Explaining What the Hell F-Stop Is, and How It Can Change Your Photography [Video]

F-stop is to photography beginners what inorganic chemistry is to an MFA graduate: some kind of black magic that only makes sense to experts. That said, I'm sure plenty of seasoned photographers use f-stop numbers without knowing what they really mean, too. But no more, because this video explains the concept in a way that makes complete sense. More »

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Corals 'could survive a more acidic ocean'

Monday, April 2, 2012

Corals may be better placed to cope with the gradual acidification of the world's oceans than previously thought ? giving rise to hopes that coral reefs might escape climatic devastation.

In new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change, an international scientific team has identified a powerful internal mechanism that could enable some corals and their symbiotic algae to counter the adverse impact of a more acidic ocean.

As humans release ever-larger amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, besides warming the planet, the gas is also turning the world's oceans more acidic ? at rates thought to far exceed those seen during past major extinctions of life. This has prompted strong scientific interest in finding out which species are most vulnerable, and which can handle the changed conditions.

In groundbreaking research, a team of scientists from Australia's ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, at the University of Western Australia and France's Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, has shown that some marine organisms that form calcium carbonate skeletons have an in-built mechanism to cope with ocean acidification ? which others appear to lack.

"The good news is that most corals appear to have this internal ability to buffer rising acidity of seawater and still form good, solid skeletons," says Professor Malcolm McCulloch of CoECRS and UWA. "Marine organisms that form calcium carbonate skeletons generally produce it in one of two forms, known as aragonite and calcite.

"Our research broadly suggests that those with skeletons made of aragonite have the coping mechanism ? while those that follow the calcite pathway generally do less well under more acidic conditions."

The aragonite calcifiers ? such as the well-known corals Porites and Acropora ? have molecular 'pumps' that enable them to regulate their internal acid balance, which buffers them from the external changes in seawater pH.

"But the picture for coral reefs as a whole isn't quite so straightforward, as the 'glue' that holds coral reefs together ? coralline algae ? appear to be vulnerable to rising acidity," Professor McCulloch explains.

Also of concern is that a large class of plankton, floating in the open oceans and forming a vital component of marine food webs, appears equally vulnerable to acidification. If so, this could be serious not only for marine life that feeds on them ? but also for humans, as it could impair the oceans' ability to soak up increased volumes of CO2 from the atmosphere. This would cause global warming to accelerate.

Ironically, an added plus is that warming oceans may increase the rates of coral growth, especially in corals now living in cooler waters, he says.

However, the big unknown remaining is whether corals can adapt to global warming, which is now occurring at an unprecedented rate ? at about two orders of magnitude faster than occurred with the ending of the last Ice Age.

"This is crucial since, if corals are bleached by the sudden arrival of hot ocean water and lose the symbiotic algae which are their main source of energy, they will still die," he cautions.

"It's a more complicated picture, but broadly it means that there are going to be winners and losers in the oceans as its chemistry is modified by human activities ? this could have the effect of altering major ocean ecosystems on which both we and a large part of marine life depend."

The researchers conclude "Although our results indicate that up-regulation of pH at the site of calcification provides corals with enhanced resilience to the effects of ocean acidification, the overall health of coral reef systems is still largely dependent on the compounding effects of increasing thermal stress from global warming and local environmental impacts, such as terrestrial runoff, pollution and overfishing."

###

"Coral resilience to ocean acidification and global warming through pH up-regulation" by Malcolm McCulloch, Jim Falter, Julie Trotter, and Paolo Montagna, appears in the latest issue of the journal Nature Climate Change.

ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies: http://www.coralcoe.org.au/

Thanks to ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies for this article.

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

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Ford Posts Best March Sales in 5 Years: Here's ... - Yahoo! Finance

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The U.S. auto industry is on pace for another good year.

March new vehicle and truck sales hit 1.37 million, an increase of 6% from the prior year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected new vehicles to sell at an annualized rate of roughly 14.7 million. This is slightly down from 15.1 million in February but up from 13.3 million a year ago.

Chrysler's sales were up 34% from a year earlier and GM's (GM) sales jumped 12%. Ford (F) sales were up 5% to 222,884 light vehicles; a level not seen in five years.

Ahead of this positive data and the New York Auto Show slated to start later this week, The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task and Daniel Gross sat down with Detroit News Auto Reporter Bryce Hoffman to discuss his new book "American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company," an insider's look at how Ford CEO Allan Mulally, an industry outsider, was able to turn the company around and avert bankruptcy and a government bailout.

Ford was the only U.S. automaker to save itself without the help of a government lifeline in 2008. As Dan points out in the accompanying video, the story of Ford is perhaps the only successful non-bankruptcy restructuring seen in the U.S. over the last thirty or forty years.

But as Hoffman explains, Ford's turnaround and salvation did not come easy. Hoffman was granted unprecedented access to the Ford boardroom, Mulally's office and internal documents. After months on the inside, what came as the biggest surprise to Hoffman was just how close Ford actually came to bankruptcy.

The company was bleeding nearly $100 million in cash a day in 2008 and its stock price hit bottom at $1 per share. Ford was maybe "three to six months" away from bankruptcy, says Hoffman. "They got to the point where they stopped paying to water the plants inside their buildings [and] stopped paying to wash the windows in order to save money."

Ford's biggest savior in 2008 was Alan Mulally who left Boeing in 2006 to become the CEO of the number two U.S. automaker. What did he have that others didn't?

"He had an outsider's perspective," says Hoffman. "He was able to come in and really assess what was wrong with Ford because a lot of the people who had grown up in the company's culture weren't able to take a real objective look at it."

Mulally also had a "real strong leadership approach" and was able to "cut through a lot of the board room politics. The company's corporate culture "had held Ford back for so long," says Hoffman.

In 2011, Ford recorded a $20 billion profit on $128 billion in sales and today the stock is trading around $12.67 per share. The company's success today is also in large part due to the fact that Mulally never stopped innovating and developing during tough financial times that GM and Chrysler were forced to do.

"They did not cut back on product development during the crisis," says Hoffman. "That was key to Mulally's strategy."

But Mulally didn't keep Ford from the brink all on his own. "They had some real financial talent on their board," says Hoffman. In particular, he cites Carl Reichert, former head of Wells Fargo, who saw an industry crisis coming in 2006 and advised Mulally to take out a $26 billion line of credit. As a result "[Ford] had a cushion that GM and Chrysler did not have," says Hoffman. "But as the same time it was not much of a cushion, they still had to resort to these really kind of drastic measures in order to keep the company funded."

Hoffman also uncovered a number of other surprising things about Ford that was never before reported, including:

• Ford's secret alliance with competitors Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC) "They worked with their arch rivals, their bitter enemies to kind of help each other keep the suppliers that were critical to all of their operations in business," says Hoffman.
• Ford's secret negotiations with the UAW that led to "game-changing" labor contracts in 2007 and 2009.
• The board's push to sell the company or file for bankruptcy as well as their desire to have Bill Ford step aside in 2006.

Mulally's efforts to save Ford have not gone unrecognized. In 2011, his pay package rose 11% to $29.5 million. A previous filing in March showed Mulally received more than $30 million in stock, which had been granted as compensation in 2009.

Mulally's efforts and achievements at Ford are no doubt insurmountable, but are they worth the $140 million he's received since becoming CEO?

"I think a lot of Ford employees would tell you that he did," says Hoffman."He saved the company and he did it without taking a government bailout. They are making money, their sales are up, you know, what more can you ask for?"

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Microsoft announces special edition Chrome Series Xbox 360 controllers

There's no console to match, but Xbox 360 owners who prefer things a little shinier than your run-of-the-mill controller will soon have a trio of new options to consider courtesy of Microsoft. It's just announced three new Chrome Series special edition controllers that will be available in "mid-May" for $54.99 apiece. Those come in your choice of blue, red or silver, and each feature the so-called "transforming" D-pad along with everything else you'd expect from a wireless Xbox 360 controller. Check out the gallery below for a closer look.

Gallery: Xbox 360 Chrome Series controllers

Microsoft announces special edition Chrome Series Xbox 360 controllers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Get to Know Personal Finance Options | Literally Died

If you are new to the personal finance world, then welcome! You may have just opened up your first bank account or investment account, and this can be very confusing to you if you are reading the material that came from your bank. There are many different acronyms that can be very confusing for someone who has never seen or heard these terms before. You should schedule an appointment with the manager or customer service representative at your bank so you can ask them questions about all of the terms that you do not understand. You should make notes while you read your information from the bank before your appointment so that you can go and ask questions about specific items. For example, you may want to know what is an ETF because you do not understand it and the representative will be able to tell you what it is.

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This Image of a Soldier Walking On Air Is Simply Awesome [Image Cache]

I really like this image of a soldier jumping of a USAF HC-130P/N King cargo aircraft. He really seems to be walking on air, like Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff while chasing the Roadrunner. More »

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Chauffeur driven car Treasure hunts A Company Team-building ...

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