Saturday, June 29, 2013

Wi-Fi-hopping brings phone signal to remote villages

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128841/Wi_Fi_hopping_brings_phone_signal_to_remote_villages

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Friday, June 28, 2013

The Complex Path to Justice ? CUNY Newswire ? CUNY

The Complex Path to Justice

After completing a year of law school in her home country of Montenegro (the former Yugoslavia), Sanja Chastain moved to New York and in 2011 earned an associate degree in criminal justice from BMCC.

Next, she transferred to John Jay College and completed a dual baccalaureate/master?s program in forensic psychology in 2013.

?Only 29 of us were accepted,? she says of her accelerated studies at John Jay. ?It?s a really tough program. You must maintain a 3.5 GPA. We all made it, though. If you struggle with certain classes, the professors are available, and you can participate in study groups.?

One professor who made a strong impression on her there was Mindi Wapner, who acquainted students with an STU, or Special Treatment Unit for sexual offenders in New Jersey.

?Even if they finish their sentence, they remain locked up in a treatment center,? Chastain explains. ?A panel of two to three psychologists argue if they are ready to release the person into the community or not.?

Someday, she intends to be part of such a panel.

?It?s not an easy thing,? she says. ?Someone?s liberty, their life is at stake?and not only that person, but a whole family is affected.?

Life-changing decisions
Forensic psychology ?examines the gray area between criminal justice and psychology,? Chastain says, and is good experience, she says, for her ?dream job,? which is being a criminal court judge.

?A forensic psychologist evaluates a person, someone who commits a crime, and if they suffer from a mental disorder, you argue that they can?t go through the same legal process as someone who isn?t ill,? she says. ?You recommend treatment, alternative sentencing.?

On the other hand, she says, ?if you find that the person doesn?t have a mental disorder, you have to be ethical in your decision. It doesn?t matter if we?re hired by the prosecution or the defense or the court itself; we have to stay objective.?

To stay current on case outcomes related to those of the offenders she will evaluate, she follows Supreme Court rulings carefully.

Also, she says, ?Having the law school background will distinguish me from other forensic psychologists. It?s my passion. I love teamwork, but I like creating something by myself, challenging myself, building a case for each decision.?

First, though, she is returning to Montenegro to finish law school, which she had began before moving to the United States and starting over with her college career.

Then, after completing law school in her home country, she?ll fly back to New York, and enter law school again. She?s considering Cardozo, NYU or Columbia, and transferring credits will shorten her time earning an LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree before taking the New York State bar exam.

Complicated as this all sounds, she says, her plan is the most efficient, most economical way to reach her goals.

Starting over, in English
Sanja Chastain grew up speaking Serbo-Croatian, language of the former Yugoslavia, and lived in the capital city of Podgorica (also known as Titograd).

?We studied English in elementary and high school, then I had English in college, but I learned most of my English when I came to the United States,? she says.

She enrolled in a Learning Across America intensive English-language class through the continuing education department at BMCC, when she first arrived.

?One professor, Margaret O?Connor, was extremely helpful,? she says.

?She was very patient with us. Our class met for six hours straight, speaking and writing English. It was hard, to focus for that long on English, and I was surprised that out of a class of non-English speakers, I was the only one from a foreign country. All the others grew up in New York.?

To engage with English as much as possible, she also watched TV with closed captions, ?and I always had five dictionaries around me, and stickers everywhere; labels in English on my wall, my door, on everything around the apartment?plus I always try to have a book on me,? she says, pulling a hefty biography of Albert Einstein from her shoulder bag.

Does she miss Montenegro, a country the size of Connecticut, renown for its mountains and beaches, but also known for its historically volatile cultural mix of Orthodox Christian Serbs, Catholic Croats, Muslim Bosnians and others?

?I have been in New York 11 years now, and I?ve learned how to be a New Yorker,? Chastain says.

?Montenegro is an old-fashioned society, and things are different today, as compared to 15 years ago, but it?s not like New York. My parents were the exception in that they encouraged me to be educated; my mom was an economist with the government, and my father was in military, a very educated man. They encouraged me to become educated, too.?

?Once you?re in the water, you have to swim?
In addition to her studies at John Jay College, Sanja Chastain completed 400 hours of unpaid internships at RTI International, a nonprofit organization that provides study and analysis in areas including education and social policy.

?We worked with people who are mentally ill; alcohol or drug abusers,? she says. ?We administered a questionnaire to them, and interviewed them. These are people who have been convicted for substance abuse-related offenses, and are sentenced to alternative treatment facilities.?

It should be noted that while completing her internship, her associate degree and dual bachelor?s and master degree program, she worked full time in an Italian restaurant in the West Village of Manhattan.

?I studied in the subway, on the bench in the hallway outside my classes, between shifts, any chance I got,? she says, and adds that she even found time for one short vacation.

?I took a 10-day road trip with some friends,? she says, and describes their adventures winding through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. ?We saw the Grand Canyon for the first time, the White Sands Desert, Monument Valley.?

She looks forward to completing her academic journey, then making a permanent home in New York City.

?We have an expression,? she says, ??Once you are in the water, you have to swim?.?

In New York, she adds, it is easier to ?swim? because ?even if you are a foreigner and your English is not perfect, you are still given an opportunity. It?s a great thing.?

Source: http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2013/06/27/the-complex-path-to-justice/

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Researchers reformulate the model of mitochondrial function

June 27, 2013 ? The discovery confirms the model proposed by the team in 2008 to account for observations that could not be explained by the established model of mitochondrial function. Mitochondria are the organelles in the interior of cells that, among other functions, extract energy from nutrients and convert it into a form that can be used by the cell for its vital processes.

The consumption, digestion and assimilation of nutrients serves the ultimate purpose of fueling each and every cell in the body. The breakdown of nutrients in the digestive tract requires energy to release simple compounds from larger components: glucose from sugars and carbohydrates, amino acids from proteins, and fatty acids from fat. These breakdown products can enter cells and be processed in the mitochondria to release much larger quantities of energy that can be utilized.

According to Dr. Enr?quez, lead investigator on the study, "Understanding how cells generate energy is fundamental to understanding living systems, and for much of the last century this was a primary object of studies in biochemistry. By the beginning of the 80s the mystery of how mitochondria achieve this task was thought to be solved, and in the 90s the molecular structures responsible were resolved in incredible detail. This was considered to be one of the best understood processes in the cell."

This view was overturned by the description of mitochondrial diseases. Despite the impressive accumulation of knowledge of mitochondrial function, the models could not explain the symptoms of these diseases, and researchers were unable to predict who would develop these diseases or how severe they would be, or explain their origin and mechanism. As a consequence, it has not been possible to develop effective treatments.

This situation revealed that our knowledge of mitochondrial function was much less complete than had been believed and that our models were inadequate. Therefore research over the last ten years has been directed at providing a better understanding of this process.

The new study confirms the model proposed in 2008 by the group led by Dr. Enr?quez, who affirms that "this redefines our view of one of the most basic processes for life in all cells."

The energy released from the rupture of chemical bonds in food molecules is stored temporarily in the form of high energy electrons in two types of molecule, N and F, whose proportions vary depending on the nutrient source. By themselves, these molecules cannot provide a freely utilizable source of rapidly mobilized energy for the cell's needs; access to this stored energy requires the mitochondria, which uses five molecular machines, called complexes I, II, III, IV and V, to convert the energy stored in N and F molecules into the universal energy source ATP.

Until very recently these complexes were thought to float freely and independently in the internal membrane of mitochondria, without interacting. Work by Dr. Enriquez's group has now shown this view to be incorrect. "The five complexes do not always move independently in the membrane," explains Dr. Enr?quez. "On the contrary, they associate in distinct combinations called respiratory supercomplexes. Our work explains the functional consequences of these interactions."

The study shows that these associations are dynamic and are modified to optimize the extraction of energy from N and F molecules depending on their relative abundance, which in turn reflects the composition of foods consumed in the diet.

The Science study describes these supercomplexes and their functions. The significance of this, in the words of Dr. Enriquez, is that "the system for optimizing the extraction of energy from food molecules is much more versatile than was believed and can be modulated in unexpected ways in order to adjust to the dietary composition of nutrients or to the specialized function of particular cell types."

During the study the team also made the unexpected discovery that the most widely used mouse strain for laboratory genetic analysis is unable to correctly assemble the respiratory supercomplexes. This raises serious questions about the validity of extrapolating results obtained with these mice to humans.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/J0ItAdsBACE/130627142404.htm

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Rosneft may offer to buy out, or convert, TNK-BP shares

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state oil major Rosneft said on Thursday it may offer to buy out minority shareholders in TNK-BP Holding or convert their stock into its own shares, but only at a lower valuation than at which it took over TNK-BP.

"We don't have any obligations. It would be a voluntary offer or, if a decision on a reorganization is taken, a conversion. We will see," Rosneft Vice President Igor Maidannik told reporters.

Maidannik, speaking after TNK-BP Holding's annual shareholders meeting, said he preferred the idea of a share swap, because buyouts "usually don't lead to the desired result".

His comments offered a glimmer of hope that minority shareholders who own about 5 percent of TNK-BP Holding, the listed unit of the Anglo-Russian venture bought by Rosneft for $55 billion, will not end up empty-handed.

Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, a long-time ally of President Vladimir Putin, had previously rebuffed calls for a buyout or special dividend. Since the deal's announcement last October, TNK-BP Holding's shares have lost 57 percent of their value.

Maidannik, Rosneft's legal counsel, played down expectations that shareholders - which include several leading global emerging markets equity funds - could expect a big payout. TNK-BP shares rose by 3.75 percent Moscow trading.

"It has been obvious since the deal was announced that TNK-BP's capitalization would fall," said Maidannik. "Someone might have dreamed that a buyout could happen at the deal's price, but in my opinion that was a gamble."

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Douglas Busvine)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rosneft-may-offer-buy-convert-tnk-bp-shares-104546222.html

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Timeline: Timeline of gay marriage in the United States

(Reuters) - The Supreme Court was expected to rule on Wednesday on two high-profile gay marriage cases: one on a marriage ban in California and another on a federal law that restricts the definition of marriage to a man and a woman. The justices heard arguments in the cases in March.

Following is a timeline of important events in the history of gay marriage in the United States.

1969

- The modern gay liberation movement unofficially kicks off with the Stonewall Riots, demonstrations by gays in response to a police raid in New York City.

1972

- The U.S. Supreme Court lets stand a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that the law does not allow for same-sex marriage, and that the issue is different from interracial marriage.

1973

- Maryland becomes the first state to pass a statute banning gay marriage.

1977

- Harvey Milk becomes the first openly gay elected official in San Francisco, winning a seat on the Board of Supervisors. He later appeals to gays to come out and run for office, saying "for invisible, we remain in limbo." Milk was shot and killed in 1978.

1986

- The U.S. Supreme Court says "we are quite unwilling" to find a fundamental right to sodomy, even in the privacy of one's home, in Bowers v. Hardwick ruling.

1996

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy writes an opinion striking down a Colorado ban on protections for gays, saying the ban "seems inexplicable by anything but animus."

- President Bill Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act, defining marriage as between a man and a woman for federal purposes.

1997

- Comedian Ellen DeGeneres reveals she is gay. Shortly afterward, her TV situation comedy character says "I'm gay" - inadvertently speaking into an airport public address system.

1998

- Debut of television show "Will and Grace" about a gay man and his best friend, a straight woman.

2000

- Vermont becomes the first U.S. state to allow civil unions for same-sex couples.

- Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney, who has a lesbian daughter, indicates he supports gay marriage, saying "freedom means freedom for everybody" and "people should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into." He said states should regulate the matter, not the federal government. Cheney serves as vice president for eight years.

2003

- The U.S. Supreme Court, in another decision written by Kennedy, strikes down Texas anti-sodomy law in Lawrence v. Texas case and reverses the 1986 Bowers ruling. Kennedy writes that this does not mean the government must recognize gay relationships. "Do not believe it," Justice Antonin Scalia dissents, saying the logic of the opinion points to allowing same-sex marriage.

- The Massachusetts Supreme Court rules in favor of same-sex marriage, and gay weddings begin in 2004.

2004

- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom directs the county to allow same-sex marriages, arguing the state's voter-approved ban on gay marriage, Proposition 22, is unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court stops the weddings on grounds unrelated to the constitutionality of marriage.

2005

- U.S. northern neighbor Canada allows gay marriage.

2008

- California gay marriages become legal when the California Supreme Court strikes down the Proposition 22 ban. That November, voters add a ban to the state constitution - Proposition 8 - ending a summer of gay marriage.

2009

- Iowa state Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage.

- Federal court challenge to Proposition 8 filed, days before California Supreme Court lets Proposition 8 stand as a valid change to the state constitution. Eventually, federal district and appeals courts agree to strike down the ban, which heads to the U.S. Supreme Court.

2010

- The U.S. Congress passes legislation to end a policy put in place in 1993 called "don't ask don't tell" that had barred gays from serving openly in the U.S. military. President Barack Obama signs the measure. The policy officially ends in 2011.

2012

- Obama becomes the first U.S. president to endorse gay marriage, acknowledging that his views on the matter had evolved.

- North Carolina approves a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in May. In November, Maine, Maryland and Washington become the first states where voters approve same-sex marriage, and Minnesota rejects a new ban.

2013

- The U.S. Supreme Court in March hears oral arguments on the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

- The Boy Scouts of America organization votes in May to lift a century-old ban on openly gay scouts in a victory for gay rights activists. A prohibition on openly gay adult leaders remains in place.

- Minnesota, Rhode Island and Delaware in May become the latest U.S. states to allow same-sex couples to marry, bringing to 12 the number of states permitting it. The other states allowing same sex marriage are: Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington state, as well as the District of Columbia.

(Reporting by Peter Henderson and Will Dunham; Editing by Howard Goller and Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/timeline-timeline-gay-marriage-united-states-050557831.html

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Survivor of stellar collision is new type of pulsating star

June 26, 2013 ? A team of astronomers from the UK, Germany and Spain have observed the remnant of a stellar collision and discovered that its brightness varies in a way not seen before on this rare type of star. By analysing the patterns in these brightness variations, astronomers will learn what really happens when stars collide.

This discovery will be published in the 27 June 2013 issue of the journal Nature.

Stars like our Sun expand and cool to become red giant stars when the hydrogen that fuels the nuclear fusion in their cores starts to run out. Many stars are born in binary systems so an expanding red giant star will sometimes collide with an orbiting companion star. As much as 90% of the red giant star's mass can be stripped off in a stellar collision, but the details of this process are not well understood. Only a few stars that have recently emerged from a stellar collision are known, so it has been difficult to study the connection between stellar collisions and the various exotic stellar systems they produce. When an eclipsing binary system containing one such star turned up as a by-product of a search for extrasolar planets, Dr Pierre Maxted and his colleagues decided to use the high-speed camera ULTRACAM to study the eclipses of the star in detail. These new high-speed brightness measurements show that the remnant of the stripped red giant is a new type of pulsating star.

Many stars, including our own Sun, vary in brightness because of pulsations caused by sound waves bouncing around inside the star. For both the Sun and the new variable star, each pulsation cycle takes about 5 minutes. These pulsations can be used to study the properties of a star below its visible surface. Computer models produced by the discovery team show that the sound waves probe all the way to the centre of the new pulsating star. Further observations of this star are now planned to work out how long it will be before the star starts to cool and fade to produce a stellar corpse ("white dwarf'") of abnormally low mass.

Dr Pierre Maxted from Keele University, who led the study, said "We have been able to find out a lot about these stars, such as how much they weigh, because they are in a binary system. This will really help us to interpret the pulsation signal and so figure out how these stars survived the collision and what will become of them over the next few billion years."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Keele University, via AlphaGalileo.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Pierre F. L. Maxted, Aldo M. Serenelli, Andrea Miglio, Thomas R. Marsh, Ulrich Heber, Vikram S. Dhillon, Stuart Littlefair, Chris Copperwheat, Barry Smalley, Elm? Breedt, Veronika Schaffenroth. Multi-periodic pulsations of a stripped red-giant star in an eclipsing binary system. Nature, 2013; 498 (7455): 463 DOI: 10.1038/nature12192

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/CV6uAPRK4io/130626142856.htm

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

United Airlines Runs Out of Toilet Paper on 10-Hour Flight

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/united-airlines-runs-out-of-toilet-paper-on-10-hour-flight/

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Chinese workers holding US boss say wages unpaid

BEIJING (AP) ? Chinese workers keeping an American executive confined to his Beijing medical supply factory said Tuesday that they had not been paid in two months in a compensation dispute that highlights tensions in China's labor market.

The executive, Chip Starnes of Specialty Medical Supplies, denied the workers' allegations of two months of unpaid wages, as he endured a fifth day of captivity at the plant in the capital's northeastern suburbs, peering out from behind the bars of his office window.

About 100 workers are demanding back pay and severance packages identical to those offered 30 workers being laid off from the Coral Springs, Florida-based company's plastics division. The demands followed rumors that the entire plant was being closed, despite Starnes' assertion that the company doesn't plan to fire the others.

The dispute highlights general tensions in China's labor market as bosses worry about rising wages and workers are on edge about the impact of slowing growth on the future of their jobs.

Inside one of the plant's buildings, about 30 mostly women hung around, their arms crossed. One worker, Gao Ping, told reporters inside an administrative office that she wanted to quit because she hadn't been paid for two months.

Dressed in blue overalls and sitting down at a desk, Gao said her division ? which makes alcohol prep pads, used for cleaning skin before injections ? had not been doing well and that she wanted her salary and compensation.

Workers in other divisions saw her division doing badly, thought the whole company was faring poorly and also wanted to quit and get compensation, said Gao, who had been working for the company for six years.

Starnes, 42, denied that they were owed unpaid salary.

"They are demanding full severance pay, but they still have a job. That's the problem," he said, still in the clothes he wore when he went to work Friday morning.

Chu Lixiang, a local union official representing the workers in talks with Starnes, said the workers were demanding the portion of their salaries yet to be paid and a "reasonable" level of compensation before leaving their jobs. Neither gave details on the amounts demanded.

Chu said workers believed the plant was closing and that Starnes would run away without paying severance. Starnes' attorney arrived Tuesday afternoon. Chu later told reporters that there would be no negotiations for the rest of the day.

Starnes said that since Saturday morning, about 80 workers had been blocking every exit around the clock and depriving him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office.

The standoff points to long-ingrained habits among Chinese workers who are sometimes left unprotected when factories close without severance or wages owed. Such incidents have been rarer as labor protections improve, although disputes still occur and local governments have at times barred foreign executives from leaving until they are resolved.

Starnes said the company had gradually been winding down its plastics division, planning to move it to Mumbai, India. He arrived in Beijing a week ago to lay off the last 30 people. Some had been working there for up to nine years, so their compensation packages were "pretty nice," he said. Then workers in other divisions started demanding similar severance packages on Friday, he said.

Kevin Jones, who advises U.S. companies on Chinese labor and employment law, said it is better if American executives stay at home and let their local managers lay off workers.

In a case last week, Jones said the chief financial officer of a U.S. telecommunications equipment maker wanted to come to Beijing to explain the situation and give 41 white-collar workers their termination notices.

"We told him to stay in America," said Jones, who chairs the Shanghai-based Faegre Baker Daniels labor and employment practice. The company's lawyers met with six employee representatives in a hotel. "We had two bodyguards but that was just in case things got out of control," Jones said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-workers-holding-us-boss-wages-unpaid-081903204.html

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Consumer confidence highest in over five years in June

By Regan Doherty DOHA (Reuters) - Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani handed power on Tuesday to his son, Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim, in a rare abdication by a hereditary Gulf Arab ruler to try to ensure a smooth succession. The U.S.-allied state is small, with 2 million people, but is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, a global investment powerhouse and heavy hitter in Middle East diplomacy and international media. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/consumer-confidence-highest-over-five-years-june-141005785.html

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In multiple sclerosis animal study, absence of gene leads to earlier, more severe disease

June 24, 2013 ? Scientists led by a UCSF neurology researcher are reporting that they have identified the likely genetic mechanism that causes some patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) to quickly progress to a debilitating stage of the disease while other patients progress much more slowly.

The team found that the absence of the gene Tob1 in CD4+ T cells, a type of immune cell, was the key to early onset of more serious disease in an animal model of MS.

Senior author Sergio Baranzini, PhD, a UCSF associate professor of neurology, said the finding may ultimately lead to the development of a test that predicts the course of MS in individual patients. Such a test could help physicians tailor personalized treatments, he said.

The study, done in collaboration with UCSF neurology researchers Scott Zamvil, MD, and Jorge Oksenberg, PhD, was published on June 24, 2013 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

MS is an inflammatory disease in which the protective myelin sheathing that coats nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord is damaged and ultimately stripped away -- a process known as demyelination. During the highly variable course of the disease, a wide range of cognitive, debilitating and painful neurological symptoms can result.

In previously published work, Baranzini and his research team found that patients at an early stage of MS known as clinically isolated syndrome who expressed low amounts of Tob1 were more likely to exhibit further signs of disease activity -- a condition known as relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis -- earlier than those who expressed normal levels of the gene.

The current study, according to Baranzini, had two goals: to recapitulate in an animal model what the researchers had observed in humans, and uncover the potential mechanism by which it occurs.

The authors were successful on both counts. They found that when an MS-like disease was induced in mice genetically engineered to be deficient in Tob1, the mice had significantly earlier onset compared with wild-type mice, and developed a more aggressive form of the disease.

Subsequent experiments revealed the probable cause: the absence of Tob1 in just CD4+ T cells. The scientists demonstrated this by transferring T cells lacking the Tob1 gene into mice that had no immune systems but had normal Tob1 in all other cells. They found that the mice developed earlier and more severe disease than mice that had normal Tob1 expression in all cells including CD4+.

"This shows that Tob1 only needs to be absent in this one type of immune cell in order to reproduce our initial observations in mice lacking Tob1 in all of their cells," said Baranzini.

The researchers also found the likely mechanism of disease progression in the Tob1-deficient mice: higher levels of Th1 and Th17 cells, which cause an inflammatory response against myelin, and lower levels of Treg cells, which normally regulate inflammatory responses. The inflammation results in demyelination.

The research is significant for humans, said Baranzini, because the presence or absence of Tob1 in CD4+ cells could eventually serve as a prognostic biomarker that could help clinicians predict the course and severity of MS in individual patients. "This would be useful and important," he said, "because physicians could decide to switch or modify therapies if they know whether the patient is likely to have an aggressive course of disease, or a more benign course."

Ultimately, predicted Baranzini, "This may become an example of personalized medicine. When the patient comes to the clinic, we will be able to tailor the therapy based on what the tests tell us. We're now laying the groundwork for this to happen."

Co-authors of the study are Ulf Schulze-Topphoff, PhD, of UCSF; Simona Casazza, PhD, of UCSF at the time of the study; Michel Varrin-Doyer, PhD; and Kara Pekarek of UCSF; Raymond A. Sobel, MD, of Stanford University School of Medicine, and Stephen L. Hauser, MD, of UCSF.

The study was supported by funds from the National Institutes of Health (R01 grants NS26799, NS049477, AI073737, AI059709 and NS063008), the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Robert Tillman Family Fund, the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation and the Maisin Foundation.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/b9pqL_poK-s/130624093411.htm

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WikiLeaks' Assange says Snowden is healthy and safe

LONDON (Reuters) - Julian Assange, the founder of anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, said on Monday that former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden was safe and healthy after fleeing to Moscow on his globe-crossing escape from U.S. prosecution.

"The current status of Mr. Snowden and Harrison is that both are healthy and safe and they are in contact with their legal teams," Assange said, referring to Sarah Harrison, a WikiLeaks representative accompanying Snowden.

"Edward Snowden left Hong Kong on June 23 bound for Ecuador via a safe pass through Russia and other states," Assange told reporters on a conference call from inside Ecuador's embassy in London, where he has been himself hiding from arrest and extradition.

(Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien and Costas Pitas Writing by Maria Golovnina)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wikileaks-assange-says-snowden-healthy-safe-142946759.html

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The Restaurant of the Future Was Going to Revolve You

The Restaurant of the Future Was Going to Revolve You

Today's restaurants love automation. Whether it's conveyor belt sushi, iPad ordering or drones that bring your food right to the table, restaurant owners are always looking for a gimmick that attracts customers and might just save them some money. But back in the 1920s, an inventor in Michigan had his own idea for automating the restaurant of the future ? instead of bringing the food to the customers, how about bringing the customers to the food?

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/oxu7HMsPPG4/the-restaurant-of-the-future-was-going-to-revolve-you-552797287

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

New on DVD, Blu-ray: June 24 - Montreal Gazette

Macbeth (1948/1950)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

It's complicated. Not just the tumultuous life of the formidable Orson Welles; not just the tortuous genesis and history of his Macbeth, the first screen adaptation he ever made of a Shakespeare play; not just the Scottish bloodlines and difficult accents of the story's characters. No, what's also complicated is what edition of this classic film to watch on home video. I have three. The newest release comes from Olive Films; it's a Blu-ray (also available on DVD) that boasts the best image and sound but has no subtitles (for those accents) and no extras. The second and third are from France and Britain and only work if you have an all-region DVD player, a wise investment if you want to access amazing collections of material like those available here. Out-of-print but buyable new or used on amazon.fr and other sites, the French three-disc set from Wild Side Video includes the film's original long version (114 minutes) and butchered short version (85 minutes); a rare vintage excerpt from 'Voodoo Macbeth,' Welles' famous 1936 staging of the play with an all-black cast; a 78-minute audio recording of his 1940 Mercury Theatre stage production of the Shakespeare original; and much more. The one big drawback: non-removeable French subtitles for the film itself, and the high cost of the set (over $70). My advice: Buy the Olive for the film and, if you're flush, seek out the Wild Side for the extras. Still too complicated? Then just forget Welles and get the budget-priced DVD of Roman Polanski's Macbeth; shot in 1971, it's bloody brilliant. JH

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The Dark Mirror

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Olivia on Olive - how fitting. Olivia de Havilland plays a double role as identical twin sisters in this 1946 psychological murder mystery distributed on bare-bones Blu-ray and DVD by Olive Films. The doppelg?nger casting was very appropriate: de Havilland famously had a strong sibling rivalry with her actress sister Joan Fontaine, who was less than a year her junior. Here, aided by a solid script by the prolific writer/producer Nunnally Johnson (The Grapes of Wrath, The Three Faces of Eve), de Havilland gets maximum screen time as Ruth Collins and her sister Terry; one is a happy-go-lucky New York City shop assistant, the other her cagey and manipulative sister. When a doctor Ruth knows is found stabbed in the back, and a witness claims to have seen her leaving his apartment, it looks like this crime will be easy to solve - until the detective (Thomas Mitchell) discovers Ruth has a twin sister. So whodunnit, Ruth or Terry? A psychiatrist (Lew Ayres) is enlisted to help the police in their investigation, and after some Freudian analysis and Rorschach ink blots and lie-detector tests, the truth finally outs. "It don't make more sense to me than Chinese music," quips the detective, but the 85 minutes go by in no time. Directed by German exile film-noir master Robert Siodmak (The Killers) with a spooky score by Dimitri Tiomkin (Dial M for Murder), the movie was one of the first to use a seamless blend of split screens and body doubles to make one actress play two characters; Bette Davis did it the same year in A Stolen Life (and again in 1964 in Dead Ringer). Vladimir Pozner got an Oscar nomination for Dark Mirror's story, and de Havilland - in an ironic twist on the twin motif - won the best-actress Oscar for another film she starred in 1946, To Each His Own. JH

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Secret Beyond the Door

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

German director Fritz Lang is best remembered for his silent classics: Metropolis, 'M', the two Doctor Mabuse films, Die Nibelungen and others. All are available in fine collector's editions on home video. His Hollywood period is getting a revival on DVD and Blu-ray these days, too, but to mixed results. In April, Olive Films came out with Lang's 1946 wartime thriller Cloak and Dagger, an entertaining if uneven twist on the spy genre starring Gary Cooper. Last September, in an edition only now being made available in Quebec, the distributor released the 1947 potboiler Secret Beyond the Door. It's a psychological thriller starring Michael Redgrave and Joan Bennett, but aside from fans of them or the director, I can't say I recommend it. The lovely chiarascuro visuals (by cinematographer Stanley Cortez) are not enough to distract from the stiff staging, hokey script and turgid plot of this mess of a movie, in which Redgrave, in his American screen debut, plays a shady architect to Bennett's deceived wife. There's a dangerous scene where they have to run through fire in a burning house, and apparently Lang, a perfectionist known for his sadistic streak, made them do it so many times it almost killed them. In the end, none of it was worth the trouble. "From start to finish," Patrick McGilligan wrote in his 1997 biography Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast, "Secret Beyond the Door had fared an utter failure. When it was finally released in January 1948, the film would receive the worst reviews of Lang's career." Rent it if you must, just don't buy. As usual with Olive, there are no extras on the discs. JH

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Wild Bill, Hollywood Maverick

Rating: 3 out of 5

William A. Wellman (1896-1975) got the nickname 'Wild Bill' long before he became a famous movie director. It's what his French Foreign Legion friends called him in World War I when he braved a number of dangerous dawn patrols over enemy German lines. His luck only lasted so long; in 1918 his Nieuport biplane was finally shot down, leaving Wellman severely injured. He survived, however, and the nickname carried through to his postwar career in Hollywood. He was a risk-taker, a loner, an arrogrant SOB who wouldn't take no for an answer, a man who berated his actors and infuriated his producers - and yet, despite his faults, he remained one of the most admired directors in town. His big break came in 1927 with a mega-budget war movie right up his flight-jacket sleeve: Wings, winner of the very first Academy Award for best picture. Wellman would go on to make dozens of films in many genres: gangster movies (like The Public Enemy, which launched James Cagney), melodramas (the first A Star is Born, in 1937), westerns (the best being The Ox-Bow Incident), and, after World War II, more battlefield movies, a couple of them starring his buddy John Wayne. Made in 1996 by Wellman's son, directed by Todd Robinson and narrated by Alec Baldwin, Will Bill the documentary doesn't stint on criticism of its subject, but it's a loving criticism that never doubts the director's genius or his genuinely good intentions. The list of interviewees who knew the man is exceptional: Clint Eastwood, Sidney Poiter, Robert Mitchum, Nancy Reagan, Martin Scorsese, Richard Widmark, Robert Redford and many more. Unfortunately, there are no extras on the unexceptional Kino DVD, which doesn't look a whole lot better than the VHS release back in 1997 and has the same 1.33:1 framing. But what a life story. JH

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No

Rating: 3.5 stars

Gabriel Garc?a Bernal stars in this docudrama about Chile - specifically, the plebiscite in 1988 in which Chileans were asked to say Yes or No to eight more years of dictatorship by Augusto Pinochet, or finally get to vote in democratic elections. Bernal, a Mexican, plays a young American-trained creative director for a Santiago advertising firm who's drafted by the No side to come up with a TV campaign to bring down the dictator. His boss (Alfredo Castro) winds up working for the Yes side - he's both friend and nemesis. Directed by Pablo Larra?n and based on a play by Antonio Skam?ta, the movie was nominated for best foreign film at this year's Oscars (it lost to Michael Haneke's Amour). Like the pervading paranoia that hovers over the characters in the twilight years of the Pinochet regime, the story plays out quietly and sensitively with brief bits of gallows humour, with Bernal particularly good at reining in his emotions and showing the irony at the heart of the ad man: When the votes are all counted, he'll go back to shilling schlock (Chile sure loves its TV soaps, and they need to be promoted, no?) Sony is distributing the movie on DVD and Blu-ray with English and French subtitles, but the hi-def is a bit of a waste, given the (deliberate) limitations of the source material: The whole thing was shot on low-def, flarey Betacam and U-Matic tape, the kind of video used in Latin America in the late '80s, the better to integrate archival news and ad footage from the time, and is in the boxy 1.33:1 ratio. It certainly looks authentic, but for contemporary viewers accustomed to near-perfect resolution on their home-theatre systems, it'll be a turn-off. Extras include an audio commentary by the star and director, a Q&A with Bernal at the Toronto International Film Festival, and a trailer. One last note: If Chile under the dictatorship is your thing, check out the Sundance award-winning movie playing at Cin?ma du Parc as of June 28: Violeta Went to Heaven is about the troubled life and times of iconic Chilean folksinger Violeta Parra (Gracias a la vida). JH

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Tabu: A Story of the South Seas

Rating: 4 out of 5

German-born silent expressionist master F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu) travelled far from Hollywood to make this, his final film before his untimely death in a car accident in 1931. Done partly in collaboration with writer-director Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North) before the two had a falling-out, and released only a week after Murnau's death, it's a "documentary story" of forbidden love between two young islanders in a fishing community in the South Seas. Shot in the paradise of Bora Bora and Tahiti, it was almost entirely cast with native non-actors, whom Murnau posed in every shot in the falsely "naturalistic" style of the day. The boisterous score by Hugo Riesenfeld makes this far more than a silent picture, and the fine cinematography by Floyd Crosby earned him an Oscar. Unlike its previous edition on DVD in 2007, this Blu-ray release (also available on a newly remastered DVD) by British distributor Eureka! Masters of Cinema is coded for European players only - it won't work on standard North American players, so buyer beware. The new edition is remastered from the same 75th anniversary restoration used on the old DVD but shows much more image in the frame - a big improvement. It duplicates the two old extras in high-def (an audio commentary and a 15-minute retrospective making-of, in German), and adds two new extras: roughly 20 minutes of outtakes from the original Tabu shoot, and a 1940 short made from unused material from Tabu showing villagers spearhunting fish. The scholarly illustrated booklet - always a strong feature of Masters of Cinema releases - had been shrunk down from 80 pages in the old edition to 56 in this new one, but it's the same material. Bottom line: Fans of silent cinema and exotic vintage documentaries will want to get their hands on an all-region DVD or Blu-ray player to access what the Brits are making available overseas in high-def - think of it as an investment, if you haven't already. JH

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The Naked Island (Blu-ray)

Rating: 4 out of 5

Another British offering of a fine old black-and-white classic, this time from Japan - yet again, unfortunately, on a European-coded disc that's unplayable on regular North American Blu-ray machines. Read on if you've already worked out a solution to that absurdity (as the distributor says, CDs are playable worldwide, so why aren't DVDs and Blu-rays?). The story of Kaneto Shind?'s 1960 film is beautifully simple: A small family of farmers are the sole inhabitants of Sukune, a tiny island in the Seto Inland Sea; their island has no fresh water, but a larger, neighbouring island does; and the family can only survive if they do there regularly and bring it back for their crops. Not much happens - and yet everything happens, for this, the movie says, is the nature of human existence: a daily, repetitive struggle against death. The action, if you can call it that, takes place over the course of a year, and is almost entirely free of dialogue, communication between the family members happening more in their look and gestures. A mesmerizing score fills in the silences, and the cinematography is poetry in motion. Though it was a Moscow Film Festival Grand Prix winner, the film was criticized for offering up a fatalistic, agrarian image of Japan at a time when it was modernizing and rebuidling from the devastation of the Second World War. Today, it just seems timeless. The disc by Eureka! Masters of Cinema displays a noticeable crisper resolution of the lovely visuals over the British distributor's otherwise fine DVD from 2005. Extras include a commentary by the director and composer, a video introduction by Alex Cox, and a 32-page booklet; unfortunately not carried over from the DVD are a gallery of production stills and a playable archive of the French 7" soundtrack vinyl. JH

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Empire of the Sun (Blu-ray)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

When the Japanese occupy Shanghai in 1941, an upper-class British boy is separated from his parents and shut up in an internment camp for the duration of the war. J.G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel was adapted by Steven Spielberg in 1987 into a feature film starring, in his screen debut, Christian Bale (as Jim, the young lad), John Malkovich and Miranda Richardson. Filmed in England, Spain and on location in Shanghai, the movie was a critical success when released but did so-so- box office; it's now considered one of Spielberg's under-rated triumphs. In the 1990s, the director was notoriously slow to get his movies released on DVD and this side of the century was in no rush to adopt the Blu-ray format, either. But in the past year he has finally made the plunge - and in a big way - with a dozen or so titles now available in the high-def format, some in fancy packaging. His masterpiece, Schlinder's List, was issued in a solid cardboard box, Jaws got a colourful digibook edition and now so does Empire of the Sun. Released last November in the States but delayed in Canada, the Warner Blu-ray is finally available here (it was released June 4 - I got mine late). The disc boasts a fine-looking transfer with uncompressed sound and comes in handsome book with 36 full-colour pages of illustrations and background on the film. Besides a trailer there are two video extras: the Blu-ray has The China Odyssey, a 49-minute making-of from 1987 that's narrated by Martin Sheen; on its own separate DVD is Warner at War, a 2008 TV documentary narrated by Spielberg that details the studio's role in promoting America's involvement in WWII; that one runs 47 minutes; both are in old-style 1.33:1 ratio.

jheinrich@montrealgazette.com

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/June/8568242/story.html

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Promising new device detects disease with drop of blood

June 24, 2013 ? An NJIT research professor known for his cutting-edge work with carbon nanotubes is overseeing the manufacture of a prototype lab-on-a-chip that would someday enable a physician to detect disease or virus from just one drop of liquid, including blood. A new study describes how NJIT research professors Reginald Farrow and Alokik Kanwal, his former postdoctoral fellow, and their team have created a carbon nanotube-based device to noninvasively and quickly detect mobile single cells with the potential to maintain a high degree of spatial resolution.

"Using sensors, we created a device that will allow medical personnel to put a tiny drop of liquid on the active area of the device and measure the cells' electrical properties," said Farrow, the recipient of NJIT's highest research honor, the NJIT Board of Overseers Excellence in Research Prize and Medal. "Although we are not the only people by any means doing this kind of work, what we think is unique is how we measure the electrical properties or patterns of cells and how those properties differ between cell types."

In the article, the NJIT researchers evaluated three different types of cells using three different electrical probes. "It was an exploratory study and we don't want to say that we have a signature," Farrow added. "What we do say here is that these cells differ based on electrical properties. Establishing a signature, however, will take time, although we know that the distribution of electrical charges in a healthy cell changes markedly when it becomes sick."

This research was originally funded by the military as a means to identify biological warfare agents. However, Farrow believes that usage can go much further and potentially detect viruses, bacteria, even cancer. The research may also someday even assess the health of good cells, such as brain neurons. Since 2010, three U.S. patents, "Method of forming nanotube vertical field effect transistor," #7,736,979 (2010); "Nanotube device and method of fabrication" #7,964,143 (2011); "Nanotube device and method of fabrication" #8,257,566 (2012) were awarded for this device. In addition, more patents have been filed.

The device (shown in photo) utilizes standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies for fabrication, allowing it to be easily scalable (down to a few nanometers). Nanotubes are deposited using electrophoresis after fabrication in order to maintain CMOS compatibility.

The devices are spaced by six microns which is the same size or smaller than a single cell. To demonstrate its capability to detect cells, the researchers performed impedance spectroscopy on mobile human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells, neurons from mice, and yeast cells. Measurements were performed with and without cells and with and without nanotubes. Nanotubes were found to be crucial to successfully detect the presence of cells.

Carbon nanotubes are very strong, electrically conductive structures a single nanometer in diameter. That's one-billionth of a meter, or approximately ten hydrogen atoms in a row. Farrow's breakthrough is a controlled method for firmly bonding one of these submicroscopic, crystalline electrical wires to a specific location on a substrate. His method also introduces the option of simultaneously bonding an array of millions of nanotubes and efficiently manufacturing many devices at the same time.

Being able to position single carbon nanotubes that have specific properties opens the door to further significant advances. Other possibilities include an artificial pancreas, three-dimensional electronic circuits and nanoscale fuel cells with unparalleled energy density.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/m9BV1FYvmTk/130624093520.htm

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Monday, June 24, 2013

French police quiz Sarkozy backer Tapie in fraud investigation

By G?rard Bon and Alexandria Sage

PARIS (Reuters) - French police questioned flamboyant tycoon Bernard Tapie on Monday in a fraud investigation that threatens to damage ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy's hopes of a political comeback.

Tapie, a member of France's business and sporting elite, says he has nothing to hide in the affair which has embroiled members of Sarkozy's cabinet, including IMF chief Christine Lagarde, his former finance minister.

While both Sarkozy and Lagarde deny wrongdoing, the case is one more legal headache for the former president whose supporters would like to see run for the top job again to rescue his divided conservative party.

The investigation is into whether a 285 million euro ($374 million) financial award that Tapie won in 2008 was a result of political influence.

"I'm not worried about the merits of the case," said 70-year-old Tapie, who served as a minister in Socialist President Francois Mitterrand's government in the 1980s, but moved to the right and backed Sarkozy at the 2007 election.

"I'm wondering what they could possibly find," he told Europe 1 radio shortly before being taken in for questioning by police specialized in financial crime.

Tapie alleged that the now-defunct bank Credit Lyonnais defrauded him by purchasing his interest in sports clothing company Adidas in 1993 for 315.5 million euros only to sell it a year later for 701 million euros.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the close ties between Tapie and members of Sarkozy's inner circle influenced the government's decision in 2007 to turn to a private arbitration tribunal to settle the long-running dispute.

The arbitration went in Tapie's favor with an award which, including interest, amounted to 403 million euros.

Under French law, Tapie - the owner of a regional newspaper chain whose has raced cars, dabbled in acting and bought cycling and soccer teams - could be kept in police custody for as long as 96 hours as he is questioned on suspicion of organized fraud.

TRIAL AHEAD?

Socialist President Francois Hollande, who came to power just over a year ago vowing to rid France of what he said were unfair advantages accorded to the elite under Sarkozy, has said he wants to get to the bottom of the arbitration affair.

He has continued to back Lagarde and the chief executive of France Telecom, Stephane Richard, both of whom have been caught up in the scandal.

Although Lagarde was not placed under formal investigation - a step meaning that "serious or consistent evidence" points to probable implication in a crime, Richard - her former aide - was.

Richard has denied any wrongdoing and plans to appeal the decision.

The investigation of Richard for conspiracy to commit fraud increases the likelihood of a trial that could further tarnish the image of the conservative party, which lost power last year with Sarkozy's defeat to Hollande.

Sarkozy is already distracted by two other legal tangles, one a campaign funding scandal involving France's richest woman; the other involving possible kickbacks for submarine sales to Pakistan in the 1990s when Sarkozy was a government minister.

Hollande's own government has not been immune to scandal. In April, the budget minister quit after it was revealed that he had a Swiss bank account after telling parliament he did not.

($1 = 0.7612 euros)

(Writing By Alexandria Sage; Editing by Mark John and Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-police-quiz-sarkozy-backer-tapie-fraud-investigation-141154454.html

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What is the best cruise ship for first-time cruisers? | CruiseSource

I have plenty of friends who have yet to go on a cruise vacation.? Not surprising due to the fact that about 70% of the US still has not been on a cruise vacation.

They each have their own reasons for not trying it out yet from thinking there is not enough to do on a cruise ship to concerns about motion sickness. ?Plus many of my friends seem to have stuck with their childhood family vacation traditions like renting a beach house for a week in the summer.

But, after hearing from their friends how their recent cruise experience or seeing their friends cruise photos on Facebook my cruise rookie friends start asking me questions about what would be a good cruise for them to test-out to see if cruising is for them.

When they say ?test-out?, they are saying ?what is a short 3 to 4 day cruise that we can go on to see what this whole cruising thing is all about.?

The issue is that most 3 to 5 night cruises are on slightly older ships that are not a true representation of what cruising is all about in 2013.? ?The cruise lines have pushed the envelope over the last 5 years with innovative new ships that are engineering masterpieces.

The cruise lines deploy their newest most innovative ships on 7+ night cruise vacation, with the exception of Royal Caribbean?s Liberty of the Seas.??Making the Liberty of the Seas my top recommendation for 1st time cruisers. ?[Help spread the word to first-time cruisers]

The Liberty of the Seas was launched in 2007. Although 6 years old, there are only a few cruise ships larger than the Liberty of the Seas.? ?The Liberty of the Seas offers:

  • Rock-climbing wall
  • Ice-skating rink
  • Mini-golf course
  • Full-sized basketball court
  • Full-sized boxing ring
  • 4 pools
  • 10 Whirlpools, with 2 of them overlooking the ocean
  • State of the Art Fitness facility offering Yoga and Tai Chi classes.

The Liberty of the Seas is the largest, most innovative cruise ship offering 4 ? 5 night cruises.? ?From November 2013 ? April 2014, the Liberty of the Seas will be sailing from Ft Lauderdale on 4 and 5 night Caribbean Voyages starting at low as $249 + taxes per person*!? ??Click to search for rates and availability.?

90% of the time, I try to get my first time cruising friends on the Liberty of the Seas. ?For some families with a bigger budget, I find the 3 ? 4 nt. Disney Dream Cruise to be great place to start.

*$249 per person rate is on the 4 night December 12th, 2013 departure of the Liberty of the Seas.?

Click Liberty of the Seas photos below to enlarge:

Captain Surfing Flowrider

Captain Surfing Flowrider

Pool Deck

Pool Deck

Full Court Basketball

Full Court Basketball

Ice Skating with the Kids

Ice Skating with the Kids

Liberty of the Seas exterior photo

Photo of balconies by ade_rob

Liberty of the Seas vwaagan1 on Instagram

Credit: roger4336 on Flickr

Credit: roger4336 on Flickr

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Source: http://cruisesource.us/2013/06/best-ship-for-first-time-cruisers/

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Minn.'s Franken hardly a GOP target for defeat

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ? Al Franken barely made it into the Senate the first time, squeaking by with 312 votes after months of recounts and legal skirmishes that left Minnesota Republicans salivating at the prospect of snatching the seat back from the former "Saturday Night Live" star in 2014.

So far, that's not playing out according to plan.

Four years into his term, Franken barely figures into the GOP's calculations for trying to wrest control of the Senate from Democrats. Republicans don't consider him a top target for defeat, and they haven't found a strong challenger in the Democratic-leaning state.

Should a competitive race not materialize, Democrats say much, if not all, of the credit should go to Franken himself.

To solidify his then-shaky standing, Franken employed a disciplined strategy that started in 2009 when he was declared the victor of a three-way race in which he won less than 42 percent of the vote. Back then, he spoke of not wanting to "waste this chance" and made repeated promises to keep his head down and do the work. He has largely stuck to that vow, avoiding the national spotlight. He rarely talks to the Washington press corps, has shed his comedic persona and focused on policy, working to be taken seriously.

"People have seen that I did what I said I would do. I came to Washington, I put my shoulder to the wheel and I did the work," Franken said in a recent interview with The Associated Press, expressing optimism that he'll be re-elected. He punted on the question of whether he'd seek a more prominent national voice in a second term, saying: "I'm more worried about what I'm working on tomorrow."

The midterm congressional elections are more than a year away. But Republicans already are going after vulnerable Democrats in their quest to gain the six seats they need to return to Senate power. They're largely focusing on vulnerable Democrats in Republican-tilting states: Louisiana, North Carolina, Alaska and Arkansas, as well as swing and conservative states where Democrats are retiring, like Iowa, South Dakota, West Virginia and Montana.

Minnesota GOP Chairman Keith Downey acknowledged that, because of the tight 2008 margin, Republicans initially assumed Franken would be easy to beat in 2014. "People in politics always make too many assumptions about the future, but that was certainly the perspective," he said.

Today, Downey argues that while the GOP's job may be harder, Franken still can be overtaken because his support is soft.

All things being equal, Minnesota isn't an easy place for Republicans to win these days, given its deep history of electing Democrats and the state GOP's current woes: the debt-plagued party hasn't won a statewide race since 2006. But Franken's standing ? more than 50 percent of those polled last fall by the Minneapolis Star Tribune approved of the job he's doing ? and fairly weak GOP candidates make it even tougher.

Brian Nick, a political consultant with previous experience at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acknowledged as much, calling Minnesota a "very, very tough state to win" for his side, with more favorable matchups elsewhere.

A big part of the problem for the GOP: High-profile Republicans don't want to run.

Former Sen. Norm Coleman, the incumbent Franken narrowly beat in 2008, opted out of a rematch, citing the "dysfunction" of Washington. Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty got out of politics, taking a job with a Wall Street lobbying group. Reps. Erik Paulsen and John Kline have declined, indicating they could be more effective in the House. And Rep. Michele Bachmann, who isn't running for re-election, has not shown any interest.

So far, Franken has two definite Republican challengers: Mike McFadden, a businessman and political unknown; and Jim Abeler, an eight-term state representative who's never run for higher office. Another lawmaker, state Sen. Julianne Ortman, is also considering a bid.

While the opposition party sorts itself out, Franken is doing what he's done for the past four years: keeping his head down and working on policy that affects seniors, veterans and farmers. That includes what he calls his biggest accomplishment so far: inserting a provision in Obama's health care overhaul that forces health insurance companies to spend up to 85 percent of premiums directly on health care.

___

Associated Press reporter Brian Bakst contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/minn-franken-hardly-gop-target-defeat-081636860.html

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Audi wins Le Mans race marred by driver's death

LE MANS, France (AP) ? Audi has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the fourth straight year in an endurance race overshadowed by the death of Danish driver Allan Simonsen at the start.

Simonsen was the first driver fatality at Le Mans since 1997.

Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loic Duval steered Audi No. 2 to victory on Sunday, one lap ahead of Toyota No. 8 driven by Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin.

It was Duval's first victory at the world's most famous endurance race, but the third for McNish and the ninth for Kristensen, who extended his record for most titles by a driver.

Audi earned its 12th title at Le Mans, four shy of Porsche's record.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/audi-wins-le-mans-race-marred-drivers-death-133547231.html

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Kerry: Syria urgently needs a political solution

DOHA, Qatar (AP) ? Unless the bloodshed in Syria stops, the region could descend into a chaotic sectarian conflict, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday, as he called for an urgent political resolution to the war that has dragged on for two years and claimed 93,000 lives.

The top U.S. diplomat and his counterparts from 10 Arab and European nations agreed at a daylong meeting in Qatar to step up military and other assistance to the Syrian rebels. But Kerry would not disclose details of the aid, saying only that it would re-balance the fight between the rebels and President Bashar Assad's better-equipped forces that are increasingly backed by Iranian and Hezbollah fighters.

"The continued bloodshed at the hands of the Assad regime and the increasing involvement of Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, threaten the very prospects of a political settlement and of peace," Kerry said, adding that the U.S. and other nations are not backing the rebels to seek a military victory in Syria.

"We do so to ... find a political settlement," he said. "Reliable civilian governance and a stronger and more effective armed opposition will better enable the opposition to be able to provide the counterweight to the initiative of Assad to reach out across borders ... to bring Iranians and to bring Hezbollah - again, a terrorist organization - to the table."

Rebels say they have already received new weapons from allied countries? but not the U.S. ? that they claim will help them to shift the balance of power on the ground where regime forces have scored recent military victories. Experts and activists said the new weapons include anti-tank missiles and small quantities of anti-aircraft missiles.

"Our information from Doha says that five countries have decided to start arming us immediately, and four other countries will give us logistical and technical support and, at a later stage, arm the Free Syrian Army," a spokesman for the opposition fighters, Loay AlMikdad, said in an interview with Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV. He said the nations were both Arab and non-Arab, but he would not elaborate.

It was Kerry's first meeting with his counterparts about aid to the Syrian rebels since President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would send lethal aid to the opposition despite concern that the weapons could fall into the hands of Islamic extremists in Syria. That decision was partly based on a U.S. intelligence assessment that Assad had used chemical weapons, but Kerry expressed deeper concern about how Iran and Hezbollah fighters had joined the fight.

"That is a very, very dangerous development," Kerry said. "Hezbollah is a proxy for Iran. ... Hezbollah in addition to that is a terrorist organization."

Kerry blamed Hezbollah and Assad with undermining efforts to negotiate a settlement and set up a transitional government.

"We're looking at a very dangerous situation," that has transformed "into a much more volatile, potentially explosive situation that could involve the entire region," Kerry said.

The war already has spilled into neighboring countries and is increasingly being fought along sectarian lines, pitting Sunni against Shiite Muslims and threatening the stability of Syria's neighbors.

Kerry said top U.S. diplomats are ready to go to Geneva to meet with U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and other officials next week to advance the political process.

Doha was the first stop on Kerry's two-week trip through the Mideast and Asia. He is to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues on Sunday and Monday with Indian officials in New Delhi ? just one stop on a seven-nation tour where he will tackle prickly U.S. foreign policy issues ? from finding peace between the Israelis and Palestinians to trying to gain traction on U.S. talks with the Taliban to end the Afghanistan war.

James Dobbins, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, arrived in Doha on Saturday, but talks with the Taliban, which were supposed to take place in coming days, have not been scheduled. They are to be held at a controversial new political office the Taliban just opened in Doha.

Kerry said the Americans and Qataris were on board to help negotiate a political resolution to the war, but it was up to the Taliban to come to the table. "We are waiting to find out whether the Taliban will respond, Kerry said, lowering expectations about the prospects for negotiation.

"We will see if we can get back on track. I don't know whether that's possible or not," Kerry said. "If there is not a decision made by the Taliban to move forward in short order, then we may have to consider whether the office has to be closed."

At the close of the meeting, the eleven nations ? the U.S., Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Britain, Germany, France and Italy ? expressed concern about the growing sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict, renewed their call on the regime to let U.N. investigators probe the reported use of chemical weapons and condemned the intervention of Hezbollah militias and fighters from Iran and Iraq.

In a joint press conference in Tehran, Iran Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Lebanese counterpart Adnan Mansour lambasted Western powers that arm and support Syrian opposition fighters.

"I am shocked to see how Western powers speak of human rights and act otherwise when it comes to Syria ? where they arm cannibals who fought in Syria so that they (opposition fighters) continue their atrocities more than before," Salehi said.

In their communique, the ministers expressed support for a transitional governing body that would take charge of military and other government institutions. But they added that "Bashar Assad has no role in the transitional governing body or thereafter."

That is a sticking point with Russia, a key Assad ally that has resisted calls for his removal.

Russia may have worked to assure Assad government's attendance at any future peace conference, but Moscow also has been undermining peace efforts by sending more weapons to help the Syrian government's counteroffensive against the rebels.

Russian leaders warn that if Assad steps aside, the resulting power vacuum could be quickly filled by al-Qaida connected rebels, who are well-armed and aggressive.

___

Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-syria-urgently-needs-political-solution-192130086.html

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John Kerry to Doha for Syria Talks (Voice Of America)

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