শুক্রবার, ৮ নভেম্বর, ২০১৩

Obama: 'I'm sorry' Americans are losing insurance

FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall about the federal health care law. Obama says he's sorry Americans are losing health insurance plans he repeatedly said they could keep under his signature health care law. But the president stopped short of apologizing for making those promises in the first place. "I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he said in an interview Thursday, Nov. 7 with NBC News. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)







FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall about the federal health care law. Obama says he's sorry Americans are losing health insurance plans he repeatedly said they could keep under his signature health care law. But the president stopped short of apologizing for making those promises in the first place. "I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he said in an interview Thursday, Nov. 7 with NBC News. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)







(AP) — Seeking to calm a growing furor, President Barack Obama said Thursday he's sorry Americans are losing health insurance plans he repeatedly said they could keep under his signature health care law. But the president stopped short of apologizing for making those promises in the first place.

"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he said in an interview with NBC News.

Signaling possible tweaks to the law, Obama said his administration was working to close "some of the holes and gaps" that were causing millions of Americans to get cancellation letters. Officials said he was referring to fixes the administration can make on its own, not legislative options some congressional lawmakers have proposed.

"We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them, and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this," Obama said.

The president's apology comes as the White House tries to combat a cascade of troubles surrounding the rollout of the health care law often referred to as "Obamacare." The healthcare.gov website that was supposed to be an easy portal for Americans to purchase insurance has been riddled by technical issues. And with at least 3.5 million Americans receiving cancellation notices from their insurance companies, there's new scrutiny aimed at the way the president tried to sell the law to the public in the first place.

In Thursday's interview, Obama took broader responsibility for the health care woes than in his previous comments about the rollout, declaring that if the law isn't working "it's my job to get it fixed."

"When you've got a health care rollout that is as important to the country and to me as this is and it doesn't work like a charm, that's my fault," he said.

Some Republicans, who remain fierce opponents of the law three years after it won congressional approval, appeared unmoved by Obama's mea culpa.

"If the president is truly sorry for breaking his promises to the American people, he'll do more than just issue a half-hearted apology on TV," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.

In recent days, focus has intensified on the president's promise that Americans who liked their insurance coverage would be able to keep it. He repeated the line often, both as the bill was being debated in Congress and after it was signed into law.

But the health care law itself made that promise almost impossible to keep. It mandated that insurance coverage must meet certain standards and that policies falling short of those standards would no longer be valid unless they were grandfathered, meaning some policies were always expected to disappear.

The White House says under those guidelines, fewer than 5 percent of Americans will have to change their coverage. But in a nation of more than 300 million people, 5 percent is about 15 million people.

Officials argue that those forced to change plans will end up with better coverage and that subsidies offered by the government will help offset any increased costs.

"We weren't as clear as we needed to be in terms of the changes that were taking place," Obama told NBC. "And I want to do everything we can to make sure that people are finding themselves in a good position, a better position than they were before this law happened."

The president's critics have accused him of misleading the public about changes that were coming under the law, which remains unpopular with many Americans.

Obama dismissed those accusations, insisting the White House was operating in "good faith." He acknowledged that the administration "didn't do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law" but did not specify what changes the administration might make.

The White House has not formally taken a position on a variety of proposals from Congress to address issues that have arisen since the insurance sign-ups launched on Oct. 1.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has proposed requiring insurance companies to reinstate canceled plans, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is supporting a measure to delay for a year the penalties for going without insurance. Another Democrat, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, is asking Obama to extend the open enrollment period for insurance exchanges because of the widespread problems with the website.

On Wednesday, Obama met at the White House with Senate Democrats facing re-election next year to try to ease their concerns about the impact the rough health care rollout might have on their races. Many senators in the meeting asked for the enrollment period to be extended but the White House said it doesn't that that will be necessary.

The six-month sign-up window ends March 31. Unless Americans have enrolled in a plan by then, they'll face a penalty.

Obama said he remains confident that anyone who wants to buy insurance will be able to do so.

"Keep in mind that the open enrollment period, the period during which you can buy health insurance, is available all the way until March 31," he said. "And we're only five weeks into it."

Administration officials say they expect the website to be working for the vast majority of users by the end of November.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-11-07-US-Obama-Health-Overhaul/id-39219fe1a5a94b948f981a89743dfaa4
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Jenny McCarthy Celebrates Moschino loves Disaronno

She's always eager to have a good time, and on Wednesday (November 6), Jenny McCarthy headed out in New York City to celebrate the launch of the limited edition Moschino loves Disaronno bottle.


The newest "View" co-host looked stunning in an all-black ensemble and matching heels as she posed in between a plethora of red balloons and smiled for the awaiting shutterbugs.


While hanging out at the swanky affair, Jenny sipped on Disaronno Loves Sour and Disaronno Sparkling cocktails while sitting at a private table.


In between dancing and enjoying her refreshing beverages, Miss McCarthy even took her shot at a “vogue-ing” competition with two drag queens on a catwalk in the middle of the dance floor.


Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/jenny-mccarthy/jenny-mccarthy-celebrates-moschino-loves-disaronno-957232
Tags: sons of anarchy   charlie hunnam   sunday night football   Jane Addams   khan academy  

LG G Flex launches in Korea next week for $940, headed to Europe in December

Processor, storage space, RAM and a curved screen -- the G Flex's announcement came with just about everything except a price. Now, LG has given us the last piece of the puzzle. Starting on November 12th, the South Korean company will sell its curved smartphone for 999,900 Korean Won, or about $940. ...


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/8yZSs9-DNbw/
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বৃহস্পতিবার, ৭ নভেম্বর, ২০১৩

JFK's Caroline: keeper of family flame, diplomat


WASHINGTON (AP) — She is the little girl riding her pony Macaroni around the White House lawn, the big sister hiding under the Oval Office desk with her little brother John. And in a heartbreaking childhood photo, she is the white-gloved daughter kneeling with her mother at the coffin of her slain father, the president.

Flash forward 50 years and here is Caroline Kennedy again: author, lawyer and mother of three, tending to the Kennedy flame as her family's sole survivor. And, finally, after decades protecting her privacy, she's stepping into a more public role as U.S. ambassador to Japan.

Kennedy, 55, was five days short of her sixth birthday when John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.

The family's nanny gently informed Caroline that her father had been shot "and they couldn't make him better."

With that, Caroline's world was shaken, not for the first time or the last.

Three months earlier, a little brother, Patrick, had died shortly after birth. Then Robert F. Kennedy, the uncle who stepped in to serve as a sort of surrogate father after JFK's assassination, was himself shot and killed five years later. After losing her mother to cancer in 1994, Caroline lost her brother John in a 1999 plane crash at age 38.

Through it all, level-headed Caroline soldiered on, lending her support to the causes and ideals her parents and brother had championed. She's served as president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and chaired the senior advisory committee of the Institute of Politics at Harvard, set up as a memorial to Kennedy,

Trey Grayson, director of the institute, describes Kennedy as quiet and down to earth, willing to be blunt when needed, and gracious at managing the daily challenges that come with nurturing her father's legacy.

"Every day, people walk up to her and say, 'I'm such a big fan of your father, he inspired me to do this,' and she's handled that so well," Grayson said.

Asked in 2012 if she ever felt overwhelmed by the legacy of the Kennedy years and the carefully cultivated image of a modern day Camelot, Kennedy said simply, "I can't imagine having better parents and a more wonderful brother. So I feel really fortunate that those are my family, and I wish they were here.

"But my own family, my children, my husband, are really my real family and so ... we're just us."

Raised in privilege on New York's Upper East Side, Kennedy earned a Columbia law degree but rather than practice law, she chose to write and edit books about the right to privacy, poetry and other subjects. While her brother made a public splash and earned the label "sexiest man alive" from People magazine, Caroline limited her public appearances and tried to be just another parent shepherding her kids to adulthood, working as an unpaid fundraiser for the city's school system once they got older. She is married to exhibit designer Edwin Schlossberg.

For all the days that felt just ordinary, though, there were moments when recollections of the trials of her life would come crashing through.

"You don't think about it all the time," Kennedy once said, in a comment cited in Christopher Andersen's biography "Sweet Caroline." ''Sometimes you're just walking down the street and it just hits you ...."

Over the years, she has gradually edged back into the spotlight, and stepped more deeply into politics.

Early in 2008, she endorsed Barack Obama in the presidential campaign, a pivotal moment in his primary race against Hillary Rodham Clinton; Kennedy later served on the team that helped Obama select his running mate.

But she abruptly withdrew after flirting with the idea of seeking appointment to the Senate seat vacated when Clinton became secretary of state, citing personal reasons. Kennedy had been harshly criticized for giving halting interviews and limiting her interactions with reporters, and some critics questioned whether her background had prepared her for the Senate.

Kennedy seemed far more comfortable with the job description when Obama last summer nominated her to serve as U.S. ambassador to Japan. She was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in October.

She is expected to take up her position in Japan by the end of the month.

___

Follow Benac on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nbenac

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jfks-caroline-keeper-family-flame-diplomat-213700799.html
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NSF, with interagency and international partners, makes first round of grants to understand Arctic sustainability

NSF, with interagency and international partners, makes first round of grants to understand Arctic sustainability


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7-Nov-2013



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Contact: Peter West
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National Science Foundation



Arctic science, engineering, and education for sustainability grants go to 12 institutions and include 8 nations




The National Science Foundation (NSF), in cooperation with interagency and international partners, recently made the first round of awards under a program that supports multi- and interdisciplinary science important to understanding the predictability, resiliency and sustainability of the natural and living environment, built environment, natural resource development and governance of the Arctic.


Six projects have been funded as part of the Arctic Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (ArcSEES) program. The projects are located at 12 institutions, and include collaborative investigators from the United States, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom. ArcSEES grants support academic, management, indigenous and industry scientists.


"Twenty years ago, the Arctic Council emphasized the need to engage science for sustainability in the high north," said Erica Key, ArcSEES program manager in the Division of Polar Programs in NSF's Geosciences Directorate. "In that time, the Arctic environment and population has changed considerably. ArcSEES is a timely approach to understanding and mitigating the impacts of environmental change on Arctic people."


NSF's Division of Polar Programs; Geosciences Directorate and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE) contributed funding to the first round of awards, as did the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), an organization within the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.


"The participation of CNRS through this new partnership with NSF and other U.S. institutions saw the selection of a project that includes French teams, and I am happy with this result," said Jean-Francois Stephan, director of the National Institute of Earth Sciences and Astronomy at CNRS.


CNRS coordinates the new French Arctic Initiative in which international cooperation occupies a privileged place, he added.


BOEM, in partnership with NSF, will fund two studies in the Alaskan Outer Continental Shelf:


One will measure and assess the long-term cumulative impacts of increases in the oil-and-gas-industry infrastructure in the Prudhoe Bay area of Alaska, with the goal of reducing the impacts of future development in the region.

The other study will examine the vulnerability and resilience of the walrus population off Alaska's North Slope. This will enhance the Bureau's understanding of the complex interplay between climate change; walrus population dynamics and structure; health, habits, feeding ecologies; foraging locations and harvesting by Native-Alaskan subsistence hunters.
"BOEM welcomes the opportunity to partner with NSF and other world-class scientific organizations looking at Arctic sustainability," said Tommy P. Beaudreau, BOEM director.


The premise of ArcSEES is that fundamental research is needed to understand the integrated Arctic system in this era of rapid change, how sustainability is defined the context of rapid change, whether necessary data and statistical techniques are available to make the desired assessment and to understand the stability and predictability of the Arctic system state.


The program recognizes that there are gaps in the scientific understanding of the rapidly changing environmental, social, economic, built and managed systems in the Arctic as well as their complex interactions and, as result, deficiencies in the science that guides policymaking.


The suite of projects supported by the first round of grants reflects the diversity of research necessary to inform sustainability science and co-develop relevant policy, mitigation and adaptation strategies with Arctic residents.


Submissions to NSF's ArcSEES solicitation program drew the interest of more than 250 scientific collaborators from 10 countries as well as management entities from local and multi-national levels.


Established by Congress through the Arctic Research and Policy Act, the U.S. Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) consists of more than 15 agencies, departments and offices across the Federal government. NSF's director chairs IARPC.


The following grants were made in the first round of ArcSEES funding:


Collaborative Research: Water, Energy, and Food Security in the North: Synergies, tradeoffs, and building community capacity for sustainable futures (Sustainable Futures North)


Principal Investigators: Philip Loring, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Henry Huntington, Huntington Consulting, Eagle River, Alaska; Lawrence Hamilton, University of New Hampshire; Shari Gearheard, University of Colorado at Boulder


The Sustainable Futures North project addresses the question of whether synergies can be found among the related goals of food security, water security, energy security and resource development in the North American Arctic. Historically, development in one or more of these areas has presented trade-offs in others.

The North Slope Arctic Scenarios Project (NASP): Envisioning desirable futures and strategizing pathways for sustainable healthy communities


Principal Investigator: Amy Lovecraft, University of Alaska Fairbanks


This proposal for the North Slope Arctic Scenarios Project (NASP) involves multiple organizations and stakeholders in collaboration to explore options for sustainable development in the North. NASP employs proven and advanced approaches to engage North Slope communities in developing and analyzing scenarios visions for the future and plausible pathways--for effective strategic planning and implementation of policy.


WALRUS--Walrus Adaptability and Long-term Responses; Using multi-proxy data to project Sustainability


Principal Investigator: Nicole Misarti, University of Alaska Fairbanks


The Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) is one of many species affected by recent environmental change in the Arctic. This project aims to integrate several disciplines including archaeology, ethnology, biology and ecology using diverse sources of data including DNA, stable isotope, steroid and trace element analysis as well as to ascertain long-term trends of walrus feeding ecology, foraging location and stock genetics over the last two millennia. This time-frame includes large climatic anomalies such as the Medieval Warm and the Little Ice Age, thereby presenting scientists with the possibility of understanding how walruses adapt during times of stress and change. The project is jointly funded by NSF and the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Collaborative Research: Sustainabiity of critical areas for eiders and subsistence hunters in an industrializing nearshore zone


Principal Investigators: Tuula Hollmen, Alaska SeaLife Center; Henry Huntington, Huntington Consulting, Eagle River, Alaska; James Lovvorn, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Neesha Stellrecht, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service


Throughout the Arctic, indigenous people are faced with difficult choices between the cash benefits of industrialization versus potential degradation of subsistence hunting. Subsistence hunting often provides a large fraction of foods and may be more reliable in the long term than a cash economy based on nonrenewable resources. Subsistence hunting for certain species may also have cultural significance that far exceeds their dietary contribution. Researchers will model habitat requirements and map viable prey densities for formerly hunted, but now threatened species, such as Spectacled Eider and a commonly hunted species, King Eider, in the Chukchi near-shore zone and determine long-term variability in the eiders' access to those areas through the ice. They will refine the maps with traditional ecological knowledge on conditions and areas where hunting for King Eider typically occurs. They will also estimate probabilities that different eider feeding areas that are accessible through the ice and conducive to hunting would be eliminated during migration by oil spills from pipelines built along four alternative routes. They will use the information as part of structured decision-making workshops to be held in the native community. These workshops will help create a local vision for sustainability, in terms of potential risks of different pipeline routes to subsistence and cultural values of eiders, relative to cash benefits of local construction projects.

Collaborative Research: Holistic Integration for Arctic Coastal-Marine Sustainability (HIACMS)


Principal Investigators: Lawson Brigham, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Paul Arthur Berkman, University of California-Santa Barbara


This three-year research project will develop and demonstrate an international, interdisciplinatry and inclusive process to enhance the practice of governance for sustainability in Arctic coastal-marine systems, balancing: (a) national interests and common interests, (b) environmental protection, social equity and economic prosperity and (c) the needs of present and future generations. The researchers believe that the sustainability process developed and demonstrated in this project focusing on the Arctic Ocean will have implications everywhere on Earth where resources, human activities and their impacts extend across or beyond the boundaries of sovereign states. The project is jointly funded by NSF and France's National Centre for Scientific Research.

Cumulative effects of Arctic oil development--planning and designing for sustainability


Principal Investigator: Donald Walker, University of Alaska Fairbanks


This project devises a sustainable approach to assess cumulative effects of oil exploration though combining detailed ground studies, local community input, industry involvement and an international perspective. It will use a three-pronged initiative:

  • A case study of the cumulative effects of industrial infrastructure at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, will focus on infrastructure-related effects associated with gravel mines, roads and other areas of gravel placement.
  • An Arctic Infrastructure Action Group, consisting of local people who interact with development infrastructure, permafrost scientists, ecologists, hydrologists, engineers, social scientists and educators, to bring issues to greater prominence in the international Arctic research community.
  • An education/outreach component will train students in arctic systems and introduce them to the issues of industrial development and adaptive management approaches during an expedition along the Elliott and Dalton highways in Alaska.

###



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NSF, with interagency and international partners, makes first round of grants to understand Arctic sustainability


[ Back to EurekAlert! ]

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Nov-2013



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Contact: Peter West
pwest@nsf.gov
703-292-7530
National Science Foundation



Arctic science, engineering, and education for sustainability grants go to 12 institutions and include 8 nations




The National Science Foundation (NSF), in cooperation with interagency and international partners, recently made the first round of awards under a program that supports multi- and interdisciplinary science important to understanding the predictability, resiliency and sustainability of the natural and living environment, built environment, natural resource development and governance of the Arctic.


Six projects have been funded as part of the Arctic Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (ArcSEES) program. The projects are located at 12 institutions, and include collaborative investigators from the United States, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom. ArcSEES grants support academic, management, indigenous and industry scientists.


"Twenty years ago, the Arctic Council emphasized the need to engage science for sustainability in the high north," said Erica Key, ArcSEES program manager in the Division of Polar Programs in NSF's Geosciences Directorate. "In that time, the Arctic environment and population has changed considerably. ArcSEES is a timely approach to understanding and mitigating the impacts of environmental change on Arctic people."


NSF's Division of Polar Programs; Geosciences Directorate and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE) contributed funding to the first round of awards, as did the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), an organization within the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.


"The participation of CNRS through this new partnership with NSF and other U.S. institutions saw the selection of a project that includes French teams, and I am happy with this result," said Jean-Francois Stephan, director of the National Institute of Earth Sciences and Astronomy at CNRS.


CNRS coordinates the new French Arctic Initiative in which international cooperation occupies a privileged place, he added.


BOEM, in partnership with NSF, will fund two studies in the Alaskan Outer Continental Shelf:


One will measure and assess the long-term cumulative impacts of increases in the oil-and-gas-industry infrastructure in the Prudhoe Bay area of Alaska, with the goal of reducing the impacts of future development in the region.

The other study will examine the vulnerability and resilience of the walrus population off Alaska's North Slope. This will enhance the Bureau's understanding of the complex interplay between climate change; walrus population dynamics and structure; health, habits, feeding ecologies; foraging locations and harvesting by Native-Alaskan subsistence hunters.
"BOEM welcomes the opportunity to partner with NSF and other world-class scientific organizations looking at Arctic sustainability," said Tommy P. Beaudreau, BOEM director.


The premise of ArcSEES is that fundamental research is needed to understand the integrated Arctic system in this era of rapid change, how sustainability is defined the context of rapid change, whether necessary data and statistical techniques are available to make the desired assessment and to understand the stability and predictability of the Arctic system state.


The program recognizes that there are gaps in the scientific understanding of the rapidly changing environmental, social, economic, built and managed systems in the Arctic as well as their complex interactions and, as result, deficiencies in the science that guides policymaking.


The suite of projects supported by the first round of grants reflects the diversity of research necessary to inform sustainability science and co-develop relevant policy, mitigation and adaptation strategies with Arctic residents.


Submissions to NSF's ArcSEES solicitation program drew the interest of more than 250 scientific collaborators from 10 countries as well as management entities from local and multi-national levels.


Established by Congress through the Arctic Research and Policy Act, the U.S. Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) consists of more than 15 agencies, departments and offices across the Federal government. NSF's director chairs IARPC.


The following grants were made in the first round of ArcSEES funding:


Collaborative Research: Water, Energy, and Food Security in the North: Synergies, tradeoffs, and building community capacity for sustainable futures (Sustainable Futures North)


Principal Investigators: Philip Loring, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Henry Huntington, Huntington Consulting, Eagle River, Alaska; Lawrence Hamilton, University of New Hampshire; Shari Gearheard, University of Colorado at Boulder


The Sustainable Futures North project addresses the question of whether synergies can be found among the related goals of food security, water security, energy security and resource development in the North American Arctic. Historically, development in one or more of these areas has presented trade-offs in others.

The North Slope Arctic Scenarios Project (NASP): Envisioning desirable futures and strategizing pathways for sustainable healthy communities


Principal Investigator: Amy Lovecraft, University of Alaska Fairbanks


This proposal for the North Slope Arctic Scenarios Project (NASP) involves multiple organizations and stakeholders in collaboration to explore options for sustainable development in the North. NASP employs proven and advanced approaches to engage North Slope communities in developing and analyzing scenarios visions for the future and plausible pathways--for effective strategic planning and implementation of policy.


WALRUS--Walrus Adaptability and Long-term Responses; Using multi-proxy data to project Sustainability


Principal Investigator: Nicole Misarti, University of Alaska Fairbanks


The Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) is one of many species affected by recent environmental change in the Arctic. This project aims to integrate several disciplines including archaeology, ethnology, biology and ecology using diverse sources of data including DNA, stable isotope, steroid and trace element analysis as well as to ascertain long-term trends of walrus feeding ecology, foraging location and stock genetics over the last two millennia. This time-frame includes large climatic anomalies such as the Medieval Warm and the Little Ice Age, thereby presenting scientists with the possibility of understanding how walruses adapt during times of stress and change. The project is jointly funded by NSF and the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Collaborative Research: Sustainabiity of critical areas for eiders and subsistence hunters in an industrializing nearshore zone


Principal Investigators: Tuula Hollmen, Alaska SeaLife Center; Henry Huntington, Huntington Consulting, Eagle River, Alaska; James Lovvorn, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Neesha Stellrecht, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service


Throughout the Arctic, indigenous people are faced with difficult choices between the cash benefits of industrialization versus potential degradation of subsistence hunting. Subsistence hunting often provides a large fraction of foods and may be more reliable in the long term than a cash economy based on nonrenewable resources. Subsistence hunting for certain species may also have cultural significance that far exceeds their dietary contribution. Researchers will model habitat requirements and map viable prey densities for formerly hunted, but now threatened species, such as Spectacled Eider and a commonly hunted species, King Eider, in the Chukchi near-shore zone and determine long-term variability in the eiders' access to those areas through the ice. They will refine the maps with traditional ecological knowledge on conditions and areas where hunting for King Eider typically occurs. They will also estimate probabilities that different eider feeding areas that are accessible through the ice and conducive to hunting would be eliminated during migration by oil spills from pipelines built along four alternative routes. They will use the information as part of structured decision-making workshops to be held in the native community. These workshops will help create a local vision for sustainability, in terms of potential risks of different pipeline routes to subsistence and cultural values of eiders, relative to cash benefits of local construction projects.

Collaborative Research: Holistic Integration for Arctic Coastal-Marine Sustainability (HIACMS)


Principal Investigators: Lawson Brigham, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Paul Arthur Berkman, University of California-Santa Barbara


This three-year research project will develop and demonstrate an international, interdisciplinatry and inclusive process to enhance the practice of governance for sustainability in Arctic coastal-marine systems, balancing: (a) national interests and common interests, (b) environmental protection, social equity and economic prosperity and (c) the needs of present and future generations. The researchers believe that the sustainability process developed and demonstrated in this project focusing on the Arctic Ocean will have implications everywhere on Earth where resources, human activities and their impacts extend across or beyond the boundaries of sovereign states. The project is jointly funded by NSF and France's National Centre for Scientific Research.

Cumulative effects of Arctic oil development--planning and designing for sustainability


Principal Investigator: Donald Walker, University of Alaska Fairbanks


This project devises a sustainable approach to assess cumulative effects of oil exploration though combining detailed ground studies, local community input, industry involvement and an international perspective. It will use a three-pronged initiative:

  • A case study of the cumulative effects of industrial infrastructure at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, will focus on infrastructure-related effects associated with gravel mines, roads and other areas of gravel placement.
  • An Arctic Infrastructure Action Group, consisting of local people who interact with development infrastructure, permafrost scientists, ecologists, hydrologists, engineers, social scientists and educators, to bring issues to greater prominence in the international Arctic research community.
  • An education/outreach component will train students in arctic systems and introduce them to the issues of industrial development and adaptive management approaches during an expedition along the Elliott and Dalton highways in Alaska.

###



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




Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-11/nsf-nwi110713.php
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Apple promises to restore some iWork features within six months


November 07, 2013







If you've been disappointed in the lack of certain features in the newly released iWork '13, don't worry: Apple is not sticking its fingers in its ears and humming as loudly as possible.


On Wednesday, the company posted a support document listing features that would return to the productivity suite within the next six months.


[ Also on InfoWorld: The must-have iPad office apps, round 7. | What you need to know about Apple's free apps policy. | For a quick, smart take on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. ]


"In rewriting these applications, some features from iWork '09 were not available for the initial release," says Apple's support document. "We plan to reintroduce some of these features in the next few releases and will continue to add brand new features on an ongoing basis."


Many of the most common complaints from users of iWork '09 are addressed in the document, including improvements to AppleScript support for Numbers and Keynote, more presenter display options in Keynote, keyboard shortcuts for styles in Pages, and many more.


If you've been holding off upgrading to iWork '13, remember that the installers do not replace your current iWork '09 versions, so you can continue to rely upon those for any features that Apple hasn't yet integrated. As to whether subsequent upgrades will return all the missing features, it's too early to say, but it seems likely that Apple is looking to make sure that its productivity suite helps make its customers, well, productive.




Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/apple-promises-restore-some-iwork-features-within-six-months-230398?source=rss_mobile_technology
Category: eminem   time change   today show   Nothing Was The Same   boardwalk empire  

New SD card format is speedy enough for 4K video

Outside of a few smartphones, 4K video capture has largely been limited to pro-level hardware; the SD cards in regular cameras frequently can't handle so many pixels at once. That won't be a problem in the near future, as the SD Association has just unveiled an Ultra High Speed Class 3 (U3) card ...


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/FQ9qGceDTk4/
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