Can?t Figure Out Which Candidate Is Winning? Use These Web Apps

Become a political pro with a few handy web apps that will help you sort out which Presidential candidate is winning on Election Day. The first candidate to win 270 Electoral College votes will be crowned the most powerful man in the world, but only a few swing states actually matter. Because we know from recent evidence that difficult math problems can cause physical pain, we gathered a few online tools to make sense of the math throughout Election Day.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yAeD-p4wRxE/

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Re-elected Obama would push quickly for fiscal deal: party aides

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If President Barack Obama wins re-election, he's expected to move quickly, perhaps within a day, to renew his bid for a bipartisan deal to avert a "fiscal cliff" that threatens to push the United States into recession, top Senate Democratic aides said on Monday.

A victorious Obama could reach out to Republicans as early as Wednesday and pledge that, with the election decided, it's time to find common ground to deal with the year-end expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and the launch of automatic spending cuts that would suck $600 billion out of the economy in 2013.

"He wants to get the process started immediately," one aide said. "We could move quickly," another aide said, explaining that the basic ingredients of any deal - increased tax revenues coupled with cuts in entitlement programs - have been debated thoroughly for the past two years.

"Everyone knows what needs to be done," he said.

Two Democratic aides said White House officials have discussed the matter with top Senate Democrats, though it remains unclear exactly how a re-elected Obama would proceed.

But as one aide said, the White House intends to move quickly because it "wants a big deal" before the current Congress adjourns in December. The White House had no comment.

If Republican challenger Mitt Romney wins, much of the work on a deficit-reduction deal that replaces the automatic cuts and reforms the tax code could be largely delayed until he takes office on Jan 20.

But Republicans in Congress would quickly launch an effort to delay the cuts and keep tax rates unchanged for six months to a year to buy time for a comprehensive tax reform deal.

House Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday that he would angle for a temporary "bridge" to allow the new administration and the next Congress to craft a solution.

'GRAND BARGAIN'

"I would think that would be the best you can hope for, and even that is going to be very difficult to do," Boehner, a Republican, told CNN in an interview in his home state of Ohio.

The Democratic aides said a deficit reduction deal would likely contain many elements from one that Obama and Boehner, the top U.S. Republican, came close to reaching last year as Congress wrangled over raising the federal debt limit. Both parties have talked about trying to achieve around $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years.

Their elusive "grand bargain," which ultimately unraveled, would have included Democrats agreeing to cuts in entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, in exchange for Republicans signing off on new tax revenues.

Republicans have vowed to oppose any increase in tax rates, while Obama has demanded that tax rates on income above $250,000 snap back to higher levels. Some Republicans have expressed willingness to allow increased revenues as part of tax reform by eliminating some tax credits and deductions, but these have not been identified, and they want to reduce tax rates even further.

"This thing has been litigated in Washington for two years," one of the Democratic aides said.

"The reason a compromise has been tough to come by is because Republicans have been holding back, hoping to take the Senate and the White House" on Election Day, the aide said.

On Monday, it was unclear if Obama or Romney would win the White House, with polls in a statistical dead heat. But the polls indicated an increasing likelihood that Democrats would retain the Senate, which it now holds by a 53-47 margin.

Most political experts expect the House of Representatives to remain controlled by Republicans.

"The kind of compromises that are needed are pretty much known at this point," one aide said. "It is just a matter of political will."

"I think the message of the election - if it returns the president and a Democratic Senate and a Republican House - is that voters want both sides to work together," the aide said.

"Republicans would be seen as not heeding the message of the election if they continue to refuse to compromise," one aide said.

Boehner did little to fuel hopes for such a middle-ground on Monday, reiterating his vow not to raise taxes on the wealthy and arguing that this would hurt job creation.

"Listen, our (House) majority is going to get reelected," Boehner said in an interview with Politico. "We'll have as much of a mandate as he will ? if that happens ? to not raise taxes."

Democrats and Republicans have until the end of December to reach a massive deficit reduction deal or see the expiration of all tax cuts enacted under former president George W. Bush for millions of Americans, both the rich and middle class.

In addition, $1.2 trillion in spending cuts would begin to kick in, delivering a blow to the economy that experts predict would lead to a recession.

The Senate Democratic aides said the administration opposes calls for a short-term fix, which would renew all tax cuts for six months or so while a comprehensive agreement is sought. "The White House is showing no sign of caving on this," an aide said.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and David Lawder; Editing by Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/elected-obama-push-quickly-fiscal-deal-party-aides-021813335--business.html

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Crystals for efficient refrigeration

Monday, November 5, 2012

Researchers at the Carnegie Institution have discovered a new efficient way to pump heat using crystals. The crystals can pump or extract heat, even on the nanoscale, so they could be used on computer chips to prevent overheating or even meltdown, which is currently a major limit to higher computer speeds. The research is published in the Physical Review Letters.

Ronald Cohen, staff scientist at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory and Maimon Rose, originally a high school intern now at the University of Chicago carried out the research. They performed simulations on ferroelectric crystals?materials that have electrical polarization in the absence of an electric field. The electrical polarization can be reversed by applying an external electrical field. The scientists found that the introduction of an electric field causes a giant temperature change in the material, dubbed the electrocaloric effect, far above a temperature to a so-called paraelectric state.

"The electrocaloric effect pumps heat through changing temperature by way of an applied electric field," explained Cohen. "The effect has been known since the 1930s, but has not been exploited because people were using materials with high transition temperatures. We found that the effect is larger if the ambient temperature is well above the transition temperature, so low transition temperature materials are preferred."

Ferroelectrics become paraelectric?that is, have no polarization under zero electric field above their transition temperature, which is the temperature at which a material changes its state from ferroelectric to paraelectric.

Rose and Cohen used atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations, where they followed the behavior of atoms in the ferroelectric lithium niobate as functions of temperature and an electrical field. Maimon Rose started this work as a high school summer intern and is now in his second year as an undergraduate in biology at the University of Chicago. He worked on the project during breaks as an intern supported by EFree, DOE Energy Frontier Research Center at the Geophysical Laboratory. Rose remarked, "Lithium niobate had not been studied before like this. We were pretty surprised to see such a huge temperature change."

###

Carnegie Institution: http://www.ciw.edu

Thanks to Carnegie Institution for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125036/Crystals_for_efficient_refrigeration

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LOS ANGELES: Surgery seems best for heart disease in diabetics ...

LOS ANGELES ? New research shows that people with diabetes and several clogged heart arteries fare better with bypass surgery instead of having stents placed to prop open their blood vessels.

Doctors compared the treatments in a study of 1,900 diabetics and looked five years later to see how many had suffered a heart attack, stroke or death. Only 19 percent of the bypass group had, versus 27 percent of those given stents.

People like this represent about one-fourth of all heart disease patients.

Results were discussed Sunday at an American Heart Association conference and published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Source: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/11/04/4283020/surgery-seems-best-for-heart-disease.html

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Thiago Santos loses teeth, then his bout in Bellator

During Friday's Bellator heavyweight tournament semifinal, Thiago Santos lost more than the bout. Skip to the 3:00 mark to see Santos take on Richard Hale, then see him pull out his mouthpiece and spit out some teeth.

Bellator 79 Highlights
Get More: Bellator 79 Highlights

Yikes! Not only does Santos need some dental work, but he also was TKOed in the first round. Now that you've seen some teeth fly, go back to the beginning and see Douglas Lima's brilliant kick of Jacob Ortiz and Shahbulot Shamhalaev's counter-punch KO of Mike Richman.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/thiago-santos-loses-teeth-then-bout-bellator-182336743--mma.html

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Namibian President to Visit South Africa

Pretoria ? President Jacob Zuma will host Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba for a two-day state visit in Cape Town next week.

The state visit, on Tuesday and Wednesday, is aimed at further deepening political, economic and social relations and will be held within the context of consolidating the African Agenda.

According to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, South Africa and Namibia enjoy warm and cordial bilateral relations which are informed by historical and fraternal ties. As a consequence, there are deep and strong mutual bonds between the peoples of the two countries.

The two Presidents will hold discussions covering key priority areas such as trade and investment, energy, public works, defence and security, water and environment, transport, science and technology and agriculture.

The economies of South Africa and Namibia are interlinked and South Africa remains one of Namibia's major trading partners.

Namibia imports 80 percent of its consumables from South Africa. South African companies have a large presence in Namibia and are involved in various sectors such as housing, food and beverages, construction, hotels and leisure, banking, medical services.

During the visit, a number of agreements and Memoranda of Understanding are expected to be signed.

President Zuma will be supported by the Ministers of International Relations and Cooperation, Trade and Investment, Transport, Energy, Defence and Military Veterans, Public Works, Water and Environmental Affairs, Higher Education, Science and Technology and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201211040310.html

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Malawi's backstreet abortions compromising safe motherhood ...

Aida, 31, is a mother of four and married. When she gave birth to her last child, the pregnancy was unplanned.

Aida, of Bwelero in Traditional Authority (TA) Mankhambira, Nkhata-Bay District, says her husband had agreed to terminate the pregnancy when it was two months old.

But when Aida went to Nkhata-Bay District Hospital, medical personnel refused to attend to her to enable her to abort the pregnancy.

?When I was refused safe abortion services at the hospital, I went back home and told my husband. We then agreed to visit an elderly woman for help,? she says.

COPUA Community Mobilizing Task-force Chairperson, Darlington Harawa: Legalise abortion. Pix by Aliko Munde.

Aida says the herbalist, who lives in a village next to theirs, gave her green leaves to chew. When she chewed the leaves, she went home.

?When I arrived home, I started feeling pain in my stomach. A few minutes later, blood started coming out as if I was menstruating.

?Blood continued coming out heavily and when my husband saw that I had lost a lot of blood, he hired a taxi and took me to the hospital. I was admitted and accessed post abortion care services,? Aida recounts.

Just like Aida, a 17-year-old girl form two student at a private school in Nkhata-Bay? who simply wants to be identified as Lucy, says she too went to the district hospital wanting to abort, but doctors refused to give her the services she wanted.

?I had no option but to seek help from a traditional doctor in the town to terminate the pregnancy but with severe consequences,? says Lucy. ?I lost a lot of blood and was immediately admitted to hospital. I thank God that I am alive today.?

Aida and Lucy are some of the hundreds of women in Nkhata-Bay District who carry out illegal and unsafe abortions, compromising safe motherhood in the process.

A visit to both government and private clinics in the district discovered that medical personnel at the facilities are under intense pressure to clandestinely provide safe abortion services.

Medical personnel confided in Mana that most of such women claim that they want to terminate their pregnancies because they are at school.

Some women claim that their husbands are working in foreign countries like South Africa and that they are returning home, while others have unplanned pregnancies.

?Accidental pregnancy among couples practising child spacing is another reason couples come to ask for abortion services,? says Austin Mwafulirwa, Sexual Reproductive Health Focal Officer in the district.

Mwafulirwa says since January this year, for example, Nkhata-Bay District hospital alone has handled a total of 57 Post Abortion Care (PAC) cases.

Some medical personnel say they send such women back because abortion is illegal in the country. Sections 149, 150 and 151 of the penal code prohibit abortion, unless the life of the mother is in danger, but permits PAC.

Mwafulirwa says women who are denied safe abortion resort to aborting illegally, but often get back to hospital with complications emanating from unsafe abortion.

He points out that in 2009 Nkhata-Bay District Hospital alone treated a total of 103 PAC cases. In 2010, the figure rose to 117 and in 2011, the hospital treated 92 cases.

?we have so far registered 57 post care cases since January this year, and the figure is likely to increase,? says Mwafulirwa.

He observes that other health centres across the district are equally overwhelmed with complications resulting from backstreet abortions.

In a desperate attempt to counter maternal deaths and rapid population growth, the district health office has embarked on an ambitious programme aimed at making communities access family planning services right in their localities.

District Family Planning Coordinator, Diana Mwanyongo, says that the district has already recorded six maternal deaths due to early pregnancies this year alone.

Mwanyongo says with funding from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the programme seeks to avert population explosion and unplanned pregnancies by making available to people various contraceptive services right where they live.

?This is why we have trained health surveillance assistance across Nkhata-Bay district on how to administer modern contraceptive methods,? she says.

Mwanyongo says rapid population increase and maternal and neonatal deaths currently facing Nkhata-Bay district have forced health authorities in the district to introduce a programme that seeks to enable even the remotest communities to access family planning services at their door steps.

She says last year, the district registered 11 maternal deaths, whereas only five months into 2012, six deaths have already been recorded due to pregnancy complications. She adds that concerted efforts are needed to tackle the problem.

Mwanyongo says cases of uterus rapture and serious vaginal bleeding as a result of early pregnancy have been the major cause of maternal deaths registered so far.

Unwanted pregnancies and forcing mothers to go for unsafe abortion since Malawi?s law bars abortion have also been blamed for such deaths.

The Coalition for Prevention of Unsafe Abortions in Malawi (COPUA), which wants abortion legalized, describes the law as outdated and that it needs to be repealed, as a way of minimising maternal deaths in the country.

Darlington Harawa, COPUA?s Community Mobilisation Task Force Chairperson, claims that 18 per cent of maternal deaths emanating from unsafe abortion in the country are as a result of the anti abortion law as it denies women access to safe reproductive health care.

According to the United Nation?s Millennium Development Goal (MDG) monitor, Malawi has been challenged to achieve the MDG goal of a 75 per cent reduction in maternal mortality by 2015.

Global recommendations offer three major steps to improve maternal and reproductive health for women: increasing access to family planning, increasing access to quality care of pregnancy and childbirth, and increasing access to safe abortion services within the current law, including the provision of PAC for complications of induced and spontaneous abortion (Women Deliver 2010).

Harawa says Malawi, despite having never been at war since independence, is said to be the worst country affected by maternal deaths in southern Africa, with 16 mothers estimated to be dying of pregnancy-related complications every day.

The statistics are equated to countries which are synonymous with wars such as Sudan, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.

?Research has revealed that 18 per of such deaths in Malawi are due to unsafe?abortions as the country?s laws bar abortion unless the life of the mother is in danger,? says Harawa.

It is against this background that COPUA is on a national-wide tour sensitising the communities to the need to repeal the anti abortion law.

Harawa says the anti abortion legislation infringes on women?s rights to access quality reproductive health care, adding: ?The law has failed to achieve its intended purpose, hence the need to have it scrapped off.?

He questions the wisdom of denying a mother safe abortion services for unwanted pregnancy on point of law, only to treat her of complications later on when the same woman aborts on her own using crude methods.

?Government spends millions of Kwacha in post abortion care services, instead of legalizing the law to avoid losing lives of our dear women and girls and also avoid losing huge sums of money in PAC services,? Harawa says.

TA Mankhambira agrees with organisations that are advocating for the repeal of the anti abortion law, saying many women suffer after undergoing unsafe abortion.

?Many women and girls in our villages are practising unsafe aborting, which is compromising the safe motherhood initiative in the country,? the chief says.

TA Mankhambira says the best way is just to repeal the law and allow all women to access safe abortion services in health facilities.

Tags: abortion, Safemotherhood

Source: http://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi/2012/10/15/malawis-backstreet-abortions-compromising-safe-motherhood/

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