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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news/50645847/
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বৃহস্পতিবার, ৩১ জানুয়ারি, ২০১৩
Tornado Watch Extended to 8 p.m. for Most of Central Ga.
The tornado watch for most of Central Georgia has been extended to 8 p.m.
These counties are covered by the watch:
Baldwin, Bibb, Bleckley, Crawford, Dooly, Hancock, Houston, Jones, Macon, Monroe, Peach, Pulaski, Putnam, Taylor, Twiggs and Wilkinson.
The National Weather Service says watch means conditions are favorable for tornado producing storms to develop.
RELATED | Check the Interactive Weather Map
People should monitor today's weather conditions and be ready to take cover.
Check back with 13WMAZ.com for updates on today's weather.
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Source: http://milledgeville.13wmaz.com/news/news/81562-tornado-watch-extended-8-pm-most-central-ga
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Non Resident Home Loan Assistance from Future Financial
It is good to know that there are already companies that are specializing in providing loans to people. Some example includes non resident home loan, equity finance mortgage or EFM, investment home loans, low doc home loans, mortgage refinance, self employed home loans, first home owners construction grant, debt consolidation home loans and many more to mention. The financial institution is helping self employed individuals and those who are in the contracting sector to get the loans that they need for the situation.
The company will simply have to check certain details to support that you are indeed capable to pay them back the loan to a certain period of time. For instance, they will have to look to your annual income or the history of your employed status. That is where they will base their decision to offer the loan that you need as of the situation. At times, they are letting people borrow through annualized rate and of their contract salary. If you are wondering what you are going to do in order to qualify for the loans mentioned above, well it is important that you simply collect the necessary documentation needed. For example you can include your past pay slips or your tax records. You can also include the information about your future contracts and then the bank statements too. You may want to work part time to a company in order to let the financial company see that you are indeed earning regular money. Check the site of Future Financial for loan assistance today.
Source: http://d-z-d.com/finance/non-resident-home-loan-assistance-from-future-financial/
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Asian shares inch up, caution over earnings, Fed
TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares inched up on Wednesday, cautiously awaiting local corporate earnings reports and the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision due later in the session, while taking comfort from improving global economic prospects.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> inched up 0.2 percent to build on the previous day's 1 percent rally which snapped a four-day losing streak.
Global stock markets rose on Tuesday as earnings from U.S. companies have generally beaten forecasts so far with the latest upbeat results from Amazon boosting the company's stock up 10 percent.
European equities scaled fresh two-year highs on Tuesday as optimism over economic recovery gained momentum after strong U.S. housing market data raised hopes for accelerating demand, while an upgrade in China's economic growth forecast for 2013 by the country's top think tank bolstered risk appetite.
Australian shares <.axjo> drifted in narrow range, eking out a 0.2 percent gain after hitting a 21-month high on Tuesday.
South Korean shares <.ks11> opened 0.3 percent higher, after staging a sharp rebound on Tuesday from an 8-week low and Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> opened up 0.4 percent. <.t/>
The Fed ends a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, and few expect any shift in its current very accommodative stance.
But investors will focus on the statement for any clues to the Fed's thinking on if and when it might pull back from its aggressive easing stimulus. The minutes from the December meeting, released earlier this month, hinted at uneasiness within the Fed around its asset-buying program and sparked a sell-off in Treasuries and lifted yields up out of ranges.
"We see prospect for sustained asset-price reflation in coming months, the result of G3 stimulus efforts and structural reallocation flows," said Morgan Stanley said in a research note.
"This has three implications: Reflation would lend support to higher-yielding emerging markets assets, safe-haven assets would continue to weaken, and expectations about emerging markets policy would likely shift."
The yen remains pressured with the Bank of Japan set to pursue strong monetary easing as the Abe administration pushes for radical reflationary policies to end stubborn deflation.
The dollar steadied at 90.75 yen, still near Monday's 91.32, its highest level since June 2010. The euro also held around 122.46 yen, not far from 122.91 also touched on Monday, its highest point since April.
The euro traded at $1.3489, after scaling a 14-month high of $1.3498 on Tuesday.
U.S. crude oil eased 0.2 percent after rising more than 1 percent on Tuesday on expectations for higher demand.
(Editing by Eric Meijer)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-inch-caution-over-earnings-fed-004755147--finance.html
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United Mine Workers Of America President Cecil Roberts Arrested As Hundreds Rally To Save Health Benefits- 01/31/13
United Mine Workers Of America President Cecil Roberts Arrested As Hundreds Rally To Save Health Benefits- 01/31/13
1/30/2013
By Doug Cunningham
Hundreds of United Mine Workers of America members and supporters rallied this week at Peabody Energy headquarters in St. Louis to protest a long-term scheme to strip critical health benefits away from miners, retirees and their families. UMWA President Cecil Roberts was arrested in the protests. The union says Patriot Coal?s bankruptcy case in federal court is being used to take away the hard-earned health benefits of thousands of miners. Patriot was spun off from Peabody. Roberts says this is a sickening display of corporate greed that?s overstepped the bounds of decency. He says UMWA will continue to fight so active and retired miners don?t have to lay awake at night wondering if they can survive the next week, month or year without health benefits.
Source: http://www.laborradio.org/Channels/story.aspx?ID=1875434
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Slow-release 'jelly' delivers drugs better
Jan. 28, 2013 ? Duke University biomedical engineers have developed a new delivery system that overcomes the shortcomings of a promising class of peptide drugs -- very small proteins -- for treating diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
There are more than 40 peptide drugs approved for use in humans and more than 650 are being tested in clinical studies. One example is the hormone insulin, a peptide that regulates the metabolism of carbohydrates in the body and is used as a drug to treat diabetes.
Despite their effectiveness, peptide drugs cannot achieve their full potential for a number of reasons. They are rapidly degraded in the blood stream and they are cleared rapidly from the body, which requires multiple, frequent injections. Because of this, peptide concentrations in the blood can rise precipitously just after injection and fall dramatically soon thereafter, causing unwanted side effects for patients.
One popular method to solve this problem involves loading peptide drugs into polymer microspheres that are injected under the skin and slowly degrade to release the peptide drug. Microsphere-release technology has proven useful, but has many issues related to its manufacture and ease of patient use, the researchers said.
"We wanted to know if we could create a system that does what the polymer microspheres do, but gets rid of the microspheres and is more patient-friendly," said Ashutosh Chilkoti, Theo Pilkington professor of biomedical engineering in Duke's Pratt School of Engineering.
The new approach involves making a "fusion protein" that consists of multiple copies of a peptide drug fused to a polymer which is sensitive to body heat. The fusion molecule is a liquid in a syringe but transforms into a "jelly" when injected under the skin. Enzymes in the skin then attack the injected drug depot and liberate copies of the peptide, providing a constant and controllable release of the drug over time.
Miriam Amiram, former Chilkoti graduate student and first author on the paper, dubbed the new delivery system POD, for protease-operated depot.
In the latest experiments, published on-line in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers fused glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a hormone that regulates the release of insulin, with a genetically engineered heat-sensitive polymer to create the POD.
"Remarkably, a single injection of the GLP-1 POD was able to reduce blood glucose levels in mice for up to five days, which is 120 times longer than an injection of the peptide alone," Chilkoti said. "For a patient with type 2 diabetes, it would be much more desirable to inject such a drug once a week or once a month rather than once or twice a day.
"Additionally, this approach avoids the peaks and valleys of drug concentrations that these patients often experience," Chilkoti said.
Unlike peptide-loaded microspheres, PODs are also easy to manufacture, because the peptide drug and the heat-sensitive polymer are all made of amino acids. They can be built as one long stretch of amino acids by engineered bacteria.
"This new delivery system provides the first entirely genetically encoded alternative to peptide drug encapsulation for sustained delivery of peptide drugs," Chilkoti said.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Miriam Amiram, Kelli M. Luginbuhl, Xinghai Li, Mark N. Feinglos, and Ashutosh Chilkoti. Injectable protease-operated depots of glucagon-like peptide-1 provide extended and tunable glucose control. PNAS, January 28, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1214518110
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/ClVrXej8tIo/130128151919.htm
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মঙ্গলবার, ২৯ জানুয়ারি, ২০১৩
Passwords redux | Dave Kearns
Over 25 years ago I started in the networked computer field worrying about authentication, usernames and passwords. And despite all the weeping and wailing about passwords in the intervening years, I still spend an inordinate amount of time thinking, writing and speaking about them.
Just last week, Oracle?s Mike Neuenschwander (formerly with The Burton Group) organized a lively tweet chat on authentication issues (search Twitter for #authchat to see what?s left of the thread) which showed surprising agreement about the future of passwords for authentication.
The week before, Google had announced what the press called a ?war on passwords,? when they rolled out a beta project to use Yubikey hardware tokens in a Near Field Communication (NFC) system for authentication. My colleague Martin Kuppinger looked at this possibility just the other day, and liked it ? with cautions.
The thing is, most analysts, IT execs, security professionals and others with a stake in authentication services agree that passwords should be removed from the process. They?re inherently insecure, someone recently speculated that the ?secure lifespan? of a new password (the time it would take to crack it) is down to less than a second, on average.
The hundreds of data breaches in just the past year unveiled hundreds of thousands of passwords. While many bemoaned the simplicity of the passwords people choose (?password,? ?qwerty,? ?12345,? ?monkey?) and demand more complexity others note that the more complex the password the more often a user will write it on a sticky note attached to their monitor.
It was just over a year ago I suggested going to a Privileged Management (PxM) system, called by some Privileged User Management (PUM), and by others Priveleged Account Management as sort of an SSO on steroids answer to the password problem.
The basic idea is that passwords are here to stay, and all we can hope to do is to reduce our dependence on them or reduce their exposure. By configuring the PxM-SSO system to reset passwords after every use; to use complex combinations of letters, numbers, upper/lower case and other marks; and to never reveal the password chosen that we increase significantly the amount of time needed to break the password. In other words, if we make it more expensive to break in to the system then the value derived from the break-in we reduced the incentive for the cracker. As the old proverb goes, when a group is being chased by a bear you don?t have to be the fastest runner just faster that the slowest.
Of course, as many have pointed out, that ?solution? doesn?t remove passwords at all. That?s very true, but also well beside the point. There is no solution that, in the foreseeable future, will remove all reliance on passwords, especially when we speak about the mobile market.
Ever since Apple acquired AuthenTec (maker of 2D finger print sensors), there?s been talk that the next iPhone (either the 6 or the 5S) will include a fingerprint reader. I?ve been waiting for that development for four years, sBut as one wag commented, most smartphones have shiny surfaces which any thief should find to be very thick with fingerprints that could be lifted and reused .
Whether or not that development leads to a use of biometrics rather than a PIN to unlock a smartphone is still problematic. Too many people seem to make a living out of denigrating biometrics for authentication. Lurid tales of people having their digits cut off to fool fingerprint readers are scary, if not very truthful.
Near Field Communications (NFC), used in devices such as the Yubico Yubikey being looked at by Google, is simply a refinement of RFID with a much smaller range. In this case, smaller is supposedly better. RFID has been criticized for broadcasting data too far, allowing the nefarious to ?eavesdrop? on communications and harvest all sorts of interesting ?stuff?. But NFC devices still have the same flaw, what could be the same fatal flaw, that RFID devices have. It?s the device itself that?s being authenticated no matter who is in possession of it. No matter what form factor the NFC device takes ? the credit card sized bit of plastic that Martin favors or the wearable ring that Google is talking about ? it?s still quite possible for it to fall into the hands of the cracker with no need for lopping off fingers.
Proponents of NFC devices say that multi-factor authentication is the key. Invariable, this leads us back to a password, a PIN, a passphrase or other shared secret. Well, for many it does. I still prefer a biometric as the second factor. But those who feel a password can be used frequently call for a one-time password (OTP) distributed out-of-band (perhaps by SMS message). The recent Eurograpper exploit should give us pause when considering that solution.
Last week?s #authchat tweet chat pretty much concluded in general consensus about two things: 1) password authentication is bad; 2) passwords are going to be around for a long time, although perhaps in a diminished role.
Winston Churchill once said: ?democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.? Could we paraphrase that and say passwords are the worst form of authentication except for all those other methods that have been tried from time to time? And if we will continue to use passwords, in one way or another, which is the best way? Should we have one strong password we use for all authentications? Different strong passwords for each authentication? A combination where an SSO/PAM handles different strong passwords for each authentication while being accessed by one strong password at initialization?
Here?s the question I want to leave you with today: if you want to protect your eggs, do you hide them ? individually ? all over the farm or do you put them all in one basket and hide it under a hay rick?
In my days as a network manager I learned that there?s always a bottleneck in the network where traffic slows. When you fix that, then another place becomes the bottleneck. It?s the same with authentication ? we can always identify the weak point, but when we fix it doesn?t something else become the weak point?
Source: http://blogs.kuppingercole.com/kearns/2013/01/29/passwords-redux/
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Asia's trend-setters feeling iPhone fatigue
4 hrs.
SINGAPORE?? Apple's iconic iPhone is losing some of its luster among Asia's well-heeled consumers in Singapore and Hong Kong, a victim of changing mobile habits and its own runaway success.
Driven by a combination of iPhone fatigue, a desire to be different and a plethora of competing devices, users are turning to other brands, notably those from Samsung Electronics, eating into Apple's market share.
In Singapore, Apple's products were so dominant in 2010 that more devices here ran its iOS operating system per capita than anywhere else in the world.
But StatCounter, which measures traffic collected across a network of 3 million websites, calculates that Apple's share of mobile devices in Singapore ? iPad and iPhone ? declined sharply last year. From a peak of 72 percent in January 2012, its share fell to 50 percent this month, while Android devices now account for 43 percent of the market, up from 20 percent in the same month last year.
In Hong Kong, devices running Apple's iOS now account for about 30 percent of the total, down from about 45 percent a year ago. Android accounts for nearly two-thirds.
"Apple is still viewed as a prestigious brand, but there are just so many other cool smartphones out there now that the competition is just much stiffer," said Tom Clayton, chief executive of Singapore-based Bubble Motion, which develops a popular regional social media app called Bubbly.
Leading indicators
Where Hong Kong and Singapore lead, other key markets across fast-growing Asia usually follow.
"Singapore and Hong Kong tend to be, from an electronics perspective, leading indicators on what is going to be hot in Western Europe and North America, as well as what is going to take off in the region," said Jim Wagstaff, who runs a Singapore-based company called Jam Factory?that's developing mobile apps for enterprises.
Southeast Asia is adopting smartphones fast ? consumers spent 78 percent more on smartphones in the 12 months up to September 2012 than they did the year before, according to research company GfK.
Android rising
Anecdotal evidence of iPhone fatigue isn't hard to find: Where a year ago iPhones swamped other devices on the subways of Hong Kong and Singapore, they are now outnumbered by Samsung and HTC smartphones.
While this is partly explained by the proliferation of Android devices, from the cheap to the fancy, there are other signs that Apple has lost followers.
Singapore entrepreneur Aileen Sim recently launched an app for splitting bills called BillPin, settling on an iOS version because that was the dominant platform in the three countries she was targeting ? Singapore, India and the United States.
"But what surprised us was how strong the call for Android was when we launched our app," she said.
Indeed, 70 percent of their target users ? 20-something college students and fresh graduates ? said they were either already on Android or planned to switch over.
"Android is becoming really hard to ignore, around the region and in the U.S. for sure, but surprisingly even in Singapore," she said. "Even my younger early-20s cousins are mostly on Android now."
BillPin launched an Android version this month.
Standing out from the crowd
Napoleon Biggs, chief strategy officer at Gravitas Group, a Hong Kong-based mobile marketing company, said that while Apple and the iPhone remained premium brands there, Samsung's promotional efforts were playing to an increasingly receptive audience.
For some, it is a matter of wanting to stand out from the iPhone-carrying crowd. Others find the higher-powered, bigger-screened Android devices better suited to their changing habits ? watching video, writing Chinese characters ? while the cost of switching devices is lower than they expected, given that most popular social and gaming apps are available for both platforms.
"Hong Kong is a very fickle place," Biggs said.
Janet Chan, a 25-year-old Hong Kong advertising executive, has an iPhone 5, ?but its fast-draining battery and the appeal of a bigger screen for watching movies is prodding her to switch to a Samsung Galaxy Note II.
"After Steve Jobs died, it seems the element of surprise in product launches isn't that great anymore," she said.
Shifting trends
To be sure, there are still plenty of people buying Apple devices. Stores selling their products in places such as Indonesia were full over the Christmas holidays, and the company's new official store in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay has queues snaking out of the door most days.
But the iPhone's drop in popularity in trendy Hong Kong and Singapore is mirrored in the upmarket malls of the region.
"IPhones are like Louis Vuitton handbags," said marketing manager Narisara Konglua in Bangkok, who uses a Galaxy SIII. "It's become so commonplace to see people with iPads and iPhones so you lose your cool edge having one."
In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, an assistant manager at Coca Cola's local venture, Gatot Hadipratomo, agrees. The iPhone "used to be a cool gadget, but now more and more people use it," Hadipratomo said.
There is another influence at play: hip Korea. Korean pop music, movies and TV are hugely popular around the region, and Samsung is riding that wave. And while the impact is more visible in Hong Kong and Singapore, it also translates directly to places like Thailand.
"Thais are not very brand-loyal," says Akkaradert Bumrungmuang, 24, a student at Mahidol University in Bangkok. "That's why whatever is hot or the in-thing to have is adopted quickly here. We follow Korea, so whatever is fashionable in Korea will be a big hit."
This report was written by Jeremy Wagstaff in Singapore, with additional reporting by Lee Chyen Yee in Hong Kong, Khettiya Jittapong and Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok, and Andjarsari Paramaditha in Jakarta.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
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সোমবার, ২৮ জানুয়ারি, ২০১৩
Police push for background checks on gun purchases
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Law enforcement leaders who met with President Barack Obama are urging him to improve the mental health system and strengthen background checks, but did not unify on more controversial gun control measures.
Leaders of the Major County Sheriffs' Association said they told the president Monday to focus on the mental health system.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey says there was broad agreement on the need to require stronger background checks for gun purchases. Ramsey is president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, which backs an assault weapons ban.
The message reflects the political reality in Congress that the assault weapons ban Obama is pushing is likely to have a hard time winning broad support. But the president may have more hope for getting universal background checks.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-push-background-checks-gun-purchases-023655912--politics.html
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Wall Street executives fret about talent drain
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - As the titans of Wall Street banks gathered to network, gossip and consider the future of their beleaguered industry in Davos over the past week, one common worry emerged: who is going to take over when we leave?
Some of the most ambitious minds in finance are leaving the industry after years of losses, scandals, bad press - and perhaps most importantly new regulations that have curbed some previously free-wheeling ways.
The issue, executives say, is not pay, but how much scope there is to innovate and build businesses, which is why more bankers and traders are leaving the big Wall Street firms for Silicon Valley, joining private investment partnerships like hedge funds and private equity funds, or going into energy and other industries.
David Boehmer, head of financial services in the Americas for the recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles, said he hears this message from Wall Street employees looking to leave the industry.
"I get people saying, 'I'm bored and I need to do something about it - this isn't a challenge anymore,'" he said.
The problem is particularly acute for big banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc
"There is a massive talent drain in our business," said a senior Wall Street executive, who declined to be identified.
BIGGEST CRITICS
For some of Wall Street's harshest critics this is likely to be perceived as good news. Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and other experts have argued for years that innovation has little place in the financial sector, and having more conservative bankers and fewer heavy risk takers running Wall Street will reduce the chances of another blow-up like the financial crisis. It will also help to increase wealth generation in more important parts of the economy, such as manufacturing and software, they argue.
The financial implosion in 2008 was partly triggered by the best and the brightest on Wall Street engineering products that helped inflate a massive housing bubble, and then magnified the losses that resulted. The financial sector globally received trillions of dollars of government support during the worst of the crisis, and new regulations are designed to ensure that bailouts are not necessary in the future.
But many of the biggest global banks have gotten only bigger, making them potentially even more dangerous to the financial system. And having talented executives who understand complicated financial products and know how to control risks will become even more important, executives say.
"It will become more of a problem five or 10 years down the road, but ultimately someone is going to have to manage these beasts," the Wall Street executive said.
It isn't difficult to find examples of the exodus from big banks.
After nearly 15 years in finance - with stints at American International Group Inc , Barclays Capital and PineBridge Investments - Jacques-Philippe Piverger left Wall Street in 2011 to launch a company called Micro Power Design Inc, which makes solar-powered lamps. Piverger's ultimate goal is to get the devices into the hands of poor people in developing countries whose access to electricity is limited.
"Isn't it cool?" he asked as one of the lamps was placed on the bar of the posh Belvedere Hotel in Davos.
Piverger was well-paid in finance but said his career had left him wanting. His startup gives him the ability to "address business and societal and environmental imperatives from under one roof," he said.
Another example is the Twitter-linked tech startup Dataminr, which is staffed by ex-employees from Wall Street firms, including Mark Dimont, who left Morgan Stanley last year to head a business development team there.
Of course, there have been previous waves of departures to hedge funds as bankers and traders have sought to strike out on their own - or to make more money - but this time the departures appear to be broader in nature.
TOLERATING ODDBALLS
The departure of employees may force Wall Street to consider a wider range of people for positions. Heidrick & Struggles' Boehmer gave a presentation to a group of young professionals in Davos about his biggest challenge recruiting for big banks these days: getting executives to think creatively when filling positions.
In the presentation - called "Hiring an oddball" - Boehmer described how hard it is to get bank executives to hire creative and "quirky" leaders who do not "fit in" with the prototypical suited-up Wall Street mould, but who could help revolutionize the industry.
Instead, those quirky types are sought by Silicon Valley, and they may be happier there. Many prefer the laid back atmosphere, not to mention the challenges of building a business, and the promise of lucrative rewards at companies like Google
"Banks are not getting top-level talent out of universities anymore, so in 10 to 15 years, there could be a big problem when it comes to leadership at the senior level of these firms," Boehmer said. "They're seeing big gaps in talent."
Boehmer said he performed a search for a technology position at a major investment bank, calling on candidates from Silicon Valley who might be lured to New York with mega-paychecks. He was denied by everyone he approached, he said.
On the flip side, Heidrick & Struggles also did a search for a mobile-payments company on the West Coast that was looking for someone with financial expertise but offered just one-quarter of the pay. In that case, "we got tons of applicants," said Boehmer.
Jack Dunn, president and CEO of FTI Consulting, recalled a recent conversation with a friend's son who is about 35 years old and works at a major Wall Street bank.
Despite having a lucrative pay package and senior title, all the son talked about was finding an exit strategy, Dunn said.
"When I was young and didn't know any better, I would have thought it was a dream job," said Dunn, a former investment banker. "It's a problem because we're going to need someone to pick up the pieces, and a lot of the best people are leaving these firms."
(This story corrects the spelling of Boehmer's name throughout)
(Editing by Dan Wilchins, Martin Howell and Maureen Bavdek)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-executives-fret-talent-drain-172142975--sector.html
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Cover Letter and Resume Critique - Actuarial Outpost
Hi guys, I am applying to a company that has an office in Florida. I emailed the chief actuary my cover letter in the body of the email and attached my resume. Did I write too much? too little? Did I write things that were already evident from my resume? Are there any other things that I could improve in both my cover letter and/or resume?
-----------------------------------------------------------
Dear Ms. asdf
My name is asdfasdf and I am an undergraduate student majoring in Actuarial Science and Scientific Computing at some college. I am graduating this coming May and I'm applying for the Analyst opening in Florida. I will forward a copy of my resume to HR but, since you are the contact in the Florida office, I wanted to point out some additional details that make me a strong candidate for the position. I am currently a research assistant under professor someone2 of the department of Statistics at some college and in this position I work with five other students in a common research topic. Moreover, each of us are encouraged to work on our own side projects. This experience has led me to learn how to communicate and work effectively in a team and by myself. I am also fully fluent in four languages including Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin. Since your company is primarily a consulting firm and given Florida's multicultural environment, my languages may prove useful in communicating with clients of different cultural backgrounds. Additionally, I have very strong computer programming skills as evidenced by my second major. Finally, I wanted to point out that I do not require any kind of sponsorship to work in the US. Thank you for your time and please find attached a copy of my resume.
Regards,
my name
-------------------------------
Thank you in advance!
The underlined words are the ones I changed from the original email
P.S.: The instructions on their webpage said to email our resume to their HR email but I thought that emailing my resume and contacting the chief actuary in addition to that would have been a better approach. What do you guys think?
Source: http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actuarial_discussion_forum/showthread.php?t=254869
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Ryan: Obama doesn't actually think 'we have a fiscal crisis?
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan lashed out at President Barack Obama on Sunday, saying the commander in chief does not have a full grasp of the budget problems facing the U.S. economy.
"I don't think that the president actually thinks we have a fiscal crisis," Ryan told NBC's David Gregory on "Meet The Press" in his first live interview since the 2012 presidential campaign, when he was Mitt Romney's running mate.
Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, said that while Democrats may have gotten higher taxes on the wealthy as part of the New Year's deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, that's all they'll get.
'"The president got his additional revenues," Ryan said. "So that's behind us."
"Are we for raising revenues? No we're not," he continued. "If you keep raising revenues, you're not going to get decent tax reform."
The former vice presidential candidate also addressed a pair politically-divisive issues: immigration reform and gun control. Via NBC:
Ryan, who has praised a bipartisan set of immigration reforms offered by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, said he was cautiously optimistic about the prospects for immigration reform this year. But Ryan said that Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike would closely watch Obama's speech on Tuesday in Nevada on that topic.
And of the president's gun control measures, Ryan suggested openness to embracing some measures--like requiring universal background checks on gun sales--while expressing skittishness toward other elements of the plan, like the ban on assault weapons.
And as far as his political aspirations for 2016 are concerned, Ryan said it's too early for him to talk about.
"I think it's just premature. I've got an important job to do," Ryan said. "I'll decide later about that."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/paul-ryan-meet-press-obama-fiscal-crisis-170944283--election.html
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Wall Street executives fret about talent drain
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - As the titans of Wall Street banks gathered to network, gossip and consider the future of their beleaguered industry in Davos over the past week, one common worry emerged: who is going to take over when we leave?
Some of the most ambitious minds in finance are leaving the industry after years of losses, scandals, bad press - and perhaps most importantly new regulations that have curbed some previously free-wheeling ways.
The issue, executives say, is not pay, but how much scope there is to innovate and build businesses, which is why more bankers and traders are leaving the big Wall Street firms for Silicon Valley, joining private investment partnerships like hedge funds and private equity funds, or going into energy and other industries.
David Boehmer, head of financial services in the Americas for the recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles, said he hears this message from Wall Street employees looking to leave the industry.
"I get people saying, 'I'm bored and I need to do something about it - this isn't a challenge anymore,'" he said.
The problem is particularly acute for big banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc
"There is a massive talent drain in our business," said a senior Wall Street executive, who declined to be identified.
BIGGEST CRITICS
For some of Wall Street's harshest critics this is likely to be perceived as good news. Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker and other experts have argued for years that innovation has little place in the financial sector, and having more conservative bankers and fewer heavy risk takers running Wall Street will reduce the chances of another blow-up like the financial crisis. It will also help to increase wealth generation in more important parts of the economy, such as manufacturing and software, they argue.
The financial implosion in 2008 was partly triggered by the best and the brightest on Wall Street engineering products that helped inflate a massive housing bubble, and then magnified the losses that resulted. The financial sector globally received trillions of dollars of government support during the worst of the crisis, and new regulations are designed to ensure that bailouts are not necessary in the future.
But many of the biggest global banks have gotten only bigger, making them potentially even more dangerous to the financial system. And having talented executives who understand complicated financial products and know how to control risks will become even more important, executives say.
"It will become more of a problem five or 10 years down the road, but ultimately someone is going to have to manage these beasts," the Wall Street executive said.
It isn't difficult to find examples of the exodus from big banks.
After nearly 15 years in finance - with stints at American International Group Inc , Barclays Capital and PineBridge Investments - Jacques-Philippe Piverger left Wall Street in 2011 to launch a company called Micro Power Design Inc, which makes solar-powered lamps. Piverger's ultimate goal is to get the devices into the hands of poor people in developing countries whose access to electricity is limited.
"Isn't it cool?" he asked as one of the lamps was placed on the bar of the posh Belvedere Hotel in Davos.
Piverger was well-paid in finance but said his career had left him wanting. His startup gives him the ability to "address business and societal and environmental imperatives from under one roof," he said.
Another example is the Twitter-linked tech startup Dataminr, which is staffed by ex-employees from Wall Street firms, including Mark Dimont, who left Morgan Stanley last year to head a business development team there.
Of course, there have been previous waves of departures to hedge funds as bankers and traders have sought to strike out on their own - or to make more money - but this time the departures appear to be broader in nature.
TOLERATING ODDBALLS
The departure of employees may force Wall Street to consider a wider range of people for positions. Heidrick & Struggles' Boehmer gave a presentation to a group of young professionals in Davos about his biggest challenge recruiting for big banks these days: getting executives to think creatively when filling positions.
In the presentation - called "Hiring an oddball" - Boehmer described how hard it is to get bank executives to hire creative and "quirky" leaders who do not "fit in" with the prototypical suited-up Wall Street mould, but who could help revolutionize the industry.
Instead, those quirky types are sought by Silicon Valley, and they may be happier there. Many prefer the laid back atmosphere, not to mention the challenges of building a business, and the promise of lucrative rewards at companies like Google
"Banks are not getting top-level talent out of universities anymore, so in 10 to 15 years, there could be a big problem when it comes to leadership at the senior level of these firms," Boehmer said. "They're seeing big gaps in talent."
Boehmer said he performed a search for a technology position at a major investment bank, calling on candidates from Silicon Valley who might be lured to New York with mega-paychecks. He was denied by everyone he approached, he said.
On the flip side, Heidrick & Struggles also did a search for a mobile-payments company on the West Coast that was looking for someone with financial expertise but offered just one-quarter of the pay. In that case, "we got tons of applicants," said Boehmer.
Jack Dunn, president and CEO of FTI Consulting, recalled a recent conversation with a friend's son who is about 35 years old and works at a major Wall Street bank.
Despite having a lucrative pay package and senior title, all the son talked about was finding an exit strategy, Dunn said.
"When I was young and didn't know any better, I would have thought it was a dream job," said Dunn, a former investment banker. "It's a problem because we're going to need someone to pick up the pieces, and a lot of the best people are leaving these firms."
(This story corrects the spelling of Boehmer's name throughout)
(Editing by Dan Wilchins, Martin Howell and Maureen Bavdek)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-executives-fret-talent-drain-172142975--sector.html
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শনিবার, ২৬ জানুয়ারি, ২০১৩
Giant killers: The biggest bosses in gaming | GamesRadar
Just how big is he? A hair over 41 million feet tall, so essentially the size of a celestial body. You knew he had to be here, because Wyzen is hands-down the biggest boss in video game history. Sure, Galactus could be bigger in theory--but no game other than Asura?s Wrath has the gumption to portray a fight against such a cosmically enormous enemy. This god is the largest of the Seven Deities, and his final form could eclipse all of Gaia. Wyzen is so cocky--maybe rightfully so, given his size--that he attempts to crush Asura underneath his astronomically huge forefinger. This is a poke that could destroy a planet.
So how do you take him down? By becoming more enraged than any living entity has ever been. In game terms, that means mashing the B button with the fury of a thousand suns, causing Asura to punch so hard that all but one of his six arms implode. With one final, infuriated punch, Asura starts a shattering chain reaction that travels throughout Wyzen?s entire being, destroying him. It is, in a word, glorious.
Source: http://www.gamesradar.com/giant-killers-biggest-bosses-gaming/
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Suspending cellular services on Eid Miladun Nabi helped prevent ...
Interi?or Minist?er direct?s telcos to instal?l biomet?ric system?s at outlet?s sellin?g SIMs by March.
Malik claims suspension of cellular services was not an unilateral decision of the government, rather it was requested by respective provincial governments. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:?Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturday said that illegal mobile SIMS are used in terrorist activities across the country and that suspending cell phone services on Eid Miladun Nabi helped stave off violence on Eid Miladun Nabi.
Talking to media persons here outside the Parliament House, Malik claimed that due to the closure of mobile services across in over 50 cities and towns, no act of terrorism took place in violence prone cities of Karachi and Quetta during Eid Miladun Nabi.
Minister added that the decision to suspend cell phone services was not taken unilaterally by the federal government, rather it was done on the request of respective provinces, including Punjab.
Biometric systems at SIM sale points
Malik on Saturday asked the mobile phone operators to complete installation of biometric systems, including fingerprint readers, at SIM sale points by February 28.
The minister said the biometric systems can help confirm the identity of mobile phone users since unregistered SIMs had become ?instruments for terrorists to unleash violence.?
After banning the sale of SIMs at retail outlets, the telecom regulator had asked all the mobile phone companies to install biometric systems at their stores for verifying the identity of customers till February 28.
Experts say biometric systems can communicate instantaneously with the data servers and validate the Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC) holders. Additionally, there is another module that can use GPRS or EDGE services to communicate with servers and can be deployed at retail outlets or at remote locations to verify the customer?s identity against the provided CNIC before selling a sim.
Furthermore, users have been directed to register their mobile sims by February 1.
YouTube blocking
Responding to a question, Malik said that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had been directed to install filtration system for blocking unwanted websites.
After the installation of the filtration system, YouTube would be unblocked.
Malik later tweeted that the filter will be put in place within a week.
?YouTube will be unblocked only after the installation of efficient filter. PTA, MoIT to install the said filter in a week. PTA to act fast.?
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First Ubuntu smartphone will keep things simple, launch without an app store
While RIM throws checks at developers, and Steve Ballmer invades other people's press conferences to shout about apps, the folks behind the Ubuntu smartphone project are taking a very different tack. According to Richard Collins, product manager at Canonical, the first device -- expected by early next year -- will target basic users and only run pre-installed software:
"In terms of our first go-to-market product strategy, the intention is not to have an application store full of ready-made applications that are there to download. We have a very definite approach in terms of addressing a very important part of the market where users are primarily interested in being able to use a core set of applications."
Let's be clear, though: this entry-level phone will be capable of accessing a storefront for third-party apps at some point in the future. A huge part of Canonical's long-term plan is to capitalize on its relationships with developers and the fact that existing Ubuntu desktop apps should be relatively easy to port to the new breed of phones and tablets. It's just that this isn't going to be the priority to begin with. Check out our full interview with Richard Collins for more.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/25/ubuntu-smartphone-will-launch-without-app-store/
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Asia stock markets mixed, Japan's Nikkei jumps
BANGKOK (AP) ? Japan's benchmark stock index jumped Friday as the yen continued to retreat against the dollar and investors cheered the new government's plans to boost the economy. Other Asian stock markets were mixed.
Evan Lucas of IG Markets in Melbourne said he expect to see further surges in Japan's Nikkei 225 index after Yasutoshi Nishimura, a senior vice minister of the Japanese government's Cabinet Office, commented that the yen would fall further. The Nikkei rose 2.1 percent to 10,846.73.
A weaker yen helps Japanese exporters by making products sold abroad less expensive and also helps some of the country's trading partners by increasing demand for the raw materials they ship to Japan, Lucas said.
The recent decline in the yen's value against the dollar and drops against other major currencies have been driven by expectations that Japan's central bank will try to engineer inflation by increasing the amount of money in circulation.
The bank has been under pressure from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office a month ago, to do more to end Japan's prolonged spell of falling prices known as deflation. The ultimate aim is to create a recovery for Japan's moribund economy.
South Korea's Kospi fell amid fears that the country's exporters could be slammed by Japan's dropping yen, which makes Japanese products less expensive overseas. The benchmark fell 1.1 percent to 1,941.79.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.4 percent to 23,506.29. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4 percent to 4,831.20.
Among individual stocks, Japan's Sony Corp. jumped 8.4 percent and Toshiba Corp. advanced 5.8 percent.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics, which said the strong won will hurt its earnings this year, fell 2.5 percent. South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. shed 3.9 percent.
On Wall Street, a sharp drop in Apple's stock pulled the Nasdaq down after the tech giant warned of weaker sales. Other stock market indexes posted slight gains.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.3 percent to close at 13,825.33. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose less than 0.1 percent to 1,494.82. The Nasdaq composite lost 0.7 percent to 3,130.38.
Benchmark oil for March delivery was down 18 cents to $95.77 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 72 cents to finish at $95.95 a barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3361 from $1.3371 late Thursday in New York. The dollar rose to 90.47 yen from 89.96 yen.
___
Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stock-markets-mixed-japans-nikkei-jumps-032805220--finance.html
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শুক্রবার, ২৫ জানুয়ারি, ২০১৩
By popular demand, Sony releases Jelly Bean alpha build for Xperia T
Because the first time proved to be such a charm for Android developers, Sony's once again offering Xperia owners an official alpha ROM. And this time, it's of the Jelly Bean variety. But before you rush to the source and flash your cares away, there are a few caveats we need to cover. For starters, the price of entry to this Android 4.1 test run is an unlocked Xperia T. Not the TX, not the V, not the S, so don't even try it. You'll also have to sign away your legal right (via the company's unlock utility) to whine and demand compensation should your handset brick in the process. Once those hurdles have been cleared, you're almost home free to flash -- so long as you don't mind an unfinished UI, non-functioning radios for voice, WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC, in addition to a complete lack of Gapps. Oh, and did we mention your unlocked T won't be privy to the official Jelly Bean update once it hits? Yeah, there's that too. Basically, you shouldn't look to this for a daily driver. In fact, it's probably best to leave this one to the big boys.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Software, Mobile, Sony
Source: Sony Mobile
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/zFaCqBfMF4Y/
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Video: From the Archives: Berlin Wall falls
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50574828/
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The Giant Squid Stalker
Dr. Edie Widder, President and Senior Scientist at Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA) inside the deep diving suit WASP. Courtesy of ORCA
Deep-sea biologist Edith Widder was working on a ship positioned off Japan?s Ogasawara Islands when Wen-Sung Chung asked her to step into the lab to see something. Cameras followed her as she got up. This was not unusual, since the Japan Broadcasting Commission (NHK) and the Discovery Channel were funding the expedition, which was being conducted from a research yacht named Alucia leased from a billionaire hedge fund owner. Chung was nonchalant, so it didn?t occur to Widder that she was about to see the culmination of a quest that has driven ocean explorers for more than a century. She thought maybe it was going to be video of a cool shark.
The purpose of the expedition was to capture footage of the enigmatic giant squid in its natural habitat. The animal can grow to 35 feet or longer, and its eye is as big as your head. But it lives about 1,000 feet below the surface and deeper, and it had only been glimpsed a few times at the surface and photographed alive once.
Widder is a world expert on bioluminescence, the light that countless marine animals use to communicate, especially in the dark world of the deep sea. For years she?s been studying how the deep?s bizarre inhabitants use the light. Some animals use it to lure a mate, others a meal. And she suspects that certain jellyfish pulse with bioluminescence when they are getting attacked. It?s a last-ditch attempt that works sort of like a burglar alarm to bring in something even bigger to attack the attacker.
Widder has spent months of her life underwater, at times piloting submersibles. For years, she has argued that scientists were getting at best a tilted view of the wonders of the deep sea. By going down with robotic vehicles or in submersibles with lights blazing, she and others have reasoned, they were scaring lots of good stuff away. Deep-sea animals barely see any light, so a typical submersible dive is the equivalent of coming into a darkened theater and shining a spotlight at the audience. Everything bolts.
Years ago, on a shoestring budget, she and her team built a deployable system that included a low-light camera and dim red lights, which most deep dwellers can?t detect. (Their eyes are tuned to blue wavelengths, which travel farther through water.)
Then she added bait. The system, called Eye-in-the-Sea, is fitted with a device that mimics the ring of blue lights fired in a marquee pattern by certain jellyfish?the ones she thinks do the burglar alarm trick. She deployed the system for the first time in the Gulf of Mexico. Just 86 seconds later, a large squid darted into view; it was a species new to science.
Widder brought a more advanced version of that system, dubbed Medusa, aboard the Alucia. She hoped the secret weapon would attract a giant squid. They hung it about 2,300 feet down from a surface buoy and left it running for hours.
Watch the Pulsing Deep-Sea Lights of Bioluminescence
The giant squid has been the stuff of legend for about as long as people have sailed across oceans. Aristotle and Pliny the Elder described what may have been giant squid, which occasionally wash ashore or end up in fishermen?s nets, and the species is thought to be the origin of the Norwegian kraken myth.
Countless groups in past decades have tried to manufacture giant squid encounters, investing millions, getting all the best advice from the experts, only to come back as failed crusaders. One of the other scientists aboard the Alucia, Tsunemi Kubodera of Japan?s National Museum of Nature and Science, has been hunting giant squid in these waters for years. He managed to capture some still images of one giant squid and video of another after it was caught and brought to the surface. But none of that could compare to video of the animal alive in the deep, a view that would finally allow scientists to begin to understand the mysterious animal.
The expedition has not released expense figures, but it must have cost millions. When Chung, a graduate student at the University of Queensland, brought Widder into the lab and started fast-forwarding through the video, the scientists were already a week into a six-week expedition with nothing significant to show. Producer-types were growing tense.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=d453925ac18ef942f7820e454fc1209d
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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৪ জানুয়ারি, ২০১৩
Symantec third-quarter profit beats Street, splits chairman, CEO jobs
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Symantec Corp beat earnings expectations and said it is splitting the chief executive and chairman jobs ahead of a Wednesday meeting to unveil a new strategy it hopes will end years of investor disappointment.
Symantec, the maker of Norton anti-virus software, reported profit of 45 cents per share, excluding items, for its fiscal third quarter ended December 28. That topped the average analyst estimate of 38 cents, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 4 percent from a year earlier to $1.79 billion, beating the average view of $1.74 billion.
The company named independent director Dan Schulman to the position of non-executive chairman, replacing Steve Bennett, who will remain CEO and president.
Symantec fired CEO Enrique Salem in July, tapping then-chairman Steve Bennett to take the post. Over the course of the Salem's term as CEO, Symantec shares fell about 19 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed about 77 percent.
Schulman, on Symantec's board since March 2000, is president of the Enterprise Growth Group at American Express Co. He also worked at Nextel Corp and AT&T Inc.
Symantec shares rose 3.3 percent to $21.55 in premarket trade.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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ESET NOD32 Antivirus 6
Most antivirus vendors come out with a new version each year. Some include the year in the product name, some increment the version number. A few, like Kaspersky and Symantec, have chosen to drop versioning altogether in favor of continuous updates. The developers at ESET have a simpler plan?they release a new version when it's ready, rather being driven by market forces. ESET NOD32 Antivirus 6 ($39.99 direct; $59.99 for three licenses) comes almost a year and a half after its previous version, and it comes with some interesting new features.
The organization of the main window has changed little since version 5, but ESET's cyborg mascot now graces the home screen. If all is well, a green status indicator reports that you have maximum protection. If there's a problem, you get a red status indicator and a link to the necessary fix. Simple!
Installation Difficulties
ESET offers a wide variety of support tools and dedicated cleanup utilities to handle persistent malware. Getting it installed on my twelve malware-infested test systems required almost every single one of them.
Malware renders one test system unusable except in Safe Mode, and ESET won't install in Safe Mode. Fortunately, a scan with the ESET Rogue Application Remover wiped out the problem malware, allowing me to boot normal Windows and install the program.
Four other systems demonstrated a range of problems. On one, ESET installed but couldn't complete a scan. Another couldn't finish the install process. ESET installed on a third, but malware actively blocked it from ESET's update and activation servers. ESET crashed at launch after installation on the fourth system.
Tech support requested logs from the built-in SysInspector tool, which collects a very comprehensive collection of diagnostic data. They directed me to download a number of threat-specific cleanup tools. But, in the end, the only solution was a hands-on remote-access repair session.
Between the four problem systems, I spent nearly five hours on the phone with ESET tech support. On the one hand, they did a very thorough job. On the other hand, wow, that was a long time devoted to nothing more than getting the program installed and running correctly.
Decent Malware Cleanup
Between the antivirus scanner itself, the various threat-specific tools, and hands-on cleanup by tech support, ESET detected 76 percent of the malware samples and scored 5.6 points for malware removal. That's decent, but Norton AntiVirus (2013) and Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus 2013 scored 6.6 points, better than any other current products.
I like the fact that ESET takes care of definitely dangerous malware as it finds it, rather than waiting for permission. ESET does ask for your confirmation before removing less-risky "potentially unwanted applications," and for files detected by heuristic analysis rather than by signature, which is fine.
Quite a few recent products have detected every single one of my samples that uses rootkit technology in an attempt to hide from antivirus. With 9.4 points, Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2013) earned the best rootkit removal score. The bootable FixMeStick 2013 came close, with 9.2 points. ESET missed one rootkit-disguised keylogger and took just 7.2 points for rootkit removal.
For an explanation of my malware removal testing methodology, please see How We Test Malware Removal.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/mCCQPXuvp3A/0,2817,2414586,00.asp
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How Much Will Tar Sands Oil Add to Global Warming?
James Hansen has been publicly speaking about climate change since 1988. The NASA climatologist testified to Congress that year and he's been testifying ever since to crowds large and small, most recently to a small gathering of religious leaders outside the White House last week. The grandfatherly scientist has the long face of a man used to seeing bad news in the numbers and speaks with the thick, even cadence of the northern Midwest, where he grew up, a trait that also helps ensure that his sometimes convoluted science gets across.
This cautious man has also been arrested multiple times.
His acts of civil disobedience started in 2009, and he was first arrested in 2011 for protesting the development of Canada's tar sands and, especially, the Keystone XL pipeline proposal that would serve to open the spigot for such oil even wider. "To avoid passing tipping points, such as initiation of the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, we need to limit the climate forcing severely. It's still possible to do that, if we phase down carbon emissions rapidly, but that means moving expeditiously to clean energies of the future," he explains. "Moving to tar sands, one of the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet, is a step in exactly the opposite direction, indicating either that governments don't understand the situation or that they just don't give a damn."
He adds: "People who care should draw the line."
Hansen is not alone in caring. In addition to a groundswell of opposition to the 2,700-kilometer-long Keystone pipeline, 17 of his fellow climate scientists joined him in signing a letter urging Pres. Barack Obama to reject the project last week. Simply put, building the pipeline?and enabling more tar sands production?runs "counter to both national and planetary interests," the researchers wrote. "The year of review that you asked for on the project made it clear exactly how pressing the climate issue really is." Obama seemed to agree in his second inaugural address this week, noting "we will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations."
At the same time, the U.S. imports nearly nine million barrels of oil per day and burns nearly a billion metric tons of coal annually. China's coal burning is even larger and continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Partially as a result, global emissions of greenhouse gases continue to grow by leaps and bounds too?and China is one alternative customer eager for the oil from Canada's tar sands. Neither developed nor developing nations will break the fossil-fuel addiction overnight, and there are still more than a billion people who would benefit from more fossil-fuel burning to help lift them out of energy poverty. The question lurking behind the fight in North America over Keystone, the tar sands and climate change generally is: How much of the planet's remaining fossil fuels can we burn?
The trillion-tonne question
To begin to estimate how much fossil fuels can be burned, one has to begin with a guess about how sensitive the global climate really is to additional carbon dioxide. If you think the climate is vulnerable to even small changes in concentrations of greenhouse gases?as Hansen and others do?then we have already gone too far. Global concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached 394 parts per million, up from 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution and the highest levels seen in at least 800,000 years. Hansen's math suggests 350 ppm would be a safer level, given that with less than a degree Celsius of warming from present greenhouse gas concentrations, the world is already losing ice at an alarming rate, among other faster-than-expected climate changes.
International governments have determined that 450 ppm is a number more to their liking, which, it is argued, will keep the globe's average temperatures from warming more than 2 degrees C. Regardless, the world is presently on track to achieve concentrations well above that number. Scientists since chemist Svante Arrhenius of Sweden in 1896 have noted that reaching concentrations of roughly 560 ppm would likely result in a world with average temperatures roughly 3 degrees C warmer?and subsequent estimates continue to bear his laborious, hand-written calculations out. Of course, rolling back greenhouse gas concentrations to Hansen's preferred 350 ppm?or any other number for that matter?is a profoundly unnatural idea. Stasis is not often found in the natural world.
Concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may not be the best metric for combating climate change anyway. "What matters is our total emission rate," notes climate modeler Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, another signee of the anti-Keystone letter. "From the perspective of the climate system, a CO2 molecule is a CO2 molecule and it doesn't matter if it came from coal versus natural gas."
Physicist Myles Allen of the University of Oxford in England and colleagues estimated that the world could afford to put one trillion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere by 2050 to have any chance of restraining global warming below 2 degrees C. To date, fossil fuel burning, deforestation and other actions have put nearly 570 billion metric tons of carbon in the atmosphere?and Allen estimates the trillionth metric ton of carbon will be emitted around the summer of 2041 at present rates. "Tons of carbon is fundamental," adds Hansen, who has argued that burning all available fossil fuels would result in global warming of more than 10 degrees C. "It does not matter much how fast you burn it."
Alberta's oil sands represent a significant tonnage of carbon. With today's technology there are roughly 170 billion barrels of oil to be recovered in the tar sands, and an additional 1.63 trillion barrels worth underground if every last bit of bitumen could be separated from sand. "The amount of CO2 locked up in Alberta tar sands is enormous," notes mechanical engineer John Abraham of the University of Saint Thomas in Minnesota, another signer of the Keystone protest letter from scientists. "If we burn all the tar sand oil, the temperature rise, just from burning that tar sand, will be half of what we've already seen"?an estimated additional nearly 0.4 degree C from Alberta alone.
As it stands, the oil sands industry has greenhouse gas emissions greater than New Zealand and Kenya?combined. If all the bitumen in those sands could be burned, another 240 billion metric tons of carbon would be added to the atmosphere and, even if just the oil sands recoverable with today's technology get burned, 22 billion metric tons of carbon would reach the sky. And reserves usually expand over time as technology develops, otherwise the world would have run out of recoverable oil long ago.
The greenhouse gas emissions of mining and upgrading tar sands is roughly 79 kilograms per barrel of oil presently, whereas melting out the bitumen in place requires burning a lot of natural gas?boosting emissions to more than 116 kilograms per barrel, according to oil industry consultants IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. All told, producing and processing tar sands oil results in roughly 14 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than the average oil used in the U.S. And greenhouse gas emissions per barrel have stopped improving and started increasing slightly, thanks to increasing development of greenhouse gas?intensive melting-in-place projects. "Emissions have doubled since 1990 and will double again by 2020," says Jennifer Grant, director of oil sands research at environmental group Pembina Institute in Canada.
Just one mine expansion, Shell's Jackpine mine, currently under consideration for the Albian mega-mine site, would increase greenhouse gas emissions by 1.18 million metric tons per year. "If Keystone is approved then we're locking in a several more decades of dependence on fossil fuels," says climate modeler Daniel Harvey of the University of Toronto. "That means higher CO2 emissions, higher concentrations [in the atmosphere] and greater warming that our children and grandchildren have to deal with."
And then there's all the carbon that has to come out of the bitumen to turn it into a usable crude oil.
Hidden carbon
In the U.S. State Department's review of the potential environmental impacts of the Keystone project, consultants EnSys Energy suggested that building the pipeline would not have "any significant impact" on greenhouse gas emissions, largely because Canada's tar sands would likely be developed anyway. But the Keystone pipeline represents the ability to carry away an additional 830,000 barrels per day?and the Albertan tar sands are already bumping up against constraints in the ability to move their product. That has led some to begin shipping the oil by train, truck and barge?further increasing the greenhouse gas emissions?and there is a proposal to build a new rail line, capable of carrying five million barrels of oil per year from Fort McMurray to Alaska's Valdez oil terminal.
Then there's the carbon hidden in the bitumen itself. Either near oil sands mines in the mini-refineries known as upgraders or farther south after the bitumen has reached Midwestern or Gulf Coast refineries, its long, tarry hydrocarbon chains are cracked into the shorter, lighter hydrocarbons used as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The residue of this process is a nearly pure black carbon known as petroleum (pet) coke that, if it builds up, has to be blasted loose, as if mining for coal in industrial equipment. The coke is, in fact, a kind of coal and is often burned in the dirtiest fossil fuel's stead. Canadian tar sands upgraders produce roughly 10 million metric tons of the stuff annually, whereas U.S. refineries pump out more than 61 million metric tons per year.
Pet coke is possibly the dirtiest fossil fuel available, emitting at least 30 percent more CO2 per ton than an equivalent amount of the lowest quality mined coals. According to multiple reports from independent analysts, the production (and eventual burning) of such petroleum coke is not included in industry estimates of tar sands greenhouse gas emissions because it is a co-product. Even without it, the Congressional Research Service estimates that tar sands oil results in at least 14 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than do more conventional crude oils.
Although tar sands may be among the least climate-friendly oil produced at present?edging out alternatives such as fracking for oil trapped in shale deposits in North Dakota and flaring the gas?the industry has made attempts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, unlike other oil-producing regions. For example, there are alternatives to cracking bitumen and making pet coke, albeit more expensive ones, such as adding hydrogen to the cracked bitumen, a process that leaves little carbon behind, employed by Shell, among others.
More recently, Shell has begun adding carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) technology to capture the emissions from a few of its own upgraders, a project known as Quest. The program, when completed in 2015, will aim to capture and store one million metric tons of CO2 per year, or a little more than a third of the CO2 emissions of Shell's operation at that site. And tar sands producers do face a price on carbon?$15 per metric ton by Alberta provincial regulation?for any emissions above a goal of reducing by 12 percent the total amount of greenhouse gas emitted per total number of barrels produced.
The funds collected?some $312 million to date?are then used to invest in clean technology, but more than 75 percent of the projects are focused on reducing emissions from oil sands, unconventional oils and other fossil fuels. And to drive more companies to implement CCS in the oil sands would require a carbon price of $100 per metric ton or more. "We don't have a price on carbon in the province that is compelling companies to pursue CCS," Pembina's Grant argues.
In fact, Alberta's carbon price may be little more than political cover. "It gives us some ammunition when people attack us for our carbon footprint, if nothing else," former Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert told Scientific American in September 2011. Adds Beverly Yee, assistant deputy minister at Alberta's Environment and Sustainable Resource Development agency, more recently, "Greenhouse gases? We don't see that as a regional issue." From the individual driver in the U.S. to oil sands workers and on up to the highest echelons of government in North America, everyone dodges responsibility.
Price of carbon
A true price on carbon, one that incorporates all the damages that could be inflicted by catastrophic climate change, is exactly what Hansen believes is needed to ensure that more fossil fuels, like the tar sands, stay buried. In his preferred scheme, a price on carbon that slowly ratcheted up would be collected either where the fossil fuel comes out of the ground or enters a given country, such as at a port. But instead of that tax filling government coffers, the collected revenue should be rebated in full to all legal residents in equal amounts?an approach he calls fee and dividend. "Not one penny to reducing the national debt or off-setting some other tax," the government scientist argues. "Those are euphemisms for giving the money to government, allowing them to spend more."
Such a carbon tax would make fossil fuels more expensive than alternatives, whether renewable resources such as wind and sun or low-carbon nuclear power. As a result, these latter technologies might begin to displace things like coal-burning power plants or halt major investments in oil infrastructure like the Keystone XL pipeline.
As it stands, producing 1.8 million barrels per day of tar sands oil resulted in the emissions of some 47.1 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent in 2011, up nearly 2 percent from the year before and still growing, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. In the same year coal-fired power plants in the U.S. emitted more than two billion metric tons of CO2-equivalent. "If you think that using other petroleum sources is much better [than tar sands], then you're delusional," says chemical engineer Murray Gray, scientific director of the Center for Oil Sands Innovation at the University of Alberta.
In other words, tar sands are just a part of the fossil-fuel addiction?but still an important part. Projects either approved or under construction would expand tar sands production to over five million barrels per day by 2030. "Any expansion of an energy system that relies on the atmosphere to be its waste dump is bad news, whereas expansion of safe, affordable and environmentally acceptable energy technologies is good news," Carnegie's Caldeira says.
There's a lot of bad news these days then, from fracking shale for gas and oil in the U.S. to new coal mines in China. Oxford's Allen calculates that the world needs to begin reducing emissions by roughly 2.5 percent per year, starting now, in order to hit the trillion metric ton target by 2050. Instead emissions hit a new record this past year, increasing 3 percent to 34.7 billion metric tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
Stopping even more bad news is why Hansen expects to be arrested again, whether at a protest against mountaintop removal mining for coal in West Virginia or a sit-in outside the White House to convince the Obama administration to say no to Keystone XL and any expansion of the tar sands industry. The Obama administration has already approved the southern half of the pipeline proposal?and if the northern link is approved, a decision expected after March of this year, environmental group Oil Change International estimates that tar sands refined on the Gulf Coast would produce 16.6 million metric tons of CO2 annually, along with enough petroleum coke to fuel five coal-fired power plants for a year. All told, the increased tar sands production as a result of opening Keystone would be equal to opening six new coal-fired power plants, according to Pembina Institute calculations.
Even as increased oil production in the U.S. diminishes the demand for tar sands-derived fuel domestically, if Keystone reaches the Gulf Coast, that oil will still be refined and exported. At the same time, Obama pledged to respond to climate change and argued for U.S. leadership in the transition to "sustainable energy sources" during his second inaugural address; approving Keystone might lead in the opposite direction.
For the tar sands "the climate forcing per unit energy is higher than most fossil fuels," argues Hansen, who believes he is fighting for the global climate his five grandchildren will endure?or enjoy. After all, none of his grandchildren have lived through a month with colder than average daily temperatures. There has not been one in the U.S. since February 1985, before even Hansen started testifying on global warming. As he says: "Going after tar sands?incredibly dirty, destroying the local environment for a very carbon-intensive fuel?is the sign of a terribly crazed addict." Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
This cautious man has also been arrested multiple times.
His acts of civil disobedience started in 2009, and he was first arrested in 2011 for protesting the development of Canada's tar sands and, especially, the Keystone XL pipeline proposal that would serve to open the spigot for such oil even wider. "To avoid passing tipping points, such as initiation of the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, we need to limit the climate forcing severely. It's still possible to do that, if we phase down carbon emissions rapidly, but that means moving expeditiously to clean energies of the future," he explains. "Moving to tar sands, one of the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet, is a step in exactly the opposite direction, indicating either that governments don't understand the situation or that they just don't give a damn."
He adds: "People who care should draw the line."
Hansen is not alone in caring. In addition to a groundswell of opposition to the 2,700-kilometer-long Keystone pipeline, 17 of his fellow climate scientists joined him in signing a letter urging Pres. Barack Obama to reject the project last week. Simply put, building the pipeline?and enabling more tar sands production?runs "counter to both national and planetary interests," the researchers wrote. "The year of review that you asked for on the project made it clear exactly how pressing the climate issue really is." Obama seemed to agree in his second inaugural address this week, noting "we will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations."
At the same time, the U.S. imports nearly nine million barrels of oil per day and burns nearly a billion metric tons of coal annually. China's coal burning is even larger and continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Partially as a result, global emissions of greenhouse gases continue to grow by leaps and bounds too?and China is one alternative customer eager for the oil from Canada's tar sands. Neither developed nor developing nations will break the fossil-fuel addiction overnight, and there are still more than a billion people who would benefit from more fossil-fuel burning to help lift them out of energy poverty. The question lurking behind the fight in North America over Keystone, the tar sands and climate change generally is: How much of the planet's remaining fossil fuels can we burn?
The trillion-tonne question
To begin to estimate how much fossil fuels can be burned, one has to begin with a guess about how sensitive the global climate really is to additional carbon dioxide. If you think the climate is vulnerable to even small changes in concentrations of greenhouse gases?as Hansen and others do?then we have already gone too far. Global concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached 394 parts per million, up from 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution and the highest levels seen in at least 800,000 years. Hansen's math suggests 350 ppm would be a safer level, given that with less than a degree Celsius of warming from present greenhouse gas concentrations, the world is already losing ice at an alarming rate, among other faster-than-expected climate changes.
International governments have determined that 450 ppm is a number more to their liking, which, it is argued, will keep the globe's average temperatures from warming more than 2 degrees C. Regardless, the world is presently on track to achieve concentrations well above that number. Scientists since chemist Svante Arrhenius of Sweden in 1896 have noted that reaching concentrations of roughly 560 ppm would likely result in a world with average temperatures roughly 3 degrees C warmer?and subsequent estimates continue to bear his laborious, hand-written calculations out. Of course, rolling back greenhouse gas concentrations to Hansen's preferred 350 ppm?or any other number for that matter?is a profoundly unnatural idea. Stasis is not often found in the natural world.
Concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may not be the best metric for combating climate change anyway. "What matters is our total emission rate," notes climate modeler Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, another signee of the anti-Keystone letter. "From the perspective of the climate system, a CO2 molecule is a CO2 molecule and it doesn't matter if it came from coal versus natural gas."
Physicist Myles Allen of the University of Oxford in England and colleagues estimated that the world could afford to put one trillion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere by 2050 to have any chance of restraining global warming below 2 degrees C. To date, fossil fuel burning, deforestation and other actions have put nearly 570 billion metric tons of carbon in the atmosphere?and Allen estimates the trillionth metric ton of carbon will be emitted around the summer of 2041 at present rates. "Tons of carbon is fundamental," adds Hansen, who has argued that burning all available fossil fuels would result in global warming of more than 10 degrees C. "It does not matter much how fast you burn it."
Alberta's oil sands represent a significant tonnage of carbon. With today's technology there are roughly 170 billion barrels of oil to be recovered in the tar sands, and an additional 1.63 trillion barrels worth underground if every last bit of bitumen could be separated from sand. "The amount of CO2 locked up in Alberta tar sands is enormous," notes mechanical engineer John Abraham of the University of Saint Thomas in Minnesota, another signer of the Keystone protest letter from scientists. "If we burn all the tar sand oil, the temperature rise, just from burning that tar sand, will be half of what we've already seen"?an estimated additional nearly 0.4 degree C from Alberta alone.
As it stands, the oil sands industry has greenhouse gas emissions greater than New Zealand and Kenya?combined. If all the bitumen in those sands could be burned, another 240 billion metric tons of carbon would be added to the atmosphere and, even if just the oil sands recoverable with today's technology get burned, 22 billion metric tons of carbon would reach the sky. And reserves usually expand over time as technology develops, otherwise the world would have run out of recoverable oil long ago.
The greenhouse gas emissions of mining and upgrading tar sands is roughly 79 kilograms per barrel of oil presently, whereas melting out the bitumen in place requires burning a lot of natural gas?boosting emissions to more than 116 kilograms per barrel, according to oil industry consultants IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. All told, producing and processing tar sands oil results in roughly 14 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than the average oil used in the U.S. And greenhouse gas emissions per barrel have stopped improving and started increasing slightly, thanks to increasing development of greenhouse gas?intensive melting-in-place projects. "Emissions have doubled since 1990 and will double again by 2020," says Jennifer Grant, director of oil sands research at environmental group Pembina Institute in Canada.
Just one mine expansion, Shell's Jackpine mine, currently under consideration for the Albian mega-mine site, would increase greenhouse gas emissions by 1.18 million metric tons per year. "If Keystone is approved then we're locking in a several more decades of dependence on fossil fuels," says climate modeler Daniel Harvey of the University of Toronto. "That means higher CO2 emissions, higher concentrations [in the atmosphere] and greater warming that our children and grandchildren have to deal with."
And then there's all the carbon that has to come out of the bitumen to turn it into a usable crude oil.
Hidden carbon
In the U.S. State Department's review of the potential environmental impacts of the Keystone project, consultants EnSys Energy suggested that building the pipeline would not have "any significant impact" on greenhouse gas emissions, largely because Canada's tar sands would likely be developed anyway. But the Keystone pipeline represents the ability to carry away an additional 830,000 barrels per day?and the Albertan tar sands are already bumping up against constraints in the ability to move their product. That has led some to begin shipping the oil by train, truck and barge?further increasing the greenhouse gas emissions?and there is a proposal to build a new rail line, capable of carrying five million barrels of oil per year from Fort McMurray to Alaska's Valdez oil terminal.
Then there's the carbon hidden in the bitumen itself. Either near oil sands mines in the mini-refineries known as upgraders or farther south after the bitumen has reached Midwestern or Gulf Coast refineries, its long, tarry hydrocarbon chains are cracked into the shorter, lighter hydrocarbons used as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The residue of this process is a nearly pure black carbon known as petroleum (pet) coke that, if it builds up, has to be blasted loose, as if mining for coal in industrial equipment. The coke is, in fact, a kind of coal and is often burned in the dirtiest fossil fuel's stead. Canadian tar sands upgraders produce roughly 10 million metric tons of the stuff annually, whereas U.S. refineries pump out more than 61 million metric tons per year.
Pet coke is possibly the dirtiest fossil fuel available, emitting at least 30 percent more CO2 per ton than an equivalent amount of the lowest quality mined coals. According to multiple reports from independent analysts, the production (and eventual burning) of such petroleum coke is not included in industry estimates of tar sands greenhouse gas emissions because it is a co-product. Even without it, the Congressional Research Service estimates that tar sands oil results in at least 14 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than do more conventional crude oils.
Although tar sands may be among the least climate-friendly oil produced at present?edging out alternatives such as fracking for oil trapped in shale deposits in North Dakota and flaring the gas?the industry has made attempts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, unlike other oil-producing regions. For example, there are alternatives to cracking bitumen and making pet coke, albeit more expensive ones, such as adding hydrogen to the cracked bitumen, a process that leaves little carbon behind, employed by Shell, among others.
More recently, Shell has begun adding carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) technology to capture the emissions from a few of its own upgraders, a project known as Quest. The program, when completed in 2015, will aim to capture and store one million metric tons of CO2 per year, or a little more than a third of the CO2 emissions of Shell's operation at that site. And tar sands producers do face a price on carbon?$15 per metric ton by Alberta provincial regulation?for any emissions above a goal of reducing by 12 percent the total amount of greenhouse gas emitted per total number of barrels produced.
The funds collected?some $312 million to date?are then used to invest in clean technology, but more than 75 percent of the projects are focused on reducing emissions from oil sands, unconventional oils and other fossil fuels. And to drive more companies to implement CCS in the oil sands would require a carbon price of $100 per metric ton or more. "We don't have a price on carbon in the province that is compelling companies to pursue CCS," Pembina's Grant argues.
In fact, Alberta's carbon price may be little more than political cover. "It gives us some ammunition when people attack us for our carbon footprint, if nothing else," former Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert told Scientific American in September 2011. Adds Beverly Yee, assistant deputy minister at Alberta's Environment and Sustainable Resource Development agency, more recently, "Greenhouse gases? We don't see that as a regional issue." From the individual driver in the U.S. to oil sands workers and on up to the highest echelons of government in North America, everyone dodges responsibility.
Price of carbon
A true price on carbon, one that incorporates all the damages that could be inflicted by catastrophic climate change, is exactly what Hansen believes is needed to ensure that more fossil fuels, like the tar sands, stay buried. In his preferred scheme, a price on carbon that slowly ratcheted up would be collected either where the fossil fuel comes out of the ground or enters a given country, such as at a port. But instead of that tax filling government coffers, the collected revenue should be rebated in full to all legal residents in equal amounts?an approach he calls fee and dividend. "Not one penny to reducing the national debt or off-setting some other tax," the government scientist argues. "Those are euphemisms for giving the money to government, allowing them to spend more."
Such a carbon tax would make fossil fuels more expensive than alternatives, whether renewable resources such as wind and sun or low-carbon nuclear power. As a result, these latter technologies might begin to displace things like coal-burning power plants or halt major investments in oil infrastructure like the Keystone XL pipeline.
As it stands, producing 1.8 million barrels per day of tar sands oil resulted in the emissions of some 47.1 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent in 2011, up nearly 2 percent from the year before and still growing, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. In the same year coal-fired power plants in the U.S. emitted more than two billion metric tons of CO2-equivalent. "If you think that using other petroleum sources is much better [than tar sands], then you're delusional," says chemical engineer Murray Gray, scientific director of the Center for Oil Sands Innovation at the University of Alberta.
In other words, tar sands are just a part of the fossil-fuel addiction?but still an important part. Projects either approved or under construction would expand tar sands production to over five million barrels per day by 2030. "Any expansion of an energy system that relies on the atmosphere to be its waste dump is bad news, whereas expansion of safe, affordable and environmentally acceptable energy technologies is good news," Carnegie's Caldeira says.
There's a lot of bad news these days then, from fracking shale for gas and oil in the U.S. to new coal mines in China. Oxford's Allen calculates that the world needs to begin reducing emissions by roughly 2.5 percent per year, starting now, in order to hit the trillion metric ton target by 2050. Instead emissions hit a new record this past year, increasing 3 percent to 34.7 billion metric tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
Stopping even more bad news is why Hansen expects to be arrested again, whether at a protest against mountaintop removal mining for coal in West Virginia or a sit-in outside the White House to convince the Obama administration to say no to Keystone XL and any expansion of the tar sands industry. The Obama administration has already approved the southern half of the pipeline proposal?and if the northern link is approved, a decision expected after March of this year, environmental group Oil Change International estimates that tar sands refined on the Gulf Coast would produce 16.6 million metric tons of CO2 annually, along with enough petroleum coke to fuel five coal-fired power plants for a year. All told, the increased tar sands production as a result of opening Keystone would be equal to opening six new coal-fired power plants, according to Pembina Institute calculations.
Even as increased oil production in the U.S. diminishes the demand for tar sands-derived fuel domestically, if Keystone reaches the Gulf Coast, that oil will still be refined and exported. At the same time, Obama pledged to respond to climate change and argued for U.S. leadership in the transition to "sustainable energy sources" during his second inaugural address; approving Keystone might lead in the opposite direction.
For the tar sands "the climate forcing per unit energy is higher than most fossil fuels," argues Hansen, who believes he is fighting for the global climate his five grandchildren will endure?or enjoy. After all, none of his grandchildren have lived through a month with colder than average daily temperatures. There has not been one in the U.S. since February 1985, before even Hansen started testifying on global warming. As he says: "Going after tar sands?incredibly dirty, destroying the local environment for a very carbon-intensive fuel?is the sign of a terribly crazed addict." Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/much-tar-sands-oil-add-global-warming-170100390.html
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