Monthly Archives: May 2012

Astronomy mistake picked up by nine-year-old

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So when nine-year-old Daniel Smith read in a Telegraph astronomy guide last month that Neptune, the most distant of the eight planets, was a mere 4.5 million km from our closest star he instantly recognised that something didn't add up.

A little sleuthing around the relative location of the other planets soon confirmed his suspicion and brought about an explanation an unfortunate typo by the Daily Telegraph.

Our guide, one of two astronomy booklets released last month, should in fact have said 4.5 billion miles, rather than million a fact which Daniel picked up but several pairs of grown-up eyes did not.

Daniel, who lives in New Zealand with his family, explained his reasoning in a letter to his grandfather Don Smith, a Telegraph reader from Felixstowe, Suffolk, who had sent him the books as a present.

He wrote: "Dear grandad, I really liked the solar system books you got us. They were very interesting! But I noticed a mistake.

"It said Neptune was 4.5 million km when mercury was 57.9 million km. I found the problem by looking at the other planets. It turns out that Neptune was supposed to say 4.5 billion km from the Sun."

He signed off the letter "Love, Daniel," adding: "PS, give grandma a kiss from me!"

Mr Smith forwarded the note on to the Telegraph noting how impressed he was that a child had digested the "quite intelligent" booklets so thoroughly that he picked up on the miscalculation.

We quite agree, and would like to thank Daniel for reading our booklets so thoroughly.

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Astronomy mistake picked up by nine-year-old

Exetel taps artificial intelligence

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Internet service provider Exetel has unveiled a new customer support system that uses artificial intelligence to solve user connection and other support issues online.

The Calliope system, developed by Exetel and the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, is the result of an eight-year bid to bake intelligence into the ISP's customer management systems.

The new system was developed over the past two years at the institute, and aims to respond to simple questions that would otherwise be fielded by call centre staff.

Exetel CEO Steve Waddington told Sri Lankan media last week that by automatically answering common user issues online - often by pointing them to a centralised wiki of support information - the new system freed up support engineers' time and reduced the company's support costs.

Waddington drew parallels between the system and the 'Siri' feature on Apple iPhones, which translated user requests in natural language - as opposed to set commands - to deliver answers from a variety of sources.

"Siri is exactly the sort of intelligent agent that Calliope is on a commercial basis. You could say Siri is to Calliope what a spreadsheet is to Oracle database," he said.

Despite the use of natural language, the Calliope system requires users to enter short, clear sentences with readily recognisable phrases such as "drop outs", "no sync" or product names in order to receive support.

The AI system did not replace the call centre for complex user support issues, Waddington said, but removes the need for call centre staff to deal with simple questions often repeated through users.

"Eight years ago we conceived of Calliope as a method to make us a more efficient company, and make the information our customers wanted more available to them," he said.

"Our own development stalled in its second year. We had simply reached the limit of the resources a small company like us could commit to such a project. And the concept languished for a few years."

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Exetel taps artificial intelligence

VIDEO: Marshall Aerospace wins £350m contract

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VIDEO: Marshall Aerospace wins £350m contract

Canvas to canvass for nutrition cause Vidya to unveil exhibition

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Glamour and creativity will come together on Tuesday evening to raise awareness for a worthy cause fighting the ills of malnutrition.

Along with King Khan and his Knights, the city on Tuesday will play host to its very own Vidya Bidya Bagchi Balan, who will inaugurate a special exhibition of artwork by 14 eminent Calcutta-based artists at the Oberoi Grand.

The exhibition, under the Art for Nutrition banner, is part of the Horlicks Aahar Abhiyan initiative launched by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare in association with NGO Child In Need Institute (CINI), The Telegraph and Anandabazar Patrika.

The list of participating artists reads like a whos who of the Calcutta art circuit: Aditya Basak, Atin Basak, Bimal Kundu, Jogen Chowdhury, Kingshuk Sarkar, Partha Dasgupta, Pradip Maitra, Rabin Mondal, Reshmi Bagchi Sarkar, Samir Aich, Shuvaprasanna, Sreyashi Chatterjee, Subrata Gangopadhyay, and Sumitro Basak. Twelve of them have contributed a painting each, while Chowdhury has given four. Kundu has contributed a sculpture.

Vidya, who has taken up the cause, will unveil each artwork at the exhibition.

This (campaign) is close to my heart because I believe that nutrition is a basic need. And Horlicks is such a part of our culture, its one of the oldest brands in the country. And of course, it gives me a chance to come back to my hometown, Calcutta, the actress told Metro.

Across the world, government efforts to increase awareness about social and health issues are being supplemented by the private sector, said Shuvaprasanna. I was happy to learn that an initiative on malnutrition was being taken in Bengal. This will benefit society in the long run. The seeds of the perils of a malnourished life have been sown in the minds of children who were asked to paint on the subject. They will grow up to be volunteers and leaders in the campaign, extending a helping hand to their less privileged brothers. Approaching slums and tea gardens with messages about the need for nutritious food, which will be within their means, may improve the quality of life there.

Most of the artwork that will be displayed at the exhibition are on the mother and child theme and aims to raise awareness about the need for right nutrition for children.

The proceeds from the exhibition will go to CINI for the implementation of the Horlicks Aahar Abhiyan, which aims to tackle malnutrition in the state.

CINI has identified two target areas for the first phase of implementation the Mazdoorpara slums in ward 66 and the Chamrapatti slums in ward 65 of Calcutta and the tea gardens of Dhupguri block in Jalpaiguri district. Their plan of action includes launching awareness workshops, monitoring the health and weight of children in the target areas, training local employees and working with the Integrated Child Development Services centres.

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Canvas to canvass for nutrition cause Vidya to unveil exhibition

Senior Nutrition Program serves 60,000 meals

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Editor's note: This is the next in a series of articles about the member agencies of the United Way Alliance of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

MARIETTA - The Senior Nutrition Program offered through Washington-Morgan Community Action served about 60,000 meals last year through its home-bound meal deliveries and congregate nutrition sites.

The nutrition program receives funding from the United Way Alliance of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

Carrie McNamee, director of Senior and Community Services at Community Action, said the program offers six congregate nutrition sites, which include five in Washington County and one in Morgan County.

The sites are: Marietta, O'Neill Senior Center, Fourth and Scammel streets; New Matamoras, Carrol Senior Center, 606 Broadway Ave.; Lower Salem, Lower Salem Village Hall; Beverly, John Dodge Senior Center, 218 Fourth St.; McConnelsville, Reicker Building, 155 E. Main St.; Layman, Layman United Methodist Church, Brownrigg Road; and Belpre, Rockland United Methodist Church, 2300 Washington Blvd.

Food is prepared at the O'Neill Senior Center in Marietta from Monday through Friday, with 400 meals prepared daily, which includes the congregate meals and the program's home-delivered meals, McNamee said.

The program is for seniors over the age of 60 for the congregate sites and age 60 and over and homebound for the delivered meals. There are no income guidelines and while a $3 donation is requested for the meals, they will still be provided if a person can't pay, McNamee said.

Both programs have grown over the years, but the limiting factor is funding, she said. There is a waiting list with over 100 people on it for the home-delivered meals, but the program doesn't have enough money to expand the service further at this time.

Depending on the season, the congregate sites may have between five to 25 people who come in for the meals.

"We always have more and more people that are needing services as our population ages, especially here in Washington County," she said.

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Senior Nutrition Program serves 60,000 meals

Clay Buchholz Leans on Improved Changeup to Finally Provide Stability, Longevity in Start

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BOSTON -- Following his last start, Clay Buchholz promised stronger results.

After surrendering at least five runs in seven starts, the right-hander wanted to reward the Red Sox' offense for its run support. Buchholz aimed to accomplish the goal by providing stability and longevity moving forward.

Sunday's outing was a strong beginning toward ensuring that. Although he didn't receive a decision in the 4-3 loss to the Rays, Buchholz enjoyed his longest and best start, going seven innings while striking out a season-high six batters. He allowed just two runs.

"I've been able to start trusting [my changeup] again and start throwing it like I have in the past instead of trying to baby it, guide it and throw it for a strike," Buchholz said. "It's been just trying to throw a fastball with a different grip right now, and that's when it's at its best."

The first run Buchholz yielded was a byproduct of Adrian Gonzalez's inexperience in the outfield. When Matt Joyce roped a double into right field, Gonzalez fielded it cleanly, but he misfired on the cutoff throw to second base.

As a result of the fourth-inning error, Joyce advanced to third and ultimately scored on Ben Zobrist's groundout. Buchholz was still able to avoid the kind of big inning that has plagued him for the majority of April and May.

"I was very encouraged," Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. "He looked good. He gave up that second run and he was still throwing pretty good. I thought we were going to pull that one out and get him what he deserved. I thought he deserved a win."

But Buchholz at least emerged with confidence. He tallied a season-high in pitches (111) and innings while matching lows in runs and walks (one), key components to regaining his old form.

"The big thing was I stayed out of the middle of the plate for the most part," Buchholz said. "When I missed, I missed off -- either away or in. I felt like I was able to throw almost all my pitches for strikes at some point during the game. I felt this good my past three starts, just hadn't had the results."

Behind the backstop, Jarrod Saltalamacchia credit Buchholz's smooth start to the hurler's changeup. By leaning on the pitch, Buchholz was able to routinely induce weak contact from Tampa Bay's hitters.

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Clay Buchholz Leans on Improved Changeup to Finally Provide Stability, Longevity in Start

DNA rape case evidence 'flawed'

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DNA expert Professor Angela Van Daal leaves court. Picture: Campbell Brodie Source: The Advertiser

THE case against a man accused of rape is built on inflated DNA evidence and flawed statistics, a court has heard.

Prosecutors claim Peter Tasman Cannell raped an elderly woman in her home and escaped detection for 17 years. A DNA sample, they claim, proves there is a 600-billion-to-1 chance of anyone other than Cannell being the rapist.

Yesterday, Bond University forensics expert Associate Professor Angela van Daal told the District Court that statistic was unreliable.

Giving evidence on Cannell's behalf, she said Forensic Science SA had not revealed its "confidence interval" - an expression, as a percentage, of faith in its conclusion. She said the odds of Cannell being the rapist could drop between 20 and 40 per cent once that figure was included in calculations.

"The confidence interval takes into account the number of people in the database ... one with 100 or 200 people isn't going to give the same confidence as one with 1000 or one million people," Prof van Daal said.

"That is a very fundamental concept of statistics, something that any student would have done ... it's very elementary.

"Any estimate can, obviously, be incorrect ... given you do not know the true answer, it's important to determine the confidence had in the estimate."

Cannell, 41, of Victoria, has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and one count of burglary.

Prosecutors have alleged he raped a woman, 81, in her Wright St home in October 1993. The victim suffered extensive injuries requiring six weeks in hospital.

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DNA rape case evidence 'flawed'

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'No DNA' on two Michaela accused

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28 May 2012 Last updated at 06:12 ET

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BBC reporter Natasha Sayee has sent this report from the Mauritian capital Port Louis

The trial of two men charged with the murder of Michaela McAreavey has heard that no DNA from either of the accused was found in her hotel room in Mauritius or on her body.

Mrs McAreavey, a 27-year-old teacher, was found dead during her honeymoon at the Legends Hotel in January 2011.

Hotel workers Avinash Treebhoowoon, 30, and Sandip Moneea, 42, deny murder.

On Monday, the court heard evidence from an Oxfordshire-based forensic scientist.

Susan Woodroffe examined samples from Mrs McAreavey's body, as well as swabs taken from the hotel room.

The scientist, who is a prosecution witness, said that the results of her tests revealed "no specific indication" of DNA from either of the accused.

An additional key card for the couple's room was also examined and was found to contain the DNA of Dassen Naraynen, a security guard at the Legend's Hotel who was charged with conspiracy to murder in the days after the killing.

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'No DNA' on two Michaela accused

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Missing kids: Perception, reality

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By Kenneth V. Lanning, Special to CNN

updated 5:07 PM EDT, Fri May 25, 2012

National Missing Children's Day is based on the case of Etan Patz.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor's note: Kenneth V. Lanning, a consultant in crimes against children, was a special agent with the FBI for more than 30 years and was assigned to the FBI Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI Academy for 20 of those years.

(CNN) -- May 25, National Missing Children's Day, is a day on which we honor and remember missing children. This date was chosen specifically because it is the date in 1979 when 6-year-old Etan Patz went missing on his way to school in New York.

The Patz case has resurfaced as a result of some potential new leads and an arrest that hopefully will result in the case finally being solved. I have the greatest respect and empathy for the parents of Etan, who are going through what is clearly one of the greatest nightmares any parent can experience -- never again seeing and not knowing what happened to one's own child.

Just as the Lindbergh case in the 1930s became a landmark case for increased national awareness concerning ransom kidnapping, the Patz case became a landmark case for increased national awareness concerning "stranger abduction." Each of these cases played a major role in creating laws, but they also fueled some confusing stereotypes.

Kenneth V. Lanning

When I joined the FBI in 1970 and someone talked about child abduction, you immediately assumed it was a ransom-motivated case. In less than 20 years, the attitude drastically changed to almost immediately assuming any child abduction involved a sexual predator. Either assumption is obviously not always correct.

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Missing kids: Perception, reality

The anatomy of a stellar outflow

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A Hubble image of a jet of emission from a young star. A new paper reports that infrared spectra of a jet has uncovered a rich trove of diagnostic emission lines from shock-excited molecules and atoms. Credit: Reipurth, NASA, and HST

(Phys.org) -- Astronomers used to think that star formation simply involved the gradual coalescence of material under the influence of gravity. No longer. Making a new star is a complex process, among other things assembling a circumstellar disk (possibly preplanetary in nature) and at the same time ejecting material as bipolar jets perpendicular to those disks. These outflows help the young star balance its growth as new material accretes, but at the same time they disrupt the environment. Although jets from young stars have been known for over twenty years, their influences on the environment have remained uncertain, in part because the dusty natal clouds in which stars form obscure optical light.

SAO astronomers Achim Tappe, Jan Forbrich, and Charlie Lada, with two colleagues, used the spectrometer on the Spitzer Space Telescope to probe one relatively nearby, young stellar outflow. It had already been known that this fast-moving jet, as it plowed into the medium, shocked the gas; the process is much the same as when a jet plane moves faster than the speed of sound and creates a shock wave. But for young stellar outflow, the particulars were mostly mysterious. The scientists discovered in the infrared spectra a rich trove of bright emission features from at least seven different molecules excited by the shock - molecular hydrogen, water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, OH, HD, and one ionized species of HCO. Numerous atomic lines were also observed.

The astronomers concluded that the shock has distinctive regions along its length as it plows through the natal cloud at velocities of about 40 kilometers per second. At the very tip, where the jet suddenly encounters ambient gas and slows down, there is ionized material and strong molecular hydrogen emission; closer to the star the gas temperatures and densities vary in systematic ways as previously excited gas begins to cool off. Bright knots are seen all along the jet's path, either the result of ejected hot clumps or previously existing clumps that were shocked when the jet passed. The new paper is among the first to discover and analyze the complex infrared radiation from shocks around new-born stars, and it helps open the door to new methods of probing the environment of star formation.

Provided by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

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The anatomy of a stellar outflow

Working with solvents tied to cognitive problems for less-educated people

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Public release date: 28-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rachel Seroka rseroka@aan.com 612-928-6129 American Academy of Neurology

MINNEAPOLIS Exposure to solvents at work may be associated with reduced thinking skills later in life for those who have less than a high school education, according to a study published in the May 29, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The thinking skills of people with more education were not affected, even if they had the same amount of exposure to solvents.

"People with more education may have a greater cognitive reserve that acts like a buffer allowing the brain to maintain its ability to function in spite of damage," said study author Lisa F. Berkman, PhD, of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. "This may be because education helps build up a dense network of connections among brain cells."

The study involved 4,134 people who worked at the French national gas and electric company. The majority of the people worked at the company for their entire career. Their lifetime exposure to four types of solventschlorinated solvents, petroleum solvents, benzene and non-benzene aromatic solventswas assessed. The participants took a test of thinking skills when they were an average of 59 years old and 91 percent were retired.

A total of 58 percent of the participants had less than a high school education. Of those, 32 percent had cognitive impairment, or problems with thinking skills, compared to 16 percent of those with more education. Among the less-educated, those who were highly exposed to chlorinated and petroleum solvents were 14 percent more likely to have cognitive problems than those with no exposure. People highly exposed to benzene were 24 percent more likely to have cognitive problems, and those highly exposed to non-benzene aromatic solvents were 36 percent more likely to have cognitive problems.

"These findings suggest that efforts to improve quality and quantity of education early in life could help protect people's cognitive abilities later in life," Berkman said, who worked alongside study author Erika Sabbath, ScD. "Investment in education could serve as a broad shield against both known and unknown exposures across the lifetime. This is especially important given that some evidence shows that federal levels of permissible exposure for some solvents may be insufficient to protect workers against the health consequences of exposure."

###

The study was supported by the French National Research Agency and the French Agency for Environment and Work Health Security.

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Anarchists attack science

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Investigations of the shooting of nuclear-engineering head Roberto Adinolfi have confirmed the involvement of an eco-anarchist group.

P. RATTINI/AFP/GETTY

A loose coalition of eco-anarchist groups is increasingly launching violent attacks on scientists.

A group calling itself the Olga Cell of the Informal Anarchist Federation International Revolutionary Front has claimed responsibility for the non-fatal shooting of a nuclear-engineering executive on 7May in Genoa, Italy. The same group sent a letter bomb to a Swiss pro-nuclear lobby group in 2011; attempted to bomb IBMs nanotechnology laboratory in Switzerland in 2010; and has ties with a group responsible for at least four bomb attacks on nanotechnology facilities in Mexico. Security authorities say that such eco-anarchist groups are forging stronger links.

On 11May, the cell sent a four-page letter to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera claiming responsibility for the shooting of Roberto Adinolfi, the chief executive of Ansaldo Nucleare, the nuclear-engineering subsidiary of aerospace and defence giant Finmeccanica. Believed by authorities to be genuine, the letter is riddled with anti-science rhetoric. The group targeted Adinolfi because he is a sorcerer of the atom, it wrote. Adinolfi knows well that it is only a matter of time before a European Fukushima kills on our continent.

Science in centuries past promised us a golden age, but it is pushing us towards self-destruction and total slavery, the letter continues. With this action of ours, we return to you a tiny part of the suffering that you, man of science, are pouring into this world. The group also threatened to carry out further attacks.

The Italian Ministry of the Interior has subsequently beefed up security at thousands of potential political, industrial and scientific targets. The measures include assigning bodyguards to 550 individuals.

The Olga Cell, named after an imprisoned Greek anarchist, is part of the Informal Anarchist Federation, which, in April 2011, claimed responsibility for sending a parcel bomb that exploded at the offices of the Swiss nuclear lobby group, Swissnuclear, in Olten. A letter found in the remains of the bomb demanded the release of three individuals who had been detained for plotting an attack on IBMs flagship nanotechnology facility in Zurich earlier that year. In a situation report published this month, the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service explicitly linked the federation to the IBM attack.

The Informal Anarchist Federation argues that technology, and indeed civilization, is responsible for the worlds ills, and that scientists are the handmaidens of capitalism. Finmeccanica means bio- and nanotechnology. Finmeccanica means death and suffering, new frontiers of Italian capitalism, the letter reads.

The cell says that it is uniting with eco-anarchist groups in other countries, including Mexico, Chile, Greece and the United Kingdom. Mexico has already seen similar attacks: in August 2011, a group called Individuals Tending Towards Savagery sent a parcel bomb that wounded two nanotechnology researchers at the Monterrey Institute of Technology. One received burns to his legs and a perforated eardrum and the other had his lung pierced by shrapnel (G. Herrera Corral Nature 476,373; 2011). The package contained enough explosive to collapse part of the building, according to police, but failed to detonate properly.

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Anarchists attack science

Researchers Determine AUF1 Gene Controls Inflammation/Cancer/Accelerated Aging

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Researchers described the gene as a "medical and scientific trinity"

NYU School of Medicine researchers have found that the connection between inflammation, accelerated aging and cancer lies in one specific gene.

Robert J. Schneider, PhD, study leader from NYU School of Medicine, along with an NYU team, have found that a single gene, AUF1,is responsible for the correlation between inflammation, accelerated aging and cancer, and can control all three.

For years, it was understood that AUF1 controlled inflammation, and it was also known that there was a connection between inflammation, accelerated aging and cancer. However, the reason for the connection was unknown.

Now, Schneider and his team have figured out this mystery connection. According to the team, the AUF1 gene not only controls inflammatory response, but also activates the enzyme telomerase to repair the ends of chromosomes. This decreases inflammation and prevents rapid aging and cancer development.

"This was certainly an unexpected finding," said Schneider. "It is rather uncommon for one gene to have two very different and very significant functions that tie together control of aging and inflammation. The two, if not regulated properly, can eventually lead to cancer development. It's an exciting scientific find.

"AUF1 is a medical and scientific trinity. Nature has designed a way to simultaneously turn off harmful inflammation and repair our chromosomes, thereby suppressing aging at the cellular level and in the whole animal."

The study was published in the journal Molecular Cell.

Source: e! Science News

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Researchers Determine AUF1 Gene Controls Inflammation/Cancer/Accelerated Aging

Like father (not) like son: Showed up in chemistry class

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My son, Alexander, is completing his high school career by taking chemistry and physics.

Which makes him 50 percent smarter than I am.

Or maybe its 100 percent.

Im equally lost among the precepts of mathematics as I am fumbling around in convoluted formulas of chemistry and the insane concepts of physics.

This is why I labored through only chemistry in high school, achieving, by way of the dogged determination that is the clueless students only advantage, a flaccid C.

(I was pretty deft with a Bunsen burner, as well. And one time I tried to make nitroglycerine, a failed effort that seemed to amuse the teacher. Probably because I didnt hurt anyone.)

I have few distinct memories from chemistry class, but one retains that crystalline quality which our brains, in some cruel twist of human evolution, reserve for our most embarrassing episodes.

(Actually only part of the memory is still vivid; I have no recollection at all of the details of the problem we were supposed to solve.)

The occasion was a particularly rare one: An experiment that seemed to me, if not logical, at least understandable.

I volunteered to walk up to the blackboard (it was in fact green, but, as with the black kind, you wrote on it with chalk) and demonstrate the equation.

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Like father (not) like son: Showed up in chemistry class

Class of '12: Lely graduate had good chemistry with school studies

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Photo courtesy of Foster Photography Katie Hogan

EAST NAPLES When Katie Hogan took chemistry during her junior year at Lely High School, she was hooked.

"Everyone was complaining about how hard it was," Katie said as she sat in the library on her last day of school. "I said, 'It's not hard, it's easy.' I ended up helping other students. Science has always been easy for me."

So she asked her mother, Jackie, a pharmaceutical rep, what career was most like chemistry and began working toward that goal.

"Some jobs aren't needed anymore, but people always need medicine," the 18-year-old said. "Pharmacology, I feel like it will always be there."

Katie, who has a 3.869 gpa, is Lely's 2012 Graduate of Distinction. She juggled a full course load in addition to being an award-winning sports captain, volunteering and completing an online pre-calculus class for an extra math credit.

"It takes a lot of self-motivation," said Chris Black, the school's librarian and media specialist, who saw her working online every day. "Math is not an easy subject without someone to teach you."

Black, the school running coach and Katie's coach since seventh grade, called her "one of the best," a seventh-grader who excelled and continued getting better.

"No matter what she does, whether it's athletics or school work, she does whatever you ask her to and she does her best and always has a smile," he said. "She even runs with a smile."

Last week, Katie was awarded the Bright Futures Medallion, meaning 50 percent of her tuition is paid for at a state school. Katie, who lives with her mother; stepfather, Mark Urban; and brother, Danny, originally wanted to go to Florida State University in Tallahassee, but instead chose University of Central Florida in Orlando.

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Class of '12: Lely graduate had good chemistry with school studies

Chemistry industry applauds federal government's action to end CP strike

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OTTAWA, May 28, 2012 /CNW/ - The Chemistry Industry Association of Canada supports the federal government's back-to-work legislation requiring the appointment of an arbitrator to resolve outstanding disputes between Canadian Pacific Railway and its 4,800 striking employees.

CIAC's member-companies rely on rail to ship more than 70 per cent of their products, and the CP strike has hindered their ability to get those products to market. If the strike were to continue, some CIAC plants could be forced to reduce their production by the end of this week.

CIAC estimates that the 2007 rail strike cost chemistry companies - and the Canadian economy - in the order of $200 million dollars. When a chemical plant cannot deliver its products to market, the effects can be felt throughout the economy in sectors such as energy, housing, automobiles, pulp and paper, and consumer products - all of which rely on inputs from the chemistry industry. There can be health and safety implications as well; the industry's chemicals are essential for many Canadian municipalities to treat their water.

On May 22, 2012, CIAC President Richard Paton sent a letter to Labour Minister Lisa Raitt (now posted on http://www.canadianchemistry.ca) urging a quick resolution to the CP strike. The government's back-to-work legislation is an appropriate response to the chemistry industry's calls for action; it will mitigate further economic loss, and prevent damage to Canada's reputation as a reliable link in global supply-chains.

Fiona Cook Director Business & Economics Chemistry Industry Association of Canada 613-297-0509

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Chemistry industry applauds federal government's action to end CP strike

The anatomy of a stellar outflow

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A Hubble image of a jet of emission from a young star. A new paper reports that infrared spectra of a jet has uncovered a rich trove of diagnostic emission lines from shock-excited molecules and atoms. Credit: Reipurth, NASA, and HST

(Phys.org) -- Astronomers used to think that star formation simply involved the gradual coalescence of material under the influence of gravity. No longer. Making a new star is a complex process, among other things assembling a circumstellar disk (possibly preplanetary in nature) and at the same time ejecting material as bipolar jets perpendicular to those disks. These outflows help the young star balance its growth as new material accretes, but at the same time they disrupt the environment. Although jets from young stars have been known for over twenty years, their influences on the environment have remained uncertain, in part because the dusty natal clouds in which stars form obscure optical light.

SAO astronomers Achim Tappe, Jan Forbrich, and Charlie Lada, with two colleagues, used the spectrometer on the Spitzer Space Telescope to probe one relatively nearby, young stellar outflow. It had already been known that this fast-moving jet, as it plowed into the medium, shocked the gas; the process is much the same as when a jet plane moves faster than the speed of sound and creates a shock wave. But for young stellar outflow, the particulars were mostly mysterious. The scientists discovered in the infrared spectra a rich trove of bright emission features from at least seven different molecules excited by the shock - molecular hydrogen, water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, OH, HD, and one ionized species of HCO. Numerous atomic lines were also observed.

The astronomers concluded that the shock has distinctive regions along its length as it plows through the natal cloud at velocities of about 40 kilometers per second. At the very tip, where the jet suddenly encounters ambient gas and slows down, there is ionized material and strong molecular hydrogen emission; closer to the star the gas temperatures and densities vary in systematic ways as previously excited gas begins to cool off. Bright knots are seen all along the jet's path, either the result of ejected hot clumps or previously existing clumps that were shocked when the jet passed. The new paper is among the first to discover and analyze the complex infrared radiation from shocks around new-born stars, and it helps open the door to new methods of probing the environment of star formation.

Provided by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

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The anatomy of a stellar outflow

Smith World Tour Trailer – Video

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26-05-2012 16:20 lA | dUBAI | bANGKOK The |Smith| World Tour turned out to be an amazing adventure. Check out the trailer to the forthcoming web series that will give a sneak peak at my journey's to the other side of the world. Shout out to new friend and travel partner Jamechia Hoyle (Washington District of Columbia) for some of the film footage as well as modeling for Lamb's Wool during our international shoot in Bangkok. Stay tuned for my adventures---after all, it's my story and Im going to tell it! (you may kindly untag yourself after viewing) -Smith

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Smith World Tour Trailer - Video

Tweedsmuir Park Lodge Earns Prestigious 2012 TripAdvisor "Certificate of Excellence"

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Tweedsmuir Park Lodge Honoured as a Highly Rated Accommodation Property (Wilderness Lodge) as Reviewed by Travelers on the World’s Largest Travel SiteBella Coola, BC, Canada (PRWEB) May 28, 2012 Tweedsmuir Park Lodge, a wilderness resort in the wilds of British Columbia, today announced that it has received a TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence award. The accolade, which honours hospitality ...

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WEF Blog: Freedom to travel: opening markets by opening borders

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WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

The global economy is suffering from a prolonged downturn brought on by events ranging from fiscal crises in the West to natural disasters here in Southeast Asia. Policy debates worldwide increasingly reflect the need for economic growth and job creation. With global unemployment of 200 million and 40 million people projected to enter the labor force every year, 600 million jobs will need to be created over the next decade.

A Swiss border guard checks a passport at the Euroairport in Basel-Mulhouse February 7, 2012. REUTERS/Pascal Lauener

Theres no single solution for achieving such a daunting task, but the contributions of the Travel & Tourism industry are too often overlooked in the debate over how to create jobs. While conventional sources for employment such as manufacturing and investment get most of the attention, a joint study by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reveals that Travel & Tourism directly employs 98 million people, more than automotive manufacturing, global communications, mining or financial services. Additionally, the study shows the economic impact of Travel & Tourism in 2011 was $6.3 trillion, or 9.1 percent of the global GDP.

And Travel & Tourism is one sector in which growth does not require significant new government investment. It can be facilitated simply by removing bureaucratic restrictions already in place, in particular the antiquated processes by which most states issue visas to foreign visitors. Long wait times, the absence of local consular offices and excessive documentation requirements discourage travel, restricting visitor spending and the jobs and growth it generates. Modernizing and simplifying visa applications and approval processes, and introducing new technology such as e-visas, would go a long way to maximizing Travel & Tourisms payoff to local economies.

For the past year, the World Economic Forums Aviation, Travel and Tourism Council has been working to promote e-visas worldwide. The Council has produced a Call to Action manifesto that highlights the opportunities that e-visas provide, and has made key recommendations to improve existing visa policies as a bridge toward a liberalized e-visa regime. Through these efforts, and in conjunction the WTTC/UNWTO study, the Council hopes to persuade leaders in Southeast Asia and other regions of the world of the economic benefits of modernized visa programs.

The good news is that some Southeast Asian nations have already identified collaboration and improved technology as two of the most important means of updating their visa programs and expanding the Travel & Tourism sector. Thailand and Cambodia began offering a combined tourist visa this past February, with plans to expand the program to include Vietnam and Laos by the end of the year. Such cooperative efforts by neighboring states make travel more convenient and thus more attractive to potential visitors. At their January meeting, the ASEAN Tourism Ministers set an even higher bar for regional collaboration by pledging their support for an ASEAN common visa, with the hopes of having a plan ready for consideration by the 2015 ASEAN Summit. We applaud this effort. A common visa for the 10 ASEAN States will likely have beneficial economic effects similar to those experienced by the European States involved in the Schengen visa program.

With respect to technology, this region already has experience with accepting visa applications online. Cambodia has an e-visa and Myanmar unveiled its own e-visa in March. A region-wide e-visa system would definitely help Southeast Asia stand out as a tourist destination.

Travel & Tourism already enjoys what any industry needs to generate growth: a product in high demand. The people of Southeast Asia can take advantage by removing unnecessary barriers between that product and a potential customer base of tens of millions of 21st century travelers.

Brian Havel, Professor of Law, De Paul University, USA and member of the Global Agenda Council on Aviation, Travel and Tourism, World Economic Forum

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WEF Blog: Freedom to travel: opening markets by opening borders