Vatican denies internal split on US nun crackdown

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? The Vatican is denying there are any internal divisions over its crackdown on the largest umbrella group of U.S. nuns.

The head of the Vatican's office for religious orders, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, was quoted over the weekend as saying his office wasn't consulted or even advised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about its decision to overhaul the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents 80 percent of American sisters.

On Tuesday, the Vatican said Braz's words were misinterpreted, and that he and the prefect of the doctrine office "have collaborated throughout the process." It said the two men met Monday and reaffirmed their commitment to renewing religious life in the U.S. as well as to the Vatican's reform plan for the Leadership Conference.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-denies-internal-split-us-nun-crackdown-120638441.html

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This Bat Knows How To Drink

Imagine it's a hot day, and you're craving some cold lemonade. Someone offers you a glass, but with one condition: You can drink it only using your tongue, with no lips touching the glass. No straw.

You might have a problem.

But many animals ? bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and bats ? have tongues specifically designed to do this. All drink nectar from flowers using only their tongues.

In the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team describes one species of bat's particularly elaborate nectar-scooping tongue.

A high-speed photograph of a Pallas' long-tongued bat feeding from the nectar deep within a flower.

Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle/Bat Conservation International/Science Source

A high-speed photograph of a Pallas' long-tongued bat feeding from the nectar deep within a flower.

Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle/Bat Conservation International/Science Source

Pallas's long-tongued bats live in Central and South America. They're roughly 2 inches long, and they spend their nights going from flower to flower. And each bat has a tongue about twice as long as its head.

"They hover for just a few seconds over the flower corolla, and then they probe their tongue deep into the base of the flower tube and soak up nectar," says Cally Harper, the graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University, who led the study.

The challenge for all nectar feeders, Harper says, is to slurp up as much nectar as possible in the shortest possible time. That's because hovering over each flower takes a lot of energy, and to get enough food, the nectar slurpers have to visit many flowers in a single night.

Nature has come up with a variety of tongue designs, Harper says. "Hummingbirds have these bifurcated tongues that almost act like tweezers to tweeze up small droplets of liquid. And for butterflies, their tongues function almost like straws, where they have little pores at the tip of their tongue, where the nectar flows through those pores through the tube of that tongue."

Harper wanted to know how the Pallas's long-tongued bats scooped up sweet liquid. So she and her boss, Beth Brainerd, a specialist in biomechanics and evolutionary morphology, decided to film them in the laboratory, using a high-speed video camera.

The researchers knew the bat tongues were covered with little hairs, so they watched what happened to those hairs as the bats reached out for food.

When the tongue is inside the bat's mouth, they found, the hairs lie flat on the tongue's surface.

"And then very close to when the tongue is maximally extended, these hairs become erect," Harper says. "And when that happens, a space is created between each of the rows of hairs on the tongue tip. And nectar is loaded onto each one of those spaces."

It's like the bat's tongue is working like a mop, Brainerd says. "Not a sponge mop, but a stringy mop."

Brainerd says it turns out that each hair has blood vessels supplying it. When the bat sticks its tongue out to feed, the muscles of the tongue contract, pushing blood into the hair and making it stand on end. "The mechanism is like an active mop that's opening up to make more space for this liquid nectar to be collected," she says.

This scanning electron microscope image of the tongue of the Pallas' long-tongued bat shows how the hairs on the surface stand up to catch liquid, turning it into a "nectar mop."

Courtesy of Cally Harper

This scanning electron microscope image of the tongue of the Pallas' long-tongued bat shows how the hairs on the surface stand up to catch liquid, turning it into a "nectar mop."

Courtesy of Cally Harper

Other creatures, including bees and cats, have hairs on their tongues, too.

But no other animal is known to use the tongue hairs in quite this way, says Kurt Schwenk, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut.

"What made it so cool and exciting is this dynamic attribute they have of popping out when the blood pressure gets high enough," says Schwenk.

He says that the study shows how under-appreciated tongues are.

"When you start looking at tongues in different animal groups, you see this amazing diversity of form and function that I think would shock most people."

And for that matter, Schwenk says even the human tongue is more remarkable than we give it credit for.

"I'd suggest that in the privacy of your own home," Schwenk says, "go into the bathroom and look in the mirror, stick your tongue out and start examining the incredible movements you can make with your tongue."

The human tongue may not be great for slurping up liquids, but it is perfect for the foods we eat and all the languages we speak.

Watch The Tongue In Action

This high-speed video shows a Pallas's long-tongued bat lapping up artificial nectar from a glass jar. At 52 seconds in, you can see a close-up view of the hairs on the tongue standing up to help draw the nectar into the bat's mouth.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/07/181634051/this-bat-knows-how-to-drink?ft=1&f=1007

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China factory PMI raises doubts about economy's strength

By Langi Chiang and Jonathan Standing

BEIJING (Reuters) - Growth in China's manufacturing sector unexpectedly slowed in April as new export orders fell, raising fresh doubts about the strength of the economy after a disappointing first quarter.

The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 50.6 in April from an 11-month high in March of 50.9. Analysts had expected the April PMI to be 51.0.

The pull back on the official PMI mirrored a similar decline in a preliminary HSBC PMI last week, suggesting China's exports engine faces headwinds from the euro zone recession and sluggish growth in the United States.

China's new government has signaled it will step up infrastructure investment, which analysts said will provide support for the economy in the second quarter.

"Overall, my general feel is that China is growing but slower than people expected say a month ago," said Alvin Pontoh, economist at TDSecurities in Singapore.

"But I don't think this is reason for alarm... this is probably what the new administration is looking for. Structurally, China cannot grow at 9 or 10 percent any more, so over the next few years, you'd reasonably expect growth to edge lower to say 7 percent or so".

A string of global data, including lower than expected U.S. economic growth figures, has dented optimism seen at the start of the year that the world economy was picking up.

Market reaction to the PMI was muted as many countries in Asia and Europe are marking May 1 Labor Day holiday. China's markets are closed and will reopen on Thursday.

Benchmark three-month copper slipped and weighed on mining stocks in Australia following the PMI figures. The Australian and New Zealand dollars held their ground.

The official PMI figures showed a new orders sub-index fell to 51.7 in April from 52.3 in March, holding above 50 which separates expansion from contraction compared with a month earlier. However, the new export orders index fell to 48.6 from 50.9 in March, suggesting they were shrinking.

The input price sub index fell to 40.1 in April, its lowest in at least four years.

"The dip in April PMI shows that the foundation for China's economic recovery is still not solid," Zhang Liqun, an economist at the Development Research Centre, a top government think tank in Beijing, said in an emailed statement accompanying the index.

"All these show the possibility for China's growth to slow slightly in the future. We must work to stabilize domestic demand and make our economic recovery more sustainable," he said.

HSBC's preliminary PMI for April fell to 50.5 from 51.6 in March as new export orders shrank. The final reading is scheduled to be published on Thursday.

RECOVERY UNDER THREAT

The latest PMI adds risks to market expectations that China's annual economic expansion will pick up to 8.0 percent in the April-June quarter after it slipped in January to March to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent in the previous quarter.

Zhiwei Zhang, a China economist at Nomura, said in a client note before the PMI figures that he expects growth to ease again in the second quarter to 7.5 percent.

Apart from expectations of more infrastructure investment, the central bank will hold rates steady throughout 2013, as it needs to tread a delicate balance between inflation and growth, a Reuters poll showed.

"We still expect major activity indicators to show a moderate growth recovery in April and 2Q. On policies, we expect overall monetary and fiscal policies to remain accommodative, though we see no need for significant stimulus," said Ting Lu, a Hong-Kong-based China economist from Bank of America Merril Lynch, in a note to clients.

Beijing is targeting 2013 growth of 7.5 percent, lower than the double digit levels of most of the past three decades as it tries to shift the economy to reduce reliance on exports and more towards consumption.

Still, the recovery from seven-straight quarters of a slowdown through the third quarter of 2012 has been uneven so far. Growth picked up in the fourth quarter but then slipped in the first quarter of this year despite a credit boom in January through March.

China's debt-ridden local governments used new lending to repay existing loans instead of channeling the money into new investment, analysts said.

The government has promised to heighten scrutiny of local government financing vehicles, wealth management products and the country's fledgling bond market.

The politburo, the top decision-making body, said in a meeting last week China would speed up the establishment of a regulatory system for local government debt financing while strengthening oversight on potential financial risks.

Shadow banking, a main driver of a credit surge in recent months, has provided a lifeline though to property funding, fuelling unwelcome housing inflation.

New home prices jumped 3.6 percent in March from a year ago, a third straight monthly increase despite an intensified government tightening campaign during the past three years.

(Reporting by Langi Chiang and Jonathan Standing; Editing by Neil Fullick)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-factory-sector-growth-unexpectedly-slows-april-020725503.html

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Struggling Tech Stocks - Wealth Daily

Gone are the days when technology stocks lit the stock boards on fire, driving the computer and Internet booms of the 1990s. Just as quickly as the boom happened, the investment community realized that profits are still more important than ?pazzaz?. As the millennium turned, so did the tide for tech.

There were short stretches in the 2000s between the corrections of ?01-?03 and ?08-?09 and afterward when tech stocks stole the spot light again.

But since the latter part of 2012, these tech shooting stars have been slowly burning out and falling back down to Earth. Once again, they are stuck ?between inventions??that lull between innovative break-throughs.

Falling Demand

Tech companies as a group recently reported lower earnings by 5.5%, as both government agencies and consumers cut their budgets on technology. This compares to a 2.5% rise in the broader S&P 500 marketplace.

Analysts agree that consumer, corporate, and government demand for computers, electronics, and other technologies has been falling and will likely continue falling further.

Bloomberg quotes Peter Sorrentino:

?It is looking as though the economy is going to flatline for a while, after the disappointing numbers from China."

Sorrentino ?helps manage about $14.7 billion including shares of Google Inc. and Intel Corp. at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati,? according to Bloomberg. ?He sold Accenture Plc [NYSE:ACN] and Apple [NASDAQ:AAPL] shares last year.?

For its part, the International Monetary Fund has once again lowered its global growth projections?for the fourth quarter in a row?with China, Europe, and the United States all expecting slowdowns.

When times get tough, people realize their old phones still work fine and their TVs are still as big as they were when they first bought them. They don?t seem to be in so much of a hurry to upgrade as they once used to be.

Tech behemoth Apple?currently the second largest company by market value on the planet?is feeling just such a pinch, recently reporting that sales will be lower than expected for this quarter.

The company is also returning $55 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock buy-backs, indicating it really doesn?t have much in the pipeline or under development.

When companies return money to shareholders, they are in effect saying, ?We don?t really have any use for this money.? And that spells trouble.

Another sign that the latest tech wave has crested and is falling down the other side is International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) missing its forecasts for the first time since 2005. It is also planning to cut jobs, which is yet another symptom of how ill the tech industry is.

Portfolios Are Re-Balancing

Throughout the sector, tech companies are missing estimates and lowering their projections going forward.

Walter Todd, CIO of Greenwood Capital Associates LLC summarized to Bloomberg:

?It has been nothing short of terrible in this space. We really need to see these downward revisions abate in the sector before you get sustainable outperformance.?

Robert Maltbie of Millennium Asset Management has a word of caution for holders of tech stocks. ?You don't want to own tech going into a summer slowdown,? he advised in USA Today.

As markets head into portfolio spring-cleaning, tech stocks can take a harder beating than others, as investors generally turn to the more defensive consumer staples.

Chief U.S. Equity Sector Strategist at Ned Davis Research, Lance Stonecypher, is outright bearish on tech. He told Barron's:

?We are downgrading the Technology sector to underweight from marketweight. Technicals have deteriorated considerably in recent weeks, with the S&P 500 Tech sector dropping to its lowest level since May 2009 relative to the market. In Q1, the sector underperformed by 580 [basis points], 300 bp of which came from Apple?s weakness. But now, the decline has become more broadbased, as the equal-weighted Tech sector also recently broke to new cycle lows.?

However, other analysts caution against throwing out the babies with the bath water. ?I?m as nervous about the large-cap tech growth stories as anybody, but I also think that they are getting to be really reasonable values,? James Paulsen of Wells Capital Management emphasized to Bloomberg.

At such low valuations, Paulsen believes the industry is a bargain, predicting technology stocks will rally as companies use excess cash to repurchase shares. Paulsen?s firm purchased more shares of Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE:CRM) and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) late last year, according to his firm?s year-end filing.

Stay on top of the hottest investment ideas before they hit Wall Street. Sign up for the Wealth Daily newsletter below. You'll also get our free report, Wealth Daily's 2013 Gold Outlook.

The Trouble with Success

The trouble with the technology sector is always the same, cycle after cycle. A new invention hits the market, lifting the potential value of companies in that new invention?s space. As a group, all stocks ride the wave of enthusiasm all the way to the top until that new invention is no longer new.

Once the love affair wears off, consumers settle into a more practical relationship with that new invention. And the same happens with that invention?s stocks?the sex appeal wears off and investors settle in with the expectation of a long-term committed arrangement.

This was seen with the introduction of personal computers in the mid-1980s, the Internet in the mid-1990s, and mobile devices from the 2000s until present. Almost all companies jumping onto each new invention flew high and strong for years.

Until the consumer?s relationship with that new tool became more practical. At that point, only those companies that were capable of providing practical long-term oriented products and services survived. Those companies that were selling only the sex appeal quickly fizzled away.

The trouble with success?especially for tech companies?is that they have to continually produce something fantastic, year after year, to dazzle consumers and steal their affections. They can do this for a few years, but ultimately the space gets saturated, the invention get old, and they run out of new ways to improve it.

As a case in point, Apple has introduced a series of cell phones, winning the adoration of consumers the world over. But after a while, consumers begin to realize that each new phone is not really new. A few extra bells and whistles, perhaps. But it?s still just a cell phone.

Tech companies are hopping across the river from stone to stone. When they run out of new inventions, they get stranded in the water. They need to spend more on research and development to introduce something that is really new. But R&D is awfully expensive to keep up long term.

Once flying as high as an eagle, the starlet on the world stage, each tech superstar eventually fizzles as it runs out of breakthrough products, re-enters the atmosphere and falls back down to Earth.

When investing in tech stocks, one might do well to research how many truly new products that company is developing. If it has nothing new in the works, nothing ground-breaking that will sweep the world off its feet and into their stores, then it might be time to take some profit and look for another tech company that is on the verge of the next big thing.

And just what might that next big thing in tech be? It just might be robots. Your next maid might be one!

Joseph Cafariello

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Source: http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/struggling-tech-stocks/4235

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