* Now you can add or remove applications from your blackberry using Mac.
* You can easily sync up your iTunes playlists, notes, tasks, calendars and contacts. Users are given the flexibility to sync music and send the tracks to the integrated memory or a micro SD card which leaves the memory free for other applications. All your contact and calendar information can be easily synched with address book, mail or any other supporting application.
* You will be able to manage multiple devices.
* Support for Mac 10.5.5 and Mac 10.6 the snow leopard which are the latest Mac version is also available. It allows the users to sync their smart phone by distributing the contents to multiple systems.
* Automatic update of devices when new softwares are available.
* If you have sensitive data, then the users are given the flexibility to protect their data using the backup encryption option. The device can be configured to automatically sync when connected.
* It also provides the media sync feature which most of the people were just waiting for it.

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“Pixelmator is a perfect fit for anyone who is passionate about image editing,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. “And now with the breakthrough version 1.5 Spider features, Pixelmator becomes one of the world’s best tools for exporting images for the Web.”

The new Web tools in Pixelmator allow users to prepare and export images for the Web with minimal effort, whether it is an individual image or a complex page layout. Images can be optimized and saved in Web-standard JPEG, PNG, or GIF file formats with different quality settings.

The new powerful Slice tool in Pixelmator can be used to slice an image into pieces, allowing each piece of an image to be optimized and saved using its own optimization settings. Saving an optimized part of an image is as easy as dragging and dropping it onto the desktop. The file size and preview of optimized slices or images are available in nearly real-time in the Pixelmator window.

Pixelmator also comes with a useful Web Color plug-in for the Apple Color Palette, allowing Web designers to select and copy hexadecimal colors quickly to the HTML or CSS application. The new Info Labels feature unobtrusively shows useful information depending on the tool in use such as selection, crop and slice sizes, tolerance levels for Magic Wand, Paint Bucket, and Magic Eraser, gradient angle and radius, transform dimensions, and more. The new Trim feature allows quick and easy cropping of an image by trimming surrounding transparent pixels or background pixels in a specified color.

Other new features in Pixelmator 1.5 Spider include support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Italian language, the Reveal All feature, and the Send To feature that allows the user to send images quickly to the Mail and iPhoto applications; improved Export, Image Size, Canvas Size, and File Info features; minor user interface changes; compatibility and performance improvements; and several bug fixes.

Pricing and Availability: Pixelmator 1.5 is available for $59 (USD). Pixelmator 1.5 is a free update for current Pixelmator users. System requirements, as well as a 30-day Pixelmator trial and more information on Pixelmator, visit them online.

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“Think of Bento 3 as a powerful, easy way to bring together all of your key Mac information and photos,” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc. “With Bento 3, we’re providing new ways for you to view and interact with your information so you can organize contacts, projects, events and even more details of your life.”

Bento 3 also delivers new ways to share your information with other Bento users. Just like sharing iTunes and iPhotos over a local area network (LAN) using Apple’s Bonjour technology, you can now share your Bento libraries with up to five users over a wired or wireless local network. You can also encrypt any field and assign passwords to secure your information in Bento 3.

The new Grid view in Bento 3 delivers an innovative method of displaying thumbnails of photos, text and numeric-based information, while improved File Lists show image thumbnails, instead of just text.
Get started instantly

With Bento 3, you can choose from 35 pre-designed, ready-to use templates thanks to the addition of 10 more templates for popular uses, including wine collecting, job hunting, home searching, vacation planning and more. In addition, the recently launched Bento Template Exchange shows off hundreds of downloadable templates designed by Bento users, so there is never a shortage of new ideas for ways to use Bento 3.
Praise from Bento 3 early evaluators

“I love being able to access grid view in my Bento 3 database… all I can say is AWESOME!”
Lisa Fitkin
Video Producer
Premier Images
Olympia, Wash. and Oakland, Calif.

“With Bento 3, FileMaker has brought the best of the Mac environment and incredible simplicity to the database world…it is an intuitive yet powerful program to use even without having to delve into the program manual. In short, I love it!”
Mark Mainville
Administrator
New Covenant Church
Malone, N.Y.

“I plan to use the iPhoto integration. Adding tags and notes to particular photos will be cool, and the grid view will also be very helpful. Bento 3 seems more polished – and the ability to keep libraries synched to my iPhone will allow me to keep everything handy.”
Maique Madeira
Newspaper photojournalist
Lisbon, Portugal
Special limited time offers available

Bento 3 has a suggested list price of $49, but, for a limited time only, FileMaker is offering a $20 rebate to existing users of Bento 1 and Bento 2. Qualified customers who purchase Bento 3 through the FileMaker Store will get an instant rebate and pay just $29 for Bento 3. Qualified customers who purchase Bento 3 at an Apple store or other retailer can request a $20 rebate online. Customers who have purchased Bento 2 between August 30, 2009 and October 14, 2009 are eligible to receive Bento 3 for free. A 30-day trial version is also available at http://www.filemaker.com/trybento3pr.
Bento 3 support for Bento for iPhone and iPod touch

Bento 1.0.3 for iPhone and iPod touch resolves compatibility issues related to Bento 3 for Mac and will be available soon. Current users of Bento for iPhone and iPod touch will see a notification on their device when the free update is available for download.
Pricing and system Requirements

Bento 3 is affordably priced at $49 U.S., or $99 U.S. for a family pack of five licenses, and is available on the FileMaker Store. Bento 3 will also be offered at the Online Apple Store and Apple retail stores. It requires Mac OS X v.10.5.7 Leopard and will also run on the recently released OS X v.10.6 Snow Leopard on a Mac computer with an Intel PowerPC G5 or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor. A minimum of 512MB of RAM and 1GB of hard drive space is recommended. A CD drive is required for installation of boxed software.

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“The extremely positive market response we have received has been outstanding and supports our proposition of the keen global interest in China and in quality Chinese news coverage,” said Jim Campbell, Managing Partner for CNEWSCO, LLC. “Our expansion into the iPhone and iPod touch applications realm allows us to build upon our rapidly growing global user base. The massive international resources of Xinhua, and our groundbreaking partnership on this new media initiative, give us a continuous, high-quality stream of digital content to fuel and power our mobile and internet platforms.”

Tantao News® provides global coverage of leading world events as well as “China Focus,” a special emphasis on China’s markets, politics, foreign relations, lifestyle and culture — a unique offering of world headlines and Chinese features that no other news organization can provide.

“In my 31 years working in China advising key units on policy and commercialization and advising multinationals, this is by far the most significant and innovative cooperation I have seen in the media sector,” said Jack Fensterstock, Managing Partner/China for CNEWSCO, LLC. “Tantao News® provides a critical bridge to improving understanding and trust between China and the rest of the world. We are de-coupling rhetoric and the news and rightly placing Xinhua alongside other leading professional news organizations in a new media manner.”

The mobile application, with technology provided by Handmark, Inc., gives users access to full text news stories and rich photo news in a compelling, easy-to-navigate application. Tantao News® video service is expected to be available in future releases and can be found currently on http://TantaoNews.com/.

The Tantao News® mobile application is a FREE application and immediately available for iPhone/iPod touch and Blackberry phones in the Americas. Users can download the mobile application from Tantao News® at http://TantaoNews.com/; find the iPhone/iPod touch App in the iTunes Store; or get the BlackBerry App download at BlackBerry App World(TM) .  - CNEWSCO, LLC

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Daily Grommet, the curated online marketplace and video review site, today announced its official launch from Beta with Version 2.0 of DailyGrommet.com. The new version is aimed at enhancing the consumer experience and increasing product exposure for each up-and-coming business featured. The announcement comes on the week of the company’s one year anniversary after more than 250 product, or “Grommet,” reviews have been completed and catalogued at DailyGrommet.com.

Daily Grommet features products of great utility, style or invention that haven’t hit the big-time yet. The company seeks out these unique “Grommets,” tests each one and spotlights them by producing an online video review explaining what’s compelling about each day’s product and the story behind its creation. Daily Grommet gives small businesses a powerful distribution channel for launching products with a sales platform that many young businesses don’t have access to. Since inception in October 2008, the company has grown its online distribution network by 50 percent per quarter through daily emails, Twitter, Facebook and partnerships with online publishers including Yahoo! Shine.

The revamped marketplace makes it easier than ever for consumers to explore Grommet stories, connect with product producers, purchase Grommets beyond their feature day, share Grommets with friends and submit ideas for future Grommets. Product producers benefit from Daily Grommet’s enhanced product catalogue which includes a wider selection of their product line and e-commerce capabilities enabling Daily Grommet to process transactions directly.

Key features of the enhanced DailyGrommet.com include:

* A rich product catalog right on the home page, making it easier for visitors to find past reviews of Grommet products and services;
* Full e-commerce capabilities enabling consumers to purchase Grommets beyond their feature day directly on DailyGrommet.com;
* A wider selection of a Grommet producer’s product line;
* Enhanced social sharing capabilities for each Grommet;
* Easier product submission process;
* Greater Grommet exposure beyond its initial feature day.

Daily Grommet’s founder and CEO, Jules Pieri, is a consumer products expert and former industrial designer who based her company on the premise that people are increasingly thoughtful about the products and experiences they buy — and that they especially like to support innovative companies and “little guy” enterprises.

“We care deeply about the products we feature, and we want to see them thrive,” said Jules Pieri, founder and CEO of Daily Grommet. “Our enhanced site aims to provide even more exposure for the products we feature and a better shopping experience for consumers who really care about buying thoughtfully and supporting small businesses.”

Follow Daily Grommet on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dailygrommet and on the Daily Grommet blog at http://blog.dailygrommet.com/ for regular news and updates.  - Daily Grommet

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“While everyone was criticizing him, he was generating a whole lot more money for his foundation, and ultimately, when he got serious about philanthropy, he did it really well,” Brin told The Times. “I’d like to learn from that example.”

Brin certainly has a lot of money to give, with an estimated fortune of $16 billion. He’s already given away about $30 million.

That’s hardly a drop in the bucket compared to Gates, whose foundation’s endowment has announced grant commitment of $20.5 billion since inception. Still, Gates — who retired from his day job at Microsoft to take a more active role at the foundation — is 17 years older than Brin.

The New York Times story centered around a $1 million donation that Brin — who moved to the U.S. from Russia with his family when he was 6-years-old — gave to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.  - TechFlash

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Star Trek fans will be particularly pleased with the announcement of a new medical device that is suspiciously similar to ones used by Federation doctors in the beloved TV and movie series. Photograph by: Paramount Television,

General Electric (GE) on Tuesday unveiled an ultrasound device about the size of an iPhone, saying the gadget could become “the stethoscope of the 21st century.”

“We are going to put this in the clinicians’ hands,” GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt said after pulling a Vscan from a suit jacket pocket during an on-stage talk at a Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

“This really could be the stethoscope of the 21st Century.”

Vscan has the potential to improve the ability of doctors to diagnose patients by allowing them to quickly view images of internal organs, according to General Electric.

The devices are geared for doctors who would be able to easily carry them about and use them for non-invasive views of what is going on in the bodies of patients.

Vscan flips open to show a video screen and has a sensor attached to a wand. GE did not disclose the proposed price for the device, which will be tested with the help of U.S. doctors.  - Ottawa Citizen

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Now, in this dramatic era of bank bailouts, Detroit rescue packages, and the threat of a deflationary spiral, such a report might seem oddly timed.

But consider the massive amount of liquidity the Federal Reserve is injecting into the banking system by taking interest rates to zero and then intervening in Treasury markets.  Trillions of dollars are being printed. As one guru of the commodities markets notes: “When you look at all of the monetary liquefaction that’s occurred, it’s definitely going to lead to a lower dollar and higher inflation than we’ve seen over the last 25 years.”

Then, there are all the commodities that go into our food and products. WRA notes:

Approximately 60 percent of the planet’s ecosystem services are degraded or currently being used unsustainably. Climate change will further degrade these ecosystems. In addition, population growth and increased levels of consumption in India and China will further stress our planet’s finite resources.

All of which points to less of these resources, and when the economy rebounds, higher costs. “As natural resources become scarcer and sustainability issues become more pressing, environmental costs will increasingly be borne by private firms,” the report says.

Although this is not a popular line of thought, it is one to consider. Designing products and supply chains takes time, so wouldn’t it be better to design them in a way that protects against inflation, rather than getting whacked by it? The way to do that, the report argues, is to incorporate sustainability into planning each step of the way.

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IPI released report on its fact-finding mission on press freedom in Ethiopia.

ADDIS ABABA — After meetings with local media and the head of the Office of Government Communication Affairs (OGCA), IPI’s fact-finding mission to Ethiopia found that, despite positive developments, concerns still exist regarding the government’s influence over the flow of information within Ethiopian society.

In several meetings over the course of a week, IPI was informed that public relations officers working in individual ministries report to and take their lead from the OGCA, which also guides state media. Journalists within the state media, according to reports, act without editorial independence. Concerns were expressed that the involvement of the OGCA head in governance structures at state media reinforces government influence.

A document loosely translated as, “Our Media’s Developmental and Democratic Working Philosophy: Basis and Directions” provides evidence of the government’s direction on media development. Published in April 2008 by the government printer, Berhanenna Selam, the document reportedly invites the media to focus on developmental journalism and informs journalists that they should focus on success stories.

With its positive philosophy and detailed presentation of news methods and techniques, the document is viewed by some who have read it as an attempt to shift news reporting away from the traditional news values of holding the government and other Ethiopian institutions accountable.

Asked about these issues, the head of the OGCA, Bereket Simon, disputed the suggestion that the flow of information is controlled. Discussing the employment of public relations officers, Simon said the OGCA has a “dotted line relationship with them.” He also denied that the government controls the state media, and argued that the governance structure ensures independence and is in fact proof of a public service commitment, similar to that of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

On the issue of developmental journalism, he said the OGCA is “not interested in media development that is obsessed with negative news.”

“Development is at the center of the government agenda and there is nothing wrong with its promotion,” Simon said.

Concerning the ongoing legal case involving attempts by media owners Serkalem Fasil, Eskinder Nega and Sisay Agena to secure publishing licenses for several political newspapers that were shut down in 2005, Simon said that the “government has no power to overturn the judicial decision.” Asked whether he would be willing to award the license on the basis of supporting a more open media environment, he said, “No.”

Although the fact-finding mission met with individuals who expressed concern about the government’s handling of the media environment, there were others who were optimistic about developments. There was support for elements of the new media law, especially the element related to freedom of information, as well as the removal of the authorities’ power to hold journalists in jail while pursuing an investigation.

Some of those interviewed said the government had learned from its adversarial and aggressive approach of the past and was attempting to engage with the media.

IPI Director David Dadge said, “It is quite obvious that there have been improvements, especially the commitment to the freedom of information law. But too often, the government is intransigent on issues regarding critical media. Contrary to the government’s view, the issuing of licenses to critical media is a sign of maturity and confidence in a functioning democracy. The government also has a lingering desire to exert influence over the media, especially state media, which currently falls far short of traditional public service models.”

Commenting on the issue of developmental journalism, Dadge said, “Governments always want media to concentrate on what they believe to be the true issues, but they should resist the temptation to try and interfere in the media’s right to report independently: Attempts to shift attention to developmental issues risks damaging the media’s credibility, making it less likely that the public will believe their reporting,” said Dadge.

Recommendations of the Fact-Finding Mission:
A) Government should review its relationship with the state media and ensure the proper development of public service media.
B) Government must refrain from attempts to control the information flow and recognize that a plurality of voices, including those that dissent from the government’s view, are helpful to Ethiopian society.
C) Government should resist the temptation to adopt the practices of other countries without first asking whether they are: i) Beneficial to the Ethiopian media environment, and ii) In accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
D) Media should discuss ways of introducing independent and voluntary self-regulatory mechanisms that enhance the credibility of the media and reinforce best practices.

(More information: David Dadge, International Press Institute, Tel: +43 1 512 90-11; Fax: +43 1 512 90 14)

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I have been managing the PEYA program in EPA’s Region 1office for over 5 years. It is one of my favorite programs in the agency and is truly a hidden gem. So many students create projects centered around the environment. How cool is it to be recognized for your passion with an award ceremony in Washington, DC, potentially meeting President Obama, and hanging out with kids from across the country with the same passion for the environment as you. I am always amazed and impressed with the scope and depth of some of the projects submitted. I have had winners who have created a rain garden behind their town hall to prevent runoff from contaminating the river behind it; an Eagle Scout who created a program to have fisherman use an alternative weight to lead sinkers; an afterschool group who created an energy audit and program for its school district and so many more.

The regional award program is conducted once a year, and each of the 10 EPA regions selects a regional winner. Each regional winner is invited to an EPA-sponsored award ceremony in Washington, DC and receives a presidential plague.

I never get bored with students’ passion and action towards the environment. We want to read about your great projects and EPA knows you have worked hard on a project so why not get some recognition? You can get the program details (including applications deadlines), check out previous winning projects for inspiration, and get the application at epa.gov/peya. Get the credit you deserve for putting your passion into action and making the environment a cleaner, healthier place, and remember, it’s never too early to start a project for next year!

About the author: Kristen Conroy is the Environmental Education Coordinator in the EPA Reg 1’s Boston region. Kristen has been with EPA since 1991.

The enforcement actions are the latest developments in a year-long joint investigation by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol assigned to the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST).

According to court documents, the investigation uncovered a cross-border smuggling organization allegedly run by a San Diego man, Maurilio Mosley. The court documents claim Mosley and his brother Erik, who resides in Tijuana, hired drivers and foot guides, then trained those guides to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States using various methods, including cutting holes in the border fence. After the aliens reached the United States, the drivers transported them to several “drop houses” in the South Bay area. The ring allegedly paid the guides and drivers as much as $1,800 for each group of illegal aliens they smuggled into the country.

As part of Tuesday’s operation, ICE and Border Patrol agents, with assistance from the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol, executed search warrants at several locations allegedly used by the organization to support the smuggling scheme, including the suspected ring leader’s Chula Vista apartment and a National City business. Agents seized a variety of evidence at the sites, including five vehicles, nearly $18,000, numerous alien smuggling ledgers and nine counterfeit $100 bills.

“These arrests are a testament to the tireless cooperative efforts of the ICE and Border Patrol agents involved in the case,” said Jose Garcia, acting special agent in charge for the ICE Office of Investigations in San Diego. “Over the course of this investigation, they conducted countless interviews and ultimately pieced together the evidence needed to dismantle one of the most persistent, large-scale local smuggling organizations uncovered in recent years.”

The three men arrested Tuesday are named in a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court today. They are charged with smuggling and harboring illegal aliens for financial gain and conspiring to do so. They are:

* Maurilio Mosley, 27, of San Diego, the suspected ringleader on the U.S. side;
* Erik Mosley, 24, of Tijuana, the suspected ringleader on the Mexican side; and
* George Sandoval, 42, of San Ysidro, Calif., a driver and recruiter for the organization.

The made their initial appearances in federal court here this morning. The charge of human smuggling for financial gain carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a related conspiracy charge carries additional penalties.

A complaint itself is not evidence that the defendants committed the crimes charged. The defendants are presumed innocent until the government meets its burden in court of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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High in the Simien Mountains, researchers are getting a close-up look at the exotic, socially adventuresome primates known as geladas.

Geladas are isolated, oddball monkeys that science has largely overlooked. They live in large herds in the towering Simien Mountains of northern Ethiopia. A few researchers studied the primates in the 1970s, but famine and political turmoil in the region made further investigations impossible. “Almost no one’s heard of geladas,” says Jacinta Beehner, a University of Michigan biological anthropologist in the midst of a ten-year gelada study, the most extensive ever conducted. “They kind of got lost in the shuffle.”

Yet—if you don’t mind heights—geladas (Theropithecus gelada) make intriguing research subjects. With their falsetto cries, explosive barks and soft grunts, geladas have one of the most varied vocal repertoires of all the primates. The noisy herds are relatively easy to follow. Unlike most monkeys, geladas graze primarily on grass. They are usually observable—except at night, when they disappear over the edges of cliffs to sleep on tiny ledges, safe from leopards and hyenas.

Geladas are visually striking, with burning eyes and leathery complexions. Males have vampiric canines, which they frequently bare at each other, and their golden manes are the stuff of shampoo commercials. “They cry out to be photographed,” says Fiona Rogers. She and her partner, Anup Shah, visited Beehner’s camp in Simien Mountain National Park for a month to photograph the animals.

Male geladas are the size of large dogs, weighing 50 to 60 pounds. Females are about half as big. Both sexes have a bald, hourglass-shaped patch of skin on their chests that telegraphs a male’s social status and a female’s reproductive stage. Depending on hormone levels, the color ranges from meek eraser pink to fiery red. Males’ patches are brightest during their sexual prime, Beehner and her husband, University of Michigan biologist Thore Bergman, have found, and females’ chest patches blister when they are in estrus. (They are also called “bleeding-heart baboons,” though they are actually monkeys.)

Geladas favor soft, protein-rich fescue grasses, shoveling away with both hands for hours each day. Their fiber-heavy food generates plentiful stool samples, another reason Beehner loves working with them; analysis of their feces can reveal hormone levels. But their eating habits don’t doom them to dull lives. “A lot of people talk about vegetarian primates as being boring, because they just sit around and digest all day,” Beeh­ner says. Not geladas. They are always signaling and communicating with each other. “It really is one big soap opera,” she says.

Beehner’s focus is the evolution of social behavior, and geladas are very social. Herds can be enormous—up to 1,200 individuals. But most interactions occur within a harem, composed of a leader male, two to a dozen females and their young. The females are related to each other, and they sometimes turn on the leader if he is grooming them insufficiently, not protecting them or otherwise shirking his duties.

Groups of sullen-looking bachelor monkeys lurk outside the herds. These juveniles are similar to adolescent street gangs, and Chadden Hunter, an Australian researcher who began studying geladas in the late 1990s, dubbed two such groups the “Sharks” and the “Jets,” à la West Side Story. Fiona Rogers took such a liking to the bachelors’ hangdog looks that her partner says he felt a stab of jealousy. “I was a little worried,” Shah says.

Every so often, a leader male, herding his harem and emitting high squeals, challenges a bachelor, which responds with a “roar bark.” According to protocol, the leader tears around, raising a miniature dust storm, with the bachelor in pursuit. The ritual concludes when the leader leaps into a tree, rattles the branches and shrieks “Yeow-Yeow-Yeow!” The bachelor skulks away. “They are showing how strong and fit they are,” Beehner says. “It’s all about showmanship.”

But woe to the leader whose posturing is not persuasive. Eventually a bachelor gang targets a harem to take over, and then, Beehner says, the fighting turns ugly. Young gangsters take turns chasing and tiring out the leader until a bachelor contender steps forward. A gladiatorial battle ensues—with hair pulling, scratching and biting—sometimes leaving one animal mortally wounded.

Beehner remembers one fight that lasted three days. (The leader male prudently took breaks to pay court to his females.) It appeared to be a stalemate until a treacherous female edged away from the harem. As her champion looked on, she sidled up to the bachelor. The leader male “didn’t even try to prevent it,” Beehner recalls. “He just quit.”

Bergman, an expert in primate vocalization and cognition, has been recording the leader males’ triumphant triple “Yeow” to see how the yell degrades over time, signaling weakness to bachelors.

A deposed leader may be allowed to stay with a harem, where he cares for the young but loses mating rights, taking on a sort of avuncular role. Within a few months of being dethroned, the flaming redness of his chest patch subsides to an anemic pink.

The gelada is the only species remaining from a lineage of grazing primates once more common than baboons, says Robin Dunbar, who studied geladas in the 1970s. Its predecessors began disappearing a million years ago when the climate warmed. Palatable grasses began growing only at much higher altitudes, the monkeys shifted their range or starved, and now, Dunbar says, “we have only this one species on the tops of the mountains.”

Today, with Ethiopia’s 1974 to 1991 civil war concluded and the government stabilized, the northern mountains are accessible to researchers once again. And the local economy is picking up. Goats, cows and sheep compete with the monkeys for grass in alpine pastures, and farmers sometimes kill geladas that plunder barley crops. It’s not clear how many geladas there are. Dunbar’s estimates from the 1970s put the population at 100,000 to 200,000, but much land has been converted to farms since then. Roaming herds and rugged terrain make counting difficult, but Beehner, who has done surveys of her own, worries that the current figure is much lower—perhaps as few as 20,000.

Beehner and Bergman are also studying herd structure. Although the monkeys spend hours socializing within their harems—especially while sunbathing in the morning—they tend not to know their neighbors in the herd. The bachelor gangs notwithstanding, Beeh­ner says, “it’s a little like humans in the suburbs.”

(Abigail Tucker is a staff writer for Smithsonian.)

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Local air quality affects how you live and breathe. It’s like the weather; it can change from day to day. When I purchased my home years ago I really was thinking about the money I would save by heating with the wood burning fireplace. I never thought about the air quality in and around my home. When I had my chimney cleaned, the tech asked if I ever had a carbon monoxide detector. When I told him no, he suggested that I invest in one. It had never crossed my mind, but I purchased one the next week, and was surprised how inexpensive it was. The detector, which simply plugs into an electrical outlet on the wall, helps me monitor carbon monoxide levels in my home.

By making changes in my daily routine, I’ve also started to help keep the air clean. I no longer warm my car in the morning, since the extra emissions contribute to unhealthy air quality. When I cleaned my garage this summer, I properly disposed of some household paints, solvents and pesticides; the materials I kept I now store in airtight containers so that they don’t leak any fumes. Fumes from these items can cause unhealthy air.
Now it’s your turn: How do you check your local air quality? If you’re not sure what you can do, learn more on our site.

Don’t hesitate to share your other Pick 5 tips on how you save water, commute without polluting ,  save electricity , reduce, reuse, recycle , and test your home for radon.

Note: to ward off advertisers using our blog as a platform, we don’t allow specific product endorsements.  But feel free to suggest Web sites that review products, suggest types of products, and share your experiences using them!

About the author: Denise Owens has worked at EPA for over twenty years. She is currently working in the Office of Public Affairs in Washington, DC.

The game is controlled with an analog stick on the left with A/B buttons for actions. The player in the video can be seen tapping on their team characters to change control/focus.

iPhoniacs.fr described their time with the game. They found the menu system well organized. The welcome menu gives a choice of playing a Quick Match, accessing Career Mode, Wi-Fi mode, various other little games and allows the user to adjust the settings.

The game is said to have intuitive commands that are easy to learn. There is both Joystick or Accelerometer control. The accelerometer takes some getting used to and can be difficult to control the direction of movement. The two buttons are A for passing, B for receiving. Swiping from A to B results in a long-pass.

iPhonezine.fr reports only local Wi-Fi with a local Bluetooth mode coming in a future update. They specifically say 3G online play is not currently planned.

Finally, EA has posted a data sheet and App description of the game:

REAL LEAGUES. REAL TEAMS. REAL PLAYERS.
Match 30 leagues, 570 teams, and 12,620 players from around the world. Play up to 20 licensed tournaments and cup competitions.

“BE A PRO” MODE: A FIFA 10 EXCLUSIVE!
Create your own future superstar — ONLY with FIFA 10 by EA SPORTS™. Track his play in multiple seasons. Earn skills in competition against the world’s finest soccer players, and build your legend!

CONTROL THE GAME WITH FINGERTIP EASE
Easily dictate tempo with the accelerometer. Pull off defense-splitting passes, rifling shots, and pro-style tricks with intuitive touchscreen controls.

TRUE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
Hear the roar of sold-out stadiums, and catch close-up the pride and passion on the field, from team presentations to goal celebrations. View from 6 angles, plus the “Be A Pro” camera. All in 3D.

TURN UP THE COMPETITION
Access Local WiFi Multiplayer Mode for friendly head-to-head action. Test your skills vs. your personal rivals.

PICK UP AND PLAY. ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.
From Barcelona to Brazil, manage the world’s best, and play for prestige and glory. Load in seconds and get ready for action!

The game is expected to be launched around October 1st.

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Sony  officially announced that the PS3 Slim will retail for $299.99 when it is launched during the first week of September. Sony says that the PS3 Slim will have all the functionality of the currently available PS3 models and will be available in a single 120GB SKU.

The PS3 Slim is 32 percent smaller than the original and consumes 34% less power.

In addition to the PS3 Slim, Sony also confirmed that the existing 80GB and 160GB models are getting a $100 price drop starting tomorrow. The prices will be in effect until the stock is depleted. So if you are impatient and need to have a PS3 right now (or just prefer the “fatter” look), this is your chance to to grab the current model. However, it may be wise to just wait for the cooler-running PS3 Slim to arrive in a few weeks.

In other news, Sony also announced Firmware 3.0 for the PS3. It adds a number of new features including a “What’s New” section for PlayStation news, a redesigned Friends List, PlayStation Store shortcuts, and an updated trophy system.

(By Daily Tech )

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If you can’t remember, some time during this year Sony released a survey asking the fans what they would like to see in a God of War III collectors edition, and, in the survey, an overwhelming amount of the community members wished for the previous God of War titles to be available on the PlayStation 3.

With that said, Sony has announced that the critically acclaimed God of War franchise will be headed to the PlayStation 3 in a collaboration of all the previous God of War titles entitled God of War Collection.

Scheduled for release this holiday season, God of War Collection will feature reworked versions of both God of War and God of War II on a single Blu-ray Disc at full 1280 x 720 resolution. Both critically acclaimed games, which were originally developed for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, have been remastered with anti-aliased graphics running at 60 frames per second for a smooth gameplay experience on the PS3 system. Additionally, the Blu-ray Disc compilation will bring PlayStation Network (PSN) trophy support to the franchise for the first time (included for both games).

“We are excited today to announce God of War Collection,” said Scott Rohde, vice president, Worldwide Studios America. “Our fans spoke and we listened; thanks to our partnership with Bluepoint Games, fans and newcomers to the series can experience the epic God of War and God of War II saga in stunning 720p on PS3. This Blu-ray Disc compilation brings Kratos to PS3 even earlier than expected.”

(By Kemuel Stewart | GamerCenterOnline.com)

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This summer, Hvalur hf caught 125 fins – a huge expansion on previous years.

The company’s owner says he will export as much as 1,500 tonnes to Japan. This would substantially increase the amount of whalemeat in the Japanese market.

The export would be legal because these nations are exempt from the global ban on trading whalemeat, but conservation groups doubt its commercial viability.

Last year, Hvalur hf exported about 65 tonnes of whalemeat to Japan, a consignment that owner Kristjan Loftsson described as a “loss-leader”.

But following this year’s huge catch, he believes the next one can make money.

“We’ll get a good price – we’re intending to make a profit, that’s for sure,” he told BBC News.

Mr Loftsson said he had now suspended fin whaling for this season, having caught 125 from a quota of 150.

The remaining 25 can be carried over into next year’s hunting season.

This compares with a total of seven caught in the previous three years.

The fin is globally listed as an endangered species, though Icelandic marine scientists maintain stocks are big enough locally to sustain a hunt of this size.

EU centre

New quotas were controversially set by the government of Geir Haarde just before it left office in January.

The new left-green coalition government has promised to review the situation, but has so far chosen not to revoke the five-year quotas set by its predecessor.

The government has formally applied to join the EU, and it is entirely possible that the EU would demand an end to whaling as a condition of Iceland’s entry.

The application still has to be endorsed in a referendum – and some conservationists believe Mr Loftsson is using whaling as a way to lobby against EU membership.

“I think he is holding Icelandic politicians hostages to fortune,” said Arni Finnsson of the Iceland Nature Conservation Association (INCA).

“He’s saying that ‘unless I can do this, you would be denying Iceland $40m in export income’ – and how can you argue against that if you’re a politician?”

The $40m figure was cited by the Fisheries Ministry under Mr Haarde’s government, said Mr Finnsson, as being the size of the potential annual export market.

Election issue?

Along with other conservation organisations, INCA is adamantly opposed to trading in whalemeat, which they see as something with the potential to increase hunting in various parts of the world.

The trade is generally banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

But Iceland and Japan – along with a handful of other countries – lodged reservations, as the treaty permits, and so are exempt.

Conservation groups doubt that such a huge export of meat to Japan can be profitable.

A consignment of anything approaching 1,500 tonnes would mark a major expansion of the amount of meat available on the Japanese market each year.

The exact tonnage caught by Japan’s whale and dolphin hunts varies each year, but 4,000 tonnes would be a reasonable ballpark figure.

Conservationists have raised the possibility that Japan’s new government will re-address its whaling policies.

But Yukio Hatoyama’s pre-election position appears close to that of his predecessor, holding scientific whaling to be a sovereign right and promoting the resumption of commercial whaling on abundant stocks.

Fresh supplies

Hunting for the much smaller minke whales in Icelandic waters, meanwhile, will probably end next week, with 80 caught so far.

“This is our best year yet – we’re very happy about that,” said Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, head of the minke whalers’ association.

“We didn’t start freezing any meat before around 15th/20th August – we sold it all fresh – now we’re just freezing so we have something for restaurants and stores over the winter.”

Mr Jonsson said the minke whalers were also interested in exporting if the fin whale consignment proved successful. — BBC News

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The main climate question for the G20 was how to finance global carbon emission reductions, and how to help developing nations that stand to lose the most from climate change adapt to a warmer world. That latter issue is a chief sticking point for the ongoing U.N. climate negotiations, in which governments are working to produce a successor to the Kyoto Protocol at the Copenhagen summit in December. While poor nations have demanded funds to help them develop sustainably and prepare for warming, rich nations have so far been slow to promise money. “Climate financing is going to be absolutely key if we’re going to have a deal in Copenhagen,” says Bill McKibben, an environmentalist and author who heads the climate advocacy group 350.org.

But G20 leaders put no specific numbers on the table, just a vague statement of intention that did little to clarify murky global climate negotiations: “Public and private financial resources to support mitigation and adaptation in developing countries need to be scaled up urgently and substantially,” the statement said. Negotiators also eliminated a section of the agreement that would have specified that funding for climate adaptation had to come in addition to existing levels of foreign aid. Instead, the G20 leaders directed their finance ministers to return to the issue later in the year — with just three months to go before Copenhagen. “You do want your finance ministries working on this,” says Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “But they need to be on the hook for this, or they will lose the option to carry it into Copenhagen.”

Still, the summit wasn’t a total loss for greens. President Barack Obama introduced the idea of phasing out fossil fuel subsidies over time, to help improve energy efficiency and “transition to a 21st-century clean energy economy.” Phasing out subsidies for fossil fuels would save money — the Environmental Law Institute estimated that the U.S. paid out $72 billion in subsidies between 2002 and 2008 — and correct a market that has been warped against low-carbon alternatives precisely at a time when nations are supposed to be cutting carbon. But again, specifics of a concrete plan were wanting in Obama’s speech. There was no mention of a timetable, and the proposal itself has little to do with the ongoing climate negotiations. “It’s a welcome initiative, but no one will underestimate the challenge that countries from the U.S. to India will face actually doing this,” says Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The G20 summit ended a whirlwind week for climate news that began on Sept. 22 with a high-level U.N. summit on warming. Before “Climate Week” began, the U.S. Senate made intimations that it would not likely vote on a carbon cap-and-trade bill before the year was up, dimming the chances for a global deal at Copenhagen. But, then, China pledged to improve energy efficiency, while progress was made toward crafting a way to use global carbon markets to slow tropical deforestation. That gave environmentalists some hope. “Overall, I still feel better than I did a week ago,” said Carstensen. “We had 100 leaders in the U.N. in New York come together and they actually talked about climate change in a significantly committed way. We have the door open.”

The question is whether world leaders will walk through it in time. In the U.S. and elsewhere, more is being done to grapple with global warming than ever before. Tighter energy efficiency standards are being passed, nations like Japan are pledging deep emission cuts and hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent on green stimulus for recovering economies. But the world is late — and time is short. “Our political method has so far failed to grapple with reality,” says McKibben. “We have to understand that the negotiations aren’t just between the U.S., the E.U. and China. We’re trying to negotiate with chemistry and physics — and they don’t negotiate.” — Time

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UK land has been steadily degraded by 200 years of intensive farming and industrial pollution, warned the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in a major study of soils. But it said the situation is not nearly as bad as in many Asian and African countries, where soil erosion due to overgrazing and poor farming practices is now seriously threatening food production.

New housing and transport infrastructure as well as climate change are all adding to the pressures on soils, explained the environment secretary, Hilary Benn. “Soil erosion already results in the annual loss of around 2.2m tonnes of topsoil. This costs farmers £9m a year in lost production. Climate change has the potential to increase erosion rates through hotter, drier conditions that make soils more susceptible to wind erosion, coupled with intense rainfall incidents that can wash soil away,” he said.

British soils contain around 10bn tonnes of carbon, half of which is found in peat habitats. Many of this habitat is under threat from climate change, mining, or poor land management. “Losing this [carbon] store to the atmosphere would create emissions that are equivalent to more than 50 times the UK’s current annual greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

Defra’s chief scientist, Professor Bob Watson, said safeguarding soil would be “critical” if food production was to increase in the next 20-30 years. “We face many challenges of climate change, we have to produce twice as much food, it needs to be more nutritious, and if we don’t take care of our soil and our water, we will not be able to accomplish that task,” he said.

The government plans to improve soil conditions by tightening the planning system to make developers take soils into account, encouraging farmers to put back more organic matter back and preventing industrial pollution. Most soils in Britain are degraded by poor land management and the inefficient use of fertilisers, especially nitrogen.

The Soil Association, the organisation that promotes organic farming, welcomed what it said was a recognition thatintroducing large amounts of nitrogen fertiliser was not sustainable in the long term, but said that the government’s proposed measures did not go nearly far enough.

“They [the government] will not put right the huge degradation that our soils have suffered over the last 200 years, partly as a result of what the government calls intensive agricultural production. Organic farming should be acknowledged as a key approach to protect our vital soils,” said policy director, Peter Melchett.

Kathryn Alton, soil scientist and executive officer of the British Society of Soil Science, said: “The numbers of professional soil scientists in the UK has declined over time in conjunction with the loss of soil science departments.  Investment is clearly needed in training soil scientists to meet these future challenges.” — Guardian

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It is thought the collision of a rather smaller body with the Earth, about 70 million years ago, was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. A few small early mammals survived, but anything as large as a human, would have almost certainly been wiped out.

Through Earth’s history such collisions occur, on the average every one million year. If this figure is correct, it would mean that intelligent life on Earth has developed only because of the lucky chance that there have been no major collisions in the last 70 million years. Other planets in the galaxy, Hawking believes, on which life has developed, may not have had a long enough collision free period to evolve intelligent beings.

“The threat of the Earth being hit by an asteroid is increasingly being accepted as the single greatest natural disaster hazard faced by humanity,” according to Nick Bailey of the University of Southampton’s School of Engineering Sciences team, who has developed a threat identifying program.[ Image: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collision with Jupiter]

The team used raw data from multiple impact simulations to rank each country based on the number of times and how severely they would be affected by each impact. The software, called NEOimpactor (from NASA’s “NEO” or Near Earth Object program), has been specifically developed for measuring the impact of ’small’ asteroids under one kilometer in diameter.

Early results indicate that in terms of population lost, China, Indonesia, India, Japan and the United States face the greatest overall threat; while the United States, China, Sweden, Canada and Japan face the most severe economic effects due to the infrastructure destroyed.

The top ten countries most at risk are China, Indonesia, India, Japan, the United States, the Philippines, Italy, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Nigeria.

“The consequences for human populations and infrastructure as a result of an impact are enormous,” says Bailey. “Nearly one hundred years ago a remote region near the Tunguska River witnessed the largest asteroid impact event in living memory when a relatively small object (approximately 50 meters in diameter) exploded in mid-air. While it only flattened unpopulated forest, had it exploded over London it could have devastated everything within the M25. Our results highlight those countries that face the greatest risk from this most global of natural hazards and thus indicate which nations need to be involved in mitigating the threat.”

What would happen to the human species and life on Earth in general if an asteroid the size of the one that created the famous K/T Event of 65 million years ago at the end of the Mesozoic Era that resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs impacted our planet.

As Stephen Hawking says, the general consensus is that any comet or asteroid greater than 20 kilometers in diameter that strikes the Earth will result in the complete annihilation of complex life – animals and higher plants. (The asteroid Vesta, for example, one of the destinations of the Dawn Mission, is the size of Arizona).

How many times in our galaxy alone has life finally evolved to the equivalent of our planets and animals on some far distant planet, only to be utterly destroyed by an impact? Galactic history suggests it might be a common occurrence.

The first this to understand about the KT event is that is was absolutely enormous: an asteroid (or comet) six to 10 miles in diameter streaked through the Earth’s atmosphere at 25,000 miles an hour and struck the Yucatan region of Mexico with the force of 100 megatons -the equivalent of one Hiroshima bomb for every person alive on Earth today. Not a pretty scenario!

Recent calculations show that our planet would go into another “Snowball Earth” event like the one that occurred 600 million years ago, when it is believed the oceans froze over (although some scientists dispute this hypothesis -see link below).

While microbial bacteria might readily survive such calamitous impacts, our new understanding from the record of the Earth’s mass extinctions clearly shows that plants and animals are very susceptible to extinction in the wake of an impact.

Impact rates depend on how many comets and asteroids exist in a particular planetary system. In general there is one major impact every million years -a mere blink of the eye in geological time. It also depends on how often those objects are perturbed from safe orbits that parallel the Earth’s orbit to new, Earth-crossing orbits that might, sooner or later, result in a catastrophic K/T or Permian-type mass extinction.

The asteroid that hit Vredefort located in the Free State Province of South Africa is one of the largest to ever impact Earth, estimated at over 10 km (6 miles) wide, although it is believed by many that the original size of the impact structure could have been 250 km in diameter, or possibly larger(though the Wilkes Land crater in Antarctica, if confirmed to have been the result of an impact event, is even larger at 500 kilometers across). The town of Vredefort is situated in the crater (image).

Dating back 2,023 million years, it is the oldest astrobleme found on earth so far, with a radius of 190km, it is also the most deeply eroded. Vredefort Dome Vredefort bears witness to the world’s greatest known single energy release event, which caused devastating global change, including, according to many scientists, major evolutionary changes.

What has kept the Earth “safe” at least the past 65 million years, other than blind luck is the massive gravitational field of Jupiter, our cosmic guardian, with its stable circular orbit far from the sun, which assures a low number of impacts resulting in mass extinctions by sweeping up and scatters away most of the dangerous Earth-orbit-crossing comets and asteroids. — The Daily Galaxy

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“The Peppermill, they really did hit a nice temperature of water,” said Lowell Price, oil, gas and geothermal manager for Nevada’s Division of Minerals, which oversees the permitting process of geothermal wells on private property.

“It is really not hot enough for the big players … for the generation of electricity, but what they are trying to do, they have a real nice find there, very nice,” Price told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The new green-energy system is schedule to go online in January. It will be used to heat all restaurants, casino floors, the expansive spa, plus every shower and sink in 1,600-plus hotel rooms year-round.

The move will save $1 million a year in energy costs, resort officials said, adding project expenses should be recovered through those savings in eight years.

“Through the course of the drilling, we were all concerned about if there was going to be enough water down there and if it was hot,” said Alan Bailey, geologist and drilling engineer with Geothermal Resource Group, Inc. “Only in the final

stages was it real clear that they had an excellent well here.”Peppermill executives are cheering now, but they were concerned during the drilling process. The drilling hit 4,421 feet before the aquifer was reached.

Peppermill officials were almost certain they’d hit water, since the property already has some smaller, albeit more tepid geothermal wells.

“If the water was not hot enough with the new well, that was the big risk in drilling,” said Bill Hughes, the Peppermill’s director of marketing.

The Peppermill’s discovery comes at a time when the city of Reno and the state of Nevada are trying to raise awareness about the area’s geothermal potential, as well as stepping up efforts to encourage geothermal companies to locate here.

“Last year, we had a banner year and we had 130 permits, which was the highest ever,” Price said. “We are already up to 162 permits this year, so it is really taking off.”

The majority of the permits are for wells that have water hot enough to use to generate electricity.

The Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, the Peppermill’s rival in south Reno, is considering using the geothermal well under its property, CEO John Farahi said. The Atlantis has yet to apply for a permit for test drilling, Price said.

The Peppermill’s system gives the resort an advantage over every other hotel property in the U.S., said Jim Combs of Geo Hills Associates LLC of Reno.

“The green energy heating addition to the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system at the Peppermill will now make it the only hotel in the United States whose heating source is totally provided from geothermal energy produced on their own immediate property,” said Combs.

The Peppermill’s geothermal endeavor will be showcased at the Geothermal Resources Council Annual Meeting and Geothermal Energy Expo, to be held at the Peppermill Oct. 4-7. The convention is expected to attract about 2,000 participants. — AP

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Forests that spread across 100 million hectares (247 million acres) in 1900 have dwindled to 33.19 million hectares (82 million acres), officials said.

“In 100 years, we have lost between 60 and 70 percent of our forest heritage,” Environmental Undersecretary Sergio La Rocca told reporters on Friday.

Forest destruction has accelerated in the past 10 years with the boom of soy crops, a major motor of growth in Argentina, the top exporter of soy flour and oil and the third-largest exporter of soy seeds.

The northern province of Salta alone lost 26 percent of its forests in the past 30 years, according to a study by the College of Agronomics at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).

The UBA study found that in 2007, “the highest rate was reached: 2.1 percent of forests destroyed in a single year.”

Faced with the breadth of the devastation in the province, the Supreme Court ordered a halt to deforestation in natural forests, following an appeal by indigenous populations.

The move ran counter to the provincial authorities, which had authorized forest exploitation.

La Rocca spoke at the ninth session of the conference of parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCDD) in Buenos Aires.

The scourge of desertification directly affects 200 million people, according to UN figures.

Buenos Aires will host the 23rd World Forestry Congress October 18-23, a forum where governments, civil society and the private sector exchange views to formulate forestry policy. — AFP

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Synthetic materials are omnipresent in our everyday lives. To make them soft, flexible, durable and nicer, PVC or synthetically produced rubber is mixed with an organic compound made up of phthalate ester and alcohol (otherwise known as phthalates), for example. The synthetics industry uses about five million tons of these softeners annually; they are present in conventional flooring, cables and packaging materials, but also medical products and cosmetics.

Easy pickings

Because they are everywhere, they can easily enter the food chain and the human organism via food and drink. When and where this happens, however, is difficult to ascertain and has barely been researched. “After all,” says Michael Siegrist, a professor at the Institute of Environmental Decisions at ETH Zurich, “often you don’t know where in the food chain the phthalates get into the food – whether they come from the bucket used to harvest olives, the conveyor belt, or elsewhere in the production chain”.

Consequently, Siegrist supervised a study at the Institute of Environmental Decisions in conjunction with the Institute of Chemistry and Bioengineering at ETH Zurich which showed that sensible eating cannot really prevent the intake of phthalates. As a matter of fact, consumers who eat naturally and healthily and try to keep the chemical additives in their food to a minimum might even be ingesting more phthalates on a daily basis than those who do not worry about their diet at all.

On the one hand, the study was aimed at assessing consumers’ eating habits to show the extent to which they are exposed to phthalates. On the other hand, however, the scientists examined the relationship between the consumers’ exposure and their interest in a natural and healthy diet, as well as their risk perception of chemicals in food, such as pesticides or phthalates, such as with pesticides or phthalates. For the first time, the scientists thus established a link between consumer perception and physical reality as regards the intake of food containing phthalates.

In their study, the research team polled about 1200 people in German-speaking Switzerland about their eating habits. The respondents were asked to provide information on their diet. The evaluation of the survey yielded four characteristic groups: people who eat health-consciously and also rely on vitamin supplements compared to those who eat healthily and naturally, people who do not worry about their food and react passively, and people who consume an especially high amount of fatty and sugary food and ready-to-eat meals.

Junk food no worse than healthy products

To quantify the phthalate amounts ingested by the test people in their food, the researchers used existing data for food where the phthalate exposure had already been examined. It became clear that the people who have a healthy and natural diet ingest most of some phthalates, whereas those who behave more passively in their eating habits are the least exposed to the pollutants. All in all, the results of the two nutritionally aware groups and the “fatty, sugary and ready-to-eat meals” group were similar. However, it seems reassuring that the various tolerance levels issued by the European Food Safety Agency for different softening agents did not even come close to being reached in the study, let alone exceeded. Nevertheless, the researchers admit that the result should be taken with a pinch of salt as not all foods could be taken into account.

All the same, the result seems ironic and the researchers are also at a loss to explain why. Maria Dickson-Spillmann, Siegrist’s doctoral student and first author of the study, stresses that the matter still needs a lot of research. She says, “Our results show that even consumers who make a point of having a healthy and natural diet cannot escape chemical pollutants like phthalates. The findings underline the importance of food controls by cantonal laboratories”. Nonetheless, it would be wrong to advise consumers against fresh fruit and vegetables, for example, as this may cause other health risks.

In recent years, various studies have suggested that phthalates act like hormones in humans: above all, deformities in the genital area in male offspring became apparent. However, additional but still debatable links to sterility and diabetes in men, premature births in pregnant women and premature breast development in girls were also established. Consequently, teething rings for babies without phthalates are now being promoted, for instance, and the food industry is using rubber gloves and packaging materials that hardly emit any phthalates, or do not contain any at all. That said, due to their omnipresence, it is highly unlikely that they can be eliminated from the food chain altogether. — ScienceDaily

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In the study, published September 16 in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, researchers from the University of Oxford’s Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology found the pain threshold of 12 rowers from the Oxford Boat Race squad was greater after group training than after individual training.

They conclude that acting as a group and in close synchrony seems to ‘ramp up’ pain thresholds. The underlying endorphin release may be the mechanism that underpins communal-bonding effects that emerge from activities like religious rituals and dancing.

Each of the 12 rowers participated in four separate tests. They were asked to row continuously for 45 minutes in a virtual boat in the gym (as in normal training), in an exercise carried out in two teams of six and then in a separate session as individuals, unobserved by other team members. After each of the sessions, the researchers measured their pain threshold by how long they could stand an inflated blood pressure cuff on the arm.

The study found there was a significant increase in the rowers’ pain threshold following exercise in both individual and group sessions (a well established response to exercise of any kind). However, after the group training there was a significantly larger increase as compared with training carried out individually.

Since close synchrony is the key to successful competition-class racing, these results suggest that doing a synchronised activity as a group increases the endorphin rush that we get from physical exertion. The study says that since endorphins help to create a sense of bonhomie and positive effect, this effect may underlie the experience of warmth and belonging that we have when we do activities like dancing, sports, religious rituals and other forms of communal exercise together.

Professor Robin Dunbar, Head of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, said: ‘Previous research suggests that synchronised physical activity such as laughter, music and many religious activities makes people happier and is part of the bonding process. We also know that physical exercise creates a natural high through the release of endorphins. What this study shows us is that synchrony alone seems to ramp up the production of endorphins so as to heighten the effect when we do these activities in groups.’

Lead author Dr Emma Cohen, from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, said: ‘The results suggest that endorphin release is significantly greater in group training than in individual training even when power output, or physical exertion, remains constant. The exact features of group activity that generate this effect are unknown, but this study contributes to a growing body of evidence suggesting that synchronised, coordinated physical activity may be responsible.’

One of the researchers involved in this study was Robin Ejsmond-Frey, a double Blue in rowing and former President of the Oxford University Boat Club. — ScienceDaily

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