TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Gov. Chris Christie plans to raid New Jersey's clean energy fund of $152 million to help balance next year's budget.
The governor laid out his $32.9 billion spending proposal on Tuesday, outlining plans to increase public school aid and allow more poor people to enroll in Medicaid. But he didn't mention plans to transfer money for clean energy rebates into the general fund for the fourth straight year.
The money is paid by utility users and is supposed to encourage residents to buy energy-efficient appliances and weatherize their homes.
Christie took $89 million from the fund this year and $210 million the year before.
Sen. Bob Smith of Piscataway says the way the governor is using the money amounts to an additional tax on residents.
Another quiet week on the blog, I?m afraid, but a busy one in real life. On Monday, I finished piecing together my next blog. After I write all of the pages and move, it?ll be ready to launch? and I?m so excited to make it public! Also that day, my interview with the Toronto Star finally made it?s way into the paper (along with a picture of a Starbucks cup, go figure), so I picked up a couple copies for the fam.
While it was a short work week, it was still a busy one. It?s crazy to think I?m only in the office for 4.5 more weeks before moving and starting to work remotely? eek! Finally, for the last two days I?ve been suffering from the craziest spat of vertigo. Have any of you ever experienced it!? Simply sitting and feeling like the room is spinning around you is totally bizarre. I?m heading to the clinic this morning, to see if anything can be done to make it go away quickly, but I?ve been told not to get my hopes up.
Anyway, I?m sorry I haven?t updated the blog all week ? there just hasn?t been much to say. But I thought I?d finish the week with a fun little questionnaire. Last week, Tonya filled it out on her blog, and she was prompted by a couple other girls who did it before her. So, since she so kindly referenced Blonde on a Budget as one of the blogs that inspired her to start writing, I thought I?d respond by answering the same questions for all of you.
Hope you all have a great weekend!
?
1) How did you come up with your blog name?
To be honest, I can?t remember. I could say that I was simply stating the obvious but I think I just thought it sounded catchy and, fortunately, no other bloggers were using the name already.
2) Which bloggers inspired you when you first started writing?
The first personal finance blog I ever came across ended up being anonymously written by a friend of mine from college (and from a program that only accepted 27 students each year ? talk about a small world). I?ll never forget going through her blog and recognizing that the picture the author used was the same one my friend had on her Facebook profile. ?Krystal, is this your blog!?? I had outed her. Aside from Krystal?s debt repayment story, the two bloggers who inspired me the most were Katie for her incredible commitment to staying frugal while paying down debt and Money Maus?for her?ability to save tens of thousands of dollars. Today, I am honoured to call these women my friends.
3) Why write about finance?
I hate answering a question with a question but? why not write about finance!? Debt repayment has been the #1 priority in my life since June 2011. Writing about this journey not only helped me stay accountable for my actions, it also gave me a support network and lit a passion inside of me that I never knew existed.
4a) What do you enjoy most about blogging?
I?ve been blogging in some form, for as long as I can remember. While some communicators are excellent speakers, I think writing is the best tool I have, when it comes to presenting myself and my ideas. I love brainstorming new blog post topics, writing, rewriting and moving all of my words around. That might sound painful to some people but writing and editing a post so it tells a story from beginning to end is totally satisfying. (Seriously, I will re-read posts 20x to make sure it feels ?complete?.)
4b) What do you enjoy least about blogging?
I guess I shouldn?t say ?nothing? but, to be honest, there isn?t any part of blogging that I don?t enjoy. Sure, I?ve lost hours of sleep to get posts up, or to reply to comments and emails, but writing is something I love to do. I guess the only part I don?t like is when I don?t know what to write about but I feel obligated to post something. I think I?m slowly starting to get over that though?
5) What?s the most helpful piece of advice you have learned from reading other PF blogs?
That?s a tough question to answer, because there is a lot of great advice out there. I?m going to go back to the three women who have inspired me most and say the biggest lessons I?ve learned are: do whatever it takes to pay off your debt, build up an Emergency Fund when you?re done, and aggressively save for your retirement after that.
6) In terms of finance, what is your main focus at the moment?
Obviously, paying off the remainder of my debt. (As of next week, I?ll be in the $4,000?s!)
7) If you could give your younger self financial advice, what would it be?
A credit card is not a second bank account. Plain and simple.
8) Who in your real life knows about your blog?
Everyone! I ?came out? and told my family and friends about my blog in April 2012. Telling my parents (especially my dad) was absolutely terrifying? but writing anonymously was so freaking stressful! It?s incredible being able to share my life and my story with anyone I know who may want to read about it.
9) Does your real job have anything to do with finance or money?
Oh, it certainly does! The only reason I have my job is because my boss read Blonde on a Budget. Now I?m the managing editor of one (soon to be two) websites that help Canadians understand the home buying (and mortgage-getting) process in the simplest terms possible. (And you won?t believe how much the new site has to do with personal finance? will explain more, when it launches!)
10) What?s the first thing you would do if you won a million dollars?
Pay off my debt. Second, I?d pay off the last of my parents? mortgage. Third, I?d put a little bit in two separate savings accounts for Baby Bro and Baby Sis. Finally, I?d pay for a house with cash. (Can you imagine!?)
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford?s legal team says it cost more than $116,000 to fight his conflict-of-interest case, and after winning his appeal they are asking the citizen who launched the lawsuit to pay up.
As is normal in Canada?s loser-pays court system, Mr. Ford?s lawyer, Alan Lenczner, has filed his client?s legal bill with the Ontario Divisional Court, where the mayor won a reversal of a lower-court ruling that had ordered him out of office for violating conflict-of-interest rules.
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The bill for $107,070 in legal fees and $9,335.12, including HST, for expenses such as photocopying, transcripts and phone bills, covers both Mr. Ford?s initial court fight, his request for leave to appeal, and his appeal. In all, two lawyers and two articling students were involved.
In his submission to Divisional Court, Mr. Lenczner says the costs are ?entirely reasonable? noting that lawyer Clayton Ruby, acting for Paul Magder, the citizen who filed the conflict complaint against the mayor, had asked for $150,746 in costs for just the initial fight before the Ontario Superior Court. Mr. Ruby has not submitted his costs for the Divisional Court case. His bill for the lower court case was not paid, as the decision was appealed.
Mr. Lenczner argues that his costs are within Mr. Magder?s ?reasonable expectation? since Mr. Ruby states in his court submission that his client was bearing the risk of having to pay his opponent?s legal bills. Plus, Mr. Lenczner says, Mr. Ruby was acting pro bono, meaning Mr. Magder will not have to cover his own legal costs.
Mr. Magder ?understood even before the inception of his Application that, if he was successful, his lawyers would receive costs from Ford which they would keep in their entirety. He also understood that, if he was unsuccessful, he would have to indemnify Rob Ford for his costs on a partial indemnity basis but not be required to pay his own lawyers,? Mr. Lenczner?s submission reads.
The Divisional Court could agree with the submitted bill, or it could disagree and order Mr. Magder to pay a smaller amount.?
If the court opts for a reduced amount, council was advised at its meeting this week that the mayor could be reimbursed for his court costs if he files an application.
Mr. Ruby was unavailable for comment.
The mayor?s conflict-of-interest case centred on a council debate last year on a ruling by the city?s integrity commission in which Mr. Ford voted to let himself off the hook in repaying $3,150 in donations to his football foundation made by lobbyists at city hall.
The mayor had been ordered removed from office in November, but that ruling was overturned last month? by the appeal court.
In light of the findings of the appeal court, the mayor?s brother Doug Ford said Thursday the integrity commissioner should step down, or at a minimum make a formal public apology to the mayor.
?Through her lack of due diligence, she has almost destroyed a family. The least she could do is apologizing,? the Etobicoke councillor said. ??It should not have gone to court. Because of her decision, it ended up causing major hurt, not only to Rob and his family, to the city. It was unstable there for a month or so because of her decision.
In Mr. Magder?s lawyers? initial cost submission after the initial lower-court win, his lawyers justified their $150,000 bill by highlighting the ?significant research? required on the ?somewhat vague? Municipal Confli ct of Interest Act, and that Mr. Ford?s ?long tenure on City Council? meant sorting through ?a large amount of materials? relating to the mayor?s ?previous conflicts of interests.?
They also blamed the mayor for drawing things out by raising issues of jurisdiction and whether the city was overreaching its authority late in the proceedings, contesting a move to have Mr. Ford testify.
Mr. Magder, lawyers also blamed Mr. Ford?s inconsistency during the proceedings, which required extra legal research to be undertaken: ?The respondent suggested in his sworn affidavit that City staff had an obligation to advise him of conflicts of interests. It was later conceded... that staff were under no such obligation.?
They also said Mr. Ford ?failed to recall many important facts during his out-of-court cross-examination? such as whether he received training or guidance on conflict of interest issues, his discussions with city staff, and why he once previously declared a conflict-of-interest at council.
Pope Benedict's legacy may be a willingness to let liberal Catholics leave in favor of a more orthodox church in the US and Europe.
By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / February 11, 2013
Pope Benedict XVI delivers his message during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, at the Vatican, Monday. Pope Benedict announced Monday that he would resign at the end of the month - the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years.
Courtesy of L'Osservatore Romano/AP
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Pope Benedict resigns later this month after arguably being the single most influential figure inside the Roman Catholic Church for three decades, dating to the early 1980s.
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A shy but brilliant scholar whose consistent vision has been to reinstitute the grand authority held by the Vatican in the Middle Ages, Benedict has, often single-handedly, redirected his church away from the liberal experiments and sometimes amateurish enthusiasms of the Vatican II period of the 1960s, which conservatives saw as a dangerous diversion. He has also, over years, instituted doctrines, individuals, and orders consistent with his theological view of the Catholic Church as the true and only authentic one.
While not as widely beloved as his predecessor John Paul II, the popular Polish pope who helped crack the Soviet hold on eastern Europe and attracted global crowds, Benedict arguably has had more influence inside the church ??even as he often irritated Protestants who he said were not "authentic" Christians, angered Muslims by put-downs of Islamic figures, or unsettled Jewish-Catholic relations by rehabilitating a fringe religious society with a bishop who denied the severity of the Nazi holocaust.
Benedict's chief occupation as pope has been, observers say, to purify his church.?
To do so, Benedict crushed the liberation theology movements of the?third world, put a slammer hold on efforts to ordain women and question celibacy, put earlier ecumenical impulses on the back burner, and, instead, has greatly empowered more hardcore orders like Opus Dei, Legions of Christ, and other orthodox wings, largely on the idea that the church must first cherish its most ardent believers.
Yet, while Benedict has won many battles inside the church, he is also widely seen as having lost many larger wars that he either instituted or took part in.
Benedict?s effort to reinstitute Christianity in its European context has largely failed to generate enthusiasm on a continent increasingly secular. While in pursuit of liberal priests and nuns who he implied were polluting the church with wrong doctrines, Benedict has appeared to many Europeans to be too inattentive to priests who sexually abused minors, of whom there are an estimated 8,000. The revelations of sexually abusive priests in Germany, Ireland, Belgium, and Austria two years ago brought a change to the story line that such problems were restricted to the United States.?
For fully believing Catholics, the Roman church is a divine, not a human institution; its leader, the pope, is the ?vicar of Christ,? the direct spiritual descendant of Jesus Christ and his disciple Peter. The kingdom of heaven on earth that Jesus asked his followers to pray for, must, in orthodox Catholic doctrine, come through the Catholic Church and the pope, also known as the Holy Father.
For many modern-thinking or non-literal Catholics, particularly after the long-running church self-examination known as Vatican II, those orthodox doctrines of the identity of the church and the pope were put in question and thrown open for new interpretation.
Vatican II lead, though often quite indirectly, to a massive re-evaluation of things like the operation of the spirit in the church, the possibility of women being ordained as priests, a faint questioning of the doctrine, only adopted in pre-medieval Europe, of celibacy, and of more "democracy"?or power by the laity or non-clergy members in matters of church governance.
For a rising college theology professor named Joseph Ratzinger, these new interpretations were viewed with increasing horror. They often lacked seriousness, were sloppy, and seemed chaotic and undignified.
As then-Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict took office in 1982 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the same office that earlier conducted or oversaw heresy trials. Yet while that office has a five-year term and most predecessors held it for 10 years at most, Ratzinger stayed 24 years, only leaving to become pope in 2005.
Now, as Catholics think through their future they will do so with a set of cardinals, bishops, priests, and church authorities that have largely been vetted through the orthodox filter set up by the Bavarian-born pontiff.
Indeed, a church hierarchy carefully pruned of liberal and ecumenical impulses may be one of Benedict?s enduring legacies, though it has brought the current pontiff into serious disagreements with powerful orders, like the Jesuits, that previously saw themselves as the main defenders of Rome.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Robin Roberts, a co-host of ABC's "Good Morning America," returned to the popular morning news show on Wednesday, five months after a bone-marrow transplant for a rare blood disorder that was triggered by cancer treatment.
Roberts, 52, was welcomed back with a special edition of the show that began with a taped message from President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.
"Good morning, America, and welcome back, Robin," the first lady said.
Roberts said she had waited 174 days to return to the show and was pinching herself so she knew it was real.
"This is really happening," she said. "Faith, family and friends have brought me to this moment and I am so full of gratitude."
Roberts took a medical leave of absence in August to fight the blood disorder myelodysplastic syndrome. Five years earlier she had been treated for breast cancer.
ABC News announced that Roberts will interview Mrs. Obama later this week for next Tuesday's show. The first lady's program to fight childhood obesity will be among the topics.
"Robin, we just want you to know that the whole Obama family, we've been thinking about you and praying for you and rooting for you every step of the way," Mrs. Obama said in the message.
Oprah and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were among the celebrities who offered Roberts their best wishes on her return to "Good Morning America," which has bumped NBC's "Today" show from the top spot in the ratings last year.
The show has remained ahead while Roberts was away as guests co-hosts filled in for her.
Roberts said she first realized something was wrong with her health a year ago while covering the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. She saw a doctor after suffering from exhaustion and the blood disorder was discovered.
Her doctors said they will monitor her condition to make sure she does not overdo it. The nurses and doctors who cared for her were on the show Wednesday, along with her siblings and friends.
(Reporting by Noreen O'Donnell; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Bill Trott)
Feb. 20, 2013 ? NASA's Kepler mission scientists have discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to our sun.
The planets are located in a system called Kepler-37, about 210 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. The smallest planet, Kepler-37b, is slightly larger than our moon, measuring about one-third the size of Earth. It is smaller than Mercury, which made its detection a challenge.
The moon-size planet and its two companion planets were found by scientists with NASA's Kepler mission, which is designed to find Earth-sized planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of an orbiting planet. However, while the star in Kepler-37 may be similar to our sun, the system appears quite unlike the solar system in which we live.
Astronomers think Kepler-37b does not have an atmosphere and cannot support life as we know it. The tiny planet almost certainly is rocky in composition. Kepler-37c, the closer neighboring planet, is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring almost three-quarters the size of Earth. Kepler-37d, the farther planet, is twice the size of Earth.
The first exoplanets found to orbit a normal star were giants. As technologies have advanced, smaller and smaller planets have been found, and Kepler has shown that even Earth-size exoplanets are common.
"Even Kepler can only detect such a tiny world around the brightest stars it observes," said Jack Lissauer, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "The fact we've discovered tiny Kepler-37b suggests such little planets are common, and more planetary wonders await as we continue to gather and analyze additional data."
Kepler-37's host star belongs to the same class as our sun, although it is slightly cooler and smaller. All three planets orbit the star at less than the distance Mercury is to the sun, suggesting they are very hot, inhospitable worlds. Kepler-37b orbits every 13 days at less than one-third Mercury's distance from the sun. The estimated surface temperature of this smoldering planet, at more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Kelvin), would be hot enough to melt the zinc in a penny. Kepler-37c and Kepler-37d, orbit every 21 days and 40 days, respectively.
"We uncovered a planet smaller than any in our solar system orbiting one of the few stars that is both bright and quiet, where signal detection was possible," said Thomas Barclay, Kepler scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in Sonoma, Calif., and lead author of the new study published in the journal Nature. "This discovery shows close-in planets can be smaller, as well as much larger, than planets orbiting our sun."
The research team used data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, which simultaneously and continuously measures the brightness of more than 150,000 stars every 30 minutes. When a planet candidate transits, or passes, in front of the star from the spacecraft's vantage point, a percentage of light from the star is blocked. This causes a dip in the brightness of the starlight that reveals the transiting planet's size relative to its star.
The size of the star must be known in order to measure the planet's size accurately. To learn more about the properties of the star Kepler-37, scientists examined sound waves generated by the boiling motion beneath the surface of the star. They probed the interior structure of Kepler-37's star just as geologists use seismic waves generated by earthquakes to probe the interior structure of Earth. The science is called asteroseismology.
The sound waves travel into the star and bring information back up to the surface. The waves cause oscillations that Kepler observes as a rapid flickering of the star's brightness. Like bells in a steeple, small stars ring at high tones while larger stars boom in lower tones. The barely discernible, high-frequency oscillations in the brightness of small stars are the most difficult to measure. This is why most objects previously subjected to asteroseismic analysis are larger than the sun.
With the very high precision of the Kepler instrument, astronomers have reached a new milestone. The star Kepler-37, with a radius just three-quarters of the sun, now is the smallest bell in the asteroseismology steeple. The radius of the star is known to three percent accuracy, which translates to exceptional accuracy in the planet's size.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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Journal Reference:
Thomas Barclay, Jason F. Rowe, Jack J. Lissauer, Daniel Huber, Fran?ois Fressin, Steve B. Howell, Stephen T. Bryson, William J. Chaplin, Jean-Michel D?sert, Eric D. Lopez, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Fergal Mullally, Darin Ragozzine, Guillermo Torres, Elisabeth R. Adams, Eric Agol, David Barrado, Sarbani Basu, Timothy R. Bedding, Lars A. Buchhave, David Charbonneau, Jessie L. Christiansen, J?rgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, David Ciardi, William D. Cochran, Andrea K. Dupree, Yvonne Elsworth, Mark Everett, Debra A. Fischer, Eric B. Ford, Jonathan J. Fortney, John C. Geary, Michael R. Haas, Rasmus Handberg, Saskia Hekker, Christopher E. Henze, Elliott Horch, Andrew W. Howard, Roger C. Hunter, Howard Isaacson, Jon M. Jenkins, Christoffer Karoff, Steven D. Kawaler, Hans Kjeldsen, Todd C. Klaus, David W. Latham, Jie Li, Jorge Lillo-Box, Mikkel N. Lund, Mia Lundkvist, Travis S. Metcalfe, Andrea Miglio, Robert L. Morris, Elisa V. Quintana, Dennis Stello, Jeffrey C. Smith, Martin Still, Susan E. Thompson. A sub-Mercury-sized exoplanet. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature11914
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The hard-working teen?who's currently in London for the Brit Awards?had a crazy time out on the town last night and E! News has all the details.
So, how does an international superstar celebrate across the pond??
Justin Bieber shares family photos, kisses lil bro goodnight
First, the singer-songwriter went to modern Indian cuisine restaurant Mint Leaf for a late dinner at 9:45 p.m., according to our source, before heading back to his hotel.
From there, the Biebs rocked out at Roadhouse, a trendy late-night restaurant-bar located in the heart of Covent Garden.
But that's not all! Afterward, Justin went to Amika, a stylish club in Kensington, before finishing up the night at the members-only British Luxury London Club at 4 a.m., where he left with two girls, according to an eyewitness.?
Justin Bieber slams Black Keys drummer
"we are a good time," the Believe singer tweeted last night.?
A good time, indeed! Don't you wish you were 18 again?
Syrians inspect destruction following an apparent surface-to-surface missile strike on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Feb. 19. The attack killed at least 20 people and another 25 were missing, opposition activists said on Tuesday. The missile was identified from its remains as a Scud-type rocket that government forces have increasingly used in areas under opposition control in the province of Aleppo and in the province of Deir a-Zor to the east, they said.
Hamid Khatib / Reuters
A member of the Free Syrian Army along with civilians search for survivors after a Syrian army rocket attack on the rebel-held Jabal Badro district in the city of Aleppo, on Feb. 19.
A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.
Reuters -- A Syrian army rocket attack on a rebel-held district in the city of Aleppo killed at least 20 people and another 25 were missing, opposition activists said on Tuesday.
The missile was identified from its remains as a Scud-type rocket that government forces have increasingly used in areas under opposition control in the province of Aleppo and in the province of Deir a-Zor to the east, they said.
"The rocket brought down three adjacent buildings in Jabal Badro district. The bodies are being dug up gradually. Some, including children, have died in hospitals," Mohammad Nour said by phone from Aleppo. He said testimony from survivors indicated that 25 people were still under the rubble.
Continue reading.
Hamid Khatib / Reuters
A member of the Free Syrian Army sits near where a Syrian army rocket attack took place at the rebel-held Jabal Badro district in the city of Aleppo, on Feb. 19.
Amateur video from Aleppo, Syria, captures the scene of an alleged rocket attack by Syrian forces that left at least 20 people dead. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
A spoon-billed sandpiper. One of the world's most critically endangered species, the 6-inch-tall (15 centimeters) bird faces extinction within 10 years.
By Becky Oskin LiveScience
This could be the first and last high-definition video of a spoon-billed sandpiper chick emerging from its nest.
One of the world's most critically endangered species, the 6-inch-tall (15 centimeters) bird faces extinction within 10 years, according to a statement from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which released the video. Only about 100 pairs were counted at its breeding grounds in the Russian Far East last year, and the population has declined 25 percent annually in recent years. (There were also 100 juveniles.)
The Cornell Lab sent videographer Gerrit Vyn to Chukotka, Russia, to document the sandpipers' sounds and behavior at a remote nesting site in 2011. The lab recently released the videos online to draw attention to the species' plight.
"The spoon-billed sandpiper is one of the most remarkable little birds on Earth, and it may go extinct before most people even realize it was here," John Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said in the statement. "We hope that with this priceless video footage we quickly connect people, conservation organizations and governments to these amazing birds, and galvanize an international conservation effort."
First moments of life One video captures the first moments of life as the tiny, fluffy, brown-and-white chicks stumble out of the nest, pecking for food. "They feed themselves from day one," Vyn said in the video. [Watch the chick hatching.]
Vyn camped out in?a tent and a blind, with only a sleeping bag for warmth, waiting for the eggs to hatch. "It was an incredibly exciting time for me, exciting and nerve-wracking waiting for three days in this windstorm for these four eggs to hatch," he said. Vyn filmed the only nest with eggs in 2011: The other 20 eggs were bred in captivity and the chicks released in Russia to make their 4,971-mile (8,000 kilometer) migration to Southeast Asia.
Much of the?bird's decline is due to habitat loss from development?and subsistence hunting along its migratory path and winter home in Southeast Asia seacoasts, scientists think. For example, the 20-mile-long (32 km) Saemangeum seawall in South Korea cut off 170 square miles (440 square km) of estuary and tidal flats, feeding grounds for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds and a primary stopping site for spoon-billed sandpipers. And shorebirds are a food source for people living along the coastal mudflats of Myanmar and other nearby countries, the Cornell Lab said in a statement.
Documenting a disappearing species Common foraging behaviors here on the breeding grounds are surprisingly different from the way they feed on the wintering grounds, according to the Cornell lab. On the breeding grounds, the birds feed on insects, especially midges, mosquitoes, flies, beetles and spiders, as well as grass seeds and berries. On the wintering grounds and during migration, they eat marine invertebrates, including polychaete worms and shrimp.
Another video?by Vyn shows a mated spoon-billed sandpiper pair foraging along the edge of a snowmelt pond in Chukotka.
Vyn also captured rarely seen courtship behavior between adult spoon-billed sandpipers. This video, shot during the first few days of a pair's seasonal courtship, includes an attempted copulation and a nest scrape display.
The spoon-billed sandpiper population in Russian has been tracked since 1977, when a survey estimated 2,500 breeding pairs in Chukotka. By 2003 the population had dropped to around 500 pairs. In 2008, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature listed the species as critically endangered on its Red List.
Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's economy is expected to grow at a speedy 6.75 percent this year, driven by progress in agriculture, banking and oil, while high inflation rates should ease slightly, data showed on Monday.
Both will add to the reputation of Africa's top oil producer as a growing investment destination with a huge consumer market of 160 million people. Demand for its sovereign debt, for example, has soared since JP Morgan added it to its emerging bond index last year.
The kidnapping by gunmen of a Briton, an Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese workers in Bauchi state on Sunday, however, underlined that there are risks to investment outlook.
The National Bureau of Statistics forecast this year's growth to be slightly faster than in 2012, 6.75 percent compared with 6.61 percent.
It said gross domestic product should expand by an average of 7.2 percent next year, 6.9 percent in 2015 and 6.6 percent in 2016, adding that the projections assumed no change to monetary policy, stable fuel prices and a stable external environment.
Social strains, epitomized by the weekend's kidnapping, may undermine some investor sentiment, however. It was the worst case of foreigners being abducted in the north since an insurgency by Islamists intensified nearly two years ago.
There is also a longer history of kidnapping and oil theft in the southern oil region.
And despite solid growth, the gap between rich and poor is widening, contributing to unrest and violence. Unemployment is 23 percent, while youth unemployment is double that and most people live on less than $2-a-day.
WORKING ON GROWTH
Government pledges to improve infrastructure and support job-creating areas such as agriculture will be key to the economy and stability but reforms have been slow over the last two years, hampered by vested interests and corruption.
Investors have been pleased with the stability brought to monetary policy and the macro-economy in recent months but they remain wary of the government's tendency to squander its oil windfall on reckless spending and corruption.
Foreign exchange reserves are at more than a 3-year high and the stock index is up around 18 percent this year as investors show faith in local debt markets and the oil, banking and telecommunication sectors.
Plans later this year to rebase Nigeria's GDP, which have been repeatedly delayed in the past, could push it close to the size of South Africa, the continent's top economy.
The statistics office said consumer inflation eased to 9 percent year-on-year in January from 12 percent in December, dropping within the central bank's single-digit target range.
The bank's governor said last week that he was in no hurry to cut interest rates even if inflation fell.
Food price inflation, the biggest contributor to the headline index, eased to 10.1 percent in January from 10.2 percent, NBS statistics showed.
Russian fireball largest ever detected by CTBTO's infrasound sensorsPublic release date: 19-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Annika Thunborg annika.thunborg@ctbto.org 43-126-030-6375 Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear?Test?Ban Treaty Organization
Infrasonic waves from the meteor that broke up over Russia's Ural mountains last week were the largest ever recorded by the CTBTO's International Monitoring System. Infrasound is low frequency sound with a range of less than 10 Hz. The blast was detected by 17 infrasound stations in the CTBTO's network, which tracks atomic blasts across the planet. The furthest station to record the sub-audible sound was 15,000km away in Antarctica.
The origin of the low frequency sound waves from the blast was estimated at 03:22 GMT on 15 February 2013. People cannot hear the low frequency waves that were emitted but they were recorded by the CTBTO's network of sensors as they travelled across continents.
"We saw straight away that the event would be huge, in the same order as the Sulawesi event from 2009. The observations are some of the largest that CTBTO's infrasound stations have detected," CTBTO acoustic scientist, Pierrick Mialle said.
Until last week, the bolide explosion above Sulawesi, Indonesia, in October 2009 was the largest infrasound event registered by 15 stations in the CTBTO's network.
Infrasound has been used as part of the CTBTO's tools to detect atomic blasts since April 2001 when the first station came online in Germany. Data from the stations is sent in near real time to Vienna, Austria, for analysis at the CTBTO's headquarters. Both the raw and analysed data are provided to all Member States.
"We know it's not a fixed explosion because we can see the change in direction as the meteorite moves towards the earth. It's not a single explosion, it's burning, traveling faster than the speed of sound. That's how we distinguish it from mining blasts or volcanic eruptions.
"Scientists all around the world will be using the CTBTO's data in the next months and year to come, to better understand this phenomena and to learn more about the altitude, energy released and how the meteor broke up," Mialle said.
The infrasound station at Qaanaaq, Greenland was among those that recorded the meteor explosion in Russia. There are currently 45 infrasound stations in the CTBTO's network that measure micropressure changes in the atmosphere generated by infrasonic waves. Like meteor blasts, atomic explosions produce their own distinctive, low frequency sound waves that can travel across continents.
Infrasound is one of four technologies (including seismic, hydroacoustic and radionuclide) the CTBTO uses to monitor the globe for violations of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that bans all nuclear explosions.
Seismic signals from the meteor were also detected at several Kazakh stations close to the explosion and impact area. In the accompanying video file, you can listen to the audio files of the infrasound recording after it has been filtered and the signal accelerated.
Days before the meteor on 12 February 2013, the CTBTO's seismic network detected an unusual seismic event in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which measured 4.9 in magnitude. Later that morning, the DPRK announced that it had conducted a nuclear test. The event was registered by 94 seismic stations and two infrasound stations in the CTBTO's network. The data processing and analysis are designed to weed out natural events and focus on those events that might be explosions, including nuclear explosions.
###
For further information on the CTBT, please see www.ctbto.org your resource on ending nuclear testing, or contact:
Annika Thunborg
Spokesperson and Chief
Public Information
T 43-1-26030-6375
E annika.thunborg@ctbto.org
M 43-699-1459-6375
I www.ctbto.org
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Russian fireball largest ever detected by CTBTO's infrasound sensorsPublic release date: 19-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Annika Thunborg annika.thunborg@ctbto.org 43-126-030-6375 Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear?Test?Ban Treaty Organization
Infrasonic waves from the meteor that broke up over Russia's Ural mountains last week were the largest ever recorded by the CTBTO's International Monitoring System. Infrasound is low frequency sound with a range of less than 10 Hz. The blast was detected by 17 infrasound stations in the CTBTO's network, which tracks atomic blasts across the planet. The furthest station to record the sub-audible sound was 15,000km away in Antarctica.
The origin of the low frequency sound waves from the blast was estimated at 03:22 GMT on 15 February 2013. People cannot hear the low frequency waves that were emitted but they were recorded by the CTBTO's network of sensors as they travelled across continents.
"We saw straight away that the event would be huge, in the same order as the Sulawesi event from 2009. The observations are some of the largest that CTBTO's infrasound stations have detected," CTBTO acoustic scientist, Pierrick Mialle said.
Until last week, the bolide explosion above Sulawesi, Indonesia, in October 2009 was the largest infrasound event registered by 15 stations in the CTBTO's network.
Infrasound has been used as part of the CTBTO's tools to detect atomic blasts since April 2001 when the first station came online in Germany. Data from the stations is sent in near real time to Vienna, Austria, for analysis at the CTBTO's headquarters. Both the raw and analysed data are provided to all Member States.
"We know it's not a fixed explosion because we can see the change in direction as the meteorite moves towards the earth. It's not a single explosion, it's burning, traveling faster than the speed of sound. That's how we distinguish it from mining blasts or volcanic eruptions.
"Scientists all around the world will be using the CTBTO's data in the next months and year to come, to better understand this phenomena and to learn more about the altitude, energy released and how the meteor broke up," Mialle said.
The infrasound station at Qaanaaq, Greenland was among those that recorded the meteor explosion in Russia. There are currently 45 infrasound stations in the CTBTO's network that measure micropressure changes in the atmosphere generated by infrasonic waves. Like meteor blasts, atomic explosions produce their own distinctive, low frequency sound waves that can travel across continents.
Infrasound is one of four technologies (including seismic, hydroacoustic and radionuclide) the CTBTO uses to monitor the globe for violations of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that bans all nuclear explosions.
Seismic signals from the meteor were also detected at several Kazakh stations close to the explosion and impact area. In the accompanying video file, you can listen to the audio files of the infrasound recording after it has been filtered and the signal accelerated.
Days before the meteor on 12 February 2013, the CTBTO's seismic network detected an unusual seismic event in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which measured 4.9 in magnitude. Later that morning, the DPRK announced that it had conducted a nuclear test. The event was registered by 94 seismic stations and two infrasound stations in the CTBTO's network. The data processing and analysis are designed to weed out natural events and focus on those events that might be explosions, including nuclear explosions.
###
For further information on the CTBT, please see www.ctbto.org your resource on ending nuclear testing, or contact:
Annika Thunborg
Spokesperson and Chief
Public Information
T 43-1-26030-6375
E annika.thunborg@ctbto.org
M 43-699-1459-6375
I www.ctbto.org
[ | 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.
Natalie Portman accepts the Best Actress award at the 2011 Oscars.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Slate has updated this article and interactive feature to reflect the 2012 Oscars.
When Daniel Day-Lewis wins his third Oscar on Sunday night?an event as likely as last year's Best Actor Jean Dujardin struggling adorably with "Quvenzhan? Wallis" while reading the Best Actress nominees?whom will he thank? After Day-Lewis?s first win for My Left Foot, he thanked only Christy Brown, the man he'd played in the film. The second time he held an Oscar aloft, for There Will Be Blood, he was more effusive, mentioning family members by name and focusing his speech on his director Paul Thomas Anderson?s "mad, beautiful head." Who will this new speech focus on? With the heightened emotion an Oscar win brings, how do the stars ever remember who to thank?especially with the academy requesting that winners speak ?from your heart, not from a piece of paper??
This Sunday, three more actors will win Oscars along with Day-Lewis, and one more historical performance will be required of each of them: the acceptance speech. During the past 11 years, 43 actors have given acceptance speeches during the Oscar ceremony. (We?ve updated our interactive from last year with the four winners from 2012.) ?Morgan Freeman delivered a 32-second moment of grace. Halle Berry?s speech was a 4.5-minute aria of gratitude. (Heath Ledger, of course, could not deliver a speech at all.) I watched and catalogued each one to see what patterns emerged. It?s my firm belief that what comes out in the moment?or doesn?t?is a true reflection of feeling, whether the speech feels rehearsed and polished or immediate and spazzy. And in Hollywood?and what?s more Hollywood than the Oscars??billing matters.
First is best, of course. Agents may battle for top billing on their clients? behalf, but they rarely get it themselves on Oscar night?just one acting-Oscar winner recently, Tilda Swinton, thanked an agent before thanking anyone else. Last in the speech is also special; if you can?t get top billing, make sure you get the ?And ? ? spot that in a film?s credits might be reserved for the biggest star of all. At last year's ceremony Christopher Plummer ended with a gorgeous, self-deprecating tribute to his wife, Elaine, "who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for coming to my rescue every day of my life." Meryl Streep, on the other hand, thought this move too risky and placed Don Gummer first "because when you thank your husband at the end of the speech, they play him out with the music." Meryl's fears aside?really, who would ever dare play off Meryl Streep??most winners end with a loved one, usually a spouse or child?even an unborn child. Catherine Zeta-Jones was very pregnant when she won for Chicago at the 75th Oscars (?My hormones are just too way out of control!?) and ended by mentioning that she?d share the Oscar with her impending arrival.
The tool below allows you to see who was thanked in each actor's speech and when: first, second, third, in the rabble in the middle, or in that glorious final position.
The graph below illustrates the number of times Oscar-winning actors have thanked each type of entity since 2002. Each block represents an entity thanked, and its color represents the order in which it was thanked.
First Billing
Second Billing
Third Billing
Supporting Players
And Featuring
Industry
Other
Producer
Co-star
Family
Director
Cast and crew
The Academy
Spouse
Child
Writer
Nominee
Role portrayed
God
Cast and Crew
Certainly it?s better to come last than to be forgotten entirely. It?s perhaps ungenerous to remind them, but here goes: Best Actress and Million Dollar Baby Hilary Swank attempted to apologize to her husband, Chad Lowe, at the 77th Oscars for forgetting to thank him the first time she won, but she couldn?t help but congratulate herself in the process: ?I'm going to start by thanking my husband, because I'd like to think I learn from past mistakes.? They were divorced two years later. Sean Penn thanked Robin Wright the first time he won for Mystic River at the 2003 Oscars but forgot her when he took home his second for Milk. They divorced a year later.
Winners are most likely to become choked up when they mention their family members, which could be one reason they save them for the finale. Moms are referenced most often, though dads are hardly snubbed. Occasionally a winner will mix it up with an inspirational grandparent. When Jamie Foxx told a loving story about his grandmother repeatedly whipping him, the atmosphere in the room seemed to change from exhilarated to should we be clapping?
Though it seems a clich? to thank fellow nominees, it actually happens less often than you think. That?s why Sandra Bullock?s extremely generous speech for The Blind Side at the 2009 Oscars?wherein she addressed each and every one of her fellow nominees by name?was so unusual; no wonder she?s beloved in the industry.
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Public release date: 19-Feb-2013
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Natalie Portman accepts the Best Actress award at the 2011 Oscars.
