In 2012, 19 billion chat messages were sent each day across the world?compared to just 17.6 billion SMS messages.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/in-2012-19-billion-chat-messages-were-sent-each-day-ac-484243111
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As temperatures warm, plants release gases that help form clouds and cool the atmosphere, according to research from IIASA and the University of Helsinki.
The new study, published in Nature Geoscience, identified a negative feedback loop in which higher temperatures lead to an increase in concentrations of natural aerosols that have a cooling effect on the atmosphere.
"Plants, by reacting to changes in temperature, also moderate these changes," says IIASA and University of Helsinki researcher Pauli Paasonen, who led the study.
Scientists had known that some aerosols ? particles that float in the atmosphere ? cool the climate as they reflect sunlight and form cloud droplets, which reflect sunlight efficiently. Aerosol particles come from many sources, including human emissions. But the effect of so-called biogenic aerosol ? particulate matter that originates from plants ? had been less well understood. Plants release gases that, after atmospheric oxidation, tend to stick to aerosol particles, growing them into the larger-sized particles that reflect sunlight and also serve as the basis for cloud droplets. The new study showed that as temperatures warm and plants consequently release more of these gases, the concentrations of particles active in cloud formation increase.
"Everyone knows the scent of the forest," says Ari Asmi, University of Helsinki researcher who also worked on the study. "That scent is made up of these gases." While previous research had predicted the feedback effect, until now nobody had been able to prove its existence except for case studies limited to single sites and short time periods. The new study showed that the effect occurs over the long-term in continental size scales.
The effect of enhanced plant gas emissions on climate is small on a global scale ? only countering approximately 1 percent of climate warming, the study suggested. "This does not save us from climate warming," says Paasonen. However, he says, "Aerosol effects on climate are one of the main uncertainties in climate models. Understanding this mechanism could help us reduce those uncertainties and make the models better."
The study also showed that the effect was much larger on a regional scale, counteracting possibly up to 30% of warming in more rural, forested areas where anthropogenic emissions of aerosols were much lower in comparison to the natural aerosols. That means that especially in places like Finland, Siberia, and Canada this feedback loop may reduce warming substantially.
The researchers collected data at 11 different sites around the world, measuring the concentrations of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, along with the concentrations of plant gases, the temperature, and reanalysis estimates for the height of the boundary layer, which turned out to be a key variable. The boundary layer refers to the layer of air closest to the Earth, in which gases and particles mix effectively. The height of that layer changes with weather. Paasonen says, "One of the reasons that this phenomenon was not discovered earlier was because these estimates for boundary layer height are very difficult to do. Only recently have the reanalysis estimates been improved to where they can be taken as representative of reality."
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International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis: http://www.iiasa.ac.at
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127976/Plants_moderate_climate_warming
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By Robbie Ward
TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - A Mississippi martial arts instructor appeared in federal court on Monday to face charges in connection with mailing letters containing the deadly poison ricin to President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials.
Everett Dutschke, 41, was arrested on Saturday in Tupelo, Mississippi, after authorities searched his former business and home. He is charged with developing and possessing ricin and attempting to use it as a weapon.
Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, Dutschke responded briefly to a judge's questions at the hearing in Oxford, Mississippi, on whether he understood the charges against him. The judge ordered a preliminary hearing be held on Thursday when prosecutors will present more detailed evidence in the case.
An indictment detailing the charges is under seal but could be made public later on Monday, said George Lucas, Dutschke's court appointed attorney.
Dutschke has denied having any involvement with the ricin letters and said he cooperated with federal officials during their searches.
He faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
Dutschke's arrest came nearly two weeks after suspicious letters intended for Obama and U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi were intercepted in Washington. Tests showed they were tainted with ricin, a highly lethal poison made from castor beans. A separate ricin-lased letter was also sent to a Mississippi judge.
Authorities initially arrested another Mississippi man, Kevin Curtis, in the case but dropped the charges last week after a search of his house failed to turn up any evidence of his involvement.
Dutschke's name surfaced at a court hearing when Curtis' attorney suggested someone framed her client and mentioned a running feud between the two men.
He also faces charges in a separate case related to an April 1 indictment for fondling three children between ages 7 and 16, from 2007 to 2013, according to court records.
The ricin-tainted letters were discovered just days after the bombings of the Boston Marathon and during the massive police manhunt for those responsible, helping to fuel anxiety in the United States, especially in the capital.
The case rekindled memories of the 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks that killed five people and puzzled investigators for years. The Justice Department later said that a U.S. scientist who committed suicide was responsible.
(Additional reporting by Kevin Gray in Miami.; Editing by David Adams and Andrew Hay)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mississippi-man-appear-federal-court-ricin-letters-case-100352159.html
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) ? A Mississippi man whose home and business were searched as part of an investigation into poisoned letters sent to the president and others has been arrested in the case, according to the FBI.
Everett Dutschke, 41, was arrested about 12:50 a.m. Saturday at his Tupelo home in connection with the letters, FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden said. The letters, which tests showed were tainted with ricin, were sent April 8 to President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and earlier to an 80-year-old Mississippi judge, Sadie Holland.
Madden said FBI special agents arrested Dutschke (pronounced DUHS'-kee) without incident. She said additional questions should be directed to the U.S. attorney's office. The office in Oxford did not immediately respond to messages Saturday.
Dutschke's attorney, Lori Nail Basham, said Saturday in a text message that "the authorities have confirmed Mr. Dutschke's arrest. We have no comment at this time." Basham also said via text that she didn't know what the charges against Dutschke were.
Basham said earlier this week that Dutschke was "cooperating fully" with investigators. Dutschke has insisted he had nothing to do with the letters.
Ryan Taylor, a spokesman for Wicker, said Saturday that "because the investigation is still ongoing, we're not able to comment."
Charges in the case were initially filed against an Elvis impersonator but then dropped. Attention then turned to Dutschke, who has ties to the former suspect, the judge and the senator. Earlier in the week, as investigators searched his primary residence in Tupelo, Dutschke told The Associated Press, "I don't know how much more of this I can take."
"I'm a patriotic American. I don't have any grudges against anybody. ... I did not send the letters," Dutschke said.
Charges initially were filed last week against Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, the Elvis impersonator, but then dropped after authorities said they had discovered new information. Curtis' lawyers say he was framed.
Curtis' attorney, Christi McCoy, said Saturday: "We are relieved but also saddened. This crime is nothing short of diabolical. I have seen a lot of meanness in the past two decades, but this stops me in my tracks. "
Dutschke and Curtis were acquainted. Curtis said they had talked about possibly publishing a book on an alleged conspiracy to sell body parts on a black market. But he said they later had a feud.
Judge Holland is a common link between the two men who have been investigated, and both know Wicker.
Holland was the presiding judge in a 2004 case in which Curtis was accused of assaulting a Tupelo attorney a year earlier. Holland sentenced him to six months in the county jail. He served only part of the sentence, according to his brother.
Holland's family has had political skirmishes with Dutschke. Her son, Steve Holland, a Democratic state representative, said he thinks his mother's only other encounter with Dutschke was at a rally in the town of Verona in 2007, when Dutschke ran as a Republican against Steve Holland
Holland said his mother confronted Dutschke after he made a derogatory speech about the Holland family. She demanded that he apologize, which Holland says he did.
On Saturday, Steve Holland said he can't say for certain that Dutschke is the person who sent the letter to his mother but added, "I feel confident the FBI knows what they are doing."
"We're ready for this long nightmare to be over," Holland told The Associated Press.
He said he's not sure why someone would target his mother. Holland said he believes Dutschke would have more reason to target him than his mother.
"Maybe he thinks the best way to get to me is to get to the love of my life, which is my mother," Holland said Saturday.
___
Associated Press writer Jack Elliott Jr. in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-miss-man-arrested-suspicious-letters-case-151339370.html
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PARIS (AP) ? The sounds of raucous protest echo in the Presidential Palace, unemployment is rising to levels not seen in over a decade, and his country's economy has been called a potential time bomb at the heart of Europe.
Francois Hollande, among the most unpopular French leaders in modern history, remains calm.
Lacking the early-career charisma of President Barack Obama or the hard-nosed reputation of Germany's Angela Merkel, Hollande rose to power in the Socialist Party as a consensus-builder ? someone who went out of his way to avoid confrontation. But the amiability that propelled him to the presidency a year ago is turning against Hollande, as poll after poll finds deep disappointment among many who believe he is incapable of the swift, determined choices needed to yank France out of a malaise he himself says threatens generations to come.
"I remain solid and serene," Holland told a handful of journalists in his office at the Presidential Palace, above the shouts of a crowd demonstrating against his plan to legalize gay marriage. Without camouflaging the difficulties, he admitted it's been a trying year. "I grasp the seriousness ? it's the task of the president to remain steady and to see further than the storms of a moment. It's called perseverance."
Judgment, he said in the interview earlier this month, will come only at the end of his five-year term.
But, seated comfortably in his office armchair, Hollande insisted he was anything but indecisive.
"My will is to pull the country together and restore its confidence. This will take time, but I have no other goal," he said. "You can criticize my decisions, think that I'm on the wrong path, say I'm foundering, but if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I've made major choices for France in the past year."
He cited the accord reached in January between unions and business leaders to relax some of France's famously strict labor protections. Hollande had championed the agreement, saying the costs and difficulties of hiring in France were hurting its ability to compete globally. But unemployment has only risen since then, and the brief optimism generated by the agreement ? which is expected to become law by next month ? has since faded. This week, it reached 10.6 percent, the highest level since 1999.
Hollande talks a lot about the French intervention in Mali, by far his most popular act in office. But, despite Hollande's best efforts, France was alone among European countries in sending soldiers, and French forces outnumbered any Africans sent to win Mali back from the militants who threatened to seize the entire country.
"I became president at an exceptional time," said Hollande, who tends to speak deliberately and formally even in relaxed settings. "Exceptional on the economic front: a long crisis, a recession in Europe, unemployment at historic levels. Exceptional because I was forced to engage France in Mali. Exceptional because populism is taking hold, not just in France, but throughout Europe."
Bernard Poignant, a Socialist who is Hollande's friend of 30 years and also one of his advisors, said the president started his term at a hugely difficult moment for his leftist base.
"Traditionally the left, when it comes to power, is generous, redistributive of wealth," he said. "Today, it's the reverse. The right emptied the coffers and now the left must fill them."
Economists say that France's predicament stems neither from the country's right or left, but from generations of benefits that few politicians are willing to take away. Hollande's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, only half-heartedly tried to raise the work week from 35 hours, then pulled back even before strong opposition emerged.
Hollande cautiously broached the idea of pulling back some of the subsidies that now go to all parents of young children, exempting families who earn high incomes. But the 35-hour work week remains in place, as does the retirement age of 62. Health care remains universal and nearly all treatments are reimbursed at least partially. Hollande has said he will not thin the ranks of government employees. France will remain among the countries with the highest percentage of public workers in the world ? about 20 percent of the workforce gets a government paycheck and a government pension.
Hollande was elected as "president normal," an unassuming contrast to Sarkozy's flashy, aggressive style, and his dramatic divorce and marriage to the model and singer Carla Bruni. But a year into his term, his amiability has managed to turn most of the country against him, even within his own camp. Numerous Socialist lawmakers are openly speaking against him, for example, for demanding they publish their assets.
The president appears to relish simple, easy contact with the French. He can spend hours happily shaking hands, telling stories, joking. But those moments are becoming increasingly rare.
"He is consumed by his responsibilities, too consumed, in my opinion," said Poignant. "The political climate is such that the president is becoming the target of protests. We have to protect him for security reasons: It is very difficult for him to be close to the French."
Only about one in four French approve of the job Hollande is doing, lower than either of his conservative predecessors.
He says he is willing to wait for that to change, describing his five-year term in two phases: things will be very difficult in the first phase, then a return to growth and the Socialist preference toward more government spending. His advisors ? and most economists ? say privately they don't expect much good news for France before 2015.
"The French have always turned to the president. He is accountable to them, and that's as it should be. My actions are measured at this particular moment in our country's history," he said. "I remain in control of myself, confident in what I think."
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By Serajul Quadir and Ruma Paul
DHAKA (Reuters) - At least 175 mainly women workers were killed in a Bangladesh building collapse and rescuers searching for survivors said on Thursday that many more were trapped in the rubble of a complex that housed factories supplying Western clothes retailers.
The disaster, which comes five months after a factory fire that killed more than 100 people, could hurt Bangladesh's reputation as a source of low-cost goods and call attention to European and North American companies that buy products there.
Rescue workers were digging through the wreckage of the eight-storey Rana Plaza building in Savar, 30 km (20 miles) outside the capital Dhaka, which collapsed on Wednesday. More than 1,000 people were injured.
"The death toll could go up as many are still trapped under the rubble," Dhaka's district police chief, Habibur Rahman, told Reuters.
Dhaka city development authority on Thursday filed a case against the building's owner for faulty construction. It filed another case against the owner and the five garments factories for causing unlawful death, police chief Rahman said.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Mohammad Atiqul Islam said there were 3,122 workers in the factories on Wednesday. He said there had been indications from local officials that cracks had been found in the building the day before.
"We asked the garment owners to keep it closed," Islam said.
Rana Plaza's owner had told proprietors of the building's five garment factories that the cracks were not dangerous, Islam added. "After getting the green signal from the plaza owner all the garment factories opened," he said.
However, police official Mohammad Asaduzzaman said factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning not to allow their workers into the building after a crack was detected on Tuesday.
News reports beamed around the world showed young women workers, some apparently semi-conscious, being pulled out of the rubble by firefighters and troops. Doctors at Dhaka hospitals said they couldn't cope with the number of victims.
"I was at work on the third floor, and then suddenly I heard a deafening sound, but couldn't understand what was happening. I ran and was hit by something on my head," said factory worker Zohra Begum.
BUILDING FIRES, COLLAPSE
The Rana Plaza building collapse follows a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory on the outskirts of Dhaka that killed 112 people in November and another incident at a factory in January in which seven people died, compounding concerns about worker safety and low wages in Bangladesh.
UK clothing retailer Primark, which has 257 stores across Europe and is a unit of Associated British Foods, confirmed that one of its suppliers occupied the second floor of the building.
"The company is shocked and deeply saddened by this appalling incident at Savar, near Dhaka, and expresses its condolences to all of those involved," Primark said in a statement on it's Ethical Trading website.
Canada's Loblaw, a unit of food processing and distribution firm George Weston Ltd, also confirmed a connection with the building. It said one factory made a small number of "Joe Fresh" apparel items for the company.
"We are extremely saddened to learn of the collapse of a building complex in Bangladesh and our condolences go out to those affected by this tragedy," Julija Hunter, public relations vice-president for Loblaw Companies, said in an email.
Both companies operate codes of conduct aimed at ensuring products are made in good working conditions.
Documents including order sheets and cutting plans obtained by Reuters appeared to show that other major clothing brands such as Spain's Mango and Benetton had used suppliers in the building in recent months. A Benetton spokesman said none of the factories were suppliers to the company.
About 3.6 million people work in Bangladesh's garment industry, making it the world's second-largest apparel exporter.
Following the Tazreen fire, giant U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it would take steps to alleviate safety concerns, while Gap Inc. announced a four-step fire-safety program.
"Still we are struggling to overcome the odds after the Tazreen fire, now another incident which is a strong blow for the sector," BGMEA's Islam said.
However, Edward Hertzman, a sourcing agent based in New York who also publishes trade magazine Sourcing Journal, said pressure from U.S. retailers to keep a lid on costs continues to foster unsafe conditions.
Hertzman, whose trade publication has offices in Bangladesh, said New Wave Bottoms Ltd occupied the second floor, Phantom Apparels Ltd the third, Phantom Tack Ltd the fourth and Ethar Textile Ltd the fifth.
The New Wave website listed 27 main buyers, including firms from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Canada and the United States.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Biraj in Bangalore, Jessica Wohl and Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago, and Solarina Ho in Toronto; Writing by John Chalmers and Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Paul Tait and Alex Richardson)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-bangladesh-building-collapse-rises-147-015232779.html
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