Believe It or Not This Concrete RC Plane Actually Flies

Had the Wright Brothers foolishly chosen to build their original flyer from concrete, their names probably wouldn't have gone down in the history books. But South Dakota School of Mines & Technology students David Haberman and Tyler Pojanowski did, and were the first to fly and safely land an 18 pound remote control concrete aircraft.

Technically they were beaten to the skies by an earlier concrete plane built in Florida, but it crashed and was destroyed on landing, whereas David and Tyler's plane will live to fly another day. Just not gracefully, since the test flight was incredibly unstable and a rough landing resulted in a cracked wing and fuselage?but the plane will fly again with minor repairs.

Building a full-sized aircraft from concrete is still completely impractical with current technologies. But this smaller version, with its 40-inch wingspan, could lead to further developments in concrete making it stronger, lighter and easier to work with when it comes to building structures.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/believe-it-or-not-this-concrete-rc-plane-actually-flies-499936638

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Tricks To Help You With Home Decoration

TIP! An excellent tip for interior design is purchasing some excellent art. You may not think so, but one good piece of artwork can take a room to an entirely new level.

A lot of people love making changes to their house all the time. Unfortunately, they are not that good when it comes to interior decorating. Interior designing is something that novices can do easily, so you should never fear that it?s something you can?t handle yourself! Read on and learn some great interior planning tips.

TIP! Before beginning your project, calculate your available finances and how much you can allot to completing it. Nothing is worse than starting a project when you cannot afford it.

One thing that you must remember when designing a room is to make or create a mood. Because of this, you need to think about a mood you want to convey when selecting the items that are going to be in your rooms. If you want a peaceful, serene mood for the room, go for soft, warm colors.

TIP! If you want to do an easy redecorating task, de-clutter your home. Pretty much any home will benefit from a nice de-cluttering.

Whenever you are redesigning a room in your home it is extremely important that you choose the right color scheme. You can find advice on what colors you should never combine online and in decorating magazines if you are not sure. Avoid incorporating many bold colors, which can ruin the flow of a room.

TIP! Whenever installing wall art, make sure it is being hung at eye level. If you hang art too high, you run the risk of throwing the whole room off balance, and making it appear small.

A good thing to remember with interior decorating is to put in unique colors and patterns. These patterns can help to enliven the look and detail of your living space. Contrasting patterns or textures lend a modern, contemporary look to a home.

TIP! A kitchen redesign can be as easy as replacing some cabinet doors. Consider using glass doors rather than the traditional wood doors so that your kitchen can open up and appear brighter.

The best thing you can do to prep for a redecoration project to to remove clutter. Nearly ever home could benefit from having a good clean-up. Try to get rid of things that you do not use anymore. Donate your extra stuff to a thrift shop, recycle it, or make some money with a yard sale.

TIP! Paint is a good investment, but only high quality paint. Investing in the wrong quality paint can cause you to tap into your budget in the future.

Do not overlook small details. By selecting a few small features of a room to change, you can make a big design statement. For example, new cabinet knobs or window dressing may be just as effective at transforming the look of a room as purchasing big-ticket furniture.

TIP! Try to avoid outrageous wall colors and wallpaper that may be a detriment when you sell your home. Adding your own personality is good, but don?t add anything permanent that is too unusual.

Whenever attempting a home renovation project, try to prevent cluttering up your rooms. Too much furniture or accessories can make your room look cramped and smaller than it really is. Rather, just choose a few important pieces of furniture so as to create a lot of open space.

TIP! Adequate lighting is of the utmost importance for any interior design project. A variety of options exist that can allow you to bring more light to a room.

Before decorating, formulate an action plan. You should find how many family members will be frequently in the room you are decorating. Consider your visitors and family when you are doing redecorating, you should also make them happy.

TIP! Extra care should be taken when designing a room containing a fireplace. Everything on the mantle should be balanced.

It?s fun to add modern, on-trend items to your interior planning project. They make a room feel stylish and modern. Remember though, pieces that are on trend should be used sparingly. If the zebra print pillows you use are out of style, swap them for something else. It?s harder to replace an animal print sofa.

TIP! Bathrooms can take on a whole new feel when you incorporate a pedestal tub. These tubs are gorgeous and classic, and are more popular than ever.

A good interior design project always revolves around excellent lighting. There are a multitude of ways to bring light into a space, including large windows, mirrors and lighting fixtures. Making sure that all lights work well together can really improve the look of any room.

TIP! If you have art that you want to display correctly on the walls, try to avoid having it hang too high or low. Try placing it around 8-10 inches from the back of your couch.

When you are placing furniture in your living room, keep the traffic in mind. There should be enough room at all times for people to sit and stand around. You want to avoid traffic jams when you want to enjoy your hard work!

TIP! Use a ceiling paint that is two shades brighter when compared to the room walls. If you do not do this, your room will closed-in and seem small.

If you have a lot of possessions, do not overdecorate your walls. There are people who become attached to things more than others. If your tables are full of small mementos that you love to have near at hand, undecorated walls are best. Otherwise, your home will look cluttered and unkept. So, keep your possessions stored out of sight or selectively displayed for a clean look.

Consider the amount of natural light a room gets before paining it. If you think about what time it is you will know what walls are getting what sun!

TIP! Tile and hardwood flooring that reflect light, can subtly enhance the natural lighting of the room. Hardwood and white tile are just two options for reflective floors that you can use.

Now that you?ve read the information above, you now have great knowledge on what you need to know when dealing with interior decorating. It will be easy to set your own home apart from the rest now that you are aware of these new techniques. When you utilize these helpful tips, you will finally be able to create the home of your dreams.

Source: http://www.minbaitak.com/tricks-to-help-you-with-home-decoration

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Russia says no new plan to sell air defense systems to Syria

WARSAW/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's foreign minister said on Friday Moscow had no new plans to sell an advanced air defense system to Syria, but left open the possibility it could deliver such systems under an existing contract.

The Wall Street Journal this week reported that Israel had informed the United States a Russian deal was imminent to sell S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

That would significantly boost Syria's ability to stave off outside intervention in its civil war, such as the air strikes launched by Israel this month.

Asked by a journalist in the Polish capital about the reports of a missile deal, Sergei Lavrov said: "Russia is not planning to sell. Russia already sold them a long time ago. It has signed the contracts and is completing deliveries, in line with the agreed contracts, of equipment which is anti-aircraft technology."

The question referred to S-300 systems, but in his reply the minister did not specify whether the items already being delivered were S-300 complexes or another system.

Lavrov, in Warsaw for a meeting on regional cooperation with his German and Polish counterparts, said the deliveries were in line with international law and for self-defense only.

"It is designed so that Syria, as the importer, should have the ability to protect itself from air strikes, something that is not an entirely fantastical scenario," he told a news conference after the meeting.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, standing alongside Lavrov, said there had been "intensive" discussions at his meeting with the Russian minister and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski about arms shipments to Syria.

"It is also a controversial subject between us," Westerwelle said through an interpreter. "We think that all arms shipments need to stop, a political solution has to be given a chance.

"And because this is so difficult and important ... everything should be done in order to halt arms shipments to Syria," he added.

Russia is Syria's main arms supplier and has continued fulfilling defense contracts despite the civil war. Moscow, along with China, has blocked moves in the United Nations for international intervention to halt the bloodshed in Syria.

Russia and the United States agreed this week to seek new peace talks to end the conflict in Syria.

(Reporting by Jason Bush in Moscow and Piotr Pilat in Warsaw; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-says-no-plans-sell-air-defense-system-140017365.html

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PFT: Saints sign first-round pick Vaccaro

AP

When NFL teams pick players who excelled in college football, it?s difficult to know whether they?ll thrive at the next level.

For the Rams, who picked both of West Virginia?s star receivers in the 2013 draft, the decision was assisted by a pair of backup quarterbacks ? Kellen Clemens and Austin Davis ? who traveled with G.M. Les Snead and coach Jeff Fisher to Morgantown last month for a private workout.

?We went into the West Virginia campus, a great host, and we went into their indoor [facility], but we take our two quarterbacks, backup quarterbacks and we actually run our routes,? Snead explained on Thursday?s PFT Live.? ?And for Tavon [Austin] we ran more routes that the inside slot receiver would be running.? For Stedman [Bailey], we did both inside slot and outside routes that our receivers and offense will be running.

?What?s really neat about the whole process is those quarterbacks, you know passing game is a timing thing so they know they can easily give you insight, ?Hey when they hit that third step, wait a minute, Tavon was there.? Hey, we?ve never had a receiver there on that third step.?? And the same thing on Stedman was, being his stature, he?s not a tall player, we worked out a lot of players before the draft.? They felt like, hey, this was like throwing to the tallest receiver they threw to.? They felt like they could just launch that ball and he was going to come down with it.? So, great insight in those private workouts, you know, all things considered.?

Austin?s ability to run routes like an NFL player doesn?t mean he?ll take hits like an NFL player, given his (lack of) height and (lack of) size.

?You being in West Virginia, you?ve seen what he can do with the ball in his hands,? Snead said.? ?God, mom, and dad gave him some freaky skills to be able to get open but also to avoid tacklers when he gets the ball in his hands.? And I was a part of being with Warrick Dunn who, when we had him in Atlanta we made him, if you want to call it, a number one, full-time, carry-the-load back which nobody ever thought he could be.

?Again, a man that?s not a very large, physical stature, but to go with the ability to elude tacklers, [Austin] just has that knack to to not get hit, to avoid big hits, to go down when necessary.? So, I think that?s what gives him that and hey, the track record is this ? the guy hasn?t really missed a game [or] practice since he started playing football in high school, so I think track record says more than anything because he?s been avoiding bigger people his entire life.?

He?ll soon be avoiding bigger and stronger people than he ever has.? We hope he can do it, in part because I like to see West Virginia players succeed in the NFL ? and in part because I?m not sure what?ll happen to Austin if one of those giants hits him hard.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/09/saints-sign-first-round-pick-kenny-vaccaro/related/

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College Divestment Campaigns Creating Passionate Environmentalists

Students associated with "Brown Divest Coal" protested in front of the Brown University president's office during a rally May 3. The group is demanding that the university stop investing in certain oil and coal companies.

Courtesy of Brown Divest Coal

At about 300 colleges across the country, young activists worried about climate change are borrowing a strategy that students successfully used in decades past. In the 1980s, students enraged about South Africa's racist Apartheid regime got their schools to drop stocks in companies that did business with that government. In the 1990s students pressured their schools to divest in Big Tobacco.

This time, the student activists are targeting a mainstay of the economy: large oil and coal companies.

So far only a few small colleges have opted to drop investments in fossil fuel companies. But already the movement is having a big impact on the students who are driving it ? people like Emily Kirkland, a senior at Brown University, who has been leading the Brown Divest Coal campaign on her Providence, R.I., campus.

"It's been really exciting for me to feel like this is the first time where I've seen how I can directly make a difference on my campus and force my administration to make a decision that could have reverberations around the country," Kirkland says.

At most schools, students are asking the college governing boards to cancel investments in big fossil fuel companies. But at Brown the students narrowed their focus to the 15 biggest companies that mine coal and make electricity from it.

About a dozen Brown students got the idea for their divestment campaign in September from an article in Rolling Stone by climate activist Bill McKibben.

Kirkland's major is environmental studies, so she knows a lot about climate change. But she says she never felt moved to activism until recently.

Brown University senior Emily Kirkland, right, speaks with a student newspaper reporter. Kirkland, who studies environmental science, has been leading a divestment campaign at Brown and says she's seen how powerful such protests can be. "Our administration is taking us very seriously," she says.

Courtesy of Brown Divest Coal

"It was always something that felt abstract and academic until this year when I started to witness the heat wave in the northeast last winter, the wildfires in the west, the drought, Hurricane Sandy," she says. "It has started to feel like an emergency happening in slow motion and it started to feel really, really personal."

Like groups at many other colleges and universities, the Brown students have spent the year holding marches, collecting signatures and demanding action from the school's president and board of trustees.

"Our administration is taking us very seriously," says Kirkland.

Brown's advisory panel on responsible investments considered the students' request, and after nine months of deliberation, decided it agreed with the students.

"What was decided was that mining and burning coal causes grave social harm and that the committee did not believe it was good for Brown to be party to that," says Chris Bull, a senior lecturer and researcher at Brown who chairs the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies. The panel set criteria for how much coal a company should mine or burn to be considered unfit for investment. In its letter recommending that Brown divest, the panel stated that the these Coal companies cause such grave harm "it would be deeply unethical for Brown University to continue to profit from them."

Only a tiny portion of Brown's endowment is invested in these big coal companies. So even total divestment, should it come to that, would not be a big financial hit for the university's endowment or for any of the companies. So far, fossil fuel companies don't seem to be paying too much attention to the students' campaigns.

If Brown does decide to divest from coal companies, Duke Energy is one of the companies that would be off-limits for investment. Duke provides electricity in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Florida and the Carolinas.

Duke Energy wasn't aware of the campaigns, according to company spokesman Tom Williams, but he says Duke has reduced its carbon emissions in recent years. He also says that although Duke Energy's stock is thriving, the company doesn't want to lose any investors, especially not through a public divestment.

"People consider the brand of Duke as an asset, and I would agree with that completely." Williams says. "And if people see that the brand is somehow eroded in a meaningful way, that definitely can impact our stock."

? It has started to feel like an emergency happening in slow motion and it started to feel really, really personal.

- Emily Kirkland, senior, Brown University

Bill McKibben, who founded 350.org, argues that hitting the companies in their stocks is what's necessary to get the corporations and the government to start taking climate change seriously. And in the meantime, he says, the student activists are changing the minds of their peers.

"What's amazing is to see this bubbling up from a thousand directions," McKibben says. "I mean they're taking complete charge of all this, and it's how it should be."

McKibben and other leaders of the environmental movement say all the hard work these students are doing is helping to prepare at least some of them to become the environmental leaders of the next generation.

It has already changed Emily Kirkland's life plans. She's lined up a paid job, starting after she graduates in May, with the advocacy group Environment America. That's something she never imagined she'd do as recently as a year ago, she says.

"The divestment campaign at Brown was really the first time that I'd gotten involved in activism, and it's now something that I know I want to be doing for a long time," Kirkland says. "I've seen that it's powerful. And I know that it's one of the most important things I can be doing right now."

The earliest Brown could make a decision is around graduation day. And if the decision is delayed until next year, younger Brown students say they'll be ready to keep up the pressure come next fall.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/10/182599588/college-divestment-campaigns-creating-passionate-environmentalists?ft=1&f=1007

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The ISS Has Ditched Windows Entirely--For Linux

The United Space Alliance has decided to stop using all Windows computers aboard the ISS, in favour of Linux?to ensure it's systems are "stable and reliable?. Ouch.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VZvHmdIIxUs/the-iss-has-ditched-windows-entirely-for-linux-499593441

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TechCrunch: Microsoft offering $1 billion to buy Nook Media

Microsoft has put forward an offer to buy complete control of Nook Media LLC, according to internal documents seen by TechCrunch. Redmond's joint venture with Barnes & Noble was set up last year to handle the Nook e-reader, tablet and college bookstore business. If the documents are accurate, Microsoft will dump the academic retail chain while retaining the digital arm of the partnership for $1 billion. The evidence also suggests that Nook Media will axe its Android tablets by the end of the 2014 financial year, concentrating instead on pushing the Nook store onto third-party devices including Windows 8 and/or Surface hardware. Simple Touch owners shouldn't be too worried, however, as the leaked documents state that Nook Media's e-reader division won't be killed off, as the technology is facing its own "natural decline." We've reached out to Barnes & Noble for something more official, and we're waiting to hear back.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

Comments

Source: TechCrunch

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/09/microsoft-nook-media/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Crowds swoon, but Prince Harry is all business

Britain's Prince Harry greets attendees before a reception in the Prince's honor at the Ambassador's residence in Washington, Thursday, May 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Jim Lo Scalzo, Pool)

Britain's Prince Harry greets attendees before a reception in the Prince's honor at the Ambassador's residence in Washington, Thursday, May 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Jim Lo Scalzo, Pool)

British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott toasts Britain's Prince Harry at a dinner at the Ambassador's residence in Washington, Thursday, May 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Jim Lo Scalzo, Pool)

Britain's Prince Harry sits down to dinner at the Ambassador's residence in Washington, Thursday, May, 9, 2013, with Teresa Heinz, center left, wife of Secretary of State John Kerry, and the wife of the British Ambassador to the U.S. Lady Westmacott. (AP Photo/Jim Lo Scalzo, Pool)

England's Prince Harry, standing right, with British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott, speaks at a dinner at the British Ambassador's residence, Thursday, May 9, 2013 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

England's Prince Harry, points before speaking at a dinner at the British Ambassador's residence, Thursday, May 9, 2013 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The throngs swooned but Prince Harry was having none of it.

The British soldier-prince is spending most of his week in the U.S. honoring the wounded and the dead of war, a salute that began Thursday at a land-mine exhibition in Congress at the side of one of America's most storied wounded warriors, Sen. John McCain. Accorded heart-throb treatment, the prince was all royal business.

As he entered the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building near the Capitol, the prince was greeted by a roar and shouts of "Harry!" from a crowd of about 500, nearly all of them women. They filled a roped-off hallway and stairway with a view of the exhibit, hoisting their cellphones and tablets to get a picture. Harry didn't visibly react except to give what appeared to be a polite wave.

McCain, with a laugh, said he told Harry "I've never seen, in all the years I've been here, such an unbalanced gender crowd."

On Friday, Harry visits Arlington National Cemetery, meets comrades in arms at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and flies to the 2013 Warrior Games in Colorado Springs, Colo., where more than 200 wounded servicemen and women from the U.S. and Britain will compete.

Harry also made a previously unannounced visit to the White House, surprising military mothers and their children at an afternoon tea with Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden's wife, Jill. The prince joined in helping the kids make Mother's Day gifts from tulip and rose bouquets, vegetable chips and edible dough jewelry.

For the prince, the Washington settings were a world away from the Afghanistan war zone where he recently served for 20 weeks as a co-pilot gunner in an Apache attack helicopter. It was just as far removed from his hijinks in a Las Vegas hotel room last summer, when fuzzy photos got out of a naked Harry playing strip billiards.

McCain, R-Ariz., who was shot down over North Vietnam and tortured as a captive, said he told the prince that "he was probably a much better pilot than I was."

As for the prince's reputation for cutting loose on occasion, McCain joked that the British diplomatic reception and dinner later in the evening was sure to be a "wild and raucous affair."

It was a glittering one, at least, hosted by British Ambassador Peter Westmacott for about 30 guests after a reception for 170, many connected with the mine-clearing HALO Trust charity. Harry sat between Teresa Heinz, wife of Secretary of State John Kerry, and the ambassador's wife, Susie, for the dinner.

The prince spoke in support of the trust, a charity his late mother, Princess Diana, had held dear.

"My mother, who believed passionately in this cause, would be proud of my association with HALO," he said. "In her special way, she adopted it as her own. She would join me ? along with all of you, I'm sure ? in praising HALO for the amazing work that it has done over the past quarter-century, and in hoping that one day soon its humanitarian work will be done."

Diana highlighted the trust's work when she was pictured wearing a face mask and protective clothing during a visit to a minefield being cleared by the organization in Angola in 1997. Her son said that at any one time, the group has 7,000 people deployed in the field, "striving to protect people and banish the fear that pervades the lives of millions around the world."

Fiona Willoughby, marketing manager of the trust, said the prince's tour of the trust's exhibit brings attention back to the issue.

"People have forgotten about it, and we think Prince Harry, following in his mother's footsteps, is a worthy cause and will raise the profile of what we are doing," she said.

Earlier on Capitol Hill, Harry quizzed trust officials on mine-detection techniques and photos of amputees, keeping a somber if animated tone despite the excited gaggle held back from the exhibit area.

Harry will also visit parts of New Jersey afflicted by Superstorm Sandy and stop for events in New York City before capping his visit by playing in the Sentebale Polo Cup match in Greenwich, Conn., on Wednesday.

___

Associated Press writer Stacy A. Anderson contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-10-US-Prince-Harry/id-43b2fd6544b24bf9a4b31471775d1d8d

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Seaweed-Sucking Truck to Clean Spain's Hottest Beaches

Keeping Alicante's miles of shoreline pristine for the multitudes of beachgoers that congregate to the Mediterranean city every year is no small feat?what with all the seaweed that washes up there. Problem is, the city's existing seaweed mitigation techniques end up eroding the beaches they're meant to clean. This automated seaweed collector, however, removes all of the plant matter and none of the sand.

See, the conventional method of removing seaweed involves scooping up the plants, along with a sizeable amount of sand and seawater (up to 80 percent of the total weight and volume), and dumping the mess into the back of a truck to be hauled away. Seaweed covered in salt and sand makes for a terrible biofuel and can only be used for low-grade use as an agricultural ground aerator so a majority of the plant matter ends up in local landfills.

This new mobile treatment system developed at the University of Alicante, on the other hand, thoroughly cleans and compacts the plant matter without leaving the beach. The system uses a trio of hoppers (tapered bins) mounted onto the rear of a semi trailer. Sandy seaweed is scooped up by front loaders and deposited into the first hopper where seawater is pumped over it to wash off the excess sand (which is then deposited back on the beach). The de-sanded plant matter would then be transferred to the second hopper where fresh water (actually just more seawater that's been purified in an attached solar distillery) washes away the residual sea salt. After it's transferred to the third hopper, the seaweed would then be dried under solar-powered hot air fans. Finally, after being washed, de-salted, and dried, the seaweed is compacted into pellets or pallets, depending on the application, for use as a building material, an ingredient in toothpaste, cosmetics, and paints?even as a potential base of bioethanol.

The system is still in its early design stages so there's no word yet on when an actual roving seaweed vacuum will begin patrolling Alicante's shoreline.

[University of Alicante via Cleantechnica - Images: University of Alicante]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/seaweed-sucking-truck-to-clean-spains-hottest-beaches-494272008

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Lower wages now at Big Three automakers, but new hires aren't whining

A sixth-generation GM worker is delighted to have landed a job at the US automaker, even if her wages and benefits don't hold a candle to what her own father made there. Such jobs, it seems, are still prized.

By Mark Guarino,?Staff writer / May 7, 2013

Jennifer Sanders stands with her father, Richard Roy, in front of the General Motors Flint Tool & Die plant in Flint, Mich. Both Mr. Roy and Ms. Sanders are auto workers and members of the United Auto Workers.

Ann Hermes/Staff

Enlarge

Working at General Motors is all in the family for Jennifer Sanders. A sixth-generation GM worker, the 20-something single mother couldn't be happier about it, even though she is among the new crop of auto workers who earn about half of what entry-level factory em-ployees used to make.

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"We joke that, when we sit around the dinner table, most families talk about other things, but we talk about the car industry," says Ms. Sanders, who lives just outside Flint, Mich. "It's in our blood."

Generations of families in the Detroit area have owned homes, raised children, and enjoyed their retirements as a result of the wages and benefits afforded them during decades of work in the US automotive industry. Yes, jobs had waned over the years, but not until the Great Recession hit in 2008, when the bottom fell out of the car market and GM and Chrysler teetered on the brink of collapse, did folks here worry that all those livelihoods could be gone for good.

In the end, the federal government intervened, those companies restructured, the auto workers union made big concessions, and a venerable US industry was saved. But most workers accept that the good old days are gone for good ? and that landing a job at a Ford, GM, or Chrysler plant today is a precious thing.

"The whole game has changed for automobile workers. I do not see a great deal of growth in UAW [United Auto Workers] membership because I do not see a great deal of additional jobs at the Big Three," says Mike Smith, a labor historian at Wayne State University in Detroit.

UAW membership grew about 1 percent last year to almost 381,000. For the first time in its history, the labor union conceded that the three US automakers could establish a second-tier workforce paid at half the hourly wage rate, with reduced benefits, of incumbent workers. At GM and Chrysler, second-tier workers can't move to full-wage status until at least 2015; at Ford, the company can fill 20 percent of its workforce with lower-paid workers.

Sanders's father, Richard Roy, a 35-year UAW worker at GM Flint Tool & Die, worries about what that means for his daughter.

"It's sad, because I've been able to look at my career and can decide when I'd like to retire and know I have something to fall back on because I have good negotiated benefits," but his daughter won't have the same option, he says in a phone interview.

Still, GM, Ford, and Chrysler remain in the top four when it comes to pay scales, according to the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank in Ann Arbor, Mich. A typical employee cost Ford $58 an hour in 2011; GM, $56 an hour; Toyota, $55; and Chrysler, $52.

Of course, the Detroit Three aren't the only game in town. Foreign competitors are investing heavily in US plants, although their workers are not unionized and generally earn less. Thirty-nine percent of North American auto workers now work for a company other than one of the Detroit Three, up from 15 percent in 2000, according to findings released last month in Automotive News. Since 2005, 12 new assembly plants have opened in North America, but only four were opened by US automakers ? and two of those were in Mexico.

Sanders, for one, is undaunted by any of that. Her earnings at GM's Orion Assembly plant in Lake Orion, Mich., where she installs parts to the back cushions of the Chevy Sonic, dwarf the $75 a day she made as a substitute teacher while waiting to land a full-time job at GM.

She waited two years, and when the call came in January, she was "elated." It immediately put her closer to her dream ? moving into her own house and setting up a more permanent life for herself and her daughter.

"It's a good opportunity even though it's a different industry than it was," she says. "No job has 100 percent stability. Things are looking up."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/mnrLMqvisdg/Lower-wages-now-at-Big-Three-automakers-but-new-hires-aren-t-whining

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Sony launches a trio of VAIO Fit laptops in Japan

Spring is here, which means it's high time that Sony refreshed its laptop line for the cool kids in Japan. The company is talking up a quartet of new VAIOs including the previously-reviewed Duo 11 as well as the unfamiliar trio of the VAIO Fit 15E, Fit 14 and Fit 15. Delving deep into that last model, the 22.5mm-thick unit comes with a 1,920 x 1,080 touchscreen display and runs the 64-bit version of Windows 8 on a 2GHz Intel Core i7-3537U CPU. Look deeper and you'll find 8GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 1TB of hybrid storage as well as 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, NFC and an Exmor R webcam. The various models will filter into Japanese stores between May 18th and June 1st, with the stock Fit 15 setting you back 180,000 yen ($1,818).

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Source: Sony Japan (Translated)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/6XEdNLyrl6Y/

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Bizarre bone worms emit acid to feast on whale skeletons: Bone-melting substance drills opening for worms to access nutrients

Apr. 30, 2013 ? Only within the past 12 years have marine biologists come to learn about the eye-opening characteristics of mystifying sea worms that live and thrive on the bones of whale carcasses.

With each new study, scientists have developed a better grasp on the biology of Osedax, a genus of mouthless and gutless "bone worms" that make a living on skeletons lying on the seafloor. In the latest finding, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego describe how the wispy worms are able to carry out their bone-drilling activities. As published in the May 1 online edition of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), Mart?n Tresguerres, Sigrid Katz, and Greg Rouse of Scripps detail how Osedax excrete a bone-melting acid to gain entry to the nutrients within whale bones.

"The acid presumably allows the worms to release and absorb collagen and lipids that are trapped in bone," said Tresguerres. "This model is remarkably similar to how mammals repair and remodel bone, however Osedax secrete acid to dissolve foreign bone and access nutrients."

In their report, the scientists describe a process in which the worms use a "proton pump" to secrete acid onto the bone. Tresguerres says similar acid-secreting enzymes exist in all other organisms, such as in human kidneys to handle blood and urine functions.

Because they lack mouths, bone worms must use an alternative method of consuming nutrients from whale bones. Bacteria that live symbiotically within the worms are involved in this process, however, the exact mechanism is not yet fully understood. Some evidence suggests that the symbiotic bacteria metabolize bone-derived collagen into other diverse organic compounds, and that the worms subsequently digest the bacteria for their own nutrition.

"The Osedax symbiosis shows that nutrition is even more diverse than we imagined and our results are one step closer in untangling the special relationship between the worm and its bacteria," said Katz, a Scripps postdoctoral researcher.

A 2011 study led by Rouse found that bone worms have primarily been found attached to whale skeletons, but they are capable of making a living on other bones as well, including fish. That finding supported a hypothesis that Osedax's bone-eating lifestyle may have evolved millions of years ago, even before the dawn of marine mammals.

To continue learning more about bone worms, the scientists plan to collaborate with colleagues at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in the coming months to collect and study additional bone samples with live worm specimens. They also plan to maintain live Osedax in aquaria at Scripps to study their physiology.

"Determining how Osedax gets into bones was the first challenge in understanding the nutrition of these bizarre animals," said Rouse. "Now we'd like to understand how they transport and utilize the nutrients that they have uncovered."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Martin Tresguerres, Sigrid Katz, and Greg W. Rouse. How to get into bones: proton pump and carbonic anhydrase in Osedax boneworms. Proc. R. Soc. B., 2013 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0625

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/HygXOw1sVKc/130501091900.htm

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