Wall Street looks to return to 'normalcy'

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks were mostly higher Thursday as investors got back to focusing on corporate earnings and economic data.

It's a change of pace for Wall Street, which had been completely absorbed in Washington's political drama over the last month. Now that the U.S. has avoided the possibility of default, at least for a few months, traders are returning to a state of normalcy.

"I don't think we can completely close the door on the debt ceiling chapter just yet, but we can get back to the stuff that really matters," said Jonathan Corpina, who manages trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for Meridian Equity Partners.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up five points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,726 at 2 p.m. Eastern. If it closes at that level it would edge out its all-time high of 1,725 set on Sept. 18.

The Nasdaq composite added nine points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,848.

The two indexes were faring far better than the Dow Jones industrial average, which has just 30 stocks. The Dow was down 53 points, or 0.4 percent, at 15,321.

The Dow was dragged lower by shares of IBM. The technology giant said Wednesday that its third-quarter net income rose 6 percent, but revenue fell and missed Wall Street's forecast by more than $1 billion. IBM fell $12.10, or 7 percent, to $174.50

Goldman Sachs also weighed down the index. The investment bank's revenue fell sharply as trading in bonds and other securities slowed. Goldman fell $4.28, or 3 percent, $157.90.

Now that there was no longer an immediate fear that the United States could default on its debt and the government was reopening, Wall Street was surveying the damage.

Market analysts expect the 16-day partial shutdown of the government caused billions of dollars of damage to the U.S. economy through furloughed government employees, delayed government contracts, and declines in tourism at national parks. Analysts at Wells Fargo said the shutdown likely cut 0.5 percentage points off of U.S. economic growth.

And there remain broader concerns the two parties won't be able to reach a longer-term budget agreement. The deal approved late Wednesday only permits the Treasury Department to borrow through Feb. 7 and fund the government through Jan. 15.

"The agreement represents another temporary fix that pushes fiscal uncertainty into the early months of next year," Wells Fargo analysts said.

Despite worries about the damage the debt ceiling and government shutdown did to the economy, there were signs that normalcy was returning to financial markets.

Stresses in the bond market were easing. The one-month Treasury bill was back to trading at a yield of 0.01 percent, about where it was a month ago, and down sharply from 0.35 percent on Tuesday.

Usually a staid, conservative security, the one-month T-bill was subjected to a wave of selling at the beginning of the month. Investors feared the T-bill would be the first piece of government debt to be affected by a U.S. default if the debt ceiling was breached and the federal government could no longer pay its obligations.

The yield on the more closely-watched 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.60 percent from 2.67 percent Wednesday.

Corporate earnings are expected to continue to dominate trading for the next couple weeks. So far, only 79 companies in the S&P 500 have reported third-quarter results, according to S&P Capital IQ. Analysts expect earnings at those companies to increase 3.3 percent over the same period a year ago.

In other corporate news:

— Verizon, one of the stocks in the Dow average, rose $1.63, or 3 percent, to $48.87. The telecommunications company said it earned an adjusted 77 cents per share for the recent quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 74 cents per share.

— UnitedHealth Group was down $3.67, or 5 percent, to $71.52. The health insurance giant narrowed its 2013 profit forecast, instead of raising it, giving some analysts pause.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-looks-return-normalcy-162327822--finance.html
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SwiftKey 4.3 update offers keyboard layouts you can resize, move and split

With 'Layouts for Living', SwiftKey Liberates Your Android Typing Experience

New custom keyboard layouts adapt to any situation

San Francisco, CA, October 17, 2013 - SwiftKey, the leading Android keyboard app, today announced public beta access to its latest version, dubbed 'Layouts for Living'. The SwiftKey 4.3 update provides users with new keyboard layouts that can be resized and moved anywhere on a device, empowering people to type however they want to, regardless of screen size.

Through extensive user experience (UX) testing and feedback, SwiftKey recognized that an increasing lack of distinction between the phone and tablet form factor means users are demanding more flexibility when they type. For example, commuters in cramped trains may want to type one-handed with their left thumb, while a professional writing a document on a tablet may want to type with both thumbs. SwiftKey's latest update aims to adapt to everyday situations such as these as well as any number of others - it's up to each user. With Layouts for Living, SwiftKey liberates users with a huge variety of layouts.

"Allowing people to manipulate the location, size and layout of the keyboard not only makes it easier to type – it gives our users a more personalized way to interact with their technology and each other," said co-founder and CTO Ben Medlock. "We are committed to creating world-class user experiences that marry our powerful language technology with interfaces that learn and adapt to each user's needs."

In addition to being able to size and place the keyboard anywhere on the device, version 4.3 of SwiftKey also includes three preset keyboard modes:

Compact: On many larger phones it can be difficult to enter text and hold the phone with just one hand. This new feature minimizes the width of the keyboard and allows for easier typing with one-hand or gesture typing using SwiftKey Flow. It also frees up more of the screen estate on tablets.
Full: Users with large screens can now opt for a full-width keyboard with left-right cursor control keys and a backspace key above the "Enter" key. By placing the keys closer together, this new layout mimics the experience of two-handed typing on a physical keyboard.
Thumb: For people typing on tablets in landscape and with wide phones in portrait the keyboard can be split into two sections, enabling fast, comfortable typing with both thumbs.

Consistent Experience
As devices of varying sizes continue to enter the market and the line between tablets and phones blur, a consistent SwiftKey experience is an ongoing priority for our fans. Listening to fan feedback, SwiftKey has merged the phone and tablet apps to eliminate guesswork as to which version of the app a user should purchase.

With SwiftKey Layouts for Living, current and future customers can use one unified SwiftKey app across all Android devices. Leveraging SwiftKey Cloud, which was introduced in SwiftKey 4.2, the app also creates a cloud-based hub for each user's personal language profile to be shared with any phone or device. SwiftKey Layouts for Living offers a beautiful user experience for all users, across all of their devices no matter the screen size.

The SwiftKey Layouts for Living beta is available to the public now and can be downloaded at http://beta.swiftkey.net.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/17/swiftkey-update-resizable-layouts/?ncid=rss_truncated
Tags: furlough   Jennifer Rosoff  

Death toll from Philippines quake at 144, more people missing

By Erik De Castro

LOON, Philippines (Reuters) - The death toll from an earthquake in the Philippines rose to 144 on Wednesday as rescuers dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings including an old church and a hospital.

Nearly 3 million people were affected by the 7.2 magnitude quake on Tuesday, which caused landslides and widespread damage to infrastructure in the tourist destinations of Bohol island and the nearby Cebu islands.

The number of injured rose towards 300, with at least 23 people missing.

The national disaster agency said at least 134 of the dead were on Bohol island, which took the brunt of the quake. The island is located 630 km (390 miles) south of the capital, Manila.

Officials feared the toll would rise as communications with remote areas were re-established.

"I think this is a growing number," Loon mayor Lloyd Lopez told Philippine radio. "Yesterday, we had a partial communications block-out."

"We have not reached all barangays, many are cut off, the roads are blocked by big boulders," Lopez said, referring to villages.

Mobile phone links from the country's main provider had been restored but a rival provider still had to fix some of its damaged equipment, a state telecommunications official said.

Many of the millions hit by the quake spent the night outdoors, including patients at some hospitals, because of aftershocks. More than 840 aftershocks have been recorded, with one of magnitude 5.1, the volcanology agency said.

"There are so many aftershocks, we are afraid," Elena Manuel, a 64-year-old grandmother, told Reuters after her family and neighbors spent the night in the grounds of a centuries-old church that collapsed in Loon, a town of about 43,000 people.

"We don't have any more food and water because stores are closed, and the bridge ... is damaged. After the quake, water and mud came out of cracks on the ground in our backyard."

WARNING TO PROFITEERS

Officials said most of 23 damaged bridges in Bohol were impassable and five roads were closed. Seventeen churches suffered irreparable damage to their old coral-stone structures.

"The church here is now only powder," said Benjamin Aggenstein, a 30-year-old German businessman based in Bohol, adding that most residents of Loon did not want to return to their damaged homes and had been staying outdoors.

Ferry and airline services have resumed despite damage to ports and airports in Bohol and Cebu.

The air force was flying 11 tons of relief supplies to Bohol, a military spokesman said.

President Benigno Aquino, who made an inspection by air of quake-hit areas, warned of stiff penalties for profiteers exploiting the disaster.

The government has declared a state of calamity in both Bohol and Cebu, triggering a freeze on prices there.

Tourism has also been hurt.

Some visitors to Bohol have cancelled reservations, but the damage to tourism was likely to be short-lived, John Patrick Chan, corporate general manager of the Bellevue Hotel group, said in a television interview.

"We expect things to go back to normal soon. We're lucky the earthquake hasn't damaged much, much more," Chan said.

The country's tourism office said it had seen about 1,000 cancellations to Bohol and Cebu by tourists from South Korea.

The last time a quake of similar magnitude hit Bohol was in 1602, said Trixie Angeles, a consultant at the National Commission on Culture and the Arts.

(This story is refiled to correct grammar in fourth paragraph)

(Additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco in MANILA; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/death-toll-philippines-quake-nears-100-more-people-030551664.html
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Here's A Reason To Love Disco Again: Stopping Food Waste

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feeding the 5000, is helping to organize several disco soup events across Europe for World Food Day. Stuart is shown here in New York, where he attended the first U.S.-based disco soup event in September.

Courtesy of Feeding the 5000

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feeding the 5000, is helping to organize several disco soup events across Europe for World Food Day. Stuart is shown here in New York, where he attended the first U.S.-based disco soup event in September.

Courtesy of Feeding the 5000

Wednesday is World Food Day, an occasion food activists like to use to call attention to world hunger. With 842 million chronically undernourished people on Earth, it's a problem that hasn't gone away.

This year, activists are trying to make the day a little spicier with pots full of disco soup to highlight the absurd amount of food thrown away that could feed people: one-third of all the food produced every year.

What is disco soup, you ask? It's the tasty outcome of a party designed to bring strangers together to cook food that would otherwise end up in the trash. Oftentimes, the soup is donated to the hungry. Oh, and as the name suggests, there's music involved, too.

The first disco soup party was held in Germany in early 2012 by some folks affiliated with the Slow Food Youth Network Deutschland. The organizers collected discarded fruits and vegetables from a market, blasted some disco music and made a huge pot of soup.

Two months later, a group in France threw a disco soup party, and attracted 100 people. More parties followed, in Australia, South Korea, Ireland and beyond. You can check out an earnest little video of another French disco food event here:

The idea eventually caught the attention of Tristram Stuart, a British food waste activist and writer who started Feeding the 5000, a campaign named for an event held in London in 2009 and 2011, where 5,000 members of the public were given a free lunch made with perfectly edible ingredients bound for the rubbish bin.

Stuart is adamant that consumers and businesses in the developed world have a moral obligation to reverse "the global scandal" of food waste. In addition to throwing events to cook up blemished but edible produce, his campaign is also working to change European Union legislation on feeding food waste to pigs through the Pig Idea project.

For World Food Day, Feeding the 5000 is hosting a "flagship" disco soup party in Brussels. And the group says more pots full of disco soup will be bubbling away today in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece and Macedonia. The event hub is the Disco Anti Food Waste Day Facebook page.

And what if you don't like disco? Can you still have a disco soup event?

"We play anything that gets people dancing as they peel and chop the vegetables and fruit," Dominika Jarosz, event coordinator for Feeding the 5000, tells The Salt in an email.

While there are no disco soup events scheduled for Oct. 16 in the U.S., Feeding the 5000 says disco soup is starting to get traction here. The first U.S. disco soup event was held on Sept. 20 in New York, with the support of Slow Food NYC, the Natural Gourmet Institute, chef Paul Gerard of the East Village restaurant Exchange Alley and the United Nations Environment Program.

In advance of the soup blitz, Stuart visited local farms in New York and New Jersey and gleaned blemished tomatoes, over-sized watermelons, squash, eggplants and other fresh produce that the farmers were unable to sell. A rotating crew of DJs provided a soundtrack at the soup-making party at the Chelsea Super Pier, and most of the food was donated to the Bowery Mission. Such events, he says, help raise awareness among food donors like grocery stores and farmers and help them forge long-term relationships with organizations that feed the hungry.

Americans may be getting more motivated to address food waste, but we have to hand it to the Europeans, who do seem to be out in front on the issue. It was a group of Austrians, after all, who started a reality cooking show centered around Dumpster diving.

Food waste was also a talking point for world leaders who spoke up on World Food Day. "Reducing food waste is not, in fact, only a strategy for times of crisis, but a way of life we should adopt if we want a sustainable future for our planet," Nunzia De Girolamo, Italy's minister for agriculture, food and forestry policy, said at a ceremony Wednesday at the Food and Agriculture Organization's headquarters in Rome.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/16/235355021/turning-food-waste-into-disco-soup?ft=1&f=
Similar Articles: Eminem Rap God   Brynn Cameron   Mary Lambert   Duck Dynasty   George Alexander Louis  

Here's A Reason To Love Disco Again: Stopping Food Waste

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feeding the 5000, is helping to organize several disco soup events across Europe for World Food Day. Stuart is shown here in New York, where he attended the first U.S.-based disco soup event in September.

Courtesy of Feeding the 5000

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feeding the 5000, is helping to organize several disco soup events across Europe for World Food Day. Stuart is shown here in New York, where he attended the first U.S.-based disco soup event in September.

Courtesy of Feeding the 5000

Wednesday is World Food Day, an occasion food activists like to use to call attention to world hunger. With 842 million chronically undernourished people on Earth, it's a problem that hasn't gone away.

This year, activists are trying to make the day a little spicier with pots full of disco soup to highlight the absurd amount of food thrown away that could feed people: one-third of all the food produced every year.

What is disco soup, you ask? It's the tasty outcome of a party designed to bring strangers together to cook food that would otherwise end up in the trash. Oftentimes, the soup is donated to the hungry. Oh, and as the name suggests, there's music involved, too.

The first disco soup party was held in Germany in early 2012 by some folks affiliated with the Slow Food Youth Network Deutschland. The organizers collected discarded fruits and vegetables from a market, blasted some disco music and made a huge pot of soup.

Two months later, a group in France threw a disco soup party, and attracted 100 people. More parties followed, in Australia, South Korea, Ireland and beyond. You can check out an earnest little video of another French disco food event here:

The idea eventually caught the attention of Tristram Stuart, a British food waste activist and writer who started Feeding the 5000, a campaign named for an event held in London in 2009 and 2011, where 5,000 members of the public were given a free lunch made with perfectly edible ingredients bound for the rubbish bin.

Stuart is adamant that consumers and businesses in the developed world have a moral obligation to reverse "the global scandal" of food waste. In addition to throwing events to cook up blemished but edible produce, his campaign is also working to change European Union legislation on feeding food waste to pigs through the Pig Idea project.

For World Food Day, Feeding the 5000 is hosting a "flagship" disco soup party in Brussels. And the group says more pots full of disco soup will be bubbling away today in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece and Macedonia. The event hub is the Disco Anti Food Waste Day Facebook page.

And what if you don't like disco? Can you still have a disco soup event?

"We play anything that gets people dancing as they peel and chop the vegetables and fruit," Dominika Jarosz, event coordinator for Feeding the 5000, tells The Salt in an email.

While there are no disco soup events scheduled for Oct. 16 in the U.S., Feeding the 5000 says disco soup is starting to get traction here. The first U.S. disco soup event was held on Sept. 20 in New York, with the support of Slow Food NYC, the Natural Gourmet Institute, chef Paul Gerard of the East Village restaurant Exchange Alley and the United Nations Environment Program.

In advance of the soup blitz, Stuart visited local farms in New York and New Jersey and gleaned blemished tomatoes, over-sized watermelons, squash, eggplants and other fresh produce that the farmers were unable to sell. A rotating crew of DJs provided a soundtrack at the soup-making party at the Chelsea Super Pier, and most of the food was donated to the Bowery Mission. Such events, he says, help raise awareness among food donors like grocery stores and farmers and help them forge long-term relationships with organizations that feed the hungry.

Americans may be getting more motivated to address food waste, but we have to hand it to the Europeans, who do seem to be out in front on the issue. It was a group of Austrians, after all, who started a reality cooking show centered around Dumpster diving.

Food waste was also a talking point for world leaders who spoke up on World Food Day. "Reducing food waste is not, in fact, only a strategy for times of crisis, but a way of life we should adopt if we want a sustainable future for our planet," Nunzia De Girolamo, Italy's minister for agriculture, food and forestry policy, said at a ceremony Wednesday at the Food and Agriculture Organization's headquarters in Rome.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/16/235355021/turning-food-waste-into-disco-soup?ft=1&f=
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The Fiscal Fight's Winners And Losers

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives at the Capitol on Wednesday. The Kentucky Republican helped forge a late-hour deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to sidestep financial chaos.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives at the Capitol on Wednesday. The Kentucky Republican helped forge a late-hour deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to sidestep financial chaos.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

The White House is insisting, publicly at least, that nobody emerged victorious from the government shutdown/debt crisis debacle.

"There are no winners here," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday after Senate leaders announced they had a deal to end the budget impasse.

"And nobody's who's sent here to Washington by the American people can call themselves a winner," Carney said, "if the American people have paid a price for what's happened."

Well, yes and no.

As the curtain comes down on the latest, but certainly not the last, partisan convulsion, there's no question that the shutdown and debt crisis will affect the political calculus in Washington.

Here's our list of winners and losers. Let us know if you have suggestions of your own.

Winners

Kentucky's Senators

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the state's wily senior senator, and his junior GOP colleague, Sen. Rand Paul, both emerged from their party's awful interlude with reputations intact, if not enhanced. McConnell employed his sharp political instincts and once again forged a late-hour deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to sidestep financial chaos. And Paul astutely tended to his 2016 presidential ambitions by largely steering clear of the doomed defund-Obamacare-or-else strategy embraced by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

GOP Sen. Ted Cruz

The Texas senator held a fake filibuster, persuaded like-minded House members to jump off the shutdown/debt crisis ledge, harvested Tea Party cash and gathered names for fundraising lists. Wednesday's Pew Research Center poll results show his popularity among Tea Party Republicans soaring — and he's solidified his role as the undisputed face of the Obamacare resistance and the voice of a motivated and aggravated slice of the party's base.

GOP Speaker John Boehner

In allowing his more conservative members to drive a losing battle, the Ohio Republican has enhanced his standing with that faction and solidified his hold on the GOP conference. Boehner on Tuesday looked every inch the blundering loser; by Wednesday, his speakership remained secure, and he was basking in the praise of some of the hard-liners who have been making his life so difficult.

GOP Rep. Tom Graves

Graves, a conservative from north Georgia, emerged from national obscurity to win notice as a leader of the defund-Obamacare movement in the House. He leveraged the crisis to go from "Representative Who?" status — he was first elected in a 2010 special election — to a seat at television talk show tables and a reputation as a leading Tea Party voice.

GOP Rep. Devin Nunes

The California Republican won national attention for his now famous characterization of fellow party members willing to shut down government over Obamacare as "lemmings with suicide vests." After that memorable description, Nunes became a go-to Republican for the media because of his willingness to criticize his party's positions while remaining loyal to leadership.

Obamacare

How could we list the Affordable Care Act as a winner, when its rollout has been beset by such enormous problems? It's simple: Think of all the "president's health care launch is an unmitigated fiasco" stories that weren't written, or received minor play, because the program start coincided with the government shutdown. Thus the administration has had cover while it hustles to fix the worst of the problems.

Senate Women

GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona was among those who gave props to his female colleagues for their role in leading a bipartisan group of 14 senators (it included six women) to help provide Reid and McConnell a framework for their deal to end the government shutdown. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine won particular notice. "Leadership, I must fully admit," McCain said, "was provided primarily by women in the Senate."

Wall Street, Eventually

A late Wednesday headline on CNN said it all: "Debt Ceiling Deal Sends Stocks Soaring."

Senate Chaplain Barry Black

In Senate floor prayers during the crisis, the 64-year-old former Navy chaplain drew national attention — and inspired a Saturday Night Live skit — with his ardent pleas for reason and faith. "Save us from the madness," he prayed one day, "and deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable."

Robert Costa

No one covered the crisis with more consistency and insight than The National Review's Washington editor, Robert Costa. He used his must-read Twitter feed to break news, and provided deep, dispassionate insight into Republican strategy for his conservative publication. Costa, 28, was one of five conservative journalists whom Obama invited to the White House for a private briefing.

Losers

(In addition to the American people, federal and government contract employees, tourists and those with businesses reliant on visitors to the nation's national parks.)

GOP Sen. Ted Cruz

Yes, the Texas senator was both a winner and a loser. He's been excoriated by members of his own party over his approach, and Wednesday's Pew Research Center poll results show his popularity dropping among those not aligned with the GOP Tea Party wing. While he has established himself as a Tea Party force, Cruz lost the immediate battle and may have fatally damaged his general election brand.

GOP Speaker John Boehner

Bad boy political columnist Roger Simon, in a widely read piece this week, took aim at Cruz and Boehner for allowing — if not orchestrating — the shutdown and leading the nation to the brink of financial calamity. Boehner, he wrote, "does not bend to the will of his Kamikaze Caucus because he is an evil man. He does so because he is a weak man. To borrow a line from Theodore Roosevelt, I could carve a better man out of a banana." In allowing his more conservative members to drive a losing battle, Boehner looked weak, blundering and barely in control of his conference. And in the end, he opened the door to a deal that will very likely require a majority of Democrats to get passed.

House GOP Hard-Liners

It took The Wall Street Journal to lay it out succinctly: "They picked a goal they couldn't achieve in trying to defund Obamacare from one House of Congress," it editorialized Wednesday, "and then they picked a means they couldn't sustain politically by pursuing a long government shutdown and threatening to blow through the debt limit."

The Tea Party Brand

Pew Research Center poll results released Wednesday showed that unfavorable views of the Tea Party have nearly doubled since 2010. Negative opinions have accelerated in recent months, particularly among moderate and liberal Republicans, and now nearly half of the American public has an unfavorable view of the Tea Party.

Immigration Overhaul

Remember that? President Obama says he does, and this he week told Univision's Los Angeles affiliate that he's going to push for House Speaker Boehner to take up the Senate-approved immigration overhaul bill. But here's how one conservative House Republican framed the upcoming debate on Wednesday: "If the president is going to show the same kind of good-faith efforts that he has shown in the last couple of weeks, I think it would be crazy for the House Republican leadership to enter into negotiations with him on immigration," said Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. "He has tried to destroy the Republican Party and I think that anything that we do right now with this president on immigration will be with that same goal in mind, which is to destroy the Republican Party and not to get good policies."

Ken Cuccinelli

Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, was in a pretty close race with Democrat Terry McAuliffe before the Oct. 1 shutdown and impending debt crisis. But polls show that support for the social conservative has eroded in the past two weeks, driven in part by antipathy of many of the huge swath of federal workers living in the purple state Obama won twice.

Vice President Biden

The garrulous vice president was a key player in brokering a bipartisan deal to avoid the nation's last almost-default two years ago. This time, he's been nowhere to be seen — except during a shopping trip Tuesday to the local Brooks Brothers. The White House insists he is in the loop and attended meetings with members of Congress. But it's been reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats weren't so crazy about Biden's last deal and preferred to go it alone.

Michelle Obama's Garden

The nation's most famous vegetable plot has gone to seed, literally, during the shutdown. With no groundskeepers or gardeners working to keep up the garden and White House grounds, vegetables on the 1,500-square-foot plot are rotting, weeds are taking over, and critters are having a ball, reports the blog Obama Foodorama.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/10/16/235612260/the-fiscal-fights-winners-and-losers?ft=1&f=1003
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Ancient 'Mega-Clawed' Creature Had Brain Like a Spider's

The discovery of a fossilized brain in the preserved remains of an extinct "mega-clawed" creature has revealed an ancient nervous system that is remarkably similar to that of modern-day spiders and scorpions, according to a new study.

The fossilized Alalcomenaeus is a type of arthropod known as a megacheiran (Greek for "large claws") that lived approximately 520 million years ago, during a period known as the Lower Cambrian. The creature was unearthed in the fossil-rich Chengjiang formation in southwest China.

Researchers studied the fossilized brain, the earliest known complete nervous system, and found similarities between the extinct creature's nervous system and the nervous systems of several modern arthropods, which suggest they may be ancestrally related. [Photos of Clawed Arthropod & Other Strange Cambrian Creatures]

The arthropod family

Living arthropods are commonly separated into two major groups: chelicerates, which include spiders, horseshoe crabs and scorpions, and a group that includes insects, crustaceans and millipedes. The new findings shed light on the evolutionary processes that may have given rise to modern arthropods, and also provide clues about where these extinct mega-clawed creatures fit in the tree of life.

"We now know that the megacheirans had central nervous systems very similar to today's horseshoe crabs and scorpions," senior author Nicholas Strausfeld, a professor in the department of neuroscience at the University of Arizona in Tucson, said in a statement. "This means the ancestors of spiders and their kin lived side by side with the ancestors of crustaceans in the Lower Cambrian."

The newly identified creature measures a little over an inch long (3 centimeters), and has a segmented body with about a dozen pairs of attached limbs that enabled it to swim or crawl.

"Up front, it has a long pair of appendages that have scissorlike components — basically an elbow with scissors on the end," Strausfeld told LiveScience. "These are really weird appendages, and there has been a long debate about what they are and what they correspond to in modern animals."

Previously, researchers suggested megacheirans were related to chelicerates, since the extinct creature's scissorlike claws and the fangs of spiders and scorpions have similar structures, said Greg Edgecombe, a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, England.

"They both have an 'elbow joint' in the same place, and they both have a similar arrangement of a fixed and movable finger at the tip," Edgecombe told LiveScience. "Because of these similarities, one of the main theories for what 'great appendage arthropods' are is that they were related to chelicerates. Thus, our findings from the nervous system gave an injection of new data to support an existing theory."

Fossilized brain images

The researchers used CT scans to make 3D reconstructions of features of the fossilized nervous system. The scientists also used laser-scanning technology to map the distribution of chemical elements, such as iron and copper, in the specimen in order to outline different neural structures.

Though finding a well-preserved ancient nervous system is rare, the new study highlights the potential for similar discoveries, the researchers said.

"Finding ancient preservation of neural tissue allows us to analyze extinct animals using the same tools we use for living animals," Edgecombe said. "It suggests there should be more examples out there."

About a year ago, Edgecombe and his colleagues found a different fossilized brain that revealed unexpected similarity to the brains of modern crustaceans.

"Our new find is exciting because it shows that mandibulates (to which crustaceans belong) and chelicerates were already present as two distinct evolutionary trajectories 520 million years ago, which means their common ancestor must have existed much deeper in time," Strausfeld said in a statement. "We expect to find fossils of animals that have persisted from more ancient times, and I'm hopeful we will one day find the ancestral type of both the mandibulate and chelicerate nervous system ground patterns. They had to come from somewhere. Now the search is on."

The detailed findings of the study were published online today (Oct. 16) in the journal Nature.

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-mega-clawed-creature-had-brain-spiders-175527966.html
Category: What Does Government Shutdown Mean   bo pelini   jeff bezos   H&m   Rae Dawn Chong