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Monday, March 4, 2013

Keystone Pipeline study: We must kill the environment to save it (Americablog)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/288614103?client_source=feed&format=rss

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WRITING TIP: Everything is speaking to you ? writingfromthesoul.net

writing tip In a rush to get things done, are you treating the things you meet as though they are stones in a stagnant world? What if everything is alive and speaking to you, if only you had ears to hear? You can enliven your writing?and your day?by enlivening your perspective. Try taking a walk, opening to the messages that the world is trying to tell you. (Such as the guy walking toward you, carrying a yellow box?the same yellow that used to color your mother?s kitchen?and then the sign in the shop window, also yellow, that says ?caution: breakable.?) Try warming up your writing time with a freewrite, using as a prompt the images you assembled on your walk, listening deeply and ready to be surprised by what they say.

Source: http://writingfromthesoul.net/2013/03/writing-tip-everything-is-speaking-to-you/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=writing-tip-everything-is-speaking-to-you

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How sequester cuts could set back scientific research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF),?Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are among those hit hard by the?sequester cuts that take effect on March 1. ?

By Tanya Lewis,?LiveScience / March 1, 2013

A scientist Ji Guo inspects test tubes containing dyes in a Food and Drug Administration laboratory in Silver Spring, Maryland in August 2012.

Jason Reed/Reuters/File

Enlarge

An $85-billion across-the-board slash to funding for federal agencies and programs is set to take effect Friday (Mar. 1), and many of the nation's top science agencies will feel the blow.

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The cuts, known by the unwieldy term "the sequester," were designed as a last-ditch measure in case Congress couldn't reach a deal to reduce the federal deficit. The cuts were scheduled to take effect Jan. 2, 2013 ? the so-called "fiscal cliff" ? but Congress delayed them until this week.

The cuts apply to both defense and non-defense programs. Non-defense agencies can expect a reduction in funding of about 5 percent, but since that applies to the entire year, it amounts to a cut of more like 9 percent, officials say.

Research agencies will feel the effects particularly keenly. "This is hugely important for everybody who cares about science," Mary Woolley, president of the not-for-profit group Research!America, told LiveScience. [7 Great Dramas in Congressional History]

Who's affected?

The affected agencies include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, among others.

The NSF funds about a fifth of all?federally funded basic research?at American colleges and universities, in fields ranging from biology to math and computer science. In response to the sequester cuts, the agency anticipates it will award about 1,000 fewer research grants. This will affect almost 12,000 people, including professors, college students and?K-12 teachers, and could reduce research on clean energy, job-creating advances in manufacturing, cybersecurity efforts and improvements to undergraduate science education, according to a Feb. 4 letter from the NSF to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The NIH, which funds much of the country's biomedical research, will be similarly slammed. The agency will lose an amount of money equivalent to the funding for three major cancer research programs, according to Research!America. Studies that could ultimately drive down the cost of health care, one of the biggest contributors to the deficit, will slow down, Woolley told LiveScience. "It will also potentially add to our national deficit instead of cutting it," Woolley said, adding that the cuts are expected to affect young scientists in particular. [Image Gallery: The Art in Biomedical Research]

The reductions will also impose a nearly $900 million?budget cut on NASA. This will affect the agency's commercial crew program, which is subsidizing human spaceflight systems at Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Sierra Nevada. The upshot? The United States will become more reliant on other countries for transportation to the International Space Station, according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Others affected by the cuts include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Cuts to these agencies could affect the nation's ability to monitor threats to public health or approve new drugs.

In December 2012, more than 100 scientific societies signed a letter to the White House and Congress in a plea to avoid the funding cuts. "It is important to recognize that federal research and development (R&D) investments are?not?driving our national deficits," the letter stated. "Placing a significant burden on these crucial areas, as sequestration would do, is nothing less than a threat to national competitiveness."

Sequester cuts will hit defense programs even harder, with a 9 percent funding cut (again, applied to the entire fiscal year)?to all programs except military personnel. Affected entities include research programs like the Defense?Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which has funded noteworthy technologies such as computer networking and the development of prosthetic arms.

Not over yet

Currently, government agencies are operating under what's called a "Continuing Resolution," a stopgap measure that will expire March 27. While some agencies have continued to spend the money they were allocated in the?science budget, others are tightening their belts in anticipation of leaner days ahead.

The agencies probably won't be firing people, but there will likely be furloughs (mandatory days of unpaid leave), according to a former congressional budget official who wished to remain anonymous. The furloughs would also apply to contractors, the official said.

Congress must pass legislation later this month once the resolution expires, which could keep the cuts in place, reduce them or even increase the reductions.

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

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/tjv6DdXl0KI/How-sequester-cuts-could-set-back-scientific-research

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Pepsi Cola Ads 1950s - Business Insider

Historically, Pepsi has a fantastic advertising reputation.

In recent decades, it's been focused on youth and pop culture. (Nicki Minaj is a current brand ambassador.) The brand has, of course, had its missteps, but generally speaking Pepsi has released admirable work.

We took a look through Retronaut?and found a selection of ads the brand created in the 1950s.??

Back then, as today, the drink wanted to be sexy and modern. In its ads, the drink and its consumers were portrayed as super-classy, upscale types at the center of the social scene.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/pepsi-cola-ads-1950s-2013-2

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Sunday, March 3, 2013

Senate Republicans sell immigration plan to House

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2013 file photo, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. confer on Capitol Hill in Washington. McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Sen. and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. met with key House conservatives this week to promote legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration laws and provide a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, McCain?s communications director said Friday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 28, 2013 file photo, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. gestures as he leaves the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington. Flake, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. met with key House conservatives this week to promote legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration laws and provide a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, McCain?s communications director said Friday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republican Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake met with key House conservatives this week to promote legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration laws and provide a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, McCain's communications director said Friday.

McCain, R-Ariz.; Graham, R-S.C.; and Flake, R-Ariz., are members of a bipartisan group of eight senators working to craft a comprehensive immigration bill to enhance border security, streamline legal immigration, ensure employers don't hire illegal immigrants and provide eventual citizenship to illegal immigrants already here.

If it gets through the Senate, the legislation faces a potentially tough road with House Republicans skeptical of granting citizenship to illegal immigrants, and the meeting included at least one lawmaker known for taking a hard line on the issue.

"Sen. McCain was glad to have the opportunity to update key House members and get their advice and recommendations on this important effort. He looks forward to continuing these conversations as we move forward," said Brian Rogers, McCain's communications director.

Members present Thursday at the meeting organized by the House Republican Policy Committee included Rep. Steve King of Iowa and Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho.

King is known for decrying amnesty for illegal immigrants while Labrador has said he supports finding a way to legalize the status of illegal immigrants already here, while rejecting the idea of giving them a special pathway to citizenship.

McCain, Graham, Flake and others argue that Republicans must tackle comprehensive immigration legislation partly to win back support from Latino voters crucial to national election outcomes, but that argument is a harder sell to House members who often represent overwhelmingly white districts.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-01-US-Immigration/id-f58cc8e9fa3f4fa8b4c804585f7d0060

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Downton Abbey Season 4: Who's Returning?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/downton-abbey-season-4-whos-returning/

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Watch 15,000 Volts of Raw Power Burn Lightning Strikes into Wood

When lightning flashes across the sky, you only get a chance to glimpse its fractal form for a split second. But when you send 15,000 volts coursing through plywood, you get a much better look at how it grows. Melanie Hoff, a student at the Pratt Institute in New York City did just that, and the result is a timelapse where you can see the patterns slowly grow out and smolder, like lightning made from molasses. [Vimeo Staff Picks] More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/LnkPQFdgkc0/watch-15000-volts-of-raw-power-burn-lightning-strikes-into-wood

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