Targeted in Syria civil war, Iraqis flee back home

BAGHDAD (AP) ? When he saw the bodies of men and women left rotting in the streets of Damascus, Hassan Hadi knew that the sectarian violence he had fled Iraq to escape years ago had now come to Syria. Despairingly, he left his belongings and fled again, back home.

Hadi is one of at least 12,680 Iraqis who streamed back to their homeland the past month to escape the Syrian civil war. Most of them are Iraqi Shiites, fleeing a reported rash of attacks against their community, apparently by Syrian rebel gunmen.

The attacks reflect the increasingly ugly sectarian nature of Syria's conflict, where an opposition largely based among the country's Sunni majority has risen up against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which is dominated by members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The motives for the attacks on Iraqis are unclear. They may be revenge against any Iraqi because the Shiite-led Iraqi government is seen as siding with Assad. They may also be fueled by sectarian hatreds, with resentment of Syria's Alawite leadership flaring into anger at Shiites.

In July alone, 23 Iraqi Shiites have been killed in Syria, some of them beheaded, according to the Washington-based Shiite Rights Watch. In one gruesome case, the U.N. said an Iraqi family of seven was killed at gunpoint in their Damascus apartment.

But going back was wrenching for Hadi, given Iraq's continued violence. "There are still bombings and explosions here, and when we decided to return to Iraq, it was a hard moment ? we cried a lot," he said, speaking at his mother's house in Baghdad, where his family is staying until they can find a home.

The exodus of Iraqis back home is a bitter reversal for refugees tossed back and forth by violence. According to U.N. estimates, more than 1 million Iraqis fled to Syria between 2005 and 2008, when their homeland was on the brink of civil war, torn between Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents butchering their rival communities. Those who fled to Syria were a sectarian mix, though the majority were Sunnis.

Over the past few years, Iraqis have been slowly leaving Syria, many returning home as violence in Iraq eased. Fewer than 200,000 Iraqis remain in Syria, according to the office of the Iraqi ambassador in Damascus.

The recent targeting of Iraqis, however, brought a spike in returns. The majority of Iraqis fleeing Syria for home over the past month are Shiites, according to Saif Sabah, a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration.

According to U.N. and Iraqi officials, most of them fled Damascus, which in July saw its worst fighting yet of the 17-month-old Syrian conflict. For days, rebels took over whole neighborhoods of the Syrian capital, prompting a ferocious assault by government forces. Amid the fighting, it appears rebel fighters targeted Iraqis in the city.

The U.N. refugee agency said Iraqis in the mainly Shiite Damascus suburb of Sayeda Zeinab in particular were fleeing because of increasing violence in general but also "targeted threats" against them. Sayeda Zeinab saw heavy activity by rebel fighters during the Damascus battles.

Hadi and his family lived in Sayeda Zeinab. He said Sunni rebels and gangs went on a rampage in the suburb. He blamed the Free Syrian Army, the loose umbrella group of rebel fighters.

"The gangs of the Free Syrian Army started to spread in the area, killing women and some children as well as men," Hadi said last week. "The bodies were left on the street for two days because no one could evacuate the casualties. My children were hysterical."

"They are spreading sectarian violence in Syria," Hadi said.

His report and other reports of anti-Iraqi violence could not be independently confirmed since Assad's regime has tightly restricted journalists in Syria. The conflict has seen numerous tit-for-tat sectarian slayings among Syrians, including reported massacres by Alawite gunmen in Sunni areas.

A spokesman for the Free Syria Army strongly denied it has participated in or sanctioned the targeting of Shiite civilians.

"The members of the Free Syrian Army have principles and never do such things," Brig. Gen. Anwar Saad-Eddin said. "The security situation has deteriorated nationwide and that anyone holds a weapon can say he's from the Free Syrian Army. We have already arrested some of them."

Hadi and his family of five fled to Syria in 2009 from the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala in 2009 after Sunni insurgents killed his older brother. He has returned to a homeland still torn by deadly attacks. On July 23, Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaida launched attacks in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities that killed 115 people, the country's deadliest in more than two years.

At the al-Walid border crossing between Iraq and Syria crossing, Intisar Adel waited with her husband and daughter to enter Iraq. They fled to Syria in 2009. Now they were returning after gunmen ? she believes they were rebels ? stormed their apartment building in Damascus and ordered the landlord to evict all Iraqis, she said.

"They shot an Iraqi in the leg and they robbed some Iraqi residents in the building," she said. "We immediately left the building and left our belongings there.

"The situation is unbearable."

Most Iraqis are returning with the help of free flights and bus tickets paid for by the Iraqi government. In the last two weeks alone, Baghdad has flown at least 17 planeloads home from Syria. At least 5,000 Iraqis have driven across border crossings in their chaotic exodus from Syria.

Iraqi officials and Mideast experts say the targeting of Iraqis may be payback against the Baghdad government's ties with Iran, which is Assad's strongest ally in the region.

Though Baghdad has publicly refused to be drawn into Syria's war, skeptics believe it is at least helping Iran ship weapons and other reinforcements to Assad's regime. In March, the U.S. urged Baghdad to cut off its airspace to flights headed to Syria from Iran, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged to curb arms smuggling across his borders.

"It seems that the Syrian opposition wrongly thinks that Iraq's government is taking the side of the regime. And some armed groups are targeting Iraqis because of this," said Raad al-Dahlaki, a Sunni lawmaker in Baghdad.

"The people behind attacking Iraqis want to send a message that the conflict is of a regional dimension," al-Dahlaki said, "and some governments and countries in the region should pay now for their stances."

That reflects the broader fear, that as the Syrian conflict worsens it could turn into a wider sectarian conflict. Kamran Bokhari, a Toronto-based expert on Mideast issues for the global intelligence company Statfor, predicted militant groups from across the region will flock to Syria if a peace agreement isn't settled soon.

"The entire region is descending into a regional geosectarian war," Bokhari said. "The question is, how bad is it going to get?"

___

Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at www.twitter.com/larajakesAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/targeted-syria-civil-war-iraqis-flee-back-home-063637379.html

askew People Water dwight howard Fred Willard Emmy nominations 2012 Ramadan 2012 Michelle Jenneke

The prediction models look dismal for Obama. Can he still win?

I got into writing and thinking about politics because I was told there would be no math.

Boy, was I misled. It?s not just the torrent of polls that we have to deal with, but the numbers that supposedly forecast Presidential elections with uncanny accuracy. Depending on whom you turn to, the key lies in second quarter real GDP growth, the optimism or pessimism of the electorate, individual or family real income growth or a dizzying mix of these and other measurements.

They?re usually economic, although one prognosticator?Allan Lichtman, history professor at American University?uses broader measurements, asking whether the incumbent or challenger is charismatic or whether the incumbent party has presided over a major change in social policy. (This is considered a positive, although I don?t know if we?ve ever had a case like the Affordable Care Act, which?unlike every other major social change?passed without bipartisan backing and remains broadly unpopular.)

I?m a skeptic about the predictive power of these numbers for many reasons. For one thing, the ?sample size,? which totals about twenty or so Presidential elections since most of these measurements were first made, is too small. For another, they work?unless they don?t. In 1968, strong economic figures were trumped by a divisive war and by social unrest. In 2000, every economic forecasting model predicted that Al Gore would win a comfortable or landslide plurality. They were ?right? in the sense that he got half a million more votes than Bush; they were ?wrong? in the fundamental outcome they offered.

So it?s with that skepticism in mind that I offer, not a prediction, but a flat pre-election assessment: If President Barack Obama is to win, he is going to have to overcome a set of numbers that no incumbent President, or incumbent party, has ever managed to surmount.

The jobless rate has been stuck at just above 8 per cent for months; you have to go back to 1936 to find a President re-elected with a higher unemployment rate. And in Franklin D. Roosevelt?s case, it was a far better number than he had inherited. Plus, growth was booming.

Today, real growth is at 1.5 per cent. In the economic forecasting models, this portends what even the liberal arts majors have been predicting: a very close election.

The core question for many voters??Are you generally satisfied with the country?s direction, or has the U.S. gone off on the wrong track??gets a 32.7-60.7 negative answer, according to the RealClearPolitics average. Generally, an incumbent party needs to have at least a 35% positive response to this question to win the election, says the Gallup Organization.

The consumer confidence level is now about 60 per cent. No incumbent party has ever kept the White House with a number anything like that. (It was slightly higher, at 65 per cent, in 1980 when Carter lost in a landslide.)

Now, try this as a thought exercise. Forget who is running, what the latest gaffe of the day is, who is outraged and what latest insult to what group has been perpetrated by the candidate or his staff. Ignore whom you?re rooting for, and just look at those numbers with the ice-cold heart of a bean counter.

What you would conclude, I think, is that there is no way an incumbent President could get re-elected given these current numbers.

In this sense, the 2012 election is going to test just how predictive many of these ?fundamental? models are, and whether the assertion of some forecasters?that the outcome can be known irrespective of candidates and campaigns?is valid.

Why? Because, to put it bluntly: The Republicans have nominated a bad candidate.

Some (very) brief history and a hypothesis. Six years ago, Mitt Romney and his team realized that he could never win the Republican nomination as the pragmatic, moderate-conservative with moderate-to-liberal views on everything from abortion to gun control to the environment to health care. (The mandate was a conservative position back then, but put that aside.) When Team Romney saw Sen. George Allen, the likely 2008 social conservative hero, lose his re-election bid in 2006, they found an opening, and decided to reach, or lunge, for that slot.

And so, throughout the 2008 campaign and throughout this one, Romney has been running as if to claim that his four years in higher office was a case of mistaken identity. I think it has forced him to campaign in mortal fear of every word he utters, to pander to local pride and political constituencies in a manner that seems a parody of the clumsy politician.

At root, Romney is a candidate in the grip of performance anxiety. And whether on the tennis court or in more intimate settings performance anxiety is a near-guarantee of poor performance.

It?s often said that a re-election campaign is always about the incumbent; like many political observations, that?s partly, but not wholly, true. Even when the electorate is disposed to replace the President, it has to be satisfied that the challenger is up to the job. Mitt Romney has yet to meet that test.

The Obama campaign, however, can take very limited comfort from Romney?s discomfit. If the ?fundamental? numbers continue to be as grim as they now are, the desire to change course will deepen. And the more that longing intensifies, the lower the bar Mitt Romney will have to clear.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/add-it-up--the-prediction-models-look-dismal-for-obama--can-he-still-win-.html

young justice nfl draft d rose iman shumpert mayweather vs cotto shumpert hopkins

Becoming a Virtual Assistant ? What Experience Do you Need ...

Would you like to become a virtual helper but wonder if you have the qualifications?

Starting a virtual assistant business is not very hard or costly in sharp relief to lots of other firms, but there are some qualifications that are anticipated from clients that will make certain you are successful.

Most virtual assistants have at least five years of high level administrative experience. These aren't receptionists or info entry clerks, but high level executive or PA (Personal Aid) or EA (Executive Assistant) roles.

Why do you need high level experience?

A virtual assistant?s goal is to form a cooperation with a business or businessman and work with them in running and building that business. This suggests they need to have experience with a variety of software packages, glorious writing, proofreading and grammar talents together with an experience of business processes. Many virtual aides also have a special area such as book keeping, Web, graphics or site design, and selling which implies that all VAs are dissimilar; no 2 are the same. This is crucial as you must have your own Unique Selling Point to differentiate from the others.

You don?t need to have some experience in all of these things, but you'll need to have a multitude of talents so as to handle the diverse jobs your clients will need. The more nicely rounded you are the more business you can get.

Most people who decide to become a virtual assistant have years of expertise in a few of the following:

? Secretarial experience or executive aides
? Powerful communication abilities, including proofreading, writing, editing
? Executive background
? Legal helper or paralegal experience
? Office management experience
? Pro organizers
? Concierge experience
? Wonderful consumer service skills are a must
? Someone with organizational talent and attention to detail

As you can clearly see, people who attain success virtual assistants come from a variety of backgrounds and possess various talents. Before deciding if becoming a virtual assistant is best for you, you will need to take a little time and decide what services you would like to offer.

Who do you choose to work with? What's your Niche?

After you are clear on your business goals, you will know if you possess the obligatory skills. If you do not have all of the skills you want, do not be concerned ? there are a good deal of good coaching options. Most firms and careers involve a spread of necessary talents that require training and there is not any reason to be daunted if you're not skillful in everything. It is good to have target areas of services you want to deliver in the future and thus expanding your company and offering the services your customers are wanting but you could have to outsource at first.

From an alternative perspective, if you have years of experience and feel competent to offer the skills your market is searching for, you have got a pre-made business. There are no official licenses, laws or needed coaching in the virtual helper industry. Anybody can start their own virtual small business at any point, but you will not last long if you don't have the skills you want.

Owning your own business means your reputation is critical and you won't build a profitable business by delivering unacceptable work. Coaching is so vital if you are serious about growing your business and being called the go-to person in your field or niche service.

The personal abilities you actually need to achieve success are self-discipline, organizational abilities and the drive to succeed. As long has you have enough experience and a good foundation in the fundamental abilities, the rest will take care of itself. The most significant quality you want to become a virtual aid is an entrepreneurial spirit. But this requires coaching and input either in business skills, coaching support and a web of folks around you who can support, advocate and inspire you.

Michelle Poole set up her Virtual PA business after many years knowledge and now offers virtual office services to help firms grow and increase their revenue. She also now offers coaching for potential VAs to give them the tools and methods to create and run their own successful VA business. If you're interested in changing into a VA and need more info visit this link: Turning into a Virtual Assistant Virtual PA Courses

Source: http://www.4mpu.com/blog/becoming-a-virtual-assistant-what-experience-do-you-need/

staff sgt. robert bales jason russell norfolk state st patrick s day parade duke invisible children garbage pail kids

Novartis drug Afinitor gets EU nod for breast cancer

ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis said on Monday European regulators approved Afinitor to treat women with a certain type of breast cancer, following a panel backing in June.

The drug is the first in a class known as mTOR inhibitors to be approved for post-menopausal women with advanced hormone-receptor positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. American health regulators also backed the drug as a breast cancer treatment[ID:nL2E8IKD8B]

Afinitor, also known as everolimus, is designed to be given in combination with another drug, Aromasin, to treat women whose cancer has recurred or progressed after treatment with two other therapies. Aromasin is made by Pfizer Inc.

Novartis's drug - expected to become a major seller for the Swiss drugmaker - is already approved to treat patients with four other types of cancer, including kidney and a rare type of pancreatic cancer.

(Reporting By Katharina Bart)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/novartis-drug-afinitor-wins-eu-nod-treat-breast-053028374--finance.html

sandusky NBA Webb Simpson Fathers Day Quotes Stevie J mothers day 2012 cinco de mayo

National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution : Everybody ...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://cyberweek.umasslegal.org/2012/07/29/everybody-in-the-selection-of-a-pair-of-sneakers/

gavin degraw gavin degraw alec time 100 bob beckel anna paquin warren buffett

Doctor Shortage Likely to Worsen With Health Law ... - Medical Tips

Other places around the country, including the Mississippi Delta, Detroit and suburban Phoenix, face similar problems. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that in 2015 the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed. And that number will more than double by 2025, as the expansion of insurance coverage and the aging of baby boomers drive up demand for care. Even without the health care law, the shortfall of doctors in 2025 would still exceed 100,000.

Health experts, including many who support the law, say there is little that the government or the medical profession will be able to do to close the gap by 2014, when the law begins extending coverage to about 30 million Americans. It typically takes a decade to train a doctor.

?We have a shortage of every kind of doctor, except for plastic surgeons and dermatologists,? said Dr. G. Richard Olds, the dean of the new medical school at the University of California, Riverside, founded in part to address the region?s doctor shortage. ?We?ll have a 5,000-physician shortage in 10 years, no matter what anybody does.?

Experts describe a doctor shortage as an ?invisible problem.? Patients still get care, but the process is often slow and difficult. In Riverside, it has left residents driving long distances to doctors, languishing on waiting lists, overusing emergency rooms and even forgoing care.

?It results in delayed care and higher levels of acuity,? said Dustin Corcoran, the chief executive of the California Medical Association, which represents 35,000 physicians. People ?access the health care system through the emergency department, rather than establishing a relationship with a primary care physician who might keep them from getting sicker.?

In the Inland Empire, encompassing the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, the shortage of doctors is already severe. The population of Riverside County swelled 42 percent in the 2000s, gaining more than 644,000 people. It has continued to grow despite the collapse of one of the country?s biggest property bubbles and a jobless rate of 11.8 percent in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro area.

But the growth in the number of physicians has lagged, in no small part because the area has trouble attracting doctors, who might make more money and prefer living in nearby Orange County or Los Angeles.

A government council has recommended that a given region have 60 to 80 primary care doctors per 100,000 residents, and 85 to 105 specialists. The Inland Empire has about 40 primary care doctors and 70 specialists per 100,000 residents ? the worst shortage in California, in both cases.

Moreover, across the country, fewer than half of primary care clinicians were accepting new Medicaid patients as of 2008, making it hard for the poor to find care even when they are eligible for Medicaid. The expansion of Medicaid accounts for more than one-third of the overall growth in coverage in President Obama?s health care law.

Providers say they are bracing for the surge of the newly insured into an already strained system.

Temetry Lindsey, the chief executive of Inland Behavioral Health Services, which provides medical care to about 12,000 area residents, many of them low income, said she was speeding patient-processing systems, packing doctors? schedules tighter and seeking to hire more physicians.

?We know we are going to be overrun at some point,? Ms. Lindsey said, estimating that the clinics would see new demand from 10,000 to 25,000 residents by 2014. She added that hiring new doctors had proved a struggle, in part because of the ?stigma? of working in this part of California.

Across the country, a factor increasing demand, along with expansion of coverage in the law and simple population growth, is the aging of the baby boom generation. Medicare officials predict that enrollment will surge to 73.2 million in 2025, up 44 percent from 50.7 million this year.

?Older Americans require significantly more health care,? said Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, the president of the Association of American Medical Colleges. ?Older individuals are more likely to have multiple chronic conditions, requiring more intensive, coordinated care.?

The pool of doctors has not kept pace, and will not, health experts said. Medical school enrollment is increasing, but not as fast as the population. The number of training positions for medical school graduates is lagging. Younger doctors are on average working fewer hours than their predecessors. And about a third of the country?s doctors are 55 or older, and nearing retirement.

Physician compensation is also an issue. The proportion of medical students choosing to enter primary care has declined in the past 15 years, as average earnings for primary care doctors and specialists, like orthopedic surgeons and radiologists, have diverged. A study by the Medical Group Management Association found that in 2010, primary care doctors made about $200,000 a year. Specialists often made twice as much.

The Obama administration has sought to ease the shortage. The health care law increases Medicaid?s primary care payment rates in 2013 and 2014. It also includes money to train new primary care doctors, reward them for working in underserved communities and strengthen community health centers.

But the provisions within the law are expected to increase the number of primary care doctors by perhaps 3,000 in the coming decade. Communities around the country need about 45,000.

Many health experts in California said that while they welcomed the expansion of coverage, they expected that the state simply would not be ready for the new demand. ?It?s going to be necessary to use the resources that we have smarter? in light of the doctor shortages, said Dr. Mark D. Smith, who heads the California HealthCare Foundation, a nonprofit group.

Dr. Smith said building more walk-in clinics, allowing nurses to provide more care and encouraging doctors to work in teams would all be part of the answer. Mr. Corcoran of the California Medical Association also said the state would need to stop cutting Medicaid payment rates; instead, it needed to increase them to make seeing those patients economically feasible for doctors.

More doctors might be part of the answer as well. The U.C. Riverside medical school is hoping to enroll its first students in August 2013, and is planning a number of policies to encourage its graduates to stay in the area and practice primary care.

But Dr. Olds said changing how doctors provided care would be more important than minting new doctors. ?I?m only adding 22 new students to this equation,? he said. ?That?s not enough to put a dent in a 5,000-doctor shortage.?

Annie Lowrey reported from Riverside, and Robert Pear from Washington.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/health/policy/too-few-doctors-in-many-us-communities.html

Source: http://medicaltips.org/2012/07/29/doctor-shortage-likely-to-worsen-with-health-law/

ny giants ok go peyton manning super bowl go daddy nsx chad ochocinco roman numerals

Self Improvement Made Simple By Using These Basic Tips ...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://blog.1stfind.com/?p=300414&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=self-improvement-made-simple-by-using-these-basic-tips

underworld awakening dog the bounty hunter tacoma narrows bridge weather nyc open marriage department of justice doj

Rare Diseases: 5 Recent Reasons to Cheer

On Sunday morning, July 21, I faced a room of people from families with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), an inherited blindness caused by mutations in any of at least 18 genes. It was the final session of the Foundation for Retinal Research?s bi-annual LCA family conference, and I was there to discuss the history of gene therapy. But I zapped through that quickly, because the future is much more intriguing.

Exome sequencing identified the rare mutation that causes Gavin Stevens? hereditary blindness (Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA). (Troy Stevens)

The excitement pervading the room that day was palpable, following a day of scientific updates, and not only because those with young children were soon to visit Sesame World and the sights of Philadelphia.

Jennifer and Troy Stevens exemplified that hope. Two years earlier, at this conference, they?d learned that researchers had been unable to identify a mutation behind their toddler Gavin?s blindness. Now they know the name of their gene: NMNAT1. I?ll return to their story.

The star of the 2010 conference had been 10-year-old Corey Haas and an energetic young sheepdog, both cured of LCA with gene therapy. This weekend, the stars were the new programs and technologies that would allow other families to join Corey?s ? and not just those with blindness.

The rare disease community in the US collectively belies its name: at least 30 million people suffer from 7,000+ diseases, many so rare that they hover beneath the radar of big pharma. But maybe not for long, thanks to the following recent reasons to cheer:

#1: GENE THERAPY PENDING APPROVAL

On July 20, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced impending first approval of a gene therapy in the western world.

It?s for lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD). The enzyme normally breaks down tiny triglyceride-packed globules called chylomicrons, and its absence causes episodes of very painful pancreatitis that can be fatal. LPLD is an ultra-rare disease, striking 1-2 people per million. And the only treatment is a diet so low in fat that most patients can?t stick to it.

The gene therapy, Glybera, consists of adeno-associated virus type 1 delivering an overactive variant of the LPL gene, injected into a leg muscle during a single day. But not many people have had it.

James Wilson, MD, PhD, developed the vector, AAV1, used in the lipoprotein lipase deficiency gene therapy. (University of Pennsylvania).

The research team, led by Daniel Gaudet, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine at the University of Montreal, with colleagues from Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics (recently replaced by privately-held UniQure), reported a two-year follow-up of 14 adult patients receiving 100 billion to 1 trillion viruses. And it seems to have worked, depending upon how one assesses success.

?The triglycerides dropped, but after 60 days they trended back up. The primary endpoint had failed, but the secondary endpoint was recurring episodes of pancreatitis ? and they found a statistically significant, or close to it, decrease,? explained James Wilson, MD, PhD, editor-in-chief of Human Gene Therapy and professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who developed the vector. Tracking a few more patients, work not yet published, may have led the EMA?s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use to finally recommend approval, after three rejections.

Tomas Salmonson, MD, acting chair of the committee, points to the new data as well as restricting use to the sickest patients in pushing the gene therapy forward. ?Our established ways of assessing the benefits and risks of Glybera were challenged by the extreme rarity of the condition and also by uncertainties associated with data provided.?

For the additional study, the researchers looked at what was happening in the chylomicrons in the blood, and found that triglyceride level can fluctuate, contrary to assumptions of steady change. And that means something is happening that might explain the decrease in the painful episodes ? a very real measurement. Summed up Jean Bennett, MD, PhD, leader of one of the LCA2 clinical trials at Penn, ?It?s a huge vote of confidence for the entire field of gene transfer.?

Dr. Wilson agrees. The repercussions won?t be at the FDA, where scientists make decisions based on data, he said, but on the willingness of big pharma to invest in gene therapy. Despite recent successes ? LCA2, hemophilia, adrenoleukodystrophy ? the pharmaceutical industry has been hesitant to fund gene therapy because it has lacked an approval. ?So-called regulatory uncertainty has been the biggest problem, and if there?s no precedent, they can continue to say no. Biopharma is not interested in the ultra orphans. But I have a feeling we?ll be seeing some activity,? he added.

#2: FINDING HOMES FOR STALLED DRUGS

By August 14, researchers can submit pre-applications to the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Discovering New Therapeutic Uses for Existing Molecules program. The idea is simple yet brilliant: match compounds that are languishing on company shelves to diseases with newly-discovered mechanisms. Such candidate drugs have passed initial safety tests but were dropped for business reasons, such as a tiny market, or because they didn?t treat what they were intended to.

Corey Haas and Hannah Sames are ambassadors for the rare disease community, here signing their photos in ?The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It.? Corey has LCA2, successfully treated with gene therapy, and Hannah, awaiting hers, is one of 54 people in the world who has giant axonal neuropathy. (Sandy Andersen)

Since the announcement in June, eight industry leaders have signed on, offering an initial 58 compounds to find new therapeutic homes. And the need is compelling: of the 4,500+ diseases with recently-revealed mechanisms, only about 250 have treatments. ?If researchers funded through this effort can demonstrate new uses for the compounds, they could significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to get a treatment to patients in need,? said Kathy L. Hudson, PhD, NCATS acting deputy director.

Everyone wins.

#3: SPEEDING FDA APPROVAL

On July 9, President Obama signed into law the FDA Safety and Innovation Act, which updates the 1983 Orphan Drug Act. The new law provides $6 billion over the next 5 years to assist the agency in evaluating new drugs and medical devices. The Act will speed access to new treatments and development of especially promising ones, and the Humanitarian Use Devices program will target those that treat rare diseases, giving priority to diseases of children. ?Treatments are desperately needed because most are serious, many are life-threatening, and about two-thirds of the patients are children,? said Peter L. Saltonstall, president and CEO of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), which was critical in developing both acts.

The Act may be a lifesaver for people such as 8-year-old Hannah Sames, one of 54 people in the world known to have giant axonal neuropathy. The gene therapy trial that she will take part in is nearing phase 1, but the sponsoring not-for-profit, Hannah?s Hope Fund, is about to run out of money.

#4: EASING INSURANCE ACCESS

When the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act on June 28, I scrolled through the relieved statements from various rare disease organizations. Thanks to the ACA, children like Hannah Sames and Gavin Stevens will not be penalized for their pre-existing conditions, nor face annual or lifetime insurance caps.

#5: IDENTIFYING DISEASE GENES

Exome sequencing can identify mutations when single-gene tests don?t. The strategy sequences the protein-encoding part of the human genome in individuals, usually young children, whose syndrome has evaded recognition, searching for mutations passed silently from parents, with functions that could explain the symptoms. Once that?s known, researchers can develop new treatments, or repurpose existing ones.

New exome-derived discoveries are being reported nearly weekly, some appearing in the media before the technical papers are published. A recent news release about a 4-year-old named Maya with a neurological disease, for example, made its way into many news reports and blogs, with a touching story and accolades. Yet none named the gene or its precise function ? the part I?m most interested in.

In contrast to the incomplete Maya story, when John Chiang, PhD, director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at the Casey Eye Institute in Portland, Oregon told me he?d discovered Gavin Stevens? mutation among nearly 2,500 gene variants in the blind boy?s exome, he asked that I not report it. That was 8 months ago ? the mutation is unveiled in a quartet of papers in the current Nature Genetics, after something of a turf war among four research groups.

Gavin?s parents had heard about Dr. Chiang at the Foundation for Retinal Research meeting two years ago, where Jennifer had called him, distraught, after learning that single-gene tests couldn?t explain their son?s blindness. Dr. Chiang, who described his skill as ?I do the dirty work, I find the mutations,? had helped several families after existing tests had fruitlessly, but expensively, probed the most common parts of only the most common genes. Dr. Chiang had first developed larger gene testing panels, and when those still didn?t identify some families? mutations, quietly sent their DNA off to the Beijing Genome Institute for whole exome sequencing.

Now that exome sequencing is commercially available in the U.S., Dr. Chiang cautions that it still doesn?t help all families, and that costs can greatly exceed the oft-mentioned $1,000 pricetag when considering analysis. ?I would only recommend it as the last resort when all known genes are ruled out,? he advised.

CODA

Karen Poulakos has Leber congenital amaurosis, and does quite well in her world of shadows. Gene therapy may return the vision that she remembers from her childhood. (Ricki Lewis)

On Saturday at the retinal research conference last weekend, I watched Jennifer and Troy beam as Eric Pierce, MD, PhD, director of the Ocular Genomics Institute in Boston and co-author of one of the Nature Genetics papers, talked about their mutation. Discovery of the gene, which affects cellular energy (NAD synthesis), is a starting point for gene therapy, and this particular candidate is a great target. ?The gene is small, and encodes an enzyme,? said Dr. Pierce.

The next day, as my talk about the history of gene therapy wound down, I took stock of my audience. Two young women with canes sat in the front row. A few rows back sat Karen Poulakos, also with a cane, whom I?d chatted with earlier.

Karen has Corey?s disease, LCA2, but, at age 63, had been deemed too old for the gene therapy clinical trial two years ago. But things had changed, she?d learned at the meeting, and she just might be eligible for the phase 3 trial coming up. Karen has lived a full life in her world of shadows, barely remembering when she could see better, and she?s now contemplating what it might be like to see again.

As I collected my things, I marveled at the hope radiating from the faces in the room, sighted as well as not. And I thought that this is science at its very best. This is what it is all about, the molecules, the mice, the deciphering of nature?s mechanisms: helping people.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=eaea537b8f67ae32fe8b5a6982030cc1

chesapeake energy dick clark death yom hashoah yolo liquidmetal gsa scandal kelis

Insurance: Which Travel Policy is Right for You? | Chris Around The ...

What type of travel policy is best for your trip? A breakdown of things to consider, depending on what kind of vacation you?re taking.

I recently researched a piece for Bankrate.com about what type of travel policy you would consider for various trips. This is an abridged version. Remember, before you buy any policy, check to see if you?re already covered through your credit card or through your homeowners or renters insurance policy.

Photo by Jekkone, Flickr Creative Commons

?

Visiting family:?Comprehensive travel insurance policies can cover common problems, such as lost baggage, trip cancellations or interruptions, travel delays from weather or illness, and medical care on the road.?While the costs vary, for most packages you?ll pay between 4 percent and 8 percent of the total trip cost, according to the U.S. Travel Insurance Association (UStiA). Rates are based on the length and cost of the trip, the age of the purchaser and where you?re going. More expensive trips cost more to insure and you?ll pay more if you?re older.

Photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, Flickr Creative Commons

?

Resort during hurricane season:?While most comprehensive travel insurance policies do cover weather problems and delays, the hurricane has to become more than a threat ? you aren?t covered if the storm doesn?t hit. Your best solution might be a?policy that allows you to cancel for any reason. These policies can cost up to 50 percent more than a regular policy, but they do give you more latitude over your plans and cover up to 75 percent of your costs. Act fast, though: usually you only buy these plans within two weeks after making your initial trip deposit.

Another reason to buy your insurance early: You get a waiver of the pre-existing medical condition clause that?s a part of most travel policies. If you delay and then become subject to this clause, your insurer will be able to look into your medical history and refuse to cover any claims related to a medical issue you had before the trip.

Photo by simon_music, Flickr Creative Commons

?

International travel:?Besides helping with rebooking and refunds during unplanned weather delays or natural acts, travel insurance can protect you from the transportation delays and cancellations you might experience from national labor strikes. Some policies cover evacuation due to political unrest, and travel insurance also can help if you lose your passport.

Many people don?t realize that most U.S. health insurance plans do not cover you outside the country. If you?re looking for medical travel insurance, study comprehensive travel insurance plans to make sure they include medical treatment.?Those who are going to more remote locations may want to take the extra step of getting an air-medical transport membership from a company such as MedjetAssist. If a member is hospitalized more than 150 miles from home ? virtually anywhere in the world ? MedjetAssist?reviews his or her condition with the attending medical staff, and will arrange for a medically equipped and staffed aircraft to fly them free of charge to the hospital of their choice.

?

Cruises:?If you?ve booked plane tickets to the port through the cruise line or a travel agent and have what?s known as a ?cruise fare,? the airline must get you to the next port of call if your flight arrives too late. But if you bought your tickets yourself, a travel insurance policy that covers flight delays could save your trip.

Assistance programs that some travel insurers provide can come in handy if your ship suffers a mechanical failure or if extreme weather forces you to be dropped off in a different location than expected. While the ships usually offer some compensation for these problems, people who have travel insurance can usually call a hotline to get rebooked ? and reimbursed ? sooner.

Photo by Zach Dischner, Flickr Creative Commons

?

Extreme sports: Activities perceived as dangerous or risky, such as sky diving, cave exploring or rock climbing, aren?t covered in most policies. So if extreme sports are on your itinerary, you?ll need to buy rider that covers possible injuries. The?right kind of travel insurance also can help protect expensive gear.

This post was brought to you by World First Insurance.?

Related posts:

1. Travel Insurance Tips
2. Russia, With Love: Tips for Applying for a Russian Tourist Visa
3. Travel After Earthquake: When should you go back?
4. Ask Chris: Recommendations for Art Travel?
5. Insider Travel Tips, from Smarter Travel event

Tagged as: travel insurance, Travel Tips

Source: http://caroundtheworld.com/2012/07/28/travel-insurance-which-travelpolicy-is-right-for-you/

dale george will obama birth certificate nick cannon lindsay lohan saturday night live snl lindsay lohan valley fever

halliburton francyne: Preparing For The Camping Goods | Travel ...

One of the biggest jobs with the aim of must be made ex- to lone camping dive is to orchestrate and quantity pro the dive. What I am vacant to discuss at this time is a link of tricks I aid to arrange pro all camping tumble my family tree embarks on. By using solely a hardly any unadorned tricks the process will be simplified. The following are approximately tips pro beginners in this area how to arrange pro their camping tumble.

Inside order to arrange your camping well, you can get on to guaranteed with the aim of all the inflatable pads and closed-cell pads are working by the tome. If you preparation to sort out generally of your camping all through summer, a frivolous and inexpensive rectangular sleeping bag will sort out and don?t not forget to bring a pillow.

Second, previous to in detail packing the items you can magnet collectively them in groups so with the aim of you are able to think it ended everything and ensure with the aim of you be inflicted with built-in it on your register. You can place items in groups according to all of the sections you be inflicted with identified as long as a straightforward visual method of considering what you be inflicted with gathered and selection you identify items you could be inflicted with missed.

Third, previous to you embark on lone camping dive, it is most excellent to be inflicted with a checklist of things to sort made known. Another caring affair to bring along is a veteran camper. However, when referring to the foods, you also need to prepare the foods well. The common practice is to use the lockers to store foods. The storage lockers and some other lockers are best containers to contain foods.

However, in my next articles I will introduce some other lockers such as the gym lockers.

Related posts:

1. Offers An Extensive Range Designed For Shoddy Summer Holidays, Hotels, Car Rental, Flights And Many New
2. Cooking With A Camping Stove When Mountaineering
3. Easy Steps To Enjoy Camping In The Autumn
4. Sleeping Bag As Per The Camping Environment
5. Cost-effective Camping Equipment To Lease Or Even Acquire

Source: http://doityourself-tips.net/Travel-and-Leisure-Tips/preparing-for-the-camping-goods/

old dominion insync the duchess the duchess spice mike starr ufc 141 fight card

Source: http://kaoknell6.typepad.com/blog/2012/07/preparing-for-the-camping-goods-travel-and-leisure-tips.html

jason witten ucla vs usc rich rodriguez rich rodriguez the muppet movie the muppet movie mars rover

Source: http://halliburton-francyne.blogspot.com/2012/07/preparing-for-camping-goods-travel-and.html

aldon smith friday night lights nick santino bruce arians the misfits hook troy

Source: http://herbertdrake.typepad.com/blog/2012/07/halliburton-francyne-preparing-for-the-camping-goods-travel.html

buster posey eric holder eric holder carole king crystal renn matilda cab calloway

Supervisor ? Maintenance (Underground) Sudbury ? All jobs ...

Who We Are

Vale?s base metals business is a leading producer of nickel, copper, cobalt and precious metals, based in Toronto, Canada. We have been operating for over 100 years, and in that time, we have set the standards in safety, business performance and innovation. The base metals business has over 12,000 employees worldwide and is committed to mining excellence and the pursuit of sustainable growth by operating with respect for the natural environment and being an ethically and socially responsible company. From working in mining operations around the world to our inventive Research & Development facilities and all the exciting careers in between, Vale is in the business of possibilities.

?

Vale has been operating in Sudbury for more than 100 years. Located about 400 kilometres north of Toronto, Canada and surrounded by lakes and wilderness, the City of Greater Sudbury is the educational, medical, and retail centre of northeastern Ontario. Approximately 3,500 of its 157,900 residents are Vale employees and more than 10,000 are Vale pensioners. Vale's operations in Sudbury ? consisting of six mines, a mill, a smelter and a refinery - are among the largest in the world.

?

We are currently searching for a:

?

SUPERVISOR ? MAINTENANCE, (UNDERGROUND) SUDBURY OPERATIONS

?

The Opportunity:

To continuously improve the work team performance through effective use of established processes and procedures in achieving assigned objectives. Continuously improve the effectiveness of the front-line team along with consistently meeting the business objectives. This includes ensuring the completion of assigned work with increasing consistency and accuracy.

?

Accountabilities:

-Hold crew accountable for area Safety behavior, housekeeping, teamwork and professionalism

-Supervise and coordinate the ?maintenance work? components of the FLP&S business process

-Provide internal process support to maintenance group and crews

-Carryout tasks while on shift on behalf of the Superintendent and as such assists the Superintendent in achieving the overall area targets for his/her beat

-Work within budget, guidelines and standards and execute Safety and Maintenance Plans as established by the Superintendent

-Work with the crew to develop an interactive workplace environment

-Foster a climate of safety, mutual trust, and respect among all members of his/her team and promote pride in work by looking after the workplace and equipment

-Work collaterally and cross functionally, with colleagues, engineering, production, and services to achieve the objectives of the Maintenance Department

-Assist, recommend and/or request training in skills development where possible and recommend needs to Superintendent

-Build a cooperative team-based approach to work

-Focus on results

-Ensures all works are in compliance with stated procedures

-Shall ensure that all team members reporting to him/her in the workplace take responsibility for aspects of the Occupational Health and Safety over which they have control including adherence to all Occupational Health and Safety requirements to Vale

-Demonstrates commitment to the continued improvement of the Occupational health and Safety performance

?

Education:

-The ideal candidate will have a College diploma in a related field or a minimum Grade 12 with equivalent experience

?

Experience:

-The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 3 years of experience in mechanical maintenance discipline, including some time leading a crew.

?

Knowledge and Skills:

-Proof of accreditation on a MTCU transcript in either of the three supervisor modular programs 770141 Common Core for Generic First Line Supervisor, 770121 First Line Underground Mine Supervisor Common Core or 770120 Common Core for First line Production Supervisor Underground Hard Rock Mining.

-Ability to decipher and prioritize multiple tasks

-Hold people accountable for working within boundaries of SafeProduction

-Verbal and written communication, must be able to accurately inform, capture interest and gain support in a clear and concise manner

-Health safety and environment, must be able to recognize, prioritize, and understand the controls required to mitigate risks in the workplace

-Judgment - must be able to consider the situation, the issues and the people involved. This involves identifying, defining and analyzing problems or situations. It also involves the use of reason and the formulation of viable solutions and potential improvements

-Business sense - must be able to use the formal and informal technical and human resources systems and contacts, including supervisors, managers, departments, maintenance systems, etc., to achieve needed results.

?

For more information please visit our website at Valejobs.ca?

Vale is an equal opportunity employer.

Source: http://www.miscojobs.com/jobs/job_575258.htm

loft old navy cyber monday best deals cyber monday best deals brownback brownback salvia

Google Analytics for your Real Estate Website and Why you need it ...

If you don?t already have Google Analytics set up on your website, you are missing out on one of the most powerful statistical tools the Internet has to offer. Do you know where your traffic is coming from? Do you know what search terms clients are using to find your website? Are you even building your website in the manner most efficient to rank in the search engines?

Google Analytics?allows site managers or site owners easily track and analyze data for their website. It?s a powerful, free tool that can answer a lot of questions for a wide range of users. Wondering which keywords your visitors are more likely to use? Need?information?on what design elements on your website might be causing people to click away? Google Analytics shows you all that information.

?

The type of data that Google?Analytics?compiles are;

• Visitors: It reveals information about the people visiting your website. It focuses on where they live, the language they speak, how they are accessing your website, what platforms they are using and how often they visit your website.
• Traffic Sources: Here you?ll find how people landed on your website. You can track your visitors by keywords, sites that linked to your website or pages that linked to your website and even social media accounts.
• Content: This tab provides insight into specific pages on your website. It can help answer questions about how people enter and exit your pages, as well as which ones are the most popular.
• Goals: If you?re targeting certain objectives, reports in the Goals tab will be helpful to you. Here you?ll find information about desired actions from users, including downloads, registrations and purchases.
• Ecommerce: You?ll only need this tab if you?re selling items on your website and purchases are being made directly on the site.

Do you think this information would be useful for you as a real estate professional to know? I think it would. If you walk into a client?s home to present to them and you show them detailed information of what you have done for previous clients, My guess is they would be blown away. I strongly encourage you set up Google Analytics as the information provided would definitely be useful in making your marketing tactics online more targeted.

Source: http://realestategab.com/2012/07/27/google-analytics-real-estate-website-why-you-need-it/

danny o brien alicia silverstone park slope food coop anchorman sequel safety not guaranteed lifehouse al gore

Peter Gilbert's book benefits Vermont Humanities Council ...

Home
? Arts & Entertainment, Lifestyle, Our Town ? Peter Gilbert?s book benefits Vermont Humanities Council

On Tuesday evening at the Vermont History Museum in Montpelier, Wind Ridge Publishing (WRP) and the Vermont Humanities Council celebrated the publication of Peter Gilbert?s book ?I was Thinking?Travels in the World of Ideas.? Gilbert is executive director of the Vermont Humanities Council as well as a regular commentator on Vermont Public Radio. One hundred percent of the author?s earnings as well as 10 percent of WRP?s net profit from the sale of the book will benefit the Vermont Humanities Council. Pre-release copies of the book can be purchased directly online at www.windridgepublishing.com/titles or by calling Lin Stone at WRP, 985-3091. General release of the book is scheduled for early fall.

Source: http://shelburnenews.com/?p=2025

waste management two fat ladies dennys kindle fire glen davis kobe bryant a christmas story

HP Blogs - Top 3 security trends transforming your business - The ...

What's the first IT concern you think of when someone brings up cloud, big data, and mobility? If it's security, you're in good company.

?

As these technologies become ubiquitous, there's no doubt the risks?and costs?of cyber threats will increase. According to The Ponemon Institute's Second Annual Cost of Cyber Crime Study, released in August 2011, the yearly sum that the organizations surveyed had to shell out as a result of cyber crime ranged from $1.5 million to nearly $36.5 million.

?

Securing the enterprise was a hot topic at HP Discover 2012 in Las Vegas. If you missed the conference in June, you can watch a huge number of session replays on security and other crucial IT topics on demand by checking out Discover Online.

?

In his track keynote, "HP Enterprise Security: Change is good," Hugh Njemanze, VP and CTO, HP Enterprise Security Products, explains how cyber threats are increasing in number and complexity all the time. These threats have escalated beyond a rogue few trying to gain attention to organized crime rings, corrupt political organizations and others hell-bent on wreaking havoc and achieving ill-gotten financial gain. In order to ensure the continued trust of our IT systems, you must secure them. Three trends are creating an opportunity to transform your approach to enterprise security:

?

• Evolving enterprise IT: These trends include mobility, the cloud and big data
• The nature and motivation of attacks: Attackers have gone from just looking for fame to also looking?and finding?fortune
• Regulatory pressure: Most enterprise IT decision makers are aware of SOX, PCI, HIPAA and other similar regulations

?

HP aims to make the emerging connected world safer for businesses and consumers. Njemanze? puts it bluntly:" It does us no good if people do not fundamentally trust computing."

?

"It does us no good if people do not fundamentally trust computing."?Hugh Njemanze, VP and CTO, HP Enterprise Security Products

?

Njemanze also outlines how HP takes a holistic, end-to-end approach to enterprise security, including:

?

• Hybrid infrastructure?traditional data center environment plus cloud
• The network
• The data and applications that need to be secured while also easily accessible to those with authorization
• Internal users and external partners who need access
• A range of devices being used to access data and applications on the network
• A wide range of service offerings to better enable HP customers to get the most out of HP security solutions

?

On top of all that, ?Njemanze, adds, "there's the notion of security intelligence and risk management that ranges from monitoring the activities in your organization so you know what incidents to respond to, to analyzing your IT infrastructure so you know where you're going to get the best bang for your dollar in terms of how to defend your network."

?

Throughout his talk, Njemanze details how HP can help enterprises address the security implications of the cloud, big data and mobility, offering hope for organizations that have watched their security spending rise unchecked along with the increase in cyber threats.

?

Listen to Njemanze's session on demand (30 minutes).

?

If cloud, big data and issues such as BYOD (bring your own devices)? are among your enterprise security-related concerns, be sure also to check out these replays:

?

Learn more:

?

Join the conversation:

Source: http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/HP-DISCOVER-Insider/Top-3-security-trends-transforming-your-business/ba-p/118537

anguilla gone with the wind michael jordan checkers imbibe msg network ray j

Former aide to Canadian PM charged with influence-peddling

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A former top aide to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was charged with influence-peddling on Friday, a move that could embarrass a government that came to power stressing accountability.

Police said Bruce Carson was "alleged to have accepted a commission for a third party in connection with a business matter relating to the government." Carson's lawyer declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Harper's office said in March 2011 it had asked police to investigate Carson, a senior adviser to the prime minister until 2009, on the grounds that he had apparently broken conflict of interest laws.

Canadian media linked this to a range of lobbying work done by Carson, who has previous criminal convictions for fraud.

"Any individual who doesn't respect our laws must face their full force as well as the consequences that come with them," said Andrew MacDougall, Harper's chief spokesman.

It was the first time in living memory than an adviser to a prime minister has been charged with influence-peddling.

"This reaches right onto the prime minister's office ... and has to call into question the judgment of the prime minister for hiring him in the first place," said Scott Andrews, a legislator with the opposition Liberal Party.

The charge is the latest ethics problem to hit the ruling Conservatives, who came to power in early 2006 after a kickback scandal helped bring down the former Liberal government.

In March the federal ethics commissioner ruled that Industry Minister Christian Paradis had violated the Conflict of Interest Act by telling bureaucrats to set up a meeting with a former Conservative legislator who wanted to do business with Ottawa.

The commissioner is now looking into allegations that Paradis -- also the cabinet minister responsible for Quebec affairs -- tried to move a government office into a building owned by an associate of his family in Quebec.

This week the former campaign manager for Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Peter Penashue apologized for exceeding spending limits during last year's federal election campaign.

The next federal election is scheduled for October 2015.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Frank McGurty)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-aide-canadian-pm-charged-influence-peddling-182150705.html

rashard mendenhall rachel zoe penn state football mt rainier national park rose parade mount rainier national park drop dead gorgeous

Coming soon: Movies of electrons in motion

12 hrs.

John Roach

Ever wonder what an electron looks like as it orbits a proton? Within a few years you can stop wondering. Scientists are on the cusp of capturing the action and putting it on the big screen.

With the aid of super-short X-ray pulses, scientists can generate static pictures of things such as hydrogen atoms. Up next is the ability to stitch them together to make a movie with a frame rate of an image per femtosecond, Technology Review reports.

The technique is being pioneered by a team of theorists at the Center for Free Electron Laser Science at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, and described earlier this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.?

Key to making it all work is a clear understanding of how the X-ray pulses interact with the electrons and distort the shape of the hydrogen atom, an effect that until now has largely been ignored given its complexity.

The German researchers calculated what the effect would be?and found it would be substantial. Understanding this, in turn, is a key step for interpreting the movies they will?be making once technology catches up to theory.

For more information, check out Technology Review?s coverage and read the paper in PNAS.?

--Via Technology Review

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Source: http://www.futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/technology/futureoftech/coming-soon-movies-electrons-motion-910330

nascar tiger woods pirate bay erin andrews erin andrews Pepco tour de france

Report: Suspect described killings in package

Mourners hold onto each other as they depart a memorial service for Gordon Cowden Wednesday, July 25, 2012 in Denver. Cowden was one of 12 people killed, and over 50 wounded in a shooting attack early Friday at the packed theater during a showing of the Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises." Police have identified the suspected shooter as James Holmes, 24. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Mourners hold onto each other as they depart a memorial service for Gordon Cowden Wednesday, July 25, 2012 in Denver. Cowden was one of 12 people killed, and over 50 wounded in a shooting attack early Friday at the packed theater during a showing of the Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises." Police have identified the suspected shooter as James Holmes, 24. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

An unidentified member of the state of Colorado's public defenders office films a broken window of the apartment of suspected Aurora movie theater gunman James Holmes, Wednesday, July 25, 2012, in Aurora, Colo. during a visit to the building with members of the Aurora Police Dept. and others from the public defenders' office. Residents of the apartment have not yet been allowed to return to their units while the investigation continues. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Daniel King, public defender of suspected Aurora movie theater gunman James Holmes, looks out the broken window of Holmes' apartment, Wednesday, July 25, 2012, in Aurora, Colo. during a visit with members of the Aurora Police Dept. and others from the public defenders' office. Holmes is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, and could also face other charges stemming from last Friday's mass shooting in an Aurora movie theater that killed 12 people and injured dozens of others. Other residents of the apartment have not yet been allowed to return to their units while the investigation continues. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

DENVER (AP) ? The university once attended by a man accused of killing 12 people in a Colorado movie theater confirmed on Wednesday that it received a suspicious package two days earlier that was turned over to authorities, but it wouldn't confirm its contents or sender.

The University of Colorado, Denver said the U.S. Postal Service delivered the package to its medical campus Monday, and it was immediately investigated and turned over to authorities within hours.

Fox News' website reported that former neuroscience graduate student James Holmes sent a notebook to the university containing scribblings of stick figures being shot and a written description of an upcoming attack. The package containing it was addressed to a psychiatrist at the school, the website reported. It was unclear if Holmes, 24, had had any previous contact with the person. The neuroscience program that he withdrew from on June 10 included professors of psychiatry.

He is accused of opening fire on a theater showing the new Batman movie, killing 12 people and injuring 58.

NBC News, citing unnamed sources, reported that Holmes told investigators to look for the package and that it described killing people.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies refused to confirm the reports to The Associated Press.

U.S. Postal Service spokesman David Rupert said the agency's inspectors have no direct knowledge of the package reportedly containing the notebook. He said no one has contacted the Postal Service for assistance in the investigation.

Citing unnamed law enforcement sources, Fox News' website reported that Holmes sent the notebook in a package that had sat unopened since July 12.

The university said the report that the package sat uninvestigated that long is inaccurate. A spokeswoman declined to comment further, citing a gag order issued by a judge in the case.

Before the gag order was issued, police said Holmes received more than 50 packages at the school and his home that apparently contained ammunition, combat gear and explosive materials that he used in the attack and to booby-trap his Aurora apartment.

The building was evacuated for days while authorities rendered the apartment safe and collected evidence. Residents were allowed to return Wednesday evening.

Holmes' defense team also briefly visited the apartment building Wednesday and left without answering reporters' questions.

Holmes was allegedly stockpiling for the attack while he studied at the school's neuroscience program. He bought a shotgun and pistol in May, authorities say. On June 7, the date he took a year-end oral exam, he bought an assault rifle. He filed paperwork to leave the program three days later and did not provide a reason, the university has said.

On June 25, he filed an application to join a private gun range in eastern Colorado, but the club's owner, hearing what he described as a "bizarre" outgoing voice mail on Holmes' cellphone recorded in a low voice with heavy-breathing, told his staff to watch out for the man. Holmes never came to the range.

Holmes grew up in California.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-25-Colorado%20Shooting-Suspect/id-981a4aae5d384067a5e775ab3f9a54f6

uss arizona memorial d day red solo cup new planet new planet green bay packers stock jeff garcia

The Money Update ? How To Avoid Sabotaging Your Retirement

Throughout life there are many financial pitfalls and mistakes to be made that could negatively impact your savings and your retirement fund, avoiding some of the mistakes now could save you some serious financial headaches later on life.? For example, some of the common pitfalls include:

Spending Your Retirement Savings To Bankroll Your Children

Children are some of the single most wonderful blessings a person can have during his or her lifetime, but can also be one of the most significant financial drains on your retirement savings.? Often times as parents it can be difficult to prioritize your own future and you may push off your own retirement savings for little Bobby or Suzzie who needs thousands of dollars every year to pursue dance, or karate, a new car, college, not to mention the $30,000 wedding they?ve always wanted.? These are all wonderful things, and as parents we desire our children to have the best, but it should not come at the expense of your own retirement planning and savings.? Bobby and Suzzie may not care as much about dance and karate as adults, when their own parents have become their financial dependents due to inadequate retirement savings.

Single Currency Homes Often Are Behind In Retirement Savings

According to statistics 1 out of 4 single income homes are well behind where they need to be in saving for retirement, vs. 17% of dual income homes.? This could be a simple factor of more households are choosing to have both husband and wife work causing the standard of living bar to be set a little higher, or it could be due to inflation and a struggling economy making it nearly impossible for single income home to get by. Regardless of the reason, your retirement portfolio will be easier to manage if both members of the family contribute to the family income.

?Paying Off Debt Instead Of Saving For Retirement

Often times people make the mistake of paying off their school loans, car payments, or dream home mortgage before they even begin to salt away money for retirement.? While it is important to be debt free, if you avoid all savings for retirement you often miss out on many years of compounding interest by not starting to save young.

Not Calculating How Much You will Need To Save For Retirement

Many couples have no idea how much they will need to save for retirement in order to maintain their pre-retirement lifestyles.? If you have a healthy pension plan on average you will need to plan for 60-80% of your preretirement income to be able to live at a desirable standard of living in retirement.? Also, you need to save enough for at least 25-40 years of retirement.? You want your retirement savings to outlive you, not the other way around.

Choosing Inappropriate Investments For Your Age And Risk Appetite Can Sabotage Your Retirement

The younger you are when you begin saving the more risks you will be able to take in your investments.? As you age you will need to reduce your risk exposure and make sure that you do not put all your eggs in one basket.? This will ensure that your retirement money will be at your disposal when you most need it.

Retirement savings can be really tricky, especially in an economy where no investment appears ?safe? and very few are generating the desired profit many would hope for.? For more information on retirement planning and on retirement designated investments visit theannuityupdate.com?

?

Source: http://themoneyupdate.com/how-to-avoid-sabotaging-your-retirement/

sassafras mardi gras 2012 the secret world of arrietty cee lo allen iverson jr smith chris anderson

The Board Game Family Renting Board Games is Fantastic ? The ...

With so many games to choose from, I?m so glad we have a board game store nearby that rents board games. I don?t know if your local board game store rents games, but we think it?s a fantastic deal.

A great board game store!

Boardgame Revolution, located in Orem Utah has a large library of board games available to rent. They let you rent board games for 10 days at a time for the low cost of only 10% of the cost of the game! And when you return the board game at the end of the rental period you can apply that cost to your purchase of any game in the store. Awesome!

It?s a great way to try out board games or card games that you?ve heard of, but aren?t quite sure if your family or friends will like to play. For only a few dollars you can take it home and give it a try.

For example, if you?ve heard great things about 7 Wonders ? maybe from our own review ? and want to give it a try, but are unsure about spending $35 to buy it. For only $3.50 you could take it home for 10 days and give it a whirl.

We rent DVDs or Bluray discs from RedBox for $1 a day. So $3.50 for a family board game for 10 days is a great deal. And if you love the game, spend the extra $31.50 when you return it to get a new copy of the game for your family.

When we first started reviewing board games, Boardgame Revolution was THE place to get our hands on a lot of great board games to try. In fact, when looking at our list of family board game reviews, I noticed that 11 of our reviews in those first 6 months were games we rented from Boardgame Revolution. (And a number of them we ended up buying.)

So let?s give a shout out to Boardgame Revolution for their great board game rental program. And if your local game store doesn?t have a way for you to try out games before you buy them, we?d highly suggest you tell them about Boardgame Revolution. Who knows ? maybe they can give Boardgame Revolution a call to find out the details and set up a program of their own.

?

P.S. If you?re like most of our site visitors and don?t live in Utah, Boardgame Revolution also sells board games online at great prices?

?

?

Posted on July 25th, 2012

Source: http://www.theboardgamefamily.com/2012/07/renting-board-games-is-fantastic/

oikos kentucky wildcats oakland school shooting nike nfl jerseys katie couric barista university of kentucky

Woman vows to stay on charity row after assault

By NBC News staff

A woman who said she was sexually assaulted while on a two-month row around Lake Michigan to raise cancer awareness says she remains frightened but plans to resume her trip Wednesday.

Jenn Gibbons is trying to become the first person to solo-row the entire 1,500-mile perimeter of Lake Michigan in an effort to show the role exercise plays in the fight against breast cancer. She set out on her two-month mission from Chicago on June 15, NBCChicago.com reported.

About five weeks into her journey, she said, she awoke in the early morning hours on Sunday to the sound of someone boarding the boat, which she had docked for the night near a lighthouse on a stretch of a remote shoreline of Lake Michigan. Gibbons told police she rushed to lock the cabin door, but the stranger forced his way inside and sexually assaulted her.

---

Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter

?I was out in the middle of nowhere,? Gibbons told the Chicago Sun-Times. ?It was terrifying. And he told me he knew where to find me.?

Police believe Gibbons? attacker traveled a significant distance to find her, they said in a statement, perhaps following her on the Internet as she documented her mission through her Facebook page and personal blog.

Gibbons said she punched the man in the chest and ran. She tried to lock herself in a wooden outhouse, but her attacker forced his way inside. She said she fought him off until he fled in a yellow Jeep Wrangler.

Gibbons said she ran to the boat, locked herself in the cabin and called 911, police said.

Michigan State Police

This sketch shows the suspect wanted in connection with the reported sexual assault of Jenn Gibbons on Sunday, July 22, 2012.

Police released a sketch of the man Tuesday and continued their investigation. The suspect is described as a white male in his 30s, approximately 5 feet 8 to 6 feet tall, with a fair amount of facial stubble hair, but not a full beard or mustache. The man has light eyes, an average to athletic build and shorter well-kept hair. He was wearing a grayish green T-shirt, jean shorts and tennis shoes.

?I know that I had a choice in telling people about the details of my attack, particularly that it was a sexual assault,? Gibbons posted in a note to her Facebook page. ?To go through this at all, let alone publicly, is extremely difficult. I chose to talk about it in the hope that someone might be able to provide more information about the person who did this to me.?

Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com

?Regarding the trip, one thing hasn?t changed: I?ve still got this,? Gibbons wrote. ?But the trip plan will change in a few ways to ensure my safety. Most importantly, I will no longer be alone.?

Gibbons is a customer service agent for the deal-of-the-day website Groupon and the head coach for the Recovery on Water charity, a rowing team composed of breast cancer survivors.

Gibbons said she hoped her mission circumnavigating Lake Michigan would raise $150,000 for her charity. She has already raised $80,000, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

More content from NBCNews.com:

Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

?

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/25/12950393-woman-assaulted-on-mission-to-row-around-lake-michigan-vows-to-continue?lite

amas 2011 black friday elliot elliot la galaxy la galaxy