banality unpronounced

Monday, April 8, 2013

Old salt lizard at home in Darwin's primal landscape

Shaoni Bhattacharya, consultant

(Image: Sebasti?o Salgado/NBPictures)

IF YOU wanted to go back in time to capture a pristine, ancient world untouched by the human hand, where might you start? You could do worse than the Galapagos Islands. This is where photographer Sebasti?o Salgado began his eight-year global odyssey across 32 countries to unearth and immortalise nature's many "unblemished faces".

Following the route around the islands that Charles Darwin took on the Beagle, Salgado caught up with one of the many quirky creatures that live in this evolutionary haven: the marine iguana, the world's only seafaring lizard.

Its tail, glistening here like chain mail against a moody reflection of sky and black laval rocks, is a perfect adaptation to the nautical lifestyle. It is laterally flattened like an oar to help propel the iguana into deep, cold waters to forage for seaweed. Feasting on seaweed could ratchet up your salt levels, but this creature has a special gland in its nostrils that filters out the excess, which is then indelicately sneezed out as salty snot.

Most outlandish of all is the marine iguana's adaptation for dealing with the harsh boom-and-bust cycles of food caused by the cyclical weather phenomenon El Ni?o. To cope, these iguanas not only grow skinnier with famine, but also shrink in length too, most likely digesting parts of their own bones to survive.

This article appeared in print under the headline "An ancient mariner"

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2a780ebb/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A130C0A40Cmarine0Eiguana0Esalgado0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Contrasting styles on display in Syracuse-Michigan

Syracuse's Michael Carter-Williams walks on the court with Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim during practice the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game against Michigan, Friday, April 5, 2013, in Atlanta. Syracuse plays Michigan in a semifinal game on Saturday. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Michigan's Trey Burke watches play during practice of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game against Syracuse, Friday, April 5, 2013, in Atlanta. Michigan plays Syracuse in a semifinal game on Saturday. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Syracuse players and staff pose for a photo before practice for their NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game against Michigan, Friday, April 5, 2013, in Atlanta. Wichita State plays Louisville in a semifinal game on Saturday. (AP Photo/Tim Donnelly)

Syracuse's Rakeem Christmas dunks the ball during practice for their NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game Michigan, Friday, April 5, 2013, in Atlanta. Wichita State plays Louisville in a semifinal game on Saturday. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Syracuse players leave the court after practice of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball semifinal game Friday, April 5, 2013, in Atlanta. Syracuse plays Michigan in a semifinal game on Saturday. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

ATLANTA (AP) ? Michigan brushes off any comparisons to the Fab Five.

Besides, the Wolverines have a chance to do something that group never did.

Win a national championship.

Michigan, making its first Final Four appearance since the Fab Five era, takes on suffocating Syracuse in a national semifinal Saturday night that presents a clear contrast in styles.

The experienced Orange are perfectly content to wear teams down with their octopus-like zone defense. The Wolverines are youthful and love to run, run, run, which has raised obvious comparisons to the great Michigan teams of the early 1990s.

Not so fast.

"We're nowhere near the Fab Five," said Michigan forward Glenn Robinson III, son of the former NBA star. "They changed the face of college basketball. We try to stay away from all that."

Michigan hasn't been to the Final Four since 1993, when the squad featuring Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson lost in the championship game for the second year in a row.

These Wolverines have some of that same vibe, with a lineup that features three freshmen ? Robinson, Nik Stauskas and Mitch McGary ? and a sophomore leader, Associated Press player of the year Trey Burke.

A couple of weeks ago, King dropped by one of Robinson's classes to talk about an era that is still remembered fondly at Michigan, even though the triumphs were eventually thrown out by the NCAA because of illicit payments to Webber.

"The Fab Five is such a tremendous story, five tremendous guys that did something special," coach John Beilein said Friday, a day when all four teams got a chance to practice in the cavernous, 70,000-seat Georgia Dome that is normally home of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons.

Syracuse, of course, couldn't care less about some Michigan team from two decades ago.

The Orange are ready to unleash their stifling 2-3 defense on this group of Wolverines.

"It's going to take them a while to adjust to the zone," said junior guard Brandon Triche, who, like the rest of his teammates, was brimming with confidence that defense is going to carry Syracuse to Monday night's title game against either Louisville or Wichita State.

The Michigan players quickly got wind of the comments coming from Syracuse's media session.

"It sounds like cockiness," said guard Tim Hardaway Jr., another son of an ex-NBA star on the Wolverines roster. "But it's not going to come down to just talent or who has the biggest players. It's going to come down to heart and passion."

Having a player such as Burke doesn't hurt, either.

The sophomore already came up huge in the regionals, leading the Wolverines back from a 14-point deficit against Kansas with less than 7 minutes remaining. He knocked down a long 3-pointer at the end of regulation to tie the game, then finished off the upset of the top-seeded Jayhawks in overtime.

But Burke has never played against a defense quite like this.

"We've just got to try to find different ways to attack the zone," he said. "They play a really good 2-3. It's tough. We've got to make sure we knock down uncontested 3s."

The zone is usually viewed as more of a passive defense.

Not the way Syracuse plays it.

Coach Jim Boeheim assembled a bunch of guys with impressive size and surprising quickness. When they're all working together ? waving those long arms and moving back and forth in unison, like the ocean lapping at the shore ? it can be tough to get an open jumper and nearly impossible to work the ball inside.

Syracuse (30-9) has taken its trademark D to new levels of stinginess in the NCAA tournament.

The Orange have surrendered a paltry 45.75 points per game, holding Montana (34), top-seeded Indiana (50) and Marquette (39) to their lowest scoring totals of the season. Overall, Syracuse's four tournament opponents have combined to shoot just 28.9 percent from field (61 of 211) and 15.4 percent from 3-point range (14 of 91).

None of those teams had a player like Burke.

That doesn't seem to matter to Syracuse.

"It's tough to go against our zone when you've never seen it before," forward C.J. Fair said. "We want to force him to do some things he's not done before."

Michigan (30-7) prefers to get in the open court as much as possible, a style that is even more advantageous against a team such as Syracuse, which has a size advantage at almost every position.

The Wolverines are averaging 75.5 points a game on the season, even more (78.8) in their four NCAA games. Last weekend, after stunning Kansas, they romped past one of the nation's best defensive teams, beating Florida 79-59 in the regional final.

They are certainly not intimidated by Syracuse.

"If their zone was unbeatable, then they would be 39-0," Hardaway scoffed. "We're just going to go out there, play our game, not worry about what they're going to do, and just play Michigan basketball."

Syracuse is playing in its first Final Four since the 2003 team won it all. This will mark the end of the Orange's long tenure in the crumbling Big East (they're moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season), and the players are keenly aware this might be the best chance to give Boeheim one more national title before he retires.

The 68-year-old coach has no plans to step down just yet, but certainly the bulk of his long, successful career is behind him.

Boeheim concedes that he's a little surprised to be in position for another championship, especially after Syracuse closed the regular season with four losses in its final five games, including a 22-point blowout at Georgetown. The Orange were seeded first in both 2010 and 2012, but didn't make it out of the regionals. This season, they advanced to Atlanta as a No. 4 seed.

"I wouldn't have expected going into the tournament that we were going to be here," Boeheim said. "This team has come together. Sometimes that happens at tournament time."

Good timing.

___

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-06-Final%20Four-Syracuse-Michigan/id-f94063215e4c4aa5b77dba5a39fe5951

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Griner, McGraw are AP player and coach of the year

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Brittney Griner has had no equal in her stellar career at Baylor. Now she's part of a very select group.

The 6-foot-8 senior star earned The Associated Press player of the year award for the second straight season Saturday. Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw was selected coach of the year.

Griner is just the third player to earn the award in consecutive years, joining Seimone Augustus of LSU and Chamique Holdsclaw of Tennessee. Connecticut's Maya Moore won it twice in a three-year span.

"Those names are pretty big; to have my name in there is an honor," Griner said.

The three-time All-American got 37 votes from the 40-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike received two votes while Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins earned the other.

Griner helped hand McGraw's team its only loss of the season back in early December. The Irish haven't lost since, winning a school record 30 straight games. Not bad for a team that graduated three starters from last season.

"I think she's one of the best players to play the game," McGraw said. "She definitely has been a really dominating presence in every way."

McGraw, who also won the award in 2001, received 24 votes. She did one of her best coaching jobs this season, getting the Irish back to the Final Four for a third straight season.

"She's well deserving of the award this year with what we lost," Diggins said. "To keep us winning like this that means a lot. She's a great person and knows how to win and motivate her players to give their all for her. When you have someone who cares about you, you'll do anything."

McGraw was happy to share the award with her coaching staff and team who were in attendance for the ceremony and let out a loud cheer when she accepted it.

Last year's winner, Griner's coach Kim Mulkey, was second with seven votes. Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who guided the Golden Bears to their first Final Four, was third.

"It's certainly an honor and truly a staff award," McGraw said. "I got the best staff in women's basketball and we definitely are a great team."

McGraw, who also won the award in 2001, became the second coach to win it multiple times. She joined UConn's Geno Auriemma ? a seven time recipient.

Griner averaged 23.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 4.1 blocks this season. She shot 61 percent from the field and 71 percent from the free throw line. Griner's father, godfather and brother were with her when she accepted the award. Griner said she will put it with the one she won last year.

She really appeared to be having a lot more fun on the court this season. Griner had 11 dunks, including three against Florida State in the second round of the NCAA tournament. She finished her career with 18; only six other women have ever dunked in a college game and the group had 15 combined.

Her college career ended sooner than expected, though, after Baylor lost to Louisville in the NCAA tournament regional semifinals.

Griner was the second all-time scorer in women's NCAA history, with 3,283 points. She is the top shot blocker ever, shattering both the men's and women's college marks with 748.

Her play has drawn the praise of LeBron James.

"She's dominating that sport, the women's side of the game," he said. "There's really no one that can match her right now."

___

Follow Doug on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dougfeinberg

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-06-AP%20Awards/id-54852cefa694453ba29f10937cdf7ddf

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Sunday, April 7, 2013

Google, BlackBerry, EarthLink and Red Hat ask DoJ and FTC to help starve patent trolls

Tired of all the patent-related stories? Especially the ones that seem like they are more about financial gain than fairness? We thought so. We'd imagine it's even more of a frustration if you're one of the companies regularly involved. No surprise then that some firms -- such as Google, BlackBerry, EarthLink and Red Hat -- have decided to do something about it, taking the fight directly to the FTC and DoJ. In a recent blog post, Google explains that -- along with its collaborators -- it has submitted comments to the aforementioned agencies, detailing the impact that "patent trolls" have on the economy.

While the financial cost to the US taxpayer is said to be nearly $30 billion, the four companies also point out how such behavior hurts consumers even further, suggesting that when start-ups and small businesses are strong-armed, innovation and competition suffer. Some specific practices such as "patent priveteering" -- when a company sells patents to trolls who don't manufacture anything and therefore can't be countersued -- also come under direct criticism. The cynical might assume this all comes back to the bottom line, but with the collaborative extending an invitation to other companies to help develop revised, cooperative licensing agreements, they are the very least making it difficult for them to engage in similar behavior in the future. At least until the FTC and DoJ respond.

Filed under: Misc, Google, Blackberry

Comments

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Google Public Policy (blog)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/m34IvPS_rHA/

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Microsoft : Facebook Home, bizim Windows Phone ile yapt???m?z? taklit ediyor

?Facebook'un k?sa s?re ?nce resmi olarak tan?tt??? Facebook Home adl? Android ana ekran uygulamas? ?imdiden pek ?ok tart??may? beraberinde getirdi. Gizlilik tart??malar? sonras?nda bu kez Microsoft da ele?tirilere dahil oldu.

Yeni aray?z ile Zuckerberg, uygulama ve widget yerine insan unsuruna odakland?klar?n? belirtmi?ti.?

Ancak Microsoft s?zc?s? Frank Shaw, iki y?l ?nce Redmond'da Windows Phone platformunu bo? bir ka??t ?zerinde?tasarlarken, platforma y?n verecek insan odakl? bir yakla??m ka??da d?kt?klerini, Facebook'un yeni aray?z ile bu ka??ttan bir sayfa ald???n? belirtti.?

Kullan?c?n?n etkile?ime girdi?i her olay? ba?lang?? ekran?na yans?tt?klar?n? dile getiren Shaw, Android i?letim sisteminin zaten yeterince kar???k oldu?unu ve farkl? aray?zlerle bu kar???kl???n yok edilmeye ?al???ld???n? ifade etti.

Shaw, Facebook'un da yeni aray?z? ile sistemi basitle?tirme ?al??mas? i?erisinde oldu?unu vurgulad?.

Source: http://www.donanimhaber.com/Microsoft__Facebook_Home_bizim_Windows_Phone_ile_yaptigimizi_taklit_ediyor-45655.htm

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Saturday, April 6, 2013

An ancient biosonar sheds new light on the evolution of echolocation in toothed whales

Apr. 4, 2013 ? Some 30 million years ago, Ganges river dolphins diverged from other toothed whales, making them one of the oldest species of aquatic mammals that use echolocation, or biosonar, to navigate and find food. This also makes them ideal subjects for scientists working to understand the evolution of echolocation among toothed whales.

New research, led by Frants Havmand Jensen, a Danish Council for Independent Research / Natural Sciences postdoctoral fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, shows that freshwater dolphins produce echolocation signals at very low sound intensities compared to marine dolphins, and that Ganges river dolphins echolocate at surprisingly low sound frequencies. The study, "Clicking in shallow rivers," was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

"Ganges River dolphins are one of the most ancient evolutionary branches of toothed whales," says Jensen. "We believe our findings help explain the differences in echolocation between freshwater and marine dolphins. Our findings imply that the sound intensity and frequency of Ganges river dolphin may have been closer to the 'starting point' from which marine dolphins gradually evolved their high-frequent, powerful biosonar."

The scientists believe these differences evolved due to differences in freshwater and marine environments and the location and distribution of prey in those environments.

A complex, underwater environment

To sustain themselves, river dolphins must find their food, often small fish or crustaceans, in highly turbid water where visibility seldom exceeds a few inches. Like their marine relatives, they manage this using echolocation: They continuously emit sound pulses into the environment and listen for the faint echoes reflected off obstacles while paying special attention to the small details in the echoes that might signify a possible meal.

The environment that freshwater dolphins operate in poses very different challenges to a biosonar than the vast expanses of the sea where most dolphins later evolved. "Dolphins that range through the open ocean often feed on patchily distributed prey, such as schools of fish," Jensen says. "They have had a large advantage from evolving an intense biosonar that would help them detect prey over long distances, but we have little idea of how the complex river habitats of freshwater dolphins shape their biosonar signals."

Shy study animals with a surprisingly deep voice

To answer that question, the researchers recorded the echolocation signals of two species of toothed whales inhabiting the same mangrove forest in the southern part of Bangladesh: The Ganges river dolphin, an exclusively riverine species that is actually not part of the dolphin family but rather the Platanistidae family, and the Irrawaddy, a freshwater toothed whale from the dolphin family that lives in both coastal and riverine habitats.

Surprisingly, the echolocation signals turned out to be much less intense than those employed by marine dolphins of similar size and it seemed that the freshwater dolphins were looking for prey at much shorter distances. From this, the researchers surmise that both the dolphin species and the river dolphin were echolocating at short range due to the complex and circuitous river system that they were foraging in.

While both Irawaddy and Ganges river dolphin produced lower intensity biosonar, the Ganges river dolphin had an unexpectedly low frequency biosonar, nearly half as high as expected if this species had been a marine dolphin.

"It is very surprising to see these animals produce such low-frequent biosonar sounds. We are talking about a small toothed whale the size of a porpoise producing sounds that would be more typical for a killer whale or a large pilot whale," says Professor Peter Teglberg Madsen from Aarhus University in Denmark, an expert on toothed whale biosonar and co-author of the study.

A new perspective on the evolution of biosonar

The study suggests that echolocation in toothed whales initially evolved as a short, broadband and low-frequent click. As dolphins and other toothed whales evolved in the open ocean, the need to detect schools of fish or other prey items quickly favored a long-distance biosonar system. As animals gradually evolved to produce and to hear higher sound frequencies, the biosonar beam became more focused and the toothed whales were able to detect prey further away.

However, the Ganges river dolphin separated from other toothed whales early throughout this evolutionary process, adapting to a life in shallow, winding river systems where a high-frequency, long-distance sonar system may have been less important than other factors such as high maneuverability or the flexible neck that helps these animals capture prey at close range or hiding within mangrove roots or similar obstructions.

Improved tools for counting animals

Freshwater dolphins are among the most endangered animal species. Only around a thousand Ganges river dolphins are thought to remain, and they inhabit some of the most polluted and overfished river systems on Earth. The results of this study will help provide local collaborators with a new tool in their struggle to conserve these highly threatened freshwater cetaceans. Using acoustic monitoring devices to identify the local species may help researchers estimate how many animals remain, and to identify what areas are most important to them.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

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

Journal Reference:

Frants H. Jensen, Alice Rocco, Rubaiyat M. Mansur, Brian D. Smith, Vincent M. Janik, Peter T. Madsen. Clicking in Shallow Rivers: Short-Range Echolocation of Irrawaddy and Ganges River Dolphins in a Shallow, Acoustically Complex Habitat. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (4): e59284 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059284

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/CEzBgIwt_lA/130404152625.htm

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Friday, April 5, 2013

Panasonic's Lumix GF6 leaks early with a 16MP sensor, tilting touchscreen and NFC for ?449

After passing by Taiwan's WiFi certification tests, Panasonic's latest interchangeable lens camera has broken cover over at TechRadar. The leak has given us the first glimpse at the Lumix GF6's full spec list, which include the same 16-megapixel sensor as the GX1, a new Venus engine to assist with imaging performance, an electrostatic touchscreen and (in a first for ILCs) built-in NFC . Better still, the team had some time to play with the camera, which has shown itself almost precisely 12 months after the last GF iteration. The camera apparently tries to straddle the gap between compact point-and-shoots and the more technical world of mirrorless and DSLR shooters with a new mode dial on top and a more responsive touchscreen. In addition to NFC, there's even built-in WiFi to aid image sharing -- although we can only share the original article through the magic of Google cache -- take a peek at the source below. No word on a specific release date in the leak, although the UK's £449 price tag (which includes a new 14-42mm kit lens) should translate to around $680 on the other side of the Atlantic.

(Update: At TechRadar's request, we've taken down the image of the GF6)

Filed under: Cameras