Suits: More water, less buzz in Bud, Michelob beer

FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 28, 2013, file photo, Bud Light beer is shown in the aisles of Elite Beverages in Indianapolis. Beer lovers across the country have filed $5 million class-action lawsuits accusing Anheuser-Busch of watering down its Budweiser, Michelob and other brands. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 28, 2013, file photo, Bud Light beer is shown in the aisles of Elite Beverages in Indianapolis. Beer lovers across the country have filed $5 million class-action lawsuits accusing Anheuser-Busch of watering down its Budweiser, Michelob and other brands. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? Beer lovers across the U.S. have accused Anheuser-Busch of watering down its Budweiser, Michelob and other brands, in class-action suits seeking millions in damages.

The suits, filed in Pennsylvania, California and other states, claim consumers have been cheated out of the alcohol content stated on labels. Budweiser and Michelob each boast of being 5 percent alcohol, while some "light" versions are said to be just over 4 percent.

The lawsuits are based on information from former employees at the company's 13 U.S. breweries, some in high-level plant positions, according to lead lawyer Josh Boxer of San Rafael, Calif.

"Our information comes from former employees at Anheuser-Busch, who have informed us that as a matter of corporate practice, all of their products mentioned (in the lawsuit) are watered down," Boxer said. "It's a simple cost-saving measure, and it's very significant."

The excess water is added just before bottling and cuts the stated alcohol content by 3 percent to 8 percent, he said.

Anheuser-Busch InBev called the claims "groundless" and said its beers fully comply with labeling laws.

"Our beers are in full compliance with all alcohol labeling laws. We proudly adhere to the highest standards in brewing our beers, which have made them the best-selling in the U.S. and the world," Peter Kraemer, vice president of brewing and supply, said in a statement.

The suit involves 10 Anheuser-Busch products: Budweiser, Bud Ice, Bud Light Platinum, Michelob, Michelob Ultra, Hurricane High Gravity Lager, King Cobra, Busch Ice, Natural Ice and Bud Light Lime.

Anheuser-Busch, based in St. Louis, Mo., merged with InBev in 2008 to form the world's largest alcohol producer, headquartered in Belgium. In 2011, the company produced 10 billion gallons of malt beverages, 3 billion of them in the U.S., and reported $22 billion in profits from that category, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, the company has sophisticated equipment that measures the alcohol content throughout the brewing process and is accurate to within one-hundredth of a percent. But after the merger, the company increasingly chose to dilute its popular brands of beer, the lawsuit alleged.

"Following the merger, AB vigorously accelerated the deceptive practices described below, sacrificing the quality products once produced by Anheuser-Busch in order to reduce costs," said the lead lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of consumers in the lower 48 states.

Companion suits are being filed this week in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and elsewhere. Each seeks at least $5 million in damages.

The named Pennsylvania plaintiffs, Thomas and Gerald Greenberg of Ambler, said they buy six cases of the affected Anheuser-Busch products a month. They did not immediately return a message Tuesday, and Boxer would not elaborate on their purchases except to say the consumer-protection suit does not involve retailers or bar owners.

One of the California plaintiffs, Nina Giampaoli of Sonoma County, said she bought a six-pack of Budweiser every week for the past four years.

"I think it's wrong for huge corporations to lie to their loyal customers ? I really feel cheated. No matter what the product is, people should be able to rely on the information companies put on their labels," Giampaoli said in a news release issued by Boxer's law firm.

Bloomberg News first reported Tuesday on the lawsuits.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Boxer said he has evidence to corroborate the former employees' allegations, but stopped short of saying the beers had been independently tested.

"AB (Anheuser-Busch) never intends for the malt beverage to possess the amount of alcohol that is stated on the label. As a result, AB's customers are overcharged for watered-down beer and AB is unjustly enriched by the additional volume it can sell," the lawsuit said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-26-Watered-Down%20Beer-Lawsuit/id-1528a45dd0434e66a744ea7752401b29

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The Abnormal ?Normative? (Powerlineblog)

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US, Israel: Iran cuts distance to nuclear bomb

?

The US slammed as ?provocative? the installment of 180 advanced centrifuge at Iran?s main uranium enrichment site at Natanz, stressing that this will be the six powers? focus in the talks with Iran opening next Tuesday in Kazakhstan. The UN nuclear atomic agency in its latest report confirmed that the new IR-2m centrifuges can enrich three to five times faster than the outdated machines in use at Natanz until now.

The report's findings "prove that Iran continues to advance quickly to the red line" which Israel considers intolerable, said a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, adding: "Iran is closer than ever to achieving enrichment for a nuclear bomb."

The "red line" also was a term Netanyahu used to the U.N. General Assembly. There, he said the world has until next summer at the latest to stop Iran before it can build a nuclear bomb.

Source: http://www.debka.com/newsupdate/3755/

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Business, labor leaders reach compromise on immigration reform (Los Angeles Times)

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Why Every Analyst Is In Love With The Siren Song Of The Low-Cost iPhone

For almost as long as Apple's iPhone has been in existence, analysts have claimed to see visions of a low-cost version of the device aimed at developing and prepaid markets. It's easy to see why these visions have grown in magnitude and gained a more vocal following over the years: entering that market would, in theory, broaden Apple's potential appeal by hundreds of millions of new customers. But I refer to the low-cost iPhone as a "siren song" for a reason ? there's a significant potential downside if Apple tries such a device and fails to impress.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/JYWCWIgnix4/

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PFT: For teams, Combine all about medical tests

AP

For media purposes, the NFL Scouting Combine is a whirl of interviews and player availability.

For television watchers, the 40-yard dashes and drills take center stage.

But for the teams that come to Indianapolis to scout, the priority isn?t anything that happens on the field, but rather behind the scenes at the hospital.

The medical checks shared by 32 teams are the primary benefit for most teams.

National Football Scouting president Jeff Foster asked teams years ago to list their priorities, and the results were loud and clear.

?All 32 teams, medicals were No. 1,? Foster told Mike Chappell of the Indianapolis Star. ?All 32 teams, interviews were No. 2. Then there was a mix between the on-field stuff and the psychological testing.?

So for the seven-day duration, players are poked and prodded and tested and quizzed on their medical histories, with no detail to minute.

?This will be the most comprehensive exam they can ever hope to get,? said Dr. Arthur Rettig, one of the Colts team doctors. ?If possible, you want to save [a team] from investing a few million dollars in someone who may play one year and then he?s done.

?It?s our job to try and predict that.?

Retting said he expected to order up 350 MRI scans, using 17 machines they have on hand, including three mobile ones at Lucas Oil Stadium. In the past, they?ve found tumors in players while looking at other injuries.

Colts tackle Anthony Castonzo said he was amazed by the thoroughness of the process, going through six orthopedic stations, X-rays, MRIs, along with heart tests, baseline concussion tests and drug scans.

?You basically lay on a table in the middle of the room and you?ve got people coming over and poking and prodding on you, fiddling with your ankle or your knee or whatever it is you possibly had wrong,? Castonzo said. ?You kind of feel like a corpse at the morgue. Everyone is trying to figure out what?s wrong.?

For NFL teams trying to avoid investing millions in a bunch of stiffs, the process is worth it.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/21/for-nfl-teams-combine-is-all-about-the-medical-tests/related/

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Dolphins call each other by name, study claims

Borat Furlan / Getty Images

While researchers often hesitate to apply the "l word" -- language -- to non-human communications, bottlenose dolphins and possibly other dolphin species clearly have a very complex and sophisticated communication system.

By Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News

Bottlenose dolphins call out the specific names of loved ones when they become separated, a study finds.

Other than humans, the dolphins are the only animals known to do this, according to the study, published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The big difference with bottlenose dolphins is that these communications consist of whistles, not words.

Earlier research found that bottlenose dolphins name themselves, with dolphins having a ?signature whistle? that encodes other information. It would be somewhat like a human shouting, ?Hey everybody! I?m an adult healthy male named George, and I mean you no harm!?

---

The new finding is that bottlenose dolphins also say the names of certain other dolphins.

?Animals produced copies when they were separated from a close associate and this supports our belief that dolphins copy another animal?s signature whistle when they want to reunite with that specific individual,? lead author Stephanie King of the University of St. Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit told Discovery News.

King and her colleagues collected acoustic data from wild bottlenose dolphins around Sarasota Bay, Fla., from 1984 to 2009. The researchers also intensely studied four captive adult male dolphins housed at The Seas Aquarium, also in Florida.

The captive males are adults that keepers named Calvin, Khyber, Malabar and Ranier.

Getty Images

Bottlenose dolphins communicate through a series of whistles.

These bottlenose dolphins, however, as well as all of the wild ones, developed their own signature whistles that serve as names in interactions with other dolphins.

?A dolphin emits its signature whistle to broadcast its identity and announce its presence, allowing animals to identify one another over large distances and for animals to recognize one another and to join up with each other,? King explained. ?Dolphin whistles can be detected up to 20 km away (12.4 miles) depending on water depth and whistle frequency.?

The researchers said dolphins copy the signature whistles of loved ones, such as a mother or close male buddy, when the two are apart. These ?names? were never emitted in aggressive or antagonistic situations and were only directed toward loved ones.

The whistle copies also always had a unique variation to them, so the dolphins weren?t merely mimicking each other. The dolphins instead were adding their own ?tone of voice? via unique whistling.

While researchers often hesitate to apply the ?l word? -- language -- to non-human communications, bottlenose dolphins and possibly other dolphin species clearly have a very complex and sophisticated communication system.

?Interestingly, captive dolphins can learn new signals and refer to objects and it may be that dolphins can use signature whistle copies to label or refer to an individual, which is a skill inherent in human language,? King said.

Heidi Harley, a professor of psychology at New College of Florida, is a leading expert on cognitive processes in dolphins. She agrees with the new paper?s conclusions.

Harley told Discovery News that it can be challenging to study dolphin signature whistles, since it?s difficult to identify which particular dolphin is emitting the sounds, and whether or not the sounds are just mimicked copies.

?This study provides evidence that copies of signature whistles include elements that differ from the whistles of the original whistler, while still maintaining the changes in frequency over time that allow a listener to identify the original whistler,? Harley said. ?In addition, that signature whistle copying occurs between close associates, suggesting it is used affiliatively.?

King and her team are now using sound playback experiments to see how wild, free-ranging dolphins respond to hearing a copy of their own signature whistle.

More from Discovery News:

Copyright 2013 Discovery Communications LLC. Reprinted with permission.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/20/17031496-dolphins-call-each-other-by-name-study-claims?lite

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Google unveils $1,300 touch-enabled Chromebook Pixel [video]

DEAR ABBY: My boyfriend, "Doug" (24), and I (22) have been in a long-distance relationship for a year, but we were friends for a couple of years before that. I had never had a serious relationship before and lacked experience. Doug has not only been in two other long-term relationships, but has had sex with more than 15 women. One of them is an amateur porn actress.I knew about this, but it didn't bother me until recently. Doug had a party, and while he was drunk he told one of his buddies -- in front of me -- that he should watch a certain porn film starring his ex-girlfriend. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-unveils-1-300-touch-enabled-chromebook-pixel-192527036.html

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Pa. attorney general rejects lottery contract

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane on Thursday rejected a long-term contract sought by Gov. Tom Corbett that would let a British firm manage the $3.5 billion Pennsylvania Lottery, saying parts of it contravene the state constitution or are not authorized by state law.

Her politically fraught decision came after Corbett undertook a nine-month process to find and hire a private company to replace state employees atop one of the nation's largest lotteries. Corbett, who had endured months of criticism about the policy and process from Democrats, settled on London-based Camelot Global Services, the United Kingdom's official lottery operator.

Kane announced her decision in a short statement read at a news conference at her Harrisburg offices, but declined to take questions from reporters.

"It is important that my office perform its role in the system of checks and balances that our government desperately needs and that our citizens deserve," she said.

In a memo she sent Thursday to Corbett's Department of Revenue, which oversees the lottery, Kane's office revealed that it had asked Corbett to withdraw the contract because of a pending lawsuit filed by Democratic lawmakers and the union that represents lottery employees. Corbett refused.

Kane's office subsequently decided that state law does not allow the governor to privatize the operation or management of the lottery nor does it allow the expansion of gambling that the contract would permit.

Her office also concluded that the "indirect expenses" that Camelot can claim under the contract ? essentially a management fee of up to 0.75 percent of the annual profit, or hundreds of millions of dollars over the life of the deal ? are an unconstitutional waiver of the state's "sovereign immunity" protection against paying certain damages or claims.

Corbett and Camelot each later released statements saying they were disappointed. Corbett also reiterated that his motivation is to ensure that lottery profits keep pace with rising demand for programs for senior citizens that the lottery funds in a state that is among those with the largest elderly populations.

Successfully shifting lottery management to Camelot is a crucial test for Corbett, who promised when he ran for governor that he would look to privatize state services wherever he could.

Meanwhile, the rejection is likely to fuel animosity to the relationship between Corbett, a Republican, and Kane, a Democrat who has been in office barely four weeks.

Kane ran on a pledge last year to be an independent voice and to investigate how the attorney general's office under Corbett handled the child sexual abuse investigation into former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky in 2009 and 2010.

For now, it seems the lottery will remain managed by state employees, while it is not clear what will happen next with the contract.

Corbett can challenge Kane's decision in court, but would only say Thursday that he did not agree with the attorney general's analysis and was reviewing his legal options. Camelot's bid expires Saturday, and it would not say Thursday whether it will agree to extend it.

House Republican leaders said they expected that the Legislature will review Kane's decision, while the state Republican Party called Kane's decision "blatantly political." Democrats and labor unions were effusive.

Sen. John Yudichak, D-Luzerne, criticized Corbett's "misguided plan to privatize one of our most consistent and predictable sources of revenue." Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, called the contract "ill-conceived" and riddled with loopholes and liabilities.

The attorney general's office reviews state contracts for form and legality, and Kane's office insisted Thursday that the contract's rejection was not politically motivated and was handled by professional staff who had worked for Corbett when he was attorney general.

"We certainly didn't tell them what to conclude one way or the other," First Deputy Attorney General Adrian King Jr. said. "We told them to do their job and follow the law."

The lottery employees' union, Council 13 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, endorsed Kane in her fall campaign and gave her campaign $30,000.

Corbett, whose administration signed the agreement last month, has said he believes Camelot can produce higher and more stable lottery profits. Democratic lawmakers have criticized Corbett as diverting money from programs for the elderly to a foreign firm at a time when the state employees who run the lottery are achieving strong gains in profits and sales and keeping overhead low.

Corbett's agreement with Camelot is for 20 years. Camelot guaranteed at least $34 billion in profit to the state in that period and could earn another 10 years in extensions if it meets certain performance benchmarks. It was allowed to charge the management fee and receive cash incentives for exceeding its annual profit commitments. Those incentives were capped at 5 percent of annual profits.

Besides the lawsuit, other challenges were pending. Treasurer Rob McCord, a Democrat, had warned that he may withhold payment to Camelot unless he was satisfied that the company's still-vague plans to expand the scope of lottery gambling were allowed by current law.

Currently, profits from the 41-year-old Pennsylvania Lottery benefit programs for the elderly, including transit, rent and property tax rebates, prescription drug assistance, senior centers and long-term care services. Two other states, Indiana and Illinois, have hired private lottery managers, while New Jersey is moving in that direction.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pa-attorney-general-rejects-lottery-173742543.html

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Asteroid will buzz, miss Earth _ unlike meteor

This image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech shows a simulation of asteroid 2012 DA14 approaching from the south as it passes through the Earth-moon system on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. The 150-foot object will pass within 17,000 miles of the Earth. NASA scientists insist there is absolutely no chance of a collision as it passes. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

This image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech shows a simulation of asteroid 2012 DA14 approaching from the south as it passes through the Earth-moon system on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. The 150-foot object will pass within 17,000 miles of the Earth. NASA scientists insist there is absolutely no chance of a collision as it passes. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? A 150-foot asteroid hurtled toward Earth's backyard, destined Friday to make the closest known flyby for a rock of its size. In a chilling coincidence, a meteor exploded above Russia's Ural Mountains just hours before the asteroid was due to zoom past the planet.

Scientists the world over, along with NASA, insisted the meteor had nothing to do with the incoming asteroid since they appeared to be traveling in opposite directions. The asteroid is a much more immense object that was expected to miss Earth by 17,150 miles.

But that's still closer than many communication and weather satellites; scientists insisted these, too, would be spared.

Asteroid 2012 DA14, as it's called, is too small to see with the naked eye even at its closest approach around 2:25 p.m. EST, over the Indian Ocean near Sumatra.

The best viewing locations, with binoculars and telescopes, are in Asia, Australia and eastern Europe. Even there, all anyone can see is a pinpoint of light as the asteroid zooms by at 17,400 mph.

As asteroids go, DA14 is a shrimp. The one that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was 6 miles across. But this rock could still do immense damage if it struck given its 143,000-ton heft, releasing the energy equivalent of 2.4 million tons of TNT and wiping out 750 square miles.

By comparison, NASA estimated that the meteor over Russia was about 15 meters (49 feet) wide and weighed about 7,000 tons before it hit the atmosphere. It was about one-quarter the size of the passing asteroid.

As for the back-to-back events, "this is indeed very rare and it is historic," said Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science. While DA14 is about half the length of a football field, the exploding meteor "is probably about on the 15-yard line," he said.

"Now that's pretty big. That's typically a couple times bigger than the normal influx of meteorites that create these fireballs," he said in an interview on NASA TV. "These fireballs happen about once a day or so, but we just don't see them because many of them fall over the ocean or in remote areas. This one was an exception."

As the countdown to asteroid DA14's close approach entered the final hours, NASA noted on its website that the path of the meteor appeared to be quite different than that of the asteroid, making the two objects "completely unrelated." The meteor seemed to be traveling from north to south, while the asteroid was due to pass from south to north ? in the opposite direction.

Even after Friday's scare, scientists remained certain that asteroid DA14 would not impact Earth. And chances were extremely remote, they said, that it will run into any of the satellites orbiting 22,300 miles up.

Most of the solar system's asteroids are situated in a belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and remain stable there for billions of years. Some occasionally pop out, though, into Earth's neighborhood.

The flyby provides a rare learning opportunity for scientists eager to keep future asteroids at bay ? and a prime-time advertisement for those anxious to step up preventive measures.

Friday's meteor ? just 16 hours in advance of DA14's point of closest encounter ? further strengthened the asteroid-alert message.

"We are in a shooting gallery and this is graphic evidence of it," said former Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, chairman emeritus of the B612 Foundation, committed to protecting Earth from dangerous asteroids.

Schweickart noted that 500,000 to 1 million sizable near-Earth objects ? asteroids or comets ? are out there. Yet less than 1 percent ? fewer than 10,000 ? have been inventoried.

Humanity has to do better, he said. The foundation is working to build and launch an infrared space telescope to find and track threatening asteroids.

DA14 ? discovered by Spanish astronomers last February ? is "such a close call" that it is a "celestial torpedo across the bow of spaceship Earth," Schweickart said in a phone interview Thursday.

Astronomers organized asteroid-encounter parties for Friday and experts just about everywhere were giving flyby rundowns.

NASA's deep-space antenna in California's Mojave Desert was ready to collect radar images, but not until eight hours after the closest approach given the United States' poor positioning for the big event.

Scientists at NASA's Near-Earth Object program at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory estimate that an object of this size makes a close approach like this every 40 years. The likelihood of a strike is every 1,200 years.

If a killer asteroid was, indeed, incoming, a spacecraft could, in theory, be launched to nudge the asteroid out of Earth's way, changing its speed and the point of intersection. A second spacecraft would make a slight alteration in the path of the asteroid and ensure it never intersects with the planet again, Schweickart said.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html

B612 Foundation: http://b612foundation.org/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-15-Closest%20Asteroid/id-e38fd836162f44c4a406ec438f79ac2a

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Retaining Walls, Grading in New Mexico

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

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Microsoft shows what the Surface Pro does - which is anything...

Microsoft shows what the Surface Pro does - which is anything but be useful. Basically it seems like Microsoft have though ?sod it, let?s just give up and go out as we came into this market - as awkwardly as possible??

Also pretty neat they removed the like/dislike button on Youtube.?

I?m all for arty expressionist videos but you might want to clear up what the pro actually is. You know, explain to people what it does and why they should buy it. How it is more than just an overpriced iPad??

Or you know you could do beatboxing, that?s really cool.?

Source: http://helloyoucreatives.com/post/43023943887

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Building a biochemistry lab on a chip

Feb. 12, 2013 ? Miniaturized laboratory-on-chip systems promise rapid, sensitive, and multiplexed detection of biological samples for medical diagnostics, drug discovery, and high-throughput screening. Using micro-fabrication techniques and incorporating a unique design of transistor-based heating, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are further advancing the use of silicon transistor and electronics into chemistry and biology for point-of-care diagnostics.

Cross-section of device with a droplet. The left side shows an unheated droplet with the DNA FRET construct in the double-stranded form. The right side shows a heated droplet where the FRET construct has denatured, resulting in an increase in fluorescence.

Lab-on-a-chip technologies are attractive as they require fewer reagents, have lower detection limits, allow for parallel analyses, and can have a smaller footprint.

"Integration of various laboratory functions onto microchips has been intensely studied for many years," explained Rashid Bashir, an Abel Bliss Professor of electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering at Illinois. "Further advances of these technologies require the ability to integrate additional elements, such as the miniaturized heating element, and the ability to integrate heating elements in a massively parallel format compatible with silicon technology.

"In this work, we demonstrated that we can heat nanoliter volume droplets, individually and in an array, using VLSI silicon based devices, up to temperatures that make it interesting to do various biochemical reactions within these droplets."

"Our method positions droplets on an array of individual silicon microwave heaters on chip to precisely control the temperature of droplets-in-air, allowing us to perform biochemical reactions, including DNA melting and detection of single base mismatches," said Eric Salm, first author of the paper, "Ultralocalized thermal reactions in subnanoliter droplets-in-air," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) on February 12.

According to Salm, approaches to perform localized heating of these individual subnanoliter droplets can allow for new applications that require parallel, time-, and space multiplex reactions on a single integrated circuit. Within miniaturized laboratory-on-chips, static and dynamic droplets of fluids in different immiscible media have been used as individual vessels to perform biochemical reactions and confine the products.

"This technology makes it possible to do cell lysing and nucleic acid amplification reactions within these individual droplets -- the droplets are the reaction vessels or cuvettes that can be individually heated," Salm added.

"We also demonstrate that ssDNA probe molecules can be placed on heaters in solution, dried, and then rehydrated by ssDNA target molecules in droplets for hybridization and detection," said Bashir, who is director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory at Illinois. "This platform enables many applications in droplets including hybridization of low copy number DNA molecules, lysing of single cells, interrogation of ligand-receptor interactions, and rapid temperature cycling for amplification of DNA molecules.

"Notably," Bashir added, "our miniaturized heater could also function as dual heater/sensor elements, as these silicon-on-insulator nanowire or nanoribbon structures have been used to detect DNA, proteins, pH, and pyrophosphates.

By using microfabrication techniques and incorporating the unique design of transistor-based heating with individual reaction volumes, 'laboratory-on-a-chip' technologies can be scaled down to 'laboratory-on-a-transistor' technologies as sensor/heater hybrids that could be used for point-of-care diagnostics."

In addition to Salm and Bashir, co-authors of the study included Carlos Duarte Guevara, Piyush Dak, Brian Ross Dorvel, and Bobby Reddy, Jr. at the University of Illinois; and Muhammad Ashraf Alam, Birck Nanotechnology Center and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois College of Engineering.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. E. Salm, C. D. Guevara, P. Dak, B. R. Dorvel, B. Reddy, M. A. Alam, R. Bashir. Ultralocalized thermal reactions in subnanoliter droplets-in-air. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1219639110

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/80wdjpfxh3c/130212132007.htm

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UPDATED: Robotics Lab Willow Garage, Maker Of PR2, Not Shutting Down, But ?Changes Are Afoot?

A spokesman for Willow Garage said, "There are some changes afoot at Willow Garage" but the company is not planning to shut down. Willow Garage, the robotics maker that created the PR2, will likely shut down within the next few months, reports IEEE Spectrum, citing multiple sources within the company.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/KuhZ8pR5JoI/

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Have hired guns finally scuppered Somali pirates?

ABOARD RMS QUEEN MARY (Reuters) - Posted between septuagenarian passengers in deck chairs, lookouts stand watch over the Gulf of Aden, scanning the horizon for pirates.

After more than half a decade of Somali men attacking Indian Ocean shipping from small speedboats with AK-47s, grappling hooks and ladders, the number of attacks is falling fast.

The last merchant ship to be successfully hijacked, naval officers monitoring piracy say, was at least nine months ago. It's a far cry from the height of the piracy epidemic two years ago, when several ships might be taken in a single week to be traded for airdropped multi-million dollar ransoms.

But as the Queen Mary 2, one of the world's most recognisable ocean liners, passes through the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and out towards Dubai, its owners and crew are taking few chances.

"The pirates have weapons and are not afraid to use them," Commander Ollie Hutchinson, the British Royal Navy liaison officer aboard the liner for its trip through the Indian Ocean, tells a briefing of passengers in the ship's theatre. "Once the pirates have identified their target, they will try whatever means they can to get on board."

To underline his point, he displays a picture of an Italian helicopter hit by small arms fire from a pirate dhow late last year followed by assorted images of gunmen holding AK-47 assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades.

In truth, the Queen Mary 2 - carrying 2,500 passengers and 1,300 crew from Southampton to Dubai on the first leg of a world cruise - is not particularly at risk.

Some 345 metres long and 14 stories high, even its promenade deck is seven floors above the sea. The liner is fast, hard to board and - on this passage at least - moderately well armed.

Like many merchant vessels, the QM2 now carries armed private contractors when passing through areas of pirate risk.

Cunard will not discuss precise security arrangements. But contractors on other vessels routinely carry M-16-type assault rifles and sometimes belt-fed machine guns, often picked up from ships acting as floating offshore armouries near Djibouti and Sri Lanka.

Additional lookouts from the ship's regular onboard security force - mostly Filipinos - are also posted on the main deck to give warning of any suspicious craft.

"Depending on what happens with attacks, I'm hopeful we may be able to reduce our security measures when we pass through the same waters next year," says Commodore Christopher Rynd, senior captain of the British-based Cunard line and current master of the QM2. "But that's not a decision we will be making at this stage."

A CHANGING GAME?

When ships do come under attack, the first phone to ring is usually in a nondescript white bungalow in the gardens of the British Embassy in Dubai.

The UK Maritime Trade Organisation (UKMTO) was set up shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks to provide security advice to British shipping in the area. As pirate attacks soared in the second half of the last decade, it found itself coordinating international shipping across much of the Indian Ocean.

Most vessels passing through the area - container ships, tankers, cruise liners and dhows - now register daily with UKMTO. If they believe they are in danger, they will contact the British team to request military support.

"We've had calls when you could hear gunfire and rocket propelled grenades in the background," says Lieutenant Commander Simon Goodes, the current officer in charge. "But lately, the phones are ringing much less."

The only confirmed attack this year, Goodes said, was on a merchant vessel in early January as it sailed towards the Kenyan port of Mombasa. On-board private security guards repelled the assault after a 30 minute firefight.

According to the European Union anti-piracy task force EU NAVFOR, 2012 saw only 36 confirmed attacks and a further 73 "suspicious events" - incidents in which a crew report a suspicious craft that might be pirate but could also be simply an innocent fishing boat. That itself was a substantial fall from 2011, with 176 attacks and 166 "suspicious events".

Only five ships were captured in 2012, down from 25 in 2011 and 27 in 2010.

"This is an important year," says Lieutenant Commander Jacqueline Sheriff, spokeswoman for EU NAVFOR. "We will find out whether this fall in piracy is really sustainable."

Sea-borne attacks off West Africa, however, appear to be on the rise in what some analysts believe is a sign that Nigerian and other criminal gangs may be tempted by the Somali pirate model.

PIRATE BUSINESS MODEL FAILING?

Exactly what is behind the fall in Somali piracy is a matter of debate.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the navies patrolling the Indian Ocean say the numbers show they are finally having an impact. Since piracy first grabbed global attention in 2008, a number of nations have sent ships to the region.

Sailing through the Internationally Registered Transit Corridor, a protected route between Somalia and Yemen, the QM2 passed warships from the United States, France, India and Australia.

As well as the EU force, there are separate flotillas from NATO and U.S.-led coalition forces that often include Asian vessels. Several other nations including China and Russia also keep ships there, running convoys through the "high-risk zone".

In May last year, EU NAVFOR launched its first onshore raid, targeting a suspected pirate group on the beach as it prepared to head to sea with helicopter and small arms fire.

Not everyone, however, believes that explains the fall. For many in the shipping industry, the fall in attacks is a vindication of the decision to massively ramp up the use of armed guards.

So far, not a single ship with armed guards has been taken by pirates - although naval officers and other piracy specialists say hired guards can be excessively trigger-happy and have fired on innocent fishermen from India, Oman and Yemen.

The situation is also changing in Somalia, which has been without a functioning government for two decades. The present administration is becoming more effective, as is an African military force tasked with tackling Islamist rebels.

RETIRED PIRATE, DARKENED LINER

Last month, one of Somalia's highest profile pirates told Reuters he was giving up his life of crime at sea.

"I have given up piracy and succeeded in encouraging more youths to give up piracy," said Mohamed Abdi Hassan. "It was not due to fear of warships. It was just a decision."

In an apparently separate development, three Syrian hostages held since 2010 were released without the payment of a ransom. Four vessels are currently still held by pirates along with 108 hostages, the EU says.

The bottom line, some military officers and analysts believe, may be that the lower success rate for pirates in the last year has prompted those bankrolling them to stop.

But no one is taking the pirates for granted. An apparent attempted night-time attack on a merchant ship only a handful of miles from the entrance to the Gulf at the Strait of Hormuz was a reminder attacks can take place across a huge area.

Shortly before entering the Suez Canal, QM2 held a security drill to instruct passengers in what to do if the ship comes under attack.

Passengers were urged to return below and sit in the companionway outside their rooms until the danger passed.

As dusk falls, orders are given to darken ship. Passengers close the curtains over their portholes or balcony windows, while crew members install blackout curtains in public areas. Basic running lights remain on to avoid collision, however.

The purpose, Commodore Rynd says, is to make it harder for any pirates to identify what kind of ship the QM2 might be and how far away. The darkened ship also makes it easier for the lookouts, equipped with night vision goggles, to see.

Other more vulnerable ships - particularly the "low and slow" - take more precautions. Shortly after first light, QM2 passes a bulk carrier, its fire hoses blasting over its stern to make it harder for pirates to clamber aboard.

In more remote parts of the Indian Ocean, the nearest naval support can be eight or nine hours away.

Aboard the liner, however, passengers seem largely unconcerned.

"It doesn't worry me at all," says Kiki O'Connell, 66, from Portland, Maine, as the ship approached Dubai. "Although I don't suppose we'll see any pirates now. I was hoping for Johnny Depp."

(This story was fixed to correct paragraph 15 to UK Maritime Trade Organisation, not UK Marine Transport Operation)

(Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hired-guns-finally-scuppered-somali-pirates-175735263.html

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Michael Bourn, Indians Agree To Four-Year Deal

CLEVELAND ? Criticized for not spending enough on free agents in recent years, the Indians splurged on another star.

The club agreed to terms Monday with outfielder Michael Bourn on a four-year, $48 million contract. It's the second major deal this winter for the Indians, who signed free agent Nick Swisher to a four-year, $56 million contract in January.

Bourn, who was an All-Star with Atlanta last season, must pass a physical later this week in Goodyear, Ariz., before the deal can be completed. Bourn batted .274 with nine homers, 57 RBIs and 42 steals last season for the Braves. It's not yet known when Bourn will have his medical exam.

As long as there isn't a hang-up, the 30-year-old Bourn, who has remained on the market all winter, will move into the Indians' starting lineup. The speedster played center field last season and would give an immediate boost to a Cleveland team that has reloaded with the acquisition of Swisher, manager Terry Francona and starter Brett Myers.

Fox Sports first reported Bourn's deal.

Bourn, a two-time All-Star, Gold Glove winner and three-time steals leader in the NL, had also been pursued by the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs.

Getting Bourn will cost the Indians picks in June's amateur draft. But it's a small price for a player who will help them score more runs, improve their attendance ? Cleveland averaged just 19,797 fans at home ? and maybe even close the gap on Detroit in the AL Central.

The surprise signing caught one of Bourn's new teammates off guard.

"Did we just sign Michael Bourn?" second baseman Jason Kipnis asked on his Twitter page.

Bourn, a .272 career hitter in seven seasons with Philadelphia, Houston and Atlanta, could wind up in a starting outfield alongside Swisher and Michael Brantley. The Indians also acquired center fielder Drew Stubbs in a trade with Cincinnati, giving Francona options and depth. It's possible Swisher could be moved to first or even be used as the club's designated hitter. Mark Reynolds, also signed during the offseason, can play first or DH.

The deal for Bourn also comes after the Indians signed slugger Jason Giambi and pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka to minor league deals this last weekend. Matsuzaka must still pass a physical with the club.

The Indians collapsed in the second half last season, finishing 68-94 and 20 games behind the first-place Tigers. Manager Manny Acta was fired after Cleveland lost at least 90 games for the third time in four seasons.

But beginning with the hiring of Francona, the Indians have shown they're not going to sit around and wait for things to improve.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/michael-bourn-indians-deal-agree_n_2666207.html

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MCX Copper positive China holidays may bear on volumes

MUMBAI (Commodity Online):?Copper futures for February delivery on India's Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) is positive supported by depreciation of Indian rupee against US dollar. However, week long holidays in China may influence trade volumes.

For intra day, the base metal is expected to trade in positive zone.

?MCX Copper futures has support at 445 while 448 is the resistance. If futures break 448 level then it is expected to move towards 450 level,? said Amrita Mashar, Research Analyst at Commodity Online.

?Chinese markets are closed on account of spring festival for entire week and trading volumes may get influenced on account of holidays,? she added.

MCX Copper futures for February delivery was up by 0.26 percent at Rs.446.85 per kg as of 06.03 on Monday.

Earlier, MCX Copper February contract opened positive by 0.20% and touched intra-day high of 447.10. Also, copper prices were well supported by depreciation in INR against USD.

Copper futures for March delivery on COMEX was down by 0.22 percent at $ 3.752 per pound as of 06.12 PM IST on Monday.

Markets in Hong Kong will remain closed until Thursday on account of Chinese Lunar New Year holidays. Markets in China will be closed for the entire week.

China is the world?s largest copper consumer, accounting for almost 40% of world consumption last year.

Source: http://www.commodityonline.com/news/mcx-copper-positive-china-holidays-may-bear-on-volumes-52751-3-52752.html

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Declassified: America's Secret Flying Saucer

In September 2012, Michael Rhodes, a technician at the National Declassification Center (NDC) in College Park, Md., donned white cotton gloves, entered a climate-controlled room, and opened a cardboard file box. It was time for the report inside?"Project 1794 Final Development Summary Report 2 April?30 May 1956"?to become public.

Rhodes's job is to read such documents, catalog them, and make them available to historians, journalists, and the curious. The paper was crisp, like new. Rhodes began to read.

He soon realized that the file box contained highly unusual material. "As I was processing the collection, I glimpsed this weird red flying-disc icon in the corners," Rhodes says. Inside the box was a trove of oddities: cutaway schematics of disc-shaped aircraft, graphs showing drag and thrust performance at more than Mach 3, black-and-white photos of Frisbee shapes in supersonic wind tunnels. The icon was a flying saucer on a red arrow?the insignia of a little-known and strange sideshow in aeronautical design. Rhodes was leafing through the lost records of a U.S. military flying saucer program.

A Canadian aviation firm began developing a disc-shaped aircraft for the U.S. military in the mid-1950s, and, though the details were secret, the project itself was not unknown. POPULAR MECHANICS mentioned the Air Force's "vertical-rising, high-speed" craft in 1956 and published a photo in 1960. In the decades since the program was canceled in 1961, aviation buffs and UFO researchers have unearthed technical papers written near the end of America's flying saucer experiment, but the document that originally convinced the government to invest in a military flying disc has languished in the NDC under the SECRET designation. This recently discovered report describes in previously unknown detail how aviation engineers tried to harness what were then cutting-edge aerodynamic concepts to make their improbable creation fly. Although Avro's saucer never completed a successful flight, some of the most sophisticated aircraft flying today adopted many of the same technologies.

In 2001, U.S. Air Force personnel cleared the document cache for public release, according to Neil Carmichael, director of the declassification review division at the NDC, which is run by the National Archives and Records Administration. But it took 11 years to crack open the boxes in College Park and glimpse the saucer secrets within?the staff is buried in a backlog of nearly 2 billion pages of declassified material, some of it dating to World War II. "These records probably have been classified since their creation," Carmichael says. "It's like somebody emptied out a filing cabinet, stuck it in a box, sealed it, and sent it off to the federal records center."

In pop culture, flying saucers are the ride of choice for extraterrestrials. What the newly released documents show is that they actually came from Ontario, Canada. That's where a visionary aeronautical engineer at the now-defunct Avro Canada convinced his bosses to support the unlikely project. "During the Cold War the Army, Air Force, and Navy were experimenting with all sorts of things," Carmichael says. As the NDC releases its declassified documents, "the records are going to tell the rest of those stories." The most sensational of the disclosures so far?Project 1794.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/military/declassified-americas-secret-flying-saucer-15075926?src=rss

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