these other institutions were jumping on the bandwagon in the absence of data," Kim said of the trend of universities tossing out trays. A Washington Post article, for example, reported that other area institutions that have gone trayless include Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, James Madison, and the University of Virginia.
A recent Kansas State University study also showed that students wasted 15 percent less food when they were exposed to slogans such as "All Taste . . . NO WASTE," according to Reuters Health.
"Really the only substantive study people were referring to was this industry study," Kim noted. "We made the argument that you can't entirely trust the industry. The industry studies showed no methodology on how they came up with this number. They simply said, 'We surveyed a bunch of places and they show a 30 percent reduction in food waste.' But how do we know it's a scientifically credible study?"
The original 2009 AU study was a good start in correcting that deficiency, but Kim wanted to tighten up its rigor and methodology. So during six days in February through March 2009, Kim and his environmental science students made dining hall trays selectively and randomly available or unavailable during lunch and dinner. The students collected dishes from the students and weighed food waste.
Results for the 360 diners surveyed, showed that going trayless:
- Led to a 32 percent reduction in food waste.
- Resulted in a 27 percent reduction in dish use.
Those findings, Kim and his coauthor noted, suggested that "removing trays is a simple way for universities and other dining facilities to reduce their environmental impact and save money."
Getting Student Buy-In
The original 2009 study followed a failed attempt by food service provider Bon Appetit to institute a trayless policy at AU based on industry figures. The students didn't buy it. So the manager overseeing the Terrace Dining Room approached Kim about conducting a student survey.
Teaming up with Darrell Hayes's School of Communication PR class, which developed a campaign to let students know what was going on, the study was conducted, showing a 30 to 40 percent reduction in waste depending on the meal. This time, without the onus of a top-down solution being imposed on them, students embraced the sustainability implications of eliminating so much waste.
So the class assembled a report and presented it to Bon Appetit, AU's Office of Sustainability, and the Office of Finance and Treasurer. Just like that the trays were gone.
"That link between carrying out scientific studies, making policy recommendations, and those recommendations being accepted so quickly was very gratifying to the students," Kim said, adding that never before or since has he seen such quick results from research.
In his current research paper, Kim noted that each day AU's dining halls serve about 3,200 meals, and that removing trays reduced food waste by 12,000 kg (26,455 pounds) per semester.
Perhaps just as important is the message that having such a real-world impact has on students.
"These opportunities really give them a sense of being able to think about solving problems based on a good set of facts, data that can be collected relatively easily and straightforwardly," Kim said.
"A lot of students think of science as something a small group of people do," Kim said. "But these are things we do not just as scientists but as individuals where we try to understand how the world works. We employ the scientific method in our lives every single day."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/myiJafKydkE/130129144819.htm
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Regular travellers most likely to 'go rogue' | Buying Business Travel
Frequent business travellers are more likely to ?go rogue? and book travel outside their corporate travel programme, according to new research by technology firm Amadeus.
Amadeus UK commissioned ICM Research to survey more than 400 business travellers in the UK and Ireland who work for large companies and are regularly road warriors.
The report, entitled?Amadeus Business Travel Insights: the 21st?Century Business Traveller, found that one-third of travellers had booked their own travel arrangements during last year but this went up to 51 per cent for those who made 11 or more trips in 2012. There were also 18 per cent who booked out of programme at least five times during the year.
There were also mixed signals for travel managers with only 51 per cent of travellers fully understanding their companies? corporate travel policy while 47 per cent said that their travel departments ?neither helped nor hindered their business?. Another 15 per cent said that travel managers actually ?hindered their ability to do business?.
The report found that 66 per cent of travellers could now use online booking tools to arrange their trips but only 34 per cent were currently able to book travel through their smartphones or tablet devices, such as iPads.
Other findings from the survey were that 51 per cent of respondents had to make changes to their travel plans during 2012 with 37 per cent having to change flights while on the road.
Diane Bouzebiba, Amadeus? UK and Ireland managing director, said: ?These findings clearly identify opportunities for travel departments to introduce new services and technologies that will deliver additional value to travellers.
?Over the course of this year, a particular priority for Amadeus UK is to help corporate travel departments better understand the emerging needs of the 21st century business traveller.?
The majority of travellers (62 per cent) also put convenience as their top priority when travelling ahead of costs (22 per cent) and comfort (15 per cent).
Just under a third of travellers (32 per cent) also said they wanted to have the ability to combine their business travel with holidays by extending their trips at their own cost.
Amadeus will be officially launching the report at next week's Business Travel Show with a keynote address on Tuesday 5 February at 13.30.
Source: http://buyingbusinesstravel.com/news/2920290-regular-travellers-most-likely-go-rogue
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Ronda Rousey stopped by an adorable opponent (VIDEO)
Ronda Rousey has finally met her match. Rousey, who has won every one of her fights with an armbar in the first round. And yet, when she meets up with an adorable four-year-old, what does Rousey do? She submits to an armbar!
Rousey's actual next opponent is Liz Carmouche at UFC 157. Will we see another armbar from the UFC bantamweight women's champ? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or Twitter.
Thanks, MMA Fighting.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
US regulator asks Boeing for full battery history
TOKYO (AP) ? U.S. regulators said Wednesday they asked Boeing Co. to provide a full operating history of lithium-ion batteries used in its grounded 787 Dreamliners after Japan's All Nippon Airways revealed it had repeatedly replaced the batteries even before overheating problems surfaced.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said the agency made the request after recently becoming aware of battery problems at ANA that occurred before a Jan. 7 battery fire in a 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport. Boeing has already collected some of the information, he said.
ANA said it had replaced batteries on its 787 aircraft some 10 times because they failed to charge properly or showed other problems, and informed Boeing about the swaps. Japan Airlines also said it had replaced 787 batteries. It described the number involved as a few but couldn't immediately give further details.
All 50 of the Boeing 787s in use around the world remain grounded after an ANA flight on Jan. 16 made an emergency landing in Japan when its main battery overheated.
Lithium-ion batteries are prone to overheating and require additional safeguards to prevent fires. However, ANA spokeswoman Megumi Tezuka said the airline was not required to report the battery replacements to Japan's Transport Ministry because they did not interfere with flights and did not raise safety concerns.
Having to replace batteries on aircraft is not uncommon and was not considered out of the ordinary, she said.
Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, said in Washington that the agency was checking whether the previous battery incidents had been reported by Boeing.
With 17 of the jets, ANA was Boeing's launch customer for the technologically advanced airliner. The airline has had to cancel hundreds of flights, affecting tens of thousands of people, but has sought to minimize disruptions by switching to other aircraft as much as possible.
The battery problems experienced by ANA before the emergency landing were first reported by The New York Times.
Japanese and U.S. investigators looking into the Boeing 787's battery problems shifted their attention this week from the battery-maker, GS Yuasa of Kyoto, Japan, to the manufacturer of a monitoring system. That company, Kanto Aircraft Instrument Co. makes a system that monitors voltage, charging and temperature of the lithium-ion batteries.
On Tuesday, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was conducting a chemical analysis of internal short circuiting and thermal damage of the battery that caught fire in Boston.
The probe is also analyzing data from flight data recorders on the aircraft, the NTSB said in a statement on its website.
___
Joan Lowy reported from Washington.
___
Follow Elaine Kurtenbach on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ekurtenbach
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-regulator-asks-boeing-full-battery-history-052321216--finance.html
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Vine (for iPhone)
Microblogging, meet micro video sharing. Just as Twitter curtails anything of substance you'd like to say to a headline requiring a link to a blog or other webpage for any kind of depth, the free Vine app, recently acquired by Twitter, curtails your videos to a mere 6 seconds. That's not necessarily bad: Who wants to watch minute after minute of boring video? In a world where most people still think of Twitter as just short text snippets, can micro-videos make an impact?
Let's be clear: This isn't a case of "video finally comes to Twitter." You've already been able to embed a YouTube or Vimeo video in a Twitter post forever, so this isn't the first time anyone's been able two add video to tweets. Vine is more of an attempt to co-opt the craze for animated GIFs, most prominently evidenced on image-heavy mini-blogging site Tumblr. ?You could also think of it as the latest entry in the "Instagram for video" app genre.
Vine plays to today's brief attentions spans, which causes people at a play or a concert to reach for their smartphones the moment the curtain falls at intermission, rather than trying to digest the performance. Vine movies may be limited in length, but like animated GIFs, they loop infinitely, which actually does the opposite of increasing their impact. Let's see how it stacks up against other "Instagram but for video" apps, such as Lightt and Cinemagram.
Signup and Setup
As with so many new mobile apps, Apple's iPhone gets first dibs when it comes to Vine. I've contacted the company to ask when we might see apps for Android and Windows Phone, and will update this if and when I hear back. And as with so many hot new apps these days, Vine wants to interrupt you with notifications and wants access to your location, both requiring message box OKs at installation. I didn't need another source of notifications, but I though location might help for video posts.
As you'd expect with an app just acquired by Twitter, you can sign in with your Twitter account, or create a new Vine account using an email address. The typical social app would also let you sign up via Facebook, but that's not an option for obvious reasons. Conveniently, you don't need to actually provide your Twitter credentials, the app can take them from your iPhone's Settings. Despite Vine now being a part of Twitter, though, you're still prompted to agree to create a new Vine account, even if you sign up with your Twitter account.
Interface
After setup, my view was of an Instagram-like newsfeed of GIF-like videos from contacts I didn't know I had. Apparently, these were preselected Twitter employees. The well-designed and simple interface had but two buttons in the top corners above the feed?on the left Home, and on the right a movie camera. Pressing the home button offered three more options in addition to the home view I was already viewing: Explore, Activity, and Profile. These first two were encouraging, reminding me of the addictive similar pages of Flickr. More on these in a bit.
A banner ad across the top of the home screen encouraged me to get my own new Vine follows. I could find these by scanning my phone's local address book, Twitter (of course), or Facebook (surprise!). Though some reports claim that Facebook has blocked Vine from accessing it, and though I got to the Facebook permission button, an error appeared when I returned to the Vine app. Tit-for-tat for when Twitter blocked the Facebook-owned Instagram.
I could also simply search for Vine user names, or invite friends to the service using email or SMS. Each user, as with every self-respecting social network, has a profile page, and Vine's resembles Twitters, except it offers separate tabs for Posts and Likes. At top was the user's photo, a text area for inspirational self-description and a big Follow button.
The Explore page was a treat. Here I could view Editor's Picks, Popular Now, and All Posts (presumably by recency). Colorful Windows 8-like tiles in the bottom half of this page let me browse hashtags, such as #magic, #travel, and #sports. The first of these hints at the prominence of stop motion, and also feature a lot of disappearing toddlers. Even the Popular Now videos weren't especially compelling, but it's early days, and no doubt there'll be plenty awesome mini-vids in the offing.
There's no website where you can view all your own and contacts' Vine videolets, so you'll only be able to see them in the app or in your Twitter feed. The videos play on the Twitter website and in the Twitter iOS apps, and in each of those places you get a link to a bare-bones Vine-hosted Web page for the video at hand.
Shooting with Vine
When you hit that movie camera icon atop your home screen, you don't get the standard iPhone camera app in movie mode. Instead, you get a completely plain square image of what's in front of your iPhone's lens?that's right, there's no way to switch to the backward-facing camera to shoot your mug. Nor is there even a shutter button: You shoot video by holding your finger on the screen. You get a total of 6 seconds, and can lift and re-touch the screen to pause and restart shooting?which the service encourages. It's really well suited to stop motion shooting, or shooting those "magic" clips where something or someone disappears or suddenly appears.
Once you're through shooting, the Next button takes you to a page where you can add a caption for your tiny video compilation, choose a hash tag, and decide where to share it. Sharing target options are Vine, Twitter, and Facebook, and in this case, my test video did appear on my Facebook timeline, so there's no blocking in this direction.
You can also add a location at this point; the tool for this says "Powered by FourSquare" (of which I'm not a user), but it never worked for me in my testing. I'd think you'd be able to attach a location without having to be a member of yet another minor social network. And indeed a colleague was able to get location suggestions on her iPhone, though she wasn't a FourSquare member either.
The Final Products
My gut tells me that Vine is not going to unseat YouTube or Vimeo anytime soon, or even Facebook video sharing. The videos it produces are usually jerky and somewhat unpleasant to view, which effect is multiplied by their ceaseless repetition. Luckily, though, on Twitter the videos don't auto-repeat. The six-second limit doesn't really give them a chance to have anything but a superficial impact. A lot of times, the best viral YouTube videos are marked for having a visual punch line after a time of suspense. Not possible with Vine.
I actually found Vine less interesting than the innovative Lightt app, which also limits shooting time, though to 10 seconds. Lightt also combines all your short videos into an endless timeline that you can fast forward or reverse through. Nor does Vine offer the clever effects you can find in apps like Cinemagram or SocialCam. And unlike their verbal equivalent, the Tweet, there's no link to the full version.
Vine Needs Some Ripening
I'm all for innovative new ways to create and present video, and Twitter certainly needs to grow beyond being a place where you can get the occasional 140 characters from the oracle known as Justin Bieber. I'm just not convinced that Twitter's enforced verbal pithiness translates well to a video equivalent. Should you download the app and give it a shot? By all means, go for it! But as to paraphrase another tech writer, while a picture may be worth a thousand words, a Vine video somehow manages to fall short of that word count.
More iPhone App Reviews:
??? Vine (for iPhone)
??? YouSendIt (for iPhone)
??? EyeEm (for iPhone)
??? NRA: Practice Range (for iPhone)
??? Garmin (for iPhone)
?? more
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/ZgykgYYT3Vk/0,2817,2414732,00.asp
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Israel, Jewish groups slam Argentina-Iran "truth commission"
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Israel and world Jewish groups denounced plans by Argentina and Iran to form a truth commission to investigate the deadly 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center that Argentine courts say was sponsored by Iran.
The forming of the commission, announced during the weekend, was seen as a diplomatic win for Iran as it confronts a U.S.-led effort to isolate Tehran because of its nuclear program.
Western nations fear Iran intends to use the program to produce atomic weapons. Israel regards this as an existential threat, citing statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about wiping the Jewish state off the map.
"The agreement between Argentina and Iran is received in Israel with astonishment and deep disappointment," Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "The Argentine ambassador in Israel will be summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem to provide explanations."
Argentine courts have said Iran was behind the attack on the Jewish center, which killed 85 people. The commission agreement, which must be approved by Argentina's Congress, outlines plans for Argentine officials to interview suspects in Iran - not in a third country, as originally proposed by Argentina.
"Forming a joint truth commission with Iran is a farce," Shimon Samuels, Paris-based director of international relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told Reuters on Monday.
"It will whitewash terrorism and encourage the mullahs to become patrons of further attacks."
The bombing came two years after a group linked to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on the Israeli Embassy in the Argentine capital, which killed 29. Tehran has denied links to either attack.
Led by Washington, the West has imposed sanctions on Iran - including directly targeting its key oil revenues - to try to force it into a diplomatic solution that would lay to rest Western concerns that it is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb.
"The benefits of a truth commission are not evident for Argentina," said Ignacio Labaqui, a political science professor at Catholic University in Buenos Aires. "As for Iran, it's pure gain. It makes no real concessions and it becomes less isolated."
WANTED BY INTERPOL
In 2007, Argentine authorities secured Interpol arrest warrants for five Iranians and a Lebanese in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center. Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi is among the officials sought by Argentina, which is home to Latin America's largest Jewish community.
The five "truth commissioners" will be jointly named and will not be residents of Argentina or Iran, according to a document posted on President Cristina Fernandez's Facebook page.
"Dialogue (is) the only way to resolve conflicts between countries, however severe," she said on Sunday via Twitter.
The agreement on the commission said that after analyzing the evidence the commission "will give its vision and issue a report with recommendations about how the case should proceed within the legal and regulatory framework of both parties."
Fernandez, who is allied with left-leaning Latin American leaders who are on good terms with Tehran, such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, hailed the accord as historic.
But Jewish leaders see no upside in forming a truth commission with Iran, where Ahmadinejad has questioned the Holocaust and where authorities arrested more than a dozen journalists in the past two days over their links to "anti-revolutionary" media.
Argentina's government also has been criticized for cracking down on dissent by fining private economists for publishing inflation estimates that far outpace the official numbers. The country could face sanctions from the International Monetary Fund over its widely discredited consumer price data.
"Forming a 'Truth Commission' which does not fall under Argentine law governing criminal proceedings marks a decline of our sovereignty," said a statement issued on Monday from Argentina's two main Jewish groups, known as the AMIA and DAIA.
"This is a setback for obtaining justice," it said.
(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem; Editing by Bill Trott)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-jewish-groups-slam-argentina-iran-truth-commission-172054465.html
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Study Bolsters Quantum Vibration Scent Theory
How does the sense of smell work? Today two competing camps of scientists are at war over this very question. And the more controversial theory has just received important new experimental confirmation. At issue is whether our noses use delicate quantum mechanisms for sensing the vibrations of odor molecules (aka odorants). Does the nose, in other words, read off the chemical makeup of a mystery odorant?say, a waft of perfume or the aroma of wilted lettuce?by ?ringing? it like a bell? Chemistry and forensics labs do this all the time with spectrometers?machines that bounce infrared light off mystery materials to reveal the telltale vibrations that the light provokes. Olfaction might, according to the vibration theory of smell, do the same using tiny currents of electrons instead of infrared photons (see previous coverage of the vibration theory here). The predominant theory of smell today says: No way. The millions of different odorants in the world are a little more like puzzle pieces, it suggests. And our noses contain scores of different kinds of receptors that each prefer to bind with specific types of piecesSo a receptor that is set to bind to a molecule called limonene sends a signal to our brains when it finds that compound, and that's one of the cues behind the smell of citrus. Likewise that same receptor wouldn't bind to hydrogen sulfide?which smells of rotten eggs. So, the promoters of the standard theory say, the familiar chemical interactions between receptor and odorant are all that's needed to explain olfaction. No fancy quantum vibration theory is necessary. Yet here's a twist: odorant molecules typically contain many hydrogen atoms. And hydrogen comes in multiple forms, each very chemically similar to the others. But those different isotopes of hydrogen do strongly affect how a molecule vibrates. So deuterium, containing a hydrogen nucleus that has both a proton and a neutron (as opposed to plain-old-hydrogen that has just a proton), might help scientists discriminate between the proposed vibration and standard chemical binding theories of olfaction. According to new research published today in PLoS ONE, human noses can sniff out the presence of at least some kinds of deuterium. Specifically, experimenters found regular musk molecules smelled different from ones that contain deuterium. "Deuterated" musks, says researcher Luca Turin of the Alexander Fleming Biomedical Sciences Research Center in Greece, lose much of their musky odor and instead contain overtones of burnt candle wax. The finding represents a victory for the vibration theory, Turin says. And, he adds, it makes some sense, when you consider the purpose of our olfactory ability?whatever its mechanism is. The natural world contains thousands of types of molecules. Some are good for us, and some are bad. The nose helps to distinguish one from the other. "Olfaction is trying to be like an analytical chemist," Turin says. "It's trying to identify unknowns." Chemists identify unknowns using spectrometers. Olfactory receptors, according to the vibration theory, act like little wetware spectrometers. Adding to Turin's quiver is a 2011 finding in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicating that drosophila flies, too, can smell the difference between a molecule called acetophenone (which to humans smells sweet) and its deuterated cousin. That?s all well and good, says Eric Block, professor of chemistry at the University at Albany in New York State. But, he says, it hardly proves the vibration theory. For one, he points out that Turin once claimed humans, like drosophilia, could sniff out a deuterated version of the molecule acetophenone from the regular stuff. But in 2004 Nature Neuroscience published a contrary claim, that human noses can't smell the presence of deuterium in acetophenone (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group). In Turin?s new paper, he says he's confirmed the 2004 finding, but Block remains unconvinced. Meanwhile, smell biologist Tim Jacob of Cardiff University in Wales, says that rotten egg smell is a good example of the vibration theory's appeal. Sulfur is a chemical hallmark of rotting organic material?something that is dangerous for us to eat. And molecules containing sulfur almost always smell horrible to us, he says?just as should be the case if evolution worked properly to favor our survival. But there's no single shape or simple chemical property that sulfur universally confers to every kind of odorant molecule. On the other hand, sulfur does add signature vibrations to a molecule that a molecular vibration?sensitive nose might detect. "I do all my research without needing to know which model most accurately describes what's going on," Jacob says. But, he says of the vibration theory, "from a biological point of view it has great interest." And that keeps fans of this fight watching and wondering: Which side will ultimately score the knockout punch? And who will need the smelling salts? Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-bolsters-quantum-vibration-scent-theory-080100750.html
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Monday, January 28, 2013
Indonesia readies for $1 trillion trade talks
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Indonesia may hold the key to a $1 trillion injection into the global economy.
That's how much the World Trade Organization believes is riding on talks later this year in Bali, when trade ministers hope to cut through some of the red tape that slows global commerce.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told The Associated Press that failure is not an option and that a strong effort is being put in to ensure that the WTO meeting in Bali is "crowned with success."
The current trade talks, known as the Doha Round, began in 2001, and after a decade of little progress for a range of reasons, many had pronounced the negotiations to reduce global trade barriers as dead.
There are hopes that the current fragile state of the world economy, including the debt crisis afflicting the 17 European Union countries that use the euro and unspectacular U.S. growth, may add impetus to the discussions.
"It's very critical now, especially with the difficulties in the global economy, especially in the eurozone," he said of efforts to reach a new global free trade pact. "Trade facilitation becomes a key driver for economic recovery, so this is now even ever more important to what it was before."
Trade ministers from 24 nations met Saturday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos in an unofficial gathering hosted by the Swiss government.
Afterward, Swiss Economic Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann said the group agreed they could reach a tentative agreement on some of the key elements of a global trade deal this summer, in preparation for the ministerial talks in December at Bali.
Schneider-Ammann said he sensed some "optimism" that efforts to streamline customs procedures and other rules to reduce the costs of trade "will be successful."
The ministers agreed to resist protectionism, focus on elements such as trade facilitation and agriculture, and to "take stock" around Easter of the progress being made, Schneider-Ammann said.
"Serious attempts to deliver results in Bali have already started," he added.
The Doha negotiations have been billed as a way of boosting economic development among the poorest countries, by reducing barriers on their exports to wealthier markets.
The WTO's director general, Pascal Lamy, has been telling the Davos gathering of political, business and academic elites that an international trade deal would provide a $1 trillion boost to the global economy. He estimates world trade is worth about $22 trillion.
Flanked by Schneider-Ammann, Lamy told reporters that he believes it is technically "do-able" to craft draft agreements on some of the key elements of a deal by next summer.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said he had to "temper" his enthusiasm for a deal since it has eluded the world for a decade.
Areas of dispute include tariffs on manufactured good, agricultural subsidies, market access and intellectual property rules. Brazil, China and India have resisted U.S. demands to lower taxes on imports of manufactured goods.
"But, at least of the 24 countries represented today, it felt like we had made more substantive progress," Kirk said in an AP interview. "The good news is we've spent a lot of work on a smaller, more realistic package centered around trade facilitation, which can be a huge benefit to developing economies. And it feels like that is starting to bear fruit."
Kirk, who leaves his job next month, said the ministers renewed their commitment "to double down, do what we need to do" to reach a deal in Bali. "I'm as hopeful as I've been in a long time."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indonesia-readies-1-trillion-trade-talks-173735474--finance.html
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Sunday, January 27, 2013
Minn. Building New Health Insurance Marketplace ? CBS Minnesota
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ? Big changes are coming in how a fourth of all Minnesotans get health insurance as the state rushes to build a new kind of marketplace that will help about 1.3 million people choose their best coverage options.
It?s called a health care exchange, a centerpiece of the Obama administration?s health care overhaul. If it lives up to advance billing, consumers will go to a web site similar to Expedia or Travelocity where they can get the information they need to choose a plan, learn if they qualify for financial assistance and sign up ? all in less than an hour.
Leading this construction project is April Todd-Malmlov, a 35-year-old mother of two who grew up in the small northwestern Minnesota town of Halstad and shows a knack for rattling off facts and figures without notes. For the past two years, she?s been grappling with them as executive director of Minnesota?s health care exchange.
Minnesota is one of 17 states plus the District of Columbia that are building their exchanges themselves instead of letting the federal government do it or partnering with the feds, and her work involves much more than just setting up a web site.
The project faces tight deadlines so that coverage can begin Jan. 1. The Legislature must get its exchange bill through at least 13 committees and passed by both houses by March 23. Open enrollment begins Oct. 1.
?We will be ready by then,? Todd-Malmlov vowed in an interview with The Associated Press. ?I am very confident that we will be ready.?
Probably next month, she said, the exchange will roll out the name consumers will know it by ? something Todd-Malmlov hopes will resonate as safe and trustworthy. Then the exchange will begin marketing itself through TV, radio, social media and other means to tell Minnesotans what?s coming.
When the site goes live in October, she said, consumers will get easy-to-understand information that will help them make good choices. They?ll also find out how much help they?ll get in paying for coverage.
It should be as easy as buying a plane ticket, she said.
?An individual that goes on line will be able to see what the prices are, based on their age and where they live, what?s available to them. They pick that coverage, they?ll be able to see what kind of tax credit they get, and instantaneously enroll,? Todd-Malmlov said.
For people and small businesses that need more help, insurance agents and brokers or advisers called navigators can assist. Unlike agents and brokers, she said, navigators aren?t licensed to recommend which plan a person should choose. But they?ll come from organizations that want to be involved in the outreach, such as nonprofits, community groups, chambers of commerce, counties and tribes.
The benefits are set by federal law and will apply to all health care plans, not just those offered through the exchanges. There will be four different cost-sharing levels ? bronze, silver, gold and platinum ? with different deductibles and copayments. But they?ll all offer the same benefits.
Of the 1.3 million Minnesotans expected to get coverage through the exchange, she said, about 700,000 will be eligible for medical assistance. Another 600,000 will be eligible for private coverage, either as individuals or through small employers. Out of the 600,000, about 450,000 will be individual buyers, including about 370,000 who will quality for tax credits. About a third of the 160,000 small-business employees will qualify for tax credits.
About 9 percent of Minnesotans are now uninsured, or about 500,000. The exchange is expected to extend coverage to about 300,000 of them, she said, leaving about 200,000 still uninsured. Some of them are exempt from the federal law?s individual mandate, while some will choose to pay penalties of 1 percent to 2.5 percent of their income instead of taking out insurance. But some people who are eligible for free insurance through medical assistance are expected to simply fail to sign up, she said.
A major unresolved question is what becomes of the 130,000 people currently enrolled in the state-subsidized MinnesotaCare program, she said. About 100,000 are expected to become eligible for an expanded Medicaid program, assuming the Legislature approves it. State and federal officials are still discussing how the other 30,000 will be served.
Small businesses with less than 50 employees won?t be required to offer insurance, but she said the exchange will provide several incentives and give them a simpler way to cover their employees. Companies can elect to pay a specific portion of the costs and then let their employees choose the plan that?s best for them. Businesses with less than 25 employees and average wages of $50,000 a year or less will qualify for tax credits they can get only through the exchange, she said.
Todd-Malmlov, a graduate of Beloit College in Wisconsin who earned a master?s in public health from the University of Minnesota, worked for UnitedHeallth Group and the Minnesota Department of Health before she took on her current challenge.
?This is fun. I wouldn?t want to be doing anything else,? she said.
(? Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Source: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/01/27/minn-building-new-health-insurance-marketplace/
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Pruett ties Haywood's record as Ganassi wins Rolex
Ganassi Racing team drivers, from front left, Scott Pruett; Charlie Kimball; Memo Rojas, of Mexico; and Juan Pablo Montoya, driving the car, of Colombia, arrive in Victory Lane after winning the Grand-Am Series Rolex 24 hour auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Ganassi Racing team drivers, from front left, Scott Pruett; Charlie Kimball; Memo Rojas, of Mexico; and Juan Pablo Montoya, driving the car, of Colombia, arrive in Victory Lane after winning the Grand-Am Series Rolex 24 hour auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Scott Pruett drives the Ganassi Racing BMW Riley as he maintains the lead during the final hours of the Grand-Am Series Rolex 24 hour auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Driver Scott Pruett walks through his pit stall after a turn driving in the Grand-Am Series Rolex 24 hour auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Memo Rojas, of Mexico, in the Ganassi Racing BMW Riley (01) passes a GT series car in a horseshoe turn during the Grand-Am Series Rolex 24 hour auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Scott Dixon, of New Zealand, drives the Ganassi Racing BMW Riley through the infield course during the Grand-Am Series Rolex 24 hour auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Humbled a year ago when both its cars failed to make the podium, Chip Ganassi Racing returned to the Rolex 24 at Daytona determined to pick up another victory watch.
An eyebrow-raising lineup change that involved Juan Pablo Montoya showed just how serious the team was about winning, and it delivered Sunday with its fifth win in 10 appearances in the prestigious sports car race. The victory was the fifth for lead driver Scott Pruett, tying Hurley Haywood's record for wins in the twice-around-the-clock race at Daytona International Speedway.
The winning team of three-time defending Grand-Am drivers Pruett and Memo Rojas, along with Montoya and IndyCar driver Charlie Kimball, making his Rolex debut, beat the Max Angelelli-led VelocityWW team by almost 22 seconds for the victory.
It was Montoya who closed out the win, driving the final stint and waging a strong battle in the final hour with defending champion AJ Allmendinger. Ganassi's No. 01 BMW Riley had a clear horsepower advantage, and once Montoya got past Allmendinger, the win was his for the taking.
But the Ganassi team figured it was four laps short on fuel, and Montoya needed to build a lead of at least 40-seconds to hold off Angelelli and Allmendinger when he was forced to stop for gas. The Colombian did it by turning laps close to qualifying pace, and breezed to his third Rolex victory.
Montoya's other two wins were with Pruett on the No. 01 car in 2007 and 2008, but he spent the last three years driving for the No. 02 Ganassi "star car" and came away empty-handed each time. When the Ganassi cars were left off the Rolex podium last season for the first time since 2005, team management went to work on the cars and setting up a lineup that gave them two chances to win.
Montoya admitted he thought the switch was "a weird move," but owner Chip Ganassi and team manager Mike Hull insisted it wasn't a demotion for the driver who has been stuck in a lengthy slump in his full-time NASCAR job.
Clearly the pressure is on Montoya to perform this year, the final year of his contract with Ganassi, and he stepped up Saturday and Sunday as the No. 01 team had to balance out Kimball's inexperience. It was the first time racing in a car with a roof on it for Kimball, who has diabetes and uses his fight with the disease as his platform.
The Chevrolet team of Angelelli, defending IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jordan Taylor finished second for team owner Wayne Taylor ? redemption after an engine failure 22 minutes in last year's event ended the team's day.
Defending race winner Michael Shank Racing twice came back from seven laps down to finish third in a Ford. It was a disappointing finish for team owner Shank, but a moral victory considering the hole the team clawed out of to make it to the podium.
Allmendinger, racing at Daytona for the first time since NASCAR suspended him for failing a random drug test hours before the July race here, teamed with fellow NASCAR driver Marcos Ambrose, IndyCar driver Justin Wilson and Grand-Am regulars John Pew and Ozz Negri for the finish.
Ambrose was added to last year's winning lineup after Negri broke his leg a month ago during offseason training, but Negri was able to return to the car this weekend for limited driving duties a mere six days after his cast was removed.
Audi Sport Customer Racing won the GT class in an Audi R8 with drivers Filipe Albuquergue, Oliver Jarvis, Edoardo Mortara and Dion von Moltke.
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Saturday, January 26, 2013
Disney says JJ Abrams to direct next 'Star Wars'
FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2013 file photo, J.J. Abrams arrives at the Winter TCA Fox All-Star Party at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif. According to multiple reports, Abrams is set to direct the next installment of ?Star Wars,? which Disney has said will be ?Episode 7? and due out in 2015. Disney bought ?Star Wars? maker Lucasfilm last month for $4.06 billion. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2013 file photo, J.J. Abrams arrives at the Winter TCA Fox All-Star Party at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif. According to multiple reports, Abrams is set to direct the next installment of ?Star Wars,? which Disney has said will be ?Episode 7? and due out in 2015. Disney bought ?Star Wars? maker Lucasfilm last month for $4.06 billion. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? It's official. The force is with J.J. Abrams.
The Walt Disney Co. issued a statement Friday night confirming reports that had been circulating for two days that Abrams, Emmy-award-winning creator of TV's "Lost" and director of 2009's "Star Trek" movie, has been pegged to direct the seventh installment of the "Star Wars" franchise.
"J.J. is the perfect director to helm this," said Kathleen Kennedy, the movie's producer and president of Lucasfilm, which was acquired by Disney last month for $4.06 billion.
"Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise. He understands the essence of the Star Wars experience," Kennedy said in the statement.
The movie will have a script from "Toy Story 3" writer Michael Arndt and a 2015 release.
Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" in the original trilogy, will work as a consultant on the new project.
Abrams has already headed the reboot of another storied space franchise, "Star Trek," for rival studio Paramount Pictures. The next installment in that series, "Star Trek: Into Darkness," is set to hit theaters May 17.
But he has long been known as a "Star Wars" devotee. Abrams spoke about the plot of the original "Star Wars" in the lecture series "TED Talks" in March 2007, and reportedly became enamored of "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof partly because Lindelof was wearing a "Star Wars" T-shirt when they first met.
In 2009, Abrams told the Los Angeles Times: "As a kid, 'Star Wars' was much more my thing than 'Star Trek' was."
In Friday night's statement he called it an "absolute honor" to get the job.
"I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid," Abrams said.
Lucas himself said in the statement that "I've consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller. He's an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn't be in better hands."
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CHRISTMAS MUSIC DELIVERS BIG RADIO RATINGS | Bottom Line ...
Some people criticized?radio station KFKF-FM for starting to play Christmas music too?early, but it now looks as if the Wilks-owned station is having the last laugh.
The Country station became ?Kansas City?s Christmas Station? officially?on November 20.
It now looks as if the move delivered the highest?ratings?in Kansas City during the ?Holiday? Arbitron period with a 9.2 rating, easily outdistancing urban station KPRS-FM, which was second at 7.7.
While the numbers are for all listeners (6-years-old and up, Monday thru Sunday from 6 a.m. to midnight) and stations often break them down to specific demographic groups for sales purposes, the final numbers are still impressive.
In December, KPRS edged KFKF for the ratings lead by a 7.2 to 7.1 margin, but it should be noted that ?KFKF?s ?(94.1 FM) ratings are generally in the 5.0 range for most of the year.
We highlighted earlier that ?Radio George,? the Internet radio station founded by former KC talk show host George Woods, also experienced its highest ratings in history with its huge variety of Christmas music offering?over the holidays.
It definitely is a format that attracts listeners.
Source: http://www.bottomlinecom.com/christmas-music-delivers-big-radio-ratings/
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Jeb Bush Kicks Off Immigration Reform Push In WSJ | TPMDC
You?re going to be seeing a lot of Jeb Bush in the next few months. The former Florida governor is spearheading an effort to bring Republicans into the pro-immigration fold, a campaign that he brought to the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page on Friday with an op-ed on why he supports comprehensive reform.
?The sudden ferment on this issue, which was largely dormant since efforts at comprehensive reform were torpedoed five years ago, is as welcome as it is overdue,? Bush, who co-authored the piece with attorney Clint Bolick, wrote. ?The growing consensus on both sides of the political aisle that something needs to be done should not be squandered, for such opportunities are rare and fleeting.?
Bush used his piece to address a number of common Republican concerns about reform ? that it should be eschewed in favor of tougher border security, that a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would represent ?amnesty? ? calling such approaches ?shortsighted and self-defeating.?
?The best way to prevent illegal immigration is to make sure that we have a fair and workable system of legal immigration,? he wrote. ?The current immigration system is neither.?
Notably, Bush called for ?comprehensive? reform, rejecting suggestions from some Republicans that the issue be handled with a series of smaller bills. According to Bush, only a larger package can address both the problem of what to do with the currently 11 million undocumented immigrants in America and how to correct the legal immigration system so that it prevents a similar buildup from occurring in the future.
?If one or more pieces are out of whack, the puzzle makes no sense,? he wrote. ?To fix the system, Congress must make sure all of the pieces fit together, logically and snugly.?
Bush, who has a book on immigration coming out in March, is one of several prominent conservatives taking on a public role in selling their party on immigration reform. Fellow Floridian Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has also emerged as a key player who is working hard to sell right-wing television and radio hosts on a similar framework for reform, which like Bush?s mostly resembles past bipartisan proposals broadly in line with the White House?s goals. Business and religious groups more often associated with conservative economic and social policy respectively are also launching public relations and lobbying campaigns to win over Republican lawmakers, especially in the GOP-controlled House.
Benjy Sarlin Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
Source: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/01/jeb-bush-immigration-wsj.php
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Egypt deploys troops in Suez after 9 killed on anniversary of uprising
CAIRO/ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt's armed forces deployed troops in the city of Suez early on Saturday after nine people were shot dead during nationwide protests against President Mohamed Mursi, underlining the country's deep divisions as it marked the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Eight of the dead, including a policeman, were shot dead in Suez, and another was shot and killed in the city of Ismailia, medics said. Another 456 people were injured across Egypt, officials said, in unrest on Friday fuelled by anger at Mursi and his Islamist allies over what the protesters see as their betrayal of the revolution.
Mursi said the state would not hesitate in "pursuing the criminals and delivering them to justice". In a statement, he also called on Egyptians to respect the principles of the revolution by expressing their views peacefully.
The troops were deployed in Suez after the head of the state security police in the city asked for reinforcements. The army distributed pamphlets to residents assuring them the deployment was temporary and meant to secure the city.
"We have asked the armed forces to send reinforcements on the ground until we pass this difficult period," Adel Refaat, head of state security in Suez, told state television.
Friday's anniversary laid bare the divide between the Islamists and their secular rivals.
The schism is hindering the efforts of Mursi, elected in June, to revive an economy in crisis and reverse a plunge in Egypt's currency by enticing back investors and tourists.
Inspired by the popular uprising in Tunisia, Egypt's revolution spurred further revolts across the Arab world. But the sense of common purpose that united Egyptians two years ago has given way to internal strife that already triggered bloody street battles last month.
Thousands of opponents of Mursi massed on Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square - the cradle of the revolt against Mubarak - to rekindle the demands of a revolution they say has been hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Mursi emerged.
In Suez, the military deployed armored vehicles to guard state buildings, witnesses and security sources said, as symbols of government were targeted across the country.
Street battles erupted in cities including Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and Port Said. Arsonists attacked at least two state-owned buildings. An office used by the Muslim Brotherhood's political party was also torched.
"Our revolution is continuing. We reject the domination of any party over this state. We say no to the Brotherhood state," Hamdeen Sabahy, a popular leftist leader, told Reuters.
The Brotherhood decided against mobilizing for the anniversary, wary of the scope for more conflict after December's violence, stoked by Mursi's decision to fast-track an Islamist-tinged constitution rejected by his opponents.
The Brotherhood denies accusations that it is seeking to dominate Egypt, labeling them a smear campaign by its rivals.
'LEAVE! LEAVE! LEAVE!'
There were conflicting accounts of the lethal shooting in Suez. Some witnesses said security forces had opened fire in response to gunfire from masked men.
News of the deaths capped a day of violence that started in the early hours of Friday. Before dawn in Cairo, police battled protesters who threw petrol bombs and firecrackers as they approached a wall blocking access to government buildings near Tahrir Square.
Clouds of teargas filled the air. At one point, riot police used one of the incendiaries thrown at them to set ablaze at least two tents erected by youths, a Reuters witness said.
Skirmishes between stone-throwing youths and the police continued in streets around the square into the day. Ambulances ferried away a steady stream of casualties.
Protesters echoed the chants of 2011's historic 18-day uprising. "The people want to bring down the regime," they chanted. "Leave! Leave! Leave!" chanted others as they marched towards the square.
"We are not here to celebrate but to force those in power to submit to the will of the people. Egypt now must never be like Egypt during Mubarak's rule," said Mohamed Fahmy, an activist.
There were similar scenes in Suez and Alexandria, where protesters and riot police clashed near local government offices. Black smoke billowed from tires set ablaze by youths.
In Cairo, police fired teargas to disperse a few dozen protesters trying to remove barbed-wire barriers protecting the presidential palace, witnesses said. A few masked men got as far as the gates before they were beaten back.
Teargas was also fired at protesters who tried to remove metal barriers outside the state television building.
Outside Cairo, protesters broke into the offices of provincial governors in Ismailia and Kafr el-Sheikh in the Nile Delta. A local government building was torched in the Nile Delta city of al-Mahalla al-Kubra.
With an eye on parliamentary elections likely to begin in April, the Brotherhood marked the anniversary with a charity drive across the nation. It plans to deliver medical aid to one million people and distribute affordable basic foodstuffs.
Writing in Al-Ahram, Egypt's flagship state-run daily, Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie said the country was in need of "practical, serious competition" to reform the corrupt state left by the Mubarak era.
"The differences of opinion and vision that Egypt is passing through is a characteristic at the core of transitions from dictatorship to democracy, and clearly expresses the variety of Egyptian culture," he wrote.
Mursi's opponents say he and his group are seeking to dominate the post-Mubarak order. They accuse him of showing some of the autocratic impulses of the deposed leader by, for example, driving through the new constitution last month.
"I am taking part in today's marches to reject the warped constitution, the 'Brotherhoodisation' of the state, the attack on the rule of law, and the disregard of the president and his government for the demands for social justice," Amr Hamzawy, a prominent liberal politician, wrote on his Twitter feed.
The Brotherhood says its rivals are failing to respect the rules of the new democracy that put the Islamists in the driving seat via free elections.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Ahmed el-Shemi, Ashraf Fahim, Shaimaa Fayed and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo and Abdel Rahman Youssef in Alexandria; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Robert Woodward and Peter Cooney)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/seven-die-egypt-violence-anniversary-uprising-003521804.html
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Burt Reynolds hospitalized with severe flu
By Natalie Finn, E! Online
Burt Reynolds, we're pulling for your recovery ? and getting a good laugh from your PR camp.
The "Smokey and the Bandit" star has been hospitalized in Florida with a severe case of the flu that landed him in the intensive care unit with severe dehydration.
More from E: Reynolds braved quintuple bypass surgery in 2010
Happily, Reynolds' rep told E! News on Friday, "He is doing better. They are taking care of him and his mustache."
Yes, the rep really said that.
The 76-year-old actor, an Oscar nominee for "Boogie Nights"?and erstwhile star of the CBS sitcom "Evening Shade," most recently contributed his voice, as himself, to the quirky animated FX series "Archer."
Photos from E: Celebs sporting big-time facial hair
May Reynolds ? whose mustache indeed contributed to his sex-symbol status in the 1980s ? feel better soon!?
?Reporting by Marcus Mulick
More in Entertainment:
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Friday, January 25, 2013
ER Accelerator Announces 10 Startups Joining Its January 2013 Class
It's a brand new year, and a brand new class for the Entrepreneurs' Roundtable Accelerator is only fitting on this cold, January morning. The accelerator announced back in October that this January 2013 class of ten startups will be receiving a $15K boost to their seed funding, a total of $40K per startup. According to Jon Axelrod, managing director at ERA, "We really believe that extra $15,000 can really make a difference." Past classes only received $25K in funding, along with resources like mentors, office space, bandwidth and a demo day in front of investors.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/WzMDJqM-Fu8/
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
Dung beetles follow the Milky Way
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 24-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Mary Beth OLeary
moleary@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press
You might expect dung beetles to keep their "noses to the ground," but they are actually incredibly attuned to the sky. A report published online on January 24 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, shows that even on the darkest of nights, African ball-rolling insects are guided by the soft glow of the Milky Way.
While birds and humans are known to navigate by the stars, the discovery is the first convincing evidence for such abilities in insects, the researchers say. It is also the first known example of any animal getting around by the Milky Way as opposed to the stars.
"Even on clear, moonless nights, many dung beetles still manage to orientate along straight paths," said Marie Dacke of Lund University in Sweden. "This led us to suspect that the beetles exploit the starry sky for orientationa feat that had, to our knowledge, never before been demonstrated in an insect."
Dacke and her colleagues found that dung beetles do transport their dung balls along straight paths under a starlit sky but lose the ability under overcast conditions. In a planetarium, the beetles stayed on track equally well under a full starlit sky and one showing only the diffuse streak of the Milky Way.
That makes sense, the researchers explain, because the night sky is sprinkled with stars, but the vast majority of those stars should be too dim for the beetles' tiny compound eyes to see.
The findings raise the possibility that other nocturnal insects might also use stars to guide them at night. On the other hand, dung beetles are pretty special. Upon locating a suitable dung pile, the beetles shape a piece of dung into a ball and roll it away in a straight line. That behavior guarantees them that they will not return to the dung pile, where they risk having their ball stolen by other beetles.
"Dung beetles are known to use celestial compass cues such as the sun, the moon, and the pattern of polarized light formed around these light sources to roll their balls of dung along straight paths," Dacke said. "Celestial compass cues dominate straight-line orientation in dung beetles so strongly that, to our knowledge, this is the only animal with a visual compass system that ignores the extra orientation precision that landmarks can offer."
###
Current Biology, Dacke et al.: "Dung beetles use the Milky Way for orientation."
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 24-Jan-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Mary Beth OLeary
moleary@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press
You might expect dung beetles to keep their "noses to the ground," but they are actually incredibly attuned to the sky. A report published online on January 24 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, shows that even on the darkest of nights, African ball-rolling insects are guided by the soft glow of the Milky Way.
While birds and humans are known to navigate by the stars, the discovery is the first convincing evidence for such abilities in insects, the researchers say. It is also the first known example of any animal getting around by the Milky Way as opposed to the stars.
"Even on clear, moonless nights, many dung beetles still manage to orientate along straight paths," said Marie Dacke of Lund University in Sweden. "This led us to suspect that the beetles exploit the starry sky for orientationa feat that had, to our knowledge, never before been demonstrated in an insect."
Dacke and her colleagues found that dung beetles do transport their dung balls along straight paths under a starlit sky but lose the ability under overcast conditions. In a planetarium, the beetles stayed on track equally well under a full starlit sky and one showing only the diffuse streak of the Milky Way.
That makes sense, the researchers explain, because the night sky is sprinkled with stars, but the vast majority of those stars should be too dim for the beetles' tiny compound eyes to see.
The findings raise the possibility that other nocturnal insects might also use stars to guide them at night. On the other hand, dung beetles are pretty special. Upon locating a suitable dung pile, the beetles shape a piece of dung into a ball and roll it away in a straight line. That behavior guarantees them that they will not return to the dung pile, where they risk having their ball stolen by other beetles.
"Dung beetles are known to use celestial compass cues such as the sun, the moon, and the pattern of polarized light formed around these light sources to roll their balls of dung along straight paths," Dacke said. "Celestial compass cues dominate straight-line orientation in dung beetles so strongly that, to our knowledge, this is the only animal with a visual compass system that ignores the extra orientation precision that landmarks can offer."
###
Current Biology, Dacke et al.: "Dung beetles use the Milky Way for orientation."
[ | 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/cp-dbf011713.php
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