A Florida restaurant has pulled lion meat from its menu after an up-"roar" from...

A Florida restaurant has pulled lion meat from its menu after an up-"roar" from some customers. Taco Fusion is known for serving all kinds of exotic game, but it seems the lion meat caused the most controversy: http://on.kthv.com/18wMCaQ

Do you like to try exotic foods? Where should a line be drawn?

(Photo: WFLA)

Source: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151642068928554&set=a.88702903553.101952.68455493553&type=1

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Former Republic Windows Employees Start Their Own Factory

Republic Windows was the scene of a nationally covered labor sit-in in 2008. (CBS)

• Windows Factory Is Reborn
• WBBM Newsradio's Bob Roberts

(CBS) ? Eighteen of the workers who staged a sit-in strike when Republic Windows & Doors suddenly ceased operations at its Goose Island plant in late 2008 are back in business as a worker-run cooperative.

It?s been a tough road.

Then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich pledged his support to the Republic worker during a visit to the sit-in on Dec. 8, 2008, only to be arrested the next day.

The firm that took over the Republic factory, Serious Materials, got out of the window business last year.? Now, the workers own what?s known as the New Era Windows Cooperative.

New Era was nurtured by Republic?s union, the United Electrical Workers ?and is financed by a group called The Working World that specializes in worker-run coops.

Its president, Brendan Martin, said he believes New Era is a good investment.

?We have a good story of workers saving their jobs we also have the benefit of very low overhead,? he said.? ?We don?t have hungry investors waiting to get their money out immediately.?We don?t have a bank crashing on the door because they want to get payments in month one.?

They cherry-picked the best of Republic?s equipment, which is now set up at the old Campbell Soup factory at 2600 W. 35th St.

The worker-owners are all former Republic employees, such as Ricky Maclin. He said they have a handful of orders and believe their timing is good.

?Unlike our competitors, we don?t have the CEOs and COOs and all of those ?Os? that you have to pay big bonuses to,? he said.? ?So we?re able to transfer that savings down to our customers.?

Union organizer Leah Fried said UE has tried to help New Era get off the ground by spreading the word about the coop.? Did she ever believe she would turn commercial spokesperson?

?No!? But these guys have inspired me,? she said.??I really want them to be able to succeed.? I really think anyone who works with them is really going to enjoy the process.?

Source: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/05/09/former-republic-windows-employees-start-their-own-factory/

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Nokia pushes $99 Internet phone in market share battle

By Devidutta Tripathy

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Nokia is betting low-priced phones with Internet capability will help it regain lost ground in crucial emerging markets after falling behind in the global smartphone race.

On Thursday, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop unveiled a new $99 phone in its mid-range Asha line at a launch in India, one of the most important markets in his bid to revive the struggling Finnish firm.

The new phone offers Internet access on a touch-screen with built in applications for popular social media sites and more features than earlier models, which fell short of a full-fledged smartphone.

He also announced a revamp of the Asha software platform in the hope of persuading more developers to write applications for Asha phones.

Elop, hired in 2010 to turn around the once-dominant handset maker, is under pressure as a controversial decision to switch to Microsoft Corp's Windows software is yet to bear significant results after two years, with shareholders this week saying he should reconsider the move.

Although more people are buying phones with computer-like features, most of the handsets Nokia sells are regular phones. Its failure to cash in on the smartphone boom saw it last year cede its 14-year reign as the world's top phonemaker to South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

"The market is undeniably moving towards smartphones - although India may be moving at a slower pace than the likes of China, but it is still the case," said Jessica Kwee, a Singapore-based analyst at research firm Canalys.

While Nokia has seen brisk sales of its Windows-based Lumia smartphones, it still has just a 5 percent share of a global smartphone market dominated by Samsung and Apple Inc.

So-called "smart feature phones" like those in the Asha range, which have limited smartphone capabilities such as Internet and email access and touch screens but are cheaper than the likes of Samsung's high-end Galaxy models or Apple's iPhone, are crucial to Nokia's future as it defends its leading market share in emerging economies such as India and Africa.

The launch of Asha, which means "hope" in Hindi, last year helped Nokia recapture some of its lost share in India and retain its leadership at about 26 percent of a market where it faces growing competition from Samsung and local rivals such as Micormax, Karbonn and Lava.

The new Asha 501 launched on Thursday has design elements similar to the higher spec Lumia line, features applications for social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and supports Indian languages.

Nokia said the Asha software development kit would make it easier for developers to come up with smartphone-like apps and to sell content from within them. The in-application payment system would be launched in a few weeks, Nokia said in a statement.

BRIGHT SPOT

India has been a rare bright spot for struggling Nokia, which has seen its sales fall year-on-year for eight straight quarters. It was Nokia's No.2 market in 2012 after China in net sales and has been relatively steady compared with China, where net sales fell nearly 60 percent last year.

"India is very important," said Elop. "India is a bellwether market, it's a very leading indicator of some of the trends, some of the new technologies, some of the new consumer requirements that people are asking for."

For the three months to March, Nokia had a 23 percent share of mobile phone sales in India, the world's second-biggest cellular market by customers, Strategy Analytics estimates. Three years ago it controlled more than half the Indian market.

Nokia's "production, pricing and mindset have been long established to churn out millions of standardized models at low prices," said Neil Mawston, British-based executive director at Strategy Analytics, but added the company faces "strong headwinds" from local competition.

ANDROID COMPETITION

The biggest threat for Nokia in the low-end segment of Internet-enabled phones is cheaper devices running on Google Inc's Android software, typically made in China and Taiwan and shipped worldwide to be sold by local companies.

In India, the cheapest Android phone available from online retailer Flipkart.com is priced at about $61, whereas a touch-screen Asha phone starts at $72.

For the first time, global smartphone shipments overtook that of smart feature phones in the three months to March.

The challenge for Nokia is to convince entry-level smartphone buyers that the Asha can fulfill their needs and give a smartphone-like experience, said Rajat Agrawal, executive editor at gadget reviewer BGR India.

"These are the devices they think will compete with the $100-$150 Android smartphones. The biggest challenge over there is the whitebox manufacturers," he said, referring to low-cost Android phones.

The new Nokia phone has a lengthy 17 hours of talk time and 48 days of standby time, an attractive feature in a country like India where many people don't have regular access to electricity and power cuts are frequent.

"Nokia needs a killer model for the high-growth smartphone market ... an iPhone 3G or Galaxy S1, a revolutionary model that stands apart from the rest on usability or design and one that will ship tens of millions of units worldwide," said Mawston.

"Nokia's task for recovery is easy to say, hard to do." ($1 = 54.1275 Indian rupees)

(Editing by Tony Munroe and Alex Richardson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nokia-unveils-asha-phone-priced-99-072657559.html

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South Korean president to address Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) ? South Korean President Park Geun-hye is getting a grand welcome from Congress as Seoul and Washington resolve to stand firm against North Korean provocations.

Park was to address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, a day after she and President Barack Obama urged the North's young leader, Kim Jong Un, to abandon nuclear weapons and rejoin the international community.

The strong message of solidarity was delivered amid signs North Korea was moving to dial down tensions that have escalated since it conducted an underground atomic test in February that drew tightened U.N. sanctions.

Obama declared that the days when the North could win concessions by creating a crisis were over. He said the allies would respond to aggression, but he also endorsed Park's goal of building trust with Pyongyang, as long as it honors international commitments, particularly on denuclearization.

"If what North Korea has been doing has not resulted in a strong, prosperous nation, then now's a good time for Kim Jong Un to evaluate that history and take a different path," Obama told reporters Tuesday as he stood alongside Park. "Should he choose to take a different path, not only President Park and myself would welcome it, but the international community as a whole would welcome it."

Park's attempts to build trust with Pyongyang have gained no traction. Relations have only gotten worse since she took office, two weeks after the latest nuclear test ? the third conducted by the North since 2006.

Pyongyang recently forced the closure of a joint industrial park that was a rare symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

But in a sign that tensions on the Korean Peninsula could be subsiding, U.S. officials reported Tuesday that North Korea has removed from a launch site two mobile, medium-range ballistic missiles that had been readied for possible test-firing.

Park, daughter of the late South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee, is on her first overseas trip since taking office in late February after winning elections in the now democratic nation, one of Asia's strongest economies.

Her visit also marks the 60th anniversary of the military alliance with the U.S. that maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea.

She becomes the sixth South Korean leader to address a joint meeting of Congress. Her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, who had an unusually close bond with Obama among foreign leaders, was the last to do so in October 2011. Also Wednesday, Park was to address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

At Tuesday's news conference, Park said the international community needed to send a firm and consistent message that North Korea's provocations and pursuit of nuclear weapons would not be tolerated, so it would be compelled to change.

She stressed the importance of the role of China, the North's key ally and economic benefactor. In a nod to its new apparent willingness to put pressure on Pyongyang, Park said China was "faithfully implementing" U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to curb the North's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

In a significant move, one of China's biggest banks said Tuesday it has halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the U.S. of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skorean-president-address-congress-071116626.html

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This Animation Based on Oscillating Sine Waves Is Utterly Entrancing

Are your eyes bored today? Look at this right now. It's a computer animation by computer artist Daniel Sierra, and it will mesmerize you, if only for a few minutes.

Sierra just got his MFA from New York's School of Visual Arts, and Oscillate was his thesis project. He was inspired by the motion of sine waves, upon which he built a tapestry of color and sound:

The concept of universal building blocks that can be assembled to form complex structures is something I find very exciting and alluring. Sound follows this concept in that any sound, for example a snare drum or a human voice, can be deconstructed as the summation of varying sine waves; hence making sine waves the building blocks of sound so to speak. This concept, which comes from the Fourier Series (named after Joseph Fourier) was the inspiration for my thesis, "Oscillate".

Sierra used Houdini to compose the animation, Reason to create the music, Nuke for compositing, and After Effects for the final render. It's pretty amazing that the sound and visuals were all the work of one person. [Daniel Sierra via Faith is Torment]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-animation-based-on-oscillating-sine-waves-is-utter-493970700

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Online Social Media Training by top internet marketing consultant ...

Social media are the websites on the internet where people can interact freely, share and discuss any information about each other using a perfect mix of multimedia that is pictures, videos as well as audios. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace etc are some of the social networking sites that exist today. Building up an online social media is a huge task at hand and hence training is required for the same. Internet marketing and consultancy includes services of creating a community online to increase the revenue, handling social media in house, helping a community to grow their visibility online etc. Social Media training is basically a transfer of knowledge from the company to its employees that involves teaching of a definite topic from this domain. More and more organisations have identified the importance of social media and hence have been creating guidelines at work. Even if the business is a start-up and is not using social media for promotions, but at a later stage when used responsibly by the employees, the firm advances.

Hence a top internet marketing consultant is a must to train in the field of online social media.

The internet marketing consultant should first carry out an assessment to figure out why the training is essential for the company. The first assessment should simply answer the above question and be the goal of that session. The answer why it is in such a great demand is because it transforms the way in which people and business collaborate. Companies setup guidelines to educate the employees on best practices, potential pitfalls and opportunities while the training is going on. The marketing consultant should impart knowledge on why the social media is important for the organisation and how it helps in making some things public that everyone in the organisation wants to know.

Concepts are more important than teaching the always changing details of various online platforms. The marketing consultant should include in the training, to teach how the employees can be the best ambassadors for the organization along with good citizens of social media. Tools change and are morphed and what a firm uses today will definitely change tomorrow, but what remains are the hardcore concepts and that is what should be taught during the training session. Hence the employees will be able to apply their knowledge across all the media channels.

Some businesses could be reluctant to use social media because of their ever changing settings. Therefore the employees should be convinced and trained in such a way that they are comfortable in using the future updates. The social media training is always changing and evolving, hence the consultant should make sure that the employees are trained in such a way that they are accustomed to these changes. The consultant should be discreet, play nice, be transparent and train in accordance with the rules. A social media training program that compliments the strategy of the organisation need not be expensive or take many days. The time consuming and expensive training happens when the firms leaves the learning of social media to chance.

Source: http://www.seomasterexpert.com/online-social-media-training-by-top-internet-marketing-consultant

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The Secret Iron Man 3 Closing Titles You Didn't See in Theaters

As fun as Iron Man 3 was, when the screen goes black and the titles come up you're smacked in the face with a whole other kind of fun?the awesome motion-heavy sequence from Creative Director Danny Yount. And if you thought that was cool, you should see what he originally had planned.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/QQd1uGzcwdk/the-secret-iron-man-3-closing-titles-you-didnt-see-in-493802611

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T-Mobile Targets Small Businesses With New Business Connect SaaS Phone Service, Partnering With Stealth ChooChee

T-Mobile, fresh from the completion of its merger with MetroPCS and new NYSE listing, is now sharpening its focus on new customers and new products, beginning with small businesses and cloud-based, software-as-a-service phone deals. We’ve been passed a letter that T-Mobile is sending out to a selection of small companies (copied below), targeting those with 20 or fewer employees and offering them free business phone service for the remainder of 2013, with half price on phone services in 2014. The plan, called Business Connect, also has a dedicated website. This looks to be a direct competitor to other hosted services like those offered by?8×8 and RingCentral, which effectively offer small businesses a cloud-based solution that gives them telephony features like voicemail, CallerID, conference bridges and other features that have been hallmarks of services for larger companies. From what we understand, this is being developed in conjunction with ChooChee, whose site, if you visit it, still indicates it is in stealth mode but also notes that it is working “in close partnership with one of the world?s largest global telephony providers”. Our source tells us that ChooChee has in fact been quietly acquired by T-Mobile. (We have reached out to the company to confirm this, plus the news about Business Connect. In any case, someone last year created a profile on CrunchBase called Deutsche Telekom/ChooChee, which points to them at least working together.) From what we understand, what’s going out to select users today is an early beta, and that there will be a soft launch later this year, with a bigger launch later in the year. This could be part of a bigger strategy targeting SMBs: just last week (prior to the MetroPCS announcement) T-Mobile also announced a new plan for small businesses called “Simple Choice.” This is effectively the business equivalent of the “un-carrier” deals that T-Mobile has been selling to consumers. In this case it’s low-cost mobile plans for unlimited talk, text and mobile?web access without an annual contract, along with offers for smartphones at discounted prices. On top of that, T-Mobile is also selling additional services like IT support and billing automation in a new “Business Extras” plan. The Business Connect service, however, appears to be separate from this and aimed at a converged fixed/mobile phone service. T-Mobile, even with the added heft of MetroPCS, is still the U.S.’s smallest mobile carrier, with 43 million subscribers, compared

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HtF-8C_Ge9E/

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Carly Fiorina: The Power of One Mom

This post is part of the Global Mom Relay. Every time you share this blog, $5 will go to women and girls around the world. Scroll to the bottom to find out more.

I believe in the power of one mother to change the world.

From the United States to Rwanda there is a global movement underway to empower and inspire moms. My own mother was one of the most powerful inspirations in my life; likewise, moms all across the world inspire and support their own children. Their leadership and passion to create a better world transcends borders and is common in women everywhere regardless of socio economic background. Women are motivated by a desire to create new opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Worldwide, more than 1.5 billion people live in extreme poverty, 70 percent of whom are women. In developing countries, women are disproportionately affected by the challenges of extreme poverty yet time and time again find the courage to provide a brighter future for their children. Research reveals that women are three times more likely to reinvest in their children and community.

This is the case for mothers like Ana Serrano. Ana, a grocer from the Philippines, survived the first 20 years of her life on a Manila garbage dump. With the help of a microloan Ana now runs a business, supports her family and helps poor street children in her community. One mother transforming life for herself, her family and the less fortunate in her community--that's the power of one mother.

Ann Serrano. Image courtesy of Opportunity International.

In Rwanda we see women like Eugenie Nyirabagenzi, a rice farmer who once struggled to maintain her land during planting and harvesting seasons. With a loan from Opportunity International, Eugenie now owns a three-acre farm, employs three neighbors, and is able to feed her children more nutritious meals.

Eugenie Nyirabagenzi. Image courtesy of Opportunity International.

I am proud to be a Global Ambassador for Opportunity International, a global organization helping to empower women like Eugenie and Ana through financial services and training. This sustainable model helps women become entrepreneurs and leaders within their families and communities. I have made a commitment to help unlock the potential of women everywhere; to invest in moms and their ability to change the world.

I believe in the power of one mother to change the world. Join the movement and honor mothers today.

Each time you share this Global Mom Relay piece on Facebook, Twitter via the sharing icons above, or through clicking on the above graphic, or donate $5 or more, a $5 donation (up to $500,000) will be donated by Johnson & Johnson and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Health (MAMA). $5 provides a mother six months of mobile health messages to guide her throughout pregnancy and baby's first year. Join us by sharing it forward and unlock the potential for women and children around the globe. For more information, visitwww.unfoundation.org/globalmomrelay. The United Nations Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, BabyCenter, The Huffington Post, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the Global Mom Relay, a first-of-its-kind virtual relay with a goal of improving the lives of women and children around the globe.

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Follow Carly Fiorina on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CarlyforCA

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carly-fiorina/carly-fiorina-opportunity-international_b_3211902.html

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Hollande Protests: Thousands Of French Leftists March Against President's 1st Year

PARIS -- Tens of thousands of supporters of leftist parties marched through central Paris on Sunday to express disappointment with President Francois Hollande's first year in power, criticizing the leader for reneging on his promises to rein in the world of finance and enact economic stimulus.

Hollande, a Socialist, rose to the presidency last May, promising to spare France the austerity measures imposed elsewhere in Europe. And the French government has largely avoided the deep spending cuts, big tax hikes and the wide-ranging reforms of many of its neighbors.

Instead, it has nibbled around the edges of its deficit, cutting 10 billion euros ($13 billion) in spending and increasing taxes, largely on the rich, by 20 billion euros. That's relatively little for a country with 2 trillion euro economy of which 57 percent is government spending.

Still, France's economy has continued to deteriorate, with growth stagnating and unemployment rising above 10 percent.

Leftists who took the streets on Sunday ? largely from parties to the left of Hollande's mainstream Socialist Party ? rejected the notion that Hollande had spared France a worse fate.

"Salaries are frozen. They continue to reduce hiring in the public sector," said Brigitte Blang, a 64-year-old teacher from eastern France. "We're waiting for true leftist policies. There's money in the coffers!"

Blang was among tens of thousands of people from around the country who gathered around Paris' iconic Place de la Bastille, named for the prison stormed by French revolutionaries in 1789. They carried signs that said, "Down with austerity," "Out with finance, humans first" and "OUSTerity ? finance should pay."

Paris police said 30,000 people showed up, although protest organizers said there were 180,000. After speeches, the crowd marched to another Paris square.

Several protesters acknowledged that they voted for Hollande a year ago ? either simply to ensure the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat or because they had hope for his leadership.

Hollande's failure to keep the support of those on the far left protesting in Paris on Sunday while also angering the right _who think his economic reforms and budget cuts haven't gone far enough ? has made him one the least popular presidents in modern French history. In a sign of how he is being squeezed from both sides, police said 15,000 people ? largely right-leaning ? gathered in another part of Paris on Sunday to protest the recent passage of a law legalizing gay marriage.

Hollande and his ministers have pleaded for more time to allow their policies to take hold.

On the one hand, France's reluctance to enact major budget cuts may seem prescient to some as many economists and politicians in Europe rethink the austerity programs demanded in exchange for bailouts. The effects of budget cuts and tax increases have been much more detrimental to growth than some expected, and the prolonged recession and high unemployment in many countries has begun to make those policies untenable.

But others note that France hasn't just shied away from budget cuts, it has also skimped on reforms. While Spain and Italy may be struggling more than France currently, both countries are also laying the groundwork for a strong, durable recovery, many economists say.

France, on the other hand, may be left behind when the rebound comes since it has only partially committed to labor market reforms. Many of its companies are still not competitive on the world stage, its government spending is still too high and Hollande's administration has only exacerbated the impression that France is a difficult place to do business. One of his ministers has had very public spats with Goodyear, ArcelorMittal and Yahoo in the past year.

Hollande has been trying to turn that reputation around, recently unveiling a raft of tax cuts for entrepreneurs. But that announcement is a good example of the bind he finds himself in: Those very tax cuts were held up as a call to arms for Sunday's protest. And many deplored what they see as a stranglehold on power exercised by big companies and banks.

"Our march ... is a protest against the coup d'etat of the world of finance that is happening throughout Europe," said Jean-Luc Melenchon, the head of a grouping of leftist political parties known as the Left Front.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/05/hollande-protests-french-march-against-president-1st-year_n_3219315.html

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Israeli warplanes strike Syria in escalation

BEIRUT (AP) ? Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said.

The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near the Syrian capital and caused casualties.

An intelligence official in the Middle East, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to disclose information about a secret military operation to the media, confirmed that Israel launched an airstrike in Damascus early Sunday but did not give more precise details about the location. The target was Fateh-110 missiles, which have very precise guidance systems with better aim than anything Hezbollah has in its arsenal, the official told The Associated Press.

The airstrikes come as Washington considers how to respond to indications that the Syrian regime may have used chemical weapons in its civil war. President Barack Obama has described the use of such weapons as a "red line," and the administration is weighing its options ? including possible military action.

Iran condemned the airstrikes but gave no other hints of a possible stronger response from Tehran or its allies.

Israel has said it wants to stay out of the brutal Syria war, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated the Jewish state would be prepared to take military action to prevent sophisticated weapons from flowing from Syria to Hezbollah or other extremist groups.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in mid-2006 that ended in a stalemate.

Syria's state news agency SANA reported that explosions went off at the Jamraya military and scientific research center near Damascus and said "initial reports point to these explosions being a result of Israeli missiles." SANA said there were casualties but did not give a number.

Damascus-based activist Maath al-Shami said the strikes occurred around 3 a.m. "Damascus shook. The explosion was very, very strong," said al-Shami adding that one of the strikes occurred near the capital's Qasioun mountain that overlooks Damascus.

He said the raid near Qasioun targeted a military position for the elite Republican Guards that is in charge of protecting Damascus, President Bashar Assad's seat of power.

Mohammed Saeed, another activist who lives in the Damascus suburb of Douma, said "the explosions were so strong that earth shook under us." He said the smell of the fire caused by the air raid near Qasioun could be felt miles away.

Israel has said it will not allow sophisticated weapons to flow from Syria to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, an Iranian-backed Assad ally and a heavily armed foe of the Jewish state.

Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israel's military intelligence, said the strike is a signal to Tehran that Israel is serious about the red lines it has set.

"Syria is a very important part in the front that Iran has built. Iran is testing Israel and the U.S. determination in the facing of red lines and what it sees is in clarifies to it that at least some of the players, when they define red lines and they are crossed, take it seriously," he told Army Radio.

In Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast condemned an Israeli airstrike against Syria and urged countries in the region to remain united against Israel, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency. The brief statement gave no details.

The Fateh-110, or Conqueror, is a short-range ballistic missile developed by Iran and first put into service in 2002. The Islamic Republic unveiled an upgraded version in 2012 that improved the weapon's accuracy and increased its range to 300 kilometers (185 miles).

Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said at the time that the solid-fueled missile could strike with pin-point precision, making it the most accurate weapon of its kind in Iran's arsenal.

An airstrike in January also targeted weapons apparently bound for Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials have said. The White House had no immediate comment on Sunday's reported missile strikes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group, also reported large explosions in the area of Jamraya, a military and scientific research facility northwest of Damascus, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said the research center in Jamraya was not hit. It added that an army supply center was targeted by the strike.

Al-Manar quoted unnamed Syrian security officials as saying that three sites including military barracks, arms depots and air defense center were targeted by the strike.

Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen TV, that has several reporters around Syria, said one of the strikes targeted a military position in the village of Saboura, west of Damascus and about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Lebanon border.

An amateur video said to be shot early Sunday in the Damascus area showed fire lighting up the night sky. The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting.

Uzi Rubin, a missile expert and former Defense Ministry official, told the AP that if the target were Fateh-110 missiles as reported then it is a game changer as they put almost all Israel in range and can accurately hit targets.

Rubin emphasized that he was speaking as a rocket expert and had no details on reported strikes.

"If fired from southern Lebanon they can reach Tel Aviv and even (the southern city of) Beersheba." He said the rockets are much five times more accurate than the scud missiles that Hezbollah has fired in the past. "It is a game changer because they are a threat to Israel's infrastructure and military installations," he said.

Israel's first airstrike in Syria, in January, also struck Jamraya.

At the time, a U.S. official said Israel targeted trucks next to the research center that carried SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. The strikes hit both the trucks and the research facility, the official said. The Syrian military didn't confirm a hit on a weapons shipment at the time, saying only that Israeli warplanes bombed the research center.

Israeli lawmaker Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister and a former chief of staff, declined to confirm the airstrike but said Israel is concerned about weapons falling into the hands of the Islamic militant group amid the chaos of Syria's civil war.

"We must remember that the Syrian system is falling apart and Iran and Hezbollah are involved up to their necks in Syria helping Bashar Assad," he told Israel Radio. "There are dangers of weapons trickling to the Hezbollah and chemical weapons trickling to irresponsible groups like al-Qaida."

___

Deitch was reporting from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Brian Murphy contributed to this report from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-warplanes-strike-syria-escalation-073408782.html

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Improving materials that convert heat to electricity and vice-versa: Turning waste heat into electricity

May 5, 2013 ? Thermoelectric materials can be used to turn waste heat into electricity or to provide refrigeration without any liquid coolants, and a research team from the University of Michigan has found a way to nearly double the efficiency of a particular class of them that's made with organic semiconductors.

Organic semiconductors are carbon-rich compounds that are relatively cheap, abundant, lightweight and tough. But they haven't traditionally been considered candidate thermoelectric materials because they have been inefficient in carrying out the essential heat-to-electricity conversion process.

Today's most efficient thermoelectric materials are made of relatively rare inorganic semiconductors such as bismuth, tellurium and selenium that are expensive, brittle and often toxic. Still, they manage to convert heat into electricity more than four times as efficiently as the organic semiconductors created to date.

This greater efficiency is reflected in a metric known by researchers as the thermoelectric "figure of merit." This metric is approximately 1 near room temperature for state-of-the-art inorganic thermoelectric materials, but only 0.25 for organic semiconductors.

U-M researchers improved upon the state-of-the-art in organic semiconductors by nearly 70 percent, achieving a figure-of-merit of 0.42 in a compound known as PEDOT:PSS.

"That's about half as efficient as current inorganic semiconductors," said project leader Kevin Pipe, an associate professor of mechanical engineering as well as electrical engineering and computer science. Pipe is a co-author of a paper on the research published in Nature Materials on May 5, 2013.

PEDOT:PSS is a mixture of two polymers: the conjugated polymer PEDOT and the polyelectrolyte PSS. It has previously been used as a transparent electrode for devices such as organic LEDs and solar cells, as well as an antistatic agent for materials such as photographic films.

One of the ways scientists and engineers increase a material's capacity for conducting electricity is to add impurities to it in a process known as doping. When these added ingredients, called dopants, bond to the host material, they give it an electrical carrier. Each of these additional carriers enhances the material's electrical conductivity.

In PEDOT doped by PSS, however, only small fraction of the PSS molecules actually bond to the host PEDOT; the rest of the PSS molecules do not become ionized and are inactive. The researchers found that these excess PSS molecules dramatically inhibit both the electrical conductivity and thermoelectric performance of the material.

"The trouble is that the inactive PSS molecules push the PEDOT molecules further apart, making it harder for electrons to jump between PEDOT molecules," Pipe said. "While ionized PSS molecules improve electrical conductivity, non-ionized PSS molecules reduce it."

To improve its thermoelectric efficiency, the researchers restructured the material at the nanoscale. Pipe and his team figured out how to use certain solvents to remove some of these non-ionized PSS dopant molecules from the mixture, leading to large increases in both the electrical conductivity and the thermoelectric energy conversion efficiency.

This particular organic thermoelectric material would be effective at temperatures up to about 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

"Eventually this technology could allow us to create a flexible sheet -- think of Saran Wrap -- that can be rolled out or wrapped around a hot object to generate electricity or provide cooling," Pipe said.

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/N7MPWBy3_MQ/130505145941.htm

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10 answers to managing video online in education - 21st Century ...

The vast growth of video in social media and student use of smart phones and tablets is a challenge to mainstream education.

Educational institutions are using more and more online video, especially in MOOCs, blogs and wikis and in VLES as reference and support for coursework and learning.

However there are major concerns about the effectiveness and accountability of video online to enhance teaching and learning.

Recent surveys have highlighted 10 key problems

1. Concerns over privacy: how does a teacher know what video a student is watching?
2. No separation between course and personal accounts: how does a teacher manage student viewing of video out of class?
3. No grading and assessment criteria: how does a teacher elicit student responses and understanding of any video?
4. No measurement criteria: how can a teacher mark and assess student responses to any video?
5. Lack of integration with learning management solutions: how can teachers and students get a more effective blended learning approach using video?
6. Takes too much time to learn how to use: how can we create a simpler, easier and more ?one size fits all? to manage and deploy video in education?
7. Expense of converting multiple format video files: how can we avoid the expense of converting video between proprietary formats in order to display it on different devices?
8. The problems of deploying onto mobile devices: how do we get video played on both android and IOS platforms?
9. Copyright protection: how can we ensure that either the institutions or the publishers copyright on the videos published are protected?
10. Lack of support at any institution: how can we get institutional buy in for change?

A unique new video ?virtual? learning management solution called SANSSpace has the answers

SANSSpace has a unique comparative recorder and player that allows teachers to book mark any audio or video file with text, audio or video ?e-post it notes? and send the original video complete with the book marked notes to designated cohorts of students.

Students can then record over the original video or add their own book marks in text audio or video for teacher marking and assessment.

There is also a live video chat feature controlled by the teacher, which allows for both remote tutorials to be conducted from place to place and importantly for those tutorials to recorded and interrogated back via the SANSSpace comparative recorder and player.

10 answers to managing video online

1. A personalised student log in system: SANSSpace links to any existing log in / enrolment system so all student activity is finitely tracked and managed.
2. Segments course work video from personal ?social media? video accounts: using SANSSpace an administrator or teacher can send a specific course work video file to a student folder and both confirm receipt and any subsequent activity in its use.
3. An integrated grading and assessment programme (in text audio and video): SANSSpace has a unique comparative recorder and player allowing teachers and students to record over, or create personalised bookmarks around the original video.
4. Collation of text audio and video: all student responses are easily collected for teacher assessment
5. Seamlessly integrates any LMS: it is easy to link and blend SANSSpace to LMS or VLE like Moodle or BlackBoard or an institution?s web site
6. Is easy to learn and use: general user interface is simple and for both teacher and student use and there are easy to use training videos and remote support
7. Video format conversion: no need to convert video into different formats, the SANSSpace player manages any video format
8. Going mobile: SANSSpace works on any mobile device ? via a business app for both android and IOS
9. Protects IP: videos cannot be downloaded outside of SANSSpace
10. Institutional buy-in: SANSSpace answers all the key questions about managing video online making institutional buy-in much easier

www.connectededucation.com

Source: http://langtechnology.edublogs.org/2013/05/05/10-answers-to-managing-video-online-in-education/

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Finally, Drones That Deliver Beer

We've seen tacocopters and burrito bombers, and though those will probably be real someday, neither is going to be really delivering anything any time soon. These beer drones, on the other hand, might actually be delivering real beer to real people. In South Africa. Maybe.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/J0jnwi958vU/finally-drones-that-deliver-beer-491313956

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Casinos brace for impact of Internet gambling ? Artesia News

A sample poker game is played on the soon-to-be launched Ultimate Gaming website, Monday, April 29, 2013, in Las Vegas. The social gaming company is expected to launch the first legal, real-money poker site in the U.S. Tuesday morning. The Ultimate Gaming site will be available only to in players in Nevada, but likely represents the shape of things to come for gamblers across the country.(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) ? With legal gambling now moving beyond the casinos and onto the Internet, the industry is bracing for the most far-reaching changes in its history.

A Las Vegas firm, Ultimate Gaming, on Tuesday became the first in the U.S. to offer online poker, restricting it, for now, to players in Nevada. New Jersey and Delaware also have legalized gambling over the Internet and expect to begin offering such bets by the end of this year.

And many inside and outside the industry say the recent position taken by the federal government that states are free to offer Internet gambling ? as long as it doesn?t involve sports betting ? will lead many cash-hungry state governments to turn to the Web as a new source of tax revenue.

Ten other states have considered some form of Internet gambling so far this year, but none has legalized it yet. Efforts to pass a national law legalizing online poker have sputtered, leaving states free to pass laws as they see fit.

?It?s no longer a question of if Internet gaming is coming; it?s a question of when,? said Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, the trade organization for the nation?s commercial brick-and -mortar casinos. ?Unless there is a federal bill passed, we are going to have the greatest expansion of legalized gambling in the United States. I don?t think that?s what anyone intended, but it is what we?re seeing.?

The brave new world for gambling brings with it a host of questions and concerns. Will letting people bet online result in fewer visits to casinos, and therefore fewer dealers, beverage servers and hotel and restaurant workers at the casinos? Will Internet bets create a new revenue stream from new players, or will it simply redirect money from gamblers who otherwise would have visited a casino, and might have eaten dinner and seen a show, as well? And will it create even more problem gamblers?

Michael Frawley is chief operating officer of The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, perhaps the most endangered of Atlantic City?s 12 casinos. A deal for it to be sold to the parent company of PokerStars, the world?s largest online poker website, is up in the air. The Atlantic Club?s owners said Wednesday the deal was dead, but PokerStars said the next day it still wants to salvage the purchase. It was not immediately clear whether the deal will ultimately get done.

Frawley said the Internet?s vast reach could help double business at his casino, provided the right balance is struck between the online and physical gambling experiences for customers.

?If you go to the movies, you can watch one at home, or you can watch one in the theater,? he said. ?Both of them can be a great experience.?

Regardless of whether PokerStars buys The Atlantic Club, Internet gambling is expected to take off in New Jersey before long. The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has said it is preparing to offer online gambling later this year, and Gary Loveman, CEO of Caesars Entertainment, has also said he expects his company?s four Atlantic City casinos to grab a large share of New Jersey?s online market.

Geoffrey Stewart is general manager of Caesars Online Poker. Parent company Caesars Entertainment?s World Series of Poker brands, as well as its 37 casinos across the U.S., make it an early favorite to be a leader in online gambling. He said brick-and-mortar casinos such as Caesars Palace can use Internet play to complement their physical casinos.

?Someone comes to play with us online, we will be able to offer them seats to the real World Series of Poker, or offer them hotel rooms at Caesars Palace,? he said. ?Like any other business, you?re always looking for what is the next distribution channel.?

Not everyone in the industry is all-in, however.

The American Gaming Association conducted a study a few years ago on whether poker-only Internet gambling ? which it supports ? would cannibalize the existing brick-and-mortar casinos. The study determined that it would not. But when Internet gambling allows for casino games, such as in the bill recently adopted by New Jersey, the traditional casinos could suffer, Fahrenkopf said.

The most popular form of Internet gambling is online poker.

When the Justice Department charged executives of three online poker sites in April 2011 with conducting illegal transactions, it was a $6 billion a year industry. After the crackdown, it was largely on hiatus, because at the time, taking online bets from U.S. customers was illegal. But not long afterward, the U.S. Justice Department revised its stance, allowing states to take online bets so long as they didn?t involve sporting events.

Eric Baldwin is a professional poker player who?s eager to get back online again now that poker is once again available over the Net.

?The money?s good when things are good,? he said. On the other hand, he acknowledges, ?Most people don?t go to work for 12 hours, do their best and come home down a couple thousand dollars.?

He plans to at least try out legalized Internet poker to see if the player pools are big enough to make it worthwhile.

Lawrence Vaughan, chief operating officer of South Point Poker, one of the first Nevada online licensees, said legalizing Internet poker removes the stigma some people had associated with it.

?You had to move money in shady ways around the world to even play online,? he said. ?Now it?s the sort of thing your mom could sign up for.?

Ultimate Gaming CEO Tobin Prior, whose firm started taking poker bets Tuesday in Nevada, added, ?Players won?t have to worry if their money is safe. They are going to be able to play with people they can trust and know the highest regulatory standards have been applied.?

PokerStars, one of the parties charged in the 2011 crackdown that came to be known in the industry as ?Black Friday,? later bought Full Tilt Poker, another defendant, and reached a settlement with the federal government, paying $547 million to the Justice Department and $184 million to poker players overseas to settle a case alleging money laundering, bank fraud and illegal gambling. It admitted no wrongdoing and says it is in good standing with governments around the world.

Its parent company, The Rational Group, based on the Isle of Man in the U.K., would not say whether it plans to try to buy another casino or partner with one to gain entry into the U.S. online gambling market.

Introducing new players to poker over the Internet makes it less scary and potentially more popular, said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

?It was mostly old guys with cigars,? he said. ?It was very intimidating to walk into a poker room and see a guy who?s a thousand years old, smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day, giving you dirty looks because you?re taking the wrong card,? he said. ?What online poker did was let people get familiar with the game, feel a little bit of confidence and then they said, ?I want to go to Vegas and do the real thing.??

Every week, it seems, a new study comes out touting the promise of Internet gambling for cash-strapped casinos and even more cash-strapped state governments.

Gambling Compliance, which tracks the online gambling industry, predicts Internet gambling in New Jersey will bring in nearly $262 million in its first year and nearly $463 million after four years. The group said that figure could go as high as $575 million after four years if online gambling takes off in New Jersey.

H2 Gambling Capital, a U.K. consultancy for the Internet gambling industry, predicts 17 states will have approved Internet gambling by 2017, led by New York, California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey.

And Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2020, online gambling in the U.S. will produce the same amount of revenue as Las Vegas and Atlantic City markets combined bring in today: $9.3 billion.

Indian tribes are also moving to get into the online gold rush.

Two groups of tribes have already formed alliances to explore offering Internet gambling, and in April, the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribe reached a deal with Oklahoma allowing the tribe to offer Internet gambling to customers outside the U.S. through its pokertribes.com web site. The Shoshone tribe in Nevada has a deal with an online company to offer similar Internet gambling to foreign customers in a venture that could go live in May.

States across the country are also turning to the Internet to boost sales of their lottery tickets. Twelve states have either approved or are considering selling lottery tickets online, and Georgia and Illinois are already doing it.

What types of games can be played for money online varies by state.

New Jersey will offer people within the state all the games patrons can play in physical casinos. Delaware will do the same, along with bingo. Nevada only offers poker. A proposed Internet betting law in Massachusetts would prohibit online slot machine games.

But in most cases, the games can be accessed through computers, portable tablet devices and smartphones ? putting a casino or a card game within reach at 3 a.m. in the kitchen, in the middle of the day at the beach, or on a crowded commuter train.

With the Internet putting legal gambling directly into so many more hands, some are concerned about an increase in problem gambling, particularly when social media sites offer real-money gambling in the U.S., as some do already in other countries. Zynga, for instance, began taking real-money bets earlier this year in England, and its stock price jumped 15 percent in a day.

?Compulsive gambling is an impulse disease: you get an urge, you jump in your car and drive to Atlantic City or you call your bookie and then wait to see the result of the game you bet on,? said Arnie Wexler, the former chairman of New Jersey?s Council On Compulsive Gambling and himself a recovered problem gambler. ?Now you have Internet gambling and you wake up in the middle of the night and in your birthday suit, you can blow a lot of money. I know one guy who lost $30,000 in one night of Internet gambling.?

___

Associated Press writer Haven Daley in Las Vegas contributed to this report. Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC

This entry was posted on May 3, 2013, 1:25 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://www.artesianews.com/2013/05/03/ap-news/business-ap-news/casinos-brace-for-impact-of-internet-gambling/

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New York City to Double Number of Storm Evacuation Zones

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The expansion, outlined in a report on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, would double the number of zones to six and include an additional 640,000 New York City residents.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/nyregion/new-york-city-to-double-number-of-storm-evacuation-zones.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Brooke Mueller?s Twin Sons Taken Away Over Drug Use

Brooke Mueller’s Twin Sons Taken Away Over Drug Use

Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services have removed Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller’s twin sons, Bob and Max, from Brooke’s care due to her drug use. Charlie’s other ex-wife, Denise Richards, has been awarded temporary custody of the boys. Social workers removed the children from Brooke Mueller’s care because of claims the ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/05/brooke-muellers-twin-sons-taken-away-over-drug-use/

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Host a Great BBQ, the Dinosaur Way | Mademan.com

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.mademan.com/host-a-great-bbq-the-dinosaur-way/

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Family claims body of Boston bombing suspect

By Ross Kerber and Jim Finkle

BOSTON (Reuters) - The body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was claimed on behalf of his family on Thursday, an official said.

Tsarnaev's body had been kept at a Boston facility for more than a week after he was killed in a shootout with police on April 19, four days after the attack on the Boston Marathon that killed three people and wounded 264 people.

Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Massachusetts, said a funeral services company retained by the family had claimed the body. Harris declined to provide details including the cause of death or where the body had been taken.

Tsarnaev's younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured by authorities on April 19 after the shootout in Watertown, Massachusetts. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, has been charged with crimes in connection with the bombing that could carry the death penalty if he is convicted, and is being held at a prison medical facility in Devens, Massachusetts.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was 26 years old. On Tuesday, his widow, Katherine Russell, said through an attorney that she wished his remains to be released to the Tsarnaev family. Russell's attorney could not immediately be reached on Thursday.

Investigators have questioned Russell as they seek clues about how the ethnic Chechen brothers allegedly built the two bombs used in the attack and whether they had help.

The suspects' parents previously lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but have since returned to Russia. Other relatives remain in the United States, including an uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Maryland, who has been seen in Rhode Island in recent days.

Officials said on Thursday that three men who had been charged with interfering with the investigation of the bombing were in custody at a jail in Middleton, Massachusetts, a small town about 20 miles North of Boston.

The three 19-year-olds - Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev and Robel Phillipos - had been transported to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Middleton on Wednesday after they were charged in Boston. Authorities have described them as college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

(Additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/body-boston-marathon-bombing-suspect-claimed-225520923.html

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Scripps Research Institute scientists find dissimilar proteins evolved similar 7-part shape

Scripps Research Institute scientists find dissimilar proteins evolved similar 7-part shape

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Solving the structure of a critical human molecule involved in cancer, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found what they call a good example of structural conservation?dissimilar genes that keep very similar shapes.

Described this week in the journal Nature, the work brings attention to what scientists have thought of as a family of molecules called the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Many GPCRs are important targets for drug design. However, the new work suggests that GPCRs may, in fact, be a subset of a larger group.

"This work highlights the need to modify how we classify the GPCR family," said TSRI Professor Raymond Stevens, PhD, the senior author on the study. "The study suggests we should start calling the family 7-transmembrane receptors, which has been proposed by others before, to better reflect the diversity of the family, both structurally and in terms of function."

The new classification would include proteins with similar shapes to GPCRs?like the smoothened receptor (SMO), which was the subject of the new research.

Different Genes, Same Structure

In the study, the TSRI team solved the high-resolution structure of SMO, which is the first non-class A GPCR structure published to date (class A GPCRs are also known as rhodopsin-like GPCRs). The results showed the molecule is nearly identical to the classic GPCR shape, even though it bears almost no similarity in terms of genetic sequence.

Often, two proteins with very different sequences have different structures, said Chong Wang, a graduate student at TSRI's Kellogg School of Science and Technology who is the first author on the study.

"These receptors are very different?less than 10 percent sequence identity, and yet they have the same 7-transmembrane helical fold," Wang added.

"This is a great example of structural conservation of the 7-transmembrane fold," said Stevens. "A key question is, why the magic number 7?"

Potential Target for Drug Design

The work is also significant because the SMO protein itself is a potential target for drug design.

SMO is important for proper growth in the early stages of mammalian development and animals with deficiencies in the activities of this protein develop severe deformities in the womb. The initial discovery was made in 1957, when sheep in Idaho ate corn lily containing cyclopamine and newborns were observed to develop a single eye?a characteristic for which the condition, known as "cyclopia," is named. In work published in the journal Nature in 2000, Stanford University researchers Philip Beachy and Matthew Scott found cyclopamine inhibits the SMO receptor.

The body reduces its need for SMO in adulthood, and its activity is usually curtailed. However, later in life the protein can also play a role in disease, this time by helping cancerous tumors grow. SMO receptor inhibition has been harnessed as a means to reduce basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer.

The discovery of the structure of SMO may help researchers develop new molecules to treat cancer and other diseases.

"The structure of the human smoothened receptor bound to an anti-cancer compound will help us understand the receptor's role in cancer, as well as its role in the normal process of embryonic development," said Jean Chin, PhD, of the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which partly supported the research. "In addition, comparison of smoothened's unique structure with those of the more conventional GPCRs will teach us a lot about how these receptors respond to the many therapeutics they interact with."

###

Scripps Research Institute: http://www.scripps.edu

Thanks to Scripps Research Institute 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.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128086/Scripps_Research_Institute_scientists_find_dissimilar_proteins_evolved_similar___part_shape

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Obama's bundlers get plum posts (CNN)

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

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Golden State coach Mark Jackson fined $25,000

Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, right, argues a call against his team with referee Tony Brothers during the first quarter of Game 5 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Denver Nuggets, Tuesday, April 30, 2013, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, right, argues a call against his team with referee Tony Brothers during the first quarter of Game 5 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Denver Nuggets, Tuesday, April 30, 2013, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, right, consoles guard Stephen Curry as Curry is pulled late in their 107-100 loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 5 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Tuesday, April 30, 2013, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Golden State coach Mark Jackson was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Thursday for making public comments in an attempt to influence the officiating in the Warriors' playoff series with Denver.

After Golden State's 107-100 loss at Denver on Tuesday night, Jackson repeatedly mentioned Kenneth Faried's foul in the first half, when the Denver forward stuck out his right leg and moved his body while Warriors star Stephen Curry ran through traffic.

"They tried to send hit men at Steph," Jackson said. "There were some dirty plays early."

Jackson also commented Wednesday before practice at the team's headquarters.

"They'll be physical again. They'll try to beat up Steph Curry. They'll try to set illegal screens. They'll try to chuck him when he goes down the lane," said Jackson, whose team took a 3-2 series lead into Game 6 on Thursday night. "Other than that, I'm not sure what to expect out of them."

Denver Nuggets coach George Karl thought the reaction to his team's Game 5 victory sounded like a "different movie than I'm watching."

"If there's a scorecard, if we're in a boxing fight right now, they're winning the fight," Karl said Wednesday. "OK, we won round one, maybe our first round (Tuesday) night. I'm going to tell you, I'll go to any arbiter right now and show the dirty shots. They're winning."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-05-02-Warriors-Jackson%20Fined/id-33834c3984a940b28a5422cc8726a038

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