robotic sheffield: 2013

Sunday, November 3, 2013

A mimic of 'good cholesterol' could someday treat cardiovascular and other diseases

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

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Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society

A new type of "good cholesterol," made in the lab, could one day deliver drugs to where they are needed in the body to treat disease or be used in medical imaging, according to scientists. Their report on the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) mimic, which is easy to make in large amounts, appears in the journal ACS Nano.

Zahi A. Fayad, Robert Langer, YongTae (Tony) Kim, Francois Fay, Willem Mulder and colleagues explain that HDL is a natural nanoparticle that carries cholesterol throughout the body. Because it acts like a scavenger, collecting cholesterol and taking it to the liver for breakdown, HDL has emerged from being simply a marker for cardiovascular disease the number one killer of men and women in America to being a therapeutic agent. Clinical trials are testing its potential to combat atherosclerosis, the build-up of plaques in blood vessels that can lead to heart attacks or strokes. Scientists are also exploring new ways to use it for drug delivery. But HDL is complex and comes in many varieties. It takes several labor-intensive steps to get a uniform collection of these particles with current methods, which aren't easily scaled up for clinical applications. That's why Fayad and Langer's groups devised a new and improved method for making HDL-like particles.

The scientists showed that microfluidics the same technology that enabled the invention of inkjet printers allowed them to make material called HDL that looks and acts like HDL in a single, rapid step. Not only does this material offer a possible, easy new way to treat cardiovascular disease, but the researchers also attached drug compounds, as well as dyes and nanocrystals used in medical imaging (such as those used for MRIs and CT scans), to the particles.

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The authors acknowledge funding from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the American Heart Association.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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A mimic of 'good cholesterol' could someday treat cardiovascular and other diseases

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society

A new type of "good cholesterol," made in the lab, could one day deliver drugs to where they are needed in the body to treat disease or be used in medical imaging, according to scientists. Their report on the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) mimic, which is easy to make in large amounts, appears in the journal ACS Nano.

Zahi A. Fayad, Robert Langer, YongTae (Tony) Kim, Francois Fay, Willem Mulder and colleagues explain that HDL is a natural nanoparticle that carries cholesterol throughout the body. Because it acts like a scavenger, collecting cholesterol and taking it to the liver for breakdown, HDL has emerged from being simply a marker for cardiovascular disease the number one killer of men and women in America to being a therapeutic agent. Clinical trials are testing its potential to combat atherosclerosis, the build-up of plaques in blood vessels that can lead to heart attacks or strokes. Scientists are also exploring new ways to use it for drug delivery. But HDL is complex and comes in many varieties. It takes several labor-intensive steps to get a uniform collection of these particles with current methods, which aren't easily scaled up for clinical applications. That's why Fayad and Langer's groups devised a new and improved method for making HDL-like particles.

The scientists showed that microfluidics the same technology that enabled the invention of inkjet printers allowed them to make material called HDL that looks and acts like HDL in a single, rapid step. Not only does this material offer a possible, easy new way to treat cardiovascular disease, but the researchers also attached drug compounds, as well as dyes and nanocrystals used in medical imaging (such as those used for MRIs and CT scans), to the particles.

###
The authors acknowledge funding from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the American Heart Association.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/acs-amo103013.php
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Social Security benefits to go up by 1.5 percent

This undated handout image provided by the Social Security Administration shows a prepaid MasterCard debit card that Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients who do not have bank accounts have the option of getting with their benefits instead of a paper check. The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation that will be released Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Social Security Administration)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Social Security benefits for nearly 58 million people will increase by 1.5 percent next year, the government announced Wednesday.

The increase is among the smallest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. It is small because consumer prices haven't gone up much in the past year.

The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation that was released Wednesday morning.

The COLA affects benefits for more than one-fifth of the country. In addition to Social Security payments, it affects benefits for millions of disabled veterans, federal retirees and people who get Supplemental Security Income, the disability program for the poor.

The amount of wages subject to Social Security taxes is also going up. Social Security is funded by a 12.4 percent tax on the first $113,700 in wages earned by a worker, with half paid by employers and the other half withheld from workers' pay.

The wage threshold will increase to $117,000 next year, the Social Security Administration said. Wages above the threshold are not subject to Social Security taxes.

Social Security pays retired workers an average of $1,272 a month. A 1.5 percent raise comes to about $19.

"By providing protection against inflation, the COLA helps beneficiaries of all ages maintain their standard of living, keeping many from falling into poverty," said AARP executive vice president Nancy LeaMond. "The COLA announced today is vital to millions, but at an average of just $19 per month, it will quickly be consumed by the rising costs of basic needs like food, utilities and health care."

The COLA announcement had been scheduled for two weeks ago. It was delayed because the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not issue the inflation report for September during the partial government shutdown.

Since 1975, annual Social Security raises have averaged just over 4 percent. Next year will mark only the seventh time the COLA has been less than 2 percent, including three of the past five years. This year's increase was 1.7 percent. There was no COLA in 2010 or 2011 because inflation was too low.

In some years, part of COLA has been erased by an increase in Medicare Part B premiums, which are deducted automatically from Social Security payments. But Medicare announced Monday that Part B premiums, which cover doctor visits, will stay the same in 2014, at $104.90 a month for most seniors.

By law, the cost-of-living adjustment is based on the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers, a broad measure of consumer prices generated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It measures price changes for food, housing, clothing, transportation, energy, medical care, recreation and education.

The COLA is calculated by comparing consumer prices in July, August and September each year to prices in the same three months from the previous year. If prices go up over the course of the year, benefits go up, starting with payments delivered in January.

Lower prices for gasoline are helping keep inflation low, said Polina Vlasenko, a research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline has dropped over the past year from $3.53 to about $3.28, according to the automotive club AAA.

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Associated Press reporter Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter at http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-30-Social%20Security-COLA/id-6d9f547bde0149ab9916b2c2f13fcd34
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As Olympics Near, Bobsledder Still Fighting For A Spot

With just a hundred days to go before the Winter Olympic Games open in Russia, even many gold medalists are still fighting for a place on Team USA. Justin Olsen, a bobsledder from San Antonio, Texas, helped the U.S. win a historic gold medal four years ago in Vancouver, but he's struggled to overcome injuries in the lead-up to Sochi.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/29/241548524/as-olympics-near-bobsledder-still-fighting-for-a-spot?ft=1&f=3
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Big Bird, Elmo to encourage kids to eat produce

WASHINGTON (AP) — A trip down the grocery store produce aisle could soon feel like a stroll down "Sesame Street."

Michelle Obama announced Wednesday that the nonprofit organization behind the popular children's educational TV program will let the produce industry use Elmo, Big Bird and Sesame Street's other furry characters free of charge to market fruits and veggies to kids.

The goal is to get children who often turn up their noses at the sight of produce to eat more of it.

Under the arrangement, Sesame Workshop is waiving the licensing fee for its Muppet characters for two years.

As soon as next spring, shoppers and children accompanying them can expect to see their favorite Sesame Street characters on stand-alone signs and on stickers and labels on all types of produce regardless of whether it comes in a bag, a carton or just its skin.

An "unprecedented step," Mrs. Obama said of the agreement. "And they're doing this free of charge. Yes!" she said as she pumped her fists in the air before an audience seated in the State Dining Room of the White House.

The first lady cited a study published last fall in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in which Cornell University researchers gave more than 200 boys and girls ages 8 to 11 the choice of eating an apple, a cookie or both. Most kids went for the cookie. Asked to choose again after researchers put Elmo stickers on the apples, nearly double the number of kids chose the fruit, she said.

"Just imagine what will happen when we take our kids to the grocery store, and they see Elmo and Rosita and the other Sesame Street Muppets they love up and down the produce aisle," Mrs. Obama said. "Imagine what it will be like to have our kids begging us to buy them fruits and vegetables instead of cookies, candy and chips."

The agreement between Sesame Workshop and the Produce Marketing Association is the latest step by the private sector to support "Let's Move," the first lady's nearly 4-year-old campaign to reduce childhood obesity rates in the U.S.

It also is the first announcement since a summit on food marketing to children that Mrs. Obama convened at the White House last month, where she urged a broad range of companies to do more, faster, to promote foods with less salt, fat and sugar to youngsters.

Sesame Street characters Elmo and Rosita, who also speaks Spanish, joined her for the announcement.

Afterward, Mrs. Obama joined the Muppets at her garden on the South Lawn for the annual fall harvest. White House staff helped students from elementary schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia with the harvest. The group, including the first lady, also prepared — and ate — turkey veggie wraps made using some of the freshly picked cucumbers and tomatoes.

Sam Kass, the "Let's Move" executive director, said it was a big step for Sesame Workshop to waive its licensing fee, which is a major source of income for the nonprofit.

"For them to step in and do this is a really big thing," said Kass, who also is an assistant White House chef.

Sherrie Westin, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Sesame Workshop, said waiving the fee is not normal practice and that it's too early to say how much revenue would be lost. But she said the deal gives the company another way to use the characters to pitch to children and families the healthier-eating messages that are part of its TV show.

"It would be a shame not to use them to that end," she said of the Muppets.

Larry Soler, president and chief executive of the Partnership for a Healthier America, said kids younger than 5 don't eat enough fruits and vegetables, and that it gets worse as children grow up.

He said the agreement hopefully will "drive excitement" and interest in eating fruits and vegetables that might not otherwise exist. The partnership is a nonprofit organization that supports the first lady's campaign.

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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

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Online:

Sesame Workshop: http://www.sesameworkshop.org

Produce Marketing Association: http://www.pma.com

Let's Move: http://www.letsmove.gov

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/big-bird-elmo-encourage-kids-eat-produce-170929422--politics.html
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Bloomberg Businessweek's Obamacare Cover Is Perfect

In case you haven't noticed, it's been kind of a rough year in Washington. And it's especially rough for one guy in particular. Freshly inaugurated and Instagram-friendly, President Obama promised a new, tech-savvy future for America. The latest cover of Bloomberg Businessweek pretty much sums up how that's working out.

Red ink runs at Sony again, cuts profit forecast

A man walks by a discount electronics shop displaying Panasonic products in Tokyo Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Panasonic said its quarterly profit improved to 63.3 billion yen ($644 million) from a 698.6 billion yen loss the year before. Panasonic, like Sony, has benefited from weaker yen. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

A man stands by a huge advertisement board of Panasonic at a train station in Tokyo Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Panasonic said its quarterly profit improved to 63.3 billion yen ($644 million) from a 698.6 billion yen loss the year before. Panasonic, like Sony, has benefited from weaker yen. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

TOKYO (AP) — The "White House Down" flop added to earnings woes at Sony Corp. in the latest quarter, dragging the entertainment and electronics giant to a 19.3 billion yen ($196 million) loss.

The action movie's lackluster box office, especially compared with last year's releases of "21 Jump Street" and "The Amazing Spider Man," contributed to a 17.8 billion yen ($181 million) operating loss for Sony's pictures division, the company said Thursday.

The company slashed its profit forecast for the fiscal year ending in March to 30 billion yen from 50 billion yen, reflecting deep-seated problems in its electronics business, televisions in particular, and the disappointing performance at Sony Pictures.

"White House Down" starred Jamie Foxx as President of the United States and Channing Tatum as a Capitol police officer who ends up as the president's impromptu bodyguard while touring the executive residence with his daughter just as a band of rogue former soldiers and government employees attack. Milder in its violence, it appeared to suffer from comparisons with "Olympus Has Fallen," a slightly earlier release featuring a former North Korean terrorist who takes the president hostage.

Sony's sales for the July-September quarter rose 10.6 percent from a year earlier to 1.78 trillion yen ($18.1 billion), thanks mainly to the favorable impact of the yen's decline against the U.S. dollar. Adjusted for the 20 percent drop in the value of the yen, revenue fell 9 percent.

The company's sales of digital cameras and video cameras fell while its television, music and smartphone businesses improved. Sales of its Xperia Z smartphone helped and are expected to remain strong, the company said.

Although sales of televisions and personal computers improved slightly from earlier in the year, they were lower than the same quarter of 2012.

"The electronics business is declining beyond expectations" due to shrinking sales of televisions and other audio-visual equipment, along with slowing growth in major emerging markets such as China, the company said in its presentation.

"Sony expects its business environment to continue to be severe in the second half of the fiscal year," it said.

Sony said it is striving to improve profitability at its troubled television division by focusing on sales of higher cost products such as its 4K LCD TVs.

The company, which has suffered declining fortunes for several years, is also gearing up for the launch of its PlayStation 4 game machine.

But it still faces fierce competition from Apple Inc's iPad and iPhone as well as from powerful South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co.

Sony sank to record losses for the fiscal year ended March 2012, reporting the worst result in the company's six decade history.

Still, its loss for April to September narrowed to 15.8 billion yen ($161 million) from 40 billion yen in the first half of the previous fiscal year.

Rival Panasonic, meanwhile, said its quarterly profit improved to 63.3 billion yen ($644 million) from a 698.6 billion yen loss the year before.

Panasonic, like Sony, has benefited from weaker yen. While its domestic sales fell 4 percent, sales overseas climbed 11 percent. Total revenue of 1.88 trillion yen ($19.1 billion) was up 3 percent from a year earlier after taking a hit from the sale of Sanyo businesses carried out in the current fiscal year.

Panasonic raised its sales forecast to 7.4 trillion yen ($75.3 billion) and doubled its profit forecast for the fiscal year to 100 billion yen ($1 billion).

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-31-Japan-Earns-Sony/id-bc6751b9c6eb49a5a6b78c1d9f721663
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Warming report sees violent, sicker, poorer future

WASHINGTON (AP) — Starvation, poverty, flooding, heat waves, droughts, war and disease already lead to human tragedies. They're likely to worsen as the world warms from man-made climate change, a leaked draft of an international scientific report forecasts.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will issue a report next March on how global warming is already affecting the way people live and what will happen in the future, including a worldwide drop in income. A leaked copy of a draft of the summary of the report appeared online Friday on a climate skeptic's website. Governments will spend the next few months making comments about the draft.

"We've seen a lot of impacts and they've had consequences," Carnegie Institution climate scientist Chris Field, who heads the report, told The Associated Press on Saturday. "And we will see more in the future."

Cities, where most of the world now lives, have the highest vulnerability, as do the globe's poorest people.

"Throughout the 21st century, climate change impacts will slow down economic growth and poverty reduction, further erode food security and trigger new poverty traps, the latter particularly in urban areas and emerging hotspots of hunger," the report says. "Climate change will exacerbate poverty in low- and lower-middle income countries and create new poverty pockets in upper-middle to high-income countries with increasing inequality."

For people living in poverty, the report says, "climate-related hazards constitute an additional burden."

The report says scientists have high confidence especially in what it calls certain "key risks":

—People dying from warming- and sea rise-related flooding, especially in big cities.

—Famine because of temperature and rain changes, especially for poorer nations.

—Farmers going broke because of lack of water.

—Infrastructure failures because of extreme weather.

—Dangerous and deadly heat waves worsening.

—Certain land and marine ecosystems failing.

"Human interface with the climate system is occurring and climate change poses risks for human and natural systems," the 29-page summary says.

None of the harms talked about in the report is solely due to global warming nor is climate change even the No. 1 cause, the scientists say. But a warmer world, with bursts of heavy rain and prolonged drought, will worsen some of these existing effects, they say.

For example, in disease, the report says until about 2050 "climate change will impact human health mainly by exacerbating health problems that already exist" and then it will lead to worse health compared to a future with no futher warming.

If emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas continue at current trajectories, "the combination of high temperature and humidity in some areas for parts of the year will compromise normal human activities including growing food or working outdoors," the report says.

Scientists say the global economy may continue to grow, but once the global temperature hits about 3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than now, it could lead to worldwide economic losses between 0.2 and 2.0 percent of income.

One of the more controversial sections of the report involves climate change and war.

"Climate change indirectly increases risks from violent conflict in the form of civil war, inter-group violence and violent protests by exacerbating well-established drivers of these conflicts such as poverty and economic shocks," the report says.

Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn't part of the international study team, told the AP that the report's summary confirms what researchers have known for a long time: "Climate change threatens our health, land, food and water security."

The summary went through each continent detailing risks and possible ways that countries can adapt to them.

For North America, the highest risks over the long term are from wildfires, heat waves and flooding. Water — too much and too little — and heat are the biggest risks for Europe, South America and Asia, with South America and Asia having to deal with drought-related food shortages. Africa gets those risks and more: starvation, pests and disease. Australia and New Zealand get the unique risk of losing their coral reef ecosystems, and small island nations have to be worried about being inundated by rising seas.

Field said experts paint a dramatic contrast of possible futures, but because countries can lessen some of the harms through reduced fossil fuel emissions and systems to cope with other changes, he said he doesn't find working on the report depressing.

"The reason I'm not depressed is because I see the difference between a world in which we don't do anything and a world in which we try hard to get our arms around the problem," he said.

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Online:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch/

___

Seth Borenstein be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/warming-report-sees-violent-sicker-poorer-future-202323412--politics.html
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Pakistan slams US for killing Taliban leader

FILE - In this file photo taken Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, new Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, left, is seen with his comrade Waliur Rehman, front center, during his meeting with media in Sararogha of Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan along the Afghanistan border. Intelligence officials said Friday, Nov. 1, 2013 that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban Hakimullah Mehsud was one of three people killed in a U.S. drone strike. (AP Photo/Ishtiaq Mehsud, File)

FILE - In this file image taken on Nov. 26, 2008, Hakimullah Meshud, then the deputy Pakistani Taliban leader, is flanked by his comrades in Orakzai tribal region of Pakistan. Intelligence officials said Friday, Nov. 1, 2013 that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban Hakimullah Mehsud was one of three people killed in a U.S. drone strike. (AP Photo/Ishtiaq Mehsud)

FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2009 file photo, Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, left, is seen with his comrade Waliur Rehman during his meeting with media in Sararogha, a Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan along the Afghanistan border. Intelligence officials say the leader of the Pakistani Taliban was one of three people killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike on Friday, Nov. 1, 2013.The officials say agents sent to the site of the attack in the North Waziristan tribal area Friday confirmed the death of the militant leader, Hakimullah Mehsud. (AP Photo/Ishtiaq Mehsud, File)

Supporter of the Pakistani religious party Jamaat-u-Dawa burn a representation of a U.S. flag during a rally to condemn U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

A supporter of the Pakistani religious party Jamaat-u-Dawa holds up a banner during a rally to condemn U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistani government Saturday accused the U.S. of sabotaging peace talks with domestic Taliban fighters by killing their leader in a drone strike, as the militants began the process of choosing a successor.

The rise in tension, even though the U.S. took out Pakistan's No. 1 enemy, shows just how complicated the relationship between the professed allies can be. The two repeatedly have clashed over issues such as drone strikes and Pakistan's alleged support for militants fighting U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban leader slain Friday, Hakimullah Mehsud, was a ruthless figure known for a deadly attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan and a bloody campaign that killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and security personnel.

The Pakistani army has launched numerous operations in the country's northwest in a failed attempt to subdue the group, which aims to topple Pakistan's democratic system and impose a harsh version of Islamic law. It also seeks an end to the country's unpopular alliance with the U.S.

Pakistan's government, which took office in June, has pushed peace talks with the Taliban as the best way to end the conflict, although many people are skeptical a deal is possible.

The drone strike that killed Mehsud in the North Waziristan tribal area came a day before the government was to send a three-member delegation of clerics to the region with a formal invitation to start peace talks, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said. It never ended up going.

Khan called the drone attack "murder" to the peace effort, but hoped the process could continue. He said he warned the U.S. ambassador previously that American drone strikes should not be carried out while Pakistan was trying to hold peace talks and no Taliban leader should be targeted. The government later summoned the U.S. ambassador to complain.

When asked whether he thought the U.S. was trying to deliberately scuttle the peace process, the minister responded: "Absolutely."

"The efforts have been ambushed," the minister said.

He did not say what he felt the U.S. stood to gain but questioned: "Why do they want us to be insecure?"

Another prominent political leader, Imran Khan, whose party controls the government in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, threatened to block trucks carrying supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan over the strike. He said he would push the provincial assembly to adopt a resolution to block the supplies and would do the same nationally.

"Dialogue has been broken with this drone attack," Imran Khan said.

The interior minister said as soon as Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returns from abroad, a national security meeting will be convened to discuss U.S.-Pakistan relations and cooperation. He would not specifically address the threatened supply lines closure.

Azam Tariq, the Pakistani Taliban spokesman in the South Waziristan tribal area, provided the first official confirmation of Mehsud's death Saturday.

"We are proud of the martyrdom of Hakimullah Mehsud," Tariq told The Associated Press by telephone. "We will continue our activities."

Mehsud and the other four militants killed in the strike were buried Saturday at an undisclosed location, Taliban commanders said. Drones still flew over the area, and witnesses in the towns of Mir Ali and Miran Shah reported that Mehsud's supporters fired at them in anger.

The Taliban's Shura Council, a group of commanders representing the group's various wings, met Saturday to choose Mehsud's successor, Tariq said. The Shura will meet for a few days before making a decision.

The two main candidates to succeed Mehsud are Khan Sayed, the Pakistani Taliban leader in the South Waziristan tribal area, and Mullah Fazlullah, the chief in the northwest Swat Valley, Pakistani intelligence officials and Taliban commanders said.

Omar Khalid Khurasani, who heads the group's wing in the Mohmand tribal area, is also in the running, militant commanders said. He was not believed to be a strong candidate.

Several Taliban commanders reported that a majority of Shura members voted for Sayed, but they were still waiting for commanders from remote areas to arrive. One commander said the Shura chose a caretaker chief, Sheharyar Mehsud, to lead until the group chooses a permanent successor.

All officials and the commanders spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

A leadership struggle broke out after Hakimullah Mehsud's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a drone strike in 2009. It took the group weeks to choose a new leader. It's unclear if there will be a similar leadership struggle.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and adviser to the Obama administration who helped craft the agency's drone campaign, said Hakimullah Mehsud's death was "a serious blow to the Pakistani Taliban which may spark internal fractures in the movement."

Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid mourned Mehsud's death in a statement and criticized the "cowardly American attack" that killed him. The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are allies but have mostly focused their attacks on opposite sides of the border.

Mehsud gained a reputation as a merciless planner of suicide attacks in Pakistan. After taking over as the Pakistani Taliban's leader, he tried to internationalize the group's focus. He's believed to have been behind a failed car bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010 and was on the U.S. most-wanted terrorist lists with a $5 million bounty.

Mehsud's death will complicate efforts by the government to negotiate a peace deal. After a drone strike killed the group's No. 2 in May, the Pakistani Taliban fiercely rejected any idea of peace talks and accused the government of cooperating with the U.S.

In recent weeks, the Pakistani Taliban appeared to soften its position against talks but had still made multiple demands for preconditions to any negotiating, including the end of drone strikes in the tribal areas.

Pakistani officials regularly criticize the attacks as a violation of the country's sovereignty, but the government is known to have supported some strikes in the past.

"We have properly understood the duel policy of the Pakistani government and its hypocrisy," the Pakistani Taliban spokesman said Saturday.

___

Mahsud reported from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. Associated Press writer Kimberly Dozier in Washington, Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Afghanistan, Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sebastian Abbot in Lahore and Munir Ahmed and Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-11-02-Pakistan/id-ff9417ba565e40fe8369978055a172bf
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Saturday, November 2, 2013

Indistinguishable from evil

Rockstar vs. Google: How the patent trolling we hate taints the companies we love

I like to riff on Arthur C. Clarke by saying any company, sufficiently large, is indistinguishable from evil. I've used it before when referring to Google's disrespect for copyrights, flip-flop on net neutrality, disregard for privacy, and, through their Motorola subsidiary, horrendous violation of the very spirit of standards-essential patents. And I'm using it again now to describe the actions of the Rockstar consortium - the entity that purchased Nortel and Novell patents, bankrolled by Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, and others. They've sued Google over search-related patents, which is an attack against the heart of Google's business. It's patent trolling, which is a revolting practice.

Motorola's actions don't excuse Rockstar's, nor vice versa. Nor is either illegal. They are, simply, one front among many in a vast, international war. And, it's nothing new. It's a reminder of how venomously these companies take their current competition, and how much they value winning. At any cost.

It's also an important reminder that we, as consumers, should never be loyal to the companies we purchase from. They should be loyal to us. Every decision we make should be a decision anew, based on the conditions of the moment, and only on who is best serving our needs, and the needs of our society at the time.

Here's some further reading on Rockstar vs. Google. I recommend all of it:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/jhYue7lVNaY/story01.htm
Category: time change foxnews Cecily Strong VMAs Laurie Forman

BYOD? Sure! BYOPC? Not so fast...

November 01, 2013

The notion of bring-your-own devices is common at most companies; according to research firm estimates, two-thirds to three-quarters of all companies now allow people to use their own mobile devices for work, meaning at least for email access. We should expect companies to allow the same for PCs, right?

Yes and no.

[ Also on InfoWorld: Learn how Cisco manages 35,000 Macs. | The desktop lover's guide to supercharging Windows 8.1. | Subscribe to InfoWorld's Consumerization of IT newsletter today.]

Bring-your-own PCs have been around as long as there have been PCs -- aka the home computer. People have been taking work home with them (that's why all those lost USB sticks and CDs end up causing embarrassing breach notifications) and accessing email from home since the mid-1980s. That's BYOPC, even if it's been widely ignored in official IT circles.

But today's BYOPC means something else: employees buying their own PCs for use for work as well as for personal needs. Some organizations have been experimenting with that BYOPC notion for years, in fact. It's been driven mainly by executive-level employees who want to use a Mac, which few companies historically allowed outside of specific functions like marketing or development. Those initial exceptions sometimes translated into a more programmatic experiment.

Those experiments typically were about choosing your own PC from an approved list, as well as getting greater admin rights or flexibility, such as the ability to install your own software, often at the price of providing your own tech support. Many companies, especially tech firms like Cisco Systems, Intel, IBM, and BT, have adopted choose-your-own programs and provided flexibility in terms of personal software and usage for employees who travel a lot.

That approach to PC flexibility is likely to grow. But not strict BYOPC, says Chriz Hazelton, a mobile analyst at 451 Research. He notes several reasons why BYOPC is not a natural follow-on to BYOD.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/consumerization-of-it/byod-sure-byopc-not-so-fast-229729?source=rss_infoworld_blogs
Category: jordy nelson zach mettenberger gucci mane Cody Rhodes The White Queen

Brent edges up after 3-days of losses; Federal Reserve eyed

TOKYO (Reuters) - Brent crude futures edged up to above $107 a barrel in cautious early Asia trade on Monday, taking a break after three days of losses as investors wait on the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting later this week.

Brent fell 2.7 percent last week, its biggest weekly decline in a month, amid concerns about higher supply and faltering demand, despite signs of faster economic growth in major consumer China.

London Brent crude for December delivery was trading 27 cents higher at $107.20 a barrel by 0157 GMT, after settling down 6 cents on Friday. U.S. crude for December delivery was down 14 cents at $97.71 a barrel.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting from Tuesday will be closely watched, but is unlikely to lead to any shift in monetary policy as the bank waits for more evidence of how badly Washington's budget battle has hurt the U.S. economy.

Analysts say the Fed could stand pat for the rest of the year as economic data released since a partial government shutdown ended has been surprisingly weak. Job growth slowed in September, a period that preceded the government's 16-day partial shutdown, and business investment plans flagged.

"It looks like we are getting farther and farther away from the tapering of U.S. easing," said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity sales manager at Newedge Japan.

"When there was a near consensus that the tapering should begin from around November, the market easily made one-sided bets, but now we don't know whether that happens by the end of the year, so the market is hard to move in either direction in light trading."

Brent oil is expected to rebound to $107.65 per barrel, as it has completed a five-wave cycle, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

IRAN TALKS

The market will also keep an eye on talks between experts from Iran and six world powers on October 30-31 to prepare the next round of high-level talks on the contested Iranian nuclear programme with hopes of a breakthrough rising thanks to a diplomatic opening from Tehran.

Western diplomats say the meeting, scheduled to take place a week before the next round of negotiations in Geneva in November, could be instrumental in defining the contours of any preliminary agreement on Iran's uranium enrichment campaign.

Iran has not halted its most sensitive uranium enrichment work, a senior Iranian parliamentarian said on Saturday, contradicting a statement by another lawmaker last week.

Any halt of enrichment would be a big surprise, as Western experts believe Iran would want to use such activity as a bargaining chip to win relief from international sanctions.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brent-edges-3-days-losses-federal-eyed-071632392--finance.html
Category: Dario Franchitti nfl schedule katie couric college football Raz B

What Slate Readers Think About the Biggest Challenges Facing America

Applicants waiting in line at a job fair — Readers worry most about where the economy will be in 30 years.

This article is part of a series presented by the American Prosperity Consensus in partnership with Slate. You can read the rest of the stories in this series here.

Three weeks ago, Slate and the Copenhagen Consensus Center launched the American Prosperity Consensus. On the very first day of the government shutdown, APC asked expert organizations and Slate readers for their ideas on how the U.S. might overcome short-term, partisan divisions and begin to focus on the issues that matter most to ensure American prosperity in 2040.

APC seeks to determine the best course of action while acknowledging the trends that will change the U.S. domestically and shape the role it plays in the world. When we look at the reader input and expert commentary, there is a great deal of overlap with major polls. The overarching concerns have been about jobs and the state of the economy. Slate readers pushed these two issues in the comments on nearly every piece we ran in the series. Whether experts were discussing immigration or infrastructure, readers wanted to know how the topic connected to improving the U.S.’s economic situation. They also worry about what kind of jobs will be available to them and to their children. This input is consistent with poll results from Gallup and Pew Research, in which the top two issues Americans rank as most important are a stronger economy and more jobs.

A third area where we see a great deal of agreement is on the affordability of health care, which takes prominence both with Slate readers and in opinion polls. As the country grows older, the cost of necessary care weighs on Americans’ minds. Taken together, these three points cut to the heart of the American Prosperity Consensus: How can we ensure lasting growth from now through 2040?

In other areas, Slate readers tended to focus more on the ways the government spends its money than on the overall level of spending. Your apprehensions over the Affordable Care Act, for example, relate less to the cost of the program itself than on provisions like low-income subsidies. The Gallup and Pew polls point more generally to Americans’ concern over federal spending and the budget deficit. The polls also show continued concern over the threat of terrorism; Slate readers were more troubled instead by the role of threat inflation on bloated military budgets, and worried about how sustained increase in defense spending impacted outlays for areas such as education.

Slate readers also expressed concern about the perceived influence of commercial and corporate interests in the political process. This topic arose on subjects as diverse as obesity and food processing to immigration and bridge maintenance. The common theme you articulated across these topics was that unless the U.S. government can counter this influence, societal benefits will always come second to corporate profits.

There were other noticeable divergences between your feedback and the opinion polls. Slate readers were strongly concerned about climate change and the environment whereas Gallup and Pew polls show that the average American places relatively low importance on these issues compared with subjects such as the economy, taxes, or terrorism.

Fundamental to the APC is the acknowledgement that the very fabric of American society is changing; as I said in my opening piece, the U.S. of 2040 will be a far different place than the country we know today. Americans continue to reshape their identity, and the outcomes of this process will weigh heavily on the nation for years to come. This idea will play out as we ask economists to craft smart solutions to the issues you have named and advance the debate. Future pieces from APC will focus in greater depth on topics from climate change and the environment to lobbying and campaign finance. The project is one of inclusion, and we strive to reach out to as many people as possible.

The American Prosperity Consensus seeks to prioritize the smart policy solutions that will provide the most impact on American growth over the next three decades. We’re looking forward to discovering from you how to make the most of America’s future.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/american_prosperity_consensus/2013/10/the_biggest_challenges_facing_america_readers_respond_to_the_american_prosperity.html
Tags: Rebel Wilson LC Greenwood The Goldbergs Miley Cyrus Vma 2013 alexander skarsgard

Bats confirmed as SARS origin

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

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Contact: Sally Corinaldi
sally.corinaldi@csiro.au
61-352-275-203
CSIRO Australia

A team of international scientists has isolated a very close relative of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) from horseshoe bats in China, confirming them as the origin of the virus responsible for the 2002-3 pandemic.
The SARS-CoV pandemic killed 774 people of the 8094 people infected, a case fatality ratio of almost 10 per cent. With cases diagnosed across the world, the pandemic had an impact on international travel and trade.

The research team, led by Professor Shi Zhengli from Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and including CSIRO and Duke-NUS scientist Professor Linfa Wang, have just had their breakthrough results published in Nature.
While researchers globally have previously used genetic sequencing to demonstrate that bats are the natural reservoirs of SARS-like CoVs, this is the first time that live virus has been successfully isolated from bats to definitively confirm them as the origin of the virus.

The team successfully isolated a SARS-like CoV, named SL-CoV WIV1, directly from faecal samples of Chinese Horseshoe bats using the world renowned bat virus isolation methodology developed by scientists at CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong.

The results will help governments design more effective prevention strategies for SARS and similar epidemics.

Horseshoe bats are found around the world, including Australia and play an important ecological role. Their role in SARS-CoV transmission highlights the importance of protecting the bat's natural environment so they are not forced into highly populated urban areas in search of food.

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

Bats confirmed as SARS origin

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Sally Corinaldi
sally.corinaldi@csiro.au
61-352-275-203
CSIRO Australia

A team of international scientists has isolated a very close relative of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) from horseshoe bats in China, confirming them as the origin of the virus responsible for the 2002-3 pandemic.
The SARS-CoV pandemic killed 774 people of the 8094 people infected, a case fatality ratio of almost 10 per cent. With cases diagnosed across the world, the pandemic had an impact on international travel and trade.

The research team, led by Professor Shi Zhengli from Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and including CSIRO and Duke-NUS scientist Professor Linfa Wang, have just had their breakthrough results published in Nature.
While researchers globally have previously used genetic sequencing to demonstrate that bats are the natural reservoirs of SARS-like CoVs, this is the first time that live virus has been successfully isolated from bats to definitively confirm them as the origin of the virus.

The team successfully isolated a SARS-like CoV, named SL-CoV WIV1, directly from faecal samples of Chinese Horseshoe bats using the world renowned bat virus isolation methodology developed by scientists at CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong.

The results will help governments design more effective prevention strategies for SARS and similar epidemics.

Horseshoe bats are found around the world, including Australia and play an important ecological role. Their role in SARS-CoV transmission highlights the importance of protecting the bat's natural environment so they are not forced into highly populated urban areas in search of food.

###

[

| E-mail

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/2013-10/ca-bca103013.php
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Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler I full fight video

Two years ago, Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandlerbattled for the Bellator lightweight title and produced one of the most exciting back and forth fights in MMA history. Tonight, on Spike, they square off for a second time.

Whether you missed it the first time around or just want to enjoy it again, check out the full fight video of Alvarez vs. Chandler I below and get ready for Bellator 106 tonight. Also, on the free card, Muhammed Lawal and Emanuel Newton face off in a grudge rematch for the interim Bellator light heavyweight title and Pat Curran defends his featherweight title against Daniel Straus.

Follow Elias on Twitter @EliasCepeda

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/eddie-alvarez-vs-michael-chandler-full-fight-video-181203638--mma.html
Category: stenographer bob costas will ferrell Kerry Washington Nokia

I want a ride in the sleekest Lego spaceship I've seen in a long time

I love Lego everything, but spaceships are by far my favorite subject. The great ones—like this one by sioka sculpting—are outstanding examples of sci-fi design and engineering—it's the best way to materialize your future space exploration dreams.