Top figures may be barred from Iran's June ballot

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran's election process slipped into a tense holding pattern Tuesday amid speculation that candidates blocked from the ballot include a top aide of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a former president who revived hopes of reformers.

Their potential exclusion from the June 14 presidential ballot would give establishment-friendly candidates a clear path to succeed Ahmadinejad, who has lost favor with the ruling clerics after years of power struggles. It also pushes moderate and opposition voices further to the margins as Iran's leadership faces critical challenges such as international sanctions and talks with world powers over Tehran's nuclear program.

The official ballot list decision by Iran's election overseers was kept under wraps after being finalized and could be released Wednesday. The one-day delay suggested authorities allowed some time for appeals by the blackballed candidates and their backers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say in all matters.

Several news outlets, including the state-run Press TV, carried what they called "unconfirmed" reports that two prominent but divisive figures ? former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad protege Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei ? did not make the cut by the Guardian Council, which vets all candidates. The reports indicated eight candidates were cleared from 686 hopefuls, some serious and many wild longshots.

The Guardian Council spokesman, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, told state TV that "names of qualified" candidates had been sent to the Interior Ministry but gave no other details.

The potential front-runners, according to the reports, represent a roll call of insiders with close ties to Khamenei, including former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili.

Any of the choices would create a possibly seamless front between the ruling clerics and presidency after years of political turmoil under Ahmadinejad, who tried to challenge the theocracy's vast powers to make all major decisions and set key policies. Iran's presidency, meanwhile, is expected to convey the ruling clerics' views on the world stage and not set its own diplomatic agenda.

While the election is not expected to bring major shifts in Iran's position on its nuclear program ? which Tehran insists is peaceful despite Western fears it could lead to atomic weapons ? it could open opportunities to renew stalled talks with a six-nation group that includes the U.S.

On Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said Iran's nuclear stance will "not change either before or after the election."

The possible ballot rejection of Mashaei brought little surprise.

He has been badly tarnished by Ahmadinejad's feuds with the ruling clerics. Hard-liners have denounced Mashaei as part of a "deviant current" that seeks to undermine the country's Islamic system ? which made ballot approval highly unlikely.

This would leave Ahmadinejad politically orphaned going into the final weeks in office. He still has significant public support and could try to bargain with other candidates or break away and start his own political movement.

Few powerful voices have come to Mashaei's defense in a sign of Ahmadinejad's fallen fortunes. But the case for Rafsanjani could be more complicated.

His surprise decision for a comeback bid ? 16 years after leaving office ? jolted hard-line foes and was cheered by beleaguered reformists and liberals after years of crackdowns.

Rafsanjani faced a barrage of attacks in the past week from powerful critics who suggested the 78-year-old does not have the stamina for the presidency and is disgraced for criticizing the heavy-handed tactics used to crush protests following Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009.

Rafsanjani's youngest daughter, Faezeh, was released from jail in March after serving a six-month sentence in connection with the postelection chaos. His middle son, Mahdi, also is to stand trial in coming weeks for his alleged role in the riots.

Late Monday, authorities closed down the Tehran headquarters of Rafsanjani's youth supporters.

But Rafsanjani also carries a legacy with a sweeping reach.

Moderates see him as a pragmatist who can deal deftly with the West and use his skills as patriarch of a family-run business empire to help repair Iran's economy, battered by sanctions and mismanagement. Others, even ideological foes, respect his high-profile role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution as the closest confidant of its spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In a sign of possible lobbying on Rafsanjani's behalf, he received apparent support from some influential members of the Assembly of Experts ? the only group with the power to dismiss the supreme leader. Rafsanjani was pushed out as the group's chairman after failing to get enough support to leverage possible concessions from Khamenei on the 2009 postelection clampdowns.

One member, Ayatollah Mohieddin Haeri Shirazi, sent a letter to Khamenei saying "omitting a prominent figure from the election was incompatible" with giving wide choices to voters, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.

Another assembly member, Ayatollah Mohammad Vaez Mousavi, told the semiofficial ILNA news agency that Rafsanjani's age is not a weak point and many Iranian leaders "accepted responsibilities when they were quite old."

"The intensified defamation campaign against Rafsanjani means hard-liners are extremely afraid that he will win the vote," said prominent political analyst Saeed Leilaz. "Discrediting Rafsanjani doesn't work anymore. What matters today is who can save the country's economy; who has a plan to take Iran away from isolation and improve living conditions."

___

Murphy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran also contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-figures-may-barred-irans-june-ballot-165419983.html

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Gilberto Santa Rosa leads 'Forever Tango' to B'way

NEW YORK (AP) ? The singer known as the Gentleman of Salsa is temporarily turning to tango: Gilberto Santa Rosa will make his Broadway debut in the musical "Forever Tango," which returns to New York in July for a 10-week stand featuring some of the Puerto Rican singer's hits.

"I haven't stopped jumping, screaming and pinching myself because I still don't believe it," five-time Grammy Award winner Santa Rosa told The Associated Press on Monday. "I am as anxious as one can be ahead of a project like this one: super-astonished, super-surprised and all the supers you can imagine."

Producers of the revival of Luis Bravo's show said Tuesday that it will open July 9 at the Walter Kerr Theatre and Santa Rosa, the singer of such salsa hits as "Medias negras," ''Perdoname" and "Amor mio no te vayas" will spend three weeks as a guest vocalist. Future singers will be announced later.

The show traces the art form's birth on the streets of 19th-century Buenos Aires to its more modern manifestations. Throughout, men and women hook legs, parry and thrust in a sexual battle of wills.

"Forever Tango" originally opened on Broadway 1997 and earned multiple Tony nominations. It returned for a limited four-month engagement in 2004.

Santa Rosa said that while he is an expert at the salsa, he can understand the tango's appeal. "I love tangos but most tangos are sad and my songs ? the most popular ? are sad too! So I am a broken hearts specialist, no matter the rhythm or genre."

While the world knows he can definitely dance salsa, many might wonder if Santa Rosa can do the famous South American dance. He said he hopes he won't have to, but laughs that he might be up for it.

"I took tango lessons many years ago and it is one of the most difficult dances that there are," he said. "I did it for a show we were doing in Puerto Rico and it was a crash course. I had a lot of fun but it was very hard."

With 16 dancers and an 11-member orchestra, Santa Rosa hopes he doesn't disappoint. "I will give my all so us salsa-singers will be well represented in this tango environment," he assured.

___

Online:

http://www.gilbertosantarosa.com

http://www.forevertango.us

___

Follow Sigal Ratner-Arias on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sigalratner

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gilberto-santa-rosa-leads-forever-tango-bway-143739678.html

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Drawing closer to Alzheimer?s magic bullet? Drugs found to both prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease in mice

May 21, 2013 ? Imagine a pharmaceutical prevention, treatment or even cure for Alzheimer's disease.

It is almost impossible to overstate how monumental a development that would be and how it would answer the prayers of millions.

Though science isn't there yet, a new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience spearheaded by USC Davis School of Gerontology researchers offers a tantalizing glimpse of potential solutions.

"Our data suggests the possibility of drugs that can prevent and treat Alzheimer's," said lead author, professor and lab principal Christian Pike of USC Davis. "It's just mouse data but extremely encouraging mouse data."

The team studied the effects of a class of drugs called TSPO ligands on male mice that were genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer's disease, known as 3xTg-AD mice. Because a key mechanism of TSPO ligands is to increase production of steroid hormones, it was important to ensure that the mice had low levels of testosterone and related hormones before treatment. Younger mice were castrated while, in older mice, the decrease occurred as a normal consequence of aging.

"We looked at the effects of TSPO ligands in young adult mice when pathology was at an early stage and in aged mice when pathology was quite severe," Pike said. "TSPO ligands reduced measures of pathology and improved behavior at both ages."

The most surprising finding for Pike and his team was the effect of TSPO ligands in the aged mice. Four treatments -- one per week over four weeks -- in aged 3xTg-AD mice resulted in significant lowering of Alzheimer's-related pathology and improvements in memory behavior. This finding suggested the possibility that TSPO ligands can reverse components of Alzheimer's and thus have the potential to be useful in treatment.

For humans, these findings may indeed be quite significant.

"TSPO ligands are currently used in humans in certain types of neuroimaging. Newer TSPO ligands are at the clinical trials stage of development for treatment of anxiety and other conditions," Pike said. "There is a strong possibility that TSPO ligands similar to the ones used in our study could be evaluated for therapeutic efficacy in Alzheimer's patients within the next few years."

In light of the findings, the team will next focus on understanding how TSPO ligands reduce Alzheimer's pathology. Building on the established knowledge that TSPO ligands can act protectively by reducing inflammation, shielding nerve cells from injury and increasing the production of neuroactive hormones in the brain, the team will study which of these actions is the most significant in fighting Alzheimer's so it can develop newer TSPO ligands accordingly.

While Pike and his team acknowledged that the findings represent an exciting possibility, the researchers also stressed that it is by no means a given.

"From the optimistic perspective, our data provide very promising findings with tangible potential benefits for both the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's," Pike said. "On the pessimistic side, research scientists have developed many interventions that cured Alzheimer's in mice but have failed to show significant benefits in humans. A critical direction we are currently pursuing is successfully translating these findings into humans."

Co-authors of the study were Anna Barron (former USC Davis postdoctoral student and Molecular Imaging Center, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Japan); Luis Garcia Segura (Instituto Cajal, Spain); Donatella Caruso and Roberto Melcangi (Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, Centre of Excellence on Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Milan); and Anusha Jayaraman and Joo Lee (USC Davis).

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health in support of the USC Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, directed by Helena Chui, professor of neurology and gerontology at USC.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/4qlBDWU1pHs/130521153940.htm

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Compound in Mediterranean diet makes cancer cells 'mortal'

May 20, 2013 ? New research suggests that a compound abundant in the Mediterranean diet takes away cancer cells' "superpower" to escape death.

By altering a very specific step in gene regulation, this compound essentially re-educates cancer cells into normal cells that die as scheduled.

One way that cancer cells thrive is by inhibiting a process that would cause them to die on a regular cycle that is subject to strict programming. This study in cells, led by Ohio State University researchers, found that a compound in certain plant-based foods, called apigenin, could stop breast cancer cells from inhibiting their own death.

Much of what is known about the health benefits of nutrients is based on epidemiological studies that show strong positive relationships between eating specific foods and better health outcomes, especially reduced heart disease. But how the actual molecules within these healthful foods work in the body is still a mystery in many cases, and particularly with foods linked to lower risk for cancer.

Parsley, celery and chamomile tea are the most common sources of apigenin, but it is found in many fruits and vegetables.

The researchers also showed in this work that apigenin binds with an estimated 160 proteins in the human body, suggesting that other nutrients linked to health benefits -- called "nutraceuticals" -- might have similar far-reaching effects. In contrast, most pharmaceutical drugs target a single molecule.

"We know we need to eat healthfully, but in most cases we don't know the actual mechanistic reasons for why we need to do that," said Andrea Doseff, associate professor of internal medicine and molecular genetics at Ohio State and a co-lead author of the study. "We see here that the beneficial effect on health is attributed to this dietary nutrient affecting many proteins. In its relationship with a set of specific proteins, apigenin re-establishes the normal profile in cancer cells. We think this can have great value clinically as a potential cancer-prevention strategy."

Doseff oversaw this work with co-lead author Erich Grotewold, professor of molecular genetics and director of Ohio State's Center for Applied Plant Sciences (CAPS). The two collaborate on studying the genomics of apigenin and other flavonoids, a family of plant compounds that are believed to prevent disease.

The research appears this week in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Though finding that apigenin can influence cancer cell behavior was an important outcome of the work, Grotewold and Doseff point to their new biomedical research technique as a transformative contribution to nutraceutical research.

They likened the technique to "fishing" for the human proteins in cells that interact with small molecules available in the diet.

"You can imagine all the potentially affected proteins as tiny fishes in a big bowl. We introduce this molecule to the bowl and effectively lure only the truly affected proteins based on structural characteristics that form an attraction," Doseff said. "We know this is a real partnership because we can see that the proteins and apigenin bind to each other."

Through additional experimentation, the team established that apigenin had relationships with proteins that have three specific functions. Among the most important was a protein called hnRNPA2.

This protein influences the activity of messenger RNA, or mRNA, which contains the instructions needed to produce a specific protein. The production of mRNA results from the splicing, or modification, of RNA that occurs as part of gene activation. The nature of the splice ultimately influences which protein instructions the mRNA contains.

Doseff noted that abnormal splicing is the culprit in an estimated 80 percent of all cancers. In cancer cells, two types of splicing occur when only one would take place in a normal cell -- a trick on the cancer cells' part to keep them alive and reproducing.

In this study, the researchers observed that apigenin's connection to the hnRNPA2 protein restored this single-splice characteristic to breast cancer cells, suggesting that when splicing is normal, cells die in a programmed way, or become more sensitive to chemotherapeutic drugs.

"So by applying this nutrient, we can activate that killing machinery. The nutrient eliminated the splicing form that inhibited cell death," said Doseff, also an investigator in Ohio State's Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute. "Thus, this suggests that when we eat healthfully, we are actually promoting more normal splice forms inside the cells in our bodies."

The beneficial effects of nutraceuticals are not limited to cancer, as the investigators previously showed that apigenin has anti-inflammatory activities.

The scientists noted that with its multiple cellular targets, apigenin potentially offers a variety of additional benefits that may even occur over time. "The nutrient is targeting many players, and by doing that, you get an overall synergy of the effect," Grotewold explained.

Doseff is leading a study in mice, testing whether food modified to contain proper doses of this nutrient can change splicing forms in the animals' cells and produce an anti-cancer effect.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/nkoT84eRAD0/130520154303.htm

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Beam her up: Gabby Douglas is back in the gym

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2012 file photo, U.S. gymnast Gabrielle Douglas displays her gold medal during the artistic gymnastics women's individual all-around competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Douglas is back in the gym.The Olympic all-around champion was to practice Monday afternoon, May 20, 2013 after meeting with coach Liang Chow to discuss her comeback plan. The workout is in her old gym in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2012 file photo, U.S. gymnast Gabrielle Douglas displays her gold medal during the artistic gymnastics women's individual all-around competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Douglas is back in the gym.The Olympic all-around champion was to practice Monday afternoon, May 20, 2013 after meeting with coach Liang Chow to discuss her comeback plan. The workout is in her old gym in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

Gabby Douglas had been looking forward to this appearance for a long time.

The Olympic all-around champion returned to the gym Monday, going through her first practice since the London Games after meeting with coach Liang Chow to discuss her comeback plan.

"She is very excited to be coming back," Chow told The Associated Press. "She can't wait any longer."

Douglas has always said she wanted to continue competing through the Rio Olympics in 2016. She is only 17, and Chow said in London that she hadn't come close to reaching her potential. (The Olympics were only the fifth international event for Douglas.)

But her life has been a whirlwind since London, where she also helped the U.S. win only its second team title. Her Olympic success, dazzling smile and captivating personality turned her into a worldwide celebrity, and she's been going nonstop since the games ended.

She was the AP's female athlete of the year and one of Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People" in 2012. She was the only female on Forbes' recent list of 10 most influential athletes in the U.S. She had a guest spot on "The Vampire Diaries," one of her favorite shows, and she performed at the Video Music Awards after walking the red carpet with the rest of the Fierce Five.

Douglas and fellow Fierce Five members Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber and McKayla Maroney did a 40-city gymnastics tour last fall, and she's made dozens of other celebrity appearances. She signed deals with Nike, Kellogg Co. and AT&T, among others, and recently published her second book.

Gymnastics was never far from her mind, though, and Chow got the sense from the text messages Douglas would send him that she'd eventually be back in the gym in West Des Moines, Iowa.

"She's the kind of person who wants to be achieving," he said. "She wants to feel good about her improvement and her goal setting. That's the attitude Gabby is about and now she can set out a goal and achieve it, through the sport."

Chow wouldn't put a timetable on Douglas' return, saying she has to get back in gymnastics shape before they can put a "realistic" training plan together.

"I think 2014 is an excellent possibility for competition," he said.

But this won't be an easy process, Chow said. Gymnastics is a sport that requires hundreds of hours of repetition to perfect skills, and Douglas has been out of action for nine months.

"I did warn her, 'If you think preparing for London was hard, preparing for Rio will be harder.' There's many challenges ahead of us," Chow said. "Also, 'You're going to have to have a lot more patience with yourself. Nine months off, you have to get yourself in very good physical condition first before we even talk about the training plan for the next steps."

But Douglas is undeterred.

"She understood," Chow said, "and she is super excited."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-05-20-GYM-Douglas-Returns/id-ef5035ffb4ba40e2b43b605bbeeb9316

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AP CEO calls records seizure 'unconstitutional'

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Associated Press' president and chief executive says the government's secret seizure of two months of reporters' phone records has already had a chilling effect on newsgathering, a week after the subpoenas were revealed publicly.

Gary Pruitt on Sunday called the Justice Department's actions "unconstitutional" and said the AP hasn't ruled out legal action.

In his first television interviews since the AP reported the Justice Department seizure, Pruitt said it has made sources less willing to talk to AP journalists and, in the long term, could limit Americans' information from all news outlets.

Pruitt told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the government has no business monitoring the AP's newsgathering activities.

"And if they restrict that apparatus ... the people of the United States will only know what the government wants them to know and that's not what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment," he said.

In a separate interview with the AP, Pruitt said, "It's too early to know if we'll take legal action but I can tell you we are positively displeased and we do feel that our constitutional rights have been violated."

He said President Barack Obama "should rein in that out-of-control investigation."

"They've been secretive, they've been overbroad and abusive ? so much so that taken together, they are unconstitutional because they violate our First Amendment rights," he added.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the government needs to stop leaks by whatever means necessary.

"This is an investigation that needs to happen because national security leaks, of course, can get our agents overseas killed," he said.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said the government should focus on those who leak sensitive national security matters and not on journalists who report on them. The Texas Republican said his committee should hold hearings on how the Justice Department obtained phone records from AP reporters and editors.

"What confuses me is the focus on the press, who have a constitutional right here and we depend on the press to get to the bottom of so many issues that we, as individuals, cannot," Cornyn said.

Cornyn said the Justice Department's actions were part of a pattern for Obama's administration to quiet its critics.

"It's a culture of cover-ups and intimidation that is giving the administration so much trouble," Cornyn said.

He also renewed his call for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign, citing the contempt citation the House of Representatives voted against him last year for refusing to turn over documents in a failed government gun smuggling sting.

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said the president "has complete faith in Attorney General Holder." He also insisted the White House was not involved in the decision to seek AP phone records.

"A cardinal rule is we don't get involved in independent investigations. And this is one of those," Pfeiffer said.

Although the Justice Department has not explained why it sought phone records from the AP, Pruitt pointed to a May 7, 2012, story that disclosed details of a successful CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bomb plot around the one-year anniversary of the May 2, 2011, killing of Osama bin Laden.

The AP delayed publication of that story at the request of government officials who said it would jeopardize national security.

"We respected that, we acted responsibly, we held the story," Pruitt said.

Pruitt said the AP published the story only after officials from two government entities said the threat had passed. He said the administration still asked that the story be held until an official announcement the next day, a request the AP rejected.

The news service viewed the story as important because White House and Homeland Security Department officials were saying publicly there was no credible evidence of a terrorist threat to the U.S. around the one-year anniversary of bin Laden's death.

"So that was misleading to the American public. We felt the American public needed to know this story," Pruitt said.

The AP has seen an effect on its newsgathering since the disclosure of the Justice Department's subpoena, he said.

"Officials that would normally talk to us and people we talk to in the normal course of newsgathering are already saying to us that they're a little reluctant to talk to us," Pruitt said. "They fear that they will be monitored by the government."

The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of personal and work telephone records for several reporters and editors, as well as general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery.

"It was sweeping and broad and beyond what they needed to do," Pruitt said.

He objected to the "Justice Department acting on its own being the judge, jury and executioner in secret," saying the AP would not back down.

"We're not going to be intimidated by the abusive tactics of the Justice Department," he said.

McConnell and Pfeiffer were interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press." Cornyn appeared on "Face the Nation."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-ceo-calls-records-seizure-unconstitutional-162821460.html

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Kim Kardashian to Take Baby on Tour: Right or Wrong?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/kim-kardashian-to-take-baby-on-tour-right-or-wrong/

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Myanmar leader making landmark White House visit (The Arizona Republic)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/306968918?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Share Your Rare Music Collection with the Internet

Sometimes, you love a song and it?s not on the web. That?s just not right, because the three or so generations alive today are largely responsible for making sure that all the important and interesting stuff (and not just cat videos) make it onto the Internet.

Note: This tutorial for Windows was adapted from this tutorial for Mac, which is why some of this text appears cribbed from there.

This is because the same way we have ?history? and ?prehistory,? we?re going to have ?post-internet? and ?pre-internet? access to information.

If you want to do your part and upload a bit of history from CD, cassette, vinyl, wax cylinder, reel-to-reel, or whatever, then you are a good person. The people of the future, not to mention the present, are depending on you, and possibly you alone.

A quick note on copyright for obvious reasons: We?re going to use YouTube for this, precisely because we?ll be using music to which we don?t have the rights. Google, which owns YouTube, offers mechanisms for rights holders to identify that music, claim it as their own, and either slap ads on it to earn money (for them, not you), or get it deleted. In other words, if one of these goes viral, someone will probably claim or delete it before you make any ill-gotten money, so calm down, we?re doing a good thing here. This is for posterity, not profit, at least by you.

To upload rare music onto the internet, first you need to get it onto your computer. You?re on your own for this part. I wrote a book about ten years ago that tells you how to grab a song from cassette, vinyl, or CD, but similar tutorials are all over the internet, for free. In basic terms, you?d either rip the CD at a high-bitrate MP3 format, or record it onto your computer using a simple $5 cable and the free Audacity software (make sure to get the Lame codec too ? the software tells you how), and output the song as an MP3.

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Start with an MP3

Yay, that was easy. Now you just need to upload it to YouTube ? but YouTube doesn't accept plain sound files, so you?ll need to make a video. Don?t worry, it?s as easy on Windows as it is on Mac.

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Make a Movie

On Windows, this means opening Windows Movie Maker by searching for it in the Windows Start Menu, because Microsoft likes to move it around. If you come up empty-handed, you can download it here for free here.

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Add a Photo

We don?t really care what this video looks like, because the point is to get a song onto YouTube. You can use your own video footage if you want, but it?s easier to just drop a photo in there and be done. For this example, I?m using a screengrab of The Fall?s album pre-order page from a story I never wrote, but really, you could use anything. After dragging the photo into the right pane of Movie Maker, I see this:

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Drag in the Song

Now you have a seven-second movie consisting of a still frame and no sound. We?re not there yet. Click Add Music > Add Music? like so:

Then navigate to the song you want in the Windows dialogue that follows. After you choose it, you?ll see something like this:

See the problem? The video is still only seven seconds long, and we want it to be as long as the song. Windows Movie Maker makes this super easy to fix. Click the Project tab, and click the ?Fit to Music? button on the upper left:

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Upload It

Your not-so-hard work is about to pay off for the possible good of some of humankind. All you need to do is export the movie directly into your YouTube account. You have one of those, right? If not, get one, but you already have one if you use Gmail, Android, or other Google stuff.

Go back to the Home tab, and click the YouTube button:

On the next screen, try the highest resolution YouTube will accept, because that way the music will sound better. (If your YouTube account is stuck at 2GB and you need more, you can try to up your limit here.)

We recommend selecting a high video resolution so that the music sounds good.

Now fill out this stuff, leave the video set to ?public,? and watch as this happens, or go do something else while Movie Maker processes your ?movie? and uploads it to YouTube:

There you go! Now spread the URL far and wide, or don?t ? so long as you put the artist and song in the title, the people who are looking for it should be able to find it.

(Top image courtesy of Flickr/PunkJr)

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Evolver.fm observes, tracks and analyzes the music apps scene, with the belief that it's crucial to how humans experience music, and how that experience is evolving.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/share-your-rare-music-collection-with-the-internet-507589378

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Bradley has 3-stroke lead after 2 rounds at Nelson

IRVING, Texas (AP) ? Keegan Bradley again bogeyed Nos. 1 and 18 in the second round of the Byron Nelson Championship.

Unlike the first round, Bradley didn't set a course record. But he still finished with a three-stroke lead.

Bradley started and ended his round Friday with those bogeys, part of a 1-under 69 that got him to 11-under 129, the lowest 36-hole total at the Nelson since 2001.

"I'm almost more proud of this round than yesterday because I didn't feel comfortable all day," said Bradley, whose opening 60 included his only bogeys at those same holes in the middle of that round. "I don't know what it was, I can't put my finger on it but, you know, I bogeyed the first hole. I was a little uncomfortable and then I settled in and hit some really good shots."

Tom Gillis, who shot 63 in the first group of the day off the No. 10 tee, and Sang-Moon Bae (66) were tied for second.

A stroke further back were 2012 PGA Tour rookie of the year John Huh (64), Ryan Palmer (68) and 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel (70). Schwartzel had an opening 63 and was the closest to Bradley after the first round.

"It was a bit up and down out there," said Schwartzel, who had three birdies and three bogeys. "Bit of a frustrating day, but I suppose it's the mix."

Bradley, whose first PGA Tour victory came as a rookie at the Nelson two years ago, started his second round with a drive that missed the fairway at the 458-yard first hole, then left his approach short of the green.

"The first hole is probably the easiest hole out here," he said. "I don't know why I keep making bogey on that hole."

At No. 18, he drove right into rough under the trees again near a cart path. He punched the ball, which rolled and flirted with water to the left before settling into a swale behind the green. He chipped to 6 1/2 feet, but missed the par putt.

"I've got a four-shot lead, so the last thing I wanted to do was plop it in the water. I bailed out," said Bradley, who also won the PGA Championship in 2011 and the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational last year. "I didn't hit that bad of a shot it just got in the wind. I thought it was going to be way left of where it was, but I'm going to hit good ones Saturday and Sunday."

In between those bogeys, Bradley had another bogey at No. 6, four birdies and several nice par-saving shots, including a two-putt from 35 feet after driving into the trees at No. 14 and a blast to 4 feet of the hole from a greenside bunker at No. 15.

Guan Tianlang, the 14-year-old amateur from China, missed the cut with rounds of 70 and 77.

After driving into the rough and then hitting into two bunkers for a double-bogey 6 at No. 12, his third hole Friday, Guan had a 19-foot birdie putt on the following par 3. He then had five consecutive bogeys.

Guan last month made the cut at the Masters and then again in New Orleans, becoming the youngest player ever to make the cut on the PGA Tour. He said he "probably" would stay in the United States to play more golf, but wasn't specific about where or confirm if he would play in a U.S. Open sectional qualifier June 3.

Defending Nelson champion Jason Dufner, playing with good friend Bradley, had his second consecutive 70 to make the cut of even par.

Gillis got rolling with three consecutive birdies, starting with a 13-foot putt at No. 12 before burying a 32-footer on the 180-yard par 3 right after that. His only bogey came at his closing hole, when he three-putted from 12 1/2 feet at the 427-yard ninth hole.

He had played an afternoon round Thursday, when 13 players shot 66 or better in the morning and the only one in the afternoon was Marc Leishman with a 66.

"It was easier, I think the wind was down and I was hoping that we would get a fair shot like they had (Thursday) morning just to see what it would be like," Gillis said. "Definitely, I thought it played better than in the afternoon."

After 1 1/2 inches of rain fell on the course Wednesday night, players were allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls hit in fairways and other short-cut areas. That rule remained in place Friday, even though the grounds were dry and the greens were firming up with more breezy conditions.

Two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton matched Gillis for the best round Friday, his 63 a nine-stroke improvement from the opening round to put him in a tie for 13th.

Gillis had missed his last five cuts with 12 straight rounds without breaking 70 before his opening 1-under 69 even while bogeys on three of his last four holes.

Asked about what was different this week, Gillis said he was more relaxed after reuniting with his coach.

"I stepped with a way for a couple of months and tried to do some things on my own and kind of got lost," Gillis said before explaining their separation. "We had disagreements on some things. ... You talk things out, work things out. People change. I think he was right all along, to be honest with you."

Bae, the 26-year-old South Korean who has 11 international victories but none on the PGA Tour, had six birdies and in his second 66 in a row.

"That was a little weird, I thought this course was very windy, but (Thursday) morning was really good weather," Bae said. "So yeah, different, but I shoot same score as (Thursday), so I'm happy."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bradley-3-stroke-lead-2-rounds-nelson-235119129.html

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Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2014 coming for Wii U ...

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First off the block at today's Nintendo Direct was Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games 2014 for Wii U. The next crossover athletics title from Sega and Nintendo will include several new events which make use of both Wii MotionPlus remotes and the GamePad.

The Mario and Sonic gangs will take to the slopes and rinks of Sochi, Russia for classic events like skiing and snowboarding, as well as new ones like figure skating pairs and curling. Curling is better suited to a sideways-held GamePad than most scientists predicted.

No offense, Sochi Parks & Recreation Department, but the real world gets boring fast. Thankfully, "Dream Events" take the contestants back to their worlds of choice to compete against the more out-there environs of Green Hill Zone and the Mushroom Kingdom.

A new racing event will combine several sports into one long, unbroken chain of game mascot athleticism, with skaters facing down bobsledders and skiers. Nintendo said to "stay tuned" for launch timing and more details--Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games launched in October 2010, so we wouldn't be surprised by a similar window.

Source: http://www.gamesradar.com/mario-sonic-olympic-winter-games-2014-coming-wii-u/

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California fuels $550 million Powerball jackpot

People line up to buy lottery tickets at the Bluebird Liquor store in Hawthorne, Calif. Thursday, May 16, 2013. The multi-state lottery's website said the Powerball drawing jackpot has soared to at least $550 million for next drawing to be held Saturday. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

People line up to buy lottery tickets at the Bluebird Liquor store in Hawthorne, Calif. Thursday, May 16, 2013. The multi-state lottery's website said the Powerball drawing jackpot has soared to at least $550 million for next drawing to be held Saturday. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

A man looks at the electronic ad for Powerball Jackpot of $475 million at the Bluebird Liquor store in Hawthorne, Calif. Thursday, May 16, 2013. The multistate lottery's website said the Powerball drawing jackpot has soared to of at least $550 million for next drawing to be held Saturday. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Dean Davis displays the Powerball ticket she bought at a Baker's supermarket in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, May 15, 2013. After weeks of rolling without a winner, the Powerball jackpot has once again ballooned in time for its Wednesday drawing, an estimated $360 million jackpot considered the third largest Powerball jackpot and the seventh largest jackpot in history. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Customers purchase Powerball tickets seeking a payout of around $475 million at a convenience store, Thursday, May 16, 2013, in Orlando, Fla. The prize is the third largest in lottery history, and the winning numbers will be drawn on Saturday. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Lilly Sanchez holds up lotto tickets she purchased including a Powerball ticket seeking a payout of around $475 million, Thursday, May 16, 2013, in Orlando, Fla. The prize is the third largest in lottery history, and the winning numbers will be drawn on Saturday.(AP Photo/John Raoux)

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? The numbers sum up the frenzy that has taken over the Golden State since it joined the madness over Powerball, which has seen its jackpot soar to $550 million for Saturday's drawing.

California has sold $83 million worth of Powerball tickets since April, when it joined 42 other states that offer the game. Since then, the most populous state has accounted for 11 percent of the game's sales, fueling such fast-growing mega-jackpots like the latest one that has the potential to be a record-breaker.

The state expects to generate well above the originally estimated $50 million for public education, California lottery director Robert O'Neill told The Associated Press.

"One thing California has brought Powerball is sunshine and good fortune," he said. "It has surprised us. We're very happy."

Californians have Nevadans to thank for some of that good fortune.

California's biggest ticket-seller is the Primm Valley Lotto Store, which straddles the state line in tiny Nipton, a 19th century mining and ranching town on the edge of the Mojave desert whose booming lottery sales have put it on the map in modern times.

Roxie Handley figured all 80 of its residents would have a ticket in hand by Saturday. That's if they can find the time.

"Here in Nipton, it's crazy," said Handley, 59, who manages the Nipton Trading Post, which also sells Powerball tickets. "We're stocking up on everything. Last night, I heard some people had to wait nine hours in line."

The town is about 35 miles from Las Vegas on the main interstate from the Los Angeles area. Residents of the nation's No. 1 gambling state do not have access to the lottery. The Nevada state constitution contains a prohibition on lotteries, which are seen as competition to the casino industry.

Norma Wagoner was among the Nevadans trying their luck. She and a group of friends pooled their money to buy 20 tickets and sent one over the state border to endure the long lines.

"Everybody has dreams," she said. "All it takes is one ticket."

Officials expect the jackpot to keep growing before Saturday's drawing that could break Powerball's November 2012 record of $587.5 million.

The latest kitty leapt nearly $200 million since Wednesday's drawing, which was an estimated $360 million. The $550 million jackpot is the second largest in Powerball history and third biggest overall.

Lottery officials expect jackpots to continue growing faster and bigger, thanks in part to a game redesign in January 2012 that increased the odds of winning some kind of prize of a lesser amount. On Wednesday, $1 million prizes were won in 16 states, and $2 million prizes were won in two states. California had six tickets among the winning ones Wednesday, including one sold in Nipton.

More than half of the all-time jackpot records have been reached in the last three years. The top two all-time jackpots ? $656 million from a Mega Millions jackpot and $587.5 million from a Powerball jackpot ? were achieved in 2012. Some states, like California, now sell tickets for both games.

The last major jackpot win came when a New Jersey man won a $338.3 million jackpot March 23. It is now considered the fourth largest Powerball jackpot in history.

For Nipton, folks feel they've already won thanks to the boom in business.

"It kind of disrupts our peace and quiet," said Handley, although she admits she too plans to snap up a ticket.

Most of the talk she hears around town these days, she says, is of people daydreaming about quitting their jobs and traveling with their millions: "Everybody wants a piece of the pie."

But she said she would likely give most of it away.

"Having a lot of money I think would be a lot of headache," she said. "Nipton has a lot of history. It's the place to come if you want to get away. We have a five-room bed and breakfast with no phones, no TVs, where you can sit and watch the trains go by. It's our little piece of heaven. I have things money can't buy."

___

Rodriguez reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and can be found at http://twitter.com/bcrodriguez . Associated Press writer Hannah Dreier in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-17-Powerball%20Jackpot/id-c610280eab9f4de7a8ec35e0610cf0d8

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A new art: drawing or writing with ... flight path - Pilot Shop
In a flight of about 7:00 p.m. in the U.S., the first airliner built entirely from composite materials flew on a route of the form 787 and Boeing logo. "Writing" was revealed by tracking aircraft route.
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House lawmakers reach tentative deal to revamp immigration

By Richard Cowan and Rachelle Younglai

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prospects for passage of a major immigration bill improved on Thursday when a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives declared they had reached a tentative deal, resolving disputes that had threatened to torpedo negotiations.

The breakthrough came at the end of a two-hour private meeting of seven Republican and Democratic negotiators. The eighth negotiator in this so-called House Gang of Eight was unavailable after undergoing surgery on Wednesday.

The final sticking point, according to congressional sources, was over whether illegal immigrants now in the United States who gain legal status under the bill could participate in the new healthcare law known as "Obamacare," which Republicans want to repeal.

None of the negotiators would comment on how the matter was resolved. Nor would they provide other details of the deal.

Even with Thursday's breakthrough, the drive to enact a comprehensive immigration bill, which is President Barack Obama's top legislative priority, faces a long, difficult road in Congress.

The agreement still must be drafted into legislation for review by the 435 members of the House. Then it faces a potentially tough battle in the House Judiciary Committee, where several conservative Republicans have been dead-set against a comprehensive bill. Instead, they mostly want to pass tougher border security measures and allow U.S. companies to get better access to foreign high-tech workers.

Any proposal to provide a path to citizenship for 11 million people now in the United States illegally, which is part of a Senate bill, is certain to draw fierce opposition from some Republican quarters.

Furthermore, the House bill will not fully conform to the measure winding its way through the Democratic-controlled Senate.

JUST A 'FIRST STEP'

"There are going to be a lot of differences in a lot of areas" between the House and Senate bills, said Republican Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, one of the House negotiators.

The tentative deal, he added, is "the first step of a difficult process. But it's a very important step."

Diaz-Balart would not say whether the deal includes an agreement to leave some difficult issues unresolved for now.

Besides healthcare questions, the bipartisan group had been squabbling over the future flow of foreigners streaming into the United States for temporary workers.

"We have essentially come to an agreement on all the major points," Democratic Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky told reporters after closed-door meeting broke up. He added that some "loose ends" still had to be worked out.

The bipartisan group has been attempting to introduce an immigration bill for years. But disputes over border security, work visa numbers and healthcare provisions had grown to the point that there were fears some lawmakers might be on the verge of dropping out of the long negotiations.

The group had also been arguing over the "triggers" that would define when additional border security steps under the legislation would be sufficient to start legalizing some of the 11 million unauthorized foreigners, sources said.

There was also disagreement over several other policy issues central to an immigration bill, including the number of foreign high-tech workers who would be allowed in, as well as low-skilled construction and service industry laborers.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is in the midst of debating that chamber's bipartisan bill, with the goal of bringing a bill before the full Senate next month.

That panel is struggling with the work visa program in the bill and is under intense pressure from technology companies to make it easier to hire foreign workers.

One of the members of the House group, Republican John Carter, told reporters on Thursday that there was no way the Senate bill would pass the Republican-controlled House.

Immediately following the November 6 elections, in which Hispanic voters roundly rejected Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, House Speaker John Boehner called on his party to pivot on immigration.

After years of blocking moves to put the 11 million on a pathway to citizenship that many conservatives call "amnesty," Boehner, the top elected U.S. Republican, urged his party to work for a major revamp of immigration laws.

Boehner's call for action angered many of his most conservative rank-and-file Republican House members, as well as some conservative interest groups. As a result, it is unclear how Boehner will navigate between his desire to accomplish an immigration bill and resistance from many fellow Republicans.

Earlier on Thursday, before the bipartisan deal, Boehner expressed concerns about the lack of progress in the House so far. He added, "I continue to believe that the House ... needs to work its will. How we get there, we're still dealing with it."

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Fred Barbash, Cynthia Osterman and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-house-lawmakers-reach-tentative-deal-revamp-immigration-000104179.html

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A Cruise Ship In The Desert? Zaha?s Next Project

Zaha Hadid Architects' proposal for a new intermodal transit station for the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, at first glance looks something like a cruise ship with a sharp prow cutting through the desert. This was part of the inspiration, as the sine waves that roll across the fa?ade and organize the interior are derived from wind-generated waves of sand. Read more.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/nLkxLbIFHvE/a-cruise-ship-in-the-desert-zaha-s-next-project-508212581

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Android shipments explode in Q1 as iPhone stalls; Windows Phone tops BlackBerry

Smartphone Shipments Q1 2013

Microsoft and BlackBerry are fighting to become viable alternatives in the mobile market, and while Android and iOS accounted for a majority of smartphone shipments in the first quarter, Windows Phone made some significant moves that propelled it ahead of BlackBerry. Research firm IDC found that Windows Phone shipped 7 million smartphones, accounting for 3.2% of all shipments in the first quarter of 2013, more than double the year-ago quarter. Microsoft was able to overtake BlackBerry, which despite its new BlackBerry 10 operating system, saw smartphone shipments decline from 9.7 million units to 6.3 million units, accounting for 2.9% of global channel sales.

[More from BGR: Google announces ?the end of search as we know it?]

?Windows Phone claiming the third spot is a first and helps validate the direction taken by Microsoft and key partner Nokia,? said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC. ?Given the relatively low volume generated, the Windows Phone camp will need to show further gains to solidify its status as an alterative to Android or iOS.?

[More from BGR: Microsoft uses Google CEO?s own words against him in YouTube app battle]

Android shipments increased from 90.3 million in the first quarter of 2012 to a whopping 162.1 million units in Q1 2013. Google and its vendor partners accounted for 75% of all smartphones shipped in the first quarter, up from 59.1% in Q1 of 2012.

iPhone shipment growth slowed significantly, increasing a mere 6.6% from 35.1 million units to 37.4 million last quarter. Apple?s operating system accounted for 17.3% of shipments, a decrease from 23% in the same quarter of last year.

?Underpinning the worldwide smartphone market is the constantly shifting operating system landscape,? noted Ramon Llamas, research manager at IDC. ?Android and iOS accounted for more than the lion?s share of smartphones in the first quarter, but a closer examination of the other platforms reveals turnaround and demand for alternatives. Windows Phone has benefited from Nokia?s participation, and BlackBerry?s new BB10 devices have already hit a million units shipped in its first quarter of availability.?

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/android-shipments-explode-q1-iphone-stalls-windows-phone-132026019.html

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Obama honors 'tough compassionate' cop

Speaking at the 32nd annual National Peace Officers Memorial Service on Wednesday, President Barack Obama publicly honored, among others, officer Bruce St. Laurent, who died last year assisting Obama's motorcade in Florida.

Laurent, a husband and father of four, was killed Sept. 9 when his police motorcycle was struck by a pickup truck as he was closing access to a highway in Palm Beach County.

"He was, according to a friend, 'just what a cop should be: tough compassionate, caring and brave.' But to his community, he was more than a cop," Obama said, noting that St. Laurent had survived cancer, served as a high school teacher and an unofficial snake wrangler, and enjoyed playing Santa Claus for children at Christmastime.

Obama delivered his remarks as part of a memorial held annually on Capitol Hill for National Police Week in Washington, which began in 1982 as a gathering in Senate Park to honor fallen officers. A total of 143 officers were honored at this year's ceremony.

In addition to St. Laurent, Obama noted by name fallen officers Barbara A. Pill of Brevard County, Fla., who Obama said long worked to help her community; Bradley Michael Fox of Plymouth Township, Pa., who served two tours in Iraq; and Scott Ward of Baldwin County, Ala., a military veteran whose funeral procession "stretched for miles," the president said.

Obama urged the country to honor officers not "only in the wake of tragedy. We should do it every day."

The president on Saturday hosted an annual Police Week ceremony at the White House where he honored 43 officers designated as "Top Cops" by their peers.

There, Obama invoked those who helped bring the Boston Marathon suspects to justice:

Our entire country saw once again the strong stuff that these men and women in uniform are made of?police officers, first responders who were running towards explosions, not knowing if there was something more on the way?law enforcement from different agencies and different parts of the country working together as one united team to identify suspects and bring them to justice, and in a moment that few of us will ever forget, the citizens of Watertown, Mass., lining their streets to cheer on and high-five and hug the officers as they headed home after a job well done.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-honor-fallen-police-officers-143113114.html

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Sony's Xperia A Android 4.1 smartphone announced for NTT DoCoMo

Sony is adding another option to its smartphone lineup with this Xperia A it just announced in Japan. Spotted a few days ago in an FCC filing, the SO-04E will be released on the 17th on NTT DoCoMo. It slots in a step below the Z and ZL models on the spec sheet however, with a 1,280 x 720 4.6-inch LCD. It shares most of their internals, with a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU and Android 4.1, which are nice, but not the latest out (Snapdragon 600 and Android 4.2.) It also packs a 2,300mAh battery, 13MP rear camera and 0.3MP front camera. Like all of the phones announced today in NTT DoCoMo's summer push it supports LTE, and it will have NOTTV access after an update this fall.

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Human skin cells converted into embryonic stem cells: First time human stem cells have been produced via nuclear transfer

May 15, 2013 ? Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) have successfully reprogrammed human skin cells to become embryonic stem cells capable of transforming into any other cell type in the body. It is believed that stem cell therapies hold the promise of replacing cells damaged through injury or illness. Diseases or conditions that might be treated through stem cell therapy include Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, cardiac disease and spinal cord injuries.

The research breakthrough, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., a senior scientist at ONPRC, follows previous success in transforming monkey skin cells into embryonic stem cells in 2007. This latest research will be published in the journal Cell online May 15 and in print June 6.

The technique used by Drs. Mitalipov, Paula Amato, M.D., and their colleagues in OHSU's Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, is a variation of a commonly used method called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT. It involves transplanting the nucleus of one cell, containing an individual's DNA, into an egg cell that has had its genetic material removed. The unfertilized egg cell then develops and eventually produces stem cells.

"A thorough examination of the stem cells derived through this technique demonstrated their ability to convert just like normal embryonic stem cells, into several different cell types, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells. Furthermore, because these reprogrammed cells can be generated with nuclear genetic material from a patient, there is no concern of transplant rejection," explained Dr. Mitalipov. "While there is much work to be done in developing safe and effective stem cell treatments, we believe this is a significant step forward in developing the cells that could be used in regenerative medicine."

Another noteworthy aspect of this research is that it does not involve the use of fertilized embryos, a topic that has been the source of a significant ethical debate.

The Mitalipov team's success in reprogramming human skin cells came through a series of studies in both human and monkey cells. Previous unsuccessful attempts by several labs showed that human egg cells appear to be more fragile than eggs from other species. Therefore, known reprogramming methods stalled before stem cells were produced.

To solve this problem, the OHSU group studied various alternative approaches first developed in monkey cells and then applied to human cells. Through moving findings between monkey cells and human cells, the researchers were able to develop a successful method.

The key to this success was finding a way to prompt egg cells to stay in a state called "metaphase" during the nuclear transfer process. Metaphase is a stage in the cell's natural division process (meiosis) when genetic material aligns in the middle of the cell before the cell divides. The research team found that chemically maintaining metaphase throughout the transfer process prevented the process from stalling and allowed the cells to develop and produce stem cells.

"This is a remarkable accomplishment by the Mitalipov lab that will fuel the development of stem cell therapies to combat several diseases and conditions for which there are currently no treatments or cures," said Dr. Dan Dorsa, Ph.D., OHSU Vice President for Research. "The achievement also highlights OHSU's deep reproductive expertise across our campuses. A key component to this success was the translation of basic science findings at the OHSU primate center paired with privately funded human cell studies."

One important distinction is that while the method might be considered a technique for cloning stem cells, commonly called therapeutic cloning, the same method would not likely be successful in producing human clones otherwise known as reproductive cloning. Several years of monkey studies that utilize somatic cell nuclear transfer have never successfully produced monkey clones. It is expected that this is also the case with humans. Furthermore, the comparative fragility of human cells as noted during this study, is a significant factor that would likely prevent the development of clones.

"Our research is directed toward generating stem cells for use in future treatments to combat disease," added Dr. Mitalipov. "While nuclear transfer breakthroughs often lead to a public discussion about the ethics of human cloning, this is not our focus, nor do we believe our findings might be used by others to advance the possibility of human reproductive cloning."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/r7SfWpomPDM/130515125030.htm

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Scientists shape first global topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan

May 15, 2013 ? Scientists have created the first global topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan, giving researchers a valuable tool for learning more about one of the most Earthlike and interesting worlds in the solar system.

Titan is Saturn's largest moon -- at 1,600 miles (2,574 kilometers) across it's bigger than planet Mercury -- and is the second-largest in the solar system. Scientists care about Titan because it's the only moon in the solar system known to have clouds, surface liquids and a mysterious, thick atmosphere. The cold atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, like Earth's, but methane on Titan acts the way water vapor does on Earth, forming clouds and falling as rain and carving the surface with rivers. Organic chemicals, derived from methane, are present in Titan's atmosphere, lakes and rivers and may offer clues about the origins of life.

"Titan has so much interesting activity -- like flowing liquids and moving sand dunes -- but to understand these processes it's useful to know how the terrain slopes," says Ralph Lorenz, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., who led the map-design team. "It's especially helpful to those studying hydrology and modeling Titan's climate and weather, who need to know whether there is high ground or low ground driving their models."

Titan's thick haze scatters light in ways that make it very hard for remote cameras to "see" landscape shapes and shadows, the usual approach to measuring topography on planetary bodies. Virtually all the data we have on Titan comes from NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft, which has flown past the moon nearly 100 times over the past decade. On many of those flybys, Cassini has used a radar imager, which can peer through the haze, and the radar data can be used to estimate the surface height.

"With this new topographic map, one of the most fascinating and dynamic worlds in our solar system now pops out in 3-D," says Steve Wall, the deputy lead of Cassini's radar team, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "On Earth, rivers, volcanoes, and even weather are closely related to heights of surfaces -- we're now eager to see what we can learn from them on Titan."

There are challenges, however. "Cassini isn't orbiting Titan," Lorenz says. "We have only imaged about half of Titan's surface, and multiple 'looks' or special observations are needed to estimate the surface heights. If you divided Titan into 1-degree by 1-degree [latitude and longitude] squares, only 11 percent of those squares have topography data in them."

Lorenz's team used a mathematical process called splining -- effectively using smooth curved surfaces to "join" the areas between grids of existing data. "You can take a spot where there is no data, look how close it is to the nearest data, and use various approaches of averaging and estimating to calculate your best guess," he says. "If you pick a point, and all the nearby points are high altitude, you'd need a special reason for thinking that point would be lower. We're mathematically papering over the gaps in our coverage."

The estimations fit with current knowledge of the moon -- that its polar regions are "lower" than areas around the equator, for example -- but connecting those points allows scientists to add new layers to their studies of Titan's surface, especially those modeling how and where Titan's rivers flow, and the seasonal distribution of its methane rainfall. "The movement of sands and the flow of liquids are influenced by slopes, and mountains can trigger cloud formation and therefore rainfall. This global product now gives modelers a convenient description of this key factor in Titan's dynamic climate system," Lorenz says.

The most recent data used to compile the map is from 2012; Lorenz says it could be worth revising when the Cassini mission ends in 2017, when more data will have accumulated, filling some of the gaps in present coverage. "We felt we couldn't wait and should release an interim product," he says. "The community has been hoping to get this for a while. I think it will stimulate a lot of interesting work."

The map, as well as a paper on the project ("A Global Topography Map of Titan"), appear in the journal Icarus (see link to abstract below).

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and ASI, the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the US and several European countries.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/jsIFu6JimlA/130515163940.htm

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