Gaza singer gives Palestinians a reason to smile

Palestinians watch the performance of Palestinian singer Mohammed Assaf, a contestant in a regional TV singing contest, on a large screen in the West Bank city of Nablus, Saturday, June 21, 2013. Palestinians relished a rare moment of pride and national unity Saturday after a 23-year-old wedding singer from a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip won ?Arab Idol,? a regional TV singing contest watched by millions of people. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Palestinians watch the performance of Palestinian singer Mohammed Assaf, a contestant in a regional TV singing contest, on a large screen in the West Bank city of Nablus, Saturday, June 21, 2013. Palestinians relished a rare moment of pride and national unity Saturday after a 23-year-old wedding singer from a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip won ?Arab Idol,? a regional TV singing contest watched by millions of people. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Palestinians watch the televised performance of Mohammad Assaf, 22, a Palestinian finalist on the Arab Idol talent show, in Gaza City, Friday, June 21, 2013. Assaf, Gazan's powerful voice has propelled him to the final at the "Arab Idol" in a TV talent contest choosing a winner in Beirut on Saturday. He is the first Palestinian to qualify for "Arab Idol." (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

A Palestinian girl carries a poster of singer Mohammad Assaf, 22, while watching the televised performance of the Palestinian finalist on the Arab Idol talent show, in Gaza City, Friday, June 21, 2013. Assaf, Gazan's powerful voice has propelled him to the final at the "Arab Idol" in a TV talent contest choosing a winner in Beirut on Saturday. He is the first Palestinian to qualify for "Arab Idol." The poster, front, reads "Vote to Arab Idol Mohammed Assaf," "we have the same dream, our dream is close," and "Vote and the Bank of Palestine votes with you." (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Palestinians watch the televised performance of Mohammad Assaf, 22, a Palestinian finalist on the Arab Idol talent show, in Gaza City, Friday, June 21, 2013. Assaf, Gazan's powerful voice has propelled him to the final at the "Arab Idol" in a TV talent contest choosing a winner in Beirut on Saturday. He is the first Palestinian to qualify for "Arab Idol." (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Palestinians dance and sing while watching the televised performance of Mohammad Assaf, 22, a Palestinian finalist on the Arab Idol talent show, in Gaza City, Friday, June 21, 2013. Assaf, Gazan's powerful voice has propelled him to the final at the "Arab Idol" in a TV talent contest choosing a winner in Beirut on Saturday. He is the first Palestinian to qualify for "Arab Idol". Arabic on the sign on the table reads ?Vote to the son of Palestine NO. 3" and "Vote and the Bank of Palestine votes with you." (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) ? Palestinians relished a rare moment of pride and national unity Saturday after a 23-year-old wedding singer from a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip won "Arab Idol," a regional TV singing contest watched by millions of people.

With the announcement of Mohammed Assaf's victory, fireworks lit up the sky over the West Bank and Gaza.

Thousands who had watched the final show on outdoor screens in the two territories broke into cheers and chants of "Palestine, Palestine." In Gaza City, young men on motorcycles waved Palestinian flags and women dropped candy from balconies.

Rasha Salman, 42, an engineer in Gaza City, was moved to tears. "He brought joy to our hearts and dried some of our wounds," she said. "For a few moments, he united us behind his cause, which is art."

The singer with the bright smile and warm voice had put Palestinian pride center stage during the competition.

In a performance Friday, many in the audience in the TV studio in Beirut jumped to their feet when he struck up his signature anthem to Palestinian nationalism, "Raise the kaffiyeh."

The show, produced by the Saudi-owned MBC Group, was broadcast from the Lebanese capital. Now in its second season, this year's competition began in March with 27 contestants.

Assaf, who was born to Palestinian parents in Libya and grew up in Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp, almost didn't get to compete. He says he had to plead with Hamas to let him leave Gaza, then bribe Egyptian border guards to let him enter the country en route to Lebanon. A fellow Palestinian gave up his slot during the audition phase because he believed Assaf had a better chance at winning.

As Assaf advanced in the competition, excitement and national pride kept building in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories where the Palestinians one day hope to establish a state.

Rooting for the talented performer has allowed Palestinians to feel as one people, forgetting at least briefly their political and geographic split.

Gaza is cut off from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which lie on the other side of Israel. Israeli travel restrictions over the past decade have deepened that separation. Since the Hamas takeover in 2007, Gaza has become more isolated, amid growing animosity between the Islamic militants and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who administers part of the West Bank.

Politicians have tried to latch on to Assaf's popularity.

The Western-backed Abbas called Assaf last month to congratulate him on his strong showing and later, in a statement, urged people across the region to vote for the singer.

After Assaf's victory, Abbas issued a statement saying that "this is a moment of pride and victory for our people, on the way to achieving the dream of establishing the independent state with Jerusalem as its capital."

Hamas at first seemed critical of the "Arab Idol" fever sweeping Gaza, with a spokesman saying last month that the name and idea of the show are blasphemous.

However, Hamas is known for not going against public opinion. In a sign of a shift, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza, Yehiyeh Moussa, this week praised Assaf as the "ambassador for Palestinian art."

Some religious leaders, though, remained harshly critical. Mohammed Salim, delivering a sermon Friday at Islam's third holiest shrine, the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, said Palestinians lost sight of their struggle for independence by getting preoccupied with the show.

"Voting for songs and immorality, evil and sin is not only forbidden, it is a crime against the cause of our people," he said.

___

Daraghmeh reported from Ramallah, West Bank.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-22-Palestinians-Arab%20Idol/id-159e4f1ce3c241bf96456128bd160a98

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New record as haze chokes Singapore

21 June 2013 Last updated at 06:04 ET

Ashleigh Nghiem in Singapore: "This is the fourth day of choking smoke"

Pollution levels reached a new record high for a third day in a row in Singapore, as smoky haze from fires in Indonesia shrouded the city state.

The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit 401 at 12:00 on Friday (04:00 GMT) - the highest in the country's history.

The haze is also affecting Malaysia, with another 100 schools closed in the south of the country.

Indonesia has prepared helicopters and cloud seeding equipment to try to tackle the fires.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loong warned on Thursday that the haze could remain in place for weeks.

"We can't tell how this problem is going to develop because it depends on the burning, it depends on the weather, it depends on the wind," he said.

"It can easily last for several weeks and quite possibly it could last longer until the dry season ends in Sumatra which may be September or October."

'Life threatening'

A PSI reading above 300 is defined as "hazardous", while Singapore government guidelines say a PSI reading of above 400 over 24 hours "may be life threatening to ill and elderly persons".

"Healthy people [may also] experience adverse symptoms that affect normal activity," the government says.

Continue reading the main story

The PSI dropped down to 143 at 17:00 (09:00 GMT), although this is still classed as "unhealthy".

Before this week's episode, the previous air pollution record was from September 1997 during the 1997-1998 South East Asian Haze, when the PSI peaked at 226.

Singapore resident Nicole Wu told the BBC that she had stayed indoors for the past two days.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

I can't even see what's happening outside my house due to the smog?

End Quote Nicole Wu Singapore resident

"It's terrible. In my flat the windows are all closed with the air conditioning on," she said. "My mother has to wear a mask to go shopping."

"I can't even see what's happening outside my house due to the smog. You can't see birds [or] moving objects," she added.

Philip Koh, a doctor, told AFP news agency that the number of medical consultations he had had in the past week had increased by 20%.

"My patients are telling me they are worried about how long this is going to last and how much higher this is going to go," he said.

In Indonesia's Riau province, where the fires are concentrated, the chief of the health department Zainal Arifin said there was an "increasing number of asthma, lung, eye and skin problems due to higher CO2 levels".

"I call for residents to stay at home and reduce outdoor activities," he said.

Diplomatic strain

Singapore's National Environment Agency has started providing hourly PSI updates on its website, in addition to the three-hourly updates it previously provided.

Around 300 schools in southern Malaysia have now been closed as a result of the smog. Schools in Singapore are currently closed for the holidays.

There are also reports of flight delays in both Singapore's Changi airport and Riau province in Indonesia.

The fires are caused by illegal slash-and-burn land clearance in Sumatra, to the west of Singapore.

The smog has strained diplomatic relations between Singapore and Indonesia - two countries that usually share good relations, the BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta reports.

Mr Lee said Singapore had provided satellite date to Indonesia to help it identify companies involved and said that if any Singapore firms were involved, that would be addressed.

Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency said it would deploy two helicopters to conduct "water-bombing" operations, as well as planes with cloud seeding equipment.

More than 100 Indonesian firefighters are attempting to put out the fires in Sumatra.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

We have been fighting fires 24 hours a day for two weeks?

End Quote Ahmad Saerozi Natural resources conservation agency

However, an official in Riau province said they were "overwhelmed and in a state of emergency".

"We have been fighting fires 24 hours a day for two weeks," Ahmad Saerozi, the head of the natural resources conservation agency in Riau, told AFP news agency.

He added that the fires were in peat around three or four metres below the ground, making it particularly hard to fight them.

"It is still burning under the surface so we have to stick a hose into the peat to douse the fire," he said.

"We take one to two hours to clear a hectare, and by then another fire has started elsewhere."

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said "all the country's resources" would be mobilised to extinguish the fires.

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RolePlayGateway?

Within the roleplay known as The Multiverse there is a player-created organization known as The Invictus. Birthed outside of the Multiverse by yours truly, but allowed to blossom when I arrived here a few years ago.

Unlike some organizations that one will find within the Multiverse, or some other media and fiction, the Invictus has no strict code of conduct, uniform, ideology or too much else that can restrict players tempted to approach about having a character join up or just become involved with the Invictus in general.

This is due to the fact that the Invictus are a business, profiteers who sell the skills honed by their members in war, medicine, science and law. This flexibility has allowed for the Invictus to, on an OOC level, become not only a group, but a group of individuals. Characters within the organization tend to be, and are encouraged to be, characters who can exist with or without the Invictus.

The Invictus is meant to be something that helps RP, not hinder it. They can be a plot point, a plot hook, a plot device, something to use for a character's background or just something to use for atmosphere. Maybe your characters hires them as bodyguards, maybe they have an office set up down the road from where your character lives.

Also, here's a picture of some puppies to appeal to a certain demographic:

Right now the Invictus are involved in many plots within the Multiverse. Some more directly than others. So far they're involved in rebuilding the infrastructure and military of the planet Terra, fighting a war with an ageless god going by the name of Lochlyn Haley and his army of supersoldiers, religious fanatics, mercenaries, anarchists, and just plain ol' bad people, and many smaller plots and scenarios as a result of the actions of individual characters.

They've also found themselves in a bit of a proxy war with a group of Invictus defectors named the Lost and their investors from one side of the extremely Irish Horne family led by Colin Horne and the equally Irish Casey mob against the other half of the Horne family led by Colin's first cousin Kane Horne in Wing City on Terra.

So, if anyone is interested in the Multiverse or the Invictus be sure to get in touch with me. You can send me a message, post a reply here or catch me in the Multiverse chat.

And remember those puppies? If I don't get the desired amount of roleplayers or messages the highly-trained team of ex-Navy Seals I have hired will begin the slaughter.

Hope to hear from some of you soon! Think about those puppies.

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway

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Flooding to close core of Canada's oil capital for days

By Nia Williams

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Some residents began returning to damaged homes on Saturday after record-breaking floods in southern Alberta that killed at least three people, displaced more than 100,000 and will leave the core of Canada's oil capital, Calgary, without power for days.

Communities to the south and east of Calgary were on high alert as flood waters washed across the region. And even as Calgary lifted some evacuation orders, officials warned people not to become complacent.

"We have a situation across southern and particularly south-west Alberta of intense saturation, which means 20 millimeters (0.8 inch) of rain that would typically be absorbed could cause massive flooding and run-off," Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths told a news conference.

"Please do not assume because the clouds have cleared and the streets are not flooded with water it is perfectly safe to move back into your community."

The floods followed 36 hours of unusually heavy rainfall which pushed the volume of water in local rivers to record levels. Some communities received six months of their normal rainfall in under two days.

Evacuations started on Thursday, and utility Enmax switched off power to central Calgary on Friday afternoon to avoid water damage to its downtown facilities. The area was still without power and closed to vehicles on Saturday.

A few tourists and residents strolled in the carless streets of the city's core, but the area was eerily quiet.

Officials said it was too early to say how much it would cost to repair flooded homes and rebuild roads and bridges washed away by the murky brown floodwater.

But the floods already look significantly worse than those of 2005, which caused C$400 million ($383 million) in damage in the western Canadian province.

"We are not through the crisis yet," Alberta Premier Alison Redford told a news conference in Medicine Hat in south-east Alberta, where the South Saskatchewan River is expected to crest at 6,000 cubic meters (1.59 million U.S. gallons) per second on Monday morning.

The bulk of the evacuations were in Calgary, a city of 1.1 million that is home to Canada's biggest energy companies, although evacuations in other communities brought the total of displaced people to well above 100,000.

Calgary urged drivers to stay off the roads, and warned people not to get too close to still-raging rivers.

"If you want to help your city, the best thing you can do is stay home," Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, visibly tired after two days of crisis management, told a news conference.

Canada's main oil-producing region in the north of the province, was not affected, although some farmland was flooded, which will likely weaken crops that include wheat and canola.

THREE DEATHS

Police said three bodies had been found near High River, about 60 km (40 miles) south of Calgary.

In Calgary, authorities said water levels were expected to drop in the coming days. But the Bow River was still flowing at around five times its normal rate.

Nenshi said downtown could be off limits until the middle of next week "at the earliest."

A spokesman for Imperial Oil, Canada's second-largest producer and refiner, said the company was working on plans to maintain essential operations, including allowing employees to work from other locations.

Shell Canada said its downtown Calgary offices would be closed until Wednesday and employees would work from home.

It was not clear when trading in Canadian crude oil would resume after little if any trade took place on Friday.

Shorcan Energy Brokers, which provides live prices for many Canadian crude grades, operated out of Toronto on Friday rather than from Calgary, although there were no trades in Western Canada Select heavy blend or light synthetic crude.

Net Energy Inc, the other main Calgary crude broker, was closed on Friday and no trading took place.

Many roads and bridges remained closed, and the city banned the use of tap water for car-washing or other outside activities because treatment plants take more time to process the sludgy water. But Nenshi said Calgary water was still safe to drink.

RETURNING HOME

And as flood waters receded, a few residents were allowed back home to flooded basements and thick layers of silt on streets and sidewalks.

"We had four feet of water," said Gordon Weir, 53, standing outside his home in the city's Elbow Park community as a pump spewed water from his basement onto the street.

"It was all from ground water, so coming up from the sewers and through the concrete. This is one of the higher houses on the block. Our neighbors had seven or eight feet."

Canada's ruling Conservative Party scrapped plans to hold its annual party convention in Calgary next weekend.

"Postponing the convention is the right thing to do for the people of Calgary," said Michelle Rempel, Chair of the convention's Host Committee.

Flood water covered the grounds of the Calgary Stampede, an annual extravaganza of cows, cowboys and horses scheduled to start on July 5. But Nenshi insisted the rodeo would go ahead.

"We're Calgarians. We'll make it work," he said. "It may look different, but the show will go on."

(Writing by Janet Guttsman; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/flooding-close-core-canadas-oil-capital-days-000407537.html

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Georgia GOP eyes nominating conventions. Here's why it matters. (Washington Post)

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Russian rights group evicted from Moscow office

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Authorities forcibly evicted a prominent Russian human rights organization from its office in the early hours of Saturday in a raid its director said he believed was ordered by officials in President Vladimir Putin's administration.

For Human Rights is one of the best-known of the hundreds of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which have been subjected to state inspections under a law Putin signed last year requiring NGOs with foreign funding to register as "foreign agents".

Western powers and rights groups view the legislation and inspections as aimed at intimidating activists and silencing criticism of Putin, who started a new six-year term in May 2012.

Putin, who has accused Western governments of using NGOs to spy on Russia and influence the political situation, says the law is needed to ensure transparency and that the checks are to enforce legal compliance.

The U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul tweeted on Saturday that "the USA is concerned about reports of the forcible seizure of the office of the NGO For Human Rights," adding that this was "another case of intimidating civil society".

Riot police and Moscow mayor's office representatives entered the building housing the office of For Human Rights at about 2 a.m. (2200 GMT Friday), ejecting at least six employees and supporters, said the group's director, Lev Ponomaryov.

"They treated us very roughly. I was dragged across the floor and then kicked," the 72-year-old said by telephone. He said he and five others were taken by ambulance to a first-aid clinic with bruises and scrapes, but none were in hospital.

A Moscow government property official, Maxim Gaman, told state-run news agency RIA on Friday that For Human Rights was being evicted because its lease on the city-owned premises had run out in February and had been terminated on May 27.

A police spokesman said officers had been sent to help city officials evict the group because its lease had run out.

About a dozen people gathered to protest outside the building on Saturday, undisturbed by the police.

FOREIGN AGENT LAW

Ponomaryov said the group had not received an eviction notice. He said the eviction may have been motivated by the group's refusal to give prosecutors documents they had demanded under the foreign agent law.

"I don't know if Putin is behind it but there must have been a decision at a very high level, in the Kremlin," he said. He also blamed Kremlin-appointed mayor Sergei Sobyanin for the eviction.

The presidential press service declined to comment, and Sobyanin's office could not immediately be reached.

The Moscow division of Russia's Interior Ministry on Saturday defended the actions of the police, saying the removal of the employees had been carried out by a private security firm, with police officers only involved in maintaining order outside the building.

Ponomaryov said he had expected to extend the lease as he had done in previous years, and that he was up to date on rent payments. "It's all entirely illegal," he said, adding that a court decision was required to carry out an eviction.

Russia's human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, said city and law enforcement authorities had "tried to resolve a dispute between two parties unilaterally without involving the courts".

He said he had been barred from the scene of he raid in what he called a "crude violation of federal constitutional law", Interfax news agency reported.

Interfax also reported that a special meeting of the Kremlin's Human Rights Council would be held on Wednesday to discuss the incident, with Mayor Sobyanin and the heads of the Moscow police and prosecutors invited to attend.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Jason Bush and Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-rights-group-evicted-moscow-office-094115267.html

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Brazil hit by largest protests yet as hundreds of thousands march

By Paulo Prada

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil's biggest protests in two decades intensified on Thursday despite government concessions meant to quell the demonstrations, as 300,000 people took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro and hundreds of thousands more flooded other cities.

Undeterred by the reversal of transport fare hikes that sparked the protests, and promises of better public services, marchers demonstrated around two international soccer matches and in locales as diverse as the Amazon capital of Manaus and the prosperous southern city of Florianopolis.

"Twenty cents was just the start," read signs held by many converging along the Avenida Paulista, the broad avenue in central Sao Paulo, referring to the bus fare reductions.

In the capital, Brasilia, tens of thousands of protesters by early evening marched around the landmark modernist buildings that house Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential offices.

The swelling tide of protests prompted President Dilma Rousseff to cancel a trip next week to Japan, her office said.

The targets of the protests, now in their second week, have broadened to include high taxes, inflation, corruption and poor public services ranging from hospitals and schools to roads and police forces.

With an international soccer tournament as a backdrop, demonstrators are also denouncing the more than $26 billion of public money that will be spent on the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, two events meant to showcase a modern, developed Brazil.

After the concession on transport fares on Wednesday, activist groups differed over what their next priority should be. But the competing demands of demonstrators appeared to add to the intensity of Thursday's protests.

Inside the Maracan? stadium in Rio de Janeiro, soccer fans sang protest songs and showed support for the throngs of demonstrators gathering in the city. In Salvador, a northeastern city hosting another game of the soccer tournament that serves as a World Cup test run, protesters clashed with police, who fired teargas to disperse crowds.

The unrest comes six months before an election year and at a time when Brazil, after nearly a decade-long economic boom in which the country's profile soared on the global stage, enters a period of uncertainty. Economic growth of less than 1 percent last year, annual inflation of 6.5 percent and a loss of appetite for Brazilian assets among international investors have clouded what had been a feel-good era for Brazil.

Brazil's currency, the real, dropped to a four-year low on Thursday, trading as weak as 2.275 per U.S. dollar. The country's benchmark stock market index, the Bovespa, also hit a four-year low.

CHANGING POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

The protests have shaken the once solid ground under Rousseff and her ruling Workers' Party, a bloc that itself grew out of convulsive demonstrations by Brazil's labor movement 30 years ago. Until inflation and other economic woes began eroding her poll numbers in recent weeks, Rousseff enjoyed some of the highest approval ratings of any elected leader worldwide.

The demonstrations have been largely non-violent and comprised mostly middle-class, well-educated voters who do not form the bulk of Rousseff's electoral base.

But she and her party have sought to get ahead of the complaints and embrace them as their own - a shift that contrasts sharply with a playbook that long relied on telling Brazilians that they had never had it so good.

With little more than a year to go before presidential and gubernatorial elections, the unrest is forcing incumbents and traditional political parties to reconsider their strategies.

The decision to cut transportation fares illustrates what many analysts consider a reactive and contradictory response by a ruling class caught off guard.

"Were they wrong before or are they wrong now?" asked Carlos Melo, a political scientist at Insper, a business school in Sao Paulo, noting what had been a steadfast refusal to reverse a fare hike.

(Additional reporting by Eduardo Sim?es, Caroline Stauffer, Brian Winter, Pedro Fonseca and Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Editing by Todd Benson and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-braces-continued-protests-nationwide-202011419.html

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Super full moon shines brightly this weekend

FILE - In this Saturday, May 5, 2012 file photo, a "supermoon" rises behind the Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion, Greece, southeast of Athens. The phenomenon occurs when the moon passes closer to Earth than usual. The event on Sunday, June 23, 2013 will make the moon appear 14 percent larger than normal, but the difference is so small that most skywatchers won?t notice. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

FILE - In this Saturday, May 5, 2012 file photo, a "supermoon" rises behind the Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion, Greece, southeast of Athens. The phenomenon occurs when the moon passes closer to Earth than usual. The event on Sunday, June 23, 2013 will make the moon appear 14 percent larger than normal, but the difference is so small that most skywatchers won?t notice. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A "supermoon" rises this weekend.

The biggest and brightest full moon of the year graces the sky early Sunday as our celestial neighbor swings closer to Earth than usual.

While the moon will appear 14 percent larger normal, skywatchers won't be able to notice the difference with the naked eye. Still, astronomers say it's worth looking up and appreciating the cosmos.

"It gets people out there looking at the moon, and might make a few more people aware that there's interesting stuff going on in the night sky," Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory said in an email.

Some viewers may think the supermoon looks more dazzling but it's actually an optical illusion. The moon looms larger on the horizon next to trees and buildings.

The moon will come within 222,000 miles of Earth and turn full around 7:30 a.m. EDT, making it the best time to view.

As in any supermoon event, high tides are forecast because of the moon's proximity, but the effect is expected to be small.

Forget about the myths that swirl every time a supermoon appears. There's no link to higher crime or bizarre behavior. Scientists say that's just lunacy.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-06-21-Supermoon/id-ebe39b7488744be1b58ef9646fa26153

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The American Society for Microbiology honors Ken Cadwell

Public release date: 20-Jun-2013
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Contact: Garth Hogan
ghogan@asmusa.org
202-942-9389
American Society for Microbiology

Washington, D.C. June 18, 2013 Ken Cadwell, Ph.D., New York University School of Medicine, has been given a 2013 ICAAC Young Investigator Award for his exceptional work in the fields of infectious diseases and pathogenesis. His nominator, Heran Darwin, notes that Cadwell's findings have already had a "profound impact on the fields of infectious disease and immunity."

Cadwell received his undergraduate degree in Biology, with Honors, from Northwestern University. He then joined the laboratory of Laurent Coscoy in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley where he received his Ph.D. Coscoy describes Cadwell as an exceptional scientist and quick learner who has a "real passion for science and a genuine concern for his peers." As part of his dissertation research, he identified a novel type of protein modification catalyzed by the Kaposi's Sarcoma Herpesvirus. Following the completion of his Ph.D., he joined the laboratory of Herbert "Skip" Virgin at Washington University School of Medicine where he received an esteemed postdoctoral fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation to investigate how aberrant host-pathogen interactions lead to inflammatory disease.

As part of his postdoctoral research, he generated and characterized mice with a mutation in Atg16L1, a gene that is linked to inflammatory bowel disease and essential for the cellular pathway of autophagy. He found that these mice developed intestinal pathologies similar to the human disorder, but only upon infection with a norovirus. Virgin calls this discovery a "new paradigm for understanding how complex inflammatory diseases can be induced in a combinatorial fashion." In recognition of this finding, he received the Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists, which is awarded by the Damon Runyon Foundation for individuals with great potential.

In 2010, he joined the Department of Microbiology at New York University School of Medicine as a faculty member of the prestigious Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine. Using the tools that he previously established, he is continuing to examine the role of Atg16L1 and autophagy in immune responses to pathogens. In addition to examining the mechanism by which a virus triggers intestinal disease, he is also investigating how autophagy deficiency alters resistance to bacterial infections. He is especially interested in revealing new roles for autophagy during inflammation that can be exploited for improving treatment of infectious and immunological disease.

###

The ICAAC Young Investigator Award will be presented during ASM's 53rd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), September 10-13, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 40,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health, economic, and environmental well-being.

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Public release date: 20-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Garth Hogan
ghogan@asmusa.org
202-942-9389
American Society for Microbiology

Washington, D.C. June 18, 2013 Ken Cadwell, Ph.D., New York University School of Medicine, has been given a 2013 ICAAC Young Investigator Award for his exceptional work in the fields of infectious diseases and pathogenesis. His nominator, Heran Darwin, notes that Cadwell's findings have already had a "profound impact on the fields of infectious disease and immunity."

Cadwell received his undergraduate degree in Biology, with Honors, from Northwestern University. He then joined the laboratory of Laurent Coscoy in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley where he received his Ph.D. Coscoy describes Cadwell as an exceptional scientist and quick learner who has a "real passion for science and a genuine concern for his peers." As part of his dissertation research, he identified a novel type of protein modification catalyzed by the Kaposi's Sarcoma Herpesvirus. Following the completion of his Ph.D., he joined the laboratory of Herbert "Skip" Virgin at Washington University School of Medicine where he received an esteemed postdoctoral fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation to investigate how aberrant host-pathogen interactions lead to inflammatory disease.

As part of his postdoctoral research, he generated and characterized mice with a mutation in Atg16L1, a gene that is linked to inflammatory bowel disease and essential for the cellular pathway of autophagy. He found that these mice developed intestinal pathologies similar to the human disorder, but only upon infection with a norovirus. Virgin calls this discovery a "new paradigm for understanding how complex inflammatory diseases can be induced in a combinatorial fashion." In recognition of this finding, he received the Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists, which is awarded by the Damon Runyon Foundation for individuals with great potential.

In 2010, he joined the Department of Microbiology at New York University School of Medicine as a faculty member of the prestigious Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine. Using the tools that he previously established, he is continuing to examine the role of Atg16L1 and autophagy in immune responses to pathogens. In addition to examining the mechanism by which a virus triggers intestinal disease, he is also investigating how autophagy deficiency alters resistance to bacterial infections. He is especially interested in revealing new roles for autophagy during inflammation that can be exploited for improving treatment of infectious and immunological disease.

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The ICAAC Young Investigator Award will be presented during ASM's 53rd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), September 10-13, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 40,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health, economic, and environmental well-being.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/asfm-tas_3062013.php

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91% Frances Ha

All Critics (98) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (89) | Rotten (9)

This is an odd film (creepier than it knows), and even if you feel the atmospheric company of Dunham-ism, with a little of Whit Stillman, Henry Jaglom, and Woody Allen, the core influence on Noah Baumbach's film is fifty years older or more.

Baumbach usually builds his films around difficult protagonists, but Frances is entirely endearing, at once silly and deep, hopeless and promising.

The dialogue and editing are zippy and generally charming, combining with the tart observations of 20-something culture to create a nice frisson.

A black-and-white salute to the French New Wave (the score is borrowed from Georges Delerue, composer of many a Truffaut and Godard film) that manages to be very much of this moment ...

The movie's a love letter to an actress and her character, but by the end you may feel like an intervention is more in order.

The obvious love of New York City echoes Woody Allen at his best. But "Frances Ha" is very much its own film, a story of life and love and messy rooms.

Gerwig keeps you on side and rooting for Frances to get her act together in what becomes an affectionate salute to messy lives, an endearing underachiever and a New York state of mind.

Don't be fooled by Frances with all her feigned insecurity and branding of herself as "undateable" and predicting she'll be a lonely spinster. She's a psychopath.

Gerwig's deft screwball timing turns every disaster into a grace note. This may be a comedy of awkwardness, but rather than curl, your toes will tap.

A refreshing amount of buoyancy to dance and charm its way through Quarter-Life Crisis territory. One of the best performances of Greta Gerwig's career to date

Frances Ha is a sympathetic but not uncritical depiction of a girl's gradual evolution into a woman; one that never condescends by forcing her to abandon all her quirks and impish qualities in the final act... An absolute delight, this is.

Indie darling Gerwig has a great deal to do with the picture's success: she's disarmingly likable...

There's a level of audacity beneath the lightweight whimsy in this unassuming low-budget comedy.

"Frances Ha makes a star out of Gerwig, and she's the kind of star we need: a goofy one we can feel tender about but never underestimate."

'I can't account for my own bruises,' Frances says, as if she were a clumsy kid with an adult's vocabulary. Does the remark refer to more than the abrasions on her skin?

A celebration of cinema, New York City and the distinctive charms of actress Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha was co-written by Gerwig and its director, Noah Baumbach, and it's the best film either has made.

There's a thin line between comedy and tragedy, and Greta Gerwig walks it remarkably well.

There's depth and realism in the way Frances Ha shows aspiration versus reality.

Gerwig, beyond a doubt, is immeasurably appealing, and Frances Ha is tailor-made to showcase her gifts better than anything she's ever been in.

...if you hold your nose and simply wallow through the stench of self-aggrandizement, you'll be rewarded with an experience that will actually tug on your emotions.

Frances Ha provides a sharp, fleet, and very funny look at female friendship and the acceptance of adult responsibilities.

This is very minimalist storytelling much of which feels improvised in front of the camera. The film is more of a character situation than a character story.

Frances Ha is endearing, kind and, in many ways, Noah Baumbach's best movie to date.

It's a film that bears all of the zingy dialogue and sharp characterizations of Baumbach's other films ("The Squid and the Whale," "Greenberg") but with more of a generosity of spirit towards its characters.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frances_ha_2013/

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IRS troubles continue with dance training video

>>> the irs is facing another headache in the wake of the news the tea party had extra scrutiny. an embarrassing training video made by the irs a couple years ago, showing some of its employees line dancing. critics say it is a huge waste of money. david gregory is moderator of "meet the press" and joins us this morning. david, good morning.

>> good morning, erica.

>> the three-minute video doing the cupid shuffle , comes on the heels of training videos that cost a combined $60,000. what does this do for both the irs and the administration?

>> you know, this is just a lot of money spent for conferences, where people get together at a time of furloughs in the federal government and sequester, it's only going to train more of a spotlight on the irs , and i think that's the difficulty here. the bigger point, as i talked to republicans on capitol hill , they intend to keep these investigations going, numerous committees looking at the irs . not just the targeting of conservative groups, those 501 c 4s, but other groups reporting over the weekend of their tax status and tax issues they face. so they are going to keep the pressure on here. that makes it at least a distraction for the administration.

>>> how much of a distraction at this point?

>> well, look, once we get into the campaigning of 2014 , you've seen it from the leader of the republicans in the senate, mitch mcconnell , who wants to make this an obama issue, not just an irs issue but government out of control and lay that at the feet of president obama . i think you're going to see a lot of republicans doing that.

>>> as we head to 2014 , we learned this week congresswoman michele bachmann won't be seeking re-election. a lot of reaction to that. what does that do to republicans and the tea party ?

>> i think the tea party is still pretty energized. all you have to do is look at rand paul, presidential contenders, standard bearers for that tea party sentiment. they are doing it within the senate as lawmakers. i think there's a lot of energy there as they continue to move forward and make the case about government being too big paragraph all right, david. thanks. we'll check in with you to see what's coming up on "meet the press."

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2cbbb629/l/0Lvideo0Btoday0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C520A72877/story01.htm

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Google's Fixing Android's Major Flaw, HIV-Fighting Computers, and More

Had a long week? Pull up a chair and unwind with a nice, ice-cold glass of the weeks best stories. We've got some naturally sweetened next gen game console talk, low-cal Pinterest Porn, a side of celebrity-photoshopped Instagram pictures, all served with an icing of Google fixing the worst part of Android and AIDS-fighting supercomputers. Chow down!

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KoE63RSTFF0/googles-fixing-androids-major-flaw-hiv-fighting-comp-510741047

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Lindsay Lohan Not Actually in Rehab, May Face Arrest Warrant

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/lindsay-lohan-not-actually-in-rehab-may-face-arrest-warrant/

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History is made high above New York City

NEW YORK (AP) ? Adorned with an American flag that flapped in the breeze, the last pieces of a silver spire were hoisted to the top of the World Trade Center on Thursday as construction workers cheered its ascent.

The final two segments of the 408-foot spire will rest on a construction platform for several weeks until the entire needle is permanently installed. With the spire as its crown, the trade center will soar to a symbolic 1,776 feet in the air ? a reference to the birth of the nation in 1776.

Sunlight glinted off the slender steel structure as it rose slowly into the blue sky. Construction workers inside the building clustered around unfinished floor ledges to get a better glimpse of it.

"It will give a tremendous indication to people around the entire region, and the world, that we're back and better than ever," said Steven Plate, who is overseeing construction of the World Trade Center.

Composed of 18 parts and weighing 758 tons, the spire floated into Manhattan several months ago on a barge.

With a beacon at its peak to ward off aircraft, the spire will provide public transmission services for television and radio broadcast channels. An LED-powered light emanating from it will be seen from miles away.

The building is rising at the northwest corner of the site where the twin towers were destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

"It's not just a construction site," Plate said. "It's truly a mission for all of us."

With the additional 408 feet, the building would be the tallest in the U.S. and third-tallest in the world, although building experts dispute whether the spire is actually an antenna ? a crucial distinction in terms of measuring the building's height.

Without the spire, One World Trade Center would actually be shorter than the Willis Tower in Chicago, which currently wears the crown of tallest building in the U.S. at 1,451 feet, not including its own antennas.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a Chicago-based organization considered an authority on such records, says an antenna is something simply added to the top of a tower that can be removed. By contrast, a spire is something that is part of the building's architectural design.

The tower is slated to open for business in 2014.

Tenants include the magazine publisher Conde Nast, the government's General Services Administration and Vantone Holdings China Center, which will provide business space for international companies.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-flag-covered-spire-hoisted-nys-wtc-roof-155823396.html

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Kerry Washington For Parade Magazine, Talks ?Scandal?, Presdient ...

Kerry Washington still can?t wrap the success ?Scandal? has become around her mind.

?I knew that in my lifetime I?d never seen it. But it didn?t compute to me that I?d be making history. I just fell in love with the character,? she says during a recent interview with Parade Magazine.

She sits down during an exclusive interview with the magazine to discuss movie roles in ? Django?, ?Peeples?, and the popular and very scandal ABC drama.

On whether, as a member of the President?s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, she is aware of President Obama?s view of the show:

?I haven?t wanted to ask the president his opinion of the show. But I have lots of friends in the administration who love it. We make D.C. look sexy and exciting.?

On her work on the controversial film Django Unchained:

?I feel like I barely survived Django emotionally. The violence. Hearing the N-word every day. It cost me a lot psychologically, but it was worth it to tell that story.?

Head over to Mrsgrapevine.com for more from Ms. Washington.

Also See:

Kerry Washington Dressed To Impress At The 2013 White House Correspondence Dinner

Source: http://www.cottenkandi.com/2013/05/03/kerry-washington-parade-magazine-cover-talks-scandal-president-obama-movie-roles/

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The reason Facebook Home exists

Facebook Home Analysis

Facebook Home has its fair share of critics. But while I personally can?t stand Facebook as a service, I am not one of them. Home takes over the user?s Android smartphone and replaces the home screen with an unending stream of full-screen Facebook photos and status updates posted by friends. The first version of Facebook?s new Android software clearly has some kinks that need to be ironed out, but Facebook has more incentive than it could ever need to get the job done.

[More from BGR: Google?s X Phone revealed in new photos]

A quick glance at the company?s first-quarter earnings report reveals that mobile revenue now accounts for nearly one-third of Facebook?s total advertising revenue. That figure is up from 23% in the previous quarter, and it will continue to grow. Mobile is the future of computing, and it is the future of Facebook as well.

[More from BGR: Apple is ?bleeding market share?]

Analysts at JPMorgan Chase were expecting Facebook?s mobile revenue to come in at an impressive $320 million in Q1 2013, and the actual figure crushed that estimate at $375 million. Facebook?s total ad revenue for the quarter climbed 38% to $1.46 billion.

Facebook Home does not serve ads to users right now. But it will. And Facebook?s smart decision to focus on immersive mobile software instead of an own-brand smartphone or its own mobile operating system means that these ads will be served to far more people as Facebook Home adoption grows than they would have on a ?Facebook Phone.?

In the first quarter, Facebook?s mobile MAU stat grew to 751 million users. That?s three-quarters of a billion people who actively use Facebook?s services on a mobile phone each month. Facebook Home puts Facebook front and center on users? phones, which means that once Home ads roll out, users will likely interact with them even more if they?re done well.

Facebook knows how important mobile is, obviously, and it?s taking steps accordingly. Home is the first of several big mobile initiatives we?ll likely see from Facebook, and the percentage of Facebook?s revenue that comes from mobile products will continue to grow as well. The more innovative and immersive Facebook?s mobile products get, the higher they will drive revenue ? and this is why Facebook Home exists.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/reason-facebook-home-exists-154538821.html

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New arrests hint at unseen side of Boston bombing suspect

Three men have been charged with impeding a federal investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings in allegations that would seem to blend criminality with teenage stupidity.

After realizing that their college friend was being sought by police in connection with the April 15 attack, the three sought to discard evidence to help their friend ?avoid trouble,? according to court documents filed Wednesday.

By that time, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was already in more than the usual amount of trouble for a 19-year-old.

RECOMMENDED: Quiz: How much do you know about terrorism?

Now his three friends ? Dias Kadyrbayev, Azamat Tazhayakov, and Robel Phillipos ? could also be in big trouble.

And the new criminal complaint against them also may shed new light on Mr. Tsarnaev?s interest in bombmaking. Previous news accounts have widely portrayed his older brother as the mastermind of the attacks, but the complaint says that two of the friends heard the younger Tsarnaev say, a month before the attacks, that he knew how to make bombs.

The document also quotes one of the friends saying that Tsarnaev appeared to have cut his hair short when the two saw each other on the campus the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth on April 17, two days after the bombing. The timing of that apparent effort at a changed appearance is significant; the next day the FBI made photos of the bombing suspects public.

Want your top political issues explained? Get customized DC Decoder updates.

The criminal charges made public Wednesday do not allege that any of the three newly arrested men were involved in the bombings or knew about any plans. But these men could potentially face years in prison for obstructing justice.

Mr. Kadyrbayev and Mr. Tazhayakov, who are Kazakhstan nationals studying in the US, have been held in jail for more than a week on allegations that they violated their student visas. Now they are charged with conspiring to destroy, conceal, and cover up tangible objects belonging to the suspected bomber. That could carry a sentence of up to five years in prison and $250,000 fine.

Mr. Phillipos, a US citizen residing in Cambridge, Mass., is charged with ?willfully making materially false statements to federal law enforcement officials during a terrorism investigation.? That carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The complaint, written by FBI Special Agent Scott Cieplik, alleges that on the night of April 18, after the investigators released photos of the bombing suspects and asked the public for help finding them, the three men suspected their friend was one of the bombers. They went to Tsarnaev's dorm room, where his roommate let them in. While there they found a backpack containing fireworks, which had been opened and emptied of powder.

According to the FBI account, Kadyrbayev said he knew when he saw the empty fireworks that his friend was involved in the bombings and decided to remove the backpack from the room "in order to help his friend Tsarnaev avoid trouble." He also saw a jar of Vaseline in the room, and identified it to his friends as a bombmaking material, the complaint says.

They removed the backpack, the Vaseline, and Tsarnaev's laptop, the document says, and all three friends agreed the materials should be disposed of. Phillipos said that after talking about that course of action, he took a two hour nap, ?and when he woke up, the backpack was gone,? according to the document.

Kadyrbayev allegedly placed the backpack in a black garbage bag and dropped it in a dumpster.

The backpack was later recovered at after a painstaking search of a nearby landfill. So far there?s no official word about the laptop. The contents of the backpack included a homework sheet for a University of Massachusetts class in which Tsarnaev was enrolled.

Defense attorneys for the three denied the key allegations Wednesday, arguing that the young men didn?t intend to obstruct justice. They said their clients had nothing to do with the bombing and were just as shocked by the crime as everyone else.

Phillipos's attorney, Derege Demissie, said outside court: "The only allegation is he made a misrepresentation."

At a court appearance in the afternoon, the Kazakh students did not request bail and will be held for another hearing May 14. Phillipos was held for a hearing on Monday.

The April 15 bombings killed three people and injured more than 260. Mr. Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, died after a gunfight with police days later. His younger brother was captured and is being held at a prison hospital.

? Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.

RECOMMENDED: Quiz: How much do you know about terrorism?

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arrests-hint-unseen-side-boston-bombing-suspect-224155882.html

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Saturn's Hurricane

There are several types of weather phenomena. A phenomenon is an observable fact or occurrence that is unusual and can be explained scientifically. The types of weather phenomena include fog, heat waves, cold waves, tornadoes, thunderstorms, winter storms, and different types of cyclones.

A cyclone is a system of winds rotating inward to an area of low atmospheric pressure. Atmospheric pressure is the amount of force exerted over a surface area or the pressure exerted by the weight of the atmosphere.

One interesting type of cyclone is a hurricane. A hurricane is a strong tropical revolving storm. It has a Beaufort scale of force 12 or higher. The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure for the intensity of the wind based mainly on the state of the sea or wave conditions. In the northern hemisphere, hurricanes revolve in a counterclockwise direction. In the southern hemisphere, they revolve clockwise and are known as typhoons.

The hurricane is also nature?s heat engine. It is a device that transfers heat from a place of high temperature to a place of lower temperature and does mechanical work in the process. It is also a type of machine that converts a portion of the thermal energy delivered to it (at high temperature) to work. It converts heat energy into mechanical energy. Heat energy is a form of energy that is transferred by the difference in temperature. It is the total kinetic energy or the capacity to increase the activity of something and thereby increase its temperature. Mechanical energy is the energy of motion used to perform work. Examples of heat engines in our everyday world are refrigerators, steam engines, and heat pumps.

There are four main ingredients to creating a hurricane. These are warm water, cooler air temperature, wind, and location. First, there has to be sufficient water vapor in the middle of the troposphere. Second, the sea surface temperature must be at least -26.50 C and a vertical temperature profile that cools with height. This supports thunderstorm activity. Third, the values of vertical wind shear are low from the surface to the upper troposphere. Fourth, in regards to location, there must be sufficient distance from the equator for the coriolis force to be significant.

The coriolis force is a force exerted on a parcel of air (or any moving body) due to the rotation of the earth. It causes freely moving masses such as air and water currents to be diverted from straight linear motion. An example of the coriolis effect that you can try at home is the following: Draw a straight line with a pencil from the center of a spinning record to the outside of the record. You will notice the line begin to spiral as the record spins.

In short, a hurricane is caused by low windshear, very moist humidity, the sea temperature is around 26.50 degrees celsius, and the location of the genesis of the hurricane is anywhere from 50 to 300 degrees north latitude.

This type of weather phenomena is not only experienced on Earth but is now being experienced on another planet. Recently, it has been reported that Saturn has been enduring a strong hurricane. Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and is the second largest in our solar system. The length of day on Saturn is about ten and a half hours and it is about 95 times the mass of the Earth. It is made up mainly of hydrogen and helium. It has the lowest density of the planets in our solar system. Its unique characteristic are its rings.

The hurricane on Saturn was detected in 2004 while Saturn was in its northern winter. Then in 2009, as spring began on Saturn, Cassini was able to give us more insight. Now , we are getting a better view currently. The image to this article was taken on November 27th.

So what is so different about Saturn?s hurricane? On Earth, Hurricanes require warm ocean water. On Saturn, hurricanes require atmospheric water vapor. The speed of Saturn?s hurricane is 330 mph, while a level 5 hurricane on Earth is at 156 mph.

Unlike hurricanes on Earth, which tend to drift northward as our planet rotates, Saturn?s hurricane swirls inside a mysterious, six-sided vortex. This vortex has been measured to be about 1,250 miles wide and possibly could be the length of half of the United States . A vortex is a spinning, often turbulent, flow of fluid or a vertical axis of extremely low pressure around which winds rotate.

The hurricane on Saturn can serve as a two-fold purpose. First, it can be a natural lab for us to gain a better understanding of the behavior and traits of a hurricane. Second, it can help us understand Saturn?s physical behavior better.

If you wish to learn more about hurricanes, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/outreach/games/canelab.htm or http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/HURRICANE_RECIPE.html

To view pictures of the Hurricane on Saturn , go to: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130429.html

Images: Sandy Hurricane: Goes Satellite/EarthObservatory.NASA.Gov; Saturn Hurricane: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=583ebe321485d3487c0d3517958e1127

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Kobe Bryant battles mom, NJ business over auction

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) ? Kobe Bryant is in a court battle to try to keep his mother from auctioning off mementoes from his high school days in Pennsylvania and his early NBA career.

A southern New Jersey auction house is suing for the right to sell the stuff after the NBA star's lawyers wrote the firm to say it could not.

Bryant contends that his mother, Pamela Bryant, doesn't have the right to sell the collectibles including his Lower Merion High School letters, a 2000 NBA championship ring and hundreds of other items.

Berlin, N.J.-based Goldin Auctions says Bryant told his mother years ago that he didn't want the items.

Legal papers say Pamela Bryant intended to use her $450,000 advance to buy a new home.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-05-03-Kobe%20Bryant-Lawsuit/id-15eed8e2270244e095dccd44107c8fbb

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Printable functional 'bionic' ear melds electronics and biology

May 1, 2013 ? Scientists at Princeton University used off-the-shelf printing tools to create a functional ear that can "hear" radio frequencies far beyond the range of normal human capability.

The researchers' primary purpose was to explore an efficient and versatile means to merge electronics with tissue. The scientists used 3D printing of cells and nanoparticles followed by cell culture to combine a small coil antenna with cartilage, creating what they term a bionic ear.

"In general, there are mechanical and thermal challenges with interfacing electronic materials with biological materials," said Michael McAlpine, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton and the lead researcher. "Previously, researchers have suggested some strategies to tailor the electronics so that this merger is less awkward. That typically happens between a 2D sheet of electronics and a surface of the tissue. However, our work suggests a new approach -- to build and grow the biology up with the electronics synergistically and in a 3D interwoven format."

McAlpine's team has made several advances in recent years involving the use of small-scale medical sensors and antenna. Last year, a research effort led by McAlpine and Naveen Verma, an assistant professor of electrical engineering, and Fio Omenetto of Tufts University, resulted in the development of a "tattoo" made up of a biological sensor and antenna that can be affixed to the surface of a tooth.

This project, however, is the team's first effort to create a fully functional organ: one that not only replicates a human ability, but extends it using embedded electronics.

"The design and implementation of bionic organs and devices that enhance human capabilities, known as cybernetics, has been an area of increasing scientific interest," the researchers wrote in the article which appears in the scholarly journal Nano Letters. "This field has the potential to generate customized replacement parts for the human body, or even create organs containing capabilities beyond what human biology ordinarily provides."

Standard tissue engineering involves seeding types of cells, such as those that form ear cartilage, onto a scaffold of a polymer material called a hydrogel. However, the researchers said that this technique has problems replicating complicated three dimensional biological structures. Ear reconstruction "remains one of the most difficult problems in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery," they wrote.

To solve the problem, the team turned to a manufacturing approach called 3D printing. These printers use computer-assisted design to conceive of objects as arrays of thin slices. The printer then deposits layers of a variety of materials -- ranging from plastic to cells -- to build up a finished product. Proponents say additive manufacturing promises to revolutionize home industries by allowing small teams or individuals to create work that could previously only be done by factories.

Creating organs using 3D printers is a recent advance; several groups have reported using the technology for this purpose in the past few months. But this is the first time that researchers have demonstrated that 3D printing is a convenient strategy to interweave tissue with electronics.

The technique allowed the researchers to combine the antenna electronics with tissue within the highly complex topology of a human ear. The researchers used an ordinary 3D printer to combine a matrix of hydrogel and calf cells with silver nanoparticles that form an antenna. The calf cells later develop into cartilage.

Manu Mannoor, a graduate student in McAlpine's lab and the paper's lead author, said that additive manufacturing opens new ways to think about the integration of electronics with biological tissue and makes possible the creation of true bionic organs in form and function. He said that it may be possible to integrate sensors into a variety of biological tissues, for example, to monitor stress on a patient's knee meniscus.

David Gracias, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins and co-author on the publication, said that bridging the divide between biology and electronics represents a formidable challenge that needs to be overcome to enable the creation of smart prostheses and implants.

"Biological structures are soft and squishy, composed mostly of water and organic molecules, while conventional electronic devices are hard and dry, composed mainly of metals, semiconductors and inorganic dielectrics," he said. "The differences in physical and chemical properties between these two material classes could not be any more pronounced."

The finished ear consists of a coiled antenna inside a cartilage structure. Two wires lead from the base of the ear and wind around a helical "cochlea" -- the part of the ear that senses sound -- which can connect to electrodes. Although McAlpine cautions that further work and extensive testing would need to be done before the technology could be used on a patient, he said the ear in principle could be used to restore or enhance human hearing. He said electrical signals produced by the ear could be connected to a patient's nerve endings, similar to a hearing aid. The current system receives radio waves, but he said the research team plans to incorporate other materials, such as pressure-sensitive electronic sensors, to enable the ear to register acoustic sounds.

In addition to McAlpine, Verma, Mannoor and Gracias the research team includes: Winston Soboyejo, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton; Karen Malatesta, a faculty fellow in molecular biology at Princeton; Yong Lin Kong, a graduate student in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton; and Teena James, a graduate student in chemical and biomolecular engineering at Johns Hopkins.

The team also included Ziwen Jiang, a high school student at the Peddie School in Hightstown who participated as part of an outreach program for young researchers in McAlpine's lab.

"Ziwen Jiang is one of the most spectacular high school students I have ever seen," McAlpine said. "We would not have been able to complete this project without him, particularly in his skill at mastering CAD designs of the bionic ears."

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

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Manu S Mannoor, Ziwen Jiang, Teena James, Yong Lin Kong, Karen A Malatesta, Winston Soboyejo, Naveen Verma, David H Gracias, Michael C. McAlpine. A 3D Printed Bionic Ear. Nano Letters, 2013; : 130501101451003 DOI: 10.1021/nl4007744

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/zUICGgK3jVo/130501193208.htm

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