Video will debut at 10:53 a.m. ET during 'MTV First,' Nicki will sit down for an interview right after on MTV.com.
By MTV News Staff
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704607/nicki-minaj-high-school-music-video-teaser.jhtml
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Bank customers may complain about hefty overdraft fees, but they?re using the service more and paying the price.
A new report from Moebs Services, a respected economic research firm, shows overdraft revenue at banks, credit unions and thrift institutions totaled $32 billion last year. That?s an increase of $400 million or 1.3 percent from 2011.
?Consumers use of overdrafts shows no indication of going away, and is actually increasing,? said Michael Moebs, who wrote the study.
At the current rate of growth, Moebs predicts revenue from overdraft fees will hit a new record by the end of 2016, topping the old record of $37 billion set in 2009.
The Moebs study found that about a quarter of the people with a consumer checking account ? that?s 38 million people ? frequently overdraft. The median overdraft is about $40.
More than half of the customers who frequently overdraft ? 57 percent or 20 million people ? go to payday lenders when they are short on funds.
Why? Because a payday loan is significantly cheaper.
?Payday lenders are the low-price source for short-term cash needs,? Moebs said. ?You can get a cash advance for $16 as opposed to $25 at a community bank, $27 a credit union and $30 at bank or thrift. Those are median prices.?
While the cost of an overdrawn account has been going up at many financial institutions, the price of borrowing from a payday lender has dropped. The median charge for a $100 cash advance dropped $1.50 from 2011 to 2012, from $17.50 to $16.
Moebs firmly believes many of the people who use a payday lender would rather not, if the cost of the overdraft penalty was more in line with what the payday stores charge. He puts that price point at $20.
What it really costs to cover an overdraft
Consumer groups have long asserted that overdraft fees are revenue generators, deliberately higher than the banks' cost of providing the service.
?It?s very clear that banks are gouging customers with incredibly high and outrageous overdraft fees that are not related to their cost,? said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director at U.S. PIRG.
A bill introduced in Congress last week (The Overdraft Protection Act of 2013) would require these fees to be ?reasonable and proportional.?
Moebs told me his costs studies, some of which were done for the Federal Reserve Bank, show the prices charged by the big financial institutions ?are legitimate? because their cost structures are so high.
He estimates that a megabank makes about $3 on each overdraft charge, the same profit the payday lender earns with a $100 loan. But because the overhead at the bank is so much higher, it has to charge $30 or $35 to make the same amount.
Smaller banks and credit unions have a smaller nut to crack, so they might be able to reduce the price on an overdraft. Moeb?s advice to these institutions: lower that price and you?ll get more customers.
Cheaper alternatives
Of course, the goal is to avoid overdraft charges. Check your account statement ? online, by phone or at an ATM ? to make sure you don?t try to spend money that?s not in your checking account.
?If you are likely to overdraft, the main street institutions are your best choice ? most credit unions and community banks and some of the thrifts ? because they have a lower overdraft fee,? Moebs said.
Debit-card transactions often cause an account to be overdrawn. Remember: Your bank or credit union will deny a point-of-purchase debit-card payment or cash withdrawal from an ATM if there is not enough money in the account to cover it, unless you ?opt in? to their overdraft protection plan. In that case, the transaction will go through and you?ll get hit with a fee.
A recent study by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 54 percent of the customers who had overdrawn their accounts said they did not realize they had signed up for an overdraft service that cost money. Susan Weinstock, director of Pew?s Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project, said this shows there is ?a very high level of confusion? about how this overdraft protection works.
Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.
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Mar. 28, 2013 ? A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has unveiled a new technique for vaccine design that could be particularly useful against HIV and other fast-changing viruses.
The report, which appears March 28, 2013, in Science Express, the early online edition of the journal Science, offers a step toward solving what has been one of the central problems of modern vaccine design: how to stimulate the immune system to produce the right kind of antibody response to protect against a wide range of viral strains. The researchers demonstrated their new technique by engineering an immunogen (substance that induces immunity) that has promise to reliably initiate an otherwise rare response effective against many types of HIV.
"We're hoping to test this immunogen soon in mice engineered to produce human antibodies, and eventually in humans," said team leader William R. Schief, who is an associate professor of immunology and member of the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center at TSRI.
Seeking a Better Way
For highly variable viruses such as HIV and influenza, vaccine researchers want to elicit antibodies that protect against most or all viral strains -- not just a few strains, as seasonal flu vaccines currently on the market. Vaccine researchers have identified several of these broadly neutralizing antibodies from long-term HIV-positive survivors, harvesting antibody-producing B cells from blood samples and then sifting through them to identify those that produce antibodies capable of neutralizing multiple strains of HIV. Such broadly neutralizing antibodies typically work by blocking crucial functional sites on a virus that are conserved among different strains despite high mutation elsewhere.
However, even with these powerful broadly neutralizing antibodies in hand, scientists need to find a way to elicit their production in the body through a vaccine. "For example, to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies called VRC01-class antibodies that neutralize 90 percent of known HIV strains, you could try using the HIV envelope protein as your immunogen," said Schief, "but you run into the problem that the envelope protein doesn't bind with any detectable affinity to the B cells needed to launch a broadly neutralizing antibody response."
To reliably initiate that VRC01-class antibody response, Schief and his colleagues therefore sought to develop a new method for designing vaccine immunogens.
From Weak to Strong
Joseph Jardine, a TSRI graduate student in the Schief laboratory, evaluated the genes of VRC01-producing B cells in order to deduce the identities of the less mature B cells -- known as germline B cells -- from which they originate. Germline B cells are major targets of modern viral vaccines, because it is the initial stimulation of these B cells and their antibodies that leads to a long-term antibody response.
In response to vaccination, germline B cells could, in principle, mature into the desired VRC01-producing B cells -- but natural HIV proteins fail to bind or stimulate these germline B cells so they cannot get the process started. The team thus set out to design an artificial immunogen that would be successful at achieving this.
Jardine used a protein modeling software suite called Rosetta to improve the binding of VRC01 germline B cell antibodies to HIV's envelope protein. "We asked Rosetta to look for mutations on the side of the HIV envelope protein that would help it bind tightly to our germline antibodies," he said.
Rosetta identified dozens of mutations that could help improve binding to germline antibodies. Jardine then generated libraries that contained all possible combinations of beneficial mutations, resulting in millions of mutants, and screened them using techniques called yeast surface display and FACS. This combination of computational prediction and directed evolution successfully produced a few mutant envelope proteins with high affinity for germline VRC01-class antibodies.
Jardine then focused on making a minimal immunogen -- much smaller than HIV envelope -- and so continued development using the "engineered outer domain (eOD)" previously developed by Po-Ssu Huang in the Schief lab while Schief was at the University of Washington. Several iterative rounds of design and selection using a panel of germline antibodies produced a final, optimized immunogen -- a construct they called eOD-GT6.
A Closer Look
To get a better look at eOD-GT6 and its interaction with germline antibodies, the team turned to the laboratory of Ian A. Wilson, chair of the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology and a member of the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center at TSRI.
Jean-Philippe Julien, a senior research associate in the Wilson laboratory, determined the 3D atomic structure of the designed immunogen using X-ray crystallography -- and, in an unusual feat, also determined the crystal structure of a germline VRC01 antibody, plus the structure of the immunogen and antibody bound together.
"We wanted to know whether eOD-GT6 looked the way we anticipated and whether it bound to the antibody in the way that we predicted -- and in both cases the answer was 'yes'," said Julien. "We also were able to identify the key mutations that conferred its reactivity with germline VRC01 antibodies."
Mimicking a Virus
Vaccine researchers know that such an immunogen typically does better at stimulating an antibody response when it is presented not as a single copy but in a closely spaced cluster of multiple copies, and with only its antibody-binding end exposed. "We wanted it to look like a virus," said Sergey Menis, a visiting graduate student in the Schief laboratory.
Menis therefore devised a tiny virus-mimicking particle made from 60 copies of an obscure bacterial enzyme and coated it with 60 copies of eOD-GT6. The particle worked well at activating VRC01 germline B cells and even mature B cells in the lab dish, whereas single-copy eOD-GT6 did not.
"Essentially it's a self-assembling nanoparticle that presents the immunogen in a properly oriented way," Menis said. "We're hoping that this approach can be used not just for an HIV vaccine but for many other vaccines, too."
The next step for the eOD-GT6 immunogen project, said Schief, is to test its ability to stimulate an antibody response in lab animals that are themselves engineered to produce human germline antibodies. The difficulty with testing immunogens that target human germline antibodies is that animals typically used for vaccine testing cannot make those same antibodies. So the team is collaborating with other researchers who are engineering mice to produce human germline antibodies. After that, he hopes to learn how to drive the response, from the activation of the germline B cells all the way to the production of mature, broadly neutralizing VRC01-class antibodies, using a series of designed immunogens.
Schief also hopes they will be able to test their germline-targeting approach in humans sooner rather than later, noting "it will be really important to find out if this works in a human being."
The first authors of the paper, "Rational HIV immunogen design to target specific germline B cell receptors," were Jardine, Julien and Menis. Co-authors were Takayuki Ota and Devin Sok of the Nemazee and Burton laboratories at TSRI, respectively; Travis Nieusma of the Ward laboratory at TSRI; John Mathison of the Ulevitch laboratory at TSRI; Oleksandr Kalyuzhniy and Skye MacPherson, researchers in the Schief laboratory from IAVI and TSRI, respectively; Po-Ssu Huang and David Baker of the University of Washington, Seattle; Andrew McGuire and Leonidas Stamatatos of the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute; and TSRI principal investigators Andrew B. Ward, David Nemazee, Ian A. Wilson, and Dennis R. Burton, who is also head of the IAVI Neutralizing Center at TSRI.
The project was funded in part by IAVI; the National Institutes of Health (AI84817, AI081625 and AI33292); and the Ragon Institute.
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Forty years after the secret U.S. bombing that devastated Laos, heirs to the war's deadly legacy of undetonated explosives are touring America to prod the conscience of the world's most powerful nation for more help to clear up the mess.
Two young Laotians ? one a bomb disposal technician, the other the victim of an accidental explosion ? arrived Friday on the anniversary of the end of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam and its far-less publicized bombing of neighboring Laos. The U.S. dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Laos over a nine-year period up to 1973 ? more than on Germany and Japan during World War II.
Manixia Thor, 25, works on an all-female team that clears bombs and other explosives from villages and farm land in her native province of Xieng Khouang, one of the worst-hit areas of the country. Joining her on the speaking tour is Thoummy Silamphan, 26, who lost his left hand to a cluster bomb at age 8 as he dug for bamboo shoots to put in soup. He's from a poor farming family in the same province and counsels victims of ordnance accidents that still maim dozens of Lao each year.
Experts estimate that about 30 percent of the cluster bombs failed to explode after they were dropped from high-flying aircraft, as the U.S. attempted to crush communist forces in Laos and interdict the Vietcong supply line known as the Ho Chi Minh trail. Large swaths of northern Laos and its eastern border with Vietnam remain contaminated.
Manixia, who is ethnic Hmong and has a 2-year-old son, said her grandparents passed down to her stories of how they hid in limestone caves during the bombing that obliterated virtually all of the province's free-standing buildings and left its plains and mountainsides pock-marked by craters.
About 15 years ago, her uncle lost his left hand as he attempted to salvage ball bearings from inside a cluster bomb. He joined an estimated toll of 20,000 civilians killed or injured by explosives since the war.
Manixia works for the British charity, the Mines Advisory Group. Like Thoummy, it's her first trip to America. Their tour, organized by an American charity, Legacies of War, and funded by the State Department, will also take them to New York, California, Oregon, Washington state and Minnesota as they talk about "UXO," or unexploded ordnance.
"I came here because I want to share with people the continuing dangers of UXO in Laos," Manixia said. "There's still a lot of work to do (to clear UXO) and not enough resources to do it. I don't want people to be injured like my uncle was, or for my son to grow up and also be hurt."
Despite efforts to educate about the dangers of the explosives, about 40 percent of the victims in the past 10 years have been children.
Thoummy said that last month two accidental explosions injured six people in Xieng Khouang, two of them seriously. Three of them were boys foraging for bamboo; the others were caught in a blast while burning stubble in a rice field.
Thoummy, whose prosthetic arm is hard to spot when he wears a tan jacket, works for Quality of Life Association, a Laotian nonprofit that helps victims cope with the kind of depression that he grappled with as a boy after his accident.
"My life had stopped. I wanted to die. I stayed at home and although my family tried to encourage me, I didn't care," he said.
But his outlook changed after a 10-minute conversation he had five months after his accident with a Lao government official ? a survivor of a bomb accident who inspired him to get on with his life and complete his education. He later studied business management at a local college.
Thoummy is keen to recount his own experiences and bears no apparent grudge against the U.S. Asked if America is responsible for clearing the unexploded bombs, he squirms a little and concludes: "It would be good if the USA thinks about the problem in Laos and if we have more support."
International help for bomb clearance only began in earnest about 20 years ago, and it will take many decades more to render affected land safe. Since 1997, the U.S. has provided $47 million in assistance, including $9 million in 2012. Last July, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the country since 1955. She spoke to a cluster bomb victim and promised more help.
___
Online: http://legaciesofwar.org/
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By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a controversy underscoring continued stresses in U.S.-Russia relations, Obama administration officials are debating how many Russian officials to ban from the United States under a new law meant to penalize Moscow for alleged human rights abuses.
The debate's outcome, expected in about two weeks, is likely to illustrate how President Barack Obama will handle what critics say is a crackdown on dissent in Russia and set the tone for Washington-Moscow relations in the president's second term.
The new law is named for Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old anti-corruption lawyer who died in his jail cell in 2009. It requires the United States to deny visas and freeze the U.S. financial assets of Russians linked to the case, or to other alleged violations of human rights in Russia.
The act was passed in December as part of a broader bill to expand U.S. trade with Russia, and Obama signed it December 14. But the White House was never keen on the rights legislation, arguing that it was unnecessary because Washington had imposed visa restrictions on some Russians thought to have played a role in Magnitsky's death. The United States has declined to name those people.
The Magnitsky Act says the president must publish by mid-April the list of accused human rights abusers - or explain to Congress why their names can't be published. The reasons for not publishing must be tied to national security.
U.S. officials said there are differences within the Obama administration over what kind of list to produce - short or long - or whether to even produce two lists, one for the visa bans and another for the asset freezes.
"The difference is essentially between those who don't want to piss off the Russian government any more than we absolutely have to, and those who don't want to piss off Congress any more than we have to," a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
Magnitsky worked for the equity fund Hermitage Capital in Moscow and was arrested on tax fraud charges shortly after he leveled similar accusations against Russian state officials in 2008. Family and former colleagues say he was mistreated and denied medical care during his year in Russian jails.
His death spooked investors and blackened Russia's image abroad. The Kremlin's own human rights council aired suspicions that he was beaten to death. Magnitsky currently is being tried posthumously in Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was angered by the Magnitsky Act, and Russia retaliated by banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children. Asked to comment this week, a spokesman for Russia's embassy in Washington pointed to warnings that Moscow may issue its own list of alleged U.S. human rights abusers.
The White House also is hearing warnings from Congress. One of the law's authors, Representative James McGovern, wrote to Obama on Monday to caution against abbreviating the list. McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, enclosed over 230 names he said could potentially be included - such as senior Russian interior ministry and law enforcement officials who investigated and detained Magnitsky and oversaw his treatment.
McGovern said he heard some U.S. officials favor a "lax" approach to enforcing the law. "I think this would be a terrible message for the administration to send at this point in time, especially with Russia cracking down on human rights organizations," the congressman said in a telephone interview.
In recent weeks, Russian authorities have been searching the offices of advocacy groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Russia's oldest rights group, Memorial, in what activists say is part of a state campaign to stifle dissent.
Putin on Thursday dismissed criticism of state inspections of non-governmental organizations, saying the office searches that have prompted charges of harassment and caused concern in the West were routine.
After improvements under a "reset" Obama initiated in 2009, U.S. ties with Moscow have been strained by differences over the civil war in Syria; Putin's charges of U.S. meddling in internal Russian affairs; and his treatment of opponents since returning to Russia's presidency last May.
'CREDIBLE INFORMATION'
McGovern said that Congress intended that the administration put people on the visa ban list if there was "credible information" that they have violated human rights.
But some administration officials favor only putting people on the list if the evidence against them meets the strict standards used by the Treasury Department for freezing assets, which would produce a shorter list, the State Department official said.
He said he expected the advocates of the shorter list to triumph initially, but noted that it could be updated later.
"I expect a fairly small list, in the 20-something range, will end up on this submission to Congress," he said, adding that he hoped it would go beyond the Magnitsky case to include names of some people involved in other alleged abuses in Russia.
The Treasury Department declined comment. "We will implement the law as required and make information available once we're in a position to do so," a White House spokeswoman said.
In addition to Magnitsky, the law lists other human rights cases it says illustrate the danger of exposing wrongdoing by Russian officials. The cases include Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist who was shot to death in Moscow in 2006, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a jailed former oil tycoon.
The only Russian official directly named in the Magnitsky law for "wrongdoing" is Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's Chechnya region. Kadyrov is not linked to the Magnitsky case, but the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said he "stands accused of involvement in murders, torture and disappearances of political opponents and human rights activists". He denies wrongdoing.
Tom Malinowski, director of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch, said the credibility of the initial Magnitsky list won't be so much the number of names but "whether the list at least touches on some of the most important cases that have the greatest resonance among people in Russia who are concerned about the absence of the rule of law."
(Editing by Warren Strobel and Paul Simao)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-debates-severely-penalize-russia-human-rights-spat-220007116.html
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PARIS ?(AFP) ? The biggest-ever trawl of the human genome for cancer-causing DNA errors has netted more than 80 tiny mutations, a finding that could help people at high risk, researchers said Wednesday.
The results, which double the number of known genetic alterations linked to breast, ovarian and prostate cancer, were unveiled in a dozen scientific papers published in journals in Europe and the United States.
The three hormone-related cancers are diagnosed in over 2.5 million people every year and kill one in three patients, said a Nature press statement.
Teams from more than 100 research institutes in Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States said the work should in the future help doctors to calculate an individual?s cancer risk long before any symptoms emerge.
People with high-susceptibility mutations could be counselled against lifestyle choices that further increase their risk, given regular screening and drug treatment, or even preventative surgery.
?We have examined 200,000 areas of the genome in 250,000 individuals. There is no (other) study of cancer of this size,? Per Hall, coordinator of the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS), told AFP of the research.
The studies compared the DNA of more than 100,000 patients with breast, ovarian and prostate cancer to that of an equal number of healthy individuals. Most were of European ancestry.
DNA, the blueprint for life, comprises four basic chemicals called A (adenine) C (cytosine), T (thymine) and G (guanine) strung together in different combinations along a double helix.
Researchers noted where the A, C, T, G combinations of cancer patients differed significantly from those of healthy people.
They were looking for a tiny ?spelling mistake? in the code, called a single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP that can cause problems in gene function.
For breast cancer, the researchers found 49 SNPs, ?which is more than double the number previously found?, said Sweden?s Karolinska Institutet, which took part in the giant study.
?In the case of prostate cancer, researchers have discovered another 26 deviations, which means that a total number of 78 SNPs may be linked to the disease.?
For ovarian cancer, eight new SNPs were found.
Everyone has inherited alterations in their DNA, but whether these mutations are dangerous or not is determined by where on the code they lie.
And carrying a mutation does not necessarily mean a person will develop cancer, a disease that may have multiple causes.
The researchers said further study is needed to allow scientists to translate these DNA telltales into tests for predicting cancer risk. A more distant goal is using the knowledge for better treatments.
?Since there are many other factors that influence the risk of these cancers (mainly lifestyle factors), future tests have to take more risk factors than just genes into consideration,? said Hall.
?It will take a couple of years before we have the necessary models enabling us, with high accuracy, to predict the individual risk of these cancers.?
The findings were published in Nature Genetics and Nature Communications, PLOS Genetics, the American Journal of Human Genetics and Human Molecular Genetics.
Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.
Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/03/scientists-pinpoint-gene-coding-errors-for-cancer/
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All Critics (71) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (65) | Rotten (6)
The film and its talking head participants paint the picture in both broad strokes and fine detail.
Whatever one's political stripe regarding Israel, it's hard to dispute the impressions and perspective of the film's six eyewitnesses.
The level of candor here may not satisfy hard-liners of either stripe, but it can help viewers begin to formulate new questions about the philosophical, strategic and moral challenges of conflict, in particular "wars on terror."
Ultimately the movie feels evasive, and its flashy, digitally animated re-creations of military surveillance footage unpleasantly evoke the Call of Duty video games.
It offers startlingly honest insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from some of those who called the shots.
As a political testament, the result is revealing and important.
Moreh employs a direct interviewing style, reminiscent of Errol Morris' work, to get the men to talk about their days leading Shin Bet.
Moreh gets some startling confessions and insights from each man but also misses the opportunity to truly challenge his subjects on their regard for democracy, basic human rights and their own accountability.
Director Dror Moreh doesn't rest on his scoop
A powerful look inside the Israeli defense establishment
A deadly serious and detailed examination of and meditation upon the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Gatekeepers makes no attempt to find a silver lining.
The rule of surveillance is to keep quiet and let others do the talking. The Oscar-nominated documentary The Gatekeepers flips the script, to astonishing effect, giving voice to the retired directors of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency.
An up-close and personal look at the psychology of war -- their war and, by extension, all war.
A riveting firsthand account of how legitimate security concerns can lead to policies considered extreme and even immoral by the people administering them.
Extraordinary...not only an engrossing first-hand account of Israel's Palestinian policies over time, but one that may have lessons to teach both Israeli leaders and other nations confronting those they identify as terrorists.
Unprecedented and deeply unsettling, it offers little hope for a lasting peace in that war-torn region.
For its candor and impact, deserves to be seen and discussed.
An often remarkable Israeli documentary about Shin Bet, the country's internal security agency.
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_gatekeepers_2012/
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AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? The U.N. refugee agency says a riot has broken out at a refugee camp for Syrians in Jordan after some of the refugees were told they could not return home.
Ali Bibi, a UNHCR liaison officer in Jordan, says it's unclear how many refugees were involved in Thursday's melee at the Zaatari camp. The riot broke out after some Syrians in the camp tried to board buses to go back to their country.
He says Jordanian authorities refused to let the buses head to the border because of ongoing clashes between the rebels and President Bashar Assad's forces in southern Syria, just across the border from Jordan.
Bibi says there were no immediate reports of injuries.
He says Jordanian authorities promised to organize the refugees' return home at another time.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-syrian-refugees-riot-camp-jordan-111430759.html
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Mar. 27, 2013 ? Scientists who famously discovered the lobe-finned fish fossil Tiktaalik roseae, a species with some of the clearest evidence of the evolutionary transition from fish to limbed animals, have described another new species of predatory fossil lobe-finned fish fish from the same time and place. By describing more Devonian species, they're gaining a greater understanding of the "fish-eat-fish world" that drove the evolution of limbed vertebrates.
"We call it a 'fish-eat-fish world,' an ecosystem where you really needed to escape predation," said Dr. Ted Daeschler, describing life in the Devonian period in what is now far-northern Canada.
This was the environment where the famous fossil fish species Tiktaalik roseaelived 375 million years ago. This lobe-finned fish, co-discovered by Daeschler, an associate professor at Drexel University in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science, and associate curator and vice president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, and his colleagues Dr. Neil Shubin and Dr. Farish A. Jenkins, Jr., was first described in Nature in 2006.This species received scientific and popular acclaim for providing some of the clearest evidence of the evolutionary transition from lobe-finned fish to limbed animals, or tetrapods.
Daeschler and his colleagues from the Tiktaalik research, including Academy research associate Dr. Jason Downs, have now described another new lobe-finned fish species from the same time and place in the Canadian Arctic. They describe the new species, Holoptychius bergmanni, in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
"We're fleshing out our knowledge of the community of vertebrates that lived at this important location," said Downs, who was lead author of the paper. He said describing species from this important time and place will help the scientific community understand the transition from finned vertebrates to limbed vertebrates that occurred in this ecosystem.
"It was a tough world back there in the Devonian. There were a lot of big predatory fish with big teeth and heavy armor of interlocking scales on their bodies," said Daeschler.
Daeschler said Holoptychius and Tiktaalik were both large predatory fishes adapted to life in stream environments. The two species may have competed with one another for similar prey, although it is possible they specialized in slightly different niches; Tiktaalik's tetrapod-like skeletal features made it especially well suited to living in the shallowest waters.
The fossil specimens of Holoptychis bergmanni that researchers used to characterize this new species come from multiple individuals and include lower jaws with teeth, skull pieces including the skull roof and braincase, and parts of the shoulder girdles. The complete fish would have been 2 to 3 feet long when it was alive.
"The three-dimensional preservation of this material is spectacular," Daeschler said. "For something as old as this, we'll really be able to collect some good information about the anatomy of these animals."
The research on Holoptychius bergmanni was led by Downs, a former post-doctoral fellow working with Daeschler who also teaches at Swarthmore College. Other co-authors of the paper with Downs and Daeschler are Dr. Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago, and the late Dr. Farish Jenkins, Jr. of Harvard University, who passed away in 2012.
Honoring a Modern Arctic Explorer and Supporter of Science
The researchers named the new fossil fish species Holoptychius bergmanni in honor of the late Martin Bergmann, former director of the Polar Continental Shelf Program (PCSP), Natural Resources Canada, the organization that provided logistical support during the team's Arctic research expeditions spanning more than a decade. Bergmann was killed in a plane crash in 2011 shortly after the team's most recent field season in Nunavut.
"We decided to choose Martin Bergmann to honor him, not ever having met him, but with the understanding that his work with PCSP made great strides in opening the Arctic to researchers," said Downs. "It's an invaluable project happening in the Canadian Arctic that's enabling this type of work to happen."
Bergmann's organization assisted the research team with many aspects of expedition logistics including difficult flight operations to carry supplies and research personnel to remote research sites on Ellesemere Island. Daeschler described the pilots as capable of landing a Twin Otter aircraft almost anywhere, as long as the ground was solid -- a condition they tested by briefly touching down the airplane and circling back to see if the tires left a deep mark in the mud.
Daeschler and colleagues intend to return to Ellesemere Island for another field expedition in the summer of 2013 to search for fossils in older rocks at a more northerly field site than the one where they discovered T. roseae and H. bergmanni.
A Deeper Look at the Devonian
Daeschler and a different co-author described another new species of Devonian fish in addition to H. bergmanni, in the same issue of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences. More information about this new placoderm from Pennsylvania is available at the Drexel News Blog.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/gF0xKYgCwQE/130327133514.htm
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Zooplankton, small fish and squid spend hardly any time at the surface when there's a full moon. To protect themselves from their natural enemies, they hide deeper down in the water on bright nights, coming up to the surface under cover of darkness when there's a new moon instead.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell discovered that this also influences the behaviour of swallow-tailed gulls (Creagrus furcatus), a unique nocturnal species of gull from the Galapagos Islands. They fitted the birds with loggers and wet/dry sensors which enabled them to see how much time the animals spent at sea at night. Their findings show that the birds' activity was greatest at new moon, in other words the time when the most prey was gathered at the surface of the water. The cycle of the moon therefore also influences the behaviour of seabirds.
The lunar cycle controls the behaviour of various animal species: owls, swallows and bats, for example, align their activity with the phase of the moon to maximise their hunting success. However, marine life is also affected by the moon. Many species of fish hide from their enemies in the depths of the sea during the daytime and only come up to the water's surface in the dark. Known as vertical migration, this phenomenon is additionally influenced by the lunar cycle. The fish thereby avoid swimming on the water's surface at full moon where they would be easy prey. Vertical migration is thus restricted on brighter nights and the animals remain at greater depths. At new moon, on the other hand, the organisms become active and migrate to the surface.
Yet also in the dark of night hunters lie in wait for them ? for instance the swallow-tailed gull Creagrus furcatus from the Galapagos Islands. With eyes that are well adapted to the dark, the gull can see fish below the water's surface even in low light conditions and so does not need the moon as a source of light. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology therefore wanted to find out what effect the lunar cycle had on the hunting behaviour of the gulls.
To this effect, they attached loggers with sensors to 37 birds, which enabled the scientists to measure where, when and how long the animals were in the water. "The gulls fly off to hunt on the open sea and plunge down to the water's surface to snatch squid or small fish," explains Martin Wikelski from the Max Planck Institute in Radolfzell. "From the contact time of the sensors with the water, we were able to conclude in which nights of the month the gulls were particularly active." The behaviour of each bird was recorded for 120 days on average in order to take in several moon phases.
The birds followed the lunar cycles strictly: at new moon the gulls were in the water particularly often. When the nights were very bright, the birds tended to stay on dry land instead. "For the swallow-tailed gulls it makes sense to be guided by the lunar cycle in their hunting, because, with a diving depth of no more than one metre, the prey is quickly beyond their reach on nights with a full moon," says Wikelski.
To facilitate their night-time hunting, swallow-tailed gulls have evolved light-sensitive eyes that are particularly well adapted to the dark nights at sea. They have also lost their melatonin rhythm ? an important clock that regulates sleep ? enabling the swallow-tailed gulls to occupy a new and unique ecological niche.
###
Sebastian M. Cruz, Mevin Hooten, Kathryn P. Huyvaert, Carolina B. Proano, David J. Anderson, Vsevolod Afanasyev, Martin Wikelski
At?Sea Behavior Varies with Lunar Phase in a Nocturnal Pelagic Seabird, the Swallow-Tailed GullPLoS ONE 8(2): e56889. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056889
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: http://www.mpg.de
Thanks to Max-Planck-Gesellschaft for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127501/Lunar_cycle_determines_hunting_behavior_of_nocturnal_gulls
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Mar. 27, 2013 ? A revolutionary atmospheric-pressure plasma boosts adhesion of polymer films for roll-to-roll solar-cell production.
Mass manufacture of photovoltaic materials is often achieved inexpensively by screen printing organic solar cells onto plastic sheets. The polymer known as poly(ethylene terephthalate), or PET, is a key part of the technology. Well known as the inexpensive plastic used to make soda bottles, PET has garnered increasing use as an optoelectronic substrate because of its strength and flexibility. But printing conductive solar-cell coatings onto PET is a challenge: it has a non-reactive surface and is frequently contaminated with static electric charges, which makes adhesion to other materials difficult.
Linda Wu from the A*STAR Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology and co-workers have now devised an innovative plasma treatment to 'activate' PET surfaces for improved bonding during roll-to-roll processing1. The team's experiments with 'diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharge' (DCSBD) technology show that large-area PET sheets can be microscopically abraded and chemically modified to increase surface adhesion nearly instantaneously, thanks to plasma ions generated under open-air conditions.
Plasma treatments can quickly clean the surfaces of PET and other plastics2 without affecting their underlying properties or appearance. Normally, this technology requires clean rooms and vacuum chambers to turn noble gases into polymer-scrubbing plasma ions. The DCSBD technique, on the other hand, operates at atmospheric pressure and generates its plasma from ordinary air molecules. It achieves this through an inventive system of parallel, strip-like electrodes embedded inside an alumina ceramic plate. Applying a high-frequency, high-voltage electric field to these strips produces a thin and very uniform plasma field from ambient gases close to the ceramic plate (see image). The planar arrangement of this device makes it simple to treat only the top of the substrate using DCSBD in roll-to-roll lines.
When the researchers treated a PET substrate with a DCSBD plasma source, they saw immediate changes to the polymer surface: single-second plasma exposure times were sufficient to transform it from a water-repellent to a water-attractive surface. These modifications occurred uniformly over the entire PET substrate and provided improved adhesion power that lasted for more than 300 hours. X-ray and atomic force microscopy revealed that the short plasma bursts increased the proportion of surface polar groups and significantly enhanced microscale roughness.
Wu notes that the DCSBD technology is safe to touch, easy to operate, and can be deployed in humid and dusty industrial environments. The team is currently investigating if the high power densities present in these atmospheric plasmas can be exploited for future nanomaterial deposition applications.
The A*STAR-affiliated researchers contributing to this research are from the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it approved a new drug from Biogen Idec to control multiple sclerosis in adults with hard-to-treat forms of the disease.
The twice-a-day capsules, called Tecfidera, offer a new option for multiple sclerosis, a debilitating disease in which the body attacks its own nervous system. Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen Idec already sells two other drugs for the disease, but both require injections.
There is no cure for multiple sclerosis and most patients experience relapses of symptoms, including loss of balance, weakness in arms and legs, and blurred vision. Over time patients usually become weaker and less coordinated. More than 2 million people worldwide have the disease, with about 400,000 of them in the U.S., according to Biogen.
The FDA said it approved Tecfidera based on two studies showing patients taking the drug had fewer relapses than patients taking a dummy pill.
The approval gives Biogen a new product in an increasingly crowded field of multiple sclerosis drugs.
The biotech drugmaker already sells the once-a-week multiple sclerosis injection Avonex. It also markets the once-a-month injection Tysabri through a partnership with Elan Corp. PLC of Ireland. However, Tysabri's severe side effects have curtailed its use.
Tecfidera is designed to be taken orally, which could make it a preferred option for patients and doctors.
A Biogen executive said Wednesday that its three drugs would be used to treat different groups of patients.
"Multiple sclerosis is a reasonably complex disease and we think there are a lot of needs out there," said Tony Kingsely, a vice president at Biogen. "By having three drugs out there I think we can address a lot of those needs."
Kinglsey said the company will announce the pricing of the drug when it begins shipping in the next week.
Novartis launched the first pill-based multiple sclerosis drug, Gilenya, in March 2011. Sanofi won FDA approval for a second pill, its drug Aubagio, last September.
The top-selling drug for the disease worldwide is Copaxone, which is made by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. That injection had sales of nearly $4 billion last year, according to Teva's latest financial report.
Avonex and Tysabri had annual sales of $2.7 billion and $1.5 billion in 2011, the most recent year for which Biogen has reported annual sales.
Biogen Idec Inc. shares rose $5.59, or 3.2 percent, to close Wednesday at $182.68.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-approves-multiple-sclerosis-capsules-220534878.html
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Drone warfare isn't going anywhere, but drone utility could be growing. Marc Lallanilla, assistant editor at Live Science, proposes eight "totally cool" new uses for drones.
This 2004 photo shows the then-new drone flying near Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The unmanned drone, launched by the Border Patrol in June 2004, uses thermal and night-vision equipment to help agents spot illegal immigrants trying to cross the desert into the United States.
John Miller / AP
EnlargeJust a few years ago, drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), were virtually unknown.
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But the remote-controlled aircraft have stealthily slipped over the horizon and are now causing a buzz from Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to the rain forests of Sumatra.
"I am convinced that the domestic use of drones to conduct surveillance and collect other information will have a broad and significant impact on the everyday lives of millions of Americans," Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of a Senate Judiciary Committee looking into drone legislation, said on Thursday, March 21, CNN reports.
There's little doubt that UAV technology is here to stay, but their use isn't limited to cloak-and-dagger operations and military technology. Here are eight totally cool ways the drone can be your friend:
Daniel G?rate had a lucrative career as a UAV videographer, using his $5,000 drone to capture stirring images of high-end properties for the Los Angeles real-estate market ? until the Los Angeles Police Department shut him down, declaring that commercial uses for drones were not allowed, the New York Times reports.
That's no longer the case, since a federal law signed in 2012 opened drone technology to commercial applications. G?rate, who also uses drones to take videos for commercials, has also been approached to take paparazzi-style photos of celebrities like Kim Kardashian, the Times reports.
Falkor Systems, a pioneer in the consumer use of UAV technology, has targeted extreme sports photography and video for drone use, focusing on skiing and base-jumping activities.
"The angles people get [while filming] are not quite as intimate as would be possible with an autonomous flying robot," said Sameer Parekh, Falkor CEO, who envisions a small UAV device that can accompany a downhill skier.
"You just take it out, let it take off and it follows you down the hill. You get back on the ski lift and put it back in your backpack," Parekh said.
There are roughly 4 million miles of highways crisscrossing the United States, but who's watching them all? Drones, someday.
A project to study the use of drones for inspecting roads and bridges, surveying land with laser mapping and alerting officials to traffic jams and accidents recently received a $75,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration and the Georgia Department of Transportation.
"Drones could keep workers safer because they won't be going into traffic or hanging off a bridge," said Javier Irizarry, director of the CONECTech Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, as quoted by LiveScience's sister site TechNewsDaily. "It would help with physical limitations of the human when doing this kind of work."
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been testing the Raven A, a small, camera-equipped drone that's about 3 feet (1 meter) long, to see if it can be used to conduct aerial counts of the endangered sandhill crane (Grus canadensis pulla).?
"We flew the [drone] over the cranes when they were roosting, feeding, and loafing to see how they reacted," said Leanne Hanson, a field biologist, in a USGS report. "They sat still for us when they were roosting and loafing, but birds flushed during feeding. We will plan missions during roosting and loafing times, when their behavior is not affected."
And critically endangered Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) nest in treetops, making them difficult to study. Drones, however, can easily navigate the primates' aeries, providing valuable information that will assist in conservation activities, reports PCMag.com.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/U1B4hUijrOU/Drones-Not-just-for-war-anymore
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AP
Keana Barnes, who was serving a 25-year sentence for manslaughter, escaped from a Louisiana prison but has now been recaptured in Los Angeles. This photo was released Jan. 4, 2013, by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.
By Samantha Tata, NBCLosAngeles.com
LOS ANGELES -- A nationwide search for a convicted killer ended in Los Angeles when police spotted a fugitive who has been on the lam for months after escaping prison in Louisiana, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Keana Barnes broke out of the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in January. She was arrested on Monday?near Skid Row, some 1,800 miles west of the prison where she was being held.
The U.S. Marshals Service added Barnes to the agency's?15 Most Wanted list 11 days before she was captured. Barnes initially refused to give the officers her name, but ultimately confessed her identity.
Prison officials discovered the window was broken in Barnes? cell. She was serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted of two counts of manslaughter in 2002, U.S. Marshals officials said.
More news from NBCLosAngeles.com
Authorities said Barnes? ?extremely violent criminal history? dates back to 1999. She has prior convictions of aggravated assault, battery, theft and manslaughter.
In 2002, Barnes fatally stabbed one victim 17 times, U.S. Marshals officials said.
While awaiting the outcome of her murder trial, Barnes allegedly shot and killed a man while he slept in 2003, authorities said.
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Sasha and Malia Obama at the Inaugural parade (AP/Gerald Herbert)
Speaking on a radio program, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, ripped into President Obama for sending his daughters, Sasha and Malia, on a vacation while the federal government is being squeezed by the so-called sequester.
ThinkProgress, a progressive blog, reports that King was speaking on the "Mickelson in the Morning" program. A listener named Carla called in and began to reprimand Michelle Obama for vacationing in the Bahamas with her two daughters.
"It's hard to stomach. When we're tightening our belts, we should either all do it or none of us do it," she said, referring to sequestration ? the recent round of automatic spending cuts that went into effect earlier this month when Congress and President Obama failed to reach a budget agreement.
Earlier this week, conservative news outlet Breitbart.com reported that the girls were on spring break, and named the resort where they were staying.
King agreed with the caller, saying, "Carla, you're on point and on the mark all the way through." King then went on to mention that the girls vacationed in Mexico the year before.
"He sent the daughters to spring break in Mexico a year ago," King said, referring to President Obama. "That was at our expense, too. And now to the Bahamas at one of the most expensive places there. That is the wrong image to be coming out of the White House."
The Obamas pay for family vacations themselves. But critics complain that those costs do not include security measures.
King, who is mulling over a Senate bid in 2014, has been an outspoken critic of President Obama for years. During the 2008 presidential campaign, King predicted that should Obama beat John McCain, "then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaida, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 ..."
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Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/william-shatner-appalled-irs-star-trek-spoof-161348670.html
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In The Conversation, David Brooks and Gail Collins talk between columns every Wednesday.
David Brooks: I guess the Supreme Court hearing on same-sex marriage is pretty much dominating the week.
Gail Collins: Whew. I was afraid you were going to demand we discuss college basketball. Go, Marquette!
David: Well, I confess that my emotional life right now revolves around the question of whether Indiana can win a slowed-down, half-court game against a quality opponent. Fortunately, their next two prospective opponents, Syracuse and Miami, are run-and-gun type teams. But I thought it unfair to burden you with that. All of us in the coastal media have to overplay the importance of these same-sex marriage Supreme Court hearings and I?m trying to do my part.
Gail: Even if the Court comes up with some weenie dodge-the-issue ruling, I think we?ll remember this as a big moment that marked a dramatic change in American attitudes.
David: Like everybody else, I?m kind of amazed by the shift in public opinion on this issue. In 3,000 years of Western civilization, no major culture has shifted this fast to give gays and lesbians equality, as the U.S. and Europe have recently. It?s astounding.
Gail: The civil rights movement was the transcendent experience in modern American history. The people didn?t just accept social change ? they gradually re-evaluated their whole history, and it made them extremely sensitive to issues of fairness. And once the American public decides something?s not fair, the battle is pretty much over.
David: I?d ascribe part of the shift, as Frank Bruni did the other day, to those gays and lesbians who were brave enough to come out and show the world what they look like. I?d also say that the deal was sealed once the issue became about marriage. That is, once gays and lesbians were seeking access to one of the most traditional institutions in society, then they were bound to win more support.
Gail: Let?s give some special credit to the normal, run-of-the-mill TV entertainment industry. I have a very clear memory of watching the first season of ?The Amazing Race? in 2001. Each pair of contestants had some little ID tag, like ?bowling moms? or ?fraternity brothers.? There were two guys with a ?life partners? tag. That was the very first time I thought: ?Wow, this is going to work out.?
David: This leads to a general rule. If you want to win respect for your formerly excluded group, try to be more culturally conservative than anybody else. This is something the great and underappreciated A. Philip Randolph understood. You can be politically radical if you are culturally conservative and still get a hearing. The radicals of the 1960s got this one wrong.
Gail: That may be part of a larger rule, which is that people have to be able to identify with the excluded folks. The greatest warriors for gay marriage have been the average gay people who came out to their families and friends and communities. I grew up in one of the most socially conservative neighborhoods in Ohio, and my parents were traditional Catholics. But in her old age, my mother got her home health care from a guy who was gay, who was wonderful to her. Before she died, she rode a float in the Cincinnati Gay Pride Parade.
I don?t know what plans Rob Portman, the Republican senator from Cincinnati, has for the next parade. But we all know what happened to his position on gay marriage when his son came out.
David: Does this feel reversible to you? Everybody is simply assuming that gays and lesbians are winning more acceptance and respect and that this status can never be taken away. I guess I sort of think that is true, but history is full of reversals and shifts. Let?s say evidence develops over the decade that same-sex marriages are not stable and that the outcomes for children are not as good. I guess that might turn the tide. I see opponents of same-sex marriage already turning to Darwin (Oh, the irony!), arguing that children do best when both parents are biologically connected to them.
I wouldn?t be surprised if same-sex marriage shook out the way hetero marriage has ? great stability at the top of the educated class, great instability among the less educated.
Gail: Well, it?d certainly be fascinating if we discovered that gays were better at being married than heterosexuals are. Talk about irony.
David: What should we make of people who opposed gay marriage? Should they be treated like Bull Connor and thrown onto the bad guy lists of history? Is opposing gay marriage now the moral equivalent of opposing the Civil Rights Act, a stain and career ender?
Personally, I don?t think the two are quite comparable. Straight marriage had been around for thousands and thousands of years. It?s not disgraceful to be careful about seeing it redefined. I was never an opponent of gay marriage, but I can?t dismiss the skepticism of people who instinctively resisted change to an ancient and fundamental institution.
Gail: There have been tons of politicians who were slow to accept equal rights when it meant changes in the established social order. Many eventually came around, admitted they were wrong, and were forgiven. But the ones who actively choose hate-mongering don?t ever get a pass.
David: Speaking of marriage, what do you make about Mayor Bloomberg?s posters that try to raise awareness about the downsides of teen motherhood. I would have phrased them differently, so that they don?t appear to stigmatize parents, but I?m glad he?s at least publicizing the facts about this issue.
Gail: Mike Bloomberg, I?m sorry to say, is a walking advertisement for term limits. We?re now in year 12 and lately, everything he does sounds like a nag. I?m looking forward to the day when he can go off and underwrite the gun control movement 24-7.
David: There is no social trend more harmful to America?s future than the rise of out-of-wedlock birth, and aggressive steps need to be taken to reverse this trend.
Gail: The bottom line on single parenthood is the massive changes in the American economy. Women no longer have to stick with unhappy relationships in order to survive. And if they want to have children, they no longer necessarily need a man to support them. I understand your concern, but telling them not to do it isn?t going to work.
David: There are two related issues here. First the rate of teenage pregnancy, highlighted in the poster campaign, and then the rise of single parenthood generally. I?d say the problem is not women leaving unhappy relationships. It?s teenagers having kids before marriage, without any prospect of marriage, while living in environments in which marriage is not even a social norm. It?s the absence of marriageable men. It?s the absence of working-class jobs. It?s lonely people wanting a child they can care for and love. It?s a million different things woven together. Somehow we have to reverse the decline in marriage, without trying to solve every last contributing factor, since unless we can get more kids living in stable homes, all the problems just get worse.
The job is to make marriage more attractive (which basically means creating more men who are worth marrying) and making single parenthood less attractive (which means attaching some stigma to it since the economic penalties are already so profound). The trick is making single parenthood less attractive while not stigmatizing those who are in this position, usually because of ?a series of complex causes and no fault of their own.
I guess the posters fail that test, but at least someone is trying to inform the public about the facts.
Gail: Conservatives were sure that if you eliminated welfare for single moms, it would eliminate ? or at lease greatly reduce ? single motherhood. So in 1996 we had welfare reform. Did not change the trend in the least. Soon half of all babies will be born out of wedlock.
I?ll rally around your ideas to help make lower-income young men more employable. But I don?t think the stigma idea is going to work at all. Let me recommend better high school sex education instead. And maybe a generous contribution to Planned Parenthood.
David: You show me a sex-ed program that works and I?ll give you Marquette as national champion.
Source: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/marriage-security-and-insecurities/
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Jahenns Manigat #12 of the Creighton Bluejays goes up for a shot in front of Quinn Cook #2 of the Duke Blue Devils in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Seth Curry #30 of the Duke Blue Devils grabs a loose ball against Avery Dingman #22 of the Creighton Bluejays in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Tyler Thornton #3 of the Duke Blue Devils makes a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer against the Creighton Bluejays during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils calls out in the first half against the Creighton Bluejays during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Mason Plumlee #5 of the Duke Blue Devils with the ball in front of Gregory Echenique #00 of the Creighton Bluejays in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Quinn Cook #2 of the Duke Blue Devils reacts in the first half while taking on the Creighton Bluejays during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Austin Chatman #1 of the Creighton Bluejays brings the ball up against Quinn Cook #2 of the Duke Blue Devils in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Jahenns Manigat #12 of the Creighton Bluejays shoots over Seth Curry #30 of the Duke Blue Devils in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Ethan Wragge #34 and Ryan Kelly #34 of the Duke Blue Devils battle for a loose ball in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Grant Gibbs #10 of the Creighton Bluejays dunks the ball in the first half while taking on the Duke Blue Devils during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Avery Dingman #22 of the Creighton Bluejays drives on Seth Curry #30 of the Duke Blue Devils in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Durand Scott #1 of the Miami Hurricanes shoots against Joseph Bertrand #2 of the Illinois Fighting Illini in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Sam McLaurin #0 of the Illinois Fighting Illini attempts to save a ball against Tonye Jekiri #23 of the Miami Hurricanes in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Head coach John Groce of the Illinois Fighting Illini reacts in the first half against the Miami Hurricanes during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Reggie Johnson #42 of the Miami Hurricanes reacts after loosing the ball in the first half against the Illinois Fighting Illini during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Tracy Abrams #13 of the Illinois Fighting Illini shoots over Shane Larkin #0 of the Miami Hurricanes in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Brandon Paul #3 of the Illinois Fighting Illini shoots over Reggie Johnson #42 of the Miami Hurricanes in the second half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Tyler Griffey #42 of the Illinois Fighting Illini looks on as the Miami Hurricanes huddle in the second half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Kenny Kadji #35 of the Miami Hurricanes shoots over Nnanna Egwu #32 of the Illinois Fighting Illini in the second half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Brandon Paul #3 of the Illinois Fighting Illini looks to shoot against the defense of Shane Larkin #0 and Julian Gamble #45 of the Miami Hurricanes in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Nnanna Egwu #32 of the Illinois Fighting Illini shoots over Julian Gamble #45 of the Miami Hurricanes in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The Illinois Fighting Illini band performs in the first half against the Miami Hurricanes during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Brandon Paul #3 of the Illinois Fighting Illini goes up against Julian Gamble #45 of the Miami Hurricanes in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The Illinois Fighting Illini cheerleaders perform in the first half against the Miami Hurricanes during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Shane Larkin #0 of the Miami Hurricanes drives against Sam McLaurin #0 of the Illinois Fighting Illini in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Casey Prather #24 of the Florida Gators goes up against Maurice Walker #15 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Rodney Williams #33 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers goes up against Erik Murphy #33 of the Florida Gators in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Scottie Wilbekin #5 of the Florida Gators drives against Andre Hollins #1 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the seocnd half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Andre Hollins #1 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers drives past Scottie Wilbekin #5 of the Florida Gators in the second half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Head coach Billy Donovan of the Florida Gators talks to his team in the second half against the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Mike Rosario #3 of the Florida Gators and Elliott Eliason #55 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers vie for posession in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Andre Hollins #1 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers drives past Scottie Wilbekin #5 of the Florida Gators in the second half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The Minnesota Golden Gophers bench reacts in the second half against the Florida Gators during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Austin Hollins #20 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers talks to head coach Tubby Smith in the second half against the Florida Gators during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Casey Prather #24 of the Florida Gators shoots against the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at The Frank Erwin Center on March 24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
James Michael McAdoo #43 of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts in the first half against the Kansas Jayhawks during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Ben McLemore #23 and Travis Releford #24 of the Kansas Jayhawks walk on the court in the first half against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
The mascot and cheerleaders for the Kansas Jayhawks perform against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Travis Releford #24 of the Kansas Jayhawks reacts in the first half against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
P.J. Hairston #15 of the North Carolina Tar Heels drives for a shot attempt against Jeff Withey #5 of the Kansas Jayhawks during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
James Michael McAdoo #43 of the North Carolina Tar Heels attempts a shot in the first half against Jeff Withey #5 of the Kansas Jayhawks during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Ben McLemore #23 of the Kansas Jayhawks drives for a shot attempt in the first half against Reggie Bullock #35 of the North Carolina Tar Heels during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Kevin Young #40 of the Kansas Jayhawks fights for a rebound against James Michael McAdoo #43 of the North Carolina Tar Heels in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Dexter Strickland #1 of the North Carolina Tar Heels huddles up with teammates against the Kansas Jayhawks during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Members of the band for the North Carolina Tar Heels perform against the Kansas Jayhawks during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Kevin Young #40 of the Kansas Jayhawks reacts in the first half against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
The Kansas Jayhawks huddle prior to playing against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts as he coaches against the Kansas Jayhawks in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Head coach Bill Self of the Kansas Jayhawks greets head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels prior to coaching against each other during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Sprint Center on March 24, 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Will Cummings #2 of the Temple Owls drives with the ball against Yogi Ferrell #11 of the Indiana Hoosiers in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at UD Arena on March 24, 2013 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
Cody Zeller #40 of the Indiana Hoosiers handles the ball against Jake O'Brien #22 of the Temple Owls in the first half during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at UD Arena on March 24, 2013 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/vander-blue-marquette-buzz-williams-sweet-16_n_2958497.html
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