AP IMPACT: Health overhaul lags in states (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Here's a reality check for President Barack Obama's health overhaul: Three out of four uninsured Americans live in states that have yet to figure out how to deliver on its promise of affordable medical care.

This is the year that will make or break the health care law. States were supposed to be partners in carrying out the biggest safety net expansion since Medicare and Medicaid, and the White House claims they're making steady progress.

But an analysis by The Associated Press shows that states are moving in fits and starts. Combined with new insurance coverage estimates from the nonpartisan Urban Institute, it reveals a patchwork nation.

Such uneven progress could have real consequences.

If it continues, it will mean disparities and delays from state to state in carrying out an immense expansion of health insurance scheduled in the law for 2014. That could happen even if the Supreme Court upholds Obama's law, called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

"There will be something there, but if it doesn't mesh with the state's culture and if the state is not really supporting it, that certainly won't help it succeed," said Urban Institute senior researcher Matthew Buettgens.

The 13 states that have adopted a plan are home to only 1 in 4 of the uninsured. An additional 17 states are making headway, but it's not clear all will succeed. The 20 states lagging behind account for the biggest share of the uninsured, 42 percent.

Among the lagging states are four with arguably the most to gain. Texas, Florida, Georgia and Ohio together would add more than 7 million people to the insurance rolls, according to Urban Institute estimates, reducing the annual burden of charity care by $10.7 billion.

"It's not that we want something for free, but we want something we can afford," said Vicki McCuistion of Driftwood, Texas, who works two part-time jobs and is uninsured. With the nation's highest uninsured rate, her state has made little progress.

The Obama administration says McCuistion and others in the same predicament have nothing to fear. "The fact of states moving at different rates does not create disparities for a particular state's uninsured population," said Steve Larsen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

That's because the law says that if a state isn't ready, the federal government will step in. Larsen insists the government will be ready, but it's not as easy as handing out insurance cards.

Someone has to set up health insurance exchanges, new one-stop supermarkets with online and landline capabilities for those who buy coverage individually.

A secure infrastructure must be created to verify income, legal residency and other personal information, and smooth enrollment in private insurance plans or Medicaid. Many middle-class households will be eligible for tax credits to help pay premiums for private coverage. Separate exchanges must be created for small businesses.

"It's a very heavy lift," said California's health secretary, Diana Dooley, whose state was one of the first to approve a plan. "Coverage is certainly important, but it's not the only part. It is very complex."

California has nearly 7.5 million residents without coverage, more than half of the 12.7 million uninsured in the states with a plan. An estimated 2.9 million Californians would gain coverage, according to the Urban Institute's research, funded by the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Democrats who wrote the overhaul law had hoped that most states would be willing partners, putting aside partisan differences to build the exchanges and help cover more than 30 million uninsured nationally. It's not turning out that way.

Some states, mainly those led by Democrats, are far along. Others, usually led by Republicans, have done little. Separately, about half the states are suing to overturn the law.

Time is running out for states, which must have their plans ready for a federal approval deadline of Jan. 1, 2013. Those not ready risk triggering the default requirement that Washington run their exchange.

Yet in states where Republican repudiation of the health care law has blocked exchanges, there's little incentive to advance before the Supreme Court rules. A decision is expected this summer, and many state legislatures aren't scheduled to meet past late spring.

The result if the law is upheld could be greater federal sway over health care in the states, the very outcome conservatives say they want to prevent.

"If you give states the opportunity to decide their own destiny, and some choose to ignore it for partisan reasons, they almost make the case against themselves for more federal intervention," said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

A conservative, Nelson was on the winning side of a heated argument among Democrats over who should run exchanges, the feds or the states. Liberals lost their demand for a federal exchange, insulated from state politics.

"It's pretty hard to take care of the states when they don't take care of themselves," said Nelson, who regrets that the concession he fought for has been dismissed by so many states.

The AP's analysis divided states into four broad groups: those that have adopted a plan for exchanges, those that made substantial progress, those where the outlook is unclear, and those with no significant progress. AP statehouse reporters were consulted in cases of conflicting information.

Thirteen states, plus the District of Columbia, have adopted a plan.

By contrast, in 20 states either the outlook is unclear or there has been no significant progress. Those states include more than 21 million of the 50 million uninsured Americans.

Four have made no significant progress. They are Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and New Hampshire. The last three returned planning money to the federal government. In Arkansas, Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe ran into immovable GOP opposition in the Legislature. Beebe acknowledges that the federal government will have to run the exchange, but is exploring a fallback option.

In the other 16 states, the outlook is unclear because of failure to advance legislation or paralyzing political disputes that often pit Republicans fervently trying to stop what they deride as "Obamacare" against fellow Republicans who are more pragmatic.

In Kansas, for example, Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger is pushing hard for a state exchange, but Gov. Sam Brownback returned a $31 million federal grant, saying the state would not act before the Supreme Court rules. Both officials are Republicans.

"It's just presidential politics," said Praeger, discussing the situation nationally. "It's less about whether exchanges make sense and more about trying to repeal the whole law." As a result, outlook is unclear for a state with 361,000 uninsured residents.

There is a bright spot for Obama and backers of the law.

An additional 17 states have made substantial progress, although that's no guarantee of success. Last week in Wisconsin, GOP Gov. Scott Walker abruptly halted planning and announced he will return $38 million in federal money.

AP defined states making substantial progress as ones where governors or legislatures have made a significant commitment to set up exchanges. Another important factor was state acceptance of a federal exchange establishment grant.

That group accounts for just under one-third of the uninsured, about 16 million people.

It includes populous states such as New York, Illinois, North Carolina and New Jersey, which combined would add more than 3 million people to the insurance rolls.

Several are led by Republican governors, including Virginia and Indiana, which have declared their intent to establish insurance exchanges under certain conditions. Other states that have advanced under Republican governors include Arizona and New Mexico.

For uninsured people living in states that have done little, the situation is demoralizing.

Gov. Rick Perry's opposition to the law scuttled plans to advance an exchange bill in the Texas Legislature last year, when Perry was contemplating his presidential run. The Legislature doesn't meet this year, so the situation is unclear.

McCuistion and her husband, Dan, are among the nearly 6.7 million Texans who lack coverage. Dan is self-employed as the owner of a specialty tree service. Vicki works part time for two nonprofit organizations. The McCuistions have been uninsured throughout their 17-year marriage, although their three daughters now have coverage through the Children's Health Insurance Program. Dan McCuistion has been nursing a bad back for years, and it only seems to get worse.

"For me it almost feels like a ticking time bomb," his wife said.

Dan McCuistion says he doesn't believe Americans have a constitutional right to health care, but he would take advantage of affordable coverage if it was offered to him. He's exasperated with Perry and other Texas politicians. "They give a lot of rhetoric toward families, but their actions don't meet up with what they are saying," he said.

Perry's office says it's principle, not lack of compassion.

"Gov. Perry believes `Obamacare' is unconstitutional, misguided and unsustainable, and Texas, along with other states, is taking legal action to end this massive government overreach," said spokeswoman Lucy Nashed. "There are no plans to implement an exchange."

___

Online:

AP interactive: http://hosted.ap.org/interactives/2011/healthcare

Urban Institute estimates: http://tinyurl.com/86py8nd

Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight: http://cciio.cms.gov

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_us/us_health_overhaul_states

bank holidays bank holidays john galt john galt post office hours post office hours coptic

Cooley leads Irish upset of No. 1 Syracuse (AP)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. ? Jack Cooley scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds Saturday night as Notre Dame upset No. 1 Syracuse 67-58 and handed the Orange their first loss after 20 straight victories.

Fans stormed the court after the Irish's rousing victory. It was the eighth time Notre Dame has beaten a No. 1 team ? that ties for fourth-most all-time, with North Carolina having the most with 12.

The Orange (20-1, 7-1) played without starting center Fab Melo, who did not make the trip and will not play Monday against Cincinnati.

Without Melo in the middle, the 6-foot-9, 248-pound Cooley was a major force for Notre Dame (12-8, 4-3) and the Irish won the rebound battle 38-25.

Melo had started all 20 of the Orange's first games, was their leading rebounder with 5.7 a game, averaged 7.2 points and three blocks. School officials gave no explanation why the talented center did not make the trip. C.J. Fair started for the Orange.

James Southerland scored 15 points for Syracuse, which shot just 34 percent and had its lowest scoring game of the season. Scott Martin added 13 for Notre Dame, which hit 50 percent of its field-goal attempts.

Southerland's 3-pointer with 53.9 seconds left brought the Orange to within 62-56 before the Irish held on as Jerian Grant sank four free throws in the final 32 seconds.

It was the first time the Irish have beaten a top-ranked team since 1987 when they defeated North Carolina, also in South Bend. One of the Irish's most dramatic victories over a No. 1 came in 1974, when they stopped UCLA's 88-game winning streak by 71-70.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was denied his 877th career victory, which would have put him in sole possession of fourth place among Division I men's coaches.

Notre Dame led in the first half by as many as 18 and was up 35-23 at the half, shooting 54.4 percent and holding the Orange to 2.6 (8-for-18). Syracuse was only 4-of-13 from the 3-point line and was beaten on the boards 20-13 as Notre Dame seemed to be half step quicker.

Syracuse got off to a better second-half start and whittled the lead to eight less than three minutes in. But Martin hit another 3-pointer for the Irish as the shot clock was winding down and Cooley ? benefiting from Melo's absence ? bulled his way in for a layup to restore the lead to 12. Cooley then dropped in two free throws and Martin again sank a 3-pointer and the Irish were rolling with a 17-point lead.

The Orange then went on a 9-2 run and Kris Joseph's 3-pointer made it a 10-point game with 7:43 to go. Syracuse again cut it to eight before Cooley roared down the court for a dunk with just over five minutes left.

Triche's three-point play with 2:24 left cut it to seven as the Orange made a final run.

Pat Connaughton, inserted into the Irish starting lineup, had a pair of 3s in the early going and Notre Dame bolted to an 11-2 lead.

Notre Dame kept up the long-range accuracy, making four of its first six attempts. And when Eric Atkins grabbed a rebound and went the length of the floor for a layup, the Irish were up 21-10 as the fans at Purcell Pavilion went wild.

And without Melo in the middle, the Irish were all over the boards with an early 13-4 advantage.

Atkins picked up his third foul with 9:04 left, but Jerian Grant's 3-pointer gave the Irish a two-touchdown lead at 28-14.

The Orange missed 14 of their first 19 field-goal attempts and nothing was falling. Tom Knight's left-handed shot in the lane doubled the score, putting the Irish up 32-16.

Alex Dragicevich's 3-pointer as the shot clock was running down put the Irish up 35-18 with 1:12 left in the half. Dion Waiters then responded with a pair of quick 3-pointers to get the Orange to within 12 at the end of a frustrating first half.

The 23 points represented the Orange's lowest-scoring half of the season.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/bkc_t25_syracuse_notre_dame

home depot center the replacements fleet week scarecrow festival scarecrow festival oklahoma state football oklahoma state football

Classic matchups for spots in Super Bowl (AP)

No complaining about these championship matchups: prolific offense vs. stingy defense, or old foes renewing a storied rivalry.

Whichever suits your preference, the NFL has it this weekend.

When the New England Patriots host the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday for the AFC title, four players who have come to represent the highest levels of achievement will be on each side of the ball. Tom Brady, seeking a fifth start in a Super Bowl, and Wes Welker on New England's offense, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed on Baltimore's defense.

How juicy.

"They've got a lot of guys over there that are very explosive," said Reed, the Ravens' star safety. "Obviously, they score a lot of points, and we've all seen that. It's going to be an all-day affair for our defense."

The other championship affair Sunday is at Candlestick Park, where the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers have played some memorable games, regular season and postseason. Despite the geographic separation, these franchises have quite a history with each other.

"You know there are a lot of memories," former Giants quarterback Phil Simms said of the rivalry. "They went from maybe the greatest to the worst in lots of ways. The games were awesome."

It could shape up as an awesome weekend. Certainly an intriguing one.

New England (14-3) hasn't won the AFC crown since 2007, when it was unbeaten until the Giants pulled off a shocker in the Super Bowl. The Patriots' last NFL title came in January 2005.

To get their fourth league championship under coach Bill Belichick and with Brady at quarterback, they'll need to have their offense in high gear, which it has been nearly all season. The Patriots scored at least 27 points in all but three games and averaged 32.8, including last week's 45-10 rout of Denver, their ninth straight victory.

But New England didn't beat an opponent that finished with a winning record, and lost to its two most difficult foes, Pittsburgh and the Giants.

Baltimore (13-4) most assuredly presents a difficult challenge, with a defense that yielded 266 points, more than only two teams.

"I think we have a lot of confidence, we are a confident type team, have a lot of good players and they feed off each other," All-Pro receiver Welker said. "We feel someone will step up and make a play ... and it makes it tough on defenses.

"I understand we are playing a great football team this week and have to be on top of everything. No mental errors, no bad mistakes, knowing your job and taking care of your business."

Brady usually does that, although before the romp past Denver, he and the Patriots had lost three straight postseason games. He is 4-0 in regular-season meetings with the Ravens, but lost their only playoff matchup.

If he isn't at his best, it will be because of Lewis, Reed and that staunch Baltimore D. The Ravens are as physical as anyone, and one thing that historically has slowed Brady has been when a defense gets in his face, disrupts his rhythm ? and hits him. Many times.

"It's more important that we stop their whole offense," said Reed, whom Belichick called the greatest safety he has faced during his coaching career. "We can't focus on one particular player, because Brady doesn't. Brady throws it to everybody. I've been saying that all week. He'll throw it to an offensive lineman. We're looking at everybody that's eligible that's going out on a route and not going out on a route. We're paying attention to everybody. Everybody has a responsibility. They have 11 guys on the field. We have 11 guys on the field. Everybody has to do their responsibility."

The 11 guys on each side of the ball at Candlestick Park for the NFC championship game will carry on a tradition of notable meetings that dates back to when the 49ers (14-3) and Giants (11-7) were dominating the conference in the 1980s. Their only faceoff in the title game was in January 1991, when New York kicked five field goals for a 15-13 victory, preventing San Francisco from going after a third straight Super Bowl trophy.

While it's fun to conjure up memories of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, Lawrence Taylor and Matt Bahr, this year's participants are more concerned with adding to a winning legacy. This is the 49ers' first playoff appearance since the 2002 season, when they won a wild 39-38 wild-card game against the Giants. New York, of course, won it all four years ago.

"Winning is what it's all about and it definitely makes coming to work a lot better than hearing, Who's going to be your new head coach or defensive coordinator?' All-Pro defensive tackle Justin Smith said. "I'll take this over the other for sure."

No worries on the coaching front after Jim Harbaugh made his first year in charge one of the most successful for any rookie coach. Harbaugh doesn't have much of a feel for Giants-49ers, though; he didn't play for either team.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin, who was on the 1990 championship staff, knows all about it.

"I have thought about that and we will talk about some of the things that occurred there," Coughlin said, "but only from the standpoint of the history and the tradition and what a great event that was at that particular time. That was a long time ago and I think some of our players, because they are historians, will know a little about that game and the great players that played in that game."

More appropriate, perhaps, is the 27-20 win by the 49ers in November, a game decided only when Smith blocked Eli Manning's last-minute pass deep in San Francisco territory. It was the latest installment of a grand rivalry.

Until Sunday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_championship_weekend

pepper spray storage auctions storage auctions les miles les miles beyonce dance for you video beyonce dance for you video

Notre Dame researchers report fundamental malaria discovery

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 20-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kasturi Haldar
khaldar@nd.edu
University of Notre Dame

A team of researchers led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease.

The researchers show how parasites target proteins to the surface of the red blood cell that enables sticking to and blocking blood vessels. Strategies that prevent this host-targeting process will block disease.

The research findings appear in the Jan. 20 edition of the journal Cell, the leading journal in the life sciences. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Malaria is a blood disease that kills nearly 1 million people each year. It is caused by a parasite that infects red cells in the blood. Once inside the cell, the parasite exports proteins beyond its own plasma membrane border into the blood cell. These proteins function as adhesins that help the infected red blood cells stick to the walls of blood vessels in the brain and cause cerebral malaria, a deadly form of the disease that kills over half a million children each year.

In all cells, proteins are made in a specialized cell compartment called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) from where they are delivered to other parts of the cell. Haldar and Bhattacharjee and collaborators Robert Stahelin at the Indiana University School of Medicine- South Bend (who also is an adjunct faculty member in Notre Dame's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry), and David and Kaye Speicher at the University of Pennsylvania's Wistar Institute discovered that for host-targeted malaria proteins the very first step is binding to the lipid phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate, PI(3)P, in the ER.

This was surprising for two reasons. Previous studies suggested an enzyme called Plasmepsin V that released the proteins into the ER was also the export mechanism. However, Haldar, Bhattacharjee and colleagues discovered that binding to PI(3)P lipid which occurs first is the gate keeper to control export and that export can occur without Plasmepsin V action. Further, in higher eukaryotic cells (such as in humans), the lipid PI(3)P is not usually found within the ER membrane but rather is exposed to the cellular cytoplasm.

Haldar and Bhattacharjee are experts in malaria parasite biology and pathogenesis. Stahelin is an expert in PI(3)P lipid biology, and David and Kaye Speicher are experts in proteomics and a method called mass spectrometry.

###

Their interdisciplinary collaboration reveals a fundamental, novel cellular function, whose disruption can provide new therapies that are urgently needed for malaria.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 20-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kasturi Haldar
khaldar@nd.edu
University of Notre Dame

A team of researchers led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease.

The researchers show how parasites target proteins to the surface of the red blood cell that enables sticking to and blocking blood vessels. Strategies that prevent this host-targeting process will block disease.

The research findings appear in the Jan. 20 edition of the journal Cell, the leading journal in the life sciences. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Malaria is a blood disease that kills nearly 1 million people each year. It is caused by a parasite that infects red cells in the blood. Once inside the cell, the parasite exports proteins beyond its own plasma membrane border into the blood cell. These proteins function as adhesins that help the infected red blood cells stick to the walls of blood vessels in the brain and cause cerebral malaria, a deadly form of the disease that kills over half a million children each year.

In all cells, proteins are made in a specialized cell compartment called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) from where they are delivered to other parts of the cell. Haldar and Bhattacharjee and collaborators Robert Stahelin at the Indiana University School of Medicine- South Bend (who also is an adjunct faculty member in Notre Dame's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry), and David and Kaye Speicher at the University of Pennsylvania's Wistar Institute discovered that for host-targeted malaria proteins the very first step is binding to the lipid phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate, PI(3)P, in the ER.

This was surprising for two reasons. Previous studies suggested an enzyme called Plasmepsin V that released the proteins into the ER was also the export mechanism. However, Haldar, Bhattacharjee and colleagues discovered that binding to PI(3)P lipid which occurs first is the gate keeper to control export and that export can occur without Plasmepsin V action. Further, in higher eukaryotic cells (such as in humans), the lipid PI(3)P is not usually found within the ER membrane but rather is exposed to the cellular cytoplasm.

Haldar and Bhattacharjee are experts in malaria parasite biology and pathogenesis. Stahelin is an expert in PI(3)P lipid biology, and David and Kaye Speicher are experts in proteomics and a method called mass spectrometry.

###

Their interdisciplinary collaboration reveals a fundamental, novel cellular function, whose disruption can provide new therapies that are urgently needed for malaria.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/uond-ndr012012.php

susan lucci jim caviezel arturo gatti arturo gatti stoma stoma money ball

Salvage firms jostle for wrecked Italian liner (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? Though the search for survivors or, more likely, bodies on the Costa Concordia goes on, attention is turning to what to do with the hulk of wrecked Italian super-liner - and who will win the rich contract to break it up or salvage it.

Startling though it may seem, it could be only be a matter of months before the beached carcass is once more ready to shuttle tourists, over 3,000 of them per voyage, around the Mediterranean.

"My guess is they will try to salvage the ship intact," said Ted Thompson from the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), a body that promotes the industry in North America.

"If you go back to Pearl Harbor, most of those ships were salved and not cut up," he said of the U.S. warships sunk by the Japanese in 1941. "Many were raised intact and refurbished and sent to war. So it is possible to salvage a ship intact."

Less than 48 hours after the Costa Concordia hit a rock last Friday, the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio was hosting not only rescue teams but also Dutch and American salvage experts assessing how to refloat the 114,000-tonne vessel, which is twice the size of the Titanic and the biggest liner ever wrecked.

The decision on how to remove the ship, which lies half-submerged on its side less than 50 meters (yards) offshore, will be made jointly by its owner Costa Cruises, a unit of Florida's Carnival Corp, insurers and specialists in salvage techniques.

A tender will then be held and the world's foremost salvage companies are positioning themselves to bid. Having cost some half a billion dollars to build in 2006 - rather more than a jumbo jet - there is plenty of value remaining in the wreck.

"The ship is definitely re-floatable, but it's a question of cost-benefit about whether that is worth it," said a salvage expert appointed by Royal Sun Alliance, one of a group of insurers for the ship.

Speaking at the quayside on Giglio, he said companies likely to bid include Smit Salvage, an arm of Dutch group Boskalis-Westminster, Titan Salvage, owned by U.S. group Crowley Maritime Corp and Denmark's Svitzer, owned by Maersk.

Like many of those directly involved in the future of Concordia, he declined to be identified by name, a measure of the sensitivity of the operation and high financial stakes.

GIANT BALLOONS

Pier Luigi Foschi, the head of Costa Cruises, said this week that removing the ship from its resting place would be "one of the most difficult things in the world." He said large holes in the hull below the waterline would have to be sealed and then it could possibly be lifted by giant balloons and towed away.

He also did not rule out that it may need to be cut into pieces, once fuel tanks have been pumped out to limit pollution.

Salvage companies eyeing the potentially huge contracts are confident it can be put back on the water.

Smit Salvage, which was first on the island with a sizeable team of workers in distinctive yellow and blue uniforms, will pump the 2,300 tonnes of fuel from the ship, and have made clear they are also ready for the bigger task of salvaging it.

"Our involvement is limited to fuel extraction and does not pertain to the eventual removal of the vessel, but our track record shows we are also capable of doing that," said spokesman Martijn Schuttevaer.

A smaller team of five experts from Titan salvage arrived on Giglio close on Smit's heels.

"We're here to look at how it can be raised," a Titan expert told Reuters, again speaking anonymously. "It could definitely be done, with balloons, cables. There are various techniques."

A spokesman for Svitzer, which is currently trying to salvage the cargo ship Rena off New Zealand, told Reuters it might also bid on the Costa Concordia.

Smit, together with Dutch heavy lifting and transport company Mammoet, successfully lifted Russian nuclear submarine the Kursk from the bottom of the Barents Sea, where it sank with all hands in 2000.

At less than 10,000 tonnes, the Kursk was a midget compared with the Costa Concordia. But it lay at a depth of 108 meters, while the Italian cruise liner is only half submerged.

A Mammoet spokesman also said the company might make a bid to salvage the Costa Concordia if and when a tender is held.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London and Gilbert Kreijger in Amsterdam; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/wl_nm/us_italy_ship_salvage

numerology the game new hampshire primary hue jackson alabama football coachella 2012 line up lsu

Arman Ahnood teases OLED display with solar cells, idealizes the self-sustaining smartphone

Plenty of effort is going into improving smartphone battery life, but only a few individuals are delving into radical realms to achieve the goal. Take for example, Arman Ahnood, a researcher at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, whose latest prototype uses solar cells to capture wasted energy from OLEDs. Similar to Wysips (which uses only ambient light), and equipment from UCLA (designed for LCDs), each project faces the unenviable task of making the smartphone a self-sustaining piece of gear.

Ahnood's handiwork relies on an array of solar cells that surround and sit beneath the phone's display. Currently, the system averages 11 percent efficiency in its energy capture, with a peak efficiency of 18 percent. Naturally, there are gains to be made. Of the light generated from OLEDs, Ahnood approximates that only 36 percent is actually projected outward. Critically speaking, this also suggests that similar power savings could be achieved with dimmer, more efficient displays, but we'll let that slide. As it stands, Ahnood's system is able to generate approximately five milliwatts of additional power, given a screen size of 3.7-inches. It's hardly sustainable, but if the creation lets us squeeze in a few more text messages on Friday night, we'll take it.

Arman Ahnood teases OLED display with solar cells, idealizes the self-sustaining smartphone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ExtremeTech  |  sourceIEEE Spectrum  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/20/oled-display-with-integrated-solar-cells/

arthur christmas asus transformer nebraska football nebraska football online deals leap pad lauren alaina

Helix Nebula Gleams Like a Golden Eye in New Photo (SPACE.com)

A nearby planetary nebula shines like a huge golden eye in a new photo snapped by a telescope in Chile.

The image shows the Helix Nebula, which lies about 700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquarius (The Water Bearer). The picture was taken in infrared light by the European Southern Observatory's Vista telescope, one of the instruments at ESO's Paranal Observatory.

Helix is a planetary nebula, a strange object that forms when a star like our sun exhausts its hydrogen fuel. The star's outer layers expand and cool, creating a huge envelope of dust and gas. Radiation flowing from the dying star ionizes this envelope, causing it to glow.

Despite their name, planetary nebulas have nothing to do with planets. Rather, the term refers to their superficial resemblance to giant planets, when observed through early telescopes. [See the new Helix nebula photos and video]

The dying star at the heart of the Helix Nebula is evolving to become a white dwarf, a shrunken, super-dense object that can pack a sun's worth of material into a sphere the size of Earth. The star is visible as a tiny blue dot at the center of the picture, researchers said.

The Helix Nebula is a complex object composed of dust, ionized material and molecular gas, arrayed in an intricate, flower-like pattern.

The main ring of the Helix is about 2 light-years across, roughly equivalent to half the distance between our sun and its closest star. However, wispy material from the nebula spreads out at least 4 light-years into space from the central star, researchers said.

These thin clouds of molecular gas are difficult to see in visible light, but Vista's infrared detectors can pick them out, and they show up in the new image as a dark red haze.

?

Vista's keen eye also reveals fine structure in the planetary nebula?s rings, showing how cooler molecular gas is organized. The material clumps into filaments that radiate out from the center.

?

While they may look tiny, these strands of molecular hydrogen ? known as cometary knots ? are each about the size of our solar system. The molecules that compose them can survive the powerful radiation emanating from the dying star precisely because they clump into these knots, which in turn are shielded by dust and molecular gas.

It is currently unclear how the cometary knots may have formed, researchers said.

The new Vista image also shows a wide array of stars and galaxies in the background, farther away than the Helix Nebula.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120119/sc_space/helixnebulagleamslikeagoldeneyeinnewphoto

david koch the state republican presidential candidates republican presidential candidates bet hip hop awards 2011 bet hip hop awards 2011 kraken

AP source: Obama campaign begins buying ad time (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama's campaign is buying advertising time in six states that will be critical to the president's re-election effort, a sign that the presidential campaign is entering a new phase.

A campaign official says the Obama campaign has bought ad time in Michigan, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Iowa and on national cable television. The official spoke on condition of anonymity and was not authorized to speak publicly about internal campaign strategy.

Obama's campaign has not yet launched its television advertising, but the decision to buy ad time shows the campaign is moving closer to directly rebutting Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney and other GOP opponents on television.

Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday and then travels to five states to discuss his policies.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_el_pr/us_obama_campaign

community matt schaub fire island fire island diaspora social network diaspora breaking dawn premiere

Cloud Enterprise Performance Analytics Startup Tidemark Raises $24M From Redpoint, Andreessen Horowitz

tidemarkEnterprise-focused cloud performance analytics company Tidemark, formerly known as Proferi, has raised $24 million in new funding led by Redpoint Ventures with existing investors Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Dave Duffield, co-founder and co-CEO of Workday participating. This brings the total amount raised to more than $35 million. Redpoint partner Geoff Yang will join Tidemark?s Board of Directors.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TEN4a9OU5qk/

national grid day light savings time 2011 hocus pocus hocus pocus bj penn roasted pumpkin seeds roasted pumpkin seeds