Monday, October 31, 2011

Oakland mayor sorry for clash that injured ex-Marine (Reuters)

OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) ? Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who was booed out of a public square by protesters against economic inequality on Thursday, apologized for a clash between police and demonstrators that badly injured an ex-Marine.

Quan, who has drawn withering criticism for her handling of a confrontation with so-called "Occupy Wall Street" protesters, said in a written statement that she had met with ex-Marine Scott Olsen and his parents and was concerned about his recovery.

Olsen, 24, was struck in the head during protests in Oakland on Tuesday night and has become a rallying cry for the protests nationwide.

A spokesman for Highland General Hospital in Oakland said Olsen remained in fair condition on Friday, upgraded from critical one day earlier, and was visiting with his parents.

"I am deeply saddened about the outcome on Tuesday," Quan said in the statement, which she also delivered from her office in a videotaped posted online. Shouts of protesters rallying outside City Hall can be heard in the background of the video.

"It was not what anyone hoped for. Ultimately, it was my responsibility, and I apologize for what happened," she said, concluding: "We can change America, but we must unite and not divide our city. I hope we can work together."

The disturbances in Oakland have made it one of the hubs of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began in New York City last month to protest economic disparities, high unemployment and government bailouts of major banks.

Makeshift encampments sprouting up in cities across the country have forced local officials to walk a fine line between allowing peaceful assembly and addressing concerns about trespassing, noise, sanitation and safety.

CATCALLS AND BOOS

Quan pledged to work with the Occupy Oakland activists but said "we need to have direct communications between city staff and your representatives."

Quan had paid a visit late Thursday night to a rally and speakers' forum organized by protesters at Frank Ogawa Plaza, a public square adjacent to the mayor's office that has been the fulcrum of demonstrations.

She was greeted with a hail of angry boos and catcalls and hastily retreated with her staff back to City Hall, followed by protesters shouting, "Get out, go home!" and "Resign!"

In her videotaped statement, Quan said she was "asking" protesters to refrain from camping overnight in the plaza.

Police forcibly dismantled the encampment on Tuesday, and protesters were marching to retake it when Olsen was critically injured in the confrontation with police.

Protest organizers said the ex-Marine was struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by police. City and police officials have not said how they believe Olsen was hurt but police opened an investigation into the incident.

Protesters reclaimed the plaza on Wednesday night and police kept their distance.

On Friday, hundreds of protesters returned again to the square for a rally attended by documentary filmmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore, who was loudly cheered as he addressed the crowd.

"We've seen the militarization of our local police departments because Congress has spent billions to buy them armaments ... even spying systems to prepare them for what they believe is the inevitable," Moore said. "Sooner or later the people aren't going to take it anymore."

Organizers have called for a general strike in Oakland one day next week over what they called the "brutal and vicious" treatment of protesters there.

(Writing by Dan Whitcomb and Steve Gorman; Editing by Greg McCune)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111029/us_nm/us_usa_wallstreet_protests_oakland

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Video: Melissa Rivers on life, love and Joan Rivers??

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45094127#45094127

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Online MBA College Degree in Finance

Finance is the science of funds supervision. For an organization to be prosperous, it?s vital to recognize the economic risks and rewards. Excellent finance operations also allows a corporation to ensure optimum use of their funding worth. Needless to say, finance is the nearly all central and so the majority of complicated area of a business. Hence , small and large enterprises are consistently keen on hiring experts who are qualified with specialist expertise and know-how needed to handle the finances of an organization .

With the growth in require for finance professionals, online MBA courses have become well-known . An online MBA in Finance is a two-year college diploma course that combines theoretical expertise with practical application to guarantee that a pass out of MBA (Finance) is able to start work as soon as they join an corporation and apply it at an ongoing one.

An MBA in finance lets an individual to achieve complete experience on all elements of trade and business practices, along with comprehensive know-how on the procedure and paperwork related to financial services. A finance management college diploma therefore covers all skills related to finance as a part of business administration. An MBA college diploma with specialization in finance opens up possibilities not just for many industries but also for financial investment banks, corporations, and securities businesses which are today incredibly good paymasters in the recent past. Finance graduate students are often absorbed as controllers, cash executives and treasurers. Quite a few other positions available for finance graduates include credit professionals, investment associates, risk executives, management professionals and CFOs.

Although this subject is focused on nail-biting accounts, it is an ideal option for MBA students because of the prospects it has in the professional world. By undertaking an online BCA certification in finance, one is able to establish licensed abilities that hold wonderful cutthroat advantage over time. A finance college degree allows one to get the proficiency set required to undertake financial strategy for any enterprise. The most important work of a finance individual is to produce financial analysis and reports that can be used to take vital business selections. By making changes to an organization?s finance management, a manager can make a great difference to the productivity of a company.

Hence , a very good MBA in finance gives one the opportunity to impact the path to accomplishment for any company they work with. With the right systematic skills and practical vigor, a finance master is a heady mix for any corporation aspiring to fight a monetary downturn or wanting to make the a good number of of a monetary upswing.

About the Author

Do you know that you can find all the details as well as entrance specifications regarding online mba finance here.

Article source: http://goarticles.com/article/Online-MBA-College-Degree-in-Finance-Importance-of-MBA-in-Finance/5573257/

Source: http://www.articles-digest.com/online-mba-college-degree-in-finance/

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

House Owner And Car Insurance coverage Quote | Seening.Org

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George Heymont: The Old Lady and the Book

Once upon a time, park benches offered all kinds of opportunities to meet interesting people.

  • Parents sitting by a playground might make friends with others as they watched their children play.
  • Birdwatchers might make contact with fellow birders.
  • Men cruising for sex might strike up an interesting conversation with a handsome stranger.

What happens every day in real life can easily become the basis for a play or film.

  • In 1958, during Edward Albee's first play, The Zoo Story, Peter and Jerry met on a bench in Central Park.
  • In 1984, Herb Gardner's play entitled I'm Not Rappaport focused on two elderly men (one Jewish and one African-American) who spend their days sharing a park bench.
  • In 2009, a documentary about red-tailed hawks nesting near Central Park entitled The Legend of Pale Male captured a regional interest story with sensitivity and magnificent cinematography.


While Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Old Man and the Sea, may have focused on an aging fisherman's battle with a marlin, two new dramas focus on the links between an old woman and a book. In each case, a younger man's interest in reading is the glue that holds the plot together.

* * * * * * * * * *

Recently seen at the San Francisco Fringe Festival, Neil Koenigsberg's On A Bench is a poignant one-act play for two characters seated on a bench in Sheridan Square.

  • Robert is a young man from a wealthy family whose mother calls his cell phone asking her son to remember to pick up some chocolate truffles for that evening's dessert.
  • Anne is an older woman with a thick New York accent on her way to an appointment to have her hair styled at a local beauty salon.

As they sit facing the Stonewall Inn, Robert ponders his future while Anne thinks about her past. What unites them is the book in Robert's hand: Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Revolution, by David Carter. Why? One of the men on the cover was Anne's brother.

2011-09-23-bookcover.jpg

Cover art for Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution


Anne's concern about Robert's future is visceral as she describes the night her brother came out to their family and was banished from their home. She never saw or heard from him again. As she gets to know Robert, who has enjoyed every advantage in his young life (health, wealth, education, and accepting parents), she urges him to treasure every meal he shares with his family.

I can't quite put my finger on why the performance of On A Bench I attended didn't quite gel. Koenigsberg's script is solid. Michael Paul Pulizzano's direction was more than adequate. Since this was the play's third performance at the festival, it's possible that the actors never had sufficient rehearsal time to really get inside their characters.

* * * * * * * * * *

One often hears a person described as a poster child for some cause or disease. A new French film starring G?rard Depardieu and 95-year-old Gis?le Casadesus stands a good chance of becoming the poster child for adult literacy programs.

My Afternoons with Margueritte is a small, intimate film. There are no car chases or special effects. Its simplicity, honesty, and poignancy form the foundation for a deeply moving cinema experience.

Depardieu plays Germain, a big hunk of a man in his mid-fifties who, for all intents and purposes, is functionally illiterate. Far from being the village idiot, he's a good-natured man who drinks with his friends, has a beautiful younger girlfriend (Sophie Gullemin) who is a bus driver, and still lives close to his increasingly demented shrew of a mother (Claire Maurier). Often, when Germain thinks he is giving someone a compliment (or helping to explain something), his social clumsiness only makes matters worse.

Germain was the unwanted byproduct of a one-night stand that, as far as his mother is concerned, ruined her life. With her mental facilities rapidly diminishing, his mother wastes no opportunity to insult Germain (who reacts with his usual good-natured frustration).

2011-09-23-postermargueritte.jpg

Poster art for My Afternoons With Margueritte


A simple man, Germain loves simple things. He has even named each of the pigeons who gather each day in front of his favorite park bench. As Depardieu explains:

"Contrary to what a lot of people might think, Germain is a real character of our time. He is extraordinarily positive and that's what's wonderful about him. For all that, he's no simpleton. He could have been me. And in any case, he's just like what I was as a youth in Ch?teauroux before heading off on the road at age 13. Just like him, I observed everything, I watched what was going on. So he's somebody I know very well. He has a lot of humor and a lot of love in him.

Germain doesn't see the bad in things. He has his complexes, but he's hard to rile. Even if he gets no love from his mother, he never blames her. And he is loved by that young woman played by Sophie Guillemin. When you see them together, it seems like there's no age difference because he is pure. To me, he represents what remains of life if you run away from the society that is offered to us: The schools that teach our children and, by definition, destroy their dreams. Germain is outside of any shaping, but he clings to certain values and to life despite having taken some hard knocks from it."

2011-09-23-germaindepardieu.jpg

G?rard Depardieu in My Afternoons With Margueritte


One day, Germain sits down on his favorite bench in the park beside a little old lady who is his polar opposite. A former doctor who has traveled the world, Margueritte is an intellectual who is nearly 40 years older than German and about 200 pounds lighter than him.

Margueritte, who lives in an assisted care facility, loves to pass the time by reading aloud. She also loves the pigeons in the park.

Because Germain can barely read, he is fascinated by Margueritte's passion for literature and the joy she gets from reading. As their afternoon meetings develop into a routine, she continues to read aloud to him and eventually gives him a dictionary as a gift. "Using a dictionary is like traveling from one word to the next," she explains. "You lose yourself as if in a labyrinth. You stop and you dream."

2011-09-23-giselecasadesus.png

Gis?le Casadesus in My Afternoons With Margueritte


This article was cross-posted on My Cultural Landscape. To continue reading, click here.

To read more of George Heymont go to My Cultural Landscape

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-heymont/the-old-lady-and-the-book_b_1035320.html

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New satellite launches: Will it improve weather forecasts?

The $1.5 billion, SUV-sized craft will monitor 30 features that affect daily and seasonal weather patterns, as well as long-term climate behavior.

A prototype for a new generation of weather satellites successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in the predawn hours Friday morning.

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The $1.5 billion, SUV-sized craft carries five instruments that will monitor 30 features in the atmosphere, on land, and in the ocean that affect daily and seasonal weather patterns, as well as long-term climate behavior.

Known by its acronym NPP, the 2.3-ton craft is designed to orbit Earth around its poles 14 times a day to provide its measurements in virtually unprecedented detail. Four of the five instrument packages aboard the craft are traveling to space for the first time, although prior craft have carried hardware that has measured similar climate parameters.

The craft is unique in that it is the first satellite designed to satisfy the needs of weather forecasters and climate researchers simultaneously, project officials say.

"NPP will help improve weather forecasts, enable unique scientific insights, and allow more-accurate environmental predictions," says Michael Freilich, who heads the Earth Science Division at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The craft, which is serving as a test bed for the four new instrument packages and for the ground-based network to handle the enormous volume of data the craft will deliver each day, will be vital to meeting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's goals of boosting the accuracy and lead time for weather forecasts ? especially those involving severe weather, according to Mitch Goldberg, who heads the agency's satellite meteorology and climate effort.

In addition, the NPP satellite is serving as a bridge between three of NASA's Earth-observing satellites and one of NOAA's polar-orbiting weather satellites, says NASA spokesman Steve Cole.

Especially for long-term climate studies, long-duration measurement records are invaluable. The three NASA research satellites ? Terra, Aqua, and Aura ? are performing well. But they are operating well beyond their original design lives.

NPP's overlapping presence on orbit allows researchers to cross-calibrate measurements common to all the craft so that when NASA does pull the plug on the veterans, data are compatible across the two generations of satellites.

The NPP satellite, formally known as the NPOESS Preparatory Project satellite, is the forerunner to a pair of advanced weather-and-climate satellites that NASA and NOAA plan to launch, one in 2016 and the other in 2019.

The pair represent a scaled-back version of a six-satellite fleet originally envisioned under what was known as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. The project's goal was to deliver a fleet of advanced weather-and-climate satellites that would meet the Pentagon's needs, as well as those of NASA and NOAA.

But cost overruns, delays, and mismanagement prompted an overhaul of the project last year.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/7LRxLKDYkZs/New-satellite-launches-Will-it-improve-weather-forecasts

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Apple acquires 3D mapping company, 3C Technologies?

According to Mark Gurman over at 9to5Mac, Apple has acquired a third mapping company, this time 3D specialists 3C Technologies.
Sources say that C3 Technologies CEO Mattias Astrom , C3 Technologies CFO Kjell Cederstrand, and lead C3 Technologies Product Manager Ludvig Emgard are now working within Apple?s iOS
...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/fXY0RF67FFI/

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Saturday, October 29, 2011

50 Tons of Plastic Recycled Into Scottish Foot Bridge [Architecture]

The charming rural scene pictured above actually contains 50 tons of discarded water bottles and sandwich containers, which were blended up and refashioned into this 90-foot-long plastic bridge. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ya3qHxWnG8A/50-tons-of-plastic-recycled-into-scottish-foot-bridge

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Python?s heart-restoring elixir works in mice

Chemical brew used by snakes to build cardiac muscle could help humans

Web edition : 2:27 pm

Maybe there?s something to snake oil after all. A mix of compounds called fatty acids identified in pythons can spur an exercise-like boost in the size of mouse hearts.

In a test of basic biology, the three fatty acids identified in the blood of Burmese pythons boosted the mass of a heart chamber in lab mice by 10 percent in just a week, researchers report in the Oct. 28 Science. The snakes naturally enlarge their own hearts by some 40 percent in two to three days after eating one of their huge but rare meals. Between meals, python hearts and many other organs shrivel again.

Enlarging heart tissue can be a danger sign for humans. Yet the growth seen in the mice looks more like an athlete?s healthful heart growth than a heart disease patient?s worrisome one, says research leader Leslie A. Leinwand of the University of Colorado Boulder. ?We used the extreme biology of a snake to create a beneficial type of cardiac enlargement in mammals,? she says.

Mice, unlike pythons, nibble food steadily and thus shouldn?t need sudden heart growth to cope with huge, rare feasts, says Gerald Dorn of Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, a cardiologist who studies the molecular processes of heart enlargement. So the mouse response in the new study suggests that the research team has uncovered some central stimulating factor common across species, Dorn says. The study is ?incredibly promising,? he says.

Leinwand and her colleagues had hoped their snake research would reveal clues to possible medical therapies for people with heart disease. However, many questions remain about how the snakes? fatty acids actually work to trigger heart muscle cells to bulge. Seeing if they lead to therapies ?will take a very long time,? she cautions.

When Leinwand started to set up the study of pythons in 2005, plenty of colleagues thought she?d gone crazy, she remembers. And she says that she later found out that one of the early recruits to her lab staff had a deep-seated horror of snakes.

Despite her antipathy, that recruit, Cecilia Riquelme, now a coauthor of the new study, tried a critical early experiment: She exposed mouse heart cells to extracts of snake blood and saw growth in the cells. ?I don?t know whether I literally jumped up and down,? Leinwand says, but she remembers the results as a real eureka moment.

With a lot more experimentation, the Colorado team and colleagues at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa determined that the trigger in the snakes? blood came from a particular combination of fatty acids. These ubiquitous compounds perform a variety of functions in reptiles and humans alike. Just the right mix of three of them ? myristic, palmitic and palmitoleic acid ? turns out to trigger a quick upsizing in heart muscle cells.

Humans and other mammals produce these three fatty acids in some amounts, says pharmacologist Daniele Piomelli of the University of California, Irvine. And earlier research has suggested a role for one of these fatty acids in insulin activity and protection from fat accumulation. Piomelli calls the python mechanism discovery ?remarkable.?


Found in: Life

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/335620/title/Python%E2%80%99s_heart-restoring_elixir_works_in_mice

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Erst Group takes $1.4 billion loss (AP)

VIENNA ? Erste Group Bank AG says it will make a net loss of euro973 million ($1.4 billion)for 2011. It blames the government debt crisis and mortgage troubles in Hungary.

The amount exceeds loss estimates of euro700 million to 800 million announced by the bank earlier this month. It said Friday the write-offs will erase what would have been an euro850 million to euro900 million profit, but would help secure the bank's finances for the future.

Erste Group says it is 9 percent ? or euro59 million ? short of the liquidity threshold set by the European Banking Authority but expects that it will be able to cover most of the shortfall by June.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_austria_earns_erste_group_bank

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Friday, October 28, 2011

Video: Comics roast Caine for smoking video

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45053409#45053409

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More people banking using their mobile devices, comScore says (Appolicious)

New figures from Internet research firm comScore suggest a big rise in online banking among mobile device users.

The data finds that a big number of Americans ? almost 32.5 million ? have tapped into their bank accounts using a mobile device by the end of the second quarter of 2011, according to a story from Fierce Mobile Content. That?s just under 14 percent of all wireless subscribers in the U.S., comScore says, and a 21 percent increase over figures from six months earlier, when only 26.7 mobile subscribers were using their devices to pull up bank account information.

The high numbers are interesting, considering that banking is something that could potentially have a high risk of security threats among mobile users. About a year ago, for example, Citibank reported a big lapse in security with its mobile app, where it was saving personal information in an unprotected file on users? iOS devices. That file was also copied to users? computers when they synced with iTunes. Potentially, it made identity theft very possible and very easy.

Yet despite problems such as that one, it seems more users, not less, are trusting their mobile devices with their sensitive information. ComScore found that more users are pulling down all kinds of financial information using their smartphones. The firm?s findings show that 12.7 million subscribers in the U.S. said they?d used a mobile banking app in the month of June 2011, which is a rather huge increase of 45 percent over the same time a year earlier. About 6 million consumers have also used a credit card app in lieu of a credit card, which has seen a 43 percent increase during the last year.

More than just apps

It?s not just apps, either: 17.5 million smartphone subscribers said they got to their banking information by way of a mobile browser, like Apple?s Safari on its mobile devices. That?s an increase of 14 percent over last year. Conversely, 10.4 million people used mobile browsers to access information about their credit cards, an increase of 17 percent.

That increase suggests that mobile banking and financial information is getting easier and more convenient to access ? which is probably good, given all the benefits that those services can offer. But as we?ve seen in the past, accessing sensitive information by way of mobile devices can leave users vulnerable, as well.

Back in March, a study suggested only about 15 percent of mobile users were even aware of mobile software that protected against malware and other security threats, and of those users, a much smaller fraction actually used it. An increase in users passing vulnerable information through their smartphones and other mobile devices, like Apple?s iPad, will undoubtedly lead to an increase in instances of that data being compromised.

Things aren?t as bad for users of Apple?s iOS devices as they can be for those of Google?s Android, given the (somewhat robust) vetting Apple does for its apps. But it?s always a good idea to be careful of the kind of data you send over a mobile device. This is a burgeoning technology that may not always be secure, even when the creators of that technology think it is secure. The best way to protect yourself is to limit the kind of information you make available to your iPhone or iPad.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10050_more_people_banking_using_their_mobile_devices_comscore_says/43419578/SIG=13dtbj8tr/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/10050-more-people-banking-using-their-mobile-devices-comscore-says

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Oakland police action unnerves some protesters

An exchange of opinions between a supporter of the Occupy Wall Street protests, right, and passersby attracts attention at Zuccotti Park in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in the park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

An exchange of opinions between a supporter of the Occupy Wall Street protests, right, and passersby attracts attention at Zuccotti Park in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in the park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

A protester post a sign about the cost of war, reflecting the range of issues found among participants of the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in New York. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

A protester holds a sign asking for donations for pets at the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in New York. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Supporters and visitors line up to receive free meals at the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in New York. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Occupy Wall Street protesters continue to increase their makeshift shelter at Zuccotti Park, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in New York. While some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in Zuccotti Park, organizers say they are receiving and storing heavy duty winter supplies to protest throughout the winter. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

(AP) ? The display of police force in Oakland, Calif., and Atlanta has unnerved some anti-Wall Street protesters.

While demonstrators in other cities have built a working relationship with police and city leaders, they wondered on Wednesday how long the good spirit would last and whether they could be next.

Will they have to face riot gear-clad officers and tear gas that their counterparts in Oakland, Calif. faced on Tuesday? Or will they be handcuffed and hauled away in the middle of the night like protesters in Atlanta?

"Yes, we're afraid. Is this the night they're going to sneak in?" said activist William Buster of Occupy Wall Street, where the movement began last month to protest what they see as corporate greed.

"Is this the night they might use unreasonable force?" he asked.

The message, meanwhile, from officials in cities where other encampments have sprung up was simple: We'll keep working with you. Just respect your neighbors and keep the camps clean and safe.

Business owners and residents have complained in recent weeks about assaults, drunken fights and sanitation problems. Officials are trying to balance their rights and uphold the law while honoring protesters' free speech rights.

"I understand the frustration the protesters feel ... about inequity in our country as well as Wall Street greed," Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said. "I support their right to free speech but we also have rules and laws."

Some cities, such as Providence, R.I., are moving ahead with plans to evict activists. But from Tampa, Fla., to Boston, police and city leaders say they will continue to try to work with protesters to address problems in the camps.

In Oakland, officials initially supported the protests, with Mayor Jean Quan saying that sometimes "democracy is messy."

But tensions reached a boiling point after a sexual assault, a severe beating and a fire were reported and paramedics were denied access to the camp, according to city officials. They also cited concerns about rats, fire hazards and public urination.

Demonstrators disputed the city's claims, saying that volunteers collect garbage and recycling every six hours, that water is boiled before being used to wash dishes and that rats have long infested the park.

When riot gear-clad police moved in early Tuesday, they were pelted with rocks, bottles and utensils from people in the camp's kitchen area. They emptied the camp near city hall of people, and barricaded the plaza.

Protesters were taken away in plastic handcuffs, most of them arrested on suspicion of illegal lodging.

Demonstrators returned later in the day to march and retake the plaza. They were met by police officers in riot gear. Several small skirmishes broke out and officers cleared the area by firing tear gas.

The scene repeated itself several times just a few blocks away in front of the plaza.

Tensions would build as protesters edged ever closer to the police line and reach a breaking point with a demonstrator hurling a bottle or rock, prompting police to respond with another round of gas.

The chemical haze hung in the air for hours, new blasts clouding the air before the previous fog could dissipate.

The number of protesters diminished with each round of tear gas. Police estimated that there were roughly 1,000 demonstrators at the first clash following the march. Nearly 100 were arrested.

Among demonstrators injured was Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine veteran who served two tours in Iraq.

Dottie Guy, of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, a veterans advocacy group, said Olsen was hit by a projectile while marching toward city hall and suffered a fractured skull. A hospital spokesman said Olsen was in critical condition.

Demonstrators planned to try again on Wednesday night to march, and could clash again with police.

In Atlanta, police in riot gear and SWAT teams arrested 53 people in Woodruff Park, many of whom had camped out there for weeks as part of a widespread movement that is protesting the wealth disparity between the rich and everyone else.

Mayor Kasim Reed had been supportive of the protests, twice issuing an executive order allowing them to remain.

Reed said on Wednesday that he had no choice to arrest them because he believed things were headed in a direction that was no longer peaceful. He cited a man seen walking the park with an AK-47 assault rifle.

"There were some who wanted to continue along the peaceful lines, and some who thought that their path should be more radical," Reed said. "As mayor, I couldn't wait for them to finish that debate."

Reed said authorities could not determine whether the rifle was loaded, and were unable to get additional information.

An Associated Press reporter talked to the man with the gun earlier Tuesday.

He wouldn't give his name ? identifying himself only as "Porch," an out-of-work accountant who doesn't agree with the protesters' views ? but said that he was there, armed, because he wanted to protect the rights of people to protest.

People who were arrested trickled out of jail as a crowd of several dozen supporters chanted "freedom" as they left.

"I think Mayor Reed would do well to learn quickly that you cannot intimidate, you cannot threaten, you cannot jail something whose time has come," activist Derrick Boazman said. "The fact of the matter is this movement's time has come."

In Portland, Ore., the protest seems to be at a crossroads. Organizers have been dealing with public drunkenness, fighting and drug abuse for weeks, especially among the homeless who are also in the camp.

Some are floating the idea of relocating it, possibly indoors. Others see that as capitulation.

"I don't know if it would be a good idea. Part of the effectiveness of what's going on here is visibility," protester Justin Neff said. "Though I'd do it if there's a possibility that we'd get seen and noticed. I don't know how that would work indoors."

City officials haven't said what would cause them to forcibly evict the protesters. They said they evaluate the camp daily.

In Baltimore, protesters like Casey McKeel, a member of Occupy Baltimore's legal committee, said he wasn't sure aren't sure what to expect from city officials, noting that some cities have arrested protesters in recent weeks.

"Across the country we're seeing a wide range of reactions," he said. "For now we're hoping the city will work with us."

The mayor, Rawlings-Blake, said she is willing to work with them, but they should realize that they are camping out in a city park and that was not its intended use. She said their free-speech rights don't trump the public's right to enjoy the space.

"I have absolutely no interest in a violent exchange," she said. "We want to work with the protesters, but the point is to talk about inequity and talk about how we can work together to have a more just society or more equitable Baltimore.

"It's not about pitching a tent. It's about getting the work done," she said.

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor in Washington, Sarah Brumfield in Baltimore, Md., Verena Dobnik in New York, Harry R. Weber, Errin Haines and Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Erica Niedowski in Providence, R.I., Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa., Ben Nuckols in Washington, Samantha Gross in New York and Jay Lindsay in Boston contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-26-Wall%20Street%20Protests/id-f1ebe34bd7584d68a6e3baa175bce331

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DirecTV complains to FCC about "misleading" Fox ads (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? DirecTV Group sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) alleging that Fox Broadcasting Co was running misleading ads warning customers that the satellite TV network would pull their access to local Fox stations.

In its letter, DirecTV said the dispute over carriage fees with News Corp owned Fox would only result in customers no longer being able to access Fox's cable channels like FX and National Geographic, if the two companies were unable to agree to a new carriage deal by November 1.

"Fox, however, is running advertisements asserting that DirecTV viewers 'soon could even lose' the Fox broadcast stations in their local markets," DirecTV said in a letter to the FCC.

The current carriage agreement for the cable channels expired on September 30. However, Fox's broadcast stations are covered under a separate agreement, which does not expire until Dec 31.

Fox was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Anand Basu in Bangalore; Editing by Anthony Kurian)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/media_nm/us_directv_foxnetworks

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Crack Almost Any Electronic Safe with the Bounce Technique [Video]

If you have a digital safe with a passcode entry, a few things could go wrong. You could forget the code, the electronic mechanism could fail, or someone could change the code without you knowing. In the event you need to break into your own electronic safe, here's how to do it. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Bkvzj4EVGkM/crack-almost-any-electronic-safe-with-just-a-bounce

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US, Danish aid workers in Somalia seized by gunmen

(AP) ? Somali gunmen kidnapped an American aid worker and her Danish colleague on Tuesday from northern Somalia, officials said.

The 60-year-old Danish man and the 30-year-old American woman were working for the Danish Demining Group when they were seized in northern Somalia, two Nairobi-based officials said. They asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The group did not immediately answer phone calls placed to its headquarters in Denmark following the attack, which happened near the Puntland capital of Galkayo.

The two Westerners were taken by gunmen while on their way to the airport, said Ahmed Mohamed, a police officer in the Somali town of Galkayo.

Galkyo is divided in two, a northern section under the control of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, and a southern section under the control of a a clan called Galmudug. Mohamed said the two kidnapped Westerners crossed into the southern side of the town and were abducted there.

The Danish Demining Group helps dispose of unexploded bombs and teaches communities about the dangers of land mines and other ordinance, according to its website. The role of the two aid workers was unclear.

The kidnapping comes only weeks after the seizure of two women working for Doctors Without Borders from a refugee camp in neighboring Kenya, as well as the kidnappings of two European tourists from Kenya's coast. Somali gunmen were suspected in those attacks.

Kenya said that it sent some 1,600 forces into southern Somalia to attack al-Shabab militants in response to those kidnappings, though it's not clear al-Shabab militants were responsible for the abductions.

The northern semiautonomous province of Puntland is generally considered more stable than most of the rest of Somalia, which is riven between pirate gangs, Islamist insurgents and militias and the weak U.N.-backed government in the capital. It has not had a functioning central government for the last 20 years.

___

Associated Press reporter Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, Somalia contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-25-AF-Somalia-Kidnappings/id-1491a45d889d414083e68b989b7138b2

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Tuesday Morning Talk (TIME)

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, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/152948273?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Could Any GOP Candidate's Jobs Plan Pass Congress? (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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/153180528?client_source=feed&format=rss

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No deal yet on euro crisis as the danger grows (AP)

BRUSSELS ? European leaders yet again put off the tough decisions needed to save the continent from its debt crisis but promised Sunday that a comprehensive plan is still coming.

As they dawdled, the danger was rising in an already high-stakes game.

Leaders of the continent's richest countries had unusually stern words Sunday for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, because many fear his nation could be the next dragged into the debt crisis if it does not make major budget cuts quickly.

That would spell disaster: Europe has rescued three small nations ? Greece, Ireland and Portugal ? but cannot afford to rescue Italy, the eurozone's third largest economy. Analysts say EU leaders, known as the European Council when they meet in Brussels, have to act now to eliminate the possibility of Italy's financial collapse.

"Between now and Wednesday, some members of the European Council have to convince colleagues that their country implements commitments fully," EU President Herman Van Rompuy said after the day's meetings, clearly referring to Italy. On Wednesday, leaders will gather again ? to unveil their solution, they promise.

When asked later what would happen if countries failed to fall in line, he responded: "They will make commitments."

Whether that message was getting through, however, was unclear. "The Italian fundamentals are very solid," Berlusconi told reporters after the 12-hour meeting.

For weeks it's been clear what the 17 countries that use the euro must do: reduce Greece's debt burden so the country eventually can stand on its own, force banks to raise more money so they can ride out the financial storm that will entail, and show that their European bailout fund is big and nimble enough to prevent larger economies from getting dragged into the crisis.

On Saturday, officials said the leaders were nearing agreement on slashing Greece's debts and strengthening the continent's banks, many of which are awash in Greek bonds.

But Sunday, the only solid detail to emerge from three days of intense talks was that banks will have to raise their capital buffers much faster than they had planned ? by the end of 2012, instead of 2019.

A European official said Saturday the banks would be forced to raise just over euro100 billion ($140 billion) more for their rainy-day funds, but leaders have not given an official figure.

Instead, at a series of news conferences Sunday, all they could do was promise to deliver big at their next summit.

"There are still problems to solve, but we are moving forward on all subjects," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said as he left Sunday's meetings. "There is a still a lot of work to do ... but there are no more blockages."

Analysts who have seen this pattern for months couldn't help but be skeptical.

"By failing to agree on anything substantial today, EU leaders may have set themselves up for an even bigger fall," said Sony Kapoor, managing director of the Re-Define think tank. "They owe it to Europe to pull a rabbit out of the hat now, but this seems to be beyond them."

Part of the challenge is that European leaders are unable to decide on anything until everything is in place, since each piece of the puzzle affects the others. The value of Greece's bonds can't be slashed until banks are strengthened ? or at least have confidence they can get help from the rescue fund. But some countries are reluctant to strengthen the fund until they know there's a plan to bring Greek debt under control.

Banks ? which have already agreed to take losses on their Greek bonds of some 21 percent ? are already rumbling at suggestions that they might need to double or nearly triple that figure. But without reducing Greece's debt load, the whole plan does not work.

The eurozone also still needs to work out how to most effectively use Europe's bailout fund to make sure Italy and Spain don't see their borrowing costs spiral out of control, as happened with Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

Officials said leaders had reduced seven different proposals down to two options, which are not mutually exclusive. Both options would essentially use the European Financial Stability Facility to insure investors against a first round of losses on bonds from wobbly countries.

But before that can be done, those countries have to convince their partners in the eurozone that their weakness is only temporary and they can get back into shape soon.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's Sarkozy came out with particularly strong words for Italy.

"We made it very clear that Italy is a big and important partner for the euro area and that everything needs to be done to live up to this responsibility," Merkel told reporters after the two met with Berlusconi.

"Trust does not just come from a firewall," she added. "Italy has great economic power but Italy also has a very high overall debt level. And that was to be taken down in the coming years in a credible way."

The stern tone reflected the seriousness of Europe's problems, which have roiled financial markets in recent months and been blamed for slowing economic growth across the globe.

Worst off, of course, is Greece, which is reeling from repeated rounds of budget cuts, job cuts and new taxes that have sparked near-daily strikes and even riots. The country is looking at a fourth year of recession and unemployment has hit a record of 16.5 percent.

"Greece has proven again and again that we are making the necessary decisions to make our economy sustainable," Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told reporters Sunday. "But it's been proven now that the crisis is not a Greek crisis. The crisis is a European crisis, so now is the time that we as Europeans need to act."

To ease the pressure, banks will be asked to accept much bigger losses on Greek bonds.

Austria's chancellor said the cut in the value of Greek government bonds will likely be raised "in the direction of 40 to 50 percent."

"A cut in the debt is the right step," Werner Faymann told the Austrian newspaper Wiener Kurier.

Despite massive budget cuts and reforms, a new report says Greece's economic situation is still dire and it could take the country decades to emerge from the crisis.

The eurozone has accepted that it will have to provide Greece with tens of billions of euros in extra aid ? on top of euro110 billion ($152 billion) granted in May 2010. But to keep a lid on that amount, banks must go far beyond a preliminary deal reached in July, in which they promised take a cut of 21 percent of their Greek bondholdings.

The near-consensus among eurozone countries that Greece's debt will have to be slashed is one of the reasons banks across Europe ? not only in the 17-country eurozone ? will be forced to shore up their capital buffers in the coming months.

To that end, Sarkozy said the EU will require banks to raise their capital buffers to higher levels by 2012 rather than the 2019 laid out under the Basel III banking rules.

___

Gabriele Steinhauser, Raf Casert, Slobodan Lekic, Don Melvin and Elena Becatoros contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111023/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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Mosoro Bluetooth LE iOS accessories improve your golf, if the weather's right

So far the appcessories -- yeah we said it, APPcessories -- we've seen include some good ideas, and some less so. The Bluetooth LE 3D-Sport and Weather offerings from Mosoro fall into the former category (if they make their way into a shipping product that is). The 3D-Sport is a motion capture device you attach to sports equipment. The on-board accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer beam motion data to your iOS device, where it can be analyzed by Rocky-style Russian coaches to see where your throw or golf swing is going wrong. The latter is a mini weather station that reads temperature, humidity, elevation, and barometric pressure to tell you the conditions where you are right now. More usefully, it nabs your GPS location and uploads it all to Mosoro's aptly named "Cloud" Server that presumably maps out some crazy real-time crowdsourced weather report. Both also use Bluetooth 4.0's low energy technology so they won't need to see a charger for a long time. Now we just need a company that likes collating personal data, perhaps with a weather service, to snap this one up... any takers?

Continue reading Mosoro Bluetooth LE iOS accessories improve your golf, if the weather's right

Mosoro Bluetooth LE iOS accessories improve your golf, if the weather's right originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/25/mosoro-bluetooth-le-ios-accessories-improve-your-golf-if-the-we/

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Palestinian envoy to Canada recalled (AP)

TORONTO ? The Palestinian Authority recalled their envoy to Canada this month for posting a link on twitter that included an anti-Semitic video.

Linda Sobeh Ali posted a tweet this month with a link to a YouTube video featuring an emotionally distressed Palestinian girl shouting a poem in Arabic titled "I am Palestinian."

The English subtitles on the video include a passage where millions are called upon "destroy the Jews."

Joseph Lavoie, a spokesman for Canada's foreign affairs minister, said Monday it was a serious enough matter for the Palestinian Authority that they recalled Sobeh Ali.

"This video is completely unacceptable and offensive as it calls for the death of Jews," Lavoie said.

Riad Malki, the Palestinian Authority's foreign minister, speaking in Ramallah, said the envoy posted the link thinking it was a "normal national poem."

"We asked her to leave Canada because we didn't want to create any problems," he said.

According to Malki, the "Jewish lobby and Jewish institutions" in Canada complained to the Canadian government. The envoy "went back to the poem and there was something wrong with the translation." The phrase translated in the English subtitles as "destroy the Jews" was actually "to kill the soul of Zionism."

Shimon Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said they drew the video and tweet to the attention of the Canada's foreign affairs department.

Fogul said both translations are offensive and unacceptable and noted Sobeh Ali sent out a version where the English translation called for "death of Jews."

"Frankly, it was very distressing. We had worked closely with her previously in an effort to bring PA President, Mahmoud Abbas to Canada to meet with Jewish leaders," Fogel said in an email to The Associated Press. "I never expected her to effectively endorse such anti-Jewish vitriol."

Fogel said he found it "doubly offensive" that a certain lobby would be blamed for her recall and said she hasn't owned up to her terrible error in judgment.

____

Associated Press Writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_re_ca/cn_canada_palestinian_envoy

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Hurricane forms, heads for Mexico resorts

Tropical Storm Rina on Monday strengthened into a hurricane, building off Honduras and Nicaragua much faster than forecasters had expected as it moved towards Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and its beach resorts.

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The sixth named hurricane in the Atlantic this year, Rina was a Category 1 hurricane with top winds of 75 mph and was centered about 195 miles southwest of Grand Cayman, the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported. A few hours earlier, Rita's top winds were still just 45 mph.

Forecasters say the storm could become a Category 3 hurricane with winds topping 111 mph by late Tuesday.

The storm is forecast to bring at least 2 inches of rain over the Cayman Islands.

The NHC predicts the storm will make land Thursday along Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, which is home to Cancun and other beach resorts that known as the Mexican Riviera.

Officials in Cancun started preparations for storm shelters and potential evacuations, if needed.

"Hotel operators, the civil defense department, tourism and public safety authorities are taking the necessary measures for shelters, transportation and providing information for tourists, obviously with generating alarm that could create a panic," said Cancun Tourism Director Maximo Garcia.

Cancun civil defense director Felix Diaz Villalobos said officials would begin meeting Monday night to begin drawing up emergency plans. While other long-range computer forecasts vary, none see the storm threatening energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico.

Still, the storm is likely to drop heavy rain on parts of the region recovering from recent storms.

In neighboring Nicaragua, the air force launched an aerial search Monday for a navy boat that disappeared late Sunday while trying to evacuate residents from the low-lying coastal village of Sandy Bay, near the Honduran border.

Rosario Murillo, Nicaragua's first lady and secretary of communications, told a local radio station that the boat was carrying four crew members, 12 male passengers, 10 female passengers and a child when officials lost radio contact with the open boat late Sunday.

The boats disappeared when Rina was still not yet a hurricane but had already begun causing rain in the area.

The northeast coast of Honduras is expected to see accumulated rainfall of 1 to 3 inches.

Forecasters were also keeping watch on a broad low-pressure area in the Atlantic Ocean that is producing showers and thunderstorms over the Windward Islands.

That disturbance was moving slowly west-northwest toward the Caribbean and forecasters gave it only a 10 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next two days.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45020115/ns/weather/

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Nanoparticles and their size may not be big issues

Nanoparticles and their size may not be big issues [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 24-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jim Barlow
jebarlow@uoregon.edu
541-346-3481
University of Oregon

High-powered microscopes show silver, copper and other metals have shed tiny pieces for many years

EUGENE, Ore. -- If you've ever eaten from silverware or worn copper jewelry, you've been in a perfect storm in which nanoparticles were dropped into the environment, say scientists at the University of Oregon.

Since the emergence of nanotechnology, researchers, regulators and the public have been concerned that the potential toxicity of nano-sized products might threaten human health by way of environmental exposure.

Now, with the help of high-powered transmission electron microscopes, chemists captured never-before-seen views of miniscule metal nanoparticles naturally being created by silver articles such as wire, jewelry and eating utensils in contact with other surfaces. It turns out, researchers say, nanoparticles have been in contact with humans for a long, long time.

The project involved researchers in the UO's Materials Science Institute and the Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative (SNNI), in collaboration with UO technology spinoff Dune Sciences Inc. SNNI is an initiative of the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI), a state signature research center dedicated to research, job growth and commercialization in the areas of nanoscale science and microtechnologies.

The research -- detailed in a paper placed online in advance of regular publication in the American Chemistry Society's journal ACS Nano -- focused on understanding the dynamic behavior of silver nanoparticles on surfaces when exposed to a variety of environmental conditions.

Using a new approach developed at UO that allows for the direct observation of microscopic changes in nanoparticles over time, researchers found that silver nanoparticles deposited on the surface of their SMART Grids electron microscope slides began to transform in size, shape and particle populations within a few hours, especially when exposed to humid air, water and light. Similar dynamic behavior and new nanoparticle formation was observed when the study was extended to look at macro-sized silver objects such as wire or jewelry.

"Our findings show that nanoparticle 'size' may not be static, especially when particles are on surfaces. For this reason, we believe that environmental health and safety concerns should not be defined -- or regulated -- based upon size," said James E. Hutchison, who holds the Lokey-Harrington Chair in Chemistry. "In addition, the generation of nanoparticles from objects that humans have contacted for millennia suggests that humans have been exposed to these nanoparticles throughout time. Rather than raise concern, I think this suggests that we would have already linked exposure to these materials to health hazards if there were any."

Any potential federal regulatory policies, the research team concluded, should allow for the presence of background levels of nanoparticles and their dynamic behavior in the environment.

Because copper behaved similarly, the researchers theorize that their findings represent a general phenomenon for metals readily oxidized and reduced under certain environmental conditions. "These findings," they wrote, "challenge conventional thinking about nanoparticle reactivity and imply that the production of new nanoparticles is an intrinsic property of the material that is now strongly size dependent."

While not addressed directly, Hutchison said, the naturally occurring and spontaneous activity seen in the research suggests that exposure to toxic metal ions, for example, might not be reduced simply by using larger particles in the presence of living tissue or organisms.

###

Co-authors with Hutchison on the paper were Richard D. Glover, a doctoral student in Hutchison's laboratory, and John M. Miller, a research associate. Hutchison and Miller were co-founders of Dune Sciences Inc., a Eugene-based company that specializes in products and services geared toward the development and commercialization of nano-enabled products. Miller currently is the company's chief executive officer; Hutchison is chief science officer.

The electron microscopes used in this study are located at the Center for Advanced Materials Characterization in Oregon in the underground Lorry I. Lokey Laboratories at the UO. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and W.M. Keck Foundation supported the research. Glover's participation also was funded by the National Science Foundation's STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) Fellows in K-12 Education Program.

About the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

Contact: Jim Barlow, director of science and research communications, 541-346-3481, jebarlow@uoregon.edu

Source: James E. Hutchison, Lokey-Harrington Chair in Chemistry, hutch@uoregon.edu. (NOTE: Hutchison currently is on sabbatical. To arrange an interview, contact him by email or through the media contact above).

Links:

Hutchison faculty page: http://chemistry.uoregon.edu/fac.html?hutchison

Materials Science Institute: http://pages.uoregon.edu/msiuo/

Department of Chemistry: http://pages.uoregon.edu/chem/

Dune Sciences Inc: http://www.dunesciences.com/

ONAMI Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative: http://www.greennano.org



[ 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.


Nanoparticles and their size may not be big issues [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 24-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jim Barlow
jebarlow@uoregon.edu
541-346-3481
University of Oregon

High-powered microscopes show silver, copper and other metals have shed tiny pieces for many years

EUGENE, Ore. -- If you've ever eaten from silverware or worn copper jewelry, you've been in a perfect storm in which nanoparticles were dropped into the environment, say scientists at the University of Oregon.

Since the emergence of nanotechnology, researchers, regulators and the public have been concerned that the potential toxicity of nano-sized products might threaten human health by way of environmental exposure.

Now, with the help of high-powered transmission electron microscopes, chemists captured never-before-seen views of miniscule metal nanoparticles naturally being created by silver articles such as wire, jewelry and eating utensils in contact with other surfaces. It turns out, researchers say, nanoparticles have been in contact with humans for a long, long time.

The project involved researchers in the UO's Materials Science Institute and the Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative (SNNI), in collaboration with UO technology spinoff Dune Sciences Inc. SNNI is an initiative of the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI), a state signature research center dedicated to research, job growth and commercialization in the areas of nanoscale science and microtechnologies.

The research -- detailed in a paper placed online in advance of regular publication in the American Chemistry Society's journal ACS Nano -- focused on understanding the dynamic behavior of silver nanoparticles on surfaces when exposed to a variety of environmental conditions.

Using a new approach developed at UO that allows for the direct observation of microscopic changes in nanoparticles over time, researchers found that silver nanoparticles deposited on the surface of their SMART Grids electron microscope slides began to transform in size, shape and particle populations within a few hours, especially when exposed to humid air, water and light. Similar dynamic behavior and new nanoparticle formation was observed when the study was extended to look at macro-sized silver objects such as wire or jewelry.

"Our findings show that nanoparticle 'size' may not be static, especially when particles are on surfaces. For this reason, we believe that environmental health and safety concerns should not be defined -- or regulated -- based upon size," said James E. Hutchison, who holds the Lokey-Harrington Chair in Chemistry. "In addition, the generation of nanoparticles from objects that humans have contacted for millennia suggests that humans have been exposed to these nanoparticles throughout time. Rather than raise concern, I think this suggests that we would have already linked exposure to these materials to health hazards if there were any."

Any potential federal regulatory policies, the research team concluded, should allow for the presence of background levels of nanoparticles and their dynamic behavior in the environment.

Because copper behaved similarly, the researchers theorize that their findings represent a general phenomenon for metals readily oxidized and reduced under certain environmental conditions. "These findings," they wrote, "challenge conventional thinking about nanoparticle reactivity and imply that the production of new nanoparticles is an intrinsic property of the material that is now strongly size dependent."

While not addressed directly, Hutchison said, the naturally occurring and spontaneous activity seen in the research suggests that exposure to toxic metal ions, for example, might not be reduced simply by using larger particles in the presence of living tissue or organisms.

###

Co-authors with Hutchison on the paper were Richard D. Glover, a doctoral student in Hutchison's laboratory, and John M. Miller, a research associate. Hutchison and Miller were co-founders of Dune Sciences Inc., a Eugene-based company that specializes in products and services geared toward the development and commercialization of nano-enabled products. Miller currently is the company's chief executive officer; Hutchison is chief science officer.

The electron microscopes used in this study are located at the Center for Advanced Materials Characterization in Oregon in the underground Lorry I. Lokey Laboratories at the UO. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and W.M. Keck Foundation supported the research. Glover's participation also was funded by the National Science Foundation's STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) Fellows in K-12 Education Program.

About the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

Contact: Jim Barlow, director of science and research communications, 541-346-3481, jebarlow@uoregon.edu

Source: James E. Hutchison, Lokey-Harrington Chair in Chemistry, hutch@uoregon.edu. (NOTE: Hutchison currently is on sabbatical. To arrange an interview, contact him by email or through the media contact above).

Links:

Hutchison faculty page: http://chemistry.uoregon.edu/fac.html?hutchison

Materials Science Institute: http://pages.uoregon.edu/msiuo/

Department of Chemistry: http://pages.uoregon.edu/chem/

Dune Sciences Inc: http://www.dunesciences.com/

ONAMI Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative: http://www.greennano.org



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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/uoo-nat102411.php

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