No, Mermaids Do Not Exist

No credible evidence of the existence of mermaids has ever been found

Courtesy of Animal Planet

This week, Animal Planet aired two fake documentaries claiming to show scientific evidence of mermaids. I say ?fake documentaries? because that?s exactly what The Body Found and The New Evidence are. The ?scientists? interviewed in the show are actors, and there?s a brief disclaimer during the end credits. However, the Twitter conversation surrounding the show (#Mermaids) reveals that many viewers are unaware that the show isn?t real. (Sample Tweets: ?After watching the documentary #Mermaids the body found ? I believe there are mermaids!!!? and ?90% of the ocean is unexplored and you?re telling me #mermaids don?t exist??which has been retweeted more than 800 times.) It is, after all, airing on a network that claims to focus on educating viewers about the natural world. ?The Body Found? was rightfully described ?the rotting carcass of science television,? and I was shocked to see Animal Planet air a sequel.

As a marine biologist, I can tell you unequivocally that despite millennia of humans exploring the ocean, no credible evidence of the existence of mermaids has ever been found. Some claim that manatees are the source of the legend, but you?d have to be at sea an awfully long time to think that a manatee is a beautiful woman. Sure, new species are discovered all the time, but while a new species of bird or insect is fascinating, it doesn?t mean ?anything is possible,? and it is certainly not equivalent to finding a group of talking, thinking humanoids with fish tails covering half of their bodies. The confusion generated by ?The Body Found? got to be so significant that the United States government issued an official statement on the matter.

When I started angrily posting about this on Facebook and Twitter, many of my nonscientist friends asked me why it matters if people believe in mermaids. It matters because the ocean is extremely important. It provides jobs for tens of millions of people and food for billions. However, many marine resources are being overexploited and mismanaged, leaving us in serious danger of losing them forever. Policy solutions can help, but if you are so ignorant about what is really happening in the ocean that you believe that there are organisms that are half human and half fish, you're almost certainly unaware of the important problems, much less how to solve them. Even if you don?t believe in mythical creatures, you may be unaware of the severity of the crises facing our oceans. Now that we?ve established that mermaids aren?t real, here are 5 other important things about the ocean that everyone should know.

1. The oceans are not inexhaustible, we?re currently overharvesting many resources, and the consequences can be disastrous.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 32 percent of all global fisheries are ?overexploited, depleted, or recovering? and another 50 percent are fully exploited (as of 2010). Just 10 species of fish account for almost one-third of the total global catch, and nine of these species have been exploited so heavily that they?re at 10 percent or less of their historical maximum population. Overfishing is the single greatest threat to the ocean environment, but this isn?t just an environmental problem. Fish are a critically important natural resource, with more than 3 billion people getting at least 15 percent of their protein from the ocean. Although human population growth is still increasing, we won?t be able to increase the amount of fish we?re taking from the ocean.

2. Current fishing practices aren?t just problematic for the fish species we are trying to catch.

Most commercial fisheries don?t use a rod and reel, catching one fish at a time and throwing back what they don?t want (or aren?t allowed to sell). A single longline can be many miles long and have tens of thousands of baited hooks; purse seine nets can be miles across; and the largest trawl net on the market can fit several 747 airplanes in its opening. Bycatch, which occurs when fishermen catch animals swimming near their target catch, is unavoidable with fishing gear this large, but the problem can be unexpectedly severe. In some fisheries, 90 percent of the catch by weight is bycatch, which includes endangered sea turtles and sea birds as well as marine mammals. Some types of fishing, such as dynamite fishing and cyanide fishing, can heavily damage the environment. Dragging a heavy trawl net over the seafloor destroys countless fragile and ecologically important organisms, the equivalent of hunting for rabbits by bulldozing a forest and killing all the deer, birds, insects, and plants that live there. The FAO estimates that 7 million tons of bycatch are caught and discarded every year.

3. Just because a fish is from ?the ocean? doesn?t mean you should release it in the nearest body of salt water.

Invasive species are non-native organisms released into a new region. In the case of invasive fish, they are often introduced by aquarium hobbyists who release a fish when it gets too big for its tank. Often, there are no predators in the new habitat capable of eating these newly introduced animals. Lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific, are believed to have been introduced to the Atlantic coast of the United States by aquarium hobbyists in the last few decades. Lionfish have no native predators in the Atlantic, and non-native predators are often deterred by their venomous spines. A single female lionfish can release millions of eggs in a year, so it?s no surprise that lionfish are now found throughout the Caribbean and as far north as New York, and they are outcompeting or eating native, economically important fishes such as snapper and grouper.

4. Sharks aren?t a threat to you, they?re important, and they?re in trouble

The average American has only a 1 in 3,800,000 chance of being killed by a shark. You?re more likely to be killed by a lawnmower or a vending machine, and more likely to be bitten by a stranger on the subway. Like all predators, sharks help keep the ocean in balance by eating the sick, the weak, and the dying.? However, sharks are suffering from overfishing more than most marine species, with 1 in 6 species of shark, skate, or ray (and 1 in 3 species of open ocean shark) considered ?Threatened with Extinction? by the IUCN Red List.

5. Although mermaids don?t exist, the ocean is still full of wonder, and it needs your help!

What you do affects the ocean even if you live far away, and there?s a lot that you can do to help. Purchase sustainable seafood. Use reusable grocery bags instead of single-use plastic bags, which can choke sea turtles or sea birds. Support politicians who support ocean conservation, or encourage your current elected officials to support the ocean. Most importantly, ask your friends and family to do the same.

If I?ve ruined your sense of wonder about the oceans, don?t fret. The absence of mermaids certainly doesn?t mean that the oceans are boring.? As deep sea ecologist Andrew David Thaler said, "Look, the ocean is a vast, unexplored frontier. The deep sea is Earth?s last great wilderness. When we do venture into the abyss, we find creatures more diverse and incredible that our relatively limited imaginations can conceive. Don?t insult that wonder with something as utterly mundane as ?human with fish tail.? ?

Several of my marine scientist colleagues and I subjected ourselves to three hours of fake mermaid documentaries, live-tweeting and correcting inaccuracies as we watched. Click here to read a Storify of this discussion.

An earlier version of this article appeared on Southern Fried Science. ?

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/mermaids_aren_t_real_animal_planet_s_fake_documentaries_misrepresent_ocean.html

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Canadians in market to buy condos - Everydaymoney.ca is a daily ...

Well we're movin' on up. To the east side. To a deluxe apartment in the sky.

The Jeffersons lived the high life, and according to a new report from BMO Bank of Montreal one-third of Canadian homebuyers are looking to purchase a condominium in the next five years.

But what is it that is attracting buyers to the condo lifestyle?

Frances Hinojosa, Mortgage Expert, BMO Bank of Montreal, says, "For many first-time buyers, particularly in high-priced markets like Toronto and Vancouver, condos represent an affordable stepping stone into the housing market.

"On the other side of the spectrum, many in the baby boomer demographic may be looking to downsize from the family home -- leading some to consider the condo market as well."

Convenience and maintenance-free living also attract people to the condo lifestyle.

For those who do not want the ongoing maintenance such as mowing the lawn, shovelling the driveway and outdoor repairs that typically come with home ownership, condo living makes perfect sense.

By major Canadian city, 31 per cent of prospective buyers in Toronto plan to purchase a condo by 2018 which is up by 11 points; in Vancouver, the intent to buy a condo has dropped by five points to 28 per cent; in Calgary it has risen by eight points to 33 per cent; and in Montreal, 24 per cent have indicated they will be purchasing a condo within the next five years.

Sal Guatieri, Senior Economist, BMO Capital Markets, adds, "Condos remain an affordable alternative to the pricey detached market in some major cities. For example, a typical Toronto condo today requires just 22 per cent of a median family's income to service; Vancouver condos - while more expensive - are still affordable at 28 per cent of income.

"Downsizing baby boomers and upsizing - from the parents' basement - echo boomers are likely to support the condo market in the coming decade."

Condo or detached home? Whichever suits your lifestyle and your pocketbook is the right housing choice for you.

By Donna Donaldson, MSN Money

Would you choose condo living over buying a detached home? Why or why not?

?

Source: http://www.everydaymoney.ca/2013/05/canadians-in-market-to-buy-condos.html

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Estonia eager to teach world about oil shale

AUVERE, Estonia (AP) ? Home to the creators of Skype and the first country to use online voting, Estonia relishes its image as a technological pioneer. But the tiny East European country's most far-reaching economic achievement could come from how it has learned to squeeze oil from a rock.

About 200 feet (60 meters) below ground in northeastern Estonia, very close to the Russian border, miners drill holes in a gray-brown limestone wall as they prepare a series of blasts that will free up a soft brown sedimentary rock that contains oil. This oil shale is then scooped up and sent by conveyer to crushing mills above. From there, the shale will either be burned to create electric power or processed further to produce shale oil, a liquid fuel.

Estonia, a country of 1.3 million people, gets more than 90 percent of its electricity needs from oil shale ? by far the world's most shale-dependent country.

With interest in non-conventional energy resources surging globally, Estonia wants to carve its own niche by perfecting the technology needed to produce cleaner electricity and high-grade fuel products from oil shale ? know-how it wants to export to distant places such as Jordan and the U.S.

But environmentalists in Estonia are concerned that large-scale shale mining could cause pollution and contaminate underground water supplies.

Estonia's oil shale resources are very different from the shale deposits that are now yielding enormous amounts of oil and gas throughout the U.S.

Oil shale is rock that contains organic matter known as kerogen that, when heated, can produce a liquid oil very similar to crude oil. The shale formations now being tapped in the U.S. are something else altogether. They contain natural gas, crude oil other liquid hydrocarbons that drillers can just bring to the surface and sell without much processing.

Estonia's shale industry directly employs about 6,500 people, or 1.1 percent of the country's workforce, and accounts for up to 3 percent of the nation's economy, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

"We have almost a 100 years' experience working with oil shale in Estonia. If you know something, and if there's a market, you try to sell it," said Tarmu Aas, a board member at Eesti Energia, a state-owned utility that accounts for nearly all the country's shale and electricity production.

By 2016, the country also hopes to begin mass-producing high-quality automotive diesel, a technology that would significantly boost the commodity's value.

"Estonia has put itself on the map of the world with oil shale. In this particular technology we're good, we're the masters," said Konstantin Dotsenko, an Estonian energy trader.

The question, he explained, is whether world oil prices will remain high enough to keep oil shale viable.

Aas said that for decades there's been virtually no market for shale oil ? the price for which is not quoted separately but as a rule is slightly cheaper than heavy fuel used to heat homes and power industrial boilers ? since crude oil has been so cheap.

In fact, in the late 1990s, when oil prices plummeted, there was talk of mothballing the entire industry. But now that crude is relatively expensive, and could remain so, Aas said the windows of opportunity for Estonia are beginning to open.

Although they don't exclude a sharp decline in demands and prices in the case of a severe global crisis, analysts generally believe oil prices will remain at between $80 and $100 a barrel as the threat of a global oil shortage all but disappears.

Additionally, as the U.S. shale gas revolution picks up pace, all energy prices could fall ? a contingency that would drain the profitability from oil shale projects.

"All signs point to those parts of the world that are growing ? China, India and others ? as being extremely large consumers of oil because the truth is that oil is the ticket to economic development, and always has been," said Daniel Kish, a senior vice-president at the Washington, D.C.-based research and policy group Institute for Energy Research.

"When countries begin consuming large amounts of oil, they amplify human strength and become wealthier ... oil prices are likely to remain at a pretty high rate."

Kish said no one is sure what the global oil shale market is worth since the resource is so poorly studied, but that could change as countries look to nonconventional fuel sources.

"Personally I think the prospects are good, and largely because there will be continuing demand for the fuel ... which is a high-quality fuel," he said.

One litmus test for shale oil will be Jordan. With Estonia's help, the Mideast country plans to build an oil-shale fired power plant by 2017 and later a refinery for shale-based oil products.

Oil shale could become a boon for Jordan, which imports about 97 percent of its oil and gas needs, crippling its economy with enormous trade deficits. The country sits on an estimated 34 billion barrels of shale oil. Eesti Energia, which markets itself internationally as Enefit, estimates that the Jordanian venture, in which it owns a 65 percent stake, will be profitable as long as world oil prices stay above $60 per barrel.

Worldwide, approximate shale oil reserves amount to 4.8 trillion barrels, according to the London-based World Energy Council. This is four times more than all known crude oil reserves, and experts say this estimate is conservative since historically so little exploratory work has been carried out with shale.

China, Brazil, and Russia have sizeable oil shale reserves, and small industries too, but the bonanza is in the U.S., which boasts a whopping 70 percent of the world's reserves. So vast, in fact, is oil shale's potential in the U.S. that Jack Gerard, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a speech in Washington, D.C. in January that in the western U.S. alone the volume of oil shale is estimated at 800 billion barrels ? three times the proven crude reserves of Saudi Arabia. At current prices this much shale oil would be worth a staggering $65 trillion.

Estonia, however, hopes to bring oil shale out of its dormancy in North America, and in 2011 Enefit bought the mineral rights across a large tract of land in eastern Utah, believed to contain 2.6 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil. Spokeswoman Eliis Vennik said the company must help extract these resources "if we wish to see ourselves as experts in the field of oil shale."

Enefit is still analyzing the quality of Utah shale, but preliminary tests indicate that it the net yield per square yard of oil shale in Utah will be higher than at the Narva quarry in Estonia.

Though subsidiary Enefit American Oil has yet to obtain the numerous federal, state and local permits to begin shale mining, the company is optimistic it will begin mine construction in Utah in 2017, with the first oil being extracted in 2020. Enefit's ultimate target is to produce 50,000 barrels of shale oil per day.

But talk of oil shale's future makes environmentalists cringe. Shale mining in Estonia is water-intensive and pollutes underground water tables, while burning the rock for power produces loads of carbon dioxide, sulfur, and ash ? even more than coal.

"If you compare different oil products and different technologies used in the European Union, then oil shale is the dirtiest," said Valdur Lahtvee, an expert at the Stockholm Environment Institute in Tallinn, Estonia's capital. Burning oil shale for power is also inefficient, he said, since it uses only 36-38 percent of the combustible organic matter within the rock.

Lahtvee, who argues that Estonia has enough biomass and wind to meet demand for power, said that if the EU were to raise fees on carbon emissions, Estonian shale could go out of business ? a reality that Aas acknowledges. But executives at Eesti Energia, whose revenues last year amounted to 868 million euros ($1.1 billion), emphasize there has been progress made in reducing emissions such as ash and sulfur.

Producing shale oil is far less harmful to the environment as some 3.5 times less CO2 is emitted, according to Eesti Energia. In other words, the emissions occur "on the road" when cars and trucks burn the diesel, which is why environmentalists have less strenuous objections to Estonia's shale oil plans.

By producing oil "we make the use of energy contained in oil shale more efficient," said Lahtvee. "And there's more value added ? that's good for the economy."

In the long run, whether tiny Estonia, which has approximately 50 years-worth of shale left at current production rates, will be successful exporting shale technology will boil down to energy prices, officials say.

"Everything depends on the oil price. The oil price moves this train," said Aas.

But if shale does take off, Estonia could win big.

"The nut has already been cracked, but what really make the difference (are) the efficiencies of the process and the quality of the resource," said Kish. "There's no reason why a technology that (the Estonians) have worked hard on and stuck with over time when others have abandoned it shouldn't yield the benefits."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/estonia-eager-teach-world-oil-shale-132531454.html

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Pinterest Embraces Its Porn Problem, Artistically

A little over a year ago, everybody started freaking out about Pinterest's new porn problem. "Officially, there is no porn on Pinterest," Business Insider's Jim Edwards declared at the time. "But there is porn on Pinterest, and it appears to be a growing problem." Oh noes! There's porn on the Internet?!

Of course there is, and there's really nothing anybody can do to stop it. So Thursday, with nuanced fanfare Pinterest decided it wants to try and change its official no-porn policy and let people pin pics of boobs and things, so long as the images are, uhm, artistic. "Pinterest is about expressing your passions and people are passionate about art and that may include nudes," Pinterest told the Financial Times. "So we're going to try to accommodate that."

Good idea! Just like the insufferable trend of startups creating so-called Pinterests for everything under the sun, including more than one "Pinterest for Porn," this trend of people posting sexy shots and whatnot is not going to stop. Vine was the most recent major social media site to cope with its porn problem. Facebook employs hundreds of employees to pull down the dick pics users upload on a daily basis. Once you start digging into it, Tumblr is basically all porn ? among other disturbing NSFW themes. And Twitter, well, Twitter's porn problem has ruined more than one political career.

With the exception of Tumblr who takes the laissez faire approach to porn (so long as there aren't any kiddies on there) many of these kinds of services have gone in the direction of moderation. Not Pinterest. They're going to "try to accommodate" the artistic smut. We're guessing the hardcore stuff will fall under Pinterest's current policy forbidding "nudity, partial nudity or pornography."

But what does that even mean? First of all, Pinterest spokesman Barry Schnitt told Gizmodo that the request actually came from the users:

Pinners have asked us for a policy on nudity that makes a distinction between works of art and things like pornography. A change like that poses a lot of questions. We're working our way through those questions but we don't have any additional details to offer just yet.

That said, Pinterest's making an attempt at accommodating arty nudie pics is not the same thing as actually allowing arty nudie pics. Second, how in the world are they going to draw the line between artistic porn and porny porn? Pictures of nipples with soft focus and raking light is okay but straight on pee-in-vee definitely gets yanked? Regardless of your definition of artistic, there's certainly some content on Pinterest that's straight up porn [NSFW obviously].

Google went through this whole art-versus-porn conundrum just a month or so ago, when the very provocative video for Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" got yanked in a hurry. While some argued that the naked dancing girls therein served as an artistic purpose, YouTube scrambled to justify the removal of the content. While the official policy states that anything "intended to be sexually provocative" will be taken down, the company assured its users that it wasn't banning nudity altogether but was leaving it up to moderators to apply the "I know it when I see it" rule. Gizmodo's own Peter Ha reports:

Once a video is flagged for nudity and/or sex and depending on the nature of the scenes involved, one of three things happens once the humans at YouTube have given it a look:

A) Nothing! The video stays up.
B) If the scenes in question are deemed artistic then YouTube puts an age gate in place.
C) If it crosses the line, then it gets taken down.

Again, it's unclear how Pinterest will draw the line. The vague quotes Pinterest offered to the press this week, however, feel more like marketing than anything, especially in the wake of the recent Yahoo!-Tumblr deal. "Hey guys," the site seems to be saying. "We're listening to you. If you're afraid of Yahoo! yanking your moody sex shots, just bring your photos over here and pretend it's art." Of course, in the age of the Instagram filter, the line is increasingly blurred?and blurry.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/pinterest-embraces-its-porn-problem-artistically-510461241

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Texas plant to make first US-assembled smartphones

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Cellphone pioneer Motorola announced Wednesday that it's opening a Texas manufacturing facility that will create 2,000 jobs and produce its new flagship device, Moto X, the first smartphone ever assembled in the U.S.

The company has already begun hiring for the Fort Worth plant. The site was most recently unoccupied but was once used by fellow phone manufacturer Nokia, meaning it was designed to produce mobile devices, said Will Moss, a spokesman for Motorola Mobility, which is owned by Google.

"It was a great facility in an ideal location," said Moss, who said it will be an easy trip for Motorola engineering teams based in Chicago and Silicon Valley, and is also close to the company's service and repair operations in Mexico.

The formal announcement came at AllThingsD's D11 Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., from Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office administers a pair of special state incentive funds meant to help attract job-creating businesses to the state, but Moss said the Republican governor did not distribute any money to close this deal.

"Motorola Mobility's decision to manufacture its new smartphone and create thousands of new jobs in Texas is great news for our growing state," Perry said through a spokeswoman. "Our strong, healthy economy, built on a foundation of low taxes, smart regulation, fair legal system and a skilled workforce is attracting companies from across the country and around the world that want to be a part of the rising Texas success story."

The factory will be owned and run by Flextronics International Ltd., a Singapore-based contract electronics manufacturer that has had a long relationship with Motorola.

Assembly accounts for relatively little of the cost of a smartphone. The cost largely lies in the chips, battery and display, most of which come from Asian factories. For instance, research firm iSuppli estimates that the components of Samsung's latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, cost $229, while the assembly costs $8.

In December, Apple Inc. said it would move manufacturing of one of its existing lines of Mac computers to the U.S. this year, reversing decades of increasing outsourcing. The company has come under some criticism for working conditions at the Chinese factories where its products are assembled.

Some other manufacturers, such as Hewlett-Packard Co., have kept some PC assembly operations in the U.S.

Moss said the Moto X will go on sale this summer. He said he could provide few details, citing priority secrets. He said the idea from the beginning was to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.

"It's obviously our major market so, for us, having manufacturing here gets us much closer to our key customers and partners as well as our end users," he said. "It makes for much leaner, more efficient operations."

But Motorola will still have global manufacturing operations, including at factories in China and Brazil.

"Fact remains that more than 130 million people in the U.S. are using smartphones," Mark Randall, Motorola's senior vice president of supply chain and Operations, said in a statement, "but until Moto X, none of those smartphones have been built in the USA."

__

Eds: AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson contributed to this report from New York.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-05-29-US-Smartphone-Plant/id-8978bac8707e4745a3b447fd9400f1ef

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New mathematical model links space-time theories

May 30, 2013 ? Researchers at the University of Southampton have taken a significant step in a project to unravel the secrets of the structure of our Universe.

Professor Kostas Skenderis, Chair in Mathematical Physics at the University, comments: "One of the main recent advances in theoretical physics is the holographic principle. According to this idea, our Universe may be thought of as a hologram and we would like to understand how to formulate the laws of physics for such a holographic Universe."

A new paper released by Professor Skenderis and Dr Marco Caldarelli from the University of Southampton, Dr Joan Camps from the University of Cambridge and Dr Blaise Gout?raux from the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, Sweden published in the Rapid Communication section of 'Physical Review D', makes connections between negatively curved space-time and flat space-time.

Space-time is usually understood to describe space existing in three dimensions, with time playing the role of a fourth dimension and all four coming together to form a continuum, or a state in which the four elements can't be distinguished from each other.

Flat space-time and negative space-time describe an environment in which the Universe is non-compact, with space extending infinitely, forever in time, in any direction. The gravitational forces, such as the ones produced by a star, are best described by flat-space time. Negatively curved space-time describes a Universe filled with negative vacuum energy. The mathematics of holography is best understood for negatively curved space-times.

Professor Skenderis has developed a mathematic model which finds striking similarities between flat space-time and negatively curved space-time, with the latter however formulated in a negative number of dimensions, beyond our realm of physical perception.

He comments: "According to holography, at a fundamental level the universe has one less dimension than we perceive in everyday life and is governed by laws similar to electromagnetism. The idea is similar to that of ordinary holograms where a three-dimensional image is encoded in a two-dimensional surface, such as in the hologram on a credit card, but now it is the entire Universe that is encoded in such a fashion.

"Our research is ongoing, and we hope to find more connections between flat space-time, negatively curved space-time and holography. Traditional theories about how the Universe operates go some way individually to describing its very nature, but each fall short in different areas. It is our ultimate goal to find a new combined understanding of the Universe, which works across the board."

The paper AdS/Ricci-flat correspondence and the Gregory-Laflamme instability specifically explains what is known as the Gregory Laflamme instability, where certain types of black hole break up into smaller black holes when disturbed -- rather like a thin stream of water breaking into little droplets when you touch it with your finger. This black hole phenomenon has previously been shown to exist through computer simulations and this work provides a deeper theoretical explanation.

In October 2012, Professor Skenderis was named among 20 other prominent scientists around the world to receive an award from the New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology international grant competition. He received $175,000 to explore the question, 'Was there a beginning of time and space?''.

The detailed paper AdS/Ricci-flat correspondence and the Gregory-Laflamme instability can be found here:

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/WPlqoE_7JOk/130530094633.htm

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Obama lipstick on collar: Who put it there?

Obama lipstick on collar happened at a celebration for Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The president referred to the smear in his remarks at the event Tuesday night.

By Peter Grier,?Staff Writer / May 29, 2013

President Obama points to lipstick marks on his collar in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday night. 'A sign of the warmth is the lipstick on my collar,' he said.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Enlarge

Why did President Obama have lipstick on his collar when he rose to make remarks at a White House reception Tuesday night?

Skip to next paragraph Peter Grier

Washington Editor

Peter Grier is The Christian Science Monitor's Washington editor. In this capacity, he helps direct coverage for the paper on most news events in the nation's capital.

Recent posts

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Because an enthusiastic supporter had put it there accidentally, that?s why. He referred to that right up top as his way of softening up the crowd. Truth be told, he was already pretty happy to be there, as it was a celebration for Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Having been raised in Hawaii, Mr. Obama is something of a Pacific Islander himself.

Anyway, the president began by thanking everybody for the warmth of his reception.

?A sign of the warmth is the lipstick on my collar,? he said.

Then he said he knew the culprit, and he asked to see a woman named Jessica Sanchez.

?It wasn?t Jessica. It was her aunt. Where is she?? he said as the room dissolved in laughter.

Obama then made the obvious point that he did not want to get in trouble with the first lady on this.

?That?s why I?m calling you out right in front of everybody,? he said to the aunt in question.

The president had to say something about the smear, right? It was a pretty obvious lip imprint, right up there near his necktie. It was going to show up in pictures and become the subject of a thousand gossip blogs.

If Obama?s reelection campaign showed anything, it is that he and his advisers understand the power of nontraditional media and their ability to shape the president?s image. All those appearances by him and Michelle on everything from ?The View? to ?Dr. Oz? were a big part of his campaign strategy. A lipstick smear? That?s good for a week of special reports on ?Ellen.? Reddit would probably have done another of its crowd-source analysis things, measuring the parameters of the smear and then comparing them to pictures of lips in the crowd, eventually proving beyond a doubt that it could only have come from Joe Biden, or something like that.

Of course we?ve got our own conspiracy theory: Political guru David Axelrod had somebody put it there on purpose. A speechwriter then scripted impromptu remarks on the stain for Obama, loosening up the crowd and distracting the news media from the IRS scandal, Justice-ordered seizure of reporters' phone records, and so forth.

If so, this post is proof: mission accomplished.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/kOklq7dnuFs/Obama-lipstick-on-collar-Who-put-it-there

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Big brothers and sisters pay off for nature's social spiders

May 29, 2013 ? The behavior of social spiders may settle debates over the benefits of older siblings. Cornell University researchers studying Australian social huntsman spiders discovered that younger siblings thrive when raised in nests with older siblings. Bigger brothers and sisters capture bigger, juicier prey, which they share with their younger siblings.

The researchers found that younger siblings weighed substantially more when they shared the prey of their elder brethren. Since smaller spiders eat relatively little, there is little to no cost to the older siblings. The study, published online in the journal Animal Behavior, describes how prey sharing can directly benefit spiders living as a group. Australian social huntsman spiders (Delena cancerides) are fairly common throughout the southern half of Australia, living as family groups with a single mother and multiple clutches of her offspring in retreats under the loose bark of dead trees.

"One of the most unusual things about Delena colonies is that there are siblings of a huge range of ages and sizes, in the colonies together at the same time," said Linda Rayor, a Cornell entomologist and co-author of the study. "It's common to have tiny spiderlings mingling with older siblings that are almost a year old. So what is totally cool about Delena is that mix of siblings of different ages and how they interact around prey brought into their retreat." Rayor describes such social sharing in a Cornell video.

"If you are small, the number of things you can capture may be quite limited," said Eric Yip, the paper's lead author who conducted the research while a graduate student in Rayor's lab.

"The concessions that an essentially solitary hunter like a spider makes in order to live in groups I think is really interesting," Rayor said. "What we're seeing is these huntsman spiders, by living in groups, end up having many benefits in many ways."

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation, Australian-American Fulbright Commission and the President's Council of Cornell Women.

Video: video/preying-together-older-siblings-aid-younger-social-spiders" href="http://www.cornell.edu/video/preying-together-older-siblings-aid-younger-social-spiders">www.cornell.edu/video/preying-together-older-siblings-aid-younger-social-spiders

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cornell University.

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Journal Reference:

1. Eric C. Yip, Linda S. Rayor. The influence of siblings on body condition in a social spider: is prey sharing cooperation or competition? Animal Behaviour, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.03.016

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/wZfWmKg_PeQ/130529133235.htm

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Google Cyber-knight Lances Microsoft For Bug-hunter Hostilities

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Samsung has published a listing for the as-yet unannounced Galaxy S4 Mini on the changelog of one of

Samsung has published a listing for the as-yet unannounced Galaxy S4 Mini on the changelog of one of its apps. That as near as dammit confirms the impending arrival of the phone, which will probably possibly be announced at Sammy's June 20th London event. [SammyHub via Phandroid]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/samsung-has-published-a-listing-for-the-as-yet-unannoun-510075814

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Police: Lawmaker holds 2 foreigners in Yemen city

SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? Gunmen abducted two South African citizens Monday in Yemen's second largest city, Taiz, and police said a lawmaker was behind the kidnapping to pressure the government to hand over a disputed piece of land.

It was the latest twist in Yemen's bumpy road to democracy after more than three decades of autocratic rule that ended with longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster in an uprising last year. The country's new president is struggling to unify the country and its armed forces in the face of resistance from an active al-Qaida branch in Yemen and powerful tribes.

Abductions are not rare in Yemen, but Monday's kidnapping of foreigners was unusual in its circumstances and is the first in Taiz, near the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Police said that they received a call from assistants of lawmaker Abdel-Hamid el-Batra saying he organized the kidnapping outside the Taiz Plaza hotel because of a dispute with the government over a piece of land. The lawmaker pledged to hand over the foreigners in exchange for the land, police officials said. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

El-Batra belongs to the country's ruling party and has been a member of parliament for 10 years.

Unlike other parts of Yemen, Taiz has been relatively free of the type of violence other provinces have seen. However, in March 2012 al-Qaida claimed responsibility for killing an American teacher there, saying in a post on militant websites that he was proselytizing for Christianity.

Al-Qaida in Yemen is expanding, according to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and has used assassinations and abductions of foreigners as a way to challenge the central authority. The United States considers the Yemen branch to be al-Qaida's most active and dangerous.

In 2011, during the uprising against Saleh, al-Qaida overran entire cities and towns in the south of the country. Taiz, however, remained a hub for elite Yemeni activists and academics who camped out for months in protest until the longtime ruler stepped down.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-lawmaker-holds-2-foreigners-yemen-city-180653008.html

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OK Gov. Fallin Worries of 'Red Tape'; Dole Slams Modern GOP

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin told CNN's Candy Crowley she's pleased with the federal help her state's received since the tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma, but she's growing disenchanted with the?bureaucracy on State of the Union. "What I need is the ability to get through red tape," Fallin said Sunday morning. "So far, we have had great response," she added. Fallin singled out FEMA Director Craig Fugate and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for appreciation. On CBS's Face the Nation, Fallin said she's going to capitalize on having the President's attention when he visits Oklahoma on Sunday. "I'm going to tell him that we appreciate his visit first of all but also that we need quick action," the governor said. "I've heard so many incredible stories of people helping people. There were so many volunteers out here yesterday that streets were packed." Fallin expressed disbelief over the number of people killed after the EF-5 tornado swept through her state. "It's truly incredible that we had only 24 deaths," she said. "I don't know how anyone survived this tornado."

RELATED: Romney Wants to Keep Key Parts of Obamacare

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Sen. Lindsey Graham didn't enjoy the President's shifting of the war on terror and new drone strike policy, he revealed on Fox News Sunday. "We show this lack of resolve, talking about the war being over," Graham said. "What do you think the Iranians are thinking? At the end of the day, this is the most tone-deaf president I ever could imagine, making such a speech at a time when our homeland is trying to be attacked literally every day." Graham said he's "never been more worried" about national security than he is right now. Graham also touched on the military's terrible sexual assault record of late. "I want to salute the women who serve and are putting up with way too much crap," he said, before calling for some heads to roll within the military?over the issue. "This needs to end. When a victim comes forward, they should have an advocate to walk them through the military justice system. And commanders who allow this to continue to flourish, quite frankly, should be fired." He also praised the President's response to the issue so far. "The president spoke well of this problem. It is a disgrace to the United States Military."

RELATED: Lindsey Graham and Hagel Make Nice (For Now)

Someone else who wasn't impressed with the President's counter terrorism speech? Former Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, of course. He called it "naive" during an appearance on CNN's State of the Union. "It's just stunningly, breathtakingly naive," Gingrich said. He pointed to the London attack from this week, among other things, as examples of the ongoing threat of extremism. "This stuff's going on everywhere, and we will never be in peace in the pre-1941 sense that we are never threatened," he said. "No one wants to talk honestly" about the widespread nature of the threat.

RELATED: Graham Threatens Hagel Confirmation Over Benghazi

RELATED: What We Can Glean from the Candidates' Closing Arguments in Iowa

Another former Presidential nominee Bob Dole doesn't think his generation could have made it in the modern Republican party. He expressed his doubts during an interview on Fox News Sunday. "I doubt it," he said when asked if he would make it today. "Reagan couldn't have made it. Certainly, Nixon couldn't have made it, cause he had ideas. We might've made it, but I doubt it." That Nixon line is particularly biting. Dole doesn't seem very fond of the new generation of GOP stars in Washington. In fact, he has an idea for fixing the party that might work. "They ought to put a sign on the National Committee doors that says 'Closed for repairs,' until New Year's Day next year," he said. "And spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas." But he didn't limit his criticism to the right. He had words for the President, too. Dole thinks Obama should have spent more time charming House Republicans during his first term. "I'm not a critic of the president, but I think one mistake he has made was not getting together more with Congress early on in his first administration," Dole said. "There's nothing like knowing the person you are talking to on the telephone if you had an opportunity to sit down with that person and visit, not about anything but just visit."

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul argued the President is losing his "moral authority" to lead the U.S. because of the recent wake of scandals plaguing the White House during his appearance on ABC's This Week. "I think the constellation of these three scandals really takes away from the president's moral authority to lead the nation," Paul said. "No one questions his legal authority. But I really think he's losing the moral authority to lead this nation." The President has not been linked directly to the IRS targeting scandal, the Benghazi talking points scandal, or the Justice Department spying scandal so far. But the President did speak about the drone strike program this week, which just so happens to be one of Paul's favorite topics. Paul held a marathon filibuster demanding an expanded legal explanation for the drone strike program a few months ago. It turns out he didn't really enjoy the President's argument. "I was pleased with his words, and I was pleased that he did respond to this," Paul said. "However, there's still a question in my mind of what he thinks due process is. Due process, to most of us, is a court of law. It is a trial by jury, and, right now, their process is him looking at some flash cards and a PowerPoint presentation on 'Terror Tuesdays' in the White House. For a lot of us, that's not really due process." Who saw that one coming?

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New York Rep. Peter King is sick and tired of everyone griping about the?Guantanamo Bay prison. Especially the President, who King charged is "moralizing" the issue on This Week. "I'm offended by the moralizing," King said ?"The fact is, whether you agree or disagree with Guantanamo, many experts believe that it did work. It was something that had to be done at the time. The president had five years to end this if he really wanted to. He could've moved most of those prisoners out of the country." King later charged that the President would have closed Guantanamo by now if he really wanted to. "Everyone wants to close Guantanamo, ultimately," King said. "But again, he has the power to do it. He hasn't done it. He certainly, whether or not Congress was in the way, could have done a lot more than he has done about it if he were serious about it rather than just moralizing." King argued terrorists only use Guantanamo as a symbol because the media and political types "stir" about Guantanamo. "We should be proud, defend what we're doing and stop apologizing for America," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ok-gov-fallin-worries-red-tape-dole-slams-182042776.html

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Centuries-old frozen plants revived

27 May 2013 Last updated at 15:02 ET

Plants that were frozen during the "Little Ice Age" centuries ago have been observed sprouting new growth, scientists say.

Samples of 400-year-old plants known as bryophytes have flourished under laboratory conditions.

Researchers say this back-from-the-dead trick has implications for how ecosystems recover from the planet's cyclic long periods of ice coverage.

The findings appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They come from a group from the University of Alberta, who were exploring an area around the Teardrop Glacier, high in the Canadian Arctic.

The glaciers in the region have been receding at rates that have sharply accelerated since 2004, at about 3-4m per year.

That is exposing land that has not seen light of day since the so-called Little Ice Age, a widespread climatic cooling that ran roughly from AD 1550 to AD 1850.

"We ended up walking along the edge of the glacier margin and we saw these huge populations coming out from underneath the glacier that seemed to have a greenish tint," said Catherine La Farge, lead author of the study.

Bryophytes are different from the land plants that we know best, in that they do not have vascular tissue that helps pump fluids around different parts of the organism.

They can survive being completely desiccated in long Arctic winters, returning to growth in warmer times, but Dr La Farge was surprised by an emergence of bryophytes that had been buried under ice for so long.

"When we looked at them in detail and brought them to the lab, I could see some of the stems actually had new growth of green lateral branches, and that said to me that these guys are regenerating in the field, and that blew my mind," she told BBC News.

"If you think of ice sheets covering the landscape, we've always thought that plants have to come in from refugia around the margins of an ice system, never considering land plants as coming out from underneath a glacier."

But the retreating ice at Sverdrup Pass, where the Teardrop Glacier is located, is uncovering an array of life, including cyanobacteria and green terrestrial algae. Many of the species spotted there are entirely new to science.

"It's a whole world of what's coming out from underneath the glaciers that really needs to be studied," Dr La Farge said.

"The glaciers are disappearing pretty fast - they're going to expose all this terrestrial vegetation, and that's going to have a big impact."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22656239#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Steve Wozniak discusses his dependency on a MacBook Pro and his affinity for transistor radios

Every week, a new and interesting human being tackles our decidedly geeky take on the Proustian Q&A. This is the Engadget Questionnaire.

Steve Wozniak pioneered the personal computing industry with the Apple I and II. In a throwback to our 31st issue of Distro, we'll take a very thorough look at the mind and habits of the Woz. Spoiler alert: he has a thing for the bitten fruit.

Filed under: Misc, Apple

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Source: Distro Issue 31

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/26/engadget-questionnaire-steve-wozniak/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Egypt court rules against religious slogans

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled against parts of an election law approved by the Islamist-led legislature that had lifted a long-standing ban on the use of religious slogans during campaigning.

The court on Saturday said in its decision that not explicitly banning religious slogans in campaigns runs counter to national unity and principles of citizenship. The court says religious slogans may distract voters from focusing on the candidate's platform. The bill will now be sent back for review by the interim parliament.

It similarly ruled against a provision that stipulates media outlets give equal time to candidates, saying this violates freedom of the press.

The court also says the bill breaches the principles of separation of powers because it allows the president to set election dates and change them.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-court-rules-against-religious-slogans-164830211.html

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Suspected killer of British soldier was held in Kenya

By Peter Griffiths and Drazen Jorgic

LONDON/NAIROBI (Reuters) - One of two men arrested over the murder of a British soldier in a London street was detained in Kenya in 2010 on suspicion of seeking to train with an al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia, Kenyan police said on Sunday.

Confirmation that Michael Adebolajo was held in Kenya and deported to London will intensify calls for Britain's spy agencies to explain what they knew about the suspect and whether they could have done more to prevent Lee Rigby's killing on Wednesday.

The British parliament's security committee will next week investigate the security services' actions in the run-up to a killing that has put pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to take a harder line on radicals.

The Nairobi government initially said Adebolajo had never visited Kenya. But on Sunday, Boniface Mwaniki, head of Kenya's anti-terrorism police, said Adebolajo was arrested in November 2010 and deported to Britain.

"He was arrested with a group of five others trying to travel to Somalia to join militant group al Shabaab," he told Reuters.

The Islamist force, which is linked to al Qaeda, wants to impose a strict version of Islamic law across Somalia.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman in London confirmed the arrest and said consular officials had provided assistance.

Adebolajo, 28 and Michael Adebowale, 22, are under guard in hospital after being shot and arrested after the murder of the 25-year-old Afghan war veteran. They have not been charged.

Spy agencies have come under scrutiny after uncorroborated allegations by a friend of Adebolajo on Friday that intelligence officers tried to recruit him six months ago.

Asked whether the security services had contacted the men, Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May told the BBC: "Their job is about gathering intelligence. They do that from a variety of sources and they will do that in a variety of ways. And yes, they will approach individuals from time to time."

A source close to the investigation told Reuters this week that both suspects were known to the MI5 domestic security service. However, neither was thought to pose a serious threat.

'POISONOUS NARRATIVE'

The government also said it is forming a group to combat radical Muslim preachers and others whose words could encourage violence.

Prime Minister David Cameron's office said the group aimed to fight radicalism in schools and mosques, tighten checks on inflammatory internet material, and disrupt the "poisonous narrative" of hardline clerics.

Rigby's killing fuelled public anger about radical Islam. It has also raised questions over whether more could have done more to prevent the attack and put pressure on Cameron to tackle suspected militants more forcefully.

Witnesses said the soldier's killers shouted Islamist slogans during the attack. Bystanders filmed one of the suspects saying it was in revenge for Britain's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Successive British governments have wrestled with how to prevent people from becoming radicalised without alienating the wider population with draconian measures.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair tried to tighten rules against hate preachers after the London bombings in 2005 that killed 52 commuters. The measures stirred a long debate over how to balance free speech and civil rights with a strong counter-terrorism strategy.

Britain's two-party coalition government is divided over a planned new law that would allow police and spy agencies to monitor people's use of the internet and mobile phones.

The Muslim Council of Britain, a religious umbrella group, said new government measures risked "making our society less free, divided and suspicious of each other".

(Additional reporting Nicolas Bertin in Paris and Joseph Akwiri and Humphrey Malalo in Kenya; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britain-target-radical-muslim-preachers-soldiers-killing-120155282.html

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iPhone biosensor cradle brings us one step closer to having tricorders (video)

It seems like every day we're getting a little bit closer to having tricorders, and today's no exception. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have designed hardware and software that turns the iPhone into a powerful biosensor that's useful for toxin and pathogen testing as well as medical diagnosis. The package consists of a cradle that contains an assortment of lenses and filters which line up with the handset's camera, along with an app that guides the user through the testing process. At the core of the device is a photonic crystal slide which basically turns the iPhone into a high-resolution spectrometer. While the cradle only contains about $200 worth of parts, it's just as accurate as laboratory equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars, with the added bonus of being hand-held. The team just received an NSF grant to explore other applications for the device and is working on a cradle for Android phones. Hit the break for a demo video and a peek into the future.

Filed under: Misc, Mobile, Alt, Apple

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Source: University of Illinois

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/25/iphone-biosensor-cradle-brings-us-one-step-closer-to-having-tric/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Jor-El, Krypton?s Science Council, And American Politics (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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Incredible Photos of a Melting Ice Hotel

Every year, Lapland erects a hotel made of ice in Jukkasj?rvi, Sweden. And every year, when the weather turns warmer, the IceHotel melts back into where it originated: the Torne River.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/hoOBIv8mbNc/incredible-photos-of-a-melting-ice-hotel-509706472

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Brave woman tried to reason with London attackers

LONDON (AP) ? A brave scout leader who may have prevented further violence has emerged as an unlikely hero in the apparent terror attack that left one man dead on the streets of London.

Ingrid Loyau-Kennett got off a bus and tried to reason with the two attackers after she tried to help the man lying on the street but found he had no pulse and was already dead.

The 48-year-old mother kept talking to the two bloody attackers before police came, trying to keep them calm.

Loyau-Kennett, who lives in Cornwall in southwest England, told several British media outlets Wednesday night and Thursday morning that she was returning from a trip to France and was visiting her children in London when the bus she was on stopped because of the melee.

She said she saw a crashed car and the victim lying on the street and tried to help him since she had been trained in first aid. She had determined the man was dead by the time the attackers confronted her.

She said a man "with a black hat and a revolver in one hand and a cleaver in the other came over" and excitedly warned her to stay away from the body.

"I asked him why he had done what he had done," The Guardian quoted her as saying. "He said he had killed the man because he (the victim) was a British soldier who killed Muslim women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was furious about the British Army being over there."

When the man told her he was going to kill police when they arrived, she asked him if that was reasonable and tried to keep him engaged.

Then she spoke to the other attacker, who she described as quiet and shy.

"I asked him if he wanted to give me what he was holding in his hand, which was a knife, but I didn't want to say that," she said. "He didn't agree and I asked him: 'Do you want to carry on?' He said: 'No, no, no.' I didn't want to upset him," she is quoted as saying in The Guardian.

Prime Minister David Cameron Thursday praised Loyau-Kennett's performance in the tense situation and said she "spoke for all of us" when she told the first attacker that he could not win the war he said he was hoping to start on the streets of London.

Cameron said the presence of mind she and others in the vicinity showed despite the danger was an indication of how Britain would triumph over terrorism by standing together.

Loyau-Kennett said she was not scared and that the armed men did not seem to be drunk or on drugs. She said she was trying to keep them occupied so they didn't get more agitated.

She re-boarded her bus shortly before police arrived, watching from the bus as police shot the two suspects, who are both receiving treatment in hospital.

"The officers shot them in the legs, I think" she says in The Guardian.

?

A police officer holds a floral tribute handed to him by a member of the public to be placed at the scene of a terror attack in Woolwich, southeast London, Thursday, May 23, 2013. The British ... more? A police officer holds a floral tribute handed to him by a member of the public to be placed at the scene of a terror attack in Woolwich, southeast London, Thursday, May 23, 2013. The British government?s emergency committee met Thursday after two attackers killed a man in a daylight attack in London that raised fears terrorism had returned to the capital. (AP Photo/Sang Tan) less?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brave-woman-tried-reason-london-attackers-101915771.html

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The odd thing about Anthony Weiner's campaign

The whole world witnessed the aftermath of the suspected May 22 terror attack in London. Bystanders filmed and photographed the body of a man, lying in a suburban street, as his apparent killers, not fleeing but seeming to flaunt their work, remained at the scene. But despite this immediacy, the key, human details were missing. Investigators are still a long way from piecing together exactly what happened and why, but details are emerging about the suspects?and the victim.?The man so brutally targeted was a soldier, 25-year-old Drummer Lee Rigby. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/anthony-weiner-logo-features-pittsburgh-skyline-193243770.html

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P&G CEO switch will not lead to big strategy change: CFO

(Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co said on Friday the surprise return of A.G. Lafley as chairman and chief executive was not an indication of any bigger problems at the world's largest consumer products maker.

Lafley replaces Bob McDonald, effective immediately, at P&G, which is in the midst of a major restructuring.

Shares of P&G were up nearly 4 percent at $81.81 on Friday after rising as high as $82.35.

"This change very simply reflects Bob McDonald's decision to retire and the board's view that A.G. Lafley was currently the best person to replace Bob and build on the momentum that Bob has initiated and led," Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller said on a very brief conference call for analysts on Friday morning.

The CFO said there would not be any dramatic change in strategy due to the switch in CEOs.

The announcement late Thursday was "not indicative of any kind of bigger problem or financial issue," he said.

P&G, the maker of Tide detergent and Gillette razors, did not give a specific reason for McDonald's departure other than to say that he is retiring. McDonald is 59, and Lafley is 65.

P&G plans to pay Lafley a base salary of $2 million a year. His base salary in 2009 was $1.8 million.

"This won't result in a dramatic change in our strategy or priorities," Moeller said, adding that P&G will try to keep momentum going in its developing markets.

Moeller was the only speaker on the call and he did not take questions from analysts.

P&G maintained its financial outlook as it made Thursday's announcement on the CEO shakeup. The Cincinnati-based company cut its forecasts a few times during McDonald's tenure.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Additional reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/p-g-ceo-switch-not-lead-big-strategy-124944363.html

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