Friday, December 30, 2011

Stock index futures seen inching lower (Reuters)

(Reuters) Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones futures and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.04 to 0.2 percent at 0901 GMT.

* On the macro economic front, investors will watch U.S. Redbook weekly U.S. Retail Sales at 1355 GMT.

* Iran has threatened to halt the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz if foreign sanctions were imposed on its crude exports over its nuclear ambitions, in a move which some analysts say could kindle military conflict with economies dependent on Gulf Oil.

* A third infant in the United States has tested positive for Cronobacter, a bacteria that has sometimes been linked to rare illnesses in newborns and has been found in milk-based powdered baby formula.

This has spurred a probe into baby formula, including Enfamil by Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. (MJN.N), although the baby had not consumed this.

* A delay has been won by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in its securities fraud lawsuit against Citigroup Inc (C.N), as the regulator tries to appeal a judge's decision to reject its $285 million settlement with the bank.

* A filing has been made by Morgan Stanley (MS.N) to the New York State's Department of Labor to cut 580 jobs at four Manhattan offices, the company said.

* European shares slipped in early trading on Wednesday on concerns about Iran's threat to stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and worries ahead of an Italian short-term debt sale.

* Wall Street ended flat on Tuesday after a 5 percent rally last week in a light-volume session, with the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dipping 0.02 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) inching up 0.01 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) adding 0.25 percent. (Reporting by Joanne Frearson; editing by Sophie Walker)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111228/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

The payroll tax cut deal: 3 reasons the GOP caved (The Week)

New York ? Congress finally agreed on a temporary extension of the tax holiday, just days before it was set to expire

Bowing to intense pressure, House Republicans on Thursday agreed to extend the payroll-tax cut for two months. The Senate promptly signed off on the deal, ending a bitter stalemate that had threatened to hike the amount withheld from the paychecks of 160 million workers starting Jan. 1 (someone with a $50,000 annual income, for instance, would have had an extra $1,000 docked from his salary over the course of 2012). Congress can now resume work on extending the break past the two-month grace period. House Speaker John Boehner and his caucus had been insisting on a full-year cut, saying the "uncertainty" of a short-term extension would hurt businesses. So why did Republicans cave? Here, three theories:

1. They realized the public was mad... at them
Vulnerable House Republicans, worried about next year's reelection battle, were the ones who begged "the Republican leadership to relent," says Greg Sargent at The Washington Post. Their constituents were angry that the stalemate was threatening to take a chunk out of their paychecks ? $40 a week for the average taxpayer. That's pretty solid confirmation that "the public is concluding that Republicans are the ones to blame for allowing the tax hike (to) creep ever closer to reality."

SEE MORE: Will the payroll tax fight shut down the government?

?

2. Obama forced GOP leaders to capitulate
Boehner said digging in against the temporary extension "may not have been the smartest thing in the world." That's an understatement, says Allahpundit at Hot Air. House Republicans spoonfed President Obama the opportunity to hold "a presser to demand action with middle-class taxpayers lovingly arrayed behind him," and those Republicans "caved" just a few hours later. "Now it looks like even more of a capitulation than it is. Merry Christmas from the GOP, champ." Oh, well. At least now "our dumb national nightmare is over."

3. Boehner managed to win a (minor) concession
This isn't the "best-possible version" of the bill hoped for, says Daniel Foster at National Review. Such a version would have fast-tracked a decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, included modest entitlement reform, and paid for it all without punishing new taxes. But in exchange for their cooperation, House Republicans did win "a 'technical correction' designed to 'minimize difficulties businesses might experience implementing the short-term, two-month tax cut extension.'" If this fix "really does make life easier for payroll processors, that's good!"

SEE MORE: 3 reasons why Congress should reject the payroll tax break

?

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Romney charity used for conservative donations

Republican presidential candidate, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Talk with another customer while shopping for "Toys For Tots" in The Toy Store in Concord, N.H. Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Republican presidential candidate, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Talk with another customer while shopping for "Toys For Tots" in The Toy Store in Concord, N.H. Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Republican presidential candidate, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney talks with a voter while campaigning in Concord, N.H. Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Republican presidential candidate, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney signs baseballs while campaigning in Concord, N.H. Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

(AP) ? In the Republican primary struggle to define the most reliably conservative presidential candidate, Mitt Romney has put his money where his mouth is. Over the past six years and two presidential campaigns, Romney has donated at least $260,000 from his family charity foundation to GOP causes and influential conservative groups that could deepen his ties within the party and establish his credibility on the right.

Romney's campaign said there was no hidden motivation behind his contributions.

Romney gave $100,000 last year to the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, according to tax records of the Tyler Charitable Foundation, a multimillion dollar Boston-based charity headed by Romney and his wife, Ann. The former president has said publicly he will not endorse any candidate in the Republican primary, but the Romney campaign is studded with former Bush political veterans and appears to lead its rivals in financial support from former Bush fundraisers.

In 2008, Romney gave $25,000 to The Becket Fund, a religious rights legal aid group that is suing the Obama administration on behalf of a North Carolina Catholic college over federal rules requiring employer health plans to cover contraceptives and other birth control. Romney has also contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Massachusetts conservative groups and to core Washington-based conservative think-tanks and publications, among them the Heritage Foundation research institute, the Federal Society legal interest group and a gala dinner for the National Review magazine website.

Romney's gifts came with no strings attached, according to many of the groups, and the Romney campaign says the former Massachusetts governor was simply aiding well-established organizations. GOP strategists and other campaign observers say the moves are smart politics for a candidate trying to establish his conservative bona fides and who has scorned his latest rival, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, as an "unreliable conservative." But some caution that Romney's gift giving could raise questions inside the party about whether he is trying to use his vast personal wealth to buy support on the right.

"He knows he's not looked at as coming from the trenches of the conservative movement, so this is his way of making an appeal," GOP consultant Greg Mueller said. "The question is how it will play among the conservative faithful."

A Romney campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, said the candidate's donations were made with no "hint of a quid pro quo." She called the groups "public charities with worthy missions."

Officials at the Bush library would not discuss details of Romney's donation. Bush's spokesman, Freddy Ford, waved off any speculation about Romney's political motivation. "The former president is going to support whoever the Republican nominee is, but as he's said, he doesn't want to wade into the swamp" during the primaries, Ford said.

Romney may not expect an early endorsement, but his campaign has already benefitted from Bush's top talent. Romney's campaign strategists, Stu Stevens and Russell Schriefer, worked with the Bush-Cheney team in 2000 and 2004, and his campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, was Bush's research director in the 2004 race. Washington lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg, who represented Bush during the 2000 recount, is a senior adviser, and numerous other former Bush staffers are on the Romney team.

Romney's campaign finance team has also out-dueled Gingrich, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other rivals to win the favor of top Bush fundraisers, known as "Pioneers" and "Rangers," who gave in excess of $100,000 in past presidential campaigns. The Houston Chronicle reported that Romney's former Bush supporters had raised $350,000 compared to Perry's $213,000 by late fall.

In recent weeks, as Gingrich's star rose, Romney questioned his conservative credentials, citing his consulting work for mortgage lending giant Freddie Mac. Gingrich responded by slamming the role of Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney once headed, in mass layoffs at some firms under its control.

Gingrich's own private charity, the Center for Health Transformation, has donated at least $167,000 since 2005 to traditional charities ? ranging from $10,000 to Red Cross relief for Hurricane Katrina victims to $3,000 to the Winn Feline Foundation, a group promoting cat health. But Gingrich made no contributions to conservative groups ? which Gingrich supporters say reflects his status as a lifelong conservative.

Gingrich's spokesman, R.C. Hammond, declined to comment on Romney's gifts to conservative groups, but was quick to stress Gingrich's pedigree on the right. "Every notable Republican achievement of recent years has either been driven by Newt or has his fingerprints on it," he said.

With a short history as a conservative political figure, Romney's largess to conservative causes is "definitely a smart move," said Bill Dal Col, former campaign manager for businessman Steve Forbes' two presidential tries. "He may be doing it with dollars but it gets him to the same level playing field as any conservative who has come up through the ranks."

Some diehard conservatives see Romney's gift giving as part of a measured effort to change his stripes. During his first presidential try in 2006, MassResistance, a Massachusetts group opposed to gay marriage, warned on its Internet blog of a "calculated effort by the Romney campaign to revise his history and portray the governor as far more conservative than the record indicates."

Presidential candidates are not normally known for using family charities to donate to interest groups within their political parties, but it has happened before. Dal Col said Forbes donated small amounts to some core conservative groups around the time he ran in GOP primaries in 1996 and 2000. Teresa Heinz Kerry was criticized by conservative groups for Heinz foundation donations to environmental groups in advance of Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential run as Democratic party nominee.

Romney's main outlet for charity is the Tyler foundation. It was originally called the Ann D. and Mitt Romney Charitable Foundation and renamed for a street where the couple once had a home in Belmont, Mass. The foundation, which listed $10 million in assets in 2010, has given more than $7 million in charity over the past decade.

Most of its assets come from direct grants from the Romneys or from Romney-owned stocks and other holdings. Until the most recent 2010 tax disclosure, the Tyler foundation had previously provided detailed lists of stock holdings the Romneys had bought and sold to increase the charity's funds. Earlier this year, an AP review of earlier Tyler holdings showed that some investments included companies whose interests conflicted with GOP positions ? including firms tied to the Chinese government, companies that did business in Iran and firms working in stem cell research.

Romney had earlier declared that the blind trust lawyer overseeing Tyler's finances would end such investments. A trust official indicated those investments are being eliminated, but the most recent tax filing does not include details of any specific investments and lists only total holdings.

Most of the Romneys' monetary gifts have gone to non-political causes, including more than $4.7 million to the Mormon Church, reflecting the family's faith, and hundreds of thousands more to research on cancer and multiple sclerosis (which afflicts his wife, Ann); academics (Harvard Business School and Brigham Young University) and athletics (a variety of Olympic and other sports groups).

Between 1999 and 2004, the Romneys' giving went almost exclusively to non-political charities. Their gifts helped Boston and Massachusetts-based charities aiding education programs, deprived children and the homeless ? although one $5,000 contribution to an AIDS relief group in 2004 was later criticized by conservative activists for supporting a gay rights agenda.

In 2005, around the time that Romney started laying plans for his first presidential campaign, Romney suddenly began directing contributions to influential conservative groups and programs. Late that year, Romney gave $25,000 to the Heritage Foundation and a similar sized donation to the Federalist Society. Tyler records show the Romney charity gave the groups $10,000 donations again the next year.

Both organizations are conservative think tanks that often act as incubators for the development of the GOP's political, legal and cultural ideas. Their boards include top names among conservative leaders and thinkers. Heritage trustees and managers include Steve Forbes, businessman Richard Mellon Scaife, former Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese III and former Bush administration counsel David Addington. Federalist directors include Meese, former Bush Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and C. Boyden Gray, former counsel to President George H.W. Bush.

John Van Kannon, vice president of development at Heritage, said the organization does not make presidential endorsements, but he praised Romney for his gift. "We did not solicit his check, but we certainly appreciated it," he said. Van Kannon said he could not speculate on Romney's motivation, noting: "I would like to hope that no one who runs for president does things for calculation, but on the other hand I live in Washington."

Heritage health care experts developed an early relationship with Romney during his term as governor, providing analysis as his administration developed its health care plan for Massachusetts, Van Kannon said. Romney spoke about his plan during a 2006 presentation and later invited Heritage experts to a signing ceremony. Heritage's experts supported rules mandating that all state residents had to buy health care coverage, but Van Kannon said they now consider mandates to be bad policy and oppose them as part of the Obama administration's health care law.

"We're proud of our work with Gov. Romney on health care but we've changed our views on mandates," Van Kannon said.

The Federalist Society does not endorse candidates. Officials there did not return calls from The Associated Press. Former Nixon administration official Robert Bork, who is on the Federalist Society's board of visitors, is a policy adviser to Romney's campaign.

Similarly, the executive director at the Becket Fund, Kristina Arriaga, said Romney's 2008 donation of $25,000 would not result in his political endorsement. "We specialize only in religious liberty not politics," Arriaga said.

Romney's donations also won favor among several Massachusetts conservative groups that worked with him when he was governor. Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, said Romney's $10,000 check came "out of the blue" in 2007. The group also does not endorse candidates. Anderson said that despite Romney's financial help, she is personally uncertain whom she will vote for.

"I keep leaning toward him but I'm still on the fence," Anderson said. "He helped our cause a lot but as important as tax policy is, there's more to a presidential candidate that I have to consider. Whatever I decide, it won't be because he gave us $10,000."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-23-Romney%20Charity/id-4372a5843c3142e0a96d5d30185b973f

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Friday, December 23, 2011

The Healing Power of Pets | bluedevilphotos.com

Depression among men and women can be caused by excessive stress at work, suffering, losing a loved one and many more. Annie Hay is a mental health professional at Counselling in Edinburgh online, http://counsellinginedinburgh.net, who helps people overcome depression. The disorder is characterized by an all-encompassing low mood and lack of zest for life. If depression becomes chronic then therapy and counseling should be able to help the troubled person. However, there are cases of mild depression that can be treated on your own through self-help. You can ease yourself from depression by owning a pet. As studies have shown, taking care of a pet results to positive impact on your mental health. Activities like walking the dog or playing with your dog elevate the levels of serotonin and dopamine which helps the person to relax. Moreover, pet owners are less likely to suffer depression. The belief is that the pet fulfills the human?s basic need for companionship and touch.

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Palm-sized baby, 2nd smallest in US, is growing

This undated photo provided by Melinda Guido?s family shows Melinda, with her mother's fingers in the scene, in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. Melinda was born premature at 24 weeks weighing 9.5 ounces. She?s believed to be the second smallest surviving baby in the United States and third smallest in the world. (AP Photo/Haydee Ibarra)

This undated photo provided by Melinda Guido?s family shows Melinda, with her mother's fingers in the scene, in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. Melinda was born premature at 24 weeks weighing 9.5 ounces. She?s believed to be the second smallest surviving baby in the United States and third smallest in the world. (AP Photo/Haydee Ibarra)

This undated photo provided by Melinda Guido?s family shows Melinda in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. Melinda was born premature at 24 weeks weighing 9.5 ounces. She?s believed to be the second smallest surviving baby in the United States and third smallest in the world. (AP Photo/Haydee Ibarra)

Haydee Ibarra, looks at her 14-week-old daughter, Melinda Star Guido, at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. At birth, Melinda Star Guido tipped the scales at only 9 1/2 ounces, a tad less than the weight of two iPhone 4S. Most babies her size don?t survive, but doctors are preparing to send her home as soon as the end of the month. Melinda is believed to be the second smallest baby to survive in the United States and the third smallest in the world. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

14-week-old Melinda Star Guido holds her mother's little finger while lying in an incubator at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. At birth, Melinda Star Guido tipped the scales at only 9 1/2 ounces, a tad less than the weight of two iPhone 4S. Melinda is believed to be the second smallest baby to survive in the United States and the third smallest in the world. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

14-week-old Melinda Star Guido holds her mother's little finger while lying in an incubator at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. At birth, Melinda Star Guido tipped the scales at only 9 1/2 ounces, a tad less than the weight of two iPhone 4S. Most babies her size don?t survive, but doctors are preparing to send her home as soon as the end of the month. Melinda is believed to be the second smallest baby to survive in the United States and the third smallest in the world. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

(AP) ? At birth, Melinda Star Guido was so tiny she could fit into the palm of her doctor's hand. Weighing just 9 1/2 ounces ? less than a can of soda ? she is among the smallest babies ever born in the world. Most infants her size don't survive, but doctors are preparing to send her home by New Year's.

Melinda was born premature at 24 weeks over the summer and spent the early months cocooned in an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit in Southern California. Almost every day, her 22-year-old mother sits at her bedside and stays overnight whenever she can.

The day before her Thursday due date, Haydee Ibarra visited Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center where her daughter has been since her birth in late August. Melinda is believed to be the second smallest baby to survive in the U.S. and third in the world.

Ibarra caressed Melinda through the portholes of the incubator where nurses pinned up a homemade sign bearing her name. Now weighing four pounds, Melinda gripped Ibarra's pinky finger and yawned.

"Melinda, Melinda," she cooed at her daughter dressed in a polka dot onesie. "You're awake today."

During her pregnancy, Ibarra suffered from high blood pressure, which can be dangerous for both mother and fetus. She was transferred from a hospital near her San Fernando Valley home to the county's flagship hospital, which was better equipped to handle high-risk pregnancies.

There was a problem with the placenta, the organ that nourishes the developing fetus. The fetus, however, was not getting proper nutrition, blood and oxygen. Doctors knew Melinda would weigh less than a pound, but they were surprised at how small and fragile she was.

"The first few weeks, it was touch and go. None of us thought the baby was going to make it," said Dr. Rangasamy Ramanathan, who oversees premature infants.

Even if she survived, doctors told Ibarra and her husband Yovani Guido, children born this extremely premature can have developmental delays and impairments such as blindness, deafness or cerebral palsy.

Ibarra, who previously had a stillborn, told doctors to do whatever necessary to help her baby.

"They said, 'We'll take the chance. Please try.' So we said. 'OK we'll try,'" Ramanathan recalled.

Melinda was delivered by cesarean section at 24 weeks and was immediately transferred to the NICU where a team of doctors and nurses kept watch around the clock. Infants born before 37 weeks are considered premature.

Melinda was kept insulated in an incubator and was hooked up to a machine to aid her breathing. She got nutrition through a feeding tube. Her mother said her skin felt like plastic because it was so thin.

"It takes a lot of good care and a lot of good luck. Most of them don't survive," said pediatrician Dr. Edward Bell of the University of Iowa who keeps an online database of the world's smallest surviving babies who were less than a pound at birth.

The list currently contains 126 babies dating back to 1936. Since submission is voluntary, it does not represent all survivors.

Ten babies weighing less than a pound were born last year and survived. Melinda joins three other tiny survivors delivered this year in Berkeley; Seoul, South Korea; and Iowa City, Iowa. All are bigger than Melinda, who is not eligible to be listed until she gets discharged.

Most tiny babies who survive tend to be female. That's because female fetuses mature faster than males of the same gestational age. Having more developed lungs and other vital organs increases odds of survival.

Bell published a study last year that found many survivors struggle with health and learning problems. For those for whom growth data are available, many are short and underweight for their age.

There are some success stories.

The smallest surviving baby born weighing 9.2 ounces is now a healthy 7-year-old and another who weighed 9.9 ounces at birth is an honors college student studying psychology. Their progress was detailed in a study published this week in the journal Pediatrics by doctors at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois where the girls were born.

In the past three years, Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center treated two other babies with extremely low birth weight who survived, but Melinda holds the record at the hospital.

A month after she was born, she was treated for an eye disorder that's common in premature babies. She faced her biggest test last month when she underwent surgery to close an artery that usually seals after birth.

Ybarra held Melinda for the first time after the surgery. Before that, she could only touch her through the incubator. The next challenge is learning to bottle feed before discharge. Ramanathan predicted at least another two-week stay, dashing her parents' hopes of taking her home by Christmas.

Ramanathan said it's too early to know how Melinda will fare when she grows up. Since she did not have major complications such as bleeding in the brain, he held out hope.

Melinda can breathe by herself, but still uses an oxygen tube as a precaution. On Wednesday, an ophthalmologist checked out her eyes and said everything looked good.

After the checkup, Ibarra lifted Melinda out of the incubator and sat in a rocking chair, cradling her.

___

Online:

Tiniest Babies Registry: http://www.healthcare.uiowa.edu/tiniestbabies/index.htm

___

Follow Alicia Chang's coverage at http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-15-Tiny%20Baby/id-1e4a500f016f428d94bd0f68197e8164

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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Google in talks to take on Amazon in retail: report (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Google Inc is pondering an Internet service to help consumers shop online and take advantage of same-day delivery, hoping to stanch the loss of Web traffic to Amazon.com Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Internet search leader is in talks with major retailers and shippers, including Macy's, Gap Inc and OfficeMax, to set up the service, the newspaper cited people familiar with the matter as saying.

Google and Amazon did not return calls for comment. Macy's, Gap and OfficeMax were not immediately available for comment.

Google may be casting a wary eye on the popularity of Amazon.com's Prime service -- which allows rapid shipping for an annual fee -- fearing it will entice away the Web traffic it depends on from its own sites.

The plan under consideration stops short of selling directly to consumers, the Journal cited a person familiar with the matter as saying.

Google will instead work in tandem with retailers' websites, combining an existing product-search feature that directs shoppers to those sites, with a new shipping service that it intends to create and oversee, the Journal reported.

That new feature is designed to determine if a nearby physical store has a desired product in stock. Google could then offer the consumer an option to receive their goods within a day or two, for a fee, the newspaper said.

Google plans a test trial in the San Francisco Bay area for the new initiative, which could also involve United Parcel Service Inc, the Journal added.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111201/tc_nm/us_google

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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Lockheed Martin shows us how it's getting Orion ready to explore the cosmos

It's not every day that America designs an entirely new spacecraft. Rarer still is the creation of a vehicle that can carry man, not just machine, beyond the earth's gravitational pull. In the history of the world, there have been only eight such human transports: the Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz capsules from Russia, the American-made Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules, plus the Space Shuttle, and China's Shenzhou spacecraft. That list is going to get a new member soon, as NASA (with a big assist from Lockheed Martin) is building the most technologically advanced spaceship the Earth has ever seen; the aptly-named Orion.

In ancient Greek mythology, Orion was a hunter born of the earth who was eventually placed among the heavens by Zeus. NASA's Orion is a multipurpose crew vehicle (MPCV) that looks similar to the Apollo capsules and is here to replace the venerable Space Shuttle. It's capable of taking us further into the cosmos to than we've ever been -- to asteroids, the moon, and even Mars. This mission flexibility and interplanetary reach is what sets Orion apart from previous manned spacecraft, but that adaptability requires some heavy duty engineering and extensive testing to guarantee its ability to handle any NASA mission with aplomb. Head on past to break to learn more about how Lockheed Martin's getting the MPCV ready for deep space.

Continue reading Lockheed Martin shows us how it's getting Orion ready to explore the cosmos

Lockheed Martin shows us how it's getting Orion ready to explore the cosmos originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday, December 2, 2011

CEO bans email, encourages social networking

Who needs email when you have text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and a menagerie of alternative communication tools? Not Atos, a French IT firm that's planning to give email the boot. Over the course of the next eighteen months, CEO Thierry Breton hopes to ween 80,000 employees off of the old standby, pushing text messages, phone calls and face-to-face chats as alternatives. Breton strives to promote a collaborative social network similar to Facebook or Twitter to fill email's void and suffice as an easily accessible global network. Having himself been email sober at work for three years, Breton claims email is inefficient, and a burden to the workflow. Will this new social environment promote efficiency, or will pet photos and status updates become the new spam? If employees can't keep their social inclinations under wraps, Atos may have to resort to the Medieval carrier pigeon. Delivery estimates for long distance range from five days to never.

CEO bans email, encourages social networking originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toads could be used to forecast earthquakes days before they happen (Yahoo! News)

Study says the pond-dwelling animals can sense a change in groundwater before an earthquake

Aside from ionosphere disturbances, nature has a number of ways that signify an earthquake's arrival far earlier than an iPhone can. Animals, for instance, are known to leave their homes and head to safety anywhere from a few seconds to weeks before humans can feel quakes. It was easy enough for researchers to determine the science behind the behavior seconds before ground tremors are felt, but the explanation behind instances of animal exodus days or weeks prior to any seismic activity has eluded them ? until now, that is. Rachel Grant from the U.K. Open University and Friedemann Freund from NASA?believe they may have figured it all out, thanks to a colony of toads.

Grant monitored a toad colony in L'Aquila, Italy for her PhD project, when she noticed the population number dropped from 96 to almost zero at least three days before an earthquake hit. After forming a team with Freund, they studied how and why that event happened. The results ? which were recently published in a research paper ? showed that stress in the surrounding rocks released charged particles that contaminated the groundwater. The toads, of course, sought refuge away from their environment which had suddenly become toxic.

According to the study, rocks under very high levels of stress due to tectonic forces emit particles that react with air to form positively charged ions. These particles are known to cause health problems in humans like headaches, nausea, and increased levels of the stress hormone serotonin. The positive ions then dissolve in the water, making it lethal not just to toads but other aquatic, semi-aquatic, and even burrowing animals.

The scientists admit their findings need to be tested and studied more. But even now they believe it can be used as one of the early indicators of an earthquake. "Once we understand how all of these signals are connected, if we see four of five signals all pointing in [the same] direction, we can say, 'ok, something is about to happen'," Freund says.

[Image credit: Wikimedia]

[via BBC, Telegraph]

This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca

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