Sure, DJ controllers might be the emerging force in spinning, but CDJs are still largely the club standard. Pioneer has always had thumbs in both of these pies, of course, but the new XDJ-R1 sees the brand uniting them for the first time. The all-in-one unit offers two CD players, USB media playback and MIDI controller functionality. Additionally, you can keep things moving wirelessly via an iOS device thanks to a new dedicated "remotebox" app. Wireless direct means that you won't need to worry too much about flaky connections while you wander into the crowd with your iPhone. You'll still be able to control almost everything directly in the app. Back on the physical (and built-in) two-channel mixer you can spice things up with the usual loop, sync, hot cue and sampling features, plus a choice of color effects. The inclusion of XLR outputs and booth out shows that Pioneer wants to see this in the DJ box, and at $1,099, it should appeal to anyone who'd been eyeing up the component parts. It's available in June, but in the meantime there's a video tour cued up past the break.
Let?s eliminate income taxes for individuals and businesses. Will this increase our nation?s budget deficit? Not if we switch to sales and net worth taxes.
The income tax is full of exemptions, loopholes, deductions. Special deals Congress has approved for certain businesses and individuals but not others. Some of our biggest enterprises pay no income tax.
Businesses that pay big time for their executives but don?t show a profit. Giant but legally non-profit institutions pay no income tax. Many adult citizens pay no income tax. Many of the most wealthy pay lower rates than middle income earners because of deductions they can use.
One of our very largest and most profitable businesses, GE, paid almost no income tax last year legally using the tax laws. One of our richest individuals, Warren Buffett, paid a lower percentage on his income than did his secretary. Big oil companies, which in time of low prices needed to be stimulated to extract domestic oil, now continue to receive reduced tax rates on their huge profits.
A sales tax would hit every business and individual in the United States. The poor, the rich, the drug dealers, undocumented immigrants, the non-profit companies ? all of them receiving national defense and government benefits such as roads, parks, food protection, financial regulation, flight safety and much more that no one would want to be without. The challenge is to enact a sales tax with no exemptions so the rate is as low as possible. If the poor pay a little more for medicines and food, Medicaid and food stamps can compensate for this. Let the rest of us pay for everything we buy ? maybe we will be a little more prudent and buy what we need rather than what we want.
Because the sales tax does collect an increasingly lower portion of total income as a person?s or entity?s income increases, it should not be the only replacement source for income tax.
Half of what income taxes now collect should be replaced by a net worth tax. It might require a 1 percent tax on assets with a $10 million exemption for each business, non-profit and individual limited to that one exemption for all the entities that they control. The Wall Street traders and fund managers, those living on inherited wealth, and the biggest businesses and non-profits would pay this tax regardless of how they obtained their assets.
No chance for these changes? It should not be a liberal or conservative issue. Those opposed would be those who unfairly get special deals. This tax switch would help bring more fairness to taxes ? an unpleasant but necessary cost of living in America.
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Ron Moore is a risk management consultant from Cedar Rapids. Comments: reugenemoore@gmail.com
Olivia Newton-John, who became an advocate for breast cancer research after she was diagnosed with it two decades ago and underwent a double mastectomy, has revealed that her sister Rona Newton-John (above, left) passed away last Friday (May 24) from brain cancer.
Rona was diagnosed just a few weeks ago, causing Olivia to postpone her Las Vegas show so the sisters could spend time together.
Olivia writes on Facebook:
My beautiful sister Rona sadly passed on May 24th in Los Angeles. It was May 25th in Australia - which was our mother Irene's birthday. Rona died of a very aggressive brain tumor and mercifully suffered no pain. She was surrounded by the love of her four children - Fiona, Brett,Tottie and Emerson and, her wonderful friends. I will miss her forever - my beautiful, smart, talented, funny, brave sister Rona. In lieu of flowers the family would appreciate donations to the ONJCWC where a brain tumor wellness program will be started in her name. Thank you all for your kind words of love and support. Love and light, Olivia
Newton-John also includes a link to the brain tumor wellness program, if you'd like to donate.
Photo/Video credit: Getty Images
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In this March 1, 2013 photo, a crane removes a container from a ship at the Port of Baltimore's Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore. The government reports on the U.S. trade deficit for March, Thursday, May 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
In this March 1, 2013 photo, a crane removes a container from a ship at the Port of Baltimore's Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore. The government reports on the U.S. trade deficit for March, Thursday, May 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. economy grew at a modest 2.4 percent annual rate from January through March, slightly slower than initially estimated. Consumer spending was stronger than first thought, but businesses restocked more slowly and state and local government spending cuts were deeper.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that economic growth in the first quarter was only marginally below the 2.5 percent annual rate the government had estimated last month. That's still much faster than the 0.4 percent growth during the October-December quarter.
Most economists think growth is slowing to around a 2 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter as the economy adjusts to federal spending cuts, higher taxes and further global weakness. Still, many say the decline may not be as severe as once thought. That's because solid hiring, surging home prices and record stock gains should keep consumers spending.
Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said the small revision to first-quarter growth supported her view that the economy will grow a moderate 2.2 percent for the year, the same as last year.
Still, Lee expects growth to improve to 3.2 percent in 2014, as the job market accelerates and consumers grow more confident in the economy.
Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity as measured by the gross domestic product. GDP is the economy's total output of goods and services, from haircuts and computers to trucks and aircraft carriers.
The government's second look at first-quarter growth showed that consumer spending roared ahead at a 3.4 percent annual rate. That's the fastest spending growth in more than two years and even stronger than the 3.2 percent rate estimated last month.
Healthy consumer spending shows many Americans are shrugging off an increase this year in Social Security taxes that has reduced most paychecks.
And more consumer demand could also prompt businesses to restock at a faster rate later this year. Business inventories grew in the first quarter but at a slightly slower pace than first estimated. That was a key reason for the small revision.
A big reason that consumers have been able to withstand the higher taxes is the job market has improved. Employers have added an average of 208,000 jobs a month since November. That's well above the monthly average of 138,000 during the previous six months.
Surging stock prices and steady home-price increases have also allowed Americans to regain the $16 trillion in wealth they lost to the Great Recession. Higher wealth tends to embolden people to spend more. Some economists have said the increase in home prices alone could boost consumer spending enough to offset a Social Security tax increase.
The weakest area of the economy continues to be government spending, which fell for the 10th time in the last 11 quarters. The 4.9 percent rate of decline was even larger than first estimated, reflecting further drops in defense spending and weaker activity at the state and local level.
Economists were puzzled by the steeper decline at the state and local level. Spending among those governments fell in the first quarter at an annual rate of 2.4 percent ? double the initial estimate and the biggest quarterly drop in two years.
And with the federal government furloughing workers and trimming other spending to meet the mandates of the sequester, government activity will be a drag on growth for the rest of the year.
"The fiscal squeeze will continue for the rest of the year," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. Still, Ashworth doesn't see economic growth slowing very much in the current quarter. He projects growth in the April-June quarter to come in at a rate between 2 percent and 2.5 percent.
The housing recovery continued to add to growth at the start of the year. Home construction, one of the economy's top performers, grew at an annual rate of 12.1 percent in the first quarter, its third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
Businesses, however, reduced the pace of their investment in equipment and computer software. That slowed to a growth rate of 4.6 percent in the first quarter, down from growth of 11.8 percent in the fourth quarter.
Life for a woman can be rough. There is so much negativity in the world and we need to create more sources of positivity to offset that. One place a woman hopes to get some of the good stuff is in her relationship and in her home. She desires for it to be a place to escape from the nonsense and receive the peace and love she needs. As men and husbands there are some things we can do to make this dream a reality.
Click below to see 5 ways to make her happy to come home. ?And then let us know what your spouse does to make you feel appreciated and happy to come home.
1. Show her you are happy to see her.
Picture 1 of 5
Have you ever come home to be greeted with a big hug and kiss? It feels good doesn?t it? Well that is a feeling you should provide your wife on a consistent basis. Show her love and pour positive energy into her when she walks through that door. Let her know you missed her and you are happy to see her. Give her some attention and don?t make it about sex. Taking these actions will create an environment that a woman wants to rush home to.
About the author
Stephan Labossiere is a Certified Life & Relationship Coach, Speaker, Certified Personal Trainer, and Author of the Award Winning book ?How To Get A Woman To Have Sex With You?If You?re Her Husband?. Stephan is a man whose knowledge and ability to connect with people leave the room in awe. He is on a Mission to help men and women experience more successful and authentic relationships with a true focus on the Core Development process. For more on Stephan visit www.StephanSpeaks.com
May 30, 2013 ? The prospects of a robotic manufacturing base operating off Earth is not as far-fetched as it used to be according to a study published by a team of NASA researchers led by a Kennedy Space Center physicist.
Because asteroids are loaded with minerals that are rare on Earth, near-Earth asteroids and the asteroid belt could become the mining centers for remotely operated excavators and processing machinery. In 20 years, an industry barely imagined now could be sending refined materials, rare metals and even free, clean energy to Earth from asteroids and other bodies.
In their paper called "Affordable, Rapid Bootstrapping of the Space Industry and Solar System Civilization," published in the Journal of Aerospace Engineering, Phil Metzger, Anthony Muscatello, Robert Mueller and James Mantovani detail an intriguing path toward developing a self-sustaining, space-based industry that would use resources from asteroids and other heavenly bodies to meet the needs of humanity.
The result would provide the most profound societal changes since the Industrial Revolution introduced large-scale machinery and manufacturing techniques in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, said Metzger the Kennedy-based physicist who led the evaluation.
"We're predicting that we are on the verge of the next revolution in human civilization," Metzger said.
Two fundamental developments make this prospect possible: robotics and the discovery of fundamental elements to make plastic and rubber and metals existing throughout space.
"Now that we know we can get carbon in space, the basic elements that we need for industry are all within reach," Metzger said. "That was game-changing for us. The asteroid belt has a billion times more platinum than is found on Earth. There is literally a billion times the metal that is on the Earth, and all the water you could ever need."
Another critical technology also is coming in at just the right time: additive manufacturing in the form of 3D printers that can turn out individual pieces that can be assembled into ever-more-complex machinery and increasingly capable robots.
"The idea is you start with resources out of Earth's gravity well in the vicinity of the Earth," Metzger said. "But what we argued is that you can establish industry in space for a surprisingly low cost, much less than anybody previously thought."
The finished minerals could be returned to Earth or used in space to build new machinery or as supplies for astronauts as they explore the solar system.
So where to start?
The closer to Earth, the better -- at least at first.
NASA is searching for an asteroid of about 500 tons that can be moved into a path within the moon's orbit so astronauts can visit it as early as 2021 to take samples of the space rock.
"When we wrote this paper we were focused on the moon as a source of near-Earth resources, but near Earth asteroids work equally well and offer several additional advantages," Metzger said. "It takes less fuel to bring resources away from the lower gravity of an asteroid, and since the ultimate goal is to move the industry to the asteroid main belt starting with asteroids first will help develop the correct technologies."
But all asteroids are not created equal, and each one is likely to offer a unique fingerprint of substances created when the solar system formed billions of years ago.
"There are some types of asteroids that would be fantastic for space resources," Metzger said. "It's primordial solar system material. You can make plastics and you can make rubber by combining the carbon and the hydrogen."
A near-Earth asteroid or other nearby body presumably will contain enough material to allow a robotic system to mine the materials and refine them into usable metal or other substances. Those materials would be formed into pieces and assembled into another robot system that would itself build similar models and advance the design.
"The first generation only makes the simplest materials, it can include metal and therefore you can make structure out of metal and then you can send robots that will attach electronics and wiring onto the metal," Metzger said. "So by making the easiest thing, you've reduced the largest amount of mass that you have to launch."
The first generation of machinery would be akin to the simple mechanical devices of the 1700s, with each new generation advancing quickly to the modern vanguard of abilities. They would start with gas production and the creation of solar cells, vital for providing a power source.
Each new robot could add improvements to each successive model and quickly advance the mining and manufacturing capabilities. It would not take long for the miners to produce more material than they need for themselves and they could start shipping precious metals back to Earth, riding on heat shields made of the leftover soil that doesn't contain any precious material.
Kennedy researchers already have tested heat shield samples made from soil.
Bodies near Earth also were recently revealed to contain water ice, which gives planners the chemicals needed to produce fuel and air. With those resources available, the robotic miners would be able to propel themselves farther out into the solar system, mainly to the resource-rich asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. There they could set up more manufacturing and refining facilities.
Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the whole endeavor is that it would not take many launches from Earth to achieve. Launch costs, which now run at best $1,000 per pound, would be saved because robots building themselves in space from material gathered there wouldn't need anything produced by people. Very quickly, only the computer chips, electronics boards and wiring would need to come from Earth.
"We took it through six generations of robotic development and you can achieve full closure and make everything in space," Metzger said. "We showed you can get it down to launching 12 tons of hardware, which is incredibly small."
For comparison, that would be less than half the weight of the Apollo command and service modules flown on a moon mission.
This enterprise would take years to establish, but not as long as one might think. And the payoff for Earth would be felt when the first shipments of materials began arriving from space. A sudden influx of rare metals, for instance, would drive down the price of those materials on Earth and allow a similar drastic reduction in manufacturing costs for products made with the materials.
There are numerous examples of such revolutions taking place over and over again on Earth, including the discovery after the Civil War of a process for refining bauxite into aluminum that made the metal go from being as valuable as gold to something soda cans are made of. Does that mean soda cans would be made from platinum? Maybe not, but the changes could be just as dramatic.
"You could grow an industry that is a million times bigger than the United States' in the main asteroid belt," Metzger said. "Then you really are capable of terraforming planets and doing all the other great things because it wouldn't cost you anything" in terms of labor, resources or materials.
Obama lipstick on collar happened at a celebration for Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The president referred to the smear in his remarks at the event Tuesday night.
By Peter Grier,?Staff Writer / May 29, 2013
President Obama points to lipstick marks on his collar in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday night. 'A sign of the warmth is the lipstick on my collar,' he said.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
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Why did President Obama have lipstick on his collar when he rose to make remarks at a White House reception Tuesday night?
Skip to next paragraph Peter Grier
Washington Editor
Peter Grier is The Christian Science Monitor's Washington editor. In this capacity, he helps direct coverage for the paper on most news events in the nation's capital.
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Because an enthusiastic supporter had put it there accidentally, that?s why. He referred to that right up top as his way of softening up the crowd. Truth be told, he was already pretty happy to be there, as it was a celebration for Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Having been raised in Hawaii, Mr. Obama is something of a Pacific Islander himself.
Anyway, the president began by thanking everybody for the warmth of his reception.
?A sign of the warmth is the lipstick on my collar,? he said.
Then he said he knew the culprit, and he asked to see a woman named Jessica Sanchez.
?It wasn?t Jessica. It was her aunt. Where is she?? he said as the room dissolved in laughter.
Obama then made the obvious point that he did not want to get in trouble with the first lady on this.
?That?s why I?m calling you out right in front of everybody,? he said to the aunt in question.
The president had to say something about the smear, right? It was a pretty obvious lip imprint, right up there near his necktie. It was going to show up in pictures and become the subject of a thousand gossip blogs.
If Obama?s reelection campaign showed anything, it is that he and his advisers understand the power of nontraditional media and their ability to shape the president?s image. All those appearances by him and Michelle on everything from ?The View? to ?Dr. Oz? were a big part of his campaign strategy. A lipstick smear? That?s good for a week of special reports on ?Ellen.? Reddit would probably have done another of its crowd-source analysis things, measuring the parameters of the smear and then comparing them to pictures of lips in the crowd, eventually proving beyond a doubt that it could only have come from Joe Biden, or something like that.
Of course we?ve got our own conspiracy theory: Political guru David Axelrod had somebody put it there on purpose. A speechwriter then scripted impromptu remarks on the stain for Obama, loosening up the crowd and distracting the news media from the IRS scandal, Justice-ordered seizure of reporters' phone records, and so forth.
A fire burns at the site of a CSX freight train derailment, Tuesday, May 28, 2013, in White Marsh, Md., where fire officials say the train crashed into a trash truck, causing an explosion that rattled homes at least a half-mile away and collapsed nearby buildings, setting them on fire. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
A fire burns at the site of a CSX freight train derailment, Tuesday, May 28, 2013, in White Marsh, Md., where fire officials say the train crashed into a trash truck, causing an explosion that rattled homes at least a half-mile away and collapsed nearby buildings, setting them on fire. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
This still taken from video provided by James LeBrun shows an explosion outside Baltimore on Tuesday, May, 28, 2013. Baltimore County fire officials say a train derailed in a Baltimore suburb on Tuesday and an explosion was heard in the area. A fire spokeswoman says the train derailed about 2 p.m. Tuesday in White Marsh, Md. (AP Photo/James LeBrun)
A fire burns at the site of a CSX freight train derailment, Tuesday, May 28, 2013, in White Marsh, Md., where fire officials say the train crashed into a trash truck, causing an explosion that rattled homes at least a half-mile away and collapsed nearby buildings, setting them on fire. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
A fire burns at the site of a CSX freight train derailment, Tuesday, May 28, 2013, in White Marsh, Md., where fire officials say the train crashed into a trash truck, causing an explosion that rattled homes at least a half-mile away and collapsed nearby buildings, setting them on fire. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
This image provided by WBAL-TV, shows a train derailment outside Baltimore on Tuesday, May, 28, 2013. A fire spokeswoman says the train derailed about 2 p.m. Tuesday in White Marsh, Md. (AP Photo/WBAL-TV) MANDATORY CREDIT
ROSEDALE, Md. (AP) ? Train operator CSX Transportation on Wednesday pointed to a hazardous chemical in a rail car as the source of an explosion on a derailed train near Baltimore that sparked a fire, rattled homes and damaged buildings. A company spokesman said officials still weren't sure what caused the sodium chlorate to explode in the first place, but it ignited another chemical in a second car.
Authorities are continuing to look into the cause. Robert Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators were examining evidence on the scene and reviewing train video that might show the collision with a garbage truck that set off the incident. But he said they had not reached any conclusions.
CSX spokesman Gary Sease said the sodium chlorate in a derailed car near the front of the train exploded, igniting terephthalic acid in another derailed car. Sodium chlorate is used mainly as a bleaching agent in paper production. Oklahoma State University chemist Nick Materer said it could make for a potentially explosive mixture when combined with an incompatible substance such as spilled fuel.
Another chemist, Darlene Lyudmirskiy, of Spectrum Chemical Manufacturing Corp. in Gardena, Calif., said such a mixture would be unstable and wouldn't need even a spark to cause a reaction.
"If it's not compatible, anything could set it off," she said.
On Wednesday afternoon, workers were using heavy cranes to move the damaged rail cars, and an excavator was picking up broken pieces of track. The mangled truck lay on its side on the side of the railroad tracks, its contents littering the ground. Next to the track, the corrugated metal walls of a warehouse were bent and warped.
Among the buildings that sustained the most damage was a training facility for a plumbers and steamfitters union a few hundred yards away from the explosion site. Only a handful of employees were in the building at the time of the blast, and all but one rushed outside to see what had happened. They heard the crash first, followed by the derailment, then saw a plume of smoke.
Al Clinedinst, the training director for the facility, said he and a colleague drove closer to the derailment scene before the explosion to see if they could help, but they were turned back by the overwhelming heat.
"It was paint-bubbling hot," he said.
Then the explosion shook their truck.
"The blast, the force, it took the wheel out of my hands," Clinedinst said. "It really took a shot."
Sumwalt said late Tuesday that the collision occurred at a private crossing where the only marking was a stop sign. He said it wasn't clear why the truck was crossing the tracks or whether it was authorized to be there.
The truck driver, 50-year-old John J. Alban Jr., remained in serious condition Wednesday at Shock Trauma in Baltimore, a hospital spokeswoman said. Two CSX workers aboard weren't hurt.
In addition to the NTSB, the Federal Railroad Administration is investigating the crash of the 45-car train, which was en route from Selkirk, N.Y., to Waycross, Ga.
Baltimore County spokeswoman Elise Armacost said it wasn't clear whether the truck driver would face charges.
Baltimore County's Public Safety Department said that county, city and CSX hazmat experts did not believe the burning chemicals would produce toxic inhalants. But a National Institutes of Health website says oxidizers such as sodium chlorate may produce irritating, corrosive and/or toxic gases when burned.
Toxic inhalation hazards are a worry when trains carrying hazardous materials derail. They include chemicals such as chlorine, which killed nine people after a derailment of a Norfolk Southern train caused a release of the toxic gas in South Carolina in 2005.
Following a November 2007 derailment involving a freight train carrying hazardous materials near Baltimore's Camden Yards, CSX agreed the following year to provide Maryland officials with real-time information on shipments of toxic inhalation hazards.
The fire was called under control late Tuesday just before midnight, and the fire department remained on scene only in a supporting role.
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's defense minister is signaling that his military is prepared to strike shipments of advanced Russian weapons to Syria.
Israel has been pressing Moscow not to go through with a promised delivery of advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Damascus. Israel fears the missiles could slip into the hands of hostile groups like Hezbollah.
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Tuesday that Israel believes the missiles haven't been shipped yet but the military "will know what to do" if they are delivered.
Yaalon spoke at an annual home front drill preparing for missile attacks. This year's exercise comes at a time of heightened concerns that Israel could be dragged into the Syrian civil war.
Israel is believed to have carried out recent airstrikes on weapon depots inside Syria destined for Hezbollah.
In Britain, Police Arrest Twitter And Facebook Users If They Make Anti-Muslim Statements
British police are arresting people in the middle of the night if they have made racist or anti-Muslim comments on Twitter following the murder of a soldier by two Muslims in Woolwich, London.
Three men have so far been taken into custody for using Twitter and Facebook to criticize Muslims.
In the Woolwich attack, Lee Rigby, a drummer in the Royal Regiment of Fusliers, was run down in a car and then hacked and stabbed to death by two men with knives and a cleaver. They told a man video recording the scene that it was vengeance for the killings of Muslims by the British Army.
One man has been charged with "malicious communications" on Facebook, the Daily Mail reports.
Two others have been arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. The police are now arresting people based on mere speech in social media, a detective said in a statement to the press:
'The men were arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. Our inquiries into these comments continue.
'These comments were directed against a section of our community. Comments such as these are completely unacceptable and only cause more harm to our community in Bristol.
'People should stop and think about what they say on social media before making statements as the consequences could be serious.'
The arrests come at the behest of British Muslims, who fear a backlash against them following the death of Rigby, The New York Times says:
The police and Muslim groups have said that there have been anti-Muslim episodes in many parts of the country, the most common involving derogatory messages on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
A number of arrests have been made, with criminal charges being leveled in some cases under laws against inciting racial or religious hatred, and Muslim community leaders have reported rising concern among the estimated 2.5 million Muslims in Britain.
Two men were detained in the middle of the night after they expressed anger at Muslims on Twitter. The Independent quotes police as saying:
"We began inquiries into the comments and at around 3.20am two men, aged 23 and 22, were detained at two addresses in Bristol.
"The men were arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. Our inquiries into these comments continue."
BAGHDAD (AP) ? A coordinated wave of car bombings tore through mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 66 people and maiming nearly 200 as insurgents step up the bloodshed roiling Iraq.
The attacks in markets and other areas frequented by civilians are the latest sign of a rapid deterioration in security as sectarian tensions are exacerbated by anti-government protests and the war in neighboring Syria grinds on.
More than 450 people have been killed across Iraq in May. Most of the killings came over the past two weeks in the most sustained wave of violence since U.S. troops left in December 2011.
The surge in attacks is reminiscent of the sectarian carnage that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007. April was Iraq's deadliest month since June 2008, according to a United Nations tally that put last month's death toll at more than 700.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday's bombings, but they bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida's Iraqi arm. The group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, frequently uses car bombs and coordinated blasts against Shiites to undermine Iraqis' confidence in the Shiite-led government.
The day's deadliest attack happened when two bombs exploded in the eastern Habibiya area on the edge of the sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City. Those blasts killed 12 and wounded 35, police said.
Twin blasts also struck an open-air market in the predominantly Shiite al-Maalif area, killing six and wounding 12.
Another car bomb exploded in the busy commercial Sadoun Street in downtown Baghdad. It killed five civilians and wounded 14, police said. Among the wounded were four policemen who were at a nearby checkpoint.
The central street is one of the capital's main commercial areas and is lined with clinics, pharmacies and shops. Firefighters were seen struggling to extinguish flames as police sealed off the area. Several shops were partially damaged or burned.
"What crime have those innocent people committed?" asked witness Zein al-Abidin. "Who is responsible for these massacres?"
Elsewhere across the bloodied capital city, police reported:
? A car bomb went off in the eastern New Baghdad area as officers were waiting for explosives experts to dismantle it. A civilian was killed and nine others wounded.
? In the north, a blast in the Sabi al-Boor neighborhood killed eight civilians and wounded 26. In the Kazimiyah district, a car bomb blew up near a bus and taxi stop, killing four and wounding 11.
Another blast killed four and wounded nine in the Shaab area. And an attack in the Hurriyah neighborhood left five dead and 14 wounded.
? A bomb in the southwestern neighborhood of Bayaa killed six civilians and wounded 16.
? In Baghdad's central Sadria area, a car bomb killed three civilians and wounded 11.
? In the east, a blast killed five and wounded 12 in the Jisr Diyala area. Car bombs also struck the Baladiyat neighborhood, killing four and wounding 11.
? And in Madain, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of central Baghdad, a car bomb killed three and wounded nine.
Medical officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.
The day's bloodshed was the deadliest since last Monday, when a wave of attacks killed 113 people in Shiite and Sunni areas. That was the deadliest single day in Iraq since July 23, when attacks aimed largely at security forces killed 115.
The U.S. Embassy issued a statement condemning the latest attacks.
Although violence has decreased sharply since the height of the insurgency that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, militants are still capable of carrying out lethal attacks nationwide. The recent wave of attacks has raised tensions between the country's Sunni minority and Shiite-led government.
Since late December, members of Iraq's Sunni community have been protesting against the government. They cite a range of grievances, including poor services, discrimination and the application of tough anti-terrorism policies they believe unfairly target their sect.
The unrest is fueling long-simmering sectarian rifts in the country that only grew more divisive after an April 23 crackdown by security forces on a Sunni protest camp. The crackdown in the town of Hawija left many protesters dead.
Maria Fantappie, an Iraq analyst at the International Crisis Group, linked the uptick in violence to the protests and said the events at Hawija marked a turning point.
"They transformed the political crisis into a series of local conflicts in the Sunni-populated provinces," she said. "As it stands, the risk is a metastasis of armed clashes across these provinces."
She said outright civil war between the protesters ? who remain divided over their support for violence ? and security forces loyal to the Shiite-led government is unlikely, however.
Alarmed by a nationwide deterioration in the security situation, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently ordered a reshuffle in senior military ranks.
Authorities have also launched a military operation in the country's western Anbar province to chase down fighters from al-Qaida in Iraq.
The group is growing stronger as a result of rising lawlessness on the Syrian-Iraq frontier and cross-border cooperation with the Syrian militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, a rebel faction fighting to oust President Bashar Assad.
___
Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck and Sinan Salaheddin on twitter.com/sinansm.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? The hard-luck loser no more, Tony Kanaan finally won the Indianapolis 500 Sunday ? with a bit of luck, at that.
In the mix all day during a record 68 lead changes, Kanaan dipped inside defending IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay on a restart with three laps to go.
From there, he cruised to Victory Lane under the yellow caution flag, flipping up his visor to wipe tears from his eyes as the crowd roared.
"I have to say, the last lap was the longest lap of my life," the popular Brazilian said.
"I got a little bit of luck today," said Kanaan, drenched in the celebratory milk. "I was looking at the stands, and it was unbelievable. I'm speechless. This is it, man. I made it."
Kanaan had his fair share of chances to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but came up short time and time again. He was leading when the rain came in 2007, only to lose to Dario Franchitti when the race resumed.
In all, Kanaan went into Sunday's race with 221 laps led ? more than any other non-winner except Michael Andretti and Rex Mays ? but his second-place finish to Buddy Rice in 2004 was the closest he had come to victory. He had a pair of third-place finishes, including last year, again to Franchitti.
This time, it was Franchitti whose crash brought out the final caution to seal Kanaan's victory.
"It's wonderful for him," said Mario Andretti, himself a victim to bad luck at Indy. "He's raced here long enough that he deserves it, no question. He was strong all day. Certainly he deserves this in every way."
The win for Kanaan and car owner Jimmy Vasser was celebrated throughout the paddock as the losers all enjoyed seeing the popular IndyCar duo celebrate. Alex Zanardi, who came from Italy to watch the Indianapolis 500 and gave Kanaan one of his 2012 London Paralympics medals as good luck, wept behind the pit wall as Kanaan took the checkered flag.
"I tell you I'm starting to think (the medal) really works," Zanardi said. "It's a dream come true to see Tony win, to see Jimmy Vasser win, my dear friend. I'm so happy, I'm so happy."
Fellow Brazilian Helio Castroneves, shooting for a record-tying fourth Indy win, was happy for his long-time friend.
"Finally he's able to win this race. He's so close so many times, but the good news is the good old boys are still able to run fast," Castroneves said.
Carlos Munoz, a 21-year-old rookie making his first IndyCar start, finished second and Hunter-Reay was third.
"He's certainly someone I'd want to see win it if I can't win it myself," Hunter-Reay said. "We were a sitting duck on the last restart, that's all I can say."
The leaders came to the finish line all bunched up around Kanaan, saluting the longtime IndyCar stalwart who had longed to add the one missing piece to his resume. That was about as slow as anyone had driven all day. The average speed was 187.433 mph, another Indy record.
Marco Andretti finished fourth, failing to win for the eighth time, and Justin Wilson was fifth in the highest-finishing Honda on a day that was dominated by Chevrolet. Castroneves was sixth.
For a time, it appeared the win would go to AJ Allmendinger, who led 23 laps in his Indy 500 debut for Roger Penske.
Fired by Penske from his NASCAR ride last year after failing a NASCAR drug test, Penske gave him a second chance with this IndyCar opportunity. Seven years after leaving open-wheel racing, Allmendinger finally ran "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" and was leading when his seat belt came undone, forcing him to pit.
It put Allmendinger off the pit cycle, and he was forced to stop for gas twice far in advance of the rest of the field. It meant Allmendinger had to drive his way back to the front each time, and he finally sputtered out at seventh.
"Once I figured it out, it was phenomenal. I could drive by guys at will when I wanted to," Allmendinger said. "I felt like we were up front running our own race, and, I don't know, belts come undone. It just popped.
"I'll be honest, pretty special moment to be leading at Indy. My body kind of went numb, my mind was racing and I could feel my heart beating really fast, and that's a special moment I'll never forget."
A year after 34 lead changes and a frantic finish created an Indianapolis 500 many considered to be the best ever, IndyCar had its hands full in trying to top itself.
So this one, with the slicing and dicing at the front, over and over and over again, might have been even better. There were a record 68 lead changes by 14 drivers.
"It was a hell of a race. That's all I can say," said Mario Andretti. "This is riveting competition, that's all I can tell you. It's just amazing. The reliability of the cars is there. The product is there. It's unbelievable racing, the best I've seen in years."
May 27, 2013 ? Although the Bechstein's bat is regarded as a Euro-Siberian species, a study by researchers in the UPV/EHU's Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology has revealed that the historical transformation of part of its original habitat rather than bioclimatic reasons could be responsible for this distribution. This research has been published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management.
The Bechstein's Bat (Myotis bechsteinii) has a broad distribution: from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caucasus, in the East, and as far as southern Scandinavia, in the north. Yet it is regarded as a rare species throughout its distribution area. "This scarcity contrasts with its abundance in the fossil record of the late Pleistocene and Holocene," says Dr Mar?a Napal, leading author of thepaper published in Forest Ecology and Management. The fossil record shows that the start and consolidation of its decline coincided with the deforestation caused by the intensification of agriculture, and are also linked to colder temperatures and greater humidity.
This has been cited on very few occasions in the Mediterranean area, but recent studies show that it could be locally abundant in certain localities.However, in the north of the Peninsula, where the climate and vegetation are more similar to those of Central Europe, their centre of distribution, it is much more difficult to find them. "That led us to revisit the traditional dogma that the M. bechsteinii is a Euro-Siberian species, restricted to the temperate forests of Central and Western Europe, and to ask whether its current distribution could respond more to the history of deciduous forestloss in part of its original range," explains Napal. "In fact,during the Holocene the vegetation evolved differently in the Mediterranean compared with the rest of Europe.In the Mediterranean, the intensity of human activity, linked to great aridity, led to the substitution of the deciduous vegetation by the typical xerophytic vegetation."
To test this hypothesis the UPV/EHU researchers studied the ecology of the species in the Mediterranean and Atlantic climate domains of the Iberian Peninsula. In the course of 4 campaigns, bats tagged with radio transmitters were followed for several nights to discover their roosts and specify their hunting areas. The researchers also described their diet on the basis of their droppings, and characterised their roosts, the structure of the vegetation on their hunting grounds and the presence of potential preys.
More flexible in the Mediterranean
In the Atlantic as well as Mediterranean domain the observations were consistent with the data available on the ecology of the species. M. bechsteinii prefer roosts carved out by woodpeckers in the trunks of living oak trees located inside the forest and close to a permanent supply of water. Apparently, the selection of roosts is less conditioned in the Mediterranean; "the colonies were much more flexible in terms of the variables relating to the microclimate of the cavity -- insulation, orientation or height of the cavity, entrance size -- even though the presence of water was a more limiting factor," points out Napal. In both areas the colonies hunted in the middle of the forest but the distances covered between their roosts and their hunting grounds were longer in the Atlantic.According to Napal, this could be explained by "a greater fragmentation of their habitat or its inferior quality, in terms of the abundance of prey, for example."
This study confirms that the M. bechsteinii is a forest specialist with a relatively narrow ecological niche, and adapted to hunting and roosting in temperate deciduous forests. "Both areas of study offer conditions that meet the ecological needs of the species, and it could also be said that, contrary to our expectations and based on the distribution area and data on the ecology of the species available to date, in the Mediterranean localities the conditions are even more lax than in the Atlantic," points out the researcher.
"Our data suggest that the current distribution pattern of the M. bechsteinii in Europe reflects not only the climate changes that have taken place over the most recent thousands of years, but also the severe loss and degradation of the deciduous forests in the Mediterranean," says Napal, by way of summary. "We reckon the species could still find optimum conditions in some locations in the Mediterranean area if these forests were still present."
"This is a clear demonstration of the effect that a prolonged history of deforestation and degradation of the forestry systems can have on the populations of forestry specialists, like the Bechstein's bat.It also constitutes an example of how the historical processes in the landscape may confuse or distort the apparent relationship between the distribution of the species and eco-geographical factors. It is not always easy to distinguish between the effect of current and historical factors, but ignoring this reality may lead us to draw wrong conclusions about the ecological needs of certain species, and therefore to design inappropriate conservation measures," concludes Napal.
May 27, 2013 ? Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in T?bingen, using miniaturised high-speed cameras and high-speed behavioural tracking, discovered that rats move their eyes in opposite directions in both the horizontal and the vertical plane when running around. Each eye moves in a different direction, depending on the change in the animal's head position. An analysis of both eyes' field of view found that the eye movements exclude the possibility that rats fuse the visual information into a single image like humans do. Instead, the eyes move in such a way that enables the space above them to be permanently in view -- presumably an adaptation to help them deal with the major threat from predatory birds that rodents face in their natural environment.
Like many mammals, rats have their eyes on the sides of their heads. This gives them a very wide visual field, useful for detection of predators. However, three-dimensional vision requires overlap of the visual fields of the two eyes. Thus, the visual system of these animals needs to meet two conflicting demands at the same time; on the one hand maximum surveillance and on the other hand detailed binocular vision.
The research team from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have now, for the first time, observed and characterised the eye movements of freely moving rats. They fitted minuscule cameras weighing only about one gram to the animals' heads, which could record the lightning-fast eye movements with great precision. The scientists also used another new method to measure the position and direction of the head, enabling them to reconstruct the rats' exact line of view at any given time.
The Max Planck scientists' findings came as a complete surprise. Although rats process visual information from their eyes through very similar brain pathways to other mammals, their eyes evidently move in a totally different way. "Humans move their eyes in a very stereotypical way for both counteracting head movements and searching around. Both our eyes move together and always follow the same object. In rats, on the other hand, the eyes generally move in opposite directions," explains Jason Kerr from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics.
In a series of behavioural experiments, the neurobiologists also discovered that the eye movements largely depend on the position of the animal's head. "When the head points downward, the eyes move back, away from the tip of the nose. When the rat lifts its head, the eyes look forward: cross-eyed, so to speak. If the animal puts its head on one side, the eye on the lower side moves up and the other eye moves down." says Jason Kerr.
In humans, the direction in which the eyes look must be precisely aligned, otherwise an object cannot be fixated. A deviation measuring less than a single degree of the field of view is enough to cause double vision. In rats, the opposing eye movements between left and right eye mean that the line of vision varies by as much as 40 degrees in the horizontal plane and up to 60 degrees in the vertical plane. The consequence of these unusual eye movements is that irrespective of vigorous head movements in all planes, the eyes movements always move in such a way to ensure that the area above the animal is always in view simultaneously by both eyes -something that does not occur in any other region of the rat's visual field.
These unusual eye movements that rats possess appear to be the visual system's way of adapting to the animals' living conditions, given that they are preyed upon by numerous species of birds. Although the observed eye movements prevent the fusion of the two visual fields, the scientists postulate that permanent visibility in the direction of potential airborne attackers dramatically increases the animals' chances of survival.
Even farm animal diversity is declining as accelerating species loss threatens humanityPublic release date: 27-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Terry Collins tc@tca.tc 416-538-8712 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
Founding Chair of new world biodiversity body offers first public remarks
The accelerating disappearance of Earth's species of both wild and domesticated plants and animals constitutes a fundamental threat to the well-being and even the survival of humankind, warns the founding Chair of a new global organization created to narrow the gulf between leading international biodiversity scientists and national policy-makers.
In Norway to address an elite gathering of 450 international officials with government responsibilities in the fields of biodiversity and economic planning, Zakri Abdul Hamid offered his first public remarks since being elected in January to head the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) -- an independent body modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Dr. Zakri, a national of Malaysia who co-chaired 2005's landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and serves also as science advisor to his country's prime minister, cited fast-growing evidence that "we are hurtling towards irreversible environmental tipping points that, once passed, would reduce the ability of ecosystems to provide essential goods and services to humankind."
The incremental loss of Amazon rainforest, for example, "may seem small with shortsighted perspective" but will eventually "accumulate to cause a larger, more important change," he said. Experts warn that ongoing climate change, combined with land use change and fires, "could cause much of the Amazon forest to transform abruptly to more open, dry-adapted ecosystems, threatening the region's enormous biodiversity and priceless services," he added.
"It has been clear for some time that a credible, permanent IPCC-like science policy platform for biodiversity and ecosystem services is an important but missing element in the international response to the biodiversity crisis," Dr. Zakri told the 7th Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment "demonstrated that such an intergovernmental platform can create a clear, valuable policy-relevant consensus from a wide range of information sources about the state, trends and outlooks of human-environment interactions, with focus on the impacts of ecosystem change on human well-being. It showed that such a platform can support decision-makers in the translation of knowledge into policy.
"The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment provides our baseline," he said. "The IPBES will tell us how much we have achieved, where we are on track, where we are not, why, and options for moving forward. It will help to build public support and identify priorities."
The structure of IPBES mimics that of the IPCC but its aims go further to include capacity building to help bridge different knowledge systems.
"IPBES will reduce the gulf between the wealth of scientific knowledge on declining natural world conditions, and knowledge about effective action to reverse these damaging trends," he said.
Even barnyard diversity is in decline
Some scientists have termed this the "sixth great extinction episode" in Earth's history, according to Dr. Zakri, noting that the loss of biodiversity is happening faster and everywhere, even among farm animals.
He underlined findings by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that genetic diversity among livestock is declining.
"The good news is the rate of decline is dropping but the latest data classify 22% of domesticated breeds at risk of extinction," Dr. Zakri said.
Breeds become rare because their characteristics either don't suit contemporary demand or because differences in their qualities have not been recognised. When a breed population falls to about 1,000 animals, it is considered rare and endangered.
Causes of genetic erosion in domestic animals are the lack of appreciation of the value of indigenous breeds and their importance in niche adaptation, incentives to introduce exotic and more uniform breeds from industrialised countries, and product-focused selection.
Among crops, meanwhile, about 75 per cent of genetic diversity was lost in the last century as farmers worldwide switched to genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties and abandoned multiple local varieties.
There are 30,000 edible plant species but only 30 crops account for 95% of human food energy, the bulk of which (60%) comes down to rice, wheat, maize, millet and sorghum.
"The decline in the diversity of crops and animals is occurring in tandem with the need to sharply increase world food production and as a changing environment makes it more important than ever to have a large genetic pool to enable organisms to withstand and adapt to new conditions," he said.
Biodiversity and the Sustainable Development Goals
According to Dr. Zakri, the most important outcome of last year's Rio+20 international environmental summit of nations was agreement to set new multi-year global objectives to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (2000 - 2015).
Biodiversity is expected to feature prominently in the new "Sustainable Development Goals."
For specifics, Dr. Zakri commended the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, already established through the Convention on Biological Diversity, which contain five strategic priorities and 20 specific targets internationally agreed for achievement by 2020, beginning with public awareness of the value of biodiversity and the steps people can take to conserve and use it sustainably.
"The Aichi Targets are an important contribution to the SDG process and it is up to us to ensure that they are fully considered," he said.
"I would argue, though, that advancing towards equity and sustainable development requires us to go beyond. We need to meet the fundamental challenge of decoupling economic growth from natural resource consumption, which is forecast to triple by 2050 unless humanity can find effective ways to 'do more and better with less.' There are no simple blueprints for addressing a challenge as vast and complex as this but it's imperative we commit to that idea.
"We also need measures of societal progress that go beyond Gross Domestic Product. We need the kind of vision embodied in the Inclusive Wealth Index being pioneered by Sir Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge University, Anantha Duraiappah at IHDP, and Pushpam Kumar at UNEP. As they have convincingly argued, enlightened measures of wealth that include natural capital, not just output like GDP, offers a real portrait of sustainable development," he added.
"The idea that natural capital should be measured like this makes many nervous. And I agree that many of the services the environment provides, like clean water and air, are irreplaceable necessities.
"In theory, however, the undoubted value of these natural treasures should be reflected in their price, which should rise steeply as they become scarcer. In practice, natural assets are often hard to price well, if at all. Although this work is still in its infancy, it is worth recalling that GDP has only been measured for the last 70 years. And that originally it was a far cruder metric than today. The reality over many decades and the recent experience with the MDGs demonstrate all too clearly the limited success that even legal biodiversity-related commitments have in the absence of some sort of metric that speaks to other sectors and interests involved in the development process. We need to urge more economists to do the hard but valuable work of pricing the seemingly priceless. Ensuring these ideas are properly reflected in the SDGs could provide the type of support and encouragement needed."
###
About IPBES
Member nations (110):
http://www.ipbes.net/about-ipbes/members-of-the-platform.html
Profile of Prof. Zakri:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakri_Abdul_Hamid
Biodiversity from terrestrial, marine, coastal, and inland water ecosystems provides the basis for ecosystems and the services they provide that underpin human well-being. However, biodiversity and ecosystem services are declining at an unprecedented rate, and in order to address this challenge, adequate local, national and international policies need to be adopted and implemented. To achieve this, decision makers need scientifically credible and independent information that takes into account the complex relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem services, and people. They also need effective methods to interpret this scientific information in order to make informed decisions. The scientific community also needs to understand the needs of decision makers better in order to provide them with the relevant information. In essence, the dialogue between the scientific community, governments, and other stakeholders on biodiversity and ecosystem services needs to be strengthened.
To this end, a new platform has been established by the international community - the 'Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services' (IPBES). IPBES was established in April 2012, as an independent intergovernmental body open to all member countries of the United Nations. The members are committed to building IPBES as the leading intergovernmental body for assessing the state of the planet's biodiversity, its ecosystems and the essential services they provide to society.
IPBES provides a mechanism recognized by both the scientific and policy communities to synthesize, review, assess and critically evaluate relevant information and knowledge generated worldwide by governments, academia, scientific organizations, non-governmental organizations and indigenous communities. This involves a credible group of experts in conducting assessments of such information and knowledge in a transparent way. IPBES is unique in that it will aim to strengthen capacity for the effective use of science in decision-making at all levels. IPBES will also aim to address the needs of Multilateral Environmental Agreements that are related to biodiversity and ecosystem services, and build on existing processes ensuring synergy and complementarities in each other's work.
History
Specific discussions on IPBES started following the final meeting of the multi-stakeholder international steering committee for the consultative process on an International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity (IMoSEB) in November 2007. The consultation towards IMoSEB decided to invite the Executive Director of UNEP - in collaboration with governments and other partners - to convene an intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder meeting to consider the establishment of an intergovernmental mechanism for biodiversity and ecosystem services. There was also consensus among the stakeholders involved in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) follow-up initiative that the follow up to the IMoSEB process and the MA follow-up process should merge. It was the coming together of the MA follow up process with the follow up to the IMoSEB consultations that led to the present process on IPBES.
Three intergovernmental and multistakeholders meetings (Malaysia 2008, Kenya 2009, Republic of Korea 2010) were held to discuss ways to strengthen the science-policy interface on biodiversity and ecosystem services. At the first two meetings, the gaps and needs for strengthening the science policy interface were identified, and at the meeting in June 2010, in Busan, Republic of Korea, governments decided that an IPBES should be established, what the focus of its work programme should be, and agreed on many of the principles of its operation as part of the Busan Outcome.
The Busan Outcome was welcomed by the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya in October 2010, and was subsequently considered at the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). UNGA passed a resolution requesting UNEP to convene a plenary meeting to fully operationalize IPBES at the earliest opportunity. This resolution was then taken on board by UNEP in a decision at the 26th session of the UNEP Governing Council meeting, held in February 2011.
The plenary meeting was held in two sessions. The first session was held from 3 to 7 October 2011 in Nairobi. The second session of the plenary was hosted by UNEP, in collaboration with UNESCO, FAO and UNDP, in Panama City from 16 to 21 April 2012. There, many of the modalities and institutional arrangements for the Platform were finalised and 94 Governments adopted a resolution establishing the Platform as an independent intergovernmental body.
The first meeting of the Platform's Plenary (IPBES-1) was held in Bonn, Germany from 21 to 26 January 2013, hosted by the Government of Germany. The final outcome document of this session is available as IPBES/1/12, which includes decisions on the next steps for the development of an initial work programme, the status of contributions and initial budget for the Platform for 2012, the IPBES administrative and institutional arrangements, and the procedure for receiving and prioritizing requests put to the Platform. In addition the report includes the updated rules of procedure for the plenary of the Platform.
The intersessionnal process towards the second session of the Platform's plenary (IPBES-2), anticipated in December 2013, is contained in decision IPBES/1/2. More on the intersessional process here: http://www.ipbes.net/intersessional-process.html
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Even farm animal diversity is declining as accelerating species loss threatens humanityPublic release date: 27-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Terry Collins tc@tca.tc 416-538-8712 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
Founding Chair of new world biodiversity body offers first public remarks
The accelerating disappearance of Earth's species of both wild and domesticated plants and animals constitutes a fundamental threat to the well-being and even the survival of humankind, warns the founding Chair of a new global organization created to narrow the gulf between leading international biodiversity scientists and national policy-makers.
In Norway to address an elite gathering of 450 international officials with government responsibilities in the fields of biodiversity and economic planning, Zakri Abdul Hamid offered his first public remarks since being elected in January to head the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) -- an independent body modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Dr. Zakri, a national of Malaysia who co-chaired 2005's landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and serves also as science advisor to his country's prime minister, cited fast-growing evidence that "we are hurtling towards irreversible environmental tipping points that, once passed, would reduce the ability of ecosystems to provide essential goods and services to humankind."
The incremental loss of Amazon rainforest, for example, "may seem small with shortsighted perspective" but will eventually "accumulate to cause a larger, more important change," he said. Experts warn that ongoing climate change, combined with land use change and fires, "could cause much of the Amazon forest to transform abruptly to more open, dry-adapted ecosystems, threatening the region's enormous biodiversity and priceless services," he added.
"It has been clear for some time that a credible, permanent IPCC-like science policy platform for biodiversity and ecosystem services is an important but missing element in the international response to the biodiversity crisis," Dr. Zakri told the 7th Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment "demonstrated that such an intergovernmental platform can create a clear, valuable policy-relevant consensus from a wide range of information sources about the state, trends and outlooks of human-environment interactions, with focus on the impacts of ecosystem change on human well-being. It showed that such a platform can support decision-makers in the translation of knowledge into policy.
"The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment provides our baseline," he said. "The IPBES will tell us how much we have achieved, where we are on track, where we are not, why, and options for moving forward. It will help to build public support and identify priorities."
The structure of IPBES mimics that of the IPCC but its aims go further to include capacity building to help bridge different knowledge systems.
"IPBES will reduce the gulf between the wealth of scientific knowledge on declining natural world conditions, and knowledge about effective action to reverse these damaging trends," he said.
Even barnyard diversity is in decline
Some scientists have termed this the "sixth great extinction episode" in Earth's history, according to Dr. Zakri, noting that the loss of biodiversity is happening faster and everywhere, even among farm animals.
He underlined findings by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that genetic diversity among livestock is declining.
"The good news is the rate of decline is dropping but the latest data classify 22% of domesticated breeds at risk of extinction," Dr. Zakri said.
Breeds become rare because their characteristics either don't suit contemporary demand or because differences in their qualities have not been recognised. When a breed population falls to about 1,000 animals, it is considered rare and endangered.
Causes of genetic erosion in domestic animals are the lack of appreciation of the value of indigenous breeds and their importance in niche adaptation, incentives to introduce exotic and more uniform breeds from industrialised countries, and product-focused selection.
Among crops, meanwhile, about 75 per cent of genetic diversity was lost in the last century as farmers worldwide switched to genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties and abandoned multiple local varieties.
There are 30,000 edible plant species but only 30 crops account for 95% of human food energy, the bulk of which (60%) comes down to rice, wheat, maize, millet and sorghum.
"The decline in the diversity of crops and animals is occurring in tandem with the need to sharply increase world food production and as a changing environment makes it more important than ever to have a large genetic pool to enable organisms to withstand and adapt to new conditions," he said.
Biodiversity and the Sustainable Development Goals
According to Dr. Zakri, the most important outcome of last year's Rio+20 international environmental summit of nations was agreement to set new multi-year global objectives to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (2000 - 2015).
Biodiversity is expected to feature prominently in the new "Sustainable Development Goals."
For specifics, Dr. Zakri commended the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, already established through the Convention on Biological Diversity, which contain five strategic priorities and 20 specific targets internationally agreed for achievement by 2020, beginning with public awareness of the value of biodiversity and the steps people can take to conserve and use it sustainably.
"The Aichi Targets are an important contribution to the SDG process and it is up to us to ensure that they are fully considered," he said.
"I would argue, though, that advancing towards equity and sustainable development requires us to go beyond. We need to meet the fundamental challenge of decoupling economic growth from natural resource consumption, which is forecast to triple by 2050 unless humanity can find effective ways to 'do more and better with less.' There are no simple blueprints for addressing a challenge as vast and complex as this but it's imperative we commit to that idea.
"We also need measures of societal progress that go beyond Gross Domestic Product. We need the kind of vision embodied in the Inclusive Wealth Index being pioneered by Sir Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge University, Anantha Duraiappah at IHDP, and Pushpam Kumar at UNEP. As they have convincingly argued, enlightened measures of wealth that include natural capital, not just output like GDP, offers a real portrait of sustainable development," he added.
"The idea that natural capital should be measured like this makes many nervous. And I agree that many of the services the environment provides, like clean water and air, are irreplaceable necessities.
"In theory, however, the undoubted value of these natural treasures should be reflected in their price, which should rise steeply as they become scarcer. In practice, natural assets are often hard to price well, if at all. Although this work is still in its infancy, it is worth recalling that GDP has only been measured for the last 70 years. And that originally it was a far cruder metric than today. The reality over many decades and the recent experience with the MDGs demonstrate all too clearly the limited success that even legal biodiversity-related commitments have in the absence of some sort of metric that speaks to other sectors and interests involved in the development process. We need to urge more economists to do the hard but valuable work of pricing the seemingly priceless. Ensuring these ideas are properly reflected in the SDGs could provide the type of support and encouragement needed."
###
About IPBES
Member nations (110):
http://www.ipbes.net/about-ipbes/members-of-the-platform.html
Profile of Prof. Zakri:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakri_Abdul_Hamid
Biodiversity from terrestrial, marine, coastal, and inland water ecosystems provides the basis for ecosystems and the services they provide that underpin human well-being. However, biodiversity and ecosystem services are declining at an unprecedented rate, and in order to address this challenge, adequate local, national and international policies need to be adopted and implemented. To achieve this, decision makers need scientifically credible and independent information that takes into account the complex relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem services, and people. They also need effective methods to interpret this scientific information in order to make informed decisions. The scientific community also needs to understand the needs of decision makers better in order to provide them with the relevant information. In essence, the dialogue between the scientific community, governments, and other stakeholders on biodiversity and ecosystem services needs to be strengthened.
To this end, a new platform has been established by the international community - the 'Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services' (IPBES). IPBES was established in April 2012, as an independent intergovernmental body open to all member countries of the United Nations. The members are committed to building IPBES as the leading intergovernmental body for assessing the state of the planet's biodiversity, its ecosystems and the essential services they provide to society.
IPBES provides a mechanism recognized by both the scientific and policy communities to synthesize, review, assess and critically evaluate relevant information and knowledge generated worldwide by governments, academia, scientific organizations, non-governmental organizations and indigenous communities. This involves a credible group of experts in conducting assessments of such information and knowledge in a transparent way. IPBES is unique in that it will aim to strengthen capacity for the effective use of science in decision-making at all levels. IPBES will also aim to address the needs of Multilateral Environmental Agreements that are related to biodiversity and ecosystem services, and build on existing processes ensuring synergy and complementarities in each other's work.
History
Specific discussions on IPBES started following the final meeting of the multi-stakeholder international steering committee for the consultative process on an International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity (IMoSEB) in November 2007. The consultation towards IMoSEB decided to invite the Executive Director of UNEP - in collaboration with governments and other partners - to convene an intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder meeting to consider the establishment of an intergovernmental mechanism for biodiversity and ecosystem services. There was also consensus among the stakeholders involved in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) follow-up initiative that the follow up to the IMoSEB process and the MA follow-up process should merge. It was the coming together of the MA follow up process with the follow up to the IMoSEB consultations that led to the present process on IPBES.
Three intergovernmental and multistakeholders meetings (Malaysia 2008, Kenya 2009, Republic of Korea 2010) were held to discuss ways to strengthen the science-policy interface on biodiversity and ecosystem services. At the first two meetings, the gaps and needs for strengthening the science policy interface were identified, and at the meeting in June 2010, in Busan, Republic of Korea, governments decided that an IPBES should be established, what the focus of its work programme should be, and agreed on many of the principles of its operation as part of the Busan Outcome.
The Busan Outcome was welcomed by the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya in October 2010, and was subsequently considered at the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). UNGA passed a resolution requesting UNEP to convene a plenary meeting to fully operationalize IPBES at the earliest opportunity. This resolution was then taken on board by UNEP in a decision at the 26th session of the UNEP Governing Council meeting, held in February 2011.
The plenary meeting was held in two sessions. The first session was held from 3 to 7 October 2011 in Nairobi. The second session of the plenary was hosted by UNEP, in collaboration with UNESCO, FAO and UNDP, in Panama City from 16 to 21 April 2012. There, many of the modalities and institutional arrangements for the Platform were finalised and 94 Governments adopted a resolution establishing the Platform as an independent intergovernmental body.
The first meeting of the Platform's Plenary (IPBES-1) was held in Bonn, Germany from 21 to 26 January 2013, hosted by the Government of Germany. The final outcome document of this session is available as IPBES/1/12, which includes decisions on the next steps for the development of an initial work programme, the status of contributions and initial budget for the Platform for 2012, the IPBES administrative and institutional arrangements, and the procedure for receiving and prioritizing requests put to the Platform. In addition the report includes the updated rules of procedure for the plenary of the Platform.
The intersessionnal process towards the second session of the Platform's plenary (IPBES-2), anticipated in December 2013, is contained in decision IPBES/1/2. More on the intersessional process here: http://www.ipbes.net/intersessional-process.html
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Olivia Newton-John, who became an advocate for breast cancer research after she was diagnosed with it two decades ago and underwent a double mastectomy, has revealed that her sister Rona Newton-John (above, left) passed away last Friday (May 24) from brain cancer. 
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Public release date: 27-May-2013
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