Researchers discover how model organism Tetrahymena plays roulette with seven sexes

Mar. 26, 2013 ? It's been more than fifty years since scientists discovered that the single-celled organism Tetrahymena thermophila has seven sexes. But in all that time, they've never known how each cell's sex, or "mating type," is determined; now they do. The new findings are published 26 March in the open access journal PLOS Biology.

By identifying Tetrahymena's long-unknown mating-type genes, a team of UC Santa Barbara biologists, with research colleagues in the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and in the J. Craig Venter Institute, also uncovered the unusual process of DNA rearrangements needed for sex determination in this organism. The discovery has potential human health implications ranging from tissue transplantation to cancer, including allorecognition?the ability of an organism to distinguish its own tissues from those of another?which can be a first line of defense against infection and illness.

In the study, the scientists show that in this multi-sexed, single-celled organism, the sex of the progeny is randomly determined by a series of "cut and paste" genomic recombination events that assemble one complete gene pair and delete all others.

"We found a pair of genes that have a specific sequence which is different for each mating type," said Eduardo Orias, a research professor emeritus and part of the UCSB team. "They are very similar genes?clearly related to one another, going back probably to a common ancestor?but they have become different. And each is different in a specific way that determines the mating type of the cell."

Each unicellular Tetrahymena boasts two nuclei: the 'germline nucleus' and the 'somatic nucleus'. Genetic information for progeny cells is stored in the former, analogous to ovaries or testes in humans, while genes are actively transcribed in the latter, the "working copy" nucleus. The sex of the progeny is determined during mating, when fertilization results in new germline and somatic nuclei that are made using contributions from the germline nucleus of each parent.

The authors found that the germline nucleus contains a tandem array of similarly organized but incomplete gene pairs?one for each mating type (although Tetrahymena have seven sexes, the particular cell line used in this study has just six). In the new somatic nucleus, a single complete gene pair is assembled when DNA segments from each end of this array are fused to one of the six incomplete pairs, and the remaining five are deleted. This precise but random rearrangement leaves the new cell with exactly one gene pair?and one mating type.

"The mating type of the 'parents' has no influence whatsoever on the sex of the progeny," Orias said. "It's completely random, as if they had roulette wheel with six numbers and wherever the marble ends up is what they get. By chance they may have same mating type as the parents?but it's only by chance. It's a fascinating system."

"By understanding this process better in Tetrahymena, what we learn ultimately may be of use in medicine," Orias said. "Tetrahymena has about as many genes as the human genome. For thousands of those genes you can recognize the sequence similarity to corresponding genes in the human genome with the same biological function. That's what makes it a valuable organism to investigate important biological questions."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Marcella D. Cervantes, Eileen P. Hamilton, Jie Xiong, Michael J. Lawson, Dongxia Yuan, Michalis Hadjithomas, Wei Miao, Eduardo Orias. Selecting One of Several Mating Types through Gene Segment Joining and Deletion in Tetrahymena thermophila. PLoS Biology, 2013; 11 (3): e1001518 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001518

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/zD4vlCQXda8/130326194102.htm

UT Austin Lizzie Velasquez NFL Network att libya engadget twin towers

'Spamhaus mafia tactics ? main threat to Internet freedom ... - RT

Published time: March 27, 2013 22:27
Edited time: March 28, 2013 04:34

Spamhaus is a major censorship organization only pretending to fight spam, a CyberBunker spokesman said in an RT exclusive. Sven Olaf Kamphuis claimed that as a constant bully of Internet service providers Spamhaus has only itself to blame for the attack.

In a Skype interview with RT, Kamphuis denied that CyberBunker was the organization behind the historical attack, pointing the finger at a large collective of internet providers around the globe called Stophaus.com.

Spamhaus has blackmailed a number of internet service providers and carriers into disconnecting clients without court orders or any legal process, Kamphuis says. Basically, he accuses them of claiming people are spammers when they are not.

?They do it on a regular basis,? Kamphuis said. ?If people do not comply with their demands they just list the entire internet provider.?

Kamphuis claims they use ?mafia tactics? and have a list of internet users that they do not like, which features a lot of users from China and Russia because they allegedly believe that a lot of spammers and criminals in these two countries use the internet to facilitate crime.

Spamhaus first reported massive DDoS attacks on March 20. At one point Spamhaus servers were flooded with 300 billion bits per second (300Gbps) of data, making it the largest registered attack of this kind in the history of the internet, according to Kaspersky anti-virus giant?s experts.

?The data flow generated by such an attack may affect intermediate network nodes when it passes them, thus impeding operations of normal web services that have no relation to Spamhaus or CyberBunker,? corporate communications manager at Kaspersky, Yuliya Krivosheina, wrote in a statement for RT. ?Therefore, such DDoS attack may affect regular users as well, with network slowdown or total unavailability of certain web resources being typical symptoms.?

Kamphuis however claimed that the allegations of web access slowing down world-wide as a result of the attack could be a part of a PR stunt effort by a web performance and security company CloudFlare that helped Spamhaus to tackle the problem.

?That was basically just CloudFlare putting itself in the middle,? he explained. ?CloudFlare took on a customer that was under attack in an attempt to make good PR for itself, and it kind of backfired.?

?Spamhaus mafia tactics are definitely the largest threat to the freedom of the internet at the moment,? Spamhaus told RT. And it is not about money, but about control, he says. Spamhaus just wants to own the platforms on which communications take place.

Earlier, speaking with RT's news video agency RUPTLY, Kamphuis said that CyberBunker was just one of the many groups who took part in the attack, most of them being various internet service providers outraged by Spamhaus? constant bullying and blackmailing.

RUPTLY: Why did you carry out the attacks?

Sven Olaf Kamphuis: Some members of Stophouse.com are carrying out the attacks. There has been some mis-information from the New York Times that it?s me carrying out the attacks. Spamhaus have pissed off a whole lot of people over the past few years by blackmailing ISPs and carriers into disconnecting clients without court orders or legal process whatsoever, just because Spamhaus says so.

And Spamhaus claims they are spammers without any evidence whatsoever. And Spamhaus does it all the time, they blackmail domain registers, they blackmail internet providers and they blackmail internet providers of the internet providers so that they can just point at a website and say take it down.

This is obviously not how freedom of speech and the right to freedom of information and the normal legal process is supposed to work. Spamhaus has become a major influence in internet censorship and basically what we?re seeing here is the internet organizing and puking them out.

At this moment we are not even conducting any attacks because our people from our group stopped any attack yesterday morning so if they are still under attack which I think they are because I get news feeds that they are still under attack then it?s now other people attacking them.

Basically what happened is that people started to add other people that have had problems with Spamhaus to a Skypechat ? a lot of them in China and Russia ? because Spamhaus doesn?t like Chinese and Russian people for some reason and thinks that they should not have internet, I don?t know.

Most of the listings call everyone Russian spammers and criminals without any evidence. As far as we?re concerned the Chinese and Russians have a right to internet as well.

Spamhaus itself was a great help in this effort because they have got an illegal list that they maintain without permission from the Information Commissioners Office and in contradiction to the data protection act of all personal details and pictures and names and addresses of people that Spamhaus do not like.

Basically there was a little meeting on Skype and well, some people in Russia decided to solve the problem somewhat more directly by wiping Spamhaus off the internet.

RUPTLY: Have you got a political manifesto underpinning your actions?

SOK: Basically if Spamhaus wants to continue to exist then Spamhaus should just refrain from listing IP addresses that actually XXX [the entire subnets] in spam. And with that for the people that choose to use Spamhaus the problem should be resolved because their mail servers will no longer accept any spam. But they cannot list entire internet providers or supplies or countries just because Spamhaus doesn?t like whatever they?re doing.

Now if Spamhaus claims that people will be criminals or if Spamhaus claims that people will be spammers and those people are from countries where there are actually laws against spam then Spamhaus if free to report those people to the police, after all spamming is illegal.

Spamhaus on the other hand claims at every opportunity to work with law enforcement, which is quite funny as I?ve never seen a police report filed by Spamhaus about anything.

RUPTLY: What does Spamhaus need to do for the attacks to be called off?

SOK: The attacks have already stopped because CloudFlare worked themselves into the middle of an attack and tried to turn it into a PR stunt for themselves which kind of like backfired because CloudFlare couldn?t handle the attack.

CloudFlare highly underestimated the attack or highly overestimated their capacity and basically their PR stunt worked against them and they caused their other customers collateral damage, they did that themselves.

RUPTLY: Have you had any contact with WikiLeaks or Julian Assange?

SOK: We did have contact with some Wikileaks people back in the days when there were some issues but it didn?t get any further than them running a Wikileaks mirror in the end. The original plan was to put it all in one of our facilities.

RUPTLY: Which person or organization angers you the most?

SOK: The Spamhaus mafia tactics definitely are the largest threat to the freedom of the internet at this moment, yes so they piss me off the most.

Probably the copyright people, that?s a good second. The IRAA and the MPAA and all their wannabe attorneys are a good second but at least they go to court even though they may try to corrupt the court, at least they go to court which is something that cannot be said for Spamhaus.

RUPTLY: What is your issue with the copyright organizations?

SOK: Well, the copyright people constantly try to shut down any communications platform outside of their control. It?s not about money. They never tried to sell a license.? We have tried to contact Sony intellectual property, directly. We have spoken to presidents doing video streaming so they could do it all in high definition.

They basically don?t want the money. They want to own the platforms, any of the platforms on which communication takes place. And that is obviously not going to happen. Just like with Spamhaus, it?s about control.

RUPTLY: What is the issue you have with Spamhaus in particular?

SOK: Well, I think the cyber-attacks do put things under public discussion and that in the case of Spamhaus was urgently needed, because they have been operating in the background, claiming to be spam fighters and a little non-profit organisation and at the moment it is becoming all the more clear what they really are. People that work at internet providers have always known this. Not people like Peter Gilmore from Akamie who claims that we are the danger to internet, because Akamie never truly have such problems.

People, who work at abuse desks or as providers, know that if you don?t give Spamhaus their way, they will list your entire provider and at that point all of your customers will start to complain that 1/3 of the internet no longer accepts [their] emails to start with. If they put you on drop, a whole bunch of American providers will no longer accept your backups, so you can no longer communicate with half of the sites hosted in the United States.

It is a massive problem when one little offshore company from the Bahamas gains such an influence on the internet that they can have such an impact.

RUPTLY: Do you think you will be caught by law-enforcement officials?

SOK: Well, if there is a problem I do know how to run to an embassy really fast. But let?s just say I would prefer not to end up in that situation.

RUPTLY: What?s your view on Pirate Bay?

SOK: The Pirate Bay is a platform on which people post torrent files which may or may not refer to files people can download, and as such is fully legal. They have the same carrier immunity we have. Anyone who wants to attack the Pirate Bay is basically wrong.

Now, this whole corporate thing being not about the money, but about control. I?d say maybe this gang of Swedes should take some steps and the case gets dropped and Sweden makes the point that they are Sweden and not a puppet state of United States or the RIAA.

RUPTLY: Are you afraid of being caught?

SOK: No, I have been arrested before. It?s not such a big deal. But that won?t happen. There is a whole list of embassies to run to, like Julian Assange, so I don?t think I will be arrested. Plus, I am not doing the attacks and neither are my companies.

Source: http://rt.com/news/spamhaus-threat-cyberbunker-ddos-attack-956/

Paul Harvey ihop Sasquatch 2013 super bowl commercials wheres my refund Fast And Furious 6 superbowl ads

You are what you eat | Atlanta Food & Drink Blog | Omnivore ...

Source: http://clatl.com/omnivore/archives/2013/03/26/you-are-what-you-eat

louis oosthuizen phil mickelson 10 year old gives birth c. difficile carmelo anthony nurse jackie nurse jackie

New urgency in battle against 'bound legs' disease

Mar. 25, 2013 ? The harm done by konzo -- a disease overshadowed by the war and drought it tends to accompany -- goes beyond its devastating physical effects to impair children's memory, problem solving and other cognitive functions.

Even children without physical symptoms of konzo appear to lose cognitive ability when exposed to the toxin that causes the disease, researchers report in the journal Pediatrics.

"That's what's especially alarming," said lead author Michael Boivin, a Michigan State University associate professor of psychiatry and of neurology and ophthalmology. "We found subtle effects that haven't been picked up before. These kids aren't out of the woods, even if they don't have the disease."

Konzo means "bound legs" in the African Yaka language, a reference to how its victims walk with feet bent inward after the disease strips away motor control in their lower limbs. Its onset is rapid, and the damage is permanent.

People contract konzo by consuming poorly processed bitter cassava, a drought-resistant staple food in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Typically, the plant's tuber is soaked for a few days, then dried in the sun and ground into flour -- a process that degrades naturally occurring cyanide.

"As long as they do that, the food's pretty safe," said Boivin, who began studying konzo in 1990 as a Fulbright researcher in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "But in times of war, famine, displacement and hardship, people take shortcuts. If they're subsisting on poorly processed cassava and they don't have other sources of protein, it can cause permanent damage to the nervous system.

"Konzo doesn't make many headlines because it usually follows other geopolitical aspects of human suffering," he added. "Still, there are potentially tens of millions of kids at risk throughout central and western Africa. The public health scope is huge."

To find out if the disease affects cognitive function, Boivin and colleagues from Oregon Health and Science University turned to the war-torn Congo. They randomly selected 123 children with konzo and 87 neighboring children who showed no signs of the disease but whose blood and urine samples indicated elevated levels of the toxin.

Using cognitive tests, the researchers found that children with konzo had a much harder time using working memory to solve problems and organize visual and spatial information.

They also found that konzo and non-konzo children from the outbreak area showed poor working memory and impaired fine-motor skills when compared to a reference group of children from a part of the region unaffected by the disease.

Konzo's subtler impacts might seem minor compared to its striking physical symptoms, but Boivin noted that the cognitive damage is similar to that caused by chronic low-grade exposures to other toxic substances such as lead.

Scientists eventually may be able to prevent such damage by creating nontoxic cassava varieties and introducing other resilient crops to affected regions, Boivin said. Meanwhile, public health education programs are under way to help stop outbreaks.

"For now," he said, "if we could just avoid the worst of it -- the full-blown konzo disease that has such devastating effects for children and families -- that's a good start."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Michigan State University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Michael J. Boivin, Daniel Okitundu, Guy Makila-Mabe Bumoko, Marie-Therese Sombo, Dieudonne Mumba, Thorkild Tylleskar, Connie F. Page, Jean-Jacques Tamfum Muyembe, and Desire Tshala-Katumbay. Neuropsychological Effects of Konzo: A Neuromotor Disease Associated With Poorly Processed Cassava. Pediatrics, March 25, 2013 DOI: 10.1542/peds.2012-3011

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/EtYMhGXG9Rg/130325094026.htm

walking dead The Pope bruno mars the Grammys 2013 State of the Union 2013 katy perry Rihanna

Academic Services Manager at China Europe International Business

Location: Greater Accra Region
Description:

Job Title: Academic Services Manager

Job Location: Accra, Greater Accra Region

.

Responsibilities

Responsible for:

• Organization & delivery of all CEIBS Africa programmes through:
• Course coordination & administration
• Coordinating travel and protocol arrangements for Professors and International Students
• Coordinating Graduation arrangement & other CEIBS events
• Developing a virtual learning environment for all programmes
• Communicating with students and programme participants
• Supporting accreditation procedures
• Other relevant roles

Qualification and Requirements

Academic Qualifications

• A good first degree, plus additional relevant professional qualifications from world-class tertiary institution

Effectiveness Skills

• Excellent communication skills, both orally and in writing
• Proven leadership and management ability
• Strong IT proficiency
• Other relevant skills and ability, including language diversity

Experience & Ability

• At least 8 years professional experience, five of which must have been played in a similar role. A minimum of five (5) years is required for the Academic Service Manager role
• Proven experience in developing, marketing or managing executive education programmes in a superior academic context
• Exposure and ability to utilize Africa-wide links and networks for fulfilling the respective roles
• Ability to build and maintain effective partnership with strategic individuals and organisations
• Ability to related to individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds

If you are qualified for this position, Send your CV to 1526@jbgh.me or click http://www.jobberman.com.gh/job/6413/academic-services-manager-at-china-europe-international-business-school-ceibs/ to apply

Source: http://www.ghanamma.com/2013/03/academic-services-manager-at-china-europe-international-business-school-ceibs/

passover recipes 2012 kids choice awards kansas ohio state wrestlemania results womens final four josh hutcherson google april fools

Louisville runs over Colorado State 82-56 at NCAAs

Louisville forward Chane Behanan, center, grabs a loose ball in front of Colorado State forward Pierce Hornung (4) in the first half of a third-round NCAA college basketball tournament game on Saturday, March 23, 2013, in Lexington, Ky. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Louisville forward Chane Behanan, center, grabs a loose ball in front of Colorado State forward Pierce Hornung (4) in the first half of a third-round NCAA college basketball tournament game on Saturday, March 23, 2013, in Lexington, Ky. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Colorado State forward Greg Smith, front right, loses control of the ball as he drives past Louisville forward Stephan Van Treese, front left, during a third-round NCAA college basketball tournament game on Saturday, March 23, 2013, in Lexington, Ky. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Louisville guard Peyton Siva (3) shoots as Colorado State's Wes Eikmeier defends in the first half of a third-round NCAA college basketball tournament game on Saturday, March 23, 2013, in Lexington, Ky. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Louisville forward Montrezl Harrell (24) reacts after a basket in the first half of a third-round NCAA college basketball tournament game against Colorado State, Saturday, March 23, 2013, in Lexington, Ky. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) ? Watching film of Louisville demolishing Colorado State is going to be scary enough for anyone who has to face the Cardinals over the next two weeks.

Hearing what coach Rick Pitino said afterward is going to be downright terrifying.

"We can play much better," Pitino said. "This is the best we have played so far at both ends of the floor. ... But we can definitely get better and improve."

It's tough to see how.

Russ Smith scored 27 on 7-of-15 shooting, three other Cardinals reached double figures and top-seeded Louisville put on a defensive clinic in dismantling Colorado State 82-56 on Saturday.

Louisville forced the eighth-seeded Rams into a season-high 20 turnovers and outrebounded Colorado State 29-24 ? no small thing considering the Rams came in with a nation-best plus-12 margin. Colton Iverson and Pierce Hornung, the country's best rebounding tandem, managed just eight. Greg Smith led the Rams (26-9) with 14 points while Dorian Green, who'd scored 26 against Missouri, was held to just six on 2-of-13 shooting.

"I don't want to put the pressure on Rick and his guys, but they're special," Colorado State coach Larry Eustachy said. "They need a little luck like everybody does to win it all, but that's as impressive team as I've been against, certainly."

Louisville (31-5) will play 12th-seeded Oregon on Friday in Indianapolis. The Cardinals have won 12 straight since a five-overtime loss to Notre Dame.

"Our preparation coming into every game has to be sky-high," Kevin Ware said. "Coach P doesn't allow any letdowns."

Playing Louisville and its relentless press is about as much fun as facing a really angry octopus. The Cardinals look as if they have eight players on the floor, what with all the arms waving and bodies smothering whoever has the bad luck to have the ball, and when one guy sits down, there's one just as physical right there to take his place.

Few teams have had much success against Louisville ? there's a reason the Cardinals are the overall No. 1 seed ? but Colorado State seemed as if it might have a shot. The Rams run a motion offense that's tough to defend, grab rebounds by the dozens, and are a savvy, veteran team that doesn't turn the ball over. In fact, when Pitino made out his "dangerous" list before the tournament began, Colorado State was on it.

"We were sick about this game," Pitino said. "We really were."

So much for that.

Colorado State actually shot the ball well ? 47.5 percent. The Cardinals just wouldn't let them do it very often, limiting the Rams to 18 shots in the first half and 40 total.

They hounded Colorado State when it was inbounding the ball; the Rams had back-to-back possessions in the first half when they couldn't even get the ball in play. They circled Colorado State when the Rams brought it up, with more than one turnover coming on a desperation heave across midcourt to beat the whistle. And, of course, they clogged up every inch of the court where the Rams might have a view of their basket, repeatedly slapping the ball away or stepping in front of passes.

The Rams reached their season average in turnovers (11) by halftime, and topped their previous worst for the season (16) with 15:33 still to play.

"We've seen them against North Carolina A&T and some other teams and kind of get prepared for it. But you see the bodies out there flying around and doing what they do, it's a lot different," Greg Smith said. "It's just total chaos. Some of those guys are just so fast, and you may think that you have an open lane or you think the pass is coming and they close it down so quick."

Meanwhile, the Cardinals were scoring at will.

Two days after matching the NCAA tournament record with eight steals, Smith's well-rounded scoring line had Louisville fans chanting "Russ Arena" ? sure to go over well with the Kentucky fans. Even LeBron James took note, saying on Twitter: "The lil homie Russ Smith putting on a show right now! (hasthtag)onfire"

After Daniel Berajano's 3 pulled Colorado State within 21-19 with 9:12 left in the first half, Russ Smith went off. His 3-pointer sparked a 22-7 run that effectively put the game out of reach. Though five Cardinals scored during the spurt, Russ Smith did most of the damage with 13 points in about six minutes.

He finished the day 4-of-7 from long range, and missed only one of his 10 free throws. He also had three rebounds, two assists and two steals.

"Just give him the ball. It's as simple as that," Peyton Siva said of his backcourt mate's hot streak. "He's a scoring machine. He makes my job a lot easier. I just have to feed him the ball, get my assists up and get back on defense."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-23-BKC-NCAA-Colorado-St-Louisville/id-295bba48526e464badf1bf78f393137e

lifelock camp david hawaii weather the jerk lake havasu halo 4 jewel

Genetic analysis saves major apple-producing region of Washington state

Mar. 22, 2013 ? In August 2011, researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture were presented with a serious, and potentially very costly, puzzle in Kennewick, Wash. Since Kennewick lies within a region near the heart of Washington state's $1.5 billion apple-growing region, an annual survey of fruit trees is performed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) to look for any invading insects. This time the surveyors discovered a crabapple tree that had been infested by a fruit fly that they couldn't identify.

It was possible that the fly's larvae, eating away inside the crabapples as they grew toward adulthood, belonged to a relatively harmless species that had simply expanded its traditional diet. In that case, they posed little threat to the surrounding apple orchards in central Washington.

But the real fear was that they represented an expansion in the range of the invasive apple maggot fly, known to biologists as Rhagoletis pomonella. If so, then this would trigger a costly quarantine process affecting three counties in the state.

"In one of the world's leading apple-growing regions, a great deal of produce and economic livelihood rested on quickly and accurately figuring out which one of the flies was in that tree," says Jeffrey Feder, professor of biological sciences and a member of the Advanced Diagnostics & Therapeutics initiative (AD&T) at the University of Notre Dame. "And for these flies, it can sometime turn out to be a difficult thing to do."

As Feder and his team, including graduate student Gilbert St. Jean and AD&T research assistant professor Scott Egan, discuss in a new study in the Journal of Economic Entomology, the WSDA sent larvae samples to Wee Yee, research entomologist at the USDA's Yakima Agricultural Research Laboratory in Wapato, Wash. One larva was sent to Notre Dame for genetic analysis. The study sought to compare Notre Dame's genetic analysis to Yee's visual identification after the larvae had developed into adults. Fortunately, the fly identified, Rhagoletis indifferens, is not known to infest apples. The Notre Dame group further demonstrated that it is possible to genetically identify the correct fly species within two days, compared to the four months required to raise and visually identify the fly.

A separate study led by the Feder lab details how the apple maggot fly was recently introduced into the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S., likely via larval-infested apples from the East. The flies have subsequently reached as far north as British Columbia, Canada, and as far south as northern California. So far, though, the apple maggot has not been reported infesting any commercial apple orchards in central Washington.

"The correct identification of the larvae infesting crabapple trees saved the local, state and federal agencies thousands of dollars in monitoring, inspection and control costs," Yee said. "The cost to growers if the apple maggot had been found to be established in the region would have been very substantial (easily over half a million dollars), but the rapid diagnostic test developed at Notre Dame suspended the need to proceed with the rulemaking process, saving staff and administrative costs."

The Feder team is continuing to refine the genetic assays to develop a portable test that would be valuable in apple-growing regions, as well as ports of entry where fruit infested by nonlocal insect species can be rapidly detected, to prevent the spread of the insect.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Notre Dame. The original article was written by Kirk Reinbold.

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

---

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/EdUmIXVehyk/130323152914.htm

bobby valentine miguel cabrera Karrueche Tran dodd frank Lark Voorhies Jennifer Livingston Orlando Cruz

Elise Doganieri: Taking 'The Amazing Race' To Africa

There is something very special about the continent of Africa. The show I work on, The Amazing Race, has gone to nearly 20 African countries in the past 22 seasons and the diversity of geography and culture is like no other place on Earth.

This particular leg of the Race we went to Botswana, a landlocked country in Southern Africa that is 70% covered by the Kalahari Desert.

For this episode, we spent time at the Royal Tree Game Reserve outside the city of Maun. It's easy to feel at one with nature when you're sleeping in a wonderful tent under the stars on a private reserve on the banks of the Thamalakane River. The night sky is vast and mesmerizing; and due to the remote location we were in, every star and constellation in the Southern Hemisphere was clearly visible like tiny diamonds dancing across the sky.

Africa awakens your senses; the sights, sounds and smells are unique. This happens when you fly on a little bush plane, land and take that first step. It's something I look forward to when I return; it's welcoming and warm and there is something very pure about the experience. There is a silence and calm and you are instantly transported back in time.

At night at the safari camp there is such peace -- no sirens, car horns or radios blaring -- but what you do hear are the sounds of the animals around you -- like a lion walking by your tent! And hearing the sound of his roar for the first time can be a bit unnerving. In the morning, you'll see their tracks right outside your tent.

Botswana is home to The "Big 5" -- the lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros. Seeing animals roaming unrestricted in their natural environment is a spectacle. Most of us are used to seeing them in cages in zoos. Here, you're in the cage -- your vehicle -- while they wander around freely; it's amazing. In fact, I always have to fight the urge to get out of my safari vehicle when I see an animal close by because they are so beautiful, you just want to get close. Obviously, they're wild animals and you should never do that, but it's hard not to feel a connection when there's so little separating us.

In many ways, Botswana is a country frozen in time. We had our contestants meet with the local bushmen and learn how they live their everyday lives. The things we take for granted are tasks they have to perform every day to survive -- from things as "simple" as starting a fire and getting water from a well to hunting for food.

What the bushmen can do in minutes took an hour or more for many of our contestants.

We take pride in the fact that the Race takes contestants and viewers to places they've never been, or even seen, before. In fact, most of the contestants had no idea where Botswana was. It's fascinating how the contestants and the African bushmen were awed by each other's cultural differences.

That's really what we strive to achieve with the show: treat viewers to a cultural experience, not just bombard them with tourist landmarks. We want the contestants -- and, by proxy, our viewers -- to really get a sense of what it's like to live in the places we travel to.

?

"; 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/elise-doganieri/the-amazing-race-botswana_b_2904074.html

obama sweet home chicago accenture match play george washington carver king cake fun. hepatitis c symptoms david bradley

Church urges 6-week break from social media

Social media

Rosa Golijan TODAY

11 hours ago

Rosa Golijan / NBC News

With that annual period of self-denial leading up to Easter, many try to decide what to surrender. The Russian Orthodox Church ? which observes Easter about a month after Catholic and Protestant churches do this year ? has a suggestion: Give up Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and all the social networks which offer a barrage of information each and every second.

"I don't mean just people who use depraved, entertaining, stupid and empty information," church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin explained to the Guardian. "Even useful information, that relates to our work and well-meaning interests, clogs the brain and soul too much."

Instead of using social media, Chaplin explains, you should give yourself "several hours or 15 minutes of time during Lent to not read curses on social networks, but serious texts, serious art, prayer, unhurried conversation with close ones."

"This is a unique chance to change your life," Chaplin adds.

This isn't the only opportunity we've been given for a spiritual reboot of our tech-obsessed lives of late. In early March, some celebrated the fourth annual National Day of Unplugging, a holiday dreamed up by the artists behind Sabbath Manifesto, a creative project revolving around the search for "a modern way to observe a weekly day of rest."

The holiday lasted from sundown on the first Friday in March until sundown on the following day. It came with a list of principles borrowing from the biblical Sabbath tradition to encourage folks to recharge their metaphorical batteries.

Considering that there are studies suggesting that Facebook can leave us feeling miserable and that various other uses of technology can increase stress ? constantly looking at your email might be making you antsy ? it's no surprise that there are so many movements are urging us to take a break from social media and tech in general.

The only problem is that some of us are far too attached to our gadgets.

"I can't remember the last time I turned my phone off in a situation not involving a software update or a flight," I mused in a Google+ post on Friday afternoon.

"These things have an 'off' switch?" someone replied.

Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her onTwitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Source: http://www.today.com/tech/church-urges-6-week-break-social-media-could-you-handle-1C8897122

taylor allderdice vincent jackson vicki gunvalson pierre garcon brown recluse spider wiz khalifa taylor allderdice eddie royal

At 'Minority Outreach' Panel, CPAC Participant Defends Slavery (Little green footballs)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/291703946?client_source=feed&format=rss

Lady Gaga New Girl Avalanna Gigi Chao Jimmy Hoffa Ed Hochuli Opie

?Nap rooms? encourage sleeping on the job

By Scott Stump, TODAY contributor

At a growing number of companies across the country, sleeping on the job is considered a good thing.

With more Americans failing to get adequate sleep, companies like The Huffington Post and Nationwide Planning Associates have created ?nap rooms? for employees to grab a few z?s in hopes of making them more productive at work.

Rather than have their employees snoring under their desks like George Costanza on "Seinfeld," Nationwide Planning?s New Jersey office has a nap room with a recliner that allows one worker at a time to catch up on sleep. Other companies have purchased ?EnergyPods,? made by a company called MetroNaps: chairs specially designed for power naps in the workplace. Priced from $8,900 to $12,900, the chairs have been used by companies in 20 countries across four continents, including Google and Procter & Gamble.

TODAY

Al gives the EnergyPod a test run.

To allow the employee to stretch out and sleep, the EnergyPod includes a bottom component that makes it resemble a chaise lounge, and an adjustable pod top that can block light. The EnergyPod can last for 10 years before having to be replaced, according to the company.

At Nationwide Planning, there is one nap room for the New Jersey office's 20 workers. ?We call it the ?rejuvenation center? to put a more positive spin on it,?? Nationwide Planning?s James Colleary told TODAY Friday. ?People associate napping with laziness.??

Colleary pushed for a nap room, and company executives quickly noticed happier, more productive employees.

?The nap for me, personally speaking, really allows me to approach the second half of the day with a lot more force,?? Mike Karalewich, Nationwide Planning?s chief compliance officer, told TODAY.

TODAY

Companies like Google, Procter & Gamble and The Huffington Post have created "nap rooms'' with recliners for employees to rejuvenate themselves midday with a quick nap.

?I firmly believe that napping breaks will become the new coffee break eventually,?? Colleary said.

According to a 2011 poll by the National Sleep Foundation, 43 percent of Americans claim they don?t get enough sleep. A power nap can?t replace all of that lost sleep, but it certainly doesn?t hurt. To make the most of your nap, experts say, rest in a cool, dark room and limit your nap to 20 or 30 minutes.

?We all get sleepy in the midafternoon, and it looks like our body clocks are winding down a little bit then,?? Dr. Steven Feinsilver, the director of the Mount Sinai Center for Sleep Medicine, told TODAY. ?If you need an extra two hours of sleep, getting a half an hour is good, and it helps.??

Huffington Post founder and president Arianna Huffington used to think that working 24-7 was the only way to be productive, but learned the hard way that a midday nap can make a big difference. Five years ago, she fainted from exhaustion, ending up with a broken cheekbone and stitches -- and a newfound appreciation of how being sleep-deprived makes it harder to focus and function.

?Sleep makes us more productive, creative, less stressed and much healthier and happier,?? Huffington told TODAY. ?Even a 20-minute nap in the middle of the day can make a huge difference. I grew up thinking that if you work around the clock, you are going to be more effective, and I realize that is not true.??

There are now two nap rooms for the more than 400 workers in the The Huffington Post?s New York office, with a third on the way.

?Just putting in 20 minutes off the computer on the couch makes all the difference in the world to me,?? Nate Hindman of The Huffington Post told TODAY.

Would you use a "nap room" if you could? Weigh in below!

{"contentId":"17324629","totalVotes":"1746"}

Would you use a "nap room" if your workplace provided one?

?

Read more:?

Many moms ? and dads ? are stressed out by 'having it all'

Most execs believe they can ?have it all? ? but with a catch

Battle of the bulge: Spanx v. Yummie Tummie over patent

?

?

?

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 15, 2013 8:37 AM EDT

Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/03/15/17324629-nap-rooms-encourage-sleeping-on-the-job-to-boost-productivity?lite

north korea missile launch modesto st louis weather guinea bissau google stock google stock china gdp

Tampa mayors past and present meet for power lunch (tbo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/291516912?client_source=feed&format=rss

crystal renn matilda cab calloway melissa gilbert deadliest catch dwts sean hannity

What?s the outlook for a budget deal?

(Reuters) - Former Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr, who played on the British heavy metal band's landmark first three albums, has died at the age of 56, the group said on Wednesday. Burr, who had been suffering from multiple sclerosis, died "peacefully in his sleep at home" in London on Tuesday and had been in poor health for several years, the band said in a statement posted on their website. "He was a wonderful person and an amazing drummer who made a valuable contribution to Maiden in the early days when we were starting out," Iron Maiden founder and bassist Steve Harris said in a statement. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/realistic-outlook-grand-bargain-budget-deal-173241096.html

jodie foster amber alert seahawks natalie wood patriots Sandy Hook Hoax 2014 Corvette

'Cloud angel' heralds pope? It's just nature

WPTV YouReport

WPTV's viewers in South Florida sent in numerous pictures of Wednesday's "cloud angel."

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

A "cloud angel" rose over South Florida on the day that a new pope was named at the Vatican ? resulting in snapshots and comments that multiplied like the biblical loaves and fishes. But experts say Wednesday evening's apparition is no supernatural miracle. Rather, it's a perfectly natural phenomenon that took on special meaning because of Pope Francis' selection.

Several pictures came in to WPTV in West Palm Beach. Some saw a slim, winged figure in the cloud. "Wow, I wonder if Pope Francis ordered that!" one commenter, Thom George, said on WPTV's Facebook page. Others saw different shapes ? a sea monkey, perhaps, or even Lucifer's satanic figure in the sunset.

Ian Loxley, photo gallery editor for the Cloud Appreciation Society, saw a cloud. A very interesting cloud.

---

"It is difficult to be definitive about what the formation is without knowing what went before. It could be Cirrus if high enough; however, it appears to be lower than the background Altocumulus which is the teaser. My best shot would be a virga remnant from an aircraft contrail," Loxley said in an email.

"Sorry not to be able to give an absolute answer," he continued. "It is, however, a very interesting capture that would sit nicely in our 'Clouds That Look Like Things' section of the gallery."

The society's cloud galleries show off all sorts of shapely formations, including doves, dolphins, UFOs, witches and, yes, angels. Fewer things are better-suited than clouds for this kind of pattern recognition, which goes by the name of pareidolia. Our brains are so wired up to recognize faces and other humanlike patterns that we can easily see them in inanimate objects.

"Pareidolia" is a combination of Greek words that essentially means "wrong shape." It's the same phenomenon that gives rise to the Face on Mars, or Mickey Mouse on Mercury, or New Hampshire's now-noseless "Old Man of the Mountain."?In the case of the cloud angel, the religious connection was heightened by the coincidence of the papal conclave.

Could the cloud angel be a hoax? That's not likely, given the fact that WPTV received pictures from several viewers in different locations. Also, there are much crazier cloud shapes out there. But if you want to look at Wednesday's coincidence as a sign from above ... well, that's a matter of faith, not atmospheric science.

More shapes in the clouds:

---

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/14/17313844-good-heavens-cloud-angel-marking-popes-selection-is-no-miracle?lite

how to hard boil eggs new nfl uniforms easter derbyshire the matrix oceans 11 ferris state hockey

Space Station Crew's Landing Delayed by 'Horrible' Earth Weather

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are stuck in space for one more day after freezing rain and fog on Earth prevented them from landing in Central Asia on Thursday (March 14), NASA officials say.

The foul weather, which one Russian space agency official described simply as "horrible," means NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin had to delay their return from the International Space Station for at least 24 hours. The three men have been living in space for 141 days and were preparing to enter their Soyuz spacecraft for a landing on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan tonight.

"We are waving off landing," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live mission commentary. "No Soyuz landing tonight."

The rain and fog in Kazakhstan is not a threat to the Soyuz spacecraft and crew, Navias said. But the recovery helicopters essential for retrieving the astronauts after landing would not be able to make it to their staging grounds for the landing because of bad weather conditions. [See photos of the Expedition 34 space station mission]

"I talked to our colleagues in Kazakhstan last night and the weather is really horrible, and a decision was made not to risk, and we suggest that we delay the landing." chief Russian flight director Vlademir Solovyev said through a translator on NASA TV.?

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin were originally scheduled to undock their Russian-built Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft at the?International Space Station?tonight at 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT), with an expected landing of 11:56 p.m. EDT (0356 GMT).

Landing is now scheduled to occur on Friday (March 15) at 11:06 p.m. EDT (0206 March 16 GMT), NASA officials said.

This is not the first time weather has affected a Soyuz spacecraft's landing. In 2009, another Soyuz craft had its return to Earth delayed by a day because snowy conditions on the ground made the landing potentially unsafe.

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin have spent nearly five months on board the station. The mission is Ford's second spaceflight and the first trip to space for Novitskiy and Tarelkin.

When Ford and his two crewmates depart the station, three other spaceflyers ? Canadian astronaut?Chris Hadfield, Russian Roman Romanenko and American Tom Marshburn ? will remain aboard orbiting lab to await a new set of crewmembers.

That new crew will launch on March 28 to ferry cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy to the space station.

NASA has relied on Russia's Soyuz crafts ferry astronauts between the Earth's surface and orbit since the retirement of the agency's shuttle program in 2011. Officials with the space agency hope to instead depend on privately built unmanned and crewed spacecraft to bring people and cargo to and from the space station.

Follow Miriam Kramer?@mirikramer?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebookand?Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/space-station-crews-landing-delayed-horrible-earth-weather-224537206.html

wnba draft tax day april 17 boston marathon tu pac hologram shuttle pippa middleton

Did Twitter Cause Miley Cyrus & Liam Hemsworth's Split?

So much for their three weddings, let alone one: It looks like Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth may have broken off their engagement.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/did-twitter-lead-miley-cyrus-and-liam-hemsworths-breakup/1-a-527417?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Adid-twitter-lead-miley-cyrus-and-liam-hemsworths-breakup-527417

nascar bristol narwhal st louis university mario manningham mario manningham williams syndrome hoya

'New' bacteria in Antarctic lake actually just contamination, say scientists

Last week, a Russian news outlet reported the discovery of a new type of microbe discovered in Antarctica's Lake Vostok. But now scientists say that the bacteria is just contamination.

By Elizabeth Howell,?LiveScience / March 12, 2013

Russia's Vostok Station, in a photograph taken during the 2000 to 2001 field season.

Josh Landis/ National Science Foundation

Enlarge

Late last week, a Russian news outlet reported that scientists at Antarctica's Lake Vostok, buried under miles of ice, said they had found bacteria that appeared to be new to science. Now, the head of that lab has said the signature is actually just contamination, leading outside researchers to say that the Russian team rushed too quickly to announce the possibility of new bacterial life.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

Russian news media reported last week that the team had found DNA from a microbe that did not appear in databases and is only?86 percent similar to others on Earth?? considered a reliable threshold of new life.

On Monday (March 11), the lab analyzing the finding said it was not new bacteria that generated the signal, but contamination.

"We found certain specimens, although not many. All of them were contaminants," laboratory head Vladimir Korolyov said in a quote attributed in media reports to the Interfax news agency.

The quick backtrack illustrates the danger of bypassing peer review when announcing new results, Peter Doran, an Arctic and Antarctic researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told OurAmazingPlanet.

'You can say anything you want in a press release'

Peer review?is the scientific process that all findings must undergo before work is published, generally in the form of a paper in a scientific journal. The research comes under the scrutiny of other scientists in the field and is validated and questioned before anything goes to print. That's not the case in a news report.

For that reason, the scientists who OurAmazingPlanet spoke with said that it was hard for them to discuss why the Russians failed since they do not even know, for example, what contaminates were found in the lab. That information could take weeks or months to surface.

"You can say anything you want in a press release," Doran said. "The peer review literature [by contrast] is very controlled. It needs to be substantiated, and written in clear language."

"I tell my students," he continued, "don't trust anything you read in the popular press. Even if there is a paper, there's often a disconnect between what is in the paper and in the popular press."

Peer review, however, can take years, acknowledged David Pearce, a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey who worked on a similar British effort to drill into buried Lake Ellsworth. (That effort failed?and is being subject to a review board. The results should be published around May, at which point the British will decide whether to try again.) [Extreme Antarctica: Amazing Photos of Lake Ellsworth]

Taxpayers are often impatient to find out what is going on, Pearce said, and the press works to fill that need. A balance must be struck between these needs, he added.

"It's important [the public] is kept informed of what's going on, and the interesting things that are coming out," Pearce said. Science, by contrast, requires time and careful thought.

"You do want to find out what's happened to the research money," he added, "but you don't want to say too much too soon."

Sterilization part of best practice

The Russian researchers not only faced challenges concerning announcing their findings, but also scientific challenges in their quest to discover life.

It's still not known what kind of life, if any, lies below the 2 miles (3 kilometers) of ice that sits on top of Lake Vostok. As far as researchers know, the underground freshwater has been lying there untouched for more than a million years.

Confirming that any possible signature of life is not a contaminant is complicated, to say the least.

There's a strict protocol the Americans strive to follow in Antarctica, said Doran, who is familiar with the practices of the U.S. Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling project (WISSARD) team that worked this year at Antarctica's?Lake Whillans.

Doran could not speak specifically to the Russians, but said the American work demonstrates a good methodology.

In WISSARD's case, it involves sterilizing all the equipment with hydrogen peroxide gel or a similar product, then hermetically sealing them in bags for shipment. Scientists on-site sterilize the water in the drill system through several steps that include filters and life-killing ultraviolet radiation.

As the drill progresses through the ice, the scientists monitor cell counts to make sure there are no unexplained jumps.

WISSARD recently announced?life findings of its own, but Doran was equally skeptical of that until a paper comes out confirming the work. [Gallery: Finding Life in a Buried Antarctic Lake]

To the WISSARD announcement, Doran said, "I understand how it happened. There are embedded reporters in the field with them. They are sitting around the dinner table together, and drinking Scotch together, and the reporters are right there [when scientists say] 'Our cell counts are way up when we've gone into the lake water.'"

"Of course that gets reported, but without the peer review literature, it's still a violation of how the standard things are done," Doran said.

Follow Elizabeth Howell?@howellspace. Follow?OurAmazingPlanet?@OAPlanet,?Facebook?and?Google+.

Copyright 2013?LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/EGOlJzwhpbo/New-bacteria-in-Antarctic-lake-actually-just-contamination-say-scientists

Target Black Friday PacSun apple store bestbuy

For 1 in 4 teens, phones key for Internet access

Suzanne Choney , NBC News ? ? ? 10 hrs.

Using the computer for Internet access is so 2004, at least for many teens: One in four now skip laptops and desktop computers for their phones, preferring to be "cell-mostly" Internet users. And among the teens lucky enough to own a smartphone, half use that device as their primary means of accessing the Internet.

The phone has become "the primary means by which 25 percent of those ages 12 to 17 access the Internet," says the Pew Research Center?s Internet & American Life Project in a new report, "Teens and Technology 2013."

"Among teens who are mobile Internet users, that number rises to one in three (33 percent). Among teen smartphone owners, 50 percent say they use the Internet mostly via their cellphone."

Teen girls are "significantly more likely" than boys to use their phones for Internet access, Pew says, with 29 percent of girls saying they do so compared to 20 percent of boys.

"Older teen girls represent the leading edge of cell?mostly Internet use; 34 percent of them say that most of their Internet use happens on their cell phone," the Pew report says, compared to 24 percent of boys in the same age range. "Among older teen girls who are smartphone owners, 55 percent say they use the Internet mostly from their phone, says Pew. "This is notable since boys and girls are equally likely to be smartphone owners."

Back in 2004, years before the launch of the iPhone and other modern-era smartphones, 45 percent of teens said they had a cellphone, while 75 percent had use of a laptop or desktop computer, Pew said. Jump to 2012: 78 percent have cellphones and 80 percent, computers.

Keeping track of what teens are doing while surfing on their smartphones ? as opposed to a more easily visible computer at home ? has become a parental challenge, for sure. There are some apps that can help; but there's also a need for parents to step in earlier to give their children that birds-and-the-bees-on-the-Internet talk, as NBC News' Helen A.S. Popkin recently wrote.

Pew's findings are based on a nationally representative phone survey of 802 parents and their 802 teens, ages 12?17. The survey was done between July 26 and Sept. 30, 2012.

"The report shows that smartphone adoption among teens has increased substantially and mobile access to the Internet is pervasive," Pew researcher Mary Madden said in an emailed statement.

A drilldown of some of Pew's stats:

• 78 percent of teens have a cellphone, and 47 percent of them have smartphones. "That translates into 37 percent of all teens who have smartphones, up from just 23 percent in 2011," Pew says.
  
• 74 percent of teens ages 12 to 17 say they at least "occasionally" access the Internet via cellphones, tablets or other mobile devices.
  
• Only 15 percent of adults are "cell-mostly" Internet users, compared to 1 in 4 teens.
  
• 23 percent of teens now have a tablet, "a level comparable to the general adult population."
  

Check out Technology, GadgetBox, TODAY Tech and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/1-4-teens-phones-are-primary-internet-access-point-says-1C8814664

joel ward mock draft north country brian mcknight sbux nfldraft asante samuel

Proof That Samsung Is Buying Fanboys

Turns out the secret to Samsung's recent mobile success in the U.S. ? not to mention all those Apple-style fans?? is tons and tons of advertising money, which has handily translated into tons and tons of sales. In the run-up to its release of the "iPhone-killer" Galaxy S IV smartphone on Thursday night, Samsung has spent way more than Apple marketing its phones, The Wall Street Journal?reports today?? $401 million to Apple's $333 million in 201, according to the ad researchers at Kantar media. That's up from just $78 million spent on mobile advertising by Samsung the year before, a 400-percent increase in marketing dollars between the Galaxy S III launch and the beyond hyped S IV release. The S III campaign was all about those iPhone-fanboy ripoffs that were funny because they were true, but the S IV marketing blitz looks like pure, unadulterated, big-money brinkmanship. Indeed, Samsung has had quite the ad blitz just in 2013 already: the?child-like wonder, the?$15 million celebrity Super Bowl spot, the big Radio City Hall S IV launch event, accompanied by a Times Square party and Jumbotron live stream.

RELATED: Samsung Takes the Secret-Gadget-Announcement Schtick Too Far

So has all the spending paid off? Looking at marketing dollars against mobile sales, the early answer appears to be yes, definitely. Our chart below tracks iPhone and Samsung mobile sales against the amount of U.S. dollars spent on marketing:

RELATED: Samsung's New Phone Will Turn Pages with Your Eyes

RELATED: Samsung's First Official Galaxy SIV Photo Is One Big Tease

Samsung's quest for American domination has, ?as you can see, been a slow build. In 2010, when it release the first Galaxy S phone, the South Korean?electronics?mammoth sought market share by increasing its U.S. advertising spend by a whopping 42.5 percent to $680 million,?according to AdAge. Not all of that went to phones, obviously, since Samsung only spent $401 million on its Galaxy ad blitz two years later. But,?Dow Jones reported?a "nine figure" Samsung Galaxy S marketing plan for 2010. The next year, as a result of all those dollars, came the first round of those harsh?anti-Apple fanboy commercials?everyone loves so much. Then with the S III, talking about Samsung's impressive ad campaigns became the norm, in the same way talking about Apple's anti-Microsoft ads were back in 2008.?

RELATED: Has the Samsung Galaxy Hype Replaced the iPhone Rumor Mill?

It's worth noting, however, that Samsung only spends a fraction of its money in the U.S. market, where it doesn't have nearly as much domination as elsewhere, as you can see in this chart from Asymco's Horace Dediu:?

RELATED: Court Didn't Find Apple's Non-Apology Apology to Samsung Very Cute

Samsung has a bunch of other products to advertise in addition to its Galaxy phones. It runs air conditioner commercials in Australia, for example ? something we don't see here in the U.S. as much as we do all those Samsung flatscreen TVs. Dediu still suspects that most of the worldwide marketing dollars do go to phone advertising, and the Galaxy in particular, which would help explain how it "trounced' Apple in all the numbers inside all the last available sales data. As of last November (post-iPhone 5 release), Samsung had 24 percent of the marketshare to Apple's 14 percent. We'll see how that changes, starting tomorrow, but you can count on a lot of commercials.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/proof-samsung-buying-fanboys-171622544.html

doobie brothers jennie garth peter facinelli marques colston golden state warriors free agents nfl 2012 milwaukee bucks bear grylls

Food Politics ? Daily News editorial: The Judge Drank Corporate ...

Politics, they say, makes strange bedfellows. ?I can understand why the New York Times would do a front-page investigative report on how soda companies engage minority groups as partners while slamming Mayor Bloomberg for overreaching with his soda cap initiative.

But can someone please explain the Daily News? ? Here?s yesterday?s front page:

This was followed by two pages of ?Soda plan struck down; our cups runneth over? and other gleeful responses to the judge?s soda cap decision.

But then there?s this astonishing editorial.? Explain, please.

Judge drinks the Kool-Aid

In putting Mayor Bloomberg?s soda ban on ice, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling did a huge disservice to the health and welfare of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers.

Tingling concluded that the prohibition against selling sugared beverages in containers larger than 16 ounces was both arbitrary and beyond the authority of the Board of Health, which approved the regulations.

The only thing arbitrary here was Tingling?s ruling. More, the judge was the only party who was guilty of overreaching.

At heart, he simply substituted his judgment as to sound public policy for the board?s ? an action that?s beyond a judge?s proper purview.

Most amazingly, Tingling held that the board had acted rationally in voting the portion cap as one method of trying to rein in the city?s epidemic of obesity and obesity-related diseases.

He bought the indisputable premise that the board was right to draw connections among high soda consumption, obesity and diabetes, which are debilitating New Yorkers young and old.

But then the judge threw that over by stating the obvious fact that the board did not have the power to ban supersized sugar drinks everywhere, only in establishments regulated by the Health Department.

Because the public could get a 32-ounce cup at, say, a 7-Eleven, but not at restaurants, he in effect deemed the ban to be an ill-designed contraption destined to fail. But who is Milton Tingling to say that? No one.

His fundamental error was to consider the regulation from the point of view of vendors who were hoping to get out from under it.

Those covered by the ban claimed they were the victims of capriciously unequal treatment and shifted Tingling?s concern away from the pressing rationale for a regulation that would have been broadly applied.

There?s nothing arbitrary about the consequences of drinking large quantities of sodas and other overly sweetened beverages.

The correlation in certain communities among consuming soda, becoming obese and contracting related diseases are certain.

The neighborhoods with the highest obesity rates ? Harlem, the South Bronx, central Brooklyn ? have the largest percentages of people who are likely to drink more than one sugar-sweetened beverage each day.

All too predictably, people in low-income areas such as Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York, Brooklyn ? places where soda consumption is highest ? are four times as likely to die from diabetes as residents of the more affluent upper East Side, where people generally consume far fewer sugary drinks.

No matter.

Tingling attended to the arguments of businesses looking after their own financial interests over the demands of public health ? while at the same time declaring that the Board of Health is barred from taking into account the substantial economic costs generated by obesity.

Ultimately, Tingling bought into the all-or-nothing argument ? the same line of thinking that killed an earlier Bloomberg proposal that would have barred people from buying sugary sodas with food stamps.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture killed that experiment, asserting that it would be unfair and unproductive to target only a limited population in such a test. So Bloomberg tried to go bigger, and Tingling shot him down.

If bringing down a serious threat is a rational goal, as Tingling wrote, then you do it as best you can, even incrementally.

A halfway measure is better than no measure and is certainly not arbitrary.

Bloomberg vows an appeal.

Here?s hoping that Tingling?s judicial superiors recognize that pursuing public health is not just rational, it?s imperative.?

Source: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2013/03/daily-news-editorial-the-judge-drank-corporate-kool-aid/

joe arpaio cat in the hat green eggs and ham wiz khalifa and amber rose oh the places you ll go blunt amendment justin bieber birthday