Wednesday, April 17, 2013

France finds most horsemeat in EU

By Charlie Dunmore

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France found more cases of illegal horsemeat in beef products than any other European Union country, early results of DNA tests ordered in the wake of the scandal showed, with more than 1 in every 8 samples testing positive.

The European Commission is due to announce the full results of the tests later on Tuesday, but it said in a statement that for the EU as a whole, about 5 percent of all beef products tested had come back positive for horse DNA.

But EU sources said a Commission progress report dated April 9 showed that of 353 tests carried out in France, 47 tested positive for horse DNA, a rate of more than 13 percent.

"In terms of image it's not good. It risks delaying our attempt to regain consumer confidence to get out of the crisis, because it is not over yet," Jean-Rene Buisson, chairman of the French food industry group ANIA, told Reuters.

Buisson said it would be important in the final results to look at how much horsemeat was detected in each positive sample, as tiny traces could be the result of accidental contamination at processing plants rather than deliberate substitution.

Europe's horsemeat scandal has damaged confidence in parts of the continent's food industry, hitting sales of processed ready-meals and boosting demand for organic produce.

The progress report only included complete data for 11 EU countries. Greece had the second-highest level of positive results with 288 tests yielding 36 positive results, a rate of 12.5 percent. Germany found horse DNA in 29 samples out of 867.

HEALTH RISK?

In Britain, where horsemeat has already been found in burgers and other products sold by retailers including Tesco, 150 official tests carried out as part of the EU-funded program returned no positive results for horsemeat.

But one senior EU official said Britain had recorded the most positive results for the potentially harmful veterinary drug phenylbutazone - known as bute - as part of a second set of EU-wide tests on horsemeat destined for human consumption.

"The bute is now really concentrated in the UK, but mainly because the UK has tested every horse slaughtered since February, so they have done a huge number of tests - more than 800," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

For the EU as a whole, about 0.6 percent of slaughtered horses tested positive for bute, the Commission said, without providing further details.

EU food safety experts said on Monday the level of bute residues found in horsemeat was unlikely to pose a health risk.

"The opinion... is encouraging. It shows that it isn't worrying as such. You'd have to eat hundreds of horsemeat steaks for months before you encountered any problems with phenylbutazone," EU health spokesman Frederic Vincent told a regular news briefing.

Criminal investigations are under way in several EU countries to try to identify those responsible for passing off illegally labeled horsemeat as beef.

Last week, authorities in the Netherlands said about 50 million kilos of beef distributed by two Dutch wholesalers over a period of two years may have contained horsemeat, fuelling suspicions that the country could be one of the possible origins of the scandal.

"It's probably true that the Netherlands is the source of some of the fraud," the senior EU source said.

(Additional reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; editing by James Jukwey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-finds-most-horsemeat-eu-dna-tests-eu-130539479--finance.html

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The Best Twitter Response to Tragedy: Shut Up

The Best Twitter Response to Tragedy: Shut Up
As the bombing in Boston showed, the fog of war is thick and nasty on Twitter--often driven by bad reporting from major media operations, and swirls of rumors that confuse and obscure rather than clarify. And that doesn't do anyone ...

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/04/twitter-tragedy-response/

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Layered '2-D nanocrystals' promising new semiconductor

Apr. 16, 2013 ? Researchers are developing a new type of semiconductor technology for future computers and electronics based on "two-dimensional nanocrystals" layered in sheets less than a nanometer thick that could replace today's transistors.

The layered structure is made of a material called molybdenum disulfide, which belongs to a new class of semiconductors -- metal di-chalogenides -- emerging as potential candidates to replace today's technology, complementary metal oxide semiconductors, or CMOS.

New technologies will be needed to allow the semiconductor industry to continue advances in computer performance driven by the ability to create ever-smaller transistors. It is becoming increasingly difficult, however, to continue shrinking electronic devices made of conventional silicon-based semiconductors.

"We are going to reach the fundamental limits of silicon-based CMOS technology very soon, and that means novel materials must be found in order to continue scaling," said Saptarshi Das, who has completed a doctoral degree, working with Joerg Appenzeller, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and scientific director of nanoelectronics at Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center. "I don't think silicon can be replaced by a single material, but probably different materials will co-exist in a hybrid technology."

The nanocrystals are called two-dimensional because the materials can exist in the form of extremely thin sheets with a thickness of 0.7 nanometers, or roughly the width of three or four atoms. Findings show that the material performs best when formed into sheets of about 15 layers with a total thickness of 8-12 nanometers. The researchers also have developed a model to explain these experimental observations.

Findings are appearing this month as a cover story in the journal Rapid Research Letters. The paper was co-authored by Das and Appenzeller, who also have co-authored a paper to be presented during the annual Device Research Conference at the University of Notre Dame from June 23-26.

"Our model is generic and, therefore, is believed to be applicable to any two-dimensional layered system," Das said.

Molybdenum disulfide is promising in part because it possesses a bandgap, a trait that is needed to switch on and off, which is critical for digital transistors to store information in binary code.

Analyzing the material or integrating it into a circuit requires a metal contact. However, one factor limiting the ability to measure the electrical properties of a semiconductor is the electrical resistance in the contact. The researchers eliminated this contact resistance using a metal called scandium, allowing themtodetermine the true electronic properties of the layered device. Their results have been published in the January issue of the journal Nano Letters with doctoral students Hong-Yan Chen and Ashish Verma Penumatcha as the other co-authors.

Transistors contain critical components called gates, which enable the devices to switch on and off and to direct the flow of electrical current. In today's chips, the length of these gates is about 14 nanometers, or billionths of a meter.

The semiconductor industry plans to reduce the gate length to 6 nanometers by 2020. However, further size reductions and boosts in speed are likely not possible using silicon, meaning new designs and materials will be needed to continue progress. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Purdue University. The original article was written by Emil Venere.

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

Journal Reference:

  1. Saptarshi Das, Joerg Appenzeller. Screening and interlayer coupling in multilayer MoS2. Rapid Research Letters, 2013; 7 (4): 268 DOI: 10.1002/pssr.201307015

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/lefYvy_ByWE/130416114436.htm

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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

'Avengers' Cast 'Really Proud' Of Big Movie Awards Night

Director Joss Whedon and Earth's mightiest actors weigh in on superhero movie's massive night at the MTV Movie Awards.
By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz


Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston and Joss Whedon wins at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1705690/avengers-joss-whedon-movie-awards.jhtml

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Monday, April 15, 2013

The Car Sharing Economy Is On The Rise: A ... - Financial Samurai

RelayRides Car SharingIt hit me the other day that I?ve been sitting on a goldmine of wealth and knowledge living here in San Francisco, the startup capital of the world. As a 12 year resident of the city with an entrepreneurial bug, a desire to meet more interesting people, and a personal finance blog with a yearly readership in the millions, what a great opportunity to meet up with some of the promising new companies of our generation and bring their stories to all of you. I plan on profiling at least one new startup a quarter in an assortment of industries. I hope you enjoy the new series!

For most people, your car is usually your first or second most valuable asset, and it?s also one of the fastest depreciating assets. Long time readers know that I don?t recommend anybody spend more than 1/10th of their gross income on a car if they want to build financial wealth.

Not only do you have to pay ongoing operating and maintenance costs, you?ve also got insurance costs that could easily total in the thousands of dollars a year. With the average car sitting idle 92% of the time, most folks are flushing money down the toilet with cars they don?t need.

The multiple financial meltdowns over the past 10 years have created a shift in consumer?s attitudes towards ownership. I think consumers are wisening up to the fact that tying up a lot of capital to own a car when good jobs are hard to come by is foolish. Millions of car owners with uncomfortable car payments that last long after the initial euphoria of ownership wears off are wondering how to mitigate costs.

RelayRides is trying to make these economics more favorable for their car owners by allowing them to turn this idle, depreciating asset into a source of income. For car renters who want to preserve their capital, but still want the flexibility of having a car for 20-40% cheaper than renting from a large agency like Avis or Hertz, RelayRides wants to help you as well.

A SITDOWN WITH ANDRE HADDAD, CEO OF RELAYRIDES

Andrew Mok, Marketing and Andre Haddad, CEO

Andrew Mok, Marketing and Andre Haddad, CEO

FS: As a hater of traffic and a proponent for a cleaner environment, I love the proclamation that by renting out your car on RelayRides, you help take on average 14 cars off the road. How did you come up with this figure? It makes a lot of sense.

RR: Susan Shaheen at UC Berkeley found in her study that one shared car takes 14 cars off the road on average.

FS: How does RelayRides make money? Does the money get debited from the renter or the car owner?

RR: The owner keeps 75% of the reservation cost and RR takes 25%, and we also charge a 10% rental fee to the renter.

FS: How large is the current RelayRides community? If you can break it down by owners and renters that would be great.

RR: I can?t specify the exact numbers, but we have several thousand cars being rented by tens of thousands of renters. We?re in all 50 states and in over 1300 cities.

FS:?I imagine that certain areas are more popular for car sharing than others.?As a car owner, which areas have received the most rental activity?

RR: It helps to be in an urban setting with higher population density, but we?ve seen that the vehicles that get the most rental activity are the ones where the owner is the most engaged. That means putting up a couple good photos of the car, pricing their vehicle reasonably, and responding to all of their requests (we display response rate on the car page and it goes into our search filtering algorithm). Also, some owners who are doing a great job self-marketing have found ways building their own renter base in areas that aren?t as densely populated ? like Honolulu Hauler and the Green Machine in Tempe, AZ.

FS:?What is the average price?that?a car owner rent outs?his/her vehicle??Are?there price differentials for car age, original purchase price, and condition?

RR: The average total price of renting out a vehicle is $50/day (with insurance, $40/day without insurance). We have recommended prices for our car owners based on year, make, & model based on our analysis of rental demand, but the owners can set whatever price they want.

FS: What were the roadblocks you faced when dealing with insurance companies covering RelayRides renters and owners?

RR: We?ve worked really hard to get it right and find the proper protections for our members. It?s really the foundation of trust in our marketplace. Under our insurance coverage, all of our members, both renter and owner are covered during each rental. Owners are covered up to $1M for liability and 100% physical damage coverage for their car, and renters can choose which insurance package they?d like to have when they check-out.??

FS: What is the most popular types of cars that RelayRides rents?

RR: BMW 3 series, Honda Civic, Toyota Prius are our top vehicles ? but the great thing about our marketplace is we have a wide variety of cars. We have cars like a Ford Model T bucket and a car that runs on veggie oil. In fact, we have over 500 make/model combinations in our marketplace.?We are the only nation-wide peer-to-peer car sharing company in over 1300 cities and all 50 states, and we see ourselves as the Airbnb or Ebay for car rentals.

FS:?What would be the most profitable car a potential RelayRide owner should own?

RR: We?ve found the most successful car owners are the ones who price their car appropriately, always respond to requests and communicate with their renters, and self-market aggressively.

FS: How often can owners raise or lower their prices?

RR: Our owners have complete control ? they set availability, pricing, and decide who to rent to.

FS: How do you make sure you?re only letting ?good? renters use my car?

RR: We only allow safe drivers in our marketplace ? drivers who have had NO major violations and a maximum of two minor violations in the past 3 years. We also do credit card screening. Another great part of the marketplace is the two-sided rating and reputation system. After every trip, the renter can rate the owner and the owner can rate the renter, so you?ll get to see what other people have said about your potential renter.

Also, if the renter connects their account with Facebook, you can see if you have any friends in common. Remember, the owner always gets to decide who they want to rent to. So far, our transactions have gone very smoothly. The average vehicle rating is 4.8 out of 5 stars, and out of all of our transactions, 99% of the time the owner has said they would rent to the renter again.

FS: How much do your owners make on average? How much have your top earners made?

RR:?We?re very excited about how successful our car owners have been in turning their idle cars into extra income. The average active owner is making $200-250/mo, with our top owners making well over 1k a month. There are so many great stories about how RelayRides has helped its customers: from a single mom who couldn?t justify buying a car in SF until she learned about RelayRides, to a guy that lives near the DC airport who bought another car just to list it on RR because the first car he listed was so successful, and another in Chicago who is building a fleet of 5 cars.?We?re very excited about how successful our car owners have been in turning their idle cars into extra income.

SHARING IS CARING

There are over 250 million cars in the US and a billion cars worldwide. Eventually, something has to give unless we all want to live with LA-style traffic. Besides putting more income in owners and renter?s pockets, I?m very excited about the environmental impact RelayRides can have. Unless you?re destroying your old car when buying something new, even buying a hybrid is worse than just owning an old SUV. If RelayRides can grow its market place big enough, it?s quite a possibility that RelayRides can grow into the next $1 billion dollar company.

If you?re interested in being part of the RelayRides community and list your car you can sign up here. I?m glad they accept cars as old as Moose!

2 MINUTE VIDEO ON HOW RELAYRIDES WORKS

Source: http://www.financialsamurai.com/2013/04/13/the-car-sharing-economy-is-on-the-rise-a-conversation-with-relayrides/

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Activists: Syrian regime airstrikes kill 25

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian government warplanes carried out airstrikes on a rebellious neighborhood in the capital and a village in the country's northeast on Sunday, killing at least 25 people, including a dozen children, activists said.

With its ground forces stretched thin, President Bashar Assad's regime has relied heavily on its fighter jets and helicopters to try to stem rebel advances in the country's civil war. The air raids frequently hit civilian areas, drawing criticism from the international community.

A Human Rights Watch report last week accused the Syrian government of committing war crimes by using indiscriminate and sometimes deliberate airstrikes against civilians, killing at least 4,300 people since the summer.

On Sunday, a government jet bombed rebel-held areas in the predominantly Kurdish village of Hadad in the northeastern province of Hassaka, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said at least 16 people were killed, including two women and three children.

A Hassaka-based activist who was in Hadad when the plane struck said the bombs sent huge plumes of black smoke billowing over the town. He spoke on condition that he be identified only by his nickname of Abu Qasem ? by which he is widely known among his comrades ? out of fear of reprisals.

Another airstrike on the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun killed at least nine children, the Observatory said.

The government frequently targets Qaboun, where rebels pushed into early this year. The district has been ravaged by heavy street clashes and shelling since then as the military tries to expel the anti-Assad fighters.

The SANA state news agency said "terrorists" fired mortar rounds that struck a bus station in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, killing four people and wounding 20. The Syrian regime describes those trying to topple Assad as "terrorists."

SANA said the attack caused significant damage to cars and buses parked at the station.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, also reported that four civilians died after being tortured in a jail in the town of Zakyeh. It did not provide any further details.

In Idlib province in northwestern Syria, regime troops on Sunday reached the embattled military bases of Hamadiya and Wadi Deif near the city of Maaret al-Numan, Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said.

The government forces killed more than 20 rebels in an ambush in the area on Saturday, opening the way for supplies to reach the facilities. The military had been forced to drop supplies in by helicopter because rebels controlled the area.

Syria's rebels ? a mosaic of various factions with different ideologies and no united command ? have pried much of the country's north from regime forces, and captured their first provincial capital ? the city of Raqqa along the Euphrates River ? last month.

Rebels also have made significant gains in recent weeks in southern Syria near the border with Jordan, capturing military bases and territory that could provide anti-Assad fighters with a staging ground for an eventual assault on Damascus.

The push in the south has coincided with what Western and Arab officials say is U.S.-backed training of opposition fighters in Jordan and an influx of foreign-funded weapons into the south. The rebel advances have given the opposition momentum and put the government on the defensive in the two-year civil war that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 70,000 people.

The fighting has spilled over on several occasions into neighboring states, including Lebanon, Turkey and Israel, stoking fears that those countries could be dragged into the conflict.

On Sunday, two rockets fired from Syria exploded in the Lebanese border village of al-Qasr, killing one person and wounding two, a Lebanese security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. Two more rockets landed in a nearby village of Hawsh, killing a 13-year-old boy and damaging two homes, the official said.

It's unclear who fired the rockets from Syria, the official said.

There has been heavy fighting near the frontier in recent days as Syrian government troops try to regain control of the strategic area from rebels.

Also Sunday, the main Western-backed opposition bloc expressed concern about the Islamic extremist rebel faction Jabhat al-Nusra's pledge of allegiance to al-Qaida last week.

In a statement, the Syrian National Coalition urged Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the most powerful and effective rebel groups, "to stay within the ranks of nationalistic Syrians, to continue its efforts in fighting the Assad regime, and in supporting and protecting the freedom of all Syrian sects."

Jabhat al-Nusra's pledge of fealty sparked concern that the allegiance to al-Qaida means the group will be beholden to non-Syrian interests.

But the broader rebellion desperately needs the extremist group's fighting skills in its battle to oust Assad. Jabhat al-Nusra itself has sought to ease concerns by saying it remains dedicated to the Syrian uprising's cause of toppling the Assad regime.

In the northern province of Aleppo, three journalists working for state TV were wounded in a car bombing Sunday, the state news agency said. Correspondent Shadi Helweh and two cameramen, Yehia Mosseli and Ahmed Suleiman, were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds, the agency said.

The journalists were reporting on Syrian soldiers who were trying to stop two suicide attackers attempting to detonate a car bomb near a security headquarters in the province. SANA said the two attackers were killed, and the journalists and several other civilians were wounded.

___

AP writers Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/activists-syrian-regime-airstrikes-kill-25-175845422.html

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