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Got a hankering for homebrewed aeronautics? You might wanna reach out to the folks at eRocketry -- a self-described "Online Rocketry and Space Community." Earlier this week, at the tenth annual Plaster Blaster event in California, a group of eRocketeers made their grand debut, successfully launching a Delta II Model 7420-10 Rocket into the ether, along with an onboard camera. Constructed by space enthusiasts from Tripoli San Diego and the Diego Area Rocket Team (DART), the 1:9 scale rocket (pictured above) stands nearly 14 feet tall, with a diameter of just 10.75 inches. After eRocketry founder Philip Odegard attached a Contour HD camera to his creation, the beast triumphantly soared above the desert sky, reaching an altitude of 2,272 feet. Fortunately for all of us, the camera survived the journey, capturing some pretty cool footage along the way. Check it out for yourself after the break, or hit up the source link for more images.
For a four-billion-year-old volcano, Tharsis Tholus isn't looking half bad. This extinct Martian crag would dwarf most mountains on Earth and, though it's looking a little worse for wear due to the erosion and collapses that have occurred over the aeons, it's still standing tall.
This image of the giant peak was released yesterday by the European Space Agency. It is a composite of multiple photos taken by a high-resolution stereo camera aboard the Mars Express spacecraft in 2004, with different elevations shown in different colours.
The volcano looms 8 kilometres above the surrounding landscape - almost the height of Earth's tallest peak, mount Everest. Yet, compared to other Martian volcanoes, Tharsis Tholus is still pretty average in terms of height.
Pascal Lee, co-founder of the Mars institute and principal investigator on NASA's Haughton-Mars Project, explains: "Because the gravity on Mars is only 38 per cent what it is on Earth, it can have mountains three times taller than on Earth."
The thing that really makes Tharsis Tholus stand out among the other Marsian giants is its battered condition. It long ago spent its lava, leaving a gaping cavity in the centre, which is coloured here in green. The lack of support for the roof caused the walls to collapse, resulting in the leftover ridge, shown in brown in the picture.
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama chided congressional Republicans Tuesday for "trying to gut our investments in education," and announced new steps to tackle early childhood education that won't require legislation.
Speaking at a Head Start center in politically important Pennsylvania, Obama said boosting the nation's education system at all levels is an economic imperative because it puts young people on the path toward obtaining good jobs later in life.
The president said his administration has been able to work on education reform with mayors and governors in both parties. But congressional Republicans, he said, have stood in the way of his efforts to revamp the No Child Left Behind law and blocked a proposal in the president's job bill that the White House said would have kept 400,000 teachers in the classroom.
"If Congress continues to stand only for dysfunction and delay, I'm going to move forward without them," Obama said.
Under the new rules Obama announced on Tuesday, lower-performing Head Start programs that fail to meet a new set of benchmarks will be required to compete for federal funding.
The new standards mandate that poorly performing programs will have to compete for funding if they have deficiencies discovered in their onsite review, fail to establish and use school-readiness goals for children, or demonstrate low performance in the classroom quality evaluation.
Going forward, all Head Start grants will be good for five years. After that time, each program's performance will be re-evaluated to determine whether it is meeting the benchmarks or must compete for another grant.
"We're just not going to put money into programs that don't work. We will take money and put them into programs that do," Obama said during his quick trip to Pennsylvania.
The Head Start program provides preschool for 900,000 low-income children. Administration officials estimate about one-third of Head Start programs will be affected by the new standards.
The announcement is the latest step in the administration's effort to show a contrast between the president and Republicans. With the GOP having blocked action on the president's $447 billion jobs bill last month, the White House is refocusing on smaller measures the president can take with congressional approval.
Those measures include steps to allow more homeowners to refinance their mortgages, lessen the burden of student loan debt, and give military veterans access to career counseling and job search programs.
MANAGUA, Nicaragua ? Nicaraguan president and one-time Sandinista revolutionary Daniel Ortega appears headed for victory Sunday in an election that his critics say could be the prelude to a presidency-for-life.
Since returning to power in 2007, the 65-year-old Ortega has boosted his popularity in Central America's poorest country with a combination of pork-barrel populism and support for the free-market economy he once opposed.
Now, riding on a populist platform and World Bank praise for his economic strategies, he seeks a third term ? his second consecutive one ? after the Sandinista majority on the Supreme Court overruled the term limits set by the Nicaraguan constitution.
With nearly 50 percent of voter support and an 18-point lead over his nearest challenger in the most recent poll, Ortega could end up with a mandate that would not only legitimize his re-election but allow him to make constitutional changes guaranteeing perpetual re-election.
He leads his closest competitor, opposition radio station owner Fabio Gadea of the Liberal Independent Party, by 18 points. Conservative Arnoldo Aleman, a former president and perennial candidate, has 11 percent support in the poll taken between Oct. 10-17 with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
Ortega led the Sandinista movement that overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, and withstood a concerted effort by the U.S. government, which viewed him as a Soviet-backed threat, to oust him through a rebel force called the Contras.
The fiery, mustachioed leftist ruled through a junta, then was elected in 1984 but was defeated after one term in 1990. After two more failed runs, he softened his rhetoric, took a free-market stance, and regained the presidency in the 2006 election.
To his supporters, he is just plain Daniel, while opponents say that in his new incarnation, he has espoused "Orteguismo," a politics of personality based on Christianity, socialism and free enterprise.
In his most recent term, Ortega has built wide support among the youth and the poor in a country of 5.8 million people, more than 40 percent of whom live on less than $2 a day.
He also has maintained ties to the U.S. even as he has grown closer to Venezuelan socialist President Hugo Chavez, signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement and cultivated Nicaragua's large business sector. Per capita income, one of the lowest in Latin America, has grown steadily since 2006, according to the World Bank, which has praised Ortega's macroeconomic policies as "broadly favorable."
Still, he has been helped immensely by Chavez, who according to estimates has provided at least $500 million a year in discounted oil and outright donations.
Many warn his success comes at democracy's expense. Claims of widespread fraud in the 2008 municipal elections led Washington to cancel $62 million in development aid.
The 2006 election drew more than 18,000 election observers. This time election observation is much more difficult and local observers are being denied credentials.
The European Union and the Organization of America States have negotiated access to Sunday's vote. The Carter Center, whose Nicaragua delegation was led by former President Jimmy Carter in 2006, has elected not to observe because of the restrictions.
By any measure?Drew Houston?and his?Dropbox?team are having a?hugely successful run. In Houston's final Founder Stories episode with TechCrunch editor, Erick Schonfeld,?Houston says he plans to maintain this momentum?by focusing on mobile, and just about everything else. Houston says Dropbox has secured a new agreement with HTC, where it "is going to be baked into tens-of-millions of [Android] phones" and like Facebook, Dropbox plans to stamp its product on everything. "In 18-months you are going to see little Dropbox buttons everywhere."
OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) ? Police arrested more than 100 demonstrators early on Thursday in clashes that activists and Oakland city officials alike blamed on agitators who provoked unrest following a day of mostly peaceful rallies against economic inequality.
Officials said eight people -- five civilians and three police officers -- were injured in violence that left Oakland streets littered with graffiti, smashed glass and debris. But the nature or severity of those injuries was not disclosed.
Busloads of police in riot gear advanced on demonstrators after midnight, firing tear gas to disperse hundreds lingering in downtown streets hours after protesters numbering in the thousands had forced a shutdown of the busy Port of Oakland.
The clampdown appeared aimed at preventing protesters from expanding their foothold in the streets around a public plaza that has become a hub for demonstrations in Oakland, a largely working-class city on the eastern banks of San Francisco Bay.
City officials said police acted in response to "a select group of people" who vandalized property, set several fires, assaulted police officers and broke into a downtown building.
"We had the opportunity to isolate the main group of people who seemed to be hiding in the crowd all day," Mayor Jean Quan told a news conference. "The police, I think, very effectively got in and surrounded and arrested them."
Activists from the Occupy Oakland movement, who are aligned with anti-Wall Street protests in New York and other U.S. cities against corporate excesses, high unemployment and bank bailouts, said the vandalism gave police an excuse to intervene. Some blamed "anarchist youths" for the unrest.
"Everything went beautiful until these guys (came) with scarves around their mouths, and then all hell broke loose. Our city just got demolished," said Johnny Allen, 60, a health-care provider sweeping away debris in front of City Hall.
City crews pressure-washed graffiti messages such as "kill cops" and "SMASH" that had been sprayed on downtown buildings.
Protester Laura Long said it was unfortunate the rallies in the city "should be marred by broken windows and graffiti."
Still, she called the police action "unprovoked."
Acting Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan, addressing a special meeting of the city council on Thursday, said 101 people had been arrested.
'ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE'
Several hundred people attended the boisterous meeting, including protesters asking the city for more support and residents who backed them.
Business leaders called on the council to shut down the downtown protest encampment, saying it had damaged the local economy by driving customers away from stores and prompting new businesses to reconsider plans to relocate to Oakland.
"The situation we find ourselves in is absolutely unacceptable. We want Occupy Oakland closed," Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce president Joe Haraburda said, to boos and hisses from protesters in the audience.
The unrest in Oakland, which has shot to the forefront of nationwide Occupy Wall Street protests, came a week after former U.S. Marine Scott Olsen was badly injured in a previous clash between police and protesters.
The wounding of Olsen, an Iraq war veteran turned peace activist, appeared to galvanize Oakland's demonstrators and helped broaden their grievances to include police brutality.
Following a day of rallies that drew some 7,000 activists at their height, police sought shortly after midnight to pen demonstrators back inside Frank Ogawa Plaza, a square next to City Hall that protesters have for weeks used as a camp.
Despite some early sporadic vandalism, demonstrators on the scene said downtown streets were largely calm when police -- who had kept their distance throughout the day -- arrived and ordered the "unlawful assembly" to disperse.
Lined up shoulder to shoulder, police fired volleys of tear gas, forcing the demonstrators to retreat to the plaza, then made a second charge with batons and tear gas about an hour later to drive protesters farther into the square's interior.
Some protesters hurled tear gas canisters and rocks back at police. At least one was seen being carried away with a leg injury. Another who had been arrested, his hands bound behind him, lay on the ground with blood streaming down his face.
Adam Konner, 29, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, said he didn't clearly hear a police announcement ordering "campers to move back to your tents," before officers rushed in.
"I was trying to figure what they were saying. I was trying to figure out if I could go back into the plaza," he told Reuters, recounting being knocked to the ground and arrested.
The streets were calm by daylight. Dozens of tents remained standing in the plaza, and a cold drizzle dampened prospects for further disturbances later in the day.
The Port of Oakland, the nation's fourth busiest maritime container-cargo hub with $39 billion in yearly imports and exports, was back in full swing by late morning after being shut down by the protests on Wednesday.
Friction between some Occupy Oakland protesters seemed deepened by the unrest after disagreements flared overnight between a minority of protesters who set up trash-can barricades and others, often older demonstrators, who lectured about the need to keep protests peaceful.
A sign on a coffee shop with a shattered window offered an apology: "We're sorry. This does not represent us."
(Additional reporting by Noel Randewich, Dan Levine, Lisa Baertlein, Jim Christie and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Todd Eastham)
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Russia is on the verge of ending its 18-year wait to join the World Trade Organization after accepting a trade deal with Georgia, the last big obstacle to membership of a club that will seal its integration into the global economy.
Russia's accession will be the biggest step in world trade liberalization since China joined a decade ago, making its $1.9 trillion economy more attractive to investors 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After nearly two decades of tortuous negotiations with the 153-member club, Russia's last challenge was to reach a deal with Georgia to stop its entry being blocked by the former Soviet republic with which it fought a short war in 2008.
Russia's top negotiator said Moscow had accepted the terms of a compromise deal proposed by Tbilisi on monitoring mutual trade, and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili hailed the deal as a "diplomatic victory."
President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking at the Group of 20 Summit in Cannes, said he hoped to have the "good news" of Russia's WTO membership tied up by the end of the year.
"The long-anticipated entry of Russia into the WTO would be a good contribution to our common cause" of liberalizing trade and investment, Medvedev said. "It is fruitful to both us and our partners.
Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergi Kapanadze, whose country does not have diplomatic relations with Russia, told Interfax news agency: "Everything should reach its conclusion ... by the 10th of November."
This is the date for a meeting of a WTO working group which can then draw up a final document for approval by WTO trade ministers in Geneva on December 15.
Entry also needs the approval of Russian parliament, which is likely before an election next March that is expected to return Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to the presidency.
PUTIN SEES ECONOMIC GAINS
Russia's entry will secure membership of the biggest economy still outside the WTO and send a signal to companies and investors that Russia is starting to move closer to a rule-based system of doing business.
Putin can expect little in the way of electoral gains from an issue that analysts say does not interest voters.
But although he has shown signs of frustration with the long accession process, Putin has made clear he regards WTO entry as vital to fostering economic growth and development by attracting foreign investors and lowering trade barriers.
The World Bank says WTO entry could increase the size of the Russian economy by 3.3 percent in the medium term and 11 percent in the long term.
"WTO membership will have no immediate impact on economic growth, the day-to-day operations of Russia's corporations or on the risk premium investors apply to investment in the country," said Chris Weafer of Troika Dialog investment bank.
"However, membership does establish a powerful catalyst for a more serious approach to creating economic reform and industry efficiency."
Traders say a clear indication of a deal for entry could boost Russian stock markets by more than 5 percent, offering some potentially positive news for investors worried by volatility linked to the euro zone debt crisis.
NEGATIVE IMPACT FOR SOME FIRMS
The WTO, which sets out to supervise and liberalise trade between its members and solve trade disputes between them, was once viewed by Moscow as an instrument of capitalist hegemony.
Opponents in Russia now say international companies will use their clout to stifle domestic producers although Russia says it has fended off attempts to split up gas monopoly Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas company.
Firms in aerospace, the auto industry and local manufacturers of tradable goods could suffer, analysts say.
"Concerns span fears about domestic industries losing against more competitive foreign counterparts, households finding it more challenging to adjust to the new environment, and Russia standing little to gain quantitatively," said Ivan Tchakarov of Renaissance Capital investment bank.
He dismissed the concerns as showing a lack of understanding of the size of the potential gains.
Georgia, which had been under pressure from its Western allies to reach a deal with Russia, offered what it called a final compromise trade agreement last week.
"We are happy that Georgia supported the draft agreement and that finally an agreement has been reached," Russia's WTO accession negotiator Maxim Medvedkov told Reuters by telephone.
Under a proposal worked out with Swiss mediation, Medvedkov said Russia had accepted the use of an independent company to audit data on trade between Russia, two rebel regions backed by Moscow, and Georgia.
"Russia and Georgia, as members of the WTO, would have to pass this data to an integrated database," Medvedkov said.
(Additional reporting by Gleb Bryanksi, Margarita Antidze and Alexei Anishchuk; Writing by Timothy Heritage, Amie Ferris-Rotman and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Sophie Hares)
Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center have discovered an alternative mechanism for the extension of the telomere repeat sequence by DNA repair enzymes.
The ends of the chromosomes, the telomeres, are repetitive DNA sequences that shorten every time a cell divides during the process of duplicating its genome. Once the telomeres become very short the cell stops dividing. Thus, telomeres work like a cellular clock that keeps an eye on the number of cell divisions. And once the cell's time is over it can no longer divide. Circumventing this control mechanism is crucial for tumor cells in order to proliferate without limits. In the majority of tumors this is accomplished by reactivating telomerase, an enzyme that normally extends the telomeres only in embryonic cells, and thus resets the cellular clock during development. However, a 10-15% fraction of tumors keeps on dividing without telomerase by making use of what is called the ALT-mechanism for "Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres". The hallmark of ALT cancer cells is a special type of complexes of promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein at the telomeres that are termed ALT-associated PML nuclear bodies or APBs.
ALT-tumors can be identified by the presence of APBs on fluorescence microscopy images since normal cells do not have these structures. However, the function of APBs has remained mysterious. In a recent study, Inn Chung and Karsten Rippe from the German Cancer Research Center together with Heinrich Leonhard from the LMU in Munich applied a novel approach to study APBs. They succeeded in artificially making APBs in living cells by tethering PML and other APB proteins to the telomeres. In this manner they could not only trace the assembly of APBs but were able to investigate what happens after APB formation. They could show that the de novo formed APBs induced the extension of the telomere repeat sequence by a DNA repair synthesis mechanism. This demonstrates for the first time that APBs have an important function for the alternative telomere lengthening mechanism, and suggests that disrupting APBs would stop proliferation of ALT-positive tumor cells once their telomeres become too short. This makes APBs a promising new target of cancer cells, in which the ALT mechanism is active.
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Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres: http://www.helmholtz.de/en/index.html
Thanks to Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres for this article.
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Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions did not take kindly to Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin?s criticism of Alabama?s rigid enforcement of immigration laws during a speech promoting the DREAM Act, attacking Durbin from the Senate floor and contributing to a letter demanding that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano closes safe havens for illegal immigrants.
During his speech Wednesday evening, Sessions told Durbin to stop casting aspersions on other states until his state dispenses with breaking the law via sanctuary city policies ? the most egregious of which, he said, is Cook County Ill.
?If we are going to talk about who is, and who is not, above the law, I suggest that my good friend ? and we have worked together on a number of things, some of them criminal justice issues ? the senator from Illinois, needs to clean up his own backyard rather than casting unfounded criticisms on states that are taking up a valuable effort to see that our immigration laws actually are enforced, to help end the lawlessness that has caused so much disruption in our country and upset the American people,? Sessions said.
?Cook County has decided that it gets to decide who gets deported from the country and when, and acting in this way directly undermines federal law enforcement,? Sessions said, noting his horror at the fact that Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that she has not looked into the Cook County immigration policies.
?So I would suggest,? the Alabama senator continued, ?that the Attorney General [Eric Holder] take a little timeout from his lawsuit against Arizona or Alabama or other states, and focus a little bit of his attention on a major jurisdiction such as Cook County that is willfully and deliberately acting to undermine federal law enforcement.?
In the speech Sessions was responding to, Durbin made the argument that the Alabama and Arizona immigration enforcement laws were, in essence, un-American, and mentioned some of the young immigrants in Alabama who have written to him and now live in fear.
?When I see the argument being made in Arizona and Alabama, the anti-immigrant argument being made, I am thinking to myself they are ignoring the reality. The reality is the diversity of our nation is its strength, the fact that we come from so many different places, drawn and driven to this great country for the opportunity it offers,? he said, explaining that the laws criminalize illegal immigration.
Durbin added that making immigrants criminals will not help the illegal immigration problem and that there is not enough law enforcement capability to even do so.
?Alabama should know ? every state should know ? that no state is above the law? Durbin went on to say. ?No state is above the findings of our Supreme Court. The American people have a right to be frustrated. Congress has repeatedly failed to fix our broken immigration system. The casualties ? many are young ?DREAMers? whom I talked about today, and many have been around many years and still live in the shadows and live in fear every single day.?
According to Sessions, however, it is not Alabama or Arizona that has a problem with the law ? it is places like Cook County that are not enforcing immigration laws.
?Even more egregious is that the administration has refused to take any action against states and localities that affirmatively, proactively and intentionally impede the immigration enforcement in the United States,? ?Sessions said. ?These jurisdictions include San Francisco County, Santa Clara County, Washington, D.C., and perhaps the most egregious example: Cook County, Ill., which recently ? passed an ordinance directing local Illinois law enforcement officials to ignore U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers.?
Sessions and Republican senators Charles Grassley of Iowa, John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma sent a letter to Napolitano on Wednesday requesting that the administration take action against Cook County and other sanctuary localities ?that purposefully and deliberately undermine the laws of the United States and offer sanctuary to illegal aliens who have broken our laws by entering the country illegally.?
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A voter inserts his paper ballot at the Belvedere Park polling booth in East Los Angeles, Nov. 2, 2010.
Last Tuesday, the Obama Justice Department filed a brief arguing that Texas Republicans? proposal to redraw the state?s electoral map was explicitly designed to dilute the power of minority voters. It was an explosive charge, especially given that Texas Governor Rick Perry, who signed the redistricting bill into law, is angling for President Obama?s job. But the incident passed with little national attention, just another star in a constellation of new Republican-led efforts to overhaul voting laws in states where key Democratic constituencies ? African Americans, Latinos and youths ? comprise a significant share of the electorate. ?There?s a national assault on voting rights,? says Wendy Weiser, a lawyer at New York University?s non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice, ?the most significant assault in decades.?
It?s not just Texas where the Obama Administration has gotten involved. Earlier this year, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law a sweeping revision of his state?s voting rules. In accordance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Florida initially sought the Justice Department?s approval before implementing the new measure. But on Oct. 24, Florida?s appointed secretary of state Kurt S. Browning, a Republican, asked a federal judicial panel to validate key provisions ahead of Florida?s Jan. 31 presidential primary, without DOJ?s approval. Among the controversial provisions: Individual counties will no longer be required to offer voting on the Sunday before Election Day. This, critics say, explicitly targets turnout efforts by African-American churches ? commonly known as ?Souls to the Polls? ? that has helped blacks account for one-third of all votes cast on Sundays before Election Day. Another provision requires third-party groups authorized to participate in voter registration drives to submit completed forms within 48 hours of filling them out, rather than 10 days, or risk steep fines. Florida?s League of Women Voters is challenging the provision, and it has suspended voter registration drives for the first time in its seven-decade history. In the meantime, for this year?s Nov. 1 elections, the new law will be in effect in all but five counties ? including Hillsborough, of which Tampa is the county seat. State officials insist average voters won?t notice the changes. Nevertheless, Deirdre Macnab, president of Florida?s League of Women Voters, says, ?People are confused.?
Of course, early voting doesn?t just happen on Sundays. For many cash-strapped municipalities, mail-balloting is a less expensive alternative to renting and staffing polling stations. In 2008, nearly one-third of all ballots cast nationwide arrived before Election Day, many of them by mail. In 11 states, including Arizona, Florida and North Carolina, roughly half of all votes arrived early. Early voting is also credited with?helping to seal Barack Obama?s victory in 2008 by driving record turnout among minority voters, a trend that emerged after 2002?s Help America Vote Act. Republicans are now taking unprecedented steps to reverse the shift to early voting. In Ohio, officials are considering a measure backed by Governor John Kasich that would cut the window for early voting by more than half. On Tuesday, most of Colorado?s 64 counties will hold elections exclusively by mail. In September, Colorado?s elected secretary of state, Republican Scott Gessler, sued the clerk of Democratic-leaning Denver County to stop mailing ballots to voters the state deems ?inactive? for having failed to participate in the 2010 elections. The county clerk?s office successfully argued that such efforts would pose unnecessary hurdles for prospective elderly, minority and low-income voters. Observers expect the issue to persist in the courts, and legislature, in the run-up to the 2012 elections.
Perhaps the most intense ballot battle is over voter ID laws. In 2011 alone, 20 state legislatures considered instituting requirements for citizens to show various forms of identification at the polls. New ID laws have been passed in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, and could deter as many as 5 million people nationwide from casting ballots next year. Conservative advocates argue that such measures offer protection against fraud ? especially as ballots leave government officials? hands. The truth is, fraud, and voter irregularity in general, remains rare. Liberal critics worry the requirements will thwart participation among historically disenfranchised groups. One survey suggests that one-quarter of voting-age blacks lack a government-issued photo ID ? nearly three times the share of whites. The new laws will have a far broader effect: Married women who haven?t legally changed their surnames. Elderly people who can?t travel to polling stations. People who can?t afford the cost of government-issued IDs. ?You?ll have more and more poor people, and working people, left out the political equation,? warns Hilary O. Shelton, head of the NAACP?s Washington office.
In Washington, Democratic coalitions ? from the Blue Dog moderates, to the Congressional Black Caucus ? are wrestling with how to respond to this new wave of voting laws. Democrats are running petition drives to challenge the laws. One proposal floated by Rep. Maxine Waters would launch a legal defense fund for black churches facing IRS scrutiny over their voter registration efforts, a tactic mirroring one used by evangelical groups such as the Alliance Defense Fund, which has reportedly spent some $32 million to protect pastors who preach about politics. But many Democrats are wary of engaging in so-called ?street politics.? Memories of the uproar over ACORN, a national grassroots group accused of submitting fraudulent voter registration data during the 2008 election season, remain fresh. But given their dire electoral outlook, Democrats may need to employ every tactic to get their core constituencies to the polls.
UCLA researchers identify brain cells responsible for keeping us awakePublic release date: 3-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mark Wheeler mwheeler@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2265 University of California - Los Angeles
Bright light arouses us. Bright light makes it easier to stay awake. Very bright light not only arouses us but is known to have antidepressant effects. Conversely, dark rooms can make us sleepy. It's the reason some people use masks to make sure light doesn't wake them while they sleep.
Now researchers at UCLA have identified the group of neurons that mediates whether light arouses us or not. Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and colleagues report in the current online edition of the Journal of Neuroscience that the cells necessary for a light-induced arousal response are located in the hypothalamus, an area at the base of the brain responsible for, among other things, control of the autonomic nervous system, body temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue and sleep.
These cells release a neurotransmitter called hypocretin, Siegel said. The researchers compared mice with and without hypocretin and found that those who didn't have it were unable to stay awake in the light, while those who had it showed intense activation of these cells in the light but not while they were awake in the dark.
This same UCLA research group earlier determined that the loss of hypocretin was responsible for narcolepsy and the sleepiness associated with Parkinson's disease. But the neurotransmitter's role in normal behavior was, until now, unclear.
"This current finding explains prior work in humans that found that narcoleptics lack the arousing response to light, unlike other equally sleepy individuals, and that both narcoleptics and Parkinson's patients have an increased tendency to be depressed compared to others with chronic illnesses," said Siegel, who is also a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute and chief of neurobiology research at the Sepulveda Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Mission Hills, Calif.
Prior studies of the behavioral role of hypocretin in rodents had examined the neurotransmitter's function during only light phases (normal sleep time for mice) or dark phases (their normal wake time), but not both. And the studies only examined the rodents when they were performing a single task.
In the current study, researchers examined the behavioral capabilities of mice that had their hypocretin genetically "knocked-out" (KO mice) and compared them with the activities of normal, wild-type mice (WT) that still had their hypocretin neurons. The researchers tested the two groups while they performed a variety of tasks during both light and dark phases.
Surprisingly, they found that the KO mice were only deficient at working for positive rewards during the light phase. During the dark phase, however, these mice learned at the same rate as their WT littermates and were completely unimpaired in working for the same rewards.
Consistent with the data in the KO mice, the activity of hypocretin neurons in their WT littermates was maximized when working for positive rewards during the light phase, but the cells were not activated when performing the same tasks in the dark phase.
"The findings suggest that administering hypocretin and boosting the function of hypocretin cells will increase the light-induced arousal response," Siegel said. "Conversely, blocking their function by administering hypocretin receptor blockers will reduce this response and thereby induce sleep."
Further, Siegel noted, "The administration of hypocretin may also have antidepressant properties, and blocking it may increase tendencies toward depression. So we feel this work has implications for treating sleep disorders as well as depression."
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Other authors on the study included Ronald McGregor (first author), Ming-Fung Wu, Grace Barber and Lalini Ramanathan, all of UCLA, the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the UCLA Brain Research Institute.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Medical Research Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The authors report no conflict of interest.
The UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences is the home within the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA for faculty who are experts in the origins and treatment of disorders of complex human behavior. The department is part of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, a world-leading interdisciplinary research and education institute devoted to the understanding of complex human behavior and the causes and consequences of neuropsychiatric disorders.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
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UCLA researchers identify brain cells responsible for keeping us awakePublic release date: 3-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Mark Wheeler mwheeler@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2265 University of California - Los Angeles
Bright light arouses us. Bright light makes it easier to stay awake. Very bright light not only arouses us but is known to have antidepressant effects. Conversely, dark rooms can make us sleepy. It's the reason some people use masks to make sure light doesn't wake them while they sleep.
Now researchers at UCLA have identified the group of neurons that mediates whether light arouses us or not. Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and colleagues report in the current online edition of the Journal of Neuroscience that the cells necessary for a light-induced arousal response are located in the hypothalamus, an area at the base of the brain responsible for, among other things, control of the autonomic nervous system, body temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue and sleep.
These cells release a neurotransmitter called hypocretin, Siegel said. The researchers compared mice with and without hypocretin and found that those who didn't have it were unable to stay awake in the light, while those who had it showed intense activation of these cells in the light but not while they were awake in the dark.
This same UCLA research group earlier determined that the loss of hypocretin was responsible for narcolepsy and the sleepiness associated with Parkinson's disease. But the neurotransmitter's role in normal behavior was, until now, unclear.
"This current finding explains prior work in humans that found that narcoleptics lack the arousing response to light, unlike other equally sleepy individuals, and that both narcoleptics and Parkinson's patients have an increased tendency to be depressed compared to others with chronic illnesses," said Siegel, who is also a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute and chief of neurobiology research at the Sepulveda Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Mission Hills, Calif.
Prior studies of the behavioral role of hypocretin in rodents had examined the neurotransmitter's function during only light phases (normal sleep time for mice) or dark phases (their normal wake time), but not both. And the studies only examined the rodents when they were performing a single task.
In the current study, researchers examined the behavioral capabilities of mice that had their hypocretin genetically "knocked-out" (KO mice) and compared them with the activities of normal, wild-type mice (WT) that still had their hypocretin neurons. The researchers tested the two groups while they performed a variety of tasks during both light and dark phases.
Surprisingly, they found that the KO mice were only deficient at working for positive rewards during the light phase. During the dark phase, however, these mice learned at the same rate as their WT littermates and were completely unimpaired in working for the same rewards.
Consistent with the data in the KO mice, the activity of hypocretin neurons in their WT littermates was maximized when working for positive rewards during the light phase, but the cells were not activated when performing the same tasks in the dark phase.
"The findings suggest that administering hypocretin and boosting the function of hypocretin cells will increase the light-induced arousal response," Siegel said. "Conversely, blocking their function by administering hypocretin receptor blockers will reduce this response and thereby induce sleep."
Further, Siegel noted, "The administration of hypocretin may also have antidepressant properties, and blocking it may increase tendencies toward depression. So we feel this work has implications for treating sleep disorders as well as depression."
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Other authors on the study included Ronald McGregor (first author), Ming-Fung Wu, Grace Barber and Lalini Ramanathan, all of UCLA, the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the UCLA Brain Research Institute.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Medical Research Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The authors report no conflict of interest.
The UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences is the home within the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA for faculty who are experts in the origins and treatment of disorders of complex human behavior. The department is part of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, a world-leading interdisciplinary research and education institute devoted to the understanding of complex human behavior and the causes and consequences of neuropsychiatric disorders.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
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A source close to the actor tells Us Weekly he welcomed a girl into the world a few weeks ago, though the child's mother remains a mystery. In April, at least, Grant was rumored to be dating Chinese actress Tinglan Hong.
"He's going to be a great dad!" the insider tells the tabloid. "He's beaming about his daughter. He's not with the mum anymore but he's absolutely thrilled."
Grant most famously dated Elizabeth Hurley for 13 years, but he paid $40 for a blow job from a prostitute named Divine Brown in 1995, eventually leading to a split from the gorgeous star.
Back in November of 2009, former Digg Chief Architect Joe Stump and Social Thing founder Matt Galligan first publicly unveiled their new startup, SimpleGeo, which was slated to become the new infrastructure for location-based services. They called it the "Amazon Web Services" for location, offering products that make it easy for developers to build location-enabled web and mobile apps, including storage, context, API features, and polymaps. This morning Mike Arrington reports that SimpleGeo has been acquired by Urban Airship for approximately $3.5 million. In July, the two companies formed a strategic partnership which was intended to, put simply, provide better ways for developers to offer location-aware push notifications in their applications. Geo-targeted notifications were expected to be a big source of revenue for both startups, but it seems that it just made more sense for the companies to move forward as one rather than as two separate entities.
DES MOINES, Iowa ? Allstate Corp. said its third-quarter net income fell 55 percent after natural disasters cost the insurer $1.08 billion.
But Allstate said improved investment results and profit in its auto insurance segment helped offset some of the increased storm losses. Its net income was $165 million, or 32 cents per share, compared with $367 million, or 68 cents per share, a year ago.
The Northbrook, Ill.-based property and casualty insurer said its revenue rose 4.2 percent to $8.24 billion from $7.91 billion a year ago.
The company's adjusted operating income, which excludes capital gains and unusual items, was $84 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with $452 million, or 83 cents per share a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected 8 cents per share on revenue of $7.99 billion.
Before Monday's earnings, Allstate disclosed third-quarter pre-tax catastrophe losses of $1.08 billion, up significantly from the $386 million reported in the 2010 third quarter.
The company saw a significant improvement in its investments, seeing a gain of $264 million from capital gains compared with a loss of $144 million a year ago.
The company said it increased premium rates for home owners to help offset higher claims from violent storms. It also discontinued insurance coverage for homes that it believes are too risky to insure, CEO Thomas Wilson said in an interview.
Home insurance premiums are up about 5 percent compared with a year ago and there are about 4 percent fewer policies in force.
Auto premiums were increased about 1 percent on average from a year ago, Wilson said.
Overall, premiums written fell to $6.43 billion from $6.50 billion.
Allstate's combined ratio was 104.8, reflecting the storm-related losses of $1.1 billion, which affected the ratio by 16.7 points. A ratio above 100 means that for every premium dollar taken in, more than a dollar went to cover claims and expenses. A figure below 100 means the company made a profit on its insurance operations.
Allstate said it experienced 23 catastrophe loss events, including Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.
Excluding catastrophe losses and prior year reserve re-estimates, the combined ratio was 89.2 during the third quarter, consistent with the third quarter of 2010.
Shares fell 82 cents, or 3 percent, to close at $26.34 before the company reported results. In after-market trading shares rose $1.12, or 4.25 percent.
Shares are off 17.4 percent so far this year. They've traded as high as $34.40 in the past 52 weeks.
Allstate repurchased shares valued at $308 million in the quarter, completing a $1 billion share repurchase ahead of schedule, Wilson said.
It also completed on Oct. 1 the $1 billion acquisition of Esurance and Answer Financial from White Mountains Insurance Group. Esurance offers auto insurance direct to consumers online and through agents. While Answer Financial offers online price comparisons among insurance carriers for consumers.
Wilson said the companies offer a good growth market.
"This gives us the ability to leverage our insurance skills to different consumer groups to give them exactly what they want," he said.
They were Tebowing in Israel and Australia, from on top of horses and on the bottom of swimming pools. Protesters on Wall Street paused to make a pose, and so did someone underneath the billowing dress of Marilyn Monroe's statue in Chicago.
There were Tebowing babies, Tebowing dogs and even a Tebowing surfer.
And on Sunday there was Tim Tebow himself on one knee before the Denver Broncos played the Detroit Lions, striking the prayerful pose that has become an online sensation.
The craze was good for a few laughs. Watching Tebow play was enough to make Denver fans want to cry.
They chanted for weeks to give him the ball. They rode a wave of euphoria when he finally did get his chance and somehow pulled off a late comeback from 15 points down against Miami.
And, then, in his first start at home this season, all they could do was watch in silence as Tebow showed what most in the NFL suspected ? that he isn't nearly ready for prime time.
Unfortunately for Tebowers everywhere, he may never be.
The hope was that Tebow would start to begin feeling comfortable in an offense the Broncos tweaked to show off his talents. The reality was he looked as lost as he did the first 55 minutes against the Dolphins, except this time there would be no chance of a comeback.
The Denver faithful were already filing out of the stadium by the time Tebow threw an interception that was returned 100 yards for Detroit's final touchdown in a 45-10 romp that was even more lopsided than the final score indicated. Good thing, because they might have been tempted to boo the offensive ineptitude of their men in orange, and they have way too much invested emotionally in Tebow to begin booing him now.
It wasn't just the ugliness of the day, though, that had to bother Denver fans most. It was the realization that Tebow is such a work in progress that it may be years, not games, before he ever begins to pay any dividends.
John Elway acknowledged almost as much before the game, telling ESPN that Tebow was raw yet had the kind of intangibles that makes winners in the NFL.
"The bottom line is we've got to look at his football ability and is that going to give us the ability next year, two years, three years, four years down the line to be competitive and compete for a world championship," said the former Broncos star who now runs the team's football operations.
Elway got a good look, assuming he didn't avert his eyes as a day that began somewhat promisingly for Tebow quickly turned ugly. It probably won't be the last look, because the way Denver's season is going there's no reason to trot Kyle Orton out there again.
But Elway couldn't have liked anything he saw.
Tebow's mechanics looked terrible, his passes even worse. He held onto the ball too long, and the Lions weren't about to let him make a mark with his feet. He was sacked seven times, and his two turnovers were both converted into touchdowns.
No need to bore you with any more stats because the numbers don't even come close to explaining just how bad things got in a game that was over well before halftime.
About the only positive was both Tebow and his teammates were still playing hard long after any chance to win the game had passed.
"It's very disappointing," Tebow said. "But this is going to test us and our integrity and character. We'll bounce back and have a great week of practice and get ready to go try and get a win next week."
That would be on the road against Oakland, a game in which the Broncos have little choice than start Tebow. They made the mistake of caving into fan pressure by making him the starter last week in Miami, and giving up this quickly would be a de facto admission of that mistake.
The question then becomes, are the Broncos willing to give up the entire season on the hope that Tebow will grow into a legitimate NFL quarterback? Do they need that long to figure out the future of a player who, though great in college, has shown no indication he will even rise to mediocrity as a pro?
Or are they content to trot him out there week after week because he's become a celebrity figure that a lot of people really like?
Indeed, while Tebow's NFL pedigree may be suspect, his celebrity pedigree isn't. So many people were paying homage to Tebow in the last week that the website Tebowing.com was overwhelmed with pictures from around the globe with creative takes on his moment of prayer.
None were any more creative, though, than Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch, who struck his own prayerful pose after knocking Tebow to the ground in the first quarter.
Proof enough that even a bad day for Tebow is still a good day for Tebowing.
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Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or follow at http://twitter.com/timdahlberg
(Image: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/G. Neukum)
(Image: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/G. Neukum)
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Public release date: 3-Nov-2011
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Back in November of 2009, former Digg Chief Architect Joe Stump and Social Thing founder Matt Galligan first publicly unveiled their new startup,