DreamHost has been having a rough couple weeks. The low-cost hosting provider and domain name registrar found some unauthorized activity in its databases back on January 20th, which they later admitted were a series of attacks that may have led to the theft of some of their customers' FTP passwords. The company required mandatory password resets for all their Shell/FTP accounts -- you can read our coverage here. DreamHost's bad dream continued today, as they've been reporting outage problems, as Web, SSH, and FTP services were down for many of the company's virtual private servers, shared, and dedicated machines. The outage was first reported at 4am PST on Sunday, and has continued throughout the course of the day, with the company offering updates on its blog.
One of the benefits of going with a boutique builder is being able to get custom machines that are a little more specialized than what you might get from HP or even Alienware. While bigger vendors can produce their own cases, those designs have to suit a wide variety of customers. Boutiques can cherry pick existing hardware and modify it for specific purposes, gearing each build to suit the end user's exact needs. It's the same benefit many of us enjoy from building our own machines, but for those who can't or won't, builders like AVADirect are here to pick up the slack.
Which leads us to today's build, which AVADirect dubs their Silent Gaming PC. Their builders have tried to take a standard powerhouse boutique machine and kill the noise. Did they succeed, or is the Silent Gaming PC only the sum of its parts? To AVADirect's credit, as you'll see from the spec sheet below they tried fairly hard to produce a system that actually is balanced. What do I mean by balanced?
Generally when you overclock or even just choose components, there's an inflection point where power consumption, expense, and performance line up. This is the reason Sandy Bridge-E isn't particularly attractive to most users, why SLI or CrossFire are seldom worthwhile, and why it often only makes sense to overclock hardware so far. AVADirect produced a system that, as you'll see, smartly targets the sweet spot for enthusiasts: enough CPU performance to handle any task and enough gaming performance to handle any single-monitor configuration (generally 1080p). And in the process, they tried to keep it quiet.
2x4GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz (expandable to 32GB)
Graphics
NVIDIA ASUS ENGTX580 GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB GDDR5 (512 CUDA Cores, 782/1564/4008MHz core/shaders/RAM, 384-bit memory bus)
Hard Drive(s)
OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SATA 6Gbps SSD Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gbps HDD
Optical Drive(s)
LG BD-RE (WH12LS30)
Networking
Intel 82579V Gigabit Ethernet
Audio
Realtek ALC892 Speaker, mic/line-in, surround jacks, optical out for 7.1 sound
Front Side
Optical drive Card reader 1x USB 2.0
Top
1x USB 3.0 3x USB 2.0 Headphone and mic jacks Fan controller SATA hotswap bay
Back Side
6x USB 2.0 Bluetooth 2x eSATA DVI-D (Z68) VGA (Z68) HDMI (Z68) Optical out Ethernet 4x USB 3.0 (one routed to front) 2x DVI-D 1x HDMI 1x DisplayPort
Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
Dimensions
20.47" x 8.46" x 18.35" (WxDxH)
Extras
Card reader Seasonic X-660 80 Plus Gold 660W Modular PSU ASUS ENGTX580 with triple-slot cooler Prolimatech Magahalems CPU cooler with two 120mm fans
Warranty
3-year parts, labor and tech support
Pricing
Starts at $664 Review system configured at $2,224
For the price, you actually do get a decent amount of machine. AVADirect equipped our review unit with Intel's fastest Sandy Bridge processor along with a GeForce GTX 580 with a custom triple-slot cooler to hopefully help reduce noise levels during gaming. 8GB of DDR3 isn't mind-blowing at this point, but it's more than enough for most users, and AVADirect wisely continues to employ an SSD system drive and HDD storage drive configuration.
I'm also happy to see a high quality power supply along with a high-end CPU cooler. When trying to achieve absolute silence, high-end air-coolers are often preferable to water-cooling systems, and AVADirect has chosen to incorporate two Gelid silent 120mm fans in a push-pull configuration on the Prolimatech Megahalems tower heatsink.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Hollywood's actors began picking the best performances of 2011's movies when the curtain came up on the annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday with Christopher Plummer taking home the first film honor for supporting actor.
Plummer, 82, who plays an elderly man who comes out of the closet as a gay man much to the chagrin of his family, thanked his fellow actors from the stage, calling them a wacky but wonderful bunch of artists.
"I just can't tell you what fun I've had being a member of the world's second oldest profession," Plummer joked on stage. "When they honor you, it's like being lit by the holy grail. Thank you, thank you, thank you."
The second film award went to Octavia Spencer for supporting actress in a movie, "The Help," that proved to be a surprise over Berenice Bejo of silent film romance, "The Artist."
Many of Hollywood's biggest film stars including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Michelle Williams turned out on the red carpet, as did TV's Julianna Margulies, Lea Michelle and other TV actresses and actors.
As with previous Hollywood honors programs, many of the women showed off low-cut or strapless gowns. Some wore vintage or sequined dresses. Colors -- violets, reds and teals -- proved popular. The men wore tuxedos or stylish suits with bow ties.
The SAG honors are closely watched in the race for Oscars, and this year they followed Golden Globe, Critics' Choice and other awards from media watchers, as well as acknowledgements from U.S. producer and director guilds that represent their respective professional groups in industry matters.
Because actors make up the biggest branch of voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars, the SAG awards are closely watched. And coming on the heels of so many other programs, this year's SAG winners could help solidify frontrunner status of silent movie "The Artist" or possibly turn the voting tide in favor of other hopefuls.
TOP CATEGORIES TO COME
Awards in top film categories will be given out later, and "The Artist," a romantic tale of a fading actor in the slumping silent movie era whose career is eclipsed by the woman he loves, aims to do well with actors in two more groups, ensemble cast and lead actor.
But it faces stiff competition from civil rights-era drama "The Help," which has four nominations, more than any movie, as well as from George Clooney-starring "The Descendants".
The actors in all three of those movies, along with the performers in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" and the ladies of comedy "Bridesmaids," will compete for the night's top honor, best ensemble cast in a film.
In other SAG races, Clooney, playing a father struggling to keep his family together, squares off against Jean Dujardin of "Artist" fame and Brad Pitt for his role as a numbers-crunching baseball executive in "Moneyball." The other two nominees in that category are Demian Bichir in the little seen "A Better Life" and Leonardo DiCaprio for "J. Edgar."
The SAG race for best actress is seen as a tight one among Meryl Streep playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady," Viola Davis as a maid in "The Help" and Michelle Williams for her turn as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn."
Rounding out that category are Glenn Close in a gender-bending role as a butler in "Albert Nobbs" and Tilda Swinton as a troubled mother in dark drama, "We Need to Talk about Kevin."
SAG also hands out awards for performances in TV dramas, comedies and mini-series. But because of SAG's importance in the Oscar race, the film categories are most closely followed.
The Oscars will be given out on February 26 in Hollywood.
(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Sandra Maler and Stacey Joyce)
The Mariners product on the field isn?t the only thing in need of repairs.
Seattle?s FanFest was dampened Saturday because two of the retractable roof?s panels remained stuck in place, the result of a broken wheel and axle.
The problem was discovered Thursday, but the Mariners went ahead with the FanFest anyway. While they were able to keep most of the field and activities covered, a light rain fell on the east side of the field.
?The good news is it?s now, and not when we?re playing baseball,? vice president of ballpark operations Scott Jenkins said. ?If it happened during the season, it could be a problem. But we have time to deal with it.?
The roof is expected to be fixed next week.
According to MLB.com?s Greg Johns, the Safeco roof has failed just once during a game, that leading to a 54-minute rain delay in a contest versus the Rangers on July 23, 2000.
ATHENS, Greece ? Greece and its private investors are close to a deal that will significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed euro130 billion bailout.
Negotiators for the investors announced the tentative agreement Saturday and said it could become final next week.
Under the agreement, the investors would take a hit of more than 60 percent on the euro206 billion of Greek debt they own.
Here's how it would work: private investors would receive new bonds whose face value is half of the existing bonds. The new bonds would have a longer maturity and pay an average interest rate of slightly less than 4 percent (compared with an estimated 5 percent on the existing bonds).
Without the deal, which would reduce Greece's debt load by at least euro120 billion, the private investors' bonds would likely become worthless. Many of these investors also hold debt from other eurozone countries, which could also lose value in the event of a Greek default.
The agreement taking shape is a key step before Greece can get a second, euro130 billion bailout from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund, although there are other issues involved before Greece can get that aid. This would be Greece's second bailout. The EU and the IMF signed off on a euro110 billion aid package for Greece in May 2010, most of which has already been disbursed.
Greece faces a euro14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20, which it cannot afford without additional help.
Private investors hold roughly two-thirds of Greece's debt, which has reached an unsustainable level ? nearly 200 percent of the country's economic output. By restructuring the debt held by private investors, Greece and its EU partners are hoping to bring that ratio closer to 120 percent by the end of this decade.
In return for the first bailout, Greece's public creditors ? the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank ? have unprecedented powers over Greek spending. However, austerity alone will not fix Greece's problem. The country must also find ways boost its economic output, which at the moment is shrinking.
If no debt-exchange deal is reached with private creditors and Greece is forced to default, it would very likely spook Europe's ? and possibly the world's ? financial markets. It could even lead Greece to withdraw from the euro.
The banks, insurance companies and other private holders of Greek bonds are being represented by Charles Dallara, managing director of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, and Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of the French bank BNP Paribas.
The main creditor negotiators will leave Greece on Sunday and will remain in close consultation with Greek and other authorities.
___
Elena Becatoros in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed.
Back in the 1990s, there was a small software company in Iowa that produced a tax preparation program called Personal TaxEdge. It was an also-ran, competing with the big financial companies that created the Big Two: Intuit (TurboTax) and Kiplinger (originally TaxCut, now H&R Block At Home). The company was eventually sold and the product discontinued, but a small group of employees took it on and turned it into what is today TaxACT.
In several ways, 2nd Story Software has built TaxACT up to the point where it's a strong competitor for TurboTax's Editor's Choice award. The product accommodates complex tax returns, though it lacks some of TurboTax's investment chops. Its help is easily accessible and nearly as plentiful and understandable. And it's fast.?
Maybe most important to some, it's significantly less expensive. You'd pay $17.95 to prepare and e-file your federal and state returns, plus $7.95 for unlimited phone support with a tax expert, for a total of $25.90. Intuit would charge you $86.90 for the same combination of services. I reviewed the $17.95 Ultimate Bundle, which offers preparation and filing for both federal and state using the Deluxe product.
TaxACT has also gone mobile this year, like its competitors, with an iPad version and a smartphone app.
When Free Really Means Free Like it competitors, 2nd Story doesn't charge you until you're ready to file, which means you can do some comparison among the sites on your own.
You aren't charged at all if you opt for the Free Federal Edition (optional state is $14.95). Competitors offer free versions, but these do not contain the prep tools offered by their paid editions. TaxACT's gratis offering lacks a few of the extras found in the paid Deluxe Edition, like J.K. Lasser's Tax Tutor Guidance and import of W-2 and investment data.
But the free version gives you access to the same forms and schedules, and you could prepare the same return, no matter how complex, on either Free or Deluxe. This is not the case with the other sites reviewed here: Their free versions do not offer the preparation prowess of their paid editions.
A Standard Navigational System All of these sites use a similar navigational scheme?pioneered back in the early 1990s by Intuit?to get at all relevant 1040 data. TaxACT greets you by asking for your name, address, Social Security number, etc. and asks for information about dependents and your filing status. As you begin the Federal Q&A, you're asked whether you want Step-by-Step Guidance (expanded, more comprehensive exploration of topics) or would rather just choose topics to visit on your own. Which you use depends on your confidence level and the complexity of your return. ?
Starting here and continuing throughout, the site displays questions and asks you to either fill in blank fields or make selections from lists. TaxACT takes your entries and deposits them?in the background?on the correct lines of the 1040 and related forms and schedules (if you've paid for your product, you can view the actual IRS documents as you go along). You just continue to click on the Continue and Back buttons to advance to the next screen.
Unlike H&R Block At Home, TaxACT lets you view screens and enter data out of sequence. Though it's recommended that you follow the site's linear path, you can click on Jump to Forms & Topics to get an interactive list of the forms and schedules included. Select one to either add a new copy of that page or edit/delete an existing one. Got a document in the mail (like the 1099-SA) but you don't know where it goes? There's another list containing such paperwork that links to the appropriate screens.
You can also navigate to other topics by clicking on tabs and sub-tabs at the top of the working area; these divide the 1040 into related content, like Life Events (changes that will affect the path that TaxACT establishes for you, with extra tips), Federal Q&A (Income, Deductions, etc.) and Review (final pre-filing stages that help ensure that you haven't made any errors or omissions). Click the Forms tab in the vertical pane on the right to see graphical representations of forms and schedules in progress as well as documents you've received. Links here take you to instructions, display the number of copies entered, and let you create new ones.
80 percent of 'irreplaceable' habitats in Andes unprotectedPublic release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tim Lucas tdlucas@duke.edu 919-613-8084 Duke University
DURHAM, N.C. Hundreds of rare, endemic species in the Central Andes remain unprotected and are increasingly under threat from development and climate change, according to a Duke University-led international study.
"These species require unique ecological conditions and are particularly vulnerable to changes in the environment or climate. Yet our analysis shows that region-wide, about 80 percent of the areas with high numbers of these species lack any protection," said Jennifer Swenson, assistant professor of the practice of geospatial analysis at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.
The study, published today in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal BMC Ecology, identifies and maps the geographic ranges of hundreds of species of plants and animals including mammals, birds and amphibians that are found nowhere in the world outside the Andes-Amazon basin in Peru and Bolivia.
The threat to these species has become especially severe in recent years, Swenson said, as oil and gold mining, infrastructure projects, agriculture and other human activities encroach farther into the region's biologically rich landscapes.
"This is one of Earth's most rapidly changing areas," she said.
To conduct their study, Swenson and her colleagues collected more than 7,000 individual records of endemic species locations for 115 species of birds, 55 mammals, 177 amphibians and 435 plants. They combined these with satellite images and climate, topography and vegetation data to create models, detailed to one kilometer, that mapped endemic species distributions across the entire basin from the forested slopes and dry inter-mountain valleys of the Andes all the way to the low-lying Amazonian wetlands and savannas.
By overlaying this data with maps showing modern political boundaries in the Andes-Amazon basin, the researchers found that only about 20 percent of the areas with high numbers of endemic species or high levels of irreplaceability fell within national parks or protected areas, and that 226 rare endemic species lacked any national-level protection at all. Irreplaceability is a term used by conservationists to denote biodiversity hotspots where high numbers of endemic species with very small ranges live. These are often among the most vital and vulnerable habitats in a region.
"Interestingly, one of the areas we identified with the highest number of bird and mammal species and one of the highest levels of irreplaceability was an unprotected region surrounding the World Heritage Site of Machu Picchu, one of the most heavily visited tourist destinations in the region," Swenson noted.
As the effects of development and climate change continue to shrink or shift geographic ranges in coming decades, some species may literally be running out of ground, she said.
"Conservation strategies across the Andes urgently need revising," she said. "There is already evidence of species migrating upslope to keep up with climate change. We hope our data will help protect this incredibly unique region."
Bruce E. Young, director of species science at the nonprofit conservation organization NatureServe, was principal co-author of the study. Twenty additional collaborators from conservation agencies and organizations in Peru and Bolivia helped gather data.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
80 percent of 'irreplaceable' habitats in Andes unprotectedPublic release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tim Lucas tdlucas@duke.edu 919-613-8084 Duke University
DURHAM, N.C. Hundreds of rare, endemic species in the Central Andes remain unprotected and are increasingly under threat from development and climate change, according to a Duke University-led international study.
"These species require unique ecological conditions and are particularly vulnerable to changes in the environment or climate. Yet our analysis shows that region-wide, about 80 percent of the areas with high numbers of these species lack any protection," said Jennifer Swenson, assistant professor of the practice of geospatial analysis at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.
The study, published today in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal BMC Ecology, identifies and maps the geographic ranges of hundreds of species of plants and animals including mammals, birds and amphibians that are found nowhere in the world outside the Andes-Amazon basin in Peru and Bolivia.
The threat to these species has become especially severe in recent years, Swenson said, as oil and gold mining, infrastructure projects, agriculture and other human activities encroach farther into the region's biologically rich landscapes.
"This is one of Earth's most rapidly changing areas," she said.
To conduct their study, Swenson and her colleagues collected more than 7,000 individual records of endemic species locations for 115 species of birds, 55 mammals, 177 amphibians and 435 plants. They combined these with satellite images and climate, topography and vegetation data to create models, detailed to one kilometer, that mapped endemic species distributions across the entire basin from the forested slopes and dry inter-mountain valleys of the Andes all the way to the low-lying Amazonian wetlands and savannas.
By overlaying this data with maps showing modern political boundaries in the Andes-Amazon basin, the researchers found that only about 20 percent of the areas with high numbers of endemic species or high levels of irreplaceability fell within national parks or protected areas, and that 226 rare endemic species lacked any national-level protection at all. Irreplaceability is a term used by conservationists to denote biodiversity hotspots where high numbers of endemic species with very small ranges live. These are often among the most vital and vulnerable habitats in a region.
"Interestingly, one of the areas we identified with the highest number of bird and mammal species and one of the highest levels of irreplaceability was an unprotected region surrounding the World Heritage Site of Machu Picchu, one of the most heavily visited tourist destinations in the region," Swenson noted.
As the effects of development and climate change continue to shrink or shift geographic ranges in coming decades, some species may literally be running out of ground, she said.
"Conservation strategies across the Andes urgently need revising," she said. "There is already evidence of species migrating upslope to keep up with climate change. We hope our data will help protect this incredibly unique region."
Bruce E. Young, director of species science at the nonprofit conservation organization NatureServe, was principal co-author of the study. Twenty additional collaborators from conservation agencies and organizations in Peru and Bolivia helped gather data.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Fitch downgraded the sovereign credit ratings of Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain on Friday, indicating there was a 1-in-2 chance of further cuts in the next two years.
In a statement, the ratings agency said the affected countries were vulnerable in the near-term to monetary and financial shocks.
"Consequently, these sovereigns do not, in Fitch's view, accrue the full benefits of the euro's reserve currency status," it said.
Fitch cut Italy's rating to A-minus from A-plus; Spain to A from AA-minus; Belgium to AA from AA-plus; Slovenia to A from AA-minus and Cyprus to BBB-minus from BBB, leaving the small island nation just one notch above junk status.
Ireland's rating of BBB-plus was affirmed.
All of the ratings were given negative outlooks.
Fitch said it had weighed up a worsening economic outlook in much of the euro zone against the European Central Bank's December move to flood the banking sector with cheap three-year money and austerity efforts by governments to curb their debts.
"Overall, today's rating actions balance the marked deterioration in the economic outlook with both the substantive policy initiatives at the national level to address macro-financial and fiscal imbalances, and the initial success of the ECB's three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation in easing near-term sovereign and bank funding pressures," Fitch said.
Two weeks ago, Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, and pushing struggling Portugal into junk territory.
With nearly half a trillion euros of ECB liquidity coursing through the financial system, some of which has apparently gone into euro zone government bonds, and with hopes of a deal to write down a slab of Greece's mountainous debt, even that sweeping ratings action had little market impact.
The euro briefly pared gains against the dollar after Fitch cut the five euro zone sovereigns but soon jumped to a session high of $1.3208, according to Reuters data, its highest since December 13.
Italy is widely seen as the tipping point for the euro zone. If it slid towards default, the whole currency project would be threatened.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, a technocrat who has won plaudits for his economic reform drive, said he reacted to Fitch's downgrade of Italy with "detached serenity."
"They signal things that are not particularly new, for example, that Italy has a very high debt as a percentage of GDP and they signal that the way the euro zone is governed as a whole is not perfect and we knew that too," he said during a live interview on Italian television.
"They also say things that give a positive view of what is being done in Italy because there is much appreciation for policies of this government and this parliament," he said.
Fitch said of Italy: "A more severe rating action was forestalled by the strong commitment of the Italian government to reducing the budget deficit and to implementing structural reform as well as the significant easing of near-term financing risks as a result of the ECB's 3-year Longer-term Refinancing Operation."
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Daniel Bases, Philip Pullela and Pam Niimi, writing by Mike Peacock, Editing by James Dalgleish)
Bunchball has been touting the benefits of its gamification tools for years, and many of its recent efforts are focused on enterprise customers. Now the company has published a white paper arguing that that gamification is a key way to motivate "Generation Y." As evidence, the paper points to a recent study by MTV saying that millennials (the Bunchball report uses both terms interchangeably) understand their lives through a "game-like metaphor" ? in fact, half of the survey respondents said "people my age see real life as a video game." How does that apply in the workplace?
We were unable to forward you to the advertisement you clicked on.
The likely cause for this is that your browser, feed reader, or email application is configured to not accept cookies, or your reader may launch an external browser to view links without sharing cookies.
If you're using Internet Explorer, make sure your privacy setting is at medium or below.
Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser window
Click the Privacy tab
Adjust your privacy setting if necessary ?
If you're using a reader that embeds Internet Explorer (examples: Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Feed Demon), you'll also need to select Internet Explorer as your default web browser.
Open Internet Explorer
Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser window
Click the 'Programs' tab and check the box for Internet Explorer to check if it is the default browser and save your change
Close your browser, re-open it, and when prompted, select Internet Explorer as your default
You can then click on an ad in your newsletter and visit the site you wish to view
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama has resorted to "extremism" with stifling, anti-growth policies and sought to divide Americans, not unite them, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said Tuesday in the formal Republican response to the president's State of the Union address.
Eight months after deciding against a bid for his party's presidential nomination, Daniels used his nationally televised speech to lash out at Obama and cast the GOP as compassionate and eager to unchain the country's economic potential.
He took particular aim at Obama's efforts to raise taxes on the rich and castigate them for not contributing their fair share to the nation's burdens. Joined by Republicans on Capitol Hill and the presidential campaign trails, the GOP goal was to both blunt and shift the focus away from Obama's theme on Tuesday of fairness, which included protecting the middle class and making sure the rich pay an equitable share of taxes.
"No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant effort to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels said, speaking from Indianapolis. "As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat."
"This election is going to be a referendum on the president's economic policies," which have worsened the economy, said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "The politics of envy, the politics of dividing our country is not what America is all about."
Also drawing frequent GOP attacks were Obama's proposed tax increases, which included making sure millionaire earners pay at least a 30 percent tax rate.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Obama's proposals to boost taxes on the wealthy and give tax breaks for domestic U.S. manufacturers and others were "nothing more than the usual Washington game that has led to a tax code already littered with lobbyist loopholes."
Daniels is a rarity in the GOP these days ? a uniting and widely respected figure, contrasting with the divisiveness emanating from the contest for the presidential nomination being waged among former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and others.
President George W. Bush's first budget chief and a two-term Indiana governor, Daniels often rails against wasteful spending big budget deficits, though critics note he served during the abrupt shift from fleeting federal surpluses to massive deficits early in Bush's term.
"When President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true," Daniels said. He added that while Obama did not cause the country's economic and budget problems, "He was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse."
The night's rhetoric come at the dawn of a presidential and congressional election year in which the defining issues are the faltering economy and weak job market and the parties' clashing prescriptions for restoring both. Obama and congressional Democrats have focused on the more populist pathway of financing federal initiatives by taxing millionaires, while Republicans preach the virtues of less regulation and smaller government.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called Obama's address "a campaign speech designed to please his liberal base," and warned that he should keep legislation advancing his priorities "free from poison pills like tax hikes on job creators."
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who heads large group of House conservatives, said Obama's speech was riddled with "the ridiculous idea that America isn't fair because successful people get to keep too much of the money they earn."
Republicans fired back at Obama's vision of "an economy built to last," saying it was their party that understood the best way to trigger economic growth was to get the government out of the way.
"The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly sane pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy," Daniels said.
Obama has halted, for now, work on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from western Canada to Texas' Gulf Coast. Republicans say the project would create thousands of jobs, a claim opponents say is overstated. The administration has also pursued policies aimed at reducing pollution and global warming.
To underscore Obama's decision on Keystone, Boehner invited three officials from companies he said would be hurt by the pipeline's rejection to watch the speech in the House chamber, along with a pro-pipeline legislator from Nebraska, through which the project would pass.
Obama was delivering his address during a rowdy battle for the GOP presidential nomination that has ended up providing ammunition for Obama's theme of fairness.
That fight has called attention to the wealth of one of the top contenders, Romney, and the low ? but legal ? effective federal income tax rate of around 15 percent that the multimillionaire has paid in the past two years. Romney, in Florida campaigning for that state's Jan. 31 primary, released his tax documents for the two-year period on Tuesday.
"The president's agenda sounds less like `built to last' and more like doomed to fail," Romney said in Tampa, Fla. "What he's proposing is more of the same: more taxes, more spending, and more regulation."
Romney's chief rival at this point, Gingrich, said in a written statement that the top question about Obama's speech was whether he "will show a willingness to put aside the extremist ideology of the far left and call for a new set of policies that could lead to dramatic private sector job creation and economic growth."
ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2012) ? Researchers working at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have used the world's most powerful X-ray laser to create and probe a 2-million-degree piece of matter in a controlled way for the first time. This feat, reported in Nature, takes scientists a significant step forward in understanding the most extreme matter found in the hearts of stars and giant planets, and could help experiments aimed at recreating the nuclear fusion process that powers the sun.
The experiments were carried out at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), whose rapid-fire laser pulses are a billion times brighter than those of any X-ray source before it. Scientists used those pulses to flash-heat a tiny piece of aluminum foil, creating what is known as "hot dense matter," and took the temperature of this solid plasma -- about 2 million degrees Celsius. The whole process took less than a trillionth of a second.
"The LCLS X-ray laser is a truly remarkable machine," said Sam Vinko, a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University and the paper's lead author. "Making extremely hot, dense matter is important scientifically if we are ultimately to understand the conditions that exist inside stars and at the center of giant planets within our own solar system and beyond."
Scientists have long been able to create plasma from gases and study it with conventional lasers, said co-author Bob Nagler of SLAC, an LCLS instrument scientist. But no tools were available for doing the same at solid densities that cannot be penetrated by conventional laser beams.
"The LCLS, with its ultra-short wavelengths of X-ray laser light, is the first that can penetrate a dense solid and create a uniform patch of plasma -- in this case a cube one-thousandth of a centimeter on a side -- and probe it at the same time," Nagler said.
The resulting measurements, he said, will feed back into theories and computer simulations of how hot, dense matter behaves. This could help scientists analyze and recreate the nuclear fusion process that powers the sun.
"Those 60 hours when we first aimed the LCLS at a solid were the most exciting 60 hours of my entire scientific career," said Justin Wark, leader of the Oxford group. "LCLS is really going to revolutionize the field, in my view."
Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
S. M. Vinko, O. Ciricosta, B. I. Cho, K. Engelhorn, H.-K. Chung, C. R. D. Brown, T. Burian, J. Chalupsk?, R. W. Falcone, C. Graves, V. H?jkov?, A. Higginbotham, L. Juha, J. Krzywinski, H. J. Lee, M. Messerschmidt, C. D. Murphy, Y. Ping, A. Scherz, W. Schlotter, S. Toleikis, J. J. Turner, L. Vysin, T. Wang, B. Wu, U. Zastrau, D. Zhu, R. W. Lee, P. A. Heimann, B. Nagler, J. S. Wark. Creation and diagnosis of a solid-density plasma with an X-ray free-electron laser. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature10746
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
BEIJING ? Millions of ethnic Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese across Asia are ringing in the new Year of the Dragon with fireworks, feasting and family reunions.
From Beijing to Bangkok and Seoul to Singapore, people hoping for good luck in the new year that began Monday are visiting temples and lighting incense, setting off firecrackers and watching street performances of lion and dragon dances.
For many, the Lunar New Year is the biggest family reunion of the year for which people endured hours of cramped travel on trains and buses to get home.
In ancient times the dragon was a symbol reserved for the Chinese emperor, and it is considered to be an extremely auspicious sign.
NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) ? The Weather Channel Companies has named David Kenny as its new chairman and chief executive officer.
Kenny is the former president of Akamai, a leading cloud platform. He also co-founded and served as managing partner of VivaKi, the combined worldwide media and digital arm of Publicis Groupe, and was chairman and CEO at Digitas Inc., a global integrated brand agency. He is a member of the Yahoo Inc. board of directors, and a director of Teach for America, a nonprofit group that enlists recent graduates to teach and effect change in under-resourced and low-income communities.
He succeeds Mike Kelly, who joined the company as president and CEO in 2009. He will serve as a special adviser to the CEO and the Board of Directors of TWCC. He will also serve as an adviser to Bain Capital, which owns the Weather Channel along with The Blackstone Group and NBC Universal.
"I was attracted to The Weather Channel because weather is fascinating," said Kenny. "Accurate, timely forecasting is an everyday necessity for people and businesses everywhere. The Weather Channel has ubiquitous reach across our TV, digital and mobile platforms, and that's what makes us so unique."
The consortium that owns the company said in a statement: "David brings a strong leadership background having served as chief executive at global companies across different aspects of the media industry. This experience gives him a deep understanding of the TV and digital business, and he has the leadership experience and vision to drive global initiatives across all platforms. The Weather Channel Companies business is strong and on the right track, and with David leading a strong team, we are well positioned to seize the many good opportunities that lie ahead."
The Weather Channel reaches 163 million people, 110 million of whom access content on multiple platforms. It provides weather information online to roughly 62 million unique a month and 11 million users each day. It also reaches 33 million monthly unique users through its mobile platform and 94 million monthly cable viewers.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Two legally blind women appeared to gain some vision after receiving an experimental treatment using embryonic stem cells, scientists reported Monday.
While embryonic stem cells were first isolated more than a decade ago, most of the research has been done in lab animals. The new results come from the first tests in humans for a vision problem. Researchers caution the work is still very preliminary.
"This study provides reason for encouragement, but plans to now get such a treatment would be premature," said stem cell expert Paul Knoepfler of the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the research.
Last summer, each patient was injected in one eye with cells derived from embryonic stem cells at the University of California, Los Angeles. One patient had the "dry" form of age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness. The other had a rare disorder known as Stargardt disease that causes serious vision loss. There's no cure for either eye problem.
After four months, both showed some improvement in reading progressively smaller letters on an eye chart. The Stargardt patient, a graphic artist in Los Angeles, went from seeing no letters at all to being able to read five of the largest letters.
However, experts said the improvement of the macular degeneration patient might be mostly psychological, because the vision in her untreated eye appeared to get better too.
Both patients remain legally blind despite their improvements, said experts not connected with the study.
"One must be very careful not to overinterpret the visual benefit," said Vanderbilt University retina specialist Dr. Paul Sternberg, who is also the president-elect of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
The findings were published online Monday by the journal Lancet. This early test was meant to study whether the stem cell therapy was safe in people and not whether it would improve vision.
Scientists at UCLA and Advanced Cell Technology, which funded the work, said they were pleased that there have been no signs of rejection or abnormal growth months after the procedure.
Embryonic stem cells can transform into any cell of the body. Scientists are hoping to harness embryonic stem cells to create a variety of replacement tissues for transplant, but their use has been controversial because human embryos have to be destroyed to harvest the cells.
The latest news comes two months after Geron Corp. halted its stem cell-based experiment for spinal cord injuries, saying it planned to focus instead on two experimental cancer drugs.
Meanwhile, ACT is pushing ahead with its blindness study. The company said Monday that surgeons in London injected a patient with Stargardt disease last week.
___
Online:
Lancet: http://www.thelancet.com/journals
___
Follow Alicia Chang's coverage at http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia
The oil-rich former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan has yet to hold an election that Western observers agree is fair, despite 20 years of democracy.
International election observers have slammed Sunday's snap parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan?as failing to meet the fundamental principles of democracy.
Skip to next paragraph
That verdict could be a painful blow to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who moved the voting forward after oil worker protests shook a city in western Kazakhstan. The elections were a possible effort to improve the country?s international image and avoid an "Arab Spring" type uprising in the oil-rich central Asian republic.
Mr. Nazarbayev hailed the voting as "unprecedented in terms of transparency, openness, and honesty." Although he allowed two opposition parties to gain entry to the country's parliament (Mazhilis), which had formerly been completely dominated by members of the ruling Nur Otan Party, as well as a few independents he selected.
"If Kazakhstan authorities are serious about their stated goals of increasing the number of parties in parliament, then they should have allowed more genuine opposition parties to participate in this election," OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Joao Soares told a press conference in the Kazakh capital of Astana Monday.
According to final election results, Nur Otan won 81 percent of the vote, which will give it 83 deputies in the 107-seat lower house. The pro-government Ak Zhol Party (once led by Nazarbayev?s daughter) won 7.5 percent (8 seats), while the Communist Peoples Party gained by 7.2 percent (seven seats). Other parties failed to clear the 7 percent threshold.
Most opposition parties were barred from participating in the elections, and several candidates who were objectionable to authorities were stricken from the ballot, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which fielded 400 observers.
Opposition party leaders said they had evidence of ballot stuffing, multiple voting, and coercion of voters, which they said they would post online.
ZAGREB, Croatia ? Croatians voted Sunday in favor of joining the European Union amid a record small referendum turnout ? a sign of how much the debt-stricken 27-nation bloc has lost in its appeal within the aspiring members states.
Croatia's state referendum commission said that with about 50 percent of the ballot calculated, about 67 percent of those who took part in the referendum answered "yes" to the question: "Do you support the membership of the Republic of Croatia in the European Union?"
About 32 percent were against, while the rest of the ballots were invalid. About 42 percent of eligible voters were estimated to have taken part in the referendum, illustrating voters' apathy toward the 27-nation bloc.
"The people are obviously tired," Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said. "It would have been better that the turnout was larger, but that's reality."
Croatia signed an EU accession treaty last year and will become its 28th member in July 2013 after all the bloc's states ratify the deal.
The Croats were deeply divided before the referendum.
Those who were for the EU say their Balkan country's troubled economy ? burdened by recession, a euro48-billion ($61-billion) foreign debt and a 17 percent unemployment rate ? will revive because of access to wider European markets and job opportunities that the membership should bring.
"It's a big moment in our history ... we are joining more successful countries in Europe," Croatia's President Ivo Josipovic said after casting his ballot. "I'm happy that Europe will become my home."
Opponents said Croatia has nothing to gain by entering the bloc, which is fighting off the bankruptcy of some of its members. They said that Croatia will only lose its sovereignty and the national identity it fought for in a war for independence from Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
"I voted against because I don't think we'll do well in the EU," said university student Matea Kolenc, 23. "I heard a lot of bad things about the EU, its economic situation and what it has to offer."
The Balkan nation started negotiating its EU entry six years ago, but since then the popularity of the bloc has faded, as Croats realize that EU membership would not automatically lead to prosperity.
Many in Croatia ? and the rest of the EU ? also wonder what is the bloc going to gain from the country that is ripe with corruption and has economic woes that are among the deepest in the Balkans.
Croatia's credit rating was last year reduced to a step above junk by ratings agency Standard & Poor's which cited its deteriorating fiscal position and external financing for its decision. If it enters the EU in 2013, Croatia won't be adopting the euro currency for several more years, and is unlikely to contribute to its further plunge.
In a sign of deep divisions in Croatia over the membership, police clashed Saturday in downtown Zagreb with a group of nationalist protesters who attempted to take down an EU flag.
Numerous anti-EU graffiti, some saying "Stop the Destruction, No to EU," appeared Sunday on the walls of voting stations in the Croatian Adriatic coast port of Split, the hotbed of nationalists. Police covered the signs with white paint.
Croatian officials, who have launched a pro-EU campaign before the referendum, warned that a "no" vote would deprive the country of the much-needed accession funds, and that even the payment of pensions for retirees and war veterans could be in jeopardy.
Croatia has received around euro150 million ($193 million) in pre-accession assistance since 2007. It is to receive another euro150 million for 2012 and euro95 million ($122 million) in 2013.
"Clearly all that funding will be stopped if the Croats say no in the referendum," Croatia's Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said.
Croatia's pro-government media have also tried to scare Croatians by saying that if they reject the EU, they would have to return to some sort of a Balkan union with their former wartime foes, Serbia, which has been struggling to gain a candidacy status in the bloc.
The approval rating for EU membership has also dropped to 52 percent in Serbia because of Germany's conditioning for the candidacy with the de facto recognizing of the independence of its former Kosovo province which declared independence in 2008.
KANO, Nigeria (AP) ? Two bombs exploded outside of police stations Friday in the largest city in Nigeria's Muslim north, causing panic in the streets as people fled for their lives.
Police could not be immediately reached for comment, but the bomb blasts bore similarities to other attacks carried out by a radical Islamist sect responsible for hundreds of deaths in recent months.
The first bomb detonated at a regional police headquarters in the city of Kano, causing unknown injuries, said Abubakar Jibril, an official with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency. A second blast struck a police station in another neighborhood, Jibril said.
Jibril said officials with his agency couldn't reach the scenes of the blasts because they were stopped by security forces.
Police kept Associated Press reporters away from the regional headquarters. An AP reporter could see a plume of smoke also rising from another neighborhood in the city as people began fleeing the area.
Another AP reporter said the explosion was powerful enough to shake his car several miles (kilometers) away.
The explosion occurred as Nigeria faces increasing attacks from a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. The sect has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an Associated Press count.
So far this year, the group, which has warned it will kill Christians living in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north, has been blamed for at least 76 killings, according to an AP count. That has further inflamed religious and ethnic tensions in Nigeria, which has seen ethnic violence kill thousands in recent years.
Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for an August suicide car bombing that targeted the U.N. headquarters in the capital, killing 25 people and wounding more than 100.
In a video released last week, Imam Abubakar Shekau, a Boko Haram leader, said the government could not handle attacks by the group.
Although President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from southern Nigeria, has declared emergency rule in some regions, the sect is blamed for almost daily attacks.
Jonathan has said he believes the sect has infiltrated security agencies and government offices in the country, though he has offered no evidence to back up the claim.
___
Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell and Yinka Ibukun contributed to this report from Lagos, Nigeria.
If you've been enjoying the fireworks over PIPA and SOPA these past weeks, get ready for more intellectual property ugliness. The US Supreme Court handed down a decision in Golan v. Holder Wednesday granting Congress the power to restore copyright claims on works that had entered the public domain. The six to two decision (with only the conservative Samuel Alito and liberal Stephen Breyer dissenting) was issued primarily with an eye towards bringing the country in line with an international treaty known as the Berne Convention. The plaintiffs in the case included orchestra conductors, educators, performers and archivists who rely on public domain works such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis and compositions from Igor Stravinsky. Many orchestras, including that of lead plaintiff Lawrence Golan, will now be forced to stop performing works that are a regular part of their repertoire due to licensing fees. Hit up the more coverage link for the complete (PDF) decision.
Update: To be clear, this decision upheld a statute granting copyright protection to a bundle of international works that were placed in the public domain (and therefore denied copyright protection) under previous US laws.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Housing starts fell in December as groundbreaking on rental property posted a big decline, splashing some cold water on hopes the still-weak housing sector could boost economic growth this year.
The Commerce Department said on Thursday housing starts fell 4.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 657,000 units.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts edging down to a 680,000-unit rate in December.
Starts of buildings with five or more units dropped 27.8 percent to a 164,000-unit rate, the biggest drop since February.
Tempering the overall decline, groundbreaking on single family buildings rose 4.5 percent to a 470,000-unit rate.
Permits fell 0.1 percent to an annual rate of 679,000 units.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Neil Stempleman)
LONDON ? Britain's unemployment rate spiked to 8.4 percent in November, its highest level since 1995, official figures showed Wednesday.
The figure is up from last month's 8.3 percent and follows a run of fairly downbeat economic news.
The Office for National Statistics also said there were 2.7 million people out of work in the three months from September to November. That is the highest figure since 1994.
Unemployment is rising as the British economy has flatlined in the wake of the debt crisis in the euro area, which has dented economic confidence, and as the government continues with its deficit-reduction program.
The statistics office also found that pay growth remains relatively muted as high unemployment keeps a lid on wages.
Analysts expect unemployment to continue to rise
"Public sector staff cuts will be accompanied by private sector job losses, as companies focus on cost-cutting in the face of what many are expecting to be a challenging year ahead," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at financial data company Markit.
The report came a day after some rare good news, a sharp drop in the U.K.'s consumer prices inflation rate from 4.8 percent to 4.2 percent. But that too was a measure of a tough year ahead; retailers contributed to the improved inflation rate by slashing prices in December to lure customers.
Back in November we joined Martin Scorsese and other Hollywood luminaries at Paramount Studios for the unveiling of Canon's latest cinema video camera, which is now available for pre-order. The EOS C300, that aims to compete directly against the Reds of the world, carries a Super 35mm CMOS sensor capable of up to 4K resolution 1080p capture, and should be helped in large part by the company's top-shelf lenses; like the 14.5 - 60mm and 30 - 300mm. When we first met the C300 we told you it'd be priced at a hefty $20,000, but that's no longer the case, instead it'll cost a less painful $16,000 for the body only. The camera will begin shipping "after January 30th," and if it seems like a little too much for you, at least you can still watch our precious hands-on time with it.
Update: We've updated to clarify that while the sensor is 4K the camera only captures in 1080p.
17 January 2012Last updated at 07:36 ETBy Pallab GhoshScience correspondent, BBC News
Researchers, explorers and relatives have praised the contribution Captain Robert Falcon Scott made to science.
The tributes come on the centenary of Scott's party reaching the South Pole.
The so-called Terra Nova expedition found that they had been beaten to the pole by a Norwegian team by 33 days, and on their return journey Scott and his four fellow explorers died.
Some saw it as a mission of heroic failure, and Scott quickly became an iconic figure for his efforts.
But in the later half of the 20th Century his status was re-examined by historians, some of whom questioned Scott's capabilities and contribution.
Scott's granddaughter Dafila Scott told BBC News that it was time to re-evaluate his life and contribution.
"My grandfather's reputation has been through various ups and downs and this is a good time to reflect on the wider legacy and what they achieved not only in getting to the pole but the scientific work that they did," she said.
Continue reading the main story
?Start Quote
He was the world's greatest polar explorer?
End QuoteSir Ranulph FiennesAdventurer and Scott biographer
Ms Scott is a zoologist by training, but subsequently went on to become a painter and artist. She says that she is not surprised her grandfather became interested in science.
"There's no question that he was very much focused on the science," she said.
"The exploration was part of it but it was only part of it. In the Antarctic, there were and still are so many possibilities for things to discover. It's a wonderful place. It's an open air laboratory".
It is a view shared by Scott's grandson, Falcon, who has recently arrived at the Antarctic as part of a project by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust to restore the hut that was the base of operations on the North Shore of Cape Evans on Antarctica's Ross Island.
Speaking from Scott Base he told BBC News: "It's long overdue that his scientific legacy should be appreciated. It was a very significant part of the expedition. They undertook the science in very extreme conditions with amazing endurance.
"You only realise that when you come down here. There was no contact with the outside world and the risks were enormous."
On his arrival at Scott Base two weeks ago, Falcon Scott went into his grandfather's hut alone so that he could fully take in the moment.
"It was like walking back in time," he said.
"There's a feeling of the presence of the man. There are still his possessions lying there, lots of tins of food that are well preserved and clothing on the beds. It was like the man had only just left it".
According to Heather Lane, curator and keeper of collections at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, the aim of the Terra Nova expedition was not just to get to the pole but also to do as much scientific investigation as possible.
"When Scott found out about the Norwegian team's plans to get to the pole first he makes a very clear decision to stick with the scientific programme," she said.
She said there was "enormous disappointment" in getting there second, but "he felt it was so important that they stick to the idea of the mapping and the science and the collection of the meteorological data all the way to the pole, and it was that that was going to be the long term legacy".
Elin Simonsson from the Natural History Museum shows artefacts from the Scott expedition to the South Pole
There were 12 researchers on the expedition who were recruited by Scott himself. One member of his team, Charles Wright, wrote that "if Scott had not been a Naval man he would have been a scientist".
That is a view shared by the British adventurer and Scott biographer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who himself has crossed the Antarctic continent.
"He was a curious man, he was a very clever man. He was a brilliant man in every respect and he was the world's greatest polar explorer," Sir Ranulph told BBC News.
The Terra Nova expedition was Scott's second excursion to the Antarctic. It was more ambitious in scope and its scientific aspirations than Scott's first trip on the Discovery expedition 10 years earlier.
In his expedition prospectus, Scott wrote that Terra Nova's principal objective was "to reach the South Pole, and to secure for the British Empire the glory of this achievement".
Of course, a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen reached the pole first. And Scott and his team never returned home, dying of starvation and exposure on the return journey.
But alongside their bodies were several pounds of their precious geological samples and scientific notebooks which, even while approaching death through exhaustion, Scott and his men continued to take with them.
Those samples and data are an enduring legacy of the Terra Nova expedition.
The expedition was the ambitious scientific endeavour of its time, and it was the largest ever research mission to the pole - comprising 12 scientists including two biologists, three geologists and a meteorologist.
The team collected specimens from 2,109 different animals. Of these, 401 were new to science. They also collected rock samples, penguin eggs and plant fossils.
One of the most important discoveries was a fossilised fern-like plant which was known to grow in India, Africa, New Zealand and Australia. It suggested that the climate 250 million years ago had been mild enough for trees to grow.
More intriguingly, the discovery, along with other evidence gathered by Scott's team, was a hint that India, Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Antarctica had in the distant past all been part of one "supercontinent". Researchers now call this landmass Gondwanaland.
It was around this time that the idea of continental drift was first put forward, independently, by the German scientist, Alfred Wegener. Scott's team also collected the first thorough set of weather data for the Antarctic, which has served as a baseline to track changes in weather patterns ever since.
The team also travelled for five weeks to study an Emperor penguin colony come on to land and lay their eggs. The team took some of the eggs - which contained embryos - believing that they would shed more light on a possible link between birds and dinosaurs. According to David Wilson, the great nephew of Scott's chief of scientific staff, Dr Edward Wilson, their efforts illustrated just how passionate they were about the science.
"This was one of the greatest scientific questions of the time. But they had to go through extraordinary hardship to get the penguin eggs. It was minus 60C, so cold that their teeth cracked," he said.
In the end, the eggs were of little use in this regard, but the efforts the men went to and the risks they took under the most extreme circumstances epitomise a spirit of heroic scientific investigation that arguably has not been matched since.
DreamHost has been having a rough couple weeks. The low-cost hosting provider and domain name registrar found some unauthorized activity in its databases back on January 20th, which they later admitted were a series of attacks that may have led to the theft of some of their customers' FTP passwords. The company required mandatory password resets for all their Shell/FTP accounts -- you can read our coverage here. DreamHost's bad dream continued today, as they've been reporting outage problems, as Web, SSH, and FTP services were down for many of the company's virtual private servers, shared, and dedicated machines. The outage was first reported at 4am PST on Sunday, and has continued throughout the course of the day, with the company offering updates on its blog.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
Share ] 
Bunchball has been touting the benefits of its gamification tools for years, and many of its recent efforts are focused on enterprise customers. Now the company has published a white paper arguing that that gamification is a key way to motivate "Generation Y." As evidence, the paper points to a recent study by MTV saying that millennials (the Bunchball report uses both terms interchangeably) understand their lives through a "game-like metaphor" ? in fact, half of the survey respondents said "people my age see real life as a video game." How does that apply in the workplace?
