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Friday, June 22, 2012

Valve announces Steam for Schools, helps teachers create educational Portal 2 levels

Who ever said being a scientific guinea pig couldn't be educational? With Steam for Schools, teachers can now use Portal 2's level editor to create lessons focused on boosting critical thinking, spatial reasoning and problem solving skills. Announced at the Games for Change festival in New York City, the educator edition of Steam comes with a free copy of Portal 2 and the Portal 2 Puzzle Maker. Students and teachers alike can use the tools to create puzzles, but distribution is handled by teachers alone. (That's right, kids -- no level sharing unless the teach says so.) An accompanying website serves as a gathering place for teachers to collaborate, and aims to provide sample lesson plans centered on science, technology, engineering and math. If you're an educator who can't wait to bring a Portal-assisted physics lesson to life, see the links below to sign up for the ongoing beta. Now if you'll excuse us, we're off to "study."

Valve announces Steam for Schools, helps teachers create educational Portal 2 levels originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Melting sea ice threatens emperor penguins, study finds

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

At nearly four feet tall, the Emperor penguin is Antarctica's largest sea bird?and thanks to films like "March of the Penguins" and "Happy Feet," it's also one of the continent's most iconic. If global temperatures continue to rise, however, the Emperor penguins in Terre Ad?lie, in East Antarctica may eventually disappear, according to a new study by led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The study was published in the June 20th edition of the journal Global Change Biology.

"Over the last century, we have already observed the disappearance of the Dion Islets penguin colony, close to the West Antarctic Peninsula," says Stephanie Jenouvrier, WHOI biologist and lead author of the new study. "In 1948 and the 1970s, scientists recorded more than 150 breeding pairs there. By 1999, the population was down to just 20 pairs, and in 2009, it had vanished entirely." Like in Terre Ad?lie, Jenouvrier thinks the decline of those penguins might be connected to a simultaneous decline in Antarctic sea ice due to warming temperatures in the region.

Unlike other sea birds, Emperor penguins breed and raise their young almost exclusively on sea ice. If that ice breaks up and disappears early in the breeding season, massive breeding failure may occur, says Jenouvrier. "As it is, there's a huge mortality rate just at the breeding stages, because only 50 percent of chicks survive to the end of the breeding season, and then only half of those fledglings survive until the next year," she says.

Disappearing sea ice may also affect the penguins' food source. The birds feed primarily on fish, squid, and krill, a shrimplike animal, which in turn feeds on zooplankton and phytoplankton, tiny organisms that grow on the underside of the ice. If the ice goes, Jenouvrier says, so too will the plankton, causing a ripple effect through the food web that may starve the various species that penguins rely on as prey.

To project how penguin populations may fare in the future, Jenouvrier's team used data from several different sources, including climate models, sea ice forecasts, and a demographic model that Jenouvrier created of the Emperor penguin population at Terre Ad?lie, a coastal region of Antarctica where French scientists have conducted penguin observations for more than 50 years.

Combining this type of long-term population data with information on climate was key to the study, says Hal Caswell, a WHOI senior mathematical biologist and collaborator on the paper.

"If you want to study the effects of climate on a particular species, there are three pieces that you have to put together," he says. "The first is a description of the entire life cycle of the organism, and how individuals move through that life cycle. The second piece is how the cycle is affected by climate variables. And the crucial third piece is a prediction of what those variables may look like in the future, which involves collaboration with climate scientists."

This video is about emperor penguins and climate change.Credit: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Marika Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research is one such scientist. She specializes in studying the relationship between sea ice and global climate, and helped the team identify climate models for use in the study.

Working with Julienne Stroeve, another sea ice specialist from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Holland ultimately recommended five distinct models. "We picked the models based on how well they calculated the sea ice cover for the 20th century," she says. "If a model predicted an outcome that matched what was actually observed, we felt it was likely that its projections of sea ice change in the future could be trusted."

Jenouvrier used the output from these various climate models to determine how changes in temperature and sea ice might affect the Emperor penguin population at Terre Ad?lie. She found that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at levels similar to today?causing temperatures to rise and Antarctic sea ice to shrink?penguin population numbers will diminish slowly until about 2040, after which they would decline at a much steeper rate as sea ice coverage drops below a usable threshold.

"Our best projections show roughly 500 to 600 breeding pairs remaining by the year 2100. Today, the population size is around 3000 breeding pairs," says Jenouvrier.

The effect of rising temperature in the Antarctic isn't just a penguin problem, according to Caswell. As sea ice coverage continues to shrink, the resulting changes in the Antarctic marine environment will affect other species, and may affect humans as well.

"We rely on the functioning of those ecosystems. We eat fish that come from the Antarctic. We rely on nutrient cycles that involve species in the oceans all over the world," he says. "Understanding the effects of climate change on predators at the top of marine food chains?like Emperor penguins?is in our best interest, because it helps us understand ecosystems that provide important services to us."

###

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: http://www.whoi.edu

Thanks to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Thursday, June 21, 2012

'Dumb And Dumber To' Won't Happen Without Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels Says

'Nobody's doing it without Jim,' Daniels tells MTV News after Carrey's reps announced he left the proposed sequel.
By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Kara Warner

Jim Carrey
Photo:

Jim Carrey's reps confirmed on Wednesday that he has left the proposed "Dumb and Dumber" sequel, the cleverly titled "Dumb and Dumber To," due to a conflict with the studios, New Line and Warner Bros.

Later that day, MTV News spokes with Carrey's co-star from the original, Jeff Daniels, as he walked the red carpet for his upcoming HBO series, Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom."

Daniels' answer was succinct and confirmed what many feared would be the implication of Carrey's departure. "No, nobody's doing it without Jim," he said.

As "Entertainment Tonight" had previously reported, Carrey exited the sequel to the Farrelly Brothers' follow-up to the 1994 comedy because New Line and Warner Bros. did not care enough about the project.

"According to sources, Carrey grew increasingly frustrated by New Line and Warner Brothers, who he felt showed a lack of enthusiasm regarding the project," "ET" claimed.

When the entertainment show reached out to Carrey's representation, they confirmed the departure and delivered a statement from the actor himself. "I would have thought 'Dumb and Dumber To' was a no-brainer," he said. "After all, it's implied in the title."

Daniels' insistence that a sequel would not happen without Carrey's involvement should not come as a surprise. The main draw of "Dumb and Dumber To" was that it would reunite the stars of the beloved movie for the first time.

"Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd," a prequel to the original that featured none of the original's key players, bombed at the box office in 2003.

Do you think a "Dumb and Dumber" sequel can go on without Jim Carrey? Leave your comment below!

Check out everything we've got on "Dumb and Dumber."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Avian Pets: The Opposite of Mammals | The Wagging Tail

? Gleanings from the 2012 EBVMA Symposium

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Shangzhe Xie, DVM

As bird owners would testify, having a bird as a pet is a totally different ball game than having a dog or a cat. Being called ?bird-brained? may not be a compliment for most people, but thinking like a bird is essential for establishing the ideal pet-owner relationship.

Being a veterinarian for avian pets requires the same type of thinking, but a major confounding factor is that many of the approaches that apply to dogs and cats are very different for birds. Some examples:

Gender determination: The most common question I get asked in practice when presented with a bird is: ?Is it a boy or a girl?? While this is a relatively straightforward answer for a dog or cat, it?s not the case for a bird. Most birds do not have external organs indicating their sex, and while some have obvious color differences, most of the time it is impossible to tell just by a physical examination. A DNA test is the least invasive way to determine a bird?s sex, but an endoscope can also be used.
Musculoskeletal: Birds have wings, which look and function very differently from the forelimbs of dogs and cats. A bird?s ulna is also larger than the radius, so don?t get confused when looking at radiographs. Birds have hollow bones that are easily broken, so they need to be handled very gently.
Respiratory system: Another important anatomical difference between birds and dogs/cats is that birds have an intricate system of air sacs in addition to the lungs. This allows them to breathe more efficiently, but it also means that care must be taken to avoid the air sacs when giving a bird an injection. Birds do not have a diaphragm, so ensuring that they are able to expand their chest when being handled is very important.
Therapeutics: In general, a bird?s chest is a safe zone for injections because the pectoral muscles are large and away from the air sac system. Birds metabolize drugs differently than mammals and have different drug receptors. One good example is that, compared to mammals, they have more kappa opioid receptors than mu receptors. Therefore, butorphanol tends to work better for pain control than other opioids commonly used for mammals.

There are many more differences between birds and mammals, and it is important to take them into account when treating them. For more information about treating avian pets, consider the resources below.

Recommended reading:

1)??? Altman RB, Clubb SL, Dorrestein GM, Quesenberry K (eds). Avian Medicine and Surgery. 1997. WB Saunders Co., Philadelphia, Pa.

2)??? Association of Avian Veterinarians (AAV) website.

3)??? Ritchie BW, Harrison GJ, Harrison LR (eds). Avian Medicine: Principles and Application. 1994. Wingers Publishing Co., Lake Worth, Fla. Also available online.

About Shangzhe Xie, DVM

Shangzhe Xie, DVM, graduated in 2008 from Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, and completed a Master of Veterinary Studies in Conservation Medicine from Murdoch University in 2010. Dr. Xie joined Banfield Pet Hospital of Burbank, Ill., in July 2010 and has expanded the clientele to include exotic species. He also served on the Banfield Exotic Pets Care Guidelines Committee in 2011. View all posts by Shangzhe Xie, DVM ? ? Gleanings from the 2012 EBVMA Symposium

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