Fans stand and cheer for author J.K. Rowling

NEW YORK (AP) ? Just the mention of her name, J.K. Rowling, had the audience screaming and on its feet.

The "Harry Potter" author spoke for just over an hour before a capacity crowd Tuesday night at Manhattan's Lincoln Center in her sole U.S. public appearance to promote her first novel for grownups, "The Casual Vacancy."

Dressed in a dark skirt and dark sweater blouse, Rowling chatted on stage with fellow author Ann Patchett, read briefly from her new book and also responded to pre-selected questions from fans. Rowling spoke before some 2,500 people, mostly women, gathered under the high, golden ceiling of the David H. Koch Auditorium.

Patchett, who has a wide following of her own thanks to such novels as "Bel Canto," warned at the start that she was not "particularly nice." Rowling had nothing to fear. Patchett gushed like the most avid Potter fan as she praised Rowling for inspiring countless readers and told Rowling how much she loved "The Casual Vacancy," which has received mixed reviews. It was a grownup, writerly conversation, with a few four-letter words thrown in and a brief detour into the latest phenomenon, EL James' erotic "Fifty Shades of Gray." When Patchett criticized James' writing as inferior, Rowling replied, "But that's porn."

Rowling said she felt a special connection to adolescents because of their "vulnerability" and how they come to comprehend there is "evil in the world." Stories, she said, can help them explore their feelings.

Rowling also discussed the difficulty of structuring a book and how attached she becomes to her characters. She spoke up for traditional publishers and the editorial support they offer as she explained why she didn't simply self-publish "The Casual Vacancy."

She didn't just change her subject matter when she took on the new book. She changed the process. Rowling observed that with her Potter books, she did not allow anyone ? not even her husband, Neil Murray ? to see the manuscript before she had finished. "I find that discussing an idea before I've written it," she said, is a way to kill it. But Murray was allowed early glimpses of "The Casual Vacancy."

"He was ? useful," she said.

Rowling reaffirmed that she is at work on a new book for young people. No new Potter is planned, but Rowling still has her celebrated imaginary world in mind. Discussing literary works she'd like to live in, she mentioned Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," then confided she also dreams of more personal territory, the old school of Harry and friends.

"I do still walk in and out of Hogwarts," she said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fans-stand-cheer-author-j-k-rowling-040508088.html

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New paper reveals fundamental chemistry of plasma/liquid interactions

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Though not often considered beyond the plasma television, small-scale microplasmas have great utility in a wide variety of applications. Recently, new developments have begun to capitalize on how these microplasmas interact with liquids in applications ranging from killing bacteria for sterilizing a surface to rapidly synthesizing nanoparticles.

An interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Notre Dame has revealed a critical interaction that is occurring at this plasma-liquid interface in that the electrons in plasma actually serve to separate water, producing hydrogen gas.

In a paper set to appear as a Fast Track Communication in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, David B. Go, assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, and his graduate student Paul Rumbach teamed with R. Mohan Sankaran, associate professor of chemical engineering at Case Western Reserve, and his undergraduate student Megan Witzke describe a series of experiments that revealed this new chemistry.

A plasma is an ionized gas, consisting of not only neutral gas molecules but also free electrons and charged ions. Though often thought of as very hot, microplasmas are a unique regime of plasmas that can be formed at atmospheric pressure and are considered "cold plasmas" because they are typically around room temperature. In most plasma-liquid studies, the focus has been on how the different gas species and photons (light) produced by the plasma interact with the liquid.

"Many researchers have revealed that reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in the plasma play an important role in the plasma-liquid interaction," Sankaran said, "But we've always thought that the electrons must be playing an important part. We had preliminary evidence that suggested that the plasma electrons would reduce various chemical species in the liquid but always believed that they must have been interacting with water as well. This study conclusively proves that the electrons directly interact with and electrolyze water."

Water electrolysis is the splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen and usually occurs in an electrochemical cell with two metals electrodes. In their work Go and Sankaran replaced one of the metal electrodes with an atmospheric-pressure plasma jet. However, the result was that the plasma electrochemical cell acted like a traditional electrochemical cell.

"We found that at the plasma-liquid interface, the plasma formed a virtual cathode and electrons from the plasma reduced hydrogen ions to produce hydrogen gas while at the metal anode, oxidation formed oxygen gas. The reactions are the same as for a traditional electrochemical cell, except now the plasma jet plays the role of one of the electrodes," Go said.

While Go and Sankaran acknowledge that the plasma-liquid interaction is an incredibly complex phenomenon, they agree that this work fills in a crucial piece of the puzzle.

"As we continue to develop plasma jets for all kinds of applications, be they medical, environmental or for synthesizing materials," Go said. "It's crucial that we understand the fundamental chemistry that is occurring. The role of electrons has been somewhat overlooked, but we show that they play an important role and must be considered as we continue to try to understand these new microplasma devices."

Much of this work was conducted with support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Both Go and Sankaran are recent recipients of the AFOSR's Young Investigator Award.

###

University of Notre Dame: http://www.nd.edu

Thanks to University of Notre Dame for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/124554/New_paper_reveals_fundamental_chemistry_of_plasma_liquid_interactions

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GOPs' Broun vs Darwin in Ga. House race

ATLANTA (AP) ? A Georgia congressman running unopposed for re-election now faces a write-in campaign that pits him against the father of evolution, Charles Darwin.

Republican Rep. Paul Broun is dealing with backlash after he was videotaped last month at a Baptist church banquet denouncing evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory as "lies straight from the pit of hell."

Outraged faculty at the University of Georgia, which is in Broun's district, signed a letter defending the sciences. Atlanta talk radio host Neal Boortz, who's popular among Georgia conservatives, first proposed writing-in Darwin. He says Broun's remarks make Republicans look like "Neanderthals."

The laws of political science say Broun will likely win re-election. He has no Democratic opponent. And a Facebook page promoting "Darwin for Congress" has attracted just a few dozen supporters.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gops-broun-vs-darwin-ga-house-race-162313931--politics.html

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Sales stumbles raise fresh worry for corporate America

BOSTON (Reuters) - A flagging world economy took a toll on much of Corporate America in the third quarter, leading the likes of eBay Inc, American Express, IBM and Textron Inc to miss Wall Street's sales targets or warn that spending was slowing into the holidays.

Those misses sparked concerns among investors that corporate America's year-long streak of profit growth could be nearing an end as CEOs run out of costs to cut and customers are increasingly wary about spending.

A major worry is the risk of the year-end fiscal cliff - $600 billion of spending cuts and higher taxes that could take effect at the end of the year if lawmakers in Washington fail to agree on a plan to shrink the federal deficit.

A majority - 54.3 percent - of the 70 companies in the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 Index that have reported results so far have missed analysts' revenue forecasts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The list of companies' reasons for weak performance has expanded, with some citing a decline in demand in the United States - until recently a more reliable source of growth - as well as in Europe, which is mired in a debt crisis.

American Express warned that its cardmembers' spending was starting to wane. After nine quarters of double-digit growth, spending among its mostly affluent customer base grew just 8 percent in the last quarter.

The online marketplace eBay beat estimates, but analysts said the magnitude was unimpressive and the holiday outlook cautious as price competition increases among retailers.

International Business Machines Corp, the world's largest technology services company, missed analysts' sales forecasts for a fifth consecutive time with a 5 percent drop in the third quarter, as corporate customers in the United States and Canada cut their spending on equipment and services.

"When I look at our skew of business in the quarter, through the first two months, our revenue was fairly consistent with our second-quarter performance," IBM's Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge told investors after the company reported earnings late Tuesday. "The third month of the quarter was more challenging."

Chipmaker Intel Corp also said lower corporate spending hurt its revenue, which was down 5 percent for the quarter. It set a fourth-quarter sales target that was below analysts' forecasts.

While troubles in the tech sector reflect in part a lack of corporate confidence, with companies holding back on committing to major new investments, soft drink makers PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co also reported weaker-than-expected revenue.

PepsiCo said on Wednesday that its sales in the Americas were down about 3 percent in the quarter, which partly reflected its decision to stop selling some juices and bottled water packages after "a hell of a price war," CEO Indra Nooyi said.

The company, which also makes Frito-Lay snacks and Tropicana orange juice, also noted that the strong dollar hurt its results by decreasing the value of sales made outside the United States.

Many major U.S. companies with international operations have cited the strong dollar as a drag on growth this year.

Drugmaker Abbott Laboratories also reported weaker-than-expected revenue after its sales slipped 0.4 percent to $9.77 billion in the quarter.

No. 2 oilfield services company Halliburton Co said slowing U.S. drilling took a toll on its profit in the quarter.

'CRACK IN THE ARMOR'

Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far, 64.3 percent have beaten Wall Street's lowered expectations. At the start of the third quarter on July 1, analysts expected those 500 companies to collectively increase profits by 3.1 percent, a forecast that was cut to a drop of 2.1 percent by Oct 1.

"Earnings expectations have been lowered so far that it hasn't been hard to beat them," said Keith Springer, president of Capital Financial Advisory Services in Sacramento, California. "Once revenue starts missing and you can't cut costs anymore, I think this is the crack in the armor."

While the broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose moderately on Wednesday, more revenue misses could take the wind out of a long climb in stocks this year. The S&P 500 has gained about 16 percent so far this year.

"Once we start to see earnings miss - when expectations have been pushed down and they still miss - that is when you'll see the market start to fall apart," Springer said.

Not all observers took as grim a view of the situation.

"The U.S. economy is in better shape today than it has been for some years," said Charles King, president of tech consultancy Pund-IT. "It is in a turnaround even if it is not as strong as we'd like it to be."

SETTING THE STAGE FOR 2013

With about two-and-a-half months left in 2012, investors are starting to turn their attention to next year, and analysts are pushing CEOs to offer some hint of how they expect their companies to perform in 2013.

After Textron reported weaker-than-expected sales and earnings, it noted that orders for its Cessna corporate jets had been very weak in July and August, though they had recovered somewhat in September.

Management said orders would need to hold at September's rate for the rest of the year for Cessna to meet its sales goal.

Textron CEO Scott Donnelly declined on Wednesday to offer a sales forecast for 2013, but allowed that production rates - the number of aircraft the company makes - would likely be "flattish," when compared with 2012 levels.

Even companies that beat Wall Street's earnings targets, such as insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc, cautioned investors not to set their hopes too high for 2013.

"We continue to be cautious about 2013 earnings performance," UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley told investors in a Tuesday conference call. "We expect to grow revenues and earnings per share in 2013, but we view the current consensus level as a considerable challenge.

CEOs may be wise to reel in expectations for 2013 as it would be difficult to push profit margins much higher, given the slowdown in revenue growth, said Peter Klein, senior portfolio manager at Fifth Third Asset Management in Cleveland, Ohio.

"Margins are pretty rich," Klein said. "If you have slower revenues and you've cut as much (in) expenses as you can, there's not much more you can do" to grow earnings."

(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston; Additional reporting by Martinne Geller and Nicola Leske in New York; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sales-stumbles-raise-fresh-worry-corporate-america-202318678--sector.html

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MG Android gaming handheld now available to pre-order for $150 ...

When we first laid eyes on the MG, it was an ambitious effort that hoped to bring Android 4.0-powered gaming to the casual masses through the hit-and-miss world of crowd funding. Though its Kickstarter efforts were a bust, its creators have managed to get this project off of the ground and are now accepting discounted pre-orders at $150 until November 4th -- after that, the price will climb to a full $170. All pre-orders are expected to ship during the second week of November. As a refresher, the MG features a 4-inch WVGA display, a 1GHz Cortex A5 processor, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage and an 8GB microSD card. It'll also accommodate up to 64GB cards, should you ever hit a wall. Sporting a design that's reminiscent of the Tapwave Zodiac, the MG will ship pre-loaded with several "freemium" titles and will have access to Google Play's massive library of games. So, if you're looking to wean your younger sibling off of your high-end smartphone, the MG could be the stocking stuffer that gets the job done this holiday season.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/17/mg-android-gaming-handheld-now-accepting-pre-orders-for-150/

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Sprint Optimus G benchmarks and hardware testing

It's no secret that I dislike benchmark applications on Android. I've got technical reasons that involve native code and virtual machines, but the fact remains that plenty of folks do like them, and I'm here to deliver what you guys want to see. I've put away my dislike for a moment today, because the Sprint Optimus G just blows the doors off of everything else and it deserves a look.

The quad-core APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro, high-speed RAM and Nand, and Adreno 320 GPU mean the Optimus G is a well-oiled killing machine when it comes to performance. In every benchmark we ran, it handily beats everything out there -- even while running less than optimal stock software.

We didn't stop at benchmarks. This was also a perfect opportunity to check the hardware performance as well, so you'll see some numbers and graphs for Wifi, GPS, and multitouch, too. Spoiler -- you'll be pleased. 

Hit the break and check it out.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/opwdLtuY_Xs/story01.htm

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Judge dismisses 'Bachelor' discrimination case

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? A federal judge on Monday dismissed a case filed by two black men who claimed ABC's "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" discriminated against casting participants of color.

U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger's ruling states that casting decisions by the network and the series' producers are protected by the First Amendment and the case should not continue.

Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson sued the network in April, claiming their bids to appear on "The Bachelor" were never given serious consideration. They claimed the show and its spinoff "The Bachelorette" discriminated against nonwhite participants.

Trauger's ruling calls the plaintiffs' efforts "laudable" but says the lawsuit is aimed at regulating the show's content, which is forbidden under the First Amendment.

"Ultimately, whatever messages 'The Bachelor' and 'The Bachelorette' communicate or are intended to communicate ? whether explicitly, implicitly, intentionally, or otherwise ? the First Amendment protects the right of the producers of these shows to craft and control those messages, based on whatever considerations the producers wish to take into account," Trauger wrote.

ABC lauded the ruling, saying, "We felt from the onset this case was completely without merit and we are pleased the Court has found in our favor."

An email sent to attorney Byron Perkins, who represented Claybrooks and Johnson, was not immediately returned.

At the time of the lawsuit's filing, all of the men given star billing in the first 16 seasons of "The Bachelor" were white. Through seven seasons of "The Bachelorette," two Hispanic contestants were selected winners and the rest were white.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-dismisses-bachelor-discrimination-case-012647318.html

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