The behavior of Earth's core and the core's ingredients besides iron are major geological mysteries. Scientists can't exactly go take a sample. Yet understanding the core's exact makeup and conditions is a big deal for those who are trying to understand how our planet's complicated geophysical systems work together.
Not only is it likely the Earth's largely iron core plays a role in the movements of continents over millions of years, it plays a major role in preserving life here: The roiling iron heart of our planet helps maintain the Earth's magnetic field, which helps shield life on the surface from damaging solar energy. In addition, it holds valuable clues about how the planet formed.
"Pinpointing the properties of iron is the gold standard ? or, I guess, 'iron standard ' ? for how the core behaves," Jennifer Jackson, assistant professor of mineral physics at Caltech, said in a statement. "That is where most discussions about the deep interior of the Earth begin. The temperature distribution, the formation of the planet ? it all goes back to the core."
So how to study this inaccessible region lying roughly 1,860 miles below the planet's surface? Scientists at Caltech have used laboratory setups to put iron through the rigorous, high-pressure conditions inside the Earth to better understand its behavior there.
The researchers essentially sandwiched iron between small diamonds and squeezed until the pressure was 1.7 million times what we experience on the planet's surface. Then they put the compressed samples through tests to see how sound waves traveled through them, and compared the results with observations of how energy ?waves produced by earthquakes travel through the planet.
The work helped shed light on iron's density and behavior in such high-pressure conditions, and helped the team get a better idea of iron's melting point at the boundary between the Earth's liquid outer core and solid inner core : around 5,800 degrees Kelvin, or nearly 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Jackson said the new data will help narrow down which light elements are inside the core and help fuel convection there ? the process that helps maintain Earth's magnetic field.
Recent research at Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory indicated oxygen may not be one of the core's ingredients, but the Caltech study authors suggest that is still a possibility.
"There are a few candidate light elements for the core that everyone is always talking about ? sulfur, silicon, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, for instance," Caitlin Murphy, co-author on the study, said in a statement. "Silicon and oxygen are a few of the more popular, but they have not been studied in this great of detail yet. So that's where we will begin to expand our study."
The study appears in the Dec. 20 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.
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Gone are the days when the monsoon season signalled the commencement of the wedding march in Bollywood.
These days its raining marriages year round in tinseltown and celebrities are making no bones about hiding their romantic liaisons or their nuptials as the clock ticks over to start a new year for the Indian film industry, complete with rock solid bookings for the neighbourhood wedding bands.
The upcoming 2012 will see many a heart breaking as some of Bollywood?s most eligible bachelors tie the knot, while many young hopefuls from the fairer sex will keep their fingers crossed that the wedding vows will cut down the market share of established actresses and make way for fresh graduates to shine in the spotlight.
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Still wondering which Mr and Mrs pair is making the cut next season? Emirates 24|7 gives you the lowdown.
Saif Ali Khan-Kareena Kapoor
The world knows them as ?Saifeena? but the celebrity couple that set tongues wagging when they declared their love suddenly in 2007 ? for Kareena mere weeks after her break-up with long-term beau and actor Shahid Kapoor ? news of their impending marriage have been surfacing at intervals like clockwork.
Naturally, everyone expected the chemistry to fizzle rather than sizzle, but when Saif entered the arena sporting a ?Kareena? tattoo down his arm, the world and cynics had to sit up and take notice.
However, news of the Saif-Kareena nuptial finally took steam earlier this year when the hero in the relationship announced to news media in a rare show of confession that March 2012 was set, following the released of the duo?s upcoming film, ?Agent Vinod?.
Unfortunately, Saif?s personal life took a turn when his father, Nawab Mansur Ali Khan Patuadi passed away suddenly in 2011 and news filtered that the marriage has been postponed.
But all is not lost it seems. December was the month to let the cat out of the bag, when Saif and Kareena?s celebrity sisters, Soha Ali Khan and Karisma Kapoor, respectively, confirmed that it would indeed happen in 2012.
?As far as I know, no date has been finalised yet for the marriage, but it will happen after the release of ?Agent Vinod?. We all will let you know about the same as we all want the whole world... everyone to enjoy the moment,? Karisma told reporters at an event.
Listen up Manish Malhotra; it?s surely time to start designing the bridal trousseau we reckon.
? Riteish Deshmukh-Genelia D?souza
Albeit the excitement surrounding this celebrity couple is a notch or five lesser than that of Saifeena, but the fact still remains that Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D?souza are very much in love and are set to tie the knot in February 2012.
In fact, the duo that met during their debut film, ?Tujhe Meri Kasam? in 2003 will have a four-day wedding affair, which starts off on February 3 with the henna function, followed by a sangeet or musical night on 4th. The wedding and the reception will be held on the 5th and 6th, respectively.
According to insiders, two five-stars have been booked in the Mumbai suburbs, with the who?s who of tinseltown and the politics expected to attend. Before you wonder, Riteish is the son of politico, Vilasrao Deshmukh.
An eight-year affair in Bollywood is a big thing and the happy couple are ready to take their next step in life. Sometimes, fairytales do come true.
Vidya Balan-Siddharth Roy Kapur
One?s a thinking man?s actress while the other is the head honcho of India?s biggest film production house. Here?s a match that is certainly to look out for in 2012.
Vidya Balan, who is currently riding on the success of her latest, ?The Dirty Picture? met UTV CEO, Siddharth Roy Kapur on the sets of ?No One Killed Jessica? and romance soon blossomed.
The couple have attempted to keep their canoodling under wraps, but a few cosy pictures from the beaches of Goa and public appearances at events have told their own story.
Stories had also emerged earlier this year that the couple had secretly tied the knot, but Balan rubbished these claims, allegedly adding: ?I like Siddharth and would love to get married to him in future.?
Sources close to the couple say wedding bells could chime for them as close as June. Here?s waiting for the good news.
John Abraham-Priya Runchal
?I would love to get married some day,? were the words hunky John Abraham uttered to Emirates 24|7 last month itself.
Fresh off his split with long-time girlfriend Bipasha Basu and painting the town read with investment banker, Priya Runchal, news is that the duo look set to get engaged as early as April 2012, with marriage by December.
Naturally, the actor did not spill all but did tell us in an exclusive chat that he wants to get hitched soon.
?There was a time when I was very frank and open about my relationship, but now I guard my private space like Fort Knox,? he said, adding: ?But I will admit that I am at a stage in my life where I do see myself settling down to become the ideal husband; that is my goal.?
His folks are happy of course.
?My mother, of course, would be thrilled at such a prospect, but I haven?t firmed any plans. That?s just media generating stories to create news,? came the somewhat bitter response from the 38-year-old actor who has seen his personal life written about extensively over his eight years with Basu.
During this phase, the couple were said to have split innumerable times, what with Basu linked with Real Madrid football star Cristiano Ronaldo at one point, while Abraham linked with likes of actress, Vidya Balan.
But post split with Bips, Abraham has come under a lot of fire from the media and the actor is looking to mend his bad boy image. A marriage might seem a tad extreme, but who are we to comment on true love.
Soha Ali Khan-Kunal Khemu
A royal affair is on the cards for the Pataudi clan in 2012. While big brother Saif Ali Khan is expected to get hitched in March 2012, it seems sister Soha isn?t far behind.
The actress is also set to marry next year according to reports, with long-time beau and small-time actor, Kunal Khemu.
The couple have been making a lot of public appearances of late, with Khemu even confirming to the media that they are indeed talking marriage.
However, it was a tad surprising that his presence wasn?t felt at the Nawab of Pataudi?s funeral in September this year, considering he would at least come to pay his last respects to Soha?s father.
But the family has apparently given their approval so maybe we can expect a joint celebration next year.
Dia Mirza-Sahil Sangha
Before you go Sahil who, the former beauty queen and actress Dia Mirza has been dating the director of her latest film, ?Love Breakup Zindagi?, for nearly three years now.
Naturally, a wedding had to follow if a breakup didn?t.
The actress has also confirmed wedding bells are to follow in 2012, when in a chat with Times of India, she said: ?Sahil and I are in a very committed relationship. We?ve been dating over for three years now.?
She added, "My dad?s theory is going to kick in; he said the only way you can know if you can spend the rest of your life with a man is if you?ve survived three years with him.
?In the first year, he?s at his best behaviour. In the second year, his true shades start coming out, and if you?ve survived the third year, you know you can go the distance.?
Now that the deadline is done with, next year is their finish line. Here?s wishing them luck.
Neetu Chandra-Randeep Hooda
Do we care, is the question to ask. But we shall attempt to conceal our claws and talk about the other 2012 marriage, one between a certain Neetu Chandra and former Sushmita Sen beau, Randeep Hooda.
While media hasn?t really bothered the duo (who would read it anyways), but the rumour mill is churning that the two small-time actors are said to be hitched next year, albeit neither wants to comment on it.
In fact, Hooda told Times of India earlier this year that his relationship is nobody?s business.
?Whatever there is, is between us and is nobody?s business,? when quizzed on Neetu, adding: ?Marriage is not on the cards now as I don?t feel settled in my life and career. I?m not ready for the responsibility and commitment that comes with marriage.?
Looks like all that is about to change now.
Rani Mukherji-Aditya Chopra
If this wedding goes through as planned, Bollywood?s biggest open secret will finally reach its grand finale: the nuptials of Rani Mukherji and Aditya Kapoor.
The award-winning actress and the Yash Raj Films? head honcho have been the topic of gossip fodder for years now, with Rani even being branded as the ?other woman? in breaking up Aditya?s first marriage to Payal Khanna.
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His celebrity dad, Yash Chopra and wife Pamela are apparently against the marriage but when its love at stake, who can argue.
Rani has already gone on record that she has promised her father that she will marry in 2012, while the actress was even caught on camera celebrating Diwali at the Chopra home with Aditya in tow.
Seems like the cat is out of the bag now. Let?s just get this marriage on track now guys and dispense with the drama.
Protesters gesture during a demonstration demanding the prosecution of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
Protesters gesture during a demonstration demanding the prosecution of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
Protesters chant slogans during a demonstration demanding the prosecution of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? Labor strikes spread through Yemen Wednesday as workers demanded reforms and dismissal of managers over alleged corruption linked to the country's outgoing president.
Corruption was one of the grievances that ignited mass protests against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in February. After months of stalling, Saleh last month signed an agreement to transfer power.
The deal includes immunity for prosecution for the longtime leader, but protesters reject that. They are also demanding that his relatives and associates, also suspected of corruption, be removed from their posts in the government and military and put on trial.
The strikes are following a pattern. Workers lock the gates to an institution, and then they storm the offices of their supervisors, demanding their replacement with bosses who are not tainted with corruption allegations. So far the scenario has played out in 18 state agencies.
"This is the real revolution, the institutions revolution," said Mohammed Gabaal, an 40-year-old accountant who is on strike. "The president has appointed a ring of corrupt people all over government agencies."
The case of the Military Economic Institution stands out. Hundreds of workers demonstrated in front of the building on Wednesday.
The key agency hauls in significant revenues from naval transport and other investments, but its budget is kept secret. Striking workers are demanding dismissal of the agency manager, Hafez Mayad, who is from Saleh's tribe and is seen as one of the regime's most powerful and corrupt figures.
Opponents of the Saleh regime charge that armed civilians who attacked protesters in the capital of Sanaa got their funds from Mayad.
Other strikes are under way at the state TV, Sanaa police headquarters and another institution affiliated with the military.
The wave of strikes began last week when employees of the national airline, Yemenia Airways, walked off their jobs demanding dismissal of the director, Saleh's son-in-law, charging him with plundering the company's assets and driving it into bankruptcy. The government gave in to the demands.
Months of political turmoil in Yemen, pitting tribes and army units against each other during mass demonstrations as Saleh fought to stay in power, have given the dangerous al-Qaida branch in Yemen more freedom of action. The Islamist militants have taken over territory in Yemen's south, including several towns.
A military official said three soldiers and three militants from Ansar al-Sharia group, which is suspected of links to al-Qaida in Yemen, were killed in clashes Wednesday in the provincial capital of Abyan, Zinjibar. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
Thousands Of Volunteers Begin The Magical Process Of Transforming Giant Foam And Steel Structures Into Magnificent Masterpieces At America?s Winningest Float Builder
--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fiesta Parade Floats:
DECEMBER 27 - JANUARY 1, 2012 OPEN FOR MEDIA, DAILY 4:30 AM ? 11:30 PM
WHAT?
America?s Most Dominant Float Builder and designer go for a 19th straight Sweepstakes Trophy (the parade?s top prize), with a line-up that includes: Macy?s, Republic of Indonesia?s Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy, Paramount Pictures, Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance? Pet Foods, Discover Card, Dole Foods, City of Torrance, Kit-Kat Clocks, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles and Kaiser Permanente.
Carnival?Like Atmosphere: Hundreds of excited kids, families and volunteers gather at Decorators? Village and begin the arduous process of affixing thousands of flowers and floral arrangements to this year?s Rose Parade floats - a task that requires over 10,000 cumulative hours for completion.
WHY BE THERE?
It?s Where the Winners Live: Simply put, Fiesta Parade Floats has a prize winning rate of over 65% for the last 22 years, the highest prize winning rate in the Rose Parade industry, and has built the last 18 Sweepstakes Trophy Winning Floats.
GREAT PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES: Decorators? Village is the best place to get an up-close look at the Rose Parade preparation, as it is always buzzing with excitement all day and night.
Inside Look: Bring your audience a behind the scenes look at the hard work ? and fun ? that goes into getting the floats ready for the 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade.
Secrets Of The Fab 3: Meet world-renowned float designer Raul Rodriguez, floral director Jim Hynd and float builder Tim Estes as they reveal their secrets for creating the ?magic? that has yielded 18 consecutive Sweepstakes Trophies.
Action: An opportunity for your favorite ?on the scene? reporter to get their hands dirty and learn the finer points of Rose Parade float decorating with a line-up that includes a little bit of everything from children?s dreams to high-flying Girl Scouts and surfing dogs to movie magic, timeless fun, environmental action, the Royal Court and more, Fiesta?s 2012 line-up of float entries features a little bit of everything.
Fiesta Parade Floats 16016 Avenida Padilla, Irwindale, California
Japan and India are in the final stages of deciding on a dollar swap agreement and expect to reach agreement during Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's visit to India this week, Japan's finance minister said on Tuesday.
An earlier $3 billion arrangement came into force in 2008 but expired in June. The Nikkei business newspaper reported on Sunday that the new one would be set at $10 billion.
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Further financial cooperation as well as Japanese support for infrastructure in India will be a key focus at talks between the leaders of the two countries, Finance Minister Jun Azumi told a news conference.
Azumi also said he expects Japan's exports will pick up early next year if the European economy stabilizes and currency levels reflect Japan's economic fundamentals.
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Teen superstar Justin Bieber treated a childhood pal to an extra special Christmas present on Sunday – a convertible Ford Mustang sports car. The Baby hitmaker surprised Ryan Butler by presenting him with the keys to the two-door vehicle and the singer’s best friend immediately posted a photo of the lavish gift on his Twitter.com [...]
Twitter / Mike Millikin: MHI delivers large-capacit ...MHI delivers large-capacity Li-ion energy storage system for advanced microgrid study and verification testing at Sh... Il y a environ 5 heuresvia TypePad
MacMall Deal of the Day: Save 20% on Apple 15.4? MacBook Pro (MC723LL/A)
Deal of the Day ? 12/24
When it comes to high performance laptops with ultimate and stylish looks, nothing can compare the charisma of Apple?s MacBook Pro series. And, if you are planning to buy a MacBook and scrolling through the web for some discounts, then this hand-picked Deal of the Day from MacMall.com can be of great help to you! For a limited time only, this Apple Superstore is offering $2,199 valued 15.4? MacBook Pro (MC723LL/A) at 20% off price. That means you?ll be saving $449 ($399 instantly + $50 via mail-in rebate) and getting this Apple laptop for $1,749.99. No code required. Just go through MacMall MacBook Pro coupon available at CouponAlbum.com to fetch this deal with savings. The offer ends 12/31, so hurry!
Light enough to carry easily everywhere and strong enough to handle most-demanding computing tasks, Apple MacBook Pro is machined from a single piece of aluminum. Its entire enclosure is thinner and lighter than other notebooks available in the market. State-of-the-art processor, all-new graphics, and breakthrough high-speed make it a ?Must-Buy? for those who never compromise.
Check out what comes packed in this super-stylish and highly coveted laptop for $1,749.99.
15.4? TFT LED backlight Display with Integrated FaceTime HD Camera
4GB DDR3 SDRAM and 750GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (5400rpm)
AMD Radeon HD 6750M / Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 1 GB GDDR5 SDRAM Video Memory
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR
DVD?RW (?R DL) SuperDrive
Multi-touch touchpad
85 Wh Lithium polymer Battery
Thunderbolt port, Gigbit Ethernet, SDXC card slot, MagSafe power, USB, audio in/out ? all are smartly integrated on same side of the laptop. This makes connecting and disconnecting devices easy and convenient, and the cables also stay neatly organized. With so many amazing features and availability at reduced price, this deal is surely not to be missed. So just get obsessed with this Apple machine by placing your orders now!
Do check out CouponAlbum.com for more laptop coupons and MacMall deals.
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I was introduced to Shep, as his fans called him, by my weird uncle Dave. Dave, who was a bit of a hipster, used to crash on our sofa when he was between jobs. Being a bookish and somewhat imperious 12-year-old, already desperately weary of life in suburban New Jersey and appalled by Hoss and Little Joe and Mitch Miller and the heinous Bachelor Father, I figured Dave was my man. One night, after ruthlessly beating me at rummy, he put down the cards and said, "Now we're gonna listen to Shepherd?this guy's great." The Zenith table model in the kitchen came to life midway through Shepherd's theme music, a kitschy, galloping Eduard Strauss piece called the "Bahn Frei" polka. And then there was that voice, cozy, yet abounding with jest.
Entercom Communications (NYSE: ETM) announced today that its wholly owned finance subsidiary Entercom Radio, LLC (?Entercom Radio?) has commenced an exchange offer for its outstanding unregistered 10?% Senior Notes due 2019, Series A. These notes were originally issued on November 23, 2011, in a private placement exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, in an aggregate principal amount of $220 million. Holders of these notes may exchange them for an equal principal amount of a new issue of 10?% Senior Notes due 2019, Series B, pursuant to an effective registration statement on Form S-4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Terms of the new notes are substantially identical to those of the original notes, except that the transfer restrictions and registration rights relating to the original notes do not apply to the new notes.
The exchange offer will expire one minute after 11:59 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, on January 25, 2012, unless extended. Tenders of the original notes must be made before the exchange offer expires and may be withdrawn at any time before the exchange offer expires.
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(c) 2011 Benzinga.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published in its entirety or redistributed without the approval of Benzinga.
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, center, is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, after a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case went on recess for the day. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, center, is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, after a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case went on recess for the day. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, center, is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, after a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case went on recess for the day. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, left, is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, after a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case went on recess for the day. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
In this courtroom sketch, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, left, watches as his attorney, David Coombs, center, questions Sgt. Daniel Padgett, who served in the same unit with Manning, in Fort Meade, Md., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011. A military hearing that will determine if Manning should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case is expected to wrap up Thursday. (AP Photo/William Hennessy) NO TV, NO ARCHIVE, NO SALES, LOCALS OUT
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, center, is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, for a military hearing that will determine if he should face court-martial for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks classified leaks case. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
FORT MEADE, Maryland (AP) ? Lawyers for the Army intelligence analyst blamed for the biggest national security leak in American history rested their case Wednesday, with closing arguments ahead before Pfc. Bradley Manning learns whether he will face a court-martial.
The 24-year-old is accused of illegally downloading hundreds of thousands of U.S. war and diplomatic cables and a classified military video of an American helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 11 men and sending the data to the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website. The government says the breach rattled U.S. foreign relations and imperiled military and diplomatic sources.
The government wants Manning court-martialed on charges including aiding the enemy. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Closing arguments come Thursday.
Manning's defense Wednesday rested its case after calling only two witnesses: a sergeant who witnessed one of Manning's fits of rage in Baghdad and a captain whom the private served under in Iraq.
Manning was part of a three-soldier crew working the night shift in a restricted area with computers connected to the military's supposedly secure network for sharing classified information. But witnesses said soldiers routinely accessed music, movies and computer games as well.
"I remember thinking that was something we shouldn't be so liberal about," said Capt. Barclay Keay, who was in charge of a night shift Manning worked for a few weeks in late 2009.
Manning allegedly downloaded hundreds of thousands of State Department diplomatic cables onto a rewritable CD labeled "Lady Gaga," while lip-synching to her song, "Telephone."
Defense lawyers painted Manning as a troubled young man who shouldn't have had access to classified material.
Keay's impression of Manning was of a good soldier who "did good analytical work."
But Sgt. Daniel Padgett, another of Manning's supervisors, recalled an incident when he sat down with Manning for a "counseling session" after the soldier was late for work.
"His demeanor changed," Padgett testified. He said Manning stood up and overturned a table, spilling a radio and computer onto the floor. Padgett said he moved Manning away from a gun rack while someone else restrained him until he calmed down. Padgett said he didn't remember reporting the incident to his supervisors.
Prosecution witnesses said Manning was well trained in rules prohibiting release of classified information. Forensic computer experts testified that they had retraced his keyboard strokes as he downloaded secret State Department diplomatic cables and raw battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Adrian Lamo, a convicted hacker, said Manning confided to him in May 2010 that he was the leaker. Lamo informed authorities.
After closing arguments, presiding officer Lt. Col. Paul Almanza will give his opinion of whether Manning should be court-martialed. Then, a senior military officer will make the final decision. The process could take several weeks.
Manning remained outwardly composed as witness after witness talked about his emotional problems, his homosexuality and his violent outbursts while still in the United States and during his tour of duty in Iraq from late 2009 to mid-2010.
Attorneys representing WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange observed the hearing, as did an Amnesty International representative.
The debate over the extent to which the U.S. government is committing itself to spending vast sums of taxpayer dollars on nuclear weapons and related programs over the next decade is in full force in Congress, inside the administration, and in the media.
An open, transparent debate is essential to ensuring that citizens and policymakers alike have the right information in their hands when deciding about our country?s future spending on both these weapons and their related programs. It?s understandable that there will be differences of opinion throughout this debate ? one that?s been made more difficult due to a lack of transparency about what our government actually spends on nuclear weapons and related programs.
It is because of this lack of clear information that Ploughshares Fund is providing its third working paper estimate on what it will cost Americans to produce, build, maintain, and clean-up nuclear weapons and related programs over the next decade. To our knowledge, this estimate is the only current comprehensive assessment that projects these costs for the next decade. It is based upon the best publicly available information.
Our conclusion continues to be that current plans for nuclear weapons and related programs over the next decade will cost the American taxpayer approximately $700 billion.
The state of the debate over these estimates
There is significant consensus between this estimate and others being discussed both on Capitol Hill and in the media. Specifically, there is a common view that the taxpayer will spend a combined $358 billion on nuclear incident management, nuclear threat reduction, missile defense, deferred environmental and health costs, and nuclear weapons activities.
These programs are included in our projection because, as the Congressional Budget Office has noted, they are part of the full cost accounting of nuclear weapons and therefore ??might reasonably be attributed? to nuclear force expenditures.
The debate on nuclear weapons spending has thus largely centered around the Department of Defense's estimate that it will spend $125 billion on nuclear forces over the next decade. A variety of experts have weighed in on this question. Our review of this commentary, the literature, and the actual budget submissions provided by the Pentagon have led us to conclude that the number will be significantly higher than official government estimates have indicated. Specifically, we estimate that spending for Major Force Program 1 and for overhead and support costs related to the nuclear forces, in addition to projected costs for the new submarine and bomber, will bring the estimated cost to the American taxpayer up from $125 billion to $287 billion.
Additionally, there are major expected additional costs for programs that are planned but not yet included in the government?s future budget projections. These programs, such as the procurement and deployment of missile defense systems in Europe and potential cost overruns at the Department of Energy and Department of Defense, could account for tens of billions of dollars of additional expenses.
Regardless of which estimate for nuclear forces one accepts, a full-cost accounting demands that the cost of nuclear weapons and their related programs be combined. This means that the generally accepted conservative parameters of the debate should be that the taxpayer will be spending, at a minimum,?somewhere between $500 billion to $700 billion over the next decade on weapons systems geared towards the Cold War.
Bringing it all together
Having a debate over the numbers creates an opportunity to ask important questions about our country?s national security and fiscal policy.
For example, what does it really cost to protect Americans from terrorism, cyber attack, and nuclear threats from states such as North Korea and Pakistan? Should it cost that same amount as if the Cold War had never ended? Are there better places to invest these limited defense dollars? And in a time of soaring national debts, should we be asking the Chinese to lend us more money for outdated weapons?
Ultimately, this estimate provides both the public and American policymakers with an additional tool to debate the type of future they want for their country. We look forward to exploring these strategic security and financial questions in the days ahead as this issue makes its way into the public eye.
This piece was originally posted on the Ploughshares Fund's blog.
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MANILA, Philippines ? Flash floods triggered by a tropical storm have killed nearly 60 people in the southern Philippines, with many more missing across vast regions, officials said Saturday.
Lemuel Gunda, head of a rescue team in Cagayan de Oro city, told The Associated Press that at least 40 bodies were recovered there.
Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said that at least 15 people were killed in his city alone and that many more were missing.
Those missing included a radio broadcaster who was swept away while trying to save his neighbors, Cruz said.
The chief of the national disaster rescue agency, Benito Ramos, said that officials were still getting reports from the field and that casualties would likely rise.
The floods were triggered by Tropical Storm Washi, which dumped heavy rains over the southern Mindanao region overnight.
Ramos said the dead included at least nine people in a single village in Lanao del Norte province, with floodwaters surging in the middle of the night and quickly reaching rooftops, trapping many residents and causing them to drown.
"Massive flooding had been reported over the region, especially in Iligan city and Cagayan de Oro city," Ramos said, adding that tens of thousands of people sought shelter on high ground.
Back-to-back typhoons in September left more than 100 people dead in the northern Philippines.
The Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee raises funds to build self-sustaining villages complete with schools and water-treatment facilities in Haiti.
? A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
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On the west coast of Haiti, about 60 miles northwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince, retired businessman Ben Scott has helped deliver what he calls a ?new lease on life.?
Mr. Scott helped to raise $600,000 to build the Boca Grande Friendship Village, a self-sustaining village that includes about 60 homes, a village school, a water-treatment facility, and a five-room vocational school. It also boasts 750 newly planted fruit trees, a community garden, a chicken house, and a cattle farm.
Food for the Poor, based in Florida, coordinated the construction. Scott serves as chairman of Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee, which raised the funds. The committee?s next project, Scott says, will be a village for 40 Haitian families now barely surviving on seasonal agriculture in Michaud, not far from Port-au-Prince.?
UCSF-led team discovers cause of rare disease Public release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi jason.bardi@ucsf.edu 415-502-6397 University of California - San Francisco
Childhood disorder called PKD linked to genetic mutations
A large, international team of researchers led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco has identified the gene that causes a rare childhood neurological disorder called PKD/IC, or "paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia with infantile convulsions," a cause of epilepsy in babies and movement disorders in older children.
The study involved clinics in cities as far flung as Tokyo, New York, London and Istanbul and may improve the ability of doctors to diagnose PKD/IC, and it may shed light on other movement disorders, like Parkinson's disease.
The culprit behind the disease turns out to be a mysterious gene found in the brain called PRRT2. Nobody knows what this gene does, and it bears little resemblance to anything else in the human genome.
"This is both exciting and a little bit scary," said Louis Ptacek, MD, who led the research. Ptacek is the John C. Coleman Distinguished Professor of Neurology at UCSF and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Discovering the gene that causes PKD/IC will help researchers understand how the disease works. It gives doctors a potential new way of definitively diagnosing the disease by looking for genetic mutations in the gene. The work may also shed light on other conditions that are characterized by movement disorders, including possibly Parkinson's disease.
"Understanding the underlying biology of this disease is absolutely going to help us understand movement disorders in general," Ptacek said.
About the Disease
PKD/IC strikes infants with epileptic seizures that generally disappear within a year or two. However, the disease often reemerges later in childhood as a movement disorder in which children suffer sudden, startling, involuntary jerks when they start to move. Even thinking about moving is enough to cause some of these children to jerk involuntarily.
The disease is rare, and Ptacek estimates strikes about one out of every 100,000 people in the United States. At the same time, the disease is classified as "idiopathic"which is just another way of saying we don't really understand it, Ptacek said.
If you take an image of the brain by MRI, patients with the disease all look completely normal. There are no injuries, tumors or other obvious signs that account for the movementsas is often the case with movement disorders. Work with patients in the clinic had suggested a genetic cause, however.
"Sometimes we trace the family tree, and lo and behold, there is a history of it," said Ptacek. In the last several years, he and his colleagues have developed a large cohort of patients whose families have a history of the disease.
The new research was based on a cohort of 103 such families that included one or more members with the disease. Genetic testing of these families led to the researchers to mutations in the PRRT2 gene, which cause the proteins the gene encodes to shorten or disappear entirely in the brain and spinal cord, where they normally reside.
One possible explanation for the resulting neurological symptoms, the researchers found, relates to a loss of neuronal regulation. When the genetic mutations cause the gene products to go missing, the nerve cells where they normally appear may become overly excited, firing too frequently or strongly and leading to the involuntary movements.
###
The article, "Mutations in the Gene PRRT2 Cause Paroxysmal Kinesigenic Dyskinesia with Infantile Convulsions" by Hsien-Yang Lee, Yong Huang, Nadine Bruneau, Patrice Roll, Elisha D.O. Roberson, Mark Hermann, Emily Quinn, James Maas, Robert Edwards, Tetsuo Ashizawa, Betul Baykan, Kailash Bhatia, Susan Bressman, Michiko K. Bruno, Ewout R. Brunt, Roberto Caraballo, Bernard Echenne, Natalio Fejerman, Steve Frucht, Christina A. Gurnett, Edouard Hirsch, Henry Houlden, Joseph Jankovic, Wei-Ling Lee, David R. Lynch, Shehla Mohammed, Ulrich Meuller, Mark P. Nespeca, David Renner, Jacques Rochette, Gabrielle Rudolf, Shinji Saiki, Bing-Wen Soong, Kathryn J. Swoboda, Sam Tucker, Nicholas Wood, Michael Hanna, Anne M. Bowcock, Pierre Szepetowski, Ying-Hui Fu and Louis J. Ptacek appears in the January 26, 2012 issue of Cell Reports. The article can be accessed online at: http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247%2811%2900006-4
In addition to UCSF, authors on this study are affiliated with the Universit de la Mditerrane in Marseille, France; Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, MO; the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL; Istanbul University in Turkey; University College London; Beth Israel Medical Center in New York; the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, HI; the University of Groningen in the Netherlands; Juan P. Garrahan Pediatric Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Hpital Gui de Chauliac in Montpellier, France; Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York; Hpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg in France; Baylor College of Medicine in Houston; the National Neuroscience Institute in Singapore; Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Guy's Hospital in London; Justus-Liebig-Universitt in Giessen, Germany; Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego; the university of California, San Diego; the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; the Universit de Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens, France; Kanazawa Medical University in Ishikawa, Japan; the National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine in Taipei, Taiwan; Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan; the International Paroxysmal Kinesigenic Dyskinesia/Infantile Convulsions Collaborative Working Group; and the Juntendo University School of Medicine in Tokyo.
This work was funded by the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia Parkinson Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Sandler Neurogenetics Fund, ANR, INSERM and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.
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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.
UCSF-led team discovers cause of rare disease Public release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi jason.bardi@ucsf.edu 415-502-6397 University of California - San Francisco
Childhood disorder called PKD linked to genetic mutations
A large, international team of researchers led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco has identified the gene that causes a rare childhood neurological disorder called PKD/IC, or "paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia with infantile convulsions," a cause of epilepsy in babies and movement disorders in older children.
The study involved clinics in cities as far flung as Tokyo, New York, London and Istanbul and may improve the ability of doctors to diagnose PKD/IC, and it may shed light on other movement disorders, like Parkinson's disease.
The culprit behind the disease turns out to be a mysterious gene found in the brain called PRRT2. Nobody knows what this gene does, and it bears little resemblance to anything else in the human genome.
"This is both exciting and a little bit scary," said Louis Ptacek, MD, who led the research. Ptacek is the John C. Coleman Distinguished Professor of Neurology at UCSF and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Discovering the gene that causes PKD/IC will help researchers understand how the disease works. It gives doctors a potential new way of definitively diagnosing the disease by looking for genetic mutations in the gene. The work may also shed light on other conditions that are characterized by movement disorders, including possibly Parkinson's disease.
"Understanding the underlying biology of this disease is absolutely going to help us understand movement disorders in general," Ptacek said.
About the Disease
PKD/IC strikes infants with epileptic seizures that generally disappear within a year or two. However, the disease often reemerges later in childhood as a movement disorder in which children suffer sudden, startling, involuntary jerks when they start to move. Even thinking about moving is enough to cause some of these children to jerk involuntarily.
The disease is rare, and Ptacek estimates strikes about one out of every 100,000 people in the United States. At the same time, the disease is classified as "idiopathic"which is just another way of saying we don't really understand it, Ptacek said.
If you take an image of the brain by MRI, patients with the disease all look completely normal. There are no injuries, tumors or other obvious signs that account for the movementsas is often the case with movement disorders. Work with patients in the clinic had suggested a genetic cause, however.
"Sometimes we trace the family tree, and lo and behold, there is a history of it," said Ptacek. In the last several years, he and his colleagues have developed a large cohort of patients whose families have a history of the disease.
The new research was based on a cohort of 103 such families that included one or more members with the disease. Genetic testing of these families led to the researchers to mutations in the PRRT2 gene, which cause the proteins the gene encodes to shorten or disappear entirely in the brain and spinal cord, where they normally reside.
One possible explanation for the resulting neurological symptoms, the researchers found, relates to a loss of neuronal regulation. When the genetic mutations cause the gene products to go missing, the nerve cells where they normally appear may become overly excited, firing too frequently or strongly and leading to the involuntary movements.
###
The article, "Mutations in the Gene PRRT2 Cause Paroxysmal Kinesigenic Dyskinesia with Infantile Convulsions" by Hsien-Yang Lee, Yong Huang, Nadine Bruneau, Patrice Roll, Elisha D.O. Roberson, Mark Hermann, Emily Quinn, James Maas, Robert Edwards, Tetsuo Ashizawa, Betul Baykan, Kailash Bhatia, Susan Bressman, Michiko K. Bruno, Ewout R. Brunt, Roberto Caraballo, Bernard Echenne, Natalio Fejerman, Steve Frucht, Christina A. Gurnett, Edouard Hirsch, Henry Houlden, Joseph Jankovic, Wei-Ling Lee, David R. Lynch, Shehla Mohammed, Ulrich Meuller, Mark P. Nespeca, David Renner, Jacques Rochette, Gabrielle Rudolf, Shinji Saiki, Bing-Wen Soong, Kathryn J. Swoboda, Sam Tucker, Nicholas Wood, Michael Hanna, Anne M. Bowcock, Pierre Szepetowski, Ying-Hui Fu and Louis J. Ptacek appears in the January 26, 2012 issue of Cell Reports. The article can be accessed online at: http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247%2811%2900006-4
In addition to UCSF, authors on this study are affiliated with the Universit de la Mditerrane in Marseille, France; Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, MO; the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL; Istanbul University in Turkey; University College London; Beth Israel Medical Center in New York; the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, HI; the University of Groningen in the Netherlands; Juan P. Garrahan Pediatric Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Hpital Gui de Chauliac in Montpellier, France; Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York; Hpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg in France; Baylor College of Medicine in Houston; the National Neuroscience Institute in Singapore; Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Guy's Hospital in London; Justus-Liebig-Universitt in Giessen, Germany; Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego; the university of California, San Diego; the University of Utah in Salt Lake City; the Universit de Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens, France; Kanazawa Medical University in Ishikawa, Japan; the National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine in Taipei, Taiwan; Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan; the International Paroxysmal Kinesigenic Dyskinesia/Infantile Convulsions Collaborative Working Group; and the Juntendo University School of Medicine in Tokyo.
This work was funded by the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia Parkinson Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Sandler Neurogenetics Fund, ANR, INSERM and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Congress would allow American economic aid to the Palestinians to continue next year so long as Palestine is not admitted as a state to any more United Nations organizations, under a proposal released on Thursday.
The measure pending before lawmakers would appear to give the Palestinians a pass on the U.N. organization they have already joined -- the United Nations Educational, Scientific and cultural Organization (UNESCO).
It also says that the Palestinian mission in Washington can remain open so long as Palestine is not admitted to a single additional United Nations entity.
The proposed spending plan was released by congressional Republicans, who say it was agreed between Republican and Democratic appropriators as a spending plan for fiscal 2012. Their agreement has until now been kept secret.
It was unclear how soon a vote would be held, or whether details of the plan would change. Republicans are pushing for a vote as soon as possible.
The plan does not specify any particular amount of aid for the Palestinians for fiscal 2012, apparently leaving it to the Obama administration to set the level in consultation with Congress.
"The bottom line is that U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority can continue, which is good news," said Dylan Williams, director of government affairs at J Street, a liberal advocacy group in Washington that says a two-state solution is essential to Israel's survival.
J Street argues that continuing U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank benefits Israel's security. "That is because the alternative to the Palestinian Authority being able to assist Israel in maintaining order, and provide basic services to the Palestinians, is for extremist groups like Hamas to deliberately destroy that order and take control of the West Bank," Williams told Reuters.
The Anti-Defamation League's national director Abraham Foxman said he thought the proposed restrictions on aid to the Palestinian were "fine," because they were prospective, not retrospective.
"It does not punish them (the Palestinians) for what they did" in seeking membership at UNESCO, he told Reuters. But the language makes clear that "if you act on a similar fashion from now on, there will be consequences" from the United States.
The Palestinians' campaign to gain recognition as a state at the United Nations and its organizations has upset Israel and its main ally, the United States, who say only a peace treaty can establish a universally recognized Palestinian state.
But the Palestinians pushed ahead and won admission to UNESCO in October, a move that prompted the United States to cut off funding to that agency. U.S. lawmakers also responded by holding up millions of dollars of aid already appropriated in 2011 for the Palestinians but not yet spent.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who hoisted the Palestinian flag at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Tuesday, has said the Palestinians plan to apply to 16 other international organizations for membership.
The fiscal 2012 spending plan says that no U.S. economic aid can go to the Palestinians "if the Palestinians obtain, after the date of enactment of this act, the same standing as member states or full membership as a state in the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof, outside an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians."
It would allow Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to waive the restriction if she can certify to lawmakers that this would be in U.S. national security interests, and report to them on how continuing the U.S. aid would further Middle East peace.
The leader of another prominent American Jewish group, the American Jewish Committee, offered a mixed review of the proposal.
"On the one hand, we understand the sentiment in Congress on sending a clear message that any unilateral act will have immediate and direct consequences for Palestinian aid. On the other hand, it is important that any such decision not prove counterproductive regarding the balance of forces in Palestinian society, nor should it negatively affect security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority," AJC Executive Director David Harris told Reuters.
Last year Congress appropriated $400 million in economic aid and $150 million in security aid to the Palestinians. Representative Kay Granger, a Republican, still has a hold on $138 million of the 2011 economic aid because of the Palestinian push for recognition at the United Nations. She is the chairwoman of the House subcommittee on foreign aid.
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