Most people think of Skype as a secure means of communication, with messages kindly delivered using end-to-end encryption. But a new report by Ars Technica suggests that's far from the case?and Microsoft is often dipping into your communications.
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This May 13, 2013 photo released by ABC shows country singer Kellie Pickler and her partner Derek Hough performing on the celebrity dance competition series "Dancing with the Stars," in Los Angeles. Pickler is one of four celebrities competing in the finals Monday, May 20. A winner will be announced on Tuesday. (AP Photo/ABC, Adam Taylor)
This May 13, 2013 photo released by ABC shows country singer Kellie Pickler and her partner Derek Hough performing on the celebrity dance competition series "Dancing with the Stars," in Los Angeles. Pickler is one of four celebrities competing in the finals Monday, May 20. A winner will be announced on Tuesday. (AP Photo/ABC, Adam Taylor)
This May 13, 2013 photo released by ABC shows actress Zendaya Coleman and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy performing on the celebrity dance competition series "Dancing with the Stars," in Los Angeles. Zendaya is one of four celebrities competing in the finals Monday, May 20. A winner will be announced on Tuesday. (AP Photo/ABC, Adam Taylor)
This May 13, 2013 photo released by ABC shows U.S. Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman and her partner Mark Ballas performing on the celebrity dance competition series "Dancing with the Stars," in Los Angeles. Raisman is one of four celebrities competing in the finals Monday, May 20. A winner will be announced on Tuesday. (AP Photo/ABC, Adam Taylor)
This May 13, 2013 photo released by ABC shows NFL football player Jacoby Jones and his partner Karina Smirnoff performing on the celebrity dance competition series "Dancing with the Stars," in Los Angeles. Jones is one of four celebrities competing in the finals Monday, May 20. A winner will be announced on Tuesday. (AP Photo/ABC, Adam Taylor)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Kellie Pickler came into the final "Dancing With the Stars" episode in second place but finished in first.
The 26-year-old country singer won the show's mirror ball trophy Tuesday.
"This is amazing!" she beamed to her professional partner, Derek Hough.
The pair earned two sets of perfect scores Monday night and another on Tuesday. Judges' scores combined with viewer votes determine the winner.
Because there were problems with voting on the ABC website during Monday's East Coast broadcast, host Tom Bergeron said Tuesday those votes weren't counted. Only votes cast by phone, text and Facebook factored into the final count.
Teen Disney Channel star Zendaya danced perfectly during the final two episodes, collecting the most points from the judges, but she fell short of the title.
"I'm very proud and I'm very happy," the 16-year-old said after the results were read. "And I get to leave here with an amazing experience."
Football pro Jacoby Jones finished in third place. Fellow finalist Alexandra Raisman was axed at the beginning of Tuesday's episode.
"This has been the best experience of my life," the gold medalist said. "My whole life, all I've ever known has been gymnastics, so to try something new has been amazing."
The two-hour finale featured the return of the season's already-eliminated contestants: comedians Andy Dick and D.L. Hugely, Olympian Dorothy Hamill, actor Ingo Rademacher, reality stars Lisa Vanderpump and Sean Lowe, singer Wynonna Judd and boxer Victor Ortiz.
Judd opted to sing rather than dance on the final episode, while Hamill celebrated another chance to hit the ballroom floor.
The Olympic skater, who said she was motivated to join the show after watching fellow skater Kristi Yamaguchi, had to withdraw from the competition early in the season because of an injury.
Hamill danced again Tuesday, and Yamaguchi joined her.
"It's such an honor to join my idol out here on the dance floor," said Yamaguchi, the Season 6 "Dancing" champ.
Korean pop star Psy brought his unique moves to the ballroom by dancing along with his new single, "Gentleman." Pitbull and Jessica Sanchez also performed.
ABC announced earlier this month that the next season of "Dancing With the Stars" will air one night a week instead of two.
___
AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APSandy .
___
Online:
http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars
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Motion and gesture control, the Kinect and PS Eye, and the Oculus Rift have all joined forces to create a tech industry capable of a new level of immersion. Despite the sophistication of new inputs and displays, the industry is still lagging behind in one area of immersion: feel. With a new device, Disney Research aims to add tactile feedback to our gaming experiences with something that?s much more than another vibrating controller.
Called?Aireal ? the pun, and a name that sounds very similar to that of one of Disney?s most prized characters, is not lost on us ? the device creates tactile feedback in what is being referred to as the ?free air.? Every Disney theme park has attractions that are shows instead of rides. A large portion of these shows are ?interactive,? but in the way where it interacts with you while you passively sit there and get poked, blasted, and hit by things ? like tubs of confetti, streams of water, or even a little prod that sticks your lower back to simulate a bee sting.
Some of these attractions employ the use of blasts of air ? not just directly to your body, but used to create certain sensations. During one point in the 3D Honey, I Shrunk the Audience in Epcot, the show simulates mice breaking loose and running throughout the auditorium. In order to simulate the sensation of a pack of escaped mice, air is pumped through a little plastic tube causing it to wildly flail and mimic the sensation of mice tails brushing your legs. Though simple, Disney has been in the business of creating tactile sensation with simple air rigs for quite some time.
Aireal?dispenses with the thin tube being pumped full of air, but ultimately provides a similar sensation ? air targeted to pinpoint locations, creating the sensation of feel at those locations.
Aireal?will appear at SIGGRAPH 2013, along with the other projects seen in the above video. We also see a quick demonstration of someone using Kinect to knock digital soccer balls away from what seemed to be a simulated goal ? as each ball flies at the goalie, air is blasted from Disney Research?s device in the direction it is flying. The device can not only track the user with the help of Kinect, but shoots out the air in a vortex, which is a shape that is able to travel longer distances (than other air-blast shapes) and keep the majority of its force throughout its travel.
Currently, the most sophisticated kind of physical feedback available to the average consumer is a rumbling controller. There have been attempts at something more dynamic in the past, such as the Aura Interactor ? basically a backpack with speakers in it that rumbled your back in tune with a video game?s sound effects ? but none quite caught on. At fancy arcades that have a virtual reality rig or two, you might find sleeves or gloves that poke or lightly shock the user in tune with whatever action is happening in-game, but those devices generally aren?t sitting on store shelves.?Aireal aims not only to bring more sophisticated physical feedback to the living room, but dispense with having to put on specialized clothing.
One thing I?d like to see as the product develops is how forceful the vortex of air will actually be. The vortex losing force over distance isn?t the only factor Disney Research needs to take into account, as thickness of clothing should mitigate the force of impact. If it?s cold and you?re wearing a sweater over a t-shirt, will you even notice the blast? Will?Aireal be a strictly shirtless affair, making it the ultimate college party game device?
Unfortunately, there are no details as to whether or not?Aireal will hit the market, but Disney Research says the device is not only scalable, but inexpensive, which are certainly two qualities a technology should have before being designed for consumers.
Now read:?Disney Touch? turns everyday objects into multi-touch, gesture-recognizing interfaces
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Ingress, everyone's favorite sci-fi virtual reality simulation game, got a major update this afternoon. Everything you love about the game is still there, with less bugs, but a couple very nice features were added.
The new notification system will get all the attention, but the new information displayed about your Portal keys in inventory is probably the change people will use the most. The Jarvis Virus is something new started earlier this month, and it will flip an infected Portal to the opposing faction.
You can get today's update from the Google Play link above, and learn more about Ingress (and try to score an invite) in the Ingress forums.
Via: +Ingress
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/VmqVGKa9z8s/story01.htm
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Opponents of crop insurance reform contend that common-sense reform designed to level the playing field for family farmers and protect taxpayers and the environment will ?weaken? the farm safety net.
These defenders of the status quo have it exactly wrong.
Common-sense amendments to the farm bill to place reasonable limits on how much of a premium subsidy a farm operator can receive will strengthen the program while still providing farmers with a generous safety net. The very same reforms ? payment limits, means testing, greater disclosure requirements and ending tobacco subsidies ?already apply to other farm programs. And every measure of farm wealth ? household income, net income and farm equity ? is off the charts.
Limiting premium subsidies to $50,000 per farmer, reducing premium support for the largest and most successful farm businesses,? ending tobacco subsidies and allowing USDA to disclose who gets these subsidies to the public ? all of these will make crop insurance much more equitable, transparent and fiscally defensible.
No wonder a coalition of environmental groups, food advocates and family farm organizations came together to call for crop insurance reform last week, saying:
We believe that reforms designed to require basic environmental protection, improve transparency and place reasonable limits on the amount of premium subsidies for the largest and most profitable farm businesses would not impact program participation but would create a more equitable, sustainable and fiscally responsible safety net.
And the White House weighed today (May 20) in support:
The Administration looks forward to working with the Congress to achieve crop insurance and commodity program savings that are not contained in S. 954, while at the same time strengthening the farm safety net in times of need and supporting the next generation of farmers.
The current program is in desperate need of reform.
Few Americans believe that some farm businesses should annually receive more than $1 million apiece each year in premium support, or that more than 10,000 policyholders should receive more than $100,000 each in annual insurance subsidies. And no one seems to think federal subsidies should still flow to tobacco farmers.
But under current law, the playing field is badly tilted in favor of the largest and most prosperous farms. While the largest 1 percent collect about $220,000 a year each in subsidies, the bottom 80 percent get only about $5,000 apiece.
Adopting reform amendments to the farm bill will strengthen a subsidy program that is slated to cost $90 billion over the next 10 years and making federal crop insurance easier to defend in the face of deficit reduction efforts. The absence of reform will bring only more scrutiny.
Source: http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2013/05/common-sense-reforms-will-strengthen-not-weaken-crop-insurance
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In this Saturday, May 18, 2013 citizen journalism image provided by Qusair Lens which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrians inspecting the rubble of damaged buildings due to government airstrikes, in Qusair, Homs province, Syria. The town of Qusair has been besieged for weeks by regime troops and pro-government gunmen backed by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. The siege is part of a withering offensives forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad have been pushing in recent weeks to regain control of the towns and villages along the Lebanese frontier. (AP Photo/Qusair Lens)
In this Saturday, May 18, 2013 citizen journalism image provided by Qusair Lens which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrians inspecting the rubble of damaged buildings due to government airstrikes, in Qusair, Homs province, Syria. The town of Qusair has been besieged for weeks by regime troops and pro-government gunmen backed by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. The siege is part of a withering offensives forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad have been pushing in recent weeks to regain control of the towns and villages along the Lebanese frontier. (AP Photo/Qusair Lens)
This citizen journalism image provided by Qusair Lens which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels preparing to repel a coordinated attack by government forces, in Qusair, Homs province, Syria, Sunday, May 19, 2013. Syrian troops backed by tanks and warplanes launched an assault Sunday on a strategic rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, pounding the area with airstrikes and artillery salvos that killed tens of people and forced residents to scramble for cover in basements and makeshift bunkers, activists said. (AP Photo/Qusair Lens)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Fierce street fighting in a Syrian town near the Lebanese border has killed at least 28 elite members of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, activists said Monday, as Syrian government forces pushed deeper into the strategic, opposition-held town.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria's civil war, said that more than 70 Hezbollah fighters have also been wounded in the fighting around the town of Qusair. If confirmed, the casualties would be a significant blow to the Iranian-backed Shiite group, which has come under harsh criticism at home for its involvement in the war next door.
A staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Hezbollah is heavily invested in the survival of the Damascus regime and is known to have sent fighters to aid government forces. The Lebanese group's growing role in the conflict also points to the deeply sectarian nature of the war in Syria, in which a rebellion driven by the country's Sunni majority seeks to overthrow a regime dominated by the president's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
The increasingly overt Hezbollah involvement in the Syrian conflict is almost certain to threaten stability in Lebanon, which is sharply split along sectarian lines, and between supporters and opponents of Assad.
The Observatory, which relies on a wide network of activists on the ground in Syria, cited "sources close to the militant group" for the death toll but declined to reveal their identity. It said at least 50 Syrian rebels were also killed in the battle for Qusair on Sunday, including two commanders.
Qusair has been the target of a withering government offensive in recent weeks, and the countryside around the town has been engulfed in fighting as regime troops backed by Hezbollah fighters seized villages while closing in on Qusair itself. The opposition estimates that some 40,000 civilians are currently in the town.
The intensity of the fighting reflects the importance that both sides attach to the area. In the regime's calculations, Qusair lies along a strategic land corridor linking Damascus with the Mediterranean coast, the Alawite heartland. For the rebels, overwhelmingly Sunni Qusair has served as a conduit for shipments of weapons and supplies smuggled from Lebanon to opposition fighters inside Syria.
Regime troops and Hezbollah fighters, who laid siege to Qusair weeks ago, launched an offensive to regain control of the town, with Hezbollah's elite fighters advancing from the east and south, an opposition figure said.
He added that it took Hezbollah troops a few hours to take control of the town's main square and municipal building. By the end of the day Sunday, they had pushed out rebel units, including the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, from most of Qusair, he said on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by both sides.
He said fighting was focused in the northern part of the town on Monday.
The account matched that of Syria's state news media, which said President Bashar Assad's troops took control of most of Qusair on Monday. State-run TV said forces restored stability to the entire eastern front of the town, killing scores of "terrorists" there ? the term used by the Syrian regime to refer to all rebels.
An official in the Homs governor's office told the AP on Monday that more than 60 percent of the city is in government hands after scores of gunmen were killed or surrendered Sunday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to give information to the media during an ongoing military operation, said more than 1,500 residents fled the city due to intensified fighting.
Qusair-based opposition activist Hadi Abdullah denied official reports that the army was advancing in the town, saying they were still trying to storm it.
"They go in and out, until now I can say with confidence that they have not been able to enter the town and stay there," Abdullah said.
Hezbollah members have made use of their expertise in guerrilla tactics to significantly boost regime forces in the fight for Qusair. Their presence, along with that of Hezbollah-backed Shiite fighters, is meant to shore up overstretched government troops fighting on several other fronts.
Residents on the Lebanese side of the border just across from Qusair reported seeing more than 30 plumes of smoke billowing from inside Syria and hearing the heavy thud of artillery and airstrikes late into the night Sunday and on Monday morning.
"Nobody could sleep last night from the sounds of battle," said Ali Jaafar, deputy mayor of the Lebanese border town of Hermel, adding that residents did not send children to school Monday for fear of fighting spilling over into Lebanon.
Lebanese security officials confirmed at least four funerals were being held Monday morning for Hezbollah fighters or their supporters killed in Syria. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
Army units "restored security and stability" to most of the city on Monday and killed "many terrorists," the majority of them foreign fighters who have been fighting alongside opposition forces, the state news agency said. The military also destroyed rebel hideouts and seized "large amounts of weapons and ammunition," it said, adding that government troops are fighting pockets of resistance in southern and northern districts of Qusair Monday.
The Syrian regime claims there is no civil war in the country but that the army is fighting foreign-backed terrorists trying to topple Assad's government.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011.
At least 1.5 million Syrians have sought shelter in neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, while millions more have been displaced inside Syria and are in urgent need of basic aid, according to the United Nations.
The international aid organization Oxfam appealed for more funds to help Syrian refugees, saying warmer weather will increase health risks due to lack of shelter, water and basic sanitation in Lebanon and Jordan. The Britain-based group said in a statement Monday that diarrhea and skin infections have already been noted among refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. The two countries host the bulk of 1.5 million Syrian refugees.
In addition to funds, aid organizations have also complained of a lack of access to civilians in areas most affected by fighting, saying that government bureaucracy often delays convoys for weeks from reaching civilians in dire need of basic supplies.
In a statement Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the killing of a driver for the group's affiliate branch in northern Syria. The ICRC said Abdo Darwish, a driver for the Red Crescent Society in Hassakeh was killed May 14 on his way to work. He was wearing his Syrian Red Crescent uniform, "clearly indicating his affiliation with the Movement, when he was targeted by snipers," the ICRC said.
Syria's civil war has claimed the lives of 20 Red Crescent volunteers, the statement said, adding that all of those who died had been killed while carrying out their humanitarian duties.
___
Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
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SOCIAL MEDIA PETS. The Fifth Annual BlogPaws Conference brings together social media-savvy pet owners. All photos from the 'BlogPaws' Facebook page
TYSONS CORNER, USA - When Dexter the cocker spaniel tore a ligament in his hind leg a few weeks ago, he didn't suffer in silence. Instead, his owner wrote a blog post.
"The vet told me my dog needed surgery, and I thought, 'You know, there's got to be something else'," said Carol Bryant, who writes a "canine-centric online magazine" called A Fidose of Reality.
Readers responded to her blog entry, and told Bryant that Dexter didn't have to go under the knife. He had options, like laser therapy and a leg brace he'll be wearing for the next six months.
Dexter is recovering, and travelled with Bryant from rural Pennsylvania to Washington suburb Tyson's Corner for the biggest US gathering ever of pet bloggers -- people who embrace social media to rave about pets.
The Fifth Annual BlogPaws Conference, with 500 participants and perhaps as many critters, offers an opportunity for pet lovers to network, swap ideas and maybe win a coveted Nose-to-Nose Pet Blogging and Social Media award (for which The Intrepid Pup, about a peripatetic Vizsla called Tavish, is nominated in three categories).
Workshops include a primer on using Google Analytics to gauge online readership and building bridges between bloggers and veterinarians. They also feature Schmitty the Weather Dog, who demonstrates a just-released Sony canine video harness.
BlogPaws has 2,200 members in its online community, said co-founder Yvonne DiVita, who writes about her cat and three dogs in Colorado on a blog titled Scratchings and Sniffings.
"I would guess we're going to hit close to 3,000 by the end of the year," she told AFP as the predominantly female bloggers and their pets--mostly dogs--took over the lobby of the Sheraton hotel on Thursday.
BLOG PAWS. An annual get together of pet bloggers
The animal market
With Americans spending $53.33 billion on their pets last year, according to the American Pet Products Association, and 62 percent of households owning a pet, the pet care industry is taking the bloggers seriously.
In an exhibition hall, big hitters like pet food maker Nestle Purina rub shoulders with upstarts like the Spoiled Pup Boutique, a New York area canine couturier, all wooing bloggers to test and endorse their products.
"The followers and readers of pet blogs are so loyal, and they trust the word of bloggers," said Bridget Evans, a San Diego publicist attending BlogPaws for VetIQ, a newcomer to the pet medication and health supplements business.
It's come to the point, DiVita said, where some popular bloggers with solid track records and substantial followings can give up their day jobs and earn a good middle-class income -- or better -- through online advertising.
"I know bloggers that are making upwards of six figures," she said, while others are content with just a few hundred dollars.
The new online superstars
"We're kind of the rock stars of the pet industry," added Bryant, who cautions that the key to blogging success is finding a unique voice and then keeping it real.
"You need to be yourself when you blog."
Longtime syndicated pet columnist Steve Dale said his blog, which he updates daily, is one of the most popular among 200 blogs hosted by the Chicago Tribune's Chicago Now website, attracting 100,000 visitors a month.
"It's pretty incredible that a pet blog would be among the top 20 ... and here's my secret: I have no idea what I'm doing," Dale, the owner of two mutts, a cat and a northern blue-tongued skink lizard, told AFP.
Actually, he does have an idea: blogging enables Dale to cover breaking news--"In the pet world, there is news, believe it or not"--like a pet food recall that otherwise wouldn't make his twice-weekly print column My Pet World.
"It can be anything, and bingo! Bongo! I can cover it," he said.
Dale was a keynote speaker at BlogPaws, and is keen to draw fellow bloggers' attention to some worrying pet health trends. There are fewer pets getting check-ups at the vets, for instance, and upticks in flea infestations and heartworm.
Julia Gleason from San Francisco hopes her year-old fashion-meets-Fido blog Canines and Couture, which often features her English bulldog, will grow to a stage where she bid farewell to her day job at a legal consultancy.
"I have lofty goals to turn it into an actual business at some point," she told AFP as Chilly, a white poodle with a dyed purple head and tail, chilled out on the floor by the wine bar.
"Right now, I'm focusing on building my audience and building a following."
CHILLY. A purple headed poodle chills out at the BlogPaws conference- Rappler.com
Source: http://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/29554-animal-lovers-take-pets-to-social-media
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The girl-formerly-known-as-Hermione continues to wow crowds around the world, including at Cannes. On Thursday she made a stylish splash on the film festival's red carpet for her new film, "Bling Ring," directed by Sofia Coppola. And in a recent chat with The Hollywood Reporter, she continued to spread the charm.
In the video, the interviewer asks Watson about the jewel theft at Cannes just the day before, and she immediately cries, "I promise, it wasn't me!" Then she admits that this is only her second film festival ever.
"I was told in Cannes, if they don't like your movie, you known about it," Watson said. "So I knew if we got praise it would be honest."
Mainly, though, the young actress was there to support Coppola, whom she hugely admires. And, she admitted, she didn't sign on with "Bling" because of the script: "I basically would have done any role she had offered me. It was less about the role and more about working with her."
Still, while she's not on the hook for stealing any jewels at the festival, Watson does admit in the video that there was one piece of merch from the movie she could have considered walking off with -- Paris Hilton's pig. "I thought, that would be kind of cool," she admitted.
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/emma-watson-steals-hearts-not-pigs-cannes-1C9989315
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Crazy ants are taking over areas once occupied by fire ants in the South. The sting of Crazy ants isn't as painful and migrate slowly. But Crazy ants multiply faster.
Invasive fire ants have been a thorn in the sides of Southerners for years. But another invasive species, the so-called "crazy" ant ? that many describe as being worse ? has arrived and is displacing fire ants in several places.
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"When you talk to folks who live in the invaded areas, they tell you they want their fire ants back," said Edward LeBrun, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, in a statement from the school. "Fire ants are in many ways very polite. They live in your yard. They form mounds and stay there, and they only interact with you if you step on their mound."
Crazy ants, on the other hand, "go everywhere," invading homes and nesting in walls and crawlspaces, even damaging electrical equipment by swarming inside appliances. [Image Gallery: Ants of the World]
A study published in the April issue of the journal Biological Invasions found that in areas infested with crazy ants, few to no fire ants were present. Exactly how they are able to outcompete fire ants is so far unknown. In areas with crazy ants, the researchers also found greatly diminished numbers of native ant species, according to the study.
Fire ants are known for their painful stings and have spread through the Southeast since arriving from South America in the 1930s. Crazy ants were first discovered in Houston in 2002, and they have already spread to coastal areas from Texas to Florida, according to the researchers. Although the "crazies" don't have as painful a sting as fire ants, they multiply in even greater numbers. They are also difficult to control since they don't eat the same poison baits as fire ants do, the statement noted.
Last year, the crazy ant species was identified as Nylanderia fulva, which hails from northern Argentina and southern Brazil, according to a 2012 study in PLOS ONE. It's also known as the tawny crazy ant and was previously named the Rasberry crazy ant after the exterminator Tom Rasberry, who first discovered it. The "crazy" moniker comes from the ant's quick, seemingly random movements.
Luckily, the crazy ant doesn't spread as quickly as the fire ant, advancing only 650 feet (200 meters) per year on its own, the release noted. Therefore, it's vital that people don't accidentally transport the ant, the prime method by which it has spread, according to the release.
Email?Douglas Main?or follow him on?Twitter?or?Google+. Follow us @livescience, ?Facebook?or ?Google+. Article originally on LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/3FwH4s3kfNU/Crazy-ants-vs.-Fire-ants-Who-s-winning-video
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May 18, 2013 ? Patients with treatment-resistant major depression saw dramatic improvement in their illness after treatment with ketamine, an anesthetic, according to the largest ketamine clinical trial to-date led by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The antidepressant benefits of ketamine were seen within 24 hours, whereas traditional antidepressants can take days or weeks to demonstrate a reduction in depression.
The research will be discussed at the American Psychiatric Association meeting on May 20, 2013 at the Moscone Center in San Franscico.
Led by Dan Iosifescu, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai; Sanjay Mathew, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine; and James Murrough, MD Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai, the research team evaluated 72 people with treatment-resistant depression -- meaning their depression has failed to respond to two or more medications -- who were administered a single intravenous infusion of ketamine for 40 minutes or an active placebo of midazolam, another type of anesthetic without antidepressant properties. Patients were interviewed after 24 hours and again after seven days. After 24 hours, the response rate was 63.8 percent in the ketamine group compared to 28 percent in the placebo group. The response to ketamine was durable after seven days, with a 45.7 percent response in the ketamine group versus 18.2 percent in the placebo group. Both drugs were well tolerated.
"Using midazolam as an active placebo allowed us to independently assess the antidepressant benefit of ketamine, excluding any anesthetic effects," said Dr. Murrough, who is first author on the new report. "Ketamine continues to show significant promise as a new treatment option for patients with severe and refractory forms of depression."
Major depression is caused by a breakdown in communication between nerve cells in the brain, a process that is controlled by chemicals called neurotransmitters. Traditional antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) influence the activity of the neurotransmitters serotonin and noreprenephrine to reduce depression. In these medicines, response is often significantly delayed and up to 60 percent of people do not respond to treatment, according to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Ketamine works differently than traditional antidepressants in that it influences the activity of the glutamine neurotransmitter to help restore the dysfunctional communication between nerve cells in the depressed brain, and much more quickly than traditional antidepressants.
Future studies are needed to investigate the longer term safety and efficacy of a course of ketamine in refractory depression. Dr. Murrough recently published a preliminary report in the journal Biological Psychiatry on the safety and efficacy of ketamine given three times weekly for two weeks in patients with treatment-resistant depression.
"We found that ketamine was safe and well tolerated and that patients who demonstrated a rapid antidepressant effect after starting ketamine were able to maintain the response throughout the course of the study," Dr. Murrough said. "Larger placebo-controlled studies will be required to more fully determine the safety and efficacy profile of ketamine in depression."
The potential of ketamine was discovered by Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of The Mount Sinai Medical Center, in collaboration with John H. Krystal, MD, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University.
"Major depression is one of the most prevalent and costly illnesses in the world, and yet currently available treatments fall far short of alleviating this burden," said Dr. Charney. "There is an urgent need for new, fast-acting therapies, and ketamine shows important potential in filling that void."
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Yet advertisers often make light of sexual violence towards women. They disguise it as innuendo, humor, or artistic expression, and hope the shock factor will work promotional magic for their product.
Back in the "Mad Men" era it was unsurprising to see women treated poorly in ads.
But we've found some modern day promotions that glorify sexual violence. Some of the brands are repeat offenders; some are merely one-time gaffes.
Often, clients and agencies defend them as "edgy" fantasy scenarios.
Fair enough. But there sure are a lot of them. And so few involving violence against men ...
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/sex-violence-against-women-ads-2013-5
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(updates with quotes, details, adds byline) * Chest infection worsens, forcing Wiggins to withdraw * Defending champion Hesjedal also out * Italy's Nibali leads as Uran takes over as Team Sky leader By Alasdair Fotheringham BUSSETO, Italy, May 17 (Reuters) - This year's Giro d'Italia claimed two major victims when pre-race favourite Bradley Wiggins and defending champion Ryder Hesjedal withdrew prior to Friday's 13th stage, the pair citing illness as the reason for abandoning the tour. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/markets-weekahead-sensex-risks-consolidation-sbi-earnings-111555971.html
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A customer, right, waits for his Powerball lottery ticket at a convenience store in Chicago on Saturday, May 18, 2013. A little more than a year after three tickets split a world-record lottery prize, the jackpot for Saturday's Powerball drawing was nearing historic territory. Should nobody pick the correct six numbers, the prize money will roll over to next week's drawing and almost certainly eclipse the $656 million doled out to winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland in the Mega Millions game in March 2012. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
A customer, right, waits for his Powerball lottery ticket at a convenience store in Chicago on Saturday, May 18, 2013. A little more than a year after three tickets split a world-record lottery prize, the jackpot for Saturday's Powerball drawing was nearing historic territory. Should nobody pick the correct six numbers, the prize money will roll over to next week's drawing and almost certainly eclipse the $656 million doled out to winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland in the Mega Millions game in March 2012. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
A clerk dispenses a Powerball Lottery ticket in Oklahoma City, Friday, May 17, 2013. Powerball officials say the jackpot has climbed to an estimated $600 million, making it the largest prize in the game's history and the world's second largest lottery prize.(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
A Powerball lottery ticket is printed out of a lottery machine at a convenience store in Chicago on Saturday, May 18, 2013. A little more than a year after three tickets split a world-record lottery prize, the jackpot for Saturday's Powerball drawing was nearing historic territory. Should nobody pick the correct six numbers, the prize money will roll over to next week's drawing and almost certainly eclipse the $656 million doled out to winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland in the Mega Millions game in March 2012. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
A sign at a store advertises the Powerball Lottery in Oklahoma City, Friday, May 17, 2013. Powerball officials say the jackpot has climbed to an estimated $600 million, making it the largest prize in the game's history and the world's second largest lottery prize. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? It's all about the odds.
With the majority of possible combinations of Powerball numbers in play, someone is almost sure to win the game's highest jackpot on Saturday night, a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars ? and that's after taxes.
The problem, of course, is those same odds just about guarantee the lucky person won't be you. The chances of winning the $600 million prize remain astronomically high: 1 in 175.2 million. And lottery officials said Saturday that 80 percent of the possible combinations have been purchased.
"This would be the roll to get in on," said Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich. "Of course there's no guarantee, and that's the randomness of it, and the fun of it."
That hasn't deterred people cross the Powerball-playing states from lining up at gas stations and convenience stores Saturday for their chance at striking it filthy rich.
The latest jackpot is the world's second largest overall, just behind a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in March 2012.
At Jimmy's Mart, a small convenience store in suburban Columbia, S.C., Armous Peterson spread out several Powerball tickets. About four dozen more were already filled out from weeks before and are stacked in a clear pouch beside him.
Peterson, 56, has a system ? although he is reluctant to share it ? and was trying to figure out his numbers for Saturday's drawing. He's well aware of the long odds, but he also knows the mantra of just about every person buying tickets this week.
"Somebody is going to win," he said. "Lots of people are going to lose, too. But if you buy a ticket, that winner might be you."
Benjamin Richardson, 56, plays every Powerball drawing, figuring spending a few bucks a week is no great loss ? and it keeps him in the running for the big jackpot.
He spends about as much on lottery tickets as he does for two of the hot dogs and chili that usually causes the long lines at Jimmy's Mart.
"If it happens, it happens. It's all luck anyway," he said. "What do they all say? If it is your time, it's your time."
___
Associated Press Writer Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.
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What's the most expensive one-way commercial flight with no buses, cars or trains taking you from one airport to the other? Jalopnik readers
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? The organic food industry is gaining clout on Capitol Hill, prompted by rising consumer demand and its entry into traditional farm states. But that isn't going over well with everyone in Congress.
Tensions between conventional and organic agriculture boiled over this week during a late-night House Agriculture Committee debate on a sweeping farm bill that has for decades propped up traditional crops and largely ignored organics.
When Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., a former organic farmer, offered an amendment to make it easier for organic companies to organize industrywide promotional campaigns, there was swift backlash from some farm-state Republicans, with one member saying he didn't want to see the industry get a free ride and another complaining about organics' "continued assault on agriculture."
"That's one of the things that has caught me and raises my concerns, is that industry's lack of respect for traditional agriculture," said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., referring to some organic companies' efforts to reduce the number of genetically modified crops in the marketplace.
At the same time, Scott acknowledged that he and his wife buy organic foods.
Growing consumer interest in organics has proved tough for some Republicans on the committee to ignore. Eight Republicans, most of them newer members of the committee, joined with all of the panel's Democrats in supporting the amendment, which was adopted 29-17.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Missouri Republican who owns a farm equipment business and a corn and soybean farm, said she supported the amendment not only because helping organics is good for agriculture but because many of her constituents eat organic foods.
"Organics are a niche market in agriculture with a growing market share, so it makes sense for me to allow farmers to invest some of their own funds to promote their products," she said.
The amendment would allow the organic industry to organize and pay for a unified industry promotional campaign called a "checkoff" that is facilitated by the Agriculture Department but is no cost to the government. These promotional programs have traditionally been limited to individual commodities or crops, producing familiar campaigns like "Got Milk?" and "Beef: It's What's for Dinner."
The amendment would not set up such a program for organics, but it would allow USDA to approve an organic promotional campaign if the industry decided it wanted one. Laura Batcha of the Organic Trade Association says one reason the industry would approve a campaign is that many organic producers are concerned that consumers don't understand that products labeled "natural" aren't necessarily organic, which requires certification.
The organic industry has exploded in the last decade, with $35 billion in sales and 10 percent growth just last year. There are more than 17,000 certified organic businesses in the country.
Producers of organic crops and conventional crops have long been at odds, as organic products have grabbed market share ? more than 4 percent of food and beverage sales in 2011 ? and the industry has advertised organic foods as healthier than other foods. Organic products are required to be certified by the USDA and are grown without pesticides and genetically modified ingredients, mainstays of traditional agriculture.
Government-managed promotional checkoff programs like the one that would be allowed under the amendment are required to be positive and not disparage other products, and some lawmakers seemed wary that such a campaign would be possible.
"How do I present organic pork without disparaging non-organic pork?" asked House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., who opposed the amendment.
Mike Conaway, R-Texas, took issue with part of the amendment that would allow the organic producers to opt out of other commodity campaigns, an option that isn't given to conventional producers.
"Looks to me like they have a free ride on this thing," Conaway said, in an at times angry exchange with Schrader.
Despite the rancor, the chances that the amendment will become law are good, as the Senate Agriculture Committee added the same amendment to its version of the farm bill.
Schrader told his colleagues that embracing organics is essential to appealing to consumers in a time when big farms are often demonized by popular culture. He said that many young people are coming back to farms because of nontraditional agriculture.
"American agriculture is under siege," he said. "Urban folks do not understand where their food and fiber comes from. ... The point here is to hopefully position American agriculture where we're not always trying to catch up to what the American consumer wants."
___
Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcjalonick
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May 16, 2013 ? College students eat more fruits and vegetables and exercise more on days when they communicate more with their parents, according to researchers at Penn State.
"Only a third of college students consumes a diet that is consistent with national recommendations," said Meg Small, research associate in the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development. "In addition, college students' physical activity levels decline from the first semester to their seventh semester. Our research suggests that parents may play an important role in influencing their adolescents to establish behavioral patterns that improve their long-term health and chronic-disease risk."
In order to examine the protective effects of parent-college student communication on student eating and physical activity behaviors, the researchers recruited 746 first-year students at a large university in the U. S. to complete a baseline survey plus 14 daily surveys. The surveys included questions about how much time students spent talking to, e-mailing or text messaging their parents. In addition, the surveys included questions about how often and for how long students worked out or played sports and how many times they ate fruits or vegetables.
The team found that on days when students communicated with their parents for 30 minutes or more, they were 14 percent more likely to consume fruits and vegetables and 50 percent more likely to engage in 30 minutes or more of physical activity. The results appear in the current issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
According to Small, the researchers did not document the content of the conversations between students and their parents; therefore, they do not know why the conversations had such positive effects on students' behaviors.
"It is likely that communication with parents has both direct and indirect effects on college students' eating and physical activity behaviors," said Small. "Parents may directly remind students to eat a variety of healthy foods and engage in physical activity. Indirectly, communication with parents may remind students someone cares about their health and well being, and that may motivate them to take better care of themselves."
Other authors on this paper include Nicole Morgan, research associate at the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development; Lisa Bailey-Davis, research associate at the Geisinger Center for Health Research; and Jennifer Maggs, professor of human development and family studies, Penn State.
The National Institutes of Health funded this research.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/nFi2dCX4eP0/130516105623.htm
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It?s been 17 years since Dolly the sheep was cloned from a mammary cell. And now scientists applied the same technique to make the first embryonic stem cell lines from human skin cells.
Ever since Ian Wilmut, an unassuming embryologist working at the Roslin Institute just outside of Edinburgh stunned the world by cloning the first mammal, Dolly, scientists have been asking ? could humans be cloned in the same way? Putting aside the ethical challenges the question raised, the query turned out to involve more wishful thinking than scientific success. Despite the fact that dozens of other species have been cloned using the technique, called nuclear transfer, human cells have remained stubbornly resistant to the process.
Until now. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a professor at Oregon Health & Science University and his colleagues report in the journal Cell that they have successfully reprogrammed human skin cells back to their embryonic state. The purpose of the study, however, was not to generate human clones but to produce lines of embryonic stem cells. These can develop into muscle, nerve, or other cells that make up the body?s tissues. The process, he says, took only a few months, a surprisingly short period to reach such an important milestone.
(MORE: Stem Cell Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine)
Nuclear transfer involves inserting a fully developed cell ? in Mitalipov?s study, the cells came from the skin of fetuses ? into the nucleus of an egg, and then manipulating the egg to start dividing, a process that normally only occurs after it has been fertilized by a sperm. After several days, the ball of cells that results contains a blanket of embryonic stem cells endowed with the genetic material of the donor skin cell, which have the ability to generate every cell type from that donor. In Dolly?s case, those cells were allowed to continue developing into an embryo that was then transferred to a ewe to produce a cloned sheep. But Mitalipov says his process with the human cells isn?t designed to generate a human clone, but rather just to create the embryonic stem cells. These could then be manipulated to create heart, nerve or other cells that can repair or treat disease.
?I think this is a really important advance,? says Dieter Egli, an investigator at the New York Stem Cell Foundation and Columbia University. ?I have a very high confidence that versions of this technique will work very well; it?s something that the field has been waiting for.? Egli is among the handful of scientists who have been working to perfect the technique with human cells and in 2011, succeeded in producing human stem cells, but with double the number of chromosomes. In 2004, Woo Suk Hwang, a veterinary scientist at Seoul National University, claimed to have succeeded in achieving the feat, but later admitted to faking the data. Instead of generating embryonic stem cell lines via nuclear transfer, Hwang?s group produced the stem cells from days-old embryos, a technique that had already been established by James Thomson at University of Wisconsin in 1998.
(MORE: Stem Cell Research: The Quest Resumes)
That scandal, as well as ethical concerns about the dangers of encouraging work that could lead to human cloning, dried up interest in getting the process to work with human cells. Then came a breakthrough in 2007, when Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University succeeded in reprogramming adult skin cells back to their embryonic state simply by dousing them in a concoction of four genetic factors and some growth media. That technique for generating embryonic-like stem cells (called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells) bypassed the need for transferring the cells into eggs, as Wilmut had done, and also averted the ethical issues attached to extracting stem cells from embryos as Thomson had done. Plus, the iPS cells had the advantage that patients could generate their own stem cells and potentially grow new cells they might need to treat or avert diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer?s or heart problems.
Except that researchers still couldn?t prove that the heart, nerve, muscle and other cells they made from the iPS cells were exactly like the ones generated from the embryonic stem cells. The gold standard embryonic stem cells still came from embryos themselves, including ones that were made through nuclear transfer.
(MORE: Stem Cell Miracle? New Therapies May Cure Chronic Conditions like Alzheimer?s)
Now that the technique appears to work with human cells, the process could be another source of generating stem cells that may ultimately treat patients, says Mitalipov. His group is especially interested in promoting the technique for treating mitochondrial diseases ? these organelles posses a different set of DNA than that contained in the nucleus of cells, and are responsible for generating the energy needed for cells to function. But because they lie outside of the nucleus, transferring cells from a patient with mitochondrial diseases into a donor egg that has a healthy set of mitochondrial DNA would generate populations of cells that are free of disease.
In order to make the process work, Mitalipov says he modified more than a dozen steps in the process that proved successful with sheep and other species. His group had the advantage of working first with monkey eggs; the knowledge about what stimulated the eggs to start dividing helped him to make the appropriate changes in the human eggs that contributed to his success.
Beginning with high quality eggs that were donated by healthy volunteers was critical, he says. Most previous attempts involved discarded eggs from IVF clinics that may have been of lesser quality and affected their ability to survive the transfer process. From the monkey studies, the team also realized that the process of introducing the donor cell into the egg also required a gentle touch; timing the transfer at the point when the egg was most likely to accept the new genetic material and start dividing was important. Infusing a bit of caffeine into the process also helped. ?Even though nothing we did seems that brand new ? there wasn?t anything that people didn?t try in other species or we haven?t tried with monkey cells ? but the right combination, timing and concentration made the difference,? says Mitalipov.
(MORE: The Stem-Cell Ruling: Scientists Alarmed at ?Step Backward?)
He estimates that about 50% of the success can be attributed to the quality of the eggs while the remaining 50% is related to the optimization of the process. So far, the technique appears to be pretty efficient; from eight eggs, the group generated four embryonic stem cell lines. In the future, Mitalipov anticipates it will be possible to produce a stem cell line from each donated egg. ?We knew the history of failure, that several legitimate labs had tried but couldn?t make it work,? he says. ?I thought we would need about 500 to 1000 eggs to optimize the process and anticipated it would be a long study that would take several years. But in the first experiment we got a blastocyst and within a couple of months we already had an [embryonic] stem cell line. We couldn?t believe it.?
Egli and other stem cell scientists are eager to replicate the process, to test how reliable and robust it is, and hurdles still remain before the technique is standardized. It?s not clear yet, for example, whether the process will work as efficiently with adult, or older cells, and healthy egg donors may not be as available in some parts of the country as they were in Oregon, where the state allows scientists to compensate donors for their eggs, just as IVF clinics do. But the achievement could establish another important source of stem cells that patients can generate to ultimately treat themselves.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-report-first-success-human-cloning-process-160011071.html
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This undated image made available by the Oregon Health & Science University in May 2013 shows developing cloned human embryos. Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos, a longstanding goal that could lead to new treatments for such illnesses as Parkinson's disease and diabetes. In the Wednesday, May 15, 2013 edition of the journal Cell, scientists at the Oregon Health & Science University report harvesting stem cells from six embryos. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, who led the research, said the success came not from a single technical innovation, but from revising a series of steps in the process. (AP Photo/Oregon Health & Science University)
This undated image made available by the Oregon Health & Science University in May 2013 shows developing cloned human embryos. Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos, a longstanding goal that could lead to new treatments for such illnesses as Parkinson's disease and diabetes. In the Wednesday, May 15, 2013 edition of the journal Cell, scientists at the Oregon Health & Science University report harvesting stem cells from six embryos. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, who led the research, said the success came not from a single technical innovation, but from revising a series of steps in the process. (AP Photo/Oregon Health & Science University)
This undated image made available by the Oregon Health & Science University in May 2013 shows a stem cell colony developed from cloned human embryos. Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos, a longstanding goal that could lead to new treatments for such illnesses as Parkinson's disease and diabetes. In the Wednesday, May 15, 2013 edition of the journal Cell, scientists at the Oregon Health & Science University report harvesting stem cells from six embryos. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, who led the research, said the success came not from a single technical innovation, but from revising a series of steps in the process. (AP Photo/Oregon Health & Science University)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos, a longstanding goal that could lead to new treatments for such illnesses as Parkinson's disease and diabetes.
A prominent expert called the work a landmark, but noted that a different, simpler technique now under development may prove more useful.
Stem cells can turn into any cell of the body, so scientists are interested in using them to create tissue for treating disease. Transplanting brain tissue might treat Parkinson's disorder, for example, and pancreatic tissue might be used for diabetes.
But transplants run the risk of rejection, so more than a decade ago, researchers proposed a way around that: Create tissue from stem cells that bear the patient's own DNA, obtained with a process called therapeutic cloning.
If DNA from a patient is put into a human egg, which is then grown into an early embryo, the stem cells from that embryo would provide a virtual genetic match. So in theory, tissues created from them would not be rejected by the patient.
That idea was met with some ethical objections because harvesting the stem cells involved destroying human embryos.
Scientists have tried to get stem cells from cloned human embryos for about a decade, but they've failed. Generally, that's because the embryos stopped developing before producing the cells. In 2004, a South Korean scientist claimed to have gotten stem cells from cloned human embryos, but that turned out to be a fraud.
In Wednesday's edition of the journal Cell, however, scientists in Oregon report harvesting stem cells from six embryos created from donated eggs. Two embryos had been given DNA from skin cells of a child with a genetic disorder, and the others had DNA from fetal skin cells.
Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University, who led the research, said the success came not from a single technical innovation, but from revising a series of steps in the process. He noted it had taken six years to reach the goal after doing it with monkey embryos.
Mitalipov also said that based on monkey work, he believes human embryos made with the technique could not develop into cloned babies, and he has no interest in trying to do that. Scientists have cloned more than a dozen kinds of mammals, starting with Dolly the sheep.
The new work was financed by the university and the Leducq Foundation in Paris.
Dr. George Daley, a stem cell expert at Children's Hospital Boston who didn't participate in the work, called the new results "one landmark step in a very long journey" toward creating DNA-matched transplant tissue.
Now, Daley said, scientists must compare the embryo-cloning approach with another technology that reprograms blood or skin cells directly into substitutes for embryonic stem cells. This reprogramming approach is technically simpler and doesn't involve embryos or require the donation of human eggs, and it was widely acclaimed when it was reported in 2007. Its Japanese developer shared a Nobel Prize last year.
But these substitute cells show some molecular differences compared to embryonic ones, which has led to questions about whether they can safely be used for treating patients. So it's essential to compare the cells from the two methods, Daley said.
The new results mean "we have another tool," he said. "We have to learn more about this tool."
Daley said he believed scientists will prefer using the reprogramming approach unless it can be proven "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that embryo cloning produces better cells for treating patients.
Mitalipov said he believed his technique would present a particular advantage for treating patients with a certain type of rare diseases. These are caused by mutations in genes of the mitochondria, the power plants of cells. He noted his technique, unlike the cell-reprogramming approach, would supply tissue with new mitochondrial genes that could replace defective ones. Those new genes would come from the egg.
The Rev. Tad Pacholczyk, director of education for National Catholic Bioethics Center, an independent think tank in Philadelphia, reiterated his opposition to embryo cloning, calling the approach unethical.
"It involves the decision to utilize early human beings as repositories for obtaining desired cells," he said. "You're creating them only to destroy them."
Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society in Berkeley, Calif., said she was glad that Mitalipov doubted the embryos could be used to clone babies. She said the report still provides a good opportunity for the federal government to ban the use of cloning for reproduction.
___
Online:
Journal Cell: http://www.cell.com/
___ Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/malcolmritter
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