Source: http://cjonline.com/news/2012-01-03/dems-postpone-k-12-finance-tour
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Thursday, January 5, 2012
Dems postpone K-12 finance tour | CJOnline.com
[unable to retrieve full-text content]CJOnline.com is the website of the Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper. It's the Number One source of news, sports, weather and entertainment information, as well as cars, jobs and real estate advertising for the northeastern ...
Turtles' map holds if Earth's magnetic field drifts
EARTH'S magnetic field is an invaluable navigational tool for humans and other animals, but the way it gradually changes with time is liable to confuse migrants. Evolution, it seems, is one step ahead of the problem: turtle hatchlings don't all respond to a given magnetic field in the same way, suggesting some will arrive at the correct destination even if the field shifts.
The motion of Earth's fluid outer core, which contains iron and nickel, helps to generate a planet-wide magnetic field. Some animals can detect this field, which reveals the direction of magnetic north, and use it to navigate (see "Whales and terns turn together").
One such migrant is the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta). Hatchlings emerge from their nests on the Florida coast and head for the open ocean. Here they spend six to 12 years in a circular current called the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre before returning to the North American coast to breed.
To find out how the turtles remain within the gyre, Ken Lohmann of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues made hatchlings swim in the presence of magnetic fields that simulated locations off Portugal, by which the gyre passes. They were in for a surprise. Near the simulated north coast of Portugal, most turtles swam south, which would keep them within the gyre. But near the southern coast, most turtles swam south-west, even though swimming south would have kept them in the gyre.
Lohmann thinks that the turtles are moving south-west to escape the predator-rich shallow waters of northern Africa, through which the gyre passes. This indicates that the turtles' ability to navigate using Earth's magnetic field is very finely tuned, he says.
But such precision could be a hindrance when the magnetic field varies, as it does over timescales of a year or more. It can also reverse in polarity over hundreds of thousands of years.
Lohmann's experiments suggest a solution to the problem. His team noticed that for any simulated location within the gyre, a few hatchlings consistently swam in directions that would take them out of the gyre and into dangerous waters.
These wayward hatchlings may be evolution's insurance policy against changes to the magnetic field, Lohmann says. After such a change to the field, some of these hatchlings will inadvertently read the magnetic field in the correct way to remain in the gyre. He presented his findings at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco last month.
Joseph Kirschvink, a geobiologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, agrees. "Turtles lay a lot of eggs during their lives," he says. "Having a large genetic control over the swimming direction versus magnetic cues may be an evolutionarily robust way of preserving the populations over a long stretch of geological time."
Whales and Terns Turn Together
Buller's albatrosses, Arctic terns, humpback whales and leatherback turtles may all read Earth's magnetic field in the same way.
Travis Horton at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, plotted the migratory tracks from each species over a detailed magnetic map of Earth, which shows how the magnetic field's inclination and declination - the angular difference between the field lines and true north - vary from point to point.
The magnetic field lines originate in the Earth's core and emerge near the poles, where their angle of dip - or inclination - relative to Earth's surface is almost 90 degrees. Approaching the equator, inclination is roughly 0 degrees. Meanwhile, fluctuations in local geology alter both the inclination and the declination.
Horton found that important locations on each species' migration - where they stopped or changed direction, for instance - were characterised by ratios of declination to inclination that were "dyadic" fractions of the value at the start of the migration route. Dyadic fractions include one-half, one-quarter and one-eighth but not one-third or one-fifth.
Horton told last month's meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco that this suggests the animals are somehow sensing this ratio, perhaps relying on the symmetry of the bio-magnetite crystals they are thought to use to detect the magnetic field. "You rotate the crystal by half, quarter, one-eighth - it still looks the same."
Joseph Kirschvink, an expert on bio-magnetite at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is not convinced. He points out that bio-magnetite comes in forms that are not so symmetric - pigeons, for instance, have elongated crystals.
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Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Sarah Harding Injured During New Year?s Eve Tiff With Boyfriend
Sarah Harding Injured During New Year’s Eve Tiff With Boyfriend
Sarah Harding was reportedly hurt after a nasty fight with her new boyfriend, known only as Theo, on New Year’s Eve. The Girls Aloud singer [...]
Sarah Harding Injured During New Year’s Eve Tiff With Boyfriend Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News
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Kensington BungeeAir Wireless Security Tether Review
The fob, case, and app are all parts of a system of protection. As Gadget geeks, we’re lost without our bits of technology. That’s why we go to such lengths to carry them on our person, in a gear bag, or even in a hidden pocket in a special piece of clothing. But what if [...]
Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/01/01/kensington-bungeeair-wireless-security-tether-review/
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Monday, January 2, 2012
NBCPhiladelphia: RT @tfurlong: Make sure u check me and @loriwilsonnbc on the #mummers parade on myphl 17. Should be nice weather and a fun show!
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RT @tfurlong: Make sure u check me and @loriwilsonnbc on the #mummers parade on myphl 17. Should be nice weather and a fun show! 
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Murphy gains votes to become Lowell's youngest mayor
LOWELL -- City Councilor Bill Martin broke his silence yesterday afternoon, telling The Sun he will vote for Councilor Patrick Murphy for mayor on Tuesday.
Murphy has already received commitments from Councilor Kevin Broderick and councilors-elect Vesna Nuon and Marty Lorrey. Those, coupled with his own and Martin's vote, give him the five votes required to be selected for the position.
"He is a young, energetic guy who will bring some new ideas and perspective to the mayor's position," Martin, a former mayor himself, said of Murphy. "He will do a good job for the city."
Murphy's rival was Councilor Rodney Elliott, 51, who won his eighth council term in November, finishing second to perennial ticket-topper Rita Mercier. He had secured mayoral votes from himself, Councilors Rita Mercier and Joe Mendonca and Councilor-elect Edward Kennedy.
Martin, the deciding vote in the mayoral race, said he spoke to Elliott to inform him of his intentions at about 4 p.m. yesterday.
"It's no surprise to me," Eliott said of Martin's announcement, adding he met with Martin two days after the election. "I ask the questions my constituents want asked, as evidenced by my second-place finish. I know the issues I raise make some of my colleagues uncomfortable, but I am not willing to compromise my positions on taxes and open and transparent government to become mayor.
"I do look forward to working with the new council in the next two years and continuing to do
the job the people elected me to do," he added.Murphy, a 29-year-old stonemason who will begin his second council term Tuesday, will be the city's youngest mayor. That distinction had previously been held by Brian Martin, who was 33 when he became mayor in 1983.
"I am very honored to have the support and confidence of my colleagues old and new to lead our next City Council and School Committee," Murphy said. "And (I) look forward to working with and supporting, in turn, each of them as we seek to make our own contribution to the progress of this city."
In Lowell's Plan E form of government, while the mayoral position is largely ceremonial, he or she also is responsible for chairing the City Council and School Committee. The mayor will officially be chosen at Tuesday morning's inauguration, which begins at 10 a.m. at City Hall.
Source: http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_19645518?source=rss_viewed
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
Endorsement game intensifies, but does it matter? (AP)
MANCHESTER, N.H. ? It may be overrated, but the political endorsement race won't stop. In fact, it will only accelerate as voting in the GOP presidential contest nears.
Hoping to bolster credibility and build political muscle, Republican presidential contenders have jockeyed for months to woo governors and congressional lawmakers, state senators and county sheriffs, newspaper editorial boards and tea party activists. The game has been dominated so far by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who appears to have captured more endorsements than the rest of the field combined.
But Jeff Frost, like many Republicans in early voting states, isn't impressed. Frost, who is chairman of the Manchester Republican Committee, said New Hampshire voters don't much like being told which candidate to support.
"We're a stubborn bunch of horse traders," he said.
Indeed, candidates and voters alike suggest the impact of political endorsements is unclear at best. Any potential blowback, however, isn't enough to stop campaigns from trotting out new supporters as quickly as they can sign them up.
It didn't matter that the New Hampshire Union Leader has a spotty record of picking winners. Newt Gingrich claimed instant credibility after capturing its endorsement. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum proudly won over Iowa social conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, while touring Iowa, recently dispatched his latest high-profile supporter, conservative businessman Steve Forbes, to New Hampshire.
In most cases, the campaigns shop their big-name backers to local reporters, arrange meetings with voters and use their names and voices in fundraising appeals. Some also offer an instant infrastructure to handle nuts-and-bolts political chores that have tripped up less-organized candidates. That was the case recently in Virginia, where leading Romney supporter Lt. Gov. Bill Boiling shared his political network to help collect thousands of signatures so Romney could qualify for the primary ballot. Gingrich and Perry failed to qualify.
There's also the buzz that comes with any endorsement, producing days or a few hours of positive media coverage that may inspire confidence among wavering supporters.
Republican candidate Jon Huntsman has struggled to attract big names but recently won the backing of three New Hampshire newspapers, including the capital city's Concord Monitor. His campaign blasted news of the endorsements to reporters.
But even Huntsman acknowledged their impact may be minimal come Election Day.
"It's recognition that you are a legitimate candidate and people think well of you," Huntsman said. "What it does in terms of bringing support around in real numbers that would be quantifiable, I don't have any way of measuring that. I just don't know if it matters at all at the end of the day. But anything that provides additional credibility is a good thing."
The people who endorse candidates are also freer to go negative. Romney supporter and former New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu has repeatedly jabbed at Gingrich for "whining." Forbes did much the same thing in New Hampshire for Perry, suggesting that the Texas governor has more "soul" than Romney.
Forbes, once a presidential contender himself, is considered popular in New Hampshire. But a handful of public appearances and media interviews are unlikely to sway any voters, according to Phyllis Woods, one of New Hampshire's two members of the Republican National Committee.
"I think in New Hampshire, there are precious few people who will make their decision based on an endorsement," she said.
There are always exceptions.
Romney helped create an air of inevitability in the fall after earning the endorsement of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an outspoken conservative favorite. That was strengthened when Romney subsequently won over a tea party favorite, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Dave Roederer, an unaligned Republican who was John McCain's Iowa campaign chairman in 2008, said such high-profile endorsements are helpful.
"Iowa's not a big endorsement-type state, but the fact of the matter is that people will obviously stop and listen to somebody who's a big name like that," Roederer said of Christie and Haley. "It helps."
Santorum hopes people will notice rounds of lesser-known Iowa Republicans, from pastors and politicians alike, whom he's courted with some success in recent weeks. His top prize so far has been Vander Plaats, whose Family Leader organization worked to oust judges who helped usher in gay marriage in Iowa. The organization itself, however, declined to endorse.
In the endorsement race, which candidate gets the most is also a contest.
Romney's campaign says he's collected more than 1,900 endorsements, including conservative activists and current and former elected officials in all 50 states. The list includes four governors, 48 House members and 11 senators.
No one else comes close.
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