MEXICO CITY (Reuters) ? Mexicans have been overcharged $13.4 billion a year for phone and internet services as the industry dominated by billionaire Carlos Slim gouges customers and keeps the economy from growing, a study released on Monday said.
Mexico, the second-largest economy in Latin America, cannot reach its growth potential until the cost of phone and internet access comes down and more people have easy access to telecom services, the report from the Organization for Co-operation and Development said.
From 2005 to 2009, Mexican consumers paid $13.4 billion a year excess for phone and internet services, with high fees disproportionately hitting the poor, according to the report. In total, overcharging cost the economy $129 billion over the five-year period, the report found, nearly 2 percent of the country's economic output.
"Inefficient telecommunication markets impose a significant cost on the Mexican economy and the welfare of its population," according to the report that reviewed the country's telecom sector.
Mexican home phone service is dominated by Slim's Telefonos de Mexico, or Telmex, which provides about 80 percent of services while the billionaire controls about 70 percent of the cellphone market through his America Movil.
"This is a critical study...that exposes the weakness of the telecommunications sector in Mexico," Dionisio Perez-Jacome, minister of Communications and Transport, said at a press event accepting the report.
The report found Mexico had the lowest per capita public investment in telecommunications in the 34-member OECD, while Slim's Telmex had very high profit margins compared to other countries.
In 2008, Telmex had a profit margin of 47 percent, while the average for countries including Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States was 28 percent.
A Slim spokesman declined to comment on the findings of customers being overcharged, but pointed to other reports that Mexico enjoys a relatively-affordable broadband base.
The report found broadband internet speeds are low compared to the OECD average and comparatively expensive, while a three-minute call from a cellphone to a local phone would cost a Mexican travelling in another OECD country $8.65, compared to the OECD average of $6.76.
It suggested that Mexico eliminate restrictions on foreign investment in the telecom sector and cut judicial red tape that lets the telecom industry stall new rules, fines and restrictions.
Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, at a separate event, said that his government planned to auction strands of fiber optic cable that would increase broadband service across the country.
Mexico's cable giant, Megacable, is in a partnership with cellphone company Telefonica and television giant Televisa to share one fiber optic project that should deliver more high-speed internet and telecom services.
(Reporting by Patrick Rucker and Krista Hughes; Editing by Gary Hill and Matt Driskill)
MONDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Having a pet helps women with HIV/AIDS cope with their condition and may also help those with other chronic diseases, a new study says.
Researchers conducted 12 focus groups with 48 women with HIV/AIDS to find out how they stay healthy. The women, whose average age was 42, said that five social roles helped them manage their illness.
These roles included being: a pet owner; a mother/grandmother; faith believer; an advocate and an employee.
The study also found that being stigmatized had a negative impact because it prevented women from revealing their illness and seeking out appropriate supports, the Case Western Reserve University researchers said.
The finding about the benefits of being a pet owner was a surprise, said study author and nursing instructor Allison Webel.
"Pets -- primarily dogs -- gave these women a sense of support and pleasure," Webel said in a university news release.
Speaking about their pets, one cat owner said, "She's going to be right there when I'm hurting," while a dog owner said, "Dogs know when you're in a bad mood ... she knows that I'm sick, and everywhere I go, she goes. She wants to protect me."
Webel noted that the human and animal bond in healing and therapy is receiving increasing recognition and more animals are visiting nursing homes to connect to people with dementia, or visiting children going through long hospital stays.
The study appears online in the January-February issue of Women's Health Issues.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about living with HIV/AIDS.
According to a research from CCMI, a majority of Fortune 1000 companies are pursuing alternatives to control the exorbitant wireless bills incurred when employees do business internationally.
Here?s what the report, commissioned by Truphone, reveals:
40% of companies are forbidding or curtailing business usage of wireless devices while abroad to help manage costs.
24% said that they have lost business as a result of roaming costs.
Nearly 37% of companies surveyed spend $1,000 or more per month per user on average wireless roaming costs for their international travelers, with stories of single monthly bill charges ranging from $10,000 to $200,000.
In addition, the study also reveals other key findings related to roaming expenditures, alternatives corporations are using to offset roaming costs, travel trends and more? You can get the full report from here, and while at Truphone?s website ? download their VoIP app to save some cash yourself. It [app] is available for all popular platforms, including the iOS and Android?
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do.
In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application.
Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
DAVOS, Switzerland ? Three topless Ukrainian protesters were detained Saturday while trying to break into an invitation-only gathering of international CEOs and political leaders to call attention to the needs of the world's poor. Separately, demonstrators from the Occupy movement marched to the edge of the gathering.
After a complicated journey to reach the heavily guarded Swiss resort town of Davos, the Ukrainians arrived at the entrance to the complex where the World Economic Forum takes place every year.
With temperatures around freezing in the snow-filled town, they took off their tops and tried to climb a fence before being detained. "Crisis! Made in Davos," read one message painted across a protester's torso, while others held banners that said "Poor, because of you" and "Gangsters party in Davos."
Davos police spokesman Thomas Hobi said the three women were taken to the police station and told that they weren't allowed to demonstrate. He said they would be released later Saturday.
The activists are from the group Femen, which has become popular in Ukraine for staging small, half-naked protests to highlight a range of issues including oppression of political opposition. They have also conducted protests in some other countries.
"We came here to Switzerland to Davos to explain the position of all poor people of the world, to explain that we are poor because of these rich people who now sit in the building," said Inna Schewcenko.
Protesters from the Occupy movement that started with opposition to practices on Wall Street held a separate demonstration in Davos on Saturday. A small group of protesters are camped in igloos in Davos to call for more help for the needy.
About 40 Occupy protesters gathered in front of the town hall. Some held placards with slogans such as "If voting would change anything, it would be illegal" and "Don't let them decide for you, Occupy WEF."
They then marched toward the forum, prompting about a dozen police officers to hastily erect a mobile barrier as Saturday shoppers looked on with bemusement.
The demonstrators chanted anti-capitalist slogans, remaining about 100 feet (30 meters) from police lines.
One member of the Occupy camp was invited to speak at a special event outside the forum on Friday night to discuss the future of capitalism; British opposition leader Ed Miliband was also speaking.
Soon after the panel discussion began, some activists in the audience jumped up and started chanting slogans, and the protester panelist walked off the stage.
Other members of the audience told the activists to "shut up" and arguments disrupted the panel for about 20 minutes. The discussion then resumed, without the Occupy panelist.
___
Anja Niedringhaus and Paolo Santalucia contributed to this report.
Respondents to the HNTB survey about flying share their opinions about the airport screening process. Respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer.
A new survey confirms what most travelers already know: modern air travel can be stressful, frustrating and exhausting.
"Air travel has lost its spark,? said Tom Rossbach, director of aviation architecture for HNTB, the architecture, engineering and construction company that commissioned the survey. ?Going to the airport just isn?t as glamorous as it used to be. Now it?s just a chore.?
Of the survey?s 1,000 U.S. respondents, 44 percent called air travel stressful, 41 percent said it was frustrating and 32 percent declared it downright exhausting. Very few people (16 percent) found air travel easy, luxurious (5 percent) or relaxing (7 percent).
Math whizzes will note that these totals add up to more than 100 percent?but survey respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer to the question: ?Air travel is...?
Not surprisingly, the survey found that air travelers are displeased with the modern-day airport security-screening process. ?The biggest frustration is with waiting in those long lines,? said Rossbach.
Only 22 percent said airport security-screening procedures were effective and only 11 percent said it was efficient. A mere 4 percent found it pleasant while 42 percent found the security checkpoint ?a hassle.?
But some travelers are optimistic that new technology and better airport amenities can help patch things up.
According to the survey, almost half of Americans think that over that last 10 years there?s been improvement in terminal amenities such as shops, food options and entertainment. And more than half count the now ubiquitous self-check-in kiosks among the improvements.?
Going forward, more than a quarter of the survey respondents would like to see paper baggage tags replaced by electronic GPS tags. And 53 percent said they?d feel safer in an airplane that had "NextGen" GPS technology installed, instead of the current radar-based system.
More than 10 percent of respondents would also like to see improvements at airport drop-off and pick-up curbs and at the departure gate lounges as well as a few more designated areas for quiet or conversation.
?We?re going to take this information and use to it design better airports with facilities that are easier to manage and much more enjoyable to be in,? said Rossbach.
100 percent of travelers would most likely say yes to that.
More from Overhead Bin:
Find more by Harriet Baskas on?Stuck at The Airport.com?and follow her on?Twitter.
UT researchers' innovation addresses major challenge of drug deliveryPublic release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Melissa Mixon melissa.mixon@austin.utexas.edu 512-471-2129 University of Texas at Austin
A new physical form of proteins developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin could drastically improve treatments for cancer and other diseases, as well as overcome some of the largest challenges in therapeutics: delivering drugs to patients safely, easily and more effectively.
The protein formulation strategy, developed by faculty and students in the Cockrell School of Engineering's Department of Chemical Engineering, is unprecedented and offers a new and universal approach to drug delivery one that could revolutionize treatment of cancer, arthritis and infectious disease.
"We believe this discovery of a new highly concentrated form of proteins clusters of individual protein molecules is a disruptive innovation that could transform how we fight diseases," said Keith P. Johnston, a chemical engineering professor and member of the National Academy Engineering. "It required integration of challenging contributions in fundamental science and engineering from three of our chemical engineering research groups."
The research, led by Johnston, Chemical Engineering Professor Thomas M. Truskett and Assistant Professor Jennifer Maynard, was published online recently ahead of a print version to appear soon in the ACS Nano journal.
"The real challenge in developing therapeutics is how do you deliver them to patients." Maynard said.
Typically, protein biopharmaceuticals are administered intravenously at dilute concentrations in a hospital or clinic. Scientists and engineers have long tried to produce safe drugs at higher concentrations, so that a patient could self-inject the drugs at home, similar to an insulin shot. But doing so has been stymied by the fact that proteins, in high-concentration formulations, form aggregates that could be dangerous to patients and gels that cannot be injected.
The Cockrell School research team has introduced a new physical form of proteins, whereby proteins are packed into highly concentrated, nanometer-sized clusters that can pass through a needle into a patient to treat disease. The novel composition avoids the pitfalls of previous attempts because drug proteins are clustered so densely that they don't unfold or form dangerous aggregates.
"This general physical concept for forming highly concentrated, yet stable, protein dispersions is a major new direction in protein science," Johnston said.
A key advance came in 2004, when Truskett predicted that protein-based drugs in solution would be stable if they could somehow be formulated at ultra-high concentrations. At that time, Johnston had nanoparticles of concentrated stable protein but didn't know how to disperse them in an injectable form.
In 2009, the team formed protein nanoclusters in water simply by properly adjusting the pH (to lower protein charge) and adding sugar to crowd protein molecules together. Upon dilution or subcutaneous injection into a mouse the proteins separate back to individual stable molecules with biological activity. Once injected, the protein in the bloodstream attacks targeted cells and tumors similarly as for protein delivered via IV therapy. To provide a roadmap for improving the design of nanoclusters, chemical engineering graduate students, Andrea Miller and Ameya Borwankar worked with Truskett and Johnston to develop a new thermodynamic theory.
Another breakthrough for the team came in 2009 when a chemical engineering senior, Brian Wilson, created a transparent dispersion of extremely concentrated protein, which was later found to be formed of nanoclusters.
"Through Brian's discussions about the research both inside and outside of the classroom, numerous undergraduate students at UT are now realizing the enormous opportunities they have to contribute to science, engineering and human health when they get involved in research projects," Johnston said.
Since the research began in 2004, three patent applications have been filed through the university's Office of Technology Commercialization.
###
The research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Welch Foundation, and the Packard Foundation. Starting in 2012, two major pharmaceutical companies will fund the work.
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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.
UT researchers' innovation addresses major challenge of drug deliveryPublic release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Melissa Mixon melissa.mixon@austin.utexas.edu 512-471-2129 University of Texas at Austin
A new physical form of proteins developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin could drastically improve treatments for cancer and other diseases, as well as overcome some of the largest challenges in therapeutics: delivering drugs to patients safely, easily and more effectively.
The protein formulation strategy, developed by faculty and students in the Cockrell School of Engineering's Department of Chemical Engineering, is unprecedented and offers a new and universal approach to drug delivery one that could revolutionize treatment of cancer, arthritis and infectious disease.
"We believe this discovery of a new highly concentrated form of proteins clusters of individual protein molecules is a disruptive innovation that could transform how we fight diseases," said Keith P. Johnston, a chemical engineering professor and member of the National Academy Engineering. "It required integration of challenging contributions in fundamental science and engineering from three of our chemical engineering research groups."
The research, led by Johnston, Chemical Engineering Professor Thomas M. Truskett and Assistant Professor Jennifer Maynard, was published online recently ahead of a print version to appear soon in the ACS Nano journal.
"The real challenge in developing therapeutics is how do you deliver them to patients." Maynard said.
Typically, protein biopharmaceuticals are administered intravenously at dilute concentrations in a hospital or clinic. Scientists and engineers have long tried to produce safe drugs at higher concentrations, so that a patient could self-inject the drugs at home, similar to an insulin shot. But doing so has been stymied by the fact that proteins, in high-concentration formulations, form aggregates that could be dangerous to patients and gels that cannot be injected.
The Cockrell School research team has introduced a new physical form of proteins, whereby proteins are packed into highly concentrated, nanometer-sized clusters that can pass through a needle into a patient to treat disease. The novel composition avoids the pitfalls of previous attempts because drug proteins are clustered so densely that they don't unfold or form dangerous aggregates.
"This general physical concept for forming highly concentrated, yet stable, protein dispersions is a major new direction in protein science," Johnston said.
A key advance came in 2004, when Truskett predicted that protein-based drugs in solution would be stable if they could somehow be formulated at ultra-high concentrations. At that time, Johnston had nanoparticles of concentrated stable protein but didn't know how to disperse them in an injectable form.
In 2009, the team formed protein nanoclusters in water simply by properly adjusting the pH (to lower protein charge) and adding sugar to crowd protein molecules together. Upon dilution or subcutaneous injection into a mouse the proteins separate back to individual stable molecules with biological activity. Once injected, the protein in the bloodstream attacks targeted cells and tumors similarly as for protein delivered via IV therapy. To provide a roadmap for improving the design of nanoclusters, chemical engineering graduate students, Andrea Miller and Ameya Borwankar worked with Truskett and Johnston to develop a new thermodynamic theory.
Another breakthrough for the team came in 2009 when a chemical engineering senior, Brian Wilson, created a transparent dispersion of extremely concentrated protein, which was later found to be formed of nanoclusters.
"Through Brian's discussions about the research both inside and outside of the classroom, numerous undergraduate students at UT are now realizing the enormous opportunities they have to contribute to science, engineering and human health when they get involved in research projects," Johnston said.
Since the research began in 2004, three patent applications have been filed through the university's Office of Technology Commercialization.
###
The research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Welch Foundation, and the Packard Foundation. Starting in 2012, two major pharmaceutical companies will fund the work.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
RABAT (Reuters) ? Viadeo, the world's second-biggest online networking site for professionals after LinkedIn, said on Friday it had opened a regional branch in Morocco as it seeks to expand its presence in the increasingly-wired Arab world.
Viadeo, which targets professionals, job seekers and recruiters, shelved plans for an initial public offering last year to focus on growth in emerging markets.
"Morocco is the first country in Northern Africa and within the Arab world where Viadeo has established an office; this follows the opening of an office in Senegal in March 2011," Viadeo said in a statement.
Morocco accounts for a quarter of Viadeo's 2 million members in Africa. The increasing use of Internet and high youth unemployment in the Arab world, which hovers around 30 percent in Morocco, is a boon for businesses like Viadeo.
"The membership base in Morocco has doubled in less than a year and represents the second French speaking community of the platform after France," it said.
(Reporting By Souhail Karam; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
RALEIGH, N.C. ? Jonathan "Jack" Idema, a former Green Beret from North Carolina convicted of running a private jail in Afghanistan where he tortured terrorism suspects, has died. He was 55.
The director-general of police in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Arturo Olivares Mendiola, said Idema died of AIDS on Saturday. No one has shown up to claim his body from the medical examiner's office, Mendiola said.
Idema had moved to Mexico at some point after being released from prison in Afghanistan in 2007, when he was pardoned by President Hamid Karzai as part of a general amnesty.
A native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Idema joined the Army in 1975 and was an active duty Special Forces soldier until 1978. He eventually settled in Fayetteville and began a long series of bizarre and sometimes criminal misadventures while pursuing the national spotlight.
Idema was, among other things, a plaintiff in numerous unsuccessful lawsuits, including one against filmmaker Stephen Spielberg, who Idema claimed stole his life story for a movie. He also spent three years in jail in the 1980s after being convicted of a fraud charge.
"He had charisma," Penny Alesi, a former girlfriend, told The Fayetteville Observer. "He was funny. He was smart ? oh, my God, smart and well-read, but toxic. Truthfully, he was a sociopath."
Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Idema traveled to Afghanistan, claiming he was close to catching Osama bin Laden. His claims led to his being featured in several books and television programs.
In 2004, he returned to the country along with another former Fayetteville soldier and a freelance videographer. They ran a private jail in which terrorism suspects were tortured for information. Although convicted of the offenses, Idema denied them in a 2004 interview with The Associated Press.
"Nobody was hung upside down. Nobody was burned with cigarette butts ... nobody was beaten, nobody was tortured, nobody had boiling water poured on them," he said. "Did we interrogate people? Absolutely. Did we keep them up with sleep deprivation? Absolutely."
The two other Americans were released from prison before Idema. He claimed that his operation was conceived with the knowledge and support of American and Afghan military authorities, which they denied, saying any connection was entirely in his imagination.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? Pointing toward an evening debate, Mitt Romney jokingly urged supporters Tuesday to "just storm in" and support him even if they lacked tickets. Newt Gingrich warmed up with a particularly strong attack on Romney.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul also were sharing the stage for the second debate of the week and the last before the Florida primary next Tuesday.
Opinion polls show a close race between Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Gingrich, who was House speaker for two terms in the 1990s, and the two clashed repeatedly in Monday night's encounter in Tampa.
Gingrich's unexpected victory in the South Carolina primary last weekend upended the race to pick a Republican opponent for Democratic President Barack Obama in the fall, and Romney can ill afford another setback.
In the days since his loss, he has tried to seize the initiative, playing the aggressor in the Tampa debate and assailing Gingrich in campaign speeches and a TV commercial.
An outside group formed to support Romney has spent more than his own campaign's millions on ads, some of them designed to stop Gingrich's campaign momentum before it is too late to deny him the nomination.
Campaigning Thursday at a factory that is scheduled to close, Romney criticized Obama and avoided mentioning Gingrich.
But the evening debate was on his mind ? particularly the makeup of the audience in the hall.
"There may be some give and take. That's always entertaining," he said. "If you all could get in there we'd love to see you all there cheering."
A voice from the audience responded that there were no more tickets, and Romney replied: `No tickets? Just storm in."
Gingrich seemed far less confident as he unleashed an attack reminiscent of his rhetoric a month ago when he was being outspent heavily on television and falling sharply in the polls just before the Iowa caucuses.
He accused Romney and Restore Our Future, the independent group, of dishonest ads, and said, "This is the desperate last stand of the old order. This is the kind of gall they have, to think we're so stupid and we're so timid."
He later told reporters he decided to sharpen his criticisms after Romney released his tax returns. "Here's a guy who owns Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae stock," Gingrich said. "He owns a Goldman Sachs subsidiary, which is foreclosing on Floridians. And on that front he decides to lie about my career? There's something about the hypocrisy that should make every American angry."
Romney released his income tax returns for 2010 and an estimate for 2011 after declining to do so in South Carolina.
Gingrich, also under pressure, disclosed the consulting contract one of his firms had with Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage giant that played a role in the foreclosure crisis that hit Florida especially hard. It showed payments of $300,000 in 2006 for unspecified consulting services.
Romney has pummeled Gingrich in the days since, calling him an influence peddler and a lobbyist who was taking money from the very organization that was harming Floridians.
___
Associated Press writers Brian Bakst and Kasie Hunt contributed to this story.
Hey all, Anyone interested in an Elder Scrolls RP please Join Elder Scrolls: Agents of Talos I promice it will be worth you time! XD
Thank You!
~SkunkishBlue! this is the first day of my life I?m glad I didn?t die before I met you But now I don?t care I could go anywhere with you And I?d probably be happy
The northern lights show was sparked by an intense solar flare that erupted from the sun, unleashing a wave of charged particles and triggering the strongest solar radiation storm since 2005.
A dazzling display of auroras lit up the far northern skies Tuesday night (Jan. 24) in a supercharged light show captured on camera by skywatchers around the world.
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"I was screaming from excitement like a small kid at Christmas," said skywatcher Jens Buchmann, who watched the northern lights dance across the sky from Kiruna, Sweden.
The northern lights show was sparked by an intense solar flare that erupted from the sun late Sunday (Jan. 22). The flare unleashed a wave of charged particles, triggering the?strongest solar radiation storm since 2005, NASA scientists said, adding that some minor satellite interference was possible.
Buchmann and a friend booked a last-minute flight from Stockholm to Kiruna after hearing about the solar storm. They braved freezing temperatures of about minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 30 degrees Celsius) in order to see the aurora display, moving inside only to thaw off before heading out again. Their photos show wispy green ribbons of energy rippling across the sky over a snow-covered landscape. [See video and photos of the solar storm's northern lights]
"After the main show was over I just continued lying in the snow for nearly two hours and watched the fainter, but fast-pulsating auroras that were everywhere," Buchmann told SPACE.com in an email. "All faint stars just lost their meaning behind these auroras."?
The auroras from the solar flare could potentially be seen at latitudes as low as Maine or Montana, they added.
"The trip was totally worth it!" Buchmann said.
Delta Airlines officials said the commercial airline rerouted some planes from polar routes as a precaution to avoid any interference from the solar storm, according to press reports.
Buchmann and his friend were not the only skywatchers to make a special trip to see the auroras.
In Muonio, Lapland in Finland, skywatcher and photographer Antii Pietk?nen made a special snowmobile ride with companion Thomas to try to catch the display. They posted one photo to the skywatching website Spaceweather.com, which received several others from different observers.
"The show started slowly and after 15 [minutes] the landscape was green!" Pietk?nen?told Spaceweather.com. "This was the first time for Thomas to see the northern lights, and he was very happy."
Photographer Chad Blakely in Lapland, Sweden recorded an?eye-popping time-lapse video of the northern lights display, showing auroras swirling over a snowy meadow while observers alternate between snapping photos and staying warm at a campfire.
A streaming camera at the Aurora Sky Station in Sweden's Abisko National Park, an observing post for aurora hunters, beamed real-time photos of the northern light show every few minutes. The images revealed stunning hues of red and green across the northern night sky.
Auroras are created when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, causing an energy release that can be seen as lights. Because the charged solar particles are typically funneled to Earth's poles by the planet's magnetic field, the most dazzling displays occur in the far north and south. The so-called northern lights are known as the aurora borealis, while their southern counterpart is dubbed the aurora australis.
Tuesday's aurora display was sparked by a powerful solar flare on Sunday night that triggered an eruption of solar plasma, called a coronal mass ejection. The flare was?classified as an M9-class solar flare, a moderate ? but still powerful ? sun storm. This eruption flung charged particles out into space, which delivered a glancing blow to Earth.
The sun storm is only the latest solar weather to ignite dazzling auroras on Earth. A series of flares late last week made for a great weekend northern lights show for some observers, even as the sun was unleashing its latest solar tempest.
The sun is currently in an active phase of its 11-year solar cycle, which is called Solar Cycle 24. Solar activity is expected to peak in 2013.
You can follow Tariq Malik on Twitter?@tariqjmalik.?Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.
Camera+ has been a favorite, highly-rated iPhone photo app in the iTunes app store for a few years. The $1.99 app matches the competing Camera Genius in a lot of ways, with many features in common, though this latest version of Camera+ has a slicker interface and more photo enhancements. For its part, Camera Genius ($1.99, 3.5 stars) offers a bit more in shutter options and sharing targets. Camera+ features fall into two main categories, shooting and photo enhancing. How does it compare with the best iPhone camera apps around?
Shooting If you use Camera+ to replace the iPhone's default Camera app, you'll get several extra shooting options. First, a timer, common to pretty much all standalone digital cameras, lets you set up a shot and walk into the photo yourself. But you don't get all of Camera Genius's ingenious ways to trigger the shutter?using a noise, on focusing, and with a full screen shutter button. These are less of a concern now that you can shoot with the iPhone's Volume button or using its front camera.
The app also, like Camera Genius, offers a "Stabilizer," which, rather than adding actual stabilization as is done optically or digitally on digital camera, simply waits till you're holding the camera steady to snap a picture. This worked equally as well as Camera Genius's equivalent. A burst mode does a better job than Camera Genius's equivalent feature. By lowering the image resolution, I could shoot more rapid photos, though of course, the resulting images couldn't be blown up as much.
Another shooting possibility that Camera+, like Camera Genius, adds to the iPhone is the ability to specify separate focus and exposure points. It takes an interesting, if less intuitive approach than Genius: You touch the screen once on the spot you want the focus, and while holding that finger down touch another spot for exposure. After this you can drag either point around anywhere on screen. This only works with the better camera on the back of the phone; with the front camera I could only set the aperture point. But this was better than Camera Genius's, which showed separate focus and exposure points for the front camera, but in fact they didn't work separately.
A final shooting tool was the ability to set the flash always on?something not available in Camera Genius, but also something that will wear down your iPhone's battery quickly.
Enhancing After taking your shots, photos appear in a smart-looking "Lightbox"?a photo gallery that looks like a contact sheet of film photos. From here, you can touch an image to get the Edit, Share, Save, and Info buttons. The first offers Scenes, Adjust, Crop, Effects, and Borders, each with their own subchoices. "Scenes" is like the feature offered on many point-and-shoot cameras, including Clarity, Auto, Flash, BackLit, Darken, Cloudy, Shade, Fluorescent, Sunset, Night, Portrait, Beach, Scenery, Concert, Food, and Text?a healthy selection! One drawback?unlike Snapseed ($4.99, 4 stars) and Camera Genius, you can only edit photos taken in the Camera+ app itself, not existing images in the Camera roll.
But you don't get sliders to adjust the lighting the way you do in Snapseed ($4.99, 4 stars) and Camera Genius; Camera+'s Adjust tab only let you rotate and flip the image. The Cropping tool is excellent, with large easy-to-grab handles and plenty of preset aspect ratios. One problem, though, was that I couldn?t rotate a preset from portrait to landscape orientation, as I could in Camera Genius.
The FX tab is one place Camera+ shines: you get four sets of nine effects: Color, Retro, Special, and Analog. Be warned, though, that the last set is an extra-cost item, only available for preview in the base app. The Special effects include HDR, polarize, color dodge, grunge, and cross process. It's just about everything you find in Instagram (Free, 3.0 stars) and Hipstamatic ($1.99, 3.0 stars). And each effect offers an Intensity slider for further adjustment.
Sharing Once you've got your photo all dolled up the way you want it, your choices are Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter (as well as SMS and email, which you can do in the default Photo app). Camera Genius goes a bit beyond this, with Tumblr and Picasa sharing thrown in. Of course, both are a far cry from Instagram, which encourages deep delving into its own photo-centric social network based around small, usually stylized square images.
A Lot of Plusses Camera+ 2.4VS is a beautifully designed app that enhances your iPhone camera and photo enjoyment. I actually find its slick interface design one of the best, but Camera Genius offers more shutter and sharing options, more editing control, and lets you work with existing images. Camera+ has a better burst mode and lots of fun effects. But for the ultimate in photo correction and enhancement, look to our Editor's Choice, Snapseed for iPhone.
More iPhone App Reviews:
??? Adobe Photoshop Express 2.0 (for iPhone) ??? CameraBag 1.93 (for iPhone) ??? Camera+ 2.4VS (for iPhone) ??? Camera Genius 4.2 (for iPhone) ??? Lookout for iPhone ?? more
Contact: Michael Mullaney mullam@rpi.edu 518-276-6161 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University discover how the extreme thinness of graphene enables near-perfect wetting transparency
Troy, N.Y. Graphene is the thinnest material known to science. The nanomaterial is so thin, in fact, water often doesn't even know it's there.
Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University coated pieces of gold, copper, and silicon with a single layer of graphene, and then placed a drop of water on the coated surfaces. Surprisingly, the layer of graphene proved to have virtually no impact on the manner in which water spreads on the surfaces.
Results of the study were published Sunday in the journal Nature Materials. The findings could help inform a new generation of graphene-based flexible electronic devices. Additionally, the research suggests a new type of heat pipe that uses graphene-coated copper to cool computer chips.
The discovery stemmed from a cross-university collaboration led by Rensselaer Professor Nikhil Koratkar and Rice Professor Pulickel Ajayan.
"We coated several different surfaces with graphene, and then put a drop of water on them to see what would happen. What we saw was a big surprisenothing changed. The graphene was completely transparent to the water," said Koratkar, a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer. "The single layer of graphene was so thin that it did not significantly disrupt the non-bonding van der Waals forces that control the interaction of water with the solid surface. It's an exciting discovery, and is another example of the unique and extraordinary characteristics of graphene."
Results of the study are detailed in the Nature Materials paper "Wetting transparency of graphene." See the paper online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NMAT3228
Essentially an isolated layer of the graphite found commonly in our pencils or the charcoal we burn on our barbeques, graphene is single layer of carbon atoms arranged like a nanoscale chicken-wire fence. Graphene is known to have excellent mechanical properties. The material is strong and tough and because of its flexibility can evenly coat nearly any surface. Many researchers and technology leaders see graphene as an enabling material that could greatly advance the advent of flexible, paper-thin devices and displays. Used as a coating for such devices, the graphene would certainly come into contact with moisture. Understanding how graphene interacts with moisture was the impetus behind this new study.
The spreading of water on a solid surface is called wetting. Calculating wettability involves placing a drop of water on a surface, and then measuring the angle at which the droplet meets the surface. The droplet will ball up and have a high contact angle on a hydrophobic surface. Inversely, the droplet will spread out and have a low contact angle on a hydrophilic surface.
The contact angle of gold is about 77 degrees. Koratkar and Ajayan found that after coating a gold surface with a single layer of graphene, the contact angle became about 78 degrees. Similarly, the contact angle of silicon rose from roughly 32 degrees to roughly 33 degrees, and copper increased from around 85 degrees to around 86 degrees, after adding a layer of graphene.
These results surprised the researchers. Graphene is impermeable, as the tiny spaces between its linked carbon atoms are too small for water, or a single proton, or anything else to fit through. Because of this, one would expect that water would not act as if it were on gold, silicon, or copper, since the graphene coating prevents the water from directly contacting these surfaces. But the research findings clearly show how the water is able to sense the presence of the underlying surface, and spreads on those surfaces as if the graphene were not present at all.
As the researchers increased the number of layers of graphene, however, it became less transparent to the water and the contact angles jumped significantly. After adding six layers of graphene, the water no longer saw the gold, copper, or silicon and instead behaved as if it was sitting on graphite.
The reason for this perplexing behavior is subtle. Water forms chemical or hydrogen bonds with certain surfaces, while the attraction of water to other surfaces is dictated by non-bonding interactions called van der Waals forces. These non-bonding forces are not unlike a nanoscale version of gravity, Koratkar said. Similar to how gravity dictates the interaction between the Earth and sun, van der Waals forces dictate the interaction between atoms and molecules.
In the case of gold, copper, silicon, and other materials, the van der Waals forces between the surface and water droplet determine the attraction of water to the surface and dictate how water spreads on the solid surface. In general, these forces have a range of at least several nanometers. Because of the long range, these forces are not disrupted by the presence of a single-atom-thick layer of graphene between the surface and the water. In other words, the van der Waals forces are able to "look through" ultra-thin graphene coatings, Koratkar said.
If you continue to add additional layers of graphene, however, the van der Waals forces increasingly "see" the carbon coating on top of the material instead of the underlying surface material. After stacking six layers of graphene, the separation between the graphene and the surface is sufficiently large to ensure that the van der Waals forces can now no longer sense the presence of the underlying surface and instead only see the graphene coating. On surfaces where water forms hydrogen bonds with the surface, the wetting transparency effect described above does not hold because such chemical bonds cannot form through the graphene layer.
Along with conducting physical experiments, the researchers verified their findings with molecular dynamics modeling as well as classical theoretical modeling.
"We found that van der Waals forces are not disrupted by graphene. This effect is an artifact of the extreme thinness of graphenewhich is only about 0.3 nanometers thick," Koratkar said. "Nothing can rival the thinness of graphene. Because of this, graphene is the ideal material for wetting angle transparency."
"Moreover, graphene is strong and flexible, and it does not easily crack or break apart," he said. "Additionally, it is easy to coat a surface with graphene using chemical vapor deposition, and it is relatively uncomplicated to deposit uniform and homogeneous graphene coatings over large areas. Finally, graphene is chemically inert, which means a graphene coating will not oxidize away. No single material system can provide all of the above attributes that graphene is able to offer."
A practical application of this new discovery is to coat copper surfaces used in dehumidifiers. Because of its exposure to water, copper in dehumidifier systems oxidizes, which in turn decreases its ability to transfer heat and makes the entire device less efficient. Coating the copper with graphene prevents oxidation, the researchers said, and the operation of the device is unaffected because graphene does not change the way water interacts with copper. This same concept may be applied to improve the ability of heat pipes to dissipate heat from computer chips, Koratkar said.
"It's an interesting idea. The graphene doesn't cause any significant change to the wettability of copper, and at the same time it passivates the copper surface and prevents it from oxidizing," he said.
###
Along with Koratkar and Ajayan, co-authors of the paper are Yunfeng Shi, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer; Rensselaer mechanical engineering graduate students Javad Rafiee, Abhay Thomas, and Fazel Yavari; Rensselaer physics graduate student Xi Mi; and Rice mechanical and materials engineering graduate student Hemtej Gullapalli.
This research was supported in part by the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC); the National Science Foundation (NSF); and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) graphene Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI).
For more information on Koratkar's graphene research at Rensselaer, visit:
Contact
Michael Mullaney
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY
518-276-6161
mullam@rpi.edu
www.rpi.edu/news
Visit the Rensselaer research and discovery blog: http://approach.rpi.edu
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RPInews
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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.
Contact: Michael Mullaney mullam@rpi.edu 518-276-6161 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University discover how the extreme thinness of graphene enables near-perfect wetting transparency
Troy, N.Y. Graphene is the thinnest material known to science. The nanomaterial is so thin, in fact, water often doesn't even know it's there.
Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University coated pieces of gold, copper, and silicon with a single layer of graphene, and then placed a drop of water on the coated surfaces. Surprisingly, the layer of graphene proved to have virtually no impact on the manner in which water spreads on the surfaces.
Results of the study were published Sunday in the journal Nature Materials. The findings could help inform a new generation of graphene-based flexible electronic devices. Additionally, the research suggests a new type of heat pipe that uses graphene-coated copper to cool computer chips.
The discovery stemmed from a cross-university collaboration led by Rensselaer Professor Nikhil Koratkar and Rice Professor Pulickel Ajayan.
"We coated several different surfaces with graphene, and then put a drop of water on them to see what would happen. What we saw was a big surprisenothing changed. The graphene was completely transparent to the water," said Koratkar, a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer. "The single layer of graphene was so thin that it did not significantly disrupt the non-bonding van der Waals forces that control the interaction of water with the solid surface. It's an exciting discovery, and is another example of the unique and extraordinary characteristics of graphene."
Results of the study are detailed in the Nature Materials paper "Wetting transparency of graphene." See the paper online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NMAT3228
Essentially an isolated layer of the graphite found commonly in our pencils or the charcoal we burn on our barbeques, graphene is single layer of carbon atoms arranged like a nanoscale chicken-wire fence. Graphene is known to have excellent mechanical properties. The material is strong and tough and because of its flexibility can evenly coat nearly any surface. Many researchers and technology leaders see graphene as an enabling material that could greatly advance the advent of flexible, paper-thin devices and displays. Used as a coating for such devices, the graphene would certainly come into contact with moisture. Understanding how graphene interacts with moisture was the impetus behind this new study.
The spreading of water on a solid surface is called wetting. Calculating wettability involves placing a drop of water on a surface, and then measuring the angle at which the droplet meets the surface. The droplet will ball up and have a high contact angle on a hydrophobic surface. Inversely, the droplet will spread out and have a low contact angle on a hydrophilic surface.
The contact angle of gold is about 77 degrees. Koratkar and Ajayan found that after coating a gold surface with a single layer of graphene, the contact angle became about 78 degrees. Similarly, the contact angle of silicon rose from roughly 32 degrees to roughly 33 degrees, and copper increased from around 85 degrees to around 86 degrees, after adding a layer of graphene.
These results surprised the researchers. Graphene is impermeable, as the tiny spaces between its linked carbon atoms are too small for water, or a single proton, or anything else to fit through. Because of this, one would expect that water would not act as if it were on gold, silicon, or copper, since the graphene coating prevents the water from directly contacting these surfaces. But the research findings clearly show how the water is able to sense the presence of the underlying surface, and spreads on those surfaces as if the graphene were not present at all.
As the researchers increased the number of layers of graphene, however, it became less transparent to the water and the contact angles jumped significantly. After adding six layers of graphene, the water no longer saw the gold, copper, or silicon and instead behaved as if it was sitting on graphite.
The reason for this perplexing behavior is subtle. Water forms chemical or hydrogen bonds with certain surfaces, while the attraction of water to other surfaces is dictated by non-bonding interactions called van der Waals forces. These non-bonding forces are not unlike a nanoscale version of gravity, Koratkar said. Similar to how gravity dictates the interaction between the Earth and sun, van der Waals forces dictate the interaction between atoms and molecules.
In the case of gold, copper, silicon, and other materials, the van der Waals forces between the surface and water droplet determine the attraction of water to the surface and dictate how water spreads on the solid surface. In general, these forces have a range of at least several nanometers. Because of the long range, these forces are not disrupted by the presence of a single-atom-thick layer of graphene between the surface and the water. In other words, the van der Waals forces are able to "look through" ultra-thin graphene coatings, Koratkar said.
If you continue to add additional layers of graphene, however, the van der Waals forces increasingly "see" the carbon coating on top of the material instead of the underlying surface material. After stacking six layers of graphene, the separation between the graphene and the surface is sufficiently large to ensure that the van der Waals forces can now no longer sense the presence of the underlying surface and instead only see the graphene coating. On surfaces where water forms hydrogen bonds with the surface, the wetting transparency effect described above does not hold because such chemical bonds cannot form through the graphene layer.
Along with conducting physical experiments, the researchers verified their findings with molecular dynamics modeling as well as classical theoretical modeling.
"We found that van der Waals forces are not disrupted by graphene. This effect is an artifact of the extreme thinness of graphenewhich is only about 0.3 nanometers thick," Koratkar said. "Nothing can rival the thinness of graphene. Because of this, graphene is the ideal material for wetting angle transparency."
"Moreover, graphene is strong and flexible, and it does not easily crack or break apart," he said. "Additionally, it is easy to coat a surface with graphene using chemical vapor deposition, and it is relatively uncomplicated to deposit uniform and homogeneous graphene coatings over large areas. Finally, graphene is chemically inert, which means a graphene coating will not oxidize away. No single material system can provide all of the above attributes that graphene is able to offer."
A practical application of this new discovery is to coat copper surfaces used in dehumidifiers. Because of its exposure to water, copper in dehumidifier systems oxidizes, which in turn decreases its ability to transfer heat and makes the entire device less efficient. Coating the copper with graphene prevents oxidation, the researchers said, and the operation of the device is unaffected because graphene does not change the way water interacts with copper. This same concept may be applied to improve the ability of heat pipes to dissipate heat from computer chips, Koratkar said.
"It's an interesting idea. The graphene doesn't cause any significant change to the wettability of copper, and at the same time it passivates the copper surface and prevents it from oxidizing," he said.
###
Along with Koratkar and Ajayan, co-authors of the paper are Yunfeng Shi, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer; Rensselaer mechanical engineering graduate students Javad Rafiee, Abhay Thomas, and Fazel Yavari; Rensselaer physics graduate student Xi Mi; and Rice mechanical and materials engineering graduate student Hemtej Gullapalli.
This research was supported in part by the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC); the National Science Foundation (NSF); and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) graphene Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI).
For more information on Koratkar's graphene research at Rensselaer, visit:
Contact
Michael Mullaney
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY
518-276-6161
mullam@rpi.edu
www.rpi.edu/news
Visit the Rensselaer research and discovery blog: http://approach.rpi.edu
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RPInews
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took a giant step Saturday toward becoming the Republican alternative to Mitt Romney that tea partyers and social conservatives have been seeking for months.
Gingrich's come-from-behind win in the South Carolina primary snatches away the quick and easy way for the GOP to pick its presidential nominee. Only days ago, it seemed that party activists would settle for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who stirs few passions but who has the looks, money, experience and discipline to make a solid case against President Barack Obama in November.
Now, the party cannot avoid a wrenching and perhaps lengthy nomination fight. It can cast its lot with the establishment's cool embodiment of competence, forged in corporate board rooms, or with the anger-venting champion of in-your-face conservatism and grandiose ideas.
It's soul-searching time for Republicans. It might not be pretty.
Romney still might win the nomination, of course. He carries several advantages into Florida and beyond, and party insiders still consider him the front-runner. And it's conceivable that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum can battle back and take the anti-Romney title from Gingrich. After all, he bested Gingrich in Iowa and New Hampshire.
But Santorum's third-place finish in South Carolina will doubtlessly prompt some conservative leaders to urge him to step aside and back Gingrich, as Texas Gov. Rick Perry did Thursday.
Even if Santorum revives his campaign in Florida, the fundamental intraparty debate will be the same. Voters associate Gingrich and Santorum with social issues such as abortion, and with unyielding fealty to conservative ideals. That's in contrast to Romney's flexibility and past embraces of legalized abortion, gun control and gay rights.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul will stay in the race, but he factors only tangentially in such discussions. His fans are largely a mix of libertarians, isolationists and pacifists, many of whom will abandon the GOP nominee if it's not the Texas congressman.
Strategically, Romney maintains a big edge in money and organization. He faces a dilemma, however. Gingrich resuscitated his struggling campaign in this state with combative debate performances featuring near-contempt for Obama and the news media. Romney likely would love to choke off that supply by drastically reducing the number of debates.
Ducking Gingrich after losing to him in South Carolina would suggest panic or fear, however, and all four candidates are scheduled to debate Monday in Florida.
Gingrich is benefitting "from the inherent animosity and mistrust GOP primary voters have with mainstream media," said Republican strategist Terry Holt. "Their first instinct is to rebel, and that's what they did. The question is whether he can sustain that anger and build it into a legitimate challenge to the frontrunner."
Gingrich tried to stoke that anger with his victory speech Saturday. He referred repeatedly to "elites" in Washington and New York who don't understand or care about working-class Americans. He decried "the growing anti-religious bigotry of our elites."
Gingrich made $3.1 million in 2010, but he nonetheless is tapping middle-class resentment in ways reminiscent of Sarah Palin. "I articulate the deepest-held values in the American people," he said.
Despite their contrasting personalities, Romney and Gingrich don't differ greatly on policy. Both call for lower taxes, less regulation, ending "Obamacare" and a robust military. They promise to cut spending and increase jobs without offering many details of how they would do so in a divided nation and Congress.
Romney vs. Gingrich in some ways mirrors the Democrats' 2008 choice between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, which turned mostly on questions of personality, style and biography. The Republicans' choice, however, will plumb deeper veins of emotion and ideology.
Romney appeals to Republicans who want a competent, even-tempered nominee with a track record in business and finance. His backers are willing to overlook his past support of abortion rights and his seeming tone-deafness on money matters ? even if it feeds caricatures of him as a tycoon.
Until Saturday, GOP polls had shown Romney easily ahead on the question of who would be Obama's toughest challenger. South Carolina exit polls, however, showed Gingrich with an edge among those who said it was most important that their candidate be able to beat Obama.
Romney will try to regain that advantage in Florida, which votes Jan. 31. It's not clear what strategies will work. In his concession speech Saturday, Romney said Obama has attacked free enterprise and "we cannot defeat that president with a candidate who has joined that very assault on free enterprise."
He was alluding to Gingrich's past criticisms of Romney's record running Bain Capital, a private equity firm. But Gingrich and a friendly super PAC dropped their references to Bain days ago.
Romney hinted at another approach. "Our party can't be led to victory by someone who also has never run a business and never led a state," he said. Gingrich's background didn't seem to bother South Carolina's Republicans, however.
What they've done is steer the primary contest into more emotional, and possibly dangerous, waters. They rewarded a candidate who gave voice to their resentment of the news media, federal bureaucrats and what they see as undeserving welfare recipients and a socialist-leaning president.
Two South Carolina debate moments crystalized Gingrich's rise. Both involved an open disdain for journalists, whether feigned or not.
In Myrtle Beach on Monday, the Martin Luther King holiday, Gingrich acidly told Fox News' Juan Williams that he would teach poor people how to find jobs, and that Obama has put more Americans on food stamps than any other president. Gingrich repeated the food stamp lines in his speech Saturday night.
At Thursday's debate in North Charleston, Gingrich excoriated CNN's John King for raising an ex-wife's claim that Gingrich once asked for an "open marriage," to accommodate his mistress.
Conservatives inside the hall and out seemed to love the tongue-lashing. The details of Marianne Gingrich's allegations, which Gingrich denied almost as an afterthought, seemed to matter much less to voters. That's remarkable in a state whose GOP electorate is nearly two-thirds evangelicals.
Mike McKenna, a Republican strategist, said Gingrich seems to be drawing many people, including tea party activists, who are fairly new to politics. They don't know or care much about Gingrich's legacy of leading the 1994 Republican revolution in Congress, or his subsequently lucrative career as a writer and speaker that sometimes veered from conservative orthodoxies, McKenna said.
Instead, he thinks these voters are reacting emotionally to someone they hope "can take the fight to the president, to the media, to whomever. They are not particularly concerned about what kind of president he will be."
Therein, of course, is the potential peril of a Gingrich candidacy. Along with his verbal fireworks he carries baggage that might give Democrats more to exploit than do Romney's policy flip-flops and record at Bain.
Gingrich's impressive South Carolina victory will force Republicans in Florida and other states to make a hot-or-cool choice.
They can pick the data-driven Harvard MBA grad who smoothed out the Winter Olympics and now runs a by-the-numbers nationwide campaign. Or they can pick the pugnacious firebrand who didn't manage to get his name on the Virginia primary ballot but who wows an angry electorate that can't wait to lay into Obama in debates next fall.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE: Charles Babington covers politics for The Associated Press.
Ongoing construction has made parts of Lead and Coal Avenues inaccessible since November 2010, forcing some businesses in the affected area to close their doors and leaving others struggling to stay afloat.
Nan Morningstar, owner of Free Radicals located on the corner of Yale Boulevard and Lead Avenue, said her business has dropped significantly since construction began, while a clothing store across the street, Steppn-2-Style, was forced to close permanently.
?We talk to some of the neighbors and you?ll note that half of the businesses are gone,? she said. ?It sucks.?
The construction is part of the $26 million Lead and Coal Improvement Project, which aims to update storm drain infrastructure, landscaping and lighting along Lead and Coal Avenues and reduce both avenues from three lanes to two lanes each.
The work is projected to be finished this spring, but local business owners said customers still can?t drive up to many of the businesses located on Lead Avenue, bringing in-store traffic nearly to a halt.
Ramzi Hijazi, owner and manager of Tri-H Convenience Store and gas station across Yale Boulevard, said the construction has been hurting his business since it began. While Tri-H is still accessible by car, surrounding road closures make the convenience store difficult to get to.
He said business has dropped between 50 and 60 percent, and he has been forced to fire employees.
?I?ve recently had to work in the store myself in order to compensate because I can?t bring in any new employees,? he said. Luis Rodriguez, an employee at Casa De Pi?atas, located on Lead Avenue near Yale Boulevard, said he?s never seen such a decline in business since the store opened 16 years ago.
?Business is down 60 to 70 percent from last year,? he said. ?It?s been really frustrating dealing with the construction; we?ve already been broken into and robbed because the city took down all the lights in front of the store.?
An anti-donation clause in the New Mexico state constitution prevents the city from compensating businesses affected by the construction.
?Neither the state nor any county, school district or municipality ? shall directly or indirectly lend or pledge its credit or make any donation to or in aid of any person, association of public or private corporation,? the clause states.
Mark Motsko, spokesman for the city?s Department of Municipal Development, said the city has made an effort to work with the affected businesses by sending notices in advance concerning road closures.
?We?ve been doing outreach even before the construction started to let the business owners know that during construction we would work with them,? he said. ?It hasn?t been for a lack of effort that we?ve maintained access to all the businesses in the corridor.?
Motsko said the city initiated the project in response to complaints concerning the high volume of traffic on Lead and Coal Avenues from those living in the surrounding neighborhoods. He said that before construction began, both Lead and Coal Avenues had three lanes, which carried up to 27,000 vehicles per day through highly populated residential areas.
He said the city sought input from a task force of neighborhood representatives before construction began.
?What we?re doing is following up with the neighbors? requests to make it feel like a neighborhood-friendly atmosphere,? Motsko said.
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Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
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