Sunday weather forecast: Overcast, chance of thunderstorm | NOLA ...

Overcast with a chance of a thunderstorm and a chance of rain. High of 73. Winds from the south at 5 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.

Tonight: Overcast with thunderstorms and rain showers, then a chance of a thunderstorm and rain after midnight. Fog overnight. Low of 63. Breezy. Winds from the south-southwest at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40% with rainfall amounts near 0.4 inches possible.

Source: http://www.nola.com/weather/index.ssf/2012/12/sunday_weather_forecast_overca_1.html

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Safeguard Yourself And Your Belongings With These Bankruptcy ...

We are in a hard economical condition these days. The outcome of the dreadful market is that quite a few folks are dropping their work opportunities and falling into uncontrollable debt. Debts commonly stop in personal bankruptcy which isn?t great. If you would like to know how to get oneself or your friend out of filing for personal bankruptcy, read through on for some feasible answers.

When submitting for private personal bankruptcy you must always be informed of your rights. Do not depend on your debtors data about no matter whether or not specified loans can be involved in your bankruptcy. There are incredibly couple debts, these kinds of as child aid or university student personal loan debt, that can not be bankrupted. If the personal debt collector attempts to inform you that your debts, which do not drop into these classes, are unable to be bankrupted, consider a notice of it, search up the credit card debt type, and report them to your state?s legal professional standard business office.

Pick out a bankruptcy lawyer correctly. Many modern attorneys enjoy this sort of legislation. Make sure that the law firm you decide to employ the service of has decades of experience and is adequately licensed. By hunting on-line, you can discover qualifications information about attorneys along with consumer rankings and any disciplinary history an attorney could have.

Don?t fail to remember to take pleasure in your daily life after your funds get preset. Following filing, a lot of men and women come across themselves stressing more than their predicament and how to deal with it. This anxiety could morph into medical despair, if you fail to sufficiently deal with the difficulty. Existence is heading to get far better once you get via this.

Make certain bankruptcy is truely your only alternative ahead of submitting. Consult with a personal bankruptcy legal professional to see if an interest charge reduction or financial debt repayment approach is an alternative to filing for bankruptcy. If a foreclosure is your reason for submitting seem into your selections with your financial institution very first, these kinds of as a personal loan modification. A good lender will be equipped to help you in a assortment of techniques, from obtaining rid of your late prices to cutting down curiosity premiums. You may well even be in a position to get a bank loan extension, supplying you the extra time you will need to pay out your debt off. Collectors want to recoup the most funds possible from debtors, and they can usually get more by way of personal debt reimbursement options than bankruptcy treatments.

Usually bankruptcy is submitted when a person is going through insurmountable financial debt. If you?re in this placement, it is a fantastic thing to familiarize oneself with the legal guidelines that implement in your place. Individual bankruptcy principles fluctuate by jurisdiction. In certain states if you file for personal bankruptcy your property continues to be safeguarded, but the laws differ based on exactly where you reside. You must be common with the laws for your state ahead of submitting for individual bankruptcy.

When searching for a lawyer or attorney to handle your individual bankruptcy assert, the very best way to go is off of a private recommendation alternatively of basically flipping by way of the mobile phone ebook. There are different businesses that prey on the fiscally desperate, so you need to uncover somebody you can have faith in to guarantee the approach goes effortlessly,

You must not be ashamed when submitting for personal bankruptcy. A lot of individuals really feel depressed and as if they have failed when they seek out individual bankruptcy. If you?ve done your research and determined rationally that this is the ideal choice for you, attempt to see it as taking a action towards money good results, instead than as a failure.

As you?ve examine, you can file individual bankruptcy numerous methods. Do not get confused by the myriad of info offered to you. Acquire some time to figure issues out. Then you will be ready to make informed selections about individual bankruptcy and your financial foreseeable future.

Tips To Improve Your Understanding Of Personal Finance And Its Benefits

Source: http://www.optionstradinganalysis.com/2012/12/15/safeguard-yourself-and-your-belongings-with-these-bankruptcy-guidelines/

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Rice withdrawal sparks gender concerns on Cabinet (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/270833176?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Geologists find East Coast quakes travel farther

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ? Data from the 2011 earthquake centered in Virginia shows East Coast tremors can travel much farther and cause damage over larger areas than previously thought, the U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday.

The agency estimated about one-third of the U.S. population could have felt the magnitude 5.8 tremor centered about 50 miles northwest of Richmond, which would mean more people were affected than any earthquake in U.S. history. Scientists also found the quake that caused more than $200 million in damage triggered landslides at distances four times farther and over an area 20 times larger than research from previous quakes has shown.

"Scientists are confirming with empirical data what more than 50 million people in the eastern U.S. experienced firsthand: this was one powerful earthquake," USGS Director Marcia McNutt said in a news release about the findings presented at the Geological Society of America conference in Charlotte, N.C.

Researchers used landslides to see how far-reaching the shaking from East coast earthquakes could be. The unexpected jolt cracked the Washington Monument in spots and toppled delicate masonry high atop the National Cathedral. The shaking was felt from Georgia to New England.

According to the findings, the farthest landslide from the quake was 150 miles from the epicenter, a greater distance than any other similar-sized earthquake. Previous similar quakes have resulted in landslides no farther than 36 miles from the epicenter.

Additionally, the landslides from the 2011 tremor occurred in an area of about 12,895 square-miles ? about the size of the state of Maryland. Previous studies indicated an area of about 580 square-miles ? about the size of Houston ? from an earthquake of similar magnitude.

"It's just much more dangerous to have an earthquake at that level back on the East Coast than it would be on the West Coast," said Edwin Harp, a USGS scientist and co-author of the study. "If something big happened, although it's much less frequent, it would tend to damage a lot more buildings because they're probably not quite up to the codes that they are in California."

Geologic structure and rock properties on the East Coast allow seismic waves to travel farther without weakening compared with the West Coast, Harp said.

He said equations used to predict ground shaking might need to be revised now that scientists know more about the power of East Coast earthquakes.

The information also will help with building codes as well as emergency preparedness, the USGS said.

While West Coast earthquake veterans scoffed at what they viewed as only a moderate temblor, the August 2011 quake changed the way officials along the East Coast viewed emergency preparedness. Emergency response plans that once focused on hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding and snow are being revised to include quakes.

Some states have enacted laws specifically related to the quake, and there is anecdotal evidence of a spike in insurance coverage for earthquake damage.

___

Online:

U.S. Geological Survey: http://www.usgs.gov/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-11-06-Eastern%20Quake%20Research/id-073edfa88b994727998c07bd67f60af5

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The Ladybusiness Lab is Hiring

As you all know, the gig that takes up a lot more of my time is that I am an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I would like to accept at least one graduate student into our program this year to be advised by me. I get emails and messages from folks all the time saying how they would like to work with me.

Why not apply to our PhD program and see if we would be a good fit together? (ETA: Alternately, I?m looking for a postdoc! Write to me and maybe we could apply to this Postdoctoral Fellow Program together at Beckman.)

I am looking for a committed, motivated, curious, hardworking student who wants to make a difference in the world. I want to support the independent research of a junior colleague who wants to work broadly in women?s reproductive ecology, life history theory, and/or evolutionary medicine. While I?d love it if you wanted to work within one of my existing projects, I would also gladly support a student who wants to pave her or his own way in a new, thoughtfully conceived field site.

My projects

Below are my two main projects, the descriptions culled largely from recent grant proposals. You can always chat with me on Twitter or Facebook to find out more.

Girl power! How girls negotiate their environments. Humans? flexibility in the timing of menarche allows for multiple selection pressures to drive it early or late. Past research demonstrates that early maturity is often driven by psychosocial stress, as one should initiate reproduction when future reproductive opportunities are poor. But what cultural, behavioral and social factors augment one?s experience of her environment and thus her age at menarche? How do these factors influence post-menarcheal physiology and function? The study of resilience offers an exciting way to understand how and why the body allocates resources in the face of selection pressures throughout development.

This is a longitudinal study that follows ethnically and economically diverse pre-menarcheal fifth grade girls at an elementary school in Champaign County, Illinois. Anthropometry will capture growth, ovarian hormones reproduction, and biomarkers maintenance effort to track life history trade-offs. Established psychometric scales for ego resilience, positivity, ethnic identification, and social support will track personal and social resources.

My research aims are 1) to assess the relationship between girls? personal and social resources, particularly resilience, and their allocation to growth, maintenance, and reproduction in the six to twelve months leading to menarche, and 2) to understand how that transition affects post-menarcheal allocation to growth, maintenance, and reproduction in the six to twelve months following menarche. This project is important to our understanding of evolutionary medicine and mismatch theory as it could suggest a mechanism for additional individual variation in environmental reactivity.

My long-term educational goals are to develop more young female scientists and increase research that solves major problems in girls? and women?s health. My educational aims are 1) to encourage upper-elementary students to see themselves as scientists through role modeling, reflection activities and hands-on science, and 2) to encourage graduates and undergraduates to remain in science through close mentoring, high expectations and independence.

I have received grant money to fund the pilot, which began this fall. Other grants are pending or being written.

Why some pregnancies don?t make it: ecological influences on the maternal environment. Low fertility likely has been naturally selected in the great ape lineage in order to produce offspring worthy of heavy parental investment. There are multiple points through the course of reproduction where mechanisms exist to select against the fetus, yet it isn?t always clear what conditions promote their activation. Further, while many pregnancies fail due to genetic abnormalities, some patterns of pregnancy loss suggest additional mechanisms via inflammation. An emerging understanding of inflammation?s contribution to reproductive success leads to fascinating questions about human reproductive ecology in the context of parental investment trade-offs. Systemic inflammation can vary not only with immune challenges, but social environment, childhood environment, adiposity and age. What of these factors produce a non-pregnant maternal environment more likely to lead to reproductive success?

This question requires an investigation of endometrial function as a key component of implantation. Trade-offs between maintenance and reproduction are more challenging to observe under conditions of energetic surplus in an industrialized environment, and so I will draw my sample from women in a non-industrial agricultural environment at the Mogielica Site in rural Poland. Energetic constraint and immune challenges should influence resource allocation to ovarian hormone production and endometrial thickness over the menstrual cycle. Therefore I will test hypotheses on 1) intra-population variation in endometrial function, 2) ovarian-endometrial interactions, and 3) inflammatory responses to ecological stressors through the use of ultrasounds, urine collection for biomarkers and ovarian hormones, and anthropometry.

I am applying for funding for this proposal right now. The Mogielica Site is where I did my dissertation fieldwork and so is a viable site for dissertation research regardless of whether a potential student of mine wants to work on the endometrium.

Other past and ongoing research includes work on ecological influences on both ovarian and endometrial function. I have several papers in revision right now on how systemic inflammation correlates with ovarian follicular waves and hormones, more in preparation on hormones, energetic constraint, and endometrial thickness. I have a side project on hormonal contraception that would be fun to talk about as well. And as you know if you read this blog, I am committed to science education and outreach and think there are lots of great post-PhD jobs in addition to academia.

The Department

The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Department of Anthropology is a four-field department. We might be one of the friendliest anthropology departments around which, if you know anything about anthropology and the biological determinism warz, is an impressive feat.

We have eight biological anthropologists, many of whom co-advise students and collaborate together. Our bio anthro crew teaches anatomy at the Medical School, has affiliations with Animal Biology, the Program in Evolution, Ecology and Conservation, Bioinformatics, the Institute for Genomic Biology, and teaches some of the most popular courses on campus. Our last several graduates have gone on to great faculty and postdoctoral positions. Frankly, my colleagues are a bunch of badasses who are just too nice to promote themselves and say so.

As our admissions website notes:

?Successful applicants to our department will be joining one of the leading anthropology programs in the nation.? According to the 2010 National Research Council (NRC) report on graduate programs across the nation, Anthropology at the University of Illinois ranked 12th out of 82 peer programs overall, and received rankings of 1st in program outcomes; 1st in percentage of students fully supported through the graduate program; 6th in percentage of minority students; 7th in percentage of international students; and 8th in time to degree.?

So yeah, we?re awesome.

Quality of life

The University of Illinois is the flagship public university for my state, located in east central Illinois. We?re less than two hours to Indianapolis, three to St. Louis and Chicago. The benefits of living near farmland and away from a big city are that the cost of living is low, and the quality of the locally available food (meat, dairy, eggs and produce) is very high year round. I eat better in Urbana, Illinois than I did in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My commute is short (less than a mile) and the park system and recreational opportunities are great.

The graduate students have a union, so you know you have people fighting for your benefits and pay. This means you don?t have to stress as much about whether you will be abused or not get raises commensurate with inflation: the union?s got your back. Instead, you can focus on your research and teaching.

The application

Applications for the Anthropology PhD program are due by December 1st, 2012. You need a good transcript and good GRE scores to be considered, but what I?ve found really makes an application are the quality of the recommendation letters and personal statement. ?For the recommendation letters, talk to your letter writers about the qualities that you think make you well suited to a PhD program in anthropology and to doing anthropology research. For the personal statement, do not write about how you?ve wanted to do anthropology since the first time you saw Indiana Jones or first left the United States. Instead, use the statement as an opportunity to demonstrate to the admissions committee that you are a scientific thinker ? share your scholarly interests, some questions you would like to answer over the course of your PhD. Propose a potential dissertation topic, and make sure to say why you would be a good fit for the university and department to which you are applying.

Learn more about the department: http://www.anthro.illinois.edu/programs/graduate/admissions/index.html

Apply: http://www.grad.illinois.edu/admissions/apply

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1498178d083ed7efdeb33a66e3cbcc40

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The Iberia Parish School Board Worried Special Education Funding ...

School Lockers (Flickr User billaday)

The Iberia Parish School Board decided to vote in favor of a resolution asking Congress to prevent close to one million dollars in cuts for hitting their budget for special education.

Iberia Parish School Superintendent Dale Henderson says that the federal government?s 2011 Budget Control Act calls for automatic cuts to federal programs.? The programs that will be cut include the Title One program and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Each of those programs brings in 4 and 1/2 million dollars each year for the school board?s budget.? They use those funds to maintain their special education programs throughout the district.

The resolution passed by the Iberia Parish School Board states that they may have to cut their budget by making layoffs.? They are hopeful the federal funding will stay intact.

Source: http://kpel965.com/the-iberia-parish-school-board-worried-special-education-funding-will-be-cut/

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Reddit CEO Asks Users To Buy Revamped Membership Because Ads Are ?One Of The Reasons Digg Failed?

"We could theoretically load up our pages with ads and probably make enough to cover our costs. However, that would significantly degrade the experience of using the site," said Reddit CEO Yishan Wong in a post asking users to "Invest in Gold" -- the site's newly enhanced subscription program. If people pay for ad-free Reddit and new Gold features like filter saving the site won't end up like Digg.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/MMZrh_ySs5A/

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Reports: Bootlegger's son to be next Anglican leader

Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters

Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham, walks through Westminster in London on Thursday. A former oil executive and critic of corporate excess, he is expected to be named on Friday as the next Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans.

By Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

LONDON ? A former oil executive whose father was a bootlegger in prohibition-era America and later a friend of the Kennedys, will on Friday be named the new spiritual leader of the world?s 80 million Anglicans, British media reports said.

Justin Welby, 56, the Bishop of Durham, who has risen quickly within the Church of England hierarchy since quitting the world of commerce in 1992, will be the next Archbishop of Canterbury, according to ITV News and U.K. newspaper reports.

The Church of England is known in the U.S. as the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Its Presiding Bishop is currently Katharine Jefferts Schori.

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The official announcement will be made by the UK government on Friday. Neither the government, nor Bishop Welby himself, would publicly confirm or deny Thursday?s reports. "I am not able to comment," he told ITV News.

The change in leadership follows the resignation of the current Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, ending a turbulent era in which the Church of England has been sharply divided on issues such as same-sex marriage, female clergy and gay bishops.

Welby faces the near-impossible task of reconciling traditionalists and liberals among the church's 77 million worldwide followers.

Welby went to the same exclusive private school, Eton College, as British Prime Minister David Cameron, London mayor Boris Johnson and Princes William and Harry.

Read more on this story at ITV News

His late father was sent to America in 1929 as a teenager after his grandmother went bust in the financial crash.

"I remember my father telling me she gave him five pounds and put him on a boat," the bishop told the Mail on Sunday earlier this year. "He said he went to New York in 1929 and traded whiskey. When I was studying history, the penny dropped that Prohibition ended in 1933 and he had a lot of friends who had Italian ancestry, so he was bootlegging. He was illegally trading whiskey."

Bishop Welby added: "He went on to become successful in the whiskey business and must have met the Kennedys by moving in the right social circle."

Rowan Williams quits: could Anglican church have its first black spiritual leader?

Welby?s father introduced John F. Kennedy to his first mistress, a 21-year-old Swedish aristocrat, weeks before the future President?s marriage to society beauty Jacqueline Bouvier, the Mail on Sunday said.

Jonathan Wynne-Jones, the Chicago-based British journalist who first broke the story for the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph, told NBC News:??"It is an excellent choice. He is a very down-to-earth guy and self-deprecating.

"He is nobody?s fool, but many people felt intimidated by Rowan Williams? intellect whereas I think Bishop Welby will prove to be an effective communicator."

Welby is widely reported to be against gay marriage but broadly in favor of the ordination of women bishops, two of the most divisive issues in the communion.

The Daily Telegraph said: "At a time when the Church is grappling with the aftermath of the banking crisis, he combines ? almost uniquely ? an understanding of the working of the City with that of life in the inner city, gleaned as a parish priest and Dean of Liverpool."

The new archbishop will earn about $120,000 a year. He will have lodgings in the Old Palace in Canterbury, southeast England, and the historic riverside Lambeth Palace in London. His tenure will last until retirement at 70 or until he decides to move on.

ITV News is the U.K. partner of NBC News.

More world stories from NBC News:

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/08/15023604-reports-ex-oil-man-and-son-of-bootlegger-to-be-next-anglican-leader?lite

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Corals attacked by toxic seaweed use chemical 911 signals to summon help from fish

ScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2012) ? Corals under attack by toxic seaweed do what anyone might do when threatened -- they call for help. A study reported this week in the journal Science shows that threatened corals send signals to fish "bodyguards" that quickly respond to trim back the noxious alga -- which can kill the coral if not promptly removed.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found evidence that these "mutualistic" fish respond to chemical signals from the coral like a 911 emergency call -- in a matter of minutes. The inch-long fish -- known as gobies -- spend their entire lives in the crevices of specific corals, receiving protection from their own predators while removing threats to the corals.

This symbiotic relationship between the fish and the coral on which they live is the first known example of one species chemically signaling a consumer species to remove competitors. It is similar to the symbiotic relationship between Acacia trees and mutualist ants in which the ants receive food and shelter while protecting the trees from both competitors and consumers.

"This species of coral is recruiting inch-long bodyguards," said Mark Hay, a professor in the School of Biology at Georgia Tech. "There is a careful and nuanced dance of the odors that makes all this happen. The fish have evolved to cue on the odor released into the water by the coral, and they very quickly take care of the problem."

The research, supported the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Teasley Endowment at Georgia Tech, was reported November 8 in the journal Science. The research was done as part of a long-term study of chemical signaling on Fiji Island coral reefs aimed at understanding these threatened ecosystems and discovering chemicals that may be useful as pharmaceuticals.

Because they control the growth of seaweeds that damage coral, the importance of large herbivorous fish to maintaining the health of coral reefs has been known for some time. But Georgia Tech postdoctoral fellow Danielle Dixson suspected that the role of the gobies might be more complicated. To study that relationship, she and Hay set up a series of experiments to observe how the fish would respond when the coral that shelters them was threatened.

They studied Acropora nasuta, a species in a genus of coral important to reef ecosystems because it grows rapidly and provides much of the structure for reefs. To threaten the coral, the researchers moved filaments of Chlorodesmis fastigiata, a species of seaweed that is particularly chemically toxic to corals, into contact with the coral. Within a few minutes of the seaweed contacting the coral, two species of gobies -- Gobidon histrio and Paragobidon enchinocephalus -- moved toward the site of contact and began neatly trimming away the offending seaweed.

"These little fish would come out and mow the seaweed off so it didn't touch the coral," said Hay, who holds the Harry and Linda Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology at Georgia Tech. "This takes place very rapidly, which means it must be very important to both the coral and the fish. The coral releases a chemical and the fish respond right away."

In corals occupied by the gobies, the amount of offending seaweed declined 30 percent over a three-day period, and the amount of damage to the coral declined by 70 to 80 percent. Control corals that had no gobies living with them had no change in the amount of toxic seaweed and were badly damaged by the seaweed.

To determine what was attracting the fish, Dixson and Hay collected samples of water from locations (1) near the seaweed by itself, (2) where the seaweed was contacting the coral, and (3) from coral that had been in contact with the seaweed -- 20 minutes after the seaweed had been removed. They released the samples near other corals that hosted gobies, which were attracted to the samples taken from the seaweed-coral contact area and the damaged coral -- but not the seaweed by itself.

"We demonstrated that the coral is emitting some signal or cue that attracts the fish to remove the encroaching seaweed," Hay said. "The fish are not responding to the seaweed itself."

Similar waters collected from a different species of coral placed in contact with the seaweed did not attract the fish, suggesting they were only interested in removing seaweed from their host coral.

Finally, the researchers obtained the chemical extract of the toxic seaweed and placed it onto nylon filaments designed to stimulate the mechanical effects of seaweed. They also created simulated seaweed samples without the toxic extract. When placed in contact with the coral, the fish were attracted to areas in which the chemical-containing mimic contacted the coral, but not to the area contacting the mimic without the chemical.

By studying the contents of the fish digestive systems, the researchers learned that one species -- Gobidon histrio -- actually eats the noxious seaweed, while the other fish apparently bites it off without eating it. In the former, consuming the toxic seaweed makes the fish less attractive to predators.

The two species of fish also eat mucus from the coral, as well as algae from the coral base and zooplankton from the water column. By defending the corals, the gobies are thus defending the home in which they shelter and feed.

"The fish are getting protection in a safe place to live and food from the coral," Hay noted. "The coral gets a bodyguard in exchange for a small amount of food. It's kind of like paying taxes in exchange for police protection."

As a next step, Hay and Dixson would like to determine if other species of coral and fish have similar symbiotic relationships. And they'd like to understand more about how the chemical signaling and symbiotic relationship came into being.

"These kinds of positive interactions needs to be better understood because they tell us something about the pressures that have gone on through time on these corals," said Hay. "If they have evolved to signal these gobies when a competitor shows up, then competition has been important throughout evolutionary time."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgia Institute of Technology Research News, via Newswise. The original article was written by John Toon.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. D. L. Dixson, M. E. Hay. Corals Chemically Cue Mutualistic Fishes to Remove Competing Seaweeds. Science, 2012; 338 (6108): 804 DOI: 10.1126/science.1225748

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/s5bSy5-Vg0M/121108142740.htm

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Sales / Business Development Exec at Flubit / Work In Startups

Operating at the forefront of ecommerce innovation, Flubit is a new online marketplace that offers an exciting new proposition for both consumers and online retailers. We're a well-backed startup that has been in operation for over a year and looking at 2013 as our year to scale.

From January, we're embarking on an aggressive retailer acquisition campaign and looking for a driven salesperson to join the team in December. You will be one of only two salespeople in the company.

The primary goal of the role will be to bring new retailers onto the platform, getting them integrated and set up as sellers. Targets will be provided by the Head of Merchant Relations and commission can be earned once a retailer has successfully integrated into the platform.

The role will involve taking ownership of the entire sales cycle:
? prospecting targets
? making initial approach via cold call / email
? secure meetings with key decision makers
? attend meetings and close agreement
? oversee integration process
? manage account and remain first point of contact

Main requirements for the candidate are as follows:
? Minimum one years? experience in sales
? Ideal candidate will have ecommerce experience ? if not, then experience in web or tech related sales
? Degree is preferable but not essential
? Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
? Problem-solver willing to take ownership of problems
? Dynamic and versatile
? Good at dealing with setbacks

Because it is a start-up, the role will also involve dabbling in many other areas of the business including product design, marketing and overall business strategy. It is an exciting opportunity for somebody who wants a real challenge and the opportunity to make a real difference to the success of a new business.

Applicants should send a cover letter explaining what makes them right for this job, and an updated CV.

Source: http://workinstartups.com/job-board/job/2538/sales-business-development-exec-at-flubit/

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Tecmo Bowl documentary reveres classic gaming ? Video Games ...

When NFL Films, a company that devotes its resources to retrospective looks at the grandest football matches and rivalries over the past several decades, decides to produce a documentary about a video game, you know that it has crossed some sort of boundary into mainstream acceptance.

So it was with great delight to all gamers that NFL Films decided to produce a special episode about Tecmo Bowl, one of the defining sports video games in history. While it was certainly not the first game to simulate the sport of football, it was the first to generate significant commercial success.

The game was originally released in the arcades in 1988, but it was its debut on the Nintendo Entertainment System the following years that really made it a hit. As the documentary points out, there is an annual tournament that takes place to crown the Tecmo Bowl champion. A surprisingly large group of gamers ? as many as 180 ? show up every year.

In today?s gaming environment, when you talk about football games you talk about Madden. But for those who grew up in the early days of console gaming, Tecmo Bowl is where it all began. It was the first game to actually incorporate real NFL player names into the game. And for many pro or aspiring pro athletes, it was a novelty that they never forgot.

Former Steelers receiver Hines Ward called it the ?first game that most athletes played.? The documentary also gives former Kansas City Chiefs star Christian Okoye, often revered as one of the most unstoppable players in the game, his first chance to see how he was represented in the 8-bit world.

In this era where gaming is becoming more mainstream, it helps to take a look back and see the titles that pushed this medium at every step along the way. Tecmo Bowl is definitely one of those titles.

You can view the entire half-hour TV special above.

via Devour

Source: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/tecmo-bowl-documentary-reveres-classic-gaming-2012116/

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Will Red Bulls close it out?

D.C. United came out of its weekend draw with New York feeling like the better club and talking about missed an opportunity to whup a team that was there for the playoff whupping.

Nothing wrong with confidence, of course, except for this: they didn?t actually win the game and now the playoff waters are more choppy. Ben Olsen?s team will have to win at a place where not a lot of teams did in 2012.

Meanwhile, the weather looks quite uncooperative, with nasty stuff on the way for the team?s Eastern Conference semifinal series return leg.

(MORE: Which team benefits from impending nasty weather)

(MORE: Analysis of Saturday?s 1-1 draw)

Kickoff: 8 p.m. ET, Red Bull Arena, NBC Sports Network

The series is tied on total goals, 1-1

On the New York Red Bulls

• Hans Backe?s team was 11-2-4 with a plus-16 goal difference at Red Bull Arena this year.
• Hard to makes heads or tails of the Rafa Marquez situation. Was that alleged calf injury a real factor in his halftime removal, or just more cover for a player who doesn?t really deserve it? He was spotted arguing with manager Hans Backe going into the locker room at halftime Saturday, which seems suspect. Then again, Marquez is made of Teflon, isn?t he? Nothing sticks. No matter how many different ways he hurts the team through ill temper, flagging effort or thoughtless quotes, they just trot him back out there.
• What Backe said about Marquez?s injury Monday: ?Probably it has to be ? a late decision, I would guess. I don?t think it?s a big (injury), but definitely we will have to wait until tomorrow to tell.?
• A potential replacement plan looks fairly straight forward: Heath Pearce, recently relocated from center back to the left, will move back into the middle alongside Markus Holgersson. Roy Miller or Wilman Conde will play on the left.
• Perhaps Kenny Cooper and his 18 goals, benched for Saturday?s contest, wouldn?t have helped create a couple more chances. But he could hardly have helped produced fewer than replacement Sebastien Le Toux, so that choice was a push at very best for Backe.
• Thierry Henry was hardly at his 15-goal, 12-assist best Saturday. They need more from his Wednesday.
• Goalkeeper Luis Robles sure didn?t look like a man making just his fifth start this year. Among his five saves were two real delights.

On D.C. United

• If United?s road record this year (5-9-3) doesn?t look too promising, this might: Ben Olsen?s team, adding more defensive focus, went 2-0-2 away from RFK Stadium down the stretch, allowing just two goals over those four contests.
• That said, Olsen must replace Andy Najar, whose attacking push up the right side will be sorely missed.
• (MORE: Longer suspension ahead? for Najar?)
• Important, second year holding midfielder Perry Kitchen: ?There?s still 90 minutes to go. Our heads are up.?
• The finishing simply has to improve ? because New York might not kick one in for the visitors this time. And Bill Hamid cannot have another wobble. So, suffice to say the work in front of both goals needs a boost.
• Underrated hero of Saturday?s match: unheralded left back Chris Korb. Along with Chris Pontius, they were United?s top men in Saturday?s draw. (Yes, Pontius needed something better from the penalty spot, but he was The Man on the United?s attack otherwise.)

Bottom line:

The predominant back story here is the Hurricane Sandy-related venue swap. Originally, this second leg was to be in New York, but conditions demanded a change.

If this one is tied after 90 minutes, an extra 30-minute period (and potentially penalty kicks) will determine the survivor ? and that will not make United fans any more pleased over the whole unfortunate situation.

United could surely squeak out a 1-0 result ? and if Backe?s Red Bulls can?t muster any more urgency than we saw in most matches down the stretch, the most talented team ever assembled on paper will fall way too quietly.

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/06/mls-playoff-preview-d-c-united-at-new-york-red-bulls/related/

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Strange diet for methane-consuming microorganisms

ScienceDaily (Nov. 6, 2012) ? Methane is formed under the absence of oxygen by natural biological and physical processes, e.g. in the sea floor. It is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Thanks to the activity of microorganisms, this gas is inactivated before it reaches the atmosphere and unfolds its harmful effects on Earth's climate. Researchers from Bremen have now demonstrated that these microorganisms are quite picky about their diet.

All life on Earth is based on carbon and its compounds. Cell components of all creatures contain carbon. The cell can take up this basic structural element via organic matter or it build up its own organic matter from scratch, i.e. carbon dioxide. Researchers termed the first type of cells heterotrophs and the latter autotrophs. All plants, many bacteria and archaea are autotrophs, whereas all animals, including humans, are heterotrophs. The autotrophs form the basis for the life of the heterotrophs and all higher life by taking up inorganic carbon to form organic material.

To keep the cellular systems running all cells need fuel. Methane can be such a fuel. When studying the methane consuming microbes discovered by Bremen scientists more than ten years ago, it was assumed that they take the methane for filling up their energy tanks and use it as a carbon source, i.e., they were thought to be heterotrophs.

Now scientists from MARUM and the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology have shown that this is surprisingly not the case: the methane derived carbon is not used as a carbon source. "Our growth studies clearly show that the labelled carbon in the methane never showed up in the cell material, but experiments with labelled carbon from carbon dioxide did. It was quite surprising," said author Matthias Kellermann. The archaea in the consortia behave like expected for chemoautotrophs. "Archaea and the sulphate reducing bacteria are living closely together in consortia, which grow extremely slowly. And it was only in the newly synthesised cell material that we could find the answer for the question from where the carbon originates," adds Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, leader of the organic geochemistry group at MARUM.

Co-author Gunter Wegener from the Max Planck Institute concludes: "With our new knowledge we can optimise our studies about the inactivation of methane in nature. Our surprising results tell us that we still know very few details of this globally important process."

Samples were retrieved from the Guaymas Basin on the West coast of Mexico from a depth of more the 2000 metres using the US diving submersible Alvin.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. M. Y. Kellermann, G. Wegener, M. Elvert, M. Y. Yoshinaga, Y.-S. Lin, T. Holler, X. P. Mollar, K. Knittel, K.-U. Hinrichs. Autotrophy as a predominant mode of carbon fixation in anaerobic methane-oxidizing microbial communities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1208795109

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/KWO364KiwOg/121106114143.htm

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Video: Maria's Observation: Challenges Ahead

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/49733572/

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Girls, Guns and a Good Time | Prince Law Offices, P.C.

There may be a lot of reasons why women have recently expressed an increased interest in owning and using guns. A significant portion of women are purchasing for self-defense for their home and personal protection. Others purchase guns for the sport. One organization of women goes one step further, helping other women take aim at social networking with a focus on guns. A Girl and A Gun Women?s Shooting League(AGAG) shatters the stereotype when it comes to gun owners and shooting leagues. This group of gun enthusiast is ladies only and accepts gals at all levels of expertise from newbies to competition shooters. It does not matter if you are shooting for self-defense, sport, or just because it is what you have always done. AGAG is bringing women together for a good time and some peer-to-peer sharing of the shooting experience.

AGAG was created in 2011 by Julianna Crowder and Renee Blaine with the mission of helping educate women about guns and gun use, while creating an environment that encourages learning and improvement no matter the shooter?s skill level. AGAG is a growing organization that in a little over one year has established chapters in seven states. A chapter is easy to establish. It requires an NRA certified firearms instructor, range facility available for events, and most importantly, a welcoming attitude. If you do not have someone with the needed credentials, AGAG will try to help locate resources in your area to find individuals that may be able to meet the criteria needed to establish your own chapter. Even if you already belong to a range but want to stay connected with other women enthusiast across the country, you can still become an associate member of AGAG and get great discounts from vendors and attend national AGAG shooting events.

No matter the reason women shooters are increasing, AGAG has the right idea in creating a no judgement gals only environment with a focus on safety. This environment is especially appealing for new shooters and it creates the best reward for the experienced shooters, as they get to mentor and share their experiences and knowledge. If you don?t see what you want on AGAG?s website, I encourage you to peek at their Facebook page and see the exchange of information this group of ladies shares with one another. I did not see any chapters on the map for Pennsylvania yet, so I am hoping with this article and further research that eastern Pennsylvania might hold the next best chapter of AGAG.

Written by Amy Buser. Reviewed and approved by Joshua Prince, Esq.

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Source: http://blog.princelaw.com/2012/11/07/girls-guns-and-a-good-time/

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Jim Hitt, CEO of American IRA-A National Self-Directed IRA Provider ...

Jim Hitt, CEO of American IRA-a national self-directed IRA provider, speaks about the historically low savings account interest rates and offers expert opinion! CNN Money reports ?Higher yields on savings? It will be awhile? Jim Hitt shares some little-known solutions available to everyone with a retirement account.

This report from CNN is one of many recent reports which clearly point to the fact that people need to ?take action? in order to build savings for their retirement years. In fact, CBS Philly reports that a recent survey shows 40 Percent of Americans have $500 or less in savings. Jim Hitt interjects, ?I speak to many folks who are scared about not having enough to survive on during their retirement years. I tell them all that having a good plan and being prepared is the key to eliminating that fear. I firmly believe that self-directed IRAs and self-directed 401(k)s are the solution. People have got to take control! Sitting on those savings accounts and hoping they grow is like incubating an alligator egg and hoping a chicken hatches.?

Here?s what people need to know?self-directed IRAs and self-directed 401(k)s allow people to take control of what their IRA and 401(k) invest in. The options are wide open. People can invest in Real Estate, Private Lending, Precious Metals, Limited Liability Companies, Self Storage Units, and much more.

A great example is a client who loaned $300,000 from their Real Estate IRA to an individual who needed funds to purchase a large self storage facility valued at $400,000. They agreed on a 6% interest only loan with a balloon payment due in 5 years. After 5 years, the client had collected $90,000 in interest and the investor paid back the principal amount of $300,000.

A $90,000 profit in 5 years is a great return for the client and the investor was able to purchase a self storage facility that they otherwise would not have had the funds to purchase. This is just one example of how individuals can make those retirement accounts grow.

This entry was posted in Resources. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.americanira.com/2012/resources/jim-hitt-ceo-american-ira-a-national-self-directed-ira-provider-speaks-historically-savings-account-interest-rates-offers-expert-opinion/

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We'll Buy Anything From Drunk Jeff Goldblum

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'Paranormal Activity 4' earns $29M at box office

The latest chapter in the "Paranormal Activity" saga didn't capture as much attention at the box office as previous films.

Paramount's "Paranormal Activity 4" debuted at No. 1 with $29 million, a big drop from the $40 million and $50 million opening weekends of the past two installments.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:

1. "Paranormal Activity 4," Paramount, $29,003,866, 3,412 locations, $8,501 average, $29,003,866, one week.

2. "Argo," Warner Bros., $16,445,475, 3,247 locations, $5,065 average, $43,011,964, two weeks.

3. "Taken 2," Fox, $13,260,870, 3,489 locations, $3,801 average, $105,832,339, three weeks.

4. "Hotel Transylvania," Sony, $13,001,434, 3,384 locations, $3,842 average, $118,522,389, four weeks.

5. "Alex Cross," Summit, $11,396,768, 2,539 locations, $4,489 average, $11,396,768, one week.

6. "Sinister," Summit, $8,815,475, 2,542 locations, $3,468 average, $31,735,643, two weeks.

7. "Here Comes the Boom," Sony, $8,407,201, 3,014 locations, $2,789 average, $23,131,529, two weeks.

8. "Pitch Perfect," Universal, $6,756,430, 2,660 locations, $2,540 average, $45,516,778, four weeks.

9. "Frankenweenie," Disney, $4,329,358, 2,362 locations, $1,833 average, $28,238,779, three weeks.

10. "Looper," Sony, $4,202,687, 2,223 locations, $1,891 average, $57,842,819, four weeks.

11. "Seven Psychopaths," CBS Films, $3,273,480, 1,480 locations, $2,212 average, $9,161,472, two weeks.

12. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," Summit, $2,153,247, 745 locations, $2,890 average, $9,123,872, five weeks.

13. "End of Watch," Open Road Films, $826,809, 751 locations, $1,101 average, $37,895,571, five weeks.

14. "Trouble With the Curve," Warner Bros., $729,354, 925 locations, $788 average, $34,084,572, five weeks.

15. "Atlas Shrugged: Part II," Atlas Distribution, $613,889, 945 locations, $650 average, $2,859,980, two weeks.

16. "The Master," Weinstein Co., $520,677, 412 locations, $1,264 average, $14,738,213, six weeks.

17. "House at the End of the Street," Relativity, $468,298, 746 locations, $628 average, $30,782,862, five weeks.

18. "Brave," Disney, $421,577, 277 locations, $1,522 average, $235,044,709, 18 weeks.

19. "The Dark Knight Rises," Warner Bros., $359,509, 345 locations, $1,042 average, $446,764,067, 14 weeks.

20. "Student of the Year," Eros International, $326,508, 106 locations, $3,080 average, $326,508, one week.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paranormal-activity-4-earns-29m-box-office-221142185.html

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Jennifer Esposito Slams Producers Of ?Blue Bloods?

Jennifer Esposito Slams Producers Of “Blue Bloods”

Actress Jennifer Esposito has blasted producers of her hit show “Blue Bloods” after she was put on leave of absence due to her medical problems. [...]

Jennifer Esposito Slams Producers Of “Blue Bloods” Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/10/jennifer-esposito-slams-producers-of-blue-bloods/

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Will Teacup Cats Become a Disastrous Celebrity-Spawned Pet Trend?

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Exec says he never heard man was Spears' manager

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2012 file photo, singer Britney Spears arrives at the Pre-GRAMMY Gala & Salute to Industry Icons with Clive Davis honoring Richard Branson in Beverly Hills, Calif. Testimony has opened in a defamation lawsuit against Britney Spears' parents, with a top record executive, Barry Weiss, saying on Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, he was never told that plaintiff Sam Lutfi was her manager. (AP Photo/Vince Bucci, file)

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2012 file photo, singer Britney Spears arrives at the Pre-GRAMMY Gala & Salute to Industry Icons with Clive Davis honoring Richard Branson in Beverly Hills, Calif. Testimony has opened in a defamation lawsuit against Britney Spears' parents, with a top record executive, Barry Weiss, saying on Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, he was never told that plaintiff Sam Lutfi was her manager. (AP Photo/Vince Bucci, file)

FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 19, 2012 file photo, Britney Spears' parents, Lynne Spears, left, and Jamie Spears arrive at court in Los Angeles. Testimony has opened in a defamation lawsuit against Britney Spears' parents, with a top record executive, Barry Weiss, saying on Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, he was never told that plaintiff Sam Lutfi was her manager. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A top recording executive testified Monday that he was Britney Spears' "lifeline" during the darkest days of her well-documented meltdown and never heard that she had a new manager named Sam Lutfi.

Barry Weiss, who headed Jive Records, the label on which Spears recorded, said his only contact from Lutfi in 2007-08 was when Weiss asked him for assurance that Spears would be on set to record a music video for her "Blackout" album.

"Britney was pretty erratic at the time," Weiss testified during trial in a defamation lawsuit brought by Lutfi against Spears' parents.

Lutfi claims he was Spears' personal manager and deserves millions as his share of her income during that period.

The defamation suit stems from the way Lutfi is depicted in a book written by Spears' mother that detailed the star's meltdown.

The trial took an early recess Monday and will resume Tuesday.

Conservators of Spears' estate, including her father, Jamie, who was in court, contend that Lutfi was never her manager but was simply a user who inserted himself into Spears' life and preyed on her vulnerabilities.

Weiss told of working closely with her former personal manager, Larry Rudolph, but said he was never told Lutfi had assumed the role.

"Sam Lutfi never introduced himself or came in for a meeting. He never discussed records or a record contract," Weiss said.

"He helped us get a video made," Weiss acknowledged. "He was trying to keep Britney on the set."

But in the end, Weiss said he saw Lutfi's role as a "gofer ... like a personal assistant."

Weiss said the singer would discuss with him the album's packaging, choice of a single record and creative matters normally discussed with a manager.

"There was no manager involved," Weiss said. "She was estranged from her family. I felt I was a lifeline for her. She was texting me constantly from her cellphone."

Weiss said that he had known Spears since she was 16 when he signed her for a contract with Jive Records.

"She's a superstar, a household name in every country in the world," Weiss said.

On cross-examination by Lutfi's attorney, Weiss said Spears' current contract requires one more album. Weiss said he has been in talks to persuade Spears to join him at his new label.

"It would be nice to be back together, if that happened," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-10-22-Britney%20Spears%20Trial/id-5a363d8051df4e3fbed306a13dc1dbba

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