মঙ্গলবার, ৩০ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Editor's desk: #TM13

Editor's desk: #TM13

Last week was a whirlwind. We're in full on prep mode for #TM13 in New York City and that meant crushing it for endless hours every day. On the plus side, and it's a huge plus side, I got to crush it not only with the likes of Kevin Michaluk, Phil Nickinson, and Daniel Rubino, but with iMore's own Georgia and Peter Cohen, Mobile Nations luminaries like Marcus Adolfsson, Derek Kessler, Alex Dobie, Ashley Esqueda, David Lundblad, and Jose Negron, the always awesome Martin Reisch and -- oh yeah -- Cali Lewis and John P. of GeekBeat.tv as well.

We've been doing a lot of teasing about #TM13 on Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and more, but for anyone who's been on this walk for us for a while, it should be fairly obvious where's we've been and where we're going. Back when we were still Smartphone Experts, we did the Round Robin for 3 years in a row. When Microsoft and BlackBerry got left behind for a while, it made that impossible to continue in a meaningful way. Now that Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 have launched, everyone is firing on all cylinders again, and that makes things interesting.

We're Mobile Nations now, however, and that means the old Round Robin has to give way to give way to something equally newer, better, and bolder.

Enter #TM13.

I don't want to oversell it. It's going to be a blast, and it's going to benefit all of the Mobile Nations communities in a lot of subtle yet cool ways for a long time to come, but we're not HALO dropping Phil with a pair of glasses on, or shooting Kevin out of a canon in Times Square to see how many characters he can type on a QWERTY before splat-down, or anything stunty like that. Now I did get hung off the roof of a 50 floor building, but the intent here isn't shock and awe. It's what Mobile Nations always does -- entertain, inform, and engage our awesome community.

Speaking of which, Georgia, Martin, and I managed to knock this little video out at the Grand Central Apple Store. They have a rule that you can't use a tripod or monopod, so Martin had to shoot hand-held and we had to stabilize in Final Cut Pro X, which led to some background warp. I like to think it's just rocking out to the iMore theme though. (And by the way, if you haven't subscribed to the iMore YouTube channel yet, do that ASAP -- we've got some great stuff coming your way over the next few weeks...)

I'll be in NYC for another week, but Peter starts full time tomorrow, so look for much more from both of us, and the whole team, as the week goes on.

After that, it's full speed ahead to WWDC 2013 and what I hope is the first look at iOS 7 and OS X 10.9. It's been a long, long, LONG, time since an Apple exec stepped out on the Keynote stage. Any guesses what they have in store for us?

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/IJ1E1f-QdW4/story01.htm

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Anti-abortion movement seeks new laws with Gosnell trial

Anti-abortion protesters at January's March for Life in Washington. (Brendan Hoffman/Getty)

Anti-abortion activists are harnessing the outrage generated over the trial of a Philadelphia abortion doctor to pressure lawmakers to pass more restrictive abortion laws.

The activists say the trial of 72-year-old Kermit Gosnell, which concludes Monday as attorneys on both sides make their closing arguments, shows that late-term abortions are inhumane and unsafe and should be banned.

Gosnell is charged with murder in the deaths of four babies who were born alive after abortion procedures (he is alleged to have cut their spinal cords) and in the death of a woman who died of a drug overdose he allegedly administered.

Gosnell faces other charges, including violating Pennsylvania's law against performing abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy; violating a state law requiring a 24-hour waiting period for patients before obtaining an abortion; and of endangering child welfare by employing a 15-year-old in the clinic, which investigators labeled a "house of horrors."

Abortion foes say Gosnell's crimes are representative of larger abuses in late-term abortion clinics, while abortion rights advocates say he is a criminal outlier who would not have been stopped by more regulations.

One player in the anti-abortion movement, the Susan B. Anthony List, is lobbying for a bill to ban all abortions performed in Washington, D.C., after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The group has generated thousands of letters to lawmakers in support of the "D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act," which was introduced by Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks. The group is also hoping to convince lawmakers to introduce a national version of the bill.

"What is the difference between killing a baby minutes before delivery compared to moments after? Only the barest of legal nuances," SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement tying the proposed D.C. law to Gosnell's alleged crimes. ?It is an outrage that in the shadow of the Capitol, children can legally have their lives ended through methods equally brutal to those employed by Gosnell."

The proposed 20-week ban is part of a wave of anti-abortion legislation that is attempting to directly challenge the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which said the government cannot ban abortions that take place before a fetus can survive outside the womb. (The point of viability is considered to be at about 24 weeks, though that point is debated.)

This year, 10 states have passed or are poised to pass legislation to ban abortions after 20 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health issues. Arkansas and North Dakota went even further, recently banning abortions that occur when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

On Friday, President Barack Obama criticized some of those laws in a speech to Planned Parenthood.

?A woman may not even know that she?s pregnant at six weeks,? he said of the North Dakota law.

Those who support abortion rights note that Gosnell was allegedly in violation of dozens of existing laws.

"The important thing to remember is that Kermit Gosnell was running a criminal enterprise, not a health care facility," said Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood, the leading reproductive health care provider and a proponent of abortion rights. (Planned Parenthood does not generally perform late-term abortions.)

"He was violating dozens and dozens of laws and regulations that were already on the books. New regulations would not have stopped him," Ferrero said.

Federal law requires health care providers to try to save the lives of babies born alive during abortion procedures. Abortions after 21 weeks make up less than 1 percent of all abortions performed in the U.S. each year; the vast majority of abortions take place during the first trimester.

Others in the anti-abortion movement think the Gosnell case may help their cause to regulate clinics more strictly, as well as win over more supporters in the general public to their cause.

James Bopp Jr., the general counsel for National Right to Life, told Yahoo News that the case gives fuel to the argument that abortion clinics should be more strictly regulated. "When the realities of abortion are exposed to the public, it tends to be a rather gruesome business and people do react to that," Bopp said.

The Gosnell case has already prompted Pennsylvania lawmakers to pass a law that requires clinics to be regulated in the same way that outpatient surgery centers are. That means doors, hallways and elevators in the clinic must fit a stretcher, for example, in case a patient needs to be rushed to a hospital. Texas passed similar legislation.

Ferrero said such regulations tie up legitimate clinics in red tape, and would not have stopped someone like Gosnell?who is accused of flouting a number of federal, state and local laws?from criminal practices. The larger campaign to restrict abortion predates the furor over Gosnell, Ferrero said.

"Extreme activists and politicians will certainly try to use this to try to advance their agenda of making abortion inaccessible and unavailable for women, but that is clearly part of a larger, long term political agenda and political campaign among these folks," Ferrero said.

Meanwhile, the anti-abortion group Live Action, led by activist Lila Rose, released undercover videos Monday showing employees at two late-term abortion clinics explaining what would happen if a baby were born alive during an abortion to women they believed were patients.

One unidentified staff member at a Bronx clinic said babies born alive would be placed in a "solution" that would kill them. (The clinic's manager told the Washington Post a baby had never been born alive during an abortion there and that the staff member was uninformed.) A doctor in Washington, D.C., is seen on the tape saying he would be legally obligated to help a baby born alive, but that it would probably die.

In an interview, Rose said she was not interested so much in convincing politicians to ban late term abortions, but rather to change "hearts and minds."

"I think the most important thing is making sure that every person and particularly women in America know exactly what these procedures are and what they do," she said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/anti-abortion-movement-seeks-laws-gosnell-trial-201034006.html

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সোমবার, ২৯ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Team of rivals: Italy, finally, forms new government (+video)

Center-left leader Enrico Letta will be Italy's new prime minister, after his party formed a coalition government with former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives.

By Frances D'Emilio,?Associated Press / April 27, 2013

Italian Premier-designate Enrico Letta speaks at the Quirinale Presidential Palace in Rome, Saturday, April 27, 2013. Italy has finally has a new government, a coalition of Berlusconi's forces and center-left rivals who forged an unusual alliance.

(AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

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Center-left leader Enrico Letta forged a new Italian government Saturday in a coalition with former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives, an unusual alliance of bitter rivals that broke a two-month political stalemate from inconclusive elections in the recession-mired country.

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The daunting achievement was pulled off by Letta, who will be sworn in as premier along with the new Cabinet on Sunday at the presidential Quirinal Palace.

Letta, 46, is a moderate with a reputation as a political bridge-builder. He is also the nephew Berlusconi's longtime adviser, Gianni Letta, a relationship seen as smoothing over often nasty interaction between the two main coalition partners.

Serving as deputy premier and interior minister will be Berlusconi's top political aide, Angelino Alfano. He is a former justice minister who was the architect of legislation that critics say was tailor-made to help media mogul Berlusconi in his many judicial woes.

The creation of the coalition capped the latest political comeback for Berlusconi, a former three-time premier who was forced to resign in 2011 as Italy slid deeper in to the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis.

On Monday, Letta is expected to lay out his strategy to Parliament, ahead of required confidence votes from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

"We negotiated for the formation of the government without throwing up any stop signs," Berlusconi to told one of his TV networks. "That's how we contributed to forming a government in short time" after Letta was tapped Wednesday.

Berlusconi, a fervent anti-Communist, views Italy's left as a personal nemesis, and Letta's Democratic Party has some of its roots in what was the West's largest Communist Party.

Letta expressed "sober satisfaction over the team we put together and its willingness" to form a coalition.

Only a few weeks earlier, the head of the Democrats, Pier Luigi Bersani, resigned from the party post in humiliation and he refused Berlusconi's offer for a "grand coalition" and futilely tried to form a government without the center-right. Letta was a Bersani loyalist.

Bersani hailed the coalition formula as a "necessary compromise" that gives the country "freshness and solidarity."

The No. 3 bloc in Parliament, the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement, is led by comic Beppe Grillo, who ruled out any alliance with the largely sullied political class that has ruled Italy for decades.

President Giorgio Napolitano, who tasked Letta with creating a government out of bitter rivals, called upon the coalition partners to work "in a spirit of absolute, indispensable cohesion" as they work for sorely needed political and economic reforms.

The 87-year-old head of state sounded almost breathless as he expressed confidence the rivals could work together "without conflict or prejudices to find the right solutions" to the country's pressing economic and political problems.

Napolitano didn't name the challenges, but they include fighting unemployment, especially for young people, and corruption sullying much of the political class.

Napolitano said: "It was and is the only possible government," and one "whose formation couldn't be delayed further, in the interest of our country and of Europe."

He reluctantly agreed to be re-elected by Parliament earlier this month for another seven-year term because of the political instability.

Italy's economy is No. 3 among eurozone members, and financial markets have been anxiously watching to see if an effective government could be formed to carry on with outgoing Premier Mario Monti's efforts to keep the country from sliding into the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis.

Some Italian political observers have predicted such a hybrid government might last only a few months of Parliament's five-year term, before collapsing in squabbling.

But the fear of elections, especially after the lightning-quick rise of comic Grillo's grassroots movement, could prove to be strong glue.

Giovanni Orsina, deputy director of LUISS university's school of government in Rome, ventured that Letta's new coalition could "last more than we expect, 18 to 24 months, more or less."

The history professor cited "lack of alternatives, and because I believe Parliament's members are not particularly eager to get back to the polling booth and face new elections."

Voters, fed up with new and higher taxes, including a despised property tax revived by Monti, rejected his severe austerity policies.

The small centrist party created in time for the election by Monti, an economist and former European Union commissioner, will participate in the coalition, although Monti won't be in the Cabinet, which is heavy on two novelties ? a large presence of female ministers and Italy's first black minister.

A native of Congo, Cecile Kyenge is a doctor who will serve as minister of integration. Proposals to make it easier for Italy' growing immigrant population to become citizens have gone nowhere in Parliament amid fierce opposition from the anti-immigrant Northern League party. The party, a Berlusconi ally, isn't in the new government.

Prominent among the women in the Cabinet is Emma Bonino, a former EU commissioner and Radical Party leader who will serve as foreign minister. Olympic gold medal kayaker Josefa Idem was tapped as minister of equal opportunity and sports.

Letta comes from a moderate wing of the left-rooted Democratic Party that is close to the Vatican. Since Parliament always includes an array of lawmakers enjoying good ties to the politically influential Catholic church in Italy, this was one more qualification on Letta's bridge-building resume.

The father of three sons, he lives in Rome's working-class Testaccio neighborhood. When he was tapped by Napolitano on Wednesday, he drove his own car to the Quirinal Palace, in what was seen as a photo opportunity gesture to Italian taxpayers who widely despise the huge fleet of luxury cars that shuttles around ministers and lawmakers.

In 1998, when he was 32, Letta became the youngest minister in Italy's history when he served as minister for European policy for then-Premier Massimo D'Alema, an ex-Communist leader. Letta seemed a natural for that post. He spent his childhood in Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament, and studied international law before jumping into politics.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/WJ77Gys4ack/Team-of-rivals-Italy-finally-forms-new-government-video

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শুক্রবার, ১২ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Researchers engineer 'protein switch' to dissect role of cancer's key players

Apr. 10, 2013 ? Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have "rationally rewired" some of the cell's smallest components to create proteins that can be switched on or off by command. These "protein switches" can be used to interrogate the inner workings of each cell, helping scientists uncover the molecular mechanisms of human health and disease.

In the first application of this approach, the UNC researchers showed how a protein called Src kinase influences the way cells extend and move, a previously unknown role that is consistent with the protein's ties to tumor progression and metastasis.

"This rationally designed control of protein conformations represents a breakthrough in computational protein design," said senior study author Nikolay Dokholyan, PhD, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics. "We now have a new tool for delineating the activities of various proteins in living cells in a way that was never before possible."

The research was published online ahead of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In the study, Dokholyan created a "switch" that would make a protein wobbly and unable to do its job unless it was flipped "on" by a drug called rapamycin, which would stabilize the protein and let it perform its function.

The approach is a simpler and more reliable version of a protein engineering system pioneered three years ago by Dokholyan and Klaus Hahn, professor of pharmacology at UNC, called rapamycin regulated or RapR. In the old approach, the switching mechanism depended on two proteins and the drug. The first protein -- the one the researchers wanted to study -- was given the RapR modification and put in cells in tissue culture. The second protein was placed in the cells as well, but simply floated around until the addition of drug caused it to latch on to the modification in the first protein and turn it on. The problem with the approach was that some cells would have a lot of the first protein and less of the second, or vice versa.

"It became the Achilles heel of the technique, because there was variability in the results due to the different ratios between the proteins," said Hahn. "What Dokholyan was able to do, which was extremely challenging from a protein engineering standpoint, was to combine the two parts into one."

Dokholyan and his colleagues took the two proteins and broke them apart into their individual components, structures called alpha helices and beta sheets. They then rewired them together to make a whole new protein where the parts could interact with each other. When researchers compared this system, called uniRapR, with the previous approach, they found the new one gave cleaner, more reliable and more consistent results.

They then applied the technique to study Src kinase, a protein involved in the metastasis or spread of tumor cells. Scientists had postulated that Src kinase plays a role in cell motility, but previous methods have not allowed them to isolate its activity from other similar proteins.

Working both in cultured human cells and in the model organism zebrafish, the researchers showed that turning on Src causes the cell to extend its edges as part of cell movement. Now that they have dissected the role of one protein, the researchers plan to look at a variety of other kinases to understand their roles in the development, progression, and spread of cancer.

The research was funded in by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the National Cancer Institute. Study co-authors from UNC were Onur Dagliyan; David Shirvanyants, PhD; Andrei V. Karginov, PhD; Feng Deng, PhD; Lanette Fee; and Srinivas N. Chandrasekaran. Co-authors from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, were Christina M. Freisinger, Gromoslaw A. Smolen, and Anna Huttenlocher.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. O. Dagliyan, D. Shirvanyants, A. V. Karginov, F. Ding, L. Fee, S. N. Chandrasekaran, C. M. Freisinger, G. A. Smolen, A. Huttenlocher, K. M. Hahn, N. V. Dokholyan. Rational design of a ligand-controlled protein conformational switch. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1218319110

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/SzapJq_n8R4/130410154906.htm

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Thatcher funeral drama: You're not invited

By Andrew Osborn

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will not invite Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to Margaret Thatcher's funeral next week in a snub likely to deepen a long-running diplomatic dispute over the Falkland Islands.

Thatcher, 87, who died on Monday, led Britain at the time of the 1982 Falklands war ordering her armed forces to repel an Argentine invasion of the contested South Atlantic archipelago which Argentina calls Las Malvinas.

Just over 30 years later, memories of the conflict remain raw and Fernandez has mounted a campaign to renegotiate the islands' sovereignty, lobbying Pope Francis on the issue and rejecting a referendum last month in which Falkland residents voted to remain a British Overseas Territory.

A government source told Reuters that every country with whom Britain enjoys "normal" diplomatic relations was being invited to Wednesday's funeral, but Thatcher's family had objected to Fernandez attending.

"It's about adhering to her family's wishes," the source said. A government spokesman said Argentina's ambassador to Britain would be invited, and that was in keeping with protocol.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper, without citing its sources, reported that Thatcher's children Mark and Carol said they felt it would be "inappropriate" for anyone from Argentina to be there after government officials floated the idea.

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman brushed off the apparent snub.

"It does not matter to me to be invited to a place where I don't want to go," he told a local radio station. "It is another provocation. The woman died, let the family mourn her in peace".

Prime Minister David Cameron's office made it clear on Thursday that invitations will be sent far and wide.

"Around 200 states, territories and international organisations are being invited to send an official representative to the funeral service," a spokesman said.

"We have invited those countries and institutions with whom we have normal diplomatic relations."

FALKLANDS THEME

Members of parliament from Thatcher's ruling Conservative party have hailed Britain's victory in the Falklands war as one of her greatest achievements and her funeral is expected to follow a Falklands theme.

More than 700 armed forces personnel will take part in the ceremony and the 10 coffin bearers will be drawn from regiments and units that played a pivotal role in the conflict.

The war boosted Thatcher's flagging political fortunes at the time and cemented her image as a patriotic defender of what was left of Britain's Empire, helping her win a landslide victory at a general election in 1983.

In a ceremonial funeral with military honours and attended by the Queen, Thatcher's coffin will be drawn on a gun carriage by six horses through London to a service at St Paul's Cathedral, a format that has drawn criticism from some politicians and commentators for its pomp and public expense.

Invitations to more than 2,000 guests will be sent out on Friday. Mikhail Gorbachev, 82, the last leader of the Soviet leader, will not be able to attend because of ill health, his spokesman said on Thursday.

Nancy Reagan, 91, the widow of Thatcher's great political U.S. ally Ronald Reagan, will also not be able to make the trip.

Cameron's office said those who have already said they will attend include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, FW de Klerk, the last President of apartheid South Africa, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

It said invitations would be extended to all surviving British prime ministers and surviving former U.S. presidents, former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and a representative of South Africa's Nelson Mandela, who is 94 and in poor health.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Alejandro Lifschitz in Buenos Aires; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britain-snubs-argentina-over-margaret-thatcher-funeral-092537571.html

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ১১ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

World's oldest dinosaur embryo bonebed yields organic remains

Apr. 10, 2013 ? The great age of the embryos is unusual because almost all known dinosaur embryos are from the Cretaceous Period. The Cretaceous ended some 125 million years after the bones at the Lufeng site were buried and fossilized.

Led by University of Toronto Mississauga paleontologist Robert Reisz, an international team of scientists from Canada, Taiwan, the People's Republic of China, Australia, and Germany excavated and analyzed over 200 bones from individuals at different stages of embryonic development.

"We are opening a new window into the lives of dinosaurs," says Reisz. "This is the first time we've been able to track the growth of embryonic dinosaurs as they developed. Our findings will have a major impact on our understanding of the biology of these animals."

The bones represent about 20 embryonic individuals of the long-necked sauropodomorph Lufengosaurus, the most common dinosaur in the region during the Early Jurassic period. An adult Lufengosaurus was approximately eight metres long.

The disarticulated bones probably came from several nests containing dinosaurs at various embryonic stages, giving Reisz's team the rare opportunity to study ongoing growth patterns. Dinosaur embryos are more commonly found in single nests or partial nests, which offer only a snapshot of one developmental stage.

To investigate the dinosaurs' development, the team concentrated on the largest embryonic bone, the femur. This bone showed a consistently rapid growth rate, doubling in length from 12 to 24 mm as the dinosaurs grew inside their eggs. Reisz says this very fast growth may indicate that sauropodomorphs like Lufengosaurus had a short incubation period.

Reisz's team found the femurs were being reshaped even as they were in the egg. Examination of the bones' anatomy and internal structure showed that as they contracted and pulled on the hard bone tissue, the dinosaurs' muscles played an active role in changing the shape of the developing femur. "This suggests that dinosaurs, like modern birds, moved around inside their eggs," says Reisz. "It represents the first evidence of such movement in a dinosaur."

The Taiwanese members of the team also discovered organic material inside the embryonic bones. Using precisely targeted infrared spectroscopy, they conducted chemical analyses of the dinosaur bone and found evidence of what Reisz says may be collagen fibres. Collagen is a protein characteristically found in bone.

"The bones of ancient animals are transformed to rock during the fossilization process," says Reisz. "To find remnants of proteins in the embryos is really remarkable, particularly since these specimens are over 100 million years older than other fossils containing similar organic material."

Only about one square metre of the bonebed has been excavated to date, but this small area also yielded pieces of eggshell, the oldest known for any terrestrial vertebrate. Reisz says this is the first time that even fragments of such delicate dinosaur eggshells, less than 100 microns thick, have been found in good condition.

"A find such as the Lufeng bonebed is extraordinarily rare in the fossil record, and is valuable for both its great age and the opportunity it offers to study dinosaur embryology," says Reisz. "It greatly enhances our knowledge of how these remarkable animals from the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs grew."

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Story Source:

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

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Robert R. Reisz, Timothy D. Huang, Eric M. Roberts, ShinRung Peng, Corwin Sullivan, Koen Stein, Aaron R. H. LeBlanc, DarBin Shieh, RongSeng Chang, ChengCheng Chiang, Chuanwei Yang, Shiming Zhong. Embryology of Early Jurassic dinosaur from China with evidence of preserved organic remains. Nature, 2013; 496 (7444): 210 DOI: 10.1038/nature11978

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/5c3Hl3WBCdw/130410131216.htm

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Researchers engineer 'protein switch' to dissect role of cancer's key players

Apr. 10, 2013 ? Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have "rationally rewired" some of the cell's smallest components to create proteins that can be switched on or off by command. These "protein switches" can be used to interrogate the inner workings of each cell, helping scientists uncover the molecular mechanisms of human health and disease.

In the first application of this approach, the UNC researchers showed how a protein called Src kinase influences the way cells extend and move, a previously unknown role that is consistent with the protein's ties to tumor progression and metastasis.

"This rationally designed control of protein conformations represents a breakthrough in computational protein design," said senior study author Nikolay Dokholyan, PhD, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics. "We now have a new tool for delineating the activities of various proteins in living cells in a way that was never before possible."

The research was published online ahead of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In the study, Dokholyan created a "switch" that would make a protein wobbly and unable to do its job unless it was flipped "on" by a drug called rapamycin, which would stabilize the protein and let it perform its function.

The approach is a simpler and more reliable version of a protein engineering system pioneered three years ago by Dokholyan and Klaus Hahn, professor of pharmacology at UNC, called rapamycin regulated or RapR. In the old approach, the switching mechanism depended on two proteins and the drug. The first protein -- the one the researchers wanted to study -- was given the RapR modification and put in cells in tissue culture. The second protein was placed in the cells as well, but simply floated around until the addition of drug caused it to latch on to the modification in the first protein and turn it on. The problem with the approach was that some cells would have a lot of the first protein and less of the second, or vice versa.

"It became the Achilles heel of the technique, because there was variability in the results due to the different ratios between the proteins," said Hahn. "What Dokholyan was able to do, which was extremely challenging from a protein engineering standpoint, was to combine the two parts into one."

Dokholyan and his colleagues took the two proteins and broke them apart into their individual components, structures called alpha helices and beta sheets. They then rewired them together to make a whole new protein where the parts could interact with each other. When researchers compared this system, called uniRapR, with the previous approach, they found the new one gave cleaner, more reliable and more consistent results.

They then applied the technique to study Src kinase, a protein involved in the metastasis or spread of tumor cells. Scientists had postulated that Src kinase plays a role in cell motility, but previous methods have not allowed them to isolate its activity from other similar proteins.

Working both in cultured human cells and in the model organism zebrafish, the researchers showed that turning on Src causes the cell to extend its edges as part of cell movement. Now that they have dissected the role of one protein, the researchers plan to look at a variety of other kinases to understand their roles in the development, progression, and spread of cancer.

The research was funded in by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the National Cancer Institute. Study co-authors from UNC were Onur Dagliyan; David Shirvanyants, PhD; Andrei V. Karginov, PhD; Feng Deng, PhD; Lanette Fee; and Srinivas N. Chandrasekaran. Co-authors from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, were Christina M. Freisinger, Gromoslaw A. Smolen, and Anna Huttenlocher.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. O. Dagliyan, D. Shirvanyants, A. V. Karginov, F. Ding, L. Fee, S. N. Chandrasekaran, C. M. Freisinger, G. A. Smolen, A. Huttenlocher, K. M. Hahn, N. V. Dokholyan. Rational design of a ligand-controlled protein conformational switch. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1218319110

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/SzapJq_n8R4/130410154906.htm

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HTC First with Facebook Home review

DNP HTC First with Facebook Home review

With a billion users, it'd be an understatement to say Facebook has done a good job conquering the desktop world. Mobile, however, is the social network's next frontier: although it has a significant presence on every major smartphone and tablet platform, the company has a reputation for bringing its key features to the PC environment long before they arrive on mobile -- if at all.

But the April 4th reveal of Facebook Home, a solidly built Android launcher, reflects a change in attitude for Mark Zuckerberg and Co. Instead of simply maintaining a smartphone presence, Facebook is ready to go to battle and is putting mobile on the top of its list of priorities. It's even adding a proper piece of hardware to its arsenal in the form of the HTC First, a 4.3-inch device on AT&T with LTE, reasonable mid-range specs and a gorgeous display. Is it worth $99 with a two-year commitment to purchase a handset dedicated to the social cause? Should you just wait until Home is available as a free download in the Google Play Store? Or is it best to ignore it altogether? Continue reading to find out.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/09/htc-first-with-facebook-home-review/

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A new fast transcutaneous non-invasive battery recharger and energy feeder for electronic implants

A new fast transcutaneous non-invasive battery recharger and energy feeder for electronic implants [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 9-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: S?lvia Castro
silvia.castro@mitportugal.org
351-210-407-036
MIT Portugal Program

Antnio Abreu, a Sustainable Energy Systems PhD Student under the MIT Portugal Program, currently developing research work at LNEG (Laboratrio Nacional de Energia e Geologia I.P.) has developed a non-invasive battery recharger system for electronic implants that allows a longer life for the internal implantable devices in the human body such as, pacemakers, defibrillators, electric heart, delaying considerable the usual customary surgery intervention for replacement.

According to the world health organization, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of deaths. On a last resource, patients with cardiovascular disease have to be aided through surgery and medical devices to help them perform the basic functions. Nevertheless medical devices, such as pacemaker that sends electrical impulses to the heart muscle to maintain a suitable heart rate and rhythm, need a source of energy and once the battery has run out they required a surgical procedure similar to the initial implantation to replace the device.

With the non-invasive battery recharger for electronic cardiac implants the need for a new surgical intervention is reduced, since it primes from being rechargeable, i.e. the patient will not need to be operated upon to change batteries every five to seven years, since these are rechargeable by irradiant electricity passing through the body. Antnio Abreu adds that "The non-invasive battery also allows for a customize energy consumption of the cardiac implants, therefore the consumption of energy can be regulated to adapted to its function and patients' pathology and activity. It guarantees the energetic supply of a communication channel between the exterior for diagnosis and/or implant reprogramming. In this case, there will be no demand of energy from the internal battery".

As a research project, the prototype has won a prize by "2005's Jaime Filipe Engineer Award" for the best innovative design that promotes autonomy and an honorable mention (2009).

The Prototype, patented by Antnio Abreu in the USA and in Europe with the collaboration and support of the PRIME (Incentive Program for the Modernization of the Economy) program and approved by the European Commission, was initially designed for pacemakers application but currently, and according to the medical development, new improved technics were made to be suitable for high power (and high voltages too) devices, such defibrillators, electric heart, insulin pumps or other type of implantable prosthesis.

Moreover, the same principle that allows the supply of lower energy voltages can be applied to improve the high power electrical transmission and distribution systems (electrical grid) to reduce costs due the consumer electric consumption, according to the results obtained.

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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.


A new fast transcutaneous non-invasive battery recharger and energy feeder for electronic implants [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 9-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: S?lvia Castro
silvia.castro@mitportugal.org
351-210-407-036
MIT Portugal Program

Antnio Abreu, a Sustainable Energy Systems PhD Student under the MIT Portugal Program, currently developing research work at LNEG (Laboratrio Nacional de Energia e Geologia I.P.) has developed a non-invasive battery recharger system for electronic implants that allows a longer life for the internal implantable devices in the human body such as, pacemakers, defibrillators, electric heart, delaying considerable the usual customary surgery intervention for replacement.

According to the world health organization, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of deaths. On a last resource, patients with cardiovascular disease have to be aided through surgery and medical devices to help them perform the basic functions. Nevertheless medical devices, such as pacemaker that sends electrical impulses to the heart muscle to maintain a suitable heart rate and rhythm, need a source of energy and once the battery has run out they required a surgical procedure similar to the initial implantation to replace the device.

With the non-invasive battery recharger for electronic cardiac implants the need for a new surgical intervention is reduced, since it primes from being rechargeable, i.e. the patient will not need to be operated upon to change batteries every five to seven years, since these are rechargeable by irradiant electricity passing through the body. Antnio Abreu adds that "The non-invasive battery also allows for a customize energy consumption of the cardiac implants, therefore the consumption of energy can be regulated to adapted to its function and patients' pathology and activity. It guarantees the energetic supply of a communication channel between the exterior for diagnosis and/or implant reprogramming. In this case, there will be no demand of energy from the internal battery".

As a research project, the prototype has won a prize by "2005's Jaime Filipe Engineer Award" for the best innovative design that promotes autonomy and an honorable mention (2009).

The Prototype, patented by Antnio Abreu in the USA and in Europe with the collaboration and support of the PRIME (Incentive Program for the Modernization of the Economy) program and approved by the European Commission, was initially designed for pacemakers application but currently, and according to the medical development, new improved technics were made to be suitable for high power (and high voltages too) devices, such defibrillators, electric heart, insulin pumps or other type of implantable prosthesis.

Moreover, the same principle that allows the supply of lower energy voltages can be applied to improve the high power electrical transmission and distribution systems (electrical grid) to reduce costs due the consumer electric consumption, according to the results obtained.

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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/2013-04/mpp-anf040913.php

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Nanaimo Arts | Entertainment | Acrylic Painting - Open Studio

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Saturday, April 6th, 2013
10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Acrylic Painting: Open Studio
Registration Code: 119855
Saturday April 6: 10am ? 4pm, 6 hours total
Max. 10 students / Min. 5
Cost $80 plus HST
Instructor: Linda Findlay

Aimed at intermediate levels, this painting workshop is held in conjunction with the exhibit What?s Ours is Yours, art from the NAG?s permanent collection. We will begin with a tour of the exhibit and discuss the art displayed. Then, inspired by a work or works from the exhibit, students will create their own paintings and receive individual instruction. This is an open workshop that aims to address the needs of each student. Various acrylic techniques will be demonstrated. Basic supplies included; students are encouraged to bring some of their own painting supplies.

Workshops take place at Nanaimo Art Gallery?s Campus location, 900 Fifth Street: Building 330

Registration opens March 6. Contact the City of Nanaimo at 250-756-5200 and quote the registration code or visit ireg.nanaimo.ca

Source: http://www.harbourliving.ca/event/acrylic-painting-open-studio/2013-04-06/

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Insight: Russia's Bazhenov - a long, slow shale oil revolution

By Melissa Akin

TYUMEN, Russia (Reuters) - Forty-five years after its accidental discovery deep under the swamps of West Siberia, the race is now on to develop the world's largest shale oil resource, Russia's Bazhenov.

A drilling push begins in earnest this spring, spurred by President Vladimir Putin's promise to loosen the Kremlin's grip on proceeds from its natural resources in hopes of sparking a shale revolution aimed as much at remaking Russia's oil industry as at raising output.

ExxonMobil and Russian state oil company Rosneft are headlining the new phase of exploration to see whether Bazhenov lives up to its billing.

Russian producers have already reported 500 million metric tons (551.16 million tons), or 3.5 billion barrels, of recoverable crude oil reserves in Bazhenov to the Russian government.

Much studied but largely untapped, it lies in impenetrable black clay beneath existing oilfields covering most of West Siberia, whose westernmost hub is the oil town of Tyumen, 1,700 kilometers (1,060 miles) northeast of Moscow.

"Back when I worked in exploration, one of our geologists called it the wild black stone," said Tatyana Smagina, head of reserves management at the Tyumen Oil Research Centre, part of Rosneft.

The centre holds core samples from 30 years of drilling in West Siberia that are studied to help determine where Russia's new oil will come from.

The government now estimates that the wild black stone could yield 1-2 million barrels per day by the end of the decade.

Yet the full scale of its riches remains a mystery. Estimates range from a conservative three billion metric tons, or over 20 billion barrels, to as much as 143 billion metric tons, according to a survey of Russian research by oil consultants IHS Cera.

The upper estimate would mean an extraordinary one trillion barrels, nearly four times the size of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves or 30 years of world supply at current rates of consumption.

The International Energy Agency describes Bazhenov as the world's largest source rock, a bed of ancient organic matter dating back to the Jurassic period which has given rise to most of the crude oil pumped from the fields of West Siberia.

NO BAKKEN SURGE, YET

Those vast reserves do not necessarily add up to a U.S.-style production surge in the making.

The U.S. state of North Dakota has estimated oil production from its Bakken and other formations could reach 1.2 million barrels per day by 2015.

Yet Russia already pumps more conventional oil supply than Saudi Arabia at around 10.3 million barrels per day and may look to shale to maintain rather than revolutionize production.

Its oil-dependent leaders, rather than fearing the surge in U.S. output from shale, have looked on with curiosity and some envy.

For them, Russia's rediscovery of its shale resources is aimed more at offsetting declines in the fields that produce most of Russia's crude - the Soviet giants of West Siberia, like the Salym group fields where Bazhenov was discovered in 1968.

Output there is now declining at an average of about 2 percent a year.

The U.S. experience has produced a new generation of high-tech, low-cost drillers and producers with advances in technology, including horizontal drilling to tap reservoirs more efficiently, and hydraulic fracturing to release hydrocarbons from non-porous "tight" rock.

In contrast to the entrepreneurs who predominate there, Russia's oil industry has been concentrated in the hands of a few powerful players over the last decade, mostly controlled by the state, raising questions about its efficiency.

It faces the task of moving away from standardized bulk drilling and top-down design decisions toward shale and other new deposits where new technology must be developed and honed along the way.

The challenge for the crude oil market posed by the U.S. shale surge "would not hurt us so much if we were more competitive," said Tatiana Mitrova, head of the oil and gas department at the Russian Academy of Sciences Energy Research Institute.

The drilling now under way should determine whether Russia can frack its way to a more modern, competitive oil industry with all the technological savvy of the upstarts in North Dakota, and whether Bazhenov is the key.

"Bazhenov is a huge formation. It covers half of western Siberia. I have seen maps that claim it is 22 times the size of the Bakken in North Dakota," said Richard Andersen, chief financial officer of Eurasia Drilling, Russia's biggest driller.

But Andersen said it was "not homogenous" across western Siberia. "It may work very well in some areas and not in others. I would not say it will be condemned or proven in the next year. But we should get a view as to whether it will work well or not."

Recent drilling by producers such as Salym Petroleum, a joint venture between Shell and Gazprom Neft , which operates in the group of fields where the Bazhenov was discovered, have yielded healthy flows of light, low-sulphur crude. It has also indicated the presence of microfractures in some areas which could help the oil flow out of the tight rock.

TAX KEY

The challenges to Russia's tight-oil revolution so far, however, have had little to do with geology.

Efforts to establish joint drilling ventures have run up against post-Soviet legislation which does not recognize project operators, while cumbersome planning requirements have forced some producers to scale back their plans for this year.

The biggest question of all is posed by the tax system. With lifting costs for a barrel of Bazhenov crude estimated at up to $40, the tax regime has been the main obstacle to its development as producers worked their way through cheaper conventional reserves.

The Kremlin's willingness to loosen the state's grip on oil taxes - which skim 90 percent of the revenue from each barrel of export crude - underscore its interest in exploiting shale.

But even with the prospect of a boost to the oil revenues that amount to 40 percent of the Russian budget, that willingness only goes so far.

The government has offered a package of tax breaks which includes a sliding scale of breaks on Russia's revenue-based mineral extraction tax and targeted breaks on the development of Bazhenov and other shale deposits which are part of Rosneft's drilling ventures with ExxonMobil and Statoil .

But the package - which was due to be approved on October 1 - has yet to reach parliament. Finance Ministry officials have assured investors that it will pass in time to come into effect next year after undergoing tweaks.

Producers also face the expensive prospect of re-drilling their West Siberian fields to access the Bazhenov below, even though it could be tapped through existing wells.

A boon to drillers such as Eurasia and Schlumberger but a drag on the economics of developing Russian shale, this is essentially an accounting measure to prevent fraudulent reporting of conventionally produced oil as new oil to claim tax breaks.

"They are worried that suddenly 70 or 80 percent of Russia's oil is going to be tight oil," a source close to one of the exploration projects said.

The proferred tax breaks may be enough to accelerate exploration of Bazhenov and other tight formations and allow Rosneft's drilling partnerships to proceed, but commercial production will probably require another round of tax reforms, the source added.

The very low levels of rock permeability required to qualify for tax breaks also may rule out profitable development of some tight sandstone deposits on the edges of what the Energy Ministry has called the "grey area" between true shale and West Siberia's current, conventional plays.

Of Russia's 26 billion metric tons of recoverable reserves, two-thirds or more are thought to be "tight", a share that is rising as Russia's easily tapped conventional reserves are depleted.

"That is semantics," said Oleg Mikhailov, who once ran pilot projects in tight oil at TNK-BP and now works at mid-sized producer Bashneft.

"What is easy today was tight yesterday. What is tight today with technology and a good tax regime will be easy tomorrow."

(Editing Richard Mably and Jason Neely)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-russias-bazhenov-long-slow-shale-oil-revolution-130708796--finance.html

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Esmeralda Grinnell: Internet Based Business Ideas 2013 - Home ...

Have you been baffled by consider some of the best online based business ideas to settle for in 2013? It might be tremendous achievable comers to the net marketing field due to apparently 1000s of distinct approaches which can be used to generate money from property.

Here i will look at many of the most experimented with and analyze business online thoughts to keep you on course this coming year.

The secret is to pick out a single online based business enterprise plan and stay with it until achievements:

Internet Based Business Ideas 2013 - Home Based Business Ideas For Internet Marketers

Advertising Electronic books On-line - Advertising Electronic books has been just about the most well-liked ways of generating an ongoing revenue from property On-line. What is of interest concerning this approach is you don't need to be existing in the course of the sales as well as your clients only obtain and network your Electronic books on-line within an automated fashion. Guide marketing is significantly less worthwhile in 2013, even so the exact same process does apply to car stereo products which possess a larger observed cost right now. You may either create your private Electronic books from expertise you already possess or acquire Expert Re-sale Rights goods to market.

Internet Affiliate Marketing - I think one of the best property dependent business ideas for starters is to use Internet Affiliate Marketing. A sensational scene to manage goods on your own, inflict merchandise development, or maybe possess transmission with clients in any way. When affiliate marketing your task should be to bring customers on-line into a confirmed affiliate marketing provide that could pay out the comission higher commission rates when gross sales are produced. higher commission rates is vital the following. Expect to promote higher ticket products with the major commission rates which is far easier to produce an effective business enterprise because of this as compared to Advertising 1000s of inexpensive Electronic books as being an affiliate marketing.

Promote Something On-line - In ways Something is very simple to offer than just a merchandise. Simply because an information merchandise can be very common and you'll want to influence the customer that a training is what they desire. Where as using a services for instance article writing, web site design, advertising and so forth., your client is definitely try really hard to trying to find website visitors to do these chores for the children and you only need to fix their difficulty. The problem with Advertising products and services as an internet based business enterprise plan for 2013 could it be is not very saleable. you'll want to manually take care of clients and complete there get the job done. I prefer Internet Affiliate Marketing where you can make endless revenue due to the fact you cannot take care of clients on your own.

I hope these tips have got some thoughts skating your brain about the simplest way to make money within your property dependent business enterprise for 2013.

Internet Based Business Ideas 2013 - Home Based Business Ideas For Internet Marketers

Source: http://esmeraldagrinnell.blogspot.com/2013/04/internet-based-business-ideas-2013-home.html

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YC-Backed Vayable Launches Destinations To Crowdsource Interesting Things To Do In Cities Around The World

vayableY Combinator-backed Vayable launched a few years ago to provide travelers with a new way to discover interesting things to do in far-out locations around the world. The idea was to provide a marketplace where various guides from all over could display tours or unique experiences for sale. It's providing a new way to learn more about cities to visit, through its new Vayable Destinations pages.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/U9FAiFWqWfU/

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Riding in style: The evolution of the popemobile

Alessandro Di Meo / EPA

Images of the automobiles that have transported popes over the years.

By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

Comes outfitted in protective bullet-proof glass. Draws a crowd wherever it goes. A driver is included; gold trim is optional.

Popemobiles also include such amenities as a handrail to let the pope easily stand and wave while in motion, a built-in stereo and arctic-cool air conditioning.

Eight popes have had their own set of holy wheels since Pope Pius XI got a stretch 460 Nurburg edition Mercedes-Benz in 1930, but the eighth, Pope Francis -- known for?taking the bus to work?before he was named pope -- may not want all the frills and custom built-ins that popemobiles offer.?

By retiring, Benedict XVI has passed along a white armored Mercedes SUV, which has a white leather interior with gold trim and a white leather turret that can be raised by hydraulic lift high enough for crowds to see the pope, if he wants to sit. (For longer trips around Italy, Benedict enjoyed his own helicopter.) Bullet-proof?Plexiglas?that's strong enough to withstand explosions surrounds the turret on three sides. There's an emergency oxygen supply built in, according to?The Telegraph.?


"The pope must feel comfortable. People must be able to see him. People have traveled very far; they want to be able to get a good look at him," said Christoph Horn, Director of Global Communications of Mercedes-Benz, from Stuttgart, Germany. "This is about creating a comfortable and safe environment for the pope to travel in and be seen in.?

The pre-mobile
Popes didn't have to wait for the invention of automobiles to be mobile. For centuries, popes traveled by throne when going out on local outings. The popes were carried by 12 bearers (representing the 12 disciples of the church) as they moved through crowds, Ronald Rychlak, a University of Mississippi law school professor who has written numerous books on religion,?said.

Daimler

The first car used by a pope.

All that changed when Pope Pius XI got his Benz. The limousine was a gift from the car company, which would provide vehicles for many popes after that.

"Usually more than one vehicle was provided, especially for the popes in the 1930s," Horn said. "They were traveling a lot, so many popemobiles were built for them."

Back then, popes traveled in limousines with open tops, he said. Over the years, more than 12 different models of cars and trucks would be provided for popes. Pope John XXIII ushered in a new era of pope cars in 1960 with a Mercedes 300D Landaulet, which had a throne that rose high in the back, The New York Times reported. His successor switched to a 1964 Lincoln model before he went back to the preferred Mercedes brand a year later.

But don't call it 'popemobile'
When popes travel abroad for state visits, it's not always possible for the vehicles they use at home to make the journey with them. Instead, customized cars are prepared ahead of the visit, submitted for Vatican approval from the country he will visit.

"The primary level of security is assigned to the host nation,"?Rychlak said. "If they want to have something like a popemobile for a major parade, let's say they're doing Mass at Yankee stadium or something like that, they would have to make arrangements to ship something over, or that's the kind of situation where there may be a gift made to the pope" by a major car company.

That was how the car that officially became known for the first time as the "popemobile" came into existence: Pope John Paul II had visited Ireland in 1979, and a boxy yellow Ford Transit van awaited him as his chariot. Last November, The Telegraph reported an Irish businessman had acquired the van from the Dublin Wax Museum, where it had been since the papal visit, and was transforming it into a party bus.

Many other popemobiles have stayed in the countries they were used in. In 2008, Newsweek got a peek at the popemobile Benedict used for his U.S. tour, describing it as "by far the fanciest and sleekest papal car ever built ... The papal handlers can shift their passenger from zero to 60 in less than eight seconds, but the drivers probably won't exceed 10 mph along the parade routes."

In 2002, John Paul II asked the media to stop using the term "popemobile," insisting it sounded "undignified."

A clear need for better security
John Paul II survived an assassination attempt in 1981 while in St. Peter's Square. A Turkish man was later convicted of firing the shots, which punctured the pope's car and struck him four times. John Paul II survived, but it was clear his wide-open truck wouldn't suffice to protect him. From then on, bulletproof glass has encased popemobiles, although popes have occasionally ridden around without covering for brief periods.

Arturo Mari / AP

A 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square.

Since adding bulletproof glass, popemobiles have added other necessary features, including ultra-powerful air conditioning to cool down the glass dome that popes sit in, reports The Telegraph.

Other protection measures include heavy-metal reinforcement on the bottom of the vehicle as well as the other sides, and the driver is always a trusted longtime Vatican employee. There's no partition between the pope and his driver; a microphone enables him to broadcast messages to crowds through speakers outside the popemobile.

The current weighs five tons and was just presented to Benedict last December by Mercedes-Benz.

"We work with the members of the Vatican and with the people in charge of the garages of the Vatican," Horn said. "These are all individual vehicles that are built to specifications."

The new pope's desire to get up close and personal with his faithful has presented challenges for his security detail.

"The pope's going to want to be up close hugging and touching and meeting people and that's going to be a tremendous concern for his security people,"?Rychlak said. "His security forces have taken him aside, or probably already have, and are going to say, 'Holy Father, you're putting us in a horrible situation if you don't go along with these things.'"

They're used to having to say that, though: Benedict didn't always like the feeling of a "shield between him and the people,"?Rychlak said. Most popemobiles are designed so the glass can be lowered, though.

This story was originally published on

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a2d2254/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C310C175184590Eriding0Ein0Estyle0Ethe0Eevolution0Eof0Ethe0Epopemobile0Dlite/story01.htm

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5 Brilliant April Fools' Products We Hope Become Real

Kind of like the anti-Christmas, April Fool's Day is hands down the worst day of the year. Companies around the world come up with lame products and issue even lamer press releases in a misguided and utterly disastrous attempt to be funny. Except for ThinkGeek. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/CSfQYBcPIPI/5-brilliant-april-fools-products-we-hope-become-real

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Easter bunny horror stories: Resist the urge to give rabbits, ducks, chicks

Easter bunny horror stories are a post holiday tradition, say animal control officials across the US. The cute gifts ? rabbits, ducks, chicks ? suddenly get abandoned or maltreated because they were impulse buys. Pubescent bunny behavior is not cute; and the foul mess can be a rude surprise.

By Andrew Averill,?Correspondent / March 30, 2013

Easter bunny horror stories are a post-Easter tradition in the US, say animal control and rescue officials who see an uptick in abandoned rabbits, ducklings, and chicks at Easter and advise against impulse buys. A Muscovy duck named Quasimodo watches two Pekin ducks play in a pool at The Lucky Duck Rescue & Sanctuary in Sun Valley, Calif., August 2011.

Lydia Yasuda/AP

Enlarge

For Easter, when Lindsay Durfee?s sister-in-law Kelly was young and sweet and wide-eyed, her parents bought her a team of ducklings. Kelly and her family, Ms. Durfee says, lived on a lake in Orlando, Fla., populated with different species of wildlife.?

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So, shouldering a video camera to record it, young Kelly marched her Easter ducklings to the water like a drum major. But nature was ahead of her: before she and the ducks reached the edge of the lake, a large bird ? probably a heron? swooped down and made off with a duckling by its neck. The gory detail of what happened next is PG-13; but suffice to say, says Durfee, the videotape captured it and Kelly's scream.?

?It's one of those stories that comes up every year,? Durfee wrote in an e-mail to the Monitor. To this day, says Durfee, "My husband and I laugh until we cry over how appalling it is!??

Pet horror stories are a staple of the post-Easter season in the United States, day animal control and rescue officials. The Easter holiday brings out the duckling, chick, and baby bunny lovers in people. They make an impulse buy, the recipient goes wild with joy for a day, but the honeymoon soon ends and parents scramble to surrender the animals.

Animal rescue staff, traditionally inundated with calls from regretful parents immediately following Easter, are asking consumers to stop and think before buying an animal for Easter, and with good reason.

If, and it?s a big if, the animal doesn?t die from all that Easter excitement, now there?s a growing and soon-to-be mature duck, chicken (worse, a rooster), and rabbit on your hands.

A pubescent rabbit is not one to cuddle. Females are prone to running in circles, lunging, and grunting, says Anne Martin, shelter director for House Rabbit Society?s headquarters in Richmond, Calif. And if you purchased a male? ?The boys will spray urine ... all over the place,? says Ms. Martin, who owns six rabbits and adds that a mature rabbit is a fantastic pet. But they can be quite alarming for a new pet owner whose supplier did not warn them.

Suppliers are also known for selling bunnies that have been taken away from their mothers too soon, says Mary Cotter, vice president of the House Rabbit Society. ???

Ducklings and chicks have their own drawbacks, says Susie Coston director of the Farm Sanctuary shelter.

Like bunnies, ducklings and chicks are extremely fragile. If a child plays with them like a toy instead of fine china, they are likely to die from over-handling, Ms. Coston says.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/E1hxCt8V9fw/Easter-bunny-horror-stories-Resist-the-urge-to-give-rabbits-ducks-chicks

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