Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/taylor-swift-to-ex-boyfriends-bring-it/
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Monday, February 25, 2013
Bonanza Creek Energy: Is A Thunderstorm Coming After The Recent Public Offering ?
In my last article, I analyzed PDC Energy (PDCE), a natural gas weighted company whose stock has run too much lately. PDC's core area is the Wattenberg field where Bonanza Creek Energy (BCEI) also operates. In my opinion, Bonanza is another grossly overvalued company of the Wattenberg field but please do not get me wrong because I have nothing against this field. I just believe that some Wattenberg players are great short candidates due to their current valuations.
In general, my followers know that I do not recommend overvalued or hyped stocks. All my picks are undervalued stocks where the numbers speak volumes. If my picks are not favored by the market temporarily, the buying opportunity becomes even more appealing for me. This may remind you of Warren Buffet who says : "The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble. We want to buy them when they're on the operating table."
Based on these criteria, I recommended Rock Energy (RENFF.PK) at $1 and Surge Energy (ZPTAF.PK) below $4. Especially Surge is a grossly undervalued oil-weighted producer of 11,500 boepd (73% oil and liquids) with operations in North Dakota and Canada.
I also recommended Bri-Chem (BRYFF.PK) at $1.94, a manufacturer of drilling fluids and steel pipes for the oil and gas industry but I shorted Halcon (HK) at $8 as shown in my article few days ago.
The more choices an investor has, the more successful he can be. This is why, I also thought to capture at the bottom of my article some other oil-weighted companies of North America whose key metrics are much lower than Bonanza's. The numbers always speak volumes.
The Properties
Bonanza Creek Energy sold 10 million shares of common stock at $17 per share in late 2011, raising gross proceeds of $170 million in the offering. The deal was priced below the expected range of $20 to $22 per share. The company also reduced the number of shares being offered from the original level of 14.3 million shares.
After selling the Californian assets, the company is focused on the Wattenberg Field, the North Park Basin and the Cotton Valley sands of Southern Arkansas. In August 2012, Bonanza won the leases and expanded its position in Colorado by 5,638 acres of oil and gas rights in Weld County. It is de-risking the horizontal Niobrara "B" Bench currently and it plans to expand its drilling inventory into the Niobrara "C" Bench and Codell formation of the Wattenberg field.
The typical Niobrara horizontal well is drilled on 80 acre spacing and cost approximately $4 million to drill and complete. These wells have an estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of 312,000 BOE and have approximately 65% oil.
In the Wattenberg field, the company has provided IP-30 average production rates on 31 wells and IP-60 average production rates on 25 wells, which have averaged 503 boepd (76% oil) and 394 boepd (74% oil) respectively. During Q2 2012, Bonanza Creek also drilled and completed the North Platte J-F-24HZ, its first horizontal Codell well. The well delivered an IP-30 average rate of 370 boepd (81% oil).
Anadarko Petroleum (APC) is also operating in the Wattenberg field and it estimates its Wattenberg HZ program contains net resources of 1.0 billion to 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Actually, the Wattenberg field is one of the core fields for Anadarko who holds 350,000 net acres there and its wells hit rates of return (ROR) exceeding 100%.
PDC's Wattenberg wells have average IRR=65%-70%, average peak 24-hour IP=517 boepd and average IP-30=403 boepd. Thus, Bonanza's wells in the Wattenberg field show better results than PDCE's and it seems they can compete with Anadarko's.
The Key Metrics
The average production in Q3 2012 was 9,545 boepd (74% oil and liquids). Most of this production is coming from the Rocky Mountain region which contributed approximately 5,063 boepd (72% oil). The company has also proved reserves 43,7 MMboe (December 2011).
Bonanza has 40 million outstanding shares and its Enterprise Value (EV) is $1,5 billion. Thus, it trades at $156,000 per flowing barrel and $34.3/boe of proved reserves. Both these key metrics are obviously sky high. The proved reserves ratio will most likely go lower once the new independent report for 2012 reserves is out but I estimate it will not go lower than 25.
Unfortunately, the company does not provide its probable reserves. I am not talking for the possible or prospective reserves which are rather theoretical and there is no certainty that any portion of these reserves will be discovered. However, the probable reserves is a key metric for the evaluation of any E&P company, and I do not get why the company does not disclose this number.
The company also trades well above its book value (PBV=2.4) and the PE is higher than 30. The operating cash flow for 2012 is approximately $120 million. Thus, the D/CF ratio (annualized) is 1 currently and obviously this is not low enough to offset the current premium valuation. Actually, even if Bonanza was debt free, its current valuation would be very generous. I guess this staggering valuation is the reason why a major stockholder decided to exit recently.
Projections For 2013
The company guides for an average production ~15,000 boepd in 2013. It also plans to spend $394 million, allocated 80% to the Wattenberg Field and 20% to southern Arkansas.
In the Wattenberg Field, it expects to invest $282 million to drill 72 gross (64.5 net) operated horizontal wells. It will begin the year with two operated rigs and increase to four by Q2 2013.
In Arkansas, it plans to spend approximately $60 million to drill 36 gross (30.6 net) wells and recomplete 114 gross (98.2 net) wells. It will also spend $10 million for the company's gas processing plant which is expected to be online in Q1 2013, bringing total processing capacity to approximately 40 million cubic feet per day.
The remaining CapEx will be allocated to two net non-operated wells, seismic and other maintenance capital.
To me, it should allocate 95% of its CapEx in the Wattenberg field where the average IRR is higher than 50%, with 5% of its CapEx allocated in Cotton Valley where the average IRR is as low as 23%. In Arkansas, the company should spend money only to complete its gas processing plant in my opinion.
The potential buyers also need to know that if the company does not announce a dilutive offering soon, the CapEx for 2013 will be funded by the operating cash flow and new debt (bank or notes). The operating cash flow itself is not enough to fully cover the CapEx.
The Alternatives
Although the market is often irrational, it becomes rational sooner or later, adjusting the valuations accordingly. This is something that the investors should always bear in mind. The following oil-weighted companies have compelling valuations and significant upside potential, proving how grossly overvalued Bonanza is:
1) Bonanza's EV is $1,5 billion and Surge Energy's EV is as low as $440 million currently. The valuation gap is just huge although Surge has bigger production than Bonanza. Additionally, the two companies are equally oil and liquids weighted.
Surge produces 11,000 boepd (73% oil and liquids) currently, the debt is very controllable (D/CF=2) and it owns much more prospective oily land to sell than Bonanza, if necessary. It is also worth noting that one of Surge's core formations is Spearfish which is a highly economical formation with IRR exceeding 100%, low cost per well ($1.5 million/well) and a payout period less than one year. In short, Surge trades at $39,000 per flowing barrel and $15.7/boe of proved reserves.
2) For those who want to play the Niobrara formation without overpaying, Bill Barrett (BBG) offers an attractive valuation currently. In early 2013, I recommended Barrett in one of my articles.
Barrett trades well below its book value (PBV=0.7) and it is one of PDC's neighbors in the Rocky Mountain region targeting the Niobrara shale. The company has continued DJ Basin success with 82% growth in proved reserves and nearly four-fold increase in resource drilling locations. With a production at 36,700 boepd (30% oil and liquids) and EV=$1.9 billion, the company trades for $51,800/boepd (30% oil and liquids). Barrett has 173.3 MMboe (December 2012) proved reserves (29% oil) that results in $10.96/boe of proved reserves.
Barrett has also zero drawn on the $825 million borrowing base available from the company's credit facility and it has a D/CF (annualized) ratio at 3x which is concerning. However, the company is committed to maintaining total debt at the current levels. The debt consists of convertible and senior notes due in 2016 the earliest. Barrett has projected total capital expenditures of $475-$525 million for 2013 and it will ~95% focused on oil development properties. It will be financed through cash flow and further non-core asset sales.
3) The income investors can buy Penn West Petroleum (PWE) which is also oil-weighted and produces 161,000 boepd (65% oil and liquids) having exposure to 7 different plays in USA and Canada. Penn West has also 334 MMboe proved reserves (71% oil and liquids) as of December 2012 and the EV is $7.4 billion currently. This gives $46,000/boepd and $22.15/boe of oil-weighted proved reserves. Until the share price rises, Penn West's shareholders can collect a 10% dividend.
4) Northern Oil and Gas (NOG) is a pure Bakken company with a heavily oil-weighted production. Northern produces 10,800 boepd (95% oil and liquids), it has 57 MMboe (June 2012) proved reserves and the EV is $1,2 billion currently. This means that the company trades at $111,100 per flowing barrel and $21/boe of proved reserves.
Conclusion
It is said that: "The enemy of a cheap thing is the same thing cheaper". In other words, there are many oil-weighted companies out there, that offer a significant upside potential. A prudent investor reduces his winning odds substantially when he buys an overvalued one.
Disclosure: I am long ZPTAF.PK. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Pope resigns: Vatican backlash over dossier rumours linking Church to 'gay network' and 'sex parties'
- Italian media says dossier alleges clergy were 'united by sexual orientation'
- Vatican has hit back at the 'false and damaging' media reports
By Daily Mail Reporter
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The Vatican has rubbished Italian media reports alleging the pope's resignation is linked to a secret dossier claiming there is a 'gay network' inside the clergy.
Italian newspapers have been rife with unsourced reports claiming the secret dossier from three cardinals reveals an underground network of senior clergy who have organised gay homosexual parties and faced blackmail.
La Repubblica newspaper claims the explosive allegations were made in a report into the so-called 'Vatileaks' scandal which was presented to the Pontiff on or around December 17.
But the Vatican today accused Italian media of spreading 'false and damaging' reports in an attempt to influence cardinals who will meet in a secret conclave next month to elect a new pope.
Scroll down for video
[caption
The report came in two volumes, 'hard-bound in red' with the title 'pontifical secret' and was compiled by Spanish cardinal, Juli?n Herranz; Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, a former archbishop of Palermo; and the Slovak cardinal Jozef Tomko.
They launched the probe after the Pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with stealing and leaking papal correspondence revealing how the Vatican was a centre of intrigue and infighting.
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La Repubblica claimed Pope Benedict XVI quit because could not face the repercussions of dealing with the 300-page dossier - the first Pontiff to resign in 700 years.
The paper says that the investigation alleges a gay lobby exists within the Church, and has some sort of control on the careers of those in the Vatican.
No confirmation or denial: Vatican spokesman Father Lombardi
The report is quoted as saying: 'The cardinals were said to have uncovered an underground gay network, whose members organise sexual meetings in several venues in Rome and Vatican City, leaving them prone to blackmail.
'They included a villa outside the Italian capital, a sauna in a Rome suburb, a beauty parlour in the centre, and a former university residence that was in use by a provincial Italian archbishop.'
La Repubblica says that the cardinals described a number of 'factions' in their report, including one in which individuals were 'united by sexual orientation'.
The newspaper also alleges the dossier states that members of this group were blackmailed by laymen with whom they entertain relationships of a 'worldly nature'
It quoted an unnamed source said to be close to the report's authors: 'Everything revolves around the non-observance of the sixth and seventh commandments.'
The seventh commandment forbids theft, while the sixth forbids adultery, but is linked in Catholic doctrine to the proscribing of homosexual acts, explained the Guardian.
The dossier will stay in a secret papal safe and delivered to Benedict's successor when the Pope leaves office, claims La Repubblica.
The pope himself has said merely that he doesn't have the 'strength of mind and body' to carry on and would resign Feb. 28.
The Vatican claims the reports are an attempt to influence the election of the next pope.
The Vatican secretariat of state said the Catholic Church has for centuries insisted on the independence of its cardinals to freely elect their pope - a reference to episodes in the past when kings and emperors vetoed papal contenders or prevented cardinals from voting outright.
'If in the past, the so-called powers, i.e., States, exerted pressures on the election of the pope, today there is an attempt to do this through public opinion that is often based on judgments that do not typically capture the spiritual aspect of the moment that the church is living,' the statement said.
Sent to South America: Ettore Balestrero has been promoted, according to the Vatican spokesman
'It is deplorable that as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave ... that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions.'
Some Vatican watchers have speculated that because the Vatican bureaucracy is heavily Italian, cardinals might be persuaded to elect a non-Italian, non-Vatican-based cardinal as pope to try to impose some reform on the Curia.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the reports 'do not correspond to reality' but the pope and some of his closest collaborators have recently denounced the dysfunction in the Apostolic Palace.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, for example, criticized the 'divisions, dissent, careerism, jealousies' that afflict the Vatican bureaucracy. He made the comments on Friday - the penultimate day of the Vatican's weeklong spiritual exercises that were attended by the pope and other officials.
Tribute: Catholics gather to watch the Pope in one of this last public appearances
Benedict too has made reference to the divisions in recent days, deploring in his final Mass as pope on Ash Wednesday how the church is often 'defiled' by attacks and divisions from within. Last Sunday, he urged its members to overcome 'pride and egoism'.
On Saturday, in his final comments to the Curia, Benedict lamented the 'evil, suffering and corruption' that have defaced God's creation. But he also thanked the Vatican bureaucrats for having helped him 'bear the burden' of his ministry with their work, love and faith these past eight years.
The Vatican's attack on the media echoed its response to previous scandals, where it has tended not to address the underlying content of accusations, but has diverted attention away.
During the 2010 explosion of sex abuse scandals, the Vatican accused the media of trying to attack the pope; during the 2012 leaks scandal, it accused the media of sensationalism without addressing the content of the leaked documents.
?VIDEO? Pope has spent eight years at the top of the catholic church
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The SciFri Book Club Visits "Gorillas in the Mist"
Copyright ? 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
IRA FLATOW, HOST:
Up next - let me get a cup of coffee, put my feet down, get cozy, because it's our monthly meeting of the SCIENCE FRIDAY Book Club. We have the book club regulars here with us. Flora's still with us. And joining us now is Annette Heist, senior producer for SCIENCE FRIDAY. Welcome to the program, Anette?
ANNETTE HEIST, BYLINE: Hi, Ira. Hi, Flora.
FLORA LICHTMAN, BYLINE: Hello.
FLATOW: And we had another classic book this month which is...
HEIST: "Gorillas in the Mist" by Dian Fossey.
FLATOW: And we want to hear from everybody who's read the book. We you have taken time to read it. Give us a call. Tell us what you thought of it. Do you gave it a thumbs up, thumbs down? Does it make you want to quit your day job and go study gorillas in Africa, or did you think Dian Fossey was a little unusual? I mean, it takes some sort of - certain amount of courage and psyche if you go out there and do that. Our number: 1-800-9898-255 is our number. You can also tweet us @scifri and also go to our website at sciencefriday.com.
Anette, give us your rating - instant rating on the book.
HEIST: Instant rating on the book, two opposable thumbs up.
(LAUGHTER)
HEIST: Pretty good.
FLATOW: Two.
HEIST: It's possible.
FLATOW: But not five? I mean, let's say a maximum, but...
HEIST: No. I only have two thumbs - so far.
(LAUGHTER)
FLATOW: Tell us what you thought of - tell us what you thought.
HEIST: I thought she was a fascinating person, and it really gave - I thought the book gives you a lot of insight on what she was like and her - I would say obsession with these gorillas. She left everything behind, her dogs, her life and went to live in Africa and really gives you, I think, an amazing picture of what these gorillas are like and what it's like to live among them.
Yeah. I agree. I think this the kind of book where there's two things happening at once. First, you have this just amazing story about gorillas, learning about their behavior. They're so much - they're fascinating. I mean...
LICHTMAN: And cute, so cute.
HEIST: ...like very cute, especially through Dian Fossey's eyes.
LICHTMAN: Right.
HEIST: And then you have the, sort of, subplot where you're reading between the lines trying to understand what is motivating this person who's so driven...
FLATOW: Yes.
HEIST: So driven. And also takes enormous risks.
LICHTMAN: And single minded in her wanting to protect these gorillas.
FLATOW: I'm Ira Flatow. This is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR - talking with Anette Heist and Flora Lichtman about "Gorillas in the Mist", our SCIENCE FRIDAY Book Club pick.
HEIST: We have, I think, one of the parts of this book that I really liked is Dian Fossey's descriptions of what the gorilla sound like. So we have some clips. Thanks for the people at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. The first one we're going to hear is what she labeled a pig grunt, and it's a sound made by the gorillas as a mark of annoyance or a warning to others to stop what they're going.
(SOUNDBITE OF GRUNTING)
FLATOW: Well, I see if you don't pay attention at the beginning, they get a little louder.
(LAUGHTER)
HEIST: It's so much cuter than I had imagined though.
FLATOW: Yes. Doesn't sound that aggressive, really.
HEIST: Right.
Well, maybe if his father, you know, the 450 pound....
(LAUGHTER)
HEIST: ...silverback that was making that noise. We have another one also. This one is called the belch vocalization. She labeled this, I believe, as well, and it's an expression of wellbeing.
FLATOW: A belch - belch vocalization.
HEIST: We'll get that feeling, yeah.
FLATOW: Yes. We'll see if we get that feeling.
(SOUNDBITE OF GRUNTING)
FLATOW: Very low. Anette, let me play it again, in case you missed and turn up your woofer on this one.
(SOUNDBITE OF GRUNTING)
FLATOW: Oh.
LICHTMAN: And that's friendly, right?
HEIST: Yes. That's like you're eating with one of your group members. You're both full, you're satisfied. You'll belch to each other.
LICHTMAN: And Dian Fossey learned to make this vocalization I think, when she would approach the gorillas in the field. She would make this sound or some version of it.
HEIST: She was great. She would try to get them to, kind of, accept her by making though the same sounds. So we have more of sounds on our website. Just go to sciencefriday.com. Look at the segment page for this - for today. We have those and some others, Gorilla Fund International.
FLATOW: You know what would always fascinates me, and it fascinates me the same way that other scientists are fearless in going out into the wild and living among these animals, you know, twice their size. You never know what to expect.
HEIST: Well, she was there - Well, I think she was also incredibly - I don't know if fearless is the right word, but ignored her personal safety, going and living by herself. And I think she's somewhat antagonistic of the people that were in the area, the people that had inhabited those places before her and, I think, put herself at risk. She ended up getting killed, as we know, in 1985, a couple of years after the book were written.
FLATOW: And we don't know who was responsible.
HEIST: Her murder was never solved. no.
LICHTMAN: She writes in the book that - she says: As a pioneer, I sometimes did endure loneliness, but I've reaped a tremendous satisfaction that followers will never be able to know. So, you know, you get the sense that she got out a lot of, you know, she says she gets a lot of satisfaction of blazing her own trail - literally, in this case.
FLATOW: And you get an impression from the book that she knew that this was an important piece of research she was doing and put all the details into the book, more than you would think a lay book had in it.
HEIST: Yeah. It's almost two books, one for the layperson, one for the gorilla researcher.
LICHTMAN: That's very scientific.
FLATOW: Yeah.
LICHTMAN: Which is actually fun because you get to participate in the science, along with Dian Fossey, I thought.
FLATOW: We're going to come back and take your calls. Diane Fossey's "Gorilla In The Mist." 1-800-989-8255. If you read it, we'd to know what thou think about it. It's been out, you know, decades now. Maybe you had a copy lying around. Also you can tweet us, @SCIFRI, S-C-I-F-R-I. Go to our website at sciencefriday.com. You listen to he sounds that we were just playing. We're going to take a short break, going to be right back after the break so don't go away. We'll see you after the break. I'm Ira Flatow. This is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FLATOW: This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. we're talking this hour about gorillas in the mist. It's our SCIENCE FRIDAY book club. We're meeting -our regular meeting attendees, and they are Flora Lichtman, our correspondent and managing editor for video, Annette Heist, our senior producer, and, sort of, the lead reader on this book. Give us your hardest critique of this book.
HEIST: All right. I'm going to give two criticisms of this book and one has nothing to do at all with Dian Fossey, and that is that this reprint is horrible. I want someone to make another copy of hits book with better type face and better photographs.
FLATOW: It is hard to read.
HEIST: These are muddy photographs. They feel like they don't do these gorillas justice. And, OK. So that's my...
(LAUGHTER)
HEIST: (Unintelligible) complaining.
FLATOW: That was the tough one.
HEIST: I felt that about - for me it was about two-thirds of the way through. I felt like the chronology was the problem. She was going back and forth in time and talking - she moves back to describing the animal that she's already - that we've already been reading about and I felt like it was just getting to be a little confusing and I would've like some editing to, sort of, keep it all going in a linear way.
FLATOW: OK. Flora.
LICHTMAN: Yeah. I mean, I agree. It reads more like a sort of scientific paper where you go through each study group as opposed to a story, but within each study group, you get a really nice arc to each one, which I liked. You know, she followed them for 10 years, so she sees gorillas that are babies and watches them grow up and becomes clearly attached to them. And when they're killed, it's a big problem for her.
HEIST: It's very sad. Sad parts of the book.
FLATOW: Let's go to Jim in Johnson City, Tennessee. Hi, Jim.
JIM: Hi.
FLATOW: Hi there. Go ahead.
JIM: Well, when I read the book a long time ago, I felt like Dian Fossey was enamored and in love with just the gorillas themselves, which made me that way. And ever since I read the book, I have studied more than hers. So to me she - it wasn't a matter of fear or anything when she's living with them, she was so much in love with them that she wasn't afraid.
FLATOW: Good point. Annette.
HEIST: Yeah. I would agree with that, and I think maybe she went a little too far sometimes. This is from a review in the New York Times by Katherine Bouton. These are her words: Finally, she perhaps too often imputes emotions to the animal. They gaze pensively, they have worried looks on their faces, their foreheads furrow questioningly, and their lips contort into a nondescript smile. I mean, these are more than animals to her, and I'm not...
JIM: Right.
HEIST: ...saying that it made her research bad, but I do think that she might have seen something's that possibly weren't' there. And she did some things that I think are unorthodox. We have a gorilla expert coming up in a couple of minutes, but I mean, she slept with - she let them sleep in her bed with her and she touched them.
FLATOW: You don't mean sexually?
HEIST: No, no, no. Sorry. No. Just sleeping.
FLATOW: Right.
And fed them, which is not allowed anymore. But I felt at some points it was hard to know the lens that she was seeing them through - how that affected how she described them.
LICHTMAN: Yeah.
JIM: Yeah right. Well, I really, you know, if you see, people of today, who have the dogs and treat them with humanesque(ph). That's what Dian Fossey, probably, was doing.
LICHTMAN: Yeah. good point.
HEIST: Make them good. Make them very humanesque. And but - just her drive and her, well, her love for the study made me love it and that's what I've done, well, for the past 30 years myself.
FLATOW: Well, changed your life. Thanks for calling, Jim. Flora, did you want to read us a passage?
LICHTMAN: Well, there is this part that I think helps explain the tone of this book, and I think also, her dedication - Dian Fossey's deduction to the study. So she writes: (reading) It never dawned on me that the exhausting climbs along ribbons of muddy trail, bedding down in damp sleeping bags, awakening to don wet jeans and soggy boots and filing up on stale crackers would not be everyone's idea of heaven. And when she writes this, you think, oh yeah, that really is your idea of heaven. It's not - it's almost not a joke at that point in the book because she does - she never complains about really challenging conditions.
HEIST: Yeah. She's devoted. It's admirable.
FLATOW: And it's true of a lot of scientists. And a lot of people who go out, whether it's Louis Leakey who was out there, you know, was, I think, met her and - in the book and talked about - she talked about it a bit, or of people who take even extra chances. Now I'm blanking on - who is the guy who went out with the bears, the...
HEIST: Oh. Well, the Grizzly Man...
FLATOW: The Grizzly Man.
HEIST: The Werner Herzog movie was Timothy Treadwell was...
FLATOW: Right. He died out there also. But he took tremendous risks.
HEIST: He did.
FLATOW: And he talked so lovingly about the bears too.
HEIST: Yeah.
FLATOW: So it takes a certain kind of person to do that.
LICHTMAN: I wonder if we should bring in our next attendee.
FLATOW: Let's - you - Annette gave us a little taste of who that's going to be. At the end of "Gorillas in the Mist," which was written in 1983, the fate of the mountain gorillas is uncertain. Their population numbers were low. They were still falling victim to poachers. Dian Fossey, as we say, was murdered in Africa in 1985. So what became of her beloved gorillas since then? Joining me now to give us an update on the efforts to conserve the gorilla population is Annette Lanjouw. She is vice president for Strategic Initiatives and Great Ape Programs for the Arcus Foundation. Thanks for joining us today.
DR. ANNETTE LANJOUW: Hello.
FLATOW: How long did you study the mountain gorillas?
LANJOUW: Well, I was the director of the International Gorilla Conservation Program, which works with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Congo and Uganda for 15 years.
FLATOW: Wow, you really got to know them.
LANJOUW: I got to spend quite a bit of time with them. Yes, I did.
FLATOW: Yeah. Can you give us sort of an update on the mountain gorilla numbers?
LANJOUW: Well, the numbers have improved significantly since the time that Dian Fossey was working there and even since the time when I started there in 1990. When I started working with the mountain gorillas, there were 620 of them as a total world population divided by these three countries. And the most recent data that has come out is 880 mountain gorillas. So it's one of the very few ape populations in the world that is actually increasing.
LICHTMAN: Wow. What about the techniques for studying them? How have those changed since Dian Fossey wrote this book?
LANJOUW: There's been a lot of learning, obviously, since the '60s on different ways of dong behavioral research. In the early days, in the '60s when Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall and Birute Galdikas and many of the Japanese researchers were working with apes and conducting the first long-term studies, it was common to feed the animals. And you mentioned that earlier in the program. You basically provided them with food in order to habituate them, and habituating means getting them used to human presence so that they no longer fear people and don't flee when they see humans.
And the idea is that if they are habituated, you can then observe their behavior. So it was thought at the time that the only way to get apes to become habituated would be to provide them with food. That isn't the case anymore. And we have learned that by providing them with food, you inevitably change their behavior. So actually you're influencing them in a way that means you can't actually observe their natural behavior anymore.
So over time, we've learned to habituate animals without providing them with any food and being as discreet as possible so that you really have a minimum of influence over their behavior. You never know, of course, 100 percent if you're going to be influencing them. You're there. They see you. They're curious. They're interested. So, you know, it's inevitable that there's going to be some element of influence. But certainly, not providing them with food made a big difference.
LICHTMAN: One thing that surprised me about Dian Fossey's book is that she interacts with them physically, like they - well, she'll put her head in their laps and they'll climb all over her. Do scientists refrain from doing that now? Or is that still OK?
LANJOUW: Well, it's not OK. I don't - I think most scientists certainly refrain from it. There are rules that have been established, particularly with mountain gorillas, to prevent people from getting too close. We looked at the risks of disease transmission between humans and gorillas, both - in both directions, from humans to gorillas as well as potentially from gorillas to humans. And because gorillas are so similar to humans - physiologically, anatomically - that they are prone to many of the same diseases that we are prone to, and yet they don't have many of the immunities that we developed from years of living in very dense urban environments. So they're very vulnerable to diseases that we might carry that we don't suffer from, you know?
So the potential of transmitting diseases from humans to gorillas could be devastating for gorilla populations. And so in order to protect them and to ensure that our presence isn't actually putting them at risk, there are very strict rules as to how close you can get and what appropriate behavior is in the proximity of gorillas.
FLATOW: So then what are the greatest current threats to gorillas now?
LANJOUW: The greatest current threats to mountain gorillas is probably, the first, is disease and habitat destruction. And then obviously the conflict in the region, the armed warfare that's been happening, particularly on the Democratic Republic of Congo side, is a huge threat to gorillas as well.
FLATOW: Poachers, things like that?
LANJOUW: Poachers, yes. People do go into the park to illegally hunt for food. They don't target gorillas for food. But they use indiscriminate hunting methods like the laying of snares and traps. And gorillas can get caught in those snares and traps. And so a number of gorillas have been lost due to their injuries from snare wounds.
There are obviously excellent medical doctors who are - there's a program, the Gorilla Doctors, who are actually out there to monitor and track and intervene when gorillas become either ill or injured due to human activity. They cannot intervene if it's natural. But if it's caused by humans, then they will intervene. And that is to protect the gorillas from the results of either snares or any other illnesses that could have been transmitted from humans.
LICHTMAN: Dr. Lanjouw, is "Gorillas in the Mist" required reading for anyone that wants to study gorillas?
LANJOUW: Oh, I think so. Yes, it's an excellent book and it provides such an enormous wealth of information. And it's also very important from a historical perspective because it really does provide you with an understanding of how much our learning has progressed over the years. And what the first encounters with gorillas revealed to the first researchers.
I mean, Dian Fossey wasn't the first person to study mountain gorillas. George Schaller was there before her and others have been there before her, but she certainly was the first to spend that much time and to do the long-term studies on mountain gorillas. And the wealth of information that she gathered is invaluable.
FLATOW: Are the people still studying them now?
LANJOUW: People are still studying the mountain gorillas. Absolutely. The International Gorilla Conservation Program is there. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund is there, that you mentioned earlier. So there are a number of organizations that are still working with and studying the gorillas. You know, with all the apes, you can study them your entire life and still barely be scratching the surface.
FLATOW: I'm Ira Flatow. This is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR. Talking about "Gorillas in the Mist" with Annette Heist and Flora Lichtman. Also our guest is Dr. Lanjouw.
What still do we not know? What is the biggest unknown? I mean, we've been studying them for decades. You say we are learning new things. What would you like to know as - Annette Lanjouw, what would you like to know about gorillas that you don't know yet?
LANJOUW: You know, there's a lot that we don't know about the social relationships that they have, the way in which they formed socially - those social relationships and maintain them. The different interests that they have and different relationships that they form, the way in which they form alliances and cooperate at times, compete at other times, to have access to resources that they want or for males to have access to females that they want. Every individual gorilla is different. They're like humans in that respect. They have their own personalities and characters.
And so you can study a group and then study a different group and find completely different behaviors. And so it isn't a simple as just saying, well, I've studied these gorillas. I now know gorillas. It would be as simple as saying I've studied a group of five humans and I now know humanity. So by spending time with them, getting to know the individuals, the relationships between the individuals and the choices that you make - that they make - sorry - you learn to understand more about their characters, their personalities and how those evolve over time.
FLATOW: I have one last call I can get. Let's see, we go to the phone. Carol(ph) in La Grange, Kentucky. Hi, Carol.
CAROL: Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Since I already knew about Dian Fossey's murder, I was very sad reading the book because I felt that perhaps as a woman that the reporting about her was somehow prejudiced (technical difficulty) online. I saw so much about, oh, how she was so difficult and almost as though she - it was her fault that she got murdered, and that she had these problems with the community. I wonder what's your experts have to say about her treatment because she was a woman scientist.
FLATOW: Annette Lanjouw?
LANJOUW: Well, it's an interesting question. You know, I think there is truth in the fact that - and I probably shouldn't even admit to this myself, but people who spend many, many years on their own working in these kinds of conditions, the conditions that you were describing earlier in the program, you have to be a little bit difficult. You have to be a little bit ornery to do that kind of work. You have to have enormous confidence in yourself and that you are right, and that this is the right thing to do. You have to be tough to be able to stick it out. You have to be able to handle the loneliness and the difficult conditions. So, yes, she probably was a bit difficult. And I imagine most people who do this kind of work - and probably myself included - are a bit tough and difficult at times.
Whether or not she was particularly singled out as a woman, I don't know, but I know that there were a lot of very, very difficult situations that she had to confront. And I also know that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to separate your emotional attachment to the animals and the work that you're doing from what's happening and trying to remain scientific objective and sometimes rational.
And, yes, she made some mistakes. She handled some things badly. I think a lot of people would have had in those circumstances. Gorillas that she had come to know and consider as her friends were murdered and murdered senselessly, and that must have been absolutely heartbreaking for her.
FLATOW: Dr. Lanjouw, thank you for taking time to be with us today. Annette Lanjouw is vice president for Strategic Initiatives and Great Apes Program for the Arcus Foundation. She is also co-author "Mountain Gorillas: Biology, Conservation, and Coexistence." Thank you again. Have a good weekend.
LANJOUW: Thank you very much.
FLATOW: And that wraps our Book Club. Do we have another book pick - yeah, we're going to be working on?
HEIST: Not yet.
FLATOW: Pick it up. Annette Heist and Flora Lichtman, thank you...
LICHTMAN: Thank you.
FLATOW: ...as always for doing our book club.
HEIST: Thank you.
FLATOW: And I want to thank The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International for the gorilla sounds and the photo of Dian Fossey. You can see that on our website.
HEIST: We also have pictures from a book that Dr. Lanjouw co-authored with Gene Eckhart of gorillas on our website. Go there, look at those pictures. They're great and enter our winter nature photo contest. Don't forget.
FLATOW: Nature photo contest, also Video Pick of the Week, cockroaches grooming. Don't want to miss that one.
HEIST: Eww.
LICHTMAN: Don't miss that one.
FLATOW: Oh, it's a good one. Have a great weekend. We'll see you next week. I'm Ira Flatow in New York.
Copyright ? 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/22/172696696/the-scifri-book-club-visits-gorillas-in-the-mist?ft=1&f=1007
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Reprogramming cells to fight diabetes
Feb. 22, 2013 ? For years researchers have been searching for a way to treat diabetics by reactivating their insulin-producing beta cells, with limited success. The "reprogramming" of related alpha cells into beta cells may one day offer a novel and complementary approach for treating type 2 diabetes. Treating human and mouse cells with compounds that modify cell nuclear material called chromatin induced the expression of beta cell genes in alpha cells, according to a new study that appears online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
"This would be a win-win situation for diabetics -- they would have more insulin-producing beta cells and there would be fewer glucagon-producing alpha cells," says lead author Klaus H. Kaestner, Ph.D., professor of Genetics and member of the Institute of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Type 2 diabetics not only lack insulin, but they also produce too much glucagon.
Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are caused by insufficient numbers of insulin-producing beta cells. In theory, transplantation of healthy beta cells -- for type 1 diabetics in combination with immunosuppression to control autoimmunity -- should halt the disease, yet researchers have not yet been able to generate these cells in the lab at high efficiency, whether from embryonic stem cells or by reprogramming mature cell types.
Alpha cells are another type of endocrine cell in the pancreas. They are responsible for synthesizing and secreting the peptide hormone glucagon, which elevates glucose levels in the blood.
"We treated human islet cells with a chemical that inhibits a protein that puts methyl chemical groups on histones, which -- among many other effects -- leads to removal of some histone modifications that affect gene expression," says Kaestner. "We then found a high frequency of alpha cells that expressed beta-cell markers, and even produced some insulin, after drug treatment.
Histones are protein complexes around which DNA strands are wrapped in a cell's nucleus.
The team discovered that many genes in alpha cells are marked by both activating- and repressing-histone modifications. This included many genes important in beta-cell function. In one state, when a certain gene is turned off, the gene can be readily activated by removing a modification that represses the histone.
"To some extent human alpha cells appear to be in a 'plastic' epigenetic state," explains Kaestner. "We reasoned we might use that to reprogram alpha cells towards the beta-cell phenotype to produce these much-needed insulin-producing cells."
Co-authors are Nuria C. Bramswig, Logan Everett, Jonathan Schug, Chengyang Liu, Yanping Luo, and Ali Naji, all from Penn, and Markus Grompe, Craig Dorrell, and Philip R. Streeter from the Oregon Health & Science University. The Oregon group developed a panel of human endocrine cell type-specific antibodies for cell sorting.
The research was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U01 DK070430, U42 RR006042, U01DK089529, R01DK088383, U01DK089569) and by the Beckman Research Center/NIDDK/Integrated Islet Distribution Program (10028044).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Nuria C. Bramswig, Logan J. Everett, Jonathan Schug, Craig Dorrell, Chengyang Liu, Yanping Luo, Philip R. Streeter, Ali Naji, Markus Grompe, Klaus H. Kaestner. Epigenomic plasticity enables human pancreatic ? to ? cell reprogramming. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2013; DOI: 10.1172/JCI66514
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/YsxoP3tN1kI/130223111356.htm
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MLB at Bat 13, Timbre, and More
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Wxhq9orC6lQ/mlb-at-bat-13-timbre-and-more
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This Man Is The World's Greatest Wedding Crasher
This piece is republished with permission from BroBible.com.
By Andy Moore for BroBible.com
Noah Carpenter has spent the last year-and-a-half as a sort-of accidental John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey -- crashing weddings on three different continents, meeting the newlyweds and walking away from each meeting with a hilarious snapshot. How, exactly, did the St. Joseph's senior start this strange -- yet undeniably awesome -- hobby?
"My first crashing was October 13, 2011," he told us over email. "I was studying abroad at the time, and in the month leading up to the first time, I had seen four or five couples already. So I figured this was something I might be seeing consistently, and I thought, 'Who in the world has an album of pictures with random wedding couples?'"
Can't think of anyone else, huh? Below is a quick look at Noah's tour around the wedded world, complete with commentary alongside a few of the pictures. Keep this in mind: The crashings come over a period of only 18 months. Statistically, it's pretty, pretty hard to run into so many parties. How many have you stumbled upon over the last year and a half?
Story continues after the slideshow.
Noah plans to keep it up until he fills a coffee table book with the photos. When asked if he had a wedding white elephant out there that he wanted to crash (be it a celebrity's or Secretary of the Treasury's daughter's) he said he'd be on the lookout.
Anyway, we fully support this hilarious hobby. And since weddings are undoubtedly one of the most fun things you can go to in your life, the more you can fit yourself into -- uninvited, or not -- the better.
More from BroBibile.com:
I Was Clinton Sparks? Assistant For a Day
The 100 Coolest NASCAR Paint Schemes Ever
Or follow them on Twitter.
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
FBI: Vicksburg mayor took bribe to secure contract
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Source: http://thetowntalk.com/article/20130222/NEWS01/130222009/-1/rss01
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Washington State Magazine: Magazine earns second district grand gold award
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/Publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=35177&PageID=21
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Conservation Triage
Politically controversial species attract more funding, as do those with symbolic value, like bald eagles Photo by Reuters/Victor Fraile
Let?s say you?re in charge of picking the survivors. You?ve got a boat?oh, let?s just make it an ark, shall we??and you can load it with any kind of animals you like. The species you coax on board will probably make it through climate change. The ones you leave on shore probably won?t. While you can choose your passengers, there are limits: Put too many critters in the ark and the whole thing, you included, will start to sink.
Which species will you save? Will you pick the rarest, the largest, or the smallest? The strongest or the weakest? The most beautiful ? or just the tastiest?
The thing is, most of us are already making these choices, and making them all the time. Not that we think much about it. But every time we decide what to buy, where to build, or who to put in charge of spending our tax dollars, we?re indirectly deciding which species deserve our consideration and which species can do without it.
It?s easy to ignore this reality and pretend that we can and will protect everything. The U.S. Endangered Species Act, which turns 40 this year and is still considered by many to be the most powerful environmental law in the world, made essentially all species eligible for federal protection. But federal, state, and private dollars are finite, and in recent years, it?s become all too obvious that the demands of conservation are functionally infinite.
You?ve heard the news: Species of all sizes and descriptions are contending with habitat destruction, pollution, and the accelerating and far-reaching pressures of climate change. Some species will adapt. Those that aren?t picky about their habitats or diets, such as crows and coyotes, stand the best chance. But species that require particular habitats, such as polar bears, or a single type of prey or pollinator aren?t likely to make it, at least not without huge investments of time and money.
So in recent years, some conservationists and scientists have been pushing for a more explicit, systematic approach to conservation decisions?a kind of triage system in which a rational set of criteria is used to allocate limited resources. Environmentalists have long been wary of any sort of triage approach to species conservation, and understandably so. Explicit triage is, in a way, an admission of failure, an acknowledgement that we?ve fallen short of the Endangered Species Act?s goal of protecting all species without prejudice. And any such acknowledgement could well be exploited by traditional foes of conservation.
But some environmentalists now say the status quo is an even riskier path. ?The way we?re doing it right now in the United States is the worst of all possible choices,? says Tim Male, a vice president at Defenders of Wildlife. ?It essentially reflects completely ad hoc prioritization.? Politically controversial species attract more funding, as do those with symbolic value (think bald eagles) or furry, expressive faces (think lemurs and baby seals). ?We live in a world of unconscious triage,? says Male.
So how to make these life-and-death decisions? Scientists have proposed several approaches. One is to prioritize species that play some sort of essential role in their ecosystem?top predators such as wolves, for instance. Another is to focus on protecting extremely rare and unusual species, with the hope of preserving a diverse genetic pool and with it the ability of species to evolve and adapt to new conditions. The EDGE of Existence program, run by the Zoological Society of London, takes the latter approach. It has a fascinating collection of weird and wonderful species in its portfolio, ranging from the Chinese giant salamander to the two-humped Bactrian camel.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=1a48939d36a429e61d4a5cc26bc69ad9
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Zillow Launches its First Rental App for iPad
Using QR Codes to Deliver Maps Electronically - cartographers
are tapping into technology in the form of Quick Response Codes (QR
codes) to help promote, sell and deliver maps electronically. Ted
Florence discusses QR codes, what they are and how they are useful for
maps and map producers.?
10 Resources To Help You Get Started Programming with Python -
There's no question that if you want a head start in your career as a
GIS Analyst, programmer, or other technology professional that Python
programming is a must. Just look around on twitter, follow some geo
hacks on Google +, check out the developer resources, and attend a
GeoGeek meetup of WhereCamp and you'll hear about python.
Exploring Foursquare with The Explore foursquare map - A look at some clever mapping functionality available to users of the foursquare service
58% Use Location-based Apps Despite Privacy Concerns - A telephone poll of 1,000 Americans shows that many people are concerned about geolocation, which uses data from a computer or mobile device to identify a physical location
The Really Big List of Mapping, Geo location Mobile developer resources, APIs and Tools? - The Mobile Ecosystem... no question that mobile is huge and the opportunity for developers, in particular, geo developers! There's loads of developer resources on the web so to help the developer, here's a listing of just some of the fine dev resources, blogs, toolsets and more to consider when developing or porting your app to a smartphone or Tablet.
Mobile Technology Feature - Top 10 Business Apps for Android - Android has become one of the most popular mobile operating systems
in the world due to advanced software, competitive manufacturers, and an
app market that is filled with exciting and useful applications. Read
on for this fine Top 10 List compiled by tech writer, Blake Sanders
ArcGIS.com Mashup Tutorial with Flickr and Foursquare data -
Here's a simple "how to" tutorial on working with the free ArcGIS.com
to easily import KML or RSS data from Flickr and foursquare into ArcGIS
to create your own custom map mashup.
Most Users of Free Photo Apps Say Adding Cool Effects is Most Useful? - Adding cool effects to photos was rated as the most useful thing by more than half of consumers surveyed using free online photography services, according to CatchFree a free online service that helps people find the best free mobile and web applications to perform useful tasks.
10 Things That You Should Be Including In Your Press Release -
We'd like to share a short list of 10 items that anyone creating a
press release might/should consider including in their press release.?
Flickr GPS Photo Tag Tip? - Here's a tip for Flickr users who want to share their GPS information with their photos. note, in order to do this you'll need to be capturing photos using a GPS-enabled or GPS-aware camera (see you're smartphone hardware settings to ensure that GPS or location sharing is turned "ON)".?
Source: http://www.lbszone.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9771&Itemid=2
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Obama considers weighing in on gay marriage case
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration is quietly considering urging the Supreme Court to overturn California's ban on gay marriage, a step that would mark a political victory for advocates of same-sex unions and a deepening commitment by President Barack Obama to rights for gay couples.
Obama raised expectations among opponents of the Proposition 8 ban when he declared in last month's inaugural address that gays and lesbians must be "treated like anyone else under the law." The administration has until Feb. 28 to intervene in the case by filing a "friend of the court" brief.
The Proposition 8 ballot initiative was approved by California voters in 2008 and overturned a state Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage. Twenty-nine other states have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, while nine states and Washington, D.C., recognize same-sex marriage.
An administration brief alone is unlikely to sway the Justices but the federal government's opinion does carry weight with the court.
A final decision on whether to file a brief has not been made, a senior administration official said. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli is consulting with the White House on the matter, said the official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to address the private deliberations publicly.
While the Justice Department would formally make the filing, the president himself is almost certain to make the ultimate decision on whether to file.
"I have to make sure that I'm not interjecting myself too much into this process, particularly when we're not a party to the case," Obama said Wednesday in interview with San Francisco's KGO-TV.
He said his personal view is that gay couples should have the same rights as straight couples and said his administration would do whatever it could to promote that principle.
Obama has a complicated history on gay marriage. As a presidential candidate in 2008, he opposed the California ban but didn't endorse gay marriage. As he ran for re-election last year, he announced his personal support for same-sex marriage but said marriage was an issue that should be decided by the states, not the federal government.
To some, Obama's broad call for gay rights during his Jan. 21 inaugural address was a signal that he now sees a federal role in defining marriage.
"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law," Obama said during his remarks on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. "For if we are truly created equal, than surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well."
But administration officials said Obama ? a former constitutional law professor ? was not foreshadowing any legal action in his remarks and was simply restating his personal belief in the right of gays and lesbians to marry.
Seeking to capitalize on growing public support for gay marriage, advocates are calling on the administration to file a broad brief not only asking the court to declare California's ban unconstitutional but also urging the Justices to make all state bans illegal.
"If they do make that argument and the court accepts it, the ramifications could be very sweeping," said Richard Socarides, an attorney and advocate.
The administration could also file a narrower brief that would ask the court to issue a decision applying only to California. Or it could decide not to weigh in on the case at all.
The Supreme Court, which will take up the case on March 26, has several options for its eventual ruling. Among them:
? The justices could uphold the state ban on gay marriage and say citizens of a state have the right to make that call.
? The court could endorse an appeals court ruling that would make same-sex marriage legal in California but apply only to that state.
? The court could issue a broader ruling that would apply to California and seven other states: Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island. In those states, gay couples can join in civil unions that have all the benefits of marriage but cannot be married.
? The broadest ruling would be one that says the Constitution forbids states from banning same-sex unions.
For weeks, supporters and opponents of Proposition 8 have been lobbying the administration to side with them.
Last month, Theodore Olson and David Boies, lawyers arguing for gay marriage, met with Verrilli and other government lawyers to urge the administration to file a brief in the case. A few days later, Charles Cooper, the lawyer defending Proposition 8, met with the solicitor general to ask the government to stay out of the case. Those kinds of meetings are typical in a high court case when the government is not a party and is not asked by the court to make its views known.
Boies and Chad Griffin, president of the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, also had a meeting at the White House on the case.
Ahead of next week's deadline, nearly two dozen states have filed briefs with the Supreme Court asking the Justices to uphold the California measure.
"There's a critical mass of states that have spoken out and believe states should continue to have the right to define marriage as between one man and one woman," said Jim Campbell, legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents supporters of Proposition 8.
Public opinion has shifted in support of gay marriage in recent years. In May 2008, Gallup found that 56 percent of Americans felt same-sex marriages should not be recognized by the law as valid. By November 2012, some 53 percent felt they should be legally recognized.
Obama has overwhelming political support among those who support same-sex marriage. Exit polls from the November election showed that 49 percent of voters believed their states should legally recognize gay marriage. More than 70 percent of those voters backed Obama over Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
One day after the court hears the California case, the justices will hear arguments on another gay marriage case, this one involving provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA. The act defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits.
The Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law in 2011 but continues to enforce it. Because DOMA is a federal law and the government is a party to the case, the administration does not have to state its opposition through a friend of the court brief.
___
Associated Press writer Mark Sherman and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.
___
Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-considers-weighing-gay-marriage-case-221057770--politics.html
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Thursday, February 21, 2013
Lego sales soar on demand for new girls' series
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) ? Danish toy maker Lego says sales soared 25 percent last year thanks partly to the new Lego Friends series of building blocks designed for girls.
The privately owned company says that on revenue of 23.4 billion kroner ($4.2 billion) it made net profits of 5.6 billion kroner ($1 billion), up 38 percent.
The company, based in western Denmark, said Thursday that series like Lego Star Wars and Lego Ninjago were among the more popular. But it was the novel rollout for girls, Lego Friends, that sold much better than expected ? to the extent that the company was unable to keep up with demand.
CEO Joergen Vig Knudstorp says Lego had shown it can develop toys that children across world "put at the top of their wish lists in 2012."
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
LG's 5.5-inch Optimus G Pro is the first with a Snapdragon 600 quad-core CPU
LG finally showed off the XL 5.5-inch version of its upcoming Optimus G Pro at the end of a Facebook promo last week, and now it's revealed a launch date in Korea, more specs and a window for arrival in North America. Also of note? Its CPU is the just-announced quad-core Snapdragon 600 running at 1.7Ghz. Announced at CES, the 600 is supposed to be a milder upgrade (compared to the potentially 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800) to its predecessor, the powerful S4 Pro. New software tweaks include a dual record that uses both cameras simultaneously and VR Panorama that appears to be similar to Google's Photo Sphere stitching.
Besides the expanded 1080p screen and updated internals, the larger version also sports a slightly larger battery than the Japanese version announced previously by NTT Docomo with 3,140mAh compared to 3,000, but keeps the 2GB of RAM, 13MP rear camera, microSDXC slot and LTE. The phone will be released on local carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus on Wednesday for 968,000 won ($897), while a North American launch is mentioned for Q2 along with the Japanese release. We'll find out more about this phone -- and likely a few others -- at MWC 2013 later this week, for now check out the press release after the break for more specs.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG
Source: LG Korea
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/17/lg-optimus-g-pro-specs-na-launch-q2/
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Stepparenting & Blended Families 2018: Mommy and Daddy are ...
Mommy and Daddy are Getting Divorced - Helping Children Cope with Divorce
Kristine Turner (Author)
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Stepparenting & Blended Families
You've decided to get a divorce - and you have to tell your children...
How do you explain all the changes that are coming and what it will mean to them?
In this read-along-with-your-children book, all the aspects of divorce are explained in an easy-to-understand way. Children will understand better what impact the divorce will have on their lives and that even though they will be going through many changes, that they will still be loved and cared for - only within the new family structure.
Dr. Kristine Turner is a clinical psychologist, licensed in the state of Colorado. She received her doctorate from the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, an APA accredited school, in 1994.
One of the original founders of New Beginnings, Dr. Turner has acted as the director of the New Beginnings Parenting After Divorce programs since 1995.
Over the years, Dr. Turner has worked with thousands of parents and families going through divorce.
Dr. Turner currently resides in Denver, Colorado and is the mother of four children.
- Rank: #149000 in eBooks
- Published on: 2010-10-31
- Released on: 2010-10-31
- Format: Kindle eBook
- Number of items: 1
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Question for anyone familiar with Virginia traffic laws...fairly long ...
Yesterday, 02:25 PM
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| ? Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Upstate SC, USA Posts: 6,928 | My GF's son-who is going to school in PA-borrowed a room-mate's car to drive home and surprise his GF for Valentine's Day. The car he drove is a decked-out ricer...heavy tint on the windows, loud blatty muffler, NO2 system, and neon blue wheels. While traveling through VA, he was pulled over by a State Trooper-he was not speeding-and given three tickets. One ticket was for the level of tint-which was illegal in VA, but not Missouri where his roomie is from, one for the muffler-again, illegal in VA but not MO, and having a radar detector-which is illegal in VA. I can understand getting the ticket for the radar detector, but don't see the reason why he got tickets for the windows and muffler. Especially since he was just driving through the state and the car was not his, and that all these things are legal in MO where the car is from. Like I said earlier, he was not speeding, and was not operating the car in any fashion that would be considered reckless. One good thing is that the AH Trooper didn't notice the NO2 buttons, and if he had, he'd have gotten ticketed for that as well...again, that is legal in MO but not in VA. |
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Yesterday, 02:58 PM
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| ? Join Date: May 2002 Location: Cruising Tequesta On My 17' Bayliner With Quad 350 Verado' Posts: 7,780 | General terms: a. He is the Captain of the 'ship'. b. He can ask his friend to have the tint removed and show proof to the Court. c. He may be able to do community service in lieu of a fine. d. VA will not be interested in what MO does or does not do. e. I don't hear any legal defense. f. If he FTA's, VA may suspend his operating privelage and notify MO who will/may suspend his DL, which means he will have to get a clearance letter from VA and do whatever is required to be reinstated in MO. g. Go the website AVVO and ask your legal question there, than you will have a bonafide answer. |
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Yesterday, 03:02 PM
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| Senior Member ?Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Lexington, SC Posts: 360 | Pat the tickets. Had a buddy in college in SC who forgot to pay a Florida ticket. Next time he tried to renew his license, it had been suspended! Paid the Florida ticket and got his license back but it was a hassle.
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Yesterday, 03:30 PM
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| Senior Member ?Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Albemarle Sound Management Area Posts: 2,910 | |
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Yesterday, 04:09 PM
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| Senior Member ?Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Barnstable,Ma Posts: 356 | Dark tint and loud pipes are illigal in most states. In Ma. they usually look the other way on the pipes IF you are not trying to make noise. The tint is pretty strictly enforced. Personally I find it a lot safer at an intersection when I can make eye contact and know the other guy is looking, even if I have the right of way. |
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Yesterday, 04:14 PM
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| ? Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Mechanicsville VA Posts: 4,208 | Quote:
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Yesterday, 04:40 PM
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| Senior Member ?Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Albemarle Sound Management Area Posts: 2,910 | Quote:
Some laws say "shall not operate on the highways of...", some say "shall not be registered in..." Whether your tint or muffler is legal will depend on how the laws in the state you are in are written. | |
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Yesterday, 04:45 PM
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| Senior Member ?Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Pensacola Posts: 1,827 | In Missouri tinting of the driver or passenger side windows is limited to no less than 35%, no additional tinting allowed on the windshield. Unless you have a medical permit for darker. |
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Yesterday, 04:54 PM
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| Senior Member ?Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Albemarle Sound Management Area Posts: 2,910 | Quote:
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Yesterday, 05:03 PM
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| Senior Member ?Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Somewhere in the middle of Michigan Posts: 3,031 | I suspect the window tint and exhaust were both non-factory items. I would not expect a driver to be ticketed for having factory-standard items installed on a car. Once somebody starts putting after-market stuff on a car, different story. |
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Yesterday, 06:02 PM
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| Senior Member ?Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Pgh Pa Posts: 2,857 | Well i can tell you for sure because i went through this a couple of years ago that the cop shouldn't have wrote him for the windows. I got myself a lawyer and it was addressed under the interstate commerce act. Needless to say i won. Sure it would have been cheaper to just pay the fines but i am not one to give in if i think i am right regardless of the cost. Edit. Unless it has changed Darkness of tint is measured by Visible Light Transmission percentage (VLT%). In Virginia, this percentage refers to percentage of visible light allowed in through the combination of film and the window.
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Last edited by Thalasso; Yesterday at 06:37 PM. |
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