Author Archives: Guest Post

Could a Hurricane Ever Strike Southern California?

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2012Environmentalaska current, america, annual, atlantic, bill patzert, california, california current, californians, climatologist, current flow, drought, earthquake, eastern pacific, el niño, fire, flood, four seasons, fuel, gale force, godzilla, goes 9, golden state, gulf coaster, hurricane, hurricane capital, hurricane john, hurricane linda, Japan, kathleen, maximum temperature, mother nature, noaa, nora, north pacific, northern baja california, northern hemisphere, old adage, pacific decadal oscillation, pacific hurricanes, pacific ocean, pdo, quakes, rain, rainfall, rancho cucamonga, ropical storm, santa ana, satellite, southern california, southern californians, summer, thunderstorm, tropical cyclone, united states, us east, water budget, wind

There’s an old adage (with several variations) that California has four seasons: earthquake, fire, flood and drought. While Californians happily cede the title of Hurricane Capital of America to U.S. East and Gulf coasters, every once in a while, Mother Nature sends a reminder to Southern Californians that they are not completely immune to the whims of tropical cyclones. Typically, this takes the form of rainfall from the remnants of a tropical cyclone in the eastern Pacific, as happened recently when the remnants of Hurricane John brought rain and thunderstorms to parts of Southern California. But could a hurricane ever make landfall in Southern California?

The answer, as it turns out, is yes, and no. While there has never been a documented case of a hurricane making landfall in California, the Golden State has had its share of run-ins and close calls with tropical cyclones. In fact, California has been affected by at least a few tropical cyclones in every decade since 1900. Over that timeframe, three of those storms brought gale-force winds to California: an unnamed California tropical storm in 1939, Kathleen in 1976 and Nora in 1997. But the primary threat from California tropical cyclones isn’t winds or storm surge. It’s rainfall — sometimes torrential — which has led to flooding, damage and, occasionally, casualties. (more…)

Microsoft Employees Raise $1 Billion for Communities Around the World

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2012Technology30th, alice kupcik, american, beat diabetes, Bill Gates, ceo, children hospital, chris gregoire, elisa, employee, foundation, giving campaign, greg graceffo, international, jon fine, king county, Mexico, microsoft chairman, microsoft corp., microsoft employee, milestone, national, oaxaca, red cross, redmond campus, seattle, state gov, steve ballmer, united way, us employee, us workforce, Washington, washingtonian, world vision

Microsoft commemorates 30th Employee Giving Campaign with CEO Steve Ballmer and Chairman and Founder Bill Gates.

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 18, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. today commemorated its 30th Employee Giving Campaign and announced that U.S. employees raised $1 billion in cash since 1983 for approximately 31,000 nonprofits and community organizations around the world. CEO Steve Ballmer announced the milestone during a special town hall event at the Microsoft Redmond campus, which included Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Washington State Gov. Chris Gregoire.

“Today, I’m thrilled to announce that since our Employee Giving Campaign started in 1983, Microsoft employees have donated a total of $1 billion to more than 31,000 nonprofits around the world,” Ballmer said. “I’m incredibly proud of our employees, and this is truly a time to celebrate, not just because we’ve raised a record amount of funds, but also because together with our nonprofit partners, we have impacted and improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people.” (more…)

In Blown-Down Forests, a Story of Survival

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2012Environmentdamaged timber, downed trees, forest health, rotting logs, uprooted trunks

To preserve forest health, the best management decision may be to do nothing

In newscasts after intense wind and ice storms, damaged trees stand out: snapped limbs, uprooted trunks, entire forests blown nearly flat. (more…)

IBM Addresses Security Challenges of Big Data, Mobile and Cloud Computing

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2012Technologyaudit data, automate compliance, big data, brendan hannigan, cloud, cloud based, cloud computing, cloud security, cloudera, data security, Environment, flemish government, framework, hadoop, ibm, infosphere biginsights, initiatives, interoperability protocol, it risk, key management, kmip, management, mcbc, mobile, mobile security, multi perimeter, organization, platform, protect data, qradar, relational data, securit, security inhibitor, security intelligence, smartcloud, united states, wim martens

Largest set of security software capabilities announced to date

ARMONK, N.Y. – 18 Oct 2012: In a move designed to reduce the biggest security inhibitors that organizations face in implementing cloud, mobile and big data initiatives, IBM today announced a broad set of security software to help holistically secure data and identities.

IBM’s new software capabilities help clients better maintain security control over mobile devices, mitigate internal and external threats, reduce security risks in cloud environments, extend database security to gain real-time insights into big data environments such as Hadoop, and automate compliance and data security management. Along with IBM Security Services and IBM’s world-class research capabilities, this set of scalable capabilities supports a holistic, proactive approach to security threats spanning people, data, applications and infrastructure. (more…)

Researchers Create ‘Nanoflowers’ for Energy Storage, Solar Cells

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2012Scienceacs nano, atomic structure, batteries, carnation, chun li, device, energy storage, flow, flower like, flower structure, gayatri pongur snigdha, germanium sulfide, ges, ges nanoflower, ges powder, ges vapor, graphite, liang huang, linyou cao, lithium ion, marigold, material, micrometer, nanometer, next generation, non-toxic, north Carolina, petal, semiconductor, solar cell, state university, structure, surface area, toxic, useable power, vaporize, yifei yu

Researchers from North Carolina State University have created flower-like structures out of germanium sulfide (GeS) – a semiconductor material – that have extremely thin petals with an enormous surface area. The GeS flower holds promise for next-generation energy storage devices and solar cells.

“Creating these GeS nanoflowers is exciting because it gives us a huge surface area in a small amount of space,” says Dr. Linyou Cao, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper on the research. “This could significantly increase the capacity of lithium-ion batteries, for instance, since the thinner structure with larger surface area can hold more lithium ions. By the same token, this GeS flower structure could lead to increased capacity for supercapacitors, which are also used for energy storage.” (more…)

Rope It

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2012Sportsball spins freely, entrepreneurial success, golf ball, golf market, golf product, rope it

Lerner College alumni bring a new product to the golf market

Two University of Delaware alumni from the Class of 2009, Louis Girifalco and Marc Reda, are only a few years out of college and already have found entrepreneurial success with a golf product called Rope It. (more…)

Commentary: Sergei Khrushchev – The Cuban Missile Crisis, 50 years later

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2012Politics13 day, 50th anniversary, air strike, american, american mythology, balance, berlin, brown, Cuba, cuban, cuban invasion, diplomatic lesson, enemy, europeans, ex comm, executive committee, iranian republic, john kennedy, middle east, missile base, missile crisis, nikita khrushchev, nuclear exchange, nuclear weapons, october, power, president, president castro, president kennedy, President Obama, psychological crisis, resolution, russian premier, russians, secret, sergei khrushchev, slavic language, southern america, soviet bloc, soviet union, tense time, united states, victory, weapon

October marks the 50th anniversary of of the 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis, when President John F. Kennedy discovered that the Soviet Union was building secret missile bases in Cuba. Forgoing the option of a Cuban invasion or air strikes, Kennedy asked Russian Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev to remove all weapons from the island, and on Oct. 28, 1962, Khrushchev conceded, halting the standoff. Here, Khrushchev’s son, Sergei Khrushchev, visiting professor of Slavic languages at Brown, reflects on the diplomatic lessons.

The perspective of the crisis has changed over time and today the history of the crisis is more focused not on the confrontation, but on cooperation.

The Cuban Missile Crisis showed that two leaders decided not to shoot first, but to think and negotiate with each other. And today that is very unusual, because we think we can only negotiate with friends. Today, we impose unconditional surrender and nobody surrenders unconditionally until fully defeated. (more…)

Beyond Bieber: Twitter Improves Student Learning

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2012Technologychristine greenhow, college student, communication practice, conversation online, education, educational forum, high schooler, higher grade, jeff grabill, justin bieber, lady gaga, literary practice, retweet, site, social media, Social networking, social practice, tweeting, Twitter, twitteracy

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Twitter, best known as the 140-character social-networking site where Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga chit-chat with fans, has become a new literary format that is improving student learning, a new study argues.

Christine Greenhow, assistant professor of education at Michigan State University, found that college students who tweet as part of their instruction are more engaged with the course content and with the teacher and other students, and have higher grades.

“Tweeting can be thought of as a new literary practice,” said Greenhow, who also studies the growing use of social media among high-schoolers. “It’s changing the way we experience what we read and what we write.” (more…)