Veckans ros vardera till:
Al Jazeera
Der Spiegel
NASA
Mors lilla Olle i Funäsdalen
De ansvariga för skidspåren, inte minst elljusspåren i Sundsvall
Kompositören till "Feelings" (videon nedan)
Veckans ris till:
Vädergudarna
Feelings:
(Tankarna tar sig bak i tiden och det gamla hjärtat gråter)
Thursday, March 31, 2011
NASA Kepler Mission Update
University of Sydney astrophysicists are behind a major breakthrough in the study of the senior citizens of our galaxy: stars known as Red Giants. Using high precision brightness measurements taken by the Kepler spacecraft, scientists have been able to distinguish profound differences inside the cores of stars that otherwise look the same on the surface.
The discovery, published in the latest edition of the journal Nature and made possible by observations using NASA's powerful Kepler space telescope, is shedding new light on the evolution of stars, including our own sun.
The paper's lead author, the University of Sydney's Professor Tim Bedding, explains, "Red giants are evolved stars that have exhausted the supply of hydrogen in their cores that powers nuclear fusion, and instead burn hydrogen in a surrounding shell. Towards the end of their lives, red giants begin burning the helium in their cores."
The Kepler space telescope has allowed Professor Bedding and colleagues to continuously study starlight from hundreds of red giants at an unprecedented level of precision for nearly a year, opening up a window into the stars' cores.
"The changes in brightness at a star's surface is a result of turbulent motions inside that cause continuous star-quakes, creating sound waves that travel down through the interior and back to the surface," Professor Bedding said.
"Under the right conditions, these waves interact with other waves trapped inside the star's helium core. It is these 'mixed' oscillation modes that are the key to understanding a star's particular life stage. By carefully measuring very subtle features of the oscillations in a star's brightness, we can see that some stars have run out of hydrogen in the center and are now burning helium, and are therefore at a later stage of life."
Astronomer Travis Metcalfe of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, in a companion piece in the same Nature issue which highlights the discovery's significance, compares red giants to Hollywood stars, whose age is not always obvious from the surface. "During certain phases in a star's life, its size and brightness are remarkably constant, even while profound transformations are taking place deep inside."
Professor Bedding and his colleagues work in an expanding field called asteroseismology. "In the same way that geologists use earthquakes to explore Earth's interior, we use star quakes to explore the internal structure of stars," he explained.
Professor Bedding said: "We are very excited about the results. We had some idea from theoretical models that these subtle oscillation patterns would be there, but this confirms our models. It allows us to tell red giants apart, and we will be able to compare the fraction of stars that are at the different stages of evolution in a way that we couldn't before."
Daniel Huber, a PhD student working with Professor Bedding, added: "This shows how wonderful the Kepler satellite really is. The main aim of the telescope was to find Earth-sized planets that could be habitable, but it has also provided us with a great opportunity to improve our understanding of stars."
Michele Johnson, Public Affairs Officer, Kepler Mission
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Studies of oscillation frequencies of many stars with very high precision gives insights into stellar evolution by knowing how the cores of stars change (starting in the bottom left corner in the sequence above) from hydrogen fusion-burning cores to helium fusion-burning cores, with intermediate stages where hydrogen fusion-burning shells expand into red giant sizes. A Hydrogen shell fusion star and a Helium core fusion star are indistinguishable when looking only at their surface properties. On the inside, they are radically different.
Image credit: Thomas Kallinger, University of British Columbia and University of Vienna
Kepler, the paparazzi of the celestial stars, takes snapshots of oscillations that can can be used to tell the size and age of the star. As a star "burns" hydrogen in fusion reactions, helium builds up in the star's core. Helium is more dense than hydrogen, and since waves travel more quickly through denser material, waves travel faster through the core as helium builds up there. Waves that go straight through the center (white) line and waves that bounce around outside the core (colored lines) produce oscillations in surface brightness.
Image credit: Travis Metcalfe, National Center for Atmospheric Research
NASA Spacecraft Reveal Mysteries Of Jupiter And Saturn Rings
In a celestial forensic exercise, scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini, Galileo and New Horizons missions have traced telltale ripples in Saturn and Jupiter's rings to specific collisions with cometary fragments that occurred decades, not millions of years, ago.
Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/mar/HQ_11-095_Cassini_Ripple.html
Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/mar/HQ_11-095_Cassini_Ripple.html
Reklam
Källa: Business Inside
Crackdown on Christians in Vietnam
March 31, 2011
“The police would get drunk, wake me up, and question me and beat me,” said an indigenous minority Christian, arrested while demonstrating for religious freedom and land rights. “The handcuffs were like wire. They used electric shock on me. They would shock me on my knees, saying you used these legs to walk to the demonstration.” Repeated blows to his head left him partially deaf.
The Vietnamese government has ratcheted up its crackdown on indigenous minority Christians from its Central Highlands. Officials particularly target those who worship in independent “house churches,” where Christians gather in someone’s home, claiming they use religion as a cover for an independence movement.
In a new report, Human Rights Watch documents how authorities have dissolved house church gatherings, forced hundreds of indigenous Catholics and Protestants to renounce their religion publicly, and sealed the border to prevent asylum seekers from fleeing to Cambodia.
We found that special “political security” units, together with police, interrogate people suspected of political activism or leading unregistered house churches. More than 70 indigenous Christians were detained or arrested in 2010, and more than 250 are known to be imprisoned on national security charges.
For Many, 'D' in Vitamin D Means Deficit
March 31, 2011
(USA TODAY) -- About one third of Americans are not getting enough vitamin D, a government report says.
The report, out Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), parallels what many other studies have suggested in recent years: that a large chunk of the population is at risk for low vitamin D levels.
Hur är det med svenskarna? En apelsin om dagen räcker (sägs det). Frukt och grönsaker öht är toppen. Under senare år har jag ätit mycket sådant, och detta kan kanske förklara väldigt få förkylningar för mig.
(USA TODAY) -- About one third of Americans are not getting enough vitamin D, a government report says.
The report, out Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), parallels what many other studies have suggested in recent years: that a large chunk of the population is at risk for low vitamin D levels.
Hur är det med svenskarna? En apelsin om dagen räcker (sägs det). Frukt och grönsaker öht är toppen. Under senare år har jag ätit mycket sådant, och detta kan kanske förklara väldigt få förkylningar för mig.
Cady Chats with Mass. TV Station and Students
Cady Coleman, en kvinna som kvinnorörelsen kan vara stolt över:
NASA Spacecraft Reveal Mysteries Of Jupiter And Saturn Rings
PASADENA, Calif. -- In a celestial forensic exercise, scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini, Galileo and New Horizons missions have traced telltale ripples in Saturn and Jupiter's rings to specific collisions with cometary fragments that occurred decades, not millions of years, ago.
Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/mar/HQ_11-095_Cassini_Ripple.html
NASA
Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/mar/HQ_11-095_Cassini_Ripple.html
NASA
Extra-Cold Winters in Northeastern North America and Northeastern Asia?
Warm water off continents' eastern coasts to blame
Snow cover over North America and Europe in March, 2003, as imaged by a satellite instrument.
March 30, 2011
If you're sitting on a bench in New York City's Central Park in winter, you're probably freezing.
After all, the average temperature in January is 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
But if you were just across the pond in Porto, Portugal, which shares New York's latitude, you'd be much warmer--the average temperature is a balmy 48 degrees Fahrenheit.
Throughout northern Europe, average winter temperatures are at least 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than similar latitudes on the northeastern coast of the United States and the eastern coast of Canada.
The same phenomenon happens over the Pacific, where winters on the northeastern coast of Asia are colder than in the Pacific Northwest.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have now found a mechanism that helps explain these chillier winters--and the culprit is warm water off the eastern coasts of these continents.
"These warm ocean waters off the eastern coasts actually make it cold in winter counte rintuitive," says Tapio Schneider, a geoscientist at Caltech.
Schneider and Yohai Kaspi, a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech, describe their work in a paper published in the March 31 issue of the journal Nature.
"This research makes a novel contribution to an old problem," says Eric DeWeaver, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funded the research.
"Traditional wisdom has it that western Europe is warm because of the Gulf Stream, but this paper presents evidence that atmospheric circulation plays an important role in maintaining the colder temperatures found on the eastern boundaries of the mid-latitude continents."
Using computer simulations of the atmosphere, the researchers found that the warm water off an eastern coast will heat the air above it and lead to the formation of atmospheric waves, drawing cold air from the northern polar region.
The cold air forms a plume just to the west of the warm water. In the case of the Atlantic Ocean, this means the frigid air ends up right over the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
For decades, the conventional explanation for the cross-oceanic temperature difference was that the Gulf Stream delivers warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to northern Europe.
But in 2002, research showed that ocean currents aren't capable of transporting that much heat, instead contributing only up to 10 percent of the warming.
Kaspi's and Schneider's work reveals a mechanism that helps create a temperature contrast not by warming Europe, but by cooling the eastern United States.
Surprisingly, it's the Gulf Stream that causes this cooling.
In the northern hemisphere, the subtropical ocean currents circulate in a clockwise direction, bringing an influx of warm water from low latitudes into the western part of the ocean.
These warm waters heat the air above it.
"It's not that the warm Gulf Stream waters substantially heat up Europe," Kaspi says. "But the existence of the Gulf Stream near the U.S. coast is causing the cooling of the northeastern United States."
The researchers' computer model simulates a simplified, ocean-covered Earth with a warm region to mimic the coastal reservoir of warm water in the Gulf Stream.
The simulations show that such a warm spot produces so-called Rossby waves.
Rossby waves are large atmospheric waves--with wavelengths that stretch for more than 1,609 kilometers (1,000 miles).
They form when the path of moving air is deflected due to Earth's rotation, a phenomenon known as the Coriolis effect.
Similar to how gravity produces water waves on the surface of a pond, the Coriolis force is responsible for Rossby waves.
In the simulations, the warm water produces stationary Rossby waves, in which the peaks and valleys of the waves don't move, but the waves still transfer energy.
In the northern hemisphere, the stationary Rossby waves cause air to circulate in a clockwise direction just to the west of the warm region.
To the east of the warm region, the air swirls in the counterclockwise direction. These motions draw in cold air from the north, balancing the heating over the warm ocean waters.
To gain insight into the mechanisms that control the atmospheric dynamics, the researchers sped up Earth's rotation in the simulations.
In those cases, the plume of cold air gets bigger--consistent with it being a stationary Rossby-wave plume. Most other atmospheric features would get smaller if the planet were to spin faster.
Although it's long been known that a heat source could produce Rossby waves, which can then form plumes, this is the first time scientists have shown how the mechanism causes cooling that extends west of the heat source.
According to the researchers, the cooling effect could account for 30 to 50 percent of the temperature difference across oceans.
It also explains why the cold region is just as big for both North America and Asia, despite the continents' differences in topography and size.
The Rossby-wave induced cooling depends on heating air over warm ocean water. Since the warm currents along western ocean boundaries in both the Pacific and Atlantic are similar, the resulting cold region to their west would be similar as well.
The next step, Schneider says, is to build simulations that more realistically reflect what happens on Earth. Future simulations would incorporate more complex features like continents and cloud feedbacks.
The research was also funded by a NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship and a David and Lucille Packard Fellowship.
-NSF-
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2010, its budget is about $6.9 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives over 45,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
Warm water off continents' eastern coasts to blame
Snow cover over North America and Europe in March, 2003, as imaged by a satellite instrument.
 |
| The Gulf Stream flows northward along the Eastern U.S. then diverges out into the Atlantic Ocean |
March 30, 2011
 |
| Sea-surface temperatures off Eastern North America; purple = freezing temperature of ocean water. |
After all, the average temperature in January is 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
But if you were just across the pond in Porto, Portugal, which shares New York's latitude, you'd be much warmer--the average temperature is a balmy 48 degrees Fahrenheit.
Throughout northern Europe, average winter temperatures are at least 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than similar latitudes on the northeastern coast of the United States and the eastern coast of Canada.
 |
| Surface temperature deviation averaged over northern hemisphere winter months and across 40 years. |
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have now found a mechanism that helps explain these chillier winters--and the culprit is warm water off the eastern coasts of these continents.
"These warm ocean waters off the eastern coasts actually make it cold in winter counte rintuitive," says Tapio Schneider, a geoscientist at Caltech.
Schneider and Yohai Kaspi, a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech, describe their work in a paper published in the March 31 issue of the journal Nature.
"This research makes a novel contribution to an old problem," says Eric DeWeaver, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funded the research.
"Traditional wisdom has it that western Europe is warm because of the Gulf Stream, but this paper presents evidence that atmospheric circulation plays an important role in maintaining the colder temperatures found on the eastern boundaries of the mid-latitude continents."
Using computer simulations of the atmosphere, the researchers found that the warm water off an eastern coast will heat the air above it and lead to the formation of atmospheric waves, drawing cold air from the northern polar region.
 |
| The northern hemisphere is perturbed with a constant localized heating at the ocean surface. |
The cold air forms a plume just to the west of the warm water. In the case of the Atlantic Ocean, this means the frigid air ends up right over the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
For decades, the conventional explanation for the cross-oceanic temperature difference was that the Gulf Stream delivers warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to northern Europe.
But in 2002, research showed that ocean currents aren't capable of transporting that much heat, instead contributing only up to 10 percent of the warming.
Kaspi's and Schneider's work reveals a mechanism that helps create a temperature contrast not by warming Europe, but by cooling the eastern United States.
Surprisingly, it's the Gulf Stream that causes this cooling.
In the northern hemisphere, the subtropical ocean currents circulate in a clockwise direction, bringing an influx of warm water from low latitudes into the western part of the ocean.
These warm waters heat the air above it.
"It's not that the warm Gulf Stream waters substantially heat up Europe," Kaspi says. "But the existence of the Gulf Stream near the U.S. coast is causing the cooling of the northeastern United States."
The researchers' computer model simulates a simplified, ocean-covered Earth with a warm region to mimic the coastal reservoir of warm water in the Gulf Stream.
The simulations show that such a warm spot produces so-called Rossby waves.
Rossby waves are large atmospheric waves--with wavelengths that stretch for more than 1,609 kilometers (1,000 miles).
They form when the path of moving air is deflected due to Earth's rotation, a phenomenon known as the Coriolis effect.
Similar to how gravity produces water waves on the surface of a pond, the Coriolis force is responsible for Rossby waves.
In the simulations, the warm water produces stationary Rossby waves, in which the peaks and valleys of the waves don't move, but the waves still transfer energy.
In the northern hemisphere, the stationary Rossby waves cause air to circulate in a clockwise direction just to the west of the warm region.
To the east of the warm region, the air swirls in the counterclockwise direction. These motions draw in cold air from the north, balancing the heating over the warm ocean waters.
To gain insight into the mechanisms that control the atmospheric dynamics, the researchers sped up Earth's rotation in the simulations.
In those cases, the plume of cold air gets bigger--consistent with it being a stationary Rossby-wave plume. Most other atmospheric features would get smaller if the planet were to spin faster.
Although it's long been known that a heat source could produce Rossby waves, which can then form plumes, this is the first time scientists have shown how the mechanism causes cooling that extends west of the heat source.
According to the researchers, the cooling effect could account for 30 to 50 percent of the temperature difference across oceans.
It also explains why the cold region is just as big for both North America and Asia, despite the continents' differences in topography and size.
The Rossby-wave induced cooling depends on heating air over warm ocean water. Since the warm currents along western ocean boundaries in both the Pacific and Atlantic are similar, the resulting cold region to their west would be similar as well.
The next step, Schneider says, is to build simulations that more realistically reflect what happens on Earth. Future simulations would incorporate more complex features like continents and cloud feedbacks.
The research was also funded by a NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship and a David and Lucille Packard Fellowship.
-NSF-
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2010, its budget is about $6.9 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives over 45,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
Samsung först med genomskinlig skärm
Färgversionen av LCD-skärmen har 15 procent genomskinlighet att jämföra med 5 procent för motsvarande skärmar idag.
Samsung kommer före konkurrenterna med att starta massproduktion av genomskinliga LCD-skärmar.
Under mässor har Samsung demonstrerat skärmar som är genomskiliga som fönster – och det är just skärmar som ersätter glaset i skyltfönster som kan bli den första stora tillämpningen för tekniken.
ELEKTRONIK TIDNINGEN
Samsung kommer före konkurrenterna med att starta massproduktion av genomskinliga LCD-skärmar.
Under mässor har Samsung demonstrerat skärmar som är genomskiliga som fönster – och det är just skärmar som ersätter glaset i skyltfönster som kan bli den första stora tillämpningen för tekniken.
ELEKTRONIK TIDNINGEN
1000 döda runt Fukushima får ligga kvar
1000 människor som dog av tsunamin ligger ännu kvar runt kärnkraftverket Fukushima. Myndigheterna oroas av strålningen.
De ansvariga för uppröjningsarbetet efter katastroferna i Japan har ställts inför ett etiskt svårt dilemma - 1000 döda människor ligger kvar i utrymningszonen runt kärnkraftverket Fukushima Daiichi.
De har under utsläppen från reaktorerna belagts med radioaktiva ämnen. Myndigheterna oroas över att polis, läkare och anhöriga ska "smittas" av strålningen under omhändertagandet och senare på bårhusen, rapporterar Japan Times.
NY TEKNIK
De ansvariga för uppröjningsarbetet efter katastroferna i Japan har ställts inför ett etiskt svårt dilemma - 1000 döda människor ligger kvar i utrymningszonen runt kärnkraftverket Fukushima Daiichi.
De har under utsläppen från reaktorerna belagts med radioaktiva ämnen. Myndigheterna oroas över att polis, läkare och anhöriga ska "smittas" av strålningen under omhändertagandet och senare på bårhusen, rapporterar Japan Times.
NY TEKNIK
Otrohet orsak till journalintrång
Läkaren läste både sin älskares och hans frus journaler. Straffet blev villkorlig dom och uppsägning.
Läkaren tjuvläste journal och bröt mot tystnadsplikten
Den läkare i Landstinget Kronoberg som gjort sig skyldig till dataintrång och brott mot tystnadsplikten genom att tjuvläsa patientjournaler, blev avskedad innan domen hade fallit. Vanligtvis väntar landstinget tills efter ett domslut men i detta fall sades kvinnan upp direkt.
– Läkaren arbetar inte längre kvar inom Landstinget Kronoberg, säger personaldirektör Jeanette Kjellberg till Smålandsposten.
Läkaren har erkänt att hon vid ett 30-tal tillfällen läste sin tidigare älskares journaler för att ta reda på så mycket som möjligt om honom. Bland annat fick hon reda på att han även tidigare misstänktes ha varit otrogen.
Läkaren läste även hans frus och andra närståendes journaler. Intrången avslöjades när mannens fru begärde ut logglistorna från landstinget.
Läkaren tjuvläste journal och bröt mot tystnadsplikten
Den läkare i Landstinget Kronoberg som gjort sig skyldig till dataintrång och brott mot tystnadsplikten genom att tjuvläsa patientjournaler, blev avskedad innan domen hade fallit. Vanligtvis väntar landstinget tills efter ett domslut men i detta fall sades kvinnan upp direkt.
– Läkaren arbetar inte längre kvar inom Landstinget Kronoberg, säger personaldirektör Jeanette Kjellberg till Smålandsposten.
Läkaren har erkänt att hon vid ett 30-tal tillfällen läste sin tidigare älskares journaler för att ta reda på så mycket som möjligt om honom. Bland annat fick hon reda på att han även tidigare misstänktes ha varit otrogen.
Läkaren läste även hans frus och andra närståendes journaler. Intrången avslöjades när mannens fru begärde ut logglistorna från landstinget.
Strålbehandling var sällan orsaken till ny cancer
Risken att strålbehandling orsakar ny cancer är liten. Den slutsatsen dras i ny jättestudie.
Strålbehandling förbättrar överlevnaden vid många typer av cancer, men ökar samtidigt risken att drabbas av en andra cancer.
Hur ofta en ny cancer verkligen beror på tidigare strålbehandling är dock okänt, enligt amerikanska forskare.
Nu har de analyserat data från nästan 650 000 vuxna patienter i det amerikanska cancerregistret SEER. Alla hade överlevt i minst fem år efter att ha drabbats av en cancertyp som rutinmässigt behandlas med strålning.
Sammanlagt ingick 15 olika cancertyper i studien, däribland bröst-, lung-, struphuvud-, prostata- och testikelcancer.
Under uppföljningsperioden på i genomsnitt 12 år drabbades 9 procent av patienterna av ny cancer. Forskarna beräknar att 8 procent av dessa nya insjuknanden skulle kunna ha att göra med tidigare strålbehandling.
Hälften av dem som tros ha drabbats av ny cancer på grund av strålning hade överlevt prostata- eller bröstcancer.
Högst var risken för patienter som strålbehandlats i unga år, och för cancer i organ som kräver hög strålningsdos.
Enligt forskarna visar studien att nyttan med strålbehandling överväger den ökade risken att senare drabbas av ny cancer.
De säger dock att effekterna av nyare typer av strålbehandling inte avspeglas i studien, eftersom den gjordes på patienter som behandlades före 2003.
Bakom studien står bland andra forskare vid National Cancer Institute i Maryland. Den publiceras i tidskriften Lancet Oncology.
Abstract: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(11)70061-4/abstract
Haulage magnate Eddie Stobart dies, aged 56
 |
| Keep on truckin' |
Eddie Stobart Members Club
Winson Green (Birmingham) Prison to be privatised!
Winson Green Prison, known by the Home Office as HM Prison Birmingham, is to be privatised. G4S are to get their hands on it. I do hope they won't let any prisoners escape. The only reason this is being done is to cut costs. Cut too much and the inmates get ratty. One wonders what was promised to Kenneth Clarke when the tender went in. I think all Brummies should keep a watchful eye on events as this "goes forward". The Prison Officer's Association has a mandate from its members to take industrial action if any prisons are contracted out to the private sector. A recipe for mayhem?
 |
| "I'm escaping This prison's not what it used to be!" |
Salt of the Earth? Not in Stockport chip shops!
 |
| "They've banned salt in the chippy, Ada!" |
Personally I think chips without salt are rather tasteless. But I don't care for that finely ground Cheshire stuff. No wonder they had to reduce the holes in salt cellars from 17 to 5. No, I much prefer some tasty sea salt freshly ground over the fish and chips I buy. When the chippy chirps up and asks if I want "salt 'n vinegar" I demur and think of my own crystals falling over the food.
Food without salt is, well, not that tasty. Food with too much salt? Not that great, either. If slavering Mancunians (and Cheshire type Stockporters!) can't summon up self control, then they may get heart disease, palpitations and dizzy spells. They know the score. But I don't see it the business of the state, local or national, to be mother, nanny and next-door-neighbour rolled into one.
Salt shakers might have been doing too much shaking. But let's get a sense of proportion.
Första muträttegången har startat
Den första rättegången i den omfattande muthärvan i Göteborgs tingsrätt inleddes i dag. Först ut att bedömas rättsligt är en man, som vid tiden för det misstänkta brottet hade en chefsbefattning på bostadsbolaget Poseidon. /SvD
I dag ställs en 55-årig före detta chef vid det kommunala bostadsbolaget Poseidon inför rätta för grovt mutbrott.
Usch för dessa bovar i slips och fluga!
I dag ställs en 55-årig före detta chef vid det kommunala bostadsbolaget Poseidon inför rätta för grovt mutbrott.
Usch för dessa bovar i slips och fluga!
Motbjudande doft kan bekämpa vägglöss
Vägglöss är en allt vanligare plåga som kräver omfattande sanering i bostäder. Men nu har forskare från Lund och Sundsvall upptäckt att unga vägglöss producerar en doft som är motbjudande för andra vägglöss. Förhoppningen är att dessa rön kan bidra till en effektivare bekämpning av de blodsugande krypen.
De senaste åren har vägglusangreppen blivit allt vanligare i svenska hem. Det finns två olika arter av vägglöss som suger blod från människan, dels den vanliga vägglusen, dels den tropiska vägglusen. Med ökat resande har den tropiska vägglusen allt oftare följt med resenärer till Sverige.
Ett forskarlag från Lunds universitet och Mittuniversitetet i Sundsvall har nu identifierat och kvantifierat en typ av dofter som vägglöss producerar, så kallade alarmferomoner. Forskarna har undersökt dessa dofter både hos vuxna djur och hos nymfer, det vill säga omogna vägglöss. Forskarlaget konstaterade att de dofter som avges är förvånansvärt lika mellan arterna. Dessutom avger nymferna en doft som är annorlunda jämfört med de vuxna djurens.
Beteendetester visar att nymfernas doft är motbjudande för vuxna individer samt även för andra nymfer. Den bortstötande effekten kan användas i kontrollsystem där alarmferomoner gör att vägglössen blir mer rörliga och därmed ökar effektiviteten av exempelvis uttorkande medel för avdödning, menar forskarna. En sådan framtida miljövänlig behandlingsmetod kräver dock ökad förståelse för hur vägglössens feromonsystem fungerar.
Forskningsresultaten redovisas i senaste numret av den vetenskapliga tidskriften PLoS ONE.
Kraftigt vinstfall för HM
Att vinsten skulle bli lägre var väntat men inte så låg som den kom att visa sig när klädjätten H&M redovisade sina kvartalssiffror idag.
Hennes & Mauritz redovisar ett resultat före skatt på 3.538 miljoner kronor (5.055) för det första kvartalet, december-februari, i räkenskapsåret 2010/2011.
Analytikerna hade väntat sig ett resultat före skatt på i genomsnitt 3.753 miljoner kronor.
AFFÄRSVÄRLDEN
Hennes & Mauritz redovisar ett resultat före skatt på 3.538 miljoner kronor (5.055) för det första kvartalet, december-februari, i räkenskapsåret 2010/2011.
Analytikerna hade väntat sig ett resultat före skatt på i genomsnitt 3.753 miljoner kronor.
AFFÄRSVÄRLDEN
Pro-Ouattara forces seize major Ivory Coast city
Fighters supporting Ivory Coast's internationally recognized leader seized control of the country's administrative capital Wednesday, marking a symbolic victory after months of political chaos sparked when the incumbent refused to step down after an election.
The fall of Yamoussoukro caps a dramatic advance on the city from multiple directions this week, but many believe a final bloody battle over the presidency is now destined for the commercial capital of Abidjan, 143 miles away.
Capt. Leon Alla, a defense spokesman for the internationally backed leader Alassane Ouattara, said on Wednesday that "the town of Yamoussoukro is in the hands of the Republican Forces."
Alla said Abidjan, the country's largest city, is divided into neighborhoods backing Ouattara and others supporting incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to relinquish the presidency.
The international community and Ivory Coast's electoral commission say Ouattara won the November presidential election, but Gbagbo has refused to give up power after a decade in office. Up to 1 million people have fled the fighting caused by political chaos, and at least 462 people have been killed since the election.
Also on Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to demand an immediate end to the escalating violence and impose sanctions on Gbagbo.
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The Tulsa World is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the second-most widely circulated newspaper in the state, after The Oklahoman. The Tulsa World is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. It was founded in 1905 and remains an independent newspaper owned and operated for four generations by the Lorton family of Tulsa.
The fall of Yamoussoukro caps a dramatic advance on the city from multiple directions this week, but many believe a final bloody battle over the presidency is now destined for the commercial capital of Abidjan, 143 miles away.
Capt. Leon Alla, a defense spokesman for the internationally backed leader Alassane Ouattara, said on Wednesday that "the town of Yamoussoukro is in the hands of the Republican Forces."
The international community and Ivory Coast's electoral commission say Ouattara won the November presidential election, but Gbagbo has refused to give up power after a decade in office. Up to 1 million people have fled the fighting caused by political chaos, and at least 462 people have been killed since the election.
Also on Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to demand an immediate end to the escalating violence and impose sanctions on Gbagbo.
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The Tulsa World is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the second-most widely circulated newspaper in the state, after The Oklahoman. The Tulsa World is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. It was founded in 1905 and remains an independent newspaper owned and operated for four generations by the Lorton family of Tulsa.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Sarah Palin Wants To Know Whether We're In A 'Squirmish' In Libya
Add this to the ever growing list of Palinspeak.
Last night on Greta Van Susteren, Sarah Palin wanted to know exactly what we are doing in Libya.
"I, too, am not knowing, do we use the term intervention, do we use war, do we use squirmish? What is it?
In other news, the GOP has postponed their first debate because they have yet to find a serious candidate who will officially declare they are running for president. Apparently they are all too squirmish. /Business Insider
Last night on Greta Van Susteren, Sarah Palin wanted to know exactly what we are doing in Libya.
"I, too, am not knowing, do we use the term intervention, do we use war, do we use squirmish? What is it?
In other news, the GOP has postponed their first debate because they have yet to find a serious candidate who will officially declare they are running for president. Apparently they are all too squirmish. /Business Insider
Sign language users read words and see signs simultaneously
University Park, Pa. -- People fluent in sign language may simultaneously keep words and signs in their minds as they read, according to an international team of researchers.
In an experiment, deaf readers were quicker and more accurate in determining the meaningful relationship between English word pairs when the word pairs were matched with similar signs, according to Judith Kroll, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Linguistics and Women's Studies, Penn State. The slightly better reaction time and improved accuracy rate indicates that the readers are able to juggle both English and sign language at the same time.
"If a sign language user is a bilingual juggler they might not respond to the connections between the signs and words in a conscious way," said Kroll, who serves as the director of Penn State's Center for Language Science. "But we can design experiments to measure the unconscious response."
The study shows that sign language users are similar to other bilinguals, said Kroll, who also worked with Jill Morford, professor, University of New Mexico; Erin Wilkinson, assistant professor, University of Manitoba; Agnes Villwock, student, University of Hamburg; and Pilar Pinar, associate professor, Gallaudet University.
"This reflects previous research on bilinguals that shows both languages are active even when they're reading or speaking one language," Kroll said.
According to Morford, who was the lead author for the study, the research also represents the growing acceptance among the scientific community that sign language is a real language.
"This work is critical to help make the science of studying American Sign Language every bit as rigorous as the study of other languages," said Morford.
The researchers, who released their findings in a recent issue of Cognition, tested 19 deaf adults who were fluent in American Sign Language as they decided whether pairs of English words were related or unrelated in meaning.
A total of 120 word pairs was divided into two groups of 60 word pairs that had either related or unrelated meanings. Of the related pairs, such as bird-duck, 14 also had similar signs while 16 of the unrelated word pairs had similar signs. In ASL, signs are considered related if they have similar hand shapes, locations, movements or orientations. The researchers added a number of randomly assigned word pairs to complete the test.
When the participants encountered word pairs and signs that were related, the reaction time was significantly faster and more accurate than the reaction of a control group made up of 15 bilingual speakers who spoke English as a second language.
When the word pairs were matched with unrelated signs, the participants' reaction time was slower and less accurate.
"You see interference," said Kroll. "The reaction isn't slowed down enough to cause issues in the day-to-day usage of the language, but there's a momentary gap in processing that indicates that the bilingual is not processing information like monolinguals."
The research conducted on ASL by Penn State's Center for Language Science (CLS), in collaboration with the National Science Foundation's Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) at Gallaudet University, was supported by the NSF's Science of Learning Center Program and the National Institutes of Health. CLS and VL2 are partners in a new NSF project awarded to Penn State as part of the partnerships for international research and education program.
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National and International Collaborations
The CLS includes affiliated researchers around the world. Our many national and international collaborations bring distinguished visitors to the Penn State campus, and provide opportunities for our students to gain valuable research experience at other U.S. universities as well as in other countries. The CLS is an affiliate of the NSF Science of Learning Center at Gallaudet University, opening up further opportunities for collaboration in deaf studies, translation, and sign languages.
Support for the CLS is provided from within Penn State by the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium; The College of the Liberal Arts; and the College of Health and Human Development. Funding for individual faculty and graduate students is provided by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Quiche de Tocino y Queso Cheddar
Påsk-kaka att baka för spansktalande. Min blogg har läsare med spanska som modersmål (ber icke-spansktalande om ursäkt för denna avvikelse) som bör
uppmuntras någon gång.
Compartir Imprimir Tiempo de Preparación: 20 minutos Tiempo de Principio a Fin: 1 hora 5 minutos Cantidad de Porciones: 8 Porciones
Ingredientes:
1 1/2 tazas de mezcla Bisquick Heart Smart®
2 cucharadas de aceite de canola
4 cucharadas de agua hirviendo
4 rebanadas de tocino cocido, desmenuzado
1/2 taza de queso Cheddar fuerte, reducido en grasa (2 oz)
4 cebollitas de cambray (green onions), medianas, finamente rebanadas ( aproximadamente1/4 taza)
2 huevos enteros
2 claras de huevo
1 1/4 tazas de leche sin grasa (skim milk)
1/2 cucharadita de mostaza molida
1/4 cucharadita de sal
1/2 cucharadita de salsa de chile (red pepper sauce)
Modo de preparación:
1.Precalienta el horno a 400°F. Aplica spray para cocinar a un molde para pay de vidrio de 9 pulgadas. En un tazón hondo mediano, revuelve bien la mezcla Bisquick® y el aceite. Añade el agua hirviendo; revuelve vigorosamente hasta tener una masa suave (puedes añadir de 1 a 2 cucharaditas más de agua, si es necesario). Presiona la masa contra el fondo y los lados del molde para pay.
2.Agrega el tocino, el queso y las cebollas sobre la masa. En un tazón mediano, bate los huevos, las claras, la leche, la mostaza, la sal y la salsa de chile con el batidor de globo de alambre hasta que todo se mezcle bien. Vacía sobre la masa. Cubre los bordes de masa con tiras de papel aluminio para evitar el tostado excesivo de la corteza.
3.Hornea de 30 a 35 minutos o hasta que el centro esté cocido. Quita las tiras de papel aluminio. Déjalo reposar 10 minutos antes de cortar.
Información Nutricional:
1 Porción:180 Calorías (80 Calorías de Grasa);Grasas 8g (Saturada 1.5g, Monoinsaturada 4.5g, Poliinsaturadas 1.5g);Colesterol 60mg;Sodio 480mg;Proteína 9g;
% de Valores Diarios:Beta-Caroteno 4%;Calcio 20%;Ácido Fólico 8%;Hierro 6%;Magnesio 2%;Niacina 8%;Ácido Pantoténico 4%;El Fósforo 10%;Riboflavina 15%;Selenio 15%;Tiamina 8%;Vitamina A 4%;Vitamina B12 8%;Vitamina B6 2%;Vitamina D 6%;Vitamina E 4%;Zinc 4%;
uppmuntras någon gång.
Compartir Imprimir Tiempo de Preparación: 20 minutos Tiempo de Principio a Fin: 1 hora 5 minutos Cantidad de Porciones: 8 Porciones
Ingredientes:
1 1/2 tazas de mezcla Bisquick Heart Smart®
2 cucharadas de aceite de canola
4 cucharadas de agua hirviendo
4 rebanadas de tocino cocido, desmenuzado
1/2 taza de queso Cheddar fuerte, reducido en grasa (2 oz)
4 cebollitas de cambray (green onions), medianas, finamente rebanadas ( aproximadamente1/4 taza)
2 huevos enteros
2 claras de huevo
1 1/4 tazas de leche sin grasa (skim milk)
1/2 cucharadita de mostaza molida
1/4 cucharadita de sal
1/2 cucharadita de salsa de chile (red pepper sauce)
Modo de preparación:
1.Precalienta el horno a 400°F. Aplica spray para cocinar a un molde para pay de vidrio de 9 pulgadas. En un tazón hondo mediano, revuelve bien la mezcla Bisquick® y el aceite. Añade el agua hirviendo; revuelve vigorosamente hasta tener una masa suave (puedes añadir de 1 a 2 cucharaditas más de agua, si es necesario). Presiona la masa contra el fondo y los lados del molde para pay.
2.Agrega el tocino, el queso y las cebollas sobre la masa. En un tazón mediano, bate los huevos, las claras, la leche, la mostaza, la sal y la salsa de chile con el batidor de globo de alambre hasta que todo se mezcle bien. Vacía sobre la masa. Cubre los bordes de masa con tiras de papel aluminio para evitar el tostado excesivo de la corteza.
3.Hornea de 30 a 35 minutos o hasta que el centro esté cocido. Quita las tiras de papel aluminio. Déjalo reposar 10 minutos antes de cortar.
Información Nutricional:
1 Porción:180 Calorías (80 Calorías de Grasa);Grasas 8g (Saturada 1.5g, Monoinsaturada 4.5g, Poliinsaturadas 1.5g);Colesterol 60mg;Sodio 480mg;Proteína 9g;
% de Valores Diarios:Beta-Caroteno 4%;Calcio 20%;Ácido Fólico 8%;Hierro 6%;Magnesio 2%;Niacina 8%;Ácido Pantoténico 4%;El Fósforo 10%;Riboflavina 15%;Selenio 15%;Tiamina 8%;Vitamina A 4%;Vitamina B12 8%;Vitamina B6 2%;Vitamina D 6%;Vitamina E 4%;Zinc 4%;
White Dwarfs Could Be Fertile Ground For Other Earths
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 31, 2011 - Planet hunters have found hundreds of planets outside the solar system in the last decade, though it is unclear whether even one might be habitable. But it could be that the best place to look for planets that can support life is around dim, dying stars called white dwarfs.
More >>http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/White_Dwarfs_Could_Be_Fertile_Ground_For_Other_Earths_999.html
SPACE DAILY
More >>http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/White_Dwarfs_Could_Be_Fertile_Ground_For_Other_Earths_999.html
SPACE DAILY
President Reagan Takes a Bullet
On this day in 1981, former President Ronald W. Reagan was shot outside a Washington, D.C., hotel. Reagan was rushed to the nearby George Washington University Hospital, where staff surgeons Benjamin Aaron and Joseph Giordano operated to remove a .22-caliber bullet through a 6-inch incision just below his left nipple. The bullet struck Reagan's seventh rib and penetrated his left lung by 3 inches, causing the lung to collapse. Doctors removed the bullet and re-inflated Reagan's lung. Reagan also received 2 1/2 quarts of transfused blood. The operation lasted about two hours, and Reagan was never in grave danger, doctors said later.
Aetna InteliHealth
NEJM
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| This Week at NEJM.org March 31, 2011 http://www.nejm.org/ |
This trial examined the independent and combined effects of weight loss and exercise in obese adults 65 years of age or older. The findings suggest that weight loss plus exercise provides greater improvement in physical function than either intervention alone.---":
(>> http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1008234?query=featured_home)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's favorable rating from Americans is now 66%, up from 61% in July 2010 and just one percentage point below her all-time high from December 1998. She continues to get higher ratings than Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and she scores better with women than men, 72% vs. 59%.
Hillary Clinton är beundransvärd tycker jag. En av de bästa representanterna som kvinnorörelsen har idag.
Hillary Clinton är beundransvärd tycker jag. En av de bästa representanterna som kvinnorörelsen har idag.
Joseph Hayden
Idag är det lämpligt att börja dagen med musik av Joseph Hayden som föddes den 31 mars (1732).
Därefter kan jag, med all respekt för Hayden, återgå till morgonsedvänjan att lyssna till musik av Mozart. Steget är inte väldigt långt.
Därefter kan jag, med all respekt för Hayden, återgå till morgonsedvänjan att lyssna till musik av Mozart. Steget är inte väldigt långt.
FDA Probes Link Between Food Dyes, Kids' Behavior
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| Some experts have raised concerns over the presence of artificial dyes in food, claiming a link between the chemicals and hyperactivity in children. But the studies are far from conclusive. |
Mycket viktigt forskningsområde
Uranium Mining Techniques
Mining methods have been changing. In 1990, 55 percent of world production came from underground mines, but this shrunk dramatically to 1999, with 33 percent at the time. Since the year 2000, new Canadian mines have increased the global representation of underground mines again.
Read more: http://resourceinvestingnews.com/14597-uranium-mining-techniques.html
Jumbo problems
Jumbo Problems
Dreamliner Becomes a Nightmare for Boeing
By Dinah Deckstein
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| Now delivery of the jet is way behind schedule, and the delays could cost the firm billions. Here, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner conducts a test flight on March 20. |
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| Boeing wanted to revolutionize the airplane business with its Dreamliner, which was to be built using a modular approach. This 2007 photo shows the production line in Boeing's factory in Everett, Washington. |
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| Despite the problems, the 787 continues to sell well, with 843 orders already clocked up. |
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| Boeing's website says the 787 "will use 20 percent less fuel for comparable missions than today's similarly sized airplane." |
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| A crowd gathers to watch the 787 put through its paces at Paine Field in Everett, Washington state. |
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| The 787 is not the only new model on Boeing's books, however. The 747-8, a stretched version of the classic Jumbo Jet, is also scheduled for launch later this year. The freighter version, seen here, will enter service first. |
Boeing wanted to revolutionize the airplane business with its Dreamliner, which was to be built using a modular approach. But the US company went too far in its outsourcing, and the aircraft has been plagued by production problems. Delivery is now way behind schedule and the delays could cost the firm billions.
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Eight years ago, managers at the American airplane manufacturer Boeing had a brainstorm. Their idea: Build airplanes the same way the automobile industry manufactures cars, with contractors producing entire components that are then assembled in a final step. That dream resulted in Boeing's new long-range 787, the first model to be built using this modular principle. And perhaps it was that approach that inspired the plane's name: Dreamliner.
A visit to Boeing's factory in Everett, Washington, north of Seattle, shows what's become of that heady vision. Here, gleaming airplane bodies stand nose to tail on a long factory work floor, as if on an assembly line. Most of them have already received the final coat of paint, adorned with logos for airlines such as Air India and Japan Airlines.
So far, though, not one of the planes, which cost up to $185 million (€131 million) each, has been delivered to buyers. They haven't even received official authorization, due to problems with the software and electronics. Instead, the finished jets are taking up space in the area behind the building and on a nearby airfield.
There are already around two dozen planes waiting here, with more set to join them in the coming weeks and months. Boeing also plans to move part of the fleet to Texas for retrofitting. This spectacular airplane stockpile in Washington could one day go down in aviation history -- as a monument to the hubris of Boeing managers and a warning for future generations.
New Era in Aviation?
Hardly any other project, with the exception of Airbus' A380 wide-body jet, has fueled the imaginations of aviation experts and fans around the world as strongly as Boeing's hypermodern showcase jet.
When the project officially began in 2003, it looked as if a new era in civilian aviation was about to dawn. Boeing managers promised their passengers more room, better cabin air quality and larger windows made of "smart glass" which could be adjusted to let in different amounts of light. It was all to be made possible by the increased use of a novel composite material called carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), instead of the traditional aluminum. The efficient new jet was also supposed to consume 20 percent less fuel and be easier to maintain.
Then there was the production process, which seemed even more revolutionary than the technology. According to Boeing's plans, final assembly of the new jet would take just three days. To achieve that aim, the company even tossed out traditional industry rules which hold that production of complex airplanes is best entrusted to experienced teams and that important components should be constructed at the main production facility.
Instead, Boeing outsourced the production of the aircraft's components, including important parts such as the plane's wings and enormous fuselage, to around 50 subcontractors around the world. Boeing CEO James McNerney stated that the company would retain responsibility only for design, development, assembly and customer care. "The R&D investment level and risk-sharing model with suppliers was deemed appropriate at the time," a Boeing spokesperson says today, in justifying the decision.
But revolutions always require sacrifices. It was a lesson Boeing learned the hard way. Nearly 60 customers worldwide are waiting for the 787, with first delivery now postponed for the seventh time. Even if the first of the 843 jets ordered so far is delivered to All Nippon Airways late this summer as planned, it will prove difficult to make up a delay that now amounts to three years.
Victim of a Cultural Shift
The delay is due to a series of problems. First, there were the bubbles that appeared during the process of baking the huge plastic fuselage components, which are made from sheets of carbon fiber soaked in polymers. Then there was a shortage of the necessary rivets and bolts. The horizontal stabilizers and the joint between the wing and fuselage also required improvements.
Then, as if those issues weren't enough, last November a control box ignited during a test flight, setting off a chain reaction that caused essential onboard systems to fail. That meant overhauling the power supply and installing new control software.
Other new airplane models -- the Airbus A380 for example -- have also had their share of mishaps and malfunctions in recent years. Most of the time, these were the results of the manufacturers setting themselves overly ambitious deadlines and cramming their planes full of new technology.
Still, those factors alone are not enough to explain Boeing's run of bad luck. The company's managers have fallen victim to a cultural shift they themselves helped to create before the decision to build the 787, and which is now threatening to overwhelm them.
It started with Boeing's merger with competitor McDonnell Douglas in the late 1990s. Harry Stonecipher, former CEO of McDonnell Douglas and later of Boeing, felt airplane construction, measured against the high investment and risk involved, yielded only modest returns. He and his colleagues began looking for a way to build the 787 using as little of the company's own resources as possible. The solution they settled on was large-scale outsourcing.
Attractive Options
The newly merged corporation certainly would have had the necessary funds to carry out production itself, but company higher-ups apparently preferred to use the cash to buy back the firm's own stock, which had the agreeable side effect of increasing its share price. This not only benefitted the board of directors, with their attractive stock options, but also Stonecipher himself, who was one of the company's largest single stockholders.
"Boeing pursues a balanced cash deployment strategy to ensure it meets its goals in funding its existing operations, investing in future growth and for ensuring an appropriate return to shareholders through dividends and share repurchase," says a company spokesperson today.
Meanwhile, some of Boeing's subcontractors grew overwhelmed by the tasks assigned to them. Some even outsourced parts of their contracts to other outside companies, further muddling communications and coordination.
The parts that trickled into Boeing's final assembly plant in Seattle were often unfinished blanks instead of completed subassemblies. The original idea of simply putting together finished components, Lego-style, was out of the question.
Another problem was that the dimensions of the enormous fuselage sections also sometimes exceeded specified tolerance levels, which in the case of the 787 are often measured in mere millimeters.
'Overly Ambitious'
In its desperation, Boeing had no choice but to take over some of the subcontracting companies itself. "We went too much with outsourcing," Jim Albaugh, CEO of Boeing's commercial airplane division, said in a recent interview with the Seattle Times. "Now we need to bring it back to a more prudent level."
Albaugh's boss, Boeing CEO McNerney, recently admitted the production schedule for the 787 may have been "overly ambitious."
That insight comes a bit too late. As early as February 2001, former McDonnell Douglas manager John Hart-Smith, an experienced engineer, warned against too much outsourcing at a Boeing symposium. "Excessive downsizing can lead to an increase in costs," he told his colleagues. "It can also reduce a company below the critical mass of technology needed to develop future product to stay in business." But his warning fell on deaf ears.
Boeing won't put an exact number on the additional costs for technical adjustments, aid to contractors and penalty fees for disgruntled customers, but industry experts put it at well over $10 billion (€7 billion).
So far, this amount has had only a limited effect on the company's balance sheet. Unlike Airbus, for example, Boeing is able to distribute these costs across a longer time period and among a very large number of airplanes that either have been sold or are still to be ordered. Still, the company admitted in late January that its profits this year could shrink by up to 15 percent, due to delayed delivery of the 787.
Re-Drawing the Lines
The next few months should reveal whether or not the ambitious project will still manage to prove a success. Boeing hopes to finally receive authorization for its showcase jet from American and European agencies -- and start moving planes off the lot in Everett. "Boeing is making good progress on the 787 program," says a company spokesperson. "We are re-drawing the lines and adjusting where necessary."
If everything goes according to plan, Boeing will deliver around a dozen or more of the planes this year. By 2013 -- just two years from now -- plans are to roll out 10 planes per month, instead of the current two, from the production facility near Seattle and another final assembly line in South Carolina.
But Boeing's managers may once again have bitten off more than they can chew. "It's a mystery to me how they plan to pull this off," says one high-ranking Airbus manager. "Normally in our industry, you would need twice as much time for such an ambitious ramping-up of production."
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| A man walks past a model of a Boeing 787 at an aerospace exhibition in Hong Kong on March 8. |
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| The Dreamliner program has been beset by problems. Here, emergency services in Laredo, Texas attend a 787 in the colors of launch customer All Nippon Airways which made an emergency landing in November 2010 after smoke was detected in the cabin. |
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| The success of the Dreamliner is crucial to Boeing. The company has shown off its newest airplane around the world, including here in Paris. http://www.spiegel.de/international/ |
The first edition of the Der Spiegel was published in Hanover on 4 January 1947, a Saturday. Its release was initiated and sponsored by the British occupational administration and preceded by a magazine titled, Diese Woche (This Week), which had first been published in November 1946. After disagreements with the British, the magazine was handed over to Rudolf Augstein as chief editor, and was renamed Der Spiegel. From the first edition in January 1947, Augstein held the position of editor-in-chief, which he retained until his death on 7 November 2002.
After 1950, the magazine was owned by Augstein and John Jahr; Jahr's share merged with Richard Gruner in 1965 to form the publishing company Gruner + Jahr. In 1969, Augstein bought out Gruner + Jahr for DM 42 million and became the sole owner of Der Spiegel. However, in 1971 Gruner + Jahr bought back a 25% share in the magazine. In 1974, Augstein restructured the company to make the employees shareholders. All employees with more than three years seniority are offered the opportunity to become an associate and participate in the management of the company, as well as in the profits.
Since 1952, Der Spiegel has been headquartered in its own building in the old town part of Hamburg.
Der Spiegel is similar in style and layout to American news magazines such as Time or Newsweek. In terms of the breadth and amount of detail in its articles it is comparable to the Atlantic Monthly. It is known in Germany for its distinctive, academic writing style and its large volume—a standard issue may run 200 pages or more. Typically, it has a content to advertising ratio of 2:1.
As of 2010, Der Spiegel was employing the equivalent of 80 full-time fact checkers, which the Columbia Journalism Review called "most likely the world’s largest fact checking operation". /Wikipedia
The best magazine of Europe (I think)
Vattenflaskan mot strömmen
Retap är namnet på en dansk-svensk innovation inom det alltmer växande området "dricksvatten på flaska". Men det är en produkt som minst sagt går mot strömmen – det är nämligen en specialtillverkad glasflaska, som är avsedd för flergångsbruk och som ska fyllas med vanligt kranvatten och sålunda ersätta dyrt buteljerat bordsvatten!
"Ur miljömässig synpunkt är det inte försvarligt att betala upp till tvåtusen gånger mer för vanligt dricksvatten, bara för att det är fabriksbuteljerat på en PET- eller glasflaska", säger Retap ApS ekonomidirektör Henrik Kemp.
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