San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who delivered the keynote speech at last year?s Democratic National Convention, will be the keynoter for the Florida Democratic Party?s annual Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner on June 15 in Broward County.
It?s the second year in a row the party has tapped an up-and-coming Latino mayor for the headliner role. Last year, Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa keynoted an event that drew about 1,000 people and raised an estimated $750,000.
Sen. Bill Nelson and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz will also be featured at this year?s $180-a-plate J-J dinner at the Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood.
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Apr. 28, 2013 ? As temperatures warm, plants release gases that help form clouds and cool the atmosphere, according to research from IIASA and the University of Helsinki.
The new study, published in Nature Geoscience, identified a negative feedback loop in which higher temperatures lead to an increase in concentrations of natural aerosols that have a cooling effect on the atmosphere.
"Plants, by reacting to changes in temperature, also moderate these changes," says IIASA and University of Helsinki researcher Pauli Paasonen, who led the study.
Scientists had known that some aerosols -- particles that float in the atmosphere -- cool the climate as they reflect sunlight and form cloud droplets, which reflect sunlight efficiently. Aerosol particles come from many sources, including human emissions. But the effect of so-called biogenic aerosol -- particulate matter that originates from plants -- had been less well understood. Plants release gases that, after atmospheric oxidation, tend to stick to aerosol particles, growing them into the larger-sized particles that reflect sunlight and also serve as the basis for cloud droplets. The new study showed that as temperatures warm and plants consequently release more of these gases, the concentrations of particles active in cloud formation increase.
"Everyone knows the scent of the forest," says Ari Asmi, University of Helsinki researcher who also worked on the study. "That scent is made up of these gases." While previous research had predicted the feedback effect, until now nobody had been able to prove its existence except for case studies limited to single sites and short time periods. The new study showed that the effect occurs over the long-term in continental size scales.
The effect of enhanced plant gas emissions on climate is small on a global scale -- only countering approximately 1 percent of climate warming, the study suggested. "This does not save us from climate warming," says Paasonen. However, he says, "Aerosol effects on climate are one of the main uncertainties in climate models. Understanding this mechanism could help us reduce those uncertainties and make the models better."
The study also showed that the effect was much larger on a regional scale, counteracting possibly up to 30% of warming in more rural, forested areas where anthropogenic emissions of aerosols were much lower in comparison to the natural aerosols. That means that especially in places like Finland, Siberia, and Canada this feedback loop may reduce warming substantially.
The researchers collected data at 11 different sites around the world, measuring the concentrations of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, along with the concentrations of plant gases, the temperature, and reanalysis estimates for the height of the boundary layer, which turned out to be a key variable. The boundary layer refers to the layer of air closest to the Earth, in which gases and particles mix effectively. The height of that layer changes with weather. Paasonen says, "One of the reasons that this phenomenon was not discovered earlier was because these estimates for boundary layer height are very difficult to do. Only recently have the reanalysis estimates been improved to where they can be taken as representative of reality."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
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Pauli Paasonen, Ari Asmi, Tuukka Pet?j?, Maija K. Kajos, Mikko ?ij?l?, Heikki Junninen, Thomas Holst, Jonathan P. D. Abbatt, Almut Arneth, Wolfram Birmili, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Amar Hamed, Andr?s Hoffer, Lauri Laakso, Ari Laaksonen, W. Richard Leaitch, Christian Plass-D?lmer, Sara C. Pryor, Petri R?is?nen, Erik Swietlicki, Alfred Wiedensohler, Douglas R. Worsnop, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Markku Kulmala. Warming-induced increase in aerosol number concentration likely to moderate climate change. Nature Geoscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/NGEO1800
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One hack from our Disrupt NY Hackathon, called Kar Nanny, seeks to let users see where their kids are driving and get notifications if they're being unsafe. Or you can see where your spouse is. Or, if you own a car rental fleet, this will give you the opportunity to keep tabs on how renters are using your cars.
LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) - Champions League disciplinary situation ahead of the semi-final, second-leg matches. Playing on Tuesday Real Madrid v Borussia Dortmund Misses next match if booked: Sergio Ramos, Michael Essien (Real Madrid), Kevin Grosskreutz (Borussia Dortmund) Playing on Wednesday Barcelona v Bayern Munich Suspended: Jordi Alba (Barcelona) Misses next match if booked: Dante, Philipp Lahm, Luiz Gustavo, Mario Gomez, Javi Martinez, Bastian Schweinsteiger (all Bayern), Gerard Pique, Alex Song (all Barcelona) (Editing by Toby Davis)
(Reuters) - Rafa Nadal won his eighth Barcelona Open title in nine years with a 6-4 6-3 victory over fellow Spaniard and fourth seed Nicolas Almagro on Sunday. The world number five and second seed survived a whirlwind start from Almagro, who broke his first two service games in cloudy, drizzly conditions on the clay of the Real Club de Tenis. Nadal battled back with three breaks of serve to take the first set and ran away with it in the second, to notch a 10th straight victory over his compatriot. ...
Welcome to The After Math, where we attempt to summarize this week's tech news through numbers, decimal places and percentages
We've been getting our first unfiltered experiences with Google Glass this week, which makes it the perfect time to go over some of the salient points up until now. At the same time, Apple sold more hardware, more apps and made even more money -- it was largely another good quarter for the Cupertino coffers. Add in a million-second game show and there are more than enough numbers to play around with in this week's After Math.
All Critics (42) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (2)
A thousand-watt jolt of mischief, a spunky, funky, ebullient indie that packs its 81 minutes with cinematic exhilaration.
It may be a slight movie, but it has its sunny charms.
A movie about teenage taggers in the Bronx should be fast and raw, scruffy and loose, and Adam Leon's Gimme the Loot is just that.
As it lopes along, the movie offers a warm but very sharp portrait of New York's have-nots and their uneasy relationship with the haves.
"Gimme the Loot" shouldn't be as appealing and exuberant as it is, it really shouldn't.
Tashiana Washington and Ty Hickson are terrific in the main roles. So is Zo? Lescaze as Ginnie, a spoiled white kid who teaches the taggers a thing or two about drift and being dissolute.
Funny and freewheeling, it's a joy.
A slim, low-budget coming-of-age tale whose richness lies entirely in its interstices. A keenly observed work that celebrates the unfettered joys of youth, and rewards by reminding of the power of a simple tale told well.
Simultaneously real and hopeful, "Loot" has almost no plot, but when the setting is so fresh and the characters feel so raw and alive, who needs one?
Ghetto laughs with a sophisticated point of view.
...a magical, summery treat.
Promotes robbery and can't be serious in expecting us to care whether Malcolm and Sofia become more than friends.
The winner of the Indie Spirit 'One to Watch' award could never work again and will always have a memorable New York City film to his credit.
An impressive debut feature, Gimme the Loot is also an unusual take on characters who want to leave their stamp on "the city that never sleeps."
Much more grownup than it looks, Gimme the Loot is that rare teen-centric film whose brisk pace is unburdened by sentimentality.
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With a length about 2.5 times the width of a human hair, Tinkerbella nana was spotted in a Costa Rican forest.
By Eoin O'Carroll,?Staff / April 25, 2013
This microscope image shows a dried Tinkerbella nana, a species of fairyfly. The scale line is equal to 100 micrometers, the average width of a human hair.
John T. Huber
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A pair of scientists have discovered a new species of tiny insect, a miniscule wasp that lives in the forests of Costa Rica.
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Named?Tinkerbella nana, after the Peter Pan character, the species measures no more than 250 micrometers in length. By comparison, the average human hair is about 100 micrometers wide.?
According to a paper?published Thursday in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research, the insects were collected by John S. Noyes, an entomologist at London's Natural History Museum, who swept a mesh net through vegetation at Costa Rica's La Selva Biological Station. Samples from the net were then examined under a microscope.?
The species is a fairyfly, a type of wasp found worldwide. Most fairyflies are parasites that lives on other insects' eggs, but the researchers know almost nothing about?Tinkerbella's?behavior.?
As small as Tinkerbella is, its not the smallest flying insect. That distinction goes to Kikiki huna, a fairlyfly native to the Hawaiian islands that measures just 150 micrometers. The Canadian Forestry Service's John T. Huber, the primary author on the Tinkerbella paper, was also the principal discoverer, in 2000, of Kikiki.
But even Kikiki is not the smallest insect. The males of a wingless, eyeless species of fairyfly called Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, have measured no more than 139 micrometers long.?
How small can a bug get? Huber and Noyes's paper examines the theoretical minimum for insect sizes. Smaller animals tend to have a higher strength-to-weight ratio than larger ones, but once you get below a certain size, the muscles in an appendage get so small that they cannot overcome the appendage's own inertia. The authors suggest that winged insects capable of flapping their wings cannot be less than 150 micrometers long. For flightless insects, the smallest you can get while still being able to lift your body off the ground is, they suggest, about 125 micrometers.
In their introduction Huber and Noyes' quote an unlikely source, Pliny the Elder's "Natural History":?
Almost 2000 years ago, Pliny the Elder (ca. 23?79 A.D.) stated ?Rerum natura nusquam magis quam in minimis tota est? loosely translated as ?nature is nowhere as great as in its smallest.? In the absence of any means of magnification he could not possibly have seen the intricate structure and beauty of fairyflies or other minute organisms. But his statement certainly holds true.
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? North Korea announced Saturday that an American detained for nearly six months is being tried in the Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, a crime that could draw the death penalty if he is convicted.
The case involving Kenneth Bae, who has been in North Korean custody since early November, further complicates already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington following weeks of heightened rhetoric and tensions.
The trial mirrors a similar situation in 2009, when the U.S. and North Korea were locked in a standoff over Pyongyang's decision to launch a long-range rocket and conduct an underground nuclear test. At the time, North Korea had custody of two American journalists, whose eventual release after being sentenced to 12 years of hard labor paved the way for diplomacy following months of tensions.
Bae was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, according to official state media. In North Korean dispatches, Bae, a Korean American, is called Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling of his Korean name.
The exact nature of his alleged crimes has not been revealed, but North Korea accuses Bae, described as a tour operator, of seeking to overthrow North Korea's leadership.
"In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Saturday. "His crimes were proved by evidence. He will soon be taken to the Supreme Court of the DPRK to face judgment."
DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. No timing for the verdict issued at the austere Supreme Court in Pyongyang was given.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. government is "aware of reports that a U.S. citizen will face trial in North Korea" and that officials from the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang had visited Bae on Friday. She said she had no other information to share.
Because Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations, the Swedish Embassy in North Korea represents the United States in legal proceedings.
Friends and colleagues described Bae as a devout Christian from Washington state but based in the Chinese border city of Dalian who traveled frequently to North Korea to feed the country's orphans.
At least three other Americans detained in recent years also have been devout Christians. While North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the regime.
Under North Korea's criminal code, crimes against the state can draw life imprisonment or the death sentence.
In 2009, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to hard labor for trespassing and unspecified hostile acts after being arrested near the border with China and held for four months.
They were freed later that year to former President Bill Clinton, who flew to Pyongyang to negotiate their release in a visit that then-leader Kim Jong Il treated as a diplomatic coup.
Including Ling and Lee, Bae is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released.
"For North Korea, Bae is a bargaining chip in dealing with the U.S.," said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea. "The North will use him in a way that helps bring the U.S. to talks when the mood slowly turns toward dialogue."
As in 2009, Pyongyang is locked in a standoff with the Obama administration over North Korea's drive to build nuclear weapons.
Washington has led the campaign to punish Pyongyang for launching a long-range rocket in December and carrying out a nuclear test, its third, in February.
North Korea claims the need to build atomic weapons to defend itself against the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea and over the past two months has been holding joint military drills with South Korea that have included nuclear-capable stealth bombers and fighter jets.
Diplomats from China, South Korea, the U.S., Japan and Russia have been conferring in recent weeks to try to bring down the rhetoric and find a way to rein in Pyongyang before a miscalculation in the region sparks real warfare.
South Korean defense officials said earlier in the month that North Korea had moved a medium-range missile designed to strike U.S. territory to its east coast.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the three-year Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
___
Associated Press writers Jean H. Lee in Pyongyang; Sam Kim and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Tom Strong in Washington contributed to this report. Follow Lee, AP's Korea bureau chief, at www.twitter.com/newsjean and Sam Kim at www.twitter.com/SamKim_AP.
DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian scientist held for more than a year in California on charges of violating U.S. sanctions arrived in Iran on Saturday, Iranian media reported, after being freed in what the Omani foreign ministry said was a humanitarian gesture.
Mojtaba Atarodi, 55, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Iran's Sharif University of Technology, had been detained on suspicion of buying high-tech U.S. laboratory equipment, previous Iranian media reports said.
The trade sanctions were imposed over Iran's nuclear program, which Iranian officials say is for peaceful energy purposes only but Washington says is secretly geared to developing the capability to produce nuclear weapons.
Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said Atarodi arrived in Tehran on Saturday, after a stopover in Muscat on Friday.
Upon arriving at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on Saturday, Atarodi told reporters that he had tried to buy simple equipment for his personal lab to conduct academic research when he was detained by U.S. authorities, according to state-run Press TV.
There was no immediate U.S. comment on Atarodi's case.
Oman, a U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state which also enjoys good relations with Tehran, has previously helped mediate the release of Western prisoners held by the Islamic Republic.
Omani authorities had worked with U.S. officials to speed up Atarodi's case and return him home, the foreign ministry in Muscat said in a statement carried by local media.
He was released after follow-up approaches by Iran's foreign ministry, its spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).
In a report on its website dated January 7, 2012, Press TV said Atarodi was taken into custody on his arrival in Los Angeles on December 7, 2011, accused of buying advanced lab equipment.
Iran and the United States severed relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the pro-Western monarchy in Tehran.
In 2011, Iran freed into Omani custody two U.S. citizens who had been sentenced to eight years in jail for spying.
Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, among three people arrested while hiking along the Iraq-Iran border in 2009, were flown to Oman after officials there helped secure their release by posting bail of $1 million. They denied being spies.
The third detainee, Sarah Shourd, had been freed in September 2010, also by way of Oman.
(Reporting by Saleh al-Shaybani and Sami Aboudi; additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich and Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different points in the genome. For the first time, researchers at EMBL have described the striking diversity of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that such start and end variation produces, even from the simple genome of yeast cells. Their findings, published today in Nature, shed new light on the importance of mRNA boundaries in determining the functional potential of genes.
Hundreds of thousands of unique mRNA transcripts are generated from a genome of only about 8000 genes, even with the same genome sequence and environmental condition. "We knew that transcription could lead to a certain amount of diversity, but we were not expecting it to be so vast," explains Lars Steinmetz, who led the project. "Based on this diversity, we would expect that no yeast cell has the same set of messenger RNA molecules as its neighbour."
The traditional understanding of transcription was that mRNA boundaries were relatively fixed. While it has long been known that certain parts of mRNAs can be selectively 'spliced' out, this phenomenon is very rare in baker's yeast, meaning that the textbook one gene - one mRNA transcript relationship should hold. Recent studies have suggested that things aren't quite that simple, inspiring the EMBL scientists to create a new technique to capture both the start and end points of single mRNA molecules. They now discovered that each gene could be transcribed into dozens or even hundreds of unique mRNA molecules, each with different boundaries.
This suggests that not only transcript abundance, but also transcript boundaries should be considered when assessing gene function. Altering the boundaries of mRNA molecules can affect how long they stay intact, cause them to produce different proteins, or direct them or their protein products to different locations, which can have a profound biological impact. Diversifying mRNA transcript boundaries within a group of cells, therefore, could equip them to adapt to different external challenges.
The researchers expect that such an extent of boundary variation will also be found in more complex organisms, including humans, where some examples are already known to affect key biological functions. The technology to measure these variations across the entire genome as well as a catalogue of boundaries in a well-studied organism are a good starting point for further research. "Now that we are aware of how much diversity there is, we can start to figure out what factors control it," points out Vicent Pelechano, who performed the study with Wu Wei. Wei adds: "Our technique also exposed new mRNAs that other techniques could not distinguish. It will be exciting to investigate how these and general variation in transcript boundaries actually extend the functional capacity of a genome."
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European Molecular Biology Laboratory: http://www.embl.org
Thanks to European Molecular Biology Laboratory for this article.
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Business owners ? struggling to keep up with receipts and stay organized in your spending? If you're an American Express customer, you'll want to check out the ReceiptMatch Android app. We've also got Swype, the gesture-based keyboard app that supports lots of other text input methods, and Zombie HQ, a zombie shooter in which you spend your off time building an awesome base of operations.
Also on Android Apps
Instead of celebrating Earth Day once a year, adopt an eco-friendly consciousness. Zinio ?s digital newsstand saves 104 thousand trees per month, and here?s how you can get involved.
What?s it about? Keep track of all your business spending and save your receipts with the help of American Express's ReceiptMatch.
What?s cool? ReceiptMatch is a pretty handy app if you're an American Express Business Card customer. The app makes it possible to save your receipts just by snapping a picture of them with your mobile device, which makes it really easy to keep organized and avoid losing important receipts in the future. Even better, the app links with your credit card account, so every time you snap a receipt shot, the app automatically matches it with the corresponding charge on your billing statement, helping you to keep track of every charge at the end of the month. You can also add notes to receipts for more annotation and details.
Who?s it for? If you're an American Express customer for your business, try ReceiptMatch.
What?s it like? Digital Receipts and Receipt Wallet are a pair of good receipt-saving alternatives, in case you're not an American Express customer.
What?s it about? Keyboard app Swype provides users with a number of different options for composing text on their mobile devices, from tapping and typing to dictation and swipe-based input.
What?s cool? Typing on a mobile device can be a pain. From goofy auto-corrects to just the irritation of small keys, composing messages and emails isn't always as pleasant as it should be. Swype is best-known for its gesture-based typing input that lets you swipe across the keyboard quickly to make words, with the app interpreting what you're trying to write, but it also supports standard typing and even dictation. It also pays attention to your input and adapts it based on how you use the app, and adapts its language capabilities based on what you write, as well.
Who?s it for? If you're looking for a better way to type on your phone or tablet, try Swype.
What?s it like? TouchPal Keyboard and Swiftkey are two popular keyboard replacements, and both support gesture typing.
What?s it about? Scavenge a zombie-infested city to find new equipment, armor, weapons and more, and use it all to thrash the undead and create an awesome base in Zombie HQ.
What?s cool? Lots of games put players in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, but they rarely let you make a home for yourself in the middle of it. Top-down shooter Zombie HQ is a little different. You'll spend most of your time smashing through zombies to find new gear and become a more effective fighter. But between the game's missions, you'll be able to deck out your own zombie headquarters with items like arcade machines, pool tables, and a giant hamster wheel with a zombie in it. Then, when you're done hanging out in the HQ, you can head back into the field and blast through the hordes once more.
Who?s it for? Fans of zombie games and shooters will have plenty of both in Zombie HQ.
What?s it like? Try Zombieville USA and Plants vs. Zombies for more games about taking down the undead.
Best Educational Apps, Handpicked By Experts
Appolicious is pleased to introduce appoLearning.com, where parents, teachers and students find great education apps. Check out our introduction video here!
Worldwide they are the most popular item for self-defense of a non-lethal nature. There are probably hundreds of manufacturers worldwide with literally thousands of different models to choose from. In this article we are going to discuss the top two most popular types of defensive sprays. Read on to learn more?
Source:Self-Defense: Most Popular Types Of Defensive Sprays ? The Top Two
Related Reading:
Complete Krav Maga: The Ultimate Guide to Over 230 Self-Defense and Combative TechniquesDeveloped for the Israel military forces and battle tested in real-life combat, Krav Maga has gained an international reputation as an easy-to-learn yet highly effective art of self-defense. Clearly written and extensively illustrated, Complete Krav Maga details every aspect of the system including dozens of hand-to-hand combat moves, over 20 weapons defense techniques and a complete physical conditioning workout program.
All the moves are described in depth from beginning Yellow Belt to advanced Black Belt, yet they are easy to learn because one of Krav Maga's strengths is its simplicity. Based on the principle that it is best to move from defense to attack as quickly as possible, Complete Krav Maga offers fast-escape maneuvers from attacks and holds. It then follows them up with specific counterattacks, including punches, kicks and throws.
The authors show how anyone (big or small, man or woman) can practice self defense by using Krav Maga to protect weak spots, exploit an assailant's vulnerabilities and turn the attacker s force against him. Complete Krav Maga teaches the reader how to get in shape, gain confidence and feel safer and more secure every day.
The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense at WorkObscenities, ethnic and sexist epithets, cutting jokes, subtle put-downs -- whether shouted, said with a smile, or sent via e-mail -- are all verbal abuse. For many it is the everyday language of doing business. Suzette Haden Elgin, nationally recognized linguistics expert and author, applies her acclaimed techniques for combating verbal violence to common on-the-job situations. Forceful yet nonthreatening, her proven strategies will empower workers of every level to recognize verbal abuse, gently defuse it, and replace it with courteous and effective communication.
Citing examples grabbed from the headlines, Dr. Elgin reveals the cost of demeaning and destructive language to any business. Step by step, she shows how to identify, and conquer the verbal toxins at the root of workplace hostility and tension. Readers will learn how to avoid "malpractice of the mouth" and sexual harassment; communicate sensitively and clearly with non-native English speakers; come across as strong, straightforward, and truthful; and take complete control of any verbal confrontation -- calmly. Workout sections throughout the book provide plenty of opportunities for practice.
With a look at communication skills crucial for e-mail, voice mail, and the Internet, as well as the special challenges facing homebased and virtual businesses, The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense at Work is the definitive guide to effective and humane communication on the job.
Self Defense: The Psychology of Attack and Survival (How To Defend Yourself and Survive In Any Dangerous Situation) (Self Defense Psychology)Self defense isn?t about carrying around a gun or mace or weapons. It?s not about being bigger or stronger than others. It?s not about what you look like, whether you?re a man or a woman or how old you are.
At the end of the day, the you will survive because your mind and body are strong and united. We?ve all heard stories of super-human strength ? the grandma who lifted up with her bare hands to save her grandson and other such stories abound.
But the same thing can happen mentally ? at times of great stress, you can acquire super-human mental powers as well as physical. Like the lady who is mugged at gunpoint and says something that spooks the robber. He runs away, dropping her purse, and the woman picks it up and walks off like nothing happened.
How do we access our super-human potential when we need it most?
How can you fight off four assailants at once?
How can you talk your way out of being robbed?
How can you protect yourself and your family when something goes wrong?
These questions haunted me for years. I would often lay awake at night or daydream about potential fights or conflicts. Some guy at the bar comes at me with a knife so I use a typical Aikido move to disarm him and throw him on the ground using his own force. I get jumped from behind in an alleyway and knocked on the ground... the scenarios played through my head over and over like a moviescreen. Only this wasn?t the movies. It wasn?t real either ? it was practice.
And that practice payed off ? in a big way.
I want this book to prepare you for what may lie ahead. No one knows what the future holds. But even if you never have to face an attack or serious bodily harm for the rest of your life, this book will prepare you mentally and physically for when times get tough.
Life isn?t about being bigger, stronger, fast or smarter than the competition. Life is about survival. It?s about freedom, confidence and success. This book will give you the tools and the confidence to know that you will survive no matter what happens.
Learn how to defend and protect yourself and your family today. Scroll up and grab your copy!
Self Defense Tactics and Techniques Against An Active Shooter (Survival Publications)Self Defense against an acitve shooter is a treatise on options you can embed in your mind and react on if you are ever caught in this demonic event.
This edtion has been updated to include a commentary on two videos that depict actions you should take in the event you are caught in a mass shooting. One video is produced by our government and the other by a private firm. You are urged to watch both and decide which one provides the best options for survival. Neither video discusses the option of citizens being armed to stop an active shooter.
The recorded timeline of mass shootings and mass school murders starts in 1914 and continues to worsen each decade. We are all aware of the last insane attacks and now we must consider how to self defend against these mad people with weapons.
Flight or fight tactics are discussed in this concise easy to read and understand book. You will learn the first important thing to understand in an attack. Things you may never think of for self defense weapons are presented. Why you should make it a habit to learn all you can about every building you frequent and why you should tour your children's school with them at your side.
A backpack filled with some common items could stop or deflect a bullet. Until bullet proof back packs are available to all, this method is better than nothing.
Self defense against an active shooter is a concise and easy to follow treatise on the options you can consider if caught in a shooting. These self defense tactics and fighting techniques should be considered if you are unarmed and facing a shooter. Download this book today and become better able to defend against an active shooter.
Self-Defense (Alex Delaware)Dr. Alex Delaware doesn t see many private patients anymore, but the young woman called Lucy is an exception. So is her dream. Lucy Lowell is referred to Alex by Los Angeles police detective Milo Sturgis. A juror at the agonizing trial of a serial killer, Lucy survived the trauma only to be tormented by a recurring nightmare: a young child in the forest at night, watching a strange and furtive act.
Now Lucy s dream is starting to disrupt her waking life, and Alex is concerned. The power of the dream, its grip on Lucy s emotions, suggests to him that it may be more than a nightmare. It may be the repressed childhood memory of something very real. Something like murder.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Manti Te'o and Geno Smith provided the sizzle previously missing from the NFL draft.
Te'o is headed to San Diego, Smith is a Jet, and Radio City Music Hall shook with the kind of noise usually heard in stadiums when they were selected.
The theater rocked with two picks within minutes of each other Friday night.
Te'o, the Notre Dame All-America linebacker, was chosen sixth in the second round by the Chargers, drawing a loud roar from the fans. One spot later, the Jets took the West Virginia quarterback, drawing a raucous reaction of cheers and boos.
The big names had taken over from the bulk and beef of opening night, when 18 linemen went in the first round.
Te'o, who led the Fighting Irish to the national championship game, was projected as a first-rounder last year. But his poor performance in a rout at the hands of Alabama, some slow 40-yard dash times, and a tabloid-ready hoax involving a fake girlfriend that became a national soap opera dropped his stock.
"I did expect to go in the first round," Te'o said. "But things happened and all it did was give me more motivation."
When former Chargers defensive back Jim Hill was handed the card to make the announcement by Commissioner Roger Goodell, he was told, "You're going to get a big cheer when you announce this pick."
It was more a mix of surprise and recognition of the most talked-about player in the draft finally finding a landing spot at No. 38 overall.
The Chargers traded up with Arizona to grab Te'o, the Heisman Trophy runner-up. Te'o ran a 4.82-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine, slow for a linebacker. He did better at Notre Dame's pro day, but NFL teams already had plenty of football reasons to doubt his worthiness as a first-round pick.
San Diego was willing to gamble on him.
"We did a lot of work on Te'o and I've seen him for a number of years," first-year general manager Tom Telesco said. "He loves football. He's passionate about it. He loves to practice. He loves to play."
Two officials, each with a different team, said their clubs passed on Te'o in the first round partly because of his off-field issues. The men, speaking on condition of anonymity because team draft strategy is confidential, said the decision was not just because of a disappointing combine performance or the linebacker's poor performance in the national title game.
Te'o was the third linebacker chosen in this draft.
"It's a perfect scenario. My parents can come and watch, I can go home, it's San Diego," said Te'o, a native of Hawaii. "We're all excited. I can't be any happier."
With the very next pick, the Jets sent their QB situation spiraling into further chaos. They already have Mark Sanchez, who struggled last season but was brought back in great part because of a prohibitive contract. They still have Tim Tebow, who almost certainly soon will be cut. They signed David Garrard, who hasn't played in the NFL since 2010.
And now there is Smith, who waited futilely throughout the first round, returned to the theater Friday and was rewarded.
"It's extremely relieving. I withstood the test of time," he said. "It felt like forever in there."
If Smith thought that was tough, wait until he enters the cauldron overseen by Jets coach Rex Ryan, where every move by every QB on the roster is tabloid-Internet fodder for days.
"I'm a competitor and I'm going to accept my role on the team, whatever is handed to me," Smith said, "but my job is to compete day in and day out."
Safety Johnathan Cyprien of Florida International was the first selection of the second round. Cyprien was a standout in the Sun Belt Conference and really solidified his stock with an excellent performance in the Senior Bowl.
"He's got a passion for the game," coach Gus Bradley said. "He is very animated. He just enjoys it. He loves to play the game. I think he's going to add to what we have here and the attitude that we're looking for."
Arizona added some spice to the third round by selecting former LSU cornerback-kick returner Tyrann Mathieu. The Honey Badger was a 2011 Heisman Trophy finalist that LSU dismissed from the team last August for failing a drug test. He was arrested in late October after police said they found marijuana at Mathieu's apartment.
"He impressed me so much in my office one on one, knowing at this point in time what he needs to do in his life," Cardinals first-year coach Bruce Arians said. "I was really taken aback a little bit. He knows what his problems are, he knows what he has done to himself, but he also knows that someone will give him a chance, that he knows what he needs to make sure he succeeds."
Other notable second-round picks Friday were Tennessee wide receiver Justin Hunter by the Titans, who traded up with San Francisco; Stanford All-America tight end Zach Ertz by Philadelphia; and North Carolina's Gio Bernard, the first running back chosen, by Cincinnati.
After no running backs were selected in the first round, five were taken in the second. The number of linemen dropped to five.
The presumed top-rated running back, Eddie Lacy of Alabama, went with the next-to-last selection of the round, to Green Bay.
NCAA record-setting RB Montee Ball of Wisconsin was chosen by Denver.
Tampa Bay's first pick this year was defensive back Johnthan Banks of Mississippi State at No. 43 overall. Washington, which traded it first-rounder last year to draft Robert Griffin III, went for defensive back David Amerson of North Carolina State at No. 51.
New England, known for trading early picks for a bunch of later selections, chose linebacker Jamie Collins of Southern Mississippi at No. 52. Seattle, after trading down six spots with Baltimore, closed out the second round by taking running back Christine Michael of Texas A&M.
Cleveland used its second-rounder, which would have been 39th overall, in last year's supplemental draft to take wide receiver Josh Gordon of Baylor, who made 50 catches for the Browns in 2012.
New Orleans was stripped of its second-round pick in the bounty scandal.
The final pick of Day 2 was the Titans' selection of Missouri linebacker Zaviar Gooden.
Among those who didn't go were quarterbacks Matt Barkley of Southern California, Landry Jones of Oklahoma and Ryan Nassib of Syracuse; South Carolina RB Marcus Lattimore, who is recovering from a severe knee injury; and two starters from national champion Alabama, OL Barrett Jones and DT Jesse Williams.
___
AP Sports Writers Bernie Wilson, Rob Maaddi and Rachel Cohen contributed to this story.
Online: http://pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
OAKLAND -- The A's were happy to be back home after an unsuccessful 1-5 road trip. The comforts of the Oakland Coliseum wouldn't be enough to get them going in the right direction against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night. After the A's took an early 2-0 lead, the Orioles responded with 10 unanswered runs and won the game 10-2.
At the Plate
The A's missed an opportunity in the first inning. Coco Crisp led off with a single and had second base stolen with a big jump when John Jaso popped out on a 1-0 pitch to center field, forcing Crisp to sprint back to first. Seth Smith followed with an inning-ending double play.
The Orioles defense imploded in the second inning, allowing the A's to score two runs. Brandon Moss reached on an error and Josh Reddick drew a walk. They both scored when Josh Donaldson smashed a ball that Adam Jones dropped after getting a bad read. It was ruled a two-run double.
After falling behind, the A's offense didn't get much going for the rest of the game. They missed their biggest chance to score when they had runners on first and second and no outs in the seventh inning, but Adam Rosales grounded into a double play and Crisp grounded out to end the inning.
Starting Pitching Report
Jarrod Parker threw two scoreless innings to start the game, but things unraveled for him after the A's scored two runs in the second.
Parker wasn't able to get the shutdown inning as he allowed three earned runs. Nolan Reimhold hit a one-out double and scored when Nate McLouth hit a single. Nick Markakis drove home McLouth with a two-out single to right field to tie the game. Reddick scooped up the ball that Markakis hit, but dropped it on the transfer before he could throw it home.
Jones, who dropped a ball in the previous inning, made amends by hitting a go-ahead double to make it 3-2 Orioles.
After the Orioles' third run scored, pitching coach Curt Young took a trip to the mound that ended with him being ejected for the first time in his career. Young and first base umpire Jim Reynolds ended up getting into an argument and Young was tossed before A's manager Bob Melvin could intervene.
Young took exception to the fact that Reynolds ruled that Reimhold didn't go around on a check swing prior to his double earlier in the inning.
Parker responded to the extra curricular activity by striking out Chris Davis to end the inning. He bounced back in the fourth inning, when he struck out two batters and only allowed a single.
In the fifth inning he gave up a leadoff double to McLouth, who moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2 Orioles. Davis got the upper hand on Parker later when he clubbed his eighth home run of the season in the sixth inning.
When all was said and done, Parker allowed six runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. He now has an 8.10 ERA this season.
Bullpen Report
Chris Resop entered in relief of Parker with one out in the sixth inning and two runners aboard. He walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. He almost escaped without allowing a run, when he induced what could have been a double play ball, but McLouth beat the throw to first and the Orioles scored.
The Orioles loaded the bases against Resop in the seventh inning with no outs and he was pulled from the game. Pat Neshek was given the tough task of pitching out of the bases loaded jam, and he allowed two of the runners to score.
Jesse Chavez allowed two runs in the eighth inning to make it a 10-2 game. He pitched a scoreless ninth inning.
In the Field
The Orioles scored two runs in the seventh inning when J.J. Hardy hit a ball that fell perfectly between three A's fielders. Jed Lowrie was running out, Crisp was running in, and Chris Young slid in between them, but no one caught it.
Attendance
The A's announced an attendance of 11,220.
Dot Race
Green won the dot race. Green's performance wasn't good enough to inspire the A's.
Up Next
The A's will turn to Tommy Milone to stop the starting pitching struggles of the last two games. He is 3-1 with a 4.26 ERA. The Orioles will send left-handed pitcher Wei-Yin Chen to the mound. He is 1-2 with a 3.38 ERA.
Mayor Abdul Manamparan of Nunungan town lies on a bed in a private hospital at Iligan, Lanao Del Norte province in southern Philippines Friday, April 26, 2013, a day after gunmen ambushed his election campaign sortie that killed his daughter and nine other supporters and relatives at a remote mountain road. Lanao Del Norte provincial police chief Gerardo Rosales said Friday that Mayor Manamparan, who is running for vice mayor in next month's elections, was aboard a truck with his daughter and supporters, when ambushed by about 15 gunmen. Eight other people were wounded. (AP Photo)
Mayor Abdul Manamparan of Nunungan town lies on a bed in a private hospital at Iligan, Lanao Del Norte province in southern Philippines Friday, April 26, 2013, a day after gunmen ambushed his election campaign sortie that killed his daughter and nine other supporters and relatives at a remote mountain road. Lanao Del Norte provincial police chief Gerardo Rosales said Friday that Mayor Manamparan, who is running for vice mayor in next month's elections, was aboard a truck with his daughter and supporters, when ambushed by about 15 gunmen. Eight other people were wounded. (AP Photo)
MANILA, Philippines (AP) ? Gunmen ambushed political campaigners for a southern Philippine town mayor, killing his daughter and nine other supporters and relatives, police said Friday. The mayor and eight other people were wounded.
Nunungan Mayor Abdul Manamparan and his supporters were riding on a truck when they were ambushed late Thursday on a remote mountain road as they headed back to the town center following a campaign rally, said Lanao del Norte provincial police chief Gerardo Rosales.
About 15 unidentified gunmen carried out the attack, Rosales said. Police investigators suspect the gunmen belong to a rival clan.
Manamparan, whose term as mayor ends this year, is running for vice mayor in next month's elections.
Rosales said Manamparan's daughter, Adnanie, and two relatives were among those killed. Two relatives, including a 15-year-old girl, were among the wounded.
A police report said an officer serving as the mayor's bodyguard was also wounded as he fought off the attackers with an M16 rifle before soldiers and policemen arrived.
Election season violence is common in the Philippines. In 2009, 58 people, including 32 journalists, were massacred by alleged followers of a powerful southern provincial clan in the country's worst political violence.
Last week, communist rebels ambushed the convoy of southern Gingoog City Mayor Ruth Guingona, wife of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, killing two of her aides and wounding her and a police escort.
The New People's Army apologized for harming the mayor and her party but said her bodyguards fired at a rebel checkpoint, prompting them to return fire.
Country music legend George Jones has died in Nashville, Tenn., his representative confirmed in a statement on Friday. He was 81.
Jones had been in the midst of a year-long goodbye tour, deciding to withdraw from the road over health issues including an upper respiratory infection. He was hospitalized on April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure; he died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. A cause of death has not yet been reported.
Jones was a Country Music Hall of Famer, Grand Ole Opry member and Kennedy Center Honoree, and the singer of such hits as "The Grand Tour," "She Thinks I Still Care" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today."
Born in Saratoga, Tex., on Sept. 12, 1931, Jones grew up in nearby Beaumont and played on the streets for tips while still a teenager, then joined the U.S. Marine Corps. When he left service he began recording for the Starday label in Houston, and his first top 10 song "Why Baby Why" hit the charts in 1955. He hit No. 1 with "White Lightning" four years later. He continued to record and hit the charts throughout the next few decades, shifting from a classic honky-tonk style into a more mainstream sound called "countrypolitan."
Mark Humphrey / AP
Jones' public persona was shaped by his addiction to alcohol and cocaine; he became known for missing many concerts, notes the Houston Chronicle. In 1983 police chased after an intoxicated Jones through Nashville, and the event was captured on TV (documentary?video clip here).
He was married four times; his third wife was country singer Tammy Wynette, with whom he recorded several songs. They hit No. 1 three times, with "We're Gonna Hold On," "Golden Ring," and "Near You." Their daughter Georgette Jones is a performer, and appeared onstage with her father.
He is survived by Nancy Jones, his wife of 30 years, and four children.
(Adds later picks) NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Selections in the first roundof the 2013 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday (picknumber, NFL team, player, position, college): 1-Kansas City, Eric Fisher, offensive tackle, Central Michigan 2-Jacksonville, Luke Joeckel, offensive tackle, Texas A&M 3-Miami (from Oakland), Dion Jordan, defensive tackle, Oregon 4-Philadelphia, Lane Johnson, offensive tackle, Oklahoma 5-Detroit, Ezekiel Ansah, defensive end, Brigham Young 6-Cleveland, Barkevious Mingo, linebacker, LSU 7-Arizona, Jonathan Cooper, guard, North Carolina 8-St. ...
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia raised the possibility of a referendum on Thursday on an accord to end the ethnic partition of its former Kosovo province, a high-stakes gamble that could cost Belgrade talks on joining the European Union.
The April 19 deal between Serbia and its majority-Albanian former province won Belgrade a preliminary green light for accession talks this year, but the bloc wants progress on the ground before taking a final decision on the talks in late June.
The accession process would drive reform and help lure investors to Serbia's ailing economy. But the accord faces resistance from some 50,000 Serbs in northern Kosovo, a region bristling with guns and deep animosity.
Trying to mollify them, Serbia's government said it was prepared to hold a popular vote. The decision would depend on talks next week with Kosovo Serb leaders, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told a news conference.
"If they pledge on Tuesday to accept the results of a referendum, the decision of the majority of the people, then we will be ready in 15 days and we'll put an end to that story," Vucic said after meeting a delegation of Kosovo Serb mayors.
Under the accord, the northern Serb pocket will be integrated into Kosovo's legal system five years after the former province, which is 90 percent Albanian, declared independence from Serbia with the backing of the West.
Hardline nationalists and the Serbian Orthodox Church have accused the government of betrayal, but there has been little sign of a major backlash.
According to the results of an opinion poll released on Thursday, 57 percent of Serbian citizens support the accord. Twenty-nine percent of the 1,180 respondents oppose it, polling agency Faktor Plus said.
Serbia lost control of Kosovo in 1999 after 11 weeks of NATO air strikes to halt the massacre and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians by Serbian forces trying to crush a guerrilla insurgency.
But Belgrade retained a fragile grip on the northern pocket, where Serbs have lived largely as part of the Serbian state.
Desperate for the economic boost of closer EU ties, Serbia last week agreed to cede control over the north, and won a preliminary green light for the start of membership talks with the 27-nation bloc, probably later this year.
Kosovo Serb leaders pledged to resist.
"We will continue our peaceful battle, because we are in the right," said Slavisa Ristic, mayor of the northern Kosovo municipality of Zvecan.
"We cannot accept a change of identity by force," he said, according to the Tanjug state news agency.
(Additional reporting and writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Michael Roddy)
An article in the April 29 issue of The New Republic has generated considerable interest in U.S. child care as its content and perspective have been picked up and extended in social media, other magazines, U.S. TV, radio and daily newspapers and even in offshore news media. The hell of American daycare: the barely regulated, unsafe business of looking after our children describes a case of a fire in a family child-care home caring for seven very young children. The case -- prominent in the media for some time -- involved an untrained 23-year-old caregiver/owner who had left the kids alone to go shop at Target, a practice that --? testimony at the trial asserted -- was not new. An oil-filled pot left cooking on the stove caught fire and four children died. Eventually the caregiver who -- it became clear -- had a criminal record -- was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
The article indicts the United States for -- essentially -- child neglect. The author writes that ?despite the fact that work and family life has changed profoundly in recent decades, we lack anything resembling an actual child care system. Excellent day cares are available, of course, if you have the money to pay for them and the luck to secure a spot. But the overall quality is wildly uneven and barely monitored, and at the lower end, it?s Dickensian.?
Jonathan Cohn, the author, reports research that ?deemed the majority of operations to be ?fair? or ?poor? and notes that while ?day care is a bruising financial burden for many families,? ?only minimal assistance is available to offset these expenses. And so many parents put their kids in whatever they can find and whatever they can afford, hoping it will be good enough.? The article chronicles how President Richard Nixon?s presidential veto of a national child-care program back in 1970 had ended movement towards a child-care system in the U.S. ?
Does this all sound familiar? To me, it?s like looking at a mirror image of our own child-care situation. Reading Cohn?s story, I found myself substituting ?Canadian? for ?American,? and expect that others with an interest in early childhood education and child care, young children and social policy in Canada will be doing the same. ?
The article illustrates the absence of a child-care system, which for parents translates to mean that there are few (or no) options, and that securing good child care is in large part, a matter of luck. Cohn?s interview with one of the dead toddlers? mothers, a single mother trying to keep a job to earn a living for herself and her child -- and maybe even advance to a better job -- says it all about what the lack of child-care options to help her and other parents mean. This is not different than what we hear in Canada -- the stories parents tell about the lack of choices available in Canada reflect our equally dismal situation.
The story of ?Jackie?s Daycare? -- the child-care home in which the tragedy occurred -- with its lack of public oversight and unsafe, insalubrious conditions (the home child care in this case was ?registered,? with virtually no requirements and monitored not at all, or minimally, at best) reflect the kinds of perilous conditions in some unregulated (sometimes illegal) child care revealed in a CBC Marketplace story only last month. And while Canada has not experienced a child-care tragedy on the scale of this one in some time, just in the last two weeks, two child death cases in unregulated child care in Mississauga, ON and Port Coquitlam, BC have come back to the criminal courts, though they have received much less media interest in Canada than the ?Jackie?s Daycare? case did in the U.S. ?
There is also a telling parallel (though different methodology) between the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) study that found that most of the child care it studied was ?fair? or ?poor? and the sole national Canadian study of quality, You Bet I Care! (now almost 15 years old) that reported that of the centres it studied, ?the majority provided care that was of minimal to mediocre quality.?
Demand for child care has grown as the labour force participation rate of mothers with young children has continued to rise in both countries (though more steeply and to a higher rate in Canada) while today the child development value of high quality early childhood education and care is well recognized by experts and the general public in both countries.
And ironically, the rejection of a national child-care program by the highest government official in the U.S. and in Canada -- President Richard Nixon in 1971 and Prime Minister Stephan Harper in 2006 -- is unique to the two countries. In 1971, as a very recent immigrant to Canada fresh from working on the American Head Start program, I had been following the successful progress of national legislation to begin building the first U.S. national child-care program through both houses of Congress. I was stunned when Nixon exercised the rarely-used presidential veto to override Congressional assent (his veto message spoke of the threat of ?Sovietizing? the American family and his opposition to coming down on the ?side of communal approaches to child rearing against the family-centered approach") -- just as I was stunned 35 years later when Stephen Harper unilaterally abrogated the hard-won federal-provincial bilateral agreements that were to set the stage for building Canada?s first national child-care program.
Following the end of Canada?s first effort at a national child-care program, in 2008, Canada was ranked lower than the United States (which was among the lower ranking countries studied) in a 25-country UNICEF study of early childhood education and child-care access and quality benchmarks. ?
This year, in his federal budget proposal, Barack Obama included funds to the states for preschool targeted to modest and low income families, as well as increased funds for Head Start -- not quite the comprehensive national early childhood education and care program we envision here in Canada. Still -- it?s a far cry from the contempt for ECEC that Canadians with an interest in child care have been experiencing from the Conservative federal government since 2006 and the ?we can?t afford it? from tax-cutting and books-balancing provincial political parties and governments. Indeed, based on the UNICEF study, it seems that Canada spends even less money on ECEC than does the U.S.
So Canadians who still think that most young families need, and want, the kinds of options for decent quality affordable child care and early childhood education that families in other countries enjoy need to be thinking about their political choices and preparing to join with others in exercising them. Otherwise, our child-care choices for the foreseeable future will remain limited to cross-border examination of our own unsatisfactory reflection in American mirrors.
By now, you're probably aware that MetroPCS shareholders voted in favor of a merger with T-Mobile, and with regulatory red tape out of the way, both companies are now set to become one on April 30th. Now, MetroPCS has laid its Q1 2013 financials bare, which provides us with an excellent peek at T-Mobile's future partner. First off, the company is making money, and its operational income is actually rising, but it's also dealing with increased costs from loans, taxes and the like. Overall, MetroPCS reported a net income of $19.4 million for the first quarter, which is down from $21 million just one year ago.
Speaking of loans, MetroPCS has a ton of them. Its liabilities now sit at $10.3 billion, and its managed to take on $3.4 billion in financing during the last year alone. From a balance sheet perspective, 75 percent of the company's assets exist as debt, and this is a burden that T-Mobile must now take on. Naturally, much of this merger was in effort to score additional spectrum, but Ms. Magenta also stands to gain 9 million new customers once the deal completes, 39 percent of which are LTE subscribers. Better yet, with a churn rate of 2.9 percent, they're sticking around now more than any previous time in company history.
Sunlit snow triggers atmospheric cleaning, ozone depletion in the ArcticPublic release date: 24-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Peter West pwest@nsf.gov 703-292-7530 National Science Foundation
Finding is related to snow atop sea ice, adding a new dimension to scientific concerns about loss of Arctic ice
National Science Foundation-funded researchers at Purdue University have discovered that sunlit snow is the major source of atmospheric bromine in the Arctic, the key to unique chemical reactions that purge pollutants and destroy ozone.
The new research also indicates that the surface snowpack above Arctic sea ice plays a previously unappreciated role in the bromine cycle and that loss of sea ice, which been occurring at an increasingly rapid pace in recent years, could have extremely disruptive effects in the balance of atmospheric chemistry in high latitudes.
The team's findings suggest the rapidly changing Arctic climate--where surface temperatures are rising three times faster than the global average--could dramatically change its atmospheric chemistry, said Paul Shepson, an NSF-funded researcher who led the research team. The experiments were conducted by Kerri Pratt, a postdoctoral researcher funded by the Division of Polar Programs in NSF's Geosciences Directorate.
"We are racing to understand exactly what happens in the Arctic and how it affects the planet because it is a delicate balance when it comes to an atmosphere that is hospitable to human life," said Shepson, who also is a founding member of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center. "The composition of the atmosphere determines air temperatures, weather patterns and is responsible for chemical reactions that clean the air of pollutants."
A paper detailing the results of the research, some of which was funded by NSF and some by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was recently published online at Nature Geoscience.
Ozone in the lower atmosphere behaves differently from the stratospheric ozone involved in the planet's protective ozone layer. This lower atmosphere ozone is a greenhouse gas that is toxic to humans and plants, but it also is an essential cleaning agent of the atmosphere.
Interactions between sunlight, ozone and water vapor create an "oxidizing agent" that scrubs the atmosphere of most of the pollutants human activity releases into it, Shepson said.
Temperatures at the poles are too cold for the existence of much water vapor and in the Arctic this cleaning process appears instead to rely on reactions on frozen surfaces involving molecular bromine, a halogen gas derived from sea salt.
This gaseous bromine reacts with and destroys atmospheric ozone. This aspect of the bromine chemistry works so efficiently in the Arctic that ozone is often entirely depleted from the atmosphere above sea ice in the spring, Shepson noted.
"This is just a part of atmospheric ozone chemistry that we don't understand very well, and this unique Arctic chemistry teaches us about the potential role of bromine in other parts of the planet," he said. "Bromine chemistry mediates the amount of ozone, but it is dependent on snow and sea ice, which means climate change may have important feedbacks with ozone chemistry."
While it was known that there is more atmospheric bromine in polar regions, the specific source of the natural gaseous bromine has remained in question for several decades, said Pratt, a Polar Programs-funded postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the paper.
"We thought that the fastest and best way to understand what is happening in the Arctic was to go there and do the experiments right where the chemistry is happening," Pratt said.
She and Purdue graduate student Kyle Custard performed the experiments in -45 to -34 Celsius (-50 to -30 Fahrenheit) wind chills near Barrow, Alaska. The team examined first-year sea ice, salty icicles and snow and found that the source of the bromine gas was the top surface snow above both sea ice and tundra.
"Sea ice had been thought to be the source of the gaseous bromine," she said. "We had an 'of course!' moment when we realized it was the snow on top of the sea ice. The snow is what is in direct contact with the atmosphere. Sea ice is critical to the process, though. Without it, the snow would fall into the ocean, and this chemistry wouldn't take place. This is among the reasons why the loss of sea ice in the Arctic will directly impact atmospheric chemistry."
The team also discovered that sunlight triggered the release of bromine gas from the snow and the presence of ozone increased the production of bromine gas.
"Salts from the ocean and acids from a layer of smog called Arctic haze meet on the frozen surface of the snow, and this unique chemistry occurs," Pratt said. "It is the interface of the snow and atmosphere that is the key."
A series of chemical reactions that quickly multiplies the amount of bromine gas present, called the "bromine explosion," is known to occur in the atmosphere. The team suggests this also occurs in the spaces between the snow crystals and wind then releases the bromine gas up into the air above the snow.
The team performed 10 experiments with snow and ice samples contained in a "snow chamber," a box constructed of aluminum with a special coating to prevent surface reactions and a clear acrylic top. Clean air with and without ozone was allowed to flow through the chamber and experiments were performed in darkness and in natural sunlight.
The team also measured the levels of bromine monoxide, a compound formed from the reaction of bromine atoms with ozone, through flights of the Purdue Airborne Laboratory for Atmospheric Research.
Shepson is the pilot of this specially equipped aircraft, which he and air operations technical specialist Brian Stirm flew from Indiana to Barrow for these experiments. They found the compound was most prevalent over snow-covered first-year sea ice and tundra, consistent with their snow chamber experiments.
The experiments were performed from March to April 2012 and were part of NASA's Bromine, Ozone and Mercury Experiment, or BROMEX. The goal of the study is to understand the implications of Arctic sea ice reduction on tropospheric chemistry.
Shepson's group next plans to perform laboratory studies to test the proposed reaction mechanisms and to return to Barrow to perform more snow chamber experiments.
In addition, Shepson is co-leading a team using ice-tethered buoys to measure carbon dioxide, ozone and bromine monoxide across the Arctic Ocean, and Pratt is working with scientists from the University of Washington to examine the chemistry of snow from across the Arctic Ocean.
"In the Arctic, climate change is happening at an accelerated pace," Pratt said. "A big question is what will happen to atmospheric composition in the Arctic as the temperatures rise and snow and ice decline even further?"
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Sunlit snow triggers atmospheric cleaning, ozone depletion in the ArcticPublic release date: 24-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Peter West pwest@nsf.gov 703-292-7530 National Science Foundation
Finding is related to snow atop sea ice, adding a new dimension to scientific concerns about loss of Arctic ice
National Science Foundation-funded researchers at Purdue University have discovered that sunlit snow is the major source of atmospheric bromine in the Arctic, the key to unique chemical reactions that purge pollutants and destroy ozone.
The new research also indicates that the surface snowpack above Arctic sea ice plays a previously unappreciated role in the bromine cycle and that loss of sea ice, which been occurring at an increasingly rapid pace in recent years, could have extremely disruptive effects in the balance of atmospheric chemistry in high latitudes.
The team's findings suggest the rapidly changing Arctic climate--where surface temperatures are rising three times faster than the global average--could dramatically change its atmospheric chemistry, said Paul Shepson, an NSF-funded researcher who led the research team. The experiments were conducted by Kerri Pratt, a postdoctoral researcher funded by the Division of Polar Programs in NSF's Geosciences Directorate.
"We are racing to understand exactly what happens in the Arctic and how it affects the planet because it is a delicate balance when it comes to an atmosphere that is hospitable to human life," said Shepson, who also is a founding member of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center. "The composition of the atmosphere determines air temperatures, weather patterns and is responsible for chemical reactions that clean the air of pollutants."
A paper detailing the results of the research, some of which was funded by NSF and some by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was recently published online at Nature Geoscience.
Ozone in the lower atmosphere behaves differently from the stratospheric ozone involved in the planet's protective ozone layer. This lower atmosphere ozone is a greenhouse gas that is toxic to humans and plants, but it also is an essential cleaning agent of the atmosphere.
Interactions between sunlight, ozone and water vapor create an "oxidizing agent" that scrubs the atmosphere of most of the pollutants human activity releases into it, Shepson said.
Temperatures at the poles are too cold for the existence of much water vapor and in the Arctic this cleaning process appears instead to rely on reactions on frozen surfaces involving molecular bromine, a halogen gas derived from sea salt.
This gaseous bromine reacts with and destroys atmospheric ozone. This aspect of the bromine chemistry works so efficiently in the Arctic that ozone is often entirely depleted from the atmosphere above sea ice in the spring, Shepson noted.
"This is just a part of atmospheric ozone chemistry that we don't understand very well, and this unique Arctic chemistry teaches us about the potential role of bromine in other parts of the planet," he said. "Bromine chemistry mediates the amount of ozone, but it is dependent on snow and sea ice, which means climate change may have important feedbacks with ozone chemistry."
While it was known that there is more atmospheric bromine in polar regions, the specific source of the natural gaseous bromine has remained in question for several decades, said Pratt, a Polar Programs-funded postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the paper.
"We thought that the fastest and best way to understand what is happening in the Arctic was to go there and do the experiments right where the chemistry is happening," Pratt said.
She and Purdue graduate student Kyle Custard performed the experiments in -45 to -34 Celsius (-50 to -30 Fahrenheit) wind chills near Barrow, Alaska. The team examined first-year sea ice, salty icicles and snow and found that the source of the bromine gas was the top surface snow above both sea ice and tundra.
"Sea ice had been thought to be the source of the gaseous bromine," she said. "We had an 'of course!' moment when we realized it was the snow on top of the sea ice. The snow is what is in direct contact with the atmosphere. Sea ice is critical to the process, though. Without it, the snow would fall into the ocean, and this chemistry wouldn't take place. This is among the reasons why the loss of sea ice in the Arctic will directly impact atmospheric chemistry."
The team also discovered that sunlight triggered the release of bromine gas from the snow and the presence of ozone increased the production of bromine gas.
"Salts from the ocean and acids from a layer of smog called Arctic haze meet on the frozen surface of the snow, and this unique chemistry occurs," Pratt said. "It is the interface of the snow and atmosphere that is the key."
A series of chemical reactions that quickly multiplies the amount of bromine gas present, called the "bromine explosion," is known to occur in the atmosphere. The team suggests this also occurs in the spaces between the snow crystals and wind then releases the bromine gas up into the air above the snow.
The team performed 10 experiments with snow and ice samples contained in a "snow chamber," a box constructed of aluminum with a special coating to prevent surface reactions and a clear acrylic top. Clean air with and without ozone was allowed to flow through the chamber and experiments were performed in darkness and in natural sunlight.
The team also measured the levels of bromine monoxide, a compound formed from the reaction of bromine atoms with ozone, through flights of the Purdue Airborne Laboratory for Atmospheric Research.
Shepson is the pilot of this specially equipped aircraft, which he and air operations technical specialist Brian Stirm flew from Indiana to Barrow for these experiments. They found the compound was most prevalent over snow-covered first-year sea ice and tundra, consistent with their snow chamber experiments.
The experiments were performed from March to April 2012 and were part of NASA's Bromine, Ozone and Mercury Experiment, or BROMEX. The goal of the study is to understand the implications of Arctic sea ice reduction on tropospheric chemistry.
Shepson's group next plans to perform laboratory studies to test the proposed reaction mechanisms and to return to Barrow to perform more snow chamber experiments.
In addition, Shepson is co-leading a team using ice-tethered buoys to measure carbon dioxide, ozone and bromine monoxide across the Arctic Ocean, and Pratt is working with scientists from the University of Washington to examine the chemistry of snow from across the Arctic Ocean.
"In the Arctic, climate change is happening at an accelerated pace," Pratt said. "A big question is what will happen to atmospheric composition in the Arctic as the temperatures rise and snow and ice decline even further?"
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Public release date: 24-Apr-2013
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