Venus loses in Wimbledon 1st round, 1st since '97

Venus Williams of the United States tosses the tennis ball to serve to Elena Vesnina of Russia during a first round women's singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, England, Monday, June 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Venus Williams of the United States tosses the tennis ball to serve to Elena Vesnina of Russia during a first round women's singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, England, Monday, June 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Novak Djokovic of Serbia leaps to returns a shot to Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain during a first round men's singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, England, Monday, June 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Maria Sharapova of Russia returns a shot during a first round women's singles match against Anastasia Rodionova of Australia at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, England, Monday, June 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Roger Federer of Switzerland plays a return to Albert Ramos of Spain during a first round men's singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, England, Monday, June 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Tim Hales)

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) ? For the first time since her debut appearance at the All England Club 15 years ago, five-time Venus Williams failed to get past the first round of Wimbledon.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion was eliminated 6-1, 6-3 by Elena Vesnina of Russia at Wimbledon on Monday, the latest setback in her return to tennis after being diagnosed with an energy-sapping autoimmune disease.

Williams, who has fallen to 58th in the rankings, lost the first five games on Court 2 to the 79th-ranked Russian and, although she picked up her game and fought hard, was never able to turn the match around.

It was the first time Williams lost in the opening round of a Grand Slam since the 2006 Australian Open? the first at Wimbledon since her debut appearance in 1997.

"I feel like I'm a great player," Williams said. "I am a great player. Unfortunately I have to deal with circumstances that people don't have to deal with normally in a sport, but I can't be discouraged by that. I'm up for challenges. I have great tennis in me. I just need the opportunity."

There were no opening day troubles for top-ranked Novak Djokovic, six-time champion Roger Federer and No. 1 Maria Sharapova, who all enjoyed easy straight-set wins on a cloudy but dry start to the two-week grass court championships.

Defending champion Djokovic beat Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in the day's first match on Centre Court, while Sharapova came on next and overpowered Anastasia Rodionova 6-2, 6-3.

Federer, seeking his record-tying seventh Wimbledon crown, dropped only three games in trouncing Spain's Albert Ramos 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 on Court 1 ? the first time since 2003 that he wasn't assigned to Centre Court for the opening round.

The highest seeded player to fall on Day 1 was No. 6 Tomas Berdych, the 2010 runner-up from the Czech Republic who lost in three straight tiebreakers to 87th-ranked Ernests Gulbis of Latvia. Gulbis, considered a potential top-10 player who never lived up to his potential, had 30 aces to win 7-6 (5) 7-6 (4) 7-6 (4).

John Isner, the 11th-seded American, was upset in five sets by Alejandro Falla of Colombia, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 3-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5. Isner served 31 aces but was broken to end the match, a result that ruled out a second-round meeting between the American and Nicolas Mahut.

Isner beat the Frenchman in the longest match in tennis history here two years ago, an 11-hour, 5-minute marathon that ended 70-68 in the fifth set. Isner defeated Mahut again last year in the first round.

Kim Clijsters, a four-time Grand Slam winner playing in her final Wimbledon, beat former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-2, 6-4. The Belgian, who withdrew from the semifinals of a grass-court tournament in the Netherlands last week with a stomach muscle strain, showed no signs of injury as she extended her career record over Jankovic to 8-1.

Playing in her 16th straight Wimbledon, the 32-year-old Williams was unseeded for the first time since 1997. She was coming off a second-round loss at the French Open to Agnieszka Radwanska.

Williams revealed in late August at the U.S. Open that she had been diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune condition that can cause fatigue and joint pain. She skipped the Australian Open in January, before returning to the tour in March in a bid to earn a berth on the U.S Olympic team for the London Games.

"I've been through a lot for years without knowing what I was going through," she said. "It's all a culmination at the end of the day. I just try to stay positive and focus on the tennis. I'm tough, let me tell you ? tough as nails."

Williams has been champion or runner-up at the All England Club eight of the past 12 years, with her last title coming in 2008. The three losses in finals all came against younger sister Serena.

"I don't have time to feel sorry for myself," she said. "I'm not going to give up on it. ... There's no way I'm going to just sit down and give up just because I have a hard time the first five or six tournaments back. That's just not me."

The Olympic tournament will be played at Wimbledon three weeks after the end of the championships.

"At the Olympics, you'll see me here," she said. "I'm planning on it."

The 25-year-old Vesnina, who reached the fourth round here in 2009, played smart and steady baseline tennis to keep Williams at bay. It took 30 minutes before Williams won a game. But Vesnina broke right back to close out the set with a forehand winner.

The second set was much more contested, but once the Russian broke again for a 4-2 lead, she was in full control. Three games later, Vesnina cracked a big first serve on match point and Williams slapped a forehand return into the net.

Eighth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic beat 2002 runner-up David Nalbandian 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2. It was Nalbandian's first match since he was disqualified in the final at Queen's Club for kicking an advertising board and injuring a line judge.

"I think everybody understood (it) wasn't a good thing that I did, but (I) was very unlucky, as well," he said.

In early matches, the third-seeded Radwanska and Grand Slam champions Sam Stosur and Li Na won in straights sets to move into the second round.

Associated Press

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LEGATO conference is seeking answers through science

Public release date: 25-Jun-2012
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Contact: Josef Settele
josef.settele@ufz.de
Pensoft Publishers

The international project LEGATO (Land-use intensity and Ecological Engineering Assessment Tools for risks and Opportunities in irrigated rice based production systems) is organizing a conference, entitled "Regionalisation of Rice Ecosystem Services and Ecological Engineering" which will be held in Banaue, The Philippines from 1 to 7 July.

LEGATO unites 21 research institutions from Germany, Vietnam, The Philippines, UK, Bulgaria and Spain and aims to advance long-term sustainable development of irrigated rice fields, against risks arising from multiple aspects of global change. The project is funded by the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) research program "Sustainable Land Management" and runs from March 2011 to February 2016.

The meeting will focus on the results achieved by the LEGATO research teams in the first 18 months of the project's existence, as well as on planning of future activities. The conference will open with addresses by leading representatives of local and regional authorities and by the project leader Dr. Josef Settele from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). The agenda of the meeting includes various research topics, such as progress reporting on the economic situation in the LEGATO experimental sites (by Dr. Joachim Spangenberg), preliminary results from the field observations on cultural aesthetics (Dr. Vera Tekken), biocontrol and pollination (Dr. KL Heong and Dr. Stefan Vidal) and nutrients and production (Prof. Reinhold Jahn) and many more. A trip to Banga'an, a UNESCO world heritage site and LEGATO research site is part of the conference agenda.

###

Contacts: Josef Settele (josef.settele@ufz.de), Martin Wiemers (martin.wiemers@ufz.de)

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 25-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Josef Settele
josef.settele@ufz.de
Pensoft Publishers

The international project LEGATO (Land-use intensity and Ecological Engineering Assessment Tools for risks and Opportunities in irrigated rice based production systems) is organizing a conference, entitled "Regionalisation of Rice Ecosystem Services and Ecological Engineering" which will be held in Banaue, The Philippines from 1 to 7 July.

LEGATO unites 21 research institutions from Germany, Vietnam, The Philippines, UK, Bulgaria and Spain and aims to advance long-term sustainable development of irrigated rice fields, against risks arising from multiple aspects of global change. The project is funded by the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) research program "Sustainable Land Management" and runs from March 2011 to February 2016.

The meeting will focus on the results achieved by the LEGATO research teams in the first 18 months of the project's existence, as well as on planning of future activities. The conference will open with addresses by leading representatives of local and regional authorities and by the project leader Dr. Josef Settele from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). The agenda of the meeting includes various research topics, such as progress reporting on the economic situation in the LEGATO experimental sites (by Dr. Joachim Spangenberg), preliminary results from the field observations on cultural aesthetics (Dr. Vera Tekken), biocontrol and pollination (Dr. KL Heong and Dr. Stefan Vidal) and nutrients and production (Prof. Reinhold Jahn) and many more. A trip to Banga'an, a UNESCO world heritage site and LEGATO research site is part of the conference agenda.

###

Contacts: Josef Settele (josef.settele@ufz.de), Martin Wiemers (martin.wiemers@ufz.de)

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

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Alice Walker rejects Israeli translation of book

JERUSALEM (AP) ? American writer Alice Walker won't let an Israeli publisher release a new Hebrew edition of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Color Purple," saying she objects to Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people.

Walker, an ardent pro-Palestinian activist, said in a letter to Yediot Books that Israel practices "apartheid" and must change its policies before her works can be published there.

"I would so like knowing my books are read by the people of your country, especially by the young and by the brave Israeli activists (Jewish and Palestinian) for justice and peace I have had the joy of working beside," she wrote in the letter, obtained by The Associated Press. "I am hopeful that one day, maybe soon, this may happen. But now is not the time."

The chief editor of Yediot Books, Netta Gurevich, said in a statement Wednesday she regretted Walker's decision to bar the release of a new Hebrew-language edition of her book, a tale about black women's struggle against their miserable status in the American South in the 1930s.

The arts, and literature in particular, "are so important to bridging differences, presenting 'the other' and generating a climate of tolerance and compassion," Gurevich said. "That's all the more so when talking about 'The Color Purple,' a book that addresses discrimination, otherness and the importance of the individual's struggle against injustice in general."

Gurevich said Walker is not the first author to refuse to have works published in Israel.

"The Color Purple" had been translated into Hebrew before by a different publishing house.

Walker is a supporter of a movement that seeks to pressure Israel to end its rule over the Palestinian people through boycotts, divestment and sanctions. She was also a passenger on a flotilla that unsuccessfully tried to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip last year.

Associated Press

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Tests show students struggle to explain answers

American children do much better identifying the correct answers to simple scientific tasks than using evidence from their experiments to explain those answers.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the Nation's Report Card, asked students in grades four, eight and 12 to perform actual experiments to apply principles they learn in the classroom on a practical level. The results of the 2009 tests were released Tuesday.

"That tells us that our science teaching isn't getting us as far as we need to go," said Chris Dede, professor from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Katherine Carroll, an 11th- and 12th-grade chemistry teacher in Waterboro, Maine, said even her best students struggle to explain their conclusions in the lab reports they turn in for her class. She found them more accustomed to questions with one right answer.

"Teachers have moved towards teaching more knowledge, as opposed to the understanding behind that knowledge," Carroll said.

Like Carroll, Dede said kids' difficulty explaining is old news to most teachers and parents, but this is the first time they have concrete evidence demonstrating the problem.

"Having something that is more than just anecdotes, that is rigorous research across a wide range of students, is very helpful, because it's a better form of evidence on which to make decisions," Dede said.

The first test, called Hands On Tasks (HOTs), allotted students 40 minutes to conduct experiments with physical objects. This allowed for a richer analysis of their understanding of the subject than pencil and paper tests can provide, according to Alan Friedman, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board's Assessment Development Committee.

HOTs, however, are nothing new. NAEP tests used them as far back as 1996.

Friedman said the second type of test, Interactive Computer Tasks (ICTs), went beyond what had previously been measured, testing how students ran their own experiments in simulated natural or laboratory environments with the ability to go back, adjust variables and correct their mistakes on a computer.

"This is a set of skills which in the real world is invaluable," Friedman said, "and which before this we'd never been able to know if students could do this or not."

Though Friedman said the computer tests are "dramatically more expensive" to design, traditional assessments cannot measure these same skills.

During ICTs, just over a quarter of high school seniors could both select and explain their correct answers about heating and cooling. Double that amount - 54 percent - in the eighth grade group could support correct conclusions with evidence, but only 15 percent of fourth grade students could do the same in their experiment.

The computer tasks eliminated limits of geography and time, so students could virtually see, for example, how a plant given a certain amount of sunlight would grow without waiting days or weeks to see the actual process.

Though the tests raised significant questions about students' abilities to apply scientific knowledge to the real world, they at least seemed to enjoy taking them, according to Peggy Carr, associate commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics.

Carr usually observes students losing interest in the traditional NAEP tests. "Not so with these assessments," Carr said.

In the hands on tasks, female students in every grade outdid their male counterparts by 2 to 4 percentage points, on average. Girls also scored slightly better than male students in grades eight and 12 on interactive computer tasks.

This gender gap shows a reversal from the traditional NAEP tests in which eighth-grade boys scored at least four points higher on average than their female peers in 2009 and 2011

White and Asian-Pacific Islander students outperformed black and Hispanic students in the hands on tasks, and Asian/Pacific Islander students achieved higher scores on average than other students in all grades' computerized assessments.

The lowest scoring group in both assessments was 12th grade black students. They answered 19 percent of computerized questions correctly, whereas their Asian-Pacific Islander counterparts passed 33 percent.

Associated Press

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QualityTips For Do It Yourself Home Remodeling |

Home remodeling has existed as long as we have seen structures through which folks have existed in. We all want our residences being secure and search gorgeous, and often the only method to achieve that is certainly to do some updating. You can read more to find a few great home remodeling strategies for this modern age of technological innovation and convenience.

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Scientists develop first satellite deforestation tracker for whole of Latin America

Public release date: 19-Jun-2012
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Contact: Katherine Barnes
katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk
44-020-784-83076
King's College London

An international team of researchers in Colombia, the UK, US and Switzerland have developed the first ever system to monitor deforestation across Latin America in near real-time using satellite data

An international team of researchers in Colombia, the UK, USA and Switzerland have developed the first ever system to monitor deforestation across Latin America in near real-time using satellite data. Preliminary results from the new system reveal that in parts of Colombia, deforestation has increased by 340 per cent since 2004; and over a million hectares of forest have been lost in the Gran Chaco region of Paraguay.

The new satellite system, known as Terra-i, is being launched this week in time for the Rio+20 UN environment conference, and is soon to be expanded to cover all tropical regions. Although Brazil has had a sophisticated near real-time deforestation monitoring system in place since 2008, until now there has been no equivalent for the rest of Latin America.

Terra-i has been developed to monitor changes land cover every 16 days and for every 250 metres on the ground, in order to help national governments, conservation organisations and those implementing climate-related policy to assess recent trends in deforestation and emerging hotspots of change. The system uses data supplied by NASA's MODIS satellite sensor and is the result of collaboration between the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in the USA and South America, the School of Engineering and Management of Vaud (HEIG-VD) in Switzerland and King's College London.

Deforestation can lead to widespread loss of biodiversity and also impacts the 'ecosystem services' that foster a stable climate and secure freshwater supplies. However, in many parts of the world the scale and pattern of deforestation is infrequently and inconsistently monitored and this makes management of change very difficult.

Huge volumes of data need to be processed to detect land cover change at a 250m spatial resolution every 16 days. Moreover, separating real human-induced changes, such as deforestation, from changes brought about by natural seasonality and by droughts, floods or persistent cloud cover, has made the development of an operational monitoring system a real challenge. The availability of MODIS imagery means that assessment of land cover change can be made in a geographically consistent manner between countries and also updated frequently.

The development of the Terra-i system was led Louis Reymondin, PhD student in the Department of Geography at King's College London, supervised by Dr Mark Mulligan, in collaboration with CIAT and HEIG-VD and funded by TNC.

'We developed a computational neural network and 'trained' it with data from 2000-2004 to recognise the normal changes in vegetation greenness due to seasonal variation in rainfall in different areas,' said Dr Mulligan, who is attending the Rio+20 conference this week.

'The network now recognises where and when greenness suddenly changes well beyond these normal limits as a result of deforestation. The system runs on data for every 250 square metres of land from Mexico to Argentina shortly after the data comes in from MODIS and highlights every 16 days the pixels that significantly change, writing these results to Google Maps for easy visualisation,' he said.

Preliminary data from Terra-i show that in Caquet, Colombia for example, deforestation grew from around 4,880 hectares in 2004 to 21,440 in 2011, up by 340 per cent. Deforestation has grown significantly in the buffer zones of the Chiribiquete National Park where deforestation rates increased by 196 per cent from 2010 to 2011.

The Gran Chaco in Paraguay is the second largest forested area in South America. Terra-i found that between 2004 and 2010, over a million hectares of this area was deforested with a peak in 2009 of 454,700 hectares.

'As we approach Rio+20 in which the world will define the targets that will guide us along the road to a more sustainable development, it is critical that we deploy the appropriate tools to carefully monitor and manage our landscapes,' said Dr Mulligan.

'We need to ensure that we maintain enough farmland to feed the nine billion to come but we must also have protected natural landscapes that provide clean water, a stable climate, a refuge for biodiversity and space for increasingly urbanised populations to experience and appreciate the wonders of nature.

'Achieving the right balance between intelligently intensive agriculture and protected natural environments across the world will be fundamental to achieving truly sustainable development and requires sophisticated, geographically detailed and timely tools such as Terra-i to support appropriate policy and decision-making'.

###

CONTACT

Katherine Barnes
International Press Officer
King's College London
Tel: +44 207 848 3076
Email: Katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk

Notes to editors

Terra-i has a range of applications, such as monitoring the effectiveness of conservation, assessing the contribution of deforestation to climate change and understanding the likely impacts of deforestation on downstream and downhill populations. Results reported by Terra-i have also been connected to web-based hydrological models to help understand the impacts of recent deforestation on water resources, flooding and sedimentation of downstream areas.

Terra-i can be viewed at: http://maps.terra-i.org/

Visualisation using Google Maps at: http://geodata.policysupport.org/terra-i

Images available on request

Credits for all images: http://www.terra-i.org/Karolina Argote/Louis Reymondin

1) Chiribiquete National Park.tif
Map of deforestation around the Chiribiquete National Park, Colombia from 2004-2011

2) Dry-Chaco.tif
Deforestation around the dry Chaco of Paraguay from 2004-2011

3) Para.tif
Deforestation in and around protected areas in Para, Brazil from 2004-2011

For further information about The Nature Conservancy (TNC) visit: http://www.nature.org/

For further information about CIAT Colombia visit: http://www.ciat.cgiar.org

For further information about HEIG-VD, Switzerland visit: http://www.heig-vd.ch/

About King's College London (http://www.kcl.ac.uk)

King's College London is one of the top 30 universities in the world (2011/12 QS international world rankings), and was The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11', and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,500 students (of whom more than 9,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,000 employees. King's is in the second phase of a 1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly 450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

The College is in the midst of a five-year, 500 million fundraising campaign World questions|King's answers created to address some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity as quickly as feasible. The campaign's three priority areas are neuroscience and mental health, leadership and society, and cancer. More information about the campaign is available at www.kcl.ac.uk/kingsanswers.

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 19-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katherine Barnes
katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk
44-020-784-83076
King's College London

An international team of researchers in Colombia, the UK, US and Switzerland have developed the first ever system to monitor deforestation across Latin America in near real-time using satellite data

An international team of researchers in Colombia, the UK, USA and Switzerland have developed the first ever system to monitor deforestation across Latin America in near real-time using satellite data. Preliminary results from the new system reveal that in parts of Colombia, deforestation has increased by 340 per cent since 2004; and over a million hectares of forest have been lost in the Gran Chaco region of Paraguay.

The new satellite system, known as Terra-i, is being launched this week in time for the Rio+20 UN environment conference, and is soon to be expanded to cover all tropical regions. Although Brazil has had a sophisticated near real-time deforestation monitoring system in place since 2008, until now there has been no equivalent for the rest of Latin America.

Terra-i has been developed to monitor changes land cover every 16 days and for every 250 metres on the ground, in order to help national governments, conservation organisations and those implementing climate-related policy to assess recent trends in deforestation and emerging hotspots of change. The system uses data supplied by NASA's MODIS satellite sensor and is the result of collaboration between the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in the USA and South America, the School of Engineering and Management of Vaud (HEIG-VD) in Switzerland and King's College London.

Deforestation can lead to widespread loss of biodiversity and also impacts the 'ecosystem services' that foster a stable climate and secure freshwater supplies. However, in many parts of the world the scale and pattern of deforestation is infrequently and inconsistently monitored and this makes management of change very difficult.

Huge volumes of data need to be processed to detect land cover change at a 250m spatial resolution every 16 days. Moreover, separating real human-induced changes, such as deforestation, from changes brought about by natural seasonality and by droughts, floods or persistent cloud cover, has made the development of an operational monitoring system a real challenge. The availability of MODIS imagery means that assessment of land cover change can be made in a geographically consistent manner between countries and also updated frequently.

The development of the Terra-i system was led Louis Reymondin, PhD student in the Department of Geography at King's College London, supervised by Dr Mark Mulligan, in collaboration with CIAT and HEIG-VD and funded by TNC.

'We developed a computational neural network and 'trained' it with data from 2000-2004 to recognise the normal changes in vegetation greenness due to seasonal variation in rainfall in different areas,' said Dr Mulligan, who is attending the Rio+20 conference this week.

'The network now recognises where and when greenness suddenly changes well beyond these normal limits as a result of deforestation. The system runs on data for every 250 square metres of land from Mexico to Argentina shortly after the data comes in from MODIS and highlights every 16 days the pixels that significantly change, writing these results to Google Maps for easy visualisation,' he said.

Preliminary data from Terra-i show that in Caquet, Colombia for example, deforestation grew from around 4,880 hectares in 2004 to 21,440 in 2011, up by 340 per cent. Deforestation has grown significantly in the buffer zones of the Chiribiquete National Park where deforestation rates increased by 196 per cent from 2010 to 2011.

The Gran Chaco in Paraguay is the second largest forested area in South America. Terra-i found that between 2004 and 2010, over a million hectares of this area was deforested with a peak in 2009 of 454,700 hectares.

'As we approach Rio+20 in which the world will define the targets that will guide us along the road to a more sustainable development, it is critical that we deploy the appropriate tools to carefully monitor and manage our landscapes,' said Dr Mulligan.

'We need to ensure that we maintain enough farmland to feed the nine billion to come but we must also have protected natural landscapes that provide clean water, a stable climate, a refuge for biodiversity and space for increasingly urbanised populations to experience and appreciate the wonders of nature.

'Achieving the right balance between intelligently intensive agriculture and protected natural environments across the world will be fundamental to achieving truly sustainable development and requires sophisticated, geographically detailed and timely tools such as Terra-i to support appropriate policy and decision-making'.

###

CONTACT

Katherine Barnes
International Press Officer
King's College London
Tel: +44 207 848 3076
Email: Katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk

Notes to editors

Terra-i has a range of applications, such as monitoring the effectiveness of conservation, assessing the contribution of deforestation to climate change and understanding the likely impacts of deforestation on downstream and downhill populations. Results reported by Terra-i have also been connected to web-based hydrological models to help understand the impacts of recent deforestation on water resources, flooding and sedimentation of downstream areas.

Terra-i can be viewed at: http://maps.terra-i.org/

Visualisation using Google Maps at: http://geodata.policysupport.org/terra-i

Images available on request

Credits for all images: http://www.terra-i.org/Karolina Argote/Louis Reymondin

1) Chiribiquete National Park.tif
Map of deforestation around the Chiribiquete National Park, Colombia from 2004-2011

2) Dry-Chaco.tif
Deforestation around the dry Chaco of Paraguay from 2004-2011

3) Para.tif
Deforestation in and around protected areas in Para, Brazil from 2004-2011

For further information about The Nature Conservancy (TNC) visit: http://www.nature.org/

For further information about CIAT Colombia visit: http://www.ciat.cgiar.org

For further information about HEIG-VD, Switzerland visit: http://www.heig-vd.ch/

About King's College London (http://www.kcl.ac.uk)

King's College London is one of the top 30 universities in the world (2011/12 QS international world rankings), and was The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11', and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,500 students (of whom more than 9,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,000 employees. King's is in the second phase of a 1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly 450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

The College is in the midst of a five-year, 500 million fundraising campaign World questions|King's answers created to address some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity as quickly as feasible. The campaign's three priority areas are neuroscience and mental health, leadership and society, and cancer. More information about the campaign is available at www.kcl.ac.uk/kingsanswers.

---

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Official version of VLC for Android almost ready for launch?

We've known that a version of VLC has been in active development for some time -- read a long time -- now. There are plenty of unofficial alpha builds out and about, but until now word on the official version is that it is "in development." A post today on the developers Twitter account however, might suggest that said development time is almost over. 

Posting in the small hours on the official VideoLAN twitter account, it simply reads "Android, here we come!" Nothing more, but it would suggest that an official build of the hugely popular, play anything, media player might finally be not be too far away. 

via Ausdroid

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Millions still go without insurance if law passes

One of the biggest misconceptions about President Obama's health care overhaul isn't who the law will cover, but rather who it won't.

If it survives Supreme court scrutiny, the landmark overhaul will expand coverage to about 30 million uninsured people, according to government figures. But an estimated 26 million U.S. residents will remain without coverage ? a population that's roughly the size of Texas and includes illegal immigrants and those who can't afford to pay out-of-pocket for health insurance.

"Many people think that this health care law is going to cover everyone, and it's not," says Nicole Lamoureux, executive director of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, which represents about 1,200 clinics nationally.

To be sure, it's estimated that the Affordable Care Act would greatly increase the number of insured Americans. The law has a provision that requires most Americans to be insured or face a tax penalty. It also calls for an expansion of Medicaid, a government-funded program that covers the health care costs of low-income and disabled Americans. Additionally, starting in 2014, there will be tax credits to help middle-class Americans buy coverage.

The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision this month on whether to uphold the law completely or strike down parts or all of it. If it survives, about 93 percent of all non-elderly, legal U.S. residents will be covered by 2016. That's up from 82 percent this year.

Still, millions of illegal immigrants won't qualify for coverage. This population will account for roughly 26 percent of those who will remain uninsured, according to Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

And many legal U.S. residents will go without insurance, too. About 36 percent of the population that remains uninsured will qualify for Medicaid but won't sign up for various reasons. Others likely will make too much money to qualify for assistance but be unable to afford coverage.

Here's a look at some of the groups that will likely remain uninsured if the law survives:

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

More than 11 million unauthorized immigrants live in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research center. That amounts to nearly 4 percent of the total population. But there are no provisions that address illegal immigrants in the health care law.

They won't be able to sign up for Medicaid. They won't be eligible for the tax credits to help buy coverage. And they won't be able to use online marketplaces that the government will set up in order for people to get coverage in a process that's similar to buying plane tickets on travel web sites. Those online exchanges, much like the tax credits, will require proof of citizenship.

"They will still need to find alternative ways to seek care because nothing in the law really expands coverage and affordable coverage options for undocumented immigrants," says Sonal Ambegaokar, a health policy attorney with the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles.

The topic is a politically divisive issue. On one side, there are people who say that the government should provide health care for all U.S. residents ? legal or not. The other side contends that doing so could take valuable resources away from U.S. citizens.

"Because of the limited supply of health care, we're almost in a sociological triage," says Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national group that calls for stricter immigration laws. "It begs the question, 'Who do we serve, who do we serve first and who is not entitled?'"

Researchers have found that immigrants tend to use the health care system less than legal residents. Illegal immigrants, in particular, tend to avoid using the health care system until they have to, favoring home remedies first or making cash payments to providers when they need care. That population also is younger, so it generally has fewer health care needs, says Timothy Waidmann, a researcher with Urban Institute.

The think tank, using federal government survey data, estimates that illegal immigrants accounted for an estimated $18 billion of the $1.4 trillion spent on health care in the United States in 2007. That adds up to less than 2 percent of total spending.

Some say excluding illegal immigrants from the overhaul will keep some legal residents uninsured, too. Ambegaokar, the Los Angeles attorney, points to parents who are illegal immigrants but have children who are legal citizens because they were born in the United States.

If the parents are not eligible, they may not know that their kids qualify. And in other instances, if one child is legal and the other is not, the parents may decide not to sign up either to avoid playing favorites.

"The goal is to enroll everybody who is eligible," Ambegaokar says. "But when you make systems complicated and require proof of ID, you're going to inevitably keep out people who should be in."

LOST IN TRANSLATION

Medicaid, which currently covers more than 60 million people, is expected to add about 17 million more people to its program by 2016 if the law is upheld, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which researches budgetary issues for Congress.

But people are still expected to fall through the cracks. That's because the requirements and process for signing up for Medicaid can be confusing. And while the overhaul aims to make the process easier, it won't smooth out all the wrinkles.

The problem? Many people don't realize that they qualify for coverage. And that likely will still be the case, albeit to a lesser extent, after Medicaid expands.

Coverage depends on how someone's income stacks up to federal poverty guidelines, which can be obscure to the average person. Plus, because income can fluctuate, someone could qualify one year but not the next.

"Regardless of how much outreach you do ... you're never going to get perfect enrollment," Matthew Buettgens, another Urban Institute researcher, says.

Staying enrolled can be another hurdle. Medicaid recipients have to re-enroll, sometimes more than once a year. They can be dropped if they miss deadlines, submit incomplete forms or if paperwork doesn't catch up with them after they move ? something poor families tend to do more frequently than the average American household.

Leeanna Herman learned this when an unexpected $300 doctor bill arrived in the mail. The Bakersfield, Calif., resident was pregnant and unemployed and didn't know her government-funded health coverage had lapsed.

"I was freaking out," says Herman, 23, who went a month without coverage because she missed the deadline to re-enroll. "How do you expect me to pay that?'"

Experts say online applications and electronic verification of income levels and other things will make this process easier. But deadlines will still matter and some people don't have easy access to the Internet. And there will still be some people who simply won't enroll.

"There will always be that segment that says, 'Aw, the heck with it, I will just wait until I get sick and go to the ER,'" says Stephen Schilling, CEO of Clinica Sierra Vista, a nonprofit that has a network of 27 community health centers in California.

Schilling expects to still see a lot of uninsured patients at the nonprofit group's health centers even if the law is upheld. The center sits in an agricultural area in California's San Joaquin Valley, populated with migrant workers and saddled with an unemployment rate of around 15 percent.

It cares for about 60,000 uninsured people annually, thanks in part to grants and a sliding fee scale for patients based on their family size and income. Schilling says he still expects between 20,000 and 40,000 uninsured patients if the overhaul is implemented.

LIVING IN THE GAP

The overhaul calls for tax credits to help middle-class Americans buy coverage. But some people who make too much money to qualify for the tax credits may have a hard time finding an affordable option for private health insurance

The subsidies can pay a large chunk of the insurance bill. For instance, a 40-year-old person who makes $50,000 in 2014 and needs coverage for a family of four might receive a government tax credit of more than $8,000.

That would cover more than 70 percent of the premium, or the cost of coverage, according to a subsidy calculator on the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation's website. Of course, that estimate depends on the type of coverage the person choses, where they live and whether they can get coverage through work.

But the tax credits will go to people with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $44,680 for an individual this year. People just above that level may have a hard time finding affordable health insurance.

Angela Agnew Laws worries that she might remain uninsured like she has been for the past eight years even if the health care law is upheld.

Laws, who lives in Leesburg, Va., runs a small business that cleans and maintains commercial buildings. She hopes her income will climb to about $60,000 by 2014, which would be too high for tax credit help.

A plan that offers more than just basic protection against big medical expenses could cost as much as $10,000 annually for Laws. She could find less extensive coverage for a lower premium, but that may only save about $1,000.

Laws, 58, figures that she'll remain uninsured if she can't find an affordable coverage option that fits a monthly budget already crammed with payments of $1,203 for rent $530 toward her car.

"It's a scary prospect for me," she says.

Associated Press

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China conducts its first crewed spaceship docking, gives east Asia its place in space (updated)

Believe it or not, the only countries to have docked a human-helmed spacecraft in the first 50 years of spaceflight were Russia and the US. That small community just got bigger, as China's Shenzhou-9 has successfully docked with the Tiangong-1 module put in orbit for just such a test. The link-up is being used for experiments in the short term, but it's a key step in a program that will ultimately lead to a full-fledged Chinese space station. On top the wider ambitions, the docking also marks a victory for gender-neutral space travel: Liu Yang, one of three crew members, is the country's first female spacefarer. China's space program has a long road ahead, but it's clear the International Space Station won't be alone for much longer.

Update: Yes, China more accurately covers east Asia, not just the southeast. Our apologies!

China conducts its first crewed spaceship docking, gives east Asia its place in space (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Addressing the immigration debate

A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.

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91% I Wish

All Critics (44) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (4)

What a kind and wise movie this is.

[The] film is built around performances by two real-life brothers who are as unaffected, spirited and lovable as I can imagine, and one of the pleasures of "I Wish" is simply spending time with them.

Transforms the commonplace into the extraordinary.

It's about the wonders of everyday life, and of childhood imagination.

The sort of small film of real consequence that, as a kid, I remember seeing and completely losing myself in: That was my life.

A wistful heartbreaker from the Japanese master of quiet observation, Hirokazu Kore-eda.

Despite its youthful perspective on adult concerns, the feature generates a few profound moments of basic need in the midst of an atypical men-on-a-mission film.

The lives of the children in "I Wish" seem to be expanding in front of our eyes, as evidenced by their changing wishes, which become bigger and more beautiful as their plan proceeds.

A flurry of details that reveal a grand canvas of love and loyalty if we take a step back.

A film that moves a bit too slowly for its own good but has remarkable cumulative strength by its emotional finale.

At its worst, I Wish is static. At its best, it has the warmth and subtlety of classic Asian works by Edward Yang and Yasujiro Ozu.

Koreeda's like a modern Ozu, documenting the trickle down effect of global economic changes on once strongly held traditions of Japanese family life.

Wistful, light and sweet.

A lovely, authentic exploration of family bonds tested by separation. Though the film is overlong at 128 minutes, it is a warm and wise winner.

If the Dardenne brothers were Japanese instead of French-Belgian, or perhaps set out to craft a homage to Yasujiro Ozu that was crossed with a whimsical yet melancholic version of The Parent Trap, it might well resemble this.

All of the kids in "I Wish" come across as real and believable, a tribute to Koreeda's directing skills working with children.

Never for a moment did I think that the two boys at the heart of Hirokazu Kore-eda's simply told and layered film I Wish were actors.

Often feels like life itself: indescribable, complex, wondrous and beautiful.

The film features some fine performances along with a script that avoids sentimentality in favor of genuine charm.

More Critic Reviews

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Stiff winds fuel Colo. wildfire; looting a concern

Fires erupt on a ridge over a Boy Scouts camp east of Red Feather Lakes, Colo., on Sunday, June 17, 2012, as a stubborn wildfire continues to burn in northern Colorado. Crews in northern Colorado are facing powerful winds as they battle a blaze that has scorched about 86 square miles of mountainous forest land and destroyed at least 181 homes, the most in state history. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Fires erupt on a ridge over a Boy Scouts camp east of Red Feather Lakes, Colo., on Sunday, June 17, 2012, as a stubborn wildfire continues to burn in northern Colorado. Crews in northern Colorado are facing powerful winds as they battle a blaze that has scorched about 86 square miles of mountainous forest land and destroyed at least 181 homes, the most in state history. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Fires erupt on a ridge over a Boy Scouts camp east of Red Feather Lakes, Colo., on Sunday, June 17, 2012, as a stubborn wildfire continues to burn in northern Colorado. Crews are facing powerful winds as they battle the blaze that has scorched about 86 square miles of mountainous forest land and destroyed at least 181 homes, the most in state history. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

An unidentified horseman rides around the edge of a burned area after a wildfire swept over ridges north of Laporte, Colo., on Sunday, June 17, 2012, as a stubborn wildfire continues to burn in northern Colorado. Crews are facing powerful winds as they battle the blaze that has scorched about 86 square miles of mountainous forest land and destroyed at least 181 homes, the most in state history. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Highway 14 north of Laporte Colo., is closed to motorists on Sunday, June 17, 2012, as a stubborn wildfire continues to burn in northern Colorado. Crews are facing powerful winds as they battle the blaze that has scorched about 86 square miles of mountainous forest land and destroyed at least 181 homes, the most in state history. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

People stop along a country road east of Red Feather Lakes, Colo., on Sunday, June 17, 2012, to look on as a stubborn wildfire continues to burn in the mountains of northern Colorado. Crews are facing powerful winds as they battle the blaze that has scorched about 86 square miles of mountainous forest land and destroyed at least 181 homes, the most in state history. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

DENVER (AP) ? Crews in northern Colorado are facing powerful winds as they battle a blaze that has scorched about 86 square miles of mountainous forest land and destroyed at least 181 homes, the most in state history. Meanwhile, local authorities are focusing on another concern ? looting.

The destructiveness of the High Park Fire burning 15 miles west of Fort Collins surpassed the Fourmile Canyon wildfire, which destroyed 169 homes west of Boulder in September 2010.

More than 1,630 personnel are working on the Fort Collins-area fire, which was sparked by lightning and is 45 percent contained.

Julie Berney with the Larimer County Sheriff's Office said firefighters can expect winds of 30 mph with gusts of up to 50 mph Sunday. Some rain moved through Saturday evening, but it wasn't enough to quell the fire.

"The problem is that when you have a fire like this, even if it rains it evaporates before it hits the ground," Berney said.

On Sunday afternoon, high winds prompted fire managers to ground all helicopters working on the blaze and to send 96 notices to residents, ordering the immediate evacuation of the Hewlett Gulch Subdivision in the Poudre Canyon area north of the fire. It was unclear how many homes were affected.

A red flag warning has been issued for the area until 8 p.m. Sunday, and temperatures could reach 90 degrees, the hottest day since the fire was reported June 9.

But incident commander Bill Hahnenberg said he was pleased with the firefighters' progress, while also acknowledging that high winds could be a test.

"A scenario could be we'll lose some line, and then we just go after it the next day and the next day," he said. "We're going to do everything we can to protect facilities, and we're prepared to do that."

As firefighters try to get the upper hand on the blaze, which has burned large swaths of private and U.S. Forest Service land, local authorities have dispatched roving patrols to combat looting.

On Sunday, deputies arrested 30-year-old Michael Stillman Maher, of Denver, on charges including theft and impersonating a firefighter. The sheriff's department said Maher was driving through the fire zone with phony firefighter credentials and a stolen government license plate.

His truck was later seen near a bar in Laporte, and investigators say they found a firearm and stolen property in the vehicle.

"There's a handful out there that are taking advantage of others," said Sheriff Justin Smith, adding that "if somebody's sneaking around back there, we're going to find them."

Also Sunday, a fire erupted in the foothills west of Colorado Springs, prompting the evacuation of some cabins and a recreation area near the Elevenmile Canyon Reservoir. U.S. Forest Service spokesman Ralph Bellah told The Gazette (http://bit.ly/MiQvne ) that the fire was reported at about 12:30 p.m. and quickly grew to up to 100 acres.

Meanwhile, a fire near Pagosa Springs in the southwestern part of the state has grown to 11,617 acres and is 30 percent contained. Hot, dry conditions Sunday are expected to fuel the fire, which was sparked by lightning May 13.

Across the West:

? California: Authorities are evacuating homes in eastern San Diego County as firefighters battle a 100-acre wildfire that has destroyed one structure. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says the fire began Sunday afternoon in a rural area northeast of Campo and near the Golden Acorn Casino.

?New Mexico: A wildfire in southern New Mexico has destroyed 242 homes and businesses, and firefighters are working to increase containment and keep an eye out for possible lightning.

The 59-square-mile Little Bear Fire in Ruidoso is 60 percent contained. Dan Bastion, a spokesman for crews fighting the fire, says most of the fire is in the mop-up stage, but crews need to build more containment on the fire's active west side to deprive it of fuel.

? Arizona: Firefighters are focusing on protecting electrical transmission lines near a 3,100-acre blaze on the Tonto National Forest in northern Arizona. Officials say hot weather and steep slopes remain a concern, and firefighters are on the alert for thunderstorms and possible lightning strikes. The fire is 15 percent contained.

___

Associated Press writer Amanda Myers in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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The Agony of Banning Ecstasy 

Any examples of missed opportunities?
There were six trials of LSD as a treatment for alcoholism, the last one in 1965. The evidence is it's as good as anything we've got, maybe better. But no one is using it for this. I wonder how many other opportunities have been lost in the past 40 years with important drugs, like MDMA (ecstasy) and its empathetic qualities or cannabis for all its possible uses and insights into conditions like schizophrenia. All those opportunities have been wasted because it is virtually impossible to work with a drug when it is illegal.

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Video: A 'Golden' Opporutnity Ahead of Greek Elections

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U.S. Open 2012: Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson And Luke Donald Miss Cut At Olympic Club

SAN FRANCISCO -- The record-setting U.S. Open winner. The Masters champion. The top-ranked player in the world.

Gone. Gone. Gone.

The Olympic Club clobbered Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson and Luke Donald in two rounds at the U.S. Open, sending some of the most prominent players on the planet home before the weekend. All three missed the cut, looking more like amateurs at a local course than professionals in a major championship.

"Disappointed," said McIlroy, the second-ranked player who finished at 268 last year at Congressional to break the 72-hole record by four shots. "It wasn't the way I wanted to play."

Not even close.

World No. 1 Luke Donald finished at 11-over par, McIlroy 10 over and Watson 9 over. While 65 players were good enough to hang around at 8 over or better, the three stars were among 91 others not quite ready for "golf's toughest test."

So long, San Francisco.

"I felt a little uncomfortable," Donald said. "I felt I wasn't compressing the ball like I should have been. I didn't have quite the full control. In previous years, I probably would have panicked a little bit. But I tried to go out and just kind of trust it and even in the practice days I wasn't quite comfortable."

Feeling uneasy is exactly what organizers wanted.

That, and a smaller field on the weekend.

The USGA decided this year to eliminate the 10-shot rule in which players within 10 strokes of the lead make the cut. Starting at this year's championship, the cut was the top 60 and ties.

USGA executive director Mike Davis said the idea behind the new rule was to limit the number of players making the cut ? 108 did so Oakland Hills in 1996 ? and prevent slow play that could force a two-tee start in threesomes.

The flip side was 1993, when Ernie Els made the cut because of the 10-shot rule. He closed with 68-67 on the weekend to tie for seventh, which made him exempt for qualifying the following year. Els won that next year at Oakmont for the first of his three majors.

Watson, 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and Dustin Johnson were among the notables who would've been spared this year. So would've Casey Martin and his cart, too.

"I haven't really looked at the leaderboard," said Phil Mickelson, whose second-round 71 put him at 7 over and safe. "I've been more on the cut line."

Donald came to the U.S. Open with six wins in the past 18 months, more than any other player. Last year, the 34-year-old Englishman pulled off an unprecedented feat by topping the money lists on both the PGA and European tours.

Now he'll probably miss the weekend for the third time in nine U.S. Open starts.

Donald followed his birdie-free 79 ? which even 14-year-old qualifier Andy Zhang matched Thursday ? with a less erratic second round. He had five bogeys and three birdies to card a 72, coming up empty in yet another major.

"That's the one part of my golfing resume in the last few years, especially, that I need to continually address and continually improve," Donald said. "I want to win one more than any of you guys know."

At least one person didn't care.

Donald was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen Elizabeth II's birthday honors list released Saturday for spending almost a year at the top of golf's world ranking.

"Not sure the Queen will be watching," Donald joked earlier this week in response to a curious British reporter's question. "But who knows?"

Her Majesty won't have the chance.

The fast and fickle fairways some of the game's top players hacking out of rough and digging into sand for shots. Others searched for balls in the colossal cypress trees or pushed putts all over the rock-hard greens. Some did all of them.

The only thing more startling than the top-ranked player's early exit was last year's champion.

McIlroy mixed five bogeys ? including one on his final hole ? with a pair of birdies in the second round a day after he posted a 77. The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland shattered U.S. Open records last June at rain-softened Congressional, finishing at 268 to break the 72-hole record by four shots, and his 16-under total was four better than Woods' mark at Pebble Beach in 2000.

What a pushover that course look like now.

"It's just the course is so tough with the reverse cambers and you hit it in the middle of the fairway sometimes it doesn't hold and you're in the rough and when you hit it in the rough it makes it difficult,' McIlroy said about Olympic. "They set it up like a real classic U.S. Open."

___

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