Asked About Privacy In A Post-PRISM World, Ad ... - Business Insider

Greg Sterling / Facebook

Greg Sterling

The PRISM scandal ? in which the NSA has been accused of accessing data on people from Facebook, Google and other online service providers ? has got the adtech business worried.

By focusing the nation's attention on the ease with which private data can be collected online, might this provoke a backlash against online advertisers?

After all, they've been doing this for years, in various ways. Not for national security, but for their own lists and databases. And, of course, the extent of the government's data collection from Google, Facebook et al. has turned out to be much smaller and more focused than initially feared.

Might PRISM get people thinking about how much of their private information they're giving for free to online advertisers?

AdExchanger asked that question of several adtech execs recently, and we were most struck by the answer of Greg Sterling, the founder of Sterling Market Intelligence, a local search? marketing consultancy. He noted that anyone who wants to control their privacy online is in for a shock. The only way to guard your data is to opt out of internet life almost entirely.

No Facebook. No Google.

And most people just aren't going to do that.

He said:

"These are services that they use everyday like Google, Facebook, etc. and there?s really no alternative. Realistically there?s no choice in the matter for many people unless they were to completely stop using these tools and technologies that have become so ingrained in our lives."

Read his full quote here, in which he gives a bit more context. Broadly, he believes consumers feel powerless because they don't know what to do to guard their privacy.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/greg-sterling-says-google-and-facebook-offer-no-choice-2013-6

bruno mars juneteenth paula deen aaron hernandez aaron hernandez russell brand cher

'Most Wanted' US Fugitive Arrested in Mexico

A former U.S. college professor who was recently placed on the FBI's notorious list of most wanted criminals has been arrested in Mexico.

Authorities say Walter Lee Williams was captured late Tuesday in the southern resort city of Playa del Carmen, just one day after he was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. The 64-year-old is facing four charges related to the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

Williams is alleged to have traveled to the Philippines in 2011 to engage in sexual acts with two 14-year-old boys he met online the year before. He is also accused of taking sexually explicit photos of one of the boys.

Until 2011, Williams was an anthropology professor at the University of Southern California, where his field of study was gender development.

Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/most-wanted-us-fugitive-arrested-in-mexico/1684629.html

montrose marshawn lynch earthquake bay area deron williams clear channel drexel dale

Serena Williams Implies Steubenville Rape Victim to Blame For Ordeal, Sort of Backtracks

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/serena-williams-implies-steubenville-rape-victim-to-blame-for-or/

hologram pulitzer prize winners nfl 2012 schedule gmail down tim lincecum ryan oneal file taxes online

Why Gaming Is Still A Great Bet For Investors | TechCrunch

Kristian has been at the forefront of the rapidly transforming game industry since 2001.?After serving as Electronic Arts? executive vice president of digital, he left three months ago to focus on startups. Today, he leads seed-stage investments with Initial Capital and serves on the board of Supercell, the #1 iOS grossing game company in the world. Before that, he co-founded, ran and then sold social gaming pioneer Playfish to?Electronic Arts for $400M in 2009. He was also?a co-founder of mobile gaming pioneer Macrospace ? today Glu Mobile (Nasdaq: GLUU) in 2001 through the successful IPO in 2007.

TechCrunch writer Kim-Mai Cutler and Benchmark Capital general partner Mitch Lasky recently wrote two insightful pieces on venture investment in games (here?and?here) ? both expressing some degree of skepticism of venture capital models for funding game startups. I agree venture funding is not for every game startup, and certainly not every game startup makes for a great venture investment. However, I would argue the case for venture funding for games is today stronger than ever.

Here is why:

Why game startups are better off with venture investment than publisher funding

There are broadly speaking three models available for a game startup today: bootstrapping (including crowd-funding), publisher financing and venture financing. For those who can afford the risk and have cash readily available, bootstrapping always trumps the other two. It comes with maximum freedom, control and upside in a success case.

But the risks are very real and significant.?Those unable to bootstrap because of the risks or ambitions of the project should in my view consider venture investment over publisher financing models.

Publishing as an idea for digital pure plays is simply turning out not to work very well. Many have tried it with very little to show for it. This is because the typical publisher value-add of financing, marketing, technology and distribution through retail channels doesn?t translate well to the digital world. It says something that not a single game in?today?s iOS top-25 grossing?has been ?published? by a third party as far as I can tell.

While developers continue to need financing, the rest of the ?publishing services? have become obsolete in four key ways:

• Publishers can?t compete with atomized marketing services by specialists:?As the digital market has matured, player acquisition, telemetry, cross-promotion and other marketing services have become widely available as independent specialist services that compete on price and quality of the service. Companies like?Swrve?(one of our portfolio companies at Initial Capital),?Chartboost,?HasOffers,?Nanigans,?Flurry?and a host of competitors are evolving their services at a blistering speed, requiring only a small set of increasingly available talent at the developer end. Doing it directly is not just cheaper and more flexible as the world changes, it also forces a more profound understanding of player flows and distribution challenges, which ultimately helps uncover product design insights.
• Publisher channel access may accelerate your success, but will not define it: Much has been made out of the advantage that big game publishers have in?terms of access to Apple or Google in terms of promotions. Clearly, being featured helps generate initial downloads. However that success is short-lived if?you are unable to retain your audience and acquire users independently at a profitable cost?of acquisition. Plus, you won?t be re-featured unless you generate the numbers.?A game investor worth their salt will be able to make the right introductions here?anyway. The incremental publisher value here is small.
• Holding on to rights to extend IP has become critical to value creation:?As Lasky emphasizes in his post, gaming even in the games-as-a-service world is inherently hits driven. For a game startup to become valuable over time, it needs to find ways of anchoring its success around building franchises. Ownership of intellectual property (IP) and all extension rights becomes important. Angry Birds-maker Rovio and Moshi Monsters-maker Mind Candy have shown that game originated IP is an increasingly viable base to build out a broader IP following with over 40 percent or revenue from each being attributed to non-game products. At the same time, the halo marketing effect from these non-gaming products can still contribute value to the core gaming product. Publishing deals are typically structured for the publisher to get hold of this.
• Long term margins help you hold onto key talent:?Perhaps most importantly, success in games has always been about key?creative talent. The more cash a game startup is able to create, the more it can?afford to invest in everything from the office to culture to individual, innovative?compensation models for rockstar talent. Signing away a revenue share limits?these options and ultimately is likely to encourage the best talent to leave.

Venture financing from a specialist fund that understands games should therefore be seen as a compelling alternative for game startups. It provides the financing value add, typically at far more flexible terms, without any of the restrictions to value creation that lower margins or complicated IP terms can create. And you could even get good folks around the table for advice how best to build for long term success and shareholder value. It should be no surprise that today?s most promising game companies including?Supercell,?King,?Kabam,?Rovio?and?Kixeye?are all venture-funded.

What about the case for investors ? does it still make sense to invest in games?

The digital pure play market growth has recently been characterized by the rapid?rise and occasionally fall of new entrants. Zynga is cited as the key example by both?Cutler and Lasky. A thoughtful?article by Tadgh Kelly about ?Peak Mobile??further?highlights the cycles any individual platform tends to go through. In a world of few?game acquirers and a troubled IPO market, does the venture model therefore need a?re-think?

In my view and that of Initial Capital, which is an?investor in?Supercell,?Brainbow,?Supersolid,?Space Ape Games?and others, the case for continued investment is strong.

Even though some VCs are shying away from games, here are five reasons why I and Initial Capital are doubling down on games:

• A continued virtually unopposed growth opportunity in digital:?The next generation consoles are doing a wonderful job at distracting the big publishers away from the fastest growing parts of the game industry. That clears the water for pure digital plays to gradually build up dominance with new IP on new hardware platforms. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick?s?recent dismissive remarks about mobile, and EA?s strategy of ANDs: consoles and?PC and mobile and online (which dilutes their excellent talent across too many opportunities) are cases in point.?The innovators? dilemma confronting the big guys is creating continuing unopposed growth opportunity for new and established digital pure plays alike. That is giving new players time to build up the brand and marketing advantages that big publishers have held for years on what are rapidly becoming legacy platforms.
• There are plenty of ?blue water? opportunities on new platforms:?Very few game play styles or categories on personal screens, like four- to seven-inch screens across mobile phones and tablets, feel mature at this point. Clash of Clans? take on the tower defense genre, Candy Crush Saga?s interpretation of Match Three games and Hay Day?s way of approaching farm games are possibly the most mature examples out there. But who is making the category-defining racing game, the best first person shooter, sports game, real-time strategy, monster breeding or puzzle adventure game on these platforms? The console guys are hamstrung by their lack of focus.The starlets who already dominate one or two categories will have similar focus?challenges due to successes to date. Seldom have there been such clearly profitable, well-defined opportunities for new startups to re-imagine these experiences for personal touch screens.
• The opportunity has gone global:?The traditional gaming ?Galapagos Islands? of Japan, Korea and China have been overrun by the great global equalizers of Android and iOS. This creates unprecedented opportunities to go global. Supercell?s Clash of Clans is currently the #1 game on iPad in China and #11 in Japan. For Candy Crush, the same positions are #64 in China and #4 in Japan. This is not to belittle the differences in local tastes, marketing channels and in some cases app stores or distribution mechanisms. But the opportunity to reach the other half of the game industry that these countries represent has never been more tangible.
• Unprecedented margins:?Because of the margin structure and low headcount requirements of the industry, companies can become very profitable very quickly. Recent lessons from other companies that have grown too quickly are causing newer companies like Supercell to be more thoughtful. They are banking their profits, stabilizing their mid-double-digit operating margins and re-investing carefully into nurturing and expanding their talent base. This is also great news for top talent as it gets to increasingly share in the financial success both through company perks, private and public share sales and also dividends.
• The M&A and IPO markets will be back. And there?s nothing wrong with dividends either:?It will just take time. Large M&A deals in games are unlikely to be on the horizon. The traditional console folks are too busy fighting each other and do not have the resources to acquire an increasingly confident set of digital pure plays. The leading pure plays on the other hand are mostly focused on ensuring their own model scales before embarking on aggressive M&A. M&A is particularly hard an industry in the middle of a disruption where talent and inspiration are more important than scale. While Zynga?s troubles may have damaged the IPO prospects for the next 18 months or so, if the new generation of companies can show sustained profitability, they will be in an incredibly strong position to consider listing later. Some will undoubtedly choose to stay private and pay out dividends in the medium-run, which is fine from a venture investors perspective. But the option will be there.

The next few years for games will be choppy. But the fundamentals for gaming investments are stronger than ever. As Lasky says, you have to be building a game company and not just a game for venture funding to make sense. And for a venture fund to consider gaming investments, you need to understand the sector.

But neither of those mean that venture investments in games aren?t alive an well. In fact, the team at Initial Capital remain as bullish on the sector as we led the seed round into Supercell. We continue to seek out the very best, most inspired design and coding teams who want to define where games will go next and help them get started with capital, advice and structure.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/17/gaming-venture-capital/

mexico earthquake aziz ansari aziz ansari katherine jenkins peyton manning broncos mexico city earthquake stand your ground law

G-8 advances on Syrian peace talks, tax evasion

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a media conference after a G-8 summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The final day of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations is ending with discussions on globe-trotting corporate tax dodgers, a lunch with leaders from Africa, and suspense over whether Russia and Western leaders can avoid diplomatic fireworks over their deadlock on Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a media conference after a G-8 summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The final day of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations is ending with discussions on globe-trotting corporate tax dodgers, a lunch with leaders from Africa, and suspense over whether Russia and Western leaders can avoid diplomatic fireworks over their deadlock on Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool)

President Barack Obama walks with British Prime Minister David Cameron, center, and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny at the site of the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The final day of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations is ending with discussions on globe-trotting corporate tax dodgers, a lunch with leaders from Africa, and suspense over whether Russia and Western leaders can avoid diplomatic fireworks over their deadlock on Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

G-8 leaders from left, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama leave the podium after a group photo opportunity during the G-8 summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The final day of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations is ending with discussions on globe-trotting corporate tax dodgers, a lunch with leaders from Africa, and suspense over whether Russia and Western leaders can avoid diplomatic fireworks over their deadlock on Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Leaders of the G-8 member countries attend the second plenary work session at the G-8 Summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday June 18, 2013. Leaders are from left, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. (AP Photo/Ian Langsdon, Pool)

G-8 leaders from left, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy walk to a group photo opportunity during the G-8 summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The final day of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations is ending with discussions on globe-trotting corporate tax dodgers, a lunch with leaders from Africa, and suspense over whether Russia and Western leaders can avoid diplomatic fireworks over their deadlock on Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service)

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) ? President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other G-8 leaders took a united stance Tuesday on seeking a negotiated Syrian peace settlement to forge a "united, inclusive and democratic" government ? but couldn't agree on whether this means President Bashar Assad must go.

The declaration at the end of the two-day Group of Eight summit sought to narrow the diplomatic chasm between Assad's key backer, Russia, and Western leaders on starting peace talks in Geneva to end a two-year civil war that has claimed an estimated 93,000 lives.

G-8 leaders also published sweeping goals for tightening the tax rules on globe-trotting corporations that long have exploited loopholes to shift profits into foreign shelters that charge little tax or none. But that initiative, aimed at forcing the Googles and Apples of the world to pay higher taxes, contained only aspirations, no binding commitments.

The Syrian declaration said the country needs a new coalition government with "a top leadership that inspires public confidence." It made no reference the possibility of sending U.S., British or French weapons to rebels, an option being kept open by all three G-8 members. Russia refused to back any declaration that made Assad's ouster an explicit goal, arguing that it would be impossible to start peace talks with a predetermined outcome.

Reflecting the profound divisions that remain, the British host, Prime Minister David Cameron, declared in response to reporters' questions it was "unthinkable that President Assad can play any part in the future government of his country. He has blood on his hands. He has used chemical weapons."

Putin, speaking simultaneously to Cameron at a different location in a gesture that some diplomats construed as rude, rejected Cameron's views as unproven.

And referring to last month's butchery of an off-duty British soldier in London by ax- and knife-wielding Muslim extremists, Putin warned Cameron that the weapons sent to Syria might end up being used to kill people in Europe.

"There are many such criminals in the ranks of the (Syrian) opposition, such as those who committed the brutal murder in London. Do the Europeans want to provide such people with weapons? ... We are calling on all our partners to thoroughly think it over again before taking this very dangerous step," Putin said.

Reflecting growing unease at the behavior of Muslim extremists in the ranks of Syria's splintered opposition forces, the G-8 declaration said participants in any peace talks must agree to expel al-Qaida-linked fighters from the country.

The declaration condemned human rights abuses committed by government forces and rebels alike, and called on both sides to permit access by U.N.-led chemical weapons experts trying to investigate the contentious claims of chemical weapons use.

In its only concrete commitment, the plan commits a further $1.5 billion in aid for Syrians driven from their homes by the conflict: 4.2 million within Syria and 1.6 million more taking refuge in neighboring countries. The G-8 noted that the new funds would cover only part of the United Nations' 2013 appeal for $5.2 billion in Syria-directed aid.

Earlier, G-8 leaders announced new goals to combat tax avoidance by multinational companies. In a joint statement they said tax authorities should share information "to fight the scourge of tax evasion" and make it harder for companies to "shift their profits across borders to avoid taxes."

Britain heralded the agreement as a good first step toward creating a new environment of corporate transparency. A key principle in the plan would require multinationals to declare how much tax they pay in each country.

U.S. Senate hearings this year investigating the tax payment policies of Apple found that the smartphone and computer innovator also has developed some of the world's most innovative tax-avoidance policies. Apple admitted it used, legally, two companies registered in Ireland ? but in one case managed from the U.S. state of Nevada ? to manage much of the company's non-U.S. profits worldwide and paid taxes at a rate of less than 1 percent.

British lawmakers likewise have sharply criticized Google UK for registering all of its regional sales in neighboring Ireland, which charges half the rate of corporate tax.

Many of the world's leading companies, and even bands like U2, employ complex corporate structures involving multiple subsidiaries in several countries to minimize the tax bills in their home nation. One such maneuver, called the "double Irish with a Dutch sandwich," allows foreign companies to send profits through one Irish company, then to a Dutch company and finally to a second nominally Irish company that is headquartered in a usually British tax haven.

Campaigners for greater tax transparency appealed to the G-8 to ensure that reforms benefited the poorest countries of Africa, South America and Asia as well as the rich West. Anti-poverty campaigners stressed that shell companies provide a key mechanism for embezzling government funds in corrupt countries.

Cameron says Britain will lead by example by creating a registry of who really owns companies, and will consider making it public ? an idea viewed skeptically by many other countries fearful of scaring companies out of their jurisdictions.

And Britain itself stands accused of being one of the world's main links in the tax-avoidance chain. Several of Britain's own island territories ? including Jersey, Guernsey and the British Virgin Islands ? serve as shelters and funnel billions each week through the City of London.

"Of course, Britain's got to put its own house in order," said Britain's treasury chief, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who addressed the G-8 meeting on corporate tax reform along with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

She commended the G-8 initiative as necessary to address taxpayers' indignation at corporate tax-dodging and reflected the fact that "almost all governments need additional revenues."

Before the summit, Britain announced a provisional agreement with the finance chiefs of nine British offshore dependencies and territories to improve their sharing of information on individuals and companies banking cash there.

Also Tuesday, Cameron won commitment from all eight G-8 nations to stop paying ransoms to kidnappers in hope of deterring the practice following January's bloody capture by al-Qaeda-linked militants of an Algerian gas facility. Ten Japanese, five Britons, three Americans and a French national were among the 40 civilians killed as Algerian forces retook the facility.

Hostage-taking of foreign workers for cash payments is on the rise across much of West Africa, particularly Nigeria with its own oil industry dominated by Western companies and foreign managers. Italian and French authorities have been accused of paying ransoms on the quiet.

Cameron invited the leaders of Libya and the African Union to join the talks over lunch to discuss the issue.

___

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov and David McHugh contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-18-G-8%20Summit/id-c84b420a6cc34fa9b3495cecca07818b

NFL playoff schedule 2013 Bronson Pelletier andy reid redskins sugar bowl downton abbey season 3 2013 Calendar

Herbal extract boosts fruit fly lifespan by nearly 25 percent

June 18, 2013 ? The herbal extract of a yellow-flowered mountain plant long used for stress relief was found to increase the lifespan of fruit fly populations by an average of 24 percent, according to UC Irvine researchers.

But it's how Rhodiola rosea, also known as golden root, did this that grabbed the attention of study leaders Mahtab Jafari and Sam Schriner. They discovered that Rhodiola works in a manner completely unrelated to dietary restriction and affects different molecular pathways.

This is significant, said Jafari, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences, because dietary restriction is considered the most robust method of improving lifespan in laboratory animals, and scientists have been scrambling to identify compounds that can mimic its effects.

"We found that Rhodiola actually increases lifespan on top of that of dietary restriction," Jafari said. "It demonstrates that Rhodiola can act even in individuals who are already long-lived and healthy. This is quite unlike resveratrol, which appears to only act in overfed or unhealthy individuals."

The researchers proved this by putting flies on a calorie-restricted diet. It has been shown that flies live longer when the amount of yeast they consume is decreased. Jafari and Schriner expected that if Rhodiola functioned in the same manner as dietary restriction, it would not work in these flies. But it did. They also tested Rhodiola in flies in which the molecular pathways of dietary restriction had been genetically inactivated. It still worked.

Not only did Rhodiola improve lifespan an average of 24 percent in both sexes and multiple strains of flies, but it also delayed the loss of physical performance in flies as they aged and even extended the lives of old flies. Jafari's group previously had shown that the extract decreased the natural production of reactive oxygen species molecules in the fly mitochondria and protected both flies and cultured human cells against oxidative stress.

Jafari and Schriner, an assistant project scientist in Jafari's laboratory, are not claiming that Rhodiola supplements will enable humans to live longer, but their discovery is enhancing scientific understanding of how supplements believed to promote longevity actually work in the body.

Rhodiola has already shown possible health benefits in humans, such as decreasing fatigue, anxiety and depression; boosting mood, memory and stamina; and preventing altitude sickness. Grown in cold climates at high elevations, the herb has been used for centuries by Scandinavians and Russians to reduce stress. It's also thought to have antioxidant properties.

Jafari's research group is currently exploring the plant's potential to kill cancer cells, improve Alzheimer's disease and help stem cells grow.

Rhodiola is readily available online and in health food stores. Jafari, though, has analyzed several commercial products and found them to not contain sufficient amounts of the reputed active compounds -- such as rosavin and salidroside -- that characterize high-quality products.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/AhqPHvYGpj8/130618125112.htm

j.k. rowling j.k. rowling axl rose google earnings pat burrell hilary rosen grilled cheese

China is outsourcing carbon: Key findings on regional, global impact of trade on environment

June 10, 2013 ? In the wake of concerns over climate change and other emergent environmental issues, both individuals and governments are examining the impact of consumer and producer behavior and policies. In two new studies, three researchers from the University of Maryland's Department of Geographical Sciences publish groundbreaking findings on the environmental impact of globalization, production and trade on both regional and international scales.

Professor Klaus Hubacek and researchers Yang Yu and Kuishuang Feng's "Tele-connecting local consumption to global land use" appeared in Global Environmental Change and is available now online. Hubacek and Feng, with co-authors from leading institutions worldwide, published "Outsourcing CO₂ within China" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Tele-connecting local consumption to global land use"

As local consumption is increasingly met by global supply chains, often involving great geographical distances, the impact of consumer behavior on the environment is becoming increasingly apparent. Hubacek, Yu and Feng's research concretely connects local consumption to global land use through tracking global commodity and value chains via international trade flows. Specifically, they have zeroed in on land use attributed to "unusual" sectors, including services, machinery and equipment, and construction.

Their findings show how developed countries, such as the United States, consume a large amount of goods and services from both domestic and international markets, and thus impose pressure on their domestic land resources and displace land in other countries, creating an impact on how land is used, and consuming land that could potentially be used in more environmentally friendly ways. For example, 33 percent of total U.S. land use for consumption purposes is displaced from other countries, which is actually at the lower end of the global spectrum: the ratio becomes much larger for the EU (more than 50 percent) and Japan (92 percent).

The researchers have also illustrated the vast gap between consumption habits of rich and relatively poor countries. Their research shows that rich countries tend to displace land by consuming non-agricultural products, such as services, clothing and household appliances, which account for more than 50 percent of their total land displacement. For developing economies, such as African countries, the share of land use for non-agricultural products is much lower, with an average of seven percent.

"In addition, the emerging economies and population giants, China and India, are likely to further increase their appetite for land from other countries, such as Africa, Russia and Latin America, to satisfy their own land needs driven by their fast economic growth and the needs and lifestyles of their growing populations," Hubacek said. "Obviously, there are significant global consequences when these types of demands exceed the supply of land. We are all competing for the same resources. Land can be used to produce factories for fashion items or food for people or important ecosystems for non-human species."

Hubacek said the very countries that are putting the most strain on the global stage and on developing countries must emerge as leaders to address this problem. He believes that the U.S., as well as the EU, Japan, China and India, should play a key role in reducing these environmental impacts through an international framework.

Yu, Feng and Hubacek hope their findings and recommended next steps can be applied to other timely environmental problems, and allow them to link local environmental degradation to specific groups of consumers within a country.

"Outsourcing CO₂ within China"

Going beyond recent studies demonstrating that the high standard of living enjoyed by people in the richest countries often comes at the expense of CO₂ emissions produced with technologies of low efficiency in less affluent, developing countries, Hubacek, Feng and their coauthors have now shown that this dynamic can exist within a single country's borders. Focusing on China, the world's largest CO₂ emitter, the authors illustrate that rich regions consuming and exporting high-value goods and services depend upon production of low-cost and emission-intensive goods and services from poorer regions, creating an environmental burden on those poorer regions.

Tracking CO₂ emissions embodied in products traded among Chinese provinces and internationally, the researchers found that 57 percent of China's emissions are related to goods that are consumed outside of the province where they are produced. For instance, up to 80 percent of the emissions related to goods consumed in the highly developed coastal provinces are imported from less developed provinces in central and western China where many low value added but high carbon-intensive goods are produced.

"The carbon intensity of imports to the affluent coastal provinces is much greater than that of their exports -- in some cases by a factor of four, because many of these imports originate in western provinces where the technologies are highly inefficient, the economic structure is energy intensive and heavily dependent on coal," Hubacek said. "The more ambitious CO₂ mitigation targets set for the coastal provinces may lead to additional outsourcing and carbon leakage if such provinces respond by importing even more products from less developed provinces where climate policy is less demanding."

The researchers warn that without policy attention to this sort of interprovincial carbon leakage, the less developed provinces will struggle to meet their emissions intensity targets while the more developed provinces might achieve their own targets by further outsourcing. Consumption-based accounting of emissions can thus inform effective and equitable climate policy within China.

"The same effect occurs on a global scale, as richer countries outsource polluting industries and manufacturing to developing countries -- including China -- where costs are lower and regulations may be more lax," says Feng, "we must reduce CO₂ emissions, not just outsource them."

"Developed regions and countries need to take some responsibility, providing technology support or investment to promote cleaner, greener technology in less-developed regions. Current attempts to tackle climate change may simply encourage richer countries to outsource their emissions to poorer regions of the world, placing an unfair and unmanageable burden on those regions," he says.

Hubacek hopes the research can be used to inform consumers, as well as policy makers, about the carbon consequences of their choices.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/8U2bj2gpvXM/130610152131.htm

lamar odom perfect game jon jones vs rashad evans results rashad evans jon jones chuck colson death meteor showers 2012

Apple's iRadio Plans Mean Apple Will Need to Sell Radio Ads ...

Asa Mathat | D: All Things Digital

It took a while, but Apple is finally ready to announce its iRadio service. It should get a formal introduction at Apple?s WWDC event today, and a launch later this year.

We don?t know if Apple is actually calling iRadio ?iRadio.? But at this point we do know quite a bit about the streaming music service:

• Apple has been trying to launch it since last fall, but only started getting the formal backing of the big music companies in the last few months. Sony, the last big holdout, signed on late last week.
• iRadio is meant to be a ?Pandora-plus? offering: It will be free, and will give listeners more control over their music than Pandora or other Web radio services, but not as much as paid subscription services like Spotify or Google Play Music All Access (they really call it that).
• Like most digital music services, Apple will pay the music owners a fraction of a penny every time someone plays one of their songs. Unlike most digital music services, Apple also plans to sell advertising, and will give music owners a cut of that, too.

If you?re trying to gauge iRadio?s prospects, it?s that last part that should be most interesting. Because it sets up the possibility that iRadio could work very well for Apple ? by creating a sticky feature that keeps people using its iOS platform instead of jumping ship to Google/Samsung/Amazon/whomever ? but end up disappointing music owners, who are still looking to replace the giant pile of money that Napster and file-sharing evaporated way back in 1999.

The problem: If Apple wants to generate real ad money for iRadio, then that means it has to try to crack the market for radio ads. And that is a very, very un-Appley business.

Radio is a $14 billion industry?that has proven remarkably resilient to digital. It doesn?t really matter what kind of precision targeting the Internet offers ? the bulk of that $14 billion comes from local ad sales, which means you need to get ad reps reaching out to car dealers, grocery stores, etc.

And it?s a slog. Pandora, by far the biggest play in Web radio ads, has been diligently trying to build out an ad business for a long time. It is on track to do something like $630 million this year. Google and Yahoo have both tried digital audio ads, and bailed out.

Meanwhile, Apple?s previous forays into ads, which started off when the company bought Quattro three years ago and launched iAd, haven?t amounted to much. And at the D: All Things Digital conference last month, CEO Tim Cook sounded profoundly unenthusiastic about ads.

Again: Apple could end up with a goose egg for iRadio revenue and still consider the service a success. If iRadio helps sell more iPhones, or keeps iPhone users from ditching their handsets for a Google X phone or whatever, then it?s well worth the hassle. But it?s hard to see this making real money for the people who own the songs.

RELATED POSTS:

Source: http://allthingsd.com/20130610/why-iradio-could-be-a-hit-for-apple-and-a-dud-for-big-music/

Boston Marathon bombing irs new york times Friends Reunion Elena Delle Donne usa today yahoo news

Inside the different Android Versions

If you've heard of Android, chances are you've heard all about its various versions. Some call it fragmentation, some say it's the nature of open-source, but in reality it's both a curse and a blessing. Regardless, it's good to have a little context about what all these version numbers and names mean when you see them posted on the Internet.

Each major version of Android has a dessert-based nickname, and they are all in alphabetical order. We like to think it's because of the delicious things they each have offered, but the folks at Google are pretty tight-lipped about why they used the internal code names they did. They certainly have a good sense of humor, and seem to like tasty deserts.

Below is a quick primer on the the different versions of Android that are still alive and kicking, from newest to oldest:

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Qbsqzuyk__k/story01.htm

ubaldo jimenez ncaa final country music awards autism awareness angelman syndrome total recall troy tulowitzki