A new batch of leaked photos give us a glimpse of the future: Fuji's next model of interchangeable-lens cameras, the X-M1. The new camera is rumored to be a cheaper, entry-level version of their popular X-series line, with a body-only price of around $600, according to speculation.
     |
tebow trade mike the situation jacksonville jaguars jacksonville jaguars benjarvus green ellis shaka smart hungergames
Public donors giving between $10 and $10,000 each have hit a $1 million crowdfunding goal for ARKYD, the pint-size space telescope that can be used by schools and enthusiasts alike.
An ARKYD telescope orbiting Earth is shown in this artist's rendering. A privately owned asteroid-mining firm launched the effort to crowdfund the project.
Planetary Resources/Reuters
EnlargeSpace telescopes are not just for pros anymore.
Skip to next paragraph' +
google_ads[0].line2 + '
' +
google_ads[0].line3 + '
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
The first space observatory paid for in part by public donations has hit its initial $1 million fundraising goal, putting the project on track for launch in 2015.
The telescope, dubbed ARKYD, is a munchkin compared with the venerable Hubble Space Telescope or its successor, the James Web Space Telescope. ARKYD's light-gathering mirror is only about 8 inches across, compared with Hubble's 13-foot mirror or the 21-foot mirror of the James Webb telescope, slated for launch in October 2018.
But ARKYD holds the potential to offer something these others don't ? time on an orbiting observatory for anyone from an elementary-school student to professional scientists whose research goals range from studying asteroids to hunting for planets outside our solar system.
The project is the first step toward Planetary Resources, Inc.'s ultimate aim of mining asteroids. The company intends to incorporate such an instrument into spacecraft that initially would rendezvous with an asteroid passing relatively close to Earth and later reach asteroids farther away.
To that end, Planetary Resources developed ARKYD and its needed support infrastructure, such as a ground station, with money from private investors. But the company was founded by X-Prize Foundation founder and chairman Peter Diamandis and Eric Anderson, both of whom champion broader public engagement in science. Hence the crowdfunding and the benefits that come with donating.
The $1 million mark ensures that a bare-bones telescope will get launched and maintained. And it ensures that the company will be able to deliver what they promised to donors. For instance:
Now that fundraising has met the company's basic goal, the 10 days remaining in Planetary Resources' drive are devoted to raising more to increase the observatory system's capabilities. A total of $1.3 million would allow the company to build a second ground station to receive data from the craft. This would speed processing and distribution of images. If the company hits the $2 million mark, it will beef up the telescope for planet-hunting purposes.
This holds a special attraction for Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of Planetary Resources' advisory board. The project represents what she terms "a fresh approach" to space science.
It's striving to engage the world with access to an on-orbit observatory, she says. And it's moving in a direction she has been advocating for the field ? smaller and more numerous space observatories.
"I'd like to see a new paradigm for space science, where instead of one big telescope we have a fleet of small telescopes," she adds.
Her students have been working on a prototype for what, in effect, is a telescope in a shoe box. The telescope is designed to hunt for planets around nearby stars. But, she says, it has been hard to get money to launch the prototype, which would piggyback on a rocket carrying a larger, primary payload to orbit.
A small telescope must be incredibly stable to have any hope of detecting an extrasolar planet as it passes in front of its star and dims the starlight briefly. In collaboration with MIT's Draper Laboratory, she says, she, her students, and collaborators have licked that problem.
"By combining forces with Planetary Resources, we may be able to the the job done," she says, referring to orbiting what could be the first of many small space telescopes with this precision-pointing capability.
chris brown hillary clinton apple stock Pro Bowl 2013 Kick Ass Torrents jamarcus russell Sloane Stephens
FILE - In this March 5, 2009 file photo, US singer Michael Jackson announces that he is set to play ten live concerts at the London O2 Arena in July, which he announced at a press conference at the London O2 Arena. Charles Czeisler, a sleep expert testified on Friday, June 21, 2013, in Los Angeles that Jackson was suffering from total sleep deprivation at the time of his death in June 2009 and the condition would have shortened his life unless it was properly treated. The Harvard University sleep researcher testified as an expert witness in a lawsuit being pursued by Jackson?s mother, Katherine Jackson, against concert giant AEG Live LLC, claiming the company failed to properly investigate the doctor convicted of giving the superstar a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)
FILE - In this March 5, 2009 file photo, US singer Michael Jackson announces that he is set to play ten live concerts at the London O2 Arena in July, which he announced at a press conference at the London O2 Arena. Charles Czeisler, a sleep expert testified on Friday, June 21, 2013, in Los Angeles that Jackson was suffering from total sleep deprivation at the time of his death in June 2009 and the condition would have shortened his life unless it was properly treated. The Harvard University sleep researcher testified as an expert witness in a lawsuit being pursued by Jackson?s mother, Katherine Jackson, against concert giant AEG Live LLC, claiming the company failed to properly investigate the doctor convicted of giving the superstar a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)
This handout photo released by the LA Superior Court and presented as evidence shows an undated thank you note from 2009 written by Paris Jackson to chef Kai Chase, thanking her for gifts bought for the family at Disneyland. Chase testified on Tuesday, June 18, 2013, about the lives of Michael Jackson?s children and their father?s devotion to them. Her recollections came in a trial in Los Angeles being pursued by Jackson?s mother, Katherine Jackson, against concert giant AEG Live LLC, claiming the company failed to properly investigate the doctor convicted of giving the superstar a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol in 2009. (AP Photo/LA Superior Court)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A look at key moments this past week in the wrongful death trial in Los Angeles between Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, and concert giant AEG Live LLC, and what is expected at court in the week ahead:
THE CASE
Jackson's mother wants a jury to determine that the promoter of Jackson's planned comeback concerts didn't properly investigate Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter by a criminal jury for Jackson's June 2009 death. AEG's attorney says the case is about personal choice, namely Jackson's decision to have Murray serve as his doctor and give him doses of a powerful anesthetic as a sleep aid. Millions, possibly billions, of dollars are at stake.
WHAT HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEK
? Jackson's personal chef Kai Chase told jurors about Jackson's relationship with his children as well as her impressions that the singer appeared weaker in the final weeks of his life. She recounted numerous tender moments, including a party Jackson threw for his daughter Paris on her 11th birthday, complete with a private circus.
? Charles Czeisler, an expert sleep researcher from Harvard University, told jurors that Jackson was totally sleep-deprived by the time of his death because the singer's use of propofol was not giving him actual sleep but was akin to being in a drug-induced coma.
WHAT THE JURY SAW
? Jurors got their first glimpse of Jackson's oldest children, Prince and Paris, testifying. An AEG lawyer played short clips of the pair to challenge testimony offered by Chase. The two-minute clip of Paris Jackson's testimony showed her alternately looking down and at an AEG Live attorney as she described her father's rocky relationship with her former nanny.
? The jury was shown several images related to how Jackson raised his children, including a handwritten note that Paris wrote Chase thanking her for several gifts she bought for the family while at Disneyland.
QUOTABLE MOMENTS
? "It was the most beautiful expression of love I've ever seen," Chase said about a Cirque du Soleil-style circus that Jackson hired for Paris' 11th birthday.
? "The meticulous detailing of his deterioration here was both profound and sad," Czeisler said of emails documenting Jackson's missed rehearsals and inability to perform songs and dance moves without tour worker being afraid he would hurt himself.
WHAT'S NEXT
? Jurors will hear from an expert in medical conflict of interest cases and may also hear testimony from Tim Leiweke, the former CEO of AEG Live's parent company, the Anshutz Entertainment Group. Leiweke's testimony may be shown to jurors from his videotaped deposition.
Associated Pressgrapes of wrath silent house nfl mock draft project m colts colts big ten tournament 2012
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) ? By joining with a much bigger Catholic health system, a prominent Orange County hospital hopes to enhance patients' access to a host of services ? except one.
Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, based in Newport Beach, started banning elective abortions this year after reaching an agreement to affiliate with St. Joseph Health, riling some doctors and women's advocates.
The controversy has fueled a feisty debate in local editorial pages and prompted a rally outside the hospital, making the Southern California suburbs the latest scene of a culture clash occurring across the country as Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals strike deals in a wave of health care industry mergers.
Women's health advocates say affiliations between non-Catholic and Catholic hospitals have squelched abortions in a number of locations, and full-blown mergers have also affected health services such as sterilization and contraception.
Hoag has a flagship 485-bed hospital with sweeping Pacific Ocean views and another hospital in nearby Irvine. It joined with Irvine-based St. Joseph Health, which has 14 acute care hospitals in California and Texas, after winning state approval to form a regional health care system called Covenant Health Network.
The economic downturn and health care overhaul have driven many nonprofit hospitals to form partnerships or merge entirely in recent years, and cultural conflicts related to religion, teaching style or other differences often need to be hashed out for the ventures to succeed, said Lisa Goldstein, associate managing director of the not-for-profit hospital ratings team at Moody's.
Dr. Richard Afable, Hoag's former president who now heads Covenant, said Hoag took a closer look at its abortion practices because it was joining with a Catholic health system where the procedure isn't allowed.
Afable said the hospital decided to cease performing elective abortions because it does so few of them anyway ? only about 100 a year. He said Hoag will continue to perform abortions when medically indicated and that most elective abortions are done in a doctor's office or could be better performed at a center with a higher volume of the procedures.
"We looked very closely at all the things we do that are generally not supported at Catholic hospitals," he said. "We are not limiting any physician from conducting their medical practice in any way they would like. If a physician wants to do an elective abortion, there are places and locations where they can conduct that."
Obstetrician Dr. Richard Agnew said he worries Hoag may start to weed out other services over time. He also said he doesn't feel his patients who choose abortion should be shuffled off to a Planned Parenthood or different hospital, noting most are women who wanted to get pregnant but are carrying a fetus with genetic abnormalities and need a hospital level of care.
"It's not like they're doing anything illegal," Agnew said. "It's bad enough for them to have to make a decision."
Hospitals steeped in different faith traditions have had to contend with public concern over mergers and affiliations in states including Connecticut, Kentucky and Washington. The debate has most often surfaced in mergers involving Catholic hospitals due to the church's directives on issues ranging from abortion and birth control to end-of-life decisions.
In suburban Philadelphia, two hospitals, Abington and Holy Redeemer, called off a proposed partnership after community members were upset the plan would have ended abortions at Abington.
Catholic facilities account for more than one fifth of the country's hospital admissions, according to the Catholic Health Association.
Most commonly, affiliation agreements have led non-Catholic hospitals to stop providing abortions, while mergers and acquisitions have also led some institutions to stop performing other services, such as tubal ligation, said Sheila Reynertson, advocacy coordinator for New York-based Merger Watch, which tracks the effects of mergers between religious and secular hospitals on reproductive and other health services.
Lori Vandermeir, president of the National Organization for Women's Orange County chapter, said she worries the spate of hospital mergers will affect women's access to abortion even when no laws have changed.
"They have the ability to reset abortion-access behind the scenes, without the legislature being involved," she said.
In St. Joseph's statement of common values, the health system states that "direct abortion and physician assisted suicide are not part of St. Joseph Health services."
Afable said there have been no other changes to procedures offered at either hospital, noting Hoag will continue to perform sterilizations and provide contraception. He said no changes would be made to women's health services at Hoag for at least a decade under the agreement.
Pro-abortion rights groups staged a rally outside the hospital Thursday, while anti-abortion advocates who welcomed Hoag's decision held a counterdemonstration. The controversy has also sparked a spirited debate in the editorial pages of local newspapers.
Tom Johnson, a local businessman, wrote in the Orange County Register that while he supports abortion rights he doesn't see a problem with hospitals limiting their offerings. He recalled that he had to travel to Los Angeles for a kidney transplant eight years ago because Hoag did not perform the procedure.
"I'm 100 percent in favor of a woman's right to choose. Not 50 percent, not 75 percent - 100 percent," Johnson wrote in a guest column in the newspaper. "But I also, at the same time, respect the right of Hoag Hospital to choose what services it will provide and what services it will not."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fewer-abortions-hospital-consolidations-195939165.html
ronnie montrose melissa gilbert dancing with the stars dandelion wine cough matt groening brandon phillips summerfest
APMaybe ESPN should bring back Playmakers.? Not as a scripted show, but as a documentary.
At a time when a prominent NFL player faces apparently significant entanglement in a murder investigation, the league?s newest owner could eventually find himself facing a federal indictment.
According to Nate Rau of the Tennessean, Pilot Flying J executive Jay Stinnett stated in his plea agreement that ?senior management were aware of the rebate reduction scheme? that has resulted in five guilty pleas, with possibly more on the way.
The document, per Rau, doesn?t identify specific members of senior management.? The most senior member of management is Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, the CEO of Pilot Flying J.
Stinnett began cooperating with the federal government the same day the IRS and FBI showed up unannounced to search corporate headquarters, and other locations.? Stinnett agreed to cooperate with investigators and to testify in any court proceedings.
The investigation focuses on rebates and discounts that were not given to customers deemed too unsophisticated to realize they were being shorted.? Throughout the process, Haslam has downplayed the extent of the scam and denied any knowledge of it on his watch.
Look for the authorities to continue working their way up the Pilot Flying J ladder, prosecuting as far as the evidence will take them ? even if (or especially if) it takes them all the way to the top of the company.
labor day college football scores khan academy Espn College Football Eddie Murphy died Suzanne Barr Clint Eastwood speech
This October 2012 image provided by Medtronic shows the MiniMed Integrated System device, which doctors are reporting as a major step toward an "artificial pancreas." The device that would constantly monitor blood sugar in people with diabetes and automatically supply insulin as needed. According to the company-sponsored study announced Saturday, June 22, 2013 at an American Diabetes Association conference in Chicago the device worked as intended in a three-month study of 247 patients. (AP Photo/Medtronic)
This October 2012 image provided by Medtronic shows the MiniMed Integrated System device, which doctors are reporting as a major step toward an "artificial pancreas." The device that would constantly monitor blood sugar in people with diabetes and automatically supply insulin as needed. According to the company-sponsored study announced Saturday, June 22, 2013 at an American Diabetes Association conference in Chicago the device worked as intended in a three-month study of 247 patients. (AP Photo/Medtronic)
Doctors are reporting a major step toward an "artificial pancreas," a device that would constantly monitor blood sugar in people with diabetes and automatically supply insulin as needed.
A key component of such a system ? an insulin pump programmed to shut down if blood-sugar dips too low while people are sleeping ? worked as intended in a three-month study of 247 patients.
This "smart pump," made by Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc., is already sold in Europe, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing it now. Whether it also can be programmed to mimic a real pancreas and constantly adjust insulin based on continuous readings from a blood-sugar monitor requires more testing, but doctors say the new study suggests that's a realistic goal.
"This is the first step in the development of the artificial pancreas," said Dr. Richard Bergenstal, diabetes chief at Park Nicollet, a large clinic in St. Louis Park, Minn. "Before we said it's a dream. We have the first part of it now and I really think it will be developed."
He led the company-sponsored study and gave results Saturday at an American Diabetes Association conference in Chicago. They also were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study involved people with Type 1 diabetes, the kind usually diagnosed during childhood. About 5 percent of the 26 million Americans with diabetes have this type. Their bodies don't make insulin, a hormone needed to turn food into energy. That causes high blood-sugar levels and raises the risk for heart disease and many other health problems.
Some people with the more common Type 2 diabetes, the kind linked to obesity, also need insulin and might also benefit from a device like an artificial pancreas. For now, though, it's aimed at people with Type 1 diabetes who must inject insulin several times a day or get it through a pump with a narrow tube that goes under the skin. The pump is about the size of a cellphone and can be worn on a belt or kept in a pocket.
The pumps give a steady amount of insulin, and patients must monitor their sugar levels and give themselves more insulin at meals or whenever needed to keep blood sugar from getting too high.
A big danger is having too much insulin in the body overnight, when blood-sugar levels naturally fall. People can go into comas, suffer seizures and even die. Parents of children with diabetes often worry so much about this that they sneak into their bedrooms at night to check their child's blood-sugar monitor.
In the study, all patients had sensors that continuously monitored their blood sugar. Half of them had ordinary insulin pumps and the others had pumps programmed to stop supplying insulin for two hours when blood-sugar fell to a certain threshold.
Over three months, low-sugar episodes were reduced by about one-third in people using the pump with the shut-off feature. Importantly, these people had no cases of severely low blood sugar ? the most dangerous kind that require medical aid or help from another person. There were four cases in the group using the standard pump.
"As a first step, I think we should all be very excited that it works," an independent expert, Dr. Irl Hirsch of the University of Washington in Seattle, said of the programmable pump.
The next step is to test having it turn off sooner, before sugar falls so much, and to have it automatically supply insulin to prevent high blood sugar, too.
Dr. Anne Peters, a diabetes specialist at the University of Southern California, said the study "represents a major step forward" for an artificial pancreas.
One participant, Spears Mallis, 34, a manager for a cancer center in Gainesville, Ga., wishes these devices were available now. He typically gets low-sugar about 8 to 10 times a week, at least once a week while he's asleep.
"I would set an alarm in the middle of the night just to be sure I was OK. That will cause you to not get a good night of rest," he said.
His "smart pump" stopped giving insulin several times during the study when his sugar fell low, and he wasn't always aware of it. That's a well-known problem for people with Type 1 diabetes ? over time, "you become less and less sensitive to feeling the low blood sugars" and don't recognize symptoms in time to drink juice or do something else to raise sugar a bit, he said.
Besides Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson and several other research groups are working on artificial pancreas devices.
___
Online:
Diabetes info: http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/
___
Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP
Associated Presshopkins hopkins dear john derrick rose torn acl undrafted free agents braveheart roy orbison
ATLANTA (AP) ? A vaccine against a cervical cancer virus cut infections in teen girls by half in the first study to measure the shot's impact since it came on the market. The results impressed health experts and a top government top health official called them striking.
The research released Wednesday echoes studies done before the HPV vaccine became available in 2006. But the new study is the first evidence of just how well it works now that it is in general use.
Only about half of teen girls in the U.S. have gotten at least one dose of the expensive vaccine, and just a third of teen girls have had all three shots, according to the latest government figures.
"These are striking results and I think they should be a wake-up call that we need to increase vaccination rates," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cervical cancer is caused by certain types of the common sexually transmitted virus called HPV, for human papillomavirus. The vaccine, which costs about $130 per dose, protects against a few of those strains, including two blamed for 70 percent of cervical cancers. The shots work best if given before someone is sexually active so the emphasis has been on giving the shots to 11- and 12-year olds.
The CDC study compared infection rates in girls ages 14 to 19 before and after the vaccine became available. The proportion infected with the targeted HPV strains dropped 56 percent, from about 12 percent before the vaccine was sold to 5 percent. That result was for all teens after it was on the market, whether or not they were vaccinated.
Among girls who had gotten the vaccine, the drop in HPV infections was higher ? 88 percent.
There are two vaccines against HPV, but the study mainly reflects the impact of Gardasil, the Merck & Co. vaccine that came on the market in 2006. A second vaccine approved in 2009 ? GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix ? probably had relatively little bearing on the results, said the CDC's Dr. Lauri Markowitz, the study's lead author.
Both vaccines are approved for use in males and females ? in ages 9 to 26 for females, and 9 to 21 in males. The vaccine was only recommended for boys in late 2011, and the CDC has not yet reported data on how many boys have gotten the shot since then. HPV vaccination requires three shots over 6 months.
An estimated 75 to 80 percent of men and women are infected with HPV during their lifetime. Most don't develop symptoms and clear it on their own. But some infections lead to genital warts, cervical cancer and other cancers. The study didn't look at cervical cancer rates. It can take many years for such cancers to develop, and not enough time has passed to know the vaccine's impact on cancer rates, CDC officials said.
The study involved interviews and physical examinations of nearly 1,400 teen girls in 2003 through 2006 and of 740 girls in 2007 through 2010.
The vaccine's impact was seen even though only 34 percent of the teens in the second group had received any vaccine. That could be due to "herd immunity" ? when a population is protected from an infection because a large or important smaller group is immune.
Only about 20 percent of those vaccinated got all three doses. That result will likely feed an ongoing discussion about whether all three doses are necessary, Markowitz said.
Overall, the study found no significant change over time in the proportion of teens who'd ever had sex and in those who had multiple sex partners. However, it did find that a higher percentage of vaccinated teens said they'd had three or more sex partners.
That could have driven down infection rates, Markowitz noted, if the teens who got vaccinated were the ones at highest risk of getting an infection and spreading it.
The research was released online by the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
___
Online:
HPV info: http://www.cdc.gov/hpv/
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hpv-vaccine-cut-infection-half-teen-girls-173123213.html
sign of the times keystone pipeline purim acc tournament big ten tournament big east tournament 2012 solar storm
When Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx performed a duet called "(I Wanna) Channing All Over Your Tatum" on Jimmy Kimmel's post-Oscar show back in February, the entire internet was turned on. So, naturally, Kimmel took it upon himself to turn the performance into a fully-produced song and music video, which debuted Tuesday on "Jimmy Kimmel Live: NBA Game Night."
Along for the ride are Olivia Munn, Gabourey Sidibe, Miley Cyrus and a blink-or-you'll-miss-it Matt Damon cameo. Of course, the song wouldn't be complete without Kimmel completely missing the point and singing a bit about his mom that creeps everyone out.
Check out the video above and let us know if you think there's anything Channing Tatum can't do... to you.
Also on HuffPost:
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/18/channing-all-over-your-tatum_n_3463141.html
san diego weather frances bean cobain north korea missile launch modesto st louis weather guinea bissau google stock
Getting an STD test done is becoming very important for the individuals who have had an unprotected sexual intercourse. A sexually transmitted disease should be cured as fast as possible otherwise it can become a cause of many serious diseases. This specific disease finds a way to get inside your blood through your open tracts when you are in the middle of your intercourse exchanging the bodily fluids with your partner. One can experience pain during the urination process or certain painful rashes in the private parts of the body. There is nothing much to worry about if you take a quick action as when you encounter the first symptom of the illness.
The symptoms of this disease are found sooner in men as compared to women. Some people are disgusted by the thought that they have to visit their health expert for the checkup of any sexually transmitted disease and they keep on taking it lightly. Their silence is what results in the decline of their health and many innocent people acquire it without knowing. This is the major reason why they should get an STD test done so that they can prevent any further problems in their life.
If you are suffering from STDs, then you cannot be cured without being treated. You ought to have yourself looked at so that your doctor can find out which particular test will be suitable for you. There are many different kinds of STDs but unfortunately, there is no as such universal method to cure all their varieties. Gonorrhea is one of the most dangerous infections which can slowly deteriorate and destroy your sexual life. If both you and your partner are sexually active, then it is important for both of you to undergo STD test to clear your doubts.
People feel embarrassed when they are suggested to go to their doctors for this purpose. It is because they feel ashamed to discuss their sexual life with anyone. If you are one of them with such a point of view, then you got to be responsible enough and get an STD test done as soon as possible so that you don't keep on spreading it to your beloved without even knowing. You don't have to panic if you suspect any signs of this particular ailment. With the help of few clicks on the internet, you can be sure whether you have it running in your veins or not.
If you have confirmed about the fact, then the first thing you got to do is discuss it with the partner whom you had intercourse with. Afterwards, you need to reach out to your health advisor for learning which test you and your partner need to take. It would be a wise call if you properly explain the symptoms that you have experienced to your doctor so that a better medication can be done. It would be very mature of you if you take all the precautionary measures the next time you feel like running into bed with your partner.
If you have come across any signs of illness after an unprotected intercourse with your partner, then you might be prone to any potential STD. It is necessary that you undergo the?STD test?today.Source: http://fitnesszakaria.blogspot.com/2013/06/std-test-why-one-should-get-it-done.html
Lone Star College 42 louisville basketball Ready for Love ncaa annette funicello joel osteen
Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/gz5tsMp7N28/
justin timberlake gerard butler danielle fishel daylight savings Daylight Savings Time 2013 DeAndre Jordan Oz the Great and Powerful
A man looks up by the day's chart of Tokyo's Nikkei 225, the regional heavyweight, that soared 636.67 points, or 4.94 percent, to 13,514.20 in front of a securities firm in Tokyo Monday, June 10, 2013. Asian markets rose Monday after U.S. jobs data helped allay concern the Fed might wind down its stimulus and Japan's prime minister promised new tax cuts. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
A man looks up by the day's chart of Tokyo's Nikkei 225, the regional heavyweight, that soared 636.67 points, or 4.94 percent, to 13,514.20 in front of a securities firm in Tokyo Monday, June 10, 2013. Asian markets rose Monday after U.S. jobs data helped allay concern the Fed might wind down its stimulus and Japan's prime minister promised new tax cuts. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
A woman walks by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo Monday, June 10, 2013. Asian markets rose Monday after U.S. jobs data helped allay concern the Fed might wind down its stimulus and Japan's prime minister promised new tax cuts. the regional heavyweight, soared 636.67 points, or 4.94 percent, to 13,514.20. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
TOKYO (AP) ? Asian stocks slid in early Thursday trading as gyrations on the Tokyo market, the region's biggest, continued, fueled by worries about a surging yen and monetary policies in the U.S. and Japan.
The Nikkei plunged more than 500 points, or nearly 5 percent to 12,636.51 in early trading. The Hang Seng index fell 2.3 percent to 20,871.19, while the Kospi in South Korea lost 0.8 percent to 1,894.96. Benchmarks in Australia, mainland China, Singapore and Taiwan all fell more than 1 percent.
Japanese media reports said overseas hedge funds may be dumping Japan's equities following a disappointment earlier in the week, when the Bank of Japan didn't take additional easing measures to keep economic revival going.
Adding to the woes was the dollar's recent fall, trading at about 95 yen Thursday, in a reversal from 100 yen earlier. A cheap yen is a boon for Japan because it helps the nation's giant exporters by raising their overseas revenue when translated into yen.
Worries linger about the future of the U.S. economy, an important trading partner for Asia.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.8 percent, to close at 14,995.23. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.8 percent to 1,612.52. The Nasdaq composite index fell 1.1 percent, to 3,400.43.
Japan has been one of the main influences in the markets as investors have scrutinized the authorities' attempts to get the country out of its two-decade stagnation.
In April, the Bank of Japan announced a massive stimulus in an attempt to get inflation up to 2 percent. The euphoria that drove the Nikkei up to five-year highs has since dissipated and the index is now around 20 percent down from its recent peak.
The other major driver in markets has been the uncertainty over the future course of U.S. monetary policy following a solid, if unspectacular, improvement in economic data.
The markets now expect some reduction in the Federal Reserve's monthly asset purchases sometime this year. The stimulus has been one of the main reasons why many assets, such as global stock markets and emerging markets, have bounced back over the past few years.
In Europe, Wednesday Britain's FTSE 100 index fell 0.6 percent to close at 6,299.45 while Germany's DAX fell 1 percent to 8,143.27. The CAC-40 in France ended 0.4 percent lower at 3,793.70.
The euro rose to $1.3349 from $1.3331 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar fell to 95.43 yen in Tokyo, from 95.71 yen.
Benchmark crude oil was down 6 cents at $95.81 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 50 cents to close at $95.88 on the Nymex on Wednesday.
___
Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama
Associated Pressextenze tenacious d steve smith zou bisou bisou tim tebow press conference tebow press conference trina
Even within the infrastructure of the American surveillance apparatus, the National Security Agency is notoriously secretive. The spy agency jealously guards from public view practically all aspects of its operations, from the information it collects to its plans for a massive 100,000-square-foot building being constructed in the Utah desert.
But when it comes to the agency's primary tool for making sense of all that data, the NSA hasn't been secretive at all. Indeed, two years ago, it made public the very code for a key program it uses to analyze the firehose of information pouring into its computer servers.
The NSA?s decision to give away that software to developers has helped fuel what is now a booming trend in technology known as "big data." The software, Accumulo, makes it possible for companies to sift through massive amounts of information with essentially the same degree of sophistication and security as the country's top spy agency.
The use of computers to spot connections along a trail of digital breadcrumbs is hardly new. For years, major companies, from Amazon to Facebook to Google, have analyzed customer information to suggest books, friends or search results.
But the NSA?s use of such computing power was not widely understood until last week, when The Guardian and The Washington Post reported the agency was collecting and crunching huge amounts of Internet, phone and financial data in a bid to predict terrorist activity.
The revelation that the NSA was collecting a massive trove of phone and Internet records from Americans highlights privacy concerns around the use of data analysis to draw conclusions from a wide of variety of information.
?There are all sorts of things you can do with this technology,? said Matthew Turck, managing director in FirstMark Capital, a venture capital firm. ?Now it?s up to society to decide what?s acceptable and what?s not acceptable.?
The same cheap data storage and free open-source software used by the NSA now allows companies to conduct the kind of sophisticated data analysis once was only available to Internet giants like IBM and Google.
?Ten years ago, if you wanted to store and process that much data you would have to spend millions of dollars buying really expensive servers,? said Ben Siscovick, general partner at IA Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in big data companies. ?Now, the tools are out there, and they?re accessible in a low-cost way to just about anybody who wants it.?
For advocates of big data -- an industry with an estimated value approaching $100 billion -- the potential for computer software like Accumulo has barely been tapped.
"This is the first technological innovation since the Internet with the potential to change the world," said Christopher Lynch, an investor that has bankrolled 10 Boston-area big data companies.
One of those companies is Sqrrl, which Lynch helped launch two years ago after poaching from the NSA six engineers who developed Accumulo. Sqrrl markets its software to companies in the telecom, health care and financial sectors who need extra security when dealing with sensitive customer data. The software sorts through enormous amounts of information and restricts access to users with high-level security clearances, said Ely Kahn, the company's co-founder.
Its technology is used by major banks to predict whether customers will pay off their credit cards based on information like the demographic characteristics of their neighborhoods. It is also used by a telecom provider to spot damage on its network by searching for keywords like ?broken? in a database of customer service calls, Kahn said.
?It?s similar to the way Amazon or eBay use databases to predict what you might want to buy next,? he said.
But the growing reliance on databases and software to draw conclusions has raised privacy concerns before. Target, for example, sparked controversy last year when an employee told The New York Times how the company could determine whether a woman was pregnant based on her purchasing history and demographic information.
Lenders have started assessing the creditworthiness of borrowers by doing big-data analysis on their social media connections. And some health insurers have started buying massive databases to potentially flag people for being at risk of obesity if they have a history of buying plus-sized clothing, according to The Wall Street Journal.
FirstMark Capital's Turck predicted that the ability for both the NSA and companies to unlock secrets from the data they collect ?is only going to get more powerful and more precise."
?The genie is out of the bottle,? he said.
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/nsa-big-data_n_3423482.html
Hunter Hayes Leslie Van Houten paris jackson paris jackson Tropical Storm Andrea CMT Awards 2013 Samantha Power
Apple demonstrated that it will keep its iron grip on iOS 7, despite Tim Cook saying it's time for Apple to start openng up. Rather than debut new opportunities for developers, Apple squelched them at WWDDC by building its own substitutes for widgets, phone modifications, and whole categories of existing apps.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/IJiG71pI8kM/
biggie smalls lyrics azores emmylou harris disco inferno b.i.g 1000 words ron white
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) ? Thousands of black-robed Turkish lawyers stormed out of their courthouses Wednesday, shouting about the rough treatment police dished out to their colleagues amid Turkey's biggest anti-government protests in years.
The rallies by clapping, chanting jurists added a new twist to the nearly two weeks of protests that started in Istanbul and spread to dozens of other Turkish cities. The protests have shaped up as the biggest test yet in the 10-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted government.
Police and protesters mostly retrenched Wednesday after fierce overnight clashes in Istanbul's Taksim Square ? a hiatus before Erdogan was to host talks with some protesters later in the day.
Protesters say the prime minister is becoming increasingly authoritarian and is trying to force his deep religious views on all Turks, a charge that Erdogan and his allies strongly deny.
In Ankara and Istanbul, thousands of lawyers railed against the alleged rough treatment of dozens of their colleagues, who police briefly detained in Istanbul on the sidelines of Tuesday's unrest.
Sema Aksoy, the deputy head of the Ankara lawyer's association, said the lawyers were handcuffed and pulled over the ground. She called the police action an affront to Turkey's judicial system.
"Lawyers can't be dragged on the ground!" the demonstrating lawyers shouted in rhythm as they marched out of an Istanbul courthouse. Riot police stood off to the side, shields at the ready.
Turkey's Human Rights Foundation said the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's office had launched an investigation into allegations of excessive use of police force during the protests.
The foundation said 620 people, including a one-year-old baby, were injured during the police crackdown early Wednesday. Police detained some 70 people during the incidents. Prior to this, activists reported that 5,000 people had been injured or seriously affected by the tear gas and four people have died from the protests.
The government, meanwhile, pressed ahead with uncertain efforts to defuse the protests.
President Abdullah Gul, seen by many as a more moderate voice than Erdogan, said the government could not tolerate more of the unrest that has disrupted daily life in Istanbul and beyond. He promised, however, that authorities would listen to protesters' grievances.
"I am hopeful that we will surmount this through democratic maturity," Gul told reporters. "If they have objections, we need to hear them, enter into a dialogue. It is our duty to lend them an ear."
It was unclear exactly who would be taking part in the meeting Wednesday afternoon at the offices of Erdogan's Justice and Development party in Ankara ? and whether the meeting will be able to broker an end to the protests.
Activists had doubts about the talks' legitimacy. Only an actor and a singer ? with unclear connections to the protesters ? had agreed to take part, and some leaders of civil society groups, including Greenpeace, had said they would not participate because of an "environment of violence" in Turkey.
The activist group Taksim Solidarity, which includes academics and architects who oppose the redevelopment plan at nearby Gezi Park, said its members hadn't been invited to the meeting with Erdogan and predicted it would yield no results.
"As police violence continues mercilessly ... these meetings will in no way lead to a solution," the group said in a statement.
The group reiterated its demands, saying Gezi should remain a public park, senior officials behind the police excesses should be fired and all detained protesters should be released.
After Tuesday's violence, traffic returned to Taksim Square with taxis, trucks and pedestrians back on the streets. At one point, some police were seen kicking a soccer ball on the square. Riot police stood off to the side, near a new barricade of wrecked cars and construction material that activists erected before dawn to prevent police from firing tear gas into the square's still occupied Gezi Park.
Hundreds of protesters remained camped out in Gezi Park, clearing up after a night of trying to fend off tear gas, followed by an early morning storm that blew down tents and soaked bedding.
On Tuesday, riot police firing water cannons and tear gas clashed all day and night with pockets of protesters throwing stones and setting off fireworks. The pitched battles didn't simmer down until just before dawn.
Erdogan has insisted the protests and occupations, which he says are hurting Turkey's image and economy, must end immediately and are being organized by extremists and terrorists.
The protests are drawing expressions of concern from abroad.
Germany's government was "following the news from Turkey with great preoccupation, especially the images of yesterday's police action," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday. "Now de-escalation is needed. Only an open dialogue can contribute to easing the situation."
The protests erupted May 31 after a violent police crackdown on a peaceful sit-in by activists objecting to a development project replacing Gezi Park with a replica Ottoman-era barracks. They then spread to 78 cities across the country and have attracted tens of thousands of people each night.
____
Elena Becatoros in Istanbul, Juergen Baetz in Berlin, and Ezgi Akin in Ankara contributed.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawyers-rail-police-response-turkey-protests-131326531.html
Amanda Berry Farrah Abraham Sex Tape Met gala lauryn hill teacher appreciation week Jodi Arias trial cinco de mayo
June 10, 2013 ? Perennial plants flower only when they have reached a certain age and been subjected to the cold. These two circumstances prevent the plant from starting to flower during winter. George Coupland and his fellow scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne have now discovered that the Alpine rock cress determines its age based on the quantity of a short ribonucleic acid.
Perennial plants carefully balance periods of growth and flowering to ensure that they can live for many years. They do not flower when they are still too young and small or produce flowers on all their side shoots. Also, they do not flower out of season and they continue to grow after flowering. In temperate regions they do not produce flowers during winter but only after exposure to a long cold period. This dependency on a cold stimulus is called vernalisation. George Coupland, Sara Bergonzi, Maria Albani and other scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research have now identified the molecular signals used by the perennial Alpine rock cress (Arabis alpina) to register its ageand to realise that it has been exposed to vernalisation. Only when the right age has been reached and the chill has had its effect can flowers begin to form.
The Alpine rock cress measures its age based on the concentration of a short ribonucleic acid known as miR156. A purely regulatory nucleic acid, miR156 works like an hourglass. Just as the sand trickles through an hourglass and indicates the amount of time elapsed, so the concentration of ribonucleic acid in the Alpine rock cress decreases from week to week enabling the plant to measure its age. When the ribonucleic acid reaches its lowest level, the plant is old enough for flowers to form when it is also exposed to vernalisation.
"Under normal conditions, this point is reached five to six weeks after germination," says George Coupland. "We can alter the time of flowering and the effect of vernalisation simply by manipulating the miR156 concentration." If the Alpine rock cress produces a particularly large amount of miR156 as a result of a genetic trick, it does not flower at the usual time. The surplus of miR156 caused by this over production acts as a brake on a group of proteins which induce flower formation. If the genetic trick makes the plant produce less miR156 than usual, flower formation happens sooner: the Alpine rock cress is sensitive to vernalisation a mere three weeks after germination. Consequently, the ribonucleic acid is the most important timing mechanism for flower formation in the Alpine rock cress. Only when it has reached its lowest point can vernalisation take effect and cause flowers to form.
In the closely related model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, an annual, the effect of the ribonucleic acid is less pronounced. If the weather conditions are very good, it also flowers in the presence of a fairly large quantity of miR156. Only when the weather is poor for an extended period does it rely on its age and put flower formation off until the ribonucleic acid concentration has reached its lowest level. "This ensures that Arabidopsis even flowers in a grey and cold summer," explains Coupland. As an annual, the plant is compelled to accelerate its life cycle and to achieve flowering age as quickly as possible and thereby form seeds. The concentration of miR156 is simply overridden in favourable weather conditions. Perennial plants, by contrast, are governed strictly by age and vernalisation.
The reason why not all side shoots of the Alpine rock cress flower at once is also explained by miR156. These shoots form one after the other and are therefore not all the same age as the main shoot which flowers first. The miR156 concentration needs to decline in each side shoot individually for it to be sensitive to vernalisation and form a flower. These different ages within the plant are what make some shoot axes flower each year and others only flower the following season, after the winter.
So how does the Alpine rock cress respond to vernalisation?
This was another issue Coupland and his fellow scientists studied. They were able to demonstrate that this occurs independently of miR156. The effect of the cold stimulus causes another protein which acts as a brake on flower formation to disappear during winter. This protein has the somewhat cryptic name PEP1. It blocks an important flowering gene. The gene can only be read when PEP1 has disappeared in the winter chill.
And what is the practical benefit of this research?
"It enables us to manipulate the concentration of miR156 to make plants flower when they are younger. This could make them quicker to breed," says Coupland. "For instance when cultivating new varieties of cabbage, such as cauliflower, white cabbage or curly kale. All of these members of the cabbage family also go through a long phase of juvenility and this can greatly delay experiments needed to breed new varieties."
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/jHpbU6HkIJg/130610133045.htm
shell houston open mega millions winners anthony davis toure patti smith lottery winners lottery winners
Spain's Rafael Nadal bites the trophy after winning against compatriot David Ferrer in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Spain's Rafael Nadal bites the trophy after winning against compatriot David Ferrer in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates winning against compatriot David Ferrer in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Spain's Rafael Nadal clenches his fist after scoring against compatriot David Ferrer in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. Nadal won the tournament in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Spain's Rafael Nadal, left, holds his head after defeating compatriot David Ferrer, right, in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)
Spain's Rafael Nadal greets compatriot David Ferrer after defeating Ferrer in three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, in the final of the French Open tennis tournament, at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)
PARIS (AP) ? If Rafael Nadal truly was going to be challenged, if his bid for an unprecedented eighth French Open championship would be slowed even a bit, this might have been the moment.
Leading by a set and a break 70 minutes into Sunday's final against David Ferrer, another generally indefatigable Spaniard, Nadal faced four break points in one game. The last was a 31-stroke exchange, the match's longest, capped when Nadal absorbed Ferrer's strong backhand approach and transformed it into a cross-court backhand passing shot.
Ferrer glared at the ball as it flew past and landed in a corner, then smiled ruefully. What else was there to do? Dealing with Nadal's defense-to-offense on red clay is a thankless task. His rain-soaked 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Ferrer was Nadal's record 59th win in 60 matches at the French Open and made him the only man with eight titles at any Grand Slam tournament.
"I never like to compare years, but it's true that this year means something very special for me," Nadal said, alluding to the way he managed to come back from a left knee injury that sidelined him for about seven months.
"When you have a period of time like I had," he added, "you realize that you don't know if you will have the chance to be back here with this trophy another time."
But he does it, year after year.
He won four French Opens in a row from 2005-08, and another four in a row from 2010-13.
"Rafael was better than me," said Ferrer, who had won all 18 sets he'd played the past two weeks to reach his first Grand Slam final at age 31. "He didn't make mistakes."
A week past his 27th birthday, Nadal now owns 12 major trophies in all ? including two from Wimbledon, one each from the U.S. Open and Australian Open ? to eclipse Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver and equal Roy Emerson for the third-most in history. Nadal trails only Roger Federer's 17 and Pete Sampras' 14.
"Winning 17 Grand Slam titles, that's miles away," Nadal said. "I'm not even thinking about it."
This was Nadal's first major tournament after a surprising second-round loss at Wimbledon last June. Since rejoining the tour in February, he is 43-2 with seven titles and two runner-up finishes. He's won his past 22 matches.
"For me, it's incredible," said Toni Nadal, Rafael's uncle and coach. "When I think of all that Rafael has done, I don't understand it."
No one, perhaps not even Ferrer himself, expected Nadal to lose Sunday.
That's because of Nadal's skill on clay, in general, and at Roland Garros, in particular, but also because of how Ferrer had fared against his friend and countryman ? and video-game competitor ? in the past.
Ferrer entered Sunday 4-19 against Nadal. On clay, Nadal had 16 consecutive victories over Ferrer, whose only head-to-head win on the surface came the first time they played, in July 2004, when Nadal was 18.
Nadal had yet to make his French Open debut then, missing it that year because of a broken left foot. On May 23, 2005, Nadal played his first match at Roland Garros, beating Lars Burgsmuller 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-1 on Court 1, known as the "bullring" because of its oval shape.
And so began the reign.
Nadal won a record 31 consecutive matches at the French Open until the fourth round in 2009, when Robin Soderling beat him. In 2010, Nadal started a new streak, which currently stands at 28.
There was occasional shakiness this year. Nadal lost the first set of each of his first two matches and was pushed to a tiebreaker to begin his third.
He barely edged No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic in a thrilling semifinal that lasted more than 4? hours and ended 9-7 in the fifth set Friday.
By any measure, that match was far more enjoyable to take in than the final, akin to dining on a filet mignon accompanied by a well-aged bottle of Bordeaux one day, then grabbing a hot dog and can of soda from a street vendor 48 hours later.
Under a leaden sky that eventually would release a steady shower from the second set on, Ferrer felt nerves at the outset, he acknowledged later. But after the players traded early breaks, Ferrer held for a 3-2 lead.
That's when Nadal took over, winning seven games in a row and 12 of 14. His court coverage was impeccable, as usual, showing no signs of any problems from that left knee, which was supported by a band of white tape. His lefty forehand whips were on-target, accounting for 19 of his 35 winners and repeatedly forcing errors from Ferrer.
When Nadal did have lapses, he admonished himself, once slapping his forehead with his right palm after pushing a lob wide. But what's demoralizing for opponents is the way Nadal slams the door when they have openings, then rushes through when he gets the slightest chance.
He was at his relentless best on key points, including those four break chances for Ferrer at 3-1 in the second set. Immediately after, Nadal broke to 5-1 on a forehand winner down the line.
As Nadal prepared to serve in the next game, a man wearing a white mask and carrying a fiery flare jumped out of the stands nearby. The intruder quickly was shoved to the ground by one security guard, while another went to protect Nadal.
"I felt a little bit scared at the first moment," Nadal said, "because I didn't see what's going on."
It happened within a few minutes of other actions by protesters, including chanting from the upper deck that briefly delayed play. Police said seven people were held for questioning.
Nadal got broken in that game, then broke back right away to take the second set.
The third set was similar to the first. It was 3-all, then suddenly over. Nadal took the last three games, ending the match with a forehand winner before dropping his racket and falling on his back, leaving a rust-colored smudge on his white shirt and flecks of clay on his stubbled cheeks. Soon he was standing, holding his index finger aloft.
Yes, Nadal is No. 1 at the French Open. When the ATP rankings are issued Monday, however, he will be No. 5, because of points he dropped while hurt.
Ferrer will be at No. 4.
"Yeah, it's strange, no? I lost the final against Rafael, but tomorrow I am going to be No. 4 and him No. 5," Ferrer said with a grin, then delivered his punch line: "I prefer to win here and to stay No. 5."
Sorry, David. This is Nadal's tournament.
Now the question becomes: Is eight enough?
___
Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
Associated Pressmohamed sanu chris polk rueben randle mike trout ryan broyles st louis blues bulls
June 10, 2013 ? An interesting new report of animal research published in Biological Psychiatry suggests that common antidepressant medications may impair a form of learning that is important clinically.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, commonly called SSRIs, are a class of antidepressant widely used to treat depression, as well as a range of anxiety disorders, but the effects of these drugs on learning and memory are poorly understood.
In a previous study, Nesha Burghardt, then a graduate student at New York University, and her colleagues demonstrated that long-term SSRI treatment impairs fear conditioning in rats. As a follow-up, they have now tested the effects of antidepressant treatment on extinction learning in rats using auditory fear conditioning, a model of fear learning that involves the amygdala. The amygdala is a region of the brain vitally important for processing memory and emotion.
They found that long-term, but not short-term, SSRI treatment impairs extinction learning, which is the ability to learn that a conditioned stimulus no longer predicts an aversive event.
"This impairment may have important consequences clinically, since extinction-based exposure therapy is often used to treat anxiety disorders and antidepressants are often administered simultaneously," said Dr. Burghardt. "Based on our work, medication-induced impairments in extinction learning may actually disrupt the beneficial effects of exposure-therapy."
This finding is consistent with the results of several clinical studies showing that combined treatment can impede the benefits of exposure therapy or even natural resilience to the impact of traumatic stress at long-term follow-up.
The authors also suggest a mechanism for this effect on fear learning. They reported that the antidepressants decreased the levels of one of the subunits of the NMDA receptor (NR2B) in the amygdala. The NMDA receptor is critically involved in fear-related learning, so these reductions are believed to contribute to the observed effects.
Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, commented, "We know that antidepressants play important roles in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders. However, it is important to understand the limitations of these medications so that we can improve the effectiveness of the treatment for these disorders."
heart attack grill KTLA Ash Wednesday 2013 ted nugent Pope Resigns westminster dog show Christopher Dorner Manifesto
WASHINGTON (AP) ? When the federal government went looking for phone numbers tied to terrorists, it grabbed the records of just about everyone in America.
Why every phone number?
"Well, you have to start someplace," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told NBC News on Monday.
That breadth, that willingness to sweep up enormous information on Americans with no ties to terrorists, is making it hard for the Obama administration to tamp down controversy over a separate program, called PRISM, to monitor Internet traffic.
In short, critics ask, if looking for terrorists means collecting every American's phone records, how can anyone believe the president when he says Americans aren't being monitored on the Internet?
"These things are very narrowly circumscribed," Obama said. "They're very focused."
The Internet program came to light last week in documents published by The Washington Post and Guardian newspapers. It allows the NSA to reach into the data streams of U.S. companies ? Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and others ? and grab emails, video chats, pictures and more.
Just how much the government seizes is unclear. Clapper says it is narrowly focused on foreign targets, and technology companies say they turn over only information that's required by court order.
But after reading a leaked court document last week that allowed NSA to sweep up millions of American phone records, Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said, "The question is how broad the orders are they're giving these companies."
PRISM was born late in George W. Bush's administration, but its bloodline can be traced to the frenzied aftermath of 9/11.
It used to be that, when the federal government wanted to read a foreigner's Yahoo or Microsoft emails, it needed a judge's approval. After the attacks, Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to get to skip that oversight and read U.S.-based email accounts in real time.
When the New York Times revealed the existence of that program, the Bush administration appealed to Congress, saying court approval was too arduous. There were too many emails to monitor. Getting warrants for each one took too long.
"In certain cases, this process of obtaining a court order slows, and in some cases may prevent, the government's efforts to conduct surveillance of communications that are potentially vital to the national security," Kenneth Wainstein, then the Justice Department's top national security prosecutor, testified in 2007.
Sometimes, the government would sweep up Americans' emails, but not intentionally.
"As a matter of due course, if you're targeting something foreign, you could inadvertently intercept an American," said Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence at the time.
Congress agreed. No more warrants.
With that, PRISM was born.
Now, the government needs only explain to Congress and a secret court exactly how it intends to collect information like emails, Skype video conferences and Facebook messages. Once the court approves the collection rules, the government can grab anything it wants.
Judging from the documents released by the Post and Guardian, PRISM takes a lot of data and quickly. An NSA document said PRISM was the eavesdropping program "used most" by the agency.
The law says the government must limit its surveillance to people "reasonably believed to be located outside the United States."
But everything hinges words such as "targeting" and "collecting," which have unique meanings in the spy world.
As the classified court order released last week shows, officials can grab phone logs from everybody and still say they haven't targeted or collected information on a single American. Only when an analyst reaches into the archives and looks at the information has something been collected.
Clapper uses a library analogy: The government can fill its shelves with books containing the phone numbers of Americans, who they're talking to, how long they talk and where they call from. That doesn't count as collection.
"To me, collection of U.S. person's data would mean taking the books off the shelf, opening it up and reading it," he said.
To which Timm replied: "Clapper has a different definition of 'collect' than most human beings."
At this point, the government has offered little assurance that PRISM isn't doing for Internet traffic what Clapper says the government does for phones: seizing vast amounts of data, including some belonging to Americans, and then selecting foreigners for specific scrutiny.
When Obama told Americans that PRISM was thoroughly reviewed by a secret court, that was little comfort to Timm.
"This is the same court that would approve the vacuuming up of all the call logs of American citizens," he said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/whats-problem-prism-203441280.html
prince johan friso windows 8 logo anguilla gone with the wind checkers imbibe msg network
