Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/182039423?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, 2 January 2012
Warmer Water Leads to Male Offspring -- if You're a Fish (Time.com)
To a list that includes extreme weather patterns and disappearing polar bears, you can add another dispiriting effect of climate change: too many males. Three years ago, Francesc Piferrer and other scientists working at Barcelona's Institute of Marine Sciences proved that rising water temperatures caused some species of fish to produce a disproportionate ratio of males to females. Now, Piferrer and his team have gone on to discover something of a mechanism behind that imbalance.
Most fish species don't have the X and Y chromosomes that differentiate the sexes in humans. In fact, at least 40 species of fish -- as well as many reptiles -- are more dependent on temperature than genes when it comes to separating the boys from the girls. In these TSD (temperature-dependent sex determination) species, the sex of offspring is fixed by temperatures experienced during embryonic development. In the 2008 study, Piferrer's team showed that in a species like the Atlantic silverside, a water-temperature increase of 4?C could result in a population that was 98% male. (See "The End of the Line.")
But until now, no one has been able to explain how exactly that process works. "One of the questions that came out of that earlier study," says Piferrer, "was, How can temperature affect the developmental fate of the gonads when they're not even formed yet?"
In their new study, published Dec. 29 in the scientific journal Public Library of Science, Piferrer and his co-authors argue they've found at least a partial answer: epigenetics. The word refers to inheritable changes in gene activity that are caused by things other than alterations to the DNA sequence. "Think of it like a book," explains Piferrer. "The words that are printed in the book are the DNA. The ones you write in pencil in the margins are epigenetic."
In the case of the European sea bass that the team studied, an epigenetic process called DNA methylation suppresses the enzyme that converts male hormones into female ones -- a conversion necessary for the formation of ovaries in nonmammal vertebrates. And DNA methylation, it turns out, is susceptible to temperature. Raise the water temperature and methylation increases, which means that more of that critical enzyme (called aromatase) is suppressed. And that means fewer females. (See how a San Francisco oil spill took its toll on fish.)
The scientists saw the greatest impact during the first 20 days of a fish's life, an embryonic stage that comes before gonads develop. When fish were exposed to a 3?C or 4?C increase in water temperature during that time, the normal 50-50 ratio between the sexes skewed 80% male. "What this shows," says Piferrer, "is that conditions at the very beginning of life continue to have important effects through the animal's life."
It also helps explain the heavily male populations of many fish farms. Sea bass in the wild generally spawn in water that is 13?C to 17?C. But most hatcheries keep sea-bass larvae in 21?C water.
More sobering are the potential effects in the wild. The International Panel on Climate Control predicts that seawater temperatures will rise at least 1.5?C this century, a rise that, by Piferrer's calculations, is enough to alter sex ratios in some populations. Some populations of canary rockfish are already showing more males than females. Although the wide number of variables has so far prevented scientists in those cases from pinpointing a single cause for the imbalance, Scott Heppell, a fish biologist at Oregon State University, notes, "The data shows a skew toward males, and the modeling shows that if this skew is real, then the population is in more trouble." (See how eating fish may lower your risk of Alzheimer's.)
Migration and other forms of adaptation may protect TSD species from extinction. And Heppell notes that by itself, a sex-ratio imbalance is less worrying than other climate-change-induced threats to the seas. The cumulative effects, however, are another story.
"Say that some species are spawning at slightly the wrong time, so their offspring can't find food. And their metabolisms are running ever so slightly higher because of increased temperatures. And then you add in this DNA methylation, so you get a skewed sex ratio," says Heppell. "It adds up. It's death by a thousand cuts."
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Sunday, 1 January 2012
Nasdaq Can Delist Chinese Company CleanTech, U.S. Judge Says
December 31, 2011, 12:37 AM EST
By Thom Weidlich
Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Nasdaq Stock Market won a federal judge?s permission to delist a Chinese maker of wind towers over its objection that the procedures for kicking it out are marred by bias.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Sullivan yesterday lifted the restraining order imposed against Nasdaq by New York State Supreme Court Justice Melvin Schweitzer on Dec. 20. Sullivan also denied a request by CleanTech Innovations Inc., based in Tieling, China, that he impose his own temporary restraining order.
?The court finds that the state court lacked jurisdiction to enter a temporary restraining order in a matter arising under? the federal securities law, Sullivan wrote in his order. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 28 also denied CleanTech?s request for a stay, which the company can appeal to the federal court rather than the court imposing its own restraining order, Sullivan said.
CleanTech has been fighting removal since January, when Nasdaq asserted that the company, which makes towers for wind turbines, intentionally withheld material information about $20 million in financing during its listing application. The company says it provided all necessary information in a timely manner.
CleanTech has retained as counsel former U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, who represented Pennsylvania as a Republican before becoming a Democrat in 2009.
?Discriminatory Actions?
?Judge Sullivan?s ruling is a technical procedural ruling that doesn?t touch on the substance of the discriminatory actions by Nasdaq against China-based reverse-merger companies,? Blair Fensterstock, a lawyer for CleanTech, said in a phone interview. ?The company intends to take every action possible to pursue the discriminatory actions of Nasdaq and its staff.?
CleanTech alleged the exchange violated its own rules and the company?s right to due process in ?arbitrarily and capriciously? seeking to remove it. Nasdaq?s practices are ?racially motivated? and ?blatantly discriminatory,? aimed at delisting Chinese companies, according to the complaint.
?The staff made it clear that they were looking through a different scope at China-based companies and that whether or not a company and or its advisers had a good reputation was irrelevant,? Fensterstock said.
Auditor Resignations
The court action is part of the fallout from a series of cases alleging fraud involving China-based companies. Chinese shares trading in the U.S. have lost more than $10 billion in market value this year after companies such as Longtop Financial Technologies Ltd. and China MediaExpress Holdings Inc. disclosed financial irregularities or auditor resignations.
Concern has focused on the more than 400 Chinese businesses that have used reverse mergers -- buying public shell companies to gain stock market listings in North America while avoiding the scrutiny of an initial public offering.
The SEC in June cautioned investors about buying stakes in reverse merger companies, saying they may be prone to ?fraud and other abuses.? From 2005 to 2010, Nasdaq approved the listing of more than 55 Chinese reverse mergers, according to a tally by Bloomberg News.
Nasdaq approved CleanTech?s listing in December 2010 and issued a delisting notice a month later, saying the company intentionally failed to disclose material information about bridge financing of $20 million that it received in December, just after the listing.
CleanTech has responded that it had no idea when or whether Nasdaq would approve the listing and that it disclosed the transaction as required without withholding any information.
The case is Cleantech Innovations Inc. v. Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, 11-cv-9358, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
--With assistance from Dune Lawrence in New York. Editors: Mary Romano, Peter Blumberg
To contact the reporter on this story: Thom Weidlich in Brooklyn, New York, federal court at tweidlich@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.
Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5683672366&f=378
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Microsoft XBOX 360 Gears of War 3 Limited Edition Console 320 GB Hard Drive for $299.99
Custom designed with artwork inspired by Gears of War 3, Xbox 360 is offering this exclusive console with Wi-Fi built-in for easier connection to the world of games and entertainment on Xbox LIVE. This limited offer also includes a copy of the game Gears of War 3, two custom-designed Xbox 360 wireless controllers and a 320GB hard drive. Available only for a limited time.
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Saturday, 31 December 2011
Syrian rebels "hold fire," want to meet monitors (Reuters)
BEIRUT (Reuters) ? The anti-government Free Syrian Army has ordered its fighters to stop offensive operations pending a meeting with Arab League delegates monitoring President Bashar al-Assad's compliance with a peace plan, the rebels' commander said on Friday.
Colonel Riad al-Asaad said his forces had so far been unable to talk to the monitors, in the first week of their month-long mission, and he was still trying to contact them urgently.
"I issued an order to stop all operations from the day the committee entered Syria last Friday. All operations against the regime are to be stopped except in a situation of self defense," he told Reuters.
"We have tried to communicate with them and we requested a meeting with the team. So far there hasn't been any success. We haven't been given any of the (phone) numbers for the monitors, which we have requested. No one has contacted us either."
How widely Turkey-based al-Asaad's order is heeded by anti-government gunmen inside Syria is in question. A video shot by rebel fighters this week showed the ambush of a convoy of army buses in which, activists said, four soldiers were killed.
Assad has signed up to an Arab League plan for a verifiable withdrawal of his heavy weaponry and army from turbulent Syrian cities where more than 5,000 people have been killed since March, many shot during peaceful anti-government protests but also many killed in rebel attacks and defense actions.
The Arab League mission has met with strong skepticism from the outset, over its makeup, its small numbers, its reliance on Syrian government logistics and an initial assessment by its Sudanese chief that the situation was "reassuring."
That comment was met with disbelief in the West on Wednesday but on Friday, Syria's ally Russia accepted the judgment.
"Judging by the public statements made by the chief of the mission M. Al-Dabi, who in the first of his visits went to the city of Homs ... the situation seems to be reassuring," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on its website.
Sudan's General Mustafa al-Dabi, who some link to war crimes in Darfur in the 1990s, visited the flashpoint city of Homs briefly on Tuesday and said he saw "nothing frightening."
Activist video from Homs over the months has depicted a trail of death and destruction sowed by the military, with hundreds of killings of civilians reported.
The British Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist network, said protests broke out on Friday in several areas of the country, including a large gathering of 70,000 in the Damascus suburb of Douma, where monitors were present.
Pro-Assad demonstrations were also reported.
The Observatory said Syrian forces killed four people, including two defectors, in an ambush in Talkalakh near Lebanon's border.
"Unfortunately, reports show that the violence has continued in Syria over the past few days," Britain's Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, said in a statement.
"I urge the Syrian government to meet fully its obligations to the Arab League, including immediately ending the repression and withdrawing security forces from cities. The Syrian government must allow the Arab League mission independent and unrestricted access ..." Burt said.
In Brussels, a spokesperson for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the EU also "urges Syria to comply with the Action plan of the Arab league in all its components" including "an immediate end of violence, the release of political prisoners, pulling the military out of cities."
PARTNER FOR PEACE?
The FSA, formed by thousands of defectors from Assad's military and security forces and financed by expatriate Syrians, has gone on the offensive in the past three months, taking the fight to the state rather than simply trying to defend opposition strongholds.
Its decisions are potentially crucial to any peace plan.
"Some of (our) soldiers inside Syria are trying to reach out to them but so far it doesn't seem the committee members have been given enough freedom of movement so that the soldiers can meet them. The monitors are escorted by some members of Syrian security. Our defectors if found can be arrested and even executed ..." Colonel al-Asaad said.
He said about 1,500 of his men were in custody and out of reach. He wanted to know their fate.
The monitoring teams have encountered a range of problems, from hostility when they turn up under army escort, to random gunfire and communications breakdowns.
Friday could prove another testing days as opponents of Assad take to the streets following Muslim prayers, the main day of protest in the revolts that have swept the Arab world.
In the northern city of Idlib, activists said the army had moved its armor out of sight.
"Security forces have moved some of their tanks out of the neighborhood streets and have put them behind buildings further out," said Manhal of the local coordination committee. "They have also moved the tanks out of main streets. Some of them they moved into dugouts."
The Arab League mission has so far failed to end Syria's nine-month orgy of violence in response to demands for Assad to step down, although it was never advertised as a peacekeeping mission as such.
Government security forces shot dead 25 people on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. They opened fire on protests in cities around the country, also wounding about 100 people.
Activists contacted by telephone said they had little hope the Arab League monitors would protect them but they still aimed to bring people out into the streets after Friday prayers.
"We know that just because they are here, it doesn't mean the bloodshed will stop. But at least they will see it," said one activist in Hama, who was unwilling to give his name.
An Arab League member from a Gulf State played down expectations for the mission.
Even if its report turns out to be negative it would not "act as a bridge to foreign intervention" but simply indicate that "the Syrian government has not implemented the Arab initiative," the delegate told Reuters.
"The delegation is not meant to search or inspect anything other than this. It is not a fact-finding mission or an investigative committee ... The commission is meant to tell the League if Syria has committed to withdrawing its military from cities and to check if those who were detained during recent events have been released, and if Arab and international media are able to report on the situation freely or not."
Syria says it is fighting Islamist militants steered from abroad who have killed more than 2,000 of its security forces personnel. Activist sources do not dispute that there has been a significant toll among the security forces.
Most foreign journalists, including Reuters correspondents, are banned from the country, making it impossible to verify the reports on the ground.
(Additional reporting by Thomas Grove in Moscow, Ayman Samir in Cairo, Justyna Pawlak in Brussels and Stephen Addison in London. Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111230/wl_nm/us_syria
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Friday, 30 December 2011
When I connect my digital camera to my iPad it will only download the stills, not the videos. How can I download the videos? I have the USB and HDMI connectors for the iPad.
If your camera has an SD memory card, use the camera connection kit & the SD card to download to the iPad. That's what I do.
?
Another way that will work. Download the video(s) to your computer. Then you can use a USB flash drive & the camera connection kit.
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First, Plug the USB flash drive into your computer & create a new folder titled DCIM. Then put your movie file into the folder. The movie file must have a filename with exactly 8 characters long (no spaces) plus the file extension (i.e., my-movie.mov).
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Now plug the flash drive into the iPad using the camera connection kit. Open the Photos app, the movie file should appear & you can import.
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? Cheers, Tom 
? G4 1.25HGz MDD, PB 12" G4 1.5GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.8), (10.4.11, 9.2.2) iPad2, iOS5 ?
Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3603096
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Thursday, 29 December 2011
Daily Apps: PhotoCalendar HD, Curio, MyiStory, CheckIn+ HD, Vegas Party Stops
PhotoCalendar HD: Are you looking for a perfect iPhone wallpaper. Whats better than set a calendar photo of your family and friends? $0.99 for iPhone and iPad –
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/4YUluK5xZDw/story01.htm
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