alister scrag: June 2012

Monday, June 11, 2012

California agriculture hindered by labor shortage

From The Republic:

Kevin Steward has spent more than a quarter-century in agriculture, much of that growing grapes for wineries. He?s always been able to rely on seasonal workers to tend the vines and bring in the year?s harvest.

But this year, workers are harder to come by.

?I could use 30 men,? Steward said. ?We?ll get ?er done, but I can?t find anybody.?

Growers throughout California?s fertile Central Valley are wringing their hands as they struggle to find the manpower they need.

Anti-immigration laws and policies, an aging population, and even a raging drug war south of the border all are contributing to a slowdown in the pipeline of Mexican workers that for so long have fueled the farm industry, experts say.

For more, see: Growers struggle to cope with farmworker shortage

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Russian protest leaders' homes raided by police

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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Egypt candidate accuses rival over HQ attack

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Holder appoints 2 US attorneys to lead leaks probe

Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 7, 2012, before the House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the Justice Department. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama talks about the economy, Friday, June 8, 2012, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Two U.S. attorneys are taking over separate FBI investigations into leaks of national security information that critics have accused the White House of orchestrating to improve President Barack Obama's re-election chances, a claim Obama calls "offensive" and "wrong."

Recent news articles contained details of U.S. involvement in a partially successful computer virus attack on Iran's nuclear program and on the selection of targets for counterterrorism assassination plots. The leaked information generally painted Obama as a decisive and hands-on commander in chief.

"The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive. It's wrong," Obama told reporters at a news conference Friday. "And people I think need to have a better sense of how I approach this office and how the people around me here approach this office."

Obama promised investigations into the source of leaks about U.S. involvement in cyberattacks on Iran and drone strikes on suspected terrorists.

"We're dealing with issues that can touch on the safety and security of the American people, our families or our military personnel or our allies, and so we don't play with that," he said.

Hours later, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that two U.S. attorneys will lead a pair of criminal investigations already under way into possible unauthorized disclosures of classified information within the executive and legislative branches of government.

Holder said he was confident the prosecutors would follow the facts and evidence wherever they led.

"The unauthorized disclosure of classified information can compromise the security of this country and all Americans, and it will not be tolerated," he said.

Holder assigned Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and Rod Rosenstein, the U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, to direct separate probes that are already being conducted by the FBI.

Three weeks ago, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the bureau had launched an investigation into who leaked information about an al-Qaida plot to place an explosive device aboard a U.S.-bound airline flight. Separately, calls from Capitol Hill have mounted urging a leak probe into a New York Times story a week ago about U.S. involvement in cyberattacks on Iran.

Obama said his administration has "zero tolerance" for such leaks and that there would be an internal administration probe.

"We have mechanisms in place where if we can root out folks who have leaked, they will suffer consequences," the president said. "In some cases, it's criminal. These are criminal acts when they release information like this. And we will conduct thorough investigations, as we have in the past."

Leaders of the Senate and House intelligence committees said Thursday they were drafting legislation to further limit access to highly classified information and possibly impose new penalties for revealing it. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said he will investigate recent leaks.

Lawmakers have pointed to recent stories by The New York Times, The Associated Press and other news organizations that contain previously secret information and cite anonymous U.S. officials.

The strongest claims came Tuesday from Obama's 2008 election opponent, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"They're intentionally leaking information to enhance President Obama's image as a tough guy for the elections," McCain said after taking to the Senate floor to list some of the alleged breaches. "That is unconscionable."

McCain called on the administration to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate.

In a statement Friday, McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Holder's decision "falls far short of what is needed" and repeated McCain's call for a special counsel.

The House Intelligence Committee chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said his committee would formally investigate the leaks but that he was concerned about the level of cooperation he would get from two government agencies.

"Just today, the CIA informed the (committee) that it cannot respond to our request for information regarding the leaks, a very troubling event indeed," Rogers said.

The CIA has come under fire for allegedly sharing with Hollywood filmmakers classified details of last year's U.S. raid into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.

A Justice Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said that some officials in the department's national security division recused themselves from one of the leak probes but that the department overall was investigating.

There are at least three investigations ongoing into disclosures of classified information.

Before becoming U.S. attorney, Machen helped lead the white-collar and internal investigation practices at the prominent Washington law firm of WilmerHale. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1997 to 2001.

Machen is leading a high-profile political corruption probe of officials in the District of Columbia. The latest development in that investigation came this week when District of Columbia Council chairman Kwame Brown resigned after being charged with lying about his income on bank loan applications and violating a city campaign law.

Brown pleaded guilty Friday.

Rosenstein was an associate independent counsel who worked for Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr from 1995 to 1997. He was co-counsel in the fraud trial of Jim and Susan McDougal, the former real estate partners of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Both of the McDougals were convicted in a trial that also resulted in the conviction of then-Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said he hopes that the Justice Department brings "the full force of the law against these criminals."

"We need to send a clear message to anyone who considers leaking sensitive information and putting Americans at risk: If you leak classified information, you will face jail time," Smith said in a statement.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called Machen and Rosenstein "strong, capable, independent prosecutors" and said the Justice Department's consultation with the Judiciary and Intelligence committees was an aid to congressional oversight.

___

AP National Security Writer Anne Gearan and AP writer Wendy Benjaminson contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Grassroots Schools Rugby Thrills Kids, Teachers In Badagry ...

Lets-Play-3 ?IT was one of the best days of my life Sir! When are you coming again, Oga?? These two sentences by 13 year-old Kola Onabanjo pretty much summed up the reaction of the eighty children and dozen teachers who were coached rugby for the first time in Badagry last weekend.

Most had never seen a rugby ball anywhere other than on an eaterie TV set in the small coastal town on the outreaches of Lagos, let alone ever touched, passed and kicked one.

Four schools, Badagry Grammar School, Lagos State Model Junior College ( Kankon), Methodist High School (Badagry) and State Junior High School (Ibereko) took part in the three-day Lagos State Rugby Association Under 13 Rugby Tournament, which was funded by the Lagos State Ministry of Sport and Recreation in conjunction with Let?s Play ? the Supersport?s initiative.

Day one consisted of a coaching the coaches session lead by Jide Afolabi, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Rugby Football Federation, who took the Physical Education (PE) teachers through the history of the game, the basics of play, the ethics and ethos of the oval ball game.

Like the kids who got to train and play later, the teachers were just as excited to be learning a new sport.? For them it was an opportunity to learn new skills, new disciplines and to be able to broaden their career horizons.

Having learned the basics, the teachers intend introducing rugby as part of the PE curriculum. Nothing could be better for the future of the game.

When boys and girls learn that while rugby is a physical contact sport, it is governed by a strict code of rules and laws, which are all designed to protect the players and make the game the fast flowing, free running spectacle that it is. Nigeria?s name will be up in the rugby heavens.

Rugby is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world right now with 80 per cent of the players in Africa under the age of 20. And what is driving this sudden spurt of interest in the game? For one, Africans around the continent are watching with interest the meteoric rise of Kenya as a rugby nation. Ten years ago, they were unheard of, last year they received ?core? status as one of the automatic invitees to all IRB Sevens Rugby tournaments. Secondly, young Africans are eyeing a possible route to the Olympics through rugby.

Afolabi, commenting on the decision to take rugby to Badagry was keen to point out that it was a conscious decision to take rugby to the grassroots.

?The government, the Lagos State Rugby Association and Supersport?s Let?s Play? initiative wanted to start a bush fire for rugby and where better than those out of the way schools which are so often neglected by other bigger sports.?? He beamed, ? When the kids realised that we had come from Lagos to help them they were bowled over. The sheer enthusiasm was electrifying. Even the older kids in the main football team wanted to come and join in.?

On day two, the teachers who had been coached in theory and practical aspects of coaching put the kids through drills and training exercises? simple games and then on day three the real fun began when an eight team touch rugby tournament was held. BGS1, eventually were declared the winners and were presented with 15 rugby jerseys, while the top players were given scrum caps and the best player received a pair of Nike boots.

Let?s Play donated eight balls to each school while all the kids received Let?s Play and Cowbell flavoured mil T-shirts.

The LSRA plan to extend the programme to other schools across the state and with the level of excitement enthusiasm and talent in Lagos it?s only a matter of time before Lagos becomes known as the Centre of Rugby Excellence.

SIN BINS AND BLOOD BINS

Every week in this section we explain the terms, rules, positions and strategies of rugby. Today we explore two phrases which refer to a player who has to leave the field, the first for a injury that causes bleeding and the second for a player who wilfully breaks a penalisable rule or for dangerous play.

BLOOD BIN

A player who has a visible bleeding injury may be replaced for up to fifteen minutes (running time not game time), during which he or she may receive first-aid treatment to stop the flow of blood and dress the wound. The player may then to return to the pitch to continue playing.

SIN BIN

The notional area where a player must remain for a minimum of ten minutes after being shown a yellow card and told to leave the field of play.? In high level games, the sin bin is monitored by the fourth official.

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Saturday, June 9, 2012

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Frustrated liberals want more from President Obama

Friday June 8, 2012

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- They are trying to be hopeful, but the Democratic Party's most passionate voters are struggling to hide their frustration with President Barack Obama.

Republicans attack the president as a big-government liberal. Many liberals meeting Thursday at Netroots Nation -- it describes the annual convention as "a giant family reunion for the left" -- argue instead that Obama hasn't fought hard enough for progressive priorities on taxes, health care and the economy.

Even more problematic for the president: With the election just five months away, some are threatening not to donate money or time or even vote in November for the man who overwhelmingly ignited their passions and captured their imaginations four years ago.

"I want to be happy with him," said Democrat Kristine Vaughan, a 45-year-old school psychologist from Canton, Ohio. "But I am finding that he has succumbed to the corporate influence as much as everyone else. I think he has so much potential to break out of that, but overall he has been a disappointment."

Vaughan isn't sure whether she'll vote for Obama a second time and probably won't donate money as she did during his first campaign. She refuses to support Republican challenger Mitt Romney, but is considering writing in another candidate in protest.

The sentiment is not unique among the 2,700 people gathered on the first day of this three-day convention. More than a dozen liberals

interviewed here indicated some level of frustration with the president, despite widespread praise for his recent decision to support gay marriage and ongoing push to scale back military action in the Middle East.

Most plan on voting for Obama and their gripes are not unlike what the White House has heard for much of the president's term. But these left-leaning backers' varying levels of enthusiasm could spell trouble for a president whose 2008 victory was fueled by a massive network of grass-roots volunteers and small-dollar donors. Polls show the president locked in a tight race that's likely to be decided in several swing states where he scored narrow victories four years ago. Places like Ohio, Florida and Virginia are expected to be especially competitive, and Obama will need liberal supporters to both work on his behalf and turn out in droves on Election Day.

"He's done a good job, but he could have done a lot better," said Ed Tracey, 55, of Lebanon, N.H., who heads his local chapter of the group, Drinking Liberally.

Tracey was one of Obama's many small-dollar donors four years ago, but his dissatisfaction has affected his generosity: "I decided that unless I thought he really needed it, I wouldn't contribute," he said.

Despite the criticism, polling suggests Republicans may face a larger enthusiasm gap than Democrats.

In late May, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 93 percent of Obama voters said they are enthusiastic about voting for him, including 51 percent who were very enthusiastic. For Romney supporters, 75 percent were enthusiastic, and just 26 percent were very enthusiastic.

Still, a closer look at the Democratic base shows an evolution of enthusiasm -- or lack thereof -- over the past four years.

The widespread belief in Obama's message of hope and change turned to frustration as the president yielded to Republican pressure by devoting a significant portion of the 2009 stimulus package to tax cuts. Liberals were further irked when he abandoned the so-called "public option" in his health care overhaul, didn't go after big banks more aggressively in his financial overhaul bill and supported the extension of Bush-era tax cuts.

Now, many say Obama is not fighting hard enough for tax increases on the wealthy to help close the federal deficit.

"I look forward to him fighting much harder," said Arshad Hasan, executive director of Democracy for America, a group founded by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

But, like many liberals here, Hasan offered a mixed review of the president. He said Obama's decision to support gay marriage was "a huge accomplishment for progressives." He also was hopeful that Obama might shift further to the left should he win a second term.

"There's also a strain of thought among progressives that he's waiting until after the election to come out and be more boldly progressive," Hasan said. "I don't know which way that's going to go, but I know that either way, we get a much better deal than if Mitt Romney is elected."

Indeed, instead of hope and change, Democrats are trying to rally around their dislike for Romney, a man whom many are still getting to know.

Massachusetts-based liberal radio host Jeff Santos held the first stop of "the Real Romney tour" at the conference. The event was designed to highlight perceived weaknesses in the former Massachusetts governor's job-creation record and private-sector experience at Bain Capital, the Boston-based private equity firm he co-founded.

"He has no soul," Santos said of Romney.

Romney's association with reality television host Donald Trump drew some of the most heated criticism, especially given Romney's unwillingness to condemn Trump's repeated questioning of Obama's birthplace.

"If Mitt Romney can't stand up to a birther who's putting out racist conspiracy theories, how can he lead on other issues?" asked Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color of Change, a liberal group that promotes African-American political influence.

Robinson said some blacks now have less enthusiasm for Obama.

"President Obama hasn't done everything we wanted. But we know what Romney would do," he said. "Mitt Romney has said things like he doesn't really care about the very poor. And for a community that is facing unemployment levels the black community is facing, we may not be going to the polls with hope, but that doesn't mean we won't be turning out."

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Thursday, June 7, 2012

Dinosaurs actually weren't that heavy, study finds

A comparison of dinosaur skeletons with those of living mammals suggests that the ancient reptiles were tens of tons lighter than previously believed.?

By Jennifer Welsh,?LiveScience Staff Writer / June 6, 2012

Computer "skin and bones" model of Brachiosaurus. In analysis of computer models of modern mammals, they are about 20 percent smaller than the animals in real life.

Bill Sellers

Enlarge

Dinosaurs have shed some extra pounds just in time for beach season, with a new analysis suggesting the mighty sauropod previously known as?Brachiosaurus?weighed tens of tons less than earlier estimates.

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Artists' renderings of dinosaurs have long been plagued by discrepancies, with some depictions larger and heftier than others.

"The whole point is we were trying to get around the guesswork" of artistic reconstructions, study researcher Bill Sellers, of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, told LiveScience. The researchers found that among the artists, "the ones?reconstructing their dinosaurs?as quite skinny are more right."

Skinny skeletons

To come up with their skinny dinosaur suggestion, the researchers analyzed the skeletons of living species and compared the skeletal sizes with those animals' actual weight. Using 3D images made by laser scans of full sets of bones from 14 large mammals, including a polar bear, giraffe and elephant, the researchers calculated the "minimum wrapping volume" needed to cover a skeleton with flesh.

"All we can do when we are looking at these long-dead fossil animals is rely on what we can find out from living animals," Sellers explained. They chose these large mammals instead of the dinosaur's closest relative, the?crocodile, as comparison points because they are land-adapted. (Crocodiles are adapted to living in the water, where body mass is less of an obstacle.)

Using the relationship between skeletal bones and amount of skin and fat needed, the researchers came up with a mathematical equation that also could be applied to dinosaurs. By using a computer to calculate mass, the researchers said, they took subjectivity out of the equation. In fact, when the researchers based their body-size estimates on artists' skeleton-informed reconstructions of dinosaurs, there were large discrepancies in the estimated weight. [Album: Colorful Dinosaur Art]

"They would take a scan, then produce an artistic reconstruction of the scan," Sellers said. "No two people would get exactly the same answers. Some would make them?fat dinosaurs, and some would reconstruct them as skinny dinosaurs."

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

9GAG - Long distance relationships [Fixed]

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Dinosaurs lighter than previously thought

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Scientists have developed a new technique to accurately measure the weight and size of dinosaurs and discovered they are not as heavy as previously thought.

University of Manchester biologists used lasers to measure the minimum amount of skin required to wrap around the skeletons of modern-day mammals, including reindeer, polar bears, giraffes and elephants.

They discovered that the animals had almost exactly 21% more body mass than the minimum skeletal 'skin and bone' wrap volume, and applied this to a giant Brachiosaur skeleton in Berlin's Museum f?r Naturkunde.

Previous estimates of this Brachiosaur's weight have varied, with estimates as high as 80 tonnes, but the Manchester team's calculations ? published in the journal Biology Letters ? reduced that figure to just 23 tonnes. The team says the new technique will apply to all dinosaur weight measurements.

Lead author Dr Bill Sellers said: "One of the most important things palaeobiologists need to know about fossilised animals is how much they weighed. This is surprisingly difficult, so we have been testing a new approach. We laser scanned various large mammal skeletons, including polar bear, giraffe and elephant, and calculated the minimum wrapping volume of the main skeletal sections.

"We showed that the actual volume is reliably 21% more than this value, so we then laser scanned the Berlin Brachiosaur, Giraffatitan brancai, calculating the skin and bone wrapping volume and added 21%. We found that the giant herbivore weighed 23 tonnes, supporting the view that these animals were much lighter than traditionally thought.

Dr Sellers, based in Manchester's Faculty of Life Sciences, explained that body mass was a critical parameter used to constrain biomechanical and physiological traits of organisms.

He said: "Volumetric methods are becoming more common as techniques for estimating the body masses of fossil vertebrates but they are often accused of excessive subjective input when estimating the thickness of missing soft tissue.

"Here, we demonstrate an alternative approach where a minimum convex hull is derived mathematically from the point cloud generated by laser-scanning mounted skeletons. This has the advantage of requiring minimal user intervention and is therefore more objective and far quicker.

"We tested this method on 14 large-bodied mammalian skeletons and demonstrated that it consistently underestimated body mass by 21%. We suggest that this is a robust method of estimating body mass where a mounted skeletal reconstruction is available and demonstrate its usage to predict the body mass of one of the largest, relatively complete sauropod dinosaurs, Giraffatitan brancai, as 23,200 kg.

"The value we got for Giraffatitan is at the low range of previous estimates; although it is still huge, some of the enormous estimates of the past ? 80 tonnes in 1962 ? are exaggerated. Our method provides a much more accurate measure and shows dinosaurs, while still huge, are not as big as previously thought."

###

University of Manchester: http://www.manchester.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Manchester for this article.

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

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Family Holidays: Strategies for Peace and Harmony | ApostolicCM ...

What does one prefer to do on household holidays? Visit the seaside or devote per week inside the country? Possibly you like camping or visiting family members. No matter what you take pleasure in, family holidays are a chance for everybody in the household to get reacquainted and devote superior time with each other. It?s a chance for mother and father to truly speak with their teenagers and learn what is going on in their lives. It is essential to keep the conversation lines open up, and a family members holiday is usually an excellent time to perform that. Obtaining an excellent connection with their mother and father is one of the most important variables in keeping teens out of difficulty.

Research have proven that when families consider vacations with each other, they may be much more most likely to consume with each other and so are less likely to argue. They tend not to observe as significantly tv for the reason that they are concerned in performing factors with each other. Children even report that their mothers and fathers seem to act differently although on holiday.

Whilst family vacations are a superb time for you to link with your kids, communication challenges which can be currently there won?t immediately vanish. Mainly with teens it is important to hear and be flexible. Find out what the youngsters would prefer to do and eat and strategy accordingly. Even though even teenagers want boundaries, it?s important for mother and father to attempt to prevent pointless confrontation. Clarify why you make the decisions you do and present them beneficial attention.

Youngsters will appreciate becoming incorporated in journey schemes. There?s a superb opportunity they will choose a design park or perhaps the beach if those are among the selections. From time to time it operates effectively to get an adolescent to consider a particular friend alongside on loved ones vacations. Though this may possibly boost the parents? load, the teen is likely to genuinely appreciate it. Also, sometimes it performs effectively for youngsters to go on vacations with their grandparents as opposed to their dad and mom. Sometimes there?s a particular connection right here that can assist children open up up and communicate about their issues.

Although on household holidays, if teenagers are uncooperative or behave improperly, attempt to handle the issue in non-public. Teens are very aware of embarrassmant and it really is needlessly imply to use this sensitivity. In truth, you may explain to the children how their habits embarrasses you, plus they in turn may well work harder at finding alongside and acting appropriately.

Kids will be happier on family holidays if they have snacks, beverages, and amusement. Handful of children delight in a lengthy journey inside the car! Attempt to supply person CD gamers or hand-held video games, and do not forget to take a lot of bathroom stops. At times kids enjoy the journey far more if they can aid you comply with the map. This is an instructional activity for them too. By adhering to these suggestions, your family holidays could make a happy memory.

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Venus transit 2012: a chance to test Earth-hunting techniques

Venus's 2012 transit across the sun will let researchers test methods for observing Earth-like planets light years away. It's an opportunity that won't be available again until December 2117.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / June 5, 2012

This June 2004 file photo shows the transit of Venus, which occurs when the planet Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, is pictured in Hong Kong. Venus will cross the face of the sun on Tuesday, June 5, a sight that will be visible from parts of Earth.

Vincent Yu/AP/File

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There's a little black spot on the sun today.
No you don't want to miss this rare display. (With apologies to Sting)

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It's V-Day 2012, the day Venus transits the sun, appearing as a black dot against the star's searing surface. It's a show that won't make its celestial revival until December 2117.

For many skywatchers, this event is drawing eyes because it is rare and intimately tied to the history of humanity's quest to take the measure of its corner of the cosmos. In the 18th and 19th centuries, scientists risked their lives traveling to far-flung corners of the globe to carefully record the track of the first lady of the solar system across the sun. Back then, it was the best means available for trying to estimate the Earth's distance from the sun and derive a size for the solar system.

But for some astronomers, Tuesday's transit offers an unique opportunity to use Venus as a surrogate for Venus- and Earth-size planets orbiting other stars, as researchers hone their skills at analyzing potential havens for life outside the solar system.

For others, the transit could help unravel a longstanding mystery about Venus itself: What drives the "super rotation" of its atmosphere? Venus spins on its axis once every 243 days. Its atmosphere performs the same feat in four days, with winds traveling at nearly 450 miles an hour.

A long time to wait

Venus's transits owe their century-scale frequency to the orbital paths Earth and Venus trace around the sun.

Seen in relation to the plane of Earth's orbit, Venus's orbit has a slight tilt ? about 3.4 degrees. Depending on where the two planets are in their respective orbits, that leaves Venus trailing the sun toward the horizon at nightfall or rising ahead of the sun before dawn. But on Tuesday the two planets' orbits are aligned in such a way that Venus will pass directly between Earth and the sun during Venus's inferior conjunction, or closest approach to Earth.

Venus's transits occur in pairs, separated by eight years?? Tuesday's transit is paired with one in 2004. The pairs repeat their appearance twice in a 243-year cycle, with one return time spanning 105.5 years, and the other 121.5 years. So, if you miss this one, tell your children to tell their children to take heart. We're in a part of the cycle with the shortest return time ? in December 2117.

Astronomers are working hard not to miss it.

A chance to study other Earths

Tuesday's transit represents "a great opportunity" to test approaches for studying atmospheres of Earth-scale planets orbiting sun-like stars, says Jean-Michel Desert, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., and a member of the team conducting the experiment.

The team, led by Alfred Vidal-Madjar at the Institute for Astrophysics in Paris, will use the Hubble Space Telescope to watch the transit via the light reflected off the moon, since the orbiting observatory would be permanently blinded if it tried observing the sun directly.

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Analysis: G7 must look beyond China for euro zone rescuer

BEIJING (Reuters) - Finance chiefs of the Group of Seven industrialized powers hoping China can step in to rescue the euro zone must look elsewhere for a white knight as Beijing increasingly focuses on domestic issues this year.

The G7 policymakers and some members of the wider G20 will hold an emergency teleconference on the euro zone debt crisis on Tuesday in a sign of heightened global alarm about the threat posed by strains inside the 17-nation monetary union. The call comes two weeks before a G20 summit this month in Mexico.

"The question is can the G20 do anything to accelerate and bring forward the date at which China feels it should do something? I'm skeptical," Tim Condon, chief economist and head of Asian economic research at ING in Singapore, said.

China has no intention of over-extending itself near term in pursuit of long-term goals rebuffed back in October 2011 when euro zone and International Monetary Fund officials last asked Beijing for bailout cash, but were unwilling to offer the market access, guarantees, and technology sales demanded in return.

An increasingly inward focus in the final months before a once-in-a-decade leadership transition means only a Lehman-like collapse in confidence that halts global trade and costs millions of Chinese jobs is likely to change Beijing's mind.

"China is totally consumed by juggling what is turning out to be a complicated year domestically. If something coincides with what's good for Europe, happy days, but for them to do something above and beyond... I'm not a big buyer of the view that we're going to have some big kumbaya moment at the G20," Condon said.

The last such moment of unity was in late 2008 when shattered confidence in the world financial system forced central banks to begin printing money to reflate it and led G20 nations to pledge stimulus packages worth some $5 trillion by early 2009 to underpin global growth.

China's 4 trillion yuan ($635 billion) contribution to that effort, unveiled at the end of 2008 and launched in 2009, was vital. The world's biggest single contributor of economic growth essentially underwrote business activity into 2010, but it did so at substantial domestic political cost.

SPECULATION, CORRUPTION, INFLATION

"China's 2008 stimulus led to widespread speculation, corruption and inflation. It won't want to do that again," said independent economist Andy Xie.

China's stimulus was supported by extremely loose monetary policy, fuelling rampant property speculation that saw prices double in key cities in little more than 12 months, let local governments rack up 10.7 trillion yuan of debt and pushed consumer inflation to a 3-year high.

A two-year tightening campaign since has barely brought inflation back under control, a worry for Beijing as it starts to ease economic policy again to cushion falling growth.

It has eased banks' required reserves in three steps since the autumn of 2011, cutting 150 basis points in total to 20 percent and freeing up an estimated 1.2 trillion yuan for fresh lending.

It has also cut taxes and slashed red tape, fast-tracked infrastructure investment, provided consumption subsidies in some household sectors and pushed ahead with financial reforms to help safeguard growth.

But Beijing is wary about loosening too much too quickly again and setting off a fresh round of price hikes that put social stability at risk.

High inflation has preceded political tension in China in the past - something the ruling Communist Party is desperate to avoid ahead of a leadership change and already complicated by the purge of populist politician Bo Xilai and the murder scandal surrounding his fall.

CAPABILITIES CURTAILED

The sudden collapse in exports during the 2008-09 crisis threw some 20 million migrant workers out of work, an incentive behind the massive stimulus package. The economy may be slowing right now, but labor markets are tighter, wages are rising and employers are struggling for staff.

The combination makes it particularly difficult for Beijing to make big statements of international importance to global markets, just as hopes ride high that it will.

Brazil wants coordinated action to end the European crisis to be the defining action point of the next G20 summit meeting, due to be held in Mexico on June 18-19.

Separately a G20 official in Asia said the group could look to put pressure on Germany to switch to stimulus mode as part of a wider call for strong, developed economies to step up spending.

Faltering domestic and external demand have set China's economy on track for its slowest full year of growth since 1999, curtailing Beijing's ability to offer others aid as well as lowering growth prospects for neighboring Asian economies.

India recorded its weakest quarterly growth between January-March in almost a decade and Brazil barely expanded during the final three months of 2011, casting doubt on how much support emerging markets can offer the soggy world economy.

While a forecast in the latest Reuters poll that China's economy will growth this year by 8.2 percent might look brisk to recessionary Europe, it comes very close to the level many economists believe is the bare minimum China must achieve to create enough jobs for its 1.3 billion strong population.

So while things haven't got any better for the euro zone since October 2011 when Klaus Regling, who runs Europe's bailout fund, and the IMF were last in Beijing asking for help, China's economy has taken a clear turn for the worse.

And that's bad news for global policymakers, business leaders and investors who had been banking up to now on China to provide the lion's share of economic growth this year, Kenneth Courtis, co-founder of Asia-focused private equity fund, Themes Investment Management, said.

Beijing's reluctance to engage in a new round of 2009-like mega-stimulus, has dramatically raised concerns from a policy perspective, said Courtis, in Stockholm for meetings of this week's IMF-convened International Monetary Conference.

"What they more and more desperately want is a clear sign from Beijing that it will be taking forceful measures to put a floor under its economy... with the object of assuring that China deliver 8-9 percent growth this year and next," Courtis told Reuters.

"That is also I understand what the group which originated today's G-7/G-20 conference call also hope and expect will be the message China will deliver during the call."

(Editing by Neil Fullick)

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NTSB: Fatigued driver caused deadly NY bus crash

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A tour bus crash last year that claimed 15 lives was caused by a driver suffering from too little sleep and a bus company that provided too little safety oversight, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

The five-member board, in a unanimous vote, said the driver, Ophadell Williams, had almost no sleep in the three days leading up to the March 12, 2011, accident except for naps he took on the bus while passengers were inside a Connecticut casino gambling.

The bus was traveling at 78 miles per hour in a 50 mph zone of Interstate 95 while returning to New York's Chinatown when it ran off the road, clattered along a highway guard rail, toppled over and crashed into the support pole for a highway sign. The pole knifed through the bus front to back along the window line, peeling the roof off all the way to the back tires. Besides those killed, 17 other passengers were injured, some severely.

There was no sign that Williams attempted to brake or steer the bus back onto the highway after striking the guard rail, another indication his performance was degraded by fatigue, investigators told the board. They stopped short of saying Williams had fallen asleep.

Williams has pleaded not guilty in New York to charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Williams' attorney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

"For years, speed has been a factor in accidents. And, we've seen in investigation after investigation, the tragic results of the degraded performance from fatigue. Together, fatigue and speed are an especially lethal combination," NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said. She noted that driver fatigue was a factor in seven of the last 19 motor coach accidents the board has investigated.

The circumstances of the New York accident were a "perfect storm" for creating driver fatigue, said Jana Price, an NTSB expert on human performance.

Williams worked mostly overnight shifts, driving to the casino before midnight and returning in the morning. On his days off, he would switch to a nighttime sleep schedule, a transition that creates a feeling of fatigue similar to jetlag, Price said. During the three days prior to the accident, Williams' cellphone and rental car were in almost continuous use during the daytime hours when he had said he was sleeping, investigators said.

The accident occurred at 5:38 a.m., during a time of day known as the circadian trough when the human body's responses to light and darkness create a natural craving for sleep.

The board has previously expressed concern about the prevalence of operator fatigue in all modes of transportation, including the motor coach industry, which transports more than 700 million passengers a year in the U.S. ? roughly the same as the domestic airlines.

Federal regulators shutdown the bus operator, World Wide Tours of Greater New York, after the accident for safety violations. Williams had not turned in any driver's logs while working for the company as required by federal safety regulations, yet World Wide took no action, investigators said. He had been being fired by two previous employers and had 18 suspensions of his driving privileges over two decades when he was hired by World Wide.

The board recommended requiring bus companies to obtain the previous 10 years of driving records for bus drivers they are considering hiring, rather than the currently required three years.

After World Wide was shut down, the company's employees, buses and other assets were transferred to a closely related company with similar ownership, Great Escapes, investigators said. That company continues to operate, they said.

Prior to the accident, World Wide tried to get hired to transport troops, but was rejected after a safety inspection by the Defense Department. However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration conducted several inspections of the company over a number of years and had approved the carrier for the transportation of passengers.

"Something seems to be badly broken," board member Robert Sumwalt said, when one government agency says a company isn't fit to carry troops, but another says they are fit to carry passengers.

The accident might have been prevented, or its severity lessened, if the bus hadn't been speeding, investigators said. The board also recommended federal regulators require advanced speed limiting devices on newly-manufactured heavy trucks and buses.

The New York accident, and other fatal accidents in New Jersey and Virginia last spring, sparked an investigation by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration into the safety of curbside bus operators. Last week, government safety officials swooped down on more than two dozen curbside bus operations that mostly ferry passengers in the busy East Coast transportation corridor between New York and Florida, closing them for safety violations in the largest single federal crackdown on the industry.

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Follow Joan Lowy at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

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