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It'll probably take the rest of winter for Niners and Ravens fans to get over what happened yesterday that knocked their respective teams out of Super Bowl XLVI (that would be 46 for all of you who don't read Roman numerals). But for Patriots and Giants fans, the fun is just beginning. Through a newly installed social media command center, visitors to the big game in Indianapolis will be able to ask questions and receive answers leading up to the Feb. 5 showdown.
For the next two weeks until?the NFL's most important game, an Indianpolis-based?team (no, not the Colts) is operating out of a 2,800-square-foot space to read and respond to fans who are one of 100,000 to 150,000 lucky souls who will be in Indianapolis for the game, posting about the Super Bowl and their beloved teams. This social media super team will provide directions, to-do around town suggestions and other important information (such as what to do in case of an emergency at the stadium).
Indianapolis digital marketing firm Raidious is in charge of the operation, with CEO Taulbee Jackson at the helm. Jackson sits on the Super Bowl host committee and was asked to help with social media strategy. I reached to Jackson by phone this morning and he shared more details on this Superbowl first.
"It's the first time any facility like this has been built to manage social media for such a large event," Jackson said. "We were outgrowing our second office in 18 months at the same time the Host Committee asked for our help, so we designed and built the space with the express intention of using it as the Super Bowl Social Media Command Center, then taking over the space afterwards."?
The team ??which includes about 50 people, led by?Raidious' staff of 16 and students and journalism/telecommunications students from Ball State University, Butler University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis?? will work in the command center 15 hours a day. (Not all at once!)
One team will focus on social media management and moderation, while the other (most likely the students) will work?on content development for posts on all the events and activities that surround the game, as well as things to do in Indianapolis since a big part of the team's mandate will be promoting the city to newcomers. "It's?Hoosier hopsitality for the 21st century," Jackson said.
Given that the two league championship teams are from New York and New England, it's a good bet there will be first-timers in the zone. While most visitors are expected to arrive in the city next Wednesday or Thursday (Feb. 1 and Feb. 2), the social media command center will swing into high gear starting this week.
As we've already seen, sports fans are some of the most rabid in social media posts, with record-setting tweets about Tim Tebow?(9,420 tweets per second), as well as the 7,196 tweets per second during the Women's World Cup final between the U.S. and Japan last summer. And have you ever looked at your Facebook on football Sundays, much less the playoffs? It's one sure way to see who's a fan, and how intense they are about it. (On my Facebook, the Bears, Ravens, Raiders and Niners fans are definitely the most vocal.)
In fact, every time the Super Bowl comes around, it's a proven magnet for the millions who are active on Facebook, Twitter and now, Google+. In 2011, the only Facebook status update topic in the world, amongst 800 million users?that bested the Packers winning Super Bowl 45 was the death of Osama bin Laden.?
For those who will be in Indy, there will be plenty to write home about, but they'll also be in company with the millions glued to their sets that Sunday watching with them. ?
The Super Bowl social media command center will concentrate on key word-based monitoring, but because they're geo-targeting the Indianapolis/Indiana area and those coming to town for the game, they won't be as overwhelmed as they would be if they tried to deal with all the online traffic the event generates.
"One of the reasons we've staffed it the way we have, and put in all this technology, is to deal with the high levels of volume, even limiting that to the Indianapolis, Indiana area," Jackson said.
Safety is another priority, using Twitter to get any emergency instructions and information out quickly if necessary.?
From the main Super Bowl XLVI site, fans can access the social media command center's activity through its management of the Super Bowl Facebook page, Flickr and Twitter accounts and the site's blog.
More stories:
Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.
WASHINGTON ? Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the son of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and a frequent critic of the Transportation Security Administration, was stopped by security at the Nashville airport Monday when a scanner set off an alarm and Paul declined to allow a security officer to subsequently pat him down. The White House said airport security acted appropriately.
Police escorted Paul away, but he was allowed to board a later flight. The security scanner identified an issue with the senator's knee, although Paul said he has no screws or medical hardware around the joint.
Paul, who frequently uses the airport about an hour from his home in Bowling Green, Ky., told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he asked for another scan but refused to submit to a pat down by airport security.
Paul said he was "detained" at a small cubicle and couldn't make his flight to Washington for a Senate vote scheduled later in the day.
White House spokesman Jay Carney did not confirm that the incident involved Paul, but said the passenger in question was never detained. He defended the TSA.
"Passengers, as in this case, who refuse to comply with security procedures, are denied access to the secure gate area," Carney said. "I think it is absolutely essential that we take necessary actions to ensure that air travel is safe and I believe that is what TSA is tasked with doing."
Paul said the situation reflects his long-standing concern that the TSA shouldn't be "spending so much time with people who wouldn't attack us."
TSA spokesman Greg Soule confirmed there was an incident but didn't identify the passenger as Paul.
"When an irregularity is found during the TSA screening process, it must be resolved prior to allowing a passenger to proceed to the secure area of the airport," Soule said in a written statement. "Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area in order to ensure the safety of others traveling."
Carney said an alarm was triggered during routine screening, but the passenger refused to continue with the screening process to resolve the issue. Local police escorted Paul out of the screening area, he said.
Paul went through a millimeter wave machine that uses a generic outline of a body for all passengers, according to a TSA official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss agency screening procedures. When an alarm goes off, TSA officers target the area of the body that triggered the alarm and pat down the passenger.
Paul's father, Ron Paul, used his son's experience to promote his "Plan to Restore America," which would cut $1 trillion of federal spending in a year and eliminate the TSA.
"The police state in this country is growing out of control. One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities," Ron Paul said in a statement issued by his presidential campaign. "The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe."
Rand Paul told reporters at the airport that he had no idea why his knee raised concerns with TSA. He said he showed his knee to the security agents and doesn't have any medical hardware or issues in the knee.
"There is no problem. It was just a problem with their machine. But this is getting more frequent, and because everybody has to have a pat down it's a problem," Paul said.
Paul said he was in Denver two days ago and allowed to walk through the screener again and avoided the pat down.
He said he didn't want special treatment from TSA because he's a senator. "I think we need to treat everybody with dignity."
The TSA said Paul was allowed to board another flight after a different screening.
In a November Senate hearing, Paul asked TSA Administrator John Pistole to change the policy so that adults could go through the machines a second time when an alarm is triggered on the first attempt.
"Let us go back through the machine rather than get a pat-down. You'll get rid of a lot of the anger and animosity towards the TSA and towards what you're doing, and give us a little more dignity when we travel," Paul said. "Just let us go back through the screener again ? you know, I mean, people don't want to have a pat-down."
Paul is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee does not regulate TSA, but holds hearings about airport security.
___
Schelzig contributed to this story from Nashville. Writer Roger Alford contributed from Frankfort, Ky.
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Posted: 4:19 pm Fri, January 20, 2012 By Burl?Gilyard Tags: apartment vacancy, Bennett Lumber, commercial real estate, Community Planning and Economic Development, Greystar Real Estate Partners, Park Place Apartments, Sherman Associates
The former home of Bennett Lumber in south Minneapolis has long been eyed for redevelopment. An out-of-town buyer has now purchased the 5.6-acre site. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)
Firm manages, develops apartments
Greystar Real Estate Partners, a large national apartment owner and developer, has paid $5.65 million for the vacant former home of Bennett Lumber in the Uptown area of south Minneapolis.
The site?s previous local owners outlined plans for up to 710 apartments for the site, which stretches across three blocks along the northern edge of the Midtown Greenway.
The Charleston, S.C.-based Greystar is involved in multifamily investment, development and property management. According to its website, the company manages more than 180,000 apartments in more than 100 U.S. markets.
A representative of Greystar did not return phone calls seeking comment on the deal.
Despite its national presence, Greystar is a new player in the Twin Cities market. In late August, the company paid $54.7 million for the 500-unit Park Place Apartments in Plymouth, one of the largest local apartment deals in several years.
But the company clearly will build, as well as buy, projects. In the Dallas, Texas, suburb of Lakewood, Greystar is building a 435-unit Class A apartment complex.
A certificate of real estate value (CRV) for the Bennett Lumber deal was filed on Friday with Hennepin County. The document did not indicate the closing date of the transaction. The listed buyer was Uptown Joint Venture LLC. The LLC?s address matches an address for Greystar?s office in Houston, Texas.
The land was previously owned by two local groups: Uptown Aurora Properties LLC and JPG-OFG LLC. Records show that the properties sold for $3.75 million in 2006.
James Gearen, a local commercial real estate executive who was part of the previous ownership group, did not return a call seeking comment about the transaction.
The site includes several parcels, but the main addresses include:
2828 Emerson Ave. S.
2828 Dupont Ave. S.
2836 Colfax Ave. S.
The city of Minneapolis assembled an environmental assessment worksheet (EAW) for the proposed redevelopment of the 5.6-acre site. In May, the City Council voted that a more in-depth environmental impact statement (EIS) would not be required.
Hilary Dvorak, a senior planner with the city?s Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) department, said that developers previously secured city approvals for 217 apartments on the easternmost parcel. No plans have been submitted for the other two parcels.
The Bennett Lumber site has been eyed for redevelopment for years. During the condo boom, Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates envisioned a plan for 150 to 170 units on the site, but that plan never moved forward.
In the current climate of continued uncertainty in the housing market, apartment vacancy has tightened significantly. At the end of September, Minneapolis-based Marquette Advisors reported apartment vacancy across the Twin Cities at 2.3 percent.
The Uptown area has been a draw for apartment developers. Marquette Advisors reported a vacancy rate of 1.8 percent for southwest Minneapolis at the end of the third quarter.
Minneapolis-based Greco is wrapping up work on Flux, a market-rate apartment complex with 216 units at 2838 Fremont Ave. S. in Minneapolis, just west of the Bennett Lumber site. Plymouth-based Dominium is under way on a conversion of the Lehmann Center building at 1006 Lake St. W., where plans call for 136 affordable apartments. That project is on the other side of the Midtown Greenway from the Bennett Lumber property.
There are other plans on the books. Greco has also proposed approximately 170 market-rate apartments at 2900 Lyndale Ave. S., a vacant corner lot.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Real Estate, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
KANO (Reuters) ? Gun and bomb attacks by Islamist insurgents in the northern Nigerian city of Kano last week killed at least 178 people, a hospital doctor said on Sunday, underscoring the challenge President Goodluck Jonathan faces to prevent his country sliding further into chaos.
A coordinated series of bomb blasts and shooting sprees mostly targeting police stations Friday sent panicked residents of Nigeria's second biggest city of more than 10 million people running for cover.
The scale of the carnage makes this by far the deadliest strike claimed by Boko Haram, a shadowy Islamist sect that started out as a clerical movement opposed to western education but has become the biggest security menace facing Africa's top oil producer.
"We have 178 people killed in the two main hospitals," the senior doctor in Kano's Murtala Mohammed hospital said following Friday's attacks, citing records from his own and the other main hospital of Nasarawa.
"There could be more, because some bodies have not yet come in and others were collected early."
The streets were quiet Sunday in Kano, a vast metropolis of wide paved highways, normally buzzing with motorbikes, and sandy alleyways where hawkers sell grilled meat and donkeys pull carts heaped with fruit and vegetables.
Churches, which would usually be filled with worshippers in the religiously mixed city, were largely empty.
Jonathan, a Christian from the south, travelled to Kano on Sunday, visiting hospitals to speak to victims.
"Our coming today is to express our condolence to the good people of Kano over the dastardly acts," Jonathan said at the palace of the Emir, the city's Muslim figurehead.
"Those causing havoc will never succeed ... The federal government will not rest until the perpetrators are brought to book. We will not rest until these terrorist are wiped out," said Jonathan, wearing a traditional northern Nigerian kaftan and hat.
Boko Haram has been blamed for killing hundreds of people in increasingly sophisticated bombings and shootings, mostly targeting security forces, establishment figures and more recently Christians, in the country of 160 million people split roughly evenly between them and Muslims.
MORE ATTACKS ON SUNDAY
Apart from a handful of forays into the capital Abuja, the sect's energies have been concentrated in the majority Muslim north, far from the oil producing facilities along the southern coast that keep Africa's second biggest economy afloat.
A further 10 people were killed Sunday in Bauchi state, which neighbors Kano, when police fought gunmen attempting to rob a bank, the police said. Boko Haram robbed several banks last year to fund its insurgency.
"In the early hours of today gunmen killed 10 people at a military checkpoint and a nearby hotel at Tafawa Balewa local government area," police commissioner Ikechukwu Aduba told Reuters.
"One police officer, an army corporal and eight civilians (were killed) after gunmen were earlier repelled from robbing a bank."
Explosions also struck two churches in Bauchi Sunday, witnesses said, destroying one of them completely, although there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The government has announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Kano, an ancient city that was once part of an Islamic caliphate trading riches on caravan routes connecting sub-Saharan Africa with the Mediterranean.
Jonathan, who helped broker a deal that largely ended an insurgency by militants in the oil-rich southeast in 2009, has been criticized for failing to grasp the gravity of the crisis unfolding in the north, and of treating it as a pure security issue that will fizzle out by itself.
Worsening insecurity has led some to question whether Nigeria isn't sliding into civil war, 40 years after the secessionist Biafra conflict killed over a million people, though few think an all-out war splitting the country into two or more pieces is a likely outcome.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks and called for "swift and transparent investigations" into the killings. European powers and the African Union have also condemned the attacks.
SECT CHANGING
Boko Haram became active around 2003 in the remote, northeastern state of Borno, on the threshold of the Sahara, but its attacks have spread into other northern states, including Yobe, Kano, Bauchi and Gombe.
Boko Haram, a Hausa term meaning "Western education is sinful," is loosely modeled on Afghanistan's Taliban, but analysts say the anger it channels reflects a perception that the north has been marginalized from oil riches concentrated in the south.
The sect originally said it wanted sharia, Islamic law, to be applied more widely across Nigeria but its aims appear to have changed. Recent messages from its leaders have said it is attacking anyone who opposes it, at present mainly police, the government and Christian groups.
"Since 2009 it is an insurgency that has gathered pace almost in slow motion, incrementally - apparently absorbed and accommodated with no clear evidence that government has the capacity, competence or will to turn the tide," said Antony Goldman, head of Nigeria-focused PM Consulting.
"Boko Haram was a work in progress when (former President) Obasanjo, who had a deserved 'no nonsense' reputation, was in power; and it was Yar'Adua, a Muslim President, who ordered a bloody crackdown in 2009. It was a difficult inheritance for Jonathan but the problems have only grown more complex."
Boko Haram's attacks have become increasingly deadly in the last few months.
At least 65 people were killed in the northeast Nigerian city of Damaturu, Yobe state, in a spate of gun and bomb attacks in November.
A bomb attack on a Catholic church just outside the capital Abuja on Christmas Day, claimed by Boko Haram, killed 37 people and wounded 57.
In a Reuters interview in late December, National Security Adviser General Owoye Andrew Azazi said officials are considering making contact with moderate members of shadowy sect via "back channels," even though explicit talks are officially ruled out.
(Additional reporting by Joe Brock in Abuja; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Giles Elgood)
CHICAGO - Abby Wambach has been voted the U.S. Soccer Federation's female athlete of the year for the fifth time, matching Mia Hamm's record. Clint Dempsey has been voted top male athlete for the first time since 2007.
The USSF also said Friday that Brek Shea and Sydney Leroux were the top young athletes.
Wambach won previously in 2003, 2004, 2007 and last year. Hamm won from 1994 to 1998. Wambach scored four goals at the Women's World Cup, including one in the 122nd minute in the semifinals that forced penalty kicks and enabled the Americans to reach the final, where they lost to Germany.
Dempsey scored three goals at the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Playing for Fulham, he passed Brian McBride to become the highest-scoring American in the Premier League.
Online votes counted for half the total, with the rest from media and USSF representatives.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsMike Hewitt / Getty Images
First American EPL hat trick
Clint Dempsey became the first American to score a hat trick in England's Premier League, helping Fulham rally from a halftime deficit to rout Newcastle 5-2 Saturday.
Boris Streubel / Getty Images
Best of the US
Abby Wambach and Clint Dempsey are voted top players by the U.S. Soccer Federation.
In 1850s America, most people relied on privies and outhouses for their bathroom needs. But the Davis family of Natchez, Miss., had something few other Americans did: indoor hot-and-cold running water and an indoor toilet.
Now this marvel of 19th-century technology is getting a new home, moving from the Dunleith Historical Inn to another mansion nearby operated by the National Park Service. The new lodging will give the public a chance to see a pre-Civil War version of a luxurious lavatory, complete with shower/bath combo.
"This is a rare example of a mid-19th-century bathroom that had survived for 150 years," said National Park Service historian Jeff Mansell.
Most 1800s bathrooms have been renovated out of existence, Mansell said ? and few families had indoor plumbing at the time, anyway. The White House only got running water in 1833, for example, and it wasn't until 1853 that the presidential family got running water in their second-floor washroom.
The best bathroom technology
The Dunleith bathroom consists of a washbasin with two faucets, a toilet and an L-shaped tub-and-bathtub combination, also with two faucets. Pipes pumped water up from the first-floor laundry room, where water was heated, Mansell said. The pipes led to three cisterns in the attic, which drained down to fixtures in the third-floor bathroom whenever someone opened the faucets or flushed the toilet. Waste from the toilet would have gone to a primitive septic system, Mansell said, joining waste from outdoor privies on the property.
The oval-shaped showerhead was large, about 10 inches (25 centimeters) across and would have created a rainfall effect, much like showerheads in upscale bathrooms today.
"In the 19th century, you had what everybody's trying for today, the rain shower," Mansell said.
A man named Alfred Vidal Davis, who, in 1859, bought the house that would become the Dunleith Inn, most likely installed the bathroom the year he moved in, Mansell said. When the preservation team was deconstructing the bathroom to remove it from its third-floor location, they found a packing slip from a New Orleans retailer called Price & Coulon, he said.?
"Davis could have seen it there or may have read about it," Mansell said. "We think there was a catalog that was advertising this particular system."
National Park staff isn't sure how much the system would have cost Davis, but indoor plumbing would have been a privilege reserved for the elite. ?
The future of the Dunleith bathroom
The Dunleith Historical Inn decided to donate the fixtures to the National Park Service because they are renovating the wing where the bathroom was. The bathroom was at the top of a steep stairwell, said Dunleith general manager John Holyoak, and because of its inaccessibility had been used for storage for the past 10 years.
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"It's just not conducive for anybody to ever see the bathroom," Holyoak said.
To get the fixtures, including a 400-pound zinc-lined cistern, down from the third floor and attic, construction crews had to build a specially designed ramp. For now, the disassembled bathroom is in storage, but the National Park Service plans to reinstall them in the nearby estate of Melrose, another wealthy home from the same era. Historians know that Melrose had some sort of washroom in the 1850s, but they aren't sure whether it was as elaborate as the Dunleith one.
"There's some indication that they had had some sort of indoor plumbing system, but it was removed right after the turn of the century," Mansell said. "So we don't know what it looked like."
Soon, however, visitors will be able to see with their own eyes the private perks of pre- Civil War wealth.
"Most people, when they think of the mid-19th century, they don't think of this kind of technology existing," Mansell said. "Even as sophisticated as Natchez was, with people here with a lot of money, you didn't find a lot of indoor plumbing."
You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.
ANKARA, Turkey ? Turkey called on Thursday for the immediate resumption of talks between Iran and major world powers and said both sides have expressed willingness to try to end the standoff over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.
But France questioned whether Iran is ready for such talks and said the next step appears to be tougher sanctions, including a European Union embargo on Iran's oil exports.
At a joint news conference with Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country is ready to host and "make any other kind of contribution" to talks between Iran and six countries leading such negotiations: the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
"What is important is for these negotiations to start immediately and for the tensions to be reduced," Davutoglu said. "It is important that the hurdles in front of the talks are removed."
"I would like to say that the sides have confirmed their willingness," he said. "Today is the day for negotiations and a solution."
Salehi, concluding his two-day visit to Turkey, said the six powers should enter talks without "excuses." He said, "If there are excuses, it is a sign that they oppose and do not approve of the negotiations."
Iranian officials have said they favor Turkey as a venue for further talks with the six powers.
For more than three years, Tehran has blocked International Atomic Energy Agency attempts to follow up on U.S. and other intelligence alleging covert Iranian work on nuclear arms, dismissing the charges as baseless and insisting all its nuclear activities were peaceful and under IAEA purview.
Faced with Iranian stonewalling, the IAEA summarized its body of information in November, in a 13-page document drawing on 1,000 pages of intelligence. It stated then for the first time that some of the alleged experiments can have no other purpose than developing nuclear weapons.
In Paris on Thursday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the European Union has made specific proposals for dialogue with Iran, but "unfortunately the country has not committed in a transparent and cooperative way in this process of talks."
"That's the reason why ? in order to avoid what would surely be irreparable, that's to say a military option ? we think that we have to harden the sanctions to make the Iranian regime evolve," Juppe said.
Juppe said he hopes EU foreign ministers will reach an accord at a meeting on Monday in Brussels on two areas: an embargo on Iranian petroleum exports and a freeze on the assets of the Iranian Central Bank.
"It's true that there have been talks because some (EU) countries are very dependent in obtaining their oil, but we can find solutions," Juppe said, alluding to some European countries that import Iranian oil. "We, the French government, are doing all that we can so a clear accord on this issue can be reached among all 27."
The effort to revive the nuclear talks come as the U.S. and Europe have moved to step up sanctions against Iran.
The U.S. last month enacted new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad, though it has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is struggling. Iran has threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in response to sanctions.
The U.S. and its Western allies charge that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran has consistently denied that, saying its nuclear program is peaceful, aimed at producing electric power and isotopes for cancer treatment.
Earlier on Thursday, Salehi repeated a claim that President Barack Obama had called for direct talks with Iran in a secret letter to the Islamic Republic's supreme leader that also warned Tehran against closing the Strait of Hormuz.
"They are flexing their muscle (in public), but they are also secretly saying: 'Come talk with us,'" Salehi told Turkey's NTV television in an interview, which was aired with a voice-over Turkish translation. "The U.S. government should act in an open and honest way."
Obama administration officials denied there was such a letter.
Speaking at a news conference with Juppe in Paris, Australia's foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, urged China and other Asian countries to take "due note" of international efforts to tighten sanctions against Iran.
"But for those countries which continue to import, we would urge them to be mindful of the actions of others in the international community who are seeking to bring about the pressure necessary to get a change in the Iranian government's positions," Rudd said. "I would urge our friends in Beijing, but elsewhere as well in Asia, to reflect seriously upon this."
China, the world's biggest energy consumer, remains unwilling to back an oil embargo against Iran. South Korea also has remained noncommittal.
__
Associated Press Writer Jamie Keaten in Paris contributed.
(Reuters) ? General Electric Co's (GE.N) fourth-quarter revenue fell short of Wall Street expectations, with Europe's weakening economy and weak sales of appliances the main culprits.
But the largest conglomerate held to its forecast of double-digit profit growth this year, saying that it would expand in rapidly growing economies and cut costs in Europe, particularly at its health care arm.
Revenue fell 7.9 percent to $37.97 billion, down from $41.23 billion and below the $40.03 billion analysts had expected. Factoring out the effects of last year's sale of a majority stake in NBC Universal revenue would have been up 4 percent.
In addition to general European weakness, sales of appliances were off, with the home and business solutions division that sells them recording a 4 percent revenue drop.
Sales at GE's energy division, which makes products ranging from electric turbines to equipment used in oil production, were up 19 percent in the quarter, slightly below the company's expectations as some deliveries were shifted out of the fourth quarter into 2012, executives said.
"There are a few challenged markets, like Europe and appliances, but on balance we have a positive outlook," Immelt told investors on a conference call, where he also reiterated the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company's forecast for double-digit earnings growth this year.
The revenue miss concerned investors, overshadowing a penny-per-share earnings beat and sending GE shares down 0.1 percent to $19.13 on the New York Stock Exchange.
This miss is the latest blow for Immelt, who has seen GE shares generally lag the U.S. stock market during his decade as CEO. In the fall of 2007, GE shares briefly topped $40.50, where the stock had closed before Immelt's storied predecessor Jack Welch handed off the reins. Today the shares trade at less than half that price.
Over the past year, GE shares are up 4.5 percent, lagging the 6.8 percent rise of the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) but ahead of the 2.5 percent rise of the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index (.SPX).
"We're concerned about the revenue miss," said Oliver Pursche, president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services in Suffern, New York. "That's really what we're focused on this earnings season. We're not so concerned about being a penny above or below expectations, because that can be handled with accounting."
The world's biggest maker of jet engines and electric turbines said net income from continuing operations rose 0.6 percent to $3.93 billion, or 37 cents per share, compared with $3.90 billion, or 36 cents per share, a year ago.
Factoring out one-time items, profit came to 39 cents per share, above the 38 cents analysts had forecast, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Profit margins at the company's industrial operations were better than expected, analysts noted, with the energy and aviation units showing improvement.
"We anticipated total industrial margin to be weaker overall," wrote BernsteinResearch analyst Steven Winoker, in a note to clients.
Immelt also noted the prices its energy arm is able to charge for its equipment, particularly wind turbines, are stabilizing, which should boost profit margins.
"We see energy pricing stabilizing as we move through 2012 and into 2013," Immelt said.
LESS DEPENDENT ON EUROPE
GE is less dependent on Europe than rivals Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE) and Philips Electronics NV (PHG.AS), which earlier this month warned that the Eurozone debt crisis would hurt their results this year.
GE noted that its industrial revenue in emerging markets was up 25 percent in the quarter, with strong growth in Brazil, Russia, China and India.
GE kicked off a wave of earnings reports from big U.S. manufacturers, with blue-chip peers United Technologies Corp (UTX.N), Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) and 3M Co (MMM.N) all due to follow suit over the next week.
"In December, GE indicated that it was managing Europe well. Now that's what is pointed to for the light revenue. I think that's kind of a weak excuse," said Jack De Gan, chief investment officer at Harbor Advisory Corp in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
(Reporting By Scott Malone in Boston, additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica, Chuck Mikolajczak and Nick Zieminski in New York; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Derek Caney, Phil Berlowitz)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? In a move somewhat akin to having George Clooney announce the Oscar nominations, Uggie the dog announced on Wednesday that the top nominee for the first Golden Collar Awards, which honor canine performances in film and television, is -- Uggie the dog.
Uggie, the much-celebrated star of "The Artist," received a pair of nominations in the marquee category of Best Dog in a Theatrical Film - one for "The Artist," and the other for his performance as Queenie in "Water for Elephants."
He'll be going up against Cosmo, Denver and Hummer, who were nominated for their roles in "Beginners," "50/50" and "Young Adult, respectively.
Uggie was on hand to help with the nominations announcement, which was made with the help of his human co-star in "The Artist," Penelope Ann Miller.
The most interesting race in the other four categories in clearly the impending dogfight in the Best Dog in a Reality Television Series category, where three nominees from "Real Housewives" shows (Giggy and Jackpot from Beverly Hills and Millou from New York City) are expected to make mincemeat of Spartacus from "Ice Loves Coco" and Hercules from "Pit Boss" before turning their claws on each other.
And while Aki Kaurismaki's "Le Havre" was surprisingly left off the shortlist in the Oscar Foreign-Language category, the Finnish director can no doubt console himself with the knowledge that his canine lead, Laika, is up for Best Dog in a Foreign Film.
The Golden Collar Awards are the creation of the online magazine Dog News Daily, and will take place on Monday, February 13 at the dog-friendly Hotel Palomar in Los Angeles. Proceeds will benefit L.A.-area dog rescue shelters and organizations.
Symantec fesses up to several products being compromised, two Google contractors go off the reservation, and Airbnb joins the Android party.
Symantec backtracks, admits own network hacked: Symantec confirms that source code from several Norton products has been stolen by a hacker and alerts pcAnywhere users to a heightened security risk. [Computerworld]
Troubling Google Contractor Allegedly Caught Vandalizing Open Street Map: Two Google contractors in India have been identified for vandalizing Open Street Maps and have been removed from working on any further Google projects. It's possible these individuals could be responsible for the wrongdoing last week by Google contractors. [ReadWriteWeb]
With Focus on International Expansion, Airbnb Comes to Android and Revamps Mobile Web Offerings: After great success on the iPhone, Airbnb has finally made its way to Android devices, noting the platforms worldwide reach. In addition, Airbnb has updated their webapp as well. [TechCrunch]
Apple to Announce Tools, Platform to "Digitally Destroy" Textbook Publishing: Apple is rumored to announce this Thursday support for the ePub 3 standard for iBooks and software tools to create content for e-books. [Ars Technica]
Google will protest SOPA using popular home page: Google will join the likes of Reddit, Wikipedia, Minecraft.net, and more in protesting SOPA and PIPA. However, Google will not go dark. They will instead post a link on their U.S. homepage stating their opposition to SOPA and PIPA. [CNET]
A relative holds a government military photo of Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine who saw combat in Iraq, in Yorba Linda, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Ocampo has been named as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
A relative holds a government military photo of Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine who saw combat in Iraq, in Yorba Linda, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Ocampo has been named as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
This photo provided by the Anaheim Police Dept. shows Itzcoatl Ocampo. Investigators are "extremely confident" that Ocampo a man in their custody is responsible for all four recent killings of homeless men in Orange County, Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Anaheim Police Dept.)
Refugio Ocampo, 49, father of Itzcoatl Ocampo, the man suspected of killing homeless men in Southern California, talks about his son in Fullerton, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Refugio is himself homeless and said that his son came back a changed man after serving with the Marines in Iraq, expressing disillusionment and becoming ever darker as he struggled to find his way as a civilian. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
A visitor takes an image of a photograph of John Berry at a spontaneous memorial to Berry on the spot where the homeless veteran was murdered last week behind a Carl's Jr. restaurant in Anaheim, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, a former Marine who lives in nearby Yorba Linda, was arrested after Berry's murder Friday, Jan. 13, and has been named as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Map locates Santa Ana Calif., where a serial killer is targeting the homeless.
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) ? The latest homeless victim of a suspected serial killer filed a police report the day before he died, saying he feared he was being stalked.
It was one of nearly 600 leads and tips that officers received, but police didn't have a chance to follow up.
"It is unfortunate that we didn't get to him before the suspect did," Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said.
Itzcoatl Ocampo was arrested Friday night when witnesses chased him down after a man was stabbed to death outside a fast-food restaurant in Anaheim, about 26 miles southeast of Los Angeles, authorities said. He was caught with blood on his hands and face, authorities say.
The Iraq War veteran was charged Tuesday with four counts of murder and special allegations of multiple murders and lying in wait and use of a deadly weapon. Three victims were stabbed more than 40 times each with a single-edged blade at least 7-inches long.
Ocampo was due to appear in court on Wednesday, but his attorney said his arraignment would likely be postponed since he was not allowed inside the jail to speak with his client over the weekend and has met with him only briefly.
Defense attorney Randall Longwith declined to comment on the allegations. He said Ocampo is being held in a mental ward.
"I walked in, he was curled up in a blanket," Longwith said. "He looked like a wet puppy dog."
Ocampo selected the last victim, 64-year-old John Berry, after he was featured in a Los Angeles Times story about the killing spree, prosecutors said.
"He was a monster," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a news conference. "He was a terrible threat, particularly to the homeless people in our community."
Ocampo would stalk each of his victims, then stab them repeatedly with a knife that could cut through bone, authorities said.
Authorities declined to say whether they had identified a motive. Rackauckas said he had no indication that Ocampo was mentally ill.
Ocampo's family said the 23-year-old was a troubled man after he returned from Iraq in 2008.
If convicted, Ocampo faces a minimum sentence of life in prison without parole. Authorities have not decided whether to seek the death penalty.
The killing spree began in December, prompting police and advocates to fan out across the county, which is known as the home to Disneyland and multimillion-dollar beachfront homes, to urge the homeless to sleep in groups or in one of two wintertime shelters.
Ocampo's arrest was the latest violent crime involving a veteran. This month, an Iraq War veteran fatally shot a ranger at Mount Rainier National Park and died later as he fled police across the mountain's snow-covered slopes.
Veterans Affairs officials say such high-profile violence can paint an inaccurate picture of returning veterans. The cases, however, raise the issue of veterans having a difficult time adjusting back into civilian life.
To help, the VA created a program to assist veterans in readjusting to their lives and avoid repeated brushes with the law. "We've seen over and over again that once they access those services, we can help them," VA spokesman Josh Taylor said.
A neighbor who is a Vietnam veteran and Ocampo's father both tried to push him to get treatment at a VA hospital, but he refused. His father, Refugio Ocampo, said, his son came back from his deployment a changed man.
He said his son expressed disillusionment and became ever darker as he struggled to find his way.
After Ocampo was discharged in 2010 and returned home, his parents separated. The same month, one of his friends, a corporal, was killed during combat in Afghanistan. His brother said Ocampo visited his friend's grave twice a week.
Like the men Ocampo is accused of preying on, his father is homeless. His father lost his job and ended up living under a bridge before finding shelter in the cab of a broken-down big-rig he is helping to repair.
Days before his arrest, Ocampo visited his father, warning him of the danger of being homeless. He showed him a picture of one of the slain men, his father said.
"He was very worried about me," his father said. "I told him, 'Don't worry. I'm a survivor. Nothing will happen to me.'"
As fear spread through the homeless community, police last week set up road blockades to seek help from members of the public in tracking down a suspect. Ocampo, who appeared to relish the media spotlight, passed through the checkpoints twice but did not draw attention to himself, Rackauckas said.
In addition to Berry, James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was killed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20. The body of Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28. The third victim, Paulus Smit, 57, was stabbed to death outside a library in Yorba Linda on Dec. 30.
___
Associated Press writer Kevin Freking in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
LOS ANGELES ? In 1985, Clark Rockefeller did not exist. The pseudonym, which was one of many fake identities assumed by a German immigrant, would surface years later when he began cutting a swath across high society claiming to be an heir to the Rockefeller fortune.
As a world class impostor, he conned people into believing he was a physicist, an art collector, a ship captain and a financial adviser who renegotiated debt for small countries. Even his wealthy wife was unaware of his true identity.
But when Christian Gerhartsreiter enters a courtroom for a preliminary hearing Wednesday, he will finally be himself: a convicted kidnapper facing a charge of murdering the son of his former landlady a quarter century ago, when he lived in California under one of his many pseudonyms. He is famous now; his story has been told in a TV movie.
Like most cold cases, the murder charge stemming from the death 26 years ago may be tough to prove. Evidence deteriorates, and witness memories fade over years. But prosecutors have had time to develop theories, and the science of forensic analysis has advanced.
Much of the prosecution's case will hinge on three plastic bags of human bones found during the excavation for a swimming pool at a San Marino home in 1994. At first, it was not certain that the bones were even human. But through extensive testing, they were linked to John Sohus, 27, a computer engineer who disappeared in 1985. It was a difficult match because Sohus was adopted and DNA from relatives was not readily available.
"Modern technology has helped us to identify those bones as the Sohus bones," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore, declining to disclose details.
Sohus' wife, Linda, also disappeared in 1985. No trace of her was found, though postcards purportedly written by her were sent to friends and relatives after she disappeared. The postcards were supposedly mailed from France, but the handwriting was never authenticated. Authorities presume she is dead, but they have not charged Gerhartsreiter with her death.
The other person who disappeared from San Marino at about the same time was a tenant then known as Chris Chichester, another of Gerhartsreiter's identities.
Police explored various possibilities, including that Chichester had been in love with Linda Sohus and murdered her husband in a fit of jealousy. Authorities came close to finding him in the late 1980s when he was pulled over in Greenwich, Conn., driving Sohus' truck. But by the time the Department of Motor Vehicles had confirmed it was Sohus' truck, Chichester and the vehicle had vanished.
The man at the center of the mystery eluded authorities for years, moving to New York and then Boston where he hobnobbed in high society. He claimed to be an heir to the fabled Rockefeller oil fortune, marrying a woman with whom he had a daughter. She divorced him when she found out he had duped her.
Last year he was convicted of kidnapping his daughter in Boston during a bitter custody dispute. Gerhartsreiter is serving a four- to five-year prison sentence. He would be eligible for parole this year if he was not awaiting trial in California on a charge that could bring him 26 years to life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors have 30 to 40 witnesses ready for the two-week preliminary hearing, many of whom are forensic experts. They are seeking to convince a judge there is probable cause to believe that Gerhartsreiter is a killer and should be held for trial.
One of Gerhartsreiter's Boston attorneys, Jeffrey Denner, said it was unlikely that the defense will put on a case at this stage of the proceedings. He said that Gerhartsreiter is "appropriately somber" as he faces the court hearing.
At the kidnapping trial, Denner claimed his client was suffering from a delusional disorder and was legally insane when he snatched his daughter during a supervised visit. Prosecutors portrayed him as a master manipulator who used multiple aliases and told elaborate lies about his past since moving to the United States in the 1970s.
The complaint against him lists five different aliases: Christopher Chichester, Clark Rockefeller, Christopher Crowe, C. Crowe Mountbatten and Charles "Chip" Smith.
Denner has said Gerhartsreiter is not a violent man, and prosecutors have not yet offered a motive that might have led him to murder. The motive and other details of the case could be disclosed at the preliminary hearing.
ScienceDaily (Jan. 17, 2012) ? Nitrogen is both an essential nutrient and a pollutant, a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion and a fertilizer that feeds billions, a benefit and a hazard, depending on form, location, and quantity. Agriculture, industry and transportation have spread nitrogen liberally around the planet, say sixteen scientists in the latest edition of ESA's Issues in Ecology series, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," with complex and interrelated consequences for ecological communities and our dependence upon the resources they provide, as well as human health.
Pulling from a broad pool of expertise in air quality, agronomy, ecology, epidemiology and groundwater geochemistry, the sixteen authors track nitrogen through its different chemical forms and biological incarnations as it progresses across economic, environmental and regulatory bounds. They argue for a systematic, rather than piecemeal, approach to managing the resource and its consequences. "We're really trying to identify solutions," said lead author Eric Davidson, a soil ecologist and executive director of the Woods Hole Research Center. "This is a paper about how much we do know, not about what we don't know. We know about nitrogen cycles, and sources, and we know problems can be addressed in economically viable ways."
Once a critical limiting element of agricultural production, excess nitrogen now overflows from fields and stockyards, typically in the forms of ammonia and nitrate, contaminating drinking water and air, and altering the chemistry and constituency of ecological communities. "Nitrogen is readily mobile, and very efficiently distributed through wind and water," said author James Galloway, a biogeochemist at the University of Virginia. Airborne nitrogen from agricultural fields, manure piles, automobile tailpipes, and smokestacks travels with the wind to settle over distant forests and coastal areas.
Though extra fertilizer sounds like a good thing, it does not benefit all species equally, leading, in more extreme cases, to sudden changes like algal blooms, which smother competing species and can create health hazards. Nitrogen also acidifies soil, leaching away other important nutrients. Interventions to control nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants and gasoline-fueled engines have made encouraging progress. Mitigating agricultural sources of excess nitrogen is more complicated.
"We know how to reduce nitrogen oxides from fossil fuel combustion to a very small amount. We know the science, we have the engineering, and we have the regulatory tools," said Galloway, setting emissions aside as a political, rather than a scientific, hurdle. "On the food side, that's where it gets interesting," he said. "How can you still produce the food the society demands, needs, yet use less nitrogen to produce it?"
The report tabulates strategies to help farmers maximize efficient use of fertilizer, rather than just maximize crop yield, including buffer strips and wetlands, manure management, and ideal patterns of fertilizer application. It also considers the cost of implementing them, and programs for buffering farmers against losses in bad years.
"There are a variety of impacts due to the human use of nitrogen," said Galloway. "The biggest is a positive one, in that it allows us to grow food for Americans and people in other countries, and we don't want to lose sight of that." Balancing inexpensive abundant food against the damage done by nitrogen escaping into the environment is a conversation the authors would like to hear more prominently in policy arenas.
"Yes, we have to feed people, but we also need clean drinking water, clean air, and fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico," said Davidson. "The science helps to show those tradeoffs, and where we most stand to gain from improved nutrient management in agriculture."
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Solutions for a nitrogen-soaked worldPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Liza Lester llester@esa.org 202-833-8773 x211 Ecological Society of America
Interdisciplinary panel reviews US nitrogen pollution trends, risks, and mitigation strategies
Nitrogen is both an essential nutrient and a pollutant, a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion and a fertilizer that feeds billions, a benefit and a hazard, depending on form, location, and quantity. Agriculture, industry and transportation have spread nitrogen liberally around the planet, say sixteen scientists in the latest edition of ESA's Issues in Ecology series, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," with complex and interrelated consequences for ecological communities and our dependence upon the resources they provide, as well as human health.
Pulling from a broad pool of expertise in air quality, agronomy, ecology, epidemiology and groundwater geochemistry, the sixteen authors track nitrogen through its different chemical forms and biological incarnations as it progresses across economic, environmental and regulatory bounds. They argue for a systematic, rather than piecemeal, approach to managing the resource and its consequences. "We're really trying to identify solutions," said lead author Eric Davidson, a soil ecologist and executive director of the Woods Hole Research Center. "This is a paper about how much we do know, not about what we don't know. We know about nitrogen cycles, and sources, and we know problems can be addressed in economically viable ways."
Once a critical limiting element of agricultural production, excess nitrogen now overflows from fields and stockyards, typically in the forms of ammonia and nitrate, contaminating drinking water and air, and altering the chemistry and constituency of ecological communities. "Nitrogen is readily mobile, and very efficiently distributed through wind and water," said author James Galloway, a biogeochemist at the University of Virginia. Airborne nitrogen from agricultural fields, manure piles, automobile tailpipes, and smokestacks travels with the wind to settle over distant forests and coastal areas.
Though extra fertilizer sounds like a good thing, it does not benefit all species equally, leading, in more extreme cases, to sudden changes like algal blooms, which smother competing species and can create health hazards. Nitrogen also acidifies soil, leaching away other important nutrients. Interventions to control nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants and gasoline-fueled engines have made encouraging progress. Mitigating agricultural sources of excess nitrogen is more complicated.
"We know how to reduce nitrogen oxides from fossil fuel combustion to a very small amount. We know the science, we have the engineering, and we have the regulatory tools," said Galloway, setting emissions aside as a political, rather than a scientific, hurdle. "On the food side, that's where it gets interesting," he said. "How can you still produce the food the society demands, needs, yet use less nitrogen to produce it?"
The report tabulates strategies to help farmers maximize efficient use of fertilizer, rather than just maximize crop yield, including buffer strips and wetlands, manure management, and ideal patterns of fertilizer application. It also considers the cost of implementing them, and programs for buffering farmers against losses in bad years.
"There are a variety of impacts due to the human use of nitrogen," said Galloway. "The biggest is a positive one, in that it allows us to grow food for Americans and people in other countries, and we don't want to lose sight of that." Balancing inexpensive abundant food against the damage done by nitrogen escaping into the environment is a conversation the authors would like to hear more prominently in policy arenas.
"Yes, we have to feed people, but we also need clean drinking water, clean air, and fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico," said Davidson. "The science helps to show those tradeoffs, and where we most stand to gain from improved nutrient management in agriculture."
###
Issues in Ecology #15, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," is available as a pdf download. All reports in the Issues in Ecology series may be found at http://www.esa.org/issues.
The Ecological Society of America is the world's largest professional organization of ecologists, representing 10,000 scientists in the United States and around the globe. Since its founding in 1915, ESA has promoted the responsible application of ecological principles to the solution of environmental problems through ESA reports, journals, research, and expert testimony to Congress. ESA publishes five journals and convenes an annual scientific conference. Visit the ESA website at http://www.esa.org or find experts in ecological science at http://www.esa.org/pao/rrt/.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Solutions for a nitrogen-soaked worldPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Liza Lester llester@esa.org 202-833-8773 x211 Ecological Society of America
Interdisciplinary panel reviews US nitrogen pollution trends, risks, and mitigation strategies
Nitrogen is both an essential nutrient and a pollutant, a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion and a fertilizer that feeds billions, a benefit and a hazard, depending on form, location, and quantity. Agriculture, industry and transportation have spread nitrogen liberally around the planet, say sixteen scientists in the latest edition of ESA's Issues in Ecology series, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," with complex and interrelated consequences for ecological communities and our dependence upon the resources they provide, as well as human health.
Pulling from a broad pool of expertise in air quality, agronomy, ecology, epidemiology and groundwater geochemistry, the sixteen authors track nitrogen through its different chemical forms and biological incarnations as it progresses across economic, environmental and regulatory bounds. They argue for a systematic, rather than piecemeal, approach to managing the resource and its consequences. "We're really trying to identify solutions," said lead author Eric Davidson, a soil ecologist and executive director of the Woods Hole Research Center. "This is a paper about how much we do know, not about what we don't know. We know about nitrogen cycles, and sources, and we know problems can be addressed in economically viable ways."
Once a critical limiting element of agricultural production, excess nitrogen now overflows from fields and stockyards, typically in the forms of ammonia and nitrate, contaminating drinking water and air, and altering the chemistry and constituency of ecological communities. "Nitrogen is readily mobile, and very efficiently distributed through wind and water," said author James Galloway, a biogeochemist at the University of Virginia. Airborne nitrogen from agricultural fields, manure piles, automobile tailpipes, and smokestacks travels with the wind to settle over distant forests and coastal areas.
Though extra fertilizer sounds like a good thing, it does not benefit all species equally, leading, in more extreme cases, to sudden changes like algal blooms, which smother competing species and can create health hazards. Nitrogen also acidifies soil, leaching away other important nutrients. Interventions to control nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants and gasoline-fueled engines have made encouraging progress. Mitigating agricultural sources of excess nitrogen is more complicated.
"We know how to reduce nitrogen oxides from fossil fuel combustion to a very small amount. We know the science, we have the engineering, and we have the regulatory tools," said Galloway, setting emissions aside as a political, rather than a scientific, hurdle. "On the food side, that's where it gets interesting," he said. "How can you still produce the food the society demands, needs, yet use less nitrogen to produce it?"
The report tabulates strategies to help farmers maximize efficient use of fertilizer, rather than just maximize crop yield, including buffer strips and wetlands, manure management, and ideal patterns of fertilizer application. It also considers the cost of implementing them, and programs for buffering farmers against losses in bad years.
"There are a variety of impacts due to the human use of nitrogen," said Galloway. "The biggest is a positive one, in that it allows us to grow food for Americans and people in other countries, and we don't want to lose sight of that." Balancing inexpensive abundant food against the damage done by nitrogen escaping into the environment is a conversation the authors would like to hear more prominently in policy arenas.
"Yes, we have to feed people, but we also need clean drinking water, clean air, and fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico," said Davidson. "The science helps to show those tradeoffs, and where we most stand to gain from improved nutrient management in agriculture."
###
Issues in Ecology #15, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," is available as a pdf download. All reports in the Issues in Ecology series may be found at http://www.esa.org/issues.
The Ecological Society of America is the world's largest professional organization of ecologists, representing 10,000 scientists in the United States and around the globe. Since its founding in 1915, ESA has promoted the responsible application of ecological principles to the solution of environmental problems through ESA reports, journals, research, and expert testimony to Congress. ESA publishes five journals and convenes an annual scientific conference. Visit the ESA website at http://www.esa.org or find experts in ecological science at http://www.esa.org/pao/rrt/.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Symantec fesses up to several products being compromised, two Google contractors go off the reservation, and Airbnb joins the Android party.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
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