Ectopic eyes function without natural connection to brain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eyes See Without Wiring to Brain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

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

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

---

Journal Reference:

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

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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

sweet home alabama etch a sketch the host hoodie hoosiers temperance world bank

Richard Gartland: Newlywed Tax Tips

Roses are red, violets are blue -- but what does being married mean when taxes are due?

As a senior tax preparer at H&R Block, I have assisted many newlyweds filing their tax returns together for the first time. Many couples are unaware of how tying the knot affects their financial situation, and in turn, their filing status, withholdings and eligibility for certain tax credits and deductions. To help alleviate the stress for newly married couples or those planning to walk down the aisle, here are a few important tax tips:

Your Filing Status Must Be Married: If you said "I do" any time during 2012, you are no longer eligible to file as single for your 2012 return. Instead you must choose from one of two filing status options -- married filing joint (MFJ) or married filing separate (MFS). You may be asking yourself what's the difference?

In most cases, married filing joint will be your best choice. Tax rates are higher for married filing separate, so your overall tax bill will likely be less if you file jointly. You may also qualify for adjustments and credits unavailable to couples filing separately. However, under certain circumstances, couples may benefit from filing separately. Before making this choice you should consult with a knowledgeable tax expert about what makes the most sense based on your situation.

Double-Check Your W-4 Withholding Allowances: Remember that form you filled out when you first got your job? Well, now that you've "put a ring on it," you may need to adjust your withholding.

For couples where only one spouse is working, this may be as simple as changing from "single" to "married" and increasing exemptions from one to two. However, if both you and your spouse work, you should not both change to M-2 without first filling out the "Two-Earners/Multiple Jobs Worksheet" section of form W-4. Your combined incomes may put you into a higher marginal tax bracket than you each had as a single person. You should plan to file a new W-4 form with your employer. If you are unsure of your allowances, visit a tax professional for assistance.

Retirement Plans are Favorable for Married Couples: Certain retirement plans, such as an IRA, offer favorable rules for married couples filing a joint return. In order to contribute to an IRA, you must have earned income (from wages or self-employment).

But if only one spouse has earned income, the law allows the spouse with no income to make an IRA contribution based on the earned income of the working spouse, provided a joint tax return is filed. Additionally, spouses can inherit IRAs from one another and choose to treat the IRA as their own, which provides more payout options.

Remember, a lot of firsts come with getting married, such as buying a home and having children. Local tax professionals at H&R Block can help you navigate the tax implications of these major life changes.

?

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-gartland/newlywed-tax-tips_b_2775896.html

whitney houston dead at 48 whitney houston dead 2012 whitney houston passed away heartbreak hotel don cornelius whitney houston i will always love you breaking news whitney houston

Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy (4GB)

The world is a scary place, and some of your most valuable data?be it medical information, business records, or government secrets?lives not on paper, but in zeros and ones. To keep your private data safe and secure, Kingston has the DataTraveler Vault Private, the single-user companion to the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy-Managed Edition. With end-to-end encryption and a rugged design, it protects your data from almost anything that gets thrown at it.

The 4GB drive has very little preinstalled software, leaving you 3.68 GB of storage space. Formated in FAT32, the drive works with both Windows and Mac operating systems, letting you go from one to the other and back again without having to reformat the drive or install and conversion software. And unlike the consumer-grade Kingston DataTraveler Locker+ G2 (16GB), the DataTravaler Vault Privacy also supports Linux.

The drive earns the Vault Privacy name with 256-bit AES encryption in Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode. This is end-to-end hardware based encryption, meeting the same requirements needed for storing actual Top Secret government documents. On a regular drive, you'll need to use something like the CipherUSB to protect it with similar levels of encryption. With the DataTraveler Vault Privacy, you'll just need to set up a password. You'll need a password to even use the drive, and then unlock the drive with that password everytime you need to use it.

The design is also rugged to physically protect your data against moisture, dirt, and more. The aluminum case and locking cap provide protection against shock and crushing forces, while the cap seals out water up to four feet deep. While that ruggedness makes for a well-protected drive, it's a little chunky, measuring 0.5 by 0.9 by 3.1 inches (HWD)?just enough to potentially crowd an adjacent USB port?and weighs 0.5 ounce.

The initial setup is very simple?the entire process involves choosing a password, and it takes moments?but be sure you pick a password you'll remember. Once you've set your password, the drive will be discoverable by the PC, and you can open and use it just like any other drive. For a slightly easier, yet equally secure, option, there' always the Aegis Secure Key, which offers hardware based locking.

Don't forget the password! The drive's security has a lock feature which only allows 10 incorrect password attempts in a row before reformatting the drive and wiping out the data. This security feature prevents brute-force attacks from unlocking the drive. As an added dose of security, this 10-count doesn't reset when the drive is unplugged and plugged back in?so make sure you remember your password.

Also included on the drive is a program called Drive Security, a product of ESET and ClevX, which can be used to scan the drive for any security issues, such as malware or viruses. Kingston guarantees the drive with a five-year warranty and free technical support.

In our timed data transfer test, the drive offered 35 MBps write speeds and 10 MBps read speeds. That's faster than the consumer-oriented Editors' Choice, the DataTraveler Locker+, which had an average of 21MBps read and 12MBps write speed. It's also reasonably priced. While the 4GB capacity is a bit small?larger models are available (8, 16, 32, and 64GB)?the drive sells for $42.00 list, or $10.50 per GB. By comparison, the hardware locked Aegis Secure Key sells the same 4GB capacity for $65?or $16.25 per GB.

The Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy is a solid option for the security minded, with high-grade hardware-based encryption, a rugged design, and a decent price. Add it all up, and it takes a place alongside the best secure drives we've reviewed, though the Aegis Secure Key remains our top pick due its innovative physical keypad.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy (4GB) with several other flash drives side by side.

More flash drive reviews:
??? Kingston DataTraveler Vault Privacy (4GB)
??? IronKey Workspace W300 (64GB)
??? Roccat Apuri
??? PocketDesktop (16GB)
??? LaCie XtremKey USB 3.0 (32GB)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/vwMGtFSNdlU/0,2817,2416020,00.asp

evo 4g lte marlins new stadium arnold palmer augusta national blake griffin pau gasol marlins park

Court Blocks Florida Drug-Testing Law (WSJ)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287652025?client_source=feed&format=rss

HGTV Dream Home 2013 eric cantor eric cantor HGTV Sugar Bowl 2013 chick fil a chick fil a

Novel combination therapy shuts down escape route, killing glioblastoma tumor cells

Feb. 26, 2013 ? Glioblastoma, the most common and lethal form of brain tumor in adults, is challenging to treat because the tumors rapidly become resistant to therapy. As cancer researchers are learning more about the causes of tumor cell growth and drug resistance, they are discovering molecular pathways that might lead to new targeted therapies to potentially treat this deadly cancer.

Scientists at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in San Diego worked collaboratively across the laboratories of Drs. Paul Mischel, Web Cavenee and Frank Furnari to investigate one such molecular pathway called the mammalian target of rapamycin or mTOR. This signaling pathway is hyperactivated in close to 90 percent of glioblastomas and plays a critical role in regulating tumor growth and survival. Therapies that inhibit mTOR signaling are under investigation as drug development targets, but results to date have been disappointing: mTOR inhibitors halt the growth, but fail to kill the tumor cells.

A study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences uncovers an unexpected, but important molecular mechanism of mTOR inhibitor resistance and identifies a novel drug combination that reverses this resistance.

The story begins with a closer look at a gene-encoded protein called promyleocytic leukemia gene or PML. The study investigators explored the role of PML in causing resistance to mTOR inhibitor treatment. They found that when glioblastoma patients are treated with drugs that target the mTOR pathway, the levels of PML rise dramatically. Further, they showed that PML upregulation made the tumor cells resistant to mTOR inhibitors, and that if they suppressed the ability of the tumor cells to upregulate the PML protein, the tumor cells died in response to the mTOR inhibitor therapy.

"When we looked at cells in in vivo models and patients treated in the clinic, it became clear that the glioblastoma cells massively regulated PML enabling them to escape the effects of mTOR inhibitor therapy," reported senior author Paul Mischel, MD, Ludwig Institute member based at the University of California at San Diego.

"Our team hypothesized that if we could use a pharmacological approach to get rid of PML and combine it with an mTOR inhibitor, it could change the response from halting growth to cell death. The question was how?" added Mischel.

Previous research had shown that the use of low-dose arsenic could cause degradation of the PML protein in patients with leukemia. The team hypothesized that if arsenic could degrade PML, it may reverse resistance to mTOR inhibitors. The combination of mTOR and low-dose arsenic in mice indeed showed a synergistic effect, with massive tumor cell death along with very significant shrinkage of the tumor in mice with no ill side effects.

"Current therapy upregulates PML, turning off the mTOR signaling pathway. The tumor cells hide, waiting for the target signal to return," said Mischel. "When low-dose arsenic is added, not only does it stop the cell from returning, it shuts down the escape route killing the tumor cell."

These results present the first clinical evidence that mTOR inhibition promotes PML upregulation in mice and patients, and that it mediates drug resistance. The clinical relevance was confirmed when researchers looked at before- and after-treatment tissue samples from patients treated with mTOR inhibitors, confirming that PML goes up significantly in post treatment of mTOR inhibitors.

"These data suggest a new approach for potential treatment of glioblastoma," said Mischel. "We are moving forward to test that possibility in people."

Post-doctoral students Akio Iwanami and Beatrice Gini from the Mischel lab, as well as Ciro Zanca from the Furnari/Cavenee lab also contributed significantly to this paper.

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Uehara Memorial Foundation, three NIH grants: NS73831, CA 119347 and P01-CA95616, the Ziering Family Foundation in Memory of Sigi Ziering and the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. A. Iwanami, B. Gini, C. Zanca, T. Matsutani, A. Assuncao, A. Nael, J. Dang, H. Yang, S. Zhu, J. Kohyama, I. Kitabayashi, W. K. Cavenee, T. F. Cloughesy, F. B. Furnari, M. Nakamura, Y. Toyama, H. Okano, P. S. Mischel. PML mediates glioblastoma resistance to mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-targeted therapies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1217602110

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/BY1dFrC_5v8/130226135525.htm

james harden breeders cup Mitch Lucker Red Cross CMA Awards 2012 election day Electoral College map

Huge winter storm aims for Midwest, Northeast

Sydney Brink / Sedalia Democrat via AP

Tedd Hendrix, of Sedalia, Mo., frees a line of cable from downed branches Tuesday as he works to tie the line off so that it is elevated and out of the road. A snow storm, the second in less than a week, dumped about a foot of snow in Sedalia, knocking out power around the town and collapsing the roofs of several buildings.

By John Newland and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News

Forecasters warned of ice, snow and difficult travel in the Midwest and parts of New York and New England on Wednesday as a winter storm headed northeast after bringing high winds, heavy rain and snow to a large swath of the country.?

In the Midwest, the National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for Wednesday -- some stretching into Thursday -- for parts of Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Heavily populated areas, including Milwaukee, suburban Chicago, northern suburbs of Detroit and Des Moines, Iowa, were also under warnings.

By 7:45 a.m. ET Wednesday, about 100 flights into and out of Chicago had been canceled, according to FlightAware.com. More than 500 flights at the city?s O?Hare International and Midway airports were canceled amid snow and sleet on Tuesday, NBC Chicago reported.

The weather may also have disrupted voting in Chicago for a special election primary to fill the seat of indicted Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.

In the Northeast, the storm was expected to bring snow and ice to New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and parts of Maine beginning Wednesday morning and continuing through Thursday afternoon.

New York City and other major cities such as Boston were forecasted to mostly escape the heavy weather. But commuters in New York slogged through heavy wind and rain to get to work early on Wednesday. Upstate New York and northern parts of New England were expected to see further snow through Wednesday into the evening.

?It?s going to linger for a long time over portions of the Northeast,? meteorologist Brian Korty told Reuters.

The storm's biggest impact so far has been in parts of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma.

In Texas, winds gusted to 84 mph near El Paso, according to Weather.com, which reported 7-foot snow drifts in Silverton, south of Amarillo.

The 19 inches of snowfall in Amarillo on Monday set a 120-year record, meteorologist Krissy Scotten told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. The city in the Texas Panhandle usually sees an average of just under 18 inches for the entire winter, Scotten said.

Full coverage from Weather.com

To the east, parts of Missouri got more than a foot of snow, and Kansas City had received 8 inches with more falling Wednesday morning.

At least three people have been reported killed by the storm in the Southern Plains, two of them on Monday.

A roof collapsed under heavy snow, killing a person inside a house, and a 21-year-old man died when his SUV overturned on an icy patch of Interstate 70. On Tuesday, a woman in a pickup truck died in accident on an icy strip of road.

More than 1,000 flights were cancelled Tuesday, including 809 in Chicago and 167 in Kansas City.

Related:

Deadly storm dumps snow in North, heavy rain in South

Two dead as wind-whipped storm pounds Great Plains

?

?

?

This story was originally published on Wed Feb 27, 2013 5:01 AM EST

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/27/17112788-huge-winter-storm-aims-for-midwest-northeast?lite

dallas mavericks washington capitals amare stoudemire tallest building in the world the pitch brandon inge freedom tower

Joan Rivers makes fat jokes, Holocaust jokes

Donna Ward / Getty Images Contributor

Joan Rivers arrives for "Late Show With David Letterman" on Tuesday.

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY

Singer Adele took home an Oscar in the best original song category Sunday night, but she also had to listen to host Seth MacFarlane joke about her weight. The jokes aren't over: On Wednesday night's "Late Night With David Letterman," comedian Joan Rivers poked fun at the singer's size as well.

"I met Adele! Has she been on the show?" Rivers asked Letterman, puffing out her cheeks and holding her arms far away from her body. When the audience booed, Rivers snapped, "Oh no! No! She's thin! Can we just talk to each other here?"

"What is her song, 'Rolling in the Deep'? She should add, 'Fried Chicken,'" Rivers cracked.

Rivers went on to say that Adele expressed concern about her live Oscars performance, saying, "My throat, my throat! I don't know if I can swallow."

"And I said, 'Oh yeah, you can swallow,'" Rivers said, again holding her arms out to indicate a large person.

Rivers is also being called upon by the Anti-Defamation League to apologize for a "vulgar and hideous" Holocaust joke she made about German-born model Heidi Klum.

On the?E! show "Fashion Police" Monday, Rivers said, "The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens."

The ADL says in a press release that ?the segment has been shown at least four times on the network and appeared briefly on YouTube.

"It is vulgar and offensive for anybody to use the death of six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust to make a joke, but this is especially true for someone who is Jewish and who proudly and publicly wears her Jewishness on her sleeve," the ADL said of Rivers.

At press time, "Fashion Police" had not responded to a request for comment.

What do you think of Rivers' humor? Tell us on Facebook.

Related content:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/02/27/17119710-joan-rivers-blasted-for-fat-jokes-holocaust-jokes?lite

fireworks 4th of July Andy Griffith joe johnson scientology Wimbledon 2012 TV Schedule fourth of july

Op-Ed: Six-strike plan imposed by Internet Service Providers

Washington
-
Beginning this week, major ISPs will start spying on US Internet users. With the new program, its a case of "six strikes and you are out" if they think you are pirating copyright-protected content.
After months of discussion on the controversial program to be imposed by the largest ISPs in the US, the Copyright Alert System (CAS) confirmed on Monday this week that the "six-strike" program has now officially gone live. If you have an Internet connection via AT&T, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Time Warner Cable or Verizon, its a case of six strikes, and you are quite literally out.


Opposed and critiqued by privacy advocates and Internet freedom activists alike, this program will allow ISPs to take six steps, of increasing severity, when handling incidents where their customers are believed to be illegally sharing online content.


Customers would receive a series of warnings, through a "graduate response" approach, for illegally downloading copyright protected material.


When CAS releases the first strike, a customer could be issued a warning. However, should the customer continue to violate policies, other mitigation measures will be introduced, including connection speed throttling right up to and including the possibility of final termination of service.


According to Wired, the various measures include ?temporary reductions of Internet speeds, redirection to a landing page until the subscriber contacts the ISP to discuss the matter or reviews and responds to some educational information about copyright, or other measures (as specified in published policies) that the ISP may deem necessary to help resolve the matter.? Ending with complete disconnection if the customer doesn't comply.


Apparently the plan does not just stop there. The Copyright Act also allows the user to be sued for damages of up to $150,000 per infringement.


Jill Lesser of the Center for Copyright Information explained the situation in a blog post on Monday. ?Practically speaking, this means our content partners will begin sending notices of alleged P2P [peer-to-peer] copyright infringement to ISPs, and the ISPs will begin forwarding those notices in the form of Copyright Alerts to consumers.?


?Consumers whose accounts have been used to share copyrighted content over P2P networks illegally (or without authority) will receive Alerts that are meant to educate rather than punish, and direct them to legal alternatives. And for those consumers who believe they received Alerts in error, an easy to use process will be in place for them to seek independent review of the Alerts they received,? she adds.


What she neglected to mention is that this appeals process costs customers $35 a pop.


CAS tried to get this going in July 2012. Gigi Sohn, president of digital rights group Public Knowledge, told Wired last year that originally ISPs hoped to roll out the program earlier, but major protests against other restrictive Web policies, including attempts to pass certain legislation, caused them to have to wait.


?SOPA and PIPA definitely had an impact. There was some concern, if they moved ahead too quickly, public opinion would be so raw, this would be caught in the whirlwind of bad PR,? Sohn told Wired.


According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the official six-strikes website allows users to learn more about the history of copyright. It does this by apparently re-directing them to a web page managed by the Copyright Alliance, which is the same group who advocated for last year's "Stop Online Piracy Act," more commonly known as SOPA.


Reportedly the White House has issued an official statement saying that the six-strikes program should ?have a significant impact on reducing online piracy.?


Demand Progress is running a petition where you can tell your ISPs "No 'Six Strikes' Plan - Or We'll Take Our Business Elsewhere." Smaller Internet service providers could find an increase in new business in the very near future.

Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344335

Monsters University nfl playoff schedule Rex Ryan tattoo Alaska earthquake green bay packers nfl schedule houston texans

First lady's anti-obesity campaign prompts change

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Wal-Mart is putting special labels on some store-brand products to help shoppers quickly spot healthier items. Millions of schoolchildren are helping themselves to vegetables from salad bars in their lunchrooms, while kids' meals at Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants automatically come with a side of fruit or vegetables and a glass of low-fat milk.

The changes put in place by the food industry are in response to the campaign against childhood obesity that Michelle Obama began waging three years ago. More changes are in store.

Influencing policy posed more of a challenge for the first lady, and not everyone welcomed her effort, criticizing it as a case of unwanted government intrusion.

Still, nutrition advocates and others give her credit for using her clout to help bring a range of interests to the table. They hope the increased awareness she has generated through speeches, her garden and her physical exploits will translate into further reductions in childhood obesity rates long after she leaves the White House.

About one-third of U.S. children are overweight or obese, which puts them at increased risk for any number of life-threatening illnesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

While there is evidence of modest declines in childhood obesity rates in some parts of the country, the changes are due largely to steps taken before the first lady launched "Let's Move" in February 2010.

With the program entering its fourth year, Mrs. Obama heads out Wednesday on a two-day promotional tour with stops in Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri. She has been talking up the program on daytime and late-night TV shows, on the radio and in public service announcements with Big Bird. She also plans discussions next week on Google and Twitter.

"We're starting to see some shifts in the trend lines and the data where we're starting to show some improvement," the first lady told SiriusXM host B. Smith in an interview broadcast Tuesday. "We've been spending a lot of time educating and re-educating families and kids on how to eat, what to eat, how much exercise to get and how to do it in a way that doesn't completely disrupt someone's life."

Larry Soler, president and chief executive of the Partnership for a Healthier America, said Mrs. Obama has "been the leader in making the case for the time is now in childhood obesity and everyone has a role to play in overcoming the problem." The nonpartisan, nonprofit partnership was created as part of "Let's Move" to work with the private sector and to hold companies accountable for changes they promised to make.

Conservatives accused Mrs. Obama of going too far and dictating what people should ? and shouldn't ? eat after she played a major behind-the-scenes role in the passage in 2010 of a child nutrition law that required schools to make foods healthier. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee in 2008, once brought cookies to a school and called the first lady's efforts a "nanny state run amok."

Other leaders in the effort, such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have felt the backlash, too. Last fall, Bloomberg helped enact the nation's first rule barring restaurants, cafeterias and concession stands from selling soda and other high-calorie drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces.

Despite the criticism, broad public support exists for some of the changes the first lady and the mayor are advocating, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.

More than eight in 10 of those surveyed, 84 percent, support requiring more physical activity in schools, and 83 percent favor government providing people with nutritional guidelines and information about diet and exercise. Seventy percent favor having restaurants put calorie counts on menus, and 75 percent consider overweightness and obesity a serious problem in this country, according to the Nov. 21-Dec. 14 survey by telephone of 1,011 adults.

Food industry representatives say Mrs. Obama has influenced their own efforts.

Mary Sophos of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents the country's largest food companies, including General Mills and Kellogg's, said an industry effort to label the fronts of food packages with nutritional content gained momentum after Mrs. Obama, a mother of two, attended one of their meetings in 2010 and encouraged them to do more.

"She's not trying to point fingers," Sophos said. "She's trying to get people to focus on solutions."

A move by the companies signaling willingness to work with Mrs. Obama appears to have paid off as the Obama administration eased off some of the fights it appeared ready to pick four years ago.

The Food and Drug Administration has stalled its push to mandate labeling on the front of food packages, saying it is monitoring the industry's own effort. A rule that would require calorie counts on menus has been delayed as the FDA tries to figure out whom to apply it to. Supermarkets, movie theaters and other retailers have been lobbying to be exempted.

The industry also appears to have successfully warded off a move by the Federal Trade Commission to put in place voluntary guidelines for advertising junk food to kids. Directed by Congress, the guidelines would have discouraged the marketing of certain foods that didn't meet government-devised nutritional requirements. The administration released draft guidelines in 2011 but didn't follow up after the industry said they went too far and angry House Republicans summoned an agency official to Capitol Hill to defend them.

Besides labeling its store brands, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, also pledged to cut sodium and added sugars by 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively, by 2015, and remove industrially produced trans fats.

Leslie Dach, an executive vice president, said sodium in packaged bread has been cut by 13 percent, and added sugar in refrigerated flavored milk, popular among kids, has been cut by more than 17 percent. He said Wal-Mart shoppers have told the company that eating healthier is important to them. Giving customers what they want is also good for business.

New York reported a 5.5 percent decline in obesity rates in kindergarteners through eighth-graders between the 2006-07 and 2010-11 school years, according a report last fall by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which studies health policy. In Philadelphia, the decline was 4.7 percent among students in grades K-12 between the 2006-07 and 2009-10 school years, the foundation said.

Declines also were reported in California and in Mississippi, where Mrs. Obama stops Wednesday.

In Philadelphia, an organization called the Food Trust has worked since 1992 to help corner stores offer fresh foods, connect schools with local farms, bring supermarkets to underserved areas and ensure that farmers' markets accept food stamps, according to Robert Wood Johnson.

New York City requires chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus. Licensed day care centers also must offer daily physical activity, limit the amount of time children spend in front of TV and computer screens, and set nutrition standards.

Both cities also made changes to improve the quality of foods and beverages available to students in public schools.

___

Online:

Let's Move: http://www.letsmove.gov

___

Follow Darlene Superville and Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap and http://www.twitter.com/mcjalonick

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-27-Michelle%20Obama/id-f458882bef7147f78987cb585db37037

record store day jennie garth space needle nashville predators king arthur king arthur there will be blood

Blueprint for an artificial brain: Scientists experiment with memristors that imitate natural nerves

Feb. 26, 2013 ? Scientists have long been dreaming about building a computer that would work like a brain. This is because a brain is far more energy-saving than a computer, it can learn by itself, and it doesn't need any programming. Privatdozent [senior lecturer] Dr. Andy Thomas from Bielefeld University's Faculty of Physics is experimenting with memristors -- electronic microcomponents that imitate natural nerves. Thomas and his colleagues have demonstrated that they could do this a year ago. They constructed a memristor that is capable of learning. Andy Thomas is now using his memristors as key components in a blueprint for an artificial brain.

He will be presenting his results at the beginning of March in the print edition of the Journal of Physics published by the Institute of Physics in London.

Memristors are made of fine nanolayers and can be used to connect electric circuits. For several years now, the memristor has been considered to be the electronic equivalent of the synapse. Synapses are, so to speak, the bridges across which nerve cells (neurons) contact each other. Their connections increase in strength the more often they are used. Usually, one nerve cell is connected to other nerve cells across thousands of synapses.

Like synapses, memristors learn from earlier impulses. In their case, these are electrical impulses that (as yet) do not come from nerve cells but from the electric circuits to which they are connected. The amount of current a memristor allows to pass depends on how strong the current was that flowed through it in the past and how long it was exposed to it.

Andy Thomas explains that because of their similarity to synapses, memristors are particularly suitable for building an artificial brain -- a new generation of computers. 'They allow us to construct extremely energy-efficient and robust processors that are able to learn by themselves.' Based on his own experiments and research findings from biology and physics, his article is the first to summarize which principles taken from nature need to be transferred to technological systems if such a neuromorphic (nerve like) computer is to function. Such principles are that memristors, just like synapses, have to 'note' earlier impulses, and that neurons react to an impulse only when it passes a certain threshold.

Thanks to these properties, synapses can be used to reconstruct the brain process responsible for learning, says Andy Thomas. He takes the classic psychological experiment with Pavlov's dog as an example. The experiment shows how you can link the natural reaction to a stimulus that elicits a reflex response with what is initially a neutral stimulus -- this is how learning takes place. If the dog sees food, it reacts by salivating. If the dog hears a bell ring every time it sees food, this neutral stimulus will become linked to the stimulus eliciting a reflex response. As a result, the dog will also salivate when it hears only the bell ringing and no food is in sight. The reason for this is that the nerve cells in the brain that transport the stimulus eliciting a reflex response have strong synaptic links with the nerve cells that trigger the reaction.

If the neutral bell-ringing stimulus is introduced at the same time as the food stimulus, the dog will learn. The control mechanism in the brain now assumes that the nerve cells transporting the neutral stimulus (bell ringing) are also responsible for the reaction -- the link between the actually 'neutral' nerve cell and the 'salivation' nerve cell also becomes stronger. This link can be trained by repeatedly bringing together the stimulus eliciting a reflex response and the neutral stimulus. 'You can also construct such a circuit with memristors -- this is a first step towards a neuromorphic processor,' says Andy Thomas.

'This is all possible because a memristor can store information more precisely than the bits on which previous computer processors have been based,' says Thomas. Both a memristor and a bit work with electrical impulses. However, a bit does not allow any fine adjustment -- it can only work with 'on' and 'off'. In contrast, a memristor can raise or lower its resistance continuously. 'This is how memristors deliver a basis for the gradual learning and forgetting of an artificial brain,' explains Thomas.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Universitaet Bielefeld.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Andy Thomas. Memristor-based neural networks. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2013; 46 (9): 093001 DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/46/9/093001

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/eQVwYoYOj_w/130226101400.htm

papa johns guacamole recipe jason wu for target underwood buffalo wings superbowl kick off time 2012 new york giants

Heidi Klum Oscars Party Dress: MAJOR Cleavage Alert!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/heidi-klum-oscars-party-dress-major-cleavage-alert/

West Nile virus symptoms snooki amy schumer amy schumer Prince Harry Vegas pictures Avril Lavigne Microsoft

University of Alberta researchers bake a better loaf of bread

Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Bev Betkowski
bev.betkowski@ualberta.ca
780-492-3808
University of Alberta

University of Alberta researchers have found a way to replace artificial preservatives in bread, making it tastier.

After loafing around in the lab analyzing strains of mould fermented in sourdough bread, Michael Ganzle, professor and Canada Research Chair in the University of Alberta Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science and fellow researchers were able to isolate natural compounds that can help keep bread fresh without changing its flavour. Preservatives added to store-bought bread are safe to eat and extend shelf life, but alter the flavour and give off a distinctive odour, said Ganzle.

The U of A research is the first to link the compoundshydroxy fatty acids to antifungal activity and to show that these compounds are formed in the production of fermented foods. "We were able to put known compounds into quite a new and exciting context," Gaenzle said.

The findings served up by the researchers also have the potential to replace or complement fungicides used in treating crop seeds such as barley, wheat and canola, and in protecting crops.

###

The study appears in the March 6, 2013 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 25-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Bev Betkowski
bev.betkowski@ualberta.ca
780-492-3808
University of Alberta

University of Alberta researchers have found a way to replace artificial preservatives in bread, making it tastier.

After loafing around in the lab analyzing strains of mould fermented in sourdough bread, Michael Ganzle, professor and Canada Research Chair in the University of Alberta Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science and fellow researchers were able to isolate natural compounds that can help keep bread fresh without changing its flavour. Preservatives added to store-bought bread are safe to eat and extend shelf life, but alter the flavour and give off a distinctive odour, said Ganzle.

The U of A research is the first to link the compoundshydroxy fatty acids to antifungal activity and to show that these compounds are formed in the production of fermented foods. "We were able to put known compounds into quite a new and exciting context," Gaenzle said.

The findings served up by the researchers also have the potential to replace or complement fungicides used in treating crop seeds such as barley, wheat and canola, and in protecting crops.

###

The study appears in the March 6, 2013 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/uoa-uoa022513.php

toulouse france ny jets ny jets the situation tim tebow jets katy perry part of me video photoshop cs6 beta

Obama Administration Reaches Out to Local Governments to Spread Its Climate Message

President Obama used his Inaugural Address and State of the Union speech to issue the boldest, clearest call to action on climate change ever voiced by a sitting U.S. president?but don?t expect him to barnstorm across the country with that message.

While the president will headline a road show of events to sell his crowd-friendly message on restoring the middle class and boosting U.S. manufacturing, climate change won?t get a starring role. It remains a politically inflammatory subject, and the White House communications team isn?t exactly eager to remind Americans how Obama plans to tackle the problem. The president has called on Congress to pass a climate-change bill, but it?s almost certain that any such legislation will expire in the gridlock of Capitol Hill. Instead, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue tough regulations on coal-fired power plants, the nation?s biggest source of global-warming pollution. That?s hardly the stuff of soaring rhetoric?and it?s sure to reignite Republicans? 2012 campaign attacks that the president is abusing government authority and waging a war on coal.

But even though climate change won?t get top billing in Obama?s speeches, the White House is far from ignoring the issue; it?s just doing a different kind of outreach to build the case for its coming climate-change actions.

Inside Washington, in a warren of back rooms at EPA, dozens of environmental officials are working to craft landmark climate-change regulations that they hope will curb industrial pollution?and withstand a tsunami of legal and political attacks. To help them do it, they?re inviting in heads of the industries and businesses that will soon be forced to implement the rules. Business leaders, although they?re not happy about the coming regulations, are jumping on the opportunity to communicate their concerns and perhaps help shape the rules they?ll have to live by. And the Obama administration hopes that the dialogue will help defuse some of the opposition to come.

Outside Washington, the administration is building support a different way. The Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Agriculture departments are ramping up their outreach to state and local governments to help them prepare for the impacts of climate change, including increased flooding and more extreme storms and droughts. The local work by federal agencies doesn?t draw the headlines like a presidential speech. But it does further a grassroots communications strategy?by getting the conversation about preparing for climate change into town councils and city planning boards, where there?s less partisan fighting and more focus on practical challenges such as creating new flood zones and building storm-resistant infrastructure.

?This seems to me [to be] the beginning of a big-tent, grassroots climate strategy, which no administration has attempted in the U.S. before,? said Paul Bledsoe, an environmental-policy consultant who was a senior climate-change and communications adviser to the Clinton White House. ?Climate strategies in the past have been declared from on high. That hasn?t been terrifically effective in mobilizing political support. But involving people in their communities, with state and local officials, who are concerned about impacts in terms of infrastructure and emergency services, could be more effective.?

EPA is preparing to issue a regulation to cut carbon pollution from future power plants later this spring?a rule that will effectively freeze construction of coal plants. After that, although it?s not clear when, the agency is expected to issue even more-aggressive regulations requiring existing coal plants to reduce their pollution. Gina McCarthy, EPA?s top clean-air and climate-change official, whom Obama is expected to nominate to head the environmental agency as soon as this week, has been working closely with coal and electric-utility officials to craft the regulations. The administration doesn?t expect the industry to welcome the rules?but it hopes the outreach will create some goodwill and at least lessen some of the inevitable push-back.

?Conversations have started,? said Chuck Barlow, vice president of environmental strategy for Entergy, an electric utility with power plants in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. ?There have been small groups from industry who?ve gone in and had discussions with [McCarthy]. We?re talking about, if EPA does this, what will it look like? How flexible is it? Does EPA do most of the work, or the states? There will be much more to come.?

?We?re seeing more and more interest and activity from the federal agencies,? said Brian Holland, director of climate programs for ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA, an organization that works with municipal governments. ?It started before superstorm Sandy and has really intensified since that disaster. We see a clear indication that climate-change resilience is at the top of the president?s agenda and that federal agencies are becoming more active in that area.?

Even the State Department has reached out. Two days after Secretary of State John Kerry was confirmed in his post, his undersecretary, Robert Hormats, phoned Holland?s group to ask how the foreign-policy department could help local governments in the U.S. prepare for climate change?a sign of Kerry?s particular passion on the issue.

Among the climate-planning tools the federal government is offering to share is a digital ?sea-level rise? planner created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Officials in coastal cities can plug their coordinates into the mapping software to determine how rising sea levels could harm their region. They can then use that mapping data to site future roads and structures away from harm.

?It changes the debate from whether climate change is happening to how we can best protect ourselves by creating more resilient communities,? Holland said.

Mayor Frank Cownie of Des Moines, Iowa, agrees. In 2010, his city was hit with three devastating floods as heavy downpours caused the Des Moines River to overrun its banks. Last summer, record drought destroyed the region?s corn crop. The weather keeps getting worse, climate science shows it?s going to keep happening, and Cownie says his city officials want to plan for it?with the welcome help of Washington.

?Ten years ago, eight years ago, six years ago, people were a little slow to talk about this, but now we?re saying, ?Yeah, there?s a problem,? ? he said.

?We have to figure out, how do we protect against extreme events in terms of flooding, and how do we capture water to use when there?s another drought? There?s been an upswing of outreach by the federal government on resiliency, and we?re having the conversation at the city, state, county, and suburb level to figure out what we?re going to do.?

Meanwhile, as climate-policy conversations are taking place in EPA?s offices and Iowa?s town halls, advocates in Congress are also keeping up the drumbeat. In the Senate, Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Bernie Saunders, I-Vt., have introduced, with much fanfare, a sweeping climate-change bill. And Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has joined forces with Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to create a bicameral Safe Climate Caucus that will keep the issue alive with a stream of hearings and floor speeches in both chambers. But it?s almost certain that Boxer?s bill?which she has said she hopes to bring to the floor by this summer?will die in the Senate and be dead on arrival in the Republican House.

But that rejection could actually help the White House. In his State of the Union, Obama declared that if Congress won?t act on climate change, he will. The failure of a high-profile bill would create the opportunity for the administration to roll out its new regulations.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-administration-reaches-local-governments-spread-climate-message-102005260--politics.html

us open tennis us open tennis Empire State Building shooting Republican National Convention Karlie Redd guild wars 2 adrian gonzalez

70,000 deaths later, Syria says it's ready to talk

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syria is ready for talks with its armed opponents, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Monday, in the clearest offer yet of negotiations with rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

But Moualem said at the same time Syria would pursue its fight "against terrorism", alluding to the conflict with rebels in which the United Nations says 70,000 people have been killed.

Assad and his foes are locked in a bloody stalemate after nearly two years of combat, destruction and civilian suffering.

"We are ready for dialogue with everyone who wants it...Even with those who have weapons in their hands. Because we believe that reforms will not come through bloodshed but only through dialogue," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Moualem as saying.

He was speaking in Moscow at a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Russia is a staunch ally of Assad.

Moaz Alkhatib, head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, said in Cairo he had not had held any contacts about talks with Damascus, but had postponed trips to Russia and the United States "until we see how things develop".

Syria's government and the political opposition have both suggested in recent weeks they are prepared for some contacts - softening their previous outright rejection of talks to resolve a conflict which has driven nearly a million Syrians out of the country and left millions more homeless and hungry.

But the opposition has said any political solution must be based on the removal of Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since 1970. Rebel fighters, who do not answer to Alkhatib, are even more insistent that Assad must go before any talks start.

Brigadier Selim Idris, head of a rebel military command, demanded a complete ceasefire, the president's departure and the trial of his security and military chiefs as preconditions for negotiations. "We will not go (into talks) unless these demands are realized," he told Al Arabiya Television.

Damascus has rejected any preconditions for talks aimed at ending the violence, which started as a peaceful pro-democracy uprising in March 2011 inspired by Arab revolts elsewhere.

"SYRIAN COLLAPSE"

The two sides also differ on the location for any talks, with the opposition saying they should be abroad or in rebel-held parts of Syria. Assad's government says any serious dialogue must be held on Syrian territory under its control.

Adding to the difficulty of any negotiated settlement is the lack of influence that Syria's political opposition - mostly operating outside the country - has over rebels inside.

"We are following the development of events ... with alarm," Lavrov said. "In our evaluation the situation is at a kind of crossroads. There are those who have set a course for further bloodshed and an escalation of conflict. This is fraught with the risk of the collapse of the Syrian state and society.

"But there are also reasonable forces that increasingly acutely understand the need for the swiftest possible start of talks ... In these conditions the need for the Syrian leadership to continue to consistently advocate the start of dialogue, and not allow provocations to prevail, is strongly increasing."

Lavrov's warning that the Syrian state could founder appeared aimed to show that Russia is pressing Assad's government to seek a negotiated solution while continuing to lay much of the blame for the persistent violence on his opponents.

Russia has distanced itself from Assad and has stepped up its calls for dialogue as his prospects of retaining power have decreased, but insists that his exit must not be a precondition.

Itar-Tass did not report any other comments by Syria's Moualem on the chances for talks or on any conditions attached.

"What's happening in Syria is a war against terrorism," the agency quoted him as saying. "We will strongly adhere to a peaceful course and continue to fight against terrorism."

The Syrian National Coalition said on Friday it was willing to negotiate a peace deal, but insisted Assad could not be party to it - a demand that the president looks sure to reject.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Assad had told him he intended to remain president until his term ends in 2014 and would then run for re-election.

The political chasm between the government and rebels and a lack of opposition influence over rebel fighters has allowed fighting to rage on for 23 months in Syria, while international diplomatic deadlock has prevented effective intervention.

Moualem's comments echoed remarks last week by Minister for National Reconciliation Ali Haidar, who said he was ready to meet the armed opposition. But Haidar drew a distinction between what said might be "preparatory talks" and formal negotiations.

Assad, announcing plans last month for a national dialogue to address the crisis, said that there would be no dialogue with people he called traitors or "puppets made by the West".

Moualem made his remarks a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry began a nine-nation tour of European and Arab nations in which the Syria conflict will be a main focus.

Kerry plans to meet Lavrov in Berlin on Tuesday and Syrian opposition leaders at a conference in Rome on Thursday, although it is unclear whether all will attend amid internal rows over the value of such international meetings while violence goes on.

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh in Cairo; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-government-says-ready-talk-armed-opposition-agency-091612112.html

darvish george zimmerman website edmund fitzgerald uss enterprise white house easter egg roll 2012 andy cohen andy cohen

Increase Your Home's Value With These Tips

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Ida

You can increase the value of your home and change the way it looks. Reading this article should teach you how to go about planning your own remodeling project.

TIP! If your window blinds look torn or battered, replacing these can add to the appearance of your home. The sun, pets and general wear and tear can make your blinds look dull.

Motion detector lights are a good option to consider if you are planning to install exterior lights on your property. Motion detector lights add security to your property. You will also see lower electric bills.

TIP! You can easily make your own window screen replacement if you are not able to find one in the right size. All window sizes can be cut via frame kits and then you just have use cording to actual attach the screen.

Flooring replacement can be very expensive. One inexpensive and simple option is to remove your existing flooring, and then add a stain in the color of your choice to the concrete below. The stain makes the concrete have a new industrial look that can match any decor.

TIP! It?s imperative that your contractor knows up front how much money you have to work with for home improvement projects. Honesty will ensure he is more inclined to stay on budget.

Maintaining a home improvement budgets goes a long way toward maintaining or increasing the value of your home, so aim for setting money aside as a budget for handing any repairs or upgrades. Set aside a specific amount of money to do home repairs and maintenance. If money is left over at the year?s end, it can go toward more home improvement work in the days to come.

TIP! Prior to doing any interior painting, take a damp cloth and wipe away dirt and dust from the wall surfaces. That helps the paint to stick to the walls that much more, and will help you avoid the hassle of frequent touch-ups or more coats of paint.

Staining the floors of your basement makes for an easy facelift. It can make the space look fresh and updated without the headache and costs associated with a replacement floor. A stained floor is also more durable and easy to clean. Search for stains that can add some extra shine and luster to your floors. An upgraded stain can give your basement a richer feel for less money than installing a new floor.

TIP! If you?ve recently had new carpeting or flooring installed, you can extend its great looks for years by establishing a rule banning the wearing of shoes. Make sure there are places to store shoes and offer slippers at the entrances so that everyone feels comfortable removing their shoes.

When doing home improvements on your own, consider purchasing high quality supplies and tools. It may seem more costly at first, but you will be happy you made the choice when the tools are still working at the end of your project. The better quality a product is, the longer it will last. Even though some quality tools can be a bit expensive, they save you a lot of money in the long run.

TIP! Are you trying to sell your home? Projects around the home can easily increase your home?s worth. One very easy home improvement that adds value to your home is replacing old kitchen appliances with new ones.

Now that you have read the above article, you should realize that you can succeed at dramatically renovating your home. Use the advice shared in this article, put it to practice and live in a home you are proud of.

Source: http://nyubi.info/uncategorized/increase-your-homes-value-with-these-tips/

Marina Krim Justin Bieber cancer lil wayne Mockingbird Lane peyton manning sf giants gold rush

Firefox OS heading to Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Spain and more; Huawei device coming soon

Not content with a simple Deutsche Telecom announcement, Mozilla's using Mobile World Congress as a platform to launch its mobile operating system in a slew of markets. Rolling out in waves, the first round of devices featuring Firefox OS include the likes of Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela, with more markets soon, according to the company. The first round of handsets include devices by Alcatel, LG and ZTE. Mozilla also let slip news of a forthcoming handset from Huawei, who just capped up their own MWC press conference. As you'd expect, there's a whole slew of carriers on board. You can find the list in the release after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/YyaGYFbxnlA/

brooke burke Alexa Vega Bram Stoker books Paula Broadwell Photos Veterans Day 2012 Nate Silver stock market

Syria rebels fight for police academy near Aleppo

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

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

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

A displaced Syrian boy is seen at the top of an olive tree near the Azaz camp for displaced people, north of Aleppo province, Syria, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. According to Syrian activists the number of people in the Azaz camp has grown by 3,000 in the last weeks due to heavier shelling by government forces. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

A displaced Syrian is seen within a makeshift barber shop while others stand in line for food in the Azaz camp for displaced people, north of Aleppo province, Syria, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. According to Syrian activists the number of people in the Azaz camp has grown by 3,000 in the last weeks due to heavier shelling by government forces. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

A Syrian villager, Abu Ibrahim, 73, writes the name of his granddaughter on her grave who was killed from an airstrike by Syrian government forces, at Jabal al-Zaweya village of Sarja, in Idlib, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. Syrian rebels used captured tanks to launch a fresh offensive on a government complex housing a police academy near Aleppo and clashed with government troops protecting the strategic installation on Sunday. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Rebels backed by captured tanks launched a fresh offensive on a government complex housing a police academy near the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, while the government hit back with airstrikes to try to protect the strategic installation, activists said.

If rebels capture the complex on the outskirts of Aleppo, it would mark another setback for President Bashar Assad. In recent weeks, his regime has lost control of key infrastructure in the northeast including a hydroelectric dam, a major oil field and two army bases along the road linking Aleppo with the airport to its east.

Rebels also have been hitting the heart of Damascus with occasional mortars shells or bombings, posing a stiff challenge to the regime in its seat of power.

On Saturday, opposition fighters in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour overran a military post believed to have once been the site of a partly built nuclear reactor that Israeli warplanes bombed in 2007.

A year after the strike, the U.N. nuclear watchdog determined that the destroyed building's size and structure fit specifications of a nuclear reactor. Syria never stated the purpose of the site known as Al-Kibar.

After the bombing, the regime carted away all the debris from the destroyed building and equipment from the two standing structures, analysts said, adding that the rebels were unlikely to have found any weapons in the abandoned complex.

There were troops in the area until this weekend. It was not clear what the site was being used for most recently.

"It's more or less a shell because the Syrians decided to remove everything inside the buildings," said Mustafa Alani, an analyst with the Gulf Research Center in Geneva. "I don't think there's anything left really of any value for the rebels."

Separately, rebels have been trying for months to storm the government complex west of Aleppo in the suburb of Khan al-Asal, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, the director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The facility also includes several smaller army outposts charged with protecting the police academy inside the compound.

The SANA state news agency said regime troops repelled the rebel attack on the police academy, inflicting heavy losses and destroying four armored vehicles and three cars fitted with machine guns. There was no word on government casualties.

Aleppo has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of Syria's nearly 2-year-old conflict.

In July, rebels launched an offensive on the city, the country's largest and one-time commercial capital, and quickly seized several neighborhoods. The battle has since devolved into a bloody stalemate, with heavy street fighting that has left whole districts in ruins and forced thousands to flee.

A key focus for the rebels as they try to capture the city is Aleppo's international airport, which they have been attacking for weeks.

Regime forces also fired an apparent ground-to-ground missile Sunday on the town of Tal Rifat, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Aleppo, the Observatory said. There was no immediate word on casualties.

The report follows similar strikes last week on impoverished rebel-held Aleppo neighborhoods that killed at least 60 people.

Also on Sunday, prominent Syrian comedian Yassin Bakoush was killed in Damascus after apparently being caught in the crossfire between rebels and government troops.

Bakoush, 75, was known for playing characters that were likeable but naive and dim-witted. SANA said he is survived by11 children.

SANA said Yassin Bakoush was killed by a rebel mortar round that landed on his car in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus, which has seen heavy fighting in recent months. However, the anti-regime Observatory said Bakoush was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade launched by government forces slammed into his car.

French freelance photographer Olivier Voisin, who was wounded on Thursday in Syria and taken to Turkey for treatment, died of his wounds at an Istanbul hospital, the French Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

Voisin is the second French journalist this year to be killed while reporting on the civil war, which has proven to be one of the most dangerous conflicts for reporters to cover.

In Lebanon, two people were killed by Syrian shells and gunfire that landed on Lebanese territory near the border.

The state-run National News Agency in Lebanon said a man was killed and his brother was wounded by shells that slammed into the town of al-Hisheh in the Wadi Khaled area of the north, while another man was killed by gunfire in the area of al-Buqaiaa.

The deaths added to tensions in the area which has seen an escalation of violence in recent days. The civil war in Syria has increasingly spilled over into Lebanon with almost daily reports of cross-border shelling or gunfire in border areas.

The United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad's authoritarian rule began nearly two years ago.

Efforts to stop the bloodshed so far have failed, leaving the international community at a loss of how to end the civil war.

A senior opposition leader said Sunday that his umbrella group has suspended participation in meetings with its Western backers and their Arab allies because of their indifference over the regime's attacks on the Syrian people in Aleppo and other cities.

"Assad has reached the stage of real genocide amid Arab silence and we renounce that," George Sabra, vice president of the Syrian National Coalition, said in Cairo after meeting Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby.

On Friday, the Coalition said its leaders would not travel to Washington or Moscow for any talks to protest the international community's "silence over crimes committed by the regime." It also said opposition leaders would boycott a meeting next month in Rome of the Friends of Syria, which includes the United States and its European allies.

In Washington, the State Department condemned rocket attacks on Aleppo, saying in a statement late Saturday the strikes are the "latest demonstrations of the Syrian regime's ruthlessness and its lack of compassion for the Syrian people it claims to represent."

___

Associated Press writers Ryan Lucas in Beirut and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-24-Syria/id-4573aa51687c4ffb8e2f43ad6b315642

david wilson playstation all stars battle royale kim zolciak kim zolciak travis pastrana quinton coples a.j. jenkins