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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Eric Pang stamps Eric Solagna in 2013 European Mixed Team ...

Eric Pang stamps Eric Solagna in 2013 European Mixed Team Championships ? Badminton News

Men?s Singles shuttler Eric Pang employed all of his brilliance on the court and stamped Eric Solagna in a group match of European Mixed Team Championships on February 12, 2013.

This encounter was a part of match between Netherlands and Luxembourg and it lasted for just two games.

The spirited Dutch campaigner did not give his rival even a single chance to proceed and cast him out by registering an impressive result of 21-10 and 21-12 in just 19 minutes.

Eric Pang laid foundation of his supremacy immediately in the opening game and sealed a splendid straight-set victory.

Meanwhile, Eric Solagna failed to employ an effective counterattack strategy and surrendered tamely in both segments of the showdown.

In first set of the match, both contenders challenged each other in the establishing rallies and brought thrill into contest.

However, the story was entirely different in next couple of rallies as Eric Pang bagged many valuable points in a row.

He did not allow his competitor to proceed on the points table and left him far behind with a mountainous figure before interval.

After the mid-game break, Eric showed consistency in his performance and kept his challenger under control.

The Dutch player prevailed in few consecutive rallies and doubled the pressure for opposing shuttler.

Though, the Men?s Singles expert of Luxembourg tried hard to counterbalance the situation but he failed to hit the mark. He had to surrender when scoreboard flashed a final margin of 21-10.

The second set of match was also a sheer disappointment for Eric Solagna as he could not end his bad patch and crashed out in a disgraceful manner.

On the other hand, Eric Pang relished full benefits of his first set win and transformed his 1-0 lead into a straight-set victory.

Initially, he was bit sluggish but then couple of productive rallies provided him the required momentum.

He never looked back after getting on right track. At first, he established an unassailable lead with a convincing total of 11 and then swept the table with an overwhelming score of 21-12.

With this win, he fetched a valuable match point for Netherlands and they registered their presence in this championship.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Eric-Pang-stamps-Eric-Solagna-in-2013-European-Mixed-Team-Championships-Badminton-News-a213474

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Marathon record could go in London, says Kipsang

By Drazen Jorgic

ITEN, Kenya | Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:20pm GMT

ITEN, Kenya (Reuters) - Wilson Kipsang, the 2012 London Marathon winner and Olympic bronze medallist, believes the men's world record could fall when one of the strongest fields ever assembled line up in London in April.

The Kenyan will take on Uganda's surprise Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich, world champion Abel Kirui, fellow Kenyan and Berlin marathon winner Geoffrey Mutai and three-time London winner Martin Lel.

"It's a very strong field with about 10 guys who have run sub 2:05:15. So if they can run freely in a way where there is no fearing one another, I think the record is very possible," Kipsang told Reuters in Iten, a small town 2,400 metres above sea level in western Kenya's Rift Valley.

Kipsang missed the London course record by four seconds when winning last year's race and his marathon best of 2:03.42, set in 2011 in Frankfurt, is four seconds short of Patrick Makau's world record.

"I came very close to breaking the world record. When I see Patrick I always joke with him: 'was it three or four seconds?'," Kipsang laughs, folding his thumb to show four and then three fingers.

Kipsang raced Makau over 42.1km for the first and only time in last year's London marathon but the world record holder limped out after 16km.

The duo will renew their rivalry around the streets of the capital with Kipsang citing the 27-year-old as one of the two biggest obstacles to the defence of his London title.

However, he sees close friend Mutai as the biggest threat.

The 32-year-old clocked the fastest marathon ever in a time of 2:03:02 in Boston in 2011, but the record was not ratified because of the brisk tailwind and because Boston is considered too much of a downhill course.

"We have not met in marathon before but Geoffrey's speed, especially from 30km to 35km, is really good," Kipsang said, minutes after having lunch with Mutai in the garden of his newly opened hotel Keellu, which stands for 'goodluck' in Swahili.

"I don't know how this year will turn out but I think those two are the biggest rivals."

Among the Ethiopians bidding to ensure their east African neighbours do not have it all their own way will be Tsegaye Kebede, who won the 2012 Chicago marathon and the 2010 London race, Ayele Abshero, who won last year's Dubai marathon in the sixth-fastest time ever (2:04.23) and Feyisa Lilesa, another sub-2:05 man.

"A lot will depend on how you feel on the day of the competition," said Kipsang, while pointing out there is little separating the top runners.

On first sight, Kipsang's polished black shoes, smart trousers and neatly pressed shirt would suggest he's just another hotel manager. But the respect and warm embraces afforded to him by the guests highlight his high standing in Iten.

The 30-year-old said this position as the role model to youngsters in the area was now fuelling his ambition - both on track and in his business dealings.

"I enjoy being a role model. I saw putting up a hotel like Keellu as one way of giving back to the community. Yes, it is an investment but it also employs lots of people and helps those who grow food in the area," Kipsang said.

(Editing by Justin Palmer)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/UKSportsNews/~3/9vL6rq5jbSs/uk-athletics-kipsang-interview-idUKBRE91C17V20130213

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Grammy Oddsmakers Nailed It With Fun., Mumford

Predictions about Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist were dead-on.
By Gil Kaufman

Fun. onstage at the 2013 Grammys
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1701796/grammys-fun-mumford.jhtml

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Tea party: ?What America needs is not Robin Hood but Adam Smith?

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul accused both Republicans and Democrats of being "guilty of spending too much" in his tea party response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address Tuesday night.

"It is often said that there is not enough bipartisanship up here. That is not true. In fact, there is plenty of bipartisanship," Paul said in a speech for Tea Party Express that streamed live on the group's website shortly after Obama's speech. "Both parties have been guilty of spending too much, of protecting their sacred cows, of backroom deals in which everyone up here wins, but every taxpayer loses."

Despite being an elected member of the Senate, the junior senator from Kentucky at times spoke as though he were an outsider?even using the word "they" when referring to other members of the institution to which he belongs.

Paul delivered his remarks following the official Republican response, given by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio from the capitol. Paul joined Rubio in accusing the president of working to undermine the "free market," but Paul's remarks also included a call for an amendment to the Constitution that would require the federal government to balance its budget every year, a tea party rallying cry.

"What the president fails to grasp is that the American system that rewards hard work is what made America so prosperous," Paul said. "What America needs is not Robin Hood but Adam Smith."

Paul advocated for term limits for members of Congress as punishment for not passing a budget and reining in spending.

"If Congress refuses to obey its own rules, if Congress refuses to pass a budget, if Congress refuses to read the bills, then I say: Sweep the place clean. Limit their terms and send them home," Paul said. "I have seen the inner sanctum of Congress and believe me there is no monopoly on knowledge there. If they will not listen, if they will not balance the budget, then we should limit their terms."

The speech gave Paul, who has said he's thinking about running for president someday, an opportunity to brand himself as an alternative to the party establishment. Because being an outsider, of course, is what being a tea party lawmaker is all about.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/rand-paul-state-union-response-002252909--politics.html

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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Israeli airstrike on Syria shows strategic strength

Since Israel?s brazen airstrike on Syrian territory Jan. 30, Israel?s enemies have yet to retaliate. Syria, Iran, and their proxy, Hezbollah, together comprise the region?s heavily-armed fighting force, and yet remain unwilling to make good on pledges to respond with aggression to any Israeli force.

Even Syria?s enemies have begun to take notice of the nonresponse, exploiting the Assad regime?s inaction for their own propaganda purposes. In Turkey, where relations with Israel are seriously strained, President Ahmet Davutoglu asked: ?Why didn?t [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad even throw a pebble when Israeli jets were flying over his palace and playing with the dignity of his country??

OPINION: Four things Syria must do after Bashar al-Assad

Depending on whom you ask, Israel either hit sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles in Syria that were en-route to the Lebanese border and Hezbollah (this is the US and Israeli explanation), or it hit a symbolic military research center northwest of Damascus (the Syrian version). But at this point, speculation over which targets were hit, where they were located, or what exact purpose they served is irrelevant.

What is relevant, is that Israel clearly retains the strategic high ground against its enemies, with full knowledge that Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah are bogged down in the swamp of civil war, economic sanctions, or diplomatic isolation.

The Israeli strike against Syria has to be looked at in the context of last November?s conflict between Hamas and Israel ? when Hamas fired some 1,500 rockets from the Gaza Strip, including longer range Iranian-made missiles that reached Tel Aviv for the first time. Israel successfully protected itself with its anti-missile system, called Iron Dome. The Syria strike shows that the last round in the Gaza Strip emboldened the Israeli military to go after Hezbollah, a far more fearsome enemy.

Knowing that its Iron Dome system was battle tested, Israel was able to confidently deploy the anti-missile system near Israel?s strategic industrial centers in Haifa prior to the attacks on Syria. Tanks and troops had been moved to the border with Syria, backed by a political establishment that had spent months coordinating with regional and international allies through back channels to gain support for such action.

The Israeli home front meanwhile, had undergone months of emergency drills, siren tests, and disaster planning, all based on pitfalls from the 2006 Second Lebanon War and the 2008-9 Gaza conflict.

THE MONITOR'S VIEW: Obama's hidden nonplan to arm rebels in Syria

Not only does Israel know its own strength, it is well aware of its enemies? weakness. For Hezbollah, times have changed since its glory days in the 2006 Lebanon war. Hezbollah?s leadership knows that a broad conflict with Israel would exact damage on an exponentially higher level than seven years ago, affecting all of Lebanon. Only this time, an increasingly sanctions-hit Iran would be unable to rebuild Lebanon?s infrastructure. And the embattled Assad regime is likely too busy to facilitate the massive smuggling effort that would be needed to restore Hezbollah?s vast arsenal of rockets and missiles.

Both Hezbollah and Israel understand that the Shiite group?s arsenal is its last card in maintaining its future political strength in Lebanon after the eventual fall of its dictatorial uncle, President Assad, next door. That card should not be played unless absolutely necessary.

The Assad regime meanwhile, knows full well that entering into a conflict with Israel would expedite its ousting. For years, the Israeli Air Force has trained for a conflict with Syria, particularly for a lightning campaign to destroy Assad?s air force, long-range artillery, and chemical weapons if needed. Coincidentally, these weapons and units are all that stand in the way of a Syrian rebel military victory against an Army whose ground troops face increasingly severe manpower shortages.

On Feb. 5, Israel bolstered its anti-missile capabilities near the Lebanese border, adding another Iron Dome and Patriot missile battery to its array defenses. Israeli aircraft are patrolling the skies over the Syrian-Lebanese border, scanning and hunting for any signs that Hezbollah may once again be attempting to transfer game-changing weapons into its arsenals. There should be little doubt in anyone?s mind that those pilots are primed to strike Israel?s enemies again and again.

OPINION: Israel's new government could bring shift in policy on Arab Spring and Palestinians

Contrary to their statements, Iran and Syria do not have the ability to respond to Israel?s efforts to curb weapons smuggling to Hezbollah. Apart from dispatching their operatives to bomb a synagogue in Eastern Europe or target an Israeli diplomat in West Africa, there is little Hezbollah, the Assad regime, or Iran can do to retaliate against Israel for its very public power play.

Daniel Nisman is the Middle East and North Africa section intelligence manager at Max Security Solutions, a geopolitical risk consulting firm based in Tel Aviv. You can follow him on Twitter @dannynis.

ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR: Lack of US, Western intervention in Syria helps jihadists

Reproductive workings of a harvester ant dynasty

Feb. 12, 2013 ? Ants are just about everywhere you look, and yet it's largely unknown how they manage to be so ubiquitous. Scientists have understood the carnal mechanism of ant reproduction, but until now have known little of how successful the daughters of a colony are when they attempt to found new colonies.

For the first time, Stanford biologists have been able to identify specific parent ants and their own children in wild ant colonies, making it possible to study reproduction trends.

And in a remarkable display of longevity, an original queen ant was found to be producing new ants several decades after mating, sending out daughter queens throughout her 20- to 30-year lifespan.

"Most animals produce offspring for a while, and then they enter a life stage where they don't," Gordon said. "These queen ants are mating once, storing that sperm in a special sac, keeping it alive and using it to fertilize eggs for another 25 years."

From an ecological viewpoint, an ant colony is much like a tree putting out seeds, with the potential to create new trees. An ant queen produces genetically identical worker ants that live in the same colony, and also produces sons, and daughter queens. The daughter queens, after mating, establish new colonies of their own.

Deborah Gordon, a biology professor at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, has been studying a particular population of harvester ant colonies in southeastern Arizona for 28 years, meticulously recording when a new colony rises or an older one falls.

Gordon's group took the DNA fingerprint of each colony by analyzing a section of microsatellite, or "junk," DNA to identify which colonies were related. By pairing the genetic analysis with the long-term observations, Gordon was able to determine the original queen and colony, and the order in which the daughter queens and subsequent generations established new colonies.

The researchers also found that only about 25 percent of the colonies reproduce at all, and many of the daughter queens are not successful. The entire population -- the study group consisted of about 300 colonies -- relies on just a few queens to make most of the offspring year after year.

"We don't know whether all harvester ant populations always behave this way, or whether these trends hold true for all 11,000 ant species, because nobody has identified colony offspring before," Gordon said. "This gives us new insight on how ant populations change over time."

In general, ants play an important role in agriculture around the world, with some helping to disperse seeds while others eat herbivorous insects. Understanding how populations of ant colonies reproduce and expand, and the rate at which they do so, could be useful in managing invasive ant species, predicting crop yields and understanding the ecology of tropical forests.

"If you're trying to understand how a population grows -- say, you are trying to keep a population of lions going -- the first thing you need to know is how many lionesses you have, and how many cubs they have and can support per year," Gordon said. "For ecological purposes, it's very useful to be able to say how ant populations will grow. This is the first step toward understanding how to predict numbers of ant colonies."

The study was published Jan. 31 in the online version of the Journal of Animal Ecology.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University. The original article was written by Bjorn Carey.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Krista K. Ingram, Anna Pilko, Jeffrey Heer, Deborah M. Gordon. Colony life history and lifetime reproductive success of red harvester ant colonies. Journal of Animal Ecology, 2013; DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12036

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/CRNn5M-d0nM/130212154619.htm

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Locals believe bobcat trappers are crossing the line in Joshua Tree

JOSHUA TREE ? Annica Kreuter's backyard on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park has been a perfect place to chronicle the adventures of eight bobcats.

Over the last decade she has watched a young bobcat chased up a tree by a coyote; an alpha male surveying the landscape from the hood of her car; a kitten sauntering into the yard as she gardens; a matron sniffing the back of Kreuter's neck as she napped on a hammock.

Lately, seven of the eight have vanished. "At sunrise, I hear the one that is still here crying for his family," Kreuter said.

She and others in this high desert community of about 8,000 say bobcats have been disappearing lately, killed for the value of their pelts by trappers who often trespass on private property. The trappers come armed with wire cages, squirt bottles of potent scent and bobcat lures: battery-powered vibrating pet toys festooned with feathers to resemble dying birds.

Hunting and trapping bobcats is legal during hunting season outside of the national park boundaries. But to the locals, that makes little difference. "The very idea of trapping in a place where bobcats are so well-known they have nicknames ? Big Gray, Leroy, Tomboy ? is disturbing and heartbreaking," Kreuter said.

As one of the top predators of a 720,000-acre park visited by 1.4 million people each year, the bobcat's presence ? or absence ? has a cascade of consequences, making it a governing force of the ecosystem and the local ecotourism economy. An adult bobcat stands about 15 inches high and can cover 25 to 30 miles of territory in a day. Using razor-sharp claws and powerful legs, it preys on rabbits and makes a significant contribution to rodent control.

Critics believe the trappers are after bobcats that routinely crisscross the invisible park boundary lines.

"This is really, really bad," said astronomer and conservationist Tom O'Key, who was the first to discover a trap. "These guys are carpetbaggers coming onto private land to slaughter bobcats with no regard for a tight-knit community that cares deeply about the national park and its wildlife."

O'Key alerted the community after finding a trap chained to a jojoba bush and camouflaged with broken branches and leaves on his property north of the park. He notified the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and the Hi-Desert Star newspaper.

Bobcats are being targeted for the value of their pelts in top-dollar markets such as China, Russia and Greece. A premium pelt of heavily spotted white belly fur can earn a trapper more than $600, according to Nathan Brock, who skinned 10 bobcats that he captured in the Joshua Tree area during the hunting season that ended Jan. 31.

Brock, 38, an active-duty Marine stationed at nearby Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base, acknowledged that one of his traps was set on private property and not on federal Bureau of Land Management grounds, where trapping is legal. The region is a patchwork of private property and BLM land.

"I feel horrible about that," Brock said. "It's my fault for not making sure."

The manufacturer of Brock's trap, Mercer Lawing of Barstow, said critics miss the point. "We love those animals more than the people who are complaining about us trapping them do," Lawing said. "Nathan and I harvest adult male cats and turn loose adult females and kittens."

The national park has taken a neutral position on the issue, given that its jurisdictional reach extends only as far as its boundaries.

However, park biologist Michael Vamstad said, "Residents have every right to be upset. The fact that there is no limit on bobcats that can be legally taken during hunting season doesn't jibe along the edges of a national park. It's a relic regulation."

Conservationists are calling for a "no-trapping" buffer zone in the area because bobcats travel along a web of interconnected wildlife corridors stretching from the national park to the Marine base about 10 miles to the north.

"The law has to change if it's legal for a handful of people to line the boundary of a national park with traps to catch bobcats, then send their pelts to China for profit," said Brendan Cummings, public lands director for the Center for Biological Diversity. "We are not going to let this happen again."

Equally pointed words came from Nancy Karl, executive director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving safe passage for wildlife between protected areas. "We are watching and paying close attention ? and we are going to change things," Karl said. "Those trappers would be best advised to move it."

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/TJj_r8sopAE/la-me-bobcats-20130211,0,297658.story

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