Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/314498697?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, 22 June 2013
Lindau 2013: Unity and diversity
This blog post originates from the Lindau Nobel Online Community,the interactive forum of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. The 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, dedicated to chemistry, will be held in Lindau, Germany, from 30 June to 5 July 2013. 35 Nobel Laureates will congregate to meet more than 600 young researchers from approximately 80 countries.
Ashutosh (Ash) Jogalekar is part of the official blog team. Please find all of his postings in the Community blog.
In the last post I described how chemistry more than many other sciences is a land of diversity. This diversity becomes especially apparent when we size up the list of Nobel Laureates who will gather at Lindau this year, especially in terms of their work which spans the fields of chemistry, physics, biology and medicine.
The first thing that makes this diversity clear is the fact that some of the scientists here have not even won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. A prominent example is the duo of Serge Heroche and David Wineland who got the physics prize last year for developing ingenious methods to trap and play with single atoms and ions. Yet their methods are relevant to the general study of atoms and molecules. A similar example comes from Steven Chu, former US Secretary of Energy who also developed methods for taming unruly atoms, this time by cooling them using lasers.
On the other hand, Walter Kohn and his fellow prize winner (the late John Pople) who did get the chemistry prize provide a model example of the interdisciplinary nature of chemistry. As a physicist who studied under another famous Nobel Laureate, Julian Schwinger, Kohn shared the prize for developing widely used methods to calculate the details of molecular structure. And he shared the prize with Pople, who originally trained as a mathematician.
If the overlap between physics and chemistry is suggestive, that between chemistry and medicine is dead obvious. A look at the history of the medicine and chemistry Nobel Prizes demonstrates that you could have easily switched many of the prizes without anyone noticing. For instance Brian Kobilka, Aaron Ciechanover, Ada Yonath and Peter Agre are just four examples of laureates who were recognized for medically important discoveries and who could have easily been ?hijacked? by the other side. In fact Agre and Ciechanover are not even formally trained in chemistry; both of them are doctors with MD degrees.
When I had dinner with them at Lindau in 2009, both of them joked about how they were now regarded as experts in chemistry, in spite of the fact that neither of them would probably do well in a formal chemistry class. And we also have an undisputed medical discovery here, the finding by Harald zur Hausen that the human papilloma virus causes herpes. It?s worth noting that the Lindau council still found in pertinent to include zur Hausen in this august cast of characters, possibly because the discovery of a virus (a collection of ?chemicals? including proteins and nucleic acids) leads the way to the discovery of anti-viral drugs (a counterclass?of ?chemicals?).
Even within the group of prizewinners who could be regarded as bonafide chemists, the diversity of?research is clear and is a testament to the astonishing reach of the ?central science?. There are scientists who worked out the structure of biologically important molecules (Brian Kobilka, Robert Huber, Ada Yonath, Hartmut Michel), who invented new methods for efficiently making molecules (Akira Suzuki, Robert Grubbs), who studied the destruction of the ozone layer and its consequences for humanity (Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina), who coined a word for an entirely new way of practicing chemistry (Jean-Marie Lehn), who discovered new forms of carbon (Sir Harold Kroto) and who founded the genetic engineering revolution (Walter Gilbert).
Even the limited sampling of Nobel Laureates at Lindau provides an idea of the sweep of chemistry in accomplishing every important scientific and technological goal, from exploring the fundamental structure of matter to paving the way toward novel medical therapies. In addition the work of this year?s Lindau Laureates addresses issues across the intellectual spectrum, from pure investigations of atoms to findings of direct relevance to drug discovery and design. It would be hard to top the catholicity of discovery provided by this eclectic collection of scientists.
The diversity of discovery found among the Lindau Nobel Laureates gels well with my thoughts on chemical diversity and unity from the previous post. There are indeed a few unifiers in the list; for instance Rudolf Marcus can be said to have unified physics and photosynthesis, and Molina and Crutzen unified basic physical chemistry with politics. But by and large the men and women at Lindau this year are diversifiers. They came into this world wanting to know how and why. And they stand before us today, having left our world a little more interesting for us to explore.
Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=lindau-2013-unity-and-diversity
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Video: What's Bernanke's Next Move?
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/cnbc/52279871/
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Friday, 21 June 2013
Heat poses risks for pets, too | Fox 59 News ? fox59.com
When it?s hot outside, the inside of an unattended vehicle can get as hot as an oven.
It?s certainly no place for a pet, although some will still find themselves trapped inside cars around Central Indiana as temperatures rise.
Experts say, when temperatures outside reach 80 degrees, it can take just 30 minutes to hit 110 degrees inside a car. Even cracking a window won?t help an animal forced to stay inside. Health conditions can deteriorate quickly?animals can sustain brain damage or even die from heat stroke in just 15 minutes.
Leaving a pet inside a hot car is not only cruel, it can be criminal.
?If the pet?s in pretty good shape and we catch it early enough, I?ll normally give them a citation under the Hamilton County Ordinance, which is nothing more than an ordinance violation. But it is punishable up to a fine of a thousand dollars,? said Deputy Tom Rogers, in charge of animal control in Hamilton County.
Rogers also says if the animal requires serious medical attention, it can be considered a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to $5,000 and up to a year behind bars. You will also likely lose your pet.
If you see a pet in a hot car and you think the situation is serious enough, call 911.
Source: http://fox59.com/2013/06/20/heat-poses-risks-for-pets-too/
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Tuesday, 21 May 2013
i'm going to make it (after all): Home Improvement: Living Room
Here is our finished living room.
Almost everything in this room has been replaced since we moved in nearly four years ago. The front door was really old and rotten, and parts were held together with packing tape! We replaced it a couple of years ago, a generous gift from Andrew's parents. I painted the room a natural green color called "Witch Hazel." We pulled out all of the old, icky carpeting from this room, and Andrew and my parents replaced it with laminate wood flooring. The floor was a housewarming gift from my parents, so we really lucked out in some of these expenses. My mom helped me install new baseboards to replace the old, fake-wood ones. We hung new curtains, and I bought a new floor lamp from IKEA.
Here's a before and after photo that shows the old room color, old door, and old carpet.
Source: http://becky-shattuck.blogspot.com/2013/05/home-improvement-living-room.html
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Tuesday, 30 April 2013
'Iron Man 3' rules world, 'Pain & Gain' takes US
This film image released by Paramount Pictures shows, from left, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie and Mark Wahlberg in a scene from "Pain and Gain." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Jaime Trueblood)
This film image released by Paramount Pictures shows, from left, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie and Mark Wahlberg in a scene from "Pain and Gain." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Jaime Trueblood)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? "Iron Man 3" was the heavy-lifter at theaters with a colossal overseas debut that overshadowed a gang of mercenary bodybuilders in a sleepy pre-summer weekend at the domestic box office.
The Marvel Studios superhero sequel starring Robert Downey Jr. got a head-start on its domestic launch next Friday with a $195.3 million opening in 42 overseas markets, distributor Disney reported Sunday.
That topped the $185.1 million start for Marvel's "The Avengers," which opened in 39 markets over the same weekend last year a week ahead of its record-breaking domestic debut of $207.4 million.
"You don't know that you could ever repeat the kind of experience we had a year ago, and here the Marvel team brought together another incredible movie," said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney. "We've had this as a pattern for Marvel films to kind of let momentum internationally help signal to the domestic audience that the film is coming, something big is coming."
Director Michael Bay's "Pain & Gain," a true-crime tale of bodybuilders on the make, muscled into first-place domestically with a $20 million debut.
The Paramount release starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie knocked off Tom Cruise's sci-fi adventure "Oblivion" after a week in the No. 1 spot. Universal's "Oblivion" slipped to second-place with $17.4 million, raising its domestic total to $64.7 million.
Lionsgate's all-star nuptial comedy "The Big Wedding" tanked at No. 4 with just $7.5 million. The ensemble cast includes Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon and Katherine Heigl, but the movie was almost universally trashed by critics and held little interest for audiences.
Paramount, which distributed the earlier "Iron Man" movies and still has a financial stake in the comic-book flicks after Disney bought Marvel, had a small-scale success with "Pain & Gain."
A passion project for Bay, who has made Paramount a fortune with his "Transformers" franchise, "Pain & Gain" was shot for a modest $26 million, spare change compared to the director's usual budgets.
The movie has the director taking a breather from his usual sci-fi action spectacles for a story based on a kidnapping-extortion caper carried out by bodybuilders in the 1990s. Yet "Pain & Gain" still has Bay's usual visual flair, and the reviews generally were better than what he's used to.
"With that kind of budget, to open to $20 million the first weekend is a very strong opening," said Don Harris, Paramount's head of distribution. "You see what a director really in his prime, at the top of his game, can do with a small budget, what he can make a movie look like."
"Oblivion" was down a fairly steep 53 percent from the movie's $37.1 million domestic debut the previous weekend.
Overseas, "Oblivion" took in $12.8 million to lift its international haul to $134.1 million and worldwide total to just under $200 million.
Hollywood's domestic downturn continued, with revenues totaling $90 million, off 18.5 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Think Like a Man" led with $17.6 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
Receipts have trailed 2012's for most of the year, with 2013 domestic ticket sales running at $2.9 billion, nearly 12 percent behind last year's.
That pattern could continue as Hollywood opens its summer season domestically this coming weekend. Despite a huge haul expected for "Iron Man 3," the film will be competing against that gigantic start over the same weekend last year for "The Avengers," the only movie to open with more than $200 million domestically.
"Iron Man 2" debuted with $128.1 million over the first weekend in May 2010. Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian has been pegging the "Iron Man 3" potential at $125 million-plus, though the mammoth international start could fire up domestic prospects even higher.
"This ups the ante in a big way for "Iron Man 3," Dergarabedian said. "It just raises the profile of the film. It raises expectations. But to expect something in the realm of $207.4 million? Well, the fact that we're even talking about it is really amazing."
Said Disney's Hollis: "I wouldn't even want to get ahead of ourselves on something like that. But to say we're encouraged by the results this weekend would be a gross understatement."
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Pain & Gain," $20 million.
2. "Oblivion," $17.4 million ($12.8 million international).
3. "42," $10.7 million.
4. "The Big Wedding," $7.5 million.
5. "The Croods," $6.6 million ($13.1 million international).
6. "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," $3.6 million ($10.2 million international).
7. "Scary Movie 5," $3.5 million ($6.7 million international).
8. "Olympus Has Fallen," $2.8 million ($4.2 million international).
9. "The Place Beyond the Pines," $2.7 million ($1.1 million international).
10. "Jurassic Park" in 3-D, $2.3 million ($410,000 international).
___
Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:
1. "Iron Man 3," $195.3 million.
2. "The Croods," $13.1 million.
3. "Oblivion," $12.8 million.
4. "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," $10.2 million.
5. "Scary Movie 5," $6.7 million.
6. "Olympus Has Fallen," $4.2 million,
7. "Les Profs," $3.8 million.
8 (tie). "Evil Dead," $1.1 million.
8 (tie). "The Place Beyond the Pines," $1.1 million.
10. "Jurassic Park" in 3-D, $410,000.
___
Online:
http://www.hollywood.com
http://www.rentrak.com
___
Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
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Monday, 29 April 2013
Gay athletes have come out while active or retired
Even before Jason Collins, plenty of other athletes around the world have come out as gay, either while still active or in retirement.
From Martina Navratilova to Greg Louganis to Sheryl Swoopes, men and women from a variety of sports have openly acknowledged their sexuality, though many others are believed to still be reluctant to come forward.
Collins, a 34-year-old NBA veteran, became the first active player in the four major American professional sports to come out as gay, writing a first-person account posted on Sports Illustrated's website Monday. Collins has played for six teams in 12 seasons, including this past season with the Washington Wizards, and is now a free agent.
"It is hugely powerful when any individual in the sports world, wherever they come from in the world, feels able to come out," said Ruth Hunt, deputy chief executive of the British gay rights organization Stonewall. "The fact that this is a current player adds to the strength of his statement."
Previously, some pro sports athletes waited until after quitting to say they were gay, including former NBA player John Amaechi and former NFL running back Dave Kopay. English soccer player Justin Fashanu committed suicide in 1998, eight years after coming out during his playing career.
Amaechi, a center who played five seasons with four teams, became the first NBA player to publicly come out in 2007, three years after the Englishman's playing career was over. He said Collins spoke with him before deciding to come out and called his decision "ground-breaking" and one that could encourage other gay athletes to follow suit.
"I'm getting tons of messages right now from people talking to me about him, about what he's done," Amaechi told The Associated Press. "I've spoken to a couple of college athletes in the States and a couple of high school athletes who are very good who have been immensely buoyed by this news.
"They feel a weight lifted off them even if they aren't out and they aren't going to come out at this point."
Sports leagues in Britain and elsewhere in Europe have been trying to combat anti-gay bias. But the taboo remains particularly strong in soccer, where there are no openly gay players in Europe's top leagues. Homophobic chants still occur at some games.
"Football is not going to change," Amaechi said. "If it wanted to change it would change. It has the resources to do so. It doesn't want to change."
Amaechi said he has been in touch with soccer players, including in the English Premier League, who are gay but are not ready to go public.
"Many of them are out already," he said. "They are out in the way that most people are out in that people they love and that people who care about them know that they are gay. But random strangers don't know that they are gay."
Fashanu remains the only top-level British soccer player to have come out publicly, acknowledging he was gay in 1990. The former Nottingham Forest and Norwich City striker was found hanged in a London garage at age 37.
According to an inquest, Fashanu left a note saying, because he was gay, he feared he wouldn't get a fair trial in the United States on sexual assault charges. Maryland police were seeking him on charges that he sexually assaulted a 17-year-old boy after a party at his apartment.
Robbie Rogers, a former U.S. national team player who played for Leeds in England's second-tier division last season, went public in February that he was gay, saying on his personal website that "I realized I could only truly enjoy my life once I was honest." He also said he was retiring from the sport.
Anti-gay sentiment in soccer has been expressed in different ways.
Last year, Italy forward Antonio Cassano said he hoped there were no homosexual players on the national team and used a derogatory word to describe gays. Fans of two-time defending Russian champion Zenit St. Petersburg signed a petition saying gay players were "unworthy of our great city." Marcello Lippi, Italy's World Cup winning manager, caused a stir in 2009 when he said he had never come across a gay player and would advise gay players to stay in the closet.
"The NBA is light years ahead of football, there is no doubt about that," Amaechi said.
In the U.S., Kopay, who played for five NFL teams over 10 years, was the first pro athlete to acknowledge his homosexuality publicly when he came out in 1977 after retiring, and wrote a book about it.
Four-time diving gold medalist Louganis revealed he was gay in 1994, a year before announcing he was also HIV-positive.
Swoopes, a WNBA star and three-time Olympic gold medalist, disclosed in 2005 that she was gay.
In tennis, women's greats Navratilova and Billie Jean King came out about their sexuality. Former French player Amelie Mauresmo also spoke about her sexual orientation.
U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe came out before she played in last year's London Olympics. WNBA star Seimone Augustus and the league's No. 1 draft pick, Brittney Griner, are some of the more recent female athletes to follow suit.
Glenn Burke, an outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland A's in the 1970s, and Billy Bean, a utility player in the 1980s and 1990s, disclosed they were gay after retiring. Burke died of complications due to AIDS in 1995.
Gareth Thomas, a Welsh rugby star, attracted widespread media attention in 2009 when he announced he was gay; he played until he retired in 2011.
"I was like a ticking bomb. I thought I could suppress it, keep it locked away in some dark corner of myself, but I couldn't. It was who I was, and I just couldn't ignore it any more. I'd been through every emotion under the sun trying to deal with this," Thomas said in a recent documentary broadcast on British television.
Orlando Cruz of Puerto Rico came out in October as pro boxing's first openly gay fighter, saying, "I don't want to hide any of my identities. I want people to look at me for the human being I am."
Canadian swimmer Mark Tewksbury came out as gay six years after winning a gold medal in the backstroke at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Former Olympic skiing gold medalist Anja Paerson of Sweden announced last year after her retirement that she was in a long-term relationship with a woman. Australian diver Matthew Mitcham came out as gay before he won the men's 10-meter platform gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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AP Sports Writer Rob Harris in London contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gay-athletes-come-while-active-retired-225227273.html
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