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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/bOM76GOrwx4/story01.htm
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Friday, January 6, 2012
Rumor: Apple to ship Retina display iPad 3 in March, iPad 4 in October
Randomly accurate rumor site Digitimes suggests that, according to industry sources out of Taiwan, Apple will release a Retina display iPad 3 in March, then turn around and ship a
How male spiders use eavesdropping to one-up their rivals
ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2012) ? Researchers have made a new discovery into the complex world of spiders that reflects what some might perceive as similar behavior in human society. As male wolf spiders go searching for a mate, it appears they eavesdrop, match and even try to outdo the mating dances of their successful rivals, a behavior seen mainly in vertebrate animals.
The study co-authored by David Clark, a professor of biology at Alma College; J. Andrew Roberts, an associate professor in the department of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at The Ohio State University at Newark; and George W. Uetz, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Cincinnati; is published this month in Biology Letters, a journal of the Royal Society of London.
"Eavesdropping on the communication of others is widespread among animals and often serves as a means of obtaining information. For example, studies of birds, mammals and fish have shown that male bystanders observing male-male contests can learn about the strengths of potential opponents, while female observers may copy the mate choices of others," says Clark, the lead author and co-investigator on the study. "This new discovery shows that male wolf spiders also eavesdrop on the visual signals of courting males."
Those visual signals included a leg-tapping mating dance of the male wolf spiders. As part of the research project, the spiders were collected from the wild and observed when placed in a lab with a video of a "virtual" male spider that was sending out courtship signals in a digital version of a natural habitat. "Video playback has been used successfully in experimental studies of numerous animal species, including spiders," says Roberts, who conducted his doctoral research at the University of Cincinnati.
The researchers found that when it comes to this visual eavesdropping, experience counts. They first observed the trait in the woods during mating season, but previous studies on lab-raised (and therefore na?ve) spiders were inconclusive. The field-collected spiders used in this study were likely exposed to male courtship toward females in nature, and as a result, behaved as if their "rival" was courting a nearby female.
"This 'signal matching' behavior has only been seen before in vertebrate animals like birds or fish, and suggests that invertebrates like spiders may have more sophisticated behaviors than previously known," according to senior (corresponding) author and co-principal investigator Uetz. "The closer we look at spiders, the more complex we see they are -- their capacity for learning, memory and decision-making is far greater than we ever would have thought."
The research was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, with Clark and Uetz serving as co-principal investigators on the grant.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cincinnati. The original article was written by Dawn Fuller.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- D. L. Clark, J. A. Roberts, G. W. Uetz. Eavesdropping and signal matching in visual courtship displays of spiders. Biology Letters, 2012; DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.1096
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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120104115055.htm
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Economic data gives fragile boost to stocks, euro (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) ? Resilience in the manufacturing sector and a surprise drop in German unemployment lifted global stocks and the euro on Tuesday but positive sentiment is seen vulnerable to a daunting schedule of first quarter debt issuance in Europe.
German unemployment fell more than expected in December, by 22,000 from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted 2.888 million, new data showed. The jobless rate edged down to 6.8 percent from 6.9 percent in November - a new record low since figures for unified Germany were first published.
"Firms are still willing to keep hiring. But we must brace ourselves for a deterioration on the labor market from the spring," said Commerzbank economist Eckart Tuchtfeld.
Europe's debt crisis still clouds the outlook, with heavy first quarter borrowing to refinance maturing debt expected to push the euro lower and undermine demand for the region's lower-rated sovereign debt.
"The maturing of debt is going to give investors the opportunity to take some of those funds back out of Europe, to repatriate some of those funds to reduce their exposure," said Ian Stannard, currency strategist at Morgan Stanley.
Signs of improved growth in the United States may also cool any speculation about another round of money-printing by the Federal Reserve, improving the outlook for the dollar.
The euro rose about 0.8 percent against the dollar to around $1.3030, but stayed within striking distance of its 2011 trough of $1.2858 hit last week.
The MSCI world equity index (.MIWD00000PUS) was up over 0.5 percent.
MANUFACTURING RESILIENCE
Recent slight rises in purchasing managers' indexes for China and the euro zone [nL3E8C20K] have encouraged risk appetite, especially in commodity markets.
China's official Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 50.3 in December from 49 in November - moving above the 50 mark which separates expansion from contraction.
Data on Tuesday also showed the official Purchasing Managers' Index for non-manufacturing sectors had rebounded strongly in December to 56.0 from 49.7 in November.
British manufacturing also beat expectations in December, showing signs of stabilizing after a two-month decline as orders from China and Germany picked up, data on Tuesday showed.
Investors will closely watch the ISM Manufacturing PMI data in the United States, due at 1500 GMT, for further signs of recovery in the world's biggest economy, with economists in a Reuters survey expecting a reading of 53.2 versus 52.7 in November.
"The data we've seen coming from the U.S. has actually surprised on the upside over the past few weeks and I think that's going to continue," said Morgan Stanley's Stannard.
The pick-up in the PMIs encouraged European stocks to a fourth consecutive session of gains. The FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) index of top European shares was up 0.7 percent at 1019.38 points after rising as high as 1,022.85, its highest level in more than two months.
The heavily commodity-weighted UK FTSE 100 (.FTSE) index was up 1.2 percent, lifted by strong gains in mining companies Xstrata (XTA.L) and Kazakhmys (KAZ.L), both up nearly 4 percent in early trade.
COMMODITIES RALLY
U.S. crude jumped nearly 2.5 percent to over $110 a barrel, in response to the escalating tensions between Iran and the West.
Military exercises in the Mideast Gulf by Iran and the movement of U.S. naval vessels in the area raised fears of a confrontation between Tehran and Washington that could cut off oil exports from the region.
Spot gold rose as much as 1.4 percent to $1,586.95 earlier on Tuesday, also helped by investors renewed appetite for riskier assets.
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Asset returns in 2011: http://r.reuters.com/suz52
Sector performance in 2011: http://link.reuters.com/wuv75s
Debt crisis in graphics: http://r.reuters.com/hyb65p
German unemployment: http://link.reuters.com/ded24s
Global manufacturing PMI: http://link.reuters.com/byv24shttp://link.reuters com/tap74s
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(Additional reporting by Neal Armstrong and Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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Thursday, January 5, 2012
Japan's tsunami has dealt lasting blow to family farms
Reporting from Minamisoma, Japan?
For nearly 40 years, farmer Eiichi Fukuda has put his faith in the land, trusting the annual yield of the fertile brown soil to help feed his family and the rest of his nation.But these days, the veteran grower has watched the good earth turn dangerous. Nearly 10 months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was struck by an earthquake-triggered tsunami, releasing radioactive cesium into the atmosphere, many nearby farmers are now at odds with their own land.
Fukuda's eldest son, Hideaki, refuses to drive the tractor without a glass compartment to protect him from blowing dust. Family members now scrub their boots and work clothes immediately after leaving the field as a precaution against any radioactive residue.
And, most telling, they no longer eat the food they grow.
"For the first time in my life I'm afraid of my own crops," said Fukuda, 60, a third-generation rice and vegetable farmer whose 50-acre spread sits a few miles from the ailing power plant. "Now we buy everything from the markets, grown far away from the reactor's reach."
These are dark days for Japan's farmers as a perfect storm of politics, a slumping economy and natural calamity threatens a way of life here that dates back 2,500 years.
Even as growers in the disaster-hit Tohoku region 200 miles north of Tokyo deal with the nuclear fallout, another threat looms: the government's possible participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a controversial free-trade pact that would scrap import tariffs that protect Japanese growers from cheaper imports.
Rice growers like Fukuda would be hit worst. Many are now protected by a whopping 800% duty on imported rice. Irate farmers recently drove their tractors down busy Tokyo streets to counter lobbyists who promote the free-trade pact as a boost for Japan's sagging economy.
Analysts say Japan must keep pace with developments such as South Korea's recent free-trade pact with the United States. Membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, these observers say, will strengthen ties with Japan's neighbors and the U.S. while reducing the damaging effects of a surging yen.
But caught in the middle are Japan's estimated 2.4 million farming households. The nation's agriculture sector suffered $30 billion in losses from the March earthquake and deadly tsunami, which deluged crops and damaged the cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, leading to reactor meltdowns and escaping radiation.
In recent months, excessive levels of radioactive cesium have been detected in nearly three dozen Fukushima food items, a development that many characterize as a final blow to an already doomed industry.
As he waits to see how badly his land has been contaminated by radioactivity, Fukuda planted only broccoli this year after he found out through his own Internet research that the plants had a slow absorption rate for cesium. But once harvested, by law the broccoli must be labeled as produce grown in Fukushima, the nuclear zone, a damaging disclaimer that will bring him less than 40% of usual market value.
Yuji Sakai, a representative at a Fukushima regional office of the Japan Agricultural Cooperative, called agriculture an aging trade, with many farm families in their last generation on the land.
More than 70% of the 15,000 farmers his office represents are older than 65, and only 10% of those are like Fukuda, with a son or daughter willing to take over the business. Further, a survey found that nearly one in three Japanese farmers are so disillusioned that they do not want their children to succeed them.
With young people leaving the farms, Sakai laments the future of farming in Japan, which he predicts might one day resemble the U.S.: a domain of large-scale agricultural interests rather than small family farms.
"The biggest, most diverse farms will survive," he said, "but the smaller ones will probably not."
As he considers joining the multination free-trade pact, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda promises to protect "traditional Japanese culture and beautiful farm villages."
But Fukuda believes that those farms are already becoming a thing of the past. "I honestly don't know if there will be a farm around here for my eldest son to work when he reaches my age," he said.
Fukuda began farming at 18 and eventually took over the land from his father. The family always had been able to capitalize on troubled times.
Two decades ago, when rice prices dropped, many smaller growers quit, allowing Fukuda to expand his operation. Now he fears that he'll be the one selling off his land.
When the earthquake hit, Fukuda was ready to harvest his tomatoes. Instead, his family fled the farm and left the entire crop to rot in the greenhouses. When he finally returned for rice season, he wasn't sure he should even seed his fields.
"I thought, 'What's going to come out of the ground if I plant? Will it be harmful to people?' All of us farmers worry about that."
Without rice or potatoes to grow, Fukuda had time to ponder his future. A practical man, normally so busy that he had to keep his mind on the job at hand, he was suddenly bored.
Meanwhile, his son harbors second thoughts about the farm. He doesn't want to drink the local water, and he worries that, unlike his father, he'll live long enough to feel the adverse health effects of cesium exposure, including cancer.
On a sunny afternoon in late autumn, Fukuda walked through one of his broccoli fields, running his hands along the leafy plants. With five years before retirement, he always figured he had time to teach his son all he needed to know to become a successful fourth-generation Fukuda family farmer.
Now the future of the family venture is in peril.
"Who would have ever guessed that the tsunami could have spawned such a terrible disaster?" he said, kicking at the dirt. "Fukushima products once represented high quality and safety. But the nuclear accident took care of that."
john.glionna@latimes.com
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Exxon to sell most of Japan refining stake: sources (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) ? U.S. oil group ExxonMobil (XOM.N) is in talks to sell most of its 50 percent stake in Japanese refiner TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK (5012.T), in a deal that could be worth as much as $5 billion, four sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The talks see Exxon belatedly join international oil and gas industry peers in scaling back downstream activities such as crude processing and fuel marketing, to focus on more lucrative activities -- finding and pumping oil and gas.
The move could also spark realignment among Japan's oil refiners, which have been cutting capacity to cope with falling demand caused by a weak economy and a shift to more efficient and environmentally friendly forms of energy.
TonenGeneral, which imports and distributes Exxon oil in Japan, ranks as the country's No. 2 refiner behind JX Holdings (5020.T). Smaller rivals include Idemitsu Kosan Co (5019.T), Cosmo Oil (5007.T) and Showa Shell (5002.T).
"If this report is true, it could open the door for TonenGeneral to realign in alliance with another company. That may or may not include capital ties," said Hidetoshi Shioda, senior analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities.
CAPITAL RELATIONSHIP
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), BP (BP.L) and Chevron (CVX.N) have sold, closed or put up for sale many refineries in the past decade.
Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company by market value, has long been a strong advocate of the integrated oil model, in which companies are active in every stage of the business from well head to forecourt.
The planned sale may be an acknowledgement of a widely held view that in markets with slow-growing or falling fuel demand such as Japan and Europe, refining investments will struggle to offer good returns.
ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil major, last year decided to spin off its refining operations into a separate company.
Exxonholds 50.02 percent of TonenGeneral, a stake worth 224 billion yen ($2.9 billion) at Wednesday's close. It also owns a sales network of around 4,000 gas stations across Japan.
Exxon is planning to keep a certain level of ownership in TonenGeneral, seen as key to maintaining the refining partnership, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the talks are still ongoing.
The cost of the deal could climb to as high as 400 billion yen, but may settle at a lower price depending on the size of the stake to be sold, negotiations over the other assets, and TonenGeneral's funding situation, the sources said.
An official announcement could come as early as this month, they said.
TonenGeneral said in a statement that ExxonMobil was considering a change to its capital relationship with TonenGeneral, but nothing had been decided. Exxon stressed it had no plans to withdraw from Japan.
"ExxonMobil has no plans to exit the Japan market. We have been doing business in Japan for over 118 years," the oil giant said in a statement to Reuters.
FUNDING BURDEN
Shares of TonenGeneral fell 5.8 percent to 792 yen, its lowest close in 14 months, reflecting investor worries over the burden the deal would place on its finances. Trading in the shares was the busiest in at least 24 years.
TonenGeneral plans to borrow money from several banks to finance the purchase, the sources said.
"It is hard to see the strategic direction of TonenGeneral after it buys the assets from Exxon. A deal in the order of 400 billion yen would also strain its cash situation and raise the risk of lower dividends," said Yoshihiro Okumura, head of research at Chibagin Asset Management.
Oil demand in Japan, the world's No.3 consumer, has been falling steadily for more than a decade, to about 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd) from a record 4.2 million bpd in 1999.
That slide has accelerated following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March, which dented economic activity and prompted some manufacturers to shift factories abroad.
Industry sources had said Exxon might look to scale back in Japan after the country introduced new regulations in 2010, with a 2014 deadline for refiners to boost their ability to process heavy oil by building new cracking units or scrapping capacity.
The directive was seen as particularly burdensome for TonenGeneral due to its relatively low heavy oil processing capacity. The Exxon unit has been a vocal critic of the scheme, calling it unnecessary meddling by the government.
Despite the unfavorable operating environment in Japan, the relationship with TonenGeneral serves an important strategic purpose for Exxon, making it unlikely that it would look at a complete withdrawal, some analysts said.
"If ExxonMobil pulled out, they would lose a good outlet, and they could no longer ask TonenGeneral to import ExxonMobil's equity crudes," independent oil economist Osamu Fujisawa said.
($1 = 76.7500 yen)
(Additional reporting by Osamu Tsukimori and James Topham in Tokyo, and Tom Bergin in London; Writing by Nathan Layne; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Will Waterman)
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Prisoner escapes from San Diego area jail in fire truck (Reuters)
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) ? A convicted car thief who was assigned to a San Diego area state prison's fire fighting detail escaped in one of the prison's yellow fire trucks, prison officials said on Monday.
"He got in one of our institution's fire trucks and drove away," said Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility public information officer Lt. Patrick Logan.
The escape, which happened on Sunday, came to attention of police when the San Diego County Sheriff's Department got a call that someone was having trouble parking the truck in a convenience store parking lot in Spring Valley, about 25 miles from the prison.
"We received a call that there were two males in a yellow fire truck having difficulty maneuvering the vehicle," said Lt. David Gilmore, of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. "When our deputies arrived, they recovered the fire truck but the occupants had already run away."
Prison officials say that Thomas Frances Kelley, 51, was part of the prison's fire fighting detail and that he had been a model prisoner until Sunday night.
"He had to be a pretty model inmate to be assigned to the fire house, which was outside the main prison perimeter," Logan said.
Kelley was serving time for violating his parole and had been in the prison since November 2010, with a December 2013 planned release date, Logan said.
"Obviously, that's all changed now," Logan added. "I don't think he'll be in the outside perimeter again."
Authorities are looking for Kelley in the area where the truck was abandoned, Logan said.
(Editing by Mary Slosson and Greg McCune)
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Paul looks for payoff from Iowa support network (AP)
DES MOINES, Iowa ? Ron Paul is hopeful that the more structured organization of Iowa supporters he has built in his second bid for the Republican nomination will turn out big in the state's leadoff presidential caucuses.
"We, the people, are growing and I'm optimistic," Paul told an audience in Davenport on the last full day of campaigning before Tuesday's caucuses, the first vote of the 2012 presidential campaign.
Paul wound up his 2012 bid as a contender to win in Iowa, where polls show him narrowly trailing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and appeared well organized for next week's New Hampshire primary.
While he was encouraged by the crowds that turned out for him Monday, Paul noted in interviews that he was unsure whether he would be able to compete deep into the nominating campaign.
Likewise, Paul said he considered his campaign as much a movement to rid the government of fiscal waste and excessive overseas commitments as it was an effort to seek the presidency. And he was just as ambivalent about whether he envisioned himself being president.
"Who knows where I'll be or what I'll do or what contribution I'll be making?" Paul told ABC News after finishing a five-city tour of central and eastern Iowa by charter jet.
While Paul does not plan to travel to the first-in-the-nation primary state until Friday, he said he has high hopes of competing well in New Hampshire. He is airing advertisements in South Carolina, the first Southern primary state, which holds its nominating contest Jan. 21.
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