ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2012) ? A well-known proverb states that, "It takes a village to raise a child." According to Kathryn Demps, it also takes a village to preserve ecological knowledge in upcoming generations.
Demps, A Boise State University visiting assistant professor in anthropology, studies behavioral and evolutionary ecology in small-scale societies. Her latest project looks at the honey-gathering Jenu Kuruba tribe in South India and how its cultural knowledge is being preserved, or lost, in our modern world.
"What we learn from others -- our culture, skills, values, beliefs and knowledge -- is passed through the generations," she said. "How it is passed down can change the body of knowledge."
Demps noted that in today's race toward homogenous societies, indigenous knowledge is being lost even faster than languages.
One example is medicinal specialists. In the 1980s, the first hospital in the area populated by the Jenu Kuruba opened; 1985 was the last year for a recorded medicinal ceremony. Gurus didn't train more apprentices because no one wanted to learn, and as a result, the knowledge has been completely lost in just one generation.
The Jenu Kuruba comprise a band of small communities located in the forested Kodagu District. For generations, young men from the tribe have collected wild honey by nimbly scaling massive trees. Because honey is in such high demand in the cities for its purported medicinal qualities, it fetches a high price and is an important part of the local economy.
But the skills needed to harvest this precious commodity are at risk of dying out. Several former honey-gathering communities were moved away from the forests in an attempt to create national parks, and those that remain (thanks to special rights from the government to live in the forest and collect non-timber products) are now sending children to school during the day, drastically affecting how, or even if, they learn necessary honey-gathering skills.
Prior to construction of the local school in the 1970s, children rarely received a formal, western education. While the average level of education is still low, most children are spending at least a few critical years learning new skills at the expense of traditional, indigenous knowledge.
"Kids need to learn how to climb trees and how to make big, smoky torches from sticks wrapped in green leaves," Demps said. "They have to learn to climb onto the branches and cut off the honeycomb. There also are ritual things like the honey-collecting song that is supposed to appease the bees and show brotherhood."
Locals learn at an early age to scale trees by shimmying 100 feet up the trunk, pressing their feet flat into the bark and using their arms to pull themselves ever higher. Young boys pick this up by playing a traditional climbing game called mara cothi, which means "tree monkey" and is similar to an arboreal version of tag. Because the climb can be so dangerous, young men often leave offerings at the base of a tree, asking for a blessing for a safe climb.
More skilled gatherers also need to know how to work with the bees, coaxing the queen into a new hive, gathering the honey or calming a troubled colony. This is especially important given that the largest honeybees in the region are massive compared to the average Idaho varieties, and pack a powerful sting.
Demps and fellow researchers are evaluating data collected from almost 200 local residents ages 6-65 in order to understand what residents know at various ages, and who they learned it from.
"If we know what people are learning, and how they are learning it, we can make recommendations that may remove conflicts affecting traditional knowledge," Demps said. "For instance, giving children just five or six days a month off of school can make a big difference. That has been shown to be enough time for children to learn the skills they need to collect honey but still learn western knowledge. They also can learn how to collect forest foods for better nutrition as they are out hunting and gathering, as well as medicinal knowledge and how to manage the environment so that they are less likely to deforest the area."
Demps has published two papers based on her research and is working on another based on traditional knowledge and schooling. She hopes to eventually write a book examining the tribe's traditional life ways that draws on various firsthand accounts over the past two centuries.
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GAME is certainly up for trying new things after getting a second chance at life, and today it becomes the first store in the UK to offer Steam Wallet Codes for purchase. You can buy £5, £10, £20 or £50's worth, and until December 7th, you can get a 33 percent bump in trade-in value, should you put the credit towards codes. Customers can also browse the entire Steam catalog on tablets dotted around the shop floor. While the vouchers will obviously make good gifts this holiday, and also appeal to those who don't want Steam knowing their card details, we're not sure how smart a move this is. We imagine there are still a few keyboard-and-mouse gamers out there who don't use Steam, but once GAME shows them the light, will they ever set foot in a physical game store again?
The Internet is an incredible resource for researching products.? In particular, you can find countless reviews from both professionals and customers.? For individuals in the market for fitness equipment, the Internet can assist you in the complicated procedure of selecting the right equipment for your body and budget. ?Because buying fitness equipment like treadmills, elliptical trainers or exercise bikes can be overwhelming.
There are countless models, and prices vary from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.? So it is advantageous if you can find some online assistance and direction in selecting a product that can accommodate your fitness goals and physique within your price range.
So it would seem a no brainer to turn to one of the numerous fitness equipment reviews sites.? There are countless sites that review products like treadmills, elliptical trainer and exercise bikes.
However, there is a problem with the vast majority of these review sites.? Most of these sites are authored by people who have no background or experience in the industry.
They?ve built these sites and have gone to great length to get them ranked in the search engines for one reason ? Money!
Affiliate Marketing and Fitness Equipment Review Sites
Affiliate marketing is a multi-billion dollar business.?? This is how it works. Web sites refer traffic to merchant sites and if that referral results in a sale the originating site, the affiliate site, gets a commission. ?The sales are tracked through cookies that identify where the traffic originated.
In fact, you may have been to an affiliate site, clicked on a link to a merchant site left and came back several days later and the affiliate site still got the commission.? Some affiliate programs will credit an affiliate site up to 60 days from the original visit.? ?Practically all sites that review products are affiliate sites, in addition to most coupon and product and services comparison sites.
Most people who surf the Internet are unaware of this industry.? And in fact, many of the products you purchase online may have been initiated by going to an affiliate site.
There are affiliate programs for just about any product or service that is sold on the Internet, including clothing, automotive, health products, financial services, auctions, electronic, books, food products, housewares, telecommunication services, travel services and of course fitness equipment.
Affiliate marketing is not necessarily a bad thing, and in fact many affiliate sites offer a valuable service to their viewers.?? They provide insight and information into products and services and help you to sift through the details and the numerous options in order to make an informed purchasing decision.
However,? there is also the dark side of affiliate marketing, where sites offer up a bunch of bogus information that is more construed to making a profit than assisting their viewers.
What makes affiliate marketing so attractive is that there is a low threshold to enter the business.? You just need to be able to create a web site, add some content and manipulate the search engines, like Google, into ranking your web pages. ??It is an entrepreneur?s dream come true.
The Appeal of Fitness Equipment Affiliate Marketing
What draws so many people to fitness equipment affiliate marketing is the high price points and generous commissions.
For example, there are several fitness equipment merchants whose average online sale is $1,000, and their commissions to their affiliate could be as high as 12%.? It doesn?t take many commissions to make a very comfortable living.? And of course, you can conduct your business from anywhere in the world.
It is the easy entry into the business and the potential money that draws the uninitiated into the business of reviewing fitness equipment.? In fact, the majority of the fitness equipment reviews are done by individual with no experience in the fitness equipment industry.
Worse yet, many have never been on the products they review.? Their reviews are just a rehash of what is on the merchant site.? And not surprisingly their recommendations are based on which products are most likely to result in a commission.
I?ve?come across fitness equipment review sites that were written from individuals in either Eastern Europe or India.? They can barely write in English, and I know for a fact that none of the products they review are available in those countries.
I?ve come across treadmill review sites where the author?s claim to credibility is that they were runners.?? Another was a stay at home mother who works out at a health club and that made her an authority on treadmills.? The fact is there are only a handful of fitness equipment review site that are written by individuals with industry experience.
If you are in the market for fitness equipment you want to rely on authoritative sites.? How do you tell an authoritative site?? First, check out the ?About Us? page, if there?isn?t?one that is a red flag.? If they do have an ?About Us? page, but they have no industry experience, move on.
Buying fitness equipment can be complicated and expensive.? That is why you need the help of a professional, either online or off to assist you getting the right product for your fitness goals.
I have a confession to make, I am an affiliate marketer who reviews fitness equipment.? However, I have worked in the industry for over 17 years and work hard on offering my readers the best advise in purchasing fitness equipment.
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International Trading - to hedge or not to hedge ??
The Foreign Exchange Market - International Finance.
Future payments or distributions payable in a foreign currency carry the risk that the foreign currency will depreciate in value before the foreign currency payment is received and is exchanged into U.S. dollars. While there is a chance of profit from the currency exchange in the event the price of the foreign currency
Increases, most investors and lenders would give up the possibility of currency exchange profit if they could avoid the risk of currency exchange loss.
The foreign exchange market comprises the spot market and the forward or future market. The spot market is for foreign exchange delivered in two days or less. Transactions in the spot market quote rates of exchange prevalent at the time of the transactions. A bank will typically quote a bid and offer rate for the particular currency. The forward market is for foreign exchange to be delivered in three days or more. In quoting the forward rate of currency, a bank will use a rate at which it is willing to buy the currency (bid) and a rate at which it will sell a currency (offer) for delivery, typically one, two, three or six months after the transaction date.
Non-Hedging Techniques to Minimize Transactions Exposure
Two obvious ways in which transactions exposure can be minimized, short of using the hedging techniques described below, are transferring exposure and netting transaction exposure. The first of these is premised on transferring the transaction exposure to another company. For example, a U.S. exporter could quote the sales price of its product for sale in Germany in dollars. Then the German importer would face the transaction exposure resulting from uncertainty about the exchange rate. Another simple means of transferring exposure is to price the export in Deutsche Marks but demand immediate payment, in which case the current spot rate will determine the dollar value of the export.
A?second way in which transaction risk can be minimized is by netting it out. This is especially important for larger companies that do frequent and sizeable amounts of foreign currency transactions. Unexpected exchange rate charges net out over many different transactions. A receivable of 100 million Deutsche Marks owed to a U.S. company in 45 days is much less risky if the U.S. company must pay a different German supplier 75 million Deutsche Marks
The risk is reduced further if the business has only receipts in Deutsche Marks on a continuing basis. Transaction exposure is further reduced when payments and receipts are in many different currencies. Foreign currency values are never perfectly correlated. Therefore, an unexpected increase in the value of the French Franc may improve the profit margin on receipts from France. However, an unexpected decrease in the value of the Canadian Dollar may reduce profits on a receipt from Canada. Although transaction exposure cannot be completely netted away, it may be small enough that the company is better off accepting the exposure rather than incur the costs associated with the hedging techniques described below.
Reducing Short-Term Foreign - Currency Risk
Forward Contracts
The most direct method of eliminating transaction exposure is to hedge the risk with a forward exchange contract. For example, suppose a U.S. exporter has sold 50 cases of wine to a Venezuelan company under a sales contract that specifies the payment of 15 million bolivares in 60 days. The U.S. exporter can eliminate its transaction exposure by selling 15 million bolivares to its bank at a 60-day forward rate of 750 bolivares per dollar. No matter what happens to the exchange rate over the next month, the company is assured of being able to convert the 15 million bolivares into U.S $20,000. If the U.S. business faced an account payable instead of a receivable, it could eliminate its transaction exposure by buying the bolivares at the forward rate.
However, the transaction exposure is eliminated only if the Venezuelan buyer pays its 15 million bolivares obligation. A default by the Venezuelan buyer would not relieve the U.S. producer of its obligation to deliver 15 million bolivares to the bank in return for U.S.$20,000. The U.S. exporter would have to buy the 15 million bolivares at the spot rate two months later.
Forward rate contracts are often inaccessible for many small businesses. Banks often tend to quote unfavorable rates for smaller business because the bank bears the risk the company will not fulfill the forward rate contracts. Large spread in the forward rate quote suggests unfavorable offer terms. Banks will refuse to offer forward contracts at any rate to uncreditworthy companies. Companies that is not eligible for forward rate contracts have the option, however, of hedging transaction exposure with futures contracts.
Futures Contracts
In principle, no differences exist between a futures market hedge and a forward market hedge. For example, a U.S. business has an account payable for $50,000 Canadian, due on the third Wednesday in September. The company could buy one September Canadian Dollar futures contract. If the value of the Canadian dollar increased, the U.S. dollar value of the company?s account payable would increase, resulting in a reduction in the company?s value. However, the value of the futures contract would increase by an equal amount, leaving the net value of the company unchanged. If the value of the Canadian Dollar decreased, the U.S. dollar value of the payable account would increase, but the value of the futures contract would decrease by an equal amount.
A?U.S. business with an account receivable for Canadian Dollars would hedge its position by selling short the Canadian Dollar futures contract. A short sale of a future contract puts the business in a position opposed to that of a business owning the futures contract. When the futures contract increases in value, the company loses that amount. When the futures contract decreases in value, it gains that amount. Despite their advantages, futures contracts also contain some disadvantages. Because futures contract are marked to market on a daily basis, any losses must be made up in cash on a daily basis, while the offsetting gain on the currency transaction will be deferred until the transaction actually occurs. This imbalance can result in a severe liquidity crisis for small companies and for individuals.
Another disadvantage of using futures contracts for hedging is that they trade only in standardized amounts and maturities. Companies may not have the choice of timing their receivables and payables to coincide with standardized futures contracts. Consequently, the hedges are not perfect.
Hedges Using the Money Market
A company has the alternative of using a money market hedge if forward market hedges are not available or too expensive, and where a futures market hedge carries too much risk of insolvency. A money market hedge?called that way because it necessitates borrowing or lending in the short-term money market?enables a company with a future receivable or a future payable to make the required exchange of currencies at the current spot rate. For example, suppose a U.S. exporter expects to receive four million Brazilian reals in one month from a Brazilian customer. The business could eliminate uncertainty about the rate of currency exchange by borrowing reals in Brazil at an interest rate of 10 percent per month: The company can convert the reals into U.S. dollars at the spot rate. When the Brazilian customer pays the four million reals one month later, it is used to pay off the principle and interest accrued on the loan in Brazil.
The difference between the borrowing and the lending interest rates is the cost of a money market hedge. In general, companies must pay more to borrow funds than they can receive when they lend funds. In turn, banks lend funds at a higher interest rate than they pay for funds to earn a profit. The interest rate increases if default risk is present. Banks often require borrowers to pledge the receivable as collateral on the loan to guard against default risk. If the receivable presents a low risk, the bank will require a lower interest rate. If the business is borrowing for a future payable, it can pledge the reals deposit as collateral. When the bank?s risk is low, the company?s borrowing and lending rates are close to the risk-free rate. In this case, even if forward and futures contracts are available, a money market hedge may be the least costly hedging alternative.
Options
Currency options give one party the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific amount of currency at a specified exchange rate on or before an agreed-upon date. If the exchange rate moves in favor of the option holder, the option can be exercised and the holder is protected from loss. On the other hand, if the rate moves against the holders, it can let the option expire, but profit, by selling the foreign currency in the spot market.
Consequently, options are best characterized with potential for gain and no downside risk. Hedging in the options market enables businesses and individuals to reduce loses caused by unfavorable exchange rate changes, while preserving gains from favorable exchange rate changes. However, this flexibility has a cost.
For example, a U.S. importer must pay a Venezuelan company 150 million bolivares on the third Wednesday of December. The importer is concerned about large losses that would be incurred if the value of the bolivar increases before the obligation is paid. The current value of the bolivar is 710 bolivares per dollar, so the importer buys a December call option for 150 million bolivares at an exercise price of $0.00139 per bolivar. The importer must pay $0.00005 per bolivar plus a broker?s commission of $40.00. If by the third Wednesday in December the value of the Bolivar falls to 725 bolivares per dollar, then the U.S. importer discards the option and buys the 150 million bolivares at the new spot rate for $206,897.
The total cost to the company would be the commission plus premium, plus cost of exercise totaling $214,437.00 ($40 commission, plus $7500 commission, plus $206,897.00). If the value of the bolivar rises above $.00139, the company exercises the call option and buys the 150 million bolivares at the exercise price of $0.00139 per bolivar and pays $208,500 to satisfy the account payable. Under this scenario, the total cost to the company never exceeds the total of the commission plus premium, plus cost of exercise totaling $216,040.00. If the importer has a bolivar-denominated receivable account, it can purchase a bolivar put option. The put option gives the importer the right to sell the bolivar that it receives to the writer of the option at the exercise price specified in the option contract. Consequently, the company is guaranteed a minimum total dollar amount in the future that is equal to the exercise value of the option less the premium and commission paid for the put option. If the value of the bolivar rises, the firm discards the put option and receives the new dollar value of the bolivar receivable less the amount or premium and commission paid on the option. While option hedges suggest a win-win situation for the company, the real benefits of the hedge are somewhat in question. Whether or not the option is exercised, the company always bears the option premium and commission costs. Nevertheless, the company replaces an unknown and potentially disastrous loss with a smaller, but certain, cost. If the option market is efficient, the net monetary benefit of an option hedge to the company is negligible or even slightly negative due to transaction costs. The company gains from the reduction in uncertainty.
The option market?s efficiency is best understood from the seller?s (writer?s) vantage point. The option seller has no gain and all the risks of a loss. Consequently, the only way in which the option seller is induced to write an option is by the holder being willing to pay a premium. Consequently, option premiums reflect the equilibrium price at which an option buyer and option seller perceive their respective interests are protected. The premium is the compensation for differences in expected payoffs.
Cross Hedging
Thus far, a market for forward rates, futures contracts, credit or options in the foreign currency being hedged has been presumed to exist. But this may not be true in all cases, especially for small developing countries. In such cases, cross hedging may be the only hedging alternative available.
Cross hedging is a form of a hedge developed in a currency whose value is highly correlated with the value of the currency in which the receivable or payable is denominated. In some cases, it is relatively easy to find highly correlated currencies, because many smaller countries try to peg the exchange rate between their currency and some major currency such as the dollar, the franc or euro. However, these currencies may not be perfectly correlated because efforts to peg values frequently fail.
As an example, a company has a payable or a receivable denominated in the currency for a small nation for which there are no developed currency or credit markets. The company would explore the possibility that the currency is pegged to the value of a major currency. If not, the company would look at past changes in the value of the currency to see if they are correlated with changes in the value of any major currency. The company would then undertake a forward market, futures market, money market, or options market hedge in the major currency that is most closely related to the small nation?s currency. Cross-hedging success depends upon the extent to which the major currency changes in value along with the minor currency. Although cross hedging is certainly imperfect, it may be the only means available for reducing transaction exposure.
Mitigating Long-Term Currency - Risk Exposure
Theoretically, the same hedging instruments discussed above to alleviate short-term currency risk can be used to hedge long-term transaction exposure. However, at present, there is a limited market for currency futures options with maturities greater than one year. A few multinational banks offer long-term forward exchange contracts with maturities as long as seven years. Unfortunately, for smaller companies, only large, creditworthy corporate customers qualify for such contracts. Although individual companies can negotiate a currency option contract, there is no secondary market for the instrument. Consequently, a number of alternative hedging techniques have developed for reducing long-term transaction exposure.
Back-to-Back Loans
Multinational corporations can often reduce their respective long term currency risk exposure by arranging parallel or back-to-back loans. For example, suppose a U.S. company wants to buy into a fertilizer project in Argentina that will repay the investment and earnings in pesos over the next seven years. The U.S. investor is confident of the rate of return in pesos, but wants to avoid the risk the value of the peso in dollars will decline, resulting in a negative return in dollars. If it can identify an Argentine company that wants to make a similarly sized investment in the U.S., it can arrange offsetting loans. The Argentine company will lend the U.S. company pesos and the U.S. company will lend the Argentine company dollars with which to make their respective investments. The U.S. company will repay the Argentine firm with its peso earnings, and the Argentine company will repay the U.S. firm with its dollar earnings.
Under this arrangement, the companies are entering into a purely bilateral arrangement outside the scope of the foreign exchange markets. Neither company is affected by exchange rate fluctuations. Nevertheless, both companies remain exposed to default risk because the obligation of one company is not avoided by the failure of the other company to repay its loan.
Currency Swaps/Credit Swaps
Swaps are like packages of forward contracts. Currency swaps can be used to avoid the credit risk associated with a parallel loan. In broad terms, a currency swap is an agreement by two companies to exchange specified amounts of currency now and to reverse the exchange at some point in the future. The lack of credit risk arises from the nature of a currency swap. Default on a currency swap means that the currencies are not exchanged in the future, while default on a parallel loan means that the loan is not repaid. Unlike a parallel loan, default on a currency swap entails no loss of investment or earnings. The only risk in a currency swap is that the companies must exchange the foreign currency in the foreign exchange market at the new exchange rate. Frequently, multinational banks act as brokers to match partners in parallel loans and currency swaps.
However, finding companies whose needs mutually offset one another is difficult, imperfect and only partially reduces currency exposure risk. If a company cannot find a match, a credit swap may be used. Credit swaps involve a deposit in one currency and a loan in another. The deposit is returned after the loan is repaid. For example, a U.S. business could deposit dollars in the San Francisco branch of an Asian bank, which would, in turn, lend the depositor yen for an investment in Japan. After the Asian bank loan is repaid in yen, the dollar deposit would be returned.
Summary
Effective legal drafting can minimize significant international transaction risk. However, the risk of currency exposure can be mitigated or even eliminated in its entirety by the techniques and instruments described in this article. How much currency risk exposure remains depends on the instrument selected. Many instruments do not hedge transaction exposure perfectly, but are more accessible to the individual and small to medium size companies. Instruments used to more completely hedge currency exposure, such as put and call options, may contain sizeable transaction costs. Nevertheless, most international businesses prefer the certainty of minimizing exposure, despite the increased transaction costs involved, in lieu of unquantifiable and potentially disastrous foreign exchange risk.
A money market hedge?called that way because it necessitates borrowing or lending in the short-term money market?enables a company with a future receivable or a future payable to make the required exchange of currencies at the current spot rate.
Although cross hedging is certainly imperfect, it may be the only means available for reducing transaction exposure.
SANTA CLARA -- At the conclusion of the 49ers' Wednesday morning walk-through, coach Jim Harbaugh gathered the team together for the great unveil.
Colin Kaepernick is the 49ers' starting quarterback.
Kaepernick takes over for Alex Smith, who was sidelined with a concussion Nov. 11 against the St. Louis Rams. And when the 49ers play the Rams on Sunday, a healthy Smith will be on the sideline.
The 49ers and Rams played to a 24-24 tie when the teams met earlier this month at Candlestick Park.
"I'm very eager to get back out there," Kaepernick said. "I want to get a win this time."
Kaepernick now takes over as quarterback of a playoff-bound team that's 8-2-1 and owns a 2 1/2-game lead in the NFC West.
"It's a great chance to lead this team and show we're a great team and can go into the playoffs and win games," Kaepernick said.
Here is how some of the other 49ers players reacted to the news:
Running back Frank Gore "I just feel like we have two good quarterbacks who can help us win. That's a plus for this team.
"He (Kaepernick) can run. He's got a strong arm. I tell him when he throws it at me to ease up on it. He knows how to throw it to me.
"Alex has been through a lot of tough things. I think he'll be fine. I know the guy loves the games. Alex loves to play football. That's tough. But coach made the decision and we know that's what we got to go with.
"We got two quarterbacks, and looking around the league a lot of teams can't say that. Alex won a lot of games. Kap has won the last two games. Went down to New Orleans and won in a tough environment. You just going to be behind whoever coach says is the starting quarterback."
Receiver Michael Crabtree "Let's go play some ball. It's two games with Kap, right? Let's go play some ball.
"In his league, I'm not surprised by nothing. I just go out there and play my position. Whoever the quarterback is, I'm just trying to go out there and make plays.
"With Colin Kaepernick, you have to keep your eye on the ball. Last game, I dropped a pass that I could've dropped for a first down. It was kind of low, but the guy can throw the ball real fast. It's hard, too. So you got to concentrate.
"I'd say sometimes guys don't look too good at practice, but they're just gamers. It's like that sometimes. I think that's how Kaepernick is at quarterback. He knows one speed, and it's 'Go.' "
Tight end Delanie Walker (Walker said Tuesday that he would be surprised if Smith was not named the starter.)
"Alex is healthy now and that's what I was talking about. He didn't do anything wrong, not to start. That's basically what I was saying.
"I'm a little surprised, but I'm confident in Jim Harbaugh, and whatever he decided I'm happy with it. I'm confident in Jim Harbaugh making that decision."
Tackle Anthony Davis "It's a tough spot for Coach to be in. I'm just stating the obvious. It's got to be tough on a coach to make a decision like that when you have two guys who can play that good on the same team at the same position. But it's a good problem to have."
Guard Alex Boone "I think for us, it doesn't matter who's back there. As an offensive line we're the ones mostly affected by it, but whoever's back there you see leadership in both of them, you see confidence in both of them. Having both of them back there, it's not really a big difference between the two of them so you just go out there and play.
"Alex sits in the pocket. Kap has a tendency to roll out sometimes but he doesn't roll out unless he absolutely has to so you're not dealing with a, 'All right, I'm gonna catch it and roll right now' kinda guy. It's 'I'm gonna wait and see what happens' and so the styles are completely the same I feel, and you can see that."
Fulback Bruce Miller "It was told to team out here that Kap's the starter. So now we got to focus on getting back out there and winning another football game.
"My thoughts on the quarterback issue is, you know, I think more than a controversy, it's a blessing. I think we have two guys who can come in and do a great job and, obviously, win football games.
"We've gone through the season, and I think we've all progressed. Kap has done a great job of coming out to work every day and getting better. Now, we're 10 or 11 weeks into the season and he's shown he's ready to play."
It's time to add Mercury to the list of worlds where you can go ice skating. Confirming decades of suspicion, a NASA spacecraft has spotted vast deposits of water ice on the planet closest to the sun.
Temperatures on Mercury can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius), but around the north pole, in areas permanently shielded from the sun's heat, NASA's Messenger spacecraft found a mix of frozen water and possible organic materials.
Evidence of big pockets of ice is visible from a latitude of 85 degrees north up to the pole, with smaller deposits scattered as far away as 65 degrees north.
The find is so enticing that NASA will direct Messenger's observation toward that area in the coming months ? when the angle of the sun allows ? to get a better look, said Gregory Neumann, a Messenger instrument scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. [Latest Mercury Photos from Messenger ]
"There is an ongoing campaign, when the spacecraft permits, to look further northward," said Neumann, the lead author of one of three Mercury studies published online Thursday by the journal Science.
Researchers also believe the south pole has ice, but Messenger's orbit has not allowed them to obtain extensive measurements of that region yet.
Messenger will spiral closer to the planet in 2014 and 2015 as it runs out of fuel and is perturbed by the sun's and Mercury's gravity. This will let researchers peer closer at the water ice as they figure out how much is there. [Infographic: NASA's Messenger Mission to Mercury]
Similarities to the moon
Speculation about water ice on Mercury dates back more than 20 years.
In 1991, Earth-bound astronomers fired radar signals to Mercury and received results showing there could be ice at both poles. This was reinforced by 1999 measurements using the more powerful Arecibo Observatory microwave beam in Puerto Rico. Radar pictures beamed back to New Mexico's Very Large Array showed white areas that researchers suspected was water ice.
A closer view, however, required a spacecraft. Messenger settled into Mercury's orbit in March 2011, after a few flybys.? Almost immediately, NASA used a laser altimeter to probe the poles. The laser is weak ? about the strength of a flashlight ? but just powerful enough to distinguish bright icy areas from the darker, surrounding Mercury regolith.
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Neumann said the result was "curious": There were few bright spots inside craters.
Team member John Cavanaugh was pretty sure of what they were finding, Neumann recalled. Cavanaugh had been a part of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team, and he had seen a similar strange pattern on Earth's moon when LRO found ice at the lunar poles in 2009.
Flash heating on Mercury would mix nearly all of its ice with the surrounding regolith ? as well as with possible organic material borne to the planet by comets and ice-rich asteroids.
"So what you're seeing is the fact that water ice can't survive indefinitely in these locations because the temperatures apparently spike up," Neumann said.
Organics the big surprise
The team expected to find water ice on Mercury. Indeed, Messenger already drew a link this year between permanently shadowed areas on the planet and the "radar-bright" spots seen from Earth.
All researchers needed to do was point their instruments in the right spot, seek out bright areas and then measure the temperature and composition.
Messenger's neutron spectrometer spotted hydrogen, which is a large component of water ice. But the temperature profile unexpectedly showed that dark, volatile materials ? consistent with climes in which organics survive ? are mixing in with the ice.
"This was very exciting. You are looking for bright stuff, and you see dark stuff ? gee, it?s something new," Neumann said.
Organic materials are life's ingredients, though they do not necessarily lead to life itself. While some scientists think organics-bearing comets sparked life on Earth, the presence of organics is also suspected on airless, distant worlds such as Pluto. Scientists say comets carrying organic bits smashed into other planets frequently during the solar system's history.
Researchers are now working to determine if they indeed saw organics on Mercury. So far, they suspect Mercury's water ice is coated with a 4-inch (10-centimeter) blanket of "thermally insulating material," according to Neumann's paper.
It will take further study to figure out exactly what this material is, but Neumann said the early temperature curves could show organic materials such as amino acids.
Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and ?Google+.
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Implantable silk optics multi-task in the bodyPublic release date: 28-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Alex Reid alexander.reid@tufts.edu 617-627-4173 Tufts University
Dissolvable micro-mirrors enhance imaging, administer heat, deliver and monitor drugs
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (November 28, 2012) Tufts University School of Engineering researchers have demonstrated silk-based implantable optics that offer significant improvement in tissue imaging while simultaneously enabling photo thermal therapy, administering drugs and monitoring drug delivery. The devices also lend themselves to a variety of other biomedical functions.
Biodegradable and biocompatible, these tiny mirror-like devices dissolve harmlessly at predetermined rates and require no surgery to remove them.
The technology is the brainchild of a research team led by Fiorenzo Omenetto, Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts. For several years, Omenetto; David L. Kaplan, Stern Family Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering chair, and their colleagues have been exploring ways to leverage silk's optical capabilities with its capacity as a resilient, biofriendly material that can stabilize materials while maintaining their biochemical functionality.
The technology is described in the paper "Implantable Multifunctional Bioresorbable Optics," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online Early Edition the week of November 12, 2012.
"This work showcases the potential of silk to bring together form and function. In this case an implantable optical form -- the mirror -- can go beyond imaging to serve multiple biomedical functions," Omenetto says.
Turning Silk into Mirrors
To create the optical devices, the Tufts bioengineers poured a purified silk protein solution into molds of multiple micro-sized prism reflectors, or microprism arrays (MPAs). They pre-determined the rates at which the devices would dissolve in the body by regulating the water content of the solution during processing. The cast solution was then air dried to form solid silk films in the form of the mold. The resulting silk sheets were much like the reflective tape found on safety garments or on traffic signs.
When implanted, these MPAs reflected back photons that are ordinarily lost with reflection-based imaging technologies, thereby enhancing imaging, even in deep tissue.
The researchers tested the devices using solid and liquid "phantoms" (materials that mimic the scattering that occurs when light passes through human tissue). The tiny mirror-like devices reflected substantially stronger optical signals than implanted silk films that had not been formed as MPAs.
Preventing Infection, Fighting Cancer
The Tufts researchers also demonstrated the silk mirrors' potential to administer therapeutic treatments.
In one experiment, the researchers mixed gold nanoparticles in the silk protein solution before casting the MPAs. They then implanted the gold-silk mirror under the skin of mice. When illuminated with green laser light, the nanoparticles converted light to heat. Similar in-vitro experiments showed that the devices inhibited bacterial growth while maintaining optical performance.
The team also embedded the cancer-fighting drug doxorubicin in the MPAs. The embedded drug remained active even at high temperatures (60 degree C), underscoring the ability of silk to stabilize chemical and biological dopants.
When exposed to enzymes in vitro, the doxorubicin was released as the mirror gradually dissolved. The amount of reflected light decreased as the mirror degraded, allowing the researchers to accurately assess the rate of drug delivery.
"The important implication here is that using a single biofriendly, resorbable device one could image a site of interest, such as a tumor, apply therapy as needed and then monitor the progress of the therapy," says Omenetto.
###
Collaborating with Omenetto and Kaplan from Tufts Department of Biomedical Engineering were Hu Tao, research assistant professor; Jana M. Kainerstorfer, post-doctoral researcher; Sean M. Siebert, a Tufts undergraduate; Eleanor M. Pritchard, former post-doctoral researcher; Angelo Sassaroli, research assistant professor; Bruce J.B. Panilaitis, research assistant professor; Mark A. Brenckle, graduate student; Jason Amsden, former post-doctoral researcher; Jonathan Levitt, post-doctoral researcher, and Professor Sergio Fantini.
At Tufts, Fiorenzo Omenetto also has an appointment in the Department of Physics in the School of Arts and Sciences, and David Kaplan also has appointments in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Department of Chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Dental Medicine.
The work was supported by the United States Army Research Laboratory, the United States Army Research Office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Tissue Engineering Resource Center of the National Institutes of Health under award number P41EB00250 and the National Science Foundation.
Tao, H., Kainerstorfer, J.M., Siebert, S.M., Pritchard, E.M., Sassaroli, A., Panilaitis, B., Brenckle, M.A., Amsden, J., Levitt, J., Fantini, S., Kaplan, D. L., and Omenetto, F.G. (2012),.Implantable Multifunctional Bioresorbable Optics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Doi:10.1073/pnas.1209056109
Tufts University School of Engineering
Located on Tufts' Medford/Somerville campus, the School of Engineering offers a rigorous engineering education in a unique environment that blends the intellectual and technological resources of a world-class research university with the strengths of a top-ranked liberal arts college. Close partnerships with Tufts' excellent undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, coupled with a long tradition of collaboration, provide a strong platform for interdisciplinary education and scholarship. The School of Engineering's mission is to educate engineers committed to the innovative and ethical application of science and technology in addressing the most pressing societal needs, to develop and nurture twenty-first century leadership qualities in its students, faculty, and alumni, and to create and disseminate transformational new knowledge and technologies that further the well-being and sustainability of society in such cross-cutting areas as human health, environmental sustainability, alternative energy, and the human-technology interface.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Implantable silk optics multi-task in the bodyPublic release date: 28-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Alex Reid alexander.reid@tufts.edu 617-627-4173 Tufts University
Dissolvable micro-mirrors enhance imaging, administer heat, deliver and monitor drugs
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (November 28, 2012) Tufts University School of Engineering researchers have demonstrated silk-based implantable optics that offer significant improvement in tissue imaging while simultaneously enabling photo thermal therapy, administering drugs and monitoring drug delivery. The devices also lend themselves to a variety of other biomedical functions.
Biodegradable and biocompatible, these tiny mirror-like devices dissolve harmlessly at predetermined rates and require no surgery to remove them.
The technology is the brainchild of a research team led by Fiorenzo Omenetto, Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts. For several years, Omenetto; David L. Kaplan, Stern Family Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering chair, and their colleagues have been exploring ways to leverage silk's optical capabilities with its capacity as a resilient, biofriendly material that can stabilize materials while maintaining their biochemical functionality.
The technology is described in the paper "Implantable Multifunctional Bioresorbable Optics," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online Early Edition the week of November 12, 2012.
"This work showcases the potential of silk to bring together form and function. In this case an implantable optical form -- the mirror -- can go beyond imaging to serve multiple biomedical functions," Omenetto says.
Turning Silk into Mirrors
To create the optical devices, the Tufts bioengineers poured a purified silk protein solution into molds of multiple micro-sized prism reflectors, or microprism arrays (MPAs). They pre-determined the rates at which the devices would dissolve in the body by regulating the water content of the solution during processing. The cast solution was then air dried to form solid silk films in the form of the mold. The resulting silk sheets were much like the reflective tape found on safety garments or on traffic signs.
When implanted, these MPAs reflected back photons that are ordinarily lost with reflection-based imaging technologies, thereby enhancing imaging, even in deep tissue.
The researchers tested the devices using solid and liquid "phantoms" (materials that mimic the scattering that occurs when light passes through human tissue). The tiny mirror-like devices reflected substantially stronger optical signals than implanted silk films that had not been formed as MPAs.
Preventing Infection, Fighting Cancer
The Tufts researchers also demonstrated the silk mirrors' potential to administer therapeutic treatments.
In one experiment, the researchers mixed gold nanoparticles in the silk protein solution before casting the MPAs. They then implanted the gold-silk mirror under the skin of mice. When illuminated with green laser light, the nanoparticles converted light to heat. Similar in-vitro experiments showed that the devices inhibited bacterial growth while maintaining optical performance.
The team also embedded the cancer-fighting drug doxorubicin in the MPAs. The embedded drug remained active even at high temperatures (60 degree C), underscoring the ability of silk to stabilize chemical and biological dopants.
When exposed to enzymes in vitro, the doxorubicin was released as the mirror gradually dissolved. The amount of reflected light decreased as the mirror degraded, allowing the researchers to accurately assess the rate of drug delivery.
"The important implication here is that using a single biofriendly, resorbable device one could image a site of interest, such as a tumor, apply therapy as needed and then monitor the progress of the therapy," says Omenetto.
###
Collaborating with Omenetto and Kaplan from Tufts Department of Biomedical Engineering were Hu Tao, research assistant professor; Jana M. Kainerstorfer, post-doctoral researcher; Sean M. Siebert, a Tufts undergraduate; Eleanor M. Pritchard, former post-doctoral researcher; Angelo Sassaroli, research assistant professor; Bruce J.B. Panilaitis, research assistant professor; Mark A. Brenckle, graduate student; Jason Amsden, former post-doctoral researcher; Jonathan Levitt, post-doctoral researcher, and Professor Sergio Fantini.
At Tufts, Fiorenzo Omenetto also has an appointment in the Department of Physics in the School of Arts and Sciences, and David Kaplan also has appointments in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Department of Chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Dental Medicine.
The work was supported by the United States Army Research Laboratory, the United States Army Research Office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Tissue Engineering Resource Center of the National Institutes of Health under award number P41EB00250 and the National Science Foundation.
Tao, H., Kainerstorfer, J.M., Siebert, S.M., Pritchard, E.M., Sassaroli, A., Panilaitis, B., Brenckle, M.A., Amsden, J., Levitt, J., Fantini, S., Kaplan, D. L., and Omenetto, F.G. (2012),.Implantable Multifunctional Bioresorbable Optics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Doi:10.1073/pnas.1209056109
Tufts University School of Engineering
Located on Tufts' Medford/Somerville campus, the School of Engineering offers a rigorous engineering education in a unique environment that blends the intellectual and technological resources of a world-class research university with the strengths of a top-ranked liberal arts college. Close partnerships with Tufts' excellent undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, coupled with a long tradition of collaboration, provide a strong platform for interdisciplinary education and scholarship. The School of Engineering's mission is to educate engineers committed to the innovative and ethical application of science and technology in addressing the most pressing societal needs, to develop and nurture twenty-first century leadership qualities in its students, faculty, and alumni, and to create and disseminate transformational new knowledge and technologies that further the well-being and sustainability of society in such cross-cutting areas as human health, environmental sustainability, alternative energy, and the human-technology interface.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
There is a new and stimulating piece by Ron Unz, in The American Conservative.? The article covers plenty of ground, but I took away two main points.? The first is that there is massive and quite unjustified bias against Asian and Asian-American students in the U.S. admissions process.? Yes, I already thought that but it turns out it is much worse than I had thought.? Yet many people support this aspect of our current admissions systems, either directly or indirectly.
The second point is the claim that Jewish academic achievement in America is collapsing at the top end, in relative terms at least.
For reasons which are possibly irrational on my end, but perhaps not totally irrational, I am not entirely comfortable with the religious and ethnic and racial ?counting? methods applied in this piece (blame me for mood affiliation if you wish).? Still, it is an interesting read and after some internal debate I thought I would pass it along, albeit with caveats.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2012) ? Electronic circuits are typically integrated in rigid silicon wafers, but flexibility opens up a wide range of applications. In a world where electronics are becoming more pervasive, flexibility is a highly desirable trait, but finding materials with the right mix of performance and manufacturing cost remains a challenge.
Now a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania has shown that nanoscale particles, or nanocrystals, of the semiconductor cadmium selenide can be "printed" or "coated" on flexible plastics to form high-performance electronics.
The research was led by David Kim, a doctoral student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science; Yuming Lai, a doctoral student in the Engineering School's Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering; and professor Cherie Kagan, who has appointments in both departments as well as in the School of Arts and Sciences' Department of Chemistry. Benjamin Diroll, a doctoral student in chemistry, and Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Christopher Murray of Materials Science and of Chemistry also collaborated on the research.
Their work was published in the journal Nature Communications.
"We have a performance benchmark in amorphous silicon, which is the material that runs the display in your laptop, among other devices," Kagan said. "Here, we show that these cadmium selenide nanocrystal devices can move electrons 22 times faster than in amorphous silicon."
Besides speed, another advantage cadmium selenide nanocrystals have over amorphous silicon is the temperature at which they are deposited. Whereas amorphous silicon uses a process that operates at several hundred degrees, cadmium selenide nanocrystals can be deposited at room temperature and annealed at mild temperatures, opening up the possibility of using more flexible plastic foundations.
Another innovation that allowed the researchers to use flexible plastic was their choice of ligands, the chemical chains that extend from the nanocrystals' surfaces and helps facilitate conductivity as they are packed together into a film.
"There have been a lot of electron transport studies on cadmium selenide, but until recently we haven't been able to get good performance out of them," Kim said. "The new aspect of our research was that we used ligands that we can translate very easily onto the flexible plastic; other ligands are so caustic that the plastic actually melts."
Because the nanocrystals are dispersed in an ink-like liquid, multiple types of deposition techniques can be used to make circuits. In their study, the researchers used spincoating, where centrifugal force pulls a thin layer of the solution over a surface, but the nanocrystals could be applied through dipping, spraying or ink-jet printing as well.
On a flexible plastic sheet a bottom layer of electrodes was patterned using a shadow mask -- essentially a stencil -- to mark off one level of the circuit. The researchers then used the stencil to define small regions of conducting gold to make the electrical connections to upper levels that would form the circuit. An insulating aluminum oxide layer was introduced and a 30-nanometer layer of nanocrystals was coated from solution. Finally, electrodes on the top level were deposited through shadow masks to ultimately form the circuits.
"The more complex circuits are like buildings with multiple floors," Kagan said. "The gold acts like staircases that the electrons can use to travel between those floors."
Using this process, the researchers built three kinds of circuits to test the nanocrystals performance for circuit applications: an inverter, an amplifier and a ring oscillator.
"An inverter is the fundamental building block for more complex circuits," Lai said. "We can also show amplifiers, which amplify the signal amplitude in analog circuits, and ring oscillators, where 'on' and 'off' signals are properly propagating over multiple stages in digital circuits."
"And all of these circuits operate with a couple of volts," Kagan said. "If you want electronics for portable devices that are going to work with batteries, they have to operate at low voltage or they won't be useful."
With the combination of flexibility, relatively simple fabrication processes and low power requirements, these cadmium selenide nanocrystal circuits could pave the way for new kinds of devices and pervasive sensors, which could have biomedical or security applications.
"This research also opens up the possibility of using other kinds of nanocrystals, as we've shown the materials aspect is not a limitation any more," Kim said.
The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.
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Journal Reference:
David K. Kim, Yuming Lai, Benjamin T. Diroll, Christopher B. Murray, Cherie R. Kagan. Flexible and low-voltage integrated circuits constructed from high-performance nanocrystal transistors. Nature Communications, 2012; 3: 1216 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2218
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ACD Systems' venerable pro photo-workflow app has come in from ever more serious competition from the big guns Adobe and Apple, with extensive improvements in Lightroom 4 and Apple Aperture 3.3. But the latest ACDSee Pro 6 offers a lot for pro and serious amateur digital photographers, including integrated maps that work with geo-tagging, local adjustment brushes, and support for 64-bit CPUs for faster performance. And it is a responsive, enjoyable, and powerful pro photo tool that's less expensive than its nearest competitor, Lightroom. Despite all this, ACDSee Pro simply can't keep up with advanced features that media software giant Adobe includes in its digital photo workflow application.
Getting Started You can download a free, fully functional 30-day trial of ACDSee Pro 6 to see whether it's your cup of photo-editing tea. It's Windows-only (sorry, Mac users), working from XP SP3 to Windows 8. Once you download its small installer, which handles the actual large download. The program size showed up in Control Panel as 177MB, compared with Lightroom's 835MB, so it will put less of a dent in your disk space. When you first run the app, a Quick Start Guide appears over the interface, offering to take you through a tour of its modes and tasks. This is a great help, considering the extensive number of modes, features, and tools in the program.
Like Lightroom, underneath ACDSee builds a database, or catalog to save all your image file preferences and edits. This means the originals, or negatives, are left untouched, so you can always revert to the photo's original state; you can save files containing your edits with the Export command.
Both editors also offer plug-ins, but there's a wider range of offerings for Lightroom?in fact, Adobe maintains an online plug-in-sharing section on its site for this. One important set of plug-ins that you can use in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Aperture, and Corel PaintShop Pro are those from Nik Software, which do things like precise sharpening and color effects and are a standard among pro photo editors.
Interface ACDSee's interface always feels fast and fluid. Everything just works the way you expect it to, making switching between different activities intuitive. I had no trouble getting back and forth between organizing, viewing, and editing; even large camera raw files displayed quickly. Like Lightroom, ACDSee uses a modular approach: All this means is that there are big buttons that set up the app for the different types of tasks involved in the photo workflow process?importing and organizing, adjusting, enhancing, and outputting. Since I last evaluated ACDSee Pro, the module selection has changed, with Manage, View, Develop, Edit, and Online the current choices. Previously Develop and Edit were combined within the Process mode.
I mostly like ACDSee's mode options, especially splitting the manage and view modes, though I think a more generic output mode that included Print, rather than just online, would be preferable. And Lightroom outdoes ACDSee in the modes department by letting the user choose which modes should be available; that way if you, for example, never print photos, you can remove the Print mode.
Aside from this mode lock-in, the application's interface is very flexible: You can undock any panel so that it floats freely on your desktop, customize toolbars, and view in full screen.? It also makes extensive use of keyboard shortcuts for quick operation. You can change the photo background shade from the default dark gray, but not the overall interface from that same shade. Reset icons are everywhere, so if you goof, it's a cinch to get back.
Show Me The Money: Cloud computing is starting to generate a lot of noise, but what does all of this new buzz really mean to you as a manufacturer?
Technology continues to bless metalworkers with new sets of tools that are, over time, fundamentally shifting almost every aspect of their manufacturing operation. Information technology in particular is incrementally changing how we do things in virtually every metalworking process ? a broad evolution of progress that is literally changing the requirements of how a job shop can be competitive.
A VALUE PARADOX In fact, information technology is now changing so many different fronts in metalworking that the industry is beginning to re-evaluate some of its core elements of success. Think about it. Long gone are the days when employees were hired ?for their spine, not their mind.? Most plants no longer require legions of trainable or less-skilled employees who simply push buttons and follow a routine on the shop floor that seldom varies. Today job shops and contract manufacturers alike compete with fewer employees using more information technology to make crucial decisions more quickly.
The modern supply chain of metalworking processes that follows raw material to a finished unit involves a complex assortment of computers, logistics equipment, machine tools and robotics ? all driven by information they consume; all generating more information to be consumed somewhere else. This has radically transformed the typical metalworking plant into nothing less than a communications network, often composed of disparate islands of information, that transmits information to and from thousands of sensors ? all driven by information they consume; all generating more information to be consumed somewhere else.
Here lies the value paradox of information: So much of it to use, so little time and money to use it. How much more of a competitive advantage can a job shop achieve if they could manage all of this information and actually apply the knowledge they gain from it to improve their operations? A truly deep well of opportunity and profits lies waiting to be tapped.
In the past, job shops and contract manufacturers tried to tap into this well by spending large amounts of money for computers to create and process the information, networks to move it around, hardware to store it, and overhead staff to maintain it. But according to Art Coviello, the executive chairman of RSA, a division of EMC Corporation (Hopkinton, MA), all of that is changing. ?We are now at a point where we spend 60 to 70 percent of information technology budgets just to maintain those systems and infrastructures,? he warns. ?No wonder progress in applying IT is so slow. This is the information technology equivalent of every organization in the world, big or small, investing the capital and human resources to build and operate their own electricity producing power plants.?
He?s right. Job shops are tired of buying servers and then learning they are only used an average of 8 to 15 percent of the time. They are tired of all the patching, upgrading, virus attacks and other issues they must deal with in running their own data center. They no longer have the time, money, or patience to worry about these sorts of system administration headaches.
Stop for a moment and consider how much your company currently spends in its budget for the information technology portion of your business. If you could significantly reduce the 60 to 70 percent of that portion spent on systems maintenance, what would that do for your cash flow? Your bottom line?
That?s not all. ?Picture a world where software platforms are available online and easily customizable to any metalworking operation,? proposes Coviello. ?Picture a world where computing power is generated off-site, available in quantities when and where the job shop needs it. Picture a world where information is safely stored, efficiently managed and accessible, when and where the employees need it.?
NO MORE ISLANDS He is describing the infrastructures for cloud computing, the door into the next information age that offers economies of scale, flexibility and efficiency to job shops and contract manufacturers that will not only save them money on capital expenses and maintenance costs, but will also free them up to apply and use information to raise their productivity as they never have before.
All of this sounds exciting, but what about all of those ?islands of information? inside and outside the plant that do not communicate with each other? Is that a barrier?
Not according to Doug Woods, the president of AMT ? The Association for Manufacturing Technology (McLean, VA) that is spearheading the partnership between MTConnect and cloud computing for information technology used in manufacturing. He explains how MTConnect ?connects the islands? by serving as a transmission linkage that enables manufacturing equipment to communicate with each other through the Internet.
?All of this can be difficult to comprehend and easily misunderstood, so let?s start by providing definitions and context,? explains Woods. ?MTConnect is an open and royalty-free protocol that enables manufacturing equipment to speak to the outside world using proven and ubiquitous Internet protocols. This protocol can take proprietary data from a machine tool and translate it into a common format for any piece of software to read from.? From a software perspective, this means you can speak to an MTConnect-enabled machine tool as if it were a website on the Internet. Just as you can go to espn.com for your sports news, you can also go to MyMachineTool.MyCompany.com for specific information about what that machine tool is doing.
?At that point, a software application takes that data and turns it into meaningful information through a monitoring program, such as, for example, integrating that data into an ERP system,? continues Woods. ?This approach then makes it simple to gather data from an MTConnect-enabled machine tool that is spitting out gigabytes of data per hour.? So MTConnect enables a shop to gather and transmit volumes of disparate information across the Internet directly to and from the machine tools on the floor that control the process signature.
Where does all of this information go and how is it managed? Enter cloud computing. ?When all of these machine tools start releasing huge amounts of process data each hour, it will make absolute business and technological sense to manage this information in the cloud,? states Woods. ?Buying a bunch of hardware to do this locally at the plant makes almost no sense today when you can rent data space from a server farm on an as-needed basis. Cloud computing is important because it allows job shops to avoid the endless list of business and technical issues associated with running their own data centers. They save money by only paying for the computing resources when they need it, on a ?pay-as-you-go? model.?
Let?s summarize how all of this works. Along with customizable software applications, there are essentially three other pillars of technology behind cloud computing. The first one is fast bandwidth. ?Instead of moving data that is equivalent to a paragraph per second like we did during the dark days of dial-up, now we can now move an entire book per second with broadband,? smiles Woods. ?With these huge communication pipes, the entire planet just got a whole lot smaller.?
The other two are your ubiquitous web browser and large server farms, where brick-and-mortar facilities house giant clusters of computer servers in locations usually unknown to users (hence the term cloud). These facilities sell the available time on their servers to users across the world to offset their huge cost in running those hundreds of thousands of computers.
With a fast pipe for data, server farms are literally just a mouse click away from your browser. Software providers with these three pillars in place can offer their customizable software apps on these large server farms as a ?service.? You then simply point your browser at the software in the cloud and off you go, paying for what you use, when you use it.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Knight Capital Group, currently in talks with at least two firms on the possible sale of its largest business unit, is well capitalized and would only pursue a deal if it created value for its shareholders and clients, Knight's chief executive said in an internal memo.
The electronic trading firm has been approached by rivals Getco LLC and Virtu Financial LLC about its market-making operation, which uses computer models to match buy and sell orders in stocks and options, executing around 10 percent of U.S. volume, according to people familiar with the talks.
"To that end, our board of directors and management team regularly consider opportunities that are potentially strategic or collaborative in nature to enhance shareholder value and improve our offering to clients," Knight CEO Tom Joyce said in a note to employees on Saturday, seen by Reuters. The talks were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Knight was forced to take on new investors following a software glitch on August 1 that unleashed a flood of orders to the New York Stock Exchange, resulting in a massive position Knight had to unload at a loss, nearly bankrupting the firm.
In October, Knight posted a third-quarter loss of $389.9 million. But Joyce said the company was better capitalized than it was before the glitch - a point he reiterated in the memo to employees.
"Given our recapitalization, rapid client re-engagement and rebound in trade volumes, there is no need for Knight to pursue a partnership, transaction or any other undertaking," he said. "We would only move forward with such an initiative if it makes strategic sense for our shareholders and our business."
Getco and Virtu spokespeople have declined comment on the reports.
Getco was one of the firms involved in the $400 million rescue of Knight in August, led by Jefferies Group. Others included Blackstone Group LP , Stephens Inc, and financial services companies TD Ameritrade Holding Corp and Stifel Financial .
As part of the deal, Getco investor General Atlantic, as well as Blackstone and TD Ameritrade, were given seats on Knight's board.
Aside from being a top U.S. market maker, Knight runs bond and foreign exchange trading platforms and owns a reverse mortgage lender. It also holds a stake of about 20 percent in Direct Edge, the No. 4 U.S. cash equities exchange.
(Reporting By John McCrank; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Like a lot of newlyweds, Karen Golinski was eager to enjoy the financial fruits of marriage. Within weeks of her wedding, she applied to add her spouse to her employer-sponsored health care plan, a move that would save the couple thousands of dollars a?year.
Her ordinarily routine request still is being debated more than four years later, and by the likes of former attorneys general, a slew of senators, the Obama administration and possibly this week, the U.S. Supreme?Court.
Because Golinski is married to another woman and works for the U.S. government, her claim for benefits has morphed into a multi-layered legal challenge to a 1996 law that prohibits the federal government from recognizing unions like?hers.
The high court has scheduled a closed-door conference for Friday to review Golinski?s case and four others that also seek to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act overwhelmingly approved by Congress and signed by President Bill?Clinton.
The purpose of the meeting is to decide which, if any, to put on the court?s schedule for arguments next?year.
The outcome carries economic and social consequences for gay, lesbian and bisexual couples, who now are unable to access Social Security survivor benefits, file joint income taxes, inherit a deceased spouse?s pension or obtain family health?insurance.
The other plaintiffs in the cases pending before the court include the state of Massachusetts, 13 couples and five widows and?widowers.
?It?s pretty monumental and it?s an honor,? said Golinski, a staff lawyer for the federal appeals court based in San Francisco who married her partner of 23 years, Amy Cunninghis, during the brief 2008 window when same-sex marriages were legal in?California.
The federal trial courts that heard the cases all ruled the act violates the civil rights of legally married gays and lesbians. Two appellate courts agreed, making it highly likely the high court will agree to hear at least one of the appeals, Lambda Legal Executive Director Jon Davidson?said.
?I don?t think we?ve ever had an occasion where the Supreme Court has had so many gay rights cases knocking at its door,? said Davidson, whose gay legal advocacy group represents Golinski. ?That in and of itself shows how far we?ve?come.?
The Supreme Court also is scheduled to discuss Friday whether it should take two more long-simmering cases dealing with relationship recognition for same-sex?couples.
One is an appeal of two lower court rulings that struck down California?s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. The other is a challenge to an Arizona law that made state employees in same-sex relationships ineligible for domestic partner?benefits.
The last time the court confronted a gay rights case was in 2010, when the justices voted 5-4 to let stand lower court rulings holding that a California law school could deny recognition to a Christian student group that does not allow gay?members.
The time before that was the court?s landmark 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which declared state anti-sodomy laws to be an unconstitutional violation of personal?privacy.
Brigham Young University law professor Lynn Wardle, who testified before Congress when lawmakers were considering the Defense of Marriage Act 16 years ago, said he still thinks the law passes constitutional?muster.
?Congress has the power to define for itself domestic relationships, including defining relationships for purposes of federal programs,? Wardle?said.
At the same time, he said, the gay rights landscape has shifted radically since 1996, citing this month?s election of the first sitting president to declare support for same-sex marriage and four state ballot measures being decided in favor of gay rights?activists.
?This is the gay moment, momentum is building,? Wardle said. ?The politics are profound, and politics influence what the court?does.?
For Golinski and Cunninghis, getting this far has been a long, sometimes frustrating and sometimes heartening?journey.
Citing the act, known as DOMA, the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government?s human relations arm, initially denied Golinski?s attempt to enroll Cunninghis in the medical coverage she had selected for herself and the couple?s son, now?10.
?I got a phone call from OPM in Washington, D.C., asking me to confirm that Amy Cunninghis was female, and I said, ?Yes, she is,? and they said, ?We won?t be able to add her to your health plan,? Golinski?recalled.
Golinski knew that her employer, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had a policy prohibiting discrimination against gay workers, so she filed an employee grievance and won a hearing before the court?s dispute resolution officer, Chief Judge Alex?Kozinski.
As a lawyer for the court, she felt awkward about pursuing the issue, but she was also angry. Lambda Legal and a San Francisco law firm offered to represent?her.
?I had been working for the courts since 1990, and I feel, like everybody, I work hard and I?m a valuable employee, and I?m not getting paid the same amount if I have to pay for a whole separate plan for Amy,? she said. ?It was really hurting our?family.?
Kozinski ruled that Golinski was entitled to full spousal benefits, but federal officials ordered Golinski?s insurer not to process her application, prompting the chief judge to issue a scathing opinion on her?behalf.
After the government refused to budge, Golinski sued in January?2010.
The couple had joked about whether they ?would make a federal case? out of their situation. Cunninghis noted that their genders would not have been an issue had Golinski worked in the private sector or in state or local government where domestic partnerships are?offered.
Because of DOMA, she said, ?we don?t get access to a whole slew of?benefits.?
The Department of Justice originally opposed Golinski in court but changed course last year after President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder said they would no longer defend the?law.
Republican members of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, which oversees legal activities of the House of Representatives, voted to hire an outside lawyer first to back the act in Golinski?s case and the four others, and to then appeal the rulings on its?unconstitutionality.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White handed Cunninghis and Golinski an unequivocal victory in February, finding that anti-gay sentiment motivated Congress to pass?DOMA.
In ordering the government to allow Golinski to enroll her wife in a family health plan, White rejected all of the House group?s arguments, including that the law was necessary to foster stable unions among men and?women.
A group of 10 U.S. senators who voted for DOMA in 1996 have filed a brief with the Supreme Court angrily denouncing the judge?s opinion and urging the high court to overturn?it.
?It is one thing for the District Court to conclude that traditional moral views, standing alone, do not justify the enactment of DOMA; it is quite another to find that legislators who hold or express such moral views somehow taint the constitutionality of the statute,? they?said.
Former U.S. Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Edwin Meese also weighed in, telling the court that Obama had failed in his duty and set a dangerous precedent by declining to defend?DOMA.
As a result of White?s ruling, Cunninghis was allowed in March to be added to Golinski?s health?plan.
Golinski so far is the only gay American who has been allowed to begin receiving federal benefits while DOMA remains in effect, a development that could be reversed if the Supreme Court upholds?DOMA.
Until then, the couple said they are going to trust that the tide of history is moving toward gay?rights.
?It seems so simple to us: just put me on the family health plan,? Cunninghis said. ?It?s much bigger than that obviously, yet it?isn?t.?
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Public release date: 28-Nov-2012
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