PFT: Bears will retire Ditka's No. 89 in December

AP

With last year?s leading receiver, Michael Crabtree, out an estimated six months with a torn Achilles tendon, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh says he?s confident someone will step up to fill the void.

Harbaugh isn?t totally sure who that ?someone? will be, though.

Harbaugh said on 95.7 The Game that he believes the most likely candidates to take Crabtree?s place in the offense are last year?s first-round pick A.J. Jenkins and this year?s fourth-round pick Quinton Patton as well as Ricardo Lockette, who has never played in a game for the 49ers but spent most of last year on the roster and has reportedly looked good in practices.

?We?ll put Jenkins, Patton, Ricardo Lockette at the same position and let them compete and emerge,? Harbaugh said. ?The good news is that somebody will emerge because they have to.?

Harbaugh also said he believes the 49ers have a lot of depth at the receiver position.

?Then on the other side, Anquan Boldin, Chad Hall, Marlon Moore has been doing some really nice things in the offseason,? Harbaugh said. ?Joe Hastings will compete on the other side. Kyle Williams eventually will come back from his injury. He?s doing real well, coming along very nicely. And Mario Manningham ? probably a little bit later than Kyle, but he?s on track to be healed up and ready to go, as well. A real good chance for some young guys to emerge, get some reps and contribute. I very much anticipate that will happen.?

For the 49ers, it needs to happen. Crabtree was the 49ers? best wide receiver and a big reason that Colin Kaepernick settled into the starting quarterback job so smoothly last year. He won?t be easy to replace, but the 49ers have no choice but to find someone who can do it.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/24/bears-to-retire-mike-ditkas-number-in-december/related/

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Facebook's Head Of Brand Design Paul Adams Joins Customer Outreach Startup Intercom

Paul Adams, who was previously Facebook's global head of brand design, has joined a startup called Intercom, where he will be serving as head of product design. Adams told me earlier that he wasn't looking to leave Facebook, but he had also been advising Intercom and became excited about the opportunity. The startup, which is backed by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, 500 Startups, and others, offers tools for online businesses to track every interaction with a customer and to use that data to deliver personalized messages and offers.

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

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Understanding the past and predicting the future by looking across space and time

May 25, 2013 ? Studying complex systems like ecosystems can get messy, especially when trying to predict how they interact with other big unknowns like climate change.

In a new paper published this week (May 20) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and elsewhere validate a fundamental assumption at the very heart of a popular way to predict relationships between complex variables.

To model how climate changes may impact biodiversity, researchers like Jessica Blois and John W. (Jack) Williams routinely use an approach called "space-for-time substitution." The idea behind this method is to use the information in current geographic distributions of species to build a model that can predict climate-driven ecological changes in the past or future. But does it really work?

"It's a necessary assumption, but it's generally untested," says lead study author Blois, a former postdoctoral fellow with Williams at UW-Madison. She is now an assistant professor at the University of California, Merced. "Yet we're using this every day when we make predictions about biodiversity going into the future with climate change."

Their results should give other ecologists -- and potentially others such as economists who use similar models -- more confidence in their methods.

"At these spatial and temporal scales, the space-for-time assumption does work well," says Williams, professor of geography and director of the Center for Climatic Research at the UW-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. "Our fossil data did support the idea that you can use spatial relationships as a source of information for making these predictions for the future."

Their research focus is paleoecology, the study of ancient ecosystems. By looking at fossilized pollen trapped in cores of sediment from the bottoms of lakes, the scientists reconstructed information about the plant communities present at locations across eastern North America during the past 21,000 years.

If climate has influenced communities the same way across space and through time, Blois explains, then a model based on the spatial data should make the same predictions as a model based on their temporal data. And in fact, they did.

The space-for-time model explained about 72 percent of the variation seen in their time data, and the remainder is likely due to other biological and environmental factors that the simplified model does not include, Blois says.

Though the testing does not capture all the ways space-for-time substitutions are used in other predictive fields, she says that the results are very encouraging for questions spanning large geographic and time scales -- scales at which collecting good temporal data can be very challenging.

"We found that at these broad time scales we're looking at, that space does substitute for time relatively well," Blois says. "It makes me more confident in my analyses going forward."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/7kwwXkvDVSI/130525143731.htm

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Shelton, Underwood coming to aid of Oklahomans

Blake Shelton has a date and location for his benefit and fellow Oklahoman Carrie Underwood is writing a large check to help benefit those affected by this week's storms in their home state.

Organizers say Shelton's "Healing in the Heartland" benefit concert will be held May 29 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. The event will be televised live on NBC.

And Underwood is donating $1 million in proceeds from her recent Blown Away Tour to the Red Cross, which assists in disasters such as the one that devastated Moore, Okla., and killed 24 people Monday. Underwood grew up in Checotah.

Shelton, a resident of nearby Ada, announced plans for the benefit after Tuesday's episode of "The Voice." A lineup and more details will be announced Friday.

___

Online:

http://carrieunderwoodofficial.com

http://blakeshelton.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shelton-underwood-coming-aid-oklahomans-013645121.html

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Some of the Best Investments for Doubling Your Money Are in ...

Best Investments in Biotech in 2013

Of late, the industry has indeed enjoyed a healthy showing.

In Q1, the Nasdaq Biotech Index carried over its robust performance from late 2012, gaining 16.7%. Credit significant product approvals, positive clinical trials and sold business outlooks for the sustained momentum and outperformance versus the broader market.

The Index recently hit a record high, leaving many to wonder if the sector is poised for a pullback.

The consensus views are fundamentals remain favorable, the sector still exudes strength and the biotech rally has legs.

Sharing that sentiment is Evan McCulloch, co-manager of the Franklin Biotechnology Discovery Fund, one of the best performing health care funds tracked by Morningstar.

"Biotech, especially the big companies, are coming off some very low valuations. From 2009 through 2011, the sector underperformed the broader stock market. Wall Street, having once believed drug makers were unable to make research and development spending pay, now has come to realize that it pays for companies to invest in drug discovery and development," McCulloch told Barron's.

Thanks to a more receptive Food and Drug Administration (FDA), fresh drug pipelines and resurgence in M&A activity, the sector is in a sweet spot. Big players are flush with cash, and smaller troupes are ripe with promise--the perfect combination for fruitful research and development.

Best Investments 2013: How R&D is Paying Off for Biotech

Since the discovery of DNA in 1953, and the identification of DNA as the genetic material in all life, advances in the vast area of biotechnology have been astounding.

But because of the extremely high costs of R&D, coupled with scant revenue in the early years of development, funding is tight. Moreover, companies experimenting in R&D often see their valuation diminish since they provide little return for shareholders.

Lately, however, there's been a profitable development in the sector...

Exclusive: Glencore, Trafigura deals with Iran may have skirted sanctions - U.N

By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Metals swap deals with Iran by Switzerland-based commodities giants Glencore Xstrata and Trafigura could have been a way of skirting international sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, according to a confidential U.N. Panel of Experts report seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

Reuters reported on March 1 that Glencore had supplied thousands of tons of alumina to an Iranian firm that has provided aluminum to Iran's nuclear program, an allegation Glencore confirmed as accurate. Afterward, Trafigura acknowledged it had also traded with the same Iranian firm.

Swiss authorities said at the time that they saw no evidence of U.N. or Swiss sanctions violations by Glencore, but the U.N. experts, who monitor compliance with the Iran sanctions regime, raised the possibility that the swap deals were a means of flouting restrictions on trade with Iran.

"If confirmed, such transactions may reflect an avenue for procurement of a raw material in a manner that circumvents sanctions," the 49-page report said in reference to the media reports on the swap deals. "The companies involved have stated that they have halted those transactions."

Reuters has sought comment from both companies regarding the report, which was delivered to the U.N. Security Council's Iran sanctions committee earlier this month.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Glencore's head of aluminum, Gary Fegel, is set to leave the company, the first high-profile departure since the commodity trading giant closed its purchase of miner Xstrata this month. The timing and reason for his exit after 12 years at Glencore are unclear.

The experts' annual report said they have found evidence that Tehran routinely attempts to flout the sanctions applied against Iran over its nuclear program, which Western powers and their allies suspect is aimed at producing weapons but the Iranians say is for peaceful electricity generation.

"Iran continues to seek items for its prohibited activities from abroad by using multiple and increasingly complex procurement methods, including front companies, intermediaries, false documentation, and new routes," the experts said.

"These require additional vigilance and expertise on the part of states in order to identify suspicious transactions," it said.

IRANIAN REACTOR CONSTRUCTION

The panel listed 11 violations by Iran since June 2012 and said it has at least six ongoing investigations into possible sanctions violations, including the export of machine tools reported by Spain and the export of technical equipment for use in satellite technology reported by Germany.

The United States reported transfers and attempted transfers of items linked to Iran's nuclear program, including vacuum equipment for test stands, pressure transducers, vacuum pumps and materials for fabrication of centrifuge machine components like magnetic tape, marching steel and aluminum alloys.

The United States also reported a violation involving the transfer of specialized metals to several entities in Iran associated with the ballistic missile program.

The report said recent Iran sanctions violations had also been reported by Sweden, Bahrain, France, Britain and an unidentified country listed as "State X".

The experts said Iran had not demonstrated any significant new missile capabilities in the past year, but had continued to violate Security Council resolutions by launching missiles.

"Despite at least the partial success in making its ballistic missile program indigenous, Iran remains reliant on foreign suppliers for technology, some components and raw materials," the panel said.

"Preventing supply of these items is critical for international efforts to slow Iran's prohibited ballistic missiles activities," it said.

The experts recommended the Security Council sanction one entity - Pentane Chemistry Industries "for the procurement of valves for use in the Arak Heavy Water reactor." The company was blacklisted by the United States in 2012.

The reactor near the central Iranian town of Arak is under construction and nuclear analysts have said it could yield plutonium for nuclear arms if the spent fuel is reprocessed, something Iran has said it has no intention of doing.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog in Vienna said on Wednesday Iran was pressing ahead with construction of the Arak plant.

The panel also said it was aware of reports of weapons being transferred to Syria, in violation of the U.N. ban on Iranian arms exports, through Iraqi airspace, but that Iraqi authorities had said they checked two shipments and found no arms. The experts did not elaborate further on the allegations.

The eight-member panel of experts were split over whether a seizure of weapons on a ship named Jihan off the coast of Yemen was a violation or probable violation of the Iran arms embargo.

Yemen has said its coast guard seized missiles and rockets on January 23 believed to have been sent by Iran. Iran has denied any connection to the weapons, which were found aboard a vessel off the coast in an operation coordinated with the U.S. Navy.

"Five members of the panel found that all available information placed Iran at the center of the Jihan operation. The crew bypassed routine immigration and airport security procedures while in Iran. The voyage originated in Iranian territorial waters," the experts' report said.

"Three members of the panel noted that no information was found about the time and location that the arms and other items were loaded on the Jihan," it said.

Highlighting the methods used to hide weapon shipments, the panel described one of the hiding places it found on board the Jihan when its members inspected the vessel.

"The seized items were concealed in four compartments hidden by diesel fuel tanks which could not be accessed from the deck," the report said. "These hidden compartments could be accessed only after the diesel fuel tanks were emptied."

Diplomatic sources familiar with the investigation of the ship have told Reuters that there were indications the ship's ultimate destination may have been Somalia, but there was no mention of this in the Panel of Experts report.

(Additional reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Stacey Joyce and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-glencore-trafigura-deals-iran-may-skirted-sanctions-065259094.html

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Friends of Syria demands Hezbollah, Iran fighters withdraw

AMMAN (Reuters) - The Friends of Syria alliance called on Iran and its Lebanese Hezbollah ally on Thursday to withdraw fighters immediately from Syrian territory and described their armed presence in the country as a threat to regional stability.

In a communiqu? issued after a meeting in Amman, the alliance said it will "further increase" support for the opposition and "take all other steps as necessary" until a planned peace conference backed by Russia and the United States produces a transitional government that would assume power over the army and executive, which are now in President Bashar al-Assad's hands.

Referring to Hezbollah guerrillas fighting along the Syrian army and pro-Assad militia in the Syrian town of Qusair near the Lebanese border, the alliance "called for the immediate withdrawal of Hezbollah, fighters from Iran, and other regime allied foreign fighters from Syrian territory."

The meeting of 11 Western and Arab nations, as well as Turkey, which constitute the core group of the alliance, also warned of "severe consequences" if use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces is confirmed.

The communiqu? said Assad's forces "committed ethnic cleansing" this month in the city of Banias. Opposition campaigners said forces from Assad's minority Alawite sect killed and mutilated at least 100 Sunni men, women and children in the coastal city of Banias on May 2.

But the alliance warned that radicalism was growing on both sides of the two-year conflict, in which at least 80,000 people were killed.

"The ministers expressed their strong concern over the increasing presence and growing radicalism on both sides of the conflict and terrorist elements in Syria that deepens the concerns for the future of Syria," the statement said.

(Reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi and Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom; Editing by Michael Roddy and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/friends-syria-demands-withdrawal-hezbollah-iran-fighters-220903522.html

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