America must not "dictate" to world, new defense chief says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Decorated Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel was sworn in as U.S. defense secretary on Wednesday after a bruising Senate confirmation battle, and promised to renew old U.S. alliances and forge new ones without attempting to "dictate" to the world.

Addressing Pentagon employees shortly after a small, closed-door swearing-in ceremony, Hagel spoke optimistically, if vaguely, about global challenges ahead and the importance of American leadership abroad.

"We can't dictate to the world. But we must engage the world. We must lead with our allies," Hagel said in what appeared to be unscripted remarks.

"No nation, as great as America is, can do any of this alone."

He also plainly acknowledged the prospect of looming automatic budget cuts, known as the sequester, saying flatly: "That's a reality. We need to figure this out. You are doing that."

"We need to deal with this reality," he added, as hopes dim in Washington that Congress might act in time to forestall $46 billion in Pentagon cuts, due to kick in on March 1.

Hagel, a former two-term Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska, broke from his party during the administration of George W. Bush to become a fierce critic of the Iraq war.

Many Republicans opposed to Hagel's nomination scorned him over Iraq and raised questions about whether he was sufficiently supportive of Israel, tough enough on Iran or truly committed to maintaining a robust nuclear deterrent.

The 58-41 Senate vote to confirm him late on Tuesday was the closest vote ever to approve a defense secretary, with only four Republicans supporting him.

AMERICA MUST USE POWER "WISELY"

Hagel did not acknowledge any Republican criticisms or reveal any personal concerns about working with Congress during his remarks on Wednesday. But he did articulate his views about the need for caution when America flexes its muscle abroad.

"We have great power and how we apply our power is particularly important," Hagel said.

"That engagement in the world should be done wisely. And the resources that we employ on behalf of our country and our allies should always be applied wisely."

Hagel's views of war and the limits of American military power were shaped in part by his experiences in Vietnam, where he fought as an infantryman alongside his brother and was awarded two Purple Hearts, the medal given to troops wounded in battle.

Hagel still carries the shrapnel from one of his injuries and he is the first Vietnam veteran to lead the Pentagon.

Introducing Hagel in the Pentagon auditorium, an Army infantryman with two tours in Afghanistan said Hagel "knows the very real cost of war" and was guided by principals to use force only when necessary.

Among his first tasks, Hagel will start weighing in on crucial decisions about the Afghan war, notably the size and scope of the American force that President Barack Obama will leave behind in the country once NATO declares its combat mission over at the end of 2014.

Leaving fewer troops than U.S. commanders recommend could create tension with the military, and become a lightening-rod issue with Republicans.

Hagel's predecessor, former defense secretary Leon Panetta, discussed with NATO allies in Brussels last week keeping a NATO force of between 8,000 and 12,000 troops. A senior NATO official said last month that the United States expects other NATO allies to contribute between a third and half the number of troops Washington provides.

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-swears-defense-chief-bruising-confirmation-battle-134424928.html

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Obama administration urges court to overturn Calif. gay marriage ban

Kat McGuckin holds a gay marriage pride flag in front of the Supreme Court in November 2012. (Chip Somodevilla??

The Obama administration has waded into the legal battle over California's gay marriage ban, filing a brief with the Supreme Court Thursday evening that argues the state's voters did not have the right to decide gay couples cannot wed.

In the brief, the Justice Department--which is not involved in the case--argues that the gay marriage ban violated same-sex couples' constitutional guarantee to equal protection under the law and is the result of prejudice.

"Prejudice may not...be the basis for differential treatment under the law," the brief said.

But the Obama administration stopped short of calling for a countrywide guarantee of equal access to marriage for gay people in the brief, keeping its arguments focused on California.

"Throughout history, we have seen the unjust consequences of decisions and policies rooted in discrimination," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. "The issues before the Supreme Court in this case ... are not just important to the tens of thousands of Americans who are being denied equal benefits and rights under our laws, but to our Nation as a whole.?

The California ballot initiative, called Proposition 8, was passed in 2008 with 52 percent of the vote and reversed an earlier state Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage in the state. Thousands of gay couples in the state had already tied the knot when the ban passed.

In its brief, the Obama administration also argued that laws targeting gays and lesbians specifically should face "heightened scrutiny" from the courts, since gay people have faced a history of discrimination, share a trait they cannot change, and lack political power.

President Barack Obama announced last year that he believes gay couples should be allowed to get married but did not say they have a constitutional right to wed.

At his inaugural address in January, Obama seemed to suggest he did believe the government has a role in ensuring gay people are allowed to marry. "Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law?for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well," he said then.

Two federal courts have already decided that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional, saying it discriminates against a group of people without proving there is a legitimate government interest in doing so. The higher of the two courts, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, decided the case in a way that ensures it will affect only California and will not invalidate gay marriage bans in the dozens of other states that have adopted them.

But it's possible the Supreme Court could take a broader view of the case when it hears oral arguments in late March. Justices could decide whether or not there is a fundamental right to marriage that the government cannot deny people based on sexual orientation. If they uphold Proposition 8 under these terms and allow the ban on same sex nuptials to stand, the ruling could cement state gay marriage bans for decades.

More than 100 Republicans, including former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, signed a brief filed earlier in the week encouraging the court to strike down Proposition 8. One of the lead attorneys arguing against the ban is Ted Olson, the former solicitor general under George W. Bush.

The president of the anti-gay marriage group Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, criticized Obama for what he termed "hypocrisy" on gay marriage. "This is a sharp reversal from the position President Obama articulated just last May, when he declared that this is an issue that is gonna be worked out at the local level," Perkins said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-administration-files-brief-supporting-gay-marriage-california-233220441--election.html

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Scientist at Work Blog: Getting to the Bottom of It All

Michael Becker, a doctoral student at McGill University, was a scientific diver on an expedition to Lake Untersee in Antarctica.

If you?re going where there?s no air to breathe, you better be organized.

Any kind of underwater diving involves process for that very reason. There?s the early-morning wake-up, the weather check, the gear check (masks, fins, regulators ? check). And then there?s the dive site approach ? whether you?re walking in from the shore or taking a boat to some far forgotten reef.

Diving Lake Untersee is just like that ? except in Antarctica we get to our dive site by snowmobile. ?And Untersee ratchets up the workload because it?s remote, technical and cold.

To even get into the lake is a feat of accomplishment and a trick of clever engineering. Just the thought of trying to chip a dive hole through 10-foot thick lake ice could give you tendinitis long before you get your feet wet.

During the early days of Antarctic diving in the late-1970s, the expedition leader Dale Andersen and a few clever people working in the Dry Valley region of Antarctica came up with an ingenious way of getting through the ice. They modified an industrial-strength steam cleaner to circulate boiling hot liquid through a closed-circuit piece of copper tubing. All a would-be diver had to do was place the tubing inside a small hole drilled in the ice and wait for magic to happen as the hole slowly formed over two days.

But even when the hole is melted there?s still a lot to do before getting into the water.

Dive Days

We start with a hearty breakfast of dehydrated granola ? a meal that I hope to never see again. After breakfast, the diver gets ready by sorting the gear and putting on the dry suit while the first tender drives out by snowmobile to chip out any refrozen ice from the dive hole.

The second snowmobile carries the other dive tender and the diver (already in their dry suit) to the hole. The diver sits on the ice platform and is dressed with weights, tank, gloves, and is tied in to the all-important safety line.

This line is the life tether. It is fed out and taken in as needed. That way the surface assistants have a sense of how far away the diver is, and the diver knows where to return. In the early days, sequences of line pulls would be used to communicate simple commands like an early Morse code for dive messages. Nowadays, the dive line connects a surface communication box to the diver?s facemask. Diver and tender are easily able to grumble back and forth to each other with all the benefits of modern technology.

Once the diver?s mask is on they slide in, do the dive, come back to the hole and are yanked out. If the diver still has a pulse there is applause all around and we go back to celebrate with a dinner of dehydrated food.

Safety is paramount here and there is no margin of error. The nearest recompression chamber for a dive injury is 2,000 miles away in Cape Town. There are no helicopters for rescue and any serious injury or accident could mean death.

We follow all this protocol and process in pursuit of one thing ? studying microbial communities locked away from human history.

The Science Down There

Dale and I have done a number of dives to collect data and samples on the conical stromatolites found at the bottom of Lake Untersee. ?Dale has surfaced several times with sediment cores of the lake?s bottom. These cores tell us about the history of the lake and its resident organisms. By looking at cross-sections of the cores, we can see that the microbial communities grow over the years in layers known as laminations. These laminae show us a chronosequence of events, alternating between mineral deposition and organic layer growth. These mineral deposits must come from somewhere as the lake surface is covered in ice. It?s thought that the occasional influx of silt from nearby glaciers provides the sediment that the cyanobacteria then recolonize.

But there?s more than just grabbing a sample and returning to the surface ? the lake environment needs to be described in precise detail.

These cyanobacteria are photosynthetic and dependent on light to create their energy. One of my dives was spent swimming transects back and forth directly underneath the 10-foot ice ceiling holding a light meter. This gives us an idea of the amount of energy that is available for photosynthesis beneath the lake. The ice cover isn?t completely uniform; there are dark areas intermingled with sections of bright windows. Also, since light drops off with depth, not all life within the lake is receiving the same amount of energy.

It?s not just these cyanobacterial mats that thrive in Lake Untersee.

There is a diverse world of bacteria and viruses that inhabit their own unique sections of the water column all the way from the lake surface to over 500 feet below. These areas are far beyond our range capacity as scientific divers, and so we must rely on a different technique to sample these distant creatures.

Our two Russian scientists, Vladimir Akimov?and?Valery Galchenko from the Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology,?are microbiologists that specialize in microbial life in extreme environments. Their work has taken them from remote regions of Yakutia, Russia, studying heat-loving extremophiles, to the even more remote Lake Untersee to study the isolated bacteria inhabiting this lake.

Different communities of bacteria thrive according to the changing abiotic conditions, as you get deeper in the lake?s water column. ?These environments are mapped out by lowering sensors to measure conductivity, temperature, and depth, or CTD, from the lake?s surface down to around 330 feet ? our maximum sample depth.

Vladimir and Valery then lower their sampler to different points within the water column and capture about a gallon of water. These samples are brought back to camp, and the two spend hour after waking hour filtering the water to concentrate samples of both bacteria and viruses. There?s no human health concern with these viruses ? they are specific to the bacteria in the lake, and must exist in some sort of equilibrium with the lake life.

One of the areas that Vladimir and Valery are particularly interested is a section of the lake at 256 feet. At this depth, the lake chemistry changes quite a bit ? it becomes anoxic, meaning without oxygen. The organisms that thrive in this section have no need for oxygen in their metabolic processes. They use sulfur instead.

From a practical perspective, that means the samples reek. Rich in hydrogen sulfide, they smell like sour, rotten eggs. But by studying this transition from the clear, oxygen-rich water above to the dark, oxygen-poor water below we can get a sense of the two different worlds experienced by bacteria within the same lake.

What we bring up from the depths of Lake Untersee is only the beginning of a long scientific process. All these samples must be carried back to the civilized world, processed and analyzed over the next several months. Only then we will be able to more fully understand the ecosystem of Lake Untersee, and only then will we fully understand the significance of what we?re seeing.

And that?s what makes all this time, effort, and risk worth it. Diving Untersee has been an incredible experience, but without the questions driving us forward, it would be a lot to gamble for a good view.

Follow Michael on Twitter: @Michael__Becker or on his blog, ?The Dry Valleys.?

Source: http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/getting-to-the-bottom-of-it-all/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Can Therapy Dogs Help Kids With Autism? - Health News and ...

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Feb. 26 (HealthDay News) ? For children with autism, trained dogs may offer not only a furry friend, but some therapeutic benefits, too, a new research review finds.

There is a ?substantial body of evidence? that dogs act as ?social catalysts,? even encouraging adults to be a little friendlier to each other, said senior researcher Francesca Cirulli, of the National Institute of Health in Rome, Italy. And the few studies that have focused on kids with autism suggest the same is true for them.

People have long turned to animals as a way to help with health conditions or disabilities ? either as part of formal therapy or to offer everyday assistance (such as guide dogs for the blind).

In some cases, ?therapy? or ?service? dogs are called into action to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) ? a group of developmental brain disorders that hinder a child?s ability to communicate and interact socially. ASDs range from the severe cases of ?classic? autism to the relatively mild form called Asperger?s syndrome.

In the United States, it?s estimated that about one in 88 children has some form of autism.

Yet there has been little research into whether trained dogs actually benefit those kids. The good news is, the existing evidence is promising, according to the new review, published in the February issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

However, ?it is early to draw final conclusions,? said Cirulli.

Specifically, Cirulli?s team found six published studies of dogs? effects on children with an autism spectrum disorder. Four of them looked at therapy dogs ? dogs that therapists use during formal sessions to help children settle in, get engaged and be more open to communicating.

Overall, the studies were positive, Cirulli and her colleagues found.

In one study of 22 children, for example, kids were more talkative and socially engaged during therapy sessions where a dog was present. In another study, of 12 boys, the children were less aggressive and smiled more when their therapy session included a canine companion.

Two studies focused on service dogs ? trained dogs that live with the family. The animals serve mainly to keep kids with autism safe; when the family goes out, the child will be literally tethered to the dog to keep from running off or getting hurt.

?That can be a huge relief for families,? said Dr. Melissa Nishawala, medical director of the Autism Spectrum Disorders Clinical and Research Program at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

Parents? anxiety over their child?s safety can lead to social isolation in some cases, noted Nishawala, who was not involved in the study. ?Your world can get very small,? she said, ?because you limit where you go.?

So a service dog can make a big difference to the whole family, Nishawala said.

Cirulli?s team found that service dogs might also benefit children?s behavior. In the two studies they reviewed, parents generally said their children were better behaved and more attentive after the family got a service dog.

There are still plenty of questions, though ? about both therapy dogs and service dogs.

For one, children with an autism spectrum disorder vary widely in the types of issues they have and their severity. No one is sure which kids might benefit most from time with a trained pooch, Nishawala noted.

She said more studies are needed ? not only larger ones, but also ones with better ?definitions.? That means making sure the children involved have been formally diagnosed with a form of autism, defining what the ?therapy? is, and being clear about what outcomes the study is assessing.

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that a dog could help bring a child with autism out of his shell, said Nishawala, but scientific evidence is just coming in.

Cirulli agreed that better defined studies are key.

It?s possible, Cirulli noted, that a dog could have negative effects on some kids with an autism spectrum disorder. An animal might, for instance, increase ?hyper? behavior.

For parents wondering whether adopting a dog is a good idea, the answer seems to be, ?It depends.?

Cirulli pointed out that these studies focused on dogs trained to be around children with autism. So the findings cannot be assumed to apply to your average Fido.

You might first want to see how your child reacts to a friend?s or neighbor?s dog, Cirulli suggested.

?Getting a dog could be a nice thing for the family,? Nishawala agreed. ?It could be therapeutic for everyone.?

If you are interested in a trained service dog, be prepared for an investment. It costs about $20,000 to train a dog, and the family would have to foot much of that bill.

More information

Autism Service Dogs of America has more on which kids might benefit from a canine companion.

Source: http://news.health.com/2013/02/26/can-therapy-dogs-help-kids-with-autism/

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New Greek observatory sheds light on old star

Feb. 27, 2013 ? Continuing a tradition stretching back more than 25 centuries, astronomers have used the new 2.3-m 'Aristarchos' telescope, sited at Helmos Observatory (2340m high) in the Pel?ponnese Mountains in Greece, to determine the distance to and history of an enigmatic stellar system, discovering it to likely be a binary star cocooned within an exotic nebula.

The researchers, Panos Boumis of the National Observatory of Athens and John Meaburn of the University of Manchester, publish the first scientific result from the telescope in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Stars of a similar mass to the Sun end their lives by ejecting much of their outer atmosphere into space, leaving behind a remnant core that eventually becomes a so called white dwarf. The shells of ejected material sometimes have the superficial appearance of planets so were named planetary nebulae. Astronomers can study the motion and appearance of the material in planetary nebulae to deduce how the remnant stars have changed over time.

In the 1950s the planetary nebula KjPn8 was discovered on Palomar Observatory Sky Survey plates. Follow up work in the 1990s by Mexican astronomers at the San Pedro Martir Observatory led to the discovery of giant lobes around the system, one quarter of a degree across, while in 2000 the central star was finally revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Dr Boumis and Prof. Meaburn set out to study this system, installing a narrowband imaging camera on the Aristarchos telescope, the largest aperture instrument in south-eastern Europe, to measure the expansion more accurately.

By measuring the velocity and increasing size of the expanding material, the two scientists were able to deduce the distance to the system and date the history of the three ejected lobes. They found that KjPn8 is around 6000 light years away and that the material was thrown out in three phases 3200, 7200 and 50000 years ago.

The inner lobe of material is expanding at 334 km per second, suggesting it originates in an Intermediate Luminosity Optical Transient (ILOT) event. ILOTs are caused by the transfer of material from a massive star to its less massive companion, in turn creating jets that flow in different directions. Boumis and Meaburn believe that the core of KjPn8 is therefore a binary system, where every so often ILOT events lead to the ejection of material at high speed.

Dr Boumis is delighted to see the first results from the new telescope giving clues to the history of such an intriguing system. He comments: "Greece is one of the global birthplaces of astronomy, so it is fitting that research into the wider universe continues in the 21st century. With the new telescope we expect to contribute to that global effort for many years to come."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. P. Boumis, S. Akras, E. M. Xilouris, F. Mavromatakis, E. Kapakos, J. Papamastorakis, C. D. Goudis. New planetary nebulae in the Galactic bulge region with l > 0o- II. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2006; 367 (4): 1551 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10048.x

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/eg9GNNpVhU8/130227085842.htm

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TEALS: A Novel Way To Bring Digital Literacy To The Classroom ...

Microsoft Software Engineer and TEALS teacher Ben grades students? programming projects.

There?s a wealth of tech-savvy professionals out in the world right now. The future is being developed by people who are passionate about technology, computer science, and digital literacy. A grassroots program is working to bring those passionate people into high school classrooms in order to improve digital literacy and tech skills.

Technology Education And Literacy in Schools (TEALS) is a program that recruits, mentors, and places technology professionals into high school classes as part-time teachers. The goal of TEALS is pretty simple: to bring digital literacy to schools. As the folks at TEALS say, they?re working to offer programming and lessons that would normally be too costly to pursue or enact.

By bringing in professionals from outside and having a team teaching model, TEALS is building a novel model that would work in even more than just computer science classes. For example, I could see the TEALS model being rolled out across all the social sciences by bringing in experts in various fields to do some tandem teaching in order to bring even more real-world experience into the classroom.

How TEALS Works

Software Engineer Brett and Software Test Engineer Veneta sharing stories after class.

It?s pretty simple. A TEALS teacher could be someone like a software engineer or web designer who wakes up a little earlier than usual, stops by his or her local school to impart some knowledge, and then continues on to work. TEALS has a pair of programs at present: Intro to Computer Science (based on the Berkeley curriculum) and an AP Computer Science course (based on the University of Washington curriculum). Training for TEALS teachers is done over the summer and teachers can opt to choose one or both courses.

TEALS always team teaches which allows the school teacher to completely take over the lesson(s) once finished. In other words, it?s a great way for both students and teachers to learn high-tech skills at the same time. Once this transfer of knowledge happens, a computer science and digital literacy curriculum has a solid chance of blossoming. Very cool.

Founded by Microsoft employee Kevin Wang and now boasting more than 120 volunteer computer science teachers in 37 schools (as of last summer), TEALS is growing and there?s no surprise why: they?re bringing important skills into the classroom. As of a July 2012 GeekWire article, TEALS is in Washington, Kentucky, California, Virginia, Utah, Washington, D.C., Minnesota, North Dakota, and there are now plans to bring the program to New York City.

The TEALS Goals

According to Wang, there are a couple important long-term goals of TEALS:

• Making sure every high school student in America has the opportunity to take intro and AP CS class in school.
• Match the percentage of AP students of the other 3 big sciences: Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

Get Involved

Want to join TEALS and bring some tech-savvy skills into your local school? Want to bring TEALS to your classroom? Click here to contact TEALS.

Source: http://edudemic.com/2013/02/teals-a-novel-way-to-bring-digital-literacy-to-the-classroom/

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Czech inspectors find horsemeat in IKEA meatballs

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech inspectors have found horsemeat in meatballs made in Sweden for IKEA Group, the world's biggest furniture retailer, the Czech food regulator said on Monday.

The checks were carried out in response to a European-wide scandal that erupted last month when tests carried out in Ireland revealed some beef products also contained horsemeat.

It has triggered recalls of ready meals and damaged confidence in Europe's vast and complex food industry.

The Czech State Veterinary Administration reported its findings to the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, it said in a statement.

The inspectors took samples for DNA tests in IKEA's unit in the city of Brno from a product labeled as "beef and pork meatballs", the statement said.

The consignment of meatballs that was tested had not been distributed to consumers, the statement said.

A spokesman for the institute said he did not know whether the meatballs were distributed in other European countries.

IKEA said they were made by a single Swedish supplier.

The inspectors also found horsemeat in burgers from Poland labeled as "beef pre-fried burger" supplied to the food trader and distributor BidVest Czech Republic.

Czech inspectors had previously found undeclared horsemeat in one other product sold on the Czech market.

(Reporting by Jana Mlcochova; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/czech-inspectors-horsemeat-ikea-meatballs-110059113--finance.html

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Samsung hands out paper invitations to Galaxy S IV launch at MWC

Didn't receive an emailed invitation to the Galaxy S IV event in Manhattan? You're not alone. It looks like Samsung is shaking things up a bit this time around, handing out paper invitations to the NYC shindig at its decked-out booth at Mobile World Congress. The note confirms the earlier news: March 14th is the big day, and unlike last year's kickoff, which was held in London to coincide with Olympics coverage, 2013's flagship will make its debut at 7PM ET at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. And we've got the golden ticket. We'll be liveblogging the event, of course, so mark the date!

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy SIV invite

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/xaAE37dc2f8/

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WebRTC ? Ringing A Mobile Phone Near You | The Mozilla Blog

WebRTC or Web Real-Time Communications?is an open source project led by Mozilla and a number of other companies, aiming to enable the Web with Real Time Communication (RTC) capabilities?including video calls and file-sharing (currently a Firefox first), between browsers that can easily be integrated across every website. WebRTC is being standardized by the?W3C WebRTC working group, to enable developers to more easily integrate real-time communications across the Web, whether on websites or mobile web apps.

WebRTC goes beyond VoIP and video conferencing, with no plugins to download or install that may not be compatible with all the browsers consumers use across desktop, mobile or tablet. The benefits of WebRTC are clear, imagine being able to shop online for a product and clicking on a product page where you can have a live video call with a customer service representative who shows you the gadget you are thinking of buying. Or as we?demonstrated recently, being able to?easily share almost anything on your computer or mobile device with family or friends: vacation photos, memorable videos ? or even just a link to a news story you thought they might be interested in ? simply by dragging the item into your video chat window.

Today, all parts of WebRTC,?getUserMedia, PeerConnection and DataChannels?are available to Firefox Aurora users.?getUserMedia allows a developer to capture the user?s camera and microphone data (with the user?s permission) easily. PeerConnection enables the audio and video calling in a secure, hassle-free way, while DataChannels, which Mozilla is the first to implement, can be used by itself or combined with an audio/video chat to send almost any data that the browser can access. In addition, all voice, audio and data communications are encrypted allowing for highly secure human or data communication exchanges.

At Mobile World Congress this week, Mozilla, Ericsson and AT&T are taking WebRTC to the next level by demonstrating a proof of concept enabling Firefox to sync with a consumers existing phone number and provide calling services without any plugins to download. A demo, at our booths (Hall 8.1, booth F20 ? Mozilla; Hall 2, location 2D140 ? Ericsson), shows how consumers can easily take and receive video calls from their mobile phones or desktop browser using WebRTC or share their web experiences with friends or family who might be on a desktop PC or mobile phone across the other side of the world. The joint demonstration leverages Ericsson?s Web Communications Gateway, the Mozilla Firefox Social API and WebRTC support in Firefox. The demonstration also shows how Firefox can perform many functions usually confined to a mobile device, such as voice and video calls and SMS/MMS messaging. You can read the complete announcement here.

More on WebRTC to come!

- Mozilla

?

Source: http://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/02/24/webrtc-ringing-a-mobile-phone-near-you/

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Intel announces dual-core Atom, multiband LTE chip and OEM partnerships

Intel is laying down a whole group of announcements today, covering the launch of dual-core Atom processors, multiband LTE chips and partnerships with OEMs for future quad-core Intel chips. First up is Intel's dual-core Atom (known as Clover Trail+), which is a 32nm (nanometer) processor coming in three SKU's -- Z2580, Z2560, Z2520 -- at 2.0GHz, 1.6GHz and 1.2GHz, respectively. The new Atom will deliver "industry-leading" performance, with Intel's hyper-threading technology, and battery life (which hasn't been Intel's strong suit) to rival current high-end devices.

The new chips also now support up to 1900x1200 display resolution, which will make it a suitable chip for future Android tablets. The Clover Trail+ Atoms support Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and HSPA+ 42 mobile data modems as well. Intel says it has already made partnerships with ASUS, Lenovo and ZTE to integrate Clover Trail+ processors into future tablets and phones.

Intel is also announcing today the availability of its first multimode and multiband LTE chip, the XMM 7160. One of the world's lowest power and smallest chips available, the 7160 supports up to 15 LTE bands simultaneously, and offers full LTE, DC-HSPA+ and EDGE connectivity in one chip SKU. Intel expects the radio to be ready in the first half of this year, with the radio and processor roadmaps soon converging to offer an integrated solution in the future.

Last but not least, Intel is looking forward to its upcoming "Bay Trail" quad-core Atom processors for use in tablets. The new processor will double the performance of its current tablet offerings, with potential designs as small as 8nm going forward. Intel is working with Acer, ASUS, HP, Lenovo, LG Electronics and Samsung to have both Android and Windows 8 tablets in the market by the holiday season of 2013 with Bay Trail quad-core processors.

Things weren't too great for Intel in 2012 when looking at the complete dominance of ARM-based processors in high-end devices, but the company doesn't seem to be holding back on its mobile product developments. Give it a couple more product cycles and Intel could begin to see some market share gain going forward.

Source: Intel (BusinessWire)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Ok9Re83GkXI/story01.htm

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Japan coastguard says China ship in disputed waters

Japan said a Chinese government ship briefly entered its territorial waters off disputed islands on Saturday, as the Japanese premier vowed he would not tolerate Beijing's incursions into the area.

A Japanese coast guard vessel (bottom) monitors a Chinese fisheries patrol boat in the East China Sea in 2011.

The fisheries patrol boat entered the waters in the East China Sea at 4:48 pm (0748 GMT) and was sailing some 19 kilometres northwest of Uotsuri, one of the Senkaku islands, Japan's coastguard said in a statement.

But the Chinese ship moved out of the zone after about an hour, watched by a Japanese coastguard vessel, it said.

Beijing claims the Japanese-controlled islands, which it calls the Diaoyus.

The incident was the latest in a series, with Japan claiming in one case that Chinese vessels had locked weapons-targeting radar onto a ship and a helicopter. Beijing denied the charge.

Saturday's incident came as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, now on his first visit to the United States since he took office late December, vowed that he would not tolerate any challenge to control over the contested islands.

"We simply cannot tolerate any challenge now and in the future. No nation should make any miscalculation or underestimate the firmness of our resolve," Abe said Friday in Washington.

Speaking after talks with President Barack Obama at the White House, however, Abe cautioned that "I have absolutely no intention to climb up the escalation ladder".

The dispute between Asia's two largest economies intensified in September when Tokyo nationalised three islands in the chain, in what it said was a mere administrative change of ownership.

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Oscar Pistorius Brother Faces Murder Trial (Voice Of America)

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Colorado Mountain College case is not supported by facts, says gas company

GLENWOOD SPRINGS ? A local judge is being asked to move ahead with a civil trial over a dispute between Colorado Mountain College (CMC) and SourceGas, a natural gas supplier, even though CMC believes the case should be dismissed.

In a motion filed Feb. 18, attorneys for SourceGas and its partner, Rocky Mountain Natural Gas, argued that the foundation of CMC's case is not supported by the facts, and asked District Judge James Boyd to deny a CMC motion for summary judgment, or dismissal.

The case currently is set for trial starting June 26.

At issue is last year's decision by the CMC board of trustees to declare invalid a lease for roughly five acres of college property.

The lease, arranged by former CMC president Stan Jensen and his staff, was to allow SourceGas to build a compressor station along a natural gas line that crosses college property.

The company says the compressor station is needed to maintain the correct pressure on natural gas supplies headed for the Eagle Valley.

After public opposition to the compressor station erupted last year, the college trustees decided the lease was not valid because they had not made a formal ?finding? that the land was appropriate for leasing and was not ?immediately needed? for college purposes, as provided under state law.

District Judge Boyd ruled last August that, because the college is a ?public entity? under state law, he could not force the college to allow the compressor station to be built.

But he did not rule that the lease itself was void, and the trial now is based primarily on the question of whether monetary damages are due to SourceGas for expenses incurred in engineering and planning for the compressor station.

In the Feb. 18 motion, SourceGas and its partner, Rocky Mountain Natural Gas, argued that the trustees had delegated authority to negotiate leases to Jensen, and that Jensen had passed that authority on to his staff.

That, the company maintains, made the lease valid, prompting SourceGas to spend considerable amounts of money on engineering and planning for the compressor station.

According to the motion, Jensen informed the board at a board retreat in May 2011 that SourceGas had proposed building the compressor station on college property.

Jensen, at that meeting, described the terms of a lease being negotiated with SourceGas, and got the board's permission to proceed with the negotiations, according to the motion.

The motion cited statements by Jensen, current CMC board president Glenn Davis and former CMC board president Stanley Orr in support of the company's arguments against dismissal of the case.

Given this evidence, the SourceGas motion continues, the judge should deny CMC's attempt to have the case dismissed, and should instead let it proceed to trial.

The CMC response to the SourceGas motion had not yet been filed on Feb. 22.

Source: http://www.summitdaily.com/ARTICLE/20130224/NEWS/130229911/-1/RSS

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Royal Bank of Scotland to cut jobs in India

Royal Bank of Scotland has planned to lay off a number of employees in India.

The move comes as part of a plan to wind down its retail and commercial business in India.

A bank spokeswoman said that the affected employees are being informed, but didn't provide details such as how many people will be affected by the job cut.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the spokeswoman added that there is no impact on RBS's markets, international banking and private banking businesses in India.

The British bank has been looking for buyers for its retail and commercial business, which it says is no more core to its India strategy.

The division, which provides loans to individuals and small businesses, had total assets of 190 million pounds at the end of September.

RBS "continues to review all options," the spokeswoman said about its plan to sell the division in India, the paper added.

Tags: Royal Bank of Scotland, RBS jobs cut, RBS India, banking news

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Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/royal-bank-of-scotland-to-cut-jobs-in-india/1078639/

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Gov't downsizes amid GOP demands for more cuts

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio arrives to meet with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio arrives to meet with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

In this Feb. 19, 2013, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks about the sequester, as he stands with emergency responders, a group of workers the White House says could be affected if state and local governments lose federal money as a result of budget cuts in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office building on the White House complex in Washington. Republicans and other fiscal conservatives keep insisting on more federal austerity and a smaller government. Without much fanfare or acknowledgement, they?ve already gotten much of both. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta speaks during his last news conference as defense secretary, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. at the Pentagon. On Tuesday, The Senate Armed Services Committee voted to approve Panetta's replacement, former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, sending the nomination to the full Senate. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republicans and other fiscal conservatives keep insisting on more federal austerity and a smaller government. Without much fanfare or acknowledgement, they've already gotten much of both.

Spending by federal, state and local governments on payrolls, equipment, buildings, teachers, emergency workers, defense programs and other core governmental functions has been shrinking steadily since the deep 2007-2009 recession and as the anemic recovery continues.

This recent shrinkage has largely been obscured by an increase in spending on benefit payments to individuals under "entitlement" programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits. Retiring baby boomers are driving much of this increase.

Another round of huge cuts ? known in Washington parlance as the "sequester" ? will hit beginning March 1, potentially meaning layoffs for hundreds of thousands of federal workers unless Congress and President Barack Obama can strike a deficit-reduction deal to avert them.

With the deadline only a week off, Obama and Republicans who control the House are far apart over how to resolve the deadlock. While last-minute budget deals are frequent in Washington, neither side is optimistic of reaching one this time.

Even as the private sector has been slowly adding jobs, governments have been shedding them, holding down overall employment gains and keeping the jobless rate close to 8 percent, compared with normal non-recessionary levels of 5 to 6 percent that have prevailed since the 1950s.

"It's a massive drag on the economy. We lost three-quarter million public-sector jobs in the recovery," said economist Heidi Shierholz of the labor-friendly Economic Policy Institute. "We're still losing government jobs, although the pace has slowed. But we haven't turned around yet."

A larger-than-usual decline in federal spending, notably on defense programs, helped push the economy into negative territory in the final three months of 2012. Economic growth, meanwhile, has been inching along at a weak 1-2 percent ? not enough to significantly further drive down the national unemployment rate, which now stands at 7.9 percent.

Although federal spending is projected to decline from 22.8 percent of the gross domestic product recorded last year to 21.5 percent by 2017, it still will exceed the 40-year-average of 21.0 percent, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Spending peaked at 25.2 percent of GDP in 2009.

The budget office also said the economy is roughly 5.5 percent smaller than it would have been had there been no recession.

The Defense Department already has made deep spending cuts, and outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said 800,000 civilian Pentagon employees were notified this week they likely are to be placed on periods of unpaid leave due to lawmakers' failure to act.

The recent downsizing in government is most pronounced at the state and local levels. Most states have constitutional or statutory requirements for balanced budgets.

That means nearly all states are prohibited from running budget deficits, while the federal government is not.

Not only can the federal government run deficits, but it can print money ? through actions by the Federal Reserve ? something states are prohibited from doing.

Those calling for a smaller government mostly don't take notice of the wave of recent cutbacks. Their clarion call remains Ronald Reagan's mantra: Government doesn't solve problems, it is the problem.

"This spending issue is the biggest issue that threatens our future," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says. "When are we going to get serious about our long-term spending problem?"

And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, delivering the GOP response to Obama's State of the Union address, said "a major cause of our recent downturn was a housing crisis created by reckless government policies."

Soaring recent government deficits are partially a side effect of the worst recession since the 1930s, which took a huge bite out of tax revenues at the same time spending increased on recession-fighting programs like unemployment compensation and stimulus measures under both Presidents George W. Bush and Obama.

"The problem going forward is one of demographics and rising health care. It is the baby boom generation retiring," said Alice Rivlin, a White House budget director under President Bill Clinton. "It's the fact that everybody is living longer."

Republicans argue that entitlement programs should be on the cutting board as well as other government programs. Democrats generally have been more protective of them, although the president and many congressional Democrats acknowledge some paring of these popular programs is in order.

The federal budget deficit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 is estimated to be $845 billion ? the first time it's dropped below $1 trillion in five years. But it's on track to rise again as more and more baby boomers retire and qualify for federal benefits and as interest payments on the national debt keep going up.

The national debt first inched past $1 trillion early in the Reagan administration and has grown in leaps and bounds ever since through both Democratic and Republican presidencies. It now stands at $16.6 trillion and is on a path toward soon becoming unsustainable, both parties agree.

Unchecked, entitlement payments will add roughly $700 billion to the debt over the next four years.

For now, though, "the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression," top White House economic adviser Alan Krueger says.

Under the sequester law, roughly $85 billion in federal spending would be slashed in the remaining seven months of this fiscal year and a total of $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years.

While entitlement programs and uniformed military personnel would be exempt, the rest of the government would be hit with indiscriminate across-the-board cuts.

Obama wants government deficits trimmed through a mix of selective spending cuts and new tax revenues, mostly by ending deductions and tax credits frequently claimed by the wealthiest Americans.

Republicans oppose any new taxes, even if for closing loopholes rather than increasing rates.

The looming spending cuts were first scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1. But they were postponed to March 1 as part of year-end "fiscal cliff" negotiations that also raised tax rates on affluent Americans. Republicans insist that's enough tax increasing for now.

___

Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-22-Shrinking%20the%20Government/id-7863863f5e2c4524a30dc09f4e701e57

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Research suggests malaria can be defeated without a globally led eradication program

Research suggests malaria can be defeated without a globally led eradication program

Friday, February 22, 2013

Malaria does not have to be eradicated globally for individual countries to succeed at maintaining elimination of the disease, according to research from the University of Florida's Emerging Pathogens Institute and department of geography, to be published in the journal Science Feb. 22.

Researchers Andrew Tatem and Christina Chiyaka found that those countries that have eliminated malaria have maintained their malaria-free states with remarkable stability, going against traditional theory. Between 1945 and 2010, 79 countries eliminated malaria and 75, or 95 percent, remained malaria-free, shrinking the geographic range of the disease, the researchers said.

For the 99 countries with endemic malaria today, the research by Tatem and his colleagues has important implications for tackling the problem. The elimination of malaria may be less costly to achieve and maintain than previously thought, Tatem said.

"Traditional theory suggests that we have to get rid of malaria completely, all across the world, all at around the same time, to keep new cases from being imported and starting outbreaks in elimination countries all over again," said Tatem, who conducted the research at UF and now is a professor at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. Chiyaka also has moved to the United Kingdom with her family.

The researchers found, however, that malaria elimination may be a 'sticky state,' meaning that once elimination is achieved, resurgence becomes a rare event.

"For instance, the United States imports 1,500 cases of malaria per year but has seen very few local outbreaks resulting from these, despite still having mosquitoes capable of spreading malaria," Tatem said. "The United States doesn't have active control measures in place, but does have a well-functioning detection system in place to take care of it."

Tatem said that many factors, working in combination, have likely contributed to the stability of malaria elimination seen in many countries. These include urbanization, which creates environments that are unfavorable for malaria-spreading mosquitoes; improvements in surveillance within health systems to ensure that imported cases are treated promptly and any local outbreaks are controlled early; and travel patterns, with travelers who bring in infections from elsewhere rarely ending up in rural areas where mosquito densities are highest, thus reducing the likelihood of onward spread.

Malaria has long been a global health issue. In 1955, the World Health Organization launched an eradication campaign that eliminated the disease in many temperate and subtropical regions but did not achieve worldwide eradication. The program was scrapped after less than two decades in favor of controlling malaria. However, WHO attributed about 660,000 deaths to the disease in 2010, mostly African children.

###

University of Florida: http://www.ufl.edu

Thanks to University of Florida for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126977/Research_suggests_malaria_can_be_defeated_without_a_globally_led_eradication_program

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Wanted: Students to take cocaine - University asks for volunteers to take drugs for study

A prestigious London university has asked for volunteers to take part in an experiment where they will be required to take cocaine.

An email sent by a professor at King's College London asks for 'healthy male volunteers, 25 ? 40 years of age, to take part in a clinical study involving nasal administration of cocaine.'

The email, which was sent on Thursday afternoon to hundreds of postgraduate and undergraduate students at the university, is in seven sections, each titled with a question.

Under the section, 'What will happen?', the email states: 'After cocaine administration, repeated biological samples (blood, urine, hair, sweat, oral fluid) will be taken to compare and investigate how cocaine and its metabolites are spread through the human body.'

The email specifies that potential participants must be: 'Fit and well, have no past medical history and not be users of recreational drugs.

According to reports the project has been approved by London Westminster Research Ethics Committee and "contributes to the College's role in conducting research, and teaching research methods".

The email also tells students: "You are under no obligation to reply to this email, however if you choose to, participation in this research is voluntary and you may withdraw at anytime."

A spokesperson for Kings College London said today, "This is an important scientific study to investigate how cocaine and its metabolites are spread through the human body. All the relevant ethical approvals were received for this study. The study will be conducted under the highest level of medical supervision in a dedicated clinical research suite."

The Email:

HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Who are we looking for?

Healthy male volunteers, 25 ? 40 years of age, to take part in a clinical study involving nasal administration of cocaine. Medical and dental students will not be enrolled to this study.

What will happen?

After cocaine administration, repeated biological samples (blood, urine, hair, sweat, oral fluid) will be taken to compare and investigate how cocaine and its metabolites are spread through the human body.

What are the requirements?

Potential participants must be fit and well, have no past medical history and not be users of recreational drugs. They must be happy not to cut or dye their hair for 120 days during the study follow up period.

How long will it take?

During the first visit we will check your suitability for the study. The second visit (main experiment) will be around thirty days later and will take most of the day. We would then like to see you 5 more times over a 90 day period so that some repeat biological samples can be taken.

Will you benefit from taking part in this study?

There is no direct benefit from taking part. Reasonable financial compensation will be made for your time, effort and expenses incurred from completing the study.

Who is overseeing the study?

The study will be supervised by the Clinical Toxicology department from St Thomas' Hospital, London. The research team includes a medical doctor (registrar or consultant) who will be present at all times.

What now?

All participant information will be anonymised and held confidentially. All participant information will be anonymised and held confidentially. If you are interested in taking part and would like to find more information please primarily address any enquires to the Chief Scientific Officer) at [email address deleted] were? you will be provided with a full participant information sheet.

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Schmidt OK with Barry,?Roger in Hall

Mike Schmidt says an awful lot I agree with in this interview with Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com. ?He doesn?t like it when people are accused of using PEDs without evidence and he hates the guilt-by-association that is so common when the topic comes up. What?s more, he has no problem with Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens being in the Hall of Fame.

Yep, we?re really on the same page here. But I don?t think even I?d go this far:

?I would not have a problem with Bonds or Clemens,? Schmidt said at Phillies camp. ?Here we are convicting them of PED use and we don?t know anything more than we read.?

Schmidt said he?d need to see ?a legitimate failed test? to bar a player from election to the Hall of Fame.

?I don?t think anyone that failed a legitimate test should be in,? Schmidt said. ?But I?d need to see a legitimate test to know if what we?re talking about was actual fact.?

I?ve read Game of Shadows. I think it?s safe to say that Barry Bonds took steroids, and I think we can say so without a test result. ?Clemens may be a bit more dicey, but I don?t think I?d choose to die on Roger Clemens Didn?t Take Steroids Hill in these PED battles we tend to have.

But really, I?d rather err on the side Schmidt is erring on than to fall in with the ?eyeball test? crowd.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/21/mike-schmidt-is-not-yet-convinced-that-barry-bonds-and-roger-clemens-took-steroids/related/

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Oil sands mining uses up almost as much energy as it produces

? David Dodge, Pembina Institute
Suncor Millenium oil sands mine on the east side of the Athabasca River in Alberta, Canada.

Thanks to high global oil prices, industry can afford the large amount of energy needed to extract the oil and turn it into a usable fuel.

The average "energy returned on investment," or EROI, for conventional oil is roughly 25:1. In other words, 25 units of oil-based energy are obtained for every one unit of other energy that is invested to extract it.

But tar sands oil is in a category all its own.

Tar sands retrieved by surface mining has an EROI of only about 5:1, according to research released Tuesday. Tar sands retrieved from deeper beneath the earth, through steam injection, fares even worse, with a maximum average ratio of just 2.9 to 1. That means one unit of natural gas is needed to create less than three units of oil-based energy.

"They have to use a lot of natural gas to upgrade this heavy, sticky, gooky almost tar-like stuff to make it fluid enough to use," said Charles Hall, a professor at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Hydrogen from gas heats the tar sands so the viscous form of petroleum it contains, known as bitumen, can be liquefied and pumped out of the ground. In this way, Hall said, gas helps turn tar sands "into something a bit closer to what we call oil."

With most of the world's highest quality resources already exhausted, companies are turning to formerly undesirable alternatives such as tar sands oil, which come with higher energetic price tags yet lower returns.

"We built our nation, economy and civilization on cheap energy - that's where this incredible growth of the U.S. economy has come from," said Hall, who coined the term EROI in 1979. "But that characteristic high energy return on investment fuel from much of the last century is no longer here."

The latest EROI values for tar sands were calculated by David Hughes, a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, a non-profit devoted to issues such as climate change and energy scarcity, based in Santa Rosa, Calif. The institute released Hughes' findings on Tuesday.

Hughes' figures include the energy it takes to mine bitumen as well as to upgrade it to synthetic oil that can be put into a refinery. It also includes the liquefied natural gas used to turn it into dilbit (diluted bitumen) so it can flow through pipelines.

Hall, who wasn't involved in Hughes' study, thinks the EROI for oil sands would fall closer to 1:1 if the tar sands' full life cycle - including transportation, refinement into higher quality products, end use efficiency and environmental costs - was taken into account.

Travis Davies, manager of media and issues at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, disputes Hughes' calculations. He said oil sands create 6 to 10 energy units for each energy unit used, but he did not cite a source for those figures.

Both Hughes and Hall think the new data should be factored into the debate over Canada's tar sands reserves, which cover an area about the size of Florida. Environmentalists argue that the oil sands should be left in the ground, because they produce much more carbon than other fossil fuels. The industry, supported by the Canadian government, says the oil sands are crucial to Canada's economy and can provide the United States with a reliable source of fuel from a friendly neighbor.

What isn't often mentioned, Hughes said, is the energy required to extract the oil, or the rate at which it can feasibly be recovered.

"Unless we talk about all three metrics - size of the resource, net energy and rate of supply - we're not getting the full story," he said.

Canada's Oil Sands Boom

The world currently burns through an estimated 88.25 million barrels of oil per day. As the supply of sweet, light crude diminishes, it is being replaced by unconventional alternatives, including tar sands.

Most unconventional energy sources have much lower efficiencies than conventional gas and oil, which operate at a combined energy-returned-on-investment ratio of about 18:1. Shale gas, for example, performs at about 6.5:1 to 7.6:1 - a bit better than the 2.9:1 to 5.1 for tar sands oil. Corn ethanol, with an EROI of about 1.3:1, sits at the bottom of the barrel for investment pay off.

"If you accept the fact that fossil fuels are finite - and I think most people would - then using a lot more fossil fuels for recovering energy as opposed to doing actual work basically uses them up quicker with no net payback in terms of useful work," Hughes said. "It's an issue of diminishing returns."

Canada is touted as having the third largest oil reserves in the world. But its supply of conventional oil is shrinking, and oil sands extraction has been growing fast in the past decade, from about 700,000 barrels per day in 2000 to 1.7 million today.

Hughes based his calculations on the 25.6 billion barrels of Canadian tar sands oil that are currently under active development. What concerns him more is the EROI of the estimated 143 billion additional barrels of oil sands that are sitting under Alberta's boreal forests, especially since only 8 percent of that oil is accessible via surface mining.

"Those EROI numbers are going to go down as we move away from the highest quality to the lesser quality parts of the resource," Hughes said. "I'd expect that downward shift to probably start about now."

When the entire life cycle of the fuels is considered - including production, transportation and burning the final product - the greenhouse gas differential between conventional oil and tar sands oil is about 20 percent, according to a 2011 study from Stanford University.

While no rigorous studies have been conducted on the association between diminishing EROI values and increased greenhouse gas emissions, Hughes thinks "it's a pretty safe assumption to make" that they are linked.

Those emissions are only going to increase as Canada ramps up to the 5 million barrels per day already approved for extraction, said Simon Dyer, policy director for the Pembina Institute, a Canadian non-profit focused on developing sustainable energy solutions.

"The impacts today are actually irrelevant compared to the tripling of emissions that hasn't yet expressed itself on the landscape," Dyer said. "At a time when we need to be de-carbonizing our economy and making moves to lower our sources of carbon energy, clearly oil sands are a step in the wrong direction."

More Than Just Dollars

Whether mining tar sands oil makes sense financially, depends on the world market price of oil - and on whether a company has already paid off its infrastructure costs or is building a new mine.

With the current price of synthetic crude oil sometimes dipping as low as $30 per barrel, a company that has paid off its infrastructure can still make a profit. For a company that's still building, however, the market price would have to be about $100 per barrel in order to justify construction, Hughes said.

"Cost-wise, this is the most expensive oil being produced today," Dyer said. "It's a pretty clear indicator that our solution to energy needs is not chasing lower and lower quality fossil fuel resources that come with higher impacts."

If oil sands oil eventually finds an easy outlet to the Gulf Coast - perhaps through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project - the price for upgraded synthetic oil will likely rise to reflect the world market value, currently $110 per barrel.

Profitability aside, the development of Canada's oil sands reserves will never offset declines in crude oil. At the world's current rate of oil consumption - 32.2 billion barrels per year - Canada's tar sands oil reserves remain at a finite 168.6 billion barrels, enough to keep the world fueled for less than six years.

Source: http://www.sott.net/article/258706-Oil-sands-mining-uses-up-almost-as-much-energy-as-it-produces

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