virtual reality technology: September 2012

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Can You Afford Not to Have Travel Insurance? - InsideJourneys

Having travel insurance should be a no brainer for those of us who travel. But most people don?t think of it until it?s too late.

Take my friend, Jessica, for instance. On her first trip to Africa, she arrived at her destination only to find that her luggage had not. For two weeks, all she had was the clothes on her back, a few items given to her by others on the trip, and some personal articles. Her suitcase went on its own adventure. Following her return home, she had to produce receipts for the contents but received a check from the airline that only covered the cost of a new suitcase.

In the grand scheme of things, a lost suitcase is a temporary inconvenience. But what if my friend had become ill and had to be hospitalized, or worse, evacuated home? Without travel insurance with appropriate coverage, her trip and her finances would definitely have been ruined.

Why then are we so cavalier about travel insurance?

One of the reasons we give so little thought to travel insurance is because we believe it will be prohibitively expensive. But at a cost of a fraction of the actual price of the trip, it?s a small amount to pay for our peace of mind.

There?s also, I suspect, the expectation that vacations will be perfect interludes where nothing bad ever happens. Ironically, it?s also the time when we?re most likely to venture way outside our comfort zones and engage in activities we?d probably never do at home.

According to Britain?s Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), 10 Brits have been hospitalized abroad every day this year. Last year, the figure was 70 a week.

And so far this year, there have been 13 cases of young Brits falling from balconies while on vacation.? Unfortunately, 3 lost their lives while others ended up with very serious injuries.

Because of this, the FCO along with the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA ? The Travel Association) are now campaigning jointly to help prevent further incidents.

But it has to go further than that. Of 2,000 people surveyed by the Foreign Office, 48% revealed that they did not realize that they would be responsible for their medical expenses if they became ill abroad.

The situation isn?t better in America where the United States Travel Insurance Association (UStiA) found that since the summer of 2010, one in eight adults have had their travel plans changed because of natural disasters. Of that number, only 29% had travel insurance.

To further underscore the importance of having travel insurance, it is one of the requirements for obtaining a Schengen visa.

So how much coverage should you get? Whenever I buy travel insurance, I make sure to have medical coverage, including provision for evacuation in the event of an emergency; trip cancelation and interruption; lost, stolen, delayed, or damaged baggage or personal effects; missed connections and flight delays. I?ve also bought coverage in case my hotel or airline becomes insolvent while I?m on my trip.

Thankfully, I?ve never had to file a claim but knowing that I was protected was worth the additional expense.

So whether we?re making plans for that Caribbean vacation, the trip around the world or to take the kids to see their grandparents, we should always include travel insurance to the budget. Can you afford not to?

Source: http://insidejourneys.com/can-you-afford-not-to-have-travel-insurance/

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Linux Foundation forms Automotive Grade Workgroup, aims to open-source your ride with Tizen

It doesn't take much driving to notice that many in-car infotainment systems are custom-built and locked down tight. The Linux Foundation sees it differently and wants our cars to embrace the same notions of common roots and open code that we'd find in an Ubuntu box. Its newly-formed Automotive Grade Linux Workgroup is transforming Tizen into a reference platform that car designers can use for the center stack, or even the instrument cluster. The promise is to both optimize a Linux variant for cars and provide the same kind of years-long support that we'd expect for the drivetrain. Technology heavy-hitters like Intel, Harman, NVIDIA, Samsung and TI form the core of the group, although there are already automakers who've signaled their intentions: Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Toyota are all part of the initial membership. We don't know how soon we'll be booting into Tizen on the morning commute, but we'd expect in-car systems to take a step forward -- just as long as we don't have to recompile our car's OS kernel.

Continue reading Linux Foundation forms Automotive Grade Workgroup, aims to open-source your ride with Tizen

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/20/linux-foundation-forms-automotive-grade-workgroup/

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Death by gaming: an investigation into the Taiwan caf? fatalities ...

When the paramedics lifted Chen Rong-Yu from his chair his hands remained frozen in place, one clawed as if holding an invisible computer mouse, the other poised to tap out a shortcut on a vanished keyboard.

At 10pm the previous day Chen had taken a seat in the farthest corner of an internet caf? in New Taipei City, Taiwan. He lit a cigarette and began to play League of Legends. Chen played the online game for close to 23 hours, occasionally sleeping for a short while at his monitor before picking up where he'd left off.

While the popular caf? was half-full that night, the moment of the 23 year-old's death passed unobserved. No one noticed the melted ice-cubes in his overflowing cup, the ghostly pallor of his cheeks, the idling of his on-screen avatar. It was only when the girl on the front desk went to inform Chen his time was up that, with a gentle nudge of the shoulder, he toppled stiffly.

On 1st February 2012, Chen Rong-Yu's time was up.

This Taiwanese news report shows graphic images of Chen's body as it was removed from the internet caf?.

Chen is not the only young man to have died this year while playing a game at his computer.

On 13th July 2012, Chuang Cheng Feng telephoned his grandmother to let her know he wouldn't be coming home. He was headed to stay with a friend in the Yujing District of Tainan, Southern Taiwan. He wasn't sure when he would be back.

Standing at five-foot-five, 19 year-old Chuang had a muscular body, a benefit from his time training for local Tae Kwon Do competitions. It was this competitive streak that fired Chuang's passion for his other hobby: online video games. However, this relationship was unchecked, and enabled by the local internet caf? where he would arrive most afternoons and play until dawn. Chuang's life revolved around game caf? culture. His parents were divorced and, according to friends quoted in local newspaper reports, he found living with his grandmother lonely. Here was a place where he could retreat from the isolation of the real world and take control of his circumstances - albeit within the confines of a video game.

He secured a part-time job at a nearby game caf?, but the pay was low. In early July he handed in his notice with plans to move to Yujing in search of something else to do. On 13th July 2012, Chuang's friend called to say he wouldn't be able to meet up after all. At a loss, Chuang fell back on old habits. He walked into the Big Net internet caf? and loaded up Diablo 3. Killing time.

Some 10 hours later Chuang shifted in his seat, mind fuggy from the thick cigarette smoke in the room, eyes stinging from the glare of the monitor. He needed some air. He groaned to his feet, took three steps, stumbled and collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The death by gaming story occupies a peculiar place in the modern news cycle. News of a fresh tragedy arrives every six months or so, usually from Asia and in 2012, most often from Taiwan. The circumstances are always similar, now familiar: a young man found dead at his keyboard in an internet caf?, the victim of an unhealthy relationship with a sedentary hobby.

Activision Blizzard, the makers of Diablo 3, declined to be interviewed for this feature.

For players it acts as a cautionary tale, the kind of story mothers might tell their children to warn them off playing Nintendo DS beneath the sheets after lights out: 'Look what could happen to you if you play a video game for too long...'

For the tabloids it provides vindication of a generational distrust for this grubby entertainment medium that has been steadily infecting culture for over 30 years: 'I knew these video games were bad news. I just knew it.'

With their grim regularity, these stories have become part of the texture of modern reporting on video games. It has reached the point where their significance and sting have been lost in the routine.

And yet so many questions remain. Is it possible to die from playing a video game for too long? Should games carry health warnings, like cigarettes or rollercoasters? Why does playing games seem more lethal than watching films or reading books? Why is the phenomenon largely limited to one region of the world? Could it spread, like bird flu?

Are we all at risk of death by gaming?

A month after Chuang's death, the news spotlight has swivelled away from the Big Net caf?. Despite the name, this is a small business in a quiet town on the rural outskirts of Tainan. It's one of the only internet caf?s in the area, which makes it easy enough to find the phone number in a local directory.

The owner answers the phone, sounding timid, unsure.

"Are you a reporter?" she interrupts, as my translator explains the purpose of the call.

"Yes."

"Recent events have been catastrophic for my business."

Big Net caf? owner

"I am afraid that recent events have been catastrophic for my business. It's suffered a huge slide. I cannot talk to you about what happened. I want us to stay out of the news now."

She hangs up. We try again the next day, pointing out that our interest is in the phenomenon, not the specifics of her business.

"No," she says. "Thanks but really: no interview."

Internet caf?s are widespread in the region. For young players it's far more economical to play games at one of these establishments than at home. Two dollars buys eight hours of game time. Taking into account the cost of a broadband connection, a PC, electricity and the games themselves, playing in public becomes the only affordable option.

The set-up in the cafe where Chen Rong-Yu died, according to one news outlet's CGI recreation of events.

Big City is one of the larger caf? franchises in Taiwan. We call a branch in the Yongkang District of Tainan, 15 miles from the caf? where Chuang died.

"Yeah, since the news of that death, business has been different," says Lian, the 25 year-old staff member who answers the phone. "It's far quieter than usual. It seems probable to me that this downturn is somehow linked."

"Are you worried that the same thing that happened in Yujing might happen in your caf??" I ask.

"Of course."

"Have you taken any measures to prevent a similar tragedy?"

"Headquarters held a meeting after Chuang's death," Lian says. "After that, employees were issued with new guidelines, asking us to pay closer attention to customers. We have been told to issue a verbal warning if we notice any customer sitting at the same terminal for too long. To be honest though, I haven't noticed anyone behaving in the same manner as Chuang did."

A little farther north, 27 year-old Huang, branch manager of the Ingame Caf?, is more willing to admit that people playing games for prolonged amounts of time is an issue. "Our business has been mostly unaffected by the recent death," she says. "We do have customers like that, who stay here for a very long time. Not many, but certainly a few. But I'm not really worried that something like that might ever happen here. We have a system to prevent customers from sitting in front of the computer for too long."

"Really?" I say. "How long is too long?"

"We don't allow any customers to play for more than three days at a time."

"Three days?"

"Yeah. Once it gets past that amount of time we ask the customer to go home, rest and refresh. This is a well-organised internet caf?, you see."

Three days is an awfully long time, I point out.

"You know what? Don't even mention three days," she says. "In fact, I just asked a customer to leave who had been here for over 24 hours."

"Why? Was he beginning to look unwell?" I say.

"Other customers had started to complain about his smell. So I asked him to leave. In my experience, no-one tends to play a game for longer than a day and a half at a time."

I wonder who Miss Huang thinks is to blame for these deaths: the players, the caf?s or the games themselves?

"I think all internet caf?s start up with good intentions," she says. "The problem with this sort of addiction stems from those addicts themselves. It's probably their family or their education that's to blame. It's really a matter of self-discipline."

In Taiwan, just as in Europe and the US, people are free to injure themselves through myriad forms of obsession and over-indulgence, from alcohol consumption to rock climbing. But these potentially dangerous pastimes come with mandatory warnings. If people are dying from playing video games to excess, it seems logical that game boxes should also carry cautionary advice, and game caf?s should place limits on playing time.

League of Legends: should it come with a health warning?

Lin, section chief for the Economic Development Bureau of the Tainan City Government, isn't so sure.

"Ultimately, I agree that it's a matter of self-discipline," he says. "It is up to adults to decide how long they play a game. We cannot tell game caf?s how to limit their customers' time. We have to respect the free market, so city government can't get too involved in this kind of issue."

"Ultimately, it's a matter of self-discipline."

Lin, Tainan City Government official

Lin's job is to help small businesses in Tainan flourish but also to ensure that these establishments are safe and regulated. I wonder, with young men dying in caf?s, whether the balance is off?

"You're right. It is our duty to protect the youth from potentially damaging activities," says Lin.

"The police will routinely do spot checks after 10pm on caf?s in Tainan to see if there are any under-18s on the premises. If so, they are asked to leave. And during the summer holidays we also run a Youth Project, which provides advice to young people on how to have healthy and safe summer holidays - including warning them about the dangers of playing games for too long.

"Right now we are actually working on a draft of new regulations for internet caf?s. But these policies will be limited to teenagers and protecting them from the negative influences of online gaming."

So in Taiwan, for the foreseeable future at least, it's a matter of self-discipline. Over-18s are free to play for as long as caf? staff will allow them to, stench permitting.

Besides, before any game publisher, caf? owner or government official would be willing to issue a formal health warning about the mortal dangers of playing a video game for too long, there would need to be an understanding of what exactly is causing these tragedies.

Dr Ta-Chen Su is the attending physician and clinical associate professor at the Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital. While the number of cases of young men dying while playing games is too few to have inspired any specific research into the phenomenon, Su has a personal interest in the subject.

Dr Ta-Chen Su.

Chen Rong-Yu, the 23 year-old who died while playing League of Legends in February, was his patient.

"It wasn't reported, but last year Chen had a heart attack and was transferred to NTUH for evaluation," Su says. "During his hospitalisation the checks included echocardiography, 24-hour electrocardiography, cardiac catheterization, coronary angiography and cardiac electrophysiology.

"The results of all of these tests showed no signs of any heart problems that might lead to his sudden death. Nothing. The patient refused to accept our suggestion to implant a cardioverter-defibrillator. After hearing there was nothing wrong with his heart, he refused to have further cardiovascular tracking and never came back to us again.

"Three months after I last saw him, he died in the internet caf?. As we can eliminate any pre-existing heart problems from his cause of death, he must have died from another cause."

What was the cause?

"Acute autonomic dysfunction is the first potential cause of death," says Su. "Video games can generate a great deal of tension in the human body. The player's blood pressure and heart rate rise. If this excessive tension is maintained for more then ten hours, it can result in cardiac arrhythmia and sympathetic-parasympathetic imbalance, also called acute autonomic dysfunction."

Killing orcs for prolonged periods of time can be stressful enough to give you a heart attack?

"In a sense. Secondly, even if the game is not especially stressful in this way, simply playing for such a long period of time can prove fatal."

Dr Su compares playing games for days at a time to putting in unhealthy amounts of overtime at work - something that leads to exhaustion of the mind and body.

"Looking at these cases over the past five years, we can see that a quarter of the victims suffered acute myocardial infarction and, in each case, they had slept for fewer than five hours over the three-day period before they died."

The third potential cause of death Su has identified is something doctors refer to as 'Economy Class Syndrome'.

"Many studies show that maintaining the same pose for hours at a time without moving your body, especially your legs, can cause deep vein thrombosis," he explains. "Moreover, if you don't drink and eat properly while in this position, your blood can become sticky, leading to a pulmonary embolism and sudden death."

The final cause of death is linked to the caf?s themselves, specifically their conditions.

"Internet caf?s often have poor ventilation and offer players a cramped space to play in. One recent study found that the air pollution index in internet caf?s often exceeds safe levels. Most establishments have dedicated smoking zones on the premises but while air conditioners cool the air temperature, they don't improve its quality.

"Likewise, Taiwan is a humid country. Relative humidity usually maintains at 60 to 90 per cent, conditions that help fungi, bacteria and dust mites to flourish in a confined space. These can stimulate asthma and other allergic syndromes. Severe air pollution can have a devastating impact on a human's heart and blood vessels, increasing the possibility of blood clots, raising the heart rate and blood pressure, stiffening the arteries and having a negative impact on hemodynamics."

Chen and Chuang's cases are not isolated. On 2nd September 2012 a 48 year-old man named Liu died in Kaohsiung City following a seven-hour gaming stint. His was the third game-related death of the year recorded in Taiwan.

Game deaths don't just occur in Asia either. In 2011 Chris Staniforth, a 20-year-old from Sheffield, England died from deep vein thrombosis after playing Halo for 12 hours.

For more on game-related DVT visit www.take-time-out.info, a website set up in memory of Chris Staniforth.

I ask Dr Su why there appears to be an increase in the number of these cases.

"It's because more and more internet caf?s are opening and the number of people taking up online gaming is increasing," he says. "The content of online gaming is improving and growing more attractive than ever. I believe that, if caf? conditions don't change, we are going to see more deaths."

"If cafe conditions don't change, we are going to see more deaths."

Dr Ta-Chen Su

While Su won't comment on whether governments should include warnings about the dangers of extended game playing, he is eager to offer his own advice for players hoping to minimise the risks.

"Don't play for over eight hours at a time," he says. "The exhaustion one experiences by playing a game for this length of time is akin to driving a car for that length of time. Don't keep awake by chain-drinking coffee or energy drinks. Don't stay up overnight playing games. Many studies show that staying up all night increases the possibility of autonomous nerve dysfunction. We know that acute sleep deprivation slows blood pressure recovery and this can lead to acute cardiovascular events for gamers, either sudden death by stroke or other cardiovascular diseases.

"Also, don't sit in the same position for hours at a time. Stand up; exercise from time to time. Finally, be aware of the air quality on your game environment. If the caf? has poor air quality and no ventilation, go somewhere else.

"And please remember: online gaming is just entertainment. It's not a necessity for your life or happiness."

Back at the Ingame caf?, Tainan City, there's an attitude among players that death by gaming is something that happens to other people, with bigger problems and deeper issues.

Ding Kuo Chih, 22, has been playing games in internet caf?s for a decade. "I've never played for longer than 48 hours at a time. Nowadays I rarely play for longer than ten hours at a stretch," he says.

"Yeah, I heard about the guy who died. My friends and I were just talking about it, actually. We all think it's just ridiculous to play game to death. The guy must have had some financial problems or something. Perhaps that's what happened - he chose to spend all his money on gaming, so he had no money to eat and drink properly. Something like that."

Starcraft: still popular.

The news of Chung's death did have an effect on Ding's playing habits. "I used to eat and drink inside this caf?," he says. "But now I go out to eat and get some rest during my break. And I drink more water to force me to leave my chair and visit the restroom more. But I still play for just as long, I guess."

All other players we speak to have heard of Chuang's fate, but his story appears to have had little impact.

"It's not really changed anything for me," says Chiu, a mousy girl playing Starcraft. "Maybe he had some problem with his heart? It wouldn't happen to me. I have a job."

Likewise, for 16 year-old Shih, Chuang's death seems irrelevant.

"Yes, I heard about that," he says, reluctantly turning away from his game. "Maybe he died because he played for too long? It's not changed anything for me. I am an infrequent gamer. I only come here once a week, so it's OK for me to play for a long stretch of time. I am just killing time."

Death by gaming is a first-world phenomenon. It derives from a perfect storm of technology, business, geographical conditions and game design craft.

As such, it's a story full of suspects but without a smoking gun. The player's responsibility is to play responsibly. The caf?'s responsibility is to provide healthy and safe playing conditions. The game-maker's responsibility is to encourage the player to take breaks, even as their game's systems seek to hold attention. The government's responsibility is to encourage everyone to act responsibly. With so much shared responsibility, it's easy for any one party to shirk theirs.

I ask Huang, the Ingame caf?'s branch manager, who she thinks is ultimately responsible for preventing further deaths.

"You know, I don't have any strong feelings on this issue," she says. "One way or another, everybody involved is just trying to generate business, right?"

Meanwhile, Shih goes back to his game. Killing time.

Special thanks to Lin Meng Ying for her interview and translation assistance.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-19-death-by-gaming-why-taiwans-cafe-culture-is-killing-gamers

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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Japan declares U.S. Osprey safe, to fly in Japan by October

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has given the controversial MV-22 Osprey aircraft the green light to fly over the country from next month after tests found the American hybrid plane safe despite a number of crashes.

The United States had been seeking to deploy the tilt-rotor aircraft -- which takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane -- to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa despite strong public opposition largely on safety grounds after it crashed twice earlier this year.

Final results of crash investigations have confirmed that the helicopter-plane is safe and the United States will begin deployment at some point in October, Japanese Defence Minister Satoshi Morimoto said on Wednesday.

"We have confirmed that the two accidents were caused by human factors and not by the aircrafts' systemic problems or by technical problems," he said, addressing reporters together with Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba.

"We have confirmed the safety for the Osprey to operate, and on the premise that there will be maximum consideration provided for the public, we have decided to allow the United States to start operating the Osprey."

The Pentagon welcomed Tokyo's decision as a sign of the strength of the U.S.-Japanese partnership.

"It is a testament to the strength and maturity of our alliance, which remains the cornerstone for peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region," spokesman George Little said in a statement.

The Osprey crash in Morocco in April killed two U.S. Marines, while the one in Florida in June left five injured. Thirty people, including 26 Marines, were killed in test flights or training accidents from 1991 through 2000 during the aircraft's development.

The first 12 MV-22s arrived by ship on July 23 at Iwakuni, the only U.S. Marine Corps station on the main Japanese islands. The Defense Department ultimately plans to base them at Futenma, a Marine Corps Air Station on Okinawa. They were grounded for the time of the investigation.

The Osprey is key to a U.S. force realignment in the Asia-Pacific region that has become a centerpiece of President Barack Obama's foreign policy since January.

"With twice the speed, three times the payload, and four times the range, the Osprey will make a major contribution in upgrading the capabilities of the alliance," Little said.

The aircraft is built by Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing Co. It will replace the 40-year-old CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Additional reporting by David Alexander in Beijing; Writing by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-declares-u-osprey-safe-fly-japan-october-025314988--finance.html

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Challengers to Clovis-age impact theory missed key protocols, new study finds

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

An interdisciplinary team of scientists from seven U.S. institutions says a disregard of three critical protocols, including sorting samples by size, explains why a group challenging the theory of a North American meteor-impact event some 12,900 years ago failed to find iron- and silica-rich magnetic particles in the sites they investigated.

Not separating samples of the materials into like-sized groupings made for an avoidable layer of difficulty, said co-author Edward K. Vogel, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon.

The new independent analysis -- published this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences -- did, in fact, isolate large quantities of the "microspherules" at the involved sites where the challengers previously reported none. Lead author Malcolm A. LeCompte, an astrophysicist at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina, said the findings support the climate-altering cosmic impact, but his team stopped short of declaring this as proof of the event.

The Clovis-age cosmic-impact theory was proposed in 2007 by a 26-member team led by Richard B. Firestone. That team included University of Oregon archaeologists Douglas J. Kennett and Jon M. Erlandson. While other groups have found corroborating evidence of a potential cosmic event, other groups reported difficulties doing so. One group, led by Todd A Surovell of the University of Wyoming, did not find any microspherule evidence at five of seven sites they tested, including two previously studied locations where Firestone reported large numbers of microspherules.

"In investigating the two common sites and a third tested only by Surovell's team, we found spherules in equal or greater abundance than did the Firestone team, and the reported enhancement was in strata dated to about 13,000 years before the present," LeCompte said. "What we've done is provide evidence that is consistent with an impact, but we don't think it proves the impact. We think there's a mystery contained in the Younger Dryas strata, and that we've provided some validation to the original research by Firestone's group."

The particles in question, the team concluded, are terrestrial as was claimed by the Firestone group, and not of meteoric origin as claimed by other challengers including Surovell's group, and are similar to metamorphic material in Earth's crust. That determination was made using electron microscopy and spectroscopy.

"These spherules have evidence of very high-temperature melting and very rapid cooling, which is characteristic of debris ejected from an impact," LeCompte said. Speherules would have melted at temperatures approaching 2,000 degrees Celsius (more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit), he added. Cosmic materials, including the some microspherules, regularly fall to earth from space due to meteorite ablation, but the spherules found in soils dating to 13,000 years ago are much different, he added. Other researchers had suggested that these spherules were deposited by a cosmic rain or resulted through slow, terrestrial processes occurring under ambient conditions.

LeCompte and some key collaborators wondered why Surovell didn't find any spherules, and that led them to Vogel. Many of the spherules investigated were tiny, ranging in size from 20 to 50 micrometers (microns); about the diameter of a human hair.

"The inherent difficulty in finding these small, relatively rare magnetic microspherules suggested there may be inherent limitations in human faculties that needed to be addressed, and that's how and why we sought out UO Professor Ed Vogel. His research into human cognitive capabilities proved so important in understanding both why the search was so difficult and why size-sorting was effective and important in making it easier," LeCompte said.

Vogel specializes in the ability of people to find specific items amid multiple distractions.

"A visual search is a very error-prone process," Vogel said. "This was a case of looking at millions of particles from which you are hoping to find something that might be present much less than 0.1 percent of the time." Size-sorting, he said, is vital because it is easier to find a target item with a characteristic shape and color when all of the many more-distracting objects are very similar. "It is a slow, tedious process to examine such quantities of materials with the human eyes when object sizes are extremely dissimilar."

"Science is only as good as the humans who conduct it, and this study shows how the minds of researchers can operate in some surprising ways," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, UO vice president for research and innovation, and dean of the graduate school. "Dr. Vogel's excellent work, which illustrates the importance of understanding how the human mind processes information and the consequences it can have beyond making everyday computations, reflects the University of Oregon's strengths in interdisciplinary research."

LeCompte described Surovell's study "as possibly the most damning of the reports that had challenged the original theory."

"Todd had worked very hard and couldn't find the spherules, but I think he made some fatal errors that need to be pointed out," LeCompte said. "It is instructive in that we initially made the same mistake and came to the same erroneous conclusion, but then we corrected our mistake. I would say this is a case of a missed opportunity due to their deviations from the protocol."

Two other critical protocol deviations not followed by the challengers involved the amounts of material examined and the use of microscopy techniques specified in Firestone's original research. Another two minor aspects of the protocol also were not repeated, reported LeCompte's team, which, in addition to Vogel, included an archaeologist, two materials scientists, a botanist, a periglacial geographer and an aerospace engineer.

LeCompte's team -- using the protocols of Firestone's group and electron microscopy -- additionally studied a quarry site in Topper, S.C., where Clovis-age people had made stone tools. After removing chert debris associated with tool making in soil at the depth of the Clovis occupation, LeCompte said, researchers observed virtually no spherules below it, while in soil just above the chert fragments they found a spike in the number of telltale spherules.

Further above that level, he noted, the soil layers were essentially "a dead zone" somewhat analogous to the K-T boundary, or "tombstone layer," from an extinction event that occurred 65 million years ago. At Topper, the dead zone showed almost no trace of human habitation for perhaps as long as 1,000 years duration.

"This suggests that something very dramatic happened," LeCompte said.

"The effects of such an impact would have been catastrophic on a global scale," said co-author Barrett Rock, a botanist at the University of New Hampshire. "On the order of 36 ice-age species became extinct, and the Clovis human culture eventually lost. All of this in response to dramatic changes in the vegetation at the base of the faunal food chain."

###

University of Oregon: http://uonews.uoregon.edu

Thanks to University of Oregon for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/123584/Challengers_to_Clovis_age_impact_theory_missed_key_protocols__new_study_finds

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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

US Chamber launches ads in Maine, Montana, Ohio

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is hammering Maine independent candidate Angus King and Democratic incumbents in Montana and Ohio in a new round of ads designed to help Republicans grab control of the Senate.

The ads, which begin airing Tuesday, focus on King's fiscal record as governor, criticize Montana Sen. Jon Tester on health care and energy and weigh in against Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown for his votes on energy. Tester and Brown have been top targets of the Chamber for months as the nation's largest business lobbying group has spent tens of millions of dollars in some eight Senate races and dozens of House contests.

King, seen as likely to side with Democrats if he wins, was the subject of a Chamber ad in July.

Rob Engstrom, national political director for the Chamber, declined to say how much the group was spending for the ads that will air for 10 days to two weeks, simply calling them a "massive buy." In the July round, the Chamber spent more than $914,000 against Brown, $257,000 against Tester and $400,000 opposing King, according to independent expenditure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

With Democrats holding a slim majority in the Senate ? 51-47, plus two independents who usually vote with the Democrats ? the National Republican Senatorial Committee and GOP-leaning groups are investing tens of millions in roughly a dozen races, some with vulnerable Democratic incumbents or open seats.

Missouri used to be part of the calculation, but Rep. Todd Akin's comments last month about women not getting pregnant from "legitimate" rape led many in the GOP to abandon the Republican candidate. That has freed up millions of dollars, allowing the GOP to spend elsewhere.

Republicans see a potential opening in the Maine race to replace Sen. Olympia Snowe, who surprised Republicans earlier this year with her decision to retire. The GOP needs a net of four seats to capture control of the Senate, and the loss of the Maine seat would complicate its prospects.

King is facing Democrat Cynthia Dill and Republican Charlie Summers.

The Chamber ad lampoons King with the line "it's good to be king," arguing that spending skyrocketed during his tenure and that Maine faced a $1 billion shortfall when he left office.

"Mainers can't afford to send this King to Washington," the ad says.

King has responded to the spending by outside groups with a spot that shows Godzilla, the famed Japanese movie monster. The former governor talks about "some folks from away" trying to convince voters that he's a monster. King says he cut taxes and fixed bad roads in the commercial, which ends with Godzilla burping.

Earlier this month, Erskine Bowles, a Democrat best known these days for his budget-cutting plan with Republican Alan Simpson, endorsed King and said he had experience balancing eight budgets during his time in office.

The Chamber ad against Tester is a report card that gives him a failing grade for casting a deciding vote for "government-mandated health care," a reference to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law. Last month, Tester unveiled an ad highlighting his breaks with the Obama administration on the environment and energy as well as his opposition to the Wall Street and auto bailouts.

Tester is locked in a close race with Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg.

The commercial against Brown argues that his votes on energy will lead to greater dependence on foreign oil, more layoffs and higher prices at the pump. Brown has opposed tax breaks for big oil companies. The Democrat holds a slight edge in his race against Republican challenger Josh Mandel.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-chamber-launches-ads-maine-montana-ohio-064004232--election.html

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Students required to buy art textbook with no pictures of art

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Researchers tag great white sharks off Cape Cod

In this Sept. 13, 2012, photo, researchers screw satellite and acoustic tags onto the dorsal fin of a great white shark on the research vessel Ocearch in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Chatham, Mass. Once released, the tags will track the location and speed of the nearly 15-foot, 2,292-pound Genie, named for famed shark researcher Eugenie Clark. The Ocearch team baits the fish and leads them onto a lift, tagging and taking blood, tissue and semen samples up close from the world?s most feared predator. The real-time satellite tag tracks the shark each time its dorsal fin breaks the surface, plotting its location on a map. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

In this Sept. 13, 2012, photo, Captain Brett McBride streams seawater over the gills of a nearly 15-foot, 2,292-pound great white shark on the research vessel Ocearch in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Chatham, Mass. A crew of researchers and fishermen are tagging great white sharks off Cape Cod in an unorthodox way. The Ocearch team baits the fish and leads them onto a lift, tagging and taking blood, tissue and semen samples up close from the world?s most feared predator. The real-time satellite tag tracks the shark each time its dorsal fin breaks the surface, plotting its location on a map. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

In this Sept. 7, 2012, photo, Ocearch expedition leader Chris Fischer applies sunscreen before leaving the ship to check chum locations for signs of great white shark activity in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Chatham, Mass. as deck hand Juan Valencia, left, monitors chumming activity off the back of the research vessel. The Ocearch team baits the fish and leads them onto a lift, tagging and taking blood, tissue and semen samples up close from the world?s most feared predator. The real-time satellite tag tracks the shark each time its dorsal fin breaks the surface, plotting its location on a map. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

In this Sept. 7, 2012, photo, Ocearch expedition leader Chris Fischer steps onto a small sport fishing boat to check chum locations for signs of great white shark activity in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Chatham, Mass. The Ocearch team baits the fish and leads them onto a lift, tagging and taking blood, tissue and semen samples up close from the world?s most feared predator. The real-time satellite tag tracks the shark each time its dorsal fin breaks the surface, plotting its location on a map. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

In this Sept. 13, 2012, photo, Ocearch Co-Captain Jody Whitworth, right, adjusts his sunglasses while piloting a small fishing boat to check chum locations for signs of great white shark activity in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Chatham, Mass., as deck hand Alex Snow watches. The Ocearch team baits the fish and leads them onto a lift, tagging and taking blood, tissue and semen samples up close from the world?s most feared predator. The real-time satellite tag tracks the shark each time its dorsal fin breaks the surface, plotting its location on a map. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

CHATHAM, Mass. (AP) ? The scientists and fishermen on board the Ocearch, a repurposed crabbing vessel, received word that their scouting boat had hooked a great white shark, sparking a flurry of activity.

They were about to get up close and personal with the animal, more than 2,000 pounds and nearly 15 feet long.

"I'm nervous," said state shark expert Greg Skomal, who has tagged great whites, but never like this, never this close.

The Ocearch crew tags great white sharks in an unorthodox way. Unlike Skomal's team, which has tagged a dozen great whites off the Massachusetts coast with harpoons, Chris Fischer's Ocearch crew baits the fish and leads them onto a large platform that lifts them out of the water for tagging and collecting blood, tissue and semen samples.

Ocearch, a nonprofit research organization named for a combination of "ocean" and "research," is crewed mainly by sport fishermen. It is funded by sponsors and donors, and a South Africa expedition was the subject of History channel's "Shark Wranglers."

Now, Ocearch has come to Cape Cod for a few weeks, minus the reality show and plus local scientists, to help shed light on the sharks' migration patterns, protect breeding and birthing sites, improve public safety and raise awareness about the threatened species that is a rising presence in the area.

"We have massive knowledge gaps about how to protect their future," said Fischer, Ocearch's expedition leader.

Ocearch's real-time satellite tags last five years. Each time sharks' dorsal fins breaks the surface, the tags ping a satellite and mark an online map, accessible to researchers and the public.

The work is dangerous for both man and fish. One shark died on the lift in South Africa. The crew tries to return sharks to the water within 15 minutes.

"I used to be nervous of what they'd do to me," co-captain Jody Whitworth said. "Now I worry that we'll hurt them."

The Cape Cod expedition faces another challenge: finding the fish.

While great white sightings have risen near Cape Cod, they are much more common off South Africa or Australia.

Skomal estimates 30 great whites roam the Cape Cod coast on any given day. The Ocearch crew hopes to tag five.

Protecting these sharks is key, researchers say.

"These predators keep the next lower level in check," said Bob Hueter, of Mote Marine Laboratory, one of the research organizations working with the Cape Cod expedition. "It's a system of checks and balances."

The great white is the "lion of the ocean," keeping seal, squid and fish populations in check, Fischer said. But it is also the shark that people are most interested in, making it a gateway for ocean conservation and advocacy, he said.

Catching a shark starts with chum, drawing sharks to the boat by placing whale blubber and other shark favorites in the water a mile out from the ship.

Fischer says the crew doesn't draw sharks, as critics have claimed, but merely leads nearby sharks to the boat.

Most of Fischer's crew spends each day on a boat barely bigger than the great whites, traveling among chum locations and looking for sharks.

Just after dusk on Sept. 13, they spotted a great white and hooked it. Then, the small boat's crew slowly led the shark four miles to the 126-foot Ocearch.

Ocearch Capt. Brett McBride guided the shark onto the wooden platform with metal sides. Barefoot, he jumped in too. The lift slowly rose out of the water, level with Ocearch's deck.

The shark thrashed and bared her teeth as the water receded, curving her head and tail into the air.

McBride threw a wet towel over her eyes and removed the two-foot hook from her mouth. He pumped water over her gills with two large hoses.

The crew jumped onto the lift in their jeans and long-sleeve shirts, and the clock began.

They measured the fish ? 14 feet, 8 inches and 2,292 pounds ? and screwed the satellite tag, an accelerometer and an acoustic tag onto her dorsal fin with a power drill. Researchers collected blood and tissue samples.

McBride named the female shark Genie after renowned shark researcher Eugenie Clark.

After nearly 15 minutes, everybody scrambled off as the lift was lowered back into the water.

McBride grabbed Genie's tail and slowly guided her back into the ocean. They were done in 16 minutes flat. Genie drifted down into the dark water. The crew clinked beer cans and soda cups.

"That one shark alone was worth the trip," McBride said, noting she might lead researchers to breeding and birthing sites. "Any time we tag a great white shark it adds tremendous information to what we already know, which is very little."

Genie has pinged several times in the waters off Nantucket. So far, she's the crew's only catch.

___

Online:

http://sharks-ocearch.verite.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-09-18-Tagging%20Great%20Whites/id-2e1f24002afc4cd38dfb918fb350dd8c

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Monday, September 17, 2012

Sunday Morning (Unqualified Offerings)

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