The Pan American Games in Guadalajara brought fresh winds to our television programming, which had been insufferably dominated by ideology since early October. Although our sportscasters continue to believe that every competition is a kind of battle where to lose is to surrender, we could ignore them and enjoy the show. It was even surprising that, notwithstanding the attempts of the official journalists to get the winners to dedicate their medals "to the commander in chief," most preferred to offer them to their families, girlfriends, mothers, happily waiting for them somewhere in the national territory. The closing ceremony and the second place finish achieved by our delegation cheered those still disgusted by the defeat of the Cuban team in the Baseball World Championship. For a couple of weeks the sound of the hit balls echoed more loudly than the slogans, and certain everyday concerns faded into the background.
After the euphoria of victory, however, it's worth analyzing if this second place finish really corresponds to our development as a country. Watching this little Island facing down an emerging power like Brazil, or a country as vast as Mexico, brings the same image to my mind over and over. In it, a frail and toothless gentleman is showing me his muscular arms a la Arnold Schwarzenegger. We live, undoubtedly, in a hypertrophy similar to that of this skinny-legged man with the bulging biceps, suffering an artificial enhancement of a sector that has nothing to do with the economy or productivity of the nation. Should we rejoice over the direct result of this disproportion? Or should we calmly meditate on why this government tends to climb to the highest seats in the international sports arena, at the cost of neglecting less visible, or measurable, areas of our reality.
It is enough to travel Havana in search of a pool where children can learn to swim, to ask oneself if the resources that should be reaching many are invested in a just a few. We live on an Island and yet, a good share of its inhabitants would drown if they fell in the water. To buy a bicycle in a hard currency store costs as much as a year's salary, but the women's cycling team won first, second and third place medals in Guadalajara. The deterioration of the capital's major athletic center, Ciudad Deportiva, is an embarrassment, while gold hangs from the necks of dozens of Cuban athletes. My own son spent two semesters without a P.E. teacher, because few want to work for a salary that is barely symbolic. Sports require a physical infrastructure and not just in the specialized schools and academies, they demand investment in facilities for use by the public as well. Undertaking this could mean we earn fewer medals, but it would also eliminate the hypertrophied image that today marks our every victory in sports.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation. Translating Cuba is a new compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English. Yoani's new book in English, Havana Real, can be ordered here.
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WASHINGTON ? Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry says he may not be the best debater, but he's confident he can draw clear distinctions with President Barack Obama onstage next year.
The Texas governor is trying to reassure Republican primary voters in the wide-open nominating contest.
He says he may skip some debates with the other GOP hopefuls between now and the end of January. But he says he's "not worried a bit" about his ability to contrast his plans on the economy and foreign policy with the president's during scheduled debates in the 2012 elections.
Perry's campaign has said he'll participate in at least five more debates against his GOP rivals, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Perry tells "Fox News Sunday" that he prefers other types of campaigning.
State Police arrest Occupy Nashville protestors early Friday morning Oct. 28, 2011 at the site where a few dozen Wall Street protesters have been encamped for about three weeks. Authorities began moving in early Friday using a newly enacted state policy that set a curfew for the grounds near the state Capitol, including Legislative Plaza where the protesters had been staying in tents. (AP Photo/JOHN PARTIPILO\ - THE TENNESSEAN)
State Police arrest Occupy Nashville protestors early Friday morning Oct. 28, 2011 at the site where a few dozen Wall Street protesters have been encamped for about three weeks. Authorities began moving in early Friday using a newly enacted state policy that set a curfew for the grounds near the state Capitol, including Legislative Plaza where the protesters had been staying in tents. (AP Photo/JOHN PARTIPILO\ - THE TENNESSEAN)
Occupy Nashville protestors who were arrested overnight at Legislative Plaza in downtown Nashville, hold up their citations after they were released from jail Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 in Nashville. Twenty-nine Wall Street protesters in Nashville have been issued misdemeanor citations for criminal trespassing after being arrested by state troopers overnight. (AP Photo/The Tennessean, John Partipilo) JOHN PARTIPILO/THE TENNESSEAN
Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons, left, and Col. Tracy Trott, commander of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, hold a press conferences about clearing Wall Street protesters from the Legislative Plaza across from the state Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. Gibbons says Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's office approved a pre-dawn roundup of Wall Street protesters from the state Capitol grounds. Twenty-nine protesters were arrested overnight and issued misdemeanor citations for trespassing. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)
State Police arrest Occupy Nashville protestors early Friday morning at the site where a few dozen Wall Street protesters have been encamped for about three weeks. Authorities began moving in early Friday using a newly enacted state policy that set a curfew for the grounds near the state Capitol, including Legislative Plaza where the protesters had been staying in tents. (AP Photo/JOHN PARTIPILO\ - THE TENNESSEAN)
State Police arrest Occupy Nashville protestors early Friday morning Oct. 28, 2011 at the site where a few dozen Wall Street protesters have been encamped for about three weeks. Authorities began moving in early Friday using a newly enacted state policy that set a curfew for the grounds near the state Capitol, including Legislative Plaza where the protesters had been staying in tents. (AP Photo/JOHN PARTIPILO\ - THE TENNESSEAN)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? Tennessee state troopers for the second straight night arrested Wall Street protesters for defying a new nighttime curfew imposed by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam in an effort to disband an encampment near the state Capitol.
And for a second time, a Nashville night judge dismissed arrest warrants of the arrested protesters.
The Tennessean newspaper reports that Magistrate Tom Nelson told troopers delivering the protesters to jail that he could "find no authority anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative Plaza."
Occupy Nashville protesters ? including many of the 29 arrested in a pre-dawn raid on Friday ? returned to the Legislative Plaza that evening and remained through the 10 p.m. curfew.
"To see it from the other side is even more infuriating," said Chip Allen, one of the protesters arrested in the first raid. "When you're in it, it's almost surreal. This takes on a whole 'nother flavor."
More than 200 people came to Friday evening's meeting to discuss the first round of arrests and future plans, though those numbers had dwindled as the night wore on and temperatures dropped.
There was no noticeable law enforcement presence for nearly two hours after the curfew went into effect, while adjacent theaters let out and patrons filtered back through the plaza to their cars without being challenged for violating the restrictions.
"Nothing was done to them, they were not arrested," said protester Michael Custer, 46. "But we are arrested while we are expressing our constitutional right to free speech."
Once the theater traffic cleared, dozens of state troopers descended on the plaza and began arresting protesters and a journalist for the Nashville Scene, an alternative weekly newspaper.
Troopers wouldn't give any details other than that a press release would be issued later Saturday. After the arrested protesters were handcuffed, photographed and put on a bus, one trooper told another at the scene that 26 people had been apprehended.
Protesters remaining at the scene vowed to return Saturday, even if it means more arrests.
The 29 demonstrators arrested early Friday were taken to the Nashville jail, only to have Nelson, the night judge, rule the state had not given them enough time to comply with the new curfew. They were instead issued misdemeanor citations for trespassing, which carry a $50 fine if they are found guilty.
It was not immediately clear whether other charges would be filed against those arrested Saturday morning.
The Haslam administration has cited what officials described as a deteriorating security and sanitary conditions on the plaza, saying that acts of lewd behavior had been observed by workers in state office buildings.
Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons said it was unrealistic to meet requests from protesters for a stronger law enforcement presence to help deter thefts and altercations often involving homeless people who had attached themselves to the encampment.
"We don't have the resources to go out and in effect babysit protesters 24-7 ... at the level that would have been necessary to address their concerns," Gibbons said during a press conference Friday.
--> AAA??Oct. 29, 2011?2:30 AM ET India fans vent anger after Metallica show nixed AP
US heavy metal and rock band Metallica members from left to right Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo pose for media during a press conference, in Gurgoan on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. According to Indian news agency Press Trust of India, rock band Metallica's maiden concert in India failed to kick off Friday triggering chaos at the venue and leaving thousands of fans disappointed. After citing technical problems for the postponement, the concert organizers said concert will be held tomorrow. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
US heavy metal and rock band Metallica members from left to right Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo pose for media during a press conference, in Gurgoan on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. According to Indian news agency Press Trust of India, rock band Metallica's maiden concert in India failed to kick off Friday triggering chaos at the venue and leaving thousands of fans disappointed. After citing technical problems for the postponement, the concert organizers said concert will be held tomorrow. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
Indian fans of U.S. band Metallica shout slogans near the stage after the concert was postponed, in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. According to Indian news agency Press trust of India, Heavy Metal and Rock band Metallica's maiden concert in India failed to kick off Friday triggering chaos at the venue and leaving thousands of fans disappointed. After citing technical problems for the postponement, the organizers said the concert will be held Saturday. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
Indian fans of American band Metallica vandalize the stage after the concert was postponed, in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. According to Indian news agency Press Trust of India, rock band Metallica's maiden concert in India failed to kick off Friday triggering chaos at the venue and leaving thousands of fans disappointed. After citing technical problems for the postponement, the concert organizers said concert will be held tomorrow. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
US heavy metal and rock band Metallica members from left to right, James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo pose for media during a press conference, in Gurgoan on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. According to Indian news agency Press Trust of India, rock band Metallica's maiden concert in India failed to kick off Friday triggering chaos at the venue and leaving thousands of fans disappointed. After citing technical problems for the postponement, the concert organizers said concert will be held tomorrow. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
US heavy metal and rock band Metallica members from left to right Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo pose for media during a press conference, in Gurgoan on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. According to Indian news agency Press Trust of India, rock band Metallica's maiden concert in India failed to kick off Friday triggering chaos at the venue and leaving thousands of fans disappointed. After citing technical problems for the postponement, the concert organizers said concert will be held tomorrow. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)
NEW DELHI (AP) ? Thousands of disappointed fans have broken chairs and torn posters after organizers canceled a Metallica concert on the outskirts of the Indian capital.
The Press Trust of India news agency says police arrested four people from the company that had organized the concert on charges of cheating people who had waited for hours for the scheduled Friday performance by the American heavy metal band.
Organizers said the concert was called off due to technical difficulties.
Metallica promised full refunds to those who had bought tickets.
The concert was part of the buildup to Sunday's Indian Grand Prix Formula One race in New Delhi.
Metallica is scheduled to perform in the southern Indian city of Bangalore on Sunday.
Zuyu Nu, right, from China and serving with the U.S. Navy, takes the oath of citizenship during a naturalization ceremony at the Statue of Liberty, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 in New York. One hundred twenty five people took the oath of citizenship to mark the Statues's 125th anniversary. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Zuyu Nu, right, from China and serving with the U.S. Navy, takes the oath of citizenship during a naturalization ceremony at the Statue of Liberty, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 in New York. One hundred twenty five people took the oath of citizenship to mark the Statues's 125th anniversary. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
An unidentified man takes the oath of citizenship during a naturalization ceremony at the Statue of Liberty, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 in New York. The oath of citizenship was taken by 125 people, to mark the Statues's 125th anniversary. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
An unidentified woman uses an American flag to shield her eyes from the sun during a naturalization ceremony at the Statue of Liberty, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011in New York. The oath of citizenship was taken by 125 people, to mark the Statues's 125th anniversary. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Members of the Veteran Corps of Artillery of New York attend a ceremony at the Statue of Liberty to mark her 125th anniversary, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Anatoliy Gryschenko of Ukraine poses for photographers in front of the Statue of Liberty as he arrives for a naturalization ceremony at the Statue, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011, in New York. The oath of citizenship was taken by 125 people, to mark the Statues's 125th anniversary. Gryschenko is a corpsman with the U.S. Coast Guard. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Scores of immigrants waved tiny flags after taking the oath of U.S. citizenship at the foot of the Statue of Liberty on Friday, 125 years after the beacon welcoming visitors and immigrants was dedicated.
"We are a nation of diverse people," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said during the naturalization ceremony on Liberty Island. "And that diversity strengthens our nation."
The new Americans, 125 immigrants from 46 countries, pledged to renounce foreign power, then posed for photos with their citizenship certificates.
"I feel like if you live in a place, you should have a say in the politics," said Paul Currie, who moved to the U.S. from South Africa eight years ago. "Otherwise, you're an outsider."
Silvia Hodges, who came to the U.S. from Germany in 1999, said the ceremony made her feel "like I belong here ? and I really want to vote."
The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, was conceived to symbolize the friendship between the two countries and a shared love of liberty. President Glover Cleveland dedicated the statue on Oct. 28, 1886.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "If anybody around this world wants to pick up their family and move so that their family can have freedom ? freedom to speak, freedom to be in charge of their own destiny, all the freedoms that we have incorporated into the Bill of Rights ? they always come to America."
Actress Sigourney Weaver recited Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus" and gestured to the statue behind her at the words "a mighty woman with a torch."
Cleveland's grandson attended the event and received a plaque from the National Park Service.
The 59-year-old George Cleveland said his grandfather was prescient when he said that "a stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man's oppression, until liberty enlightens the world."
"We are still a work in progress," George Cleveland said.
Then, with a 3-2-1 countdown, webcams streaming views from the statue's torch were switched on. The cameras offer panoramas of the New York skyline, the Hudson River and Liberty Island.
"It's really a wonderful way from people from around the world to connect with Lady Liberty using today's technology," said David Luchsinger, the superintendent of the statue and Ellis Island.
The birthday party would conclude later Friday with a 12-minute fireworks display choreographed to patriotic music.
On Saturday, the statue's interior will be closed for renovations for about a year, though Liberty Island will remain open.
Vacationers Benoit and Veronique Poullain of Rouen, France, were happy to see the statue on her 125th anniversary. Veronique said it was "like New York, big!" She said the French are "very happy to have contributed this symbol."
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? It's with the greatest respect for the legacy of Steve Jobs and the storytelling prowess of author Walter Isaacson that I have to confess: I arrived at the end of the book they made together with a sense that it's all somehow ordinary.
"Was he smart?" Isaacson says in the book's final pages. "No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius."
So is this expansive, exhaustively thorough and balanced doorstop of over 600 pages a work of genius -- the kind Isaacson nudged close to in say, his Einstein or Benjamin Franklin biographies?
No. But it is exceptionally ... workmanlike.
Already a runaway hit via a staggering volume of downloads and hard-cover purchases, the book is an undeniable event.
With its minimalist black and white cover -- a cover reconfigured by the inexhaustible perfectionist Jobs -- it's the Apple wizard's last great marketing coup.
Touchingly, and you know he means it because he was notoriously thin-skinned when criticized -- Jobs authorized a warts-and-all portrait because, as he said, "I wanted my kids to know me."
The very closeness Isaacson necessarily achieved with his terminally ill subject, in the view of noted Jobs savant Joe Nocera of the New York Times, "made it nearly impossible for Isaacson to get the kind of critical distance he needed to take his subject's true measure. He didn't just interview Jobs; he watched him die."
It's asking a lot of even resolute researcher Isaacson to bring Jobs fully to account for his churlishness, his reflexive selfishness, his self-delusion, his casual and sometimes not so casual cruelties. But since that never really happens -- Jobs in passing admits a to a couple errors, but seem to bury real contrition with his storied magical realism -- this feels like 85 percent of the story without the redemptive part, in which the sacred monster would come out from behind his objects and confess to his sins.
Attempts at pulling insight out of the man are rebuffed at times by Jobs' singular tunnel vision. Early on Isaacson, proceeding from the wizard's confessed early love for "Moby- Dick" and "King Lear," asks him if that's because he relates to their "willful and driven" central characters.
And then? "He didn't respond to the connection I was making, so I let it drop."
Jobs admits to being "ashamed" just once, for refusing to let his parents accompany him onto the Reed College campus when he matriculated in the fall of 1972.
Readers may give Isaacson points for his delicacy, but such openings seem rare. Much later, with Jobs on his deathbed, there are more lost opportunities for the summarizing mea culpas: "By then his eyes were closed and his energy gone, so I took my leave."
Perhaps it's unfair to ask Isaacson, after all the testimony he's assembled showing Jobs' tyrannical style, to sit at his bedside like Church Lady, repeatedly calling him to account. But the result is a sense of incompletion, of the quarry having once again--and now irretrievably--eluded the pursuer.
The Times' Janet Maslin found more to like: "His story calls for a book that is clear, elegant and concise enough to qualify as an iBio. Mr. Isaacson's "Steve Jobs" does its solid best to hit that target".
A longtime editor at Time Magazine, and later kingpin at CNN before moving on to write his series of histories of great men, Isaacson does have a knack for plainspoken, if sometimes plodding prose that gets the point across. An edge of wry Southern wit from the New Orleans-raised author animates scattered insights -- "Job's craziness was of the cultivated sort" he says referring to his subject's vegan diet -- but his key service to the reader is in consistently finding the telling quote, like this one from early girlfriend Chrisann Brennan: "He was an enlightened being who was cruel ... that's a strange combination."
That Isaacson repeats this quote from Chapter 3 in Chapter 7 is perhaps a symptom of what was clearly a rush to publish after Job's death.
Jobs told Isaacson -- as related by the author on a "60 Minutes" segment that was merely the opening bell in a promotional push that will be hard to equal -- "I have no skeletons in my closet".
Indeed, Jobs' inconsideration toward his significant others, his abandonment for many years of his illegitimate daughter, Lisa, and his storied and often savage outbursts in the workplace, are the stuff of legend.
Similarly his self-delusion about his own foibles and virtues, and his corollary, much-chronicled "reality distortion field," are by now familiar to many of us.
The charisma and the expertly staged appearances to present new products are also very familiar.
We may have heard about the screaming, the summary firings, the unjust refusals to share the credit and the profits, through the industry and media grapevine, but many of us ignored it. (And, again, despite Isaacson's craft and observation and dogged reporting, they unfold here in a rather dreary procession).
I once had the opportunity to interview Jobs on the phone, while reporting on the rise of Pixar circa 1995.
He was cordial enough through our allotted 15 minutes until I tried to shade into a question about Apple's plans for various upcoming content deals; he suggested with some acerbity that we "just stay on our topic".
Jobs was, as Isaacson told "60 Minutes," "not the world's best manager -- in fact one of the world's worst managers, upending things and throwing things into turmoil."
The lengthy account of Jobs' bromance with John Sculley, who he brought in to run Apple, and the subsequent alienation ending in the founder being kicked to the curb by his former friend, made this reader want to leave the room, or in this case the book, to get away from the embittered subject.
Life is too short to endure, however vicariously, his dissembling, his tirades, his relentless egotism and manipulation.
As Nocera says, the book "offers so many examples of his awful behavior -- incorrigible bullying, belittling and lying -- that you're soon numb to them."
And yet, many Apple customers who have been more in love with Jobs' expertly crafted devices than their creator, who celebrate what they have wrought in our lives, and have had the advantage of support from employees who were trained to be far more gracious than their boss, may very well want to read this book.
The music lover who not only met Dylan but cherished a long romance with his hero's former lover, Joan Baez; the traveler who saw beautiful stone from a certain remote Italian quarry and selected that for the floors of his stores; and yes, the devoted son who ultimately had the good grace to (mostly) treat his adoptive parents and his late-discovered sibling, Mona Simpson, with great consideration, is still worth our attention.
It's not as if you can't put the book down. But much like some of those devices that eschewed on-off switches and strove to make our experience of our gadgets a seamless one, it sits there beckoning you back to discover what else it may offer. Taken at that level, and as a primer for a quite comprehensive Silicon Valley timeline as seen from Apple's Cupertino outpost, it's a useful if not epochal piece of modern history.
Reckless Racing 2 and Lara Croft: Guardian of Light are headed to the Xperia Play in the weeks ahead, and Sony Ericsson's hoping to get gamers hyped up for both titles with today's release of a slew of screenshots from both games.
Both titles are the latest entries in SE's growing list of (timed) exclusives for its gaming-focused phone, a list which has so far included the likes of Sleepy Jack and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
Join us after the jump for six more Lara Croft screenies, and eleven more shots from Reckless Racing 2.
Animal air travel is a worrisome issue for most pet owners around the world. Pet safety and pet comfort figures high on the priority list of travellers. However, it must be known that millions of pets travel safely aboard aircrafts every year. Airlines make every effort to offer comfort and care to the animals in transit.
Below mentioned tips and suggestions are provided to ensure that you are at peace while flying with pets.
Know before you Go
? One of the foremost steps to undertake in order to ensure a smooth journey for your pet is a trip to the veterinarian. A thorough monitoring of your dog or cat will make it clear whether the animal is fit to undertake the journey or not. A vet may also provide you with a health certificate that might be asked for by airlines and health officials.
? If you are flying abroad with your pet, then it becomes imperative for you to find all the details regarding the quarantine policies of that particular country. This might save you a lot of trouble later on.
? Kennels for the dogs must meet the minimum standards for size, strength, sanitation and ventilation. The kennels must be roomy enough to make the animal comfortable.
? Get the dog well acquainted with the kennel it is supposed to be travelling in during the flight. This will make sure that the pet is not anxious when placed in the aircraft. It is also not a bad advice for the owners to put some used piece of clothing inside the kennel to make them feel assured.
Airline Travel
? Pet owners are suggested to opt for a direct flight when travelling with their pets. This minimises the flight period for the animal. Direct flights are comparatively costlier than the indirect ones, so the travellers are advised to book as early as possible in order to grab cheap air tickets on flights.
? Acquire detailed information from the airline regarding its pet transport policies. Check out official websites of the airlines to obtain appropriate information.
? Only few airlines allow pets inside the cabin and that too pets who are small in size. Pets are commonly transported as special baggage in a heated and ventilated hold.
? Most airlines restrict the number of pets on an aircraft. Travellers with pets must get in touch with the carriers as soon as possible to make their reservations. One should also reconfirm the bookings with the airline at least 48 hours before the flight departure.
? Travellers with pets are expected to arrive early for the check-in. But you would want to keep that time to the minimum as all the commotion at the airport might scare the animal.
This undated handout photo provided by the journal Science shows an adult Burmese python. You don't think of pythons as big-hearted toward their fellow creatures. They're better known for the bulge in their bodies after swallowing one of those critters whole. But the snakes' hearts balloon in size, too, as they're digesting _ and now scientists are studying them for clues about human heart health. (AP Photo/Stephen M. Secor, Science)
This undated handout photo provided by the journal Science shows an adult Burmese python. You don't think of pythons as big-hearted toward their fellow creatures. They're better known for the bulge in their bodies after swallowing one of those critters whole. But the snakes' hearts balloon in size, too, as they're digesting _ and now scientists are studying them for clues about human heart health. (AP Photo/Stephen M. Secor, Science)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? You don't think of pythons as big-hearted toward their fellow creatures. They're better known for the bulge in their bodies after swallowing one of those critters whole.
But the snakes' hearts balloon in size, too, as they're digesting ? and now scientists are studying them for clues about human heart health.
The expanded python heart appears remarkably similar to the larger-than-normal hearts of Olympic-caliber athletes. Colorado researchers report they've figured out how the snakes make it happen.
"It's this amazing biology," said Leslie Leinwand, a molecular biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, whose team reports the findings in Friday's edition of the journal Science. "They're not swelling up. They're building (heart) muscle."
Reptile biologists have long studied the weird digestion of these snakes, especially the huge Burmese pythons that can go nearly a year between meals with no apparent ill effects. When they swallow that next rat or bird ? or in some cases deer ? something extraordinary happens. Their metabolism ratchets up more than 40-fold, and their organs immediately start growing in size to get the digesting done. The heart alone grows a startling 40 percent or more within three days.
Leinwand, who studies human heart disease, stumbled across that description and saw implications for people. An enlarged human heart usually is caused by chronic high blood pressure or other ailments that leave it flabby and unable to pump well. But months and years of vigorous exercise give some well-conditioned athletes larger, muscular hearts, similar to how python hearts are during digestion.
So Leinwand's team ? led by a graduate student who initially was frightened of snakes ? ordered a box of pythons and began testing what happens to their hearts.
The first surprise: A digesting python's blood gets so full of fat it looks milky. A type of fat called triglycerides increased 50-fold within a day. In people, high triglyceride levels are very dangerous. But the python heart was burning those fats so rapidly for fuel that they didn't have time to clog anything up, Leinwand said.
The second surprise: A key enzyme that protects the heart from damage increased in python blood right after it ate, while a heart-damaging compound was repressed.
Then the team found that a specific combination of three fatty acids in the blood helped promote the healthy heart growth. If they injected fasting pythons with that mixture, those snakes' hearts grew the same way that a fed python's does.
But did it only work for snakes? Lead researcher Cecilia Riquelme dropped some plasma from a fed python into a lab dish containing the heart cells of rats ? and they grew bigger, too. Sure enough, injecting living mice made their hearts grow in an apparently healthy way as well.
Now the question is whether that kind of growth could be spurred in a mammal with heart disease, something Leinwand's team is starting to test in mice with human-like heart trouble. They also want to know how the python heart quickly shrinks back to its original size when digestion's done.
The experiments are "very, very cool indeed," said James Hicks, a biologist at the University of California, Irvine, who has long studied pythons' extreme metabolism and wants to see more such comparisons.
If the same underlying heart signals work in animals as divergent as snakes and mice, "this may reveal a common universal mechanism that can be used for improving cardiac function in all vertebrates, including humans," Hicks wrote in an email. "Only further studies and time will tell, but this paper is very exciting."
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and a Boulder biotechnology company that Leinwand co-founded, Hiberna Corp., that aims to develop drugs based on extreme animal biology.
ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2011) ? Mammography saves lives by detecting very small tumors. However, it fails to find 10-25% of tumors and is unable to distinguish between benign and malignant disease. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research provides a new and potentially more sensitive method using tumor-targeted magnetic nanoprobes and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) sensors.
A team of researchers from University of New Mexico School of Medicine and Cancer Research and Treatment Center, Senior Scientific, LLC, and the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies facility at Sandia National Laboratories created nanoprobes by attaching iron-oxide magnetic particles to antibodies against HER-2, a protein overexpressed in 30% of breast cancer cases. Using these tiny protein-iron particles the team was able to distinguish between cells with HER-2 and those without, and were able to find HER-2 cancer cells in biopsies from mice. In their final test the team used a synthetic breast to determine the potential sensitivity of their system.
Dr Helen Hathaway explained, "We were able to accurately pinpoint 1 million cells at a depth of 4.5 cm. This is about 1000x fewer cells than the size at which a tumor can be felt in the breast and 100x more sensitive than mammographic x-ray imaging. While we do not expect the same level of nanoparticle uptake in the clinic, our system has an advantage in that dense breast tissue, which can mask traditional mammography results, is transparent to the low-frequency magnetic fields detected by the SQUID sensors."
Future refining of the system could allow not only tumor to be found but to be classified according to protein expression (rather than waiting for biopsy results). This in turn could be used to predict disease progression and refine treatment plans and so improve patient survival.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central.
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Journal Reference:
Helen J Hathaway, Kimberly S Butler, Natalie L Adolphi, Debbie M Lovato, Robert Belfon, Danielle L Fegan, Todd C Monson, Jason E Trujillo, Trace E Tessier, Howard C Bryant, Dale L Huber, Richard S Larson and Edward R Flynn. Detection of breast cancer cells using targeted magnetic nanoparticles and ultra-sensitive magnetic field sensors. Breast Cancer Research, 2011; (in press) [link]
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.
A genetically engineered version of the virus that causes herpes shows promise as a treatment for a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer, according to a new study in animals.
The virus targeted and killed triple-negative breast cancer cells in mice. Triple-negative breast cancer is a form of breast cancer that cannot be treated with hormone therapies, such as tamoxifen and Herceptin.
The results are preliminary, and it's not clear whether the therapy will have the same effect on tumors growing in people. Much more research is needed to determine this. If a treatment is developed, it will likely be used in conjunction with other cancer therapies, including chemotherapy and radiation, the researchers said.
The study will be presented today (Oct. 24) at the meeting of the American College of Surgeons in San Francisco.
Herpes therapy
Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for about 20 percent of all breast cancer cases. It disproportionally effects young, African-American women and is usually treated with chemotherapy. (Triple-negative breast cancers are not fueled by the hormone estrogen, so they do no respond to treatments designed to block the hormone.)
Study researcher Dr. Sepideh Gholami, a research fellow in the at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. and colleagues infected breast cancer cells in a dish with a herpes virus called NV1066. Within a week, the virus killed up to 90 percent of the tumor cells.
The researchers then injected breast cancer cells into mice. After treating the mice with the virus for 20 days, they saw the tumors had largely disappeared, Gholami said.
The dramatic response may be due to the fact that triple-negative breast cancer cells have high levels of a protein called p-MAPK. The herpes virus specifically targets cells with high levels of this protein, the researchers said.
The therapy is just one of many in recent years to explore the use of viruses as a means to target and destroy cancer cells. The herpes virus has been tested in people as a treatment for head and neck cancer, but not for breast cancer, the researchers said.
More research
The study is an "extremely exciting step" in the pursuit of a cancer therapy that uses the herpes virus, said Dr. Stefan Gluck, a medical oncologist at the University of Miami's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.
However, the researchers still need to show that this herpes virus is safe to use in patients. After all, the herpes virus is known to cause infection in humans, including infections in the brain. Proving the therapy's safety will likely be a lengthy process, and will involve testing it on other animals first, such as dogs and primates, Gluck said.
The researchers plan to figure out exactly how the virus works to kill the breast cancer cells, and try to bolster its effect.
Pass it on: The herpes virus can infect and kill breast cancer cells in a dish and in mice.
This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily staff writer Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner. Find us on Facebook.
Sprint just started building out its LTE network, but being the eager beavers that they are, the folks in Overland Park are already talking about taking the Now Network to the next level. Iyad Tarazi, Sprint's VP of network development and engineering, said that Sprint will be rolling out an LTE-Advanced network in the first half of 2013. (As a brief refresher, LTE-Advanced is a true 4G technology that can make regular LTE speeds look positively pedestrian in comparison.) Tarazi added that we would see 12 LTE devices in 2012 and that over 250 million people will have access to Sprint-flavored LTE by the end of 2013 -- with voice over LTE service coming in the first quarter of that year. For those (hundreds?) of you worried about the fate of of WiMAX, well, don't. Apparently, the out-of-favor 4G network will continue to be supported for several more years due to Sprint's agreement with Clearwire. So, it appears Sprint's really making a run at Verizon's LTE hegemony. Good luck Mr. Hesse, you're probably going to need it.
(Reuters) ? Chemical maker DuPont (DD.N) posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday due to a double-digit price hike and raised its 2011 earnings forecast, pushing its shares up more than 1 percent.
Strong demand for titanium dioxide, a key white pigment used to make paint and other consumer goods, fueled much of the earnings beat.
DuPont is the largest global producer of the chemical, also known as Ti02. Even though construction and automobile markets remain weak, DuPont and rival Ti02 producers Huntsman Corp (HUN.N) and Tronox Inc (TROX.PK) have successfully raised prices in the past year due to tight supply.
DuPont also makes a range of niche products, including Kevlar and Tyvek. Companywide, executives were able to boost pricing in the third quarter by 15 percent.
(For a graphic on DuPont's results: click http://link.reuters.com/vap64s )
For the third quarter, the company posted net income of $452 million, or 48 cents per share, compared with $367 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, including charges from the buyout this year of Danish food enzyme maker Danisco, DuPont earned 69 cents per share.
By that measure, analysts had expected earnings of 56 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Net sales rose 32 percent to $9.24 billion. Analysts had expected $8.79 billion.
DuPont's 15 percent price jump was its largest quarterly increase in more than a decade.
Most of the price rise came in the performance chemicals unit, which makes the Ti02 pigment.
The companywide increase had an effect on demand: Total volume rose only 1 percent during the quarter.
DuPont said that while demand for Ti02 remains strong, it expects a "pause" during the fourth quarter.
"Titanium dioxide remains a central element of the DuPont story," Ticonderoga Securities analyst Mark Gulley said. "We estimate that Ti02 will be about 25 percent of this year's earnings and next year could be a third."
Strong Latin American sales partially offset heavy spending in DuPont's agriculture unit, where an operating loss shrank 64 percent to $69 million.
The unit was hampered last August after DuPont recalled its widely used Imprelis herbicide. Many customers and several lawsuits had complained that the treatment killed thousands of trees.
The company spent heavily in its safety and protection unit, which makes the popular Kevlar material for bulletproof vests. DuPont recently expanded a South Carolina Kevlar plant.
Operating income in the safety and protection unit slipped 12 percent to $118 million.
Last month a U.S. federal jury awarded DuPont $919.9 million in damages, ruling that Kolon Industries Inc (120110.KS) had stolen Kevlar trade secrets. Kolon is appealing the ruling.
For the year, DuPont expects to earn $3.97 to $4.05 per share. The company had previously forecast $3.90 to $4.05.
Analysts expect 2011 earnings of $3.96 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shares of Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont were up 1.5 percent at $46.80 in trading before the market opened. The stock has fallen 8 percent so far this year.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Derek Caney, Gerald E. McCormick and Matthew Lewis)
Washington ? Foreign policy, say hello to the 2012 presidential campaign.
That was the conclusion of several political pundits this month when President Obama offered uncharacteristically tough words on Iran in the wake of accusations that Tehran was involved in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
After all, isn?t this the same president who came into office advocating dialogue with America?s adversaries, in particular Iran, but is now saying that a military response to Tehran?s covert actions is not off the table?
RECOMMENDED: Four attacks that have been blamed on Iran
Add to that the spotlight the Obama administration has been shining on the ???success??
But foreign policy experts offer a different view: As elections approach, presidential tough-talking ramps up even as the willingness to take on substantial foreign policy diminishes ? and Obama so far appears to be no different.
?The thinking is never, ?If I do this, I?ll get these votes,? but instead it?s always, ?How can this hurt us?? ? says Douglas Foyle, an expert in the interaction of domestic politics and foreign affairs at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.
?Sure, he?s going to talk tough on Iran; he?s certainly going to talk about Osama bin Laden and how ?I got him and the Republicans didn?t;? [and] he?s going to continue to portray himself as being strong,? says Professor Foyle of Obama. ?But that?s more about avoiding a criticism than about using foreign policy as an attribute.?
Why take the risk?The fact is, Obama has little to worry about on the foreign policy front and therefore has little incentive to take a hard line pre-2012, these experts say.
First, much of what he has done ? from drawing down US troops in Iraq to taking out bin Laden ? sits well with Americans. Moreover, with economic issues foremost in voters? minds, foreign affairs is expected to play a minor role in deciding the next president. In that way, a bold foreign policy initiative could become a campaign distraction more than an asset.
?Obama may indeed be talking tougher, but his actions are considerably less so,? says Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. ?Is it electoral politics? Who knows. But the reality beyond the rhetoric is that his actions aren?t as tough as they were.?
Because presidents generally see foreign policy as a potential ?danger? to reelection, but not as a major plus for a campaign, they often adopt a pattern of ?postponement? of international initiatives in the last year or so of a first term, says Foyle, who has studied the foreign-policy decisionmaking of presidencies going back to 1948.
Others concur.
?I don?t think there will be a lot of outreach by Obama to the Iranians between now and November 2012,? says Charles Kupchan, a foreign policy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Not only has the Obama policy of favoring dialogue with America?s adversaries not yielded much, he says, but the election season also portends a tougher tone.
Talking toughStill, critics such as Ms. Pletka ? a foreign policy hawk who sees Obama relinquishing US global leadership ? say Obama is tougher in tone only, as in their estimation he steps back cautiously from some of his early, bold moves.
The president ?did a number of courageous things in the beginning of his term,? Pletka says, citing the ?surge? of US troops into Afghanistan and a slower drawdown from Iraq. But she does not count as ?tough? a growing US reliance on drone strikes against various insurgencies, nor does she consider an aggressive tone with Iran to be so bold.
?If anything, the timing of [Obama?s] sudden rhetorical toughness with Iran may be the one place where we might wonder if electoral politics have come into play,? Pletka says. ?What else would explain that the president is more appalled by Iran?s involvement in a plot on a Saudi diplomat than by Iran?s involvement in the killing of hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq??
Still, if anyone in the 2012 campaign is going to be on the defensive over foreign policy, it will be the Republicans because of the GOP field?s overall inexperience in foreign affairs, Mr. Kupchan says.
To the extent any voters are focusing on foreign policy, Obama can highlight how he has pursued US interests by attacking Al Qaeda or by playing a supportive role in the Libya intervention, while committing less American blood and treasure.
But the next 12 months may end up tracking closest to Foyle?s conclusion: ?Foreign policy is not going to get these guys reelected, but it can really hurt them if something blows up in their face. That will be as true as ever this election,? he adds, ?when issues No. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are going to be the economy and jobs.?
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Rutgers professor uses lichen to help cities go greenPublic release date: 25-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ed Moorhouse ejmoor@camden.rutgers.edu 856-225-6759 Rutgers University
CAMDEN -- In this era of environmental consciousness, many buildings are being outfitted to "go green." A Rutgers-Camden professor is taking the term quite literally.
Elizabeth Demaray, an associate professor of fine arts, is cultivating lichen on the sides of New York City skyscrapers to counteract the lack of native vegetation found in the city. Her "Lichen for Skyscrapers Project" was featured as part of New York's Art in Odd Places Festival from Oct. 1-10 and is currently on view as a site-specific installation on 14th Street between Union Square Park and the Hudson River.
"Metropolitan centers figure into local temperatures in an interesting way," Demaray says. "They are sometimes referred to as 'urban heat islands' because they create heat and they trap heat. A large part of this process is due to the materials that we build with and the actual architecture of the buildings that we create."
Demaray says one of the ways to reduce heat in these cities is to cultivate lichen, which forms a protective barrier, insulating its supporting building from harmful elements. It can lower cumulative temperatures by absorbing sunlight and reflecting heat due to its light color palate while making oxygen and creating green space on the sides of buildings.
A versatile combination of fungi and algae, lichen does not have roots and grows vertically on porous surfaces. It thrives at high altitudes, where it is often the only form of vegetation and can withstand extreme periods of draught by absorbing water out of the air.
Demaray "plants" the lichen by painting lichen slurry, a watery mixture, on the sides of the buildings in patterned, geometric shapes. These plantings allow viewers to watch the organic lines of the lichen slowly outgrow the manmade lines of the patterns.
"A lot of my work sort of deals with American culture in one way or another and a number of the pieces often end up in the category of art and science collaboration," Demaray says. "I had actually worked with lichen before, covering unusual objects with it because I was interested in the idea that grown lichen, as a material, indicates long periods of time. Many high rises are beautiful granite and sandstone buildings and with this project, I like the idea that people who work in them can create their own lichen gardens."
One of Demaray's students actually began calling this process "lichaffiti," like graffiti, because all one needs to cultivate it is open a high rise window a few inches and apply lichen slurry on the building's exterior surface.
"If the lichen doesn't take, it will simply dry up and blow away to propagate itself in other more favorable conditions," says Demaray, who is quick to point out that the project in no way condones the planting of lichen without a building's permission.
For the Art in Odd Places Festival, Demaray planted small plots of lichen slurry and also installed mature lichen-covered plaques with the permission of several buildings in New York City. Once the slurry is spread into place, it takes about three months for the lichen to propagate.
"People of the community can now watch lichen slowly grow on these buildings," Demaray says. "A number of different buildings invited me to do larger installations of lichen and, as it stands now, there is one building on 14th Street that may have me culture lichen over its entire surface starting from the top and then slowly growing it all the way down to the ground."
Natalie Howe, a graduate student studying ecology and evolution at RutgersNew Brunswick who is also taking courses at RutgersCamden, is working with Demaray to identify lichen thriving in urban environments.
"A lot of times when people think of nature in the city, they think of lovely but very carefully managed and maintained landscapes," says Howe, a Highland Park resident. "But I think Elizabeth's project is different in that it encourages people to make their own natural areas that they can enjoy right on the windowsills and curbs of their homes and workplaces."
###
A Camden resident, Demaray is a recipient of the National Studio Award at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and is a New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellow in sculpture. She shows her work in museums nationwide.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Rutgers professor uses lichen to help cities go greenPublic release date: 25-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ed Moorhouse ejmoor@camden.rutgers.edu 856-225-6759 Rutgers University
CAMDEN -- In this era of environmental consciousness, many buildings are being outfitted to "go green." A Rutgers-Camden professor is taking the term quite literally.
Elizabeth Demaray, an associate professor of fine arts, is cultivating lichen on the sides of New York City skyscrapers to counteract the lack of native vegetation found in the city. Her "Lichen for Skyscrapers Project" was featured as part of New York's Art in Odd Places Festival from Oct. 1-10 and is currently on view as a site-specific installation on 14th Street between Union Square Park and the Hudson River.
"Metropolitan centers figure into local temperatures in an interesting way," Demaray says. "They are sometimes referred to as 'urban heat islands' because they create heat and they trap heat. A large part of this process is due to the materials that we build with and the actual architecture of the buildings that we create."
Demaray says one of the ways to reduce heat in these cities is to cultivate lichen, which forms a protective barrier, insulating its supporting building from harmful elements. It can lower cumulative temperatures by absorbing sunlight and reflecting heat due to its light color palate while making oxygen and creating green space on the sides of buildings.
A versatile combination of fungi and algae, lichen does not have roots and grows vertically on porous surfaces. It thrives at high altitudes, where it is often the only form of vegetation and can withstand extreme periods of draught by absorbing water out of the air.
Demaray "plants" the lichen by painting lichen slurry, a watery mixture, on the sides of the buildings in patterned, geometric shapes. These plantings allow viewers to watch the organic lines of the lichen slowly outgrow the manmade lines of the patterns.
"A lot of my work sort of deals with American culture in one way or another and a number of the pieces often end up in the category of art and science collaboration," Demaray says. "I had actually worked with lichen before, covering unusual objects with it because I was interested in the idea that grown lichen, as a material, indicates long periods of time. Many high rises are beautiful granite and sandstone buildings and with this project, I like the idea that people who work in them can create their own lichen gardens."
One of Demaray's students actually began calling this process "lichaffiti," like graffiti, because all one needs to cultivate it is open a high rise window a few inches and apply lichen slurry on the building's exterior surface.
"If the lichen doesn't take, it will simply dry up and blow away to propagate itself in other more favorable conditions," says Demaray, who is quick to point out that the project in no way condones the planting of lichen without a building's permission.
For the Art in Odd Places Festival, Demaray planted small plots of lichen slurry and also installed mature lichen-covered plaques with the permission of several buildings in New York City. Once the slurry is spread into place, it takes about three months for the lichen to propagate.
"People of the community can now watch lichen slowly grow on these buildings," Demaray says. "A number of different buildings invited me to do larger installations of lichen and, as it stands now, there is one building on 14th Street that may have me culture lichen over its entire surface starting from the top and then slowly growing it all the way down to the ground."
Natalie Howe, a graduate student studying ecology and evolution at RutgersNew Brunswick who is also taking courses at RutgersCamden, is working with Demaray to identify lichen thriving in urban environments.
"A lot of times when people think of nature in the city, they think of lovely but very carefully managed and maintained landscapes," says Howe, a Highland Park resident. "But I think Elizabeth's project is different in that it encourages people to make their own natural areas that they can enjoy right on the windowsills and curbs of their homes and workplaces."
###
A Camden resident, Demaray is a recipient of the National Studio Award at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and is a New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellow in sculpture. She shows her work in museums nationwide.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Animal air travel is a worrisome issue for most pet owners around the world. Pet safety and pet comfort figures high on the priority list of travellers. However, it must be known that millions of pets travel safely aboard aircrafts every year. Airlines make every effort to offer comfort and care to the animals in transit.
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Public release date: 25-Oct-2011
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