Earth ‘May Be Doubly Sensitive’ to CO2

You may think the prospect of climate change is alarming, a call to action to slow down our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. You’re almost certainly right. But some scientists are now suggesting you should be much more concerned than you are, because they think we may be seriously underestimating the problem. The Geological Society of London (GSL) says the sensitivity of the Earth’s climate to CO2 could be double earlier estimates. The Society has published an addition to a report by a GSL working party in 2010, which was entitled Climate change: Evidence from the Geological Record. The addition says many climate models typically look at short term, rapid factors when calculating the Earth’s climate sensitivity, which is defined as the average global temperature increase brought about by a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere. Scientists agree that a doubling of atmospheric CO2 levels could result in temperature increases of between 1.5 and 4.5°C, caused by rapid changes such as snow and ice melt, and the behaviour of clouds and water vapour. But what the GSL now says is that geological evidence from palaeoclimatology Beatrix's creative catchall in hotel setting (studies of past climate change) suggests that if longer-term factors are taken into account, such as the decay of large ice sheets, the Earth’s sensitivity to a doubling of CO2 could itself be double that predicted by most climate models. Dr Colin Summerhayes, who led the statement’s working group, says: “The climate sensitivity suggested by modern climate models may be fine for the short term, but does not encompass the full range of change expected in the long term…” But he cautions that there are really two “sensitivities” involved: “Climate sensitivity is what happens in the short term in response to a doubling of CO2. But the Earth system sensitivity is what happens in the longer time frame as ice sheets slowly melt, and as sea level slowly rises. “…The IPCC focuses on… the climate sensitivity – what will happen in the next 100 years. Earth system sensitivity tells you what happens in the next couple of hundred years after that.” The GSL’s addition also reports new data showing that temperature and CO2 levels recorded in Antarctic ice cores increase at the same time. This, says Summerhayes, “makes the role of CO2 in changing Ice Age climate highly significant.” Atmospheric carbon levels are currently just below 400 parts per million (ppm) – a figure last seen between 5.3 and 2.6 million years ago. Global temperatures were then 2-3°C higher than today, and sea levels were several metres higher, due to partial melting of the Antarctic ice sheet.

Beatrix's creative catchall in hotel setting

Coherence is overrated. That's the conclusion I draw from Beatrix, an agreeable hodgepodge of a restaurant that opened six months ago in River North and has been doing brisk business ever since. Focus? Fuggedaboutit. This Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises concept features three chefs, serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and brunch, and also features a coffee bar and grab-and-go pastry case. Beatrix sits just off the lobby of the extremely hip Aloft Chicago City Center hotel and is essentially Lettuce Chairman Rich Melman's re-imagining of the hotel restaurant. Beatrix is dimly lit, energetic and hip; the concrete floors, wood beams and exposed mechanicals give the space an urban-loft vibe even though the construction is brand new. The no-frills look is belied by very comfortable seating (the heavy leather chairs are wonderful, though the fabric ones apparently stain too easily). You could rename the menu "Stuff Rich likes to eat," and you wouldn't be far off. The back story is that every dish at Beatrix was developed in Lettuce's test kitchen but never made it onto a Lettuce Restaurant menu, a sort of culinary version of the "Island of Misfit Toys." "These are recipes we all loved," says John Chiakulas, part of the three-headed chef hydra that runs Beatrix (Rita Dever and Susan Weaver are the other chefs), "but for whatever reason never made it into those stores." OK, "Island of Misfit Toys" is too harsh. The menu may defy categorization, but the individual dishes are well conceived and, unlike the fabled misfit toys (a train with square wheels, a boat that can't float), tend to work. The bottom of the menu bears the slogan "Taste over Trend," and that's not exactly right either. No insult intended to the taste half of the equation, but the menu is loaded with trendy influences, current and recent. Korean-spiced beef, check; hamachi crudo, check. There's raw kale with the burger, and braised kale with the turkey "neatloaf." Quinoa appears on the menu twice, and that's still trending well, at least until Foodie Nation goes freaky for freekeh. Which is also on the menu. The urban look and the playful menu names mask the fact that Beatrix's menu plays things about as cautiously as you might expect a hotel dining room to do. There are salads, some pasta and meatloaf comfort-food items, a couple of fish, some braised dishes, a steak. Two things distinguish the collection: A good selection of lighter, health-conscious touches (which the menu doesn't even point out) and enough clever twists from the kitchen to keep the audience from nodding off. Entrees are particularly attention-worthy. Branzino is topped with a golden-brown brioche crust that looks like a plank of wood but contributes crunch and buttery notes, and makes the sea bass taste a little like Dover sole. Salmon gets something of a south-of-the-border treatment, topped with a mole-like chocolate-chile glaze and served with corn tortillas and a light coleslaw flecked with smoked almonds.

Baumer Releases USB 3.0 Board-Level Cameras

Baumer adds the Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0 interface and other performance features to its MX camera series. Application possibilities, USB connection and flexibility in tiny installation spaces characterise the 10 new camera models. The USB 3.0 board-level cameras are available with resolutions from Video Graphics Array (VGA) to 4 megapixels (MP) and high-performance Sony Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) and CMOSIS sensors. Fast motion sequences are detected with up to 160 frames per second (fps) and global shutter sensors in monochrome and colour. The MX series’ proven large range of functions, including sequencer or storable user sets and matching Baumer Generic Programming Interface (GAPI) Software Development Kit (SDK) v.2.2 software, round out the benefits of the new USB 3.0 board-level cameras. All models are certified in accordance with the new USB3 Vision standard, making them compatible with software libraries for industrial image processing, such as National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW, MVTec Halcon or Matrox Imaging Library. Plug and play functionality enables quick and easy camera integration. The USB 3.0 interface allows you to use a single cable solution for data transmission and power supply. The small remoted 28.5 millimetre (mm) × 28.5mm sensor head is connected to the system’s printed circuit board (PCB) with only 8.2mm overall height by flexprint. This allows flexibility in camera integration where space is very limited (i.e., in industrial image processing installations or medical and laboratory technologies).

The Central Bank declined to respond to this comment

None of the options appear to be perfect just yet, but for machines that cost less than $300, they're getting closer than most probably imagined they would.A spokesperson for the Central Bank said: "It's expected that the balance sheet assessments will conclude by the end of November. The If Iran fails to meet its commitments outputs of the balance sheet assessments will feed into the ECB's asset quality review and comprehensive assessment which the Irish banks will be involved in."As the balance sheet assessments is seen as part of the overall comprehensive assessment, as announced by the ECB on Oct 23, it isn't expected that the balance sheet assessments will be published separately."It is not known when or if the Central Bank will provide the banks with the results of the balance sheet assessments.A senior source at one of the domestic Irish banks said the balance sheet assessments lacked clarity in terms of the criteria used during the assessment and the possible outcomes."There has been an exchange of information over the past month, but we do not know what happens from here or over what timeframe," said the bank source. The Central Bank declined to respond to this comment.At the outset of the assessments it was understood that if there were adverse findings, this would be communicated to the relevant bank. In turn, this bank would have to provide this information to its shareholders.The Department of Finance, which is the majority shareholder in AIB and Permanent TSB, said the assessments were a matter for the Central Bank and that it had no involvement in the process.The original plan agreed with the EU/IMF/ECB troika was that the Central Bank would conduct stress tests of the three covered banks towards the end of the summer. The results of these tests would be published before the country exited the EU/IMF bailout programme next month.However, the timing of the stress tests were delayed to coincide with the ECB's stress tests in 2014 as part of the moves towards a banking union.As well stress tests, the banks will have to undergo an asset quality review.