Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295564678?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
EPA Proposes New Rule To Clean Up Gasoline And Reduce Smog
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on Friday a rule to clean up gasoline. The new lower sulfur gas is already what California uses to reduce air pollution, and the EPA wants it to be used nationwide. The agency estimates that it would save lives while adding a penny a gallon to the cost of gas. The oil industry fears it will cost more.
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Spice Giveaway from Cooking Planit ? Creative Culinary :: Food ...
I?m so excited to announce that I?m giving away a Spice Set from CookingPlanIt! It?s an awesome set of spices that includes 26 of the most commonly used spices in the kitchen:
| Ground Cumin Basil Saigon Cinnamon Bay Leaves Smoked Paprika Thyme Garlic Powder Mediterranean Oregano Onion Powder Rosemary Nutmeg Powder Red Pepper Flakes Coriander Powder | Cayenne Pepper Ground Cloves Chinese Five Spice Turmeric Curry Powder Yellow Mustard Pennsylvania Pepper Cardamon Powder Cajun Seasoning Allspice Powder Hill Country Chili Powder Ginger Root Powder Manzanillo Mexico Seasoning |
The?Cooking Planit Spice Giveaway is a fabulous promotion sponsored by the folks at Cooking Planit. They?re giving 50 spice sets to foodie, mommy and tech bloggers to give away to their readers in any way that they would like and two sets were given away each day for 25 days with the first contests starting on March 4th. If you missed winning before; here is another chance!
Cooking Planit is a recipe site that is organized by meals and not just as individual recipes; the guesswork it taken out of what to serve together. I also love that they test every recipe on the site; nothing I hate more than trying something that is a big huge #FAIL! Add to that cooking tips, organizational ideas and more and you?ve got a great site for cooks with any level of experience.
Winning is easy?just leave a comment letting me know what your favorite spice is and you?ll be entered. My contest runs through April 5th, 2013 at midnight EST and a winner will be picked April 6th. Good luck!
Check out the other foodies below who participated and find the others who are still running an active contest?more chances for you to win!
This giveaway is sponsored by Cooking Planit; all opinions are my own.?Images courtesy Cooking Planit.
Source: http://www.creative-culinary.com/spice-set-giveaway-from-cookingplanit/
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Pope refers to "Muslim brothers" on Good Friday
Pope Francis lies down in prayer during the Passion of Christ Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Friday, March 29, 2013. Pope Francis began the Good Friday service at the Vatican with the Passion of Christ Mass and hours later will go to the ancient Colosseum in Rome for the traditional Way of the Cross procession. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis lies down in prayer during the Passion of Christ Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Friday, March 29, 2013. Pope Francis began the Good Friday service at the Vatican with the Passion of Christ Mass and hours later will go to the ancient Colosseum in Rome for the traditional Way of the Cross procession. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis delivers his blessing during the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) torchlight procession celebrated in front of the Colosseum on Good Friday in Rome, Friday, March 29, 2013. Pope Francis is sitting in silent prayer during this year's Good Friday procession, which is re-enacting Christ's crucifixion and recalling the wars and "violent fundamentalism" that are devastating the Middle East today. The Good Friday procession at Rome's Colosseum is one of the most dramatic rituals of Holy Week, when Christians commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A worker adjusts a giant torch lit cross overlooking the ancient Colosseum prior to the start of the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) torchlight procession which will be celebrated by Pope Francis, on Good Friday, in Rome, Friday, March 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A crowd gathers beneath the ancient Colosseum prior to the start of the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) torchlight procession which will be celebrated by Pope Francis, on Good Friday, in Rome, Friday, March 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis presides the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) torchlight procession celebrated in front of the Colosseum, not pictured, on Good Friday in Rome, Friday, March 29, 2013. Pope Francis is sitting in silent prayer during this year's Good Friday procession, which is re-enacting Christ's crucifixion and recalling the wars and "violent fundamentalism" that are devastating the Middle East today. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
ROME (AP) ? Pope Francis reached out in friendship to "so many Muslim brothers and sisters" during a Good Friday procession dedicated to the suffering of Christians from terrorism, war and religious fanaticism in the Middle East.
The new pontiff, who has rankled traditionalists by rejecting many trappings of his office, mostly stuck to the traditional script during the nighttime Way of the Cross procession at Rome's Colosseum, one of the most dramatic rituals of Holy Week.
With torches lighting the way, the faithful carried a cross to different stations, where meditations and prayers were read out recalling the final hours of Jesus' life and his crucifixion.
This year, the prayers were composed by young Lebanese, and many recalled the plight of minority Christians in the region, where wars have forced thousands to flee their homelands. The meditations called for an end to "violent fundamentalism," terrorism and the "wars and violence which in our days devastate various countries in the Middle East."
Francis, who became pope just over two weeks ago, chose, however, to stress Christians' positive relations with Muslims in the region in his brief comments at the end of the ceremony.
Standing on a platform overlooking the procession route, Francis recalled Benedict XVI's 2012 visit to Lebanon when "we saw the beauty and the strong bond of communion joining Christians together in that land and the friendship of our Muslim brothers and sisters and so many others."
"That occasion was a sign to the Middle East and to the whole world, a sign of hope," he said.
Friday's outreach followed Francis' eyebrow-raising gesture a day earlier, when he washed and kissed the feet of two women, one a Muslim, in the Holy Thursday ritual that commemorates Jesus' washing of his apostles' feet during the Last Supper before his crucifixion.
Breaking with tradition, Francis performed the ritual on 12 inmates at a juvenile detention center, rather than in Rome's grand St. John Lateran basilica, where in the past, 12 priests have been chosen to represent Jesus' disciples.
Before he became pope, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio long cultivated warm relations with Muslim leaders in his native Argentina. In one of his first speeches as pope, he called for the church and the West in general to "intensify" relations with the Muslim world.
The Vatican's relations with Islam hit several bumps during Benedict XVI's papacy, when he outraged Muslims with a 2006 speech quoting a Byzantine emperor as saying some of Prophet Muhammad's teachings were "evil and inhuman." And in 2011, the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world, Cairo's Al-Azhar institute, froze dialogue with the Vatican to protest Benedict's call for greater protection of Christians in Egypt.
However, Francis' past outreach to the Muslim community in Argentina seems to have changed that. Al-Azhar's chief imam, Sheik Ahmed el-Tayyib, sent a message of congratulations to Francis on his election and said he hoped for cooperation.
The Vatican's efforts to reconcile with the Islamic world have not been welcomed by all. Italy's most famous Muslim convert to Catholicism, Magdi Allam, announced last week he was leaving the church because of its "soft" stance on Islam. Allam was baptized by Benedict XVI in 2008 during the high-profile Easter Vigil service when the pope traditionally baptizes a handful of adults. There has been no Vatican comment on his about-face.
Thousands of people packed the Colosseum and surrounding areas for the nighttime procession, holding candles wrapped in paper globes as Francis sat in silent prayer as a giant torch-lit crucifix twinkled nearby. Some in the crowd had Lebanese flags around their shoulders in an indication of the special role Lebanese faithful played in this year's procession.
Lebanon has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East ? nearly 40 percent of the country's 4 million people, with Maronite Catholics the largest sect. As civil war has raged in neighboring Syria, Lebanon's Christian community has been divided between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Overall, Christians in the Middle East have been uneasy as the Arab Spring has led to the strengthening of Islamist groups in most countries that have experienced uprisings. Thousands of Christians have fled the region ? a phenomenon that the Vatican has lamented, given Christianity's roots in the Holy Land.
"How sad it is to see this blessed land suffer in its children, who relentlessly tear one another to pieces and die!" said one of the Good Friday meditations. "It seems that nothing can overcome evil, terrorism, murder and hatred."
Francis picked up on that message, saying Christ's death on the cross is "the answer which Christians offer in the face of evil, the evil that continues to work in us and around us."
"Christians must respond to evil with good, taking the cross upon themselves as Jesus did," he said.
At the end of the ceremony, a male choir sang a haunting Arabic hymn, a reflection of the Eastern rite influence that infused the ceremony.
On Saturday, Francis presides over the solemn Easter Vigil ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica and on Sunday, he celebrates Easter Mass and delivers an important speech. Usually the pope also issues Easter greetings in dozens of languages.
In his two weeks as pope, Francis' discomfort with speaking in any language other than Italian has become apparent. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Friday "we'll have to see" what Francis does with the multilingual greetings.
The Good Friday procession was conducted entirely in Italian, whereas in years past the core elements recounting what happens at each station would be recited in a variety of languages.
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
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Men's Health Issues that Need Attention
Men?s health issues, like women?s health issues, have been properly studied and documented. Yet, there are health issues today that most men are hesitant to talk about or seek proper diagnosis from their doctors or other health professionals. For this reason, they just allow these health issues to become worst. Some of these health issues include the following:
Erectile dysfunction is a health issue that is common among men, yet most men refuse or hesitate to acknowledge this problem. This is because of the culture that sets men?s thinking that their admittance of erectile dysfunction will somehow, diminish their masculinity. Hence, instead of discussing the issue with their doctor or partner, they try to find solution or quick fixes from untested products. In many cases, the solution to this health issue is to simply reduce the stress and take time to relax. However, it can also be a symptom of an underlying health issue such as a prostate problem or diabetes. Hence, if erectile dysfunction is experienced, it is important to seek for a health professional advice for proper diagnosis and avoid making the problem worst.
Infertility
Most men often misinterpret infertility with erectile dysfunction. These two health issues are not related to each other. Infertility is a men?s health issue which is characterized by slow sperm motility, a low amount of sperm that is present in the semen, abnormal size or shape of the sperm, or issues with the semen itself. Hence, even if a man suffers from infertility, he can still achieve an erection. However, in many cases, especially in places where male dominance is important, an otherwise healthy man refuses to go through a fertility test.
Today numerous health innovations are available to treat this disorder, which start from medications to IVF (In-vitro fertilization). Nevertheless, in some cases, infertility can be resolved by simply avoiding or making changes to one?s lifestyle such as exercising regularly, eating proper diet, decreasing or completely avoiding alcohol consumption, and quitting smoking. Men who are involved in jobs like manufacturing, landscaping, or construction should try to minimize exposing their selves to environmental toxins, which come from pesticides, radiation, lead, and insecticides by wearing protective items like masks. Even so, it is still important to seek professional diagnosis to get the best solution.
Tinnitus
Though tinnitus affects people of all genders and ages, it is more likely to develop in men. About one man, out of eight men with ages ranging from 65 to 74, suffers from this condition. This condition has been regarded as a symptom of an underlying health issue than an actual health disorder. It is characterized by hearing noises every now and then, disrupting sleep or concentration. These noises can vary from roaring, squeaking, whooshing, chirping, ringing, whistling, hissing, buzzing, and more. In most cases, only the sufferer can hear these noises. This condition can be avoided or treated by wearing ear protectors, avoiding loud noises, learning to manage chronic stress, and quitting smoking and alcohol drinking. Nonetheless, if the condition persists, seek for a professional help.
Source: http://way-to-be-healthy.blogspot.com/2013/03/mens-health-issues-that-need-attention.html
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
Bonobos' SF Engineers Split Between NY Relocation And New Company Led By CTO Mike Hart
Bonobos' newly hired San Francisco engineering team is fracturing, but there's no disaster. Bonobos CTO Mike Hart has departed the company to become a co-founder, along with Cory Hicks, of a brand-new business. After cooking up some hot new personalization technology at Bonobos, Hart and five other engineers from the team will be spinning out that technology into a standalone company separate from Bonobos.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/MoBbuzWxx0A/
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Cheese Curd In Paradise: Recipe Swap: Crockpot Santa Fe Chicken
Time for a Recipe Swap!
The theme for this swap is blogger's choice and I was assigned Alison's blog Sparks from the Kitchen. Alison has tons of delicious recipes (I made her quiche for the special occasion swap) and it was hard to decide! She had some yummy sounding crockpot recipes and as a fellow crockpot lover I decided to make Crockpot Santa Fe Chicken.? In her post she used the chicken for tacos/burritos and I decided I wanted to make a burrito bowl using the chicken, rice and black bean/pinto bean blend. The recipe is really easy and the chicken was delicious. We topped ours with sliced black olives, cheddar cheese and sour cream.? I love finding new and delicious crockpot recipes! I kept close to the original recipe with the exception of using cilantro lime diced tomatoes over the tomatoes with?green chilies. I think the green chilies would have been delicious, but when I saw the cilantro lime at the store I couldn't resist. Thank you Alison for a delicious recipe and thank you to Sarah for hosting our wonderful swap!Ingredients
11/2?lbs boneless and skinless chicken breast
14.4 oz can diced tomatoes with cilantro and lime (you could also use tomatoes with green chilies)
4 oz can green chilies
10?oz frozen corn
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 cups?chicken stock?
3 scallions, chopped
11/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2?tsp onion powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Place chicken in crockpot. In a medium bowl, mix all other ingredients together. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.? 30 min-1 hour before serving shred the chicken and allow it to continue cooking on low. Serve as a taco filling or over rice and beans.
Source: http://cheesecurdinparadise.blogspot.com/2013/03/recipe-swap-crockpot-santa-fe-chicken.html
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A Look Back: Utah mountain recreation in the early 1900s | The Salt ...
(Salt Lake Tribune Archives) Cache Cave in 1892.
Each Friday, The Salt Lake Tribune presents images from its archives and the archives of the Utah State Historical Society in a special series called A Look Back. Today, we are showcasing photos from the early 1900s of recreation in Utah?s scenic mountains.
Every gallery of the series is available at www.sltrib.com/topics/lookback.
Here are some of the previous installments:
Life on the Ute Reservation in early the 1900s
Women?s fashion in the 1960s
Dogs in Utah around 1900
Utah?s early cultural diversity
Utah artists from the late 1800s to the early 1900s
Presidential visits to Utah from the 1860s
story continues below
Hunting and fishing in the early 1900s
BYU, Utah football programs
Saloons, brewing companies in Utah around 1900
The centennial Days of ?47 parade in downtown Salt Lake City from July 1947
Women?s fashion from 1949-50
Construction of the Salt Lake Temple and SLC in the 1800s
Utah college life from the 1930s to 1960s
Old newspaper advertisements
People and events in Salt Lake City from the 1930s, ?40s and ?50s
Historical images of Sugar House
Next Page >Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56076629-78/bit-com-csp-html.html.csp
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Holy Week pilgrims visit NM shrine under new pope
CHIMAYO, N.M. (AP) ? Tens of thousands of pilgrims are expected during Easter weekend to visit El Santuario de Chimayo, one of the most popular Catholic shrines in the Americas.
And this year, pilgrims are coming to this adobe chapel in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains under historic circumstances ? the "Lourdes of America" is now under the first pope from the Western Hemisphere.
Just two weeks after Pope Francis was elected, around 50,000 are expected to visit the popular northern New Mexico Catholic shrine, and officials say even more may come because of Argentine-born pontiff.
"We believe the new pope might contribute to even more people visiting," said Joanne Dupont Sandoval, secretary at the Chimayo parish. "We're already seeing people make trip in the early part of the week."
The former Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, who had spent nearly his entire career at home in Argentina, was elected pope earlier his month. As the first Jesuit pope, he was been credited with focusing on helping the poor and teaching and leading priests in Latin America.
Some pilgrims will make the 90-mile, three-day walk from Albuquerque to the shrine that houses "el pocito," a small pit of holy adobe-colored soil that some believe possesses curing powers.
Chimayo also is a National Historic Landmark, and some 200,000 people are estimated to visit each year, with the bulk occurring during Holy Week.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Robert Garcia announced this week that traffic patrols will increase Thursday to Sunday for safety as thousands of pilgrims walk along heavily used roads, such as NM 502 and 503 and U.S. 84-285.
Sheriff's deputies also will be assisted by New Mexico State Police, Santa Fe Police Department, Pojoaque Tribal Police Department, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to watch for drunken drivers.
Garcia said deputies will hand out 2,000 glow-in-the-dark sticks to walkers to make them more visible to motorists.
For two centuries, Hispanic and Native American pilgrims have made spiritual journeys to El Santuario de Chimayo and often carry along photos of sick relatives and requests for miracles.
___
Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/holy-week-pilgrims-visit-nm-shrine-under-pope-183110581.html
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Abrakadoodle Art Education Opens First Unit in Arkansas
Children's art and creativity programs set to get underway in Northwest Arkansas this spring.
March 29, 2013 // Franchising.com // Reston, VA - Abrakadoodle Remarkable Art Education is expanding its reach to children with the addition of its first franchise unit in Arkansas. The mother/daughter duo Cora J. and Joy Davis of Fayetteville will be providing a wide range of art programs to include visual arts classes, camps, workshops, as well as in-school field trips, special events and arty parties at schools, community centers, faith-based locations and other sites that serve children throughout Northwest Arkansas to include Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale.
"We are delighted to welcome Joy and Cora to our award-winning Abrakadoodle franchise system," said Rosemarie Hartnett, CFE, President and Co-Founder of Abrakadoodle, Inc. "They bring impressive educational backgrounds and a true passion for education and creative literacy, which I am confident will help ensure their tremendous success in a community that values art, culture and creativity."
"Creative literacy is very important for children," stated Cora J. Davis, Director of Abrakadoodle-Northwest Arkansas. "Abrakadoodle will provide an educationally-rich learning environment enabling children to develop skills and imagination." Married to Paul, mother of three (Kendrick, Vanessa and Joy) and grandmother of two young children (Kennedy and Katelynn), Cora brings to Abrakadoodle 15 years of K-5 teaching experience, as well as a BS in Elementary Education, a Master's in Education, and she is working on her PhD in Public Policy and Education at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. She explained that her daughter Joy approached her about the opportunity to operate a well-respected art education franchise, an idea she met with enthusiasm.
""I always dreamed of owning my own business," Joy Davis, Director of Abrakadoodle-Northwest Arkansas remarked. Joy discovered Abrakadoodle when she read a business magazine and saw a fit with Abrakadoodle's creative concept. From a long line of educators, Joy brings a BS in Biology and a Master's in Operations Management. "Through Abrakadoodle, we will stimulate creativity in children, which they will carry with them throughout their lives. I find that very exciting!"
To learn more about art programs or to bring Abrakadoodle classes and activities to your location, please go to www.abrakadoodle.com/AR01/ or contact Joy Davis at jdavis@abrakadoodle.com or 479-856-6651.
Abrakadoodle was the first American franchise company to bring a comprehensive, standards-based art education program to children in the U.S. More than just a drawing program, Abrakadoodle embraces art in its broadest scope - from public art to all types of painting, sculpture, animation, paper and fabric art, digital photography and more. Abrakadoodle students develop a fine arts vocabulary as they learn about the styles and techniques of such artists as Michelangelo, Monet, Picasso, Ansel Adams, as well as contemporary artists through its Artist of Distinction program. Abrakadoodle students use an abundance of creative materials (bamboo brushes, sculpting materials, fabric, watercolor, acrylics, and more) to explore the visual arts. Students often take home framed, labeled original creations that extend the learning at home, as well as boost self-confidence.
Abrakadoodle classes employ a "process art" methodology. These classes not only inspire a child's imagination, but they also build motor, language and cognitive skills. Abrakadoodle students develop an appreciation for art and a sense of craftsmanship. Research suggests that getting an early start in the arts can make a real difference in the lives of children, not only in terms of increased academic achievement but also greater problem solving, leadership capabilities, and confidence.
About Abrakadoodle
Abrakadoodle was co-founded in 2002 by award-winning educator/franchise developer Mary Rogers, CFE, MA.Ed, and children's services franchising expert Rosemarie Hartnett, CFE. Abrakadoodle is the most comprehensive creativity and art education company of its kind, offering extensive visual arts classes, camps and parties for children ages 20 months to 12 years old. Abrakadoodle has received seven First Place Awards from Nickelodeon's Parent Picks Awards for "Best Art Program to inspire your child's inner Picasso." Recently Abrakadoodle also received seven additional nominations for "Best Kids Party Entertainer" and "Best Kids Party Place."
SOURCE?Abrakadoodle
Contact:
Joy Davis
Director
479-856-6651
jdavis@abrakadoodle.com
Karin Machusic
Director of Public Relations
(Mobile) 925-708-2179
Karin@abrakadoodle.com
###
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Source: http://www.franchising.com/news/20130329_abrakadoodle_art_education_opens_first_unit_in_ark.html
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It's no magic: Invisibility cloak now available in a slim, form-fitting design
Previous success in hiding objects has relied on bulky cloaking materials. Now researchers have developed a thin, form-fitting cloak that makes objects invisible to microwave radiation.
In a feat of physics worthy of Star Trek's Romulans, researchers have for the first time used a form-fitting cloak to render an object invisible from any direction. Sorry, Harry Potter, this is not magic.
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The experiment, conducted using microwave radiation, eventually could help pave the way for more-effective ways to hide military aircraft from radar, the researchers say. If extended to visible light, the approach could lead to novel biomedical applications, as well as tiny switches for optical computing.
The feat is the latest in a decade-long effort to develop an ability to hide objects from view. Other researchers have been able to hide objects at microwave, infrared, and even visible-light wavelengths, and in two and three dimensions. But the cloaking materials have been bulky.
Indeed, it's a desire that traces its roots to H.G. Wells' "Invisible Man," notes Andrea Alu, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of the research team reporting the results this week in the New Journal of Physics.
"We see objects by collecting whatever they radiate," he says, referring to the light that materials reflect or scatter.
One approach to cloaking is to change the behavior of electromagnetic radiation ? radio or light, for instance ? in ways that send the radiation around the object, rather than scattering some of it back at the detector trying to "see" the object.
Cloaks to accomplish this generally have been made from so-called metamaterials ? materials engineered to display traits that aren't found in nature.
The team led by Jason Soric, in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, designed its cloaking system using metamaterials as well. But instead of trying to bend radiation around the object so that none is scattered back to an observer, the researchers opted to use a cloak to change the properties of the radiation itself in ways that would cancel out the radiation scattered from an object.
"The overall effect is transparency," says Dr. Alu.
To pull off the feat, the team relied on the wave-like properties of electromagnetic radiation. The team surrounded a seven-inch-long cylinder with an ultra-thin cloak made from a polycarbonate film. The film was criss-crossed with a fishnet-like mesh made from copper tape.
The mesh was designed to scatter the same amount of microwave radiation as the cylinder. But the wavelike peaks and valleys in the microwave radiation from the two sources were offset, so that the peaks in the cylinder's scattered radiation overlapped with the valleys in the mesh's scattered radiation, canceling each other out.
The combined effect rendered the cylinder invisible to microwaves from any direction. Any microwave shadow the object might have cast vanished as well, as though the microwave radiation went right through the cylinder unimpeded.
The loss of a shadow could have some useful applications in telecommunications, where large antennas are placed close together. Such "antenna farms" often sprout on the tops of tall buildings, where one antenna can block signals from another in a specific direction. By cloaking the offending blocker, other signals would pass on by, eliminating the dead zone that was once the shadow.
Because the cloak is thin and pliable, it may be possible to cloak a variety of odd shapes, the researchers say.
A key reason the researcher chose to use microwaves for their experiment, rather than visible light, is that cloaking with light works best when the object you're trying to hide is on the size scale roughly comparable to the wavelength of light ? several hundred billionths of a meter. In principle the approach could work in visible light with tiny objects on scales of mere millionths of a meter, the team suggests.
Working with microwaves involves the same physics. But its longer wavelength allows experimenters to work with easy-to-handle objects.
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Palestinian journalist jailed for Abbas photo
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ? A West Bank appeals court on Thursday upheld a one-year prison term for a Palestinian journalist who had a photo on his Facebook page that authorities claimed portrayed President Mahmoud Abbas as a traitor, rights activists said.
It was the second such case in two months, and Abbas' Palestinian Authority is facing mounting criticism for stifling dissent. In particular, Abbas' security forces have targeted supporters of the Islamic militant Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip from him in 2007.
The defendant in Thursday's case was Mamdouh Hamamreh, a reporter for the Hamas-linked Al-Quds TV.
Nimer Hamad, an adviser to Abbas, said the Palestinian president would pardon Hamamreh, but declined further comment.
Prosecutors have alleged that a photo montage on his Facebook page back in 2010 showed Abbas next to a villain in a popular TV drama about French colonial rule in the Levant. The villain was an informer for the French and the photo caption read: "They're alike."
Hamamreh denied that he was the one who posted the photo, but last year a court sentenced him to a year in prison. An appeals court upheld the sentence Thursday, said Issam Abdeen of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.
In February, a Palestinian court sentenced university student Anas Awwad, 26, to a year in jail for "cursing the president" on Facebook. The Palestinian judiciary applies a Jordanian law that criminalizes cursing the king.
Awwad's father said at the time that his son was being punished for what appeared to be a humorous caption under a picture showing Abbas kicking a soccer ball.
An appeals court overturned Awwad's sentence earlier this month and ordered a new trial, Abdeen said. Several other Palestinians face similar charges, he said.
Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, which administers 38 percent of the West Bank, have come under fire repeatedly for squashing dissent. Hamas, which rules Gaza, has faced similar accusations, including going after supporters of Abbas' Fatah movement.
The Palestinian political split of 2007 largely halted the work of democratic institutions. It paralyzed the parliament and prevented new parliamentary and presidential elections.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-journalist-jailed-abbas-photo-192114714.html
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Big question mark over what Cyprus can do to escape crisis
One solution, a tax on bank accounts, prompted a major backlash among Cypriots. Another solution, a Russian bailout, hasn't emerged yet.
Customers of Bank of Cyprus use the ATM as the bank remains closed for the second day in central Athens on Wednesday.
Thanassis Stavrakis/AP
EnlargeCyprus is today looking at a ?Plan B? to save itself from a catastrophic banking default, though it appears that hopes for an immediate loan from Moscow, explored by Cypriot officials today, will not be forthcoming.
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Lawmakers in Nicosia on Tuesday decided against a highly controversial proposed levy on private bank depositor holdings that would impose a nearly 10 percent ?levy? or ?tax? on private bank deposits in order to secure an EU? bailout.
The possibility of private bank accounts being targeted by a government brought enormous world attention in recent days.
The Los Angeles Times today called the tax an ?expropriation? of funds in a piece that warns the Cypriot situation could trigger a larger crisis for the euro.
Now Cyprus still needs to find some $8 billion or find itself in default. It would be the first eurozone member to do so. Cypriot banks are already closed and may remain so this week until a solution is found, causing at the minimum, anger among citizens.
The tiny island represents all of 0.2 percent of the mighty eurozone economy. But its need for a bailout and its personae as a huge offshore shelter for Russian oligarchs ? brings speculation that a default will act as a wrench tossed in the mechanism of the EU economy, just as talk of the ?eurocrisis? was quieting down.
Today a visit to Moscow by the Cypriot finance minister for a possible bailout of $2 billion to $8 billion, yielded no offers according to Reuters.?
Cypriot political and financial leaders are huddling in Nicosia the capital, even as banks in Cyprus may continue to stay closed in coming days, if no solution is found.
In Europe, the Austrian finance minister claimed that the European Central Bank, which has provided a steady supply of loans in recent years to continental banks to avoid their default, will not do so for Cyprus indefinitely.
The Federal Reserve in Washington said it was committed to continue providing further liquidity and stimulus rather than adopt the kind of financial austerity the EU has shown a preference for.?
As Reuters put its, "If anything, developments in Cyprus, where the announcement of a tax on bank deposits to help fund the country's bailout sent jitters through the global financial system, are likely to reinforce the resolve of?Fed officials?to bolster the US economy."
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman today?cites an exhaustive report by the Financial Times showing the dimensions of Cyprus as an offshore haven for Russians, and speculates the oligarchs will soon realize they don?t need Cyprus and can find shelters elsewhere.
At that point Cypriot officials will give up on the Russian business and, Krugman writes, ?a resolution will become much easier. But they?re not there yet.?
The Russian business link is known as ?round tripping?:
This link occurs through CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] commodity-based shell companies that deposit transactional balances of their CIS-based legal subsidiaries engaged in oil, mineral, and metals exports, often involving transfer pricing and other tax minimization strategies. The Central Bank of Russia classifies Cyprus as the largest single source of FDI in the Russian Federation, with a total of $41.7 billion in cumulative inbound FDI into Russia?s non-financial sector between 2007 and 2010 (over 2.7x German levels)? Cyprus is also counted among the top FDI investing nations in several Central Asian countries (likely Russian capital reinvested via Cyprus, a process known informally as ?round-tripping?).
Sony Kapoor of the Brussels based reform-minded think tank ReDefine writes that an alarmist response to the Cyprus crisis as causing the fall of the euro is over the top. Spain and Italy are not in the same grooves or orbits as Cyprus and apocalyptic runs on banks in those nations are unlikely.
Mr. Kapoor also suggests that a levy or tax on the deposits of those banking in Cyprus may in fact be a better answer than the effect of a default.
?the alternative of sovereign default?would have been much worse; it is impossible to imagine a safe banking system in a sovereign undergoing restructuring of debt. Remember how much capital Greek banks needed after it defaulted? In fact, Cyprus would probably not have needed a bailout if its banks had not incurred huge losses on holdings of Greek debt. Add to this the complication that half of Cyprus?s sovereign bonds are under foreign (English) law that makes a successful restructuring of sovereign debt much harder. Moreover, Cypriot banks hold large swathes of its sovereign bonds, so it would be further bankrupted by any sovereign restructuring.
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The final OUYA retail console is ready, we go hands-on
It's been a long time coming, and now the Android-powered, Kickstarter-funded OUYA video game console is finally heading to backers. Sure, the final retail units for non-backers won't be available until June, but around 50,000 lucky folks who pledged over $99 to OUYA's massively successful campaign will be receiving their units in the coming days. We've already heard what developers have to say about it, but this week we got our first hands-on with the miniature, Tegra 3-powered game console we've been hearing so much about since last summer.
Is it the "best Tegra 3 device on the market," as OUYA's claimed? Let's find out!
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/zDxGq1-6584/
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Pope washes women's feet in break with church law
ROME (AP) ? In his most significant break with tradition yet, Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of two young women at a juvenile detention center ? a surprising departure from church rules that restrict the Holy Thursday ritual to men.
No pope has ever washed the feet of a woman before, and Francis' gesture sparked a debate among some conservatives and liturgical purists, who lamented he had set a "questionable example." Liberals welcomed the move as a sign of greater inclusiveness in the church.
Speaking to the young offenders, including Muslims and Orthodox Christians, Francis said that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion in a gesture of love and service.
"This is a symbol, it is a sign. Washing your feet means I am at your service," Francis told the group, aged 14 to 21, at the Casal del Marmo detention facility in Rome.
"Help one another. This is what Jesus teaches us," the pope said. "This is what I do. And I do it with my heart. I do this with my heart because it is my duty. As a priest and bishop, I must be at your service."
In a video released by the Vatican, the 76-year-old Francis was shown kneeling on the stone floor as he poured water from a silver chalice over the feet of a dozen youths: black, white, male, female, even feet with tattoos. Then, after drying each one with a cotton towel, he bent over and kissed it.
Previous popes carried out the Holy Thursday rite in Rome's grand St. John Lateran basilica, choosing 12 priests to represent the 12 apostles whose feet Christ washed during the Last Supper before his crucifixion.
Before he became pope, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio celebrated the ritual foot-washing in jails, hospitals or hospices ? part of his ministry to the poorest and most marginalized of society. He often involved women. Photographs show him washing the feet of a woman holding her newborn child in her arms.
That Francis would include women in his inaugural Holy Thursday Mass as pope was remarkable, however, given that current liturgical rules exclude women.
Canon lawyer Edward Peters, who is an adviser to the Holy See's top court, noted in a blog that the Congregation for Divine Worship sent a letter to bishops in 1988 making clear that "the washing of the feet of chosen men ... represents the service and charity of Christ, who came 'not to be served, but to serve.'"
While bishops have successfully petitioned Rome over the years for an exemption to allow women to participate, the rules on the issue are clear, Peters said.
"By disregarding his own law in this matter, Francis violates, of course, no divine directive," Peters wrote. "What he does do, I fear, is set a questionable example."
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said he didn't want to wade into a canonical dispute over the matter. However, he noted that in a "grand solemn celebration" of the rite, only men are included because Christ washed the feet of his 12 apostles, all of whom were male.
"Here, the rite was for a small, unique community made up also of women," Lombardi wrote in an email. "Excluding the girls would have been inopportune in light of the simple aim of communicating a message of love to all, in a group that certainly didn't include experts on liturgical rules."
Others on the more liberal side of the debate welcomed the example Francis set.
"The pope's washing the feet of women is hugely significant because including women in this part of the Holy Thursday Mass has been frowned on ? and even banned ? in some dioceses," said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of "The Jesuit Guide."
"It shows the all-embracing love of Christ, who ministered to all he met: man or woman, slave or free, Jew or Gentile."
For some, restricting the rite to men is in line with the church's restriction on ordaining women priests. Church teaching holds that only men should be ordained because Christ's apostles were male.
"This is about the ordination of women, not about their feet," wrote the Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a traditionalist blogger. Liberals "only care about the washing of the feet of women, because ultimately they want women to do the washing."
Still, Francis has made clear he doesn't favor ordaining women. In his 2011 book, "On Heaven and Earth," then-Cardinal Bergoglio said there were solid theological reasons why the priesthood was reserved to men: "Because Jesus was a man."
On this Holy Thursday, however, Francis had a simple message for the young inmates, whom he greeted one-by-one after the Mass, giving each an Easter egg.
"Don't lose hope," Francis said. "Understand? With hope you can always go on."
One young man then asked why he had come to visit them.
Francis responded that it was to "help me to be humble, as a bishop should be."
The gesture, he said, came "from my heart. Things from the heart don't have an explanation."
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-washes-womens-feet-break-church-law-002454620.html
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SAfrica: Mandela in hospital with lung infection
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president, has been admitted to a hospital with a recurring lung infection, South Africa said Thursday.
Mandela, 94, has become increasingly frail in recent years and has been hospitalized several times since last year, most recently earlier this month when he underwent what authorities said was a scheduled medical test. The Nobel laureate is a revered figure in South Africa, which has honored his legacy of reconciliation by naming buildings and other places after him and printing his image on national banknotes.
"I'm so sorry. I'm sad," said Obed Mokwana, a Johannesburg resident. "I just try to pray all the time. He must come very strong again."
The Nobel laureate was admitted to a hospital just before midnight Wednesday "due to the recurrence of his lung infection," the office of President Jacob Zuma said in a statement.
"Doctors are attending to him, ensuring that he has the best possible expert medical treatment and comfort," the statement said. It appealed "for understanding and privacy in order to allow space to the doctors to do their work."
It did not identify the hospital. In December, Mandela spent three weeks in a hospital in the South African capital of Pretoria, where he was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones.
Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj acknowledged there was cause for worry, but said the medical specialists treating Mandela were very competent.
"The health has been OK given his age, but the downturn last night ? obviously when the lung infection recurs, the doctors will want to do everything possible and make sure that they don't allow the infection to spread, that they arrest it as quickly as possible," Maharaj said in an interview with eNCA, a South African news channel.
He said there had been a global outpouring of messages expressing concern for Mandela's health.
Zuma wished Mandela a speedy recovery, referring to him affectionately by his clan name, "Madiba."
"We appeal to the people of South Africa and the world to pray for our beloved Madiba and his family and to keep them in their thoughts. We have full confidence in the medical team and know that they will do everything possible to ensure recovery," the presidential statement quoted Zuma as saying.
Mandela spent a night in a hospital and was released on March 10 following a medical test. At that time, spokesman Maharaj said Mandela was "well."
In February 2012, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint. In January 2011, he was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for what officials initially described as tests but what turned out to be an acute respiratory infection. He was discharged days later.
He also had surgery for an enlarged prostate gland in 1985.
Under South Africa's white-minority apartheid regime, Mandela served 27 years in prison, where he contracted tuberculosis, before being released in 1990. He later became the nation's first democratically elected president in 1994 under the banner of the African National Congress, helping to negotiate a relatively peaceful end to apartheid despite fears of much greater bloodshed. He served one five-year term as president before retiring.
Perceived successes during Mandela's tenure include the introduction of a constitution with robust protections for individual rights and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel that heard testimony about apartheid-era violations of human rights as a kind of national therapy session. South Africa still struggles with crime, economic inequality and other social ills.
Mandela last made a public appearance on a major stage when South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.
He had spent more time in the rural village of Qunu in Eastern Cape province, where he grew up. He was visited there in August by Hillary Clinton, who was U.S. secretary of state at the time.
Doctors said in December that he should remain at his home in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton for the time being to be close to medical facilities that can provide the care he needs.
During Mandela's previous hospitalizations, the South African government had criticized some media outlets for what it described as rumor-mongering and a failure to respect the privacy of the former leader and his family. The media, in turn, expressed concern about an alleged lack of transparency and occasionally conflicting reports from officials.
Maharaj, the presidential spokesman, told eNCA on Thursday that authorities were mindful of public interest in Mandela's health, but would allow the medical team to focus on treating the former president.
"Our updates will be dependent always on what the doctors tell us and we are not pressurizing them to give us updates every few hours," he said. "We think that they should attend to their work. We are confident that they know that if there is an upturn for the good, or for the bad, they will always keep us informed."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/safrica-mandela-hospital-lung-infection-073555444.html
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
HBT: Cardinals ink Wainwright to five-year deal
FOX Sports? Ken Rosenthal reports that the Cardinals have signed Adam Wainwright to a five-year contract extension worth $97.5 million. That?s an average annual salary of $19.5 million, which isn?t bad value for a guy who has been an ace in the past and is likely to be an ace again moving forward.
Wainwright was scheduled to become a free agent after the 2013 season. Now he?ll be property of the Cardinals through at least the 2018 campaign.
The 31-year-old right-hander posted a 3.94 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 184/52 K/BB ratio across 198 2/3 innings in 2012 after recovering successfully from Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery surgery. He owns a 3.15 career ERA and a 1.21 career WHIP.
?Waino? has registered a 3.00 ERA and 18/6 K/BB ratio in 27 Grapefruit League innings this spring.
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PFT: Raiders to cut ties with DT Kelly
APAs the calendar approaches April, the pre-draft spin cycle will soon hit overdrive.
The rules are simple.? Teams that don?t like a player will say good things about him, hoping that someone with a higher pick will take the player, which will push a more viable prospect down the board.? Teams that like a player will say bad things about him, hoping that he?ll still be there when the team makes its pick.
It?s important to keep those rules in mind when considering any off-the-record assessments of players by scouts and coaches who, depending on the teams for which they work, may be hoping to influence what other teams will or won?t do.
Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports spoke to scouts and coaches from multiple unnamed teams who attended the Monday Pro Day workout of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te?o.? And none of those folks regard Te?o as a first-round pick.
?Nice player, but not worth a first-round pick.? Not in my view,? said an unnamed ?AFC personnel man.?
?He?s not a star,? an AFC head coach said.? ?If I?m taking a linebacker in the first round, I want a guy who can change my defense.? Trust me, I?ve been wrong about linebackers before, but this guy doesn?t fit the bill of what I spend a high pick on.?
?[H]e?s not good enough in my view,? an NFC defensive coordinator said.
We don?t doubt for a second that these sources said what Cole says they said.? But without knowing which team they work for, it?s impossible to know whether they really mean it.
It?s a common reality of the pre-draft process.? Scouts and coaches knock certain players, possibly because the scouts and coaches believe what they?re saying ? and possibly because they have an agenda.? When it comes to the draft, everyone has an agenda.? When it comes to the strategy-driven NFL, everyone periodically (or more often) tells untruths to advance their agenda.
We?re not saying it?s right or it?s wrong.? That?s just the way it is.? But that makes it impossible to put much stock in the things being said by unnamed sources who may be secretly hoping that the player they?re knocking slides into their laps.
Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/27/raiders-to-release-tommy-kelly/related/
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Judge orders Manson Family tapes handed over to Los Angeles police
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal judge has ordered taped conversations from 1969 between Manson Family killer Charles "Tex" Watson and his now-dead lawyer turned over to Los Angeles police, who are investigating the cult's possible involvement in unsolved murders.
The written order by U.S. District Judge Richard Schell in Texas, made public on Tuesday, upholds a ruling last year by a federal bankruptcy judge. Watson had appealed the bankruptcy judge's order from the California prison where he is serving a life term, claiming that the tapes were protected under attorney-client privilege.
Some eight hours of discussions between Watson and his defense attorney Bill Boyd were recorded in 1969 after Watson was arrested in the Manson family murder of actress Sharon Tate and others in Los Angeles. The tapes surfaced years later, during federal bankruptcy proceedings in involving Boyd's now-defunct law firm in Texas.
"We're very pleased the judge ruled in our favor. We're looking forward to getting those tapes and thoroughly analyzing the contents," Los Angeles Police spokesman Andrew Smith said.
"This Manson Family crime spree is one of most notorious and heinous in Southern California history and we, the LAPD, believe we owe it to the victims and their families to ensure that every facet of this case is thoroughly and completely investigated, and we plan to do exactly that," Smith said.
If Watson does not appeal the ruling within 30 days, Los Angeles police detectives will travel to Texas to pick up the recordings which had been held pending the outcome of the bankruptcy case, Smith said.
"We've got many unsolved homicide cases from that era here in Southern California and we're hoping maybe something on these tapes may tie the Manson Family or any of these individuals to one of those homicides," he said.
A Fort Worth, Texas-based attorney representing Watson in the case could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
'HEALTER SKELTER'
Charles Manson, a charismatic ex-convict, assembled a group of runaways and outcasts, including Watson. In the summer of 1969, he directed his mostly young, female followers to murder seven people in what prosecutors said was part of a plan to incite a race war.
Members of the cult stabbed pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate 16 times in the early-morning hours of August 9, 1969. Four other people were stabbed or shot to death at Tate's home by the Manson followers.
The following night, Manson's group entered the nearby home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, stabbed the couple to death and used their blood to write "Rise," "Death to Pigs," and "Healter Skelter," a misplaced reference to a Beatles song, on the walls and refrigerator door.
Manson and Watson were originally sentenced to death but were spared execution after the California Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional.
Manson, now 78, is serving a life sentence at Corcoran State Prison in California for the seven Manson Family killings and the murder of an acquaintance, Gary Hinman, who was stabbed to death in July 1969.
Watson waived his attorney-client privilege so Boyd's firm could sell them to a book author to satisfy unpaid legal fees after Boyd died in 2009. But in his appeal of the bankruptcy judge's ruling, he claimed the waiver was limited to the author, and that he did not okay their release to the LAPD.
The federal judge rejected that claim when he ordered the tapes released to the LAPD.
Smith said that LAPD detectives did not yet know if the tapes contain evidence of other killings.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb, editing by Scott Malone; editing by Andrew Hay and David Gregorio)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-orders-manson-family-tapes-handed-over-los-215827933.html
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Judge Judy's son, a DA, embroiled in NY rape case
A suburban district attorney who is the son of TV's "Judge Judy" is being accused of interfering in a child rape case in which the suspect is his personal trainer and recently lived with him.
Putnam County District Attorney Adam Levy has recused himself from the investigation of Alexandru Hossu, but the local sheriff claims Levy is still involved.
"He is apparently trying to influence and affect the investigation, which could be perceived as an ethical violation of his official duties and perhaps even as an attempt to undermine it," Sheriff Donald Smith said.
In a response Monday night, Levy accused the sheriff of making "unfounded allegations and misstatements."
"My office acted properly in every aspect of the investigation," he said.
The question of Levy's involvement in the case has turned into a volley of accusations between the two men, who have clashed publicly before over traffic tickets; Levy also made a veiled criticism of the sheriff's office in a news release recently.
Hossu, 35, was arrested last week on charges that he twice raped a 12-year-old girl in 2010. The sheriff said the victim, now 15, only recently reported being raped. Hossu made a brief appearance in court Tuesday in and is due back May 7. A call to his lawyer was not immediately returned.
In his initial news release, the sheriff gave the defendant's address as Levy's home in Southeast, N.Y., about 50 miles north of New York City. Later, he described Hossu as Levy's "live-in personal trainer."
Levy said the sheriff had made a mistake. The sheriff's office said Monday that Hossu did live at Levy's home, but "the specific dates" have not been determined.
Levy said he recused himself as soon as he learned that Hossu, "who my family had known for years," was under investigation. But the sheriff said an assistant district attorney had already made the recusal decision for Levy, so it "was not really his original idea at all."
Smith said Levy's commenting on the case revealed "ongoing and improper involvement."
"In my view, Mr. Levy's comments and actions would seem to suggest that, if he could have his own way, Mr. Hossu would never have been brought to justice for his crime and Mr. Levy's relationship with him would never have been brought to the light of public scrutiny," the sheriff said.
He said Levy was trying to distract public attention "from what this case is really about: the vicious rape of a little girl by a man whom he housed and hired as his personal fitness trainer."
The sheriff also said Hossu is a Romanian in the country illegally, his work visa having expired 12 years ago. Without mentioning Levy, he said he has requested a federal investigation to determine if anyone illegally "harbored, shielded, aided or abetted" Hossu before or after the alleged rape.
Levy said last week he had no idea of Hossu's immigration status.
Both Levy and Smith are Republicans. It's not clear whether there's any underlying reason for the war of words, though the men battled last year over how to handle traffic tickets. In one of his recent statements, Levy said his office has been trying "to improve the way law enforcement agencies like the Sheriff's Department handled child sexual abuse allegations."
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore, would not say whether Levy might be questioned during the investigation. But he said, "Our investigation relates to the allegations of the forcible rape."
Judy Sheindlin, who is Levy's mother, a retired New York judge and earns a reported $45 million a year as the wildly popular star of her courtroom TV show, says that's as it should be.
"The sole focus of this story should be the investigation as to whether a young girl was the victim of a very serious crime," she said Tuesday through spokesman Gary Rosen.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-judys-son-da-embroiled-ny-rape-case-185636495.html
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Efforts to Resuscitate Extinct Species May Spawn a New Era of the Hybrid
FELLOW TRAVELER: Techniques from synthetic biology might allow scientists to recreate a living bird from the extinct passenger pigeon's DNA. Image: Louis Agassiz Fuertes
WASHINGTON, D.C.?A bird that once darkened the skies of the 19th-century U.S. no longer exists, except as well-preserved museum specimens bearing bits of DNA. An ambitious new effort aims to use the latest techniques of genetic manipulation to bring the passenger pigeon back, as North Dakotan Ben Novak, a would-be de-extinction scientist working on the Revive & Restore project at the Long Now Foundation, told the crowd at the TEDxDeExtinction event here on March 15.
"This [pigeon flock] was a biological storm that was rejuvenating resources and allowing other animals to thrive," Novak said of the storms of Ectopistes migratorius feces that used to fall like rain on the landscape of eastern North America. Plus, with the regrowth of forest on the east coast "there is more passenger pigeon habitat every year."
But if a bird looks like an extinct passenger pigeon, has some of the genetic code of the passenger pigeon, but does not act like a passenger pigeon because it is raised by other breeds and few in number: is it a true passenger pigeon? That is just one of the questions posed by the idea of de-extinction?deliberately resurrecting species killed off by human activity or inactivity. And that question may just challenge one of the fundamental concepts of biology: what determines a distinct species.
Welcome to the new era of the hybrid. Species have always been promiscuous and enjoyed porous boundaries, but synthetic biologists and other scientists seem set to blur those boundaries out of existence.
Tainted animals
The bison now repopulating the U.S. West?s plains bear the genetic traces of their cattle forebears, residue of an effort that began in the 19th century to breed an animal that could survive the brutal Great Plains winters and drink less water than European cows. Wolves racing through the western landscape with black coats instead of the traditional gray can thank ancestors that got frisky with dogs. And does a Florida panther that carries genes from the Texas cougar count as less of a panther, even if the effort is all that stands between the species and extinction?
"Purity is not found in species," argued Kent Redford, a conservation biologist and former chief scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society at the DeExtinction event. "We ourselves are not pure," bearing traces of genetic intermixing with Neandertals, Denisovans and perhaps other extinct hominids.
So what counts as a species then? Per the dictionary, a species is "a class of individuals having common attributes or designated by a common name." But biologists more precisely count species as a group of organisms that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring. So the horse and donkey are species, although those aren't their species names, and the mule is?well, it's been a little unclear since Carl Linnaeus came up with the species designation in 1753. As a (usually) sterile hybrid, the mule doesn't count.
But mules certainly do live and cases of mule fertility have been reported from antiquity down to the present day. Mules have even been cloned?and now, with the development of techniques to cut and splice DNA almost at will, scientists might be able to remake the mule into a fertile hybrid. But first they would rather apply the technique to endangered or extinct animals, like the Pyrenean ibex known as the bucardo or the Asian wild cattle called the banteng.
Rise of the hybrid
When a new animal is born it bears a mixture of both parents? genetics. So what then is an animal that has parents from two different species? The term hybrid was first used to describe the offspring of a tame sow and a wild boar. Or, as Redford put it, "something humans wanted." But now hybrids often bear a linguistic taint, neither fish nor fowl?almost as bad as a genetically modified organism, which, of course, all commercial species now are to one extent or another.
But purity still exists in the wild. Or does it? Traffic fatalities have caused swallow wings to shorten to enable quicker takeoffs just as fishing pressure has caused many wild-caught fish species to shrink in size. Bacteria rapidly evolve resistance to our best antibiotics. Humanity directs evolution unconsciously?except when we do it consciously, introducing useful suites of genetic information like the ability to produce a toxin poisonous to insects inserted into crop plants that was originally made by a bacterium.
With crude technologies such as cloning, where an entire cell nucleus is swapped from one species to another, this has already been done to revive an endangered species. An ordinary cow gave birth to a banteng?Bos javanicus, a species of wild cattle from Asia?in 2003. Although the scientists involved were worried that the hybrid might look more like an ordinary cow, out popped a banteng that lived at the San Diego Zoo for seven years?a diminished life span but a life nonetheless. "It was surreal to see this exotic animal from the jungles of Southeast Asia born in an Iowa field that reeked of cow manure," recalled Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, the company that helped achieve the feat.
Now new technologies such as an enzyme that can precisely cut DNA, known as Cas9 (for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-associated system 9) and also derived from a bacterium, may enable scientists to stitch strands of DNA in and out of the genetic code. Find the genes that make a mammoth different from an elephant?say, sebaceous glands, hair growth, extra hemoglobin in the blood to withstand cold temperatures, among other traits?insert those into a strand of elephant DNA, and begin to make mammoth sperm and eggs. Then impregnate the mammoth's closest living relative, the Asiatic elephant, and wait for a baby mammoth to be born.
Only it won't be a true mammoth, because its mother will have something to say about how those genes are expressed, from epigenetics to the micro biome. "A gene doesn't tell you how to read it and make an organism," noted biologist David Ehrenfeld of Rutgers University at the DeExtinction event. "The genetic code is more like a database than an instruction manual." In other words, even the best genetic transcript?something still out of reach for many extinct animals and plants?will not provide the detailed source code needed to build version 2.0 of the extinct organism. He added: "All the words of Hamlet are in the dictionary, but if I scan the dictionary, Hamlet does not fall out of it. A strand of DNA can be read in hundreds or even thousands of ways."
And then there's the danger of the favoritism of humans that could lead some artifact "species" to predominate. "Who would have dreamed that genetic engineering in agriculture would diminish the biodiversity of agriculture? We lost tens of thousands of genome diversity from plants," Ehrenfeld added. As he noted, it's hard to predict the ultimate impact of a given technology.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=9b8372d58855da4e5fb9138b94269309
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