Nebraska Football: Tunnel Walk of Shame's Voice Speaks Out

The Tunnel Walk of Shame (TWOS) regularly lampoons Husker football in irreverent fashion, and has gained quite a bit of popularity over the past season. Of course you want to know more about who's behind it, right?

If you're a Husker fan and haven't heard of the Tunnel Walk of Shame, you haven't been paying attention.

The series lampooning Nebraska's ups and downs debuted this past season and by year's end, it's likely that a good chunk of Husker Nation knew of the comic. After exchanging several coded messages, I was able to get an interview with the anonymous TWOS creator to discover the method behind the madness.

My Jason Lohr Secret Decoder Ring revealed the following thus far:

- The obvious first question: What inspired Tunnel Walk of Shame?

I mean? beer? Maybe that fuels it more than it "inspires" it. I think a couple years ago I just noticed a void in media coverage of the Huskers. There were teary accounts of walk-on punters and volumes written about "THE CARDINAL MOONEY CONNECTION."

I read every word of those things voraciously, but nobody was out there poking fun at this whole thing. There was room for that. I thought I could make some jokes about the angry dad persona of Bo, the mercurial fist pumping T-Magic, the deification of Rex Burkhead and, well, Carl.

I?m also a writer at heart, so I?m always looking for new things to write about and new ways to stretch that muscle. So before the first game in 2011, I wrote this 30-panel comic and sent it to some buddies. Like most pilot episodes, it was truly awful. I coined it "I Like Playing Against Road Games," an homage to Taylor.

Regardless, my friends liked it, I kept writing more, and they got passed around a little that year. Before the 2012 season, I came up with a new name, had a couple friends make me a logo and a website (thanks guys!) and started a Twitter account. That way, everything had a home.

Has your following changed from the first episode to the most recent one?

I track some basic analytics on the site and I think each comic now gets a little more than 5,000 views when I post it. That?s more than the five friends I used to send it to, so maybe I?ve had to clean up a joke here or there so as not to offend too much.

Other than that, Twitter has been a fun place to interact with readers and post stuff on the fly. I remain anonymous, and sometimes I see people I know follow or talk about TWOS on Twitter without knowing it?s me who does it, so that?s kind of funny.

Also one time Kenny Bell retweeted me and I peed some. God I love Kenny Bell. He could have his own spin-off comic. I?ll call it To and Fro: The Adventures of Kenny Bell.

Do you get more hate mail or fan mail?

Knock on wood, I?ve gotten almost ZERO hate mail. In fact, yeah, zero. I?ve seen people say "This one wasn?t as funny" or "This one kind of sucked," but that?s about it.

I think people who don?t like it just tune it out, which is pretty easy to do. Really, I expected more hate. I see Dirk Chatelain get called Triple Hitler in the comments of his well-thought out, wonderfully well-written columns. And here I am making fart jokes about Santino Panico and everybody?s cool with it.

I suppose "fan mail" comes in the form of comments on Twitter, message boards, etc. I think people want to laugh at stuff, and if implying that Rex Burkhead is Jesus Christ provides that laugh, I?m happy for that. I really appreciate people who take the time to say something nice about TWOS.

My fingers strained from ascertaining what the ancient symbols stretching across my screen mean, I had to stop here, but will continue deciphering the text tomorrow.

March the Tunnel Walk of Shame yourself!

What are your thoughts on the TWOS? Hilarious? Idiotic? Leave your comments below.

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Source: http://www.cornnation.com/2013/2/13/3978552/nebraska-football-tunnel-walk-of-shames-voice-speaks-out

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Yellen to Washington, D.C.: Fiscal Austerity Slows Recovery

By Thomas I. Palley

Last Monday, Federal Reserve Vice-Chair Janet Yellen gave the keynote speech at an AFL-CIO economic policy conference on restoring shared prosperity.

Dr. Yellen began by noting that the Federal Reserve ?is the only agency assigned the job of pursuing maximum employment.? She then went on to acknowledge ?the gulf between maximum employment and the very difficult conditions workers face today.? That gulf is the reason behind the Federal Reserve?s on-going actions to strengthen the recovery and why there is continued need for ?forceful action to increase the pace of economic growth and job creation.?

Source: http://nakedkeynesianism.blogspot.com/2013/02/yellen-to-washington-dc-fiscal.html

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Burlington Union cover: Feb. 14, 2013 edition

This week's edition of the Burlington Union is available as of Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013 (and Happy Valentine's Day to all!).? There's plenty of content that's extra for our print readers, including:

-We feature coverage on the recent Nemo snowstorm/blizzard that dropped two feet of snow in our favorite town.

-Part Two of our series on the woman behind-the-scenes at Burlington's community theater Jennifer Lavin Howard, who runs three different theater groups out of the Burlington Playhouse

-Coverage of the latest Board of Selectmen and Planning Board meetings so that you stay informed.

-We also have terrific Health, Education, Sports, and Your News pages.

-For columns, we have three columns written by Burlington residents? Rich Caplan, Peter Coppola, and t Mark Reardon.

-And so much more!

To pick up a copy of the Burlington Union, visit one of these stores.

To subscribe, click here.

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/burlington/news/x171148136/Burlington-Union-cover-Feb-14-2013-edition

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Tackling Childhood Obesity | Your Health Journal

From the article?..?I found an interesting article from KUHF News about tackling childhood obesity written by Florian Martin. There are millions of obese or overweight children all over the United States (and the world). It has been on the rise, with little hope in sight. Some major cities have shown some progress, but not enough on the national level. Many children are very sedentary, as technology has taken over physical activity as the number one choice of ?playtime? ? and dietary habits are leaning towards the processed or refined selections, which are rich in fat and empty calories. The CDC has stated that one third of US children and teen are obese or overweight. I encourage all of you to visit the KUHF web site to listen to a newscast about this, as well as reading about some organizations making a difference in the fight against childhood obesity. Education is the key to success, then implementation. Together, we can make a difference.?

Childhood obesity is an ever-growing concern in the United States and even more so in Houston. One way to tackle the problem is to get students moving in the classroom.

More than one-third of children and adolescents nationwide were overweight or obese in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here in Houston, the CDC says, 14 percent of high school students were obese in 2011.

Dr. Shreela Sharma at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston says childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions.

?Children who are obese are at a very high risk for being obese as adults, which increases their risk for type 2 diabetes and they have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Also, being obese increases your risk of mortality from all causes.?

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation wants to bring down childhood obesity by 2015. The organization was founded by the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation in 2005. This year, the Alliance has teamed up with celebrity fitness coaches and a fitness dance company to help schools integrate daily exercises into the classroom.

Tara Stiles is a former model and current yoga instructor in New York City. She is one of the celebrity fitness experts who are part of the ?Fit for a Healthier Generation? campaign.

?They?re really designed to get kids up and moving right on their desk at school, so the teacher pops the tape in between, you know, math class and science class and the kids all get up and they get excited and they do their fitness break.?

More than 100 schools in the greater Houston area are participating in the campaign by using the instructive videos and other resources provided by the Alliance. To get students interested, the exercises aim to be fun for kids.

To read the full article?..Click here

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/?p=12735

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Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston: Black History Photo Of The Day (PHOTO)

A picture is certainly worth a thousand words. What better way to celebrate Black History Month than by taking a moment to acknowledge the snapshots of time that represent the struggle and triumph of African-Americans through the years?

As part of our Black History Month coverage, we will be featuring one photo a day that honors years of groundbreaking achievements within the black community. These photos bring tears to our eyes, instill pride in our hearts and motivate us to carry on the legacy of strength and perseverance.

Today's photo was taken on May 25, 1965, at the WBC Heavyweight Championship match between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston. This was the boxing legend's second time fighting Liston, in a highly anticipated match-up that still remains one of most controversial in boxing history.

After what became known as the "Phantom Punch," Liston fell to the canvas midway through the first round. Instead of retreating to a neutral corner of the ring, Ali stood over Liston yelling, "Get up and fight, sucker!" The moment was photographed by Neil Leifer and became one of the most iconic images in sport, chosen as the cover of the Sports Illustrated special issue, "The Century's Greatest Sports Photos".

Take a look at the photo and share your thoughts in the comments section below.

• February 1

  In this May 3, 1963 file photo,a 17-year-old civil rights demonstrator, defying an anti-parade ordinance of Birmingham, Ala., is attacked by a police dog. Bill Hudson, an Associated Press photographer whose searing images of the civil rights era documented police brutality and galvanized the public, died Thursday, June 24, 2010 in Jacksonville, Fla. He was 77.

• February 2

  1968 Olympic Games, Mexico City, Mexico, Men's 200 Metres Final, USA gold medalist Tommie Smith (C) and bronze medalist John Carlos give the black power salute as an anti-racial protest as they stand on the podium with Australian silver medallist Peter Norman

• February 3

  The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X waiting for an unspecified press conference on March 26, 1964.

• February 4

  Teenager Elizabeth Eckford (L) w. snarling white parents following as she is turned away fr. entering Central High School by Arkansas National Guardsmen under orders fr. Gov. Orval Faubus.

• February 5

  Left to right: George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit following Supreme Court decision declaring segregation unconstitutional

• February 6

  Rosa Parks, right, is kissed by Coretta Scott King, as she received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Non-violent Peace Prize in Atlanta, Jan. 14, 1980. Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus nearly 25 years ago, is the first woman to win the award. (AP Photo)

• February 7

  18th November 1968: Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1900 - 2002) goes backstage to meet the Supremes, Engelbert Humperdinck, Frankie Howerd and Petula Clark after a Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium. The show is in aid of the Variety Artistes' Benevolent Fund. (Photo by Douglas Miller/Keystone/Getty Images)

• February 8

  US pop star and entertainer Michael Jackson performs with Sammy Davis Junior August 14, 1988 in Monaco. (Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images)

• February 9

  Betty Shabazz at her husband, Malcolm X's funeral in Hartsdale, New York in 1965.

• February 10

  In this May 25, 1965, file photo, heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali stands over fallen challenger Sonny Liston, after dropping Liston with a short hard right to the jaw in Lewiston, Maine. (AP Photo/John Rooney, File)

Related on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/10/muhammad-ali-vs-sonny-liston-black-history-photo_n_2657848.html

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Professur Gestaltung Medialer Umgebungen | Blog | wordpress

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Source: http://www.damm-net.org/blog/2013/02/personal-computer-issue-options-can-be-undertaken-in-a-assortment-of-methods/

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Real-life 'vampire' addicted to blood, doctors say

By Megan Gannon
LiveScience

In a chilling case report, doctors in Turkey have described what they claim to be a real-life vampire with multiple personalities and an addiction to drinking blood.

The 23-year-old married man apparently started out slicing his own arms, chest and belly with razor blades, letting the blood drip into a cup so he could drink it. But when he experienced compulsions to drink blood?"as urgent as breathing," he started turning to other sources, the doctors said.

The man, whose name and hometown were not revealed in the report, was arrested several times after stabbing and biting others to collect and drink their blood. He apparently even got his father to get him bags of the ghastly drink from blood banks, according to the report released Friday by the Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. The case study was published last fall.

The doctors said they found traumatic events in the man's life leading up to his two-year bloodsucking phase. His 4-month-old daughter became ill and died; he witnessed the murder of his uncle; and he saw another violent killing in which "one of his friends cut off the victim's head and penis," the researchers write in the journal article. [The 9 Most Bizarre Medical Conditions]

The man had been seen talking to himself, and he claimed to be tormented by an "imaginary companion" who forced him to carry out violent acts and attempt suicide. He also had memory gaps in his daily life and reported instances of being in a new place without any idea of how he got there.

"Possibly due to 'switching' to another personality state, he was losing track during the 'bloody' events, did not care who the victim was anymore and remained amnesic to this part of his act," the report said.

The doctors, led by Direnc Sakarya, of Denizli Military Hospital in southwestern Turkey,?ultimately diagnosed the man with dissociative identity disorder (DID), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic depression and alcohol abuse. To their knowledge, the man is the first patient with "vampirism" and DID.

Dissociative identity disorder was made famous by the story of Shirley Mason, or Sybil, who was diagnosed as having 16 separate personalities as a result of physical and sexual abuse by her mother. The authors of the vampire?case study note that DID is often linked to childhood abuse and neglect. The blood addict's mother apparently had "freak out" episodes during his adolescence in which she attacked him, but the man also claimed to have no memory of his childhood between the ages of 5 and 11.

In a follow-up six weeks after he was treated, the doctors said the man's blood-drinking behavior was in remission, but his dissociative symptoms persisted. He also apparently insisted that his "drugs were merely sleeping pills, they would not cure him."

It's not clear whether the man suffered any health consequences because of his gruesome habit, but the human body isn't well adapted for digesting blood. While small quantities may be harmless, anyone who consumes blood regularly runs a risk of haemochromatosis (iron overdose) or contracting blood-borne diseases if they're sourcing it from other people.

And, of course, this man is not a true vampire in the mythical sense, a character most famously represented by Dracula and whose existence is tied to superstition.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter?@livescience. We're also on?Facebook? and??Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/08/16902318-real-life-vampire-addicted-to-blood-doctors-say?lite

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Ex-ATF agents recall storm of gunfire in deadly 1993 Waco raid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A splintering storm of gunfire through walls and the floor was one former ATF agent's searing memory of the deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, 20 years ago this month.

Bill Buford, who helped plan the raid that turned into the biggest gunfight with federal officers in U.S. history, said late on Thursday he and other Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents had expected a normal day in law enforcement, not a 12,000-round firefight with a heavily armed apocalyptic cult.

"We were going to go in there, we were going to kick a little bootie, then we were going to ease out and be home before noon. It didn't work out that way," Buford, joined by other retired ATF agents involved in the Waco raid, told a gathering hosted by the National Law Enforcement Museum and Target Corp.

The fighting erupted on February 28, 1993, when ATF agents attempted to execute a search warrant on the Branch Davidian compound and its leader David Koresh. Four ATF agents were killed and 16 were wounded, and five Davidians died.

An ensuing 51-day siege by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended when the FBI fired tear gas into the compound. A few hours later, the building burst into flames and most of those inside died. The FBI says Koresh and other cult members set the fires rather than surrender.

Buford, joined by retired agents Jerry Petrilli and Pete Mastin, said the ATF raid began with agents immediately coming under fire from M-60 machine guns, AK-47 assault rifles and .50-caliber weapons fired by the tipped-off Davidians.

GUNFIRE THROUGH WALLS

"I was quite concerned, you might say," said Buford, who was the resident agent in charge of the Little Rock, Arkansas, ATF office.

He and agents Keith Constantino and Glen Jordan climbed onto a roof to get into the compound's armory on the second story.

Along with Jordan, he broke the gun room window. Buford tossed in a flash grenade when he saw a Davidian inside with an AK-47, and the team entered the room, which had 35 or 40 guns and a box of grenades.

The Davidian then re-entered the room "and I was able to neutralize him," Buford said without elaborating.

"By this time we were receiving fire through all the walls. The only Davidian I saw that day was the one individual. But the gunfire was intense coming through the walls," he said.

Jordan was struck in the back. Bleeding heavily, he yelled he had been hit.

"We were still receiving a tremendous amount of gunfire through the walls. I can remember holding on to a two-by-four which was part of the gun rack and the splinters coming off from the rounds hitting it were kicking in my face, and (I) was having trouble figuring out why I wasn't being hit."

Buford said he knelt down to help Jordan while firing blindly through the walls.

"They started shooting through the floor, and the first round hit me ... right in the back end. That one wasn't too bad," he said.

Jordan yelled he had been hit again. Buford said he himself was then wounded again by an AK-47, once in the hip and once in the thigh.

"The rounds were still coming through the walls. I remember trying to push up off the floor and get out of there," he said, adding that he was scared a stray round might hit the box of grenades and blow it up.

FOURTH WOUND

With Constantino covering for them, Jordan and Buford got out the window. Buford rolled off the roof, breaking several ribs. As a medic worked on him, he was hit a fourth time, this time in the face.

Constantino was badly injured in a fall from the roof.

A subsequent Treasury Department investigation said the ATF raid was badly mishandled and should have been called off after supervisors learned that Koresh knew it was coming.

Mastin, who was the special agent in charge of the ATF's New Orleans office, called the raid "a bitter pill to swallow."

Buford, Mastin and Petrilli, who had been the ATF's resident agent in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said the ATF raid suffered from lack of firepower, intelligence and operational security and no contingency plan for getting out if it went wrong.

Lessons from the failed raid have led to sharp improvements in medical care, training, planning and the increased use of snipers, they said.

ATF Director Todd Jones told the audience that experience gained in the Waco shootout had meant only one agent had died since then.

ATF agents "were heroes that day, in my mind, and that bravery continues. It's in the DNA of the ATF," he said.

(This story has been corrected to fix day of week in second paragraph to Thursday from Tuesday)

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Nick Zieminski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-atf-agents-recall-storm-gunfire-deadly-1993-133521764--finance.html

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Islamic summit urges dialogue on Syria transition

CAIRO (Reuters) - Leaders of Muslim nations called on Thursday for a "serious dialogue" between Syria's government and an opposition coalition on a political transition to end nearly two years of civil war, but pinned most of the blame for the bloodshed on the state.

A two-day summit of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation backed an initiative by Egypt, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia to broker negotiations to stop the fighting in which at least 60,000 people have died.

"We all agreed on the necessity to intensify work to put an end to the tragedies which the sisterly Syrian people are living through," Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi told the closing ceremony.

The final communique, issued hours after the summit ended because of last-minute wrangling over the wording, said President Bashar al-Assad's government was most to blame.

"We stress that the primary responsibility is on the Syrian government for the continuation of violence and destruction of property, and we express our deep concern at the deterioration of conditions and the spread of killings that led to the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians and the Syrian authorities' commission of massacres in cities and villages," it said.

The statement made no mention of Assad but called for talks between the opposition Syrian National Coalition and "representatives of the Syrian government who are committed to the political transformation of Syria and those who have not been involved directly in any form of oppression".

It also urged all other opposition groups to join the SNC.

SNC leader Moaz Alkhatib made a surprise offer last weekend of talks with Assad's ceremonial deputy, Farouq al-Shara, on a transition that would guarantee Assad safe passage into exile.

The presidents of Egypt, Turkey and Iran met on the margins of the summit to discuss ways to support this initiative. Mursi said more details of their plan would be announced within days.

The secretary-general of the OIC, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said the initiative "focuses on the unity of the Syrian lands, comprehensive dialogue between the Syrian factions and responding to any country that wants to join in this dialogue".

Syria was not represented at the summit after it was suspended from the OIC last August, nor was the Syrian opposition present.

Iran is one of Assad's last allies and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, making the first visit to Egypt by an Iranian leader since 1979, reveled in the opportunity to play mediator. The Iranians registered reservations about the communique, OIC officials said.

SYRIA SILENT

There has been no official response from Damascus to Alkhatib's offer, but fighting has intensified on the ground after a relative lull.

It is unclear how much influence Alkhatib and his Cairo-based Syrian National Coalition, some members of which were surprised and angered by his offer, have on the rebels fighting inside Syria.

The rebels battled army units for control of districts of Damascus for a second day on Thursday, part of a rebel offensive which aims to shake Assad's hold on the capital, a rebel captain and opposition activists said.

Units of Assad's elite Republican Guard based on the imposing Qasioun Mountain overlooking the city fired artillery rounds and rockets at the eastern neighborhood of Jobar and at the southern ring road, where rebels have overrun roadblocks and army positions, the sources said.

Assad, has lost control of large parts of the country but his forces, backed by air power, have so far kept rebels on the fringes of the capital.

Many of the Islamic heads of state and government left Cairo on Wednesday after the first day of the summit, leaving their foreign ministers and diplomats to haggle over the communique.

In an interview with the BBC Arabic service, Alkhatib said the Syrian government had until Sunday to release all women detainees, otherwise he would regard his offer for dialogue as having been rejected by Assad.

Alkhatib was quoted as saying that "the initiative would be broken" if the detainees were not released.

He also said the Damascus government was letting Iran make decisions for it and rejecting his proposal for dialogue with Shara, a Sunni Muslim former foreign minister who is not a member of Assad's Alawite-dominated inner circle of power.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Alexander Dziadosz, Shaimaa Fayed and Asma Alsharif; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/islamic-summit-urges-dialogue-syria-transition-171409007.html

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Vine 1.0.5 (for iPhone)

Microblogging, meet micro-video-sharing?and all the attendant consequences that video implies. This hot new free app recently acquired by Twitter curtails your iPhone videos to a mere 6 seconds?a sort of video Instagram for Twitter?but that hasn't stopped the more prurient members of the internet community for latching on to it for risqu? purposes. Most famously, one X-rated mini movie was even featured on Vine's curated Editor's Picks section. So after less than two weeks, the company has updated the app with some safeguards, and Apple now prefaces its installer with an Adult Content warning dialog. Despite the controversy, the app still poses an existential question for everyday use: In a world where most people still think of Twitter as just short text snippets, can micro-videos catch on?

Let's be clear: This isn't a case of "video finally comes to Twitter." You've long been able to embed a DailyMotion, YouTube or Vimeo video in a Twitter post forever, so this isn't the first time anyone's been able to add video to tweets. Vine is more of an attempt to co-opt the craze for animated GIFs, most prominently evidenced on image-heavy mini-blogging site Tumblr, as well as to become the Instagram of video. ?

Vine plays to today's brief attentions spans, which causes people at a play or a concert to reach for their smartphones the moment the curtain falls at intermission, rather than trying to digest the performance. Vine movies may be limited in length, but like animated GIFs, they loop infinitely, which actually does the opposite of increasing their impact. Let's see how it stacks up against other "Instagram but for video" apps, such as Lightt and Cinemagram.

Signup and Setup
As with many hot new mobile apps, Apple's iPhone gets first dibs when it comes to Vine. After I asked the company when we might see apps for Android and Windows Phone, they only told me "We're working on bringing it to other platforms soon. Please stay tuned!"

Also, like a good many of the latest crop of iPhone apps, Vine asks whether it can interrupt you with notifications and wants access to your location, both requiring message box OKs at installation. I didn't need another source of notifications, but I though location might help for video posts.

As you'd expect with an app just acquired by Twitter, you can sign in with your Twitter account, or create a new Vine account using an email address. The typical social app would also let you sign up via Facebook, but that's not an option for obvious reasons. Conveniently, you don't need to actually provide your Twitter credentials, the app can take them from your iPhone's Settings. Despite Vine now being a part of Twitter, though, you're still prompted to agree to create a new Vine account, even if you sign up with your Twitter account.

Interface
After setup, my view was of an Instagram-like newsfeed of GIF-like videos from contacts I didn't know I had. Apparently, these were preselected Twitter employees. The well-designed and simple interface had but two buttons in the top corners above the feed?on the left Home, and on the right a movie camera. Pressing the home button offered three more options in addition to the home view I was already viewing: Explore, Activity, and Profile. These first two were encouraging, reminding me of the addictive similar pages of Flickr. More on these in a bit.

A banner ad across the top of the home screen encouraged me to get my own new Vine follows. I could find these by scanning my phone's local address book, Twitter (of course), or Facebook (surprise!). Though some reports claim that Facebook has blocked Vine from accessing it, and though I got to the Facebook permission button, an error appeared when I returned to the Vine app. Tit-for-tat for when Twitter blocked the Facebook-owned Instagram.

I could also simply search for Vine user names, or invite friends to the service using email or SMS. Each user, as with every self-respecting social network, has a profile page, and Vine's resembles Twitters, except it offers separate tabs for Posts and Likes. At top was the user's photo, a text area for inspirational self-description and a big Follow button. New for this update is the ability to report or block a profile for inappropriate posting.

The Explore page was a treat. Here I could view Editor's Picks, Popular Now, and All Posts (presumably by recency). Colorful Windows 8-like tiles in the bottom half of this page let me browse hashtags, such as #magic, #travel, and #sports. (After the recent porno controversy, some of the naughtier hashtags have been removed.) The first of these hints at the prominence of stop motion, and also features a lot of disappearing toddlers. Even the Popular Now videos weren't especially compelling, but it's early days, and no doubt there'll be plenty awesome mini-vids in the offing.

There's no website where you can view all your own and contacts' Vine videolets, so you'll only be able to see them in the app or in your Twitter feed. The videos play on the Twitter website and in the Twitter iOS apps, and in each of those places you get a link to a bare-bones Vine-hosted Web page for the video at hand.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/ZgykgYYT3Vk/0,2817,2414732,00.asp

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Scientists solve mercury mystery, taking big step toward protecting human health

Feb. 7, 2013 ? By identifying two genes required for transforming inorganic into organic mercury, which is far more toxic, scientists?have just taken a significant step toward protecting human health.

The question of how methylmercury, an organic form of mercury, is produced by natural processes in the environment has stumped scientists for decades, but a team led by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has solved the puzzle. Results of the study, published in the journal Science, provide the genetic basis for this process, known as microbial mercury methylation, and have far-reaching implications.

"Until now, we did not know how the bacteria convert mercury from natural and industrial processes into methylmercury," said ORNL's Liyuan Liang, a co-author and leader of a large Department of Energy-funded mercury research program that includes researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia and University of Tennessee.

"This newly gained knowledge will allow scientists to study proteins responsible for the conversion process and learn what controls the activity," said Liang, adding that it may lead to ways of limiting methylmercury production in the environment.

For some 40 years scientists have known that when mercury is released into the environment certain bacteria can transform it into highly toxic methylmercury. Exactly how bacteria make this happen has eluded scientists. The challenge was to find proteins that can transfer a certain type of methyl group and to identify the genes responsible for their production.

Ultimately, by combining chemical principles and genome sequences, the team identified two genes, which they named hgcA and hgcB. Researchers experimentally deleted these genes one at a time from two strains of bacteria, which caused the resulting mutants to lose the ability to produce methylmercury. Reinserting these genes restored that capability, thus verifying the discovery.

The researchers found that this two-gene cluster is present in all known mercury-methylating bacteria, and they predicted that more than 50 other microorganisms may methylate mercury because they have a pair of similar genes.

Another key to the development was the collection of talent assembled to work on this problem.

"This discovery was made possible by our diverse team, which includes scientists with expertise in chemistry, computational biology, microbiology, neutron science, biochemistry and bacterial genetics," said Liang, who rated this paper as one of the most satisfying of her career.

Mercury is a toxin that spreads around the globe mainly through the burning of coal, industrial use and through natural processes such as volcanic eruptions. The chemical element bioaccumulates in aquatic food chains, especially in large fish. Various forms of mercury are widely found in sediments and water.

In a report just released by the United Nations Environmental Programme, Achiim Steiner, United Nations under-secretary general and executive director of UNEP, notes that "mercury remains a major global, regional and national challenge in terms of threats to human health and the environment."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Jerry M. Parks, Alexander Johs, Mircea Podar, Romain Bridou, Richard A. Hurt, Steven D. Smith, Stephen J. Tomanicek, Yun Qian, Steven D. Brown, Craig C. Brandt, Anthony V. Palumbo, Jeremy C. Smith, Judy D. Wall, Dwayne A. Elias, and Liyuan Liang. The Genetic Basis for Bacterial Mercury Methylation. Science, 7 February 2013 DOI: 10.1126/science.1230667

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/~3/caoTCUGdPxY/130207141450.htm

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Biodiversity helps protect nature against human impacts

Feb. 6, 2013 ? "You don't know what you've got 'til it's collapsed." That's how University of Guelph integrative biologists might recast a line from an iconic folk tune for their new research paper warning about the perils of ecosystem breakdown.

Their research, published?February 6 as the cover story in Nature, suggests farmers and resource managers should not rely on seemingly stable but vulnerable single-crop monocultures. Instead they should encourage more kinds of plants in fields and woods as a buffer against sudden ecosystem disturbance.

Based on a 10-year study, their paper also lends scientific weight to esthetic and moral arguments for maintaining species biodiversity.

The study was written by Profs. Andrew MacDougall and Kevin McCann, graduate student Gabriel Gellner and Roy Turkington, a botany professor and member of the Biodiversity Research Centre at the University of British Columbia.

Their research confirms that having lots of species in an area helps ecosystems avoid irreversible collapse after human disturbances such as climate change or pest invasion.

"Species are more important than we think," said MacDougall. "We need to protect biodiversity."

Unlike other scientists usually relying on short-term, artificial study plots, the researchers studied long-standing pasture grasslands on southern Vancouver Island for 10 years. The 10-hectare site owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada consists of oak savannah where fires have been suppressed for about 150 years.

The team selectively burned plots to compare areas of mostly grasses with areas of mixed grasses and diverse native plants.

They found that seemingly stable grassland plots collapsed in one growing season and were subsequently invaded by trees. More diverse sites resisted woody plant invasion.

Diversity also affected fire itself. More diverse areas had less persistent ground litter, making high-intensity fires less likely to recur than in single-species grasslands with more litter serving as fuel.

MacDougall said the study supports resource management strategies that increase biodiversity on land and in aquatic ecosystems. A monoculture stand of trees or crops might appear stable and productive, for example -- but it's an ecosystem that is more vulnerable to collapse, he said, adding that this study helps explain why species diversity matters.

McCann, who studies food webs and ecosystem stability, said many ecosystems are at a "tipping point," including grasslands that may easily become either woodlands or deserts.

"They're a really productive ecosystem that produces year in and year out and seems stable and then suddenly a major perturbation happens, and all of that biodiversity that was lost earlier is important now," said McCann.

MacDougall has studied the Vancouver Island site since 2000. European settlers planted grasslands there in the mid-1800s.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Guelph, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. A. S. MacDougall, K. S. McCann, G. Gellner, R. Turkington. Diversity loss with persistent human disturbance increases vulnerability to ecosystem collapse. Nature, 2013; 494 (7435): 86 DOI: 10.1038/nature11869

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/top_news/top_science/~3/wIq3W7l7eUg/130206131052.htm

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Sensing the light, but not to see: Primitive organism's photosensitive cells may be ancestral to 'circadian receptors' in mammalian retina

Feb. 6, 2013 ? Among the animals that are appealing "cover models" for scientific journals, lancelets don't spring readily to mind. Slender, limbless, primitive blobs that look pretty much the same end to end, lancelets "are extremely boring. I wouldn't recommend them for a home aquarium," says Enrico Nasi, adjunct senior scientist in the MBL's Cellular Dynamics Program. Yet Nasi and his collaborators managed to land a lancelet on the cover of The Journal of Neuroscience last December. These simple chordates, they discovered, offer insight into our own biological clocks.

Nasi and his wife, MBL adjunct scientist Maria del Pilar Gomez, are interested in photo-transduction, the conversion of light by light-sensitive cells into electrical signals that are sent to the brain. The lancelet, also called amphioxus, doesn't have eyes or a true brain. But what it does have in surprising abundance is melanopsin, a photopigment that is also produced by the third class of light-sensitive cells in the mammalian retina, besides the rods and cones. This third class of cells, called "intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells" (ipRGCs), were discovered in 2002 by Brown University's David Berson and colleagues. Now sometimes called "circadian receptors," they are involved in non-visual, light-dependent functions, such as adjustment of the animal's circadian rhythms.

"It seemed like colossal overkill that amphioxus have melanopsin-producing cells," Nasi says. "These animals do nothing. If you switch on a light, they dance and float to the top of the tank, and then they drop back down to the bottom. That's it for the day." But that mystery aside, Gomez and Nasi realized that studying amphioxus could help reveal the evolutionary history of the circadian receptors.

As so it has. In 2009, Gomez and Nasi isolated the animal's melanopsin-producing cells and described how they transduce light. In their recent paper, they tackled the puzzling question of why the light response of these amphioxus cells is several orders of magnitude higher than that of their more sophisticated, presumed descendents, the ipRGCs. (In mammals, the ipRGCs relay information on light and dark to the biological clock in the hypothalamus, where it is crucial for the regulation of circadian rhythms and associated control of hormonal secretion.)

By detailing how the large light response occurs in the amphioxus cells, Gomez and Nasi could relate their observations to the functional changes that may have occurred as the circadian receptors evolved and "eventually tailored their performance to the requirements of a reporter of day and night, rather than to a light sensor meant to mediate spatial vision." The light-sensing cells of amphioxus, they discovered, may be the "missing link" between the visual cells of invertebrates and the circadian receptors in our own eyes.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Marine Biological Laboratory. The original article was written by Diana Kenney.

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

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Journal References:

1. C. Ferrer, G. Malagon, M. d. P. Gomez, E. Nasi. Dissecting the Determinants of Light Sensitivity in Amphioxus Microvillar Photoreceptors: Possible Evolutionary Implications for Melanopsin Signaling. Journal of Neuroscience, 2012; 32 (50): 17977 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3069-12.2012
2. M. del Pilar Gomez, J. M. Angueyra, E. Nasi. Light-transduction in melanopsin-expressing photoreceptors of Amphioxus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009; 106 (22): 9081 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0900708106

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/top_news/~3/KlWWopw8rWk/130206190630.htm

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Carney sets high bar to change at Bank of England

LONDON (Reuters) - Mark Carney, the next governor of the Bank of England, cooled expectations that he would push for sweeping changes in British monetary policy, but gave a taste of the approach he will bring from Canada when he takes over later this year.

In his first detailed comments on Britain's near-stagnant economy, Carney said on Thursday that committing to keeping monetary stimulus unchanged for a set period might be needed to help restore confidence among firms and households.

That is something that Carney introduced at the Bank of Canada, an unusual step at the time and one which was subsequently adopted in the United States, adding to his reputation as one of the world's best central bankers.

But Carney, who will be the first foreigner to run the Bank of England in its 318-year history, used a question-and-answer session with British lawmakers to play down speculation that he would rapidly press for bigger changes at the bank.

He was also quick to note Britain's policy of focusing on inflation but not at the expense of choking the economy.

"In my view, flexible inflation targeting - as practiced in both Canada and the UK - has proven itself to be the most effective monetary policy framework implemented thus far," the Canadian central bank chief said.

"As a result, the bar for alteration is very high," he said.

However, he said an early debate involving the government about the details of the bank's mandate would be welcome - in particular how much time the central bank should take to bring above-target inflation to heel.

Carney, a 47-year-old former Goldman Sachs banker, takes over at the Bank of England in July, when Britain's economy will probably be struggling to put two years of almost zero growth behind it.

He said the weak state of the economy would merit monetary stimulus for a period of time but the Bank of England's policies to date could prove sufficient.

"It's entirely possible, in fact probable, that the current stance of policy is consistent with the economy achieving escape velocity," Carney told lawmakers.

He gave no clear signal that he would push for more government bond-buying by the Bank of England, stressing the risks posed by quantitative easing and research by the Bank of Canada that showed its effectiveness diminished with time.

NO ABRUPT CHANGES SEEN

Sterling rose as investors took Carney's comments to show little sign of looser monetary policy ahead. The pound rose 0.4 percent to $1.5720.

But British government debt prices fell as he kept the door open for a more pro-growth approach in the future and said he would consider buying assets other than gilts if required, anathema to the Bank of England's current leadership.

"Some of Carney's comments suggest that he favors some changes in the BoE's policy framework. Nevertheless, we rule out that changes will be abrupt as he sounds very keen on maintaining confidence in the institution's credibility," said Annalisa Piazza, an economist at Newedge Strategy.

Carney, whose session with lawmakers ran for nearly four hours, stressed he wanted an early debate on the Bank of England's remit which has not been seriously reviewed since it gained operational independence in 1997.

"Although the bar for change ... should be very high, it seems to me important that the framework for monetary policy -rightly set by governments and not by central banks - is reviewed and debated periodically," Carney said.

Not only does finance minister George Osborne set the policy framework, there is no guarantee Carney could force through change even if he wanted to.

"Whatever Mark Carney says about monetary policy today, he will be one member of nine on the MPC, so cannot dictate policy," former Monetary Policy Committee member Andrew Sentance said.

Other factors out of Carney's control include the British government's reluctance to increase spending significantly, and the recession in the euro zone, Britain's main trading partner.

As Carney was quizzed in Westminster, the Bank of England opted to keep monetary policy unchanged with interest rates left at 0.5 percent and no increase in its bond-buying program.

Carney will take over the Bank of England when it is still smarting from criticism that it was slow to act at the start of the 2008-2009 financial crisis and of being burdened by an over-hierarchical culture under current Governor Mervyn King, accused by some critics of acting as a "Sun King".

Asked about his ideal management style, Carney said: "It can't be an emperor, it's more a managing partner."

Several lawmakers on the Treasury Committee shared jokes with the Canadian and they endorsed his nomination, although they lacked powers to block it. Some questions about his 874,000 pound ($1.37 million) annual remuneration did not ruffle Carney.

"You will be paid considerably less than English football managers and I think you will have more success than them," said one member of parliament, David Ruffley.

STRONG CREDENTIALS

After taking over at the Bank of Canada in 2008, Carney earned a reputation for protecting his home country from the global financial crisis. He promised to keep Canadian interest rates near zero for about a year in April 2009 as the crisis intensified, an idea later taken up by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

That kind of approach has raised eyebrows at the Bank of England. Several top officials have said it is not needed, in part because of concerns it could stoke the country's persistently above-target inflation. Carney himself said it would have to be seen whether it would be suitable for Britain.

He also noted how the U.S. Federal Reserve recently set inflation and unemployment thresholds to help signal when it will raise its near-zero interest rates to boost confidence.

Carney said any move to such a system in Britain would depend on how quickly the bank would be expected to correct any overshoot in inflation expectations.

He was cool on the idea of setting a higher inflation target than the Bank of England's 2 percent.

"In my view, moving opportunistically to a higher inflation target would risk de-anchoring inflation expectations and destroying the hard-won gains that have come from the entrenchment of price stability," Carney said.

And he sought to play down previous comments that, in times of crisis, central banks might consider targeting a mix of inflation and growth rates instead of just inflation.

($1 = 0.6368 British pounds)

(Additional reporting by Huw Jones, Li-mei Hoang, Costas Pitas, Brenda Goh and Alice Baghdjian; editing by Mike Peacock and Stephen Nisbet)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/carney-takes-center-stage-ahead-bank-england-job-103315502--sector.html

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