'Housework' shortens lives of female Komodo dragons

Female Komodo dragons live half as long as their male counterparts ? 31 years on average compared with the guys' 62. A new study suggests the physical demands of lizard "housework," which includes building nests and protecting eggs, cut the females' life spans short.

A team of researchers studied 400 individual Komodo dragons from 2002 to 2010 in eastern Indonesia, the only native home of the giant predatory lizards. The scientists found that males and females are about the same size until they reach sexual maturity at around age 7. From then on, the females grow slower and only reach about 3.9 feet in length and 48 pounds. The males, meanwhile, grow on average to 5.2 feet in length and 143 pounds.

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"The sex-based difference in size appears to be linked to the enormous amounts of energy females invest in producing eggs, building and guarding their nests," Tim Jessop, a zoologist from the University of Melbourne, said in a statement Wednesday. "The process can take up to six months during which they essentially fast, losing a lot of weight and body condition."?

Both the male and female's growth rates could be seen as evolutionary adaptations to ensure reproductive success. The females ( which can have virgin births ) start putting all their energy into the chores of motherhood once they reach sexual maturity, while the males' energy reserves go into growing their bodies larger and larger to give them an edge in competing with other males for females and territory. [ Fun Facts About Komodo Dragons ]

"These results may seem odd to humans when the life span between Australian men and women differs by five years. But each species has different strategies to pass on their genes," Jessop said in a statement. "For example humans invest a lot of energy in few children as raising them is very energy intensive, whereas insects will have hundreds of offspring with no input into their rearing."

Komodo dragons are considered endangered. Though conservationists estimate up to 5,000 individuals are left in the wild, they are concerned that just 350 breeding females exist. Early female deaths may be aggravating competition between males over the remaining females, which could increase sexual dimorphism in the species, Jessop and his team said.

Their study was published online Sept. 19 in the journal PLoS ONE.

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49455599/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Union views NHL plan as small step forward

NEW YORK (AP) ? NHL labor negotiations will resume Thursday after the players' union reviewed management's proposal and saw it as only a small step forward to ending the monthlong lockout.

The NHL made the proposal Tuesday in what it said was an attempt to preserve a full 82-game schedule. The league publicly released the plan Wednesday.

NHL players' union head Donald Fehr met with players to formulate the union's response. In a letter to players and agents, he said the management plan would cost his members more than $1.6 billion over six years.

"Simply put, the owners' new proposal, while not quite as Draconian as their previous proposals, still represents enormous reductions in player salaries and individual contracting rights," Fehr said in the letter, according to a report by TSN. "As you will see, at the 5 percent industry growth rate the owners predict, the salary reduction over six years exceeds $1.6 billion. What do the owners offer in return?"

The lockout began Sept. 16 and last week the league canceled regular-season games through Oct. 24. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, in announcing the new proposal, called it "a fair offer for a long-term deal" and "one that we hope gets a positive reaction."

"We're studying it and we're trying to get ready to give a response tomorrow," said union lawyer Steve Fehr, brother of the union leader.

In the midst of their third lockout since 1994, owners gave the union what the league called a "proposal to save 82-game season." The NHL said it hoped a deal would be reached by Oct 25 and the season would start by Nov. 2, three weeks behind schedule.

"We do not yet know whether this proposal is a serious attempt to negotiate an agreement, or just another step down the road," Donald Fehr wrote. "The next several days will be, in large part, an effort to discover the answer to that question."

NHL spokesman Frank Brown said the league was not responding to Fehr's letter.

The NHL released details of its offer for a six-year deal with a mutual option for a seventh. The plan includes a 50-50 split in hockey related revenue

The NHL proposed in July to cut the percentage of hockey related revenue from 57 percent to 43 percent, then increased its offer in September to about 47 percent.

Winnipeg Jets forward Olli Jokinen called the plan a "starting point," according to The Canadian Press.

"I hope we can get going ASAP," Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall told The Associated Press on Wednesday night. "We will be presenting something soon and hopefully this week's proposals will spark things in the right direction. Still some work to get done."

Management included a provision to ensure players receive all money promised in existing contracts, but the union is concerned with what management termed the "make-whole provision." If the players' share falls short of their $1.883 billion in 2011-12, up to $149 million in the first year of a new deal and up to $62 million in the second would be repaid to players as deferred compensation. However, the union believes that money would be counted against the players' share in later years.

The latest proposal also includes:

?A listed salary cap of $59.9 million for the 2012-13 season, with a provision each team could spend up to $70.2 million during a transition season.

?Changing eligibility for unrestricted free agency from age 27 or seven years of service to age 28 or eight years of service, down from 10 years of service in the league's earlier proposal.

?Increasing eligibility for salary arbitration from four years to five years.

?Including all years of existing contracts beyond five years against a team's cap, regardless of where a player is playing. If a player is traded and retires or stops playing, the applicable cap charge would be applied against the team that originally signed the contact.

?The reduction of entry-level contracts to two years.

?A term limit on any contract beyond that set at five years and a stipulation that the average annual value can only vary up to five percent. This is a mechanism designed to eliminate long-term, back-loaded contracts. The NHL wants to prohibit lengthy deals, such as the $98 million, 13-year contracts Minnesota agreed to in July with forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter.

?The elimination of re-entry waivers.

?Increasing the annual revenue sharing pool by 33 percent to $200 million, assuming annual league revenue of $3.033 billion, with a provision that half the pool be funded by the 10 teams with the highest gross revenue. A cutout against clubs in large media markets, such as Anaheim, New Jersey and the New York Islanders, and clawbacks against not selling enough tickets would be eliminated. A new revenue sharing committee, which would include NHLPA representation, would have input to determine distribution.

Among the items not addressed in the league's public detailing of its offer was realignment, drug testing or the NHL's participation in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

___

AP Hockey Writer Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/union-views-nhl-plan-small-step-forward-000756502--nhl.html

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Newfound Earth-sized planet too distant to visit

The exploration of the planet known as Alpha Centauri Bb will require technology not currently in existence, say researchers. But if it has sibling planets in a 'habitable zone' scientists may be encouraged to develop the new technology required to such explore new and distant worlds.?

By Mike Wall,?SPACE.com / October 16, 2012

This artist's concept shows the newfound alien planet Alpha Centauri Bb, found in a three-star system just 4.3 light-years from Earth.

ESO/L. Cal?ada

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Astronomers have discovered an alien planet right in our solar system's backyard, but residents of Earth shouldn't get their hopes up for an exploration mission anytime soon. The newfound world is much too far away for probes to visit using current technology, experts say.

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Researchers announced Tuesday (Oct. 16) that the scorching-hot?alien planet Alpha Centauri Bb, which is about as massive as Earth, resides in the three-star Alpha Centauri system. While no other star is closer to our sun than the Alpha Centauri trio, they're still about 4.3 light-years away, making a close-up look at the planet pretty much impossible right now.

A robotic?exoplanet?mission launching today "would require about 40,000 years to get to Alpha Centauri," Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told reporters Tuesday. "So, given our propensity for instant gratification, that's not really an option that's on the table."

But Laughlin, who was not involved in the discovery, added that attitudes could change if researchers made a few more intriguing discoveries in the?Alpha Centauri system.

25 trillion miles away

One light-year is about 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion kilometers). So the three stars in Alpha Centauri are more than 25 trillion miles (40 trillion km) from Earth. [Gallery: Nearby Alien Planet Alpha Centauri Bb]

To put this huge distance into perspective: NASA's Voyager 1 probe, the most far-flung object ever launched from Earth, is currently about 11.3 billion miles (18.2 billion km) into its journey, cruising toward the edge of our solar system. Voyager 1 has thus covered less than 0.05 percent of the distance to Alpha Centauri Bb ? and the probe has been zooming through space for more than 35 years.?

New technologies needed

Alpha Centauri Bb sits just 3.6 million miles (6 million km) from its sunlike star, completing one orbit every 3.2 days. As a result, the planet's surface is far too hot to support life as we know it, researchers said.

But the solar systems containing a small, rocky world often have multiple planets, Laughlin said, so it's possible Alpha Centauri Bb has some siblings ? perhaps even a world or two out in its host star's "habitable zone," the range of distances that can support liquid water.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/fM6oF2czcu0/Newfound-Earth-sized-planet-too-distant-to-visit

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Ice sheet retreat controlled by the landscape

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Ice-sheet retreat can halt temporarily during long phases of climate warming, according to scientists.

A UK team led by Durham University has found that the geometry of channels beneath the ice can be a strong control on ice behaviour, temporarily hiding the signals of retreat.

The findings, which provide the first simulation of past ice-sheet retreat and collapse over a ten thousand year period in Antarctica, shed new light on what makes ice stable or unstable and will help refine predictions of future ice extent and global sea-level rise, the researchers say.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that one of the main challenges in predicting future sea-level rise is to quantify and model the interactions between evolving ice sheets, oceans, sea level and climate. Significant efforts have been made over the last decade to develop computer models and collect data in order to reduce uncertainties and understand the potential impacts under scenarios of future climate change.

The results of the new research from Durham University, the University of Sheffield, the University of Cambridge, and the British Antarctic Survey are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Lead author Dr Stewart Jamieson, a glaciologist at the Department of Geography, Durham University, said: "Our research shows that the physical shape of the channels is a more important factor in controlling ice stability than was previously realised. Channel width can have a major effect on ice flow, and determines how fast retreat, and therefore sea-level rise, can happen.

Although climatic and oceanic changes are crucial drivers of ice loss, the research shows that the landscape below the ice strongly controls the speed of any retreat.

Dr Jamieson said: "Our results suggest that during an overall phase of retreat an ice stream can appear almost stable when in fact, in the longer-term, the opposite may be the case.

"Getting a clearer picture of the landscape beneath the ice is crucial if future predictions of change in the ice-sheets and sea level are to be improved."

Marine-based ice streams are the fast flowing arteries of ice sheets, draining approximately 90 per cent of the ice that reaches the sea. They flow through large channels where the ice can move thousands of metres in a year. According to the scientists, the unpredictable nature of ice streams makes forecasting ice-sheet retreat extremely difficult. If ice streams speed up they can cause sea level to rise.

Durham University co-author Dr Chris Stokes said: "Ice streams are like taps filling a bath, but the problem here is that we do not know if something is suddenly going to turn them up or even turn them down."

Satellite imagery from the last 20 years has led to advances in our knowledge of ice sheet stability and has shown that many ice streams are getting thinner and retreating because the ocean and climate are warming. The new research shows that ice behaviour over thousands of years can successfully be simulated in places where ice streams meet the sea.

The researchers looked at the landscape of the seafloor in Marguerite Bay, in the Antarctic Peninsula, and saw that during a rapid phase of recession 13,000 years ago, retreat paused many times. Using a computer model designed to work in situations of rapid change, they found they could reproduce the same pattern in a series of simulations. These showed that ice dragged on the sides of the channel more where it was narrow, causing retreat to slow and in places temporarily stop for decades to centuries before retreat continued.

Many ice streams are found in channels with beds that are below sea level and that deepen inland. Current theory suggests that ice loss can increase rapidly in deeper water, but the new findings show that channel width plays a crucial role and that narrow bottlenecks in the landscape beneath the ice can cause retreat to slow down.

Dr Andreas Vieli, Department of Geography, Durham University, said: "We can see from our simulations and from new maps of the ocean floor that these bottlenecks occur in the same place as pauses or slowdowns in past ice retreat. This means we should look more closely at the shape of the bed underneath Greenland and Antarctica to better understand how ice might retreat in the future."

The researchers say that understanding ice-stream behaviour and the rate of mass loss from ice sheets and glaciers is essential.

Dr Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, from the British Antarctic Survey, said: "Knowledge of the factors influencing stability and retreat of ice streams is of particular concern because significant portions of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are currently losing mass that contributes significantly to sea-level rise. Our model results help to explain the apparently time-transgressive retreat of ice streams around Antarctica following the last ice age."

###

Durham University: http://www.dur.ac.uk

Thanks to Durham University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124560/Ice_sheet_retreat_controlled_by_the_landscape

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Tigers close in on pennant with 2-1 win over Yanks

DETROIT (AP) ? Justin Verlander was done for the night, and for the first time all game, the New York Yankees looked threatening at the plate.

Mark Teixeira singled, then Robinson Cano followed suit for his first hit in 30 at-bats. Up stepped Raul Ibanez, who had already rescued New York a couple times this postseason with dramatic home runs in the late innings.

"Usually when I am out of the game like that, I head to the locker room and go through my normal routine, but obviously I wanted to stay for the last out there," Verlander said. "Made it a little nerve wracking, so I sprinted up to the locker room and went through my routine as fast as I possibly could. Obviously I am superstitious a little bit. So I watched the last out from up top on the TV."

Reliever Phil Coke struck out Ibanez and the Detroit Tigers held on for a tense 2-1 victory over the Yankees on Tuesday night, taking a 3-0 lead in the AL championship series. After halting New York's rally in the ninth inning, the Tigers are a win away from their second pennant in seven years.

Detroit is in this position because of a stellar starting rotation that hasn't needed much help from the bullpen or the offense.

"You see somebody go out there and have a good game, and you want to one-up that guy. He is your friend, I know, but it still gives you the urge to go out there and do better," Verlander said. "I think that's a great thing when you can get your entire rotation doing that, and I think we're starting to click at the right time."

Seeking their first World Series title since 1984, the Tigers were on a historic pitching run even before their ace took the mound Tuesday. With the exception of a four-run ninth inning against Detroit closer Jose Valverde in Game 1, New York had been shut out for the entire series.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi benched Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher for Game 3, but it was no use. Verlander allowed only a pair of singles by Ichiro Suzuki and a leadoff homer by Eduardo Nunez in the ninth. Delmon Young hit a solo home run for the Tigers, and Miguel Cabrera had an RBI double.

Nunez's homer snapped a scoreless streak by Detroit starters of 30 1-3 innings. That's a record for a single postseason, according to STATS LLC. The previous mark of 29 innings was set by Oakland in 1974.

"You don't want to be in this situation, but this is the game of baseball," Cano said. "All you can do is not put our head down and just prepare ourselves for (Wednesday). It's not over yet."

New York sends C.C. Sabathia (15-6) to the mound in Game 4 and Detroit counters with Max Scherzer (16-7).

Verlander fell just short of a second straight shutout after stopping the Athletics in the decisive fifth game of the division series. He struck out only three, but kept New York off the scoreboard until the homer to left field by Nunez, the first run allowed by the powerful right-hander since he gave up a leadoff homer to Coco Crisp in Game 1 of the ALDS.

Nunez was at shortstop because Derek Jeter broke his ankle in Game 1 and will miss the rest of the season.

"He put together a heck of an at-bat, was locked in," Verlander said. "Probably would have been a different result if I executed it better, but you never know with a guy up there that was battling like he was."

Verlander got Brett Gardner on a tapper before he was lifted after 132 pitches, one shy of the career high he set in Game 5 of last year's ALCS against Texas.

"Normally I guess you don't take Secretariat out in the final furlong, but that was pretty much it for him," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.

Coke came in and retired Suzuki before allowing two-out hits to Teixeira and Cano. Ibanez, who hit tying and winning homers in the same game in the ALDS against Baltimore and tied Game 1 of this series with a homer in the ninth, struck out swinging at a breaking ball to end it.

"Raul has come up in a lot of big situations," Girardi said. "You know, you go back to September 1 and he has come through for us, and I felt great about him up there."

Yankees starter Phil Hughes was lifted in the fourth because of a stiff back, but right now it's the Yankees' hitting that has them on the brink of elimination. New York is batting .182 for the series and .200 during the postseason.

Rodriguez also was benched for Game 5 against Baltimore after being pulled for pinch-hitters in the previous two games. A-Rod is 3 for 23 (.130) without an RBI or extra-base hit this postseason, his latest October flop. The numbers are especially ugly against right-handers: 0 for 18 with 12 strikeouts.

The three-time AL MVP was not available to reporters before or after the game.

Hughes matched Verlander in a scoreless duel until Young led off the Detroit fourth with a line drive over the wall in left field. It was his seventh homer in the last two postseasons ? he's already the Tigers' career leader in that department.

Andy Dirks followed with a walk, and Hughes was pulled with an 0-2 count on Jhonny Peralta. David Phelps came on and got out of the inning, but the Yankees now have a pitching injury to go along with all their hitting problems.

The Yankees kept it close, dodging several Detroit rallies. The Tigers added an unearned run in the fifth when Eric Chavez ? Rodriguez's replacement at third ? misplayed a grounder for an error. Cabrera, the AL Triple Crown winner, followed with an RBI double.

Cabrera has a 16-game hitting streak in LCS play, breaking a tie for that record with Manny Ramirez and Pete Rose, according to STATS.

NOTES: Cabrera moved from his usual third base spot to where the shortstop would normally play as part of a defensive shift against Teixeira in the fourth ? then had to run all the way back to catch a popup in foul ground. ... Nunez's homer snapped a streak of 37 innings by Detroit starters without allowing an earned run, the longest in a single postseason in the live-ball era. The starters for the 1905 New York Giants threw 44 straight innings without allowing an earned run for the postseason record, according to STATS.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tigers-close-pennant-2-1-win-over-yanks-093604584--mlb.html

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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Fills COO Role With Former Google ...

Yahoo?s CEO Marissa Mayer, who joined the company in July after more than a decade at Google, continues to staff out key positions as she?s builds her new senior management team.?The latest hire is former Google colleague, Henrique de Castro, who will take the role of chief operating officer with responsibility for strategic and operational management of Yahoo?s sales, operations, media and business development worldwide.?Early last month Mayer hired private equity exec?Jacqueline Reses to lead hiring and HR?for Yahoo, and back in August she appointed former Lockerz CEO and Amazon VP,?Kathy Savitt, as Yahoo?s new chief marketing officer.

At Google, De Castro was VP of its worldwide?Partner Business Solutions group, responsible for advertising platforms and services for Mountain View?s publisher and commerce partners.?Prior to that, he led Google?s media, mobile and platforms organization. He has also worked for Dell, where he managed sales and business development operations across?Western Europe, and consulted for?McKinsey & Company, where he advised numerous clients across many different industries.?His career also includes senior positions in private equity and advertising businesses.

?Henrique is an incredibly accomplished and rigorous business leader, and I?m personally excited to have him join Yahoo?s strong leadership team,? said Mayer in a statement. ?His operational experience in Internet advertising and his proven success in structuring and scaling global organizations make him the perfect fit for?Yahoo as we propel the business to its next phase of growth.?

Commenting on his new role, de Castro added in a statement:??The combination of Yahoo?s unique properties with high quality content, its renewed focus on outstanding user experience and its massive reach bring tremendous value to users, advertisers and partners. This is a pivotal point in Yahoo?s history, and I believe strongly in the opportunity ahead. I can?t wait to join Marissa and the team and get started.?

Yahoo said De Castro will join the company on or before?January 22, 2013 ? or as soon as he has satisfied his obligations to his current employer.

Late last month Yahoo also named a new chief financial officer,?Ken Goldman, who joined from Fortinet, a provider of threat management technologies.

Henrique is a senior executive with 20+ years experience in leading companies such as Google, Dell and McKinsey, building, scaling and managing business globally. He is recognized by his knowledge of the Media, Internet, Telco/Tech, Retail, Consumer industries and has extensive experience as CEO/GM, CRO, Head of Strategy and Business Development, Sales & Marketing and Operations Lead. Henrique is currently Google?s President of Media, Mobile and Platforms Worldwide with full responsibility $5bn+ full P&L of Google?s TV Ads, YouTube Ads, Google...

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Marissa Mayer is CEO of Yahoo. Previously as a VP at Google, Marissa Mayer led the product management and engineering efforts of Google?s local, mobile, and contextual discovery products including Google Maps, Google Maps for Mobile, Local Search, Google Earth, Street View, Latitude and more. At 36 years old, she was also the youngest member of Google?s executive operating committee. During her 12 years at Google, Marissa led product management and design efforts for Google web search, images, news,...

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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/16/yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-fills-coo-role-with-former-google-colleague-henrique-de-castro/

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In debates, listening is as important as talking (The Arizona Republic)

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