Renewable Fuels group spent $259,000 3Q lobbying (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Renewable Fuels Association spent nearly $259,000 in the third quarter to lobby the federal government on ethanol tax incentives and other issues, according to a disclosure report.

That's up from the $213,000 the trade group spent a year earlier and the $251,000 than it spent in this year's second quarter, according to reports it filed with the House clerk's office. The group also lobbied the federal government on renewable fuel standards and ethanol production infrastructure, according to the report filed on Oct. 20.

The RFA, which represents the U.S. ethanol industry, has called for an extension of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, which pays 45 cents for every gallon of pure ethanol that's blended into gasoline. The $5 billion-a-year subsidy is scheduled to expire this year.

In July to September period, the group lobbied Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Trade Representative, and the departments of agriculture, commerce, according to the report filed with the House clerk's office.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_bi_ge/us_renewable_fuels_association_lobbying

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Subsea mountains' 'march to ruin'

Tonga Trench

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Sonar images of the Tonga Trench. Video courtesy of the Universities of Oxford and Durham and NERC

Startling new images from the depths of the Pacific Ocean reveal one of Earth's most violent processes: the destruction of massive underwater mountains.

The pictures were created by sonar in waters up to 6km (4mi) deep.

They expose how tectonic action is dragging giant volcanoes into a chasm in the seabed.

The volcanoes are strung across several thousand kilometres of ocean floor and are moving westward on the Pacific tectonic plate at up to 6cm per year.

The extraordinary scene was captured along the Tonga Trench during a research expedition last summer.

The trench is a highly active fault line running north from New Zealand towards Tonga and Samoa.

The first images have been released to BBC News as the findings are presented to the annual conference of the American Geophysical Union.

They are the result of a joint project by the universities of Oxford and Durham, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Into the abyss

Where the Pacific plate collides with the Indo-Australian plate, it is forced downwards into the trench, a subduction zone, and the volcanoes are carried with it.

The trench, reaching a depth of 10.9km, forms the second deepest stretch of seabed anywhere in the world - easily large enough to hold Mount Everest.

One image shows the volcano nearest the edge of the abyss - the next to be destroyed - already starting to collapse.

With frequent earthquakes, the region is vulnerable to tsunamis and one aim of the research is to understand whether the destruction of the volcanoes adds to the risk.

One theory is that the volcanoes add friction to the movement of the two plates which leads to a greater build-up of tension and consequently to a more explosive quake.

Another is that by shearing into blocks as they collapse, the volcanoes provide a kind of buffer easing the subduction process.

Earthquake puzzle

Professor Tony Watts of Oxford University, joint leader of the project, says that earthquakes are less frequent at the precise point where the volcanoes enter the trench.

"When you see the size of these features you'd think they'd cause massive earthquakes and disruption - and that was our starting hypothesis."

"But we found that the volcanoes were highly fractured before they entered the trench - which is very important for what happens after they enter the system.

Analysis so far has not determined the precise impact of this process.

Professor Watts says the key question still isn't settled: "Are they added to the Australian plate or are they carried down in fragments into the deep earth mantle?"

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/science-environment-16056192

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European regulators set sights on Carrier IQ, rootkit scandal goes international

Carrier IQ
Most of the bruhaha over Carrier IQ and its activity-tracking rootkit has been contained to the US so far. That's about to change though, and the software company could find itself at the center of an international privacy scandal. The British Information Commissioner's Office and the European Consumers' Organization have both started looking into the diagnostics software, while the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection has specifically engaged with Apple over its inclusion of parts of Carrier IQ's suite in iOS. This, of course, comes only days after US lawmakers requested their own government open an investigation. So far, all of the major British providers have denied using the tool on their handsets but, the drama is still unfolding and there's plenty of time for others to get caught up in this mess.

European regulators set sights on Carrier IQ, rootkit scandal goes international originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/05/european-regulators-set-sites-on-carrier-iq-rootkit-scandal-goe/

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Road out of Afghanistan: On the ground with US troops in potential final push

The recent battle for the Kajaki Valley in Helmand Province, which ended with few casualties and Taliban fighters in flight, may mark the last major operation for US troops in Afghanistan.

Kajaki Valley, Afghanistan

A group of marines huddles around the top enlisted marine in their unit, who had come to visit newly established US patrol bases throughout the Kajaki Valley in Helmand Province.

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A week earlier, they had been part of a force of 600 marines and several Afghan Army and police units who flooded the valley. Though US forces have made progress throughout Helmand during the past year, Kajaki had remained one of the last major areas still under Taliban control.

Now, with several US Marine and Afghan military bases established in the valley and little resistance from the Taliban, the Helmand operation appears to have been more successful than many marines had expected.

Looking to inspire a platoon that had three men medevacked during the initial assault and had been living outdoors without tents or cots since the operation began, the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment's Sgt. Maj. Larry Harrington tells the group of assembled marines, "It started for me in Kandahar in 2001, and now I'm seeing the end of it."

While the insurgency continues, the war is indeed nearing its end for the marines in Helmand and for other International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) units elsewhere in the nation. With all the surge forces scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of next summer, and troop levels expected to keep falling from there, this operation is quite possibly the last major US Marine offensive designed to gain and hold new ground for the rest of the war.

"From my perspective, it's the last piece of real estate that ISAF forces are going to really clear," says Marine Maj. Gen. John Toolan, the ISAF commander in the southwest region of Afghanistan.

This ending battle echoed many that had come before, with the US overrunning its foe, the Taliban choosing to flee more often than fight. But a big question lingers over the durability of the gains. Marines express optimism that the lessons learned over the decade-long war will help them stabilize the area and hand it over to the Afghan government.

A decade of war in deadliest province

There are some 140,000 international forces in Afghanistan, a little less than 100,000 are American. US and international troops came here more than a decade ago following the Sept. 11 attacks, when the ruling Taliban regime refused to hand over Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Since then the war has grown into a large nation-building effort with the United States alone investing more than $70 billion on development projects designed to strengthen Afghanistan's government and social institutions. Meanwhile, some 1,843 US and 970 international service members have lost their lives here. Another 14,342 have been injured.

Throughout the Afghan war, the south ? Helmand in particular ? has seen the most fighting. More than 795 international troops have been killed in Helmand, more than in any other province and nearly twice as many as in Kandahar, the second-most deadly province.

There are about 30,000 foreign forces in Helmand, equivalent to about one-third of the US force in Afghanistan. The area has been the primary responsibility of US Marines and British troops.

But will the improvements hold?

Although there are numerous indications that international forces have made progress in Helmand, there are just as many questions among locals about how long these improvements will last.

A report released by the New America Foundation in October found that while locals in Helmand say the Taliban are weaker now compared with 12 months ago, 49 percent of the population say they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed in Helmand and Kandahar say that violence will lead to a civil war after international troops withdraw in 2014.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/world/~3/ImbdA7Mg-bE/Road-out-of-Afghanistan-On-the-ground-with-US-troops-in-potential-final-push

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Fearing Climate Change?s Effects on the Adirondacks

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Jerry Jenkins, an ecologist, documents the ecosystem of the Adirondacks and laments its future in the face of global climate change?s local effects.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=e599aa365354eff27d95517646c1e22c

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Simon Cowell one of Walters' 'Fascinating People' (AP)

NEW YORK ? Barbara Walters has named talent-show tycoon Simon Cowell, New York Yankees star Derek Jeter and pop singing sensation Katy Perry as three of the year's "10 Most Fascinating People."

Also on the list are businessman and TV personality Donald Trump, the Kardashian reality TV family, plus Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet, the onscreen couple from ABC's comedy hit "Modern Family."

Others include Pippa Middleton, sister of British royal Kate Middleton, and Amanda Knox, the former Seattle exchange student whose four years in custody ended when an Italian court overturned her murder conviction.

A ninth name is yet to be announced. The Most Fascinating Person will be revealed on the broadcast.

The 90-minute special, Walters' 19th annual "Fascinating People" edition, airs on ABC on Dec. 14.

___

ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Co.

___

Online:

http://www.abc.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_en_tv/us_tv_walters_fascinating_people

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Lost Rembrandt portrait revealed

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Lost Rembrandt portrait revealed
An unfinished self-portrait by the Dutch master Rembrandt has been discovered under another painting using advanced scientific techniques.

Source: BBC News
Posted on: Friday, Dec 02, 2011, 8:44am
Views: 26

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115683/Lost_Rembrandt_portrait_revealed

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Protect and Access Your Data from Anywhere with my-Ditto

With the my-Ditto from Dane-Elec, you’ll have access to your files from anywhere. ?It’s flexible and powerful enough for personal or business use. ?Simply connect the my-Ditto to the router, plug the provided key (looks like a USB flash drive) into a PC or Mac and wait while your files are backed up to the [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/12/01/protect-and-access-your-data-from-anywhere-with-my-ditto/

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Pakistan lawmaker: Court bars ex-envoy from travel (AP)

ISLAMABAD ? A Pakistani parliamentarian says the Supreme Court has barred the country's former envoy to the U.S. from leaving, while a commission investigates his role in a memo scandal that led to his resignation.

Khwaja Asif says the court on Thursday ordered former Ambassador Husain Haqqani to remain in the country, and appointed a special commissioner to probe the incident.

Haqqani has been accused of crafting a memo asking the U.S. for help in reining in Pakistan's military, following the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May. Asif is one of nine lawmakers who requested an investigation into the allegations.

Haqqani has denied involvement. He said Thursday that he had not been officially notified of the court decision, but that he did not intend to travel.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_envoy_scandal

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