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Thursday, December 22, 2011
This Must Be How the Large Hadron Collider Looks Like Deep Inside [Image Cache]
Monday, December 19, 2011
The individual mandate: Health-care's inherent controversy (The Week)
New York ? President Obama's health-care bill requires that every American have health insurance. Is that constitutional?
Who first proposed making health insurance compulsory?
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. In the late 1980s, when Democrats were pushing to require employers to provide health insurance, the foundation started thinking about ways to achieve universal coverage without placing a heavy burden on business. Its experts soon encountered the "free rider" problem: In a system where insurers are barred from refusing applicants with pre-existing conditions, many people ? especially the young and healthy ? would only buy a policy when illness struck. But if only sick people bought coverage, insurers would pay out more in doctors' bills than they received in premiums, and quickly go bust. To overcome this death spiral, the Heritage Foundation suggested that every American be required to buy health insurance, a requirement known as the individual mandate.
Which politicians took up that idea?
Many Republicans did in the early 1990s, after President Clinton introduced a plan that would have forced companies to cover employees. "I am for people, individuals ? exactly like automobile insurance ? having health insurance and being required to have health insurance," said Newt Gingrich, then House minority whip, in 1993. When the Clinton plan collapsed in 1994, talk of the individual mandate died with it. But a decade later, Mitt Romney, then the governor of Massachusetts, resurrected the concept for his state health-care plan, which requires residents to buy health insurance or pay up to $1,212 in annual penalties. "It's a Republican way of reforming the market," Romney said when the law debuted, in 2006. "[To have] people show up [at a hospital] when they get sick, and expect someone else to pay, that's a Democratic approach."
SEE MORE: The 'ObamaCare' case: Should Elena Kagan and Clarence Thomas sit out?
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So why did Obama adopt a Republican proposal?
At first, he didn't want to. During his 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination, Obama ran a TV ad criticizing rival candidate Hillary Clinton's support for a mandate, saying she would force everyone "to buy insurance, even if you can't afford it." But after President Obama and the Democratic Congress began to construct his health-care plan, advisers warned that free riders would undermine the objectives of extending insurance coverage to anyone who wanted it. For health reform to work, young, healthy people had to be pushed into the pool, to spread cost and risk. So the president allowed his 2010 Affordable Care Act to incorporate a provision that, by 2014, all Americans must have health coverage or face a tax penalty. Conservatives decried that directive as a gross infringement of individual liberty, and their anger helped fuel the rise of the Tea Party. Twenty-six states and the National Federation of Independent Business are now challenging the mandate's constitutionality at the Supreme Court, which will make a final judgment by June.
How has Obama responded?
His administration argues that the mandate is authorized by the Constitution's commerce clause, which allows the federal government to regulate interstate economic activity. Several conservative judges agree. In a November appeals court decision that upheld the mandate, Judge Laurence Silberman, a Reagan appointee, declared that Congress must "be free to forge national solutions to national problems." And this summer, Judge Jeffrey Sutton ? a George W. Bush appointee to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ? concluded that the individual mandate is a legally sound way to prevent taxpayers and hospitals from having to pick up the cost of treating the uninsured. "Not every intrusive law is an unconstitutionally intrusive law," he wrote.
SEE MORE: The Supreme Court takes on 'ObamaCare': Will it hurt the president?
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Haven't other judges disagreed?
Yes. In August, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declared that it could find no precedent for ordering Americans to buy health insurance. "Even in the face of a Great Depression, a World War, a Cold War, recessions, oil shocks, inflation, and unemployment," the majority wrote, "Congress never sought to require the purchase of wheat or war bonds, force a higher savings rate or greater consumption of American goods." Other federal judges and critics of "Obamacare" warn that the mandate sets a dangerous precedent that the government could use to make citizens purchase whatever it deems good for them ? or for the economy. "Congress could require every American to buy a new Chevy Impala every year," said a 2009 Heritage Foundation report.
What happens if the individual mandate is voided?
It depends. If the Supreme Court decides that the Affordable Care Act can't function without the individual mandate, it could strike down the entire law. But it might declare the mandate "severable," and remove that particular part of the law, while letting the rest of it limp along, with far fewer uninsured people covered and less ability to rein in costs. Some experts have proposed that instead of the uninsured being required to buy insurance, they could be "nudged" into the health-care system by giving them a window of time during which they could buy insurance relatively inexpensively; once that window closed, the cost would rise sharply. The problem with any alternative to the individual mandate, said Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, is that it would have to be approved by the bitterly divided Congress. "You can't expect that in these times," he said. "People don't work on these compromises too readily anymore."
SEE MORE: The Supreme Court and 'ObamaCare': A concise guide
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How the Supreme Court could punt
Next year's Supreme Court hearing has been billed as judgment day for Obama's Affordable Care Act. But it might end with no judgment at all. Before the justices rule on the individual mandate's constitutionality, they will first have to decide whether the 1867 Anti-Injunction Act bars the claimants' challenge. That law prevents citizens from challenging the legality of a tax before it goes into effect. If the court finds that the penalty for defying the Affordable Care Act's mandate is a tax, they could push a legal challenge back to 2015, when the first fines will be levied. And that, said Simon Lazarus, an expert at the National Senior Citizens Law Center, might "be a good solution for a court that doesn't really care to be Public Issue No. 1 in an election year."
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Taylor's "National Velvet" script sells for $170,500 (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Elizabeth Taylor's script for the movie "National Velvet" -- which made her a star at age 12 -- sold for more than 50 times its estimate on Friday as the New York auction of the actress's jewels, clothes, art and memorabilia neared its close.
Christie's auctioneers said the 1944 "National Velvet" script, bound in lilac leather, was sold to a private U.S. buyer for $170,500 on Friday. It's pre-sale estimate was $2,000 - $3,000.
A drawing of lips inscribed to Taylor by Andy Warhol sold for $242,500, and was among the priciest items bought on the fourth day of the auction.
Friday's total sales were $4.4 million, including commission, taking the auction sales so far this week to $154.2 million. An online-only sale of some 1,000 lower-priced items from Taylor's estate continues through Saturday.
Christie's chairman Marc Porter said the response to the auction so far had been "nothing short of overwhelming with multiple bidders competing for every lot."
Taylor, regarded as one of the last great Hollywood legends, died of congestive heart failure in March at age 79.
Her fabled collection of ruby, diamond and emerald jewelry -- many of them gifts from two-time husband Richard Burton -- attracted the biggest interest, selling for a total of $116 million earlier this week.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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4 ways to avoid a government shutdown (The Week)
New York ? With Congress deadlocked over how to extend a payroll tax break, federal agencies are bracing for the possibility that they'll have to close their doors
The Obama administration is telling federal agencies to prepare for a possible government shutdown, as Democrats and Republicans remain deadlocked over extending a payroll-tax break due to expire at the end of the year. Both sides want to prolong the tax holiday, but they disagree over how to pay for it ? Democrats want a surtax on millionaires, and Republicans want Medicare premium hikes for upper-income seniors, among other measures. To force a deal, Senate Democrats have tied the issue to a spending bill, and if that's not passed the government will run out of money at midnight Friday. How can they avoid disaster? Here, four possible solutions:
1. Pass a short-term spending bill, then talk
Neither party is eager to close government agencies' doors, says Erik Wasson at The Hill, since both "stand to be blamed by the public if the government shuts down." Congress has "lurched toward shutdowns repeatedly this year, only to avert them, often at the last minute." Passing a short-term spending deal will buy more time. And with "brinkmanship on both sides" holding up the $1 trillion spending package, it's looking increasingly like that's the only way out.?
SEE MORE: The super committee's inevitable failure: Why it's a good thing
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2. Democrats cave, by giving up on the millionaire surtax
In what CNN says would be a "major concession," President Obama and his fellow Democrats may be preparing to drop their insistence on sticking the wealthy with the bill, says Allahpundit at Hot Air. That would sting, "given how well tax hikes on the rich poll." But let's be honest. "There was no way" Dems could make their plan fly. If they'd just untie the matter from the spending bill and make a deal, the GOP will probably drop the fast-tracking of a decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, in exchange.
3. Republicans cave, by dropping their poison pills
"As they've repeatedly done before, the GOP is exploiting the imminent shutdown of the government to push its conservative agenda," says Marie Diamond at Think Progress. They're insisting on sidestepping environmental regulations to push through an oil pipeline, and protect the rich. "This is the third time this year Republicans are using the threat of a government shutdown to get what they want." If they would just drop "these brinkmanship games" it would be easy to "compromise on a bill to keep the government?s lights on."
SEE MORE: Why the GOP caved in the payroll tax fight: 4 theories
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4. Let the payroll-tax holiday expire, and get back to business
"In their rush to head home for the holidays," says the Chicago Tribune in an editorial, neither party is mentioning how extending the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits "would add to our already enormous national debt." The payroll taxes are supposed to go into the Social Security system, which is "already imperiled." It might have made sense to help struggling families out with a tax break in 2011, but it's "foolhardy" to keep this up. Congress should let the payroll tax break die and get back to work ? future generations of retirees will be grateful.
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Arab League considers turning to UN over Syria
Syrian supporters of President Bashar Assad wave by national flag over a fountain during a rally in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters after Friday prayers at several locations around the country, while the army sent reinforcements into a southern area where military defectors recently launched deadly attacks on regime troops. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)
Syrian supporters of President Bashar Assad wave by national flag over a fountain during a rally in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters after Friday prayers at several locations around the country, while the army sent reinforcements into a southern area where military defectors recently launched deadly attacks on regime troops. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)
Syrian demonstrators raise posters showing Syria's President Bashar Assad as they perform an oath to defend their country at Sabe Bahrat square in downtown Damascus, Syria, on Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, during a rally to support President Bashar Assad. Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters after Friday prayers at several locations around the country, while the army sent reinforcements into a southern area where military defectors recently launched deadly attacks on regime troops. ( AP Photo/ Bassem Tellawi)
Shadows of Syrians are reflected on a giant poster showing President Bashar Assad, during a supporting rally in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters after Friday prayers at several locations around the country, while the army sent reinforcements into a southern area where military defectors recently launched deadly attacks on regime troops. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)
Syrians surround a large poster showing Syria's President Bashar Assad, during a rally in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters after Friday prayers at several locations around the country, while the army sent reinforcements into a southern area where military defectors recently launched deadly attacks on regime troops. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman)
In this image from TV released by a group calling itself Ugarit News, made available Thursday Dec. 15, 2011, showing tanks moving along a road in Al-Maliha al-Sharqiya, Daraa Province, Syria, Wednesday Dec. 14, 2011. Amateur video emerged on Thursday from Syria, which purports to show ongoing violence in the restive country. (AP Photo) TV OUT - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS VIDEO IMAGE.
BEIRUT (AP) ? The Arab League has given Syria until Wednesday to allow observers into the country or else it will likely turn to the U.N. Security Council for action to try to end the deadly violence against regime opponents, Qatar's prime minister said Saturday.
Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani said in Qatar that Arab foreign ministers will hold a "decisive and important" meeting in Cairo on Wednesday to decide on next steps.
He said there is near unanimity among Arab states on taking the issue to the U.N. after Syria demanded changes to the Arab League's proposal for ending the violence.
The Arab plan called for Syria to halt its crackdown and to allow in Arab observers to ensure compliance with the deal. Syria had asked for some amendments regarding the work of the observers.
The 22-member League has also suspended Syria's membership and imposed sanctions, but it has been divided over whether to seek the help of the wider international community beyond the Arab world.
Hamad's remarks after an Arab ministerial committee meeting in Qatar on Saturday indicated that the camp objecting to outside intervention may be getting smaller.
Syria has seen a sharp escalation in armed clashes recently, raising concerns the country of 22 million is headed toward civil war. The U.N. raised its death toll for the Syrian uprising substantially this week, saying more 5,000 people have been killed since the revolt began nine months ago.
Russia began circulating a draft U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday that it said was designed to resolve the conflict in Syria. The draft calls for an end to all violence but does not contain sanctions.
That prompted the Arab League to consider putting forward an initiative of its own for the Security Council to consider, Hamad said at a news conference. He did not provide details.
Hamad said the Arab League wanted to see "that Arab resolutions are adopted rather than those of other nations."
The announcement in Qatar came as an Iraqi delegation arrived in Syria to meet with President Bashar Assad to discuss ways of ending the crisis.
Ali al-Moussawi, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the delegation is seeking to find a peaceful solution "that preserves Syria's unity."
Many Iraqis fear that if civil war breaks out in Syria it could spread to Iraq, its eastern neighbor. Iraqi officials have not given details on the initiative they will discuss with Assad and other officials.
Iraq was one of few countries that abstained from voting in favor of Arab sanctions against Syria.
___
Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report from Baghdad.
___
Bassem Mroue can be reached on http://twitter.com/bmroue
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Newspaper founder killed in Russia's Dagestan (Reuters)
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) ? The founder of a newspaper that investigated government corruption was shot dead in Russia's North Caucasus region, in what an international watchdog called "a lethal blow to press freedom."
A gunman shot Gadzhimurat Kamalov as he was leaving the offices of the newspaper Chernovik in the capital of Dagestan province shortly before midnight on Thursday, the regional Interior Ministry said.
Police said Kamalov was shot eight times and was pronounced dead on the way to hospital.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said journalists at Chernovik, known for reporting on corruption in the provincial administration, had been "routinely persecuted for their work".
"The assassination of Gadzhimurat Kamalov is a massive loss for independent journalism in the North Caucasus, Russia's most dangerous place for reporters," the advocacy group's regional coordinator Nina Ognianova said in a statement.
Russian journalists who investigate corruption face serious risks, particularly in the provinces, where authorities are less likely to face scrutiny over attacks on journalists.
Predominantly Muslim Dagestan is plagued by violence stemming from an Islamist insurgency rooted in the 1990s separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya as well as conflicts over business and political power.
There have been 19 unsolved murders of journalists in Russia since 2000, including the 2006 killing of Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, according to the CPJ.
It lists Russia as eighth on its "Impunity Index", a list of states where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Tim Pearce)
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Friday, December 16, 2011
China trims holdings of US Treasury debt (AP)
WASHINGTON ? China bought less U.S. Treasury debt in October and total foreign holdings dipped for the first time since July.
Total foreign holdings of Treasury debt edged down 0.1 percent to $4.66 trillion, the Treasury Department reported Thursday.
China, the largest foreign holder, bought 1.2 percent less to bring its total holdings to $1.13 trillion. China had increased its holdings 1 percent in September after a reduction of 3.1 percent in August.
The small decline in overall holdings still left them at high levels that suggest foreign demand for U.S. debt remains strong. That strength comes despite a prolonged debate this summer over increasing the nation's borrowing limit. Investors don't appear to be concerned that Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit rating on long-term U.S. debt in August.
S&P said it lowered the U.S. credit rating because of political gridlock in Washington that had slowed the debt limit increase and not because the ratings agency thought the U.S. couldn't pay its bills. U.S. government debt is still considered a safe investment and it has been in high demand as worries about the European debt crisis have intensified.
Japan, the second-largest buyer of Treasury debt, increased its holdings by 2.3 percent in October to $979 billion. Britain, the third-largest holder, reduced its holdings 3.1 percent to $408.4 billion.
The 0.1 percent dip in overall holdings followed a 1.9 percent rise September and a 2 percent gain in August. Overall foreign holdings of Treasury securities had fallen 0.4 percent in July and 0.3 percent in June. Those declines had been the first overall declines since April 2009.
Net purchases of long-term securities, a category that includes not only U.S. government debt but also bonds sold by U.S. companies, showed a net increase of $4.8 billion in October after a $68.3 billion gain in September.
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Nine years on, Iraq's economic potential still untapped (Reuters)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? Four years ago, Iraq's oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani confronted a stark choice: should he risk opening Iraq's ailing oil industry to foreign companies?
Iraq's oil sector was limping along after years of sanctions and conflict following the U.S. invasion in 2003, and badly needed more investment. But bringing in Big Oil could expose a vulnerable country to rapacious bids and exploitation.
Ignoring skeptics, public criticism and threats from his political opponents, Shahristani made his choice and negotiated oil contracts that he believed would eventually allow Iraq to reconstruct its economy and begin to rival fellow OPEC member Saudi Arabia.
"I was convinced the world would need Iraqi oil...So, I took my decision to offer service contracts despite all the problems and threats from inside and outside Iraq," says Shahristani, who has since become deputy prime minister for energy.
Now, nearly nine years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and with U.S. military forces close to completing a withdrawal from the country, Shahristani's hopes have been only partially realized.
Major foreign oil companies are helping Iraq develop the world's fourth biggest reserves, slowly ramping up its output, but the country faces severe obstacles and a frail economy needs investment in almost every sector.
The country is still plagued by shaky security, decades-old laws, a Saddam-era centralized bureaucracy, crumbling infrastructure and a sectarian social and political divide. Although violence is down from the bloody heights of 2006-2007, almost daily bombings, attacks and assassinations remain a major deterrent to investment.
The country has also been forced to curb some of its oil ambitions. Iraqi officials have begun to talk about 8 million barrels per day as their implied long-term target for output, down from the 12 million bpd they previously pledged.
International oil companies working in Iraq grapple with many challenges, from security to logistical bottlenecks and bureaucracy.
Iraq's financial system is slowly embracing the free market after years of tight control under Saddam; a fledging stock market is attracting foreign money while the banking and telecommunications industries are growing rapidly.
But the national grid provides only a few hours of intermittent power a day, forcing Iraqis to live off noisy diesel-fueled generators.
"Do we consider it fast economic development? No, it is a very slow development, but it is developing," said Fadhil Nabi, deputy minister of finance.
OIL OUTPUT
Shahristani has been criticized in parliament for not having raised Iraq's oil output faster. Although his deals with foreign companies could theoretically see Iraq quadruple its output capacity to 12 million bpd by 2017, many analysts say 6 or 7 million bpd is more realistic.
Even reaching 6 million bpd, however, would give Iraq much more weight in OPEC, currently dominated by the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia. Revenue from the additional millions of barrels that Iraq is hoping to pump would also give it the economic strength to rebuild; oil revenues account for more than 95 percent of state income.
So far, deals with over a dozen foreign oil companies have taken national production to 2.95 million bpd, the highest level in two decades.
The entrance of major oil firms into Iraq has encouraged other foreign investors who had been sitting on the sidelines. Household names such as General Electric Co, Siemens, France Telecom and HSBC are operating in the country, foreseeing that with its oil wealth and population of 30 million, Iraq could become an attractive retail market and industrial power.
The government has ambitious plans to ramp up electricity generation, build hundreds of thousands of new homes, expand ports, renovate roads, build railroads and introduce high-speed trains.
After economic growth of just 4.2 percent in 2009 and 0.8 percent last year, the International Monetary Fund projects expansion of 9.6 percent this year and that growth will be around 9 percent or higher every year through 2016.
UNCERTAINTIES
But Iraq still struggles with issues that could prevent such growth rates. Political infighting in the government is contributing to delays in many infrastructure projects, while there are legal uncertainties over some of its choicest oil assets in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. The Kurdistan Regional Government is locked in a feud with the Arab-dominated central government in Baghdad over territory and oil rights.
When U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil signed with the KRG in mid-October for six exploration blocks, the Iraqi oil ministry said the deal was illegal and could result in termination of Exxon's contract to develop the major West Qurna Phase One oilfield in the south.
And despite a modest rise in foreign investment over the past few years in sectors such as telecommunications and electricity, Iraq remains a state-centric economy; beyond oil, private businesses have yet to play a large role in rebuilding.
Twenty-three percent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the Ministry of Planning. The official unemployment rate is 15 percent but a further 28 percent of the workforce is estimated to be in part-time jobs.
Popular anger over power outages, food ration shortages, corruption and government ineffectiveness has sent thousands of Iraqis onto the streets to protests during the past summer. But people still dream of enjoying the untapped wealth of their country.
"I know Iraq still has a long way ahead, but I believe one day our children will live in luxury like the people in the Gulf," said Mahmoud al-Obeidi, a Baghdad university professor. "My hope is as big as Iraq's oil reserves."
(Additional reporting by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Patrick Markey and Andrew Torchia)
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Supercomputer reveals new details behind drug-processing protein model
ScienceDaily (Dec. 7, 2011) ? Supercomputer simulations at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are giving scientists unprecedented access to a key class of proteins involved in drug detoxification.
Jerome Baudry and Yinglong Miao, who are jointly affiliated with ORNL and the University of Tennessee, have performed simulations to observe the motions of water molecules in a class of enzymes called P450s. Certain types of P450 are responsible for processing a large fraction of drugs taken by humans.
The supercomputer simulations were designed to help interpret ongoing neutron experiments.
"We simulated what happens in this enzyme over a time scale of 0.3 microseconds, which sounds very fast, but from a scientific point of view, it's a relatively long time," Baudry said. "A lot of things happen at this scale that had never been seen before. It's a computational tour de force to be able to follow that many water molecules for that long."
The team's study of the water molecules' movements contributes to a broader understanding of drug processing by P450 enzymes. Because some populations have a slightly different version of the enzymes, scientists hypothesize that mutations could partially explain why people respond differently to the same drug. One possibility is that the mutations might shut down the channels that bring water molecules in and out of the enzyme's active site, where the chemical modification of drugs takes place. This could be investigated by using the computational tools developed for this research.
By simulating how water molecules move in and out of the protein's centrally located active site, the team clarified an apparent contradiction between experimental evidence and theory that had previously puzzled researchers. X-ray crystallography, which provides a static snapshot of the protein, had shown only six water molecules present in the active site, whereas experimental observations indicated a higher number of water molecules would be present in the enzyme.
"We found that even though there can be many water molecules -- up to 12 at a given time that get in and out very quickly -- if you look at the average, those water molecules prefer to be at a certain location that corresponds to what you see in the crystal structure," Miao said. "It's a very dynamic hydration process that we are exploring with a combination of neutron scattering experiments and simulation."
The simulation research is published in Biophysical Journal as "Active-Site Hydration and Water Diffusion in Cytochrome P450cam: A Highly Dynamic Process."
The team was supported by an Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCOR) grant from the DOE Office of Science and funding from the University of Tennessee. Computing time on the Kraken supercomputer was supported by a National Science Foundation TeraGrid award.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy's Office of Science.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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Journal Reference:
- Yinglong Miao, Jerome Baudry. Active-Site Hydration and Water Diffusion in Cytochrome P450cam: A?Highly Dynamic Process. Biophysical Journal, 2011; 101 (6): 1493 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2011.08.020
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111207000849.htm
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011
U.S. School Kids Often Miss Out on Recess, Study Finds (HealthDay)
MONDAY, Dec. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Policies that dictate minimum requirements for physical education and recess time in schools lead to increased levels of physical activity among children, a new study finds.
Kids spend most of their waking hours in school, which makes schools important locations for combating overweight and obesity in children, the researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago noted in the report, published online Dec. 5 in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
The National Association of Sports and Physical Education and the American Heart Association recommend that elementary students be offered at least 150 minutes per week of physical education, but only 20 percent of third graders in the United States were offered this amount in the 2007-2008 school year, the researchers reported in a journal news release.
In the study, Sandy Slater and colleagues examined the effects of state and school-district level policies that require or recommend minimum amounts of in-school physical activity and recess time. They looked at data from 47 states, 690 districts and more than 1,700 schools.
About 70 percent of the schools offered at least 20 minutes of daily recess and 17.9 percent offered 150 minutes per week of physical education. Most states (83 percent) had no daily recess law and less than half had some kind of law addressing the recommended 150 minutes per week of physical education.
Schools in states with policies encouraging recess were more likely to provide 20 minutes of recess a day, but district policies didn't appear to influence the amount of recess. The researchers also found that schools that offered at least 150 minutes per week of physical education were about 50 percent less likely to provide the recommended 20 minutes per day of recess time.
Schools with predominately white students were more likely than schools with higher numbers of other racial/ethnic groups to have daily recess, and schools with the highest numbers of students receiving free or subsidized lunches were less likely to have 20 minutes per day of recess.
More information
The Nemours Foundation has more about children and exercise.
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Summitt, Krzyzewski honored by Sports Illustrated (AP)
NEW YORK ? Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski were selected Monday as Sports Illustrated's sportswoman and sportsman of the year.
The two Hall of Famers are the winningest coaches in women's and men's college basketball.
Tennessee's Summitt announced in August she had been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type. She pledged to keep coaching and show others they can live their lives with the disease. She earned her 1,075th career victory Sunday.
Duke's Krzyzewski passed mentor Bob Knight on Nov. 15 when he won his 903rd game.
Time Inc. Sports Group editor Terry McDonell lauded Summitt and Krzyzewski as "transcendent figures."
"The voices of those who have been inspired by Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski echo from everywhere and will continue for decades," he said.
The magazine said they joined UCLA's John Wooden in 1972 and North Carolina's Dean Smith in 1997 as the only college basketball coaches to receive the honor.
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Video: Cain to make big announcement
Gorgeous concept car predicted future in 1969
The Holden Hurricane research vehicle, originally designed as an experiment "to study design trend, propulsion systems and other long-range developments," has been restored to its former glory 42 years after its car show debut.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45529566#45529566
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Russian independent election watchdog found guilty (AP)
MOSCOW ? A court on Friday found Russia's only independent election watchdog guilty of violations, casting doubt on its ability to monitor Sunday's parliamentary election as voters complain of record violations by the Kremlin party.
The Kremlin is determined to see the dominant United Russia maintain its majority in parliament. President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin both made final appeals for the party on Friday, warning that a parliament made up of diverse political camps would be incapable of making decisions.
The respected independent watchdog Golos, which compiles complaints of election law violations across the country and posts them on online, has recorded more than 4,700 complaints, most involving United Russia.
The court agreed with prosecutors that the Golos website violates a law forbidding the publication of public opinion research within five days of an election. Golos was fined 30,000 rubles (just under $1,000).
"They are afraid that Golos will tell the truth. They are concerned that they cannot control us," Golos deputy director Grigory Melkonyants said. "They might silence Golos, but they will not silence those people who witness these violations every day."
He insisted that the group would be able to continue its operations, saying that Russians have a constitutional right to report violations. Golos said it plans to send out 3,000 activists to observe Sunday's election.
Golos' lawyer Ramil Akhmetgaliev was less optimistic. "There could be a case to close down the organization," he said. "It depends on how they want to use the law."
The group has come under growing pressure since Sunday, when Putin accused Western governments of trying to influence the election through their funding of unnamed Russian non-governmental organizations. Golos, whose name means "vote," is supported by grants from the United States and Europe.
Kremlin-controlled NTV television showed a half-hour program on Friday evening that attacked Golos directly. The program included shots of suitcases full of U.S. dollars and claimed that Golos was openly supporting opposition parties and trying to discredit the elections.
United Russia dominates Russia's political life and has received overwhelmingly favorable coverage during the campaign, mostly from Kremlin-controlled national television. But the party is increasingly disliked, seen as representing a corrupt bureaucracy and often called "the party of crooks and thieves."
Putin leads the party and he needs it to do well in the parliamentary election to pave the way for his return to the presidency in a vote now three months away.
On Friday, the final day of campaigning, Putin warned that parliament would be unable to work effectively if members "are punching one another, fighting, pulling one another's hair, as occurs in certain neighboring countries," a clear reference to Ukraine's fractious politics.
"If someone wants to see a show, then they should go to the circus, the cinema or the theater," Putin said during a televised visit to a shipbuilding plant.
Medvedev, in a formal televised address, also warned about the dangers of a parliament "torn by irreconcilable conflicts, incapable of making a decision."
The independent Levada Center released a poll last week that predicted United Russia would receive 53 percent of the vote. While still a majority, this would deprive the party of the two-thirds majority that has allowed it to amend the constitution.
Golos said this week that about a third of the complaints it has received come from voters who say they are being pressured to vote for United Russia, mostly by their bosses at work or their professors at universities. Fears that the vote count will be rigged also were running high.
Lilia Shevtsova, a political scientist at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said most Russians are under no illusions that the election will be fair.
"Everybody understands in Russia that this election is without any kind of choice," she said. "More than 55 percent of Russians consider that the forthcoming elections will be fraudulent and will be manipulated."
Six other Kremlin-approved parties have been allowed to field candidates, while the most vocal opposition groups have been barred.
The Levada poll indicates that the Communist Party may benefit from the protest vote, with its share of the vote predicted to rise to 20 percent from less than 12 percent in 2007. The poll also shows an uptick for the two other parties in parliament: the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and Just Russia, a party established with Kremlin support to lure votes from the Communists.
_____
Associated Press writers Mansur Mirovalev, Sofia Javed and Romain Goguelin contributed to this report.
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
Calif. residents grapple with windstorm cleanup
Crews from Southern California Edison power company work to clean up and restore power on Live Oak Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Temple City, Calif. With more than 100,000 people still without power Friday from one of the biggest windstorms to hit the Western United States in years, people began cutting up felled trees, hauling away trash and firing up power generators. Particularly hard hit was the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, where winds toppled telephone poles like dominos, leaving three-quarters of the city's 35,000 residents without power for several days. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)
Crews from Southern California Edison power company work to clean up and restore power on Live Oak Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Temple City, Calif. With more than 100,000 people still without power Friday from one of the biggest windstorms to hit the Western United States in years, people began cutting up felled trees, hauling away trash and firing up power generators. Particularly hard hit was the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, where winds toppled telephone poles like dominos, leaving three-quarters of the city's 35,000 residents without power for several days. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)
Julian Francis, 7, of Pasadena, stands next to a fallen tree, caused by the Santa Ana winds, near the intersection of East Mountain Street and North Hill Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Pasadena, Calif. On Friday hundreds of thousands of people remained without power in Southern California and crews struggled to clean up smashed trees, toppled power lines and debris-strewn roadways. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)
Crews from Southern California Edison power company work to clean up and restore power on Live Oak Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Temple City, Calif. With more than 100,000 people still without power Friday from one of the biggest windstorms to hit the Western United States in years, people began cutting up felled trees, hauling away trash and firing up power generators. Particularly hard hit was the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, where winds toppled telephone poles like dominos, leaving three-quarters of the city's 35,000 residents without power for several days. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)
Crews from Southern California Edison power company work to clean up and restore power on Live Oak Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Temple City, Calif. With more than 100,000 people still without power Friday from one of the biggest windstorms to hit the Western United States in years, people began cutting up felled trees, hauling away trash and firing up power generators. Particularly hard hit was the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, where winds toppled telephone poles like dominos, leaving three-quarters of the city's 35,000 residents without power for several days. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)
Crews work to clean up and restore power on Live Oak Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Temple City, Calif. With more than 100,000 people still without power Friday from one of the biggest windstorms to hit the Western United States in years, people began cutting up felled trees, hauling away trash and firing up power generators. Particularly hard hit was the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, where winds toppled telephone poles like dominos, leaving three-quarters of the city's 35,000 residents without power for several days. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) ? As the hurricane-force winds that pummeled the West eased Friday, Diane Johnson stood knee high in leaves and branches, surveying a fallen tree trunk at eye-level and trying to decide just how to begin the big cleanup.
A near century-old eucalyptus tree toppled over in the middle of the night, crushing all three of the family's cars, landing at the doorstep of their Southern California home and blocking any view from their windows.
Trapped inside for hours, they were able to get out when the fire department cut them a small pathway.
"I have no idea what to do," she said. "I don't know. I don't know."
Like hundreds of thousands of people in Southern California on Friday, Johnson was without electricity. And just like Johnson, residents and crews struggled to clean up smashed trees, toppled power lines and debris-strewn roadways.
Several cities in the region, the hardest hit from Wednesday night's windstorms, were still in a state of emergency.
In Temple City, the Los Angeles suburb where Johnson lives, a row of toppled power poles with wires attached blocked a street. The city's main street remained a shuttered ghost town as cars inched past darkened stop lights and shop signs in Chinese.
Seventy-five percent of the city remained without power Friday and residents in some parts were being advised to boil water or use bottled water. As many as 200 trees fell. As the night loomed, police increased patrols and the city handed out free flashlights.
During the day, residents began cleaning up, filling trash bags with leaves and branches. Streets with older, larger trees suffered the worst damage as top-heavy trunks fell over. But many homes were spared, including that of Johnson's next-door neighbor, Margaret Mushinskie.
The trimmed lawn at Mushinskie's house was pristine because her husband won a years-long battle with city hall to cut down the two eucalyptus trees in front of their home.
"They need to come down," she said, expressing concern for Johnson's son who worked two jobs for his red sports car that now sat crushed under a pile of leaves. "Those poor people. He was so proud of his car. Bless his heart."
In the adjacent city of Arcadia, Aubreann Loving stood in the front yard of her home, watching one car after another turn onto her tiny cul-de-sac, unable to continue down a major cross street that had been blocked by a gigantic fallen tree.
Another tree crashed into her backyard, demolishing the yard's back wall.
The 15-year-old high school sophomore was at home with her family in a house with no heat or light and a refrigerator filled with spoiling food after the city's school district canceled classes at all 10 of its campuses for a second day.
Loving, who passed time Friday watching videos on a portable DVD player she had recharged at a friend's home, is no stranger to school furloughs, having taken her share of snow days off in her native Iowa.
But this, she complained, was far more monotonous.
"If the power would go off, it would come back on within a few hours," she said of elementary school days in Iowa. "But the power isn't coming back on right away here, so it's like there's nothing to do."
About 200,000 people in Southern California and thousands more in Utah ? where Thursday winds topped 100 mph ? remained without electricity. Authorities said some areas might not have power restored until Sunday.
In Pasadena, among the hardest hit cities in the region, inspectors were checking more than 100 damaged buildings to see if they should be red-tagged as being too dangerous to inhabit.
One 42-unit apartment building and other structures were red-tagged Thursday and two dozen more were yellow-tagged, allowing only limited access, said Lisa Derderian, the city's emergency management coordinator.
"Every street in Pasadena was impacted in one way or another," she said, adding that the city's cleanup would be expeditious. "We have the (Tournament of Roses) parade every year here so we are experts in cleanup and debris removal."
In Northern California, crews battled wildfires Friday that were sparked by power lines blown down by the wind. The winds were blamed for the destruction of at least four homes.
Aiding firefighters and those involved in the cleanup was the fact that the high winds, which had been expected to return overnight, never materialized. Around the state, the 60- to 80-mph wind gusts of the previous day had become mere breezes.
The low-pressure system that had spawned the winds was moving eastward so quickly that the National Weather Service canceled red flag warnings that predicted extreme fire danger from the gusty, dry weather.
A new system was expected to move into Arizona on Friday night, bringing a chance of more winds over the weekend but the winds will not be as strong, weather service meteorologist Eric Boldt said.
Nevada could get 35-mph sustained winds with gusts to 70 mph, while Wyoming and Utah could see light snow and New Mexico was warned to expect heavier snow and freezing drizzle.
___
Associated Press writers John Rogers and Alicia Chang in Los Angeles, Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City, Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco and Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Buy Wine Now to Lock in Pre-Holiday Bargains [Shopping]
With holiday parties, get-togethers, fancy dinners with friends and family, and all sorts of classy events on the horizon now that the holidays are in full swing, you might think that now isn't the best time to buy something as often-consumed as wine. Quite the contrary?according to Ray Isle, executive wine editor of Food and Wine Magazine, after Thanksgiving is the best time to get a highly-rated wine or bubbly at a fraction of its summertime price.
For example, the weeks after Thanksgiving are the best time to pick up a few bottles of champagne, prosecco, or any other sparkling wine or bubbly you're thinking about drinking for New Year's Eve (or any other time through the holiday season.) Sparkling wines aren't the only types on sale either. Isle notes that Beaujolais Nouveau, a type of unaged red that's prized for its pairing with Thanksgiving Dinners, is on steep markdown after Thanksgiving has passed, making it a delicious bargain for wine lovers.
Granted, most of these discounts will last through the holidays, but not too close to the end of the year?after all, you can expect wine distributors to bring the prices of champagne and other sparkling wines back up right before New Year's to catch the last-minute shopper.
Photo by Adria Richards.
For the Best Wine Deals, Now's the Time to Buy | YumSugar
You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+.
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