Here?s the latest news on hirings, promotions and departures among environmental leaders.
CBRE: The commercial real estate firm has appointed Rebecca Pearce as head of sustainability for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Pearce was previously head of client sustainability services at CBRE?s Pacific business and before that, she was with the Sustainability Advisory Group.
EnSafe: The environmental services firm has appointed Don Bradford as president and CEO. Bradford, a 20-year EnSafe veteran, previously directed the firm?s environmental compliance services.
Outreach Strategies: The sustainability communications firm hired Alison Omens as vice president. Omens was previously media outreach director with the AFL-CIO.
Wilo USA: The pumps and pump services provider has promoted Harold Adams to national sales manager for water management. Adams was previously regional sales manager for the company?s northeast region.
RF Biocidics: The food safety company has hired Charley Phillips as vice president of sales. Phillips was previously vice president of sales at Atlas World Food and Agriculture. The company hired a new CEO, Craig Powell, two months ago.
The Governance & Accountability Institute: The research and monitoring organization appointed Linda M. Lowson as a fellow at the institute. Lowson will continue as CEO and chief counsel of CSR Insight and Global ESG Regulatory Academy.
Earth911: The recycling and waste management database services firm has appointed Preston Read to its advisory board. Read was formerly senior vice president of government affairs at Recyclebank.
Solid Waste Authorityof Central Ohio:? Ron Mills, executive director, resigned as landfill chief The Columbus Dispatch reports, and accepted a severance package after sending a derogatory email about the county commissioner to him by mistake.
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May 30, 2013 ? Detailed analysis and review have borne out researchers' initial interpretation of pebble-containing slabs that NASA's Mars rover Curiosity investigated last year: They are part of an ancient streambed.
The rocks are the first ever found on Mars that contain streambed gravels. The sizes and shapes of the gravels embedded in these conglomerate rocks -- from the size of sand particles to the size of golf balls -- enabled researchers to calculate the depth and speed of the water that once flowed at this location.
"We completed more rigorous quantification of the outcrops to characterize the size distribution and roundness of the pebbles and sand that make up these conglomerates," said Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Ariz., lead author of a report about them in the journal Science this week. "We ended up with a calculation in the same range as our initial estimate last fall. At a minimum, the stream was flowing at a speed equivalent to a walking pace -- a meter, or three feet, per second -- and it was ankle-deep to hip-deep."
Three pavement-like rocks examined with the telephoto capability of Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) during the rover's first 40 days on Mars are the basis for the new report. One, "Goulburn," is immediately adjacent to the rover's "Bradbury Landing" touchdown site. The other two, "Link" and "Hottah," are about 165 and 330 feet (50 and 100 meters) to the southeast. Researchers also used the rover's laser-shooting Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to investigate the Link rock.
"These conglomerates look amazingly like streambed deposits on Earth," Williams said. "Most people are familiar with rounded river pebbles. Maybe you've picked up a smoothed, round rock to skip across the water. Seeing something so familiar on another world is exciting and also gratifying."
The larger pebbles are not distributed evenly in the conglomerate rocks. In Hottah, researchers detected alternating pebble-rich layers and sand layers. This is common in streambed deposits on Earth and provides additional evidence for stream flow on Mars. In addition, many of the pebbles are touching each other, a sign that they rolled along the bed of a stream.
"Our analysis of the amount of rounding of the pebbles provided further information," said Sanjeev Gupta of Imperial College, London, a co-author of the new report. "The rounding indicates sustained flow. It occurs as pebbles hit each other multiple times. This wasn't a one-off flow. It was sustained, certainly more than weeks or months, though we can't say exactly how long."
The stream carried the gravels at least a few miles, or kilometers, the researchers estimated.
The atmosphere of modern Mars is too thin to make a sustained stream flow of water possible, though the planet holds large quantities of water ice. Several types of evidence have indicated that ancient Mars had diverse environments with liquid water. However, none but these rocks found by Curiosity could provide the type of stream flow information published this week. Curiosity's images of conglomerate rocks indicate that atmospheric conditions at Gale Crater once enabled the flow of liquid water on the Martian surface.
During a two-year prime mission, researchers are using Curiosity's 10 science instruments to assess the environmental history in Gale Crater on Mars, where the rover has found evidence of ancient environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
More information about Curiosity is online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .
You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .
LASHIO, Myanmar (AP) ? More than 1,000 Muslims who fled Myanmar's latest bout of sectarian violence huddled Thursday in a Buddhist monastery guarded by army soldiers as calm returned to this northeastern city, though burnt out buildings leveled by Buddhist rioters still smoldered.
The army transported terrified Muslim families by the truckload out of a neighborhood in Lashio where overturned cars and motorcycles that had been charred a day earlier left black scars on the red earth.
"We heard things could get worse, so we waved down soldiers and asked them for help," said 59-year-old Khin Than, who arrived at the monastery Thursday morning with her four children and sacks of luggage along with several hundred other Muslims. "We left because we're afraid of being attacked."
The violence in Lashio this week highlights how anti-Muslim unrest has slowly spread across Myanmar since starting last year in western Rakhine state and hitting the central city of Meikhtila in March. President Thein Sein's government, which inherited power from the military two years ago, has been heavily criticized for failing to contain the violence.
In Lashio on Thursday, Buddhist monks organized meals for the newly arrived refugees, who huddled together in several buildings in the monastery compound.
Although a few Buddhist men could still be seen Thursday riding motorbikes with crude weapons such as sharpened bamboo poles, no new violence was reported. Several banks and shops reopened as residents emerged to look at destroyed Muslim shops. Trucks of soldiers and police crisscrossed main roads. They guarded the ruins of Muslim businesses that were reduced to ashes on Tuesday and Wednesday, erecting roadblocks from twisted debris.
At one corner, where the charred remains of a three-story building still smoldered, Muslim residents sorted through rubble for anything salvageable. One family packed electronics from their shop into the back of a truck.
A woman who had fled a mob a day earlier was still in a state of shock.
"These things should not happen," said the woman, Aye Tin, a Muslim resident who slept overnight in a local Red Cross compound. "Most Muslims are staying off the streets. They're afraid they'll be attacked or killed if they go outside."
The rioting began Tuesday after a Muslim man splashed gasoline on a Buddhist woman and set her on fire. Buddhist mobs responded by burning down several Muslim-owned shops, a mosque and an Islamic orphanage. Roving motorcyclists continued the violence on Wednesday, leaving one person dead and four injured.
Presidential spokesman Ye Htut said 25 people had been detained so far. He said all those arrested were from Lashio.
The violence is casting fresh doubt over whether Thein Sein's government can or will act to contain the racial and religious intolerance plaguing a deeply fractured nation still struggling to emerge from half a century of military rule. Muslims, who account for about 4 percent of Myanmar's roughly 60 million people, have been the main victims of the violence since it began last year, but so far most criminal trials have involved prosecutions of Muslims, not members of the Buddhist majority.
___
Associated Press writer Aye Aye Win contributed to this report from Yangon, Myanmar.
May 29, 2013 ? Living in a poor neighborhood as an adolescent is linked to an increased risk of getting the sexually transmitted infection (STI) chlamydia in young adulthood, according to new research.
Ohio State University researchers analyzed data from a large national study that tracked youths over time. The analysis suggested that children who lived in poor neighborhoods during their teenage years had an almost 25 percent greater risk of having chlamydia in their early 20s -- even if they themselves weren't poor -- than did teenagers living in wealthier settings.
The effect of living in an impoverished neighborhood on the risk for later infection was unaffected by other known STI risk factors, such as depression, having multiple sex partners or beginning sexual activity at a very young age.
"There is a long-term effect of living in poverty on the risk for sexually transmitted infections in young adulthood, above and beyond behavioral issues," said Jodi Ford, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of nursing at Ohio State. "We have a lot of interventions trying to address sexual risk behaviors, but few target neighborhood poverty and disadvantage. And this work shows that living in a poor neighborhood can have a long-term effect on health."
Ford conducted the research with Christopher Browning, professor of sociology at Ohio State. The study is published in a recent issue of the Journal of Urban Health.
Ford and Browning accessed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to conduct the analysis. The sample they studied included data from three separate interviews of 11,460 youths who participated in the national project. When they were first interviewed, the average age of the children studied was 15.6 years; by the time of the third interview, these same participants were between 18 and 27 years old.
The prevalence of chlamydia among the young adults surveyed was 4.6 percent -- relatively low compared to what national data suggest, Ford said. That could be because the national longitudinal study from which she drew her sample took place in schools, meaning it did not capture portions of the population who had dropped out prior to the beginning of the Add Health study.
Chlamydia is a bacterial infection that can affect both men and women, but can cause scarring and infertility issues in women if the infection persists. An estimated 2.86 million infections occur annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but many are not reported because most people do not have symptoms and do not seek testing.
"Adolescents and young adults are the most likely to experience chlamydia infection in the United States. This study strengthens the evidence that to fully address the sexual health needs of this population, STI prevention efforts should also acknowledge the effects of neighborhood poverty," Ford said.
The researchers considered four characteristics from U.S. Census data from corresponding years to determine whether the youths lived in poor neighborhoods as teenagers: proportion of households below poverty, proportion of households on public assistance, total unemployment rate and proportion of female-headed households with children.
By applying statistical modeling to the data, Ford determined that young adults who lived in a neighborhood with higher concentrations of poverty during their adolescence had higher odds of testing positive for chlamydia in their early 20s compared to their more advantaged peers.
The researchers also examined whether risky sexual behaviors or depression occurring during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood explained the relationship between adolescent poverty and chlamydia risk, but the findings were not significant. This means the significant effect of exposure to neighborhood poverty during adolescence on chlamydia risk during young adulthood was not because of an increased likelihood of sexual risk-taking behaviors or depression.
This analysis of data on a broad level does not address the reasons behind how living in an impoverished area can affect health later in life. The work is part of Ford's ongoing investigation of how neighborhoods can influence risk for depression, infectious disease and other health problems in vulnerable populations.
She continues to use data from the Add Health project, which was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
This study was funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar grant.
REUTERS - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp said it will cancel its listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) , citing low levels of trading volume.
The company said the volume of its stock traded on the LSE was less than 1 percent of the total globally. The effective date of the delisting will be June 28.
The New York-based company is separating its cable channels, movie studio and other entertainment assets from its newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal. The new publishing company, which will retain the News Corp name, officially kicks off on June 28.
The entertainment assets, including the Fox broadcasting network, will be known as 21st Century Fox. (Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bangalore; Editing by David Holmes)
Microsoft is?moving its botnet protection group to the cloud to provide near real-time information about known malware infections starting to surface. Microsoft is making the new program available to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and computer emergency response teams (CERT) who are responsible for monitoring malware and other threats in their organizations.
Sign of the times as part-time work for everybody now becomes the status quo for the labor market . . . Bleak Picture for Missouri Youth Unemployment - Money quote: "The jobless rate for the 16 to 24 year old category in Missouri stands at 16.1 percent. The state's overall jobless rate was 6.6 percent in April, while the national rate for the month was 7.5 percent. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said youth unemployment measured 17.1 percent last July."
TOKYO (AP) ? An outspoken Japanese politician apologized Monday for saying U.S. troops should patronize adult entertainment businesses as a way to reduce sex crimes, but defended another inflammatory remark about Japan's use of sex slaves before and during World War II.
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, co-leader of an emerging nationalist party, said his remarks two weeks ago rose from a "sense of crisis" about cases of sexual assaults by U.S. military personnel on Japanese civilians in Okinawa, where a large number of U.S. troops are based under a bilateral security treaty.
Hashimoto also said he had not tried to condone a system of so-called comfort women, but meant to say military authorities at the time, not only in Japan but in many other countries, considered it necessary.
He denied any intention to avoid Japan's responsibility over its wartime actions, adding he wanted to shed light on sex offenses in the battlefield and encourage open debate on the problem today.
"I understand that my remark could be construed as an insult to the U.S. forces and to the American people" and was inappropriate, he told a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. "I retract this remark and express an apology."
Hashimoto, a lawyer and former TV personality, created an uproar with comments to journalists two weeks ago about Japan's modern and wartime sexual services, which he said were misquoted. The comments added to recent anger in neighboring countries that suffered from Japan's wartime aggression and have complained about a lack of atonement for the atrocities.
Hashimoto said then that the practice of using women from across Asia to work in front-line brothels before and during World War II was necessary to maintain discipline and provide relaxation for soldiers. He added that on a recent visit to the southern island of Okinawa, he suggested to the U.S. commander there that his troops "make better use" of the legal sex industry "to control the sexual energy of those tough guys."
On Monday, Hashimoto called the use of comfort women an "inexcusable act that violated the dignity and human rights of the women, in which large numbers of Korean and Japanese were included." He did not mention women from other countries, such as China, the Philippines and Indonesia, where many teenagers were forced into sex slavery.
He said Japan must express deep remorse and apologize to the women. He repeatedly denied any intention to whitewash Japan's wartime responsibility.
But he didn't apologize for those comments about Japan's wartime brothels, and insisted that the country's wartime government did not systematically force girls and women into prostitution.
Historians say up to 200,000 women, mainly from the Korean Peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels. While some other World War II armies had military brothels, Japan is the only country accused of such widespread, organized sexual slavery.
"If only Japan is blamed because of the widely held view that the state authority of Japan was intentionally involved in the abduction and trafficking of women, I will have to inform you that this view is incorrect," he said.
Hashimoto urged the government to clarify or revise Japan's landmark apology in a 1993 statement by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono to clearly state that Japan did not systematically force women into prostitution for its wartime military.
The Kono apology acknowledged the military's involvement, both direct and indirect, in the forced recruitment of the women.
Hashimoto said the apology does not say whether the operation was run under "state will" and that such murkiness has contributed to longstanding disputes between Japan and South Korea over the issue. He raised doubts of accounts by some of the women who have come forward as victims of Japan's sexual slavery as reliable evidence of coercion.
Before taking office in December, Abe advocated revising the Kono apology, but now says he stands by it.
Hashimoto said he was quoted out of context in saying he believed that the use the system was necessary. He said he was trying to say that armed forces around the world "seem to have needed women" in past wars and had violated women's human rights during wartime.
Singling out Japan was wrong, as this issue also existed in the armed forces of the United States, Britain, France, Germany and the former Soviet Union during World War II, he alleged, without elaborating.
"Based on the premise that Japan must remorsefully face its past offenses and must never justify the offenses, I intended to argue that other nations in the world must not attempt to conclude the matter by blaming only Japan and by associating Japan alone with the simple phrase of 'sex slaves' or 'sex slavery,'" Hashimoto said in a statement to journalists.
Hashimoto's suggestion to the U.S. troops brought sharp criticism from Washington. The State Department called Hashimoto's comments "outrageous and offensive."
Okinawa was invaded by U.S. forces in World War II and has had an American military presence since. The 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by two Marines and a sailor spread rage across the island, and more rapes and other crimes linked to U.S. servicemen over the years, along with military land use and aircraft noise, have caused longstanding anti-U.S. military sentiment there.
Hashimoto, 43, has become well known in recent years for his outspokenness. Last year, he formed the Japan Restoration Party with former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, a strident nationalist. It is now an opposition party in parliament.
On Friday 3rd May, as Europe?s workers returned to work after the May Day austerity protests, students from London?s inner city schools marched through the wrought iron gates of the Houses of Parliament to discuss some of Europe?s most pressing issues.
The event began by splitting students into small groups, each discussing two out of the five following topics:
Britain?s place in Europe ? Is Europe?s financial meltdown a signal that Britain should sever its ties with the continent, or should the crisis prompt the UK to play a larger role in stabilising its neighbours? What effects will the widening of Europe?s borders have on the UK?
Crime ? What can be done to manage the rising tide of drugs and gun crime in the UK and internationally? Does society treat celebrities engaging in criminal behaviour differently to the general public?
Religion ? What does religion mean to young people today? Is faith a necessary component of a fulfilled life?
Youth Unemployment ? How are rising tuition fees affecting young people?s decisions to enter higher education? In the light of high levels of youth unemployment, how significant is the risk of simply delaying unemployment by attending university?
Welfare Reform ? Will the government?s reforms of the welfare system protect the most vulnerable in society and get more people into work, or will they encourage a benefits culture that threatens to harm the country?s future prosperity?
After the arrival of the panellists (Sophie Farthing ? Liberty; Philip Souta ? Business for New Europe; Jaqueline Gomes ? Lambeth Youth Council; Daniel Tansey ? Christians Against Poverty), the discussion took on a Question-time format. The schools probed the panellists for their views on the issues that arose in their group discussions. Among the matters explored were the strength of the link between unemployment and crime; whether British business is compatible with European interest rates; if there is a xenophobic element to the prevailing arguments on secession from the EU; and if Euroscepticism has debased the UK?s position in Europe.
On behalf of EYPUK,?we would like to thank the panellists, schools, volunteers and the Education Outreach team at the Houses of Parliament for their time and contribution to what we hope was a stimulating day of discussion.? We also like to thank EYP France, who sent a delegation to participate in EurVoice London.
Shyam Desai, European Youth Parliament United Kingdom
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) ? More than 4,000 Russian singers have performed outdoors in St. Petersburg with the aim of setting a world record for the largest choir.
The 4,335 singers of all ages and from nearly all of the city's professional and amateur choirs sang from the steps of St. Isaac's Cathedral before thousands of spectators under an intermittent rain.
The spectators, who closed their umbrellas with the start of Sunday's performance, sang along during the one-hour concert.
The 14 songs performed included some of the most popular and patriotic songs of Russia and the Soviet Union, including a hymn celebrating the country's victory in World War II.
Yulia Alshenina, whose daughter sang in the choir, said the concert was so moving she could not hold back her tears.
FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009 file photo, Columbus Crew's Robbie Rogers celebrates after scoring against the San Jose Earthquakes during the second half of an MLS soccer match in San Francisco. Rogers is joining the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer in another step by gay athletes. Rogers tells The Associated Press his fears about returning to soccer were eased by the support he received from family, fans and players, including Galaxy star Landon Donovan. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009 file photo, Columbus Crew's Robbie Rogers celebrates after scoring against the San Jose Earthquakes during the second half of an MLS soccer match in San Francisco. Rogers is joining the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer in another step by gay athletes. Rogers tells The Associated Press his fears about returning to soccer were eased by the support he received from family, fans and players, including Galaxy star Landon Donovan. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
CARSON, Calif. (AP) ? Robbie Rogers is eligible to make his debut for the Los Angeles Galaxy after Major League Soccer said it had received his international transfer certificate.
The former U.S. national team winger will become the first active openly gay male athlete to compete in a North American professional team sport when he makes his debut for the Galaxy, which could come in Sunday night's game against Seattle.
Rogers signed with the Galaxy on Saturday after being acquired from the Chicago Fire. The Galaxy traded Mike Magee to his hometown Fire in exchange for the rights to Rogers, who will wear No. 14.
SALT LAKE CITY ? What does it take to build and command a vehicle capable of exploring Mars? Ninety students from around the world are about to find out.
Next week, in a remote desert in southern Utah, 10 teams from the United States, Canada, India and Poland will compete in the annual University Rover Challenge (URC). The competition is hosted by the Mars Society, a non-profit research organization dedicated to promoting the exploration and eventual settlement of Mars.
The competition site is located at the society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), a rocky barren landscape that's about as close to Martian terrain as you can get on Earth. [See also:?7 Most Mars-like Places on Earth]
Each team was allowed to spend up to $15,000 on their rovers, which can weigh no more than 50 kilograms ? about 110 lbs.
On Monday (May 27), the first members of the URC team will arrive at the Research Station to start setting up, Kevin Sloan, director of the URC, told us. The competition will begin early Thursday morning as teams leave their lodgings in Hanksville, Utah (Pop. 215), and travel about seven miles along a road that dwindles to a dirt track. Over three days, teams will use their vehicles to compete in four challenges, designed to replicate the activities of NASA's rovers on Mars.
For instance,?Mars rover Curiosity, now in its ninth month of a two-year mission on Mars, has recently been deployed to its second drilling site to take rock samples, analyze them for evidence of microscopic life and send the data back to NASA. Likewise, teams will guide their rovers to collect the subsurface soil samples most likely to contain photosynthetic bacteria, lichen and other bits of living material.
The specific tasks change each year, but the most difficult ones continue to be those that need rovers to do humanlike work.
"Year after year, the tasks that involve manipulation ? that is to say using the robot's arm and hand to do meaningful work ? ?really stress the teams' systems the most," Sloan said. "Manipulation from a mobile platform is one of the biggest challenges in the?robotics?community."
Like NASA controllers, team members must guide their rovers via a remote connection, such as a computer in the back of a truck, as long as it's shielded so the team can't see their rovers. The URC is based on the assumption that the rovers are telerobots, which means they would be operated by astronauts on or orbiting Mars.
In addition to collecting soil, the rovers will deliver a series of packages, such as emergency supplies to "astronauts" (URC staff) in the field, fix a dust-covered solar panel (without water, of course) and finally, navigate an obstacle course that will include climbing steep grades, getting over boulders and passing through PVC pipe gates, aimed to test each rover's maneuverability.
This year's teams represent universities and colleges in Canada, India, Poland and the United States, including two-time returning champions Toronto's York University (2012 and 2009) and Oregon State (2010 and 2008).
Details about the capabilities of this year's rovers are kept under wraps by the teams. However, Sloan did tell us he expects one rover to include an unmanned aerial vehicle, i.e., a?drone.
"Other than that, I don't have any insight into unique system features," Sloan said. "Like everyone else, I'm waiting to be surprised next week in the field!"
This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to SPACE.com. Follow Leslie Meredith @lesliemeredith. Follow us @TechNewsDaily, on Facebook or on Google+. Original article on TechNewsDaily.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Climate researchers discover new rhythm for El Ni?oPublic release date: 26-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gisela Speidel gspeidel@hawaii.edu 808-956-9252 University of Hawaii ? SOEST
El Nio wreaks havoc across the globe, shifting weather patterns that spawn droughts in some regions and floods in others. The impacts of this tropical Pacific climate phenomenon are well known and documented.
A mystery, however, has remained despite decades of research: Why does El Nio always peak around Christmas and end quickly by February to April?
Now there is an answer: An unusual wind pattern that straddles the equatorial Pacific during strong El Nio events and swings back and forth with a period of 15 months explains El Nio's close ties to the annual cycle. This finding is reported in the May 26, 2013, online issue of Nature Geoscience by scientists from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa Meteorology Department and International Pacific Research Center.
"This atmospheric pattern peaks in February and triggers some of the well-known El Nio impacts, such as droughts in the Philippines and across Micronesia and heavy rainfall over French Polynesia," says lead author Malte Stuecker.
When anomalous trade winds shift south they can terminate an El Nio by generating eastward propagating equatorial Kelvin waves that eventually resume upwelling of cold water in the eastern equatorial Pacific. This wind shift is part of the larger, unusual atmospheric pattern accompanying El Nio events, in which a high-pressure system hovers over the Philippines and the major rain band of the South Pacific rapidly shifts equatorward.
With the help of numerical atmospheric models, the scientists discovered that this unusual pattern originates from an interaction between El Nio and the seasonal evolution of temperatures in the western tropical Pacific warm pool.
"Not all El Nio events are accompanied by this unusual wind pattern" notes Malte Stuecker, "but once El Nio conditions reach a certain threshold amplitude during the right time of the year, it is like a jack-in-the-box whose lid pops open."
A study of the evolution of the anomalous wind pattern in the model reveals a rhythm of about 15 months accompanying strong El Nio events, which is considerably faster than the three- to five-year timetable for El Nio events, but slower than the annual cycle.
"This type of variability is known in physics as a combination tone," says Fei-Fei Jin, professor of Meteorology and co-author of the study. Combination tones have been known for more than three centuries. They where discovered by violin builder Tartini, who realized that our ear can create a third tone, even though only two tones are played on a violin.
"The unusual wind pattern straddling the equator during an El Nio is such a combination tone between El Nio events and the seasonal march of the sun across the equator" says co-author Axel Timmermann, climate scientist at the International Pacific Research Center and professor at the Department of Oceanography, University of Hawai'i. He adds, "It turns out that many climate models have difficulties creating the correct combination tone, which is likely to impact their ability to simulate and predict El Nio events and their global impacts."
The scientists are convinced that a better representation of the 15-month tropical Pacific wind pattern in climate models will improve El Nio forecasts. Moreover, they say the latest climate model projections suggest that El Nio events will be accompanied more often by this combination tone wind pattern, which will also change the characteristics of future El Nio rainfall patterns.
###
Citation: Stuecker, M. F., A. Timmermann, F.-F. Jin, S. McGregor, and H.-L. Ren (2013), A combination mode of the annual cycle and the El Nio/Southern Oscillation, Nature Geoscience, May 26 online publication at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1826.
Funding:
This study was supported by US NSF grant ATM1034798, US Department of Energy grant DESC005110, US NOAA grant NA10OAR4310200, the 973 Program of China (2010CB950404) and the China Meteorological Special Project (GYHY201206033). A.T. was also supported by US NSF grant 1049219 and through the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) through its sponsorship of the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC).
Author contacts:
Malte Stuecker Department of Meteorology School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 email: stuecker@hawaii.edu phone: 808-956-7110
Axel Timmermann Professor, International Pacific Research Center and Department of Oceanography School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 email: axel@hawaii.edu phone: 808-956-2720
Fei-Fei Jin Professor Department of Meteorology School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 email: jff@hawaii.edu phone: 808-956-4645
International Pacific Research Center Media Contact:
Gisela E. Speidel International Pacific Research Center School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
The International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, is a climate research center founded to gain greater understanding of the climate system and the nature and causes of climate variation in the Asia-Pacific region and how global climate changes may affect the region. Established under the "U.S.-Japan Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspective" in October 1997, the IPRC is a collaborative effort between agencies in Japan and the United States.
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Climate researchers discover new rhythm for El Ni?oPublic release date: 26-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Gisela Speidel gspeidel@hawaii.edu 808-956-9252 University of Hawaii ? SOEST
El Nio wreaks havoc across the globe, shifting weather patterns that spawn droughts in some regions and floods in others. The impacts of this tropical Pacific climate phenomenon are well known and documented.
A mystery, however, has remained despite decades of research: Why does El Nio always peak around Christmas and end quickly by February to April?
Now there is an answer: An unusual wind pattern that straddles the equatorial Pacific during strong El Nio events and swings back and forth with a period of 15 months explains El Nio's close ties to the annual cycle. This finding is reported in the May 26, 2013, online issue of Nature Geoscience by scientists from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa Meteorology Department and International Pacific Research Center.
"This atmospheric pattern peaks in February and triggers some of the well-known El Nio impacts, such as droughts in the Philippines and across Micronesia and heavy rainfall over French Polynesia," says lead author Malte Stuecker.
When anomalous trade winds shift south they can terminate an El Nio by generating eastward propagating equatorial Kelvin waves that eventually resume upwelling of cold water in the eastern equatorial Pacific. This wind shift is part of the larger, unusual atmospheric pattern accompanying El Nio events, in which a high-pressure system hovers over the Philippines and the major rain band of the South Pacific rapidly shifts equatorward.
With the help of numerical atmospheric models, the scientists discovered that this unusual pattern originates from an interaction between El Nio and the seasonal evolution of temperatures in the western tropical Pacific warm pool.
"Not all El Nio events are accompanied by this unusual wind pattern" notes Malte Stuecker, "but once El Nio conditions reach a certain threshold amplitude during the right time of the year, it is like a jack-in-the-box whose lid pops open."
A study of the evolution of the anomalous wind pattern in the model reveals a rhythm of about 15 months accompanying strong El Nio events, which is considerably faster than the three- to five-year timetable for El Nio events, but slower than the annual cycle.
"This type of variability is known in physics as a combination tone," says Fei-Fei Jin, professor of Meteorology and co-author of the study. Combination tones have been known for more than three centuries. They where discovered by violin builder Tartini, who realized that our ear can create a third tone, even though only two tones are played on a violin.
"The unusual wind pattern straddling the equator during an El Nio is such a combination tone between El Nio events and the seasonal march of the sun across the equator" says co-author Axel Timmermann, climate scientist at the International Pacific Research Center and professor at the Department of Oceanography, University of Hawai'i. He adds, "It turns out that many climate models have difficulties creating the correct combination tone, which is likely to impact their ability to simulate and predict El Nio events and their global impacts."
The scientists are convinced that a better representation of the 15-month tropical Pacific wind pattern in climate models will improve El Nio forecasts. Moreover, they say the latest climate model projections suggest that El Nio events will be accompanied more often by this combination tone wind pattern, which will also change the characteristics of future El Nio rainfall patterns.
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Citation: Stuecker, M. F., A. Timmermann, F.-F. Jin, S. McGregor, and H.-L. Ren (2013), A combination mode of the annual cycle and the El Nio/Southern Oscillation, Nature Geoscience, May 26 online publication at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1826.
Funding:
This study was supported by US NSF grant ATM1034798, US Department of Energy grant DESC005110, US NOAA grant NA10OAR4310200, the 973 Program of China (2010CB950404) and the China Meteorological Special Project (GYHY201206033). A.T. was also supported by US NSF grant 1049219 and through the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) through its sponsorship of the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC).
Author contacts:
Malte Stuecker Department of Meteorology School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 email: stuecker@hawaii.edu phone: 808-956-7110
Axel Timmermann Professor, International Pacific Research Center and Department of Oceanography School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 email: axel@hawaii.edu phone: 808-956-2720
Fei-Fei Jin Professor Department of Meteorology School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 email: jff@hawaii.edu phone: 808-956-4645
International Pacific Research Center Media Contact:
Gisela E. Speidel International Pacific Research Center School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
The International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, is a climate research center founded to gain greater understanding of the climate system and the nature and causes of climate variation in the Asia-Pacific region and how global climate changes may affect the region. Established under the "U.S.-Japan Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspective" in October 1997, the IPRC is a collaborative effort between agencies in Japan and the United States.
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I have just set up a community on Google Plus that is designed to give family tree bloggers and genealogists a space to post and share their own images and links to blog posts.? It is a companion to my Pinterest Board of the same name.
I love connecting with other genealogists and bloggers and I've found that a great way to do that is to provide a forum for others (and myself, of course) to share their work.? My plan is to run the community similarly to a blogging group I have been part for the last couple of years ago that was not genealogy-related called Great Blogging Experience 2 (GBE2 for short).? On a weekly basis, the moderator of that group would post a prompt and ask everyone to post links to their blog posts on the prompt within a "thread" on the group based on the prompt.? Group members are also encouraged to post separately within the community on topics that do not fit the prompt.? Like that other group, comments are strongly encouraged.? I also hope that we'll find that some of us are researching the same family lines and are able to locate collaborators through forums like this one.?
My idea at this point is that these posts can be any genealogy-related link, whether it is a blog post or not.? But I also am going to moderate the group and the Pinterest board for the time being to ensure we don't end up with tons of stuff that other members won't want to read or see.?
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) ? A female suicide bomber injured at least 11 police officers and civilians, including two children, in the southern Russian region of Dagestan on Saturday, police said.
Police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said the bomber blew herself up in the central square in the provincial capital, Makhachkala. He did not give details about the injured children.
Since 2000, at least two dozen women, most of them from the Caucasus, have carried out suicide bombings in Russian cities and aboard trains and planes. All were linked to an Islamic insurgency that spread throughout Dagestan and the predominantly Muslim Caucasus region after two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya.
The bombers are often called "black widows" in Russia because many are the widows, or other relatives, of militants killed by security forces.
The Tsarnaev brothers suspected of carrying out last month's Boston marathon bombings, are ethnic Chechens who lived in Dagestan before moving to the United States. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed a shootout with police days after the April 15 bombings, spent six months in Dagestan in 2012.
Dagestan remains an epicenter of violence in the confrontation between radical Islamists and federal forces.
This week, a double explosion in Makhachkala killed four civilians and left 44 injured, while three security officers and three suspected militants have been killed in other incidents
Human rights groups accuse security agencies of abductions, torture and extrajudicial killings of civilians that further fuel the confrontation with Islamic radicals.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? After their 2-year-old son died of untreated pneumonia in 2009, faith-healing advocates Herbert and Catherine Schaible promised a judge they would not let another sick child go without medical care.
But now they've lost an 8-month-old to what a prosecutor called "eerily similar" circumstances. And instead of another involuntary manslaughter charge, they're now charged with third-degree murder.
"We believe in divine healing, that Jesus shed blood for our healing and that he died on the cross to break the devil's power," Herbert Schaible, 44, told Philadelphia homicide detectives after their ninth child, Brandon, died in April. Medicine, he said, "is against our religious beliefs."
The Schaibles were ordered held without bail Friday, two days after their arrest, although defense lawyers argued that they are neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community.
"He is incarcerated because of his faith," said lawyer Bobby Hoof, who described client Herbert Schaible's mindset as resolute.
"He's strong willed," Hoof said. "(Yet) he's mourning this son. He's hurting as any dad would."
The only people theoretically at risk are the couple's seven surviving children, who are now in foster care, the lawyers said.
A judge acknowledged that the couple had never missed a court date in the first case but said he worried that might change amid the more serious charges. And he feared they may have supporters who would harbor them.
"Throughout this country ... there are churches like the Schaibles' whose members and leaders probably don't think they did anything wrong and might be willing ? to paraphrase the Schaibles' pastor ? to put their interpretation of God's will above the law," Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner said.
About a dozen children die each year in the U.S. when parents turn to faith healing instead of medicine, typically from highly treatable problems, said Shawn Francis Peters, a University of Wisconsin lecturer who has studied faith-healing deaths.
In Oregon, four couples from a faith-healing church have been prosecuted, the most recent in 2011 when a couple was sentenced to more than six years in prison for manslaughter in the death of their newborn son.
The state legislature that year removed faith healing as a defense to murder charges. Members of the Followers of Christ have consistently refused to speak with journalists.
Defense lawyer Mark Cogan declined to comment Friday on whether the legal actions have changed the practice of any church members. Some testified at the 2011 trial that they do get medical care.
At the Schaibles' sentencing in February 2011 in their son Kent's death, they agreed to follow terms of the 10-year probation, which included an order to get their children regular checkups and sick visits as needed. Catherine Schaible, 43, let her husband speak for her and never addressed the judge.
"It's very clear that the law says that religious freedom is trumped by the safety of a child," Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Engel Temin explained.
But a transcript of a later probation hearing that year shows probation officers were confused by their mandate to oversee the required medical care and felt powerless to carry it out. The family was not being monitored by child-welfare workers, who are more accustomed to dealing with medical compliance.
"I think that we all on the jury thought that it would not happen again, that whatever social and legal institutions needed to be involved in their situation would just take over ... and that the mandated visits would be robust enough that they would not be able to do this again," Vincent Bertolini, a former college professor who served as jury foreman at the Schaibles' first trial, said Friday.
That jury convicted the couple of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment.
Like other cases Peters has studied, the Schaibles belong to a small, insular circle of believers. Both are third-generation members and former teachers at their fundamentalist Christian church, the First Century Gospel Church in northeast Philadelphia.
Their pastor, Nelson Clark, has said the Schaibles lost their sons because of a "spiritual lack" in their lives and insisted they would not seek medical care even if another child appeared near death. He did not return phone messages this month, but he told The Associated Press in 2011 that his church is not a cult, and he faulted officials for trying to force his members into "the flawed medical system," which he blamed for 100,000 deaths a year.
"These are people who have been brought up in these communities; their beliefs are reinforced every day," Peters said. "They're not trained intellectually to question these doctrines, where the rest of us might engage in critical inquiry, weighing the benefits of medicine versus the benefits of prayer."
A handful of families, including one in western Pennsylvania, have lost two children after attempts at faith healing, according to Peters, who wrote "When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children and the Law."
Peters isn't sure that courts have the means to prevent the problem, since such people don't fear legal punishment, only Judgment Day. Some believe death "is a good outcome," given their belief in the afterlife, he said.
"They don't want to harm their children. They're just in this particularly narrow ? and very, very dangerous ? way misguided about the potential of medical science," he said.
He believes that "empathetic" intervention, through dialogue between church and public health educators, could help some "get to a point where they allow their beliefs and practices to evolve."
But there's a risk that could backfire, and drive these communities further underground, he said.
For the Schaibles, a third-degree murder conviction could bring seven to 14 years in prison or more.
Said Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore: "Somebody is dead now as a result of what they did ? or didn't do."
___
Associated Press writer Tim Fought in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.
Boy Scouts of America headquarters in Irving, Texas. (Jason Sickles/Yahoo News)
[Updated at 6:55 p.m. CT]
DALLAS ? The Boy Scouts of America, one of the country?s largest and oldest youth organizations, decided on Thursday to break 103 years of tradition by allowing openly gay members into its ranks.
The controversial move was approved by more than 60 percent of the approximate 1,400 votes cast by the BSA?s national council. According to the new resolution, beginning Jan. 1, 2014, ?no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.?
?The resolution also reinforces that Scouting is a youth program, and any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting,? the BSA stated in a press release.
Lifting the organization?s ban on gay adult volunteer leaders and paid staff was not considered and remains in place.
Pascal Tessier, a gay Scout from Maryland, told Yahoo News that he was ecstatic with the outcome.
?Proud, happy and on top of the world,? he said.
Tessier, 16, had feared that a no vote would mean he would not earn his Eagle award next year.
?The delegates proved me wrong,? Tessier said.
Texas Governor Rick Perry told the Texas Tribune, ?While I will always cherish my time as a Scout ... I am greatly disappointed with this decision.?
The emotionally charged issue has seen those for and against it wage costly public relations campaigns, and has fostered intense debate from coast to coast.
In a statement, John Stemberger, an Eagle Scout and leader of a coalition of people who opposed the change, accused the BSA of caving to polls, politics and public opinion.
?It is with great sadness and deep disappointment that we recognize on this day that the most influential youth program in America has turned a tragic corner,? Stemberger stated in a press release. ?The vote today to allow open and avowed homosexuality into Scouting will completely transform it into an unprincipled and risky proposition for parents. It is truly a sad day for Scouting.?
Stemberger, founder of On My Honor, stated his group and other like-minded organizations will meet in Louisville, Ky., next month to discuss creating a new character-development organization for boys.
The historic change comes 13 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that BSA is a private club that is allowed to set its own rules for membership. Since then, public pressure has mounted for the Texas-based organization to change the exclusion, especially last year, when a gay California teen was denied his Eagle Scout award and an Ohio lesbian was removed as a den mother from her son?s troop.
Still, just 10 months ago, the Scouts reaffirmed their stance, saying a two-year confidential review revealed a majority of the organization?s parents wanted to keep the policy. The about-face to put it to a vote came ?out of respect for the diverse beliefs of Scouting's chartered organizations,? according to the BSA website.
After the vote, the Scouts stated there would be no plans to revisit the issue.
?While people have different opinions about this policy, we can all agree that kids are better off when they are in Scouting,? they stated in a press release. ? ? America?s youth need Scouting, and by focusing on the goals that unite us, we can continue to accomplish incredible things for young people and the communities we serve.?
News of the change brought tears of joy to Melanie Gerken, the mother of an Eagle Scout and a longtime volunteer with Cleveland-area troops.
?It?s about time,? said Gerken, choking back tears.
She said she hopes the organization takes it a step further by allowing gay volunteers to work with Scouts.
?Being homosexual doesn?t make you a pedophile,? Gerken told Yahoo News. ?I don?t care what goes on in your bedroom behind closed doors. What can you do for other people and youth??
Boy Scouts' Membership Standards Resolution by Jason Sickles, Yahoo News
Left to right: Joseph McAuliffe, Bill Clinton and Terry McAuliffe. (Facebook.com)
Terry McAuliffe, a Democratic operative embroiled in a tight race to become Virginia's next governor, knows a thing or two about conservatives like his Republican opponent, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
That's in part because his older brother, Joseph McAuliffe, spent two decades as a Republican activist who worked for the evangelical leader Pat Robertson's presidential campaign, helped found a Christian political group in Florida, and was even arrested in the late 1980s while demonstrating at an abortion clinic.
Born into an Irish-Catholic family in the 1950s in Syracuse, N.Y., the McAuliffe brothers, Terry, 56 and Joseph, 62, both grew up to pursue a political career, but on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum. Joseph spent the late 1970s and '80s working for conservatives, while Terry skyrocketed through the ranks of the Democratic Party.
Despite Joseph's resume as a right-wing activist, he wasn't always a conservative Republican, and he has since disavowed many of his former views. (More on that later.)
In an interview with Yahoo News, Joseph said that before becoming a Republican, he was a self-described hippie who lived in communes and went to Woodstock. As a young man, Joseph was "very much left of the Democratic Party," he said.
That would all change in the 1970s, when a conversion experience to Christianity took him politically rightward.
One issue in particular delivered the elder McAuliffe brother firmly into the Republican camp: abortion. In 1973, the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wadegranted women the right to terminate their pregnancies through the first 12 weeks of gestation, a decision that helped ignite a conservative political movement that eventually brought millions of Christians into the Republican Party. Joseph was one of them.
"It really was a bellwether issue that took people like myself," Joseph told Yahoo News. "There were a number of people who were former counterculture types who were even left of left so to speak, but shifted to the right."
A new man, Joseph became a minister and moved to Tampa, Fla., where he helped start a church. In the era of Ronald Reagan, Joseph became deeply involved in Republican politics. He was invited to join then-Vice President George H.W. Bush's presidential campaign in 1987, but took a job as a deputy state campaign manager for Robertson's presidential run.
While Joseph toiled on the campaign trail in 1988 for one of the most conservative candidates in the GOP primary, his younger brother, Terry, was busy fundraising for Dick Gephardt, a top House Democrat and one of the most liberal presidential hopefuls at the time.
After Robertson dropped out of the race, Joseph joined other Robertson campaign workers to create United Christians of Florida, a political action committee that provides issue-based voter guides for Christians in the state. Joseph went on to work for Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network for two years, where, like Terry, he specialized in courting high-dollar donors.
During the Clinton years, however, Joseph became disenchanted with the Republican Party. He began to question the conservative opposition to the welfare state and came to realize that he could no longer reconcile right-wing views on issues like food stamps and health care for the poor with his faith.
"I kind of got burned out on some of my experiences I had gone through with the Republican Party," Joseph told Yahoo News. "I'd find myself sitting in Republican meetings where they would be talking about the problems with welfare and food stamps, and I thought, Jeez, these people really don't know what they're talking about."
When he looks back on his years with Robertson and the Christian Broadcasting Network, Joseph said he had hoped that Robertson, who has a long record of making inflammatory statements about Muslims, gays and the cause of natural disasters, had abandoned hot-button political issues to focus exclusively on ministry.
"I wish and recommended for Pat to take that course," he said.
In the 1990s, Joseph began to dabble in Democratic politics through his brother. During Bill Clinton's re-election campaign, Terry, who served as Clinton's co-chairman, brought Joseph to a fundraiser for the president. Terry gave a short speech to the group about his brother, according to a 2001 Tampa Tribune article, and praised him for his principled commitment to pro-life policies, even though the two disagreed on the issue.
"I was probably the only pro-life person in the room," Joseph would later tell the Tampa Tribune. Clinton, he said, led the room in applause for him after Terry's talk.
Joseph's political shift was complete when, on Nov. 6, 1996, while still a registered Republican, Joseph cast his ballot to send Bill Clinton back to the White House.
Over time, even his staunch opposition to abortion would change. Joseph told Yahoo News this week that while he still would not personally advise a woman to have an abortion, he no longer thinks the government should ban the procedure.
"I describe myself as being very pro-life and very pro-choice. I'm very comfortable being a strong advocate for the unborn and at the same time being a strong advocate of women having a right to make decisions for their own bodies," Joseph told Yahoo News. "I think we need to give individuals the freedom to make that choice."
Abortion, of course, remains a contentious issue to this day, and the debate over its legality has made its way into Terry's campaign for governor. As a candidate in the race for governor, Terry has criticized Cuccinelli, his Republican opponent, for his anti-abortion views. On that issue and others, Terry McAuliffe and Virginia state party members regularly label Cuccinelli an "extremist."
Unlike his younger brother, Joseph declines to use the word to describe those with different views.
"I don't like the word 'extremist' in almost any regard," Joseph told Yahoo News. "Adolf Hitler was an extremist. Joseph Stalin. I try to reserve words like that for people that really?I think this is a sensitive, delicate, personal issue, and I wish there was more civility and humility surrounding the discussion.
"The idea of me getting arrested is not something I'm proud of. There are just some things we just don't know," Joseph said. "To me all religious discussions, all social issues, if you will, should be shrouded in humility and prefaced by words like 'maybe' and 'perhaps.' But we tend to be so dogmatic and so absolutely final about things that we really don't know what we're talking about, including God."
These days, Joseph is far less political than Terry. He still focuses on his ministry while teaching history at the University of South Florida and is the coordinator of the university's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
Joseph lives in South Florida with his wife of nearly 40 years, Kay. They have four children, one of whom, Marisa, lives in Washington and works for Hillary Clinton.
"I try not to keep politics as a front-burner issue in my life," Joseph said. "Sometimes politics can get in the way of people."
Still, he's been following his brother's race closely, and it's not always easy given the scrutiny his brother often faces in the media.
Joseph said he winced when he saw the dustup over excerpts from Terry's books that made Terry appear as though he didn't care about his family. In his 2008 memoir, "What a Party!," Terry described the time he went to a Washington Post party while his wife was in labor with their first child. In another section of the book, he wrote about how he stopped to meet with a Democratic donor while on the way home from the hospital with his newborn son.
Terry was just trying to be funny, Joseph said.
"Terry's not the comedian of the family," he told Yahoo News. "I think some of his book was actually a failed attempt at humor that didn't really work. In fact it probably backfired on him."
Later this summer, Joseph plans to travel to Virginia to help his little brother on the campaign trail.
"I think he'll really surprise people at how good he'll be," Joseph said.
Microsoft is?
On Friday 3rd May, as Europe?s workers returned to work after the May Day austerity protests, students from London?s inner city schools marched through the wrought iron gates of the Houses of Parliament to discuss some of Europe?s most pressing issues.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 26-May-2013
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