Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is accompanied by a U.S. Secret Service agent as he leaves debate preparation at a hotel in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, emerge from debate preparation at a hotel in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (AP) ? Mitt Romney is attacking the Obama administration for delaying a decision about whether China is manipulating its currency to gain a trading edge.
A decision was due Monday, but the Treasury Department said Friday that it won't come before global finance officials meet in nearly November. That means a decision probably will be after the Nov. 6 presidential election.
Romney pointedly noted the delay during a speech Saturday at a rally in Portsmouth, Ohio.
The GOP presidential nominee says that on his first day in office, he'll brand China a "currency manipulator" and work to end what he calls Beijing's cheating practices on trade.
He says "it's got to stop."
Romney says President Barack Obama has failed to hold China accountable and as a result, the U.S. has lost jobs.
KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) ? Rescue teams at Glacier National Park searched in wintery conditions and rugged terrain Sunday for two East Coast hikers reported missing by family members.
Park officials said 50 searchers were looking for 32-year-old Neal Peckens of Virginia and 32-year-old Jason Hiser of Maryland. Hometowns weren't available.
Weather was the biggest challenge facing searchers, who have found 18 inches of snow on the trail at higher elevations and five-foot drifts in some areas, spokeswoman Denise Germann said.
"The area they are working in is very steep and exposed," she said. "It's right along the Continental Divide, and it's very windy."
More rain and possibly snow in higher areas was expected on Sunday, she said. A helicopter dropped off some searchers inside the park early Sunday but Germann said low clouds moved in, preventing aerial searches.
The two were reported missing Friday after failing to catch a flight home from Montana. Their vehicle was found late Friday, and the search started Saturday.
Germann said it's not clear if they were prepared for cold weather, or if they have much experience in the backcountry. Searchers believe the two were hiking and not mountain climbing.
"We believe they are still in the park," she said. "We don't know what clothing or gear they've got."
Officials believe the two started hiking from the North Shore Trailhead at Two Medicine on the east side of the park on Tuesday and planned to return to Two Medicine on Wednesday, and then do some day hikes Thursday.
She said park rangers along with Flathead County Search and Rescue members were taking part in the search. She said some are on foot, some on horses and some searching with dogs.
The National Weather Service predicts mostly cloudy skies with a 50 percent chance of rain on Sunday with highs in the upper 50s to low 60s, dropping to the upper 30s or low 40s overnight. Winds are from the southwest at 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph.
ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2012) ? By force of habit we tend to assume computers are made of silicon, but there is actually no necessary connection between the machine and the material. All that an engineer needs to do to make a computer is to find a way to build logic gates -- the elementary building blocks of digital computers -- in whatever material is handy.
So logic gates could theoretically be made of pipes of water, channels for billiard balls or even mazes for soldier crabs.
By comparison Tae Seok Moon's ambition, which is to build logic gates out of genes, seems eminently practical. As a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Christopher Voigt, PhD, a synthetic biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he recently made the largest gene (or genetic) circuit yet reported.
Moon, PhD, now an assistant professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis is the lead author of an article describing the project in the Oct. 7 issue of Nature. Voigt is the senior author.
The tiny circuits constructed from these gene gates and others like them may one day be components of engineered cells that will monitor and respond to their environments.
The number of tasks they could undertake is limited only by evolution and human ingenuity. Janitor bacteria might clean up pollutants, chemical-engineer bacteria pump out biofuels and miniature infection-control bacteria might bustle about killing pathogens.
How to make an AND gate out of genes
The basis of modern computers is the logic gate, a device that makes simple comparisons between the bits, the 1s and 0s, in which computers encode information. Each logic gate has multiple inputs and one output. The output of the gate depends on the inputs and the operation the gate performs.
An AND gate, for example, turns on only if all of its inputs are on. An OR gate turns on if any of its inputs are on.
Suggestively, genes are turned on or off when a transcription factor binds to a region of DNA adjacent to the gene called a promotor.
To make an AND gate out of genes, however, Moon had to find a gene whose activation is controlled by at least two molecules, not one. So only if both molecule 1 AND molecule 2 are present will the gene be turned on and translated into protein.
Such a genetic circuit had been identified in Salmonella typhimurium, the bacterium that causes food poisoning. In this circuit, the transcription factor can bind to the promotor of a gene only if a molecule called a chaperone is present. This meant the genetic circuit could form the basis of a two-input AND gate.
The circuit Moon eventually built consisted of four sensors for four different molecules that fed into three two-input AND gates. If all four molecules were present, all three AND gates turned on and the last one produced a reporter protein that fluoresced red, so that the operation of the circuit could be easily monitored.
In the future, Moon says, a synthetic bacterium with this circuit might sense four different cancer indicators and, in the presence of all four, release a tumor-killing factor.
Crosstalk and timing faults
There are huge differences, of course, between the floppy molecules that embody biological logic gates and the diodes and transistors that embody electronic ones.
Engineers designing biological circuits worry a great deal about crosstalk, or interference. If a circuit is to work properly, the molecules that make up one gate cannot bind to molecules that are part of another gate.
This is much more of a problem in a biological circuit than in an electronic circuit because the interior of a cell is a kind of soup where molecules mingle freely.
To ensure that there wouldn't be crosstalk among his AND gates, Moon mined parts for his gates from three different strains of bacteria: Shigella flexneri and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, as well as Salmonella.
Although the parts from the three different strains were already quite dissimilar, he made them even more so by subjecting them to error-prone copying cycles and screening the copies for ones that were even less prone to crosstalk (but still functional).
Another problem Moon faced is that biological circuits, unlike electronic ones, don't have internal clocks that keep the bits moving through the logic gates in lockstep. If signals progress through layers of gates at different speeds, the output of the entire circuit may be wrong, a problem called a timing fault.
Experiments designed to detect such faults in the synthetic circuit showed that they didn't occur, probably because the chaperones for one layer of logic gates degrades before the transcription factors for the next layer are generated, and this forces a kind of rhythm on the circuit.
Hijacking a bacterium's controller
"We're not trying to build a computer out of biological logic gates," Moon says. "You can't build a computer this way. Instead we're trying to make controllers that will allow us to access all the things biological organisms do in simple, programmable ways."
"I see the cell as a system that consists of a sensor, a controller (the logic circuit), and an actuator," he says. "This paper covers work on the controller, but eventually the controller's output will drive an actuator, something that will do work on the cell's surroundings. "
An synthetic bacterium designed by a friend of Moon's at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore senses signaling molecules released by the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. When the molecules reach a high enough concentration, the bacterium generates a toxin and a protein that causes it to burst, releasing the toxin, and killing nearby P. aeruginosa.
"Silicon cannot do that," Moon says.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Washington University in St. Louis. The original article was written by Diana Lutz.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Tae Seok Moon, Chunbo Lou, Alvin Tamsir, Brynne C. Stanton, Christopher A. Voigt. Genetic programs constructed from layered logic gates in single cells. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature11516
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
There is a clear parallel between music and perfumery, between olfactory and musical melodies, and we shall use this likeness in order to understand better the ?why? and the ?how? of olfactory education.
Just like music, perfumery is an art and even a major art, being entirely dedicated to one of our senses of perception, the sense of smell.Why is perfumery not taught at school just like music or drawing?Is perchance our sense of smell a minor sense of little importance?Do we perhaps love perfumes less than other civilizations?
School programs offer to all the basis of musical education, teaching the seven notes of our musical scale.
Olfactory education is no less important and to be able to name the scents of lavender and rose is no less important than to be able to name the blue and the red of the color spectrum.
The program that we deisigned is very simple and can be reassumed in one phrase: ?how to become a perfumer in 4 moves?.
1.) The Ability to Name Odors: In fact the basis of olfactory education is to be able to name the odors by their names, which is not as easy as it seems. Our primordial sense of smell situated in our ?reptilian brain? has little connection with the more evolved centers of language in our brain.
It is really surprising how often people, while smelling the absolute of coffee or the essence of lemon, smile over the bottle, recognizing only the happy memories associated with these familiar smells, without being able to give their names.
The basis and the first step of olfactory education consists in being able to name the scents that surround us. With a special diffuser, we send a sweet perfumed wind to the students and teach them to recognize the names of simple smells like lavender, pine, lemon ecc?
2.) Distinguishing the Components of a Perfume: The second step is to be able to distinguish the different components of a culinary creation or of the essences that compose simple blends such as orange cinnamon, rose lavender hay, ecc?For this course we use the perfumed wind organ, which allows us to combine 10 different essences in all possible combinations. 3.) Scent and Emotion Experiential Exercise: The third step of olfactory education is to develop the capacity to ?listen to the soul? while smelling a fragrance, and to become aware of the emotions it produces and of the memories it awakens. The exercise of describing them by words sums up the method, because by wording one conceptualizes, and by conceptualizing one intellectually appropriates the experiences. For this course we use the diffuser ?Cube? and familiar essences (lemon, mandarin, clove?) as well as totally new smells from other countries (vetyver, ylang ylang, patchouli?) In this course one learns the basis of the very special language of perfumers, which permits the description of fragrances just as landscapes or scenes are described. If you never heard the worlds ?round? or ?fresh? or ?deep? while smelling such characteristic fragrances, how could you ever describe a perfume or any odor.
The didactical path of these first three steps of olfactory education is directly inspired from the Japanese Kodo, ?the way of scent?, the Zen of olfaction.
4.) Team Composition of a Perfume: In the fourth step the students are given a simple and practical perfumer?s kit for children, and they are teamed by two. Everyone will make a perfume for his companion, with the same method that we use in our perfumery courses. At the end of this course every student will keep the bottle of his perfume.
A civilization produces musicians and musical culture only after its sons and daughters have received a musical education in their childhood.
Today, while the scents of nature essential to our psychological equilibrium are disappearing from our modern environment, chemical perfumes are omnipresent in our daily life, ice creams, soaps, cosmetics etc. This has created a confusion in the later generations because their olfactory models of reference are those that industrial marketing have provided for their consumption, the cheapest petrochemical mass products. Only an olfactory education can provide them with the knowledge necessary to apply criterions to the smells that surround them in order to judge their quality or to appreciate fully their beauty.
Games nights at home at NAS Meridian Family Housing are a great way for the whole family to spend time together. These classic board games are perfect for holidays, rainy days, or any time you want to get the family together for some fun. They?re simple enough for the kids, but they?re sure to bring out the kid in you, too. You just might get hooked!
Battleship This thrilling cat-and-mouse game of naval strategy is especially great for boys. Use deduction and a bit of luck to sink your opponent's ships!
Clue There?s a different guilty party each time you play this addictive classic. Collect clues to try to figure out "whodunit."
Scrabble Big words win the day in this crossword-style game. It's a great way to work on spelling and vocabulary with your kids? without them realizing how much they're learning!
Pictionary Kids and adults alike love this energetic and hilarious game. The objective is to draw?your selected word in hopes of getting your teammates to guess it.?
Connect Four Inspired by tic-tac-toe, Connect Four's object is to drop four checkers into a row while simultaneously preventing your opponent from "connecting four." It?s simple, fast, and fun.
Chris Beardsley is a co-founder of?Strength and Conditioning Research, a monthly publication that summarizes the latest fitness research for strength and sports coaches, personal trainers, and athletes. The views expressed herein are his.
The fitness industry can be a confusing place, with many experts providing conflicting opinions. Scientific research is our best shot at providing objective and effective approaches to fitness.?Strength and Conditioning Research?is a monthly review service that covers new and interesting scientific studies on fitness topics. The studies included help answer difficult questions about optimal fitness, training, and body transformation.
Here are the summarized results of three recent studies that were covered in the review along with what those results mean for us.
Combining Strength and Endurance Training Could Increase Muscle Gains
Photo by Justin Singh
Recently, researchers led by Jussi Mikkola at the Research Institute for Olympic Sports in Finland found concurrent strength and endurance training is counterproductive for improving explosive strength, while it could actually be better than strength-only training for improving muscle size[].
What did the researchers do?
The researchers recruited 44 healthy but untrained adult males for a 21-week study. The subjects were assigned to either resistance training only, endurance training only, or concurrent training groups.
The resistance training was performed twice a week and comprised two leg exercises: the leg press and the knee extension machine. The endurance training carried out twice a week and increased in both duration and intensity from 30-minutes sessions through to 60 ? 90-minutes sessions over the 21 weeks.
Before and after the 21-week training program, the researchers measured the knee extension strength and rate of force development of the subjects, as well as the cross-sectional area of their thigh muscle.
What happened?
The researchers found that only the strength-only group improved rate of force development significantly, by 38 ? 31 percent while the strength-endurance group actually decreased rate of force development by 7 ? 51 percent.
Rate of force development is very important for power athletes, as it determines how quickly the athlete is able to reach their full strength capability. In explosive sports, rate of force development is often more important than maximum strength.
However, the researchers found the cross-sectional area (size) of the thigh muscles increased by more in the strength-endurance group (11 ? 5 percent) than in the strength-only group (6 ? 5 percent).
What did the researchers conclude?
The researchers concluded that concurrent strength and endurance training optimizes gains in muscular size but interferes with improvements in explosive strength, as measured by rate of force development.
What does it mean for you?
If you are doing resistance training purely for power, perhaps because you compete in a Track and Field sport, then endurance training may reduce the gains you make from resistance training. On the other hand, if you are carrying out resistance training for your physique, some endurance training could actually enhance your results.
Eccentric Training Increases Muscle Length and Flexibility
In a recent review study led by Kieran O?Sullivan from the University of Limerick in Ireland, the reviewers found eccentric resistance training actually increases leg muscle flexibility, regardless of the muscle group studied[].
In normal strength training, an exercise is divided into two phases: the eccentric (lowering) phase and the concentric (lifting) phase. Eccentric training in research is where only the lowering phase is used. In practice, most lifters simply emphasize the lowering phase in order to obtain many of the same results.
What did the reviewers do?
The reviewers looked at a wide range of databases, concentrating on those that provide the highest quality of evidence: randomized clinical trials (RCTs). They included studies in their review that investigated the flexibility effects of eccentric training over a training period of longer than 4 weeks.
Their initial search revealed 285 individual studies, but after elimination of studies that did not fit all of the relevant criteria, the researchers were left with just six. However, the methodological quality of these six studies was rated as being very high, which means that we can be fairly sure that they are reliable.
What did the reviewers find?
The reviewers found all six studies showed clearly that eccentric training improved lower body flexibility, irrespective of whether the muscle group tested was the calves, the hamstrings, or the quadriceps.
What does it mean for you?
If you use lower body stretching in your routine and feel that you don?t have time for resistance training, you could try eccentric leg muscle training, which would kill two birds with one stone. ?
You could do this by performing movements that stress longer muscle length and emphasizing the eccentric component. Good choices would be: Romanian deadlifts for the hamstrings, single leg elevated calf-raises for the gastrocnemius, and Olympic-style squats to full depth for the quadriceps and gluteals.
Periodization Could Make a Big Difference in Strength Training
Recently, researchers from Brazil led by de Lima found the type of periodization used during a muscular endurance-training program altered how effective the training was at improving muscular endurance and reducing body fat[].
Periodized training involves a general plan for sets and reps for a given number of weeks or months of training. Linear periodization involves starting with a number of workouts of higher rep training and gradually decreasing the number of reps and increasing the weight over a period of several weeks or even months.
What did the researchers do?
The researchers recruited 28 young women and allocated them into three groups: linear periodization, daily undulating periodization, and a control. In both training programs, the subjects performed four workouts per week of which two were the same, in an A-B-A-B format. However, one program followed a linear progression and the other followed a daily undulating progression.
In the linear periodization program, the subjects performed 3 sets of 30RM in the first week, 3 sets of 25RM in the second week, 3 sets of 20RM in the third week, and 3 sets of 15RM in the fourth week. This pattern was repeated two further times in the 12-week training period.
In the daily undulating program, the intensity and volume were modified in the same week. In weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11, the subjects trained on days 1 and 2 with 3 sets of 30RM and on days 3 and 4 with 3 sets of 25RM. In weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12, participants trained on days 1 and 2 with 3 sets of 20RM and on days 3 and 4 with 3 sets of 15RM.
What happened?
The researchers found that both programs produced a significant decrease in body fat percentage and fat mass.
They also found the linear periodization program produced a greater reduction in body fat percentage than the daily undulating program. On the other hand, the daily undulating periodization model produced a significantly higher muscular endurance increase than the linear periodization model.
What did the researchers conclude?
The researchers concluded that, in a muscular endurance resistance-training program, linear periodization was superior for improving body composition while daily undulating performance was more effective for improving muscular endurance performance.
What does it mean for you?
If you make use of muscular endurance training and your goal is to lose body fat, then a linear periodization is more effective than a daily undulating program. However, if you want to improve muscular endurance, then a daily undulating periodization would be a better choice.
Will these findings impact your approach to fitness? Share in the comments below and talk with the author on Facebook!
FRIDAY, OCT. 12: A bank yesterday made 13 staff redundant, while a city fast food restaurant has had to resort to radical measures to stay afloat in the current economic climate.
But one ray of sunshine in the recession-fuelled gloom is the real estate market, which is experiencing a spike in interest due to the relaxation of laws that restrict house sales to non-Bermudians.
Real estate agents say the changes ? officially gazetted last month ? have sparked fresh interest, especially among Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) holders. It has widened the pool of potential buyers in a sector where people can wait almost a year on average to shift their homes in a sluggish market. The real estate market is seen as a barometer of the health of the economy overall.
Capital G Bank broke the shock news that 12 Bermudian and one work permit holder would have to go at a meeting of staff yesterday.
Tears shed
Staff shed tears and wondered who might be next for the chop.
Meanwhile, the owners of the Mr Chicken fast food outlet on Queen Street said a mix of increasing operating costs and the recession had made them consider shutting up shop altogether. But David and Beryl Furbert instead opted for a radical change in hours ? including opening to 4am on Friday and Saturday nights ? in a bid to generate more revenue.
Ooops- I appolozize for making A typographical error in the subject box-
This is a rational approach concerning Immigration, Amnesty and Deportation and how Obama and Romney feel about these issues.
This info has made it easier to understand.
#1-One of the primary concerns behind any immigration policy is the displacement of opportunities for local workers and the secondary economic effects, not least in the drop of average wages and fringe benefits. The influx of a foreign workforce realigns old standards and practices, negates existing leverages and draws new lines across the sand on existing employee-employer relationships. The process is not always instantaneous, but as sure as the sun will rise, it is a certainty.
#2-There is also the issue of immigrant integration into a society. Too few, and they run the risks of being absorbed or repulsed by their host community. Too many, and the host community is open to the risks of being unraveled and reshaped. The United States, for all of its open-arms policy to foreign talents, lack a structured and coherent integration process. Moreover, with no support infrastructure at a local level to assist immigrant integration processes, everything is left to chance, and once again, reactionary. This approach is especially flawed when dealing with a massive, single area influx, which will strain the healthcare, education and other prevailing public and social infrastructure.
#3-Now, this is even before we include illegal immigration into the mix, which will see the aforementioned risks being augmented many times over. With over ten million illegal immigrants in the country (the number varies depending on who you ask, but the error margin is about a million in either direction), accounting for a third of the foreign workforce, the figures are cause for great concern. This is especially true in border towns, where the lack strategic, legal and enforcement support from the federal and state governments give rise to a siege mentality among the populace there.
#4-The situation is further exacerbated when criminal elements insert themselves into the situation, introducing drugs, human trafficking and cross border violence into the already volatile mix. Words like ?invasion? are being bandied with increasing regularity, and coupled with the constant threat of terrorism, there is a fear that vigilantism by over exuberant members of the border communities might find popular support, especially (and worryingly) from less reputable section of these communities (remember the Minuteman vigilante group and their eventual transformation into common robbers?). Putting all that aside, the deaths of immigrants looking for work in the country alone ought to raise questions about existing U.S. immigration policies, and facilitate the reengineering of these legislations.
On October 11, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave a speech on cyber threats -- "an issue at the very nexus of business and national security," he said. "Ultimately, no one has a greater interest in cybersecurity than the businesses that depend on a safe, secure, and resilient global digital infrastructure." He's right: Businesses are interested and engaged -- but some in a different way he meant.A new front is emerging in cyber-warfare: Multinational corporations are standing up to governments that use the Internet for military purposes.
Last month, in an unprecedented move, the U.S.-based company Symantec, Russia-based Kaspersky Lab, the German CERT-Bund/BSI, and ITU-IMPACT published the results of their joint analysis of the cyber-espionage tool Flame that infected primarily computer systems in the Middle East. They show that parts of Flame had been active as early as 2006, collecting data in more than a dozen countries, and that it was likely produced by a government. According to Kaspersky Lab, "in June, we definitely confirmed that Flame developers communicated with the Stuxnet development team, which was another convincing fact that Flame was developed with nation-state backing," whereas Symantec more cautiously states that "this is the work of a highly organized and sophisticated group."
"For us to know that a malware campaign lasted this long and was flying under the radar for everyone in the community, it's a little concerning.... It's a very targeted attack, but it's a very large-scale attack," Vikram Thakur at Symantec points out. The discoveries over the last two years of Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame, and Gauss -- computer malware designed to spy and destroy -- provided a glimpse of how far states have advanced in using cyberspace for military purposes, shedding light on a cyber campaign that seems to have been waged largely unnoticed for years. Perhaps the embarrassment was a wake-up call -- some members of the industry now seem determined to step up their game.
It's clear that governments across the world are bolstering their cyberwarfare capabilities. "What we're looking at is a global cyber arms race," said Rear Admiral Samuel Cox, director of intelligence at U.S. Cyber Command. Earlier this year, Forbes reported that governments are buying key components of cyber-weapons from hackers on a shadow market. The New York Times reporting on Operation Olympic Games shed light on Stuxnet, the most sophisticated cyber-attack known to date, and fueled the debate about potential backlashes.
But there is a counterforce to the global cyber arms race: an entire industry built on identifying and neutralizing malware. In fact, two races are taking place simultaneously -- an arms and a disarmament race.
This disarmament race is driven by the Symantecs, McAfees, and Kasperskys of the world. These companies work day in and day out to identify malware and vulnerabilities in computer systems in order to develop solutions that they can sell. Once private security vendors expose a vulnerability, they issue a "patch" to disarm the cyber weapon. Microsoft, for example, patched its operating system after it was revealed that Stuxnet exploited a weakness in its software. (For a recent analysis of how Stuxnet worked, watch this excellent video of a presentation by Symantec Vice President Carey Nachenberg.) Stuxnet could have done a lot more damage had it not escaped the Natanz facility and continuing its destructive business undetected. This gives cyber-weapons a very short -- but also a very unpredictable -- half-life.
That is why these companies can be thought of as mine sweepers: They first identify a piece of malware lying dormant in a system, waiting to unleash its payload, and then work to defuse it. The analogy to mines is limited, of course. Stuxnet was not a mine waiting for someone to step on it: When it was discovered, it was actively in the process of causing damage. So unlike traditional mine sweepers, which usually only clean up the mess after militaries leave the battlefield, cyber mine sweepers are active in an ongoing conflict.
Originally, malware was mainly used by hacktivists and criminal hackers. Anti-virus companies emerged to protect companies and individual consumers against such threats. The software and patches they developed make the Internet more secure as a whole, whether the threat emanated from a criminal network or lone hacker. As more and more people accessed the Internet, their businesses grew beyond national borders, turning Symantec, McAfee, and Kaspersky into multinational companies. While the latter is in private hands, the former two are publicly traded companies with a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders.?
Yet, the discovery of Flame, whose approach according to Symantec "fits the profile of military and intelligence operations," demonstrates the headache this anti-malware industry can also cause militaries and intelligence agencies. When Kaspersky went public with its knowledge of Flame on May 28, Flame's operators tried to shut the virus down -- sending a "kill module" with instructions to wipe systems clean of any trace of the malware. Yet, when "the domains went dark about an hour after news of the operation broke worldwide last Monday, suggesting the attackers were shutting down the mission, at least three infected machines in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon were upgraded by the attackers with new versions of the malware after this occurred," according to Roel Schouwenberg, senior antivirus researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
Curiously, this kill module also included instructions to delete itself afterward, which failed due to erroneous code. Similarly, another script to delete temporary files failed because of "a typo in the file path." As one astute blogger remarked, "The 'clean up and coding gaffes' sound like misinformation or the coders were really in a hurry. One run of the LogWiper script in a test environment would've quickly exposed the typos as the script would've barfed immediately." Perhaps the sloppiness was a result of the hide-and-seek game once Kaspersky Lab had uncovered the stealthy attackers.
Analysts also discovered that Flame seems to have been only one part of a set of four or five tools, but do not know details about the others. They were able to analyze Flame due to a simple mistake by the attackers: They "played with the server settings and managed to lock themselves out of it," says Costin Raiu, senior security researcher for Kaspersky. This is how researchers discovered the intruders had registered domains for the operation, which infected systems in several countries -- focusing on Iran and Sudan -- and collected a massive amount of data in the process.
But there are differences in the industry. The way the cyber-protection industry usually works is that companies try to identify threats first to gain a competitive advantage, and offer their solutions to anyone who pays: individual users, companies, and governments. They do this work without getting involved in politics -- but Eugene Kaspersky is taking a different stand. According to the New York Times, his lab is "using [its] integral role in exposing or decrypting three computer viruses apparently intended to slow or halt Iran's nuclear program to argue for an international treaty banning computer warfare."
Kaspersky's lab could prove to be a powerful tool to support his political agenda: It is one of the leading firms in the field, and also uses innovative techniques such as crowdsourcing to analyze malware. Thanks to the help of outside computer experts, for example, Kaspersky Lab eventually succeeded in analyzing a codinglanguage used to program the computer virus Duqu.
The identification of Flame highlights how the world of computer virus detection is changing. Other organizations are starting to show an interest in this business: Flame was discovered after Kaspersky Lab had been asked by the ITU, a specialized agency of the United Nations, to find another piece of malware -- an approach the ITU has also pursued for the Gauss malware. According to ITU's staff, the two organizations "have a long-standing relationship, during which we've been actively collaborating on several cyber security projects and initiatives. For instance, Kaspersky is one of the key partners, together with companies such as Symantec, Microsoft, Trend Micro, F-secure, among others on the ITU-IMPACT initiative, a public private partnership comprising 142 countries, academia, industry and international organizations."
The industry is becoming smarter, too. Kaspersky Lab has actively used crowd-sourcing to analyze code that its research team could not decipher. Kaspersky and Symantec use honeypots -- a trap to gain information about an attacker and the malware. In Flame's case, Kaspersky worked with the domain registrar GoDaddy and OpenDNS to redirect traffic to a honeypot. The international cooperation is therefore only the most recent effort to catch up with governments. It also includes collaboration with computer emergency response teams (CERT) such as the German CERT-Bund involved in the examination of Flame. CERT-Bund's staff commenting on the recent joint analysis highlights that, "the cooperation is more on an individual rather than institutional basis."
There are obvious limitations to the industry's impact. It took months after Stuxnet had escaped from Natanz to be discovered by VirusBlokAda, a small firm in Belarus. In the case of Flame, Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at the anti-virus company F-Secure, points out "all of us had missed detecting this malware for two years, or more. That's a spectacular failure for our company, and for the antivirus industry in general."
Interestingly, Hypponen's company did have samples of Flame's code in its possession before its identification, but they did not trigger any alarms. The virus was designed to be so stealthy that it avoided detection even by the industry's leaders. This shows that certain states are ahead in the race against the disarmament players: They can still outsmart the systems built by private industry. At the same time, Stuxnet and Flame have also shown that once the code is discovered, the industry will invest its resources to take it apart and analyze its various components.
Governments can use this process to their advantage by tipping the industry off to the existence of malware. States that might be subject to an attack -- but lacking in the capability to defend themselves -- could thereby tap into the resources of security firms to identify the cyber weapon. States that are not directly affected by a virus, but have a political interest to intervene as a third party, could also play a role.
It remains unclear what the unanticipated and unintended consequences of the military use of the Internet will be in the long run. Will other actors be able to copy the design of sophisticated malware such as Stuxnet or Flame? To what degree will the general trust in the Internet ecosystem be undermined by such activity??
Time will tell. In the meantime, these companies constitute a new actor in international security to be reckoned with. As governments around the world are setting up military cyber-commands, drafting cyber-doctrines, and developing cyber-weapons, private security firms are standing ready to disarm them. The race is on: A few governments seem to be in the lead, but industry members are working hard to catch up. Buckle up.
A subject like snoring is something a lot of people don?t really like to talk about, but they probably do think about it from time to time. If you want to expand your knowledge in the subject of snoring then look no further, you can discover some insightful information in this article.
Eliminate stress as often as possible from your day, from a physical and emotional perspective. Stress and increased levels of anxiety can worsen snoring during the night and put a damper on a quality night of rest. Take care of all your issues during the day in an effort to maximize quality of sleep.
In order to eliminate your snoring, you may need to ask your doctor or dentist about getting a mouth guard. These things can hold your teeth together and prevent your lower jaw muscles from being too loose when you are sleeping. This method is one of the most effective ones for eliminating snoring.
If your snoring is growing worse, make sure that the pillow you use at night is thick enough to elevate your head. Sleeping on a pillow that does not have adequate girth will not only increase your snoring, but it will also disturb your loved ones who are trying to sleep.
Try not to take any medications that contain sedatives, if you want to stop snoring. Sedatives are known to relax the throat muscles and when these muscles are too relaxed, snoring occurs. If you medications have sedatives, speak with your doctor about switching to a similar medication that does not have a sedative.
If your young child or infant snores, it is time to visit the doctor. It is normal to think that snoring is cute, but it needs to be evaluated. Snoring in young children is usually indicative of a medical problem. A doctor will need to rule out issues like airway obstruction caused by large tonsils, for example.
A stop snoring mouthpiece can really do some good if you are a snorer. It works by keeping your lower jaw in line so that your tongue stays where it needs to be to stop the snoring. They must be fitted correctly to work effectively, but once you get it fitted right; you will sleep better through the night without snoring.
Take care of your allergies to alleviate snoring. Many times, snoring is caused by an allergy to dust mites, pet fur, or other allergen. The allergy can cause your nasal and throat passages to swell, leading to a rattling snore. Taking an over the counter medication can help, or see your doctor to find the best treatment.
A good way to prevent your from sleeping on your back, which can make snoring worse, is to sew something on the back of your shirt that will be uncomfortable if you roll over on it. This will make you less likely to ever sleep in a position where you are on your back.
Drinking alcohol too close to bedtime can result in snoring. This happens because alcohol tends to relax the throat muscles, which leads to tightened airways. As a result, snoring is more likely to occur. The best way to avoid snoring due to alcohol consumption is to stop drinking spirits at least 5 to 6 hours before bedtime.
Finding out that trick that will finally calm down your snoring is like finding gold. A good night?s rest is a wonderful thing. The tips here and the information on snoring that go along with it can be invaluable to someone who has a severe snoring problem. Use these ideas to find that pot of gold at the end of your snoring rainbow.
This writer is still in the area of health and beauty and into mouthpiece to stop snoring for a long period and keeps an internet site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QaeC61ru3U where you can get hold of solutions to the rest of your issues.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a keynote address on "U.S. Strategic Engagement with North Africa in an Era of Change" at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington on Friday.
By Catherine Chomiak, NBC News
A month after the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reaffirmed the United States' support for the new governments emerging from the Arab Spring.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Friday, Clinton said the attack in Benghazi and the burning of the American School in Tunis have led some to question the promise and hope of the Arab Spring. She said she has always been clear-eyed about the challenges that were ahead.??
"Let me start by stating the obvious: Nobody should have ever thought this would be an easy road. I certainly didn't," Clinton said.?
Romney: Biden 'doubling down on denial' in explanation of Libya response
She went on to say that the United States "will not pull back our support for emerging democracies when the going gets rough. That would be a costly strategic mistake that would, I believe, undermine both our interests and our values." ??
Clinton described what occurred on Sept. 11 in Benghazi as a ?terrorist attack? and said she appointed a review board to examine the security procedures in Benghazi. The U.S. government is "sparing no effort" to track down the terrorists responsible for the attack, Clinton said.
The terrorists who attacked the mission do not represent the Libyan people, she added, citing the protests against the militias there.
"The United States will not retreat," Clinton said. "We will keep leading and we will stay engaged in the Maghreb and everywhere in the world, including in those hard places where America?s interests and values are at stake."
The United States is "stepping up" its counterterrorism efforts in northern Mali, Clinton said, where al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb is trying to expand its reach.?
"For some time, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and other terrorist groups have launched attacks and kidnappings from northern Mali into neighboring countries. Now, with the chaos and ethnic conflict there allowing these groups to carve out a larger safe haven, they are seeking to extend their reach and their networks in multiple directions," she said.
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Texas running back Johnathan Gray makes his way down the field during the second quarter against West Virginia in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/The Daily Texan, Elisabeth Dillon)
Texas running back Johnathan Gray makes his way down the field during the second quarter against West Virginia in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/The Daily Texan, Elisabeth Dillon)
Texas coach Mack Brown talks to officials during the third quarter of an NCAA college football game against West Virginia, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Texas' Jaxon Shipley (8) runs around West Virginia defender Josh Francis (4) during the third quarter of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops gestures as he answers a question during an NCAA college football news conference in Norman, Okla., Monday, Oct. 8, 2012. Having avenged last season's loss to Texas Tech and moved on from the first loss of this season, No. 13 Oklahoma faces a pivotal Red River Rivalry showdown Saturday against No. 15 Texas as both teams try for the conference title. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Oklahoma's Damien Williams finds the open field ahead of Texas Tech's D.J. Johnson during an NCAA college football game in Lubbock, Texas, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Scott MacWatters) LOCAL TV OUT
DALLAS (AP) ? Consider it a sign of how much Bob Stoops and Mack Brown have raised the bar in the Red River Rivalry when Oklahoma and Texas are playing each other without any real national title implications.
For the first time since 1999, when Stoops was in his first season coaching the Sooners and Brown was in Year 2 at Texas, neither team will be ranked in the top 10 for Saturday's clash at the Cotton Bowl. It's just the second time in 15 years that both teams will arrive already with a conference loss ? both at home, no less.
Yet there's still plenty on the line when the No. 13 Sooners (3-1, 1-1 Big 12) and No. 15 Longhorns (4-1, 1-1) square off for the 107th time in one of college football's most colorful rivalries.
First of all, it's a struggle for Big 12 survival with No. 5 West Virginia (which beat Texas) and No. 6 Kansas State (which beat Oklahoma) already leading the pack. And maybe, just maybe, the winner keeps the glimmer of hope alive that enough teams lose to make a national championship a possibility.
Even if all players had to look forward to was the incomparable feeling of putting the Golden Hat trophy on their heads, that would be enough.
"All the games are fun for me, but this one hits me deep," Texas safety Kenny Vaccaro said. "This is a good rivalry. It's rich. I think just the tradition throughout the many years, the battles back and forth."
Since Stoops and Brown have been around, the rivalry has reached a new level ? such that a game pitting two top-15 teams is a tiny bit of a letdown. But before 2000, it had been 16 years since both teams came in ranked in the top 15. Since then, eight out of 11 games have featured at least one team in the top 5, with both teams ranked that high four times.
"It's one of the biggest games of the season. We all look forward to this game," Sooners defensive end David King said. "The atmosphere, there's nothing like it."
Let King tell you a little about it.
For participants, the experience starts with a bus ride to the stadium, inside the State Fair of Texas. Fans from both teams will surround the buses, hardly holding back their opinions.
"You get so many middle fingers it's ridiculous," King said.
The atmosphere inside the Cotton Bowl is as colorful as outside of it, with the fair's traditional corny dogs and funnel cakes. The stands are split along the 50-yard line with all of Texas' burnt orange on one side and Oklahoma's crimson on the other.
Just walking down the tunnel to the field is a lifelong memory for most who play. It's a chance to stare down your bitter rival while the most boisterous of fans rain down a mixture of insults and praise.
"You come out, you're on the OU side and you run down the field and you go take your knee, say your prayer and you're right in a sea of orange," King said. "You know they're just saying some of the most inappropriate things. But I'm sure our fans are saying inappropriate things to the Texas players when they're walking out."
And that's all before the game even gets started.
The Sooners have won the last two meetings. The Longhorns had claimed four of the previous five showdowns.
Brown's Longhorns were also off to a promising start a year ago when Oklahoma delivered a reality check by scoring three defensive touchdowns in a 55-17 blowout. Texas scuffled to another mediocre season, by its standards, but emerged from the Holiday Bowl with David Ash appearing as though he has finally stabilized the quarterback position.
So far this season, he's been far from the biggest problem for the Longhorns. He's third in the nation in passing efficiency and has thrown for 11 touchdowns with only one interception. It's been a talented defense that hasn't lived up to expectations, and the placekicking has been a question mark, too.
"It should be a great matchup, where last year we laid an egg in the OU game because they played much better than we did," Brown said. "There were a lot of turnovers, and we were out of the game before we even got in it."
For Oklahoma, quarterback Landry Jones is on the brink of setting the school record for wins. He's 32-8 in his career and his next victory will push him past Steve Davis, who went 32-1-1 and won two national championship in the 1970s. Jones can also become the fourth Sooners QB to go 3-0 as a starter against Texas. He also relieved an injured Sam Bradford in the 2009 loss.
Whether Jones performs like the school's winningest quarterback or is turnover-prone, as he was in the loss to Kansas State, could go a long way toward determining the outcome.
"They're going to get their shots, we're going to take our hits and it's just going to be who keeps swinging is going to win this game," Sooners defensive end R.J. Washington said. "Who wants to fight more than anyone else?"
DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) ? At odds early and often, Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan squabbled over the economy, taxes, Medicare and more Thursday night in a contentious, interruption-filled debate. "That is a bunch of malarkey," the vice president retorted after a particularly tough Ryan attack on the administration's foreign policy.
"Not a single thing he said is accurate," Democrat Biden declared after Ryan said U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens had been denied sufficient security by administration officials. Stevens died in a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
Both men seemed primed for a showdown from their opening moments on stage, and neither seemed willing to let the other one have the final word.
"I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't interrupt each other," Ryan said to his older rival at one point. But both continued to do so ? and interrupted moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC as well.
The debate took place a little more than a week after President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney met in the first of their three debates ? an encounter that has fueled a Republican comeback in opinion polls.
With Democrats eager for Biden to show the spark the president lacked, he did so.
Unprompted, he brought up the video in which Romney had said 47 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax, view themselves as victims and do not take responsibility for their own lives.
"It's about time they take responsibility" instead of signing pledges to avoid raising taxes, Biden said ? of Romney, Ryan and the Republicans.
But Ryan quickly turned to dreary economic statistics ? 23 million are struggling to work, he said, and 15 percent of the country is living in poverty. "This is not what a real recovery looks like."
Medicare was a flashpoint, as well. Ryan said Obama's health care plan had diverted $716 billion from the program for seniors and created a new board that could deny care to patients who need it.
Democrats "haven't put a credible solution on the table," he said. "They'll tell you about vouchers. They'll say all these things to try to scare people."
Married at the age of 8. That fact alone is hard to fathom. It's even more difficult to stomach when you think of the resulting forced sex,?physical abuse?and early pregnancies that often result. But for girls in more than 50 countries around the world and in the U.S., this is their reality. The reality of child marriage.
Stephanie Sinclair / VIl
Faiz, 40, and Ghulam, 11, sit in her home prior to their wedding in the rural Damarda Village, Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2005. Ghulam said she is sad to be getting engaged as she wanted to be a teacher.
Photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair has been documenting this issue around the world since 2003. A large body of her work was published in recent weeks in National Geographic.?
We asked Sinclair to tell us more about her reporting:
?
How did you come up with this story idea and how long have you been reporting it? I started this project on child marriage in 2003, after meeting several girls who had set themselves on fire in Herat, Afghanistan. I noticed that many of the girls who had self-immolated had been married at very young ages, in many cases prepubescent. It was the first time I?d ever encountered anyone who had been married so young. This phenomenon seemed to link many of these girls and this intense act of desperation. I couldn?t help but feel a responsibility to research and document whatever it was that would make these girls set themselves on fire. The resulting project has taken eight years to date and I still have a little bit more I would like to do on it. What makes it so complicated is its prevalence in more than 50 countries worldwide. To document it properly, one needs to address the many cultural reasons behind the issue as well as the differing impacts on the varying societies.
How many different countries did you travel to for this story, and how did you gain access to these sensitive stories and events? I have documented this issue in Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Ethiopia and Yemen. Access has always been incredibly difficult regarding this project for several reasons. The most important is that parents and families innately know that what they are doing can cause harm to their children. But they continue this harmful traditional practice because they may feel societal pressures, have concerns for their safety and well being should they remain unmarried, or may even need to simply sell their girls in a desperate move to feed their other children. Furthermore, I have had to travel to each of these countries at least twice to find weddings and document these girls as they become young mothers. In some cases, it took months to just get access to the girls who were involved in underage marriage.??
Stephanie Sinclair / VII
Nujood Ali was ten when she fled her abusive, much older husband and took a taxi to the courthouse in Sanaa, Yemen. The girl's courageous act and the landmark legal battle that ensued turned her into an international heroine for women's rights. Now divorced, she is back home with her family and attending school again.
What is most disturbing to you about child marriage and what would you most like people to know about it? There are many disturbing factors related to child marriage. But I think the thing that we must acknowledge is that in most cases these young children do not want to be married. They want normal lives ? to play with their friends, be educated and have a full adolescence. These marriages rob many girls of their innocence, many times before puberty and this is something that as a global society we cannot tolerate.? Fortunately, almost every image in this project was done with the help of the locals living within these societies. They wanted this issue to get support so they could be further empowered to combat child marriage. This practice not only harms the young brides but also impedes the development of their communities and societies as a whole.
Is there a solution? A multifaceted approach is needed to address the issue of child marriage. However education is the single most protective factor against this practice. This means keeping the children in school as long as possible, as well as educating the communities about its harmful impact on the health of their girls, their grandchildren, as well as their societies as a whole.? I also strongly believe there is not just a need for awareness-raising and prevention work, but we must find ways to help these girls who are already in these marriages ? be it through giving financial incentives to their families to let them stay in school, or vocational training so they can have more say in their lives and households. Quality medical treatment is also needed for girls who are giving birth at these young ages. These girls need long-term solutions. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix.
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To mark the first inaugural International Day of the Girl Child on October 11, 2012, the United Nations Population Fund will partner with VII Photo to host an exhibition at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to present the personal narrative of the girls themselves. The hope is that their stories, presented in photography and video productions by Stephanie Sinclair and Jessica Dimmock, will renew global attention toward this critical issue and accountability across the international community. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will be among many prominent figures attending the opening.
Whether you are a cancer survivor or have a loved one with cancer, the new book Kicking Cancer in the Kitchen: The Girlfriend?s Cookbook and Guide to Using Real Food to Fight Cancer is an invaluable resource of information on beating cancer with diet and the experiences of two cancer survivors who banded together to help others battling cancer.
Healing power of food
Refusing to let cancer rule their lives, authors Annette Ramke and Kendall Scott, two young cancer survivors who not only survived but learned to thrive throughout their cancer journey, turned to nutrition as a way to fight off the disease and take back control. Kicking Cancer in the Kitchen shares real-life knowledge and experience about the healing power of food, along with advice on dealing with the ups and downs of cancer and more than 100 recipes on fighting cancer and soothing the symptoms of treatment.
Plant-based approach to combating cancer
The recipes in Kicking Cancer in the Kitchen are all vegetarian, with the majority being vegan, and feature Smoothies, Breakfast Foods and Leafy Greens, Veggies from Land and Sea, Grains, Plant Proteins, Refreshments and everything in between. Recipes include Savory Stuffed Acorn Squash, Banana-Pecan Pancakes with Chocolate-Coconut Drizzle and Walnut Meat-less Balls. Fitting for the season, Ramke and Scott share their Savory Stuffed Acorn Squash recipe, which can aid in fighting fatigue, boost the immune system, and alleviate constipation.?Acorn squash also contains phytonutrients like beta-carotene, which reduces free radicals in the body.
Savory Stuffed Acorn Squash
Recipe reprinted with permission from?Kicking Cancer in the Kitchen?? 2012 by Annette Ramke and Kendall Scott, Running Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown rice, uncooked
2 acorn squash
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 small zucchini, small chop
2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
5 crimini mushrooms, finely chopped
2 cups baby spinach, loosely packed
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Dash of freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Cook the brown rice according to directions (Note: approximate cooking time for 2 cups is 45 to 60 minutes).
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Gently scrub skins of the squash and cut off any long stems. Slice the acorn squash in half, from end to end, and scoop out seeds and loose membranes.
To prepare the stuffing, saute the red onion in olive oil for 2 minutes over medium heat or until onion begins to soften.
Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute until it just begins to turn a very light golden brown.
Add the zucchini, tomatoes and mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften.
Add the spinach, paprika, cumin, yeast, salt and pepper. Stir and let simmer for five minutes.
Stir in the cooked rice and remove from heat.
Turn the squash cut-side up and scoop stuffing mixture into each squash half, packing it well and mounding the mixture high.
Wrap each squash half in aluminum foil and place on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 1 hour until the squash is thoroughly tender and easy to pierce with a fork.
Your everyday cockroach might not seem terribly intelligent. But new fossil evidence from 520 million years ago suggests that this insidious insect might have had some surprisingly smart early ancestors.
Cockroaches and other insects belong to a group called the arthropods, which arose some 540 million years ago. A new Chinese fossil is yielding new insights into how the arthropod brain evolved and shows that within the first 20 million years of the group?s emergence, the arthropod brain had already become surprisingly advanced. The new findings are based on a three-inch-long fossil arthropod known as Fuxianhuia protensa, found in what is now China?s Yunnan Province and were described online October 10 in Nature (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).
?The fossil provides the most convincing, and certainly the oldest, description of nervous-system tissue in a fossil arthropod,? Graham Budd, of Uppsala University?s Department of Earth Sciences, wrote in an accompanying essay published in the same issue of Nature. The evidence for this brain material consists of ?dark, iron-rich mineral traces,? Budd noted, which can be interpreted as sections of a multi-part brain.
Fuxianhuia?s body is understandably primitive, which is par for the prehistoric course, given that it lived some 290 million years before the dinosaurs emerged. But the brain architecture was a surprise. After examining the fossil under a dissecting microscope, the researchers found that this animal had three distinct, closely situated brain sections. It also has three optic neuropils, which are connected by nerve fibers. The well-preserved fossil even shows hints of linking fibers that connected these separate areas. ?No one expected such an advanced brain would have evolved so early in the history of multicellular animals,? Nicholas Strausfeld, a neurobiologist at the University of Arizona and co-author on the new paper, said in a prepared statement.
These findings might seem clear cut, but they have been made in ?one of the most controversial and interesting arthropod species to boot, Fuxianhuia,? Budd noted.?Fuxianhuia has typically been classified as an early arthropod that was probably close to the common ancestor of all other hard-bodied invertebrates?of which there are more than 1.1 million described extant species. But the brain of this early creature bears a striking similarity to the brains of common bugs (the group that includes insects and arachnids) and malacostracans, (the group that includes crabs and lobsters), which have the three main brain sections and the connected optic neuropils. Another major group of arthropods, however, called the branchiopods (which includes brine shrimp and Daphnia water fleas) that emerged later, have much simpler brains with only two optic neuropils that are not connected like those in Fuxianhuia.
Strausfeld and his colleagues suggest that the new finding points to a malacostracan-type origin for modern day insects?rather than an ancestral primitive brain that more closely resembled that of Daphnia. If that is the case, ?it is remarkable how constant the ground pattern of the nervous system has remained,? Strausfeld said. This early complexity?especially in the optic area?could help to explain the stunning diversity of visual abilities in modern day relatives, such as compound eye vision.
Another possibility, albeit a controversial one, is that Fuxianhuia is, indeed, ancestral to all of these groups but the brains of those in the branchiopods actually simplified over time. ?Either way,? Budd noted, the findings ?will prompt hasty reexamination of many old specimens, and quite possibly some recasting of recent theories.?
New initiatives to win the hearts and minds of people were announced at the opening of the International Green Building Conference 2012 on Wednesday at Marina Bay Sands. Photo: IGBC
Singapore?s green building movement is reaching out and beyond boundaries, with new initiatives targeting the youth, industry professionals, and tie-ups with Asean countries being unveiled on Wednesday.
Speaking at the opening of the annual International Green Building Conference, SGBC president Tai Lee Siang noted that the local building industry has bought into the green building movement, but the ?next battle is for the hearts and minds of the people ? the average man-on-the-street?.
Echoing a similar ethos, guest-of-honour Ms Grace Fu, Minister in the Prime Minister?s Office, noted that the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has driven local efforts to green existing buildings ? last month, Singapore became the first in the world to legally require existing buildings to meet certain environment standards.
But the next thrust of its green building masterplan was to ?rope in the participation of an important stakeholder ? the user or the building occupant?, she said.
For example, BCA has already introduced new schemes such as the Green Mark for Office Interior, which targets the building?s occupants. It is an extension of BCA?s initial Green Mark scheme, launched in 2005, which rated buildings for its environmental standards. Today, there are almost 1,300 green building projects, representing about 17 per cent of buildings in Singapore.
Ms Fu, who is also Second Minister for Environment and Water Resources and Foreign Affairs, announced two new initiatives to further this effort.
The first is a new scheme on greening data centres. The second is a new ?Concrete Usage Index? ? a guide to benchmark efficient concrete usage in building works, meant to encourage sustainable materials in construction.
Ms Fu noted that the conference theme this year ? ?Green Community. Green Action.? ? aptly encapsulates the idea that ?to realise our vision of ?greening? our city and built environment, it is not sufficient for the government and the industry to take action, but the community has a part to play as well?.
The BCA is organizing for the first time this year a series of green building exhibitions in various shopping malls under the theme ?Together we build our green future? and this will be officially launched at Lot 1 Shoppers? Mall at Choa Chu Kang on Thursday.
As part of the conference, the SGBC has also organized a new ?Youth for Eco-Sustainability? or YES Programme, for the youths which features young building professionals sharing their stories and other activities such as getting the youth to take part in a green quiz or eco-pop song and dance competition.
This ?younger and more vibrant twist? is part of efforts to target the young ? the nation?s future ?green? leaders and consumers, said SGBC?s Mr Tai.
Mr Tai also told the conference that global demand for green products and services has shot up over the recent years ? the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that the global environmental market could reach US$836 billion by 2015 ? and the bulk of the growth is happening in Asia.
Growth in the Asia and Pacific region is expected to triple by 2015, making it the fastest growing region for environmental goods and services in the world, he said.
Up to 100 million new green jobs worldwide, or 2 per cent of the future global workforce, could be created by 2030, according to the Asia Business Council (ABC).
?All this presents great business opportunities for Singapore as well as everyone in the green value chain, from green manufacturers to the green professionals,? he said.
To capitalize on such opportunities, SGBC is forming alliances with their counterparts abroad. They signed a third MOU on Wednesday with the Vietnam Green Building Council (VGBC) ? following similar agreements with the China Green Building Council (CGBC) in March and with Green Building Council of Indonesia (GBCI) in April.
Given the strong demand and to further expand and promote the green building movement, SGBC has also decided to expand its current Certification Scheme for Green Products to also cover Green Services, said Mr Tai. This will commit building consultants to high environmental standards, he added.
The first phase of the certification will involve architectural firms, mechanical and electrical, and energy consultants. The next phase will extend to other services such as facility management, quantity surveyors and other services associated with buildings. SGBC?s target is to certify up to 30 firms by 2013.
Organised by the SGBC, the conference, now in its fourth year, is part of the annual Singapore Green Building Week. The week also features Bex Asia, a regional building expo focusing on eco-friendly products and solutions.
Some 10,000 experts and participants from more than 20 countries are expected to convene at Marina Bay Sands for the conference and expo to discuss green building issues.
Eco-Business.com?s coverage of the International Green Building Conference 2012 is brought to you by City Developments Limited.
For other news from the Singapore Green Building Week, including the International Green Building Conference 2012 and Bex Asia 2012, click here.
Whether you are a cancer survivor or have a loved one with cancer, the new book Kicking Cancer in the Kitchen: The Girlfriend?s Cookbook and Guide to Using Real Food to Fight Cancer is an invaluable resource of information on beating cancer with diet and the experiences of two cancer survivors who banded together to help others battling cancer.
