Thursday, 31 May 2012

Blue-green algae release chemical suspected in some amphibian deformities

Retinoic acid levels high in waterways rich in cyanobacteria blooms

Web edition : Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

Harmless as they may look, some of the microbes called cyanobacteria have the power to dose waterways with a range of chemicals that might cause deformities in frogs or other vertebrate wildlife.

Cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae, could be an underappreciated but widespread source of compounds called retinoic acids in waterways, says environmental toxicologist Jianying Hu of Peking University. Out of 24 kinds of cyanobacteria grown in a lab, 13 produced some kind of retinoic acid or retinoic acid cousin, Hu and her colleagues report online May 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Retinoic acids, formed from vitamin A, help sculpt developing body parts in vertebrates. Researchers puzzling over clusters of deformed frogs first highlighted in the 1990s have considered retinoic acids as one of several possible villains.

Hu and colleagues also analyzed samples from China?s third largest freshwater lake, Taihu Lake, which is rich in cyanobacteria blooms. The lake carries high concentrations of retinoic acids, the researchers found.

The new work ?opens up a new area of potential research,? says plankton ecologist Karl Havens, who directs the Florida Sea Grant College Program in Gainesville. ?I will be interested now to see if the compounds are found in other lakes with cyanobacteria blooms, or even if they continue to be documented in this lake,? he says.

The retinoic acid concentration found in Taihu Lake ? up to 20 nanograms per liter ? was 10,000 times what Kunimitsu Kaya of the University of Tsukuba in Japan and his colleagues have found in Japanese lakes. Last year Kaya reported cyanobacteria making a retinoic acid cousin (7-hydroxy retinoic acid); he says he finds it plausible that blooms create such extreme conditions in Taihu. Scum there probably blocks sunlight that otherwise would break down some of the very potent retinoic acids.

There?s not enough information yet to link cyanobacteria to high rates of amphibian deformities, says ecologist Andrew Blaustein of Oregon State University in Corvallis. He and other researchers have proposed a variety of other possible contributing menaces, including UV radiation and trematode parasites.

Parasites, a leading hypothesis for the cause of some limb abnormalities, certainly don?t explain all the cases, says disease ecologist Pieter Johnson of the University of Colorado Boulder. The new paper ?may be a useful step forward in helping to explain abnormalities in wetlands without the parasite.


Found in: Ecology, Environment and Life

slainte the quiet man yellow cab dropkick murphys guernsey nit colcannon

Mike Ragogna: Strangers In The First Place: Another Conversation With Robert Francis

2012-05-30-612eVp1LspL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

A Conversation With Robert Francis

Mike Ragogna: Hey Robert, last time out, I think we did one of the longest interviews I've ever had with someone. We got way into your last album, Before Nightfall, and I think we went through every single song on that one.

Robert Francis: I think so. That's right!

MR: What are your thoughts about your new album, Strangers In The First Place?

RF: Let's see. I think this record for me is a much more adventurous, much clearer representation of probably who I am as a human being. I think with the transition to an indie label and where I'm at today, I think this album has more colors and different textures so I think it has much more to offer than my previous work. I think on a deeper listen, like every time you listen to a song, I think there are deeper layers to strip away and songs have multiple meanings and double entendres and that sort of thing, so it's just a bit of a new sound for me.

MR: I also want to ask you about your single, "Heroin Lovers." It's not as blatant as the title suggests, although there is a history here, because you revealed aspects of your past relationship to me during the Before Nightfall interview. This one kind of ties into it as well, right?

RF: It does. I mean, it also was inspired by a couple friends of mine. But you know, that song was probably the most stream of consciousness. Usually, I'll sit down to write a song and I'll really analyze the lyrics and I'll work at it for a really long time, but "Heroin Lovers" came quickly. I wrote it very fast. So yeah, it hints at what it's about.

MR: Do we dare go into the album like we did your last one?

RF: No, that's good

MR: Okay, let's just do a few, starting with the title track. In "Some Things Never Change," the chorus goes, "People like you, people like me...some things never change." That's very true, isn't it.

RF: I think so--I would hope so. That song is about the idiosyncrasies that make us who we are and it's about, obviously, a tumultuous relationship and these attractions between lovers that's basically, "This is never going to work, this is never going to happen because we are, at the end of the day, who we are and some things never change." But at the end of the day, we have to learn to, I guess, accept that and move on.

MR: Are we okay with the fact that we were sort of in that situation to begin with or do we kick ourselves for having ever been in it at all?

RF: I think we're okay. I think we're not kicking ourselves, no.

MR: I don't know. Sometimes, I feel like kicking myself for ever having gotten into certain situations.

RF: Right. No, I think these things are necessary for growing and for changing.

MR: Could you give us a little history on that one?

RF: Yeah. That song's interesting since there are a lot of people who like it because they think it's a romantic love song but really, it's sort of about... You know, in the bridge, when it's like "When I'm out of my mind, when the sun tries to shine we get lost in the sheets," and it's all these things? Basically, it's about being free and moving on and how all these things that are repressing me keep me contained--that was when I was perfectly yours, and now I've moved on and I can see clearly, which is sort of the underlying, running theme for the entire record. It's reminiscing about when I was perfectly yours and how now that that's done, I can finally see clearly.

MR: Nice, and with "Strangers In The First Place," you've got two different meaning on that one; you're strangers when you're first meeting but when you're looking at or maybe reflecting on something that happens in the relationship, it proves that maybe this isn't what we thought it was.

RF: Right. Also, for me, I was always obsessed with this idea when writing the album, just how, almost in like sort of an existential way, no matter what we do and where we go, when all is said and done, at the very end of it all, we go back to the way it was in the very, very beginning. All of us human beings are strangers to each other and I was just fascinated by that, and it sort of has a greater meaning.

MR: All right, before I cry, let's quickly look at a couple more songs on the project such as "Tunnels," that kicks off the album.

RF: I wrote "Tunnels" when I was traveling. I've been back and forth to Europe for about two years every other month. I'd be flying back and forth and back and forth and "Tunnels," I wrote in this girl's flat in Paris. She was in the bedroom and I was sort of out at the window staring out at this city at night and sort of pondering my very existence. But it's sort of about the things that follow you and no matter where you go, the things that come with you. I don't want to sound too morose, that every song is about this type of thing. There are a lot of times when I think "Oh, I should be so happy, I mean look where I am, and look what I'm doing." But if you're held captive by those lingering feelings of love, it's sometimes difficult.

MR: I know what you mean, feeling like you're in a tunnel.

RF: Yes.

MR: And I love how "Tunnel" kicks the album off with a goodbye song.

RF: At the very beginning, I actually thought I'd start the album with "Dangerous Neighborhood," which is now the last song, and "Tunnels" would be the last song. But I think it leaves you on a positive note now, and that's the way I wanted the album to be.

MR: Let's talk about "Dangerous Neighborhood," where you have a certain guest, a certain person who appears pretty prominently in your history, Mr. Ry Cooder along with Joaquim Cooder is on the album too.

RF: Yes, he is on the album. Ry was my mentor growing up, he sort of taught me all the important things I know about music. Ry was real happy to play on "Dangerous Neighborhood," he likes that song a lot. Joaquim is also playing on a song called "I Sail Ships," and Mike Campbell, from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, he played on "Heroin Lovers," and Jim Keltner, the legendary drummer who played on "Knocking On Heaven's Door" and "All Things Must Pass," he was on "It First Occurred To Me," so there's a real strong group of musicians on the album.

MR: John Frusciante from Red Hot Chili Peppers, was also in your childhood, right?

RF: Yes. He was my guitar teacher when I had just turned sixteen. He'd send an assistant in a car to come pick me up at my folks' house and I'd go to his house in the Hollywood Hills. He'd teach me mostly prog music and theory.

MR: Prog music and theory. What more does one need to live on.

RF: Exactly.

MR: Can you give us a little Harry Dean Stanton birthday story?

RF: Sure. My sisters are ten years older than me, and they brought me to this club called The Mint in LA when I was a child--maybe nine or ten, I can't remember. I was outside, noodling on a guitar and Harry Dean Stanton was playing that night. It was his birthday, and he had this blues band and his guitar player saw me and so when they were doing their encore, he motioned for me to come up on stage. I got up there and he dropped this big ES-335 huge guitar over my shoulders and I started soloing and I looked up at Harry Dean Stanton and he's standing there in a three-piece white suit with a highball glass of scotch, and Chaka Khan came on stage and she started singing and that was my first proper jam session.

MR: Pretty cool first jam session. Robert, she wasn't just singing to the audience, she was singing to a certain ten year-old, wasn't she?

RF: She was. She was down on her knees looking me in the eye and her hair was everywhere.

MR: What a cool thing to have happened. Okay, let's get to Paris, Texas, which is an important movie to you, huh?

RF: It is. It's sort of what inspired me to travel and to not be afraid of traveling and sort of to accept the wandering lifestyle and to embrace it. That movie just instilled those images of the open road in my head when I was a little kid, so I had no fear when I decided to drop out of school and get in the car and start touring.

MR: Now, this album was recorded a little differently than the last one.

RF: I rented this mansion in Malibu and it overlooked the ocean and had sprawling views of the coast and we built a crazy studio. I lived there for months and I made most of the record, and then I sort of came back and finished and did a few songs later on in a lead room in Chatsworth, in the valley of LA. It was sort of two polar opposites of places where you could record. But it's beautiful, you know? You look out the window and there are dolphins swimming in the water. It was a really nice place to make an album, and really inspiring.

MR: You're on your third album now. What do you think looking at where you've come from and where you are now, and what's the major difference to you?

RF: Well, it all came together completely unlike the way I thought it would. You know, if someone told me when I was first setting out to do this, "Oh, you're going to have a massive number one single in France and you're going to spend eight months in Paris and maybe you're going to come to the US and you'll play for a bar full of people fighting," and the juxtaposition between the two--of how it is overseas and how it is over here--and just the weird way that it's sort of happening, and the process... I just never would have imagined it could be this way, but it's just been a long road of constant touring and traveling, and it's built character. The road breathes new inspiration and life into you and also can suck it away, so it's dangerous but exciting, and now I have a story for every city and state and place in the US and now overseas and it's exciting. It's crazy. It's tiresome but also, it's the only thing I can do and feel happy about doing at the end of the day. Otherwise, I'd just be restless.

MR: That's the story with most true musicians, isn't it. There's just nothing else you could do that makes you happy.

RF: I think so. I think all musicians fantasize about being able to do something else, but when it really comes down to it you're only truly fulfilled doing music, I guess.

MR: You mentioned Europe before. There's a song that's one of my favorites from your last album, "Junebug."

RF: That's right.

MR: That was an overseas hit for you.

RF: Yeah, it was a #1 song in France. It was "Junebug," and then below it would be like Rihanna and Lady Gaga, so it was really interesting. And then, you know, in Germany, it was Top Ten, and in Switzerland, it also was #1, so we did a lot of touring over there.

MR: It should have been a hit here.

RF: I always thought as an artist, it's just more important to keep creating music and making records and not get hung up on singles and things like this. I think at the end of the day, that's what your fan base wants, and that's what makes you happy as a songwriter.

MR: Any touring for this album?

RF: Yeah. June, I'll be doing my first US headlining tour, so hopefully, that'll go well, and then off to Europe for a bunch of festivals, and then I'm going to come back and do a co-headlining tour with Scars On 45.

MR: When you were on Atlantic, you made pals with some label mates. I remember there were shots of you with Jason Mraz and other Atlantic folks at the time.

RF: Yeah. I had a couple friends. I made friends with a lot of people over there. Mraz is managed by the same manager, so we always just end up seeing each other, and he took me out on the road too, which is nice.

MR: Robert, what advice do you have for new artists?

RF: Just make sure that you're doing it for the right reasons and that you love the craft and the art of music primarily before anything else. If that's your number one thing and you can say that you'd suffer or die for a song, then by all means, go out and pursue music as your career. It's a dangerous industry, but it's like The Wild West. It's crazy. If it's what you love, be fearless and do it.

MR: How heavily do you participate in social networking?

RF: I am not the best social networker. My label...everyone is always trying to get me to do social networking. Constantly. But it's hard for me to wrap my head around it. I think the internet, even though it has all these great things to offer, I think it has destroyed the collective unconscious of human beings. So it's hard for me to sit there on the computer trying to advertise my music, or self, or represent myself that way. But I'm getting better at it, so stay tuned.

MR: Any words of wisdom?

RF: Wisdom? I have no words of wisdom. I'm seeking some words of wisdom myself. I don't know. Stay tuned. Stay tuned for this record and then the next.

MR: Robert, as always, all the best, I appreciate your time.

RF: Thank you.

Tracks:
1. Tunnels
2. Some Things Never Change
3. Perfectly Yours
4. Alibi
5. Eighteen
6. Star Crossed Memories
7. It First Occurred to Me
8. Heroin Lovers
9. I Sail Ships
10. The Closest Exit
11. Wild Thing
12. Dangerous Neighborhood

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne

?

?

?

Follow Mike Ragogna on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ragz2008

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

megamillions drawing olbermann mega millions march 30 lucky numbers odds of winning mega millions mary mary sag aftra merger

US Home Security Company, Shield Security Systems, Announces ...

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

the descendants homeland homeland packers giants game golden globe winners 2012 ricky gervais golden globes epidermolysis bullosa

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Six Teeth Care Rules for Sound Dental Health |

Dental health is a part of your overall health condition. One cannot remain happy with painful gum, foul smelling breath, bleeding teeth and other dental problems. In one or other way, these problems are going to affect your overall health condition. So, you should care for your teeth as you care other parts of body. You should not ignore dental pains and problems. You should visit your dental consultant soon if you have any problem. Here are six golden teeth care rules for sound dental health.

Brush twice a day. You should brush in the morning to remove accumulated debris overnight in the mouth and before going to bed to remove the debris that accumulate in your mouth in the whole day. You should use soft angled brush to clean up your teeth. Hard brush will harm your gum and you may face gum bleeding.

Rinse your mouth after every small or heavy meal. Food particles should not be accumulating in your mouth. They will give rise to germs and will create foul smells.Eat plenty of calcium rich food and protein. These are healthy for your dental health. Avoid junk foods as they are harmful for your teeth. You should visit the dentist twice in a year to know the condition of your teeth and gums. You should ask the dentist about right methods of brushing and tongue cleaning. Food particles get deposited in the gaps of teeth and back portion. Ask the doctor to remove particles from these hidden parts. Change your toothbrush after every 2 month. Massage your gums with finger tip. It increases blood circulation.

These are some rules to take care of your teeth. Teeth care is very important for everybody. One should not neglect the teeth. Damages teeth can be a big problem for you. So, it is better to care before they get damaged or deformed. Dental health is not only important for overall fitness rather it is essential to give grace to your pleasing personality. Your flawless smile will attract the people around you and smelling mouth will force them to remain away. Pediatric dental care is thus for your overall happiness of life. Inculcate the above mentioned rules in your habit and stay happy for long. Hope you will have a sound dental health by taking appropriate care.Pediatric Dental Care is the discipline that focuses intimately on the oral health & unique need of the child/infant/adolescent.

wayne gretzky occupy los angeles occupy los angeles comedian patrice o neal occupy philadelphia occupy philadelphia conrad murray

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

team building tips | How to combine team building with corporate ...

Philanthropic-Team-Building-ArticleMany of the nation?s largest public and private companies have combined philanthropy with corporate team building for years.? Philanthropic giving in general has been boosted by several technology fortunes, according to a recent USA Today article.? But the great news is that you don?t have to be a Microsoft co-founder or a Facebook CEO to combine team building with corporate philanthropy.

In his first book, Compassionate Capitalism, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff insists philanthropy should be integrated into every business. Even if you aren?t running a Fortune 50 company or don?t have $20 million in corporate assets, your team can benefit from team building and philanthropy.

Where do you start? Many of our clients are pleasantly surprised ? and relieved ? to learn how turnkey our philanthropic team building workshops can be. ?Even though a workshop like Build-A-Bike may sound complicated because it has a lot of moving parts (literally and figuratively), we take care of most of the details including coordinating logistics with the receiving organization like Boys & Girls Club or local firefighters.

Child at Food BankEven though the concept of philanthropic team building has been around for over a decade, there?s always a fresh crop of business owners or new managers looking for an effective way to impact their team. Everyone can take a cue from large corporations who are taking their giving efforts more seriously than ever before.?? They are making philanthropic team building a strategic part of their business because they see the impact these efforts are having.? A recent pharmaceutical client explained the effectiveness after an interactive team building workshop: ?The lines of communication, or lack thereof, where definitely highlighted with our group.? Our current motto is ?all the answers are in this room?.? Now that we have clearly identified what needs help we can begin to evaluate how to improve it.?

So where do you start?? Start with your next meeting.? Find some way to add a philanthropic twist and your team building will be that much more memorable.? People who participate in team building programs combined with philanthropy not only love it ? they remember it along with the team building skills they learned long after the meeting has ended.

?

This article was written by Colette Johnston. Colette is a Corporate Team Building Consultant with The Leader?s Institute headquartered out of Dallas Texas. You can reach Colette at 800-872-7830.

close encounters of the third kind norovirus beyonce and jay z baby droid 4 ann coulter tom brady sister dad shoots daughters laptop

charlize theron telenav telenav wade phillips wade phillips time person of the year sag nominations

ryan tannehill cispa pittsburgh steelers detroit lions seattle seahawks space shuttle space shuttle new york

Virus Victors: People Who Control HIV

Science TalkScience Talk | More Science

Bruce Walker, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, M.I.T. and Harvard, talks about his article in the July issue of Scientific American magazine called "Controlling HIV," about rare individuals who never develop AIDS after being infected by HIV

More Science Talk

How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can it actually feel an insect?s tiny, spindly legs? And how do cherry blossoms know when to bloom? Can they...

Read More??

Bruce Walker, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, M.I.T. and Harvard, talks about his article in the July issue of Scientific American magazine called "Controlling HIV," about rare individuals who never develop AIDS after being infected by HIV.??


seattle times seattle times walker recall censor pipa and sopa sopa pipa wikipedia blackout

Trio rescued more than 15 hours after plane crash

Kenny Hoagland / AP

This photo provided by the Owyhee County Sheriff's office shows the site where a small plane crashed in southwest Idaho on Sunday.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Updated at 1 a.m. ET: BOISE, Idaho -- Idaho National Guard rescuers plucked a California fireman, his wife and their adult daughter from a snow-covered mountain-side Sunday afternoon, more than 15 hours after the trio survived a nighttime plane crash onto a steep, forested slope in a remote part of the state.

Authorities said the group was flying in a Cessna 172 from California to Mountain Home, Idaho, when the plane went down at about 9 p.m. MDT Saturday (11 p.m. ET). One of the three used a cellphone just after midnight to report that they had survived the crash but had suffered head and back injuries.


A medical helicopter was the first to spot the wreckage Sunday morning, but white-out conditions didn't allow for an immediate rescue, said Col. Tim Marsano of the Idaho National Guard.

Snow drifts
Officials said ground rescuers traveling through 6-foot snow drifts and on 60 degree slopes reached the crash site first. They wrapped the family members in blankets and built a fire until a military helicopter could lift them out with a hoist.

"It was inhospitable for a landing," Marsano said. "The use of the helicopter was indispensable for this type of rescue operation."

Kenny Hoagland / AP

Ground rescuers traveled through 6-foot snow drifts to reach the crash site.

The three were flown one at a time to a landing area about a half-mile from War Eagle Mountain in southwest Idaho's Owyhee County.

The first person came out about noon and the last at about 2 p.m., and each was transferred to a medical helicopter and flown to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise where they were listed in stable condition.

It's unclear what caused the Cessna to go down. Photos taken by rescuers showed significant damage, including a broken front windshield.

Authorities identified the trio?as Brian Brown of Wilton, Calif., his wife Jayann Brown and their 26-year-old daughter Heather, the Idaho Statesman reported.

'Surprisingly good condition'
Brian Brown is a captain at the Cosumnes Community Services District Fire Department in Elk Grove, Calif. He is also Deputy Chief of Operation and Training with the nearby volunteer Wilton Fire Protection District.

Owyhee County Sheriff Daryl Crandall told KTVB that the three relatives were "surprisingly good condition."

Wilton Fire Chief Tom Dark said the couple was flying with their youngest daughter to Mountain Home to visit their oldest daughter. He was relieved they were in stable condition.

"That was our first concern, how he and the family were doing," said Dark. "Knowing what a good pilot he is, something had to have happened."

Dark said it was probably an unusual experience for Brown, a firefighter for more than two decades, to be on the other end of a rescue.

"When the shoe is on the other foot it's kind of strange," he said.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

?

st. bonaventure ira glass march madness swain match day nene dark shadows trailer

Monday, 28 May 2012

Watch Live Streaming Golf: European Tour: 2012 BMW PGA Championship, Wentworth: Day 3: LIVE 4:50pm ET USA May 26, 2012

By Admin, on May 26th, 2012

watch

?European Tour: 2012 BMW PGA Championship, Wentworth: Day 3: LIVE 4:50pm ET USA WATCH LIVE

GUARANTEED 100% WORKING LIVE STREAMS TO WATCH

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players (or golfers) use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes.? It is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area. Instead, the game is played on golf ?courses?, each of which features a unique design, although courses typically consist of either nine or 18 holes. Golf is defined, in the rules of golf, as ?playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules.? Watch

Comments are closed.

dodgers triple play samoyed kenny powers kenny powers carl hagelin triple play virginia tech shooting

Is he Fantastic Mr. Fox or a dangerous city pest?

LONDON (Reuters) - Button and Tawny, two furry fox cubs abandoned by their mother, huddle in the corner of their cage at the Fox Project in the southern English town of Tunbridge Wells.

If all goes well the British charity that rescues injured and sick foxes from urban areas will eventually release the two cubs into the wild.

As a new television programme on urban foxes finishes on British TV, the debate over whether urban foxes are dangerous predatory pests or harmless woodland animals whose presence enhances urban life has heated up.

Fox Project Director Trevor Williams told Reuters the two cubs are part of a much-maligned population of creatures vilified in the UK media by reports of attacks on children and pets, raising fears that foxes are a growing urban danger.

Williams - who has been working to dispel myths about the red fox for more than 30 years - says splashy headlines in the British press warning that foxes attack babies and carry off kittens and other precious pets are overexaggerated nonsense.

"I wouldn't say that occasionally people don't get nipped by foxes," said Trevor Williams, director of the Fox Project. "But we've rescued 8,000 foxes in the time we've been going and I've never been attacked by one".

In June 2010, the British press reported that a fox allegedly attacked nine-month old twin girls Lola and Isabella Koupparis as they slept in their cots in east London.

Pest controller Bruce Lindsay-Smith told Reuters that problems with foxes are real and growing more serious.

"They are becoming more of a nuisance because of the greater numbers of them," he said.

But there is no scientific evidence of an upsurge in urban fox population. A new census conducted for TV show "Foxes Live: Wild in the City", which aired three episodes in early May, estimated the current urban fox population at 40,000.

If there aren't more of them, certainly pest controllers and plenty of urban residents feel the foxes have become bolder in recent years as they scavenge for food.

Digging in the garden, leaving faeces, raiding dustbins, and the vixen's shrill mating call at night are the fox's calling cards. Fears for the safety of children and pets in light of fox attack reports have divided public opinion.

"There's tons of them around here. They open up the bins a lot, but we're not bothered by them," south London resident Sheila Redfern told Reuters.

But Kay Taylor, a resident in the same area whose garden is frequently visited by a family of foxes, is not so keen.

"I hate them. They poo everywhere and they scream a lot at night," she said. "I used to like them when we first moved in. When they're cubs they're all cute. But it's been five years, and we're bored of them."

Foxes became common in British cities in the 1940s, as rapid urban development expanded into the countryside. They adapted well to residential areas with back gardens providing shelter, prey, unsecured dustbins and sometimes human handouts.

Some troubled homeowners call in pest controllers like Lindsay-Smith, who said he kills around 1,700 to 2,000 foxes a year.

Since trapping a fox and releasing it elsewhere is illegal, "the best thing to do is to humanely dispatch it by using firearms and shoot it in the head," Lindsay-Smith said.

He spends many nights patrolling golf courses and cricket grounds shooting foxes with his rifle, and claims to have never missed a shot.

John Bryant, a wildlife expert who runs the Humane Wildlife Deterrence Association, blames the pest control industry for maligning the image of urban foxes.

"No one's ever been killed by a fox, that's for sure," he said. "But pest controllers, they make money out of killing foxes, so they're going to exaggerate the dangers of foxes."

Bryant, who advocates humane deterrence of wildlife, calls the pest control industry a "disgrace", pointing out that Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) does not consider killing foxes a solution to problems.

"Territories made vacant by culling resident foxes are rapidly colonised by new individuals," wrote Jill Tytherleigh from Defra's Customer Contact Unit in an email.

Instead, Defra advocates using non-lethal methods to keep out unwanted foxes by employing fencing, chemical repellents, and removing sources of food and shelter.

While some homeowners try to keep foxes away from their children and gardens others are just as happy to feed foxes, seeing the beasts in the same sympathetic light as the amusing fox family in the 2009 Hollywood film "Fantastic Mr. Fox", starring George Clooney and based on the story by Roald Dahl.

Encounters between man and fox often prove more dangerous to the furry red canine than to the human. Sid, a young dog fox rescued by the Fox Project, was hit by a car and sustained a back injury and two fractured toes.

Others are not so lucky. Each year 100,000 foxes are killed by cars, the leading cause of death among urban foxes, according to The fox website (http://www.thefoxwebsite.org/).

Experts maintain that attacks by foxes are extremely rare. The risk of being injured by man's best friend is much higher, with Bryant saying that more than 6,000 people are hospitalised by dog attacks every year in the UK.

"I'm always very amused when people say we're being overrun by foxes in London," Williams said. "Because there's 5,000 foxes in London, there's 175,000 cats, and there's several million people. So who's overrunning who?"

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

stephen hawking marion barry virginia beach jet crash ridiculously photogenic guy amanda bynes dui ghost ship tiger woods masters

Sunday, 27 May 2012

Cooking Tips For All Cooks Both New And Old : The Wise Directory

There are times when the kitchen is a boring place. But taking up cooking as a hobby changes that. You will enjoy the time spent in your kitchen and gain something from it. You can become a skilled cook, eat better, and save money at the same time. This article will help you to warm up to your kitchen.

Make sure you layer a salad wisely if it going to be eaten at a later date. You should place the ingredients that are the juiciest, like the tomatoes, at the bottom of the bowl, and then place the lettuce and remaining ingredients that are likely to wilt or get soggy on the top.

Doing all of the things you need to in order to prepare a meal is a vital part of the cooking process. You need to have the ingredients readily available. Plan your meal a day in advance to make sure you have everything you need. This will allay some of your fears and anxiety when it is time to cook the meal.

Apples are a mainstay of fall and winter cooking, but they will spoil quickly if not stored properly. Apples will spoil in warm, dry air, so put them in a loosely tied bag in a cool basement or refrigerator. One rotten apple will spoil the bunch so keep a close eye on them while stored.

Always make sure to read labels on any ingredients you are purchasing for a recipe. A lot of ingredients could turn out to be unhealthy. Make sure the food does not have a lot of salt or sugar, these can both be harmful to your health.

It?s very frustrating to try to cook a tasty hamburger and see it deformed or ruined, because it gets stuck to your grill. The way to prevent this is to coat the grill with some vegetable oil prior to putting any food on the grill.

Create your own unique flavored butter for an easy way to enhance the taste and appeal of a fresh ear of corn or a hot batch of dinner rolls. Soften the butter in the microwave, or leave it on the kitchen counter for a while. Try incorporating some herbs and spices to spice up the flavor of the corn. Good things to try include honey, lemon juice, seasoning salt or garlic powder.

Always use rubber, nylon or silicone spoons and spatulas when cooking with nonstick cookware. Metal and wood will cause scratching that may loosen flakes of the coating that may end up in your food. This is unappetizing and could be dangerous.

You can use some spices after food has already finished cooking. Spices, such as red pepper, garlic, or salt, are excellent for flavoring, but don?t necessarily need to be used during the meal?s preparation. A lot of people have different preferences in taste when choosing spices. Rather than adding these spices to the food as you?re cooking it, put them on the table so people can choose which ones they want to use. Everyone will enjoy your cooking more if you leave options open for them.

Use these ideas for generating your own. Always make it a priority to choose dishes that are enjoyed and relished, encouraging a relaxing meal time tradition. If you enjoy cooking, it can be a life-enriching hobby. Good luck in your future culinary efforts.

When you sit down for a good meal, the feeling of bliss when you take a bite is unmistakable. read this alternative website pages the grill george foreman blogging site and also take a look at the holland grills Blog to be able to aid with your home needs.

Comments

the hartford illinois primary 2012 michael bay zsa zsa gabor illinois primary trayvon martin 911 call kiribati

Skootz Washington Wizards LaceZ

Item no: 12893770 Price: $5.99

AVAILABILITY:
In stock: Leaves warehouse in 1 - 2 full bus. days .

Standard Ground Service Available - (Details)
Note: Shipping restrictions may apply.

Remember, no sales tax except in FL, KY, NY and PA.

Gift Wrap available??(Details)

Description

Show head-to-toe love for your hoops team with these fun Skootz? LaceZ! They're designed with NBA team graphics and fit typical 5-6 eyelet shoes.

Features
Features
  • Pair of shoelaces
  • Designed with NBA team graphics
  • Machine washable
  • Dimensions: L 45"
  • Fit typical 5-6 eyelet shoes
  • Officially licensed
  • Made in China
Reviews

?2012 NBA Media Ventures, LLC. All rights reserved. No portion of NBA.com may be duplicated, redistributed or manipulated in any form.

royal rumble results sag awards 2012 kyra sedgwick honor killings mary tyler moore x games pro bowl

England look for feel-good factor in Euro warm-up

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

branson mo monkees songs danica patrick school closings top chef texas rail gun harrisburg

Saturday, 26 May 2012

Aerial Views of Olympics Park ... London 2012 ...


Visitors found this page by searching for:

Nobody landed on this page from a search engine, yet!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts

?

?

frankincense cloudy with a chance of meatballs the hobbit movie hanukkah gpa calculator menorah chanukah

ABC Family Celebrates Father's Day With an All Day Marathon of ...


In celebration of Father?s Day, ABC Family will air an all day marathon of movies dads love, beginning at 7:00am ET/PT on Sunday, June 17th. The movies include the basic cable premiere of ?Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,? plus fan favorites such as ?Austin Powers in Goldmember,? ?Cars? and ?Beetlejuice.?

Sunday, June 17 (all times Eastern/Pacific)

7:00 AM DISNEY?S THE KID A man?s (Bruce Willis) life is upended when he meets an 8-year-old version of himself (Spencer Breslin).

9:00 AM THE FAMILY MAN Nicolas Cage plays a fast-lane investment broker who wakes up one morning to find himself living the quiet suburban life he rejected years ago. Also starring Tea Leoni.

12:00 PM AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER Teaming up with the mysterious Goldmember, Dr. Evil (Mike Meyers) hatches a time-traveling scheme to take over the world in this third installment of the highly successful ?Austin Powers? movie franchise. Also starring Beyonce Knowles.

2:00 PM DISNEY?PIXAR?S CARS Racecar Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) gets stranded in a small town on Route 66. With Larry The Cable Guy, Paul Newman and Bonnie Hunt.

4:30 PM THE BLIND SIDE The remarkable true story of football star Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a virtually homeless teen, who?s taken in by a compassionate woman (Sandra Bullock) and her family, who are determined to see him realize his potential, both on and off the field. Also stars Tim McGraw and Kathy Bates.

7:30 PM PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME ? BASIC CABLE PREMIERE A prince (Jake Gyllenhaal) must fight to stop an evil ruler from unleashing a deadly sandstorm in the basic cable premiere of this Disney film. Co-starring Ben Kingsley.

10:00 PM BEETLEJUICE Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) is the netherworld?s ?freelance bio-exorcist? who is sought out by a recently deceased Vermont couple (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) to help haunt their beloved house. Winona Ryder is the new yuppie homeowners? delightfully morose daughter who befriends the ghosts.

Part of the Disney/ABC Television Group, ABC Family is distributed in over 97 million homes. ABC Family features programming reflecting today?s families, entertaining and connecting with adults through relatable programming about today?s relationships ? told with a mix of diversity, passion, humor and heart. ABC Family?s programming is a combination of network defining original series and original movies, quality acquired series and blockbuster theatricals. Emmy(R) Award-winning ABCFamily.com provides a variety of interactive entertainment and community features, from rich, fan-centric programming ? including blogs, viewing parties, webisodes, full episodes of the network?s hit programming, along with sneak peek exclusive previews and behind-the-scenes clips. ABC Family is also the destination for annual Holiday events with ?13 Nights of Halloween? and ?25 Days of Christmas.? ABC Family. A New Kind of Family.

If you like this story, then join our Facebook Group!
You can also subscribe to our Twitter @geekinvaders

?

gladys knight private practice deion sanders dancing with the stars aapl creutzfeldt jakob disease the lone ranger

Jacob Philadelphia Photo With President Obama Shows Importance Of Strong Black Role Models

jacob philadelphia

Jacob Philadelphia, and millions of other 8-year-old black children, are dreaming about becoming the President of the United States. Thanks to President Obama, that dream seems a little more attainable.

The New York Times took a look at a classic White House photo from three years ago showing President Obama bowing down before Jacob Philadelphia, who was 5-years-old at the time. Jacob, the son of a White House staff worker who was leaving his position, had quietly asked the president what his hair felt like.

According to the Times, Jacob said: ?I want to know if my hair is just like yours.?

President Obama bowed down to the little boy and said: ?Why don?t you touch it and see for yourself??

David Axelrod, who has a copy framed in his Chicago office, said that the photo shows a young boy realizing that one day he could also be president.

Axelrod said:

?Really, what he was saying is, ?Gee, you?re just like me.? And it doesn?t take a big leap to think that child could be thinking, ?Maybe I could be here someday.? This can be such a cynical business, and then there are moments like that that just remind you that it?s worth it.?

Carlton Philadelphia, Jacob?s father, said:

?It?s important for black children to see a black man as president. You can believe that any position is possible to achieve if you see a black person in it.?

Do you think President Obama has opened the door a little wider for black children who aspire to be president? What do you think of the Jacob Philadelphia photo?

tim lincecum ryan oneal file taxes online tupac shakur sledge hammer tax day freebies madison bumgarner

Friday, 25 May 2012

Shanken News Daily: Exclusive news and research on the wine ...

May 24, 2012

?Irish Distillers will relaunch its Yellow Spot Irish whiskey brand beginning in late May. It will be available online at The Whisky Exchange, priced at ?65 ($82) for a 700-ml. bottle, as well as in stores in Ireland, France and Germany. Pernod Ricard expects to produce 500 cases of the 12-year-old Irish whiskey annually. The launch comes as part of Pernod?s goal of introducing new single pot still Irish whiskey expressions each year. The range already includes Redbreast, Green Spot, Powers John?s Lane and Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy. Only Redbreast has so far made landfall in the U.S.

?In what could be the granddaddy of all craft beer collaborations, at least 10 breweries founded in 1988 are planning a series of projects next year to mark their respective 25th anniversaries, Shanken News Daily has learned. While specific details of the program have yet to be revealed, representatives of the breweries met earlier this month during the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego. Craft brewers said to be interested in participating in the collaborative effort include Goose Island, Brooklyn Brewery, Deschutes Brewery, Great Lakes, Rogue Ales, Anderson Valley, Gritty McDuff?s, Gordon Biersch, North Coast and Vermont Pub & Brewery.

?Missouri-based Major Brands, a top spirits and wine distributor that?s been expanding its beer wholesaling operations, has agreed to acquire Eagle Brands, Anheuser-Busch?s directly owned distributorship in Miami. The price wasn?t disclosed. The Eagle Brands deal comes a few months after Major Brands sold Western Beverage, an Oregon-based beer distributor, to A-B. Eagle and Western are said to do roughly the same amount of business in their respective markets.

?A new coupon-based technology called Mirth launched this week, competing with online daily-deal companies like Groupon. Mirth works by memorizing its users? credit card numbers?which they provide when signing up on the Mirth website?and keeping track of users? spending habits at certain businesses. If users pay by credit card at the same restaurant, caf? or shop more than once in a 30-day period, they receive a 3% discount each time they spend at that business in the future?but in order to maintain their ?regular? status, users must continue to visit that business twice a month. Mirth informs business owners of their dedicated customers. Many merchants have complained that companies like Groupon encourage one-time customers only.

?Beam Inc. is supporting its fast-growing Skinnygirl franchise with new TV ads under the tagline ?Drink like a lady.? The campaign, which begins today, is across broadcast, print and digital mediums and reflects a tripling of Skinnygirl?s brand investment from the previous year, Beam said. Skinnygirl, which jumped more than fivefold to 585,000 cases last year, has now added Sangria, Pi?a Colada and White Peach Margarita cocktails, as well as a line of California wines and flavored vodkas.

?Casa Montalvo Holdings is debuting its upscale Montalvo Tequila brand in the U.S. beginning now in New York and California. Imported by MHW, Ltd., Montalvo is a 100%-agave Tequila available in Plata, Reposado and A?ejo expressions ranging in price from $40-$55. An initial 20,000 cases will be available in the U.S., with capacity to increase production. Montalvo anticipates expanding into Nevada, Florida and Illinois this summer and then on to the Southwestern U.S. in the fall.

?Southern Comfort is preparing a national rollout for its Bold Black Cherry flavor next month. Following Southern Comfort Lime in 2010 and Fiery Pepper last fall, Bold Black Cherry will sell for $17 a 750-ml. bottle. The new offering will be backed by national TV ads this summer on ESPN, TBS, FX and Comedy Central among others.

Tagged : Beam Inc, craft beer, Pernod Ricard, Tequila, whiskey, wine

swizz beatz mpaa south carolina debate lauren scruggs william shatner seattle weather skier sarah burke

PlayStation Streaming? On a Summer's Day? | Gamer Blahhhg

On May 25, 2012 by Brad Grenz

It?s amazing how a single, off hand comment in an E3 preview article can give birth to such a great deal of anticipation and speculation. I have to believe VG24/7 knew exactly what they were doing when they inserted a throwaway comment about Sony announcing a partnership with a major player in cloud gaming at this year?s Electronic Entertainment Expo like a bomb into a boilerplate preview. It wasn?t until the rumor was already burning up NeoGAF and other gaming forums that the kernel was published as a stand alone rumor.

Despite having so little to go on, gamers across the internet went into overdrive hoping to make sense of the cryptic statement. Most focused on the two established streaming gaming service companies, Gaikai and OnLive.

Both use similar technology to stream live video of a PC game being run on server across the internet to a player controlling the game with their PC, Mac, tablet, smart TV or microconsole. In either case the internet acts like an extremely long extension cord carrying the control input signals from the player to the server and returning the video output as an h.264 stream to the player?s display.

The benefits include the ability to play instantly without downloading or installing large amounts of game files, and very low hardware requirements for whatever system the player has. If a computer is fast enough to stream Hulu or Netflix, it?s fast enough to play The Witcher 2 or Metro: 2033. Both have the same drawbacks involving added latency that decreases a game?s responsiveness, and a degradation of visual quality due to the video compression.

Right now Gaikai primarily works with retailers and publishers to use their technology for game demos that can be embedded in websites. Right now you can visit a game?s product page on Walmart.com and try it before you buy it thanks to Gaikai. OnLive has focused more directly on consumers, offering both a subscription service to allow customers to play 200+ legacy titles as much as they want, similar to a Netflix streaming subscription, and sales of individual game ?Play Passes? that are more like an outright purchase of newer title for unlimited access going forward. OnLive also offers rental passes at a reduced price that will let you play as much of a game as you want for a 3 or 5 day period.

Perhaps a PS3 will soon operate like this OnLive Microconsole.

In either case it?s hard to imagine how these existing service would work with the PlayStation brand. They might simply be allowing OnLive to deploy their client on the PS3 and/or Vita so users can access their OnLive library from those devices. It?s not hard to see how that would be in OnLive?s interest, massively expanding their potential market, but it would be strange for Sony to allow essentially a competing game delivery mechanism on their hardware that undermines their entire royalty structure for games.

While the existing business models make little sense, that?s not to say there isn?t a place for either Gaikai or OnLive?s technology under the PlayStation umbrella. One nagging issue on the PS3, for example, has been the incomplete nature of PS2 backwards compatibility since the hardware solution was eliminated to bring down the cost of the system. The PS3 manages to emulate a small number of PS2 games sold exclusively through the PlayStation Store, it?s a far cry from the library of thousands that system enjoyed.

While the PS3?s hardware limitations stand in the way of comprehensive software emulation, modern gaming PCs, like those used as gaming servers by Gaikai and OnLive are actually far more capable of emulating PS2 software. Perhaps Sony has decided that if a game can?t be emulated by the PS3 and isn?t popular enough to warrant an HD upgrade, maybe streaming from the cloud is a viable option. As an added benefit, there?s no reason to limit streamed PS2 games to the PS3. They could work just as well on the Vita, or even on Sony Tablets and Phones, Smart TVs or PCs.

Streaming also provides another potential solution involving backwards compatibility. Rumors have been swirling this year about both Sony and Microsoft?s next generation hardware. The general consensus seems to point towards Sony abandoning the Cell CPU architecture used by the PS3 in favor of a more developer friendly, and perhaps cost effective x86 processor designed by AMD. While the switch may be incredibly beneficial in many aspects, it does pose a problem for anyone hoping to play their PS3 games on a PS4. The Cell?s exotic design is extremely fast in certain situations, far too fast to be emulated at full speed in software by an AMD CPU. This is disconcerting for anyone hopeful their library of PSN titles might carry over to the next generation of hardware.

With cloud gaming that may actually be possible. Instead of streaming games from a PC to a PS3 as described above, similar technology could be used to stream games being run on PS3 servers to PS4s, Vitas and potentially other devices. Naturally, your PSN account would have a record of all the downloadable games you own unlocking access to those, and even disc based games could work. Pop your Uncharted 3 blu-ray into a PS4, the console confirms the presence of the retail disc to the service and your game starts streaming.

Possibilities don?t end there. For example, cloud streaming could potentially let PS3 owners who haven?t yet upgraded to a PS4 try demos of games for the new system. Even more radical, Sony could forgo new consumer hardware altogether. Perhaps the next PlayStation won?t be a console at all, but a server platform for the PlayStation cloud.

One of the things that has thus far held back both OnLive and Gaikai from achieving their true potential is a reliance on PC versions of all their games. Titles that have been developed to target a broad spectrum of hardware capabilities don?t really use the game servers to the full extent they could. But if Sony were to acquire one of these streaming platforms straight up that could change. Sony could establish whatever hardware baseline they choose and create exclusive software built for that platform.

Without the kind of limitations on price and form factor that is dictated by the current home console business model, that hardware could be far more powerful than any traditional PS4 we might predict today. The hardware platform could even be malleable enough to be customized for specific games. We?re talking huge amounts of RAM, SSDs, no load times, the fastest GPUs available and heavy duty multi-core processors. It would be like a return to the exiotic world of specialized arcade hardware, only instead of paying for that expensive cabinet one quarter at a time, the cost can be amortized across a large number of paying subscribers and game buyers.

Crysis 2 running in a webpage.

Of course, that?s all a bit pie in the sky right now. It?s easy to see why publishers and platform holders are eyeing cloud gaming with great interest. Cloud games cut out retail. They eliminate used sales. They literally cannot be pirated. But their biggest drawback is the current state of broadband infrastructure around the world. It is just too soon to take that leap when so many of your existing users live in parts of the world where fast, reliable, affordable broadband internet service is hard to come by.

But it?s never too soon to start laying the groundwork and conditioning the user-base to understand and appreciate the advantages of the cloud. Starting with something like a retro game service, perhaps as a benefit for PlayStation Plus members seems like a good place to start. The PS3 may not be the last generation of console hardware, but don?t be surprised if the PS4 is?

Oh, as an addendum. If you?re wondering which cloud platform Sony is actually working with, and how VG24/7 came across this rumor in the first place, take a look at this screenshot from Gaikai?s webpage. You?ll notice VG24/7 is themselves listed as one of Gaikai?s business partners, and it?s not hard to imagine that they may have learned of an imminent announcement through that relationship. Gaikai are themselves teasing a major announcement at E3.

I spy, with my little eye, the VG24/7 logo!

al franken mary did you know john carter trans siberian orchestra trans siberian orchestra little big town little big town

INTERVIEW-Golf-Schwartzel tip helps Coetzee excel at Wentworth

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

vt vt los angeles angels los angeles angels lindsay lohan̢۪s playboy cover leaked online lindsay lohan̢۪s playboy cover leaked online va tech shooting 2011

Thursday, 24 May 2012

HOME IMPROVEMENT ? Fix It Up, Love It More, Tips For Turning ...

There is a lot more to home improvement than just laying new carpet. To have the ideal home you need to do a lot of research and planning. These tips will help you with your home improvement projects. You will be able to save lots of money, and you will also be able to create the house of your dreams. Commission Avalanche

Look for low areas on your property, you want to place close attention near where the house foundation is located. If any low areas are found, they should be filled in order to prevent pooling of water and further downward erosion. Water at the foundation of your home can seep in your home and rot any wood.

You should have the final say on everything. It is important that they do the task that you asked them to do. If there aren?t clear lines of communication between you and your contractor, it?s likely that there will be issues with the project. Be sure your contractor fully understands what you are asking for.

Electrical and plumbing problems are your priority. These types of repairs usually require access inside your walls, so it makes sense to do them before you have other work done. If you already have your walls opened up for other repairs, why not take care of plumbing and wiring at the same time?

You need to check your gutters on a regular basis, especially if you live in an area with a lot of trees. Rainwater may be leaking into your basement due to clogged gutters. Clean your gutters out on a regular basis to prevent damage.

dan kennedy renegade millionaire Each spring, inspect your roof for evidence of damage. Be sure to check for those shingles that have problems and need to be replaced. You can avoid major roof damage by finding and repairing roofing problems before they get huge and expensive.

A simple way to add value to your home is to upgrade your appliances. It is going to be more than worth your while to replace your large appliances.

Although an air conditioning unit can be ugly, it is necessary for survival during a hot summer. Wooden trellises or a length of lattice be great to provide camouflage for your unsightly AC unit. You can use a large plant like Pampas grass as a disguise, but remember to plant it at least one foot away from the unit.

dan kennedy recession made renegade millionaire Join your community to improve and build your toolbox to save money on your home improvement jobs. You won?t have to spend money renting or buying expensive tools and the owner will also become an expert at operating the item. Even better, you two can share tips.

Ensure that you?re being listened to by your contractor. Having a trustworthy contractor is incredibly important, but so is making sure that they hear your concerns. A contractor who does not listen may inadvertently do something you asked them not to. Make sure they are really paying attention to you when you speak.

It might be an idea to turn the security alarm off when your realtor is showing the house. If you aren?t in residence at the house and it?s located in an unsafe neighborhood, having an active security system can be a good idea.

If you are planning a home improvement project, there are many things you need to consider first. Understanding, planning and preparing can help your project succeed, but you need helpful related advice for your particular job. The advice given here will assist you in the planning stages of making those decisions.

No comments yet.

mirror mirror trailer bob knight bob knight lavar arrington hope solo dancing with the stars hope solo dancing with the stars jack wagner

Newly modified nanoparticle opens window on future gene editing technologies

Newly modified nanoparticle opens window on future gene editing technologies [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 24-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kan Wang
kanwang@iastate.edu
515-294-4429
Iowa State University

AMES, Iowa The scientific and technological literature is abuzz with nanotechnology and its manufacturing and medical applications. But it is in an area with a less glitzy auraplant scienceswhere nanotechnology advancements are contributing dramatically to agriculture.

Researchers at Iowa State University have now demonstrated the ability to deliver proteins and DNA into plant cells, simultaneously. This is important because it now opens up opportunities for more sophisticated and targeted plant genome editingtechniques that require the precise delivery of both protein and DNA to bring about specific gene modifications in crop plants. Such modifications are becoming more and more important in the face of our changing climates as new insect pests, plant diseases and soil stresses emerge where previously there were few.

While DNA delivery into cells has become routine, delivering proteins and enzymes to both animal and plant cells has proved more challenging. The Iowa State team's protein delivery advancement is an important achievement toward this end.

A research paper describing the advancement has been published online by the journal Advanced Functional Materials. The work was partially sponsored by Pioneer Hi-Bred with long-term support from Iowa State University's Plant Sciences Institute.

The Iowa State research team includes Kan Wang, professor of agronomy; Brian Trewyn, associate scientist in chemistry; Susana Martin-Ortigosa, a post-doctoral research associate in agronomy; and Justin Valenstein, a chemistry doctoral student.

Nanoparticles are tiny materials that are the size equivalent of several molecules sitting side-by-side or the size of a big virus. A single nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. The virus that causes AIDS is roughly 100 nanometers in diameter.

Using new and improved custom-built honeycomb-like mesoporous silica nanoparticles that the Iowa State team designed five years ago, the researchers have demonstrated co-delivery of functional protein and DNA into plant cells.

The first generation of these customized particles were relatively small (100 nanometers) and so the available packing spaces were unable to accommodate larger functional molecules such as proteins or enzymes. This next generation is five times the size (500 nanometers) and looks something like an ultra-fine piece of Honeycomb cereal.

The key to the researchers' success is a newly devised method for making larger uniform pouches in the custom nanoparticles. An additional modificationgold plating the entire silica particle prior to packingimproved DNA and protein binding for a more secure payload.

To test the new particle's effectiveness, Wang and her colleagues loaded the pores with a green florescent protein derived from jelly fish, which serves as a photo marker inside the plant cell. Next, these particles were coated with DNA encoding a red protein from coral. The complex was then shot into plant cells using a gene gun, a traditional gene delivery method that gets foreign material past the plant's protective cell wall.

The gold plating innovation added some greatly needed ballistic heft to the particles, ensuring their ability to cannonball through the plant cell wall once released from the gene gun.

Cells that fluoresce both red and green at the same time confirm successful delivery. The team has demonstrated success in onion, tobacco and maize cells.

The work is a tangible realization of efforts the team had in the design stage just two years ago when colleague Victor Lin of Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory unexpectedly died. "He was such a brilliant scientist," says Wang. "We all felt completely lost when we lost him."

But the team pulled together, capitalizing on the excellent training all had received from working with Lin to make this next generation particle a reality.

"We would have been unable to work out anything without each other," says Wang. "This success proves his legacy continues."

###

Contacts:

Kan Wang, Agronomy, 515-294-4429, kanwang@iastate.edu

Meg Gordon, Plant Sciences Institute, 608-819-6491, mbgordon@iastate.edu

Mike Krapfl, News Service, 515-294-4917, mkrapfl@iastate.edu



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Newly modified nanoparticle opens window on future gene editing technologies [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 24-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kan Wang
kanwang@iastate.edu
515-294-4429
Iowa State University

AMES, Iowa The scientific and technological literature is abuzz with nanotechnology and its manufacturing and medical applications. But it is in an area with a less glitzy auraplant scienceswhere nanotechnology advancements are contributing dramatically to agriculture.

Researchers at Iowa State University have now demonstrated the ability to deliver proteins and DNA into plant cells, simultaneously. This is important because it now opens up opportunities for more sophisticated and targeted plant genome editingtechniques that require the precise delivery of both protein and DNA to bring about specific gene modifications in crop plants. Such modifications are becoming more and more important in the face of our changing climates as new insect pests, plant diseases and soil stresses emerge where previously there were few.

While DNA delivery into cells has become routine, delivering proteins and enzymes to both animal and plant cells has proved more challenging. The Iowa State team's protein delivery advancement is an important achievement toward this end.

A research paper describing the advancement has been published online by the journal Advanced Functional Materials. The work was partially sponsored by Pioneer Hi-Bred with long-term support from Iowa State University's Plant Sciences Institute.

The Iowa State research team includes Kan Wang, professor of agronomy; Brian Trewyn, associate scientist in chemistry; Susana Martin-Ortigosa, a post-doctoral research associate in agronomy; and Justin Valenstein, a chemistry doctoral student.

Nanoparticles are tiny materials that are the size equivalent of several molecules sitting side-by-side or the size of a big virus. A single nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. The virus that causes AIDS is roughly 100 nanometers in diameter.

Using new and improved custom-built honeycomb-like mesoporous silica nanoparticles that the Iowa State team designed five years ago, the researchers have demonstrated co-delivery of functional protein and DNA into plant cells.

The first generation of these customized particles were relatively small (100 nanometers) and so the available packing spaces were unable to accommodate larger functional molecules such as proteins or enzymes. This next generation is five times the size (500 nanometers) and looks something like an ultra-fine piece of Honeycomb cereal.

The key to the researchers' success is a newly devised method for making larger uniform pouches in the custom nanoparticles. An additional modificationgold plating the entire silica particle prior to packingimproved DNA and protein binding for a more secure payload.

To test the new particle's effectiveness, Wang and her colleagues loaded the pores with a green florescent protein derived from jelly fish, which serves as a photo marker inside the plant cell. Next, these particles were coated with DNA encoding a red protein from coral. The complex was then shot into plant cells using a gene gun, a traditional gene delivery method that gets foreign material past the plant's protective cell wall.

The gold plating innovation added some greatly needed ballistic heft to the particles, ensuring their ability to cannonball through the plant cell wall once released from the gene gun.

Cells that fluoresce both red and green at the same time confirm successful delivery. The team has demonstrated success in onion, tobacco and maize cells.

The work is a tangible realization of efforts the team had in the design stage just two years ago when colleague Victor Lin of Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory unexpectedly died. "He was such a brilliant scientist," says Wang. "We all felt completely lost when we lost him."

But the team pulled together, capitalizing on the excellent training all had received from working with Lin to make this next generation particle a reality.

"We would have been unable to work out anything without each other," says Wang. "This success proves his legacy continues."

###

Contacts:

Kan Wang, Agronomy, 515-294-4429, kanwang@iastate.edu

Meg Gordon, Plant Sciences Institute, 608-819-6491, mbgordon@iastate.edu

Mike Krapfl, News Service, 515-294-4917, mkrapfl@iastate.edu



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


bay bridge raul ibanez downton abbey season 3 presidents day band of brothers presidents george washington