Italian court convicts 7 for no quake warning

(AP) ? An Italian court has convicted seven scientists and experts of failing to adequately warn citizens before an earthquake struck central Italy in 2009, killing more than 300 people.

The court in L'Aquila Monday evening handed down six-year-prison sentences to the defendants, members of a national "Great Risks Commission."

In Italy, convictions aren't definitive until after an appeals trial, so it is unlikely any of the defendants would face jail immediately.

Scientists worldwide had decried the trial as ridiculous, contending that science has no way to predict quakes.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-22-Italy-Quake%20Trial/id-b0a103cf576147a0abf15a204c2a584d

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Hunting down Bin Laden in Medal Of Honor - Video Game Blog ...

Published: 21 October 2012 11:15 AM UTC

Posted in: News, Nintendo News, PC, PC News, Playstation News, PS3, PS3 News, Video Games, Wii News, Xbox 360, Xbox News, Xbox360 News

Tags: Dark, Electronic Arts, extra, map, Medal of Honor, PC, PS3, thirty, warfight, xbox360, Zero

A new video showing extra downloadable content for the upcoming Electronic Arts first person shooter Medal Of Honor: Warfighter has been released.
Developed by Danger Close Games, MOH: Warfighter is the direct sequel of the series reboot Medal Of Honor and the fourteenth entry in the long running franchise.
Six different classes will be available to choose: Assaulter, Sniper, Point Man, Heavy Gunner and Spec Ops.
Gameplay will also use a fire team system where teamplay will be encouraged.
The expansion will be called Zero Dark Thirty Map like the 2012 movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
Two maps will be included in the expansion: the first one will take place in Darra?s weapons market, a tribal area where tribe leaders rule and police forces can?t enter.
It?s the perfect place to hide since no one from the outside can enter the village.
The second map will be called Chitral, a place where Bin Laden hid for some time: it?s a hard to reach mountain zone because of the roads and the snow which falls for many months a year, definitely another grood place to hid from your enemies.

The Zero Dark Thirty Map pack will be free for all preorders, everyone else can buy the pack for 7,00 ?.
Ps3, Xbox 360 and Pc versions of Medal Of Honor Warfighter will hit shelves on next week: October 23 in the US, October 25 in Europe.
Wii U version will be released at a later date

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Article from Gamersyndrome.com

Related posts:

  1. MEDAL OF HONOR WARFIGHTER MULTIPLAYER BETA
  2. Medal of Honor Beta Closing Dates Announced
  3. Medal Of Honor: Warfighter Limited Edition With Pre-Bonus
  4. Medal of Honor Beta Now Available on Xbox Live
  5. Medal of Honor ?Leave a Message? Trailer
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Source: http://gamersyndrome.com/2012/video-games/medal-of-honor-warfighter-extra-map/

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Sharks killed for fins, yet little done to protect them

Armed with a clip board and wearing bright yellow waders, Rima Jabado looked the part of a government inspector at the Dubai fish market as workers sawed the fins off hundreds of dead sharks from Oman and bagged them for export to Asian restaurants.

But the 33-year-old Lebanese-Canadian doctoral student was not chatting with fisherman on the market's slippery floors and jotting down notes to monitor the lucrative and largely unregulated trade that has decimated stocks of certain sharks, but rather to document what species are being caught in the waters across the Persian Gulf.

"The government will not react unless we give them actual data," said Jabado, as she raced to take genetic samples from the sharks before their carcasses were carted off and fins auctioned to the highest bidder.

"The problem is that I'm the only one doing research. There is not enough being done in the UAE and the region," she said. "We know shark populations are depleting around the world so we are kind of racing against time to see what is going on."

Fishermen across the globe kill as many as 70 million sharks each year for their fins, which can sell for $700 a pound, while the soup prized for Chinese banquets and weddings can cost $100 a bowl. The fin trade has devastated several species including hammerheads, oceanic whitetip, blue, threshers and silky and contributed to 181 shark and ray species being listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as threatened with extinction.

The trade is legal, though efforts are being made to ban the practice of "finning" ? hacking the fins off of sharks and throwing the rest overboard, often while they are still alive. Four years ago, under international pressure, the UAE joined the growing number of countries banning the practice.

Spain is top among 82 countries that export fins, mostly to Hong Kong and other Asian markets, followed by Singapore and Taiwan, according to Sonja Fordham, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Shark Advocates International. The United Arab Emirates is ranked fourth mostly because it is a regional hub for the trade in sharks coming predominantly from Oman but also from Yemen, Iran and Africa.

The trade thrives in the Gulf, as it does worldwide, shark conservationists said, mainly because there aren't enough people out there like Jabado. The fast-talking Jabado, who favors a white bandanna, black T-shirt and trousers when she is in the field, is the only person in the UAE assessing shark numbers.

Governments in the region have until now largely ignored sharks in favor of more commercial fish species like grouper.

They have almost no data on the numbers and species of sharks that can be found from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Oman, often lack the laws that would curb the trade and don't have the money or the political will to enforce the laws they do have on the books, such as bans on shark fishing.

"In an ideal world what we would have is every population of every shark monitored so we know how many adults there are," said Nick Dulvy, a Canadian researcher who is the co-chair of IUCN's Shark Specialist Group that is tasked with determining which species are endangered.

The challenges were laid bare at a shark conservation workshop in the UAE this month. Governments from across the Gulf sent representatives and all offered testimony of just why their country wasn't doing more to protect sharks.

Kuwait talked of protecting two shark species but admitted enforcement of its ban on shark fishing was weak and that government inspectors and fishermen couldn't even identify them. Saudi Arabia claimed it banned the export of fins in 2008 but had no answers as to why its fins continue to turn up in Hong Kong markets. Oman sent a government team with no experience with sharks while Bahrain and the UAE admitted they lacked sufficient data to determine whether sharks were overfished in their waters.

"Our hands are tied because of insufficient data," Mohammed Tabish, a fisheries specialist with the UAE Ministry of Environment and Water, told the conference. "It's all collected in general form and includes no species specific data which makes it difficult to take the necessary actions for particular species."

Yemen and Somalia, whose sharks routinely turn up in Dubai's market, are typical of countries with bigger problems. Both have thriving shark fisheries ? Yemen ranks sixth in exporters to Hong Kong and is one of the few countries that consume sharks domestically.

Yemen has no laws protecting sharks while Somalia lacks the means to enforce the laws it has on the books due to a lack of funds, its long-running civil war and fledging government.

"If you go to the Somalia coast at night, you will see thousands of ships fishing illegally, mostly for sharks and lobster," Ahmed Shaikh Mahmoud Osman, wildlife director for Somalia's Ministry of Fisheries and Environment, said of the boats which come primarily from Asian countries. "We need fishing boats to safeguard the coast. We also need renewal of formal laws to stop criminals and greedy business people who come to our coast and smuggle our resources."

Dulvey, Fordham and Jabado encouraged the region's governments to start collecting data and using it to draw up management plans which can include quotas and outright bans on endangered shark species.

Until now, no governments in the Gulf have quotas on shark fishing nor have any national shark conservation plans. The UAE, Bahrain and Qatar do, however, give protection to sawfish ? a shark-like ray species that is the most threatened marine species in the world.

Fordham also said Oman and Yemen could join the UAE in requiring that sharks are landed with their fins attached ? rather than processed at sea ? which helps with enforcement and makes it easier to collect scientific data.

"Overall a lot more needs to be done to insure sustainability of shark population, especially species that are exceptionally vulnerable," Fordham said.

Oman and Yemen have promised to develop shark conservation plans while Oman and Abu Dhabi have started doing stock assessments of several shark species ? the first step in developing a management plan.

For the most part, though, the job of data collection is left to Jabado, who for the past two years has visited fish markets across the UAE 180 times, identifying shark species, sex ratio and abundance among other things. From that, she has concluded there are 30 shark species in the waters off the coast of the UAE and 37 coming in from Oman ? about two-thirds which are listed by the IUCN as near threatened or endangered including several hammerheads.

She also has interviewed more than 100 fishermen and spent more than 100 hours on boats tagging sharks in the Persian Gulf. She has only caught five sharks herself in that time, confirming what 82 percent of the Emirati fishermen she interviewed have said: Shark numbers are down and those caught are much smaller.

"They say that 15 years ago, you looked at sunset in Dubai and could see fins," Jabado said. "They used to catch monstrous sharks, sharks bigger than a bus. They don't see those sizes anymore."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49476110/ns/world_news-world_environment/

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Build an Arduino-Based Hotel Room Master Key Housed in a Dry Erase Marker

Build an Arduino-Based Hotel Room Master Key Housed in a Dry Erase Marker A few months back at the Black Hat Security conference Cody Brocious demonstrated how you can easiy open an Onity hotel room lock, the standard system used in many hotel chains, with an Arduino but it was bulky setup and comletely obvious if anyone saw him pull out a lot of electronics. Here's how you can fit that system in a dry erase marker.

This post is part of our Evil Week series at Lifehacker, where we look at the dark side of getting things done. Knowing evil means knowing how to beat it, so you can use your sinister powers for good. Want more? Check out our evil week tag page.

The weblog of ethical hacker group Trustwave Spiderlabs found that the key to hiding the electronic lockpicking setup was to cut down a prototyping breadboard and move the necessary Arduino internals, a battery, a switch, and a DC coaxial barrel connector there. A dry erase marker is great for this since the barrel plug is built into the tip of the marker and be covered with the marker cap. The guys at Spiderlabs moved Cody's Arduino sketch for duplicating the master key to the Arduino and tested that it worked on an Onity lock they purchased from eBay before cutting down the components.

The full details including the circuit diagram can be found at the source link below. Unfortunately there aren't too many ways to use this evil hack for good other than being aware that your hotel room lock may not be providing as much security as you would expect so plan for that and don't leave valuables behind unless using an in-room safe or other means of security.

James Bond's Dry Erase Marker: The Hotel PenTest Pen | Trustwave Spiderlabs via WonderHowTo

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ccNEh7WP63s/build-an-arduino+based-hotel-room-master-key-housed-in-a-dry-erase-marker

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US women tie Germany without Sundhage

By NANCY ARMOUR

AP National Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 10:14 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2012

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (AP) - Even Pia Sundhage would have had a tough time getting her team ready for Germany in two days.

Abby Wambach scored in the second minute, but the Americans were forced to settle for a 1-1 tie with the world's No. 2 team Saturday night after squandering several chances in the second half. Germany's Anja Mittag scored the equalizer in the 14th minute.

"It didn't feel funny without Pia," Wambach said. "What did feel funny is we haven't played much together. The fact we could get this result against a good German team is a credit to us."

Playing for the first time in a month, the Americans had several chances to score the go-ahead goal in the second half, including a short volley by Heather O'Reilly in the 75th minute that went over the crossbar. Alex Morgan played a ball in to an onrushing Wambach in front of the goal in the 80th, but defender Saskia Bartusiak stepped in front and headed it clear.

A minute later, Carli Lloyd was in great position on a corner kick, but no one could get the ball to her through the scrum in front of the goal.

"If you're not as sharp, some of those things don't fall for you," said Jill Ellis, the development director for the U.S. women's national teams who is serving as interim coach. "But the fact we created them is fantastic."

The draw in the matchup between the world's top two teams snapped a 14-game winning streak for the U.S. Six of those victories came at the London Olympics, where the Americans beat Japan 2-1 to win their third straight gold medal.

The Americans are 17-4-5 against the Germans, the only other team to win two World Cups or be ranked No. 1. The Americans are 6-0-3 in matches involving the world's top two teams.

"Our rhythm was a little bit off tonight," U.S. captain Christie Rampone said. "Hopefully we'll get that in the second game."

The teams play again Tuesday in East Hartford, Conn.

This was the Americans' first game without Sundhage, who stepped down in September after five years as. coach. Sundhage, who is now coaching her native Sweden's national team, led the U.S. to back-to-back Olympic titles, as well as their first World Cup final in 12 years. She finished with a 91-6-10 record, including 23-1-1 this year alone.

U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati said this month that he hoped to select the new coach by late October or November, though it's possible the new coach might not start until January - especially if the coach is involved in an NCAA tournament.

But a lack of training time was a bigger challenge than the lack of a permanent coach.

The Americans would normally have had a training camp to prepare for a game like this. But the players have been on their own for most of the last month, since beating Australia on Sept. 19 in the third game of their post-Olympic victory tour. They only got back together Thursday, and had two days of practice before the game.

Germany, meanwhile, is in prime form as it gets ready for next year's European championships.

"In a game, it comes down to fitness, preparation and sharpness," Ellis said. "The reality is, we're in different phases of the cycle."

The Americans came out aggressive, testing German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer with a deep run in the first minute. She barely had time to tell her defense to pull it together when Morgan played a cross from the left side in to Wambach, who was wide open in front of the goal. Wambach poked the ball past Angerer, giving the Americans the lead and delighting the sellout crowd of 19,522.

It was Wambach's 147th career goal and 22nd this year.

Germany wasted little time responding back. Simone Laudehr chipped the ball over the defense to Mittag, who beat two defenders and drew Hope Solo out on the breakaway. That left her an easy shot over Solo's raised hands for the goal.

Germany also had several chances in the second half, sending at least two shots wide from close range and another over the crossbar.

"I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bit frustrated with the end result," Morgan said. "But the good thing is we have a game in a couple of days. I'll take my frustrations out then."

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Messi! Messi! Messi!

Roundup: Lionel Messi scored his first hat trick of the season and Cesc Fabregas set up three goals as Barcelona survived Javier Mascherano's ejection and won 5-4 at Deportivo La Coruna in the Spanish league on Saturday.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/49490886/ns/sports-soccer/

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Michael Schumacher wants to join rodeo after retirement ? Formula ...

Michael Schumacher wants to join rodeo after retirement ? Formula 1 news

Michael Schumacher who is currently driving for the Mercedes team has expressed his wish to join rodeo competitions after retiring at the end of 2012 Formula 1 season.

Schumacher has recently announced that he will be retiring at the end of current season. He has also admitted that he will not be continuing his career in Formula 1 anymore. Instead the driver has been looking for a career elsewhere.

?Formula One offers the maximum as far as emotion, speed and work completeness are concerned,? the German told Gazzetta dello Sport. ?Another type of car wouldn't give me the same feelings so I'm stopping here completely. I think I'll do Western riding competitions. My wife Corinna, who has done these sorts of competitions for years, has already chosen the right horse for me. I'll go for it.?

Schumacher is 43 years old currently and has dedicated almost two decades of his life to Formula 1. The driver has been successful in achieving seven world titles during his long career and according to the Formula 1 official website is statistically the best driver in the history of this sport.? The British magazine Autosport named him the second best driver in history of ?Formula 1, the first being Ayrton Senna. As of the current season, the driver is now the only one remaining who holds the honour of competing against Ayrton Senna.

The driver had announced his retirement once before at the end of 2006 season. During his absence of that time, Schumacher had taken part in sports like biking. He then returned in 2010 to drive with Mercedes in a three year contract which will end now. Since his comeback he has not been performing really well. He admitted that his stint with the Mercedes team has helped him understand the meaning of losing. The diver has no plans to return to the sport this time and says that he has no regrets regarding his decision to retire. He is very pleased with what he has been able to achieve in his career.

The driver confessed that he does not want to be remembered as a legend but rather as a ?fighter who never backed down?.

Schumacher is being replaced with Lewis Hamilton of McLaren and he is very happy with the team?s decision.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Michael-Schumacher-wants-to-join-rodeo-after-retirement-Formula-1-news-a196257

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Out Now Launches LGBT Business-to-Business Network at WTM

Marketing specialist Out Now Global is launching a new business networking service for travel companies looking to build share, reach and presence in the multi-billion valued travel market comprised of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people at World Travel Market 2012.

Out Now Business Class http://www.outnowbusinessclass.com officially launches at WTM 2012 in London (November 5-8) and includes a new pavilion at the event to help industry operators unlock the potential of the LGBT travel market, which accounts for six per cent of the population and is worth at least USD $165billion annually (source: LGBT2020 Study) to the total global travel industry.

Members of Out Now Business Class also enjoy on-going online access to a premium suite of research, education and training resources to help operators grow their business in the LGBT market by getting access to the latest key market intelligence, customer trends, training programs and marketing strategies.

Out Now Global founder and CEO Ian Johnson said: ?Forward thinking brands know that effective LGBT marketing is much more than just selling stuff. Investment in areas such as customer service is paramount. But few businesses can do it on their own.

?Out Now Business Class is designed to help the travel industry better understand and leverage the LGBT consumer market through informed education and training, better networking opportunities and enhanced access to important trends around purchasing behaviours and decisions.?

Reed Travel Exhibitions Chairman World Travel Market Fiona Jeffery said: ?WTM has enjoyed a strong relationship with Out Now for the past six years with the LGBT marketing company supplying the latest research and opinion on the sector.

?I am delighted that this relationship has developed into a dedicated LGBT Pavilion giving countries and companies focused on the LGBT market a place to conduct business.?

Furthermore, Out Now will release the latest and most comprehensive research at World Travel Market - with brand new data from more than 20 countries including Brazil, India, Israel and Turkey. The new LGBT2020 tourism spend projections for 2013 will also be released, and Out Now Business Class will screen the world?s first ever gay airline advert at their LGBT marketing masterclass which is on Wednesday, November 7 at 10.30am at WTM. A preview of that advertising ? the world?s first ever gay tourism commercial - is online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyJk7n4KigM and has not been seen in public in full since 1996.

Source: http://www.ftnnews.com/mice/18778-out-now-launches-lgbt-business-to-business-network-at-wtm.html

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Beltran sub boosts Cardinals in Game 3

St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Trevor Rosenthal (64) works during the sixth inning of Game 3 of baseball's National League championship series against the San Francisco Giants, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Trevor Rosenthal (64) works during the sixth inning of Game 3 of baseball's National League championship series against the San Francisco Giants, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Kyle Lohse (26) reacts on the bench after he was taken out of the game during the sixth inning of Game 3 of baseball's National League championship series against the San Francisco Giants, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

CORRECTS INNING TO FIFTH, NOT FOURTH - St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Pete Kozma (38) throws to first for a double play, taking San Francisco Giants' Marco Scutaro (19) out at second and Pablo Sandoval (48) out at first, during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's National League championship series Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

St. Louis Cardinals' Matt Carpenter (13) celebrates his two-run home run with Jon Jay (19) during the third inning of Game 3 of baseball's National League championship series against the San Francisco Giants, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

St. Louis Cardinals' Matt Carpenter (13) hits a two-run home run during the third inning of Game 3 of baseball's National League championship series against the San Francisco Giants, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

(AP) ? Carlos Beltran limped to the trainer's room, taking the St. Louis Cardinals' biggest clutch October bat with him.

Turns out they had the perfect substitute.

Matt Carpenter hit a two-run homer after subbing for Beltran and the Cardinals chased Matt Cain before a 3?-hour rain delay in the seventh inning of a 3-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night for a 2-1 NL championship series lead.

Beltran strained his left knee running out a double-play ball in the first innings and the Cardinals said he was day to day.

Kyle Lohse worked around a season-worst five walks in 5 2-3 innings. Mitchell Boggs struck out Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt with two on to end the seventh. Jason Motte earned the first two-inning save of his career to reward what remained of a sellout crowd of 45,850 ? perhaps a third ? that stuck around for a game that lasted 3 hours, 2 minutes, about a half-hour shorter than the delay.

"They said if we didn't score I was going to go out there. I was in the clubhouse running around, I've never really had to sit around like that," Motte said. "It was probably the most nervous I've ever been."

Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro had two hits and a clean game in the field, two days after Matt Holliday rammed him breaking up a double-play ball. Manager Bruce Bochy had said there would be no retaliation, and Game 3 was collision-free.

The big winners in a delay that featured about a half-hour without rain while officials awaited a second, smaller front: Beer vendors, by a single out. Alcohol sales are cut off after the seventh inning in all stadiums.

Cain lost for the second time this postseason, giving up three runs on five hits in 6 1-3 innings. The Giants, who entered the game batting just .217 in the postseason, were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

The Cardinals snapped the Giants' five-game road winning streak in the postseason, three of them this year. Game 4 is in St. Louis on Thursday night, with Adam Wainwright pitching for the Cardinals. Tim Lincecum will start for the Giants.

"He's a guy we want out there. He's been throwing the ball well," Bochy said. "We've got to bounce back."

Carpenter followed Jon Jay's two-out single with a homer off Cain in his first at-bat of the NLCS.

Beltran is batting .400 in the postseason with three homers and six RBIs, but Carpenter had big numbers against Cain. He was 4 for 4 for his career against Cain, all four of the regular-season hits for singles.

"He's a really good pitcher obviously," Carpenter. I've had some success. I just go up there and try to battle, get a good pitch to hit."

This one was a much bigger deal, a drive on a 2-2 count that soared over the Cardinals bullpen in right field and was estimated at 421 feet.

Carpenter entered the game 1 for 5 in the postseason, all five pinch-hit appearances. He had an RBI single in the wild-card playoff against Atlanta. He got 14 of his 46 RBIs in April as the primary sub at first base for injured Lance Berkman.

On Tuesday, Carpenter was among a group of seldom-used hitters trying to stay sharp by facing Jake Westbrook in a simulated game. The rest of the team had the day off.

Umpires called for the tarpaulin right after the Cardinals made it 3-1 on a run-scoring single by Shane Robinson and Cain was lifted.

It was the third game delayed by rain this postseason and a fourth, Game 4 of the Yankees-Tigers ALCS, was postponed later Wednesday night. Two games between the Yankees and Orioles in Baltimore began late because of inclement weather.

The rain intensified less than 10 minutes after the field was covered, chasing most fans who had remained in their seats up to that point. Spotters for the National Weather Service reported 60 mph winds in nearby St. Charles County.

A highlight of the delay was a Pac-Man style chase. Ushers pursued and finally apprehended a fan who jumped out of the stands to get a baseball near the warning track in left field, and then jutted in and out of aisles to elude several ushers who had been closing in.

The storm had been widely anticipated. Some forecasts called for a 70 percent chance of rain. Both managers fielded questions Tuesday and Wednesday about whether the probability of precipitation would affect their selection of the starting pitcher.

Both said they couldn't worry about the weather, and the starters combined for 208 pitches.

"I've been caught before where you try to predict what's going to happen with the rain and started," Bochy said. "Just a couple years ago I started a pitcher thinking the same thing and it didn't rain for four or five innings. Then I put my starter in and then it started raining, and so it came back to bite me."

Lohse is 2-1 with a 1.96 ERA this postseason despite uncustomary control woes. He was among the majors' best control pitchers this season, averaging 1.62 walks per nine innings.

The Giants entered 70-22 when scoring first, including the postseason, and took the lead in the third on Pablo Sandoval's run-scoring groundout after leadoff hits by Angel Pagan and Scutaro, whose legs looked just fine on an opposite-field double flared just over first baseman Allen Craig's glove.

Beltran leads all players with eight extra-base hits in the 2012 playoffs and is a career .375 hitter in the postseason, highest ever among players with a minimum of 100 at-bats.

NOTES: Danny Cox, who pitched for Cardinals World Series teams in 1985 and 1987, threw a perfect strike on the first pitch. ... According to STATS LLC, Lohse walked two batters in the same inning four times in 2012. ... Jay, who was hit by a pitch to start the game, was plunked 15 times in the regular season. ... Matheny had 122 lineups during the regular season but has stuck with the same eight throughout the postseason. ... The Cardinals are 9-2 in Game 3 of the NLCS, the lone losses coming in 2004 and '05 at Houston. This win ended a streak of scoring at least six runs in the last eight postseason victories dating to Game 3 of the World Series last year, the longest streak of its kind in postseason history. St. Louis entered averaging 7.6 runs in 16 wins the last two postseasons and just 2.3 runs in the 10 losses. ... The Cardinals have played in eight best-of-seven series in which they were tied 1-1 and played Game 3 at home, and have won all of them. They won six of the previous seven series, according to STATS LLC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-10-17-NLCS-Giants-Cardinals/id-39f07d957c1647b0a341bab3cae18c63

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When science is a conveyor of bad news | Energy Bulletin

Science is a phenomenal institution. Sometimes I can?t believe we created this construct that works so incredibly well. It manages to convert human imperfections into a remarkably robust machine that has aided our growth juggernaut. Yet science seeks truth, and sometimes the truth is not what we want to hear. How will we respond? Will we kill the messenger and penalize the scientific institution for what is bound to be an increasing barrage of bad news this century as Earth fills beyond capacity?

I think for many people in our society, personal contact with science is limited to science classes in school or perhaps the dreaded science fair?or maybe as adults watching shows like Nova or tuning in to Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

So let me take a moment to explain science as I have come to understand it. (You can skip if you already have a firm grip.)

The Scientific Method

The best description of the scientific method I have ever seen is from a conceptual physics textbook by Hobson. Paraphrasing:

The scientific method involves the dynamic interplay between theory and experiment.

That?s it. Perfect. As a scientist, I don?t come to work on Monday and make an observation, then form a hypothesis on Tuesday, devise an experiment to test some prediction on Wednesday, perform the experiment Thursday, and interpret the result on Friday. On any given day I would be hard pressed to tell you where I am in the process. All of the above, really. It?s a mess. It?s a constant back and forth comparing theoretical expectations to the final arbiter of any dispute: nature. Some people specialize in one aspect of the process, and can spend years chewing on some piece of it. But it is seldom done in isolation.

Meanwhile, science fair projects across the nation?under the advisement of teachers who themselves often do not have personal experience in how science really works?approach their subject in an uncharacteristically formulaic way. Nine times out of ten the effort culminates in a proof that the initial hypothesis was right; as if that were the goal and criterion for success. The rare student is surprised by the data, admitting to a failure of the hypothesis, quickly reconsidering initial assumptions and driving into an unexpected yet rewarding direction (dynamic interplay). That?s the real scientist at work. Too bad the judges (in my experience as a judge) often don?t recognize this apparent failure as the true success.

I can?t pass up the opportunity to share with you the ?best? high school science fair project I ever saw (when I was myself a student participant in the fair?and no, it was not my project): ?Does light travel through the dark?? Setup: light-tight cardboard box painted black on the inside; flashlight shining through a hole in one end; a peephole in the other end to see if the light made it. Any guesses?

A Hungry Snake

What is so special about science is that it is constantly trying to tear itself apart, like a snake eating its tail. While such an action may not actually make a snake stronger, it does make science stronger.

This self-mutilation is driven by some of the less admirable traits of humans: ego, thirst for fame and status, the need to quell insecurity.

It works like this: Professor Establishment sees an opportunity to expose Theory X (be it evolution, general relativity, anthropogenic climate change, etc.) as a sadly misguided notion. What beckons is fame and glory, a Nobel Prize, and eternal validation?perhaps erasing years of victimization at the hands of bullies in school. All the incentives are there, for virtually every scientist on the planet.

I think this surprises non-scientists, who might perceive the scientific establishment as a sycophantic collection of losers who flock to consensus every time a bandwagon passes through campus dropping research funds off its tailgate. No. Scientists can be argumentative, clever, devious, competitive, possessive, and still manage to be really fun to hang around.

What Holds it Together?

So with all these scientists itching to overturn the applecart, why isn?t the whole enterprise in a woeful state of chaos? Why do we see headlines about consensus views? Do I even know what I?m talking about?

Professor Establishment has one big problem. Data. Mountains of experimental data. For any new idea to be taken seriously, it has to demonstrate consistency with relevant data sets that came before. But a new theory that adequately describes existing data is in itself not enough to make headlines. To be considered interesting or superior, it either has to also explain anomalies that the current theories can?t seem to handle?or better, correctly predict the outcome of an experiment that had not yet been performed, while the older theory fails to match the resulting experimental data.

I?ve been talking about Professor Establishment rather than Joe Schmoe. Joe Schmoe has lots of really mind-bending ideas all the time?and e-mail access, unfortunately. Maybe there are some gold nuggets in there. But the Cinderella-scientist seldom has sufficient awareness of the mountain of data, the acumen to perform any meaningful analysis, or the mathematical skills to formulate their idea in a useful way. (Fed up with a constant stream of unsolicited crackpot e-mails, I finally put up a self-test page, which has, alas, reduced the flow.)

So years of professional training and research experience, reading and writing journal articles, and following developments in theory and experiment give Professor Establishment a substantial leg up when it comes to dealing a deadly blow to a well-rooted scientific theory. Scientific revolutions almost always come from within the establishment. And before you jump to the Swiss patent clerk as a counter-example, be aware that this fellow had a Ph.D. in physics, had published a number of articles in the leading physics journal of the day prior to 1905, and was known to leading physicists across Europe. Einstein was not the outsider many think him to be.

I?ve known several scientists who jumped onto global warming confident that they could bring a wrecking ball to the hype and expose mistakes in analysis, data, or interpretation?only to find that the thing is much more robust than they imagined at first. They generally change their tune after personally experiencing the weight of evidence. I am not claiming that every detail is wrapped up, or that there is no chance that the whole story may unravel someday. But the odds get slimmer with every failed attempt.

Emergent Robustness

The result of all this scheming is a sort of scientific Darwinism. Prominent new theories stand out as bigger prizes for the taking, attracting more gunfire. Every failed shot gives the theory more strength, feeding a cycle of continued challenge. In the process, more experiments are conducted and the mountain of data grows. Eventually, exhausted scientists cease fire, and start working with the theory as a useful and as-far-as-we-know accurate description of nature, often providing a stepping stone to explore new frontiers. One upshot is that the emerging consensus does not come easily. Meanwhile, some scientists will continue to probe the foundations of all the important theories in the high-stakes game of seeking ultimate truth.

Very rarely, revolutionary ideas do prevail, but generally in a way that preserves the key qualities of the preceding theory in some well-tested regime. Einstein?s general relativity renders Newtonian gravity as fundamentally wrong, but still accurate enough in most situations to be darned useful to this day and forever more. General relativity may well falter some day, but its replacement must preserve the general-relativistic (post-Newtonian) aspects of nature that have already been measured and confirmed to moderate precision.

I like to say that physicists did not gleefully adopt quantum mechanics, general relativity, or ghostly neutrinos because they were eager for the novelty, or thought the idea just sounded really cool, or deferred to some authoritative figure (like Einstein) whose opinions on such matters were not to be questioned. Rather, ideas of this sort were forced down the throats of fussy physicists who didn?t want to adopt these strange notions. And it is the tight agreement between theory and experiment that does the throat-cramming.

Is it Truth?

It would be too strong a statement to claim that science achieves truth. But truth is certainly the aim, and at the very least science achieves an admirable level of Truthiness. Perhaps it is sufficient to say that science provides us with the best version of the truth we are currently capable of realizing.

All the same, science is never written in stone: it cannot become religious dogma. It?s only as good as the observations that support it, and the door is always open to new observations and new interpretations. So we can never call it Truth with a capital ?T.? It?s just a whole heck of a lot better than anything we could spout from the comfort of our armchair?being vetted by nature and experiments.

The Good, the Bad, and the Jerk Called Science

The preceding exposition serves to emphasize the fact that science builds into itself a level of objectivity despite depending on the efforts of subjective practitioners. Science therefore acquires a certain indifference, exercising little in the way of value judgments. It?s jerky that way.

Many regard science as a good thing: providing the foundation for technology and bringing with it medical advances, creature comforts, security, and twinkies. Some see the bad aspects: nuclear weapons, genetic engineering, environmental degradation, and twinkies.

But science, like the honey badger, doesn?t care. Science enables humans to understand the evolution of the universe since the big bang? Shrug. Science cures polio? Yawn. Science unsettles us by revealing the ultimate demise of the earth, sun, and universe? All in a day?s work. Science unlocks the secrets to making nuclear bombs that are used to destroy all life on a planet? No matter. So science is a bit like an ornery uncle.

And it?s what this ornery uncle has to say about our future that makes me sit up. Uncle Science says:

  • Our familiar growth phase is a temporary phenomenon, as any exponential function must be;
  • The chief energy source that brought us to this place is finite and will wane over the next century or so;
  • Modern agriculture is dependent on finite fossil fuels, requiring roughly ten calories of energy input for every one calorie delivered to the table;
  • Population will continue to grow even if birthrate suddenly dropped to replacement levels around the world due to demographic inertia (a young-laden distribution not yet at reproductive age);
  • Escaping the bounds of this planet does not constitute a likely escape hatch due to both energy constraints and the hostile environment we find away from the eggshell-thin layer around the earth;
  • Our fossil fuel bonanza has created an unauthorized global-scale climate experiment that may wreak havoc on crops and the interconnected web of species on the planet.

Burn the Observatory

So my main question is: how will the public react to grumpy Uncle Science as the message pivots away from telling us about all the amazing things that are possible to detailing why some of our dreams are not possible? As our planet ?fills up,? the balance will certainly shift?as it has begun to do already?to the negative side effects and to pointing out practices that cannot continue without dire consequences.

An example of such bad news crossed my path last week. A common dream is that once societies achieve a certain level of education, comfort, economic scale, and energy use, the population stops growing, and can even contract slightly. This so-called demographic transition is a main ingredient in many people?s hope for the future. Our goal, it is said, should be to foster growth in developing countries to speed them on their way to this state (and surely no one will object if we developed countries experience more economic growth as well, right?). A recent study (see also this related article) looked at the correlation between energy availability and population growth rate, concluding that the break-even value is at a per-capita energy intake rate of 13,000 W. Combining this with various projections for future energy availability, it was found that population will continue to surge to levels well above the UN projections by mid-century. The amount of energy necessary to achieve a global demographic transition (if the current correlation is to hold) is absurd. Uncle Science says not likely. Another dream dashed.

Look for more examples in newspapers near you. I predict an increasing drumbeat of scientists pointing out limitations to our ambitions. It?s not because that?s what?s ?in? right now. It?s where the mountain of evidence is leading us.

This all makes me very worried. I cherish the scientific institution for its ability to transcend petty human shortcomings: actually building on those weaknesses to create a strong approximation of Truth. Science is a pursuit of luxury, borne by the citizenry out of a sense of goodwill, curiosity, and promise. It has served as a catalyst to economic growth not only by paving the way to a world full of gizmos and new capabilities, but also through the development of sophisticated methods for locating underground resources in the form of energy and materials. As long as science keeps it up, everyone is happy. But as the century wears on, the words ?can?t,? ?won?t,? and ?shouldn?t? will likely appear more often in connection with science. Not so popular with the peoples.

Will funding for science wither as a result? Will we decide to stop paying for more bad news? Will scientists feel political pressure to stay away from ?downer? topics after people get fed up or the dire news is deemed to be bad for morale and therefore a psychological impediment to economic growth? I hope we will always keep the door open to truth, even when it?s not music to our ears. But I am not so certain this will be the case?especially when money is on the line.

Taking insight from the Simpsons?that fountain of wisdom on matters of human nature?a favorite episode of mine starts with Bart discovering a comet while messing around with a telescope. As the local observatory confirms, this comet is barreling straight toward Springfield. All attempts to avert disaster only make the situation worse (like the missile sent to destroy the comet veering off course to blow up the only bridge out of town). Homer is the only one unconcerned, speculating that the comet will burn up in the atmosphere, reduced to the size of a chihuahua?s head by the time it makes landfall. Having completely botched any coordinated attempts at mitigating the disaster, the whole town ends up squeezing into Ned Flanders? deluxe shelter, forcing Ned out. In a rare display of guilt, Homer follows Ned out to face ?the end? together, shaming the rest of the town out into the open with them. The comet indeed burns up during entry?the remnant managing to strike and destroy the abandoned shelter, rolling to a stop at Homer?s feet where a chihuahua conveniently happens by for a favorable size comparison.

This is all amusing enough and I highly recommend the episode. But as etched as the story is in my memory, the part that is really seared into my brain is the reaction of the crowd. Moments after experiencing relief, anger boils to the surface in response to the emotional roller coaster to which the townsfolk had been subjected. An angry mob forms to march off to the observatory, intent on burning it to the ground ?so that nothing like this ever happens again.?

Sadly, I think this could portend the fate of science. And it also captures the inaccuracy of public opinion: the observatory played a minor role in the story, let alone the larger point that knowledge of the approaching comet should only be viewed as a useful service. Perhaps I?m not justified in taking a cartoon as poignant commentary. What matters is what we do in the real world.

Whether dealing with predictions of global warming, limits to growth, ecosystem collapse, pollution, crop failure, aquifer discharge, fisheries depletion, or any number of similar warnings?when the anticipated fate befalls us, will our reaction be to blame the institution that brought awareness? Will we burn the observatory, shun science, and close our ears to further cautions? I hope we can be smarter than that. Meanwhile, keep a lookout for signs that science is waning in popularity?as I suspect it will in the decades to come. In fact, I sense that it has already started.

Source: http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-10-17/when-science-conveyor-bad-news

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