LONDON (AP) ? A raft of U.S. economic figures failed to give markets any momentum Friday at the end of a week that's seen many of the world's major stock indexes rise to multi-year highs.
U.S. stock markets have been at the forefront of the global advance, with the Dow Jones index recording a series of highs during a ten-day winning streak ? its best run since 1996 ? and the broader S&P 500 on the cusp of its own historic peak.
The run of U.S. economic data did not alter the flat tone that had prevailed in markets through the day as investors cashed in following a stellar run. However, the Dow remained within striking distance of a higher close, which would be its eleventh consecutive.
A stronger than expected increase in February industrial production figures offset a surprisingly big fall in consumer sentiment as measured by the University of Michigan.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.5 percent at 6,496 while Germany's DAX fell 0.3 percent to 8,036. The CAC-40 in France was 0.5 percent lower at 3,851.
In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.2 percent at 14,514 while the S&P fell 0.1 percent to 1,562, about 3 points from its all-time high.
Developments on Wall Street and the U.S. economy have largely dominated market sentiment this year despite ongoing worries over the global economy, particularly in Europe.
"Among the investor community, the idea that, economically speaking, the U.S. is leading the pack is still widely shared," said Herve Goulletquer, an analyst at Credit Agricole.
A summit of the 27 European Union leaders in Brussels failed to deliver any fundamental change in economic strategy though there was more talk of the need to promote growth rather than just cut debt.
"Despite the previously entrenched positions, there are signs from the tone and language of the meeting that there may be a slight softening of their austerity position," said Rebecca O'Keeffe, head of investment at Interactive Investor.
The soft tone in stock markets was echoed in the currency markets as investors booked some recent dollar gains. The euro was up 0.5 percent at $1.3075 while the dollar fell 0.6 percent against the Japanese yen, to 95.44 yen.
One currency that has been in the ascendancy over the past day has been the British pound after Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said he suggested the currency was "properly valued."
Traders took his remarks as a sign that the Bank does not want to see further falls in the currency, which has been in retreat for the past few weeks on expectations of another monetary stimulus from the central bank. His comments Thursday pushed the pound back above the $1.51 mark.
Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.5 percent to 12,560.95 ? its highest close in more than four years ? after both houses of parliament endorsed Haruhiko Kuroda, the current president of the Asia Development Bank, to head the Bank of Japan.
The vote allows Kuroda to stand in for current Bank of Japan governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, after he steps down on March 19. Another vote is required to make Kuroda's appointment permanent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.4 percent to 22,533.11. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.8 percent to 5,120.20. Benchmarks in mainland China, Thailand and Indonesia rose.
Oil markets were relatively subdued, with the benchmark New York rate up 52 cents at $93.55 a barrel.
Microsoft Office — y'know, Word, Excel, Powerpoint et al. — is the software that work happens on. You've most likely used it before. Well, there are big changes afoot in Microsoft Land: you don't buy the newest version of Microsoft Office, you rent it. That means monthly or yearly fees. Sure, the cloud aspects of Office 365 are pretty cool, but the fact you don't own software you bought is a bummer, especially since that's the way Office has worked for nearly a quarter of a century. Folks with a legal copy on disc will save a lot of money over a year or two instead of paying the $10 per month Microsoft's asking for the same software. More »
The first pope from Latin America has highlighted in recent years the region's yawning gap between rich and poor.?
By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / March 13, 2013
This Feb. 14 photo shows Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis I, leading a mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Natacha Pisarenko/AP
Enlarge
The next leader of the Roman Catholic church combines a Jesuit intellectual mind with a life spent advocating for social justice and the poor, and in 2009 he made headlines for criticizing the government of Argentina for allowing ?huge inequities? between the rich and the poor to develop.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
After only five rounds of votes in the Sistine Chapel and at roughly 8:30 tonight, the phrase "Habemus Papam" or ?We have a pope,? was spoken on the plaza balcony in Vatican City ??and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina appeared, dressed in white, to say the Lord?s Prayer.
The man that believing Roman Catholics call the ?successor? of the apostle Peter, and ?the vicar of Christ? will go by the name of Pope Francis. He speaks three languages, and is both the first non-European pope in modern times and the first from a developing country.
Mr. Bergoglio was elected in a swift five votes of a conclave of 115 cardinals.
According to John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires in 1936 to an Italian immigrant family. He was educated as a theologian in Germany, cooks his own meals, and?eschews the ornate trappings of church power ? he travels by bus. He became?widely known for his analysis of the negative effect of globalization on parts of the developing world. At the same time, he opposed the once-powerful liberation theology movement that previous popes denounced as flirting with Marxism.
At a gathering of Latin American bishops in 2007, Bergoglio offered that,?"We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least. The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers."
Like his predecessor Pope Benedict, who resigned last month ? the first head of the Catholic church to do so in 600 years ? Pope Francis is said to be a strict conservative on personal morality. He has opposed Argentina?s gay marriage laws, and has been fiercely pro-family.?In church terms, though, he is seen as a master conciliator who will be adroit at healing many of the rifts and scandals over finances and pedophile priests that have dogged the Vatican in recent years.
Since 1998 he has been the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The conclave appeared to steer away from popular choices like the cardinals of New York and Boston, Timothy Dolan and Sean O?Malley, as well as the local Italian favorite Angelo Scola.
Bergoglio was elected by a conclave that overwhelmingly shares the conservative views of Benedict, who has held sway as an enforcer of orthodoxy in the Vatican since 1982.
As Mr. Allen of the National Catholic Reporter writes, ?Either John Paul II or Benedict XVI appointed each of the ... cardinals who will cast a ballot, including 11 Americans, so there will be little ideological clash. No matter what happens,?the church almost certainly won't reverse its bans on abortion, gay marriage or women priests.?
Baby sea turtles, like this Kemp's ridley hatchling, face an uphill fight for survival and bear a toxic burden.Image: Flickr/Terry Ross
From the moment they are born, sea turtles fight to survive. Buried alive, they dig themselves out and evade hungry crabs and birds as they crawl to the ocean, where they begin a long and treacherous migration. One out of 1,000 will survive into adulthood. And those that do will bear a toxic burden.
Scientists are discovering that sea turtles, long ignored by toxicologists who study wildlife, are highly contaminated with industrial chemicals and pesticides.
Loggerhead turtles have altered immune systems and smaller eggs that some studies have linked to contaminants. These chemicals kill turtle cells in lab experiments, and based on research in other marine life, scientists suspect that sea turtles may be vulnerable to thyroid, liver and neurological damage.
No one, however, knows the extent to which sea turtles in the wild may be harmed.
While other ocean creatures, including whales, seals and some fish, are well-studied, the chemical threats to sea turtles remain mostly hidden under a shell.
Decimated by climate change, poaching, accidental snaring and ocean trash, all U.S. species of sea turtles are protected by the Endangered Species Act, which makes studying them difficult.
"We really have just barely touched the tip of the iceberg," said Jennifer Keller, a marine biologist at the Hollings Marine Laboratory in Charleston, S.C. She is the top expert on pollution in sea turtles.
Sea turtles have some industrial compounds in their blood nearing levels that damage marine mammals. Keller's lab last year measured perfluorochemicals (PFCs) in the blood of five sea turtle species off the southeastern U.S. coast, and her calculations suggest that the turtles' potential risk for toxic effects is high.
Other long-lived chemicals also contaminate sea turtles, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are widely used industrial compounds banned in the late 1970s, and brominated flame retardants.
"These chemicals may not acutely poison the animals, but they can make exposed individuals a little more vulnerable to opportunistic infections or new and emerging infectious diseases," said Peter Ross, a research scientist in Canada who is one of the world?s leading experts on marine mammals and contaminants.
Some chemicals, particularly PCBs, have been shown to suppress the immune systems of wildlife, contributing to mass die-offs of seals and other marine mammals in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
This catastrophic damage hasn't been seen in turtles. Pollutants in their blood are orders of magnitude lower than levels in marine mammal blood, Keller said.
Nevertheless, Keller?s research with loggerheads caught off South Carolina has linked immune system changes to a variety of contaminants. As levels of chlordane and mirex ? two pesticides banned in the United States decades ago but still in the environment???went up in the turtles, their production of some disease-fighting immune cells decreased. And as PCBs and the pesticide DDT went up, some of their immune cells increased.
"Any alteration of immune function, even enhancement, can be considered an adverse effect," the authors wrote. Enhanced immune responses can lead to autoimmune diseases and hypersensitivity.
"Exposure to even relatively low concentrations of persistent pollutants can reduce the effectiveness of immune defense against any number of pathogens," Ross said.
The chemical soup inside turtles comes from the food they eat, which varies from the crab-eating Kemp's ridleys, jellyfish-eating leatherbacks, omnivorous loggerheads, spongivorous hawksbills and herbivorous green sea turtles.
Before you start writing me hate mail about being an elitist scum, please read a little further. My everyday car is an IS350 variant I bought pre-owned. I think the car is underrated and that a case can be made for it as a relatively affordable car because it fills two roles. First, it is an excellent 2 + 3 seat sedan, or 2+2 coupe, that gets real world mileage of about 24 mpg overall. On the highway it can get near 30 mpg. That is not great, but read on. I consider the IS350 to be a combination of sports car, family sedan, and luxury car. It is a good looking car too which makes it a nice date-night car. By owning this rear-drive, 306 hp car with paddle shifters, one can effectively drop whatever sports car they might have had as a second car. Before my IS350 I had a ?07 Miata and this car is a much more capable on-road sports car than that car was. As a Lexus sedan it also has a low cost for insurance relative to other cars at the price point and it holds its value well. Therefore, I argue that this car can take the place of say a Mustang and a Camry, or a Miata and Ford Fusion. It is even available as a hard-top convertible if you want a bald-spot tanner.
I would try to buy this car now too because the all new 2013 IS350 is coming, thus, dealers might be very interested in moving their inventory to avoid having both models on the lot. Also, there may be some great certified pre-owned deals as owners of IS models come in to move up to the new, larger IS. The IS is not a pure sports car. However, it does go from 0-60 mph in about 5.2 seconds and it is rear drive. The car does everything very well except steer, but that is an ailment for our times as every manufacturer has had to move to electric steering. Even the new Corvette, BMW 3 Series, and all the Porsche models.
Utility Vehicle Acura RDX I would consider this section, ?what would I buy if I had to live with just one vehicle?? My choice would be a vehicle that has good cargo space, can seat 5 very comfortably, and is also relatively fun to drive and somewhat safe, because my kids would be in it. For me that car is the Acura RDX. I like the V6 power, high up driving position the crossover offers, all-wheel drive for winters and the price point. At $40K this car has the content I want, but not more than I want. Here in New England I have sworn never to own only a sedan again. That is because it is unsafe. The last few winters the snow banks at the end of the streets have been higher than the windows in a sedan like an Accord, but not higher than the windows in my ?07 Highlander. So I can see around corners and sedan drivers cannot. Thus, if I have to own only one car it must be a crossover with good driver?s seat height. I consider anything else unsafe in winter.
The RDX is also fuel efficient. Compare its 27 MPG in all-wheel drive and you will see it is close to the new 4 cylinder Toyota RAV4, 4-cylinder (29 mpg) and stomps on the new Hyundai Santa Fe Sport turbo?s 24 mpg. And it is faster than both.
Green Car Honda Accord Plug-In Hybrid Like Patrick Rall, TN?s editor, I am also not a ?green-car? guy. However, I do recognize that there are some folks who are for philosophical reasons, and I realize that in certain applications, taxis for example, low fuel consumption cars make good sense. Thinking it through, if I were in a situation where I was to be granted the green car of my choice, say as a car for making sales calls for example, I would select the Honda Accord Plug-In Hybrid (PIH).
I have owned two Honda Accords, a 2003 and a 2006. Both had the V6 and both were excellent cars for on the road selling, which is how I used them. During the time I owned those cars they were ?Ten-Cent? cars. Meaning that the fuel they used cost less than ten cents per mile. The V6 Accord could then, and can now exceed 30 mpg on the highway in actual use, but this new PIH Accord has an EPA estimated 115 mpg equivalent! That is the best energy economy of any mid-full sized passenger car. In fact, when operated in full electric mode, which the Accord can do for about 13 miles or so, the car is 23% more energy efficient than a Tesla Model S (80kW-hr battery pack). Unlike the Model S, the Accord can also be fueled up anywhere in North America and has a range of 574 miles using both its liquid fuel and battery energy which would be great for sales calls in New England and beyond. When used as a hybrid the car gets 46 mpg combined, which is frankly an astounding efficiency for a 5 passenger car this big. This car will be a ?ten-cent? car for the next decade.
The Accord PIH sold in America, like all Accords is built only in the US. Not Canada, not Mexico, in America. I like that. I don?t exclude imported cars (see above), but it is a buying consideration for me. The price is also quite nice. This Accord would only cost me (or my company) about $29,000, the same as a loaded Accord with the 4 cylinder. That is due in part to rebates from the Federal government, and the People?s Republic of Taxachussetts. Rebates which I hate. It kills me that these cars are subsidized with taxpayer dollars, but I am being told to pick a green-car, so there you have it. Finally, Accords are relatively reliable. Just a quick list of the parts that failed on my two Accords over about 100K miles are; the transmission, two struts, the exhaust system, the sunroof (shattered before that became popular), and various interior parts. So I figure with all those failures I am due to own an Accord trouble free due to the law of averages.
What do you think of these picks, Patrick?s, and Aaron?s? What would be your choices?
First time accepted submitter Dario Izzo writes "The European Space Agency is giving the opportunity to try innovative software algorithms on board of one of its planned orbiting platform. The core architecture includes processors of unprecedented power (for space platforms) and it is fully reconfigurable even down to the operating system and firmware levels. Peripherals include cameras, GPS and attitude control. The full technical specifications are available via the European Space Agency web pages."
Well, this changes things a little. Danny Amendola signed with the New England Patriots on Tuesday, about a day before Wes Welker agreed to terms with the Denver Broncos.
News of Amendola's agreeing to a deal with New England broke after the Welker news, making it seem a reactionary move on the part of the Patriots. In reality, the Patriots' reaction came when Welker and his representatives made it clear they would test the free-agent market. With Amendola's contract in place, the Patriots could not afford to let him leave without signing and risk losing both him and Welker. ?
The Welker camp remained steadfast that the receiver's market would be in the $8 million to $9 million-per-season range. New England disagreed, which in part led them to prepare for Welker's departure.
And once Amendola agreed, there was no turning back.?
Amsterdam, March 14, 2013 - Bumblebees are much more unstable when they hover than when they fly fast, according to new research published this month in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.
The authors of the paper, Na Xu and Mao Sun from Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics in China, used a mathematical model to analyze the way bumblebees fly at different speeds, showing that the bumblebee is unstable when it hovers and flies slowly, and becomes neutral or weakly stable at medium and high flight speeds.
The instability at hovering and low speed is mainly caused by a sideways wind made by the movement of the wings a 'positive roll moment'. As the bee flies faster, the wings bend towards the back of the body, reducing the effect of the sideways wind and increasing the stability of its flight.
According to the authors the results could be useful in the development of small flying machines like robotic insects.
"Dynamic flight stability is of great importance in the study of biomechanics of insect flight," said Mao Sun. "It is the basis for studying flight control, because the inherent stability of a flying system represents the dynamic properties of the basic system. It also plays a major role in the development of insect-like micro-air vehicles."
In recent years, with the understanding of the aerodynamic force mechanisms of insect flight, researchers have been devoting more effort to the area of flight dynamics.
The study further refutes the persistent misconception that, according to physics, bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly. The fallacy can be traced back to Le Vol Des Insects (Hermann and Cle, Paris, 1934) by French entomologist August Magnan on page 8 he mentions bumblebees, stating, "First prompted by what is done in aviation, I applied the laws of air resistance to insects, and I arrived, with Mr. Sainte-Lagu, at this conclusion that their flight is impossible."
This new research looks at bumblebee flight using the same methods as used in quantum mechanics. By using average measurements such as wing size and shape, body mass, and upwards and downwards forces the researchers made the stability analysis of the flapping flight of an insect mathematically the same as that of a rigid airplane. By using the mathematical model rather than studying live bees, the researchers could be more accurate in their analysis of mechanical flight.
"The computational approach allows simulation of the inherent stability of a flapping motion in the absence of active control, which is very difficult, even impossible, to achieve in experiments using real insects," Sun further explained.
Xu and Sun used a model of a bumblebee with wings approximately the same size and shape as a real bee's flat plates with rounded edges, and with a thickness of three percent of the length of one wing. The outline they used of the body was also approximately the same as that of a bumblebee.
Previous research has looked at the hovering flight dynamics of different insects, including the dronefly, fruit fly and bumblebee. However, in hovering flight, there is no consideration of forwards movement, and the forces created by the wings cancel each other out. This study details that both vertical and horizontal movement need to be taken into consideration to determine how stable the flight is overall.
The results show a significant difference in stability measurements between bumblebees and droneflies something the researchers think is connected to the size and shape of the insects' wings. They plan to conduct further research in this area to compare the stability of flight at different speeds of bumblebees and droneflies.
###
This article is "Lateral dynamic flight stability of a model bumblebee in hovering and forward flight",
by Na Xu, Mao Sun Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, China (doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2012.11.033). The article appears in Journal of Theoretical Biology, 319 (2013) 102, 21 February 2013, published by Elsevier.
Notes for Editors
Full text of the article is available to credentialed journalists upon request, contact newsroom@elsevier.com.
Journalists wishing to interview the authors may contact Lucy Goodchild +31 20 485 2467, l.goodchild@elsevier.com
About Journal of Theoretical Biology
The Journal of Theoretical Biology is the leading forum for theoretical papers that give insight into biological processes. It covers a very wide range of topics and is of interest to biologists in many areas of research. The Journal of Theoretical Biology is published by Elsevier. http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-theoretical-biology
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close
to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of
science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
[ | 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.
Hovering is a bother for bees: Fast flight is more stablePublic release date: 14-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Amsterdam, March 14, 2013 - Bumblebees are much more unstable when they hover than when they fly fast, according to new research published this month in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.
The authors of the paper, Na Xu and Mao Sun from Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics in China, used a mathematical model to analyze the way bumblebees fly at different speeds, showing that the bumblebee is unstable when it hovers and flies slowly, and becomes neutral or weakly stable at medium and high flight speeds.
The instability at hovering and low speed is mainly caused by a sideways wind made by the movement of the wings a 'positive roll moment'. As the bee flies faster, the wings bend towards the back of the body, reducing the effect of the sideways wind and increasing the stability of its flight.
According to the authors the results could be useful in the development of small flying machines like robotic insects.
"Dynamic flight stability is of great importance in the study of biomechanics of insect flight," said Mao Sun. "It is the basis for studying flight control, because the inherent stability of a flying system represents the dynamic properties of the basic system. It also plays a major role in the development of insect-like micro-air vehicles."
In recent years, with the understanding of the aerodynamic force mechanisms of insect flight, researchers have been devoting more effort to the area of flight dynamics.
The study further refutes the persistent misconception that, according to physics, bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly. The fallacy can be traced back to Le Vol Des Insects (Hermann and Cle, Paris, 1934) by French entomologist August Magnan on page 8 he mentions bumblebees, stating, "First prompted by what is done in aviation, I applied the laws of air resistance to insects, and I arrived, with Mr. Sainte-Lagu, at this conclusion that their flight is impossible."
This new research looks at bumblebee flight using the same methods as used in quantum mechanics. By using average measurements such as wing size and shape, body mass, and upwards and downwards forces the researchers made the stability analysis of the flapping flight of an insect mathematically the same as that of a rigid airplane. By using the mathematical model rather than studying live bees, the researchers could be more accurate in their analysis of mechanical flight.
"The computational approach allows simulation of the inherent stability of a flapping motion in the absence of active control, which is very difficult, even impossible, to achieve in experiments using real insects," Sun further explained.
Xu and Sun used a model of a bumblebee with wings approximately the same size and shape as a real bee's flat plates with rounded edges, and with a thickness of three percent of the length of one wing. The outline they used of the body was also approximately the same as that of a bumblebee.
Previous research has looked at the hovering flight dynamics of different insects, including the dronefly, fruit fly and bumblebee. However, in hovering flight, there is no consideration of forwards movement, and the forces created by the wings cancel each other out. This study details that both vertical and horizontal movement need to be taken into consideration to determine how stable the flight is overall.
The results show a significant difference in stability measurements between bumblebees and droneflies something the researchers think is connected to the size and shape of the insects' wings. They plan to conduct further research in this area to compare the stability of flight at different speeds of bumblebees and droneflies.
###
This article is "Lateral dynamic flight stability of a model bumblebee in hovering and forward flight",
by Na Xu, Mao Sun Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, China (doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2012.11.033). The article appears in Journal of Theoretical Biology, 319 (2013) 102, 21 February 2013, published by Elsevier.
Notes for Editors
Full text of the article is available to credentialed journalists upon request, contact newsroom@elsevier.com.
Journalists wishing to interview the authors may contact Lucy Goodchild +31 20 485 2467, l.goodchild@elsevier.com
About Journal of Theoretical Biology
The Journal of Theoretical Biology is the leading forum for theoretical papers that give insight into biological processes. It covers a very wide range of topics and is of interest to biologists in many areas of research. The Journal of Theoretical Biology is published by Elsevier. http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-theoretical-biology
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close
to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of
science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
[ | 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.
The oldest son of Rick Santorum has made his own run for president of his freshman class at the Citadel, a public military college in South Carolina.
John Santorum launched a campaign Facebook page on March 1 with a photo that reads "Help Me Finish What My Dad Couldn't." His father, famously not a "snob" about college education, competed unsuccessfully for the 2012 Republican nomination for president.
The son made the dean's list for the fall semester, meaning he had a GPA of 3.2 or higher, but that's not what he boasts about on his campaign page. Instead, he proclaims "I Love America & I Love Guns" and says he has an "A+" rating from the National Rifle Association. (Which is the first NRA rating we've heard of for a college student.)
John's Facebook page is full of people supporting him who clearly would love to see his father in the White House.
It's safe to suppose that many of those fans found John's Facebook page through his father's tweet:
The Citadel is considered a go-to campaign spot among GOP presidential contenders, according to The New York Times. The senior Santorum worked the campus hard during the 2012 electoral cycle, the Times reported last year:
Mr. Santorum has aggressively campaigned at Citadel, even learning cadets' names. He is scheduled to speak to the Citadel Republican Society on Friday evening, and hold his primary party on the campus the next night.
Townes Moore, 20, a cadet from Charleston, has volunteered for the Santorum campaign since the summer. He estimates that he has made at least 5,000 phone calls to voters.
"If Rick Santorum were president, I'd be honored to be sent overseas," he said. "He's strong on national security, so I'd feel very safe with him in office."
Rick Santorum was even hitting up dinners hosted by the Citadel Republican Society back in 2010.
As for John, the class of 2016's student government elections were scheduled for March 6, so we're wondering whether he won. Santorum hasn't issued an update on Twitter, John doesn't use his own Twitter account much, and there are no election results on the Citadel's website or the student government's Facebook page.
We've reached out to the Citadel and will update when we hear back.
Aromatherapy is a form of alternative medicine that uses volatile plant materials, known as essential oils, and other aromatic compounds for the purpose of altering a person?s mind, mood, cognitive function or health. Some essential oils such as tea tree[1] have demonstrated anti-microbial effects, but there is still a lack of clinical evidence demonstrating efficacy against bacterial, fungal, or viral infections. Evidence for the efficacy of aromatherapy in treating medical conditions remains poor, with a particular lack of studies employing rigorous methodology,[2] but some evidence exists that essential oils may have therapeutic potential.[3]
Newvem has launched a heat map that visualizes customer's usage of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The service is designed to replace the primitive tools AWS provides and gives customers an alternative to tracking spreadsheets. Instead, customers get a full picture of their usage in one view.
Men In Kilts, a window cleaning franchise, makes its way across Canada and into Toronto.
Toronto, Ontario (PRWEB) March 11, 2013 - Men In Kilts, Canada?s largest full-service window cleaning, gutter cleaning, siding cleaning, and pressure washing company, announced their recent opening in Toronto. Having already established themselves in Canada and expanding fast into the US, Men In Kilts has plans to be in every major market by 2017.
Men In Kilts CEO, Tressa Wood says, ?Toronto was the next big Canadian market we wanted to hit. We were thrilled when Sentwali Lewis and Darcy Longpre came to us wanting to start up the Toronto franchise. We could not have picked two more dynamic owners for this market. They have a real passion and dedication to delivering a top notch service experience.?
Lewis and Longpre come from diverse backgrounds and are excited to start sporting their knee-length kilts and tartan trucks around the Greater Toronto Area. Lewis says, ?This is a very familiar business venture for me. With my experience as a business coach in the franchise industry, I have a solid understanding of how to scale our operations. Owning Men In Kilts Toronto will provide a new adventure for myself and will be extremely rewarding.?
Longpre expands, ?We are excited to launch. We see a huge opportunity in the overlooked window and exterior cleaning industry in our market. The time is right to open up a franchise here in Toronto. We could not be more amazed at the level of support and drive from the entire team at the Men In Kilts Head Office.?
As with every new Men In Kilts franchise, locals in the Toronto area are sure to get a surprise the first time they spot these kilt-wearing men cleaning windows. Lewis says, ?The feedback we have already received from family and friends has been incredible. Here in Toronto, we will continue bringing smiles into the world, one kilt at a time!?
About Men In Kilts
Men In Kilts was started in 2002 by Nicholas Brand with $500, a squeegee and a hand-sewn kilt. The first franchise was opened in 2010 in Vancouver and has grown to ten locations across Canada and the US. The company continues their successful expansion across North America, with plans to be in every major market by 2017.
For more information on Men In Kilts, or to see them in action, please contact Brent Hohlweg at pr [at] meninkilts [dot] com or visit http://www.meninkilts.com.
--high-resolution images available upon request--
Contact:
Brent H. Men In Kilts http://www.meninkilts.com/brent-hohlweg-bio/ 800-777-5458
A European invader outcompetes Canadian plants even outside its usual temperature rangePublic release date: 12-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Pedro M. Antunes antunes@algomau.ca 705-949-230-14379 Pensoft Publishers
Dog-strangling vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum) is an exotic plant originating from the Ukraine and southeastern Russia that is becoming increasingly invasive in southern Ontario, Canada. It has been found growing successfully in both disturbed and undisturbed areas, in open fields, forest edges and understories, parks, road edges and railway embankments. The invasive plant effectively competes for light by forming large and dense stands that climb over other plants. A study published in the open access, peer-reviewed journal NeoBiota explores the effects of V. rossicum invasion in Canada.
Apart from displacing local plant species, among the ecological effects of a possible V. rossicum invasion are endangered populations of local soil organisms and pollinator species. Another concern is the dog strangling vine's good adaptability to and possible invasion of the alvar environment in the region, which for the Ontario is a rare kind of habitat supporting a number of important habitat-specific species. V. rossicum is also believed to be allelopathic, which means that in its roots, it produces chemicals that are toxic to other plants and exuded in the surrounding soil.
Along with photoperiod and moisture, temperature is considered a key environmental cue for flowering. Temperature majorly affects the reproduction of the dog-strangling vine. Generally, reproduction takes longer to occur under cooler growing conditions. A slight reduction from the current growing temperature conditions of the dog-strangling vine is sufficient to produce a significant delay in budding, flowering, and the formation of seedpods. Therefore, V. rossicum may be limited in its capacity to spread into northern climates simply because it may not be able to complete its life-cycle. To test this possibility the authors grew V. rossicum under simulated temperature conditions of northern and southern Ontario. In addition, they forced V. rossicum to compete with Solidago canadensis, which is highly abundant across Ontario.
Laura Sanderson and Pedro Antunes from the Invasive Species Research Institute, Canada, found that "in spite of a delay in growth under cooler conditions, V. rossicum produced just as many seeds as it did under temperature regimes typical of its current distribution range". They also found that competition with S. canadensis resulted in reductions in the fitness and total biomass of V. rossicum. However, the relative reductions in total biomass were greater for the competing native species, regardless of climatic temperature regime.
"Phenotypic plasticity may enable V. rossicum to spread into northern Ontario", conclude the authors.
###
Original Source:
Laura A. Sanderson, Pedro M. Antunes (2013) The exotic invasive plant Vincetoxicum rossicum is a strong competitor even outside its current realized climatic temperature range. NeoBiota 16: 1, doi: 10.3897/neobiota.16.4012
Licensing:
This press release is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. It is thus expected to link back to the original article.
Posted by Pensoft Publishers.
[ | 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.
A European invader outcompetes Canadian plants even outside its usual temperature rangePublic release date: 12-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Pedro M. Antunes antunes@algomau.ca 705-949-230-14379 Pensoft Publishers
Dog-strangling vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum) is an exotic plant originating from the Ukraine and southeastern Russia that is becoming increasingly invasive in southern Ontario, Canada. It has been found growing successfully in both disturbed and undisturbed areas, in open fields, forest edges and understories, parks, road edges and railway embankments. The invasive plant effectively competes for light by forming large and dense stands that climb over other plants. A study published in the open access, peer-reviewed journal NeoBiota explores the effects of V. rossicum invasion in Canada.
Apart from displacing local plant species, among the ecological effects of a possible V. rossicum invasion are endangered populations of local soil organisms and pollinator species. Another concern is the dog strangling vine's good adaptability to and possible invasion of the alvar environment in the region, which for the Ontario is a rare kind of habitat supporting a number of important habitat-specific species. V. rossicum is also believed to be allelopathic, which means that in its roots, it produces chemicals that are toxic to other plants and exuded in the surrounding soil.
Along with photoperiod and moisture, temperature is considered a key environmental cue for flowering. Temperature majorly affects the reproduction of the dog-strangling vine. Generally, reproduction takes longer to occur under cooler growing conditions. A slight reduction from the current growing temperature conditions of the dog-strangling vine is sufficient to produce a significant delay in budding, flowering, and the formation of seedpods. Therefore, V. rossicum may be limited in its capacity to spread into northern climates simply because it may not be able to complete its life-cycle. To test this possibility the authors grew V. rossicum under simulated temperature conditions of northern and southern Ontario. In addition, they forced V. rossicum to compete with Solidago canadensis, which is highly abundant across Ontario.
Laura Sanderson and Pedro Antunes from the Invasive Species Research Institute, Canada, found that "in spite of a delay in growth under cooler conditions, V. rossicum produced just as many seeds as it did under temperature regimes typical of its current distribution range". They also found that competition with S. canadensis resulted in reductions in the fitness and total biomass of V. rossicum. However, the relative reductions in total biomass were greater for the competing native species, regardless of climatic temperature regime.
"Phenotypic plasticity may enable V. rossicum to spread into northern Ontario", conclude the authors.
###
Original Source:
Laura A. Sanderson, Pedro M. Antunes (2013) The exotic invasive plant Vincetoxicum rossicum is a strong competitor even outside its current realized climatic temperature range. NeoBiota 16: 1, doi: 10.3897/neobiota.16.4012
Licensing:
This press release is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. It is thus expected to link back to the original article.
Posted by Pensoft Publishers.
[ | 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.
TORONTO (AP) ? BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion will launch its new touchscreen smartphone in the U.S. with AT&T on March 22. The release will come several weeks after RIM launched the much-delayed devices elsewhere.
AT&T said Monday that the Z10 will be available for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Sales of the device began in the U.K. and Canada shortly after RIM unveiled the phone in late January.
The redesigned BlackBerry is RIM's attempt at a comeback. The pioneering brand lost its cachet not long after Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone, which reset consumers' expectations for what a smartphone should do.
RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said previously he was disappointed the new BlackBerry would not be released in the U.S. until mid-March, but he said the U.S. and its phone carriers have a rigid testing system.
Heins told The Associated Press last month that the company would have to regain market share in the U.S. for BlackBerry to be successful. The U.S. has been one market in which RIM has been particularly hurt. The iPhone and phones running Google's Android software now dominate. According to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the U.S. market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012.
Heins also suggested to the AP that a modern BlackBerry with a physical keyboard might not arrive in the U.S. until May or June, a month or two behind other parts of the world. Heins said the physical keyboard version, the BlackBerry Q10, will likely come out eight to 10 weeks after a carrier releases a model with only a touch screen, the BlackBerry Z10. With the Z10 set for release in the U.S. on March 22, eight to 10 weeks brings the U.S. date for the Q10 to mid-May to early June.
Shares jumped $1.32, or 10.1 percent, to $14.38 in midday trading on the Nasdaq. BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said the stock move is based a report quoting Lenovo's chief executive as saying he might be interested in an acquisition of RIM. Gillis and Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said a Chinese acquisition is unlikely due to security concerns.
Misek said checks by Jefferies indicate that the Z10 is sold out in many new developing markets including India and said many carriers are scrambling for supply, but Gillis noted RIM's U.S. release will go up against Samsung's next Galaxy smartphone which is expected to be unveiled on Thursday.
"If that makes the splash that people think it may, you don't want to be the guy that's coming out a week later," Gillis said.
Fleksy, the keyboard app that doesn't even require you to look at the screen or hit any actual keys to type, is busy at SXSW this week. The startup is showing off its software working with the Leap Motion Controller to provide gesture-based typing input that works just like its iPhone and Android app, but for typing in mid-air. The company is also debuting its iOS SDK this week, which will allow third-party apps on Apple's mobile OS to tak advantage of the unique software keyboard.
ISLAMABAD (AP) ? Pakistan's president is traveling to Iran on Monday for a ceremony to mark the start of construction of a controversial pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran despite American opposition to the project.
The Iran-Pakistan pipeline is intended to help Pakistan overcome its mushrooming energy needs at a time when the country is facing increased blackouts and energy shortages.
But there are serious doubts about how Pakistan could finance the $1.5 billion needed to construct the pipeline and whether it could go through with the project without facing U.S. sanctions, which Washington has put in place to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.
Monday's ceremony comes just days before the government's term is set to expire and could be designed to win votes by making the ruling Pakistan People's Party look like it's addressing the energy crisis. It also allows the government to thumb its nose at the United States, which is widely unpopular in Pakistan despite billions of dollars in military and civilian aid.
The U.S. has opposed the project, instead promoting an alternative pipeline that runs from the gas fields of Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and then to India. The U.S. has also championed a number of electricity-generation projects within Pakistan such as helping renovate hydropower dams.
Iran says it has already finished its side of the pipeline which travels 1,150 kilometers (715 miles) from the gas fields to the Iran-Pakistan border, where the ceremony will be held Monday. The Pakistan segment of the pipeline is expected to be about 780 kilometers (485 miles). Gas is supposed to start flowing in by the end of 2014, although few see that deadline as realistic considering the delays so far in the project.
The U.S. has repeatedly raised questions about the project.
"If this deal is finalized for a proposed Iran-Pakistan pipeline, it would raise serious concerns under our Iran Sanctions Act. We've made that absolutely clear to our Pakistani counterparts," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland during a press briefing in Washington last week.
Rhetoric aside, it remains to be seen whether Pakistan would ever actually face American sanctions. The PPP government led by President Asif Ali Zardari likely has only days left leading the country because new elections are expected to be called by the end of the week.
"That timing is very important for the People's Party because they are building their campaign on this," said Hussain Yasar, a senior energy analyst at KASB Securities in Karachi.
One of the chief complaints of Pakistanis with the current government is over the widespread blackouts that have only gotten worse since it took over five years ago. The government seems to be flouting its commitment to the pipeline as a way to prove it is committed to solving the energy crisis despite its track record, and has emphasized that it is going forward with the project in the face of U.S. opposition.
Speaking Monday morning before the president and his entourage left for Iran, a presidential spokesman said the project will have a huge economic impact on Pakistan.
"We hope our friends understand our energy needs," said Farhatullah Babar in a veiled reference to the U.S.
One of the biggest challenges for cash-strapped Pakistan is how to come up with the money needed to build the pipeline.
With few countries willing to court American ire by financing the project, Iran has reportedly given Pakistan a $500 million loan to build part of it. Babar would not confirm the loan but said Iran has provided assurances that its company will build the pipeline on the Pakistani side.
The Pakistanis have said they will finance the rest of the project ? roughly $1 billion ? through an additional fee added to customers' bills, but that is a tough proposition considering how few Pakistanis actually pay for electricity.
It's unclear whether Pakistan's commitment to the project will continue if the ruling party loses the upcoming election. The PPP's main contender is the Pakistan Muslim League-N, headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who spent years living in exile Saudi Arabia.
The oil-rich gulf kingdom, a Sunni Muslim country with deep suspicion of Iran's Shiite Muslim rulers, is believed to also be adamantly opposed to any deal that would benefit Iran.
"It will be a tricky situation for the PML-N," said Yasar.
Wow, asbestos, electrical problems through the whole house, chimney damage, no attic venting and more. I would not chalk it up as a $450 loss, that is a $450 well spent.? That $450 just saved you thousands on a really bad decision, run away from that house and seller fast and don't look back.
By Gabriel Debenedetti and Peter Rudegeair March 9 (Reuters) - Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Carol Greider used to have eight to 10 young researchers working in her university laboratory, but with U.S. government funds for scientific research shrinking in recent years, she's gone down to four. Sequestration, Washington's name for $85 billion in federal spending cuts this year, promises to cut even deeper into Greider's team at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She's decided she cannot afford to hire "a promising young researcher" she wanted to add to her staff for the next academic year. "I'm not sure in the current climate we have for research funding that I would have received funding to be able to do the work that led to the Nobel Prize," Greider said at a National Institutes of Health (NIH) event last month, adding that her early work on enzymes and cell biology was well outside the mainstream. The NIH has been funding her research for the past 23 years. Federally funded, university research has long been a major engine of scientific advancement, spurring innovations from cancer treatments to the seeds of technology companies like Google. But now some of the largest U.S. research universities fear that spending cuts under sequestration could lead to layoffs, curtail scientific discovery and leave a generation with less access to careers in science, school officials said. The across-the-board budget cuts, to be carried out by September 30, come on top of years of reductions in federal spending on research that have already had an impact on universities' scientific exploration, officials from eight top research universities told Reuters. "These cuts threaten to undermine our ability to carry on the basic research that leads us to new frontiers of knowledge and boosts American competitiveness," Harvard University President Drew Faust told Reuters in a statement. A report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a lobbying group, said sequestration would leave the United States $511 billion behind in research and development investment, compared with expected growth in spending on research in China. CUTS, AND MORE CUTS About three-fifths, or $40.8 billion, of all university research funding in Fiscal Year 2011 came from the federal government, according to a recent National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics survey. Money from states, localities, foundations, individuals, companies and other sources make up the rest of university research budgets. Sequestration comes amid a backdrop of diminishing federal funding for university research. NIH appropriations in Fiscal Year 2012 were below those of 2003 when adjusted for inflation, according to an analysis of NIH data by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Universities have already seen their funding reduced this year. Mary Lidstrom, the Vice Provost for Research at the University of Washington in Seattle, said NIH began trimming grant funding research by about 10 percent across the board earlier in the academic year. The university received $609 million from NIH the previous fiscal year. The restrictions are affecting graduate student admissions for the fall, with the school likely to accept fewer students, Lidstrom said. Further funding cuts could mean fewer paid internships for undergraduates. Under sequestration, NIH will reduce its budget by $1.5 billion, or 5 percent, according to estimates from the Office of Management and Budget. The National Science Foundation (NSF) stands to lose $290 million. That could disrupt ongoing projects with multi-year grants, head off future scientific breakthroughs and lower the number of graduates admitted to research programs, school officials said. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Vice President of Research Steve Forrest said a 5 percent cut would mean a loss of $40 million for the school. A Yale University spokesman said the school stood to lose $28 million. "There (are) going to be a lot of research jobs at risk. That will hit young researchers disproportionately hard," said Forrest, adding that the effects are long-term and hard to recover from since researchers are unlikely to return because of "the extremely competitive environment across the globe."
FUTURE CONSEQUENCES FOR DISCOVERY Universities get federal research grants through a competitive, project-specific application process, with the money funding everything from lab materials to technicians to graduate students. Grants can be as small as a few thousand dollars for projects lasting a few months to as much as tens of millions of dollars for work lasting a decade or more. For example, in fiscal year 2011, University of Michigan received $10.9 million from NIH to study aging and University of Wisconsin received $13.6 million for primate research. With less federal funding, universities will have to find money from other sources or scale back projects. Forrest warned of a scenario in which universities would have to use their reserve funds to finance programs as long as they can to see ongoing experiments through to completion. "Then eventually we'll have to start cutting workforce," he said. Underpinning the staffing worries is a broader concern about scientific progress: cuts could mean the loss of research or the researcher with the ability to do the work. NIH has said sequestration means it will likely reduce funding for existing grants and it expects to make fewer new awards in fiscal year 2013, beginning this fall. NSF said it will absorb the cuts by awarding approximately 1,000 fewer grants in fiscal year 2013, though it will not cut existing standard grants. Exactly which grants might suffer is unclear. (Reporting by Peter Rudegeair and Gabriel Debenedetti; Editing by Jennifer Merritt, Mary Milliken and Leslie Gevirtz)
KANO, Nigeria (AP) ? The United Kingdom's military says its warplanes recently spotted in Nigeria's capital city were there to move soldiers to aid the French intervention in Mali ? not to rescue kidnapped foreign hostages.
The Ministry of Defense said Sunday that the planes had ferried Nigerian troops and equipment to Bamako, Mali. An Islamic extremist group in Nigeria called Ansaru partially blamed the presence of those planes as an excuse for claiming Saturday that it killed seven foreign hostages it had taken.
Those kidnapped included four Lebanese citizens and one each from Britain, Greece and Italy ? all employees of Setraco, a Lebanese construction company with an operation in Bauchi state.
The Ministry of Defense declined to comment further about the claimed hostage killings. The hostages have yet to be found.
Electric cars and commercial space flight -- what more could a person want? The Tesla / SpaceX founder is bringing all of that to his keynote on this, this second day of South By Southwest Interactive. The exec has never been on to mince words, so this ought to be an interesting one. Join us after the break, won't you?
Cleveland Cavaliers' Kyrie Irving (2) drives against Utah Jazz's Alec Burks (10) during the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, March 6, 2013, in Cleveland. The Cavaliers won 104-101. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Cleveland Cavaliers' Kyrie Irving (2) drives against Utah Jazz's Alec Burks (10) during the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, March 6, 2013, in Cleveland. The Cavaliers won 104-101. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
CLEVELAND (AP) ? Cavaliers All-Star guard Kyrie Irving says he will play against Memphis despite having flu-like symptoms earlier in the day.
Irving missed the team's morning shootaround and was listed as doubtful for Friday's game. A flu bug has coursed its way through Cleveland's team and also sickened family members of players and coaches. However, Irving arrived at Quicken Loans Arena about 90 minutes before tipoff and told reporters he was going to play.
Irving said he began filling ill Thursday night and spent most of Friday resting.
"I went to the doctor and got myself checked out," he said. "I'm here. About 13 hours of sleep will definitely help you."
Irving was recently held out of three games to rest a hyperextended right knee, and following Wednesday's win over Utah, the 20-year-old said the injury was still bothering him. Those comments prompted coach Byron Scott to say he would consider shutting down Irving again, rather than risk him making it worse.
However, after speaking with Irving and trainer Max Benton, Scott isn't as worried.
"I don't think the knee is that big of an issue," said Scott.
Irving attempted to diffuse any apparent controversy about the status of his knee and thought the situation regarding his comments on Wednesday was a bit overblown.
"I'm fine," he said. "I'm not getting shut down. Coach Scott is not in contemplation of shutting me down. It's funny what the Internet can do for people."
This virulent flu bug has bitten the Cavs hard.
Rookies Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller as well as Daniel Gibson and team trainer Max Benton all missed games earlier this week with the stomach virus. Waiters was in Friday's starting lineup and Scott said Gibson was available.
Zeller returned on Wednesday after being sick and losing five pounds. He and Waiters became so ill last weekend that they had to be taken to the hospital.
Scott has been leery of making any unnecessary contact with his players.
"I'm not touching their hands right now," he said. "We're doing a lot of knuckles stuff. I'm trying to stay away from them as much as possible. Hopefully, this thing will be over today or tonight. It's made its way through our team."
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 14-Mar-2013
Share ] 
Fleksy, the keyboard app that doesn't even require you to look at the screen or hit any actual keys to type, is busy at SXSW this week. The startup is showing off its software working with the Leap Motion Controller to provide gesture-based typing input that works just like its iPhone and Android app, but for typing in mid-air. The company is also debuting its iOS SDK this week, which will allow third-party apps on Apple's mobile OS to tak advantage of the unique software keyboard.