Sunday, August 4, 2013

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP &#3913: A look at key anniversaries of the ...

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP ?: A search at essential anniversaries of the year's last key
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP ?: A search at crucial anniversaries of the yr's final key. Revealed August 01, 2013. Related Press. A appear at some of the anniversaries this calendar year at the ninety fifth PGA Championship, to be performed Aug. 8-11 at Oak Hill in Pittsford, N.Y ?
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Anniversaries: Winnett ? 50th. Saved. Save Article My Saved Products &middot Print E mail. ? Anniversaries Winnett ? fiftieth. ? 2013-08-02T16:26:00Z Anniversaries: Winnett ? 50th JG-TC.com. seven minutes back. () Comments. CHARLESTON ? Mr. and Mrs. Ray Winnett&nbsp?
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Sunday, June 2, 2013

Arab Idol: No Bieber fever in Gaza

Palestinian teenage girls instead have Mohammed Assaf, a Palestinian contestant on 'Arab Idol' who has them glued to their phones, texting in votes for him.

By Christa Case Bryant,?Staff writer / May 31, 2013

A banner depicting Mohammed Assaf, a Palestinian contestant on 'Arab Idol,' is seen on a building in the West Bank city of Ramallah May 13. Assaf has suddenly become one of the Arab world's hottest singing sensations.

Mohamad Torokman/Reuters

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Mohammed Assaf, who grew up in this crowded refugee camp performing with his pianist sister, has suddenly become one of the Arab world?s hottest singing sensations.

Skip to next paragraph Christa Case Bryant

Jerusalem bureau chief

Christa Case Bryant is The Christian Science Monitor's Jerusalem bureau chief, providing coverage on Israel and the Palestinian territories as well as regional issues.

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Among Gaza's teenage girls, the handsome Mr. Assaf inspires a Justin Bieber-like fandom. His sister says that young girls regularly call the family home asking to marry her brother. Ask any teenage girl on the streets of Khan Younis what they think of him and soon you'll have a gaggle of them giggling into their headscarves and vying for a chance to tell outsiders just how wonderful their hometown here is.?

His soulful renditions of Palestinian nationalist songs have prompted Palestinians of all stripes to rally behind him in the second season of ?Arab Idol,? a Lebanon-based singing contest.?But his stardom also represents a broader success for Palestinian solidarity. Even before hordes of teenage girls were texting their votes for Mr. Assaf, more than a few Palestinians went out of their way to help the aspiring star overcome the unique obstacles of life ? never mind music careers ? in Gaza.

If it weren?t for that support, Assaf may have never even had a chance to audition for Arab Idol, let alone become one of the final seven contestants out of 27.

Because of growing militant activity in the nearby Sinai peninsula and ongoing Israeli concerns about the flow of militants and weapons in and out of the Gaza, the borders of this tiny coastal territory are tightly controlled.

So when auditions were held in next-door Egypt this winter, Assaf had trouble getting through the Rafah border crossing.?By the time he arrived at the audition center, the organizers had closed the doors and refused to let him in.

He immediately called his mother in disappointment. She told him, ?Don?t come back with empty hands, even if you have to jump over the wall,? recalls his older sister Nisreen.

So Assaf walked the perimeter of the property with a cousin studying in Cairo and found a place to jump the fence. But when he got inside, he was denied the necessary ticket for a turn to audition. After his pleas were rebuffed by the woman in charge, he tried a different form of protest: He began singing.

A fellow Gazan in the crowded waiting area immediately recognized Assaf?s voice, which had become well-known through his radio appearances.

?He said, ?My voice is not as good as yours, please, take my ticket,?? says Nisreen, surrounded by her brother?s image on multitudinous posters in the family?s neat but modest home. Big trucks rumble by on the sandy streets outside.

Assaf first sang in public at age five with Shireen, his eldest sister, who was well-known for her piano playing. While the siblings never had formal music lessons ??no music school existed until very recently, says Nisreen ? their parents strongly encouraged them to pursue their talents. Shireen broke her electric keyboard more than once and they bought a new one each time ? a big financial sacrifice in a place where the goal is often to merely making ends meet.

They also encouraged her kid brother to call in to a popular television show with singer Jamal al-Najjar, who would take questions. When Assaf called in, his "question" was more of a request: Listen to me sing.

Mr. al-Najjar not only indulged him, but asked for his phone number to follow up. Soon after, Assaf?s father arranged a meeting between the two, which launched a mentoring relationship that his sister credits with making his music career.

And when the opportunity came to audition for Arab Idol, Assaf?s parents once again strongly encouraged him. The?contest?represents the first possibility for Assaf to earn money from his singing; according to his sister, he already has a 10-year contract with MBC, the Saudi TV station that airs Arab Idol.

?He?s never made a penny from his singing,? says Nisreen, noting that local merchants frequently use his image to boost sales without paying him due to a lack of copyright law. ?Now, this is going to change.?

For Assaf?s fellow Palestinians, his success also represents an opportunity to earn more dignity and respect in the Arab world. The Palestinian cause is often championed for political reasons, but little is done to help the 5 million or more refugees whose families lost their homes in the 1948-49 war of Israeli independence.

?I believe he changed Arab perceptions for the better,? says Nismaa Arafa, a 10th?grader. ?Palestine became more popular in front of the Arab countries.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/N9fp-jMBnR8/Arab-Idol-No-Bieber-fever-in-Gaza

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Saturday, June 1, 2013

One of the moon's mysteries solved: Origin of mascon basins

May 30, 2013 ? A mystery of the moon that imperiled astronauts and spacecraft on lunar missions has been solved by a Purdue University-led team of scientists as part of NASA's GRAIL mission.

Large concentrations of mass lurk on the lunar surface hidden like coral reefs beneath the ocean waves -- an unseen and devastating hazard. These concentrations change the gravity field and can either pull a spacecraft in or push it off course, sealing its fate to a crash on the face of the moon.

"In 1968 these mass concentrations were an unwelcome discovery as scientists prepared for the Apollo landings, and they have remained a mystery ever since," said Jay Melosh, a member of the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, science team who led the research. "GRAIL has now mapped where they lay, and we have a much better understanding of how they developed. If we return to the moon, we can now navigate with great precision."

A better understanding of these features also adds clues to the moon's origin and evolution and will be useful in studying other planets where mass concentrations also are known to exist including Mars and Mercury, said Melosh, who is a distinguished professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences and physics.

"We now know the ancient moon must have been much hotter than it is now and the crust thinner than we thought," he said. "For the first time we can figure out what size asteroids hit the moon by looking at the basins left behind and the gravity signature of the areas. We now have tools to figure out more about the heavy asteroid bombardment and what the ancient Earth may have faced."

The team confirmed the standing theory that the concentrations of mass were caused by massive asteroid impacts billions of years ago and determined how these impacts changed the density of material on the moon's surface and, in turn, its gravity field. A paper detailing the results will be published online by the journal Science on May 30.

In addition to Melosh, Purdue team members include Andrew Freed, associate professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences, and graduate students Brandon Johnson and David Blair. Additional team members include Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; J. Andrews-Hanna of the Colorado School of Mines; S. Solomon of Columbia University; and the GRAIL Science Team.

"The explanation of mascons has eluded scientists for decades," Zuber said. "Since their initial discovery they have also been observed on Mars and Mercury, and by understanding their formation on the moon we have greatly advanced knowledge of how major impacts modified planetary crusts."

The mass concentrations form a target pattern with a gravity surplus at the bulls-eye surrounded by a ring of gravity deficit and an outer ring of gravity surplus. The team found that this pattern arises as a natural consequence of crater excavation, collapse and cooling following an impact.

The team determined that the increase in density and gravitational pull at the bulls-eye was caused by lunar material melted from the heat of the asteroid impact. The melting causes the material to become more concentrated, stronger and denser, and pulls in additional material from the surrounding areas, Melosh said.

The large asteroid impacts also caused big holes into which the surrounding lunar material collapsed. As the cool, strong lunar crust slid into the holes it bent downward, forming a rigid, curved edge that held down the material beneath it and prevented it from fully rebounding to its original surface height. This causes a ring with less gravitational pull because the mass is held farther below the surface, the top of which is what most influences the gravitational signature, he said.

The outer ring of increased gravitational pull comes from the added mass of the material ejected by the initial impact that then piles on top of the lunar surface.

The team combined expertise in specialized computer analysis methods called hydrocodes and finite element codes to create computer simulations that could show the physical changes occurring from microseconds to millions of years. The team analyzed the Freundlich-Sharanov and Humorum mascon basins.

Melosh is a pioneer in adapting computer hydrocodes -- computer programs originally created to analyze the flow of liquids -- to simulate how complex materials move when high-speed collisions occur, like that of a planetary collision. Hydrocodes can be used to study such phenomena on a time scale of microseconds to hours, but are not practical from time scales much longer than that, he said.

Freed is a leader in adapting finite element codes, like those used to study car crashes, to simulate the changes in density of complex materials upon cooling and the evolution of Earth and other planets on the time scale of hours to millions of years.

Using the GRAIL data set, which offers an unprecedented, detailed map of the distribution of masses in the moon, the team was able to put together a picture of how the moon's crust and mantle behaved and the development of the concentrations of mass in the aftermath of large asteroid impacts.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/jwYCiKAeaNY/130530142009.htm

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Friday, May 31, 2013

Radiation measured by NASA's Curiosity on voyage to Mars has implications for future human missions

May 30, 2013 ? Measurements taken by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission as it delivered the Curiosity rover to Mars in 2012 are providing NASA the information it needs to design systems to protect human explorers from radiation exposure on deep-space expeditions in the future.

Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is the first instrument to measure the radiation environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential human exploration spacecraft. The findings reduce uncertainty about the effectiveness of radiation shielding and provide vital information to space mission designers who will need to build in protection for spacecraft occupants in the future.

"As this nation strives to reach an asteroid and Mars in our lifetimes, we're working to solve every puzzle nature poses to keep astronauts safe so they can explore the unknown and return home," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations in Washington. "We learn more about the human body's ability to adapt to space every day aboard the International Space Station. As we build the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket to carry and shelter us in deep space, we'll continue to make the advances we need in life sciences to reduce risks for our explorers. Curiosity's RAD instrument is giving us critical data we need so that we humans, like the rover, can dare mighty things to reach the Red Planet."

The findings, which are published in the May 31 edition of the journal Science, indicate radiation exposure for human explorers could exceed NASA's career limit for astronauts if current propulsion systems are used.

Two forms of radiation pose potential health risks to astronauts in deep space. One is galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), particles caused by supernova explosions and other high-energy events outside the solar system. The other is solar energetic particles (SEPs) associated with solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun.

Radiation exposure is measured in units of Sievert (Sv) or milliSievert (one one-thousandth Sv). Long-term population studies have shown exposure to radiation increases a person's lifetime cancer risk. Exposure to a dose of 1 Sv, accumulated over time, is associated with a five percent increase in risk for developing fatal cancer.

NASA has established a three percent increased risk of fatal cancer as an acceptable career limit for its astronauts currently operating in low-Earth orbit. The RAD data showed the Curiosity rover was exposed to an average of 1.8 milliSieverts of GCR per day on its journey to Mars. Only about three percent of the radiation dose was associated with solar particles because of a relatively quiet solar cycle and the shielding provided by the spacecraft.

The RAD data will help inform current discussions in the United States' medical community, which is working to establish exposure limits for deep-space explorers in the future.

"In terms of accumulated dose, it's like getting a whole-body CT scan once every five or six days," said Cary Zeitlin, a principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio and lead author of the paper on the findings. "Understanding the radiation environment inside a spacecraft carrying humans to Mars or other deep space destinations is critical for planning future crewed missions."

Current spacecraft shield much more effectively against SEPs than GCRs. To protect against the comparatively low energy of typical SEPs, astronauts might need to move into havens with extra shielding on a spacecraft or on the Martian surface, or employ other countermeasures. GCRs tend to be highly energetic, highly penetrating particles that are not stopped by the modest shielding provided by a typical spacecraft.

"Scientists need to validate theories and models with actual measurements, which RAD is now providing," said Donald M. Hassler, a program director at SwRI and principal investigator of the RAD investigation. "These measurements will be used to better understand how radiation travels through deep space and how it is affected and changed by the spacecraft structure itself. The spacecraft protects somewhat against lower energy particles, but others can propagate through the structure unchanged or break down into secondary particles."

After Curiosity landed on Mars in August, the RAD instrument continued operating, measuring the radiation environment on the planet's surface. RAD data collected during Curiosity's science mission will continue to inform plans to protect astronauts as NASA designs future missions to Mars in the coming decades.

SwRI, together with Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, built RAD with funding from NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and Germany's national aerospace research center, Deutsches Zentrum f?r Luft- und Raumfahrt.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/P-H94QcscRQ/130530145930.htm

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Simple Smartphone Stuffed Animal Surgery to Terrorize Your Child

Yuta Sugiura has created what could be one of the most awesome ways to terrorize your kids?if you're into that kind of thing. She's developed a very clever app that lets a camera-equipped smartphone breathe life and interactivity into a stuffed animal, without having to modify it in any way besides finding a way to get your phone inside.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/pcY1t4oSjxw/simple-smartphone-stuffed-animal-surgery-to-terrorize-y-510681670

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Gene Therapy May Protect Against Flu

That's mostly a risk if you're using a virus vector which integrates the DNA into an existing chromosome (which this one doesn't, I believe), AND you can't control the site of insertion. That is, unless the specific gene (in this case, the antibody gene) itself can cause a persistent change in the function of the cell - maybe causing the body to produce a compound which itself promotes cell growth or the like. (That's well outside my area of expertise.)

The great thing about inserting into an existing chromosome (which this does not do) is that then cell replication *does* propagate the gene. The downside is the risk of incorrect insertion which can lead to cancer, among other things.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/z937ACm-5tA/story01.htm

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White House Press Corps Website, Twitter Feed Appears To Have Been Hacked

The White House Press Corps homepage and Twitter feed appears to have been hacked early Friday.

Just before 2 a.m., tweets began flowing into @whpresscorps, complaining about bias in the media. The hackers' beef seemed to be with any news organization that met with Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss how the Justice Department will handle future instances of spying on journalists.

Numerous news outlets refused to attend the meeting with Holder because it was supposed to be "off the record." But five chose to go, and those were the ones lambasted by the unknown hacker(s):


The alleged hacker(s) also made it clear that meeting with Holder had tainted these news organizations' reputations.


The talks followed news of the Obama administration's surveillance of Fox News reporter James Rosen and The Associated Press as part of a government leaks investigation.

Free speech advocates and many in the media took umbrage with these actions, calling them a violation of the First Amendment.

The supposed hacker(s) also seemed to be upset with the administration's handling of last September's attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the IRS' investigation of Tea Party groups.

The White House Press Corps Website and Twitter feed describes the "daily adventures with the White House Press Corps in their own words." When contacted for comment, an autoreply message noted that the site is not associated with the White House Correspondents' Association or its members. "We are an independent source providing information, commentary and analysis on the relationship between the press and the White House."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/white-house-press-corps-hacked_n_3364164.html

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