SEOUL?? South Korea has invited Boeing, Lockheed Martin and EADS to participate in its next generation fighter jet program, in which the country will invest 8.3 trillion won ($7.39 billion) until 2021.
The air-power project comes as the country braces for changing dynamics on the Korean Peninsula after the death in December of Kim Jong Il, the former leader of North Korea, with which the South is still technically at war.
Neighboring Japan recently chose U.S. contractor Lockheed Martin to build a fleet of 42 F-35 planes, valued by analysts at more than $7 billion, and China plans to introduce its own stealth fighters.
The deadline for proposals will close on June 18, South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said at a presentation to contractors.
Wee Jong-seong, director of the agency's fighter project team, said the three firms' aircraft met operational capability requirements.
'Stealth capabilities'
Prospective planes for the bidding include Lockheed's F-35 Lightning II and EADS's Eurofighter Typhoon.
A DAPA spokesman declined to specify how many planes it planned to buy.
However, Yonhap News Agency reported that South Korea was seeking "60 fifth-generation fighter jets with stealth capabilities." It didn't cite a source.
Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
My daughter is a commercial junkie, she can sing the tunes and jingles to just about all of them.? As soon as my daughter saw the commercial for Wuggle Pets, she begged for me to buy her some.? In a matter of seconds she was hooked,? pointing out her favorite and telling me in which order she wanted to buy them!? That's right!? She didn't want just one or two, she wants them all!
?
?Wuggle Pets are the cute and adorable stuffed animals that kids bring to life themselves.? They get to stuff them, add magic dust and even give them their own unique personality.? Plus, each adorable Wuggle comes with its very own birth certificate so you can name it yourself.
When our Wuggle Pets starter kit arrived, my daughter could hardly contain herself.? She was so excited that she couldn't wait to get started, she had to open the box and get started immediately!? She chose to bring the magical unicorn to life first.??
?
As she was filling Mystic the magical unicorn with stuffing, she let go for a moment and it went flying across the room.? We were all laughing so hard that tears were flowing down our faces.? After that, I held onto the Wuggles while she twisted and filled!
?
In just a few simple steps and in no time at all, my daughter created a new best friend.? It's as easy as... 1, 2, 3!? Stuff, Sprinkle, Zip - it's as easy as that!? I love that it's easy enough that she can do it herself and it's something that's fun!? The zipper tool is genius, it zips it up and keeps it up, so little fingers can't unzip it and pull out the stuffing.
The original Wuggle Pet line has an adorable assortment of cute little pets, perfect for both boys and girls.? You can choose from a:? Cuddly Puppy, Magical Unicorn, Funny Monkey, Clever Raccoon, Bashful Bear and a Playful Pony.??
?
New pets will arrive soon!
?
Of course, the Cuddly Puppy and Magical Unicorn weren't enough for my daughter, she had to spend some of her birthday money and get the Playful Pony too.? Next on her list (in order): Funny Monkey, Clever Raccoon and Bashful Bear.? This girl wants them all!
?
Wuggle Pets are adorable stuffed animals with backpack clips that you make yourself. Simply fill the Wuggle with fluffy soft filling and Magic Dust using the child-friendly stuffer machine. Starter Kit includes a puppy and unicorn, stuffer machine, stuffing, 12 personality charms, magic dust, birth certificates and a zipper-pulling tool. 6"H. Ages 4+. Imported. Refill Kits includes Wuggle Pet, stuffing, personality charms, magic dust, birth certificate, backpack clip and zipper-pulling tool.
**I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. Results may vary. I was not compensated in any other way for this review.?
A special thanks to Interact Marketing for this great review opportunity!
CHICAGO -- It was a rough 15 minutes, but Chael Sonnen did enough to get the fight he's coveted for 17 months.
The middleweight title contender locked up a shot against UFC 185-pound champ Anderson Silva with a surprisingly tough win over Michael Bisping. In a fight, that appeared to be a toss-up for some, Sonnen took a unanimous decision, 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28, in the co-main event of the UFC on Fox 2 card at the United Center.
Sonnen's win sets up an intriguing scenario.
UFC president Dana White guaranteed the winner of tonight's tilt a shot at Silva. The champ has been sidelined since August and the promotion is pointing towards a summer return. But Silva recently hinted that he may be out beyond the summer.
Sonnen has done everything he can to call out the champ. Tonight, he made the wise decision of not poking Silva. Instead, he delivered a hilarious speech talking about his own greatness.
He was good, not great tonight, but much of that had to do with the opponent. Bisping rubs plenty of fans and media members the wrong way and, as a result, he's a bit underrated. The common thought was that the Brit would get eaten alive by Sonnen's Olympic level wrestling, but that didn't happen in the first two rounds.
Sonnen scored two takedowns in the first, but Bisping got to his feet in less than 25 seconds on both occasions. He also stuffed three other takedown attempts. In the second, Sonnen scored a takedown with 2:58 left. Bisping was up a minute later and took minimal damage. The Brit was effective in the striking game, landing a few good combinations, but nothing really rocked the hard-charging American.
Joe Rogan was convinced Bisping had won the first two rounds. That wasn't the case on the judges' scorecard, but two of them did have things 19-19. Sonnen did what he needed to in the final round. He scored a big takedown and really dominated the position for over three minutes.
Sonnen scored that takedown just 12 seconds into the round. Bisping defended well for the next minute but got a little impatient as he was just about to rise to his feet. Bisping gave us back standing and Sonnen squashed him. Then he did a brilliant job of getting both hooks in and rolling to dominant position on the ground. He worked to lock on a rear-naked, but it didn't happen. Bisping was protecting from the choke, lost his focus and allowed Sonnen to roll the position into the mount with 2:31 left. With 1:31 left, Bisping hip escaped to full guard. Bisping eventually got to his feet with less than 20 seconds left and scored a takedown of his own. He even landed a few big elbows, but it was too little, too late.
Now the question is when will the fight everyone wants - Sonnen vs. Silva - actually go down. Sonnen turned up the heat in recent weeks, plainly stating that he'll never get to fight Silva because the champ won't accept the fight.
"I'm not going to fight Anderson either way. They can say whatever they want. Anderson is never going to do that fight," Sonnen told "The MMA Insiders" show on Las Vegas' ESPN1100/98.9 FM. "I hope he's healthy and has a good life, but I'm not buying into this mythical world that Anderson is going to some day sign a contract to fight me."
Silva beat Sonnen at UFC 117 via fifth-round submission, but that was after getting dominated for 23 minutes. He's had to hear about it ever since. This is a chance to shut Sonnen's mouth and likely do it in front of a record-sized crowd in Brazil. Why would he pass on the opportunity?
BEIJING - An official Chinese newspaper says Beijing must punish the Philippines economically for proposing closer military ties with Washington.
The nationalist tabloid Global Times, published by the Communist Party?s People?s Daily, said Sunday that China must pressure Manila to abandon cooperation with the United States.
Continue Reading
China and the Philippines, along with other nations, are locked in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, and Beijing sees the United States as an unwelcome interloper in that dispute.
U.S. and Philippine officials agreed last week to increase cooperation in various areas including maritime security and defense. The Philippines said it is considering more joint military exercises and a greater presence by American troops.
HARRISBURG, Pa (Reuters) ? Former Penn State University football coach Jerry Sandusky, who is under house arrest on charges of child sexual abuse, has asked a Pennsylvania court to allow supervised visits with his grandchildren that are now prohibited.
Sandusky, 67, faces 52 criminal charges that he molested 10 boys over a 15 year period and has been tethered to his house under the terms of his release on bail in December that barred contact with anyone under age 18. He has maintained his innocence.
In a motion filed Friday, Joe Amendola, attorney for the former Penn State defensive coordinator, asked the Centre County Court to modify the terms of Sandusky's release to permit supervised contact with his 11 grandchildren.
"The Defendant's minor grandchildren have expressed their sadness to their parents about not being able to visit or talk with the Defendant since November 5, 2011," Amendola wrote.
If his grandchildren were allowed to visit him at his State College home, they would be accompanied by at least one parent, according to the motion.
Amendola is also asking the court to allow Sandusky to communicate with his grandchildren by mail, email, telephone, or by Skyping, a type of video-chatting over the Internet.
Sandusky was charged November 5 with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over a 15 year period. He had been freed after posting $100,000 after those charges were filed in November.
In December, he was arrested a second time and prosecutors added charges that raised the number of sex abuse victims to 10. He has been under house arrest since he was freed on $250,000 bail following his second arrest with restrictions.
Prosecutors say Sandusky used his position as head of The Second Mile charity to find his victims. Sandusky started The Second Mile charity to help troubled disadvantaged children.
His grandchildren are not the only people Sandusky would like to be in contact with.
Amendola said Sandusky wants "reasonable visitation" by friends at his home and he wants the ability to leave his home "for the purposes of assisting his attorneys, private investigators, and other professional individuals retained by the Defendant in the preparation of his defense."
The charges against Sandusky caused an avalanche of top-down changes at Penn State. Soon after his arrest, the school's board of trustees fired iconic head football coach Joe Paterno, who died of lung cancer on Sunday, and university president Graham Spanier.
Also on Friday, Amendola followed up a request for prosecutors to turn over the names of the people who accused Sandusky and the details of those crimes. The attorney said a week had passed since his original request.
Centre County Court Judge John Cleland is scheduled to consider both matters on February 10. Prosecutors have until February 3 to file responses to the requests.
A robotic warplane that can take off and land from U.S. Navy carriers by itself won't do much good if it runs out of fuel in midair. That's why the Navy recently completed flight tests to see how well the unmanned military drone could belly up to a flying fuel tanker.
Such early tests used a Learjet to play the role of Northrop Grumman's X-47B drone designed for the Navy ? but the piloted Learjet tried out the vision and navigation systems of the X-47B. The Learjet pilot even turned over control of the aircraft to the X-47B's guidance software during the flight tests that completed on Jan. 21 in St. Augustine, Fla.
"These flights demonstrated empirically that an unmanned system can conduct aerial refueling operations with accuracy and precision," said Pablo Gonzalez, program manager for Northrop Grumman's Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program. "The aircraft never gets tired, and it responds exactly the same way to operator commands every time."
The Learjet started out flying one mile from the aerial tanker ? a K707 aircraft similar in size to the Air Force's KC-135. The Learjet pilot then turned over control to the X-47B's flight software, so that an operator aboard the flying fuel tanker or on the ground could command the Learjet to fly different maneuvers used in aerial refueling.
A next step for the midair refueling tests might involve hooking up the X-47B drone (or another surrogate aircraft) to the flying fuel tanker.
"These tests are a critical step toward proving that the X-47B can perform autonomous aerial refueling using either the Navy's probe-and-drogue refueling technique or the U.S. Air Force's boom/receptacle approach," said Carl Johnson, vice president and program manager for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "Future unmanned systems will need to use both refueling techniques if they plan to conduct longer range surveillance or strike missions from the carrier."
The Navy and Northrop Grumman plan to test the X-47B drone during takeoff and landing situations on the heaving deck of a real Navy aircraft carrier in 2013, as well as fully autonomous aerial refueling in 2014. If all goes well, the U.S. military could soon add even more robotic warplanes to fight alongside its "Top Gun" human pilots.
Follow InnovationNewsDaily on Twitter @News_Innovation, or on Facebook.
? 2012 InnovationNewsDaily.com. All rights reserved. More from InnovationNewsDaily.com.
CHICAGO ? About 16 million Americans have oral HPV, a sexually transmitted virus more commonly linked with cervical cancer that also can cause mouth cancer, according to the first nationwide estimate.
HPV ? human papilloma virus ? is increasingly recognized as a major cause of oral cancers affecting the back of the tongue and tonsil area. Smoking and heavy drinking are also key causes.
Until now, it was not known how many people have oral HPV infections.
Overall, 7 percent of Americans aged 14 to 69 are infected, the study found.
But the results are not cause for alarm. While mouth cancers are on the rise ? probably from oral sex ? most people with oral HPV will never develop cancer. And most don't have the kind most strongly linked to cancer. Also, tests for oral HPV are costly and mainly used in research.
Still, experts say the study provides important information for future research that could increase knowledge about who is most at risk for oral cancer and ways to prevent the disease.
The nationally representative study is based on 30-second gargle tests given to about 5,500 people in a 2009-10 government health survey. Their mouthwash samples were tested for HPV.
The results were published online Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
There are many types of HPV, but one in particular, known as HPV-16, is most strongly linked with oral cancer and also is a common cause of cervical cancer. That form was found in about 1 percent of people studied, translating to about 2 million Americans.
Dr. Maura Gillison, the lead author and a researcher at Ohio State University, said the study "provides us some reassurance" that most people with oral HPV will not get oral cancer. Millions may have oral HPV, but fewer than 15,000 Americans get HPV-linked oral cancer each year.
She said the study should prompt research into whether the existing vaccines for cervical cancer protect against oral HPV, too.
Gillison has consulted with Merck & Co., and GlaxoSmithKline, makers of HPV vaccines. Ohio State, Merck and the National Cancer Institute helped pay for the study.
Dr. Ezra Cohen, a head and neck cancer specialist at the University of Chicago, said the study provides important information confirming similarities in risk factors for HPV oral infections and oral cancer.
For example, oral HPV was more common in men than women ? 10 percent versus almost 4 percent; in smokers; and in people who had many sexual partners. People aged 55 to 59 were most at risk.
Sexual activity was a strong risk factor, including oral sex.
Oral HPV infection rates were much lower than previous estimates for HPV affecting the cervix and other genital areas, suggesting that the mouth might somehow be more resistant to infection, according to a journal editorial.
Dr. Hans Schlecht, the editorial author and an infectious disease specialist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said the study provides fodder for researching how some infections lead to cancer and identifying ways to detect and treat HPV-related oral lesions before they turn into cancer.
Unlike non-HPV cancers easily seen in the front of the mouth, HPV-linked tumors in the rear tongue and tonsil area are often hard to detect.
Schlecht emphasized the importance of knowing symptoms of these cancers, which can include a sore throat, difficulty swallowing, ear pain and swollen lymph nodes in the neck.
Here at Macworld 2012, Western Digital demoed a preview of their essentially finished, yet not final, MyBook Thunderbolt Duo. Scheduled to ship in Q1 for an "aggressive price," the unit plays host to two 3.5-inch drives, which'll come stuffed from the factory in either 4TB (2x 2TB) or 6TB (2x 3TB) configurations. On the outside, you're looking at the MyBook aesthetic you either love or loathe, but around back you'll find all connectivity has been gutted, save for power and two Thunderbolt ports. The latter means that up to six can be daisy-chained off one interconnect, which when setup in RAID 0 equates to rather speedy transfers, like 700MB/sec reads and 500MB/sec writes in the four-unit demonstration configuration we toyed with. And it's future proof too, as there's a door up-top which enables plebes to swap drives should the need arise. We'll keep an ear out for pricing, but until that day arrives, peep them in the gallery below, or in video form after the break.
CBS has green-lit three new drama pilots, including one from The L Word's Ilene Chaiken.
Chaiken's Quean follows an edgy and independent Millennial hacker girl who teams up with an Oakland police detective to solve crimes. (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in America?) Joel Silver will serve as executive producer alongside Chaiken.
Pilot Season: CBS picks up a Super Fun comedy, and a detective drama
The untitled Ralph Lamb project is a period piece set in the '60s that tells the true story of Lamb, a rodeo cowboy turned longtime sheriff of Las Vegas. Nicholas Pileggi and Greg Walker will write and executive-produce alongside James Mangold, Cathy Konrad and Arthur Sarkissian.
Based on Ayelet Waldman's Mommy Track Mysteries book series, Applebaum centers on a former public defender who becomes a private investigator to keep from being bored to death as a stay-at-home mom. Waldman will write and executive-produce alongside Jennifer Levin and Sherri Cooper. Chris Columbus is also attached as the pilot's director and will also executive-produce.
Pilot Season: CBS orders Jerry Bruckheimer drama Trooper
CBS previously picked up the pilots Elementary, a modern take on Sherlock Holmes, a project from Jerry Bruckheimer, the legal drama Baby Big Shot, a half-hour comedy from Bridesmaids' Rebel Wilson, Widow Detective from CSI's Carol Mendelsohn, and an untitled Nick Stoller comedy.?
FRANKFURT (Reuters) ? The European Central Bank remains no closer to agreeing on whether or not it will take losses on the Greek bonds it owns, euro zone central bank sources said on Thursday.
Policymakers were widely split on the issue at a late night meeting on Wednesday, the sources told Reuters.
The ECB owns roughly 40 billion euros worth of Greek bonds and is now under pressure to join in with banks and others in the private sector that lent to Greece that are being asked to take write downs to help stabilise the country's finances.
According to two high level euro zone central bank sources,
ECB policymakers remained divided on the issue of losses or alternatives such as accepting back what it paid for the bonds rather than their full value.
"The ECB has not agreed on a position," said one of the sources, adding that "the discussion on how to deal with the Greek debt holdings is not yet over."
An ECB spokesman declined to comment.
The ECB's holdings of Greek bonds are the product of a controversial emergency program introduced in May 2010 aimed at stopping the debt crisis spiraling out of control.
ECB sources say the bank paid 38 billion euros for the bonds, 12 billion euros below their 50 billion euro face value, a number that an EU source said on Wednesday would roughly match what is needed to plug a recently opened up shortfall in Greece's debt deal.
Speculation that the ECB is considering taking losses on the bond as part of broader moves to stabilise Athens's finances was sparked earlier this month when ECB President Mario Draghi repeatedly avoided questions on the issue at the bank's monthly news conference.
Athens has long been in talks with private creditors on a voluntary debt swap deal that would wipe 65-70 percent off the face value of its bonds.
The International Monetary Fund is increasingly concerned whether the program will bring Greece back on track. As a result, the fund is pushing for further contributions by the public sector.
Greece has also threatened to force losses on private investors if fewer than expected sign up to the deal voluntarily, raising questions about where it would leave the ECB.
(Reporting by Eva Kuehnen, Marc Jones and Andreas Framke. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)
OHI, Japan (AP) ? A team of International Atomic Energy Agency experts is making its first inspection of a Japanese nuclear power plant that has undergone official "stress tests" required after the Fukushima disaster.
On Thursday, the 10-member IAEA team was inspecting two reactors at the Ohi nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture in western Japan.
Passing the test is one of several steps needed to restart dozens of idled nuclear plants.
Only four of Japan's 54 reactors are currently operating, so getting some back on line would help Japan avoid a power crunch.
If none get approval, Japan will be without an operating reactor by the end of April.
The stress tests are meant to assess how well the plants could withstand earthquakes, tsunamis and other extreme events.
TOKYO ? Toyota raised its global sales target for this year to 8.58 million vehicles, up 21 percent from the previous year, as incentives for ecological cars lift demand in Japan.
Toyota Motor Corp., which struggled from production interruptions last year caused by Japan's tsunami and flooding in Thailand, raised its forecast for Japan sales Wednesday to 1.63 million vehicles from an earlier 1.53 million. The latest forecast marks a 36 jump from the previous year.
Toyota has been aiming for a comeback and had said in December that it plans to sell 8.48 million vehicles in 2012.
The Japanese automaker behind the Lexus luxury car and the Camry sedan sold 7.95 million vehicles in 2011, down 6 percent from 2010.
Even with the improved forecasts, Toyota is unlikely to be back as the world's top automaker. Last year, General Motors Co. regained that spot, selling 9.03 million vehicles, the crown it had for seven decades before losing it to Toyota in 2008.
Toyota finished fourth in 2011 with 7.9 million vehicles sold. Its sales were hurt last year because the March earthquake in Japan slowed its factories, and dealers ran short of cars to sell.
Auto industry analysts predict a tight race this year between GM, Volkswagen AG of Germany, Toyota and the joint venture between Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA.
In 2011, Volkswagen took second place with record global sales of 8.16 million, up 14 percent from the year before. The French-Japanese alliance of Renault and Nissan was third, selling 8.03 million vehicles.
Toyota's Prius gas-electric hybrid and other ecological cars have been a hit with Japanese consumers despite a languishing auto market overall because of government-backed subsidies. The Prius was Japan's top-selling vehicle in 2011 for the third straight year.
___
Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama
Miraculously, no permanent brain damage was suffered
A Chicago-area man accidentally drove a nail into his?brain last week, and didn't realize it for a full 36 hours.?Dante Autullo was working with a nailgun when the accident occured last Tuesday. Losing his grip while using the gun on top of a wall, it swung around and hit the back of his head. The collision fired a 3 1/2" nail into his skull so cleanly that the wound appeared to be minor.
The incident hardly fazed Autullo, who treated himself by taking a few Advil before finishing his nailing work. Afterward, he?put in an eight-hour shift of work at his job as a plow driver. It wasn't until Thursday that a strong headache sent him to his doctor, who discovered the nail via?X-ray.
Doctors removed the part of Autullo's skull which held the nail in a procedure that took about two hours.?Amazingly, Autullo does not appear to have lost any?brain function as a result of his injury. Doctors believe that complications are unlikely to develop.
[Image credit:?Rosser321]
(Source)
This article wash written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
TV court shows like The People?s Court, The Judge Mathis Show and Judge Judy fill up the daytime television schedule. If you?ve never seen these shows?which is doubtful?you?re missing out on a parade of people trying to get their money back from someone else. Just a few hours of watching these cases can give you all you ever need to keep yourself out of these situations. For those of you who don?t watch, here are four truths that will keep you out of small claims court if you can remember them the next time you?re about to part with your money.
If someone has bad credit, you shouldn?t be letting them use yours. Now, this may seem harsh but it?s true. Bad credit comes from taking out accounts in their name and not paying the bills associated with them. What makes you think they?ll suddenly have enough money to pay the bills once it?s just your name on it? Putting someone?s car, phone or electricity bill in your name is usually a recipe for you to end up with bad credit, too.
Family, friends and money don?t mix. Do remember that time you borrowed your sister?s jeans and lost them? She does. And, she?ll never let you forget it. Now, if you two are still going at it over a piece of clothing, the odds that you two will get over a lost couple thousand dollars are slim. Relationships have been ruined over smaller amounts of money. If you must mix money with your loved ones, consider making it a gift instead of a loan for the sake of your relationship.
Nobody really pays you when they get their tax refunds. Ok there are definitely exceptions to this one but more often than not, it?s true. It?s so true that as soon as the plaintiff starts talking about how the defendant was just waiting for her tax refund, Judge Mathis starts laughing. That?s because there?s usually a long time between when you give her your money and when she gets her refund. And what if she doesn?t get a refund that year? Or something else comes up? You may find yourself chasing her all through tax season and the rest of the year, too.
If you?re going to do it anyway, you need a contract. It?s easy to say these things here but sometimes you find yourself breaking with conventional reasoning. If you do, don?t forget to get it in writing. It doesn?t have to be a formal, notarized document. Just get the details down on a piece of paper with your signatures. Don?t forget to date the contract and include the specific date you expect to be paid back. That way if you do end up in small claims court, you have something to show the judge when you get there.
University of Notre Dame nuclear physicists Philippe Collon and Michael Wiescher are using accelerated ion beams to pinpoint the age and origin of material used in pottery, painting, metalwork and other art. The results of their tests can serve as powerful forensic tools to reveal counterfeit art work, without the destruction of any sample as required in some chemical analysis.
Their research is featured on the front cover of the current issue of Physics Today in an article titled, "Accelerated ion beams for art forensics." Wiescher and Collon say, "Art experts play an important role in identifying the style, history and context of a painting, but a solid scientific basis for the proper identification and classification of a piece of art must rely on information from other sources.
"A host of approaches with origins in biology, chemistry and physics have allowed scientists and art historians not only to look below a painting's or artifact's surface, but also to analyze in detail the pigments used, investigate painting techniques and modifications done by the artist or art restorers, find trace materials that reveal ages and provenances, and more," Wiescher and Collon continue.
The information that is revealed can shed light on trading patterns, economic conditions and other details of history. For example, the amount of silver in Roman coins can indicate the degree of inflation in the ancient economy.
Laboratories in Europe, including several in Italy and one in the basement of the Louvre in Paris, have accelerators dedicated to the forensic analysis of art, and archaeological artifacts. These accelerator-based techniques have allowed not only to analyze the works themselves, but also to determine origin, trade and migration routes as well as dietary information. As an example, the analysis of the ruby eyes in a Babylonian statue of the goddess Ishtar using the Louvre's accelerator showed that the rubies came from a mine in Vietnam, demonstrating that trade occurred between those far-apart regions some 4,000 years ago.
At Notre Dame, researchers are using proton-induced x-ray emission (PIXE) and Accelerator Mass Spectroscopy (AMS) to study artifacts brought by local archeologists, Native American cultures in the American Southwest and the Snite Museum of Art extensive collection of Mezzo-American figurines.
Wiescher, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Physics, and Collon, associate professor of physics, are using their findings to teach undergraduates. Wiescher initially developed the undergraduate physics class called Physical Methods in Art and Archaeology, and now Collon teaches the class which attracts students from nearly every major. The course covers topics such as X-ray fluorescence and X-ray absorption, proton-induced X-ray emission, neutron-induced activation analysis, radiocarbon dating, accelerator mass spectroscopy, luminescence dating, and methods of archeometry.
###
University of Notre Dame: http://www.nd.edu
Thanks to University of Notre Dame for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
JUBA/BEIJING (Reuters) ? South Sudan will announce plans for an oil export pipeline through East Africa next week, a priority for the new nation because its crude is "no longer safe" in Sudan, a government spokesman said on Saturday.
Landlocked South Sudan took about three quarters of Sudan's roughly 500,000 barrels per day of oil production when it seceded from Sudan in July under a 2005 peace deal, but it still relies on Sudan's infrastructure to export crude.
Oil is vital to both economies -- it accounts for almost all of South Sudan's government revenues -- but the two countries have yet to agree how much South Sudan should pay as a transit fee.
South Sudan threatened to halt crude output within two weeks on Friday, after its northern neighbor started seizing crude to compensate for what Khartoum calls unpaid fees.
"The pipeline is now a priority. The minister of petroleum and mining will announce next week which pipeline we are going with and the consortium that will be involved," Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudan's information minister and government spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.
"It has to be done because of the shutdown. Our crude is no longer safe in Sudan," he said. "If we choose the pipeline through Kenya it could take less than 10 months to complete."
South Sudan has floated the idea of an East African pipeline before, but outside experts say barriers include geography and the need to ensure enough production volume to fill the pipeline in the future.
South Sudanese officials have previously said the country can survive on credit using crude as collateral if exports were ever halted.
"CALM AND RESTRAINT"
The new pipeline will be built with the help of international oil companies operating in its fields, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported earlier on Saturday.
China, a major buyer of South Sudanese crude, has urged "calm and restraint" over the dispute, which began in November.
The two neighbors together rank as the seventh-largest supplier of crude oil to China, accounting for 5 percent of its imports in 2011.
South Sudan has started "practical steps" to construct a pipeline through Kenya and Uganda and would begin construction of a refinery in South Sudan immediately, Xinhua quoted Benjamin as saying.
International oil firms currently operating in South Sudan would construct the pipeline and refinery, the agency cited Benjamin as saying. It did not specify which.
Oil firms active in South Sudan include Chinese state-owned China National Oil Corp., or CNPC, and Sinopec, Malaysia's state-owned Petronas, and Oil and Natural Gas Corp of India, or ONGC.
French oil major Total said in December it could build a pipeline from South Sudan to Uganda that would continue to Kenya's coast but that construction of the pipeline at the time was still "just thoughts."
South Sudanese officials have also talked to Toyota Kenya about the possibility of linking to a proposed regional oil corridor to help export crude.
(Additional writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Alison Birrane)
Identi.ca is a microblogging service brought to you by Status.net. It runs the StatusNet microblogging software, version 1.0.1, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All Identi.ca content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
ATHENS (Reuters) ? When an Athens taxi driver learned his passenger was the boss of an Istanbul-based company that brings Turkish TV dramas to Greece he reached for his phone, called his wife and put her through to the man sitting in the back seat.
"She had to know what happens next," Global Agency chief executive Izzet Pinto said with a laugh. "I was expecting success but not like this."
It all began when crisis-stricken Greek TV channels realized that buying the glitzy tales of forbidden love, adultery, clan loyalties and betrayal from long-standing regional rival Turkey, was cheaper than filming their own.
The action-packed dramas quickly came to dominate the ratings despite the fact that they are broadcast in Turkish with only subtitles in Greek and have gained a devoted following among a Greek populace disheartened by the country's biggest financial crisis in decades.
Local commentators even talk of a Turkish invasion, pointing to the history of enmity between the two countries who have been on brink of war on several occasions, most recently in 1996.
Relations have warmed and natural disasters in both countries have brought them closer. But Greeks know little about the daily lives of urban Turks and usually view Turkish society with a critical eye.
"What Turks didn't achieve with 400 years of military occupation they will achieve with TV occupation," one blogger wrote in reference to the rule of the former Turkish Ottoman Empire, which included modern-day Greece and collapsed at the start of the 20th century.
Panoramic views of Istanbul neighborhoods which were once home to large and vibrant Greek communities have also awakened a sense of nostalgia in Greeks for a place they refer to as "The City" or Constantinople.
"They remind me of a different era, of Greece in the 1960s when people dominated in life, not material things," said 65-year-old Eleni Katsika, a dentist. "I watch them so I don't get depressed."
So fascinated are Greeks with the shows, that groups have started organizing trips to the island of Buyukada off the coast of Istanbul just to gawk at the set of one of the hit dramas, "Kismet."
"JUST LIKE US"
Between stamping passports in a packed Athens police station, a young officer keeps an eye fixed on a tiny portable TV on the edge of her desk showing repeats of the latest prime-time hit, "Ask ve Ceza" (Love and Punishment).
TV ratings for the shows in the small country of 11 million reached 40 percent in the summer, knocked off the top spot only by the occasional Champions League soccer match. Major channels ANT1 and Mega competed by showing a drama each at 9 p.m. and re-runs in the late afternoon.
"I realized hatred is manufactured by the guys at the top," said Angeliki Papathanasiou, a 21-year-old law student. "You don't see the bad enemy, you see the real Turk who falls in love, who gets hurt, who is like us," she said of the shows.
As a result, dozens of Greek fan pages on Facebook are peppered with Turkish words like "harika" (wonderful) and "guzel" (beautiful). Some Greek magazines have started giving away CDs for intensive Turkish lessons.
Some Turks find the Greek success of the shows difficult to fathom despite the proximity of the two countries, which in some areas are separated by just a few miles.
"It comes as a shock to me," said Asli Tunc, a media professor at Istanbul's Bilgi University. "Greeks need a new kind of entertainment to forget about their problems and these serials seem to meet that demand for now."
They are also a trip down memory lane to days when the economy was better, traditions were cherished, shoe polishers worked every corner and the local grocery store was a point of reference.
"'Ezel' and the other series portray a lost dimension of Greek society that has been buried in recent years," novelist Nikos Heiladakis wrote in a local newspaper article about the success of one crime drama. "It awakens in today's Greek a lost identity," he wrote.
BREAKING DOWN WALLS?
In a way, the dramas are exporting Turkish culture, Global Agency's Pinto said, even to a doubtful market like Greece.
"Greeks feel closer to Turks than they did," he told Reuters. "Sometimes soft power is more important than political power."
Not everyone shares his sentiments, however.
Dozens of pages with names like "Death to Turkish series on Greek TV" or "Rehabilitation centre from Turkish series" have sprung up on Facebook by those who want one series off the air because parts of it were filmed in Turkish northern Cyprus.
"Have (the TV channels) forgotten what Greeks went through? Some things cannot be forgotten, they cannot be erased from Greek history," one post on the site read.
But for the moment their grip on the audience remains strong and Pinto, whose company distributes three of the dramas to Greek TV and more than 30 other countries, expects to export about five or six dramas to Greece a year.
Next year will see the TV release of the controversial hit-series "Muhtesem Yuzyil" (Magnificent Century), based on 16th century sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, which so far has only been released as a DVD. Magazines selling DVDs of the episodes sell out within hours.
"I've not missed a single copy," said Yiannis Panagoulis, a 40-year-old handyman. "At this rate I'm going to be speaking Turkish very soon. Who would've thought?"
There's a fallacy about Android users: We're cheapskates. We refuse to purchase applications. Or, at least, we don't purchase apps as frequently as users of other platforms. On one hand, so what? There are countless bad-ass Android apps that don't cost a dime. What's wrong with that?
On the other hand, none of us would be here if it weren't for developers and content creators. And we should all want to support them. And so ...
Resolve to spend more in the Android Market
Actually, let's start with apps, but we need to remember to think beyond them.
When it comes to Android applications, there are myriad options. Consider the following:
You've got your free apps.
Your free apps with ads.
Your "lite" apps.
Your paid apps without advertising.
The odd paid app with advertising.
And our favorite, the "donate" version, which might have the same functionality as the free version.
It's that last bullet point that probably deserves more attention. If presented with two apps that do the same thing, only one is free and the other costs, say, 99 cents as a "donation," ask yourself which you'd be more likely to download. Now ask yourself why? If it's an app you use and like, why not give back to the developer?
That said, we'll be the first (well, we'll hardly be the first) to mention that the Android Market's making things a little more difficult by allowing only a 15-minute refund window if you purchase an app and discover it sucks. That makes pulling the trigger a little more difficult. But not all app purchases need that sort of trial period. Point is, if you're presented with a choice, spare a buck when you can.
And then there are the newer fares in the Android Market -- movies and music. Don't forget about them. The movies section still leaves a lot to be desired. Or maybe it doesn't. That can be a bit subjective. Same goes for purchasing music from Google. Some days it's great. Other days I go running back to another music store. But the only way either one is going to get better is for us to keep using it, to keep purchasing.
It's a bit of a Catch-22, I know. If there's nothing good in the Market, you won't spend money there. And if nobody's spending money, you'll not seen newer, better content added. So think about that when you're deciding whether to go with a free or donation version of an app. Or if you're going to torrent a movie or album (you naughty thing, you) instead of spending a couple bucks. In the end, shelling out makes for a better ecosystem.
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Children who are diagnosed with schizophrenia or a number of other psychoses go on to experience a progressively greater than normal loss of gray matter in the frontal lobe region of the brain, new research suggests.
These adolescents also experience an above-average spike in the amount of so-called "cerebrospinal fluid" found in the same location, according to a report published in the January issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
In turn, children who experience these brain developments appear to face an increased risk for longer hospitalization, more severe illness and a poorer overall prognosis, the authors of the study noted.
"We found progression of gray matter volume loss after a two-year follow-up in patients who ended up with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but not bipolar disease, compared with healthy controls," Dr. Celso Arango, of the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Maranon in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues said in a journal news release.
"Some of these pathophysiologic processes seem to be markers of poorer prognosis," the researchers added.
The findings stem from an analysis of brain changes detected using MRI scans taken over a two-year period among 61 patients who had been diagnosed with a range of different psychoses at one of six child and adolescent psychiatric facilities in Spain.
In all, brain changes among 25 children diagnosed with schizophrenia, 16 with bipolar disorder and 20 with a number of other psychoses were stacked up against the brain status of 70 healthy children.
The result: in addition to the principal findings, the team further observed that total brain gray matter (as well as gray matter in the left parietal region of the brain) were notably different among patients with schizophrenia compared with their healthy peers.
"To develop therapeutic strategies to counteract these pathologic progressive brain changes, future studies should focus on their neurobiological underpinnings," the study authors advised.
More information
For more on adolescent schizophrenia, visit the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
I was sitting in a coffee shop when I noticed it. A solitary newspaper lay untouched on one of the tables. Aside from that one table, every seat was taken. For the next hour, no one dared sit at the seat with the newspaper. One couple even decided to sit on the heating vent instead of venturing over. Moreover, everyone had laptops or iPads, and everyone was playing games, writing novels, or reading books online. No one was reading the news. That was when I looked down at my own "reading." I was on the International Movie Database (IMDB), checking to see if Jim Carrey was in any upcoming movies.
News readership is dwindling, but I never stopped to think about the repercussions that could have. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, there was a 5% decrease in newspaper circulation in 2010, and twice that percentage in 2009. Years ago, the newspaper was something worth paying for. Now it's not fit unless it's free. Although online news readership is up, the reading of news is not the same as it used to be, and I will explain what I mean later in the article.
I happen to be in a very unique position to witness this decline in news readership. Last year, I graduated from college, and this year I am immersed in the "real world." I have been fortunate enough to see both younger and older generations interact with the news, and how their approach to news has changed over time. Many believe that it is only the younger generation that does not read the news. While that may have been true a few years ago, this habit of not reading the news has become increasingly common for those outside of Generation Y and Z. While this is only my opinion, it is difficult for many to deny that what people consider "reading the news" has changed drastically over time, and I will provide an example later.
This all stems from technology. Technological advances have (for the most part) created a monoculture with individualistic tendencies. What I mean by this is that everyone is the same in the fact that they all want to be unique through the same technologies. The news is delivered to us, but we read what we want. Yes, it has always been that one could pick through the newspaper and read what interested him or her, but now it is even more catered to the individual.
If I only want to be notified of humorous stories, I can make that happen. If I want to search for a specific story or story type, I can find it myself?I don't have to be given it. Not only can I choose what I want to receive, I can also easily choose from what free medium (notice I did not say news site) I want it from.
The news has become totally personalized. If all I am interested in is Kim Kardashian, and I read five articles a day about her that I get from Twitter, does that mean I read the news? Today, it does. This personalization is killing news subscriptions. Why should I pay for the New York Times for two articles I'm interested in when I can do a Google search and see what interests me there. It's all free, and at my immediate disposal.
But is all of this a problem for us as a culture? To me, that question is tough to answer. A better question to ask would be, is this a problem that people will actually care about? The answer is becoming a louder and louder, "no". There are harsh ramifications to the way we view all news: community, domestic, international or other. Soon, the citizens of the United States will become even more detached from the world, and more immersed within their own little dominions.
Because of this, news subscriptions will continue to plummet, free search for news will increase, and the whole cycle will start again. I do not view technology as a plague on society. I simply feel that with the individualistic tendencies garnered by the more popular technologies today, many digital savvy people will grow farther and farther apart from each other and from the rest of the world. We are not media literate people. We know the purpose of the technologies, but do we know how to use them effectively? Of course, this is all my opinion. Maybe tomorrow I'll pick up that newspaper, but for now I'm going to find out who Britney Spears married this time.
Todd Hoagland honored by Anatomy Society for excellence in teaching, research & scholarshipPublic release date: 4-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andrea Pendleton apendleton@anatomy.org 301-634-7910 American Association of Anatomists
Bethesda, Maryland The American Association of Anatomists' 2012 Basmajian Award will be presented on April 24 to Todd Hoagland, associate professor in the department of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy at the Medical College of Wisconsin. The awards ceremony will take place at the AAA Annual Meeting at EB 2012 (Tuesday, April 24, San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina, San Diego, CA).
This award recognizes health science faculty who are in the formative stages of their career, teach human or veterinary gross anatomy, can document excellence in their contribution to the teaching of gross anatomy, and have outstanding accomplishments in biomedical research or scholarship in education.
According to Joseph C. Besharse, Marvin Wagner Professor and chair of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Hoagland "is a true academic in that he believes in and participates in medical education research. He also has extensive administrative experience as a long-term course Director at BU and now at MCW." Besharse goes on to say that in a short time Hoagland "has become an important and respected member of the MCW medical education community."
Besharse also notes the quality of Hoagland's character, explaining he has an "inherent ability to see and seek common ground among competing interests while keeping the interests of our students in the foreground. This has become obvious in the respect he has gained from more research-intensive faculty in the Department those faculty see him as a leader and valued colleague, and his recruitment has gone a long way toward bridging the gap between research intensive faculty and their responsibilities to medical education."
In addition to collaborating with clinicians and basic scientists on clinically applicable anatomic science research and medical education studies, Hoagland has shown he believes improving the academic training of the next generation is a priority by developing, with Chair Mark Moss, the Vesalius program at Boston University School of Medicine. Hoagland explains "One of our goals of this teacher training program was to ensure every graduate from the department was a competent steward of anatomical science knowledge and some could go on to be master educators. We believed that doctoral students shouldn't just be chained to a lab bench, but instead get experiences that replicate those of junior faculty."
Hoagland received his undergraduate degree in biology from Bucknell University and his Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Notre Dame. Since 2010, he has been a member of the Medical College of Wisconsin faculty, where he is currently a course director for Clinical Human Anatomy and Advanced Clinical Anatomy (4th year elective), and anatomy discipline steward and co-director for the Musculoskeletal Skin module in the pilot integrated curriculum. Hoagland's hard work and dedication has allowed him to earn several teaching awards, an award for outstanding ethical leadership and induction into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
Hoagland is an active member of the American Association of Anatomists (AAA), the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA), the American Physiological Society (APS), and the International Association of Medical Sciences Educators (IAMSE).
###
This year's Basmajian Award committee was chaired by Valerie O'Loughlin; other members were Judith Anderson and Norton Barry Berg.
The American Association of Anatomists, based in Bethesda, MD, was founded in 1888 for the "advancement of anatomical science." Today, AAA is the professional home for biomedical researchers and educators focusing on anatomical form and function. In addition to being the primary educators of medical students in their first year of medical school, AAA members worldwide work in imaging, cell biology, genetics, molecular development, endocrinology, histology, neuroscience, forensics, microscopy, physical anthropology, and numerous other exciting and developing areas. AAA publishes three journalsAnatomical Sciences Education, The Anatomical Record and Developmental Dynamicsplus a quarterly newsletter. Among its other programs and services, the organization sponsors an Annual Meeting (part of Experimental Biology) and maintains a Web site that offers members and others a variety of tools to enhance their teaching and research.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Todd Hoagland honored by Anatomy Society for excellence in teaching, research & scholarshipPublic release date: 4-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andrea Pendleton apendleton@anatomy.org 301-634-7910 American Association of Anatomists
Bethesda, Maryland The American Association of Anatomists' 2012 Basmajian Award will be presented on April 24 to Todd Hoagland, associate professor in the department of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy at the Medical College of Wisconsin. The awards ceremony will take place at the AAA Annual Meeting at EB 2012 (Tuesday, April 24, San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina, San Diego, CA).
This award recognizes health science faculty who are in the formative stages of their career, teach human or veterinary gross anatomy, can document excellence in their contribution to the teaching of gross anatomy, and have outstanding accomplishments in biomedical research or scholarship in education.
According to Joseph C. Besharse, Marvin Wagner Professor and chair of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Hoagland "is a true academic in that he believes in and participates in medical education research. He also has extensive administrative experience as a long-term course Director at BU and now at MCW." Besharse goes on to say that in a short time Hoagland "has become an important and respected member of the MCW medical education community."
Besharse also notes the quality of Hoagland's character, explaining he has an "inherent ability to see and seek common ground among competing interests while keeping the interests of our students in the foreground. This has become obvious in the respect he has gained from more research-intensive faculty in the Department those faculty see him as a leader and valued colleague, and his recruitment has gone a long way toward bridging the gap between research intensive faculty and their responsibilities to medical education."
In addition to collaborating with clinicians and basic scientists on clinically applicable anatomic science research and medical education studies, Hoagland has shown he believes improving the academic training of the next generation is a priority by developing, with Chair Mark Moss, the Vesalius program at Boston University School of Medicine. Hoagland explains "One of our goals of this teacher training program was to ensure every graduate from the department was a competent steward of anatomical science knowledge and some could go on to be master educators. We believed that doctoral students shouldn't just be chained to a lab bench, but instead get experiences that replicate those of junior faculty."
Hoagland received his undergraduate degree in biology from Bucknell University and his Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Notre Dame. Since 2010, he has been a member of the Medical College of Wisconsin faculty, where he is currently a course director for Clinical Human Anatomy and Advanced Clinical Anatomy (4th year elective), and anatomy discipline steward and co-director for the Musculoskeletal Skin module in the pilot integrated curriculum. Hoagland's hard work and dedication has allowed him to earn several teaching awards, an award for outstanding ethical leadership and induction into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
Hoagland is an active member of the American Association of Anatomists (AAA), the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA), the American Physiological Society (APS), and the International Association of Medical Sciences Educators (IAMSE).
###
This year's Basmajian Award committee was chaired by Valerie O'Loughlin; other members were Judith Anderson and Norton Barry Berg.
The American Association of Anatomists, based in Bethesda, MD, was founded in 1888 for the "advancement of anatomical science." Today, AAA is the professional home for biomedical researchers and educators focusing on anatomical form and function. In addition to being the primary educators of medical students in their first year of medical school, AAA members worldwide work in imaging, cell biology, genetics, molecular development, endocrinology, histology, neuroscience, forensics, microscopy, physical anthropology, and numerous other exciting and developing areas. AAA publishes three journalsAnatomical Sciences Education, The Anatomical Record and Developmental Dynamicsplus a quarterly newsletter. Among its other programs and services, the organization sponsors an Annual Meeting (part of Experimental Biology) and maintains a Web site that offers members and others a variety of tools to enhance their teaching and research.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
CHICAGO -- It was a rough 15 minutes, but Chael Sonnen did enough to get the fight he's coveted for 17 months.
All Identi.ca content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
ReplytoAll ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 4-Jan-2012
Share ]