Ectopic eyes function without natural connection to brain

Feb. 27, 2013 ? For the first time, scientists have shown that transplanted eyes located far outside the head in a vertebrate animal model can confer vision without a direct neural connection to the brain.

Biologists at Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences used a frog model to shed new light -- literally -- on one of the major questions in regenerative medicine, bioengineering, and sensory augmentation research.

"One of the big challenges is to understand how the brain and body adapt to large changes in organization," says Douglas J. Blackiston, Ph.D., first author of the paper "Ectopic Eyes Outside the Head in Xenopus Tadpoles Provide Sensory Data For Light-Mediated Learning," in the February 27 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology. "Here, our research reveals the brain's remarkable ability, or plasticity, to process visual data coming from misplaced eyes, even when they are located far from the head."

Blackiston is a post-doctoral associate in the laboratory of co-author Michael Levin, Ph.D., professor of biology and director of the Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology at Tufts University.

Levin notes, "A primary goal in medicine is to one day be able to restore the function of damaged or missing sensory structures through the use of biological or artificial replacement components. There are many implications of this study, but the primary one from a medical standpoint is that we may not need to make specific connections to the brain when treating sensory disorders such as blindness."

In this experiment, the team surgically removed donor embryo eye primordia, marked with fluorescent proteins, and grafted them into the posterior region of recipient embryos. This induced the growth of ectopic eyes. The recipients' natural eyes were removed, leaving only the ectopic eyes.

Fluorescence microscopy revealed various innervation patterns but none of the animals developed nerves that connected the ectopic eyes to the brain or cranial region.

To determine if the ectopic eyes conveyed visual information, the team developed a computer-controlled visual training system in which quadrants of water were illuminated by either red or blue LED lights. The system could administer a mild electric shock to tadpoles swimming in a particular quadrant. A motion tracking system outfitted with a camera and a computer program allowed the scientists to monitor and record the tadpoles' motion and speed.

Eyes See Without Wiring to Brain

The team made exciting discoveries: Just over 19 percent of the animals with optic nerves that connected to the spine demonstrated learned responses to the lights. They swam away from the red light while the blue light stimulated natural movement.

Their response to the lights elicited during the experiments was no different from that of a control group of tadpoles with natural eyes intact. Furthermore, this response was not demonstrated by eyeless tadpoles or tadpoles that did not receive any electrical shock.

"This has never been shown before," says Levin. "No one would have guessed that eyes on the flank of a tadpole could see, especially when wired only to the spinal cord and not the brain." The findings suggest a remarkable plasticity in the brain's ability to incorporate signals from various body regions into behavioral programs that had evolved with a specific and different body plan.

"Ectopic eyes performed visual function," says Blackiston. "The brain recognized visual data from eyes that impinged on the spinal cord. We still need to determine if this plasticity in vertebrate brains extends to different ectopic organs or organs appropriate in different species."

One of the most fascinating areas for future investigation, according to Blackiston and Levin, is the question of exactly how the brain recognizes that the electrical signals coming from tissue near the gut is to be interpreted as visual data.

In computer engineering, notes Levin, who majored in computer science and biology as a Tufts undergraduate, this problem is usually solved by a "header" -- a piece of metadata attached to a packet of information that indicates its source and type. Whether electric signals from eyes impinging on the spinal cord carry such an identifier of their origin remains a hypothesis to be tested.

Research reported in this publication was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under award number MH081842-02 and the National Eye Institute, also of the NIH, under award number EY018168, and the Forsyth Institute, under award number 5T32DE007327-09.

Additional funders were the Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC, award W81XWH-10-2-0058).

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Tufts University, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Blackiston, B. J. and Levin, M. Ectopic eyes outside the head in Xenopus tadpoles provide sensory data for light-mediated learning. J. Exp. Biol., 2013; 216, 1031-1040

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/9csWLUaOYrg/130227183311.htm

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Tesla Motors CEO says NYT rift cost company millions

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk says the New York Times article on the company's Model S sedan cost Tesla Motors as much as $100 million, Ernst writes.

By Kurt Ernst,?Guest blogger / February 26, 2013

Elon Musk, center, CEO of Tesla Motors, raises his hand at the Nasdaq opening bell to celebrate the electric automaker?s initial public offering in 2009. Musk put a $100 million price tag on the damage done by a recent negative review of the Model S in The New York Times.

Mark Lennihan/AP/File

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The strange and curious case of?The New York Times?versus Tesla just won?t seem to go away. What was supposed to be a tech piece on Tesla?s new?Supercharger fast-charging stations, written by?N.Y. Timesreporter John Broder, turned into?fuel?for the range-anxiety bonfire when the electric?Model S sedan?reportedly left Broder stranded.

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Tesla?s [NSDQ:TSLA]?Elon Musk quickly fired back, denying that the facts were as Broder had presented them. The Tesla CEO soon backed up his allegation with?data logs from the drive, showing that all was not as the reporter had written.

Ultimately, neither side backed down, although an editor from?The New York Times?did admit that Broder?s data (scrawled in a leather-bound notebook) couldn?t match the accuracy of Tesla?s data (compiled in lurid detail by computer). In the end, both sides seemed to agree to disagree.

At least until Monday, when Musk put a price on the damage done by?The New York Times?article.?Bloomberg?quotes Musk as saying, ?It probably affected us to the tune of tens of millions, to the order of $100 million.??

ICE: Official?s resignation not tied to detainees? releases

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) called an Associated Press report ?inaccurate and misleading,? in response to an article stating that Gary Mead, ?ICE?s Enforcement Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, ?resigned shortly after the news that ICE had released immigrant detainees due to budget cuts.

?Gary Mead ? disclosed his departure in an email to his staff Tuesday afternoon. The announcement of the release of the illegal immigrants had come earlier in the day,? reported the AP, which also reported Mead did not give a reason for his departure in the e-mail and said he was leaving with ?mixed emotions.?

In a statement, Gillian Christensen, ICE Deputy Press Secretary, said the connection between Mead?s resignation and the detainees? release was not accurate. ??Gary Mead announced several weeks ago to ICE senior leadership that he planned to retire after 40 years in federal service and 6 years at ICE,? stated Christensen, adding, ?As planned, and as shared with ICE staff weeks ago, Mr. Mead will retire at the end of April.?

A few days ago ICE confirmed that hundreds of immigrant detainees who did not pose serious risks or criminal records were being released from different detention centers in several states.

RELATED: Release of ICE detainees shines spotlight on immigration debate?

In a statement, ICE said that??as fiscal uncertainty remains over the continuing resolution and possible sequestration, ICE has reviewed its detained population to ensure detention levels stay within ICE?s budget.? ?ICE?s Gillian Christensen stated that over the last week, it had reviewed several hundred cases and placed some individuals on methods of supervision which were less costly than detention.

Some immigrants rights groups said that releases of detainees should not come due to budget cuts. ??It shouldn?t take a manufactured crisis in Washington to prompt our immigration agencies to actually take steps towards using government resources wisely or keeping families together,? according to United We Dream?s Carolina Canizales.

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Source: http://nbclatino.com/2013/02/27/ice-officials-resignation-not-tied-to-detainees-releases/

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Libya to ask UN to lift arms embargo | Morocco World News

?TRIPOLI, February 27, 2013 (AFP)

?Libya said on Wednesday it will ask the UN?Security Council to lift an embargo on arms imports to the instability-wracked?North African country.

?At my meeting next week with the UN Security Council president, I will?discuss the question of lifting the embargo,? said Prime Minister Ali Zeidan,?quoted by the official news agency LANA.

?The issue will be discussed in all its aspects,? he said after a meeting?on efforts to rebuild the Libyan armed forces attended by Defence Minister?Mohammed al-Barghati, chief of staff Yussef al-Manghush and several officers.??The Security Council imposed the embargo at the start of the 2011 uprising?which led to the downfall of Moamer Kadhafi?s regime to protect the civilian?population from his forces.

But Libya has since been increasingly insecure and the authorities are?struggling to form a new army as militias control large swathes of territory.? In mid-December, the authorities decided to seal off Libya?s long and?porous borders with Algeria, Niger, Sudan and Chad, declaring the south of the?country a closed military zone.

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/02/80265/libya-to-ask-un-to-lift-arms-embargo/

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Guardly First In Mobile Safety To Offer Indoor Positioning System To Aid In Emergency Response

Toronto-based Guardly announced today the launch of its indoor positioning system (IPS) tech, adding more specificity and heightened capabilities in environments like office buildings to their mobile safety solution. The startup, which provides mobile safety apps for smartphone devices, and the infrastructure to support it for enterprise, education and other organizations, says its new IPS tech means it can not only show the rough geographic location of someone in danger, but also transmit information such as the specific floor they're on or even what room they're in if they're within a building.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/5XtDziV79X0/

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The case for letting terrorists use Twitter | Stuff.co.nz

OPINION: Somali al Qaida affiliate al-Shabab woke up one January morning to discover that its popular English-language Twitter account - @HSMPress - had been suspended, apparently because it had issued a direct, specific threat of violence in breach of Twitter's terms of service.

This rare termination dusted off one of the counterterrorism industry's most-cobwebbed and least-resolved debates: Should we let terrorist groups use the internet, or should we try to knock them offline?

When the debate first started, not long after 9/11, terrorist use of social media - anything from message boards to Facebook accounts - was concentrated in a relative few channels. Today, it's spread to hundreds of different outlets, including multiple dedicated web forums, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and beyond.

Stopping terrorists from spreading their propaganda online (using US-based internet companies to boot) seems like a no-brainer to many. But within the terrorism studies community, there are two common and sincere objections to disruptive approaches for countering violent extremism online.

The first objection is that knocking terrorists offline "doesn't work", because when you eliminate one account, the terrorists just open up a new account under a different name - which is exactly what al-Shabab did after a little more than a week. And then, the theory goes, you're back to square one. It's a high-tech game of whack-a-mole.

The second objection is that forcing terrorists off the internet destroys a valuable source of intelligence, because government, academic and private sector researchers rely on these online operations for information about what distant groups are doing and who supports them.

"The intelligence community took the position that you cannot take this stuff, you cannot take these sites, down," intelligence historian Matthew Aid told Voice of America last year after a number of jihadist forums went offline. The argument was that more information was gained "by monitoring these sites than any possible advantage that could be derived from shutting them down. And the intelligence community prevailed on this point."

Until now, there has been precious little data in the public domain to clearly support or refute either notion. But al-Shabab's termination is what scientists call a "found experiment" - a free lunch in which the universe hands you the data you need to test a theory.

Al-Shabab is a particularly useful example, since its Twitter account has by most measures been one of the most successful terrorist forays into popular social media. But it's not the only one. Jabhat al-Nusra already has more Twitter followers than al-Shabab ever did, and jihadis are by no means the only extremists using the medium. So the lessons learned from this example are likely to have broad applications.

Theory One: Disruption accomplishes nothing because they just come roaring back

I collected a list of @HSMPress's followers on January 16, less than a week before the account was suspended on January 25. At the time, al-Shabab had nearly 21,000 followers. As of Sunday, February 17, two weeks after its creation, the new account had just passed the 2400-follower mark.

Obviously, al-Shabab will continue to rebuild its follower network, but a disruption doesn't have to be permanent to be effective. From January 26 to February 17, al-Shabab averaged about 1300 followers per day. It currently has less than 12 per cent of its former reach. And its followers are in no hurry to come back.

If it maintains its current rate of growth, al-Shabab will need six months to a year to rebuild its former network. While that pace could well accelerate, there's also no guarantee the account will ever fully recover.

Significantly, Al Jazeera English did a story on al-Shabab's return during the period used to make this forecast. The story linked directly to al-Shabab's account, yet it barely moved the needle in terms of generating new followers for the Somali terrorists.

So the termination is likely to produce months or more of disadvantage to al-Shabab. Its ability to communicate with fans and generate a supportive social network certainly hasn't been eliminated, but it's been seriously and measurably damaged for a fairly significant length of time.

This isn't the only dataset suggesting that disruptions to online extremist networks do long-term damage. An ambitious New America Foundation paper published recently by Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, tracked the number of posts per day at the most important jihadi message forums.

Zelin also benefited from a found experiment when two of the three top forums he was tracking were knocked offline for a significant amount of time. The cause of the disruption is still unknown, but its effects were easy to see in Zelin's data.

While two of the three forums were offline, the third one picked up some activity - but not nearly enough to compensate for the loss of other two. The overall number of posts per day plummeted by 80 percent. After the two disrupted forums returned, their posts per day ran 13 percent lower than before the takedown.

One reason the disruption was less severe on the forums than on Twitter has to do with the structure of each network. When al-Shabab's Twitter account was terminated, it lost all of its followers and had to rebuild from scratch. User accounts on the forums can be backed up, so users did not have to re-register and they could jump right back in.

The forums are also destination web sites; you go there seeking out specific kinds of discussion and community. On Twitter, where attention spans are shorter, most users follow multiple accounts, so the loss of @HSMPress was more easily overlooked.

Importantly, although there's a web forum devoted specifically to al-Shabab, it has never gained nearly the same kind of traction that the Arabic jihadist forums enjoy. Al-Shabab is much more reliant on social media than the broader global jihadist community, so the termination of its Twitter account was a pretty big deal.

Theory Two: You lose valuable intelligence by knocking terrorists offline

@HSMPress had 21,000 followers - surely that's more useful than 2400, right? It's intuitive to think that more is better in the intelligence business - no matter how many times solid leads drown while we try to drink from the fire hose.

But although we're still getting the same basic information from the account's tweets, our ability to evaluate al-Shabab's social network of supporters just got a big boost.

Twitter accounts accrue followers; that is their nature. Some of those followers are indiscriminate about who they link up with, others become inactive over time. Some are curiosity-seekers with a casual interest who are too lazy to unfollow. The vast majority are simply passive consumers of information.

Any time you can weed a data set down from large and fuzzy down to small and focused, you're winning the intelligence game. The active social network that springs up around a propaganda account is its most important feature, and to study it, you need to winnow that list of 21,000 users down to the handful who are really engaged.

There are many different ways to do this, but here's just one, and it happens to be easy. We know who followed al-Shabab in January, and we know follows al-Shabab at its new account. There's noise in the new list of 2400 followers as well, but we can use a comparison of the two lists to figure out who among the first group made a conscious effort to find and follow al-Shabab at its new address.

The former followers who quickly signed up for al-Shabab's new Twitter account - just 882 users - have a serious interest in the al Qaida affiliate's activities.

While there is still some noise in the set - well over 100 journalists and researchers, for instance - this smaller group forms a strong starting point for analysis. We know these users are more likely to be very interested in al-Shabab, and the number is manageable enough that a single analyst can look at each account individually to make a more sophisticated evaluation.

A concerted effort to keep al-Shabab off Twitter forever would indeed cost Western observers valuable intelligence. But "forever" is only one option in a universe of possibilities. The "found experiment" of al-Shabab's Twitter suspension demonstrates that disrupting terrorists online doesn't hurt intelligence-gathering. It strengthens it.

In the world of countering violent extremism, opinions are plentiful, but unambiguous data are rare. Al-Shabab's travails provide us with clear evidence for the value of disruption.

All of this illustrates an important but oft overlooked point: Strategy doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing proposition.

Total suppression of extremists on the internet would cost us real intelligence, but that isn't a reason to just let them do whatever they want.

By making their lives difficult, we make ours easier in ways large and small.

- JM?Berger is editor of Intelwire.com and author of "Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam."

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Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/8353821/The-case-for-letting-terrorists-use-Twitter

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Organized Living: How One Woman Keeps Her Home Clutter-Free

By Reshma Memon Yaqub

My childhood home -- a four-bedroom colonial in a Washington, D.C., suburb -- had an exquisite exterior. But inside there was too much furniture crowding every room; too many Sears receipts spilling from end tables with too many drawers; too many televisions, with their confusing array of remotes, making too much noise; too many boxes of yellow cake mix aging in the overstuffed pantry; too many shoes and coats crammed into the hall closet, making it impossible to find the ones I needed in a hurry. Don't get me wrong: Ours was never one of those unsanitary houses you see on hoarding shows. It was just uncomfortably full, like a belly straining against a belt while its owner made room for one more pie and seven more mini-muffins.

The problem was my mother, who had trouble parting with anything she thought someone she loved might someday need from her (in other words, anything). My father vacillated between resister and accomplice. In my more enlightened moments, I imagine that if I had grown up as they did, in a poor village in Pakistan, I, too, might have held on a little too tightly once fortune finally favored me. But as a child, I felt as though I were drowning. I remember coming home from school to find things in my closet -- wrapping paper, extra blankets -- that didn't belong there. In protest, I'd toss these intruders into the hall. Then as now, clutter had a physical effect on me. The sight of knickknacks caused my left shoulder to rise and fall, tic-like, as if trying to shake something off.

Since leaving home for college, I've been making up for lost space. The home I currently share with my two sons looks from the outside like the one I grew up in -- gorgeous redbrick, huge yard -- but inside, there are no walk-in closets. No kitchen pantry. And gloriously, no garage. There are no coffee tables, because with them comes coffee-table clutter. No televisions, because their sidekicks are remote controls and piles of DVDs. If a decorator walked through my home, she'd recommend an ottoman here and there, a decorative accessory for the hallway, or end tables to cradle the telephones that sit on the hardwood floor in front of the jacks. She'd suggest art for my untouched walls. She might wonder why there's no dining table in the dining room.

It's not that I dislike decorations; I truly admire beautifully appointed homes. My laundry room holds tightly taped boxes full of mementos from my travels. I just can't figure out how to put them up without turning into a woman who has animal statues flanking her front door. I fear that if I start, my DNA strands -- with their broken C gene -- might eventually strangle me, leaving me writhing in a pile of throw pillows. Surely children of alcoholics are just as careful about taking that first drink.

Though my home is empty of the extraneous, it never feels empty enough. I frequently walk around with a cardboard box hunting for donation targets. For me, decluttering is an itch that pleads, then demands, to be scratched. If something's not being used this very moment, or on the cusp of being used, it's out. There's no ill-fitting clothing in my home, save the two onesies I held on to from my sons' baby days -- and one small box of prepregnancy pants that keep me jogging. I purge my closet seasonally, tossing anything that isn't earning its keep. What have you done for me lately, red sweater?

When they've sat unused too long, mocking me, I've evicted my hair dryer, curling iron, patio furniture, any coffee mug with words on it, and my broiler pan. I understand that most ovens come with a broiler pan. What I don't understand is, why? Why don't we get a choice in the matter? I have no baking pans, either. In an emergency, tinfoil is quite foldable and durable.

I adore items with multiple uses, especially paper towels. In my house, these magic little squares moonlight as dinner napkins, place mats, sponges, dishrags, sometimes toilet paper, and, occasionally, ambitiously, maxipads. But even paper towels I cannot stand to stock up on. Since I discovered Amazon's Subscribe & Save service, they arrive on my doorstep monthly, in a perfectly synchronized dance of use and replacement.

One thing I've been unable to get rid of is the outdoor garbage can that my home's previous residents left behind. Do you know how hard it is to throw away a trash can? I've tried cute notes with smiley faces; I've stuck the can inside my own, but the garbage collectors refuse to take the thing. It grates on me daily to see that green monstrosity leaning against my house. Sometimes I force myself to use it, to justify its existence.

To me, making do with less -- almost to the point of deprivation -- feels like a slightly demented badge of honor, a silent scream that says, Look, Mom, no extras! But more often than I'd like to admit, it turns out that I actually do need an item that I've given away, and I'm forced to repurchase it. Two years ago, I donated my treadmill because I joined a gym. A year later, I quit the gym because I wasn't spending enough time there -- and paid $1,400 for a new treadmill. Two springs ago, I donated my space heaters to my children's school, because... well, it wasn't cold anymore. As it turned out, the frost returned the following winter, and I had to shell out $70 apiece for four new heaters. I once donated a Pakistani cookbook to Goodwill because I had the distressing feeling there might be another one somewhere in my house. I realized later that I'd written some family recipes on the back, so I had to repurchase my own book.

My greatest decluttering challenges are Zain, 11, and Zach, 8, who adore useless stuff just as much as I abhor it. On some days, I fantasize about tossing all their toys and books and papers, the daily avalanche that flows from their backpacks. It's a pipe dream I know I will regret entertaining once they are grown.

And grow they will, into men who will tell their balanced, bewildered wives that their mom never let them bring home stuffed animals or pogo sticks or water guns from their grandparents' house. They'll recount that they owned one pair of sneakers at a time, plus dress shoes for holidays, because I didn't want the hall closet cluttered. That their desire to display LEGO creations and chess trophies buttressed against my obsessive resistance to blemished surfaces. "I can't stand so much stuff everywhere," I recently blurted, surveying the four books and magic wand strewn atop Zach's nightstand. "Stand it, Mom," he replied, not unkindly.

Zain, meanwhile, defiantly displays a framed photo of his fourth-grade "Wizard of Oz" cast party on his desk. I once hid it in the laundry room, hoping he would forget about it. A year later, I felt guilty enough to return it to him. Now he is lobbying to put up a Harry Potter poster. I have engineered a compromise: He can put up whatever he wants, but on the inside of his closet doors.

Occasionally, I worry that I'm depriving my sons of the same sense of control over their environment that I longed for as a child. I cringe at the thought that they might not want to come home for spring break to a house with no television to watch the hockey game on, and no coffee table to prop their feet on while they watch it.

My former husband, who recycled himself two years ago, never shared my fear of clutter but kindly kept his collection of African masks at the office. The first thing I noticed about his new digs was the decorative table that existed solely to display photos of our boys: dozens of pictures of their fully frame-worthy faces. He also had flat-screen TVs. For a moment, I admired his ability to balance his own aesthetics with the needs of others. I doubted that, with his full larders and healthy attitude, he'd ever have trouble drawing anyone into his home to lean against a throw pillow and watch the game.

Then I retreated to my own gloriously uncluttered home, whose clarity rises up to embrace me as I enter the front door. I picked up a stray sneaker and admired a drawing poking out from a backpack. Eventually I sat, with a mug of coffee that had no words on it, on a couch with just enough pillows to make a decent nest. I thought about how lucky I am to live in this perfect, unencumbered space with my two perfect, if cluttery, children. I thought about how everything in this house is here because of a carefully considered decision. Myself included. Ironically, I've lived for the past two years in my parents' real estate clutter, an extra home in a great school district they purchased when I was 3 and held on to for the absurd reason that someday, someone they loved might need it.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/organized-living-clutter-free-declutter_n_2736222.html

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Activists: Dozens killed in latest Syria fighting

Displaced Syrian children play with cleaning tools in the Azaz camp for displaced people, north of Aleppo province, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. According to Syrian activists the number of people in the Azaz camp has grown by 3,000 in the last weeks due to heavier shelling by government forces. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

Displaced Syrian children play with cleaning tools in the Azaz camp for displaced people, north of Aleppo province, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. According to Syrian activists the number of people in the Azaz camp has grown by 3,000 in the last weeks due to heavier shelling by government forces. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

This citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center AMC which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows an unexploded rocket from a Syrian warplane, in the neighborhood of Karam Alqasir, near Aleppo International Airport, in Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. A car bomb near the Damascus headquarters of Syria's ruling party killed scores on Thursday, while a government airstrike on a rebel field hospital in southern Daraa left several dead, opposition activists and state media reported. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Anti-regime activists say dozens of rebels and government forces have been killed in fighting near a police academy near the northern city of Aleppo.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday that the dead in the last two days of clashes included at least 26 rebel fighters, 40 soldiers and five pro-government militiamen.

The activist group says the two sides have been shelling each other while the government has launched airstrikes.

The police academy lies on the eastern side of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, which rebels have been battling to control since last July.

The U.N. say some 70,000 have been killed since Syria's conflict began in March 2011.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-26-Syria/id-ca80d5150e8843c6812c57279bbe4492

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List of 85th annual Academy Award winners

Jennifer Lawrence speaks onstage during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Jennifer Lawrence speaks onstage during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Anne Hathaway accepts the award for best actress in a supporting role for "Les Miserables" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Actor Christoph Waltz accepts the award for best actor in a supporting role for "Django Unchained" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

List of the 85th annual Academy Award winners announced Sunday in Los Angeles:

1. Best Picture: "Argo."

2. Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln."

3. Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook."

4. Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained."

5. Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables."

6. Directing: Ang Lee, "Life of Pi."

7. Foreign Language Film: "Amour."

8. Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio, "Argo."

9. Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, "Django Unchained."

10. Animated Feature Film: "Brave."

11. Production Design: "Lincoln."

12. Cinematography: "Life of Pi."

13. Sound Mixing: "Les Miserables."

14. Sound Editing (tie): "Skyfall," ''Zero Dark Thirty."

15. Original Score: "Life of Pi," Mychael Danna.

16. Original Song: "Skyfall" from "Skyfall," Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth.

17. Costume: "Anna Karenina."

18. Documentary Feature: "Searching for Sugar Man."

19. Documentary (short subject): "Inocente."

20. Film Editing: "Argo."

21. Makeup and Hairstyling: "Les Miserables."

22. Animated Short Film: "Paperman."

23. Live Action Short Film: "Curfew."

24. Visual Effects: "Life of Pi."

___

Oscar winners previously presented this season:

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Jeffrey Katzenberg

Honorary Award: Hal Needham

Honorary Award: D.A. Pennebaker

Honorary Award: George Stevens Jr.

Award of Merit: Cooke Optics

___

Online:

http://www.oscars.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-02-24-US-Oscars-List/id-a67de7a23b594c1cbc13f54999a40cc8

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Pistorius as mysterious as the shooting tragedy

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius leaves the Boschkop police station, east of Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013 en route to appear in court charged with murder. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was taken into custody and was expected to appear in court Thursday, after a 30-year-old woman who was believed to be his girlfriend was shot dead at his home in South Africa's capital, Pretoria. (AP Photo/Chris Collingridge) SOUTH AFRICA OUT

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius leaves the Boschkop police station, east of Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013 en route to appear in court charged with murder. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was taken into custody and was expected to appear in court Thursday, after a 30-year-old woman who was believed to be his girlfriend was shot dead at his home in South Africa's capital, Pretoria. (AP Photo/Chris Collingridge) SOUTH AFRICA OUT

In this photo taken Friday July 13, 2012, Associated Press Sports Writer Gerald Imray, left, is shown by Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, mobile images of his bloodied limbs after extensive training at an athletics training camp in Gemona, Italy. Pistorius trained in Gemona before competing as an able-bodied competitor at the London Olympics. (AP Photo/Paolo Giovannini)

Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius , in court Friday Feb. 22, 2013 in Pretoria, South Africa, for his bail hearing charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The defense and prosecution both completed their arguments with the magistrate soon to rule if the double-amputee athlete can be freed before trial or if he must stay behind bars pending trial) (AP Photo)

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands in the dock during his bail hearing at the magistrates court in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. The fourth and likely final day of Oscar Pistorius' bail hearing opened on Friday, with the magistrate then to rule if the double-amputee athlete can be freed before trial or if he has to remain in custody over the shooting death of his girlfriend. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius , in court Friday Feb. 22, 2013 in Pretoria, South Africa, for his bail hearing charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The defense and prosecution both completed their arguments with the magistrate soon to rule if the double-amputee athlete can be freed before trial or if he must stay behind bars pending trial. (AP Photo)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? His head shrouded by a sports hoodie, the young man walked unnoticed through a bustling crowd outside the gates of the Olympic village in London last year. When he got close, I saw a familiar face smiling at me.

It was Oscar Pistorius. "Gerald!" he called and then raised both hands for a double high-five greeting followed by a hug.

On Feb. 14, I saw Pistorius in a hood again, and this time he stared straight at the ground, hands thrust into the pockets of a gray sports jacket. He was flanked by officers as he left a police station. Hours earlier, he'd been charged with killing his girlfriend.

It is hard to reconcile the easygoing, charismatic man I interviewed on several occasions with the man accused of premeditated murder in the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp in his South African home. Prosecutors painted him as a man prone to anger and violence, though he had no prior criminal record. The Olympian says he shot Steenkamp by mistake, thinking she was a nighttime intruder, while prosecutors allege he intentionally shot her after the couple argued.

Who is Oscar Pistorius? I thought I had some idea, and in a sense, so did the millions around the world who cheered the double-amputee athlete as a symbol of determination over adversity.

Now he is as much of a mystery as whatever happened in his home in the early hours of Valentine's Day.

My meeting with Pistorius in London was one of several in the three years I have been covering his remarkable story for The Associated Press, from South Africa to Italy to London ? and last week to Courtroom C on the first floor of the red-bricked and gray-walled Pretoria Magistrate's Court in the South African capital.

On reflection, Pistorius' narrative is partly an exploration of how hard it is to truly know someone who lives so much in the public eye. Journalists witnessed or heard reports of occasional flashes of anger ? with hindsight, do they loom as potentially more meaningful? At the time the outbursts passed largely unnoticed.

What I do know is that the public Pistorius seemed to have a soft spot.

Weeks before his debut at the Olympics, he stopped an interview with me to talk to a little girl who walked up to give him a strawberry from the gardens of the rural hotel at his training base in Gemona, in northern Italy.

"Oscar, Oscar," the little girl said, holding out the berry. Behind her, a woman called the child away to stop her from bothering Pistorius.

"Ciao, baba. Grazie," Pistorius replied with a smile, unfazed by the interruption, showing off his Italian and pretending to eat the strawberry.

"She brings me something to eat every night," he told me delightedly, pointing up to the windows of his hotel room.

Now the world knows Pistorius owns a 9 mm Parabellum pistol, licensed for self-defense, and that he applied for licenses to own six more guns ? listed for his private collection ? weeks before the shooting death of Steenkamp.

His relationships with women have been spread over the gossip pages in South Africa.

We spoke about his running, his love of sneakers and nice clothes but also about his history with fast cars and motorbikes and the high-speed boat crash in 2009 that left him in a serious condition in the hospital with head wounds. He conceded that the crash caused him to rethink how he lived.

"I just realized that I need to make some changes and some of them need to be with my lifestyle," Pistorius told me last year in that interview in northern Italy. "I was messing around a lot with motorbikes and just playing around and taking unnecessary risks."

Again with hindsight, was he grappling with anything deeper than just the high spirits and penchant for thrills of many young men flushed with success and money to burn?

Covering Pistorius' track career, he became more comfortable with me, remembering my name and shouting it when he would see me among a pack of journalists.

During his Olympic preparations in Italy, Pistorius pulled out his cellphone to show me pictures of his bleeding leg stumps, rubbed raw from the friction of pounding around the track on his blades.

It was around the time when people were again questioning whether he should be allowed to run in the 400 meters against able-bodied athletes. The message in showing these graphic photos was: Do you still think I have an unfair advantage?

Until that moment, I hadn't fully realized what Pistorius went through every time he slipped on his prosthetic blades to compete or train. Not many people had, I guess.

It was rare for Pistorius to show images of his amputated limbs, but he grinned and shrugged. He said it was just part of the job.

It took a long time for him to get used to people filming and taking photographs of him putting on his carbon-fiber blades. He used to ask people not to film him without his prosthetics.

When he finished a race at the South African national championships last year, he quickly disappeared to a secluded part of the track to swap his blades for artificial legs, complete with sponsored sneakers that his agent was holding for him. It was his regular post-race routine. He then came bounding back to give me an interview.

He often apologized when he had to end an interview because he was running out of time. It always seemed people wanted more of his time than he could give. After we talked in London, Pistorius stayed a little longer to pose for photographs with Olympic security staff, even convincing one shy lady to get into one of the pictures.

Then he popped on his identity-concealing hood and, on his prosthetic legs, he walked off, anonymous in the crowd.

___

Follow Gerald Imray at http://twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-25-Pistorius-Profile/id-ba99c397561d4d75ae59919ed3e3fd46

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BitTorrent Site Admin Hits Out at UK Music Industry Site Blocking ...

BitTorrent Site Admin Hits Out at UK Music Industry Site Blocking Demand

Within days the UK music industry will head back to the High Court with demands that the country?s leading Internet service providers should begin blocking three of the world?s largest torrent sites. Today, the owner of one of them describes the action as an attack on file-sharers and questions whether the process will be as straightforward as the one previously carried out against The Pirate Bay.

Last year nine record labels including EMI, Polydor, Sony, Virgin and Warner asked several of the UK?s leading ISPs to censor The Pirate Bay under Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. At the end of April 2012 the process concluded when the High Court ordered the site to be blocked.

On the back of this success, in October 2012 music industry group BPI tried its hand again, this time asking six ISPs (BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk) to begin blocking three more leading BitTorrent sites.

According to the Open Rights Group, next week the music industry will get a hearing in the High Court during which they will ask for a blockade on Kickass Torrents, H33t and Fenopy.

ORG describe website blocking as ?an extreme response? and say the hearings between a judge, ISPs and rightsholders do not sufficiently represent the needs of the Internet user.

Speaking with TorrentFreak the admin of one of the affected sites goes much further, slamming both the censorship approach and business ethic of the BPI.

?All anyone needs to know about the BPI is their 80?s slogan: ?Home Taping Is Killing Music?. The BPI are dishonest, capitalism at its most cynical, most hated by music fans and artists alike,? the admin of H33T says.

?We can expect this and more evil from the BPI, who are still rich on the wealth plundered over decades from exploited artists. To call the BPI arrogant when they claim to represent artists does not fully describe the depth of their corruption, they represent only themselves, a zombie remuneration vehicle for executive salaries to maximize the gold they extract from music production. Same situation as with the bankers, the BPI stinks the whole place up,? he adds.

The admin says that an attack on H33T, currently the 10th most popular torrent site in the world, is designed to maintain control for the BPI.

?Attacking H33T is an attack on sharers, that is the real BPI agenda. The BPI and their MAFIAA masters are playing for control of consumption of digital media in the UK. Independent networks of people freely sharing content is a challenge to their broken business model.

?This latest court action is well described by the Roman senator and historian Tacitus: ?The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws?. We are fighting for freedom, not independence, we want autonomy to make our own decisions, we want freedom of choice,? he adds.

H33T?s owner also questions whether this time around the court will be so quick to rubber stamp the BPI?s demands. In both of the UK?s previous blocking cases against Newzbin2 and The Pirate Bay there had been previous rulings that deemed the sites to be illegal. That is not the case with H33T, KickassTorrents or Fenopy.

Also muddying the waters is that unlike The Pirate Bay the sites in question all respond to DMCA-style takedown notices, although H33T does place certain conditions on cooperation.

Its owner says that a High Court summary judgment in favor of the BPI and without third party input would also deny a debate on notice and takedown processes.

?A summary judgment against the sites to enact a ban would deny any argument based upon the validity of DMCA style takedown procedures outside of the USA and the issue of the attribution of costs.

?In the absence of a proven complaint against the sites of facilitation or other involvement in the breach of copyright regulation, a ban on sites amounts to a judgement that a reasonable takedown procedure is no protection against a complainant and the matter of attribution of costs is ultimately to be borne by the network service provider. This summary judgment would have far reaching implications for the industry as a whole,? he concludes.

Source: http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-site-admin-hits-out-at-uk-music-industry-site-blocking-demand-130224/

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Syria opposition spurns US, Russia invitations

Muzaffar Salman / REUTERS

Demonstrators hold a giant opposition flag during a protest against Syria's President Bashar Assad in Bustan al-Qasr district in Aleppo, Feb. 22, 2013. REUTERS/Muzaffar Salman

By Reuters

The main Syrian opposition grouping has said it turned down invitations to visit Washington and Moscow to protest what it described as international silence over destruction of the ancient city of Aleppo by Syrian missile strikes.

A statement late on Friday by the Syrian National Coalition, an umbrella group of opposition political forces, said it also had suspended participation in a Friends of Syria conference of international powers due in Rome next month to protest the attacks it said have caused many civilian casualties.

"Hundreds or civilians have been killed by Scud missile strikes. Aleppo, the city and the civilization, is being destroyed systematically," the statement said.

---

"The Russian leadership especially bears moral and political responsibility for supplying the regime with weapons," it added, referring to Moscow's status as a leading ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"In protest of this shameful international stand, the coalition has decided to suspend its participation in the Rome conference for the Friends of Syria and decline the invitations to visit Russia and the United States."

The invitations had been extended to opposition coalition leader Mouaz Alkhatib after he met the Russian and U.S. foreign ministers in Munich this month.

The invitations were made shortly after Alkhatib offered to negotiate Assad's departure with members of the Syrian government who were not tainted by having participated in the crackdown on the 23-month-long revolt.

Rocket attacks on eastern districts of Aleppo, Syria's industrial and commercial hub, killed at least 29 people on Friday and trapped a family of 10 in the ruins of their home, opposition activists in the city said.

On Tuesday activists said at least 20 people were killed when a large missile hit the rebel-held district of Jabal Badro, also in the east of the contested city.

Reuters

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/23/17071508-syria-opposition-spurns-us-russia-invitations?lite

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90% No

All Critics (58) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (52) | Rotten (6)

Nominated by the Academy as the year's best foreign-language film, No grabs you hard, no mercy, and keeps you riveted.

Larra?n's unarguable point is that, in politics, if we wait for good to issue only from the pure in heart, we will be waiting a very long time.

[Lorrain has] made a few daring choices here, not all of which work.

A troubling, exhilarating and ingeniously realized film that's part stirring political drama and part devilish media satire ...

For anyone fascinated by the political process and the powers of persuasive advertising, No is a resounding yes.

It hangs on three ideas...While each...is intriguing, the execution of all is less than satisfying.

Larra?n's script is punctuated by dark bursts of humour, and the filmmaker knowingly navigates his audience to a nail-biting - though never cloying, and fully warranted - climax.

It makes the superficial Mad Men seem like, well, a commercial. Buy, buy, buy.

A fascinating period re-creation if not an especially compelling drama.

Evocative and suspenseful, the film is a fascinating glimpse into recent history and the democratic process.

The film highlights the sad fact that logical arguments don't win political debates or elections. Sloganeering and advertising do.

Using a technique borrowed from cinema verit? documentaries, the director succeeds in making us feel as if we're living each moment right alongside his politically-charged characters.

It's a perfectly fine movie, but given its fairly radical storyline, the filmmaking tends to hew toward the safe and the familiar.

"No" gives a fresh look at the little known history of a country whose duly elected government under Salvador Allende was overthrown in a military coup led by Pinochet in 1973.

Savvy, often brilliant ...

Bernal plays the creative type perfectly. His big eyes always seem to be seeing things that others don't, and through his calm, methodical demeanor, you can sense the wheels turning in his head.

No quotes approved yet for No. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_2012/

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FABULOUS home in Corral De Tierra, views and sunshine galore, close to golf course, 4bd/2.5ba, 3700 sq.ft,...

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Israel-Palestinian Oscar 'Battle'

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is the subject of two documentaries competing in the Best Documentary category at Sunday's Oscars.

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Source: http://www.foxreno.com/videos/news/israel-palestinian-oscar-battle/vrQ9F/

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Norway Offshore Oil Focus Best for Kvaerner, Aker Says

23 Feb 2013

Kvaerner ASA (KVAER), a builder of oil platforms, should focus on regaining lost market share in Norway rather than bidding for higher-risk international projects, according to Aker ASA (AKER) Chief Executive Officer Oeyvind Eriksen.

?The question is how does Kvaerner respond to the pretty brutal eye-opener that they lost all seven? engineering, procurement and construction contracts that have been awarded for projects off the coast of Norway in recent months, he told investors in Oslo today. The company should focus on Norway and re-establishing itself in ?pole position in the whole market rather than take higher risks? internationally, he said. Aker owns 41 percent of Kvaerner, making it the biggest shareholder.

Kvaerner lost out to Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. on the $1.1 billion topside contract for the Aasta Hansteen natural gas project, while Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. won the 6.1 billion kroner ($1.1 billion) Dagny topside deal. Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA awarded the topside deal for the Ivar Aasen project, worth about 4 billion kroner, to a unit of SembCorp Marine Ltd. in Singapore, it said on Feb. 7.

?The turn of the year has been a challenging one for Kvaerner,? Eriksen said. The company now needs to consider how it can restructure its business model to cut costs and enhance competitiveness, he said. ?That also entails working towards regaining its position with key clients, first and foremost with Statoil ASA (STL),? Norway?s largest oil and gas producer, he said.

Competition Intensifies

Kvaerner, based at Fornebu near Oslo, was spun off from Aker Solutions ASA (AKSO) in July 2011.

The company had an order backlog of 21.3 billion kroner as of Dec. 31, 50 percent of which is due for execution in 2013, 30 percent in 2014 and the remainder in 2015 and later, it said on Feb. 13. That compares with 10 billion kroner a year earlier.

Kvaerner is bidding for work at Woodside Petroleum Ltd.?s (WPL) Browse LNG project in the Kimberley wilderness region of Western Australia, with a final investment decision expected in the first half of this year, Kvaerner said.

?Other than Browse my personal view is that Kvaerner should really focus on the Norwegian continental shelf,? Eriksen said.

Kvaerner will adapt its ?delivery models to an increasingly competitive market,? Chief Executive Officer Jan Arve Haugan said at the company?s fourth-quarter results presentation on Feb. 13, without providing further detail.

Kvaerner posted net income of 56 million kroner, down from 81 million kroner a year earlier and beating the 35.6 million kroner average of seven analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Shares in Kvaerner rose as much as 3.8 percent and traded 3.4 percent higher as of 3:30 p.m. in Oslo, curbing its decline during the last 12 months to 15 percent and giving the company a market value of 3.6 billion kroner.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-02-22/norwegian-offshore-oil-focus-is-best-for-kvaerner-aker-ceo-says

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/opulentuz/~3/QZ0Mm9-gNAY/1384

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