Chinese Boy Claims To Have Cat-Like Night Vision

Despite the claims that his eyes have a retroreflective tapetum lucidum, they can't capture it on camera:

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2115-china-cat-eyed-boy-night-vision.html [lifeslittlemysteries.com]

In the footage, Nong's teacher claims the boy's eyes flash when shined with a flashlight in the dark, but the reporters don't seem to be able to catch the effect on camera. When Nong's eyes are illuminated in the dark, they appear normal. James Reynolds, a pediatric ophthalmologist at State University of New York in Buffalo, noted, "A video could capture [eyeshine] easily, just like in nature films of leopards at night."

I can't seem to take a flash photo of my dog without seeing her eyes shine back at me, so I don't see why they can't capture the effect in this boy if it exists.

I think he's just a blue-eyed chinese boy (which is unusual but not unheard of) with exceptionally good low-light vision, but I don't believe he's developed the same low-light vision adaptation that some animals have.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/nE29NZj4Q9M/chinese-boy-claims-to-have-cat-like-night-vision

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Bosnian authorities declare state of emergency (AP)

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina ? Bosnian authorities have declare state of emergency in the capital Sarajevo after it was paralyzed by snow, while hundreds of people remain trapped in their homes and vehicles throughout the country.

More than a meter (three feet) of snow is lying in the city Saturday, as residents are try to clear routes to the hospital or simply connect buildings. One by one, neighborhoods are reporting water shortages and people are emptying shops in fear it could last for days. Several people said they witnessed fistfights in shops over loave of bread.

Schools have been closed for a week and throughout the country travelers have been trapped on roads since Friday evening.

Authorities are urging people not to go out of their homes.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) ? Eastern Europe's unrelenting and deadly cold snap produced another heavy snowfall in the Balkans on Saturday, trapping people in their homes and cars, causing power outages, and closing airports, railway stations and bus services.

In Bosnia, which woke up to more than three feet (one meter) of new snow ? vehicles carrying about 30 people were trapped in a tunnel south of Sarajevo. They called local radio stations to appeal for help, saying they had children with them and were running out of fuel. But when snow plows arrived on the scene, they also got stuck Saturday, officials said.

"This is unbelievable. I can't remember snow like this in the past 30 years, said Mirsada Mitrovic, a resident of Sarajevo. "Maybe when I was a child, but since then nothing like this."

In neighboring Montenegro, a three-day snowstorm that has closed roads and the main airport in the capital, Podgorica, claimed its first victim: a 54-year-old man who died when an avalanche hit his car on a road near the town of Kolasin.

Even top government officials were waylaid.

The presidents of Serbia and Croatia, who had attended a summit at a ski resort near Sarajevo on Friday, were unable able to immediately leave the mountain after the meeting.

But the brutal winter weather didn't stop everyone.

In Moscow, where temperatures sank to minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 Celsius), tens of thousands of people held another massive anti-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rally on Saturday.

The weeklong cold snap ? Eastern Europe's worst in decades ? has killed at least 176 people, many of them homeless people, especially in countries such as Ukraine.

On Saturday, Ukraine's Emergency Ministry said 122 people have died there over the past eight days, including 78 homeless people found on city streets. Nearly 1,600 other residents have been hospitalized with hypothermia and frostbite. Snow and temperatures hovering around 3 degrees Fahrenheit (-16 Celsius) prompted authorities to close schools and colleges, and to cancel bus services.

In Montenegro, police said that more than 100 people, including children on a school trip, were evacuated from the roads blocked by snow and taken to a shelter near Podgorica.

Early Saturday, rescuers reached a minibus with 11 passengers that was trapped for several hours by an avalanche in the Tara River canyon of Montenegro.

With rail services at a standstill across the small nation, Montenegro's government said it plans to hold an emergency session to discuss ways of coping with the cold snap.

In Austria, temperatures in the western city of Salzburg hovered around 7 degrees Fahrenheit (-14 Celsius) on Saturday, and a technical problem at a power plant left 10,000 households without heating on Saturday, Austrian news agency APA reported.

Germany recorded the coldest night of the year, with the thermometer plunging to -16 Fahrenheit (-27 Celsius) in the southern town of Oberstdorf, according to the German Weather Service.

The tough winter weather also has hit cities in southern Europe such as Rome, where snowfalls are rare.

On Saturday, the Italian capital woke up to its second snowfall in two days ? four inches (10 centimeters) ? and some residents used government-distributed shovels to clear piazzas.

Children, meanwhile, enjoyed another day off school.

___

AP correspondents contributed to this story from across Europe.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120204/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_weather

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Venture Capital ? Blog Archive ? Recommendations For ...

Qatar is among the most progressive countries while in the Middle East, which has a powerful marketplace and lots of opportunities for expats. The Qatari government realise that with such a small indigenous population, employees and organizations from abroad are fundamental to take care of the country?s progress ? and when using the 2022 Environment Cup staying held there, there has undoubtedly certainly not been a greater time for beginning a business enterprise in Qatar.

If you?re thinking of taking the plunge and beginning a business enterprise in Qatar, one can find a number of issues that you just really need to know so that you can just be sure you meet corporation formation regulations. As you build any business enterprise, you need to get started on while you necessarily mean to go on, by subsequent protocol and carrying out issues correct while in the initially instance.

Environment Up A WLL Organization In Qatar

Just about the most widespread kind of business enterprise shaped in Qatar is a -With Minimal Liability? corporation, or perhaps a WLL. By placing up a WLL in Qatar, your own property are protected, so in the event the business enterprise does not site effort and you also finish up being forced to declare the business bankrupt, you won?t undergo on a personalized economic level. This sort of safety are generally a must have, supporting you to commence in confidence with no stressing from the outset about personalized liability.

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Other Significant Things Of Beginning A Business enterprise In Qatar

In addition to a community sponsor, you might really need to open a lender account with a minimum of QAR 200,000 as part of your respective corporation formation in Qatar. You can also really need to just be sure you have the correct visa for on your own and blog your family ahead of you start your company in Qatar and you also need to sign-up your company when using the suitable ministry together with the Qatar Chamber of Commerce. Other specifications include obtaining a business enterprise and signage license, organising a company seal and registering when using the tax workplace.

As part of your respective WLL corporation formation, you might really need to cultivate an -Articles of Association? document with your community Qatari sponsor ? this need to be signed while in the existence of an official. This would possibly look like a long-winded corporation formation procedure, but all goods are fundamental to get started on your company in Qatar.

Source: http://www.arrasatekoeuskalgintza.org/3104-recommendations-for-commencing-a-online-business-in-qatar/

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BP Said to Have Shunned Business Ethics by Hiding E-mails on ...

There have been instances in the last 100 years where we saw hundreds of lives and property loss of millions of dollars being wasted. One among such unfortunate accidents happened when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. Though the event took place some time back, the shock still lingers in the minds of relatives and friends of people who worked there.

The latest proceeding involves the reveal of e-mails which confirms that BP was aware of the accident much earlier.

The e-mail conversation, which BP agreed to release on Friday as part of federal court proceedings, suggests that BP managers recognized the potential of the disaster in its early hours, and that company officials sought to make sure that its model-developed information was not shared with outsiders.

The e-mails also suggest that BP was having heated discussions with the Coast Guard over the potential of the oil spill.

BP is a vertically-integrated firm that is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.

It also has major renewable energy activities, including in biofuels, hydrogen, solar and wind power.

The messages were released as part of the court proceedings to determine the division of responsibility for the nation?s worst offshore oil disaster, which began when the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, 2010, killing 11 men about 50 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast.

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Source: http://greenlichen.com/2012/02/bp-said-to-have-shunned-business-ethics-by-hiding-e-mails-on-gulf-oil-spill/

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Elegance of Spider Webs Helps Make Them Strong [Video]

Orb webs image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Bj?rn Christian T?rrissen

Spiders? silk has been the envy of materials engineers for decades. Its combination of flexibility and durability has been difficult to match with even the most advanced technology.

?It is stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar by weight,? Markus Buehler, an engineer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a prepared statement.

A new study by Buehler and his colleagues, published online Wednesday in Nature, is the first to use computer modeling to demonstrate how the molecular components and structures of the silk contribute to the astounding strength of spiders? web designs (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group). It explains how web patterns contribute to their impressive imperviousness to wind, weather and other assaults.

Many web-building spiders weave their webs primarily from two kinds of silk: dragline silk, which is relatively stiff, serves as the anchoring spokes, and more flexible viscid silk makes up the connecting spiral pieces. The research team based its computer model on detailed information about the molecular components of these substances and real-life observations of web constructions. ?We could analyze the web in terms of energy and details of the local stress and strain,? Steven Cranford, a graduate student at MIT and co-author of the paper, said in a prepared statement. The play between these two types of silk enhanced the durability of the web.

Because of the molecular makeup of the silk and the macro patterns it has been weaved into, serious damage to the web remains confined to a small area. Local strands fail, but the overall structure stays intact.? The spider has to fix only a bit of it?rather than conduct major repairs or redo the whole thing altogether.

This principle provides an excellent model for human engineers, who routinely struggle with the tradeoffs of making structures resilient. ?Engineered structures are typically designed to withstand large loads with limited damage?but extreme loads are more difficult to account for,? Cranford said. Because spider webs are designed to allow for localized breaks, they can handle both types of situation within the same elegant structure: ?It doesn?t matter if the load is just strong enough to cause failure or 100 times higher?the net effect is the same,? he said. ?Allowing a sacrificial member to fail removes the unpredictability of ?extreme? loads from the design equation.?

The researchers subjected their digital web to the equivalent of hurricane-force winds. They were also able to change the web?s materials and see how that affected its behavior. ?We were able to efficiently create ?synthetic? webs, constructed out of virtual silks that resembled more typical engineering materials,? Canford said. And that information could help scientists design stronger and more flexible materials.

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Animation of computer-generated spider web courtesy of Cranford & M.J. Buehler/MIT

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=07bff778c2a58f3ed2836d5fecf6cb9f

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Facebook, and Zuckerberg, embark on mega-IPO (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? Facebook unveiled what is expected to be Silicon Valley's largest ever initial public offering, but made it clear to outside investors that they will have little voice in its running, as founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will continue to exercise almost complete control.

The Harvard dropout, who launched what would become the social networking phenomenon out of his dorm room, will own 56.9 percent of the voting shares of a company that is expected to be worth up to $100 billion when it goes public. He will have economic control of about 28 percent of the shares, ranking him among the richest people in the world.

The 27-year-old's ownership position means that Facebook, which is aiming to raise at least $5 billion and as much as $10 billion, will not need to appoint a majority of independent directors or set up board committees to oversee compensation and other matters.

The company's ownership structure and bylaws go against shareholder-friendly corporate governance practices put in place in the United States after years of investor activism.

As Facebook states in its IPO prospectus, Zuckerberg will "effectively control all matters submitted to stockholders for vote, as well as the overall management and direction of our company."

The IPO prospectus shows that Facebook, which says it has 845 million monthly active users, generated $3.71 billion in revenue and made $1 billion in net profit last year, up 65 percent from the $606 million it made in 2010.

Facebook, which exploded in popularity and vaulted to Silicon Valley's top tier within 8 years, is expected to make its market debut in the middle of the year.

Wednesday's long-awaited filing for an initial public offering kicks off a months-long process that will culminate in Silicon Valley's biggest coming-out party since the heyday of the dotcom boom and bust.

Facebook appointed Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan its lead underwriters. Other bookrunners included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Allen & Co.

"We often talk about inventions like the printing press and the television," Zuckerberg said in a letter accompanying the documents. "Today, our society has reached another tipping point."

"There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future," said Zuckerberg, whose $500,000 base salary will drop to a dollar from January1 2013.

"The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented."

Zuckerberg's 533.8 million shares are worth almost $16 billion, based on a per-share value of $29.76 that the company assigned to its restricted stock units on December 31. As a result, Zuckerberg, following the example set by Apple founder Steve Jobs, agreed to decrease his compensation from $1.48 million last year to $1.00 effective January 1, 2013.

By comparison, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer and Zuckerberg's top lieutenant, earned $30.8 million in total compensation last year.

DOTCOM MANIA?

Facebook had previously been expected to raise $10 billion in what would have been the fourth-largest IPO in U.S. history, after Visa Inc, General Motors, and AT&T Wireless, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The $5 billion figure in Wednesday's prospectus was an initial figure and could change based on investor demand.

The prospectus underscored how 85 percent of Facebook's 2011 revenue was derived from advertising. Last year, social-gaming company Zynga, creator of Farmville, accounted for 12 percent of Facebook's revenue.

Facebook's IPO will dwarf any recent Internet debut, such as Zynga, LinkedIn Corp, Groupon Inc and Pandora Media Inc. Their IPOs had mixed receptions.

The last dotcom player to debut, Zynga, closed 5 percent below its IPO price during its first trading day in December.

Google raised just shy of $2 billion in 2004, while the more recent Groupon scared up $700 million and Zynga managed $1 billion.

Facebook's growing popularity among consumers and advertisers has pressured entrenched Internet companies such as Yahoo and Google. In 2011, Facebook overtook Yahoo to become the top provider of online display ads in the United States by revenue, according to industry research firm eMarketer.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr, Poornima Gupta, Gerry Shih and Sarah McBride, Writing by Edwin Chan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120202/bs_nm/us_facebook_ipo

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Online game theft earns real-world conviction (AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands ? The amulet and mask were a 13-year-old boy's virtual possessions in an online fantasy game. In the real world, he was beaten and threatened with a knife to give them up.

The Dutch Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the theft conviction of a youth who stole another boy's possessions in the popular online fantasy game RuneScape. Judges ordered the offender to perform 144 hours of community service.

Only a handful of such cases have been heard in the world, and they have reached varying conclusions about the legal status of "virtual goods" ? and whether stealing them is real-world theft.

The suspect's lawyer had argued the amulet and mask "were neither tangible nor material and, unlike for example electricity, had no economic value."

But the Netherlands' highest court said the virtual objects had an intrinsic value to the 13-year-old gamer because of "the time and energy he invested" in winning them while playing the game.

The court did not release the offender's name, only his year of birth ? 1992. It said he and another youth beat and kicked the boy and threatened him with a knife until he logged into RuneScape and dropped the objects in 2007.

One of the thieves, who was also playing the game, was then able to pick up the items, making them his virtual property. Both were convicted by a lower court in 2009, but only one of them had appealed to the Supreme Court.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_hi_te/eu_netherlands_online_theft

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