The Chief Content Officer of streaming giant Netflix claims the modern trend for easily streaming legal content is impacting on the more hardcore Bittorrent scene, with pirate traffic dropping in countries when Netflix switches on its servers.
     |
terminator salvation terminator salvation jarhead montrose marshawn lynch earthquake bay area deron williams
| |
adam sandler College Football Scoreboard nfl scores nfl scores Devon Walker Tom Cruise ryan reynolds
An international study used tree rings and pollen to build the first?record of global climate change, continent by continent, over 2,000 years.
Emperor penguins walk across sea ice near Ross Island, Antarctica, in this 2012 photo released by Thomas Beer. The continent's pristine habitat provides a laboratory for scientists studying the effects of climate change.
Courtesy Thomas Beer/AP/File
EnlargeA reconstruction of 2,000 years of global temperatures shows that a long-term decline in Earth's temperatures ended abruptly about 1900, replaced by a warming trend that has continued despite the persistence into the 20th century of the factors driving the cooling, according to a new study.
Skip to next paragraph' +
google_ads[0].line2 + '
' +
google_ads[0].line3 + '
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
Indeed, for several continents, the increase in global average temperatures from the 19th century to the 20th was the highest century-to-century increase during the 2,000-year span, the study indicates. It's the first study to attempt building a millennial-scale climate history, continent by continent.
The research wasn't designed to identify the cause of the warming trend, which climate researchers say has been triggered by a buildup of greenhouse gases ? mainly carbon dioxide ? as humans burned increasing amounts of fossil fuel and altered the landscape in ways that released CO2.
Still, it's hard to explain 20th-century warming without including the influence of rising CO2 levels, because the factors driving the cooling were still present, notes Darrell Kaufman, a researcher at Northern Arizona University and one of the lead authors on the paper formally reporting the results in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The study, five years in the making, drew on the work of 87 scientists in 24 countries as part of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program. One goal of the 27-year-old program is to gain a deeper understanding of Earth's climate history and the factors that contribute to climate variability.
The study used nature's proxies for thermometers ? tree rings, pollen, and other natural temperature indicators ? to build continent by continent a coordinated record of temperature changes during the past two millenniums.
Scientists use this proxy approach to reach further into the climate's temperature history than the relatively short thermometer record allows. Such efforts aim to put today's climate into a deeper historical context as well as to identify the duration and possible triggers for natural swings that the climate undergoes over a variety of time scales.
Last March, for instance, a team led by Shaun Marcott at Oregon State University used climate proxies to build a global temperature record reaching back 1,200 years ? one that also noted the pre-1900 cooling trend.
Until now, however, the proxy approach has been used to reconstruct changes in global-average and hemisphere-wide temperatures, Dr. Kaufman explains.
"There was very little information about past climate variability at the regional scale," he says. Yet the team notes that no one lives in a global-average world. People live in specific regions where geography plays a vital role in shaping the climate patterns they experience.
hoosiers temperance world bank kim kardashian flour bomb hunger games box office xavier joan crawford
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://www.stargazette.com/article/20130214/BUSINESS/302140110/1109/
London 2012 closing ceremony Shark Week 2012 evelyn lozada UFC 150 Caster Semenya Medal Count 2012 Olympics victoria beckham
IRVING, Texas (AP) ? Faced with intense pressure from two flanks, the Boy Scouts of America said Wednesday it needed more time for consultations before deciding whether to move away from its divisive policy of excluding gays as scouts or adult leaders.
Possible changes in the policy ? such as a proposal to allow sponsors of local troops to decide for themselves on gay membership ? will not be voted on until the organization's annual meeting in May, the national executive board said at the conclusion of closed-door deliberations.
As the board met over three days at a hotel in Irving, near Dallas, it became clear that the proposed change would be unacceptable to large numbers of Scouting families and advocacy groups on the left and right. Gay-rights supporters said no Scout units should be allowed to exclude gays, while some conservatives, including religious leaders whose churches sponsor troops, warned of mass defections if the ban were eased.
"In the past two weeks, Scouting has received an outpouring of feedback from the American public," said the BSA's national spokesman, Deron Smith. "It reinforces how deeply people care about Scouting and how passionate they are about the organization."
Smith said the executive board "concluded that due to the complexity of this issue, the organization needs time for a more deliberate review of its membership policy." The board will prepare a resolution to be voted on by the 1,400 voting members of the national council at a meeting in Grapevine, Texas, he said.
The BSA announced last week it was considering allowing scout troops to decide whether to allow gay membership. That news placed a spotlight on the executive board meeting that began Monday in Irving, where the BSA headquarters is located, but the deliberations were closed to the news media and the public.
Early reaction to the delay from gay-rights supporters was harshly critical of the BSA.
"A Scout is supposed to be brave, and the Boy Scouts failed to be brave today," said Jennifer Tyrrell, an Ohio mother ousted from her post as a Cub Scout volunteer because she's a lesbian. "The Boy Scouts had the chance to help countless young people and devoted parents, but they've failed us yet again."
Brad Hankins, campaign director of Scouts for Equality, said the delay would have a direct impact on young men already in the scouting movement.
"By postponing this decision, thousands of currently active Scouts still remain uncertain about their future in the program and are shamed into silence. We understand that this change is a huge paradigm shift for some, but this isn't a religious issue. It's simply one of human morality, and that is something common to all faiths."
About 70 percent of all Scout units are sponsored by religious denominations, including many by conservative faiths that have supported the ban, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Mormons' Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Michael Purdy, a Mormon church spokesman, said the BSA "acted wisely in delaying its decision until all voices can be heard on this important moral issue."
The National Catholic Committee on Scouting said it would join in the BSA's consultations over the coming months. Whatever the outcome, the committee said, "Catholic chartered units will continue to provide leaders who promote and live Catholic values."
Meanwhile, hundreds of conservative supporters of the ban held a rally and prayer vigil at the BSA headquarters, carrying signs that read, "Don't Invite Sin Into the Camp" and "BSA please resist Satan's test. Uphold the ban."
Scoutmaster Darrel Russell, of Weatherford, took his wife and five of their seven children to the rally. Russell said having gays in the scouting movement would be like mixing boys and girls.
"The whole idea is to protect our boys at all costs," Russell said, warning that if the ban is lifted "we're shutting down our troop."
President Barack Obama, an opponent of the policy, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, an Eagle Scout who supports it, both have weighed in.
"My attitude is that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does in every institution and walk of life," Obama said Sunday in an interview with CBS. As U.S. president, he is the honorary president of the BSA.
Perry, author of the book "On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For," said in a speech Saturday that "to have popular culture impact 100 years of their standards is inappropriate."
The board faces several choices, none of which is likely to quell the controversy. Standing pat would go against the public wishes of two high-profile board members ? Ernst & Young CEO James Turley and AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson ? who run companies with nondiscrimination policies and have said they would work from within to change the Scouts' policy.
Conservatives have warned of mass defections if Scouting allows gay membership to be determined by troops. Local and regional leaders, as well as the leadership of churches that sponsor troops, would be forced to consider their own policies. And policy opponents who delivered four boxes of signatures to BSA headquarters Monday said they wouldn't be satisfied by only a partial acceptance of gay scouts and leaders.
"We don't want to see Scouting gerrymandered into blue and red districts," said Brad Hankins, campaign director of Scouts for Equality.
Nancy Deveau, of Mansfield, accompanied her 10-year-old son, wearing his scout's uniform, to the rally at scouting HQ. She said she doesn't want Scout leaders to drop the ban.
"We wanted to pray for our Boy Scout leaders to keep our values," she said.
___
Crary reported from New York City.
___
Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Irving, Texas, and Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boy-scouts-delay-decision-admitting-gays-153238089.html
the raven zerg rush david wilson playstation all stars battle royale kim zolciak kim zolciak travis pastrana
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Wednesday will nominate business executive Sally Jewell to lead the Interior Department, an administration official said.
Jewell is the president and chief executive officer at the outdoors company Recreational Equipment, Inc., known as REI, which sells clothing and gear for outdoor adventures with more than 100 stores across the country. Before joining REI in 2000, Jewell worked in commercial banking and as an engineer for Mobil Oil Corp. She took the top post at REI in 2005.
If confirmed, Jewell would replace current Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who held the post throughout Obama's first term. Salazar announced last month that he would step down in March.
Jewell is the first woman in Obama's crop of second-term Cabinet nominees. The White House faced criticism that the new Cabinet lacked diversity after Obama tapped a string of white men for top posts, but Obama promised more diverse nominees were in the queue for other jobs.
Jewell's confirmation would also put a prominent representative from the business community in the president's Cabinet. REI is a $2 billion-a-year company and has been named by Fortune Magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for.
Obama was to announce Jewell's nomination during a ceremony in the White House State Dining Room Wednesday afternoon, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to confirm Jewell's nomination ahead of the president.
Jewell has earned national recognition for her management skills and support for outdoor recreation and habitat conservation
In 2011 she introduced Obama at a White House conference on the "America's Great Outdoors" initiative, noting that the $289 billion outdoor-recreation industry supports 6.5 million jobs.
Under Salazar, the Interior Department pushed renewable power such as solar and wind and oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The moratorium was lifted in October 2010, although offshore drilling operations did not begin for several more months.
The Interior Department manages millions of acres in national parks and forests, overseeing energy and mining operations on some of the government-owned land.
Jewell's nomination was hailed by conservation and business groups alike.
Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune called Jewell a champion in the effort to connect children with nature and said she has "a demonstrated commitment to preserving the higher purposes public lands hold for all Americans ? recreation, adventure, and enjoyment.
The Western Energy Alliance, which represents the oil and natural gas industry in the West, also welcomed Jewell's nomination.
"Her experience as a petroleum engineer and business leader will bring a unique perspective to an office that is key to our nation's energy portfolio," said Tim Wigley, the group's president.
Wigley said his group hopes Jewell will work develop oil and gas on non-park, non-wilderness public lands.
Jewell's appointment comes as Democrats and environmental groups are urging Obama to step up efforts to conserve public lands in his second term.
Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said Tuesday that Obama should adopt a principle in which every acre of public land that is leased to the oil and gas industry is matched by an acre permanently protected for conservation or recreation.
Over the past four years, more than 6 million acres of public lands have been leased for oil and gas, compared with 2.6 million acres permanently protected, according to U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/official-outdoor-retail-exec-picked-interior-160413428--politics.html
fabrice muamba collapse prometheus trailer patrice oneal shamrock slainte the quiet man yellow cab
