Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, February 02, 2010.
OND is a community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of current news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Each editor of OND imparts their own presentation style and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
The OND concept was borne under the keen keyboard of Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Jessica by The Allman Brothers
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Meteor Blades sometimes offers an Evening Open Diary.
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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In winter's chill, cold batteries mean trouble for plug-in cars
By Jim Motavalli
Carmakers have long known to expect reduced performance from lithium-ion batteries in cold weather, but the early adopters now driving around in BMW Mini E and electric Smart cars (in Europe) are guinea pigs for what they do in the real world. There is teething pain here; some people are having issues.
Timothy Gill, a New Jersey computer consultant describes the 65 to 70 miles he gets from his Mini E as "pathetic." His experiences include needing a tow truck when the car was a mile from home -- and he thought he had plenty of juice left. But he still loves his Mini E, as do most of the people testing it in New York, New Jersey and California.
On a much-visited Facebook page for Mini E owners, there is considerable speculation about the best way to charge the car in cold weather, with no clear consensus emerging. |
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Lunar eclipse: US retreat leaves China leading way in race to return to moon
By Ian Sample
The Chinese space agency could land its first astronauts on the moon within a decade in a move that would mark the beginning of a new age of lunar exploration, experts said today.
The decision by the Obama administration to scrap Nasa's plans to return to the moon leave China well placed to become the second nation to land humans on the lunar surface. "The moon is an obvious target for China and they could be there in 2020," said Ken Pounds, professor of space science at Leicester University.
The US president's budget proposal, unveiled on Monday, lacked the funds to sustain Nasa's $81bn Constellation programme, the spaceships and rockets designed to put humans back on the moon by 2020. But the decision to scrap Nasa's plans for a permanent return has left the door open for other countries.
China has lifted astronauts into orbit and sent its first robotic missions to the moon. India found water on the surface with its first lunar mission last year, and plans to launch astronauts into Earth orbit in 2016. Japan, too, has sent a satellite to the moon, returning extraordinary HDTV video of the surface. |
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AU Report on the Lobbying Strategy of the Nuclear Industry
By Matthew C. Nisbet
This week, as the NY Times reports, the Administration in its proposed budget plans to triple the size of the Energy Department's loan guarantee program for the nuclear industry to $54 billion, which could support the construction of seven to 10 new reactors. "We are working hard to restart the American nuclear power industry," Energy secretary Steve Chu tells the Times, asserting that nuclear is an important part of the strategy to combat climate change.
As I detailed in a side bar to an article at the journal Environment last year, over the past decade, the nuclear energy industry has been laying the perceptual groundwork for a rebirth in political discourse, public image, and support, framing nuclear energy as a "middle way" forward on climate change. [On food biotechnology, a similar communication strategy has been pursued by Monsanto, resulting most recently in the once deeply troubled company being named the company of the year by Forbes.]
. . .
The full report from Pasternak is a must read and deserves significant attention, especially as Obama's proposed budget moves forward. Regardless of where you stand on nuclear energy (I happen to support increased investment), the report is a leading case study on the strategies that leverage influence in policy debates. |
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Haiti aid operation still has way to go, U.N. says
By Stephanie Nebehay
The aid operation in Haiti has been complicated and frustratingly slow, but is making significant progress, particularly in getting food to quake survivors, the top U.N. relief official said on Tuesday.
. . .
"We still have a significant way to go before reaching everybody who needs food, and on the shelter side as well," the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator told a news briefing.
. . .
Overall the situation in the devastated capital is calm, apart from "isolated incidents of looting or attacks on convoys of food," Holmes said.
. . .
"The delays we've seen in Haiti are all to do with logistics, the sheer difficulty of making things happen in a context like Haiti," he said. |
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Top military officer: Ending ban on gays 'right thing to do'
By Nancy A. Youssef
The nation's top military officer told Congress Tuesday that gay men and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military, the strongest endorsement ever by the nation's military leadership for overturning the law that excludes them from the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen called repeal of the ban "the right thing to do."
"No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens," Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Mullen's testimony drew angry responses from most of the committee's Republicans, in contrast to the deference they'd shown Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a morning session on the Pentagon's budget, where the Republicans declared the men two of the nation's finest public servants. |
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Lancet retracts 'utterly false' MMR paper
By Sarah Boseley
The Lancet today finally retracted the paper that sparked a crisis in MMR vaccination across the UK, following the General Medical Council's decision that its lead author, Andrew Wakefield, had been dishonest.
The medical journal's editor, Richard Horton, told the Guardian today that he realised as soon as he read the GMC findings that the paper, published in February 1998, had to be retracted. "It was utterly clear, without any ambiguity at all, that the statements in the paper were utterly false," he said. "I feel I was deceived."
Many in the scientific and medical community have been pressing for the paper, linking the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) jab to bowel disease and autism, to be quashed. But Horton said he did not have the evidence to do so before the end of the GMC investigation last Thursday. |
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India steps up scramble with China for African energy
By Louise Redvers
India has stepped up its efforts to gain an economic foothold in Africa in a new scramble with China for the continent's resources, signing energy deals with top oil producers Angola and Nigeria.
India has lagged behind China's aggressive courting of African nations to secure rights to energy as well as raw materials.
Beijing is using its deep pockets to build roads, railways, even a new parliament building in Malawi, to win favour across Africa, deploying at least half a million Chinese workers to labour on projects around the continent.
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India's state Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) left with deals for 359 million dollars worth of investments in Nigeria and an agreement for joint exploration and refining projects with Angola, seen as a precursor to a broader future deal. |
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China confirms sanctions against U.S. suppliers of arms to Taiwan
By (RIA Novosti)
China confirmed on Tuesday its decision to impose sanctions against U.S. suppliers of arms to Taiwan.
Beijing warned Washington last weekend that its $6.3-billion deal to sell arms to Taiwan could impair bilateral relations already marred by Chinese cyber attacks on Google and China's pressuring for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear problem.
"We strongly urge relevant U.S. companies to stop pushing forward and taking part in the arms sales to Taiwan," Ma Zhaoxu, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said. |
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Russia, U.S. lawmakers to coordinate new arms reduction deal
By (RIA Novosti)
A senior Russian lawmaker will fly to the United States on Wednesday to prepare a coordinated ratification of a new strategic arms reduction treaty.
Mikhail Margelov, the chairman of the international affairs committee in Russia's upper house of parliament, expressed hope on the eve of his trip to Washington that the document would be signed in the first quarter of this year, and said the sides planned to discuss various aspects of the ratification process.
. . .
The new treaty's outline, as agreed by the Russian and U.S. presidents, includes cutting nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000. |
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German FDP opposes solar incentive cuts
By Erik Kirschbaum
Germany's Free Democrats, junior coalition partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right government, are opposed to proposals by the Environment Ministry to cut solar power incentives, an FDP lawmaker said Tuesday.
Michael Kauch, an environment policy expert in the FDP, told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung proposed cuts by Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen were too great and said the proposed cuts would harm the German solar power sector.
. . .
Kauch said that in general, cutting excessive incentives is the right approach. But he added cuts should not be so steep as to harm the expansion of Germany's photovoltaic technology. |
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South Sudan hungry 'quadrupled in a year'
By (BBC)
The number of people needing food aid in south Sudan has quadrupled in a year to more than four million, the UN's World Food Programme says.
The WFP wants to ensure the people have enough food to last until their next harvest in October.
Southern Sudan's agriculture minister Samson Kwaje blamed the surge on internal conflict and drought.
The region is recovering from a two-decade civil war and remains one of the least developed parts of the world. |
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OECD urges China to let yuan rise
By (BBC)
The yuan needs to appreciate to reduce China's dependence on exports for growth, says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The OECD argues that more exchange rate flexibility and targeting inflation would help economic stability in China.
Its report also said the Chinese economy was weathering the global crisis "remarkably well". |
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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Capitol Hill News
By Congress Matters
This community diary from Congress Matters is cross-posted to Daily Kos and offers the following introduction:
Good afternoon, Daily Kos readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
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Court sets aside "millennium bomber" sentence
By James Vicini
. . .
Ahmed Ressam, dubbed the "millennium bomber," was caught at the U.S.-Canada border in December 1999 with nitroglycerin in the trunk of a rented car. He told authorities he planned to blow up the Los Angeles airport on the eve of 2000.
Ressam later reached a deal with U.S. federal prosecutors to give information about other terrorism suspects in return for a shorter sentence. But he angered prosecutors by refusing to cooperate further after early 2003.
An appeals court in California on Tuesday agreed with the U.S. Justice Department's arguments that the 22-year sentence given to Ressam by a Seattle judge was too lenient. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he could get between 65 years to life in prison, the court said. |
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New Yorkers unite against hosting 9/11 trials
By Basil Katz
U.S. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder had hoped to orchestrate a grand gesture by trying suspected mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other defendants in federal court in downtown Manhattan.
Symbolically, the civilian trials would be a few blocks from where the World Trade Center's twin towers collapsed in 2001 after hijackers crashed airliners into them, and in the same neighborhood where lives were upended by the tragedy and health harmed by breathing in smoke, ash and dust.
. . .
"The local community got (the opposition) going. But real estate interests, the local community and elected officials came together at the same time. It's amazing," said Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president.
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Police Commissioner Ray Kelly unveiled a restrictive security plan in January that shocked residents, business and real estate companies in the surrounding areas, which include tourist attractions such as Wall Street, Chinatown and the Brooklyn Bridge. |
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NASA picks 5 firms for commercial spaceflight plan
By JoAnne Allen
Obama's budget plan, unveiled on Monday, scuttles the Constellation program, begun under former President George W. Bush to return humans to the moon and spends $6 billion over five years to develop commercial space transportation.
. . .
Some members of Congress promised a fight to save the symbolic but costly lunar program. Senator Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the appropriations subcommittee handling NASA funding, called the Obama plan a "death march" for human space flight.
. . .
"We're departing from the model of the past, in which the government funded all human space activities," Bolden said. "This represents the entrance of the entrepreneurial mind-set into a field that is poised for rapid growth and new jobs."
. . .
NASA already has contracts with Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital Sciences Corp to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. SpaceX and other firms also are developing spaceships that can carry passengers to orbit and back. |
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Senators push for 9/11 trials in military court
By Jeremy Pelofsky
A bipartisan group of nine U.S. senators on Tuesday offered legislation to force special military trials for the accused September 11, 2001, conspirators, further complicating President Barack Obama's bid to try them in a civilian court.
. . .
The nine senators argued against prosecuting the five men in a criminal court because they would receive full U.S. constitutional rights, and they could use the civilian trials to espouse their anti-American views.
They were also upset at the price tag, pegged at $200 million a year. Their legislation would bar funding for civilian trials.
"Civilian trials are unnecessarily dangerous, messy, confusing and expensive," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters. |
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Obama Budgets for Changes to NCLB
By Jessica Calefati
President Obama's 2011 budget proposals for the Department of Education suggest the president wants to overhaul No Child Left Behind, the main law outlining the federal government's role in public schools. . .
. . .
NCLB didn't leave much room for reward either. It sanctioned districts whose students were not passing and labeled some 30,000 schools as failures, even if their students' test scores had improved from the previous year. Duncan told reporters in a conference call Monday that these skewed methods of accountability did not reward schools that had, for example, raised the reading proficiency among sixth grade students from a 2nd to a 5th grade level. Instead, NCLB led failing schools to compete in a "race to the bottom" to dumb down standards and get more students to pass. Duncan hopes to replace this broken accountability system with one that measures whether schools are preparing students to graduate high school "college and career-ready," he said, a process that begins by maintaining students' grade-appropriate reading levels in elementary school. |
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Obama's budget plan doesn't include California bailout
By Kevin Yamamura
President Barack Obama's budget is not a California rescue plan.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants $6.9 billion in additional federal money . . . but Obama's plan provides only about $1.5 billion, according to Schwarzenegger officials.
On the plus side, Obama proposed extending federal stimulus dollars for Medicaid — Medi-Cal in California — equal to $1.5 billion, according to Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance. |
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Indian-Americans rising in political clout
By Rob Hotakainen
There are no Indian-Americans in Congress, but Ami Bera hopes to change that.
Bera, a 44-year-old physician from suburban Sacramento, Calif., is one of six Indian-Americans who are running for Congress this year, a record high. Hauling in half of his contributions from Indian-Americans, Bera has raised $871,000, even more than Republican Rep. Dan Lungren, the eight-term incumbent he's trying to replace in California's 3rd Congressional District.
. . .
President Barack Obama has appointed 20 Indian-Americans to his administration, another all-time high. His first state dinner in November honored Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Obama also was the first president to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in the White House.
. . .
"As more and more people have gotten involved locally, I think they're naturally feeding into the system for higher office," . . . |
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Obama firm on Dalai Lama meeting despite China warning
By (BBC)
US President Barack Obama intends to go ahead with plans to meet the Dalai Lama despite warnings from China not to, a White House spokesman has said.
Mr Obama told China's leaders last year in Beijing that he would meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader, White House spokesman Bill Burton said.
China has warned that ties with the US would be undermined if the meeting takes place. |
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
Jessica was first released on the band's 1973 album Brothers and Sisters, and has subsequently been used in many musical contexts. In January 2006, a Wall Street Journal article referred to the piece as "a true national heirloom." It is widely known as the theme to the BBC Two motoring program Top Gear.
The piece, along with "Ramblin' Man", is one of the two tracks from the album which marked the beginning of a new era for the Allman Brothers Band following the deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. The song is named for Jessica Betts, the daughter of Dickey Betts and Sandy Bluesky.
. . .
Dickey Betts wrote this instrumental piece as a tribute to Django Reinhardt, as it only uses two fingers in the guitar part. Reinhardt was a famous jazz guitarist who could only use two fingers in his playing as a result of a childhood injury.
Back to what's happening:
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Converting Coal Plants to Biomass
By JOHN LORINC
Coal-powered generating stations retrofitted to run on a mixture of coal and dried wood pellets can produce cost-competitive, emission-reduced electricity even without the advent of a cap-and-trade system, according to a new biomass life cycle analysis published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology.
For utilities under pressure to meet renewable portfolio standards, biomass should be considered along with wind, solar and small-scale hydro, says Heather MacLean, the lead researcher and an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto.
"The study results suggest that biomass utilization in coal generating stations should be considered for its potential to cost-effectively mitigate" greenhouse gases from coal-based electricity, the paper concluded. |
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Japan leads the race for a hydrogen fuel-cell car
By Jonathan Adams
It may still sound like science fiction to some. But Japan is taking a lead in making zero-emissions hydrogen-fueled cars a reality.
It's part of the country's aspiration to cut its carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050; nearly a quarter of those emissions come from transportation. And it's a more urgent task in a country that imports all of its oil.
Japan leads Asia in early hydrogen-car infrastructure and is a world-beater in emerging fuel cell technologies.
. . .
The Japanese government is stepping in to address that chicken-and-egg problem. It's subsidizing fuel cell development and collaborating closely with energy and auto companies to build Japan's "hydrogen highway" of the future. |
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Offshore Wind taking off - some background on installation issues
By Jerome a Paris
Recent statistics have been published showing that Europe has now installed over 2,000MW of offshore wind capacity, with more than a quarter installed in the past year, and lots more to come in the next few years. I discussed these numbers in more detail here, but wanted to give you here some insights on what these numbers mean on the ground.
. . .
Monopiles have typically been used for smaller turbines and lowers depths, as their size (diameter and thickness) needs to increase with the load to be carried and their cost can become an issue. The price of steel will heavily influence the choice between the technologies when several are possible. . .
Another aspect which requires a lot of precision is the roundness of the foundation and the transition piece. The two of them must fit together (more on this in a second), and the transition piece needs to be in the exact size for the first part of the turbine tower to be bolted on top of it - tolerances are below a centimeter (the bolts are big ones - a couple centimeters thick, but they need to fit in over the whole diameter of the two parts...) for equipment measured in tens of meters.
(ed: from the comments) . . . the energy consumption in the construction of a windfarm, even offshore, is actually rather small compared to its ongoing output. In other words, the EROI is rather good - simply because wind turbines will be producing energy for 20+ years with very little additional input. |
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Brazil uproar over massive Amazon dam plan
By (AFP)
Environmentalists, indigenous groups and British rock star Sting have denounced a government plan to build the world's third largest hydroelectric dam in the Amazon river basin, which they claim will devastate the region.
The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday approved the 11 billion dollar Belo Monte project on the Xingu river that will flood 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) and supply 11 percent of Brazil's electricity.
Detractors say the dam in northern Para state will trigger droughts along a 100 kilometer (60 mile) stretch of the Xingu, displace thousands of indigenous people, attract an army of job-seekers, and accelerate the deforestation and destruction of the rain forest. |
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Fifty-five countries pledge to cut greenhouse emissions
By John Vidal
Fifty-five countries have formally pledged to cut or limit their emissions in a move welcomed by the UN's climate change body as an important step towards achieving a legally binding global agreement.
They include the US, all EU countries and China, as well as major emerging economies such as Brazil, Indonesia and India. The 55 nations between them emit 78% of the world's greenhouse gases. But, significantly, the group includes only Brazil from South America, and just six out of 55 African countries. In all, 137 countries have not made pledges. Independent analyses indicate the pledges as they stand are about half of what is required to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Nonetheless, Yvo de Boer, head of the UN framework convention on climate change (Unfccc), welcomed the pledges. "This represents an important invigoration of the UN climate talks," he said. |
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Climate change email scandal shames the university and requires resignations
By George Monbiot
This is a tough time for climate science. The Guardian's new revelations about the hacked emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia might help to explain the university's utter failure to confront its critics. They could also explain why the head of the unit, Phil Jones, blocked freedom of information requests and proposed that material subject to those requests be deleted. He has been spared a criminal investigation only because the time limit for prosecutions has expired.
The emails I read gave me the impression that Phil Jones had something to hide. Now we know what it might have been. The Guardian has discovered that Jones appears to have suppressed data that undermines a paper he published in Nature in 1990. The paper claimed that Chinese weather stations show that local heating caused by urbanisation has very little effect on the temperature record. It now seems that much of the data they used is worthless and the documents required to validate it do not exist. The paper might be 20 years old, but in a way that makes the scandal worse: Phil Jones has had 20 years in which to issue a correction. Even after the hacking in October last year, he has still not done so.
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The vast body of climate science still shows that manmade climate change is real and that it presents a massive challenge to human survival. But those of us who seek to explain its implications and call for action must demand the highest possible standards from the people whose work we promote, and condemn any failures to release data or admit and rectify mistakes. We do no one any favours – least of all ourselves – by wasting our time promoting false claims. |
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President Obama’s FY2011 Budget has 21% funding increase for USGCRP climate science research
By (ClimateScienceWatch)
Alongside major new investments in clean energy development, President Obama’s FY2011 Budget proposes $2.56 billion in funding for climate and global change research conducted under the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) umbrella. This $439 increase over the FY2010 level brings climate research funding to a level higher than under any previous administration dating back to 1989.
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Nick Sundt at the World Wildlife Fund has developed and posted an original table showing budget trends for the USGCRP since 1989. In constant 2008 dollars, the proposed FY2011 budget is second in size only to the Administration’s FY2009 USGCRP budget, which was augmented by a substantial one-time infusion of Recovery Act stimulus funding. |
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Best Connected Individuals Are Not the Most Influential Spreaders in Social Networks
By arXiv blog
. . .
Today, there's another surprise in store for network connoisseurs courtesy of Maksim Kitsak at Boston University and various buddies. One of the important observations from these networks is that certain individuals are much better connected than others. These so-called hubs ought to play a correspondingly greater role in the way information and viruses spread through society.
. . .
The importance of hubs may have been overstated, say Kitsak and pals. "In contrast to common belief, the most influential spreaders in a social network do not correspond to the best connected people or to the most central people," they say.
At first glance this seems somewhat counterintuitive but on reflection it makes perfect sense. Kitsak and co point out that there are various sceanrios in which well connected hubs have little influence over the spread of infromation. "For example, if a hub exists at the end of a branch at the periphery of a network, it will have a minimal impact in the spreading process through the core of the network."
By contrast, "a less connected person who is strategically placed in the core of the network will have a significant effect that leads to dissemination through a large fraction of the population." |
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New Research Rejects 80-Year Theory of 'Primordial Soup' as the Origin of Life
By (ScienceDaily)
For 80 years it has been accepted that early life began in a 'primordial soup' of organic molecules before evolving out of the oceans millions of years later. Today the 'soup' theory has been over turned in a pioneering paper in BioEssays which claims it was the Earth's chemical energy, from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, which kick-started early life.
"Textbooks have it that life arose from organic soup and that the first cells grew by fermenting these organics to generate energy in the form of ATP. We provide a new perspective on why that old and familiar view won't work at all," said team leader Dr Nick lane from University College London. "We present the alternative that life arose from gases (H2, CO2, N2, and H2S) and that the energy for first life came from harnessing geochemical gradients created by mother Earth at a special kind of deep-sea hydrothermal vent -- one that is riddled with tiny interconnected compartments or pores."
The soup theory was proposed in 1929 when J.B.S Haldane published his influential essay on the origin of life in which he argued that UV radiation provided the energy to convert methane, ammonia and water into the first organic compounds in the oceans of the early earth. However critics of the soup theory point out that there is no sustained driving force to make anything react; and without an energy source, life as we know it can't exist.
"Despite bioenergetic and thermodynamic failings the 80-year-old concept of primordial soup remains central to mainstream thinking on the origin of life," said senior author, William Martin, an evolutionary biologist from the Insitute of Botany III in Düsseldorf. "But soup has no capacity for producing the energy vital for life." |
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Hubble Detects Mysterious Spaceship-Shaped Object Traveling at 11,000MPH
By Jesus Diaz
Hubble has discovered a mysterious X-shaped object traveling at 11,000mph. NASA says that P/2010-A2 may be a comet, product of the collision between two asteroids. Or a Klingon Bird of Prey. Either way, UCLA investigator David Jewitt is excited:
This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets. The filaments are made of dust and gravel, presumably recently thrown out of the nucleus. Some are swept back by radiation pressure from sunlight to create straight dust streaks. Embedded in the filaments are co-moving blobs of dust that likely originated from tiny unseen parent bodies.
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'Immune jab' treatment blocks chronic pain
By (BBC)
A treatment already used for immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis appears to also work for chronic pain, scientists have discovered.
One small dose of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) reduced pain in just under half of patients treated.
The pain relief lasted five weeks, on average, with few or no side effects, Annals of Internal Medicine reports.
The Liverpool University experts now plan bigger trials on more patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. |
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Cyberthieves are hiring, using online ads
By Diane Bartz
he people who brought the world malicious software that steals credit card numbers from your personal computer and empties bank ATMs of their cash are hiring, and they're advertising online.
Two companies that are hiring -- at least on a contractor basis -- advertise online, said Kevin Stevens, a threat intelligence analyst for SecureWorks, who presented findings on the organizations at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference outside Washington on Monday.
What they are seeking is people who are willing to take malicious code they provide and link it to something that people will click on -- like a picture of Britney Spears getting out of her car. These people then collect a fee for each 1,000 times that the malware is downloaded. |
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#wearethefuture: Small businesses are the new mass market
By Mercedes Bunz
While everyone hates the recession, this could actually be a very good for time ambitious entrepreneurs. There are three reasons for that.
First, mobile technology is just about to take its next big step – perhaps even to begin a new bubble.
The second and third points go together. As customers for every sort of business start to do their research, browsing and buying online, the internet becomes a important place for every business, and not just the digital ones.
And cloud computing is making it possible to bring services to small businesses that up till now were only available for big companies.
So among start-ups, the thousands of small and middle sized businesses are a new attractive market, and this little lovely blog about the lifestyle of shedworkers shows you how that looks in real life. To provide services and advice for these smaller business could mean earning real money, at least if thousands of them will ask you for help with their web design, their search-engine optimisation or their search for a decent coder. |
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Mexico considers clamping down on Twitter
By Michael E. Miller
Mexico has racked up its fair share of menacingly named outlaws in a three-year drug war: the Zetas, Aztecas and even a band of female assassins called the Panthers.
Now, if the government gets its way, another name will also make the wanted list: los Twitteros.
That’s right. Twitter users are fast becoming public enemy No. 1, at least in Mexico City, where they have angered authorities by warning one another of roadside "alcoholimetro" — or Breathalyzer — checkpoints set up by the police. |
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Google Nexus One Gets Multitouch, Google Goggles and 3G Fix via OTA Update Now
By Rosa Golijan
Nexus One owners can stop being jealous that the iPhone got an update today because an over-the-air update for the Google device is being pushed out starting now. It finally brings multitouch along with some 3G fixes and Google Goggles.
. . .
All you need to do to get the update is wait until you "receive a message on your phone's notification bar. Just download the update, wait for it to install, and you should be all set. This update will be rolled out gradually to phones - and most users might not receive the notification until the end of the week." Easy. |
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Doctor casts new light on cat that can predict death
By Belinda Goldsmith
When doctors and staff realized that a cat living in a U.S. nursing home could sense when someone was going to die, the feline, Oscar, was portrayed as a furry grim reaper or four-legged angel of death.
. . .
Oscar was adopted as a kitten from an animal shelter to be raised as a therapy cat at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, which cares for people with severe dementia and in the final stages of various illnesses.
When Oscar was about six months old the staff noticed that he would curl up to sleep with patients who were about to die.
So far he has accurately predicted about 50 deaths. |
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Who is the real Israel: its citizens or its politicians?
By Carlo Strenger
. . .
World Jewry and Israel are involved in a worldwide defensive battle to save Israel's image. After more than 42 years of occupying the West Bank, even many moderate liberals around the world are beginning to question the nature of the State of Israel.
. . .
I find it ever more difficult to convince quite moderate people in the West, journalists, academics and diplomats who are by no means enemies of Israel, never mind moderate Palestinians, that Israel basically wants peace.
My interlocutors keep asking: 'But what reason does Israel have to continue building in the West Bank, if it really intends to leave?' and 'give me one reason why Israel keeps up the stranglehold on Gaza when it comes to building materials, food and other humanitarian aid?'
The problem is that I have no justification for this, so I try to explain the trap of the impossible Israeli political system. |
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South Korea marks a painful centenary
By Ronan Thomas
March 26, 1910. Lushun, northeast China. A mustachioed 30-year-old Korean nationalist, Catholic convert and self-styled resistance fighter waits silently in his prison cell. His Japanese guards keep close watch. Their prisoner is special. He has been sentenced to death for a political assassination one year earlier in Harbin, Manchuria, which shocked North Asia and enraged Japan. The Korean finishes a written treatise calling for Pan-Asian political unity and Christian solidarity before he is led out, with three others, to face a hangman's rope. The prisoner's name: Ahn Jung-geun (1879-1910). His victim: Hirobumi Ito (1841-1909), four times Japanese prime minister, eminence grise of Japan's 19th century Meiji Restoration reforms and hated former Japanese colonial administrator in Korea.
Ahn's execution - in the Chinese port city formerly known as Port Arthur - still resonates in Northeast Asia. The interwoven fates of Ahn and Ito continue to complicate Korean and Japanese relations today. A century on, a complex legacy persists.
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It will be an event of rich symbolism in South Korea, a clear demonstration of how it wants its history to be viewed by the outside world - and who it considers its heroes to be. When the museum opens, it will be attended by senior South Korean politicians, historians and several of Ahn's relatives. Elsewhere in South Korea, the centenary of Ahn's execution will be marked by new TV documentaries, conferences and other exhibitions. |
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