The aquarium in the living room of Meir and Leah Lazar's home isn't just for decoration. The tilapia and bluegills packed into the 50-gallon glass tank are waiting their turn to wind up on dinner plates.
Out back, Meir Lazar is putting the finishing touches on a bigger new home for the fish inside a plastic-covered greenhouse. There, he hopes, the waste from the fish he's tending will help him raise enough lettuce, tomatoes and other produce to feed his family of five year-round.
Sustainability is more than a buzzword for Lazar, 32, a computer systems administrator and teacher who's pursuing aquaponics in his small suburban backyard off Greenspring Avenue. He said he's inspired in part by news reports about food tainted by pesticides, bacteria and even radiation from the Japanese nuclear disaster last year.
"I think it's incumbent on every person to start growing their own food so they can take back some of the control over their health, over what's in their food," he said. "Plus, you have a deeper appreciation of what you've grown and what you're about to eat."
Aquaponics has been around at least since the early 1970s, when the New Alchemy Institute in Massachusetts started promoting backyard fish farming and organic gardening inside greenhouses it dubbed "bioshelters."
It has gained new attention in recent years, not just from advocates of sustainable agriculture but from those who believe aquaponics can help fill needs in poor urban communities for healthier food and jobs.
One of the aquaponics ventures taking shape in Baltimore is at the Cylburn Aboretum. Sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, it would raise tilapia and produce for sale in the city's "food deserts," where fresh locally grown produce isn't readily available at corner markets and convenience stores.
With a budget of about $10,000 and the help of interns, friends and volunteers, microbiologist Dave Love has assembled his fish and produce farm. Four blue 250-gallon plastic tanks will be used to raise tilapia, which are hardy and fast-growing. The fish excrement and nutrient-fouled water are to be piped from the bottom of the tanks into a couple of other tanks where the ammonia in the wastewater is converted by bacterial action into a form of nitrogen that can feed plants.
The enriched water is then to be piped through two large shallow troughs in which Love plans to raise leafy greens and other vegetables. Thus cleaned up, the water is then pumped back to the fish tanks.
"It's sort of like the next step into urban agriculture," Love said.
Love said he hoped to put fish in the tanks by spring and to open the operation to researchers, visiting school groups and others. Before the year is out, if all goes well, the operation will be producing 120 pounds of tilapia for consumption every six weeks.
Lazar said if he can feed his family this way, anyone can. He started out with a hydroponics garden a few years back, he recalled, then tried his hand a couple of years ago with an indoor aquaponics operation ? in their basement bedroom ? after a friend turned him on to it.
Lazar decided last year to scale up, and he moved his aquaponics operation to the backyard in the spring, raising his fish at first in an in-ground pond. He said his neighbors weren't wild at first about how he was transforming his backyard, so he has worked to win them over with homemade jam.
Once cold weather hit, Lazar said, he realized he needed to enclose his entire operation. Tilapia are tropical fish and will start dying if water temperatures dip to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. His turned belly-up one frigid day, though many revived once rescued and moved indoors.
Before he can put the tilapia back, though, Lazar has to complete construction of a "rocket mass heater," a special type of wood-burning brick fireplace, to warm the water. Once everything's finished and fine-tuned, Lazar said, he hopes to harvest 100 full-size tilapia a year from his operation, and plenty of greens.
"It doesn't look like much, but it works," he said. "I want to show that anybody can do it."
Couching his argument in terms of fairness, President Obama proposed a range of policy initiatives Tuesday night in his State of the Union address, asking Congress to shift a heavier tax burden onto the very wealthiest earners, subsidize domestic manufacturers and energy producers, and crackdown on corporations and political interests that have exploited the nation in its dark economic hour.
"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by," he said. "Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What's at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them."
(See more on Obama and changes in America.)
Obama called for those making a gross income of more $1 million a year to pay a minimum rate of 30%, enumerating a policy principle for the so-called "Buffett rule," which was named for the billionaire Omaha investor who famously complained that he pays a lower rate than his secretary. The proposal, which has a slim chance of making it through a divided Congress, would predominantly affect those who currently pay a 15% rate on investment earnings, and would also deny mega-earners any targeted tax breaks or credits.
"You can call this class warfare all you want," he said, directly addressing Republican critics. "But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense."
In addition to once again proposing alternative energy tax credits, Obama put a renewed focus on natural gas and domestic manufacturing. He proposed subsidies for manufacturers willing to open plants in hard-hit communities, as well as a new tax on overseas profits. He worked in paeans to immigrations reform, a new housing refinancing program to be funded by a fee on large banks, and restrictions on congressional lobbying and trading. As with other policy initiatives put before a joint session of Congress in the last two years, these proposals will likely have more life in Executive Branch whitepapers than in committee rooms on Capitol Hill.
(See more on Obama's State of the Union Address.)
Not everything Obama spoke about required congressional action. In a potential effort to sew up liberal dissent on a looming mortgage fraud settlement between state attorneys general, the federal government and the banks, Obama announced the creation of new law enforcement unit tasked with investigating securitization fraud, headed by New York AG Eric Schnereiderman, who broke from the settlement talks last year over a disagreement about potential immunity for banks in that matter. If the commission seemed like a political gesture, it was one of many in the speech.
Though never mentioned explicitly, signs of Obama's looming re-election campaign were everywhere. He directly addressed the claims of Republican front runner Mitt Romney, a big investment earner who could see his tax rate doubled by the Buffett rule, that "envy" drives the President's tax policies. "We don't begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it," Obama said. "When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it's not because they envy the rich. It's because they understand that when I get tax breaks I don't need and the country can't afford, it either adds to the deficit, or somebody else has to make up the difference ? like a senior on a fixed income; or a student trying to get through school; or a family trying to make ends meet. That's not right."
The plights or triumphs of swing states were ubiquitous, and Obama pledged to rejuvenate industry in "Cleveland (Ohio, 18 electoral votes) and Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, 20 electoral votes) and Raleigh (North Carolina, 15 electoral votes)." Orlando, Louisville, Charlotte, Toledo and Chicago all got mentions too, but none as many as Detroit. His decision to bailout auto companies was implicitly celebrated in a long section of the speech dedicated to their subsequent rejuvenation. "We bet on American workers. We bet on American ingenuity," he said. "And tonight, the American auto industry is back."
The speech was also bookended by a narrative on the power of cooperation evident in the U.S. military. In Obama's telling, this collaborative spirit, a model for the nation, led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, which just happens to be his crowning foreign policy achievement. Romney, who has accused Obama of being an apologist overseas and declinist at home, was again the ghost in the room when Obama said, "Anyone who tells you America is in decline or our influence has waned doesn't know what they are talking about."
It was moments like this that underscored the tension in the President's argument. Obama was making an aggressive case for the merits of his first term, while trying to stoke a sense of urgency about his second. The nation was neither in disrepair nor perfect mint. And that view was reflected in Obama's tweaking of the State of the Union's most famous line: "The state of our Union is getting stronger," he said. "And we've come too far to turn back now."
See TIME's 2011 Person of the Year: The Protester.
See TIME's Top 10 Everything of 2011.
'); } } // REQUIRED VALUES google_ad_client = 'ca-timeinc-time-bah'; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '3'; // OPTIONAL, USED google_ad_type = 'text'; // type of ads to display google_ad_channel = 'article'; google_safe = 'high'; // -->
Trial by fire: A landscape-scale experiment in restoring Ozark gladesPublic release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Diana Lutz dlutz@wustl.edu 314-935-5272 Washington University in St. Louis
Restoration to be run as a scientific experiment
A giant experiment is under way at the Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis' 2,000-acre outdoor laboratory for ecosystem studies.
The experiment, led by Tiffany Knight, PhD, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, will test three different variables in 32 glades with the goal of establishing best practices for restoring not just degraded glade habitats but degraded ecosystems in general.
"These glade restorations are going to be a really significant scientific resource, not just for people at Washington University but for people both nationally and internationally," says Barbara Schaal, PhD, professor of biology and director of the Tyson Research Center.
"The opportunity to do giant manipulations and experiments is really rare, and we expect this experiment is going to draw researchers from all over the world," Schaal says.
Missouri glades, which ecologists sometimes call sunlit islands in a forested sea, are areas of exposed bedrock in the Ozark woodlands that create their own hot, dry, desert-like microclimates and have their own unique mixture of species, including tarantulas, scorpions, and prickly pear cactus.
Before people settled the area, glades covered the Ozark mountain hilltops and oaks nestled in the valleys between ridges. When fires were suppressed after World War II, eastern red cedar once confined to river bluffs and rock outcrops invaded the glades, completely altering the character of these habitats and the mixture of species that lived there.
Knight's group prepared for restoring the Tyson glades by surveying about 30 other glade restorations elsewhere in the state. "We expected smaller stored glades to have fewer species than larger glades, but we found that they had even fewer than we expected and they were also more impoverished in rare species than we expected," Knight says.
So they decided to find out why by running the restoration of 32 glades at Tyson as a scientific experiment, complete with treatment groups and control groups.
"We're manipulating glade shape, we're manipulating glade size, and we're manipulating whether or not plant species are seeded or allowed to establish on their own," Knight says. "Those are our three big treatments, and then we'll judge the outcome by measuring the biodiversity and composition of plants.
"Glades are biodiversity treasure chests," Knight says. "This study focuses on a unique Ozark glade ecosystem that has been a home to many rare and endangered species found nowhere else in the world.
"Our results will have important implications for understanding and trying to mitigate biodiversity loss from small habitats, especially loss of rare species."
On the way to the fire
In 2009, areas at the Tyson Research Center that had historically been glades were cleared by ax and chainsaw. These openings are now being maintained as they traditionally were by fire.
The prescribed burns began the week of Jan. 9, 2012. With weather conditions perfect, the glades were being burned, at the rate of about two a day. Knight picked up the videographer and reporter at the research center to drive them to the fire site.
"Usually there are several clues that an area was a glade," Knight said over the rumble of the pickup. "When you're driving along, you'll see big boulders and rocks right on the surface of the soil. What that tells us is the soil is really shallow, which is characteristic of a glade habitat.
"Another thing you'll notice, especially in aerial photographs taken in winter, is eastern red cedar. The southwestern corner of the Tyson Research Center is covered with it. Eastern red cedar is the first plant to encroach on glades in the absence of fire. If fire is suppressed, eastern red cedar comes in, gets established, and allows the glade habitat to succeed into a forest.
"Another telltale sign is plants that are remnants of glades. I'd be walking through the forest doing other research," Knight says, "and I would notice plant species like cactus in the middle of the forest. It was clearly a species just trying to hang on, waiting for the day when the habitat became a glade again.
"All of these are good indicators that an area was a glade historically," she says.
By now we had arrived at the next glade to be burned, a big, round glade with a southern exposure that had been strewn with the seeds of glade-favoring species.
At the fire
"Fire travels uphill," Knight says as we get out of the pickup, "so they burn the top of the hill first a small, low-intensity burn so that when they light the bottom and the fire moves up, there's no way for it to ignite the slash (piles of timber and brush) left over from glade clearing."
The crews are motley: half pros, half students. One of the teams is led by John Timmerman, a retired firefighter who now does prescribed burns. Another is led by John Wingo, a contractor whose business is ecological restoration. They wield the drip torches and leaf blowers (used to extinguish small flames).
Even though it's winter break students are scraping out the fire break around the glade and are raking embers back into burning piles of vegetation.
"The research involves scientists at all levels: faculty, postdoctoral associates, graduate students, undergraduates and high school interns," Knight says.
"My only job at these fires," Knight says, "is to look outside the fire circle and make sure flying sparks haven't set anything alight.
"This glade was seeded," Knight says, walking by the flaming stalks of wooly mullein, "by a striking plant that is adapted to live in disturbed landscapes, but will eventually be outcompeted by returning glade species.
"We put in 50 species, and we went to extra effort to get some of the rarest species in there, some that are listed by the state or federal government as threatened and others that grow only in glade ecosystems."
Holly Bernardo, who has a master's degree in ecology and is a technician on the project, explains how they got the seeds. "There are some local seed houses," Bernardo says, "and their words, not mine they have a bunch of old hippies they send out to collect seeds for them. We tell them what we want, and they go find it and take care of all the permitting for us.
"Six or seven species we collected ourselves from the Missouri Botanical Garden's Shaw Nature Reserve because there are so many nice populations on its restored glades.
"The seed houses are pretty good for the normal stuff, general glade species that also grow in prairies and other habitats," Bernardo says. "Those are easy to get."
Among the seeded species are Tephrosia virginiana, or goat's rue; Dalea purpurea, called purple prairie clover; Rudbeckia missouriensis, the poster child for Missouri glades; Opuntia humifusa, the prickly pear cactus; and Baptisia australis, or blue indigo.
Afterglow
By now the glade has been reduced to patchy white ash and the crew is regrouping to move to the next glade to be burned.
The glades will be burned next year, and the year after that. There will be more ash next year, says Knight, when there is more plant biomass available to burn.
The National Science Foundation has funded the restoration experiment for five years, says Knight, the standard grant period. But this is really a 20- to 30-year experiment that will spawn other questions and smaller experiments to answer those questions.
"The Opuntia pads we put in this summer took really well," Bernardo says. "They grow really slowly, but we'll have some nice Opuntia populations in 20 years."
Knight is in it for the long haul. She plans to monitor plant communities in the glade ecosystems for decades, following several rare species. Additional experiments will test the importance of plant and animal interactions on biodiversity, such as the impact of mammal and insect predation.
Although the plants are the stars of this show, Knight already has initiated collaborations with other scientists to keep an eye on the animals at least the small ones.
James Trager, PhD, of the Missouri Botanical Garden, is monitoring the recovery of ant populations, and Mike Arduser, a bee specialist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, is interested in how long it will take for glade-endemic bees to return.
"This is stunning work," Schaal says. "Not only do we have the expanse of Tyson to experiment with, the design of the project is just simply clever, and we have the intellectual resources to really follow the research.
"It's a huge, clever project and I'm really excited about it," says Schaal.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Trial by fire: A landscape-scale experiment in restoring Ozark gladesPublic release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Diana Lutz dlutz@wustl.edu 314-935-5272 Washington University in St. Louis
Restoration to be run as a scientific experiment
A giant experiment is under way at the Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis' 2,000-acre outdoor laboratory for ecosystem studies.
The experiment, led by Tiffany Knight, PhD, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, will test three different variables in 32 glades with the goal of establishing best practices for restoring not just degraded glade habitats but degraded ecosystems in general.
"These glade restorations are going to be a really significant scientific resource, not just for people at Washington University but for people both nationally and internationally," says Barbara Schaal, PhD, professor of biology and director of the Tyson Research Center.
"The opportunity to do giant manipulations and experiments is really rare, and we expect this experiment is going to draw researchers from all over the world," Schaal says.
Missouri glades, which ecologists sometimes call sunlit islands in a forested sea, are areas of exposed bedrock in the Ozark woodlands that create their own hot, dry, desert-like microclimates and have their own unique mixture of species, including tarantulas, scorpions, and prickly pear cactus.
Before people settled the area, glades covered the Ozark mountain hilltops and oaks nestled in the valleys between ridges. When fires were suppressed after World War II, eastern red cedar once confined to river bluffs and rock outcrops invaded the glades, completely altering the character of these habitats and the mixture of species that lived there.
Knight's group prepared for restoring the Tyson glades by surveying about 30 other glade restorations elsewhere in the state. "We expected smaller stored glades to have fewer species than larger glades, but we found that they had even fewer than we expected and they were also more impoverished in rare species than we expected," Knight says.
So they decided to find out why by running the restoration of 32 glades at Tyson as a scientific experiment, complete with treatment groups and control groups.
"We're manipulating glade shape, we're manipulating glade size, and we're manipulating whether or not plant species are seeded or allowed to establish on their own," Knight says. "Those are our three big treatments, and then we'll judge the outcome by measuring the biodiversity and composition of plants.
"Glades are biodiversity treasure chests," Knight says. "This study focuses on a unique Ozark glade ecosystem that has been a home to many rare and endangered species found nowhere else in the world.
"Our results will have important implications for understanding and trying to mitigate biodiversity loss from small habitats, especially loss of rare species."
On the way to the fire
In 2009, areas at the Tyson Research Center that had historically been glades were cleared by ax and chainsaw. These openings are now being maintained as they traditionally were by fire.
The prescribed burns began the week of Jan. 9, 2012. With weather conditions perfect, the glades were being burned, at the rate of about two a day. Knight picked up the videographer and reporter at the research center to drive them to the fire site.
"Usually there are several clues that an area was a glade," Knight said over the rumble of the pickup. "When you're driving along, you'll see big boulders and rocks right on the surface of the soil. What that tells us is the soil is really shallow, which is characteristic of a glade habitat.
"Another thing you'll notice, especially in aerial photographs taken in winter, is eastern red cedar. The southwestern corner of the Tyson Research Center is covered with it. Eastern red cedar is the first plant to encroach on glades in the absence of fire. If fire is suppressed, eastern red cedar comes in, gets established, and allows the glade habitat to succeed into a forest.
"Another telltale sign is plants that are remnants of glades. I'd be walking through the forest doing other research," Knight says, "and I would notice plant species like cactus in the middle of the forest. It was clearly a species just trying to hang on, waiting for the day when the habitat became a glade again.
"All of these are good indicators that an area was a glade historically," she says.
By now we had arrived at the next glade to be burned, a big, round glade with a southern exposure that had been strewn with the seeds of glade-favoring species.
At the fire
"Fire travels uphill," Knight says as we get out of the pickup, "so they burn the top of the hill first a small, low-intensity burn so that when they light the bottom and the fire moves up, there's no way for it to ignite the slash (piles of timber and brush) left over from glade clearing."
The crews are motley: half pros, half students. One of the teams is led by John Timmerman, a retired firefighter who now does prescribed burns. Another is led by John Wingo, a contractor whose business is ecological restoration. They wield the drip torches and leaf blowers (used to extinguish small flames).
Even though it's winter break students are scraping out the fire break around the glade and are raking embers back into burning piles of vegetation.
"The research involves scientists at all levels: faculty, postdoctoral associates, graduate students, undergraduates and high school interns," Knight says.
"My only job at these fires," Knight says, "is to look outside the fire circle and make sure flying sparks haven't set anything alight.
"This glade was seeded," Knight says, walking by the flaming stalks of wooly mullein, "by a striking plant that is adapted to live in disturbed landscapes, but will eventually be outcompeted by returning glade species.
"We put in 50 species, and we went to extra effort to get some of the rarest species in there, some that are listed by the state or federal government as threatened and others that grow only in glade ecosystems."
Holly Bernardo, who has a master's degree in ecology and is a technician on the project, explains how they got the seeds. "There are some local seed houses," Bernardo says, "and their words, not mine they have a bunch of old hippies they send out to collect seeds for them. We tell them what we want, and they go find it and take care of all the permitting for us.
"Six or seven species we collected ourselves from the Missouri Botanical Garden's Shaw Nature Reserve because there are so many nice populations on its restored glades.
"The seed houses are pretty good for the normal stuff, general glade species that also grow in prairies and other habitats," Bernardo says. "Those are easy to get."
Among the seeded species are Tephrosia virginiana, or goat's rue; Dalea purpurea, called purple prairie clover; Rudbeckia missouriensis, the poster child for Missouri glades; Opuntia humifusa, the prickly pear cactus; and Baptisia australis, or blue indigo.
Afterglow
By now the glade has been reduced to patchy white ash and the crew is regrouping to move to the next glade to be burned.
The glades will be burned next year, and the year after that. There will be more ash next year, says Knight, when there is more plant biomass available to burn.
The National Science Foundation has funded the restoration experiment for five years, says Knight, the standard grant period. But this is really a 20- to 30-year experiment that will spawn other questions and smaller experiments to answer those questions.
"The Opuntia pads we put in this summer took really well," Bernardo says. "They grow really slowly, but we'll have some nice Opuntia populations in 20 years."
Knight is in it for the long haul. She plans to monitor plant communities in the glade ecosystems for decades, following several rare species. Additional experiments will test the importance of plant and animal interactions on biodiversity, such as the impact of mammal and insect predation.
Although the plants are the stars of this show, Knight already has initiated collaborations with other scientists to keep an eye on the animals at least the small ones.
James Trager, PhD, of the Missouri Botanical Garden, is monitoring the recovery of ant populations, and Mike Arduser, a bee specialist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, is interested in how long it will take for glade-endemic bees to return.
"This is stunning work," Schaal says. "Not only do we have the expanse of Tyson to experiment with, the design of the project is just simply clever, and we have the intellectual resources to really follow the research.
"It's a huge, clever project and I'm really excited about it," says Schaal.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ? Kenny Chesney's steamy duet, "You and Tequila" with Grace Potter, continues to radiate heat.
The song helped Chesney to nine Academy of Country Music Awards nominations Thursday morning, including the top honor of entertainer of the year. Jason Aldean, next with six nominations, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and 2011 winner Taylor Swift round out the fan-voted category.
Lady Antebellum had five nominations, Paisley had four and several were deadlocked at three, including Swift.
Nominees were announced via social media with the help of stars like Reba McEntire and Lionel Richie. Fans were chosen to announce the entertainer of the year candidates. They'll have a chance to pick the winner in that category and new artist of the year for the 47th annual ACM Awards, which will air live April 1 from Las Vegas on CBS with McEntire and Shelton hosting.
Chesney is a four-time entertainer of the year winner and was the first victor under the academy's current fan-voted format. He's nominated for a 10th time in the male vocalist category and received double nominations as artist and producer for album of the year for "Hemingway's Whiskey" and single record of the year and vocal event of the year for "You and Tequila." He also receives a song of the year nomination as performer on "You and Tequila," written by Matraca Berg and Deana Carter.
Potter, best known as an indie rock performer with her band The Nocturnals, received three nominations for the collaboration.
Aldean also is up for male vocalist, album of the year for "My Kinda Party," single record and vocal event of the year for the duet "Don't You Wanna Stay" with Kelly Clarkson, and video of the year for "Tattoos on This Town."
Lady Antebellum will compete for its third straight vocal group of the year win. The trio of Hillary Scott, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley also is up for album of the year for "Own the Night" as artist and producer, and both song and video of the year for "Just a Kiss."
Along with his fifth straight entertainer nomination, Paisley will be going for another win in the male vocalist category. He's won it five times in a row. He also scored a double nomination in the vocal event category for "Old Alabama" with Alabama and "Remind Me" with Carrie Underwood.
Eric Church's "CHIEF" and Miranda Lambert's "Four the Record" round out the album of the year category. Lady A won last year for its breakthrough "Need You Now."
Nominees for the new artist of the year will be announced after the close of online voting Jan. 30. Fans are currently picking the nominees in that category from a list of eight semifinalists.
Fans can begin voting at the ACM website for entertainer and new artist nominees on March 19. The other award winners are picked by the academy's membership.
It's Shelton's first nomination for the academy's top award. The news comes the week after Shelton's father, Dick, passed away.
"The support I have felt this week is overwhelming," Shelton said in a statement. "Thank you everyone for this honor."
In his last State of the Union address before the 2012 election, President Obama called upon Congress to work together to rebuild the coveted American Dream.
Our 44th President promised, in a memorable phrase, “no bail-outs, no hand-outs, no cop-outs” to financial institutions that helped derail the U.S. economy.
Obama spoke about “fair” tax reform with a thinly-veiled reference to phrases Republican presidential candidates have used against him repeatedly in debates.
“You can call this ‘class warfare’ all you want,” he said, calling it pure fairness. Without a doubt, the 2012 State of the Union address was a campaign speech:
He said Americans must get past personal ambition and partisan obsession to "focus on the mission at hand" and keep the dream alive by restoring the economy.
"No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important," he said.
"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same rules."
"Do we want to keep tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Or do we want invest in everything else? If we're serious about paying down our debt, we can't do both."
Rebuttals came quickly and predictably from political opponents.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who delivered the "official" GOP response, said that the president's rigid adherence to ideology was suffocating innovation:
"Extremism that stifles development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy."
"We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon to haves," Daniels said.
On Fox News, Sean Hannity interviewed GOP candidate Mitt Romney, who asserted that, on the basis of this night, the President is “disconnected from reality.”
The bipartisan high point of the evening occurred just before the speech, as Obama, in making his way to the podium, paused to hug Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Giffords is resigning from Congress this week to recover from her brain injury. A chant of “Gabby, Gabby, Gabby” could be heard throughout the House floor.
Whether you're unaware that an earthquake warning has been issued for the area you're visiting later or whether you desperately need more information about the hurricane headed your way, Google Maps should be able to help. Why? Because the popular mapping service now incorporates emergency alerts from several public safety organizations.
According to a post on Google's LatLong blog,?the Google Public Alerts platform was launched on Wednesday. It's "designed to bring you relevant emergency alerts when and where you?re searching for them."
This means that searches for places with active public alerts will trigger a message which offers related information. (If you'd rather see all active alerts in one spot instead, you can do so on the main Google Public Alerts page.)
Google
The information offered by Google Public Alerts will be initially be drawn from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service, and the US Geological Survey (USGS), but Google intends to add data from other public safety organizations in the future.
Related stories:
Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates ? Rory McIlroy shot a 5-under 67 in the opening round Thursday at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship for a share of the early clubhouse lead, three strokes in front of playing partner Tiger Woods.
McIlroy, the U.S. Open champion who has had three top-five finishes in Abu Dhabi, made three birdies in his first four holes but erratic driving led to two bogeys on the next four. He steadied himself with three birdies on his back nine, including a chip-in on No. 8 from just off the green.
Robert Karlsson of Sweden also had a 67. The pair were a shot ahead of Gareth Maybin of Northern Ireland.
Woods holed two birdies in a bogey-free 70, but struggled on the greens, missing several putts.
Top-ranked Luke Donald (71) was four shots behind, while second-ranked Lee Westwood and fourth-ranked Martin Kaymer were still on the course.
"It's a nice way to start the competitive season, I suppose," McIlroy said. "I didn't feel like I played that good. I definitely didn't strike the ball as good as I have been the last couple of weeks. I think it's just because your first competitive round of the season, card in your hand, you can get a little bit tentative or a little apprehensive."
McIlroy, who calls Woods a friend and was chatting with his playing partner for much of the day, made little of beating him in the first round.
"If it was the last day of the tournament and you're both going in there with a chance to win, I would take a lot of pride from that obviously," said the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland who has talked of idolizing Woods as a teenager and following him during a Dubai tournament when he played as an amateur in 2006 and 2007.
Woods played a solid round of bogey-free golf that produced few momentous shots and two birdies. He missed several birdie chances, including a 6-footer on his ninth, the 18th hole.
"Hit the ball well all day today. It was a good ball-striking round," Woods said. "I had a hard time reading the greens out there. The greens were pretty grainy and I just had a hard time getting a feel for it. Toward the end I hit some pretty good putts, but overall I got fooled a lot on my reads."
Coming off a seven-week layoff, Woods has said he is fitter than he has been in years and brimming with confidence following his victory at the Chevron World Challenge last month. That ended a two-year run without a win. Before last month's win, Woods finished third at the Australian Open, and then delivered the clinching point for the American team in the Presidents Cup.
Since the Chevron, Woods has moved up to 25th in the world after falling outside the top 50 last year.
"It felt the same as it had from Oz to the World Challenge to here," Woods said of his game. "I controlled my ball all day and just had a hard time getting a feel for these greens. They are grainy enough where I just didn't quite read them right, and I hit them good, and then the grain would take it, not take it. It was just difficult."
The 27th-ranked Karlsson went to 5-under when he holed a 50-foot putt on the 8th hole, one of his seven birdies on the day. The Swede also had two bogeys.
"I'm very proud of myself, managed to turn something that wasn't very good into something very good on the scorecard and very happy with that," said Karlsson, who joined the PGA Tour and moved his family to the United States last year. "I don't think we are going to play many tournaments this year that's going to be a stronger field than this."
___
Follow Michael Casey on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mcasey1
SRINAGAR, India ? A huge avalanche buried seven Indian soldiers on Tuesday while they were clearing snow from an army supply road in the mountains in Kashmir near India's cease-fire line with Pakistan, the army said.
Rescuers with sniffer dogs and a helicopter retrieved the body of one paramilitary officer, but another paramilitary soldier and five army soldiers were still missing hours after the morning avalanche, police said.
The soldiers had been clearing an army supply road after weeks of heavy snowfall in the disputed Himalayan region. Hundreds of thousands of Indian troops are stationed along the heavily militarized Line of Control that runs between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled portions of Kashmir.
"As the soldiers were clearing snow, a massive avalanche buried them," army spokesman Lt. Col. J.S. Brar said, adding that more snowfall Tuesday had hampered the search effort.
"The weather is extremely hostile, and there is a warning of more avalanches in the region," he said.
Avalanches and landslides are common in the Himalayan region, sometimes hitting military posts and army training centers and killing scores of soldiers. In 2010, 17 soldiers died when a wall of snow and ice slammed into the army's High Altitude Warfare School.
'I'm hoping to make this year just about film, film, film,' 'Woman in Black' star tells MTV News. By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Daniel Radcliffe
While we are still anxiously awaiting the release of "The Woman in Black,"Daniel Radcliffe's first big post-"Harry Potter" film, it's never too early to start thinking about what other projects the young superstar will be considering after "Black" opens.
When MTV News caught up with Radcliffe recently, we asked him to give us some clues as to what we might expect from him in the next year, specifically whether he'd officially signed on to a new film following the release of "Black."
"Closer and getting closer every day, but not anything confirmed yet, unfortunately," Radcliffe said of his 2012 working schedule and several film roles he's considering. "Hopefully I'll definitely have three weeks off in February and then shortly after that, I would hopefully be making a film and it would hopefully be over here," he said of his wishes to continue working Stateside, following his run on Broadway in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."
"That would be an entirely new experience for me; I've never filmed in America. I'd really like to do that, with an American crew and have that experience," he said. "I'm hoping to make this year just about film, film, film and then maybe get back onstage maybe in the next two years."
Radcliffe was cagey about exactly which film roles he's considering, but one he did cop to is portraying poet Allen Ginsberg in the independent film independent film "Kill Your Darlings," which is about how Ginsberg and fellow Beat Generation icons Jack Kerouac and Lucien Carr first met.
"It's one of the things that's on the table absolutely. It would be amazing and I'm very, very enthused for that script and that young director," he said of the John Krokidas-helmed project, which is also set to star Elizabeth Olsen, who recently raved about Radcliffe's talent and her excitement to work with him in "Darlings." "It's an independent film, it's welcome to the world of independent film — from one day to the next it could happen or not happen. Until I'm there on the set, I'm not going to say anything about it."
Would Daniel Radcliffe do well in the role of Allen Ginsberg? Tell us what you think in the comments!
Fitness technology startup and TechCrunch 50 finalistFitbit has raised $12 Million in Series C funding from existing investors Foundry Group, True Ventures, SoftTech VC and Felicis Ventures. The company offers a device called the Fitbit Tracker and a companion web-based fitness data aggregation technology that tracks weight, nutrition, exercise, sleeping schedules and other health related data for users (you can read more about how Fitbit works here.)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) ? One of Bill O'Brien's first acts as the new Penn State football coach was to mourn the loss of the old one.
O'Brien said former Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno, who died Sunday, was "an icon in the coaching profession." But he was also more than just a coach, O'Brien said in offering condolences to the Paterno family, current and former Penn State players and the rest of the university community.
"Today they lost a great man, coach, mentor and, in many cases, a father figure, and we extend our deepest sympathies," O'Brien, the New England Patriots offensive coordinator, said in a statement before the AFC championship game against the Baltimore Ravens.
"The Penn State football program is one of college football's iconic programs because it was led by an icon in the coaching profession in Joe Paterno. There are no words to express my respect for him as a man and as a coach."
Paterno died at the age of 85 from complications of lung cancer, two months after he was fired in the wake of sexual abuse allegations against one of his assistant coaches. O'Brien was hired to replace him, but he is finishing out the year with the Patriots as they reached the AFC title game for the second time in his five years with the team.
In his 46 years at Penn State, Paterno won two national championships and 409 games in all ? the most in the history of major college football.
"To be following in his footsteps at Penn State is an honor," O'Brien said "Our families, our football program, our university and all of college football have suffered a great loss, and we will be eternally grateful for coach Paterno's immeasurable contributions."
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Asian shares and the euro paused from last week's rally on Monday as investors sweated on the progress of crucial Greek talks on a debt swap deal to avoid a default, while activity was subdued due to the Lunar New Year holiday in much of Asia.
Caution returned as Greece and private creditors struggled to reach an agreement vital for restoring confidence in Europe's refinancing ability, and mixed U.S. corporate earnings revived concerns over global growth prospects and weighed on sentiment.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was barely changed from Friday, when it touched its highest in more than two months to post a year-to-date rise of about 7.5 percent.
The pan-Asia index was dragged down by a sluggish Australian stock market, where uncertainty over Greece prompted investors to reassess positions after a 4.5 percent rally in the main share index so far this year. (.AXJO)
Japan's Nikkei average (.N225) closed flat, after hitting a an 11-week high earlier on Monday. (.T)
A delay in the Greek debt deal helped U.S. Treasuries nudge up in Asia as investors sought safety, after optimism over Europe's funding problems had pushed the yield on 10-year U.S. notes to a two-week high of 2.035 percent on Friday.
With many Asian markets, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, the spotlight turned to the Tokyo Commodity Exchange's (TOCOM) gold futures.
A near 1 percent rise in the benchmark December TOCOM gold futures on Monday helped push cash gold up nearly 1 percent in thin trade, traders said.
"Japanese investors may have found an incentive to buy with the yen's rapid appreciation against the dollar taking a pause, increasing the value of their gold holdings in dollar terms," said Akira Doi, a vice president at commodity brokerage Daiichi Commodities Co in Tokyo.
The yen has stabilized around 77 yen since hitting a high of 76.30 versus the dollar on January 2, its highest since October 31, 2011, when the Japanese currency rose to a record high of 75.31 yen against the dollar.
Spot gold was up 0.9 percent to $1,672 an ounce.
EURO PRESSURED
The euro eased 0.3 percent to $1.2898, slipping from a 2- week high around $1.2986 hit on Friday, which was up nearly 3 percent from a 17-month trough near $1.2624 plumbed on January 13.
"There was no clear outcome on the talks about the restructuring of Greek debt over the weekend and that's probably pressured the euro lower," said Andrew Salter, strategist at ANZ in Sydney.
The single currency is likely to remain firmly capped as speculators boosted net euro shorts to a fourth straight record in the week ended January 17.
After several rounds of talks, Greece and private creditors are converging on a debt swap deal that would stave off bankruptcy for Athens, with investors shouldering losses of up to 70 percent. But many details were still unresolved and the plan must be approved by the International Monetary Fund and others.
Euro zone finance ministers will decide on Monday what terms of a Greek debt restructuring they are ready to accept as part of a second bailout package for Athens.
Rising hopes for progress in the euro zone debt crisis and broader risks receding were highlighted by fresh money flowing into Europe Bond and China Equity Funds. These posted their biggest weekly inflow in more than two years, according to EPFR Global fund data on Friday. [ID:nL1E8CKCXN]
The CBOE Volatility index VIX (.VIX), which measures expected volatility in the S&P 500 over the next 30 days, closed below 19 on Friday for the first time since July 22, as a stabilizing market reduced investor desire to seek protection in stock index options against future losses.
Euro zone interbank lending rates and money market rates continued their decline on Friday as a high level of liquidity injected by the European Central Bank kept downward pressure on market rates. But banks remained wary of lending to one another, choosing instead to park their excess funds at the ECB.
(Additional reporting by Ian Chua in Sydney; Editing by Alex Richardson)
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Nish, who needs to replace his voicemail to SMS/email system due to Ribbit Mobile's forthcoming closure. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.
"Hi there, I've been using Ribbit Mobile for the past few years for voicemail -- the voicemail to SMS/email function is brilliant. However, the beta trial is ending on the 31st January with no immediate plans to go live. Do you know of any UK-based alternatives for voicemail to SMS/email systems I can switch to? Thanks!"
So guys, come help out a brother from the motherland with your suggestions for digital telephony transcription, any Brits out there find Google Voice to be the answer? Is there something only a few of you know about that'll change the world? If you're in an animal home, sat down on your own, why not share your knowledge in the comments below.
TV host Stephen Colbert and former GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain hold a rally in Charleston, S.C.
By Denise Hazlick
Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert brought his "exploratory committee" to South Carolina's College of Charleston?on Friday and teamed up with?former presidential candidate Herman Cain?-- and perhaps more importantly, with?Cain's bus.
Colbert announced on "The Colbert Report" on Jan. 12 that he was?laying the groundwork for his possible candidacy for "president of the United States of South Carolina."?One problem -- South Carolina does not allow for write-in candidates on its primary ballots. So in order to pursue his satirical campaign, he needed help. Enter Cain.
While no longer in the race for president, Cain is?still on the South Carolina ballot. In a series of ads produced by the Super PAC Colbert used to run, but which now, for legal reasons, is being controlled by friend and fellow political satirist Jon Stewart, Colbert called on South Carolina voters to vote for Cain as a proxy for himself.
?Mr. Colbert could not get on the ballot. I could not get off the ballot. That?s how this came about," Cain?said Friday.?"And Mr. Colbert mentioned that there was one thing that I had that he did not have, which is a bus with my face on it. But there?s another thing that I have that Mr. Colbert does not have. ... He does not have my complexion perfection. .. That was a joke, y?all."
So why did Cain become?Colbert's?willing foil??In order to help Americans "lighten up," and also to further his campaign mission to "take back America." During Friday's rally, he invited the crowd of 3,300? to help him continue that drive.
"This event?... helps to bring attention to the crisis of the situation we are in," Cain said.?"Every vote counts. Now Stephen Colbert asks you to vote for Herman Cain. I?m going to ask you not to vote for Herman Cain. I don?t want you to waste your vote. ... Because every vote counts and you count, which has been my message."
And why did some of the crowd turn out?
Drew Katchen / msnbc.com
A Stephen Colbert fan shows her support during the comedian's rally in Charleston, S.C., on Friday.
?I thought it would be interesting to come," said Adam Harris of Charlotte, N.C.,?"The way they?re doing the whole Super PAC thing, it?s just amazing how they?re shedding light on how it all works.?
?I just wanted to see what was going on," said Dale Erickson of Charleston, who identified himself as a fan of Colbert's, but?not of the Republican Party.
?My mom told me to skip class for the rally,? said Caroline Reppe, 19, a College of Charleston student.
Colbert has used his "presidential" run as part of his continuing comedic attacks on campaign finance, and Super PACs in particular.?Saturday's South Carolina primary falls on the second anniversary of the Supreme Court's?Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission decision, which removed the limit on how much?corporations and unions?could give to campaigns,?which?has in turned powered the rise of?PACs. Colbert didn't miss the?opportunity to make the connection.
"Now some of you might be too young to remember, but years ago, back in 2010, there were still limits on how much corporations could spend on elections," Colbert said. "... And faced with this tragic lack of corporate influence in our government, two years ago, five courageous, unelected justices on the Supreme Court took a stand. ? They ruled, since corporations are people, and people have the right to free speech, and money equals speech, corporations have the constitutional right to spend unlimited money on political speech.
"With the stroke of a gavel, these brave men leveled the playing field, and then sold the naming rights to that playing field to Bank of America.
"But these wise men know there had to be some reasonable restrictions, to protect all that innocent money from the corrupting influence of politicians. So they declared that unlimited corporate and union and billionaire bucks had to be completely independent of the campaigns, and so Super PACs were born unto us," Colbert said.
He went on to explain how he had?his own Super PAC -- and read a legal disclaimer reminding all that his former Super PAC had nothing to do with Friday's rally.
"Giving up that Super PAC was not easy," he said. "It was like giving up my baby. Do you know who hard that is? Now imagine that baby had a whole lot of money."
Colbert has been criticized by some?for using the primary as the backdrop for a running joke on his show. He addressed that criticism during Friday's rally.
"If they are calling being allowed to form a Super PAC, and collecting unlimited and untraceable amounts of money from individuals, unions, and corporations and spend that money on political ads and for personal enrichment, and then surrender that Super PAC to one of my closest friends while I explore a run for office, if that is a joke, then they are saying that our entire campaign finance system is a joke. And I don't know about you, but I have been paid to be offended by that.
"We fought a great Civil War to ensure that all people are people. Like Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg -- give me some money."
Colbert said a vote for Herman Cain would ensure that rights of corporations, and would serve as a thank you to the Supreme Court on the Citizens United anniversary.
As for what the voters of South Carolina will do? We'll find out Saturday.
Additional reporting from Drew Katchen in Charleston, S.C.
How much does Google make in advertising from mobile? Cowen analyst Jim Friedland estimates that Google is generating $7 per year from each smartphone (and tablet). This includes both search and display advertising in mobile apps on both Android and iOS (iPhones and iPads). Thanks to the rapid growth in smart mobile devices from an estimated 509 million last year to nearly double that in 2012 to an estimated 914 million, Google's mobile ad revenues are expected to more than double from an estimated $2.5 billion last year to $5.8 billion in 2012 (see chart).
Wow. I really can't think of anything bad to say about this movie. It was such a treat. It's really a remarkable film; it looks exactly as if it were made in, like, 1933: The sets, the costumes, the film techniques, the narrative style, the look and mannerisms of the actors, the lighting, the style of humour and the music all create the near-flawless illusion that this is a genuine product of old Hollywood. It's really really astounding, but you don't have to be an old-school film nerd to like it. Despite being peppered with references to cinema history (Garbo, the Hays Code), it's still really accessible, no matter what your tastes. It's amazing how it blends the showiness of a classical musical comedy with a genuinely emotional (which is at times gritty and tragic) story of the cinema world leaving behind its erstwhile most beloved star. Jean Dujardin is mesmerizing and really endearing as George Valentin, the eternal showman and star of the silent screen who feels increasingly alienated and obsolete in the face of sound cinema. He's a captivating character, a man whose practised fake smile looks exactly like his real one and therefore keeps whatever pain he feels close to his chest. Berenice Bejo is also terrific as Peppy Miller, the new(er) Hollywood starlet seemingly built for sound cinema. Miller quickly eclipses Valentin, making him bitter for having given her her start and making her feel guilty, as a fan of Valentin's from way back. The orbit of these characters around each other drives the film, as they have great affection and respect for each other - not to mention great chemistry - yet circumstance has placed them on either side of cinema's technical divide. Ugh! What a great movie. It works terrifically as a comedy, or as a musical, as a character drama and just as well as a curious and brilliantly successful experiment in cinematic form. I am so happy to have seen this in the theatre. Oh! I should also mention that it's almost completely silent, but it uses sound sparingly and playfully, and to wonderful narrative avail. I can't wait to see this again.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
Share ] 
Fitness technology startup and 
How much does Google make in advertising from mobile? Cowen analyst Jim Friedland estimates that Google is generating $7 per year from each smartphone (and tablet). This includes both search and display advertising in mobile apps on both Android and iOS (iPhones and iPads). Thanks to the rapid growth in smart mobile devices from an estimated 509 million last year to nearly double that in 2012 to an estimated 914 million, Google's mobile ad revenues are expected to more than double from an estimated $2.5 billion last year to $5.8 billion in 2012 (see chart).