Renesas aims to sell chip plant, shed 12,000 jobs: source

Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp plans to sell off loss-making operations and cut its payroll by at least 12,000, a source close to the matter told Reuters on Saturday, as the company battles high costs and nimbler foreign rivals.

Sources also confirmed that Renesas, the world's largest maker of microcontroller chips for cars, aims to raise more than 100 billion yen ($1.3 billion) to pay for restructuring costs and will take the plan to Hitachi Ltd and its other major shareholders as early as next week.

The Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co plans to buy a Renesas chip plant at Tsuruoka, in northern Japan, as part of the plan, although the sources did not confirm this.

Renesas could not be reached for comment. TSMC spokeswoman Elizabeth Sun declined to comment on the report, saying the company does not comment on market rumors.

Renesas said last week it would form a tie-up with TSMC, which already counts Renesas as one of its clients, but declined to give details ahead of a formal announcement due on Monday.

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Renesas has posted cumulative net losses of nearly $6 billion over the past seven years as it struggles to keep up with South Korea's Samsung Electronics and others in an expensive race to build ever smaller and faster chips.

Hobbled by a strong yen and forced to close eight of its factories after natural disasters in Japan and Thailand last year, Renesas has said it would hammer out a restructuring scheme by July.

Renesas has presented a plan to its major lenders that would cut its payroll by at least 12,000, including 5,000 voluntary redundancies, the source close to the matter said.

The sale of the Tsuruoka system chip factory and its Renesas Mobile unit, which makes chips for mobile phones, would remove another 3,100 workers from its payroll, while the remaining reductions would come via natural attrition and restructuring at other facilities, the source said.

The plan would trim its payroll by more than a quarter.

The Tsuruoka plant, which makes system chips that combine processing and other functions on a single sliver of silicon and are used in a range of digital electronics, has been a major burden for Renesas as Japanese consumer electronics makers cut production of TVs and other products.

Renesas was formed over the past decade via successive mergers of the chip units of Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, and NEC Corp.

Mitsubishi Electric, whose earnings along with Hitachi have been bolstered by strong results in the infrastructure business and limited exposure to consumer electronics, said last week that Renesas's shareholders were prepared to offer support.

But NEC, whose chip division was merged into Renesas just two years ago, has been hit with steep losses in recent years as its mobile handset and IT hardware businesses struggle.

Renesas shares have lost more than half their value over the past two months as worries mounted about the company's operations, while Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average is down 15 percent.

(Additional reporting by Mari Saito in Tokyo and Jonathan Standing in Taipei; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Nick Macfie)

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Kinder Morgan pares oil pipeline size, tanker estimate

Kinder Morgan has pared down the size of its Trans Mountain pipeline twinning project, slightly reducing the number of oil tankers that would be expected to load up in Burnaby if the controversial expansion is approved.

The $4.1-billion pipeline expansion would now increase capacity from the current 300,000 barrels per day to 750,000 ??down from a previous estimate of 850,000.

About 400,000 to 450,000 barrels per day, much of it diluted heavy crude from Alberta's oil sands, would be allocated for export via tanker, according to Kinder Morgan spokesman Andrew Galarnyk.

He said that translates into about 300 oil tankers a year calling on the Westridge Marine Terminal on Burrard Inlet, compared to 32 last year and a record of 69 in 2010.

"We previously indicated roughly 25 to 30 tankers per month," Galarnyk said. "We're probably going to be at the low end of that range now ? probably 25."

He said the tanker estimates assume continued use of existing Aframax size tankers, not larger Suezmax tankers that hold up to one million barrels, but which would require Port Metro Vancouver dredging the Second Narrows.

"Our project is going to stand alone on the current types of vessels that are calling on our facility."

The project has been downsized because some shippers that would use the twinned pipeline failed to get the approval of their boards to sign binding contracts with Kinder Morgan.

The pipeline project would open up much more access for Canadian crude oil to reach new markets in Asia.

Kinder Morgan expects to launch community consultations in the weeks ahead, which would precede a formal project application to the National Energy Board at least 18 months from now.

The company aims to begin construction in 2016 and open the new line in 2017.

Trans Mountain's right-of-way runs from northern Alberta southwest through B.C. and runs through the Lower Mainland, passing through Chilliwack and northern stretches of Abbotsford, Langley and Surrey before crossing the Fraser River and passing through Coquitlam and Burnaby.

The plan is opposed by city councils in Burnaby and Vancouver, as well as various environmental groups.

The Trans Mountain project is in addition to Enbridge's proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry oil on an all-new route across northern B.C. to Kitimat and then overseas via tanker.

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For more on the logistics, risks and politics around Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline plan, see the Black Press Oil & Water series.

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New Video Game Releases Week 21, 2012 - Video Games Blogger

Here?s the list of this week?s video game releases. The biggest of the new titles are Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Dragon?s Dogma, Mario Tennis Open, Sorcery, and Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock.

New on the downloadable games front is:

• On the PlayStation Store Sorcery, Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Dungeons & Dragon: Daggerdale, Alex Kidd In Miracle World, Wonder Boy In Monster Land, Wonder Boy In Monster World, Super Hang-On, The Revenge of Shinobi (PS3), Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (PSone), Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain, Need for Speed: Most Wanted (PS2), Table Top Tanks (PS Vita) become available [updates Tuesday].
• While on Xbox Live Marketplace Joy Ride Turbo (XBLA) gets added [updates Wednesday].
• The Wii Shop, DSiWare & 3DS eShop?s games are unknown, but Europe gets Art of Balance TOUCH! (3DS), and the NEOGEO classic Metal Slug 3 (Wii) for download [updates Thursday].
• On Steam there?s Alan Wake?s American Nightmare, DiRT Showdown, Iron Front: Liberation 1944.

The new retail releases are:

• Tom Clancy?s Ghost Recon Alpha (DVD, Blu-ray)
• Tom Clancy?s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (Xbox 360, PS3)
• Dragon?s Dogma (Xbox 360, PS3)
• Haunted Legends 2: The Bronze Horseman (PC)
• Kids learn to Think: A+ Edition (DS)
• Mario Tennis Open (3DS)
• Men In Black: Alien Crisis (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii)
• Mystery Masters ? Secret Stories 4-Pack for Mac (Mac)
• Nightmare Realm (PC)
• Purr Pals: Purrfection (3DS)
• Sorcery (PS3 Move)
• Stronghold 3 Gold Edition (PC)

Here?s the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier launch trailer:

Take a look at the Dragon?s Dogma launch trailer:

Here?s the Mario Tennis Open TV commercial:

Here?s the Sorcery launch trailer:

And lastly is a Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock epic trailer:

Image credit: Letsgetfoxy

What video games will you be playing this week? Any of these?

Tags: Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, Dragon's Dogma, Mario Tennis Open, Sorcery, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Categories: 3DS News, DS News, Mac News, News, PC News, PS Vita News, PS2 News, PS3 News, Retro News, Videos, Wii News, Xbox 360 News

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Taliban: NATO nations should leave war like France

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? The Taliban on Sunday urged all NATO nations in Afghanistan to follow France's lead and pull their forces from the war.

The call came in a three-page statement released just as heads of state opened the NATO summit in Chicago to talk about the future of Afghanistan.

The Taliban also on Sunday took responsibility for a suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan.

The newly elected president of France has said he will withdraw all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year's end ? a full two years before the timeline agreed to by nations in U.S.-led NATO coalition.

"The declaration of the new president of France, Francois Hollande, that all its troops will be removed from Afghanistan at the end of this year is a decision based on realities and a reflection of the opinion of its nation," the Taliban said in an English version of the statement posted on its Web site.

The Taliban often issues long statements addressed to world opinion during international conferences dealing with Afghanistan.

"We call upon all the other NATO member countries to avoid working for the political interests of American officials and answer the call of your own people by immediately removing all your troops from Afghanistan," the insurgent group said.

It cited a recent New York Times/CBS News poll that found that 69 percent of Americans thought the U.S. should not be at war in Afghanistan.

"So the NATO member countries who claim to be the elected representatives of its people and consider their government the people's government ? by the people, for the people ? how will they answer the call of their people in this summit?" the Taliban asked.

The Taliban also reiterated U.S. estimates that few al-Qaida fighters remain in Afghanistan.

Routing al-Qaida from Afghanistan has been a key basis for U.S. involvement in the decade-long war.

"The American intelligence networks, including the CIA, state that members of al-Qaida have all left Afghanistan and that there are not more than 50 left, therefore the military presence of America is not for its own security, but a long-term strategy for turning our country and the region into its colony." American officials have given an estimate of less than 100 al-Qaida members.

The United States has denied being an occupying force and has said that it has no interest in establishing long-term military bases in Afghanistan. However, a U.S.-Afghan strategic partnership document signed this month gives the U.S. the option of keeping forces in Afghanistan after nearly all international combat troops withdraw by 2014. Any such force would serve two specific purposes: training of Afghan forces and operations against al-Qaida.

Officials have previously said as many as 20,000 U.S. special operations forces and other troops could remain after the combat mission ends, but that still must still be negotiated.

"They are conjuring artificial excuses to prolong the occupation of Afghanistan, are wavering in their stance and do not seem to have a clear strategy for a political solution," the Taliban said. "The Islamic Emirate (which is what the Taliban call themselves) considers the claims of the invaders of finding a political solution as meaningless until they come out of their fluctuating unstable state."

Violence in Afghanistan continued on Sunday across the country.

NATO reported two of its service members killed in an insurgent attack, while Afghan officials reported that a suicide bomber struck a police checkpoint in Uruzgan province in the country's south.

NATO did not provide any further details on the attack that killed the service members, its location or their nationalities. It was not clear if the two attacks were related.

The deaths bring to 24 the number of foreign troops killed this month in Afghanistan and 156 this year.

Fareeb Ayal, a spokesman for the police chief of Uruzgan province, said a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint near a marketplace in Tarin Kot, the provincial capital. Ayal said a NATO convoy was at the checkpoint at the time of the explosion. He said six children were wounded, two of them critically. He said there were some NATO casualties too, but he didn't have details.

Taliban spokesman Qari Youssef Ahmadi said the Taliban were behind the attack.

In other violence, police in western Farah province said that 20 Taliban militants were killed and another 15 were wounded during an operation that began Friday.

Mohammad Ghaws Milyar, the deputy police chief of Farah, said the Taliban were killed during an ongoing operation by the Afghan security forces in the Bala Buluk district. He added that the operation will continue until the end of the week and its goal was to clear the area of Taliban insurgents.

Milyar said two Afghan Army soldiers and a member of the Afghan intelligence services were also killed during a gun battle with insurgents in Bala Buluk on the first day of the operation.

Five insurgents were also killed in a gun battle on Sunday with Afghan police forces in eastern Nuristan province, the provincial governor's office said. The battle started after Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in Nuristan's Kamdesh district. A police office was killed and another was wounded in the attack, a statement said.

Also, a roadside bomb in the northern province of Kunduz late Saturday killed a young student and two police officers, said Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.

___

Associated Press Writer Mirwais Khan contributed to this report from Kandahar.

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7 Companies That Could Have Been Facebook ? Know All That!

It?s been a long road for Facebook. What began as an intimate platform has turned into a social networking giant serving more than 900 million users.

Facebook may be cashing in on its intial public offering this week, but it wasn?t the first to introduce the world to online social networking ? many other sites were once recognized as the most popular. What made them fall by the wayside?

For some, it was server instability or lack of financial support to hit the ground running. Other formerly popular networks received the necessary monetary backing, but were inhibited by the corporation that had acquired them ? and some went on to morph the company into something broader than just social networking.

SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg: Smart or Lucky? [POLL]

But perhaps the most important reason why other sites couldn?t compete with Facebook?s current growth is timing. Today, the web is stronger, faster and more crowded than ever ? people rely on an Internet connection to communicate, earn revenue and entertain, among many other things. That wasn?t the case 10 to 20 years ago.

Take a look at some of the past social networking kings that existed before Facebook. That?s not to say all weren?t successful. Most are still around, but in a different form from which they originated.

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1. AOL

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For many computer users in the mid ?90s, the Internet was AOL. From chat rooms to the ubiqutous AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), AOL was the center of online activity. The company acquired one of the dominant desktop browsers (Netscape), the leading streaming music and MP3 services (WinAmp) and was the king of Web 1.0.

SEE ALSO: AOL Founder Warns Zuckerberg: Don?t Get Distracted by Facebook IPO

Then in 2001, AOL acquired Time Warner in its bid to become a media company. The merger was a disaster ? one of the worst in business history. The fallout from the merger prevented AOL from keeping its eye on the evolving nature of technology, including broadband and real-time social channels.

AOL tried to compete again in the social space in the mid ?00s, but blunders like 2008?s $1 billion acquisition prevented success. Today, AOL is known as a media and advertising company and owner of such properties as The Huffington Post.

---

2. GeoCities

---

GeoCities was originally founded as a web hosting service that let users create communities of homepages on like-minded topics. The pages were hosted by specific ?cities? ? for example, ?Silicon Valley? (computers/electronics) or ?Hollywood? (Entertainment).

Near its peak, GeoCities was acquired by Yahoo for $3 billion. New copyright rules upset members and some left in protest. Among other issues, Yahoo was unable to make the site profitable and it was shut down in 2009.

---

3. SixDegrees.com

---

SixDegrees.com, named after the six degrees of separation concept, was one of the first social networking sites to exist. Users list friends and family, invite external contacts to join, then see if there were connections with other users on the site.

At its peak, SixDegrees.com had 1 million members and partnered with NADP. The site simply wasn?t profitable at the time, and shut down in 2001. It has since been revived, but is only open to former members and those who get an invite.

---

4. Friendster

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Friendster was once considered the top online social network. It allowed users to connect, communicate and share online content with other members. Within a few months of launching, it had more than 3 million users.

During Friendster?s peak in 2003, Google offered founder Jonathan Abrams $30 million, however he chose to be funded by Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Benchmark Capital. The decline is considered one of the biggest blunders in the history of Silicon Valley. The site could hardly keep up with demand, and had trouble serving web pages. It was eclipsed by MySpace in 2004.

Friendster shifted in 2011 to focus on its expansion in Asia, and is now a social gaming site. Today, more than 90% of new users are based in Asia, and monthly users have increased by 50%.

---

5. MySpace

---

In 2003, Tom Anderson, Chris DeWolf and a few other Friendster users saw potential in the site, but felt it was lacking infrastructure. The MySpace team and its resources were supported by eUniverse. The new platform had the programmers it needed as it rapidly grew in popularity.

By 2006, MySpace was bought by NewsCorp for $580 million and had 100 million accounts. It peaked in 2007 when it was considered the leading social networking site, valued at $12 billion.

The site?s downfall began in 2008, when Facebook eventually caught up and overtook the Alexa ratings. Among other issues, Myspace struggled with a decline in ad revenue, failure to innovate and Facebook?s expansive membership to users under 18. The downfall accelerated in 2009, when it lost millions of followers monthly.

MySpace was bought for $35 million by advertising network Specific Media, and Justin Timberlake took ownership stake. Recently, Timberlake introduced MySpace TV. The site gained a million new followers in February 2012.

---

6. Second Life

---

Second Life?s online virtual world was developed in 2003 by Linden Lab. The service enables users to interact with others, create and trade virtual property, and participate in jobs and activities through an avatar. As of 2011, there were 1 million active users on the site.

Though Second Life was not necessarily a direct competitor to Facebook, the site became so popular that people made a living through their avatar. Some quit their jobs and others felt happier in a virtual life instead of reality.

Due to Second Life?s rapid growth rate, its servers struggled with instability. Eventual changes to the terms of service in order to comply with various international laws regulated or banned many Second Life businesses that once thrived.

---

7. Orkut

---

Orkut was quietly designed by Google in 2004. The social networking site was originally hosted in California, but today it is one of the most popular social networks in Brazil.

The site intended to help users connect with new and familiar people. It became popular in Brazil, India and Estonia ? until 2010, when many users in Estonia and India switched over to Facebook.

Due to its prominence in Brazil, as well as its legal issues, the company moved its operation and management there to continue business. Today there are 66 million users on orkut.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, blackred

More About: aim, aol, Facebook, faceboook ipo, features, friendster, geocities, myspace, orkut, Second Life, Social Media, trending

For more Business coverage:

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Strong Wal-Mart profit trumps bribery probe concerns

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc's profit and sales surpassed expectations as more people shopped at its established U.S. stores and spent more, pushing shares up more than 4 percent despite ongoing internal and government probes into possible bribery.

Wal-Mart's shares jumped and briefly recovered all of the 8.2 percent plunge sustained after an April 21 New York Times report uncovered an alleged past bribery scheme in Mexico that the newspaper said Wal-Mart executives knew about.

The first-quarter results, including a 10.1 percent increase in profit, showed that Wal-Mart's U.S. recovery was on track and efforts were progressing to cut costs and establish everyday low pricing in markets such as China.

"The real question is, would the stock be higher if it weren't for the investigation? It's very hard to know," said Faye Landes, managing director at Consumer Edge Research.

At the same time, Wal-Mart is seen as a defensive play amid weak economic data and worries about Europe.

Wal-Mart shares could rise to $65 to $70 and perhaps in six to nine months break out of their 13-year trading range, driven by earnings growth, said Gilford Securities analyst Bernard Sosnick. The shares last traded above $70 in 1999.

A strong performance from the Walmart U.S. unit pleased investors. Sales at Walmart U.S. stores open at least a year rose 2.6 percent in the first quarter and should rise 1 to 3 percent in the second quarter, the company said.

The rebound in the United States follows Walmart's reversal of its inventory reduction plan after shoppers headed elsewhere to find goods not on Walmart shelves.

"The turnaround they initiated several quarters ago is starting to show some benefit, it's starting to gain traction. But at the end of the day it is still a very challenging backdrop for them," said Walter Stackow, a senior research analyst at Manning & Napier, which owns Wal-Mart shares.

Stackow cited the financial concerns of Walmart's core customers and the competition Walmart faces from dollar stores and online retailers.

Economic problems, including joblessness, weigh on the world's largest retailer. Many of Walmart's U.S. customers are shopping on a paycheck cycle - spending more and buying larger packages of items at the beginning of the month, then buying less-expensive items and smaller packages as money runs low later in the month.

"We have to continue to see jobs added in the economy. I think that's important across all sectors, especially retail," Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley told reporters.

Wal-Mart's shares closed up 4.l2 percent, or $2.49, at $61.68 on the New York Stock Exchange. Thursday's intraday high of $62.50 marked the first time Wal-Mart shares have risen above the $62.45 level, where they closed just before last month's New York Times story.

PROFIT, SALES TOP EXPECTATIONS

Wal-Mart earned $3.74 billion, or $1.09 per share, up from $3.40 billion or 97 cents a share a year ago. An earlier Easter and warmer weather contributed to the gains, the company said.

Wal-Mart had forecast earnings per share of $1.01 to $1.06. Analysts, on average, had expected it to earn $1.04 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales rose 8.6 percent to $112.27 billion, ahead of analysts' forecast of $110.54 billion.

The 2.6 percent rise in same-store sales topped the company's forecast of flat to 2 percent growth and analysts' average forecast of 1.4 percent, according to Thomson Reuters.

Walmart U.S. same-store sales have risen for three straight quarters following nine consecutive quarterly declines. Store traffic has risen for two straight quarters after six declines.

The U.S. unit also reported the first quarterly increase in six years in apparel sales at stores open at least a year.

For the current second quarter, Wal-Mart expects to earn $1.13 to $1.18 per share from continuing operations. Analysts have forecast a profit of $1.16 per share.

BRIBERY INVESTIGATIONS PROCEED

Wal-Mart has been bombarded by negative comments from shareholders, employees and activists after the New York Times reported that Wal-Mart de Mexico, or Walmex, allegedly orchestrated bribes of $24 million to help it grow quickly last decade and that Wal-Mart's top brass tried to cover it up.

Wal-Mart said on Thursday that a number of government agencies in Mexico and the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were investigating.

The company contends the matter should not have a material impact on its business, but cannot say for certain that it will not. Along with incurring costs related to the probes, lawsuits and its own review, the process may impinge on the time some executives have to devote to other matters.

On Thursday, proxy advisory firm Egan Jones said Wal-Mart shareholders should withhold their votes for Chief Executive Mike Duke and former CEO Lee Scott and vote for a proposal brought by shareholders requesting regular reports on the company's political spending.

Also on Thursday, two U.S. lawmakers asked for Wal-Mart to allow a former company lawyer to cooperate in their probe.

Walmex sales rose 13 percent and its same-store sales in Mexico rose 5.6 percent. Operating income at the unit was flat. It opened 45 stores in Mexico during the quarter.

Holley declined to comment on Wal-Mart's prior fiscal-year forecast, which calls for earnings of $4.72 to $4.92 per share. The company is expected to update that forecast when it issues second-quarter results. Sales are still expected to rise 5 to 7 percent, he said.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl and Brad Dorfman in Chicago, additional reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Del., and Aruna Viswanatha in Washington; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Matthew Lewis)

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3D space epic "Gravity" pushed back to 2013

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Graphite enters different states of matter in ultrafast experiment

ScienceDaily (May 16, 2012) ? For the first time, scientists have seen an X-ray-irradiated mineral go to two different states of matter in about 40 femtoseconds (a femtosecond is one quadrillionth of a second).

Using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford, Stefan Hau-Riege of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and colleagues heated graphite to induce a transition from solid to liquid and to warm-dense plasma.

Ultrafast phase transitions from solid to liquid and plasma states are important in the development of new material-synthesis techniques, in ultrafast imaging, and high-energy density science.

By using different pulse lengths and calculating different spectra, the team was able to extract the time dependence of plasma parameters, such as electron and ion temperatures and ionization states.

"We found that the heating and disintegration of the ion lattice occurs much faster than anticipated," Hau-Riege said.

The research provides new insights into the behavior of matter irradiated by intense hard X-rays. Though the study ultimately serves as a breakthrough in plasma physics and ultrafast materials science, it also affects other fields such as single molecule biological imaging and X-ray optics.

For single-molecule bioimaging, the team found that in certain cases it may be substantially more difficult than anticipated because energy transfer is surprisingly fast. In X-ray optics, they found that the damage threshold is lower than anticipated.

This is the first XFEL high-energy density science experiment that used inelastic X-ray scattering as a plasma diagnostic.

The research is scheduled to appear in the May 21 edition Physical Review Letters.

Other Livermore researchers include Alexander Graf, Tilo Doppner, Rich London, Carsten Formann, Siegfried Glenzer, Matthias Frank and Joe Bradley.

In addition to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, participating institutions include Universitat Duisburg-Essen; Max Planck Advanced Study Group, Center for Free Electron Laser Science; Max Planck Institut fur medizinische Forschung; and Max Planck Institut fur Kernphysik, all of Germany.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Federal Agency Kills Pets, Endangered Species, and More

Anatomy of a DWS snare

Over the past decade a federal agency has been responsible for killing more than 50,000 animals using traps, snares, and poison. Even rare and endangered species have been killed. According to some very deep investigative work by the Sacramento Bee, the Department of Wildlife Services, a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture?s Animal and Plant Inspection Service, has an annual budget of nearly $100 million. Their job, to protect farming interests and control so-called ?nuisance? animals, has left a massive death toll on wildlife. Far too often the wrong animals are being killed, and worse, the killings are going on without notice and often without official record keeping.

And the practice isn?t new: Wildlife Services has been around for 75 years. And even though its work has been roundly criticized over several decades, including in hearings by Congress, not much has been done to curb its sloppy and reckless work.

That work includes killing the wrong animals on both public and private land to the tune of 50,000 animals since 2000. These animals included golden and bald eagles as well as wolverines. The department also exposed at least 18 employees and several members of the public to cyanide meant to poison animals, and it?s killed pets, too: More than eight family dogs have been killed every month, on average, since 2000.

Not that the Bee?s journalists were able to get this information easily.

?If we accommodated your request, we would have to accommodate all requests,? wrote Mark Jensen, director of Wildlife Services in Nevada, turning down a request by The Bee to observe its hunters and trappers in action.

The paper relied on court-ordered Freedom of Information Act requests to do the job and talked to many whistleblowers who have left the agency, often in disgust over practices that aren?t merely secretive but unnecessarily bloody and cruel.

One former worker in Texas told the newspaper that it was actual policy not to report the accidental poisoning or killing of family pets; they were told to throw away dog collars and bury the animals. Similar practices go on for mistaken killings of thousands of animals, 150 species in total. And this is happening even as hundreds of millions of tax dollars are spent for species protections nationwide.

The findings, detailed in a three-part series, come on the heels of a bipartisan bill put forth by congressmen John Campbell of California and Peter DeFazio of Oregon that would ban Wildlife Services? most dangerous killing tool: spring-loaded sodium cyanide cartridges, which have killed tens of thousands of animals in recent years.

But even if that legislation gains ground in Congress, the entire mandate of Wildlife Services, the Bee concludes, isn?t drawing as much scrutiny as it should, especially since the government?s own research shows that the so-called ?war on predators? is doing a great deal of ecosystem damage. Scientists point to the coyote as an example, saying that without them disease carrying rodents and crop-destroying rabbits create their own scourge. Even feral cats will cut down on bird populations, which leads to way too many insects, which again, hurts farming.

Which is ironic. Since supposedly this agency was created to help agriculture. A claim that today?s science simply doesn?t support.

Links to all of the Bee?s reporting on this story can be found here. Environmental coverage made possible in part by support from Patagonia. For information on Patagonia and its environmental efforts, visit www.patagonia.com.

Tagged as: activism, conservation, endangered species, environment

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Colon Cancer Gaps for Blacks, Whites Largely Due to Screening

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Kyocera teases bone conduction audio technology for mobile phones at CTIA

Can you hear me now? It's a common phrase in the mobile industry, but if Kyocera has its way, the saying could quickly become a thing of the past, thanks to bone conduction technology that it plans to integrate into future handsets. Rather than operating with a traditional earpiece, we were told the display itself vibrates to create sound waves. The end result is an aural experience that can be perceived with your facial tissues and bones, and it's said to dramatically improves perceived audio quality within noisy environments.

Bone conduction technology was initially created for those with hearing difficulty, and while Kyocera isn't the first to reveal an implementation within mobile phones (a distinction that belongs to KDDI), the technology is Kyocera's own. During our brief hands-on demo, we were rather impressed by the noticeable difference created by tissue conduction in comparison to a traditional handset -- this applies to both quiet and noisy environments. In case you're curious, no, the vibrations aren't jarring, and yes, we'd genuinely like to see the technology take to the mainstream.

Gallery: Kyocera's tissue conduction audio technology

Kyocera teases bone conduction audio technology for mobile phones at CTIA originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 May 2012 21:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Trip the light fantastic with Acer's 11.6-inch Aspire One 725 Netbook

Ivy Bridge might be the belle of the ball in laptop-land, but small and nimble will always be on the dance card, too. Despite its petite 11.6-inch 1366x768 screen and 2.6-pound frame, Acer's newly announced Aspire One 725 can still pirouette with a dual-core C-60 AMD processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Radeon HD 6290 graphics, and choice of two colors. Along with the 320 or 500GB hard drives and HD output, those specs should allow you to edit the odd video while still doing the emailing and surfing it was made for. Acer's confirmed the unit will land in Europe in July for 359 euros, but stateside dates and price are still unknown. It's not as flashy as those ingénues, but it should be a cheap, light date.

Trip the light fantastic with Acer's 11.6-inch Aspire One 725 Netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Quote of the Day: Romney Is 'Still Deciding' His Position on Immigration (Atlantic Politics Channel)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Apple fighting for control of iPhone5.com domain

Apple has filed a case with the World?Intellectual?Property Organization to gain access to the web domain iPhone5.com. Currently, the site is a modest fan forum. While Apple's action here might give us a hint as to what they're going to call the next iOS smartphone, it could just very well be protecting the world at large from scams which would target unwary Apple fans. Once upon a time, Apple even

Dinosaur Farts Caused Jurassic Global Warming [Science]

A lot of dinosaurs were big eating machines. Now, scientists have calculated how much gas they would have expelled as a result of their digestion—and the quantities they produced probably meant that they warmed their own climate through letting rip. More »

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Verizon Users Getting High-Quality Live Video Broadcasting with Color App [Video]

Color announced a deal with Verizon today that will let Big V customers broadcast live audio and video from their phones on Facebook. I'm going to livestream my lunch complete with chewing sounds! More »

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