GENEVA (AP) — Officials say U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will fly to Geneva on Friday to participate in nuclear negotiations with Iran and other major powers.
The officials say Kerry will travel to the talks after a brief stop in Israel, where he will hold a third meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel's intense interest in Iran's nuclear ambitions is a likely topic between Netanyahu and Kerry as well as Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Iran's plan to cap some of the country's atomic activities in exchange for selective relief from crippling economic sanctions has been accepted by six world powers, the country's chief nuclear negotiator said Thursday.
Kerry's last-minute decision to join the talks suggests a deal could be imminent.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Kerry has not been formally invited by the Europeans to join the talks.
Contact: Mary Beckman mary.beckman@pnnl.gov 509-375-3688 DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
An international team of climate and social scientists say a new approach to climate preparedness is essential to help people adjust to coming changes
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Changes are already happening to Earth's climate due to the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and large-scale agriculture. As changes get more pronounced, people everywhere will have to adjust. In this week's issue of the journal Science, an international group of researchers urge the development of science needed to manage climate risks and capitalize on unexpected opportunities.
"Adapting to an evolving climate is going to be required in every sector of society, in every region of the globe. We need to get going, to provide integrated science if we are going to meet the challenge," said senior scientist Richard Moss of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "In this article, we describe the foundations for this research and suggest measures to establish it."
Climate preparedness research needs to integrate social and climate science, engineering, and other disciplines. It prepares for impacts by determining who and what are most vulnerable to changes and considering ways to adapt.
"Science for adaptation starts with understanding decision-making processes and information needs, determining where the vulnerabilities are, and then moves to climate modeling. A final step tracks whether adaptation is effective," said Moss, who is based at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a collaboration between PNNL in Richland, Wash. and the University of Maryland.
The article grew out of a workshop held in August 2012 at the Aspen Global Change Institute in Aspen, Colo., on how to improve support for decision-making in the face of a changing climate. The authors arrived at this approach to guide preparedness research based on the need to reduce the risks that climate change presents.
"The need to adapt and adjust is going to be global," said Moss. "We need a flexible, integrated approach that merges theoretical and problem-oriented sciences around four general challenges."
The four challenges are:
Understanding what information is needed to make decisions about adapting to climate change
Identifying vulnerabilities in society, the economy and the environment
Improving forecasts and climate models in ways that can address specific problems
Providing technology, management, and policy options for adapting
As an example of how practical and basic research can work together, Moss described work in the U.S. involving water utilities, university scientists, and private firms to pilot use of climate models and water utility modeling to design resilient water systems.
"This research is motivated by a practical challenge, ensuring reliable water supplies. Among the scientific advances that will be required is better integration of weather and climate models to improve decadal climate information to help people plan," Moss said.
Bringing together diverse disciplines at the Aspen workshop allowed the international team to explore all facets of adaptation, including less examined ones such as how scientific information is (and isn't) used in making decisions.
"Traditionally we think that what society needs is better predictions. But at this workshop, all of us climate and social scientists alike recognized the need to consider how decisions get implemented and that climate is only one of many factors that will determine how people will adapt," he said.
The focus on problem-solving could open up new sources of funding as well, sources such as non-governmental organizations, industry -- any group with specific problems that adaptation science could solve.
"We will make a virtue of necessity," said Moss.
###
Funding for the Aspen workshop was provided by NASA.
Reference: R.H. Moss, G.A. Meehl, M.C. Lemos, J.B. Smith, J.R. Arnold, J.C. Arnott, D. Behar, G.P. Brasseur, S.B. Broomell, A.J. Busalacchi, S. Dessai, K.L. Ebi, J.A. Edmonds, J. Furlow, L. Goddard, H.C. Hartmann, J.W. Hurrell, J.W. Katzenberger, D.M. Liverman, P.W. Mote, S.C. Moser, A. Kumar, R.S. Pulwarty, E.A. Seyller, B.L. Turner II, W.M. Washington, T.J. Wilbanks. Hell and High Water: Practice-Relevant Adaptation Science, Science November 8, 2013, doi:10.1126/science.1239569.
The Joint Global Change Research Institute is a unique partnership formed in 2001 between the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland. The PNNL staff associated with the center is world renowned for expertise in energy conservation and understanding of the interactions between climate, energy production and use, economic activity and the environment.
Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. PNNL employs 4,500 staff, has an annual budget of nearly $1 billion, and has been managed for the U.S. Department of Energy by Ohio-based Battelle since the laboratory's inception in 1965. For more, visit the PNNL's News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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Preparing for hell and high water
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Mary Beckman mary.beckman@pnnl.gov 509-375-3688 DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
An international team of climate and social scientists say a new approach to climate preparedness is essential to help people adjust to coming changes
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Changes are already happening to Earth's climate due to the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and large-scale agriculture. As changes get more pronounced, people everywhere will have to adjust. In this week's issue of the journal Science, an international group of researchers urge the development of science needed to manage climate risks and capitalize on unexpected opportunities.
"Adapting to an evolving climate is going to be required in every sector of society, in every region of the globe. We need to get going, to provide integrated science if we are going to meet the challenge," said senior scientist Richard Moss of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "In this article, we describe the foundations for this research and suggest measures to establish it."
Climate preparedness research needs to integrate social and climate science, engineering, and other disciplines. It prepares for impacts by determining who and what are most vulnerable to changes and considering ways to adapt.
"Science for adaptation starts with understanding decision-making processes and information needs, determining where the vulnerabilities are, and then moves to climate modeling. A final step tracks whether adaptation is effective," said Moss, who is based at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a collaboration between PNNL in Richland, Wash. and the University of Maryland.
The article grew out of a workshop held in August 2012 at the Aspen Global Change Institute in Aspen, Colo., on how to improve support for decision-making in the face of a changing climate. The authors arrived at this approach to guide preparedness research based on the need to reduce the risks that climate change presents.
"The need to adapt and adjust is going to be global," said Moss. "We need a flexible, integrated approach that merges theoretical and problem-oriented sciences around four general challenges."
The four challenges are:
Understanding what information is needed to make decisions about adapting to climate change
Identifying vulnerabilities in society, the economy and the environment
Improving forecasts and climate models in ways that can address specific problems
Providing technology, management, and policy options for adapting
As an example of how practical and basic research can work together, Moss described work in the U.S. involving water utilities, university scientists, and private firms to pilot use of climate models and water utility modeling to design resilient water systems.
"This research is motivated by a practical challenge, ensuring reliable water supplies. Among the scientific advances that will be required is better integration of weather and climate models to improve decadal climate information to help people plan," Moss said.
Bringing together diverse disciplines at the Aspen workshop allowed the international team to explore all facets of adaptation, including less examined ones such as how scientific information is (and isn't) used in making decisions.
"Traditionally we think that what society needs is better predictions. But at this workshop, all of us climate and social scientists alike recognized the need to consider how decisions get implemented and that climate is only one of many factors that will determine how people will adapt," he said.
The focus on problem-solving could open up new sources of funding as well, sources such as non-governmental organizations, industry -- any group with specific problems that adaptation science could solve.
"We will make a virtue of necessity," said Moss.
###
Funding for the Aspen workshop was provided by NASA.
Reference: R.H. Moss, G.A. Meehl, M.C. Lemos, J.B. Smith, J.R. Arnold, J.C. Arnott, D. Behar, G.P. Brasseur, S.B. Broomell, A.J. Busalacchi, S. Dessai, K.L. Ebi, J.A. Edmonds, J. Furlow, L. Goddard, H.C. Hartmann, J.W. Hurrell, J.W. Katzenberger, D.M. Liverman, P.W. Mote, S.C. Moser, A. Kumar, R.S. Pulwarty, E.A. Seyller, B.L. Turner II, W.M. Washington, T.J. Wilbanks. Hell and High Water: Practice-Relevant Adaptation Science, Science November 8, 2013, doi:10.1126/science.1239569.
The Joint Global Change Research Institute is a unique partnership formed in 2001 between the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland. The PNNL staff associated with the center is world renowned for expertise in energy conservation and understanding of the interactions between climate, energy production and use, economic activity and the environment.
Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. PNNL employs 4,500 staff, has an annual budget of nearly $1 billion, and has been managed for the U.S. Department of Energy by Ohio-based Battelle since the laboratory's inception in 1965. For more, visit the PNNL's News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
On Wednesday, Facebook released a digital resource center to expand its efforts against online harassment.
Facebook
On Wednesday, Facebook released a digital resource center to expand its efforts against online harassment.
Facebook
Facebook has rolled out a tool to address online harassment that some digital safety advocates are calling a beneficial, but belated, first step.
The social networking site with 1.2 billion users worldwide released a "bullying prevention hub" this week. It's essentially an online resource center with suggestions for teens, parents and educators on how to address bullying — both online and off — and take action on Facebook.
The site is also beginning to roll out more options for teens to report when posts are making them uncomfortable.
The idea is to build on Facebook's existing tools, says company spokesman Matt Steinfeld.
For example, the site unveiled social reporting in 2011, which encouraged users to send a message to a friend asking for help or ask another user to take down a photo. The latter was particularly successful, Steinfeld says: 83 percent of the time, if you reach out to a user who has a photo you don't want to be in, that user will take it off.
"We were pretty impressed when we rolled out social reporting a couple of years ago that people were willing to engage with each other, as long as we suggested some text to use," he says.
An example of the reporting tool that Facebook is in the process of making available to its users.
Facebook
An example of the reporting tool that Facebook is in the process of making available to its users.
Facebook
And Facebook hopes this will be true of bullying as well. The hub gives suggested conversation starters for victims ("Hey, NAME — that comment wasn't funny. I don't like it, please take it down"), as well as for people who are accused of bullying and people who witness it.
"There's a lot of literature on how people interact face to face. ... What we're trying to do is apply those studies to an online setting. And it's tough," Steinfeld says. "People are really hungry for help."
Innovative, Or Too Late?
Jim Steyer is CEO of Common Sense Media, an organization that promotes safe technology and media for kids, and he says he's glad to see Facebook taking positive steps toward combating online harassment. He also says this should have been done earlier.
"We think cyberbullying is an enormous challenge facing every young person," Steyer says. "Facebook has been a big part of the problem in this area."
He also says that Facebook's "ever-changing privacy policy" confuses users instead of keeping them safe.
But Facebook's Steinfeld says the company is serious about the cause. "Bullying prevention has been something we've worked on for a long time," he says. "We're the first Internet company that's putting bullying prevention resources in the heart of the product itself."
Other Internet companies are, more and more, taking the blame for recent bullying-related teen suicides.
Rebecca Ann Sedwick, a 12-year-old girl who died in September, had been harassed on Facebook, The New York Times reports. But after her mother closed Rebecca's account, the bullying returned viciously on other social messaging applications, like Ask.fm, Kik and Voxer.
London's The Telegraph also links Ask.fm — a site where people can ask each other questions, often anonymously — to several teen suicides in Britain and Ireland.
Beyond Facebook
It's part of a larger teen migration away from Facebook, Steyer says.
Last week, the company's chief financial officer, David Ebersman, told analysts that although usage among U.S. teens overall has been stable, "we did see a decrease in daily users, specifically among younger teens."
Earlier this fall, financial services firm Piper Jaffray reported that 23 percent of teens thought Facebook was the most important social network, down from 42 percent last fall. And 17 percent of teens say social networks other than Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Tumblr or Pinterest were the most important, up from only 2 percent a year ago.
According to Common Sense Media, middle-schoolers are most affected by online harassment. So will an anti-bullying campaign on Facebook affect the age group that needs it the most?
"There are enough teens still on Facebook that it could," says Jennifer Hartstein, a psychologist who works with adolescents and digital behavior. "And maybe it's a good model for other sites that teens are now going to."
Steyer says the effort will be most effective when it spreads to Instagram, which Facebook owns, and beyond. "These sites have to take way more responsibility for this."
We got our first peek at Panasonic's 4K Toughpad tablet last January at CES, and now the company says it will go on sale in the US about a year later, for $5,999. Panasonic announced two devices for Europe, but here in the US there's only the higher end UT-MB5 that packs Windows 8.1, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, Intel Core i5 CPU and, oh yeah -- that super high res 3,840 x 2,560 LCD. With a projected two hour battery life you probably won't be using this on the go very often (there's an optional desktop cradle and carrying case), but even with its incredible 20-inch size, it's about .49-inches thick and weighs 5.27 lbs. If you're a professional in the "video production, architecture, design, photography and healthcare" fields who can expense this six thousand dollar slate, you're probably already sold -- all others can check after the break for a demo video and more specs.
Toughpad 4K UT-MB5: Key Features
4K Visual Experience: 20-inch IPS Alpha LCD screen with 3840x2560 pixel display featuring 230 pixels per inch and15:10 aspect ratio
FILE - In this Jan. 18, 2012, file photo, Alexes Garcia makes cinnamon rolls for student's lunch in the kitchen at Kepner Middle School in Denver. The rolls are made using apple sauce instead of trans fats. Heart-clogging trans fats have been slowly disappearing from grocery aisles and restaurant menus in the last decade as nutritionists have criticized them and local governments have banned them. The Food and Drug Administration is now finishing the job as they announce Nov. 7, 2013, that it will require the food industry to gradually phase out trans fats, saying they are a threat to the health of Americans.(AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 18, 2012, file photo, Alexes Garcia makes cinnamon rolls for student's lunch in the kitchen at Kepner Middle School in Denver. The rolls are made using apple sauce instead of trans fats. Heart-clogging trans fats have been slowly disappearing from grocery aisles and restaurant menus in the last decade as nutritionists have criticized them and local governments have banned them. The Food and Drug Administration is now finishing the job as they announce Nov. 7, 2013, that it will require the food industry to gradually phase out trans fats, saying they are a threat to the health of Americans.(AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 12, 2008 file photo, a rack of donuts is displayed at a Dunkin' Donuts franchise in Boston. Consumers wondering what food without trans fat will taste like, probably already know as food manufacturers began eliminating it years ago. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Heart-clogging trans fats were once a staple of the American diet, plentiful in baked goods, microwave popcorn and fried foods. Now, mindful of the health risks, the Food and Drug Administration is getting rid of what's left of them for good.
Condemning artificial trans fats as a threat to public health, the FDA announced Thursday it will require the food industry to phase them out.
Manufacturers already have eliminated many trans fats, responding to criticism from the medical community and to local laws, Even so, the FDA said getting rid of the rest — the average American still eats around a gram of trans fat a day — could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths each year.
It won't happen right away. The agency will collect comments for two months before determining a phase-out timetable. Different foods may have different schedules, depending how easy it is to find substitutes.
"We want to do it in a way that doesn't unduly disrupt markets," said Michael Taylor, FDA's deputy commissioner for foods. Still, he says, the food "industry has demonstrated that it is, by and large, feasible to do."
Indeed, so much already has changed that most people won't notice much difference, if any, in food they get at groceries or restaurants.
Scientists say there are no health benefits to trans fats. And they can raise levels of "bad" cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Trans fats are widely considered the worst kind for your heart, even worse than saturated fats, which also can contribute to heart disease.
Trans fats are used both in processed food and in restaurants, often to improve the texture, shelf life or flavor of foods. Though they have been removed from many items, the fats are still found in some baked goods such as pie crusts and biscuits and in ready-to-eat frostings that use the more-solid fats to keep consistency.
They also are sometimes used by restaurants for frying. Many larger chains have phased them out, but smaller restaurants may still get food containing trans fats from suppliers.
How can the government get rid of them? The FDA said it has made a preliminary determination that trans fats no longer fall in the agency's "generally recognized as safe" category, which covers thousands of additives that manufacturers can add to foods without FDA review. Once trans fats are off the list, anyone who wants to use them would have to petition the agency for a regulation allowing it, and that would likely not be approved.
The fats are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it more solid, which is why they are often called partially hydrogenated oils. The FDA is not targeting small amounts of trans fats that occur naturally in some meat and dairy products, because they would be too difficult to remove and aren't considered a major public health threat on their own.
Many companies have already phased out trans fats, prompted by new nutrition labels introduced by FDA in 2006 that list trans fats and by an increasing number of local laws, like one in New York City, that have banned them. In 2011, Wal-Mart pledged to remove all artificial trans fats from the foods the company sells by 2016. Recent school lunch guidelines prevent them from being served in cafeterias.
In a statement, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it was his city's 2008 ban that led to much of the change. "Our prohibition on trans fats was one of many bold public health measures that faced fierce initial criticism, only to gain widespread acceptance and support," he said.
But support is far from universal. A nationwide poll conducted by the Pew Research Center between Oct. 30 and Nov. 6 said that of the 996 adults surveyed, 44 percent were in favor of prohibiting restaurants from using trans fats while 52 percent opposed the idea.
Still, Americans are eating much less of the fat. According to the FDA, trans fat intake among Americans declined from 4.6 grams per day in 2003 to around one gram in 2012.
A handful of other countries have banned them, including Switzerland and Denmark. Other countries have enacted strict labeling laws.
Dr. Leon Bruner, chief scientist at the Grocery Manufacturers Association, said in a statement that his group estimates that food manufacturers have voluntarily lowered the amount of trans fats in food products by 73 percent.
The group, which represents the country's largest food companies, did not speculate on a reasonable timeline or speak to how difficult a ban might be for some manufacturers. Bruner said in a statement that "consumers can be confident that their food is safe, and we look forward to working with the FDA to better understand their concerns and how our industry can better serve consumers."
Said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg: "While consumption of potentially harmful artificial trans fat has declined over the last two decades in the United States, current intake remains a significant public health concern."
Agency officials say they have been working on trans fat issues for around 15 years and have been collecting data to justify a possible phase-out since just after President Barack Obama came into office in 2009.
The advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest first petitioned FDA to ban trans fats nine years ago. The group's director, Michael Jacobson, says the prohibition is "one of the most important lifesaving actions the FDA could take."
"Six months or a year should be more than enough time, especially considering that companies have had a decade to figure out what to do," Jacobson said.
___
Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcjalonick
Max Mosley may have used poor judgment when he trusted a group of prostitutes to respect his privacy. The girls recorded their sadomasochistic romp, leaving the ex F1 chief red-faced and litigious. Now, thanks to a French court, his shame is Google's headache. To hide the evidence of his escapade, the company may have to spend a whole lot more than the $4,000 Mosley shelled out to the hookers.
A French court has ruled that Google must automatically block links to nine images of Max Mosley participating in an orgy, according to press reports. Mosley is the former president of the International Automobile Federation.
The company reportedly must find a way to prevent all links to the images from appearing in its image search results for a period of five years. The order takes effect two months after the ruling, presumably to allow Google time to build a filter tool.
The company will be fined 1,000 euros (US$1,344) every time one of the images is found through its search engine, starting next year, the court reportedly ruled.
Google previously argued such a ruling would be tantamount to "automated censorship" of the Web.
Privacy vs. Free Speech
In 2008, the British tabloid News of the World published a video and story relating to a "sick Nazi orgy" in which Mosley participated. He admitted taking part in sadomasochistic activity with five women and paying them, but brushed off accusations of there being a Nazi theme and claimed the video breached his privacy.
Later that year, a UK court ruled the News of the World had breached his privacy and said there was no public interest in printing the story. He was awarded US$94,000 in damages.
In 2011, Mosley won a similar ruling against the now-defunct newspaper's publisher, News Corp., in France.
For companies that operate in multiple countries, having to deal with privacy and free speech laws that vary in different regions "makes day-to-day operations quite complicated and difficult," Anupam Chander, professor and scholar in the law of globalization and digitization at UC Davis School of Law, told TechNewsWorld.
"Anyone who has the means, as Mosley does, will resort to court orders," he added, in order to have perhaps unflattering content about themselves removed from Google results.
The ruling would force it to create a software filter to automatically detect and block the images, Google said. Because it cannot stop others from reposting them on the Web, it would essentially be compelled to act as gatekeeper, tracking where people were posting the images and stopping others from accessing them through Google's services.
Not Our Job
In September, Google said it had removed hundreds of links on Mosley's behalf, following its standard process of scrubbing links to certain pages after the content has been deemed to violate the law.
The French ruling forces Google to take a more proactive approach in purging the Mosley images.
Google is merely a platform for helping people find content, and it should not be responsible for policing links, it has argued.
Banning the images from appearing in its search results would not stop people from accessing them through other means, such as on social networks or other search engines, Google has pointed out.
It reportedly plans to appeal the French court's ruling, which also ordered payment to Mosley of a token 1 euro ($1.34) in damages and 5,000 euros ($6,717) in costs.
"Google is obliged to follow the law in countries where they have boots on the ground, where they have servers or where they have employees," Eva Galperin, a global policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told TechNewsWorld.
"Certainly, Google does have boots on the ground in France, and so they are obliged to follow French law," she continued. However, "the thing they are being asked to do is so technically difficult and potentially expensive that there's no doubt Google will appeal this decision."
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