miahbadsha: January 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Continuing church priest arrested in Moscow: Anglican Ink, January 30, 2013

Posted by geoconger in Anglican Ink, Crime.
Tags: Fabio Ricardo Rodriguez, Western Rite - Holy Catholic Church
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A continuing Anglican priest has been arrested by customs officials at Moscow?s Sheremetyevo Airport, accused of smuggling cocaine into Russia.

State television broadcaster Rossiya 24 reported that Fr. Fabio Ricardo Rodriguez was arrested on 30 Jan 2013 after the priest?s behavior attracted the attention of Federal Drug Control Service officers.? After his arrival from Paris, Fr. Rodriguez appeared unwell and acted in a nervous manner.

Read it all in Anglican Ink.

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Source: http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/continuing-church-priest-arrested-in-moscow-anglican-ink-january-30-2013/

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Drake And Future 'Vibing' Leads To Lil Wayne's 'Good Kush & Alcohol'

'It just came out dope,' producer Mike WiLL Made It tells MTV News about creative process behind I Am Not a Human Being II track.
By Nadeska Alexis

Mike WiLL Made It
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1701032/lil-wayne-mike-will-made-it-good-kush-alcohol.jhtml

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Mayor Bloomberg Presents Fiscal Year 2014 Preliminary Budget

Mayor Bloomberg today presented the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Preliminary Budget and an updated four-year financial plan. The plan outlined today reflects the New York City?s ongoing economic growth and spending discipline, which provide for a balanced budget that does not rely on tax increases.

The Preliminary Budget includes $6.5 billion in savings achieved through 12 rounds of deficit closing actions the City has taken since 2007. It shows that the city?s private sector employment have grown by 6.9 percent since the end of the recession in 2009, compared to 3.9 percent nationally. The FY 2014 Preliminary Budget reduces controllable City spending by 1.1 percent compared to the prior year while maintaining City services. It also estimates $4.5 billion in Sandy-related expenses, including $1.4 billion spent on emergency response and $3.1 billion on repairs ? all of which the City anticipates will be reimbursed by Federal aid. The budget plan details the impact of a major loss of State education aid due to the refusal of the United Federation of Teachers to agree to a teacher evaluation system. The Mayor has requested that State legislators act to ensure New York City schoolchildren are not harmed by the union?s refusal to agree to an evaluation system.

?The financial plan presented today continues to protect critical services and foster economic growth, while also taking the responsible, budget-minded actions that have resulted in a more efficient City government,? said Mayor Bloomberg. ?Our investments in industries like the tech, film and tourism sectors are paying off in the form of new jobs and revenue. Still, there is more work to do, particularly in the area of State education funding and the potential loss of another $250 million. We?re hopeful Albany will protect our students against penalties levied because the teachers? union refuses to agree on an evaluation agreement. The loss of this aid would undermine our consistent investments in public education and also jeopardize the progress City schools have made.?

The Preliminary Budget is a $70.1 billion plan, with a City-funded portion of $50.7 billion. The Preliminary Budget reduces year-over-year controllable City expenditures by $254 million, a 1.1 percent decline from FY 2013. Expenses not fully controlled by the City ? primarily pensions, health care, Medicaid and debt service ? rise by $1.8 billion, a 6.8 percent increase from FY 2013.

Improving Economy

The City?s economy continues to grow and tax revenues have increased: in FY 2013, non-property tax revenue was $222 million higher than anticipated when the budget was updated in November. Private sector employment in New York City has grown by 6.9 percent since the end of the recession in 2009, compared with national growth of 3.9 percent. The City also welcomed a record 52 million tourists, generating sales and hotel tax revenue.

Education

Since 2002, City-funded spending on education has increased by 132 percent, from $6.0 billion in FY 2002 to $13.9 billion in FY 2014. The continued increase in City-funded education expenses comes as the share of State-funded education expenses has declined: The City now funds 61 percent of non-Federally funded education costs, while the State funds 39 percent. In FY 2002, the State and the City evenly shared the costs.

The City stands to lose $724 million in State education aid for New York City schools over the next two years because the UFT has refused to come to agreement on an effective evaluation system. In the current fiscal year, the City will lose $250 million in State education aid, resulting in a loss of 700 teachers through attrition this year, as well as the reduction of funds for extracurricular activities and afterschool programming. The City will forfeit another $250 million in the next fiscal year, as well as $224 million included in the State executive budget if the union continues to block an evaluation agreement. This reduction would result in another 1,800 teachers lost through attrition. The City would also need to eliminate 700,000 hours of afterschool programs, and would have approximately $67 million less for school supplies. The cuts would have a direct and dire impact on classrooms across the city and will be borne by the students who need and deserve high-quality education.

Without an evaluation agreement, the City may also lose an additional $1 billion in education aid from the State and Federal governments.

Headcount

The City?s full-time and full-time equivalent headcount in FY 2014 Preliminary Budget is 293,527 a reduction of 18,277 positions (5.9 percent) since the start of the Bloomberg Administration. The City?s December 31, 2001 full-time and full-time equivalent headcount was 311,804.

Hurricane Sandy

The Preliminary Budget includes an estimated $4.5 billion in storm-related costs. Of that, $1.4 billion is for emergency response and debris removal and is a part of the Expense Budget. The remaining $3.1 billion is comprised of long-term repair needs for damaged infrastructure that will be incurred over time in the Capital budget. The total Sandy-related expenses include: $310 million for the schools; $812 million for hospitals; $1 billion for housing; and $601 million for parks.

Source: http://www.mikebloomberg.com/index.cfm?objectid=8755EABB-C29C-7CA2-F6AF9DA2B21D8B91

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NCAA athletes can pursue TV money, judge rules

EyeOn

College Basketball

By Jeff Borzello | Recruiting Blogger

12:07 AM ET January 30, 2013

A federal court judge rejected an NCAA motion on Tuesday that would have prevented players in an antitrust suit from advancing their lawsuit in a hope of pursuing a cut of TV money, according to an ESPN.com report.

The NCAA had hoped to thwart efforts by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon and other college basketball and football players to claim a share of the revenues from live television broadcasts. Originally, the suit had included just rebroadcast revenues.

The motion from the NCAA was based on a procedural objection regarding the amending of the lawsuit last year. Judge Claudia Wilken has now set a hearing on the merits of the motion for June 20.

A statement from NCAA general counsel Donald Remy read as follows:

"Although our motion to strike was denied, the judge has signaled skepticism on plaintiff's class-certification motion and recognized the plaintiffs' radical change in their theory of the case. This is a step in the right direction toward allowing the NCAA to further demonstrate why this case is wrong on the law and that plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that this case satisfies the criteria for class litigation."

The lawsuit began in 2009, with O'Bannon among the number of former college basketball and football players challenging the NCAA's licensing of their images for a share of the revenue.

From Tom Farrey of ESPN.com:

In the event that the plaintiffs prevail, [lead counsel Michael] Hausfeld has set up a mechanism for players to collect licensing revenues. The Former College Athletes Association (FCAA) would negotiate licenses with the NCAA, member colleges, video game and media companies, according to Jon King, a former Hausfeld LLC lawyer who worked on the case.

The case would go to trial in 2014, per ESPN.

For more college basketball news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnCBB on Twitter, subscribe to our RSS Feed and subscribe to our College Basketball Newsletter. You can follow Jeff Borzello on Twitter here: @jeffborzello

Crucial, long-overdue BlackBerry makeover arrives

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2008, file photo, the logo on a BlackBerry smartphone is shows in Bochum, Germany. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company. (AP Photo/dapd, Volker Hartmann)

TORONTO (AP) ? The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company.

Thorsten Heins, chief executive of Research In Motion Ltd., will reveal the first phone with the new BlackBerry 10 system in New York on Wednesday. Repeated delays have left the once-pioneering BlackBerry an afterthought in the shadow of Apple's trend-setting iPhone and Google's Android-driven devices.

Now, there's some optimism. Previews of the software have gotten favorable reviews on blogs. Financial analysts are starting to see some slight room for a comeback. RIM's stock has nearly tripled to about $16.30 from a nine-year low in September, though it's still nearly 90 percent below its 2008 peak of $147.

Most analysts consider a BlackBerry 10 success to be crucial for the company's long-term viability.

"The old models are becoming obsolete quickly," BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said. "There is still a big user base but it's going to rotate off. The question is: Where do they rotate to?"

The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, has been the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people. Corporate information-technology managers like the phones because they're relatively secure and easy to manage.

The BlackBerry has also crossed over to consumers. President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with it when he took office. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things." People got so addicted that the device was nicknamed "the CrackBerry."

But when the iPhone came out in 2007, it showed that phones can do much more than email and phone calls. They can play games, music and movies. Android came along to offer even more choices. Though IT managers still love BlackBerrys, employees were bringing their own devices to the workplace ? a trend Heins acknowledged RIM was slow to adapt to.

Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient.

Even as BlackBerry sales continued to grow in many parts of the world, many BlackBerry users in North America switched to iPhones and Android devices. BlackBerry's worldwide subscriber based peaked at 80 million in the quarter that ended Sept. 1, before dropping to 79 million in the most-recent quarter. In the U.S., according to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012.

RIM promised a new system to catch up, using technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. RIM initially said BlackBerry 10 would come by early 2012, but then the company changed that to late 2012. A few months later, that date was pushed further, to early 2013, missing the lucrative holiday season. The holdup helped wipe out more than $70 billion in shareholder wealth and 5,000 jobs.

Although executives have been providing a glimpse at some of BlackBerry 10's new features for months, Heins will finally showcase a complete system at Wednesday's event. Devices will go on sale soon after that.

RIM redesigned the system to embrace the multimedia, apps and touch-screen experience prevalent today.

"Historically there have been areas that have not been our strongest points," Rick Costanzo, RIM's executive vice president of global sales, said in an interview. "Not only have we caught up, but we may even be better than some of the competition now."

Costanzo said "no one else can touch" what RIM's new system offers.

The new operating system promises better multitasking than either the iPhone or Android. Simply swipe a finger across the phone's display screen to switch to another program.

All emails and notifications from such applications as Twitter and Facebook go to the BlackBerry Hub, a nerve center accessible with a finger swipe even if you have another application open. One can peek into it and open an email, or return to the previous application without opening the email.

"You are not going in and out of applications; you're flowing through applications with one simple gesture of your finger," Costanzo said. "You can leave applications running. You can effortlessly flow between them. So that's completely unique to us."

That said, multitasking will be limited and won't allow for extensive use of apps side by side, as is typically permitted on traditional computers. If you're watching a video, it will still run while you check for email. But it will pause if you decide to open an email and resume when you are done.

The BlackBerry's touch-screen keyboard promises to learn a user's writing style and suggest words and phrases to complete, going beyond typo corrections offered by rivals. See the one you want, and flick it up to the message area. Costanzo said that "BlackBerry offers the best keyboard, period."

Gus Papageorgiou, a Scotiabank financial analyst who has tried it out, agreed with that assessment and said the keyboard even learns and adjusts to your thumb placements.

The first BlackBerry 10 phone will have only a touch screen. RIM has said it will release a version with a physical keyboard soon after that. That's an area RIM has excelled at, and it's one reason many BlackBerry users have remained loyal despite temptations to switch.

Another distinguishing feature will be the BlackBerry Balance, which allows two personas on the same device. Businesses can keep their data secure without forcing employees to get a second device for personal use. For instance, IT managers can prevent personal apps from running inside corporate firewalls, but those managers won't have access to personal data on the device.

With Balance, "you can just switch from work to personal mode," Papageorgiou said. "I think that is something that will attract a lot of people."

RIM is also claiming that the BlackBerry 10's browser will be speedy, even faster than browsers for laptop and desktop computers. According to Papageorgiou, early, independent tests between the BlackBerry 10 and the iPhone support that claim.

Regardless of BlackBerry 10's advances, though, the new system will face a key shortcoming: It won't have as many apps written by outside companies and individuals as the iPhone and Android. RIM has said it plans to launch BlackBerry 10 with more than 70,000 apps, including those developed for RIM's PlayBook tablet, first released in 2011. Even so, that's just a tenth of what the iPhone and Android offer. Papageorgiou said the initial group will include the most popular ones such as Twitter and Facebook. But RIM will have to persuade others to make a BlackBerry version, when they are already struggling to keep up with both the iPhone and Android.

Like many analysts, Papageorgiou recently upgraded RIM's stock, but cautions that longtime BlackBerry users will have to get used to a whole new operating system.

He said RIM can be successful if about a third of current subscribers upgrade and if the company can get 4 million new users overseas, especially in countries where the BlackBerry has remained popular. IDC said smartphone shipments grew 44 percent in 2012. If those trends continue, it will be possible for the BlackBerry to grow even if iPhone and Android users don't switch.

"This doesn't have to be the best smartphone on the planet to be a success for RIM," he said. "I think the big question though is, if it fails, is it just too late? Are the other two ecosystems just so advanced that no one can catch up? That's a big risk."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-01-28-RIM-BlackBerry%20Makeover/id-24c14eab9e744fd495da72412b50ab42

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Federal and state Medicaid spending under overhaul

A look at how President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law would change federal and state Medicaid spending from 2013-2022. The figures, in millions of dollars, include the cost of expanding Medicaid to cover childless adults, as well as the cost of enrolling people eligible under current laws but not signed up. The table shows how spending would change if every state adopted the Medicaid expansion in the law. A few states would save.

Source: The Urban Institute

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/federal-state-medicaid-spending-under-overhaul-153607324--finance.html

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Porn Stars Acting Out Internet Memes: The Most Confusing-Sexy Thing You'll See Today

"Memes I'd Like to F**k" is a pretty self-explanatory idea, really. It's internet memes, acted out by porn stars—with their clothes on, mostly. They're by porno house Wood Rocket, and actually, they're probably a smart way to get wider exposure for the sex-actors. As it were. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/lFZPRJQZ2f4/porn-stars-acting-out-internet-memes-the-most-confusing+sexy-thing-youll-see-today

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The Week In Tech: Consoles, Steam Boxes, AMD | Rock, Paper ...

By Jeremy Laird on January 28th, 2013 at 1:00 pm.

Happy new year all ye hallowed RPSers. It?s time to get hardware back on track. This week, the theme is consoles. We?re talking next-gen Playstation and Xbox. We?re talking Steam Boxes. We?re talking hope for beleaguered AMD. Just maybe.

Let?s kick off with what appears to be leakage of some very detailed information regarding the specifications of the next Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox efforts.

Until the official reveal, probably in March at GDC, we can?t be totally sure how those next-gen boxes will turn out. But the stories circulating on the web look highly plausible. And they go something like this.

The next Playstation is codenamed Orbis. The next Xbox is known as Durango. Both will pack pure AMD technology, but with a slightly different spin than expected.

A Playstation 3, yesterday

First up, CPUs. And th
ey appear to be identical. Eight cores. 1.6GHz clocks. AMD?s Jaguar architecture. Hold that thought, we?ll come back to it.

On the graphics side, there?s more of a delta. Sony has ponied up for a Radeon HD chip with 18 GCN units and therefore a grand total of 1,152 shaders. Microsoft has allegedly cheaped out with 12 units and thus 768 shaders.

Memory-wise, it?s 4GB of nippy GDDR5 from Sony and 8GB of DDR3 supplemented by 32MB of dedicated EDRAM for the GPU from Microsoft. Controllers and various motion-detection paraphernalia aside, the hardware specs are rounded out by Blu-ray for both boxes.

What?s the meaning of this?

So, what does it all mean? First and foremost, it means both consoles will have properly feeble single-thread CPU performance. OK, Jaguar is somewhat of an unknown quality currently. But it?s the replacement for Bobcat, AMD?s low-power, poverty-spec architecture. And even AMD is only claiming an extra 15 per cent instructions per clock with the transistion from Bobcat to Jaguar.

If AMD?s full-fat FX CPUs offer minimal headroom to spare when it comes to single-thread performance in games, Jaguar will only be worse. And by worse I mean much. Factor in clocks and the result is likely to be well under half the per-core performance of AMD FX. Which in turn is well behind Intel?s nest. Nasty.

Of course, you could argue that?s no biggie. You?ve got eight cores. Simply spread the load. If it were that simple, an AMD FX eight-core chip would already have the legs on, say, a four-core Intel Core i5. But it isn?t. So it doesn?t.

What do we want? Core i5? When do we want it? Roughly November

Admittedly, these concerns don?t translate directly over to console land. With fixed hardware specs, games devs can make better use of the chips available. No doubt we?ll see better balancing of of CPU and GPU utilisation than is typical on the PC, for instance. And in general, operating system and general platform overheads are lesser on consoles.

But for me, those AMD Jaguar cores are still a worry. Getting the CPU bit of games engines to scale neaty across multiple cores has never been easy. It?s funny, really. You?d think Sony would have learned its lesson from the ridiculous (in gaming terms) Cell processor and its array of futile SPEs. I?d far rather see a plain old Intel quad-core chip ? or even something like a quad-core AMD Phenom ? than eight Jaguar cores.

Cheaper chips

The problem, of course, is cost. AMD Jaguar cores are teeny-tiny, so a chip containing eight of them will be cheaper than a traditional quad-core PC processor.

Tiny cores make for cheaper chips

But what about the graphics? AMD GCN refers to its graphics architecture, otherwise known as Graphics Core Next or the Radeon HD 7000 series. The good news is that it?s a very solid graphics architecture.

The rumoured specs puts Playstation Orbis roughly between a Radeon HD 7850 and 7870 in terms of raw rendering performance. Theoretically, Xbox Durango is off the pace and closer to the Radeon HD 7770.

In practice, there probably won?t be much in it. For starters, both consoles are targeting the 1080p resolution and even the Xbox GPU should be able to cope with that. And it could well turn out that it?s the CPU that most often bottlenecks performance. In which case the difference will be slim to none.

So, what does this all mean for PC gaming? Certainly, it ensures that even a mediocre PC will remain a more powerful gaming tool than either of the new consoles. That?s not a huge surprise. But it is a bit of a bummer given that console specs provide a baseline for the game dev community. A bigger step forward, especially on the CPU side, would have been welcome.

That said, the big step up in system memory from the measley 512MB of current consoles will be a blessed relief. Games with massive environments will be a lot easier to achieve and hopefully therefore more common.

AMD to avoid Armageddon?

It?s got to be good for AMD, too. Admittedly, the informed opinion suggests AMD won?t rake in enough money to save its skin from these deals. But there?s got to be an advantage to be had from every major game dev aiming its engines at the GCN graphics architecture. It might make up for all the money NVIDIA allegedly chucks at making games run faster on its graphics chips.

If that?s the big ticket consoles from Sony and MS covered, how might ye olde Steam Box fit into all this? At this point I confess my comfort zone has gone walkies. Because I?m not totally convinced I see the point of the Steam Box.

Valve?s Steam Box will run Linux. Really?

In fact, I?m not even sure exactly what it is. There are some funky claims involving games streaming down the line, but the immediate proposition is a small form factor PC. The version produced by Valve will be sold in three spec levels. And it will run Linux. It?s at this stage I come over flummoxed.

Is Linux gaming the future? I?ve never seen Steam running on Linux much less tried it. But certainly, I think Gabe Newell?s anti-Windows 8 rant, for those who recall it, was fairly hyperbolic. So, I can?t help wondering whether Linux Steam Boxes are actually axes for the Windows 8 grind.

More to the point, if I want a simple box for no-brainer gaming, I?ll have a console, thanks. What I like about the PC isn?t that it?s simple-to-specify toy. It?s that it?s infinitely configurable. It?s a machine for grown ups. And I?m not majorly fussed by the form factor.

Oh, and if anyone was wondering about the hardware compo of a few weeks ago, we?ll be outing the lucky winners soon. Until next time.

Source: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/28/the-week-in-tech-consoles-steam-boxes-amd/

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

New look at cell membrane reveals surprising organization

Jan. 28, 2013 ? Sight would dramatically alter a blind man's understanding of an elephant, according to the old story. Now, a look directly at a cell surface is changing our understanding of cell membrane organization.?

Using a completely new approach to imaging cell membranes, a study by researchers from the University of Illinois, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Institutes of Health revealed some surprising relationships among molecules within cell membranes.

Led by Mary Kraft, a U. of I. professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, the team published its findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cells are enveloped in semi-permeable membranes that act as a barrier between the inside and outside of the cell. The membrane is mainly composed of a class of molecules called lipids, studded with proteins that help regulate how the cell responds to its environment.

"Lipids have multiple functions serving as both membrane structure and signaling molecules, so they regulate other functions inside the cell," Kraft said. "Therefore, understanding how they're organized is important. You need to know where they are to figure out how they're doing these regulatory functions."

One widely held belief among cell biologists is that lipids in the membrane assemble into patches, called domains, that differ in composition. However, research into how lipids are organized in the membrane, and how that organization affects cell function, has been hampered by the lack of direct observation. Although the cell membrane is heavily studied, the imaging techniques used infer the locations of certain molecules based on assumed associations with other molecules.

In the new study, Kraft's team used an advanced, molecule-specific imaging method that allowed the researchers to look at the membrane itself and map a particular type of lipid on mouse cell membranes. The researchers fed lipids labeled with rare stable isotopes to the cells and then imaged the distribution of the isotopes with high-resolution imaging mass spectrometry.

Called sphingolipids (SFING-go-lih-pids), these molecules are thought to associate with cholesterol to form small domains about 200 nanometers across. The direct imaging method revealed that sphingolipids do indeed form domains, but not in the way the researchers expected.

The domains were much bigger than suggested by prior experiments. The 200-nanometer domains clustered together to form much larger, micrometer-sized patches of sphingolipids in the membrane.

"We were amazed when we saw the first images of the patches of sphingolipids across the cell surface," said Peter Weber, who directed the team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "We weren't sure if our imaging mass spectrometry method would be sensitive enough to detect the labeled lipids, let alone what we would see."

Furthermore, when the researchers looked at cells that were low on cholesterol -- thought to play a key role in lipid aggregation -- they were surprised to find that the lipids still formed domains. On the other hand, disruption to the cell's structural scaffold seemed to dissolve the lipid clusters.

"We found that the presence of domains was somewhat affected by cholesterol but was more affected by the cytoskeleton -- the protein network underneath the membrane," Kraft said. "The central issue is that the data are suggesting that the mechanism that's responsible for these domains is much more complicated than initially expected."

In addition, the new study found that sphingolipids domains were incompletely associated with a marker protein that researchers have long assumed dwelled where sphingolipids congregated. This means that data collected with imaging techniques that target this protein are not as accurate in representing sphingolipid distribution as previously thought.

"Our data are showing that if you want to know where sphingolipids are, look at the lipid, don't infer where it is based on other molecules, and now there's a way to directly image them," said Kraft, who also is affiliated with the department of chemistry at the U. of I.

Next, the researchers plan to use the direct-imaging method in conjunction with other more conventional methods, such as fluorescence, to further determine the organization of different kinds of molecules in the membrane, their interactions and how they affect the cell's function. They plan to begin by targeting cholesterol.

"Cholesterol abundance is important," Kraft said. "You change that, you tremendously change cell function. How is it organized? Is it also in domains? That's related to the question, what's the mechanism responsible for these structures and what are they doing?"

The National Institutes of Health, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the National Science Foundation and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund supported this work. Co-author Joshua Zimmerberg directed research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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

Journal Reference:

Jessica F. Frisz, Kaiyan Lou, Haley A. Klitzing, William P. Hanafin, Vladimir Lizunov, Robert L. Wilson, Kevin J. Carpenter, Raehyun Kim, Ian D. Hutcheon, Joshua Zimmerberg, Peter K. Weber, and Mary L. Kraft. Direct chemical evidence for sphingolipid domains in the plasma membranes of fibroblasts. PNAS, January 28, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1216585110

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/most_popular/~3/dlLKi0xDQOg/130128151924.htm

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IST Austria contributes to Human Brain Project

Public release date: 28-Jan-2013
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Contact: Oliver Lehmann
oliver.lehmann@ist.ac.at
43-676-401-2562
Institute of Science and Technology Austria

IST Austria Professor Peter Jonas one of the Austrian partners in 1 billion effort to reconstruct human brain as computer-based model

This press release is available in German.

Neuroscientist and IST Austria professor Peter Jonas is one of the three Austrian collaborators in the Human Brain Project which was presented to the public this morning in Brussels. HBP as one of the two flagship projects of the Future and Emerging Technologies Initiative of the European Commission with a total estimated budget of 1 billion for 10 years combines the efforts of approximately 200 research groups in order to reconstruct the human brain by building a computer-based model.

Jonas summarized the relevance of his group's contribution to the HBP as follows: "The HBP heavily relies on quantitative functional data, which is exactly what we can supply."

The President of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), Thomas Henzinger, congratulated Jonas on this success: "Peter moved to IST Austria in 2010, initiating neuroscience research at the Institute. This award proves that our growing activities in neuroscience have already achieved recognition in Europe and beyond. We look forward to many new and groundbreaking results from Peter's group."

Two components of Peter Jonas' research have particular bearings on the HBP. Firstly, many of the parameters required for the brain model developed by the HBP are yet unknown. Jonas works on cellular and subcellular parameters, such as the properties of entry and exit structures in the neuron, the dendrites and the axon, respectively, and the properties of communication between neurons at the synapse. A quantitative understanding of these parameters is indispensible for accurate modeling of the brain. Here, Peter Jonas' research makes a unique contribution at the cellular, subcellular, and microcircuit scale which directly impacts on the HBP. The subcellular recording technique used to measure the relevant quantities (sometimes called second generation patch-clamp technique) has been developed and refined by the Jonas group and is used only by a very small number of research groups world-wide.

Secondly, Peter Jonas seeks to understand how higher brain functions are produced in neuronal microcircuits. He uses the prototypical learning circuit, the hippocampus, to approach this question on several levels. One level of research is to assemble microcircuits and hippocampal networks. Being similar to the objective of the HBP, this approach will effectively use the technological platform of the Human Brain Project.

Jonas pointed out that in a wider context, "the interaction between experiment and modeling is very important. Ideally, the experimentalists provide quantitative information about key parameters, while the theoreticians identify gaps in the knowledge of relevant factors and suggest new experiments. It is a central objective of the HBP to combine these two elements, as we have successfully demonstrated at IST Austria."

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IST Austria contributes to Human Brain Project

Public release date: 28-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Oliver Lehmann
oliver.lehmann@ist.ac.at
43-676-401-2562
Institute of Science and Technology Austria

IST Austria Professor Peter Jonas one of the Austrian partners in 1 billion effort to reconstruct human brain as computer-based model

This press release is available in German.

Jonas summarized the relevance of his group's contribution to the HBP as follows: "The HBP heavily relies on quantitative functional data, which is exactly what we can supply."

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/iosa-iac012813.php

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Final salary pension schemes close at record rate

LONDON (Reuters) - UK companies closed final salary-based pension schemes at a record rate last year as funds struggled against rock bottom returns on their staple investments and growing life expectancy, the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) said on Monday.

Firms closed 31 percent of so-called defined benefit (DB) pension pots, compared with 23 percent in 2011.

Only 13 percent of DB schemes in the private sector were open to new joiners, down one third from 19 percent in 2011 and against 43 percent in 2005 when NAPF started keeping records.

Just over half of the schemes still open to new members said they were "considering further changes in the next few years".

DB pension schemes have been grappling with spiralling deficits amid pressure from an ageing workforce, red tape from the European Union and the UK government and lacklustre investment returns, NAPF said in its 2012 Annual Survey.

Over the last three years, 375 billion pounds of quantitative easing by the Bank of England has contributed to a sharp drop in the yield on British government bonds, key investments for pension pots.

The deficit of British final-salary linked company pension schemes more than doubled to 231 billion pounds in 2012, according to the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).

Meanwhile, EU legislation requiring funds to have enough cash to cover employee pensions if a company goes bust may stop British firms offering final-salary linked pensions altogether.

The proposed rules would force British firms to find an extra 300 billion pounds to strengthen pension pots.

DB pensions, linked to an employee's salary at retirement and length of service, are typically more expensive to provide than other annuity-purchase schemes.

The NAPF survey comes amid major changes to the pensions sector. Last October, the government introduced an "auto-enrolment" scheme to draw up to 10 million more people into a workplace pension.

The government is also considering a new type of pension scheme to encourage more people to save for retirement.

(Editing by David Cowell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/final-salary-pension-schemes-close-record-rate-145610366--sector.html

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Iran says it sent monkey into space and back

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran said Monday it has successfully sent a monkey into space, describing the launch as another step toward Tehran's goal of a manned space flight.

According to a brief report on state TV, the rocket dubbed Pishgam, or Pioneer in Farsi, reached a height of 120 kilometers (72 miles). The report gave no other details on the timing or location of the launch, but said the monkey safely returned to earth.

Still images broadcast on state TV showed a small, gray-tufted monkey presumably being prepared for the flight, including wearing a type of body protection and being strapped tightly into a pod that resembled an infant's car seat.

The photos draw historical links to the earliest years of the space race in the 1950s when both the U.S. and Soviet Union tested the boundaries of rocket flight with animals on board, including American capsules carrying monkeys and Moscow's crafts holding dogs. Many of the animals on the flights perished because of equipment failure or technology unable to cope with re-entry from orbit.

Iran has long said it seeks to send an astronaut into space as part of its ambitious aerospace program, including plans for a new space center announced last year. In 2010, Iran said it launched an Explorer rocket into space carrying a mouse, a turtle and worms.

The U.S. and its allies worry that technology from the space program could also be used to develop long-range missiles that could potentially be armed with nuclear warheads. Iran denies it seeks atomic weapons and claims it is pursuing nuclear reactors only for energy and medical applications.

Tehran has announced several successful launches of satellites, dating back to 2005 in a joint project with Russia.

The Islamic Republic has not given details of its planned new space facility, but it already has a major satellite launch complex near Semnan, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Tehran. A satellite monitoring facility is located outside Mahdasht, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) west of the Iranian capital.

Iran says it wants to put its own satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation, improve telecommunications and expand military surveillance in the region.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-says-sent-monkey-space-back-145110120.html

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Upcoming Wii U Games Announced (Nerdy News) - Video Games ...

?Nerdy News? is a mini-news show geared towards gamers, technosexuals, and all other geeky peeps.

In this week?s episode of Nerdy News, I?ll be reporting on:

BioWare has added same gender romance options in their Star Wars MMO, kinda.
Coming this week is the 7th in Halo 4 Spartan Ops? episodic content.
Nintendo announced a lot of new games coming to Wii U like ?Yarn Yoshi?.
And a Fire Emblem meets Shin Megami Tensei cross-over!

Here?s the new episode of Nerdy News!

What do you think?

Who was BioWare trying to pacify by including limited options for homosexual romances in SWTOR? Have you been keeping with with Halo 4?s Spartan Ops? Are you exited for the seventh installment? You can watch Nintendo?s announcement video by clicking the link above, which game are you most looking forward to? Would you like to see a cross-over of the Shim Megami Tesei and Fire Emblem universes? Or do you want a whole new world to explore?

About the author

By Laura Jones: She blogs about and reviews video games to recapture her misspent youth, growing up gaming on hand-me-down consoles and cast-off computers with three siblings fighting over the controllers and helping each other beat Bosses. Read her posts and watch her video game reviews here and connect with her on Twitter and at Google+.

Source: http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2013/01/27/upcoming-wii-u-games-announced-nerdy-news.htm

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Immigration reform: Will 'amnesty' produce more illegal immigration?

Supporters of immigration reform that includes of a path to citizenship say that the US is not as attractive a destination as it once was for illegal immigration.

By Gloria Goodale,?Staff writer / January 28, 2013

Immigration activists hold signs as they protest in front of Freedom Tower in downtown Miami Monday in favor of immigration reform that keeps families intact.

Alan Diaz/AP

Enlarge

Immigration reform is in the air. A bipartisan Senate group unveiled its proposals on Monday, and the president is scheduled to announce his own package on Tuesday. Both contain provisions for legalizing some 11 million undocumented immigrants now in the US.

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But, just as there promises to be no easy consensus on a final deal, there is little agreement about how much the overall reforms will actually stem the flow of illegal immigration across America?s borders. Critics of the proposals say a path to citizenship invites more undocumented migrants, while supporters of the move to legalize many who have lived and worked in the US for years say it is not an open invitation to new illegal immigration.

Critics point to the lessons from the last time Congress tackled his issue, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), a 1986 law that legalized 3 million undocumented immigrants. Both sides acknowledge the law produced substantial fraud, leading to nearly triple the number of new residents created by the law.

"The message will go out,? says Ira Mehlman, Seattle-based national spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), ?telling people to bring their rent receipts and pay stubs real or not.? The situation will be a replay of the 1986 law, only on a larger scale, he says. It?s simple math, says Mr. Mehlman, adding, ?how can you possibly do background checks on 11 million people? It just won?t happen.?

This?expectation sells this target population short, says Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). ?Nobody wants to go where they are not wanted and cannot legally find a job to support them or their family,? he says. ?I do not foresee a wave of illegal immigration, because most of these people realize the political situation in the US is very dire when it comes to undocumented immigrants.?

Census data released at the end of 2012 show a slowing of the immigration tide. The number of undocumented immigrants fell to 11.1 million, down from a high of some 12 million in 2007, following more than a decade of increases. A Pew Center analysis of these data finds that ?there is net zero migration taking place from Mexico to the United States,? points out Villanova University immigration specialist Catherine Wilson, via e-mail.

The proposed reforms will not encourage illegal immigration in the future for three reasons, says David Koelsch, director the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

The proposed pathways to legal status will be long and expensive, he says via?e-mail, ?So any reward for future illegal immigration is distant.?
The birth rate in Mexico is in rapid decline and domestic industry's wages are rising, ?making the US less attractive,? he says.?
The US economy is still not recovered, "so there is not a strong draw for illegal immigration,? he adds. A sustained 1.75 to 2.25 percent growth rate does not even keep our native population employed, he says.

The reality ?is that our border is more secure than it has been in years past and as immigration talks heat up, our border agents and patrol will be well aware of the need for greater vigilance,? says immigration lawyer and law professor Michael Wildes, who is managing partner of Wildes & Weinberg in New York City and represented the government in immigration cases in his time as a US Attorney.

The law needs to have enough teeth that it doesn't open the door to greater illegal immigration, he adds. ?Whether that means tougher sanctions or steeper fines is up to Congress to decide. But the penalties need to be more stringent because once a pathway to citizenship is defined, there is even less of an excuse for employers to hire undocumented workers and for folks to come here illegally and remain illegal.?

While the numbers tell a story of declining illegal immigration, still a path to citizenship for those now in the country illegally may be a political problem for those who want to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, says David Mark, editor-in-chief of the website, Politix.

?It just seems like common sense to most people that if you make it easier to become legal, that will attract others as well,? he adds. ?It is naive to think otherwise.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/QYh52wXAsi0/Immigration-reform-Will-amnesty-produce-more-illegal-immigration

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Chinese Government Considering Lifting Decade+ Games Console Ban, Says Report

China is considering lifting a 12-year-plus long ban on games consoles, according to a report in the China Daily newspaper (via Reuters). The speculation sent shares of Nintendo and PlayStation-maker Sony surging, with Nintendo gaining more than 3.5 per cent on the Nikkei index and Sony shares trading 8 per cent higher, according to Reuters.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/o7jgF9jyM7M/

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Tiger: Creative Writing Worksheet

rated by 2 teachers

^{by simranraj} Other Adjectives, Animals | Views: 434 | Level: Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate | 5 out of 5, rated by 2 teachers Tweet

It's a creative free writing worksheet which you can use for your elementary students, words are given - let your students use all the words and describe a tiger in their own words. You can use this worksheet also for pre intermediate and intermediate students. Similar Worksheets

Tiger Woods
Free As A Bird [CREATIVE W ...
The Egg: Creative Writing ...

Source: http://busyteacher.org/14492-tiger-creative-writing-worksheet.html

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Stocks approaching 2007 record highs

3 hrs.

Reuters

NEW YORK?- U.S. stocks have been on a tear in January, moving major indexes within striking distance of all-time highs. The bearish case is a difficult one to make right now.

Earnings have exceeded expectations, the housing and labor markets have strengthened, lawmakers in Washington no longer seem to be the roadblock that they were for most of 2012, and money has returned to stock funds again.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index has gained 5 percent this year - climbing to the spot where Wall Street strategists expected it to be by mid-year. The Dow Jones industrial average is less than 3 percent away from all-time highs reached in October 2007.

"Once we break above a resistance level at 1,510, we dramatically increase the probability that we break the highs of 2007," said Walter Zimmermann, technical analyst at United-ICAP, in Jersey City, N.J. "That may be the start of a rise that could take equities near 1,800 within the next few years."

The most recent Reuters poll of Wall Street strategists estimated the benchmark index would rise to 1,550 by year-end, a target that is less than 4 percent away from current levels. That would put the S&P 500 a stone's throw from the index's all-time intraday high of 1,576.09 reached on Oct. 11, 2007.

The new year has brought a sharp increase in flows into U.S. equity mutual funds, and that has helped stocks rack up four straight weeks of gains, with strength in big- and small-caps alike.

That's not to say there aren't concerns. Economic growth has been steady, but not as strong as many had hoped. The household unemployment rate remains high at 7.8 percent. And more than 75 percent of the stocks in the S&P 500 are above their 26-week highs, suggesting the buying has come too far, too fast.

All 10 S&P 500 industry sectors are higher in 2013, in part because of new money flowing into equity funds. Investors in U.S.-based funds committed $3.66 billion to stock mutual funds in the latest week, the third straight week of big gains for the funds, data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service showed on Thursday.

Energy shares led the way with a gain of 6.6 percent, followed by industrials, up 6.3 percent. Telecom, a defensive play that underperforms in periods of growth, is the weakest sector - up 0.1 percent for the year.

More than 250 stocks hit new highs on Friday alone on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones Transportation Average recently climbed to an all-time high, with stocks in this sector and other economic bellwethers posting strong gains almost daily.

"If you peel back the onion a little bit, you start to look at companies like Precision Castparts, Honeywell , 3M Co and Illinois Tool Works - these are big, broad-based industrial companies in the U.S. and they are all hitting new highs, and doing very well. That is the real story," said Mike Binger, portfolio manager at Gradient Investments, in Shoreview, Minn.

The gains have run across asset sizes as well. The S&P small-cap index has jumped 6.1 percent and the S&P mid-cap index has shot up 6.8 percent so far this year.

Exchange-traded funds have seen year-to-date inflows of $15.6 billion, with fairly even flows across the small-, mid- and large-cap categories, according to Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group, in New York.

"Investors aren't really differentiating among asset sizes. They just want broad equity exposure," Colas said.

The market has shown resilience to weak news. On Thursday, the S&P 500 held steady despite a 12 percent slide in shares of Apple after the iPhone and iPad maker's results. The tech giant is heavily weighted in both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 and in the past, its drop has suffocated stocks' broader gains.

In the last few days, the ratio of stocks hitting new highs versus those hitting new lows on a daily basis has started to diminish - a potential sign that the rally is narrowing to fewer names - and could be running out of gas.

Investors have also cited sentiment surveys that indicate high levels of bullishness among newsletter writers, a contrarian indicator, and momentum indicators are starting to also suggest the rally has perhaps come too far.

The market's resilience could be tested next week with the release of the January non-farm payrolls report. About 155,000 jobs are seen being added in the month and the unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 7.8 percent.

"Staying over 1,500 sends up a flag of profit taking," said Jerry Harris, president of asset management at Sterne Agee, in Birmingham, Ala. "Since recent jobless claims have made us optimistic on payrolls, if that doesn't come through, it will be a real risk to the rally."

A number of marquee names will report earnings next week, including bellwether companies such as Caterpillar Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Ford Motor Co and Pfizer Inc .

On a historic basis, valuations remain relatively low - the S&P 500's current price-to-earnings ratio sits at 15.66, which is just a tad above the historic level of 15.

Worries about the U.S. stock market's recent strength do not mean the market is in a bubble. Investors clearly don't feel that way at the moment.

"We're seeing more interest in equities overall, and a lot of flows from bonds into stocks," said Paul Zemsky, who helps oversee $445 billion as the New York-based head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management. "We've been increasing our exposure to risky assets."

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/bears-hibernation-u-s-stocks-near-record-highs-1C8133666

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Need Home Improvements, Remodeling or Repairs? Call Tony ...

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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Continuing church priest arrested in Moscow: Anglican Ink, January 30, 2013

Like this:

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Drake And Future 'Vibing' Leads To Lil Wayne's 'Good Kush & Alcohol'

Mayor Bloomberg Presents Fiscal Year 2014 Preliminary Budget

NCAA athletes can pursue TV money, judge rules

Crucial, long-overdue BlackBerry makeover arrives

Federal and state Medicaid spending under overhaul

Porn Stars Acting Out Internet Memes: The Most Confusing-Sexy Thing You'll See Today

The Week In Tech: Consoles, Steam Boxes, AMD | Rock, Paper ...

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

New look at cell membrane reveals surprising organization

IST Austria contributes to Human Brain Project

IST Austria Professor Peter Jonas one of the Austrian partners in 1 billion effort to reconstruct human brain as computer-based model

IST Austria Professor Peter Jonas one of the Austrian partners in 1 billion effort to reconstruct human brain as computer-based model

Final salary pension schemes close at record rate

Iran says it sent monkey into space and back

Upcoming Wii U Games Announced (Nerdy News) - Video Games ...

About the author

Immigration reform: Will 'amnesty' produce more illegal immigration?

Monday, January 28, 2013

Chinese Government Considering Lifting Decade+ Games Console Ban, Says Report

Tiger: Creative Writing Worksheet

Stocks approaching 2007 record highs

Need Home Improvements, Remodeling or Repairs? Call Tony ...

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