Coffee Fungus Outbreak Resumes

Researchers are marshaling technology in a bid to thwart the harvest-threatening outbreak in Central America

By Daniel Cressey and Nature magazine

Coffee growers are worried that a fungal outbreak will affect the next harvest of coffee berries. Image: HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Where there is coffee, there is ?coffee rust?. But the long stalemate between growers and the fungus behind the devastating disease has broken ? with the fungus taking the advantage. As one of the most severe outbreaks ever rages through Central America, researchers are reaching for the latest tools in an effort to combat the pest, from sequencing its genome to cross-breeding coffee plants with resistant strains.

Caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, coffee rust generally does not kill plants, but the Institute of Coffee of Costa Rica estimates that the latest outbreak may halve the 2013?14 harvest in the worst affected areas of the nation. This outbreak is ?the worst we?ve seen in Central America and Mexico since the rust arrived? in the region more than 40 years ago, says John Vandermeer, an ecologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who has received ?reports of devastation in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Mexico?.

At his research plot in Mexico, Vandermeer says that the situation is so bad that the leaves are simply dropping off the plants. More than 60% of the trees have at least 80% defoliation, and 30% have no leaves at all.

On 22?January, Costa Rica enacted emergency legislation to speed up the flow of government money towards fighting the fungus. Other nations are also stepping up the fight. Last week, the Nicaraguan government reportedly declared that it would include coffee rust on a list of special research projects designed to safeguard the country?s agriculture.

The fungus first emerged as a significant problem by 1869 in Ceylon ? now Sri Lanka ? before spreading around the world. Stuart McCook, a historian at the University of Guelph in Canada who studies the rust, says that the wet weather in some areas of Ceylon was ideal for the spread of the fungus, and more than 90% of coffee crops were wiped out in those regions. Faced with an economic catastrophe, the country abandoned coffee for the tea it is associated with today. The disease is so universal that it ?is not going to be eradicated; or the only way to eradicate the disease in practice is to eradicate all of the coffee?, says McCook.

By 1970, the fungus had been detected in Brazil, and severe outbreaks were seen in Costa Rica in 1980 and Nicaragua in 1995, says Jacques Avelino, a plant pathologist at Costa Rica?s Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center, based in San Jos?.

But changes to management practices had brought the disease mostly under control. ?Coffee rust was considered a solved problem by most of the coffee growers and coffee institutes of the region?, says Avelino. ?People didn?t fear the disease.? The outbreak may have taken hold because of patchy use and effectiveness of fungicides.

And in Africa, Noah Phiri, a plant pathologist working in Nairobi for the not-for-profit development organization CABI, says that rust has been causing ever-greater problems, although in Kenya, varieties resistant to the rust have held it at bay.

Colombia could be the closest to a solution. Marco Aurelio Cristancho, a researcher at Cenicaf?, the National Center for the Investigation of Coffee in Chinchin?, says that the government has supported research into developing resistant strains of coffee through crossbreeding. The introduction of resistant strains, together with improved weather monitoring to help predict rust outbreaks, has meant that fewer than 10% of plants now need to be treated with fungicide, down from 60% four years ago, Cristancho says. The government has also supported work on the genetics of both the fungus and the plant.

Research programs have started in other countries, too. At the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Valdir Diola is working to isolate resistance genes in coffee and to find molecular markers that distinguish between different strains of the pathogen and that could be used to develop tailored strategies for its control. And in the United Kingdom, Harry Evans is working on the genome of H.?vastatrix at CABI in Egham. In Nairobi, Phiri is using money from the intergovernmental agency the Common Fund for Commodities, as well as from Kenya, India, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe, to screen for resistant coffee plants and to analyze varieties of the pathogen.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=880de4d91414aaa872c31570a1787b20

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Suit claiming Hebrew National hot dogs not kosher dismissed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - ConAgra Foods Inc has won the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by consumers claiming the company's Hebrew National hot dogs and other products are not kosher.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank in St. Paul federal court ruled on Thursday that he does not have jurisdiction over a dispute that he described as "intrinsically religious in nature."

Eleven consumers filed the lawsuit last May, asserting that ConAgra misled customers into believing that its products were kosher according to "the most stringent" Orthodox Jewish standards by including a symbol on its packaging.

The lawsuit alleged that ConAgra's contractors, meat processor AER Services Inc and kosher supervisor Triangle K, failed to follow proper religious procedures. The plaintiffs sought unspecified damages and an injunction against the labels as well as class-action status for consumers who have bought Hebrew National products since 2008.

But Frank said he was constrained by clear Supreme Court precedent barring civil judges from resolving faith-based disputes.

"Any judicial inquiry as to whether defendant misrepresented that its Hebrew National products are "100% kosher" (when Triangle K, an undisputedly religious entity, certified them as such) would necessarily intrude upon rabbinical religious autonomy," Frank wrote.

He noted that ConAgra, the only named defendant in the lawsuit, is a secular entity, while the plaintiffs chose to leave Triangle K and AER out of the lawsuit.

"It is Triangle K and its Orthodox rabbis who make such determinations," Frank said. "Naturally, therefore, this court cannot determine whether defendant's Hebrew National products are in fact kosher without delving into questions of religious doctrine."

Hart Robinovitch, the plaintiffs' lawyer, did not immediately return a call for comment on Thursday evening.

In a statement, ConAgra spokeswoman Becky Niiya said the company has "always stood by our kosher distinction and status."

"We know how important kosher quality is to our consumers, and we look forward to continuing to make Hebrew National 100% pure kosher beef franks and other kosher offerings," she said.

The case is Wallace et al v. ConAgra Foods Inc, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, No. 12-01354.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suit-claiming-hebrew-natl-hot-dogs-not-kosher-005925753--finance.html

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Fidelity Sees Flurry of Charitable Giving in 2012 | On Wall Street

Fidelity Sees Flurry of Charitable Giving in 2012

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Donors ratcheted up their giving last year at Fidelity Charitable as outgoing grants and incoming contributions reached record highs.

Fidelity?s independent public charity and donor advised fund program reported a 24% increase from 2011 in dollar amounts going to grants and charitable accounts. In 2012, donors recommended more than 428,000 grants totaling $1.6 billion and contributed $3.6 billion to charitable accounts as an improved stock market and tax concerns helped drive up giving. Moreover, the number of new charitable accounts rose 32%.

?Throughout 2012, donors took advantage of the improved stock market and economic conditions to contribute more to their charitable accounts and in turn better support the causes they care about,? Sarah Libbey, president of Fidelity Charitable, said in a statement. ?We also saw many donors discover the benefits of using a donor-advised fund for the first time as the uncertain tax environment prompted more discussions about philanthropy between advisors and clients.?

The fourth quarter, which generally represents some of the highest levels of charitable giving, was especially active in 2012. Donors made 172,000 of the 428,000 grants during that time and contributed $2.4 billion, or 66% of the annual total, to charitable accounts. Generally, fourth quarter contributions reflect about 60% of the year?s contributions, Fidelity said.

According to Amy Danforth, senior vice president of Fidelity Charitable, the combination of information campaigns from nonprofits as well as uncertainty about the tax policies in 2013 helped to dive those numbers up.

?Americans? awareness and knowledge of what was going on in Washington and in particular seeing the charitable deduction mentioned time and time again really spurred conversations with people with their advisors,? Danforth said in a phone interview with On Wall Street. ?So we definitely saw increased results because of that.?

Fidelity Charitable augmented its giving operations in response. The charity released an app that enabled donors to recommend grants using a mobile phone, enhanced their website and extended business hours to accommodate donors and advisors.

Advisors are also becoming more involved. Seventy percent of the contributions in 2012 came from advisor referrals and according to Danforth, Fidelity is looking to help advisors open up more conversations on philanthropy in order to deepen their client relationships.

?It really pays dividends for advisors,? she said.

Source: http://www.onwallstreet.com/news/Fidelity-Sees-Flurry-of-Charitable-Giving-in-2012-2683074-1.html

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HSBC hires U.S. expert on drug cartels after Mexico lapses

LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC is hiring a former U.S. deputy attorney general with a background in fighting drug cartels to help the global bank avoid a repeat of lapses in its anti-money-laundering controls that led to a $1.9 billion fine.

The penalty, the largest ever paid by a bank, followed a long U.S. investigation into HSBC's Mexican and U.S. operations that concluded last month with scathing criticism of the systems it used to stop the proceeds of organized crime passing through its accounts.

Jim Comey, who was U.S. deputy attorney general from 2003 to 2005, will join Europe's biggest bank as a non-executive director in March and will be a member of a new committee to combat financial crime.

As U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York from 2002 to 2003, Comey set up a specialized unit to prosecute international drug cartels and supervised the prosecution of executives on fraud and securities-related charges.

He will be joined by two other non-executives - Rona Fairhead and Simon Robertson - and five independent advisers, including Bill Hughes, a former head of the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, and Dave Hartnett, who retired last year as the permanent secretary for tax at Britain's tax authority.

HSBC said on Wednesday the Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee would help Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver simplify its business activities and enhance risk management and control by improving standards across the bank.

It will help HSBC meet tax transparency and compliance standards, the prevention of terrorist financing and association with illegal drugs activities.

HSBC said the committee would identify areas where the bank could be exposed to financial crime or system abuse, or where its bankers might "abuse their participation in the system by undertaking transactions or activities that are reputationally damaging to HSBC, even if not actually illegal".

Comey is the latest big American name hired by the bank to improve its controls and structure.

Stuart Levey, a former undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in the U.S. Treasury, joined last year as chief legal officer. Bob Werner, who had headed sanctions action against drugs traffickers and money launderers, became head of financial crime compliance, a new role.

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Tom Pfeiffer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hsbc-hires-u-expert-drug-cartels-mexico-lapses-131156791--finance.html

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5 Security Holes Almost Everyone's Vulnerable To

Problems with security seem to pop up all the time?from an easy to hack router to apps that leak your data into the world. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to protect yourself. Here's how to do it.

Unless you keep up to date on all the security news, it's easy to miss a bit here and there about what has been exploited and what hasn't. We're all vulnerable at some point, and if you haven't touched the settings on your computer since you took it out of the box, it might be time to take another look.

Already know about these security holes and have them patched up? Good for you! Send this along to your friends who don't to help keep them safe.

UPnP Allows Access to Your Gear from Outside Sources

UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), a component meant to make devices like routers, printers, and media players easy to discover on a network, has been accused of having security holes for a long time, but this week the US Government suggested you disable it yet again. The most recent study suggests 40 million to 80 million network-enabled devices responded to discovery requests from the internet and are vulnerable to an attack that gives hackers access to webcams, printers, passwords, and more. This means routers and devices with the bug can be accessed from the internet to remotely screw with your system even if you don't have malware installed.

The good news is that most of the affected hardware is old, and the problem likely isn't as widespread as it seems. That said, in the case of most devices, you can turn UPnP off in the settings (look in your manual for directions). The UPnP setting on your router doesn't have anything to do with the protocol that lets you stream media over a network, print from inside the network, or anything similar. Turning it off on the router level only blocks you from controlling these devices over the internet, which most people don't need to do.

To turn it off on a router level, you pop into the admin page and disable UPnP. If you want to check your hardware, security site Rapid7 has made a tool to scan devices on your network.

As far as security risks go, this one's easy to fix and it's not going to affect a lot of people these days. The rest of these are much worse.

WEP/WPA Passwords on Your Router Are Easy to Crack

Chances are that your router is using either a WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) password or a WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) password. Unfortunetly, it's pretty simple to crack a Wi-Fi network's WPA password and a WEP password.

Both of these vulnerabilities exist for different reasons. In the case of WEP, it's as simple as cracking the password with an automated encyrption program (and a lot of time), while in WPA, it's more about a vulnerability in WPS (Wi-fi Protected Setup) on certain routers. This can be corrected by turning WPS off. If you can't turn WPS off, you can install DD-WRT or Tomato so you can. DD-WRT should add a nice security layer to your home network.

Browsing Without HTTPS Leaves Your Vulnerable to Snoopers

HTTP Secure is the protocol used to secure everything that you send online that's important. This includes your bank information, social networks, and just about everything else that needs security. For your home network, you can simply install the HTTPS browser extension that ensures you'll always use the secure version of a site so your data doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Without HTTPS, your personal data is far more likely to fall through a security hole and into the hands of some nefarious person.

While it's important to use HTTPS at home, it's far more important to always use it on public Wi-Fi. At places like hotels, airports, or libraries, someone is probably snooping out your passwords. Your best solution for public Wi-Fi is to use a VPN (virtual private network) to route your traffic safely and securely.

All the Apps, Software, and Websites You Use Might Accidentally Leak Data

It happens time and time again. A hacker finds an exploit, and suddenly all your favorite software and web sites are vulnerable to people snagging your passwords. This might make your entire system insecure, it may give your passwords away, or they're leaking your personal data like name and address. This happens with Java constantly, but it has happened to pretty much everyone at some point, including: Mega, Google Wallet, Apple, Skype, Path, Zappos, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

First off, you need to keep your software up to date. This means both your operating system and your mobile software. Generally, when your data is leaked, someone notices, and the software is patched up right away.

It's not exactly the perfect solution, but since the security holes are on the service or software side, it's all you can do. That said, make sure you have: two-factor authentication enabled where you can, you use a different password for every site, and use a a password system like LastPass to ensure your leaked data doesn't reveal enough information to get your login information for another service.

Strong Passwords Aren't Enough to Protect Against Everything

When it boils down to it, a good password only gets you so far. Certain security holes, like social engineering hacks can happen when a skilled hacker bypasses technical protections (like a strong password) to get the information they want from talking to a person?no "real" hacking is required. It's exactly what happened last year when the Apple and Amazon exploits were uncovered in Mat Honan's hack.

In short, people are one of the biggest security holes in the larger chain. Hackers can use psychological tricks to get your information, they might pose as someone important, as a Facebook friend, or even as you when talking with customer support. With a little information, they can then gain access to your account. If that account uses the same password as everywhere else, they essentially get access to everything you do. Thankfully, you can protect yourself with a few simple tips.

The main goal is to make sure you don't have all your eggs in one basket. That means if someone gets one password to one site, they can't get in elsewhere. So, never use the same password more than once, use two-factor authentication, get creative with your security questions, and monitor your accounts.

Plugging up these security holes isn't exactly a fun way to spend an afternoon, but it's certainly more entertaining than waking up one morning to find someone has stolen your identity. It's also a pretty easy process, and once you're set up you don't need to do much else.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/eUUAxEsbZao/5-security-holes-almost-everyones-vulnerable-to

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Oil up slightly after mixed US economic reports

NEW YORK (AP) ? The price of oil rose on Monday after a strong durable goods report in the U.S.

Demand for long-lasting manufactured goods rose sharply in December with gains in volatile aircraft orders, the Commerce Department said. But the number of pending home sales fell last month after hitting a 2 ? year high in November.

Benchmark oil rose 25 cents to $96.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

It's a big week for U.S. economic indicators. In addition to Monday's data, the government will release reports on weekly jobless claims, unemployment and fourth-quarter growth. And the Federal Reserve's policy committee holds a two-day meeting that concludes on Wednesday.

At the pump, the average price for a gallon of gas rose over the weekend to $3.35, the highest level since the second week of December.

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, was down 27 cents to $113.01 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

? Wholesale gasoline rose 5 cents to $2.94 per gallon.

? Natural gas fell 12 cents to $3.34 per 1,000 cubic feet.

? Heating oil was unchanged at $3.04 a gallon.

___

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok and Pablo Gorondi in Budapest contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-28-Oil%20Prices/id-d37a993bc6e842a9abb7d455f9afb155

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Israel central bank chief to step down in June

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's central bank governor, Stanley Fischer, has submitted his resignation.

The Bank of Israel said Tuesday that Fischer told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would step down on June 30. It gave no reason for his departure, which comes two years before his term is set to end.

Fischer, an internationally respected economist who was deputy director of the International Monetary Fund, has won widespread acclaim for keeping the Israeli economy stable at a time of great global turmoil. Israel's economy continues to grow, and unemployment is roughly 6 percent.

In a statement, Netanyahu called Fischer a "central partner" in Israel's economic growth.

Fischer was appointed to a second five-year term in 2010.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-29-Israel-Economy/id-3f370459dd1648dd984bf7dafb383691

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Soundrop Goes Beyond Spotify With Listening Rooms And Videos On Facebook, And Coming Soon To A Platform Near You

Soundrop, the social "listening room" service that is similar to Turntable.fm,?has found a lot of success on the music streaming service Spotify, with 500 million streams of its rooms in its debut year. Now, Oslo, Noway-based Soundrop is taking its growth strategy up a notch: from today, people can also create and embed listening rooms in Facebook, too.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/P4o4aIc3Fl0/

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Dot Earth Blog: Weaker Global Warming Seen in Study Promoted by Norway's Research Council

| Updates below |
Purveyors of climate doubt have seized on a news release from the Research Council of Norway with this provocative title: ?Global warming less extreme than feared?? The release describes new research finding that global warming from the buildup of greenhouse gases will be on the low end of the persistently wide spread of projections by other research groups. (There?s a presentation describing the work below.)

[Jan. 27, 9:28 a.m. | Update |With Twitter assistance from Norway, the history of this news release is becoming clearer. It appears to be a fresh English translation of a release from October describing a study (Aldrin et al., below) that had been published. Read on for the rest of the initial post, but this incident no longer calls out for a "publicity before peer review" warning.]

[Post as published Jan. 26:] This may well end up being the case (I?d give it higher than even odds; even so, that doen?t justify an ?all clear? alert). But this particular analysis has, as yet, not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. This means that although the release comes from a prestigious government science agency, the work needs a publicity before publication caution label. I created one just for this purpose (above) and will use it when needed.

This is hardly the first instance of a promotion-before-review approach to climate discourse. For instance, Richard Muller?s Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project took this path (one of that group?s five papers has finally made it into a journal). (This phenomenon is not limited to climate science, of course; here?s an example related to the fight over gas drilling.)

Earlier today I sent the following query to the Research Council of Norway and I?ll update this post when I hear more:

With some urgency I?m trying to get some clarity on the status of the climate sensitivity analysis that the Research Council promoted yesterday. Is it published in a peer-reviewed journal? The only relevant study I could find was published last year (see below).

Perhaps it?s more like a U.S. National Academy report? If so, please describe the level of peer review. The work is being?aggressively disseminated?by bloggers and news outlets that focus on any research casting doubt on the importance of greenhouse-driven warming.

Thanks for any input clarifying the status of the research and explaining why it was released now if it?s?not yet accepted for publication?

I included a link to a presentation on the paper (which you can find below) and to this relevant paper from last year:

Bayesian estimation of climate sensitivity based on a simple climate model fitted to observations of hemispheric temperatures and global ocean heat content

Magne Aldrin,?Marit Holden,?Peter Guttorp,?Ragnhild Bieltvedt Skeie, Gunnar Myhre,?Terje Koren Berntsen

Here?s a presentation about the new analysis of global warming (the closest thing I?ve seen to the paper itself):

Norwegian Study Finds Limited Warming from Doubled Greenhouse Gases by Andrew Revkin

Finally, for those who want to dig in a bit, here?s a comment I received from Reto Knutti, a Swiss climate scientist, after I sent the Norwegian release and presentation around:

As you said, Aldrin et al. (DOI: 10.1002/env.2140) is published, whereas Skeie et al. is not yet as far as I know. But here are some thoughts that are largely independent of this paper to put these types of studies in context.

If you look at the Fig. 3a in our review (red lines at the top) you see that many previous estimates based on the observed warming/ocean heat uptake had a tendency to peak at values below 3?C (that review is from 2008). The Norwegian study is just another one of these studies looking at the global energy budget. The first ones go back more than a decade, so the idea is hardly new. The idea is always the same: if you assume a distribution for the observed warming, the ocean heat uptake, and the radiative forcing, then you can derive a distribution for climate sensitivity.

What is obvious is that including the data of the past few years pushes the estimates of climate sensitivity downward, because there was little warming over the past decade despite a larger greenhouse gas forcing. Also in some datasets the ocean warming in the top 700 meters is rather small, with very small uncertainties (Levitus GRL 2012), pushing the sensitivity down further. However, in my view one should be careful in over interpreting these results for several reasons:

a) the uncertainties in the assumed radiative forcings are still very large. Recently, Solomon et al. Science (2010, 2011) raised questions about the stratospheric water vapor and aerosol, and just days ago there was another paper arguing for a larger effect of black carbon (http://www.agu.org/news/press/pr_archives/2013/2013-01.shtml, a massive 280 pages?).

b) Results are sensitive to the data used, as shown by Libardoni and Forest DOI: 10.1029/2011GL049431 and others, and particularly sensitive to how the last decade of data is treated. Very different methods (detection attribution optimal fingerprint) have also shown that the last decade makes a difference (Gillett et al. 2011, doi:10.1029/2011GL050226).

c) The uncertainties in the ocean heat uptake may be underestimated by Levitus, and there are additional uncertainties regarding the role of deep ocean heat uptake (Meehl et al. 2011 Nature Climate Change).

Even though we have many of these studies (and I am responsible for a couple of them) I?m getting more and more nervous about them, because they are so sensitive to the climate model, the prior distributions, the forcing, the ocean data, the error model, etc. The reason for this, to a large extent, is that the data constraint is weak, so the outcome (posterior) is dominated by what you put in (prior).

It is important to note that the IPCC assessment of climate sensitivity is based on many lines of evidence (see Fig. 3 in our 2008 review for an overview). The observed energy budget is just one of them. The latest paleoclimate synthesis (Rohling et al. Nature 2012) supports the ?likely 2-4.5?C?, and all GCMs have sensitivities in the range 2-5?C, the mean in CMIP5 is above 3?C, and once you start evaluating models with observations that tends to get pushed upward (Fasullo and Trenberth, Science 2012).

Finally, note that the effect of the last few years of data is smaller on the transient climate response than on climate sensitivity. It?s the transient climate response (TCR) that determines the 21st century warming and peak warming.

7:52 a.m. |Update

I was remiss in not including a link to an excellent recent breakdown of the climate sensitivity question at RealClimate.org. Gavin Schmidt describes the different approaches to the question, and why there are essentially two conclusions, both surrounded by different kinds of uncertainty. His takeaway line:

[T]he ?meta-uncertainty? across the methods remains stubbornly high with support for both relatively low numbers around 2?C and higher ones around 4?C, so that is likely to remain the consensus range.

(There?s a part 2 post there focused on the role of clouds in warming.)

10:56 a.m. |Update

The same goes for Judith Curry?s long exploration of the mix of modeling and observations leading to the range of possible warming projections from a doubling of pre-industry carbon dioxide concentrations.

11:42 a.m. |Update

This paper is deeply relevant (Roger A. Pielke, Jr., of the University of Colorado sent a link as part of an e-mail discussion with other climate science and policy researchers:

Anchoring Devices in Science for Policy: The Case of Consensus around Climate Sensitivity

1. Jeroen van der Sluijs1,
2. Jos?e van Eijndhoven2,
3. Simon Shackley3?and
4. Brian Wynne4

This paper adds a new dimension to the role of scientific knowledge in policy by emphasizing the multivalent character of scientific consensus. We show how the maintained consensus about the quantitative estimate of a central scientific concept in the anthropogenic climate-change field ? namely, climate sensitivity ? operates as an `anchoring device? in `science for policy?. In international assessments of the climate issue, the consensus-estimate of 1.5?C to 4.5?C for climate sensitivity has remained unchanged for two decades. Nevertheless, during these years climate scientific knowledge and analysis have changed dramatically. We identify several ways in which the scientists achieved flexibility in maintaining the same numbers for climate sensitivity while accommodating changing scientific ideas.

We propose that the remarkable quantitative stability of the climate sensitivity range has helped to hold together a variety of different social worlds relating to climate change, by continually translating and adapting the meaning of the `stable? range. But this emergent stability also reflects an implicit social contract among the various scientists and policy specialists involved, which allows `the same? concept to accommodate tacitly different local meanings. Thus the very multidimensionality of such scientific concepts is part of their technical imprecision (which is more than just analytical lack of resolution); it is also the source of their resilience and value in bridging (and perhaps reorganizing) the differentiated social worlds typical of modern policy issues. The varying importance of particular dimensions of knowledge for different social groups may allow cohesion to be sustained amidst pluralism, and universality to coexist with cultural distinctiveness.

Source: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/weaker-global-warming-seen-in-study-promoted-by-norways-research-council/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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SAG Awards 2013: Complete Winners List

'Argo' once again takes the top honor, and Jennifer Lawrence continues win streak.
By MTV News staff

Jennifer Lawrence accepts her award for Best Actress at the SAG Awards 2013
Photo: John Shearer

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1700859/sag-awards-2013-winners-list.jhtml

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Feeling flirty? Wait for the sun to shine

Jan. 28, 2013 ? We all know how casual flirtation can lift one's mood, which can be important at this time of year when the winter blues are at their peak. But if you are more serious about your flirting and hope to get that all important phone number, you're better off waiting until it's sunny, according to new French research published in the journal Social Influence.

Nicolas Gu?guen of the University of South Brittany -- who has previously investigated how wearing red lipstick can increase a waitress' tips -- conducted a study in which an 'attractive' 20 year old male approached 18-25 year old women walking alone in the street and asked them for their phone numbers. The women were solicited on both sunny and cloudy (but not rainy) days, when the temperature was about the same.

In the past other environmental factors have been found to make people more likely to flirt or exchange phone numbers -- the presence of pleasant smells, romantic music or certain colours have all been found to have an effect.

Previous research has also shown how the weather can affect certain social behaviours -- sunshine makes people more likely to help strangers or answer a survey, and people tend to leave bigger tips in restaurants on sunny days. But this is the first research to explore how the weather may influence courtship or dating behaviour.

It was found that women were more receptive to being approached and flirted with -- and give out their phone numbers -- on sunny days: over a fifth -- 22.4% -- of women did so when the sun was out, as opposed to 13.9% on the cloudy days.

(The phone numbers were later used to contact the women and tell them the true nature of the study, as per the recommendation of the ethics committee of the lab which reviewed the project!)

The message seems clear: flirting is more likely to have a positive outcome on sunny days. But Professor Gu?guen was careful to include certain caveats regarding the applicability of the research to everyday situations: the sunshine (or other factors) may after all have improved the attractive 20 year old male's flirting skills on those days. Other atmospheric conditions such as windiness or humidity were not accounted for. And, perhaps most crucially, the research was conducted in France, where 'men traditionally approach women in romantic relationships'.

The journal article concludes with suggestions for further study in this area -- for instance, are men themselves more likely to initiate flirting behaviour when the sun is shining? We'll have to wait until the Spring to find out!

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Taylor & Francis, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Nicolas Gu?guen. Weather and courtship behavior: A quasi-experiment with the flirty sunshine. Social Influence, 2013; : 1 DOI: 10.1080/15534510.2012.752401

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/nJgVrRL2lXo/130128081950.htm

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Women Mean Business - Barbara Duganier - The BusinessMakers ...

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Summary:

You really can have it all?sort of. Leisa Holland-Nelson seeks career advice from financial whiz Barbara Duganier, Sr. Executive and Head of North American Finance Business Services for Accenture.

Video and Full Interview Text

Leisa: Hello. I'm Leisa Holland-Nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business where we're going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary doing extraordinary things. My guest today is Barbara Duganier, senior executive and head of North American Finance Business Services for Accenture. Barbara, you've been incredibly successful in your career. Imagine we had a young businesswoman here at the table with us, what advice would you give her to achieve the success you've had?

Barbara: Well Leisa, I do mentor a lot of women coming up through our organization and outside of Accenture. I would think of three things. I would give them advice in three areas. One is that to have a really good mentor or multiple mentors throughout your career is a really significant thing to do in managing your career and in looking at your personal growth through someone else's eyes, particularly someone who's been very successful.

What you need out of a mentor changes as you change and you grow, but having one and this is statistically proven, makes women's success and their career accelerate significantly. So find the right one. The second would be to really do what you enjoy. A lot of us do things we enjoy and we obviously have fun doing it, as well as we're successful, we make money, we achieve other goals. So I think to be able to think about what will really motivate you and you're passionate about in the long run is really something that you should think about. The third thing is you can have everything in your career. You really can, but not at the same time. We think a lot about work/life balance and how do we achieve balance in various phases in our career in our lives and so those things can be achieved, but have patience with yourself and think about how you really can prioritize your life, your work to be able to achieve what's right for you.

Leisa: Thank you very much. There you have it. Extraordinary advice from an extraordinary woman. I'm Leisa Holland-Nelson, President and Chief Marketing Officer of Content Active, Houston's leading web and mobile technology company. You can find me at Content Active.com or follow me on Twitter @LHNelson. We'll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.

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Source: http://www.thebusinessmakers.com/episodes/shows/2013/january-2013/episode-399/wmb-399.html

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Iraqi insurgents try to harness opposition rage

In this Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 photo, masked men parade during a protest against Iraq's Shiite-led government in Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi insurgents are trying to capitalize on the rage of anti-government protesters and the instability caused by rising civil unrest, complicating the government?s efforts to stamp out a resurgent al-Qaida and other extremists. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

In this Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 photo, masked men parade during a protest against Iraq's Shiite-led government in Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi insurgents are trying to capitalize on the rage of anti-government protesters and the instability caused by rising civil unrest, complicating the government?s efforts to stamp out a resurgent al-Qaida and other extremists. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

In this Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 photo, masked men hold copies of the Quran during a protest against Iraq's Shiite-led government in Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi insurgents are trying to capitalize on the rage of anti-government protesters and the instability caused by rising civil unrest, complicating the government?s efforts to stamp out a resurgent al-Qaida and other extremists. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

In this Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 photo, masked men parade during a protest against Iraq's Shiite-led government in Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi insurgents are trying to capitalize on the rage of anti-government protesters and the instability caused by rising civil unrest, complicating the government?s efforts to stamp out a resurgent al-Qaida and other extremists. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

In this Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 photo, masked men protest against Iraq's Shiite-led government in Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi insurgents are trying to capitalize on the rage of anti-government protesters and the instability caused by rising civil unrest, complicating the government?s efforts to stamp out a resurgent al-Qaida and other extremists. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

Protesters chant slogans against Iraq's Shiite-led government near a burning Iraqi army armored vehicle during clashes in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. Iraqi troops shot dead five protesters Friday as they opened fire at stone-hurling demonstrators angry at the troops for preventing them from joining an anti-government rally west of Baghdad, officials said. (AP Photo/ Bilal Fawzi)

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraqi insurgents are trying to capitalize on the rage of anti-government protesters and the instability caused by rising civil unrest, complicating the government's efforts to stamp out a resurgent al-Qaida and other militants.

Organizers of the protests attracting minority Iraqi Sunnis insist they have no links to terrorist groups. Yet Iraqi and U.S. officials have expressed concern that violent extremists could benefit from the demonstrators' feelings of alienation and hostility toward the Shiite-led Iraqi government.

And tensions are rising.

At least five protesters were killed and more than 20 were wounded on Friday when soldiers opened fire at stone-hurling demonstrators near Fallujah, a former al-Qaida stronghold where tens of thousands took to the streets. Some in the crowd waved black banners emblazoned with the Muslim confession of faith.

They were the first deaths at opposition rallies that have been raging around the country for more than a month. Two soldiers were later killed in an apparent retaliatory attack.

Protesters also have staged demonstrations in other areas with large concentrations of Sunni Arabs, who feel discriminated against by the government. Their list of demands includes the release of detainees and an end to policies they believe unfairly target their sect.

For now, the American Embassy has no indication that al-Qaida is gaining support from the demonstrations. But the fear remains, particularly as the security situation deteriorates in neighboring Syria.

An embassy official said the U.S. had expressed concern that the protesters' peaceful expression of their viewpoints must not be usurped by extremists trying to provoke violence. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Sectarian violence that once pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war has ebbed significantly, though violent attacks aimed mainly at Iraq's Shiite majority, security forces and civil servants still happen frequently.

Insurgents have managed to mount large, mass-casualty bombings of the type favored by al-Qaida on at least five days this month. In another attack, a suicide bomber killed a total of seven when he assassinated a prominent politician who played a leading role in the fight against al-Qaida.

The extremist group later claimed responsibility for the latter bombing and other unspecified attacks.

At least 170 people have been killed in insurgent violence since the start of the year, making January already the deadliest month since September.

Protest organizers and the politicians who support them are eager to distance themselves from extremist rhetoric.

Sunni lawmaker Ahmed al-Alawani recently urged Iraq President Nouri al-Maliki to meet demonstrators' demands so al-Qaida and other militant groups could not exploit their frustration.

That was a sentiment echoed by protest organizer and spokesman Saeed Humaim in Ramadi, a city in western Iraq that has been the focus of daily sit-ins and frequent mass rallies. He said protesters have no intention to take up arms, but will defend themselves if attacked by government security forces.

Still, many Iraqi Sunnis have little doubt that the protests strengthen militant groups.

"I don't think the al-Qaida people would miss an opportunity to move freely when the government and security forces are busy handling these spreading protests," said Ayad Salman, 42, who owns a shoe store in northern Baghdad. "The country is slipping toward a new round of civil war, or at least some groups are planning and pushing for this."

The rallies broke out just over a month ago in Iraq's western Sunni heartland of Anbar following the arrest of guards assigned to the Iraqi finance minister, a Sunni who hails from the province. The vast desert territory on Syria's doorstep was the birthplace of the Sunni insurgency that erupted after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and where Iraqi officials believe al-Qaida's Iraq arm is regrouping.

In an interview aired late Thursday, the Iraqi prime minister suggested that al-Qaida and members of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime have a hand in the demonstrations.

"I hope that these protests would not turn violent ... and drag the country to a sectarian war," he told al-Baghdadiya TV.

Al-Qaida's local affiliate this week posted a statement praising the protesters, saluting what it called "the true Muslims who revolted in defense of their honor and religion."

A senior Iraqi security official who specializes in terrorist activities said al-Qaida is making use of the resentment in predominantly Sunni provinces, where local residents who used to provide authorities tips about terrorist activities are growing much more reluctant to snitch.

He and another senior security official said al-Qaida fighters now have more freedom to move around. That is partly because state security forces' movements are being restricted in Sunni areas so they cannot be accused of unfairly targeting the Muslim sect, they said.

The second official said the demonstrations give extremists a good opportunity to try to mobilize Sunni opposition and portray themselves as the only groups who can safeguard the rights and interests of the Sunni minority.

The Iraqi officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss security operations with the media.

The local wing of al-Qaida, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, generally does not operate beyond Iraq's borders. But al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri last year urged Iraqi insurgents to support the Sunni-based uprising in neighboring Syria against President Bashar Assad, whose Alawite sect is a branch of Shiite Islam.

Iraqi officials believe Sunni fighters aligned with al-Qaida's Iraq franchise are moving back and forth across the Syrian border to help Sunni rebels overthrow Assad.

Rebel gains in Syria are giving Iraq's Sunni protesters and insurgents alike a sense that their fortunes may be shifting too.

"Sunnis seem ascendant in Syria. That is a major psychological boost to the Sunnis in Iraq," said Kamran Bokhari, an expert on Mideast issues for the global intelligence company Stratfor. "They're trying to capitalize on that."

Other militants are trying to tie their fight to the protests too.

Earlier this month, uniformed members of the Naqshabandi Army appeared in an online video urging Iraqis to continue their protests, sit-ins and acts of civil disobedience. It called on security forces to turn their weapons on the "traitors and foreign agents" ? a likely reference to what many Sunnis see is Shiite powerhouse Iran's influence over the government.

The group, a network of former Iraqi military officers and jihadists, frequently claims responsibility for attacks on government security forces.

The highest ranking member of Saddam's regime still at large, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has separately lent his support to the demonstrators. Al-Douri, who is suspected of having ties to the Naqshabandi Army, is thought to have played a key role in financing Sunni insurgents seeking to undermine Iraq's post-Saddam government.

Another small jihadist group, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, put out a statement of its own backing the protest movement.

___

Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed reporting.

___

Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-26-Iraq-Protests/id-5bdfa56898ed4cd3a8739e6b8cfcf687

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Gold And Silver Truth-Seeking: Fundamentals & Opinions Are Useless

All general statements are untrue, [including the one above and this one]. There are exceptions to every general rule, so they cannot always be true.

There is truth to the consideration that all fundamentals and opinions are useless in the markets, as they pertain to timing, and timing plays a huge role when investing/trading. What fundamentals/opinions do is put one?s belief system into a context with regard to the market[s]. If one wants to profit from any belief, he/she is then pitted against the forces of the marketplace in their exercise.

If you know about the fundamentals, to whatever degree you believe, and/or if you have an opinion, from whatever source and however reliable or not, the question then becomes, ?What are you going to do about it?? Our premise topic, fundamentals and opinions are useless, goes back to what we have stated before:

It does not matter what others say about the market.
What matters is what the market says about others.

People are drawn to articles/information that reinforces their beliefs. Markets force people to put aside their bias and deal with what is, or else deal with the consequences if the bias/belief is in conflict. The market is, and always will be, the final arbiter of all ?facts? and ?opinions.?

The market is composed of all the known [and not so well-known] facts that affect supply and demand. ?The gold held in New York and London is/may be gone.? Fact or fiction? The Fed and London ain?t telling, or what they are telling is that ?belief? is untrue. Fiat currencies are being created at unprecedented levels. We all know that is a fact, and many believe gold and silver will/should recognize that fact and be priced accordingly, [but are not]. The fundamentals for silver supply and demand are incredibly bullish. Few can deny that, the few being the Fed and JPM, et al.

The market knows all of this! Yet, the price of both gold and silver are languishing in protracted trading ranges. So how valuable are the fundamentals or opinions about gold going to $5,000, or silver to $400, [pick your own number, as most undoubtedly have one]?

For right now, and for the pat 18 months or so, the best information in the world, the strongest opinions held have been ?useless.? The charts, [the market translated into a visual format], reflect the trading ranges, and current prices are just about dead center within them. The middle of a trading range is where the level of knowledge is at its lowest. It is a coin toss. Price can rally to the top of the range and still fail, or it can decline to the bottom of the range and fail to go lower. Flip a coin!

Whatever your opinion of where the price of gold and/or silver should be, this is what the market is saying about your ?belief/opinion:?

[Monthly charts are not included as the month ends next week, and those charts will be included next week. The discussion for gold is more general, and a little more detail is given in the silver charts, as both are similar.]

The market is showing price to be in the middle of a lengthy trading range, [TR], and until the TR is broken, up or down, one is spinning wheels in between. Last week, we showed how the clustering of closes could signify support and a rally, or a pause before continuing lower. The gold ?rally? fizzled and has retraced back to the clustering. Will it continue to act as support, or fail?

Not only is gold in the middle of the TR, it is also in the middle of a down channel. It is anyone?s guess for now.

Let us add that the fundamentals are incredibly bullish, and within that context, we continue to advocate buying the physical at any price, and buy consistently. Our analysis pertains to trading/buying the futures. Regardless of the bullish context of the fundamentals, the market is saying, ?Not right now.? Until price rallies above $1,800, it is not going reach whatever future expectation one may have, which is all we are saying. For timing, any/all fundamental considerations are useless. For positioning one?s self in the physical, now is the time. When gold/silver take off, [even we have a bias], it will be fast and furious [opinion], with no looking back, but that can be months, Quarters, possibly year[s] away.

The daily chart comments pretty much speak for themselves.

Last week, we noted a long position on the strength of the wide range, strong close bar, 6th bar from the end. The recommendation did not lead to much profit, but profits were taken prior to the decline, based on developing market activity at the time.

While silver is weaker, relatively to gold, it is behaving relatively stronger of late. Note how the weekly close is higher/above the clustering of closes, where gold is right at the clustering location, [both still in the middle!].

As with gold, now is the time to continue accumulating [stacking, as it were] silver at any price. Sales of the American Eagle are going through the roof and were recently halted until 28 January. Why the government continues to sell them at all is beyond us in comprehension, given it is part of the forces [of evil] endeavoring to suppress the market?s alternative to the insidious issue of fiat.

For as much as an argument can be made that price is holding reasonably well within the ongoing TR, the ?fact? that silver failed to reach the upper channel line is a sign of weakness. Yet, unlike gold, the decline in silver held above the wide range, strong close bar where a long position was recommended. You can see the small range high at 32.50, 3rd bar from the end. It was the market?s message telling us that demand was weak. The long position was liquidated profitably, before the decline set in. Love those messages!

Where will the decline stop? We have no clue, nor do we [or you] need to guess. Instead, simply wait for developing market activity to indicate demand is overcoming supply. Why guess when the best source of information will make some kind of factual declaration?!

Maybe price will hold potential support at the clustering of closes, maybe not. What is more important is that the existing TR is telling everyone to wait, for those inclined to heed the market?s message. Even on a shorter time frame, within the TR, the market is STILL saying, price is not strong. Buy the physical, but not the futures.

Fundamental context matters for what side one chooses. The message from the market matters the most for timing and implementing one?s belief. That is a fact that has never changed and one that never will. Count on it!

[Just don't take it to the bank. Banks cannot be trusted.]

Source: http://goldsilverworlds.com/gold-silver-price-news/gold-and-silver-truth-seeking-fundamentals-opinions-are-useless/

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Exclusive: Samsung Total strikes Iran oil deal, lured by cheap fuel - sources

SINGAPORE/SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Total Petrochemicals Co has revived a contract to buy Iranian oil after a year's hiatus, as thin margins in plastics make the cheap fuel from Iran hard to resist, people familiar with the deal said on Friday.

Stringent U.S. and European sanctions aimed at reducing Iran's oil income and forcing Tehran to curb its nuclear program have made shipping and paying for the oil hard, halving the Islamic Republic's crude exports.

The deal is a rare example of a buyer returning to the market for Iranian oil despite the obstacles arising from sanctions and efforts by Western powers to stem the flow.

After jarring interruptions in exports from Iran last year that included a halt in shipments to top consumers Japan and South Korea, importers have found ways to keep oil flowing without violating sanctions.

The allure of cheap oil and improved margins has made it worthwhile for the South Korean joint venture between two big international firms to find ways around difficulties.

The deal may save Samsung Total as much as $6.7 million in costs, according to Reuters calculations.

"The deal can be easily understood if you look at Samsung Total's financial situation," according to a government source in Seoul with direct knowledge of the matter.

The company is a joint venture between South Korea's Samsung Group and French energy giant Total.

Spokespeople at Total, Samsung Total and the Samsung Group declined to comment.

Samsung Total stopped importing oil from Iran last year as the U.S. and European Union imposed sanctions to halt a nuclear program the West suspects Iran may be using to develop arms. Tehran denies this. To comply with U.S. sanctions, importing countries are required to reduce purchases of Iranian oil.

Co-owner Total also stopped buying Iranian oil for its refineries to comply with EU sanctions last year.

Replacing the Iranian oil forced up Samsung Total's input costs, contributing to a fall in operating profits, sources said. Those profits fell 90 percent in the second-quarter of 2012, according to the company's regulatory filings. The company switched to more expensive Australian and Russian condensate last year, sources said.

Samsung Total had an annual contract to buy about 550,000 barrels a month of Kangan condensate until June last year, although it is unclear if it actually imported the full volume during the first half of 2012. The volume of the new contract is unclear.

JOSTLING FOR IMPORTS

Other South Korean refiners will have to import less to make way for Samsung Total's new contract if Seoul is to comply with U.S. sanctions.

To renew six-month exceptions to sanctions granted by Washington, buyers of Iran's oil have to show continuous import cuts. South Korea's waiver is next due for review in May.

The north Asia nation slashed crude purchases from Iran 36 percent to 153,405 barrels per day (bpd) in 2012. If Samsung Total starts buying a similar-sized cargo every month, South Korea's imports from the OPEC member may rise by 10,000 bpd.

Condensate imports were not included when South Korean and U.S. officials discussed cuts in Iranian crude imports, the South Korean government official said. For talks due in May, it is unclear whether Iranian condensates would be included in the crude import data or whether it would be counted separately.

"The U.S. side may raise the issue with us when they next meet for talks if they spot higher imports of Iranian condensate," the official said. "In the talks with the United States last December, we only talked about a cut in Iranian crude oil imports. Iranian condensate was not discussed."

Samsung Total kicked off imports from Iran by buying 30,000 tonnes, or 280,000 barrels, of Kangan condensate, which will be delivered in March to the petrochemical company's plant in Daesan, the sources said.

Condensate is a light oil usually processed in a unit called a splitter to produce naphtha, to make petrochemicals.

Samsung Total is looking to diversify supply sources to feed expanded facilities. It is adding a new 140,000 bpd condensate splitter, due to start in August 2014. The company operates a 1 million tonne per year (tpy) ethylene cracker, a 90,000 bpd splitter and other petrochemical units in Daesan.

KANGAN CONDENSATE

Kangan is usually priced $1 or $2 per barrel cheaper than one of the alternatives, which is condensate from Australia's North West Shelf (NWS), traders said. Without any additional discount, the price difference means the Kangan cargo for March cost anything between $280,000 and $560,000 less than NWS.

If Samsung Total buys a same-sized cargo as the one for March each month for a year, annual savings would be as much as $6.7 million.

The company's operating profits fell to 5.52 billion won ($5.16 million) in the second quarter of 2012 from 68.04 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

(Additional reporting by Michel Rose in Paris and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by Manash Goswami, Simon Webb and Ed Davies)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-samsung-total-strikes-iran-oil-deal-lured-111525767.html

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Woman sues Match.com for $10 million after brutal attack

4 hrs.

Suzanne Choney , NBC News

A Las Vegas woman who was severely beaten by a man she met through Match.com is suing the online dating site for $10 million?two years and multiple surgeries after the attack that left her hospitalized for months.

The woman, Mary Kay Beckman, was stabbed multiple times with a butcher knife on Jan. 21, 2011?by?Wade Mitchell Ridley, and when?the knife broke, he stomped on her head. Ridley, who was sentenced to?28 to 70 years,?died in prison last year. He was also facing a murder charge in Arizona for the stabbing death of a former girlfriend a few weeks after the attack on Beckman.

Beckman filed suit in Clark County, Nevada,?accusing Match.com of negligence, negligent misrepresentation, deceptive trade, failure to warn and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

The site, she said, failed to warn her about the dangers of meeting "an individual whose intentions are not to find a mate, but to find victims to kill or rape."

The real estate agent said she joined Match.com about a month before her first in-person meeting with Ridley on Sept. 26, 2010. They dated for 10 days, but she called it off. That's when Ridley started sending her threatening and harassing messages.?

On Jan. 21, 2011, Ridley attacked Beckman in her garage, and left her for dead, she says, when she stopped making a "gurgling noise."?

Beckman, now 50, continues to recover and to speak out against online dating?"I do not believe that online dating is a safe venue for men or women,"?she?recently?told?a?local?FOX?TV?reporter.

Match.com, in a statement to NBC News Friday, said that what happened to Beckman "is horrible, but this lawsuit is absurd.?The many millions of people who have found love on Match.com and other online dating sites know how fulfilling it is. And while that doesn't make what happened in this case any less awful, this is about a sick, twisted individual with no prior criminal record, not an entire community of men and women looking to meet each other."

Safety, the site said, "is very important to Match," which, like many other online dating sites, includes online and offline tips for staying safe.

In California, Match.com and two other dating sites, eHarmony and Spark Networks, signed a joint statement of business principles, agreeing to screen for sex offenders and take other safety steps after a woman was assaulted on a date, the state attorney general's office said last March.?

The joint statement ?was prompted by the 2010 sexual assault of a Los Angeles-area woman by a man she met through Match.com, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office said. The woman sued Match.com, seeking a court order requiring the site to check applicants' backgrounds to weed out convicted sex offenders. She dropped the suit after the site provided proof of such screening.

Meanwhile, in the last two years, friends and work associates of Beckman have held fundraisers for her, including one last year, with information shared about it on YouTube (see video below).

Check out Technology, GadgetBox, Digital?Life and InGame on?Facebook,?and on?Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/woman-sues-match-com-10-million-after-brutal-attack-1C8119714

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10 Traumatic Disney Moments (Besides Bambi's Mom Dying)

Disney

Disney has long been synonymous with G-rated fun and family entertainment. But lurking in between the cheerful songs and happy endings are some of the scariest scenes ever to terrify young audiences.

We?ve all remember Simba?s dad and Bambi?s mom shuffling off this mortal coil to the great cartoon beyond, but they?re not the only psychological scars Disney has inflicted on us. Here are 10 not-so-magical Disney moments still keeping kids awake at night. (Note: Spoilers ahead, even though you?ve probably seen most of these movies.)

1

The Queen's Transformation, 'Snow White'

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Disney was creating villains who could actually scare audiences from the very beginning. The Queen in Snow White is set on killing her own stepdaughter and magically disguises herself in order to get close to the young princess.

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The result is no simple transformation, but a swirling nightmare of bubbling green liquids and inky blackness. Seeing the coldly beautiful queen turned into a cackling old hag is scary enough, but the fact that we get to experience what she goes through as the potion does its work pushes this scene from merely scary into trauma territory.

2

Lampwick Turns Into a Donkey, 'Pinocchio'

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'Pinocchio' ranks as one of Disney's scariest movies and its most traumatizing scene has to be the transformation of Lampwick, Pinocchio's delinquent pal who guides him through the indulgent wonders of Pleasure Island.

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Pleasure Island gives bad boys the opportunity to behave so badly that they turn into literal jackasses, which the coachman then sells into lives of misery in the circus or the salt mines. Poor Pinocchio gets a front row seat as Lampwick turns into a donkey, going from a confident and obnoxious brat to a terrified, pleading mess. Whether it's Lampwick's hands turning into hooves pawing at Pinocchio's chest, the final transformation ? shown only in shadow to make it extra horrifying -- or the sight of Lampwick braying and kicking over furniture as a panicked donkey, something from this scene is going to be giving you chills long after the movie ends.

3

Night on Bald Mountain, 'Fantasia'

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If you're looking for Disney's ultimate representation of straight up evil, look no further than "Night on Bald Mountain" from 'Fantasia.' You know, the sequence where the denizens of Hell and the souls of the damned dance at the pleasure of Chernabog, a Slavic devil.

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Just about every kind of iconography of the underworld is present: devils, skeletal ghosts, cloaked phantoms, hellfire, and yes, bare-breasted harpies. The one thing that keeps this segment from being the most terrifying thing Disney ever created is that no one is actually being menaced. Evil is throwing a party to remember, but the only creatures in jeopardy are demons and devil worshippers. Still, just the imagery of "Night on Bald Mountain" - particularly Chernabog himself ? is so frightening that it's enough to keep kids up all night for weeks.

4

Pink Elephants on Parade, 'Dumbo'

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'Dumbo' is not a particularly scary movie, except for the "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence. This hallucinated nightmare subjects Dumbo, Timothy and the audience to the antics of bright pink pachyderms with black, empty eyes, all set to the tune of one of Disney's creepier songs.

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The sequence truly crosses over from trippy fun to the stuff that will keep you awake at night with its multicolored amalgamation of elephant heads marching menacingly towards the viewer. And in case you forgot, this whole episode was brought on by Timothy and Dumbo getting drunk (albeit accidentally), which also leads to the discovery that Dumbo can fly. The real moral of 'Dumbo'? Beer reveals your hidden talents!

5

The Three Pheasants, 'Bambi'

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Yes, we know, we know, Bambi's mom. With the possible exception of the death of Mufasa, it's the biggest emotional gut-punch in Disney history. But it's hardly the only traumatizing moment in 'Bambi.'

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The forest is destroyed in a massive fire. Bambi and his mate Faline are pursued by vicious hunting dogs. Bambi is actually shot, though he survives. But the serious nightmare fuel comes from three pheasants, hiding in terror as Man draws ever closer. One of the three becomes increasingly panicked and wants to fly off, despite the others' efforts to keep her from doing so. Finally, the terrified bird takes to the air, screaming, "I can't stand it any longer!" We hear a gunshot and the remaining pheasants wince as their friend's lifeless body plummets to the ground. Now there's some fun viewing for family movie night.

6

The Charred Village, 'Mulan'

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Disney

Shan Yu, the leader of the marauding Hun army from Mulan, is certainly a standout among modern Disney villains. This is a guy who has a man killed just because it would be redundant to send two messengers back to the Emperor.

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But even scarier than Shan Yu is the destruction in his wake. Right on the heels of the upbeat, comedic song 'A Girl Worth Fighting For,' Mulan and her fellow soldiers discover the charred remains of a village after the Hun attack. The main story point of the scene is that far more experienced soldiers ? including male lead Li Shang's father ? died trying to protect the village, making it clear what these novice fighters are up against. But the far more troubling part for the kids in the audience is the abandoned doll Mulan discovers, representing all of the innocent people who didn't escape the wrath of the Huns.

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No particular scene this time; just the entire 81 minute running time of 'The Black Cauldron.' Among the criticisms heaped upon this film is that it's far too scary for children. While its PG rating makes the movie's status as kiddie entertainment debatable, the high fear factor is not.

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You've got the dragon-like Gwythaints, an army of skeletons, more blood than you'll find in any other Disney film and a villain with a horned skull for a head presiding over it all. If that wasn't enough, you have a very cute pig nearly getting decapitated and an even cuter fuzzball committing suicide.

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Disney itself was more frightened by the film's titanic-for-the-time $25 million budget and pitiful box office performance that failed to top that of 'The Care Bears Movie,' but that's a whole other story.

8

Ratigan Loses It, 'The Great Mouse Detective'

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'The Great Mouse Detective' is mostly a light-hearted romp about the mouse equivalent of Sherlock Holmes. But Holmes needs his Moriarity, and Basil of Baker Street's archnemesis Ratigan has one scene that earns him a spot on this list.

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Ratigan's scheme to place himself on the throne of rodent England has been foiled and now he is watching Basil escape through the inner workings of Big Ben. Consumed by his rage, Ratigan leaps from gear to gear in one last pursuit of Basil, shredding his aristocratic garments. The film makes a big point of Ratigan's denial of what he truly is -- a rat (not a large mouse, as he would like to believe). What makes this scene so frightening is that we're not just seeing a villain rage at being outwitted -- we're watching Ratigan's facade of civility tear away to reveal the savage animal lurking underneath.

9

Ursula's Death, 'The Little Mermaid'

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Disney

Disney villains have been dying since 'Snow White,' so that's nothing new. The usual manner of death for a Disney villain is a fall from a great height, preferably caused by the villain's own actions. There have been exceptions: Maleficent from 'Sleeping Beauty' got a sword through the heart. But few villains have met their end as violently as Ursula, the sea witch from 'The Little Mermaid.'

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In order to save his love from the now gigantic Ursula, Prince Eric takes the wheel of a ship and gores Ursula with the prow. Look closely at the screenshot above and you'll notice the end of the prow sticking out of Ursula's back. Pretty gory for a G-rated flick.

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Disney

'Tarzan' has a number of scary moments, including one of the most startling villain deaths in any recent Disney film. Still, the most scarring scene in the film has to be the death of Kerchak and Kala's poor, unnamed baby.

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We're treated to shots of the happy gorilla parents playing with their adorable newborn, scenes that any regular moviegoer knows can only lead to someone ending up dead. In this case, the baby wanders off and is discovered by the leopard Sabor. Kerchak and Kala race to answer their baby's terrified cries, but arrive seconds too late. Violent death is nothing new in Disney films, but it is surprising that Disney would kill off anything this cute.

Next: Lost Disney Characters You've Never Heard of

Source: http://thefw.com/traumatic-disney-movie-moments/

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