PORTLAND ? A 17-year-old Sandy girl was found dead after a snowboarding accident at Skibowl Friday night.
Taylur Dewolf was reported missing at around 10:30 p.m. Friday, according to Sgt. James Rhodes of the Clackamas County Sheriff?s Office. Her family and friends said they had last seen her three hours earlier.
Rescue crews found her body near Dog Leg Run at about 11:05 p.m., Rhodes said. She had apparently lost control while snowboarding at a very high rate of speed, and had run into a tree just off of the groomed run.
She suffered severe trauma to her head and chest. Investigators said she was wearing a helmet.
John Vermas, at Skibowl, said it was the first death at the resort since 1996.
New center developing computational bioresearch toolPublic release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Steve Koppes s-koppes@uchicago.edu 773-702-8366 University of Chicago
The HIV virion is the virus particle that spreads the deadly AIDS infection from cell to cell.
"On the molecular scale it's a huge object that probably involves a billion total atoms. You would never get anywhere just by trying to study atom-by-atom how they all interact with each other," said Gregory Voth, the Haig P. Papazian Distinguished Service Professor in Chemistry at the University of Chicago.
But Voth and his UChicago colleagues are working on a technique that might lead to a new, dramatically simpler way to predict molecular motion inside a cell. The team will pursue that goal with an initial $1.5 million Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation to launch the new Center for Multiscale Theory and Simulation.
CMTS is UChicago's second Phase I NSF Center for Chemical Innovation, following the establishment of the Center for Energetic Non-Equilbrium Chemistry at Interfaces in 2009. NSF created the Centers for Chemical Innovation program in 2004 to support long-term basic chemical research problems that are likely to produce transformative results.
"One of the reasons that the federal government supports basic research is because it has very positive impacts on our economy and our society," said Matthew Platz, director of NSF's Division of Chemistry. The CMTS, the only NSF-funded chemistry center purely devoted to theory and computation, could lead to the development of new pharmaceuticals and biomaterials.
Joining Voth in founding the center are Benoit Roux, professor in biochemistry and molecular biology; Aaron Dinner associate professor in chemistry; Karl Freed, the Henry J. Gale Distinguished Service Professor in Chemistry; Jonathan Weare, assistant professor in mathematics; Nina Singhal Hinrichs, assistant professor in computer science; and Daniel Katz, senior computational researcher, Computation Institute.
The center's activities will span three UChicago research institutes: the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, the Computation Institute and the James Franck Institute. Industrial collaborators so far consist of IBM, Genentech and Schrdinger, Inc.
New simulation capabilities
"What's impressive about Greg's team is the variety of theoretical and computational tools that it brings to bear," said Katharine Covert, a program director in NSF's Division of Chemistry.
These tools will include a theoretical and computer simulation capability for describing biological systems at interconnected multiple scales, from the molecular (the smallest) to the mesoscopic (intermediate) to the cellular (the largest).
"This is what we call the multi-scale problem, and probably nowhere in the natural world does the multi-scale problem manifest as dramatically as in the biology regime," Voth said.
Actin, a protein in the cytoskeleton (the dynamic scaffolding of the cell), presents a key aspect of the multi-scale problem.
"It's one of the most important components of biological cells, so if you don't understand actin, it's pretty hard to do much else," Voth said. "If you want to start getting up to cellular levels, it's really the glue that holds everything together. It's a fantastic, complex problem."
The new center will implement an extensive new cyberinfrastructure network that will provide a broad array of computational equipment, software and techniques to support its work. This infrastructure includes large allocations of computer time from NSF and from Argonne National Laboratory's Leadership Computing Facility to perform its calculations.
One of the center's most important computational tools is a technique called "coarse-graining," which is a way of simplifying a complex problem in a mathematically precise way, with real-world physics built in.
If a scientist were to ask how to use the known laws of physics to calculate the properties of some part of that cell, "that's an extremely challenging question," Voth noted. Coarse-graining can help.
"A coarse-grained model may, let's say, map a billion atoms into an equivalent structure that has a hundred thousand objects that represent what those atoms are doing," Voth said. "If you do it right, then new important patterns of interactions emerge. You begin to learn a lot about the system."
Voth already has applied coarse graining to the HIV virion particle, and to antibodies
that are important in pharmaceutical formulations for anti-cancer drugs.
A conceptual pioneer
Leo Kadanoff, the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Physics and a National Medal of Science recipient, fruitfully pioneered one of the early concepts for doing this kind of work, called renormalization, in the early 1960s.
"He developed some of these renormalization techniques that have, along with others he pioneered, revolutionized the field of physics," Voth said. "We're trying to do the same kind of thing for these very complicated biological systems. I think most people would agree that the magnitude of that challenge is enormous because these systems don't have simple interactions that are all the same or easy to classify."
The value of the center's results could extend far beyond biology into industrial and academic settings. "We're talking about a conceptual framework to do this kind of thing, and broadly speaking, I think it will have an impact in many areas," including renewable energy technology and new materials.
The center's mission extends beyond research to include public outreach programming and advanced training for the next generation of scientists.
One goal is a collaboration with the Chicago Council on Science and Technology to disseminate CMTS scientific innovations, as well as to enhance public understanding and appreciation of science and technology. The CMTS also will host annual summer workshops to provide cross-disciplinary training in multiscale simulation for graduate students and postdocs from around the country.
"We have an amazing number of graduate students and postdocs who have been trained in these centers who go on to get wonderful positions, doing what they want to do, who talk about the multidisciplinary environment being a big advantage during their job hunt," NSF's Covert said.
In addition, the UChicago Center for Chemical Innovation will focus outreach efforts through existing programs such as the Leadership Alliance and the Collegiate Scholars Program. They will provide access to the center's activities and motivate high school and undergraduate students from minority groups to pursue education and careers in the mathematical and physical sciences.
###
[ | 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.
New center developing computational bioresearch toolPublic release date: 27-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Steve Koppes s-koppes@uchicago.edu 773-702-8366 University of Chicago
The HIV virion is the virus particle that spreads the deadly AIDS infection from cell to cell.
"On the molecular scale it's a huge object that probably involves a billion total atoms. You would never get anywhere just by trying to study atom-by-atom how they all interact with each other," said Gregory Voth, the Haig P. Papazian Distinguished Service Professor in Chemistry at the University of Chicago.
But Voth and his UChicago colleagues are working on a technique that might lead to a new, dramatically simpler way to predict molecular motion inside a cell. The team will pursue that goal with an initial $1.5 million Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation to launch the new Center for Multiscale Theory and Simulation.
CMTS is UChicago's second Phase I NSF Center for Chemical Innovation, following the establishment of the Center for Energetic Non-Equilbrium Chemistry at Interfaces in 2009. NSF created the Centers for Chemical Innovation program in 2004 to support long-term basic chemical research problems that are likely to produce transformative results.
"One of the reasons that the federal government supports basic research is because it has very positive impacts on our economy and our society," said Matthew Platz, director of NSF's Division of Chemistry. The CMTS, the only NSF-funded chemistry center purely devoted to theory and computation, could lead to the development of new pharmaceuticals and biomaterials.
Joining Voth in founding the center are Benoit Roux, professor in biochemistry and molecular biology; Aaron Dinner associate professor in chemistry; Karl Freed, the Henry J. Gale Distinguished Service Professor in Chemistry; Jonathan Weare, assistant professor in mathematics; Nina Singhal Hinrichs, assistant professor in computer science; and Daniel Katz, senior computational researcher, Computation Institute.
The center's activities will span three UChicago research institutes: the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, the Computation Institute and the James Franck Institute. Industrial collaborators so far consist of IBM, Genentech and Schrdinger, Inc.
New simulation capabilities
"What's impressive about Greg's team is the variety of theoretical and computational tools that it brings to bear," said Katharine Covert, a program director in NSF's Division of Chemistry.
These tools will include a theoretical and computer simulation capability for describing biological systems at interconnected multiple scales, from the molecular (the smallest) to the mesoscopic (intermediate) to the cellular (the largest).
"This is what we call the multi-scale problem, and probably nowhere in the natural world does the multi-scale problem manifest as dramatically as in the biology regime," Voth said.
Actin, a protein in the cytoskeleton (the dynamic scaffolding of the cell), presents a key aspect of the multi-scale problem.
"It's one of the most important components of biological cells, so if you don't understand actin, it's pretty hard to do much else," Voth said. "If you want to start getting up to cellular levels, it's really the glue that holds everything together. It's a fantastic, complex problem."
The new center will implement an extensive new cyberinfrastructure network that will provide a broad array of computational equipment, software and techniques to support its work. This infrastructure includes large allocations of computer time from NSF and from Argonne National Laboratory's Leadership Computing Facility to perform its calculations.
One of the center's most important computational tools is a technique called "coarse-graining," which is a way of simplifying a complex problem in a mathematically precise way, with real-world physics built in.
If a scientist were to ask how to use the known laws of physics to calculate the properties of some part of that cell, "that's an extremely challenging question," Voth noted. Coarse-graining can help.
"A coarse-grained model may, let's say, map a billion atoms into an equivalent structure that has a hundred thousand objects that represent what those atoms are doing," Voth said. "If you do it right, then new important patterns of interactions emerge. You begin to learn a lot about the system."
Voth already has applied coarse graining to the HIV virion particle, and to antibodies
that are important in pharmaceutical formulations for anti-cancer drugs.
A conceptual pioneer
Leo Kadanoff, the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Physics and a National Medal of Science recipient, fruitfully pioneered one of the early concepts for doing this kind of work, called renormalization, in the early 1960s.
"He developed some of these renormalization techniques that have, along with others he pioneered, revolutionized the field of physics," Voth said. "We're trying to do the same kind of thing for these very complicated biological systems. I think most people would agree that the magnitude of that challenge is enormous because these systems don't have simple interactions that are all the same or easy to classify."
The value of the center's results could extend far beyond biology into industrial and academic settings. "We're talking about a conceptual framework to do this kind of thing, and broadly speaking, I think it will have an impact in many areas," including renewable energy technology and new materials.
The center's mission extends beyond research to include public outreach programming and advanced training for the next generation of scientists.
One goal is a collaboration with the Chicago Council on Science and Technology to disseminate CMTS scientific innovations, as well as to enhance public understanding and appreciation of science and technology. The CMTS also will host annual summer workshops to provide cross-disciplinary training in multiscale simulation for graduate students and postdocs from around the country.
"We have an amazing number of graduate students and postdocs who have been trained in these centers who go on to get wonderful positions, doing what they want to do, who talk about the multidisciplinary environment being a big advantage during their job hunt," NSF's Covert said.
In addition, the UChicago Center for Chemical Innovation will focus outreach efforts through existing programs such as the Leadership Alliance and the Collegiate Scholars Program. They will provide access to the center's activities and motivate high school and undergraduate students from minority groups to pursue education and careers in the mathematical and physical sciences.
###
[ | 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.
Stocks sold off on news of a light GDP on Friday. Are there recession risks ahead? Don Luskin, Trend Macro; Jim Lacamp, MacroPortfolio Advisors; and Lee Munson, Portfolio, discuss.
Related Links:
Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com
Bill Gates poses next to a cut out of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to promote the Global Fund's 10th anniversary at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Gates announced a US dollar 750 million contribution to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Bill Gates poses next to a cut out of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to promote the Global Fund's 10th anniversary at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Gates announced a US dollar 750 million contribution to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, right, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, coordinating minister for economy and minister of finance of Nigeria, left, attend a plenary session at the 42nd annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. The overarching theme of the meeting, which will take place from Jan. 25 to 29, is "The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models". (AP Photo/Keystone, Jean-Christophe Bott)
Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks during a plenary session at the 42nd annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. The overarching theme of the meeting, which will take place from Jan. 25 to 29, is "The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models". (AP Photo/Keystone, Jean-Christophe Bott)
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Bill Gates pledged $750 million on Thursday to fight three killer diseases and rescue a beleaguered health fund whose financial losses have cost it donor support.
The Microsoft founder said he is lending his "credibility" to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by making the donation through a promissory note so the fund "can immediately use the money and save lives."
Gates' announcement at the World Economic Forum ? a magnet for the world's business and political elites who pushed for the fund's creation ? was part of an orchestrated attempt by the fund to galvanize donors on its 10th anniversary.
"These are tough economic times, but that is no excuse for cutting aid to the world's poorest," Gates told reporters.
He downplayed the $23 billion fund's reported losses of tens of millions of dollars to corruption, misuse and undocumented spending that were highlighted in Associated Press stories, and said it is "disappointing" to see how people have focused on a "small misuse of funds."
A donor backlash over AP reports about poor financial monitoring and the fund's losses uncovered by its own internal watchdog, the inspector general's office, prompted the organization last year to cancel more than $1 billion in planned new spending mainly to expand existing programs. The fund's executive director, Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, this week also announced his resignation.
"The internal checks and balances have worked in every case," Gates said. But, he added, "If you're going to do business in Africa, you're going to have some losses."
The public-private fund has helped change the fortunes of many of the world's poor through its prevention and treatment programs among 150 countries, Gates said.
The fund says it has provided antiretroviral treatment to 3.3 million people, detected and treated 8.2 million people with tuberculosis, and given 230 million bed nets to families to prevent malaria over its 10-year existence. It says it also has helped prevent 1.3 million pregnant women from passing on HIV to their babies, cared for 5.6 million orphans and kept 7.7 million others alive.
"It's a breathtaking achievement," U2 rock star Bono said in a compilation of fund supporters' statements from the fund Thursday.
A former Japanese prime minister, Naoto Kan, told the news conference that his nation has contributed $1.3 billion to the fund. Kan also said the fund's "transparency" must be maintained ? which includes auditors and investigators in the inspector general's office uncovering and publicizing its own losses ? as the fund goes through a series of reforms launched last year after the AP stories.
"The European debt crisis is shaking the world economy, which in turn seriously affects the fortunes of the Global Fund. But it doesn't mean the significance of the Global Fund is less," Kan said. "The corruption exists. It's regrettable, but that's reality."
Global Fund board Chairman Simon Bland said the fund is "transforming the way we do business" by streamlining the organization and will continue to "hold ourselves accountable" for what it spends.
"There will be no shying away from that transparency," Bland said.
Bland told AP he has hired the London accounting firm RSM Tenon Group to look into internal fund allegations that Kazatchkine, a French immunologist, improperly allocated several million dollars of fund money to benefit charity activities of France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and firms run by her close friend.
Bland said the firm has produced a confidential report that he intends to make public which lends little support to the allegations. France is the second-largest contributor to the fund behind the United States, and Bruni-Sarkozy serves as one of its ambassadors.
Kazatchkine, who has been at odds with the inspector general's office that has been uncovering the losses, resigned after the board decided to create a position of general manager to chart a new direction. The position was among a series of recommendations by a high-level panel created to address the problems raised in AP articles.
"I believe it is untenable that there are two heads in an organization and that's why I decided to leave," he told AP.
Kazatchkine said the Global Fund "can't be more transparent than we have been."
"We're by far the most transparent organization in development," he said at Davos. "Fighting corruption, yes, of course, and I have repeatedly said zero tolerance for corruption. Yet we also have to recognize that this business is not without risk. And risk, or the sense of risk, can also paralyze action."
MINNEAPOLIS ? Quicker deliveries of Boeing's commercial airplanes helped it report a 20-percent jump in fourth-quarter profits, and offset sluggish growth in its defense business.
Boeing delivered 128 commercial aircraft, up from 116 a year ago. Profits from those planes jumped 56 percent, and revenue rose 31 percent. It delivered three of its new 787s last year, and nine new 747-8 superjumbo jets.
The results bode well for Boeing, which expects its 2012 jet deliveries to put it ahead of European rival Airbus for the first time in 10 years. Boeing plans to deliver 585 to 600 commercial planes this year, while Airbus has predicted deliveries of 570 commercial jets.
Boeing Co. posted net income of $1.39 billion on Wednesday, or $1.84 per share. It had help from a tax benefit of 52 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected $1 per share. Revenue was $19.56 billion, also better than expected.
While Boeing's profits from defense rose 6 percent in the fourth quarter, and revenue was up 4 percent, defense contractors are just beginning to see what is expected to be a major slowdown in military spending in the U.S. and Europe. Boeing believes its defense revenue will fall roughly 5 percent this year.
Boeing and other defense contractors are moving to adjust. Boeing said earlier this month that it would close a defense plant in Wichita, Kan., which employs 2,160 people. Closing the plant angered Kansas lawmakers, who had worked to help Boeing get a contract to make a new aerial refueling tanker for the Air Force, with some of the work to be done in Wichita. Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said Boeing had to close the plant because of the "serious surgery on defense programs" planned by Washington.
Boeing said it bid aggressively for the tanker, although profits are expected be thin. McNerney said he does not believe Boeing's contract requires the tanker work to be done in Wichita.
"The Air Force has pressed us for a very good deal, and they're leaving it to us for the decision on where and how to produce it," he said on a conference call.
Boeing forecast profit of $4.05 to $4.25 per share in 2012. Analysts had been expecting a profit of $4.90 per share. Not counting 83 cents per share in higher-than-expected pension expense and other one-time items, Boeing estimates adjusted profit of $5.06 to $5.26 per share.
Revenue is forecast to be $78 billion to $80 billion. Analysts expect $78.45 billion.
Boeing shares fell as much as 3 percent in early trading on Wednesday, but they closed 46 cents higher at $75.82.
This probably shouldn't shock too many people but, Tim Cook believes the future isn't with the PC, but with the tablet. After shipping 15.4 million iPads in Q1 Cupertino is clearly comfortable with the idea that tablets are taking off and, as we begin to demand our devices become more mobile, it only makes sense that these finger-friendly slates will one day outsell less portable options like laptops and desktops. When might that day come? Well, Mr. Cook refused to speculate, but he was confident that the tablet market will be bigger, at least in terms of units sold, than traditional computers. Cook is already seeing a shift, with the iPad cannibalizing some Mac sale, but he does believe "there's more cannibalization of Windows PCs by the iPad," a trend he clearly loves. We hope, for their own sake, Dell and HP are ready for the coming revolution.
Have a shattered or unresponsive screen on your GSM iPhone 4 and need to know how to DIY repair it? If you don't want to put out the extra cash for a new phone and feel pretty confident in your repair skills, we can walk you through how to fix your iPhone 4 on your own.
BATA, Equatorial Guinea (AP) -Beating Libya has completely changed Equatorial Guinea's expectations at the African Cup of Nations as it prepares to play a Senegal side in desperate need of a victory on Wednesday.
Previously, fans of Equatorial Guinea gave the tournament newcomer and lowest-ranked team little hope of winning a match.
Then it stunned Libya in the cup opener on Saturday.
Now, taxis are bedecked with flags, the red shirt of the national team is everywhere and the team's nickname - Nzalang Nacional, meaning "National Lightning" - is on everybody's lips.
The victory means the Equatorial Guinea team will have to shoulder a different kind of pressure against Senegal, as fans expect a positive result against one of the tournament's top-ranked teams.
"I think we needed to play well and win the first game," said Equatorial Guinea midfielder Juvenal Edjogo-Owono, who captained the side against Libya. "We had to win the first game to have more confidence. With hard work and faith in our chances we can go far."
As the nation gets behind the team, some have questioned how representative the squad really is.
Most of the players in the 23-man party were born abroad and have either been naturalized to play with the Nzalang Nacional or qualify through a family member.
CAF spokesman Nicholas Musonye said all players registered to play at the African Cup had their eligibility checked with FIFA by tournament organizers.
Edjogo-Owono, who was born in Spain to an Equatorial Guinean father and Spanish mother, has spoken against the use of too many naturalized players. He told The Associated Press that those with Equatorial Guinean ancestry plying their trade in foreign clubs should be scouted more actively.
"We see players in Spain and Portugal who could play and we tell people he is good, but they (the players) don't always come. I don't know why," he said.
For now, the team is making the most of the players it has - wherever they come from. A win against Senegal would all but clinch a place in the knockout round with a game to spare.
Equatorial Guinea coach Gilson Paulo is unlikely to change his starting lineup, though Spain-based striker Rodolfo Bodipo is pushing for a place as he continues his recovery from a left ankle injury.
For Senegal, captain Mamadou Niang may drop to the bench as coach Amara Traore searches for a more balanced approach from a team that looked to have too many attacking options during the 2-1 opening loss to Zambia.
Finding the right mix has eluded Traore so far, as he tries to fit attackers such as Demba Ba, Papiss Demba Cisse, Moussa Sow, Souleymane Camara and Niang into a cohesive lineup.
Asked whether his team can win the whole tournament, coach Paulo allowed himself a grin.
"It's my job - I can't think anything else," he said.
In the other Group A match on Wednesday, Zambia will look to follow its surprise 2-1 win against Senegal with a second victory against Libya.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
advertisement
More newsGiuseppe Cacace / AFP - Getty Images
Barca awaits Real Madrid again
Real Madrid probably will abandon its defensive strategy and go on the attack against Barcelona in the second leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Stefano Rellandini / Reuters
That's a reason?
AC Milan's Kevin-Prince Boateng is hurt again, and his girlfriend says it's because they have sex "7-10 times a week." Oh.
When Stephen Colbert, the host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," decided to explore a satirical candidacy for president of the United States of America of South Carolina, he asked his friend Jon Stewart to take over his super PAC.
According to The Note, the stunt was meant to draw attention to the problems of independent expenditure committees, commonly referred to as super PACs, in political contests.
A few short weeks later, Colbert came in fifth place in the South Carolina primary via a proxy vote with former GOP candidate Herman Cain. Now Colbert wants to regain control of The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC.
He may be out of luck.
Stewart, the host of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," has been thoroughly enjoying the process of playing with Colbert's money and responded to the request by telling him to "take a long walk off a short go-f%?#-yourself."
Here's the full text of the humorous e-mail Stewart sent to his super PAC "supporters":
Dear Super PAC Super People,
Hey, it's Jon again. As you know, a while back, I took over this Super PAC so that my friend and business partner Stephen Colbert could explore possibly running for President of the United States of America of South Carolina (maybe).
Unfortunately, he never connected with voters, despite nearly a week of part-time campaigning, culminating in a massive rally at the College of Charleston.
Now, Stephen's exploratory phase is over. And like most exploratory phases, it was strange, awkward, and ended not long after he left campus.
Today he asked me if he if he could retake control of The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC. I told him, with all due respect, to go take a long walk off a short go-f%?#-yourself.
Are you kidding me? This thing is a pile of money, sitting on top of a heap of cash, sitting on top of a mountain of moolah. And I'm going to spend it. But in a legal, responsible way. For example, I just bought a jaguar! And I'm going to buy that jaguar its own Jaguar, and teach it to drive me around!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go ? my official Super PAC Private Zeppelin is about to land and the pilot told me I have to turn off all electronic devices. Which sucks, I was about to score a bingo on Words With Friends. Oh, the H-U-M-A-N-I-T-Y!
In conclusion: I'm rich! Rich, I tell you, rich!
Jon Stewart President For Life For Ever The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC
Intelligent Apps, the Hamburg, Germany-based startup behind popular taxi ordering smartphone application myTaxi, has raised 10 million euros in growth funding from car2go, a subsidiary of Daimler, Germany?s third largest carmaker. XING and Hackfwd founder Lars Hinrichs also participated in the financing round, as did previous backers T-Venture (Deutsche Telekom) and KfW Bankengruppe. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Daimler took a 15 percent stake in the mobile apps developer. Intelligent Apps claims myTaxi has a market share of no less than 80 percent in Europe, and is still growing fast. The app has been downloaded 800,000 times to date, and 7,000 taxi drivers have registered for the service so far. Read more at TechCrunch Europe.
ASUS was plenty busy at CES last week, but it held back at least one product on us -- the B23E. This 12.5-inch business laptop packs a Core i5 or i7, up to 8GB of RAM and a maximum 750GB hard drive in a magnesium-aluminum alloy case. Other expected Pro-series niceties are also in tow, including a fingerprint reader, spill-proof keyboard and an anti-shock mounted hard disk. Looking at the spec sheet though, it's not all gravy for this 3.4-pound PC. For one ASUS doesn't state how long it will last on a charge, but we can't imagine the three-cell 4,400mAh battery is going to impress with its longevity. We're also sad to see resolution top out at a pedestrian 1366 x 768. For more details hit up the product page at the source link.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? One international peacekeeper was killed and three others wounded in Sudan when gunmen ambushed their patrol in the troubled Darfur region on Saturday, UNAMID peacekeepers said.
The Western region is the scene of an almost decade-long insurgency by non-Arab tribes against the government in Khartoum, which they accuse of political and economic marginalization.
Unknown gunmen attacked the patrol near El Daein in South Darfur and killed one peacekeeper, a spokesman for the joint African Union/U.N. Mission UNAMID said.
Two of the wounded peacekeepers were in critical condition, he said, without giving the nationalities of the peacekeepers.
The United Nations has said as many as 300,000 people may have died in Darfur, where Khartoum has mobilized troops and mostly Arab militias to crush the uprising. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
Qatar brokered a peace deal which Sudan signed this year with the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), an umbrella association of smaller groups. But major other rebel groups have refused to sign the document.
In November, Darfur's main insurgent groups and rebels in two border states said they had formed an alliance to topple Bashir.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing Editing by Maria Golovnina)
San Francisco ? Those of us with a bit of institutional memory recall a brash upstart named Network Appliance that burst onto the storage scene to challenge EMC -- itself once a brash newcomer -- and other storage royalty like IBM. But that was 20 years ago, as difficult as that seems to believe, and the company, now named NetApp, is $5 billion-plus storage leader in its own right.
In this installment of the IDG Enterprise CEO Interview Series, CEO Tom Georgens talked to IDGE Chief Content Officer John Gallant about what's driven NetApp's success and shared his views on key technology issues like big data and deduplication. Georgens also explained why NetApp's single-architecture approach gives the company a big development and agility advantage compared to EMC, and explained why "server vendors" like Dell and IBM are falling behind in the storage arms race. Furthermore, he talked about NetApp's keen focus on the private cloud and how partnerships with companies like Microsoft and Cisco are helping NetApp deliver quickly on that emerging model of computing.
John Gallant: What's the NetApp mission, and what defines the company?
To continue reading, register here to become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, delivers a speech at the opening of the second year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Karzai announced to parliament on Saturday that he has taken the lead in peace negotiations with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent faction, meeting personally with radical Islamist militia representatives to push ahead with the peace process.(AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, delivers a speech at the opening of the second year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Karzai announced to parliament on Saturday that he has taken the lead in peace negotiations with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent faction, meeting personally with radical Islamist militia representatives to push ahead with the peace process.(AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai listens to Afghan national anthem ahead of inspecting the guards of honor during the opening ceremony of the second year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Karzai announced to parliament on Saturday that he has taken the lead in peace negotiations with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent faction, meeting personally with radical Islamist militia representatives to push ahead with the peace process. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, salutes to Afghan parliament members, as he walks out of parliament after delivering his speech at the opening ceremony of the second year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Karzai announced to parliament on Saturday that he has taken the lead in peace negotiations with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent faction, meeting personally with radical Islamist militia representatives to push ahead with the peace process. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai inspects the guards of honor during the opening ceremony of the second year of the Afghanistan parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. Karzai announced to parliament on Saturday that he has taken the lead in peace negotiations with the Hizb-i-Islami insurgent faction, meeting personally with radical Islamist militia representatives to push ahead with the peace process. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
An Afghan police official inspects the scene where a truck was hit by a road side bomb on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, Helmand province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Satrurday, Jan. 21, 2012, killing four Afghan civilians, the Ministry of Interior said. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that he personally held peace talks recently with the insurgent faction Hizb-i-Islami, appearing to assert his own role in a U.S.-led bid for negotiations to end the country's decade-long war.
Karzai made the announcement hours before he met with American special representative Marc Grossman to discuss progress and plans for bringing the Taliban insurgency into formal talks for the first time.
"Recently, we met with a delegation from Hizb-i-Islami ... and had negotiations," Karzai told a meeting of the Afghan parliament. "We are hopeful that these negotiations for peace continue and we will have good results," he added.
Karzai's statement was a reminder that any negotiations to end Afghanistan's war will be more complex than just talking to the Taliban's Pakistan-based leadership, headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar. The two other main insurgent factions in the country have their own leaders and agendas.
Hizb-i-Islami is a radical Islamist militia that controls territory in Afghanistan's northeast and launches attacks against U.S. forces from Pakistan. Its leader, powerful warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is a former U.S. ally now listed as a terrorist by Washington.
Based over the Pakistan border, Hekmatyar has ties to al-Qaida and has launched deadly attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Fighters loyal to Hekmatyar also have strongholds in Baghlan, Kunduz and Kunar provinces in the north and northeast Afghanistan.
The other main insurgent group is the feared Haqqani network, which maintains close ties to both al-Qaida and the Taliban and commands the loyalties of an estimated 10,000 fighters. The Haqqanis have been blamed for a series of spectacular attacks, including suicide bombings inside Kabul.
By showing he can bring at least one major faction to the negotiating table, Karzai may hope to boost his standing in a tentative peace process that has recently been dominated by Washington. The president has met before with representatives of Hekmatyar, whose political allies hold seats in the Afghan parliament and Cabinet, but Saturday's public announcement seemed intended to bolster Karzai's insistence on inclusion in the U.S.-led peace process.
"It should be mentioned that the Afghan nation is the owner of the peace process and negotiations," Karzai said. "No foreign country or organization can prevent (Afghans) from exercising this right."
The U.S. has repeatedly said that formal negotiations must be Afghan-led, but Karzai is reportedly uneasy with his government not being directly involved in recent preliminary talks with Taliban representatives.
U.S. representative Grossman began meeting with Karzai on Saturday, the U.S. Embassy said.
Grossman, however, stressed that any future negotiations would include Afghanistan's government.
"After our meeting with President Karzai, we will decide what to do next because we take his guidance and advice in an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led process," Grossman said Friday during a stop in India.
French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet also arrived in Kabul on Saturday for talks with Afghan officials after Paris suspended training missions following the killing of four French troops by an Afghan soldier, the latest in a rising number of assaults in which Afghan security forces or infiltrators have turned their guns on coalition forces.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has threatened to withdraw French troops from Afghanistan early over the deaths, a potential setback for the U.S.-led coalition's efforts to build a national army and allow foreign troops to go home.
Longuet said Saturday in Kabul his mission is to "evaluate the attitude our officials should take" in the future.
He expressed hope investigators would have access to the Afghan attacker to learn whether he acted alone or had outside help.
On Saturday, insurgents killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said. The statement gave no other details, nor the nationality of the casualty.
Insurgents clashed Saturday with government forces in the town of Barmal in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan, said Maj. Abdul Rahman, who coordinates coalition and Afghan operations in the area.
The Paktika governor's office said four attackers were trying to enter the town's main bazaar and then move toward government offices and military bases nearby. Before they could, Afghan security forces engaged them in a one-hour gun battle and all four attackers were killed, it said.
Separately, a roadside bomb killed four Afghan civilians Saturday morning in Helmand province in the south, the Interior Ministry said.
___
Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.
Video of the inside of Number 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant - video courtesy of Tepco
The first footage from inside one of Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear reactors at Fukushima has been released by the stricken plant's operator.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) inserted an endoscope camera in Number 2 reactor to examine the interior.
Thursday's probe aimed to get details such as the true level of cooling water and temperature inside the vessel.
The six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was badly damaged by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.
Last month it was announced that the nuclear reactors had finally been stabilised and reached a state of "cold shutdown".
This occurs when the water that cools nuclear fuel rods remains below boiling point, meaning that the fuel cannot reheat.
Radiation distorted footage
The video probe, just 8.5 mm in diameter according to one report, was inserted into the vessel to ascertain reactor conditions, particularly the level of cooling water and the temperature.
Some of the footage was distorted because of the levels of radiation, but officials say no major ruptures caused by the earthquake have been spotted.
"The visual artefacts provoked by the high level of radiation and other leaks inside are a viewing obstacle, but nevertheless the images are of relatively good quality in some areas," Tepco official Junichi Matsumoto is quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Tepco also said that experts were still trying to identify all the parts that were shown in the video.
The probe failed to find the water surface, which indicates that it sat at lower than expected levels and raised questions about the accuracy of current water monitors.
But the probe confirmed that the temperature inside the reactor was in line with the temperature gauge outside the container.
The information from the probe "will help us keep the reactor stable and solve problems," Ms Matsumoto is quoted by Reuters as saying.
Reports say that Tepco now hopes to use the endoscope to look inside two other stricken reactors but officials say radiation levels would have to decrease before that can happen.
A 20km (12m) exclusion zone remains in place around the plant. The government says it will take decades to dismantle the plant completely.
More than 80,000 people had to leave the area. Radiation levels in some places remain too high for them to return home.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) ? Six months after the U.N. declared Somalia's capital a famine zone, the number of refugees in the capital is dwindling, as most of the men have gone home to try to revive devastated herds and withered crops.
Motorola's own website has pointed to a January 26th launch for the long-awaited Droid RAZR Maxx, but it looks like February 6th is the date to really pay attention to. With battery life becoming an even more serious concern due to the proliferation of life-sucking 4G networks, it's become obvious that companies are finally placing those longevity statistics atop their priority list. Samsung itself has already promised to significantly improve battery life in its phones during 2012, and we're now hearing from a trusted source that Moto will be streaming a pretty unorthodox event in order to put its own RAZR Maxx to the test. We're told to expect a 24-hour marathon event, streamed out to the gaping masses, where the aforesaid handset will be powered on and presumably used for a full day -- it's like a David Blaine trick, but for phones. Might as well pencil in 2/6 if you're eager to see if this might actually meet your long-term demands.
TUESDAY, Jan. 17 (HealthDay News) -- A new blood test may hold promise as a means of early detection and diagnosis for often deadly pancreatic cancers.
Reporting Tuesday at the annual Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, researchers said the test, which measures levels of a protein known as PAM4, was able to identify two-thirds of patients who had pancreatic cancer at an early stage of their disease.
Early pancreatic tumors typically fly under the radar, causing no symptoms and going undetected until they have spread. This partially accounts for the dismal prognosis faced by most people diagnosed with the illness.
That's why any means of spotting these cancers early would be critical. According to the researchers, PAM4 is a protein that is present in normal cells but is greatly elevated in cancerous ones.
"When a person gets cancer, this protein spills into the bloodstream," explained Dr. Igor Astsaturov, an assistant professor of medical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Astsaturov, who was not involved with the study, said the results were "certainly welcome news."
When the researchers combined PAM4 with another test, CA19-9, which is already approved to monitor pancreatic cancer during treatment, the combination showed even stronger results and correctly identified 85 percent of patients with pancreatic ductal adenomcarcinoma (PDAC), by far the most common form of pancreatic cancer.
More study of PAM4 may even point to possible targets for therapy, the authors stated.
"For providers of care for patients with pancreatic cancer, hampered by their inability to readily detect these cancers in some cases, especially in earlier stages, this shows tremendous promise that blood-based assay can add to our ability to diagnose pancreatic cancer at an earlier stage, thereby impacting patients lives," said Dr. Morton S. Kahlenberg, a gastrointestinal cancers expert with the American Society of Clinical Oncology and moderator of a Tuesday press briefing on the findings.
In previous research by the same group of authors, the PAM4 test was able to identify 82 percent of patients with PDAC. That study included about 80 participants, said study author David V. Gold, director of laboratory administration and a senior member with Garden State Cancer Center in Morris Plains, N.J.
The current study updates those results by including blood samples from almost 300 people previously diagnosed with PDAC, 99 with other types of cancer, 126 with benign pancreatic disease and 79 healthy controls.
Meanwhile, the test had relatively few false positives, mistakenly identifying only 19 percent of benign pancreatic disease patients and 23 percent of chronic pancreatitis patients.
The tests did not appear to be helpful in finding other forms of pancreatic cancer, the researchers stressed.
A second abstract being presented at the symposium also demonstrated the potential utility of these types of diagnostic "biomarkers," this time in identifying which people with Barrett's esophagus are more likely to develop esophageal cancer.
Barrett's esophagus involves changes to the esophageal lining, which sometimes continues into cancer. People with long-term gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are at particular risk.
Right now, doctors use endoscopy and standard biopsies along the length of the esophagus to monitor for cancer However, this isn't able to sort out tiny changes that separate those at very high risk for cancer from those at much lesser risk.
In this study, "optical biomarkers," which combine a special microscope with a broad-band white-light source, was able to sort out three characteristics of the cell nucleus that signaled a person was at risk for cancer.
In 60 patients with Barrett's esophagus, the biomarkers were able to correctly identify 89 cases of cancer and 76 percent of those without cancer.
If these biomarkers were affirmed in future studies, it would preclude the need for repeated biopsies in people with Barrett's, the authors said.
Data presented at medical meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in peer-reviewed medical journals.
More information
Find out more about pancreatic cancer at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
LONDON (AP) ? British police on Monday removed tents and protesters from Parliament Square in the latest twist in a decade-long battle to clear prime London real estate.
Scotland Yard said two people were arrested in the operation to remove "all tents and sleeping equipment" from the square. It said officers had arrived on the scene around 7:30 p.m. and wrapped up around three hours later after removing eight tents and "moving on" 10 to 12 people.
The officers were enforcing the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act of 2011, which gave police new powers to prevent encampments around Parliament Square, according to Scotland Yard.
It said the arrests late Monday were for breaching that act, while one other individual was handed a summons during the clearing operation. The officers were assisted by teams from the local Westminster council in loading equipment into trucks.
In December, the council passed a bylaw that would impose fines of 500 pounds ($766) for failure to remove tents from Parliament Square, and Council leader Colin Barrow expressed support for the police action Monday evening.
"For too long local people and tourists have been unable to fully enjoy the square," he said. "This is a tragedy and the sooner this historic site can be enjoyed by the public the better."
Protesters in colorful tents and with equally-colorful slogans have been staked out opposite the houses of Parliament for about 10 years.
The campaigners were initially led by and loyal to Brian Haw, a veteran British peace activist who staged around-the-clock protests outside London's Parliament continuously for 10 years prior to his death last year from cancer.
Haw set up camp opposite the Houses of Parliament in June 2001 to protest U.S. and British bombing raids on Iraq. His protest soon widened in scope in the following years, with the invasion of Afghanistan.
Over the years, British officials tried ? but failed ? to shut down his protests and remove him and his collection of pictures showing war victims and slogans such as "Baby Killers" from Parliament Square.
In 2002, the local council took legal action to remove him, saying he was a nuisance, but the case never went to court. Subsequent legal challenges resulted in limiting Haw's protest site.
His supporters set up a "Democracy Village" on Parliament Square in 2010, but moved to the sidewalk next to it in 2011 after Greater London Authority received permission to evict Haw and the protesters from the grassy green.
___
Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd
MONDAY, Jan. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Variations in a certain gene can make people more or less sensitive to the taste of fat and affect their risk for obesity, researchers report.
The team at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis studied 21 obese people and found that those with a particular variant of the CD36 gene were far more sensitive to the taste of fat.
This is the first study to identify a receptor on human tongues that can taste fat. The finding was recently published in the Journal of Lipid Research.
"The ultimate goal is to understand how our perception of fat in food might influence what foods we eat and the quantities of fat that we consume," senior investigator Nada Abumrad, a professor of medicine and obesity research, said in a university news release.
"In this study, we've found one potential reason for individual variability in how people sense fat. It may be, as was shown recently, that as people consume more fat, they become less sensitive to it, requiring more intake for the same satisfaction. What we will need to determine in the future is whether our ability to detect fat in foods influences our fat intake, which clearly would have an impact on obesity," Abumrad noted.
Previous research found that rats and mice without a working CD36 gene no longer had a preference for fatty foods and that animals that can't make the CD36 protein have difficulty digesting fat.
It's believed that up to 20 percent of people have a CD36 gene variant that's associated with making significantly less CD36 protein. This, in turn, could make them less sensitive to the presence of fat in food, the researchers said.
More information
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more about dietary fats.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
Share ] 
To continue reading, register here to become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.
