Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193029882?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Tiger falters as Rock wins Abu Dhabi Championship (AP)
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates ? Robert Rock held his nerve Sunday to hold off U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship for the biggest win of the Englishman's career.
The 117th-ranked Rock shot a 2-under 70 for an overall 13-under 275 to beat the 22-year Northern Irishman by a shot and the 14-time major winner by two. Woods finished in a tie for third with Thomas Bjorn (68) and Graeme McDowell (68). Matteo Manassero (69), the 18-year-old Italian, and George Coetzee (70) of South Africa were a further shot back.
Woods started the final round tied for the lead with the unheralded Rock. He appeared poised to win his second tournament in a row after ending a two-year winless drought with a victory last month at the Chevron World Challenge.
But the control Woods displayed for much of the weekend abandoned him Sunday, and it was Rock who held it together down the stretch.
"I didn't hit the ball as well as I would like to," Woods said. "Today I was just a touch off. I was righting the ball through the fairways. I was hitting the ball a little bit further than I thought I would ... So something to look at, and something to try and figure out."
Woods started strong and it looked as though he might pull away from Rock, sinking a 40-footer on No. 2 for birdie and chipping to within a foot of the cup for a second birdie on the 3rd. But Rock ? who said Saturday he was a bit overwhelmed to face his idol ? didn't blink. He also birdied two of the first three holes to keep pace.
Then Woods began to unravel.
He started spraying his drives into the thick rough and fairway bunkers, resulting in the first of three bogeys. When Woods wasn't missing the fairways, he was scrambling to save par as he did on the 11th when overshooting the green. As he approached his shot in deep rough just off the 11th green, he sighed heavily and let out a stream of obscenities under his breath.
Woods managed to save par on 11 by sinking a 12-footer and Rock just missed a birdie putt. Woods pumped his fist and appeared to be regaining momentum as he pulled within one shot of Rock on No. 13 when the Englishman had one of his three bogeys. But the 34-year-old Rock birdied two of the next three holes to seize control.
Rock wobbled on the 18th when his drive landed in a pile of rocks near the water ? forcing him to take a drop. But he recovered beautifully, reaching the green in four and then two-putting for the win.
"It's pretty hard to believe that I managed to win today. Very surprised," said Rock. "I played good. So I guess I had a chance from early on, a couple of birdies made the day feel a little bit easier."
"But it's difficult playing with Tiger. You expect almost every shot to threaten to go in. I felt a lot of pressure and couldn't afford any lapses in concentration at all."
Rock said he drew strength from the struggles of Woods and his other playing partner Peter Hanson (78) and used that to bounce back from several bogeys.
"I was just focusing on trying to hit fairways and then hit my iron shots as good as I have been and give myself chances at birdies," Rock said. "Both Tiger and Peter struggled on occasions on a few holes and I managed to keep my ball in the right position and didn't put myself under too much stress until the last, which was a relief."
It was a storybook ending for Rock, who rose from a club pro to join the tour in 2003 and only got his first tour win last year at the Italian Open. The victory will elevate him into the top 60.
"It doesn't get an awful lot harder than playing with Tiger Woods," Rock said. "So I guess barring a major championship, I know I can handle that again. So that's pretty nice to know."
The loss is the second straight time Woods has failed to win with at least a share of the lead after 54 holes. He lost the Chevron World Challenge in 2010 after going into the final round with a four-shot lead over McDowell.
Woods acknowledged it wasn't the way he wanted to start the 2012 season but said he took solace from the control he showed the first three days and the putts he made over the final three.
"Obviously the ultimate goal is to win and I didn't win," said Woods, who missed out on his 84th career win.
"I hit the ball good enough to win the golf tournament this week," he said. "Today I just didn't give myself enough looks at it. Most of my putts were lag putts. I didn't drive the ball in as many fairways as I should have. Some of the balls were running through. Other balls, I was just missing. It was a day I was just a touch off off the tee and consequently I couldn't get the ball close enough to give myself looks."
While most of the attention was on Rock and Woods, several players surged into contention down the stretch.
McIlroy, playing ahead of Rock and Woods, birdied 18 to move to 12 under and give himself a chance. But he came up short with four rounds of par or better golf being undone by several costly mistakes ? the worst coming Friday when the third-ranked McIlroy was penalized two shots for brushing away sand in front of his ball in the rough of the 9th.
"You know, you've got to take the positives," McIlroy said. "It's the first week of the year, and you know, it looks like it's going to be the second year in a row here that I'll finish second. But still a very good start to the season and something I'll build on."
McDowell played the most exciting round of the tournament on Sunday, with an ace on No. 12, a chip-in on 13 and then a shot off the grandstand at 18 that led to a birdie and a tie for third. For the 2010 U.S. Open champion, it was a good way to start the year after failing to win in 2011.
"Any time you come back in 31 shots on a Sunday, semi in the mix is always a good day's work," said McDowell. "It was certainly an eventful last seven holes with a hole-in-one and a nice ricochet off the grandstand at the last."
___
Follow Michael Casey on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mcasey1
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Johnson and Johnson with big wins at UFC on Fox 2
CHICAGO -- Lavar Johnson and Michael Johnson came away with big wins at UFC on Fox 2 at the United Center on Saturday.
In his UFC debut, Lavar Johnson showed that he belonged with UFC heavyweights with a first-round knockout of UFC veteran Joey Beltran.
Johnson shook Beltran early with a hook and a several knees, but Beltran survived. While Beltran swung wildly, Johnson hit straight punches. This continued for much of the round, as Beltran had trouble getting anywhere near Johnson's face.The strikes finally started to pile up late in the round, as Johnson hit Beltran with uppercuts and hooks to end the bout at 4:24 in the first round
The UFC decided late last year to dissolve Strikeforce's heavyweight division and move the 265-lbers to the UFC. Johnson is the first fighter to be moved over, and showed with dizzying punches that he will be a player in the UFC's heavyweight division. This was the first time Beltran was knocked out in the UDC.
Michael Johnson stops Shane Roller's wrestling
Michael Johnson stifled Shane Roller's wrestling on the way to a 29-28 on all three cards for a unanimous decision.
The two were even in the first round in striking, but Johnson impressed early in the round with his ability to shake off Roller's takedown attempts. Johnson's straight left caused problems for Roller as the round wore on. Johnson rocked Roller in the last 10 seconds with a flying knee.
Roller found his rhythm in the second round, connecting on more punches early on. He returned to the takedown, but again Johnson stuffed it. After a clinch against the cage, Johnson got the takedown. Working from Roller's closed guard, Johnson landed a few elbows before Roller worked back to his feet. Late in the round, Johnson wobbled Roller with a bevy of strikes.
Things changed quickly in the third round, as Roller was able to get the takedown, get Johnson's back and land elbows and punches. The fight was stopped briefly as Herb Dean warned Roller about punching the back of the head, but when it was restarted, Roller stretched Johnson out. Roller held Johnson in that position for most of the round, until with a minute left, Johnson reversed his position. He got on top and began to throw elbows and punches. They returned to their feet, and Johnson threw an inadvertent strike to Roller's groin.
The onslaught from Roller proved to be too little too late. Johnson, a finalist in "The Ultimate Fighter" who lost his last bout showed great improvement in his wrestling game. He stopped the takedowns of Roller, an All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State.
Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/johnson-johnson-big-wins-ufc-fox-2-230006713.html
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Obama to target rising college tuition costs
President Barack Obama reaches out to shake hands with supporters at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
President Barack Obama reaches out to shake hands with supporters at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) ? President Barack Obama wants to shift some federal dollars away from colleges and universities that aren't controlling tuition costs to those that are. He's also proposing competitions among higher education institutions to encourage them to run more efficiently.
Obama will spell out his plans Friday during a speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor focused on college affordability.
On Tuesday during his State of the Union address, Obama put colleges and universities on notice to control soaring tuition costs or face losing federal dollars.
The money Obama is targeting is what's known as "campus based" aid given to colleges to distribute in areas such as Perkins loans or in work study programs. Of the $142 billion in federal grants and loans distributed in the last school year, about $3 billion went to these programs.
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Apple CEO responds to allegations of Chinese worker abuse (Yahoo! News)
New auditing website takes an Apple-friendly look at abuse-riddled Chinese factories
Is Apple finally getting tough on their abusive Chinese suppliers? Maybe.?Intent on stemming the increasing complaints from the public and investors alike,?Apple CEO Tim Cook fired off an email yesterday to combat claims from "people questioning Apple's values," detailing what the company is doing to find "problems" in their supply chain.
Tech giant Apple may have a?net worth greater than most first-world countries, but working conditions at their Chinese suppliers' factories are notoriously third world. Addressing this, Cook wrote an email addressed to all employees to explain what the company is doing to combat abuses.
"Earlier this month we opened our supply chain for independent evaluations by the Fair Labor Association. Apple was in a unique position to lead the industry by taking this step, and we did it without hesitation. This will lead to more frequent and more transparent reporting on our supply chain, which we welcome. These are the kinds of actions our customers expect from Apple, and we will take more of them in the future."
Apple's new website,?Supplier Responsibility, allows visitors to track the company's progress in addressing issues regarding their suppliers. There, you can learn more about Apple's requirements with regard to labor and human rights, worker health and safety, and environmental impact of the companies it contracts work out to.
Public outrage over Apple suppliers, especially notorious Chinese company?Foxconn, is nothing new. Two workers were killed in a?Foxconn iPad factory explosion in 2011, and the high rate of worker suicides has forced the contractor to install suicide-prevention netting.?The Daily Show, among others, have compared Foxconn factories to prisons.
(Source)
This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Solar Storm Forecasts Improve as Sun???s Fury Increases (SPACE.com)
If this week's raging solar storm was any indication, the sun is ramping up its activity ? and scientists will be ready for it. By meticulously studying our planet's star, they are able to predict these potentially dangerous space weather events better than ever before.
A huge solar flare erupted Jan. 23, triggering the strongest radiation storm in nearly a decade. A wave of charged particles, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), bombarded Earth yesterday (Jan. 24). The bombardment is over now, but some minor disruptions to spacecraft and power grids were reported.
Scientists' forecast for the arrival of the disruptive wave was off by only 13 minutes, far more accurate than in the past. And with much of the world's networks interconnected and populations increasingly reliant on technology, the ability to predict and track potentially harmful space weather events will become ever more crucial. [Photos: Huge Solar Flare Sparks Major Radiation Storm]
Solar flares and CMEs are expected to increase in frequency as the sun emerges from the dormant phase of its 11-year activity cycle. ?
When a CME hits Earth, the resulting geomagnetic storm interacts with the planet's magnetic field lines. This not only amps up Earth's auroras (the northern and southern lights), but, in the case of a strong CME aimed directly at Earth, can disrupt the operations of satellites in orbit and power grids and other communications infrastructures on the ground.
"There was a major event back in 1989 that led to a major power failure in Quebec that had broad implications for the province," Harlan Spence, an astrophysicist at the University of New Hampshire, told SPACE.com. "Because the world has highly connected power grids, the effects of that particular geomagnetic storm were also felt through many parts of the continental U.S."
Yesterday's CME hit Earth at an angle, so the electromagnetic burst was largely shielded by the planet's magnetic field. Still, some commercial airlines implemented safety precautions by rerouting flights over the Earth's polar regions.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center also recorded some minor disruptions in space and on the ground.
"This is typical with space weather, but what I have heard is some science instruments and spacecraft saw increases in single-event upsets," Doug Biesecker, a physicist at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, told SPACE.com. "Some instruments were returning bad data, but this is the sort of thing they can handle. Some power grids did hear reports on fluctuations, but I don't have specifics on which grids and where they were."
Biesecker noted that these types of interferences are not unusual during intense solar storms, and the rate of reported disruptions has been relatively low. Furthermore, new observations show that things appear to be returning to normal.
"After the arrival of a CME yesterday and the subsequent activity which ensued, conditions are now beginning to trend back towards a return to quiet," NOAA officials wrote in an update on the Space Weather Prediction website.
Scientists rely on several spacecraft, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and the Stereo spacecraft, to constantly monitor the sun's activity. Scientists use data from these satellites to make models and predictions of solar flares and CMEs.
"By incorporating the information from multiple points of view, we can determine to a very good degree the CME properties, such as its speed and direction," said Yihua Zheng, a lead researcher for the Space Weather Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We put all that into the model and we get a prediction."
Once scientists understand the strength and path of a CME, forecasts can be made about how the ejection might affect things in space and on the ground. As these predictions become more refined, they can act as an early warning system for space weather, much like how meteorologists track storms and weather patterns.
"A CME is kind of like a space hurricane," Zheng told SPACE.com. "You have to predict how it will form and evolve. From the models, we can see which spacecraft will be in its path and what will be impacted."
For yesterday's CME, Zheng and her colleagues at the Space Weather Center succeeded in making the most accurate predictions to date on when it would arrive at Earth.
"We predicted it would arrive at 9:18 a.m., and in reality it arrived at 9:31 a.m., so ours has a 13-minute error," Zheng said. "Usually for this kind of model, the average error is seven hours, so this is the best case."
These types of advances indicate how far the field of space weather prediction has come, she added.
The sun's activity ebbs and flows in its 11-year cycle. Currently the sun is coming out of a dormant phase of Solar Cycle 24, and the star is expected to become more active, with more solar flares and CMEs, as it heads into the so-called solar maximum in 2013.
"If you look back to the last time that the sun was entering into this state, our physical understanding was much less mature," Spence said. "In the intervening decade we have developed improved knowledge, improved techniques, faster computers, faster algorithms, and better real-time capability to get data to the scientists and customers who worry about space weather. Certainly 20 years ago, you'd be sitting more or less blind, waiting for data to come down and be processed."
You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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Study of freakish mystery illness finds no cause
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2006 file photo, Verna Gallagher, who claims to be suffering from a rare infliction called, Morgellons, points to a sore on her skin that she believes bugs related to the condition emerged from, at her Roseville, Calif., home. Like others with the condition, Gallagher, 48, said she has a crawling sensation on her skin, that is caused by bugs that emerge from the skin but do not act like they are alive. Results of Centers for Disease Control study released Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients' minds. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2006 file photo, Verna Gallagher, who claims to be suffering from a rare infliction called, Morgellons, points to a sore on her skin that she believes bugs related to the condition emerged from, at her Roseville, Calif., home. Like others with the condition, Gallagher, 48, said she has a crawling sensation on her skin, that is caused by bugs that emerge from the skin but do not act like they are alive. Results of Centers for Disease Control study released Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients' minds. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
ATLANTA (AP) ? Imagine having the feeling that tiny bugs are crawling on your body, that you have oozing sores and mysterious fibers sprouting from your skin. Sound like a horror movie? Well, at one point several years ago, government doctors were getting up to 20 calls a day from people saying they had such symptoms.
Many of these people were in California and one of that state's U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein, asked for a scientific study. In 2008, federal health officials began to study people saying they were affected by this freakish condition called Morgellons.
The study cost nearly $600,000. Its long-awaited results, released Wednesday, conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients' minds.
"We found no infectious cause," said Mark Eberhard, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who was part of the 15-member study team.
The study appears in PLoS One, one of the Public Library of Science journals.
Sufferers of Morgellons (mor-GELL-uns) describe a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, erupting sores, crawling sensations on their skin and ? perhaps worst of all ? mysterious red, blue or black fibers that sprout from their skin. Some say they've suffered for decades, but the syndrome wasn't named until 2002, when "Morgellons" was chosen from a 1674 medical paper describing similar symptoms.
Afflicted patients have documented their suffering on websites and many have vainly searched for a doctor who believed them. Some doctors believe the condition is a form of delusional parasitosis, a psychosis in which people believe they are infected with parasites.
Last May, Mayo Clinic researchers published a study of 108 Morgellons patients and found none of them suffered from any unusual physical ailment. The study concluded that the sores on many of them were caused by their own scratching and picking at their skin.
The CDC study was meant to be broader, starting with a large population and then went looking for cases within the group. The intent was to give scientists a better idea of how common Morgellons actually is.
They focused on more than 3 million people who lived in 13 counties in Northern California, a location chosen in part because all had health insurance through Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, which had a research arm that could assist in the project. Also, many of the anecdotal reports of Morgellons came from the area.
Culling through Kaiser patient records from July 2006 through June 2008, the team found ? and was able to reach ? 115 who had what sounded like Morgellons. Most were middle-aged white women. They were not clustered in any one spot.
That led to the finding that Morgellons occurred in roughly 4 out of every 100,000 Kaiser enrollees. "So it's rare," Eberhard said.
Roughly 100 agreed to at least answer survey questions, and about 40 consented to a battery of physical and psychological tests that stretched over several days.
Blood and urine tests and skin biopsies checked for dozens of infectious diseases, including fungus and bacteria that could cause some of the symptoms. The researchers found none that would explain the cases.
There was no sign of an environmental cause, either, although researchers did not go to each person's house to look around.
They took fibers from 12 people, which were tested at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Nothing unusual there, either. Cotton and nylon, mainly ? not some kind of organism wriggling out of a patient's body.
Skin lesions were common, but researchers concluded most of them were from scratching.
What stood out was how the patients did on the psychological exams. Though normal in most respects, they had more depression than the general public and were more obsessive about physical ailments, the study found.
However, they did not have an unusual history of psychiatric problems, according to their medical records. And the testing gave no clear indication of a delusional disorder.
So what do they have? The researchers don't know. They don't even know what to call it, opting for the label "unexplained dermopathy" in their paper.
But clearly, something made them miserable. "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," said Felicia Goldstein, an Emory University neurology professor and study co-author.
She said perhaps the patients could be helped by cognitive behavioral therapy that might help them deal with possible contributing psychological issues.
The study is not expected to be the last word on the subject.
Among those with additional questions is Randy Wymore, an Oklahoma State University pharmacologist who for years was the most reputable scientist to look into it and who has concluded Morgellons is not a psychiatric disorder.
On Wednesday, Wymore said he had not seen the CDC paper and was unable to comment on it. But when the study began, he questioned whether Kaiser patients with Morgellons would participate, especially if they were unhappy with how they were previously handled by their Kaiser doctors.
"There is always the question: How many of the study participants actually have Morgellons Disease?" he said, in an email.
The CDC is not planning additional study, however. The agency's expertise is in infectious diseases and environmental health problems, and the researchers saw no evidence of that.
"We're not mental health experts," one CDC spokeswoman said.
___
Online:
PLoS One: http://www.plosone.org/home.action
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Obama to Republicans: Game on (AP)
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama delivered an election-year broadside to Republicans: Game on.
The GOP, from Congress to the campaign trail, signaled it's ready for the fight.
In his third State of the Union address, Obama issued a populist call for income equality that echoed the Occupy Wall Street movement. He challenged GOP lawmakers to work with him or move aside so he could use the power of the presidency to produce results for an electorate uncertain whether he deserves another term.
Facing a deeply divided Congress, Obama appealed for lawmakers to send him legislation on immigration, clean energy and housing, knowing full well the election-year prospects are bleak but aware that polls show that the independent voters who lifted him to the presidency crave bipartisanship.
"I intend to fight obstruction with action," Obama told a packed chamber and tens of millions of Americans watching in prime time. House Republicans greeted his words with stony silence.
The Democratic president's vision of an activist government broke sharply with Republican demands for less government intervention to allow free enterprise. The stark differences will be evident in the White House's dealings with Congress and in the presidential campaign over the next 10 months.
In the Republican response to the president's address, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who once considered a White House bid, railed against the "extremism" of an administration that stifles economic growth.
"No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant effort to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels said, speaking from Indianapolis. "As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat."
Obama said getting a fair shot for all Americans is "the defining issue of our time." He described an economy on the rebound from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with more than 3 million jobs created in the last 22 months and U.S. manufacturers hiring. Although unemployment is high at 8.5 percent, home sales and corporate earnings have increased, among other positive economic signs.
Republicans say the president's policies have undermined the economy.
Obama "had the opportunity and the responsibility to level with the American people, admit that the policies of the past three years have delivered an underwhelming record of economic growth and job creation, and show an interest in changing direction and uniting, not dividing the nation," said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., head of the Republican Policy Committee. "The president failed to meet that responsibility."
There were brief moments of bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats sat together, continuing a practice begun last year. The arrival of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt, elicited sustained applause and cheering, with chants of "Gabby, Gabby." Republican Rep. Jeff Flake escorted her into the chamber and Obama greeted her with a hug.
The president received loud applause from both sides when he said: "I'm a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more."
But all that belied a fierce divide.
Obama ticked off items on a hefty agenda that he wants from Congress ? a path to citizenship for children who come to the United States with their undocumented parents if they complete college, tax credits for clean energy, elimination of red tape for Americans refinancing their mortgages, a measure that bans insider trading by lawmakers and a payroll tax cut.
Political reality suggests it was largely wishful thinking on Obama's part. The payroll tax cut and must-do spending bill are the most likely legislative items to survive the election year.
But Obama's far-reaching list and the hour-plus speech offered a unique opportunity to contrast his record with congressional Republicans and his top presidential rivals, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.
"Anyone who tells you America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn't know what they're talking about," Obama said ? a clear response to the White House hopefuls who have pummeled him for months.
In an attack on the nation's growing income gap, Obama called for a new minimum tax rate of at least 30 percent on anyone making more than $1 million. Many millionaires ? including Romney ? pay a rate less than that because they get most of their income from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate.
"Now you can call this class warfare all you want," Obama said. "But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense."
Obama calls this the "Buffett rule," named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has said it's unfair that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Emphasizing the point, Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, attended the address in first lady Michelle Obama's box.
Obama made his appeal on the same day that Romney released some of his tax returns, showing he made more than $20 million in a single year and paid around 14 percent in taxes, largely because his wealth came from investments.
In advance of Obama's speech, Romney said, "Tonight will mark another chapter in the misguided policies of the last three years ? and the failed leadership of one man."
Obama highlighted his national security successes ? the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the diminished strength of al-Qaida and the demise of Moammar Gadhafi. In hailing the men and women of the military, the commander in chief contrasted their cooperation and dedication with the divisions and acrimony in Washington.
"At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations," Obama said. "They're not consumed with personal ambition. They don't obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example."
Obama leaves Washington for a three-day tour of five states crucial to his re-election bid. On Wednesday he'll visit Iowa and Arizona to promote ideas to boost American manufacturing; on Thursday in Nevada and Colorado he'll discuss energy; and in Michigan on Friday he'll talk about college affordability, education and training.
He also addresses a conference of House Democrats focused on their own re-election in Cambridge, Md., on Friday.
Polling shows Americans are divided about Obama's overall job performance but unsatisfied with his handling of the economy.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Waiting for Death Valley's big bang: Volcanic explosion crater may have future potential
ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) ? In California's Death Valley, death is looking just a bit closer. Geologists have determined that the half-mile-wide Ubehebe Crater, formed by a prehistoric volcanic explosion, was created far more recently than previously thought -- and that conditions for a sequel may exist today.
Up to now, geologists were vague on the age of the 600-foot deep crater, which formed when a rising plume of magma hit a pocket of underground water, creating an explosion. The most common estimate was about 6,000 years, based partly on Native American artifacts found under debris. Now, a team based at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has used isotopes in rocks blown out of the crater to show that it formed just 800 years ago, around the year 1200. That geologic youth means it probably still has some vigor; moreover, the scientists think there is still enough groundwater and magma around for another eventual reaction. The study appears in the current issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Ubehebe (YOU-bee-HEE-bee) is the largest of a dozen such craters, or maars, clustered over about 3 square kilometers of Death Valley National Park. The violent mixing of magma and water, resulting in a so-called phreatomagmatic explosion, blew a hole in the overlying sedimentary rock, sending out superheated steam, volcanic ash and deadly gases such as sulfur dioxide. Study coauthor Brent Goehring, (now at Purdue University) says this would have created an atom-bomb-like mushroom cloud that collapsed on itself in a donut shape, then rushed outward along the ground at some 200 miles an hour, while rocks hailed down. Any creature within two miles or more would be fatally thrown, suffocated, burned and bombarded, though not necessarily in that order. "It would be fun to witness -- but I'd want to be 10 miles away," said Goehring of the explosion.
The team began its work after Goehring and Lamont-Doherty professor Nicholas Christie-Blick led students on a field trip to Death Valley. Noting that Ubehebe remained poorly studied, they got permission from the park to gather some 3- to 6-inch fragments of sandstone and quartzite, part of the sedimentary conglomerate rock that the explosion had torn out. In the lab, Goehring and Lamont-Doherty geochemist Joerg Schaefer applied recent advances in the analysis of beryllium isotopes, which change their weight when exposed to cosmic rays. The isotopes change at a predictable rate when exposed to the rays, so they could pinpoint when the stones were unearthed. An intern at Lamont-Doherty, Columbia College undergraduate Peri Sasnett, took a leading role in the analysis, and ended up as first author on the paper.
The dates clustered from 2,100 to 800 years ago; the scientists interpreted this as signaling a series of smaller explosions, culminating in the big one that created the main crater around 1200. A few other dates went back 3,000 to 5,000 years; these are thought to have come from earlier explosions at smaller nearby maars. Christie-Blick said the dates make it likely that magma is still lurking somewhere below. He pointed out that recent geophysical studies by other researchers have spotted what look like magma bodies under other parts of Death Valley. "Additional small bodies may exist in the region, even if they are sufficiently small not to show up geophysically," he said. He added that the dates give a rough idea of eruption frequency: about every thousand years or less, which puts the current day within the realm of possibility. "There is no basis for thinking that Ubehebe is done," he said.
Hydrological data points the same way. Phreatomagmatic explosions are thought to take place mainly in wet places, which would seem to exclude Death Valley--the hottest, driest place on the continent. Yet, as the researchers point out, Lamont-Doherty tree-ring researchers have already shown that the region was even hotter and drier during Medieval times, when the blowup took place. If there was sufficient water then, there is certainly enough now, they say. Observations of springs and modeling of groundwater levels suggests the modern water table starts about 500 feet below the crater floor. The researchers' calculations suggest that it would take a spherical magma chamber as small as 300 feet across and an even smaller pocket of water to produce a Ubehebe-size incident.
Park officials are taking the study in stride. "We've typically viewed Ubehebe as a static feature, but of course we're aware it could come back," said geologist Stephanie Kyriazis, a park education specialist. "This certainly adds another dimension to what we tell the public." (About a million people visit the park each year.) The scientists note that any reactivation of the crater would almost certainly be presaged by warning signs such as shallow earthquakes and opening of steam vents; this could go on for years before anything bigger happened.
For perspective, Yellowstone National Park, further east, is loaded with explosion craters made by related processes, plus the world's largest concentration of volcanically driven hot springs, geysers and fumaroles. The U.S. Geological Survey expects an explosion big enough to create a 300-foot-wide crater in Yellowstone about every 200 years; there have already been at least 20 smaller blowouts in the past 130 years. Visitors sometimes are boiled alive in springs, but no one has yet been blown up. Death Valley's own fatal dangers are mainly non-geological: single-vehicle car accidents, heat exhaustion and flash floods. Rock falls, rattlesnakes and scorpions provide extra hazards, said Kyriazis. The crater is not currently on the list. "Right now, we're not planning to issue an orange alert or anything like that," she said.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Peri Sasnett, Brent M. Goehring, Nicholas Christie-Blick, Joerg M. Schaefer. Do phreatomagmatic eruptions at Ubehebe Crater (Death Valley, California) relate to a wetter than present hydro-climate? Geophysical Research Letters, 2012; 39 (2) DOI: 10.1029/2011GL050130
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.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120123152516.htm
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Jay Leno's Mitt Romney joke incenses India's Sikhs (AP)
NEW DELHI ? India's Sikh community isn't finding Jay Leno so funny.
Members of the religious group said they were outraged when the "Tonight Show" host showed a photo of a glittering gold building and claimed it was Republican Mitt Romney's summer home.
It was meant to be a joke about the Republican presidential candidate's wealth. But the building in the photograph is the Golden Temple, the holiest site in the Sikh religion.
Dalbeg Singh, a top Sikh leader, said Tuesday that community leaders would seek an apology from Leno.
India's foreign minister says the government would take the issue up with U.S. authorities.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
[OOC] To take the throne
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Researchers report fundamental malaria discovery
Monday, January 23, 2012
A team of researchers led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease.
The researchers show how parasites target proteins to the surface of the red blood cell that enables sticking to and blocking blood vessels. Strategies that prevent this host-targeting process will block disease.
The research findings appear in the Jan. 20 edition of the journal Cell, the leading journal in the life sciences. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Malaria is a blood disease that kills nearly 1 million people each year. It is caused by a parasite that infects red cells in the blood. Once inside the cell, the parasite exports proteins beyond its own plasma membrane border into the blood cell. These proteins function as adhesins that help the infected red blood cells stick to the walls of blood vessels in the brain and cause cerebral malaria, a deadly form of the disease that kills over half a million children each year.
In all cells, proteins are made in a specialized cell compartment called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) from where they are delivered to other parts of the cell. Haldar and Bhattacharjee and collaborators Robert Stahelin at the Indiana University School of Medicine- South Bend (who also is an adjunct faculty member in Notre Dame's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry), and David and Kaye Speicher at the University of Pennsylvania's Wistar Institute discovered that for host-targeted malaria proteins the very first step is binding to the lipid phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate, PI(3)P, in the ER.
This was surprising for two reasons. Previous studies suggested an enzyme called Plasmepsin V that released the proteins into the ER was also the export mechanism. However, Haldar, Bhattacharjee and colleagues discovered that binding to PI(3)P lipid which occurs first is the gate keeper to control export and that export can occur without Plasmepsin V action. Further, in higher eukaryotic cells (such as in humans), the lipid PI(3)P is not usually found within the ER membrane but rather is exposed to the cellular cytoplasm.
Haldar and Bhattacharjee are experts in malaria parasite biology and pathogenesis. Stahelin is an expert in PI(3)P lipid biology, and David and Kaye Speicher are experts in proteomics and a method called mass spectrometry.
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Egypt Islamists ease rhetoric on eve of power
CAIRO?? After decades of dreaming of power, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood finally comes face to face with the question of how to use it, as a new parliament that it dominates opens Monday.
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The fundamentalist group has eased off talk of Islamic-style legislation, saying it will focus on fixing Egypt's ailing economy, and it has even backed off introducing further explicit Islamic references in the new constitution it will have a major hand in writing. But it has other tools to push Egypt toward greater religious conservativism.
The Brotherhood's caution in its Islamic rhetoric and parliament agenda reflect its worries of a backlash against it at a time when Egypt's politics are still in major flux. Egyptians are eager to see quick improvements in an economy that has been battered by turmoil and mismanagement since the fall of Hosni Mubarak nearly a year ago.
They also want signs of long-term change in a system where corruption was rife, nearly half the population fell to the edge of poverty or below, young people searched in vain for jobs and for housing and neighborhoods were left to fall into dilapidation as Mubarak's regime built clean new suburbs for the few wealthy.
Moreover, how much authority the Brotherhood will have to bring changes remains unsettled. The military, which took over when Mubarak was ousted, holds ultimate power for at least six more months. The Brotherhood and ruling generals are expected to jostle and cajole each other over dividing power, and the Brotherhood is wary of moves that could cause a clash.
"We can't talk about implementing Islamic Shariah law when the country is experiencing such devastating economic problems," said Mohammed Gouda, a Brotherhood policymaker and member of the party's economic committee.
The Brotherhood feels little need to push through legislation enforcing an Islamic vision, he and other members say, especially since Egyptian society is already deeply religious and conservative. More effective, they say, is influencing the culture. Brotherhood members show a confidence that they can show a "correct" example of Islam that will bring the public into their way of life.
Indeed, Gouda said that the Egyptian public is "already convinced" and doesn't need much persuasion.
He pointed to the dramatic spread of the Muslim headscarf among women in past decades. In the past, few women wore it, but now it is nearly universal among Muslim women in Egypt as society has grown more conservative. He and others shrug off the need for laws on traditionally "Islamic " issues such as banning alcohol and encouraging or even requiring gender segregation and Islamic dress.
Critics in Egypt worry that the Brotherhood is only biding its time to bring a more Islamic agenda, and their greatest fear is of a long-term understanding between the Brotherhood and military to run the country, even after the generals step aside for a civilian president, due to take place by late June.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report Sunday that the West must recognize that Islamists are "the majority preference" in Egypt and other Arab countries and will naturally grow stronger in a democratic system.
But it said pressure must be maintained to ensure respect for human rights.
The Brotherhood has been "saying the right things" but "we have to see how they govern and how they deal with women, religious minorities. These are the big questions," said HRW's executive director Kenneth Roth.
By any measure, it will be an unprecedented moment on Monday with the convening of the first parliament since last year's dramatic wave of protests led to the Feb. 11 fall of Mubarak after nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule. The protests were led by leftist and secular youth, but the free elections that resulted ? Egypt's first in living memory ? were a prize for Islamists, particularly the Brotherhood, which was banned under Mubarak.
In the parliament chamber Monday, 47 percent of the 498 lawmakers will belong to the Brotherhood, including the parliament speaker. Another quarter will be Salafis, a more radical Islamic group who only a year ago shunned democracy as a violation of God's law but who now see government as the way to bring it about.
Parliament's biggest upcoming task is the writing of the new constitution. It is to form a 100-member assembly to draft the document, though the military is pressing for a say as well, and the Brotherhood is under pressure to ensure secular and liberal voices have an equal say with Islamists.
The Brotherhood says it does not intend to enshrine further Islamic structures into the new charter, beyond its current Article 2, which says principles of Islamic law are "the main basis" for legislation in Egypt.
The phrasing is broad enough to mean almost whatever those in power want it to mean. Mubarak's nominally secular regime did little to legislate Shariah beyond family laws, but future decision-makers could cite the clause to insist on expanding Shariah's scope.
Instead, the Brotherhood's priority in the constitution is, again, political more than religious. It wants to restructure Egypt's system where the president had overwhelming power ? the legal grounding for Mubarak's authoritarian rule.
For months, the Brotherhood advocated a strictly parliamentary system. That raised criticism that it seeks to concentrate power in a body that it is likely to dominate for the foreseeable future, so it has shifted to advocating a mixed system sharing powers between president and parliament.
In parliament itself, the focus will be on the economy, said Gouda.
The Brotherhood's economic platform, as much as it is spelled out, is strongly liberal capitalist, reflecting the business and professional backgrounds of many of its members, so much so that it has come under criticism from the left for neglecting "social justice."
Gouda said the group's priority is stability to encourage investment. It wants to tackle corruption by activating a consumer protection law that was introduced under Mubarak but sat idle, and by making regulatory bodies independent so they can do their work without corruption.
"We will set up a system to encourage people to report those who offer bribes, and actually make sure laws that protect consumers be applied," he said.
For spreading its conservative ideology through the culture, the Brotherhood already boasts a nationwide system of charities and social work. If it gains positions in government as well as parliament, it could have further tools, including greater influence over the powerful state television and other media ? which it has always been shut out of. Some Brotherhood figures have spoken of the Education Ministry as a key sector.
The Brotherhood, however, may face a challenge to this gradualist approach from the right.
The Salafis who form the second largest bloc in parliament espouse a far more rigid, literalist and uncompromising stance on Shariah. The two blocs were often rivals in the election campaign over the past months, and pressing for more overtly Islamic laws could help the Salafi parties with their base.
"What we may see is that each side will try to out-Muslim the other," said Mohammed Abbas, a young former Brotherhood member who left the group after being frustrated with the group for not giving youth a stronger voice.
Nathan J. Brown, a professor at George Washington University and who studies Middle Eastern Islamist parties said the Salafis "are one of the biggest issues on their mind ? almost as big as the military."
The Brothers' worry is that they would be pushed into a more radical stance. They remember the experiences of Islamic movements in Algeria and Palestine, where Islamic groups that were too aggressive brought a backlash. They also don't want to lose their focus on showing they can bring good governance.
"They would never say they are de-emphasizing religion, and I think they are being sincere," Brown said. "For them good governance providing for the needs of people, this is Islam."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46092528/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Restore Your Faith in Humanity at the Nicest Place on the Internet (Mashable)
You catch glimpses of sunny parks, busy street corners and various home dwellings as smiling faces step up to offer friendly hugs and a lullaby voice sings lightly. Sound nice? It is. And you might be surprised to learn that it exists, of all places, on the Internet.
"It doesn?t ask any questions," explains Jeff Lam, one of the creators behind the nicest place on the Internet. "It doesn?t want to know why you?re sad or why you need a hug. I think that?s the nice thing about it."
Lam and his co-creator Lauren Perlow had the idea for the site after a rough day at their ad agency jobs. They spent that weekend collecting about 30 video hugs from the streets of San Francisco -- a process that strangers were surprisingly willing to participate in -- and posted the site in November. About 300,000 people have visited it since.
Some of those visitors have contributed their own hugs to the project. There are about 200 on the site, which is the most videos Lam and Perlow can put on its YouTube playlist. They get about 10 new video hug submissions a day. And miraculously, all of them have been nice. Lam says there hasn't been a negative comment yet.
"When we uploaded the videos onto YouTube, we thought we should disable the comments because we don?t want people to write mean things," he says. "But we forgot to turn off the comments. A couple of days later we realized, but it was quite the opposite. People couldn't say a bad thing about it."
As someone who regularly reads about cyber-bullying and is required to attach an open comment thread to everything I produce during the weekday, I tend to think of the anonymous Internet as a terrible, soulless place. But the nicest place on the Internet has leveraged that same anonymity for an eloquent group hug. It's an oddly comforting project.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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Watch This Delightful Crowdsourced Star Wars Fan Film Immediately
You can't always count on the wisdom of crowds. But this particular project turned out not merely good, but amazing. Star Wars Uncut is a project by filmmaker Casey Pugh (and edited by Aaron Valdez and Michael Pugh), in which Star Wars: A New Hope was divided into 15-second segments, each of which was replicated by fans in whatever way they chose. Connect the new segments and voila! Crowdsourced magic. Watch the video inside.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/6BQ2-tb0eEA/
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Iranian Programmer Sentenced to Death for Developing Porn Site Software [Iran]
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