Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166776914?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Sarkozy clings to nuclear energy amid protests (AP)
PIERRELATTES, France ? French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday it would be madness to reduce his country's huge reliance on nuclear power, despite worldwide wariness after Japan's Fukushima disaster and protests this week over the dangers of waste.
As countries ? including neighboring Germany ? renounce nuclear energy in the wake of the tsunami-triggered meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant earlier this year, France has remained a bastion of atomic power. France depends on it for three-quarters of its electricity, more than any other country.
Sarkozy, expected to run for re-election in April against a leftist who wants to shut down French reactors, argued that abandoning nuclear energy would destroy jobs and cost billions that France cannot afford as it strains to rein in debts and reduce unemployment at nearly 10 percent.
"We do not have the right to break with the political consensus of the last 65 years at the risk of destroying jobs in French industry. It's madness," he told nuclear industry workers in southern France.
He spoke as German police were patrolling a train carrying nuclear waste reprocessed in France on its way to a controversial storage site that protesters say is unsafe.
French protesters clashed with riot police and damaged train track as the train tried to leave the reprocessing plant in the northern region of Normandy earlier this week. German police used water cannons late Thursday night on protesters trying to block a crossroads at Metzingen, near the destination in northern Germany, after fireworks and paint were thrown at officers.
It's the first shipment of nuclear waste from France to Germany since Berlin decided to shut all its nuclear plants by 2022, following the disaster at Fukushima. But officials haven't yet resolved where waste should be stored permanently, and activists argue the site in Gorleben, near the German town of Dannenberg, is unsafe.
In France, leaders on the left and right have been unswervingly devoted to nuclear energy for decades ? a strategic choice dating to the oil shocks of the 1970s.
That is, until now. The Socialist presidential candidate, Francois Hollande, has pledged to shut down more than 20 nuclear reactors, the boldest such proposal for any mainstream French party in the nuclear era. It's a sign of how far the political fallout from Fukushima has spread.
Sarkozy is hoping the economic crisis will trump fears about nuclear security. French consumers pay less then most Europeans for electricity.
Sarkozy has also argued that a rise in energy prices would hurt French factories and force more companies to move overseas to countries with cheaper labor.
Supporters of cleaner energy sources say windmill farms and solar facilities would create new jobs and that maintaining nuclear energy is also very costly ? notably because of the high price of keeping plants and nuclear material safe.
___
Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
CHC chair Gonzalez to retire (Politico)
Texas Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, will forego reelection in 2012, he announced Friday.
"I still find the job hugely rewarding, but the demands pull me somewhere else," Gonzalez told the San Antonio Express-News. "I've been in Congress for 14 years and I want to do something else ? what that is I really don't know. But financially I would like to be productive and have the resources to make a better life."
Continue ReadingGonzalez, a seven-term Democrat, is slated to hold a Saturday press conference in San Antonio to discuss his decision, according to his office.
Gonzalez becomes the 17th House Democrat to announce he will not seek reelection. Seven House Republicans will not seek another term in 2012.
His exit marks the end of an era: a Gonzalez family member has held a seat in the House for more than five decades, and the Gonzalez name is a staple in the San Antonio political world. In 1999, Gonzalez, a former district court judge, succeeded his father, former Rep. Henry Gonzalez, who began his congressional tenure in 1961.
Democrats familiar with Gonzalez's decision say they expect the retirement will have an electoral ripple effect. State Rep. Joaquin Castro will likely run for the seat and former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez is expected to run for a nearby district. The filing period for candidates to declare their intentions to run for Congress in Texas opens on Monday.
Gonzalez's decision comes amid high tensions surrounding the state's redistricting process. On Wednesday, a San Antonio-based federal court released a proposed interim congressional map that would position Democrats to gain as many as three seats in the state. The court was tasked with drawing an interim congressional map while a Republican-drawn plan, approved by the state Legislature earlier this year, is in limbo in a Washington, D.C. court over whether it dilutes minority voting strength.
Republicans have complained bitterly about the proposed map, alleging it favors Democrats. On Friday, the San Antonio court denied a request from state Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, to stay the interim plan. Abbott immediately announced that he would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Under the court's proposed map, Gonzalez would have been able to run for an eighth term in a San Antonio-area district that strongly favored a Democrat.
His decision might come as a surprise to some. Gonzalez raised more than $136,000 in the third quarter ? a decent sum that does not typically indicate an impending retirement.
Jonathan Allen contributed to this report.
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Saturday, November 26, 2011
How much crazier can Black Friday get?
A Black Friday shopper takes a rest with purchases at Northpark Mall in Ridgeland, Miss., on Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/The Clarion-Ledger, Vickie D. King) NO SALES
A Black Friday shopper takes a rest with purchases at Northpark Mall in Ridgeland, Miss., on Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/The Clarion-Ledger, Vickie D. King) NO SALES
A consumer rests herself and her bags in Herald Square during the busiest shopping day of the year, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011, in New York. Some of the nation's major chain stores opened late Thursday, competing for holiday shoppers on the notoriously busy Black Friday to kick off a period that is crucial for the retail industry. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Black Friday shoppers line up outside of a Kmart store in Salem, Ore., early Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Statesman-Journal, Timothy J. Gonzalez)
This photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff?s Office, shows Jerald Allen Newman, 54, after his arrest Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, at a Walmart store in Buckeye, Ariz. Buckeye police are coming under fire for a video posted online Friday that shows Newman on the floor of the store with a bloody face after police took him to the ground. Police say he was resisting arrest but his wife and witnesses say he was just trying to protect his grandson during a chaotic rush for discounted video games. (AP Photo/Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)
Black Friday shoppers take a rest at Westfield Galleria at Roseville in Sacramento, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/The Sacramento Bee, Hector Amezcua) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
NEW YORK (AP) ? Pepper-sprayed customers, smash-and-grab looters and bloody scenes in the shopping aisles. How did Black Friday devolve into this?
As reports of shopping-related violence rolled in this week from Los Angeles to New York, experts say a volatile mix of desperate retailers and cutthroat marketing has hyped the traditional post-Thanksgiving sales to increasingly frenzied levels. With stores opening earlier, bargain-obsessed shoppers often are sleep-deprived and short-tempered. Arriving in darkness, they also find themselves vulnerable to savvy parking-lot muggers.
Add in the online-coupon phenomenon, which feeds the psychological hunger for finding impossible bargains, and you've got a recipe for trouble, said Theresa Williams, a marketing professor at Indiana University.
"These are people who should know better and have enough stuff already," Williams said. "What's going to be next year, everybody getting Tasered?"
Across the country on Thursday and Friday, there were signs that tensions had ratcheted up a notch or two, with violence resulting in several instances.
A woman turned herself in to police after allegedly pepper-spraying 20 other customers at a Los Angeles-area Walmart on Thursday in what investigators said was an attempt to get at a crate of Xbox video game consoles. In Kinston, N.C., a security guard also pepper-sprayed customers seeking electronics before the start of a midnight sale.
In New York, crowds reportedly looted a clothing store in Soho. At a Walmart near Phoenix, a man was bloodied while being subdued by police officer on suspicion of shoplifting a video game. There was a shooting outside a store in San Leandro, Calif., shots fired at a mall in Fayetteville, N.C. and a stabbing outside a store in Sacramento, N.Y.
"The difference this year is that instead of a nice sweater you need a bullet proof vest and goggles," said Betty Thomas, 52, who was shopping Saturday with her sisters and a niece at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, N.C.
The wave of violence revived memories of the 2008 Black Friday stampede that killed an employee and put a pregnant woman in the hospital at a Walmart on New York's Long Island. Walmart spokesman Greg Rossiter said Black Friday 2011 was safe at most of its nearly 4,000 U.S. stores despite "a few unfortunate incidents."
Black Friday ? named that because it puts retailers "in the black" ? has become more intense as companies compete for customers in a weak economy, said Jacob Jacoby, an expert on consumer behavior at New York University.
The idea of luring in customers with a few "doorbuster" deals has long been a staple of the post-Thanksgiving sales. But now stores are opening earlier, and those deals are getting more extreme, he said.
"There's an awful lot of psychology going on here," Jacoby said. "There's the notion of scarcity ? when something's scarce it's more valued. And a resource that can be very scarce is time: If you don't get there in time, it's going to be gone."
There's also a new factor, Williams said: the rise of coupon websites like Groupon and LivingSocial, the online equivalents of doorbusters that usually deliver a single, one-day offer with savings of up to 80 percent on museum tickets, photo portraits, yoga classes and the like.
The services encourage impulse buying and an obsession with bargains, Williams said, while also getting businesses hooked on quick infusions of customers.
"The whole notion of getting a deal, that's all we've seen for the last two years," Williams said. "It's about stimulating consumers' quick reactions. How do we get their attention quickly? How do we create cash flow for today?"
To grab customers first, some stores are opening late on Thanksgiving Day, turning bargain-hunting from an early-morning activity into an all-night slog, said Ed Fox, a marketing professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Midnight shopping puts everyone on edge and also makes shoppers targets for muggers, he said.
In fact, robbery appeared to be the motive behind the shooting in San Leandro, about 15 miles east of San Francisco. Police said robbers shot a victim as he was walking to a car with his purchases around 1:45 a.m. on Friday.
"There are so many hours now where people are shopping in the darkness that it provides cover for people who are going to try to steal or rob those who are out in numbers," Fox said.
The violence has prompted some analysts to wonder if the sales are worth it, and what solutions might work.
In a New York Times column this week, economist Robert Frank proposed slapping a 6 percent sales tax on purchases between 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving and 6 a.m. on Friday in an attempt to stop the "arms race" of earlier and earlier sales.
Small retailers, meanwhile, are pushing so-called Small Business Saturday to woo customers who are turned off by the Black Friday crush. President Barack Obama even joined in, going book shopping on Saturday at a small bookstore a few blocks from the White House.
"A lot of retailers, independent retailers, are making the conscious decision to not work those crazy hours," said Patricia Norins, a retail consultant for American Express.
Next up is Cyber Monday, when online retailers put their wares on sale. But on Saturday many shoppers said they still prefer buying at the big stores, despite the frenzy.
Thomas said she likes the time with her sisters and the hustle of the mall too much to stay home and just shop online.
To her, the more pressing problem was that the Thanksgiving weekend sales didn't seem very good.
"If I'm going to get shot, at least let me get a good deal," Thomas said.
___
Associated Press Writers Julie Walker in New York, Christina Rexrode in Raleigh, N.C., John C. Rogers in Los Angeles and Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed to this report
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City-in-a-Box
Two years ago, 35 miles southwest of Seoul, developer Stan Gale cut the ribbon on the world?s newest city?a man-made isthmus in the Yellow Sea named Songdo International Business District. In 2001, the chairman of New York-based Gale International had pledged to borrow $35 billion to build a city the size of downtown Boston, modeled on Paris, Venice, and Manhattan, complete with a 100-acre ?Central Park.? Songdo won?t be finished until at least 2016, but Gale isn?t waiting around. These days, he?s pitching China?s mayors on his city-in-a-box?a kit to build their own smart, green city of the future in as little as three years.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=c6b45c6a35941351065859fc37a39ff8
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Friday, November 25, 2011
Weinstein desires to become recognized film brand (AP)
NEW YORK ? While Harvey Weinstein has no plans to roar like the MGM lion before each of his movies, the Oscar-winning producer wants to turn the film studio bearing his family's name into a recognizable brand. His wish list includes branding on par with Facebook's F, Twitter's T and Apple's, well, apple.
While he says he will continue to use the "the black and white logo that looks like it's from high school in 1954," he's letting his films this week do the talking ? or at least one of them.
Already in theaters is "My Week with Marilyn," starring two-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe. It's based on the writings of Colin Clark, who spent a week with the iconic actress in 1957 while she was filming "The Prince and the Showgirl" in the United Kingdom.
Weinstein, who heads The Weinstein Co. with his brother, explained the subject matter's appeal to him.
"I wanted to be that 23-year old boy and spend a week with Marilyn Monroe and go skinny-dipping," Weinstein said Wednesday. "Haven't we all dreamed of being with someone that gorgeous?"
But this is not another Monroe biopic. Weinstein calls it "a snapshot movie about one episode in her life." He equates the film's tone with his 2010 Oscar winner for best picture, "The King's Speech," about a speech therapist who helps King George VI.
With production credits in such Broadway hits as "Billy Elliot," "The Producers" and "God of Carnage," Weinstein always has his eyes on Broadway. He admits it's a dream to bring "My Week with Marilyn" to the great stage in "five to 10 years." And when that happens, he has his heart set on seeing Monroe played by singer Katy Perry, whom he met while taking his daughters to the annual Jingle Ball concert at Madison Square Garden last year.
"I think Katy would be perfect to play Marilyn Monroe," Weinstein said, adding: "She would knock it out of the universe."
Weinstein's other new film, "The Artist," which comes out Friday, is a modern homage to the silent film era and was the darling of the Cannes and Toronto International film festivals. It was shot in black and white using the original 4:3 aspect ratio.
While the film is not your typical studio release, Weinstein doesn't concern himself with such things.
"With a script or a book I try to do what would appeal to me," he says proudly. "I'm not here to do the mainstream movies."
And the results are promising. Weinstein likes the buzz both films are getting, but his source isn't what you'd expect: It's the RottenTomatoes.com website, which compiles reviews and assigns percentage scores based on the average.
"I just go to Rotten Tomatoes to check on who's writing, and I read some of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes," he said. "I like the site. It's fun. I like the interviews on the site."
Weinstein was proud to report Wednesday the Monroe film was at 85 percent. And "The Artist" was trending a bit higher, based on reviews going back to April, when it played at Cannes.
"I wish I could brand the movies in a way so they would just look at the page and trust me rather than a critic or anything else," Weinstein said.
Weinstein has been seeking advice from firms like Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton about how consumers recognize their products. Oddly enough, he's not expecting to recreate that Columbia Pictures lady with the torch. The iconic Leo the Lion has become synonymous with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Weinstein says that while the lion is a powerful symbol, he's not seeking that type of message. Nor is he shy about the brand.
"The thing about MGM and why it doesn't work at the end of the day is because they would make great musicals and then they would make Andy Hardy movies, or they would make Tarzan movies, so you never know what you got at MGM.
"I'm pretty consistent, at least on my side of the fence, with making a certain, you know, they call it artistic, it's really not, but something that is just a little more literary in its approach."
___
Online:
http://weinsteinco.com/
___
John Carucci covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/jcarucci_ap
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
'Occupy' protesters complete New York to D.C. march
Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger
Holding an American flag, Michael Glazer, from Chicago leads Occupy Wall Street protesters across the Hackensack River in Jersey City, N.J. on Nov. 9. The group arrived in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
By Miranda Leitsinger, Senior Writer and Editor, msnbc.com
More than 40 "Occupy" protesters who have marched?240 miles over 14 days from New York to Washington, D.C.,?reached their destination on Tuesday, said organizer Michael Glazer, a 26-year-old unemployed and homeless actor from Chicago.
Ranging in age from 18 to over 50-plus, the protesters?set out on the hike to spread the word about the movement,?meet with members of other "Occupy" desmontrations?in Baltimore and Philadelphia and to send a message to Congress that it can?t put off dealing with the nation?s fiscal problems, Glazer said as they marched the last remaining miles to their final stop of McPherson Square ? home of the Occupy D.C. encampment.
But the big aim "was to protest the supercommittee, which ...?is essentially a big giant debacle," Glazer said. "? (They?re) not dealing with problems now, that?s not great leadership, they?re just doing the easy thing.?
Styling themselves after the freedom riders of the Civil Rights movement, their march has been marked by highs, such as warm receptions at "Occupy" camps in Baltimore and Philadelphia.?
But they have had some lows, too, with some hecklers calling them ?communists? and ?Russians.? There also were?arguments with newcomers to the march ? about 20 joined along the way -- who wanted to cancel the?general assemblies held at the end of each day's hike.
?This was set up to be a pretty grueling march,? Glazer said, as other marchers chanted ?All day, all week, Occupy Wall Street.? ?We figured it out, but it took a while for people to come around to understand that ? It?s a leaderless movement, you know, nobody is a leader on the march.?
To demand or not to demand? That is the 'Occupy' question
While they were?en route,?the eviction of the flagship Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York City?took place early on Nov. 17.
Glazer said he watched in horror as the events unfolded on Livestream.
??We felt kind of guilty for being out on the road but we knew ? that we had to keep doing what we were doing,? he said.
They walked 31.5 miles on Monday trying to get to DC ahead of the supercommittee?s announcement that it had failed to reach a deficit-reduction deal. They had originally planned to arrive Tuesday, before the Wednesday midnight deadline for the committee to complete its work.
?We didn?t expect (it) to work in the first place because it was set up to fail. They didn?t give us any reason to think that they were going to make it work,? he said.
Dissension among the ranks at Occupy Wall Street
Though the march was trying, Glazer said they were looking ahead to a larger one in the spring. In the meantime, he said, they had increased awareness of the "Occupy" movement and proved ?a lot of naysayers wrong."
?It proves that rain can?t hold us back from sending our message out there and having our voices be heard. It proves that distance can?t do that. It proves that physical injury, physical exhaustion can?t do it ? and that ultimately, this isn?t some fad that?s starting to fade away at the end of 2011. This is just something that?s here to stay.?
Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/22/8955057-occupy-protesters-complete-new-york-to-dc-march
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BSE Sensex hits lowest level in two years (Reuters)
MUMBAI (Reuters) ? The BSE Sensex fell 3.6 percent on Wednesday to its lowest level in two years, ahead of the expiry of derivative contracts, as investor confidence in the domestic and global economy weakened.
"List of problems are increasing by each passing day; inflation is growing, GDP growth is expected to be lower and rupee has depreciated to its lowest, I think the slide was on the cards," said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of research, SMC Investments and Advisors Limited.
At 12:46 p.m. (0716 GMT), the 30-share BSE index was down 2.89 percent at 15,613.58 points. It earlier touched 15,478.69 -- its lowest since Nov. 3, 2009. All its components were in the red.
The broader 50-share NSE index was down 2.78 percent at 4,679.15 points.
(Reporting by Ketan Bondre)
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover to 'lay the foundation' for search for life
The size of a small car, NASA's one-ton Curiosity Mars rover contains twice the number of scientific?instruments?as its predecessors, plus a drill that will allow it to bore into the Red Planet's rocks.?
After nearly a decade of planning, several cost overruns and a two-year delay, NASA is finally set to launch its next Mars rover this week.
Skip to next paragraphThe car-size Curiosity rover, the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion?Mars Science Laboratory??(MSL) mission, is slated to blast off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday (Nov. 26) after a one-day delay due to a rocket battery issue. The launch comes two years later than the MSL team had originally planned, a slip that ultimately increased the mission's lifetime costs by 56 percent.
But with Curiosity now sitting on the pad, nestled?atop its Atlas 5 rocket, MSL's past issues are receding deeper into history. Most eyes are now on the rover's future ? its quest to determine if Mars is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life.
"This is a Mars scientist's dream machine," Ashwin Vasavada, MSL deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters on Nov. 10. "This rover is not only the most technically capable rover ever sent to another planet, but it's actually the most capable scientific explorer we've ever sent out." [Photos: NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Rover]
A beast of a rover
NASA began planning MSL's mission in 2003. Over the past eight years, scientists and engineers developed, built and tested Curiosity, a robotic behemoth that will take planetary exploration to a new level.
At 1 ton, Curiosity weighs five times more than each of its immediate Mars rover predecessors, the golf-cart-size twins?Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on the Red Planet in January 2004 to search for signs of past water activity.
While Spirit and Opportunity each sported five scientific instruments, Curiosity boasts 10, as well as a drill that will allow it to access the interior of Red Planet rocks.
The huge rover will use all of this gear to gauge the past and present habitability of its Martian environs. It will look for carbon-containing compounds ? the building blocks of life as we know it ? and assess what the Red Planet was like long ago.
MSL is not a?life-detection mission, but it will lay the foundation for future efforts that could hunt for evidence of microbial Martians, officials said.
"We bridge the gap from 'follow the water' to seeking the signs of life," said Doug McCuistion, head of NASA's Mars exploration program.
A long cruise to Mars, and a novel descent
HelloWallet is a Brilliant Personal Finance App
In the future, you?ll be able to walk around a shopping mall, pick out a dress you like and your phone will tell you whether you can find it cheaper somewhere else or if you can even afford it all.
Today, we have?HelloWallet, an?iPhone app?companion for the online financial guidance startup?s much loved web?application. The Web application pulls information from your credit cards, bank accounts, 401ks, and even student loans. You can even put in your other assets like car or house. I review a lot of apps here, and let me just say that this one is pretty awesome. If you are one of those people who likes to keep track of your finances, balance your checkbook, and budget your spending, you?re going to love this.
First, load up the app and login (you?ll need an existing account) to see your cash flow. Check your Budget to see how much you?ve got left per category: Auto loans, coffee shop, electric, gas & tolls, groceries, etc. Check your spending overview to see what you?ve spent and earned. Then click ?Help Me Spend Now!?
Once the app determines your location, it pulls up a list of nearby venues and asks you ?Where do you want to spend money?? Click on a venue like a bar or?restaurant?and it will tell you how much you have left to spend in that category. It will also tell you your spending history for that venue, which is brilliant. It?s easy to choose a new category for each venue if HelloWallet doesn?t get it right on the first try.
HelloWallet launched in beta in March 2010 ?to democratize access to financial guidance for all Americans.? To this point, the company gives one free pass to a low income family for every 5 paying subscribers. On the outside, it?s a subscription based service like consumer reports but its long term vision is to level the playing field for the 80% of Americans who?ve never before had a conversation with a financial planner.
?By applying technology and data mining, it?s possible to develop an online resource that can provide a very powerful financial planning capability,? says Matt Fellowes, the founder and CEO of Hello Wallet.
The ?social mission focused enterprise? was first unveiled at?the Clinton Global Initiative in September 2009 and its initial funding came from the Rockefeller Foundation. We wrote about it last year at this time in our list of D.C. startups you need to know about.
HelloWallet currently distributes the app through employers who give it to their employees as a benefit for free. The company recently rolled out with an employee base where the average employee was able to find $300 to save within their budget within the first 4 weeks of using the app. I may just have to become one of those people who starts monitoring my budget!
Watch this video for more information about HelloWallet:
This is definitely one to check out as you enter the holiday shopping season.?An Android version of the application is currently in development and slated to be available early next year. Check out the iPhone app below and learn more about pricing here.
??HelloWallet
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011
New way to boost potency of marijuana-like chemical in body
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
UC Irvine and Italian researchers have discovered a new means of enhancing the effects of anandamide ? a natural, marijuana-like chemical in the body that provides pain relief.
Led by Daniele Piomelli, UCI's Louise Turner Arnold Chair in the Neurosciences, the team identified an "escort" protein in brain cells that transports anandamide to sites within the cell where enzymes break it down. They found that blocking this protein ? called FLAT ? increases anandamide's potency.
Previous work by the researchers indicates that compounds boosting anandamide's natural abilities could form the basis of pain medications that don't produce sedation, addiction or other central nervous system side effects common with existing painkillers, such as opiates.
"These findings raise hope that the analgesic properties of marijuana can be harnessed for new, safe drugs," said Piomelli, a professor of pharmacology. "Specific drug compounds we are creating that amplify the actions of natural, marijuana-like chemicals are showing great promise."
For the study, which appears in the Nov. 20 online version of Nature Neuroscience, he and his colleagues used computational methods to understand how FLAT binds with anandamide and escorts it to cell sites to be degraded by fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) enzymes.
Anandamide has been dubbed "the bliss molecule" for its similarities to the active ingredient in marijuana. A neurotransmitter that's part of the body's endocannabinoid system, it's been shown in studies by Piomelli and others to play analgesic, antianxiety and antidepressant roles. It's also important in regulating food consumption. Blocking FAAH activity enhances several effects of anandamide without generating the "high" seen with marijuana.
Piomelli and his collaborators speculate that inhibiting FLAT (FAAH-like anandamide transporters) might be particularly useful in controlling certain forms of pain ? that caused by damage to the central nervous system, for example ? and curbing addiction to such drugs as nicotine and cocaine.
###
University of California - Irvine: http://www.uci.edu
Thanks to University of California - Irvine for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115379/New_way_to_boost_potency_of_marijuana_like_chemical_in_body
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The Simple Dollar ? Review: The Bold Truth About Investing
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Bold Truth About Investing A week or two ago, I was scanning the radio dial while on a road trip, looking for something interesting to listen to, when I stumbled upon a guy talking rather excitedly about investing. ...
Source: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2011/11/20/review-the-bold-truth-about-investing/
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Predators drive the evolution of poison dart frogs' skin patterns
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 21-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: William Raillant-Clark
w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca
514-343-7593
University of Montreal
This release is available in French.
MONTRAL, November 21, 2011 Natural selection has played a role in the development of the many skins patterns of the tiny Ranitomeya imitator poison dart frog, according to a study that will be published in an upcoming edition of American Naturalist by University of Montreal biologist Mathieu Chouteau. The researcher's methodology was rather unusual: on three occasions over three days, at two different sites, Chouteau investigated the number of attacks that had been made on fake frogs, by counting how many times that had been pecked. Those that were attacked the least looked like local frogs, while those that came from another area had obviously been targeted.
The brightly coloured frogs that we find in tropical forests are in fact sending a clear message to predators: "don't come near me, I'm poisonous!" But why would a single species need multiple patterns when one would do? It appears that when predators do not recognize a poisonous frog as being a member of the local group, it attacks in the hope that it has chanced upon edible prey. "When predators see that their targets are of a different species, they attack. Over the long term, that explains how patterns and colours become uniform in an area," said Bernard Angers, who directed Chouteau's doctoral research.
A total of 3,600 life-size plasticine models, each less than one centimetre long, were used in the study. The menagerie was divided between two carefully identified sites in the Amazon forest. "The trickiest part was transporting my models without arousing suspicion at the airport and customs controls," Chouteau said. He chose plasticine following a review of scientific literature. "Many scientists have successfully used plasticine to create models of snakes, salamanders and poison dart frogs." The Peruvian part of the forest proved to be ideal for this study, as two radically different looking groups of frogs are found there: one, living on a plain, has yellow stripes, and the other, living on a mountain, has green patches. The two colonies are ten kilometers apart. 900 fake frogs were placed in each area in carefully targeted positions. Various combinations of colours and patterns were used.
Chouteau was particularly surprised by the "very small spatial scale at which the evolutionary process has taken place." Ten kilometers of separation sufficed for a clearly different adaptation to take place. "A second surprise was the learning abilities of the predator community, especially the speed at which the learning process takes place when a new and exotic defensive signal is introduced on a massive scale," Chouteau said.
This process could be at origin of the wide range of colour patterns that are observed not only in frogs but also many species of butterflies, bees, and other animals. Mathieu Chouteau is in fact currently undertaking post-doctoral research into the Heliconius genus of butterfly. "Considering that this kind of project requires regular field work, I have taken up residence in the small town of Tarapoto, where I am responsible for the opening of a research centre that will facilitate the study of neotropical butterfly mimicry," he said.
###
Source : Mathieu-Robert Sauv, Universit de Montral
Mathieu Chouteau is currently in Peru, where is undertaking postdoctoral research in collaboration with the Musum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris.
Links:
Media contact:
William Raillant-Clark
International Press Attach
Universit de Montral
Te: 514-343-7593 | w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca | @uMontreal_News
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Public release date: 21-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: William Raillant-Clark
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This release is available in French.
MONTRAL, November 21, 2011 Natural selection has played a role in the development of the many skins patterns of the tiny Ranitomeya imitator poison dart frog, according to a study that will be published in an upcoming edition of American Naturalist by University of Montreal biologist Mathieu Chouteau. The researcher's methodology was rather unusual: on three occasions over three days, at two different sites, Chouteau investigated the number of attacks that had been made on fake frogs, by counting how many times that had been pecked. Those that were attacked the least looked like local frogs, while those that came from another area had obviously been targeted.
The brightly coloured frogs that we find in tropical forests are in fact sending a clear message to predators: "don't come near me, I'm poisonous!" But why would a single species need multiple patterns when one would do? It appears that when predators do not recognize a poisonous frog as being a member of the local group, it attacks in the hope that it has chanced upon edible prey. "When predators see that their targets are of a different species, they attack. Over the long term, that explains how patterns and colours become uniform in an area," said Bernard Angers, who directed Chouteau's doctoral research.
A total of 3,600 life-size plasticine models, each less than one centimetre long, were used in the study. The menagerie was divided between two carefully identified sites in the Amazon forest. "The trickiest part was transporting my models without arousing suspicion at the airport and customs controls," Chouteau said. He chose plasticine following a review of scientific literature. "Many scientists have successfully used plasticine to create models of snakes, salamanders and poison dart frogs." The Peruvian part of the forest proved to be ideal for this study, as two radically different looking groups of frogs are found there: one, living on a plain, has yellow stripes, and the other, living on a mountain, has green patches. The two colonies are ten kilometers apart. 900 fake frogs were placed in each area in carefully targeted positions. Various combinations of colours and patterns were used.
Chouteau was particularly surprised by the "very small spatial scale at which the evolutionary process has taken place." Ten kilometers of separation sufficed for a clearly different adaptation to take place. "A second surprise was the learning abilities of the predator community, especially the speed at which the learning process takes place when a new and exotic defensive signal is introduced on a massive scale," Chouteau said.
This process could be at origin of the wide range of colour patterns that are observed not only in frogs but also many species of butterflies, bees, and other animals. Mathieu Chouteau is in fact currently undertaking post-doctoral research into the Heliconius genus of butterfly. "Considering that this kind of project requires regular field work, I have taken up residence in the small town of Tarapoto, where I am responsible for the opening of a research centre that will facilitate the study of neotropical butterfly mimicry," he said.
###
Source : Mathieu-Robert Sauv, Universit de Montral
Mathieu Chouteau is currently in Peru, where is undertaking postdoctoral research in collaboration with the Musum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris.
Links:
Media contact:
William Raillant-Clark
International Press Attach
Universit de Montral
Te: 514-343-7593 | w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca | @uMontreal_News
[ | 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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/uom-pdt112111.php
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question is-can electric cars actually take on petrol /dzl cars ??? Raftaar 11.30pm NDTV India
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Monday, November 21, 2011
Japan October exports disappoint as yen, global slowdown (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan's exports fell at the fastest pace in five months in the year to October and the worse than expected result signaled more weakness ahead as a strong yen and sputtering global growth weigh on the recuperating economy.
Although Japan's economy expanded 1.5 percent in the previous quarter, rebounding from recession triggered by March earthquake and subsequent nuclear crisis, it is expected to slow sharply in October-December. Severe floods in Thailand, a major manufacturing base for many Japanese exporters, are expected to add to global headwinds faced by the world's third-biggest economy.
Exports fell 3.7 percent last month from a year earlier, far more than a 0.3 percent dip forecast by economists and the data follows the central bank's warning that government debt woes in Europe were already hurting Japan and emerging economies.
The October fall follows a 2.3 percent rise in September and was the biggest drop since a 10.3 percent fall in May, with shipments of semiconductors and other electronic goods falling due to strength in the yen.
"The global slowdown stemming from Europe's debt crisis, sluggish IT-related demand and the yen's rise which is driving production abroad were among the factors behind the decline," a finance ministry official said.
He added that the impact of Thai flooding may further hurt Japan's exports in the coming months.
Thai-bound exports fell 5.1 percent, the first annual decline in three months.
The Bank of Japan held fire last week after easing policy by boosting its asset buying scheme in October, but economists say signs of more weakness may put it under pressure to loosen monetary reins further.
"Exports will likely continue to fall for the next few months," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.
"There is a chance that the BOJ will adopt further easing steps within this fiscal year. It is not yet a real crisis situation but the impact from Europe's debt woes is gradually affecting other economic regions."
One of the triggers of the October 27 monetary easing was the yen's rally to record highs against the dollar driven by investors shifting funds away from Europe and other riskier markets into highly liquid and relatively stable Japanese debt.
Some BOJ board members have argued that purchases of government bonds with short maturities worked to stabilize the foreign exchange market, BOJ minutes showed on Monday.
Just days after the central bank move, the finance ministry ordered its biggest ever single-day intervention, selling an estimated 7.7 trillion yen on October 31.
IMPORTS SURGE
Exports to China, Japan's largest trading partner, slumped an annual 7.7 percent, posting their biggest decline since May.
Shipments to the United States fell 2.3 percent, while those to European Union dropped 2.9 percent, down for the first time in five months and bringing Japan's trade surplus with the region to its smallest since 1979 for the month of October.
Imports were up 17.9 percent in October from a year earlier, against an expected 15.2 percent gain, bringing the trade balance to a deficit of 273.8 billion yen ($3.6 billion). That marked the first deficit in two months and compared with a median forecast of a 39.9 billion yen surplus.
Japan's trade balance has swung to a deficit a few times since the March disaster as exports slumped due to damaged supply chains while imports continued to increase on rising demand for crude oil and natural gas to make up for a loss of nuclear energy as well as higher oil prices.
(Additional reporting by Rie Ishiguro; Editing by Joseph Radford and Tomasz Janowski)
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FACT CHECK: GOP senator gasps for facts on asthma (AP)
WASHINGTON ? It was a startling claim: Air pollution has no connection to asthma, Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul said on the Senate floor.
But Paul, and a chart he used to make his case against the health benefits of a new federal air pollution rule, relied on some creative sourcing and pseudoscience.
Paul's chart was a graph showing air pollution declining in California as the number of people diagnosed with asthma rose. The chart attributed the data to a May 2003 paper by what was then called the California Department of Health Services. But the department never plotted the relationship between those two factors.
In fact, the department said asthma attacks "can be triggered by exposures and conditions such as respiratory infections, house dust mites, animal dander, mold, pollen, exercise, tobacco smoke, and indoor and outdoor air pollutants."
Paul's real source was a 2006 paper "Facts Not Fear on Air Pollution" from the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative think tank.
That paper, by independent consultant Joel Schwartz, contends that most air pollution information from environmentalists, regulators, scientists and journalists is exaggerated or wrong. The paper was not subjected to the normal peer-review process demanded for most published science.
Paul, an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon, cited Schwartz in his Nov. 10 remarks. "We have decreased pollution and rising incidence of asthma. Either they are inversely proportional or they are not related at all," he said.
At best, the chart suggests that air pollution alone cannot explain the rise in asthma, a chronic lung disease that inflicts approximately 34 million people in the U.S. Its exact cause is unknown.
The chart certainly can't be used to say that air pollution plays no role in causing asthma.
"They may think there is a pattern there, but in fact it has no basis," said Dr. Richard Kreutzer, head of environmental and occupational disease control at what is now California's Department of Public Health, the agency cited on Paul's chart. Kreutzer said there is evidence that some pollutants can cause asthma and even more research showing that air pollution aggravates asthma in those who have the disease.
The National Institutes of Health said last year that "recent findings have conclusively demonstrated a link between asthma and air pollution, especially ground-level ozone."
Schwartz, who now works for Blue Sky Consulting Group, discounts even studies linking pollution to asthma attacks, saying "they are probably not related."
In an interview with The Associated Press, Schwartz defended his work. "The fact that they move in opposite directions shows that air pollution is not a large factor in the cause," he said.
Dan Greenbaum, the president of the nonprofit Health Effects Institute, said such arguments "miss the point." The institute receives funding from both the Environmental Protection Agency and the auto industry.
"No pulmonary doctor has said that the primary reason for the increase in asthma is air pollution. That is not the concern with air pollution and asthma," Greenbaum said. "The concern is that if you have asthma, we have very strong evidence that you are sensitive to air pollution."
___
Follow Dina Cappiello on Twitter (at)dinacappiello
___
Online:
California Department of Public Health paper: http://www.bit.ly/s3RAen
National Center for Policy Analysis paper: http://www.bit.ly/w06uJC
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Sunday, November 20, 2011
After Gaddafi son, spy chief run to ground (Reuters)
TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? A day after Muammar Gaddafi's son was captured by Libyan fighters, the ousted leader's intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi was said to be surrounded nearby at a remote desert homestead and negotiating his surrender.
The arrest of the other survivor of the old regime who is wanted at The Hague for crimes against humanity would crown a momentous couple of days for a new government that is still in the process of formation, and also pose immediate tests of its authority - both over the militias and with the world powers.
A commander of former rebel forces nominally loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC), General Ahmed al-Hamdouni, told Reuters that his men, acting on a tip, had found and surrounded Senussi at a house belonging to his sister near the town of Birak, about 500 km (300 miles) south of Tripoli and in the same general area as Saif al-Islam was seized on Saturday.
An NTC spokesman, Abdul Hafez Ghoga, and Free Libya television said Senussi, who is Saif al-Islam's uncle by marriage, had been captured, although information was sketchy.
But Hamdouni, commander of forces for the vast Fezzan province that comprises Libya's Saharan south, said negotiations were continuing near Birak.
Like Muammar Gaddafi, who was captured and killed on the coast a month ago on Sunday, Saif al-Islam and Senussi were indicted this year by the International Criminal Court for alleged plans to kill protesters following the Arab Spring revolt that broke out in February. But NTC officials have said they can convince the ICC to let them try both men in Libya.
Ghoga said NTC members meeting on Sunday had confirmed that preference, as did the current justice minister - although legal experts point out that international law demands Tripoli make a strong case for the right to try anyone who has already been indicted by the ICC. Given the state of Libya's legal system after 42 years of dictatorship, as well as the depth of feelings after this year's civil war, the ICC may not agree.
Its chief prosecutor is expected in Libya this week.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi spent Sunday secreted in the militia stronghold of Zintan while in Tripoli the Libyan rebel leaders who overthrew his father tried to resolve their differences and form a government that can try the new captive.
With rival local militia commanders from across the country trying to parlay their guns into cabinet seats, officials in the capital gave mixed signals on how long the prime minister-designate, Abdurrahim El-Keib, may need to form his full team.
Ghoga said the NTC had given Keib another two days, right up to a deadline of Tuesday, to agree his cabinet - a delay that indicated the extent of horse-trading going on.
And though the Zintan mountain fighters who intercepted the 39-year-old heir to the four-decade Gaddafi dynasty deep in the Sahara said they would hand him over once some central authority was clear, few expect Saif al-Islam in Tripoli soon.
Members of the NTC, the self-appointed legislative panel of notables formed after February's uprising, expect to vote on Keib's nominees, with keenest attention among the men who control the militias focused on the Defence Ministry.
One official working for the NTC said that the group from Zintan, a town of just 50,000 in the Western Mountains outside Tripoli that was a stronghold of resistance to Gaddafi, might even secure that ministry thanks to holding Saif al-Islam.
Other groups include rival Islamist and secularist militias in the capital, those from Benghazi, Libya's second city and the original seat of revolt, and the fighters from the third city of Misrata, who took credit for capturing and killing the elder Gaddafi and haggled with the NTC over the fate of his rotting corpse for several days in October.
"FINAL ACT"
"The final act of the Libyan drama", as a spokesman for the former rebels put it, began in the blackness of the Sahara night, when a small unit of fighters from the town of Zintan, acting on a tip-off, intercepted Saif al-Islam and four armed companions driving in a pair of 4x4 vehicles on a desert track.
It ended, after a 300-mile flight north on a cargo plane, with the London-educated younger Gaddafi held in a safe house in Zintan and the townsfolk vowing to keep him safe until he can face a judge in the capital.
His captors said he was "very scared" when they first recognised him, despite the heavy beard and enveloping Tuareg robes and turban he wore. But they reassured him and, by the time a Reuters correspondent spoke to him aboard the plane, he had been chatting amiably to his guards.
"He looked tired. He had been lost in the desert for many days," said Abdul al-Salaam al-Wahissi, a Zintan fighter involved in the operation. "I think he lost his guide."
Western leaders, who backed February's uprising against Gaddafi but looked on squeamishly as rebel fighters filmed themselves taking vengeance on the fallen strongman a month ago, urged Keib to seek foreign help to ensure a fair trial.
Keib, who taught engineering at U.S. universities before returning to Libya to join the rebellion, drove on Saturday the two hours from Tripoli to Zintan to pay homage to its fighters. He promised justice would be done but Saif al-Islam would not be handed over to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, which had indicted him for crimes against humanity.
DEATH PENALTY
The justice minister from the outgoing executive said the younger Gaddafi was likely to face the death penalty, though the charge sheet, expected to include ordering killings as well as looting the public purse, would be drawn up by the state prosecutor after due investigation.
Western leaders urged Libya to work with the ICC which has also issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam, on charges of crimes against humanity during the crackdown.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both called on Libya to hand him over to the ICC and guarantee his safety.
Keib said Libya would make sure Gaddafi's son faced a fair trial and called his capture the "crowning" of the uprising.
"We assure Libyans and the world that Saif al-Islam will receive a fair trial ... under fair legal processes which our own people had been deprived of for the last 40 years," Keib told a news conference in Zintan on Saturday.
Zintani fighters said they believed one of Saif al-Islam's companions was a nephew or other relative of Senussi, who is married to a sister of Gaddafi's wife, Saif al-Islam's mother.
(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Hisham El-Dani and Francois Murphy in Tripoli and Oliver Holmes and Taha Zargoun in Zintan; Writing by Alastair Macdonald)
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Tebow, Broncos top Jets 17-13 on last-minute drive (AP)
DENVER ? Tim Tebow's 20-yard touchdown run with 58 seconds left capped a 95-yard drive and sent the Denver Broncos to a 17-13 victory over the stunned New York Jets on Thursday night.
Tebow saw the blitz and outflanked safety Eric Smith around the left edge, then cut back and bulled his way past other Jets into the end zone.
The Broncos (5-5) are 4-1 since Tebow replaced Kyle Orton.
The Jets (5-5) lost their second heart-breaker in four days. Mark Sanchez's desperation pass toward the end zone was batted down as time expired.
Nick Folk's 45-yard field goal broke a 10-10 tie with 9:14 remaining, and the Broncos found themselves facing a daunting task when they got the ball back with 5:54 left at their own 5.
New York safety Jim Leonhard could have throttled Denver's winning drive on the first play when he wrapped up Eddie Royal in the end zone on a throw to the right flat, but Royal wiggled free for 8 yards.
Tebow ran just twice for 11 yards until the final drive, when he carried seven times for 58 yards in a performance reminiscent of his miracle in Miami, when he was ineffective for 55 minutes, then led the Broncos to two TDs in the final 5 minutes of a game Denver won in overtime.
After completing just two passes in a win at Kansas City four days earlier, Tebow completed 9 of 20 passes for 104 yards Thursday night.
"I said before, I trust him. I trust him with everything," teammate Von Miller said about Tebow. "No matter how many interceptions he throws, no matter how many touchdowns he throws. I'm going to ride him to the end. I hope he shut up a bunch of his critics today."
Before Denver's unorthodox option offense prevailed again, it appeared the Jets were going to win this one thanks to an oddball touchdown ? left guard Matt Slauson's fumble recovery for a touchdown.
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Kindle Fire added to Apple app store suit
A web screenshot of Amazon's Appstore that Apple included, along with other examples, in its amended complaint against the company.
By Suzanne Choney
Apple has filed an amended complaint against Amazon, accusing it of unfair competition by further tweaking the "Appstore" name for customers of the new Kindle Fire, saying the change is "likely to confuse consumers."
Apple launched its "App Store" in July 2008, and since then, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved the company's application to register "App Store" as a trademark. Since then, of course, app stores become a familiar phrase to users of many different phones, but other companies have come up with different names for them, be they subtly different ("BlackBerry App World") or more clearly distinguished ("Android Market").
The Cupertino company filed suit in federal court against Amazon last spring to stop it from using the "Amazon Appstore Developer Portal," and other similar app store references for its app program. A preliminary injunction was denied.
But in a second complaint filed this week, Apple said that in September, as Amazon prepared for the Kindle Fire's release:
... Amazon began altering its use of the infringing mark by omitting or de-emphasizing the use of the "for Android" suffix to the ?Amazon Appstore? phrase. For example, when Amazon announced in late September 2011 that it would introduce a new hardware product named the Kindle Fire ... Amazon promoted the Fire?s ability to use Amazon?s mobile software download service but omitted the ?for Android? phrase when using the APPSTORE mark.
... Amazon?s alteration of its usage does not appear to be limited to promotions connected to the Fire. Set forth below is an image obtained from Amazon?s website on November 7, 2011. That image shows Amazon?s use of the phrase ?Amazon Appstore Gift Cards? in large type with references to ?for Android? or to ?Android? in smaller, less prominent type...
Amazon has not commented on the suit itself.
Meanwhile, the app store name war goes on. Microsoft filed a legal challenge to Apple's trademark approval earlier this year with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. In that suit, Microsoft said "the combined term 'app store' is commonly used in the trade, by the general press, by consumers, by Apple?s competitors ... as the generic name for online stores featuring apps." (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.) The company calls its app store "Windows Marketplace."
In its amended complaing against Amazon, Apple said of its App Store that:
...to date, there have been more than 18 billion downloads of programs through the service by more than 250 million devices worldwide. An average of over a million downloads take place every hour worldwide. There are currently more than 500,000 software programs available for download on the APP STORE service. Apple has extensively advertised, marketed and promoted the APP STORE service and the APP STORE mark, spending millions of dollars on print, television, and internet advertising.
And, the company noted, Amazon's use of "Appstore" is also likely to "dilute the distinctiveness of Apple?s APP STORE mark, to tarnish the image of Apple?s APP STORE mark, to misrepresent the nature, characteristics and qualities of Amazon?s mobile download service and/or to deceive or have a tendency to deceive a substantial segment of consumers into believing that Amazon?s service has the nature, characteristics, and/or qualities of Apple?s APP STORE service."
??Via ArsTechnica
Related stories:
Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
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Saturday, November 19, 2011
British woman tries historic Antarctic crossing (AP)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina ? Reaching the end of the Earth has become almost routine these days: One hundred years after Norway's Roald Amundsen beat Britain's R.F. Scott to the South Pole, more than 30 teams are trying for it this year.
Some will kite-sail over the vast Antarctic ice and snow. Others will drive in from the coast. A wealthy handful will be dropped off at one-degree north latitude, for relatively leisurely guided treks to the pole.
But Felicity Aston has been there, done that. Weather and her own considerable stamina permitting, the 33-year-old British adventurer will only pause at the pole long enough to pick up more food and fuel. Her plan is to keep on skiing, by herself, all the way to the other side of the frozen continent ? and become the first person using only muscle power to cross Antarctica alone.
If she manages to complete this journey of more than 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) in late January, she would also set a record for the longest solo polar expedition by a woman, at about 70 days.
"This is my first solo expedition, the first time I will have spent this length of time without company," she said in a phone interview with the Associated Press. "It's part of the challenge of the expedition, to see how I'll cope with it."
Aston spoke from Punta Arenas, Chile, where she was boarding a charter flight Friday after losing a precious week waiting for weather to break. From a base in Antarctica, she'll then take a second plane to her starting point at the foot of the Leverett Glacier, where the Ross Ice Shelf meets the rocky coast.
Already, she was "channeling down," getting her mind set on what would be a grueling routine.
"Your life reduces to eating, sleeping and skiing. It's a form of meditation. You get into a rhythm, and all you can hear is your own breathing, your own heartbeat, the sound of your clothes and your skis. It's kind of an altered state," she said. "A trip like this is all about keeping going ? the stamina, endurance, keeping going day after day after day."
Aston has plenty of experience in long-endurance expeditions. She spent nearly three years as a meteorologist with the British Antarctic Survey, and in 2009 led an all-woman group from the coast to the South Pole. Her long list of travel adventures includes skiing across the Canadian Arctic, crossing the Greenland ice sheet and trekking over Siberia's frozen Lake Baikal. She's also run across Morocco's Sahara Desert and tracked jaguars in Paraguay.
"I've been preparing for 10 years and only now do I feel capable of this. Every trip teaches you something: how tough you are, what your personal limits are, how to wrap up a blister better, how not to get sick," she said. "Particularly on the psychological side, each journey I've had has taught me something about how to feel better about a situation, how to react, how to behave."
The 5-foot-11 (1.80-meter) Aston weighs around 170 pounds (77 kilos) and she'll be hauling up to 187 pounds (85 kilos) of gear on a sledge. It includes freeze-dried food, fuel and a camp stove for melting snow. She's also bringing along a solar recharger and two MP3 players ? one has music donated by her friends, everything from peaceful ska tunes to heavy metal and "fluffy pop songs;" the other has mostly audio books from her father on "the whole of British history ... 300 hours of it!"
Antarctic Treaty rules require private support teams to be able to pull people out in a pinch, and Aston is carrying two Iridium satellite phones and a GPS beacon to keep in touch with hers.
"She has to have the beacon, because it's so easy for a solo person to get in trouble," said David Rootes, a veteran polar guide who runs Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions. The company is supporting most of this year's trips, making about 20 flights into Antarctica and moving about 500 people around the continent in all. Most are traveling in groups, hoping to make it in time for a polar party on Dec. 13, (South Pole time), the centennial of Amundsen's achievement.
"What Felicity is doing is not routine at all," Rootes said. "Until she hits the pole, she's really out of contact with anybody at all."
Rootes met Aston years ago at a Royal Geographic Society function in London, and has followed her exploits in the clubby world of adventurers ever since.
"She's a very substantial woman. You have to have a hell of a lot of drive and single-mindedness to do this, because everything in the world will get in the way to stop you," he said.
Once Aston sets off, climbing thousands of feet (meters) in altitude through the Transantarctic Mountains and onto the continent's vast central plateau, she'll be utterly alone, with no other living thing in sight. Then, she'll have to push through fierce headwinds for more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) as she follows a route along 132 West Longitude to the pole.
Her way out ? skiing along the 80 West Longitude line to the company's base camp on Hercules Inlet on the Ronne Ice Shelf ? would presumably be easier.
"The West Winds, quite notorious. That's the bit I'm most worried about in terms of weather, but once I'm past the pole, I've got the wind at my back," she said. "So in the scheme of things, it works out pretty good this way!"
___
Michael Warren can be followed at http://twitter.com/mwarrenap
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