Turkish PM: Too soon to call for Syria no-fly zone

BERLIN (AP) ? Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday it is up to the U.N. Security Council to decide whether a no-fly zone should be imposed on Syria or safe areas created for people fleeing the civil war.

His comments during a visit to Germany appeared more moderate than previous calls from Turkey for international action to stop the bloodshed in Syria.

In August, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu tried but failed to persuade the Security Council to set up a safe haven inside Syria to protect thousands of people fleeing the bloody conflict between rebel groups and forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.

Asked whether 19 months into the conflict the time has come to create safe havens for Syrian civilians or a no-fly zone ? as was imposed on Moammar Gadhafi's Libya and Saddam Hussein's Iraq ? Erdogan refrained from calling for such a step.

"This subject is something for the U.N. Security Council to decide," he said. "If the U.N. hasn't made this decision, we have no authority, no right to declare such a zone in northern Syria."

The experience of imposing a no-fly zone over Iraq had shown it came at a high price, he added.

Speaking after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Erdogan indicated that Turkey wants greater diplomatic support from Germany in dealing with Russia and China on Syria.

Moscow and Beijing ? both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council ? have consistently blocked resolutions that would put pressure on the Assad regime.

Turkey has received some 105,000 Syrian refugees since March 2011, and millions more are displaced within Syria, Erdogan said, calling the conflict a "catastrophe."

Merkel praised Ankara's efforts for the refugees, saying they represent "a very real burden for Turkey" and Germany is prepared to provide further humanitarian assistance.

She also reiterated NATO's backing for Turkey, a member of the alliance, and lauded the country's "sober" response to cross-border incidents.

Turkey reinforced its border with anti-aircraft missiles after Syrian forces brought down a Turkish jet on June 22 and threatened to target any military "elements" approaching from Syria.

More recently, Ankara returned fire several times after mortars were fired into its territory from Syria.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/turkish-pm-too-soon-call-syria-no-fly-134029321.html

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Livestream for Producers Android app update brings live video broadcasts over wireless data connections

Android users of generation "Hey Look at Me!" can now add another tool to their arsenal of lifestyle sharing. The Livestream for Producers Android application received an update on Monday that introduces "single touch" sign up and logins through Facebook, a new app icon and some unnamed bug fixes. However, the most noteworthy addition here is the ability to run live ad-free videos over 3G and 4G data connections. Requiring Android 2.2 or higher, this free media streaming app might be an ideal companion for folks looking to incriminate co-workers at this year's Halloween costume party -- all in good fun of course. Just be sure to remember who signs your paycheck before you decide to take a broadcast live.

Continue reading Livestream for Producers Android app update brings live video broadcasts over wireless data connections

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

Livestream for Producers Android app update brings live video broadcasts over wireless data connections originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Pointy, Swivelling TV Was the 84-Inch 4K Flatscreen of Its Day By Jamie Condliffe You’re...

This Pointy, Swivelling TV Was the 84-Inch 4K Flatscreen of Its Day

By Jamie Condliffe

You’re looking at the height of TV technology from the 1950s. Perhaps the most kitsch, retro object you’ve seen in a long time, the?Kuba Komet was the?84-inch 4K flatscreen of its day - and just as expensive.

Infrared vision in a cichlid fish

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Biologists from the University of Bonn have discovered that the cichlid fish Pelvicachromis taeniatus can see in the near infrared range; this was thought to be unlikely until now. Seeing in the infrared range is apparently helping fish to hunt in shallow African rivers. The results will be published in the journal "Naturwissenschaften" and are already available online now.

A research team in the work group of Prof. Dr. T. C. M. Bakker at the Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, University of Bonn, has been studying the biology of the African cichlid fish Pelvicachromis taeniatus for years.

Researchers conducted a prey choice experiment

Researchers investigated the ability to see in the infrared range using a classical prey choice experiment. P. taeniatus also feeds on small crustaceans, such as freshwater shrimp. These prey animals reflect near infrared radiation. The researchers used this fact to examine the perception of infrared light. In a dark room a prey selection experiment was set up illuminated by infrared lamps. In front of the water basin containing the fish freshwater shrimp were offered in two separate chambers. One of the chambers with the prey was covered with a filter blocking infrared wavelengths. The other chamber was covered with a filter that would let only infrared light pass. "Consequently, the fish were only able to perceive the freshwater shrimp in one chamber in the near infrared range" explains Dr. |Sebastian Baldauf, one of the scientists involved in the study.

Physiologists thought that seeing in the near ir range would be unlikely

The experiment showed that the fish spent more time and were more frequently in front of the chamber that let infrared light pass. "The fish detect their prey based on infrared radiation alone" reports the biologist from the University of Bonn. "Until now, physiologists thought that noise levels in the near-infrared range were too high to allow visual perception." As the experiment has shown, the fish were capable of perceiving prey in a wavelength range above 780 nanometers. It is well-known that snakes can perceive far infrared radiation at longer wavelengths above 2,000 nanometers. "But they don't use their eyes for this purpose; instead they have a heat-sensitive pit organ," says Dr. Baldauf. Human eyes are not capable of seeing infrared radiation.

Seeing infrared is useful in the natural habitat

The advantage of the fish's ability to see infrared may become obvious when you look at its natural habitat. The shallow rivers of West Africa have a relatively large amount of infrared radiation. "That's exactly why it makes sense to use infrared cues for detecting prey organisms," explains Dr. Baldauf. "It is a clear selective advantage if you can perceive additional signals that others cannot perceive." It is quite likely that other animals also have evolved a perception of near-infrared radiation, e.g. for hunting or orientation, such as other fishes or birds. The researchers from the University of Bonn now want to study more closely the physiology of infrared vision, and to what extent infrared radiation is relevant in other contexts.

Infrared radiation in partner selection?

When performing color measurements on these fish the researchers found that certain regions of the cichlid body reflect the light in the near-infared range. "We found that females reflect infrared radiation from their belly region, and males from their fins" says Dr. Baldauf. The female belly is important for mate choice, and the fins are displayed during aggressive encounters between males. "Perhaps near-infrared signals play a role in visual communication in this species" says the biologist. "And that's what we additionally would like to study in further experiments."

###

Denis Meuthen, Ingolf P. Rick, Timo Th?nken, Sebastian A. Baldauf: Visual prey detection by near-infrared cues in a fish, "Naturwissenschaften", DOI: 10.1007/s00114-012-0980-7

University of Bonn: http://www.uni-bonn.de

Thanks to University of Bonn for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124900/Infrared_vision_in_a_cichlid_fish

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Sandy's death toll climbs; millions without power

A parking lot full of yellow cabs is flooded as a result of superstorm Sandy on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 in Hoboken, NJ. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes)

A parking lot full of yellow cabs is flooded as a result of superstorm Sandy on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 in Hoboken, NJ. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes)

Barbara Sinenberg surveys the damage to the car and home of a neighbor, after superstorm Sandy felled trees crushing the car and bringing down power lines on Barberry Lane in Sea Cliff, N.Y. on Tuesday, Oct., 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

Homes destroyed by a fire at Breezy Point are shown, in the New York City borough of Queens Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in New York. The fire destroyed between 80 and 100 houses Monday night in the flooded neighborhood. More than 190 firefighters have contained the six-alarm blaze fire, but they are still putting out some pockets of fire. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

A street and business are flooded as a result of Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 in Hoboken, NJ. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes)

A parking lot full of yellow cabs is flooded as a result of superstorm Sandy on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 in Hoboken, NJ. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Millions of people from Maine to the Carolinas awoke Tuesday without electricity, and an eerily quiet New York City was all but closed off by car, train and air as superstorm Sandy steamed inland, still delivering punishing wind and rain. The U.S. death toll climbed to 39, many of the victims killed by falling trees.

The full extent of the damage in New Jersey, where the storm roared ashore Monday night with hurricane-force winds of 80 mph, was unclear. Police and fire officials, some with their own departments flooded, fanned out to rescue hundreds.

"We are in the midst of urban search and rescue. Our teams are moving as fast as they can," Gov. Chris Christie said. "The devastation on the Jersey Shore is some of the worst we've ever seen. The cost of the storm is incalculable at this point."

More than 8.2 million people across the East were without power. Airlines canceled more than 15,000 flights around the world, and it could be days before the mess is untangled and passengers can get where they're going.

The storm also disrupted the presidential campaign with just a week to go before Election Day.

President Barack Obama canceled a third straight day of campaigning, scratching events scheduled for Wednesday in swing state Ohio. Republican Mitt Romney resumed his campaign, but with plans to turn a political rally in Ohio into a "storm relief event."

Sandy will end up causing about $20 billion in property damage and $10 billion to $30 billion more in lost business, making it one of the costliest natural disasters on record in the U.S., according to IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm.

Lower Manhattan, which includes Wall Street, was among the hardest-hit areas after the storm sent a nearly 14-foot surge of seawater, a record, coursing over its seawalls and highways.

Water cascaded into the gaping, unfinished construction pit at the World Trade Center, and the New York Stock Exchange was closed for a second day, the first time that has happened because of weather since the Blizzard of 1888. The NYSE said it will reopen on Wednesday.

A huge fire destroyed as many as 100 houses in a flooded beachfront neighborhood in Queens on Tuesday, forcing firefighters to undertake daring rescues. Three people were injured.

New York University's Tisch Hospital evacuated 200 patients after its backup generator failed. About 20 babies from the neonatal intensive care unit were carried down staircases and were given battery-powered respirators.

A construction crane that collapsed in the high winds on Monday still dangled precariously 74 floors above the streets of midtown Manhattan, and hundreds of people were evacuated as a precaution. And on Staten Island, a tanker ship wound up beached on the shore.

Most major tunnels and bridges in New York were closed, as were schools, Broadway theaters and the metropolitan area's three main airports, LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark.

With water standing in two major commuter tunnels and seven subway tunnels under the East River, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it was unclear when the nation's largest transit system would be rolling again. It shut down Sunday night ahead of the storm.

Joseph Lhota, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the damage was the worst in the 108-year history of the New York subway.

Similarly, Consolidated Edison said it could take at least a week to restore electricity to the last of the nearly 800,000 customers in and around New York City who lost power.

Millions of more fortunate New Yorkers surveyed the damage as dawn broke, their city brought to an extraordinary standstill.

"Oh, Jesus. Oh, no," Faye Schwartz said she looked over her neighborhood in Brooklyn, where cars were scattered like leaves.

Reggie Thomas, a maintenance supervisor at a prison near the overflowing Hudson River, emerged from an overnight shift, a toothbrush in his front pocket, to find his Honda with its windows down and a foot of water inside. The windows automatically go down when the car is submerged to free drivers.

"It's totaled," Thomas said with a shrug. "You would have needed a boat last night."

Around midday, Sandy was about 120 miles east of Pittsburgh, pushing westward with winds of 45 mph, and was expected to make a turn into New York State on Tuesday night. Although weakening as it goes, the storm will continue to bring heavy rain and flooding, said Daniel Brown of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

In a measure of the storm's immense size and power, waves on southern Lake Michigan rose to a record-tying 20.3 feet. High winds spinning off Sandy's edges clobbered the Cleveland area early Tuesday, uprooting trees, cutting power to hundreds of thousands, closing schools and flooding major roads along Lake Erie.

In Portland, Maine, gusts topping 60 mph scared away several cruise ships and prompted officials to close the port.

Sandy also brought blizzard conditions to parts of West Virginia and neighboring Appalachian states, with more than 2 feet of snow expected in some places. A snowstorm in western Maryland caused a pileup of tractor-trailers that blocked part of Interstate 68 on slippery Big Savage Mountain.

"It's like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs up here," said Bill Wiltson, a Maryland State Police dispatcher.

The death toll climbed rapidly, and included 17 victims in New York State ? 10 of them in New York City ? along with five dead in Pennsylvania and five in New Jersey. Sandy also killed 69 people in the Caribbean before making its way up the Eastern Seaboard.

In New Jersey, Sandy cut off barrier islands, swept houses from their foundations and washed amusement pier rides into the ocean. It also wrecked several boardwalks up and down the coast, tearing away a section of Atlantic City's world-famous promenade. Atlantic City's 12 waterfront casinos came through largely unscathed.

Jersey City was closed to cars because traffic lights were out, and Hoboken, just over the Hudson River from Manhattan, was hit with major flooding.

A huge swell of water swept over the small New Jersey town of Moonachie, near the Hackensack River, and authorities struggled to rescue about 800 people, some living in a trailer park. And in neighboring Little Ferry, water suddenly started gushing out of storm drains overnight, submerging a road under 4 feet of water and swamping houses.

Police and fire officials used boats and trucks to reach the stranded.

"I looked out and the next thing you know, the water just came up through the grates. It came up so quickly you couldn't do anything about it. If you wanted to move your car to higher ground you didn't have enough time," said Little Ferry resident Leo Quigley, who with his wife was taken to higher ground by boat.

___

Hays reported from New York and Breed reported from Raleigh, N.C.; AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington. Associated Press writers David Dishneau in Delaware City, Del., Katie Zezima in Atlantic City, Emery P. Dalesio in Elizabeth City, N.C., and Erika Niedowski in Cranston, R.I., also contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-30-Superstorm%20Sandy/id-2bfaa0b44ca9485094e12927153e2ccd

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Jobs data, election may overshadow earnings

By Ryan Vlastelica, Reuters

NEW YORK ? Earnings season may be only half over, but the focus on profits should subside next week as investors turn their attention to the coming election and Friday's jobs report, the last major data release before the Nov. 6 contest.

More bellwether companies are scheduled to report results in what will be another "peak week" of the earnings season. Such a flurry of numbers normally holds Wall Street's attention and can lead to market swings. But volume and volatility may be slight next week, with market participants opting to remain on the sidelines ahead of the jobs data and the election.

The U.S. government's October jobs report will give a snapshot of the current labor market. It could also give a bit of a lift to President Barack Obama, should it come out better than anticipated, or help Republican candidate Mitt Romney ? if it is worse than forecast.

Polls currently indicate that President Obama is a slight favorite to win on Nov. 6, but the race will be tight. The most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely voters shows the president ahead ? 47 percent to 46 percent.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 1.5 percent this week, largely because of a spate of earnings disappointments. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 1.8 percent this week, and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 0.6 percent.

What's notable, however, is that rebounds have been brief and quick to attract sellers.

Eyes on the election
Some investors cited the approaching election as a barrier to committing new capital to the market.

"Not many people have the stomach to plop down their bets when polling is so close," said Hayes Miller, the Boston-based head of asset allocation in North America at Baring Asset Management. "For the most part, investors will wait and see what happens."

Miller, who helps oversee more than $50 billion in assets, said the trend of caution would be especially pronounced in the health care, financial and energy sectors ??three areas that may face different regulatory outlooks, depending on the election's outcome.

"These are the ones really in play," he said.

Expectations for the next nonfarm payrolls report, set for release on Friday, are by no means certain, either. Analysts expect 124,000 jobs were added in October ? up 10,000 from September. However, the unemployment rate is also seen ticking higher ? to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent.

A payroll surprise in either direction could further cloud expectations for the election's outcome.

"A big change in payrolls could cause some uncertainty over the winner," said Jerry Harris, president of asset management at Sterne Agee, in Birmingham, Ala. "I don't expect a big surprise, but while the S&P doesn't seem especially vulnerable at these levels, I don't think it is in a hurry to go up, either."

The market will also have to contend with the weather. Hurricane Sandy is expected to hit the U.S. East Coast early in the week. New York City officials were considering closing down bus and subway lines next week.

At the New York Stock Exchange, the plans call for business as usual. The exchange issued a statement on Friday saying it has contingency plans to have the market running, adding that it has back-up power generation facilities. The Big Board will make accommodations for critical staff and traders.

Rival marketplace NASDAQ OMX said in a statement that it has plans to make sure its systems are ready. It will communicate with its members before, up to and after the storm.

Goldman Sachs & Co. told employees in an internal memo Sunday that the firm will be open for business on Monday, though only employees "critical" to operations will be asked to get to downtown Manhattan, and then only if they can do so safely.

Goldman will have other employees working from Greenwich, Connecticut, and Princeton, New Jersey, and many employees will work from home as well, the memo said.?

Disappointing earnings
While the market at large may be waiting on news events, individual stocks could still be volatile as earnings season grinds along. More than half of the S&P 500 components have reported results so far. Next week, though, will bring reports from some marquee names such as Dow components Chevron and Pfizer, as well as S&P 500 stalwarts Visa, Ford Motor and Starbucks.

This earnings season, a number of high-profile companies have missed estimates, including this week's sour notes from Apple, United Technologies and DuPont.

With 54 percent of the S&P 500 companies having reported results so far, 62.5 percent have topped earnings expectations, under the 67 percent average over the past four quarters. Just 37 percent have topped revenue forecasts, well under the 55 percent over the past four quarters.

The earnings disappointments led to some intensive selling, driving the Dow industrials down 243.36 points on Tuesday alone.

The S&P 500 has ended down in five of the past seven trading sessions. Those declines have pushed the benchmark S&P under its 50-day moving average of around 1,434, leading some analysts to believe it may be ready for a bounce.

"We'll use any pullback as an opportunity to buy," said Chip Cobb, senior vice president at Bryn Mawr Trust Asset Management in Bryn Mawr, Pa. "Even though we've seen a number of companies miss expectations and be overly cautious, we're focusing on how a majority have beaten."

Cobb said next week he was especially looking to results from U.S. Steel. Its stock is down almost 20 percent so far this year.

"Steel companies have been participating really poorly, and I'm anxious to see if that will continue," he said.

More business news:

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Source: http://economywatch.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/28/14758574-jobs-data-election-may-overshadow-earnings?lite

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Breast cancer walk unites thousands with common goal - Wave3.com

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE ) ? Thousands of people were united in the fight against breast cancer Sunday afternoon during the WAVE 3 and American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.

The event raises awareness and money to fight breast cancer, and it provides hope to people facing the disease.

It is estimated that more than 227,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer before 2012 is over.

For many people like walker Debra Wine, the event is personal. "We started out walking with my mom in 1999," Wine said. "We lost my mom in 2006 and just carried on the tradition of walking in her memory."

This year, for the first time, breast cancer survivors got to join the "Living Ribbon of Hope."

$720,000 was raised at this year's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk at Waterfront Park.

WAVE 3's Dawne Gee was among the thousands of participants.

Copyright 2012 WAVE News. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.wave3.com/story/19937696/breast-cancer-walk-unites-thousands-with-common-goal

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Magnitude 7.7 quake strikes off Canadian coast

Erica Avegalio, center, and her brother Albert Avegalio, right, load up on water and food at the Times Supermarket after learning of a tsunami warning Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, in Honolulu. A tsunami warning has been issued for Hawaii after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked an island off the west coast of Canada. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center originally said there was no threat to the islands, but a warning was issued later Saturday and remains in effect until 7 p.m. Sunday. A small craft advisory is in effect until Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Eugene Tanner)

Erica Avegalio, center, and her brother Albert Avegalio, right, load up on water and food at the Times Supermarket after learning of a tsunami warning Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, in Honolulu. A tsunami warning has been issued for Hawaii after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked an island off the west coast of Canada. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center originally said there was no threat to the islands, but a warning was issued later Saturday and remains in effect until 7 p.m. Sunday. A small craft advisory is in effect until Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Eugene Tanner)

Mike Nakamoto of Honolulu prepare's his client's boat moored at the Ala Wai Harbor to take it to deep water after learning of a tsunami warning Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, in Honolulu. A tsunami warning has been issued for Hawaii after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked an island off the west coast of Canada. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center originally said there was no threat to the islands, but a warning was issued later Saturday and remains in effect until 7 p.m. Sunday. A small craft advisory is in effect until Sunday morning.(AP Photo/Eugene Tanner)

Tad Kanski of Newport Beach, Calif unties his family's sailboat moored at the Ala Wai Harbor after learning of a tsunami warning Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, in Honolulu. A tsunami warning has been issued for Hawaii after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked an island off the west coast of Canada. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center originally said there was no threat to the islands, but a warning was issued later Saturday and remains in effect until 7 p.m. Sunday. A small craft advisory is in effect until Sunday morning.(AP Photo/Eugene Tanner)

Lyndon Fong of Honolulu fills up his gas tank after learning of a tsunami waring Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, in Honolulu. A tsunami warning has been issued for Hawaii after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked an island off the west coast of Canada. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center originally said there was no threat to the islands, but a warning was issued later Saturday and remains in effect until 7 p.m. Sunday. A small craft advisory is in effect until Sunday morning.(AP Photo/Eugene Tanner)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) ? A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the west coast of Canada, but there were no reports of major damage. Residents in parts of British Columbia were evacuated but the province appeared to escape the biggest quake in Canada since 1949 largely unscathed.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the powerful quake hit the Queen Charlotte Islands just after 8 p.m. local time Saturday at a depth of about 3 miles (5 kilometers) and was centered 96 miles (155 kilometers) south of Masset, British Columbia. It was felt across a wide area in British Columbia, both on its Pacific islands and on the mainland.

"It looks like the damage and the risk are at a very low level," said Shirley Bond, British Columbia's minister responsible for emergency management said. "We're certainly grateful."

The National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas of British Columbia, southern Alaska and Hawaii, but later downgraded the warning to an advisory for southern Alaska and British Columbia. They also issued an advisory for areas of northern California and southern Oregon.

The first wave of the small tsunami, about 4 inches (101.6 millimeters), hit the southeast Alaska coastal community of Craig.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center originally said there was no threat to the islands of Hawaii, but a warning was issued later Saturday and remains in effect until 7 p.m. Sunday. A small craft advisory is in effect until Sunday morning. The center says the first tsunami wave could hit the islands by about 10:30 p.m. local time.

Dennis Sinnott of the Canadian Institute of Ocean Science said a 69-centimeter (27 inch) wave was recorded off Langara Island on the northeast tip of Haida Gwaii, formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands. The islands are home to about 5,000 people, many of them members of the Haida aboriginal group. Another 55 centimeter (21 inch) wave hit Winter Harbour on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.

"It appears to be settling down," he said. "It does not mean we won't get another small wave coming through."

Canada's largest earthquake since 1700 was an 8.1 magnitude quake on August 22, 1949 off the coast of British Columbia, according to the Canadian government's Natural Resources website. It occurred on the Queen Charlotte Fault in what the department called Canada's equivalent of the San Andreas Fault ? the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates that runs underwater along the west coast of the Haida Gwaii.

Saturday's quake was the strongest in Canada since 1970 when a 7.4 magnitude quake struck south of the Haida Gwaii.

The USGS said the temblor shook the waters around British Columbia and was followed by a 5.8 magnitude aftershock after several minutes. Several other aftershocks were reported.

The U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska said it was trying to warn everyone with a boat on the water to prepare for a potential tsunami.

Lt. Bernard Auth of the Juneau Command Center said the Coast Guard was working with local authorities to alert people in coastal towns to take precautions.

The quake struck 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Sandspit, British Columbia, on the Haida Gwaii archipelago. People in coastal areas were advised to move to higher ground.

Urs Thomas, operator of the Golden Spruce hotel in Port Clements said there was no warning before everything began moving inside and outside the hotel. He said it lasted about three minutes.

"It was a pretty good shock," Thomas, 59, said. "I looked at my boat outside. It was rocking. Everything was moving. My truck was moving."

After the initial jolt, Thomas began to check the hotel.

"The fixtures and everything were still swinging," he said. "I had some picture frames coming down."

Lenore Lawrence, a resident of Queen Charlotte City on the Haida Gwaii, said the quake was "definitely scary," adding she wondered if "this could be the big one." She said the shaking lasted more than a minute. While several things fell off her mantle and broke, she said damage in her home was minimal.

Many on the B.C. mainland said the same.

"I was sitting at my desk on my computer and everything just started to move. It was maybe 20 seconds," said Joan Girbav, manager of Pacific Inn in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. "It's very scary. I've lived here all my life and I've never felt that."

Residents rushed out of their homes in Tofino, British Columbia on Vancouver Island when the tsunami sirens sounded, but they were allowed to return about two hours after the quake.

_____

Associated Press writers Mark Thiessen in Alaska and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-10-28-Canada-Earthquake/id-fb0acdb80d7c4428b674a8a1cc458b22

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The Calories in Your Cocktail | Care2 Healthy Living

• Health Guru
• October 27, 2012
• 5:00 am
• 3 comments

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Drinking up can ensure weight gain, but the calories in alcohol don't have to kill your buzz. In this video, you'll learn how to offset alcohol calories and which drinks are the tastiest low calorie beverages.

Read more: Addiction, Body Image, College Life, Diet & Nutrition, Drinks, Food, Fun, Health, Life, Videos, Videos, alcohol, alcohol consumption, alcoholic beverages, calorie counting, calories, drinking

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Source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-calories-in-your-cocktail.html

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Vatican says cannot revoke Savile's papal honor

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IBA signs $40 million U.S. cancer facility deal

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How Wireless Technology is Moving Hospitality Businesses Forwards

The great thing about technology is it is always moving on and forwards. It can save businesses a lot of time, bring people through the door and turn them into returning customers. But how is it moving the hospitality industry forwards? How are businesses today such as bars, cafes and restaurants reaping from the benefits of using wireless technology?

Below is a list of products and technologies that are moving hospitality businesses forwards, exploring how cafes, restaurants and bars are able to push the boundaries of modern technology.

Wireless Credit Card Terminals.

It does not seem that long ago that in order to pay for your meal on a card you would have to follow the waiter over to the till to use the credit card terminal. Nowadays however, you can pay easily at the table thanks to wireless technology. Wireless credit card terminals can process a transaction by connecting a phone line wirelessly transmitting data thought either a cellular or satellite network. These help business because it creates a more relaxed and enjoyable dining out experience for their customers without there being a queue of paying customers at the pay desk.

Contactless Payment.

Contactless payments are a quick new way to make a small payment without the need of entering a pin. You may have already seen this idea featured in chain cafes and fast food restaurants. With contactless payments all you have to do is hover your payment card over a portal (much like with an oyster card) and voila! You have paid. Contactless payments use a wireless technology called radio-frequency identification to make secure payments under ?10. The advantage of it is super speedy payments resulting in less queuing time for customers.

Wi-Fi.

It seems that almost every caf?, pub and bar nowadays offers free Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi has changed when, where and the way we use the internet and is perhaps the leading product of wireless technology solutions. We can access it on phones, tablets and laptops with ease on the go. Thanks to businesses such as cafes, restaurants and bars we can look up vouchers online within an establishment for where ever you may be eating and could perhaps find a great deal. How does free Wi-Fi help boom businesses? A lot of freelancers, remote workers and tourists use free Wi-Fi establishments to work. They can spend anything from an hour to a day there and will be encouraged to buy drinks, coffee, lunch and cake. If they like your business they will return and become regular customers.

Wireless Audio Systems.

Every business needs an atmosphere, especially those in the hospitality industries and the best way to create an atmosphere is by music and audio. Having crystal clear audio systems playing whatever best fits the theme and focus of your establishment will create an enjoyable experience for customers. But how are these wireless? What audio process solutions might a business need? Wireless audio systems use Bluetooth technology to connect speakers to a stereo so that they can stream music wirelessly. You can also control this audio equipment with the help of a Bluetooth remote.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/how-wireless-technology-is-moving-hospitality-businesses-forwards-0316523

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Losing Weight - The Addiction of Comfort Food ... - SelfImprovement.ch

Its very name is appealing - comfort food. What could be more wonderful than a food that helps us feel better? Almost everyone can name something that they eat when they're just feeling sour or sad. Chinese take-out, chocolate cake, raspberry ice cream, banana pancakes and many others make the list.

Of course, we know that food can't be the solution to our problems, especially the problem of trying to lose weight and keep it off. So why do we find ourselves trapped in the eat/feel better/feel worse/eat some more cycle?

The Basics

The fact of the matter is that all food makes us feel good. Our bodies are still stuck in the prehistoric period where food was scarce, so we naturally desire to binge until we feel full. Our bodies encourage this by making feeling full a pleasant feeling, and being hungry as unpleasant as possible.

Human psychology takes this a bit further, because we've added our emotions into the mix. In addition to our bodies' natural tendencies to want to eat and feel satisfied, we have mental needs as well. Notice that our workday is very closely married to our eating schedule: We have all the stresses of work lasting all day long, and what do we do when we get breaks? We have lunch, or when we go home we have dinner. Thus the two main periods of the day when we feel relaxed, we eat. This creates a mental association in our head that eating feels good when we feel bad.

The Cycle

It's easy to see how this can lead to cyclic behavior. We get into a habit, day in and day out, of eating when we're just getting ready to relax. Once we've associated the two for more than thirty days or so, we do it automatically.

Then, something particularly bad happens, and we just feel awful, so we reach for a food that we know makes us feel particularly fine. This is why so many comfort foods are decadent treats; we want to make ourselves happier than usual and we want to feel like we're "treating" ourselves because we've earned it after a hard day.

Then, a few hours later, we feel guilty about the cake we binged on, and this makes us nervous and upset, and since we're programming ourselves to feel hungry when we're upset... well, we all know what comes next.

The Interrupt

The first part of breaking a bad habit is to stop the repetition of it as a reflex. Remember to use the STOP method as a verbal way of getting control of yourself. Say "stop" aloud. Take a break from the thing stressing you out. Own your outcome: Remind yourself what you're trying to achieve. Praise yourself for what you've accomplished so far.

Using index cards, write down suggestions for your break that have nothing to do with food. Perhaps a quick round of solitaire on the computer, or a brief read of a favorite chapter of a book will help. Alternatively you could put on some quiet music if it's convenient to do so.

The Substitution

Part two of healthy habit building is the substitution of good habits for bad ones. We've already interrupted the reflexive snacking that we reach for, now it's time to put something definitively in its place.

Write down some of your favorite substitutions on the same index cards that you used for break ideas. Remember how we discussed water as part of a way of controlling appetite? It can have the same benefit here. If you feel reflexively hungry for comfort food, have a nice tall glass of water in slow, steady sips over five minutes. This will give you the feeling of being full without the calories.

Consider tying each substitution you make to a certain emotion. We feel upset in specific ways, so we should have specific solutions rather than general ones. If getting shouted at unexpectedly makes you antsy, consider taking a quick walk to burn some of the energy. If something comes up that makes you feel sad, pick an activity you know makes you cheerful.

If we simply rely on general solutions, they won't feel as meaningful or helpful. Specific ones that we use in exact circumstances have the power to create more of a connection, and thus become more of a habit.

This is a necessary step because it's hard to use the method of "same time every day" to build this habit, as we don't always know when we're going to want comfort food. But the fact that familiarity builds repetition can be used to our advantage with a little creative thinking.

Get Support

Remember that we haven't gone into this effort alone. We have support groups we can talk to. If comfort eating is becoming a challenge to your efforts to lose weight, tell your support buddy about it. Ask them for help in coming up with the creative substitutions that will keep you from overeating. Ask them if they mind being a comfort-friend in addition to a support partner, and if they can come with you on impromptu excursions to
relax instead of comfort eating.

About the Author

Larry Tobin is the co-creator ofhttp://www.HabitChanger.com/ offering effective and empowering solutions for stopping stress. Try our 42-day program that will help you learn proactive habits to beat stress and keep you moving forward in the right direction.
http://www.habitchanger.com/stopstressing Copyright (c) 2010 Larry Tobin

Source: http://selfimprovement.ch/web/health/losing_weight_the_addiction_of_comfort_food%20%20%20

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Colleges offer veterans classes to ease transition

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The students in the Saturday morning class trickle in and, as they introduce themselves around a table, reveal far more intimate biographies than just name and hometown.

One confesses to demons he struggles to control. Another says he's here to find a community. "Forgive me," an Iraq war veteran begins haltingly. "I have to use notes. I have a brain injury."

The students are participants in a veterans writing seminar at George Washington University, where for two days they immerse themselves in the basics of the craft and learn how to plumb for therapeutic and creative purposes their experiences in places like Iraq, Bosnia and Vietnam. The class is a non-credit weekend seminar open to veterans and their relatives, but the university plans to soon adapt the model into a for-credit semester-long course for student veterans.

The seminar is part of a trend of veterans-only courses offered at colleges and universities, part of a concerted effort to cater to a population that tends to be older, more experienced and farther removed from the classroom than traditional undergraduates.

Introductory courses on campus life help veterans navigate the unfamiliar terrain of a college environment while academic classes set aside for veterans are designed to help them learn in smaller settings and alongside peers with similar backgrounds. The courses are often peppered with military references and sometimes taught by fellow veterans.

"Different institutions are using veterans-specific courses for a variety of reasons, but largely it has to do with ensuring that veterans have a smooth and comfortable transition from the military culture into the civilian culture," said Meg Mitcham, director of veterans programs at the American Council on Education, a higher education association.

Still, not all courses have had staying power. It's not simple to find courses that appeal broadly to veterans of different ages and generations, not all veterans seek to identify themselves as such, and there's not universal agreement that veteran-oriented classes are the best way to acclimate a group that may already feel isolated.

Michael Dakduk, executive director of Student Veterans of America, said that while there are obvious benefits to the model, there's also the argument of: "Does it necessarily help with re-reintegration, and specially integration into a college campus, if they're being removed from the student population?"

The courses are but one example of services that colleges are offering to a surge of veterans who have enrolled after the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill, which expanded tuition benefits. An ACE survey found that 62 percent of the 690 colleges and universities that responded provide programs and services, including post-traumatic-stress counseling and specially trained staff. The Department of Veterans Affairs says 441,710 veterans and eligible beneficiaries are enrolled this fall in educational programs using Post 9/11 G.I. Bill benefits.

That focus may only intensify now that the Iraq war has ended and the war in Afghanistan is winding down, with new veterans seeking education.

Specialized courses enable brick-and-mortar institutions to maintain a toehold in the veterans' education market at a time of increased competition, including from for-profit career colleges and technical programs that critics say use deceptive marketing to target military families.

"Just like the rest of the country, people in the academy over the decade-long conflicts have come to recognize that we have this tremendously small number of people who are bearing this burden for society," said Derek Malone-France, executive director of GW's Writing Program. "There's this real opportunity to collaborate between the academy and military, which is historically a very fraught divide."

"They're back now, and they need it," Malone-France said. "They need to feel that they have a mission. Collectively, they are saying among themselves, 'What we can we do? How can we mobilize?

The courses acknowledge veterans' unique academic and social needs: Incoming freshmen who have seen combat may be less keen on dormitory scavenger hunts than the average 18-year-old undergraduate, but having been away from class for longer, they're also more likely to benefit from advice on balancing their coursework with professional, family and financial responsibilities and adjusting from the regimented military to the freedoms of college life.

"Having faced some life-threatening situations in the military, I was actually more fearful of the choices that I had when I entered college. I didn't have someone basically saying, 'Here is your exact daily schedule' or 'Here is your objective,'" said Michael Samano, a Navy veteran who has taught veteran-centered courses at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore.

West Virginia University, which has about 900 students using VA benefits, offers veterans courses in history, public speaking and on transitioning from military to student life. Cleveland State University offers a veterans-only section of Introduction to University Life, a required freshman class. Collin College in Texas has provided various veterans oriented classes, including a history class that teaches students how to do an oral history project and that is open to general education students too.

A University of Iowa class, limited to veterans and service members who have previously deployed, requires students to interview service members from a different era and covers everything from college study skills and reading comprehension to drug addiction and healthy sleep habits.

"You have the ability to speak your mind about things that normal people aren't really going to understand. They may see a movie or something, but there's no substitute for being there," said Gene Rovang, a 46-year-old veteran enrolled in the Iowa class. "As a veteran, when you talk about your experiences, it's just very easy to communicate to a roomful of veterans compared to a roomful of civilians. Most people don't have a job where your job is to kill people."

At Wright State University in Ohio, a psychology class frames discussions of behavior and leadership around the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and Guantanamo Bay, said Larry James, a retired Army colonel who teaches it.

"I can talk their language," said James, the former psychology department chair at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "Many of them, the posts and bases they've served on in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, I've been there too."

Still, the results have been uneven. Some classes, failing to generate enough interest from veterans, are no longer offered. Some have been opened to civilian students.

The University of Michigan-Flint ran veterans courses on philosophy and the natural sciences in 2009 and 2010, but stopped offering them in part because they weren't drawing enough students. Stevens Wandmacher, a Navy veteran who taught a veterans' course in philosophy, said his students ? who ranged from combat veterans to those who served stateside ? didn't all have the same needs or experiences that could be satisfied through a single course.

"I think there are better ways of meeting the needs of the student-veterans and getting them into the life of the university on a large scale," Wandmacher said. "That was some of the criticism when this was set up: 'Why are you isolating them and keeping them away from everybody else?' To some degree, I think there was a little bit of merit in that criticism."

The GW writing seminar is taught by Ron Capps, a professional writer and 25-year veteran who says he turned to writing to deal with personal trauma. The seminar, taught to roughly 15 veterans from different wars and generations, is a two-day cram session on writing basics framed around famous war and military literature.

The importance of scene setting and vivid detail is illustrated with an excerpt from "A Farewell to Arms" in which Ernest Hemingway describes a protagonist's leather boots "shiny with oil," ''gas mask in an oblong tin can" and Austrian sniper rifle with the "blued octagon barrel." Capps uses James Bond movies to illustrate character archetypes. A clip from the war movie "The Thin Red Line" gets the class talking about capturing the anxiety of combat. He reminds them that they're part of a proud legacy of veterans to nurture literary ambitions.

Details matter, Capps tells the class, but don't suffocate the reader with military lingo and acronyms. Students who need psychological help should go get it, he advises matter-of-factly, and not expect it to come from writing alone.

"We're not therapists. We're not medical people at all," he explained in an interview ahead of the class. "We're writers. Writers and others have known the healing power of arts."

_____

Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

This story is the latest installment in a joint initiative by The Associated Press and Associated Press Media Editors taking a closer look at this latest generation of war veterans as they return to civilian life, and the effect this is having on them, their families and American society.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colleges-offer-veterans-classes-ease-transition-101315787.html

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Copying Mosquitoes to Aid Human Hearing

As I spoke with Micah Frerck at this week?s Biomedical Engineering Society meeting, I had to focus to block out the cacophony around us and tune in to his voice. But for people who are hard-of-hearing or deaf, these kinds of environments can be torturous?a hearing prosthesis would amplify all the sounds equally, making it nearly impossible to carry on a conversation. Fortunately, Frerck, a bioengineering student at the University of Utah, is building a device that might be able to help.

Part of the problem is that hearing aids and cochlear implants (electrode arrays that translate sound into nerve stimulations) are bad at determining where a sound came from. For people with healthy hearing, the brain localizes the source of a sound by comparing the time the sound wave arrives at each ear. So if a wave hits my right ear first and then my left ear, my brain knows the sound came from the right. If the wave hits both my ears at about the same time, I know the sound came from in front of me.

To help people with hearing prostheses to localize sound, some scientists and engineers have proposed to mimic human ears by planting two microphones into a device. That?s challenging because the device needs to be small, but it?s easier to tell where sound came from if the microphones are farther apart. "To fit two microphones in one ear, you make the distance between them smaller and you make the difference in time of arrival smaller," Frerck says. "It becomes almost impossible to measure because you?re into nanosecond time-of-arrival differences, and it requires a lot of digital systems processing."

Frerck wanted to accomplish sound localization without resorting to digital processing. He looked to nature for inspiration?more specifically, to mosquitoes. "Here we have animals that are really, really small, and they?re known to produce sounds and to listen to sounds. And how they do it is with their antennae."

As a sound wave hits the mosquito antenna, its hairs undulate back and forth at the base. That movement is translated into electrical activity that the brain interprets as sound.

Frerck has created a similar sort of antenna from polysilicate, which looks like a tiny tree. The millimeter-tall device is flat and stands upright on a surface. When a sound wave jostles the antenna, "fingers" at the base of the tree distort and pull apart. As they do so, they create a capacitance, or stored charge, which can be translated into an electrical signal.

The flat shape of the antenna is what allows it to sense direction. Since its side is extremely thin (approximately 2.25 micrometers across), sound waves coming from that direction will have a hard time wiggling the antenna. In contrast, a wave that hits the flat area will have a large effect and a large electrical output.

Frerck says the device potentially could be incorporated into hearing aids and cochlear implants. The effect, he says, would be like using a shotgun microphone instead of an omnidirectional mic to pick up sound. By turning her head, the user could aim the microphone at a companion so that ambient sound won?t drown out the conversation.

That?s probably still five to 10 years away. For now, Frerck is testing the antenna?s sensitivity, frequency response, and directional response. And before the device can be mass produced, he?ll also have to find a way to automate the process of standing up the antenna?in the current prototype, Frerck had to do it manually, under a microscope.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/how-to/blog/copying-mosquitoes-to-aid-human-hearing?src=rss

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