Shares of Netflix surged 8 percent Monday after reports surfaced that cable operators were considering embedding the video streamer's service into set-top boxes.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the discussions, said Netflix is talking to Comcast and Suddenlink Communications. Bloomberg later reported talks are underway with Charter Communications and Cox Communications as well.
Netflix stock Tuesday rose $23.51 a share to $324.36 on volume that was more than twice the average.
Presumably, a deal in the U.S. would be similar to those Netflix recently struck with Virgin Media in the U.K. and Com Hem in Sweden. With those two -- at least initially -- only subscribers who use TiVo set-top boxes will be able to access a Netflix app.
Netflix's goal, though, is more likely that the app be made available on cable boxes in general, making the on-demand streamer more of a partner to multi-systems operators and less a competitor.
"We would love to reduce the friction to the end consumer and be available via the existing device in the home," Netflix CFO David Wells said this year at an investor conference.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ashley Tisdale said she's delighted to voice the title character in Hub TV's new "Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch." But her 3-year-old niece has her beat.
"She's super excited about it," Tisdale said. "She saw the 'Sabrina' poster in my house and said, 'Aunt Ashley is Sabrina!'"
For Tisdale, her role in the animated series debuting 9 a.m. EDT Saturday is an acting treat.
Sabrina is "such a cute, quirky character. She's really cool and popular in 'witch world,' but when it comes to her human world she's klutzy and completely opposite," she said. "It's fun to play with both sides."
There's another advantage to the show, Tisdale said: Voice recording sessions don't demand playing dress-up and she can even work in sweats.
The live-action series "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," which starred Melissa Joan Hart as a high school student who discovers she's a witch, aired from 1996-2003.
Tisdale's voice-acting skills, honed in projects including "Phineas and Ferb," allow her to continue playing characters Sabrina's age or even younger. But the former "High School Musical" star now is 28, recently engaged to rocker Christopher French (they're in "the beginning stages" of wedding plans, she said) and runs her own production company.
Among other projects, the company is producing a pilot for ABC Family, Tisdale said. She's also keeping on-screen roles in the forefront, playing Rebel Wilson's sister in freshman sitcom "Super Fun Night" and taping an episode next week of "The Crazy Ones," the new Robin Williams comedy on CBS.
She sounds a bit awed talking about Wilson, who's wearing writing, producing and starring hats for her ABC sitcom. That is both daunting and inspiring, said Tisdale, adding, "You're so proud of her because she's doing it."
Williams is another role model, said the actress who began working as a preteen.
"I grew up watching every Robin Williams movie ever made, so this is so exciting," she said. "It's cool to be able to work with people you've looked up to and enjoyed and can learn from."
Hyderabad, Oct 15 (IANS) The gross originating earnings of South Central Railway (SCR) have registered a growth of 6.22 percent during the first half of the current fiscal, a statement said here.
The zone has achieved gross originating earnings of Rs.4,973 crore which is Rs.291 crore more compared to the corresponding period last year.
SCR has shown an improved performance both in revenues and traffic volume from April to September 2013, said the statement by the zone headquartered here.
The volume of passengers grew by 1.7 percent. The zone carried 197.1 million of originating passengers, compared to 193.8 million during corresponding period of last year. SCR is carrying around 10.80 lakh of originating passengers on an average daily.
The passenger earnings have shown a growth of 20 percent. It was Rs.1,286 crore, up from Rs.1,070 crore during April-September 2012.
Originating freight earnings registered a marginal growth of 1.4 percent to Rs.3,430 crore. SCR loaded 52.1 million tonnes (MT) of originating freight during first half of current fiscal. The major commodities include 13.65 MT cement, 3.3 MT food grains, 2.6 MT fertilizers and 27.6 MT coal.
The rail freight loading at Krishnapatnam Port increased to 7.1 MT from 5.8 MT during the same period last year. The loading at Kakinada Port was 3.1 MT, compared to 2.5 MT last year.
Brasilia (Brazil) (AFP) - Brazil said it will activate a secure email system next month to protect government communications from spying by the United States and other countries.
President Dilma Rousseff on Sunday announced the system's implementation in response to press disclosures on Washington's massive cyber spying on her country, as revealed by US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
"President Dilma Rousseff intends to make this the rule in the federal public administration," Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo told reporters on Monday.
He added that the Federal Data Processing Service (SERPRO) is in the process of creating a new version of the system, which will probably become operational in November.
"We need more security on our messages to prevent possible espionage," Rousseff said on Twitter Sunday.
SERPRO, which falls under Brazil's finance ministry, develops secure systems for online tax returns and also creates new passports.
"This is the first step toward extending the privacy and inviolability of official posts," Rousseff said Sunday.
Last month, Rousseff scrapped a US state visit after documents leaked by Snowden, a former US National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor, revealed the extent of Washington's spying on its Brazilian ally.
She also condemned the US electronic espionage during her address to the UN General Assembly last month.
Via Snowden's leaked documents, Brazilian daily Globo revealed that the NSA snooped on Rousseff's communications with aides and on phone calls.
It also published that the United States had gathered email data on millions of Brazilians as well as on state-run energy giant Petrobras.
Canada, a close US ally, also targeted Brazil's mining and energy ministry for "economic and strategic motives," according to Brasilia.
Rousseff has vowed to introduce a measure at the United Nations to establish an "international civilian framework" to protect the privacy of Internet users.
And she announced that her country will host an international conference on Internet governance in April.
Snowden, 30, who has sought refuge in Russia, is wanted by Washington after revealing details of the NSA's massive worldwide espionage activities.
BRUSSELS (AP) ? The European Union placed the military wing of the Lebanese party Hezbollah on its terror list on Monday in a major policy change toward the Middle East.
The EU's 28 foreign ministers reached the decision unanimously at their monthly meeting, swiftly swaying the last nations that had any doubts.
It came after prolonged diplomatic pressure from the United States and Israel, who both consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
"The EU has sent a clear message that it stands united against terrorism," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. "It shows that no organization can carry out terrorist acts on European soil."
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also emphasized European unity. "We will not stand for terror in Europe," he said. "From no one."
The blacklisting entails asset freezes and paves the way for possible travel bans on individuals belonging to the military wing.
"I'm satisfied that we took this important step today, by dealing with the military wing of Hezbollah, freezing its assets, hindering its fundraising and thereby limiting its capacity to act," said Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans.
But implementation promises to be complicated as officials will have to unravel the links between the different wings within Hezbollah's organizational network and see who could be targeted for belonging to the military wing.
Diplomats late Monday were working on pinpointing the entities and organizations that make up the military wing. Because of this legal uncertainty it was unclear how many assets could be involved, and how many individuals could be eventually be targeted.
The Iranian-backed group plays a pivotal role in Lebanese politics, dominating the government since 2011. It has since sent its members to bolster Syria's President Bashar Assad forces in their assault of rebel-held areas.
Walid Sukariyeh, a pro-Hezbollah legislator who belongs to the group's bloc, said the European decision came as a result of American pressure.
"Europe tried to have an independent stance away from America's diction but I believe by this stance it has abandoned its independence and the independence of its policy," he said.
"Hezbollah did not carry out any terrorist attacks, neither in Europe nor outside Europe. Hezbollah is a resistance movement that fought to liberate occupied land from the Israeli enemy," Sukariyeh said.
Israel welcomed the European decision. It fought a bitter month-long war with Hezbollah in 2006 and does not differentiate between the group's political and military wings. Israel has accused Hezbollah of carrying out attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets around the world. Hezbollah has denied involvement in some and not commented on others.
"Finally, after years of deliberation, the claim that Hezbollah is a legitimate political party has rightfully failed," said Israel's Justice Minister Tzipi Livni. "Now it is clear to the entire world that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization."
The group has been accused of involvement in last year's attack in the Black Sea resort of Burgas in Bulgaria, which killed five Israeli tourists and one Bulgarian. It has refuted that allegation.
Westerwelle said the evidence from the attack on EU member Bulgaria was enough of an impetus for the blacklisting. A Cyprus criminal court decision in March finding a Hezbollah member guilty of helping to plan attacks on Israelis on the Mediterranean island also galvanized EU diplomacy.
Several EU nations have pointed to Hezbollah's involvement in Syria as further reason for the move.
As Hezbollah's hand in the Syrian conflict has become public, Lebanon has seen a spike in Sunni-Shiite tensions that has sparked gun battles in several cities around the country. Many Lebanese Sunnis support the overwhelmingly Sunni uprising against Assad in Syria, while Shiites generally back Hezbollah and the regime in Damascus.
The EU only came to a united stand after it became clear that political channels would remain open with all players in Lebanon.
"Designation will do nothing to affect the EU's and the UK's strong relationship with, and support for, Lebanon," Hague said.
___
Associated Press writers Barbara Surk and Bassem Mroue contributed from Beirut and Ian Deitch from Jerusalem.
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's economy is expected to expand at a slightly faster pace over the next two years after growing 6.9 percent in 2012, the World Bank said on Tuesday.
It said it expected inflation in east Africa's second largest economy to average 5-7 percent during the same period.
"Tanzania's economy is expected to grow at an average of 7 percent in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 fiscal years," the World Bank's lead economist in Tanzania, Jacques Morisset, told reporters in Dar es Salaam.
The World Bank's economic report on Tanzania, released on Tuesday, forecasts economic growth of 7 percent in 2013/14 and 7.3 percent in 2014/15.
Morisset said inflation was expected to fall to 5-7 percent during the same period, from 9.4 percent year-on-year in April.
The World Bank added that despite excitement over Tanzania's gas discoveries, economic growth is likely to be driven by five key sectors: communications, transport, construction, manufacturing and financial services.
"The boom in natural gas production may eventually result in an even higher rate of growth, but this will not occur for 7-10 years," said the World Bank.
Gas strikes off east Africa's seaboard have led to predictions the region could become the world's third-largest exporter of natural gas. Tanzania estimates it has more than 40 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable natural gas reserves.
The World Bank said inefficiency at Tanzania's main port in Dar es Salaam is causing it and six neighbouring countries up to $2.6 billion a year and warned that corruption is also making Tanzanian ports less competitive than some rivals.
Thanks for visiting the broad arena of house domestic plumbing. Plumbing related covers a variety of difficult machines and equipment. Domestic plumbing is actually a personalized matter when confronted with home improvement, so it will be not at all times easy to find what works for you. These post might help present you with with advice.
Noisy water lines that can make squeaking or hammering seems are actually much easier to solve than you would probably visualize. You need to anchor all uncovered pipes.
Knowing what tools and how to make use of them could make you significantly better at pipes. Well before undertaking repairs on your own, you should have a strategy or else, or you could make a costly mistake.
Don?t use any tinted pills within your potty. These products may well eliminate scents, nevertheless they can very seriously problems the rubber items within the bathroom, that may prevent your toilet from working correctly.
Routine every one of the plumbing related function concurrently. You could be tempted to phone the local plumber each time you need something repaired, but if you have problems mended at the same time, it can save you up money for maintenance. Most plumbers charge a per hour rate plus a smooth amount for the journey: requesting a local plumber to fix several troubles in just one pay a visit to to your house.
The installation of shower heads will save you a lot of money in terms of your energy bill. Most very hot water is consumed within the shower room. When you spend numerous extra $ $ $ $ setting up power-conserving shower room heads, it will save you hundreds each and every year in your expenses.
Check the flooring inside your bathroom for soft areas round the surfaces. It will save you funds simply by observing and healing this issue as at the beginning.
Ensure that the dryer?s lint snare. This will assist your clothes dryer to function greater and prevents fires.Make sure you inspect your lint trap for tears or openings that can suggest lint is certainly going in your piping, because this may cause larger troubles as it can certainly imply that lint is escaping in your pipes.
Tend not to be prepared to nice and clean grout through your pipes. You can test to break it up the line. This functions much better if your home has piping are plastic as opposed to plastic-type material.
Don?t bother flowing water by using your junk convenience can be used. Occasionally, it may lead to trash to adhere to your removal, and contribute to long term issues.
Nice and clean your dryer?s lint filtration system. This will assist your clothes dryer runs efficiently and might also prevent fires. Be sure you look into the trap for tears and rips, that may cause clogs and issues.
Will not anticipate to clean grout through your domestic plumbing. You are able to make an effort to dislodge the grout and trigger it go more straight down. This operates much better with plastic-type instead of it can with aluminum.
The easiest method to steer clear of plumbing related restoration bills is always to protect against problems before they occur. Clogs would be the reasons individuals have to phone a plumbing service. Drains are often get plugged by your hair. It?s a good deal much easier to get rid of your hair out of a display than eliminating them back a water pipe.
Check your bathroom routinely for virtually any leakages. Try out putting droplets of food items colouring inside the container. If you then see colored h2o within the bathroom bowl soon after, this simply means your bathroom is seeping.
Look at the taps exterior for drips before winter months freeze out. Should they be leaking or leaking, this should be set ahead of the temp falls listed below very cold. Regardless of the fabric of your respective plumbing, quite chilly h2o strain can certainly make water lines fracture.A good tiny split can make adequate h2o leak to cause a serious deluge your own home.
When you notice also a hint water inside of your surfaces, you should turn off the liquid principal and telephone a plumbing technician. This might be a signal you have some significant pipes issues. Many troubles associated with this result in mildew and fungus, mold and perhaps surging.
Lots of people don?t completely grasp pipes, hence they will pay whatever selling price the plumber demands. Should you personal your home, for you to do what you could to teach on your own about plumbing so you usually are not having a plumber?s operate and phrase on belief. This helps you to not get scammed.
An ordinary water pipe snake can nice and clean your washer.
To create your hot water heater work better, see what sizing a container your household calls for.
The original factor to consider is definitely the chain tension, but if the chain will not be the trouble, the next phase is always to check your flapper.
Typical servicing will assist stop upcoming spills in your taps and basins. A problem that will go untreated may squander a lot of normal water?just as much as 150 gallons per day! Consequently, so persistently checking your pipes and waterlines for crevices and leakages is vital.Normal routine maintenance can avoid severe put on and dress in.
The primary issue to check out will be the sequence strain, however if that?s alright, your following step is usually to look at your flapper.
The sequence within your lavatory may well not have sufficient stress, however, if that?s alright, your upcoming step is to examine your flapper.
A blow clothes dryer will help you probably have with frosty pipes. Although this may well take a moment due to the very low volume of heating, you can avoid using more hazardous strategies, and also avoid a call to have the nearby plumbing technician appear.
Above-tightening your plumbing might be just as terrible or worse than in the event you beneath-firm up it. You are able to wreck the threads or break the pipe alone, not more.
You could possibly purchase own insulating material material that wraps perfectly all around these piping.
That wasn?t awful, was it? Like most topics, domestic plumbing provides extensive information and facts accessible to study from. Just a little push from the right direction will be all it will require to get you started out. You have to have received some terrific assistance from your ideas in this post.
Look at the prevalence of Wolfson's audio chips today, in everything from audiophile DACs to smartphones like the Exynos-powered Galaxy S III and Galaxy S 4, and it's hard not to be impressed. Factor in the company's humble beginnings in 1984 as a university offshoot in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the growth story becomes even more dramatic. The company shipped its billionth chip in 2008, its 2 billionth in 2012 and now expects to sell a billion per year by 2015.
It's ironic, then, that at the start of its journey into mobile devices Wolfson actually failed to grow quickly enough, resulting in the loss of its biggest and most high-profile customer. With Apple using its chips in a number of iPods, the Scottish company just couldn't scale up to meet a sudden rush of demand. It missed some deadlines and Cuptertino left it out of the iPod Classic as it shifted its loyalty to Cirrus Logic, where it has stayed ever since. How did it recover? Where is it headed next? And how will it break Qualcomm's continuing grip on smartphone audio in the US? Read on for answers from CEO Mike Hickey.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior advisers knew in late April that an impending report was likely to say the IRS had inappropriately targeted conservative groups, President Barack Obama's spokesman disclosed Monday, expanding the circle of top officials who knew of the audit beyond those named earlier.
But McDonough and the other advisers did not tell Obama, leaving him to learn about the politically perilous results of the internal investigation from news reports more than two weeks later, officials said.
The Treasury Department also told the White House twice in the weeks leading up to the IRS disclosure that the tax agency planned to make the targeting public, a Treasury official said.
The apparent decision to keep the president in the dark about the matter underscores the White House's cautious legal approach to controversies and reflects a desire by top advisers to distance Obama from troubles threatening his administration.
Obama spokesman Jay Carney defended keeping the president out of the loop on the Internal Revenue Service audit, saying Obama was comfortable with the fact that "some matters are not appropriate to convey to him, and this is one of them."
"It is absolutely a cardinal rule as we see it that we do not intervene in ongoing investigations," Carney said.
Republicans, however, are accusing the president of being unaware of important happenings in the government he oversees.
"It seems to be the answer of the administration whenever they're caught doing something they shouldn't be doing is, 'I didn't know about it'," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told CBS News. "And it causes me to wonder whether they believe willful ignorance is a defense when it's your job to know."
Obama advisers argue that the outcry from Republicans would be far worse had McDonough or White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler told the president about the IRS audit before it became public, thereby raising questions about White House interference.
Still, the White House's own shifting information about who knew what and when is keeping the focus of the IRS controversy on the West Wing.
When Carney first addressed the matter last week, he said only that Ruemmler had been told around April 22 that an inspector general audit was being concluded at a Cincinnati IRS office that screens applications for organizations' tax-exempt status. He said the audit was described to the counsel's office "very broadly."
But on Monday, Carney said lower-ranking staffers in the White House counsel's office first learned of the report one week earlier, on April 16. When Ruemmler was later alerted, she was told specifically that the audit was likely to conclude that IRS employees improperly scrutinized organizations by looking for words like "tea party" and "patriot." Ruemmler then told McDonough, deputy chief of staff Mark Childress, and other senior advisers, but not Obama.
The Treasury official said Monday that the department twice passed on information to the White House about the IRS' plans to disclose the political targeting. Childress and Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson were in communication on the matter, as were lawyers at both the White House and Treasury.
In the first instance, Treasury officials told the White House that Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, was considering making a public apology in a speech.
Around the same time, Treasury relayed to the White House that Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller expected to be asked about the matter in congressional testimony on April 25, but the issue was not raised.
However, the Treasury official said the department did not tell the White House about the IRS' final decision for Lerner to apologize for the targeting during a conference on May 10. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and insisted on anonymity.
The IRS is an independent agency within the Treasury Department. Because of that independent status, the official said Treasury deferred to the IRS in its decision about how to make the targeting public.
Despite the notifications from the Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS, the White House insists it did not know the conclusions of the inspector general report until it was made public.
Members of Congress sent the IRS at least eight letters since 2011 asking about complaints from tea party groups that they were being harassed by the IRS. Many of those lawmakers are livid that the IRS chose to reveal that conservative groups were being targeted at a legal conference instead of telling Congress.
A new Pew Research Center poll shows 42 percent of Americans think the Obama administration was "involved" in the IRS targeting of conservative groups, while 31 percent say it was a decision made solely by employees at the IRS.
The IRS matter is one of three controversies that have consumed the White House over the past week. In each instance, officials have tried to put distance between the president and questionable actions by people within his administration.
As with the IRS investigation, the White House says Obama learned only from news reporters that the Justice Department had subpoenaed phone records from journalists at The Associated Press as part of a leaks investigation. And faced with new questions about the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, Obama's advisers have pinned responsibility on the CIA for crafting talking points that downplayed the potential of terrorism, despite the fact that the White House was a part of the process.
Former White House officials say a president has little choice but to distance himself from investigations and then endure accusations of being out of touch, or worse.
"It's a tough balance," said Sara Taylor Fagen, who was White House political director for President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007.
"With a scandal, there's no way to win," said Fagen, whom the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed and sharply questioned in a probe of dismissed U.S. attorneys. "There may never have been any wrongdoing by anyone in the White House, on any of these issues," she said, "but once the allegations are made, you can't win."
A White House peeking into an ongoing investigations can trigger a political uproar. A well-known case involved President Richard Nixon trying to hinder the FBI's probe of the Watergate break-in.
In a less far-reaching case in 2004, the Bush White House acknowledged that its counsel's office learned of a Justice Department investigation into whether Sandy Berger - the national security adviser under President Bill Clinton - had removed classified documents from the National Archives. Democrats said the White House hoped to use the information to help Bush's re-election campaign.
In the current IRS matter, two congressional committees are stepping up their investigations this week with hearings during which IRS and Treasury officials will be questioned closely about what they knew and when.
Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, giving lawmakers their first opportunity to question the man who ran the agency when agents were improperly targeting tea party groups. The Senate Finance Committee wants to know why Shulman didn't tell Congress - even after he was briefed in 2012 - that agents had been singling out conservative political groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.
Also testifying will be Miller, who took over as acting commissioner in November, when Shulman's five-year term expired. Last week, Obama forced Miller to resign.
On Wednesday, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin will testify before the House oversight committee.
Treasury inspector general J. Russell George says he told Wolin about the subject of the IRS inquiry last summer.
In a related matter, the IRS acknowledged Monday that an official testified to Congress about tax-exempt matters long after her duties supposedly had shifted to the rollout of Obama's health care law.
Republicans point to Sarah Hall Ingram's history at IRS as they question the agency's ability to properly oversee aspects of Obama's health care overhaul. The IRS will play a major role in determining benefits and penalties under the new law.
The IRS had said last week that Ingram shifted to overseeing the health care law rollout in December 2010, well before alarm bells went off at headquarters that a unit of the tax exempt division was targeting tea party groups for extra scrutiny.
But records show she testified to Congress in her capacity as head of the tax-exempt office as recently as last year.
Monday the IRS said in a statement that Ingram "was in a unique position to testify" about tax-exempt policies in May 2012. It said Ingram "still formally held" the title of IRS commissioner of tax exempt and government entities, even though "she was assigned full-time to (health care law) activities since December 2010."
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says Congress needs to find out what Ingram and other officials knew, and when they knew it.
___
Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Jim Kuhnhenn and researcher Monika Mathur contributed to this report.
___
Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Charles Babington at http://twitter.com/cbabington
Amazon River exhales virtually all carbon taken up by rain forestPublic release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hannah Hickey hickeyh@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
The Amazon rain forest, popularly known as the lungs of the planet, inhales carbon dioxide as it exudes oxygen. Plants use carbon dioxide from the air to grow parts that eventually fall to the ground to decompose or get washed away by the region's plentiful rainfall.
Until recently people believed much of the rain forest's carbon floated down the Amazon River and ended up deep in the ocean. University of Washington research showed a decade ago that rivers exhale huge amounts of carbon dioxide though left open the question of how that was possible, since bark and stems were thought to be too tough for river bacteria to digest.
A study published this week in Nature Geoscience resolves the conundrum, proving that woody plant matter is almost completely digested by bacteria living in the Amazon River, and that this tough stuff plays a major part in fueling the river's breath.
The finding has implications for global carbon models, and for the ecology of the Amazon and the world's other rivers.
"People thought this was one of the components that just got dumped into the ocean," said first author Nick Ward, a UW doctoral student in oceanography. "We've found that terrestrial carbon is respired and basically turned into carbon dioxide as it travels down the river."
Tough lignin, which helps form the main part of woody tissue, is the second most common component of terrestrial plants. Scientists believed that much of it got buried on the seafloor to stay there for centuries or millennia. The new paper shows river bacteria break it down within two weeks, and that just 5 percent of the Amazon rainforest's carbon ever reaches the ocean.
"Rivers were once thought of as passive pipes," said co-author Jeffrey Richey, a UW professor of oceanography. "This shows they're more like metabolic hotspots."
When previous research showed how much carbon dioxide was outgassing from rivers, scientists knew it didn't add up. They speculated there might be some unknown, short-lived carbon source that freshwater bacteria could turn into carbon dioxide.
"The fact that lignin is proving to be this metabolically active is a big surprise," Richey said. "It's a mechanism for the rivers' role in the global carbon cycle it's the food for the river breath."
The Amazon alone discharges about one-fifth of the world's freshwater and plays a large role in global processes, but it also serves as a test bed for natural river ecosystems.
Richey and his collaborators have studied the Amazon River for more than three decades. Earlier research took place more than 500 miles upstream. This time the U.S. and Brazilian team sought to understand the connection between the river and ocean, which meant working at the mouth of the world's largest river a treacherous study site.
"There's a reason that no one's really studied in this area," Ward said. "Pulling it off has been quite a challenge. It's a humongous, sloppy piece of water."
The team used flat-bottomed boats to traverse the three river mouths, each so wide that you cannot see land, in water so rich with sediment that it looks like chocolate milk. Tides raise the ocean by 30 feet, reversing the flow of freshwater at the river mouth, and winds blow at up to 35 mph.
Under these conditions, Ward collected river water samples in all four seasons. He compared the original samples with ones left to sit for up to a week at river temperatures. Back at the UW, he used newly developed techniques to scan the samples for some 100 compounds, covering 95 percent of all plant-based lignin. Previous techniques could identify only 1 percent of the plant-based carbon in the water.
Based on the results, the authors estimate that about 45 percent of the Amazon's lignin breaks down in soils, 55 percent breaks down in the river system, and 5 percent reaches the ocean, where it may break down or sink to the ocean floor.
"People had just assumed, 'Well, it's not energetically feasible for an organism to break lignin apart, so why would they?'" Ward said. "We're thinking that as rain falls over the land it's taking with it these lignin compounds, but it's also taking with it the bacterial community that's really good at eating the lignin."
###
The research was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the Research Council for the State of So Paulo. Co-authors are Richard Keil at the UW; Patricia Medeiros and Patricia Yager at the University of Georgia; Daimio Brito and Alan Cunha at the Federal University of Amap in Brazil; Thorsten Dittmar at Carl von Ossietzky University in Germany; and Alex Krusche at University of So Paulo in Brazil.
For more information, contact Ward at nickward@uw.edu or 858-531-1558 and Richey at jrichey@uw.edu or 206-368-1906.
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Amazon River exhales virtually all carbon taken up by rain forestPublic release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hannah Hickey hickeyh@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
The Amazon rain forest, popularly known as the lungs of the planet, inhales carbon dioxide as it exudes oxygen. Plants use carbon dioxide from the air to grow parts that eventually fall to the ground to decompose or get washed away by the region's plentiful rainfall.
Until recently people believed much of the rain forest's carbon floated down the Amazon River and ended up deep in the ocean. University of Washington research showed a decade ago that rivers exhale huge amounts of carbon dioxide though left open the question of how that was possible, since bark and stems were thought to be too tough for river bacteria to digest.
A study published this week in Nature Geoscience resolves the conundrum, proving that woody plant matter is almost completely digested by bacteria living in the Amazon River, and that this tough stuff plays a major part in fueling the river's breath.
The finding has implications for global carbon models, and for the ecology of the Amazon and the world's other rivers.
"People thought this was one of the components that just got dumped into the ocean," said first author Nick Ward, a UW doctoral student in oceanography. "We've found that terrestrial carbon is respired and basically turned into carbon dioxide as it travels down the river."
Tough lignin, which helps form the main part of woody tissue, is the second most common component of terrestrial plants. Scientists believed that much of it got buried on the seafloor to stay there for centuries or millennia. The new paper shows river bacteria break it down within two weeks, and that just 5 percent of the Amazon rainforest's carbon ever reaches the ocean.
"Rivers were once thought of as passive pipes," said co-author Jeffrey Richey, a UW professor of oceanography. "This shows they're more like metabolic hotspots."
When previous research showed how much carbon dioxide was outgassing from rivers, scientists knew it didn't add up. They speculated there might be some unknown, short-lived carbon source that freshwater bacteria could turn into carbon dioxide.
"The fact that lignin is proving to be this metabolically active is a big surprise," Richey said. "It's a mechanism for the rivers' role in the global carbon cycle it's the food for the river breath."
The Amazon alone discharges about one-fifth of the world's freshwater and plays a large role in global processes, but it also serves as a test bed for natural river ecosystems.
Richey and his collaborators have studied the Amazon River for more than three decades. Earlier research took place more than 500 miles upstream. This time the U.S. and Brazilian team sought to understand the connection between the river and ocean, which meant working at the mouth of the world's largest river a treacherous study site.
"There's a reason that no one's really studied in this area," Ward said. "Pulling it off has been quite a challenge. It's a humongous, sloppy piece of water."
The team used flat-bottomed boats to traverse the three river mouths, each so wide that you cannot see land, in water so rich with sediment that it looks like chocolate milk. Tides raise the ocean by 30 feet, reversing the flow of freshwater at the river mouth, and winds blow at up to 35 mph.
Under these conditions, Ward collected river water samples in all four seasons. He compared the original samples with ones left to sit for up to a week at river temperatures. Back at the UW, he used newly developed techniques to scan the samples for some 100 compounds, covering 95 percent of all plant-based lignin. Previous techniques could identify only 1 percent of the plant-based carbon in the water.
Based on the results, the authors estimate that about 45 percent of the Amazon's lignin breaks down in soils, 55 percent breaks down in the river system, and 5 percent reaches the ocean, where it may break down or sink to the ocean floor.
"People had just assumed, 'Well, it's not energetically feasible for an organism to break lignin apart, so why would they?'" Ward said. "We're thinking that as rain falls over the land it's taking with it these lignin compounds, but it's also taking with it the bacterial community that's really good at eating the lignin."
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The research was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the Research Council for the State of So Paulo. Co-authors are Richard Keil at the UW; Patricia Medeiros and Patricia Yager at the University of Georgia; Daimio Brito and Alan Cunha at the Federal University of Amap in Brazil; Thorsten Dittmar at Carl von Ossietzky University in Germany; and Alex Krusche at University of So Paulo in Brazil.
For more information, contact Ward at nickward@uw.edu or 858-531-1558 and Richey at jrichey@uw.edu or 206-368-1906.
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DAMASCUS, Va. -- Authorities believe the driver who plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a Virginia mountain town parade suffered from a medical condition and did not cause the crash intentionally, an emergency official said Sunday.
Officials did not have a formal confirmation or any specifics on the condition, but based on the accounts of authorities and witnesses on the scene, they are confident the issue was medical, said Pokey Harris, Washington County's director of emergency management. "There is no reason to believe this was intentional," she said.
In what witnesses called a frantic scene at the parade, about 50 to 60 people suffered injuries ranging from critical to superficial Saturday. No fatalities were reported. Three of the worst injured were flown by helicopter to area hospitals.
Two people were kept at hospitals overnight, but their injuries were not critical as of Sunday, Harris said. Most were treated and released.
The crash happened around 2:10 p.m. Saturday during the Hikers Parade at the Trail Days festival, an annual celebration of the Appalachian Trail in Damascus, near the Tennessee state line about a half-hour drive east of Bristol.
Damascus Police Chief Bill Nunley didn't release the driver's name or age but said he was participating in the parade and he had traversed the Appalachian Trail in the past. Several witnesses described him as an elderly man.
Nunley said the man's 1997 Cadillac was one of the last vehicles in the parade and the driver might have suffered an unspecified medical problem when his car accelerated to about 25 mph and struck the crowd on a two-lane bridge along the town's main road. The driver was among those taken to hospitals.
David Milner of Springfield, Ill., marched in the parade as a through-hiker on the trail this year and said the accident happened during the tradition of hikers and spectators shooting water guns at each other.
" ... So there's a lot of yelling and then suddenly there was screaming, and I heard a thud-thud, and now the car's even with me and I hear thud-thud-thud, and there's just bodies getting flicked one side to the other," he said. "And then the car ended up in front of me maybe 50 or 75 feet."
Barbara Martin, a trail hiker from Maine, was walking in the parade when the accident happened. "It was really hard to process because it happened so fast, but just the noise of people hitting the car was incredible and something I won't soon forget."
Another witness was Julie Martin (no relation to Barbara), a hiker and emergency medical technician from Charlottesville who was helping at a friend's vending stand. She said there were ambulances and other medical workers in the parade who immediately began treating the victims.
"I think it was awful that this had to happen," she said. "I think it was amazing how many people very quickly started taking care of the people who were hurt."
On Sunday, festival events were continuing as scheduled, Harris said. Mayor Jack McCrady had encouraged people to attend the final day.
"In 27 years of this, we've never had anything of this magnitude, and is it our job to make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.
"Trail Days is a big festival," Julie Martin said. "For people who are on the trail, it's a little break. For people who come back as alumni, it's a chance to reconnect with people. For people on the trail and for vendors, it's a chance to see what's new in outdoor gear and outdoor culture."
"It's a random event," Milner said. "It happened to happen at the Trail Days parade, but it could happen anywhere. It could happen in a Walmart parking lot. I don't think there's really any lesson to learn from this."
He did question whether the man should have been driving a car in the parade. "If they wanted somebody that can't physically walk (to participate), I think maybe having somebody drive him in a golf cart or something like that would have been more appropriate."
Academy of Natural Sciences to guide coordinated region-wide watershed protectionPublic release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rachel Ewing raewing@drexel.edu 215-895-2614 Drexel University
PHILADELPHIA (May 20, 2013) The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University has received a major grant from the William Penn Foundation to support watershed protection and restoration in the Delaware watershed that is intended to coordinate and demonstrate a region-wide impact on improving water quality.
The Academy of Natural Sciences has been performing watershed and aquatic science research since the 1940s. For the past year, Academy scientists have provided scientific guidance to the William Penn Foundation as it began plans to focus its environmental funding on watershed protection and restoration. The new one-year grant award of $880,000 will take this advisory role to a new level.
The grant heralds an unusual degree of collaboration between the Academy and the Foundation to guide the scientific measurement and evaluation of conservation efforts across a wide region and to ensure the Foundation's other grants are coordinated with one another and with the larger context of regional watershed conservation activities. The Academy's guidance will therefore influence the activities of other organizations working across the Delaware Valley region to protect and restore water quality.
"It's exciting to have the opportunity to work with an expansive, coordinated effort like this to protect the Delaware basin with a particular focus on water quality," said George W. Gephart, Jr., president and CEO of the Academy of Natural Sciences. "The Academy has a long history in the science of protecting watersheds, rivers and streams to keep high water quality in the area."
The Academy's role in the coming year will be to take baseline measurements of environmental conditions in designated sites across the Delaware basin. As other organizations work with the William Penn Foundation to secure funding for their own conservation programs at specific sites, the Academy will serve in an outreach and mentoring role to guide the development of these projects. Academy scientists will also coordinate a process to identify research questions that might emerge from the funded projects. For example, some research questions might compare the effectiveness of different restoration methods.
Ultimately, the Academy's scientific expertise and measurements will guide coordinated, region-wide work to address major environmental stressors in the watershed, demonstrate the effectiveness of interventions, and ensure these efforts can be replicated at other sites.
These activities will also entail active collaboration among conservation groups and scientists in the coming year. To encourage this process, the Academy will host regular monthly seminars with Drexel University faculty to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations among researchers and students to address watershed conservation.
"With the launch of new grantmaking guidelines, the Foundation is focused more than ever on supporting environmental work that is rooted in data and strong science," said Laura Sparks, Vice President for Philanthropic Programs at the William Penn Foundation. "The Academy's deep experience and national recognition for hydrological research make it an invaluable partner in water quality monitoring and analysis. Together, we will focus on impacts that are both meaningful and measurable, helping stakeholders across the Delaware River Basin to better understand, adapt, and innovate when it comes to a shared mission for watershed protection."
The Foundation selected the Academy for this key scientific role on the basis of the Academy's strong history of watershed research. The Academy's Patrick Center for Environmental Research has a history of more than 70 years of national leadership in using science to inform the protection of environmental quality in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The Academy's watershed research uses field and laboratory studies to analyze and simulate the functioning of aquatic systems, integrating mapping with hydrologic, bioenergetic, ecological and other methods of measurement and analysis at multiple spatial scales.
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Founded in 1812, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is a world-class natural history museum dedicated to advancing to advancing research, education, and public engagement in biodiversity and environmental science research, education, and public engagement in biodiversity and environmental science.
The William Penn Foundation, founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas, works to close the achievement gap for low-income children, ensure a sustainable environment, foster creativity that enhances civic life, and advance philanthropy in the Philadelphia region. With assets of nearly $2 billion, the Foundation distributes approximately $80 million in grants annually.
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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.
Academy of Natural Sciences to guide coordinated region-wide watershed protectionPublic release date: 20-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rachel Ewing raewing@drexel.edu 215-895-2614 Drexel University
PHILADELPHIA (May 20, 2013) The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University has received a major grant from the William Penn Foundation to support watershed protection and restoration in the Delaware watershed that is intended to coordinate and demonstrate a region-wide impact on improving water quality.
The Academy of Natural Sciences has been performing watershed and aquatic science research since the 1940s. For the past year, Academy scientists have provided scientific guidance to the William Penn Foundation as it began plans to focus its environmental funding on watershed protection and restoration. The new one-year grant award of $880,000 will take this advisory role to a new level.
The grant heralds an unusual degree of collaboration between the Academy and the Foundation to guide the scientific measurement and evaluation of conservation efforts across a wide region and to ensure the Foundation's other grants are coordinated with one another and with the larger context of regional watershed conservation activities. The Academy's guidance will therefore influence the activities of other organizations working across the Delaware Valley region to protect and restore water quality.
"It's exciting to have the opportunity to work with an expansive, coordinated effort like this to protect the Delaware basin with a particular focus on water quality," said George W. Gephart, Jr., president and CEO of the Academy of Natural Sciences. "The Academy has a long history in the science of protecting watersheds, rivers and streams to keep high water quality in the area."
The Academy's role in the coming year will be to take baseline measurements of environmental conditions in designated sites across the Delaware basin. As other organizations work with the William Penn Foundation to secure funding for their own conservation programs at specific sites, the Academy will serve in an outreach and mentoring role to guide the development of these projects. Academy scientists will also coordinate a process to identify research questions that might emerge from the funded projects. For example, some research questions might compare the effectiveness of different restoration methods.
Ultimately, the Academy's scientific expertise and measurements will guide coordinated, region-wide work to address major environmental stressors in the watershed, demonstrate the effectiveness of interventions, and ensure these efforts can be replicated at other sites.
These activities will also entail active collaboration among conservation groups and scientists in the coming year. To encourage this process, the Academy will host regular monthly seminars with Drexel University faculty to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations among researchers and students to address watershed conservation.
"With the launch of new grantmaking guidelines, the Foundation is focused more than ever on supporting environmental work that is rooted in data and strong science," said Laura Sparks, Vice President for Philanthropic Programs at the William Penn Foundation. "The Academy's deep experience and national recognition for hydrological research make it an invaluable partner in water quality monitoring and analysis. Together, we will focus on impacts that are both meaningful and measurable, helping stakeholders across the Delaware River Basin to better understand, adapt, and innovate when it comes to a shared mission for watershed protection."
The Foundation selected the Academy for this key scientific role on the basis of the Academy's strong history of watershed research. The Academy's Patrick Center for Environmental Research has a history of more than 70 years of national leadership in using science to inform the protection of environmental quality in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The Academy's watershed research uses field and laboratory studies to analyze and simulate the functioning of aquatic systems, integrating mapping with hydrologic, bioenergetic, ecological and other methods of measurement and analysis at multiple spatial scales.
###
Founded in 1812, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is a world-class natural history museum dedicated to advancing to advancing research, education, and public engagement in biodiversity and environmental science research, education, and public engagement in biodiversity and environmental science.
The William Penn Foundation, founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas, works to close the achievement gap for low-income children, ensure a sustainable environment, foster creativity that enhances civic life, and advance philanthropy in the Philadelphia region. With assets of nearly $2 billion, the Foundation distributes approximately $80 million in grants annually.
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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.
As a result of several complaints from residents of the Ravensworth-Bristow community in Annandale about door-to-door solicitors, officers from the West Springfield Police District have issued warnings to several unlicensed solicitors and told to leave them the neighborhood.
Those solicitors are associated with these companies: Power Home Remodeling (based in Chester, Pa.),? E Enterprises Inc. (Lutherville, Md.), the Smart Circle International LLC (Plano, Texas), Fast Trak Management (Falls Church, VA).
When one resident asked to see a solicitor?s license when someone from Power Home Remodeling knocked on this door, the man ignored him and went to the house next door. The resident thought the solicitors might be connected with a series of day-time burglaries that have plagued the neighborhood.
He later learned that Power Home Remodeling sends dozens of young adults with criminal records and outstanding warrants into a? neighborhood and that the Fairfax County Police Department is investigating the company. Another resident was alerted by her dog that there might have been a solicitor lurking in her backyard and she was concerned that he was could have been casing the house for a burglary.
If salespeople or home improvement representatives come to your door, the police suggests asking to see a solicitor?s license. If they don?t have one, or you see suspicious activity in your neighborhood, call the police non-emergency number, 703/691-2131.
In addition to the possibility of break-ins, there are plenty of unscrupulous people out there trying to con the elderly into overpriced yard work or home improvements. The police refer to those scammers as ?woodchucks,?? and the Mason Police commander, Capt. Carol Wilhite, has made cracking down on them one of her top priorities.
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - LATAM Airlines Group SA said on Saturday it will resume flights to, from and within Argentina by 1530 GMT after state company Intercargo unilaterally decided on Friday to stop providing services to the carrier.
Argentine state company Intercargo manages services for the loading and unloading of luggage on airplanes, the transportation of passengers on buses to terminals, and provides the jet bridge services that connect aircraft to the airport, allowing passengers to embark and disembark.
LATAM Airlines, the region's largest carrier, said in a statement that it has "dispatched additional flights to transport passengers whose travel was affected yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday)."
Intercargo said on Friday that the tariffs in the current contract with LATAM Airlines should be raised to comply with new government rules.
In a statement, published by Argentine state news agency Telam, Intercargo said LATAM "doesn't want to pay more than what was agreed initially" and said it is owed a debt of nearly 40 million Argentine pesos ($7.6 million).
The Chile-based airline has domestic operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
(Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Eric Beech)
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) ? The NHL fined the San Jose Sharks $100,000 on Saturday for general manager Doug Wilson's public comments about forward Raffi Torres' suspension.
The NHL said the fine was issued for violation of rules prohibiting formal team statements to the media during the 48-hour period following a disciplinary decision. The rule calls for an automatic $25,000 fine, and the Sharks were docked an additional $75,000 under an article in the league's constitution because of the "inappropriate nature of the comments."
Torres was suspended for the rest of San Jose's second-round playoff series against Los Angeles on Thursday for an illegal check to the head of Kings forward Jarret Stoll during Game 1. The Kings took a 2-0 lead into Game 3 on Saturday night in San Jose.
Wilson said Friday that the organization strongly disagreed with the NHL's decision to suspend Torres.
"It is abundantly clear that this was a clean hockey hit," Wilson said in a statement. "As noted by the NHL, Raffi's initial point of contact was a shoulder-to-shoulder hit on an opponent who was playing the puck. He did not leave his feet or elevate, he kept his shoulder tucked and elbow down at his side, and he was gliding ? not skating or charging."
It is the fourth career suspension for Torres, who is considered a repeat offender in dangerous hits under the league's collective bargaining agreement.
Stoll was bent forward while trying to play a bouncing puck when Torres approached him from the side for a violent hit in Game 1 on Tuesday night. Stoll's head snapped back violently before he fell forward onto the ice.
In an explanatory video released by Brendan Shanahan, the NHL's senior vice president of player safety, he said Stoll's head was "the principal point of contact" in the hit, creating grounds for suspension. Although Torres initially made contact with Stoll's right shoulder, Shanahan ruled that the shoulder hit was only a glancing blow, as evidenced by the direction both players traveled after the contact.
Wilson said the head must be targeted to violate Rule 48.1 and there is no evidence that Torres targeted Stoll's head. Wilson also said Stoll put himself in a vulnerable position just before the hit to play a bouncing puck.
"It appears that the NHL has not only made an inappropriate application of this rule but is trying to make an example out of a player who is being judged on past events, one who has changed his game dramatically this season and taken only six minor penalties in 39 games," Wilson said.
While playing for Phoenix last season, Torres received a 21-game suspension ? initially 25 games ? for a high hit on Chicago star Marian Hossa in the first round of the playoffs. Torres was suspended for two games in January 2012 for charging Minnesota defenseman Nate Prosser, and he sat out four games in April 2011 for a hit to the head of Edmonton's Jordan Eberle while playing for Vancouver.
Stoll missed Game 2 and there is no timetable for his return.
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Public release date: 20-May-2013
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