Drought threatens to close Mississippi to barges

Chart shows water levels in feet for the Mississippi River near St. Louis

Chart shows water levels in feet for the Mississippi River near St. Louis

An empty barge, top, pulls along side a barge filled with soybeans as they prepare to switch places at an Archer Daniels Midland grain river terminal along the Mississippi River Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012, in Sauget, Ill. The potential closure of the river due to low water levels has raised concern for barge companies and others who use the river for shipping with a prolonged shutdown of the river possibly costing billions of dollars in losses. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

This Nov. 28, 2012 photo provided by The United States Coast Guard shows vessels navigating through close quarters at a fleeting area, where barges are picked up and dropped off, on the Mississippi River near St. Louis. Mo. The Mississippi, after months of drought, is approaching the point where it may become to shallow for barges that navigate the river. (AP Photo/United States Coast Guard, Colby Buchanan)

This Nov. 28, 2012 photo provided by The United States Coast Guard shows a WWII minesweeper exposed by the low waters of he Mississippi River near St. Louis, Mo. The vessel, swept away during the flood of 1993, was a museum ship in St. Louis and is normally underwater year-round. The Mississippi, after months of drought, is approaching the point where it may become to shallow for barges that navigate the river. (AP Photo/United States Coast Guard, Colby Buchanan)

This Nov. 28, 2012 photo provided by The United States Coast Guard shows man-made dikes along the shoreline of the Mississippi River South of St. Louis. The dikes, perpendicular to the shore, help direct the water flow back into the river to maintain a navigable depth. They are normally not seen but now exposed along with their large sandbars by months of drought and low water levels the could close the river to barge traffic. (AP Photo/United States Coast Guard, Colby Buchanan)

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? After months of drought, companies that ship grain and other goods down the Mississippi River are being haunted by a potential nightmare: If water levels fall too low, the nation's main inland waterway could become impassable to barges just as the harvest heads to market.

Any closure of the river would upend the transport system that has carried American grain since before steamboats and Mark Twain. So shipping companies are scrambling to find alternative ways to move tons of corn, wheat and other crops to the Gulf Coast for shipment overseas.

"You can't just wait until it shuts down and suddenly say, 'There's a problem,'" said Rick Calhoun, head of marine operations for Chicago-based Cargill Inc. "We're always looking at Plan B."

The mighty Mississippi is approaching the point where it may become too shallow for barges that carry food, fuel and other commodities. If the river is closed for a lengthy period, experts say, economic losses could climb into the billions of dollars.

It isn't just the shipping and grain industries that will feel the pinch. Grocery prices and utility bills could rise. And deliveries of everything from road-clearing rock salt for winter and fertilizer for the spring planting season could be late and in short supply.

"The longer it lasts, the worse it gets," said Don Sweeney, associate director of the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. "It's inevitable that it will mean higher prices down the road."

The focus of greatest concern is a 180-mile stretch of the river between the confluences of the Missouri River near St. Louis and the Ohio River at Cairo, Ill. That's where lack of rain has squeezed the channel from its normal width of 1,000 feet or more to just a few hundred feet.

The river depth is 15 to 20 feet less than normal, now about 13 feet deep in many places. If it dips to around 9 feet, rock pinnacles at two locations make it difficult, if not impossible, for barges to pass. Hydrologists for the National Weather Service predict the Mississippi will reach the 9-foot mark by Dec. 9.

The situation worsened last week when the Army Corps of Engineers began reducing the outflow from an upper Missouri River dam in South Dakota, where a group of experts said Thursday that the worst U.S. drought in decades had intensified over the last week.

The flow is gradually being cut by more than two-thirds by Dec. 11 as part of an effort to ease the effects of the drought in the northern Missouri River basin.

Lawmakers from Mississippi River states are frustrated with the corps' action and even requested a presidential emergency declaration to overturn it. So far, the White House has not responded.

On Thursday, Army Assistant Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy told Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and some of his colleagues from Iowa and Minnesota that the corps would consider cutting the amount of water held back from the Mississippi.

Darcy also pledged to expedite removal of rock formations south of St. Louis, though that work would take at least two months after a contractor is hired.

To Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, the stakes couldn't be higher.

"There is going to be a dramatic ripple effect to our economy if the barge traffic grinds to halt, which clearly it will if something is not done to avert this crisis," she said.

Her Missouri colleague in the Senate, Republican Roy Blunt, acknowledged "friction" between upper Missouri River interests that control the flow and those downstream on the lower Missouri and Mississippi rivers. He said the corps "needs to manage that balance."

Over the years, parts of the river have occasionally been closed because of low water, barge accidents, dredging, ice and flooding. But this shutdown, if it happens, would affect a pivotal stretch that is used for heavy two-way traffic ? shipments going south to the Gulf as well as transports from the Illinois and Ohio rivers headed north to Chicago and Minneapolis.

A two-month shutdown ? the length of time that some observers fear given current conditions ? would have an estimated impact of $7 billion, according to the river industry trade group American Waterways Operators.

Consider agricultural products. It costs 30 to 35 cents more per bushel to send grain to the Gulf by rail instead of barge ? a massive figure when calculating the millions of bushels shipped downriver.

"When you think of all we buy at the grocery store that has grain and corn, consumers could really see it hit them in the pocketbooks," said Ann McCulloch of the Waterways Operators group.

The Coast Guard controls navigation on the river and decides when to require restrictions or shut it down.

"It's really played by ear," Coast Guard Lt. Colin Fogarty said. "The Mississippi River is a dynamic environment."

River shippers are bracing for the worst, weighing train and truck alternatives to move a staggering volume of cargo, if necessary.

Seven million tons of farm products are shipped via barge in a typical December-January period, along with 3.8 million tons of coal, 1.7 million tons of chemical products, 1.3 million tons of petroleum products and 700,000 tons of crude oil, McCulloch said.

Trains already haul a vast volume of material, but switching from river to rail isn't that easy, especially on short notice. Cargill, for example, uses 1,300 of its own barges on inland waterways. Finding that much capacity elsewhere is no simple task.

"We'll look for other sources of transportation to the extent we can. But if you take away this important artery, you can't just snap your fingers and replace it with trains," Calhoun said. "There aren't just trains sitting around. They're already pretty busy with their business on their books."

Tractor-trailers can pick up some of the slack. But some cargo, such as coal, just isn't cost-effective to haul by truck over long distances, said Bob Costello, an economist with the American Trucking Associations.

Businesses operating directly on the river are bound to suffer, too.

George Foster founded JB Marine Service Inc. in St. Louis 36 years ago to make a living fixing and cleaning barges. An extended river closure may force layoffs, he said. He figures many other companies will be forced to cut jobs, too.

"It's extremely dire," Foster said. "There's no way to sugarcoat it."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-29-Drought-River%20Shipping/id-ad73c9a47f3149c397d3693969570d73

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Duke, Duchess of Cambridge visit namesake city

Prince William and Kate Middleton have marked another first in their young married life by visiting their namesake city for the first time as a married couple.

William and Kate, both 30, split their time between Wales, where William serves as a pilot, and their hometown of London but today they visited Cambridge, proving that you can take the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge out of Cambridge but you can?t take the Cambridges out of Cambridge, perhaps.

PHOTOS: Prince William Through the Years

(Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images)William and Kate, sporting her new much-buzzed about hairdo, were met by enthusiastic crowds at every stop on their tour of the English city, including a lunchtime reception at Cambridge University?s Senate House where Prince William described their joy at sharing a kinship with the town since their April 2011 wedding.

?We both feel immense pride at being associated with Cambridge, a place renowned the world over for its dynamism, beauty and learning, and it is lovely for us to be here together today,? Prince William said, according to the BBC.

PHOTOS: Will and Kate?s Wedding Day

The couple?s visit to Cambridge, 19 months after their wedding day, comes at a crossroads for Prince William,?the second-in-line to the British throne, as he chooses whether to continue with the Royal Air Force (RAF) or take on a full-time role as a royal.

?If he could stay in the military when they do have their first child?that gives them the opportunity to have a little bit of a family life away from the glare of the spotlight of being full-time royals,? Victoria Murphy, royal correspondent for the UK?s The Mirror told ABC News.

The question of when the couple will become pregnant with their first child is a hot topic in England and around the world as every sip, or no sip, and move by Middleton is scrutinized as a hint to whether or not she is with child.

On Tuesday Middleton stepped out solo at London?s Natural History Museum in a green Mulberry dress that she also wore to a Buckingham Palace reception last year.? In a first, what made headlines over her is-she-or-isn?t-she pregnancy figure was her new hairdo, a darker look from her signature brunette locks and new layers around her face, including slight bangs.

PHOTOS: The Life and Times of Kate Middleton

Even with the new hairdo, the focus remains on when the couple will produce an heir to the throne, particularly with Prince William saying he definitely wants children.

?I?m just very keen to have a family and both Catherine and I, you know, are looking forward to having a family in the future,? William told ABC News? Katie Couric in May. Asked by Couric if there was anything else he wanted to share, he answered with a laugh, ?You won?t get anything out of me. Tight lipped.

William, who must decide on his future by the end of this year, also opened up to Couric about the stress of that decision and of possibly leaving his role as an RAF search-and-rescue captain.

?I?m still trying to decide,? he told Couric at the time. ?It?s a really difficult one because I really enjoy my time in the Air Force. And I?d love to continue it. But the pressures of my other life are building. And fighting them off or balancing the two of them has proven quite difficult.?

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Source: http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/kate-middleton-debuts-look-prince-william-ponders-future-183255771--abc-news-celebrities.html

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Financial software giant Intuit offers a Square-competitor, GoPayment, which allows users in the U.S. and Canada to accept payments via a reader that attaches to any smartphone. Today, Intuit is expanding across the pond with the launch of a mobile card reader in the UK, however; the offering has a different name--Intuit Pay.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/faFs9K9oPsw/

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Fast forward to the past: NASA technologists test 'game-changing' data-processing technology

ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2012) ? It's a digital world. Or is it? NASA technologist Jonathan Pellish isn't convinced. In fact, he believes a computing technology of yesteryear could potentially revolutionize everything from autonomous rendezvous and docking to remotely correcting wavefront errors on large, deployable space telescope mirrors like those to fly on the James Webb Space Telescope.

"It's fast forward to the past," Pellish said, referring to an emerging processing technology developed by a Cambridge, Mass.-based company, Analog Devices Lyric Labs.

So convinced is he of its potential, Pellish is meeting with scientists and engineers to explain the technology's capabilities and is using fiscal year 2013 NASA Center Innovation Fund resources to build printed circuit boards that researchers can use to test the technology's performance for a range of scientific applications. Pellish works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. He also has carried out preliminary radiation-effects studies to see how the technology's architecture holds up under the extreme environment encountered in space.

"I wouldn't do it unless I really believed in it," Pellish added. "This is one of the few things I've seen that is really different than what others are trying to do. I think this technology could fundamentally change the way we carry out onboard processing."

Analog-Based Microchip

The new technology is an analog-based microchip developed with significant support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Instead of relying on tiny switches or transistors that turn on and off, producing streams of ones and zeroes that computing systems then translate into something meaningful to users, the company's new microchip is more like a dimmer switch. It can accept inputs and calculate outputs that are between zero and one, directly representing probabilities, or levels of certainty.

"The technology is fundamentally different from standard digital-signal processing, recognizing values between zero and one to accomplish what would otherwise be cost prohibitive or impossible with traditional digital circuits," Pellish said.

The processor's enhanced performance is due to the way the technology works, he explained. While digital systems use processors that step through calculations one at a time, in a serial fashion, the new processor uses electronic signals to represent probabilities rather than binary ones and zeros. It then effectively runs the calculations in parallel. Where it might take 500 transistors for a digital computer to calculate a probability, the new technology would take just a few. In other words, the microchip can perform a calculation more efficiently, with fewer circuits and less power than a digital processor -- attributes important for space- and power-constrained spacecraft instruments, Pellish said.

Although "there has been an overwhelming amount of positive support for the technology within Goddard" since Pellish began introducing colleagues to its capabilities, he is the first to concede that the technology isn't appropriate for all space applications.

Fast Fourier Transform

Because of its efficiency and inherent design, however, it's especially ideal for computing fast Fourier transforms (FFTs), and more particularly the discrete Fourier transform, a ubiquitously used mathematical algorithm in digital-signal processing. Among other things, Fourier transforms decompose signals into their constituent frequencies and are used to generate and filter cell-phone and Wi-Fi transmissions as well as compress audio, image and video files so that they take up less bandwidth.

Among other products, the company has developed an analog-based integrated circuit geared specifically for computing Fourier transforms. The team will use the technology, which the company donated, to assemble several custom circuit boards. "We'll take the hardware and see what it can do with our data and applications," Pellish explained.

One of the first applications the group plans to target with a version of the FFT integrated circuit is wavefront sensing and control, the computational technique for aligning multiple mirror segments, like those that are flying on the Webb telescope, so that they operate as a single mirror system.

In addition, Jeffrey Klenzing, who works with Goddard's Space Weather Laboratory, wants to evaluate the technology's use for on-board data processing, particularly for studies of the sun. "For a typical sounding rocket application, we send all data down and perform fast Fourier transforms on the ground. However, for satellite missions, this is not feasible given limited telemetry," Klenzing said. "A chip for performing rapid, reliable FFTs would be very useful for such heliophysics missions particularly with the push toward smaller, low-power satellites such as CubeSats and nanosats."

Pellish also believes autonomous rendezvous and docking and other applications requiring precise locational information would benefit from the analog-based technology. "We're trying to create a new market at NASA for analog processing. I believe it will give us a competitive edge. If we can push this, it could revolutionize how we do onboard data processing."

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/ehpKOhUxdms/121127191300.htm

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Bangladesh mourns, calls factory fire "act of sabotage"

DHAKA/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bangladesh said a fire that killed 111 textile workers was sabotage, as protesters took to the streets for a second day on Tuesday and garment factories across the world's second-biggest clothes exporter stopped work to mourn.

Meanwhile two other incidents this week, neither of which caused injuries, had local manufacturing leaders scrambling to assess whether their industry was under attack.

Saturday's fire has put a spotlight on global retailers that source clothes from Bangladesh, where the cost of labor is low - as little as $37 a month for some workers - and rights groups have called on firms to sign up to a fire safety program.

U.S. retailer Sears Holdings Corp said its clothing was not meant to be made in that textile factory, and was investigating reports that one of its brands had been found in the charred debris. Other brands, such as Esprit Holdings Ltd, continued to deny any connection and distanced themselves from the disaster.

The country's worst-ever industrial blaze consumed a multi-story building of a Tazreen Fashions factory. More than 150 workers were injured.

The interior minister, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, said that, according to a preliminary inquiry, the fire was the result of arson. He promised to bring the culprits to justice.

"We have come to the conclusion that it was an act of sabotage. We are finding out as of now who exactly the saboteurs are and all culprits will be brought to book," Alamgir said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she suspected the fire was an act of sabotage, but she did not identify any suspect or say why she thought the cause might have been arson.

In addition to Saturday's blaze, two other incidents outside Dhaka -- a fire at a factory Monday morning and an explosion and fire at a facility Tuesday evening -- had the country's manufacturing leaders scared something bigger was at play.

"If you ask me as to what happened at the factory, today I'm a little confused because having such incidents all around naturally raises questions in the mind," said Annisul Huq, former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, in an interview.

"The government today says they are smelling sabotage. We don't yet know what they mean by that, we will know in a few days. I don't know what information they have but we don't like this link," he said, adding that association members would meet Wednesday to discuss the recent events.

RECORD OF POOR CONDITIONS

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, said one of its suppliers subcontracted work to the burned factory without authorization and would no longer be used. Sears also suggested something illicit may have taken place.

"Any merchandise found at that factory should NOT have been manufactured there and we are currently investigating further," the company said in a statement.

The International Labor Rights Forum, in a statement on Sunday, said evidence discovered in the factory suggested Sears' True Desire line may have been manufactured there, as well as other prominent brands.

As of Tuesday afternoon, a petition on Change.org calling on major retailers to join an industry fire safety program for suppliers had more than 13,000 supporters.

Representatives of the Tazreen Fashions factory, including the owner, were not available for comment.

Bangladesh has about 4,500 garment factories and is the world's biggest exporter of clothing after China, with garments making up 80 percent of its $24 billion annual exports.

Working conditions at Bangladeshi factories are notoriously poor, with little enforcement of safety laws. Overcrowding and locked fire doors are common.

More than 300 factories near the capital were shut for almost a week earlier this year as workers demanded higher wages and better conditions. At least 500 people have died in garment factory accidents in Bangladesh since 2006, according to fire brigade officials.

More than 1,000 workers, some carrying black flags, demonstrated Tuesday in the Ashulia industrial belt on the outskirts of the capital where the factory is located. They blocked traffic moving on a highway and vowed to avenge the deaths of their colleagues, witnesses said.

"Never shall we give up demands for punishment for those responsible for the tragedy," one worker said.

Dhaka district police chief Habibur Rahman told Reuters his men were investigating complaints from some survivors that factory managers stopped workers from running out of the building when a fire alarm went off.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul and Anis Ahmed in Dhaka and Jessica Wohl and Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago; Additional reporting by Anne Marie Roantree in Hong Kong and Dhanya Skariachan in New York; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Robert Birsel, Gunna Dickson and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bangladesh-mourns-calls-factory-fire-act-sabotage-165143016--finance.html

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Mobile Ad Network InMobi Announces Free ?Lifetime Value Platform? To Help Developers Deliver Targeted Content

Thanks in part to some recent acquisitions, InMobi has been expanding its services for mobile developers. Its latest feature is something called the Lifetime Value Platform, which will help developers divide their audience into different segments and customize the experience accordingly ? in InMobi's words, it's going to be "democratizing the understanding of user behavior." As for how the LTVP compares to the many other mobile app analytics and messaging services (for example, not only does Urban Airship offer messaging infrastructure, it also announced audience segmentation earlier this year), an InMobi spokesperson argued, "Unlike other products in the market which just stop at providing analytics, this platform enables developers to understand their users and deliver targeted actions in real time, without having to resubmit the app to the App Store."

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White House blasts GOP ?obsession? with Rice and Benghazi

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee?flanked by fellow committee??The White House sharply escalated its attacks Tuesday on Republicans trying to stop Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice from succeeding Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state. Press secretary Jay Carney described GOP lawmakers as being gripped by a politically fueled "obsession" with a series of television appearances Rice made shortly after the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in which she wrongly suggested the attack had stemmed from a demonstration over an anti-Muslim video rather than a terrorist assault.

Carney's comments came after Rice met privately on Capitol Hill with Republican senators who have said they intend to block her nomination if President Barack Obama chooses her to replace Clinton as the nation's top diplomat.?Rice also acknowledged for the first time, in a written statement issued by her office, that her initial public comments on the Benghazi assault were wrong because there had been no protest outside the compound.

Carney said the U.S. still does not know who carried out the assault, which claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. But he said GOP focus on Rice's early statements was a politically motivated distraction from efforts to identify those responsible for the killings.

"The questions that remain to be answered have to do with what happened in Benghazi, who was responsible for the deaths of four Americans, including our ambassador, and what steps we need to take to ensure that something like that doesn't happen again." Carney said.

In appearance after appearance, Rice said that American intelligence had pinned the blame on the assault on extremists who took advantage of a demonstration outside the facility.

Tuesday, Rice acknowledged the information initially provided by the intelligence community was wrong.

"Neither I nor anyone else in the administration intended to mislead the American people at any stage in this process, and the administration updated Congress and the American people as our assessments evolved," Rice said.

Rice, accompanied by Acting CIA Director Michael Morell, met with Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who have accused Rice (and the Obama administration in general) of misleading the public by tying the assault to the video. Republicans have suggested the administration hoped to blunt the potential political impact of the attack?the first to claim the life of an American ambassador in 30 years?shortly before the presidential election.

"Bottom line: I'm more disturbed now than I was before," Graham told reporters after the meeting. "We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get," McCain said.

Carney shot back, saying there were "no unanswered questions" about Rice's early televised statements.

"The focus on?some might say obsession on?comments made on Sunday shows seems to me and to many to be misplaced," Carney said. "I know that Sunday shows have vaunted status in Washington, but they have almost nothing to do?in fact zero to do?with what happened in Benghazi."

And neither, to hear Carney tell it, did Rice.

"Ambassador Rice has no responsibility for collecting, analyzing and providing intelligence, nor does she have responsibility as the United States ambassador to the United Nations for diplomatic security around the globe," he said.

So why, then, did the White House anoint Rice the administration point person to answer questions about a possible intelligence failure and consular security? Why not Secretary of State Clinton? Director of National Intelligence James Clapper? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta? National Security Adviser Tom Donilon?

"She is a principal on the president's foreign policy team," Carney said.

He added, "To this day it is the assessment of this administration and of our intelligence community ? that they acted at least in part in response to what they saw happening in Cairo and took advantage of that situation."

In other words, according to one well-placed source, the perpetrators of the attack may have concluded that anger at the video gave them the maximum opportunity to get sympathy or support across the Muslim world, and might even inspire copycat attacks.?Rice's much-dissected Sept. 16 comments broadly follow those lines.

Obama has fiercely defended Rice, while carefully declining to say whether he has chosen her to succeed Clinton. Another leading contender is the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry.

McCain and Graham have pledged to try to filibuster her confirmation, but they are well short of the votes needed to do so.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/white-house-blasts-republican-obsession-rice-benghazi-195406348--politics.html

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/49971334#49971334

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