By TYLER BATTEN Almost 500 Kijiji apartment rental ads in the K-W area alone state, “No Pets Allowed,” but, according to Ontario real estate law, most of these have no legal merit. It’s early autumn and students are back in school; they’ve rented apartments and moved in — some into places smaller than dog houses. Many students have pets and many used to. We all know, or have heard of someone, who was threatened with eviction if they didn’t get rid of their pet. But here’s a shocker: your landlord can’t evict you just because they don’t like your fuzzy friend. “You can only evict a tenant if their pet is bothering other tenants, damaging the place or if the landlord is allergic to it and is living there,” said real estate lawyer Mark Weisleder, who writes a real estate law column for the Toronto Star. The law originates in part two of the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) where it clearly states that any provision regarding a no-pet policy in a tenancy agreement is void. If a tenant signs the contract it still has no legal merit. The RTA does have clear boundaries. “Condominium rules are different,” said a representative from the Landlord and Tenant Board of Ontario’s call centre, “so it’s possible that it would apply that you’re not allowed to (have a pet).” Condos are essentially shared common properties where each resident owns a particular space in that building. They are chartered by a separate set of rules called the Condominium Act. A condo’s pet policy is decided by an association of owners and can be enforced even if the condo is rented out. The Landlord and Tenant Board of Ontario is the authoritative body behind the RTA, and resolves most disputes between landlords and tenants. ”If you’re covered (by the RTA) than you do have protection regarding pets even if you signed a no pets clause. The landlord cannot terminate the tenancy just because you have a pet, but if the pet is causing a problem like with maintenance or damage or interfering with other tenants’ enjoyment by barking, under our act the landlord can get the tenant to stop the behaviour of the animal.” For any realistic pet owner the difficulty is not winning the case in court, but in actually moving into an unfriendly pet apartment successfully. Landlords can easily explain why they don’t want pets without breaking any rules. The RTA only protects tenants from being evicted. It does not give any obvious suggestion on how to move-in in the first place. “I know the law, I know how that stuff works,” said a landlord who’s currently seeking a non-pet-owning-tenant for his 33 Lilac St., Kitchener apartment. “I had a bad experience with one dog a few years ago. It took a chunk out of my leg and now when I get near certain dogs and they start barking my allergies start acting up, especially my asthma.” The Canadian Federation of Humane Societies’ most recent National Shelter statistic showed that 143,000 pets were admitted to shelters across the country in 2010. That massive figure is caused by, in part, the two most common reasons for surrendering a pet to a shelter – moving and landlords not allowing pets, according to an American study conducted by the National Council on Pet Population. The misconception that a landlord has the right to evict a tenant because of a personal preference is clearly all too prevalent. Despite the RTA’s clear and exact wording on the matter, Kijiji still uses a search filter called “pet friendly” which allows users to choose their preference. Condominiums and apartments are compiled under one category so it’s difficult to tell who’s actually breaking the rules. Kijiji representatives were unavailable for comment. Pets are a part of a lot of Canadian families. In fact, recent figures suggest that over half of Canadian households have either a dog or cat and sometimes both. Many of these pets end up being surrendered to shelters simply because of tenant ignorance or landlord distortion.
About Spoke
Spoke Online is produced weekly during the school year by Conestoga College second-year journalism print students, faculty adviser Christina Jonas and new media technologist Chris Martin.
Nigerian? civil society groups under the aegis of Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, PACJA, has underlined the urgency and importance of environmental sustainability insisting that the post 2015 framework must firmly entrench responses to climate change.
The group has therefore called on? negotiators to break the jinx and bolster levels of ambition in the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol.
Frontline environmentalist, Prof. David Okali said without rigorous enforcement, the greenhouse gas GHG emission will rise and intensify climate change with dire consequences for developing countries like Nigeria.
He stated that every effort must be made to achieve a global agreement to reduce GHG emission into the atmosphere. Quoting the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, Christine Legarde,? he said ?Unless we respond (effectively) to Climate Change, future generations will be roasted, toasted, fried and grilled!?
The year 2015 will be critical for the planet and for future generations as it marks the transition from Millennium Development Goals to anticipated Sustainable Development Goals.
Rising from a recent meeting at Ibadan,? the Nigerian Climate and Sustainable Development Network NCSDN called on all Parties to use the 2014 review? to scale up targets for the rest of this period.
The network also called upon Parties to respect the timeline for the global climate change deal in 2015 and come up with an ambitious, fair, equitable, and legally binding agreement.
The NCSDN meeting recommended that the Beyond-2015 sustainable development agenda? should be underpinned by the principle of polluter pays, common but differentiated responsibilities with respective capabilities, equity and climate Justice.
They demanded access to and affordable clean technologies. Such technology should be consistent with international best practice. It should also promote the use of renewable energy and support home-grown and indigenous technology.
?Developed countries must remove intellectual property rights, pay full incremental costs of technology transfer to protect developing countries and contribute for peaking and declining of global emission. We oppose efforts to sell and not transfer appropriate technologies, or to strengthen and not relax intellectual property rights,? said the statement.
Executive Director of Centre for Peace and Relief Distribution CEPRD, Mr. Adekunle Onamusi condemned the withdrawal of Canada, New Zealand, Russia and Japan from the second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol and the continued refusal of the United States to ratify the protocol.
Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.
Some smokers know that smoking is just a dangerous and unhealthy action, many of them cannot quit successfully. An integral part of this is because that the habit is extremely difficult to break. But, you will find effective methods that have been effective for others. This informative article provides some techniques. Follow the guidelines presented, and hopefully you will have the ability to quit successfully.
You should make friends and family conscious of your planned changes, when wanting to stop smoking. By permitting them to know, they can give you the inspiration you need. This may only be the extra push that you?ll require to remain on the right track together with your quitting program.
Plan on applying workout as you quit smoking, not just for the added health rewards, but to distract your self from the desire to smoke. More over, exercise relieves stress and anxiety. You may start gradually by walking regularly, if you do not presently exercise regularly. Before starting almost any exercise routine, talk with your doctor.
Beginning a fitness routine is a good way to help yourself when you?re attempting to stop smoking. Under the advice of a doctor, ease your self into the regime, especially if you have already been huge smoking for many years. The exercise will allow you to not merely repair a few of the damage smoking has been doing to the human body, but can also be an excellent tension reliever as well.
In order to stop smoking, find something different you are able to hold in your hand and put in the mouth area. Many smokers think it is hard to stop since they have a desire to have a cigarette within their hands and mouth. Rather than cigarette, you can store a straw.
When you?re trying to stop smoking, make sure that you?re drinking plenty of water. Not only is water good for you, but it also fulfills the requirement to have anything in orally. Also, considerable amounts of water help clear out smoking and other substances within your body brought on by cigarettes.
Looking at a photo of smoker?s lungs could be all that?s necessary to give up smoking. Their lungs turn black after a while, when a individual smokes and they might get lung cancer. As tough as it may appear, viewing the picture may trigger a signal in your brain to quit.
If you prefer to quit smoking, stop buying cigarettes. It sort of goes without saying that if you don?t have cigarettes on you, it will become more difficult to smoke. Dispose of any cigarettes which are currently in your possession and produce a pact with your self not to buy any more.
Remember the original week will surely function as the hardest once you stop smoking. The very first forty-eight hours of quitting are when your human anatomy sheds all the terrible smoking you have been eating. From the period on, you?ll mainly suffer from mental cravings. While still hard, this can make resisting them considerably less traumatic.
Destroy your smoking addiction before you quit smoking. Speak to your doctor about any possible medications they can order that can make smoking powerless over you. You will find smoking having no effect on your feeling, after you?re on one for a while. You?ll only stop since it doesn?t do something for you anymore.
Look on line for a quit smoking calculator. These calculators certainly are a great stimulating device in stopping. They are able to tell you just how long it?s been since your last cigarette and just how many smokes you?ve maybe not had since your quit date. You can also observe how much money you?ve saved as your quit date.
Take into account the money you will save your self. Smoking can be an extremely costly habit, and it really accumulates over per year. That alone might be an excellent reason behind quitting, if you calculate how much you can save over a year. When you start keeping the amount of money that you used to pay on cigarettes, you will manage to manage so several things that were from your reach before.
Don?t fail to look at alternative solutions to stop smoking, including natural treatments. Acupuncture isn?t proven clinically, but many have gained from this process. It?s generally put on areas around your ears. Be sure that you choose a specialist who?s qualified by the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture.
Many those who smoke achieve this with the knowledge that the experience that they are engaging in is harmful and dangerous. Lots of them likewise have trouble stopping as a result of addictive nature of smoking. However, there are strategies that have helped others quit that will help you quit effectively too. Use the guidelines which were provided in this specific article, and hopefully smoking is a point of days gone by. v2 electronic cigarette
I?m your next potential dream boss. I run a cool, rapidly growing company in the digital field, where the work is interesting and rewarding. But I?ve got to be honest about some unfortunate news: I?m probably not going to hire you. ? If you want to survive in this economy, you?d be well-advised to learn how to speak computer code.
? Kirk McDonald, president of PubMatic, writing in the Wall Street Journal, 10 May 2013
This is another article beating the ?everyone must learn to code? drum. Employers can?t find enough people with programming skills, schools aren?t turning out enough engineers, jobs at these cool companies are left unfilled because American students are too lazy or short-sighted to spend a summer learning ?basic computer language.?
If only it was that simple. I have some complaints about this ?everyone must code? movement, and Mr. McDonald?s article gives me a starting point because he touched on so many of them.
A dilettante is not a programmer
That isn?t writing at all, it?s typing. ? Truman Capote
Learning a little bit of programming is probably worse than not learning it at all if you are going to be working with professional programmers. Anyone who has worked in the software business has had to deal with a manager or marketing or sales person who took a BASIC or Pascal class back in college. Although their exposure was shallow and short, they will refer back to it as if their mastery of a FOR?NEXT loop qualifies them to make decisions about programming projects. Consider Mr. McDonald?s example: ?Suppose you?re sitting in a meeting with clients, and someone asks you how long a certain digital project is slated to take.? How exactly does knowing a little bit of Python help answer that question? I?d rather hire someone who said ?I can?t tell you offhand but I will find out,? and then consulted people who can help estimate.
There are lots of people who have training and degrees in computer programming who can?t program: see Jeff Atwood?s article Why Can?t Programmers.. Program?. I can?t see how adding more amateurs to these ranks is a good thing. I specialize in debugging and fixing code that is abandoned or unsupported by the original programmer, so I see plenty of what happens when someone who half-understands programming tries to develop real programs.
Programming languages are not programming
Teach yourself just enough of the grammar and the logic of computer languages to be able to see the big picture. ? Kirk McDonald
The grammar and logic of computer languages are not the big picture. Programming languages are not the hard part of programing; not even the most important part. Programming is methodically using software to solve problems ? business problems, rocket guidance problems, selling ads online problems. Programming languages and APIs are tools to write programs: they aren?t programming. By analogy you know you are in a group of amateur photographers when they have $3,000 cameras but don?t know what an f-stop is or how it affects depth of field. Professional photographers talk about composition and lighting, not camera features.
Good programmers can construct, hold, and analyze complex models in their head. They can translate business requirements into code. They know how programming languages and software tools can be applied to solve a problem.
Not everyone has the talent or inclination to program
I never learned to skateboard. I can?t dance. I can?t play a musical instrument. I struggle learning foreign languages. I know people who can do those things well. They apply themselves because they are interested and motivated, in the same way I applied myself to computer programming, for years, until I got good at it. I used to tutor college students and teenagers, and I learned that very few people find programming interesting or fun. Students sit through the courses because they have to. Their experience paying me to write their Fibonacci sequence assignment while they tried and failed to understand recursion will be cited later in their career as programming expertise. Maybe they will estimate important projects based on that half-remembered exposure to Visual Basic.
I?m not saying programming should be exclusive. I?m all for the kind of curriculum upgrading and partnerships with business that Mr. McDonald supports. Anyone who wants to learn programming should be able to, and experienced programmers should help and mentor. But let?s not kid ourselves that everyone wants to program, or will have the combination of talent and interest to get good at it.
It?s setting people up to fail
Most people who try to learn to program are going to fail or lose interest. Telling high school and college students and job seekers that they don?t have a chance because they didn?t learn ?speak computer code? is creating a phony bar to entry. At best it?s a distraction, like business students forced to take a programming class they will forget about. At worst it?s another demoralizing episode?like trigonometry was for a lot of us? where students are told they must master something that most of them will find uninteresting and difficult and inapplicable to their life.
In most jobs some level of familiarity and comfort with computers and technology is required. But you don?t need to know how to write code to do most jobs. I?ve worked in ad agencies and most of the employees didn?t program but could do the job they were supposed to be doing just fine.
Programmers have worked hard to learn their skill
So the book can only be talking about a superficial familiarity, not a deep understanding. As Alexander Pope said, a little learning is a dangerous thing. ? Peter Norvig
Suggesting that just anyone can learn programming in a summer spent with Python tutorials and getting ?acquainted with APIs? trivializes the amount of real time and effort required to learn programming. Peter Norvig wrote Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years, and I think he got it right. Malcolm Gladwell came to similar conclusions in ?Outliers.? As a professional programmer with 35 years experience, much of it continuously upgrading my skills, I?m a bit offended at the suggestion that everyone and their mother can be programming after watching some videos online.
The idea that programming is something anyone can learn if they just sit down with a book and type examples is not just offensive to programmers?it?s a dangerously misleading idea for management to hold. It feeds the idea that programming is a rote skill that can be trained into anyone, and that programmers are therefore more or less interchangeable. Many of my friends and almost all of my colleagues are programmers, but I would flail for a while trying to do their jobs if I was rotated in as a new ?resource? or headcount. Programmers tend to specialize. Our underlying expertise and experience, and our innate interest in programming, means that we can do another programming job better than someone fresh out of school, but we aren?t interchangeable.
So what do I tell my kids?
I tell my own kids to invest in learning useful skills, whether the skill is programming, plumbing, writing, or fixing cars. Learning any skill well enough to make a living from it takes a lot of time and commitment. I also teach them that credentials are not the same thing as expertise, and the more competitive the job market gets the more skills and experience will be valued over credentials, especially as we figure out how degraded a lot of credentials really are. I teach my kids that they can learn anything they are interested in, but I can?t make them interested in any specific thing. And I tell them to be skeptical of advice like ?Everyone must learn to code.?
Recently speaking at the Interop IT conference, PayPal's chief information security officer, Michael Barrett, stated that passwords and PINs were operating on borrowed time. Barrett hopes to replace online security keys with a setup that's a blend of software and hardware-based identification. He also serves as president of the Fast Identity Online Alliance (FIDO) -- the organization's focus is to combine an effective mix of software (passwords and plugins) and hardware (USB drives and fingerprint scanners) for user authentication.
PayPal's technology boss didn't allude to his company adopting these new types of security systems for its customers anytime soon. Instead he announced that FIDO-enabled devices will be hitting the market sometime this year. Progress, yes, but until this hardware becomes more widely available, it's likely that you'll be spending more time getting acquainted with two-step logins.
NEW YORK (AP) ? As a child in Puerto Rico, Ismael Cruz was delighted by the colorful characters in "Sesame Street," who not only entertained and educated him, but helped him learn "ingl?s." He could not have imagined that two decades later he would be playing with them in front of the cameras.
Cruz is the newest Hispanic addition to popular children series' cast, playing Armando, or "Mando."
"'Sesame Street' is a magical place. It doesn't matter if you are working there or just visiting, or if you're watching on TV, that magic is always there," Cruz, 26, told The Associated Press. "I grew up watching the show, and for me it was a place that really existed and to which as a child I aspired to go, a place so diverse that I could see myself in the faces of the people that were there. Being on the set now is that, but with cameras."
Cruz's character is a Hispanic writer from Brooklyn who writes everything from short stories to essays and movie scripts. He also loves technology and social media.
The addition expands a cast of Hispanic characters that includes Maria (Sonia Manzano) and Luis (Emilio Delgado), who debuted on "Sesame Street" in 1971 as human characters, as well as Rosita, the charming turquoise monster who joined in 1993 with Mexican puppeteer Carmen Osbahr, who also voices Ovejita.
The show wants to reflect the population changes in the U.S., where Hispanics are the fastest growing minority. It also features African-American, Asian and American Indian characters.
"It's a show that's always cutting edge, that is always aware of what's going on with the population, so by including a character that is young, with new perspectives, Latino, and that bring that new generation, it is carrying on with that message," Cruz said.
Cruz grew up poor in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, and his mother tuned in to "Sesame Street" so his son would learn English. Cruz studied music and dreamed of being an actor, eventually attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Before "Sesame Street," he appeared on "The Good Wife" and in films "In The Blood," ''White Alligator" and "Chaser."
The casting call for a new Hispanic character on "Sesame Street" attracted hundreds of bilingual actors last August.
"I hadn't seen it, (but) many people who knew me and read the description of what they were looking for sent me messages through Facebook, email and phone telling me, 'You have to do this audition, this is perfect for you.' And that's how I began this process," he said.
"Mando" will make his debut on the 44th season of "Sesame Street," which starts airing on September 16. Carol-Lynn Parente, executive producer of "Sesame Street," said she and her team knew immediately that Ismael was the perfect addition.
"He has a passion for creative expression and a warmth that comes right through the camera," Parente said in a statement.
___
Online:
www.sesamestreet.org
___
Follow Claudia Torrens on Twitter at //www.twitter.com/ClaudiaTorrens
TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar dropped to its lowest against the U.S. dollar in almost two weeks after Canadian employment data showed fewer jobs gains than expected in April, erasing a week of strong gains by the currency.
The Canadian economy added 12,500 jobs last month, clawing back some of the 54,500 jobs lost in March, but the unemployment rate stayed at 7.2 percent, Statistics Canada reported. A Reuters survey of economists had forecast 15,000 new jobs.
"The report on balance was probably slightly softer than expected, so it's not a big surprise that we saw a bit of a sell-off (of the Canadian dollar), but it does not change our bigger view of the Canadian economy and what the Bank of Canada is going to do," said Robert Kavcic, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.
"This is pretty consistent with an economy that has been growing below potential, and we're not looking for any move from the Bank of Canada until the second half of 2014, so this wouldn't change any of that."
The employment data - which showed strength in full-time job gains but losses in the private sector - sent the Canadian dollar tumbling lower, reversing what had been a steady appreciation against its U.S. counterpart in May.
At 9:43 a.m. (1343 GMT), the Canadian dollar traded at C$1.0127, or 98.75 U.S. cents, well off Thursday's North American session close at C$1.0075, or 99.26 U.S. cents. It briefly sank as low as C$1.0139, or 98.63 U.S. cents, its weakest level since April 29, before inching back.
The currency had climbed to its strongest level in nearly three months on Thursday, closing in on parity with the U.S. dollar after gaining some 2-1/2 cents since late April.
Over the longer term, the Canadian dollar is expected to weaken against the greenback in the year ahead, according to a Reuters poll published on Wednesday. Forecasters cited concern about the economy's slow rate of growth compared with that of the United States.
In global news, the yen made a decisive break through 100 to the dollar to hit a 4-1/2 year low on Friday, triggering a rise in safe-haven bond yields and supporting gains in European and Japanese shares which hit new five-year highs.
U.S. Treasury 10-year note yield hit a one-month peak of 1.85 percent as the dollar gained on the yen, while stock index futures signaled that Wall Street was set to resume its recent record-breaking rise. <.n/>
Prices for Canadian government bonds were mostly lower. The two-year bond was down 3 Canadian cents to yield 0.990 percent, while the benchmark 10-year bond lost 38 Canadian cents to yield 1.843 percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A fundraising push by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is drawing criticism from a key Senate Republican who questions whether she has a conflict of interest.
HHS spokesman Jason Young confirms that Sebelius in recent weeks has asked various charitable foundations, businesses executives, churches and doctors to donate money to nonprofit organizations, such as Enroll America, that are helping to implement President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
Young said there is a special section within the Public Health Services Act that allows the HHS secretary to solicit financial support for nonprofit organizations conducting public health work. He said most of the solicitations have occurred through telephone calls, but in some speeches as well.
"For the last several months, the secretary has been working with a full range of stakeholders who share in the mission of getting Americans the help they need and deserve," Young said. "We have always worked with outside groups and the efforts now ramping up are just one more part of that work."
The fundraising pitches were first reported by the Washington Post. Young said Sebelius made no fundraising request of entities regulated by HSS, such as drug companies, hospitals or insurers.
Some lawmakers and advocacy groups have voiced concerns in recent weeks that many consumers will have a hard time navigating the health coverage options available to them next year as a mix of government programs and tax credits for private insurance kicks in.
The administration has recently announced it would be directing $200 million to states, private groups and local health centers so that they can hire workers who can help consumers pick the insurance plan best for them. The fundraising pitches appear to be another step along those lines. Beginning Oct. 1, people can start signing up for coverage through new state and federal health exchanges.
But Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said that soliciting money from health care executives is absurd.
"Moving forward, I will be seeking more information from the administration about these actions to help better understand whether there are conflicts of interest and if it violated federal law," Hatch said.
Click image to see more photos. (Photo courtesy maryannerussell.com)
On March 11 2005, Kevin Berthia wanted to take his life. He had climbed over the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge and was prepared to take a fatal jump into the San Francisco Bay when he heard a voice calling out to him from above.
It wasn?t the voice of a spiritual presence, but rather that of California Highway Patrol (CHP) Officer Kevin Briggs. The two talked for 60 life-changing minutes before Berthia decided to climb back up the bridge and give life another chance.
Eight years later, the pair reunited as part of an emotional ceremony honoring Briggs and other members of the CHP whose job is to verbally persuade suicidal men and women from jumping off that bridge.
?It was phenomenal,? Berthia, 30, told Yahoo News about his reunion with Briggs at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention public service ceremony.
?I didn?t know what I was going to feel, or how I was going to react,? he said. ?But when I first saw him, he walked up me and I just shook his hand. It felt like I had known this man my whole life. The nerves weren?t there. It was just two old friends being reunited.?
In the eight years since their first meeting, Berthia has dramatically turned his life around. He still resides in the Bay Area, home to his darkest of memories, but he has now built a new life for himself, with a successful marriage and two children. He says the time Briggs spent just listening to him forged a connection that helped put him on a path of mental recovery.
?That?s what I tell people,? Briggs told Yahoo News when asked about that fateful discussion with Berthia back in 2005. ?You have to seek some help. [And then] you?re getting better. And you can have a life now.?
Over the years, it didn?t seem likely the two men would ever see each other in person again. But in December 2012, Briggs took part in a Yahoo documentary video that chronicled his work on the suicide prevention beat. The story centered on Berthia?s incident while retaining his anonymity. But the footage included an emotionally striking photo of Berthia with his back to the camera and head hung low against the bridge while Briggs attempted to console him.
Click image to see more photos. (John Storey/San Francisco Chronicle)
The outpouring of positive responses to the video provided a catalyst for the reunion.
?It?s actually taken off past what I thought it would ever do,? Briggs said of the video. ?I tried to read all the comments. I?ve been contacted to get my life rights for a movie and several police departments have called asking me to speak about what we do here. It?s all been very humbling, to be honest.?
After an initial meeting between Briggs and Berthia?s mother, the two men and their families met privately in a small room before the ceremony began.
?I wanted to meet him again,? Briggs said, acknowledging that it was ?very unusual? for him to have contact with any of the hundreds of men and women he?s talked down from the bridge over the years. ?I just said, ?It?s great to see you.? He said, ?My Mom is your No. 1 fan.? It was really neat.?
Things truly came full circle when the two men took the stage and Berthia introduced Briggs to the audience.
?People understood and could respect our connection,? Berthia said. ?It was more than just a CHP officer and a man who was trying to commit suicide.?
Much of the attention was understandably given to Berthia and his courage in agreeing to speak publicly about his personal experience. But after his introduction, it was Briggs who found himself overcome with emotion and needing to lean on the young man whose life he had helped save.
?I didn?t realize how I was going to feel on the stage when I got up there,? Briggs said. ?I wanted Kevin to stay up on there on the stage with me the whole time.?
Briggs added, ?He said that I literally saved his life. I said that he did it himself. He had the courage. It?s his call. It?s his choosing. People were just coming up to us with tears in their eyes. One of the psychiatrists even hugged me. And that?s when it just hit me.?
After the awards ceremony, Briggs and Berthia said they made plans to stay in touch. In fact, Berthia and his family plan to attend a Christmas party with Briggs later this year.
?Now that I have his number, I don?t see us never not being friends,? Berthia said. ?We are of such a different age but it never feels like that. I?ve shared things with Officer Briggs in those 60 minutes that no one else in the world knows. It?s a special bond there.?
'Alexa,' the target formerly known as 'The Ex.' (ZombieIndustries.com)
Glenn Beck's speech comparing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Hitler wasn't the only controversy to emerge from the National Rifle Association convention in Houston held May 3-5.
Anti-violence groups are criticizing the NRA for allowing a vendor at its annual conference display "The Ex," a scantily-clad, blood-splattered female shooting-range target.
According to Zombie Industries, the company that produces the $89.95 Tactical Bleeding Zombies, the targets are "life-sized, three-dimensional tactical mannequins that 'bleed' when you shoot them."
?This is outrageous and dangerous,? Laura Cutilletta, a senior staff attorney at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, told the New York Daily News. ?Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women in the United States. This reprehensible product stokes the fire of relationship violence which already claims far too many of our mothers, daughters and sisters."
(ZombieIndustries.com)
Zombie Industries?which also produces "Nazi" and "Terrorist" zombie targets?said Tuesday it would change the name of "The Ex" training dummy to "Alexa."
?The intention of the company was never to discriminate against women or promote violence against women,? Roger Davis, Zombie Industries marketing director, told the paper.
More than 86,000 attended the three-day NRA convention.
In a keynote address on Saturday, Beck blasted Bloomberg's anti-gun efforts, showing attendees an image of the mayor giving a Hitler-esqe salute.
The Anti-Defamation League condemned the shock jock's presentation.
?While he doesn?t say it, it seems Glenn Beck is implying through an image of Mayor Bloomberg in an apparent Hitlerian salute is that the mayor?s policies on gun ownership and other issues are turning New York city into a Nazi-like state," Abraham Foxman, a Holocaust survivor and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told ABC News. "That suggestion is outrageous, insensitive and deeply offensive on so many levels.?
The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) also blasted Beck:
Glenn Beck's use of disgusting imagery, showing a leading Jewish American as a Nazi, at the National Rifle Association's convention was deeply offensive. The NRA and Republican leaders must stand with the ADL and B'nai B'rith in condemning Glenn Beck?especially those who selected him to give the NRA's keynote address. This isn't only about what Beck said, but the disturbing fact that his stunt was embraced with applause and cheers by attendees at the NRA's national convention. The NRA's crowd is the Republican base and all Americans must take note.
A landfill like this one is causing local residents lots of headaches (Thinkstock)
Residents unlucky enough to live near a foul-smelling landfill near Bridgeton, Mo., recently got some bad news and better news.
The bad: The landfill stench is likely to get worse as officials go to work to fix the problem.
The sort of good news: The owners of Bridgeton Sanitary Landfill in Missouri have offered residents within a one-mile radius of the waste site a temporary reprieve by moving them to hotels for the next month.
According to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, ?270 households in the Spanish Village subdivision, Terrisan Reste mobile home community and some residents of Carrollton Village condominiums? qualify for the relocation to extended-stay hotels three miles away, which also accept pets.
Those preferring to move in with family or friends will receive $125 a week.
The landfill, about 52 acres that goes 240 feet below ground, took in waste from 1985 to 2004.
But in 2010, landfill started to stink.
The website for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources describes what happened starting on Dec. 10, 2010, as a ?subsurface smoldering event.?
Translation: The trash is burning.
Complaints started coming in from residents, nearby workers, even the local hospital, where people caught a whiff of the foul odor in the operating room.
By early spring 2012, the department noted that the ?an increase in odors was noticed with some odor complaints being filed by nearby residents and businesses.?
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has sued Republic Services on eight charges of violating state environmental laws, the Post-Dispatch reports.
Meanwhile, residents have to decide what they will do in the short term. ?We thought we had a nice little house in a nice little place,? resident Mike Dailey told the Post-Dispatch. ?Three years ago it starts stinking like hell.?
Battery and memory device in 1Public release date: 24-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Christian Schipke c.schipke@fz-juelich.de 49-246-161-3835 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Future nanoelectronic information storage devices are also tiny batteries -- astounding finding opens up new possibilities
Resistive memory cells (ReRAM) are regarded as a promising solution for future generations of computer memories. They will dramatically reduce the energy consumption of modern IT systems while significantly increasing their performance. Unlike the building blocks of conventional hard disk drives and memories, these novel memory cells are not purely passive components but must be regarded as tiny batteries. This has been demonstrated by researchers of Jlich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA), whose findings have now been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. The new finding radically revises the current theory and opens up possibilities for further applications. The research group has already filed a patent application for their first idea on how to improve data readout with the aid of battery voltage.
Conventional data memory works on the basis of electrons that are moved around and stored. However, even by atomic standards, electrons are extremely small. It is very difficult to control them, for example by means of relatively thick insulator walls, so that information will not be lost over time. This does not only limit storage density, it also costs a great deal of energy. For this reason, researchers are working feverishly all over the world on nanoelectronic components that make use of ions, i.e. charged atoms, for storing data. Ions are some thousands of times heavier that electrons and are therefore much easier to 'hold down'. In this way, the individual storage elements can almost be reduced to atomic dimensions, which enormously improves the storage density.
In resistive switching memory cells (ReRAMs), ions behave on the nanometre scale in a similar manner to a battery. The cells have two electrodes, for example made of silver and platinum, at which the ions dissolve and then precipitate again. This changes the electrical resistance, which can be exploited for data storage. Furthermore, the reduction and oxidation processes also have another effect. They generate electric voltage. ReRAM cells are therefore not purely passive systems they are also active electrochemical components. Consequently, they can be regarded as tiny batteries whose properties provide the key to the correct modelling and development of future data storage.
In complex experiments, the scientists from Forschungszentrum Jlich and RWTH Aachen University determined the battery voltage of typical representatives of ReRAM cells and compared them with theoretical values. This comparison revealed other properties (such as ionic resistance) that were previously neither known nor accessible. "Looking back, the presence of a battery voltage in ReRAMs is self-evident. But during the nine-month review process of the paper now published we had to do a lot of persuading, since the battery voltage in ReRAM cells can have three different basic causes, and the assignment of the correct cause is anything but trivial," says Dr. Ilia Valov, the electrochemist in Prof. Rainer Waser's research group.
The new finding is of central significance, in particular, for the theoretical description of the memory components. To date, ReRAM cells have been described with the aid of the concept of memristors a portmanteau word composed of "memory" and "resistor". The theoretical concept of memristors can be traced back to Leon Chua in the 1970s. It was first applied to ReRAM cells by the IT company Hewlett-Packard in 2008. It aims at the permanent storage of information by changing the electrical resistance. The memristor theory leads to an important restriction. It is limited to passive components. "The demonstrated internal battery voltage of ReRAM elements clearly violates the mathematical construct of the memristor theory. This theory must be expanded to a whole new theory to properly describe the ReRAM elements," says Dr. Eike Linn, the specialist for circuit concepts in the group of authors. This also places the development of all micro- and nanoelectronic chips on a completely new footing.
"The new findings will help to solve a central puzzle of international ReRAM research," says Prof. Rainer Waser, deputy spokesman of the collaborative research centre SFB 917 'Nanoswitches' established in 2011. In recent years, these puzzling aspects include unexplained long-term drift phenomena or systematic parameter deviations, which had been attributed to fabrication methods. "In the light of this new knowledge, it is possible to specifically optimize the design of the ReRAM cells, and it may be possible to discover new ways of exploiting the cells' battery voltage for completely new applications, which were previously beyond the reach of technical possibilities," adds Waser, whose group has been collaborating for years with companies such as Intel and Samsung Electronics in the field of ReRAM elements. His research group has already filed a patent application for their first idea on how to improve data readout with the aid of battery voltage.
###
Original publication:
I. Valov,E. Linn, S. Tappertzhofen, S. Schmelzer, J. van den Hurk, F. Lentz & R. Waser
Nanobatteries in redox-based resistive switches require extension of memristor theory
Nature Communications. 23 April 2013
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2784
Further information:
Jlich Aachen Research Alliance for Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies (JARA-FIT): http://www.jara.org/de/research/jara-fit/
Electronic Materials Research Lab (EMRL): http://www.emrl.de/h_.html
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.
Battery and memory device in 1Public release date: 24-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Christian Schipke c.schipke@fz-juelich.de 49-246-161-3835 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Future nanoelectronic information storage devices are also tiny batteries -- astounding finding opens up new possibilities
Resistive memory cells (ReRAM) are regarded as a promising solution for future generations of computer memories. They will dramatically reduce the energy consumption of modern IT systems while significantly increasing their performance. Unlike the building blocks of conventional hard disk drives and memories, these novel memory cells are not purely passive components but must be regarded as tiny batteries. This has been demonstrated by researchers of Jlich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA), whose findings have now been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. The new finding radically revises the current theory and opens up possibilities for further applications. The research group has already filed a patent application for their first idea on how to improve data readout with the aid of battery voltage.
Conventional data memory works on the basis of electrons that are moved around and stored. However, even by atomic standards, electrons are extremely small. It is very difficult to control them, for example by means of relatively thick insulator walls, so that information will not be lost over time. This does not only limit storage density, it also costs a great deal of energy. For this reason, researchers are working feverishly all over the world on nanoelectronic components that make use of ions, i.e. charged atoms, for storing data. Ions are some thousands of times heavier that electrons and are therefore much easier to 'hold down'. In this way, the individual storage elements can almost be reduced to atomic dimensions, which enormously improves the storage density.
In resistive switching memory cells (ReRAMs), ions behave on the nanometre scale in a similar manner to a battery. The cells have two electrodes, for example made of silver and platinum, at which the ions dissolve and then precipitate again. This changes the electrical resistance, which can be exploited for data storage. Furthermore, the reduction and oxidation processes also have another effect. They generate electric voltage. ReRAM cells are therefore not purely passive systems they are also active electrochemical components. Consequently, they can be regarded as tiny batteries whose properties provide the key to the correct modelling and development of future data storage.
In complex experiments, the scientists from Forschungszentrum Jlich and RWTH Aachen University determined the battery voltage of typical representatives of ReRAM cells and compared them with theoretical values. This comparison revealed other properties (such as ionic resistance) that were previously neither known nor accessible. "Looking back, the presence of a battery voltage in ReRAMs is self-evident. But during the nine-month review process of the paper now published we had to do a lot of persuading, since the battery voltage in ReRAM cells can have three different basic causes, and the assignment of the correct cause is anything but trivial," says Dr. Ilia Valov, the electrochemist in Prof. Rainer Waser's research group.
The new finding is of central significance, in particular, for the theoretical description of the memory components. To date, ReRAM cells have been described with the aid of the concept of memristors a portmanteau word composed of "memory" and "resistor". The theoretical concept of memristors can be traced back to Leon Chua in the 1970s. It was first applied to ReRAM cells by the IT company Hewlett-Packard in 2008. It aims at the permanent storage of information by changing the electrical resistance. The memristor theory leads to an important restriction. It is limited to passive components. "The demonstrated internal battery voltage of ReRAM elements clearly violates the mathematical construct of the memristor theory. This theory must be expanded to a whole new theory to properly describe the ReRAM elements," says Dr. Eike Linn, the specialist for circuit concepts in the group of authors. This also places the development of all micro- and nanoelectronic chips on a completely new footing.
"The new findings will help to solve a central puzzle of international ReRAM research," says Prof. Rainer Waser, deputy spokesman of the collaborative research centre SFB 917 'Nanoswitches' established in 2011. In recent years, these puzzling aspects include unexplained long-term drift phenomena or systematic parameter deviations, which had been attributed to fabrication methods. "In the light of this new knowledge, it is possible to specifically optimize the design of the ReRAM cells, and it may be possible to discover new ways of exploiting the cells' battery voltage for completely new applications, which were previously beyond the reach of technical possibilities," adds Waser, whose group has been collaborating for years with companies such as Intel and Samsung Electronics in the field of ReRAM elements. His research group has already filed a patent application for their first idea on how to improve data readout with the aid of battery voltage.
###
Original publication:
I. Valov,E. Linn, S. Tappertzhofen, S. Schmelzer, J. van den Hurk, F. Lentz & R. Waser
Nanobatteries in redox-based resistive switches require extension of memristor theory
Nature Communications. 23 April 2013
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2784
Further information:
Jlich Aachen Research Alliance for Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies (JARA-FIT): http://www.jara.org/de/research/jara-fit/
Electronic Materials Research Lab (EMRL): http://www.emrl.de/h_.html
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.
Apr. 24, 2013 ? In a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Energy & Environmental Science, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory describe details of a low-cost, stable, effective catalyst that could replace costly platinum in the production of hydrogen. The catalyst, made from renewable soybeans and abundant molybdenum metal, produces hydrogen in an environmentally friendly, cost-effective manner, potentially increasing the use of this clean energy source.
The research has already garnered widespread recognition for Shilpa and Shweta Iyer, twin-sister high school students who contributed to the research as part of an internship under the guidance of Brookhaven chemist Wei-Fu Chen, supported by projects led by James Muckerman, Etsuko Fujita, and Kotaro Sasaki.
"This paper reports the 'hard science' from what started as the Iyer twins' research project and has resulted in the best-performing, non-noble-metal-containing hydrogen evolution catalyst yet known -- even better than bulk platinum metal," Muckerman said.
The project branches off from the Brookhaven group's research into using sunlight to develop alternative fuels. Their ultimate goal is to find ways to use solar energy -- either directly or via electricity generated by solar cells -- to convert the end products of hydrocarbon combustion, water and carbon dioxide, back into a carbon-based fuel. Dubbed "artificial photosynthesis," this process mimics how plants convert those same ingredients to energy in the form of sugars. One key step is splitting water, or water electrolysis.
"By splitting liquid water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen, the hydrogen can be regenerated as a gas (H2) and used directly as fuel," Sasaki explained. "We sought to fabricate a commercially viable catalyst from earth-abundant materials for application in water electrolysis, and the outcome is indeed superb."
This form of hydrogen production could help the scientists achieve their ultimate goal.
"A very promising route to making a carbon-containing fuel is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide (or carbon monoxide) using solar-produced hydrogen," said Fujita, who leads the artificial photosynthesis group in the Brookhaven Chemistry Department.
But with platinum as the main ingredient in the most effective water-splitting catalysts, the process is currently too costly to be economically viable.
Comsewogue High School students Shweta and Shilpa Iyer entered the lab as the search for a cost-effective replacement was on.
The Brookhaven team had already identified some promising leads with experiments demonstrating the potential effectiveness of low-cost molybdenum paired with carbon, as well as the use of nitrogen to confer some resistance to the corrosive, acidic environment required in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis cells. But these two approaches had not yet been tried together.
The students set out to identify plentiful and inexpensive sources of carbon and nitrogen, and test ways to combine them with a molybdenum salt.
"The students became excited about using familiar materials from their everyday lives to meet a real-world energy challenge," Chen recounted. The team tested a wide variety of sources of biomass -- leaves, stems, flowers, seeds, and legumes -- with particular interest in those with high protein content because the amino acids that make up proteins are a rich source of nitrogen. High-protein soybeans turned out to be the best.
To make the catalyst the team ground the soybeans into a powder, mixed the powder with ammonium molybdate in water, then dried and heated the samples in the presence of inert argon gas. "A subsequent high temperature treatment (carburization) induced a reaction between molybdenum and the carbon and nitrogen components of the soybeans to produce molybdenum carbides and molybdenum nitrides," Chen explained. "The process is simple, economical, and environmentally friendly."
Electrochemical tests of the separate ingredients showed that molybdenum carbide is effective for converting H2O to H2, but not stable in acidic solution, while molybdenum nitride is corrosion-resistant but not efficient for hydrogen production. A nanostructured hybrid of these two materials, however, remained active and stable even after 500 hours of testing in a highly acidic environment.
"We attribute the high activity of the molybdenum-soy catalyst (MoSoy) to the synergistic effect between the molybdenum-carbide phase and the molybdenum-nitride phase in the composite material," Chen said.
Structural and chemical studies of the new catalyst conducted at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) are also reported in the paper, and provide further details underlying the high performance of this new catalyst.
"The presence of nitrogen and carbon atoms in the vicinity of the catalytic molybdenum center facilitates the production of hydrogen from water," Muckerman said.
The scientists also tested the MoSoy catalyst anchored on sheets of graphene -- an approach that has proven effective for enhancing catalyst performance in electrochemical devices such as batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells, and water electrolyzers. Using a high-resolution transmission microscope in Brookhven's Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, the scientists were able to observe the anchored MoSoy nanocrystals on 2D graphene sheets.
The graphene-anchored MoSoy catalyst surpassed the performance of pure platinum metal. Though not quite as active as commercially available platinum catalysts, the high performance of graphene-anchored MoSoy was extremely encouraging to the scientific team.
"The direct growth of anchored MoSoy nanocrystals on graphene sheets may enhance the formation of strongly coupled hybrid materials with intimate, seamless electron transfer pathways, thus accelerating the electron transfer rate for the chemical desorption of hydrogen from the catalyst, further reducing the energy required for the reaction to take place," Sasaki said.
The scientists are conducting additional studies to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of the interaction at the catalyst-graphene interface, and exploring ways to further improve its performance.
In the paper, the authors -- including the two high-school students -- conclude: "This study unambiguously provides evidence that a cheap and earth-abundant transition metal such as molybdenum can be turned into an active catalyst by the controlled solid-state reaction with soybeans?The preparation of the MoSoy catalyst is simple and can be easily scaled up. Its long-term durability and ultra-low capital cost satisfy the prerequisites for its application in the construction of large-scale devices. These findings thus open up new prospects for combining inexpensive biomass and transition metals?to produce catalysts for electro-catalytic reactions."
Additional collaborators in this research were Chiu-Hui Wang and Yimei Zhu of Brookhaven Lab.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Wei-Fu Chen, Shilpa Iyer, Shweta Iyer, Kotaro Sasaki, Chiu-Hui Wang, Yimei Zhu, James T. Muckerman, Etsuko Fujita. Biomass-Derived Electrocatalytic Composites for Hydrogen Evolution. Energy & Environmental Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1039/C3EE40596F
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.
Actress and author Mariel Hemingway joins Jacob in the studio to discuss her new documentary "Running From Crazy"...and her first kiss, which apparently occurred at age 16 with Woody Allen in the film "Manhattan." Her partner and Running With Nature co-author Bobby Williams joins as well.
Dropcam, an iOS-friendly Wi-Fi-enabled camera system, recently updated their iPhone and iPad apps so that recording can kick in when you leave the house or at certain times of the day. As always, the Dropcam can push alerts to your iPhone or iPad when the camera detects movement and, if you're a subscriber, let you comb through up to 30 days of previously stored footage, complete with movement markers along the timeline and audio.
Of course, the primary use case for this kind of thing is for home security, but you can also open up the live stream publicly, which is great if you've got an ongoing event that you'd like to share with the world. The only major downside to the camera itself is that it's got to be plugged in all the time, but for a home security system, that shouldn't be much of a problem.
I'm finding myself more and more interested in connected home gadgets like Dropcam, Lockitron, and Lifx. Dropcam in particular seems like it's really easy to set up, and pretty useful, but what do you guys think? What kind of home security do you use? Is it hooked up to your iPhone in any way?
UFC on Fuel 9's main card kicks off at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday. What questions will be answered by these fights in Sweden?
Who the heck is Ilir Latifi, anyway? When the Swedish MMA Federation stopped Alexander Gustafsson from fighting because of a cut, the UFC needed a quick replacement for the main event. Latifi, Gustafsson's training partner, stepped up, but we don't know much about him except that he's on a three-fight win streak. Will he take advantage of the opportunity?
Where does Gegard Mousasi rank in the UFC's stocked light heavyweight division? Mousasi has made a name for himself fighting in Strikeforce, Dream and Pride, but this is the first time UFC fans will get a look at him. Fighting against Latifi, a late replacement, Mousasi could show he is the dominant fighter he once was.
Will Matt Mitrione end his losing streak? It's been a rough go for the football-player-turned-fighter. After starting his career with five straight wins, Mitrione lost his last two. Can a bout with Philip de Fries, who is 1-2 in his last three fights, give Mitrione a chance to right the ship?
Can Ryan Couture step out from the shadow of his famous father? After spending all of his pro career in Strikeforce, Couture will finally fight in the UFC, where his father became a legend. He will also have to ignore the ongoing dispute between UFC president Dana White and his father. Will he be able to win over Ross Pearson and start his own legend?
Will UFC fans still tune in after the main event was changed so close to the fights? This is a tough one. Gustafsson was fighting for a possible title shot. Now, he's off the card, and the rest of it is filled with Strikeforce fighters making their UFC debut and "The Ultimate Fighter" castmembers. Will it be enough for fans to spend their Saturday afternoon watching the fights?
Is Papy Abedi the best name in the UFC? Yes. Yes, it is.
By TYLER BATTEN
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 24-Apr-2013
Share ] 
UFC on Fuel 9's main card kicks off at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday. What questions will be answered by these fights in Sweden?