MESA, Ariz. ? Pablo Sandoval?s bat looked crisp as he collected three hits in his first four exhibition at-bats. But those weren?t the numbers that Giants manager Bruce Bochy wanted to see in the first weekend of games here.
Late last week, Bochy told Sandoval he would bench him if the Panda didn?t tip the scales at a certain weight by Saturday?s Cactus League opener.
?To his credit, he did,? Bochy said. ?Although to be honest, I?m not sure how.?
Maybe Sandoval locked himself in a sauna and cranked up the coals. However he did it, it came as a surprise to Bochy, who originally did not list Sandoval among his scheduled regulars on Saturday.
Instead, Sandoval is the only position player to start both of the Giants? exhibition games in the field.
?I talked to him (on Saturday) and he wants to play,? Bochy said. ?He comes in and does his early work. To play five innings, it helps with his conditioning.?
Sandoval just got done playing in the Venezuelan league playoffs three weeks ago, so he?s in better ?baseball shape? than most of his teammates. He also wants to make sure he?s ready when he leaves for the World Baseball Classic next week.
Although Bochy wouldn?t divulge any specific numbers, it?s believed that Sandoval is heavier than at any time since the end of the 2010 season, when his weight problem contributed to losing his job in the postseason. It was a wakeup call that compelled him to reshape his body that winter.
Sandoval might not be in the same condition he was when he reported in 2011, but Bochy didn?t describe him as if he?s in need of another wakeup call.
?He?s doing what I asked,? Bochy said.
--
Even though Matt Cain threw a lot of pitches in the first inning, Bochy said he would have sent his opening-day starter back out there if not for the line drive off the side of his right knee.
[BAGGARLY: Cain gets a scare with line drive off knee]
?We were a little concerned the knee might start swelling,? Bochy said. ?We?re being a little cautious with him. It?s a long spring.?
--
Everyone knows what kind of an arm Nate Schierholtz has in right field. Well, outfield prospect Francisco Peguero?s arm is even better, by reputation.
Peguero showed off that arm during infield drills. And like any quick-draw artist, he showed he?s not afraid of the next gun.
When Peguero hit a looping drive down the right field line in Sunday?s 4-3 loss to the Cubs, he didn?t hesitate while rounding first base. Peguero was able to hustle a double out of it.
Not even Schierholtz, the right fielder, could throw him out.
--
A cold wind chapped everyone?s skin all day, and it was no coincidence that the Giants and Cubs both decided to conduct pop-up drills for the first time this spring. The wind is known to blow at AT&T Park and Wrigley Field, after all.
When the game began, outfield prospect Gary Brown made two especially impressive catches. He stayed with the gusting wind and covered a lot of ground while making one catch in right-center. Then he sprinted straight back and didn?t get turned around while hauling in another deep drive.
?He?s a gifted outfielder with good speed and he gets good reads on the ball,? Bochy said. ?It?s impressive. He?s a young guy who doesn?t know this outfield, the wind and the sun here, and he made all the plays.?
Actually, Brown played at HoHoKam Park plenty of times in the Arizona Fall League and he knew ?that Mesa is the absolute worst with the wind and sun breaking through the clouds.?
Told of Bochy?s comment, Brown?s eyes got wide.
?Maybe it?d be better if you forget what I just told you,? he said, smiling.
--
Angel Villalona got his first start in a Giants uniform and collected his first hit, a single to left field off Kyuji Fujikawa. Villalona likely will be among the first rounds of cuts, and while you have to wonder whether the Giants are giving him a serious look, he?s still just 22 years old. He?s a prospect.
--
Bob Brenly?s kid, Michael, is in Cubs camp and played in Sunday?s game. He?s got some size on the old man.
--
Dan Runzler continues to look very good. I also like what I see from Kensuke Tanaka thus far, but I think it?ll be hard for him to make the team over Wilson Valdez or Tony Abreu if he can?t play shortstop.
--
The ol? Twitter stream filled up with NASCAR references as the Daytona 500 reached its conclusion, and as I watched the Giants and Cubs, a thought occurred to me: The goal of NASCAR and baseball is the same ? make as many left turns as you can, as quickly as possible.
The talented Billy Byler, beat reporter who covers the Giants? A-ball affiliate in Augusta, added one more thought: ?And draft to your advantage.?
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Robbie Lawler came back to the UFC with a big win as he knocked out Josh Koscheck on Saturday at UFC 157.
Koscheck used wrestling early on to control Lawler, but it backfired. Lawler took top position and then unleashed a bevy of punches on Koscheck until the fight was stopped at 3:57.
?I felt so good tonight; I?m not surprised it went that way. It wasn?t easy, but it wasn?t hard, either. I hit him very hard, the referee was right to stop it. I whacked him, man. Hard! He was doing nothing but laying down taking big shots," Lawler said after the fight.
This was Lawler's first fight in the UFC since 2004. He fought as a middleweight in Strikeforce for many years, but returned to the UFC as a welterweight. The smaller weight class suited him, and he picked up his 20th win on Saturday night.
For Koscheck, it's his second loss in a row. He once fought Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title, but is 2-2 since losing to GSP. At 35 years old, it will be tough for the NCAA Division I champ at Edinboro to return to the top of his division.
In this Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 photo provided by Shane Schuster, three people in the Red River High School student section wear Ku Klux Klan-style white robes and hoods during a semifinal game in the North Dakota Boys Hockey Tournament at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D. Mark Rerick, the Grand Forks Public Schools' athletics director, said he asked administrators from the Grand Forks high school to investigate the incident after the photo appeared on the social network site Twitter. (AP Photo/Shane Schuster)
In this Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 photo provided by Shane Schuster, three people in the Red River High School student section wear Ku Klux Klan-style white robes and hoods during a semifinal game in the North Dakota Boys Hockey Tournament at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D. Mark Rerick, the Grand Forks Public Schools' athletics director, said he asked administrators from the Grand Forks high school to investigate the incident after the photo appeared on the social network site Twitter. (AP Photo/Shane Schuster)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) ? A North Dakota high school principal says appropriate action is being taken after three students briefly donned Ku Klux Klan-style white robes and hoods Friday night during a state hockey semifinal game.
The photo caused an uproar on Twitter when it was posted by 19-year-old Shane Schuster, who was seated with some friends at Ralph Engelstad Arena when something in the student section across the rink caught his eye.
"I thought, 'Are those KKK hoods?' I couldn't believe it," Schuster said. "I was shocked."
Schuster said he focused his camera phone and snapped a photo, later uploading it to Twitter.
Kristopher Arason, Red River's principal, said the school's investigation determined that the students put on the attire just after Red River's first goal and wore it for about 30 seconds to a minute. The teens removed the outfits after students in the section told them it was offensive, he said.
"We, as a school, are extremely disappointed with the behavior of these three students," Arason said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Saturday. "This behavior is not a representation of our school or student body."
Arason said administrators were notified of the incident at the completion of the game. The students and their parents have been contacted and "appropriate action is being taken," he said.
Arason did not indicate what disciplinary action, if any, the three unidentified students could face.
Red River topped Fargo's Davies High School 2-0 to advance to Saturday night's North Dakota Boys State Hockey Tournament title game against Grafton-Park River.
Davies High School is named in honor of Ronald Davies, the former federal judge from Fargo whose 1957 rulings integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. ? a pivotal event in the civil rights movement.
The photo that Schuster posted on the social media site shows the three hooded fans in the middle of the Red River Roughriders section, in which everyone is dressed in white as part of a "whiteout." The post had been retweeted 75 times by late Saturday afternoon, with many users expressing their outrage.
The hockey tradition of encouraging fans to all wear all white was started more than 25 years ago by the original Winnipeg Jets ? which currently are the Phoenix Coyotes. In 1987, Jets fans donning white shirts and jerseys packed Winnipeg Arena to watch the team take on the Calgary Flames in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The practice has since spread to the college and high school levels.
Arason said Red River has a tradition of wearing a different color for each of the three days of the state tournament in accordance with the team's colors. Roughrider fans wore black for the first day, white for the second and red for the final day.
___
Follow Dirk Lammers on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ddlammers
Judges have awarded the first gold medal in this year?s competition to the Washington Post for its entry, ?Homicides in the District? in the data project (features), over 50,000,000 page views/month category.
Here?s what the judges had to say:
?This story showed a great depth of original reporting. The quadratic analysis that broke it down into equal squares is the perfect way to approach data that involves continuous space.?
?The use of proper GIS technique separates it from other crime sites, making it the best tool of its kind.?
?The straightforward language was neutral and easy for people to digest. It was really well organized.?
?It is perfect in terms of having a strong hierarchy and guiding you through the story and showing you what?s important.?
(Kyle Ellis?is a designer for CNN Digital in Atlanta and digital director for the Society for News Design.)
This post was tagged: best of digital design, snd34
JCI early table of contents for Feb. 22, 2013Public release date: 22-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jillian Hurst press_releases@the-jci.org Journal of Clinical Investigation
How to mend a broken heart: advances in parthenogenic stem cells
Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction during which unfertilized eggs begin to develop as if they had been fertilized. It occurs naturally in many plants and a few invertebrate (some bees, scorpions, parasitic wasps) and vertebrate animals (some fish, reptiles, and amphibians), but does not occur naturally in mammals. In 2007, researchers were able to chemically induce human egg cells to undergo parthenogenesis. The resulting parthenogenote has properties similar to an embryo, but cannot develop further. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Wolfram Zimmerman and colleagues at Georg-August-Universitt Gttingen in Gttingen, Germany, demonstrated that cells from the parthenogenote function as embryonic stem cells and maintain the capacity to develop into different types of tissue. Further, they used parthenogenic stem cells to make cardiomyocytes and engineered heart muscle (myocardium) that exhibited the structural and functional properties of normal myocardium. The engineered myocardium could then be used to engraft the mice that had contributed the eggs for parthenogenesis. These studies demonstrate that parthenogenic stem cells can be used for tissue engineering. In a companion commentary, Michael Schneider of the Imperial College of London discusses how these findings could impact the development of cell replacement therapies.
TITLE: Parthenogenetic stem cells for tissue engineered heart repair
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/66854?key=31d6143cd2894a5b80d5
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: Virgin birth: engineered heart muscle from parthenogenic stem cells
AUTHOR CONTACT: Michael D. Schneider Imperial College London, London, UNK, GBR Phone: 011 44 20 7594 3027; Fax: 011 44 20 7594 3190; E-mail: m.d.schneider@imperial.ac.uk
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/67961?key=a07301e0e8f34e261854
Pulmonary fibrosis: between a ROCK and a hard place
Pulmonary fibrosis is a scarring or thickening of the lungs that causes shortness of breath, a dry cough, fatigue, chest discomfort, weight loss, a decrease in the ability of the lungs to transmit oxygen to the blood stream, and, eventually, heart failure. Cells known as myofibroblasts normally secrete materials that are required for wound healing; once the wound has closed, the cells disappear. In pulmonary fibrosis, the myofibroblasts stick around, continuing to secrete wound healing factors that cause fibrosis in the lungs. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Yong Zhou and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham identified a mechanosensitive cellular signaling pathway in myofibroblasts that is activated by the hardening of tissue that has become fibrotic. Activation of this pathway promotes myofibroblast survival and prevents the normal disappearance of these cells after completion of wound healing. The pathway is dependent on a protein known as ROCK. Zhou and colleagues found that a drug that inhibits ROCK, fasudil, attenuates the pro-survival pathway and causes myofibroblasts to die. Further, fasudil treatment protected mice from injury-induced lung fibrosis. These studies suggest that ROCK inhibitors could be used to treat pulmonary fibrosis. In a companion Attending Physician article, Dean Sheppard of the University of California, San Francisco, discusses the feasibility of using ROCK inhibitors in a clinical setting.
TITLE: Inhibition of mechanosensitive signaling in myofibroblasts ameliorates experimental pulmonary fibrosis
AUTHOR CONTACT: Yong Zhou University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA Phone: 2059752216; E-mail: yzhou@uab.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/66700?key=1e6504f3d5e43afe19fb
ACCOMPANYING THE ATTENDING PHYSICIAN
TITLE: ROCKing pulmonary fibrosis
AUTHOR CONTACT: Dean Sheppard UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA Phone: 415-514-4269; Fax: 415-514-4278; E-mail: dean.sheppard@ucsf.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/68417?key=3482e828788968b30192
Epigenetic alterations reprogram pancreatic cells to secrete insulin
Epigenetic modification is a change to gene expression or cellular phenotype that is caused by alterations that don't involve the underlying DNA sequence. Because all cells in your body contain the exact same genes, these epigenetic changes help determine which genes different cells express, allowing them to develop specialized functions. The pancreas consists of insulin-secreting beta cells and glucagon-secreting alpha cells. Insulin serves as a signal for cells in the body to take up glucose, while glucagon opposes this effect; malfunction of these cells leads to the development of diabetes. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Klaus Kaestner and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania identified epigenetic modifications that distinguish pancreatic beta cells from alpha cells. Additionally, Kaestner and colleagues found that they could reprogram alpha cells to function as beta cells by mimicking the epigenetic modifications found in beta cells through treatment with a drug known as a histone methyltransferase inhibitor. These studies suggest that epigenetic manipulation could be used to generate replacement cells for diseases such as diabetes, in which patients lack functional beta cells. In a companion commentary, Larry Moss of Duke University discusses how these cells might serve as an important resource in both research and therapeutic development.
TITLE: Epigenomic plasticity enables human pancreatic ?- to ?-cell reprogramming
AUTHOR CONTACT: Klaus Kaestner University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadeplhia, PA, USA Phone: 215.898.8759; Fax: 215.573.5892; E-mail: kaestner@mail.med.upenn.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/66514?key=e4b199f5a3826369a938
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: Creating new beta cells: Cellular transmutation by genomic alchemy
AUTHOR CONTACT: Larry G. Moss Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA Phone: 617-479-2310; E-mail: larry.moss@duke.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/68348?key=11aa06302a250850c4ef
Brain "clean-up crew" captured by MRI
All parts of the body generate waste that must be flushed out in order to remove harmful materials, old proteins, and other cellular detritus. Most tissues utilize the lymphatic system to keep clean, but the central nervous system (CNS) does not have lymphatic vasculature and relies instead on a waste clearance pathway known as the glymphatic system. The glymphatic system cleans the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that surround the brain and spinal cord and relies on specialized CNS support cells known as glia. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Helene Benveniste at Stony Brook University used MRI to visualize the glymphatic system in rats that had been given a fluorescent tracer. The whole brain images allowed Benveniste and colleagues to identify two key influx nodes in the brain. Additionally, they could measure the rate at which the fluorescent tracer was removed by the glymphatic system. Currently, amyloid plaques and other molecules that accumulate in diseases such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease cannot be visualized in live patients. In a companion commentary, Warren Strittmatter of Duke University discusses how this new technology could be used to track the development or progression of diseases in which the clearance of specific proteins is impaired.
TITLE: Brain-wide pathway for waste clearance captured by contrast enhanced MRI
AUTHOR CONTACT: Helene Benveniste Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, NY, USA Phone: 631-624-7018; Fax: 631-444-2907; E-mail: helene.benveniste@stonybrookmedicine.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/67677?key=e3d4b4a78599273ea579
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: Bathing the brain
AUTHOR CONTACT: Warren James Strittmatter Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA Phone: 919-684-0053; Fax: 919-681-7198; E-mail: warren@neuro.duke.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/68241?key=808d2caf308ec46730fb
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Smap1 deficiency perturbs receptor trafficking and predisposes mice to myelodysplasia
HDAC4 controls histone methylation in response to elevated cardiac load
Sprouty2, PTEN and PP2A interact to regulate prostate cancer progression
Angiopoietin-like protein 1 suppresses SLUG to inhibit cancer cell motility | Back to top
TITLE: Smap1 deficiency perturbs receptor trafficking and predisposes mice to myelodysplasia
AUTHOR CONTACT: Masanobu Satake Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, UNK, JPN Phone: (81)22-717-8477; E-mail: satake@idac.tohoku.ac.jp
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/63711?key=81fb94bf3f59a4902e5b
TITLE: HDAC4 controls histone methylation in response to elevated cardiac load
AUTHOR CONTACT: Christoph Maack Universittsklinikum des Saarlandes, Homburg, DEU Phone: +49-6841-1623000; Fax: +49-6841-1623434; E-mail: christoph.maack@uks.eu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/61084?key=3b2f824d313bb1325d7a
TITLE: Sprouty2, PTEN and PP2A interact to regulate prostate cancer progression
AUTHOR CONTACT: Hing Leung The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow, , GBR Phone: 441413303658; E-mail: h.leung@beatson.gla.ac.uk
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/63672?key=c51d70b1b0cef75eae44
TITLE: Angiopoietin-like protein 1 suppresses SLUG to inhibit cancer cell motility
AUTHOR CONTACT: Tsang-Chih Kuo Graduate Institute of Toxicology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan Univ, Taipei, TWN Phone: 886-2-23123456#88649; E-mail: f95447013@ntu.edu.tw
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/64044?key=48ac6b9d93d7fc1ccb38
###
[ | 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.
JCI early table of contents for Feb. 22, 2013Public release date: 22-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jillian Hurst press_releases@the-jci.org Journal of Clinical Investigation
How to mend a broken heart: advances in parthenogenic stem cells
Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction during which unfertilized eggs begin to develop as if they had been fertilized. It occurs naturally in many plants and a few invertebrate (some bees, scorpions, parasitic wasps) and vertebrate animals (some fish, reptiles, and amphibians), but does not occur naturally in mammals. In 2007, researchers were able to chemically induce human egg cells to undergo parthenogenesis. The resulting parthenogenote has properties similar to an embryo, but cannot develop further. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Wolfram Zimmerman and colleagues at Georg-August-Universitt Gttingen in Gttingen, Germany, demonstrated that cells from the parthenogenote function as embryonic stem cells and maintain the capacity to develop into different types of tissue. Further, they used parthenogenic stem cells to make cardiomyocytes and engineered heart muscle (myocardium) that exhibited the structural and functional properties of normal myocardium. The engineered myocardium could then be used to engraft the mice that had contributed the eggs for parthenogenesis. These studies demonstrate that parthenogenic stem cells can be used for tissue engineering. In a companion commentary, Michael Schneider of the Imperial College of London discusses how these findings could impact the development of cell replacement therapies.
TITLE: Parthenogenetic stem cells for tissue engineered heart repair
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/66854?key=31d6143cd2894a5b80d5
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: Virgin birth: engineered heart muscle from parthenogenic stem cells
AUTHOR CONTACT: Michael D. Schneider Imperial College London, London, UNK, GBR Phone: 011 44 20 7594 3027; Fax: 011 44 20 7594 3190; E-mail: m.d.schneider@imperial.ac.uk
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/67961?key=a07301e0e8f34e261854
Pulmonary fibrosis: between a ROCK and a hard place
Pulmonary fibrosis is a scarring or thickening of the lungs that causes shortness of breath, a dry cough, fatigue, chest discomfort, weight loss, a decrease in the ability of the lungs to transmit oxygen to the blood stream, and, eventually, heart failure. Cells known as myofibroblasts normally secrete materials that are required for wound healing; once the wound has closed, the cells disappear. In pulmonary fibrosis, the myofibroblasts stick around, continuing to secrete wound healing factors that cause fibrosis in the lungs. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Yong Zhou and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham identified a mechanosensitive cellular signaling pathway in myofibroblasts that is activated by the hardening of tissue that has become fibrotic. Activation of this pathway promotes myofibroblast survival and prevents the normal disappearance of these cells after completion of wound healing. The pathway is dependent on a protein known as ROCK. Zhou and colleagues found that a drug that inhibits ROCK, fasudil, attenuates the pro-survival pathway and causes myofibroblasts to die. Further, fasudil treatment protected mice from injury-induced lung fibrosis. These studies suggest that ROCK inhibitors could be used to treat pulmonary fibrosis. In a companion Attending Physician article, Dean Sheppard of the University of California, San Francisco, discusses the feasibility of using ROCK inhibitors in a clinical setting.
TITLE: Inhibition of mechanosensitive signaling in myofibroblasts ameliorates experimental pulmonary fibrosis
AUTHOR CONTACT: Yong Zhou University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA Phone: 2059752216; E-mail: yzhou@uab.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/66700?key=1e6504f3d5e43afe19fb
ACCOMPANYING THE ATTENDING PHYSICIAN
TITLE: ROCKing pulmonary fibrosis
AUTHOR CONTACT: Dean Sheppard UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA Phone: 415-514-4269; Fax: 415-514-4278; E-mail: dean.sheppard@ucsf.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/68417?key=3482e828788968b30192
Epigenetic alterations reprogram pancreatic cells to secrete insulin
Epigenetic modification is a change to gene expression or cellular phenotype that is caused by alterations that don't involve the underlying DNA sequence. Because all cells in your body contain the exact same genes, these epigenetic changes help determine which genes different cells express, allowing them to develop specialized functions. The pancreas consists of insulin-secreting beta cells and glucagon-secreting alpha cells. Insulin serves as a signal for cells in the body to take up glucose, while glucagon opposes this effect; malfunction of these cells leads to the development of diabetes. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Klaus Kaestner and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania identified epigenetic modifications that distinguish pancreatic beta cells from alpha cells. Additionally, Kaestner and colleagues found that they could reprogram alpha cells to function as beta cells by mimicking the epigenetic modifications found in beta cells through treatment with a drug known as a histone methyltransferase inhibitor. These studies suggest that epigenetic manipulation could be used to generate replacement cells for diseases such as diabetes, in which patients lack functional beta cells. In a companion commentary, Larry Moss of Duke University discusses how these cells might serve as an important resource in both research and therapeutic development.
TITLE: Epigenomic plasticity enables human pancreatic ?- to ?-cell reprogramming
AUTHOR CONTACT: Klaus Kaestner University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadeplhia, PA, USA Phone: 215.898.8759; Fax: 215.573.5892; E-mail: kaestner@mail.med.upenn.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/66514?key=e4b199f5a3826369a938
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: Creating new beta cells: Cellular transmutation by genomic alchemy
AUTHOR CONTACT: Larry G. Moss Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA Phone: 617-479-2310; E-mail: larry.moss@duke.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/68348?key=11aa06302a250850c4ef
Brain "clean-up crew" captured by MRI
All parts of the body generate waste that must be flushed out in order to remove harmful materials, old proteins, and other cellular detritus. Most tissues utilize the lymphatic system to keep clean, but the central nervous system (CNS) does not have lymphatic vasculature and relies instead on a waste clearance pathway known as the glymphatic system. The glymphatic system cleans the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that surround the brain and spinal cord and relies on specialized CNS support cells known as glia. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Helene Benveniste at Stony Brook University used MRI to visualize the glymphatic system in rats that had been given a fluorescent tracer. The whole brain images allowed Benveniste and colleagues to identify two key influx nodes in the brain. Additionally, they could measure the rate at which the fluorescent tracer was removed by the glymphatic system. Currently, amyloid plaques and other molecules that accumulate in diseases such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease cannot be visualized in live patients. In a companion commentary, Warren Strittmatter of Duke University discusses how this new technology could be used to track the development or progression of diseases in which the clearance of specific proteins is impaired.
TITLE: Brain-wide pathway for waste clearance captured by contrast enhanced MRI
AUTHOR CONTACT: Helene Benveniste Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, NY, USA Phone: 631-624-7018; Fax: 631-444-2907; E-mail: helene.benveniste@stonybrookmedicine.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/67677?key=e3d4b4a78599273ea579
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: Bathing the brain
AUTHOR CONTACT: Warren James Strittmatter Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA Phone: 919-684-0053; Fax: 919-681-7198; E-mail: warren@neuro.duke.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/68241?key=808d2caf308ec46730fb
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Smap1 deficiency perturbs receptor trafficking and predisposes mice to myelodysplasia
HDAC4 controls histone methylation in response to elevated cardiac load
Sprouty2, PTEN and PP2A interact to regulate prostate cancer progression
Angiopoietin-like protein 1 suppresses SLUG to inhibit cancer cell motility | Back to top
TITLE: Smap1 deficiency perturbs receptor trafficking and predisposes mice to myelodysplasia
AUTHOR CONTACT: Masanobu Satake Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, UNK, JPN Phone: (81)22-717-8477; E-mail: satake@idac.tohoku.ac.jp
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/63711?key=81fb94bf3f59a4902e5b
TITLE: HDAC4 controls histone methylation in response to elevated cardiac load
AUTHOR CONTACT: Christoph Maack Universittsklinikum des Saarlandes, Homburg, DEU Phone: +49-6841-1623000; Fax: +49-6841-1623434; E-mail: christoph.maack@uks.eu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/61084?key=3b2f824d313bb1325d7a
TITLE: Sprouty2, PTEN and PP2A interact to regulate prostate cancer progression
AUTHOR CONTACT: Hing Leung The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow, , GBR Phone: 441413303658; E-mail: h.leung@beatson.gla.ac.uk
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/63672?key=c51d70b1b0cef75eae44
TITLE: Angiopoietin-like protein 1 suppresses SLUG to inhibit cancer cell motility
AUTHOR CONTACT: Tsang-Chih Kuo Graduate Institute of Toxicology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan Univ, Taipei, TWN Phone: 886-2-23123456#88649; E-mail: f95447013@ntu.edu.tw
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/64044?key=48ac6b9d93d7fc1ccb38
###
[ | 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.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Arrested Development" is going to Wiig out a little bit when it makes its return on Netflix in May.
"Saturday Night Live" alum Kristen Wiig will guest-star on the upcoming revival of the beloved cult sitcom, which will also feature Seth Rogen, with whom she also appeared in "Knocked Up."
Details are scarce regarding how many episodes they'll appear in and what characters they'll play. However, according to Vulture, "Bridesmaids" star Wiig will play a younger version of family matriarch Lucille Bluth (portrayed in a more seasoned form by Jessica Walter).
Besides enlisting the original regular cast of the series, Netflix has also brought aboard recurring cast members including Liza Minnelli as Lucille Bluth frenemy Lucille Austero and Henry Winkler as incompetent Bluth family attorney Barry Zuckerkorn.
Previously announced new guests will include Conan O'Brien, "Mad Men" star John Slattery and "Three Stooges" star Chris Diamantopoulos.
The entire, 14-episode new season of "Arrested Development" will premiere at the same time in May. The series originally ran for three seasons on Fox.
CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP said on Thursday that shippers on its routinely overbooked Trans Mountain oil pipeline system between Alberta and the Pacific Coast will be limited to only 33 percent of their hoped-for volumes in March.
Kinder Morgan said capacity on the system, which carries Canadian crude to the Vancouver-area and Washington state refineries, was over-nominated by 67 percent.
Nominations have exceeded capacity since late 2010.
For next month, Kinder Morgan said total accepted nominations for the system are 290,663 barrels per day for the Trans Mountain pipeline, 134,662 bpd for the Puget Sound line and 78,207 bpd for the Westridge Dock.
(Reporting by Scott Haggett) Keywords: KINDERMO0RGAN TRANSMOUNTAIN/
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. All rights reserved.
The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
FILE - This Jan. 18, 2013 file photo shows actor Ben Foster poses at the premiere of "Kill Your Darlings" during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Foster will replace Shia LaBeouf in the Broadway play "Orphans." LaBeouf left the production on Wednesday, Feb. 20, due to creative differences. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP, file)
FILE - This Jan. 18, 2013 file photo shows actor Ben Foster poses at the premiere of "Kill Your Darlings" during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Foster will replace Shia LaBeouf in the Broadway play "Orphans." LaBeouf left the production on Wednesday, Feb. 20, due to creative differences. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP, file)
FILE- In this May 19, 2012, file photo, actor Shia LaBeouf poses during a photo call for Lawless at the 65th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France. LaBeouf is pulling the plug on his Broadway debut. The star of the ?Transformers? franchise had been slated to appear opposite Alec Baldwin in ?Orphans? but producers said Wednesday that LaBeouf would not be continuing ?due to creative differences.? (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Shia LaBeouf is out. Ben Foster is in.
A day after LaBeouf stepped away from the play that would have marked his Broadway debut, he was replaced by Foster.
Foster whose film roles include "3:10 to Yuma" and "The Laramie Project" had auditioned for the revival of Lyle Kessler's play "Orphans" but had lost the role to the star of the "Transformers" franchise.
After LaBeouf left the production on Wednesday due to creative differences, Foster was picked. After the change was announced, LaBeouf tweeted: "Ben Foster is a beast. He will kill it" in all capital letters.
The play, which premiered in 1983, tells the story of two orphaned brothers living in a decrepit Philadelphia row house who decide to kidnap a wealthy man. LaBeouf was to play one brother and and Tom Sturridge the other; Baldwin will be the target.
The switch in actors hasn't delayed the show. Producers said "Orphans" will still open March 19 at the Schoenfeld Theatre.
LaBeouf apparently stepped away from the play without burning too many bridges ? at least according to the messages he's posted on Twitter. The actor published email messages between him, Baldwin and director Daniel Sullivan that indicated a somewhat amicable, if anguished, split.
"Sorry for my part of a dis-agreeable situation," he wrote to Baldwin in an email posted on LaBeouf's Twitter feed. LaBeouf also posted his audition video.
Baldwin apparently wrote to the younger actor: "I don't have an unkind word to say about you. You have my word."
As for Sullivan, the director apparently wrote to LaBeouf after the decision was made that the actor leave the show: "This one will haunt me. You tried to warn me. You said you were a different breed. I didn't get it."
A press representative for the show said the messages were legitimate.
LaBeouf seemed still somewhat shaken by the whole experience Thursday, writing on Twitter a series of slogans with opaque meanings.
"The theater belongs not to the great but to the brash. acting is not for gentlemen, or bureaucratic-academics. what they do is antiart," he wrote in one tweet.
He also posted an image of a commiserative email apparently from Rick Sordelet, a veteran fight director, who said, "It was obvious you were going to turn in a fantastic performance." In the same message, Sordelet wrote: "It must have been difficult for others in the room to be schooled by someone who's raw talent and enthusiasm out matched theirs." It was likely a note not intended for the rest of the company to see.
LaBeouf, whose other films include "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," was also recently seen in John Hillcoat's crime drama "Lawless."
___
Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Since a bipartisan group of US senators unveiled their proposal this week to resolve the status of millions of undocumented workers in the United States, and President Obama outlined a set of principles for reform, the Mexican government has stayed quietly out of the fray ??sparking questions here about what, if any, role?Mexico?should play.
Mexico has more at stake than many other nations whose people leave for US shores: Fully 10 percent of the Mexican population resides in the US. Sixty percent of the 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants living and working in the US are Mexican, according to Pew Hispanic Center.
?The current Mexican government of Enrique Pe?a Nieto has been very careful to say that they are not going to interfere in the domestic decisions of the US,? says Jesus Velasco, a political science professor at Tarleton State University in Texas. ?It?s silly. The American political system permits that the interests of foreign countries should be represented here.?
Mr. Velasco cited the effective lobbying by the Mexican government on NAFTA in the 1990s. But immigration has been a stickier issue.
Immigration was once the central theme of the bilateral relationship. A decade ago, former Mexican President Vicente Fox met with President George W. Bush five times in nine months to discuss the issue and in an address to Congress boldly requested action before the end of the year. That was in 2001, just days before the Sept. 11 attacks. The agenda quickly fell apart.
Former President Felipe Calder?n wiped immigration off the slate in 2006 and retrained the focus of the US-Mexico relationship on security. Today, six years later, Mr. Pe?a Nieto appears poised to do the same.
So far the only public comment on the proposals has come from the Mexican ministry of foreign affairs, which said in a brief statement that it ?recognizes the commitment demonstrated by an ever larger number of parties? on the issue but noted that reform is an ?internal matter? for the US federal government.
Work to do at home
Mexico?s real work today ??given that net emigration from Mexico to the US fell to zero in the past year ??lies not in promoting reform in the US but in ensuring economic opportunity for people here, says Antonio de la Cuesta, a senior political analyst with Mexico City-based think tank CIDAC.
?The focus has been wrong,? he says. ?Mexico waits for the US to do everything. It?s about both countries [taking action].?
Roughly half of Mexicans live below the poverty line, according to the United Nations. Last year, Mexico?s social development agency reported the number of Mexicans living in extreme poverty at 13 million.
Mexican immigration to the US may have slowed because of the recession in the US and increased enforcement at the border, but the conditions that have historically driven people north haven?t yet changed. For many Mexicans, a daily wage here amounts to less than the hourly wage in the US.
There are consequences for Mexico, too, in whatever the US decides, says Mr. De la Cuesta. For example, he asks, would Mexicans living in the US bring additional family members north, and stop sending the remittances that rank among the country?s top three income sources?
Mexico needs a ?complementary? proposal, he says: solutions for poverty.
?Mexico has a lot to say in this respect,? he says, ?and no reason to interfere.?
Chickens: They're everywhere in Miami, roaming the streets like stray cats. To tourists, the roosters strutting on Little Havana sidewalks are just a quaint photo opportunity, but to some locals, the birds are a nuisance.
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands inside the court as a police officer looks on during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. A South African judge says defense lawyers will need to offer "exceptional" reasons to convince him to grant bail for Oscar Pistorius, when a hearing resumes Wednesday. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands inside the court as a police officer looks on during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. A South African judge says defense lawyers will need to offer "exceptional" reasons to convince him to grant bail for Oscar Pistorius, when a hearing resumes Wednesday. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
The family of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, front row from left to right, sister Aimee, brother Carl and father Henke Pistorius, at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. Oscar Pistorius arrived at the court building in a police car with a blue blanket covering his head Wednesday as prosecutors prepared to detail why they are charging him with premeditated murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend. Prosecutors want to show why he should be denied bail. Pistorius denies the charge, and said it was an accidental shooting. Pistorius is charged with premeditated murder for the Feb. 14 shooting death of model Reeva Steenkamp at his upscale home in the eastern suburbs of the South African capital, Pretoria. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
A woman holds a photo of Reeva Steenkamp, as she leaves her funeral in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. The defense lawyer says it was an accidental shooting. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands inside the court as a police officer looks on during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. A South African judge says defense lawyers will need to offer "exceptional" reasons to convince him to grant bail for Oscar Pistorius, when a hearing resumes Wednesday. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? The detective leading the police investigation into Oscar Pistorius' fatal shooting of his girlfriend offered confusing testimony Wednesday, at one point agreeing with the athlete's defense that officers had no evidence challenging the runner's claim he accidentally killed her.
Testimony by Detective Warrant Officer Hilton Botha of the South African Police Service left prosecutors rubbing their temples, only able to look down at their notes as he misjudged distances and acknowledged a forensics team left in the toilet bowl one of the bullet slugs fired at Reeva Steenkamp. However, Botha still poked holes in Pistorius' own account that he feared for his life and opened fire on Valentine's Day after mistaking Steenkamp for an intruder.
The second day of the bail hearing in a case that has riveted South Africa and much of the world appeared at first to go against the double-amputee runner, with prosecutors saying a witness can testify to hearing "non-stop talking, like shouting" between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. before the predawn shooting on Feb. 14. However, Botha later said under cross examination that the person who overheard the argument was in a house 600 meters (yards) away in Pistorius' gated community in the suburbs of South Africa's capital, Pretoria.
Later, prosecutor Gerrie Nel questioned Botha again and the detective acknowledged the distance was much closer. But confusion reigned for much of his testimony, when at one point Botha said officers found syringes and steroids in Pistorius' bedroom. Nel quickly cut the officer off and said the drugs were actually testosterone.
Pistorius' lead defense lawyer, Barry Roux, asserted when questioning the detective ? who has 16 years' experience as a detective and 24 years with the police ? that it was not a banned substance and that police were trying to give the discovery a "negative connotation."
"It is an herbal remedy," Roux said. "It is not a steroid and it is not a banned substance."
The name of the drug, offered later in court by Roux, could not be immediately found in reference materials by The Associated Press. A spokesman for prosecutors later said it's too early to know what the substance is, as they don't yet have results of forensic testing on the material.
Pistorius, 26, said in an affidavit read in court Tuesday that he and his 29-year-old girlfriend had gone to bed and that when he awoke during the night he detected what he thought was an intruder in the bathroom. He testified that he grabbed his 9 mm pistol and fired into the door of a toilet enclosed in the bathroom, only to discover later to his horror that Steenkamp was there, mortally wounded.
Pistorius, the first Paralympian runner to compete at the Olympics, is charged with premeditated murder in the case.
The prosecution attempted to cement its argument that the couple had a shouting match, that Steenkamp fled and locked herself into the toilet stall of the bathroom and that Pistorius fired four shots through the door, hitting her with three bullets.
Botha said: "I believe that he knew that Reeva was in the bathroom and he shot four shots through the door."
But asked if the police found anything inconsistent with the version of events presented by Pistorius, Botha responded that they had not. He later said nothing contradicted the police's version either.
Nel projected a plan of the bedroom and bathroom in the courtroom and argued that Pistorius had to walk past his bed to get to the bathroom and could not have done so without realizing that Steenkamp was not in the bed.
"There's no other way of getting there," Nel said.
Botha said the trajectory of the bullets showed the gun was fired pointed down and from a height. This seems to conflict with Pistorius' statement Tuesday, because the athlete said that he did not have on his prosthetics and on his stumps and feeling vulnerable because he was in a low position when he opened fired.
Officers also found .38-caliber pistol rounds in a safe, which Botha said Pistorius owned illegally and for which he said the athlete would be charged with a crime. However, Botha also acknowledged investigators didn't take photographs of the ammunition and let Pistorius' supporters at the crime scene take them away.
Botha said the holster for the 9 mm pistol was found under the left side of the bed, the side on which Steenkamp slept. He also implied it would have been impossible for Pistorius to get the gun without checking to see if Steenkamp was there. Roux later argued that Pistorius had suffered an injury to his right shoulder and wore a "medical patch" the night of the killing which forced him to sleep on the left side of the bed.
Steenkamp was shot in the head over her right ear and in her right elbow and hip, breaking her arm and hip, Botha said. However, Roux later asked Botha if Steenkamp's body showed "any pattern of defensive wounds." The detective said no.
Botha also said the shots were fired from 1.5 meters (five feet), and that police found three spent cartridges in the bathroom and one in the hallway connecting the bathroom to the bedroom. However, later on cross-examination by the defense, Botha said he wasn't a forensics expert and couldn't answer some questions.
Police also found two iPhones in the bathroom and two BlackBerrys in the bedroom, Botha said, adding that none had been used to phone for help. Roux later suggested that a fifth phone, not collected by the police, was used by Pistorius to make calls for a hospital and help. After the hearing, Roux told journalists that Pistorius' defense team had the phone, but did not elaborate.
Guards at the gated community where Pistorius lives did call the athlete, Botha said. The detective said that all the athlete said was: "I'm all right."
He didn't hang up, Botha said, and the guards heard him uncontrollably weep.
"Was it part of his premeditated plan, not to switch off the phone and cry?" Roux asked sarcastically.
___
Gerald Imray reported from Johannesburg. Associated Press writer Michelle Faul in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
___
Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP. Gerald Imray can be reached at www.twitter.com/geraldimrayAP.
The U.S. Capitol building is seen Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
slideshow President Barack Obama says "I'm willing to work with anybody to get this job done" in trying to deflect a speeding meteor of across-the-board spending cuts headed straight for the federal government. "So my door is open."
Republicans argue his door isn't very open considering the president's refusal to consider a fix of targeted spending cuts alone, as Republicans want.
Instead, he's demanding a "balanced" package of cuts and loophole-closing tax increases.
The president has had little direct contact with Republicans to find a way around the roughly $85 billion in indiscriminate "sequester" cuts set to begin in nine days.
"I don't have any calls or communications to read out to you," White House spokesman Jay Carney said at his daily briefing.
Neither party says it wants the March 1 cuts ? coming on autopilot absent congressional intervention ? given the fragile recovery and stubbornly high unemployment.
Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, have a rocky record in past negotiations.
"Frankly, every time I've gotten into one of these high-profile negotiations, you know, it's my rear end that got burnt," Boehner said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Boehner's flexibility is seriously limited by an internal divide between a GOP establishment open to negotiations and an insurgent right resisting compromise.
So both sides have been lobbing shots from afar.
Obama blasted Republicans in a White House speech in front of first-responders whose jobs he suggested are at risk. Boehner hit back, writing in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal that the latest impasse is "a product of the president's own failed leadership."
White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer took issue, writing in a White House blog Wednesday that Boehner and the Republicans "would rather see our recovery and middle class economic security be put at risk than close one tax loophole for big corporations and the wealthiest."
So far it's just been back and forth ? with no apparent headway.
Jubilant is pleased to announce the spudding of well KPL-3E-7 on 18 February 2013. This is the first of the planned six well Phase-III-Extension development drilling campaign in the oil producing Kharsang Field, Arunachal Pradesh. The Phase-III-Extension campaign was approved by the Management Committee of the Kharsang Field in January, 2013 after the conclusion of a successful seven well Phase-III drilling campaign undertaken between July, 2011 and August, 2012. Six of the seven wells in the Phase-III campaign have been put into production and currently contribute approximately 700 barrels of oil per day. One further well tested positively for gas and has been held for future gas production, as it is commercially viable.
KPL-3E-7, located in the north-western area of the field, to the west of well KSG#61 and south-east of well KSG#16, is being drilled as an infill development well, with the H-00 reservoir sand layer as the primary objective and G-00 and D-00 sand layers as secondary objectives. The well will be deviated by approximately 188 metres to the south-east from the existing plinth of well KSG#16 and will be drilled to a target depth of approximately 1,032 metres Measured Depth ("MD") and 1,000 metres True Vertical Depth ("TVD"). The well is expected to take approximately three weeks to drill.
GeoEnpro Petroleum Ltd., a joint venture between GeoPetrol and Jubilant Enpro (a member of the wider Jubilant Bhartia Group), is the operator of the Kharsang Field. Jubilant holds a 25 percent interest in the block through its subsidiary, Jubilant Energy (Kharsang) Pvt. Ltd. The other members of the consortium are Oil India Ltd. and GeoPetrol.
This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation
to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this
article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from
a qualified investment adviser. More
Foreign affairs ministers Baird says we can teach the US a few things about cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Share or bookmark this post:
OTTAWA?Canada can teach the US some lessons on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Sunday in a blunt rejoinder to recent chiding by the Obama administration on climate change.
Baird told The Canadian Press that the US should actually be following Canada?s lead on working to cut back on the use of?coal-fired electricity generation.
Baird was responding to US Ambassador David Jacobson who told The Canadian Press separately last week that President Barack Obama?s State of the Union address calling for swift action on climate change should also be interpreted as a challenge to Ottawa.
?We adopted the same goals and objectives in terms of climate change a We worked with the Obama administration and harmonized vehicle emission standards, light truck standards,? Baird said in a telephone interview from Lima, Peru.
?We?re also taking concrete direct action with respect to dirty,?coal fired electricity generation.?Maybe the US could join Canada on that file.?
The Harper government has for years said it would remain in lockstep with the US on climate change, but Baird said Canada has gone even further on?coal.
Baird?s defence of Canada?s environmental record appears to be part of a renewed initiative by the Harper government to burnish Canada?s climate credentials as Keystone?s future once again hangs in the balance.
?We?re the only country in the world that?s committed to getting out of the dirty?coal electricity generation business,? Baird said. ?These are real meaningful steps that will either meet or even exceed the work that?s been done thus far in the US.?
The?coal lobby was one of the many interests to which Obama was beholden as he fought for re-election last year.?Coal is a major industry in the key swing states in the US Midwest, which Obama counted on to win back the White House.
But the?coal lobby now fears that Obama will take a harder line on their industry, now that he is secure in a second term. It points to the omission of?coal in his State of the Union address as he touted the possibilities of wind and solar energy alternatives.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been a climate change crusader, was non-committal on the fate of the Keystone project during a joint news conference with Baird in Washington earlier this month.
All Kerry would say is that a decision is coming soon.
Baird reiterated Sunday that the pipeline is good for job creation in the both countries, as well as for weaning the US off of less secure sources of oil in the Arab world and Venezuela.
Just as promised, here is my Family?Friday?Sunday post. If you happened to notice the title then I'm sure you've gathered that this week I'll be talking (writing--whatever) about fatherhood. In my personal opinion, fatherhood is as equally important as motherhood. That's right, I said equally important! I also think it's a role that is extremely undervalued in our culture, and not enough fathers are stepping up to their?responsibility. But before I get into any of that I want to share this new video the Church recently released. It's very sweet and even brought some tears to my eyes. Take a look:? { Cute, right? I think I love it. } I appreciated the parallel shown between the role of fatherhood in this life and the role of the ultimate father--God, our Father in Heaven. Becoming a parent 16 months ago gave me a whole new perspective on the love our Heavenly Father must have for us. I can't truly comprehend the power of His love, but I feel like I get a good peek at it as a mother. Anyway, back to fatherhood.
The role of dads is really special to me, mostly because of my husband. Landon was an unexpected surprise, and I''ll be honest and admit Jeff wasn't thrilled when he found out we would be having a baby. Our lives were a bit of a mess at the time so we were both stressed and unsure about bringing a child into our family under such unstable circumstances. Jeff was quick to change his tune, though, and he was a huge support for me during my entire pregnancy. But the real change in him came the moment our son was born. After I heard Landon's first little cry I looked up at Jeff and saw tears running down his face. He had a huge smile going on, and I instantly knew that becoming a father was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Fatherhood changed my husband in an amazing way that still makes me cry. I admire and respect Jeff for the man he has become and the father he is. I'm clearly not a dad, but Jeff is and he's great at it, so I decided to ask him about his feelings on fatherhood. Even though this is our family blog you never get to hear (read) from Jeff, so I'm pleased to present his blogging debut:
"Fatherhood is so amazing because it gives me a view of what my Heavenly Father feels for me. Growing up, you always hear about how much you'll love your kids, but the love you feel for them is so much more powerful than you could ever imagine. Being a dad has given me the desire to be a better person, to provide for my family, to be a good example to my children, and to be a stronger priesthood holder in my home. I just want to be better all around! Landon is everything to me, and no matter what happens I will always love him--even if he makes bad choices. My son has changed my life and given me perspective, like how worldly things don't matter at all, and family is the most important part of life. Landon has shown me Christ-like love, and he's taught me humility and forgiveness.
Ultimately, God has trusted us with the ability to become parents here on earth, not only so we can teach our children, but so that they can teach us as well. Being a father is awesome. That's all there is to it."
He's deep, I know. Jeff is a?phenomenal?father, though, and when I look at him and Landon together I can't help but think of all the children around the world who don't get to have a relationship like theirs. Daddy means everything to Landon, and they help each other in so many ways. It's?devastating?to me that in today's culture the role of fatherhood is viewed casually with minuscule importance?and respect. I think we're seeing the negative effects of that on a global level. When families fail, societies fail. Children deserve to be raised in a home with a mother and father who love them. Both parents are vital parts of the?equation?of happiness for children. I don't believe one has to be LDS to be a good dad, but I think the principles taught by the Church certainly provide the guidance and the tools for fathers to improve and become their best selves. Some of those guidelines can be found in?this talk by President Howard W. Hunter. His words helped inspire this post, and there are about a million?lovable?quotes in there.? When it comes down to it, righteous or noble fatherhood means putting your family first. It means setting aside worldly things and making your children your top priority. It means gently and lovingly guiding and teaching your children through your words as well as by example. It means seeking the pure joy that can naturally come from parenthood. And in my opinion, excellent fathering requires an eternal perspective and an understanding of the sacredness of parental responsibility. Fatherhood isn't easy, and it requires an impressive level of selflessness and patience, but in the end--and even along the way--I believe it's all worth it.
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The chief of the Eurofighter Typhoon said on Monday that it is still in the race for a fighter jet deal in India as British Prime Minster David Cameron began his tour to win new trade in the Asian country.
"We believe the Eurofighter is still there," Eurofighter Chief Executive Enzo Casolini said at a press briefing in Abu Dhabi. "We are on standby, in case they come back to us."
India started exclusive talks with France's Dassault Aviation for an order of 126 Rafale jets worth $10 billion in January 2012, over the competing British-backed Typhoon.
However, more than a year later, the two sides still have yet to sign a final contract because of disagreements over the cost of building them in India.
David Cameron arrived in India on Monday to try to win new trade and investment and is hoping New Delhi will change its mind and choose the Eurofighter.
Cameron's job of persuading India to buy more civil and military hardware will not be easy. India said on Friday it wanted to cancel a $750 million deal for a dozen helicopters made by AgustaWestland, the Anglo-Italian subsidiary of Italy's Finmeccanica, over bribery claims.
A British government source said last week that Hollande had not finalised the Rafale deal during his own trip to India earlier in the month.
The Typhoon was developed by a consortium of BAE, Finmeccanica of Italy and EADS.
"I think our technology transfer offer to India was fantastic. And India had a very demanding target," Casolini said.
(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Louise Heavens)
If you are tired of working for someone else then you should consider starting your own business. The biggest obstacle that you will face is coming up with work at home ideas that make sense for your needs and budget. If cost is a major concern for you then operating a service based business may be the best path. Some low cost services could be dog walking, with consumers spending hundreds of dollars to buy a dog they will do just about anything to ensure the animal is happy and healthy. To advertise these services you can post information about your services on a variety of different classified websites. It might be a smart move to also create a website that belongs solely to your business. This will help establish your brand as the premiere choice for dog walking services while at the same time enhancing your professionalism. This is just one example of the many types of home based businesses that are available to you, just ensure you have passion for it. When passion is present the chances of you succeeding will grow exponentially.
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Robbie Lawler came back to the UFC with a big win as he knocked out Josh Koscheck on Saturday at UFC 157.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 22-Feb-2013
Share ] 