Cairo ultraconservatives protest Iranian tourists

CAIRO (AP) ? Dozens of ultraconservative protesters threw rocks at the residence of Iran's top diplomat in Cairo to protest the Egyptian government's attempt to improve ties with Tehran.

The protesters are upset about Iranian tourists who arrived in Egypt this week on the first commercial flights between the two countries in 30 years.

Violence erupted Friday after protesters hung a green-striped Syrian rebel flag on the gates of the diplomat's residence. The protesters chanted against Shiite Tehran's support of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

The Salafi protesters in Cairo, like other hard-liners in the region, consider Shiites heretics and fear Iran is trying to spread its practices among Sunnis.

Dozens of riot police stood guard around the diplomat's residence to prevent protesters from storming the building.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cairo-ultraconservatives-protest-iranian-tourists-141727142.html

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American Idol Results: Who Was Eliminated?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/american-idol-results-who-was-eliminated/

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Best Buy stores to feature Samsung kiosks

NEW YORK (AP) ? Shares of Best Buy jumped on Thursday after it announced plans to create store-within-store kiosks for Samsung products ? a vote of confidence from a major consumer electronics retailer that the brick-and-mortar format is still an important way to sell products.

Best Buy shares rose more than 16 percent Thurday.

The Minneapolis-based company has battled the "showrooming" effect as more and more people browse in stores and then buy items cheaper online. This has led to fears that the big-box store format is growing obsolete.

But Best Buy has aggressively fought back under new CEO turnaround expert Hubert Joly ? introducing an online price matching policy, giving employees extra training and cutting costs and revamping stores.

The latest deal is a sign that consumer electronics retailers are sticking with the chain. The company will offer Samsung dedicated kiosks at 1,400 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores. Shops will offer the full range of Samsung's mobile products, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras and accessories.

The move shows "a very high-profile consumer electronics vendor still finds Best Buy a relevant distribution outlet," said Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy.

It's also a way for Samsung to carve out dedicated retail space without investing in overhead necessary to open its own stores, like its chief rival, Apple Inc., has done.

About 900 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores will be open by early May, with the rest open by early summer.

Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser said the deal is an example of Best Buy making merchandising progress. He said it may be a wake-up call that will convince other vendors, like Google, Microsoft and Sony, to invest more with Best Buy.

Best Buy shares rose $3.48 or 16.1 percent, to close at $25.13 Thursday, after briefly reaching a 52-week high of $25.30. The stock has more than doubled since the start of the year.

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Online:

www.bestbuy.com/samsungexperienceshop.

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Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-04-US-Best-Buy-Samsung-Kiosks/id-0de8063fa4984ca29eb6eb74646643bf

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Obama to travel to Colorado, Connecticut to push gun legislation (Washington Bureau)

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New models predict drastically greener Arctic in coming decades

Monday, April 1, 2013

New research predicts that rising temperatures will lead to a massive "greening," or increase in plant cover, in the Arctic. In a paper published on March 31 in Nature Climate Change, scientists reveal new models projecting that wooded areas in the Arctic could increase by as much as 50 percent over the next few decades. The researchers also show that this dramatic greening will accelerate climate warming at a rate greater than previously expected.

"Such widespread redistribution of Arctic vegetation would have impacts that reverberate through the global ecosystem," said Richard Pearson, lead author on the paper and a research scientist at the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.

Plant growth in Arctic ecosystems has increased over the past few decades, a trend that coincides with increases in temperatures, which are rising at about twice the global rate. The research team?which includes scientists from the Museum, AT&T Labs-Research, Woods Hole Research Center, Colgate University, Cornell University, and the University of York?used climate scenarios for the 2050s to explore how this trend is likely to continue in the future. The scientists developed models that statistically predict the types of plants that could grow under certain temperatures and precipitation. Although it comes with some uncertainty, this type of modeling is a robust way to study the Arctic because the harsh climate limits the range of plants that can grow, making this system simpler to model compared to other regions such as the tropics.

The models reveal the potential for massive redistribution of vegetation across the Arctic under future climate, with about half of all vegetation switching to a different class and a massive increase in tree cover. What might this look like? In Siberia, for instance, trees could grow hundreds of miles north of the present tree line.

"These impacts would extend far beyond the Arctic region," Pearson said. "For example, some species of birds seasonally migrate from lower latitudes and rely on finding particular polar habitats, such as open space for ground-nesting."

In addition, the researchers investigated the multiple climate change feedbacks that greening would produce. They found that a phenomenon called the albedo effect, based on the reflectivity of the Earth's surface, would have the greatest impact on the Arctic's climate. When the sun hits snow, most of the radiation is reflected back to space. But when it hits an area that's "dark," or covered in trees or shrubs, more sunlight is absorbed in the area and temperature increases. This has a positive feedback to climate warming: the more vegetation there is, the more warming will occur.

"By incorporating observed relationships between plants and albedo, we show that vegetation distribution shifts will result in an overall positive feedback to climate that is likely to cause greater warming than has previously been predicted," said co-author Scott Goetz, of the Woods Hole Research Center.

###

American Museum of Natural History: http://www.amnh.org

Thanks to American Museum of Natural History for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127537/New_models_predict_drastically_greener_Arctic_in_coming_decades

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By keeping the beat, sea lion sheds new light on animals? movements to sound

Apr. 1, 2013 ? Move over dancing bears, Ronan the sea lion really does know how to boogie to the beat.

A California sea lion who bobs her head in time with music has given scientists the first empirical evidence of an animal that is not capable of vocal mimicry but can keep the beat, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

The study's authors suggest that their findings challenge current scientific theories that an animal's ability to synchronize its movements with sound are associated with the same brain mechanisms that allow for vocal mimicry in humans and some birds such as cockatoos, parrots, and budgerigars. The findings were published online April 1 in APA's Journal of Comparative Psychology.

"Understanding the cognitive capabilities of animals requires carefully controlled, well-designed experiments," said study co-author Colleen Reichmuth, PhD, with the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz. "This study is particularly rigorous because it examines, step-by-step, the learning conditions that supported the emergence of this complex behavior."

Ronan, a 3-year-old sea lion, demonstrated her ability to bob to the beat in six experiments led by doctoral candidate Peter Cook at the Long Marine Lab at UCSC.

"Dancing is universal among humans, and until recently, it was thought to be unique to humans as well," said Cook. "When some species of birds were found to have a similar capability for rhythmic movement, it was linked to their ability to mimic sound. Now we're seeing that even mammals with limited vocal ability can move in time with a beat over a broad range of sounds and tempos."

Ronan's first musical "dance" lesson was to the tune of a simplified section of John Fogerty's "Down on the Corner," the study said. Once Ronan was trained to bob her head to music, the researchers tested her with two pop songs, "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys, and "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind and Fire. Without any prior exposure to the songs, Ronan was able to bob to the beat of both songs over the course of multiple trials, according to the study. She then showed that she could follow along to five different tempos of "Boogie Wonderland."

Ronan's bobbing skills markedly improved over the course of the trials and apparently endured, the study found. The researchers gave her a follow-up test a few weeks after the final session and she was successful in keeping the beat with each of the sounds previously used, maintaining a minimum of 60 consecutive bobs to each of the various beats.

At the beginning of the experiments, Ronan was first trained to move in time to a hand signal, which was replaced by a simple non-musical sound signal. When she successfully completed tests by bobbing her head to various rhythmic sounds, she was rewarded with a fish, the study said.

The researchers varied the types and speed of the sounds to verify that she was actually following the rhythm by bobbing her head. To rule out that she wasn't simply bobbing her head in response to the previous beat, they tested her using two computer-generated, metronome-like ticks -- one that did not miss a beat and the other that did. Ronan kept the beat going even when the metronome missed a beat, according to the study.

A video of Ronan can be watched at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yS6qU_w3JQ

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Psychological Association (APA), via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Peter Cook, Andrew Rouse, Margaret Wilson, Colleen Reichmuth. A California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) Can Keep the Beat: Motor Entrainment to Rhythmic Auditory Stimuli in a Non Vocal Mimic.. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 2013; DOI: 10.1037/a0032345

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/h6tZBb2HCsQ/130401143149.htm

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My final mortgage refinancing (hopefully) | a windycitygal's Weblog

Recently it seems there has been an uptick in posts about mortgages in the personal finance blogosphere. While Grumpy rumblings has been posting a mortgage update on a regular basis, and 101 Centavos recently had some fun equating the thirty-year mortgage and fish oil, there are two posts I?ve read in the past month that were stand outs:

Retire by 40?s Should you pay off your mortgage if you could;

Afford Anything?s Pay down your mortgage or invest in cash?

I?m not even close to being able to think about getting rid of my mortgage, so it?s heartening to read about how they can fit into a solid investment strategy. I did, however, recently refinance my mortgage from a 30-year fixed rate to a 15-year fixed rate. I?m planning on this being the last refinance I will ever have to do on this house.

When I moved into this house back in the summer of 2001, I was married and the mortgage was secured in both of our names. My ex-husband and I had very good money habits and stellar credit, but the mortgage rates in 2001 were not as low as they are now. We paid $100 extra on the mortgage each month, refinanced a few years later when the rates had dropped, and continued our practice of paying a bit extra to principal on a regular basis. Then we filed for divorce in 2008.

I wanted to keep the house and my ex-husband was amenable to that, so I had to secure my own mortgage. My credit history and rating was fantastic, and I had a stable and well-paying job, so qualifying for a mortgage wasn?t going to be an issue. However, I wanted to do some work in the house and the divorce settlement was going to leave me cash poor, so I needed to secure a ?cash-out? refinancing. I worked with a good mortgage broker, but the rates for a 30-year cash-out refinance?weren?t as low as a standard 30-year mortgage and I ended up paying 5.5% interest when I closed in February 2009.

In December 2009, I worked with the same mortgage broker to refinance to a new 30-year mortgage at 4.875%. At this point I had extra income from taking on roommates and had saved enough to create an emergency fund, so I felt it was time to start paying extra towards principal every month. Through December 2010, I used the old approach of adding an extra $100 to the monthly payment. (Actually, because I wanted to round-up my monthly payment to a whole number, my principal curtailment was the odd figure of $108.69 every month.) Then in January 2011, I decided to challenge myself more by rounding up the monthly mortgage payment even more, resulting in principal curtailment of just over $300 a month.

Why such a big jump in my repayments? My age. I don?t want to be paying a mortgage in my retirement years, and since I?m in my mid-40s now, I needed to pay the mortgage down faster. I ran through some options in a mortgage repayment calculator and settled on the $300 figure to get the mortgage paid off by the time I was 67, my Social Security retirement age. It was also a stretch goal for my budget and I wanted to see how it worked out. What I found was that it wasn?t as much of a stretch as I thought it would be, and I was able to continue comfortably paying quite a bit extra while still saving money for vacations and a car.

Mortgage rates continued to drop, and in October 2011, I decided to try refinancing yet again. I got in touch with my mortgage broker, completed all the paperwork, and paid my appraisal fee. This time I was going for a 20-year mortgage, so I could continue to meet my goal of paying off the mortgage by 67. Unfortunately while I had all the qualifications of a good lending prospect, the local real estate market was not in my favor. The appraisal on my house came back much lower than expected, and I was faced with the prospect of either paying PMI having to come up with a large chunk of cash?so I could refinance without PMI.

I decided to simply sit tight on my 4.875% mortgage and continue to pay extra in principal curtailment. It would not have been a good financial decision to take on PMI, nor to liquidate most of my cash savings just to secure a rate that was not quite a full percentage point lower than my current rate.

Truthfully, I was devastated by the appraisal of my house. I know that home appraisals for purposes of refinancing don?t mean as much as a resale appraisal. It?s just a number of paper until you actually try to sell the house, after all. However for me, it did mean more. I had taken on the house as my main asset when I was divorced in early 2009, trading all of my cash on hand for it. So for me, the house was my divorce settlement in its?entirety. Seeing that a bank appraiser thought that in November 2011 it was worth $85,000 less than in December 2008 meant that I had lost over $40,000 in the settlement. Even more crushing, the appraised value was $20,000 less than we had paid for the house in the summer of 2001. It was as if 10 years of diligent property improvements and extra principal payments meant less than nothing.

I waited until the fall of 2012 before contacting the mortgage broker yet again about refinancing. In the meantime, I continued to pay extra on the mortgage, although in early 2012 my strategy of rounding up to the nearest thousand was coming out to only $275 extra. (The difference was due to more being added to escrow for taxes.) The mortgage broker wasn?t responding to my emails, though, and I didn?t push it. The real estate market in Chicago has been lagging other areas of the country, and I was in no hurry to be told yet again that my house wasn?t worth as much as I had paid for it.

So when I got a call out of the blue just over a month ago from an employee of my current lender, Chase, asking if I wanted to meet to discuss a refinance I jumped at the opportunity. I set up an appointment at the local branch for the next week and brought along everything I would need to apply for a refinance, just in case. We ran some numbers for a 30-year mortgage. My goodness how low the payments looked. I told the bank rep how much I had been paying every month, including the extra principal payments. So we ran some numbers for a 15-year mortgage, and those payments looked very good, too.

I told the Chase rep about my experience in the fall of 2011 with the appraisal on my house, and how I thought my diligent principal?curtailment would have helped. Even if the appraisal came back the same, I had paid enough principal down that I would be back to the magic 20% equity mark. (Worst case: I would be close enough that a couple thousand dollars from savings would bring me there.) I was offered a 3.125% rate on a 15-year mortgage, so I thought it worth the appraisal fee and on we went.

The appraisal was done a week later, and I was very happy to find that this time the house was valued at much more than 20% equity. In fact, it was appraised only $15,000 less than the appraisal done in December 2008, and I was at the 60% equity mark. I was also able to have the escrow waived. Now I can deal with the taxes on my own, so if there is an issue with the property tax bill I can deal with it more effectively. (The frustrations around my property taxes in 2011 were a missed blogging opportunity that I may still write about at some point.)

I know there could be rates lower than 3.125% out there for a 15-year mortgage, but I?m very happy with this rate. Chase also has a 1% cash back program if you have a checking account with them that is linked to the mortgage for automatic payments. With this program, 1% of the principal and interest payment is refunded after a year. The refunded amount can be applied directly to the mortgage principal or deposited in the Chase checking account. I did not have a Chase checking account at the time I applied for refinancing, but I opened one the same day I closed on my new mortgage. With interest rates on savings accounts being so low, I?m happy to get a little over $180 a year in the cash back program.

The close of my new mortgage was completed in a matter of minutes. Really. I got to the branch at 9 AM and walked away from the desk at 9:10 AM with a shiny new mortgage. My first payment is due May 1, 2013, and my last will be due when I?m 60.

It?s this last fact that gives me the most pleasure. In only four years I?ve gone from being cash poor with a mortgage I?d be paying into my 70s, to being on a sound financial footing with a mortgage payoff date several years before my effective retirement date. Way to go, Linda!

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Source: http://awindycitygal.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/my-final-mortgage-refinancing-hopefully/

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