Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon and John Cusack are among an array of A-list actors starring in a new video urging President Barack Obama to "set the world's course" for an end to nuclear weapons at next week's G8 Summit in Northern Ireland.
"Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be stopped, cannot be checked," actor Robert De Niro says in the video.
"Such fatalism is a deadly adversary," Damon responds.
Whoopi Goldberg, Morgan Freeman, Naomi Watts and Christoph Waltz also appear in the two-and-a-half minute spot.
The video was produced by Global Zero, a Washington, D.C.-based grassroots organization whose mission is "to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2030."
?The message from national security experts and citizens around the world is clear: the only way to eliminate the global nuclear danger is to eliminate all nuclear weapons,? Michael Douglas says. ?It's time to set the world's course to zero.?
To do so, Global Zero said in a press release, President Obama "will have to go beyond the bilateral process President Reagan started of U.S.-Soviet/Russian arms reductions and bring the other leading nuclear powers into international arms negotiations for the first time in history."
The group also sent an open letter to Obama recalling a 2009 speech in which the president committed to their cause.
President Obama,
Four years ago in Prague, [y]ou stated clearly and with conviction your commitment to seek a world without nuclear weapons. You asked for perseverance. You dared us to overcome our differences. You challenged us to ignore the voices that tell us the world cannot change. And you told us words must mean something.
We heard you.
On June 17-18, when you meet with President Putin on the side of the G8 Summit, we urge you to negotiate further cuts to the massive U.S.-Russian Cold War stockpiles and pave the way to bringing world leaders into the first international negotiations in history for the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
Of course, there are other pressing issues for Obama and Putin to discuss. Namely, Syria, and its deadly civil war.
After authorizing U.S. weapons for Syrian rebels, Obama faces difficult talks with the Russian president, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most powerful ally.
"There are no illusions that that's going to be easy," Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser, told Reuters.
?It?s in Russia?s interest to join us in applying pressure on Bashar Assad to come to the table in a way that relinquishes his power and his standing in Syria,? Rhodes told the Associated Press. ?We don?t see any scenario where he restores his legitimacy to lead the country.?
Medieval leprosy skeletons sequenced The genetic code of leprosy-causing bacteria from 1,000-year-old skeletons has been laid bare, showing the bug has hardly changed over the past millennium.
Source: BBC News Posted on:
Friday, Jun 14, 2013, 9:25am Views: 19
ROME (AP) ? Germany, France, Italy and Spain agreed Friday to find ways to help small- and medium-sized companies as part of a broader plan to create badly needed jobs for young people.
High youth unemployment has been a crippling result of Europe's sovereign debt crisis. Economy and labor ministers from the four nations met to draft proposals that leaders can debate at an EU summit at the end of the month.
Italian Premier Enrico Letta, who called the meeting, has made finding jobs for the young one of the battle cries of his new administration.
"One of the conclusions is to give a signal of strong attention to the return to growth of our countries and for an effective and serious battle against youth unemployment, a problem that exists in all of Europe," Italian Finance Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni told a news conference.
Saccomanni said the ministers agreed on the need to find new ways of financing small- and medium-sized businesses, which have been particularly heavy-hit in the crisis due to a lack of affordable credit from banks.
Among the possible ways to improve the credit flow was issuing mini-bonds guaranteed either by governments, banks or the European Central Bank.
About 40 percent of Italians aged 15-24 and active in the job hunt are unemployed. The figure is above 50 percent in Spain and Greece. Experts warn that if the rate stays that high, those countries could suffer a 'lost generation' of young workers. A new survey shows that 60 percent of Italians students are considering going abroad for work.
The ministers also agreed to strengthen the role of the private sector in efforts to create jobs, improve the exchange of expertise on training, and leverage the use of EU funds that will be available from 2014.
In Italy, businesses were urging governments to lower payroll taxes to create jobs. Patrizio Bertelli, the CEO of the Prada fashion house, told a fashion gathering that "some businesses don't have enough jobs to hire young people" due to plummeting domestic demand.
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Which brings me to my bedroom, last painted when Ronald Reagan was president. The time had come for some sprucing up. Would it be basic white, or a cool green? Perhaps light blue? These were the three possibilities that came to mind. Little did I know that the culture of paint had undergone a calamitous revolution since last I looked.
Off I went to the home improvement warehouse, where I was approached by a paint "consultant." When I mentioned the three choices under consideration, the pleasant young man wrinkled his nose and asked if he could make a suggestion. "I'm all ears," I told him.
He gently revealed that things had progressed to the point at which it was no longer a question of white, green, or blue. The strictures had been removed, the imagination set free, the spectrum of colors exploded, and customers were the happy recipients of the largess. "May I suggest Coconut Milk?" he probed.
Taken off guard, all I could utter was, "How's that?"
"Coconut Milk," he repeated matter-of-factly. "Or maybe something a little duskier?"
"Ah," I responded. "You're talking about paint!" And then, "Yes, maybe duskier."
The consultant presented me with one of those little paint chip cards, showing, in addition to Coconut Milk, the following fantastic shades: Timber Dust, Dust Bunny, Brown Buzz, and the magnificently dubbed Coral Gable Biltmore Mediterranean Mocha.
Who on earth came up with these names? Was there someone ? the Mel Blanc of paint names, perhaps ? sitting in a remote studio, racking his brain for appropriate descriptors? Did he one day add a tad too much milk to his coffee and exclaim, "That's it! Coral Gable Biltmore Mediterranean Mocha!"?
The thing is, I've always enjoyed interior painting. There's no easier, more economical and dramatic way to brighten a room than to treat its walls to a coat of fresh paint. Perhaps my problem is that I grew up in simpler times with far fewer choices. I can still recall my father holding out two paint chip cards to me (I was 7) and asking me to choose between "eggshell white" and "off-white" for what was then called the "vestibule" of the house. When I responded with "eggshell white," my dad whistled and said, "Ooh," as if I had made the more daring of the two choices. What would he have said if I had responded, "Don't we have any Aged Hazelnut Cream or Betsy Ross House Moss?"
I refocused on my personal paint consultant, who was casting expectant glances at me. "Would you like more choices?" he asked. "If you'd prefer a green, we have a sale on Rushing Tiger River and Garden Katydid."
I gave a quick glance about to confirm that I wasn't on some hidden-camera show. Then I asked, "Do you by any chance have eggshell white?"
The consultant bit his lip. "No, I don't think so," he said, but with a tone that suggested I was someone who needed to be humored. "What does it look like?" he asked as he flipped through a few more chips. "Is it anything like Mint Bliss or Carved Shell? Or maybe Wild Lemon Basil? There's also Woodrow Wilson Putty."
My head was swimming. I had not intended to spend the better part of a Saturday morning negotiating for a gallon of paint.
"I think I'll just take off-white," I said, to which my consultant replied, "I don't think we have that."
"Sure you do," I said, taking the paint chip cards from his hand. "Just take a little Coconut Milk, add a dollop of Beige Buckthorn and a few drops of Essence of Light."
"I can do that," he said. "Take me five minutes." And off he went.
I bided the five minutes, realizing that it wasn't that off-white no longer existed. I simply didn't speak the language of paint anymore. My gallon arrived and I headed home, wondering, along the way, what Woodrow Wilson and Betsy Ross would make of how far, in the course of years, their fame had come.
Pendulum swings back on 350-year-old mathematical mysteryPublic release date: 10-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: B. Rose Huber rhuber@pitt.edu 412-624-4356 University of Pittsburgh
Pitt mathematicians devise formula that can analyze epilepsy, dynamics between predators and prey, and other medical and environmental conditions
PITTSBURGHA 350-year-old mathematical mystery could lead toward a better understanding of medical conditions like epilepsy or even the behavior of predator-prey systems in the wild, University of Pittsburgh researchers report.
The mystery dates back to 1665, when Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist Christiaan Huygens, inventor of the pendulum clock, first observed that two pendulum clocks mounted together could swing in opposite directions. The cause was tiny vibrations in the beam caused by both clocks, affecting their motions.
The effect, now referred to by scientists as "indirect coupling," was not mathematically analyzed until nearly 350 years later, and deriving a formula that explains it remains a challenge to mathematicians still. Now, Pitt professors apply this principle to measure the interaction of "units"such as neurons, for examplethat turn "off" and "on" repeatedly. Their findings are highlighted in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters.
"We have developed a mathematical approach to better understanding the 'ingredients' in a system that affect synchrony in a number of medical and ecological conditions," said Jonathan E. Rubin, coauthor of the study and professor in Pitt's Department of Mathematics within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. "Researchers can use our ideas to generate predictions that can be tested through experiments."
More specifically, the researchers believe the formula could lead toward a better understanding of conditions like epilepsy, in which neurons become overly active and fail to turn off, ultimately leading to seizures. Likewise, it could have applications in other areas of biology, such as understanding how bacteria use external cues to synchronize growth.
Together with G. Bard Ermentrout, University Professor of Computational Biology and professor in Pitt's Department of Mathematics, and Jonathan J. Rubin, an undergraduate mathematics major, Jonathan E. Rubin examined these forms of indirect communication that are not typically included in most mathematical studies owing to their complicated elements. In addition to studying neurons, the Pitt researchers applied their methods to a model of artificial gene networks in bacteria, which are used by experimentalists to better understand how genes function.
"In the model we studied, the genes turn off and on rhythmically. While on, they lead to production of proteins and a substance called an autoinducer, which promotes the genes turning on," said Jonathan E. Rubin. "Past research claimed that this rhythm would occur simultaneously in all the cells. But we show that, depending on the speed of communication, the cells will either go together or become completely out of synch with each another."
To apply their formula to an epilepsy model, the team assumed that neurons oscillate, or turn off and on in a regular fashion. Ermentrout compares this to Southeast Asian fireflies that flash rhythmically, encouraging synchronization.
"For neurons, we have shown that the slow nature of these interactions encouraged 'asynchrony,' or firing at different parts of the cycle," Ermentrout said. "In these seizure-like states, the slow dynamics that couple the neurons together are such that they encourage the neurons to fire all out of phase with each other."
The Pitt researchers believe this approach may extend beyond medical applications into ecologyfor example, a situation in which two independent animal groups in a common environment communicate indirectly. Jonathan E. Rubin illustrates the idea by using a predator-prey system, such as rabbits and foxes.
"With an increase in rabbits will come an increase in foxes, as they'll have plenty of prey," said Jonathan E. Rubin. "More rabbits will get eaten, but eventually the foxes won't have enough to eat and will die off, allowing the rabbit numbers to surge again. Voila, it's an oscillation. So, if we have a fox-rabbit oscillation and a wolf-sheep oscillation in the same field, the two oscillations could affect each other indirectly because now rabbits and sheep are both competing for the same grass to eat."
###
The paper, "Analysis of synchronization in a slowly changing environment: how slow coupling becomes fast weak coupling," was first published online May 13 in Physical Review Letters. This work was partially supported by a National Science Foundation grant.
6/10/13/mab
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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.
Pendulum swings back on 350-year-old mathematical mysteryPublic release date: 10-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: B. Rose Huber rhuber@pitt.edu 412-624-4356 University of Pittsburgh
Pitt mathematicians devise formula that can analyze epilepsy, dynamics between predators and prey, and other medical and environmental conditions
PITTSBURGHA 350-year-old mathematical mystery could lead toward a better understanding of medical conditions like epilepsy or even the behavior of predator-prey systems in the wild, University of Pittsburgh researchers report.
The mystery dates back to 1665, when Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist Christiaan Huygens, inventor of the pendulum clock, first observed that two pendulum clocks mounted together could swing in opposite directions. The cause was tiny vibrations in the beam caused by both clocks, affecting their motions.
The effect, now referred to by scientists as "indirect coupling," was not mathematically analyzed until nearly 350 years later, and deriving a formula that explains it remains a challenge to mathematicians still. Now, Pitt professors apply this principle to measure the interaction of "units"such as neurons, for examplethat turn "off" and "on" repeatedly. Their findings are highlighted in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters.
"We have developed a mathematical approach to better understanding the 'ingredients' in a system that affect synchrony in a number of medical and ecological conditions," said Jonathan E. Rubin, coauthor of the study and professor in Pitt's Department of Mathematics within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. "Researchers can use our ideas to generate predictions that can be tested through experiments."
More specifically, the researchers believe the formula could lead toward a better understanding of conditions like epilepsy, in which neurons become overly active and fail to turn off, ultimately leading to seizures. Likewise, it could have applications in other areas of biology, such as understanding how bacteria use external cues to synchronize growth.
Together with G. Bard Ermentrout, University Professor of Computational Biology and professor in Pitt's Department of Mathematics, and Jonathan J. Rubin, an undergraduate mathematics major, Jonathan E. Rubin examined these forms of indirect communication that are not typically included in most mathematical studies owing to their complicated elements. In addition to studying neurons, the Pitt researchers applied their methods to a model of artificial gene networks in bacteria, which are used by experimentalists to better understand how genes function.
"In the model we studied, the genes turn off and on rhythmically. While on, they lead to production of proteins and a substance called an autoinducer, which promotes the genes turning on," said Jonathan E. Rubin. "Past research claimed that this rhythm would occur simultaneously in all the cells. But we show that, depending on the speed of communication, the cells will either go together or become completely out of synch with each another."
To apply their formula to an epilepsy model, the team assumed that neurons oscillate, or turn off and on in a regular fashion. Ermentrout compares this to Southeast Asian fireflies that flash rhythmically, encouraging synchronization.
"For neurons, we have shown that the slow nature of these interactions encouraged 'asynchrony,' or firing at different parts of the cycle," Ermentrout said. "In these seizure-like states, the slow dynamics that couple the neurons together are such that they encourage the neurons to fire all out of phase with each other."
The Pitt researchers believe this approach may extend beyond medical applications into ecologyfor example, a situation in which two independent animal groups in a common environment communicate indirectly. Jonathan E. Rubin illustrates the idea by using a predator-prey system, such as rabbits and foxes.
"With an increase in rabbits will come an increase in foxes, as they'll have plenty of prey," said Jonathan E. Rubin. "More rabbits will get eaten, but eventually the foxes won't have enough to eat and will die off, allowing the rabbit numbers to surge again. Voila, it's an oscillation. So, if we have a fox-rabbit oscillation and a wolf-sheep oscillation in the same field, the two oscillations could affect each other indirectly because now rabbits and sheep are both competing for the same grass to eat."
###
The paper, "Analysis of synchronization in a slowly changing environment: how slow coupling becomes fast weak coupling," was first published online May 13 in Physical Review Letters. This work was partially supported by a National Science Foundation grant.
6/10/13/mab
[ | 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.
FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2006 photo provided by Yellowstone National Park, a gray wolf is seen on the run near Blacktail Pond in Yellowstone National Park in Park County, Wyo. The Obama administration on Friday June 7, 2013, will propose lifting federal protections for gray wolves across most of the Lower 48 states, a move that would end four decades of recovery efforts but has been criticized by some scientists as premature. (AP Photo/Yellowstone National Park, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2006 photo provided by Yellowstone National Park, a gray wolf is seen on the run near Blacktail Pond in Yellowstone National Park in Park County, Wyo. The Obama administration on Friday June 7, 2013, will propose lifting federal protections for gray wolves across most of the Lower 48 states, a move that would end four decades of recovery efforts but has been criticized by some scientists as premature. (AP Photo/Yellowstone National Park, File)
This April 18, 2008 photo released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a gray wolf. The Obama administration on Friday, June 7, 2013 proposed lifting most of the remaining federal protections for gray wolves across the mainland states, a move that would end four decades of recovery efforts but has been criticized by some scientists as premature. A rule being proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove most species of wolves from the endangered species list would end federal protection for any wolves that move into upstate New York or northern New England from Canada or elsewhere. (AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Maps show the current population and potential habitat for Gray wolves in North America
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) ? Federal officials are declaring victory in their four-decade campaign to rescue the gray wolf, a predator the government once considered a nuisance and tried to exterminate.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday proposed removing the animal's remaining protections as an endangered species across the Lower 48 states. The exception would be in the Southwest, where the recovery effort for the related Mexican gray wolf is lagging.
Despite criticism from some scientists and members of Congress who consider the move premature, agency director Dan Ashe said the wolf can thrive and even enlarge its territory without continued federal protection.
"Taking this step fulfills the commitment we've made to the American people ? to set biologically sound recovery goals and return wolves to state management when those goals have been met and threats to the species' future have been addressed," Ashe said.
The proposal will be subject to a 90-day public comment period and a final decision made within a year.
Wolves once roamed across most of North America. But trapping, poisoning and aerial shooting encouraged by federal bounties left just one small remnant, in northern Minnesota, by the time they were placed on the protected list in 1974.
By then, attitudes had shifted. Wildlife managers acknowledged the role predators play in providing balanced ecosystems, and the then-new Endangered Species Act mandated protections.
More than 6,100 wolves have now spread across portions of 10 states, primarily in the Northern Rockies and the western Great Lakes regions. Most are in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Packs also have formed in portions of Washington and Oregon, and individual wolves have been spotted in Colorado, Utah, the Dakotas, California and the Northeast.
But they have yet to return to vast additional territory that researchers say has suitable habitat and abundant prey, including parts of the Pacific Northwest, the southern Rocky Mountains, upstate New York and New England.
Environmental groups say wolves could make their way to those places ? but only if legal protections remain to prevent them from being shot. Removing them now would put wolves "at serious risk for ever achieving natural recovery," said Diane Bentivegna of the National Wolfwatcher Coalition.
Colorado alone has enough space to support up to 1,000 wolves, according to Carlos Carroll of California's Klamath Center for Conservation Research. He suggested wildlife officials were bowing to political pressure, exerted by elected officials across the West who pushed to limit the wolf's range.
"They've tried to devise their political position first, and then cherry-pick their science to support it," Carroll said of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Maggie Howell of the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, N.Y., said the Adirondack Mountains and other parts of the Northeast are "screaming for a predator like the wolf" to thin an out-of-control deer herd.
Ashe, however, said it's unrealistic to think wolves can return to all or even most of their former range, even if scientifically feasible.
"Science is an important part of this decision, but really the key is the policy question of when is a species recovered," he said. "Does the wolf have to occupy all the habitat that is available to it in order for it to be recovered? Our answer to that question is no."
The wolf's resurgence has been unpopular among ranchers and others unhappy about attacks on livestock and popular sport animals ? even as hunters and trappers in the last several years killed some 1,600 wolves after protections were lifted in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Government wildlife agents responding to livestock attacks have killed thousands more in recent decades.
Removing legal protections could ease the hostility in the West, where many ranchers complained they're helpless to protect their herds from marauding attackers.
Hunting advocates also have complained as elk herds dwindle in some areas.
"We can't just say, let them go and let the predators manage the big game. That's not going to work in this day and age," said David Allen, president of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
Yet the former director of the Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton said the agency's proposal "is a far cry from what we envisioned for gray wolf recovery when we embarked on this almost 20 years ago."
"It's a low bar for endangered species recovery," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, who was with the agency when wolves were reintroduced in Idaho and Wyoming in the mid-1990s. She now heads the group Defenders of Wildlife.
David Mech, a leading wolf expert and senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey in St. Paul, Minn., said wolves already occupy about 80 percent of the territory where people are likely to tolerate them.
The Center for Biological Diversity vowed to challenge the government in court if it takes the animals off the endangered list.
The Humane Society of the United States, which has filed a lawsuit challenging the removal of protections from Great Lakes wolves, is reviewing the government's latest proposal, spokesman Kaitlin Sanderson said.
Ashe said the plan had been reviewed by top administration officials, including new Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. But he dismissed any claims of interference and said the work that went into the plan was exclusively that of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
He said the agency wants to focus future recovery efforts on a small number of wolves belonging to a subspecies, the Mexican gray wolf. Those occur in Arizona and New Mexico, where a protracted and costly reintroduction plan has stumbled in part due to illegal killings.
The agency is calling for a tenfold increase in the territory where biologists are working to rebuild that population, which now numbers 73 animals. Law enforcement efforts to ward off poaching in the region would be bolstered.
By Iain Blair LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Forty-three years ago Black Sabbath released its debut self-titled album, a collection of songs inspired by occult themes and powered by heavy-metal guitar riffs. Now, three of the original band members - singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler - and drummer Brad Wilk, of Rage Against the Machine, are releasing a new album, "13," and planning to tour the world to promote it. ...
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Public release date: 10-Jun-2013
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