Japan's Dreamliner operators estimate grounding costs at $110 million

TOKYO (Reuters) - ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines Co Ltd , which together operate nearly half the world's fleet of Boeing Co Dreamliners, estimate the jet's three-month grounding will shave a combined $110 million of operating profit, an expense they may ask the American aircraft maker to shoulder.

ANA, which owns 17 Dreamliners, estimates the revenue loss from mid-January up to the end of May from being unable to sell flights on its new jets at 12.5 billion yen ($127.36 million), with the subsequent operating profit loss at around half that level or around 6.5 billion yen.

The 787 squeeze on its earnings may have been enough to push the Dreamliner launch customer into a 3.6 billion yen loss in the three months ended March 31, Kiyoshi Tonomoto, a vice president at the airline, said at a briefing in Tokyo.

JAL, with seven Dreamliners, said the loss of 787 flights to the end of May plus the cancellation of charters this business year may add up to a dip in operating profit of 4 billion yen.

Both carriers reported their annual results on Tuesday with ANA saying operating profit in the year that ended March 31 rose 7 percent to 103.8 billion yen, while JAL posted a 4.7 percent dip in operating profit to 195 billion yen.

The latest estimates from the two Japanese carriers provide the best indication yet of how big a compensation bill Boeing may face once all 50 Dreamliners are back in the air. ANA will seek a cash payment from Boeing, a source familiar with the airline's intentions told Reuters in March.

ANA on Sunday took its first Dreamliner back into the air more than three months after batteries on two of them overheated in mid-January, one on an ANA plane in Japan and another on a JAL jet parked at Boston's Logan airport. A day earlier Ethiopian Airlines became the world's first carrier to resume flying Dreamliner passenger jets after regulators gave the go-ahead for flights to restart.

ANA and JAL say they will begin compensation talks with Boeing once commercial flights are restarted.

With hundreds of test flights planned in May to test new reinforced battery systems installed on their Dreamliners, revenue generating operations are unlikely to begin until June at the earliest.

United Airlines , the only U.S. carrier with the jet, said it will begin commercial flights on May 31. Eight airlines currently own Dreamliners and in addition to United, ANA and JAL include Air India Ltd , LATAM Airlines Group , Qatar Airways and LOT Polish Airlines .

In addition to the battery fix approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States, Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau has requested JAL and ANA to monitor battery current while the jet is in the air and regularly inspect used batteries.

The revamped battery is less prone to heat build-up, has a redesigned charger and is encased in stainless-steel box capable of withstanding an explosion. The new system also includes a metal exhaust tube to vent any gases outside the jet if it overheats.

The halt to Dreamliner flights, the first fleet grounding since regulators parked the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 jet in 1979 after a crash in Chicago killed 273 people, has cost Boeing an estimated $600 million and forced it to halt deliveries.

The U.S. aircraft maker on Saturday said it is, nonetheless, still on course to raise production to seven a month of the 250-seat aircraft by mid-year and to crank it up to 10 787s a month by the end of the year.

The carbon-composite Dreamliner cost an estimated $20 billion to develop and represents a leap forward in design, offering a 20 percent reduction in fuel burn and added cabin comforts such as higher humidity, larger windows and modern styling.

Boeing on April 24 said net income in the first quarter of the year jumped almost 20 percent despite the 787 troubles.

($1 = 98.1500 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Matt Driskill)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japans-dreamliner-operators-estimate-grounding-costs-110-million-092829377.html

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Install Shelves That Make Your House Look Windy

These shelves throw caution to the wind. They'll blow you away. They're a breeze. Can't. Stop. Puns. Everywhere. Look, the point is that paper scattering in the wind is a great motif for shelves and these are super pretty. Okay? Fine.

These steel shelves called BLOW were conceived by Japanese design studio YOY. Each shelf is A4 letter-sized and twisted to create the look of paper rustling in the breeze. The shelves are only available from the Italian home store Pianoprimo. Maybe adding some aesthetic chaos will make the mess in your house look intentional. [Spoon & Tamago]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5995482/install-shelves-that-make-your-house-look-windy

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Rep. Louie 'Terror Babies' Gohmert: The Obama Administration is Full of Muslim Brotherhood Members (Little green footballs)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/301836324?client_source=feed&format=rss

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US man detained in Venezuelan post-vote crackdown

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? A 35-year-old filmmaker from California has been arrested by Venezuelan authorities who are accusing him of fomenting post-election violence on behalf of the U.S. government.

President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that he personally ordered Timothy Tracy's arrest on suspicion of "creating violence in the cities of this country." Venezuela's interior minister said Tracy was working for U.S. intelligence, paying right-wing youth groups to hold violent demonstrations in order to destabilize the country after Maduro's narrow election win last week.

Friends and family of Tracy told The Associated Press that he had been in Venezuela since last year making a documentary about the country, which is bitterly divided politically as the socialist heirs of the late President Hugo Chavez struggle to maintain control of a country beset by economic and political turmoil

The Georgetown University English graduate was a story consultant on the 2009 documentary "American Harmony," about competitive barbershop quartet singing, and produced the recent Discovery Channel program "Under Siege," about terrorism and smuggling across the U.S.-Canada border as well the History Channel series "Madhouse," on modified race-car drivers in North Carolina.

"They don't have CIA in custody. They don't have a journalist in custody. They have a kid with a camera," said Aengus James, a friend and associate of Tracy's in Hollywood, California, and director of "American Harmony."

James described Tracy as "fearless" but also somewhat quixotic.

"This whole thing came about with him at a party in South Florida," he said. "He met this cute girl who says, 'If you really are a documentary filmmaker you'll come tell the story of what is happening in Venezuela,' and if you say something like that to Tim he goes, whether or not he knows a single person there or knows anything about the political situation or the consequences."

Tracy had been detained at least twice before by Venezuela's SEBIN intelligence police. The last time was five days before the April 14 presidential election when he was taking video of a pro-government rally in the port city of Puerto Cabello, said an associate who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to endanger people inside Venezuela.

The U.S. Embassy in Caracas declined immediate comment, citing citizen privacy.

Prosecutors said Tracy was arrested Wednesday evening as he tried to fly out of Simon Bolivar International Airport outside the capital, Caracas.

Tracy's father Emmet, of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, said that in his last email his son had asked for some airline miles so he could fly to the United States so they could be together for the father's 80th birthday.

The prosecution said he would be brought to a court hearing Thursday to be formally charged under Venezuela's anti-terrorism laws.

The police had been friendly to Tracy during the previous incidents, with some even agreeing to appear in his documentary, the filmmaker's father said. Emmet Tracy said, however, that the family had begun urging his son to leave the country in light of the volatile political situation.

"Frankly it's the kind of scenario that we were concerned about and kept telling him," Emmet Tracy said.

Tensions in the country have been rising since Maduro beat opposition candidate Henrique Capriles in the April 14 election by less than 2 percentage points. The government insists the opposition fomented violence directed at ruling party supporters and official buildings in the days after the election. The opposition is demanding an audit of the vote, which it says was stolen.

Venezuela's government has long accused the United States of trying to undermine it, moving closer to Cuba, Iran and Russia after a failed 2002 coup attempt against Chavez that the George W. Bush administration initially recognized.

Tracy is the first American in recent memory to be detained in Venezuela on politically related charges, however.

"I gave the order that they detain him immediately, hand him to prosecutors with the proof that there is because nobody can be destabilizing this country, whatever they believe, because they're on the side of the bourgeoisie, no," Maduro said.

James said Tracy's Spanish is passable but not great.

He said Tracy "literally has no political agenda. He is very sympathetic to all sides. He's telling stories about people and what their life is like there."

"He has been involved in telling stories that told that international component. But he certainly never worked for the government," said James.

"He's trying to tell a human story," said James. "My fear is that he's gone in deeper than he should have."

__

Bajak contributed from Lima, Peru.

__

Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak

Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mweissenstein

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-man-detained-venezuelan-post-vote-crackdown-202455776.html

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89 Green Hill Rd, Middlebury Open house Sunday 04/28 1-3 pm ...

Stylish, interesting one level home with soaring ceiling, lots of glass and many opportunities for comfortable living. Spacious rooms for entertaining and a master suite with fireplace and slider to private deck and bluestone patio. kitchen offers a breakfast bar, nook and access to the family room. Lovely lot, 2 car garage, central air, public sewers. $389,000. Click here for more info.

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Source: http://bannonandhebert.com/89-green-hill-rd-middlebury-open-house-sunday-0428-1-3-pm/

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Workplace Collaboration Service Convo Releases Updated iOS App With Redesigned News Feed And Comment System

There are very few platforms that have are something that you use on a daily basis, let alone on a minute by minute basis. Team communication platform service, Convo, is one of those for us at TechCrunch. Today, the company has released an update for its essential iOS app, something that we use here quite often to communicate about everything you can think of. Since using the service, our team has generated over 100,000 interactions, averaging 1,200 of them a day, with 95% of our team present on the platform on those days. Its desktop version is completely in real-time, acting like a threaded IRC chat. The service overall isn’t without its faults, but it’s difficult to build team and enterprise software that can make everyone happy. One of the top complaints that we had was about its iOS app, which was lacking proper iPhone 5 and retina support, along with some general usability issues. Today’s app udpate is all about speed, commenting and a slicker design that will help you get through all of the threaded discussions your team is having since you checked in last. The feed This is the most important part of Convo, especially when you’re on the go. In today’s update, you’re able to scan and refresh the main feed quickly, and when you tap on the comments for any given thread, they slide over from the right. This is a huge improvement from the previous version, which loaded the thread into a new page: That update alone will save time, as you can jump back and forth between threads that you’re participating in and make decisions on whether to get involved in one quicker. Additionally, you’ll be able to “Like” things, which is a passive way of saying that you’ve seen something or agree with something, depending on how your team uses it. Images are also clearer thanks to the retina support and complete overhaul of how they’re displayed. Depending on how you use the service, images could play a huge role in the conversation that you’re having. If you’re having a conversation about a piece of artwork for your app, seeing images at the highest resolution possible are the only way that you’ll be able to make a decision on whether to use them or feedback that you might have for your designer. Cleanup and sharing In addition to the feed overhaul, Convo

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/4w3xNYT6Lxk/

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NBC's Michaels arrested for alleged DUI in Calif.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) ? Police in Southern California say that NBC Sports announcer Al Michaels has been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.

Santa Monica police Sgt. Thomas McLaughlin says Michaels was taken into custody Friday night. McLaughlin could provide no additional details.

Greg Hughes, a spokesman for NBC Sports, says the company "is aware of the situation" and has been in contact with Michaels. Hughes had no further comment.

A call Sunday by The Associated Press to Michaels' agent was not immediately returned.

An Emmy Award winner and broadcaster on "Sunday Night Football," the 68-year-old Michaels spent nearly three decades at ABC Sports before moving to NBC in the 2007.

Michaels worked NFL games and other sports for ABC, and called "Monday Night Football" for nearly 20 years. He also is known for his call of the U.S.-Soviet Union "Miracle on Ice" game at the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nbcs-michaels-arrested-alleged-dui-calif-173341270--spt.html

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Fallout for states rejecting Medicaid expansion

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Rejecting the Medicaid expansion in the federal health care law could have unexpected consequences for states where Republican lawmakers remain steadfastly opposed to what they scorn as "Obamacare."

It could mean exposing businesses to Internal Revenue Service penalties and leaving low-income citizens unable to afford coverage even as legal immigrants get financial aid for their premiums. For the poorest people, it could virtually guarantee that they will remain uninsured and dependent on the emergency room at local hospitals that already face federal cutbacks.

Concern about such consequences helped forge a deal in Arkansas last week. The Republican-controlled Legislature endorsed a plan by Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe to accept additional Medicaid money under the federal law, but to use the new dollars to buy private insurance for eligible residents.

One of the main arguments for the private option was that it would help businesses avoid tax penalties.

The Obama administration hasn't signed off on the Arkansas deal, and it's unclear how many other states will use it as a model. But it reflects a pragmatic streak in American politics that's still the exception in the polarized health care debate.

"The biggest lesson out of Arkansas is not so much the exact structure of what they are doing," said Alan Weil, executive director of the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy. "Part of it is just a message of creativity, that they can look at it and say, 'How can we do this in a way that works for us?'"

About half the nearly 30 million uninsured people expected to gain coverage under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul would do so through Medicaid. Its expansion would cover low-income people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, about $15,860 for an individual.

Middle-class people who don't have coverage at their jobs will be able to purchase private insurance in new state markets, helped by new federal tax credits. The big push to sign up the uninsured starts this fall, and coverage takes effect Jan. 1.

As originally written, the Affordable Care Act required states to accept the Medicaid expansion as a condition of staying in the program. Last summer's Supreme Court decision gave each state the right to decide. While that pleased many governors, it also created complications by opening the door to unintended consequences.

So far, 20 mostly blue states, plus the District of Columbia, have accepted the expansion.

Thirteen GOP-led states have declined. They say Medicaid already is too costly, and they don't trust Washington to keep its promise of generous funding for the expansion, which mainly helps low-income adults with no children at home.

The remaining states are still weighing options. Concerns about the unintended consequences could make the most difference in those states.

A look at some potential side effects:

?The Employer Glitch

States that don't expand Medicaid leave more businesses exposed to tax penalties, according to a recent study by Brian Haile, Jackson Hewitt's senior vice president for tax policy. He estimates the fines could top $1 billion a year in states refusing.

Under the law, employers with 50 or more workers that don't offer coverage face penalties if just one of their workers gets subsidized private insurance through the new state markets. But employers generally do not face fines under the law for workers who enroll in Medicaid.

In states that don't expand Medicaid, some low-income workers who would otherwise have been eligible have a fallback option. They can instead get subsidized private insurance in the law's new markets. But that would trigger a penalty for their employer.

"It highlights how complicated the Affordable Care Act is," said Haile. "We wanted to make sure the business community understood."

?The Immigrant Quirk

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, called attention this year to this politically awkward problem when she proposed that her state accept the Medicaid expansion.

Under the health law, U.S. citizens below the poverty line ? $11,490 for an individual, $23,550 for a family of four ? can only get coverage through the Medicaid expansion. But lawfully present immigrants who are also below the poverty level are eligible for subsidized private insurance.

Congress wrote the legislation that way to avoid the controversy associated with trying to change previous laws that require legal immigrants to wait five years before they can qualify for Medicaid. Instead of dragging immigration politics into the health care debate, lawmakers devised a detour.

Before the Supreme Court ruling, it was a legislative patch.

Now it could turn into an issue in states with lots of immigrants, such as Texas and Florida. It could create the perception that citizens are being disadvantaged versus immigrants.

?The Fairness Argument

Under the law, U.S. citizens below the poverty line can only get taxpayer-subsidized coverage by going into Medicaid. But other low-income people making just enough to put them over the poverty line can get subsidized private insurance through the new state markets.

An individual making $11,700 a year would be able to get a policy. But someone making $300 less would be out of luck, dependent on charity care at the emergency room.

"Americans have very strong feelings about fairness," said Weil. "The notion of 'Gee, that's just not fair' is definitely a factor in the discussion."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fallout-states-rejecting-medicaid-expansion-072613081.html

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Kim Dotcom Says His iTunes Library Is Worth $20,000

With the recent launch of Mega, Kim Dotcom has been on the upswing lately, at least when he's not getting stranded by a busted helicopter. Recently, he sat down with the Financial Times to discuss his status as a hero/villain, the future of content delivery, and the $20,000 he claims to have sunk into iTunes downloads. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ip2jiDeiXXg/kim-dotcom-says-his-itunes-library-is-worth-20000

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Spain's Community Debt Tops ?42 Billion as Unpaid Bills Mount; Madrid Worst Offender

If you don't have the money, and cannot borrow the money, and cannot print the money, what can you do? The easy to understand answer is "you do not pay the bills" at least on time. This has been happening all over Spain, but particularly Madrid.

Via Mish-modified Google translate from Libre Mercado, please consider Hidden Debt Soars Thanks to Mayor Gallard?n of Madrid.

Note: Alberto Ruiz-Gallard?n is a Spanish politician and former mayor of Madrid.

Local authorities accumulated a total debt of ?41.9642 billion euros at the end of last year, ?6.545 billion more than in 2011, representing an increase of 18.4% yoy, according to data released Wednesday by the Ministry of Finance.

But the most striking is, once again, that of Madrid. Madrid owes ??a total of ?7.4296 billion in 2012, the most municipal debt Spain. This amount is equivalent to almost 18% of total debt of local authorities, 21% of all municipal debt, nearly half (46.5%) of the debt accumulated provincial capitals, and 63.5% of the debt of the big cities. In fact, Madrid's debt is six times that of Barcelona (?1.780 billion) and nearly eight of Valencia (?975.7 million euros).

What is most relevant, however, is that Madrid's debt soared by ?1.082 billion in 2012 alone, representing an increase of 17% yoy. This is the largest increase registered by the council since 2006, when it grew by ?1.700 billion.

The reason lies in the payment of overdue invoices from suppliers. Alberto Ruiz Gallard?n left a legacy to new mayor Ana Botella.

Gallard?n was the mayor who accumulated the largest debt to suppliers throughout Spain. Close to ?1 billion extra debt was the culmination of financial management of Gallard?n, following years of waste and the red in front of City Hall. When Gallard?n came into office in 2003, debt amounted to ?1.455 billion euros, but when he left office in 2011, debt grew to ?6.348, nearly four times more.

End Translation

Not to worry, the ECB, Brussels, and Prime Minister Rajoy have everything under control. If you have a hard time accepting that, please take another blue pill.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Disclaimer:The content on this site is provided as general information only and should not be taken as investment advice. All site content, including advertisements, shall not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security or financial instrument, or to participate in any particular trading or investment strategy. The ideas expressed on this site are solely the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the opinions of sponsors or firms affiliated with the author(s). The author may or may not have a position in any company or advertiser referenced above. Any action that you take as a result of information, analysis, or advertisement on this site is ultimately your responsibility. Consult your investment adviser before making any investment decisions.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis/~3/pRwxGFcdN3M/spains-community-debt-tops-42-billion.html

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MacBreak Weekly 346: OS X Grumpy Cat

Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and I talk Facebook for iOS, whether we'll be able to update Lightroom 5 in the app store, and more.

Download and subscribe: TWiT.tv

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Nuqsmxdx8WI/story01.htm

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A new twist for quantum systems

Apr. 17, 2013 ? To maneuver a car into a parking spot parallel to the road can be quite a challenge. It would be an easy task, of course, if only the vehicle could move sideways. As this is not possible, the sideways motion must be pieced together -- sometimes elegantly, sometimes less so -- in a series of forward and backward movements and turns on the steering wheel. Such a finely tuned sequence of movements also enables cats to almost always land on their feet after a free fall. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now used a similar principle for steering a quantum system into a desired state. This new type of control should be useful in situations in which quantum systems must be precisely controlled, not least in the context of quantum computers.

Big quantum world

For their research, scientists in the group of Andreas Wallraff, a professor at the Department of Physics, use "artificial atoms" made of electronic circuits, which they control with microwave pulses. These circuits comprise superconducting components -- that is, components in which electric currents can flow without resistance -- and typically measure fractions of a millimeter. "For a quantum physicist, these circuits are enormously large objects, but they display behavior that is very similar to that of atoms," explains Wallraff.

Unlike in natural quantum systems, such as atoms, electrons or photons, the design and properties of the quantum circuits can be changed and adapted to different applications. Moreover, the fragile quantum states can survive for several microseconds in these superconducting circuits -- a relatively long time for quantum objects. During this time the state can be manipulated with microwave pulses, in order to study the quantum state itself or to make use of it in a quantum computation.

Finding the right twist

These favorable properties notwithstanding, the quantum circuits are highly sensitive to external disturbances (caused, for example, by imperfect shielding), just as natural quantum systems. Under the direction of Stefan Filipp, a scientist in the Wallraff group, the ETH Zurich researchers have now found a possible way to render the quantum states more robust against disturbances. They make use of the geometry of so-called Hilbert spaces; these abstract spaces are the 'natural habitat' of any quantum system. Similarly as a car is driven through a two-dimensional space, a quantum system is steered through its Hilbert space.

Both for parallel parking and for controlling quantum systems, the specific sequence of operations is important. For example, when a motorist first performs all steering-wheel movements and then all forward and backward movements, then she or he will hardly end up in the parking spot. The situation is comparable for the physicists' artificial atoms, which they control with microwave pulses. "We obtain different results depending on the order in which we apply the individual pulses, even if the pulses have an identical shape, the same energy and the same length. This can only be explained by the different routes the system takes through its Hilbert space," says Stefan Filipp.

Path towards a quantum computer

"This is the first time that somebody obtained this specific type of control over an isolated quantum object and was able to study the process in detail," adds Abdufarrukh Abdumalikov, scientist in the Wallraff group. An important factor for the ETH physicists' success was that they could work with relatively short microwave pulses. "This allowed us to perform operations quickly, before the quantum state was irrevocably destroyed," says Abdumalikov.

The researchers expect that their method may provide a viable path towards a practical quantum computer. The development of such devices, which use the laws of quantum mechanics to tackle computational tasks, is a very active field of current study. Quantum physics opens up a whole range of new possibilities for information processing, and one day quantum computers may help solve problems that are computationally too complex for any conventional computer to solve within reasonable time.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by ETH Zurich, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. A. A. Abdumalikov, J. M. Fink, K. Juliusson, M. Pechal, S. Berger, A. Wallraff, S. Filipp. Experimental realization of non-Abelian non-adiabatic geometric gates. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12010

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/technology/~3/iEg1C9zNuqY/130417131823.htm

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Check Out Beyonce's Wild Tour Outfits!

Nobody knows how to put on a show like Beyonce. The pop star launched her Mrs. Carter World Tour in Serbia on Monday, and while the songs were familiar, the eye-popping costumes were brand new. Below, check out all of Beyonce's fresh tour looks (which we've nicknamed for our amusement --er, your convenience).

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/photos-beyonces-wild-mrs-carter-tour-costumes/1-a-533455?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aphotos-beyonces-wild-mrs-carter-tour-costumes-533455

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Scientists transform cellulose into starch: Potential food source derived from non-food plants

Apr. 16, 2013 ? A team of Virginia Tech researchers has succeeded in transforming cellulose into starch, a process that has the potential to provide a previously untapped nutrient source from plants not traditionally though of as food crops.

Y.H. Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering, led a team of researchers in the project that could help feed a growing global population that is estimated to swell to 9 billion by 2050. Starch is one of the most important components of the human diet and provides 20-40 percent of our daily caloric intake.

The research was published this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cellulose is the supporting material in plant cell walls and is the most common carbohydrate on earth. This new development opens the door to the potential that food could be created from any plant, reducing the need for crops to be grown on valuable land that requires fertilizers, pesticides, and large amounts of water. The type of starch that Zhang's team produced is amylose, a linear resistant starch that is not broken down in the digestion process and acts as a good source of dietary fiber. It has been proven to decrease the risk of obesity and diabetes.

This discovery holds promise on many fronts beyond food systems.

"Besides serving as a food source, the starch can be used in the manufacture of edible, clear films for biodegradable food packaging," Zhang said. "It can even serve as a high-density hydrogen storage carrier that could solve problems related to hydrogen storage and distribution."

Zhang used a novel process involving cascading enzymes to transform cellulose into amylose starch.

"Cellulose and starch have the same chemical formula," Zhang said. "The difference is in their chemical linkages. Our idea is to use an enzyme cascade to break up the bonds in cellulose, enabling their reconfiguration as starch."

The new approach takes cellulose from non-food plant material, such as corn stover, converts about 30% to amylose, and hydrolyzes the remainder to glucose suitable for ethanol production. Corn stover consists of the stem, leaves, and husk of the corn plant remaining after ears of corn are harvested. However, the process works with cellulose from any plant.

This bioprocess called "simultaneous enzymatic biotransformation and microbial fermentation" is easy to scale up for commercial production. It is environmentally friendly because it does not require expensive equipment, heat, or chemical reagents, and does not generate any waste. The key enzymes immobilized on the magnetic nanoparticles can easily be recycled using a magnetic force.

Zhang designed the experiments and conceived the cellulose-to-starch concept. Zhang and Virginia Tech visiting scholar Hongge Chen are the inventors of the cellulose-to-starch biotransformation, which is covered under a provisional patent application. Chun You, a postdoctoral researcher from China at Virginia Tech, and Chen conducted most of the research work.

Support for the current research comes from the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. Additional resources were contributed by the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Biodesign and Bioprocessing Research Center, the Shell GameChanger Program, and the U.S. Department of Energy BioEnergy Science Center, along with the Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the Department of Energy. Chen was partially supported by the China Scholarship Council.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Virginia Tech.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. C. You, H. Chen, S. Myung, N. Sathitsuksanoh, H. Ma, X.-Z. Zhang, J. Li, Y.- H. P. Zhang. Enzymatic transformation of nonfood biomass to starch. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1302420110

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/nutrition/~3/KF12G1WWamg/130416085309.htm

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Where Are They Now?: Rick Steiner

Inside the squared circle, there isn?t too much that Rick Steiner hasn?t accomplished. A multiple-time Tag Team Champion in both WWE and WCW, the former grappler known as ?The Dog-Faced Gremlin? is now focusing his efforts on a new endeavor outside of the ring: improving the schools in Cherokee County, Ga.

Education has long played an important role in Steiner?s life. He and his younger brother Scott were stars on their high school wrestling team, eventually heading to the University of Michigan, where they starred on the Wolverine squad. Rick placed second at the 1983 Big Ten Championships, and holds two of the fastest pinfalls in Michigan history at 14 and 15 seconds. Although he was an amateur standout, Rick had never thought about pursuing professional wrestling as a career.

?I never really watched it that much,? he told WWEClassics.com. ?I knew a little bit about it because of Dick The Bruiser, but I never really had an interest.?

That all changed at a coaches? conference hosted by legendary Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler. Steiner, who was substitute teaching and coaching wrestling after earning his degree in education at Ann Arbor, had a chance meeting with a WWE Hall of Famer that changed everything.

Rick Steiner videos?|?Classic "Dog-Faced Gremlin" Photos?|?Current photos

?One thing led to another and I was introduced to George ?The Animal? Steele,? Steiner explained. ?He said if I was interested, he could set me up with Verne Gagne?s school in Minnesota.?

Steiner took a few weeks to think about it, eventually deciding that he wanted to give pro wrestling a shot. He sent a resume up to Gagne, who recommended he come up to Minnesota, where his AWA promotion was based, for training. After learning the ropes from famed trainers Eddie Sharkey and Brad Rheingans, ?The Dog-Faced Gremlin? traveled through the territories to hone his craft. He made a stop in Montreal before heading down to Louisiana and Bill Watts? Mid-South Wrestling. At first, the transition from the mat to the ring was tough for the collegiate great.

?You had to learn the psychology,? Steiner explained, ?which was a hard thing for me to grasp at first. I wanted to go out there and wrestle everybody like an amateur and beat ?em. But that?s not the name of the game.?

As he learned from veterans, Steiner picked up the little things that made professional wrestling different from the amateur game. That helped him in spades in 1987, when Jim Crockett Promotions bought Watts? territory, bringing Steiner and a few others into the fold of their promotion based out of the Carolinas.

After arriving in the Carolinas, Rick was paired up with some fellow amateur wrestlers. Managed by the devious Kevin Sullivan, The Varsity Club consisted of Steiner, Syracuse?s Mike Rotunda and Oklahoma?s ?Dr. Death? Steve Williams. ?The Dog-Faced Gremlin,? while every bit as talented as his teammates on the mat, was often mistreated by them for not being as smart or conniving. Their bullying led to Steiner becoming a beloved hero when he finally stood up for himself, eventually defeating Rotunda for the NWA Television Title?at Starrcade 1988.

?It was a lot of fun,? Steiner said. ?It was my first real big gig and it was enjoyable.?

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Source: http://www.wwe.com/classics/wherearetheynow/where-are-they-now-rick-steiner

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Pressure cookers help make good bombs _ and clues

Investigators in haz-mat suits examine the scene of the second bombing on Boylston Street in Boston Tuesday, April 16, 2013 near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, a day after two blasts killed three and injured over 170 people. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Investigators in haz-mat suits examine the scene of the second bombing on Boylston Street in Boston Tuesday, April 16, 2013 near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, a day after two blasts killed three and injured over 170 people. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

FBI agents gather near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in Boston Tuesday, April 16, 2013. The bombs that ripped through the crowd at the Boston Marathon, killing at least three people and wounding more than 170, were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage, a person briefed on the investigation said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

This Homeland Security Department pamphlet, from July 2010, distributed to police, fore, EMS and security personnel shows a diagram for rudimentary improvised explosive devices (IEDs) using pressure cookers to contain the initiator, switch and explosive charge. A person briefed on the Boston Marathon investigation says the explosives were in 6-liter pressure cookers and placed in black duffel bags. (AP Photo/Homeland Security Department)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? In kitchens, they prepare food faster, but pressure cookers by their very nature help make good bombs, amplifying the blast and the carnage.

They don't just hold the explosives. The tightly sealed pot that speeds the cooking of beans and meat makes easier-to-obtain but weaker explosives faster and stronger. And they may also help investigators find out who built the deadly homemade bombs that exploded at the Boston Marathon on Monday.

Investigators found fragments of BBs and nails, possibly contained in a pressure cooker, said Richard DesLauriers, the FBI agent in charge in Boston. He said the items were sent for analysis.

If a pressure cooker was used, it probably cost around $100 to construct, say former federal forensic and explosive investigators. It's like a pipe bomb but bigger and more powerful.

Pressure cooker bombs are more often used in Afghanistan, Pakistan India, and Nepal ? where the pots are more commonly used for cooking. But they have also been prominent in bombings and attempts in the United States, especially in New York in Times Square in 2010 and Grand Central Terminal in 1976.

In Al Qaeda's online magazine, there's even an article titled: "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom" by "The AQ Chef." It mentions, even recommends, pressure cookers, noting that weak explosives only work with the high pressure of a cooker or sealed pipe.

Low power explosives like black powder and smokeless powder ? the most likely ones used in Boston ? blow up at a slower rate and only deliver the big boom if they are confined and the pressure from the gas and explosion builds up, said Denny Kline, a former FBI explosives expert and instructor in forensics at its academy.

Kline and other ex-government experts who have no role in the investigation differ about what type of explosive may have been used and some refuse to even speculate what kind.

The pressure cookers are a key first piece in a painstaking detective process. The sound of the explosion is a clue. The color of the flash ? yellow ? and smoke ? white ? are clues. So is the size of any crater and the distance fragments flew. Even the smell can give a seasoned investigator a good idea of what explosive was used, Kline said.

"We basically try to create a model for what the bomb looked like," said Matthew Horace, a former special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "Investigating bombs is like a puzzle."

Piece by piece, forensic investigators now have to put together what came apart with an explosive force of thousands of feet per second: The bombs themselves.

"It's going to change its appearance and its form, but it's going to remain," said Kline. "It'll be broken up into lots of little pieces, but it's not going to evaporate."

The job is to piece things back together and identify chemicals. But it happens slower than on TV crime shows. And it isn't as easy, Kline said.

"It takes a lot more intelligence to put it back together... from multiple pieces than to follow a simple set of instructions on the Internet," said Roy Parker, a retired ATF explosives expert.

Kline said once forensic investigators have something on the bomb itself, it is given to lead detectives to take the next big step

Take the pressure cooker. If the brand is determined, "investigators will track every store that sells that pressure cooker and when it was built and sold," Horace said. "This kind of investigation requires hundreds, if not thousands of leads to be followed up on."

Horace and others are confident that the pressure cooker identification can be a big help.

The pressure cooker can also help point to the type of explosive, Kline said. If it's a high powered explosive like dynamite or C4, the blast would have shattered the cooker leaving sharp edges. If it's the low explosive, it will merely blast through, leaving more squared off edges, he said.

Once everything is pieced together, investigators will look for the "signature" or style of a bomber. Often ? but less so since the Internet was born ? a signature can lead to a bomber, Kline said.

"It's like a piano player," Kline said. "You can give Dave Brubeck or Chopin the same piece of music and it will sound different."

With this type of bomb, it can be triggered with something as simple as an egg timer or alarm clock, Parker said. Experts doubt a cellphone was used.

The use of nails, shards of metals and ball bearings also amplifies the personal devastation, experts said.

"We've removed BBs and we've removed nails from kids. One of the sickest things for me was just to see nails sticking out of a little girl's body," said Dr. David Mooney, trauma chief at Boston Children's Hospital, which treated 10 blast victims.

___

AP writers Alicia A. Caldwell and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-16-Boston%20Marathon-Explosives/id-b588e9025005463d86906387d864716a

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Wife of ex-judge arrested in slain Texas DA case

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) ? North Texas authorities have arrested the wife of a former justice of the peace who was charged with making a terroristic threat in connection with the shooting deaths of a district attorney and his wife.

Kim Lene Williams was arrested early Wednesday. Online jail records do not list charges against her and efforts to reach Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes, county Judge Bruce Wood and others were not successful.

A law enforcement official has said authorities are trying to build a case against her husband, Eric Lyle Williams, in the deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, whose bodies were found at their home March 30.

A probable cause affidavit says Eric Williams sent an email, one day after the McLellands' bodies were discovered, implying there would be another attack if authorities didn't respond to various demands. The email was sent from Eric Williams' personal computer. Authorities arrested him on Saturday and charged him with making a terroristic threat.

He was being held on $3 million bond on that charge.

Williams lost his elected position as justice of the peace after he was convicted of stealing three computer monitors from an office. McLelland and Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse ? who was shot and killed in an apparent ambush outside a courthouse in January ? prosecuted that case.

During closing arguments, the prosecutors presented testimony indicating that Williams had made death threats against a former girlfriend and a local attorney.

A jury found Williams guilty; he received two years' probation and lost his law license and position as justice of the peace.

"The good old boy network is gone," McLelland said at the time.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wife-ex-judge-arrested-slain-texas-da-case-134043565.html

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New insight into accelerating summer ice melt on the Antarctic Peninsula

Monday, April 15, 2013

A new 1000-year Antarctic Peninsula climate reconstruction shows that summer ice melting has intensified almost ten-fold, and mostly since the mid 20th Century. Summer ice melt affects the stability of Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers.

The research, published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience, adds new knowledge to the international effort that is required to understand the causes of environmental change in Antarctica and to make more accurate projections about the direct and indirect contribution of Antarctica's ice shelves and glaciers to global sea level rise.

In 2008 a UK-French science team drilled a 364-metre long ice core from James Ross Island, near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, to measure past temperatures in the area. They discovered that this ice core could also give a unique and unexpected insight into ice melt in the region.

Visible layers in the ice core indicated periods when summer snow on the ice cap thawed and then refroze. By measuring the thickness of these melt layers the scientists were able to examine how the history of melting compared with changes in temperature at the ice core site over the last 1000-years.

Lead author Dr Nerilie Abram of The Australian National University and British Antarctic Survey (BAS) says,

"We found that the coolest conditions on the Antarctic Peninsula and the lowest amount of summer melt occurred around 600 years ago. At that time temperatures were around 1.6?C lower than those recorded in the late 20th Century and the amount of annual snowfall that melted and refroze was about 0.5%. Today, we see almost ten times as much (5%) of the annual snowfall melting each year.

"Summer melting at the ice core site today is now at a level that is higher than at any other time over the last 1000 years. And whilst temperatures at this site increased gradually in phases over many hundreds of years, most of the intensification of melting has happened since the mid-20th century."

This is the first time it has been demonstrated that levels of ice melt on the Antarctic Peninsula have been particularly sensitive to increasing temperature during the 20th Century.

Dr Abram explains,

"What that means is that the Antarctic Peninsula has warmed to a level where even small increases in temperature can now lead to a big increase in summer ice melt."

Dr Robert Mulvaney from the British Antarctic Survey led the ice core drilling expedition and co-authored the paper. He says,

"Having a record of previous melt intensity for the Peninsula is particularly important because of the glacier retreat and ice shelf loss we are now seeing in the area. Summer ice melt is a key process that is thought to have weakened ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula leading to a succession of dramatic collapses, as well as speeding up glacier ice loss across the region over the last 50 years."

In other parts of Antarctica, such as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the picture is more complex and it is not yet clear that the levels of recent ice melt and glacier loss are exceptional or caused by human-driven climate changes.

Dr Abram concludes,

"This new ice core record shows that even small changes in temperature can result in large increases in the amount of melting in places where summer temperatures are near to 0?C, such as along the Antarctic Peninsula, and this has important implications for ice instability and sea level rise in a warming climate."

###

British Antarctic Survey: http://www.nerc-bas.ac.uk

Thanks to British Antarctic Survey 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/127739/New_insight_into_accelerating_summer_ice_melt_on_the_Antarctic_Peninsula

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High glucose levels could impair ferroelectricity in body's connective tissues

Apr. 15, 2013 ? High sugar levels in the body come at a cost to health. New research suggests that more sugar in the body could damage the elastic proteins that help us breathe and pump blood. The findings could have health implications for diabetics, who have high blood-glucose levels.

Researchers at the University of Washington and Boston University have discovered that a certain type of protein found in organs that repeatedly stretch and retract -- such as the heart and lungs -- is the source for a favorable electrical property that could help build and support healthy connective tissues. But when exposed to sugar, some of the proteins no longer could perform their function, according to findings published April 15 in the journal Physical Review Letters.

The property, called ferroelectricity, is a response to an electric field in which a molecule switches from having a positive to a negative charge. Only recently discovered in animal tissues, researchers have traced this property to elastin and found that when exposed to sugar, the elastin protein sometimes slows or stops its ferroelectric switching. This could lead to the hardening of those tissues and, ultimately, degrade an artery or ligament.

"This finding is important because it tells us the origin of the ferroelectric switching phenomenon and also suggests it's not an isolated occurrence in one type of tissue as we thought," said co-corresponding author Jiangyu Li, a UW associate professor of mechanical engineering. "This could be associated with aging and diabetes, which I think gives more importance to the phenomenon."

About a year ago, Li and collaborators discovered ferroelectric switching in mammalian tissues, a surprising first for the field. Ferroelectricity is common in synthetic materials and is used for displays, memory storage and sensors. Li's research team found that the wall of a pig's aorta, the largest blood vessel carrying blood to the heart, exhibits ferroelectric switching properties.

Li said that discovery left researchers with a lot of questions, including whether this property is found in other soft tissues and the health implications of its presence. Observing differences in ferroelectric behavior at the protein level has helped to answer some of those questions.

The research team separated the aortic tissue into two types of proteins, collagen and elastin. Fibrous collagen is widespread in biological tissues, while elastin has only been found in animals with a backbone. Elastin, as its name suggests, is springy and helps the heart and lungs stretch and contract. Ferroelectric switching gives elastin the flexibility needed to perform repeated pulses as with an artery.

When researchers treated the elastin with sugar, they found that glucose suppressed ferroelectric switching by up to 50 percent. This interaction between sugar and protein mimics a natural process called glycation, in which sugar molecules attach to proteins, degrading their structure and function. Glycation happens naturally when we age and is associated with a number of diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis, a thickening and hardening of the arteries.

The research team has focused solely on the aortic tissues, but this finding likely applies to other biological tissues that have the protein elastin, such as the lungs and skin.

"I would expect the same phenomena will be observed in those tissues and organs as well," Li said. "It will be more common than what we originally thought."

Researchers next will drill down even more to look at the molecular mechanics of ferroelectric switching and further try to connect the process with disease onset.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Washington, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Journal Reference:

1. Yuanming Liu, Yunjie Wang, Ming-Jay Chow, Nataly Q. Chen, Feiyue Ma, Yanhang Zhang, and Jiangyu Li. Glucose suppresses biological ferroelectricity in aortic elastin. Physical Review Letters, 2013 [link]

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/heart_disease/~3/BmO4yd38KHk/130415100855.htm

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New technique measures evaporation globally

Apr. 11, 2013 ? Researchers at Columbia Engineering and Boston University have developed the first method to map evaporation globally using weather stations, which will help scientists evaluate water resource management, assess recent trends of evaporation throughout the globe, and validate surface hydrologic models in various conditions. The study was published in the April 1 online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"This is the first time we've been able to map evaporation in a consistent way, using concrete measurements that are available around the world," says Pierre Gentine, assistant professor of earth and environmental engineering at Columbia. "This is a big step forward in our understanding of how the water cycle impacts life on Earth."

Earth's surface hydrologic cycle comprises precipitation, runoff, and evaporation fluctuations. Scientists can measure precipitation across the globe using rain gauges or microwave remote sensing devices. In places where streamflow measurements are available, they can also measure the runoff. But measuring evaporation has always been difficult.

"Global measurements of evaporation have been a longstanding and frustrating challenge for the hydrologic community," says Gentine. "And now, for the first time, we show that simple weather station measurements of air temperature and humidity can be used across the globe to obtain the daily evaporation."

Evaporation is a key component of the hydrological cycle: it tells us how much water leaves the soil and therefore how much should be left there for a broad range of applications such as agriculture, water resource management, and weather forecasting.

Gentine, who studies the relationship between hydrology and atmospheric science and its impact on climate change, collaborated on this research with Guido D. Salvucci, professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston University and the paper's lead author. Using data from weather stations, widely available across the globe, they focused on evaporation and discovered an emergent relationship between evaporation and relative humidity that gave them the evaporation rates.

Gentine and Salvucci plan to provide daily maps of evaporation around the world that will enable scientists to evaluate changes in water table, calculate water requirements for agriculture, and measure more accurate evaporation fluctuations into the atmosphere.

"Sharing our data with researchers around the world will help us learn more about Earth's hydrologic cycle and assess recent trends such as whether it is accelerating," adds Gentine. "Acceleration could greatly impact our climate, locally, nationally, and globally."

The research has been funded by the National Science Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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Journal Reference:

1. G. D. Salvucci, P. Gentine. Emergent relation between surface vapor conductance and relative humidity profiles yields evaporation rates from weather data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215844110

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/oyhTVDh21yA/130411194647.htm

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Jay-Z releases 'Open Letter' about trip to Cuba

By Anna Chan, NBCNews.com

Rapper Jay-Z is using his art to respond to criticism about his and wife Beyonce's recent trip to Cuba on their fifth anniversary. The tune released Thursday, "Open Letter," includes lines such as "I done turned Havana to Atlanta" and?"I'm in Cuba, I love Cubans. This Communist talk is so confusing when it's from China, the very mic that I'm using."

The song also includes lines that imply the White House had a hand in giving him and his wife the clearance to travel to Havana. For example: "Boy from the hood, but got White House clearance" and "Obama said, 'Chill, you gonna get me impeached.' "

During Thursday's White House briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney denied the song's suggestion that there was any White House involvement in Jay-Z and Beyonce's trip.

"I guess nothing rhymes with Treasury, because Treasury offers and gives licenses for travel, as you know, and the White House has nothing to do with it," he said in response to a reporter's question. "The White House, from the president on down, had nothing to do with anybody's personal -- anybody's travel to Cuba. ... The president did not communicate with Jay-Z over this trip."

"Open Letter" is available online at?LifeAndTimes.com. (Warning: The song is not for those with ears sensitive to curse words.)

On Tuesday, the Department of the Treasury confirmed that the superstar couple's trip to Cuba was sanctioned. "It is our understanding that the travelers in question traveled to Cuba pursuant to an educational exchange trip," the Treasury's assistant secretary for legislative affairs wrote.

While in Havana, the famous pair dined at La Guarida, walked through colonial Old Havana and took photos with schoolchildren.?

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Source: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/11/17709423-jay-z-releases-open-letter-about-trip-to-cuba?lite

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