Yes, you knew it would come! Well, anyone who's RP'ed with me extensively would, anyway xD
This thread will be for random little things that don't fit in anywhere. Mostly fan-boyling/girling over our roleplay and our characters. For example, images of our characters together or alone, a soundtrack for our RP, what sort of cookie our characters would be if they were edible... Anything you want, really! To start things off, here's my take on what our characters would be like if they were drunk :D
Types of Drunks I apologise if I missed anyone >.< Please point it out if I did.
Kana the 'Objective Hate' drunk - "Damn you, fire hydrant! DAMN YOU LAMPOST! And damn you fishing pole..." Shino the 'Lonely Drunk' - "Sometimes my cats and I put on puppet shows for my other cats. *draws stickmen friends on dirt*" Naoya the drunk who promises everything - "Listen, chicha. I know Ghandi and we can tots get you 1,000,000,000 camels by tomorrow. I promise." Mitsuki the 'Temporary Lesbian' - "Come, ladies. Sit on my lap and let me love you. Let yo suga momma take care of you *slaps Midna's backside*" Hiroki the 'Social Lubricant' - "Heeeyy Naaooyya, ever met my baby gurl Mitsuki? You two would make such amazing babies together. WOOO PARTEY!!!" Azeal the 'Emotional Drunk' - "I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY, YOU KNOW? Q~~~Q Nobody loves me and it hurts my feelings when you guiz leave. *weeps into Nero's shirt* Am I not good enough for you?? Is it because I have an oval head? IS THAT IT?!?" Jules the 'I'm a man' drunk - "Heeeyyy brrrooooo *punches random dude's arm* See that ass over there, man? Ddaayymmnnn baby got back!" Nero Sceer the 'Real Man' - "You must respect women, my men. They are temples of sacristy that deserve honesty and care. As gentlemen, we must treat our Holiest Counterparts with utmost submission." Feris the 'Girly Drunk' - "Teehehehe! Stop it, silly! You and your games :3 :3 :3 Mysty the 'Timid Drunk' - "U-u-uh b-but what if he doesn't l-like me? *fiddling with fingers* He's so scawy and I need to be a g-good girl." Michel the 'I think I can dance' drunk - OPPA GANGNAM STYLE *shuffles* Lorelai the 'Hippie' - "Love melons as they love you. Hold them. Cherish them. Nourish their taught skins. Fill your hearts with love! And eat the melon..." Midna the 'Alexander Fangirl' - "He is the backside of my spine, the temple of my body, the pillow of my bathtub. Take my hand and let us PRAISE DA GAWAIN!" Alex the 'Insecure Drunk' - "Do you think my head looks like a strawberry...? I mean, I love my hair but, but, my head looks like a fruit, doesn't it?" Sylvia the 'Angry Drunk' - "You wanna fight me, brother? YOU WANNA FIGHT ME?! My imaginary friends think you have some serious issues!" Maya the 'Police Teacher' - "It can't just any man in a wet suit. It has to be a man in a wet suit holding a rubber duck. Now that's a man you can trust."
Jul.30 (GMM) - It has been reported that Austria, Russia and New Jersey are to be added to the current 19-race schedule.
The Korean Grand Prix looks set to join India in Formula One exile, as Bernie Ecclestone trims the 2014 calendar to a maximum of 20 races.
But the latter of those events, slated to be the second American race on the 2014 calendar amid the Manhattan skyline, now appears unlikely.
Mercedes chairman Niki Lauda said a few days ago that New Jersey "didn't happen this year because of a lack of money".
"As far as I know," the F1 legend told Austrian broadcaster ORF, "it's already gone from the calendar".
And amid reports Ecclestone will drop the Indian Grand Prix over a tax issue, Germany's Auto Motor und Sport claims the other race unlikely to survive beyond 2013 is Korea.
"Apparently," said correspondent Tobias Gruner, "the organisers have run out of money.
"Ecclestone is well known for having little patience if his fees are not paid."
The AFP news agency also reports that Korea is in doubt, saying the organiser "has lost money since it first hosted formula one in 2010, and local authorities are unwilling to cover losses".
Source: blogs.cars.com --- Monday, July 29, 2013 Ford is recalling 33,021 model-year 2013 versions of the C-Max Hybrid crossover due to a structural issue that poses a safety risk, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The affected vehicles were manufactured from Jan. 19, 2012, through June 25, 2013, (check your vehicle's build date on a sticker on the driver-side doorjamb) and are not equipped with a panoramic sunroof. During testing, it "exceeded a head injury criteria requirement set by the standard. Thus, these vehicles fail to conform to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 201, 'Occupant Protection in Interior Impact,'" NHTSA said in a statement. This increases the risk of an injury during a crash. "Ford is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to this non-compliance," the automaker said in a statement. Ford will notify owners beginning Aug. 19, and dealers will install energy absorbers between the headliner and the roof for free. Owners can call Ford at 866-436-7332 or NHTSA's vehicle safety hotline at 888-327-4236 for more info. Related Research the 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid More Safety News Check Out Other Recalls ...
Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross gambled and lost on a potential run for attorney general and now finds himself trying to fend off attempts by rank-and-file lawmakers looking to take away the job he's got.
Cross, who has led the long-out-of-power House GOP for 10 years, had a promotion in mind at the end of spring session in late May, telling his members he'd likely run for the state's chief legal office if Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan pursued a run for governor. Instead, Madigan opted to seek a fourth term. Cross, wanting no part of the politically formidable Madigan, decided he wanted to stay on as legislative leader.
The dalliance, however, caused a flood of long-standing complaints among House Republicans to bubble up: Cross lost seven seats in the November 2012 election, giving Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan even more power. Cross allowed the House GOP campaign fund to sink to $21,000. Cross isn't recruiting formidable candidates to run next year.
Longing for more relevance at the Capitol, House Republicans sense they have a chance to pick up seats if they get a strong GOP candidate for governor. They believe their odds are better next year because they won't have home-state Democratic President Barack Obama heading the ticket. And they want a minority leader concentrating on cutting down the size of the 71-47 Democratic majority.
"We have to keep our eye on the ball," said Rep. Jim Durkin, a Western Springs Republican who is among those setting his sights on taking over Cross' leadership position. "Let's call it like it is. Since May through this (month), Rep. Tom Cross was focused on one thing: That was becoming attorney general of the state of Illinois."
Besides Durkin, Reps. Raymond Poe of Springfield and Dwight Kay of Glen Carbon near St. Louis have offered themselves as Downstate alternatives and are working on building support to dump Cross of Oswego.
It'll be an uphill climb. Cross has time on his side, given that caucus rules make it unlikely a leadership change could take place until after the November 2014 election. Beyond that, Cross only needs to persuade 23 other House Republicans to keep backing him instead of risking a switch to an unknown quantity.
For his part, Cross is brushing aside questions about his leadership but acknowledged that the popular attorney general's decision to seek a fourth term helped crystallize his political plans to stay on as House minority leader. "In light of what we heard (from Lisa Madigan)," Cross said, "I'm committed, have always been committed and remain committed to our caucus."
To hear numerous House Republicans tell it, that commitment of staying on wasn't so rock solid in recent months. Shortly before the spring legislative session wrapped up May 31, Cross indicated to colleagues that he was thinking about running for attorney general. That particularly stuck in Durkin's craw. He's a former Cook County prosecutor who had been looking at a bid for the office if Madigan ran for governor.
During the special session July 9, Cross told his members in a closed-door meeting that he likely would run for attorney general if Madigan did not, according to several lawmakers in the meeting. Cross indicated that he would step down as leader and stay on as a rank-and-file House lawmaker if he did run for attorney general. But if Cross didn't try for higher office, he would seek to stay on as House Republican leader. That set off a new round of questions among Republican lawmakers.
"We walked out of (there) unconvinced we were where we should be," Durkin said.
Nearly a week later, Cross held his annual summer campaign fundraiser in Chicago the same day Lisa Madigan announced she'd run for attorney general again. That meant Cross would try to stay in his current job.
Cross held a private reception for big donors, then came out for the lower-dollar cattle call. He mingled but didn't make a speech where he could have talked about his political future, according to Blair Garber, the Evanston Township GOP committeeman who attended.
"When you have a fundraiser and people show up, you know, it's de rigueur that you're going to say something," Garber said.
A lawmaker for more than two decades and a protege of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Cross has raised his profile by taking a key role in the push to reduce the state's $100 billion pension debt. Viewed as a moderate, he's also broken from his own caucus on some social issues, such as coming out early for medical marijuana legislation. He has decried the Democrats' 67 percent income tax rate increase, fought pension proposals he fears would raise property taxes and rallied opposition to Democratic legislation to borrow more money.
As one of the four legislative leaders in Springfield, Cross has had a seat at the table in budget negotiations when Democrats were forced or inclined to share responsibilities, but his power is checked by serving only as minority leader since 2003. He's been unable to win enough House seats to take control from Speaker Madigan, the attorney general's father and Illinois Democratic Party chairman.
In November, House Republicans lost seven seats to Madigan's Democrats, the same election in which Senate President John Cullerton's Democrats rolled up an unheard-of 40-19 supermajority on the other side of the Capitol. Republicans in both chambers faced difficult odds. Not only was Obama at the top of the ballot, but GOP legislative candidates also had to run in new districts drawn by Democrats.
At least three Republican representatives are looking to replace Cross. Durkin, who lost to Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin in 2002, is out raising money and traveling the state as he tries to build support.
Durkin, who ran U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaigns in Illinois, acknowledged that he also considered a race for attorney general next year if Madigan sought to move up the political ladder. "Tom was aware of it," said Durkin, who added he was "caught off guard" when Cross started exploring his own bid for attorney general. But Durkin insisted he is not running to be the top House Republican out of spite.
"It's not about Tom ? whether he's right or wrong," Durkin said. "It's about whether this caucus is moving in the right direction, and it's about us taking ourselves out of the superminority and becoming players and having a meaningful voice for taxpayers."
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) ? Weeks before the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination this fall, ReelzChannel will take another look at the killing in a docudrama that suggests a Secret Service agent fired one of the bullets that felled Kennedy.
"JFK: The Smoking Gun" is based on the work of retired Australian police Detective Colin McLaren, who spent four years combing through evidence from Kennedy's death on Nov. 22, 1963.
The two-hour docudrama airs Nov. 3 in the U.S., Canada and Australia. It suggests that agent George Hickey fired one of the bullets that hit Kennedy. Hickey, who is now dead, was riding in the car behind Kennedy's limo that day.
The program is ReelzChannel's second Kennedy-related offering. In 2011, the cable channel aired "The Kennedys" after History Channel dropped the miniseries.
Many of the country's top recruits made their way to Columbus Friday to participate in Ohio State's Friday Night Lights, a signature recruiting camp created by Urban Meyer in 2005.
The event took place in the friendly confines of Ohio Stadium and featured video highlights on the big screen, speeches from former Buckeye greats Eddie George and Mike Doss, and most importantly, on-the-field competition from the nation's top high school talent.
Most of Ohio State's commitments made the trip, in addition to a number of the Buckeyes' top remaining targets from the 2014 and 2015 classes.
Which recruits impressed the coaching staff? Did any of Ohio State's current commits compete? Did the Buckeyes' coaching staff hand out any new offers?
Here's a full breakdown.
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Top-Flight Cornerback and Receiver Battle
Four-star cornerback and Ohio State commit?Damon Webb?had a phenomenal camp. Webb was one of the few Buckeyes commits to actually work out, and the talented corner showed why he's one of the top-rated prospects in the country.
Webb spent the majority of the evening locking down receivers with his tremendous speed and ball skills. He also spent a lot of time matched up against one of Ohio State's top 2015 targets in?Eric Glover-Williams.
Glover-Williams, a 4-star athlete out of Canton, Ohio, didn't shy away from attacking Webb, and the two put on quite a show. Both won their fair share of battles, but Glover-Williams' performance showed why the coaching staff is recruiting him so hard.
Asked about matching up with Webb, Glover-Williams told Jordan Wagner of Eleven Warriors that they both won their fair share:
"We both competed to the highest level," Glover-Williams said. "We both did what we could do, back and forth. I'm not sure who got the highest edge, that is for the public to decide who won the battle."
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Who Else Stood Out?
After having a stellar performance during last year's event, 4-star wide receiver?BraxtonBerrios?again had a terrific showing. At 5'8" and 170 pounds, Berrios isn't the most physically imposing receiver, but his route running really sets him apart.
That was on full display Friday night, and Berrios' play earned him a coveted offer from the Ohio State coaching staff. The speedy receiver also has offers from schools such as Clemson, Miami, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, but the Buckeyes will be a major factor in his recruitment.
Ohio State commit and 4-star offensive tackle?Kyle Trout?also had a good outing despite battling a case of the flu. Trout didn't lose a single one-on-one competition, showing off his agility on the edge. Fellow Buckeyes commit and 4-star guard?Marcelys Jones?also had a good showing.
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Trio of 5-Star Prospects Watched the Action
Three of Ohio State's top remaining targets were in attendance but did not participate in workouts.
Linebacker?Raekwon McMillan, athlete?Curtis Samuel?and cornerback?MarshonLattimore?all spent a lot of time with various members of the coaching staff, according to Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports.com:
Urban Meyer?spent a lot of time with Samuel as players were warming up and going through agility drills. McMillan was seen getting the red-carpet treatment from coaches and the many Ohio State commits on campus as well. Ohio State continues to lead for all three blue-chippers.
Meyer hosts this event for the exact opportunity he got with these three prospects. All in all, Friday Night Lights was a fantastic success for Meyer and the Buckeyes.
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All recruit rankings per 247Sports.com.
David?Regimbal?is the lead Ohio State football writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @davidreg412.?
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Pope Francis, in a stunningly candid assessment of the state of the Catholic Church, said on Saturday it should look in the mirror and ask why so many people are leaving the faith of their fathers.
On the penultimate day of his trip to Brazil, Francis delivered a long address to the country's bishops in which he suggested elements of what could become a blueprint for stopping what he called an "exodus."
"I would like all of us to ask ourselves today: are we still a Church capable of warming hearts?" he said in a speech remarkable for its frankness about the hemorrhaging of the Church in many countries.
The Argentine pope, who is in Rio for a Catholic international jamboree known as World Youth Day, referred to what he called "the mystery of those who leave the Church" because they think it "can no longer offer them anything meaningful or important."
The Church has been losing members throughout the world to secularism and to other religions, including in Latin America, where evangelical groups have won over many converts.
He acknowledged that many people see the Church as a "relic of the past," too caught up in itself, and a "prisoner of its own rigid formulas."
While he said the Church "must remain faithful" to its religious doctrine, it had to be closer to the people and their real problems.
"Today, we need a Church capable of walking at people's side, of doing more than simply listening to them," he said.
"At times we lose people because they don't understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people," he said.
In Brazil, the number of Catholics has dwindled rapidly in the decades since its once-rural population moved increasingly to major cities, where modern consumer culture has overtaken more provincial mores and where Protestant denominations, aggressively courting followers in urban outskirts and shantytowns, have won many converts.
"We need a Church capable of restoring citizenship to her many children who are journeying, as it were, in an exodus," he said.
The address to the bishops complemented an earlier homily in Rio's cathedral, where he urged priests worldwide to leave their comfortable surroundings to go out and serve the poor and needy.
"We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel," he said in the sermon of a Mass in Rio's cathedral.
Since his election in March as the first non-European pope in 1,300 years, Francis has been prodding priests, nuns and bishops to think less about their careers in the Church and listen more to the cries of those who are hungry to fill both material and spiritual needs.
"It is not enough simply to open the door in welcome, but we must go out through that door and meet the people!" he said.
'SLUM CARDINAL'
Known as the "slum cardinal" in his native Argentina because of his austere lifestyle and visits to poor areas, Francis made a clarion call to clergy to take risks and go out among the faithful who need them most.
"It is in the 'favelas' and 'villas miseria' that one must go to seek and to serve Christ," he said, quoting the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta and using the terms used in Brazil and Argentina for shantytowns.
Francis has set a new tone in the Vatican, rejecting the lush papal residence his predecessors used in the Apostolic Palace and living instead in a small suite in a Vatican guest house, and often eating in the common dining room.
The pope spoke as hundreds of thousands of young people were converging on Rio's famed Copacabana beach for an all night prayer vigil ahead of concluding ceremonies on Sunday, when he returns to Rome.
Earlier, in a talk at Rio's theater, he said leaders must address the issues raised in protests in Brazil, saying dialogue was the only way to resolve the issues.
Latin America's largest nation has been rocked by protests against corruption, the misuse of public money and the high cost of living. Most of the protesters are young.
He urged leaders not to remain deaf to "the outcry, the call for justice (that) continues to be heard even today" and, in an apparent reference to corruption, spoke of "the task of rehabilitating politics."
(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel in Sao Paolo; Editing by Vicki Allen)
France isn?t all it?s cracked up to be. Sure, it?s full of gorgeous art, rich cuisine, and basically all the wine you can drink, but stray too far outside city limits, and you run the risk of falling prey to terrifyingly vicious beasts. Like, you know that scene in?Beauty and the Beast?where they?re all attacked by wolves? Imagine that happening to you? but with cats. Seriously.
Laugh all you like, but it happened to a woman walking her dog in the city of Belfort, a popular tourist destination on the Swiss border. At around 7pm this past Sunday, a half dozen feral cats descended on the 31-year-old victim and managed to knock her over, scratching and biting her so hard that they even tore one of her arteries.?Luckily, the woman and her dog were rushed to medical treatment and survived the attack, though both are presumably traumatized for life.
Before all you anti-cat types rush in to paint this as the ultimate reason why dogs are better, though, you should know that this is highly unusual behavior even for feral cats. ?The vet told us that, in his 20 years in the job, he had never seen such a thing,? The victim?s mother said to l?Est Republicain, a local newspaper.??He couldn?t find a single explanation for the cats? abnormal behavior.? My guess is that after years of being hounded by notorious sexual abuser Pepe LePew with absolutely no help from authorities, all the cats banded together to take out their vengeance on an unjust society. Either that, or the recent heatwave in the region made them all kind of jittery. I feel you there, cats.
Police have warned British tourists in the area not to approach any of the feral cats in the area, but otherwise they appear to be at a loss over how best to handle the aftermath of the attack. They also estimate that about 8,000 feral cats are born in France every year due to people dumping their unwanted pets. Come on, France, don?t you have a Bob Barker equivalent over there to teach you not to do these things?
Wine has been about due to the fact early occasions and there are actually folks candy sweden.Sometimes picking out a wine can be frustrating.This article can help you via the confusing maze of wine.
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Not all wine up for extended periods of time.Do some reading on the wine that you acquire and how long it is going to keep good. Bordeaux is one wine ages properly.
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A nice and wealthy dessert wine tends to make a perfect strategy to finish a dinner. French Champagne, along with Italian Moscato. Your guests will enjoy the relaxing ambiance that sipping wine can bring.
Essentially the most clear differences between red and white wines would be the forms of grapes which might be made from and their colors. Purple grapes make strong-bodied red wines. White wine is made of green grapes which tend to become lighter and light. There are many extra intricate differences; nevertheless, but this really is one of the most basic discrepancy.
The appropriate stemware is required in case you hope to enjoy a bottle of wine practical experience.
The year that the grapes have been harvested is what the word vintage year. They would then be fermented and aged in barrels until the wine is actually bottled. The actual wine could possibly not have hit the shelf until possibly 2011 or even 2012!
Since you will be now much more knowledgeable about wine, navigating wine menus or wine retailers will probably be far more straightforward useful link. It must be simpler to pick the right wine to serve when guests pay a visit to. You are going to quickly be a wine connoisseur along with your new knowledge.
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., comments about the vote on the defense spending bill and his failed amendment that would have cut funding to the National Security Agency's program that collects the phone records of U.S. citizens and residents, at the Capitol, Wednesday, July 24, 2013. The Amash Amendment narrowly lost, 217-205. The White House and congressional backers of the NSA's electronic surveillance program lobbied against ending the massive collection of phone records from millions of Americans saying it would put the nation at risk from another terrorist attack. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., comments about the vote on the defense spending bill and his failed amendment that would have cut funding to the National Security Agency's program that collects the phone records of U.S. citizens and residents, at the Capitol, Wednesday, July 24, 2013. The Amash Amendment narrowly lost, 217-205. The White House and congressional backers of the NSA's electronic surveillance program lobbied against ending the massive collection of phone records from millions of Americans saying it would put the nation at risk from another terrorist attack. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Opponents of the National Security Agency's collection of hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records insist they will press ahead with their challenge to the massive surveillance program after a narrow defeat in the House.
Furious lobbying and last-minute pleas to lawmakers ensured victory for the Obama administration as the House voted 217-205 Wednesday to spare the NSA program. Unbowed, the libertarian-leaning conservatives, tea partyers and liberal Democrats who led the fight said they will try to undo a program they called an unconstitutional intrusion on civil liberties.
Rep. Justin Amash, a 33-year-old Michigan Republican, made his intentions clear through the social media of Twitter: "We came close (205-217). If just 7 Reps had switched their votes, we would have succeeded. Thank YOU for making a difference. We fight on."
The other sponsor of the effort, 84-year-old Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said the vote's slim margin ensures that vigorous debate on the NSA's programs will continue.
"This discussion is going to be examined continually ... as long as we have this many members in the House of Representatives that are saying it's OK to collect all records you want just as long as you make sure you don't let it go anywhere else,'" said Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. "That is the beginning of the wrong direction in a democratic society."
The showdown vote marked the first chance for lawmakers to take a stand on the secret surveillance program since former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked classified documents last month that spelled out the monumental scope of the government's activities.
Backing the NSA program were 134 Republicans and 83 Democrats, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who typically does not vote, and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. Rejecting the administration's last-minute appeals to save the surveillance operation were 94 Republicans and 111 Democrats.
"I am particularly pleased that members on both sides of the aisle worked together to preserve critical intelligence tools that have proven successful in preventing terrorist attacks and keeping America safe," Boehner said in a statement after the vote.
It is unlikely to be the final word on the worldwide debate over the U.S. government snooping to defend the nation versus the privacy of Americans.
"Have 12 years gone by and our memories faded so badly that we forgot what happened on Sept. 11?" Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in pleading with his colleagues to back the program during House debate.
Amash defended his effort, saying the aim was to end the indiscriminate collection of Americans' phone records.
His measure, offered as an addition to a $598.3 billion defense spending bill for 2014, would have canceled the statutory authority for the NSA program, ending the agency's ability to collect phone records and metadata under the USA Patriot Act unless it identified an individual under investigation.
The House later voted to pass the overall defense bill, 315-109.
Amash told the House that his effort was to defend the Constitution and "defend the privacy of every American."
The unlikely political coalitions were on full display during a brief but spirited House debate.
"Let us not deal in false narratives. Let's deal in facts that will keep Americans safe," said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., an Intelligence Committee member who implored her colleagues to back a program that she argued was vital in combatting terrorism.
But Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a senior member of the Judiciary Committee who helped write the USA Patriot Act, insisted "the time has come" to stop the collection of phone records that goes far beyond what he envisioned.
Several Republicans acknowledged the difficulty in balancing civil liberties against national security, but they also expressed suspicion about the Obama administration's implementation of the NSA programs ? and anger at National Intelligence Director James Clapper.
Clapper has acknowledged he gave misleading statements to Congress on how much the U.S. spies on Americans. He apologized to lawmakers earlier this month after saying in March that the U.S. does not gather data on citizens ? something that Snowden revealed as false by releasing documents showing the NSA collects millions of phone records.
"Right now the balancing is being done by people we do not know, people who lied to this body," said Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C.
With a flurry of letters, statements and tweets, both sides lobbied intensely in the hours prior to the vote in the Republican-controlled House. In a statement, Clapper warned against dismantling a critical intelligence tool.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Congress has authorized ? and a Republican and a Democratic president have signed ? extensions of the powers to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists.
Two years ago, in a strong bipartisan statement, the Senate voted 72-23 to renew the USA Patriot Act, and the House backed the extension 250-153.
Since the disclosures this year, however, lawmakers have said they were shocked by the scope of the two programs ? one to collect records of hundreds of millions of calls and the other allowing the NSA to sweep up Internet usage data from around the world that goes through nine major U.S.-based providers.
Proponents argue that the surveillance operations have been successful in thwarting at least 50 terror plots across 20 countries, including 10 to 12 directed at the United States.
The overall defense spending bill would provide the Pentagon with $512.5 billion for weapons, personnel, aircraft and ships, plus $85.8 billion for the war in Afghanistan for the next budget year.
The total, which is $5.1 billion below current spending, has drawn a veto threat from the White House, which argues that it would force the administration to cut education, health research and other domestic programs in order to boost spending for the Pentagon.
The bill must be reconciled with whatever measure the Democratic-controlled Senate produces.
SL Green Realty Corp (NYSE: SLG) announced today it has completed an early extension of the 29,524-square-foot lease with DZ Bank at 609 Fifth Avenue.? DZ Bank is one of Germany?s largest leading international commercial financial institutions.
The bank will continue to occupy the entire 7th and 8th floors of the 13-story, 156,700-square-foot boutique office building, located across from Rockefeller Center and Saks Fifth Avenue, for an additional ten years.
HOWARD TENENBAUM
?We are delighted that DZ Bank has elected to remain with us at 609 Fifth Avenue,? said Steven Durels, Executive Vice President and Director of Leasing and Real Property who added that, the building is ideal for financial service companies and other high profile businesses which want the international prestige and high energy of the Rockefeller Center neighborhood.
Michael Burgio of Cushman & Wakefield represented DZ Bank in the transaction and Howard J. Tenenbaum and Gary M. Rosen acted in-house for SL Green.
Over the last few years, YouTube slowly started putting a larger emphasis on channels -- especially channel subscriptions -- but until now, the only way to subscribe to a channel was on YouTube itself. Today, however, YouTube is changing this with the launch of a set of embeddable subscribe buttons that video creators can put on their websites. These buttons are now available for free and paid YouTube channels.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's re-election war chest grew to a sizeable $3.5 million in campaign donations in just six months, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
"Gov. Walker has built a very large, loyal following that I'm sure is the envy of elected officials everywhere," Republican strategist Mark Graul told the newspaper.
After expenses, The Badger State?s top Republican lawmaker had $2.2 million in the bank as of June 30, his campaign finance report revealed.
The Journal Sentinel says no Democrats have thrown their hats in the ring as yet to challenge Walker in 2014.
But Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris and former state Commerce Secretary Mary Burke have been mentioned as potential candidates, according to the newspaper.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Researchers have designed new compounds that mimic those naturally used by the body to regulate blood pressure. The most promising of them may literally be the key to controlling hypertension, switching off the signaling pathways that lead to the deadly condition.
'Dead' gene comes to life, puts chill on inflammation, Stanford researchers findPublic release date: 23-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bruce Goldman goldmanb@stanford.edu 650-725-2106 Stanford University Medical Center
STANFORD, Calif. A gene long presumed dead comes to life under the full moon of inflammation, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have found.
The discovery, described in a study to be published July 23 in eLife, may help explain how anti-inflammatory steroid drugs work. It also could someday lead to entirely new classes of anti-inflammatory treatments without some of steroids' damaging side effects.
Chronic inflammation plays a role in cancer and in autoimmune, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, among others. Anti-inflammatory steroid drugs are widely prescribed for treating the inflammatory states that underlie or exacerbate these conditions.
"Inflammation tells your body something is wrong," said the study's senior author, Howard Chang, MD, PhD, professor of dermatology at Stanford and the recipient of an early career scientist award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "But after it does its job of alerting immune cells to a viral or bacterial infection or spurring them to remove debris from a wound site, it has to get turned off before it causes harm to healthy tissue."
That appears to be what the "undead" gene does. Chang's team, which identified it, has named it Lethe, after the stream in Greek mythology that makes the deceased who cross it forget their pasts.
The master regulator of inflammation inside cells a bulky complex of several proteins, collectively called NF-kappa-B is a transcription factor: It can switch on hundreds or even thousands of genes in a cell's nucleus. When aroused by signals at the cell surface (typically delivered by circulating proteins or microbial components), NF-kappa-B activates pro-inflammatory genes, gearing that cell up to combat viral or bacterial assaults and respond to an injury.
Lethe, which the investigators found is activated by NF-kappa-B, subdues the master regulator's massive influence on the genome, curtailing the inflammatory response.
NF-kappa-B also plays a key role in aging. In a study published in 2007 in Genes and Development, Chang and his colleagues showed that old skin cells in which NF-kappa-B was temporarily inactivated began to act young. This finding has since been confirmed in other tissues and by other researchers.
To learn more about NF-kappa-B, Chang's group decided to activate it and see which genes get turned on or off. But rather than "normal" genes, which are essentially recipes for making proteins, they were curious about DNA sequences that generate long noncoding RNA molecules, or lncRNAs, which Chang helped to discover during the past decade.
RNA is best known as the intermediate material in classic protein production. Gene-reading machines in cells produce RNA transcripts, or copies, of protein-coding genes. These transcripts, known as messenger RNAs, are free to leave the cell nucleus for the cytoplasm, where they can transmit genes' instructions to the protein-making machines situated there.
But lately RNA has been shown to play an increasing number of additional roles that have nothing to do with making proteins. The lncRNAs Chang studied are made by the same molecular machinery that protein-coding genes use to make a messenger RNA. Instead of heading for the cytoplasm to make proteins, though, lncRNAs can remain in the nucleus and directly regulate genes. More than 10,000 lncRNAs have now been discovered, although scientists are only beginning to understand what they do.
To see which lncRNAs were induced during inflammation, Chang and his colleagues exposed cultured fibroblasts from embryonic mice to TNF-alpha, an immune-signaling protein known to trigger NF-kappa-B. They found that levels of hundreds of lncRNAs inside the cells were driven either up or down by TNF-alpha stimulation.
Of those lncRNAs, a total of 54 were copied from so-called pseudogenes: DNA sequences that, while they closely resemble genes, don't code for proteins. More than 11,000 pseudogenes one for every two protein-coding genes have been identified in the human genome. Scientists believe pseudogenes are copies of actual genes that, during the replication of some ancestral organism's germ cell, were accidentally inserted into the genome and, redundant but harmless, came along for the evolutionary ride. Over the intervening eons, these genetic doppelgangers have roamed along the genome, mutated and decayed to the point where, it is believed, they no longer do anything at all.
"Pseudogenes have been considered to be completely silent, ignored by cells' DNA-reading machinery," Chang said. "But we got a real surprise. When a cell is subjected to an inflammatory stress signal, it's like Night of the Living Dead."
Equally surprising, Chang said, is that different signaling chemicals or microbial components (such as bits of bacterial cell walls or of viral DNA) wake up different groups of lncRNA-encoding DNA sequences, including pseudogenes. "They're not really dead, after all. They just need very specific signals to set them in motion."
Lethe was one such pseudogene tripped off by stimulation of NF-kappa-B. Lethe directly interfered with the complex's ability to seat itself on appropriate DNA sequences, shutting down the pro-inflammatory genes the transcription factor ordinarily activates.
Several pseudogenes were activated in a selective manner. For example, TNF-alpha and another circulating signaling protein but not microbial parts activated Lethe.
Because some pseudogenes sit near protein-coding genes, some scientists have argued that the generation of RNA transcripts from the pseudogenes is simply an artifact of normal transcription of full-fledged protein-coding genes. "There's a tendency to assume it's some protein-coding gene that NF-kappa-B is really targeting, and to downplay the activation of a lncRNA as noise, a 'ripple effect' like the one you see when a boat goes by," Chang said.
But TNF-alpha failed to activate two nearby protein-coding genes on either side of Lethe. Reciprocally, stimuli that turned these two other genes on didn't affect Lethe. Meanwhile, two other pseudogenes that very closely resemble Lethe were not activated by TNF-alpha, as Lethe was.
Another surprising finding was that dexamethasone, a commonly prescribed anti-inflammatory steroid drug, activates Lethe. Various other steroid hormones that are not anti-inflammatory in nature, such as vitamin D or estrogen or a male steroid hormone, failed to boost Lethe levels.
"We're wondering whether there might be ways to artificially raise Lethe levels without steroids. These drugs have potentially deleterious side effects such as elevated blood pressure and blood sugar, thinning of bones and general suppression of the immune system," Chang said.
The study results suggest that not only Lethe but other pseudogenes undergo similarly selective awakenings to generate lncRNAs in response to different external inflammatory stimuli. "From the pattern of activated lncRNAs, you can tell what the cell has encountered a virus, a bacteria or something else," Chang said. "These patterns of activation may be able to serve as an indicator of what kind of inflammatory situation or pathogenic invasion is responsible."
A third surprise: While NF-kappa-B levels and activity within cells increase with an organism's advancing age, Lethe is dramatically downgraded with increasing age but eightfold more so in females. Lethe levels in spleens of older mice, compared with those of young mice, dropped 20-fold in males but 160-fold in females. "This gender-specific difference is not seen in young mice," Chang said. "Could this have any implications for the increasing female-to-male ratio, with advancing age, for autoimmune diseases in humans?"
###
The study was funded by the Ellison Medical Research Foundation, the Glenn Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (grant T32AG000266). The lead author was postdoctoral scholar Nicole Rapicavoli, PhD. Other Stanford co-authors were senior bioinformatician Kun Qu, PhD; bioinformatician Jiajing Zhang, PhD; and undergraduate student Megan Mikhail.
Information about Stanford's Department of Dermatology, which supported this work, is available at http://dermatology.stanford.edu.
The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
Print media contact: Bruce Goldman at (650) 725-2106 (goldmanb@stanford.edu)
Broadcast media contact: M.A. Malone at (650) 723-6912 (mamalone@stanford.edu)
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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.
'Dead' gene comes to life, puts chill on inflammation, Stanford researchers findPublic release date: 23-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bruce Goldman goldmanb@stanford.edu 650-725-2106 Stanford University Medical Center
STANFORD, Calif. A gene long presumed dead comes to life under the full moon of inflammation, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have found.
The discovery, described in a study to be published July 23 in eLife, may help explain how anti-inflammatory steroid drugs work. It also could someday lead to entirely new classes of anti-inflammatory treatments without some of steroids' damaging side effects.
Chronic inflammation plays a role in cancer and in autoimmune, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, among others. Anti-inflammatory steroid drugs are widely prescribed for treating the inflammatory states that underlie or exacerbate these conditions.
"Inflammation tells your body something is wrong," said the study's senior author, Howard Chang, MD, PhD, professor of dermatology at Stanford and the recipient of an early career scientist award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "But after it does its job of alerting immune cells to a viral or bacterial infection or spurring them to remove debris from a wound site, it has to get turned off before it causes harm to healthy tissue."
That appears to be what the "undead" gene does. Chang's team, which identified it, has named it Lethe, after the stream in Greek mythology that makes the deceased who cross it forget their pasts.
The master regulator of inflammation inside cells a bulky complex of several proteins, collectively called NF-kappa-B is a transcription factor: It can switch on hundreds or even thousands of genes in a cell's nucleus. When aroused by signals at the cell surface (typically delivered by circulating proteins or microbial components), NF-kappa-B activates pro-inflammatory genes, gearing that cell up to combat viral or bacterial assaults and respond to an injury.
Lethe, which the investigators found is activated by NF-kappa-B, subdues the master regulator's massive influence on the genome, curtailing the inflammatory response.
NF-kappa-B also plays a key role in aging. In a study published in 2007 in Genes and Development, Chang and his colleagues showed that old skin cells in which NF-kappa-B was temporarily inactivated began to act young. This finding has since been confirmed in other tissues and by other researchers.
To learn more about NF-kappa-B, Chang's group decided to activate it and see which genes get turned on or off. But rather than "normal" genes, which are essentially recipes for making proteins, they were curious about DNA sequences that generate long noncoding RNA molecules, or lncRNAs, which Chang helped to discover during the past decade.
RNA is best known as the intermediate material in classic protein production. Gene-reading machines in cells produce RNA transcripts, or copies, of protein-coding genes. These transcripts, known as messenger RNAs, are free to leave the cell nucleus for the cytoplasm, where they can transmit genes' instructions to the protein-making machines situated there.
But lately RNA has been shown to play an increasing number of additional roles that have nothing to do with making proteins. The lncRNAs Chang studied are made by the same molecular machinery that protein-coding genes use to make a messenger RNA. Instead of heading for the cytoplasm to make proteins, though, lncRNAs can remain in the nucleus and directly regulate genes. More than 10,000 lncRNAs have now been discovered, although scientists are only beginning to understand what they do.
To see which lncRNAs were induced during inflammation, Chang and his colleagues exposed cultured fibroblasts from embryonic mice to TNF-alpha, an immune-signaling protein known to trigger NF-kappa-B. They found that levels of hundreds of lncRNAs inside the cells were driven either up or down by TNF-alpha stimulation.
Of those lncRNAs, a total of 54 were copied from so-called pseudogenes: DNA sequences that, while they closely resemble genes, don't code for proteins. More than 11,000 pseudogenes one for every two protein-coding genes have been identified in the human genome. Scientists believe pseudogenes are copies of actual genes that, during the replication of some ancestral organism's germ cell, were accidentally inserted into the genome and, redundant but harmless, came along for the evolutionary ride. Over the intervening eons, these genetic doppelgangers have roamed along the genome, mutated and decayed to the point where, it is believed, they no longer do anything at all.
"Pseudogenes have been considered to be completely silent, ignored by cells' DNA-reading machinery," Chang said. "But we got a real surprise. When a cell is subjected to an inflammatory stress signal, it's like Night of the Living Dead."
Equally surprising, Chang said, is that different signaling chemicals or microbial components (such as bits of bacterial cell walls or of viral DNA) wake up different groups of lncRNA-encoding DNA sequences, including pseudogenes. "They're not really dead, after all. They just need very specific signals to set them in motion."
Lethe was one such pseudogene tripped off by stimulation of NF-kappa-B. Lethe directly interfered with the complex's ability to seat itself on appropriate DNA sequences, shutting down the pro-inflammatory genes the transcription factor ordinarily activates.
Several pseudogenes were activated in a selective manner. For example, TNF-alpha and another circulating signaling protein but not microbial parts activated Lethe.
Because some pseudogenes sit near protein-coding genes, some scientists have argued that the generation of RNA transcripts from the pseudogenes is simply an artifact of normal transcription of full-fledged protein-coding genes. "There's a tendency to assume it's some protein-coding gene that NF-kappa-B is really targeting, and to downplay the activation of a lncRNA as noise, a 'ripple effect' like the one you see when a boat goes by," Chang said.
But TNF-alpha failed to activate two nearby protein-coding genes on either side of Lethe. Reciprocally, stimuli that turned these two other genes on didn't affect Lethe. Meanwhile, two other pseudogenes that very closely resemble Lethe were not activated by TNF-alpha, as Lethe was.
Another surprising finding was that dexamethasone, a commonly prescribed anti-inflammatory steroid drug, activates Lethe. Various other steroid hormones that are not anti-inflammatory in nature, such as vitamin D or estrogen or a male steroid hormone, failed to boost Lethe levels.
"We're wondering whether there might be ways to artificially raise Lethe levels without steroids. These drugs have potentially deleterious side effects such as elevated blood pressure and blood sugar, thinning of bones and general suppression of the immune system," Chang said.
The study results suggest that not only Lethe but other pseudogenes undergo similarly selective awakenings to generate lncRNAs in response to different external inflammatory stimuli. "From the pattern of activated lncRNAs, you can tell what the cell has encountered a virus, a bacteria or something else," Chang said. "These patterns of activation may be able to serve as an indicator of what kind of inflammatory situation or pathogenic invasion is responsible."
A third surprise: While NF-kappa-B levels and activity within cells increase with an organism's advancing age, Lethe is dramatically downgraded with increasing age but eightfold more so in females. Lethe levels in spleens of older mice, compared with those of young mice, dropped 20-fold in males but 160-fold in females. "This gender-specific difference is not seen in young mice," Chang said. "Could this have any implications for the increasing female-to-male ratio, with advancing age, for autoimmune diseases in humans?"
###
The study was funded by the Ellison Medical Research Foundation, the Glenn Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (grant T32AG000266). The lead author was postdoctoral scholar Nicole Rapicavoli, PhD. Other Stanford co-authors were senior bioinformatician Kun Qu, PhD; bioinformatician Jiajing Zhang, PhD; and undergraduate student Megan Mikhail.
Information about Stanford's Department of Dermatology, which supported this work, is available at http://dermatology.stanford.edu.
The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
Print media contact: Bruce Goldman at (650) 725-2106 (goldmanb@stanford.edu)
Broadcast media contact: M.A. Malone at (650) 723-6912 (mamalone@stanford.edu)
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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.
Going through the motions improves dance performancePublic release date: 23-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Anna Mikulak amikulak@psychologicalscience.org 202-293-9300 Association for Psychological Science
Expert ballet dancers seem to glide effortlessly across the stage, but learning the steps is both physically and mentally demanding. New research suggests that dance marking loosely practicing a routine by "going through the motions" may improve the quality of dance performance by reducing the mental strain needed to perfect the movements.
The new findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest that marking may alleviate the conflict between the cognitive and physical aspects of dance practice, allowing dancers to memorize and repeat steps more fluidly.
Researcher Edward Warburton, a former professional ballet dancer, and colleagues were interested in exploring the "thinking behind the doing of dance."
"It is widely assumed that the purpose of marking is to conserve energy," explains Warburton, professor of dance at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "But elite-level dance is not only physically demanding, it's cognitively demanding as well:
Learning and rehearsing a dance piece requires concentration on many aspects of the desired performance."
Marking essentially involves a run-through of the dance routine, but with a focus on the routine itself, rather than making the perfect movements.
"When marking, the dancer often does not leave the floor, and may even substitute hand gestures for movements," Warburton explains. "One common example is using a finger rotation to represent a turn while not actually turning the whole body."
To investigate how marking influences performance, the researchers asked a group of talented dance students to learn two routines: they were asked to practice one routine at performance speed and to practice the other one by marking.
The routines were relatively simple, designed to be learned quickly and to minimize mistakes. Yet differences emerged when the judges looked for quality of performance.
Across many of the different techniques and steps, the dancers were judged more highly on the routine that they had practiced with marking their movements on the marked routine appeared to be more seamless, their sequences more fluid.
The researchers surmise that practicing at performance speed didn't allow the dancers to memorize and consolidate the steps as a sequence, thus encumbering their performance.
"By reducing the demands on complex control of the body, marking may reduce the multi-layered cognitive load used when learning choreography," Warburton explains.
While marking is often thought of as a necessary evil allowing dancers a "break" from dancing full out the large effect sizes observed in the study suggest that it could make a noticeable difference in a dancer's performance:
"Marking could be strategically used by teachers and choreographers to enhance memory and integration of multiple aspects of a piece precisely at those times when dancers are working to master the most demanding material," says Warburton.
It's unclear whether these performance improvements would be seen for other types of dance, Warburton cautions, but it is possible that this area of research could extend to other kinds of activities, perhaps even language acquisition.
"Smaller scale movement systems with low energetic costs such as speech, sign language, and gestures may likewise accrue cognitive benefits, as might be the case in learning new multisyllabic vocabulary or working on one's accent in a foreign language."
###
Co-authors on this research include Margaret Wilson, Molly Lynch, and Shannon Cuykendall of the University of California, Irvine.
For more information about this study, please contact: Edward C. Warburton at tedw@ucsc.edu.
The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "The Cognitive Benefits of Movement Reduction: Evidence From Dance Marking" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.
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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.
Going through the motions improves dance performancePublic release date: 23-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Anna Mikulak amikulak@psychologicalscience.org 202-293-9300 Association for Psychological Science
Expert ballet dancers seem to glide effortlessly across the stage, but learning the steps is both physically and mentally demanding. New research suggests that dance marking loosely practicing a routine by "going through the motions" may improve the quality of dance performance by reducing the mental strain needed to perfect the movements.
The new findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest that marking may alleviate the conflict between the cognitive and physical aspects of dance practice, allowing dancers to memorize and repeat steps more fluidly.
Researcher Edward Warburton, a former professional ballet dancer, and colleagues were interested in exploring the "thinking behind the doing of dance."
"It is widely assumed that the purpose of marking is to conserve energy," explains Warburton, professor of dance at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "But elite-level dance is not only physically demanding, it's cognitively demanding as well:
Learning and rehearsing a dance piece requires concentration on many aspects of the desired performance."
Marking essentially involves a run-through of the dance routine, but with a focus on the routine itself, rather than making the perfect movements.
"When marking, the dancer often does not leave the floor, and may even substitute hand gestures for movements," Warburton explains. "One common example is using a finger rotation to represent a turn while not actually turning the whole body."
To investigate how marking influences performance, the researchers asked a group of talented dance students to learn two routines: they were asked to practice one routine at performance speed and to practice the other one by marking.
The routines were relatively simple, designed to be learned quickly and to minimize mistakes. Yet differences emerged when the judges looked for quality of performance.
Across many of the different techniques and steps, the dancers were judged more highly on the routine that they had practiced with marking their movements on the marked routine appeared to be more seamless, their sequences more fluid.
The researchers surmise that practicing at performance speed didn't allow the dancers to memorize and consolidate the steps as a sequence, thus encumbering their performance.
"By reducing the demands on complex control of the body, marking may reduce the multi-layered cognitive load used when learning choreography," Warburton explains.
While marking is often thought of as a necessary evil allowing dancers a "break" from dancing full out the large effect sizes observed in the study suggest that it could make a noticeable difference in a dancer's performance:
"Marking could be strategically used by teachers and choreographers to enhance memory and integration of multiple aspects of a piece precisely at those times when dancers are working to master the most demanding material," says Warburton.
It's unclear whether these performance improvements would be seen for other types of dance, Warburton cautions, but it is possible that this area of research could extend to other kinds of activities, perhaps even language acquisition.
"Smaller scale movement systems with low energetic costs such as speech, sign language, and gestures may likewise accrue cognitive benefits, as might be the case in learning new multisyllabic vocabulary or working on one's accent in a foreign language."
###
Co-authors on this research include Margaret Wilson, Molly Lynch, and Shannon Cuykendall of the University of California, Irvine.
For more information about this study, please contact: Edward C. Warburton at tedw@ucsc.edu.
The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "The Cognitive Benefits of Movement Reduction: Evidence From Dance Marking" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.
[ | 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.
CAIRO- The family of Mohamed Morsi is to take legal action against Egypt?s army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, for ?kidnapping? the Islamist president, his daughter said on Monday.
?We are taking local and international legal measures against Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the leader of the bloody military coup, and his putschist group,? Shaimaa Mohamed Morsi told reporters.
?We hold the leader of the military group and the whole of his putschist group responsible for the health and safety of president Morsi,? she added at the family?s press conference in Cairo.
Morsi has been detained at an unknown location since his overthrow by the army on July 3 following mass protests against his presidency across the country.
Several countries, including the United States and Germany, have called for his release.
But country?s interim authorities have rejected these calls, saying that he is being held in a ?safe place?.
Authorities questioned Morsi on July 14 over his 2011 escape from prison during the revolution that toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak, judicial sources said. (AFP)
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone suggests Facebook should offer a premium service where users pay to receive no ads
In a blog post on Medium, Biz Stone has offered an idea to Facebook to make money out of offering a premium service to the social networking site.
The idea is that users can pay $10 a month for which will get rid of adverts.
Stone admitted he had taken a break from Facebook after it "added thousands of settings, features, and choices."
Upon returning to the social networking site Stone suggests, "for $10 a month, people who really love Facebook (and can afford it), could see no ads. Maybe some special features too."
Reportedly this works out that if around 10% of Facebook users signed up for the premium service, revenue could total an astonishing $1bn a month.
Stone compared Facebook to Investor Relations company Pandora, who statistically boast a 114% growth rate year-over-year in subscription revenue from users paying to go ad-free.
Earlier this year, Facebook rolled out a charge for users to allow them to message celebrities or anyone ouside of their friend list.
The prices to contact people range depending on the number of followers they have.
Users could use their credit cards in order to pay for these messages but this option is limited to anyone over 18.
She sat beside her son on the Texas Giant -- a 14-story-high roller coaster that boasts what the amusement park calls "the world's steepest drop." And before the ride started climbing, CNN affiliate KTVT ...
Over the last few years, YouTube slowly started putting a larger emphasis on channels -- especially channel subscriptions -- but until now, the only way to subscribe to a channel was on YouTube itself. Today, however, YouTube is changing this with the launch of ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 23-Jul-2013
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