Saturday, December 31, 2011
Only Tease ? Sabrina In A College Uniform
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Longform?s Top 10 Stories of 2011
"The fine system is the Institute's latest innovation. Khrzhanovsky decreed it a few months ago, fed up with staffers smuggling cell phones and talking about Facebook. Other finable offenses include tardiness, which costs a whole day's pay, and failure to renew the fake Institute pass. The program has been a hit. Not only has morale improved, a whole new euphemistic vocabulary has sprouted up. ('Google' is now 'Pravda,' as in 'Pravda it.') The fine system has also fostered a robust culture of snitching. 'In a totalitarian regime, mechanisms of suppression trigger mechanisms of betrayal,' the director explains. 'I am very interested in that.'
"Khrzhanovsky throws open the front door of one of the residential buildings, and here I gasp again. The guts of the set are as elaborate as the set itself. There are hallways that lead to apartments, and in the apartments there are kitchens, and in the iceboxes food, fresh and perfectly edible but with 1952 expiration dates. Again and again, Khrzhanovsky opens cupboards, drawers, closets, showing me matchboxes, candles, loofahs, books, salami, handkerchiefs, soap bars, cotton balls, condensed milk, p?t?. He proudly flushes at least three toilets. ?The toilet pipe is custom width,? he says, 'because it makes a difference in the volume and the tenor of the flushing sound.' He looks completely, utterly delighted."
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Dems scramble as Sen. Nelson announces retirement
FILE - In this file Feb. 11, 2009 file photo, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sources say Nelson will retire. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - In this file Feb. 11, 2009 file photo, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sources say Nelson will retire. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - In this April 26, 2010 file photo, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. leaves the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sources say Nelson will retire. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) ? Democrats on Tuesday lamented Sen. Ben Nelson's decision to retire rather than seek a third term in Nebraska, fearing the move sets up Republicans for an easy and crucial victory in their effort to reclaim control of the chamber next year.
Nelson, the lone Democrat in Nebraska's five-member congressional delegation, faced a tough re-election campaign against a large group of Republican challengers who have spent the past several months attacking his support for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and federal stimulus legislation.
Republicans must net four seats to take back the Senate in 2012, and Nebraska looks to be an easy pickup. There are no Democrats in line to take Nelson's place in the increasingly conservative state. He joins several other Democrats to retire from the Senate, including Virginia's Jim Webb and North Dakota's Kent Conrad.
After months of speculation that he would leave office, the 70-year-old conservative Democrat told supporters in an emailed statement he felt it was time he "step away from elective office, spend more time with my family, and look for new ways to serve our state and nation."
"Therefore, I am announcing today that I will not seek re-election," said Nelson, a former two-term governor. "Simply put: It is time to move on."
Democrats banking on Nelson's ability to leverage his centrist stances and capture statewide races were left scrambling; many state activists acknowledged being taken by surprise.
While some floated the names of state Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha and Nelson's former lieutenant governor, Kim Robak, as possible contenders, many said it was too early to know who might run. Messages seeking comment were left for Lathrop and Robak.
A dream candidate for Democrats: former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey. Traveling in India on Tuesday, Kerrey told The Washington Post, "Ben's retirement is a huge loss for Nebraska. I am very sad he's leaving. That is as far as I am going (right now)."
Democrats acknowledged the party will face a steep uphill battle to hold on to Nelson's seat, but pointed to a crowded GOP primary field with no obvious front-runner. The ticket includes Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, state Treasurer Don Stenberg, state Sen. Deb Fischer, and investment adviser Pat Flynn.
"This virtually guarantees a Republican victory in 2012," said University of Nebraska Lincoln political scientist Mike Wagner. "There's almost no scenario in which a Democrat can win ? especially at this late stage."
National Republican party leaders also have encouraged Gov. Dave Heineman to join the race, but Heineman has said it would take a lot to persuade him to run.
The Senate's Democratic campaign chairman, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, said she expected that Republicans would "have their hands full with a very divisive primary in the state, which will provide an opportunity for Democrats to remain competitive."
State Sen. Heath Mello, an Omaha Democrat who worked as an aide to Nelson, said he feared Nelson's retirement would inject more partisan politics into an already heated race.
"That is not the way Nebraskans have chosen their senators in the past," Mello said. "We've always elected independent-minded people to represent Nebraska's interests, ahead of the political parties."
A two-term governor before winning a Senate seat, Nelson has recently expressed dismay about a divided Congress' inability to pass meaningful legislation, frustration that echoed in his statement Tuesday.
"I encourage those who will follow in my footsteps to look for common ground and to work together in bipartisan ways to do what's best for the country, not just one political party," he said.
Even as Nelson wavered about a re-election bid, he piled up campaign cash, hired a campaign manager and watched his party spend more than $1 million on ads supporting him. The preparation left him with more than $3 million campaign cash on hand last month, about twice his nearest competitor.
The Democrats' Majority PAC alone spent more than $406,000 on media buys and production costs for Nelson's expected re-election campaign in seven separate expenditures between Sept. 9 and Dec. 9.
"I'm absolutely stunned," Kathleen Fahey, a Democratic super-delegate in 2008, said of Nelson's announcement. "Ben has been such a great senator for everybody. I'm not liking this."
Nelson first was elected to the Senate in 2000, defeating Republican contender Stenberg to replace the retired Kerrey, and positioned himself as a centrist supporting both Democratic and Republican legislation.
He was one of only two Senate Democrats to support a failed GOP bid to block new federal controls on power plant pollution that blows downwind into other states earlier this year, and he took great pride in his membership in the 2005 "Gang of 14," made up of Republicans and Democrats who brokered a deal to avoid a filibuster showdown over President George W. Bush's judicial nominees.
However, Nelson's vote in favor of Obama's signature health reform measure left the GOP confident they could beat him next year. The health reforms are strongly opposed by many Nebraska conservatives, and after the vote Nebraska Republicans immediately kicked off a "Give Ben the Boot" campaign.
Nelson also was one of five Democratic senators targeted by a national conservative group with ties to GOP strategist Karl Rove. The group, Crossroads GPS, spent $1.6 million on ads attacking Nelson as well as Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida, Clair McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio ? all considered top targets by national Republicans in 2012.
"For once Senator Nelson has listened to Nebraskans," Nebraska Republican Party Chairman Mark Fahleson said Tuesday. "The Nebraska Republican Party is more focused than ever on electing another conservative Republican to join Sen. Mike Johanns and recapturing the U.S. Senate so that we can reverse the damage done by Ben Nelson, Washington Democrats and the Obama Administration."
Nelson upset incumbent Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr in 1990 to earn his first statewide office and was re-elected in 1994 by a landslide. In 1996, he reneged on a campaign pledge that he would not seek higher office while governor and announced his candidacy for the Senate seat vacated by the retiring Sen. Jim Exon.
Omaha millionaire businessman Chuck Hagel soundly defeated Nelson in that Senate race, but the two later served as colleagues when Nelson was elected in 2000.
Bruning on Tuesday wished Nelson well and praised him as "a dedicated public servant of the state of Nebraska for over two decades," while Fischer expressed confidence the GOP would now claim the seat.
"I think we have a strong group of Republicans, and I happen to believe the seat will go to a Republican," she said.
Stenberg thanked Nelson for his service, but said Nebraskans need "a genuine, lifelong conservative who is committed to serving his country ? not to personal financial gain."
___
Associated Press writer Larry Margasak in Washington contributed to this report.
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Off Campus: Penn assistant tweets sayings of ex-Temple coach Chaney
today's features
HEALTH
Tears rolled down psychiatrist Linda Ryan's cheeks as a former patient spoke, thanking the staff at Bryn Mawr Hospital for saving his life. The thank-yous were part of a national program known as the Schwartz Center Rounds.
2011: THE YEAR IN RE.VIEW
What's News
?
Baer: Righting my wrongs
While the governor has repeatedly slammed workers for cashing in sick days, an aide said his data were "imprecise."
The city grew from 2000 to 2010. We can thank immigrants and young professionals for that.
An Oak Lane woman fatally shot a man who pistol-whipped her son while trying to rob him, police said.
?
Zingers by Arlen Specter
So an ex-senator walks into a comedy club ... "I've been in comedy now for 30 years," Arlen Specter explained.
Checks for hundreds, maybe thousands, of city school workers were late. The district blames the postal service.
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Engadget Primed: What is aperture, and how does it affect my photos?
Primed goes in-depth on the technobabble you hear on Engadget every day -- we dig deep into each topic's history and how it benefits our lives. You can follow the series here. Looking to suggest a piece of technology for us to break down? Drop us a line at primed *at* engadget *dawt* com.
Last week I wrote a piece for Engadget Primed on image sensors -- arguably the most critical component of any digital camera, having a direct influence on the quality of each and every photo. In a completely different way, another component that controls and changes the look of your photographs is the aperture.
To create amazing photos with impact takes much more than the will to capture them -- sadly we can't all be like Ashton Kutcher, snapping away at well-lit parties overrun with models. It's a multifaceted process; to have the desire to work for a shot, to make the effort to put yourself into position, and to know how to utilize the equipment you have in the best way possible. None of these skills are easy to master, yet just like a painter who knows how to use their brush, mastering the photographic tool that is your camera yields more opportunities to plaster that Google+ page with shots you're proud of.
In this Primed installment, we'll define the mechanism, explain the concepts and share ways to better convey messages in our two-dimensional stills -- just by adjusting the aperture. Ready to dive in? It's all after the break.
Continue reading Engadget Primed: What is aperture, and how does it affect my photos?
Engadget Primed: What is aperture, and how does it affect my photos? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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UXfeeder: Delicious: Church Statistics and Religious Affiliations - U.S. Religious Landscape Study - Pew Forum ... http://t.co/SiFcpqQr [Research]
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Delicious: Church Statistics and Religious Affiliations - U.S. Religious Landscape Study - Pew Forum ... bit.ly/vJmEcP [Research] 
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
ENERGY EFFICIENT 4 Bedroom House with appliances, washer/dryer, garage, 2
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Some nearby young stars may be much older than previously thought
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Low in the south in the summer sky shines the constellation Scorpius and the bright, red supergiant star Antares. Many of the brightest stars in Scorpius, and hundreds of its fainter stars, are among the youngest stars found near the earth, and a new analysis of them may result in a rethinking of both their ages and the ages of other groups of stars.
New research by astrophysicists from the University of Rochester focused on stars in the north part of the constellation, known as Upper Scorpius, which is a part of the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association, one of our best studied groups of young stars and a benchmark sample for investigating the early lives of stars and the evolution of their planet-spawning disks. The Upper Scorpius stellar group lies roughly 470 light years from Earth.
While those stars have been thought to be just five million years old, the team concludes that those stars are actually more than twice as old, at 11 million years of age. The findings are surprising given Upper Scorpius's status as one of the best-studied samples of young stars in the sky.
The findings by graduate student Mark Pecaut and Assistant Professor Eric Mamajek of Rochester, and Assistant Professor Eric Bubar of Marymount University, were accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
The scientists came to their conclusions after analyzing hundreds of optical spectra measured with the SMARTS 1.5-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, as well as reanalyzing previously published data on the stars.
"We combined our new estimates for the temperatures of the stars based on our spectra, with data on the brightnesses and distances to estimate accurate luminosities," said Pecaut. "Then we used state-of-the-art stellar evolution models to determine the ages."
While similar methods were used in the past to calculate ages for some of the Upper Scorpius stars, Pecaut says no previous study has determined independent age estimates for members of the group over such a wide range of stellar masses. The new analysis shows that stars over a wide range of masses in Upper Scorpius ? from slightly more massive than our Sun, up to the mass of the bright star Antares (17 times the mass of our Sun) are giving ages consistent with a mean age of 11 million years.
"For one thing, the distances to the stars are now much more accurately known," said Pecaut. "Also, the newer computer models take into account the rotation of the stars and its effect on the mixing on the star's hydrogen ? its nuclear fuel source."
"The first criticism that we heard of the work was that our age estimates for the stars more massive than the Sun in Upper Scorpius disagreed drastically with previously published ages for the smaller stars in the group," said Mamajek. "However, we think the stellar parameters and models are on much firmer footing for the higher mass stars than for the lowest mass stars. The computer models of stars have trouble predicting the correct masses of low-mass stars when they are dynamically measureable, as well as the rate at which the low-mass stars consume their lithium through nuclear reactions. The situation is better for the high mass stars. So there is no reason to think that the ages for the smaller stars would be more accurate."
The results from Rochester have immediate implications for one recent discovery. In 2008, Canadian astronomers reported the discovery of the first imaged exoplanet orbiting a young Sun-like star ?identified as 1RXS J160929.1-210524b. The object and its host star are members of the Upper Scorpius group. If the age of the star is much older than first thought, then the "exoplanet" has been cooling off for a longer period of time and consequently has a greater mass. In this case, the predicted mass of the object goes from roughly 8 Jupiter masses to 14 Jupiter masses. Consequently, the object would not be considered an exoplanet by the discoverer's original definition, but a brown dwarf ? a so-called "failed star." However there is considerable uncertainty about the origins of the low-mass companions discovered circling some stars on wide orbits at hundreds of astronomical units, so the jury is still out on the nature of objects like 1RXS J1609b.
Pecaut says with more accurate estimates of the ages of stars, scientists can better understand how long it takes planets to form. For example, if 11-million-year-old stars do not have gas accreting around them, it means that gas-rich planets like Jupiter and Saturn would have to form in less than 11 million years.
Pecaut expects that the findings of the Rochester team will encourage scientists to reassess the ages of other star clusters. If it's determined that other stellar populations are systematically older than originally believed, then it may mean that the conditions for forming gas giant planets like Jupiter around young stars may typically persist for millions of years longer than previously thought.
"If a stellar group as well-studied as Upper Scorpius can be twice as old as previously believed, then all bets are off on the accuracy of the previously published ages for other similar groups of young stars," added Mamajek.
###
University of Rochester: http://www.rochester.edu
Thanks to University of Rochester for this article.
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Friday, December 23, 2011
France weighs removal of risky breast implants (AP)
PARIS ? French health authorities are considering a call by leading doctors to tell an estimated 30,000 women to get their breast implants removed amid warnings about health risks.
Officials from the Health Ministry are meeting Friday to decide what to recommend for women who have silicon implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP.
Some doctors say the implants pose a risk of rupture. A French cancer institute is also studying whether there are links between the implants and eight women who developed cancer after receiving them.
Some 40,000 women in Britain are believed to have the PIP implants as well. Britain's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said its own testing had found no evidence of toxicity in the PIP implants and no evidence to suggest women should have them removed.
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Engineers achieve record conductivity in strained lattice organic semiconductor
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Organic semiconductors could usher in an era of foldable smartphones, better high-definition television screens and clothing made of materials that can harvest energy from the sun needed to charge your iPad, but there is one serious drawback: Organic semiconductors do not conduct electricity very well.
In a paper to be published online on Wednesday by the journal Nature, researchers at Stanford led by chemical engineer Zhenan Bao have changed that equation by improving the ability of the electrons to move through organic semiconductors. The secret is in packing the molecules closer together as the semiconductor crystals form, a technique engineers describe as straining the lattice.
Bao and her colleagues have more than doubled the record for electrical conductivity of an organic semiconductor and shown an eleven-fold improvement over unstrained lattices of the same semiconductor.
"Strained lattices are no secret. We've known about their favorable electrical properties for decades and they are in use in today's silicon computer chips, but no one has been successful in creating a stable strained lattice organic semiconductor with a very short distance between molecules, until now," said Bao.
In the past, engineers have tried to compress the lattices in these materials by synthetically growing the crystals under great pressure. "But, as soon as you release the pressure, the crystal just goes back to its natural, unstrained state," said Bao. "We've been able to stabilize these crystals in tighter formations than ever before."
Fine-tuning
Bao's team used a solution shearing technique similar to a coating process well known in the semiconductor industry. Solution shearing involves a thin liquid layer of the semiconductor sandwiched between two metal plates. The lower plate is heated and the upper plate floats atop the liquid, gliding across it like a barge. As the top plate moves, the trailing edge exposes the solution to a vaporized solvent and, heated by the lower plate, the crystals form into a thin film.
"Using a process so similar to current industry technology is important, as it could speed these new semiconductors to market," said Bao.
The engineers can then "tune" the speed at which the top plate moves, the thickness of the solution layer, the temperature of the lower plate, and other engineering factors to achieve optimal results.
The crystals form in differing structures based on the speed at which the top plate moves. These differences are clearly evident in photographs. At slow speeds, the crystals form in long, straight structures, in line with the direction the top plate is moving. At higher speeds, the crystals form wildly irregular patterns, and in other speeds the patterns resemble tiny snowflakes.
The engineers next tested the various crystalline patterns for their electrical properties. They found that optimal electrical conductivity was achieved when the top plate moved at 2.8 millimeters per second, a speed in the middle of the range they tested.
"In comparing the photographs of the crystals, it is not the longest, straightest structures that result in the best electrical characteristics," said Bao, "but the one with a shorter, yet highly consistent pattern."
New structures, new analyses
Bao's new semiconductor proved challenging in at least one other regard: Measurement and visualization of the lattices to understand how and why they work. To gain this understanding, she turned to Stefan Mannsfeld, PhD, a staff scientist and expert in x-ray scattering at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a co-author of the paper.
"We have been able to improve how we analyze the relative brightness of the peaks we can see in x-ray diffraction images," said Mannsfeld. "Previously this was only possible when analyzing relatively big single crystals, but we have for the first time been able to duplicate this for very thin films of these crystals."
With improved analysis, the team was able to understand the physics behind the improvement. "Our analysis made it possible not only to see the impact of the strain on the lattice geometry, but also to determine the exact way in which the molecules pack in the lattice. As a result we obtained a better understanding of why such structures improve the molecule-to-molecule electrical coupling that improves the electrical efficiency," said Mannsfeld.
In the paper, Bao describes her new technique as general enough as to be applicable to other materials that might someday yield even better electrical characteristics in in a wide range of organic semiconductors.
###
Stanford School of Engineering: http://soe.stanford.edu
Thanks to Stanford School of Engineering for this article.
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
'Lite version' of Ubuntu takes Nook Tablet for a spin, ROM can't come soon enough (video)
[Thanks, orangejuice]
'Lite version' of Ubuntu takes Nook Tablet for a spin, ROM can't come soon enough (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Ratings threats, North Korea pressure stocks (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) ? European stocks and the euro were under pressure on Monday in the wake of a fresh rating agency warning on the euro zone debt crisis, while news of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il sparked fears of regional instability in Asia.
MSCI's world equity index (.MIWD00000PUS) was down around 0.5 percent, while the key FTSE Eurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) opened 0.6 percent lower with other major regional indexes also down. In Asia, South Korea's benchmark index hit a three-week closing low, down 3.4 percent, having fallen as much as 5 percent earlier. (.KS11)
The euro was about 0.1 percent lower at $1.3022, not far from an 11-month low of $1.2944 hit last week, on fears that ratings downgrades for several European countries could derail progress towards resolving the euro zone's debt crisis.
In Asia investors sought the dollar as a safe haven when news of the North Korean leader's death broke, but by 0815 GMT the U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, had given up its gains and was flat around 80.25.
"It is hard to predict how things in North Korea will develop from here this time. The news comes at a time when financial markets had already been in fragile shape," said Bae Sung-young, a market analyst at Hyundai Securities.
That fragility was highlighted on Friday when Fitch Ratings warned it may downgrade France and six other euro zone countries, saying a comprehensive solution to the region's debt crisis was "technically and politically beyond reach."
German government bonds were steady early on Monday, supported by some safe-haven buying linked to the death of the North Korean leader and the ratings agency warnings.
While credit downgrades are anticipated, trade is expected to thin out ahead of the Christmas holidays.
Markets are expected to monitor the outcome of a euro zone finance ministers' teleconference from 1430 GMT on Monday.
Commodities, already under pressure due to Europe's sovereign debt crisis, also fell on the North Korean news, with Brent crude off 0.6 percent at about $102.75 a barrel. Gold, usually regarded as a safe-haven asset in times of uncertainty, recovered from losses seen in Asia was steady at $1,591.59 an ounce.
(Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Chinese Internet video firms tussle over copyright (Reuters)
SHANGHAI (Reuters) ? Chinese online video companies Tudou Holdings and Youku.com said they will sue each other for alleged copyright infringements of their videos.
Tudou said late on Monday that it would take legal action against Youku, China's top online video site, for allegedly reposting episodes of a popular variety program on Youku's platform.
Cti TV, the legal copyright holder of "Kangxi is Coming," signed an exclusive agreement with Tudou in November to distribute the episodes of the program on its platform, Tudou said in an emailed statement.
Tudou and Cti TV allege that the episodes were then copied by Youku and uploaded onto Youku's platform.
Youku subsequently countered on Friday that it would take legal action against Tudou, accusing Tudou of allegedly pirating more than 60 television serials from Youku.
Youku said in a statement that legal mediation between the two sides had failed.
The battle for content in China's online video space has heated up this year with costs for programs rising significantly as online video players scramble for eyeballs to lure advertisers.
Advertising revenue in the domestic online video market, which was virtually non-existent five years ago, is now estimated to be worth 1 billion yuan ($156.90 million). This is expected to grow at a double-digit rate.
Many online video players have also signed deals with Hollywood studios to boost viewership.
Shares of Tudou closed 2.51 percent lower on the Nasdaq on Thursday, while Youku fell 3.75 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.
($1 = 6.3735 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Matt Driskill)
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The individual mandate: Health-care's inherent controversy (The Week)
New York ? President Obama's health-care bill requires that every American have health insurance. Is that constitutional?
Who first proposed making health insurance compulsory?
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. In the late 1980s, when Democrats were pushing to require employers to provide health insurance, the foundation started thinking about ways to achieve universal coverage without placing a heavy burden on business. Its experts soon encountered the "free rider" problem: In a system where insurers are barred from refusing applicants with pre-existing conditions, many people ? especially the young and healthy ? would only buy a policy when illness struck. But if only sick people bought coverage, insurers would pay out more in doctors' bills than they received in premiums, and quickly go bust. To overcome this death spiral, the Heritage Foundation suggested that every American be required to buy health insurance, a requirement known as the individual mandate.
Which politicians took up that idea?
Many Republicans did in the early 1990s, after President Clinton introduced a plan that would have forced companies to cover employees. "I am for people, individuals ? exactly like automobile insurance ? having health insurance and being required to have health insurance," said Newt Gingrich, then House minority whip, in 1993. When the Clinton plan collapsed in 1994, talk of the individual mandate died with it. But a decade later, Mitt Romney, then the governor of Massachusetts, resurrected the concept for his state health-care plan, which requires residents to buy health insurance or pay up to $1,212 in annual penalties. "It's a Republican way of reforming the market," Romney said when the law debuted, in 2006. "[To have] people show up [at a hospital] when they get sick, and expect someone else to pay, that's a Democratic approach."
SEE MORE: Should the Supreme Court's 'ObamaCare' arguments be televised?
?
So why did Obama adopt a Republican proposal?
At first, he didn't want to. During his 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination, Obama ran a TV ad criticizing rival candidate Hillary Clinton's support for a mandate, saying she would force everyone "to buy insurance, even if you can't afford it." But after President Obama and the Democratic Congress began to construct his health-care plan, advisers warned that free riders would undermine the objectives of extending insurance coverage to anyone who wanted it. For health reform to work, young, healthy people had to be pushed into the pool, to spread cost and risk. So the president allowed his 2010 Affordable Care Act to incorporate a provision that, by 2014, all Americans must have health coverage or face a tax penalty. Conservatives decried that directive as a gross infringement of individual liberty, and their anger helped fuel the rise of the Tea Party. Twenty-six states and the National Federation of Independent Business are now challenging the mandate's constitutionality at the Supreme Court, which will make a final judgment by June.
How has Obama responded?
His administration argues that the mandate is authorized by the Constitution's commerce clause, which allows the federal government to regulate interstate economic activity. Several conservative judges agree. In a November appeals court decision that upheld the mandate, Judge Laurence Silberman, a Reagan appointee, declared that Congress must "be free to forge national solutions to national problems." And this summer, Judge Jeffrey Sutton ? a George W. Bush appointee to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ? concluded that the individual mandate is a legally sound way to prevent taxpayers and hospitals from having to pick up the cost of treating the uninsured. "Not every intrusive law is an unconstitutionally intrusive law," he wrote.
SEE MORE: The Supreme Court takes on 'ObamaCare': Will it hurt the president?
?
Haven't other judges disagreed?
Yes. In August, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declared that it could find no precedent for ordering Americans to buy health insurance. "Even in the face of a Great Depression, a World War, a Cold War, recessions, oil shocks, inflation, and unemployment," the majority wrote, "Congress never sought to require the purchase of wheat or war bonds, force a higher savings rate or greater consumption of American goods." Other federal judges and critics of "Obamacare" warn that the mandate sets a dangerous precedent that the government could use to make citizens purchase whatever it deems good for them ? or for the economy. "Congress could require every American to buy a new Chevy Impala every year," said a 2009 Heritage Foundation report.
What happens if the individual mandate is voided?
It depends. If the Supreme Court decides that the Affordable Care Act can't function without the individual mandate, it could strike down the entire law. But it might declare the mandate "severable," and remove that particular part of the law, while letting the rest of it limp along, with far fewer uninsured people covered and less ability to rein in costs. Some experts have proposed that instead of the uninsured being required to buy insurance, they could be "nudged" into the health-care system by giving them a window of time during which they could buy insurance relatively inexpensively; once that window closed, the cost would rise sharply. The problem with any alternative to the individual mandate, said Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, is that it would have to be approved by the bitterly divided Congress. "You can't expect that in these times," he said. "People don't work on these compromises too readily anymore."
SEE MORE: A conservative judge's 'compelling' defense of 'ObamaCare'
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How the Supreme Court could punt
Next year's Supreme Court hearing has been billed as judgment day for Obama's Affordable Care Act. But it might end with no judgment at all. Before the justices rule on the individual mandate's constitutionality, they will first have to decide whether the 1867 Anti-Injunction Act bars the claimants' challenge. That law prevents citizens from challenging the legality of a tax before it goes into effect. If the court finds that the penalty for defying the Affordable Care Act's mandate is a tax, they could push a legal challenge back to 2015, when the first fines will be levied. And that, said Simon Lazarus, an expert at the National Senior Citizens Law Center, might "be a good solution for a court that doesn't really care to be Public Issue No. 1 in an election year."
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Dems Cave on Millionaire Surtax with No Deal in Sight (The Atlantic Wire)
It was a key Democratic demand but party leaders abandoned a surtax on millionaires to finance a payroll tax holiday Wednesday night in return for, well, nothing, as of yet.
Related: Government Shutdown Looms as Payroll Tax Talks Stall
Yesterday, top Senate Democrats and President Obama met to consider dropping a 1.9 percent surtax on people earning more than $1 million per year and ultimately decided to abandon it. In response, Michael Steel, spokesman for House speaker John Boehner, told the AP "I don't think it's much of a concession. It never had any chance of passing the Senate, let alone the House."
Related: The Remaining Sticking Points on a Payroll Tax Deal
Some analysts last week predicted that a concession to drop the surtax could be exchanged for the Republicans dropping a provision to fast-track the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline but Republicans gave no sign such a deal was in the works.?
Related: Obama Raises the Stakes on the Payroll Tax Impasse
Instead,?Roll Call?reports that Republicans are planning a parliamentary tactic to force Senate Democrats to vote on an omnibus spending bill preventing Republicans from compromising on the payroll tax package. Republicans would essentially bring the spending bill to the floor on Friday, daring Senate Democrats to oppose it with most parts of the government set to shutdown on Saturday. It's a little confusing but as?Roll Call?explains, it essentially amounts to this: "The move would be an attempt to undercut Democrats' strategy of refusing to formally sign off on the spending bill until Republicans and Democrats can reach agreement on an extension of President Barack Obama's payroll tax holiday."Related: The Compromise Boehner and Reid Will Have to Make
The president would like to resolve the issue by Congress passing a short-term spending bill and working through Christmas break, which begins Friday, as Politico's Manu Raju and Jake Sherman report. "The White House put out a strongly worded statement Wednesday night calling on Congress to put off a mammoth $1 trillion government funding bill that Republicans had demanded as a condition for passing the payroll tax cut.?Instead, the White House wants a short-term spending bill, an idea many Republicans have scoffed at."?
Related: Government Funding Bill Fails Over Cuts to Pay for Disaster Relief
Both parties have said it's important to pass a payroll tax break and it appears the American people agree. According to a new Associated Press-GfK survey, 58 percent of respondents say Congress should pass the tax holiday measure. "Nearly 6 in 10 respondents say they want Congress to pass the extension, according to the poll. Letting the payroll tax break expire would cost a family making $50,000 about $1,000," reports the AP.
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Silver Lake, Microsoft working on new Yahoo stake offer: source (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? A consortium of private equity group Silver Lake, software giant Microsoft Corp and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz are reworking their bid for a minority stake in Internet company Yahoo Inc, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Silver Lake's consortium is working on a new offer for a stake of 10 to 15 percent in Yahoo after the company asked for improved terms, the source said.
The new offer would be predicated on Yahoo finding a new, world-class chief executive that the consortium would support, the source added. Yahoo's board fired CEO Carol Bartz in September and has yet to hire a permanent replacement.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter, that private equity firms seeking to acquire just under 20 percent of Yahoo were working on new offers for a smaller stake at a higher per-share valuation.
TPG Capital, which sources previously told Reuters had also bid for a minority stake, did not respond to a request for comment. Representatives of Silver Lake and Microsoft declined to comment while an Andreessen Horowitz spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment.
"As previously announced, the board is evaluating various alternatives as part of its comprehensive strategic review process, all of which are designed to enhance shareholder value and promote growth and innovation at Yahoo," a Yahoo spokesman said.
"The board's process is open to all alternatives and has not restricted the range of various options or proposals in any way," he added.
The first offer by Silver Lake's consortium valued Yahoo at $16.6 per share, about $1 per share less than what TPG proposed, people familiar the matter had previously told Reuters. Yahoo shares closed down 1.3 percent at $14.96 on Friday.
Yahoo has several available options. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, in which Yahoo has a 40 percent stake, is preparing a $4 billion bank loan to buy back that stake, Thomson Reuters publication Basis Point reported on Thursday, citing sources.
But Alibaba could choose to partner with buyout groups Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital and Japan's Softbank Corp for a full-out bid for Yahoo, sources familiar with the matter have previously told Reuters.
Private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners is interested in buying the U.S. operations of Yahoo, people familiar with the matter have also told Reuters previously.
Yahoo's difficulty in competing with Internet heavyweights such as Google and Facebook have forced it to explore proposals to revamp its business. Yahoo has a market capitalization of $18.5 billion.
(Reporting By Greg Roumeliotis in New York, Alexei Oreskovic in San Fransisco and Bill Rigby in Seattle; Editing by Gary Hill)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111217/bs_nm/us_yahoo
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Human proteins that may fuel HIV/AIDS transmission identified
ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2011) ? Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have discovered new protein fragments in semen that enhance the ability of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to infect new cells -- a discovery that one day could help curb the global spread of this deadly pathogen.
HIV/AIDS has killed more than 25 million people around the world since first being identified some 30 years ago. In the United States alone, more than one million people live with HIV/AIDS at an annual cost of $34 billion.
Previously, scientists in Germany discovered that HIV transmission is linked to the presence of an amyloid fibril in semen. This fibril -- a small, positively charged structure derived from a larger protein -- promotes HIV infection by helping the virus find and attach to its target: CD4 T white blood cells. In the December 15 issue of Cell Host & Microbe, researchers in the laboratory of Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD, who directs virology and immunology research at Gladstone, describe a second type of fibril that also has this ability.
These findings may spur efforts to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS. Prevention has recently focused on microbicides; chemical gels that, when used by women during sexual intercourse, block HIV infection. But while early microbicides had some success -- reducing infection by an average of 39% -- more recent trials have failed and devising a truly potent microbicide remains a top priority.
"Today's microbicides may be failing because, while they do target the virus itself, they don't block the virus from interacting with the natural infection-enhancing components of semen," said Nadia R. Roan, PhD, the paper's first author and a research scientist at Gladstone, an independent and nonprofit biomedical-research organization. "Now that we more fully understand how HIV hijacks these components to promote its own infection, we are one step closer to developing a microbicide that can more effectively stop HIV."
Sexual transmission accounts for the vast majority of HIV infections, and semen is the virus' key mode of transport. Earlier studies by Drs. Roan and Greene revealed the mechanism by which a positively charged fibril in semen -- called SEVI -- attracts HIV like a magnet, binding to the negatively charged HIV and helping to infect CD4 T cells. Here, they set out to investigate whether other components of semen also played a part.
In laboratory experiments on human semen samples, they identified a second set of fibrils -- derived from larger proteins called semenogelins -- that enhance HIV infection just as SEVI does. Removing these and other positively charged components from semen diminished HIV's ability to infect CD4 T white blood cells. Further confirming the role of these fibrils in promoting HIV infection, Drs. Roan and Greene found that semen samples from men who are naturally deficient in semenogelins -- a disorder called ejaculatory-duct obstruction -- also had a limited ability to enhance HIV infection.
"Our experiments suggest that fibrils derived from semenogelins -- the major component of semen -- are integral to enhancing HIV infection in semen," said Dr. Roan. "But we are intrigued by their natural, biological function as well. The fact that these fibrils are found in male reproductive organs could point to an evolutionary role in fostering fertilization -- something we're currently exploring."
"We hope that this research paves the way for the next-generation of microbicides that can both neutralize these fibrils and attack the virus," said Dr. Greene, who is also a professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, with which Gladstone is affiliated. "This type of one-two punch in a microbicide -- what current products lack -- could finally give women real protection against HIV's deadly attack."
Gladstone Research Associate Simon Chu also participated in this research, which was made possible by a research grant that was awarded and administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command and the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center at Fort Detrick, MD, under Contract Number W81XWH-11-1-0562. Additional support came from the Giannini Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the German Ministry of Science.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Gladstone Institutes.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Nadia?R. Roan, Janis?A. M?ller, Haichuan Liu, Simon Chu, Franziska Arnold, Christina M. St?rzel, Paul Walther, Ming Dong, H.?Ewa Witkowska, Frank Kirchhoff, Jan M?nch, Warner?C. Greene. Peptides Released by Physiological Cleavage of Semen Coagulum Proteins Form Amyloids that Enhance HIV Infection. Cell Host & Microbe, 2011; 10 (6): 541 DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2011.10.010
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111214125850.htm
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Chris Paul trade: Can the Clippers become LA's team?
Chris Paul, the coveted free agent point guard, could turn the lowly Clippers into a serious NBA contender. The addition of Chris Paul to the team is attracting other marquee players.
Everybody?s talking basketball in Los Angeles, but for perhaps the first time ever, it?s not about the Lakers.
Skip to next paragraphThat?s because the lowly Clippers, the perennial stepchild of the city?s basketball scene, have locked up a trade for Chris Paul, the most highly coveted free agent point guard of the NBA offseason.
Paul wasn?t a bargain: The Clippers acquired him, along with two second-round draft picks, from the New Orleans Hornets in exchange for guard Eric Gordon, forward Al-Fariq Aminu, and Minnesota?s 2012 unprotected first-round draft pick.
But by most accounts, it was worth it. NBA experts are already predicting that Paul?s addition to the Clippers will catapult the franchise, which has been embarrassingly inept for most of its existence, into a title contender with ticket sales to compete with its local rival.
The change would be welcome: Throughout their 40-year history, the Clippers have been the NBA?s resident joke. The franchise has only had six winning seasons in its entire existence, and only two since moving to Los Angeles from San Diego in 1984. The oldest NBA team never to have appeared in the league finals, the Clippers haven?t made it past the first round of playoffs since 1976, when they were the Buffalo Braves. To make matters worse, they share the Staples Center with the Lakers, a franchise that boasts 16 NBA titles, 16 Hall of Famers, and a fan base littered with A-list celebrities.
But this season, roles may be reversed. Paul, a sixth season player who has established himself as one of the best point guards the league has ever seen, will be joining up with Blake Griffin, the power forward who was a first overall draft pick for the Clippers in 2009. In his first season, Griffin was a human highlight reel, averaging 22.5 points per game, winning the league?s Slam Dunk Contest, and becoming the first man unanimously voted Rookie of the Year in over two decades. Griffin alone made the Clippers worth watching. But Griffin and Paul, along with guard Chauncey Billups, forward Caron Butler, and center DeAndre Jordan, will lay the groundwork for them to become championship contenders. Adding to the intrigue is that the Lakers nearly had Paul: Last week, NBA commissioner David Stern blocked a deal that would have sent him there, saying that the agreement was unfair to the small-market Hornets.
In rounding out their roster, the Clippers have a better chance of making Blake Griffin a permanent Clipper and attracting even more marquee players to the organization. That?s great news for the team, in terms of both basketball and business.? As of this morning, season ticket packages for the Clippers were sold out, and CNBC is reported that the average price for an individual ticket has risen from $268.32 to $303.88 since 7:45 this morning. That?s a $35.56 increase in a matter of hours.
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