Discovery of sexual mating in Candida albicans could provide insights into infections

Jan. 30, 2013 ? Like many fungi and one-celled organisms, Candida albicans, a normally harmless microbe that can turn deadly, has long been thought to reproduce without sexual mating. But a new study by Professor Judith Berman and colleagues at the University of Minnesota and Tel Aviv University shows that C. albicans is capable of sexual reproduction.

The finding, published online by Nature January 30, represents an important breakthrough in understanding how this pathogen has been shaped by evolution, which could suggest strategies for preventing and treating the often serious infections that it causes.

The most common fungus that infects humans, C. albicans is part of the large community of microorganisms that live for the most part harmlessly within the human gut. But unlike many of its neighbors, this one-celled yeast can also cause disease, ranging from thrush (an oral infection) and vaginal yeast infections to systemic blood infections that cause organ failure and death and usually occur in people with immune defects related to HIV/AIDS, organ transplantation or chemotherapy. C. albicans is responsible for400,000 deaths annually.

Most single-celled organisms reproduce by dividing, but others reproduce asexually, parasexually or via sexual mating. Scientists have long believed that C. Albicans reproduce without mating.

Organisms that produce asexually or parasexually are diploid, which means they have two sets of chromosomes and thus can reproduce without a mate. Organisms that reproduce sexually are haploid, which means they have one set of chromosomes and need a mate to provide a second set. C. Albicans was believed to be diploid, but this study shows that the yeast is sometimes haploid, and that these haploids are capable of sexual reproduction.

Sexual reproduction fuels the evolution of higher organisms because it combines DNA from two parents to create one organism. The haploid isolates discovered in Professor Berman's lab arise only rarely within a population, and have been detected following propagation in the lab or in a mammalian host. These haploids can mate with other haploids to generate diploid strains with new combinations of DNA, which may provide the diversity required for fungus to evolve.

The haploid C. albicans isolates also pave the way for genetic studies of the pathogen, such as the construction of "libraries" of recessive mutant strains. In addition, the ability to perform genetic crosses between haploids will help produce modified diploid strains that should help scientists better understand interactions between the fungus and its host and how it transforms from a harmless microbe into a deadly pathogen.

Berman holds appointments and has laboratories at the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences and Tel Aviv University.

The work was done in collaboration with researchers at Bowdoin College (Maine), Brown University (Rhode Island), A*STAR (Singapore) and at the Taipei Medical University (Taiwan) and was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Minnesota.

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Journal Reference:

1. Meleah A. Hickman, Guisheng Zeng, Anja Forche, Matthew P. Hirakawa, Darren Abbey, Benjamin D. Harrison, Yan-Ming Wang, Ching-hua Su, Richard J. Bennett, Yue Wang, Judith Berman. The ?obligate diploid? Candida albicans forms mating-competent haploids. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature11865

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/1FYaYSrBel8/130130143632.htm

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'Star Trek' Featurette: J.J. Abrams Promises Biggest Adventure Yet... Until 'Star Wars'

All the hullabaloo about J.J. Abrams directing "Star Wars" has somewhat forced another important piece of information out of pop culture's collective mind, but it's still very important to remember. J.J. Abrams is directing another "Star Trek" movie, and he did a kick-ass job with that first one! Now that we have that out of [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/01/30/star-trek-featurette-into-darkness/

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My top 10 tips for long-term weight loss - Catherine Saxelby's ...

You don't want to lose muscle either as it is metabolically active (unlike fat) and is responsible for keeping your body's metabolism set high, so you can burn off more kilojoules (calories).

No magic bullet

Firstly don't waste your money on pills, herbal remedies or meal replacements. There are no magic foods or supplements which will dissolve away fat - not grapefruit, kelp, cider vinegar, chitosan, brindle berry or fucus. For LONG-TERM success, you have to learn to eat real food in a junk-food world - and that's not always easy.?

1. Think less fat - but NOT no fat

Cutting down on fat, especially the bad saturated fat, is still the way to reduce your kilojoule/calore intake. Fat is densely packed with kilojoules (calories), is easily overconsumed and tends to be stored more efficiently than either carbohydrate or protein. Stores of fat cannot be oxidised (burnt off) in the same way carbohydrate and protein can. But you don't have to go fat-free, nor is it healthy for your body. Stick to 1 tablespoon oil for cooking plus half an avocado or 1 tablespoon spread (soft butter/margarine) over the day. Plus a handful of nuts as a snack.

2. Keep alcohol to a minimum

Alcohol is concentrated form of kilojoules (calories) and diverts the body from oxidising other nutrients. Allow yourself 3 small drinks a week OR abstain during the week so you can relax on the weekend. A long drink made with a nip of spirits (rum, scotch, bourbon) topped up with soda water or diet soft drink is your lowest calorie option. You can sit on it and sip slowly.

3. Snack healthy

Four or five mini-meals a day can help "turn up" your body's metabolic rate, so you burn off fat faster. They also stop you getting overly hungry and reaching for quick grabs. But make your snacks healthy. If your idea of a snack is a biscuit or pastry, look for something healthier like yoghurt, fruit, crispbread and cheese.

4. Exercise regularly

There's no escaping it. People who exercise have less trouble with excess fat, feel healthier and maintain their lean muscle mass over the years. Any activity you enjoy and can maintain for 20-30 minutes without becoming too breathless is fine.

Power walking is one of the best ways to burn off fat. It costs nothing, requires no special equipment (except good walking shoes) and can be done at a time to suit yourself. Swimming, dancing, bicycling, skipping or gym classes are all beneficial ways to exercise. Any exercise is better than none at all!

It also helps to put more movement into your day e.g. use the stairs instead of the lift, walk to work or the shops.

5. Long-lasting carbohydrate

Choose carbohydrate foods that take longer to be digested and absorbed (called low GI carbs) - so you feel fuller for longer and hunger pangs are kept at bay. Slow-release types include pasta, legumes (beans, lentils), apples, pears, yoghurt, bran cereals and grainy breads.

6. Don't skip breakfast

Research shows breakfast "switches" on your body's metabolism and prevents you becoming ravenously hungry by 11am and tucking into pastries or hot chips. If you can't face food first thing in the morning, make sure you have a sandwich or smoothie mid-morning. And see if you can eat dinner earlier or eat less at night so you're actually hungry when you wake up (it's a nice healthy thing to wake up with a good appetite!).

7. Eat light at night

Avoid large meals late at night, which is the time when we are least active and excess kilojoules (calories) are readily converted to body fat. Fits in with breakfast above!

8. Slow down and eat mindfully

Slow down your rate of eating. Sit down to eat and stretch out your meal to last 20 minutes to allow the brain's appetite control centre to register that you are full. Read how to re-train yourself with my article 6 ways to eat more mindfully.

9. Add some protein

Lean protein foods have been shown to promote satiety (a feeling of fullness after a meal) which stops you picking. Lean beef, lamb, pork, chicken, fish as well as eggs, low-fat milks and yoghurts are all nutritious and good for dieters. Combining protein with slow-digesting carbohydrates (like pasta with beef strips) helps ensure satisfaction, something many diets lack.

10. Fill up on fibre

While the Glycemic Index is trendy, don't ignore high-fibre carbs that can create the same feeling of fullness AND help 'flush out' kilojoules out of your system.? For dieters, the best high-fibre additions are 2 tablespoons bran cereal sprinkled over your usual cereal or muesli OR a small 100g can baked beans when you need a quick light meal OR high-fibre vegetables like cabbage, Brussels sprouts, spinach and corn on the cob.

Of couse, it's good to boost your intake of fibre from all food groups including wholemeal breads, beans and fruit. The high-fibre additions above are the ones that are easiest to slot into a busy schedule. In the old days, we nutritionists used to say fibre makes food "bulkier", so you feel fuller on less. That still holds true today. Think of white bread compared to a chewy grainy bread and you'll get it instantly!

Professional help

If you're having difficulties with your weight or shape, it's worth making an appointment to see an accredited practicing dietitian. In Australia, they are listed in the telephone directory under "D" or go to www.daa.asn.au

Source: http://foodwatch.com.au/blog/healthy-weight-loss/item/my-top-10-tips-for-fat-loss.html

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US home prices accelerate in November

This Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, photo, shows a home for sale in Leucadia, Calif.. U.S. home prices accelerated in November compared with a year ago, pushed higher by rising sales and a tighter supply of available homes (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

This Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, photo, shows a home for sale in Leucadia, Calif.. U.S. home prices accelerated in November compared with a year ago, pushed higher by rising sales and a tighter supply of available homes (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. home prices accelerated in November compared with a year ago, pushed higher by rising sales and a tighter supply of available homes.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.5 percent in November compared with the same month a year ago. That's the largest year-over-year gain in six years.

All but one of the cities in the index posted annual gains. The largest gain was in Phoenix, where prices jumped nearly 23 percent. It was followed by San Francisco, where prices rose 12.7 percent, and Detroit, where they increased 11.9 percent.

New York was the only city to report a drop from a year ago.

Prices also rose in 10 of the cities measured by the index in November from October. That's up from seven in October from September. The biggest monthly gains were in San Francisco, Phoenix and Minneapolis.

Monthly prices are not seasonally adjusted and frequently decline over the winter. The 20-city index dipped in November from the previous month.

Steady price increases should help fuel the housing recovery. They encourage more people to buy before prices rise further. Higher prices also build homeowners' wealth, which can spur more spending and economic growth.

The data "show a broad-based recovery in housing activity and prices across the country," said Michael Gapen, an economist at Barclays Capital. "We expect this housing recovery to continue in the coming years."

The S&P/Case-Shiller index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The November figures are the latest available.

The index began to show annual gains in June and have been larger each month since. Prior to that, the index had fallen for 20 straight months.

Despite the increases, prices nationwide are still about 30 percent below the peak they reached at the height of the housing bubble in the summer of 2006. They are now at the same level as in the fall of 2003.

Purchases of previously occupied homes rose last year to their highest level in five years. The National Association of Realtors forecasts that sales will rise 9 percent this year. Independent economists have similar forecasts.

Sales of new homes also rose in 2012, although they remain near depressed levels.

Stable job gains and record-low mortgage rates have encouraged more people to buy homes. And the limited inventory of homes for sale has made builders more confident to step up construction. The number of previously occupied homes has fallen to an 11-year low.

Millions of homeowners still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, making it difficult for them to sell. That's one reason the supply of homes is so tight. But higher home values are lowering the number of those "under water" and should encourage more homeowners to put their homes on the market.

More people are also moving out on their own after living with friends and relatives in the recession. That's driving a big gain in apartment construction and also pushing up rents. Higher rents are encouraging investors to buy homes and rent them.

The tighter supply of homes pushed builders in December to start work on the most homes in 4 ? years. Last year was the best year for residential construction 2008, just after the recession started.

Home builders are also benefiting from the rebound. D.R. Horton Inc. said Tuesday that its profit in the three months ended in December more than doubled and orders jumped 39 percent.

"D.R. Horton is the best positioned it has been in its 35-year history," chief executive Donald Horton said. "We are looking forward to the spring selling season with optimism."

__

Follow Chris Rugaber on Twitter at https://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-29-Home%20Prices/id-5e562cf60b474f27807dcb2de2c3eae2

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BlackBerry Z10 gets clip-on speakerphone, charger bundle and cases galore

No launch of a new flagship is complete without a few new accessories to go along with it. While RIM is still banking big on the NFC-powered Music Gateway, it wasn't about to let the Z10 sit around with no new friends to keep it company. Obviously, a BlackBerry isn't a BlackBerry with out few leather holsters to keep it strapped to your hip. The fancy leather cases (both the "Holster" and the "Pocket") even have a magnet inside them that automatically turns off the display on your Z10 when it's slipped inside. The rotating holster will set customers back $40, while the Pocket, with its fewer moving parts, will cost only $30. There are other cases on the horizon too, the Transform Shell and Flip Shell, which feature build in kickstands and basic protection in standard black or bright red. Both shells will retail for $35 when they hit shelves.

A bit more intriguing is the BlackBerry Mini Stereo Speaker, a tiny speaker phone that pairs using Bluetooth and has a unique "U" shape that allows you to clip it on to a seatbelt or (shudder) a lapel. The little white speaker will launch alongside the Z10 for $99. The charging bundle is pretty simple at first glance -- it contains a spare battery and a separate charging cradle for $50. But, upon closer inspection, you'll realize the charger has a microUSB out, for pushing power to any device with a compatible adapter. We're sure more fun accessories are in the pipeline too, once third parties start updating there product lines.

Gallery: BlackBerry 10 accessories eyes-on

Mat Smith contributed to this report.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Mobile, RIM

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/30/blackberry-z10-gets-clip-on-speakerphone-charger-bundle/

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Write With Spike

Hey Y?all,

My friend Amy Friedman?who wrote a terrific essay that appeared in Stricken, an anthology about grief that I co-edited-- has a new memoir out. Desperado?s Wife, about the time in her life when she was married to a man in prison for murder. You can get the book by visiting AmyFriedman.net, Pages A Bookstore in Manhattan Beach, California and on Amazon. Watch her website for an airdate announcement for her interview with Katie Couric. Below, Amy answers questions about her life and her book. SG: Hi Amy. Great to be back in touch. Will you start out by giving us a little background re: your writing career? AF: I began writing short stories when I was a teenager, inspired at first by a desire to give voice to a grandmother who had stopped speaking and whose story I wanted to know. And then I never stopped, though throughout my teens and 20s and into my 30s I was a devout fiction writer. I received my MFA in creative writing from City College of New York, worked for years as an editor and writer, and in 1985 moved to Kingston, Ontario, Canada where I happened upon a newspaper that was, at the time, a literary wonder. The Kingston Whig Standard had a beautiful Saturday magazine. I sent off a couple stories to the editor who invited me in for a talk and offered me a weekly column. That column is what turned me into a personal essayist and memoirist. Over the eight years I wrote Hard Lines, that column, I also published two memoirs and hundreds of stories and essays. I also began writing Tell Me a Story for The Whig, a newspaper feature of adaptations of myths, legends, folk and fairytales and within a year I was under contract with Universal Press Syndicate?to syndicate the column internationally. Twenty years later, I?m still writing that weekly column. I also teach personal essay and memoir in Los Angeles where I moved in 2002. SG: Your new book, Desperado's Wife, is a memoir about a time in your life when you met a prisoner who was behind bars for murder, married him, and what ensued. I'm guessing a question you are often asked is, "What were you thinking?" or "How could you marry a murderer?" Is that right? Will you give me a little laundry list of FAQs you get hit with and a couple of answers you perhaps have memorized by now? AF: Why is definitely the question, and it?s often followed by an eye roll or two. And quickly followed by the question: Did you ever get to sleep together? And how did you get past the fact that he had killed someone, were you afraid? The shortest answer is you have to read the book, which of course leads me to your next question?why I decided to write it. So I?ll take those two together. Will and I were married for 7 years, 5-1/2 of which he was in prison (I met him during his 7^th year inside); when he was paroled (and yes, even those who have been sentenced to murder receive parole?though less and less in the States), and the last 18 months of our marriage we lived together, but the marriage disintegrated when our strongest bond?the fight we were waging together to win his parole?was gone. He also did not cope well with the world when he was first released?he fell apart emotionally and that put a strain on our relationship?a strain that finally broke us apart. ?But he did not fall apart in the way most people imagine released prisoners do. The general image of a ?murderer? is someone who does nothing else?who moves through the world seeking to kill. When I was an official visitor (I first visited prison as a columnist so that I could learn about prison), and during the years Will and I were married, I came to know dozens of men serving time for murder. It?s important to understand that each of these people were individuals, each one with a story?bar fights gone awry, drug rivalries, accidents, drunk driving. Most of the stories involved drugs and/or alcohol. I did not meet any serial killers (though it is the women who marry psychopaths and serial killers that seems to me to inspire psychologists to write books about ?those prisoners wives.?) But Will and I fell in love the way people do outside?at first I was drawn to him because he was intelligent and when I asked him questions about prison, he was the person who gave me the answers that made most sense. For instance, the very first thing he told me was that if I wanted to understand prison, I ought to talk to prisoners? families because they understand prison and never did anything to hurt anyone. And so I began to talk to families. I also continued to talk to Will (and many other prisoners, guards and administrators) until one day a prison official told me I was welcome to continue visiting, that I was welcome to write stories about prison for the paper, but that I was NOT permitted to talk to one inmate. That inmate was Will. I was na?ve enough to think that the official had just given me valuable information?had told me that it was Will who was telling me the truth about prison. I ignored his instruction and continued talking to Will, at which point prison officials wrote a letter to my editor letting him know the prison was expelling me, refusing to allow me in. My editor who had always been my staunch supporter did not support me in my effort to fight for the right to keep visiting. The prison I later learned (by accessing their letter through the Privacy Commission Act) had accused me of inappropriate behavior (which was untrue)?I argued with my editor: This was, I said, Canada, a free country; prison officials could not decide who could and who could not investigate what went on behind those walls, who a writer could or could not talk to. Alas, at just that point in time the paper had been purchased by a large corporate syndicate and my editor, worried about his own job, turned his back on me. I?m rebellious by nature, and that literally pushed me into Will?s arms because once I was forbidden to visit prison, the only way I could continue going in was to sign on as a personal visitor. And I did. And soon after that, Will?s mother and children invited me to join them in what were known as Private Family Visits (colloquially conjugal or trailer visits). I applied to do so, but the warden (whom I had interviewed many times and knew well and with whom I had always gotten along) refused my request. He told us we could have a trailer visit in a year?if we ?behaved.? Will asked me to marry him?if we were married, the prison could not refuse us the visit. By that time I was so angry and alienated from those around me who were judging without knowledge and turning their backs on me, and I was so attracted to and engaged by and in love with Will, I quickly agreed. Again, that?s the snapshot. What followed were years of great difficulty because overnight after I married Will, I became, in the eyes of the prison system and of many outside, just as suspicious and subject to invasion of privacy as were all prisoners. All prisoners? wives, children, parents, sisters and brothers and friends suffer the humiliation of things like strip searches and long waiting lines and hostility and job loss and every other imaginable indignation. Indeed, the publisher canceled my column, friends turned their backs, for a while so did my family, a board of directors on which I had long served kicked me off its board, and I wound up in combat against prejudice and misunderstanding?the sort that I think inspires those eye rolls, and the question. That?s not to say I don?t understand why or how people ask, but one of the reasons I knew I had to write the book was to continue what I started out to do when I first visited prison?long before I met Will. That was to paint a picture of the world that is prison, to try to better understand and then describe in writing what happens to those impacted by prison, to write about what it is like trying to have a have a relationship against the odds. When the relationship collapsed, I collapsed for about a year. I knew I would have to write about it to find my way back to making sense of the story, of all the specifics of what happened. ? There?s another important piece to the book and that is that Desperado?s Wife is actually two love stories?the love story between me and Will, but maybe more important, the love story between his daughters and me. They were 14 and 8 when we met, and I helped to raise them for most of those years. And they are still two of the most important loves of my life. One of the reasons I wanted to write the book was to help to lift the mantle of shame from them, a mantle that is the result of others? lack of understanding and prejudice against anyone who loves a prisoner.

?SG: Has writing it been healing?

AF: Yes, but also painful. The book took ten years to write?because it started out filled with the fury I felt towards those who had turned their backs and full of the despair the divorce left me feeling. After several drafts of writing with an agenda of sorts (to prove prisoners wives are no different from other women who love someone), I realized I had to give up trying to prove anything. I decided to try to write the book as a novel from the point of view of a prisoner?s child?that way readers wouldn?t come to the book with a built-in question (how could you love him?) because everyone understands a child?s love for a parent (no matter how flawed that parent is). And after another three years of working on the novel, I finished it and a good friend and colleague read it and looked me in the eye and said, ?You do realize you have to write this as a memoir.? At first I wanted to punch him, but I knew he was right. I went back to the drawing board, back to beginning as if I were walking into prison for the first time, open and ready to learn what there was to learn, to find what there was to find. The journey led me to a deep understanding of how this story happened, to my realization that ever since childhood I?d longed to know what prison does to human beings in large measure because I am the daughter of a man who was a Jewish prisoner of War in World War II and granddaughter of a man who was a prisoner of War in Siberia in World War I. That is how I know that prison seeps deep under the skin not only of those who are imprisoned but of their loved ones, and future generations. SG: Where is your ex-husband-- does he know about the book? AF: He was released from prison in 1999, and he has remained out, living and working in Canada. There is no animosity between us, and though I haven?t consulted with him about the book. We did have a conversation a few years ago when an excerpt of the book was published in the NewYork Times Modern Love column,?and he found out about it and read it. I was worried?that?s why I hadn?t told him about it. I thought he would object to my telling this story. But in fact he called me and told me he fully supported me in anything I wrote, that he knew me to be a person of integrity, and he was confident that my writing would always reflect that integrity. SG: This is probably one of those stupid questions, since I know we should take life on a case-by-case basis, but if I told you that I was going to marry a prisoner, would you counsel me one way or the other, for/against? AF: Not stupid at all, but the answer has two parts. The first is yes, I would. In fact, a friend of mine has a daughter who is engaged to a man in prison, and I?ve been talking to her for months, trying to convince her to wait until he is released to marry him. But the counsel does not come in the form of ?he?s a loser, why would you do that?? or ?you?re throwing your life away.? Rather it?s that the life of a prisoner?s spouse is full of suspicion and hostility and loneliness and a kind of poverty of the soul. Part two: I know that my counsel and anyone else?s is likely useless. People in love do what they feel they need to do, what they must do. Love is powerful medicine, and I don?t think there?s a verbal antidote, and if you?re anything like me, if I counsel you for or against, you?ll rebel against my counsel. SG: What was your publishing process-- agent, NY publisher, etc? Or more DIY? Whichever it was, will you tell us the pitfalls and rewards you encountered? AF:?Ah publishing! For the last 10 years, ever since I moved back to the States, it?s been more or less the bane of my existence. I have an agent (my second in the last ten years), and both have loved the book and sent it out far and wide. The rejections have come mostly in this form: This is a fascinating story and beautifully written but it would not interest enough people. One editor even wrote, ?But there aren?t enough prisoners? wives to make this saleable.? But my agent convinced me she could keep at it. In the meantime, a producer at the Katie Couric show came to me?she?d read my piece in the New York Times and another excerpt in Salon and a third in your book, Stricken: 5,000 Stages of Grief, and she wanted me to appear on Katie to tell my story and feature the book, and I decided I would not appear on the show without a book. So I went the self-publishing route. The reward is I have a book between covers, the pitfall?because the book is self-published it is ineligible for all kinds of reviews and awards for which I wish it were eligible and the cost, of course?in terms of money and time invested in doing everything on my own?hiring my own editors, copyeditors, designers, and so on, and working with no publicist or machine behind me. But I?ve reached out for reviews and so far these have been more positive than I could have dreamed?most people have told me that once they picked up the book they couldn?t put it down?and I think it?s opened some eyes, and hearts. That?s my hope. And of course it would be nice to make back the investment ? And meantime my agent has the self-published version out for consideration too. We shall see. SG: How's the marketing going? My experience is that it's pretty tough out there to get noticed. On the other hand, I really am pleased that, as a self-publisher this time around-- I got to write exactly what I wanted. But the marketing can be a bit exhausting. Agreed? AF:?Absolutely agreed. I?ve gone this route before with a series of CD Audiobooks I?ve produced from Tell Me a Story, and when I put those out into the world, I developed a schedule which was this: For three years, each day I wrote one letter to someone?to librarians, to reviewers, to bloggers, to schools, to churches, to women?s groups. And now, six years since the release of the first CD, I do nothing and the CDs continue to sell?not gangbusters but it?s always amazing to me, and I sell at least one CD or story each day to someone somewhere. I thought to do that with this book, but in some ways I?d prefer now to put that energy into writing the next book. That?s why people like you, and interviews like this, are blessings. I?m scheduled to do a radio interview with KPFK (Experience Talks) in early February. But you?re absolutely right. Making this book be and say precisely what I wanted it to be and say is, ultimately, what matters. And that it exists has left me with the energy to begin to put prison behind me. SG: Working on another big project now?? AF: Slowly, slowly bringing myself back into an old novel I first wrote when I was in graduate school, and ?I have another book recently completed that?s coming out in September. This is with St. Martin?s Press, it?s a co-authored memoir with Anne Willan. In other words, I?m the ?ghost? (I?ve ghosted several books, though for this one I have an author credit). Anne is a well-known cooking teacher and author of 30 books who had a famous cooking school in Paris, and the book?s called One Souffle at a Time, and I love her and the story and the book?and it couldn?t be more different from Desperado?s Wife. Her story is one of travel, adventure, food, life in a chateau in Burgundy?very little darkness, lots of light, and Anne?s amazing recipes, too. SG: What else would you like to tell me? AF: Without you and Stricken, I don?t know that I would have ever finished Desperado?s Wife. The writing and the efforts to entice editors was such a slog until the day your co-author, Katherine Tanney, called to tell me you and she had submitted my excerpt to Dan Jones at Modern Love and that he wanted to run a portion of my piece. That opportunity seriously turned everything around for me, first because at the time so many editors were telling me no one cared about the story of a prisoner?s wife, and then because Dan cared so deeply, and afterwards because the feedback was oceanic, and 95% was positive. So I honestly feel that without you and Katherine on my side, I might not have made the long trek to publication.

And this: That 95% of prisoners get out of prison eventually, and families of prisoners are the single best hope that that release will end up being positive and nurturing. And as Will told me on the first day we met, prisoners? families understand prison, and they never did anything wrong. Before I was a prisoner?s wife, I thought all those women (wives, moms, daughters, sisters) standing at the bus stop outside the prison waiting to go home were probably smuggling drugs or knives. Ninety-nine percent of them not only aren?t smuggling knives and guns and drugs, they?re only trying to hold tight to their love, despite the burden of sorrows.

Source: http://writewithspike.blogspot.com/2013/01/normal.html

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'Argo,' Lawrence, Day-Lewis win at SAG

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The CIA thriller "Argo" continues to steamroll through awards season, winning the top honor for overall cast performance at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

SAG's lead-acting honors Sunday went to Jennifer Lawrence for her role as a troubled widow in a shaky new relationship in the lost-souls romance "Silver Linings Playbook" and Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War epic "Lincoln."

Anne Hathaway of "Les Miserables" and Tommy Lee Jones of "Lincoln" won the supporting-acting honors.

"It occurred to me ? it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln," said Day-Lewis, a solid front-runner to join an exclusive list of three-time acting Oscar winners. "And therefore, somehow it is only so fitting that every now and then an actor tries to bring him back to life again."

It was a brisk, businesslike and fairly bland evening as the actors union handed out honors to a predictable lineup of winners who generally had triumphed at earlier Hollywood ceremonies or past SAG shows.

The SAG cast win came a day after "Argo" claimed the top honor from the Producers Guild of America, whose winner often goes on to claim best picture at the Academy Awards. "Argo" also was a surprise victor two weeks ago at the Golden Globes, where it won best drama and director for Ben Affleck.

The awards momentum positions "Argo" for a rare feat at the Feb. 24 Oscars, where it could become just the fourth film in 85 years to be named best picture without a nomination for its director.

"To me this has nothing to do with me, it has to do with the incredible people who were in this movie," said Affleck, who also stars in "Argo" and accepted the SAG prize alongside his cast.

Affleck plays CIA agent Tony Mendez, who masterminded the daring rescue of six U.S. embassy workers in Iran after the 1979 hostage crisis erupted. The Americans were brought out of Iran masquerading as crew members of a fake Hollywood sci-fi movie scouting locations.

A directing nomination at the Oscars usually goes hand in hand with a best-picture win. When Affleck was snubbed for a directing slot, awards analysts initially were counting "Argo" out for the best-picture Oscar, along with Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" and Tom Hooper's "Les Miserables," which also missed out on directing nominations.

Only once in modern times has a film won best picture without a directing nomination, with 1989's "Driving Miss Daisy." The other two times came in the show's early years, at the first Oscars in 1929 with "Wings" and for 1932's "Grand Hotel."

But "Argo" has proven a resilient crowd-pleaser, dominating at awards shows since then over Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," which leads the Oscars with 12 nominations.

The cast prize at SAG adds some weight to the Oscar prospects for "Argo," though the guild honor has a spotty record at forecasting eventual best-picture winners. Only eight of 17 times since the guild added the category has the cast winner gone on to take the best-picture Oscar. "The Help" won the guild's cast prize last year, while Oscar voters named "The Artist" as best picture.

The next playoff round before the Oscars is Saturday's Directors Guild of America Awards, where Affleck, Bigelow, Spielberg and Hooper all are nominated, along with Ang Lee for "Life of Pi." The winner there typically goes on to triumph with directing and best-picture Oscars, but only Spielberg and Lee are nominated for both the Directors Guild and Oscar prizes this time, throwing the awards picture into a muddle.

Sunday's acting prizes solidify those categories, though. "Silver Linings" star Lawrence won a Golden Globe and has become one of Hollywood's hottest talents, with part two of her blockbuster franchise, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," due out in November.

"Now I have this naked statue that means some of you even voted for me, and that is an indescribable feeling," Lawrence said after explaining she earned her SAG card at age 14 by filming a spot for MTV.

Hathaway won for her role as a doomed single mother forced into prostitution in the adaptation of the stage musical based on Victor Hugo's epic novel. Her win came over four past Oscar recipients ? Sally Field, Helen Hunt, Nicole Kidman and Maggie Smith.

"I'm just thrilled I have dental," Hathaway said. "I got my SAG card when I was 14. It felt like the beginning of the world. I have loved every single minute of my life as an actor. ... Thank you for nominating me alongside incredible women and incredible performances."

Jones, who was not at the show, won for his turn as abolitionist firebrand Thaddeus Stevens in the Civil War epic. The win improves his odds to become a two-time Academy Award winner. He previously won a supporting-actor Oscar for "The Fugitive."

Day-Lewis, a two-time Oscar winner for "My Left Foot" and "There Will Be Blood," could become the fifth actor to earn three Oscars, along with Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan. Katharine Hepburn has the acting record with four Oscars.

Backstage at SAG, Day-Lewis was hardly ready to predict a third Oscar win.

"There's a good chance I won't. I feel the same way at all these occasions. Mostly, we're traveling as a group, the fellow nominees, give or take one here or there," Day-Lewis said. "I would happily recognize any single one person whose name is called."

On SAG's television side, with "30 Rock" ending its run, its stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin won the SAG awards for best comedy performers. It was Baldwin's seventh-straight win, while Fey earned her fifth SAG prize.

"Oh, my God. It's ridiculous," Baldwin said. "It's the end of our show, which is sad. Everybody is sad about that. It was the greatest experience I've ever had."

Fey gave a plug for the show's finale airing Thursday, noting that it's up against "The Big Bang Theory."

"Just tape 'The Big Bang Theory' for once, for crying out loud," Fey said.

"Modern Family" won for best overall cast in a TV comedy show. Accepting for the cast, "Modern Family" co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson offered thanks to the makers of "30 Rock" and another departing series, "The Office," saying "you all have set the comedy bar so high."

The TV drama acting awards went to Claire Danes of "Homeland" and Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad." ''Downton Abbey" won the TV drama cast award.

Julianne Moore's turn as Sarah Palin in "Game Change" earned her the TV prize for best actress in a movie or miniseries. Kevin Costner won for best actor in a movie or miniseries for "Hatfields & McCoys."

Receiving the guild's life-achievement award was Dick Van Dyke, who presented the same prize last year to his "The Dick Van Dyke Show" co-star, Mary Tyler Moore.

After waiting on stage for a prolonged standing ovation to end, Van Dyke said, "That does an old man a lot of good."

___

Associated Press writers Beth Harris, Christy Lemire and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/argo-lawrence-day-lewis-win-sag-030526752.html

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Journalism By Numbers: Why Journalists Are Skipping Lunch To Learn Stats

This is a guest post by Frank Swain who works at the Royal Statistical Society on a project to develop science training for journalists.

?

On the screen in front of us stands row upon row of little grey figures, four hundred in all if you count the ones cut off by the skewed aspect ratio. Five of the figures are stained red. They are dead. They developed pancreatic cancer. The rest are still enjoying their bacon sandwiches.

And so, the professor stood in front of the screen concludes, the relative risk associated with eating processed meat is 20%, or to put it another way, one extra death for every four hundred people. A relative risk increase of 20%, but an absolute risk increase of just 1 percentage point. The same statistic, but two entirely different news stories, depending on how you frame it.

A hand goes up. ?Whose responsibility is it,? the woman asks, ?to convert those numbers??

It?s a good question. In public health studies, risk factors are often presented in relative terms, because that format makes sense when discussing interventions on a population scale. How many lives could be saved by encouraging British citizens to skip that second sausage? ?But when discussing personal health choices, it?s absolute risks, not relative ones, that are most useful. Tell me my diet ramps up my risk of cancer by 20% and I may choke on my pork scratchings, but tell me that I?m shaving my life expectancy by a year and I?ll probably decide the intervening half-century is better spent in the company of fry ups.

When science makes the crossover from academic into public discourse, whose responsibility is it to adjust the language accordingly? A common attitude within the science community seems to be that journalists reporting on science stories ought to be able to substitute risk factors and odds ratios as easily as epidemiologists do. That?s a facile argument to make, but journalists are also the least equipped to do this, both in terms of time and ability. It is important, however, that journalists understand how influential this kind of reframing can be, and how it can take control of the reporting line if left unbridled.

The goal of delivering that understanding is what led me to this secluded corner of the UK?s Channel 4 newsroom, listening to the professor talk about relative risk and other statistical concepts to over a dozen journalists. The workshop, and many more like it, have come about through the Royal Statistical Society?s publicly-funded BenchPress project, which aims to develop science and statistical training for journalists. The project was set up in response to a white paper published by the UK Government?s department for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2010 which highlighted a dearth in the availability of such training, both within the industry and within the classrooms that supply it with new graduates. As part of the project, I?ve developed a network of a dozen volunteer speakers who regularly visit schools and newsrooms across the country to help future potential communicators and journalists get to grips with numbers. ?The passion of the volunteers?all working scientists?helps ensure that both junior and more senior journalists produce science news stories that are as robust and accurate as possible.

Later this week, Hilda Bastian and Evelyn Lamb will host a discussion of rogue statistics at this year?s ScienceOnline conference, and the problems these can cause in politics and the media. ?One of the most important roles of math blogging for non-mathematicians,? they write, ?is clarifying the ways in which things are abused, and how we can make the true meaning of statistics clear without losing the attention of the audience.? I?d argue that?s a sentiment shared by journalists of all stripes, not just math bloggers. No one I?ve approached?neither college nor newsroom?has yet turned down the offer of a free workshop on science and statistics. Everyone in the industry is aware that the era of data journalism is fast approaching. Already political pundits in the US have seen their audiences depart in droves for the analytical pronouncements of quant Nate Silver. My advice to Bastian and Lamb is this: don?t be content to stop at math bloggers. The world?s hacks are just as eager to get their numbers right, if you?ll only help them along the way.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=8867db904937674d1167ca8a29b96ce1

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Skin, soft tissue infections succumb to blue light

Jan. 28, 2013 ? Blue light can selectively eradicate Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections of the skin and soft tissues, while preserving the outermost layer of skin, according to a proof-of-principle study led by Michael R. Hamblin of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Harvard Medical School, Boston.

The research is published online ahead of print in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

"Blue light is a potential non-toxic, non-antibiotic approach for treating skin and soft tissue infections, especially those caused by antibiotic resistant pathogens," says Hamblin.

In the study, animal models were infected with P. aeruginosa. All of the animals in the group treated with blue light survived, while in the control, 82 percent (9 out of 11) of the animals died.

Skin and soft tissue infections are the second most common bacterial infections encountered in clinical practice, and represent the most common infection presentation -- more than 3 percent -- in patients visiting emergency departments, says Hamblin. The prevalence of skin and soft tissue infections among hospitalized patients is 10 percent, with approximately 14.2 million ambulatory care visits every year and an annual associated medical cost of almost $24 billion (equivalent to $76 for every American), says Hamblin.

Treatment of skin and soft tissue infections has been significantly complicated by the explosion of antibiotic resistance, which may bring an end to what medical scientists refer to as the antibiotic era, says Hamblin. "Microbes replicate very rapidly, and a mutation that helps a microbe survive in the presence of an antibiotic drug will quickly predominate throughout the microbial population. Recently, a dangerous new enzyme, NDM-1, that makes some bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics available has been found in the United States. Many physicians are concerned that several infections soon may be untreatable."

Besides harming public health, antibiotic resistance boosts health care costs. "Treating resistant skin and soft tissue infections often requires the use of more expensive, or more toxic drugs, and can result in longer hospital stays for infected patients," says Hamblin.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Society for Microbiology.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. T. Dai, A. Gupta, Y.-Y. Huang, R. Yin, C. K. Murray, M. S. Vrahas, M. Sherwood, G. P. Tegos, M. R. Hamblin. Blue light rescues mice from potentially fatal Pseudomonas aeruginosa burn infection: efficacy, safety, and mechanism of action. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 2012; DOI: 10.1128/AAC.01652-12

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/Z_KxGNEuEXU/130128163403.htm

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Priceless manscripts burned by Islamist rebels in Mali

DAKAR (Reuters) - Islamist fighters fleeing Mali's ancient Saharan city of Timbuktu as French and Malian troops closed in set fire to a South African-funded library there containing thousands of priceless manuscripts, the city's mayor said on Monday.

"The rebels sit fire to the newly-constructed Ahmed Baba Institute built by the South Africans ... this happened four days ago," Halle Ousmane told Reuters by telephone from Bamako. He said he had received the information from his chief of communications who had travelled south from the city a day ago.

Ousmane was not able to immediately say how much the building had been damaged. French and Malian troops were securing the city on Monday.

The mayor said the Islamist rebels, who had occupied the fabled trading town since a Tuareg-led rebellion captured it on April 1 from government forces, also torched his office and the home of a member of parliament.

The Ahmed Baba Institute, one of several libraries and collections in the city containing fragile ancient documents dating back to the 13th century, is named after a Timbuktu-born contemporary of William Shakespeare and houses more than 20,000 scholarly manuscripts. Some were stored in underground vaults.

Fighters from the Islamist alliance in north Mali, which groups AQIM with Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine and AQIM splinter MUJWA, had also destroyed ancient shrines sacred to moderate Sufi Moslems, provoking international outrage.

They had also applied amputations for thieves and stoning of adulterers under sharia law.

(Reporting by Bate Felix in Dakar; Writing by Pascal Fletcher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/islamist-rebels-torch-timbuktu-manscript-library-mayor-104853300.html

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Runaway Snowmobile Injures One Fan After Jackson Strong Crash At Winter X Games (VIDEO)

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) ? A young fan was treated and released after being hurt when a runaway snowmobile veered into the crowd at Winter X after the rider fell off during a jump gone wrong.

The teenager was evaluated on site for a right knee injury on Sunday night. It's not clear whether he was hurt jumping out of the way or was struck by the sled.

Snowmobiler Jackson Strong tumbled off the snowmobile during the best trick competition. The throttle stuck on the 450-pound machine and it swerved straight toward the crowd ? fans scurrying out of the way. The snowmobile came to a rest when it got tangled up in the retaining fence.

Jeremy Bester, of Prior Lake, Minn., quickly applied the brakes to keep it from moving.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/runaway-snowmobile-jackson-strong-crash-video_n_2564349.html

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Egypt's leader declares emergency after clashes kill dozens

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi declared a month-long state of emergency in three cities along the Suez Canal where dozens of people have been killed over the past four days in protests his allies say are designed to overthrow him.

Seven people were shot dead and hundreds were injured in Port Said on Sunday during the funerals of 33 people killed there when locals angered by a court decision went on the rampage as anti-government protests spread around the country.

A total of 49 people have been killed since Thursday and Mursi's opponents, who accuse his Islamist Muslim Brotherhood of betraying the revolution that ousted long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak, have called for more demonstrations on Monday.

"Down, down Mursi, down down the regime that killed and tortured us!" people in Port Said chanted as the coffins of those killed on Saturday were carried through the streets.

Mursi, who was elected in June, is trying to fix a beleaguered economy and cool tempers before a parliamentary poll in the next few months which is supposed to cement Egypt's transition to democracy. Repeated eruptions of violence have weighed heavily on the Egyptian pound.

In a televised address, he said a nightly curfew would be introduced in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, starting Monday.

Several hundred people protested in Ismailia, Suez and Port Said after the announcement, in which Mursi also called for a dialogue with top politicians. Activists in the three cities vowed to defy the curfew in protest at the decision.

"The protection of the nation is the responsibility of everyone. We will confront any threat to its security with force and firmness within the remit of the law," he said, offering condolences to families of the victims.

In Cairo the newly appointed Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim was ejected from the funeral of one of the police officers who died during Saturday's clashes in Port Said, according to witnesses and police sources.

A police officer at the funeral said many of his colleagues blame the interior minister for the deaths of at least two policemen during Saturday's clashes as he did not allow the police there to carry weapons and were only given teargas bombs.

SECURITY MEASURES

The violence has exposed a deep rift in the nation. Liberals and other opponents accuse Mursi of failing to deliver on economic promises and say he has not lived up to pledges to represent all Egyptians. His backers say the opposition is seeking to topple Egypt's first freely elected leader.

Distancing itself from the latest flare-ups, the opposition National Salvation Front said Mursi should have acted far sooner to impose extra security measures that would end the violence.

"Of course we feel the president is missing the real problem on the ground which is his own polices," spokesman Khaled Dawoud told Reuters. "His call to implement emergency law was an expected move given what is going on, namely thuggery and criminal actions."

The Front, formed late last year when Mursi provoked protests and violence by expanding his powers and driving through an Islamist-tinged constitution, has threatened to boycott the parliamentary poll and call for more protests if its demands are not met, including for an early presidential vote.

State television said seven people died from gunshot wounds in Port Said on Sunday. Port Said's head of hospitals, Abdel Rahman Farag, told Reuters more than 400 people had suffered from teargas inhalation, while 38 were wounded by gunshots.

Gunshots had killed many of the 33 who died on Saturday when residents rioted after a court sentenced 21 people, mostly from the Mediterranean port, to death for their role in deadly soccer violence at a stadium there last year.

A military source said many people in Port Said, which lies next to the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula, possess guns because they do not trust the authorities to protect them. However it was not clear who was behind the deaths and injuries.

In Cairo, police fired teargas at dozens at protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs in a fourth day of clashes over what demonstrators there and in other cities say is a power grab by Islamists two years after Mubarak was overthrown.

In Ismailia city, which lies on the Suez Canal between the cities of Suez and Port Said, police also fired teargas at protesters attacking a police station with petrol bombs and stones, according to witnesses and a security source there.

"KNEE-JERK REACTION"

Most of the deaths since Thursday were in Port Said and Suez, both cities where the army has now been deployed.

Heba Morayef of Human Rights Watch in Cairo said a state of emergency reintroduced laws that gave police sweeping powers of arrest "purely because (people) look suspicious".

"It is a classic knee-jerk reaction to think the emergency law will help bring security," she said. "It gives so much discretion to the Ministry of Interior that it ends up causing more abuse which in turn causes more anger."

The opposition Popular Current and other groups have called for more protests on Monday to mark what was one of the bloodiest days of the 2011 uprising.

Anti-Mursi protesters who have been camped out in Tahrir Square for weeks also demonstrated against Mursi's move to impose a state of emergency, reviving memories of Mubarak's era when emergency codes were in place for three decades and used to crush dissent and detain people without charge.

Protesters say Mursi has betrayed the revolution's aims.

"None of the revolution's goals have been realized," said Mohamed Sami, a protester in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the cauldron of the uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and toppled Mubarak 18 days later.

"Prices are going up. The blood of Egyptians is being spilt in the streets because of neglect and corruption and because the Muslim Brotherhood is ruling Egypt for their own interests."

Clashes also erupted in other streets near the square. The U.S. and British embassies, both close to Tahrir, said they were closed for public business on Sunday, normally a working day.

The army, Egypt's interim ruler until Mursi's election, was sent back onto the streets to restore order in Port Said and Suez, which both lie on the Suez canal. In Suez, at least eight people were killed in clashes with police.

Many ordinary Egyptians are frustrated by the violence that have hurt the economy and their livelihoods.

"They are not revolutionaries protesting," said taxi driver Kamal Hassan, 30, referring to those gathered in Tahrir. "They are thugs destroying the country."

(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/riots-over-egyptian-death-sentences-kill-least-32-005245042.html

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Samsung expects Music Hub to reach competitors' devices, more countries

Samsung's Music Hub has only had a comparatively small reach to date, delivering tunes to seven countries (six with scan-and-match) and just a handful of devices. Senior VP of Media Services TJ Kang expects the audio service to broaden its horizons -- he tells The Next Web that Samsung wants to widen access to rivals' gear as well. There's no convenient timetable to put on the calendar, but the expansion is a significant move for a service that's frequently seen as more of a brand-specific checklist feature than a full competitor with the likes of Google Music or iTunes. Plans for Samsung's own devices are more definite, Kang says. Music Hub is coming to more countries in 2013, as long as licensing deals work out, and further device support (including the non-mobile variety) will depend on flagship hardware releases scattered throughout the year. No matter where Media Hub heads next, it's safe to presume that it will be more than just a nice bonus in the near future.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: The Next Web

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Diaz Reus & Targ Law Firm Hires Associate Attorney Ahmand Johnson

Johnson will concentrate his practice in the areas of entertainment and sports for the Miami, Florida based full-service itnernational law firm.

Miami, Florida (PRWEB) January 24, 2013

Diaz, Reus & Targ, LLP, has hired Associate Attorney Ahmand Johnson, announces Global Managing Partner Michael Diaz, Jr. Diaz, Reus & Targ, LLP is a full-service international law firm focusing on trade, customs, financial, commercial and corporate transactions, sports and entertainment, tax, immigration, business and corporate litigation, and arbitration matters.

Johnson focuses his practice in the areas of entertainment and sports. Prior to joining Diaz, Reus & Targ, he worked with a major Florida law firm handling business litigation, intellectual property and sports and entertainment matters. He gained significant entertainment industry experience at a Los Angeles-based entertainment law firm while attending UCLA School of Law. A National Football League Player Association (NFLPA) Certified Contract Advisor, Johnson co-founded a professional sports management company while in law school.

Johnson?s lecture for the Florida Bar Entertainment, Arts and Sports Section entitled ?Attorneys vs. Agents in the Representation of Professional Athletes? is featured as a Continuing Legal Education course. He received the 2009 Young Lawyer Award from the Broward County Legal Aid Service for his pro-bono work in collecting a record judgment on behalf of the organization. Johnson, a varsity football and track and field athlete at Brown University, was a member of 1999 Ivy League Football Championship team.

About Diaz Reus & Targ, LLP

Diaz Reus & Targ, LLP represents dealmakers around the world with a focus on emerging markets. With experienced lawyers in the U. S., Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, the firm is uniquely suited to handle a wide range of complex commercial, business, and financial transactions across international borders. Diaz Reus lawyers have experience in government relations, trade, compliance, customs, tax, and immigration, as well as internal and government investigations, complex litigation, and arbitration matters. Diaz Reus operates offices in Miami, Florida; Caracas, Venezuela; Shanghai, China; Dubai, U.A.E.; Iraq; Frankfurt, Germany; Bogota, Colombia; Panama, Republic of Panama; Mexico City, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and an affiliate office in Sao Paulo, Brazil. For more information, visit http://www.diazreus.com or http://www.jdsupra.com/profile/diazreus.

BAY PROBY
PROBY & ASSOCIATES
(305) 251-3671
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/diaz-reus-targ-law-firm-hires-associate-attorney-081044470.html

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Bar codes on Brazil sidewalks give tourist info

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? Rio de Janeiro is mixing technology with tradition to provide tourists information about the city by embedding bar codes into the black and white mosaic sidewalks that are a symbol of the city.

The first two-dimensional bar codes, or QR codes, as they're known, were installed Friday at Arpoador, a massive boulder that rises at the end of Ipanema beach. The image was built into the sidewalk with the same black and white stones that decorate sidewalks around town with mosaics of waves, fish and abstract images.

The launch attracted onlookers, who downloaded an application to their smartphones or tablets and photographed the icon. The app read the code and they were then taken to a web site that gave them information in Portuguese, Spanish or English, and a map of the area.

They learned, for example, that Arpoador gets big waves, making it a hot spot for surfing and giving the 500-meter beach nearby the name of "Praia do Diabo," or Devil's Beach. They could also find out that the rock is called Arpoador because fishermen once harpooned whales off the shore.

The city plans to install 30 of these QR codes at beaches, vistas, and historic sites, so Rio's approximately 2 million foreign visitors can learn about the city as they walk around.

"If you add the number of Brazilian tourists, this tool has a great potential to be useful," said Marcos Correa Bento, head of the city's conservation and public works.

Raul Oliveira Neto, a 24-year-old visitor from the Southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, was one of the first to use the icon and thought the service fit well with the way people live now.

"We use so much technology to pass information, this makes sense," he said, noting he'd seen QR codes on tourist sites in Portugal, where they were first used for this purpose. "It's the way we do things nowadays."

Locals ? used to giving visitors directions ? also approved the novelty.

"Look, there's a little map; it even shows you where we are," said Diego Fortunato, 25, as he pulled up information.

"Rio doesn't always have information for those who don't know the city," he said. "It's something the city needs, that it's been lacking."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-bar-codes-sidewalks-tourist-010538338.html

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Northeast Deep Freeze Causes Skyrocketing Natural Gas Prices

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration , though the cold snap in the Northeastern United States is expected to ease over the weekend, the price of natural gas in New England and New York City is at its highest level all winter. In fact, the natural gas prices, well over $30/MMBtu in New England, are the highest they've been since January 2004. Here are the details.

* The EIA's Friday report stated that natural gas pipelines from the west and south into New England are constrained, limiting supplies. Demand is high and "gas prices are now high enough that it may be economically attractive to use oil for power generation in some cases," the EIA stated.

* Bloomberg reported that New England is now relying on power plants fueled by oil and coal in spite of shifting away from those resources in recent years.

* The grid operator, ISO New England, stated that oil units have been called up as a hedge in case of a disruption of natural gas as temperatures in the region plummeted well below average this week.

* The EIA reported a week ago that natural gas prices in the Northeast were the highest in the nation due to high international prices and declining production in eastern Canada.

* Shipments of liquid natural gas into the Boston area and New Brunswick, Canada, declined in 2012 because global market conditions directed those shipments elsewhere, the EIA stated.

* The EIA stated that recent forward market prices indicate that natural gas in New England may rival the sky-high prices of northwestern Europe.

* New England has historically depended on higher-priced imports of liquid natural gas due to a lack of local storage facilities, lack of locally produced natural gas, remoteness from the rest of the North American natural gas grid and high seasonal demand peaks.

* About a quarter of New England's daily natural gas demand comes from liquid natural gas and in the winter, liquid natural gas accounts for 60 percent of New England's total natural gas supply needs.

* According to Dow Jones Business News , gas prices have risen about 10 percent in January as investors braced for winter weather and rising demand. However, those prices dropped overall about 3 percent on Thursday with projections of warmer weather on its way.

* Still, Dow Jones reported, natural gas prices may continue to be higher until February -- the last month of projected below-normal temperatures.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/northeast-deep-freeze-causes-skyrocketing-natural-gas-prices-224500706.html

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BlawgSD - San Diego legal news and views.: Great Criminal Law ...

The San Diego County Bar Association's extremely beneficial "Judges' Orientation Program for New Attorneys" series continues with a CLE course on Criminal Cases in the Superior Court. Criminal judge Carolyn M. Caietti is joined by noted criminal attorneys Gregg McClain, supervising deputy district attorney, and Michael J. Popkins, public defender, to give a basic overview of how to practice criminal law in our local courts. If you are a new or recent bar admittee, this is a great way to know what to do from those who know how to do it.

What: Judges' Orientation Program for New Attorneys - Criminal Cases in the Superior Court
When: Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Where: Hall of Justice Conference Rooms 363 A&B, 330 W. Broadway
Time: 12-1:15 p.m.
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Chameleon pulsar baffles astronomers

Jan. 24, 2013 ? Using a satellite X-ray telescope combined with terrestrial radio telescopes the pulsar was found to flip on a roughly half-hour timescale between two extreme states; one dominated by X-ray pulses, the other by a highly-organised pattern of radio pulses.

The research was led by Professor Wim Hermsen from The Netherlands Institute for Space Research and the University of Amsterdam and will appear in the journal Science on the 25th January 2013.

Researchers from Jodrell Bank Observatory, as well as institutions around the world, used simultaneous observations with the X-ray satellite XMM-Newton and two radio telescopes; the LOw Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the Netherlands and the Giant Meter Wave Telescope (GMRT) in India to reveal this so far unique behaviour.

Pulsars are small spinning stars that are about the size of a city, around 20 km in diameter. They emit oppositely directed beams of radiation from their magnetic poles. Just like a lighthouse, as the star spins and the beam sweeps repeatedly past Earth we see a brief flash.

Some pulsars produce radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, including at X-ray and radio wavelengths. Despite being discovered more than 45 years ago the exact mechanism by which pulsars shine is still unknown.

It has been known for some time that some radio-emitting pulsars flip their behaviour between two (or even more) states, changing the pattern and intensity of their radio pulses. The moment of flip is both unpredictable and sudden. It is also known from satellite-borne telescopes that a handful of radio pulsars can also be detected at X-ray frequencies. However, the X-ray signal is so weak that nothing is known of its variability.

To find out if the X-rays could also flip the scientists studied a particular pulsar called PSR B0943+10, one of the first to be discovered. It has radio pulses which change in form and brightness every few hours with some of the changes happening within about a second.

Dr Ben Stappers from The University of Manchester's School of Physics and Astronomy said: "The behaviour of this pulsar is quite startling, it's as if it has two distinct personalities. As PSR B0943+10 is one of the few pulsars also known to emit X-rays, finding out how this higher energy radiation behaves as the radio changes could provide new insight into the nature of the emission process."

Since the source is a weak X-ray emitter, the team used the most sensitive X-ray telescope in existence, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton on board a spacecraft orbiting Earth. The observations took place over six separate sessions of about six hours in duration. To identify the exact moment of flip in the pulsar's radio behaviour the X-ray observations were tracked simultaneously with two of the largest radio telescopes in the world, LOFAR and the GMRT.

What the scientists found was that whilst the X-rays did indeed change their behaviour at the same time as the radio emission, as might have been expected, in the state where the radio signal is strong and organised the X-rays were weak, and when the radio emission switched to weak the X-rays got brighter.

Commenting on the study's findings the project leader Wim Hermsen says: "To our surprise we found that when the brightness of the radio emission halved, the X-ray emission brightened by a factor of two! Furthermore the intense X-rays have a very different character from those in the radio-bright state, since they seem to be thermal in origin and to pulse with the neutron star's rotation period."

Dr Stappers says this is an exciting discovery: "As well as brightening in the X-rays we discovered that the X-ray emission also shows pulses, something not seen when the radio emission is bright. This was the opposite of what we had expected. I've likened the changes in the pulsar to a chameleon. Like the animal the star changes in reaction to its environment, such as a change in temperature."

Geoff Wright from the University of Sussex adds: "Our observations strongly suggest that a temporary "hotspot" appears close to the pulsar's magnetic pole which switches on and off with the change of state. But why a pulsar should undergo such dramatic and unpredictable changes is completely unknown."

The next step for the researchers is to look at other objects which have similar behaviour to investigate what happens to the X-ray emission. Later this year there will be another round of simultaneous X-ray and radio observations of a second pulsar. These observations will include the Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Manchester, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. W. Hermsen et al. Synchronous X-ray and Radio Mode Switches: A Rapid Global Transformation of the Pulsar Magnetosphere. Science, 2013; 339 (6118): 436 DOI: 10.1126/science.1230960

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://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/sCTrLOkQodw/130124150802.htm

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