More bombing victims leave Boston hospitals

BOSTON (AP) ? Boston hospitals say the number of patients being treated for injuries sustained in the marathon bombing continues to drop, nearly two weeks after the attack that killed three and hurt more than 260.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said Sunday morning six patients with bombing injuries remain hospitalized, down from more than 20 immediately following the April 15 attack.

All six are in good or fair condition.

Nine victims remain at Brigham and Women's Hospital, down from 36 after the bombing. Seven are in good condition.

Massachusetts General Hospital continues to treat six bombing victims, with one in serious condition and the others in good or fair condition. The hospital has treated 31 bombing victims.

In all, 26 hospitals have treated people injured in the bombing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/more-bombing-victims-leave-boston-hospitals-150709620.html

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Plants moderate climate warming

Monday, April 29, 2013

As temperatures warm, plants release gases that help form clouds and cool the atmosphere, according to research from IIASA and the University of Helsinki.

The new study, published in Nature Geoscience, identified a negative feedback loop in which higher temperatures lead to an increase in concentrations of natural aerosols that have a cooling effect on the atmosphere.

"Plants, by reacting to changes in temperature, also moderate these changes," says IIASA and University of Helsinki researcher Pauli Paasonen, who led the study.

Scientists had known that some aerosols ? particles that float in the atmosphere ? cool the climate as they reflect sunlight and form cloud droplets, which reflect sunlight efficiently. Aerosol particles come from many sources, including human emissions. But the effect of so-called biogenic aerosol ? particulate matter that originates from plants ? had been less well understood. Plants release gases that, after atmospheric oxidation, tend to stick to aerosol particles, growing them into the larger-sized particles that reflect sunlight and also serve as the basis for cloud droplets. The new study showed that as temperatures warm and plants consequently release more of these gases, the concentrations of particles active in cloud formation increase.

"Everyone knows the scent of the forest," says Ari Asmi, University of Helsinki researcher who also worked on the study. "That scent is made up of these gases." While previous research had predicted the feedback effect, until now nobody had been able to prove its existence except for case studies limited to single sites and short time periods. The new study showed that the effect occurs over the long-term in continental size scales.

The effect of enhanced plant gas emissions on climate is small on a global scale ? only countering approximately 1 percent of climate warming, the study suggested. "This does not save us from climate warming," says Paasonen. However, he says, "Aerosol effects on climate are one of the main uncertainties in climate models. Understanding this mechanism could help us reduce those uncertainties and make the models better."

The study also showed that the effect was much larger on a regional scale, counteracting possibly up to 30% of warming in more rural, forested areas where anthropogenic emissions of aerosols were much lower in comparison to the natural aerosols. That means that especially in places like Finland, Siberia, and Canada this feedback loop may reduce warming substantially.

The researchers collected data at 11 different sites around the world, measuring the concentrations of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, along with the concentrations of plant gases, the temperature, and reanalysis estimates for the height of the boundary layer, which turned out to be a key variable. The boundary layer refers to the layer of air closest to the Earth, in which gases and particles mix effectively. The height of that layer changes with weather. Paasonen says, "One of the reasons that this phenomenon was not discovered earlier was because these estimates for boundary layer height are very difficult to do. Only recently have the reanalysis estimates been improved to where they can be taken as representative of reality."

###

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis: http://www.iiasa.ac.at

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The Great Gatsby TV Spot: Featuring Lana Del Rey Single

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Oldest living ex-big leaguer turns 102 in Cuba

Associated Press Sports

updated 3:19 p.m. ET April 25, 2013

(Eds: With AP Photos.)

Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) - Put another candle on the very crowded birthday cake of Conrado Marrero, the oldest living former major league player.

The Cuban pitcher celebrated his 102nd birthday Thursday at his modest Havana apartment surrounded by family and friends, an unlit Cuban cigar in his mouth and a baseball cap on his head.

He was given an enormous blue and white cake, and savored a glass of wine and a sip of Bucanero, Cuba's domestic beer. Marrero smiled as his family applauded and smothered him in hugs.

In addition to his longevity, the former Washington Senator has much to celebrate this year. After a long wait, he finally received a $20,000 payout from Major League Baseball, granted to old-timers who played between 1947 and 1979.

The money had been held up since 2011 because of issues surrounding the 51-year-old U.S. embargo on Cuba, which prohibits most bank transfers to the Communist-run island. But the funds finally arrived in two parts, one at the end of last year, and the second a few months ago, according to Marrero's family.

Steve Rogers, a former Expos pitcher who is now an official at the Major League Baseball Players Association, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the funds were delivered to Marrero by hand, and with Washington's approval.

"Everything that he was entitled to has now been delivered to him. We found a way to get the funds to him," he said. "It was personally delivered and it was all sanctioned by the Treasury Department."

Rogers has followed Marrero's case closely and says it was an honor to be a part of the effort to get him the money he deserved.

"The oldest living major leaguer," Rogers marveled. "You tip your cap and say, you were from a different era but you played the same game. It is special to be a part of his life."

Marrero's family has used some of the money to buy him a new ventilator and bed, as well as wine, ham, cigars, juice and other delicacies that would be outside his budget, said Marrero's grandson, Rogelio. Like most Cuban pensioners, Marrero receives less than $20 from the state each month.

"My grandfather was always very particular about what he would eat," Rogelio said Wednesday as relatives prepared for the birthday. "Thanks to this we can buy him peach juice, which is his favorite."

These days, Marrero is hard of hearing, blind and has considerable trouble speaking. He spends much of the day sleeping or listening to Cuban ballgames on the radio.

But he still perks up when asked about his glory days, demonstrating how to throw a slider and reminiscing about long-ago confrontations with Ted Williams and other big league legends.

"All the batters were the same to me," Marrero said. "But I had more trouble with the lefties."

When he heard the name Larry Doby - the Hall of Fame Cleveland Indians outfielder who was the first black player in the American League - Marrero's face contorted in mock frustration.

"My grandfather has never forgotten how Doby hit three home runs against him in a single day," Rogelio explained. "He always says Doby was the guy who hit the best against him."

At 5-foot-5 and 158 pounds, Marrero relied on guile to get batters out, compiling a 39-40 record and a 3.67 ERA in five seasons with the Senators from 1950 to 1954.

"Connie Marrero had a windup that looked like a cross between a windmill gone berserk and a mallard duck trying to fly backwards," former big league star Felipe Alou once said of the diminutive Cuban, according to a biography of Marrero by the Society for American Baseball Research.

Marrero was born on April 25, 1911 in the small town of Sagua la Grande in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, and he took his time getting into organized ball.

He played in amateur and semi-pro events in the early 1930s, raising eyebrows with his vicious curve and slider. In 1938, he joined a Cienfuegos team that was sponsored by a local men's clothing store, and which was about to become part of a budding Cuban league.

By the time he reached the big leagues, Marrero was already 39, an age when most players have long since retired. But he made the most of his opportunity, even being named to the 1951 All-Star team.

After his stint in the big leagues, Marrero came back to Cuba, ending his career with the Havana Sugar Kings in 1957. Two years later, Fidel Castro's rebels swept into power. Marrero became a coach and roving instructor, working well into his 80s.

Even at 102, he continues to be interested in baseball and counts himself a fan of Cienfuegos, the team that is leading the Cuban league at the moment.

But Marrero's true love is great-granddaughter Sandra. When the 12-year-old returned home from school Wednesday, the day before the birthday, Marrero reached out to take her hand and kiss it.

"Sandra, Sandra," he repeated as she leaned down to embrace him.

---

Associated Press writer Paul Haven contributed to this report.

---

Follow Anne-Marie Garcia on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AnneMarie279

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Talking Jeter

??DPS: Kevin Millar joins Dan Patrick to discuss if there's anything that could change Derek Jeter's legacy.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/51665585/ns/sports-baseball/

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UK opens makeshift Somalia embassy in Western vote of confidence

By Richard Lough

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - In a sign of growing optimism that Somalia is winning a struggle against pirates and al Qaeda-linked insurgents, Britain opened an embassy on Thursday in a set of four metal cabins at Mogadishu airport.

It was the first such move by a Western power since Somalia began to emerge from more than two decades of conflict. Turkey and Iran are among others vying for influence in the Horn of Africa country, with growing commercial ties and diplomatic missions already up and running.

"It is a symbol of our confidence and belief in the future of Somalia," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who flew in on an unannounced visit to watch the Union Jack flag hoisted above the cabins, generator and satellite dish within the airport perimeter fence.

"This is a sign of where Somalia is now heading to," said Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

"Somalia is going back to the international arena," he added, expressing hope that other Western states would follow suit.

The country is enjoying a delicate recovery but remains heavily dependent on others for its security. An African Union military offensive has driven weakened al Shabaab insurgents from bases in Mogadishu and other cities, and piracy in the strategic sea lanes off Somalia is at an all-time low, thanks largely to a heavy foreign naval presence.

REGIONAL BOOST

A stable Somalia would boost regional economies like Kenya and Ethiopia which have been rattled by their neighbor's insecurity, and would reassure Western capitals which have long worried Somalia provides a base for militant Islam to flourish.

The British government says now is "the best time in a generation for Somalia to get back onto the road to recovery." Britain will host an international conference in London on May 7 on ways to bolster security, impose the rule of law and rebuild the nation.

At the new embassy, due to be fully operational from late July, diplomats will live and work for a few weeks at a time in rotation behind two big blast walls, squeezed between the airport runway on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other.

Other countries with embassies in Mogadishu include Turkey, Libya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen and Iran.

Britain's previous diplomatic mission lies in ruins: it closed in 1991 as a civil war broke out that led to first warlords and then Islamist militants stepping into the political vacuum.

Once written off as a failed state, Somalia now has its most legitimate government for decades since Mohamud's election in September. But the government still struggles to exert influence beyond the capital.

Foreign diplomats say they are spending more time in Somalia and will not be far behind the growing number of U.N. officials and aid workers slowly moving to Somalia from Kenya, where many organizations have been running their Somali operations.

(Editing by Edmund Blair and Mark Trevelyan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-opens-makeshift-somalia-embassy-western-vote-confidence-130737115.html

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Hubble brings faraway comet into view

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The NASA Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their clearest view yet of Comet ISON, a newly-discovered sun grazer comet that may light up the sky later this year, or come so close to the Sun that it disintegrates. A University of Maryland-led research team is closely following ISON, which offers a rare opportunity to witness a comet's evolution as it makes its first-ever journey through the inner solar system.

Like all comets, ISON is a "dirty snowball" ? a clump of frozen gases mixed with dust, formed in a distant reach of the solar system, traveling on an orbit influenced by the gravitational pull of the Sun and its planets. ISON's orbit will bring it to a perihelion, or maximum approach to the Sun, of 700,000 miles on November 28, said Maryland assistant research scientist Michael S. Kelley.

This image was made on April 10, when ISON was some 386 million miles from the Sun ? slightly closer to the Sun than the planet Jupiter. Comets become more active as they near the inner solar system, where the Sun's heat evaporates their ices into jets of gases and dust. But even at this great distance ISON is already active, with a strong jet blasting dust particles off its nucleus. As these dust particles shimmer in reflected sunlight, a portion of the comet's tail becomes visible in the Hubble image.

Next week while the Hubble still has the comet in view, the Maryland team will use the space telescope to gather information about ISON's gases.

"We want to look for the ratio of the three dominant ices, water, frozen carbon monoxide, and frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice," said Maryland astronomy Prof. Michael A'Hearn. "That can tell us the temperature at which the comet formed, and with that temperature, we can then say where in the solar system it formed."

The Maryland team will use both the Hubble Space Telescope and the instruments on the Deep Impact space craft to continue to follow ISON as it travels toward its November close up (perihelion) with the sun.

###

University of Maryland: http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/

Thanks to University of Maryland for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 21 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127887/Hubble_brings_faraway_comet_into_view

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Ticket scalping for a murder trial?

PHOENIX (AP) ? Ticket scalping is nothing new in the sports and music world, but for a murder trial?

Dozens of people flock to court each day for a chance to score one of a handful of seats open to the public in Jodi Arias' ongoing murder trial in Arizona. The seats are provided on a first-come, first-serve basis, and nearly four months into the trial, the crowds are growing.

This week, one trial regular sold her spot to another person for $200 ? and both got reprimands from the court on Tuesday.

Desiree Lee, a regular attendee, said another woman had traveled from Michigan to see the trial but couldn't get a seat because she was too far back in line.

"She was asking a couple of people ahead of me if they wanted to sell their seats," Lee, who lives in the area, told ABC15 in Phoenix. "I said yes because I can come every day if I wanted to ... I seriously didn't know I was going to get in trouble.

"I'm a little embarrassed more than anything," Lee added.

She said she was told to return the money. The purchaser kept her seat for free.

Court officials confirmed the incident. The court's rules prohibit saving spots in line, and that's why the woman was asked to give the money back, although she doesn't face any charges.

The message played for callers to the judge's courtroom explains that seats are indeed limited.

"This is a public trial, but it's likely you will not get a seat," the message says.

Arias faces a potential death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder in the June 2008 killing of her one-time boyfriend at his suburban Phoenix home. Authorities say she planned the attack on Travis Alexander in a jealous rage. Arias initially denied involvement then later blamed it on masked intruders. Two years after her arrest, she said it was self-defense.

The trial continued Wednesday afternoon as the prosecution called witnesses ahead of closing arguments next week. A medical examiner is expected to testify Thursday.

While there is no specific law preventing the public from selling their spot in line to get into the trial, Phoenix criminal defense lawyer Julio Laboy said it undermines the seriousness of the case.

"I think this particular trial has brought out so many salacious facts and sordid details that what happens is people lose sight of how very real this is," Laboy said Wednesday. "Whether you like Jodi Arias or not, whether you side with Travis Alexander or not, for these families, it's very real."

One person is dead and another is on trial for her life, Laboy said.

"It's extremely disheartening, as if people were bartering to get into a Yankees game," he said. "For Jodi Arias, this is her life on the line."

Others said the antics aren't unusual, and even occur at the nation's highest court in Washington.

"As distasteful as it is to most people, it happens at the U.S. Supreme Court each time there's a big case," said San Francisco criminal defense lawyer Michael Cardoza. "It's distasteful, but it's not unusual."

In fact, during the highly publicized Scott Peterson murder trial in 2004 in the San Francisco area, where Peterson was convicted and sentenced to death in the killing of his pregnant wife, Laci, hundreds of trial enthusiasts would show up at the courthouse each day for a chance to score one of about 28 seats open to the public.

Court officials there operated a lottery system, not first-come first-serve, drawing random numbers and calling them out to the applause of each winner. The tickets in that case could not be transferred or sold.

The entire Arias case has devolved into a spectacle.

The Arizona Republic reported that Arias' defense attorney Jennifer Willmott has received a death threat, according to Maricopa County authorities, but she declined to pursue the matter.

Adding to the spectacle, Arias is profiting from her notoriety by selling drawings from jail on a website operated by a third party, her mother, Sandra Arias, has said. According to the site, some pieces are fetching more than a $1,000, and Sandra Arias said the money is being used to help pay for family expenses. Nothing prevents Arias from profiting from her notoriety given she hasn't been convicted of a crime.

A woman who attends the trial regularly says she is operating a Twitter account on Arias' behalf, gathering comments from the defendant via jail phone calls. Some of the Tweets have consisted of religious quotes, while others attack the prosecutor and TV pundits.

The Associated Press cannot confirm, aside from with family and friends, whether the Twitter account or website are actually her words or her artwork.

___

Brian Skoloff can be followed at https://twitter.com/bskoloff

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arias-spectacle-grows-trial-seat-sold-200-182132614.html

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