Kerry voices conditional U.S. support for U.N. arms treaty

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry voiced his support on Friday for an international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global arms trade, but restated Washington's "red line," affirming that it will not accept limits on U.S. domestic gun ownership.

The U.N. General Assembly voted in December to hold a final round of negotiations March 18-28 on what could become the first international treaty to regulate international weapons transfers after a drafting conference in July 2012 collapsed because the United States and others wanted more time.

Arms control campaigners say one person every minute dies worldwide as a result of armed violence and a convention is needed to prevent the unregulated and illicit flow of weapons into conflict zones fueling wars and atrocities.

"The United States is steadfast in its commitment to achieve a strong and effective Arms Trade Treaty that helps address the adverse effects of the international arms trade on global peace and stability," Kerry said in a statement.

"An effective treaty that recognizes that each nation must tailor and enforce its own national export and import control mechanisms can generate the participation of a broad majority of states, help stem the illicit flow of conventional arms across international borders and have important humanitarian benefits."

But he repeated that the United States - the world's No. 1 arms manufacturer - would not accept any treaty that imposed new limits on U.S. citizens' right to bear arms, a sensitive political issue in the United States.

"We will not support any treaty that would be inconsistent with U.S. law and the rights of American citizens under our Constitution, including the Second Amendment," he said.

"International conventional arms trade is, and will continue to be, a legitimate commercial activity," he said, adding that countries should work to prevent arms from reaching those who commit "the world's worst crimes, including those involving terrorism and serious human rights violations."

The point of the treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of any type of conventional weapon - light and heavy. It would also set binding requirements for nations to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure the munitions are not used in human rights abuses, do not violate embargoes and are not illegally diverted.

DISPUTE OVER AMMUNITION

The leading U.S. pro-gun group, the National Rifle Association, has vowed to fight the treaty, dismissing suggestions that a December U.S. school shooting massacre in Connecticut bolstered the case for such a pact.

If a treaty is approved, it will require ratification by countries' legislatures before it goes into effect. The NRA has warned the arms trade treaty would undermine the right to bear arms and says it will fight hard to prevent ratification if the Obama administration supports the treaty.

Backers of the treaty accuse the NRA of deceiving the U.S. public about the pact, which they say will have no impact on domestic gun ownership and would apply only to exports.

Some 150 countries will participate in the negotiations that begin on Monday at U.N. headquarters.

Human rights groups and other advocates of the treaty welcomed Kerry's statement.

"While the U.S. government reaffirms its red line on the Second Amendment, it did not issue any new red lines or demands on the international community," said Frank Jannuzi of Amnesty International. "We hope that this means that they will lead the next round (of negotiations) to consensus."

Daryl Kimball, head of the Arms Control Association, said Kerry's remarks were a "long overdue positive statement that makes it clear the administration is dedicated to pursuing a robust treaty."

He added that it was positive Kerry did not raise the issue of ammunition, something the United States has previously demanded be excluded from the treaty. Supporters of a tough treaty in Europe and elsewhere insist on including it.

Last month deputy U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Washington would continue to oppose the inclusion of ammunition in the draft treaty.

"Ammunition is a fundamentally different commodity than conventional arms," Hayden said. "It is fungible, consumable, reloadable, and cannot be marked in any practical way that would permit it to be tracked or traced."

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-voices-conditional-support-u-n-arms-trade-210552369.html

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Iditarod dog dies after being buried in snow

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A dog left behind at a checkpoint along the route of the Iditarod sled-dog race in Alaska was smothered by windblown snow, in the event's first canine death since 2009, officials said on Saturday.

The fatality broke a safety streak that race supporters had cited as evidence of good care for the animals at the center of the contest.

The dog, a 5-year-old male named Dorado in the team of musher Paige Drobny, was found dead on Friday at Unalakleet, an Inupiat Eskimo village and race checkpoint on the Bering Sea coast.

A necropsy, which is the animal equivalent of an autopsy, determined the cause of death was asphyxiation from being buried in snow in severe wind conditions, race marshal Mark Nordman said.

Iditarod mushers begin the race with up to 16 dogs, but they typically leave some at checkpoints as their animals tire. Most mushers finish with a team of about 10 dogs.

Dorado had been left at Unalakleet and was among a group of dogs set to be flown back to Anchorage, Nordman said. The animals were left outside, with their condition checked at 3 a.m. on Friday, he said.

"Between that time and daylight, drifting snow covered several dogs and Dorado was found to be deceased," Nordman said.

Dorado had been dropped off at Unalakleet because of sore muscles, said Iditarod spokeswoman Erin McLarnon.

Most dogs in the Iditarod are huskies or husky mixes.

Animal rights activists have criticized the Iditarod, saying competitors push the dogs too hard in racing and training and subject the animals to dangerous conditions.

"Our stance on the Iditarod has always been that people who care about dogs should not support the race. It's a cruel spectacle," said Ashley Byrne, campaign specialist for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Iditarod mushers and officials have long defended the race's dog-care record, citing the army of volunteer veterinarians involved each year and the extensive dog health screening conducted before each race.

Sixty-six mushers and their dog teams began the 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on March 2 in Anchorage. Mitch Seavey won the competition on Tuesday.

Drobny, the competitor whose dog died, reached the Nome finish line on Thursday, in 34th place.

This year's race was marred early on by tragedy. Three people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed in a March 4 plane crash near Rainy Pass, one of the early race checkpoints. They had been headed to the Native village of Takotna, another checkpoint, to work as race volunteers.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iditarod-dog-dies-being-buried-snow-011513985--spt.html

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How to Think More About Sex | HTMLGIANT

How to Think More About Sex
by Alain de Botton
Picador, December 2012
192 pages? /? $16? Buy from Picador or Amazon

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In the middle of Michel Houellebecq?s The Elementary Particles, the narrator makes one of many comparisons between sex and the free market:

?Sexual desire is preoccupied with youth, and the progressive influx of ever-younger girls onto the field of seduction was simply a return to the norm; a restoration of the true nature of desire, comparable to the return of stock prices to their true value after a run on the exchange.?

While Houellebecq has been derided by some as misogynistic and bleak, it is clear that upon reading Alain de Botton?s How to Think More About Sex, a slim volume that should have been titled How to Think More About Heteronormative Sex, the two would be in agreement about at least one thing: as those with partners age, both in their relationships and biology, individual desire for sex decreases until finally, death. In one of the more interesting sections of the book (the other being on pornography,) one of the first in Picador?s ?The School of Life? series, de Botton repudiates the assertion first made by the Masters & Johnson study that states in order for a marriage to be successful, sex should be a constant. Ignoring this trend that was later capitalized upon by sex therapists and then pharmaceutical companies, de Botton argues that a decrease in our sex drive and the quality and quantity of sex is purely normal and is a ?necessary comprise of long-term love.?

This is one of the points brought up in the subsection entitled ?Infrequency,? one of several aspects discussed in the chapter ?Lack of Desire.? The book?s structure of chapters, sections and subsections is easily one of its strong points, allowing for easier reading. Unfortunately, de Botton?s assertion used to market the book: ?We don?t think too much about sex; we?re merely thinking about it the wrong way? is undermined not only by its heteronormative assumptions, but by a narrow focus in its audience and examples that are sometimes anomalies and worse yet, lack physical or historical evidence to back it up. One example of this can be found when discussing impotence: ?Let us propose, though we have little concrete empirical evidence for the claim, that at the dawn of its existence mankind was rarely bothered by impotence.? This admittance of the lack of evidence in a hypothetical situation, thus removed from real-life, often had me wondering whether the author?s authority was akin to that of the second-year undergraduate sexuality students this book would be assigned to.

Besides such Swiss-cheese holes in his arguments and his focus on heterosexuals, which is also made clear by the constant use of hypothetical male-female couples, it is clear this book was written to directly appeal to upper-middle class WASPs. De Botton makes constant references to luxury goods (Dolce & Gabana clothing, The Park Hyatt Hotel, Marni brand shoes) and art history (Caravaggio?s ?Judith Beheading Holofernes? and Manet?s ?Bunch of Asparagus? to name two.) By the time he uses Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson as examples of why we prefer one person over another, it comes off as a pathetic olive branch when the book is taken as a whole.

Where de Botton succeeds is bringing up aspects of sexuality that have not been previously discussed as thoroughly as they should be. In the subsection ?Fetishism-Goodness? one hypothetical couple both have fetishes?the female?s being a watch on her partner?s wrist, while the male focuses on his partner?s shoes. To see this examined, even in Freudian terms, was a pleasant surprise as it is rarely discussed in sex manuals, even books like Moregasm, written by the owners of the female-friendly sex shop chain ?Babeland.

In another pleasant surprise, later in the book when religious and secular views are pitted against each other regarding pornography, de Botton defends religion rather than brushing it off, as is often characteristic of contemporary scholars. ?We may not sympathize with what they would wish us to think about in the place of sex, and we may not like the way they go about trying to censor it, but we can surely?though perhaps only after killing many hours online at www.youporn.com- appreciate that on this one point religions have got it right: sex and sexual images can overwhelm our higher rational faculties with depressing ease.?

Moments of dry humor like this, along with his proposal of realistic marriage vows when discussing adultery (?I promise to be disappointed by you and you alone. I promise to make you the sole repository of my regrets, rather than to distribute them widely through multiple affairs and a life of sexual Don Juanism?) add pathos to an otherwise dry argument. While How To Think More About Sex makes a noble effort in its intent, it is highly worth noting that the arguments made and examples provided should be taken with several grains of kosher salt. For many, the cost of what was left out in exchange for something short and more accessible might prove a bit too expensive.

***

Eric Nelson is a writer from Queens, New York. His prose chapbook ?The Walt Whitman House? is available from The Crumpled Press. (http://crumpledpress.org/publications/whitman.html)

Tags: Alain de Botton, Eric Nelson, How to Think More About Sex

Source: http://htmlgiant.com/reviews/how-to-think-more-about-sex/

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Monarch Butterfy Population Falls To Record Low, Mexican Scientists Say

Monarch butterflies in December 2008 at the Sierra del Chincua sanctuary in Angangueo, in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

Mario Vazquez/AFP/Getty Images

Monarch butterflies in December 2008 at the Sierra del Chincua sanctuary in Angangueo, in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

Mario Vazquez/AFP/Getty Images

Monarch butterflies that once covered 50 square acres of forest during their summer layover in central Mexico now occupy fewer than 3 acres, according to the latest census.

The numbers of the orange-and-black butterflies have crashed in the two decades since scientists began making a rough count of them, according to Mexico's National Commission of Natural Protected Areas.

At a news conference Wednesday, the commission said the count was down 59 percent from December 2011 levels, when the insects filled 7.14 acres of fir trees in central Mexico.

"We are seeing now a trend which more or less started in the last seven to eight years," Omar Vidal, the head of the World Wildlife Fund's Mexico operations, said in an interview with The New York Times. Although insect populations can fluctuate greatly even in normal conditions, the steady downward drift in the butterfly's numbers is worrisome, he said.

The Associated Press quotes experts as saying the decline in the Monarch population now marks a statistical long-term trend and is no longer seen as a combination of yearly or seasonal events.

Why is it happening?

Vidal points north, to the monarchs' summer home in the U.S. Midwest. The farmland there once provided plenty of milkweed sprouting between rows of corn and soybean. But the heavy use of genetically modified, herbicide-tolerant crops has allowed farmers to wipe out milkweed and eliminate the monarchs' main food source.

In an interview with the Times, Chip Taylor, director of the conservation group Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas, said the Midwest milkweed habitat "is virtually gone. We've lost well over 120 million acres, and probably closer to 150 million acres."

Taylor says the record-breaking heat in North America last summer was also a factor.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/14/174307345/monarch-butterflies-population-falls-to-record-low-mexican-scientists-say?ft=1&f=1007

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bounteousness capitation: WHAT IS MUGA FENCING? | Twin Peak ...

Written by Gene Rutchek (GM)

The buzz of sports being a form a recreation has resulted on the flourish of sports facilities all over the world. Sports facilities provide a comfortable and safe area for visitors to participate in several types of sports. Before, most of these facilities catered simply to wedding party activity like basketball for basketball courts, tennis for tennis courts etc. Today, engineering advancement has built the Multi Use Game Area or MUGA that?s quickly becoming more popular.

Exactly what is MUGA? You may have heard the word used before. Multi Use Game Area, also called MUGA is often a unique court system that allows several types of sports to be took part in one area. That is thanks to synthetic surfacing. The definition of multi says everything. Unlike the typical courts, MUGAs can host numerous sorts of play from basketball to football. You may ask how you could do. The amount of sporting activities a MUGA can serve is dependent upon its structure and style. Prior to it being constructed, there are certain elements which might be taken into consideration. This includes base design, kerb perimeter, synthetic surface, and perimeter. Many of these determine the over-all ease of the sport area.

To make the area more conducive to sports and safe for players and spectators alike, MUGA fencing is completed. What is this? It is a sort of fencing that?s engineered for various sorts of sports. Lots of fencing companies are experts in such a fencing. Mesh panel is a well-liked choice for a muga fences due to its durability, strength, and appearance. A fence is customized in accordance with the sort of games that the area allows. A MUGA fence offer several features like having the capacity to support the balls inside facility; multiple entrance and exits for much easier access; areas where people can without danger observe the games , and anti-rattle fixings. Additional accessories include basketball hoops, cycle shelters, and play areas. Furthermore, look at automated gates.

Is there a distinction Sports Fencing and MUGA fencing? Both the are in fact similar because both types cater to sports. A sports fence and MUGA fence make an effort to provide a safe and peaceful atmosphere, at the same time making activities more enjoyable for players and viewers. However, a MUGA fence is actually more diverse because it?s made to handle several sorts of sports, unlike sports fencing that is designed for merely one sort of play.

Source: http://thetwinpeakprofits.org/what-is-muga-fencing/

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Source: http://bounteousness-capitation.blogspot.com/2013/03/what-is-muga-fencing-twin-peak-profits.html

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Chemical chameleon tamed: Researchers give floppy molecule a structure through solvent effects

Mar. 14, 2013 ? How you get the chameleon of the molecules to settle on a particular "look" has been discovered by RUB chemists led by Professor Dominik Marx. The molecule CH₅⁺ is normally not to be described by a single rigid structure, but is dynamically flexible. By means of computer simulations, the team from the Centre for Theoretical Chemistry showed that CH₅⁺ takes on a particular structure once you attach hydrogen molecules.

"In this way, we have taken an important step towards understanding experimental vibrational spectra in the future," says Dominik Marx. The researchers report in the journal Physical Review Letters.

In the CH₅⁺ molecule, the hydrogen atoms are permanently on the move

The superacid CH₅⁺+, also called protonated methane, occurs in outer space -- where new stars are formed. Researchers already discovered the molecule in the 1950s, but many of its features are still unknown. Unlike conventional molecules in which all the atoms have a fixed position, the five hydrogen atoms in CH₅⁺ are constantly moving around the carbon centre. Scientists speak of "hydrogen scrambling." This dynamically flexible structure has been explained by the research groups led by Dominik Marx and Stefan Schlemmer of the University of Cologne as part of a long-term collaboration. Marx's team now wanted to know if the structure can be "frozen" under certain conditions by attaching solvent molecules -- a process called microsolvation.

Microsolvatation: addition of hydrogen molecules to CH₅⁺ one by one

To this end, the chemists surrounded the CH₅⁺ molecule in the virtual lab with a few hydrogen molecules (H2). Here, the result is the same as when dissolving normal ions in water: a relatively tightly bound shell of water molecules attaches to each ion in order to then transfer individual ions with several solvent molecules bound to them to the gas phase. To describe the CH₅⁺ hydrogen complexes, classical ab initio molecular dynamics simulations are not sufficient. The reason is that "hydrogen scrambling" is based on quantum effects. Therefore Marx's group used a fully quantum mechanical method which they developed in house, known as ab initio path integral simulation. With this, the essential quantum effects can be taken into account dependent on the temperature.

Hydrogen molecules give the CH₅⁺ molecule "structure"

The chemists carried out the simulations at a temperature of 20 Kelvin, which corresponds to -253 degrees Celsius. In the non-microsolvated form, the five hydrogen atoms in the CH₅⁺ molecule are permanently changing positions even at such low temperatures -- and entirely due to quantum mechanical effects. If CH₅⁺ is surrounded by hydrogen molecules, this "hydrogen scrambling" is, however, significantly effected and may even completely come to a halt: the molecule assumes a rudimentary structure. How this looks exactly depends on how many hydrogen molecules are attached to the CH₅⁺ molecule. "What especially interests me is if superfluid helium -- like the hydrogen molecules here -- can also stop hydrogen scrambling in CH₅⁺+" says Marx. Experimental researchers use superfluid helium to measure high-resolution spectra of molecules embedded in such droplets. For CH₅⁺ this has so far not been possible. In the superfluid phase, the helium atoms are, however, indistinguishable due to quantum statistical effects. To be able to describe this fact, the theoretical chemists at the RUB spent many years developing a new, even more complex path-integral-based simulation method that has recently also been applied to real problems.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum, via AlphaGalileo.

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Journal Reference:

1. Alexander Witt, Sergei D. Ivanov, Dominik Marx. Microsolvation?Induced Quantum Localization in Protonated Methane. Physical Review Letters, 2013; 110 (8) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.083003

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/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/h0rsx0KMakM/130314085054.htm

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Obama set to meet with political foes in House

President Barack Obama and John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Of all the meetings scheduled between President Barack Obama and members of Congress this week, Wednesday's scheduled pow-wow with House Republicans is likely to be the most lively.

Obama, who served as an Illinois senator before rising to the presidency, won't be in familiar territory like he was Tuesday when he met with Senate Democrats. For about an hour this afternoon, he will share a basement room of the Capitol with 232 Republicans, many of whom actively campaigned against his reelection, and others who have publicly accused him of being a "socialist" and an "imperial" leader.

The direct talks will be the first time he has addressed the entire group for three years, when Republicans invited the president to a conference-wide retreat in Baltimore. For many lawmakers, Wednesday's meeting will be the first time they meet Obama face-to-face.

The decision to hold an open discussion with House Republicans is part of a new, so-called "charm offensive" by the White House meant to ease tensions with Capitol Hill. In the aftermath of the failed negotiations to avoid $85 billion in automatic, across-the-board spending cuts last month and the terse conversations involved in finding an alternative to the "fiscal cliff" in January, the relationship between lawmakers and the president could use a bit of thawing.

Obama is expected to address plans for a wide-ranging budget deal, a Herculean task that will require rare, widespread bipartisan cooperation. While both parties pay lip service to the need for debt and deficit reduction, neither can agree on how to achieve it.

Republicans have called for a plan that would overhaul the nation's most expensive entitlement reforms, notably Social Security and Medicare, along with steep cuts to discretionary spending. Republican leaders, in both chambers of Congress, have been outspoken about their unwillingness to budge on taxes, citing the higher rates that came with the fiscal cliff deal earlier this year. Many Democrats are unwilling to touch the entitlements, and they want higher taxes in exchange for cuts.

That sour history hangs over today's meeting, when Obama and Republicans will have a chance to feel out the opposition and hopefully gain a better understanding of whether anyone can seriously consider a "grand bargain."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-set-meet-house-republicans-common-ground-154915200--politics.html

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