Internet marketing might be a new phrase to the average person, but it is no surprise to those earning six figure salaries from this industry. The InternetMarketingCoaching.co website has reviewed new jobs data that has revealed the growth in Internet marketing jobs online. A new training program is available that is accessible through the Internet Marketing Coaching website that is designed to teach beginners and advanced marketers the Internet marketing strategies that are being used to earn full-time salaries. This training can be accessed right here and is available entirely online through any Internet connected device.
Job statistics in the United States are released each month by independent agencies to help judge the growth of the economy. Many positions are added and taken away as the demand for these jobs increases or decreases. What started out as blogging for many people has now turned into a full-time career as Internet marketers.
Some former bloggers that have turned into Internet marketers have reported six figure salaries from working entirely online. The new training series accessed through the InternetMarketingCoaching.co website provides the information that individuals, business owners, website owners and others can use to earn income online through this job field.
While no formal hiring takes place for many Internet marketers, the ability to market products as well as services of other companies takes little more than a standard application.
?Affiliate marketing requires no product or service startup money,? said Brian Hanson, co-owner of Marketer?s Black Book. ?Affiliate marketing training is usually all that someone needs to get started earning money from simple promotion of established products and services online,? Hanson added.
As a full-time Internet marketer, Brian Hanson helps to train Internet marketers in part through his company?s YouTube page available at this link. This free training as well as the training that is now offered through the InternetMarketingCoaching.co website are two resources that those wanting to become Internet marketers can use online.
While blogging and affiliate marketing represent two routine jobs Internet marketers complete, more specific jobs of these marketers are also completed that contribute to monthly and annual income generation. Product creation is one way that Internet marketers use to earn income.
The creation and sale of unique products like e-books, audio books and other informational products is included in the opportunities available to Internet marketers online. The InternetMarketingCoaching.co website provides product creation information as well as digital marketing strategies to reach buyers online.
For individual workers, learning the skills of an Internet marketer could provide a way to earn online income in place of or in combination with a career path. For companies and website owners, performing the strategies used by Internet marketers could increase website traffic as well as increase e-commerce income online.
About InternetMarketingCoaching.co
The InternetMarketingCoaching.co website is one online resource that business owners and website owners use to get access to helpful training programs of Internet marketing. The coaches that own and operate this website are successful Internet marketers that are now providing access to useful training online. The training programs that are now accessible on the InternetMarketingCoaching.co website include some of the same information that these website owners use to earn full-time salaries online. The InternetMarketingCoaching.co website was launched in 2012.
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/internet-marketing-jobs/training-now-available/prweb10065413.htm
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2012) ? The zebrafish is a potential tool for testing one class of unique individual genetic differences found in humans, and may yield information helpful for the emerging field of personalized medicine, according to a team led by Penn State College of Medicine scientists. The differences, or mutations, in question create minor changes in amino acids -- the building blocks of DNA -- from person to person. Zebrafish can be used as a model to understand what biological effects result from these genetic mutations.
Personalized medicine uses modern technology and tools to find biological and genetic differences in individuals so that treatment is more effectively delivered.
"A major challenge of personalized medicine is the lack of a standard way to define the importance of each of the many unique mutations found in an individual's genetic code," said Keith Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology and lead researcher. "Approaches are particularly needed to experimentally determine what differences these mutations make. It is difficult to distinguish the effects of a single amino acid change caused by those changes in our DNA."
The zebrafish is a good choice because of its similarity to humans as a vertebrate, its transparency as an embryo and the powerful genetic tools available in this model organism.
The Cheng lab's approach is like testing small damages in car parts, one at a time. For example, a "mutant" car headlight is known not to work when a certain connector is missing. Taking a normally functioning connector out of a working headlight and replacing it with a connector damaged in a specific way -- a cracked wire casing or a corroded wire connector, for example -- can show whether the damage matters. If the light works, then that mutation makes no difference on the function of the headlight. If the light does not work, the mutation has an effect.
Postdoctoral fellow Zurab Tsetskhladze, who performed the zebrafish experiments, tested this method with two genes that affect skin color. He started with an equivalent of the broken car part: mutant zebrafish with lighter pigment cells. First, Tsetskhladze confirmed that by injecting normal messenger RNA (ribonucleic acid) into the mutant zebrafish, the lighter pigment cells become "cured" -- or darker --like those of a normal zebrafish. Messenger RNA makes the cells produce the protein the scientists want to study.
Tsetskhladze was then able to test RNA with only one "human" mutation to see if cure was still possible. Cure suggests that the mutation does not matter. If cure is prevented by the mutation, the conclusion is that the protein's function is affected by the amino acid difference being tested.
Cheng's lab works with zebrafish to study genetic differences that contribute to human skin color. Scientists want to determine the role these differences play in the development of skin cancer, and to find ways to better protect people from cancer.
In the current study, two of the amino acid differences that Cheng has shown in prior studies to contribute to light skin color in humans prevented the zebrafish color from darkening. A third amino acid difference that is common in Eastern Asians was of unknown effect. The researchers found that the change made no difference in function in zebrafish. This finding matched the findings of K.C. Ang, postdoctoral fellow, who found no effect of the tested change on the skin color of East Asians.
To see if this approach might be used in other ways, Stephen Wentzel, graduate student, Penn State College of Medicine, looked at mutations in the four genes known to contribute to albinism, which lightens the color of skin, eyes and hair, and is associated with any one of more than 250 known single amino acid differences. He found that at least 210 of these are theoretically testable in the zebrafish. This new test may help scientists to determine which mutations can be ignored and which may need action -- such as a change in life habit.
"This approach may potentially be extended to other biological functions and may therefore be useful in personalized medicine," Cheng said.
The researchers published their findings in PLoS ONE.
Other researchers are Khai C. Ang, Steven M. Wentzel and Katherine P. Reid, all of Jake Gittlen Cancer Research Foundation, Division of Experimental Pathology, Penn State College of Medicine; Victor A. Canfield, Department of Pharmacology, Penn State College of Medicine; Arthur S. Berg, Department of Public Health Sciences, and Stephen L. Johnson, Department of Genetics, Washington University Medical School; and Koichi Kawakami, Division of Molecular and Developmental Biology, National Institute of Genetics, Japan.
This work was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State.
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Journal Reference:
Zurab R. Tsetskhladze, Victor A. Canfield, Khai C. Ang, Steven M. Wentzel, Katherine P. Reid, Arthur S. Berg, Stephen L. Johnson, Koichi Kawakami, Keith C. Cheng. Functional Assessment of Human Coding Mutations Affecting Skin Pigmentation Using Zebrafish. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (10): e47398 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047398
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.
To celebrate National Chemistry Week, the esteemed synthetic chemist blogger See Arr Oh put out a call for folks to describe to younger folks how they got where there are in the broad field of chemistry:
What do you do all day? What chemistry skills do you use in your line of work??How do you move up the ladder in chemistry? What do I need to do to be in your shoes?
The resulting answers from other bloggers ? and any respondents, for that matter ? will be compiled at his blog, Just Like Cooking, in what?s called a blog carnival. Specifically, contributors to blog carnivals are asked to respond to a theme or a series of questions. Here?s the list and below are my responses. You may find it helpful to play this Talking Heads video while reading my answers.
Your current job.
What you do in a standard ?work day.?
What kind of schooling / training / experience helped you get there?
How does chemistry inform your work?
Finally, a unique, interesting, or funny anecdote about your career*
The most important question to ask yourself -?If I were just coming into the field, would I learn something useful from your story?
My current job
My official title is Director of Science Communications for the Nature Research Center (NRC) at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. I?ve only been in this job since January 2012. This position is jointly sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS) at North Carolina State University (?State? for the locals) where I have an appointment as Adjunct Associate Professor of English. There, I teach a graduate course entitled, ?Science Writing for the Media,? and will be teaching an undergraduate reporting class in the spring. I also take interns at the Museum from State?s MS program in Technical Communication.
?
What do I do in a standard ?work day??
My job is to serve as a technical compliment to our Museum?s public information, public relations, and marketing team. My boss is NRC Director and well-known conservation biologist, Dr. Meg Lowman, also known simply as ?Canopy Meg? for her pioneering work on the biodiversity of life in tree canopies. Typically, my position would be occupied by a card-carrying journalist experienced in science writing. However, Meg and the Museum director, Dr. Betsy Bennett, envisioned this position as a scientist communicator, requiring that the candidate have a PhD in a biological or chemical science with a track record of teaching, writing, and engaging the public from ?K-99.?
Each day is different. The NRC wing was added to the Museum this past April to show the public ?how we know what we know,? as a compliment to the traditional natural history museum that shows visitors ?what we know.? This means sharing with the public all aspects of the scientific process. I?m part of a team that administers our scientific programming at the NRC in both our on-site restaurant/pub and the Daily Planet theater, a three-story 42-foot high multimedia learning space together with Curator of the Daily Planet, Brian Malow.
Multitasking. Credit: Russ Creech
Much of this work involves identifying scientists with special aptitude for talking directly to the public ? Museum and other local scientists from universities and industry as well as scientists around the world who livestream into the Daily Planet to show audiences what they?re doing out in the field. I also book presenters at our weekly ?A Taste of Science? program at that includes presentations and demonstrations of the science of food and foodmaking (beer, cheese, coffee), our traditional Science Caf?s where we bring in scientists to talk about their work (but mostly answer questions from our audiences), and shorter ?lightning talks? initiated by Brian. I promote these programs through our social media outlets such as our Twitter and Facebook accounts and write pieces on our programs for our website, newspapers, and magazines while also speaking about our science to Museum donors and advisory boards.
Looking at my desk right now, here?s what?s on my docket: I have a 1600-word piece that I need to write for State?s research magazine about how our scientists work with research and education programs at State (it?s only 2-3 miles away); schedule a time to speak to a class on ethics in science communication; work with scientists who want to do an interactive weekend series of math exercises; recruit high schools around the state, country and world for a major scientific program we?re having in December; coordinating our role in this Saturday?s Awards Gala for the National Association of Science Writers; meeting about our new cell culture room; updating my own chemistry-related Daily Planet presentations on thermochromics, designer drug manufacture and detection, and the science behind this year?s Nobel Prize in Chemistry; grading stories from my graduate science writing class.
Frankly, I am the most exhausted and scattered that I?ve ever been. But I?ve also never been so fulfilled.
?
What kind of schooling / training / experience helped you get there?
Everything, yet nothing.
I do not have a journalism degree or any formal science communication training. I?m a classically trained scientist who wanted to work in a drug company but ended up in academic pharmacology and drug discovery. I have a BS in toxicology, a PhD in pharmacology, postdoc in medical oncology, and spent most of my career as an academic or research institute researcher and educator fighting for the same NIH grants as everyone else (my full story is on my About page).
But what I?ve always had is an interest in talking to people about my science. And I loved ? and still love ? my teaching.
In pharmacology, almost everyone you chat with has a direct connection to your science. I mean, who hasn?t taken a drug or one sort or another? Once I get past the fact that I don?t work at CVS, people are deeply interested in the medicines they take, why they have side effects, and why they work for some people and not others. So, I was already set up for my career to at least involve focus on the public understanding of science.
I pretty much took every opportunity I could to speak to the public even while an assistant professor, and was frequently called upon to talk to state politicians and donors to our cancer center when I was at the University of Colorado. I was fortunate to have my work covered by local TV and the Denver Post and my interactions with journalists were almost entirely positive. When I was in high school, I had thought about going to a trade school to be a radio disc jockey and have always been interested in the power of mass communication.
So when I moved to North Carolina in 2000, I was encouraged to seek out Joe and Terry Graedon of syndicated public radio show, The People?s Pharmacy, and Dr. Tom Linden, Director of the Medical and Science Journalism Graduate Program at the UNC-Chapel Hill. I was on the Graedons? show a few times and Dr. Linden had me guest lecture in his classes and serve on the program?s advisory board. At that time, I was still had a lab and was trying to stay funded.
But then I read an article in The Scientist (1 August 2005) where industrial medicinal chemist Derek Lowe was talking about having a blog and wondering why more scientists weren?t engaged on that platform. By that December I had set up the original version of Terra Sig at Blogger and just started writing.
And this is what science writers have pretty much told me: just do it.
Within six months I was invited to the second wave of bloggers for the then-new ScienceBlogs.com network. The platform brought speaking gigs, interviews, and set me up in a network of scientists dedicated to reaching out to the public as well as professional science writers who wanted to engage with scientists. The networking inherent to being a blogger cannot be underestimated. I was also in North Carolina when these guys named Bora and Anton launched what?s now known as ScienceOnline from a local community effort Anton started called BlogTogether.
I had no idea if I could ever make a living at science communication. Journalism is just as competitive now as trying to score an NIH grant. But I was trying to at least plan to make writing a bigger part of my career.
By 2008, I had risen to be a full professor and department chair. Here I found something that did not suit me well: administration. I was in an odd position of having responsibilities but no resources or authority at a undergraduate-intensive school with an archaic document handling system. In retrospect, I probably shouldn?t have taken the job but that was the trajectory we?re expected to take in academia, right? I?m glad there are people who are passionate about administration but I was not, at least in that environment.
At the time, I was 47 and wondering what I was going to do to get out of this jam. I got picked up by the kind souls here at C&EN and then PLOS, writing beside pro journalists. My friends here at C&EN had me up to DC to see how the sausage is made and several very accomplished freelance writers I met along the way shared their insights. My wife and I talked about my trying to plan to be a freelance science writer but it was tough to give up even a miserable job that paid very good money. So, we did some things to prepare, like refinance our house to reduce our payments. I went to the 2011 Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop to learn from some of the best science writers in the country. I applied for every position I could find locally for any science communication position at any version of scientific institution. No luck.
Then from nowhere came the position that I ended up getting at the state museum. I had to make the tough decision that I was *really* going to give up my laboratory after 20 years. I won?t admit it was easy. But I finally had the chance to do what I really loved now at 48, something very different than I had wanted at 28. But I realize now that all the experiences I?ve had in my career prepared me for this unlikely stage where I am now.
?
How does chemistry inform your work?
So you?re probably wondering why I?m even writing this post for folks interested in chemistry as a career. Yes, I?m trained as a pharmacologist. But a pharmacologist knows that they are only as good as the chemicals that allow them to probe their particular biological system. In fact, the American father of pharmacology, John Jacob Abel, founded the Journal of Biological Chemistry and did some of the earliest work on isolating epinephrine, insulin, and several amino acids. As a graduate student at Florida, I worked on a NCI National Cooperative Drug Discovery Grant that brought me in contact with medicinal chemists. I came up in the field through the tail end of pharma chemistry?s heyday. And while all of my contemporaries were raving about the ability to PCR and synthesize DNA probes, I continued my deep respect for synthetic chemists because, after all, you can?t just PCR up an epipodophyllotoxin.
I?ve always been interested in structure-activity relationships, drug metabolism, and drug interactions. These areas of pharmacology are intensively dependent on chemistry.
But what about today?
I?d say that I?ve had to learn about the remarkable breadth of chemistry in fields as afar as astronomy, paleontology and geology, genomics and microbiology, and mammalian biodiversity. The Mars Curiosity rover is essentially a mobile analytical chemistry laboratory. Wallabies and kangaroos can develop in their mother?s pouches without an innate immune system because the mother makes antibiotic peptides. Ants can evade destruction by other ant species by modifying the lipids they synthesize so their not perceived as invaders. Geology is chemistry. Paleontology is dependent on radiochemistry. I could go on. But my goal now is to show just how pervasive chemistry is in the natural world.
Short answer: I?ve always had a healthy respect for chemistry, both synthetic and natural products. My new job allows me to further develop this interest by seeing chemistry everywhere.
?
Finally, a unique, interesting, or funny anecdote about your career*
The most interesting or bewildering thing I can tell is that I gave up tenured faculty positions twice in my career, once for love (to be with my new wife in North Carolina) and once for this new job. You could say this was crazy, career suicide. Perhaps for my academic research career. But the decisions were right for me and what I wanted out of life at the time I made them.
I was also hit on my bicycle by a boat while I was a graduate student.
?
If I were just coming into the field, would I learn something useful from your story?
Perhaps. Perhaps not. You tell me.
Some highlights:
Strike a good balance between working hard to drill down into a specialty but also be aware of the breadth of your field and its applications outside of your sub-sub-sub-discipline.
Go to all seminars in your department, especially the ones you think won?t interest you. Several valuable professional relationships and at least two jobs came about because I could speak reasonably well about the work of others outside my field.
In fact, go to seminars outside your department and your school. Even those not about science.
I?ve written about this before but don?t be afraid to feel that what you wanted in graduate school might not be the same thing as when you?re in a second marriage with a 10-year-old kid (that is, a second marriage with a women with whom you have a 10-year-old kid).
Listen to others? stories. Don?t ask questions if the purpose is to talk about yourself. Humility is golden.
Don?t miss out on networking opportunities.
Go to as many professional meetings as you can.
Invest in hobbies outside of science or, as I did, on aspects of science outside of my day job.
Pay attention to your personal finances. Save when you can. Have only one credit card that you pay off every month. Eat the store brand granola bars. Put as much as you can into your retirement account. Getting your finances together can help you feel less trapped when you have to make life decisions that lead to happiness but far less income.
Learn the history of your field. Go to the library or to online journal archives to read the original papers from before 1966 that form the basis of your discipline.
Respect other cultures and enrich yourself by learning about them. Good science happens everywhere.
Don?t be blindly impressed by people from so-called top-tier institutions and don?t look down upon folks from institutions with lesser reputations. Just as with the NFL, great talent comes out of the most likely AND unlikely places.
Respect all of your labmates and fellow grad students and postdocs outside of your lab. You have no idea how many times those relationships will help you make contacts over the next 20 or 30 years.
Drink very scant, if any (from Woody Guthrie?s New Year?s resolutions)
Write one paragraph a day. Especially in graduate school.
Exercise three times a week. It?s good for your brain and will make you feel less regretful in your 40s.
Start going to a therapist or other mental health professional while in graduate school. You want to know yourself well before you start making even bigger decisions. Think of it as preventive maintenance.
Some people in your life will not be fair or kind. Do not stoop to their level. Take the high road.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gives his presentation at the launch of Microsoft Windows 8, in New York, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Windows 8 is the most dramatic overhaul of the personal computer market's dominant operating system in 17 years. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gives his presentation at the launch of Microsoft Windows 8, in New York, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012. Windows 8 is the most dramatic overhaul of the personal computer market's dominant operating system in 17 years. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
FILE - In this Aug. 24, 1995, file photo, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates sits on stage during a video portion of the Windows 95 Launch Event on the company's campus in Redmond, Wash. One of the biggest changes with Windows 8 is the disappearance of the familiar start button at the lower left corner of the screen. There will be a new screen filled with a colorful array of tiles, each leading to a different application, task or collection of files. (AP Photo/File)
El director general de Microsoft Steve Ballmer presenta el nuevo sistema operativo Windows 8, el jueves 25 de octubre de 2012 en Nueva York. (Foto AP/Richard Drew)
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR MICROSOFT - Today, Steven Sinofsky, president of Windows, announces the availability of Windows 8 at the launch event at Pier 57 on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012 in New York City. (Jason DeCrow /AP Images for Microsoft)
Graphic shows global sales of personal computers, tablets and smartphones by operating system
NEW YORK (AP) ? With the launch of Windows 8, buyers are about to discover a computing experience unlike anything they've seen before. Here's a guide to getting past some of the hurdles.
The main thing to know is that Windows 8 is designed especially for touch-screen computers, to make desktops and laptops work more like tablets. It is Microsoft's way of addressing the popularity of tablets, namely the iPad. But Windows 8 will work with mouse and keyboard shortcuts, too. It'll take some getting used to, though.
There are two versions of Windows 8, or more precisely, there's Windows 8 and there's Windows RT. They look the same, but they run on different processing chips. Windows 8 runs on standard chips from Intel and AMD and is the version you'd get if you're upgrading your home desktop or notebook PC. Windows RT is the version for light, small tablets and laptop-tablet hybrids.
Windows 8 will run programs written for older versions of Windows. Windows RT won't. It's limited to applications specifically written for it and available through Microsoft's store. (As a consolation, a version of Microsoft Office is included free on Windows RT devices).
Here are some tips on how to navigate the new Windows:
? When you start a Windows 8 machine, you're greeted with a screen that shows the time and a pretty picture. To get past it with a touch-screen device, swipe upwards with your finger from the bottom edge of the screen. If you have a keyboard, hit any key.
? Next, you'll see a mosaic of Live Tiles, each representing an application. Programs specifically written for Windows 8 will run in this new environment, which is unofficially nicknamed Metro. Each application fills the screen when you run it. Applications written for older Windows versions will open up in something that looks very much like the old Windows Desktop environment. You can switch back and forth between Metro and the new Desktop, though Microsoft wants people to eventually use only Metro.
? The Desktop screen lacks a Start button, so it's hard to start programs from there. Microsoft's idea is that users should learn to go to the Metro tiles to start programs or access settings, even if many programs, including some Windows utilities, will open up in Desktop. To get back to the tiled Start screen with a mouse or touchpad, move the mouse cursor to the top right corner of the screen, then swipe it down to the "Start" icon that appears. If you have a touch screen, reveal the Start icon by swiping in from the right edge of the screen.
? In the Desktop environment, you can glance at the Taskbar to see which Desktop programs are running. If you're a mouse or touchpad user in Metro and want to see what's running, you have to know this trick: Move the cursor into the top left corner of the screen, then drag it down along the left edge of the screen. If you have a touch screen, swipe in from the left edge, then quickly swipe back in.
? Neither environment will show you programs that are running in the other environment, but if you have a touch screen, swiping in from the left side of the screen lets you jump between open applications. The "Alt-Tab" combination does the same thing with a keyboard, in case you aren't using a touch screen.
? There are two versions of Internet Explorer, one for each environment. A Web page you open in one doesn't appear in the other, so if you're trying to find your way back to a page, it helps to remember which browser you were using.
? When using Metro on a touch screen, you close a program by first swiping your finger down from the top edge of the screen. That shrinks the window. Then you swipe your finger down to the bottom edge of the screen. Don't stray to the right or left edges of the screen, or the app will end up "docked" in a column along that edge. You can perform the same action with a mouse cursor by clicking and dragging from the top edge of the screen, but using the old "Alt-F4" command is easier.
? In the Desktop version of Internet Explorer, you can see at a glance which pages you have open in "tabs." In Metro, each Web page fills the screen, leaving no room for tabs.
To see which other pages are open on a touch-screen computer, you swipe your finger down from the top of the screen to reveal thumbnails of the other windows. Don't sweep too far, or you'll shrink the window instead.
If you're using a mouse in Metro, you right-click anywhere on the screen to reveal the tabs. Of course, this means right-clicking no longer does any of things it can be used for in previous versions of Windows, such as letting you open a link in a new tab.
? When Microsoft introduced Windows 95, some people thought it was amusing and counterintuitive that the procedure for shutting down the computer began with the "Start" button. In Windows 8, that incongruity is gone along with the Start button, but shutting down with a mouse or touchpad isn't obvious either. Move the cursor into the top right corner of the screen. A menu will pop out. Sweep down to the "Settings" button that appears, and click it. Then click "Power," then "Shut down." If you're on a touch screen, start by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, then tap "Settings."
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The sole member of anti-Kremlin punk group Pussy Riot freed on appeal has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights, she and her lawyer said on Friday, accusing Russia of violating her right to freedom of speech and illegally detaining her.
Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, was one of three band members sentenced to two years in jail in August for belting out a profanity-laced song against President Vladimir Putin in a cathedral in a case that sparked an international outcry.
Her jail term was converted to a suspended sentence and Samutsevich was freed on appeal on October 10 after six months behind bars after her lawyer successfully argued she had not actually taken part in the protest because she had been stopped and led away before it took place.
The lawyer, Irina Khrunova, said the Samutsevich's rights had been violated during six months of pre-trial detention as she was left without food for hours and deprived of sleep.
"The violations were very serious and very evident," Samutsevich told Reuters in a Moscow cafe on Friday.
"I don't like the fact that they did not acquit me and the other girls ... and I want to challenge that before the European court. Sadly the Russian courts have not shown objectivity or fairness."
Samutsevich told Reuters last week that Pussy Riot had "achieved more than our goal" by igniting debate about the close ties between the Russian state and the Orthodox Church, whose spiritual leader has likened Putin's rule to "a miracle of God".
She also said the trial had been an ordeal, with she and her fellow band members roused in their cells daily at 5 a.m. after returning to jail at 1 a.m. the previous night.
"It was constant stress, constantly being under guard, handcuffed," she said in the interview.
The two other band members - Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22 - remain in jail after a Moscow court upheld their prison sentences, a ruling Putin said they had deserved.
The trio was found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after performing a song asking the Virgin Mary to "throw Putin out" on the altar of Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February.
The protest prompted accusations of blasphemy from the Orthodox Church and acerbic criticism from Putin, but sparked an outcry from Western governments and pop stars, including Madonna, who condemned the sentences as disproportionate.
However, the altar protest was offensive to many back in Russia, which is legally a secular state.
(Additional reporting by Gennady Novik; Editing by Gabriela Baczynska and Jon Hemming)
A year that began with Ava DuVernay?claiming the first-ever win by a black woman of Sundance?s Best Director prize continues apace this month for the former film publicist. As she?told AP entertainment writer Sandy Cohen, ?I?m living my dream.?
DuVernay?s sophomore effort Middle of Nowhere?hyas received Twitter seal of approval from Oprah Winfrey. Her previous, first effort was endorsed by Roger Ebert. With that kind of Chicago backing, it?s no surprise that DuVernay is already hard at work on her next project ? a documentary about Venus Williams ? and palns to make a movie a year. From Cohen?s profile piece:
There?s a massive congratulatory bouquet of orchids on the desk in her small office overlooking Van Nuys Boulevard? A magnum of Moet with a big gold bow on top sits on the floor?
Bringing light to untold stories and broadening the scope of black independent film is what moves DuVernay to distribute her own projects and those of other black filmmakers. ?Black audiences are not used to art-house fare because they?ve not had any kind of diet of it. It?s not been provided to them,? she said. ?And independent audiences are not used to black fare.?
The name of DuVernay?s film company is wonderfully self-affirming; it?s called the African American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AaFFRM). More info?here.
Previously on FishbowlLA: Newspaper Reporter Film Role Rewritten to Accommodate Talented British Thesp
CHICAGO (AP) ? In a modest milestone for President Barack Obama's high-speed rail vision, test runs will start zooming along a small section of the Amtrak line between Chicago and St. Louis at 110 mph on Friday.
The 30-mph increase from the route's current top speed is a morale booster for advocates of high-speed rail in America who have watched conservatives in Congress put the brakes on spending for fast train projects they view as expensive boondoggles. But some rail experts question whether the route will become profitable, pose serious competition to air and automobile travel, or ever reach speeds comparable to the bullet trains blasting across Europe and Asia at 150 mph and faster.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn are scheduled to be on board when an Amtrak train hits 110 mph for the first time in Illinois. But it will only maintain that speed for a short time, somewhere along the 15 miles between Dwight and Pontiac, before braking back to more normal speeds.
"The important thing is it's a step in the right direction, but the question becomes what do we gain by doing this?" said David Burns, a rail consultant in suburban Chicago who drew up one of the first studies for high-speed service on the route more than three decades ago.
Advocates say Midwest routes from Chicago hold the most immediate promise for high-speed rail expansion outside Amtrak's existing, much faster Acela trains between Boston and Washington, D.C. They say it will give a growing Midwest population an alternative to traveling by plane or car, promote economic development along the route and create manufacturing jobs.
In first announcing his plans in 2009, Obama said a mature high-speed rail network would also reduce demand for foreign oil and eliminate more than 6 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year ? equivalent to removing 1 million cars from the roads. He set aside $8 billion in stimulus funds, directing the first round of money to speeding up existing lines, like the one across Illinois and calling it a down payment on an ambitious plan to change the way Americans travel.
Even the short-term goals have run into trouble. Governors in Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida turned down hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funds, arguing not enough people would ride the trains and that states would be hit with too much of a financial burden for future operations.
Things could get worse for high-speed plans and for Amtrak if Mitt Romney wins the presidency next month. Romney and Republicans are calling for an end to $1.5 billion in yearly federal subsidies to money-losing Amtrak.
Nonetheless, proponents were cheered by Friday's test ride and believe projects already in progress have opened the door to future development.
"Given the fact that the program was a big zero at day one of the Obama administration and how hard one of the two parties has fought to keep that number at zero, I think we should be ecstatic about the progress," said Richard Harnish, director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association.
Amtrak ridership hit a record 30 million passengers nationwide last year. On the Chicago-to-St. Louis route, passenger numbers increased 11 percent over the last fiscal year to more than 619,000 riders ? some of them pulled in by high gas prices, others by the convenience of being able to get work done while en route.
"Driving is just wasting my time," said Isaac Gaff, a 37-year-old music and arts director at a church who uses train time to plow through email on his laptop. He was waiting to get on the Amtrak line Thursday in Chicago to head home to Normal, in central Illinois.
Other riders say it's cheaper than flying, there's more space, and there are virtually none of the security headaches like those at airports.
"It's not as much of a hassle, that's for sure," said Julia Markun, an 18-year-old college freshman getting on the same train.
But as the infrastructure is currently laid out, there is virtually no chance trains will go much faster than 110 mph, primarily because trains on Midwestern routes have to share the lines with the freight companies that own the tracks.
Work to upgrade the track began in 2010 and has included the installation of new premium rail and concrete ties as well as the realignment of curves to support higher speeds. Safer gates and new signals were installed at some highway crossings.
Transportation officials expect that after another three years of upgrades, the $1.5 billion in improvements can shave about an hour off the 284-mile journey between Chicago and St. Louis, which now takes about 5 ? hours. Future plans aim to shrink the time to under four hours.
But to begin to seriously compete with the one-hour plane journey, travel time would have to go down to three hours, some experts say, leveling the playing field when factoring in the extra time to clear airport security.
By car, the trip can be done in about five hours. But to pry more people away from the door-to-door convenience of car travel you must have frequent trains, at least one an hour, said Burns, the rail consultant. Amtrak currently has six runs a day on the route.
A new generation of bi-level passenger cars for Amtrak's Midwest and California corridors is slated to be built at an Illinois plant operated by the U.S. subsidiary of Nippon-Sharyo, the company that makes Japan's bullet trains. And an entirely new fleet of locomotives could also be on the way, replacing designs that have been based on freight locomotives for decades.
Salk scientists pinpoint key player in Parkinson's disease neuron lossPublic release date: 19-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andy Hoang ahoang@salk.edu 619-861-5811 Salk Institute
Stem cell study may help to unravel how a genetic mutation leads to Parkinson's symptoms
LA JOLLA, CA---- By reprogramming skin cells from Parkinson's disease patients with a known genetic mutation, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified damage to neural stem cells as a powerful player in the disease. The findings, reported online October 17th in Nature, may lead to new ways to diagnose and treat the disease.
The scientists found that a common mutation to a gene that produce the enzyme LRRK2, which is responsible for both familial and sporadic cases of Parkinson's disease, deforms the membrane surrounding the nucleus of a neural stem cell. Damaging the nuclear architecture leads to destruction of these powerful cells, as well as their decreased ability to spawn functional neurons, such as the ones that respond to dopamine.
The researchers checked their laboratory findings with brain samples from Parkinson's disease patients and found the same nuclear envelope impairment.
"This discovery helps explain how Parkinson's disease, which has been traditionally associated with loss of neurons that produce dopamine and subsequent motor impairment, could lead to locomotor dysfunction and other common non-motor manifestations, such as depression and anxiety," says Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in Salk's Gene Expression Laboratory, who led the research team. "Similarly, current clinical trials explore the possibility of neural stem cell transplantation to compensate for dopamine deficits. Our work provides the platform for similar trials by using patient-specific corrected cells. It identifies degeneration of the nucleus as a previously unknown player in Parkinson's."
Although the researchers say that they don't yet know whether these nuclear aberrations cause Parkinson's disease or are a consequence of it, they say the discovery could offer clues about potential new therapeutic approaches.
For example, they were able to use targeted gene-editing technologies to correct the mutation in patient's nuclear stem cells. This genetic correction repaired the disorganization of the nuclear envelope, and improved overall survival and functioning of the neural stem cells.
They were also able to chemically inhibit damage to the nucleus, producing the same results seen with genetic correction. "This opens the door for drug treatment of Parkinson's disease patients who have this genetic mutation," says Belmonte.
The new finding may also help clinicians better diagnose this form of Parkinson's disease, he adds. "Due to the striking appearance in patient samples, nuclear deformation parameters could add to the pool of diagnostic features for Parkinson's disease," he says.
The research team, which included scientists from China, Spain, and the University of California, San Diego, and Scripps Research Institute, made their discoveries using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These cells are similar to natural stem cells, such as embryonic stem cells, except that they are derived from adult cells. While generation of these cells has raised expectations within the biomedical community due to their transplant potential----the idea that they could morph into tissue that needs to be replaced----they also provide exceptional research opportunities, says Belmonte.
"We can model disease using these cells in ways that are not possible using traditional research methods, such as established cell lines, primary cultures and animal models," he says.
In this study, the researchers used skin fibroblast cells taken from Parkinson's disease patients who have the LRRK2 mutation, and they reprogrammed them to iPSC stem cells and developed them into neural stem cells.
Then, by using an approach to model what happens when these neural stem cells aged, they found that older Parkinson disease neural stem cells increasingly displayed deformed nuclear envelopes and nuclear architecture. "This means that, over time, the LRRK2 mutation affects the nucleus of neural stem cells, hampering both their survival and their ability to produce neurons," Belmonte says.
"It is the first time to our knowledge that human neural stem cells have been shown to be affected during Parkinson's pathology due to aberrant LRRK2," he says. "Before development of these reprogramming technologies, studies on human neural stem cells were elusive because they needed to be isolated directly from the brain."
Belmonte speculates that the dysfunctional neural stem cell pools that result from the LRRK2 mutation might contribute to other health issues associated with this form of Parkinson's disease, such as depression, anxiety and the inability to detect smells.
Finally, the study shows that these reprogramming technologies are very useful for modeling disease as well as dysfunction caused by aging, Belmonte says.
###
Other researchers on the study were: Guang-Hui Liu, Jing Qu, Keiichiro Suzuki, Emmanuel Nivet, Mo Li, Nuria Montserrat, Fei Yi. Xiuling Xu, Sergio Ruiz, Weiqi Zhang, Bing Ren, Ulrich Wagner, Audrey Kim, Ying Li, April Goebl, Jessica Kim, Rupa Devi Soligalla, Ilir Dubova, James Thompson, John Yates III, Concepcion Rodriguez Esteban, and Ignacio Sancho-Martinez.
The research was supported by Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation, Sanofi, The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Ellison Medical Foundation and Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, MINECO and Fundacion Cellex.
About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is one of the world's preeminent basic research institutions, where internationally renowned faculty probe fundamental life science questions in a unique, collaborative, and creative environment. Focused both on discovery and on mentoring future generations of researchers, Salk scientists make groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of cancer, aging, Alzheimer's, diabetes and infectious diseases by studying neuroscience, genetics, cell and plant biology, and related disciplines.
Faculty achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including Nobel Prizes and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences. Founded in 1960 by polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk, M.D., the Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark.
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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.
Salk scientists pinpoint key player in Parkinson's disease neuron lossPublic release date: 19-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andy Hoang ahoang@salk.edu 619-861-5811 Salk Institute
Stem cell study may help to unravel how a genetic mutation leads to Parkinson's symptoms
LA JOLLA, CA---- By reprogramming skin cells from Parkinson's disease patients with a known genetic mutation, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified damage to neural stem cells as a powerful player in the disease. The findings, reported online October 17th in Nature, may lead to new ways to diagnose and treat the disease.
The scientists found that a common mutation to a gene that produce the enzyme LRRK2, which is responsible for both familial and sporadic cases of Parkinson's disease, deforms the membrane surrounding the nucleus of a neural stem cell. Damaging the nuclear architecture leads to destruction of these powerful cells, as well as their decreased ability to spawn functional neurons, such as the ones that respond to dopamine.
The researchers checked their laboratory findings with brain samples from Parkinson's disease patients and found the same nuclear envelope impairment.
"This discovery helps explain how Parkinson's disease, which has been traditionally associated with loss of neurons that produce dopamine and subsequent motor impairment, could lead to locomotor dysfunction and other common non-motor manifestations, such as depression and anxiety," says Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in Salk's Gene Expression Laboratory, who led the research team. "Similarly, current clinical trials explore the possibility of neural stem cell transplantation to compensate for dopamine deficits. Our work provides the platform for similar trials by using patient-specific corrected cells. It identifies degeneration of the nucleus as a previously unknown player in Parkinson's."
Although the researchers say that they don't yet know whether these nuclear aberrations cause Parkinson's disease or are a consequence of it, they say the discovery could offer clues about potential new therapeutic approaches.
For example, they were able to use targeted gene-editing technologies to correct the mutation in patient's nuclear stem cells. This genetic correction repaired the disorganization of the nuclear envelope, and improved overall survival and functioning of the neural stem cells.
They were also able to chemically inhibit damage to the nucleus, producing the same results seen with genetic correction. "This opens the door for drug treatment of Parkinson's disease patients who have this genetic mutation," says Belmonte.
The new finding may also help clinicians better diagnose this form of Parkinson's disease, he adds. "Due to the striking appearance in patient samples, nuclear deformation parameters could add to the pool of diagnostic features for Parkinson's disease," he says.
The research team, which included scientists from China, Spain, and the University of California, San Diego, and Scripps Research Institute, made their discoveries using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These cells are similar to natural stem cells, such as embryonic stem cells, except that they are derived from adult cells. While generation of these cells has raised expectations within the biomedical community due to their transplant potential----the idea that they could morph into tissue that needs to be replaced----they also provide exceptional research opportunities, says Belmonte.
"We can model disease using these cells in ways that are not possible using traditional research methods, such as established cell lines, primary cultures and animal models," he says.
In this study, the researchers used skin fibroblast cells taken from Parkinson's disease patients who have the LRRK2 mutation, and they reprogrammed them to iPSC stem cells and developed them into neural stem cells.
Then, by using an approach to model what happens when these neural stem cells aged, they found that older Parkinson disease neural stem cells increasingly displayed deformed nuclear envelopes and nuclear architecture. "This means that, over time, the LRRK2 mutation affects the nucleus of neural stem cells, hampering both their survival and their ability to produce neurons," Belmonte says.
"It is the first time to our knowledge that human neural stem cells have been shown to be affected during Parkinson's pathology due to aberrant LRRK2," he says. "Before development of these reprogramming technologies, studies on human neural stem cells were elusive because they needed to be isolated directly from the brain."
Belmonte speculates that the dysfunctional neural stem cell pools that result from the LRRK2 mutation might contribute to other health issues associated with this form of Parkinson's disease, such as depression, anxiety and the inability to detect smells.
Finally, the study shows that these reprogramming technologies are very useful for modeling disease as well as dysfunction caused by aging, Belmonte says.
###
Other researchers on the study were: Guang-Hui Liu, Jing Qu, Keiichiro Suzuki, Emmanuel Nivet, Mo Li, Nuria Montserrat, Fei Yi. Xiuling Xu, Sergio Ruiz, Weiqi Zhang, Bing Ren, Ulrich Wagner, Audrey Kim, Ying Li, April Goebl, Jessica Kim, Rupa Devi Soligalla, Ilir Dubova, James Thompson, John Yates III, Concepcion Rodriguez Esteban, and Ignacio Sancho-Martinez.
The research was supported by Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation, Sanofi, The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Ellison Medical Foundation and Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, MINECO and Fundacion Cellex.
About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is one of the world's preeminent basic research institutions, where internationally renowned faculty probe fundamental life science questions in a unique, collaborative, and creative environment. Focused both on discovery and on mentoring future generations of researchers, Salk scientists make groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of cancer, aging, Alzheimer's, diabetes and infectious diseases by studying neuroscience, genetics, cell and plant biology, and related disciplines.
Faculty achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including Nobel Prizes and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences. Founded in 1960 by polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk, M.D., the Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark.
[ | 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.
In an effort to cut down on naughty, hateful, violent or otherwise undesirable pins, Pinterest is enlisting its users' help. Or it's at least empowering them to block and report things (and people) they don't think belong on the virtual cork?board.
The addition of these features shouldn't come as a surprise considering that Pinterest has been struggling to stay on top of?content which violates its community guidelines, such as pins which explicitly encourage self-harm or self-abuse, pornographic images, and so on.
According to?Dannie Chu, a software engineer at Pinterest,?users are now able to block others by clicking small flag icons on their profiles. This action will prevent the blocker and the blocked from being able to follow each other's boards, comment on or like?each other's pins, or repin content from each other.?A blocked person isn't notified if he is blocked, but we suspect that he'd quickly notice something is off when he is unable to interact with someone's pins.
If you see something that isn't just offensive to you personally, but against Pinterest's community guidelines as well, then you can use the "report user" feature. It does exactly what you think and alerts the site's community team of a potential issue.
In theory, these new features should help put a dent in the amount of undesirable individuals and content on Pinterest, but we're not too certain about how things will play out in reality. After all, we've seen how Facebook's reporting feature has led?to floods of reports from trolls, the removal of acceptable content, and similar drama. There's currently no perfect approach to keeping social networks clean, mind you, so we'll take what we can get and hope for the best.
Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.
To the surprise of many Americans, Texas billionaire Ross Perot was found alive on Monday.
Ross Perot had not been seen since he lost his Presidential bid in 1996 and many people assumed he passed away sometime between 1997 and 2007. ?Most attributed his death to a heart attack, though a number of Texans felt he died in an ox-bow incident.
But when Perot stepped to microphone to endorse Mitt Romney for president, many were shocked ? especially the McDonald?s worker who was standing at the microphone.
Perot said that the future of the country is at risk and that we should all vote for Mitt Romney.
?At stake is nothing less than our position in the world, our standard of living at home, and our constitutional freedoms,? Perot said to the unemployed truckers in a Houston McDonald?s. ?Mitt has the background, experience, intelligence, and integrity to turn things around.?
Some say Perot is related to this man:
Running for president in 1992 and 1996, Perot was the most successful third-party candidate in nearly a century. Despite dropping out of the 1992 race for months, he took nearly 19 percent of the popular vote; exit polls suggested?he pulled support equally from President George H.W. Bush and challenger Bill Clinton.
This was Perot?s running mate in 1992, Admiral William Stockdale, who unfortunately has been frozen in this position for the last twenty years:
Stockdale was, naturally, unavailable for comment. ?But he seemed happy with the news about Perot being alive.
Perot was leading in the 1992 Presidential election, but then he thought that George H.W. Bush had sent aliens to attack his daughter at her wedding. ?This did not go over well with the American people ? or the aliens. ?Perot told WWN that he has been living on Planet Zeeba for the last ten years ? and will be permanently moving back after Mitt Romney wins the election.
Forbes lists?Perot?s wealth at $3.5 billion. He made his fortune in computer systems and is now invested in real estate and oil. ? WWN is hoping that he will leave all his money to Bat Boy.
Layton and Eugene Borkan hope their daughter lands a place in Kehillah Housing.
The residential complex for adults with developmental disabilities is expected to open next year at Cedar Sinai Park in Southwest Portland.
The Borkans' 36-year-old daughter Rachel, who has idiopathic mental retardation, lives in a basement apartment in their home with her 12-year-old Lhasa Apso, Schmatty. The couple, both 67, want Rachel settled somewhere safe when they're no longer around to watch over her.
"The kind of independence that (Kehillah Housing) could provide within a caring community would be the best place for her," Layton Borkan said.
Kehillah Housing will be the only facility in Multnomah County that has affordable housing and on-site programs for adults with developmental disabilities, said Peter Korchnak, online communications manager at Cedar Sinai Park.
First facility
A nonprofit organization based on Jewish values, Cedar Sinai Park offers residential and community-based care to seniors and adults with special needs. Kehillah Housing will be the organization's first residential facility specifically for adults with developmental disabilities.
However, the group's services also include Rose Schnitzer Tower in downtown Portland. Ten percent of Rose Schnitzer Tower's residents must be younger than 62 years and have a physical or mental disability, Korchnak said.
Cedar Sinai Park sstaged a groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 28 for Kehillah Housing, which will be a two-story, green building. The $3.5 million project will employ 40 people in construction and operation.
The 14 residents of Kehillah Housing - Kehillah means "community" in Hebrew - will have access to life skills training classes such as meal planning and medication management as well as social activities, job training and other services. An on-site manager will be available when Kehillah Housing residents need help.
Cedar Sinai Park, which also features the Robison Jewish Health Center and Adult Day Services program, will provide one meal per day at Kehillah Housing.
"We're interested in creating a community, not an institution," said Cedar Sinai Park Chief Executive Officer David Fuks.
The application process for the 14 residents is not finalized, although two spots will be set aside for developmentally disabled people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Eugene Borkan, who is on the Kehillah Housing board, said the application process will be fair, so his family has as much chance of getting an apartment as any other family with a child who falls within a target group.
"We're invested in the concept," he said. "We're happy for the Jewish community and the community at large, but there probably will be more people seeking housing than there will be available slots."
The housing is designed for single adults with developmental disabilities who earn about 16 percent of the median family income, Korchnak said.
"Most residents will rely on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) as their sole source of income (currently $8,386 per year in Multnomah County)," he said.
Residents do not need to be Jewish to apply.
A 1998 idea
The Jewish community has been involved in Kehillah Housing from the start, sparking the idea for the development in 1998. Members of a support group for parents with adult children with disabilities at Jewish Family & Child Service (JFCS) in Portland wanted their children taken care of after they passed away or were unable to look after them. The parent group also wanted their children to live independent lives.
"It's very important to families for their parents to see (their children) live up to their full potential," said Marian Fenimore, executive director of JFCS.
Fenimore said the agency, a nonprofit social service organization, approached Cedar Sinai Park 10 to12 years ago about partnering on a development that met the community's needs. The groups have collaborated in the planning of the project, and Cedar Sinai Park now is responsible for operations and Fenimore's group will offer some support services along with other organizations.
Jewish Federation of Greater Portland awarded the Jewish social service money to conduct a feasibility study in 2000 that indicated a dearth of housing for adults with developmental disabilities, Spiegel said.
"According to our research, up to 80 percent of adults with developmental disabilities in Oregon live with their parents for lack of other options," Korchnak said.
In 2006, Cedar Sinai Park changed its mission statement to include adults with special needs.
NEW YORK ? Like Chicago Cubs fans in spring, Jewish Republicans start every presidential election season hoping this will be their year: American Jews, who have voted overwhelmingly Democratic for decades, will start a significant shift to the political right. But scholars who study Jewish voting patterns say not this year.
Or anytime soon, for that matter.
Although recent studies have found potential for some movement toward the GOP, analysts say any revolution in the U.S. Jewish vote is a long way off.
"I would be very surprised to find that this is the transformative election," said Jonathan Sarna, an expert in American Jewish history at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.
Surveys confirm that growth in socially conservative Orthodox Jewish communities, who tend to be GOP voters, is greater than in Jewish groups from other traditions. Russian-speaking Jews are also emerging as a strong GOP constituency, as evidenced when Republican Bob Turner won the special election to succeed disgraced New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner.
But a generous estimate of the two groups combined would make them only a quarter of American Jews, with many living in heavily Democratic New York. Steven M. Cohen, director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at New York University's Wagner School, predicts "status quo ante" ? the way things were before ? for a decade or more, at least until the many Orthodox children reach voting age.
The enduring liberalism of Jewish voters has confounded Jewish conservatives, who tend to view support for Democrats as a youthful habit Jews should have outgrown long ago. In the 1970s and 1980s, when U.S. Jews were becoming more assimilated and wealthier, expectations rose that they would follow the pattern of other ethnic groups and start voting Republican.
It didn't happen. President Barack Obama won 78 percent of the Jewish vote in 2008, according to exit polls. The only Democrat who failed to win a majority of Jewish voters in recent decades was President Jimmy Carter, in a three-way race in 1980 with Republican Ronald Reagan and independent John Anderson.
This year, Republicans saw a new opening. Surveys found a softening of support for Obama among Jews, as his favorability also dipped with the American public over the economy and other issues. Polls have the president down anywhere from a few to 10 percentage points among Jewish voters compared with four years ago.
The Republican Jewish Coalition has been hammering away at Obama with ad campaigns such as "My Buyer's Remorse" and a video, "Perilous Times," on Israeli security under the president. The focus has been on Obama's frosty relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and critics' claims that Obama is doing too little to stop Iran's nuclear program.
Obama has repeatedly pledged his support for Israel. His administration considers military action against Iran an option but says all nonmilitary means of pressuring Iran must first be exhausted.
Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson poured funds into the coalition, especially for outreach in the battleground states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. A staunch supporter of Israel, Adelson has said he would spend up to $100 million to defeat the president.
While American Jews make up only 2 percent of the U.S. electorate, they register and vote at a much higher rate than the general public. In Florida, the prize battleground, about 3.4 percent of state residents are Jewish.
Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, noted that since 1992, the percentage of Jews voting Republican increased in every presidential election except for 2008.
"Republicans have been making inroads and gaining market share," Brooks said.
However, Ira Sheskin, a University of Miami professor and director of the Jewish Demography Project, said Republicans aren't on the way to overtaking the Jewish vote. Sheskin argued that Jewish votes for Republicans are recovering from a low of 11 percent for President George H.W. Bush, whose policies toward Israel had upset many Jews. Of the 12 Jewish U.S. senators and 24 House members currently serving, only one, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, is a Republican, Sheskin said.
Rabbi Kurt Stone, an Obama surrogate in South Florida, accused the Republicans of creating a false impression that "the Jewish community is moving in droves away from the Democratic Party."
"Everybody's having these thoughts pounded into their consciousness over and over again," said Stone, spiritual leader of the North Broward Havurah, or worship community, in Coral Springs.
Overseas, many Jewish communities are, in fact, becoming more politically conservative. In Canada, Australia and Britain, Jews have shifted to the right in the face of liberal party stands against Israeli policy in the Palestinian territories. By contrast, in the United States, major-party candidates compete for the mantle of better friend to Israel.
"If you have two candidates for a political office that has an impact upon national security and both appear to be supportive of strengthening Israeli security and the American-Israeli relationship, the American Jewish community quickly addresses other issues that are of deep concern in the field of social issues and human rights," said Gordon Zacks, a founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition, who advised Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
In a survey conducted last month for the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy and humanitarian organization, Jewish voters listed the economy, health care and national security as their top concerns. Nancy Kaufman, chief executive of the liberal National Council of Jewish Women, said her group was organizing in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and elsewhere on issues such as supporting gay marriage, protecting abortion rights and opposing voter identification laws.
"Jewish voters' preferences depend on their views on economic justice and social diversity, things like fairness in taxes, health care and reproductive rights," Cohen said. "Once those views are taken into account, then their views on Israel ? be they passionately for or not, dovish or hawkish ? have little if any effect upon their vote."
(Image: courtesy of Phil Anderson, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Michael Ryan and Eric Snively, Cleveland Museum of Natural History; model and images Martin R?cklin, University of Bristol)
The debate on the origin of teeth and jaws appears to finally be over, thanks to a few fossils of this prehistoric fish (yes, that's a fish).
The beauty above is Compagopiscis croucheri and it was a placoderm, a kind of fish that lived from the later Silurian period (about 444 million years ago) to the late Devonian period (about 360 million years ago). An international team of palaeontologists worked with physicists from Switzerland to bombard the fossil remains with high-energy X-rays, so revealing the structure and development of the Compagopiscis's teeth.
Previously, sharks were believed to be the first vertebrates to develop teeth and jaws - it was believed that placoderms had no teeth. Early jawed vertebrates were thought to use scissor-like teeth, but this new research shows that pearly whites go back a lot further than previously believed, and in fact evolved alongside jaws.
"This is solid evidence for the presence of teeth in these first jawed vertebrates and solves the debate on the origin of teeth," said co-author Zerina Johanson of the Natural History Museum, London.
"Now we can test all the scenarios about the evolution about jaws and teeth," said Martin R?cklin from the University of Bristol, UK, the study's lead author. "It's thought that jaws and teeth are a key part of the evolution in vertebrates."
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Public release date: 19-Oct-2012
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