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The people who lived in the Amazon regions back before any Europeans showed up on the scene had an ingenious way to survive there. By creating mounds of biochar, the pre-Columbian peoples made beds for their crops that drained far better than the native soil, which is nutrient-poor and prone to flooding. And, it seems, they unintentionally contributed to the biodiversity of the region.

In a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists led by Doyle McKey of France investigated the savannas of French Guiana, in the far northern part of South America. These plains are flooded during the rainy season, dry and parched in the summer, and often burned by fires. It was while walking through this landscape that McKey started wondering about undulations in the terrain [New Scientist]. Just how effective were these people at creating favorable cropland? McKey found that the drainage capacity of the mounds was nine times that of the rest of the savanna.

As DISCOVER noted in the 2007 feature “Black Gold of the Amazon,” the nutrient-rich, fertile soil that resulted from the biochar mounds is a gold mine for local farmers even today. But it was the insects who really appreciated the gifts of the pre-Columbian peoples after those people disappeared. Species of ants and termites settled in the mounds, where their colonies wouldn’t flood. Their burrowing aerated the soil, and plant matter foraged from surrounding areas enriched it further. As a result, the mounds acted like sponges for rainfall, and outsourced insect labor made them rich in key fertilizer nutrients of nitrogen, potassium and calcium [Wired.com]. Because of the plentiful nutrients, plants on these mounds grew more successfully and their roots reached deeper.

All in all, McKey argues, the actions of those humans trying to better their agricultural situation actually improved biodiversity compared to what had been there before, the flat savanna. That’s not bad for a civilization about which our knowledge is extremely limited, and you can count McKey among the people who think that simple agriculture secrets like biochar could teach us something. “When people modified these ecosystems long ago, they changed the way the ecosystems work. We can use that knowledge,” said McKey [Wired.com].

Related Content:
DISCOVER: Black Gold of the Amazon
Discoblog: The Softer Side of Climate Control?
80beats: Ancient Agriculture Trick, Not High-Tech Engineering, Is Best Climate Defense

Image: Pre-Columbian raised fields around French Guiana, including on the left bank of the Mana River (A), near the Sinnamary River (B), west of the city of Kourou (C), and between the town of Macouria and Cayenne Island (D). Credit: McKey et. al. / PNAS

by Grist

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After the market’s recent surge, everyone and her brother is keeping an eye on interest rates to divine what’s going to happen next. But that’s where the unanimity ends. It seems there are many ways to interpret a yield curve.

John Lonski of Moody’s Credit Trend Service points out that a rising stock market has usually been associated with a thinning of the spread between the interest rates on high-yield bonds and the interest rates on Treasuries.

This makes sense: when people are eager to take on risk they buy either stocks or high-yield bonds. The former drives up stock prices; the latter drives down the rates on high-yield bonds. Given the continuing shrinkage of the high-yield bond spread, it appears that investors’ appetite for risk is still strong. So Lonski concludes that stocks have more room to run.

But not so fast. Barry Knapp at Barclays Capital argues that the Federal Reserve is close to a change in policy. Knapp expects two-year Treasury rates to shoot upward. “If the Treasury curve bear flattens as we expect, equities will witness a typical Fed policy normalization-related correction of approximately 8%,” he says.

The folks at the Trader’s Narrative blog aren’t convinced. They argue that rising rates aren’t necessarily bad for the stock market: it all depends upon the speed with which the increases come. “If rates rise with a stealth bear market in bonds, that would be one thing. If they suddenly go haywire, the way we’re seeing, for example, in Greece…that woud be a very different thing.”

Ned Davis Research is willing to put hard numbers on its forecasts. It says that if the 10-year U.S. Treasury jumps from its current 3.8% to above 4.25%, stocks  will shudder. If 10-year rates go above 5.25%, forget about this bull market.

Freelance business journalist Ian McGugan blogs for the Financial Post.

State representatives voted to change a provision in the state’s campaign finance law Tuesday to give themselves more time to decide how to fix the law if a federal appeals court decides it is not constitutional.

Last fall, a judge for the U.S. 2nd Court of Appeals ruled that the law’s voluntary public financing provision would put minor-party candidates at an unconstitutional disadvantage against better-financed major party candidates. The state appealed the decision and is waiting for a response.

Under current law, lawmakers would have only seven days to act once a decision is made, or the state would revert back to old campaign finance laws. Prior to 2005, candidates were allowed to collect money from lobbyists, special interest-groups and state contractors.  

Tuesday, both Democrats and Republicans said that part of the law needed to change.

The House of Representatives voted 137-12 to change the “reverter clause.” The changes would allow a 30-day window before reverting back to old laws if a court decision comes down between April 15 and Aug. 10, the day of this year’s primaries. After that time period, lawmakers would have only 15 days to act. 

The bill would also allow candidates running for office to keep any money received through the citizens election program prior to any limitations or prohibitions taking effect.

Rep. James Spallone, D-Essex, co-chairman of the government administration and elections committee, called the bill reasonable and necessary. Rep. Lawrence Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, agreed, but stressed that the bill does not fix any problems with the law.

“It’s just delaying the time bomb,” he said.      

House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, said Tuesday that lawmakers have not agreed on how to fix the law yet. Discussions are ongoing.

Geely, the Chinese automaker that will be buying Volvo from FoMoCo, will launch a new modified version of its GE limousine sedan at the 2010 Beijing Motor Show next week. The original model, which made its debut at last year’s Shanghai Motor Show, was criticized for being startlingly similar to the Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Click here to get prices on the 2010 Rolls-Royce Phantom.

The new Geely GE has been heavily restyle with a much rounder look. Inside, the model gets two rear seats rather than single “throne” arrangement of the original concept.

After the original Geely GE prototype made its debut last year in Shaghai, Rolls-Royce announced that it may consider legal action against the Chinese automaker.

We’re not sure what they’re thinking now.

2011 Geely GE:

– By: Kap Shah

Source: AutoCar

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday that bars the popular Venice dispensary Organica from selling or distributing marijuana at its store on Washington Boulevard.

The ruling is the second that Judge James C. Chalfant has issued against a Los Angeles dispensary based on his conclusion that neither the medical marijuana initiative nor the law adopted to clarify the measure allow the drug to be sold.

Chalfant’s decisions are preliminary orders and both cases are slated to go to trial, but his rulings against Hemp Factory V and Organica could force the courts to directly address the contentious issue for the first time. Most, if not all collectives, sell marijuana to their members.

Asha Greenberg, an assistant Los Angeles city attorney, said Chalfant’s decision should make it clear to the city’s dispensaries that selling marijuana is a violation of state law.

In a hearing, Chalfant strongly reiterated his view that the state’s laws were intended to allow medical marijuana patients and their caregivers to form collectives to grow pot together and share the harvest, but not to sell it like a retail store. "Maybe I am too old, but those of us who grew up in the 1960s know what a collective is," he said.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich have pressed that view. Dispensary operators and their advocates, including Americans for Safe Access, the nation’s main advocacy group for medical marijuana, have insisted that the two prosecutors are misinterpreting the law and recent court decisions. Trutanich has sued four dispensaries: Hemp Factory V in Eagle Rock, Organica and two Holistic Caregivers stores in South Los Angeles.

David Welch, the lawyer for Organica and its operator, Jeff Joseph, argued that cash contributions for marijuana are just one way that collective members contribute to cultivation. After the hearing, Welch dismissed Chalfant’s conclusion as his opinion. "I think we will take this through the process, that in the end, we will be successful," he said.

Joseph said Organica was not currently operating and would not speculate on the collective’s future. He and his lawyer argued that its members cultivated marijuana on site and in Topanga and Malibu. "He has no idea of how we were operating," Joseph said, referring to the judge. "We weren’t getting any from outside sources."

The dispensary, which registered with the city in 2007, was targeted by federal and local narcotics agents and raided three times. Analyzing records seized from the dispensary, law enforcement officials said it had $5.3 million in sales over a 13-month period.

— John Hoeffel in Los Angeles County Superior Court

The Blog of LegalTimes reports:

President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with senators next week to discuss the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice John Paul Stevens’ planned retirement.The White House said today that Obama has invited four senators to meet with him the morning of Wednesday, April 21: Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). Leahy is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sessions is the committee’s ranking Republican.

Leahy has said that he’s already spoken with Obama about possible successors to Stevens. Sessions said late Monday that he had not yet spoken with the president on the subject.

Good move!

Looking for that next booming trend in the tech industry to sink your entrepreneurial teeth into so that you might come up with a great product to receive funding for? Well perhaps you need to look no further than music, as reports show that first quarter investments in 2010 for music tech startups nearly doubled from 2009 and 2008 figures – an upward trend entrepreneurs could take advantage of in the near future.

Sponsor

Duncan Freeman, author of the site Indie Music Tech and founder of Band Metrics, estimates that around 25 investment deals in the music tech space were inked in the opening months of this year. Compared to 13 and 14 approximate investments in the first quarter of 2008 and 2009 respectively, Q1 2010 is off to a great start with huge early investment growth.

Among the largest and most notable deals of the year so far include Spotify‘s undisclosed amount of funding from Founder’s Fund, $20 million which when to startup Guvera, and speaker manufacturer Sonos which received $25 million from Index Ventures. Other well known startups, such as SeatGeek, Songbird, TuneWiki and BlogTalkRadio all received various amounts of VC investment in the first quarter of this year.

While there was nearly twice as many investments this year than in 2008, the amounts of those investments were much smaller. Freeman’s estimates put 2008’s 13 first quarter investments at a value of around $90 million, an average of nearly $7 million per investment. This year’s 25 investments managed just around $110 million, or just over $4 million per investment, which is no better an average than from Q1 2009 which saw around $62 million. So while more deals are going down in the music tech industry, only slightly more cash is being doled out.

It seems like the market for music startups is slowly warming and gaining traction with investors as companies like Spotify are thriving while others like Lala, which was acquired by Apple, are being snatched up by large corporations. Music could be an interesting industry to watch over the course of 2010 as these Q1 estimates suggest it could be a busy year of investments, so entrepreneurs may want to take a look at how they might provide a valuable service in this sector.

Let us know what you think about the music tech space and where you think trends may lead this year by posting a comment below!

Chart from Indie Music Tech.

Discuss

From April 5 to 13, RonPaul.com ran a poll asking readers to select up to 5 candidates to join a potential Ron Paul ticket as running mate in 2012. The poll attracted 10,580 voters, compared to 9,425 voters in the November 2009 poll and 2,739 voters in the June 2009 poll.

Judge Andrew Napolitano came in as the undisputed winner, with 40% of voters expressing their desire for him to be Ron Paul’s VP in 2012 (up from 27% in the November poll).

Jesse Ventura came in second with 25% of the vote (up from 15% in Nov. 2009).

Peter Schiff gained 22% of the vote (up from 21%), and 20% of voters gave Rand Paul the nod (up from 12%).

Chuck Baldwin, the winner of our November poll (29%) dropped to place 5 with 18% of the vote.

Sarah Palin, Pat Buchanan and Glenn Beck were virtually tied for 6th place, each gaining 13%. (Nov. 2009 Poll: Palin 13%, Buchanan 7%, Beck 7%).

Other candidates gaining at least one tenth of the vote include John Stossel (12%), Jim DeMint (11%) and Lew Rockwell (10%).

The poll attracted 10,580 voters and 356 comments. Each voter could select up to 5 candidates. The detailed results are as follows:

Ron Paul had no input in creating the list. It was based purely on suggestions made by supporters here and on other sites over the past few months.

Related posts:

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Filed under: Motorsports, Ferrari, Racing

We were pretty impressed after initially watching the Ferrari F430 Challenge cars turn laps at Miller Motorsports Park this past weekend. After all, each of the cars boasts a 490 horsepower V8 and is set up specifically for racing. You can imagine that they’re quite capable of turning insanely quick laps. Then a trio of FXXs took to the track and our definition of “fast” was altered forever.

Despite the fact that it will never turn a competitive lap, the Ferrari FXX is a brutally impressive racecar. The second generation Evoluzione version (pictured above), is Ferrari’s most advanced GT car ever built with an 860 horsepower V12, a sequential gearbox that can perform shifts in just 60 milliseconds and a curb weight of just over 2,500 pounds. We might have preferred the beauty of the 599XX, but there was no doubt which car was the most capable of the lowest lap times.

In addition to our photos of the FXXs in the pit lane garages, we also came away from the weekend with plenty of shots of the cars on track. Have a look for yourself in the high-res gallery below.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

2010 Ferrari Challenge at MMP: Ferrari FXX is king of the track originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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About a month ago, Ford confirmed that sales of the 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor have far outpaced the company’s original projections. The automaker said that it has received well over 5,500 orders for the new pickup and that number is expected to grow with the new 411-hp 6.2L V8, which recently hit dealerships. So what’s next for the off-roading desert king?

Click here to get prices on the 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor.

According to a report by Inside Line, Ford SVT will soon reveal a SuperCrew version with four full-size doors.

Sales of the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor SuperCrew version are expected to begin next year for a small price premium over the current SuperCab version.

Click here to read our review on the 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor.

Review: 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor:

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Straightline

Insurance company sends full no-fault release seven days after car accident

Wow, I’ve seen a lot of dirty tricks pulled by Michigan auto insurance companies over the past 16 years I’ve been helping people injured in car accidents. But what Dairyland Insurance just did to a group of unsuspecting accident victims may actually top my list for dirty tricks. In fact, I’ve never, ever seen a  Michigan auto insurance company pull a stunt this outrageous before.

Here’s what happened:

Three people were injured in a car accident on March 1, 2010.  They contact their insurance company, which happens to be Dairyland.  Dairyland sends on March 8, 2010 a full release to the injured people of all of their Michigan no-fault insurance claims – including the right to future no-fault insurance benefits. This is a legal contract that extinguishes all future rights and claims. And it was sent seven days after the car accident! People usually don’t even get an application for benefits within seven days of contacting their own insurance companies.  But a legal release?  A legal release is almost always sent at the end of a case, after a lawsuit has been filed.

As a personal injury lawyer, I’ve helped hundreds of people injured in automobile accidents; the other 17 lawyers at Michigan Auto Law have probably helped thousands. Never have we seen a release being sent within days of an accident.  It is, as I said, probably 99 percent of the time, sent after a contested lawsuit has been resolved, either through settlement or verdict.

What did the Dairyland Insurance company customers do once they received the release? You guessed it. They signed, potentially extinguishing their ability to receive all future no-fault insurance benefits.

Take a look at the releases from Dairyland.

Dairyland deserves a place smack dab at the top of my Insurance Company Hall of Shame. What responsible auto insurance company would even think about sending to their own insureds a release of all legal rights  – past, present, and future – seven days after a car accident?

I’ve told this group to promptly file a complaint with the Michigan Insurance Commissioner.  I intend to send a letter as well to hopefully quash this type of insurance abuse as well.

A recipe for disaster

In a sense, what Dairyland did isn’t surprising. It is the logical extension of an insurance company taking advantage of the legal state in Michigan, a state without bad faith laws, punitive damages, or a consumer protection act to protect Michigan residents.  If ever there was an episode that screams out to why Michigan residents need better protection from auto insurance companies, it is this.  Already, Michigan insurance companies lead the nation in profitability, and Michigan is one of the few states without an insurance commissioner who can regulate how much profit these insurance companies can make, even though its residents are required by law to purchase no-fault insurance.

There is so much wrong here with what Dairyland Insurance company did, that it’s difficult to know where to begin. But I’ll take a stab: This is the most predatory, dirty thing I have ever seen an insurance company pull on its own customers.

If these Dairyland insurance customers now need wage loss, or medical treatment or an expensive surgery, arguably, this release completely absolves Dairyland of any responsibility to provide the benefits that by Michigan law, it must provide.

– Steven M. Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top experts in serious car and truck accident injury cases and automobile insurance no-fault litigation. Michigan Auto Law has received the largest reported jury verdict for an automobile accident case in Michigan in seven of the past 10 years, including 2009, according to published year-end verdicts and settlements reports.

Related information:

Time Limits for Filing Car Accident Claims

No-Fault Challenges for Insurance Lawyers

Dealing with Auto Insurance Companies

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Southfield, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with an auto accident attorney. We can help.

By ArickStall

One big aspect of the new healthcare reform was forgotten: the doctors.

While there are those of us who want to pull the “I told you so line,” it would be best just to present the facts. Now, under law, more Americans will be insured. It’s just unfortunate there will be no one to treat them.

The Wall Street Journal says experts are now estimating a “shortage of 150,000 U.S. doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.” And quite frankly, the medical school supply of new doctors is not going to keep up with the demand of expanded coverage.

The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already scrambling to train more doctors.

Experts warn there won’t be enough doctors to treat the millions of people newly insured under the law. At current graduation and training rates, the nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

That shortfall is predicted despite a push by teaching hospitals and medical schools to boost the number of U.S. doctors, which now totals about 954,000.

The greatest demand will be for primary-care physicians. These general practitioners, internists, family physicians and pediatricians will have a larger role under the new law, coordinating care for each patient.

The U.S. has 352,908 primary-care doctors now, and the college association estimates that 45,000 more will be needed by 2020. But the number of medical-school students entering family medicine fell more than a quarter between 2002 and 2007….

You can continue reading this article here.

What will be some consequences of this so-called “healthcare reform?” It seems an obvious one is spending dubious amounts of money on a new system where the coverage is present, but the doctor is not. I foresee a future where excessive amounts of money are pumped into the new system to give breaks and grants to those that want to go into the medical profession. What would be the effects of this idea? I imagine doctors will not be educated as well and being in the medical profession will lose its prestige.

How will the shortage of doctors be covered in the short-term, though? Outsource! Give incentives for foreign medical doctors to practice in the United States. And the ugly cycle of wasteful spending continues while the rest of the world, including Fidel Castro, applauds Obama, considering the healthcare reform a “success” of his administration.

MEXICO CITY–First Lady Michelle Obama’s Tuesday visit to earthquake devastated Haiti denied Mexico a coveted place in history: being the first official foreign destination of the first lady.

The White House and Mexican government officials used the “firstness” to underscore the close relationship between the two nations in briefing about the trip in the past weeks. But with the stop of Mrs. Obama and Second Lady Jill Biden gives Haiti, not Mexico the honor.

With Haiti and Mexico, the number of foreign countries Mrs. Obama has visited as First Lady–and with President Obama– now numbers 11. She has been to the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Ghana, Denmark, Norway, Czech Republic, Italy and Germany. Mrs. Obama traveled to England and France last summer with daughters Malia and Sasha, but the trip was billed as a vacation.

A nice way to cap off the Washington Nuclear Security Summit from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton:

Under the agreement we are about to sign, the United States and Russia will each irreversibly and transparently dispose of no less than 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium. Together, that is enough material for nearly 17,000 nuclear weapons. And we will put in place the framework and infrastructure needed to dispose of even more plutonium from defense programs in the future.

The agreement provides for monitoring and inspections that will ensure that this material will never again be used for weapons or any other military purpose. By using civil nuclear reactors to dispose of the plutonium, we gain an added benefit – to produce electricity for our people, even as we remove a potential serious danger.

President Obama’s nuclear summit has unearthed some unknown truths about the world’s uranium trade. Georgia has stopped the sale of weapons grade uranium 8 times in the last 10 year, including once this past March.

Anywhere where there are nuclear power plants and weapons facilities, there is spent fuel and materials that could be used for nefarious purposes.

Join the conversation about this story »

Jessie “I’m So Excited!” Spano wants to empower girls.

Showgirls star Elizabeth Berkley, best remembered for her role on the ’80s TNBC series Saved By The Bell, is continuing her work with young women by publishing “a self-esteem handbook for teen girls” based on questions she has been asked over the years.

Berkley — who is founder of the teen advice website Ask-Elizabeth.com — is presently working on Ask Elizabeth: Real Answers to Everything You Secretly Wanted to Ask About Love, Friends, Your Body…And Life in General, a life manual published by Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers and due to arrive on shelves in the Spring of 2011.

With 25% of the country above the Arctic Circle, you can bet that Finnish engineers spend a good deal of time indoors, especially in the winter. In the case of the engineering team at the Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, that’s a good thing. It gave them the time and motivation to develop the Electric Race About (ERA), one of the more attractive electric cars built to date.

Built to compete in the Automotive X-Prize competition, the ERA features AWD via four electric motors powered by lithium ion battery packs. The engineering target weight is 2,750 pounds, and the ERA design features even front-to-back weight distribution and a low center of gravity. The goal is a 0 to 60 time of under 5 seconds, with a top speed of better than 120 miles per hour. Target operational range (at less than full throttle, of course) is greater than 180 miles.

If the car sees production, it won’t be cheap. It’s built by hand and relies heavily on carbon fiber to keep the weight down. Components will be sourced from best-in-class suppliers in limited quantities, but you can rest assured you won’t see too many other ERAs on the road. Exclusivity, performance and environment consciousness should hit the right buttons for the affluent eco-hoon.

Source: ERA – The Finish Electric Sports Car