Seals take scientists to Antarctic's ocean floor

SYDNEY?? Elephant seals wearing head sensors and swimming deep beneath Antarctic ice have helped scientists better understand how the ocean's coldest, deepest waters are formed, providing vital clues to understanding its role in the world's climate.

The tagged seals, along with sophisticated satellite data and moorings in ocean canyons, all played a role in providing data from the extreme Antarctic environment, where observations are very rare and ships could not go, said researchers at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem CRC in Tasmania.

1. Science news from NBCNews.com

   1. Relatives add drama to King Richard III saga

      Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Nine distant relatives issue a demand calling for King Richard III's remains to be buried in York rather than in Leicester, where they were dug up.

   2. Mauritian beaches hold clues to a lost continent
   3. This new dinosaur had chicken-size young
   4. Yes, Spider-Man's web would stop a?train

Scientists have long known of the existence of "Antarctic bottom water," a dense, deep layer of water near the ocean floor that has a significant impact on the movement of the world's oceans.

Three areas where this water is formed were known of. The existence of a fourth area was suspected for decades, but the area had been far too inaccessible. Now, thanks to the seals, scientists are able to study the new frontier.

"The seals went to an area of the coastline that no ship was ever going to get to," said Guy Williams, ACE CRC Sea Ice specialist and co-author of the study.

"This is a particular form of Antarctic water called Antarctic bottom water production, one of the engines that drives ocean circulation," he told Reuters. "What we've done is found another piston in that engine."

Southern Ocean Elephant seals are the largest of all seals, with males growing up to 20 feet (6 meters) long and weighing up to 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms).

Twenty of the seals were deployed from Davis Station in east Antarctica in 2011 with a sensor, weighing about 100 to 200 grams (3.5 to 7 ounces), on their head. Each of the sensors had a small satellite relay that transmitted data on a daily basis during the five- to 10-minute intervals when the seals surfaced.

"We get four dives worth of data a day, but they're actually doing up to 60 dives," he said.

"The elephant seals ... went to the very source and found this very cold, very saline dense water in the middle of winter beneath a polynya, which is what we call an ice factory around the coast of Antarctica," Williams added.

Previous studies have shown that there are 50-year-long trends in the properties of the Antarctic bottom water, and Williams said the latest study will help better assess those changes, perhaps providing clues for climate change modeling.

"Several of the seals foraged on the continental slope as far down as 1,800 meters (1.1 miles), punching through into a layer of this dense water cascading down the abyss," he said in a statement. "They gave us very rare and valuable wintertime measurements of this process."

More about Antarctica's seals:

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50952475/ns/technology_and_science-science/

occupy dc ufc 143 fight card my fair lady conversion disorder the chronicle spinal stenosis the forgotten man

Relatives add drama to King Richard III saga

The bones of Richard III, who reigned for two years, have been discovered in Leicester, England, and they indicate that his spine was twisted by scoliosis and that he received eight head wounds in battle. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Nine distant relatives of King Richard III are demanding that the British government reverse its decision to have his skeleton reburied at Leicester Cathedral, near the parking lot where it was found, and give it a resting place in York instead.

The open letter, published late Sunday by British newspapers such as The Telegraph and the Daily Mail, is just one of several efforts seeking a burial at York Minster for the more than 500-year-old remains, which were discovered last year by researchers from the University of Leicester. This month, the researchers said DNA analysis and other forensic tests proved "beyond reasonable doubt" that the skeleton was that of Richard III.

The English monarch reigned for just two years before he was killed in battle in 1485, but he was immortalized in William Shakespeare's play, "Richard III," in which he was portrayed as a hunchbacked villain. Richard III's legions of modern-day fans say he wasn't really all that bad ? and the row over what to do with his bones has added a new twist to the drama.

---

"We, the undernamed, do hereby most respectfully demand that the remains of King Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England and our mutual ancestor, be returned to the city of York for formal, ceremonial reburial," the statement from his relatives says. "We believe that such an interment was the desire of King Richard in life and we have written this statement so that his wishes may be fully recognised and upheld. King Richard III was the last King of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty which had ruled England since the succession of King Henry II in 1154.

"We, the undernamed blood descendants, unreservedly believe that King Richard is deserving of great recognition and respect and hereby agree to dutifully uphold his memory.

"With due humility and affection, we are and will remain His Majesty?s representatives and voice."

The statement was signed by nine individuals who have traced their ancestry back to Richard III's siblings. The nine signers are?Charles E. Brunner, Stephen Guy Nicolay, Vanessa Maria Roe, Jacob Daniel Tyler, Paul Tyler, Raymond Torrence Bertram Roe, Linda Jane Roe, Eleanor Bianca Lupton and Charlotte Jane Lupton. Richard died childless and thus has no direct-line descendants.

Even before the remains were found, the British Ministry of Justice granted a license putting the University of Leicester in charge of the parking-lot dig and the disposition of any remains found there."The University of Leicester specified in its application that reinterment would occur in Leicester Cathedral if the remains were proved to be those of King Richard III," the institution said in a statement.

The university is currently working with the cathedral and Leicester's city council on plans for his reburial by August 2014. In the meantime, researchers are continuing to study the remains.

The long lead time means that the tug of war between Leicester and York, two cities that are 100 miles (160 kilometers) from each other, could continue for months. There are even those who want to see the remains interred in London's Westminster Abbey. But the nine relatives behind this week's open letter have no more standing than the other descendants of Richard III's family, who doubtless number in the thousands by now.

In that light, Leicester seems to have the strongest case, by virtue of legal grounds as well as the less rigorous "finders, keepers" rule and the dictum that possession is nine-tenths of the law. Do you disagree? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below.

More about Richard III:

---

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/25/17090654-relatives-add-drama-to-the-plans-for-king-richard-iiis-final-resting-place?lite

ghost hunters lightsquared david lee honduras prison fire do not call list sports illustrated westminster dog show 2012

Firefox phones coming this summer

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Mozilla, the non-profit foundation behind the popular Firefox Web browser, is getting into phones. But it's not stopping at Web browsers ? it's launching a whole phone operating system.

The Firefox OS will land in a crowded environment, where many small operating systems are trying to become the "third eco-system," alongside Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Together, those two account for 91 percent of smartphone sales, according to research firm IDC.

Mozilla has an ally in phone companies, who are interested in seeing an alternative to Apple and Google. Thirteen phone companies around the world have committed to supporting Firefox phones, Mozilla says, including Sprint Nextel in the U.S. Phones are expected this summer in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Poland, and Spain.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-24-EU-TEC-Wireless-Show-Firefox-Phones/id-f4c5e68a1f3247979a9f58397dea8010

Prince Harry Vegas Melky Cabrera Mayim Bialik Rich Kids of Instagram felix hernandez julia child Ron Palillo

Cuba: Raul Castro Plans To Retire In 2018, Signaling The End Of An Era (VIDEO)

HAVANA -- It's been more than 54 years since someone not named "Castro" led Cuba, and it will likely be five more.

But now islanders and exiles alike have finally been given a date for when the sun will set on brothers Fidel and Raul's longtime rule: 2018.

In accepting a new presidential term on Sunday, the 81-year-old Raul Castro announced that it would be his last. And for the first time, he tapped a rising young star, Miguel Diaz-Canel, to be his top lieutenant and possible successor.

"This will be my last term," Castro said, his voice firm.

Castro also said he hopes to establish two-term limits and age caps for political offices including the presidency, though he didn't specify what age.

As the new first vice president of the ruling Council of State, the 52-year-old Diaz-Canel is now a heartbeat from the presidency and has risen higher than any other Cuban official who didn't directly participate in the heady days of the 1959 revolution.

In his 35-minute speech, Castro hinted at other changes to the constitution, some so dramatic that they will have to be ratified by the Cuban people in a referendum. Still, he scotched any idea that the country would soon abandon socialism, saying he had not assumed the presidency in order to destroy Cuba's system.

"I was not chosen to be president to restore capitalism to Cuba," he said. "I was elected to defend, maintain and continue to perfect socialism, not destroy it."

Castro fueled interest in Sunday's legislative gathering after mentioning on Friday his possible retirement and suggesting lightheartedly that he had plans to resign at some point.

It's now clear that he was serious when he promised that Sunday's speech would have fireworks, and would touch on his future in leadership.

Cuba is at a moment of "historic transcendence," Castro told lawmakers in speaking of his decision to name Diaz-Canel to the No. 2 job, replacing the 81-year-old Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, who fought with the Castros in the Sierra Maestra.

Castro praised Machado Ventura and another aging revolutionary for offering to leave their positions so that younger leaders could move up.

Their selflessness is "a concrete demonstration of their genuine revolutionary fiber ... That is the essence of the founding generation of this revolution."

Castro said that Diaz-Canel's promotion "represents a definitive step in the configuration of the future leadership of the nation through the gradual and orderly transfer of key roles to new generations."

"Our greatest satisfaction is the tranquility and serene confidence we feel as we deliver to the new generations the responsibility to continue building socialism," he added.

On the streets of Havana, where people often express a jaded skepticism of all things political, there was genuine excitement.

"This is the start of a new era," said Roberto Delgado, a 68-year-old retiree walking down a street in the leafy Miramar neighborhood. "It will undoubtedly be a complicated and difficult process, but something important happened today."

"I'm mesmerized," added Regla Blanco, 48. "You thought that with all these old men, it would never end. I am very satisfied with what Raul said. He is keeping his promise."

Since taking over from Fidel in 2006, Castro has instituted a slate of important economic and social changes, expanding private enterprise, legalizing a real estate market and relaxing hated travel restrictions.

Still, the country remains ruled by the Communist Party and any opposition to it lacks legal recognition.

Indeed, several dozen anti-government protesters were detained across the island Sunday and held for a few hours for public disorder before being released, according to Elizardo Sanchez, a dissident who monitors human rights in Cuba.

Castro has mentioned term limits before, but he has never said specifically when he would step down, and the concept has yet to be codified into Cuban law.

If he keeps his word, Castro will leave office no later than 2018. Cuban-American exiles in the United States have waited decades for the end of the Castro era, although they will likely be dismayed if it ends on the brothers' terms.

Nevertheless, the promise of a change at the top could have deep significance for U.S.-Cuba ties. The wording of Washington's 51-year economic embargo on the island specifies that it cannot be lifted while a Castro is in charge.

In Florida, home to hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles, some were skeptical that Castro's eventual retirement will change much.

"First we have to see if he lives another five years, and after we have to see what happens," said Raul Lopez Mola, an 81-year-old who abandoned Cuba in 1966 for a new life in Miami. "No one can predict what will happen in five years. For me, I don't think it has great importance."

"It would be more meaningful if Fidel Castro died," Lopez Mola added.

Fidel Castro is 86 and retired, and has appeared increasingly frail in recent months. He made a surprise appearance at Sunday's gathering, receiving a thunderous ovation from lawmakers.

Some analysts have speculated that the Castros would push a younger member of their family into a top job, but there was no hint of that Sunday.

While few things are ever clear in Cuba's hermetically sealed news environment, rumblings that Diaz-Canel, an electrical engineer by training and ex-minister of higher education, might be in line for a senior post have grown.

In recent weeks, he has frequently been featured on state television news broadcasts in an apparent attempt to raise his profile.

He also traveled to Venezuela in January for the symbolic inauguration of Hugo Chavez, a key Cuban ally who had been re-elected president but was too ill to be sworn in.

The 612 lawmakers sworn in Sunday also named Esteban Lazo as the National Assembly's first new chief in 20 years, replacing Ricardo Alarcon.

Lazo, who turns 69 on Tuesday, is a vice president and member of the Communist Party's ruling political bureau. Parliament meets only twice a year and generally passes legislation unanimously without visible debate.

The legislature also named as vice presidents of the ruling Council Machado Ventura; comptroller general Gladys Bejerano; second Vice President Ramiro Valdes; Havana Communist Party secretary Lazara Mercedes Lopez Acea; and Salvador Valdes Mesa, head of Cuba's labor union.

___

Associated Press writers Anne Marie-Garcia and Paul Haven in Havana, and Christine Armario in Miami, contributed to this report.

___

Peter Orsi on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

Related on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/end-of-castro-era_n_2757191.html

jon corzine austin rivers austin rivers sweet home alabama etch a sketch the host hoodie

Pope Benedict's legacy: More influential than Pope John Paul II?

Pope Benedict's legacy may be a willingness to let liberal Catholics leave in favor of a more orthodox church in the US and Europe.

By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / February 11, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI delivers his message during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, at the Vatican, Monday. Pope Benedict announced Monday that he would resign at the end of the month - the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years.

Courtesy of L'Osservatore Romano/AP

Enlarge

Pope Benedict resigns later this month after arguably being the single most influential figure inside the Roman Catholic Church for three decades, dating to the early 1980s.

Skip to next paragraph

Recent posts

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

A shy but brilliant scholar whose consistent vision has been to reinstitute the grand authority held by the Vatican in the Middle Ages, Benedict has, often single-handedly, redirected his church away from the liberal experiments and sometimes amateurish enthusiasms of the Vatican II period of the 1960s, which conservatives saw as a dangerous diversion. He has also, over years, instituted doctrines, individuals, and orders consistent with his theological view of the Catholic Church as the true and only authentic one.

While not as widely beloved as his predecessor John Paul II, the popular Polish pope who helped crack the Soviet hold on eastern Europe and attracted global crowds, Benedict arguably has had more influence inside the church ??even as he often irritated Protestants who he said were not "authentic" Christians, angered Muslims by put-downs of Islamic figures, or unsettled Jewish-Catholic relations by rehabilitating a fringe religious society with a bishop who denied the severity of the Nazi holocaust.

Benedict's chief occupation as pope has been, observers say, to purify his church.?

To do so, Benedict crushed the liberation theology movements of the?third world, put a slammer hold on efforts to ordain women and question celibacy, put earlier ecumenical impulses on the back burner, and, instead, has greatly empowered more hardcore orders like Opus Dei, Legions of Christ, and other orthodox wings, largely on the idea that the church must first cherish its most ardent believers.

Yet, while Benedict has won many battles inside the church, he is also widely seen as having lost many larger wars that he either instituted or took part in.

Benedict?s effort to reinstitute Christianity in its European context has largely failed to generate enthusiasm on a continent increasingly secular. While in pursuit of liberal priests and nuns who he implied were polluting the church with wrong doctrines, Benedict has appeared to many Europeans to be too inattentive to priests who sexually abused minors, of whom there are an estimated 8,000. The revelations of sexually abusive priests in Germany, Ireland, Belgium, and Austria two years ago brought a change to the story line that such problems were restricted to the United States.?

For fully believing Catholics, the Roman church is a divine, not a human institution; its leader, the pope, is the ?vicar of Christ,? the direct spiritual descendant of Jesus Christ and his disciple Peter. The kingdom of heaven on earth that Jesus asked his followers to pray for, must, in orthodox Catholic doctrine, come through the Catholic Church and the pope, also known as the Holy Father.

For many modern-thinking or non-literal Catholics, particularly after the long-running church self-examination known as Vatican II, those orthodox doctrines of the identity of the church and the pope were put in question and thrown open for new interpretation.

Vatican II lead, though often quite indirectly, to a massive re-evaluation of things like the operation of the spirit in the church, the possibility of women being ordained as priests, a faint questioning of the doctrine, only adopted in pre-medieval Europe, of celibacy, and of more "democracy"?or power by the laity or non-clergy members in matters of church governance.

For a rising college theology professor named Joseph Ratzinger, these new interpretations were viewed with increasing horror. They often lacked seriousness, were sloppy, and seemed chaotic and undignified.

As then-Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict took office in 1982 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the same office that earlier conducted or oversaw heresy trials. Yet while that office has a five-year term and most predecessors held it for 10 years at most, Ratzinger stayed 24 years, only leaving to become pope in 2005.

Now, as Catholics think through their future they will do so with a set of cardinals, bishops, priests, and church authorities that have largely been vetted through the orthodox filter set up by the Bavarian-born pontiff.

Indeed, a church hierarchy carefully pruned of liberal and ecumenical impulses may be one of Benedict?s enduring legacies, though it has brought the current pontiff into serious disagreements with powerful orders, like the Jesuits, that previously saw themselves as the main defenders of Rome.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/fHR6tRo16ts/Pope-Benedict-s-legacy-More-influential-than-Pope-John-Paul-II

Robin Givens Gus Malzahn hyperemesis gravidarum miranda kerr lindsay lohan BCS Bowls palestine

Video: TODAY anchors recreate their favorite childhood photos

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50927983/

hepatitis c symptoms david bradley david foster wallace pinterest attwireless taylor swift zac efron the scream

Israel, Palestina y los premios Oscar

NUEVA YORK, Nueva York.- La ceremonia de entrega de los premios Oscar har? historia este a?o tras la nominaci?n por primera vez de un documental realizado por un director palestino. ?Cinco c?maras rotas? fue filmado y dirigido por Emad Burnat, que vive en la localidad de Bil?in en los territorios palestinos ocupados de Cisjordania, junto con su colega israel? Guy Davidi. ?Qu? vestir? un campesino palestino en la alfombra roja de Hollywood? Por poco no nos enteramos, ya que Burnat, su esposa y su hijo de 8 a?os fueron detenidos en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Los ?ngeles, donde amenazaron con deportarlos. A pesar de tener una invitaci?n formal de la Academia de Artes y Ciencias Cinematogr?ficas como realizador nominado al Oscar, Michael Moore, el documentalista ganador del Oscar y actual miembro de la junta directiva de gobernadores de la Academia tuvo que intervenir junto con los abogados de la Academia para que Burnat y su familia pudieran ingresar a Estados Unidos.

?Cinco c?maras rotas? compite en los premios Oscar con el documental israel? ?The Gatekeepers?, que muestra entrevistas a seis ex directores de la Shin Bet, el servicio secreto de seguridad interna de Israel, que es una especie de h?brido entre el FBI y la CIA de Estados Unidos. En la pel?cula, los seis entrevistados condenan las actuales pr?cticas israel?es de ocupaci?n y de expansi?n de asentamientos.

Se trata de un caso notable de la vida que imita al arte: mientras las celebridades se re?nen para la mayor gala cinematogr?fica del a?o, el conflicto entre Israel y Palestina se est? desarrollando en las calles de Tinseltown.

Horas despu?s de recuperar su libertad, Burnat emiti? una declaraci?n que dec?a: ?Anoche, cuando viajamos de Turqu?a a Los ?ngeles, California, mi familia y yo fuimos detenidos por el servicio de inmigraci?n de Estados Unidos durante casi una hora. Nos interrogaron acerca del prop?sito de nuestra visita. Los funcionarios de inmigraci?n nos solicitaron pruebas de que yo estaba nominado a los Premios de la Academia por el documental ?Cinco c?maras rotas? y me dijeron que si no pod?a probar el motivo de mi visita, mi esposa Soraya, mi hijo Gibreel y yo ser?amos enviados de regreso a Turqu?a ese mismo d?a?.

Emad Burnat cuenta: ?Cuando llegu? [a Estados Unidos] ayer, me interrogaron y me pidieron m?s documentos y m?s papeles. Ten?a la visa, ten?a los documentos y ten?a la invitaci?n. Ten?a todo. Sin embargo, me pidieron que les diera m?s documentos?. En su declaraci?n escrita el cineasta Emad Burnat dijo: ?Despu?s de cuarenta minutos de preguntas y respuestas, Gibreel me pregunt? por qu? a?n est?bamos aguardando en aquella peque?a habitaci?n. Le dije la pura verdad: ?Quiz? tengamos que regresar?. Pude sentir su congoja?. El nacimiento de Gibreel en 2005 fue la motivaci?n de la pel?cula. Emad Burnat adquiri? una c?mara en ese momento para filmar el crecimiento de su cuarto hijo. En aquel entonces, el gobierno de Israel hab?a comenzado a construir el muro de separaci?n a lo largo de Bil?in, lo que dio lugar a una campa?a de resistencia no violenta por parte de los residentes palestinos y quienes los apoyaban. Mientras Burnat filmaba las protestas, una a una sus c?maras fueron destruidas o da?adas por la violenta respuesta del ej?rcito israel? y de los colonos israel?es armados.

Dror Moreh es el director israel? del documental ?The Gatekeepers?. Moreh me dijo: ?Los asentamientos son el mayor obst?culo para la paz. Si hay algo que evitar? la paz son los asentamientos y sus colonos. Creo que se trata del mayor y m?s influyente grupo en la pol?tica israel?. B?sicamente han dictado la pol?tica de Israel de los ?ltimos a?os. Creo que para los palestinos los asentamientos son definitivamente el peor enemigo para el logro de su patria. Al ver c?mo crecen los asentamientos en todas partes como los hongos despu?s de la lluvia, ahora en el ?rea de Judea y Samaria, ven c?mo se reduce su pa?s?.

Tanto ?Cinco c?maras rotas? como ?The Gatekeepers? compiten en los Oscar con otros pesos pesados como ?C?mo sobrevivir una plaga?, sobre la epidemia del SIDA; ?La guerra invisible?, acerca de la violaci?n end?mica e impune en las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses; y ?Searching for Sugar Man?, acerca de la reaparici?n de un m?sico que hac?a tiempo se cre?a muerto.

Emad Burnat cerr? la declaraci?n sobre su detenci?n en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Los ?ngeles: ?A pesar de que fue una experiencia desagradable, esto le ocurre a diario a los palestinos, todos los d?as, en Cisjordania. Hay m?s de 500 puestos de control israel?es, carreteras bloqueadas y otras barreras al libre movimiento en nuestros territorios y todos hemos sufrido la experiencia que mi familia y yo experimentamos ayer. El nuestro fue tan solo un peque?o ejemplo de lo que los palestinos tienen que soportar a diario?.

M?s all? de cu?l sea el documental ganador, los premios Oscar de 2013 marcar?n un cambio hist?rico en el di?logo p?blico acerca del conflicto entre Israel y Palestina, un cambio postergado durante mucho tiempo del que ser?n testigos 40 millones de televidentes.

Amy Goodman
Periodista

Source: http://primermomento.com/?p=181483

tesla model s tesla model s act Black Ops 2 Secede ben roethlisberger Diwali