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Showing posts with label World. Show all posts

Russian Meteor Blast Bigger Than Thought, NASA Says






The meteor that exploded over Russia Friday was slightly larger than previously thought and more powerful, too, NASA scientists say.


The Russian meteor explosion over the city of Chelyabinsk, on Friday (Feb. 15), injured more than 1,000 people and blew out windows across the region in a massive blast captured on cameras by frightened witnesses. Friday afternoon, NASA scientists estimated the meteor was space rock about 50 feet (15 meters) and sparked a blast equivalent of a 300-kiloton explosion. The energy estimate was later increased to 470 kilotons.






But late Friday, NASA revised its estimates on the size and power of the devastating meteor explosion. The meteor’s size is now thought to be slightly larger — about 55 feet (17 m) wide — with the power of the blast estimate of about 500 kilotons, 30 kilotons higher than before, NASA officials said in a statement. [See video of the intense meteor explosion]


The meteor was also substantially more massive than thought as well. Initial estimated pegged the space rock’s mass at about 7,000 tons. Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., now say the meteor weighed about 10,000 tons and was travelling 40,000 mph (64,373 km/h) when it exploded.


“These new estimates were generated using new data that had been collected by five additional infrasound stations located around the world – the first recording of the event being in Alaska, over 6,500 kilometers away from Chelyabinsk,” JPL officials explained in the statement. The infrasound stations detect low-frequency sound waves that accompany exploding meteors, known as bolides.


The meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere and blew apart over Chelyabinsk at 10:20 p.m. EST on Feb. 14 (03:20:26 GMT on Feb. 15). The meteor briefly outshined the sun during the event, which occurred just hours before a larger space rock — the 150-foot-wide (45 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 — zoomed by Earth in an extremely close flyby.


Asteroid 2012 DA14 approached within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of Earth Friday, but never posed an impact threat to the planet. The asteroid flyby and Russian meteor explosion had significantly different trajectories, showing that they were completely unrelated events, NASA officials said.


Late Friday, another fireball was spotted over the San Francisco Bay Area in California. That event, also unrelated, occurred at about 7:45 p.m. PST (10:45 p.m. EST/0345 Feb. 16 GMT) and lit up the nighttime sky. Aside from the unexpected light show, the fireball over San Francisco had little other effect.


NASA scientists said the Russian meteor event, however, is a rare occurrence. Not since 1908, when a space rock exploded over Russia’s Tunguska River in Siberia and flattened 825 square miles (2,137 square km) of uninhabited forest land, has a meteor event been so devastating.


“We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years on average,” Paul Chodas of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL said. “When you have a fireball of this size we would expect a large number of meteorites to reach the surface and in this case there were probably some large ones.”


According to the Associated Press, search teams have recovered small objects that might be meteorite fragments and divers are searching the bottom of a lake where a meteorite is thought to have landed.


You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook & Google+


Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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G20 defuses talk of "currency war", no accord on debt


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Group of 20 nations declared on Saturday there would be no 'currency war' and deferred plans to set new debt-cutting targets in an indication of concern about the fragile state of the world economy.


Japan's expansive policies, which have driven down the yen, escaped criticism in a statement thrashed out in Moscow by financial policymakers from the G20, which groups developed and emerging markets and accounts for 90 percent of the world economy.


After late night talks, finance ministers and central bankers agreed on wording closer than expected to a joint statement issued last Tuesday by the Group of Seven rich nations backing market-determined exchange rates.


A draft communique seen by delegates on Friday had steered clear of the G7's call for economic policy not to be targeted at exchange rates. But the final version included a G20 commitment to refrain from competitive devaluations and stated monetary policy would be directed at price stability and growth.


"The language has been strengthened since our discussions last night," Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters. "It's stronger than it was, but it was quite clear last night that everyone around the table wants to avoid any sort of currency disputes."


The communique did not single out Japan for aggressive monetary and fiscal policies that have seen the yen drop 20 percent, a trend that may now continue.


"The market will take the G20 statement as an approval for what it has been doing -- selling of the yen," said Neil Mellor, currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon in London. "No censure of Japan means they will be off to the money printing presses."


The statement reflected a substantial, but not complete, endorsement of Tuesday's statement by the G7 nations - the United States, Japan, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy.


"We all agreed on the fact that we refuse to enter any currency war," French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told reporters.


NO FISCAL TARGETS


The text also contained a commitment to credible medium-term fiscal strategy, but stopped short of setting specific goals.


A debt-cutting pact struck in Toronto in 2010 will expire this year if leaders fail to agree to extend it at a G20 summit of leaders in St Petersburg in September.


European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said he expected concrete debt targets to be agreed at the September meeting.


"We have a common view on the need to have a credible medium-term plans for fiscal consolidation, which is also essential so we have foundation for sustainable growth," he told Reuters.


The United States says it is on track to meet its Toronto pledge but argues that the pace of future fiscal consolidation must not snuff out demand. Germany and others are pressing for another round of binding debt-cutting goals.


Backing in the communique for the use of domestic monetary policy to support economic recovery reflected the U.S. Federal Reserve's commitment to monetary stimulus through quantitative easing, or QE, to promote recovery and jobs.


QE entails large-scale bond buying -- $85 billion a month in the Fed's case -- that helps economic growth but creates money, much of which has leaked into emerging markets, threatening to destabilize them.


That was offset in the communique by a commitment to minimize "negative spillovers" of the resulting financial flows that emerging markets fear may pump up asset bubbles and ruin their export competitiveness.


"Major developed nations (should) pay attention to their monetary policy spillover," Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao was quoted by state news agency Xinhua as saying in Moscow.


"Major developed countries' implementation of excessively relaxed currency policy has an influence on the world economy."


Russia, this year's chair of the G20, said the group had failed to reach agreement on medium-term budget deficit levels and also expressed concern about ultra-loose policies that it and other big emerging economies say could store up trouble for later.


Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said a rebalancing of global growth required more than an adjustment of exchange rates.


"Structural reforms in all countries, either with a positive or negative balance of payments, should play a bigger role," he said in an address to Saturday's talks.


The G20 put together a huge financial backstop to halt a market meltdown in 2009 but has failed to reach those heights since. At successive meetings, Germany has pressed the United States and others to do more to tackle their debts. Washington in turn has urged Berlin to do more to increase demand.


On currencies, the G20 text reiterated its commitment last November, "to move more rapidly toward mores market-determined exchange rate systems and exchange rate flexibility to reflect underlying fundamentals, and avoid persistent exchange rate misalignments".


It said disorderly exchange rate movements and excess volatility in financial flows could harm economic and financial stability.


(Additional reporting by Gernot Heller, Lesley Wroughton, Maya Dyakina, Tetsushi Kajimoto, Jan Strupczewski, Lidia Kelly, Katya Golubkova, Jason Bush, Anirban Nag and Michael Martina. Writing by Douglas Busvine. Editing by Timothy Heritage/Mike Peacock)



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Russia cleans up after meteor blast injures more than 1,000






CHELYABINSK, Russia (Reuters) – Thousands of Russian emergency workers went out on Saturday to clear up the damage from a meteor that exploded over the Ural mountains, damaging buildings, shattering windows and showering people with broken glass.


Divers searched a lake near the city of Chelyabinsk, where a hole several feet wide had opened in the ice, but had so far failed to find any large fragments, officials said.






The scarcity of evidence on the ground fuelled scores of conspiracy theories over what caused the fireball and its huge shockwave on Friday in the area which plays host to many defense industry plants.


Nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky told reporters in Moscow it could have been “war-mongers” in the United States. “It’s not meteors falling. It’s a new weapon being tested by the Americans,” he said.


A priest from near the explosion site called it an act of God. Social media sites were flooded with speculation about what might have caused the explosion, if not a meteorite.


“Honestly, I would be more inclined to believe that this was some military thing,” said Oksana Trufanova, a local human rights activist.


Asked about the speculation, an official at the local branch of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry simply replied: “Rubbish”.


Residents of Chelyabinsk, an industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow, heard an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt a shockwave that blew out windows and damaged the wall and roof of a zinc plant.


A fireball traveling at a speed of 30 km (19 miles) per second according to Russian space agency Roscosmos, blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail visible as far as 200 km (125 miles) away.


NASA estimated the meteor was 55 feet across before entering Earth’s atmosphere and weighed about 10,000 tons.


It exploded miles above Earth, releasing nearly 500 kilotons of energy – about 30 times the size of the nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in World War Two, NASA added.


“We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years on average,” said Paul Chodas of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.


“When you have a fireball of this size we would expect a large number of meteorites to reach the surface and in this case there were probably some large ones.”


DIVERS SEARCH LAKE


Search teams said they had found small objects up to about 1 cm (half-an-inch) wide that might be fragments of a meteorite, but no larger pieces.


The Chelyabinsk regional governor said the strike caused about 1 billion roubles ($ 33 million) worth of damage.


Life in the city had largely returned to normal by Saturday although 50 people were still in hospital. Officials said more than 1,200 people were injured, mostly by flying glass.


Repair work had to be done quickly because of the freezing temperatures, which sank close to -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) at night.


Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov inspected the damage after President Vladimir Putin sent him to the region.


His ministry is under pressure to clean up fast following criticism over the failure to issue warnings in time before fatal flooding in southern Russia last summer and over its handling of forest fires in 2010.


Putin will also want to avoid a repeat of the criticism that he faced over his slow reaction to incidents early in his first term as president, such as the sinking of the Kursk submarine in 2000 which killed all 118 people on board.


($ 1 = 30.1365 Russian roubles)


(Additional reporting by Katya Golubkova, Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Andrew Heavens)


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Buffett, Brazil's 3G team up for $23 billion Heinz buyout


(Reuters) - Warren Buffett and Brazilian financier Jorge Paulo Lemann are teaming up to buy ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co for $23.2 billion, in what could be the first step of a wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.


Analysts and people close to the deal said Heinz could be a good starting point to consolidate similar staple food companies, particularly given the larger ambitions of Lemann's private equity firm 3G Capital.


Including debt assumption, Heinz valued the transaction, which it called the largest in its industry's history, at $28 billion. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G will pay $72.50 per share, a 19 percent premium to the stock's previous all-time high.


Heinz shares initially rose slightly above the offer price, although Buffett cautioned he had no intention of raising his bid and the stock fell back below that mark by midday. The stock has been on a tear, almost doubling over the last four years, though analysts said the price seemed fair.


They also said the deal could be the first step in a broader wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.


"Maybe for the consumer staples group in general this may start some talk about consolidation. Even corporate entities are flush with cash, interest rates are low, it would seemingly make sense," Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo said.


Companies like General Mills and Campbell Soup - itself long seen as a potential Heinz merge partner - rose on the news.


Any acquisition could help Heinz further diversify and broaden its international profile. It already dominates the ketchup business, with a nearly 26 percent share of the global market and a 59 percent share domestically, according to Euromonitor International.


The company actually generates the largest portion of its sales in Europe, though its traditional North American consumer products business is the most profitable.


But its real growth engine has been the Asia/Pacific region, where sales increased nearly 11 percent in the last fiscal year, in part on demand for sauces and infant foods in China.


BUFFETT HUNTING GROWTH


The surprise purchase satisfies, at least in part, Buffett's hunt for growth through acquisition. He was frustrated in 2012 by the collapse of at least two unnamed deals in excess of $20 billion and said he might have to do a $30 billion deal this year to help fuel Berkshire's growth engine.


In a regulatory filing late on Thursday, Berkshire said it was providing $12.12 billion in equity, including common stock, warrants and preferred shares with a liquidation preference of $8 billion and a 9 percent dividend.


Barclays Capital's Jay Gelb the deal's valuation appeared high at 19 times Heinz's expected 2014 earnings per share, but that it would enhance Berkshire's consumer portfolio.


Berkshire Hathaway already has a variety of food assets, including Dairy Queen ice cream chain, chocolatier See's Candies and food distributor McLane. Buffett, famed for a love of cheeseburgers, joked he was well acquainted with Heinz's products already and that this was "my kind of deal."


It does represent an unusual teaming of Berkshire with private equity, though; historically, Buffett's purchases have been outright his own. He and 3G founder Jorge Paulo Lemann have known each other for years, and Buffett said Lemann approached him with the Heinz idea in December.


One Berkshire investor said he had mixed feelings about the deal because of the limited growth prospects domestically.


"We're a little hesitant on the staple companies because they don't have any leverage in the United States," said Bill Smead, chief investment officer of Smead Capital Management in Seattle. But at the same time, he said, Buffett was likely willing to accept a bond-like steady return even if it was not necessarily a "home run."


A second investor, Michael Yoshikami of Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California, said he liked the purchase because it provided cash flow for other deals.


"This is a better use of cash than current money market instruments," said Yoshikami, the firm's CEO and chairman of its investment committee.


3G EXPANDS


For 3G, a little-known firm with Brazilian roots, the purchase is something of a natural complement to its investment in fast-food chain Burger King, which it acquired in late 2010 and in which it still holds a major stake.


Historically, 3G was more of an investor than an acquirer. Its biggest shareholdings include Delphi Automotive, Newell Rubbermaid and Anadarko Petroleum.


Lemann, a globe-trotting financier with Swiss roots, made his money in banking and gained notoriety for helping to pull together the deals that ultimately formed the beer brewing giant AB InBev. Forbes ranks him as the world's 69th-richest billionaire, with a fortune of $12 billion.


3G's Alex Behring runs the fund out of New York. He appeared at a Pittsburgh news conference on Thursday with Heinz management to discuss the deal - and to reassure anxious local crowds that the company will remain based there and will continue to support local philanthropy.


But at the same time, Behring said it was too soon to talk about cost cuts at the company. Unlike Berkshire, which is a hands-off operator, 3G is known for aggressively controlling costs at its operations.


PITTSBURGH ROOTS


Also to be determined is whether CEO Bill Johnson would stay on. Only the fifth chairman in the company's history, Johnson is widely credited with Heinz's recent strong growth.


"I am way too young to retire," he told the news conference, adding that discussions had not yet started with 3G over the details of Heinz's future management.


The company, known for its iconic ketchup bottles, Heinz 57 sauces as well as other brands including Ore-Ida frozen potatoes, has increased net sales for the last eight fiscal years in a row.


Heinz said the transaction would be financed with cash from Berkshire and 3G, debt rollover and debt financing from J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo. Buffett told CNBC that Berkshire and 3G would be equal equity partners.


That would imply roughly $6 billion to $7 billion of new debt needs to be raised.


Heinz shares soared 19.9 percent, or $12.02, to $72.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.


A week ago the stock hit a long-term high of $61 a share - near records it set in 1998 - having risen almost 5 percent this year and nearly 12 percent since the beginning of 2012.


The Heinz Endowments, a pillar in Pennsylvania philanthropy, said the sale of the company would have virtually no impact on their work. Heinz shares represent just over 1 percent of the endowment's $1.4 billion in holdings.


The deal is also a potential boon for new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, whose wife, Teresa, is the widow of H.J. Heinz Co heir John Heinz. Kerry's most recent financial disclosures from his time in the U.S. Senate show a position in Heinz shares of more than $1 million, although the precise size is unclear.


Centerview Partners and BofA Merrill Lynch were financial advisers to Heinz, with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP the legal adviser. Moelis & Company was financial adviser to the transaction committee of Heinz's board and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as its legal adviser.


Lazard served as lead financial adviser. J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo also served as financial advisers to the investment consortium. Kirkland & Ellis LLP was legal adviser to 3G Capital, and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP was legal adviser to Berkshire Hathaway.


(Additional reporting by Olivia Oran and IFR's Stephen Carter in New York and Drew Singer in Pittsburgh; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Leslie Gevirtz)



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Stock futures dip on Europe, Japan growth data; Cisco weighs


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures fell on Thursday in the wake of weaker-than-expected growth data from Europe and Japan and a disappointing outlook from technology bellwether Cisco Systems .


Though weakness in Europe has persisted over recent quarters, underwhelming economic growth data from the region and from Japan, which could impact global growth and U.S. corporate profits, may spur profit-taking in U.S. equities.


The French and German economies shrank more than expected in the fourth quarter of 2012, and a 0.6 percent contraction in the euro zone was the steepest for the bloc since the first quarter of 2009.


Japan's GDP shrank 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, crushing expectations of a modest return to growth and adding weight to the new government's push for radical policy steps to revive growth.


The S&P 500 is up 6.6 percent so far this year, though a dearth of fresh incentives has kept trading thin over the past few sessions.


"We've had a real absence of news in the marketplace and any bit of information that suggests the recovery is not underway is probably being given more significance that it might have," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.


He said that following a mild climb on the S&P 500, traders were "cashing in a little bit."


Shrinking European economies translated to a 5-percent drop in revenue from the region for Cisco Systems, which reported its results Wednesday. The company's shares fell 1.6 percent in premarket trading.


S&P 500 futures fell 4 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 62 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 11 points.


H.J. Heinz Co shares jumped 20 percent in premarket trading after it said that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital will buy the company for $72.50 a share, or $28 billion including debt.


American Airlines and US Airways Group said they plan to merge in a deal that will form the world's biggest air carrier, with an equity valuation of about $11 billion. US Airways shares rose 1.3 percent in premarket trading.


Nvidia shares fell 1.5 percent in premarket trading after the chip maker's revenue outlook missed expectations on Wednesday, pointing to a slowing PC industry and slower production of tablets using its chips.


On the other hand, shares of the world's largest chip gear maker Applied Materials rose Wednesday after the closing bell following a better-than-expected earnings report and outlook.


Best Buy shares fell 2.8 percent in premarket trading; sources said on Wednesday the electronics retailer's founder may scrap a buyout bid and instead line up investors to take a minority position.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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NFL ready to get Super Bowl played at Met Life






NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL says it’s ready to get the 2014 Super Bowl played at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey no matter what the weather conditions are early next February.


The NFL has contingency plans for all games, but with a winter storm hitting the Northeast just after this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, there are concerns about the championship game being played for the first time outdoors at a cold-weather site.






Several reports indicate the NFL has discussed changing the day of game set for Feb. 2 if weather complications arise. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy would not offer specifics of the contingency plans, but says Wednesday “we will be prepared if we have to make adjustments.”


The date of the Super Bowl has never been changed for any reason.


However, dates, times and even sites of several regular-season games have been moved because of weather-related issues.


Weather News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Stock futures point to modest gains at open


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to slight gains at the open on Wednesday, suggesting the market would continue a recent advance that lifted benchmark indexes to multi-year highs.


Equities have been strong performers of late, buoyed largely by healthy growth in corporate earnings, with the S&P 500 gaining 6.5 percent so far this year. The Dow is about 1 percent from an all-time intraday high, reached in October 2007.


Those gains could leave the market vulnerable to a pullback as investors take profit amid a dearth of new trading catalysts. While analysts continue to see an upward bias in markets, recent daily moves have been small and trading volumes have been light, with the S&P near its highest since November 2007.


"This is a market that refuses to go down, and the trend suggests that we'll not only hit a new high on the Dow, but move well beyond it," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York.


The S&P 500 was well over its 50-day moving average of 1,460.92, which was a sign the market was overbought, he said.


"A light-volume pullback should be expected and embraced at these levels," Sarhan said.


Industrial and construction shares will be in focus following President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday, during which he called for a $50 billion spending plan to create jobs by rebuilding degraded roads and bridges. He also backed higher taxes for the wealthy.


Investors have cheered strength in recent company results, even as economic data, including recent reads on gross domestic product, have indicated weakening conditions.


Deere & Co reported earnings that beat expectations and raised its full-year profit outlook. After initially rallying in premarket trading, the stock turned 0.9 percent lower to $93.15.


S&P 500 futures rose 2.5 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 13 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 8 points.


Comcast Corp agreed late Tuesday to buy General Electric Co's remaining 49 percent stake in NBC Universal for $16.7 billion. Comcast jumped 8.9 percent to $42.43 in premarket trading while Dow component GE was up 3.1 percent to $23.27.


Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said Tuesday the company's search partnership with Microsoft Corp was not delivering the market share gains or the revenue boost that it should.


Companies scheduled to report quarterly results on Wednesday include MetLife Inc , Applied Materials and Whole Foods Market .


According to the latest Thomson Reuters data, of 353 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 70.3 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.


Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 5.3 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.


Retail sales rose 0.1 percent in January, as expected, as tax increases and higher gasoline prices restrained spending. The data barely moved the futures market.


Also in economic news, business inventories are seen rising 0.3 percent in December, a repeat of the November increase. The data will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT).


U.S. stocks closed modestly higher Tuesday as investors awaited President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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Earth-Buzzing Asteroid Worth $195 Billion, Space Miners Say






The space rock set to give Earth a historically close shave this Friday (Feb. 15) may be worth nearly $ 200 billion, prospective asteroid miners say.


The 150-foot-wide (45 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 — which will zoom within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of Earth on Friday, marking the closest approach by such a large space rock that astronomers have ever known about in advance — may harbor $ 65 billion of recoverable water and $ 130 billion in metals, say officials with celestial mining firm Deep Space Industries.






That’s just a guess, they stressed, since 2012 DA14′s composition is not well known and its size is an estimate based on the asteroid’s brightness.


The company has no plans to go after 2012 DA14; the asteroid’s orbit is highly tilted relative to Earth, making it too difficult to chase down. But the space rock’s close flyby serves to illustrate the wealth of asteroid resources just waiting to be extracted and used, Deep Space officials said. [Deep Space Industries' Asteroid-Mining Vision in Photos]


“While this week’s visitor isn’t going the right way for us to harvest it, there will be others that are, and we want to be ready when they arrive,” Deep Space chairman Rick Tumlinson said in a statement Tuesday (Feb. 12).


Deep Space Industries wants to use asteroid resources to help humanity expand its footprint out into the solar system. The company plans to convert space rock water into rocket fuel, which would be used to top up the tanks of off-Earth satellites and spaceships cheaply and efficiently.


Asteroidal metals such as iron and nickel, for their part, would form the basis of a space-based manufacturing industry that could build spaceships, human habitats and other structures off the planet.


The idea is to dramatically reduce the amount of material that needs to be launched from Earth, since it currently costs at least $ 10 million to send 1 ton of material to high-Earth orbit, officials said.


“Getting these supplies to serve communications satellites and coming crewed missions to Mars from in-space sources like asteroids is key if we are going to explore and settle space,” Tumlinson said.


Deep Space Industries is just one of two asteroid-mining firms that have revealed their existence and intentions in the past 10 months. The other is Planetary Resources, which has financial backing from billionaires such as Google execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt.


Deep Space aims to launch a phalanx of small, robotic prospecting probes called Fireflies in 2015. Sample-return missions to potential targets would occur shortly thereafter, with space mining operations possibly beginning around 2020.


Planetary Resources also hopes its activities open the solar system up for further and more efficient exploration. The company may launch its first low-cost prospecting space telescopes within the next year or so.


Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook and Google+


Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Stock futures dip before Obama speech, Coca-Cola shares off

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were set to open little changed on Tuesday, hovering near multi-year highs as traders awaited President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.


The economy will be one of the main topics of Obama's speech at 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Wednesday). Investors will listen for any clues on a deal with Republicans in Congress to avert automatic spending cuts due to take effect March 1.


"Things are really quiet, waiting to see what the marching orders are for the next four years," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.


Equities were mostly flat on Monday but the trend for the S&P 500 has been upward during six straight weeks of gains. The index has risen 6.4 percent so far this year.


S&P 500 futures added 0.4 point and were slightly below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 18 points and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1 point.


Coca-Cola Co shares dipped 0.5 percent to $38.42 in premarket trading after the world's largest soft drink maker reported quarterly earnings that were slightly better than expected as strength in emerging markets offset a decline in European business.


Avon Products shares jumped 6.8 percent in premarket trading after the beauty products company reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.


Goodyear Tire & Rubber shares fell 4.5 percent in premarket trading after it posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit but cut its 2013 forecast due to weakness in the European automotive market.


Michael Kors Holdings shares soared 11.8 percent before the open after the fashion company handily beat Wall Street's estimates and raised its full-year outlook.


On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 21.81 points, or 0.16 percent, to 13,971.16. The S&P 500 <.spx> dipped 0.92 points, or 0.06 percent, to 1,517.01 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> edged down 1.87 points, or 0.06 percent, to 3,192.00.


(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Kenneth Barry)



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Wall Street set to open flat with S&P 500 near record high


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were set to open little changed on Monday as investor scrambled to find catalysts for trading, while low volume could make trading volatile and exaggerate moves.


Upbeat U.S. and Chinese data last week helped extend the winning streak of the S&P 500 index to six weeks. The benchmark is up 6.4 percent so far this year after a steep rally in January that has stalled as the S&P and Dow industrials near record highs.


No economic data or major earnings reports are scheduled, but Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen is due to speak about the economic recovery at 1 p.m.


Technical indicators are "looking very good" and could give the market a floor Monday, according to Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.


He said the market will pay attention to Yellen's speech, but he doesn't expect any deviation from her traditionally dovish monetary policy stance.


S&P 500 futures rose 0.6 point but were slightly below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 29 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 1.6 points.


Google shares dipped 0.8 percent in premarket trading after it said in a filing former chief executive Eric Schmidt is selling roughly 42 percent of his stake in the Internet search company, a move that could potentially net him $2.51 billion.


Celgene Corp shares rose 1.7 percent in premarket trading to $101.80 after U.S. regulators approved its new drug for patients with multiple myeloma whose condition worsened after being treated with other cancer drugs.


US Airways shares gained 2 percent to $15.04 as people familiar with the matter said an $11 billion merger with AMR Corp appeared closer. The deal would create the world's largest airline by passenger traffic.


Opposition grew to the $24.4 billion buyout of Dell Inc , the No. 3 personal computer maker, as three of the largest investors joined Southeastern Asset Management on Friday in raising objections. Dell said in a regulatory filing it had considered many strategic options before opting to go private in a buyout led by Chief Executive Michael Dell.


Loews Corp could be hit after the hotels, energy and financial services conglomerate reported a fourth-quarter loss. CNA Financial Corp , its largest holding, suffered losses linked to superstorm Sandy.


(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Kenneth Barry)



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How Birds Got Their UV Vision






If optimists see the world through rose-colored lenses, some birds see it through ultraviolet ones. Avians have evolved ultraviolet vision quite a few times in history, a new study finds.


Birds depend on their color vision for selecting mates, hunting or foraging for food, and spotting predators. Until recently, ultraviolet vision was thought to have arisen as a one-time development in birds. But a new DNA analysis of 40 bird species, reported Feb. 11 in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, shows the shift between violet (shorter wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum) and ultraviolet vision has occurred at least 14 times.






“Birds see color in a different way from humans,” study co-author Anders Ödeen, an animal ecologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, told LiveScience. Human eyes have three different color receptors, or cones, that are sensitive to light of different wavelengths and mix together to reveal all the colors we see. Birds, by contrast, have four cones, so “they see potentially more colors than humans do,” Ödeen said.


Birds themselves are split into two groups based on the color of light (wavelength) that their cones detect most acutely. Scientists define them as violet-sensitive or ultraviolet-sensitive, and the two groups don’t overlap, according to Ödeen. Birds of each group would see the same objects as different hues. [Vision Quiz: What Can Animals See?]


The specialization of color vision has its advantages. For instance, a bird with ultraviolet-sensitive vision might have spectacularly bright plumage in order to impress a female, but that same plumage might appear dull to predator birds that see only in the violet range.


Feathery findings


The study researchers sequenced the DNA from the 40 species of birds, from the cockatiel to the whitebearded manakin. They extracted DNA from the bases of feather quills, blood, muscle or other tissue. From that DNA, the scientists reconstructed the proteins that make up the light-sensitive pigments in the birds’ eyes. Differences in the DNA revealed which birds were sensitive to violet light versus ultraviolet.


“That change is very simple, apparently,” Ödeen said. “It just takes a single mutation” in the DNA sequence. While that change may seem insignificant, it can be compared to the difference humans see between red and green.


The researchers mapped the birds’ evolutionary relationships using data from their study and others. The color mutation that made bird lineages with violet vision evolve to see in ultraviolet and vice versa occurred at 14 different times in their map, and probably even more among all birds, Ödeen noted.


Why the bird lineages switched their color sensitivity — essentially species of a certain branch on the family tree evolved to have the reverse type of vision — is still something of a mystery. The ability to attract mates while still evading predators could be one reason. Ultraviolet light might also provide higher contrast that makes finding food easier. Other factors are environmental — open spaces have more UV light than do forests, for example. Ultimately, the color sensitivity may be a result of other changes that affect the amount of ultraviolet light the birds’ eyes receive.


It seems the evolution of color vision in birds is much less black and white than was once thought.


Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.


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Stocks end higher for sixth straight week, tech leads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures.


The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August.


The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index <.splrct> up 1.0 percent. Gains in professional network platform LinkedIn Corp and AOL Inc after they reported quarterly results helped the sector.


Shares of LinkedIn jumped 21.3 percent to $150.48 after the social networking site announced strong quarterly profits and gave a bullish forecast for the year.


AOL Inc shares rose 7.4 percent to $33.72 after the online company reported higher quarterly profit, boosted by a 13 percent rise in advertising sales.


Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected, a positive sign for the global economy. The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in December, suggesting the U.S. economy likely grew in the fourth quarter instead of contracting slightly as originally reported by the U.S. government.


"That may have sent a ray of optimism," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon.


Trading volume on Friday was below average for the week as a blizzard swept into the northeastern United States.


The U.S. stock market has posted strong gains since the start of the year, with the S&P 500 up 6.4 percent since December 31. The advance has slowed in recent days, with fourth-quarter earnings winding down and few incentives to continue the rally on the horizon.


"I think we're in the middle of a trading range and I'd put plus or minus 5.0 percent around it. Fundamental factors are best described as neutral," Dickson said.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> ended up 48.92 points, or 0.35 percent, at 13,992.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 8.54 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,517.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 28.74 points, or 0.91 percent, at 3,193.87, its highest closing level since November 2000.


For the week, the Dow was down 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq up 0.5 percent.


Shares of Dell closed at $13.63, up 0.7 percent, after briefly trading above a buyout offering price of $13.65 during the session.


Dell's largest independent shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, said it plans to oppose the buyout of the personal computer maker, setting up a battle for founder Michael Dell.


Signs of economic strength overseas buoyed sentiment on Wall Street. Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand. German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.


Separately, U.S. economic data showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.


Earnings have mostly come in stronger than expected since the start of the reporting period. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies now are estimated up 5.2 percent versus a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. That contrasts with a 1.9 percent growth forecast at the start of the earnings season.


Molina Healthcare Inc surged 10.4 percent to $31.88 as the biggest boost to the index after posting fourth-quarter earnings.


The CBOE Volatility index <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was down 3.6 percent at 13.02. The gauge, a key measure of market expectations of short-term volatility, generally moves inversely to the S&P 500.


"I'm watching the 14 level closely" on the CBOE Volatility index, said Bryan Sapp, senior trading analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The break below it at the beginning of the year signaled the sharp rally in January, and a rally back above it could be a sign to exercise some caution."


Volume was roughly 5.6 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.


Advancers outpaced decliners on the NYSE by nearly 2 to 1 and on the Nasdaq by almost 5 to 3.


(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Nick Zieminski, Kenneth Barry and Andrew Hay)



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Stocks end higher for sixth straight week, tech leads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures.


The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August.


The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index <.splrct> up 1.0 percent. Gains in professional network platform LinkedIn Corp and AOL Inc after they reported quarterly results helped the sector.


Shares of LinkedIn jumped 21.3 percent to $150.48 after the social networking site announced strong quarterly profits and gave a bullish forecast for the year.


AOL Inc shares rose 7.4 percent to $33.72 after the online company reported higher quarterly profit, boosted by a 13 percent rise in advertising sales.


Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected, a positive sign for the global economy. The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in December, suggesting the U.S. economy likely grew in the fourth quarter instead of contracting slightly as originally reported by the U.S. government.


"That may have sent a ray of optimism," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon.


Trading volume on Friday was below average for the week as a blizzard swept into the northeastern United States.


The U.S. stock market has posted strong gains since the start of the year, with the S&P 500 up 6.4 percent since December 31. The advance has slowed in recent days, with fourth-quarter earnings winding down and few incentives to continue the rally on the horizon.


"I think we're in the middle of a trading range and I'd put plus or minus 5.0 percent around it. Fundamental factors are best described as neutral," Dickson said.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> ended up 48.92 points, or 0.35 percent, at 13,992.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 8.54 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,517.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 28.74 points, or 0.91 percent, at 3,193.87, its highest closing level since November 2000.


For the week, the Dow was down 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq up 0.5 percent.


Shares of Dell closed at $13.63, up 0.7 percent, after briefly trading above a buyout offering price of $13.65 during the session.


Dell's largest independent shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, said it plans to oppose the buyout of the personal computer maker, setting up a battle for founder Michael Dell.


Signs of economic strength overseas buoyed sentiment on Wall Street. Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand. German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.


Separately, U.S. economic data showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.


Earnings have mostly come in stronger than expected since the start of the reporting period. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies now are estimated up 5.2 percent versus a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. That contrasts with a 1.9 percent growth forecast at the start of the earnings season.


Molina Healthcare Inc surged 10.4 percent to $31.88 as the biggest boost to the index after posting fourth-quarter earnings.


The CBOE Volatility index <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was down 3.6 percent at 13.02. The gauge, a key measure of market expectations of short-term volatility, generally moves inversely to the S&P 500.


"I'm watching the 14 level closely" on the CBOE Volatility index, said Bryan Sapp, senior trading analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The break below it at the beginning of the year signaled the sharp rally in January, and a rally back above it could be a sign to exercise some caution."


Volume was roughly 5.6 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.


Advancers outpaced decliners on the NYSE by nearly 2 to 1 and on the Nasdaq by almost 5 to 3.


(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Nick Zieminski, Kenneth Barry and Andrew Hay)



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Megadunes and Hoar Frost: 6 Facts About Snow






Winter snowstorms, like the Nor’easter that just slammed New England, transform gray days into winter wonderlands.


So while you’re stuck inside, or within snowshoe-walking distance, here are six fun facts about snow, from the idea that no two snowflakes are alike to the bizarre megadunes that blanket Antarctica.






Unique beauty


According to physicists, it’s actually true that no two snowflakes are alike — well, at least when it comes to complex snowflakes.


Snowflakes form when water droplets in the clouds freeze to form a six-sided crystal structure. As the temperature cools, more water vapor freezes and grows in branches from the six sides of the seed crystal. As the crystals form, they are randomly tossed about inside the clouds, which vary in temperature.


The temperature greatly affects how the snowflake forms, so while the simplest hexagonal crystals may look alike, more complicated beauties each have their own unique shapes. [See Stunning Photos of Snowflakes]


White triangles


Most snowflakes form dazzling crystal patterns with six sides. But occasionally, a triangular crystal forms, something that has puzzled physicists for years. A 2009 study in the open-access, pre-publish journal arXiv.org revealed that triangular snowflakes form when the six sides of the seed crystals are slightly asymmetric. This makes them wobble randomly as a snowflake falls, allowing the bigger sides to hit the fast-flowing air inside the cloud, and grow at the expense of the smaller sides.


Other snowflakes have even stranger shapes: Some look like hourglasses, others like spools of thread and still others like needles. And while the quintessential snowflake is the six-armed, symmetrical beauty, most versions are hardly so picturesque. In fact, since the arms of a snowflake all grow randomly, asymmetrical snowflakes are more common.


Snowy shapes


The types of snowflakes that form depend a lot on the temperature and moisture in the clouds, according to a 2005 review in the journal Reports on Progress in Physics. Right around freezing temperatures, hexagonal plates (the cross-section is a two-dimensional hexagon) and the iconic, six-sided snowflake (known as a dendrite) form.


As the temperature cools, snowflakes develop into needles, then hexagonal prisms and even hollow columns. Go colder still, and dendrites form at much larger sizes. And at truly frigid temperatures, the frigid air forms prisms and flat plates.


Piles and piles


Because snow is so fluffy (meaning it’s chock full of air), a relatively small amount of water can translate into a huge pile of snow. An inch of rain on average makes about 10 inches of snow. The biggest snowfalls on record are hard to compare, but the Great Snow of 1717 dropped about 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters) on Boston inhabitants, with some drifts reaching 25 feet (7.6-m), according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.


In 1959, a snowstorm in Mt. Shasta dropped as much as 15.75 feet (4.8 meters) on inhabitants of the California region, according to the College of the Siskiyous. In the 1998 to 1999 snow season, about 95 feet (28.9 m) of snow fell on Mt. Baker, Wash.


Graupel and Hoar Frost?


An old saying claims the Eskimos have dozens of different words for describing snow. While that turned out to be a myth, there are many types of snow crystals and even more snow formations. Aside from the snowflake, there’s also hoar frost and graupel, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.


Hoar frost forms on surfaces that are colder than the frost point in the air around them, so water goes straight from vapor to solid. This spiky, fluffy snow tends to form on tree branches, telephone wires and other skinny items exposed to the chilly air. Graupel, which consists of hard ice pellets, forms when snowflakes fall through a cloud that contains supercooled water droplets. The droplets freeze onto the snowflakes and form misshapen, lumpy balls.


Snow landscape


While the snow on the driveway may just be a pile, the fluffy white stuff creates beautiful formations in nature. Lovers of winter sports know to be wary of cornices, overhanging snow that juts from the edge of a cliff.


And in Antarctica, giant snow formations known as megadunes form from monstrous snow crystals that are up to 0.75 inches (2 cm) across, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. (There can be several snow crystals in a single snowflake.) In arid locales like Death Valley, Calif., piles of snow can be transformed into penitents: bizarre, spiky formations that look like the stalagmites that form in caves.


Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.


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Stock futures flat after China, German data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index were set for a slightly higher open on Friday after a trio of positive economic data points, but gains were expected to be modest, with the benchmark S&P index near five-year highs.


Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand, while German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.


Another positive sign was U.S. economic data which showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.


Comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi about the strength of the euro Thursday renewed concern about the euro zone economy and sent U.S. equities lower.


Wholesale inventories data for December is due at 10:00 a.m. (1500 GMT); inventories are expected to be up 0.4 percent versus a 0.6 percent increase in November.


The S&P 500 <.spx> has risen for five straight weeks and is up 5.8 percent for the year. Its advance was helped by legislators in Washington averting a series of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes earlier in the year, as well as better-than-expected corporate earnings and data that pointed to modest economic improvement but no immediate change in the Federal Reserve's stimulus plans.


The index, hovering near five-year highs, has found it tougher to climb in recent days as investors await strong trading incentives to drive it further upward.


"The market has made a big run, a lot of this was anticipated and so now investors are saying, 'Now what? What do we do for an encore?'" said Terry Morris, senior equity manager for National Penn Investors Trust Company in Reading, Pennsylvania.


"It has made a big run and it is deserving of rest, in fact it would probably be healthy if we had a little bit of a pullback."


S&P 500 futures added 1.8 points and were slightly above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 6 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 9.5 points.


McDonald's Corp said January sales at established hamburger restaurants around the world fell 1.9 percent, a steeper decline than analysts expected. Shares edged down 0.5 percent to $94.18 in premarket.


LinkedIn Corp jumped 10.6 percent to $137.28 in premarket trading after announcing both blow-out quarterly profits and a bullish forecast for the new year that exceeded Wall Street's already lofty expectations.


According to Thomson Reuters data through Thursday morning, of 317 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 69 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.


Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies grew 5 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.


U.S.-listed shares of Oncolytics Biotech Inc surged 44 percent to $5.14 in premarket trading after the company said a mid-stage trial of its experimental lung cancer drug showed 95 percent of the patients experienced a reduction in the size of their tumors.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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Meet the Last Common Ancestor of Bats, Whales, Sloths and Humans






They may run, swim or fly. They may weigh less than a penny or more than a dozen school buses. From humans to whales to bats, the placental mammals–so named for the placenta that nourishes the fetus during development–are mind-bogglingly diverse. (The placental mammals are one of three major groups of mammals; the other two are the egg-laying monotremes and the pouched marsupials.) For years researchers have been attempting to piece together when the placentals originated and when the group’s modern orders, such as the primates and the bats, first emerged. Now a major new analysis of thousands of anatomical features of modern and extinct mammals, as well as molecular sequences from living species, is helping them to do just that. The study also hints at what the ancestral placental mammal–the one that ultimately gave rise to creatures as disparate as tree sloths and sea lions–looked like.Previous attempts to reconstruct the evolutionary history of mammals yielded conflicting scenarios. Fossil evidence suggested that the placentals burst onto the scene shortly after a massive asteroid slammed into the earth around 65 million years ago and snuffed out the dinosaurs. Studies that instead used molecular sequence data to get at the question of when placentals originated and diversified painted a different picture, indicating that the group appeared as early as 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs were still thriving. This date is far older than the oldest known placental fossils, but it helped to explain the diversification of the group: the supercontinent Gondwana was fragmenting at that time and the breakup would have provided opportunities for populations to become separated and evolve in isolation into new forms.The new study, which looked at more than 4,500 traits in 86 fossil and living mammal species, controverts the early origin model, concluding instead that the placentals originated after the mass extinction event, with the first members of modern placental orders evolving some two million to three million years later–after the continental breakup. Maureen O’Leary of Stony Brook University and her collaborators describe their findings in the February 8 Science.Perhaps the coolest part of the paper is the bit where the authors reconstruct the characteristics of the hypothetical placental ancestor–a tree-climbing, insect-eating beastie that weighed between 6 and 245 grams and gave birth to one hairless baby at a time, among other fascinating details. I’d love to see what other hypothetical ancestors look like–last common ancestor of chimps and humans, anyone?    


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Stock index futures cut gains following jobless claims data

A Dallas woman has sued a national fitness company, alleging two employees sexually harassed her during personal training sessions. Jamie Johnson filed a lawsuit against Fitness International LLC, which does business under the name LA  Fitness, after the company denied her requests for a full...
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More 60-Somethings Being Hurt in Motorcycle Crashes






People ages 60 and older account for an increasing proportion of individuals injured in motorcycle crashes in the United States, a new study finds.


In addition, older adults are more likely to be seriously injured in these crashes, and require hospitalization, according to researchers who analyzed records of emergency department visits for motorcycle crash injuries between 2001 and 2008.






During that period 1.5 million motorcycle crash injuries  involved adults ages 20 and older. Most injuries were among people ages 20 to 39 (more than 920,000 injuries), compared to people ages 40 to 59 (more than 466,000 injuries), and people ages 60 and up (more than 65,000 injuries).


But while injury rates increased for all age groups, they were highest for older adults.


The number of people ages 60 and older who were injured in motorcycle crashes during the period studied rose 247 percent, from about 4,300 injuries in 2001 to about 15,100 injuries in 2008. By comparison, the number of injuries increased 61 percent (from about 42,900 to 69,500) for people ages 40 to 59, and 28 percent (from about 99,800 to 128,000) for people ages 20 to 39.


Overall, the proportion of motorcycle crash injuries involving people ages 60 and older climbed from 3 percent in 2001 to 7 percent in 2008.


Older motorcycle riders were also three times more likely to be hospitalized for their injuries than younger riders. Fractures and dislocations were the most common types of injuries for all age groups, although older adults were especially likely to suffer these injuries. Older adults were also more likely to sustain injuries to their internal organs, including the brain.


“The greater severity of injuries among older adults may be due to the physiological changes that occur as the body ages,” including decreased bone strength and changes in the distribution of body fat, the researchers said.


Previous studies have found that the number of older motorcycle riders is on the rise. In 1990, about 10 percent of motorcycle riders were over 50, compared to 25 percent in 2003.


“The increased number of older adults riding motorcycles in recent years should put further focus on the risk of injury to this population,” the researchers wrote in the Feb. issue of the journal Injury Prevention.


Pass it on: People ages 60 and older are more likely to be seriously injured in motor cycle crashes than younger people.


Follow Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner, or MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.


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Stock futures dip after Tuesday rally, earnings in focus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures dipped on Wednesday, indicating the S&P 500 may pull back from a rally of more than 1 percent a day earlier as the index struggles to push past 5-year highs.


Walt Disney Co beat estimates for quarterly adjusted earnings and said it expected the next few quarters to be better, with a stronger lineup of movies and rising attendance at its theme parks. Shares advanced 3.2 percent to $56.03 in light premarket trading.


With the benchmark S&P 500 index at its highest since December 2007, investors are finding it a challenge to continue a move upward amid a dearth of fresh trading incentives, analysts said.


"We are a little bit at stall speed," said Keith Bliss, senior vice-president at Cuttone & Co in New York.


"We will continue to see earnings but it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see us consolidate around this level on the S&P 500 for the next day or two, in the absence of some real compelling news, which is always a risk."


According to Thomson Reuters data through Tuesday morning, of 278 companies in the S&P 500 <.spx> that have reported earnings, 68.7 percent have beat analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.


In another positive sign for corporate profits, 66 percent of companies have topped revenue forecasts. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are now expected to rise 4.5 percent, according to the data, above the 1.9 percent forecast at the start of earnings season.


S&P 500 futures fell 4.4 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures lost 30 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures declined 11.5 points.


The benchmark S&P index rose 1.04 percent Tuesday, its biggest percentage gain since a 2.5-percent advance on January 2, when legislators sidestepped a "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax hikes that could have hurt a fragile U.S. economic recovery.


Visa , the world's largest credit and debit card network, is expected to report earnings per share of $1.79 for its first quarter, up from $1.49 a year earlier. Smaller rival MasterCard recently reported better-than-expected results but said its revenue growth could slow in the first half of the year due to economic uncertainty.


Zynga Inc jumped 4.7 percent to $2.87 in premarket trading after the online gaming company reported an unexpected fourth-quarter profit, following steep cost cuts and shifting forward deferred revenue.


Time Warner Inc gained 3.1 percent to $51.50 before the bell after reporting higher fourth-quarter profit that beat Wall Street estimates, as growth in its cable networks offset declines in its film, TV entertainment and publishing units.


European stocks were mixed at midday as the previous session's tentative recovery lost steam, with euro zone banks sliding on renewed concerns over the health of the region's economy. <.eu/>


Asian shares rose, with Japanese equities climbing to their highest since October 2008 on hopes of central bank monetary policy easing and optimism about the prospects for a global economic recovery.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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Can Solar Energy and Farming Get Along?






Food vs. fuel: It turns out the tug-o-war between the two isn’t only a story about biofuels and our nation’s ethanol mandate. It’s also a tale about producing clean, green energy, which is putting some of California’s most productive farmland at risk.


According to a report released last month by the American Farmland Trust (AFT), 61 percent of all development in California’s San Joaquin Valley is taking place on high-quality farmland. By 2050, the nonprofit group that monitors farmland and development trends says nearly 570,000 acres of farmland could be lost. A notable culprit? Solar energy.






The Associated Press reports there are currently 227 proposed solar projects in California, and plenty more applications pending.


“Solar developers have focused on the southern San Joaquin Valley over the past three years for the same reason as farmers: flat expanses of land and an abundance of sunshine,” writes AP reporter Tracie Cone. Plus, “land that has been tilled most often has fewer issues with endangered species than places such as the Mojave Desert, where an endangered tortoise slowed solar development on federal land.”


Part of the solar rush stems from a California law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in April 2011. The state’s ambitious energy mandate requires 33 percent of California’s electricity be produced from renewable sources like wind and solar power by 2020.


But no one seems to have a good handle on just how much farmland is being taking out of food production and transformed into solar power projects; there’s no official accounting. The California Department of Conservation says they were unable to track development because of budget cuts, and few individual communities within the San Joaquin Valley are monitoring the expansion. The productivity of the farmland, however, is well documented. According to the AFT report, “Many of the nation’s top producing agricultural counties are located in the Valley, with Fresno, Tulare and Kern in the top three statewide.”


“The general plans of most cities and counties reflect official commitments to encourage more efficient development on less productive land,” says Edward Thompson, Jr., American Farmland Trust California director in a statement. “But few communities are even keeping track of how well they are—or, in most cases, are not living up to their good intentions.”


It’s inevitable that when farmland is taken out of production, population figures increase. According to the report, the eight counties that make up the San Joaquin Valley are currently home to approximately four million people and over 400 different crops. By 2050, the number of residents is expected to double, while land available to grow food is projected to shrink by 500,000 acres over that same time period. Unless government officials begin to effectively measure land use and protect valuable farmland, the shift is expected to continue.


“The land use plans and policies of communities throughout the San Joaquin Valley are well-intentioned in calling for the avoidance of high quality farmland, developing land more efficiently, stabilizing the urban edge and preventing rural ‘ranchettes.’ Yet the record shows that, except in a few rare cases, not much actual progress has been made. One reason for this is almost certainly that few communities actually try to measure their progress or lack thereof. They adopt plans and policies, but don’t follow through to determine how well they are working,” concludes the report.


Realted stories on TakePart:


• Are We Already Farming Enough Land to Feed 9 Billion People?


• Can the Food Industry Kick Its Cheap Labor Habit?


• AB 1990: California Power Companies are Fighting This Solar Legislation. But That’s Not the Whole Story



Clare Leschin-Hoar covers seafood, sustainability and food politics. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal, Grist, Eating Well and many more. @c_leschin | TakePart.com


Energy News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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