Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Chris Christie, Governor Of New Jersey, Says The Jersey Shore Will Never Be The Same -- Share Your Memories With Us

  • Stone Harbor

    A family photo taken at Stone Harbor from 1972. "My grandparents had kept a house there for many years, sharing it with aunts/uncles and cousins during the summer months. Some of my best memories growing up were from 'down the shore.'"

  • Ocean City

    "Ocean City, NJ, my childhood summer home. This photo is from 1965 or 1966."

  • Ocean City

    Tracie Brennan in 1967 or ?68, ready to take part in the 4th of July races at 59th Street in Ocean City, NJ.

  • Ocean City

    "Here [I am] in a photo with my 'summer friends' who I never saw other than at the shore, but we wrote letters all winter." Taken in Ocean City, NJ.

  • Seaside Heights

    Kevin Norte, pictured here with his grandmother Eleanor, in Seaside Heights, NJ in 1995.

  • Long Beach Island

    HuffPost's Executive Projects Editor David Flumenbaum playing paddleball with New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley in Harvey Cedars, Long Beach Island circa 1989.

  • Neilson Family In Ocean City, NJ

    We rented the same house every summer on 12th and Ocean. I could sit on my balcony and drink my morning coffee watching the waves, smelling the wonderful ocean, enjoying the total relaxation that only the NJ shore can serve up. Early morning bike rides on the boards, crabbing or just watching the city wake up was our daily ritual. We spent long days on the beach, bringing pizza down from the boardwalk, eating dinner on the beach as the sun was setting, We would head home, shower and hit the boardwalk for a night of strolling, eating all kinds of goodies, meeting up with friends and watching the moon rise over the ocean. My children, although grown now, remember those summers with tremendous fondness, Our hearts are broken thinking our beloved Ocean City suffered. Our hope is the NJ shore will be once again be the same wonderful place for families to make memories as it was for us.

  • Margate

    Taken in Margate, NJ.

  • Cape May

    Huff/Post50 associate editor Anthonia Akitunde with friends at Cape May, NJ in 2012.

  • Seaside Heights

    Flashbacks arcade, Seaside Heights, NJ. Taken in 2009.

  • Cape May

    Cape May, NJ.

  • Cape May

    Taken in Cape May, NJ.

  • Cape May

    Taken in Cape May, NJ.

  • Cape May

    Taken in Cape May, NJ.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Seaside Heights

    Taken in Seaside Heights, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Lavalette

    Taken in Lavalette, NJ in 1993.

  • Bay Head

    Taken in Bay Head, NJ in 1978.

  • Bay Head

    Taken in Bay Head, NJ in 1978.

  • Mantoloking

    "We've had a house down in Mantoloking for about 10 years and now as we see the pictures of what used to be our 'slice of heaven,' as I called it, or my husband would always say 'It doesn't suck here.'"

  • Mantoloking

    Taken in Mantoloking, NJ.

  • Sea Bright

    Photo taken at The Water's Edge beach club, Sea Bright, NJ in 2004.

  • Sea Bright

    Photo taken at The Water's Edge beach club, Sea Bright, 2006.

  • Bay Head, NJ

    Bay Head, NJ, 2008.

  • Bay Head

    Bay Head, NJ 2008.

  • Bay Head

    Bay Head, NJ, 2008.

  • Bay Head, NJ

    Bay Head, NJ, 2008.

  • Sea Bright

    Photo taken at The Water's Edge beach club, Sea Bright, 2003.

  • Seaside Heights

    This Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows an aerial view of the roller coaster from the Seaside Heights amusement park on the New Jersey shore submerged in surf, taken during a search and rescue mission by 1-150 Assault Helicopter Battalion, New Jersey Army National Guard. By late Tuesday, the winds and flooding inflicted by the fast-weakening superstorm Sandy had subsided, leaving at least 55 people dead along the Atlantic Coast and splintering beachfront homes and boardwalks from the mid-Atlantic states to southern New England. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, Master Sgt. Mark C. Olsen)

  • Mantoloking

    Taken in Mantoloking, NJ.

  • Mantoloking

    Taken in Mantoloking, NJ.

  • Mantoloking

    Taken in Mantoloking, NJ.

  • Bay Head

    Taken August 2012 in Bay Head, NJ.

  • Bay Head

    Bay Head Yacht Club, taken August 2012 in Bay Head, NJ.

  • Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/chris-christie-hurricane-sandy-jersey-shore_n_2049267.html

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    Monday, 29 October 2012

    Japanese Aquisitions and Masaki Yuki's Research | Flickr - Photo ...

    I wonder how Japanese companies, such as Dentsu, the largest Japanese advertising company, will manage Western companies.

    I guess that it will depend upon the industry. In manufacturing and hard (as in hardware) industries the Japanese will bring with them praxis that is successful and will be respected by their Western workforce. But in industries whose products are formal (read linguistic) constructions, such as finance, software and to a significant extent, advertising importing Japanese workways may be more fraught.

    If the Japanese managers read up on the cultural differences between Westerners and Japanese they may be persuaded that their new British employees need to be taught to be more harmonious, to work better in teams. If they reach this conclusion then I think that they will have been misguided.

    I want to recommend to the management at Dentsu first of all the only mainstream research that espouses a qualitative rather than quantitative difference between Western and Japanese ways of thinking: the excellent research by Masaki Yuki.

    For the most part Japanese are argued to be more sensitive to the group (Hofsteded, 1991) or more sensitive to context and more information (the varied and also excellent research of Nisbett and Masuda).

    Masaki Yuki however, argued that the difference between Japanese and Western social behaviour is a qualitative one. Westerners are not more individual or more collective but they interact with groups in different ways to Westerners. Indeed in their group behaviour, it is Westerners that are more inclined to loose their individuality since they identify with their groups, differentiating ingroup (e.g. my company) from outgroup (e.g. competitor company). Japanese on the other hand, even when they form groups, pay little attention to other groups (other companies) but instead focus on the relationships with other ingroup members, and indeed the individuality of other ingroup members. The Japanese managers might therefore even encourage their new British employees to be more individual, to give each other more room for creative freedom and being themselves, as -- according to the theory -- occurs within Japanese groups.

    Masaki Yuki argues that while Westerner groups have a tendency to focus upon shared group traits and ideals, and identifying with these loose a sense of who they are as individuals, Japanese groups have a tendency to focus upon the symbiosis of the group: the fact that the group is made up of a network of many different individuals with different traits and skills.

    Jacques Lacan argued that if one *imagines* ones interpersonal relationships then one *see* them as diadic, one-to-one, interpersonal relationships. What he failed to realised - or implicitly rejected - is that one can visualise a group as a whole, as a network, since he believed that it is only in language that one can simulate generalised third person viewpoint (ear point, superaddressee, impartial auditor) or in his terminology, the "Other". Can one imagine a group? Sure one can, especially if one takes group photographs.

    Bibliography
    Yuki, M. (2003). Intergroup comparison versus intragroup relationships: A cross-cultural examination of social identity theory in North American and East Asian cultural contexts. Social Psychology Quarterly, 166?183.

    Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/8130368962/

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    Friday, 26 October 2012

    Is the Internet Crashing Across America? (Update: Probably Not!)

    Don't break out your shotgun, gas mask, and emergency rations, but make sure you know where they are: it looks like an enormous chunk of the Internet in North America is dead. More »


    Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/NdMqaqOP9c0/is-the-internet-crashing-across-america

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    Shufflr Aims To Fill The Social Video Void On Windows 8

    shufflr_logoAlthea Systems, the startup behind social video app Shufflr, is launching the Windows 8 version of Shufflr today. Of course, it's hardly alone in releasing a Windows app this week, since the Windows Store itself just launched, with a reported 3,500 apps. However, Shufflr co-founder Rajnish (he goes by one name) pointed out that in the video category, most of the big names like YouTube and Vimeo are absent. (At least in an official capacity ? there are some YouTube-viewing apps built by third-party developers). So Rajnish argued that the Windows launch presents Shufflr with an opportunity that it didn't have on other platforms, to claim massive userbase before there's too much competition.

    Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/OgU2sf8N1_8/

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    Health & Fitness: Detoxify Using Veggie Juice Recipes - Larson ...

    There are 2 means to consider using veggie juice recipes. One is to sort with all these recipes for how they rate on a scale for their health offering residential properties. The additional is to browse them as a chef would, for ones that are intriguing which will certainly please the taste buds.

    All of the recipes will call for you to use a juicer or a blender since a lot of if not all of them will certainly be using raw veggies.

    If you are sorting through veggie juice recipes for wellness reasons, there are a couple of other points to keep in mind. One is that you ought to utilize only organic produce, as commercially farmed veggies have hazardous pharmaceutical residue on and in their skin. The additional is to make sure to completely clean the veggies before utilizing them. Most of these recipes will certainly not tell you to eat your juice without delay, but if you are juicing for health reasons then you should consume your juice instantly in order to acquire the maximum quantity of vitamins and minerals.

    When you're puzzled in regards to what you've got read through to this point around material relevant to juicing recipes, do not give up hope. Everything ought to be very clear pertaining to precise or even typical points contained here; as soon as you finish off reading this content filled with details or simply just click this link for some other juicing recipes which ensures a much better health and wellness.

    Additionally, do not ignore recipes from the past. Numerous wellness retreats and spas all over the world have used veggie based recipes for years to help their clients regain health. European spas utilized fermented raw cabbage juice. Grandmothers used recipes gave from their grandmas as standard wellness offering programs.

    When Spring arrives, many people research vegetable juice recipes for ones that are especially made for detoxing and cleaning. A favorite recipe for homemade V8 includes tomatoes, carrots, parsley, spinach and green peppers. Another might consist of cucumbers, celery, ginger and carrots to clean. Vegetable juice recipes intended to detox the body would include cucumber, celery, parsley, fennel, and spinach. There are virtually lots of recipes offered. And everyone recognizes the recommendation that you ought to have more than one serving of vegetables a day, ideally five. For most of us who lead bustling lives, it can be tough to accomplish this goal. However utilizing easy vegetable juice recipes that need at least 5 different veggies makes it possible.

    Cooks trying to find interesting vegetable juice recipes ought to not overlook old recipe books. Raw juices and cool soups used to be much more prevalent than they are today, and many old cookbooks produce intriguing recipes. There is even a digital software program you can get that when you inform it what veggies you have in your kitchen area it will produce vegetable juice recipes for you! So if you are a gourmet, appealing combinations await you!

    Source: http://health-andfitnes-s.blogspot.com/2012/10/detoxify-using-veggie-juice-recipes.html

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    Source: http://larsoncourtney23.typepad.com/blog/2012/10/health-fitness-detoxify-using-veggie-juice-recipes.html

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    Global Flights Launch ViaSat Broadband Enroute Communications ...

    A new network that offers continuous, high-speed connectivity for VIP and other high-value aircraft traveling to international locations has begun operation with multiple global flights. The exclusive, private network from ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) provides higher grade service compared to other options, with guaranteed access and data rates. The airborne broadband service covers CONUS, the North Atlantic, Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East,and parts of Eastern Africa.

    ?

    ?

    ?

    Applications such as email, video teleconferencing, messaging, access to government and public networks, mapping and mission planning are common to these airborne missions, but the broadband experience on the ViaSat network is similar to DSL or cable service. This dedicated network guarantees access and data rates in excess of 6 Mbps to the aircraft and 500 kbps from the aircraft using airborne antennas as small as 30 cm. Based on the new ViaSat ArcLight? 2 mobile satellite system, the new in-flight system offers unprecedented efficiency and access for critical government missions.

    ?

    ?Airborne satcom presents unique system requirements as the aircraft crosses geo-spatial boundaries and traverses fixed satellite beams,? said Gary Johnson, director of ViaSat Airborne Networks. ?These flights proved the high performance of our network with seamless transitions between multiple satellites and between the dedicated network and our worldwide commercial Yonder? network, demonstrating redundancy and failover capabilities as well.?

    ?

    ?This is part of our vision to provide government users high-performance, high data rate networks and services for airborne routes across the globe,? added Paul Baca, GM of ViaSat Global Mobile Broadband. ?It augments our Yonder service, which shares Ku-band satellite capacity with general aviation, maritime, and high-speed rail applications.?

    ?

    ArcLight terminals are flying daily ISR missions on hundreds of U.S. Government aircraft, accumulating over 500,000 flight hours.

    ?

    About ViaSat (www.viasat.com)

    ?

    ViaSat delivers fast, secure communications, Internet, and network access to virtually any location for consumers, governments, enterprise, and the military. The company offers fixed and mobile satellite network services including Exede? by ViaSat, which features ViaSat-1, the world?s highest capacity satellite; service to more than 1,750 mobile platforms, including Yonder? Ku-band mobile Internet; satellite broadband networking systems; and network-centric military communication systems and cyber security products for the U.S. and allied governments. ViaSat also offers communication system design and a number of complementary products and technologies.?Based in Carlsbad, California, ViaSat has established a number of worldwide locations for customer service, network operations, and technology development.

    Source: http://www.satprnews.com/2012/10/25/global-flights-launch-viasat-broadband-enroute-communications-network/

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    Saturday, 20 October 2012

    How To Earn Money Gta Iv - Work At Home

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    Source: http://workathomeandmakemoney.org/how-to-earn-money-gta-iv/

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    Friday, 19 October 2012

    Illinois Amtrak train hits 110 mph in test run

    FILE - In this March 22, 2011 file photo, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin are joined by state and local officials as they announce the next phase of high-speed rail construction during a news conference at an Amtrak maintenance building in Chicago. On Friday, Oct. 19, 2012, Quinn, Durbin and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will take part in a test run of the high speed Amtrak line between Joliet and Normal, Ill., at 110 mph. The 30-mph increase from the route?s current top speed is a morale booster for advocates of high-speed rail who have watched conservatives in Congress put the brakes on spending for fast train projects. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

    FILE - In this March 22, 2011 file photo, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin are joined by state and local officials as they announce the next phase of high-speed rail construction during a news conference at an Amtrak maintenance building in Chicago. On Friday, Oct. 19, 2012, Quinn, Durbin and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will take part in a test run of the high speed Amtrak line between Joliet and Normal, Ill., at 110 mph. The 30-mph increase from the route?s current top speed is a morale booster for advocates of high-speed rail who have watched conservatives in Congress put the brakes on spending for fast train projects. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

    JOLIET, Ill. (AP) ? An Amtrak passenger train has reached a speed of 110 mph for the first time in Illinois.

    The train reached the speed Friday morning in a modest milestone for President Barack Obama's high-speed rail vision. The five-car, two-locomotive train zipped through the central Illinois countryside, hitting its high speed between the towns of Dwight and Pontiac.

    Gov. Pat Quinn and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood were among the officials aboard who watched the speed increase on a special video monitor. The governor pumped his fist in the air and gave a thumbs-up when it reached 110 mph. Other officials cheered and clapped.

    The 30-mph increase from the route's current top speed is a morale booster for advocates of high-speed rail. But some rail experts question whether the route will become profitable.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-10-19-Midwest-High%20Speed%20Rail/id-c5646c3a372346dcb2fb039a7ffa76d7

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    What we know and don't know about fungal meningitis outbreak

    What we know and don't know about fungal meningitis outbreak [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 18-Oct-2012
    [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

    Contact: Megan Hanks
    mhanks@acponline.org
    215-351-2656
    American College of Physicians

    Physician at the forefront of 2002 meningitis outbreak shares lessons learned: Without regulations 'this will surely happen again'

    In a new perspective piece being published Online First tonight in Annals of Internal Medicine, a physician recalls lessons learned from treating patients affected by the 2002 outbreak of Exophiala (Wangiella) dermatitidis meningitis or arthritis related to contaminated, injectable coticosteroids prepared from a compounding pharmacy.

    According to the author, the lessons he learned in 2002 are applicable to the current outbreak. He warns that compounding of preservative-free corticosteroids requires meticulous sterility to ensure lack of fungal contamination. Without this sterility, fungus grows aggressively.

    As seen with the current cases, once injected, the fungus can travel through the body's tissues rapidly, leading to invasive mycosis. However, the incubation period from exposure to disease could be up to six months, so exposed patients will need to be followed for a long time. While there were many people exposed to the fungus in 2002, all but one fatal case were successfully treated with voriconazole.

    Treatment decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis, but the author writes that evidence from the previous outbreak suggests voriconazole as the logical antifungal drug for initial treatment. Due to the aggressive and deadly nature of the disease, it is important for physicians to act decisively and early.

    The author warns that these outbreaks will happen again if pharmacy societies, the FDA, and the pharmaceutical industry do not work together to regulate pharmacy compounding.

    ###

    This article is free to the public at http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1384984. Author, John R. Perfect, MD. is available for interviews. He can be reached through Sarah Avery at sarah.avery@duke.edu or 919-660-1306.


    [ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

    ?


    AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


    What we know and don't know about fungal meningitis outbreak [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 18-Oct-2012
    [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

    Contact: Megan Hanks
    mhanks@acponline.org
    215-351-2656
    American College of Physicians

    Physician at the forefront of 2002 meningitis outbreak shares lessons learned: Without regulations 'this will surely happen again'

    In a new perspective piece being published Online First tonight in Annals of Internal Medicine, a physician recalls lessons learned from treating patients affected by the 2002 outbreak of Exophiala (Wangiella) dermatitidis meningitis or arthritis related to contaminated, injectable coticosteroids prepared from a compounding pharmacy.

    According to the author, the lessons he learned in 2002 are applicable to the current outbreak. He warns that compounding of preservative-free corticosteroids requires meticulous sterility to ensure lack of fungal contamination. Without this sterility, fungus grows aggressively.

    As seen with the current cases, once injected, the fungus can travel through the body's tissues rapidly, leading to invasive mycosis. However, the incubation period from exposure to disease could be up to six months, so exposed patients will need to be followed for a long time. While there were many people exposed to the fungus in 2002, all but one fatal case were successfully treated with voriconazole.

    Treatment decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis, but the author writes that evidence from the previous outbreak suggests voriconazole as the logical antifungal drug for initial treatment. Due to the aggressive and deadly nature of the disease, it is important for physicians to act decisively and early.

    The author warns that these outbreaks will happen again if pharmacy societies, the FDA, and the pharmaceutical industry do not work together to regulate pharmacy compounding.

    ###

    This article is free to the public at http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1384984. Author, John R. Perfect, MD. is available for interviews. He can be reached through Sarah Avery at sarah.avery@duke.edu or 919-660-1306.


    [ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

    ?


    AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


    Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/acop-ofi101812.php

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    Actavis forecasts 2012 sales in excess of 2 billion euros

    FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Actavis, the Swiss generic drugmaker that Watson Pharmaceuticals is taking over, said revenue would rise to more than 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) this year, driven by patent expiries in Europe and strong demand in the United States.

    Sales would increase by a double-digit percentage rate in 2012, Actavis Chief Executive Claudio Albrecht told Reuters late on Thursday, also citing growth in Far Eastern markets such as Indonesia.

    "In terms of profits we are growing even faster than sales," he added.

    Actavis posted 2011 sales of $2.5 billion, Watson said in April, when the tie-up was announced.

    The combined group is on track to have pro-forma 2012 sales of 6 billion euros ($7.8 billion), Actavis said. This compares with pro-forma generic-drug sales of $5.7 billion in 2011, according to Watson.

    The takeover deal, which Watson has said would make it the world's third-largest generics maker, has won antitrust approval in the United States and Europe and is set to be concluded next month.

    Albrecht also said he would leave the company as soon as the tie-up, announced in April with a takeover price of at least $5.6 billion, is finalized next month.

    The outgoing CEO, who oversaw a successful restructuring at Actavis including the relocation of headquarters to Switzerland from Iceland, said he did not have any specific plans for the future. But he indicated that he and a trusted team of top executives that is leaving the company with him would be up to new tasks.

    "These are top professionals with whom I would tackle these kind of challenges again anywhere in the world," Albrecht said.

    ($1 = 0.7638 euros)

    (Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/actavis-forecasts-2012-sales-excess-2-billion-euros-040320861--finance.html

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    Thursday, 18 October 2012

    Winds leave 21,000 without electricity in Colorado

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    Polling Live Chat (talking-points-memo)

    Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

    Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/256250134?client_source=feed&format=rss

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    Candy Crowley Interjects: Obama 'Did in Fact' Say Libya Attack Was Terrorism (Little green footballs)

    Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

    Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/256104965?client_source=feed&format=rss

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    Syria crisis: Turkey en route to ME dominance or disaster?: Voice of ...

    We can outline really a new role which Turkey is trying to play in the entire region of the ME which takes into consideration the crisis over Syria and the rising role of Turkey which tries to become a regional hegemon or a major player within the region. On the other hand it is clear that Turkey is coming up as one of the partners within the NATO alliance and it tries to provide certain assurances to NATO that it will be able to come up as a partner to which NATO will be able to rely on in case of unexpected developments around Syria.

    But don?t you think that perhaps this is a hard-line position of Turkey?

    I believe it can backfire in different directions for Turkey. And one of the issues is obviously the Kurdish issue which is one of the concerns for the Turkish politics for a decade. And another issue that can backfire might be within bilateral relations of Turkey and Russia because it is not necessary that Russian foreign policies and Russian political actors will tolerate such kind of approaches which are shown by the Turkish side towards the Russian involvement around Syria. So, the backfire can be of both natures ? related to internal or domestic developments around the Turkish politics in the region and another possibility for a backfire might be related to Turkish-Russian relations.

    Basically I?m not really sure that the political elite of Turkey will be able to convince itself to start the one-sided military action against Syria in this situation. It might be able to get support begging it from the other political actors including the US. So, considering the fact of the forthcoming elections in November I don?t think that any sort of large-scale military actions might be possible before we meet November this year. And on the other hand I don?t think that NATO currently is able and has a capacity to start a large-scale military action against the Syrian Government considering the fact that the so called opposition to Bashar al-Assad?s Government in Syria is also not really united.

    So, the best issue is whom the NATO or the other actors are going support within the possible military involvement. Basically, Turkey will not be able to do it alone with the exception of possible short-scale actions which might be on some close distances from the border. Or on the other hand, in case of a large-scale military action ? there will be an issue also for the NATO which understands quite well that any sort of involvement will bring harder issues within Syria and harder intra-sectarian problems within Syria. So, this military involvement only seems possible in a short term perspective. And in the middle term perspective the issue will basically be ? how united will be the opposition in Syria and if there will be a necessity to seize them with some probability of gaining some profits from the situation.

    Source: http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_10_17/Syria-crisis-Turkey-en-route-to-ME-dominance-or-disaster/

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    Wednesday, 17 October 2012

    Why Prize Investment Properties Are No Prize | Serious About Real ...

    Here?s a little real estate investing secret that few rental property investors know: The fancier and more prize location of a property, the worse the cash flow. In fact, most ?prize? properties are going to have negative cash flows. And that?s not a smart way to invest your hard earned cash equity dollars.

    Consider the options

    Let?s look at an example. You want to buy about $500,000 worth of real estate, and with a 25 percent down payment plus costs, you?ll need about $150,000 in cash to close the deal. You have two choices:

    1. A swanky downtown San Diego condominium for $500,000, or
    2. Three nice moderately priced boring suburban $165,000 condominiums.

    Now most people would think location, location, location and want to buy the prize downtown. That?s because their only investment criteria is that they want to buy real estate in hopes that it will go up in value. And the problem with that strategy is that they are totally missing the most important piece of rental property investing?? the cash flows the property can produce.

    Immediate cash flow

    In reality, moderately priced cash flow positive condominiums are the best location, location, location, and here?s why.

    A $500,000 downtown San Diego condo would probably generate negative cash flows of about $1,000 per month. That?s $12,000 per year?? ouch?? on a $150,000 cash investment or negative 8 percent return on the investment.

    A moderately priced $165,000 suburban San Diego condo would probably generate positive cash flows of about positive $250 per month. Multiplied by three condominiums?? so apples to apples on the $500,000 investment?? is positive $750 per month. That?s positive $9,000 per year on a $150,000 cash investment, or positive 6 percent return on the investment.

    See the difference? You can allocate your hard-earned $150,000 of equity into either a fancy prize property with negative cash flows of $12,000 per year, or into moderately priced properties with positive cash flows of $9,000 per year. That?s a difference of $21,000 per year on $150,000 equity investment into $500,000 of real estate.

    Building wealth

    If you?re hoping appreciation in value will make up the difference on your negative cash flow property, good luck with that. To be fair, over long periods of time, most real estate should appreciate in value about the same percentage each year. But as you can see, cash flows can be very different, and that?s where you earn your wealth!

    You might assume that because rents increase and mortgages stay constant, the fancy prize property would turn positive one day. This is true, but it would take about 40 years until the fancy prize condominium owner really got their first dime of positive cash flow.

    Think that through and pencil out your real estate deal before you take the plunge. Some properties are just much better wealth-building investments than others, primarily due to the cash flows.

    Related:

    Leonard Baron is America?s Real Estate Professor? ? his unbiased, neutral and inexpensive ?Real Estate Ownership, Investment and Due Diligence 101? textbook teaches real estate buyers how to make smart and safe purchase decisions. He is a San Diego State University Lecturer, blogs at Zillow.com, and loves kicking the tires of a good piece of dirt! More at ProfessorBaron.com.

    Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Zillow.

    Source: http://www.seriousaboutrealestate.com/Blog/2012/10/16/why-prize-investment-properties-are-no-prize/

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    Video: Biden: President was ?at the top of his game?



    >> biden after the debate and began by asking him whether the president had repaired the damage from his lackluster performance in the first debate.

    >> i think president obama was absolutely at the top of his game last night, and i also think that he was able to clearly draw a picture between a future under obama and a future under romney , and the thing that amazed me the most was even after three debates, his two and my one, there is still not a single specific in the romney $5 trillion tax plan. i mean, everything -- everything is sketchy. there's no direct answers to any questions, and i think it's becoming clearer and clearer to the american people that there's a fair amount of rhetoric but not much substance, and i suspect, savannah, that's because the president was right. they really do mirror the policies of george bush on the economy, and they don't want to talk about it.

    >> is the president's strategy here to beat romney by disqualifying him in the minds of voters?

    >> no, no. the president's objective is saying and lay out clearly the choices, not let people run away from what they have been saying for 13 years or 14 years in the case of congressman ryan and his budgets as well as not letting governor romney run away from what he really intends to do.

    >> at what point do you think the president compellingly and persuasively articulated what he will do in the next four years, not defending his record from the last four.

    >> no, no.

    >> but a forward looking agenda?

    >> i think he compellingly did that when he asked the gentleman who said i voted for you last time but i'm not as optimistic, and he laid out why he should be optimistic, and he laid out why things were changing and why they will continue to change, when he talked about manufacturing, he talked about education. he talked about high-paying, high-tech manufacturing jobs. he talked about lining them up with the community colleges to generate growth. he talked about insourcing. i think that -- he talked about tax cuts for the middle class and why that will grow. look, the basic fundamental difference we have the president laid out extremely well, but one of the things that this is about is that if the middle class doesn't have any money to spend, if they are not getting the breaks, then the economy doesn't grow.

    >> you were watching this debate closely. i wondered if you noticed what a lot of people noticed, a moment when the candidates seemed to circle each other, getting in each other's faces a little bit. you've been around politics a long time. have you ever seen anything like that?

    >> well, actually, i have. i don't know that i've seen a presidential debate , but the forum lent itself to that, and i thought it was a real moment. i thought it gave, you know, i really thought the forum was a great forum for both of them to try to make their case, and so when they were kind of circling each other, it was like, okay, come on, man, let's level with each other here.

    >> let me ask you about libya. the president was asked who it was that denied requests for additional security to the consulate in benghazi and why. the president did not directly answer that question, so i'll put it to you.

    >> well, the answer to the question is that's why this full-blown investigation is going on. i answered the question in my debate where the president and i were aware of the request and i honestly said no, we were not. secretary clinton confirmed that this never got to us, and what the secretary pointed out under law she is required, we are required to have a commission that is headed up by one of the leading diplomats of our time, tom pickering, a republican stains's admiral mullen, and they will get to the bottom of this. it's required as a matter of law. what kind of requests came in, when did they come in, where did it go? how was it handled, and -- and as the president made clear in his answer, when governor romney kept trying to politicize this thing, he made it clear that the president has even a keener interest than anyone else. i knew stevens. he worked on the foreign -- the ambassador. he worked on the foreign relations committee for dick lugar when i was the ranking member. the president knew him and knew his family. this is something we want to get to the bottom of to make sure that something like this never happens again.

    >> before i let you go, i have to ask you about your debate. as you know, a lot of people noticed your demeanor. when not answering a question, let's put it this way, you seemed to be having a good time. have you watched back tape of that debate, and would you do it the same way all over again?

    >> well, i think, you know, you can always improve. one of the things in a two-minute response and a four-minute format, you know, some of the things that were said were absolutely incredulous. it was unbelievable some of the responses i was getting, so the answers, he's a good man. he's a solid guy. i like him. i wasn't laughing at him. i was laughing at some of the answers that were coming forward.

    >> mr. vice president, thank you for your time this morning.

    >> thank you.

    >> we appreciate it.

    Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49444987/

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    Wednesday, 10 October 2012

    New book digs into Netflix's origins, evolution

    Gina Keating's book Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs is photographed in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012. The book, set to go on sale Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012, tries to debunk a widely told tale about the company's origins and paints a polarizing portrait of its star CEO Reed Hastings. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

    Gina Keating's book Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs is photographed in San Francisco, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012. The book, set to go on sale Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012, tries to debunk a widely told tale about the company's origins and paints a polarizing portrait of its star CEO Reed Hastings. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

    FILE - O this July 25, 2008, file photo, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings poses for a photo at Netflix headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif. A new book,"Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs," is set to go on sale Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012. The book tries to debunk a widely told tale about the company's origins and paints a polarizing portrait of its star CEO Reed Hastings. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

    Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph looks over the shoulder of Natalya Kontorovich at Netflix Inc.'s Denver distribution site Thursday, July 11, 2002. A new book,"Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs," is set to go on sale Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012. The book tries to debunk a widely told tale about the company's origins and paints a polarizing portrait of its star CEO Reed Hastings. (AP Photo/Netflix, Jack Dempsey)

    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Netflix is probably hoping a new book about its early history never gets made into a movie.

    The book, "Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs," tries to debunk a widely told tale about the company's origins and paints a polarizing portrait of its star, CEO Reed Hastings.

    Set to go on sale Thursday, the book arrives at a pivotal time for Netflix Inc. The video subscription service is still recovering from a customer backlash triggered by Hastings' hasty decision to raise U.S. prices by as much as 60 percent last year. Investors remain leery of Netflix as its expenses for Internet video rights steadily climb. That's the main reason Netflix's stock remains about 75 percent below its peak of nearly $305 reached right around the time Hastings announced the price increases 15 months ago.

    The book, written by veteran journalist Gina Keating and published by the Penguin Group, draws its insights from interviews with Netflix's lesser known co-founder, Marc Randolph, and other former employees. It also depends on information from former executives at Blockbuster Entertainment, the once-dominant video rental store chain driven into bankruptcy by the rise of Netflix and Redbox's DVD-rental kiosks.

    Hastings declined to be interviewed for the book.

    Keating nevertheless illuminates the competitive gauntlet that Netflix had to navigate to get where it is today. The book also dishes up juicy morsels about various negotiations that could have reshaped Netflix.

    According to the book, Hastings and Randolph flew to Seattle sometime in 1998 to meet with Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos. The topic of discussion: a possible partnership. At one point, Hastings proposed that Amazon buy Netflix, only to be disappointed when Bezos offered a mere $12 million.

    Netflix spokesman Jonathan Friedland told The Associated Press that the Amazon anecdote was "totally untrue." Amazon declined comment.

    The book asserts that the Amazon talks weren't the only time that Hastings flirted with a possible sale before the company went public a decade ago.

    In the spring of 2000, Hastings and other Netflix executives flew to Blockbuster's Dallas headquarters where they tried to sell Netflix for $50 million, only to be told the price was way too high, according to the book. That was one of many miscalculations Blockbuster made in its rivalry with Netflix. Despite its recent downfall on Wall Street, Netflix still boasts a market value of $4 billion.

    Blockbuster eventually built its own online DVD-rental service and began to hurt Netflix so badly that Hastings made an informal bid to buy his rival's roughly 3 million Internet subscribers for about $600 million, according to the book.

    "People interpret history in all kinds of different ways, and a lot of the anecdotes in the book don't square with the way we remember them," Friedland said. "The gist of the story, that Marc and Reed created Netflix together, is correct."

    Although the book sometimes casts Hastings in an unflattering light, Keating remains convinced he is the main reason that Netflix was able to transform home entertainment.

    "I hope that people recognize he is a genius," Keating said in an interview with the AP. "There is no question in my mind that there is nobody like this guy. Wall Street and naysayers are wrong to bet against this company, especially as long as he is in charge."

    The book captures Hastings' vision, focus, charisma and chutzpah ? traits that helped him transform Netflix from a quirky service with fewer than 100,000 customers in the late 1990s into a cultural phenomenon with 30 million subscribers in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and dozens of Latin American countries.

    But readers also will be introduced to a cold-hearted side of Hastings that never surfaces in his public appearances, or the many interviews that he has done with reporters during his 14-year tenure as Netflix's CEO.

    Viewed through Keating's lens, Hastings "seemed to lack an empathy gene." He is depicted as a brilliant mathematician who looks at almost everything as an equation to be solved. Once he's convinced he has figured out all the variables, Hastings never let compassion trump his logic, based on anecdotes in the book. In one scene, Hastings fires Netflix's first human resources manager in front of her coworkers' because he wanted to bring in a former colleague from his previous company, software maker Pure Atria.

    Keating thinks Hastings' data-driven approach also makes it difficult for him to anticipate how Netflix subscribers will react to things like last year's price increases and the botched attempt to spin off the company's DVD-by-mail rental service into a separate company called Qwikster.

    "He has one blind spot and that he just doesn't understand the consumer-facing aspects of the business," Keating said in the interview. "It's illogical the way consumers act, and I think it's frustrating for him because he is trying to do the best thing for customers. But he just doesn't understand that you can't dictate to them. They have to be ready to go at their own pace."

    From Keating's vantage point, Hastings used a $2 million investment he made in Netflix's early day to muscle his way into the company's management and persuade then-CEO Randolph that they should share the top job. Eventually, Randolph was relegated to other management positions with fewer responsibilities and lost his spot on the board of directors.

    Randolph, who now dispenses advice to entrepreneurs launching startups, left Netflix as a rich man after the company's initial public offering of stock in 2002. He owned nearly 840,000 shares worth about $12.5 million at the time of Netflix's IPO.

    The book makes the case that Randolph never got the credit he deserved for coming up with the idea for sending DVDs through the mail ? the concept that turned Netflix's red envelopes into a ubiquitous sight.

    "Marc co-founded Netflix with me, was our first CEO, came up the name Netflix, and was instrumental in our success," Hastings said in a statement to the AP. Friedland said Hastings wasn't available to be interviewed for this story.

    Randolph told the AP he remains on good terms with Hastings, even though they have different recollections of Netflix's early days.

    "When we talk, it's like two friends reaching out and saying, 'We still cool, we still OK?'" Randolph said. "I still have tremendous pride and tremendous joy about what Reed and I accomplished."

    Randolph's version of how Netflix began is much different than the story that Hastings used to tell media outlets, including the AP, about how the service started.

    Hastings' spin went something like this: The idea for a video subscription service came to him after a Blockbuster store hit him with roughly $40 in late fees when he returned a VHS tape of the Tom Hanks movie, "Apollo 13". A few years later, the story would be amended so the late fees were charged by an unnamed independent video store.

    "That's a load of crap," Randolph says in the book. "It never happened."

    The truth, according to the book, is that Netflix was born out of conversations that Randolph and Hastings had while they were carpooling to their Silicon Valley jobs at Pure Atria from their homes in the beach town of Santa Cruz, Calif.

    Randolph, who was a marketing manager at Pure Atria while Hastings was the boss, had always been fascinated by the moneymaking potential of direct mail and started wondering how it might be combined with DVDs, a still nascent technology in 1997.

    One day, while they were at a cafe in downtown Santa Cruz, Randolph and Hastings decided to test whether a DVD could make it through the U.S. postal system's processing equipment without being damaged. They couldn't find a DVD, so they bought a compact disc from Logo's Book and Records in Santa Cruz and an envelope from a nearby gift shop. They then inserted the CD into the envelope and mailed it to Hastings' home.

    When they met for their commute a day or two later, Hastings showed Randolph that the CD arrived in the mail undamaged.

    Randolph then spent months getting Netflix launched while Hastings attended Stanford University's graduate school and worked for a technology lobbying group. It sometimes bothered Randolph that his early work seemed to be forgotten, but he says he's over it.

    "The people who I really care about know about my role in starting Netflix," Randolph told the AP. "Do I wish it would have been more accurately portrayed (in the company's history)? Of course, but not to the point where I was prepared to make a stink about it."

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-10-10-US-Netflix-Book/id-7cdb34c58a33406084058867da2b9f6d

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    Two Data Centers Too Close For Comfort

    Tandem Dive

    Using Your Business Continuity Data Center for Disaster Recovery is Like a Tandem Dive

    Too often, business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning are treated as the same functions. Unfortunately, they are not. Business continuity planning ?helps organizations insure that applications and processes continue through the myriad of day-to-day disruptions that might occur. These include IT component failures, such as disk-drive failures, a server failure, a dropped network link, or an application bug. Disaster recovery planning helps organizations recover operations after less frequent, but far more devastating events, such as fires, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and a variety of man-made disasters. While the data center strategy is only one component of business continuity and disaster recovery planning, it is a key component. ?And while business continuity and disaster recovery planning are different functions, they must often be considered together, because of budget limitations.

    There are plenty of advantages to having a business continuity data center in region, a very short distance from the production data center. If the data centers are very close, there will be little impact on transaction latency for the always-important two-phase database commit. ?Failover times from the production data center to the business continuity data center can be very short. Staff that normally work at the primary data center can easily show up for work at the in-region business continuity data center. ?WAN charges between the primary and business continuity data centers will be relatively low.

    The ?problem with an in-region business continuity data center is that it can?t replace an out-of-region disaster recovery data center. The two are simply too close for comfort. And few organizations can afford three data centers. Following are a few of the types of disasters that can prevent an in-region business continuity data center from acting as a disaster recovery data center:

    Natural disasters

    • Earthquakes
    • Floods
    • Hurricanes
    • Tornadoes

    Man-made disasters

    • Electrical-grid failure
    • Telecommunications failure
    • Transportation systems failure
    • Chemical spills
    • Radiation leaks
    • War, terrorism, and civil unrest

    For these types disasters, it is much more likely that both in-region data centers will be affected and much more challenging to recover applications and data. One of the trade-offs organizations must make is between how quickly they recover and how certain they are that they can recover from the range of disasters that could strike them. We believe that a slight increase in recovery time is well worth the additional assurance that you can actually recover applications after a disaster. Using an in-region business continuity data center as a disaster recovery data center is a little like doing a tandem sky dive. It?s fine, as long as nothing goes wrong.

    Source: http://www.axxana.com/blog/index.php/two-data-centers-too-close-for-comfort/

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    Tuesday, 9 October 2012

    2010 Korea bomb 'tests' probably false alarms, says study

    ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2012) ? This spring, a Swedish scientist sparked international concern with a journal article saying that radioactive particles detected in 2010 showed North Korea had set off at least two small nuclear blasts -- possibly in experiments designed to boost the yields of much larger bombs. Shortly after, the pot was stirred with separate claims that some intelligence agencies suspected the detonations were done in cooperation with Iran. Now, a new paper says the tests likely never took place -- or that if they did, they were too tiny to have any military significance.

    The new report, by seismologists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, will be published later this month in the journal Science & Global Security, where the earlier paper also appeared.

    It is generally accepted that North Korea has carried out at least two nuclear test explosions, in 2006 and 2009. The Lamont scientists studied both those blasts via the seismic waves they generated. They concluded that the second test -- thought to be in the range of about 2 to 4 kilotons -- was five times more powerful than the first, though still dwarfed by the weapons of established nuclear powers. (A kiloton equals the explosive energy of 1,000 tons of TNT.) The suspicions of more tests in 2010 were based on whiffs of radioactive xenon and barium detected in South Korea, Japan and Russia in May that year; but it was not until March 2012 that Lars-Erik De Geer, an atmospheric scientist with the Swedish Defense Research Agency, published the information, and suggested clandestine explosions of 50 to 200 tons as the sources. Several weeks later, a former high German defense official publicly suggested that the tests might have been done on behalf of Iran. Many experts quickly expressed skepticism, as there was no public evidence of seismic waves normally linked to such explosions; however, since then, tensions have continued to rise. In August, defense analysts warned that North Korea had made significant progress on a plant to produce highly enriched uranium, suitable for bombs. And lately, there have been increasing calls for pre-emptive attacks by the United States or Israel to keep Iran from developing a bomb.

    "The recent claim of nuclear testing in 2010 has led to publicity that could be very dangerous at a time when so much belligerence is in the air," said Paul G. Richards, a coauthor of the new paper. "There could be consequences to a false alarm -- you could start a war." Richards and his coauthors, seismologists David P. Schaff and Won-Young Kim, say in their paper, "It is important to find confirming evidence for such a serious claim and thus build up support for it, or to find objective and contrary evidence and thus help make the case that the claim is invalid."

    The paper makes a detailed case that no explosion anywhere near the size of that hypothesized in 2010 could have taken place. For one, the region is heavily seeded with some 100 seismic stations in both China and South Korea. Data from many of them are stored locally and difficult for outside scientists to acquire, but they include an open-access one in Mudanjiang, China that has in the past recorded high-quality signals in and around North Korea from earthquakes, small chemical explosions, and the nuclear tests of 2006 and 2009. Based on this data, the scientists say that no explosion of more than a single ton could go undetected -- and on the days of the purported tests, no such signals were seen.

    A key qualifier, they say, is the assumption that an underground blast would be "well-coupled" with surrounding rock -- that is, not isolated in a hollowed-out cavity that would absorb much of the shock. Some scientists and politicians fear this could be used to hide significant tests; but Richards says the logistics of digging out a spherical cavern big enough to fool modern seismic networks -- never mind keeping such a vast excavation secret from spies and satellites -- have become near-impossible. He says that the very best North Korea could have done was to light what he calls a "nuclear firecracker" -- a wimpy puff that would do nothing to advance a weapons program.

    The international community's ability to reliably detect even small nuclear tests has grown rapidly in the past decade, following the signing of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty by over 180 nations. Since then, hundreds of new stations have been installed that detect not just seismic signals, but waterborne sounds, low-frequency sounds in the air, and releases of radioactive isotopes. Scientists are still learning how to interpret this new flood of data. In regard to the 2010 radionuclide detections, alternate explanations suggested by various scientists include a leak at one of the dozens of civilian nuclear-power plants operating around east Asia, or from a nuclear-powered vessel passing through.

    The United States remains one of a handful of nations that has not ratified the test-ban treaty -- based partly on politicians' protests that instruments, including seismometers, cannot reliably pick up hidden tests. But, like a growing number of scientists, Richards says that technological advances and the increasingly dense network of monitoring stations have made those concerns outdated. The purported 2010 test is a good example, according to him. "The quality of monitoring has grown so high, nothing of military significance can go undetected," he said in a recent video from the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. In March, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences released a detailed report to the same effect; Richards and Lamont seismologist Lynn R. Sykes were participants in that.

    Richards and his colleagues have continued to work on the issue. In September in Washington, D.C., they presented workshops in monitoring advances to U.S. Senate staffers, and attendees at a session hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are also working on combing through the fast-growing archives of past seismic events around the world to refine methods of detecting any future nuclear tests. "Let us hope there will be very few in the future," said Richards.

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    Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

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


    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/gm69RRpYYkc/121009121747.htm

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