Fusion Garage's website goes dark -- has it bit the dust?

Perhaps it's the comeback that wasn't meant to be -- Fusion Garage has apparently silenced its radios for over a week on Twitter, and more than a month on Facebook. Potentially worse, its website is now unreachable, displaying only a "Database connection error." Although its Grid10 tablet was set for a delayed October 1st release, some folks over at The JooJoo Forum and on Fusion Garage's Facebook page are reporting that they've yet to receive their tabs, weeks after placing orders.

We've fielded more than a few concerned tips saying the same, and sadly, that's just the tip of this iceberg, as there's also been mention of slow correspondence from the company, with wishy-washy responses about what's going on. One forum poster mentions eventually hearing back from its public relations agency -- this after contacting FG for order details -- with an indication that a refund is on the way.

We've reached out for an official comment but received nothing but silence. That said, we're hearing we aren't the only ones having a hard time getting in contact with Fusion Garage's executives, leaving us with a sinking suspicion that there will be no third go 'round for the house that Chandra built. Ordered a Grid10 yourself, or still waiting on your free JooJoo replacement? Let us know about your experience in the comments below.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Fusion Garage's website goes dark -- has it bit the dust? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Joojoo Forum, Fusion Garage (Facebook), (Twitter)  | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/JztYD-cO5og/

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PFT: Ratliff, 'Boys beat writer in locker scuffle

Jacksonville Jaguars v Atlanta FalconsGetty Images

Blaine Gabbert is playing so badly right now that the Jaguars may consider something practically unheard of in the NFL: Taking Top 10 quarterbacks in back-to-back drafts.

Gabbert?s horrible game in Thursday night?s loss to the Falcons has continued a horrible rookie season for the quarterback the Jaguars chose with the 10th overall pick in this year?s NFL draft. Gabbert is last in the league with a passer rating of 65.6, and he looks lost out there. It?s tough to see why the Jaguars? next coach, whoever he is, would want Gabbert as his starting quarterback.

So would the Jaguars, who will likely draft somewhere between the fourth and 10th overall picks, take a quarterback? It?s impossible to say right now, as we have no idea who the new coach will be or what kind of offense he?ll run. We also don?t know where new owner Shahid Khan stands on the matter, and whether he?ll take a hands-on or hands-off approach to the draft. But if Baylor?s Robert Griffin III or USC?s Matt Barkley is available to the Jaguars, they?d have to think long and hard about drafting one of them in the Top 10.

That almost never happens. The Cowboys used their first-round picks in 1989 and 1990 on quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Steve Walsh, but the 1990 pick was used in the supplemental draft. (The Cowboys traded Walsh to the Saints in 1990.) The last time a team used consecutive first-round picks in the regular draft on quarterbacks was in 1982-83, when the Baltimore Colts drafted Art Schlichter and John Elway. But that was a highly unusual circumstance in which neither one of those quarterbacks played for the team in 1983: Schlichter was suspended for the entire 1983 season, and the Colts traded Elway to the Broncos before he ever played a down for Baltimore.

Before the Colts, you have to go all the way back to the early 1960s Los Angeles Rams to find a team that used first-round draft picks on quarterbacks in back-to-back years. The Rams actually drafted quarterbacks in the first round three years in a row: Roman Gabriel in 1962, Terry Baker in 1963 and Bill Munson in 1964. But Baker was a college quarterback who played halfback in the NFL, so that?s not quite the same thing, either. Prior to those Rams, the last team to draft quarterbacks in back-to-back first rounds was the 49ers, who took Earl Morrall in 1956 and John Brodie in 1957. The 49ers traded Morrall to the Steelers before the 1957 season.

What does this history lesson tell us? NFL teams only take quarterbacks in back-to-back first rounds under the most extraordinary of circumstances. If Jaguars G.M. Gene Smith takes a quarterback in the first round a year after he took Gabbert 10th overall, he?ll be doing something NFL general managers just don?t do. But Gabbert might be bad enough to make the Jaguars do it.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/15/jay-ratliff-has-to-be-separated-from-cowboys-beat-writer/related/

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Prosecutors in NY oppose disclosure in Fine probe (AP)

ALBANY, N.Y. ? Federal prosecutors say disclosure of information used to obtain search warrants for the home and office of former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine would jeopardize their ongoing investigation "into the sensitive area of child abuse and molestation."

Prosecutors say in a letter to a judge Wednesday that disclosure would lay bare their investigative steps while potentially embarrassing witnesses and endangering the safety of at least one of their sources.

Fine was fired Nov. 27 after three men said he sexually abused them when they were boys. He has denied wrongdoing.

Unsealed records show investigators were looking for pornography that could be used "to sexually arouse or groom young males" and records detailing Fine's contact with boys.

Fine's lawyers have said they wouldn't oppose unsealing the warrant application.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_on_sp_co_ne/bkc_syracuse_fine_investigation_search

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Zipcar Acquires Controlling Stake In Spain?s Largest Car Sharing Operator

avancarCar sharing network operator Zipcar this morning announced the exercise of its option to purchase a majority ownership interest in Barcelona-based Catalunya Carsharing, better known as Avancar, after investing in the company almost exactly two years ago. In fact, the option had been extended for an extra year after Zipcar decided last year it wouldn't yet exercise it, opting instead to give Avancar a loan that could be converted into equity.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/55O172V-QAE/

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Summary Box: Stocks drop as Fed warns of strains (AP)

THE DOW: The Dow Jones industrial average fell for a second day in a row. Successful European debt auctions helped push it higher in the morning. The gains faded after the Federal Reserve warned that global markets still posed a danger, a nod to the European debt crisis.

EUROPE: The Spanish government sold short-term debt at lower interest rates than a month ago, a signal that buyers are more confident in the government's ability to repay its debt.

FED SPEAKS: The Fed portrayed the U.S. economy as slightly healthier and held off on any new steps to boost the economy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111213/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_summary_box

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Christopher Hitchens, militant pundit, dies at 62

FILE - Essayist Christopher Hitchens speaks during a debate on Iraq and the foreign policies of the United States and Britain, in this Sept. 14, 2005 file photo taken in New York. Vanity Fair reports Hitchens died on Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 at the age of 62 from complications of cancer of the esophagus his magazine. The magazine reports he died in the presence of friends at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. (AP Photo/Chad Rachman)

FILE - Essayist Christopher Hitchens speaks during a debate on Iraq and the foreign policies of the United States and Britain, in this Sept. 14, 2005 file photo taken in New York. Vanity Fair reports Hitchens died on Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 at the age of 62 from complications of cancer of the esophagus his magazine. The magazine reports he died in the presence of friends at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. (AP Photo/Chad Rachman)

FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2010 file photo taken from video author and outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens speaks during an appearance in Birmingham, Ala. Vanity Fair reports Hitchens died on Thursday Dec. 15, 2011 at the age of 62 from complications of cancer of the esophagus his magazine. The magazine reports he died in the presence of friends at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File)

Cancer weakened but did not soften Christopher Hitchens. He did not repent or forgive or ask for pity. As if granted diplomatic immunity, his mind's eye looked plainly upon the attack and counterattack of disease and treatments that robbed him of his hair, his stamina, his speaking voice and eventually his life.

"I love the imagery of struggle," he wrote about his illness in an August 2010 essay in Vanity Fair. "I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient."

Hitchens, a Washington, D.C.-based author, essayist and polemicist who waged verbal and occasional physical battle on behalf of causes left and right, died Thursday night at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of his esophageal cancer, according to a statement from Vanity Fair magazine. He was 62.

"There will never be another like Christopher. A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar," said Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. "Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls."

He had enjoyed his drink (enough to "to kill or stun the average mule") and cigarettes, until he announced in June 2010 that he was being treated for cancer of the esophagus.

He was a most engaged, prolific and public intellectual who wrote numerous books, was a frequent television commentator and a contributor to Vanity Fair, Slate and other publications. He became a popular author in 2007 thanks to "God Is Not Great," a manifesto for atheists.

"Christopher Hitchens was everything a great essayist should be: infuriating, brilliant, highly provocative and yet intensely serious," said Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. "I worked as an intern for him years ago. My job was to fact check his articles. Since he had a photographic memory and an encyclopedic mind, it was the easiest job I've ever done."

Long after his diagnosis, his columns and essays appeared regularly, savaging the royal family, reveling in the death of Osama bin Laden or pondering the letters of poet Philip Larkin. He was intolerant of nonsense, including about his own health. In a piece that appeared in the January 2012 issue of Vanity Fair, he dismissed the old saying that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

"So far, I have decided to take whatever my disease can throw at me, and to stay combative even while taking the measure of my inevitable decline. I repeat, this is no more than what a healthy person has to do in slower motion," he wrote. "It is our common fate. In either case, though, one can dispense with facile maxims that don't live up to their apparent billing."

Eloquent and intemperate, bawdy and urbane, Hitchens was an acknowledged contrarian and contradiction ? half-Christian, half-Jewish and fully nonbelieving; a native of England who settled in America; a former Trotskyite who backed the Iraq war and supported George W. Bush. But his passions remained constant and targets of his youth, from Henry Kissinger to Mother Teresa, remained hated.

He was a militant humanist who believed in pluralism and racial justice and freedom of speech, big cities and fine art, and the willingness to stand the consequences. He was smacked in the rear by then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and beaten up in Beirut. He once submitted to waterboarding to prove that it was indeed torture.

Hitchens was a committed sensualist who abstained from clean living as if it were just another kind of church. In 2005, he recalled a trip to Aspen, Colo., and a brief encounter after stepping off a ski lift.

"I was met by immaculate specimens of young American womanhood, holding silver trays and flashing perfect dentition," he wrote. "What would I like? I thought a gin and tonic would meet the case. 'Sir, that would be inappropriate.' In what respect? 'At this altitude gin would be very much more toxic than at ground level.' In that case, I said, make it a double."

An emphatic ally and inspired foe, he stood by friends in trouble ("Satanic Verses" novelist Salman Rushdie) and against enemies in power (Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini). His heroes included George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Gore Vidal (pre-Sept. 11). Among those on the Hitchens list of shame: Michael Moore; Saddam Hussein; Kim Jong Il; Sarah Palin; Gore Vidal (post Sept. 11); and Prince Charles.

"We have known for a long time that Prince Charles' empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant," Hitchens wrote in Slate in 2010 after the heir to the British throne gave a speech criticizing Galileo for the scientist's focus on "the material aspect of reality."

"He fell for the fake anthropologist Laurens van der Post. He was bowled over by the charms of homeopathic medicine. He has been believably reported as saying that plants do better if you talk to them in a soothing and encouraging way. But this latest departure promotes him from an advocate of harmless nonsense to positively sinister nonsense."

Hitchens was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1949. His father, Eric, was a "purse-lipped" Navy veteran known as "The Commander"; his mother, Yvonne, a romantic who later killed herself during an extramarital rendezvous in Greece. Young Christopher would have rather read a book. He was "a mere weed and weakling and kick-bag" who discovered that "words could function as weapons" and so stockpiled them.

In college, Oxford, he made such longtime friends as authors Martin Amis and Ian McEwan, and claimed to be nearby when visiting Rhodes scholar Bill Clinton did or did not inhale marijuana. Radicalized by the 1960s, Hitchens was often arrested at political rallies, was kicked out of Britain's Labour Party over his opposition to the Vietnam War and became a correspondent for the radical magazine International Socialism. His reputation broadened in the 1970s through his writings for the New Statesman.

Wavy-haired and brooding and aflame with wit and righteous anger, he was a star of the left on paper and on camera, a popular television guest and a columnist for one of the world's oldest liberal publications, The Nation. In friendlier times, Vidal was quoted as citing Hitchens as a worthy heir to his satirical throne.

But Hitchens never could simply nod his head. He feuded with fellow Nation columnist Alexander Cockburn, broke with Vidal and angered freedom of choice supporters by stating that the child's life begins at conception. An essay for Vanity Fair was titled "Why Women Aren't Funny," and Hitchens wasn't kidding.

He had long been unhappy with the left's reluctance to confront enemies or friends. He would note his strong disappointment that Arthur Miller and other leading liberals shied from making public appearances on behalf of Rushdie after the Ayatollah Khomeini called for his death. He advocated intervention in Bosnia and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Rushdie posted on his Twitter page early Friday: "Goodbye, my beloved friend. A great voice falls silent. A great heart stops."

No Democrat angered him more than Clinton, whose presidency led to the bitter end of Hitchens' friendship with White House aide Sidney Blumenthal and other Clinton backers. As Hitchens wrote in his memoir, he found Clinton "hateful in his behavior to women, pathological as a liar, and deeply suspect when it came to money in politics."

He wrote the anti-Clinton book, "No One Left to Lie To," at a time when most liberals were supporting the president as he faced impeachment over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Hitchens also loathed Hillary Rodham Clinton and switched his affiliation from independent to Democrat in 2008 just so he could vote against her in the presidential primary.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, completed his exit. He fought with Vidal, Noam Chomsky and others who either suggested that U.S. foreign policy had helped cause the tragedy or that the Bush administration had advanced knowledge. He supported the Iraq war, quit The Nation, backed Bush for re-election in 2004 and repeatedly chastised those whom he believed worried unduly about the feelings of Muslims.

"It's not enough that faith claims to be the solution to all problems," he wrote in Slate in 2009 after a Danish newspaper apologized for publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that led Muslim organizations to threaten legal action. "It is now demanded that such a preposterous claim be made immune from any inquiry, any critique, and any ridicule."

His essays were compiled in such books as "For the Sake of Argument" and "Prepared for the Worst." He also wrote short biographies/appreciations of Paine and Thomas Jefferson, a tribute to Orwell and "Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring)," in which he advised that "only an open conflict of ideas and principles can produce any clarity." A collection of essays, "Arguably," came out in September 2011 and he was planning a "book-length meditation on malady and mortality." He appeared in a 2010 documentary about the topical singer Phil Ochs.

Survived by his second wife, author Carol Blue, and by his three children (Alexander, Sophia and Antonia), Hitchens had quotable ideas about posterity, clarified years ago when he saw himself referred to as "the late" Christopher Hitchens in print. For the May 2010 issue of Vanity Fair, before his illness, Hitchens submitted answers for the Proust Questionnaire, a probing and personal survey for which the famous have revealed everything from their favorite color to their greatest fear.

His vision of earthly bliss: "To be vindicated in my own lifetime."

His ideal way to die: "Fully conscious, and either fighting or reciting (or fooling around)."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-12-16-Obit-Hitchens/id-bcf0e07d293a4200beb7019995fd6732

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OPEC oil deal puts Saudi back in charge (Reuters)

VIENNA (Reuters) ? OPEC oil producers on Wednesday sealed their first new output agreement in three years in a deal that settles a 6-month-old argument over supply policy firmly in Saudi Arabia's favor.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed a target of 30 million barrels daily, ratifying current production near 3-year highs. It did not discuss individual national quotas.

The deal vindicates Saudi Arabia after its proposal to raise output in June to stem rising prices was rejected by price hawks led by Iran, Algeria and Venezuela.

"For the Saudis it's a fantastic decision," said Jamie Webster of Washington consultancy PFC Energy.

Saudi said it pumped 10 million barrels a day last month, 25 percent above its old OPEC quota, in what Gulf delegates said was a demonstration of strength to the price hawks ahead of the meeting.

In theory the agreement caps output for all 12 OPEC members for the first half of 2012 at levels that should permit a modest rebuilding of lean global inventories.

"We're not going to bypass it, we're going to adhere to it," promised OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri of the new supply limit. "Saudi Arabia will abide by this decision for sure."

That will depend on whether or not Saudi and its Gulf Arab allies decide to ease back supply as post-civil war Libya heads towards full production or keep the taps open to drive oil below $100 a barrel.

Saudi Arabia did not allay doubts about its intentions.

"If Libya increases it doesn't necessarily mean Saudi will cut," said Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi. "We don't react to that, we react to market demand," he said.

Oil analysts warned that without defined individual national quotas, leakage above the new limit was very possible.

"Someone has to cut back to accommodate Libya, that has to be done," said analyst Lawrence Eagles of JP Morgan. "As always with OPEC the proof will be in the pudding. How closely will they stick to the new limit?"

"The whole organization has to be at 30 million so if someone goes up somebody else should come down. But it's like anything when you divide responsibility -- it often ends up falling through the cracks," said Webster of PFC.

Those concerns helped undermine oil prices. London Brent eased more than $3 to near $106 a barrel, down from a year-high $127 in April. U.S. crude fell over $4 to near $96.

Rising supply from Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab neighbors Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates has kept a leash on oil prices as Riyadh seeks to help nurture global growth by keeping fuel costs under control.

HAWKS WANT NO LESS THAN $100

OPEC's price hawks, all of whom already pump at full capacity, want to keep prices above $100.

"We think the present level is appropriate for producers and consumers," Algerian Oil Minister Youcef Yousfi said of prices.

"Prices are reasonable," said Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi.

The Gulf Arabs would prefer prices that don't hinder economic growth while meeting their budget and oil investment needs. The UAE said recently that $80-$100 was reasonable.

"Saudi Arabia is the central banker of the oil market and the decision that they will bring more oil to the market is definitely a good one," said Fatih Birol, chief economist at consumer body the International Energy Agency.

World oil inventories should now rise, boosted by Libyan oil output that hit 1 million bpd this week on the way back to pre-war output of 1.6 million.

OPEC's secretariat calculates that 30 million barrels a day from the group will meet demand in the first half of the year and build stocks by 650,000 bpd.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration that would lift inventories among industrialized OECD nations from 56 days of OECD demand now to 60 days by the middle of 2012.

OPEC next meets on June 14. Badri said OPEC would be ready by then to tackle the tricky issue of re-establishing individual quotas.

That could prove difficult. Saudi Arabia and others who have seen market share rise in the past two years are unlikely to not cede ground on quotas to those who have lost share and cannot pump more.

(Additional reporting Ramin Mostafavi, Dan Fineren, Alex Lawler, writing Richard Mably)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111214/bs_nm/us_opec

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New Chrome Web Store Proves To Be A Boon For Developers Above (And Below) The Fold

Chrome-StoreFor all the coverage of smartphone proliferation, Android, search, G+, and so on, we haven't heard as much about Google's fledgling web apps market. We're quietly sneaking up on the first birthday of the Chrome Web App Store. Google's browser itself has been quickly gaining ground amongst the competition, as Robin reported last week that Chrome had passed Firefox to become the second largest browser in marketshare, with 25.7 percent. Based on those numbers, both Firefox and IE (which has the top share) have been in seemingly aggressive declines, while Chrome has been growing steadily. As to Chrome's app store, the early reports showed slow growth and sales, but in September the Web Store passed 30 million aggregate users. Then came the redesign.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/PWFPsqnmyMc/

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Giant super-earths made of diamond are possible

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Wendy Panero
Panero.1@osu.edu
614-292-6290
Ohio State University

SAN FRANCISCO A planet made of diamonds may sound lovely, but you wouldn't want to live there.

A new study suggests that some stars in the Milky Way could harbor "carbon super-Earths" giant terrestrial planets that contain up to 50 percent diamond.

But if they exist, those planets are likely devoid of life as we know it.

The finding comes from a laboratory experiment at Ohio State University, where researchers recreated the temperatures and pressures of Earth's lower mantle to study how diamonds form there.

The larger goal was to understand what happens to carbon inside planets in other solar systems, and whether solar systems that are rich in carbon could produce planets that are mostly made of diamond.

Wendy Panero, associate professor in the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State, and doctoral student Cayman Unterborn used what they learned from the experiments to construct computer models of the minerals that form in planets composed with more carbon than Earth.

The result: "It's possible for planets that are as big as fifteen times the mass of the Earth to be half made of diamond," Unterborn said. He presented the study Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

"Our results are striking, in that they suggest carbon-rich planets can form with a core and a mantle, just as Earth did," Panero added. "However, the cores would likely be very carbon-rich much like steel and the mantle would also be dominated by carbon, much in the form of diamond."

Earth's core is mostly iron, she explained, and the mantle mostly silica-based minerals, a result of the elements that were present in the dust cloud that formed into our solar system. Planets that form in carbon-rich solar systems would have to follow a different chemical recipe with direct consequences for the potential for life.

Earth's hot interior results in geothermal energy, making our planet hospitable.

Diamonds transfer heat so readily, however, that a carbon super-Earth's interior would quickly freeze. That means no geothermal energy, no plate tectonics, and ultimately no magnetic field or atmosphere.

"We think a diamond planet must be a very cold, dark place," Panero said.

She and former graduate student Jason Kabbes subjected a tiny sample of iron, carbon, and oxygen to pressures of 65 gigapascals and temperatures of 2,400 Kelvin (close to 9.5 million pounds per square inch and 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit conditions similar to the Earth's deep interior).

As they watched under the microscope, the oxygen bonded with the iron, creating iron oxide a type of rust and left behind pockets of pure carbon, which became diamond.

Based on the data from that test, the researchers made computer models of Earth's interior, and verified what geologists have long suspected that a diamond-rich layer likely exists in Earth's lower mantle, just above the core.

That result wasn't surprising. But when they modeled what would happen when these results were applied to the composition of a carbon super-Earth, they found that the planet could become very large, with iron and carbon merged to form a kind of carbon steel in the core, and vast quantities of pure carbon in the mantle in the form of diamond.

The researchers discussed the implications for planetary science.

"To date, more than five hundred planets have been discovered outside of our solar system, yet we know very little about their internal compositions," said Unterborn, who is an astronomer by training.

"We're looking at how volatile elements like hydrogen and carbon interact inside the Earth, because when they bond with oxygen, you get atmospheres, you get oceans you get life," Panero said. "The ultimate goal is to compile a suite of conditions that are necessary for an ocean to form on a planet."

This work contrasts with the recent discovery by an unrelated team of researchers who found a so-called "diamond planet" which is actually the remnant of a dead star in a binary system.

The Ohio State research suggests that true terrestrial diamond planets can form in our galaxy. Exactly how many such planets might be out there and their possible internal composition is an open question one that Unterborn is pursuing with Ohio State astronomer Jennifer Johnson.

###

This research was funded by Panero's CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.

Contact: Wendy Panero, 614-292-6290; Panero.1@osu.edu
Written by Pam Frost Gorder, 614-292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Wendy Panero
Panero.1@osu.edu
614-292-6290
Ohio State University

SAN FRANCISCO A planet made of diamonds may sound lovely, but you wouldn't want to live there.

A new study suggests that some stars in the Milky Way could harbor "carbon super-Earths" giant terrestrial planets that contain up to 50 percent diamond.

But if they exist, those planets are likely devoid of life as we know it.

The finding comes from a laboratory experiment at Ohio State University, where researchers recreated the temperatures and pressures of Earth's lower mantle to study how diamonds form there.

The larger goal was to understand what happens to carbon inside planets in other solar systems, and whether solar systems that are rich in carbon could produce planets that are mostly made of diamond.

Wendy Panero, associate professor in the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State, and doctoral student Cayman Unterborn used what they learned from the experiments to construct computer models of the minerals that form in planets composed with more carbon than Earth.

The result: "It's possible for planets that are as big as fifteen times the mass of the Earth to be half made of diamond," Unterborn said. He presented the study Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

"Our results are striking, in that they suggest carbon-rich planets can form with a core and a mantle, just as Earth did," Panero added. "However, the cores would likely be very carbon-rich much like steel and the mantle would also be dominated by carbon, much in the form of diamond."

Earth's core is mostly iron, she explained, and the mantle mostly silica-based minerals, a result of the elements that were present in the dust cloud that formed into our solar system. Planets that form in carbon-rich solar systems would have to follow a different chemical recipe with direct consequences for the potential for life.

Earth's hot interior results in geothermal energy, making our planet hospitable.

Diamonds transfer heat so readily, however, that a carbon super-Earth's interior would quickly freeze. That means no geothermal energy, no plate tectonics, and ultimately no magnetic field or atmosphere.

"We think a diamond planet must be a very cold, dark place," Panero said.

She and former graduate student Jason Kabbes subjected a tiny sample of iron, carbon, and oxygen to pressures of 65 gigapascals and temperatures of 2,400 Kelvin (close to 9.5 million pounds per square inch and 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit conditions similar to the Earth's deep interior).

As they watched under the microscope, the oxygen bonded with the iron, creating iron oxide a type of rust and left behind pockets of pure carbon, which became diamond.

Based on the data from that test, the researchers made computer models of Earth's interior, and verified what geologists have long suspected that a diamond-rich layer likely exists in Earth's lower mantle, just above the core.

That result wasn't surprising. But when they modeled what would happen when these results were applied to the composition of a carbon super-Earth, they found that the planet could become very large, with iron and carbon merged to form a kind of carbon steel in the core, and vast quantities of pure carbon in the mantle in the form of diamond.

The researchers discussed the implications for planetary science.

"To date, more than five hundred planets have been discovered outside of our solar system, yet we know very little about their internal compositions," said Unterborn, who is an astronomer by training.

"We're looking at how volatile elements like hydrogen and carbon interact inside the Earth, because when they bond with oxygen, you get atmospheres, you get oceans you get life," Panero said. "The ultimate goal is to compile a suite of conditions that are necessary for an ocean to form on a planet."

This work contrasts with the recent discovery by an unrelated team of researchers who found a so-called "diamond planet" which is actually the remnant of a dead star in a binary system.

The Ohio State research suggests that true terrestrial diamond planets can form in our galaxy. Exactly how many such planets might be out there and their possible internal composition is an open question one that Unterborn is pursuing with Ohio State astronomer Jennifer Johnson.

###

This research was funded by Panero's CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.

Contact: Wendy Panero, 614-292-6290; Panero.1@osu.edu
Written by Pam Frost Gorder, 614-292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/osu-sg120511.php

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As Putin plans to stay, many Russians want out (AP)

MOSCOW ? Natalia Lepleiskaya is just the sort of person today's Russia needs ? a successful young IT manager who does charity work in her free time.

But frustrated by what she describes as the corruption and stagnation around her, she and her husband are packing their bags to start a new life in Canada.

"I don't see how I can change things ... and I don't want to waste my youth on it," said the 29-year-old, who moved to Moscow from a provincial city several years ago and rose to a senior position at a top technological company.

As Vladimir Putin's party prepares to dominate weekend parliamentary elections in a prelude to his planned return to the presidency in spring, an increasing number of Russians are contemplating leaving their homeland in search of a brighter future abroad. A March presidential election victory for Putin ? all but taken for granted ? raises the prospect of his being in the top job for 12 years.

Disenchantment with life in Russia was growing even before Prime Minister Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev agreed in September to swap jobs,

In a May poll by the respected Levada Center, 22 percent of respondents said they wanted to move abroad for good, compared to 13 percent in April 2009. The poll among 1,600 Russian adults across the country had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

Emigration statistics are hard to come by because few of those who leave for lengthy periods renounce Russian citizenship, while getting foreign residency may take years.

But demographer Mikhail Denisenko at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow estimates that at least a half million Russians moved abroad in 2002-2009 and more are on the way in what he describes as the fifth wave of emigration since the beginning of the 20th century.

"The level of frustration is higher ... it's a feeling of discomfort, an aversion to life in Russia," said Lev Gudkov, the head of the Levada Center.

"The prospect of another 12 years of stagnation or even a worsening of the situation is frightening them and they are beginning to think about moving to a different country or at least providing a future for their children" abroad.

Numerous recent websites and blogs offer advice on how to emigrate. One of them, "Time to Shove Off," offers commentaries and videos exposing alleged crime and corruption among top Russian officials. "Yet another governor buys himself yet another Mercedes for 7 million rubles ($233,000 or euro175,000)," reads one posting. "Corruption as a lifestyle," a headline says.

"The news that Putin is staying has spoiled people's mood and this talk (of emigration) started resonating more," said Anton Nossik, a popular blogger and Internet expert, who holds seminars on emigration.

The democratic reforms ushered in by the 1991 Soviet collapse generated hope that Russia could finally become a free and progressive nation. But Putin's 11 years in power, first as president and now as prime minister, have left many people disillusioned and gloomy about the future.

While an expanding economy has boosted living standards for many, corruption has become systemic and political competition has virtually disappeared. On a more day-to-day level, many Russians complain that education and health care continue to lag far behind. The draft-based army is plagued by vicious hazing, leaving many parents fearful for their sons. Few have faith that they can count on either the police or the courts to protect them or their property.

Russian emigration is by no means a new phenomenon. The 20th century alone witnessed waves of emigration, beginning with those who fled after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and during World War II. Over 290,000 Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union 1971 to 1988, and up to 1.6 million people left Russia in 1989-2002 as the Soviet Union disintegrated, according to demographers.

Today's departures are not nearly as traumatic as during the Soviet era, when would-be emigres spent years fighting to be allowed to leave, often losing jobs and friends in the process ? then bade farewell to their families forever, certain they would never return.

But the decision to leave Russia is still often painful. Many emigres leave behind elderly parents, a familiar culture and the ability to communicate in their native tongue.

Fifteen years ago, a teenage Lepleiskaya branded her cousin a traitor for moving to the United States rather than staying and working to change life in Russia for the better. As an adult, along with building a successful career, she volunteered at an orphanage and collected money and clothes for those in need.

In the early 2000s, she voted for Putin and his party, but as the years went by she became increasingly angered by what is happening in the country. Social inequality has worsened, corruption runs amok, opposition protests are violently dispersed and the television news often resembles Soviet propaganda.

"There came a moment when I stopped caring ... nothing will change substantially," Lepleiskaya said.

She said the final straw was when a singer she knew spent 10 days in jail in a southern Russian city after performing a song critical of the police. She came to the conclusion that citizens have no power to hold the government accountable or push for change, either through competitive elections or street protests.

"Have you seen what those protests look like? It's 50 people and 150 riot police and these young men and women are dragged into those detention trucks," Lepleiskaya said.

She realizes that Russia's emerging market provides opportunities for high profits and quick career advancement in some spheres, but she doesn't trust the government to protect her savings against inflation and economic turmoil. Her father, a college instructor for 40 years, recently retired and receives a pension equivalent to $270 (euro200) per month.

"I don't want to sit on top of a tinderbox. I would rather build my career slowly, step by step, work and know that eventually when I am 60 the government will not let me down," she said.

She and her husband, Alexander, a 27-year-old IT specialist are set to receive their Canadian entry visas in the coming days and plan to fly to Montreal in the spring. Lepleiskaya now has to vaccinate her cat, who has the French name Xavier, sell off their belongings and begin saying goodbye to loved ones.

They have never even visited Canada and know it will take a while to find jobs as interesting and well-paid as those they are leaving behind in Moscow, but they are looking to the future with hope for a better life for themselves and their children.

Denisenko, the demographer, said the departure of enterprising, educated Russians bodes ill for the country.

"Compensating for them will be hard," he said. "Russia would be better off if they stayed."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_re_eu/eu_leaving_putin_s_russia

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