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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Around the Web?
Kick off your week with Monday’s afternoon reads: Katherine Heigl is no fan of Dance Moms? iVillage.com Parents are more lax about booster seats when carpooling ? USA Today Brad Pitt admits to giving the kids soda for breakfast ? CBSNews.com Books vs. electronic devises: where will your child learn to read? ? SheKnows.com Eastern [...]
Carpooling Parents Less Vigilant About Booster Seats (LiveScience.com)
While the majority of parents report using booster seats for their 4- to 8-year-old children, booster seat use among children who carpool is inconsistent, a new study suggests.
In a national survey, University of Michigan researchers asked 681 parents about their use of booster seats. Of those, 64 percent reported carpooling with children.
Of the carpooling parents, "we found that they were using booster seats less often for their own children, and they were also less likely to ask another parent to use a booster seat for their child," said study co-author Dr. Michelle Macy, a lecturer in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Michigan.
Parents said they used a booster seat 76 percent of the time when driving their own children in the family car. But of these, only half said their child always uses a booster seat when riding with friends who do not use booster seats.
Further, one in five parents doesn't always ask other parents to use a booster seat for their child, the study showed.
The study is published online today (Jan. 30) in the journal Pediatrics.
States without booster seat laws
Most states have laws requiring booster seats for children, but in the three states without those laws ? Arizona, Florida and South Dakota ? reported use of booster seats was lower, especially as children got older, the researchers found. While 79 percent of parents reported using booster seats for 7- to 8-year olds in states with applicable laws, only 37 percent in states without corresponding laws reported doing so.
For carpooling parents, more than 90 percent reported using booster seats in states with child-restraint laws, while fewer than 50 percent reported using the seats in states without the laws.
National guidelines suggest using booster seats for children under 4 feet 9 inches tall, the height of an average 11-year-old, Macy said. No states specify height as the basis of their laws, she said.
One of the best ways to reduce injuries to children involved in traffic accidents is to make state laws consistent with these national height guidelines, Macy said. "Most of the state laws are set [so parents] use a booster seat until the child is eight," she said. ??
The researchers gathered their data from 12 questions about booster-seat use and carpooling inserted into the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, an ongoing study at the University of Michigan.
Booster seat hassle
For car poolers, one problem is the hassle involved with moving a booster seat from one car to another. Researchers could work with safety-seat or automobile manufacturers "to see if they can come up with some options that would be more portable for families," Macy said.
The study does a good job investigating an important issue, said Dr. Mark Zonfrillo, leader of Child Passenger Safety Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
"It was interesting to see that, although overall use in the family car was high, the rates for car pooling were lower," Zonfrillosaid.
Both Zonfrillo and Macy said a strength of the study was its national sample of parents, but that self-reporting on surveys can sometimes be inaccurate. "We have no real way to verify if the parents do what they say they're doing," Macy said. "They might report ? more safety-seat use than they actually do."
Healthcare workers need to help parents recognize the importance of booster seats for their children's safety, Macy said.
"We've come a long way, and the injuries and deaths have really gone down," Macy said. "[Parents] should really consider the importance of being consistent with the way they're approaching safety with their kids, and not let [booster seats] become a point of conversation or compromise."
Pass it on: While many parents are using booster seats for their 4- to 8-year olds, fewer parents use the seats in carpooling situations. Parents should insist that children use the seats in the family car and in other people's vehicles.
This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. Find us on Facebook.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Time short for Gingrich to close gap in Florida
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, watches Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on television as he rides his campaign bus with his brother Scott, and sister-in-law Sheri, to Hialeah, Fla., after campaigning in Naples, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, watches Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on television as he rides his campaign bus with his brother Scott, and sister-in-law Sheri, to Hialeah, Fla., after campaigning in Naples, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaks to media during a news conference outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, rides in his campaign bus with his grandson Parker, 5, as they drive from Naples, Fla., to Hialeah, Fla., to continue campaigning Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaks to media during a news conference outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Jameson Williams, 2, of Sarasota, holds a sign outside a scheduled campaign event for Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in Sarasota, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Santorum is staying home in Philadelphia to be with his 3-year-old hospitalized daughter Isabella, and is canceling campaign stops in Florida. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
MIAMI (AP) ? Newt Gingrich slammed GOP rival Mitt Romney on Sunday for the steady stream of attacks he likened to "carpet-bombing," trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in Florida in the dwindling hours before Tuesday's pivotal presidential primary.
Surging ahead in polls, Romney kept the pressure on Gingrich, casting him at an appearance in south Florida as an influence peddler and continuing his heavy advertising blitz questions the former House speaker's ethics.
In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, staggered last weekend by Gingrich's victory in South Carolina. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of that state's caucuses next Saturday, illustrating the challenges ahead for Gingrich, who has pledged to push ahead no matter what happens in Florida.
An NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.
Romney's campaign has dogged Gingrich at his own campaign stops, sending surrogates to remind reporters of Gingrich's House ethics probe in the 1990s and other episodes in his career.
Gingrich reacted defensively, accusing the former Massachusetts governor and a political committee that supports him of lying, and the GOP's establishment of allowing it.
"I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. "I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order."
Gingrich objected specifically to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House's decision to discipline Gingrich, then speaker, for ethics charges.
Romney continued to paint Gingrich as part of the very Washington establishment he condemns and someone who had a role in the nation's economic problems.
"Your problem in Florida is that you worked for Freddie Mac at a time when Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American people, and that you're selling influence in Washington at a time when we need people who will stand up for the truth in Washington," Romney told an audience in Naples.
Gingrich's consulting firm was paid more than $1.5 million by the federally-backed mortgage company over a period after he left Congress in 1999.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, stayed in his home state, where his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, was hospitalized. She has a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. Aides said he would resume campaigning as soon as possible.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, looked ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.
The race began moving toward a two-person fight in South Carolina, and has grown more bitter and personal in Florida.
The intense effort by Romney to slow Gingrich is comparable his strategy against Gingrich in the closing month before Iowa's leadoff caucuses Jan. 3.
Gingrich led in Iowa polls, lifted by what were hailed as strong performances in televised debates, only to drop in the face of withering attacks by Romney, aided immensely by ads sponsored by a "super" political action committee run by former Romney aides.
Gingrich has responded by criticizing Romney's conservative credentials. Outside an evangelical Christian church in Lutz, Gingrich said he was the more loyal conservative on key social issues.
"This party is not going to nominate somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase liberal," Gingrich said. "It isn't going to happen."
But Gingrich, in appearances on Sunday news programs, returned to complaining about Romney's tactics, rather than emphasizing his own message as that of a conservative with a record of action in Congress.
"When we get to a positive idea campaign, I consistently win," Gingrich said. "It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all."
Romney and the political committee that supports him had combined to spend some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign's final week. Gingrich and a super PAC that supports him were spending about one-third that amount.
Gingrich worked to portray himself as the insurgent outsider, collecting the endorsement of tea party favorite Herman Cain, whose own campaign for president foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.
It was unclear how aggressively Gingrich would be able to compete in states beyond Florida. The next televised debate, a format Gingrich has used to his advantage, is not until Feb. 22, more than three weeks away.
Romney already has campaigned in Nevada more than Gingrich, is advertising there, and stresses his business background in a state hard-hit by the economy. His campaign welcomed the Sunday endorsement of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper.
Michigan and Maine, states where Romney is well-positioned, also hold their contests in February. Arizona, a strong tea-party state where Gingrich could do well, has its primary Feb. 28.
___
Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Naples and Shannon McCaffrey in Lutz contributed to this report.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Paul says GOP presidential race has `ways to go' (AP)
GORHAM, Maine ? Ron Paul says the Republican presidential race has "a ways to go" and he doesn't intend to get out or get behind another candidate anytime soon.
The Texas congressman was campaigning Saturday in Maine, which holds caucuses beginning Feb. 4. He spoke to an overflow crowd at the University of Southern Maine and held an outdoor rally in Freeport.
Paul says competing in Florida, which holds its primary Tuesday and awards all its delegates to the winner, didn't make sense for his campaign. He's focusing on other caucus states including Nevada, Colorado and Minnesota.
Paul says he hopes his GOP rivals would adopt his noninterventionist foreign policy views.
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Scientists probe form, function of mysterious protein
Friday, January 27, 2012
Like a magician employing sleight of hand, the protein mitoNEET -- a mysterious but important player in diabetes, cancer and aging -- draws the eye with a flurry of movement in one location while the subtle, more crucial action takes place somewhere else.
Using a combination of laboratory experiments and computer modeling, scientists from Rice University and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have deciphered part of mitoNEET's movements to get a better understanding of how it handles its potentially toxic payload of iron and sulfur. Their research is described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We scrutinize proteins with an unconventional approach," said Jos? Onuchic, Rice's Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy and co-director of the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics. "We use biophysics to probe biology rather than the other way around. Using computational theory, we find structures that are possible -- regardless of whether they've already been observed experimentally -- and we ask ourselves whether these structures might be biologically significant."
Study co-leader Patricia Jennings, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCSD, who has collaborated with Onuchic for 15 years, said they save a great deal of time by using structural biophysics to guide their experiments on a wide variety of targets. For example, Jennings' laboratory determined less than five years ago that mitoNEET contained a novel folded structure. Since then, her lab has been using insights gained from static and dynamic snapshots of the protein to guide biological and biochemical studies.
"I think people forget that proteins are machines with moving parts," said study lead author Elizabeth Baxter, a UCSD graduate student who works under the guidance of both Onuchic and Jennings. "We start with the static snapshot and model in the functional motions."
MitoNEET, which binds to the diabetes drug, Actos, immediately caught the attention of researchers when it was discovered. It has a unique ability to bind and store iron-based molecules in an iron-sulfur cluster. Iron is an essential element for all life, but it is also highly toxic, and mitoNEET is the only iron-handling protein that is known to sit on the wall of the mitochondria, one of the key structures inside a cell.
The protein's biological functions are still being unraveled. Interestingly, scientists have shown that mitoNEET sits on the outer mitochondrial wall with its potentially toxic payload of iron-sulfur molecules facing toward the cell's cytoplasm, the gel-like fluid that fills the cell. Discovery of the unique binding mode of the protein's iron-sulfur cluster led the Jennings group to show that the cluster can be delivered into the mitochondria. In addition, its sister protein interacts with proteins that participate in apoptosis -- the process cells use to kill themselves when they are no longer viable.
"I think mitoNEET is a protein that could be your best friend or your worst enemy," Jennings said. "There's some evidence that it may act as a sensor for oxidative stress and that it can lose its toxic iron-sulfur cluster under stress conditions. Depending upon where the iron ends up, that could lead to drastic problems inside the cell."
Proteins are strands of amino acids that are produced from DNA blueprints, but their shapes can provide important clues about their function. To find out how mitoNEET's control and release of its iron-sulfur payload might be related to its shape, Baxter used computer simulations to study how the protein folds, as well as the functional motions of two similar shapes that could be biologically important. In one of these shapes, there is a slight intertwining of two arms that extend away from the iron-cluster pocket. In the other, the arms also extend but are not intertwined.
Baxter found that both conformations were physically possible. She also found the protein could switch between the "strand-swapped" and "strand-unswapped" conformations without entirely unfolding. Moreover, this change in the twining of the arms was shown to alter the shape of the critical pocket that holds the iron-sulfur cluster; this makes the cluster more likely to be inserted or released in situations where the arms are untwined.
Like the magician using misdirection, the loosening of the grip on the cluster is subtle and happens in a different location than the flurry of arm motions. Jennings said it's the kind of thing that could easily be missed if the focus of the study were the cluster itself.
Onuchic said, "One of the advantages to our approach is that it allows us to look for relevant biophysical properties that control distant functional regions -- like mitoNEET's strand-swapping -- that can easily be missed with a more conventional approach."
###
Rice University: http://media.rice.edu
Thanks to Rice University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117151/Scientists_probe_form__function_of_mysterious_protein
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House lawmakers seek Google answers on privacy policy (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked Google Inc on Thursday to provide answers about recent changes to the search engine's privacy policy.
In a letter to Google Chief Executive Larry Page, the lawmakers said the company's announcement "raises questions about whether consumers can opt-out of the new data sharing system either globally or on a product-by-product basis."
(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Video: Race for votes in critical Florida primary
>> is nbc's political director and chief white house correspondent and david gregory is moderator of "meet the press." good morning.
>> good morning.
>> david , did newt gingrich have the debate he needed now with just four days to go before the florida primary ?
>> i don't think he did. if you're the romney campaign you're feeling good. this was a critical moment for romney to do as well as he did last night. just a couple days before florida republicans vote in the primary. he was aggressive. he turned around attacks on him by speaker gingrich . you put it together and you have romney trying to neutralize his own weaknesses and chip away at the strengths gring gingrich brought into the primary, particularly the debates. gingrich 's campaign, the sense of fight all predicated on how well he debates and romney showed up last night.
>> you mentioned bob dole . this is an elder statesman, former gop presidential nominee. bob dole didn't mince words. he said, i have not been critical of newt gingrich , but it is now time to take a stand before it's too late. hard linen who served with newt in congress endorsed him and that speaks for itself. gingrich has had a new idea every minute and most were off the wall. david , ouch. what is the party prepared to do to take down gingrich ?
>> it's the revenge of the establishment. elected officials, congressmen, senators, governors and those who worked with dwing rich saying, we know this guy, he shouldn't be president. this is an effort to florida to say don't do this. don't throw the campaign into disarray. we know gingrich and he can't be trusted. gingrich will say, i make them uncomfortable. but romney is making a powerful case to florida voters.
>> let's talk about the nbc news/ wall street journal poll, chuck. it was taken before the debate but shows gingrich with a sizable national lead over romney . it also tells us where he's getting support.
>> it goes right to mitt romney 's weakness. when you look at the poll you almost look at it as this is where mitt romney is not able to consolidate conservatives. gingrich has become, like everybody before him that wasn't named mitt romney that surged to the top he's rallying the base of the party. very conservative voters, southerners, tea party members. he's got giant leads on mitt romney on this. now, some of this could shift. where does it go? what was fascinating last night is while mitt romney was aggressive and finally sent the message to some skeptical republicans that he's got the ability to fight at a debate, santorum probably had the best night because he seemed to be able to make a conservative argument and really did box in romney on health care for the first time we have seen at any debate. romney ended up making a defense of the health care plan that sounded just like president obama . that's a victory in florida for romney . why? every santorum vote he gains comes right out of newt gingrich .
>> the fat lady has not sung. who's on "meet the press" this weekend is this.
>> we'll talk to senator john mccain and david aaxelrod from the obama campaign .
Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46161324/
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Obama courts Latino vote on economic tour (AP)
BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. ? President Barack Obama is courting Hispanics in politically important states, setting himself up as a champion of the crucial Latino voting bloc and as a foil to Republican candidates fighting for a share of support from the same groups.
With Latino voters voting overwhelmingly Democratic, Obama is not in danger of losing the support of a majority of Hispanics. But he does need their intensity, and a Gallup tracking poll shows that while a majority of Hispanics approve of Obama, that approval is not as high as it is among black voters.
Pitching his economic agenda during a three-day, five-state trip this week, Obama has not ignored the fact that three of the states ? Nevada, Arizona and Colorado ? all have Hispanic populations of 20 percent or more. A majority of them are Democratic, but they also could be a factor in upcoming nominating contests in those states. Nevada and Colorado hold caucuses within two weeks and Arizona has a primary Feb. 28.
In Arizona Wednesday, where he was drawing attention to his efforts to increase manufacturing, Obama playfully interacted with a supporter who shouted out: "Barack es mi hermano! (Barack is my brother!)"
"Mi hermano ? mucho gusto (My brother, a real pleasure)," Obama shouted back.
And it was no accident that he scheduled an interview with Univision, the Spanish language network that reaches a broad swath of the U.S. Latino population, while he was in Arizona and with local Telemundo affiliates Thursday in Las Vegas and in Denver. All that while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the rest of the Republican presidential field were battling in Florida, another state with a key Latino voting bloc.
"It's an important community in this country and he will continue to have those interactions," White House spokesman Jay Carney said of Obama's efforts to reach out to Spanish language media.
No issue reverberates more in the appeal to Latinos than immigration.
For Obama, it reared up suddenly for him Wednesday when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who signed one of the toughest laws to curtail illegal immigration, greeted him at the airport tarmac in Mesa, Ariz., with a handwritten invitation for the president to join her in a visit to the Mexican border.
Obama replied coolly, noting that he did not appreciate the way she had depicted him in a book she published last year, "Scorpions for Breakfast." In the book, Brewer writes that Obama was condescending and lectured her during a meeting at the White House to discuss immigration. "He was a little disturbed about my book," Brewer told two reporters shortly after the encounter.
Obama continued to promote his economic plan Thursday in Nevada and Colorado, focusing on energy policy and his attempts to expand oil and gas exploration while also emphasizing clean energy.
"Doubling down on a clean energy industry will create lots of jobs in the process," the president said at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado, where the Air Force has installed solar panels and tested jets that run on biofuels.
As such, he was indirectly pitching to Hispanics as well. A new Pew Research Center poll found that 54 percent of Latinos believe that the economic downturn has been harder on them than on other groups in the U.S.
"There is no question that Latinos were hard hit, especially by the bursting of the housing bubble and the resulting steep decline in construction work," Carney said Thursday. "Latinos are overrepresented in the construction industry. It's one of the reasons why, certainly, Latinos would greatly benefit from infrastructure investments that put construction workers back to work."
In 2008, Obama beat Republican John McCain by a 2-1 margin among Hispanics.
To win again, he will need that level of enthusiasm to make up for weaknesses elsewhere in his voter support. In a bright spot for Obama, the Pew poll found that even though Hispanics believe their economic condition is poor, two-thirds of those polled said they expect their financial situation to improve over the next year, whereas 58 percent of the overall population expect the same.
In his interview with Univision, Obama made a point of noting that both Romney and Gingrich have said they would veto legislation, known as the DREAM Act, that would give a pathway to citizenship to children who came to the United States illegally but who attend college or enlist in the military.
"They believe that we should not provide a pathway to citizenship for young people who were brought here when they were very young children and are basically American kids but right now are still in a shadow," Obama said. "They've said that they would veto the DREAM Act. Both of them."
At a debate Monday on NBC, however, both Gingrich and Romney said they would support modified legislation that only applied to young people who joined the military. "I would not support the part that simply says everybody who goes to college is automatically waived for having broken the law," Gingrich said.
Obama, in the interview, explicitly connected the Republican presidential field to congressional Republicans, who suffer from bottom-dwelling approval ratings right now. Asked why he had been unable to deliver on his promise for overhauling the immigration system, Obama replied:
"Well, it's very simple. We couldn't get any Republican votes. Zero. None," he said. "So this is the kind of barrier that we're meeting in Congress. We're just going to keep on pushing and pushing until hopefully we finally get a break."
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Iran's Ahmadinejad ups rates to stem money crisis (Reuters)
TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed to increase bank interest rates on Wednesday, hoping to halt a spiraling currency crisis intensified by new Western sanctions.
"The economy minister has announced Ahmadinejad has agreed with the approval of the Money and Credit Council to increase interest rates on bank deposits to up to 21 percent," the official IRNA news agency reported.
Sanctions the United States and the European Union announced over the last month - targeting Iran's vital oil exports and its central bank - exacerbated fears about the economy and worsened a dash for hard currency.
The rial was already losing value since a decision last April to cut interest paid on bank deposits to a range of a 12.5-15.5, below inflation which is currently around 20 percent, prompting many Iranians to withdraw savings and buy gold and foreign currency and pushing up the price of both.
But the dash for those safe havens accelerated sharply after the new sanctions were announced, resulting in the rial losing 50 percent of its value against the price of dollars available on the open market in just one month.
Monday's decision marks a policy U-turn for Ahmadinejad, who faces a political test in March 2 parliamentary election. He previously vetoed efforts by Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani to increase rates.
The rial's slide is a huge risk to already rising inflation as Iran is heavily reliant on imported consumer and intermediate goods whose prices have surged as the rial has depreciated.
BUBBLE
The West hopes the economic pressure will force Iran to curb the nuclear work they fear is aimed at making bombs but which Tehran says is entirely peaceful.
Ahmadinejad's representative in parliament - which is already highly critical of the president and may become more so after March 2 - said the new policy would burst what he called the bubble of gold and dollar prices.
"The effects of the new decision will be clear in the market very soon and the bubbles being created for foreign currency and gold will be removed," the ISNA news agency quoted Mohammad Reza Mirtajedini as saying.
The deputy head of parliament's economics committee criticized the government for reacting late to the crisis which he said had "no reasonable, logical basis."
"Increasing the bank deposit interest rates is an appropriate tool for people's investments but doing it in a hasty manner and the current inflamed situation of the market will not solve any problem," Mostafa Motavarzadeh told the semi-official Fars news agency.
The price of 8.133-gram gold coins dropped on the news, local media reported, to 8,500,000 rials, reversing most of last week's 45 percent increase when the price rose to 10,100,000.
The effect on the price of dollars was negligible however with ISNA saying the price had fallen on the news to 22,500 rials from 23,000 rials - still double the central bank's official "reference rate" of 11,293 rials.
However, exchange agencies contacted by Reuters said they had no dollars to sell, reflecting either a shortage of notes or a reluctance to sell in such a volatile atmosphere.
(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Ashton Kutcher Parties with Supermodels in Brazil
Everyone deals with a breakup in their own way -- as Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher have demonstrated this week. While Moore, 49, is seeking professional help to deal with the stress from her divorce, Kutcher, 33, is hanging out with lingerie models in Brazil.
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CEOs defend capitalism at anguished Davos forum
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? Some of the world's top CEOs are admitting that capitalism is worsening inequalities, but they say it's better than any alternative.
The defensive salvos by chief executives kicked off talks at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos on Wednesday. Europe's debt crisis and a looming slowdown in the developed world are casting a cloud over this year's gathering of 2,600 business and political leaders.
David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, said: "Capitalism may be the worst form of systems, except for every other system."
The chief of the International Trade Union Confederation disagreed. Sharan Burrow said "we've lost a moral compass" and warned of social unrest.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
In bin Laden town, father mourns another militant (AP)
ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan ? On Jan. 14 at 8:12 p.m., Khushal Khan's wife got a call on her cell phone.
"Your son has been martyred," the voice said at the other end of the line. The man then hung up.
The end for Khan's youngest son, Aslam Awan, came when a drone piloted remotely from the United States fired a missile at a house along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. Awan was among four people killed, U.S. officials said this week, describing Awan as an "external operations planner" for al-Qaida. British authorities say he was a member of a militant cell in northern England who had fought in Afghanistan.
The Jan. 10 strike in the militant stronghold of North Waziristan that killed Awan was a victory for the CIA-led drone program at time when relations between Washington and Islamabad are very strained, in part by the missile strikes. It was one of the first drone attacks after a hiatus of some six weeks following a friendly fire incident in which U.S. forces killed 24 Pakistani border troops, nearly leading to a severing of ties with Islamabad.
The drone attacks generate anti-American sentiment inside Pakistan, but have been credited with significantly weakening al-Qaida in one of its global hubs.
For his family, the call came as a final curt word about the fate of a son they had heard little from in over a year.
Awan grew up in the northwestern Pakistani town of Abbottabad, a few kilometers away from the house where Osama bin Laden was slain. His father worked in a bank in Britain in the 70s and then in Abbottabad until he retired a few years ago. His four other sons remain in Britain, where they have prospered ? one is a surgeon, another is a doctor, the third an engineer and the fourth is a banker.
It seems doubtful Awan had any contact with bin Laden in the town. But Awan's background here reinforces a striking association between this well-ordered, wealthy Pakistani army town and al-Qaida militants, which began before bin Laden was killed here in May last year when a team of American commandos flew in from Afghanistan.
Now 75 and recovering from a heart operation, Khushal Khan answered questions Saturday from an Associated Press reporter in the garden of his house, making the most of some winter sun. He defended his son's memory against charges of militancy.
"I don't believe this is true, my son was not indulging in these things," he said. "It can't be correct."
Khan said Awan followed his brothers' footsteps and went to Britain in 2002 on a student visa.
Awan lived in Manchester for four years, during which time he joined a militant cell that aimed to bring Muslims to Pakistan for militant training, according to prosecutors at the time and a British media report. He told his father he was studying at Manchester University, but it's unclear whether he ever graduated.
The cell was headed by a British al-Qaida commander called Rangzieb Ahmed who was captured in Pakistan in 2006 and sent for trial in Britain, where he was sentenced to life in prison for directing terrorism, according to Britain's Daily Telegraph.
A letter he wrote a to a longtime friend and fellow Pakistani, Abdul Rahman, rhapsodized over the "fragrance of blood" from the battlefield of jihad and his commitment to militancy, according to prosecutors in the trial of Rahman, who was sentenced to six years in jail in 2007 for spreading terrorist propaganda in Manchester. It apparently referred to a stint fighting jihad in Afghanistan, but when that occurred is not known.
The judge said then Awan was believed to have left England for Afghanistan.
"Awan was very well connected to known extremists in the UK. It highlights that the threat is still there," said Valentina Soria, a terrorism researcher at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. "This group were not just wannabes, they were active and with links to al-Qaida central."
There are thought to be about 900,000 Pakistani Muslims in England ? many of them living in London and in northern cities. British authorities have said nearly all the plots and attacks on British soil have some connection to Pakistan.
Awan returned to Abbottabad in 2007, around the time that bin Laden was settling in to his large house, though that doesn't mean Awan was in touch with him or any of his couriers. U.S. officials have previously said the al-Qaida leader was cut off from the rest of his network and wasn't meeting other militants for security reasons.
Awan began to associate with Sipah-e-Sahaba, an extremist group that has a political wing as well links to al-Qaida, according to a police officer in the town who knows the family. The officer didn't give his name because he didn't want to be seen as adding to Khan's pain.
Khan said he last saw his son or heard his voice in 2010, when Awan asked for funds to build a house and they fought over the fact he wasn't working.
"That was the point when I had to forcefully ask him to go out earn some money," he said. "But my words hurt him, and he left home with only the clothes he was wearing."
Khan said he initially feared his son had been kidnapped when he didn't return or contact him. But after a few months, Awan called his wife and told her he was in Miran Shah, the largest town in North Waziristan. He said he was running a general store and dealing in second-hand clothes.
Local intelligence officials said Awan was known by the nom de guerre Abdullah Khurasani, and was highly prized in al-Qaida circles because of his education, computer skills and foreign contacts.
Al-Qaida, Taliban and other militants from around the world congregate for training and networking in North Waziristan, and Miran Shah is a key logistical base. The town is too dangerous for reporters to visit, but locals who have traveled there say hundreds of Pakistan and foreign militants live there openly, unmolested other than by the U.S. missile attacks on its outskirts. The Pakistani army says it doesn't have enough resources to launch an operation in the region.
The missile strike program began in earnest in 2009 and has been stepped up by the Obama administration.
Abbottabad is home to the Pakistan army's top military academy and hundreds of officers and soldiers live in what is one of the country's more secure towns. The fact that bin Laden hid there for so long in plain sight triggered intense international suspicions that the military was sheltering him.
Al-Qaida's No. 3, Abu Faraj al-Libi, lived in Abbottabad before his arrest in 2005 elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, American and Pakistani officials have said. Five months prior to the bin Laden raid, Indonesian al-Qaida operative Umar Patek was arrested in the town following the arrest of an al-Qaida courier who worked at the post office.
U.S. officials have said Patek's arrest in Abbottabad was a coincidence.
_____
Brummitt reported from Islamabad. Associated Press reporters Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Ishtiaq Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this story.
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Ex-CIA agent charged with leaking info on Gitmo case
March 16, 2010: Former CIA interrogator John Kiriakou argues that waterboarding can be necessary and immoral when fighting al-Qaida.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
A former CIA officer who said he participated in the capture and?interrogation of alleged terrorist Abu Zubaydah?was charged Monday with disclosing classified information to journalists, the Justice Department announced.
In a statement, the department said John Kiriakou, 47, revealed the name of a covert CIA officer and the role of another CIA agent in classified activities involving the capture and detention of Zubaydah, who had been the third most senior al-Qaida figure and who?is now? at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay.
Kiriakou, who wrote a book about the CIA and has said he was on the team that captured?Zubaydah in 2002,?was to make an initial court appearance later Monday.
March 20, 2010: Msnbc's Alex Witt talks with author John Kiriakou about his new book "The Reluctant Spy."
"The investigation revealed that on multiple occasions," the department stated, "one of the journalists to whom Kiriakou is alleged to have illegally disclosed classified information, in turn, disclosed that information to a defense team investigator, and that this information was reflected in the classified defense filing and enabled the defense team to take or obtain surveillance photographs of government personnel."
Kiriakou has told reporters that the interrogation of?Zubaydah included the technique known as waterboarding and that he believes it led to valuable information that helped foil al-Qaida plots.
In a statement to CIA staff made public by the agency, CIA Director David Petraeus said that "When we joined this organization, we swore to safeguard classified information; those oaths stay with us for life. Unauthorized disclosures of any sort -- including information concerning the identities of other Agency officers -- betray the public trust, our country, and our colleagues."
DOCUMENT: Read the complaint against Kirakou
A judge last year refused to find the CIA in contempt of court when it destroyed dozens of videotapes of?the interrogation of Zubaydah and other detainees.
Dec. 11, 2007: Former CIA agent John Kiriakou talks about the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes.
?
In December 2007, the CIA acknowledged doing so as part of?the detention program begun after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Environmentalists see reason for alarm in GOP race
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Allstar Building Materials in Ormond Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Allstar Building Materials in Ormond Beach, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, speaks at a campaign rally in Coral Springs, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Four years after the GOP's rallying cry became "drill, baby, drill," environmental issues have barely registered a blip in this Republican presidential primary.
That's likely to change as the race turns to Florida.
The candidates' positions on environmental regulation, global warming as well as clean air and water are all but certain to get attention ahead of the Jan. 31 primary in a state where the twin issues of offshore oil drilling and Everglades restoration are considered mandatory topics for discussion.
"It's almost like eating fried cheese in Iowa," said Jerry Karnas of the Everglades Foundation. Drilling has long been banned off Florida's coasts because of fears that a spill would foul its beaches, wrecking the tourism industry, while the federal and state governments are spending billions to clean the Everglades.
Though most expect the candidates to express support for Everglades restoration ? as Mitt Romney did in his 2008 campaign ? environmentalists are noting a further rightward shift overall among the GOP field. The candidates have called for fewer environmental regulations, questioned whether global warming is a hoax and criticized the agency that implements and enforces clean air and water regulations.
"A cycle ago, there were people who actually believed in solving some of these problems," said Navin Nayak of the League of Conservation Voters. "Now we're faced with a slate that doesn't even believe in basic science."
The candidates, of course, dispute such a characterization. But their stances have generally grown more conservative. And even when they haven't, they often offer positions that aren't in line with conservationists.
?Romney heralded the passage of stricter limits on carbon emissions in 2005 when he was governor of Massachusetts but last year said it was a mistake. He previously agreed with the scientific consensus on global warming and humans' contribution to it but now says "we don't know what's causing climate change."
?Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich supported tougher environmental regulation early in his congressional career and appeared in a 2008 TV spot with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pleading for action on climate change. Now he's says appearing with the San Francisco liberal was "the dumbest thing I've done in the last couple of years" and is calling for lifting restrictions on offshore drilling and branding the Environmental Protection Agency a "job killer" that must be replaced.
?Texas Rep. Ron Paul said during his 2008 campaign that "human activity probably does play a role" in global warming. Now he calls the science on manmade global warming a "hoax."
?Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum shows fewer signs of a shift on such issues. He has called for more drilling, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and doubts research that points to a human role in global warming, calling it "junk science."
An analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found about $2.8 million in campaign donations were made by those in the energy and natural resources sector, according to Federal Elections Commission data, with about 84 percent of it going to Republicans.
Meantime, the EPA, which is responsible for policing environmental rules, has been singled out for Republican criticism this campaign season. Paul has called for its outright elimination as part of his plan to drastically curtail the federal government. Romney has said it's "out of control." Santorum has railed against the EPA's limits on mercury from coal-fired power plants. And Gingrich has called for overhauling the EPA, saying it should be converted to an "environmental solutions agency."
Nayak says: "There's no doubt that this kind of slate of presidential candidates is one of the most regressive and most closely tied to polluters that we've seen at least in decades."
Some Republican presidents and nominees have been strong environmentalists. Teddy Roosevelt was seen as a role model to environmentalists, using his presidency to establish wildlife refuges, preserve forests, and conserve water. Richard Nixon helped create the EPA that has been vilified by his successors on the campaign trail today. And the last Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, was the chief co-sponsor of a bill that sought mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions.
Michelle Pautz, a political science professor at the University of Dayton who focuses on environmental policy, said the current slate of Republicans may not be giving much reason to applaud their environmental stances, but it may not matter much overall with the economy taking center stage.
"The bottom line is both with the GOP primary and looking to Obama and the general election, the green vote is a non-issue," Pautz said. "There are too many other issues crowding out the environmental ones."
But Tony Cani, the national political director for the Sierra Club, said taking what he calls "extreme" views on the environment won't play well come Nov. 6.
"They're going to be hurt with young voters, women, families, Latino voters," Cani said.
Jim DiPeso, of Republicans for Environmental Protection, said he hopes to see a shift as Election Day draws closer, but that the state of politics right now has made ecological issues untouchable.
"A lot of the more pragmatic mainstream Republicans just are trying to steer clear of the issue because it's become so politically fraught," he said.
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Zynga mulls online gambling market (AP)
SAN FRANCISCO ? Zynga, the social game company known for "FarmVille" and "Zynga Poker," is mulling a new market ? online gambling.
Zynga Inc. confirmed Friday that it is in active talks with potential partners. San Francisco-based Zynga says it is speaking to the potential partners in order to "better understand and explore" the opportunity in online gambling involving real money.
The company's "Zynga Poker" title is the world's largest online poker game. Zynga says seven million people play every day and 30 million do so each month. That game, however, is played with fake money.
The talks come in the heels of a recent ruling by the U.S. Justice Department, which found that in-state Internet gambling does not violate federal law. Zynga's talks were first reported by the tech blog AllThingsD.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Warner Bros. removes "Arthur" from calendar (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - ? Warner Bros. has joust -- er, just -- taken "Arthur & Lancelot" off its calendar, TheWrap has confirmed. But that's not the studio's only stalled project: "Jack the Giant Killer 3D" has bumped to 2013.
The "Arthur & Lancelot" project, starring Kit Harington and Joel Kinnaman, is the latest big-budget movie to be put on pause over budget concerns. Previously set for release in March 2013, its projected production cost has risen as high as $130 million.
Bryan Singer's "Jack the Giant Killer 3D," on the other hand, is being delayed for competitive reasons -- even though a trailer for the movie has already been released. Previously due June 15 -- the same day -- it is now due March 22, 2013.
Paramount's "Madagascar 3" is coming out the week before; Disney's "Brave" is due a week later.
Warner Bros. is also shifting its "Rock of Ages" film with New Line -- but to a more minor degree. The movie based on the Broadway musical is now due June 15 instead of June 1.
(Editing by Chris Michaud)
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Lewis, Reed star on built-to-last Ravens defense
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis speaks at a news conference at the team's NFL football practice facility in Owings Mills, Md., Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. The Patriots are slated to host the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship on Sunday, Jan. 22. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis speaks at a news conference at the team's NFL football practice facility in Owings Mills, Md., Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. The Patriots are slated to host the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship on Sunday, Jan. 22. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
Baltimore Ravens free safety Ed Reed, right, celebrates his interception with teammate outside linebacker Terrell Suggs during the second half of an NFL divisional playoff football game against the Houston Texans in Baltimore, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Houston Texans running back Arian Foster is stopped by Baltimore Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb, left, inside linebacker Ray Lewis, center and outside linebacker Jarret Johnson, right, during the second half of an NFL divisional playoff football game in Baltimore, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) ? Ray Lewis and Ed Reed have spent 11 seasons together with the Baltimore Ravens, making one big play after another for a defense that is always among the best in the NFL.
Although it's difficult to imagine the Ravens without Lewis in the middle of the field and Reed as the last line of defense, the unit has plenty of young players eager to make an imprint after these two perennial Pro Bowl stars retire.
Baltimore's defense, which ranked third in the NFL this season, is the main reason why the Ravens (13-4) are in the AFC championship game and stand a decent chance of beating high-powered New England (14-3) to advance to the Super Bowl.
Linebacker Jarret Johnson says, "We've got veteran experience ... and young, raw talent."
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US considering closing embassy in Syria (AP)
WASHINGTON ? The State Department said Friday it "may have no choice" but to close the U.S. embassy in Damascus and remove all US personnel from the country wracked by a 10-month revolt against the regime of President Bashar Assad unless Assad's government takes extra steps to protect the mission.
The department issued a statement late Friday noting that the Obama administration has "serious concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Damascus, including the recent spate of car bombs and about the safety and security of embassy personnel."
The uprising against Assad has killed an estimated 5,400 people since March. Although the revolt began with mostly peaceful protests, an increasingly strong armed element has developed, and many people are now fighting the regime.
The department said the administration has asked Syria to take additional security measures to protect the U.S embassy and that the Syrian government "is considering that request."
But it also said it warned Assad's government that "unless concrete steps are taken in the coming days we may have no choice but to close the mission."
The U.S. removed its ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, from Damascus in October over security concerns. He returned to Syria in December.
The administration argued at the time that Ford's presence in Syria was important for advancing U.S. policy goals by meeting with opposition figures and serving as a witness to the ongoing violence.
The Obama administration has long called for Assad to step down, and officials say his regime's demise is inevitable.
U.S. officials say Syria has become increasingly isolated, with Iran as one of its last remaining allies, and point to recent defections by some military and government leaders as a sign that Assad's grip on power is unraveling. The 10-month uprising against Assad has turned increasingly militarized and chaotic as more frustrated regime opponents and army defectors arm themselves and fight back against government forces.
___
Associated Press writer Julie Pace contributed to this report.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Oil above $101 on hopes IMF to curb Europe crisis (AP)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia ? Oil rose above $101 a barrel Thursday in Asia after the IMF promised to raise lending to mitigate a worsening financial crisis in Europe. Stronger U.S. economic data also gave oil a lift.
Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 66 cents at $101.25 a barrel at late afternoon Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 12 cents to end at $100.59 on Wednesday.
"Trading has been choppy but the market recovered on news that the IMF will boost its lending capacity for Europe," said Natalie Robertson, commodities analyst with ANZ Banking Group in Melbourne.
The International Monetary Fund estimated countries around the world would need about $1 trillion in loans over the coming years and said it aimed to increase its financial firepower by around $500 billion so it can give out new loans.
The IMF has put up about a third of the financing for Europe's bailouts over the past two years, but there are growing worries that non-European countries will also need more help given the worsening economic outlook.
Robertson said prices were also supported by the American Petroleum Institute's report Wednesday showing an unexpected drop in crude inventory last week. The government is expected to release its weekly data later Thursday.
Strong U.S. housing figures, an improvement in U.S. manufacturing activity in December and increased orders and production also buoyed crude prices, she said.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch predicted limited upside, with crude prices to average $101 a barrel this year. it cited weak oil global demand after the International Energy Agency cut its forecast for oil demand growth to 1.1 million barrels a day, down from an earlier estimate of 1.3 million barrels a day.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose 0.9 cent to $3.02 per gallon and gasoline futures rose 0.5 cent to $2.83 per gallon. Natural gas fell 3.7 cents to $2.43 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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Romney rolls out final SC primary ad (AP)
COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is rolling out his closing appeal for votes in Saturday's South Carolina primary with an ad that takes swipes at President Barack Obama's economic policies and makes tough-to-keep promises.
The ad shows Romney giving his victory speech in New Hampshire's primary two weeks ago with his family in the background and mixes images from campaign stops on factory floors around the country.
"President Obama wants to fundamentally transform America," Romney says. "I stand ready to lead us down a different path. This president has enacted job-killing regulations; I'll eliminate them. He lost our triple-A credit rating; I'll restore it. He passed Obamacare; I'll repeal it."
Romney promises in the ad to cut, cap and balance the federal budget. "If you believe that the disappointments of the last few years are a detour, not a destiny," he says, "then I am asking for your vote."
The ad is a stark contrast to the harsh messages Romney and a political action committee supporting him have been using for weeks in South Carolina, a state whose Republican primary winner has gone on to win the nomination each time since 1980. South Carolina's primary is expected to thin the field before candidates rush to delegate-rich Florida, which holds its primary Jan. 31.
Television ads, mailers and phone messages have been rough. Mail pieces, for instance, have called challenger Rick Santorum a hypocrite for raising his pay while in the Senate and said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich launched an attack on America's free enterprise system by questioning Romney's business deals.
Romney's ad sets up several challenging policy initiatives for a Romney administration. Cutting the deficit, much less balancing the federal budget and capping spending, has been an elusive goal for a deeply partisan Congress. While Romney and other candidates complain about regulations killing jobs, businesses have cited the overall economy and slow consumer demand more frequently than regulations as the top problems. That suggests that rolling back regulations may not easily lead to job creation.
When Standard and Poor's downgraded the nation's AAA debt rating last year, it came after months of warnings about gridlock in Congress over dealing with the nation's financial problems. In a time of rising economic challenges, S&P said the U.S. had weakened "effectiveness, stability and predictability" in its policymaking and political institutions. It is far from clear when and how those shortcomings will be repaired.
The new federal health care law that Obama pushed through over GOP objections will have key elements tested in the Supreme Court this year. Even if those elements fail, facets of the health care law are popular and may never be repealed, including ending lifetime maximum policy limits and extending coverage under a parent's health insurance policy to children until they're 25.
___
Follow Jim Davenport on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jimdavenport_ap
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Is Skin Color Why Maria Balaban Wants Juliet Steer Exhumed? (ContributorNetwork)
COMMENTARY | Juliet Steer wanted to be buried according to Hebrew traditions in the interfaith area of Ahvath Achim Cemetery in Colchester, Conn., in accordance with Hebrew traditions, CBS reports. Steer, a black Christian, got her wish after dying of lymphoma. Her brother, Paul Steer, is being sued with the goal of exhuming his sister and moving her body out of the cemetery.
Maria Balaban is a 72-year-old cemetery board member, according to the Associated Press. Balaban was present when the board voted to allow non-Jewish people to be interred in the interfaith section of the cemetery. A countersuit filed by Balaban's congregation is accusing her of working to be rid of Ms. Steer because of her skin color rather than over religious grounds.
If that's the case what we may have here is a good, old-fashioned case of a bitter, old racist reacting as if the skin color of a corpse will somehow filter through the ground and infect the bodies of lily-white-skinned Jews in nearby plots. The very idea of digging up Steer's body because she is black is shocking to me, particularly when it comes from a member of a religious body so familiar with being on the receiving end of discrimination.
Balaban's lawyer states his client is not a racist, but Steer's brother Paul disagrees, according to CNN. He claims Balaban stated, "If she was buried at the back of the cemetery she would accept it more," and added, "Only a racist would say something like that."
Such a phrase is frighteningly close to pre-civil rights era admonitions to people of color ordering them to sit at the back of the bus. I think Rosa Parks would turn in her grave like a top spun by a teenager hopped up on crystal meth if she heard about this.
While I don't understand most religious motivations I do understand that the rules of the cemetery should be respected. If those rules allow for the burial of non-Jews than Balaban should take her objections and bury them while issuing a vow never to exhume them.
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One-Minute Physics: How stones get their shape
Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV Ever wondered why some stones are round while others are flat? In our latest One-Minute Physics episode, producer Henry Reich teams up with illustrator Zach Weiner from SMBC Comics to explain how gravity is involved in stone formation.
If you enjoyed this video, check out our previous One-Minute Physics episodes, for example to find out how wind can take down a bridge or how to detect a neutrino.
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