Free Insurance Quotes For Lesser Cost ? Bathroom Remodeling

It is expensive to possess a car not only for its price itself but also because of the required new jersey car insurance. It becomes more costly for a teen driver. As soon as they begin to shortlist the vehicle choice, parents ought to be requesting for free insurance quotes already. This is how they get to score better deals and assess other factors they could affect to lower the premium cost.

There are several ways to get car insurance without spending a fortune. So rather than resorting to other means to be able to pay off the premium, parents should seek out means to save on premium first. Awareness and proper understanding of factors involved surrounding car insurance of teens must be gained first. The factors involved are age, location, experience and model of the car. A few of these factors cannot be manipulated. So a focus on those that parents can indeed be in charge of is called for.

New Jersey car insurance sot relies on the age and the experience factor which teen drivers are obviously lacking. However, insurance agencies recognize teens that show a specific level of maturity. Most of the time, they base it on the teenager?s performance at school. Full time highschool students who at least have a 3.0 GPA can avail of discount insurance. Someone who with a B average can enjoy 25% off discount.

A teen with a formal driving course is more likely to save on insurance too. Some insurance providers offer up to 10% discount. In addition, if an adult pledges to supervise and accompany every driving agenda of the teenager, that is duly noted too. Insurance companies are concerned with risks, one they might not be willing to take for teen drivers so parents can definitely help in this regard.

Expensive and high performance cars are not only a magnet of thieves but also cost much to repair but old cars may cost as much. Insurance companies evaluate the safety factor of vehicles. In other words, parents should put this into consideration before the car purchase. Free insurance quotes should be regarded as soon as there?s a list of car models to consider.

Source: http://www.joomling.com/uncategorized/free-insurance-quotes-for-lesser-cost

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Gingrich discounts polls suggesting Romney's up by double digits in Florida (Washington Bureau)

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Driving America: Exhibit explores car culture

Courtesy The Henry Ford

The automobile gave rise to new roadside industries in America, such as the motor inn.

By Dan Carney, msnbc.com contributor

Industrial cities such as?Detroit may not be typical vacation destinations, but that doesn?t mean there aren?t worthwhile places to visit.?Think of Cleveland?s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

So, quick: What do you know about Detroit??They make cars, right??That?s why the city?s nickname is Motown and the basketball team is called the Pistons. It turns out that you don?t have to go on a tour of a car factory or watch a car-themed sports team for entertainment when in Detroit.?You can always go to a museum.? About cars.

Actually The Henry Ford?museum is about Americana, but considering the museum?s namesake founder and its location in Dearborn, Mich., the Detroit suburb where Ford?s world headquarters is located, it is no surprise that the museum?s signature exhibit is of cars.

A freshly revamped 80,000-square-foot exhibit, ?Driving America? opened to the public Sunday. While the museum?s previous automotive exhibits were presented from the perspective of the people in Detroit who designed and built cars, (they show other things too, including an upcoming visit by the touring ?Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit,? which arrives March 31), this exhibit is designed from the perspective of the general population, explained Bob Casey, automotive curator.

That means looking at the car?s impact on society, with the rise of previously non-existent traffic laws, taxes on gasoline, roadside industries to support drivers and a rise in consumer interest in safety.

The Henry Ford

The "Driving America" exhibit features a 1949 Airstream Trailwind travel trailer and a 1959 Volkswagen Westfalia camper.

Courtesy The Henry Ford

The Henry Ford integrated 18 touchscreen kiosks into the "Driving America" exhibit

Of course there is plenty of Detroit iron to see, along with cars from other places. The car on display that probably summarizes the change in public attitudes toward personal mechanized transportation is the locomotive-like Roper, of 1865.

When Sylvester Roper built a series of steam-powered, self-propelled carriages and motorcycles in the middle of the 19th century, the cars were regarded as curiosities, which people would pay to see drive around at the fair but had no interest in owning.

But near the turn of the century, opinion had changed, so when the Duryea car appeared in 1896, there was a public frenzy of interest in buying cars that launched the industry.? ?By 1896 there was a huge change in the public?s attitude,? Casey said.

This change drove the car?s influence on society through the 20th century, as illustrated by the roadside diner and Texaco gas station exhibits.? Some of these influences have waxed and waned, as shown by a ?talk like a trucker? demonstration.? No, it's not a lesson in cursing cars that cut you off in traffic, but a primer on citizens band, or CB radio, slang of the 1970s.

But the cars themselves are the real reason people go to a car museum.? Casey said that visitors most often ask the whereabouts of the ?65 Mustang.? His personal favorite is the 1906 Locomobile that won the famous Vanderbilt Cup race on Long Island in 1908, because he recalls reading about that car in a book when he was in junior high school, he said.

I was irresistibly attracted to the 1935 Miller Indy Car, for its amazing technology from eight decades ago.? But the best part is that with 130 vehicles and 60 display cases, ?Driving America? is likely to have your favorite, too.

If that isn?t enough, the museum has an Imax theater and is co-located with Greenfield Village, Ford?s re-creation of an American town in the 19th century.? And if you are really hoping to get a little grease under your fingernails, there is the option of going on a tour of Ford?s Rouge factory, which once made the Model T and now makes Ford F-150 pickups.

If you go
Admission: adults, $17; seniors, $15; children 5-12, $12.50; children 4 and under, free.

Hours: 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m., seven days a week, closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.

More on Itineraries

?

Source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10252895-driving-america-museum-exhibit-explores-cars-impact

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Investors cue up Portugal as the next Greece (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Investors are betting that after cap-in-hand Greece comes Portugal, selling off its stocks and bonds in the belief that the euro zone laggard cannot avoid a default without a second bailout.

While borrowing costs have fallen for debt-ridden Spain and Italy as well as bailed-out Ireland on the back of a huge infusion of low-cost loans from the European Central Bank, Portugal's have shot up, setting it on a path towards bankruptcy.

The rot really set in two weeks ago after Standard & Poor's downgraded 15 euro zone countries, putting Portugal in the "junk" category, along with Greece. That shuts it out from tapping capital markets in the foreseeable future and makes its task of meeting future debt repayments even tougher.

Since then, the rise in both government bond yields and the cost of insuring debt against default has been relentless.

This is the opposite of what has happened in Ireland, which was bailed out in November 2010 just six months before Portugal received a 78 billion euro bailout from international lenders.

"If we look at where bond yields are for Portugal it makes it impossible for Portugal to access debt markets in 2013," said Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a rate strategist at JPMorgan.

"It's a country that still relies on the official sector in terms of financing its current account deficit and repayments and this makes it certain that we're going to get a second bailout for Portugal later this year."

Portuguese debt and stocks have fared far worse than other highly-indebted euro zone given worries it could follow Greece and need to restructure its debt.

The absolute level of 10-year yields, which reflects how much payment investors are demanding to hold the country's debt, has risen three percentage points to 15 percent since S&P moved on January 13. This is almost double the equivalent Irish yields, which have fallen to their lowest in over a year over the same period.

Unlike Portugal and Greece, Ireland has moved to surplus on its current account over the past year in its fight to rebuild investor confidence.

"Ireland ... is a different case in the sense that its private sector at least is doing OK and is growing and generating trade surpluses," said Richard Batty, investment director at Standard Life Investments.

Ireland still faces hurdles, particularly given a weakened growth outlook on top of a debt ratio officially forecast to peak at 119 percent of economic output next year. But it is campaigning on a number of fronts to improve its chances of funding itself fully for 2014.

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Portugal, Ireland, Italy government bond spread http://link.reuters.com/mac36s

Portugal and Ireland CDS http://link.reuters.com/tyw26s

Portugal economic overview http://link.reuters.com/nyj94s

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GREEK PARALLELS?

What is worrying investors about Portugal is that two- and five- year Portuguese debt now yield more than longer-term bonds at 16.7 and 20 percent respectively. This mirrors the trend in Greece before it sought a second bailout package in 2011.

In a normally functioning market, short-term government bonds yield less than long maturities as investors want higher compensation for the risk of holding the asset for longer

Simon Derrick who heads foreign exchange strategy at Bank of New York Mellon says his bank's custodial data shows long-term investors have stepped up sales of Portuguese debt in the past month. This is likely to have gathered momentum after the country was downgraded to junk status.

Indeed, the credit market has highlighted investors' growing worries about Portugal's ability to repay debt in the coming years and the growing divergence from Ireland. The cost of insuring one- or two-year Portuguese debt using credit default swaps (CDS) is stubbornly above the equivalent premium for five-year debt.

Typically, five-year CDS trade above shorter-dated ones, as is currently the case in Ireland.

Banks issuing insurance, moreover, are demanding that a percentage of the total amount to be insured in Portugal must be paid when the contract is entered into, typically a signal that a credit is distressed.

"What's happening now with Portugal is very worrying and the market is asking whether Portugal is really just like Greece," said Standard Life Investments' Batty. "Portugal has never been able to grow itself sufficiently and in the current environment you have to ask 'how can they compete?"

Standard Life Investments, which has some $233 billion in assets under management does not hold any government debt of bailed-out European sovereigns Greece, Portugal or Ireland.

Investors are particularly concerned about whether Greece can be ringfenced and not trigger a domino effect that snares Portugal and larger euro zone economies Spain and Italy.

Part of their concerns stem from the fact that Portugal had to seek a bailout from international lenders not too long after Greece was given a record rescue package.

MORE LOSSES

Highlighting a growing sense of inevitability that Portugal is heading for serious trouble, credit market prices are implying a near-70 percent default probability on a five year time horizon.

That chimes with a Reuters poll of 50 bank economists which showed a median 70 percent chance that the country will need more help with its financing at some point.

Only 10 gave a less than 50 percent probability of a second bailout.

Antonio Saraiva, the head of Portugal's industry confederation, said the country needs an additional 30 billion euros in extra European Union and International Monetary Fund aid.

The picture is so grim and with Portugal not be able to return to market funding until 2013 at the earliest, some analysts believe it will require additional bail-out money from international lenders sooner rather than later.

It should get it, if needed, because the country has so far complied with the fiscal austerity measures that are tied to such aid.

But additional funding isn't likely to solve the problems and some believe that, like Greece, it will all end up with private creditor like banks taking a big loss, or "haircut" to use the jargon.

"We expect that eventually Portugal will face a PSI (private sector involvement) debt restructuring with a haircut of around 35 percent," Michael Saunders, an economist at Citi said, adding he expected it in the end of 2012 or early 2013.

Indeed, the face value of 10-year Portuguese government bonds stands around 46 cents in the euro, implying holders fear they will not get all their money back.

(Additional reporting by Mike Dolan and Simon Jessop, Graphics by Scott Barber, Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

(This story was corrected in paragraph 5 to show Ireland's bailout was before Portugal's)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/bs_nm/us_eurozone_portugal

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Lakers get last word over Clippers in inner-city clash (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? The inner-city battle for Los Angeles added another feisty chapter as the Lakers battled to a 96-91 win over the Clippers on Wednesday to reassume their top billing status.

In a duel that featured a number of technical fouls and minor skirmishes, Kobe Bryant started passively but scored 12 of his 24 points in the pivotal fourth quarter to lead the Lakers to victory.

Pau Gasol had 23 points and 10 rebounds and the Lakers (11-8) ended their three-game losing streak with a satisfying victory that ended with Bryant and Gasol exchanging heated words with Clippers leader Chris Paul.

The Lakers trailed by a slim margin for much of the game but Bryant made a three-pointer midway through the fourth quarter to give the home team their first lead since the opening minute, and they held on to spoil the return of Paul.

Paul, whose off-season trade to the Clippers turned them into a legitimate rival of the Lakers, looked rusty after missing five games with a hamstring injury and finished with four points and 12 assists.

He was originally injured in a Clippers' victory over the Lakers on January 14 which signaled their arrival as peers.

This time, the Clippers (9-6) fell back despite leading by nine early in the third and getting 26 points and nine rebounds from Blake Griffin.

(Editing by John O'Brien)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/sp_nm/us_nba_lakers

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Skyfire Raises $8 Million In A Round Funded By Verizon And Others

After raising just shy of $23 million over the past 5 years, Skyfire today announced that they've raised their second biggest round of funding to date. Coming in at $8 million dollars, this Series C round is being funded by Verizon Investments (as in Verizon Communications' venture arm) along with new investments from previous investors Matrix Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2GXGmRkunhI/

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Long lines to bid farewell to Paterno

Honor guard, Penn State football running back Michael Zordich pauses at the front of the casket of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno during a public viewing in the Worship room of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Honor guard, Penn State football running back Michael Zordich pauses at the front of the casket of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno during a public viewing in the Worship room of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Three women walk past a picture of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno to pay their respect in front of his casket during a public viewing in the Worship room of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 in State College, Pa.. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Honor guard former Penn State football player Michael Cerinale, class of 2000, right, hugs a woman in front of the casket of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno during a public viewing in the Worship room of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State University campus, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Scott Paterno, second from left, and Jay Paterno, second from right receive mourners as they file through the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus for the viewing for their father, former Penn State coach Joe Paterno, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 in State College, Pa. Paterno died Sunday morning, Jan. 22. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Mourners react as they file through the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus for the viewing for former Penn State coach Joe Paterno, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, in State College, Pa. Paterno died Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? They stood outside for hours on a winter afternoon, waiting to pay their respects to the late Joe Paterno. The line snaked down a long block on the Penn State campus.

Inside a campus spiritual center, the coach's body lay in a closed, hardwood casket topped by a spray of white roses. About six feet away sat a stylized black-and-white picture of the man who became lovingly known on campus as "JoePa," smiling and peering out through his trademark thick-rimmed glasses.

Three days of public mourning began Tuesday for a Penn State community already racked by months of turmoil. The 85-year-old Paterno ? a Hall of Fame coach and the face of the university ? died Sunday of lung cancer. He had been ousted just days before learning of his diagnosis in November, forced out of his job in the wake of child sex-abuse charges against a former assistant.

"We're not going to focus on the bad, we're going to pull together and focus on the good," said Brittany Yingling, 23, of Altoona, donning a blue Penn State knit cap with "Paterno" in bold white letters emblazoned on the front. "He's going to leave a lasting legacy on so many people."

And thousands showed up, lining a main campus artery for a chance to make the walk, single file, past Paterno's casket, which had an "honor guard" of two Penn State players ? one past and one present. Some mourners stopped for a moment of reflection, or to genuflect in the interfaith hall.

Others fought back tears and sniffles. The only other sounds were the clicks from media photographers, taking occasional pictures.

Jay Paterno, one of the coach's sons, was still shaking hands with the well-wishers when police shut down the visitation at 10:45 p.m. EST, telling a handful of people on their way in that they could come back early Wednesday morning.

Paterno won 409 games and two national championships over his 46-year career admired by peers as much for its longevity as its success. Paterno also took as much pride in the program's graduation rates, often at or close to the top of the Big Ten.

"I came to pay my respects to a great man, that has nothing to do with victories," said Paterno's longtime assistant and defensive coordinator, Tom Bradley. "A lot of his victories people don't even know about."

Large windows bathed the white-walled hall at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center in light on a cloudy day. Some of Paterno's family attend services at the center.

Members of the public were preceded by the family, including two of Paterno's sons. Scott Paterno and Jay ? the former Nittany Lions quarterback coach ? thanked many of the visitors before they exited the building.

"Going in there, waiting two hours in line, it was worth every second of it," said Rob Gressinger, a Penn State junior. "I've lost all my grandparents and the feeling is the exact same thing ... Feels like you lost one of your own."

Also paying respects privately Tuesday morning were former and current players and coaches. Members of the current team wore dark suits and arrived in three blue Penn State buses, the same ones that once carried Paterno and the team to games at Beaver Stadium on fall Saturdays.

Among the former players was Mike McQueary. As a graduate assistant to Paterno in 2002, he went to the coach saying he had witnessed former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky assaulting a boy in the shower at the Penn State football building. Paterno relayed that to his bosses ? including the head of campus police ? but university trustees felt he should have done more, and it played into their decision to oust the longtime coach on Nov. 9. That came four days after Sandusky was charged with child sex-abuse counts.

Dressed in a blue coat and tie with a white shirt, the school colors, McQueary was among those at an event that stretched well into Tuesday night. McQueary declined comment after leaving the viewing.

Earlier Tuesday, former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steelers great Franco Harris, a vocal critic of the university trustees, also came to say goodbye. Others included NFL receivers Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood, Norwood's father and Baylor assistant coach Brian Norwood and former quarterback Daryll Clark ? who also served as an honor guard.

Texans receiver Bryant Johnson, a nine-year NFL veteran, said he decided to attend Penn State out of high school in Baltimore because "he wanted to play for a legendary coach."

"I wanted to play for someone that instilled the values that he believed in," Johnson said. "I wanted to play for someone who believed in guys graduating."

Paterno was beloved as much by others in the community for his philanthropic efforts, such as donating millions back to the university for projects including the campus library bearing the family name. Paterno Library sits a short walk across the street from the spiritual center.

"He did so much for this town and school and the students. It wasn't all football," said Martha Edwards of Jersey Shore, Pa. She isn't a graduate but decided to attend anyway.

"Right over there is the library with his name on it," she said. "Nobody comes any better than him."

There is another public viewing Wednesday at the interfaith center, and after that Paterno's family will hold a private funeral and procession through State College.

On Thursday, the school's basketball arena will be the site of a public service called "A Memorial for Joe." Tickets were quickly snapped up for the event, even though there was a two-per-person limit for those ordering.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Scolforo contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-24-Penn%20State-Paterno/id-76bcb84d2a58477a8d856610e548679a

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Minn. bear delivers at least 2 cubs on Internet

ELY, Minn. (AP) ? A 3-year-old bear in Minnesota has given birth to two cubs before an Internet audience.

Lynn Rogers of the Wildlife Research Institute, affiliated with North American Bear Center, said in a news release that Jewel gave birth in a den near Ely to the first cub at 7:22 a.m. Sunday, and a second at 8:40.

It's not the first time Rogers and his colleagues have monitored hibernating pregnant black bears.

In 2010, they recorded the birth of a bear named Hope in 2010. A Hunter killed Hope last year.

Jewel is the younger sister of Hope's mother, Lily.

Lily also gave birth last year to two cubs named Faith and Jason.

___

Online:

North American Bear Center: http://www.bear.org

___

Information from: Duluth News Tribune, http://www.duluthsuperior.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2012-01-22-US-Internet-Bear-Sister/id-235fdb6533214241a5273199a71fc42b

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Video: Vice President Christie?

A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/46090664#46090664

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Halliburton rides oil boom to 4Q profit (AP)

NEW YORK ? Halliburton's net income spiked 50 percent in the final three months of 2011 as one of the world's biggest oilfield services companies shifted its focus from natural gas to oil, with a barrel of crude again trading near the triple digit mark yet again.

Energy companies are capitalizing on new technology to reach crude that was once prohibitively expensive to pump, especially in the United States, and Halliburton has benefited immensely.

The Houston company posted earnings of $906 million, or 98 cents per share, for the fourth quarter. That compares with $605 million, or 66 cents per share, for the same part of 2010.

Excluding a $15 million charge for an "environmental-related matter," Halliburton Co. earned $1 per share in the quarter. Revenue increased 36.9 percent to $7.06 billion.

The boom in shale drilling across regions of North America boosted Halliburton's 2011 earnings to $2.84 billion, or $3.08 per share, compared with $1.84 billion, or $2.02 per share, in 2010. Annual revenue increased 38.1 percent to $24.8 billion.

Hydraulic fracturing, still a relatively new technology, has allowed energy companies to get to oil and natural gas from fields that had been left behind with most of the remaining resources trapped in shale rock. Halliburton and others use a mix of highly pressurized water and chemicals to break apart those shale formations and free the resources contained within.

That has reshaped the industry enormously in recent years, and those changes continued Monday with the announcement that oil and gas producer Apache Corp. would buy privately held Cordillera Energy Partners III LLC in a deal valued at $2.85 billion. Apache wants access to Cordillera's approximately 254,000 net acres in the Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, where the company sees a strong potential for producing new sources of oil.

Increasingly, the industry has been turning away from natural gas fields in favor of wells that produce more oil. Oil prices increased more than 10 percent in the fourth quarter while natural gas prices dropped by 13 percent.

Benchmark crude traded above $99 per barrel on Monday.

"We are proactively moving equipment from dry natural gas to liquids plays in North America in response to recent rig moves," Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar said."

Halliburton also saw an increase in drilling in Gulf of Mexico during the fourth quarter. Operating income also grew in Latin America, while falling in Europe and North Africa and holding steady in the Middle East.

Overall, the company's completion and production business increased profits 58 percent while its drilling and evaluation business increased profits by 35.6 percent.

Lesar said he expects the company to increase revenue worldwide in 2012.

Schlumberger Ltd., another major oil services firm, reported a 36 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits last week.

Halliburton shares fell 35 cents to $35.85 in premarket trading.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_halliburton

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Video: Catching a comet death on camera

Friday, January 20, 2012

On July 6, 2011, a comet was caught doing something never seen before: die a scorching death as it flew too close to the sun. That the comet met its fate this way was no surprise ? but the chance to watch it first-hand amazed even the most seasoned comet watchers.

"Comets are usually too dim to be seen in the glare of the sun's light," says Dean Pesnell at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who is the project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO), which snapped images of the comet. "We've been telling people we'd never see one in SDO data."

But an ultra bright comet, from a group known as the Kreutz comets, overturned all preconceived notions. The comet can clearly be viewed moving in over the right side of the sun, disappearing 20 minutes later as it evaporates in the searing heat. The movie is more than just a novelty. As detailed in a paper in Science magazine appearing January 20, 2012, watching the comet's death provides a new way to estimate the comet's size and mass. The comet turns out to be somewhere between 150 to 300 feet long and have about as much mass as an aircraft carrier.

"Of course, it's doing something very different than what aircraft carriers do," says Karel Schrijver, a solar scientist at Lockheed Martin in Palo Alto, Calif., who is the first author on the Science paper and is the principal investigator of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument on SDO, which recorded the movie. "It was moving along at almost 400 miles per second through the intense heat of the sun ? and was literally being evaporated away."

Typically, comet-watchers see the Kreutz-group comets only through images taken by coronagraphs, a specialized telescope that views the Sun's fainter out atmosphere, or corona, by blocking the direct blinding sunlight with a solid occulting disk. On average a new member of the Kreutz family is discovered every three days, with some of the larger members being observed for some 48 hours or more before disappearing behind the occulting disk, never to be seen again. Such "sun-grazer" comets obviously destruct when they get close to the sun, but the event had never been witnessed.

The journey to categorizing this comet began on July 6, 2011 after Schrijver spotted a bright comet in a coronagraph produced by the SOlar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). He looked for it in the SDO images and much to his surprise he found it. Soon a movie of the comet circulated to comet and solar scientists, eventually making a huge splash on the Internet as well.

Karl Battams, a scientist with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, who has extensively observed comets with SOHO and is also an author on the paper, was skeptical when he first received the movie. "But as soon as I watched it, there was zero doubt," he says. "I am so used to seeing comets simply disappearing in the SOHO images. It was breathtaking to see one truly evaporating in the corona like that."

SDO's AIA instrument captured the first ever video of a comet passing directly in front of the sun in the early morning of July 6, 2011. The comet comes in from the right and is very faint. Credit: NASA/SDO

After the excitement, the scientists got down to work. Humans have been watching and recording comets for thousands of years, but finding their dimensions has typically required a direct visit from a probe flying nearby. This movie offered the first chance to measure such things from afar. The very fact that the comet evaporated in a certain amount of time over a certain amount of space means one can work backward to determine how big it must have been before hitting the sun's atmosphere.

The Science paper describes the comet and its last moments as follows: It was traveling some 400 miles per second and made it to within 62,000 miles of the sun's surface before evaporating. Before its final death throes, in the last 20 minutes of its existence when it was visible to SDO, the comet was some 100 million pounds, had broken up into a dozen or so large chunks with sizes between 30 to 150 feet, embedded in a "coma" -- that is the fuzzy cloud surrounding the comet -- of approximately 800 miles across, and followed by a glowing tail of about 10,000 miles in length.

It is actually the coma and tail of the comet being seen in the video, not the comet's core. And close examination shows that the light in the tail pulses, getting dimmer and brighter over time. The team speculates that the pulsing variations are caused by successive breakups of each of the individual chunks that made up the comet material as it fell apart in the Sun's intense heat.

"I think this is one of the most interesting things we can see here," says Lockheed's Schrijver. "The comet's tail gets brighter by as much as four times every minute or two. The comet seems first to put a lot of material into that tail, then less, and then the pattern repeats." Figuring out the exact details of why this happens is but one of the mysteries remaining about this comet movie. High on the list is to answer the not-so-simple question of why we can see the comet at all. Certainly, there are a few basic characteristics of this situation that help. For one, this comet was big enough to survive long enough to be seen, and its orbit took it right across the face of the Sun. It was also, says Battams, probably one of the top 15 brightest comets seen by SOHO, which has observed over 2,100 sun-grazing comets to date. The SDO cameras, in of themselves, also contributed a great deal: despite being far away and relatively small compared to the sun, the comet showed up clearly on SDO's high definition imager. This imager, called the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) takes a picture every 12 seconds so the movement of the comet across the face of the sun could be continuously watched. Most other similar instruments capture images every few minutes, which makes it hard to track the movement of an object that's only visible for 20 minutes.

But ultimately, the fact that one can see this comet against the background of the sun means there is some physical process not yet understood. "Normally," says Goddard's Pesnell, "a comet passing in front of the sun absorbs the light from the sun. We would have expected a black spot against the sun, not a bright one. And there's not enough stuff in the corona to make it glow, the way a meteor does when it goes into Earth's atmosphere. So one of the really big questions is why do we see it at all?"

Figuring out this question should offer information not only about material in the comet, but also about the sun's atmosphere ? and so this opens up the door to a new niche of study. Assuming, of course, that one can spot some more comets. So far SDO has only seen the one passing in front of the sun, though SDO did spot Comet Lovejoy traveling through the corona, as it went behind the sun and reappeared.

Stay tuned, as new sun-grazing comets appear every few days . . .

###

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Thanks to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 19 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116903/Video__Catching_a_comet_death_on_camera

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Friday Campaign to Speak for Pets at MAS ? YesBiscuit!

January 20, 2012

Memphis Animal Services (MAS) is normally open only one weekend day (Saturday) which contributes to their abysmal live release rate since weekends are their greatest chance for increased traffic and adoptions.? The pound is closing this weekend for mandatory employee training on pet killing. Sunday will be the practical ? that is, killing actual pets.

It is impossible for a shelter to conduct a practical on ?humane euthanasia? for 9 hours on a designated day.? Here?s why:? Because there is no way of knowing if any pets at MAS (or anywhere) will cross over into the medically hopeless and suffering category in which humane euthanasia is warranted on Sunday.? Chances are very low that even one pet will suddenly be deemed by a vet to be medically hopeless and suffering on Sunday when there was still hope on Saturday ? never mind enough pets to fill up a 9 hour practical.? Therefore, it is impossible to conduct a day long practical on ?humane euthanasia?.? If MAS does hold this practical, what they will be doing is killing healthy/treatable pets.? That is not ?humane euthanasia? as the city is purporting the course to be.

The healthy/treatable pets who MAS is planning to kill on Sunday could potentially be adopted, fostered or rescued on Saturday if the city would keep the pound open.? I have offered to help if they would post their pets online so I could network them.? I know some of you would help too.? Further ? and I can not stress this enough ? whether or not the city opens the pound on Saturday, it is ethically wrong to kill healthy/treatable pets for a class on Sunday or for any reason, any day.

MAS kills more than 11,000 pets a year.? When will it be enough?

I say:? today.? Today is enough.

Please pick up the phone and speak for the pets at MAS who won?t be adopted this weekend but who will be killed in a practical for a killing course ? call Memphis Mayor AC Wharton at (901) 576-6000.? Politely explain that you are protesting both the closing of the pound on Saturday for a pet killing class and the needless killing of healthy/treatable pets on Sunday.? If you are unable to call, please e-mail the mayor to make your voice heard: ? Mayor@memphistn.gov

A worker at MAS drags a dog from his cage in the stray area on October 28, 2011.

The worker uses the chokepole to drag the dog to the kill room.

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Source: http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/friday-campaign-to-speak-for-pets-at-mas/

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GM reclaims global sales crown

Gm / Wieck

Strong global demand for the Chevrolet Cruze helped propel GM to the top of the automotive heap.

By Paul A. Eisenstein, The Detroit Bureau

Less than three years after emerging from bankruptcy General Motors is positioned to once again be the world?s number one automaker, with sales for 2011 totaling 9.03 million. Its largest brand Chevrolet, meanwhile, reported an all-time record of 4.76 million sales to close out its 100th anniversary.

GM?s victory celebration will have to wait for Toyota to confirm its 2011 numbers.? The Japanese giant had toppled its U.S. rival as global king-of-the-hill three years ago but it lost 100s of thousands of units of production in 2011 due to the impact of the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

For the first three quarters of last year, Toyota deliveries were off 8.8%, to 5.77 million, and though it had hoped to pick up lost momentum in the fourth quarter its plans were again set back by subsequent flooding in Thailand.? Preliminary figures suggest it will end 2011 with 7.9 million sales, down about 6% for the full year.

That is likely to mean that Volkswagen AG will squeak into second place, with total sales of 8.39 million for the year.? The German maker has set a goal of global sales leadership, however, by 2018.

Why VW wants to get there is a question analyst Aaron Bragman, of IHS Automotive, says he doesn?t fully understand.? It gets you bragging rights, the analyst says, ?But that?s about it. Being biggest in the world is not necessarily an advantage to anyone.? GM was number one for something like 75 years and then went into bankruptcy.?

What is ?far more important,? Bragman cautions, ?is sustainable profitability.?

That?s not to say size doesn?t matter.? Bigger volume translates into greater economies of scale, which is why the top three makers ? as well as rivals like Fiat/Chrysler and Nissan ? push for volume.? In some cases, a manufacturer can sidestep the need to drive up its own sales by entering into alliances or joint ventures.? Nissan, for example, has a close partnership with France?s Renault, while it has also been expanding a series of joint ventures with Germany?s Daimler ? the two announcing this month plans to jointly produce engines at a plant in Decherd, Tennessee.

Nonetheless, the latest industry sales numbers can?t simply be dismissed.? For GM, they symbolize a significant recovery since the maker lost the sales crown shortly before having to enter Chapter 11 protection.

In particular, the tally underscores the U.S. maker?s increasing focus on markets outside of its traditional hub in North America.? Nearly three out of four GM vehicles were sold, last year, in markets ranging from China to the Czech Republic.

And a growing number of them wore the Chevrolet badge.? Chevy has traditionally been the largest of the GM brands but, until recently, it focused on the Americas, leaving the rest of the world to German-based Opel (and, in China, to Buick).? In recent years, GM has been downplaying the troubled Opel and turning to Chevrolet to do the global heavy lifting.? Much of its growth has been organic, but in 2011 GM abandoned the Daewoo nameplate and rebadged the Korean brand?s products as Chevys.

While foreign sales typically don?t generate the revenues and margins of products sold in the U.S., GM saw its earnings during just the first nine months of 2011 surge to $8.47 billion, up from $6.17 billion in 2010.? The maker had lost tens of billions in the years leading up to its bankruptcy.

As for Toyota, the Japanese automaker has laid out its own aggressive goals, but the push to reach 10 million sales annually will likely be delayed by several years, at the least, analysts caution.

In fact, Bragman believes Toyota could find it much more difficult to regain the industry lead than it has indicated.

?I don?t buy into the idea they?ll come roaring back,? he said. ?They?re going to have a fight on their hands? as GM pushes to maintain its momentum while VW marches forward in its own bid for world domination.

More from The Detroit Bureau:

New Product Should Help Fiat Overcome Initial Setbacks

Toyota Ready to Fight Back With Downsized Turbo Engines

China Auto Exports Top 1 Million

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/19/10192000-gm-reclaims-global-sales-crown

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Apple adds Textbooks to the iBookstore

Apple has announced iBooks 2 at their education event in New York. With this comes the edition of a new Textbooks section in the iBookstore. You'll be able to search for textbooks in the same way you currently find all your other books or apps. One click purchase is available as well as a free sample of the book.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/5EdzbKogH-Y/story01.htm

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Video: The great gas hydrate escape

Thursday, January 19, 2012

For some time, researchers have explored flammable ice for low-carbon or alternative fuel or as a place to store carbon dioxide. Now, a computer analysis of the ice and gas compound, known as a gas hydrate, reveals key details of its structure. The results show that hydrates can hold hydrogen at an optimal capacity of 5 weight-percent, a value that meets the goal of a Department of Energy standard and makes gas hydrates practical and affordable.

The analysis is the first time researchers have accurately quantified the molecular-scale interactions between the gases -- either hydrogen or methane, aka natural gas -- and the water molecules that form cages around them. A team of researchers from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory published the results in Chemical Physics Letters online December 22, 2011.

The results could also provide insight into the process of replacing methane with carbon dioxide in the naturally abundant "water-based reservoirs," according to the lead author, PNNL chemist Sotiris Xantheas.

"Current thinking is that you need large amounts of energy to push the methane out, which destroys the scaffold in the process," said Xantheas. "But the computer modeling shows that there is an alternative low energy pathway. All you need to do is break a single hydrogen bond between water molecules forming the cage -- the methane comes out, and then the hydrate reseals itself."

Cagey Ice

Gas hydrates -- especially methane hydrates, which store natural gas -- look like ice but actually hold burnable fuel. Naturally found deep in the ocean, water and gas interweave in the hydrates, but little is known about their chemical structure and processes occurring at the molecular level. They have been known to cause problems for the petroleum industry because they tend to clog pipes and can explode. A methane hydrate produced the bubble of methane gas that contributed to 2010's Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

In previous work, Xantheas and colleagues used computer algorithms and models to examine the water-based, ice-like scaffold that holds the gas. Water molecules form individual cages made with 20 or 24 molecules. Multiple cages join together in large lattices. But those scaffolds were empty in the earlier analysis.

To find out how fuels can be accommodated inside the water cages, Xantheas and PNNL colleague Soohaeng Yoo Willow built computer models of the cages with either hydrogen gas -- in which two hydrogen atoms are bound together -- or methane gas, a small molecule made with one carbon and four hydrogen atoms.

In the hydrogen hydrates, which could potentially be used as materials for hydrogen fuel storage, a small hollow cage made from 20 water molecules could hold up to a maximum of five hydrogen molecules and a larger cage made from 24 water molecules could hold up to seven.

The maximum storage capacity equates to about 10 weight-percent, or the percentage of hydrogen by mass in the chunks of ice, although packing hydrogen in that tight puts undue strain on the system. The Department of Energy's goal for hydrogen storage -- to make the fuel practical -- is above 5.5 weight-percent.

Experimentally, hydrogen storage researchers typically measure much less storage capacities. The computer model showed them why: The hydrogen molecules tended to leak out of the cages, reducing the amount of hydrogen that could be stored.

The researchers found that adding a methane molecule to the larger cages in the pure hydrogen hydrate, however, prevented the hydrogen gas from leaking out. The computer model showed the researchers that they could store the hydrogen at high pressure and practical temperatures, and release it by reducing the pressure, which melts it.

Water Gates

Understanding how the gas interacts and moves through the cages can help chemists or engineers store gas and remove it at will. Willow and Xantheas' computer simulations showed that hydrogen molecules could migrate through the cages by passing between the figurative bars of the water cages. However, the cages also had gates: Sometimes a low-energy bond between two water molecules broke, causing a water molecule to swing open and let the hydrogen molecule drift out. The "gate" closed right after the molecule passed through to reform the lattice.

With methane hydrates, some fuel producers want to remove the gas safely to use it. Others see the emptied cages as potential storage sites for carbon dioxide, which could theoretically keep it out of the atmosphere and ocean, where it warms the earth and acidifies the sea. So, Willow and Xantheas tested how methane could migrate through the cages.

The water cages were only big enough to comfortably hold one methane molecule, so the chemists stuffed two methanes inside and watched what happened. Quickly, one of the water molecules forming the cage swung open like a gate, allowing one methane molecule to escape. The gate then slammed shut as the remaining methane scooted into the middle of the cage.

"This process is important because it can happen with natural gas. It shows how methane can move in the natural world," said Xantheas. "We hope this analysis will help with the technical issues that need to be addressed with gas hydrate research and development."

Xantheas said performing computer simulations with carbon dioxide instead of methane might help determine whether it's chemically feasible to store carbon dioxide in hydrates.

###

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: http://www.pnnl.gov/news

Thanks to DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 49 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116850/Video__The_great_gas_hydrate_escape

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Vail Valley Voices: A tale from Africa's bush

Anyone who's ever been on an African safari knows the thrill of getting up close and personal with elephants, rhino and big cats.

The lucky ones will have a tale or two about the encounter.

My wife, Bobbi, and I are no different. In fact, our travel agent has told us about a about several incidents he's experienced while living in the bush.

Unlike your average travel agent, Bill Given of The Wild Source is also a wildlife biologist and is deeply involved in a critical research project to conserve African predators. As a result, Bill spends a great deal of time in the African bush.

So when Bill relates a story, you can rest assured it's not apocryphal.

He once told a story about his team of researchers tracking a particular lion pride in the Masai Mara in Kenya.

The team hadn't had much luck in finding the pride and had just settled in to their individual one-man tents for the evening.

That evening he was awakened around 3 a.m. by a rustling he heard coming from just outside his tent. Thinking it was some innocuous creature, he rolled over and went back to sleep.

When he awoke at sunrise, he found that the disturbance hadn't come from porcupine or bat-eared fox, but rather a male lion that left his large paw print inches from the entrance to Bills tent. Humans aren't normally a part of a lion's diet. Nevertheless, I would have found the experience more than a bit unnerving, even after the fact.

Bill also told how on another occasion a guide and tracker were taking a group of safari goers on their afternoon game drive when after turning a corner in their Land Cruiser, they came upon a pride of seven or eight sleeping lions.

To avoid running into the lions, the guide, who was also the driver, slammed on the brakes. The tracker, sitting atop a special tracker seat rigged over the left front wheel, was accidentally thrown forward from the vehicle.

The tracker, a young Matswana named Ben, landed directly on top of the 500 pound pride male. This so startled the lions that the entire pride scattered into the bush.

As the story goes, Ben moved so fast in returning to the vehicle it was as though his feet never even touched the ground. When recounting the event, several guests later said that Ben literally flew back onto the vehicle.

Meanwhile, after retreating about 20 feet or so, the big pride male stopped, turned and looked back toward the vehicle as if to say, ?Hey, what am I running for?? and casually walked over to the Land Cruiser and marked his territory on its right front fender.

Perhaps not to the same harrowing degree, but Bobbi and I had our own close encounter last November in Botswana. We had just returned from our morning game drive to discover a bull elephant in camp.

It's not unusual for elephants, lions and other animals to wander through camps, but they do so usually at night.

On this day, however, this 6-ton bull decided to take his lunch next to our tent.

Because the elephant appeared relaxed, our guide motioned to me to come stand between him and our tent, about 20 feet behind the elephant. Being on foot that close to a bull elephant in the wild certainly got my heart rate up. However, I soon tired of shooting pictures of the elie's hindquarters and decided to gain a better perspective from the partially enclosed outdoor shower stall attached to our tent.

Our tent was raised about three and a half feet off the ground, putting me in an excellent position to photograph the elie, especially since I could stabilize my camera on the stall's 5-foot wooden privacy fence. The big bull saw me, but didn't pay much mind until he heard my Canon's motor drive.

Suddenly, he took an interest. As he moved toward me, I was in such awe that I literally lost myself in the viewfinder.

Sensing potential danger, Bobbi called out, ?Butch, you better come back in. He's getting kind of close.?

I disregarded Bobbi's warning and kept shooting until the old bull began to reach into the shower with his trunk.

Then, realizing that only a 1.5-inch-thick gum pole privacy fence separated us, I quickly decided that safety was more important than capturing a National Geographic moment.

Butch Mazzuca is an Edwards resident. To see more of his photos from Africa, visit www.flickr.com/photos/72445657@N06/sets/

Source: http://www.vaildaily.com/ARTICLE/20120118/EDITS/120119842/-1/RSS

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IEA Cuts 2012 Oil Demand Forecast

(MarketWatch) - The International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday that it expects global oil demand to grow by 1.1 million barrels a day in 2012, revised lower from its previous estimate of 1.3 million barrels a day.

"Clear signs of economic weakness tipped global oil demand into a declining year-on-year trend at the end of 2011, down 0.3 million barrels a day in [the fourth quarter of 2011], its first such drop since the tail end of the credit crunch," the IEA said in its monthly oil market report.

The significantly lower starting point led the IEA to reduce its estimate for 2012.

The agency, which represents major energy-consuming rich countries, warned of "the rising likelihood of a sharp economic slowdown, if not outright recession," that creates the very real possibility of zero oil demand growth in 2012.

Crude oil futures for February delivery ticked slightly higher after the report, moving up 0.1 percent to $100.81.

Crude oil added $1.68, or 1.7 percent, to $100.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in the previous session, closing up at the highest level in three days.

Read more: MarketWatch

Source: http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpps/news/iea-cuts-2012-oil-demand-forecast-dpgonc-km-20120118_17158031

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Mechanism by which newly approved melanoma drug accelerates secondary skin cancers uncovered

ScienceDaily (Jan. 17, 2012) ? Patients with metastatic melanoma taking the recently approved drug vemurafenib (Zelboraf?) responded well to the twice daily pill, but some of them developed a different, secondary skin cancer.

Now, researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, working with investigators from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, Roche and Plexxikon, have elucidated the mechanism by which vemurafenib excels at fighting melanoma but also allows for the development of skin squamous cell carcinomas.

The very action by which the pill works, blocking the mutated BRAF protein in melanoma cells, sets off a cellular cascade in other skin cells if they have another pre-disposing cancer mutation and ultimately accelerates the secondary skin cancers, said Dr. Antoni Ribas, co-senior author of the paper and a professor of hematology/oncology.

About 50 percent of patients who get melanoma have the BRAF mutation and can be treated with vemurafenib, Ribas said. Of those, a fourth of the patients develop skin squamous cell carcinomas. The squamous cell carcinomas were removed surgically, and vemurafenib was not discontinued for this side effect.

"We wondered why it was that we were treating and getting the melanoma to shrink, but another skin cancer was developing," said Ribas, who studies melanoma at the Jonsson Cancer Center. "We looked at what was likely making them grow and we discovered that the drug was making pre-existing cells with a RAS mutation grow into skin squamous cell cancers." The 18-month study appears in the Jan. 19, 2012 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The combined research team performed a molecular analysis to identify the oncogenic mutations in the squamous cell lesions of patients treated with the BRAF inhibitor. Among 21 tumor samples studied, 13 had RAS mutations. In a different set of 14 samples, eight had RAS mutations, Ribas said.

"Our data indicate that RAS mutations are present in about 60 percent of cases in patients who develop skin squamous cell cancers while treated with vemurafenib," Ribas said. "This RAS mutation is likely caused by prior skin damage from sun exposure, and what vemurafenib does is accelerate the appearance of these skin squamous cell cancers, as opposed to being the cause of the mutation that starts these cancers."

Ribas' group found that blocking the non-mutated BRAF in cells with mutated RAS caused them to send signals around BRAF that induced the growth of the squamous cell cancers.

The discovery of the squamous cell cancer mechanism has led to strategies to inhibit both the BRAF mutation with vemurafenib and block the cellular cascade with a different drug, a MEK inhibitor, before it initiates the secondary skin cancers, said co-senior author Professor Richard Marais from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, who developed the animal model for the study.

"By understanding the mechanism by which these squamous cell cancers develop, we have been able to devise a strategy to prevent the second tumors without blocking the beneficial effects of the BRAF drugs," Marais said. "This may allow many more patients to benefit from these important drugs."

Ribas said that this is one of the very few times that oncologists understand molecularly why a side effect to cancer treatment is happening.

"The side effect in this case is caused by how the drug works in a different cellular setting," he said. "In one case it inhibits cancer growth, and in another it makes the malignant cells grow faster."

Studies currently are under way testing BRAF and MEK inhibitors in combination in patients with metastatic melanoma, Ribas said.

"Our data provide a molecular mechanism for the clinical toxicity of a targeted oncogene inhibitor that apparently contradicts the intended effects," the study states.

The study was supported by Roche, Plexxikon, the Seaver Institute, the Louise Belley and Richard Schnarr Fund, the Fred L. Hartley Family Foundation, the Wesley Coyle Memorial Fund, the Ruby Family Foundation, the Albert Stroberg and Betsy Patterson Fund, the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation and the Caltech-UCLA Joint Center for Translational Medicine.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120117191417.htm

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Promise them anything, but give them death (Politico)

Just in case you sometimes get Mormons and Quakers confused, Mitt Romney cleared things up Monday night.

?Bin Laden got what he deserved,? Romney, a Mormon, said at a Republican debate in South Carolina. ?A bullet in the head.?

Continue Reading

The crowd, as debate crowds sometimes do, went wild.

The audience assembled in Myrtle Beach at a Fox/Wall Street Journal debate seemed so amped up even before the debate began, in fact, that I thought they were going to have to string up chicken wire to protect the candidates.

The primary is Saturday, and it is generally agreed that if Romney wins - - it would be his third victory in a row - - the Republican nominating race effectively will be over, just 18 days after it began.

So spirits are running high, and all the other Republicans are running hard at Romney.

This was the 16th time the Republican field has debated, and the object for the moderators was similar to the previous 15 debates: Get the candidates to snarl and snap at each other, because snarling and snapping is a lot better TV than a discussion of Iran?s possible closing of the Strait of Hormuz (which didn?t come up).

Romney?s opponents have been hoping ever since he began leading in the polls that he has a glass (if not crystal) chin and that it will shatter after a few quick punches.

And the evening did not begin well for Romney.

?Mitt, we need for you to release your income tax, so people can find out how you made your money,? Rick Perry said. ?The people of South Carolina have to decide whether they have a flawed candidate or not. We cannot fire our nominee in September. We need to know now.?

Romney simply ducked the punch, but later in the evening, a moderator made him answer. Romney replied that he would ?probably? release his tax returns in April - - a point at which he hopes to have the nomination already wrapped up.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories0112_71515_html/44201700/SIG=11mhu5bk7/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71515.html

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Former Blatter aide sets out reform plan

By GRAHAM DUNBAR

updated 4:25 p.m. ET Jan. 17, 2012

GENEVA - A former adviser to FIFA President Sepp Blatter has his own ideas on how soccer's governing body can modernize itself and prevent more corruption scandals.

Jerome Champagne left FIFA unexpectedly two years ago, but sent his proposals to 208 national soccer associations ahead of Thursday's panel meeting as part of President Sepp Blatter's reforms.

The former French diplomat says his scandal-hit former employer faces a "severe crisis" because of corruption allegations.

"If we want to really have a strong governance of the game ... we need a strong FIFA," he said by telephone Tuesday. "I want FIFA to be relevant in the 21st century, but we can't govern football the way that we did in the first 150 years."

The 25-page proposal is a direct appeal to FIFA and national bodies while in effect bypassing soccer's six continental confederations.

Champagne, who declined to discuss his departure, expressed admiration for FIFA and his belief that soccer can "help the world to be better."

His intervention is likely to be viewed as an early indicator he is interested in succeeding Blatter, who has promised to step down in 2015, but he insisted he's only trying to help.

"I am only a citizen of world football," he said. "I put my contribution on the table. How it will be implemented or discussed for the moment is not the debate."

Champagne wants the FIFA president to have more power to enact his agenda while a bigger democratic voice is given to national associations, clubs, leagues and players.

He urges a fairer spread of wealth, and suggests soccer's future is jeopardized by the global popularity of Europe's top leagues. He proposes a levy on international broadcast deals to create a soccer investment fund for poorer and smaller nations.

Before entering soccer, Champagne's diplomatic postings included four years in Los Angeles as deputy consul-general. He worked as protocol chief when France hosted the 1998 World Cup, then joined FIFA soon after Blatter was elected.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Cup relief

Queens Park Rangers and Bolton both avoid upsets in their FA Cup replay games on Tuesday.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46029585/ns/sports-soccer/

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Democrat seeks GOP names on Countrywide VIP loan list (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The top Democratic member of a congressional oversight panel turned up the heat on its Republican chairman on Tuesday to identify the four GOP lawmakers who got special treatment in the controversial "Friends of Angelo" mortgage program run by the now-defunct Countrywide Financial Corp.

Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter on Tuesday to the panel's chairman, Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, in which he pressed for disclosure of all four GOP congressmen's names. In the letter, Cummings took issue with how Issa has handled the investigation into the Countrywide VIP loan program.

"In response to your subpoena, the Committee obtained information about four previously unknown instances in which Members of Congress received VIP loans, including three current Republican House Members and one former Republican House Member. After discovering that all of these Members are Republicans, you sent a letter on December 16, 2011, referring their cases to the House Ethics Committee," Cummings wrote in the letter dated January 17th to Issa.

The "Friends of Angelo" program's name refers to Angelo Mozilo, the former chairman and CEO of Countrywide, the California-based lender that became a dominant player in the mortgage business during the housing boom. In October 2010, Mozilo agreed to pay $67.5 million in a combined penalty and "disgorgement of ill-gotten gains" to settle SEC charges of fraud and insider trading related to Countrywide's risky subprime mortgage lending practices. At the time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the $22.5 million fine was the largest ever paid in an SEC settlement by a senior executive of a publicly traded company.

Issa has waged a high-profile campaign for three years to obtain mortgage files of members of Congress who received special treatment from Countrywide.

POTENTIAL FOR A POLITICAL FIRESTORM

Disclosures about members of Congress getting discounted loans and other financial perks have the potential for a huge backlash in an election year.

Veteran GOP Representatives Howard McKeon and Elton Gallegly, both Republicans of California, have admitted their names are on a list of members of the U.S. House of Representatives who received discounted loans from Countrywide, according to the Saturday edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Cummings criticized Issa for reversing course during the investigation after previously saying he would disclose the names of any lawmakers who received VIP loans. Instead, after receiving information about four previously unknown instances of politicians winning favor from the mortgage lender last month, Issa sent the names to the House Ethics Committee.

"Since you failed to consult with me before taking these actions, I have several questions about how you want to proceed with the investigation," Cummings wrote.

The Maryland Democrat called on Issa to name the two remaining loan recipients. Cummings also wanted to know why Issa planned to interview Countrywide officials who were involved in the "Friends of Angelo" loan dealings.

"Rather than publicly identifying the four additional Members who received Countrywide loans or attempting to determine whether they took any official actions on behalf of Countrywide, you chose instead to refer their cases to the Ethics Committee," Cummings wrote.

"These sudden shifts raise key questions about how you plan to proceed with this investigation," he added.

Cummings also asked if Issa intends to schedule public hearings on the investigation and whether he will call on Mozilo to testify.

A spokesman for Issa was not immediately available for comment late on Tuesday.

After the housing bust and widespread defaults on subprime mortgages, the failing Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America in 2008.

(Reporting By Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/pl_nm/us_usa_countrywide_congress

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Maldives military arrests top judge, spark protest (AP)

MALE, Maldives ? The Maldives' military has arrested the chief justice of the country's criminal court after he released an opposition leader who had been detained without a warrant for allegedly defaming the government.

Monday's arrest of Judge Abdulla Mohamed has prompted all courts in Maldives to boycott sessions Tuesday, in what could become a showdown between the country's first government chosen in free elections and the independent judiciary introduced by former pro-democracy political prisoner President Mohamed Nasheed after coming to power in 2008.

The arrest of a judge by the military is unprecedented in the Maldives, which became a multiparty democracy after 30 years of autocratic rule. It also sparked a brief street protest in the capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago.

A government statement quoted Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem as saying Tuesday that Mohamed was arrested "for corruption, in particular for allowing his judicial decisions to be determined by political and personal affiliations and interests."

"The government of the Maldives fully supports and will always protect judicial independence," Naseem said. "However, judicial independence does not mean that judges are above the law and can behave as they see fit contrary to the laws of the land. A judge is a citizen of the Maldives no more or less important than any other citizen."

The country's supreme court, the prosecutor general's office and judicial services commission all issued statements calling the judge's arrest illegal and requesting his release.

The prosecutor general's office said that under the constitution a judge can be arrested only after a supreme court decision to do so.

With no positive response to their calls to release the judge, all other judges and court staff announced they are boycotting sessions and not extending detention orders on Tuesday.

Opposition activists said the arrest was in retaliation for the judge's ruling that opposition leader Mohamed Jameel Ahmed's detention a day earlier was illegal.

Police arrested Ahmed for allegedly defaming the government during a television interview in which he accused Nasheed's government of working against the state religion, Islam, with the support of Christians and Jews. Opposition activists say the government is trying to use an old criminal defamation law to persecute them while it is not part of the current democratic law.

Religious debates have gained prominence in this Sunni Muslim nation of 300,000 people where practicing any other faith is forbidden.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_re_as/as_maldives_politics

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