Tiny fossils hold answers to big questions on climate change

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The western Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming regions on the planet, and the fastest warming part of the Southern Hemisphere.

Scientists have debated the causes of this warming, particularly in light of recent instrumental records of both atmospheric and oceanic warming from the region. As the atmosphere and ocean warm, so the ice sheet (holding an equivalent of 5 metres of global sea level rise, locked up in ice) becomes vulnerable to collapse.

Now research led by Cardiff University published in Nature Geosciencehas used a unique 12,000 year long record from microscopic marine algae fossils to trace glacial ice entering the ocean along the western Antarctic Peninsula.

The study has found that the atmosphere had a more significant impact on warming along the western Antarctic Peninsula than oceanic circulation in the late Holocene (from 3500-250 years ago).

This was not the case prior to 3500 years ago, and is not the case in the modern environment. The study has also shown that this late Holocene atmospheric warming was cyclic (400-500 year long cycles) and linked to the increasing strength of the El Ni?o ? Southern Oscillation phenomenon (a climate pattern centred in the low latitude Pacific Ocean) demonstrating an equatorial influence on high latitude climate.

Dr Jennifer Pike, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences said: "Our research is helping to understand the past dynamic behaviour of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet. The implications of our findings are that the modern observations of ocean-driven warming along the western Antarctic Peninsula need to be considered as part of a natural centennial timescale cycle of climate variability, and that in order to understand climate change along the Antarctic Peninsula, we need to understand the broader climate connections with the rest of the planet."

Ice derived from land has a very distinctive ratio of oxygen isotopes. This research is the highest resolution application in coastal Antarctic marine sediments of a technique to measure the oxygen isotope ratios of microscopic marine algae fossils (diatom silica). When a large amount of glacial ice is discharged into the coastal ocean, this alters the oxygen isotope ratio of the sea water that the marine algae are living in. This creates a clear imprint in the fossils that reveals the environmental conditions of the time. The scientists used the oxygen isotope ratio of the fossils to reconstruct the amount of glacial ice entering the coastal ocean in the past 12,000 years, and to determine whether the variations in the amount of ice being discharged were the result of changes in the ocean or atmospheric environment.

Professor Melanie Leng, from the British Geological Survey and Chair of Isotope Geosciences in the Department of Geology, University of Leicester, said: "Technologically the analysis of the oxygen isotope composition of diatom silica is extremely difficult, the British Geological Survey is one of a very few research organisations in the world that can undertake this type of analysis. For this research project the methodology has been developed over the last five years with the specific aim of investigating the different amounts of melting in the polar regions. It's fair to say we are world leading pioneers in this technique."

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Cardiff University: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk

Thanks to Cardiff University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126411/Tiny_fossils_hold_answers_to_big_questions_on_climate_change

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Top UK Online Marketing Influencers & Bloggers in 2013

For the past 2 years we?ve been publishing a list of the top UK focused internet marketing blogs in advance of speaking at events.?This year I?ll be presenting on Creative Content Marketing at SES London February 19th.

Since bloggers do more than just write posts, I?ve shifted the focus of this list from blogs to individuals. With the increasing importance of authorship and personal brands, I think it?s important to consider individual bloggers and the content they share whether its tweets, status updates, or other useful information created online.

As a result, the people on this list are recognized for their overall social sharing about ?online marketing? related topics, not just blogging.

Thanks to nominations made from some really helpful UK bloggers and the folks at Traackr we?ve created the?Top 50 UK Online Marketing Influencers & Bloggers.

Here?s more info about this year?s Top UK Online Marketing Influencers & Bloggers List and a few inevitable questions:

How did you create the list?
To start, we drew upon our top UK internet blogs lists from past years then asked an array of UK based internet marketers to nominate their favorite blogs and bloggers that cover search engine optimization, content marketing, search engine marketing, social media and other online marketing practices.

TopRank Online Marketing also partnered with Traackr to discover new influential bloggers, track their online content and measure their reach, resonance and relevance.

To make the list, a blogger needed to write consistently about online marketing and have an engaged audience. This ranking is updated every week to take into conservation new content published by UK bloggers on the social web, so be sure to return to see if your ranking has changed.

How do you define ?online marketing??
To develop this list, we defined online marketing as the practice of using digital channels to attract and acquire customers. The bloggers selected for the list write consistently about topics such as search engine marketing and optimization, social media marketing, content marketing, online public relations and similar topics.

How can I be included on this list?
The only way to be included on this list is to be based in the UK, write and share original content about online marketing. Your relevancy to the topic is most important. We also look at metrics to determine the size of your audience and their level of engagement with your content.

Why did my rank change?
The influential bloggers listed here are identified by Traackr and their online content is monitored over time. As new content is published, we reassess everyone?s relevance and engagement metrics on a weekly basis. New people can emerge and current list members can move in rank depending on these factors.

What is Traackr?
Traackr provides influencer identification and analytics software for businesses and agencies. The tool discovers, ranks and monitors online influencers and the content they produce on the web. Midsize and large companies use Traackr to build better influencer programs and earn more attention by engaging with the right people. You can learn more at www.traackr.com.

Thank you

To the following UK based marketers and all around helpful people who nominated many of the bloggers in this list:

Also a HUGE THANKS goes to Evy Wilkins from Traackr for all her hard work to make this new list template happen.

Inevitably, there are people that our readers feel should be included in the lists we publish. ?You can share your suggestions of course, but publishing content on social networks and on blogs on a regular basis is really the best way to make it into the consideration set.

Here?s a little more about that event I?m speaking at in London next month:

Creative Content Marketing?Winning Hearts, Minds, & Wallets
Investments in content marketing are on the rise, but few companies have fully realised what the best practices are for creating high-quality content over a long period of time. Developing ideas for effective marketing can be a challenge. This session will help you to:

• Develop a framework for creative and efficient content creation.
• Find resources and ideas where others cannot.
• Leverage a mix of evergreen, repurposed, curated, and co-created content for better marketing results.
• Apply SEO and social media optimization principles to amplify content reach and engagement.

The top 2 live tweeters during my #SESLON?session will win a copy of Optimize (sorry, no ?Optimise? version is?available) ?:)

I hope to see you there!

Source: http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/01/online-marketing-bloggers-uk/

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Video: Temps dip as frigid weather hits US

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50554627/

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Dish Closing 300 More Blockbuster Stores

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Dish Network is closing another 300 Blockbuster video stores in the next few weeks, bringing its total number of locations to about 500, the company announced Monday.

The move comes after Blockbuster closings last year that included the shutdown of 500 locations last February. The company said Monday, as it did last year, that it would close unprofitable stores.

No locations for the closings have been announced. Some of the stores are reaching the end of their building leases, while others will close because of their performance, Dish spokesman John W. Hall told TheWrap.

The closures come as little surprise as more consumers watch streaming videos or buy them on-demand through their cable company rather than trekking to the brick-and-mortar stores that were so packed with customers in the 1990s.

Dish, which purchased the video chain for $320 million in 2011, is increasingly using Blockbuster's remaining physical locations to hawk its Dish services.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dish-closing-300-more-blockbuster-stores-022733606.html

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How 'dark pools' enable anonymous insider trading

By Tom WinterProducer, NBC News

While federal authorities aggressively pursue individual insider stock trading? cases ?? including an ongoing investigation of Wall Street titan Steven A. Cohen?s SAC Capital hedge fund ? financial regulators remain years away from being able to peer into ?dark pools,? the high-tech mechanism that insiders use to conduct secret, advantageous transactions.

Federal prosecutors have been circling Cohen, 56, the founder and owner of one of the largest and most profitable U.S. hedge funds and one of the richest men in America, since at least late last year, when an indictment was unsealed against former SAC employee Mathew Martoma. He was the fifth SAC employee accused of insider trading while at the firm; four others have pleaded guilty.

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The complaint, which alleges that Martoma used inside information about a clinical drug trial to help SAC earn profits and avoid losses of $276 million in 2008, indicates that Martoma told Cohen about the results of the trial. SAC then sold stock in the Elan company and purchased options, ?a calculated and well-informed gamble that the stock would plummet once the news was announced, according to the complaint.

Martoma, 38, pleaded not guilty to insider trading charges this month. His lawyer said he expects his client to be ?fully exonerated.?

Cohen has not been charged with any crimes. A spokesman for Cohen said, "The firm and Steve Cohen are confident he acted appropriately."

Steve Marcus / Reuters file

Hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen, founder and chairman of SAC Capital Advisors, at the SkyBridge Alternatives (SALT) Conference in Las Vegas on May 11, 2012.

The complaint also offered a look at how ?dark pools? allowed Cohen's firm to trade millions of shares and hundreds of millions of dollars of stock virtually undetected.

Dark pools are essentially private stock exchanges reserved for the largest traders, including hedge funds, major institutional funds, pension funds, and big banks. The pools use computers to match buyers and sellers of a particular stock, drawing pricing data from public stock exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ.

While all exchanges have a degree of anonymity, dark pools have an increased level of secrecy because neither the size of the trade nor the identity of the participants are revealed until a trade is filled. It?s like the childhood pool game of ?Marco Polo,? except all the players are blindfolded rather than just? one. As a result, there is no way of knowing if just one broker, one trader or one firm doing all the buying or selling.

That means institutions trying to unravel or rapidly accumulate large positions in a company can avoid the large increases or decreases that often occur when a major trader begins acquiring or dumping a stock. Essentially, without knowing who is doing the buying or selling, other investors can?t recognize a sudden large increase in supply or demand, experts on the pools tell NBC News.

In the complaint against Martoma, investigators cite an email from a ?senior trader? at SAC Capital explaining how trading in dark pools and using algorithms enabled the company to avoid detection, and potential losses on its sale of Elan stock:

?This process clearly stopped leakage of info from either in (or) outside the firm and in my viewpoint clearly saved us some slippage,? it said.

The secret trades are perfectly legal. Only if they are coupled with inside information and used to give buyers or sellers an improper advantage do they cross the line.

Investors who have filed a class-action lawsuit against Cohen and SAC Capital say that?s exactly what happened with the trades in the Elan pharmaceutical company initiated by Martoma. They allege that they were at a distinct disadvantage as SAC profited from insider knowledge.

"I had a million dollar home, now I'm in a manufactured home," said one of the plaintiffs, Howard Kreier of North Carolina. Today, he said, he's ashamed to talk to his friends who also bought the Elan stock on his recommendation and lost big too.

What surprises many investors is that the Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulator of the dark pool exchanges, also is in the dark, with no way of quickly determining who is trading what, according to its website. Only through historical forensic analysis of trades -- and sometimes by subpoenaing trading records ? can the SEC find suspicious patterns indicative of insider trading.

The regulatory agency is putting together a system, called the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), capable of tracking trades in near-real time. But that is at least three years away according to the bid schedule. It is unknown if such a system could have detected the huge moves by SAC Capital in July 2008.

The SEC declined requests for comment from NBC News, but pointed to the agency?s website for the information on CAT as well as the SEC's charter, which requires it to ?protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation."

?That mandate puts the agency in the difficult position, observers note, because it has to encourage innovation ?? such as the use of dark pools -- while simultaneously protecting investors from being at a disadvantage as a result of such systems.

Insider trading by all hedge funds has been under scrutiny since August 2009, when Preet Bharara took over for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Since then, 76 people have been charged with the illegal act of buying and selling stock based on information from insiders, with 71 convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney ?s Office.

?While the toll of insider trading is difficult to establish, plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit against Cohen and SAC say their case shows that the practice punished both ordinary investors and other institutions that aren?t in the know.

In going after Cohen and SAC, they are targeting one of Wall Street?s savviest traders.

Cohen is worth nearly $9 billion, according to published reports. Despite his massive art collection, 36,000 square foot home, and enormous wealth Cohen maintains a relatively low profile, rarely granting interviews.

"In speaking to Steve Cohen you wouldn't necessarily know that he has one of the greatest track records as an investor over the last 15 or 20 years and that he's one of the richest men in the country, said CNBC's David Faber, "He's fairly understated, he's far from a recluse, he has plenty of friends and is extraordinarily competitive.?

But Kreier, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said he has no compunctions about going after such a prominent player, given the high price he paid for his investment in Elan. Because he had no idea SAC Capital was dumping hundreds of millions of dollars of stock and even short-selling Elan through the dark pools, he said his confidence in the stock market is shot.

?"You don't stand a chance,? he said. ?You buy a stock, you're better off buying a lottery ticket."

Source: http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/23/16633004-gazing-into-dark-pools-the-tool-that-enables-anonymous-insider-trading?lite

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Merlin Network Accuses Myspace of Copyright Infringement ...

Less than a week after going public, Myspace ? a website launched to help Justin Timberlake sell an album ? is already facing its first copyright issues. While the relaunch is focused largely on music, with licensing deals for over 50 million songs, it hasn?t stopped them from allegedly using music from smaller labels without permission. The Merlin Network claims Myspace features content from its clients without permission.

Merlin is claiming that music from more than 100 of their clients can be listened to through the new Myspace. The Merlin Network makes licensing deals for the digital rights to music from indie labels like Beggars Group, Domino, and Merge Records. Although Myspace did initially license music from Merlin, that deal lapsed last year.

Charles Caldas, chief executive of the Merlin Network, said that though it was nice Timberlake was launching this platform, ?his peers as artists are being exploited without permission and not getting remuneration for it.?

Myspace claims that any songs on their site that infringe on Merlin?s licensing deals were added by users, and that they would remove those songs at Merlin?s request. Whether that will satisfy Merlin or not is unclear, but at the very least it could mean Myspace is about to get much more thorough with their copyright policing.

(via The Verge, image via Myspace)

Relevant to your interests

Source: http://www.geekosystem.com/myspace-music-rights-issues/

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