Editor's note: This is the second part of a two-part series. Click here to read the first half.
11. What does Goldman Sachs do? Goldman Sachs (GS) provides services like investment banking and management, asset management, securities trading, financing and equity research services to a number of different types of clients: corporations, other financial institutions, governments and high net-worth individuals.
In addition, it invests its own money in funds, real estate, and a variety of facilities, underwrites public offerings, makes markets, and is a primary dealer in the United States Treasury securities markets (the debt instruments like treasury bills, treasury notes, and bonds that the government sells in order to operate). As a result, Goldman Sachs is very important to the financial dealings of the country.
If you didn't know the Goldman Sachs name before the housing bubble burst, that probably changed soon after. In April 2010, the SEC filed civil fraud charges against Goldman Sachs, alleging that the company withheld important information around an investment portfolio named "Abacus." The hedge fund manager who put the deal together, John Paulson, expected that the housing bubble would burst and hand-selected the assets in the Abacus portfolio with the intention to short it, and potentially profit from the market failure. He approached Goldman Sachs with his intention, and Goldman Sachs found investors willing to buy into the portfolio -- but did not disclose the hedge fund manager's stake in the deal in any investor marketing materials, including the fact that some of the bonds he had handpicked for the portfolio were included in Abacus, or that he picked them expecting their demise. The bubble did indeed burst, and John Paulson reportedly made around $1 billion. Goldman Sachs made $15 million in fees for its involvement. The Abacus investors, on the other hand, lost billions. The problem wasn't inherently in the fact that the hedge fund made money from the failure of its own investment tool. The SEC charges stemmed from the fact that Goldman Sachs did not disclose the hedge fund manager's shorted position or involvement in selecting the portfolio assets to investors. The bank settled the charges in July 2010, without admitting to or denying them.
? 12. Is the bond market more complicated than the stock market?
Although bonds are typically considered less risky than the stock market, the bond market is actually more complicated. Bonds are issued by many different entities including governments, corporations, and municipalities, for various time periods. The value of a bond is impacted by many factors, including the health of the issuing entity, determined based on a credit rating score assigned by Moody?s (MCO) or Standard and Poor?s (MHP). That score can change at any time based on interest rates, consumer sentiment, and the issuing entities? risk of default. Because bonds move inversely with interest rates and are heavily impacted by inflation, bond values are determined by the yield curve, or a line that plots interest rates compared to bonds of equal credit quality but different maturity dates.
? 13. What about currency investing? If the euro or yen goes down, shouldn?t I buy some with my U.S. dollars, and just hang on to it?
Currency investing takes place in what is called the forex market. It trades 24 hours a day, and prices move constantly. ?Forex trading always involves a pair of currencies compared to another, and by its nature, requires that you go long on one (meaning that you expect its price to rise), and short on the other (you sell in anticipation that it will depreciate). While there is money to be made in the market for those who understand it, it is highly complex, volatile, and risky. Forex trading is based on ?leveraging? or ?gearing? ?actual? money in an account, in order to increase buying power. Because every second counts in the Forex market, ?doing nothing? could actually drain your account, leading to a ?margin call,? which requires you to pay back all losses (not just what was in the account), and whatever fees you owe the broker.
? 14. Is gold always a good buy?
Though gold has snatched up headlines because of its double-digit growth over the past few years, the climb is something of an anomaly. As a long-term strategy, having gold in your portfolio can be a great diversifier to stocks and bonds -- but so can other commodities. According to CBS Moneywatch?s Larry Swedroe, comparably speaking, a portfolio examined from 1970 to 2010 that contained commodities versus one with gold actually performed better, producing annualized returns of 11.32% vs. 11.29%.
15. Can I invest in companies outside the U.S. via a U.S. broker? Like, can I invest in a Chinese company?
You can buy into Chinese stocks through U.S. brokers via many investment firms; there are more than 50 Chinese companies publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq (NDAQ). To minimize risk, you can also invest in mutual funds that hold stake in a variety of emerging markets.
16. Can I invest in private companies? How?
Many private companies require investors to meet the definition of ?accredited investor,? but not all. So-called ?angel investors,? often contribute as little as $25,000 to an entity, and can network via free sites like Go4Funding.? Forming a partnership with established venture capital groups that focus on a similar objective to yours can also be an option, depending on your available funds. If you have a specific company in mind, you can also offer to buy shares directly from a company?s founders or employees, if they are willing to sell.
17. Some non-profits seek investors, right? Why would I invest in a non-profit?
Non-profit investors generally do so because they believe in the cause and sustainability over the program, versus investing for pure financial gain. However, there are often tax credits given to non-profit donors, provided the organization qualifies for tax-deductible status.
18. If we head into another recession, would that be a bad time to invest?
Successful investing requires having enough cash reserves on hand to ride out market turbulence, and diversifying your portfolio to manage exposure to a variety of sectors. While a recession could indeed bring stock prices lower, investors can find safer havens in historically recession-proof industries like health care, consumer staples, and utilities?especially when those stocks pay dividends. Economic uncertainty also presents an opportunity to find bargains in the market, as long as you won?t the need the cash in the short-term.
? 19. Is it a good idea to buy stocks in the brands you buy anyway?
Knowing the product and its consumer will help you to understand demands, and spot changes in the industry and marketplace trends, but you should also consider other research like the company?s health, P/E ratio, stock price fluctuations and analyst recommendation when choosing stocks.
20. If a company goes bankrupt, what happens to the stock? The bonds? According to the SEC, a company that files for Chapter 11 can still trade securities until a resolution is reached, though bondholders will stop receiving interest and principal payments, and stockholders will stop receiving dividends. If a reorganization agreement is reached, bondholders may receive stock in exchange for bonds, new bonds, or a combination of the two. Stockholders may be asked to exchange old shares for new reissued shares?though they won?t necessarily equal the value of the old shares. ?If a company is deemed insolvent and declares bankruptcy, bondholders stand a better chance of recovering losses than stockholders, who will likely be left holding worthless shares of common stock.
Editor's note: This is the second part of a two-part series. Click here to read the first half.
No positions in stocks mentioned.
The information on this website solely reflects the analysis of or opinion about the performance of securities and financial markets by the writers whose articles appear on the site. The views expressed by the writers are not necessarily the views of Minyanville Media, Inc. or members of its management. Nothing contained on the website is intended to constitute a recommendation or advice addressed to an individual investor or category of investors to purchase, sell or hold any security, or to take any action with respect to the prospective movement of the securities markets or to solicit the purchase or sale of any security. Any investment decisions must be made by the reader either individually or in consultation with his or her investment professional. Minyanville writers and staff may trade or hold positions in securities that are discussed in articles appearing on the website. Writers of articles are required to disclose whether they have a position in any stock or fund discussed in an article, but are not permitted to disclose the size or direction of the position. Nothing on this website is intended to solicit business of any kind for a writer's business or fund. Minyanville management and staff as well as contributing writers will not respond to emails or other communications requesting investment advice.
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OS X: If you love the tap and copy functionality of iOS and want it on your home computer, PopClip is a simple app that adds similar functionality to your copying, pasting and other functions.
While most people will still find a quick Command+C the easiest way, PopClip wants to make it simple for users who might be more used to iOS. A double click on a word pulls up the context sensitive menu where you can lookup words, open links, search online and cut, copy and paste. It's currently $4.99 in the Mac App Store, but you can download a free trial to see if it works for you on the developers site below.
CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egyptians voted on Tuesday in a parliamentary election that Islamists hope will sweep them closer to power, even though the army generals who took over from President Hosni Mubarak have yet to step aside.
The election, the first since a revolt ousted Mubarak on February 11, unfolded without the mayhem many had feared after last week's riots against army rule in which 42 people were killed.
General Ismail Atman, a ruling army council member, said he had no firm figure, but that turnout would exceed 70 percent of the 17 million Egyptians eligible to vote in the first round that began on Monday. "I hope it will reach more than 80 percent by the end of the day," he told Al Jazeera television.
Atman was also quoted by Al-Shorouk newspaper as saying the election showed the irrelevance of protesters demanding an end to military rule in Cairo's Tahrir Square and elsewhere.
Les Campbell, of the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, one of many groups monitoring the poll, said earlier it was "a fair guess" that turnout would exceed 50 percent, far above the meager showings in rigged Mubarak-era elections.
The United States and its European allies are watching Egypt's vote torn between hopes that democracy will take root in the most populous Arab nation and worries that Islamists hostile to Israel and the West will ride to power on the ballot box.
They have faulted the generals for using excessive force on protesters and urged them to give way swiftly to civilian rule.
The well-organized Muslim Brotherhood, banned but semi-tolerated under Mubarak, said its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), had done well in the voting so far.
"The Brotherhood party hopes to win 30 percent of parliament," senior FJP figure Mohamed El-Beltagy told Reuters.
The leader of the ultra-conservative Salafi Islamist al-Nour Party, which hopes to siphon votes from the Brotherhood, said organizational failings meant the party had under-performed.
"We were not dispersed across constituencies, nor were we as close as needed to the voter. Other parties with more experience rallied supporters more effectively," Emad Abdel Ghafour said in the coastal city of Alexandria, seen as a Salafi stronghold.
But he told Reuters the party still expected to win up to half of Alexandria's 24 seats in parliament and 70 to 75 nationwide out of the assembly's 498 elected seats.
Abou Elela Mady, head of the moderate Islamist Wasat Party, made no predictions, but praised the turnout and said the party would accept the result despite electoral violations.
Soldiers guarded one banner-festooned Cairo voting station, where women in Islamic headscarves or Western clothes queued with their families. Judges kept an amiable eye on proceedings.
ISLAMIST VOTE-GETTERS
Islamists did not instigate the Arab uprisings that have shaken Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen, but in the last two months, Islamist parties have come out top in parliamentary elections in Morocco and post-revolutionary Tunisia.
Egyptian Islamists want to emulate those triumphs, but it is unclear how much influence the previously toothless parliament in Cairo can wield while the generals remain in power.
If the election process goes smoothly, the new assembly will enjoy a popular legitimacy the generals lack and may assert itself after rubber-stamping Mubarak's decisions for 30 years.
"Real politics will be in the hands of the parliament," said Diaa Rashwan, an Egyptian political analyst.
One general has said parliament will have no power to remove an army-appointed cabinet due to run Egypt's daily affairs until a promised presidential poll heralds civilian rule by July.
The army council assumed Mubarak's formidable presidential powers when it eased him from office on February 11. Many Egyptians praised the army's initial role, but some have grown angry at what they see as its attempts to retain its perks and power.
ELECTORAL VIOLATIONS
The election is taking place in three regional stages, plus run-off votes, in a complex system that requires voters to choose individual candidates as well as party lists. Full results will be announced after voting ends on January 11.
Election monitors have reported logistical hiccups and campaign violations but no serious violence.
Armed with laptops and leaflets, party workers of the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing and its Islamist rivals have approached muddled voters to guide them through the balloting system and nudge them toward their candidates.
In the Nile Delta town of Kafr el-Sheikh, Muslim Brotherhood workers were selling cut-price food in a tent where they also distributed flyers naming the FJP candidates in the area.
Some Egyptians yearn for a return to stability, uneasy about the impact of political turmoil on an economy heading toward a crisis sure to worsen the hardship of impoverished millions.
Others worry that resurgent Islamist parties may dominate political life, mold Egypt's next constitution and threaten social freedoms in what is already a deeply conservative nation of 80 million people whose 10 percent Coptic Christian minority complains of discrimination from the Muslim majority.
Copts, like Muslims, were voting in greater numbers than in the Mubarak era. "Before, the results were known in advance, but now we have to choose our fate," said Wagdy Youssef, a 45-year-old company manager in Alexandria.
"Copts like others want civilian rule," he said. "I voted for Muslims because they represented moderate views and stayed away from a few Christians on the lists I saw as extremist."
As voting resumed in the chilly, rain-swept coastal town of Damietta, Sayed Ibrahim, 30, said he backed the liberal Wafd Party over its main local rival, the Salafi Nour Party.
"I'm voting for Wafd because I don't want an ultra-religious party that excludes other views," he said, in jeans and a cap.
(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad in Alexandria, Shaimaa Fayed in Damietta and Tom Perry, Patrick Werr, Peter Millership and Edmund Blair in Cairo; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Peter Millership)
TOKYO ? Japan's jobless rate climbed for the first time in three months in October while household spending and incomes fell, adding to evidence that the country's post-disaster rebound is waning.
Government figures released Tuesday showed the unemployment rate adjusted for seasonal variations had jumped to 4.5 percent from 4.1 percent in September. Other recent indicators show slowdowns in exports and industrial production in the face of a strong yen and a sputtering global economy.
Japan's economy expanded at an annualized rate of 6 percent in the July-September quarter in an impressive comeback from the March earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident. But economists have said such robust growth in the world's No. 3 economy is unsustainable.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report Monday that Japan's "pace of recovery is now moderating."
The latest labor report is the second since September to include data from the three prefectures hardest hit by the disaster ? Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. Between March and August, the government omitted the regions because of difficulties in gathering data.
Separately, the government's monthly report on households showed that families are tightening their budgets.
Average household spending in October retreated 0.4 percent from a year earlier to 285,605 yen ($3,650). Average monthly household income declined 1.8 percent in real terms to 479,749 yen ($6,135).
The OECD said Japan's economy should benefit next year from improved financial conditions and the government's planned reconstruction spending. It expects the gross domestic product to grow 2 percent in 2012.
"Soft global growth and the appreciation of the real exchange rate are, however, likely to check the pace of the upturn," the OECD said.
EMISSIONS ESTIMATES: Alberta's oil-sands companies are required to reduce the intensity of their greenhouse-gas emissions under the province's emissions trading scheme.Image: . RALSTON/AFP/Getty
Alberta?s $57 million carbon-cutting program is failing, according to the latest report from the Canadian province?s auditor-general, Merwan Saher. Like many such programs around the world, it includes an emissions trading scheme, which allows polluters to meet their emissions reductions targets by buying carbon offsets from a selection of approved projects. The offsets are supposed to be real, measurable and provable. But the report claims that the province, despite earlier warnings, has not improved its regulatory structure?and calls the emissions estimates and the offsets themselves into question.
Nature looks at the hurdles faced by Alberta and other jurisdictions over their emissions trading schemes.
What carbon trading schemes exist around the world?
In addition to Alberta's scheme and the expiring Kyoto Protocol?s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) run by the United Nations, emissions trading schemes are operated in the European Union (EU), New Zealand, the city of Tokyo and by a group of northeastern US states. Several other countries and regions, including California, India and Australia, are also planning to start their own schemes.
The EU emissions trading scheme includes 11,000 power stations and industrial plants that produce half of Europe?s total carbon emissions?but it is struggling in the economic downturn (see "European carbon market plummets").
Alberta?s scheme, called the Specified Gas Emitters Regulation, was passed by the Alberta legislature in 2007. It sets limits on the intensity levels of greenhouse gases emitted by Alberta facilities?oil sands operations and coal-fired power plants, for example?if they emit more than the equivalent of 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. These facilities must reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions intensity?emissions per unit of production?by 12 percent each year, but they are not required to reduce their overall emissions.
How are emissions measured?
Not all greenhouse-gas emissions are measured in the same way?or with the same level of accuracy. In industrial settings, continuous emissions-monitoring systems can directly monitor flue gases for CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Less-accurate emissions estimates are calculated based on surrogate measurements, such as the number of kilowatt hours of energy produced or miles driven. Alberta, unlike other jurisdictions, has opted to link reduction targets to a facility?s production output.
Who checks the emission estimates?
In Alberta, the Department of Environment and Water requires facilities to have their emission estimates (and offset projects) independently verified. The department also uses another set of verifiers to confirm reports for a sample of those facilities that are signed up to the scheme. The UN?s CDM keeps track of all eligible projects in an online registry.
What can you get credits for?
Alberta facilities can receive carbon credits by investing in a variety of Alberta-based projects. These range from paying farmers to adopt low-till or no-till agricultural practices?thereby turning fields into carbon sinks?to the collection and combustion of landfill gas.
Examples from the CDM include siphoning off the methane produced by pig farms and feeding it to a power plant that would otherwise have used fossil fuels; investing in the development and operation of an energy-efficient rapid transit system in Delhi, India; and dissemination of efficient wood stoves in Nigeria to reduce wood demand and deforestation.
LOS ANGELES ? Deadlines for Wall Street protesters to leave their encampments came and went in two cities with no arrests in Philadelphia but four people taken into custody in Los Angeles several hours after the midnight deadline passed.
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said it remained unclear when the nearly two-month-old Occupy LA camp would be cleared. About half of the 485 tents had been taken down as of Sunday night, leaving patches of the 1.7-acre park around City Hall barren of grass and strewn with garbage.
"There is no concrete deadline," Beck told reporters Monday morning after hundreds of officers withdrew without moving in on the camp. The chief said he wanted to make sure the removal will be done when it was safe for protesters and officers and "with as little drama as possible."
Protesters chanted "we won, we won" as riot-clad officers left the scene.
"I'm pretty much speechless," said Clark Davis, media coordinator for Occupy LA.
Police turned back after hundreds of Occupy LA supporters showed up at the camp Sunday night as the midnight deadline for evacuation neared. As the night drew on, many demonstrators left.
Protester Julie Levine said she was surprised that police did not move in as the numbers dwindled. "We were fearful," she said. "But we held our numbers and police were on their best behavior."
A celebratory atmosphere filled the night with protesters milling about the park and streets by City Hall in seeming good spirits. A group on bicycles circled the block, one of them in a cow suit. Organizers led chants with a bull horn.
Officers reopened the streets at around 6:30 a.m.
"Let's go get breakfast," said Commander Andrew Smith as he removed his helmet.
The protest was largely peaceful but there were some skirmishes. Four people were arrested for failure to disperse and a few protesters tossed bamboo sticks and water bottles at officers, Smith said. No injuries were reported.
A hearing in federal is scheduled for later Monday morning on a petition for an injunction to prevent the camp closure.
Both the mayor and Beck said Monday morning that there was no firm deadline to remove the protesters.
"We want to make sure that everybody knows the park is closed and there are services available, that there are alternative ways to protest," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in an interview with MSNBC.
Villaraigosa, a former labor organizer himself, earlier said he sympathizes with the movement but felt it was time it moved beyond holding on to "a particular patch of park" and that public health and safety could not be sustained for a long period.
The Los Angeles showdown follows police actions in other cities ? sometimes involving the use of pepper spray and tear gas ? that resulted in the removal of long-situated demonstration sites. Some of those encampments had been in use almost since the movement against economic disparity and perceived corporate greed began with Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan two months ago.
A deadline set by the city for Occupy Philadelphia to leave the site where it has camped for nearly two months passed Sunday without any arrests.
Dozens of tents remained at the encampment outside Philadelphia's City Hall Monday morning, 12 hours after a city-imposed deadline passed for the protesters to move to make way for a construction project.
The camp appeared mostly quiet amid a heavy police presence, but around 5 a.m. EST a handful of people were marching one of the city's main business corridors banging drums.
The scene outside City Hall was quiet most of the day Sunday. But the sound of protesters' drumming did bring complaints from several people living in nearby high-rise apartment buildings.
Along the steps leading into a Philadelphia plaza, about 50 people sat in lines Sunday with the promise that they would not leave unless they were carried out by authorities. For a time, they linked arms. But as it seemed that a forceful ouster was not imminent, they relaxed a bit. A police presence was heavier than usual but no orders to leave had been issued.
A few dozen tents remained scattered on the plaza, along with trash, piles of dirty blankets and numerous signs reading, "You can't evict an idea."
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter was out of town Sunday, but his spokesman reiterated that "people are under orders to move."
The mayor himself had an exchange on Twitter with hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, who asked Nutter "to remember this is a non-violent movement ? please show restraint tonight."
Nutter's response: "I agree."
Elsewhere on the East Coast, nine people were arrested in Maine after protesters in the Occupy Augusta encampment in Capitol Park took down their tents and packed their camping gear after being told to get a permit or move their shelters.
___
Mulvihill reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press Writers Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia, Glenn Adams in Augusta, Maine, and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this story.
(Reuters) ? UnitedHealth Group Inc, the largest U.S. health insurer, forecast an increase in membership next year as gains in its Medicare and Medicaid plans more than offset declines in some plans serving employers and individuals.
UnitedHealth, already one of the largest providers of Medicare plans for the elderly, on Tuesday projected that it would add up to 300,000 Medicare Advantage members next year.
In sum, it projected it would add 790,000 to 1.15 million members in 2012, pushing its total well above 35 million.
The company, whose shares were up 2.4 percent in midday trading, issued the projections at its annual investor day in New York. It talked up prospects of both its UnitedHealthcare benefit plans and its Optum healthcare services businesses.
UnitedHealth also stood by its long-term goal of 13 percent to 16 percent annual growth in earnings per share.
A health insurance industry bellwether due to its size and the diversity of its plans, UnitedHealth on Monday forecast 2012 profit that only barely met Wall Street's target. But its shares rose as analysts called the forecast conservative and said it allayed fears of a lower outlook.
Medicare is one of the most enticing areas for health insurance companies as the postwar baby boom generation moves into retirement, swelling the ranks of privately run Medicare Advantage plans.
Just last week, UnitedHealth struck a deal to buy privately held Medicare specialist XLHealth Corp, which will further boost the company's Medicare Advantage membership beyond the projections issued on Tuesday. UnitedHealth projects 2.5 million Medicare Advantage members next year.
The company also projected it would add 250,000 to 325,000 members to its Medicaid plans for low-income Americans in 2012, swelling its total to about 3.8 million.
UnitedHealth forecast declines of up to 200,000 members for its commercial plans for employers and individuals that assume full insurance risk.
For employer-based plans in which UnitedHealth provides only administrative services, which are less lucrative, the company projected enrollment gains of as much as 500,000.
For the Optum businesses, which include a wide array of services such as electronic health records and pharmacy benefits, UnitedHealth projected profit of $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion next year, or an increase of 4 percent to 12 percent.
UnitedHealth is in the process of significantly expanding its OptumRx prescription benefit business by bringing in house business it previously outsourced to Medco Health Solutions Inc.
Optum Chief Executive Larry Renfro said the division's earnings will be dragged down by $115 million in investments in the pharmacy business next year. But he said the division is gearing up to be a competitor to pharmacy benefit managers Medco, Express Scripts Inc and CVS Caremark Corp.
"We have already begun to hear about our increasing competitiveness to the big three," Renfro said.
Health insurers have posted better-than-expected results throughout 2011, due largely to low medical claim costs as Americans delay doctor visits and medical procedures in the weak economy. But many companies have said they expect use of healthcare services to pick up.
UnitedHealth shares were up $1.08 to $46.11 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and John Wallace)
WASHINGTON ? In an explosive allegation, a Georgia woman said Monday she and Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain had a 13-year extramarital affair that lasted nearly until the former businessman announced his candidacy for the White House several months ago.
"Here we go again. I didn't do anything wrong," Cain said in a pre-emptive denial that lumped a detailed claim of a consensual affair in with earlier allegations of sexual harassment.
But the woman, Ginger White, said in an interview with Fox 5 Atlanta that over the years, Cain bought her airplane tickets so she could join him in cities as far-flung as Palm Springs, Calif., and Atlanta.
"It was fun," the 46-year-old White said. "It was something that took me away from my sort of humdrum life at the time. And it was exciting."
Although Cain flatly denied the affair, his lawyer issued a public statement that included no such denial and suggested that the media ? and the public ? had no business snooping into the details of consensual conduct between adults.
After the initial report and Cain's denial, White told The Associated Press that Cain was not being truthful when he said there had been no affair.
"That would be false," White said. "What I said in the interview was true."
Cain's candidacy was soaring in the polls until he was hit less than a month ago with accusations that he sexually harassed several women and groped one while he was a high-ranking official at the National Restaurant Association. He has since fallen back in the public opinion surveys, and been eclipsed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the race to emerge as the principal conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.
At her apartment in Dunwoody, Ga., White declined to elaborate on her statements during a brief interview with the AP. "I can't make any comment on this," she said. "We're trying to be slightly sensitive."
In its report, the television station said White had Cain's name in her cell phone contacts, and when its reporter sent a text message to the number, he called right back.
"He told us he knew 'Ginger White' but said these are more false allegations," the station reported. Cain said that White had his number because he was trying to help her financially.
In a written statement released immediately after the story aired, Cain's campaign said detractors were trying to "derail the Cain Train with more accusations of past events that never happened."
Later, at a fundraiser in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., Cain avoided reporters' questions.
In his initial denial, televised on CNN, Cain vowed to remain in the presidential race, as long as he has the support of his wife, with whom he said he had discussed the most recent allegation.
In her interview, White said she decided to come forward after seeing Cain attack his other accusers in an appearance on television.
"It bothered me that they were being demonized, sort of, and being treated as if they were automatically lying, and the burden of proof was on them," she said. "I felt bad for them."
White told the Atlanta TV station she expects to be scrutinized by Cain and the media.
Georgia court records show a series of judgments against White for not paying rent in Atlanta area apartments, including one filed about two weeks ago.
In the interview, she said she first met Cain in the late 1990s in Louisville, Ky., when he was president of the National Restaurant Association. They had drinks and he invited her to his hotel room, she recalled.
She quoted Cain as telling her, "You're beautiful to me and I would love for us to continue this friendship," then produced his personal calendar and invited her to meet him in Palm Springs.
In this case, unlike the others, Cain took the unorthodox step of issuing a denial in advance.
"I did not have an affair, and until I see and hear exactly what's going to be, what accusations are going to be made, let's move on," he said.
Asked if he suspected his accuser had emails, letters, gifts or other possible evidence of an affair, he replied, "No."
In a statement provided to AP, Cain's lawyer, Lin Wood, said the former businessman has no obligation to "discuss these types of accusations publicly with the media and he will not do so even if his principled position is viewed unfavorably by members of the media."
The statement drew a distinction between "private alleged consensual conduct between adults" and a case of harassment. It did not include an explicit denial of an affair along the lines that Cain himself provided in his television interview.
Contacted by AP, Wood added, "If any candidate wants to publicly discuss his private sex life, that is his or her life. But I don't believe that there's an obligation on the part of any political candidate to do so."
White has been accused of lying before. A former business partner, Kimberly Vay, filed a libel suit as part of a larger business dispute with White. White's attorney, Edward Buckley, acknowledged the libel suit, which Vay said she won. Buckley said that White thought the libel claim had been settled as part of a larger settlement.
___
Ray Henry reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Greg Bluestein in Dunwoody, Ga., and researcher Barbara Sambriski in New York contributed to this report.
COMMENTARY | Television and movie streaming is a popular feature of many tablet computers and smartphones. While streaming movies and watching television over the Internet has proven to be a popular pastime, the particular app or platform used to achieve that varies between a certain number of providers, and many devices are even brand specific most of the time. Apple users like iTunes, and Kindle Fire users like Amazon Video on Demand. However, YouTube is increasingly looking like it should become the video streaming first choice.
YouTube recently signed a deal with Disney allowing movie rentals for many Disney movies, and that particular catalog is going to grow. In addition, YouTube recently announced plans to offer up 100 original channels with made for YouTube content. That combination of unique programming, user generated content, and movie rental ability looks like a winner in the streaming content department.
While Netflix was once a mighty company, it might be a victim of success. As Netflix grew in popularity, studios and networks realized how valuable their content was on the Internet. As licensing fees grew, Netflix began to experience troubles, and eventually ended up with a huge price hike and lost subscribers. Now Netflix is inking new deals left and right, but sooner or later cash is going to be a problem. Netflix also is moving to original programming by reviving "Arrested Development," which is a great idea, but the company does not have the cash in reserve that a cable channel, like Starz or HBO, can throw at a series.
YouTube has some serious cash because it is backed by Internet search giant Google, and tossing $100 million into 100 unique channels is a great way to start expanding the YouTube library. Unlike iTunes and Amazon VOD, YouTube has a pretty intense following on the Internet, and they have an app on just about as many devices as Netflix, which makes them easy to access.
Sure, Google and YouTube seemed late to the dance by offering movie rentals alongside dancing kittens, but it might turn out to be the best thing going as far as streaming movies goes.
Didn't feel like brawling for two-dollar waffle makers at Wally World this past Black Friday? Don't fret, because Cyber Monday is just a few hours away -- there are literally only a few clicks between you and some awesome online deals. Best of all, you don't even need leave your abode or bear lines in the cold. Just like we did for BF, we've spotted some deals in advance and thrown 'em just past the break -- sure, it's only Sunday, but don't tell that to the retailers whose sales are currently ongoing! Unless you want to miss out on some chances to save on the gadgets you've been pining for, join us past the break for our full rundown. And as usual, if you spot anything we've missed, be sure to let us know in the comments. Ready. Set. Save!
(pssst: Don't forget to keep checking back, as we'll be constantly updating this post with even more deals as we come across them!)
IMDB Rating: IMDb - Hugo (2011) Genre: Adventure | Drama | Family Director: Martin Scorsese Writer: John Logan (screenplay), Brian Selznick (book) Stars: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz and Christopher Lee Trailer: Hugo Cabret Trailer - YouTube Spoken language: English Texted language (subtitles): English/Spanish
Plot:
Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
Quack medicines, insect immigrants, and what eats what among secrets revealed by DNA barcodesPublic release date: 27-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Terry Collins tc@tca.tc 416-538-8712 Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL)
Global 'barcode blitz' accelerates; 450 experts converge on Adelaide Nov. 28-Dec. 3
The newfound scientific power to quickly "fingerprint" species via DNA is being deployed to unmask quack herbal medicines, reveal types of ancient Arctic life frozen in permafrost, expose what eats what in nature, and halt agricultural and forestry pests at borders, among other applications across a wide array of public interests.
The explosion of creative new uses of DNA "barcoding" -- identifying species based on a snippet of DNA -- will occupy centre stage as 450 world experts convene at Australia's the University of Adelaide Nov. 28 to Dec. 3.
DNA barcode technology has already sparked US Congressional hearings by exposing widespread "fish fraud" -- mislabelling cheap fish as more desirable and expensive species like tuna or snapper. Other studies this year revealed unlisted ingredients in herbal tea bags.
Hot new applications include:
Substitute ingredients in herbal medicines
High demand is causing regular "adulteration or substitution of herbal drugs," barcoding experts have discovered.
Indeed, notes Malaysian researcher Muhammad Sharir Abdul Rahman, one fraudster in his country treated rubber tree wood with quinine to give it a bitter taste similar to Eurycoma longifolia -- a traditional medicine for malaria, diabetes and other ailments.
A library of DNA barcodes for Malaysia's 1,200 plant species with potential medicinal value is in development, eventually offering "a quick one step detection kit" to reduce fraud in the lucrative herbal medicine industry, says Mr. Sharir.
His concerns resonate in other countries around the true contents of certain brands of ginseng and other products.
DNA barcode libraries are under construction for the medicinal plants of several other nations as well, including South Africa, India and Nigeria.
Barcoding permafrost
From the woolly rhino to plants and mushrooms, scientists using DNA are deciphering what lived in the ancient Arctic environment, creating new insights into climate change in the process.
"DNA barcoding" analyses of cylinders of sediment cored from Arctic permafrost ranging in age from 10,000 to several hundred thousand years have shed light on past animal and fungal distributions and allowed researchers to infer which plant species likely co-existed.
DNA analyses of permafrost sediment 15,000 to 30,000 years old from northeastern Siberia revealed a grassland steppe plain during the glacial period supporting a diverse mammal community, including bison, moose and the DNA of the rare woolly rhino, the first ever found in permafrost sediments.
Says University of Oslo-based researcher Eva Bellemain, who will present project BarFrost (Barcoding of Permafrost): "In the Arctic, fossils are scarce and time-consuming to find and analyze. However, DNA is one tough molecule. It had to be in order to serve its purpose the last billion years and more. Incredibly, it can linger in soil for tens of thousands of years and stay relatively intact."
What eats what
The technology can even distinguish species contained in the gut or dung of animals, revealing what eats what. University of Adelaide researcher Hugh Cross, for example, will detail his investigation into the diet of Australia's fast-growing, 1 million-strong population of wild camels, which severely impact the country's ecology.
Introduced in the 1800s as pack animals, Australia's wild camels eat an estimated 80% of available plant species in their range.
Says conference organizer David Schindel, Executive Secretary of the CBOL, based at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: "Biologists used to sit and wait and watch to learn how food webs work in Nature and what happens when they collapse. Now they can process stomach contents and dung samples to get the complete picture in a few hours."
Invasive pests
Until now, border inspection to keep agricultural pests, disease-carrying insects and invasive species from entering a country has been a hit-and-miss effort. Barcoding offers a tool to get same-day answers for accepting or rejecting imports, an issue of acute economic importance to Australia and New Zealand.
With European Union funding, a consortium of 20 universities, research institutes, and other organizations are partners in Project QBoL (Quarantine Barcode of Life, www.qbol.org), developing a library of DNA barcodes to help quickly identify common invasive organisms that authorities want to stop at national borders.
With the new DNA barcode tool, inspectors can more easily and surely identify and thus prevent the entry of invading pests including bacteria, fungi, fruit flies, other insects, nematodes, viruses, plants and other organisms. Trade of timber cut from endangered species may also be slowed with barcodes to identify wood and lumber products.
Hundreds of topics in Adelaide
"From tea to tuna, DNA identification is entering everyday life," remarked Jesse Ausubel, chair of the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) initiative, a 6-year program now in midstream of a group of the most active labs building the barcode library.
Adds Dr. Schindel: "Like Google and Wikipedia, DNA barcoding scarcely existed a decade ago, and now we are a vibrant community built on 21st century scientific tools."
"DNA barcoding is the express lane to solving many of Nature's mysteries relevant to a spectrum of national interests."
He notes that scores of additional topics will be explored in Adelaide, spanning health, cultural and environmental protection, such as:
Identifying the prey of disease-carrying insects based on analysis of their meals of blood
"Barcoding Nemo" and other species of the ornamental fish trade
Identifying mushrooms and molds
Assessment of the global status of pollinators such as bees, and
Assessing water quality
The blood meals of biting insects
Resembling a common housefly, the African tsetse fly transmits Human African trypanosomiasis, AKA sleeping sickness, to people and animals. One of the world's most dangerous disease vectors, it spread the 2008 epidemic in which 48,000 Ugandans died. And the annual economic impact is estimated at US$4.5 billion, with around 3 million cattle killed every year.
Scientists are using DNA barcodes to identify tsetse fly species and their prey based on analysis of the insect's blood meals, unravelling the relationship between hosts and vectors.
By developing the barcode library, tools and ability to readily distinguish species of tsetse flies, mosquitos, ticks and other vectors of diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, Japanese encephalitis, and Lyme disease, scientists can map risk areas more efficiently and alert authorities to the spread of health threats.
Barcoders have taken up an ambitious five-year goal a comprehensive library of 10,000 insect species that damage or destroy so many human lives: 3,000 mosquito, 1,000 sandfly, 2,000 blackfly, 2,000 flea and 1,000 tick species.
Nemo and friends
According to scientists, over 1 billion ornamental fish -- comprising more than 4,000 freshwater and 1,400 marine species -- are traded internationally each year, a US $5 billion industry growing annually at 8 percent.
Researchers at work on this issue include Gulab Khedkar of India, who says: "To facilitate ornamental fish trading, and in compliance of (India's) Biodiversity Act, a universal method must validate the ornamental fish with their species names. This can help assure a sustainable ornamental fish trade."
Fungi
Fungi are a taxonomic group of many major, distinct evolutionary lineages, ranging from mushrooms to molds. Although two species of fungi can be more distantly related than a fish is related to an insect, all fungi are classified in the same group.
Researchers at the conference are expected to announce the selection of the barcode region for fungi. The standard barcode regions used for animals and plants is not effective for fungi and an international working group has been conducting comparative analyses of candidate regions for two years. The decision is expected to open the floodgates to fungal barcoding research.
A project on indoor fungi that cause human health problems will also be unveiled in Adelaide, showing the enormous potential for fungal studies.
Australian scientist Wieland Meyer argues that, given steadily increasing invasive fungal infections, inadequate identification, limited therapies and the emergence of resistant strains, "there is an urgent need to improve fungal identification" to improve the successful treatment.
Fungi also provide humanity with food and antibiotics and the services of fermentation and decay. DNA-based taxonomy promises to revolutionize understanding of fungal diversity and connect the their life stages.
Barcoders aim to create a library of at least 10,000 fungal species by 2015, especially for indoor fungi, for basidiomycetes (the "higher fungi") and for pathogens of agriculture and forestry.
Insect pollinators
The ecosystem service of plant pollination by insects has a global value estimated at more than $400 billion a year.
Facilitated by the International Barcode of Life (iBOL), barcoders are surveying long-term population trends by assembling barcode libraries for all bees and other important pollinators -- flies and beetles. In combination with campaigns to barcode moths, butterflies and birds, they will provide the database needed to assess the state of pollinator communities worldwide.
Assessing water quality
Scientists in Southern California and elsewhere are pioneering barcodes to assess freshwater marine water quality and its impact on marine life in, sand, sediment, and rocks or in mud in rivers and offshore.
Traditionally after collecting a bulk water sample, taxonomists must identify by sight several thousand invertebrates, a process requiring months and thousands of dollars. DNA barcodes enable them to analyze bulk samples in a fraction of the time at a fraction of the cost.
Similar projects underway in Korea, Iraq, Belgium and the Baltic region will be presented in Adelaide.
DNA barcoding is emerging as the tool of choice for monitoring water quality, DNA barcode libraries of aquatic insects under construction. New technologies are being developed and tested that will allow faster and more complete analyses of entire biological communities in streamwater on 'DNA microchips' and through next-generation sequencing.
Says Dr. Schindel: "It used to take weeks or months to analyze the organisms in streams to determine water quality. Now it takes hours at a fraction the cost."
A global barcode blitz
Scientists in Adelaide will also advance progress towards an international library of barcodes for 500,000 plant, animal and fungi species within five years - "a barcode blitz" that could transform biology science. The Barcode of Life Database includes more than 167,000 reliably named and provisional species today. Butterflies and moths are the largest well-analyzed group so far, with over 60,000 named and provisional species -- much of the world's estimated total of 170,000.
Gold mines for barcoding are the world's museums and herbaria, where countless species specimens are concentrated and organized thanks to great investments of time and dollars.
A year ago, a team of five Biodiversity Institute of Ontario researchers conducted a barcode blitz in the Australian National Insect Collection. Focusing on moths and butterflies for 10 weeks, they processed over 28,000 specimens representing over 8,000 species and 65 per cent of the country's 10,000 known insect species. Meanwhile at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, another team recently barcoded over 3,000 frozen bird tissues from over 1,400 species, adding more than 500 new species to the world avian DNA library, now covering about 40% of known birds.
New techniques for DNA extraction are bringing older and older specimens in natural history museums into the age range where DNA barcoding can be effective. These breakthroughs will open up new research questions about changes in species over the past centuries of human impact on natural populations.
The Munich Botanical Garden is the latest institution with an important collection of authoritative reference specimens opening its collection to a DNA barcode blitz.
###
The ability to identify and distinguish known and unknown species ever more quickly, cheaply, easily and accurately based on snippets of DNA code grew from a research paper in 2003 to a burgeoning global enterprise today, led by the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) at the Smithsonian Institution.
The International Barcode of Life Conference in Adelaide is the 4th in a series that began at the Natural History Museum, London, in February, 2005.
In 2005, there were 33,000 records covering 12,700 species in the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) at the University of Guelph, Canada. Showing a more than 40-fold increase, almost 1.4 million records are now banked, representing roughly 167,000 known and provisional species (see www.barcodinglife.org/views/taxbrowser_root.php).
The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) develops DNA barcoding as a global standard for species identification. With more than 200 member organizations from more than 50 countries, CBOL builds global participation, sets community standards, and organizes and supports working groups, workshops, networks, training opportunities, and international conferences held every two years. Free and open to all, CBOL promotes general awareness of barcoding through an information website (www.barcodeoflife.org) and information sharing through Connect (http://connect.barcodeoflife.net), the Barcode of Life social network.
The largest biodiversity genomics initiative ever launched, the International Barcode of Life (iBOL, http://ibol.org) aims to create by the end of the year 2015 a reference library of 5 million standardized DNA sequences capable of identifying 500 thousand species, more than a quarter of all known species on Earth. Headquartered in Canada, the iBOL program is the creation of more than 100 scientists from more than 20 countries. Launched in 2010 with support from Genome Canada and Ontario Genomics Institute, iBOL's participants commit resourcesfinancial support, human effort, and specimenstoward the 5M/500K goal.
Agenda in Adelaide:
www.dnabarcodes2011.org/conference/program/schedule/index.php
Major sponsors of the global barcoding movement include:
Chinese Academy of Sciences
CONABIO and CONACYT (Mexico)
Genome Canada
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
International Development Research Centre (Canada)
Richard Lounsbery Foundation
Ministry of Science and Technology (Brazil)
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada)
Ontario Genomics Institute
Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Smithsonian Institution
University of Adelaide
University of Guelph
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Quack medicines, insect immigrants, and what eats what among secrets revealed by DNA barcodesPublic release date: 27-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Terry Collins tc@tca.tc 416-538-8712 Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL)
Global 'barcode blitz' accelerates; 450 experts converge on Adelaide Nov. 28-Dec. 3
The newfound scientific power to quickly "fingerprint" species via DNA is being deployed to unmask quack herbal medicines, reveal types of ancient Arctic life frozen in permafrost, expose what eats what in nature, and halt agricultural and forestry pests at borders, among other applications across a wide array of public interests.
The explosion of creative new uses of DNA "barcoding" -- identifying species based on a snippet of DNA -- will occupy centre stage as 450 world experts convene at Australia's the University of Adelaide Nov. 28 to Dec. 3.
DNA barcode technology has already sparked US Congressional hearings by exposing widespread "fish fraud" -- mislabelling cheap fish as more desirable and expensive species like tuna or snapper. Other studies this year revealed unlisted ingredients in herbal tea bags.
Hot new applications include:
Substitute ingredients in herbal medicines
High demand is causing regular "adulteration or substitution of herbal drugs," barcoding experts have discovered.
Indeed, notes Malaysian researcher Muhammad Sharir Abdul Rahman, one fraudster in his country treated rubber tree wood with quinine to give it a bitter taste similar to Eurycoma longifolia -- a traditional medicine for malaria, diabetes and other ailments.
A library of DNA barcodes for Malaysia's 1,200 plant species with potential medicinal value is in development, eventually offering "a quick one step detection kit" to reduce fraud in the lucrative herbal medicine industry, says Mr. Sharir.
His concerns resonate in other countries around the true contents of certain brands of ginseng and other products.
DNA barcode libraries are under construction for the medicinal plants of several other nations as well, including South Africa, India and Nigeria.
Barcoding permafrost
From the woolly rhino to plants and mushrooms, scientists using DNA are deciphering what lived in the ancient Arctic environment, creating new insights into climate change in the process.
"DNA barcoding" analyses of cylinders of sediment cored from Arctic permafrost ranging in age from 10,000 to several hundred thousand years have shed light on past animal and fungal distributions and allowed researchers to infer which plant species likely co-existed.
DNA analyses of permafrost sediment 15,000 to 30,000 years old from northeastern Siberia revealed a grassland steppe plain during the glacial period supporting a diverse mammal community, including bison, moose and the DNA of the rare woolly rhino, the first ever found in permafrost sediments.
Says University of Oslo-based researcher Eva Bellemain, who will present project BarFrost (Barcoding of Permafrost): "In the Arctic, fossils are scarce and time-consuming to find and analyze. However, DNA is one tough molecule. It had to be in order to serve its purpose the last billion years and more. Incredibly, it can linger in soil for tens of thousands of years and stay relatively intact."
What eats what
The technology can even distinguish species contained in the gut or dung of animals, revealing what eats what. University of Adelaide researcher Hugh Cross, for example, will detail his investigation into the diet of Australia's fast-growing, 1 million-strong population of wild camels, which severely impact the country's ecology.
Introduced in the 1800s as pack animals, Australia's wild camels eat an estimated 80% of available plant species in their range.
Says conference organizer David Schindel, Executive Secretary of the CBOL, based at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: "Biologists used to sit and wait and watch to learn how food webs work in Nature and what happens when they collapse. Now they can process stomach contents and dung samples to get the complete picture in a few hours."
Invasive pests
Until now, border inspection to keep agricultural pests, disease-carrying insects and invasive species from entering a country has been a hit-and-miss effort. Barcoding offers a tool to get same-day answers for accepting or rejecting imports, an issue of acute economic importance to Australia and New Zealand.
With European Union funding, a consortium of 20 universities, research institutes, and other organizations are partners in Project QBoL (Quarantine Barcode of Life, www.qbol.org), developing a library of DNA barcodes to help quickly identify common invasive organisms that authorities want to stop at national borders.
With the new DNA barcode tool, inspectors can more easily and surely identify and thus prevent the entry of invading pests including bacteria, fungi, fruit flies, other insects, nematodes, viruses, plants and other organisms. Trade of timber cut from endangered species may also be slowed with barcodes to identify wood and lumber products.
Hundreds of topics in Adelaide
"From tea to tuna, DNA identification is entering everyday life," remarked Jesse Ausubel, chair of the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) initiative, a 6-year program now in midstream of a group of the most active labs building the barcode library.
Adds Dr. Schindel: "Like Google and Wikipedia, DNA barcoding scarcely existed a decade ago, and now we are a vibrant community built on 21st century scientific tools."
"DNA barcoding is the express lane to solving many of Nature's mysteries relevant to a spectrum of national interests."
He notes that scores of additional topics will be explored in Adelaide, spanning health, cultural and environmental protection, such as:
Identifying the prey of disease-carrying insects based on analysis of their meals of blood
"Barcoding Nemo" and other species of the ornamental fish trade
Identifying mushrooms and molds
Assessment of the global status of pollinators such as bees, and
Assessing water quality
The blood meals of biting insects
Resembling a common housefly, the African tsetse fly transmits Human African trypanosomiasis, AKA sleeping sickness, to people and animals. One of the world's most dangerous disease vectors, it spread the 2008 epidemic in which 48,000 Ugandans died. And the annual economic impact is estimated at US$4.5 billion, with around 3 million cattle killed every year.
Scientists are using DNA barcodes to identify tsetse fly species and their prey based on analysis of the insect's blood meals, unravelling the relationship between hosts and vectors.
By developing the barcode library, tools and ability to readily distinguish species of tsetse flies, mosquitos, ticks and other vectors of diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, Japanese encephalitis, and Lyme disease, scientists can map risk areas more efficiently and alert authorities to the spread of health threats.
Barcoders have taken up an ambitious five-year goal a comprehensive library of 10,000 insect species that damage or destroy so many human lives: 3,000 mosquito, 1,000 sandfly, 2,000 blackfly, 2,000 flea and 1,000 tick species.
Nemo and friends
According to scientists, over 1 billion ornamental fish -- comprising more than 4,000 freshwater and 1,400 marine species -- are traded internationally each year, a US $5 billion industry growing annually at 8 percent.
Researchers at work on this issue include Gulab Khedkar of India, who says: "To facilitate ornamental fish trading, and in compliance of (India's) Biodiversity Act, a universal method must validate the ornamental fish with their species names. This can help assure a sustainable ornamental fish trade."
Fungi
Fungi are a taxonomic group of many major, distinct evolutionary lineages, ranging from mushrooms to molds. Although two species of fungi can be more distantly related than a fish is related to an insect, all fungi are classified in the same group.
Researchers at the conference are expected to announce the selection of the barcode region for fungi. The standard barcode regions used for animals and plants is not effective for fungi and an international working group has been conducting comparative analyses of candidate regions for two years. The decision is expected to open the floodgates to fungal barcoding research.
A project on indoor fungi that cause human health problems will also be unveiled in Adelaide, showing the enormous potential for fungal studies.
Australian scientist Wieland Meyer argues that, given steadily increasing invasive fungal infections, inadequate identification, limited therapies and the emergence of resistant strains, "there is an urgent need to improve fungal identification" to improve the successful treatment.
Fungi also provide humanity with food and antibiotics and the services of fermentation and decay. DNA-based taxonomy promises to revolutionize understanding of fungal diversity and connect the their life stages.
Barcoders aim to create a library of at least 10,000 fungal species by 2015, especially for indoor fungi, for basidiomycetes (the "higher fungi") and for pathogens of agriculture and forestry.
Insect pollinators
The ecosystem service of plant pollination by insects has a global value estimated at more than $400 billion a year.
Facilitated by the International Barcode of Life (iBOL), barcoders are surveying long-term population trends by assembling barcode libraries for all bees and other important pollinators -- flies and beetles. In combination with campaigns to barcode moths, butterflies and birds, they will provide the database needed to assess the state of pollinator communities worldwide.
Assessing water quality
Scientists in Southern California and elsewhere are pioneering barcodes to assess freshwater marine water quality and its impact on marine life in, sand, sediment, and rocks or in mud in rivers and offshore.
Traditionally after collecting a bulk water sample, taxonomists must identify by sight several thousand invertebrates, a process requiring months and thousands of dollars. DNA barcodes enable them to analyze bulk samples in a fraction of the time at a fraction of the cost.
Similar projects underway in Korea, Iraq, Belgium and the Baltic region will be presented in Adelaide.
DNA barcoding is emerging as the tool of choice for monitoring water quality, DNA barcode libraries of aquatic insects under construction. New technologies are being developed and tested that will allow faster and more complete analyses of entire biological communities in streamwater on 'DNA microchips' and through next-generation sequencing.
Says Dr. Schindel: "It used to take weeks or months to analyze the organisms in streams to determine water quality. Now it takes hours at a fraction the cost."
A global barcode blitz
Scientists in Adelaide will also advance progress towards an international library of barcodes for 500,000 plant, animal and fungi species within five years - "a barcode blitz" that could transform biology science. The Barcode of Life Database includes more than 167,000 reliably named and provisional species today. Butterflies and moths are the largest well-analyzed group so far, with over 60,000 named and provisional species -- much of the world's estimated total of 170,000.
Gold mines for barcoding are the world's museums and herbaria, where countless species specimens are concentrated and organized thanks to great investments of time and dollars.
A year ago, a team of five Biodiversity Institute of Ontario researchers conducted a barcode blitz in the Australian National Insect Collection. Focusing on moths and butterflies for 10 weeks, they processed over 28,000 specimens representing over 8,000 species and 65 per cent of the country's 10,000 known insect species. Meanwhile at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, another team recently barcoded over 3,000 frozen bird tissues from over 1,400 species, adding more than 500 new species to the world avian DNA library, now covering about 40% of known birds.
New techniques for DNA extraction are bringing older and older specimens in natural history museums into the age range where DNA barcoding can be effective. These breakthroughs will open up new research questions about changes in species over the past centuries of human impact on natural populations.
The Munich Botanical Garden is the latest institution with an important collection of authoritative reference specimens opening its collection to a DNA barcode blitz.
###
The ability to identify and distinguish known and unknown species ever more quickly, cheaply, easily and accurately based on snippets of DNA code grew from a research paper in 2003 to a burgeoning global enterprise today, led by the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) at the Smithsonian Institution.
The International Barcode of Life Conference in Adelaide is the 4th in a series that began at the Natural History Museum, London, in February, 2005.
In 2005, there were 33,000 records covering 12,700 species in the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) at the University of Guelph, Canada. Showing a more than 40-fold increase, almost 1.4 million records are now banked, representing roughly 167,000 known and provisional species (see www.barcodinglife.org/views/taxbrowser_root.php).
The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) develops DNA barcoding as a global standard for species identification. With more than 200 member organizations from more than 50 countries, CBOL builds global participation, sets community standards, and organizes and supports working groups, workshops, networks, training opportunities, and international conferences held every two years. Free and open to all, CBOL promotes general awareness of barcoding through an information website (www.barcodeoflife.org) and information sharing through Connect (http://connect.barcodeoflife.net), the Barcode of Life social network.
The largest biodiversity genomics initiative ever launched, the International Barcode of Life (iBOL, http://ibol.org) aims to create by the end of the year 2015 a reference library of 5 million standardized DNA sequences capable of identifying 500 thousand species, more than a quarter of all known species on Earth. Headquartered in Canada, the iBOL program is the creation of more than 100 scientists from more than 20 countries. Launched in 2010 with support from Genome Canada and Ontario Genomics Institute, iBOL's participants commit resourcesfinancial support, human effort, and specimenstoward the 5M/500K goal.
Agenda in Adelaide:
www.dnabarcodes2011.org/conference/program/schedule/index.php
Major sponsors of the global barcoding movement include:
Chinese Academy of Sciences
CONABIO and CONACYT (Mexico)
Genome Canada
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
International Development Research Centre (Canada)
Richard Lounsbery Foundation
Ministry of Science and Technology (Brazil)
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada)
Ontario Genomics Institute
Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Smithsonian Institution
University of Adelaide
University of Guelph
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
MADRID (Reuters) ? Spain's People's Party (PP), due to form a new government by mid-December, is considering applying for international aid as one option for shoring up its finances, sources close to the party say.
The PP inherits an economy on the verge of recession, a tough 2012 public deficit target, financing costs driven to near unsustainable levels by nervous debt markets and a battered bank sector with billions of euros of troubled assets on its books.
But Tuesday's launch by the International Monetary Fund of a credit facility for fiscally responsible countries at risk from the euro zone debt crisis gives it a potential lifeline it may wish to exploit.
"I don't believe the decision (to seek aid) has been made .. but it is one of the options on the table, because I've been asked about it. But we need more time and more information on the current state of things," one source close to the PP told Reuters.
A senior economic consultant to the PP confirmed to Reuters an application for IMF credit was just one option. In itself it would be insufficient and considered a transitory move, the consultant said.
Help under similar conditions may soon be available from the euro zone's European Financial Stability Facility rescue fund, which the bloc's policymakers plan to make more potent.
If extra funding is needed, either from the EFSF or the IMF, it would be politically preferable to make the decision independently and quickly, rather than being compelled by market forces at a later date.
"If we have to do it, we have to do it now," the first source said.
Asked about seeking outside aid, a PP spokeswoman denied that the party is studying such a plan and said the future government has not been formed yet.
The premium investors demand to hold Spanish over German debt stood at around 458 basis points on Friday afternoon, slightly higher than settlement on Thursday and off euro-era highs hit of over 470 hit earlier this week.
"The market perception on Spain would be enormously improved if there was a sense of resolution on the banks. They've probably missed the opportunity to do it on their own strength, but there's no point in dithering here," economist at Deutsche Bank Gilles Moec said.
"The absence of resolution on the banks outweighs the cost of calling for international help."
EURO CORE OR 'DEATH'
Earlier, Spain's treasury scrapped plans to sell a new three-year benchmark bond on December 1, replacing it instead with three off-the-run bonds maturing in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Analysts welcomed the move in light of yields on short-term debt issued by countries on the euro zone's periphery surging, as well as the fact that Italy too was set to issue a new three-year bond next week. That could allow bonds with different maturities to be more easily absorbed in the market.
The stakes are high for PP leader and incoming prime minister Mariano Rajoy, who will address fellow conservative leaders at a December 7th European People's Party congress in the French city of Marseilles, the first source close to the PP said.
The source said Rajoy would tell the congress that Spain would need to outdo German Chancellor Angela Merkel in terms of fiscal discipline, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy on governance former EU President Jacques Delors in terms of growth instruments.
Rajoy would aim to recover Spain's place as a European leader, he added, arguing that a two-speed euro zone which excluded Spain at its core would signal "death," he said.
The IMF on Tuesday increased its lending instruments and launched a six-month liquidity line offering help to countries with solid policies that may be at risk from the euro zone debt crisis.
The fund did not say which countries would qualify, though it would act as "insurance against future shocks and as a short-term liquidity window to address the needs of crisis bystanders."
Rajoy has not made an official appearance since his victory speech after the party trounced the Socialists on Sunday, and gave few details of his economic plans during the campaign.
On Thursday he sent his first tweet thanking supporters for their good wishes, saying he was "working hard."
This week he has been meeting with the heads of Spain's biggest banks to make a fuller assessment of the nation's economic health and decide what his first moves must be, the first source said.
Rajoy has pledged to stick to a deficit target of 4.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, which would require huge spending cuts as well as a deeper overhaul of the financial sector hit by a collapse in property prices.
In 2012, Spain's Treasury must pay back around 120 billion euros in debt redemptions while also financing its deficit. That amounts to at least 200 billion euros.
Spain's problems could be solved if the European Central Bank adopts a policy of quantitative easing -- effectively printing money to buy sovereign bonds. But there is strong opposition to that from Germany and within the ECB.
"Spain would opt for (the ECB solution) first but if that doesn't happen we will have to get external financing," the consultant said.
(Additional reporting by Judy MacInnes and Fiona Ortiz, writing by Paul Day; editing by Mike Peacock, John Stonestreet)
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Public release date: 27-Nov-2011
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