FILE - This Tuesday June 27, 2006 file photo shows Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, as he waves to photographers during a farewell ceremony in Tehran. Senegal's highest court ruled just after midnight on Monday that the West African country's aging leader was eligible to run for a third term in next month's election, rejecting the appeals filed by the opposition and eliminating the last legal avenue for challenging President Abdoulaye Wade's candidacy. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian, File)
FILE - This Tuesday June 27, 2006 file photo shows Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, as he waves to photographers during a farewell ceremony in Tehran. Senegal's highest court ruled just after midnight on Monday that the West African country's aging leader was eligible to run for a third term in next month's election, rejecting the appeals filed by the opposition and eliminating the last legal avenue for challenging President Abdoulaye Wade's candidacy. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian, File)
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? Paramilitary police in northern Senegal opened fire Monday on men and women protesting the president's plan to run for a third term, killing a woman in her 60s and a high school student, a witness and a rights group said.
The violence is uncharacteristic for Senegal, a normally peaceful nation on Africa's western coast, and suggests its political conflict is escalating. Protests spread from the capital to the interior last Friday after the constitutional court validated President Abdoulaye Wade's candidacy in next month's election.
The legality of the 85-year-old Wade's quest for a third term is disputed. The constitution was revised in 2001 to impose a two-term limit. Wade, who came to power in 2000, argues that he is exempt because he was elected before the new law was drafted.
Early on Monday, the five-judge panel rejected the appeals lodged by the opposition over the weekend. Later in the day, demonstrators gathered in the center of Podor, some 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of the capital of this nation of 12 million, to protest the court's siding with Wade.
Amadou Diagne Niang, a resident of Podor who is the local correspondent for Le Soleil, the state-owned newspaper, said the paramilitary police, known as the gendarmes, ran out of tear gas. When the protesters refused to disperse, they opened fire with live bullets. The woman and young man were killed in front of him, Niang said by telephone from Podor
Amnesty International confirmed the killings, and its West Africa researcher, Salvatore Sagues, said it "marks a dramatic escalation in the violence that has plagued Senegal in the run up to its elections."
"As further protests are planned for tomorrow, we call on the authorities to refrain from using live bullets against peaceful protesters," Sagues said.
Cmdr. Papa Ibrahima Diop, a spokesman for the National Gendarmerie, also said he had been informed that two people were killed in Podor, but that he could not disclose details because an investigation is ongoing.
In the court's ruling, the judges said Wade's first term under the new constitution should be considered as being the one that started when he was first re-elected in 2007. Therefore, his second term would be the one that he would serve if he is re-elected in Feb. 26 election.
"It was never our intention in any way to violate the constitution of our country," Wade's spokesman Cheikh Serigne Ndiaye told reporters on Monday. "The (constitutional) council agreed with our reasoning."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday that the United States respects the decision of the court. But she added that it was not in Senegal's best interest for the elderly Wade to seek another term.
"Our message to him remains the same: That the statesmanly-like thing to do would be to cede to the next generation. And we think that would be better," she told reporters in Washington.
___
Associated Press writers Sadibou Marone in Dakar, Senegal, and Bradley Klapper in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Cancer sequencing initiative discovers mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumorsPublic release date: 29-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Summer Freeman summer.freeman@stjude.org 901-595-3061 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project provides first evidence linking cancer to mutations in genes involved in DNA organization
Researchers studying a rare, lethal childhood tumor of the brainstem discovered that nearly 80 percent of the tumors have mutations in genes not previously tied to cancer. Early evidence suggests the alterations play a unique role in other aggressive pediatric brain tumors as well.
The findings from the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP) offer important insight into a poorly understood tumor that kills more than 90 percent of patients within two years. The tumor, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), is found almost exclusively in children and accounts for 10 to 15 percent of pediatric tumors of the brain and central nervous system.
"We are hopeful that identifying these mutations will lead us to new selective therapeutic targets, which are particularly important since this tumor cannot be treated surgically and still lacks effective therapies," said Suzanne Baker, Ph.D., co-leader of the St. Jude Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program and a member of the St. Jude Department of Developmental Neurobiology. She is a corresponding author of the study published in the January 29 online edition of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.
DIPG is an extremely invasive tumor that occurs in the brainstem, which is at the base of the skull and controls such vital functions as breathing and heart rate. DIPG cannot be cured by surgery and is accurately diagnosed by non-invasive imaging. As a result, DIPG is rarely biopsied in the U.S. and little is known about it.
Cancer occurs when normal gene activity is disrupted, allowing for the unchecked cell growth and spread that makes cancer so lethal. In this study, investigators found 78 percent of the DIPG tumors had alterations in one of two genes that carry instructions for making proteins that play similar roles in packaging DNA inside cells. Both belong to the histone H3 family of proteins. DNA must be wrapped around histones so that it is compact enough to fit into the nucleus. The packaging of DNA by histones influences which genes are switched on or off, as well as the repair of mutations in DNA and the stability of DNA. Disruption of any of these processes can contribute to cancer.
Researchers said that the mutations seem unique to aggressive childhood brain tumors.
"It is amazing to see that this particular tumor type appears to be characterized by a molecular 'smoking gun' and that these mutations are unique to fast-growing pediatric cancers in the brain," said Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and one of the study's corresponding authors. "This is exactly the type of result one hopes to find when studying the genomes of cancer patients."
The results are the latest from the PCGP, an ambitious three-year effort to sequence the complete normal and cancer genomes of 600 children with some of the most poorly understood and aggressive pediatric cancers. The human genome includes the complete set of instructions needed to assemble and sustain human life. The goal is to identify differences that explain why cancer develops, spreads and kills. Researchers believe the findings will provide the foundation for new tools to diagnose, treat or prevent the disease.
For this study, researchers sequenced the complete normal and cancer genomes of seven patients with DIPG. "The mutations were found at such high frequency in the cancer genomes of those seven patients that we immediately checked for the same alterations in a larger group of DIPGs," Baker said. When researchers sequenced all 16 of the related genes that make closely related variants of histone H3 proteins in an additional 43 DIPGs, they found many of the tumors contained the same mistakes in only two of these genes.
Of the 50 DIPG tumors included in this study, 60 percent had a single alteration in the makeup of the H3F3A gene. When the mutated gene was translated into a protein, the point mutation led to the substitution of methionine for lysine as the 27th amino acid in this variant of histone H3 protein. Another 18 percent of the DIPG patients carried the same mistake in a different gene, HIST1H3B.
Researchers are now working to understand how mutations in H3F3A and HIST1H3B impact cell function and contribute to cancer. Earlier research provides some clues. The lysine that is mutated is normally targeted by enzymes that attach other molecules to histone H3, influencing how it interacts with other proteins that regulate gene expression, Baker said. Mutations in the enzymes that target histone H3 have been identified in other cancers, but this is the first report showing a specific alteration of histones in cancer.
H3F3A and HIST1H3B were also mutated in other aggressive childhood brain tumors, glioblastoma, that develop outside the brain stem. Of 36 such tumors included in this study, 36 percent carried one of three distinct point mutations in the genes. The alterations included another single change in the makeup of H3F3A not found in DIPGs.
The histone H3 genes, however, were not mutated in any of the 252 other childhood tumors researchers checked for this study. The list included the brain tumors known as low-grade gliomas, medulloblastomas and ependymomas plus other cancers outside the brain and nervous system. The H3 changes have not been reported in any other cancers, including adult glioblastoma. "This suggests these particular mutations give a very important selective advantage, particularly in the developing brainstem and to a lesser degree in the developing brain, which leads to a terribly aggressive brain tumor in children, but not in adults," Baker said.
"This discovery would not have been possible without the unbiased approach taken by the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project," Baker said. "The mutations had not been reported in any other tumor, so we would not have searched for them in DIPGs. Yet the alterations clearly play an important role in generating this particular tumor."
###
The study's first authors are Gang Wu, Alberto Broniscer and Troy McEachron, all of St. Jude. The study's other corresponding authors are Jinghui Zhang and James Downing, both of St. Jude. The other study authors are Charles Lu, Li Ding and Elaine Mardis, all of Washington University; and Barbara Paugh, Jared Becksfort, Chunxu Qu, Robert Huether, Matthew Parker, Junyuan Zhang, Amar Gajjar, Michael Dyer, Charles Mullighan, Richard Gilbertson and David Ellison, all of St. Jude.
The research was funded in part by the PCGP, including Kay Jewelers, a lead project sponsor; the National Institutes of Health, the Sydney Schlobohm Chair of Research from the National Brain Tumor Society; the Cure Starts Now Foundation, Smile for Sophie Forever Foundation, Tyler's Treehouse Foundation, Musicians Against Childhood Cancer, the Noyes Brain Tumor Foundation and ALSAC.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Since opening 50 years ago, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has changed the way the world treats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. No family ever pays St. Jude for the care their child receives and, for every child treated here, thousands more has been saved worldwide through St. Jude discoveries. The hospital has played a pivotal role in pushing U.S. pediatric cancer survival rates from 20 to 80 percent overall, and is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted to children. It is also a leader in the research and treatment of blood disorders and infectious diseases in children. St. Jude was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, who believed that no child should die in the dawn of life. Join that mission by visiting http://www.stjude.org or following us on http://www.facebook.com/stjude and Twitter@StJudeResearch.
Washington University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine's 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Cancer sequencing initiative discovers mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumorsPublic release date: 29-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Summer Freeman summer.freeman@stjude.org 901-595-3061 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project provides first evidence linking cancer to mutations in genes involved in DNA organization
Researchers studying a rare, lethal childhood tumor of the brainstem discovered that nearly 80 percent of the tumors have mutations in genes not previously tied to cancer. Early evidence suggests the alterations play a unique role in other aggressive pediatric brain tumors as well.
The findings from the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP) offer important insight into a poorly understood tumor that kills more than 90 percent of patients within two years. The tumor, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), is found almost exclusively in children and accounts for 10 to 15 percent of pediatric tumors of the brain and central nervous system.
"We are hopeful that identifying these mutations will lead us to new selective therapeutic targets, which are particularly important since this tumor cannot be treated surgically and still lacks effective therapies," said Suzanne Baker, Ph.D., co-leader of the St. Jude Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program and a member of the St. Jude Department of Developmental Neurobiology. She is a corresponding author of the study published in the January 29 online edition of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.
DIPG is an extremely invasive tumor that occurs in the brainstem, which is at the base of the skull and controls such vital functions as breathing and heart rate. DIPG cannot be cured by surgery and is accurately diagnosed by non-invasive imaging. As a result, DIPG is rarely biopsied in the U.S. and little is known about it.
Cancer occurs when normal gene activity is disrupted, allowing for the unchecked cell growth and spread that makes cancer so lethal. In this study, investigators found 78 percent of the DIPG tumors had alterations in one of two genes that carry instructions for making proteins that play similar roles in packaging DNA inside cells. Both belong to the histone H3 family of proteins. DNA must be wrapped around histones so that it is compact enough to fit into the nucleus. The packaging of DNA by histones influences which genes are switched on or off, as well as the repair of mutations in DNA and the stability of DNA. Disruption of any of these processes can contribute to cancer.
Researchers said that the mutations seem unique to aggressive childhood brain tumors.
"It is amazing to see that this particular tumor type appears to be characterized by a molecular 'smoking gun' and that these mutations are unique to fast-growing pediatric cancers in the brain," said Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and one of the study's corresponding authors. "This is exactly the type of result one hopes to find when studying the genomes of cancer patients."
The results are the latest from the PCGP, an ambitious three-year effort to sequence the complete normal and cancer genomes of 600 children with some of the most poorly understood and aggressive pediatric cancers. The human genome includes the complete set of instructions needed to assemble and sustain human life. The goal is to identify differences that explain why cancer develops, spreads and kills. Researchers believe the findings will provide the foundation for new tools to diagnose, treat or prevent the disease.
For this study, researchers sequenced the complete normal and cancer genomes of seven patients with DIPG. "The mutations were found at such high frequency in the cancer genomes of those seven patients that we immediately checked for the same alterations in a larger group of DIPGs," Baker said. When researchers sequenced all 16 of the related genes that make closely related variants of histone H3 proteins in an additional 43 DIPGs, they found many of the tumors contained the same mistakes in only two of these genes.
Of the 50 DIPG tumors included in this study, 60 percent had a single alteration in the makeup of the H3F3A gene. When the mutated gene was translated into a protein, the point mutation led to the substitution of methionine for lysine as the 27th amino acid in this variant of histone H3 protein. Another 18 percent of the DIPG patients carried the same mistake in a different gene, HIST1H3B.
Researchers are now working to understand how mutations in H3F3A and HIST1H3B impact cell function and contribute to cancer. Earlier research provides some clues. The lysine that is mutated is normally targeted by enzymes that attach other molecules to histone H3, influencing how it interacts with other proteins that regulate gene expression, Baker said. Mutations in the enzymes that target histone H3 have been identified in other cancers, but this is the first report showing a specific alteration of histones in cancer.
H3F3A and HIST1H3B were also mutated in other aggressive childhood brain tumors, glioblastoma, that develop outside the brain stem. Of 36 such tumors included in this study, 36 percent carried one of three distinct point mutations in the genes. The alterations included another single change in the makeup of H3F3A not found in DIPGs.
The histone H3 genes, however, were not mutated in any of the 252 other childhood tumors researchers checked for this study. The list included the brain tumors known as low-grade gliomas, medulloblastomas and ependymomas plus other cancers outside the brain and nervous system. The H3 changes have not been reported in any other cancers, including adult glioblastoma. "This suggests these particular mutations give a very important selective advantage, particularly in the developing brainstem and to a lesser degree in the developing brain, which leads to a terribly aggressive brain tumor in children, but not in adults," Baker said.
"This discovery would not have been possible without the unbiased approach taken by the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project," Baker said. "The mutations had not been reported in any other tumor, so we would not have searched for them in DIPGs. Yet the alterations clearly play an important role in generating this particular tumor."
###
The study's first authors are Gang Wu, Alberto Broniscer and Troy McEachron, all of St. Jude. The study's other corresponding authors are Jinghui Zhang and James Downing, both of St. Jude. The other study authors are Charles Lu, Li Ding and Elaine Mardis, all of Washington University; and Barbara Paugh, Jared Becksfort, Chunxu Qu, Robert Huether, Matthew Parker, Junyuan Zhang, Amar Gajjar, Michael Dyer, Charles Mullighan, Richard Gilbertson and David Ellison, all of St. Jude.
The research was funded in part by the PCGP, including Kay Jewelers, a lead project sponsor; the National Institutes of Health, the Sydney Schlobohm Chair of Research from the National Brain Tumor Society; the Cure Starts Now Foundation, Smile for Sophie Forever Foundation, Tyler's Treehouse Foundation, Musicians Against Childhood Cancer, the Noyes Brain Tumor Foundation and ALSAC.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Since opening 50 years ago, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has changed the way the world treats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. No family ever pays St. Jude for the care their child receives and, for every child treated here, thousands more has been saved worldwide through St. Jude discoveries. The hospital has played a pivotal role in pushing U.S. pediatric cancer survival rates from 20 to 80 percent overall, and is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted to children. It is also a leader in the research and treatment of blood disorders and infectious diseases in children. St. Jude was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, who believed that no child should die in the dawn of life. Join that mission by visiting http://www.stjude.org or following us on http://www.facebook.com/stjude and Twitter@StJudeResearch.
Washington University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine's 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PENSACOLA, Fla.?The run-up to Florida's Republican presidential primary has already been weird, thanks in part to an extended debate over whether there should be a colony on the moon. On Saturday, it got a little weirder.
Stumping at a seafood restaurant here along the Gulf coast, Mitt Romney picked up the endorsement of actor Jon Voight, the star of "Midnight Cowboy" who is perhaps best known these days as the father of actress Angelina Jolie. The actor has long been active in Republican politics, campaigning for Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign in 2008 and traveling with Mike Huckabee to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year.
Voight told the crowd he was backing Romney because he was "strong" and "honest." He declared President Obama had "decided to follow his father's footsteps and take us to socialism."
The actor said Newt Gingrich "fell short" of being able to take on Obama. "We cannot afford another four years of rhetoric," Voight said.
While Jolie's name wasn't mentioned on the stump, Romney did manage to sneak in a reference to the actress's wild-child reputation.
Explaining to the audience that he wasn't sure how to "chit chat with a famous actor" when he phoned Voight to ask for his support, Romney said he decided to talk about his kids.
"I started talking about my five boys," the candidate explained. "I said, you know, it's easier to raise boys than girls. Well, after a long pause, he says, 'Tell me about it.'"
The line got a huge laugh from the crowd of several hundred people who turned out to see Romney stump with Voight, as well as Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Sen. John McCain, who entertained the crowd with his own stand-up routine while introducing Romney.
The Arizona senator, who trained as a pilot at the naval base in Pensacola, joked that the money he spent as a young bachelor in the city had single-handedly kept the city's economy alive. And, in a repeat of a line he often repeated on the presidential campaign trail here four years ago, McCain joked about Zsa Zsa Gabor's sex life.
Noting the other dignitaries on hand, McCain said, "I feel a bit like Zsa Zsa Gabor's fifth husband. I know what I'm supposed to do, but I don't know how to make it interesting."
A few feet away, Romney let out an awkward giggle.
"I thought we only brought one actor and comedian here today," Romney told McCain when it was his turn at the mic. "Gosh, that was quite a repartee there, senator. That was fabulous."
Other popular Yahoo! News stories:
Want more of our best political stories? Visit?The Ticket or connect with us?on Facebook, follow uson Twitter, or add us?on Tumblr.
Handy with a camera? Join our?Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.
CANBERRA, Australia ? A clash between protesters and Australian police that forced bodyguards to rush Prime Minister Julia Gillard out of an event appears to have been set off by information released by one of Gillard's own aides.
The aide, media adviser Tony Hodges, resigned. Gillard's office said Friday that he told someone that opposition leader Tony Abbott would be at the awards ceremony where the clash occurred. A spokesperson said in a statement that the information was passed on to indigenous-rights protesters who were demonstrating nearby.
The protesters were angry about comments Abbott made about their movement, and about 200 of them surrounded the Canberra restaurant where the ceremony was being held. Gillard stumbled as she was rushed out and lost a shoe, which the protesters picked up.
Gillard said Saturday that Hodges acted alone, and that she accepted his resignation because she considered his conduct unacceptable. She said she was upset that protesters disrupted the awards ceremony, which honored Australians for their service and courage during recent natural disasters.
Abbott on Saturday demanded more details and an investigation into what he called a "serious security breach." He told Sky News the incident appeared to be an attempt to "trigger something potentially dire for political advantage."
"Trouble was triggered and it seems that someone from the prime minister's office had a very big hand in all of that," he said.
Gillard said the suggestion that she played a role in the clash was "deeply offensive" and added that "it is absolutely typical of Mr Abbott's negativity and his tendency to go too far."
The restaurant where Thursday's clash occurred is close to the so-called Aboriginal Tent Embassy, where the protesters had demonstrated peacefully earlier in the day. That long-standing, ramshackle collection of tents and temporary shelters is a center point of protests against Australia Day, which marks the arrival of the first fleet of British colonists in Sydney on Jan. 26, 1788.
The Tent Embassy celebrated its 40th anniversary on Thursday, and Abbott had earlier angered activists by saying it was time the embassy "moved on." Abbott said Friday that his comment had been misinterpreted, and that he never meant to imply the embassy should be torn down.
The blue suede shoe Gillard lost was handed to a security guard at Parliament House late Friday and taken to her office.
(This version corrects that adviser resigned rather than was fired.)
A captain from Yorkshire, the setting of Downton Abbey, would have faced a long and arduous journey home from the front. He'd have made his way from the battle lines to a rail station, traveled by train to Calais, hopped a steamer to Southampton, and taken at least two slow trains to London and then Yorkshire. The trip would have left him with, at most, four days at home during his leave.
As Harry Potter weathers his final Academy snub, Hobnobbing wonders if Katniss Everdeen can carry the genre's mantle. By Amy Wilkinson
Jennifer Lawrence in "The Hunger Games" Photo: Lionsgate
"The Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence set aside her flaming bow and arrow in favor of a gilded envelope Tuesday morning to announce the 2012 Oscar nominations alongside Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak. And sadly — though not entirely surprisingly for young-adult-literature aficionados — the "Harry Potter" franchise was once again (and for the final time) overlooked for a Best Picture nomination.
Which raises the question: Does the Academy have something against YA adaptations?*
Curiously, adaptations have historically been strong performers at the Academy Awards. Past statuettes have gone to the literary likes of "All Quiet on the Western Front," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Silence of the Lambs." And this year's contenders are no different. Six of the nine Best Picture nominees, including "The Descendants," "Hugo," "The Help," "Moneyball," "War Horse" and "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," can be found lining the shelves of your local Barnes & Noble, while five of last year's 10 nominees were also based on bound works, according to USA Today.
The side of the equation, then, troubling Academy voters seems to the "young adult" variable. Though to be fair, there's not much of a precedent for awards recognition seeing as mining teen lit for film fodder is a relatively new phenomenon. Sure, there are exceptions like S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" (made into a film all the way back in 1983, starring Matt Dillon and Patrick Swayze), but for every "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" or "The Princess Diaries" there are tens (if not hundreds) of seminal works, like "The Catcher in the Rye" or "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret," languishing in pre-production hell or undeserved obscurity as far as film financiers are concerned.
Which leaves us with "The Hunger Games," the latest YA sensation, which blazes into theaters in less than two months. And while it's hard to predict the awards-season viability of a movie we haven't even seen yet, there are at least a few indicators to suggest it could be the first YA novel adaptation to win (or at the very least be nominated for) Best Picture. For one, Oscar's already made acquaintance with many members of the cast and crew. Our friends at NextMovie crunched the numbers, discovering that the actors and technical experts behind "The Hunger Games" boast 30 Oscar nominations — even Effie Trinket couldn't turn her nose up at that. And while a film like "Twilight" (which, let's be honest, won't be sharing a feather-strewn canopy bed with the Academy anytime soon) focuses on a fantastical, star-crossed-lovers plotline, "The Hunger Games" deals more seriously with issues of life, death and government control, likely giving it more credence with voters.
Though most of the above could surely have been said of "Harry Potter," it apparently wasn't meant to be. Hopefully with "The Hunger Games" (and the slew of approximately 4 million teen novels in various stages of adaptation) the Academy will begin recognizing artful YA adaptations as the deserving films that they are. Because we already do.
Do you think "The Hunger Games" is blazing a path for YA novel adaptations? Sound off in the comments below and tweet me @amymwilk with your thoughts and suggestions for future columns!
*Whether, in fact, "Harry Potter" constitutes YA is a topic of much debate in and of itself, though for the sake of this piece, I assert that the final novel's dark tone and subject matter secure its spot at the teen table.
Andrew Revkin reports today on the engagement of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) to the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund created by Professor Scott Mandia, aka ?Supermandia? as he sees himself in the photo below.
Professor Scott Mandia - Founder of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund
From Scott Mandia?s blog-he captions this photo at left: The Caped Climate Crusader: Battling the evil forces of global warming deniers. ?Faster than global T rise, more powerful than a stranded polar bear, able to leap over rising seas in a single bound.?
I was really rather surprised that Revkin covered this nonsense, particularly since the ?fund? is primarily about Mandia?s adoration of Dr. Michael Mann, and his desire that his public emails from the University of Virgina not be exposed to scrutiny by the State Attorney General of Virginia to determine if he used research funds properly or not. PEER has made a number of public pronouncements defending Mann and claims that scientific integrity would be damaged if the attorney general is allowed to view those emails written on the public dime.
This probably explains why Mandia needs to wear hip waders as part of his costume.
The University of Virginia reportedly has spent upwards of a million dollars keeping those emails on double secret probation, so it would seem the old adage of ?where there?s smoke there?s fire? might truly apply here.
In Revkin?s Q&A e-mail interview with Jeff Ruch (video interview), the longtime executive director of PEER, it emerges that they have some pretty odd thinking on FOI as it applies to universities:
Q: Finally, when the issue is the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), there?s a murky line between what is fishing and what isn?t. Many FOIA requests of green groups over the years could be cast as such. This is one reason the Union of Concerned Scientists, for example, has walked a fine line in its statements on abuse of FOIA. Should a researcher using a state university e-mail address and working under federal grants be entitled to presume his/her correspondence is ?private? (as described below)?
A: The central issue is whether the subject of the inquiry is public business. Generally, scientific articles submitted in the author?s name with a disclaimer that the work does not represent the institution falls outside what is official business. Our main concern is that industry-funded groups and law firms are seeking to criminalize the peer review process by obtaining internal editorial comments of reviewers as a means to impeach or impugn scientists.
The grants themselves and the grant reports are public but a federal grant does not transform a university lab into an executive branch agency ? which is the ambit of FOIA.
By the way, as an adjunct to our whistleblower practice, PEER makes extensive use of FOIA to force disclosure of matters other wise buried in agency cubicles. A good example of one our science-based FOIA [requesets] is this.
Bishop Hill writes of this passage:
??seeking to criminalize the peer review process by obtaining internal editorial comments of reviewers as a means to impeach or impugn scientists?? Huh?
It can?t be said often enough. If you want public money you have to accept public oversight.
I agree. It seems the issue here is simple; they want the money, but they don?t want to answer any questions about how that money is used.
This is part of the ?entitlement mindset? that has pervaded public employees in recent years, and it is becoming tiresome.? Sunlight on the process is the only way accountability can be maintained.
ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2012) ? The life expectancy of a person born in Japan is among the highest in the world (82.9 years) yet tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are still the major risk factors for death among adults in Japan, emphasizing the need to reduce tobacco smoking and to improve ongoing programs designed to help people manage multiple cardiovascular risk factors, including high blood pressure, according to a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine.
In an analysis of available data led by Nayu Ikeda from the University of Tokyo in Japan, the authors found that in Japan in 2007, tobacco smoking and high blood pressure accounted for 129,000 and 104,000 deaths, respectively, among adults aged 30 years and over. Physical inactivity accounted for 52,000 deaths, high blood glucose and high dietary salt intake accounted for 34,000 deaths each, and alcohol use for 31,000 deaths. Furthermore, the authors found that life expectancy at age 40 would have been extended by 1.4 years for both sexes, if exposure to multiple cardiovascular risk factors had been reduced to an optimal level.
According to the authors, in order to sustain the trend of longevity in Japan for the 21st century, additional efforts in a variety of fields are required for decreasing adult mortality from chronic diseases and injuries. They say: "A first step will be to powerfully promote effective programs for smoking cessation."
Tobacco smoking is deeply rooted in Japanese society, but the authors argue that health professionals can play a big role: "Health care professionals, including physicians, who are highly conscious of the harms of tobacco will play the primary role in treatment of smoking and creating an environment for implementation of stringent tobacco control policies.
As for high blood pressure, the authors say: "it is urgent to establish a monitoring system for management of high blood pressure at the national level. Further investigation through national health surveys will help understand factors that contribute to the inadequate control of blood pressure in the Japanese population."
The authors conclude: "Measuring the quality of the care that is actually delivered by interventions will be of paramount importance in the assessment of current policies and programs for the treatment of multiple cardiovascular risks including hypertension. These concerted actions in research, public health, clinical practice, and policymaking will be the key for maintaining good population health in the aging society."
Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Nayu Ikeda, Manami Inoue, Hiroyasu Iso, Shunya Ikeda, Toshihiko Satoh, Mitsuhiko Noda, Tetsuya Mizoue, Hironori Imano, Eiko Saito, Kota Katanoda, Tomotaka Sobue, Shoichiro Tsugane, Mohsen Naghavi, Majid Ezzati, Kenji Shibuya. Adult Mortality Attributable to Preventable Risk Factors for Non-Communicable Diseases and Injuries in Japan: A Comparative Risk Assessment. PLoS Medicine, 2012; 9 (1): e1001160 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001160
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
In this Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 photo, Manager Jerry Holub looks at seed packages on display at the Earl May Nursery and Garden Center in Des Moines, Iowa. The USDA announced Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 new maps for plant hardiness zones, a key to determine which plants can survive in what parts of the country. The government's official guide of colorful planting zones is being updated for a warmer 21st century. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
This Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 photo shows a tag on a tree on display at the Earl May Nursery and Garden Center in Des Moines, Iowa. The USDA announced Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 new maps for plant hardiness zones, a key to determine which plants can survive in what parts of the country. The government's official guide of colorful planting zones is being updated for a warmer 21st century. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The color-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century.
It's the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised the official guide for the nation's 80 million gardeners, and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.
The new guide, unveiled Wednesday at the National Arboretum, arrives just as many home gardeners are receiving their seed catalogs and dreaming of lush flower beds in the spring.
It reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn't as cold as it used to be, so some plants and trees can now survive farther north.
"People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the wintertime," said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack. "There's a lot of things you can grow now that you couldn't grow before."
He stand the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard stands as an example: "People don't think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now."
The new guide also uses better weather data and offers more interactive technology. For example, gardeners using the online version can enter their ZIP code and get the exact average coldest temperature.
Also, for the first time, calculations include more detailed factors such as prevailing winds, the presence of nearby bodies of water, the slope of the land, and the way cities are hotter than suburbs and rural areas.
The map carves up the U.S. into 26 zones based on five-degree temperature increments. The old 1990 map mentions 34 U.S. cities in its key. On the 2012 map, 18 of those, including Honolulu, St. Louis, Des Moines, Iowa, St. Paul, Minn., and even Fairbanks, Alaska, are in newer, warmer zones.
Those differences matter in deciding what to plant.
For example, Des Moines used to be in zone 5a, meaning the lowest temperature on average was between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees. Now it's 5b, which has a lowest temperature of 10 to 15 degrees below zero. Jerry Holub, manager of a Des Moines plant nursery, said folks there might now be able to safely grow passion flowers.
Griffin, Ga., used to be in zone 7b, where the coldest day would average between 5 and 10 degrees. But the city is now in zone 8a, averaging a coldest day of 10 to 15 degrees. So growing bay laurel becomes possible. It wasn't recommended on the old map.
"It is great that the federal government is catching up with what the plants themselves have known for years now: The globe is warming and it is greatly influencing plants (and animals)," Stanford University biology professor Terry Root wrote in an email.
The changes come too late to make this year's seed packets, but they will be in next year's, said George Ball, chairman and CEO of the seed company W. Atlee Burpee, which puts the maps on packages of perennials, not annuals. But Bell said many of his customers already know what can grow in their own climate and how it has warmed.
"Climate change, which has been in the air for a long time, is not big news to gardeners," he said.
Mark Kaplan, a New York meteorologist who helped create the 1990 map, said the latest version clearly shows warmer zones migrating north. Other experts agreed.
The 1990 map was based on temperatures from 1974 to 1986, the new map from 1976 to 2005. The nation's average temperature from 1976 to 2005 was two-thirds of a degree higher than it was during the old time period, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
USDA spokeswoman Kim Kaplan, who was part of the map team, repeatedly tried to distance the new zones on the map from global warming. She said that while much of the country is in warmer zones, the map "is simply not a good instrument" to demonstrate climate change because it is based on just the coldest days of the year.
David W. Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology at Cornell University, said that the USDA is being too cautious and that the map plainly reflects warming.
The revised map "gives us a clear picture of the 'new normal' and will be an essential tool for gardeners, farmers and natural resource managers as they begin to cope with rapid climate change," Wolfe said in an email.
The Arbor Day Foundation issued its own hardiness guide six years ago, and the new government map is very similar, said Woodrow Nelson, a vice president at the plant-loving organization.
"We got a lot of comments that the 1990 map wasn't accurate anymore," Nelson said. "I look forward to (the new map). It's been a long time coming."
Nelson lives in Lincoln, Neb., where the zone warmed to a 5b. Nelson said he used to be in a "solid 4," but now he has Japanese maples and Fraser firs in his yard ? trees that shouldn't survive in a zone 4.
Vaughn Speer, an 87-year-old master gardener in Ames, Iowa, said he has seen redbud trees, one of the earliest blooming trees, a little farther north in recent years.
"They always said redbuds don't go beyond U.S. Highway 30," he said, "but I'm seeing them near Roland," 10 miles to the north.
___
AP Writer Michael J. Crumb contributed to this report from Des Moines.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina ? British adventurer Felicity Aston completed her crossing of Antarctica on Monday, becoming the first woman to ski across the icy continent alone.
She did it in 59 days, pulling two sledges for 1,084 miles (1,744 kilometers) from her starting point on the Leverett Glacier on Nov. 25.
"!!!Congratulations to the 1st female to traverse Antarctica SOLO.V proud," her Twitter message said.
She announced her achievement from Hercules Inlet on Antarctica's Ronne Ice Shelf, where she waited alone in her tent for bad weather to clear so that a small plane could pick her up and take her to a base camp. Other expeditions also have gathered there, preparing for the summer's last flight off the continent.
Aston also set another record: the first human to ski solo, across Antarctica, using only her own muscle power. A male-female team already combined to ski across Antarctica without kites or machines to pull them across, but Aston is the first to do this alone.
A veteran of expeditions in sub-zero environments, Aston, 34, worked as a meteorologist in Antarctica and has led teams on ski trips in the Antarctic, the Arctic and Greenland.
Her journey took her from the Ross Ice Shelf, up the Leverett Glacier and across the Transantarctic Mountains to the continent's vast central plateau, where she fought headwinds most of the way to the South Pole. Then she turned toward Hercules Inlet and a base camp where the Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions company provides logistical support to each summer's Antarctic expeditions.
She arranged in advance for two supply drops so that she could travel with a lighter load, one at the pole and one partway toward her final destination. Otherwise, her feat was unassisted.
Aston tweeted that she's been promised red wine and a hot shower after she gets picked up. "No plane tonight but I have my last Beef and Ale Stew to enjoy for my final evening alone ? yum!" she wrote.
And while she pondered her achievement in her last hours of solitude Monday, she shared more of her thoughts in a phone call she broadcast live online.
"It's all a little bit overwhelming. After days and days to get here, I seem to have arrived all in a rush. I don't really feel prepared for it. It feels amazing to be finished and yet overwhelmingly sad that it's over at the same time," she said. "I can't quite believe that i'm here and that i've crossed Antarctica, just over 1700 kilometers, just under 1,000 nautical miles, 14.5 degrees and 59 days and here I am."
"I'm just going to sit here and enjoy these last precious moments on my own, and running through my mind all those days behind me, the plane leaving me on my own ... the awful day when I thought I was going to get blown away, all those days of bad weather, slogging through those mountains, up those hills with my sledges, arriving at the pole, leaving the pole again, more bad weather and just empty horizons..."
"I remember all the bad times, sitting in my tent, thinking `what on Earth am I doing?', but despite all that, this has been the most amazing privilege, to have the opportunity to do this, and just a huge thank you to all those people who made it possible."
The Haus of Meg will pay $425,000 in order to settle a claim that it consciously flogged laptops with batteries that could overheat or catch fire. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission slapped the company on the wrist for not issuing a recall quickly enough. It claimed that HP knew about 22 incidents involving battery 'splosions by September 2007 -- including one instance of a user being hospitalized, but didn't begin issuing a recall until ten months later. By May 2011, the company had recalled over 90,000 affected units that were prone to the odd bout of spontaneous combustion. If you're concerned you've got a duff battery, check out our list here.
The assistant Democratic leader, South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, accused former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of ?appealing? to the racist tea party ?element? of the Republican Party in his campaign. Gingrich won the South Carolina Republican presidential primary on Saturday.
?It?s appealing to the tea party element when you say that Barack Obama is the best food stamp president we?ve ever had, that limits his presidency to an element of dependency,? Clyburn said on Sunday on CNN.
Host Candy Crowley responded, ?Well it?s a campaign and he?s making the point that food stamps have gone up and jobs have gone down. I mean, is that necessarily sort of a racist comment??
?It?s not necessarily so,? Clyburn said, ?but a ?welfare queen? being uttered by Ronald Reagan is not necessarily a comment of dependency, but people know what that means: Richard Nixon ? a southern strategy. Now, all of this carries certain connotations that people know very, very well, and I think that he [Gingrich] practiced that perfectly.?
Crowley then asked Clyburn if he thinks Gingrich is a racist.
?No, I never use that word and I don?t ever call anybody anything that resembles that but I?m saying he?s appealing to an element of his party that will see President Obama as different than all the other presidents that we have had.?
Crowley interrupted, saying, ?Him being African American.?
?There?s only one thing that makes him different from all the other president?s that we?ve had,??Clyburn continued.
PolitiFact has rated Gingrich?s ?food stamp? charge ?half true.?
?Gingrich is correct that food stamp use is at its highest level in both raw numbers and as a percentage of the U.S. population since the program began in 1969. Case closed? Not quite. Gingrich?s talking point implies that this is Obama?s fault,? says a post on PolitiFact.
?Clearly, the rise in food stamps is a direct consequence of the most recent recession, which began more than a year before Obama took office. It?s impossible to know how high [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] usage would have gone had the Republicans, rather than Obama, shaped policy in 2009 and 2010.?
Follow Nicholas on Twitter Join the conversation
Read more stories from The Daily Caller
Rep. Gabby Giffords stepping down from Congress ?this week? [VIDEO]
Rep. Clyburn: Gingrich ?appealing? to racist ?element? of GOP [VIDEO]
Coulter: 'With Newt Gingrich you throw out the baby and keep the bath water' [VIDEO]
Kochs push back against Obama attack
Christie on Gingrich's past: 'Newt Gingrich has embarrassed the party' [VIDEO]
ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2012) ? A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documents a need for increased injury prevention efforts in many of the most popular activities for kids (walking, bicycling, swimming, sports and playground use) in the United States. Injury is the leading cause of death for young people in the U.S., yet many public health efforts to promote physical activity in kids do not consider the numerous available strategies to incorporate injury prevention.
The report, published online in the journal Health and Place, outlines how injury prevention and child obesity professionals can work together to prevent injury while promoting active lifestyles in kids.
"Many of the activities currently recommended to reduce obesity in kids are also the leading causes of activity-related injury," explained lead study author Keshia Pollack, PhD, an assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "There are many behavioral, environmental and policy approaches proven to make exercise activities safer for kids, which we outline in our study."
For example, efforts are underway at the federal, state and local levels to increase the number of kids who walk to school; kids who walk to/from school each day are more likely to meet their daily recommended level of physical activity than kids who do not and, over time, walking or biking to school helps children develop an early habit of engaging in physical activity. The researchers note, however, that while pedestrian injury is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among U.S. children ages 5 to 14, many effective interventions exist to improve pedestrian safety, particularly changes to the built environment such as traffic-calming measures (i.e., speed humps, traffic circles) and enforcement of traffic laws.
"The key is breaking down the silos so injury prevention is incorporated into strategies to increase physical activity," said Pollack. "The goal should be to maximize the benefits of physical activity programs and avoid the possible unintended consequences of increased injury."
The researchers cite Sweden as an example of such integration: In 1954, a national program for child safety was established, which involved representatives from the government and private sectors. The program used policy to promote environmental and behavioral changes to reduce pedestrian, play, cycling and swimming injuries, and the results were dramatic: Between 1966 and 2001, the child injury death rate in Sweden fell more than 50 percent. Sweden continued its commitment to childhood injury prevention with its Vision Zero initiative, which began in the late 1990s and sought to redesign many roadways in communities throughout the country to encourage pedestrian and bicycle safety.
"Biking and walking provide great exercise and health benefits. We also know that wearing helmets while biking and building safe pedestrian paths can help prevent injuries," said David Sleet, PhD, associate director of science, CDC Injury Center's Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention. "It's taking that one extra step to build safety into physical activity that helps reduce injury risks."
Additional authors of "Toward Environments and Policies that Promote Injury-free Active Living -- It Wouldn't hurt" are Cassandra Kercher (Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), Shannon Frattaroli (Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), Corinne Peek-Asa (University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center), and Frederick P Rivara (Harborview Injury Prevention Research Center, University of Washington).
This research was supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Active Living Research program to the San Diego State University Foundation. This work was also supported in part by CDC/NCIPC contract 200-2009-M-31202 to the Society for the Advancement of Injury and Violence Research (SAVIR). The findings and conclusions in this research are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the office views of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) or CDC.
Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Bleacher Report, the popular site for sports fans now boasting 22 million uniques per month, just released its Team Stream app for the iPad. Similar to Team Stream for iPhone and Android smartphones, the new Team Stream HD app features news and analysis and supports push notifications for breaking news. This is the first tablet-optimized experience from the company, but it's not the only one: the company is also pushing out an iPad-optimized HTML5 browsing experience, too.
Kenny G's wife has filed for legal separation in their 20 year marriage ... TMZ has learned.
Lyndie Benson-Gorelick filed papers in L.A. County Superior Court -- citing "irreconcilable differences."
The couple has 2 sons.
There's a lot of money on the line.? There's a report Kenny is worth around $50 million.
There's one big sign the case is eventually headed to divorce court ... both Lyndie and Kenny have lawyered up with high-powered legal guns. Lyndie has Gary Fishbein, who has repped numerous celebs including Gabriel Aubry, Nikki Sixx, and Kenny has Laura Wasser, who has repped Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie and Kim Kardashian, to name a few.
NEW YORK ? ABC News plans to air an interview with the second wife of Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich on "Nightline" just two days before the GOP's South Carolina primary.
Excerpts from the interview with Marianne Gingrich will be released during the day Thursday, ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said, ahead of both a Republican candidate debate Thursday evening in Charleston, S.C., and ABC's late-night news program.
ABC News has not indicated what Marianne Gingrich said in the interview. Her ex-husband has said that they don't have a relationship.
The interview comes as Gingrich, the former House speaker, is trying to topple GOP front-runner Mitt Romney by casting himself as the more conservative option in the GOP presidential race. It would shine a spotlight on a part of Gingrich's past that could turn off Republican voters in a state filled with religious and cultural conservatives who may cringe at Gingrich's two divorces and acknowledged infidelities.
Marianne Gingrich has said Gingrich proposed to her before the divorce from his first wife was final in 1981; they were married six months later. Her marriage to Gingrich ended in divorce in 2000, and Gingrich has admitted he'd already taken up with Callista Bisek, a former congressional aide who would become his third wife. The speaker who pilloried President Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky was himself having an affair at the time.
As plans to air the interview were disclosed, Gingrich's campaign released a statement from his two daughters from his first marriage ? Kathy Lubbers and Jackie Cushman ? suggesting that Marianne Gingrich's comments may be suspect given emotional toll divorce takes on everyone involved.
"Anyone who has had that experience understands it is a personal tragedy filled with regrets, and sometimes differing memories of events. We will not say anything negative about our father's ex-wife," they said. "He has said before, privately and publicly, that he regrets any pain he may have caused in the past to people he loves."
A message seeking comment from Marianne Gingrich was not immediately returned.
___
Associated Press writers Shannon McCaffrey in South Carolina and Ray Henry in Georgia contributed to this report.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-Jan-2012
Share ] 
Kenny G's wife has filed for legal separation in their 20 year marriage ... TMZ has learned.