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Saturday, October 29, 2011
FAA Enlists the Web For Reporting Laser Shenanigans [Lasers]
Charlie Sheen brings his "Anger Management" to FX (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Actor Charlie Sheen, fired from his previous role on TV's "Two and a Half Men," will return to television in summer 2012, in his new "Anger Management" on FX, the network announced on Thursday.
The new sitcom, which had been previously announced but had yet to find a network, sees Sheen playing an anger management therapist who causes chaos in his patients' lives by using unconventional methods, the network said in a statement.
The new show is the latest in Sheen's bid to turn over a new leaf in his career after a turbulent year.
He was TV's highest-paid actor for his role as womanizing bachelor Charlie Harper in the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men," but was fired after a public dispute with the show and network executives at CBS, during which he lashed out at show creator Chuck Lorre. He was replaced by actor Ashton Kutcher.
Sheen ranted against his old employers and posted videos on the Web in which he bragged about his "winning" ways and the "tiger blood" he had running through in his veins.
All of that came after a year in which he found himself in legal trouble and in rehab for drug and alcohol use.
More recently, the star has seemed contrite. He settled a lawsuit with the "Two and a Half Men" producers, and appeared on TV talk shows admitting he was out of control. took to the stage at the Emmys -- TV's highest awards -- and said to the "Men" cast and crew, "From the bottom of my heart, I wish you nothing but the best for the upcoming season."
"Anger Management," in which Sheen retains a significant ownership stake, is loosely based on the 2003 film of the same name starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson. FX has ordered 10 episodes, and production will begin in early 2012.
"We think that Bruce Helford, Joe Roth and Charlie Sheen have come up with a wonderful, hilarious vehicle for Charlie's acting talents, and a character we are very much looking forward to seeing him play," said John Landgraf, President and general manager of FX Networks, in a statement.
(Reporting and writing by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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Friday, October 28, 2011
Terrorist attack outside US Embassy in Bosnia (AP)
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina ? A man armed with hand grenades and an automatic weapon opened fire outside the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia Friday in what authorities called a terrorist attack. A policeman and the gunman were wounded, but the embassy said none of its employees was hurt.
Sarajevo Mayor Alija Behmen said the gunman "got off a tram with a Kalashnikov and started shooting at the American Embassy." Witnesses told Bosnian television that the man urged pedestrians to move away, saying he was targeting only the embassy.
He wore a beard and was dressed in an outfit with short pants that reveal his ankles ? typical for followers of the conservative Wahhabi branch of Islam.
One police officer guarding the building was wounded before police surrounded the gunman. After a 30-minute standoff, the sound of a single shot echoed and AP video showed the shooter slump to the ground.
Police arrested the wounded man ? who one of Bosnia's three presidents said is a foreigner ? and took him away in an ambulance as pedestrians cowered behind buildings and vehicles. Hospital spokeswoman Biljana Jandric told The Associated Press the gunman had a minor wound to his leg, and would spend the night at the hospital before being released into police custody.
State Prosecutor Dubravko Campara identified the shooter as Mevlid Jasarevic, from Novi Pazar, the administrative capital of the southern Serbian region of Sandzak, who was tried in Austria for robbery in 2005.
Campara said Jasarevic had crossed the Serbian border into Bosnia Friday morning. He said Jasarevic had two hand grenades with him when he was arrested and is also currently under investigation by Serbian police, but did not detail why.
Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic confirmed his identity and said he is 23 years old. Bosnian TV said Jasarevic is a Wahhabi follower.
The Wahhabis are an extremely conservative branch which is rooted in Saudi Arabia and linked to religious militants in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Western intelligence reports have alleged that the tense, impoverished area of Sandzak, along with Muslim-dominated regions in Bosnia, are rich ground for recruiting so-called "white al-Qaida" ? Muslims with Western features who could easily blend into European or U.S. cities and carry out attacks.
The Islamic extremists joined Bosnia's 1992-95 war for independence. They were largely tolerated by the U.S. and the West because of their opposition to late Serbia's strongman Slobodan Milosevic's quest to create "Greater Serbia" out of the former Yugoslav republics.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said several bullets struck the outside wall of the embassy, but that all embassy personnel were safe. She said the wounded police officer had been assigned to protect the embassy. Ambassador Patrick Moon expressed his gratitude for the swift response by the police.
"Our thoughts and prayers at this time are with those who put their lives on the line to protect the embassy," Nuland told reporters.
Bakir Izetbegovic, one of Bosnia's three presidents, issued a statement condemning "the terrorist attack on the embassy of the United States."
"The United States is a proven friend of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its government and its people supported us in the most difficult moments in our history and nobody has the right to jeopardize our relations," he said.
Zeljko Komsic, chairman of Bosnia's presidency, said told AP that authorities have not yet determined whether the attack "was the act of an individual, or something organized."
"But whatever it was, it is not just an attack on the U.S. Embassy or the U.S., it is also an attack on Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said.
Bosnian Muslims are sensitive about their relations with the U.S. because it was the driving force behind the NATO military intervention and brokered a peace agreement that ended Bosnia's war.
Serbian police said Jasarevic was briefly arrested a year ago for brandishing "a large knife" during a visit by the U.S. Ambassador to Serbia and other Western envoys to Novi Pazar.
___
Associated Press writers Aida Cerkez in Sarajevo and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade contributed.
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Can plagiarism be weeded out?
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 26-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins
s-j.desjardins@concordia.ca
51-484-824-245-068
Concordia University
Concordia researchers study academic integrity at universities
Montreal -- To cheat or not to cheat? It's a question scholars have grappled with for generations. For the majority of students, cheating is out of the question because success can only be achieved through honest and hard work, i.e. academic integrity.
Yet there remains a minority of students who violate university charters and engage in academic misconduct.
According to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), there are 1.2 million full- and part-time students enrolled at 95 institutions of higher learning across our nation. How many of them might cheat on their way to graduation isn't clear.
"But we're getting closer to answering such an important question," says Catherine Bolton, associate dean of student academic services for Concordia's Faculty of Arts and Science. She is currently investigating the topic with Mebs Kanji and Soheyla Salari, who are associate professor and research associate in the Department of Political Science, respectively.
"At the Faculty of Arts and Science, we have just begun to systematically examine ways to bolster academic integrity," she continues.
Bolton and her colleagues have undertaken a new study on academic integrity. They presented their preliminary findings at the 2011 International Conference on Academic Integrity, which occurred in Toronto from October 14 to 16.
Data collected, so far, is heartening. "We found the vast majority of students earn their degrees without ever being accused of cheating - most don't cheat because of their desire to learn, work hard and succeed," says Bolton. "We also found our institution ensures the highest standards of academic integrity."
Still, at this early stage, the investigation has revealed remarkably consistent patterns that warrant closer attention. "We found most cases of academic misconduct are reported among students enrolled in social science programs," says Bolton. "What's more, our evidence suggests these academic violations typically occur during first-year courses."
The research team found incidents of academic misconduct are reported by a relatively small contingent of professors from a few departments.
"Could it be that professors are underreporting? If so, universities would require an alternative plan of attack," says Bolton. "We need to establish mechanisms to verify whether any incidents are, in fact, being missed."
Additional evidence suggests the bulk of academic misconduct stems from non-exam related incidents, which shows that the Faculty of Arts and Science does have a solid examination culture that's taken seriously by the majority of students.
What is the most frequently cited charge in the Faculty? "Most often, it occurs when students plagiarize and present the work of others without properly acknowledging a source," says Bolton.
Plagiarism continues despite consistent warnings on course outlines and in public materials directed to new students spelling out that appropriating the work of others will not be tolerated.
While the reasons students give for committing plagiarism vary, most of these infractions are entirely preventable. "To significantly reduce the problem, professors should clearly define proper citation practices and provide exact guidelines in what's expected for assignments," says Bolton.
Regardless of how much is done to bolster academic integrity, or how much research is conducted on the topic, cheating will never be entirely eliminated. "There's a critical need for universities to have effective measures to identify and correct cases of academic misconduct," says Bolton.
So far, the research team has found disciplinary measures can have rehabilitating results. "When caught, those who are alleged to have broken the code of conduct are usually charged and punished," says Bolton. "Few students, surprisingly, contest such charges. When given a second chance, most students opt to continue with their program and few reoffend."
It's essential that universities consistently remind students that cheating is unethical, is punishable and has consequences for society. "After all, by promoting the importance of academic integrity in higher education, we help shape today's thinkers into tomorrow's leaders," says Bolton.
###
Related link:
2011 International Conference on Academic Integrity: http://www.academicintegrity.org/conferences/2011_Conference
Academic Integrity at Concordia: http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity
Concordia University Code of Conduct: http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity/code
Concordia Faculty of Arts and Science: http://artsandscience.concordia.ca
Source:
Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins
Senior advisor, external communications
Concordia University
Phone: 514-848-2424, ext. 5068
Email: s-j.desjardins@concordia.ca
Twitter: http://twitter.com/concordia
Concordia news: http://www.concordia.ca/now
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 26-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins
s-j.desjardins@concordia.ca
51-484-824-245-068
Concordia University
Concordia researchers study academic integrity at universities
Montreal -- To cheat or not to cheat? It's a question scholars have grappled with for generations. For the majority of students, cheating is out of the question because success can only be achieved through honest and hard work, i.e. academic integrity.
Yet there remains a minority of students who violate university charters and engage in academic misconduct.
According to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), there are 1.2 million full- and part-time students enrolled at 95 institutions of higher learning across our nation. How many of them might cheat on their way to graduation isn't clear.
"But we're getting closer to answering such an important question," says Catherine Bolton, associate dean of student academic services for Concordia's Faculty of Arts and Science. She is currently investigating the topic with Mebs Kanji and Soheyla Salari, who are associate professor and research associate in the Department of Political Science, respectively.
"At the Faculty of Arts and Science, we have just begun to systematically examine ways to bolster academic integrity," she continues.
Bolton and her colleagues have undertaken a new study on academic integrity. They presented their preliminary findings at the 2011 International Conference on Academic Integrity, which occurred in Toronto from October 14 to 16.
Data collected, so far, is heartening. "We found the vast majority of students earn their degrees without ever being accused of cheating - most don't cheat because of their desire to learn, work hard and succeed," says Bolton. "We also found our institution ensures the highest standards of academic integrity."
Still, at this early stage, the investigation has revealed remarkably consistent patterns that warrant closer attention. "We found most cases of academic misconduct are reported among students enrolled in social science programs," says Bolton. "What's more, our evidence suggests these academic violations typically occur during first-year courses."
The research team found incidents of academic misconduct are reported by a relatively small contingent of professors from a few departments.
"Could it be that professors are underreporting? If so, universities would require an alternative plan of attack," says Bolton. "We need to establish mechanisms to verify whether any incidents are, in fact, being missed."
Additional evidence suggests the bulk of academic misconduct stems from non-exam related incidents, which shows that the Faculty of Arts and Science does have a solid examination culture that's taken seriously by the majority of students.
What is the most frequently cited charge in the Faculty? "Most often, it occurs when students plagiarize and present the work of others without properly acknowledging a source," says Bolton.
Plagiarism continues despite consistent warnings on course outlines and in public materials directed to new students spelling out that appropriating the work of others will not be tolerated.
While the reasons students give for committing plagiarism vary, most of these infractions are entirely preventable. "To significantly reduce the problem, professors should clearly define proper citation practices and provide exact guidelines in what's expected for assignments," says Bolton.
Regardless of how much is done to bolster academic integrity, or how much research is conducted on the topic, cheating will never be entirely eliminated. "There's a critical need for universities to have effective measures to identify and correct cases of academic misconduct," says Bolton.
So far, the research team has found disciplinary measures can have rehabilitating results. "When caught, those who are alleged to have broken the code of conduct are usually charged and punished," says Bolton. "Few students, surprisingly, contest such charges. When given a second chance, most students opt to continue with their program and few reoffend."
It's essential that universities consistently remind students that cheating is unethical, is punishable and has consequences for society. "After all, by promoting the importance of academic integrity in higher education, we help shape today's thinkers into tomorrow's leaders," says Bolton.
###
Related link:
2011 International Conference on Academic Integrity: http://www.academicintegrity.org/conferences/2011_Conference
Academic Integrity at Concordia: http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity
Concordia University Code of Conduct: http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity/code
Concordia Faculty of Arts and Science: http://artsandscience.concordia.ca
Source:
Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins
Senior advisor, external communications
Concordia University
Phone: 514-848-2424, ext. 5068
Email: s-j.desjardins@concordia.ca
Twitter: http://twitter.com/concordia
Concordia news: http://www.concordia.ca/now
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/cu-cpb102611.php
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Avon under investigation by Feds and Wall Street (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Regulators are formally investigating whether Avon broke bribery laws overseas, and the cosmetics company said it was again reassessing its strategy after quarterly profit fell far short of expectations.
Shares of Avon fell as much as 19.6 percent on Thursday, as analysts questioned whether the company can come up with a turnaround plan as quickly as it expects to.
Analysts, as they have in past quarters, again took Chairman and Chief Executive Andrea Jung to task during the company's quarterly conference call.
"Why should investors believe management and the board have any control over the business at this point?" asked Stifel Nicolaus' Mark Astrachan, who downgraded Avon to "hold."
"Look, the buck stops with me," replied Jung, who has been CEO since 1999 and chairman since 2001.
U.S. regulators also subpoenaed Avon Products Inc over its contact with analysts and others as part of an investigation related to fair disclosure under Regulation FD.
Under Jung, Avon has turned in poor performances in key markets such as Brazil and Russia, poured tens of millions of dollars into its international bribery investigation and struggled to stem declines in a sluggish U.S. market.
The world's largest direct seller of cosmetics, which has been celebrating its 125th anniversary with celebrity-studded events this year, now plans to assess long-range business plans and give an update during the first quarter of 2012.
"It strikes me that you guys are so totally screwed up, in so many ways, the change has to be radical," said Citigroup analyst Wendy Nicholson, who noted that a first-quarter meeting may not give Avon enough time for a comprehensive review.
She also questioned whether Avon would consider other steps, including hiring consultants, exiting another market as it exited Japan or possibly taking the company private.
Consumer industry bankers said that Avon could be a target for a private equity firm in the future, but that for now, the investigation is too risky for any buyer to take a look at it.
"Everything is part of the overall business review," said Charles Cramb, vice chairman of the developed market group and interim chief finance officer.
Another potential red flag is that Avon cannot fully fund its dividend with free cash flow. The payout was raised to a quarterly rate of 23 cents per share earlier this year.
Avon has had "disappointing" cash management as well as one-time cash outlays, said Cramb, who will end his six years as Avon's CFO at the end of November.
Avon's incoming CFO, Kimberly Ross of Royal Ahold, will be involved in the review, Jung said.
Avon changed its corporate structure and shook up management in February. It overhauled operations and cut thousands of jobs under a restructuring laid out in November 2005 and updated in February 2009, and eliminated the dual role of president and chief operating officer in 2006, leaving business units to report directly to Jung.
SEC PROBE
Avon said on Thursday that it received the subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The SEC is investigating the company's contact during 2010 and 2011 with certain analysts and other representatives of the financial community, Avon said in its quarterly filing.
The SEC adopted Regulation FD, short for "fair disclosure," in 2000 to prevent companies from tipping off analysts and investors about material information.
The SEC issued a formal order of investigation of both Regulation FD matters and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matter that Avon itself has been looking at since June 2008.
Meanwhile, Avon blamed disappointing results in Brazil on poor implementation of an "unforgiving" new computer system and said tough economic conditions in several areas crimped sales.
The company -- which does not issue quarterly earnings forecasts -- no longer expects to meet its 2011 goals of mid-single digit revenue growth or a 0.5 percentage point to 0.7 percentage point improvement in operating margin.
"The CEO is responsible for the overall outcome of a company, and she has to be under pressure with these results," said Bernstein analyst Ali Dibadj. "It would be unfair to shareholders if there weren't pressure on management at this point."
Jung, a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, is one of the leading female executives in the world. She ranked sixth on Fortune magazine's list of powerful women in U.S. business in September.
She co-leads the seven-member board at Apple Inc and chairs its compensation committee. When announcing her nomination to Apple's board in 2008, Steve Jobs referred to Jung as a "strong CEO and marketer."
She has also served on General Electric Co's board since 1998 and serves on two of its committees: nominating and corporate governance and management development and compensation. A GE spokesman said the company is not reviewing her position as a director, while an Apple spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.
Avon's third-quarter profit fell to $164.2 million, or 38 cents per share, from $166.7 million, or 38 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 5.7 percent to $2.76 billion.
The results missed Wall Street estimates of earnings of 46 cents per share and revenue of $2.83 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Avon also sold 5 percent fewer products in the quarter. In North America, sales continued to slide as more sales representatives left, and operating profit fell 85 percent.
Avon shares were down 17.9 percent at $18.89 on Thursday afternoon, off an earlier low at $18.51.
(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Additional reporting by Brad Dorfman in Chicago, Phil Wahba and Jonathan Stempel in New York, Jessica Hall in Philadelphia, Scott Malone in Boston and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; editing by Dave Zimmerman, Lisa Von Ahn and Matthew Lewis)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/bs_nm/us_avon
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Stevie Wonder to ring in '12 in Vegas
LAS VEGAS?? Music legend Stevie Wonder plans to headline in Sin City on New Year's Eve, playing to a ballroom crowd at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and to thousands of revelers on the Las Vegas Strip by video.
-
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Life & Style says the actor, 56, and wife Emma Heming, 33, are expecting their first child together.
- A Murphy comeback? He never went away
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Casino officials told The Associated Press the 25-time Grammy winner known for top hits including "Superstition" and "You are the Sunshine of My Life" will be its top performer one year after an exclusive grand opening bash that featured Jay-Z and Coldplay.
This year's party is slightly more accessible than last year's invite-only affair ? a limited number of tickets start at $250 and include an open bar.
The New Year's Eve show caps a year of entertainment at the Cosmopolitan that featured top acts including Adele, the Flaming Lips and Deadmau5.
Wonder's concert will stream to partiers on the Las Vegas Strip, which will shut down to vehicle traffic and fill up with tourists.
Lisa Marchese, the Cosmopolitan's chief marketing officer, said Wonder has proven over several decades of performing he can appeal to audiences young and old.
In June, the former child prodigy was honored at the Apollo in New York with induction into the Legends Hall of Fame, joining Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson and Ella Fitzgerald.
But Wonder, who has seven Billboard No. 1 singles, got top billing in September at the Austin City Limits music festival, which featured dozens of acts including Coldplay, Kanye West and Arcade Fire.
"He's gotten cool again in a whole different way with a young group of people who didn't grow up with his music," Marchese said. "He's legendary, he's an impresario, he's contemporary but old school in this really unexpected way."
Marchese said other acts and surprises would likely be added to the show, and other acts will perform throughout the property, including Mayer Hawthorne at a lounge on the casino floor.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45043878/ns/today-entertainment/
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Caterpillar, Europe hopes fuel Wall Street gains (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks rose on Monday, as a flurry of merger activity and strong earnings from Caterpillar boosted investor sentiment and kept the three-week rally intact.
Equities have risen on hopes a resolution to Europe's sovereign debt crisis is on the horizon and a reduced likelihood of a U.S. recession after stronger-than-expected corporate results and economic data.
Adding to the positive tone was a batch of M&A activity in the health care and technology sectors involving deals totaling
more than $5 billion.
Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) jumped 5 percent to $91.77 to lead the Dow higher after the world's largest heavy equipment maker reported a 44 percent jump in quarterly profit on record revenues.
"The market is completely convinced at the moment that Europe is going to be successful with a plan that the market is going to like -- that they think is credible -- clearly," said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York.
"The other thing is this week is a big, big week in terms of mining names, energy names, industrial names . We've gotten some good forecasts going forward, so as long as all that holds, that is what is fueling this fire."
Companies due to report on Tuesday include DuPont (DD.N), 3M Co (MMM.N) and United States Steel (X.N).
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) advanced 104.83 points, or 0.89 percent, to 11,913.62. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX)(.INX) rose 15.95 points, or 1.29 percent, to 1,254.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) gained 61.98 points, or 2.35 percent, to 2,699.44.
The gains on Monday put the S&P 500 up nearly 11 percent for the month, putting the benchmark index on track for its best monthly performance since December 1991.
According to Thomson Reuters data, of the 142 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported quarterly earnings through Monday, 68 percent have topped Wall Street estimates.
The recent rally has pushed the broad index to the top of its trading range between 1,230 and 1,250 where it has struggled to advance due to conflicting headlines from Europe. The 50-day moving average recently turned upward, reflecting the positive bias but the index has yet to break above its 200-day moving average at the 1,274 level.
Even though earnings fueled gains, solving Europe's debt crisis will be crucial to further gains. Light volume suggested investors would remain cautious until the details of the euro zone plan were known.
"We remain within that trading range and this week is going to be chock full of these earnings. Like Caterpillar today was a very strong number, so if we continue to get that this week, don't be surprised to see the market go there," said Polcari.
Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) said it would acquire RightNow Technologies Inc (RNOW.O), which provides cloud-based customer services software, for about $1.5 billion, or $43 per share. RightNow surged 19.4 percent to $42.94 while Oracle added 2.3 percent to $32.87.
Cigna Corp (CI.N) will acquire HealthSpring Inc (HS.N), a Medicare health provider, for $3.8 billion, or $55 a share. Cigna edged up 1.4 percent to $45.34 and HealthSpring jumped 33.7 percent to $53.71. The Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index (.HMO) climbed 4.7 percent.
Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) shares plummeted 27.2 percent to $86.51 after the close as the video rental company warned of continued steep declines in DVD subscribers this quarter and said a costly expansion into Britain and Ireland would push it into the red in the first quarter.
Netflix also reported a better-than-expected 49 percent rise in third-quarter revenue.
European policymakers deferred a final decision on a strategy to end a sovereign debt crisis as they neared agreement on bank recapitalization and on how to leverage a rescue fund to try to stop bond market contagion. The leaders were due to meet again Wednesday.
Volume was on the light side, with about 7.87 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, slightly below the daily average of 8.01 billion.
Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2.489 to 528, while on the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners 2,080 to 474.
(Editing by Kenneth Barry)
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The 2011 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize: Honoring Dr. Brenda Milner for her pioneering work in cognitive neuroscience
Tragic it is when a young mother never gets to meet her newborn child; however, it is also awe-inspiring to see a victim of this circumstance rise above and honor his mother?s sacrifice.? On December 11th, 1925, the complications surrounding Paul Greengard?s birth resulted in the death of his mother, nee Pearl Meister.? Almost 75 years later, the Nobel laureate and Rockefeller University professor and his wife, Ursula von Rydingsvard, paid homage to his late mother ? and to women in science ? by launching the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize.
Dr. Brenda Milner (image obtained from The Rockefeller University)
This year?s recipient is Dr. Brenda Miller, the Dorothy J. Killam Professor at?McGill University?s Montreal Neurological Institute and professor in the department of neurology and neurosurgery at?McGill University.? On November 3rd, Dr. Milner will be honored in the eight year of this prestigious award.? She is among the many women who have paved the way for women?s progress in academia and this ceremony to celebrate her work is nothing short of well deserved.
History of the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize
Though progress has been made over the years, women are still sorely underrepresented in the upper ranks of biomedical research.? This statement is backed up by a plethora of statistics, with perhaps the breakdown of inductees into the National Academy of Sciences representing the prime example of this inequitable paradigm.? Dr. Greengard recognizes this disparity stating that ?[women] are not yet receiving awards and honors at a level commensurate with their achievements.?
Dr. Paul Greengard (image obtained from Wikipedia Commons)
In 1998, Dr. Greengard and Ursula von Rydingsvard decided to go beyond the simple acknowledgement of gender bias in biomedical research and began to fund an award that simultaneously honored Pearl Meister Greengard and outstanding women scientists.? He started with the $50,000 award for medical research he received from the Metropolitan Life Foundation and matched it with $50,000 of his own money. ??He was also able to raise money from a number of very generous independent donors.? However, the endowment for the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize was significantly advanced in 2000 when Dr. Greengard won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the neurological understanding of psychological disorders ? a prize that was shared with Eric Kandel of Columbia University and Arvid Carlsson of Goteborg University. ??The $400,000 donation made by Dr. Greengard ? his entire Nobel Prize winnings ? brought the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize funding to a level that would support an annual prize.
After a six-year gestational period, the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize was finally brought to life. In November of 2004, the French embryologist Nicole Le Douarin became the first Pearl Meister Greengard Prize recipient, beginning a wonderful tradition of recognizing internationally outstanding women in the field of biomedical research.? Also included in this new declaration of women?s scientific achievements was to have the award presented by another exceptional woman role model ? one who was not necessarily involved in science.? To date, there have been twelve women recognized by the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize committee, two of whom (Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider) have gone on to win the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, leading Sir Paul Nurse to joke in his 2010 introduction to the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize ceremony, where we go, Stockholm follows.
Defenders of DNA. From left to right, the 2008 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize recipients Vicki Lundblad, Carol W. Greider and Elizabeth H. Blackburn (image obtained from The Rockefeller University).
Although he never knew his mother, Dr. Greengard saw her as an example of how women have been held back simply because of the fact that they had two X chromosomes.? In his video about this prestigious prize, Dr. Greengard discusses his mother: She was by all accounts a very talented woman but she was restricted to doing secretarial work. He further adds, Because I wanted to do something about the discrimination against women, it seemed that it would be a nice thing to name it in honor of her memory.
Honoring Dr. Brenda Milner?s legacy and the modern era of memory research
The 2011 Pearl Meister Greengard prize will go to Dr. Brenda Milner of McGill University for her work in the field of cognitive neuroscience.? On November 3rd, in a ceremony to take place in the historic Caspary Auditorium at The Rockefeller University, the former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, will present Dr. Milner with this international award.
Considered the to be founder of neuropsychology, a discipline that examines the association between brain structure and psychological behavior, Dr. Milner began her career studying experimental psychology at Cambridge University in the late 1930?s.? After a brief period examining fighter pilot aptitude during World War II, Dr. Milner moved to Canada in 1944, taking an academic position at the Institute of Psychology at the?University of Montreal.? However, it was not until 1950 that she moved to McGill University, where she began her doctoral studies at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI).
Though Dr. Milner was technically the doctoral student of Dr. Donald Hebb, she served as a modern-day medical apprentice to Dr. Wilder?Penfield, who was developing a type of surgical procedure to help treat patients with severe epilepsy.
Dr. Wilder Penfield (Image obtained here)
Using an electroencephalogram (EEG) test to map the affected areas in the brain in patients with epilepsy, Dr. Penfield developed a more directed surgical technique that allowed neurosurgeons to treat only brain regions associated with the epileptic seizures, lessening the need for potentially damaging exploratory procedure.? Dr. Milner developed her doctoral research project around this technique, developing a series of tests in order to accurately demonstrate the efficacy of this type of surgery. The new approach introduced by Dr. Penfield primarily dealt with an area of the brain called the temporal lobe.
Basic brain anatomy (image obtained here)
This region of the brain includes the very important hippocampus, which is the neurological component associated with long-term memory function.? Dr. Milner noted that though these procedures were quite effective in lessening the number and severity of epileptic episodes, some patients who had undergone this surgery suffered from memory issues.? Because of these findings, Dr. Milner shifted the direction of her research and began to study the neurological processes involved in focus and memory.
Dr. Milner?s studies quickly led to a collaboration that would forever change the field of cognitive neuroscience.? After catching word of her research, Dr. William Beecher Scoville, the neurosurgeon responsible for the patient known to the world only as H.M. (revealed to be Henry Gustav Molaison at the time of his death in December 2008), contacted Dr. Milner?s group.
Patient H.M., N of 1 (image obtained here)
Dr. Scoville had performed a temporal lobectomy on H.M., who, because of a severe childhood head injury, had been suffering from about 20 epileptic seizures per day.? Though the surgery had done wonders for H.M.?s epilepsy, the procedure left him completely unable to form new memories.? In essence, H.M. could not remember a single event prior to the surgery ? no recollection of who he had met that day, who the president was, or even what he had for breakfast.? Soon enough, Dr. Milner found herself regularly taking the night train from Quebec to Hartford to visit H.M., administering a series of memory exams with each visit.
In 1957, along with Dr. Scoville, Dr. Milner co-authored a scientific paper describing their results.? In this seminal article, it was found that there is a positive relationship between the extent of destruction to the hippocampal complex specifically and the degree of memory impairment.? For the first time, it was postulated that memory was something that could be traced back to a single neurological region and was not something associated with the entire brain.? Because this conclusion went against the accepted dogma, it was highly questioned by the scientific establishment.? However, the doubts associated with Dr. Milner?s initial publication regarding H.M. quickly faded, beginning in 1962 when she showed that H.M. was able to learn a new motor skill using visual perception. ?This landmark study was the first to suggest that there are at least two neurological systems for memory and that different areas of the brain are responsible for different types of memory, such as that associated with learning new motor skills.
Dr. Milner continued with her research on H.M., radically changing our understanding of how learning and memory worked.? As it was written in the McGill Reporter in 2007, Milner has been blazing trails over the last 50 years, making her name as one of the most important neuroscientists of the twentieth century. ?Along with the accolades have come the awards. She?s been inducted into the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and the Royal Societies of London and Canada and is a Companion of the Order of Canada, to name but a few of her honours.? Also included in Dr. Milner?s list of incredible honors are the Balzan Prize for Cognitive Neurosciences, the Gairdner Foundation International Award and now the prestigious Pearl Meister Greengard Prize.
When asked to comment on the newest of these awards, Dr. Milner humbly states: I am absolutely delighted and amazed to receive this special award and so proud and honored to be representing women scientists in this context.? I am very privileged for having been able to pursue my sense of curiosity within the culture of excellence at the Montreal Neurological Institute, as well as to train and encourage talented young students ? driving forces throughout my career to which I attribute much of my success.? The Rockefeller University and the scientific community as a whole look forward to November 3rd so that we may pay homage to the woman who has paved the way not only for neuropsychology, but also for women who choose to pursue a career as a biomedical researcher.
?
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Corrected: Judge says no to Sprint request for AT&T documents (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Sprint Nextel lost a bid on Monday to get access to masses of AT&T documents that it had hoped to use in its lawsuit aimed at stopping AT&T's $39 billion acquisition of discount rival T-Mobile.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle also heard arguments about AT&T's request to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Sprint, but did not immediately rule.
Huvelle, who is hearing both the private antitrust case and the U.S. Justice Department's lawsuit to stop the deal, challenged Sprint's standing at least once during the hearing.
"You don't stand in the shoes of the consumer or the Department of Justice," she said.
The Justice Department in August sued to block the deal, which would vault No. 2 ranked AT&T into the leading position in the U.S. wireless market through the purchase of No. 4 operator T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG.
Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. carrier, filed its own suit in September to block the deal. It complained that the mega-combination would harm its ability to obtain the latest handsets, reach roaming agreements and gain access to the market for backhaul services, links between the core network and more remote locations.
Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, is the current No. 1.
Sprint argued in court on Monday that it should have access to documents AT&T had already given to the Justice Department's antitrust division because it needs to build its own case.
At stake are AT&T's confidential documents, which likely provide an inside look at how the company views the deal with T-Mobile and how it conducts its business.
Sprint said AT&T currently has the upper hand because it already has documents that Sprint gave the Justice Department.
Huvelle declined to give Sprint the documents. "I don't see it as efficient or fair," said Huvelle, in denying the motion.
Bert Foer, head of the American Antitrust Institute, said the decision is good news for AT&T because Sprint would have given the Justice Department valuable help.
"There are ways in which Sprint can be exceptionally helpful to the government agencies and I'm sure that they will continue to provide advice but with more access to documents they're likely to provide better advice," Foer said.
UNUSUAL CHALLENGE
Huvelle also heard arguments about AT&T's request to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Sprint and another one brought by C Spire, the new name for Cellular South.
Speaking for Sprint, attorney Steven Sunshine argued that if AT&T was allowed to buy T-Mobile that Sprint would have increasing trouble making deals for handsets like Apple's iPhone.
"If this transaction goes forward, the plaintiffs will be impaired in their ability to compete," said Sunshine.
Huvelle did not give an indication of when she will rule on AT&T's motion to dismiss Sprint's lawsuit.
Sprint issued a statement later on Monday saying a competitor has standing if it demonstrates there is a plausible case it would be harmed by the proposed transaction's effect on the market. "We believe Sprint passed that test and we await the court's ruling."
Sprint's strategy is unusual in that competitors which fear mergers frequently complain vociferously to antitrust regulators but rarely file a lawsuit of their own.
Further, U.S. antitrust law is designed to protect consumers, rather than competitors, which means that courts would be expected to view a competitor's lawsuit skeptically.
Huvelle has set February 13 as the start date for trial of the government's case, and set aside up to six weeks for arguments. She will preside without a jury. The next status hearing will be on November 30.
A key government concern is that T-Mobile generally costs less than other carriers so its disappearance could mean higher prices for wireless service.
AT&T has defended the transaction, saying it would bring 5,000 overseas jobs back to the United States and enable it to expand high-speed wireless Internet coverage to 97 percent of all Americans.
AT&T has said it is keenly interested in reaching a settlement that would lead to Justice Department approval. The Justice Department has given no signs that it is interested in settling.
If the deal is abandoned, AT&T faces paying upward of $6 billion in cash and spectrum to T-Mobile.
The cases are USA v. AT&T, T-Mobile USA Inc and Deutsche Telekom AG, case No. 11-1560 and Sprint Nextel Corp v. AT&T Inc et al, No. 11-1600, and Cellular South v. AT&T, No. 11-1690. All the cases are before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
(This story corrected the date of next status hearing in bullet and paragraph 21 to Nov. 30)
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IBM names its first female CEO
FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2006 file photo, IBM Senior Vice President Virginia Rometty speaks in New York. IBM on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 announced that Rometty will succeed outgoing CEO Samuel Palmisano, who is retiring after reaching traditional retirement age of 60, effective Jan. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2006 file photo, IBM Senior Vice President Virginia Rometty speaks in New York. IBM on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 announced that Rometty will succeed outgoing CEO Samuel Palmisano, who is retiring after reaching traditional retirement age of 60, effective Jan. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2011 file photo, Samuel J. Palmisano, President CEO of IBM Corporation reacts while being introduced prior to delivering a lecture on "Ideas that shaped a century" part of the IBM Centennial Lecture Series, in Singapore. Palmisano is retiring as IBM CEO after reaching traditional retirement age of 60. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, file)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? IBM Corp. ushered in Virginia Rometty as the company's first-ever female CEO on Tuesday, as Sam Palmisano stepped down from the position.
Palmisano, who turned 60 this year, has been CEO for nearly a decade. He will stay on as chairman. Virginia "Ginni" Rometty, 54, is in charge of IBM's sales and marketing, and has long been whispered about by industry watchers as Palmisano's likely heir.
With Rometty's appointment, effective Jan. 1, women will be in charge of two of the world's largest technology companies.
Last month, Meg Whitman was named CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co. Whitman joined eBay Inc. when it was a fledgling startup during the dot-com boom and guided it to become an Internet auction powerhouse and later ran for California governor.
While Whitman's HP is a sprawling company in disarray, Rometty will inherit a finely tuned IBM whose focus on the high-margin businesses of technology services and software has helped it thrive.
IBM's move was unexpected. Palmisano had tamped down earlier talk of his retirement, insisting that he wanted to stay on as chief. In rare public comments, he said last year that he was "not going anywhere" and that there's no formal policy at IBM dictating when a CEO should retire.
Palmisano in a statement said that Rometty has led some of IBM's most important businesses, and was instrumental in the formation of IBM's business services division. She oversaw IBM's $3.5 billion purchase of PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting business in 2002, which is a key element of a strategy that has made IBM a heavily copied company. She is "more than a superb operational executive," Palmisano said.
"She brings to the role of CEO a unique combination of vision, client focus, unrelenting drive, and passion for IBMers and the company's future," Palmisano said. "I know the board agrees with me that Ginni is the ideal CEO to lead IBM into its second century."
Investors had liked the idea of Palmisano staying at the helm.
IBM shares fell $1.59, or 0.9 percent, to $178.77 in extended trading, after the change was announced.
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Gaming Everything ? Blog Archive ? Inversion trailer
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Can Obama take the economy off the table in 2012? (The Week)
New York ? Expect the president, eager to distract voters from his embarrassing record on the economy, to repeatedly tout his foreign policy successes
Conventional wisdom predicts that the 2012 presidential election will be primarily about jobs and economic growth, and that doesn't bode well for the incumbent at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It's been more than 70 years since we re-elected an incumbent president with unemployment above 8 percent. Even though the official jobless rate under Ronald Reagan went higher than we have seen under Barack Obama (10.8 percent in November and December 1982), it dropped below 9 percent 13 months before the 1984 election, and descended to 7.2 percent in June 1984, with the economy gaining a stunning 6.55 million jobs in just 19 months, averaging a gain of 345,210 jobs per month during that period. ?
No one expects that kind of job growth in this cycle. It's highly unlikely that the economy will move from a liability to an asset for President Obama or the Democrats. If conventional wisdom and electoral history hold, Obama will be a one-term president. But what if he could turn voters' attention away from the sputtering economy and make 2012 into an election based on a perceived strength in foreign policy and his performance as a war president?
If conventional wisdom and electoral history hold, Obama will be a one-term president.
Undoubtedly, Obama's team will want to highlight non-economic issues, especially those that potentially provide contrast with Republican hopefuls. This will be especially true for the current crop of GOP frontrunners, two of whom have extensive private-sector records of financial success (Mitt Romney and Herman Cain), and the other with a public-sector record of managing a job-creating environment (Rick Perry). The obvious choice for differentiation will be foreign policy, especially Obama's record on military action.
That does have some potential for Obama. The president has racked up some impressive scores on the battlefield in the war on terror, including Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki. The stepped-up drone strikes in Pakistan has crippled the leadership of al Qaeda, and Obama's order to kill pirates holding Americans hostage gave an early indication that this president would not shrink from wielding American power???at least on some occasions. He also clearly wanted to claim some credit for the death of Moammar Gadhafi, which was enabled by Western military strikes, if not directly creditable to them.
It doesn't hurt that Obama's potential rivals also seem to be talking about everything but the economy. The big takeaway topics from recent Republican presidential debates have ranged from HPV vaccinations to hostage negotiation with terrorists, and from the finer points of book publishing and between-edition edits to the ins and outs of subcontracted lawn care. Only when Herman Cain hit a big polling updraft did the Republican presidential candidates get around to seriously discussing economic policy during the debates, even if all they did initially was attack Cain's plan. ?
However, Obama will have some problems in using foreign policy to distract from America's economic woes. First, while Obama gets credit for taking out bin Laden, voters expected an American president to take that shot if the opportunity presented itself. Obama got a momentary boost in polling from the success of the mission, but the short duration of that bump tells the story of how successful an "I Got Bin Laden" campaign strategy will be in 2012. That will also be true of the withdrawal from Iraq, which took place on George W. Bush's timetable rather than Obama's. The killing of Awlaki proved a lot more politically difficult, as civil libertarians on both sides of the partisan divide questioned whether Obama had overstepped the law in targeting an American citizen for a military strike, even though most Americans seemed to have no trouble with the decision.
The case of Gadhafi is even murkier. While no one will miss the brutal tyrant, we may not like what follows next, either. Already the new regime in Tripoli has announced the imposition of certain elements of Sharia law ahead of any democratic reforms, and the death of the dictator at the hands of the militia that captured him doesn't give a lot of confidence about the discipline of the new government's security apparatus. Thousands of shoulder-fired missiles have gone missing, and the U.S. says that terrorist groups are trying their best to get their hands on these weapons, mostly Soviet-era SA-7s that work well against civilian and military aircraft at lower altitudes. It won't take more than one or two successful shots at American aircraft?by terrorists?with these weapons to remind people how the missiles got out onto the open market in the first place.
A debate on foreign policy would also inevitably return focus to Obama's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, and that won't be a good topic for the incumbent. Obama's inept handling of the issue of building in Jerusalem in the early months of his presidency gave Mahmoud Abbas an excuse to bail out of direct negotiations, even though Abbas had never made the issue a deal-breaker before Obama's intervention. The president's demand for Israel to return to 1967 "borders" as a condition of negotiation???rather than a result of direct negotiation with the Palestinians???earned him a lecture from Benjamin Netanyahu and rebukes from Senate Democrats. Even Hamas rejected Obama's demand (although obviously for different reasons), making Obama look foolish and unschooled on the issues.
Lastly, though, the American voters won't allow Obama or his eventual Republican challenger to change the subject too often. While foreign policy and national security will surely be important topics in the 2012 election, they will not override the personal experience of so many Americans living through the worst economy in decades, especially with their homes devalued to the point of being albatrosses rather than assets, and little hope in sight for significant growth. Voters demanded change based on economic and fiscal policy in both 2008 and 2010, and it's a safe bet that 2012 will be fought on the exact same lines.
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Like on Facebook?-?Follow on Twitter?-?Sign-up for Daily NewsletterContinental starts construction of second China plant
ABR Staff Writer Published 21 October 2011
Continental, an international automotive supplier, has started construction of its RMB300m (EUR35m) second automotive electronics manufacturing plant in Changchun, China.
The new production facility is scheduled to start in September 2012 and will take over production for the chassis & safety and interior divisions from the existing automotive electronics Changchun plant.
The current plant employs 2,500 people across its three automotive divisions to manufacture products for 136 customers in 58 locations across China and exports to 73 customers in 19 countries worldwide.
Continental China head Jay Kunkel said already in operation for 16 years, Continental Automotive Changchun is one of the most important manufacturing plants in China.
"It has played a significant role in helping us successfully establish ourselves in China. As part of our over-proportional profitable growth plans in China, this new plant represents another important step in our expansion plans, emphasizing our confidence in the Chinese market," Kunkel said.
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Fly on wall sees things it wishes it hadn't
?Where there are humans,
you?ll find flies,
and Buddhas.?
?Kobayashi Issa
Each day, in each country, a housefly is born. Lots of houseflies really. Houseflies have been being born around us for thousands of years. They are born of what everyone else abandons, corpses, cakes, and excrement. And yet their story is inescapably a version of our story. They spread early out of Africa, bound to us. You find them wrapped in mummies, their bodies held tight against the bodies of pharaohs [1]. You find them in ancient latrines, as larvae, tunneling through what we would rather be done with. At picnics they sit on hot dogs. In bedrooms, they look down from walls. In war and tragedy, they mouth what we cannot even countenance. They brushed upon Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Caesar, but also Mussolini and you. And before they brushed upon you (or Mussolini) they brushed upon, well, you don?t want to know.
Fly foot (AKA tarsus)
Actually, you might want to know. Or at least some scientists think you might want to know. So it is that there is now a large book worth of scientific studies of just what can be found living on flies. All of these studies are interesting, some are a bit disgusting, and a new study from a pig farm in North Carolina is the kind of thing that might just change how you live your life.
Although we have seen houseflies for millennia, complained about them in a thousand languages using a hundred thousand adjectives, in some ways they are still among the least known guests at the table. No one knows where they come from (only that they had already found us as of five thousand years ago). No one knows what they did before they found us (though one imagines it involved decay). What we do know about houseflies is that they gather a little bit of life from everything they touch and redistribute it, a sort of Robin Hood of germs.
Some of the bacteria living on houseflies are their partners. Housefly eggs and larvae depend on beneficial bacteria (such as the species Klebsiella oxytoca) bestowed upon them by their mothers. These bacteria produce compounds that kill fungi and, in doing so, help hungry young flies outcompete those same fungi for their otherwise rapidly decaying food [2]. Others though are hangers on, gathered by accident as the flies bump around the world. When a fly lands, its sticky hairs become covered in bacteria, which can then be transferred to whatever the flies land on next (insert image 1 here). Flies also store bacteria (gathered from their food) in their alimentary tract. These germs are brought to new places in fly poop, but also?as one treatise on flies delicately puts it? ?in small droplets of regurgitated matter which have been called vomit spots.?
Just where do houseflies pick up these other bacteria, the ones the give back to us in vomit spots, feces and footsteps? Well, they find them in what we have abandoned, the remains on which they can survive. Once, houseflies emerged from horseshit by the billions (insert image 2 here). When that ran out (thanks to the invention of cars), they turned to our garbage and so we collected it more frequently and took it far away. When the garbage become rare (some places, though not everywhere), they found the dog waste we left behind in cities. And now that New Yorkers, for instance, in their fancy shoes and dark clothes, gather the dog poop in bags, the flies have found those places we have taken our waste to hide it from them (and from ourselves). At garbage dumps flies flock in dense halos. They are born too out of the rough parts of towns?smoke signals of neglect. They have even found the places we have moved our animals, the modern mangers of chickens and pigs where waste is dumped into vast pools (insert image 3 here). Here, their naked children eclose as writhing maggots only to be born again later to their, hairy, adult, flying forms.
It is among these last flies that my friend Coby Schal recently decided to spend some of his days [3]. Coby has studied insects at pig farms for a while. There are probably worse places to study insects, though I can?t think of them right now. Coby has looked at the movement of roaches from one pig farm to another, but what he wanted to study with the flies was something different. Along with colleagues at Kansas State University, Coby wanted to know just what was being carried aloft as those flies rose. Flies, incidentally, take care in their rise. They bend their legs a little and, ever so gingerly, bounce, while flapping their wings.
Horse and housefly. This is not really the relationship I was talking about, but this drawing was too funny to resist. Certainly, the idea of houseflies riding into cities on horses is right, it is just that they would be riding a little further back. From the funny houseflies collection.
Coby and his colleagues found fecal bacteria in 93.7% of the flies at the pig farm (The aptly named Enterococcus faecalis was the most common species). This came as no surprise. Houseflies the world over carry fecal bacteria. The surprise was many of those bacteria were resistant to antibiotics, such as tetracycline and erythromycin, antibiotics used to treat human bacterial diseases [4]. Such resistant forms, so-called superbugs, can kill, and while finding them on flies near pig farms does not guarantee they are making their way from the farms to our bodies via flies, it certainly suggests the possibility.
But why would the flies in pig farms tend to have antibiotic resistant bacteria? Herein lies the secret you might not have heard. Most pigs in the U.S., as well as most farm animals more generally, are fed antibiotics. By some estimates, eighty percent of antibiotics produced in the U.S. are used on animals. The antibiotics are not used to treat infections. Instead they serve solely to promote rapid growth, to make your bacon or burger cheaper and faster. As an evolutionary side effect when pigs are fed those antibiotics their weak bacteria, those susceptible to the antibiotics being used, die. Those most likely to survive are the lineages resistant to antibiotics, the tough mothers. If isolated on pig farms, all of this is imprudent but not tragic in as much as it seems isolated, faraway from our daily lives. Then the flies enter the story.
Canoe ride anyone? This is a typical waste pond at a pig facility. From a distance (or in a photo) it seems pleasant enough, but that pleasantness is an illusion.
Houseflies can fly and they can do so more effectively than you might imagine. They fly with the wind, but even against it. Individual houseflies have been recorded having traveled more than ten miles [5]. Consider the geography of farms. Imagine the flies rising up from them and flying toward you. Whatever new resistant strains of bacteria they bear may be closer than you think. They might be tapping at your window now or, as Chekhov said of them, ?brushing against the ceiling,? their bodies bouncing along as they leave their bacteria behind.
Humans tend to dislike successful animals. We scorn the murders of crows, the flocks of starlings and the even the ants that boil up around and into our houses. Their bodies seem vulgar. The flies though, we conclude, are not just loathsome but dirty and even, in the context of Coby Schal?s new study, potentially deadly. This is one lesson to take from the flies, but the wrong one. The real truth they offer, if we pay attention, is more about the nature of humans than it is the nature of flies. Anopheles mosquitoes are vectors of malaria, but houseflies, well, they are vectors of what we leave behind, carrying it back to us, as though to say, ?Over here! You forgot something?? They are the messenger nobody asked for, bearing the messages nobody wants, whether about the overuse of antibiotics or some other of our failings. And so go ahead and kill the messenger, but heed the message. Meanwhile, billions of fly eggs are ready to hatch out of whatever we leave behind.
1-Panagiotakopulu E, Buckland PC, Kemp BJ (2010) Underneath Ranefer?s floors?urban environments on the desert edge. J Archaeol Sci, 37:474?481
2-Zvereva EL (1986b) Peculiarities of competitive interaction between larvae of the house fly Musca domestica and microscopic fungi. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal 65:1517?1525, Lam K, Thu K, Tsang M, Moore M, Gries G. 2009. Bacteria on housefly eggs, Musca domestica, suppress fungal growth in chicken manure through nutrient depletion or antifungal metabolites. Naturwissenschaften, 96 :1127-1132.
3-Well, and to send his students, postdocs and technicians, to spend theirs.
4-Ahmad A., A. Ghosh, C. Schal, and L. Zurek. 2011. Insects in confined swine operations carry a large antibiotic resistant and potentially virulent enterococcal community. BMC Microbiology, 11:23.
5-Chakrabarti S, Kambhaampati Zurek L. 2010. Assessment of house fly dispersal between rural and urban habitats in Kansas, USA. J Kans Entomol Soc, 83:172-188.
Images:
Image 1. Fly foot (AKA tarsus)
Image 2. Horse and housefly. This is not really the relationship I was talking about, but this drawing was too funny to resist. Certainly, the idea of houseflies riding into cities on horses is right, it is just that they would be riding a little further back. From the funny houseflies collection.
Image 3. Canoe ride anyone? This is a typical waste pond at a pig facility. From a distance (or in a photo) it seems pleasant enough, but that pleasantness is an illusion.
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Monday, October 24, 2011
Maine authorities trying to identify body found in freezer (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Maine investigators were working on Monday to determine if a body found in a storage unit freezer is that of a woman who went missing 28 years ago after a fight with her boyfriend, police said.
The storage unit was rented by Frank Julian, 80, who died earlier this month, and was believed to be the last person to see Kitty Wardwell, his girlfriend, alive in the summer of 1983, state police spokesman Stephen McCausland said.
Family members cleaning out Julian's storage unit in Lewiston found the body on Friday and notified police. The medical examiner's office began work on Monday to identify it, McCausland said.
In addition to performing an autopsy, officials may use DNA analysis to determine if the body is that of Wardwell, who was reported missing in July 1983 by a friend.
At the time, Julian said he had left the then 29-year-old woman at a New Hampshire motel after a fight and returned to Maine alone, according to a missing persons report on the state police website.
Wardwell's sister also reported her missing months later.
The investigation said she was likely a victim of foul play. Julian had been questioned over the years about the case, which remained open, McCausland said.
McCausland said police have been in touch with Wardwell's family. He did not expect autopsy or identification results to be returned on Monday.
(Reporting by Lauren Keiper, editing by Ellen wulfhorst and Cynthia Johnston)
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US stocks rise after earnings reports, takeovers (AP)
NEW YORK ? Stocks are rising at the opening of trading after Caterpillar raised its profit forecast and predicted more growth in the global economy. Cigna and other companies announced big acquisitions.
Investors are still worried about Europe's debt problems. European leaders said they made progress at a weekend summit but won't unveil concrete plans for containing the crisis until Wednesday.
Caterpillar Inc. became the latest big U.S. company to report strong earnings growth in the third quarter. Its income jumped 44 percent.
Oracle, Cigna and Mattel announced nearly $6 billion worth of acquisitions Monday.
The Dow Jones industrial average is up 33, or 0.3 percent, to 11,842. The S&P 500 is up 4, or 0.3 percent, to 1,242. The Nasdaq is up 13, or 0.5 percent, to 2,651.
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WSJ: Google Could Co-Finance Yahoo Buy ? Deadline.com
Yahoo Beats Estimates; Shares Rise After Close
As Yahoo shops itself to potential buyers, Google has emerged as a potential player in helping finance a sale. The Wall Street Journal reported this early Saturday, noting Google?would like to sell some advertising across Yahoo?s websites. The king of search has talked to two private equity firms among buyers who could possibly take Yahoo private. Discussions have been strictly preliminary and speculative, and Google could very well decide to sit out. The last time Google toyed with Yahoo, federal antitrust lawyers squelched the deal and?might not look any more favorably on another proposal linking the two.
Separately, Yahoo?s?China partner Alibaba also hopes to meet with private equity companies about a potential bid to buy Yahoo ? and sooner rather than later. Alibaba chief executive Jack Ma said Thursday that if Yahoo?s board ?is willing to sell, I?m interested. They?ve just got to let us know.? Federal officials would almost certainly be suspicious if not hostile to any deal involving China.
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