Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/316061967?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, June 30, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
Faults can reseal months after quakes
Measurements in southern China find quick healing of fractured rock
By Erin Wayman
Web edition: June 28, 2013
After an earthquake, fault zones may need no more than a couple of years to regain their strength, research suggests. But the recovery is not without setbacks: Large, distant quakes can redamage fragile faults and prolong healing.
A fault weakened by a rupture won?t begin to build up stress again until it?s strong enough. So the new findings, published in the June 28 Science, should help researchers understand the timing of earthquake cycles in a fault zone.
After a magnitude 7.9 earthquake devastated southern China in 2008, scientists drilled a borehole 1,201 meters into the Longmen Shan fault zone to monitor the healing process. Researchers have previously analyzed fault strengthening in the laboratory or with surface measurements. But this is the first time anyone has peered directly into a fault to observe recovery. ?We?re very hard up for evidence about what?s happening down there,? says seismologist John Vidale of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Researchers indirectly measured the Chinese fault?s strength by looking at how easily water flowed through the rock. When a fault fails during a quake, rocks break. Many processes reseal the cracks, such as the crystallization of minerals dissolved in groundwater. The more cracks a fault has, the weaker it should be, says coauthor Emily Brodsky, a geophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
From January 2010 to August 2011, Brodsky, Lian Xue, also of UC Santa Cruz, and colleagues observed changes in the rock?s permeability by measuring shifting groundwater levels in the borehole. Permeability plummeted, and the team calculated that recovery after an earthquake in the Longmen Shan fault zone should have taken anywhere from seven months to 2? years. Some previous studies indicated that faults should take decades or more to heal.
In the case of Longmen Shan, recovery was interrupted by periodic spikes in permeability that coincided with big, faraway quakes. Seismic waves unleashed by those events probably fractured the still-delicate fault, Brodsky says.?
One open question, says Elizabeth Cochran of the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena, Calif., is whether seismic waves from distant temblors can also damage strong, fully repaired faults.?
Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/351292/title/Faults_can_reseal_months_after_quakes
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A profile for starkandskinny's character writing contest, which can be found right over here for anybody interested in partaking. It could use a few more people involved.
Name: Exactly what it says on the fuckin' tin-- Wulan Lestari. Well, okay, so it's not exactly what it says on the tin-- in fact, hardly. The naming culture in Javanese tradition is... well, those overly concerned with being politically correct might say 'unique', but even Wulan will straight up say it's fuckin' stupid. Traditional Javanese names don't have surnames. Just one name. What kind of Einsteinian revelation led to that stroke of genius, Wulan honestly doesn't know (though it must suck to be one of like a billion other poor fucks with the Javanese equivalent of 'John' or some shit), but she did figure that once she immigrated to the States, having just one name woulda probably been a bitch to deal with, so she added 'Lestari' as her surname, for reasons that... well, she'd just say 'I fuckin' felt like it. What's it to you?', but considering she isn't in the habit of hollerin' about how she used to only have one name, it's not like people are always askin' her where the 'Lestari' came from.
Generally? She just goes by Wu. Shorter. More to the point. No bullshit. All that nice shit. Hell, you'd think the name 'Wulan' alone would be short and to the point as it was, but jesus christ, it amazes her how many people in the United States absolutely cannot for the life of them pronounce the name 'Wulan'. For fuck sake, it's 'woo-lan', not 'wuh-lin' or 'wuh-lan'. This shit ain't rocket science. But you'd have to be a real fuckin' imbecile to mispronounce Wu, so at least she's got that.
Age: Wu is thirty two years of age, though goin' by appearances you could easily take her for being more in the realm of her late thirties. This is in large part thanks to the lines creasing her mouth and face, and the patches of grey already emerging amidst the blackness of her hair. But hey, it ain't keepin' her down none, and it's yet to begin wearing away at her in any meaningful way beyond the superficial, so Wu doesn't really give a shit.
Gender: Gender? "Meh." That's the most likely answer you're gonna get, because Wu is rarely in any mood to go into an explanation of her sentiments on gender. Sexually, yeah, whatever, she's female . But that's physical sex. If sex is just a matter of physical differences, and gender is just a reflection of that in society's moulding of you as a person, then who's to say gender is even really a thing? Wu knows she's female, physically, but she's never felt female. Now don't get that wrong-- she's never 'felt' male either. Really, when you get down to it, Wu figures gender is something pretty much irrelevant-- an illusion. In all frankness, though, it's not something she talks about much-- it's not that important to her, and anyway, people are fuckin' stupid. They'd probably think she's tryin' to say she's transsexual or some shit.
Species: About as human as you can get-- a peculiar specimen, by looks and by behaviour, to be sure, but still one hundred per cent human, though there are those who argue Wulan Lestari is in fact the first discovered beef jerky based life form, given she seems to pretty much live on a diet of Slim Jims and protein shakes. Healthy? Probably not. Delicious? Fuck yeah.
Place of Origin: Jakarta - Java - Indonesia
Physical Description:
Wu does not look like the kinda person you wanna file under the 'people I should fuck with' cabinet. Indeed, she looks more like the kind of person stereotypical whitebread soccer moms usher their children over to the other side of the road when they see her approaching-- the kind of person who will, to use the scientific term, 'fuck your shit up' if you decide to start shit with her, and she loves that she makes that impression. If you have any doubt about that, take one look at her. You'll probably have to look up, though, considering Wu comes in at six feet and six inches of height: she's always been particularly tall, and never understood why people thought it was weird or awkward-- shit, she loves standing head and shoulders over everybody else. Of course, just being tall wouldn't cut it-- who the fuck wants to be some towering beanpole who gets to have a face-to-face meeting with the floor whenever a soft breeze rolls by? Not Wulan Lestari, you can be damn sure. Fortunately, that's not a problem, given her wide shoulders, burly, muscular arms, and powerfully built torso, all of which imply the considerable physical strength she wields, generally for the purpose of starting bar brawls with random people when drunk.
Javanese though she is by heritage, one would be hard-pressed to guess this of Wu purely from physical characteristics-- she lacks the dark, leathery skin typical of the Javanese, and her skin is instead a relatively lighter, tan-brown hue, veritably ironclad in tattoos, scars, and the odd birthmark. One may never see the full extent of her tattoos: even in those precious few cases where she is not armoured in her leather jacket, you'll only ever see the ones that line the robust muscles of her arms, and considering there doesn't seem to be but an inch of skin on either arm not tattooed, you can guess the rest of her is probably similarly armoured in ink. The tattoos on her lower arms seem to depict scenes of nature-- perhaps trees, with ravens vigilantly clinging to the gnarled, perished branches-- however, as you go up to her upper arms and shoulders, the beautiful depictions of nature are replaced with more morbid, macabre fare, such as an inverted pentagram, tattooed in such a way that it looks as though it had been carved violently into the flesh of her left shoulder. The scars, on the other hand, are pretty much the kind of shit you'd expect to find on somebody who grew up as a delinquent on the streets of Jakarta and glories in down'n'dirty brawl fights even to this day-- the most significant one, one she's had for years, is right there on her face, beginning just beneath her right eye, stretching across the bridge of her nose, and terminating below and to the side of her left eye. It's faint, and is clearly very old, but it's there, and she seems to think it's the most badass thing you ever saw in your damn life. All this taken into account, her birthmark-- a splotch of discoloured skin, slightly darker than the rest of her, on the front of her throat-- is hardly even noticeable. Hell, she'd be impressed if you somehow managed to spot 'em.
With regards to facial features, Wu possesses a countenance that appears as though it has been deliberately carved and sculpted by a less than prodigal sculptor-- the features are angular and sharp-edged, and the way they come together is anything but the work of an expert craftsperson. High, pronounced cheekbones carve out an enclave inhabited by a small, slightly pointed nose that has clearly been broken more than once in the past, set over a pair of thin, scarred lips. Beneath a high, wide forehead lie a pair of slender, almond-shaped eyes that tend to really trip people up once you take a single look at 'em-- having been born with a genetic condition known to the medical dictionaries as 'complete heterochromia', and to anyone who asks Wu as 'fucking mismatched', one eye is a surprisingly pleasant forest green-- the other an ugly mottled brown. Those eyes of hers tend to freak people out, which Wu fucking loves doing... er, probably a little too much. Less peculiar a specimen is her hair, which she's always made a habit of cutting to a short, bristly shave. After all, the last thing she needs is a faceful of her own hair when she's tradin' fists with somebody in the alley behind the bar.
To round out what is undoubtedly, in the eyes of most, the freak show called Wulan Lestari, her attire is no less... uh, out of step with society, to put it charitably? Wu could probably think of a whole bunch of excuses for dressing as outlandishly as she does-- she doesn't want to be uniform (conformity and nonconformity have never really mattered to her), she wants to adhere to the fashion of her favourite music (to be honest punk hardly has a 'fashion' anymore, and if it did Wu wouldn't really give a fuck about it either), she likes that it tends to intimidate the shit outta people (which is true, in a way, but not the full reality). Fact is, Wu just likes the look of it. Generally she's to be found wearing some kind of band t-shirt, with the sleeves shabbily torn off, because Wu's kind of a douche and wants everybody to see her tattoos and muscles in the rare instance that she eschews her jacket. Which is, speaking of which, the veritable pride and joy of her ensemble: an ancient, creased leather jacket, one that is virtually armoured at every inch in 1/2" cone spikes. Used to be that literally the whole thing was covered in spikes; however, recently she removed some of the ones on the back to make way for an acrylic white painting of the Mot?rhead War Pig, replete with chains, skulls, tusks, fangs, and spittle. Her lower body is typically clad in a pair of dark, faded jeans that clearly displays a history of wear and tear, indicating new ones have not been bought since Necrophagist last put out an album, tucked over a pair of harness boots; old bike chains hang from the loops of the jeans, and a belt of rusted copper bullet casings, the kind you can buy at most surplus stores, is slung low down one side of her waist.
Yeah. Punk as fuck, man.
Personality Description:
Wulan is... well, Wulan is an asshole. A god-given, dictionary-definition, textbook-example, bona-fide, true-to-life, genuine asshole. You know that guy who said "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all"? Wu called that guy a faggot and then probably headbutted him for good measure. At her best, Wu is rough, fierce, and stubborn-- she's somewhat conversational, she occasionally smiles, she cracks jokes of a less abrasive nature than usual, she can even be kind at times, if all the planets are properly aligned and seventy pop punk fans are sacrificed at the full moon. Most of the time, however, she's not at her best, and it's not hard for Wu to take a turn for her worst-- at which point she becomes cruel, callous, and violent, towards inanimate objects, towards people around her, and towards herself. She's a veritable machine of ruthless invective, pumping out the most horrific blasphemies and obscenities just because she can, she insults and puts down everybody around her for lack of anything better to do or say, and she has anger issues that would have even the Incredible Hulk goin' 'Dude, chill the fuck out'. Her caustic nature is only worsened by a very deadpan, mordant sense of humour-- sarcastic, pessimistic, angry, profane, an obsessive control freak who absolutely needs to hold all the power in every situation and absolutely has to feel like she's bigger and stronger than everyone around her (which usually is the case, to be fair), not to mention a born fighter whose first impulse in any situation is violence: it's no wonder nobody really wants to be around Wu.
Now I'm not going to say that deep down Wulan is actually a saint, or some broken, misunderstood soul-- fuck no she's not, and to an extent she will always be abrasive and aggressive no matter how well you get to know her-- you could be her best damn friend, or the closest thing she'll ever have to a friend, and she'll still call you a shithead, punch you hard enough to bruise for pretty much no reason, and in general be an asshole. On the other hand, there's much more that most people simply will never see of her-- an innate gruff but genuine kindness, a propensity for remarkable loyalty to the people she thinks care about her, the people she herself cares about, even selflessness for such people. But it's not so evident 'cause no matter how selfless she is, Wu still manages to be an asshole about it-- so much so that most of the time, you can't even tell she's actually being selfless. And she's not used to consciously showing that 'side' of her, to venture the cliche, because Wu has had it ingrained into her very psyche that to show such kindness and humanity is a weakness. After all, she had somebody who knew that side of her, and that person's long gone... which shows what good it does for her to make a fool of herself bein' nice to people when they're never long for this world.
She deals with the psychological fallout of that absolute guardedness by abusing alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs, immersing herself constantly in her music and her books, and throwing herself into fights and other violent situations, though by this point those methods are becoming less and less effective. It seems those mental and emotional torments only worsen every day, while those few ways she knows of dealing with them just aren't working anymore. She's headed straight for self-destruction, decay, and collapse, and knows it; somehow, though, she just can't stop. Maybe it's pathological-- maybe she's got some kind of disorder, something that makes her unable to display without fear any emotions besides vehemence, something that renders her incapable of normal human interaction. Or maybe she just grew up in a world where everybody was an enemy and everybody wanted to hurt her, and she took that lesson too close to heart, splitting her between the 'look out for number one' mindset she learned as a street rat in Jakarta, and the innate loneliness she may not even recognise, a loneliness that has consumed her ever since the one person she shared it with left her. Either way, it's a pathos Wu neither understands nor thinks much about-- after all, why fuck around trying to understand herself? She knows herself too well to think it's worth bothering to try understanding herself.
History:
Picture it now-- Indonesia. Jakarta. The 1980s.
Did you picture it? Okay, probably not-- frankly, it's somewhat impressive when your average Westerner even knows Jakarta exists, much less where and how. For those of you understandably less privy to the geography of Australasia, allow me to paint the picture for you, and know this: it ain't a pretty one. The Jakarta of the late twentieth century could unfavourably be be compared to The Bronx back in the 70s, when 'The Bronx is burning' was the place's goddamn catchphrase and you were goddamn royalty if you managed to snag an apartment with more than one room total. 1980s Jakarta was a hellhole-- crime-ridden, miserable, poverty-raked.
Being born into a place like that was liable to suck ass-- you'd think it couldn't be much worse, except for being born to a single parent with little financial means in Tanjung Priok, which was (and probably still is) the Jakarta equivalent of Compton. Maybe that was why Wu's first thought upon being born was something alone the lines of 'Oh, come the fuck on. Really? This is the kind of shit luck I have right from the get-go? Typical.' Her father? Her father was never really in the picture. Her mother never really talked about him, and Wulan never really cared-- if anything, the only thing her father's absence made her realise was that before she had even even born, someone had abandoned her, one way or another.
But she wasn't alone. Shortly after Wu emerged, a second daughter followed meekly after-- an identical twin. This hadn't been foreseen, and it was just another bit of shit luck for a single parent who now had three mouths to feed instead of just two. For Wu, though, it was a stroke of unexpected fortune not to be born alone, as she almost certainly would not have found much companionship if not for her twin sister Lestari.
From the womb, Wulan and Lestari grew up living the life of Jakartan street rats, and they learned very quickly that the only people they could count on were one another. The slums of Jakarta are a realm governed purely by cutthroat laws-- namely, look out for number one. Wulan and her sister did not let themselves get cheated, deceived, stolen from, and hurt more times than they needed to before they realised that fundamental way of things, and at that point, they stopped being the naive fools they felt they had been until that point, and became cut-throats themselves. After several years of hearing friends they'd seen just yesterday had been killed in gang shoot-outs or had left for a better life that the twins were too poor to achieve themselves, the sisters stopped trying to create connections with other people, having come to understand that such connections are a weakness-- a liability, a fragile, sensitive thing all too easily shattered. Once they figured out that there was no reason to try and relate to other people who were inevitably either liars and deceivers, or destined to die or leave the two behind, Wulan and Lestari changed.
There had been a time when she had been a person so wholly removed from what she is now that many today would be hard-pressed to believe it to be true-- that Wulan Lestari had once been a bright, vivacious child, with hardly a violent bone in her skinny little body. That person didn't last long, though. Kind, vivacious Wulan became aggressive, violent Wu, just as shy, bashful Lestari became cold and aloof, hardly speaking to anybody but her sister-- they kinda had to change, to avoid being steam-rolled by the merciless predatory organism that was slumland Jakarta. The twins, and Wu in particular, became fighters, privy to the way of life in the Jakarta slums, a way of life Wulan could not change even if she had tried: she could only be consumed by it, and allow herself to be consumed by it whole-heartedly-- a predator in her own right, accustomed to responding to the barest slight with violence, as that was the only way you won respect and fear. Who the hell had any respect for the jackass who 'turned the other cheek'? Who the fuck feared the idiot who sought a peaceful resolution to the conflict? Fucking nobody. Wu knew this. She knew being hard and strong was the only way to survive the slums.
Thus, Wulan and Lestari became the world to one another-- unable and unwilling to trust others, not even their mother could manage access to the tight-knit emotional bond they quickly developed. Sayin' they were like peas to a pod would have been the understatement of the century: though to the outside observer, bellicose Wu was a far cry from stoic, unflappable Lestari, in nearly all other respects they were twins in more than just a physical sense. They liked the same kinds of cigarettes, the same booze, they had an identically devastating right hook, they came to love the same kind of music-- hell, their mother sometimes swore she heard them snoring simultaneously some nights. The one thing Wulan and Lestari ever really differed on was religion-- Wu never bought into any of that crap, and remained throughout life a staunch atheist, figuring only a complete moron could possibly disregard the blaring logical fallacies inherent in the argument for the existence of a god. Which kinda flew in the face of Lestari, who, though by no means a radical fundamentalist, did profess a belief in God and could have been considered a very, very casual Muslim-- enough of one to quickly run through her own little fajr (morning prayer) upon awakening each day, not nearly enough of one to walk around wrapped up in a blanket. If anything, the most significant symbol of her faith was a small hamsa she was never to be seen leaving home without-- a palm-shaped amulet, not remotely as ornate as other specimens, but vital to Lestari not only in that it represented a sign of her faith and a symbol of protection, but also in that it was, she claimed, the only remnant of the twins' father, given to her by her mother. Wulan really didn't give a fuck about that-- it just made it that much more amusing to snatch the thing away from her sister and keep it until Lestari inevitably beat Wu into submission and took it back.
Ultimately, though? The whole faith thing really didn't matter except for the occasional sarcastic ribbing from Wulan. The two were thick as thieves, and never to be seen apart from one another. Secrets did not exist between them: though there was an emotional wall thicker and more guarded than the Great Wall Of China at the height of the Hun threat between them and anybody else, amongst themselves the twins shared everything. And it wasn't just emotions-- they shared smokes, they shared booze, they shared the precious scraps of exercise and work-out magazines they eventually began hoarding and following religiously-- and, once they discovered it, they shared music.
It was the defining moment of both their lives up until that point, and, as could be expected, it came about after a fight. It was a rare moment in which Wu and Lestari were separated, and Wu, fifteen years old, had just beat the ever loving shit out of some random jackass for... well, fuck all if she can remember at this point. He did something to piss her off, she made him hurt for it, and then, figuring she'd piss all over his prospects while she was at it (she was, believe it or not, even more of an asshole back then) she rifled around for any spare cash he had, figuring she'd buy herself and Lestari some booze or smokes. What she found was even more valuable-- a cassette case, the tape contained within like a treasure within a chest, the label on the side scribbled with the words 'Minor Threat'-- that was it. Minor Threat. Wu had no fucking idea what that was supposed to mean-- shit, she didn't even know what a cassette tape was, so she figured the thing was probably like some top secret government shit or whatever. Having decided that, she did the perfectly logical thing, which was to take it home with her and show it to her sister (after giving the little shithead she'd just beaten up another kick to the stomach for good measure).
In retrospect, she owes that dude a hell of a lot. At the time, she didn't realise it-- the tape was just some weird, foreign object until she brought it home to her sister. They stared at it, poked it, sniffed it, and at one point dove out the window hollering about a bomb when they thought the thing had started ticking only to realise it was just the microwave beeping in the next room. At length, the twins decided to do something they hadn't done in a long, long time: they talked to their mother about it, who informed them it was a cassette tape-- it played music. "How the fuck do I get it to make music?" Wu queried with a frown, looking at the odd little thing, which sure as hell hadn't produced no fuckin' music since she'd found it. "You use a cassette player, you moron," her mother informed her irascibly. That, of course, fired them off on another huge verbal altercation until finally, in exasperation, her mother said, "Look, I know where you can probably get a player if you're willing to waste money on it. If it'll make you two shut up, go there, shell out your precious money on the damn thing, pop that tape in, and then realise the waste of time and money you just subjected yourselves to." Well, y'know what? Fuck that. Wu decided she was gonna go and blow who the fuck knew how many rupiahs on the player, just to spite her mother, and Lestari, just curious enough about this peculiar contraption to play along, followed. So they went and bought it-- split the costs evenly between 'em. Set 'em back a shit ton of money that would otherwise have been blown on smokes and alcohol, but they-- or rather, Wu-- figured it was worth it to piss their old lady off. And sure, she was a little curious about this 'Minor Threat' shit. Who knew, maybe it'd be worth listening to. The two sisters brought the player home, huddled around it in their room, pulled out the cassette, popped it into the player, hit play... and, well, the rest is history.
The twins were blown the fuck away. From the second 'I Don't Wanna Hear It' fired off on all cylinders and Ian MacKaye began howling furiously, hurling his bitter invective at society and everything it represented-- they were both blown away. Music had never been very interesting to either of the twins-- their exposure to music had been limited to shit like gamelan or angklung music, the traditional music of Java and Indonesia on the whole, and frankly, none of that had ever made Lestari feel a damn thing, much less Wu, who found such music infuriating and grating upon her ears. But this... this was primal. This was angry. This was passionate. Violent, disgusted, unhappy with the way things were, unwilling to relent-- it was just like Wulan, but in an aural form, and Wu loved every damn second of it. "Hey, fuck you, mom," she wanted to say with a cocky grin (or rather, did say with a cocky grin, once she was done listening to the tape about fifty times over). "That was the best expenditure of money since... uh... well, it was just a fucking good expenditure of money, leave me the fuck alone."
That set the twins off on a journey of discovery-- a veritable mission to find more of this sound, this noise that they both found so appealing on a primal level. Needless to say, music is none too common a commodity in the slums of Jakarta, and it took quite a lot of 'research' on the subject, necessitating that the sisters step foot for the first time in just about the only local library, where they, in the process of leafing through books looking for some kind of information about this weird new sound they had discovered and fallen in love with, realised that reading, something they had always considered a chore, could actually be tolerable if they were reading something they had chosen themselves. Lestari, for example, found herself entranced by a copy of Tolkien's Silmarillion. Wu took one look at it, called her sister a dreamy dumbass, and turned back to the Dostoyevsky novel she had found herself unable to put down after the first page. Lestari came to delight in tales of the fantastic ranging from the works of Lovecraft, Wells, and Herbert to the novels of Asimov, Tolkien, and Antony; Wu had no patience for 'irrelevant shit about laser guns and hippy elves or whatever', preferring stories rooted in realistic, often modern settings, works by such literary giants as Dostoyevsky, Steinbeck, Orwell, Murakami, and Kerouac.
But they didn't lose sight of the goal, which was finding out about the music on the cassette-- and it wasn't exactly going to be easy, considering all they had to go off was a cassette tape that played pissed off, raw music, called 'Minor Threat'. It was probably the same streak of fortune that had led them to find that tape that put the answer in Lestari's hands: Minor Threat. Hardcore punk. The book in question was a history of 'rock music', which initially struck Wu as kind of weird (who knew rocks had their own music?)-- it was a kind of inherently aggressive music that had branched out into other genres such as metal, hard rock, and punk, each of which had spawned subgenres like death metal, progressive rock, and crust, some of which had led to even more specific styles. As for this sound they'd been pursuing, that fell under punk-- hardcore punk, to be exact. The book characterised hardcore punk as fast, hard-edged, raw, and bitter-- in other words, all the things they loved about this 'Minor Threat' cassette of theirs. And it was said that this style of music had been born in Great Britain (which was some place across the ocean), but its spirit had been carried on in the United States (which was also some place across the ocean), where hardcore punk bands like Minor Threat had originated. In fact, it was said that there, in the United States, the punk scene continued to flourish-- well, at the very least, it was doing better than it was elsewhere. In other words, if there was a place to go to to hear more of this, the United States was it.
They spent months seeking out more punk rock where they could find it, but there was, needless to say, a paucity of punk music in the slums of Jakarta. After a while, the inevitable topic was breached: leavin' Indonesia for the United States.
The music wasn't the sole factor in that decision. After all, they'd heard about the US-- heard that it was pretty much universally better than life here in the slums of Jakarta, heard it talked about like it was fucking heaven or some shit. That 'heaven' apparently was also the home of the music they loved, even though they had only a few dingy cassette tapes to show for it, and that alone was reason enough.
You may, of course, ask where their mother was throughout all this. And to be fair and true, she was certainly always there-- just always in the background. Though she never outright hated her daughters, it was always understood that there was a definite resentment there-- always the understanding that she would have had a much, much better life without two kids to feed and clothe. The twins knew it just as well as their mom knew it. And sure, she worked her ass off day after day, slaving away so that the two kids wouldn't fucking starve to death, but that didn't mean she also had to be nice to 'em. And therefore, for as long as Wu can remember, her mother was never a big part of their life. She never thought much of how her mother was providing for her-- never really thought much about her at all. Whilst her daughters were out in the streets picking fights, or huddled away in the library, she was at work, slaving away at an arduous job, making a thankless effort for which there would be no pay off except that she wouldn't have two starving kids on her conscience.
Maybe that was why their mother never heard of Wu and Lestari's plans to blow outta town and head across the ocean. By that time, Wu'd figured that Jakarta held no fortune for her or her sister-- here, they'd only ever keep living as they always had, grow up mired in violence and alcohol, and probably both die before the age of twenty. And that was not, needless to say, something Wu figured was in their favour. They started contemplating it, mulling over and planning it out at fifteen, but by no means were they ready to just get up and go at fifteen. But they were ready to work and meticulously hoard every penny they earned to get the hell outta Jakarta, a city with almost no good memories and countless bad ones for the two, a city that had known them when they had both been naive idiots. Wulan and Lestari wished, honestly and earnestly wished, to leave it behind forever, go somewhere where nobody knew them, and forge a marginally better life there, with the music they loved, with nobody but each other.
That was the plan for two years, during which they worked harder than they ever had, and forced themselves not to spend (as much) money on the usual booze and smokes. But unfortunately, life just loves to shit on hopes and dreams, and when life saw the twins with their anticipation for the future, for the better things to come, it just couldn't resist shitting all over that. They were on the cusp-- all but ready to just get up and go at last. That particular day, Lestari wasn't able to leave home-- she'd caught a fleeting case of the flu, and was hard-pressed to take so much as a step without vomiting. Wu mocked her sister some for her condition, and then mentioned that she was gonna go out and maybe stop by the library-- asked if Lestari wanted her to grab a book about orcs or wizards or some shit like that. Lestari merely shrugged, and then fixed her sister with a weird gaze. Slowly, she reached to the bedside, took hold of the hamsa that had not for nearly ten years left her sight and body, and held it out to Wu, asking her sister to take it, because she was uneasy and felt Wu may have needed its protection.
"You do realise," Wu retorted, after mocking her sister senseless for thinking a piece of metal could protect her just by being there. "That you've totally jinxed it now, right? I'm gonna take it and come back and find you murdered or some shit."
"Just take it," Lestari replied coldly in her characteristically laconic manner, and then she would have no further discussion on it.
Well, fuck it. Wu figured she'd take it, and then taunt her sister with not giving it back while Lestari was too weak to really do anything about it. Whistling a jaunty little tune (in specific, Black Flag's My War, a perennial favourite of hers), replying to her mother's demand to know where she was going with "Outta here, asshole", and in general figuring things were lookin' pretty up now that the time for the sisters to leave Indonesia was rapidly approaching, Wu stepped across the threshold of their house for the last time, the hamsa shoved in one of her pockets haphazardly.
Nobody could say for sure just how the fire started-- it seemed like a true bolt from the blue, a sudden blaze that quickly engulfed almost the entire block. Some thought it was an act of deliberate arson-- none too uncommon in those days. Others hypothesised it had been caused by negligence on the part of one of the neighbours. Wu didn't give a flying fuck. When she came back and saw what had happened, she only had one question, burning fervently in her heart, mind and soul, tearing at every fibre of her body-- and the answer to that question was a hard, final, resounding no.
She never saw-- nor wanted to see-- the corpse. At that moment, all she wanted to do was rage-- she became engulfed with a despair and a fury that made the blaze that had just shattered her life look like a fucking campfire. Suddenly, nothing actually mattered worth a shit, because she'd eschewed universally all human contact and connection in favour of having one bond with just one person-- a bond she'd thought bullet, fire, and shatter-proof, and now she had nobody. Now there wouldn't be any huddling up together with the latest discovery being slipped into the cassette player by strong hands shaking with anticipation-- no more walkin' the streets just talking, Wu laughing a booming, raucous laugh and Lestari permitting a minuscule smile to emerge. No more wiling away the days in the library, mocking one another over their choice of reading materiel. There wouldn't be any more of that, because Lestari was fucking dead-- gone, forever.
Wu wanted to hurl the hamsa at the burnt-out carcass of what had once been her home, throw it at the ground before the charred corpse of her sister, and scream, "Why the fuck did you give me this stupid fucking piece of shit? I didn't fucking need it. You did." Of course, she never for a second actually believed the damn thing had had any effect-- but it was so much easier to blame this senseless reduction of Wu's life to nothing, to worthlessness, on a hunk of metal, for her rage to have direction and focus, rather than to be forced to dwell on the fact that she was now alone.
Wu had pictured her and her sister stepping onto that plane, destined for New York City, vibrant with anticipation and anxiously high hopes-- maybe she'd even see her sister laugh for the first time, let herself show uninhibited joy as their new home approached on the horizon. Instead, Wu boarded the plane alone, dejected, torn up inside, the hamsa shoved away in her pocket. She reached New York City alone, armed with little knowledge of the English language and, once she got through foreign currency exchange, a wad of dollar bills of varying values in her pockets.
And frankly, none of that mattered.
To the outside world, she'd never changed-- she was the same bellicose, sarcastic, swaggering fighter she'd always been, even as she was still reeling from her twin sister's death. The only thing that changed was that now she was the one who never left behind that hamsa. She honestly couldn't tell you why if you asked-- she still didn't believe the damn thing did jack shit, and it was just a reminder of the day everything was fucked up for good, so why the fuck keep the thing around? Well, maybe, if you happened to be one of those idiots who's gotta see some profound shit in every little thing, you'd guess it was so she could always carry around a remnant of her sister with her. Wu merely thought of it this way-- her sister had asked her to take it. She'd never asked for it back. And that meant Wu got to carry it around with her, until her sister asked for it back, or until she died too, one or the other.
Though it was supposed to have been a milestone in her life, moving across continents to a new home, in New York nothing much really changed for Wu. She quickly picked up on English and became quite proficient with it, but otherwise, she just kept reading, kept listening to music, kept blowing most of her money on smokes and booze. Eventually, she bought a subscription to a local gym that also offered martial arts classes like boxing, where, as you can imagine, Wu excelled, having learnt many of those principles of fighting through street fights herself and having a shitload of rage and pent-up anger to vent through that medium; however, with those boxing classes, she polished that street smart knowledge and furious energy into a damn science, and at the gym she honed her work out regime.
Her source of income was a record shop nearby the little apartment Wu settled down in-- she took up work there pretty much from day one, and it pretty much became home to her-- a place where she could spend hours a day just listening to music (and occasionally actually doing her job), and getting paid for it. She dove straight into the 'punk' section like a kid at Disneyland-- just started grabbin' every damn cassette, CD, and vinyl in the place and put it on its respective music player, and hit play. Black Flag, Antischism, D.O.A., Spitboy, Nausea, Discharge, Government Issue-- it had that same primal, raw fury as that very first Minor Threat cassette, the little tape she had moved across entire continents pursuing the sound of, and she fucking loved it. She spent pretty much all day at the record shop, even when she wasn't actually working, listening to music. Leafing through some of the magazines lying around the record store-- and, later, using the burgeoning wonder of the internet-- led Wu to also discover some of the 'fashion' of punk-- you know, leather, denim, spikes, bullets, the whole shebang. Wu ate that shit up-- loved the dirty, angry look of it. She redirected some of her money flow from books, CDs, and drugs into clothes and accessories-- boots, chains, a leather jacket, spikes to decorate it with, a bullet belt, all gradually accrued over the years.
Now, I could start writing some shit about how her sister's death somehow motivated Wu to pursue an education after dropping out of high school, about how she went, got a high school diploma, pursued a higher degree in university in some field she'd grown passionate in, settled down with somebody she loved, made new friends, and in general rebuilt her life... except then I'd be a liar, and Wu would probably headbutt me, because she fuckin' hates liars. None of that shit even came close to happening. Wu's spent the past fifteen or so years living pretty much the same life she did back in Jakarta-- drinking, smoking, fighting, all that shit. The only difference is, now she hasn't got anybody else to do it with. She's still abjectly miserable, distracting herself from her loneliness with her various vices, seeking to distract herself from the fact that she's now utterly alone. Just her, and that damn hamsa-- a reminder of her sister's death, an object she reviles and loathes with all her being, but cannot bring herself to dispose of.
Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway
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China's entrepreneurs brace for credit crunch
BEIJING (AP) ? Like a boxer slimming down for a fight, Li Zhongjian is shrinking his 20-year-old business manufacturing cigarette lighters to brace for a credit crunch he sees looming over China's entrepreneurs.
Li's workforce in the southeastern city of Wenzhou has shrunk by half to 300 this year and he isn't replacing employees who leave. He said he used to borrow money but is preparing to do without credit that might no longer be available as regulators try to force Chinese banks to cool a lending boom they worry could race out of control.
"The authorities' shifting policies are not offering stable surroundings for businesspeople to be confident to work," said Li. "I won't try to get loans for my business any more. I'll wait and see how the market and policies are doing. I won't invest, either."
A cash shortage that hit China's credit markets this month was the first shock wave from what analysts say could be Beijing's most drastic clampdown on credit in two decades. The central bank has called for tighter lending standards, which should reduce risk but is likely to reduce financing for a private sector that generates China's new jobs and wealth.
China will benefit in the long run from a safer financial system, but the short-term cost could be a painful squeeze on entrepreneurs. Some say a recovery that already was faltering could weaken further.
"It's going to be a bloodbath," said Anne Stevenson-Yang, research director of J Capital Research in Beijing.
"Rates are shooting up in the private market and regular commercial loans are being pulled back very quickly," she said. "All industrial businesses here run on credit, so as soon as you close that down, they just stop producing and selling stuff."
The government has yet to say how extensive the controls will be or what it might do to ensure lending for producers who Chinese leaders have said they want to support.
Some branches of two of China's biggest lenders ? Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ? have temporarily suspended lending to businesses and individuals, the business magazine Caixin reported, citing sources at the banks.
The credit clampdown hits amid uncertainty about whether China's lackluster recovery from its deepest downturn since the 2008 global crisis is stalling.
Economic growth decelerated to 7.7 percent in the first quarter from 7.9 percent the previous quarter. May retail sales fell short of forecasts and export growth slowed. An HSBC Corp. survey of manufacturers showed June activity fell to a nine-month low and was contracting.
Tighter credit controls could cause growth to dip below 7 percent in coming quarters, according to Nomura economist Zhiwei Zhang. That would be China's weakest performance since the early 1990s.
Harder times for Chinese entrepreneurs could have global repercussions. China's slowdown already is depressing demand for iron ore, copper and other commodities, crimping the flood of money that drove a boom for Australia, Brazil and other suppliers. Demand for industrial components from Southeast Asia and factory equipment from the United States and Europe could be hurt if credit-starved manufacturers put off purchases.
The crackdown is part of a broader effort by communist leaders to shift China to slower, more sustainable growth based on domestic consumption after a decade of explosive expansion driven by exports, investment and cheap credit. The ruling party's growth target this year is 7.5 percent, down by almost half from 2007's staggering 14.2 percent.
"The episode is arguably the strongest sign yet that the leadership is willing to suffer short-term economic pain if necessary to achieve more sustainable growth," said Capital Economics analyst Mark Williams in a report.
A key goal appears to be to force banks to reduce their role in channeling money into unregulated, profitable and risky underground lending that is a pillar of support for entrepreneurs who cannot get formal loans from state banks.
Money for informal lending came at first from individuals who wanted a better return on their savings but much of it now comes from state banks. They hid the lending from regulators, who worry they have taken on undisclosed risks in the event of defaults.
Even before the credit squeeze, underground borrowers paid interest of up to 70 percent a year ? more than 10 times the benchmark rate for formal loans. Estimates of outstanding loans run as high as 4 trillion yuan ($650 billion), or as much as 7 percent of China's total credit.
Li, the entrepreneur in Wenzhou, said he borrowed from both state banks and informal lenders to expand his business. He said he paid 6 to 14 percent in annual interest for bank loans and up to 70 percent for underground loans.
"Is it possible to find any country whose interest rate is higher than China?" he said.
Communist leaders allowed informal lending to grow over the past decade to support entrepreneurs. But regulators began to worry after the 2008 global crisis when they found banks were putting their own money into informal lending, taking on unreported higher risks.
Money flowed to entrepreneurs to pay for equipment and raw materials but it also flooded into speculation in stocks and real estate. Regulators ordered banks to tighten lending standards but worried credit still was growing too fast.
The squeeze on China's credit markets hit after banks that quickly expanded lending this year tried to replenish their resources by borrowing from institutions that had more cash.
Analysts say bankers expected the People's Bank of China to inject extra money into that interbank market. But the central bank refused to play lender of last resort, causing a credit shortage. Interest paid by banks for an overnight loan spiked from the normal 2-3 percent to a record 13.4 percent. That ignited fears China might face a credit crisis and caused stock prices to tumble.
Some analysts said the central bank is partly to blame because it failed to make clear how tough its stance would be.
Its behavior was "extraordinarily reckless," said Williams in his report.
On Monday, the central bank blamed commercial lenders and told them to do a better job of forecasting funding needs. The official Xinhua News Agency accused banks of taking on extra risk by diverting money into speculation and unreported lending.
"It is not that there is no money but that the money is being put in the wrong place," Xinhua said in a commentary.
On Tuesday, the central bank eased off, promising "liquidity support" to banks that run short of cash.
Still, the central bank told commercial lenders again to cut back on risky practices, which will mean less credit for borrowers outside the circle of politically favored state companies.
"Small and medium-size business will take the pressure of this credit crunch, that is for sure," said Yin Jianfeng, deputy director of the finance research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank.
Many Chinese entrepreneurs have learned to live without credit. That has made them flexible and resilient but reformers say it has held back growth of private industry Beijing needs to encourage if China's growth is to stay strong.
Elsewhere in the financial system, regulators also are cracking down on other sources of financing.
Rural credit cooperatives have been ordered to review use of promisory notes, which are meant for small transactions but are being used by banks to hide loans, Caixin said this month. It said lending using promisory notes, which don't count against a bank's government-imposed credit limit, quadrupled last year to 1.2 trillion yuan ($200 billion).
The government is taking action in part because economic planners see diminishing returns from new investments.
Bank lending surged in the first three months of the year even as economic growth decelerated. Analysts said that suggested a big share of lending went to pay off other loans or trading stocks, real estate and other assets instead of industrial investment.
Total credit compared to annual economic output has risen by 50 percentage points to 210 percent since the 2008 global crisis, according to UBS economist Tao Wang.
The underground lending industry was battered by the slump in global demand in 2010. That caused a wave of business failures and defaults, prompting protests in some areas and making savers wary of lending.
Chinese leaders have promised repeatedly to have state banks lend more to the private sector. But most loans still go to state enterprises that have close ties with banks and influential officials. Entrepreneurs say it is no easier to get a loan.
The promise of more lending "is only an aspiration," said Yin, the CASS researcher. "If nothing changes in the system, the difficulty of financing the private sector will remain unresolved."
___
AP researchers Fu Ting in Shanghai and Flora Ji in Beijing contributed.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-entrepreneurs-brace-credit-crunch-060908656.html
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Advance in battle against wheat pest
27 June 2013
Last updated at 18:37 ET
Scientists have engineered wheat that is resistant to stem rust, a fungal disease that has ruined crops in Africa, Yemen and Iran.
The genetic advance raises the possibility of breeding wheat that is resistant to the fungus, researchers report in the journal Science.
Stem rust is regarded as a major threat to wheat, one of the world's most important cereal crops.
It is a fungal disease that appears as reddish blisters on wheat.
The blisters contain millions of spores, which infect the plant tissues, and disrupt the crop's ability to produce grain.
Ug99, which was discovered in Uganda in 1999, is a form of black stem rust that can wipe out whole harvests.
Continue reading the main story?Start Quote
End Quote Dr Cristobal Uauy John Innes CentreThe identification of these two genes from the wild relatives of wheat offers new possibilities to slow the spread of the Ug99 fungus and to deploy more sustainable resistance in farmers' fields?
About 90% of wheat grown around the world is susceptible to Ug99 and similar strains of the pest.
Experts predict it could spread rapidly through Africa and the Middle East, and possibly further afield, potentially causing an agricultural disaster that would affect global food security.?
In the latest research, two international groups of scientists, led by Dr Cyrille Saintenac of Kansas State University, US, and Dr Sambasivam Periyannan of CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra, Australia, investigated two previously identified genes associated with stem rust resistance.
They cloned parts of the gene of an ancient wheat crop (Sr33) that was common until the Bronze Age but is now rarely cultivated, and inserted it into modern wheat varieties.
They found wheat with this gene did not show susceptibility to stem rust.
A similar study on a second gene (Sr35), found in a wild plant related to wheat, showed that this gene also conferred limited resistance to the fungal disease, as well as related pests.
The scientists, from research teams in the US, China and Australia, say using biotechnology to develop wheat with both genes could slow the progression of Ug99 and avoid global wheat shortages.
Commenting on the study, Dr Cristobal Uauy of the department of crop genetics, John Innes Centre, Norwich, said the identification of the two genes provided a clear path to deploy resistance to the Ug99 fungus in the field, either through conventional means or biotechnological applications.
"The identification of these two genes from the wild relatives of wheat offers new possibilities to slow the spread of the Ug99 fungus and to deploy more sustainable resistance in farmers' fields," he said.
"This will lead to a deeper understanding of how plants fight back against the pathogen and allow scientist and breeders to establish new and more sustainable ways to defeat one of wheat's worst enemies."
Dr Brande Wulff of The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich added: "Resistance genes are typically overcome by the pathogen when deployed one at a time. However, the cloning of stem rust resistance genes allows the scientist to easily combine them.
"A stack of resistance genes with multiple resistance specificities should provide a more durable resistance to this devastating disease."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23084782#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
High court voids key part of Voting Rights Act
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act cannot be enforced unless Congress comes up with a new way of determining which states and localities require federal monitoring of elections.
The justices said in 5-4 vote that the law Congress most recently renewed in 2006 relies on 40-year-old data that does not reflect racial progress and changes in U.S. society.
The court did not strike down the advance approval requirement of the law that has been used, mainly in the South, to open up polling places to minority voters in the nearly half century since it was first enacted in 1965. But the justices did say lawmakers must update the formula for determining which parts of the country must seek Washington's approval, in advance, for election changes.
Chief Justice John Roberts said for the conservative majority that Congress "may draft another formula based on current conditions."
The decision comes five months after President Barack Obama, the nation's first black chief executive, started his second term in the White House, re-elected by a diverse coalition of voters.
The high court is in the midst of a broad re-examination of the ongoing necessity of laws and programs aimed at giving racial minorities access to major areas of American life from which they once were systematically excluded. The justices issued a modest ruling Monday that preserved affirmative action in higher education and will take on cases dealing with anti-discrimination sections of a federal housing law and another affirmative action case from Michigan next term.
The court warned of problems with the voting rights law in a similar case heard in 2009. The justices averted a major constitutional ruling at that time, but Congress did nothing to address the issues the court raised. The law's opponents, sensing its vulnerability, filed several new lawsuits.
The latest decision came in a challenge to the advance approval, or preclearance, requirement, which was brought by Shelby County, Ala., a Birmingham suburb.
The lawsuit acknowledged that the measure's strong medicine was appropriate and necessary to counteract decades of state-sponsored discrimination in voting, despite the Fifteenth Amendment's guarantee of the vote for black Americans.
But it asked whether there was any end in sight for a provision that intrudes on states' rights to conduct elections, an issue the court's conservative justices also explored at the argument in February. It was considered an emergency response when first enacted in 1965.
The county noted that the 25-year extension approved in 2006 would keep some places under Washington's oversight until 2031 and seemed not to account for changes that include the elimination of racial disparity in voter registration and turnout or the existence of allegations of race-based discrimination in voting in areas of the country that are not subject to the provision.
The Obama administration and civil rights groups said there is a continuing need for it and pointed to the Justice Department's efforts to block voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas last year, as well as a redistricting plan in Texas that a federal court found discriminated against the state's large and growing Hispanic population.
Advance approval was put into the law to give federal officials a potent tool to defeat persistent efforts to keep blacks from voting.
The provision was a huge success because it shifted the legal burden and required governments that were covered to demonstrate that their proposed changes would not discriminate. Congress periodically has renewed it over the years. The most recent extension was overwhelmingly approved by a Republican-led Congress and signed by President George W. Bush.
The requirement currently applies to the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. It also covers certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan. Coverage has been triggered by past discrimination not only against blacks, but also against American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaska Natives and Hispanics.
Towns in New Hampshire that had been covered by the law were freed from the advance approval requirement in March. Supporters of the provision pointed to the ability to bail out of the prior approval provision to argue that the law was flexible enough to accommodate change and that the court should leave the Voting Rights Act intact.
On Monday, the Justice Department announced an agreement that would allow Hanover County, Va., to bail out.
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Oil jumps after stocks cut into big losses
The price of oil had a sudden burst Monday after the stock market tried to put the brakes on a four-day skid.
Benchmark oil for August delivery rose $1.49 to close at $95.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil sank by $4.55 a barrel, or 4.7 percent, on Thursday and Friday after the Federal Reserve spooked investors by signaling the end of a bond-buying program that has boosted the economy.
Oil fell initially Monday because of growing worries that China's decision to clamp down on informal lending could hamper growth in a major energy consuming country. Oil dropped as low as $92.67 a barrel.
Once stocks clawed back from their lowest levels of the day, oil moved higher, gaining nearly $2 a barrel in two hours. The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 250 points in the first half-hour of trading Monday, then finished with a loss of 140 points.
There is better news at the gas pump, where many U.S. drivers are paying less to fill up. The national average for a gallon of gas dropped 4 cents in the past week to $3.57. States where prices had spiked because of refinery outages realized significant relief. The average price in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin fell more than 20 cents a gallon compared with the previous Monday.
Prices are going the other way in California. The average price rose to $4.07 a gallon from $3.98 a week ago.
Brent crude, which is used to price oil used by many U.S. refineries to make gasoline, rose 25 cents to finish at $101.16 a barrel.
In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:
? Wholesale gasoline lost 2 cents to end at $2.74 a gallon.
? Heating oil rose 1 cent to finish at $2.85 per gallon.
? Natural gas slipped 3 cents to finish at $3.74 per 1,000 cubic feet.
___
Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-jumps-stocks-cut-big-losses-190549353.html
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Saturday, June 22, 2013
Vine for Android adds Facebook sharing, searches for hashtags and users
Twitter isn't about to let Video on Instagram go completely unanswered -- it just posted an update to Vine for Android that could offer a few reasons to stay with the earlier service. Short-form movie makers on Android now have more of the features we've seen on iOS, including Facebook sharing as well as searches for hashtags and users. The release also smooths out the rough experience that has characterized the Android experience since launch, boosting both capture speeds and the final video quality. The app may still fall short of the newer Instagram release in a few areas, but those who prefer Vine's approach can grab its refresh at Google Play.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Facebook
Via: Vine (Twitter)
Source: Google Play
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/99o_JaoYngY/
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Wednesday, June 19, 2013
A star rises
SANDY, Utah ??Feel free to ask yourself at this point: where would the United States be in World Cup qualifying without Jozy Altidore?
Probably in OK shape. Possibly even in good shape. But probably not in out-of-this-world, super-model shape.
The man has scored in four consecutive matches, hitting important goals in each one, like the first goal in that game-changing win over Jamaica two weeks back.
And, of course, it was the Alkmaar man to the rescue once again on Tuesday at Rio Tinto Stadium, where the United States needed most of the match to finally break through against a well-drilled, well-positioned and very stubborn visitor.
As I said in the player ratings from Tuesday, there wasn?t much room between Honduran goalkeeper Noel Valladares and the far post on the young striker?s latest massive goal. That was yet another quality finish in a big string of them, not surprising considering Altidore did it 31 times for his Dutch club over the last 10 months.
It really is in stark contrast to the previous months, when Altidore just could not shake a scoreless skid that stretched to 22 matches with the national team.
?To be honest, I wasn?t really worried by it at all,? he said, breaking a self-imposed media silence. ?Last cycle, I was there for the team. If we continue to create chances and continue to be aggressive, we?re always going to be successful.?
Altidore has scored in four consecutive American matches, quite the rarity around U.S. Soccer. In fact, only five other United States players have struck in a consecutive foursome. He joins William Looby (from way back in the day), Eric Wynalda, Brian McBride, Eddie Johnson and Landon Donovan (who did it twice).
(MORE: What we learned from the U.S. win Tuesday)
It all started with that expertly struck goal against Germany, and now Altidore has scored in three consecutive qualifiers, leaving the United States in such enviable position heading into three months of down time before final stage qualifying in the region resumes.
U.S. manager Jurgen Klinsmann said it isn?t just the goals that mean so much to the team right now.
?All the work that he does for the team is so important, how he does the high pressure that we would like to play,? Klinsmann said. ?The way he chases down defenders and wins balls back for us. All that energy is very important for the team.?
But a lot of men could do the work; it?s never hard to find a grinder. A grinder who can score? That man is worth his weight in Brazilian World Cup gold.
We can analyze the heck out of these games, banging on about creative influences and formations and why things do or don?t work. But in so many ways, it comes down to having one confident goal-getter who is reliably pushing balls past opposing goalkeepers. That?s Altidore at the moment ? and it means so very much in this ongoing drive for Brazil 2014.
Altidore attempted to keep the comments centered around the team.
?I think for everybody, the results speak for themselves,? he said. ?I think everybody was so comfortable with each other. I mean just from the back, less long balls. Everybody tried to play more controlled balls. We tried to find a solution and that was huge because it gave us the goal.?
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Chivas USA youth player Chaves dies
Associated Press Sports
updated 1:04 a.m. ET June 19, 2013
CARSON, Calif. (AP) - Julio Chavez, a defender and captain of Chivas USA's Under-18 team, has died in an auto accident. He was 19.
Chavez was killed on Monday night in Modesto, Calif., his hometown, the team said.
He attended the team's youth academy for three years.
Chavez, a native of Modesto, graduated from Birmingham High School in 2012, earning a scholarship to attend the Cal State-LA.
Chavez is survived by his parents Francisco and Isabel Chavez, and four siblings: Francisco, Claudia, Rafael and Cecilia.
Chivas USA will honor the player's life by wearing a black armband with his name and number on it and hosting a moment of silence before the match against the LA Galaxy on Sunday.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsAFP - Getty ImagesAll signs point to Brazil
PST: Jozy Altidore scored in a fourth straight game and the United States beat Honduras in World Cup qualifying to stay atop the group.
AFP/Getty ImagesSource: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/52248503/ns/sports-soccer/
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Yahoo discloses US government data request stats: over 12,000 in six months
Yahoo has just revealed just how many government requests for data it's received in the past six months, and it's beaten out Apple, Microsoft and Facebook. Marissa Mayer and General Counsel Ron Bell noted in a Tumblr post that the search giant received between 12,000 and 13,000 requests, "inclusive of criminal, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and other requests," between December 1st, 2012 and May 31st, 2013. According to Mayer and Bell, the majority of requests relate to "fraud, homicides, kidnappings, and other criminal investigations." Naturally, Yahoo notes that it can't specify how many FISA requests are in that figure due to their classified nature, but it "strongly urge(s) the federal government to reconsider its stance on this issue."
Mayer and Co. also announced that their first "global law enforcement transparency report" will debut later in the summer, and will include data on the first half of 2013. It's not a one-time occurrence either -- the firm plans to update the dossier twice each year.
Source: Yahoo (Tumblr)
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/l14lV205rZM/
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Sunday, June 16, 2013
Some Random Shit You Can Ask Glass
Do you have Glass? I don't. But here are 20 random things you can ask Glass to search for.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/some-random-shit-you-can-ask-glass-513467560
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Dramatic loss in snowfall for Los Angeles-area mountains predicted
June 14, 2013 ? By midcentury, snowfall on Los Angeles-area mountains will be 30 to 40 percent less than it was at the end of the 20th century, according to a UCLA study released today and led by UCLA climate expert Alex Hall.
The projected snow loss, a result of climate change, could get even worse by the end of the 21st century, depending on how the world reacts. Sustained action to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions could keep annual average snowfall levels steady after mid-century, but if emissions continue unabated, the study predicts that snowfall in Southern California mountains will be two-thirds less by the year 2100 than it was in the years leading up to 2000.
"Climate change has become inevitable, and we're going to lose a substantial amount of snow by midcentury," said Hall, a professor in UCLA's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. "But our choices matter. By the end of the century, there will be stark differences in how much snowfall remains, depending on whether we begin to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions."
"This science is clear and compelling: Los Angeles must begin today to prepare for climate change," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "We invested in this study and created the AdaptLA framework to craft innovative solutions and preserve our quality of life for the next generation of Angelenos."
Less snowfall in general and a complete loss of snow at some lower elevations doesn't just have implications for snow enthusiasts who enjoy skiing and sledding in the local mountains; it also could mean sizeable economic losses for snow-dependent businesses and communities. Less snow could also mean changes in the seasonal timing of local water resources, greater difficulty controlling floods, and damage to mountain and river ecosystems.
The impact to actual snow on the ground may be even greater because the researchers quantified snowfall but not snow melt, said Hall, whose previous research found the region will warm 4 to 5 degrees by midcentury. By then, researchers estimate, the snowpack could melt an average of 16 days sooner than it did in 2000. "We won't reach the 32-degree threshold for snow as often, so a greater percentage of precipitation will fall as rain instead of snow, particularly at lower elevations," Hall said. "Increased flooding is possible from the more frequent rains, and springtime runoff from melting snowpack will happen sooner."
"As a California resident, I spend my winters snowboarding in mountains throughout our amazing state," said Jeremy Jones, founder of Protect Our Winters, an environmental nonprofit composed of winter sports enthusiasts. "It breaks my heart to see America's great natural resources harmed by climate change. We must, immediately, begin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There is no choice."
The UCLA study, "Mid- and End-of-Century Snowfall in the Los Angeles Region," is the most detailed research yet examining how climate change will affect snowfall in the Southern California mountains. The report was produced by UCLA with funding from the city of Los Angeles, and in partnership with the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
The study examined snowfall in the San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, San Emigdio/Tehachapi Mountains and San Jacinto Mountains. The research team scaled down low-resolution global climate models to create high-resolution models with data specific to towns such as Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear, Wrightwood and Idyllwild. Hall's team included UCLA researchers Fengpeng Sun and Scott Capps, graduate student Daniel Walton and research associate Katharine Davis Reich.
The researchers used baseline snowfall amounts from 1981 to 2000 and predicted snow amounts for midcentury (2041 to 2060) and the end of the century (2081 to 2100) under a "business as usual" scenario, in which greenhouse gas emissions increase unchecked, and a "mitigation" scenario, in which the world significantly reduces emissions. By the end of the century, the contrast between the scenarios would be dramatic. In the mitigation scenario, midcentury snow levels would be 31 percent lower than baseline, but would remain relatively steady at only 33 percent below baseline by the end of the century.
In the business-as-usual scenario, 42 percent of the snow is expected to disappear by mid-century before dwindling dramatically to a 67 percent loss of snow by the end of the century.
"The mountains won't receive nearly as much snow as they used to, and the snow they do get will not last as long," Hall said.
The snowfall study is the second part of UCLA's ongoing research project, "Climate Change in the Los Angeles Region." Through the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability, the city of Los Angeles obtained a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study and share climate research, with $484,166 for UCLA's climate-change studies. Additional funding came from the National Science Foundation. Future studies will cover other elements of climate change including precipitation, Santa Ana winds, soil moisture and streamflow.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ubwy6bpnVuc/130614125649.htm
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