WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. companies barely increased their stockpiles in June from May, and sales plunged by the largest amount in more than three years.
Business inventories edged up a slight 0.1 percent in June after a 0.3 percent gain in May, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Sales fell 1.1 percent, the sharpest decline since March 2009 when the economy was still in recession.
The small June increase in inventories pushed total business stockpiles up to $1.58 trillion. That's 20 percent higher than the low reached in September 2009 when businesses were slashing inventories in response to the recession.
Weaker restocking could act as a drag on overall economic growth. When businesses place fewer orders, factory production slows.
The decline in sales reflected decreases in sales by manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. However, a separate report Tuesday said that retail sales had bounced back in July following three straight monthly declines, a possible sign of a rebound for the overall economy in coming months.
Consumer spending growth slowed to 1.5 percent in the April-June quarter, down from 2.4 percent in the first quarter.
That slowdown translated into overall economic growth of just 1.5 percent in the April-June quarter, below the first quarter's 2 percent growth and much less than the fourth quarter's 4.1 percent.
Economists believe growth may improve later this year, but only slightly. Europe edged closer to recession Tuesday after official figures showed the region's output shrank 0.2 percent in the second quarter of the year, threatening U.S. exports. And the U.S. economy faces a "fiscal cliff" at the end of this year. That's when several large tax cuts expire and a big spending cut is scheduled to kick in.
Economists warn that if the tax increases and spending cuts aren't delayed or reduced, they could push the U.S. economy back into recession.
Wholesale stockpiles account for about 27 percent of total business inventories. Stockpiles held by retailers make up about one-third of the total and manufacturing inventories represent about 40 percent.
Are you planning on making some home improvements? Ok! First, it is essential that you learn the basics that are common to many do it yourself projects. If you feel you need more information, you will benefit from the following article.
It is important to thoroughly dust your home weekly. Dust and debris can build up with shocking rapidity; this not only makes your home less attractive but also introduces allergens into your air. Cleaning on a regular basis helps get rid of dust.
To create more space on your nightstand, choose floor lamps instead of table lamps. Floor lamps stand freely and take up less space. They can also be more easily moved around, since they do not require an entire other surface to rest on. Select stylish lamps that fit your decor.
Preparation is an important part of home improvement. When painting, for example, you will need to cover all your furniture in that room before starting. Paint can ruin furniture forever if it touches it. Use old sheets to cover your furniture.
No longer are chandeliers found only in mansions. A sparkling chandelier is ideal for adding visual impact to your living area or formal dining area; many designs are available for only a few hundred dollars. If you want your lighting fixture to sparkle and let off a lot of light, use 200 to 400 watt bulbs.
Prior to installing paneling, paint stripes on the old wall. Often even the most carefully installed paneling allows a bit of the old wall to peek through. To minimize this issue, measure and mark where each panel will meet before installing. Use paint that matches the paneling.
Does your porch need a new paint job? Utilize exterior paint that is of high quality. Make sure that you use similarly based paints together, such as putting a new oil-based paint over an old one. Likewise, match water-based or latex paints together when putting a new coat over an old one. It?s best to use oil-based paints for trim, since it?s more durable. It should not, however, be used on decks or other outdoor flooring, as it tends to become very slippery when it snows.
Exercise your creativity and come up with a complete home improvement plan before you start any actual work. If you have the design out of the way before you start working, you won?t need to stop midway through to hammer out design issues. Get inspiration by looking at your friend?s houses as well as through home improvement TV shows or magazines.
Use newer lighting fixtures to make your home look more vibrant without shelling out lots of cash. Old and outdated track lighting can be replaced with better looking lights by an electrical professional for a low cost. Pendant lighting, which can look good in a kitchen, is an option worth thinking about.
Mount your tv on the wall. It can free up quite a bit of space. This is an easy project that can be done in under an hour if you follow the directions.
As was said before, the satisfaction and addition of value to your home from improving it cannot be overstated. Hopefully the tips you have read here can help you make the smart choices you need to get your home improvement ideas off the ground without breaking the bank.
ASC has examples of all phases of home improvement including siding.
HOUSTON - Rampart Corporate Center, a 40-acre master-planned industrial park at West Little York Rd. and Holliston Rd., is scheduled for the delivery of its first building October 2012. Nearly 70,500 sf of the 131,000-sf building?has been ...
Austin Real Estate article courtesy of NewsTalk Texas who writes for NewsTalk Texas. You can find the original post at NewsTalk Texas.
Any day when the news doesn't involve a fighter getting injured, a fighter failing a drug screening or a fighting going to jail is a good one, and hey, today looks like a good one.? A well-liked scrapper is switching weight classes again, a co-main event fighter has given his upcoming bout a thumbs-up, a heavyweight wants his title shot, and another fighter went to the doctor, but that's it.? No cuts requiring stitches, no marijuana metabolites and no 40-person brawls ? as the indomitable Ice Cube would say, "It was a good day."
Winner of the inaugural season of "The Ultimate Fighter" and longtime fan-favorite fighter Diego Sanchezannounced that he's moving down to lightweight.? Again.? If you'll recall, his last trip down to the 155-pound weight class ended with a showdown against B.J. Penn, and that match-up wasn't even competitive.? However, Sanchez's recent return to welterweight yielded mixed results, so you know how that goes.
?
UFC lightweight stalwart Don Cerrone says that he's cool with fighting Melvin Guillard this weekend at UFC 150.? Which is good because it's only the co-main event and Cerrone signed the bout agreement months ago and if he were to suddenly say he wasn't cool with it the UFC would probably sue him for breach of contract plus damages.
?
Who will be next to challenge UFC heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos?? Will it be Dutch behemoth Alistair Overeem, who's currently serving a suspension for excessive horsemeat?? Or should it be former champ Cain Velasquez, who turned Antonio Silva into a Dexter-ish blood-splatter pattern on the Octagon floor back at UFC 146?
?
Brazilian light-heavyweight striker Wagner Prado reportedly saw a doctor yesterday for his eye injury, which he incurred via accidental foul at the hands (or fingers) of Phil Davis on UFC on FOX 4 Saturday night.? No word yet on the prognosis, but it's great that Prado is getting professional help.? Eye injuries are no joke.?
ScienceDaily (Aug. 7, 2012) ? An international research collaboration recently demonstrated progress in protecting cassava against cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), a serious virus disease, in a confined field trial in Uganda using an RNA interference technology. The field trial was planted in November 2010 following approval by the National Biosafety Committee of Uganda.
The plants were harvested in November 2011 and results were published in the August 1, 2012 issue of the journal Molecular Plant Pathology.
These results point researchers in the right direction as they develop virus-resistant cassava varieties preferred by farmers in Eastern Africa.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 250 million people derive at least 25 percent of their daily calorie intake from the starchy cassava tuberous roots. In the East African countries of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi and Malawi, 63 percent of households also sell cassava products to earn income for their families. It is estimated that in the next 15 years, cassava will constitute the second most important source of income for more than 125 million people in East Africa.
Cassava brown streak disease is a major problem because it destroys the edible tuberous roots, but visual symptoms on leaves and stems are sometimes difficult to detect. This means unexpected losses for farmers at harvest, with potential devastating impact on families that depend on cassava for food security. Since farmers preserve cassava cuttings in the fields for the next crop, the disease is passed on to the next growing season. Around the Lake Victoria region in Uganda, where an epidemic of the disease is rapidly spreading, many farmers have been forced to abandon the cultivation of cassava. The urgency posed by this disease demands that appropriate tools be employed and interventions applied to solve the problem.
Researchers at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and two partner institutions in Africa, the National Crops Resources Research Institute in Uganda (NaCRRI) and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), are working to solve the problem for African farmers through a collaborative project called Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa (VIRCA). The VIRCA project has been developing cassava with enhanced resistance to cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) and cassava mosaic disease (CMD).
"The collaboration is showing progress toward helping smallholder farmers combat these devastating diseases," said Dr. Anton Bua, the Ugandan Cassava Research Team Leader in charge of field trials and communication for the project in East Africa.
"In Uganda, we eat cassava two or three times per day. Restoring and improving cassava productivity will be critical to the continued economic progress of the country and the region," said Dr. Titus Alicai, project lead, National Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI).
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Emmanuel Ogwok, John Odipio, Mark Halsey, Eliana Gait?n-Sol?s, Anton Bua, Nigel J. Taylor, Claude M. Fauquet, Titus Alicai. Transgenic RNA interference (RNAi)-derived field resistance to cassava brown streak disease. Molecular Plant Pathology, 2012; DOI: 10.1111/j.1364-3703.2012.00812.x
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
ANKARA (Reuters) - Only Turkey and Iran working together can resolve their region's conflicts, particularly the fighting in Syria, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on a visit to Turkey on Tuesday.
"Without anyone of these major players I think the realization or materialization of peace and stability in the region, especially in countries like Syria, will be very difficult," Salehi told reporters at the airport.
He added he would discuss with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu the situation of 48 Iranians seized by rebels in Syria.
(Reporting by Tulay Karadenizp; Writing by Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Two prominent energetic systems principles that drive our complex economy are hierarchy and autocatalysis. Earlier posts highlighted the concepts of energy transformity and hierarchy. The concept of autocatalysis can be seen in many circular loops in our current society, such as current proposals for geoengineering technology to fix the problems that industrial and post-industrial technology have wrought. Autocatalysis is also known as the positive feedback loop, and it is the engine for our growth economy.
The energy flywheel
Two prominent energetic systems principles that drive our complex economy are hierarchy and autocatalysis. Earlier posts highlighted the concepts of energy transformity and hierarchy. The concept of autocatalysis can be seen in many circular loops in our current society, such as current proposals
Production within economic systems consists of the interaction between inputs of energy flowing in one direction from a concentrated condition to dispersed, along with feedback from a storage of assets interacting to drive cycles of materials through work, round and round. Autocatalysis is the combination of the storage and a feedback loop that uses ?the products of growth to accelerate the capture of more energy so that growth goes faster and faster . . . with the products of production (in storage tank symbol) being fed back (to the left) to amplify capture of more energy? producing maximum power production and exponential growth when resources are unlimited.
?Each energy transformation process within the energy hierarchy has an associated storage from which the autocatalytic feedbacks originate. . . . To have a longer period of accumulation for levels with less energy flow requires a larger storage. . . Growth and succession on any scale require and are accompanied by development of the storage necessary to maximize the energy intake with feedback pumping. When resources from transformations are stored, both energy and emergy accumulate? (Odum, 2007, p. 81). [This is how the energy hierarchy concentrates materials through successive concentration into centers of organized complexity.] ?Autocatalytic feedback [and hierarchy] are general design characteristics of self-organization? (Odum, 2007, p. 119). And ?when available energy levels are large enough, the system develops a self-interaction to accelerate even faster, a super acceleration? (Odum, 2007, p. 46).
Systems are ultimately controlled by the amounts and types of energy sources outside of it. The system ?gradually fits itself, its storages, its material cycles, its feedbacks, and its design to that pattern which maximizes energy in the combination available to it. . . Surviving systems are those that feed back their stored energy to stimulate the flow of energy? (Odum & Odum, 1976, p. 46). Odum suggests that the US economy was in super acceleration until 1973, when surplus energies became less constantly available. Autocatalysis maximizes power by processing more energy, with less emphasis on efficiency and more on growth. Examples of autocatalytic loops in our economy include control of the media, science, and politics through amplification of information, to promote consumption and to lower restraints of regulation that control growth. The goals of the system shift to wealth acquisition and promotion of consumption.
During the global spread of civilization, growth economies set priorities for development of fuel, transportation, and water resources. Large stocks of different energy sources interacted, creating a flywheel effect or reinforcing feedback loop for economic growth and a chain reaction. Because storages or stocks are not flow limited, the rate of use can increase over time. Production pathways for fossil fuels generated storages, and consumption prevailed by reinforcing production. Environmental resources were coupled to fuel-using economic production. Negative feedback cues that should have controlled the rate of growth were suppressed, and amplifiers were maximized. But as stocks/storages are drawn down, surplus energy and emergy yield wanes, and growth slows and stops by lack of inputs rather than inhibition through negative feedback. The system becomes flow limited, dependent on renewable resources, as the competing feedback loops develop from flow-limited ways of living. But since feedback loops have delays, the tendency in autocatalysis is to overshoot and collapse.
Energy cannibalism
So what happens when limiting factors slow or stop growth?
?Each time an environmental product is further transformed into a more highly developed product in the economy, additional Emergy is added and the transformity is increased. If the higher transformity is developed by collecting and concentrating dilute energy, using more emergy from the free environment, the emergy yield ratio (EYR) of the product is increased. If, however, the emergy for the transformations is being supplied by the economy, the net emergy yield decreases? (Odum, 1996, p. 146).
As EYRs approach net, ?more and more of the economy and human service becomes involved in getting the fuels, and fewer other activities are possible? (Odum, 1996, p. 140).
Energy cannibalism (Pearce, 2008) is the circular reasoning that occurs when we trial net negative energy sources, leading to thermodynamic limits. With each step of fuel transformation in borderline energy sources such as biofuels, net emergy decreases. It is like raising yourself by your own bootstraps against gravity, or like the ouroboros eating its own tail. It just won?t work. My brain hurts thinking about these impossible solutions. We can frame some current examples of energy cannibalism using a classic Aldo Leopold quote, ?Having to squeeze the last drop of utility out of the land has the same desperate finality as having to chop up the furniture to stay warm.?
As Smolker and Peterman illustrate, on the way up sources became sinks as we burned fossil fuels, but on the way down, sinks become sources as we burn biofuels and further degrade the biosphere?s abilities.
On the way up, fuels become food as ?potatoes are made of oil?, but on the way down, food becomes fuel as biofuels are tried as replacements.
On the way up, our interest/debt based money system encourages wealth acquisition and expansion, but on the way down, this growth-based information system promotes dysfunctional behaviors seeking more growth, delaying feedback from the competing feedback loops representing the renewable economy. Because Mother Nature has no cash, she has no voice.
On the way up, we add more and more complexity to bureaucratic systems, but on the way down squeezing more growth out of a system with declining resources makes it crash.
Shifting dominance in competing feedback loops eventually allows the secondary renewable based loop to take over (Meadows, 2008). In this case, emergy yield ratios and decreasing benefits of complexity are the driving factors that switches the system to a renewable emphasis and a simpler system. The relocalization movement as pushback to industrial agriculture and consumption is an example of a competing feedback loop that groups are trying in different regions, as negative feedback stabilization is too weak to be effective.
The biosphere as more than the sum of its parts
Because of our reductionist world views, we try to deal with the problems of growth through technology. We use more energy in projects such as geoengineering, creating even more resource cannibalism and environmental degradation, as we slap band aids on
a failing biosphere. We have created a Rube Goldberg economy, where engineers? technology and a reductionist focus creates unneeded complexity. (Thanks to Albert Bates for his Goldberg cartoons that gave me the idea for the title of this post.) Instead of removing the trees to make factories to make massive widgets to vacuum carbon from the biosphere, maybe we should just leave the trees and let nature do the work, as Bates said? Instead of creating costly photovoltaic solar panels that cannibalize energy, just plant some veggies, as nature has had more practice and is more efficient at changing sunlight into energy? We are so divorced from nature that we now propose replacing plant leaves with silicone technology artificial leaves (ironically touted in a journal called Nature). Why would we do this? Here are some possible reasons.
Reductionist views?if we think that our system can grow forever through use of technology, we will behave very differently in what we pursue. Thus, we look for high-tech solutions that maximize power for a system that rewards wealth and corporate growth.
We equate technology with energy since technology is typically garnered to produce more energy. In this example of the artificial leaf, nature has had millions of years to perfect the most efficient method to translate sunlight into energy, yet we think we can replace or compete with nature.
Since there are no limits, there is no need to understand or rank the relative embodied emergy of our technologies in terms of which yield the most emergy. In a contracting economy, we must use the fuels with the highest emergy yield ratio?the ones that work with nature instead of opposing nature.
We have learned that technology grants us more power, so if we can do something, we will (maximum power).
Our systemic goals are wealth and growth; there might be a profit in the investment, with science for sale.
Scientists can garner some journal articles, ?bringing money and attention to the field of solar fuel.?
No one asked if this was an important priority for science or why we are doing this?is there a need for priorities in a culture with infinite growth? If we asked why, would there be an answer?
Our autocatalytic loops are firmly in place, and there is no understanding of energy basis or the big picture. Don?t these scientists realize that in a world with fewer resources, we will need to work with nature to become more efficient instead of duplicating nature?s processes at great energetic cost, waste, and pollution? This is what comes of not living within one?s means. Bryan Norton said, ?the value of biodiversity is more than the sum of its parts.? Our reductionist view of both the problems and the ensuing solutions lead us to treat the biosphere as an unlimited toolbox of parts.
Decoupling from reality with circular reasoning
The prime directive of wealth subsumes all else and creates feedback loops?we chase growth to create more wealth in a chain reaction, over and over. Examples are everywhere I look. In my favorite example, healthcare, we medicalize normal conditions of living and then create complex tests, and then we medicate, operate, or otherwise treat. Even dying is now a profit center.
Medical science first leans towards big pharma solutions, and then it lunges, as ?careers remain contingent on producing a stream of research that?s dressed up to seem more right than it is.? In America, the business of health becomes a paradox, where we ?spend more but get less.? Our industries eventually reach the silly endpoint of being a Rube Goldberg machine, where we add more inefficiency, bureaucracy, and features to allow more steps and more players to make more profit from the disease factory, while never removing any steps in the process.
Diminishing returns and competing feedback loops
As energy returns per investment diminish and growth peaks, some of the autocatalytic loops begin to look a little silly. We create uses for fossil fuels such as imported spoons and gym clubs for stationary biking. We attach status to the advertised object or experience, creating want and unhappiness about consumption. We hijack natural systems to create profits for elite capitalists. We have treadmills for dogs, we own massive cars and houses, and we heat sidewalks, while people go hungry. ?Emergy is wasted if high transformity energy is used when energy of lower transformity will suffice? (Odum, 1996, p. 163). We cannot keep this up for long, but we will keep it up until people realize that the old growth economy is not coming back.
At some point, the law of diminishing returns on the old system dictates that we switch to the competing feedback loops of a flow-limited renewable energy based system, as the cost of importing spoons or the cost of gym membership overcomes our personal budget and we begin to behave more frugally. Eventually, after some feedback delays, the ridiculous nature of some of the autocatalytic loops in the accelerated economy starts to dawn on people, especially when compared to increasing austerity in personal budgets, and they stop the wasteful behaviors.
Holding back the tide
For those who insist on remaining in the dominant paradigm, the centralized control and manipulation of the system to try to keep and grow what we?ve got in resistance to the thermodynamic certainty of economic contraction eventually fails, as CH Smith points out. When we mask risk, and try to support the current system by holding back the tide, eventually the suppression fails and the system switches more violently than it would have if we had not suppressed it to begin with. For example, if our money managers realized how certain economic contraction is, they might be trying to accommodate it and not paper over economic contraction by printing money. If our economy is contracting, the monetary information system that guides it must contract also. How simple that fact is, yet all of our incentives are skewed towards expanding the money system instead. When the shift or tipping point comes, it will be all the more severe for the suppression and manipulation of our economic system. Time and tides wait for no man ? when dams burst, the chaos that ensues is all the more powerful for the pent-up size of the pulse, more likely to cause a big mess.
So what does this mean for us? The higher and faster we grow, the farther and faster we?ll fall, because we lack balancing feedback loops to slow our growth adequately. Our powerful Rube Goldberg economy keeps adding loops to the chain reaction, creating more unnecessary overshoot. The economy is chasing its own tail, like an ouroboros, and it is now starting to catch it and eat it, not sensing the negative feedback which should ensue. We are consuming ourselves. We must restructure our system from the ground up as resources wane, since the feedback loops that drive the current system are too powerful to overcome intentionally. Those reading this post are probably part of the newly developing feedback loops for a relocalized economy. That is why I?m rooting for empire to fail sooner rather than later, before we?ve grown and polluted too much to allow for grass-roots recovery.
