Sun unleashes biggest solar flare of the year yet

The most powerful solar flare of the year erupted from the sun Thursday, April 11, sparking a temporary radio blackout on Earth, NASA officials say.

The solar flare occurred at 3:16 a.m. EDT (0716 GMT) and registered as a M6.5-class sun storm, a relatively mid-level flare on the scale of solar tempests. It coincided with an eruption of super-hot solar plasma known as a coronal mass ejection.

‘The sun’s normal 11-year cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum, which is expected in late 2013.’

- NASA spokeswoman Karen Fox

“This is the strongest flare seen so far in 2013,” NASA spokeswoman Karen Fox explained in a statement. “Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment, since the sun’s normal 11-year cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum, which is expected in late 2013.”

NASA’s sun-watching Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a stunning video of the strongest solar flare of 2013, showing it extreme detail. The spacecraft is one of several space-based observatories keeping track of the sun’s solar weather events.

NASA officials dubbed the solar flare as a “spring fling” for the sun, which has been relatively calm as it heads into its peak activity period.

Thursday’s M-class solar flare was about 10 times weaker than X-class flares, which are the strongest flares the sun can unleash. M-class solar flares are the weakest solar events that can still trigger space weather effects near Earth, such as communications interruptions or spectacular northern lights displays.

The solar flare triggered a short-lived radio communications blackout on Earth that registered as an R2 event (on a scale of R1 to R5), according to space weather scales maintained NOAA, Fox added.

When aimed directly at Earth, major solar flares and coronal mass ejections can pose a threat to astronauts and satellites in orbit. They can interfere with GPS navigation and communications satellite signals in space, as well as impair power systems infrastructure on Earth.

Fox said NASA officials are tracking the coronal mass ejection to see if it poses any space weather concerns for Earth. Meanwhile, the Solar Dynamics Observatory and other space observatories will continue to monitor the sun’s activity.

“Humans have tracked this solar cycle continuously since it was discovered, and it is normal for there to be many flares a day during the sun’s peak activity,” Fox explained.

Sounds can Help Strengthen Memory during Sleep

Sounds that are in sync with the brain’s slow oscillations help enhance memory, a new study reported. Slow oscillations in the brain occur during slow-wave sleep and are associated with memory. The sound stimulations can also help a person sleep better.

“The beauty lies in the simplicity to apply auditory stimulation at low intensities-an approach that is both practical and ethical, if compared for example with electrical stimulation-and therefore portrays a straightforward tool for clinical settings to enhance sleep rhythms,” said Dr. Jan Born, of the University of Tübingen, in Germany, co-author of the study.

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The study included 11 participants who were exposed to sound simulations or placebo simulations during sleep on different nights. Before the participants went to sleep, they were asked to memorize word association.

Researchers found that when participants were exposed to sounds that synchronized with the brain’s slow oscillation rhythm, they were better at remembering the word association than when they were exposed to sounds that weren’t in sync.

“Importantly, the sound stimulation is effective only when the sounds occur in synchrony with the ongoing slow oscillation rhythm during deep sleep. We presented the acoustic stimuli whenever a slow oscillation “up state” was upcoming, and in this way we were able to strengthen the slow oscillation, showing higher amplitude and occurring for longer periods,” said Dr. Born in a news release.

The study is published in the journal Neuron.

Many studies have shown how sleeping affects recall of information. Complex motor skills can be learned by taking naps. Taking breaks during tasks gives better results, says a study that was published in 2010 in the journal Neuron. Another study has shown that brief amount of sleep after learning preserves memories that, at times, last for years.

Previously lost Soviet Mars 3 lander discovered by Mars Orbiter

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On May 28, 1971, the former Soviet Union sent a lander to the Red Planet. Called the Mars 3, it followed the ill-fated and crashed Mars 2 to the planet, landing on the surface on December 2 of the same year and achieving the first successful soft landing on Mars in human history. The Mars 3 opened to release its PROP-M rover, transmitted for all of 14.5 secondsâ€"and fell silent. The craft has not been seen or heard from since.

Until now, that is. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter relayed images taken by the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (or HiRISE) that potentially revealed the Soviet craft’s location in 2007. A group of internet-based Russian Curiosity enthusiasts caught wind of what portion of Mars had been photographed and searched for their lost legacy.

Mars 3 is thought to have landed in the area known as Ptolemaeus Crater (or latitude 45 degrees south, longitude 202 degrees east specifically). Vitali Egorov of St. Petersburg, Russia, knew this. Head of the aforementioned Russian Curiosity group, Egorov used crowdsourcing to enable his subscribers to search the 2007 images for evidence of the lander’s resting place. On December 31, 2012, they did. Or at least, they think they did.

Egorov provided modeling of what certain pieces of the craftâ€"hardware such as the parachute, retrorocket, lander and heat shieldâ€"might look like via HiRISE imagery, and then dispersed the information amidst his investigators. Potential candidates were located in the miniscule details of the southern regions and lay in patterns consistent with entry, descent and landing.

Alexander Basilevsky of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry in Moscow advises Egorov and his group. He contacted Alfred McEwen, HiRISE Principal Investigator, asking that the region where the suspected remains of Mars 3 were be revisited. McEwen complied, while Basilevsky and Egorov touched base with Russian engineers for more clarification.

New HiRISE images of the area, tailored to highlight the hardware candidates, were received on March 10 of this year. The supposed parachute is consistent with understood measurements (7.5 meters in diameter; a fully spread parachute would measure 11 meters). The other suspected pieces are a retrorocket candidate (complete with chain-like extension, which would have connected it to the lander), one for the lander itself with its four open petals (from which its rover would emerge), and what could be the heat shield (if given that it is partially buried).

NASA does believe the evidence favors the Mars 3 having finally been found, but it cannot yet say for certain.

“Together, this set of features and their layout on the ground provide a remarkable match to what is expected from the Mars 3 landing, but alternative explanations for the features cannot be ruled out,” said McEwen. “Further analysis of the data and future images to better understand the three-dimensional shapes may help to confirm this interpretation.”

Maria Tallchief, Who Dazzled at the Ballet, Dies at 88

Her daughter, the poet Elise Paschen, confirmed the death. Ms. Tallchief lived in Chicago.

A former wife and muse of the choreographer George Balanchine, Ms. Tallchief achieved renown with Balanchine’s New York City Ballet, dazzling audiences with her speed, energy and fire. Indeed, the part that catapulted her to acclaim, in 1949, was the title role in the company’s version of Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” one of many that Balanchine created for her.

The choreographer Jacques d’Amboise, who was a 15-year-old corps dancer in Balanchine’s “Firebird” before becoming one of City Ballet’s stars, compared Ms. Tallchief to two of the century’s greatest ballerinas: Galina Ulanova of the Soviet Union and Margot Fonteyn of Britain.

“When you thought of Russian ballet, it was Ulanova,” he said an interview on Friday. “With English ballet, it was Fonteyn. For American ballet, it was Tallchief. She was grand in the grandest way.”

A daughter of an Osage Indian father and a Scottish-Irish mother, Ms. Tallchief left Oklahoma at an early age, but she was long associated with the state nevertheless. She was one of five dancers of Indian heritage, all born at roughly the same time, who came to be called the Oklahoma Indian ballerinas: the others included her younger sister, Marjorie Tallchief, as well as Rosella Hightower, Moscelyne Larkin and Yvonne Chouteau.

Growing up at a time when many American dancers adopted Russian stage names, Ms. Tallchief, proud of her Indian heritage, refused to do so, even though friends told her that it would be easy to transform Tallchief into Tallchieva.

She was born Elizabeth Marie Tall Chief on Jan. 24, 1925 in a small hospital in Fairfax, Okla. Her father, Alexander Joseph Tall Chief, was a 6-foot-2 full-blooded Osage Indian whom his daughters idolized and women found strikingly handsome, Ms. Tallchief later wrote. (She and her sister joined their surnames when they began dancing professionally.)

Her mother, the former Ruth Porter, met Mr. Tall Chief, a widower, while visiting her sister, who was a cook and housekeeper for Mr. Tall Chief’s mother.

“When Daddy was a boy, oil was discovered on Osage land, and overnight the tribe became rich,” Ms. Tallchief recounted in “Maria Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina,” her 1997 autobiography written with Larry Kaplan. “As a young girl growing up on the Osage reservation in Fairfax, Okla., I felt my father owned the town. He had property everywhere. The local movie theater on Main Street, and the pool hall opposite, belonged to him. Our 10-room, terracotta-brick house stood high on a hill overlooking the reservation.”

She had her first ballet lessons in Colorado Springs, where the family had a summer home. She also studied piano and, blessed with perfect pitch, contemplated becoming a concert pianist.

But dance occupied her attention after the family, feeling confined in Oklahoma, moved to Los Angeles when she was 8. The day they arrived, her mother took her daughters into a drugstore for a snack at the soda fountain. While waiting for their order, Mrs. Tall Chief chatted with a druggist and asked him if he knew of a good dancing teacher. He recommended Ernest Belcher.

As Ms. Tallchief recalled in her memoir, “An anonymous man in an unfamiliar town decided our fate with those few words.”

Mr. Belcher, the father of the television and film star Marge Champion, was an excellent teacher, and Ms. Tallchief soon realized that her training in Oklahoma had been potentially ruinous to her limbs. At 12 she started studies with Bronislava Nijinska, a former choreographer for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, who had opened a studio in Los Angeles.

Nijinska, a formidable pedagogue, gave Ms. Tallchief special encouragement. But she also had classes with other distinguished teachers who passed through Los Angeles. One, Tatiana Riabouchinska, became her chaperon on a trip to New York City, which, since the outbreak of World War II, had become the base of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a leading touring company. She joined the troupe in 1942.

Anna Kisselgoff contributed reporting.

Lindsay Lohan hits Coachella with her brother

Although the Scary Movie 5 actress is slated to check in to rehab in two weeks for a 90 day stay, Lindsay Lohan decided to hit the Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday night before beginning her rehab stint.

We recently reported that the 26-year-old star pushed back her rehab date in order to attend the music festival, a decision her father called “”one of the worst ideas she ever had.”

According to Access Hollywood, Lohan sported black cut-offs and a summer scarf atop a midriff-baring striped shirt. Lohan completed the look with a relaxed braid in her hair.

E! Online reported that the Mean Girls star was accompanied by her 16-year-old brother, Cody.

While Coachella is notorious for rampant drug and alcohol use, a source told the media outlet that she is looking forward to “a healthy fun time at Coachella,” wanting to remain clean for her rehab stint which begins on May 2.

Photo courtesy Tumblr.com

Icy clouds over Titan's south pole hint that fall has come

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has beamed back some very interesting images of Saturn’s largest moon Titan. The images were sent back by the Cassini spacecraft and show that an icy cloud is beginning to grow over the south pole of the moon. NASA says that that icy cloud indicates that fall has begun on Titan’s southern hemisphere.

Scientists and researchers don’t know what the cloud is made up of, but a similar cloud has been dissipating over Titan’s north pole where springtime has begun. The NASA researchers associate the cloud forming over the southern pole of the moon with winter weather. NASA says that the interesting thing about the cloud forming over the south pole is that this is the first time this sort of cloud has been detected anywhere other than the north pole of the moon.

Titan is very interesting to astronomers and scientists, it is the second largest moon in the entire solar system. Titan is also the only moon that has clouds and a dense atmosphere similar to a planet. Observations made by the Cassini spacecraft have noted that warmer air from the southern hemisphere of the moon rises into the atmosphere and then gets dumped on the moon’s North pole.

As that air descends from high in the atmosphere to the North pole of Titan it cools and forms the icy cloud. While here on earth we get several seasons in a single calendar year, Titan has a much longer seasonal pattern. The north pole of Titan begin transitioning from winter to spring in August of 2009. However, the first signs of the ice cloud in the southern hemisphere weren’t spotted until July of 2012. While scientists don’t know what the clouds on Titan are made from, they do know a few things the cloud cover isn’t made from. Scientists have ruled out chemicals such as methane, ethane, and hydrogen cyanide.

[via Space.com]

Hawaii Panel Approves Telescope Plan

The decision, which was made on Friday, clears the way for the group managing the Thirty Meter Telescope project to negotiate a sublease for land with the University of Hawaii. The telescope would be able to observe planets that orbit stars other than the Sun and would enable astronomers to watch new planets and stars being formed. It should also help scientists see about 13 billion light-years away for a glimpse of the early years of the universe.

Construction costs are expected to top $1 billion. The University of California system, the California Institute of Technology and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy are leading the project. China, India and Japan have signed on to be partners.

The telescope’s segmented primary mirror, which is nearly 100 feet long, will give it nine times the collecting area of the largest optical telescopes in use today. Its images will also be three times sharper.

Some Native Hawaiian groups had petitioned against the project, arguing that it would defile the mountain’s sacred summit. Tradition holds that high altitudes are sacred and are a gateway to heaven. In the past, only high chiefs and priests were allowed at Mauna Kea’s summit.

Half-Human, Half Ape Ancestor Walked Pigeon-Toed

Two million years ago in South Africa, part-human and part-ape-like individuals existed — and now we know what they looked like and how they behaved: They had a primitive, pigeon-toed gait, human-like front teeth, ate mostly veggies and spent a lot of time swinging in the trees.

The species, Australopithecus sediba, is a striking example of human evolution, conclude six papers published in the journal Science. Taken together, the papers describe how Au. sediba looked, walked, chewed and moved.

“Sediba shows a strange mix of primitive australopithecine traits and derived Homo traits — face and anterior dentition like Homo, shape of the cranium like Homo, other parts of the face and size of the cranium like an australopithecine, arms like an australopithecine, pelvis and lower limbs like Homo and feet and ankles like an australopithecine,” project leader Lee Berger told Discovery News.

PHOTOS: Faces of Our Ancestors

“It does look like a good ‘transitional’ fossil, doesn’t it?” added Berger, who is a researcher in the Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. He named the species, which was found at a site called Malapa, near Johannesburg.

The tooth study found that Au. sediba was closely related to Au. africanus, which lived until about 2.1 million years ago. These species, in turn, shared numerous dental similarities with Homo erectus, an early human species.

“All of the research so far shows that sediba had a mosaic of primitive traits and newer traits that suggest it was a bridge between earlier australopiths and the first humans,” said Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, co-author of one of the studies and a professor of anthropology at Ohio State University.

NEWS: ‘Ardi,’ Oldest Human Ancestor, Unveiled

Prior research determined what Au. sediba ate.

Peter Schmid of the University of Zurich, who also analyzed this species’ remains, shared that the early probable ancestor was not a carnivore.

“Microscopic elements of plants were found in the tartar of the teeth of Au. sediba,” Schmid told Discovery News. “It was largely a vegetarian and shows a rather human-like chewing apparatus.”

In terms of how it walked, Schmid and the other researchers explained that Au. sediba had a small heel resembling that of a chimp. It walked rather awkwardly — with an inward rotation of the knee and hip, with its feet slightly twisted. The scientists conclude that this pigeon-toed way of walking on two limbs might have been an evolutionary compromise between walking upright and tree climbing.

Such a detailed understanding of these movements is possible because remains for a female Au. sediba preserve her heel, ankle, knee, hip and lower back. In contrast, the famous “Lucy” skeleton, representative of the species Au. afarensis, only preserves a hip and ankle.

Yet another new study analyzed Au. sediba’s upper limbs. They were “primitive,” meaning more like those of an ape, suggesting that these individuals still spent some time swinging and climbing in trees.

This again makes Au. sediba a good candidate as a transitional species, because it appears to have spent most of its time on the ground, but it hadn’t entirely left the trees yet.

“The terrestrial adaptation was much more evolved, but there are indications that it had still a large part of climbing in its locomotor spectrum,” Schmid explained.

All in all, the papers make a strong case that early human evolution took place in South Africa following an expected sequential manner, from more ape-like to more human-associated characteristics.

The case isn’t closed yet, however, as still other researchers believe that additional australopithecines, such as Lucy, gave rise to our ancestors. Lucy’s species has only been found in northern Africa so far.

Africa was clearly a hotbed of early human evolution, but further research is needed to pinpoint exactly where our lineage began.

EXCLUSIVE: Arctic sea ice loss is related to global warming

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According to a newly released study commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Arctic could face its first ice-free summer ice as early as 2040.

The study is the first to show Arctic summers free of ice within the next twenty years, which the team of scientists attribute to rising temperatures related to global warming.

Relying on a series of climate models, researchers Muyin Wang, of the University of Washington, and James Overland, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, pieced together data collected by researchers in the region, crafting a model that shows sea ice in Arctic melting at a rate far exceeding previous predictions.

While the study’s authors concede that the timetable has a wide margin of error, they note that Arctic summers will almost certainly be ice free by the end of the century. The result of an Arctic without ice will likely lead to changes worldwide, including shifts in the jet stream and potential impacts in weather in the northern regions of North America and across Asia.

The study is published in the online edition of the American Geophysical Union publication Geophysical Research Letters.

The following is a transcript of our email conversation with the study’s lead author, James Overland, affiliate professor of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington.

Science Recorder (SR): What did this study examine in particular that led to the conclusion that sea ice could disappear within two decades?

James Overland (JO): We noted a large difference between what data was telling us about the
timing of sea ice loss (3/4 of sea ice volume since the1980s)
suggesting the next decade or two and the projections of timing coming
out of the climate models
which suggest 2060

SR: What is the most important take-away from this study?

JO: There are several reasons to consider that the projected time of sea ice loss in models was too slow. Thus, one should give more weight to the data and current understanding with a loss estimate between 2020 and 2040.

SR: If Arctic sea ice were to disappear, what do you see as the most important problem that might arise?

JO: Increased economic access -oil exploration and shipping Loss of habitat for walrus, polar bears and ice seals. With less summer sea ice, more heat is absorbed by the Ocean. This extra heat can then influence climate and winds and potentially weather extremes further south.

SR: Critics have questioned the existence of global warming. What does this study tell us about global warming effect on the Arctic and sea ice in general?

JO: The major sea ice loss and its associated impacts are a major indicator of climate change.

Dazzling Northern Lights Anticipated Tonight

A solar flare that occurred around 2 a.m. Thursday morning may create a spectacular display of northern lights Saturday evening. The midlevel flare had a long duration and was directed at Earth. According to AccuWeather.com Astronomer Hunter Outten, who stated that this flare was “impressive”, these are the best conditions for seeing a direct effect on our planet. On the Kp index, the flare has been categorized at 6 to 8. This is a scale for measuring the intensity of a a geomagnetic storm. The 6 to 8 rating means that the effects of the radiation will have a greater reach.

The radiation from such a flare may cause radio wave disturbances to electronics such as cell phones, GPS and radios, causing services to occasionally cut in and out. While traveling slower than was originally anticipated, the flare effects are moving towards Earth at 1000 km per second.

The more directly a flare faces Earth, the higher the effect will be. Graphic by Al Blasko, Accuweather.com

The flare is also expected to cause vibrant northern lights from the Arctic as far south as New York, the Dakotas, Washington and Michigan, with a smaller possibility of it going into Pennsylvania and Iowa, even Kansas. The lights are currently estimated for 8 p.m. EDT Saturday arrival, with a possible deviation of up to seven hours. If the radiation hits much after dark settles on the East Coast the lights may be missed and will instead only be visible for the West.

A view of the northern lights in Elmira, N.Y., from 2011. Photo by David St. Louis

Solar flares create auroras when radiation from the sun reaches Earth and interacts with charged protons in our atmosphere. The effects are greater at the magnetic poles and weaken as they move south from the Arctic or north of the Antarctic. In the northern hemisphere the results are called the aurora borealis, with the aurora australis being its southern counterpart. The result is a spectacular display of light and color for areas with clear enough views.

Conditions updated April 13, 2013 at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Graphic by Al Blasko, Accuweather.com

Viewing conditions will be best in the mid-Atlantic, specifically for parts of Pennsylvania and the Delmarva. Most of the country will have poor to fair views as a result of cloud cover, with areas further south not experiencing the aurora at all. A pocket of fair conditions sits over parts of Oregon into Washington and southern Idaho. A swath of partly cloudy conditions will also spread over a section of the Ohio Valley for parts of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. Ohio will experience fair to good viewing conditions. For the rest of the country conditions will be poor.

The northern lights may also be visible for parts of northern Europe, including Scandinavia, most of Russia and the British Isles, and as far south as the northern parts of Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia and Estonia. Unfortunately, many of those areas will be experiencing a good deal of cloud coverage.

Graphic by Al Blasko, Accuweather.com

The southern lights may reach a very small portion of Australia, including Tasmania and the southern coast of Victoria. Most of New Zealand’s South Island is in range for the aurora.

View more on information on AccuWeather.com’s Astronomy Facebook Page.

China says new bird flu cases found in central China

BEIJING |
Sat Apr 13, 2013 10:17pm EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) – Two people in the central Chinese province of Henan have been infected by a new strain of avian influenza, the first cases found in the region and bringing the total number nationwide to 51, Xinhua state news agency said on Sunday.

One of the victims, a 34-year old man in the city of Kaifeng, is now critically ill in hospital, while the other, a 65-year old farmer from Zhoukou, is stable. The two cases do not appear to be connected.

A total of 19 people in close contact with the two victims were under observation but had shown no signs of infection, Xinhua said.

On Saturday, the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a seven year-old child in the capital of Beijing had been infected by the H7N9 bird flu virus, the first case to be reported outside of eastern China, where the new strain emerged last month.

The child’s parents work in the poultry trade.

Investigators are trying to ascertain the source amid fears that it could cause a deadly pandemic similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, which killed about one in 10 of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

But authorities say there is still no indication of human-to-human transmission of the virus, which has already killed 11 people in Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui.

(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Apple-shaped body type linked with kidney disease, study finds

Individuals who carry excess weight around their stomachs rather than their hips â€" commonly referred to as being “apple-shaped” â€" are more likely to have kidney disease, regardless of BMI, Medical News Today reported.

According to a new study from the Netherlands, apple-shaped people not only have poorer kidney function than their pear-shaped counterparts, but they also have lower blood flow and higher blood pressure in the kidneys.

Carrying excess fat around the mid-section has long been associated with poor kidney function, but scientists have not fully understood the underlying mechanisms of the link.

Arjan Kwakernaak, lead author of the study, and colleagues at the University Medical Center Groningen focused on an individual’s waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), which ultimately measures the amount of body fat carried around the mid-section.  They analyzed the WHRs of 315 healthy individuals with an average body mass index (BMI) of 24.9 kg/m2 â€" in relation to their kidney health.  A normal weight BMI is anywhere between 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m2.

Ultimately, those with higher WHRs had lower glomerular filtration rates (GFR) â€" the volume of fluid the kidneys are capable of filtering during a given period of time.  The relationship held true even for apple-shaped people, even though they were completely healthy and had normal BMIs.

“WHR was associated with lower GFR, lower effective renal plasma flow, and higher filtration fraction, even after adjustment for sex, age, mean arterial pressure, and BMI,” the authors wrote.

The findings were published online in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

Click for more from Medical News Today.

Think the Planet Isn't Warming? Check the Ocean

A recent article in The Economist stated that “over the past 15 years air temperatures at the Earth’s surface have been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar.” The Economist went to great lengths to point out that “the mismatch between rising greenhouse-gas emissions and not-rising temperatures … does not mean global warming is a delusion.” But the piece was predictably lauded by climate skeptics as “further evidence” of the case against climate change.

Except that … it wasn’t.

NEWS: Climate Change Rewrites World Wine List

As The Economist piece itself pointed out, this wasn’t an argument that “global warming has ‘stopped.‘” The past two decades have been the hottest in recorded history; of the nine hottest years on record, eight have come since 2000. The question, though, is why the year-on-year/decade-on-decade increase appears to have been somewhat less in the past 10 to 15 years, given the ongoing increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.

To which, there are several answers.

First, the smaller the temporal time scale, the more the short-term fluctuations, forcings and feedbacks â€" from aerosol emissions to La Niña events â€" can distort the bigger picture. Over a longer scale, the evidence is increasing that the rate of warming is probably unprecedented in over 11,000 years.

Second, The Economist article, and the skeptic narrative that has absorbed it, focuses on what is known as “climate sensitivity,” which is how much surface warming the planet will experience in response to a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations relative to pre-Industrial Revolution levels. (Those pre-industrial levels were approximately 280 ppm; a doubling therefore would be roughly 560 ppm. Present levels are closing in on 397 ppm.)

VIDEO: Does Climate Change Threaten Coffee and Chocolate?

But, as climate blogger Joe Romm points out, climate sensitivity is but one factor in determining how much the planet will warm in the future; another hugely important one is the extent to which CO2 concentrations will actually increase, and present trends suggest they will blow past 560 ppm and wind up closer to 1,000 ppm. Additionally, while climate sensitivity estimates are greatly influenced by short-term feedbacks such as sea ice extent and water vapor, they do not factor in “slow” feedbacks, such as the release of methane as a result of tundra melt. Nor do they consider the non-linearity of such feedbacks â€" i.e. the fact that they may become significant relatively suddenly.

Third, the data referred to by The Economist suggest that climate sensitivity may be at the very low end of projected estimates of between 2 degrees Celsius and 4.5 degrees Celsius. If that indeed does prove to be the case, then that’s obviously good news. But, as Zeke Hausfather pointed out in a post at the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media: “A world with a relatively low climate sensitivity â€" say in the range of 2 °C â€" but with high emissions and with atmospheric concentrations three to four times those of pre-industrial levels is still probably a far different planet than the one we humans have become accustomed to. And it’s likely not one we would find nearly so hospitable.”

Finally, and most importantly, there is plenty of reason to suspect that climate sensitivity isn’t lower than expected; because, critically, The Economist article and the skeptic schadenfreude it spawned missed one hugely important point. Such discussions of climate sensitivity focus on surface warming of the planet; several recent studies have shown that in fact an increasing amount of warming is taking place beneath the surface, in the ocean depths.

Ninety percent of warming goes into heating, not the land or the atmosphere, but the ocean; two recent papers, in 2012 and earlier this year, showed that approximately 30 percent of recent ocean warming has been taken up by waters below depths of 700 meters (about 2,300 feet), where few measurements had previously taken place. That was reinforced by a European study, published earlier this week, which, according to Reuters, found “that the oceans took up more warmth from the air around 2000. That would help explain the slowdown in surface warming but would also suggest that the pause may be only temporary and brief … Lead author Virginie Guemas of the Catalan Institute of Climate Sciences in Barcelona said the hidden heat may return to the atmosphere in the next decade, stoking warming again.”

NEWS: Arctic Ice Melt Linked to Chilly Spring

Indeed, add together the net global heat content for the atmosphere, land, ice, surface ocean waters and deep ocean waters, and the total shows a continued, clear â€" and, in fact, rising â€" increase. As climate scientist and blogger Dana Nuccitelli, co-author of the aforementioned 2012 paper on ocean warming, points out, this means that “the slowed warming at the surface is only temporary, and consistent with (research indicating the existence of) ‘hiatus decades’ …  The global warming end result will be the same, but the pattern of surface warming over time may be different than we expect … while many people wrongly believe global warming has stalled over the past 10â€"15 years, in reality that period is “the most sustained warming trend” in the past half century.  Global warming has not paused, it has accelerated.”

IMAGE: Icicles melting in the Arctic midnight sun, Baffin Island, Canada. (Louise Murray/Corbis)

Test-tube baby pioneer Sir Robert Edwards dies

10 April 2013
Last updated at 12:15 ET

Professor Sir Robert Edwards (left) with Louise Brown (right) and her mother Lesley Brown in 2008

The world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, has led the tributes to the pioneer of IVF, who has died aged 87.

Prof Sir Robert Edwards was knighted in 2011, five decades after he began experimenting with IVF.

His work led to the birth of Ms Brown at Oldham General Hospital in 1978. She said he had brought “happiness and joy” to millions of people.

IVF is used worldwide and has resulted in more than five million babies.

Prof Edwards died in his sleep after a long illness.

Ms Brown said: “I have always regarded Robert Edwards as like a grandfather to me.

“His work, along with Patrick Steptoe, has brought happiness and joy to millions of people all over the world by enabling them to have children.

“I am glad that he lived long enough to be recognised with a Nobel prize for his work, and his legacy will live on with all the IVF work being carried out throughout the world.”

‘Immense impact’

The University of Cambridge, where Prof Edwards was a fellow, said his work “had an immense impact”.

Continue reading the main story

Robert Edwards is known as “the father of IVF” and he certainly has a big family.

Louise Brown, born in 1978, was the first test-tube baby.

Since then, more than five million children have been born through IVF.

In vitro fertilisation has completely changed the prospects for couples unable to have children.

Fertilising an egg with sperm outside the body and implanting the resulting embryo means infertility is no longer a certain barrier to starting a family.

The technique sparked a huge ethical debate in 1978 and attracted media attention around the world.

Born in Yorkshire in 1925 into a working-class family, Prof Edwards served in the British army during World War II before returning home to study first agricultural sciences and then animal genetics.

Building on earlier research, which showed that egg cells from rabbits could be fertilised in test tubes when sperm was added, Edwards developed the same technique for humans.

In a laboratory at Cambridge in 1968, he first saw life created outside the womb in the form of a human blastocyst, an embryo that has developed for five to six days after fertilisation.

“I’ll never forget the day I looked down the microscope and saw something funny in the cultures,” Edwards once recalled.

‘Remarkable man’

“I looked down the microscope and what I saw was a human blastocyst gazing up at me. I thought, ‘We’ve done it’.”

“Bob Edwards is one of our greatest scientists,” said Mike Macnamee, chief executive of Bourn Hall, the IVF clinic founded by Prof Edwards with his fellow IVF pioneer Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecological surgeon.

Prof Martin Johnson, one of his first students, said: “Bob Edwards was a remarkable man who changed the lives of so many people.

“He was not only a visionary in his science but also in his communication to the wider public about matters scientific, in which he was a great pioneer.

“He will be greatly missed by his colleagues, students, his family and all the many people he has helped to have children.”

Prof Peter Braude, Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at King’s College London, said: “Few biologists have so positively and practically impacted on humankind.

“Bob’s boundless energy, his innovative ideas, and his resilience despite the relentless criticism by naysayers, changed the lives of millions of ordinary people who now rejoice in the gift of their own child.”

Edwards was too frail to pick up his Nobel prize in Stockholm in 2010, leaving that job to his wife Ruth, with whom he had five daughters.

He remained a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, until his death.

His work was motivated by his belief, as he once described it, that “the most important thing in life is having a child.”

“Nothing is more special than a child,” he said.

Stream Max Richter's Beautiful Score for Henry-Alex Rubin's 'Disconnect'

From the very first time I heard Max Richter’s elegant and stirringly beautiful song “On the Nature of Daylight” I decided that this is the song I want playing at every large event in my lifeâ€"from my wedding to my funeral. Morbid? No, perfect. It’s an incredibly emotive and deeply melancholy song that was first utilized on film with Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, but now haunts the entirely of Henry-Alex Rubin’s narrative feature debut Disconnect.

It may be possible that Rubin loves this song more than I do, which is something I can always admire in a directorial choice. But not only does the soundtrack feature the original version of the song, Richter has composed the entire thing, which is both a repurposing of some of his earlier songs, new more electronic material, and different edits and variations on “On the Nature of Daylight.” 

But using Richter for a film like this is an interesting choice, as he does juxtapose the more classical sound by throwing in contemporary tracksâ€"such as a powerful credit sequence set to AWOLNATION’s “Sail.” But the score does evoke the thrilling and psychologically stimulating nature of the story that’s the follow-up to Rubin’s Academy Award-winning documentary Murderball.

Disconnect is a sweeping drama told through multiple interwoven story lines, starring Jason Bateman, Alexander Skarsgard, Hope Davis, Max Thieriot, Paula Patton, Frank Grillo, Andrea Riseborough, and Marc Jacobs. The intensely emotional and riveting drama about the dangers of the digital age covers everything from online identity theft to vicious bullying and sexual exploitation. And of course, Richter’s score only elevates the performances and moments into a wonderfully heightened realm without being manipulative of our emotions. 

Stay turned for our interview with Rubin later in the week but in the meantime, take a listen to the soundtrack and head over to The Playlist for the chance to win cast-signed posters and Richter’s wonderful soundtrack.

 

March Madness Boosts CBS, Time Warner Stock

March Madness Ratings Highest in 19 Years, With NCAA Games Averaging 10.7 Million Viewers, Nielsen Reports. by NESN Staff on Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 9:29AM. Comments ( 0 ). The Fab Five wasn't the only thing from the early 1990s that returned to

The NCAA men's basketball tournament drew more than $1 billion in national TV ad spending last year, beating each of the postseason totals for pro football, basketball, baseball and hockey.

2013 Men's Basketball. Championship. Home · 2014 Tickets. 2013 Women's Basketball. Championship. Home · 2014 Tickets · March Madness Live · March Madness Video Hub · NCAA LIVE – Winter Championships · NCAA Video Hub. [Div I]

March Madness Ratings Highest in 19 Years, With NCAA Games Averaging 10.7 Million Viewers, Nielsen Reports. by NESN Staff on Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 9:29AM. Comments ( 0 ). The Fab Five wasn't the only thing from the early 1990s that returned to

The NCAA men's basketball tournament drew more than $1 billion in national TV ad spending last year, beating each of the postseason totals for pro football, basketball, baseball and hockey.

Joel Osteen 'Too Shallow' for Man Behind Internet Hoax

It may be a little late for an April Fools' Day joke but that didn't stop some on the Internet from pulling off an elaborate hoax targeting televangelist Joel Osteen, which included telling his many followers that he was denouncing the Christian faith

Earlier this week, Pastor Joel Osteen, head of the Houston-based Lakewood Church, best-selling author, and world-renowned televangelist, was the victim of an elaborate online hoax. The prank — complete with fake,

No, Houston megachurch pastor Joel Osteen is not leaving the Christian faith — despite all "evidence" to the contrary. The Internet was captivated yesterday by a message — supposedly posted by Osteen himself — in which the

Pastor Joel Osteen, of the Lakewood Church in Texas, is at the center of an elaborate online hoax. Someone created a series of fake websites, all pointing to the idea that Osteen was leaving the megachurch and closing his ministry due to a loss of

No, Houston megachurch pastor Joel Osteen is not leaving the Christian faith — despite all "evidence" to the contrary. The Internet was captivated yesterday by a message — supposedly posted by Osteen himself — in which the

Dinosaur embryos FOUND: Resurrection 'out of the question'* - boffin

Dinosaur embryos wiggled around in their eggs just like the embryos of modern birds, scientists have found. The boffins made the discovery after a cache of fossilised dino bones and eggs were dug up in southwest China.

The scientists are hoping to find out more about the Jurassic-era creatures by analysing remnants of complex proteins found in some of the 190-million-year-old fossils.

The researchers studying the oldest dino-embryo fossils ever found have hypothesised that they moved within the egg to exercise muscles and encourage their bones to grow.

More than 200 fossilised bones were dug out of a site near Lufeng in Yunnan, south west China. All the specimens come from the genus called Lufengosaurus, a long-necked, herbivorous beast which weighed more than a tonne and grew up to nine metres long.

Normally scientists find eggs within nests, meaning that they are all at similar points of development. But the huge Lufeng sample featured dinos which were in several different growth stages.

Robert Reisz, a palaeontologist from the University of Toronto Mississauga, in Canada, said: “We are looking at various stages in the embryonic life of this animal, and we can put this together to get a growth trajectory of the embryo itself – something that has never been done before.”

Researchers analysed the femurs of the specimens and found that the bone appeared to be growing extremely quickly within the egg, which indicates that eggs may have been incubated for just a short period.

They also found that the bones were pulled around by muscles inside the eggs, bending them into shape.

“This suggests that dinosaurs, like modern birds, moved around inside their eggs,” said Reisz. “It represents the first evidence of such movement in a dinosaur.”

DInosaur embryos are incredibly rare, generally found only in strata traced back to the Upper Cretaceous, and difficult to study, for the obvious reason that they are found within eggs which scientists are often loathe to crack.

So there was great excitement when three years ago, palaeontologists found the remains of 20 Lufengosaurus embryos among a pile of fossilised bones which dated back to the Jurassic period and are 190 to 197 million years old.

Prof Reisz added: “The nests were inundated by water and basically smothered, and the embryos inside the eggs died and then decayed. “And then more water activity moved the bones and concentrated them into a very small area. We only excavated 1m² of the ‘bone bed’ and we got more than 200 bones.

He suggested the team’s finding proved that dinosaurs emerged from their eggs in a relatively developed state, ready to face the perils of the Jurassic era.

The research was published in Nature. ®

*DNA’s half-life is about 500 years, though fragments of incomplete degrading DNA remain as the proteins slowly dissolve over hundreds of thousands of years. These remains are 190 million years old. Nevertheless, one of the scientists found it necessary to explain, here, that “resurrecting a dinosaur is out of the question.”

Aereo: Pay for free TV

This is a story about multiple lawsuits, a clone, and yet another tale of David vs. Goliath, except this time David and Goliath are kind of the same person

Aereo, itself, is based on a very simple idea. Many people want to cut the cable cord, but find it hard to watch the major broadcast networks even with an over-the-air (OTA) antenna. Aereo takes several existing technologies and creates a packaged

This is a story about multiple lawsuits, a clone, and yet another tale of David vs. Goliath, except this time David and Goliath are kind of the same person

Talk about mixed messages: when Aereo first began offering consumers a way to get free network TV over the internet â€" on any device and on demand â€" CBS CEO Les Moonves said last year that the

LAS VEGAS â€" FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, making his farewell appearance before the National Assn. of Broadcasters convention here, suggested that the agency had a limited role when it comes to companies like Aereo that stream broadcast

The East Village of 'Mad Men' Versus the Real Neighborhood in the 1960s

What's left for Roger Sterling? He's tried a younger wife, Don's mother-in-law, and a few exciting (sometimes nude) adventures with LSD.

If people tuning into the latest instalment of Mad Men were hoping that Don Draper's much publicised trip to Hawaii would lend the opening episode a warm and upbeat feeling then they were sorely mistaken â€" the two-hour

It is liberals, not conservatives, who are chained to an ideology built for yesterday's culture. The proof of this realignment is not on cable news, but on cable television's hippest drama, “Mad Men,” which this week kicked off its final season to

Readers quibbled with the depiction of St. Marks Place as a sketchy neighborhood in the late 1960s, and photos suggest it was actually rather respectable.

If people tuning into the latest instalment of Mad Men were hoping that Don Draper's much publicised trip to Hawaii would lend the opening episode a warm and upbeat feeling then they were sorely mistaken â€" the two-hour

Luke Bryan ACM Entertainer of the Year Win Evokes Tears of Both Sorrow and Joy

Luke Bryan pulled off a shocking win on Sunday night when he beat out heavyweights Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift to win the Academy of Country Music Award's biggest prize of the

Luke Bryan has received the ACM Entertainer of the Year award. The Georgia-born hitmaker was surprised to win in the top category at Sunday's ceremony and gave a tearful acceptance speech in which he thanked the industry, his friends and fans:

Luke Bryan pulled off a shocking win on Sunday night when he beat out heavyweights Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift to win the Academy of Country Music Award's biggest prize of the evening: entertainer of the year.

Many of the evening's performances from Las Vegas proved to be very much attitude laden — and the winners reflected this, with Luke Bryan taking the top prize, in what will widely be considered an upset. The singer was

Miranda Lambert took home the most trophies, but Luke Bryan pulled the biggest upset last night when he won Entertainer of the Year at the 48th annual.

'Accidental Racist' and Lyrical Provocation

Monday (April 8) was not a good day for LL Cool J. The legendary Queens rapper went from G.O.A.T. to goat in social media after his lyrics on “Accidental Racist,” a post-racial collaboration with Brad Paisley, came under fire from critics and fans

Paisley, LL Cool J: 'Accidental Racist' Is About Forgiveness. The country singer and rapper collaborated on a controversial new duet. 03:12 | 04/10/2013. Related Links: Watch: Brad Paisley, LL Cool J Duet Tackles Racism · Watch: Country Star Discusses

By midnight, the widespread, unsolicited derision had apparently taken its toll; pretty much all of the readily searchable links to the YouTube video for “Accidental Racist” that originally circulated â€" basically an audio clip of the tune that

Updated April 10, 2013 7:38 PM. 'Accidental Racist' and Lyrical Provocation. Debaters. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. It's How We 'Do' Race in the Age of Obama. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Princeton University. The lyrics reflect individual anxieties over personal

When "Accidental Racist," Brad Paisley's new collaboration with LL Cool J featured on the country superstar's new "Wheelhouse" album, was officially released on Monday (April 8), the media's reaction to the song was… dubious, at best. Paisley and LL

Broadcasters Circle Wagons Against a TV Streaming Upstart

Share on: Why I Need Aereo TV â€" And You Do, Too [Review]. After a few days of testing Aereo, it's clear that it's just a useful service â€" it's one that actually makes broadcast TV relevant again. Broadcasters.

This is a story about multiple lawsuits, a clone, and yet another tale of David vs. Goliath, except this time David and Goliath are kind of the same person

LAS VEGAS â€" Aereo's victory in court has a side effect for broadcasters: It has helped instill a sense of urgency on stations to get moving on mobile. When News Corp. COO Chase Carey dangled the prospect of Fox converting to a subscription-only

Could Fox remove its broadcast signals and become available only as part of a cable subscription? That's one possibility that News Corp. COO Chase Carey..

The TV industry's best hope of shutting down TV startup Aereo Inc. anytime soon could rest, bizarrely enough, on a legal case involving something called Aereokiller LLC.

MMA's First Transgender Fighter Fallon Fox Doesn't Deserve the National Stage

Fallon Fox has released a statement on UFC fighter Matt Mitrione, who was recently suspended following comments directed at her.

Transgender fighter Fallon Fox was the subject of an insult laden tirade by UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione during an episode of The MMA Hour on Monday. Fox responded to Mitrione's comments via her facebook page on Tuesday. “Matt Mitrione went well

To White, such a solution appeared the easiest way to prevent a situation he called "a pain in the ass," and which forced the industry-leader's hand in taking action against Mitrione, who called transgender fighter Fox a "lying, sick, sociopathic

UFC Suspends Matt Mitrione After Comments Concerning Fallon Fox – UFC takes action against heavyweight.

Transgender fighter Fallon Fox was the subject of an insult laden tirade by UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione during an episode of The MMA Hour on Monday. Fox responded to Mitrione's comments via her facebook page on Tuesday. “Matt Mitrione went well

Standards & Compliance Briefing: Baby Food Trial, GSK Double-Platinum, ISO ...

April 9, 2013

Standards Compliance Briefing: Baby Food Trial, GSK Double-Platinum, ISO 50001

Here’s the latest standards and compliance news affecting corporate environmental and energy executives. Today’s briefing includes eight items.

Gerber Products, Del Monte Foods, Beech-Nut Nutrition and other major baby food manufacturers are defendants in a lead-labeling lawsuit that went to trial in California yesterday, the AP reports. The Environmental Law Foundation brought the suit, saying many of the companies’ products contain lead at levels that require a warning under the state’s Proposition 65.

Lawsuits under Prop 65 rarely come to trial, Law360 reports. The suit between ELF and 16 food….

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Rangers, Trailing Most of the Game, Forge a Tie, Then Quickly Lose It

Derek Stepan tied the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-3, at the nine-minute mark of the third period, but just 38 seconds later, Phil Kessel put home his own rebound as the Maple Leafs upended the Rangers, 4-3, on Monday night.

That 38-second span was the difference.

“It was a breakdown of coverage,” Tortorella said. “We can’t have that after we’ve battled back.”

Rick Nash scored a pair of goals for the Rangers (19-16-4), who were forced to play catch-up all night and, as a result, failed to pick up a point for the first time in five games.

“It’s definitely disappointing; we had a d-zone breakdown after a huge goal by Step,” Nash said. “It’s just a bad play. That next shift is so important after a goal and we didn’t get the job done.”

Stepan capitalized off a Leo Komarov turnover and beat goalie James Reimer glove-side for his 14th of the season. Then Kessel, who picked up a pass from Tyler Bozak, fanned on his initial shot, but got enough of his rebound for his second goal of the night and 12th of the season. It was Kessel’s first multigoal game at home this season.

“I still think I have to be a little bit better,” Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. “The rebound just died and ended up perfectly for him.”

With Lundqvist pulled for an extra attacker, Nash had a great chance with less than five seconds remaining, but fired a shot wide of the net.

Tortorella admitted he was line-matching, trying to get Nash away from the defensive pairing of Carl Gunnarsson and Dion Phaneuf. The move paid off as Nash scored his team-leading 16th and 17th goals with similar power moves to the outside and around Leafs defensemen.

Nash pulled the Rangers to 2-1 with 5 minutes 5 seconds remaining in the second, cutting around Cody Franson and jamming it in the short side against Reimer.

Then with the Rangers trailing, 3-1, early in the third, Nash got around Mark Fraser and beat Reimer on the stick side.

The Rangers came in with a game in hand on the eighth-place Islanders, but failed to gain ground. Both are tied with 42 points, but the Rangers hold the tiebreaker edge.

“We’re a desperate hockey team, we’re desperate for points,” Nash said. “We knew we were playing a good game. The third period was good; we were all over them. It just came down to a breakdown after that big goal.”

The Rangers had seen a resurgence in their power play of late, going 5 for 11 over the last three games after a 2-for-23 effort in the previous 11. However, they were 0 for 2 with four shots Monday.

“The first one, I don’t think we shot it enough, so I’ll leave it at that,” Tortorella said of his team’s play with the man advantage.

Lundqvist, who entered the game having allowed two or fewer goals in his last 10 starts, going 6-2-2, made 24 saves. He was 4-2-2 with two shutouts and a 1.99 goals against average in his last six games against the Leafs.

Kessel’s first goal with less than a minute remaining in the second snapped a nine-game goal drought. With Ryan Callahan in the box for holding, Kessel beat a screened Lundqvist, giving the Leafs a 3-1 lead after two periods.

Toronto went 1 for 2 with the man advantage.

James van Riemsdyk and the newly acquired defenseman Ryan O’Byrne had the other goals for the Leafs, who improved to 7-1-3 in their last 11 games.

Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi both had excellent chances to open the scoring in the first period, but each hit the post.

Moments after Girardi rang his shot off the iron, van Riemsdyk opened the scoring with his 16th of the season, jamming home his own rebound.

Rangers defenseman Steve Eminger and the Leafs’ Joe Colborne provided another example of why the league may look into hybrid icing. The two were racing for the puck early in the first on a delayed icing call; Eminger got there first but was tripped into the boards by Colborne.

Eminger was slow to get up but stayed in the game, while Colborne was assessed a minor penalty for tripping.

 SLAP SHOTS

Brian Boyle, who had 3 points in three games entering the game, did not get a point. … Brad Richards, who had a goal and four assists in his previous four games, finished minus-1.

Many skin cancer survivors ignore sun safety advice

Dermatologists advise people to be smart about relaxing in the sun.(Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images)

Wear your sunscreen, seek the shade, wear protective clothing and never, ever go to a tanning salon. Despite decades of repetition, many of us fail to follow that skin-saving advice â€" and a new study shows that’s true even for people who have had the most serious form of skin cancer.

More than a quarter of people who have had melanoma say they never use sunscreen, according to the study presented at a medical meeting Monday. Even greater numbers eschew hats and long sleeves, and 2% admit they have used a tanning bed in the last year, say researchers from Yale University, who presented the data at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.

Cancer survivors are a bit more careful than the rest of us: 32% always wear sunscreen, while just 17% of other adults do. Overall, they also are more likely to wear hats and long sleeves and stay in the shade. But when compared with others with the same age, race and insurance coverage, the differences are only significant when it comes to sunscreen use, says researcher Anees Chagpar. In other words, a 40-year-old white person with insurance coverage who has been through cancer treatment is just as likely to use a tanning bed or go outside without a wide-brimmed hat as one who has not.

Chagpar, a cancer surgeon, says she finds the data on indoor tanning especially “shocking and concerning.” She says the findings raise questions about whether some people might be “addicted” to tanning.

The study of nearly 27,000 people included 171 who said they had a history of melanoma, which, like other skin cancers, is linked to sun exposure and indoor tanning. It is most common in people with fair skin and a history of sunburns, and it can run in families. It will kill about 9,000 people in the USA this year, according to the non-profit Skin Cancer Foundation.

Survivors are nine times more likely than other people to have melanoma in the future, so experts advise them to take their skin protection seriously.

Several previous studies have suggested such vigilance is hard to maintain, though some studies do find better compliance than the latest survey does, says Mary Tripp, a behavior researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. A possible weakness of the new survey, which has not yet been published, is that it relies on self-reported medical histories, which are sometimes inaccurate, she says.

But she says she has interviewed melanoma survivors who have let down their guard.

“When someone is first diagnosed, they are practicing sun protection, but as the years go by, maybe they tend to fall back on their old habits,” she says. “A lot of melanoma survivors have told me that it is very important for them to maintain a normal outdoor lifestyle.”

Dermatologists don’t want melanoma survivors or the rest of us to stay indoors all the time, says Ali Hendi a dermatologist in Chevy Chase, Md., and a spokesperson for the Skin Cancer Foundation.

Anyone who wants to garden, golf or walk outside should do it, but “be smart about it,” he says, by staying out of the midday sun and using shade, sunscreen and protective clothing.

“You can’t change your genetic makeup, you can’t change the kind of skin you have and you can’t change previous sunburns,” but you can lower your risk, even if you have already had skin cancer, he says.

Still, those who don’t follow that advice have plenty of company, Hendi says: “There are smokers who still continue to smoke after being diagnosed with lung cancer. There are a lot of people in our society who do things they know are not good for them.”

Addiction and denial can play roles in such behaviors, but a lack of complete information may, too, Chagpar says. She says doctors and health educators may need to do a better job of telling people how and why to protect themselves.

European scientists propose world's largest quantum network, between Earth ...

A group of European researchers has proposed the largest quantum network yet: Between Earth and the International Space Station. Such a network would see entangled photons transmitted over a distance of 250 miles â€" two or three times greater than previous quantum communication experiments. Not only will this be the first quantum experiment in space, but it will allow the scientists to see if entanglement really is instantaneous over long distances, and whether it’s affected by gravity.

In recent years, quantum physicists have successfully teleported entangled photons over a free-space distance of 143 kilometers (89 miles) using lasers, and 250 kilometers (155 miles) over optical fiber in the lab. In the past year we have also seen the first ground-to-air network, between a base station and an airplane flying 20 kilometers (12 miles) above. These were impressive feats, but to prove the possibility of a worldwide, satellite-based quantum network, larger distances are needed â€" something like the 400 kilometers (248 miles) to the ISS.

ESA’s NightPod (an Earth-based mockup)

The proposal, published by the Institute of Physics and the New Physics Journal today, is surprisingly simple, and exceptional because it requires very little in the way of modification to the ISS. Basically, the ISS is already equipped with a Nikon camera and 400mm lens (together called NightPod), pointed at the Earth through a 70cm window in the Cupola Module. The European physicists’ proposal would keep the lens in place, but replace the camera with a new, single-photon counting module. This module would be shipped to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon or a Russian Soyuz capsule. Once the module is in place, a base station here on Earth on will entangle pairs of photons, with one half being kept on Earth, and the other half being transmitted to the ISS.

A diagram detailing the ground-to-ISS quantum experiments

The physicists propose two experiments. The first is a standard Bell-type experiment, which confirms that the entangled photons are indeed under the governance of quantum physics, rather than classical physics (which strictly doesn’t allow for these quantum entangled shenanigans). The second experiment would see the transmission of a quantum cryptography key, to see if it’s viable to secure conventional communications with space-based quantum key distribution (QKD). These experiments will be carried out as the ISS makes overhead passes of the optical ground station. ”During a few months a year, the ISS passes five to six times in a row in the correct orientation for us to do our experiments. We envision setting up the experiment for a whole week and therefore having more than enough links to the ISS available,” says Rupert Ursi, co-author of the proposal.

The results from this experiment will should tell us two things: Whether it’s possible to reliably transmit single, entangled photons over long distances, thus enabling the creation of a worldwide quantum network â€" and whether gravity has an affect on entanglement. The longer distance should also give us more accurate data about whether quantum entangled particles really do communicate their quantum state instantaneously, over infinite distances. As we recently reported, another research group recently showed this quantum channel to be at least 10,000 times faster than the speed of light.

The ISS’s Cupola, looking down at Earth

Moving forward, it is now a matter of whether the experiments are approved. Considering NightPod was built by the European Space Agency, the experiments will probably require its approval. With the growing interest and success of quantum entanglement experiments in recent years, we wouldn’t be surprised if the proposal is accepted in short order.

Now read: Qubits and binary data successfully squirted down the same fiber, at the same time: Here comes quantum cryptography

Research paper: doi:10.1088/1367-2630/15/4/043008 - “Quantum optics experiments using the International Space Station: a proposal”

"The Voice": Final week of blind auditions begins

It’s now the final week of blind auditions for this season of “The Voice.” On Monday’s episode, Shakira made one singer cry, and Adam Levine questioned Blake Shelton for not turning his chair for a country contestant. Oh, and some more singers made it through to the next phase of the competition, too.

Read on to find out who made the cut:

Team Adam:

Michael Austin, a deputy sheriff from California, sang Keith Urban’s “Somebody Like You.” Levine and Shakira both turned around. Austin went with the Maroon 5 frontman, who teased Shelton for not turning his chair for the country singer. “He doesn’t know crap about country!” Shelton later said of Levine.

Sasha Allen, who has sung backup for Alicia Keys, John Legend and Christina Aguilera, sang the Dixie Chicks’ “I’m Not Ready to Make Nice.” All four judges turned around for this mother of two, and proceeded to shower her with compliments and promises. She chose Levine.

Team Blake:

Caroline Glasser got Shelton and Shakira to turn their chairs around with her rendition of “Tiny Dancer.” The former University of Kansas student chose Shelton after he complimented her dimples.

Tennessee native Grace Askew calls her style “bluntry,” a mix of blues and country. Her version of “These Boots are Made for Walkin’” got Shelton and Shakira to turn around.

Team Shakira:

Shawna P, who sang “She Talks to Angels” and had her pick of Shakira and Levine. “I’m representing 40 and up, ya’ll!” she shouted.

Mary Miranda sang Selena’s “Como La Flor,” and was moved to tears when Shakira complimented her voice. Usher and Shelton knew they didn’t stand a chance. “She’s crying just from hearing Shakira talk to her — we’re so screwed!” Shelton said. 

Team Usher:

Jeff Lewis, a golf course employee who was previously signed — and then shelved — by a record company, impressed with his rendition of Usher’s “U Got It Bad,” prompting Shelton, Shakira and Usher himself to turn around.

Ryan Innes, who sang “Gravity,” originally wanted to be a doctor but turned to music after a broken engagement. All four judges turned around but he picked Usher, who said: “I have not won ‘The Voice,’ but I am here to win.”

By the end of the two-hour episode, Team Adam also added Amy Whitcomb, Team Usher got Jamila Thompson and Team Blake added Justin Rivers and Michelle Raitzin.

The blind auditions finish up Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

Tell us: What do you think of these new “The Voice” competitors?

Spanish film legend Sara Montiel dead at 85

MADRID |
Mon Apr 8, 2013 10:26am EDT

MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish film legend Sara Montiel, who featured in 1950s Hollywood films with the likes of Gary Cooper and smoked cigars with Ernest Hemingway, died on Monday at 85.

Montiel, born Maria Antonia Abad, died at home in Madrid, according to Spanish actors’ union AISGE.

Among her best-known English-language films were “Vera Cruz”, a 1954 film that starred Gary Cooper, and 1957 Western “Run of the Arrow”, released as “Yuma” in Spanish, a Sam Fuller movie that also featured Charles Bronson and Rod Steiger.

Montiel, married three times, starred in films in Mexico and Spain and also had a long singing career.

Celebrated for her beauty, Montiel was often photographed at bullfights and puffing on a cigar. She wrote two memoirs – “Life is a Pleasure” and “Sara and Sex”.

(Reporting by Raquel Castillo, Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Liquid Robotics Unveils Powerful Data-Collecting Ocean Robot

Liquid Robotics had released its latest unmanned, autonomous marine robot, dubbed the Wave Glider SV3.

The SV3 is the first hybrid wave- and solar-propelled ocean robot, designed to cost-effectively collect and transmit data from areas of the high seas previously too expensive or challenging to reach. It can be used to study things like global climate change, ocean acidification, fisheries management, hurricane prediction, tsunami warning and exploration for valuable natural resources, the company said.

With a real-time onboard processor, flexible power and storage systems, and an adaptable operating system, Liquid Robotics’ self-powered floating data center can investigate the sea for years at a time – and for 90 percent less than other data collection alternatives, the California-based company boasted.

“The SV3 is a tremendous step forward in terms of what we can accomplish in the ocean and gives customers a competitive advantage to capture data in the most challenging ocean conditions,” CEO Bill Vass said in a statement.

The SV3 is the newest addition to the Wave Glider family, which includes the smaller SV2, a maritime robot that has logged a world-record-setting 300,000 nautical miles since it set sail in 2009. More than 200 of the former-generation robots have sailed from the Arctic to Australia and the Canary Islands to Loch Ness, running only on wave energy ? no manpower, no emissions, no refueling.

For its next trick, Liquid Robotics added solar panels and battery storage capacity to its SV3. And with a price tag of $300,000, it can take photos and collect data on temperature, winds, humidity, wind gusts, water temperature, water color, and water composition, Venture Beat reported.

Roger Hine, inventor of the Wave Glider, touted the machine’s “unparalleled” ability to collect and process data.

“Riding the advancements in consumer electronics, smartphone, tablet computing and a new generation of extremely capable processors, we are now able to provide processing onboard ? actually as powerful as a supercomputer from not long ago,” Hine said. “With that computational power and the ability to tirelessly swim across vast oceans, the Wave Glider SV3 represents a big step forward in the state-of-the-art of unmanned monitoring and exploration.”

The new Wave Gliders use ARM-based processors running Linux, Venture Beat said, and can download software changes or applications from sea; it can also transmit data via satellites, Wi-Fi, or a cellular network.

“By providing the ability to deploy Wave Gliders across most of the planet and deliver ocean data in a new and cost-effective way, we’re enabling broad access to affordable ocean exploration,” Vass said.

According to Wired, the U.S. Navy has expressed interest in the Wave Glider, ahead of its annual three-day Sea Air Space conference outside of Washington, D.C.

Farrah Abraham -- Hand In Hand w/ GIANT Male Porn Star

Farrah Abraham was gettin’ super hands on with one of the biggest male porn stars in the biz yesterday … James Deen … fueling rumors that he’s the co-star in the “Teen Mom” star’s sex tape.

Farrah and James –  who, along with having genitals that resemble an elephant trunk, once starred in a mainstream movie with Lindsay Lohan — were photographed walking into the offices of Vivid Entertainment yesterday.

The two were holding hands … but it’s unclear if they’re dating … or just simply friends with professional benefits.

Farrah previously told TMZ she’s AGAINST the release of the tape and is considering legal action to stop the footage from going public.

Sure she is.

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Blake Shelton to sing at and officiate friend Kelly Clarkson's wedding

Blake Shelton will be taking part in Kelly Clarkson‘s wedding in more ways than one.

Clarkson revealed at the Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday that The Voice coach and country star will be singing at and officiating her wedding, Us Weekly reported on Monday.

Shelton apparently played a big role in the first-season American Idol winner and her fiance Brandon Blackstock getting engaged in December.

“I told Brandon, man, you need to grow up and figure out that you need to marry this girl,” Shelton told Hollyscoop that month, according to Us.

“I am going on the record saying, I will do the music at the wedding or whatever you want to do, I’ll be that guy. I will play for four hours if I have to, cause you need to get your head out of your ass and ask that girl to marry you.”

Clarkson, the former Duets celebrity partner, announced her engagement on Twitter on December 15.

“I’M ENGAGED!!!!! I wanted y’all to know!! Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever,” Clarkson tweeted.

Blackstock is the son of Narvel Blackstock, Clarkson’s manager, and stepson of country singer Reba McEntire, who became friends with Clarkson after the women performed a duet on American Idol in 2002.

Clarkson signed with Narvel Blackstock’s Starstruck Entertainment management company in 2007 following a feud with recording industry titan Clive Davis over the musical content of “My December,” her third album.

Blackstock proposed to Clarkson with an engagement ring he designed with jewelry designer Johnathon Arndt.

“Everyone has been asking about my engagement ring… It’s a yellow canary diamond with diamonds around it and Brandon designed it with Johnathon Arndt! They did an amazing job! I can’t wait to make Brandon’s ring with Johnathon as well!” Clarkson wrote in a follow-up tweet.

(Photo credit NBC)

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