Sunday, March 31, 2013

A Computer Inside a Living Cell? It Has Now Been Done | Video ...

Humans have long been adding technology to their body to improve health, like pacemakers for example. But scientists have recently announced the creation of a bit of technology from a living system ? they?ve made a computer in a cell.

Stanford University Researchers Create Biological Computer

Illustration of DNA (Image: Shutterstock.com)

Stanford University bioengineers made a transistor?? the ?transcriptor? ??out of genetic material (DNA and RNA).

?Biological computers can be used to study and reprogram living systems, monitor environments and improve cellular therapeutics,??Drew Endy, assistant professor of bioengineering and senior author of the paper published in the journal Science with the lead author Jerome Bonnet, said in a statement.

As the San Jose Mercury News explained further, it could detect things like diseases and toxins and be programmed to kill cells that are multiplying out of control.

While in electronics a transistor would control electrons, the ?transcriptor? controls the protein RNA polymerase along a strand of DNA.

Endy explained that the researchers ?repurposed? proteins called integrases that could control the flow of RNA polymerase as it moved along DNA. This then allowed the team to create ?amplifying genetic logic.?

Here?s more from the press release on how the biological computer was developed:

Using transcriptors, the team has created what are known in electrical engineering as logic gates that can derive true-false answers to virtually any biochemical question that might be posed within a cell.

They refer to their transcriptor-based logic gates as ?Boolean Integrase Logic,? or ?BIL gates? for short.

Transcriptor-based gates alone do not constitute a computer, but they are the third and final component of a biological computer that could operate within individual living cells.

Despite their outward differences, all modern computers, from ENIAC to Apple, share three basic functions: storing, transmitting and performing logical operations on information.

Last year, Endy and his team made news in delivering the other two core components of a fully functional genetic computer. The first was a type of rewritable digital data storage within DNA. They also developed a mechanism for transmitting genetic information from cell to cell, a sort of biological Internet.

It all adds up to creating a computer inside a living cell.

Here?s more of a visual explanation from Endy:

Endy told the Mercury News that someday such computers will be able to go inside any living cell.

?Any place you want a little bit of logic, a little bit of computation, a little bit of memory ? we?re going to be able to do that,? Endy said.

The university press released included study co-author Monica Ortiz saying ?the potential?applications are limited only by the imagination of the researcher.?

The biological computer described in the journal funded by the?National Science Foundation?and the Townshend Lamarre Foundation finalizes 10 years of research, the Mercury News pointed out.

Here?s a comic created by the university to help explain the idea as well:
synthbinder

Read more details about the study on Stanford?s website here.?

Source: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/30/a-computer-inside-a-living-cell-it-has-now-been-done/

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carline corduroys: Food & Drink: Tips On Cooking Fish : How-to ...

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WonderCon '13 | A round-up of news from Saturday | Robot 6 ...

by JK Parkin | March 31, 2013 @ 10:03 AM | 1 Comment | The Rocketeer/Spirit: Pulp Friction

The Rocketeer/Spirit: Pulp Friction

It doesn?t look like there were as many comic-related announcements on Saturday at WonderCon as there were on Friday, but the second day of the con certainly brought some gems.

? IDW and DC announced that Mark Waid (Daredevil, Insufferable) and Paul Smith (Uncanny X-Men, Leave it to Chance) are teaming up for The Rocketeer/Spirit: Pulp Friction. ?Not many writers have been lucky enough to write The Rocketeer or The Spirit,? Waid said in a press release, ?so I feel like I?ve won the lottery. This is one of the most exciting-and scariest-assignments I?ve ever undertaken. Luckily, I?ve got Paul Smith to make me look good!? The first issue of the miniseries arrives in July.

? IDW also announced the creative team for their THUNDER Agents revival. Writer Phil Hester (Godzilla, Wonder Woman) and artist Andrea Di Vito (Dungeons & Dragons) are the latest team to chronicle the adventures of the agents. Dave Sim and Jerry Ordway will provide covers.

? ?Star Trek: After Darkness? will serve as an epilogue to this summer?s big Star Trek sequel. It?ll run in issues #21-23 of IDW?s ongoing Star Trek title, written by regular series writer Mike Johnson with art from Stellar Labs.

? And finally from IDW, the publisher will release Visual Funk, an art book featuring the work of Jim Mahfood, in October, as well as a Black Dynamite miniseries that starts in September. .

? Jeff Smith announced that his next project is called T?ki Save the Humans. It?ll be a free, weekly webcomic, followed by print collections.

? Aspen Comics announced its summer event ?The Elite Saga,? which also serves as a celebration and culmination of 15 years of Fathom.

? Legendary Comics will publish Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero, a prequel to the film coming out this summer. The graphic novel will be written by the film?s writer Travis Beacham and supervised by director Guillermo del Toro. It will feature a cover by Alex Ross and interior art by Sean Chen, Yvel Guichet and Pericles Junior with inks by Steve Bird and Mark McKenna.

Tagged: Alex Ross, Andrea Di Vito, Aspen Comics, comic books, comic conventions, DC Comics, graphic novels, Guillermo del Toro, IDW Publishing, Jeff Smith, Jim Mahfood, Legendary Comics, Mark McKenna, Mark Waid, movies, Pacific Rim, Paul Smith, Pericles Junior, Phil Hester, Sean Chen, Steve Bird, the Rocketeer, The Spirit, thunder agents, Travis Beacham, T?ki Save the Humans, webcomics, WonderCon, Yvel Guichet

Source: http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/03/wondercon-13-a-round-up-of-news-from-saturday/

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You Have My Attention... Hello! - Internet Marketing Business Forum

Hey, what?s up? I didn't see an introduction area so I guess this is ok. I?m Steve and I?m a 24 year old guy from the UK. I?m dedicated to making a living on the Internet and be a part of this community, contributing, sharing my experiences and all that jazz.

I consider myself an enthusiastic and hard working entrepreneur that always achieves my goals in the online marketing industry and still enjoying life outside. I haven?t won the lottery (yet), and I?m not some guru claiming millions. I am still young but I?m definitely on the road to success.

My Story

I used to have this job as a multimedia sales assistant for 5 years and in between that I was studying health and fitness which I am now a certified personal trainer. As time went on Personal Training in my area is not easy and working in a gym was too competitive so I ended up pulling the plug seeking a new path.

It was a weird feeling but I wanted to focus on what I really enjoyed and that was Internet Marketing. I got myself an Internet Marketing coach and I was doing Online Marketing Management with a company. Unfortunately I was made redundant but after feeling bad about it, I immediately decided to work for myself.

So now I?m here and I just want to say that I look forward to speaking with other IMB Forum members and getting involved in the conversations.

All The Best,
Steve.

Source: http://www.imbforum.com/internet-marketing-online-business-work-home-lobby/16868-you-have-my-attention-hello.html

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Whiplash (talking-points-memo)

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Free home improvement consultation for Shoreline residents

Summer is coming! Do you need some advice or moral support to get started? The Shoreline Planning and Community Development Department has organized two after hours events to help Shoreline residents advance from thinking about a project to take the next step with their home remodels, driveway replacements, drainage fixes, decks and more.?

The events will be Tuesday, April 30 and Thursday, May 30 from 6 to 8pm in the City Council Chambers. Please email us to request a 15 minute "one-on-one" consultation with Shoreline's construction and development staff. You can request a consultation for either date or both to get more advice or to update us on your progress.?

We will also invite local Shoreline home improvement merchants, contractors and service providers to help answer your questions. There will be work tables, handouts, maps and permitting information. So gather your "back of the napkin" to fully engineered plans, pictures or just your ideas and bring them to your free consultation.?We hope to repeat these events each Spring.?

Contact Paul Cohen, Planning Manager at 206-801-2551?if you have any questions.?

Hope to see you there! Attire: tool belts and coveralls welcome.

Source: http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2013/03/free-home-improvement-consultation-for.html

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Mandela spends second night in hospital

By Jon Herskovitz

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela spent a second night in hospital being treated for a lung infection while the South African government sought to reassure the nation about the health of its first black president and hero of the anti-apartheid struggle.

The 94-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate received well wishes from global figures including U.S. President Barak Obama after he was admitted to hospital before midnight on Wednesday, his third stint in hospital in four months.

The government said on Thursday he was responding well to treatment but had no new statement on his condition as of Friday morning.

Current President Jacob Zuma urged the nation to remain calm and has asked people across South Africa and the world to pray for him.

"Of course I have been saying to people, you should bear in mind Madiba is no longer that young and if he goes for check-ups every now and again, I don't think people must be alarmed about it," Zuma told the BBC on Thursday.

"I would like to really say the country must not panic."

Madiba is the clan name by which many South Africans refer to Mandela.

Mandela has been mostly absent from the political scene for the past decade but remains an enduring and beloved symbol of the struggle against racism.

He is revered at home and abroad leading the struggle against white minority rule - including spending 27 years in prison on Robben Island - and then promoting the cause of racial reconciliation.

He became South Africa's first black president after winning the country's first all-race election in 1994.

LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

U.S. President Obama sent Mandela his best wishes.

"When you think of a single individual that embodies the kind of leadership qualities that I think we all aspire to, the first name that comes up is Nelson Mandela. And so we wish him all the very best," he said.

Mandela was in hospital briefly earlier this month for a check-up and spent nearly three weeks in hospital in December with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones.

That was his longest stay in hospital since his release from prison in 1990 after serving almost three decades for conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government.

Mandela has a history of lung problems dating back to when he contracted tuberculosis as a political prisoner.

As he has receded from public life, critics say his ruling African National Congress (ANC) has lost the moral compass he bequeathed it when he stepped down as president in 1999.

Under such leaders as Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, the ANC gained wide international respect as it battled white rule.

Once the yoke of apartheid was thrown off, it began governing South Africa in a blaze of goodwill from world leaders who viewed it as a beacon for a troubled continent and world.

Almost two decades later however, this image has dimmed as ANC leaders have been accused of indulging in the spoils of office, squandering mineral resources and engaging in power struggles.

Mandela spent much of last year in Qunu, his ancestral village in the poor Eastern Cape province. But since his release from hospital in December he has been at his home in an affluent Johannesburg suburb, closer to sophisticated medical facilities.

(The story corrects Obama to Mandela in 11th para.)

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africas-mandela-spends-second-night-hospital-092102547.html

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The Hail Mary Products of Desperate Companies

The Hail Mary Products of Desperate Companies
When the chips are down and it looks like a company is on a one-way trip to shutdown town, you often see a Hail Mary product. It's the long shot, the one thing that could save the company. Sometimes it ...

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/03/hail-mary-products/

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Thursday Scoop

Thursday Scoop

Kelly Osbourne rushed to the hospital

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/03/thursday-scoop-4/

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

The power of the gay kiss (Americablog)

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Cypriot banks set to reopen after 12 days -- but customers can only withdraw $383 each

Yannis Behrakis / Reuters

A staff member of Laiki Bank, which is to be liquidated, tries to calm customers as the branch in Nicosia prepares to open.

By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News

Banks on the tax haven of Cyprus opened Thursday for the first time in 12 days amid the island's continuing financial crisis.

Strict limits on the amount of money that could be withdrawn have been imposed ? people will be able to withdraw 300 euros ($383) a day and no checks will be cashed ? amid fears of a run on the banks.

Account holders showed up hours before the banks were due to open to get in line.

Early indications were that there was no mass rush to withdraw cash, with just 13 people waiting outside one large Bank of Cyprus branch on the island as it opened at noon local time (6 a.m. ET). They were surrounded by a scrum of journalists.

?We need only from you cooperation, understanding and please patience,? the manager of the branch said before opening.

However a small crowd of people did press against the doors of a branch of Laiki Bank, which is being liquidated. CNBC sources estimate those with more than 100,000 euros (about $128,000) in accounts in Laiki Bank could lose 40 to 70 percent of their deposits.

During the banking shutdown, people could only withdraw 100 euros (about $127) a day from the country's two biggest banks, using ATMs.?Most who lined up for the opening Thursday were elderly people and those without ATM cards.?

Deposits above 100,000 euros with the Bank of Cyprus will be frozen and 40 percent of each account will be converted into bank stock. Accounts in both banks with balances under 100,000 euros will be fully protected.

A previous proposal to take less from all bank accounts?was vetoed by the Cypriot parliament.

The country is seeking to meet the terms of a bailout from the European Union of 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) and, in order to raise enough funds to meet strict conditions imposed by the EU, it is preparing to take money from bank accounts.

CNBC's Michelle Caruso Cabrera reports on banks reopening in Cyprus and the limits they've imposed on depositors. The situation, she says, is calmer than expected.

Ahead of the banks? reopening, money was flown into the island and guards were seen delivering cash to banks in armored vehicles.

The banks were due to close at 6 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET).

There was some relief on the island that the banks were finally opening again, but this was mixed with fear about what could happen.

'Slow death'
Yorgos Georgiou, who owns a dry cleaning business in Nicosia, told Reuters that "finally people's mood will be lifted and we can start to trust the system again."

But he added: "I'm worried about the poor kids working in the cashiers today, because people might vent their anger at them. You can't predict how people will react after so many days."

Kostas Nikolaou, a 60-year-old retiree, told Reuters that the uncertainty of the past two weeks had been "like a slow death."

"How can they tell you that you can't access your own money in the bank? It's our money, we are entitled to it,? he added.

The country?s president, Nicos Anastasiades, has described the bailout deal as ?painful? but essential.

However, Nobel laureate economist Christopher Pissarides said it was ?extremely unfair to the little guy.?

?For the first time in the euro zone, depositors are (being) asked to bail out failing banks," he said. "Now that used to be the case in the 1930s, especially United States (and) caused big bank runs. It has been decided since then that we shouldn?t allow that to happen again.?

As Cyprus celebrates its Independence Day, the ?government is defending the last-minute bailout deal it's negotiated with the European Union. This means shutting down the country's second biggest bank, with big savers facing ?losses. ?ITV's Emma Murphy reports.

Among other controls, the island's central bank will review all commercial transactions over 5,000 euros and scrutinize transactions over 200,000 euros on an individual basis, Reuters reported. People leaving Cyprus can take only 1,000 euros with them. An earlier draft of the decree had put the figure at 3,000.

Reuters summed up the situation facing the island:

With just 860,000 people, Cyprus has about 68 billion euros in its banks - a vastly outsized financial system that attracted deposits from foreigners as an offshore haven but foundered after investments in neighboring Greece went sour.

The European Union and International Monetary Fund concluded that Cyprus could not afford a rescue unless it imposed losses on depositors, seen as anathema in previous euro zone bailouts.?The bailout looks set to push Cyprus deeper into an economic slump, shrink the banking sector and cost thousands of jobs.

European leaders said the bailout deal averted a chaotic national bankruptcy that might have forced Cyprus out of the euro.

Many Cypriots say the deal was foisted upon them by Cyprus's partners in the 17-nation euro zone within the European Union, and some have taken to the streets to vent their frustration.

CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and Katie Slaman, and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

Cypriots fear run on banks as branches prepare to reopen

Cypriots: Hope, but also fear they 'will be like slaves' to Russia

EU to Cypriots: Let us raid your savings or no bailout

This story was originally published on

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Gay marriage at high court: How a case can fizzle

Wyatt Tan, left and Mark Nomadiou, both of New York City, kiss in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, prior to the start of a court hearing on the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In the second of back-to-back gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court is turning to a constitutional challenge to the law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Wyatt Tan, left and Mark Nomadiou, both of New York City, kiss in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, prior to the start of a court hearing on the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In the second of back-to-back gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court is turning to a constitutional challenge to the law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

This artist rendering shows Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan addressing the Supreme Court, including Justices Samuel Alito, left, and Elena Kagan, right, in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, as the court heard arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). (AP Photo/Dana Verkouteren)

Allan Hoyle of North Carolina, with the large white sign, center, speaks out against gay marriage across from the street from the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2013, after the court heard arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) case. The U.S. Supreme Court, in the second day of gay marriage cases, turned Wednesday to a constitutional challenge to the federal law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

(AP) ? Late in the oral argument over same-sex marriage in California, Justice Anthony Kennedy made a startling comment, given the months of buildup and mountain of legal briefs that have descended on the justices.

"You might address why you think we should take and decide this case," Kennedy said to lawyer Charles Cooper, representing opponents of same-sex marriage.

One might have thought the court had already crossed that bridge.

But now the justices were openly discussing essentially walking away from the case over California's Proposition 8, a voter-approved ban on gay marriage, without deciding anything at all about such unions.

Indeed, this case offers a rare glimpse at the court's opaque internal workings, in which justices make cold political calculations about what to do and Kennedy's often-decisive vote can never be far from his colleagues' minds.

The court on Wednesday concluded two days of arguments involving gay marriage. In the second case, a constitutional challenge to a portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, a majority of the court appeared likely to rule that legally married gay couples should be able to receive a range of benefits that the law currently reserves for straight married couples.

The decision to hear the DOMA case was easy. The Supreme Court almost always has the final word when lower courts strike down a federal law, as they did in this case.

Proposition 8's route to the Supreme Court was not as obvious. The appeals court ruling under review by the justices seems to have been written to discourage the high court from ever taking up the case because it applies only to California and limited a much broader opinion that had emerged earlier from the trial court.

And yet in December, the court decided it would hear the case. It takes a majority of five to decide a case a particular way, but just four justices can vote to add a case to the calendar. And the court does not disclose how the justices vote at this stage.

It seems apparent after the argument, though, that it was the conservative justices who opted to hear Proposition 8. It also seems that one factor in their decision was that this could be their last, best opportunity to slow the nation's march toward recognition of gay marriage at a time when only nine states and the District of Columbia allow gays and lesbians to marry ? despite a rapid swing in public opinion in favor of gay marriage.

From their comments and questions Tuesday, Justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia indicated they preferred what they called the cautious approach: allowing the debate over gay marriage to play out in the states and not overturning by judicial fiat the will of California voters who approved Proposition 8 in 2008. Justice Clarence Thomas, as is his custom, said nothing during the argument, but he and Scalia were dissenters in the court's earlier two gay rights cases in 1996 and 2003.

Chief Justice John Roberts also had tough questions for lawyers for the same-sex couples who sued for the right to marry, and for the Obama administration.

Scalia sought to counter Kennedy's comment, and a similar one from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, that maybe the court should get rid of the case.

"It's too late for that, too late for that now, isn't it? I mean, we granted cert," Scalia said, using the legal shorthand for the court's decision to hear a case. "We have crossed that river, I think."

Once or twice a term, occasionally more often, the justices do dismiss cases after they have been argued, without rendering opinions and establishing a rule for the whole nation. The language they use is the wonderfully vague "dismissed as improvidently granted." Roughly translated, it means "sorry for wasting everyone's time."

That is one potential outcome, discussed publicly by Kennedy and Sotomayor.

Another possibility would be a decision limited to the technical legal question of whether the Proposition 8 supporters have the right to defend the measure in court. If they don't, the court can't reach the broader issues in the case.

On this point, Roberts' view seemed more in line with questions from some of the liberal justices.

So why would a justice who appeared favorably inclined to California's ban on gay marriage want to rule that the case should not even be in front of the court?

The answer is that Roberts might want to dispose of the case in this narrow way if he saw a decision in support of gay marriage emerging and wanted to block it. Or, he might choose this route if the justices appeared unable to reach a decisive ruling of any kind.

Narrowly based decisions sometimes seem more attractive to the justices than fractured rulings.

One example is the court's 2009 decision in a voting rights case in which eight of the justices agreed to sidestep the looming and major constitutional issue in the case after an argument in which the court appeared sharply split along ideological lines.

___

Follow Mark Sherman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shermancourt

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-28-US-Supreme-Court-Gay-Marriage/id-c2cda9e46d3b49759571c22f311674eb

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Mountain pine beetle genome decoded

Mar. 26, 2013 ? The genome of the mountain pine beetle -- the insect that has devastated B.C.'s lodgepole pine forests -- has been decoded by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre.

This is a first for the mountain pine beetle and only the second beetle genome ever sequenced. The first was the red flour beetle, a pest of stored grains. The genome is described in a study published Tuesday in the journal Genome Biology.

"We know a lot about what the beetles do," says Christopher Keeling, a research associate in Prof. Joerg Bohlmann's lab at the Michael Smith Laboratories. "But without the genome, we don't know exactly how they do it."

"Sequencing the mountain pine beetle genome provides new information that can be used to help manage the epidemic in the future."

The genome revealed large variation among individuals of the species -- about four times greater than the variation among humans.

"As the beetles' range expands and as they head into jack pine forests where the defensive compounds may be different, this variation could allow them to be more successful in new environments," says Keeling.

Researchers isolated genes that help detoxify defence compounds found under the bark of the tree -- where the beetles live. They also found genes that degrade plant cell walls, which allow the beetles to get nutrients from the tree.

Keeling, Bohlmann and their colleagues also uncovered a bacterial gene that has jumped into the mountain pine beetle genome. This gene codes for an enzyme that digests sugars.

"It might be used to digest woody tissue and/or the microorganisms that grow in the beetle's tunnels underneath the bark of the tree," said Keeling. "Gene transfers sometimes make organisms more successful in their environments."

This study involved researchers from the University of Northern British Columbia and the University of Alberta.

Characteristics of the mountain pine beetle genome

  • 12 pairs of chromosomes
  • Approximately 13,000 genes
  • The mountain pine beetle separated from the red flour beetle -- the only other beetle genome sequenced to date -- about 230 million years ago. According to Keeling, "the two insects have about the same relatedness as a pine tree and a head of lettuce."
  • The mountain pine beetle is closely related to other significant pests in North American forests such as the southern pine beetle, Douglas-fir beetle, eastern larch beetle, and spruce beetle. Insights gained from sequencing the mountain pine beetle genome can be transferred to these beetles, and other forest insect pests around the world.

Mountain pine beetle epidemic

The mountain pine beetle has infested over 18 million hectares of lodgepole pine in British Columbia -- an area more than five times larger than Vancouver Island -- causing enormous damage to the environment and forest industry. In recent years, the insect has moved further north and east, over the Canadian Rockies, and is now approaching the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. It is also beginning to infest other pine trees -- jack pine, a jack-lodgepole hybrid, limber pine, and the endangered whitebark pine. Jack pine boreal forests extend from Alberta to the Atlantic provinces. The mountain pine beetle also lives in Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona and South Dakota.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of British Columbia.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Christopher I Keeling, Macaire MS Yuen, Nancy Y Liao, T Roderick Docking, Simon K Chan, Greg A Taylor, Diana L Palmquist, Shaun D Jackman, Anh Nguyen, Maria Li, Hannah Henderson, Jasmine K Janes, Yongjun Zhao, Pawan Pandoh, Richard Moore, Felix AH Sperling, Dezene PW Huber, Inanc Birol, Stephen JM Jones, Joerg Bohlmann. Draft genome of the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, a major forest pest. Genome Biology, 2013; 14 (3): R27 DOI: 10.1186/gb-2013-14-3-r27

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/6phY8FTccr8/130327093612.htm

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Shootings, bomb attacks kill 5 across Iraq

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/shootings-bomb-attacks-kill-5-across-iraq-131722987.html

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Kordell Stewart, Porsha Williams Divorce Announced

Wow. The new star of the Real Housewives of Atlanta might be single and ready to mingle after this one! According to multiple outlets, NFL star Kordell Stewart and wifey Porsha Williams are no longer an item. Divorce docs were reportedly filed to end the marriage, which was seen in episodes of this season the reality show. The couple were newcomers on a show that featured the wild antics of NeNe Leakes. According to Stewart, their relationship was “irretrievably broken” and that they were already living separately. Obviously this has happened while they were in the middle of this season of the show, and it’s hard to tell whether or not any of that drama will be part of the upcoming season. Not to sound cold, but we hope it is! Anyway, as for the money issue, we’re learning that they may have signed a prenup, because according to Kordell there are no assets to divide. He added: “[She's] an able-bodied person, earning income and is capable of supporting herself.” I’m not really that shocked. It seemed like they were getting a little fame hungry. Sure, he is a pro football player, and I guess she is some kind of [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/tBHBhbqjEBc/

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Yelp Announces A New ?Revenue Estimator' For Small Businesses

yelp logoYelp is announcing a new feature intended to highlight and quantify the value that the listing and review site provides for small businesses. A company spokesperson told me the feature is important for two reasons. First, it helps business owners understand the impact that Yelp is already having on their revenue. Second, it gives them a baseline from which to judge the success of their advertising campaigns ? it's one thing to see an increase in page views after a campaign, and another to put an estimated dollar value on the new business generated by those ads.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/fd3BsYyjrqU/

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High court takes on a new affirmative action case

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2010 file photo, Michigan Attorney General-elect Bill Schuette speaks in Detroit on election night. The Supreme Court is broadening its examination of affirmative action by adding a case about Michigan's effort to ban consideration of race in college admissions. The court on Monday said it would add the Michigan case, which focuses on the 6-year-old voter-approved prohibition on affirmative action and the appeals court ruling that overturned the ban. The new case will be argued in the fall. A decision in the Texas case is expected by late June. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2010 file photo, Michigan Attorney General-elect Bill Schuette speaks in Detroit on election night. The Supreme Court is broadening its examination of affirmative action by adding a case about Michigan's effort to ban consideration of race in college admissions. The court on Monday said it would add the Michigan case, which focuses on the 6-year-old voter-approved prohibition on affirmative action and the appeals court ruling that overturned the ban. The new case will be argued in the fall. A decision in the Texas case is expected by late June. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

(AP) ? The Supreme Court's decision to hear a new case from Michigan on the politically charged issue of affirmative action offers an intriguing hint that the justices will not use a separate challenge already pending from Texas for a broad ruling bringing an end to the consideration of race in college admissions.

To be sure, the two cases involve different legal issues. The University of Texas dispute, with arguments already completed and a ruling possible soon, centers on the use of race to fill some slots in the school's freshman classes. The Michigan case asks whether a voter-approved ban on affirmative action in college admissions can itself violate the Constitution.

But the broadest possible outcome in the current Texas case ? overruling the court's 2003 decision that allows race as a factor in college admissions ? would mean an end to affirmative action in higher education and render the new Michigan lawsuit irrelevant.

If the justices are planning to overrule that earlier decision, "then I would think they would hold this case," the new one, and order lower courts to review it based on the Texas decision, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California at Irvine. He is representing students and faculty members in the Michigan case.

At the October argument in Fisher v. University of Texas, the court's conservative justices sounded as if they were ready to impose new limits on the use of race in college admissions. More than five months have passed without a decision, which is not unusual in the court's most contentious cases.

The appeal in the Michigan case comes from state Attorney General Bill Schuette, following a ruling from the sharply divided 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. The appeals court, by an 8-7 vote, found fault with the 2006 constitutional amendment to outlaw "preferential treatment" on the basis of race and other factors in college admissions. The provision also applies to affirmative action in public employment and government contracting, but those issues are not being challenged.

The appeals court said the constitutional amendment is illegal under Supreme Court rulings from the late 1960s and early 1980s that prohibit placing special burdens on minority groups that want to bring about changes in laws and policies. The court said that forcing opponents of the ban to mount their own long, expensive campaign through the ballot box to protect affirmative action amounts to different, and unequal, treatment.

That burden "undermines the Equal Protection Clause's guarantee that all citizens ought to have equal access to the tools of political change," the appeals court said. By way of example, the court said that children of university alumni remain free to lobby lawmakers and university officials to adopt policies to take family ties into account in admissions.

Schuette said the notion that a measure that forbids discrimination on the basis of race can be unconstitutional is legal nonsense.

"Entrance to our great colleges and universities must be based upon merit, and I remain optimistic moving forward in our fight for equality, fairness and rule of law at our nation's highest court," Schuette said Monday.

The American Civil Liberties Union's Dennis Parker said the constitutional ban discriminates against students of color.

"Michigan's proposal aims to unfairly keep students from encouraging universities to consider race as one factor in admissions but does not do the same for those who are trying to get the school to acknowledge other factors, such as legacy or athletic achievement," said Parker, director of the ACLU's Racial Justice Program

Both the Michigan and Texas cases trace their roots to the same Supreme Court decision in 2003 ? Grutter v. Bollinger ? that upheld the use of race by colleges and universities in their quest for diverse student bodies.

The ruling came in a lawsuit involving the University of Michigan law school.

In response to the court's 5-4 decision in that case, affirmative action opponents worked to put a ballot measure in front of voters that would outlaw the consideration of race. Similar laws are in place in Arizona, California, Florida, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington, Arizona Attorney General Thomas Horne said in a legal briefing supporting Michigan.

In November 2006, 58 percent of Michigan voters approved the measure. Civil rights groups sued to block the provision the day after the vote.

At the University of Texas, roughly three-fourths of incoming freshmen are Texans who graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes. They are automatically admitted under a plan that was designed to increase diversity without taking race into account. After the high court decision in 2003, Texas added the consideration of race among many factors to fill remaining slots.

A white Texan, Abigail Fisher, sued the university after she was denied a spot in 2008.

The justices could rule in Fisher's favor without upsetting their 2003 decision, especially because Texas already has achieved a measure of diversity through the so-called top 10 plan, which is race-neutral.

In the event they are unable to come to a resolution in the Texas case, the justices also could use the new matter to, in essence, re-argue the pros and cons of affirmative action. The court could rule in the Texas case, order new arguments or decide it is deadlocked 4 to 4 as early as Tuesday, or as late as the end of June.

Justice Elena Kagan is sitting out the Texas case, and also is not taking part in the new one.

It also is possible that the two cases are divorced from one another in the justices' minds. Gail Heriot, an affirmative action opponent, said she doesn't see a strong link between the cases.

"Fisher is a tough case. It asks whether a state may choose to engage in race discrimination in college admissions for what it regards as a good cause (even if many people disagree). Schuette asks only whether a state may choose instead to treat its citizens equally regardless of race, color, sex, or ethnicity. To me, the answer to the latter question is obvious," said Heriot, who serves on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and also teaches law at the University of San Diego.

The Michigan case is Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, 12-682.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-25-US-Supreme-Court-Affirmative-Action/id-7bac0b4066af49dbb4b8f28a82133b35

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Quick-Change Planet: Do Global Climate Tipping Points Exist?

An academic debate ponders whether Earth's climate could change precipitously, and how unmitigated regional stressors could irrevocably alter the planet


earthPLANET TIPPING: Researchers continue to debate whether global tipping points exist or not. Image: Courtesy of NASA

Is there a chance that human intervention?rising temperatures, massive land-use changes, biodiversity loss and so on?could ?tip? the entire world into a new climatic state? And if so, does that change what we should do about it?

As far back as 2008 NASA?s James Hansen argued that we had crossed a ?tipping point? in the Arctic with regard to summer sea ice. The diminishing ice cover had moved past a critical threshold, and from then on levels would drop precipitously toward zero, with little hope of recovery. Other experts now say that recent years have confirmed that particular cliff-fall, and the September 2012 record minimum?an astonishing 18 percent lower than 2007?s previous record?was likely no fluke.

Sea ice represents a big system, but it is generally thought to be self-contained enough to follow such a tipping-point pattern. The question that has started to pop up increasingly in the last year, however, is whether that sort of phase transition, where a system shifts rapidly?in nonlinear fashion, as scientists say?from one state to another without recovery in a timescale meaningful to humanity, is possible on a truly global scale.

?You?re pushing an egg toward the end of the table,? says Tony Barnosky, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. At first, he says, ?not much happens. Then it goes off the edge and it breaks. That egg is now in a fundamentally different state, you can?t get it back to what it was.? Barnosky was the lead author on a much-discussed paper in Nature[DL1]? last summer that suggested the world?s biosphere was nearing a ?state shift??a planetary-scale tipping point where seemingly disconnected systems all shifted simultaneously into a ?new normal.? (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)

Claims of catastrophic temperature shifts are unlikely to go down without an argument. A new paper published recently in Trends in Ecology & Evolution by Barry Brook of the University of Adelaide in Australia and colleagues argues that there is no real grounding to the idea that the world could display true tipping-point characteristics. The only way such a massive shift could occur, Brook says, is if ecosystems around the world respond to human forcings in essentially identical ways. Generally, there would need to be ?strong connections between continents that allow for rapid diffusion of impacts across the planet.?

This sort of connection is unlikely to exist, he says. Oceans and mountain ranges cut off different ecosystems from each other, and the response of a given region is likely to be strongly influenced by local circumstances. For example, burning trees in the Amazon can increase CO2 in the atmosphere and help raise temperatures worldwide, but the fate of similar rainforests in Malaysia probably depend more on what?s happening locally than by those global effects of Amazonian deforestation. Brook and colleagues looked at four major drivers of terrestrial ecosystem change: climate change, land-use change, habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss; they found that truly global nonlinear responses basically won?t happen. Instead, global-scale transitions are likely to be smooth.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=711b4273f02a1f8416f22453967d7b9d

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Moderate face of Syrian uprising quits

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN (Reuters) - The head of Syria's main opposition group resigned on Sunday, weakening the moderate wing of the two-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule and complicating Western efforts to back the rebels.

The resignation of Moaz Alkhatib, a former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus who had offered Assad a negotiated exit, could make the West more cautious in supporting the revolt. Alkhatib was seen as a moderate bulwark against the rising influence of al-Qaeda linked jihadist forces.

Syrian opposition leaders are due to attend an Arab League summit this week, Qatar said earlier on Sunday, looking for more support for their armed uprising.

Michael Stephens, researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in Doha, said Alkhatib's resignation throws a spanner into the summit.

"The premise of the summit is to determine whether the opposition has a legitimate right to sit with Arab states," Stephens said. "While Khatib may have blamed the EU summit, it is well known that the Arab League is meeting today, and his resignation will have a serious effect on the process."

Alkhatib was picked to head the Western and Gulf-backed National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which was formed in Qatar in November.

His resignation is seen as having been to some degree caused by Qatar, the main backer of his political foes in the coalition, and the country spearheading Arab support for the revolt as its geopolitical ramifications deepen.

The conflict pits Syria's Sunni Muslim majority against Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has controlled the country for almost five decades, deepening the Sunni-Shi'ite divide in the Middle East and raising tension between Gulf states and Iran.

Asked to comment on Alkhatib's resignation, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said in Doha: "We are very sorry for this, and I hope he reviews his resignation."

PROMISE TO GOD

Alkhatib quit after the coalition berated him for offering Assad a deal and after the group went ahead, despite his objections, with steps to form a provisional government that would have further diminished his authority.

"I had promised the great Syrian people and promised God that I would resign if matters reached some red lines," Alkhatib said in a statement on his official Facebook page, without explaining exactly what had prompted his resignation.

"Now I am fulfilling my promise and announcing my resignation from the National Coalition in order to be able to work with freedom that cannot be available within the official institutions," he said.

U.S. Secretary John Kerry, on a trip to Baghdad, expressed regret at Alhatib's decision.

"With respect to Moaz Alkhatib, I am personally sorry to see him go because I like him on a personal level and because I have appreciated his leadership but the notion that he might resign has frankly been expressed by him on many different occasions in many different places and it is not a surprise," Kerry said.

He made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and said he told Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of his concern about Iranian flights over Iraq carrying arms to Syria.

"Anything that supports President Assad is problematic," Kerry told reporters.

RISE OF ISLAMISTS

Last week, the coalition chose Islamist-leaning technocrat Ghassan Hitto as a provisional prime minister to form a government to fill a power vacuum in Syria arising from the revolt that has killed more than 70,000 people.

Hitto visited the Syrian commercial hub of Aleppo on Sunday to draw up a plan to restore services in parts of the city that have fallen to the opposition, according to a statement issued by his office.

Alkhatib, who had argued insufficient groundwork had been done to start forming a government, was weakened considerably, along with a moderate wing of the revolution as jihadist Salafists play a bigger role on the battlefield.

The rise of Salafists as the most effective fighting force, and their recent gains on the ground, have contributed to the coalition adopting a more hardline stance in recent weeks, rejecting dialogue with Assad except under strict conditions and ignoring promises to include more women and minorities.

Hitto, whose cabinet is supposed to govern rebel-held areas currently ruled by hundreds of brigades and emerging warlords, was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and coalition Secretary General Mustafa Sabbagh, who has strong links with Qatar.

"Basically Qatar and the Brotherhood forced Alkhatib out. In Alkhatib they had a figure who was gaining popularity inside Syria but he acted too independently for their taste," said Fawaz Tello, an independent opposition campaigner.

"They brought in Hitto. The position of Alkhatib as leader became untenable."

The appointment of Hitto prompted nine people to suspend their membership in the 62-member body, saying that promises to reform the coalition and respect consensus have been discarded.

Earlier this year, Alkhatib floated an initiative for the opposition to talk to Assad's administration about a political transition, but said the Damascus government did not respond.

Moaz al-Shami, a leading activist in Damascus, said Alkhatib's resignation deprived the coalition, which consists mostly of exiles, of the figure best-known inside Syria, but that Alkhatib still could still play a major role in the revolt.

Alawite opposition activists called for Assad's overthrow on Sunday and urged their co-religionists in the army to rebel.

In the first meeting of its kind by Alawites who support the revolt, delegates distanced themselves from Assad.

"We call on our brothers in the Syrian army, specifically members of our sect, not to take up arms against their people and to refuse to join the army," the delegates said in a statement after two days of meeting in Cairo.

In the town of Adra on the outskirts of Damascus, opposition campaigners said Syrian government forces fired chemical weapons from multiple rocket launchers at rebels surrounding an army base, killing two fighters and wounding 23.

There was no independent confirmation of the attack. Video footage showed one man in a hospital bed with his hands shaking, while doctors were trying to stabilize another man. Another patient was shown with saliva pouring from his mouth.

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy and Tom Perry and Ulf Laessing in Cairo, Arshad Mohammed in Baghdad, Sami Abboudi, Bill Mclean and Regan Doherty in the Gulf; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/moderate-face-syrian-uprising-quits-092357174.html

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NASDAQ's Glitch Cost Facebook Investors ~$500M. It Will Pay Out Just $62M. IPO Elsewhere.

Burning_Money__by_RoxasRocks0813When Twitter or Dropbox go public, they should remember May 18, 2012. The SEC has just approved NASDAQ's pay out of $62 million to investors burned when the stock exchange's trading systems broke down during Facebook's IPO last spring. Total losses for investors were pegged at $500 million by the Wall Street Journal, though. The debacle should push companies eying big IPOs to look at other exchanges.

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Wash. weighs abortion insurance mandate

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) ? In 1970, Washington became the first ? and remains the only ? state in the country to legalize elective abortions by a popular vote.

A generation later, and 40 years removed from the landmark United States Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling that extended abortion access nationwide, Washington is once again poised to stand out.

With 21 states having adopted bans or severe restrictions on insurance companies from paying for abortions, Washington is alone in seriously considering legislation mandating the opposite.

The Reproductive Parity Act, as supporters call it, would require insurers in Washington state who cover maternity care ? which all insurers must do ? to also pay for abortions.

The bill passed the state House earlier this month by a vote of 53-43, though it faces an uncertain future in the Senate. A similar bill in the New York state Assembly has been introduced each session for over a decade but has never received a public hearing.

"This is a core value for Washingtonians," said Melanie Smith, a lobbyist for NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. "We should protect it while we still have it and not leave access to basic health care up to an insurance company."

The proximate cause of Washington state's measure is the federal Affordable Care Act. Thanks to language placed in it to assuage anti-abortion congressional Democrats, insurers selling their plans on the state exchanges taking effect next year will have to segregate the premiums they collect for abortion coverage.

In addition to that built-in disincentive to insuring abortion, the law also invites states to enact stricter rules of their own. Thus far, 16 states have followed suit, barring or restricting insurance companies on their exchanges from covering the procedure. Three of those states are joining the five that have barred or limited all insurers from covering abortions since the early 1980's.

Supporters of Washington state's proposed abortion insurance mandate are careful to stress that it wouldn't lead to a dramatic uptick in abortions or require carriers with a religious bent to cover the procedure. They also note that a pair of federal plans that will be sold on all 50 state exchanges will be barred from covering elective abortions.

"It's not expanding abortion coverage," said Democratic Rep. Eileen Cody of West Seattle, the bill's primary sponsor. "It's ensuring the rights of women to get what they're paying for now and to continue their freedom of choice."

Opponents counter that the measure would require businesses and individuals to pay for abortion coverage they'd rather not have.

"Washington state would be the only state in the country that would force employers to pay for abortion," said Peggy O'Ban, spokeswoman for Human Life of Washington.

If passed, she said, it would amount to "the first conscience coercion act in American history."

Its passage, however, is not assured.

Proponents of the measure say they have the votes they need in the state Senate, but it's not clear that Senate leaders will allow it to get to the floor. It is scheduled to receive a public hearing in the Senate Health Care Committee on April 1.

Ironically, the man bill supporters will likely blame if it fails to get a Senate vote counts himself as a proud backer of the measure.

Sen. Rodney Tom of Medina, a fiscal conservative and social moderate, and one other like-minded Democrat crossed party lines to caucus with Republicans in December, handing a one-vote majority to the GOP. Seizing power for the first time in nearly a decade, elated Senate Republicans reciprocated by installing Tom as Majority Leader.

Last month, Tom addressed about 250 advocates rallying for the measure's passage on the state Capitol steps.

"I'm down here making sure that my 17-year-old daughter has the kind of protections that we need in Washington state and that all of our kids have those same kinds of protections," Tom said to cheers.

Moments later, Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat and fellow bill supporter, delivered a not-so-subtle challenge to Tom's political will.

Washington state "deserves a vote in the state Senate on the Reproductive Parity Act," Inslee said. "We are going to insist that we are not going to let anybody close the door to democracy in this state."

Another irony: though the bill has proved to be among the most hotly contested of the session, its broader impact if passed may be less than sweeping.

For one thing, most abortions are paid for out-of-pocket. According to the Guttmacher Institute, only 12 percent of abortions nationwide are paid for by private insurers, with 20 percent footed by Medicaid.

For another, because most abortions cost less than a live birth ? the procedure typically runs about $500, though late-term abortions are far more expensive ? insurers may be disinclined to stop covering them.

At present, all major insurers in Washington state cover abortions, and Cody, the bill's sponsor, said she knows of no carrier with plans to change. Insurers new to Washington state on its exchange may be tempted to adopt different policies, she said.

No matter its immediate impact, said Elizabeth Nash, states issues manager with the Guttmacher Institute, the bill's passage would be a watershed event.

"It would be a model for other states to follow," she said.

___

Follow AP Writer Jonathan Kaminsky at http://www.twitter.com/jekaminsky

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wash-weighs-1st-abortion-insurance-mandate-us-140125495.html

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Francis leads Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, opening Holy Week for church

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis celebrated his first Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, encouraging people to be humble and young at heart as he promised to go to a youth jamboree Brazil this summer, while the faithful enthusiastically waved olive branches and braided palm fronds.

The square overflowed with some 250,000 pilgrims, tourists and Romans eager to join the new pope at the start of solemn Holy Week ceremonies, which lead up to Easter, Christianity's most important day.

Keeping with his spontaneous style, the first pope from Latin America broke away several times from the text of his prepared homily to encourage the faithful to lead simple lives.

At the end of the two-hour Mass, Francis took off his red vestments, leaving only the white cassock and skull cap, and climbed into an open-topped popemobile to circle through the enthusiastic crowd. He leaned out to shake hands, kissed and patted the heads of infants passed to him by bodyguards, and often gave children the thumbs-up sign.

His security detail seemed to be reluctantly dealing with this get-close-to-the-people pontiff, scrambling around the vehicle to pick up this child or that one. At one point, the chief bodyguard, Domenico Giani, was sent back to the mother of a child he had greeted to convey a message from the pontiff, and the ever-tense Giani broke into a smile after his mission was accomplished.

Francis even climbed down from the vehicle, kissed a woman in the crowd and chatted briefly with her, and another man in the crowd leaned over a barrier to squeeze the pontiff on a shoulder ? an unheard of familiarity in the previous pontificate of the reserved Benedict XVI.

In keeping with his stress on giving examples of humility, Francis kissed the hand of an elderly woman who had outstretched an arm to him.

"There is no doubt that there will be a new spring for the church, a renewal" with this pope, said Sister Emma, an Argentine nun in the crowd.

Palm Sunday recalls Jesus' entry into Jerusalem but its Gospel also recounts how he was betrayed by one of his apostles and ultimately sentenced to death on a cross.

Recalling the triumphant welcome into Jerusalem, Francis said Jesus "awakened so many hopes in the heart, above all among humble, simple, poor, forgotten people, those who don't matter in the eyes of the world."

Francis then told an off-the-cuff story from his childhood in Argentina. "My grandmother used to say, 'children, burial shrouds don't have' pockets'" the pope said, in a variation of "you can't take it with you."

Since his election on March 13, Francis has put the downtrodden and poor at the centre of his mission as pope, keeping with the priorities of his Jesuit tradition. His name - the first time a pope has called himself 'Francis' - is inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, who renounced a life of high-living for austere poverty and simplicity to preach Jesus' message to the poor.

Francis presided over the Mass at an altar sheltered by a white canopy on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica.

Cardinals, many of them among the electors who chose him to be the Roman Catholic church's first Latin American pope, sat on chairs during the ceremony held under hazy skies on a breezy day. He quoted from Benedict when he told the cardinals that while they are "princes" of the church, their leader is the crucified Christ, a further admonition against attachment to temporal power.

The present and past pope, who retired last month as pontiff in a 600-year break with tradition, met on Saturday at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, where Benedict is staying until a former convent on the grounds of Vatican City can be readied for his residence. It was Francis' first meeting with his predecessor since his election, and both men are presumed to have discussed challenges facing both managing the Vatican's often creaky bureaucracy and shoring up faith among Catholics worldwide.

In his homily, Francis said Christian joy "isn't born from possessing a lot of things but from having met" Jesus. That same joy should keep people young, he said.

"Even at 70, 80, the heart doesn't age" if one is inspired by Christian joy, said the 76-year-old pontiff.

Francis said he was joyfully looking forward to welcoming young people to Rio de Janiero for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day. So far, that is the first foreign trip on the calendar of Francis' new papacy. "I'm coming in July," Francis said in remarks after Mass from the esplanade of the basilica.

During Mass, at the point when the Gospel recounts the moment of Jesus' death, many faithful knelt on hard cobblestones paving the square, and Francis knelt on a wooden kneeler.

A few young olive trees were inserted in dirt placed around the central obelisk in the square.

Holy Week will see at least one break from tradition with this new papacy. Instead of washing priests' feet in a symbolic gesture of humility on Holy Thursday, Francis will wash the feet of young inmates at a juvenile detention centre in Rome. Other appointments in public will include the Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum on Good Friday night. Next Sunday, Francis will celebrate Easter Mass in the square.

Francis seemed to hold up well, although when riding in the popemobile, he wobbled a bit when he took his hands off the grab bar to wave to the crowd.

At the end of Palm Sunday's service, Francis made his first foray into delivering greetings in various languages, with brief words in French, English and German.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/francis-leads-palm-sunday-mass-st-peters-square-130712813.html

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