Public release date: 17-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Orenstein david_orenstein@brown.edu 401-863-1862 Brown University
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Next Mother’s Day, say it with an evolved model of logistical efficiency a flower. A new discovery about how nature’s icons of romance manage the distribution of sperm among female gametes with industrial precision helps explain why the delicate beauties have reproduced prolifically enough to dominate the earth.
In pollination, hundreds of sperm-carrying pollen grains stick to the stigma suspended in the middle of a flower and quickly grow a tube down a long shaft called a style toward clusters of ovules, which hold two female sex cells. This could be a chaotic frenzy, but for the plant to succeed, exactly two fertile sperm should reach the two cells in each ovule no more, no less. No ovule should be left out, either because too many tubes have gone elsewhere, or because the delivered sperm don’t work.
In the journal Current Biology, Brown University biologists report that flowers have evolved an elegant safeguard system to ensure that only the minimum necessary number of pollen tubes will reach each ovule.
“There is a mechanism that prevents too many pollen tubes from delivering too many sperm,” said Mark Johnson, associate professor of biology at Brown and senior author on a new paper detailing the discovery. “But the other cool thing is that there is also a way to salvage fertilization if the first father is a dud.”
Essentially the successful fusion of sperm and female gametes immediately terminates the signaling that attracts pollen tubes to the ovule, a finding by first author Kristin Beale, a graduate student in Johnson’s lab.
“Previous models had said that pollen tube entry was sufficient that once one pollen tube entered, others would be repelled,” Beale said. “But we show it’s the process of gamete fusion.”
Added Johnson: “Until fusion has happened, there’s no guarantee that you’ll have successful seed formation.”
A mystery solved with mutants
Although scientists have studied plant reproduction for centuries, the tools to make Beale’s finding have only become available in the last few years, Johnson said. Armed with these new capabilities, the team, including second author Alexander Leydon, conducted a series of experiments in Arabidopsis plants, a model plant for research.
The most important tool was a pollen mutant the team had discovered called hap2. The mutant grows a pollen tube to an ovule and bursts to release sperm, a normal course of events. But hap2′s sperm can’t fuse with the female gametes. It is a convenient dud. The team also employed new techniques that allow pollen tubes and the sperm they carry to fluoresce as green or red. That way they could watch as different tubes interacted with the ovules.
In their first experiment, the team sent in healthy sperm, half of which were carried by red-tagged tubes and half of which by green-tagged tubes. With nothing but healthy sperm in the mix, only about 1 percent of ovules ended up with multiple pollen tubes (a phenomenon that Beale calls “polytubey”). Ovules could block polytubey in the vast majority of cases.
Then the team unleashed a sampling of sperm in which one in four were duds. Polytubey increased tenfold. One unfortunate ovule ended up attracting four tubes, indicating polytubey is allowed until a fertile sperm comes along.
In another experiment with mutant sperm tagged red and normal, or “wild-type” pollen tubes tagged green, the researchers saw polytubey only where there was a red glow under the microscope.
“We did not observe ovules that were targeted by two pollen tubes carrying wild-type sperm,” they wrote in the journal. “Ovules first targeted by defective sperm can attract additional pollen tubes; but when wild-type sperm are attracted, subsequent pollen tubes are blocked.”
In the paper the team also showed that one of two cells responsible for attracting pollen tubes will persist in the ovule until gamete fusion occurs. While the team didn’t identify the exact signaling molecule responsible for blocking polytubey after gamete fusion, Johnson said, the study does help scientists determine what that signaling molecule must be like. He said it must be fast-acting and potent.
Johnson said the research may eventually have applications in agriculture, either because it could aid fertilization when it is hindered, for instance by bad environmental conditions, or commercial corn breeding. Seed companies create hybrids by fertilizing corn with hand-collected pollen, and to do this they need varieties where male fertility can be controlled.
Nature’s own system, however, appears to guarantee that virtually every ovule will have exactly the right amount of healthy sperm. By employing this newly understood mechanism, flowers thereby become the most prolific moms they can be.
###
The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health Brown University Initiative to Maximize Student Development funded the work.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 17-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Orenstein david_orenstein@brown.edu 401-863-1862 Brown University
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Next Mother’s Day, say it with an evolved model of logistical efficiency a flower. A new discovery about how nature’s icons of romance manage the distribution of sperm among female gametes with industrial precision helps explain why the delicate beauties have reproduced prolifically enough to dominate the earth.
In pollination, hundreds of sperm-carrying pollen grains stick to the stigma suspended in the middle of a flower and quickly grow a tube down a long shaft called a style toward clusters of ovules, which hold two female sex cells. This could be a chaotic frenzy, but for the plant to succeed, exactly two fertile sperm should reach the two cells in each ovule no more, no less. No ovule should be left out, either because too many tubes have gone elsewhere, or because the delivered sperm don’t work.
In the journal Current Biology, Brown University biologists report that flowers have evolved an elegant safeguard system to ensure that only the minimum necessary number of pollen tubes will reach each ovule.
“There is a mechanism that prevents too many pollen tubes from delivering too many sperm,” said Mark Johnson, associate professor of biology at Brown and senior author on a new paper detailing the discovery. “But the other cool thing is that there is also a way to salvage fertilization if the first father is a dud.”
Essentially the successful fusion of sperm and female gametes immediately terminates the signaling that attracts pollen tubes to the ovule, a finding by first author Kristin Beale, a graduate student in Johnson’s lab.
“Previous models had said that pollen tube entry was sufficient that once one pollen tube entered, others would be repelled,” Beale said. “But we show it’s the process of gamete fusion.”
Added Johnson: “Until fusion has happened, there’s no guarantee that you’ll have successful seed formation.”
A mystery solved with mutants
Although scientists have studied plant reproduction for centuries, the tools to make Beale’s finding have only become available in the last few years, Johnson said. Armed with these new capabilities, the team, including second author Alexander Leydon, conducted a series of experiments in Arabidopsis plants, a model plant for research.
The most important tool was a pollen mutant the team had discovered called hap2. The mutant grows a pollen tube to an ovule and bursts to release sperm, a normal course of events. But hap2′s sperm can’t fuse with the female gametes. It is a convenient dud. The team also employed new techniques that allow pollen tubes and the sperm they carry to fluoresce as green or red. That way they could watch as different tubes interacted with the ovules.
In their first experiment, the team sent in healthy sperm, half of which were carried by red-tagged tubes and half of which by green-tagged tubes. With nothing but healthy sperm in the mix, only about 1 percent of ovules ended up with multiple pollen tubes (a phenomenon that Beale calls “polytubey”). Ovules could block polytubey in the vast majority of cases.
Then the team unleashed a sampling of sperm in which one in four were duds. Polytubey increased tenfold. One unfortunate ovule ended up attracting four tubes, indicating polytubey is allowed until a fertile sperm comes along.
In another experiment with mutant sperm tagged red and normal, or “wild-type” pollen tubes tagged green, the researchers saw polytubey only where there was a red glow under the microscope.
“We did not observe ovules that were targeted by two pollen tubes carrying wild-type sperm,” they wrote in the journal. “Ovules first targeted by defective sperm can attract additional pollen tubes; but when wild-type sperm are attracted, subsequent pollen tubes are blocked.”
In the paper the team also showed that one of two cells responsible for attracting pollen tubes will persist in the ovule until gamete fusion occurs. While the team didn’t identify the exact signaling molecule responsible for blocking polytubey after gamete fusion, Johnson said, the study does help scientists determine what that signaling molecule must be like. He said it must be fast-acting and potent.
Johnson said the research may eventually have applications in agriculture, either because it could aid fertilization when it is hindered, for instance by bad environmental conditions, or commercial corn breeding. Seed companies create hybrids by fertilizing corn with hand-collected pollen, and to do this they need varieties where male fertility can be controlled.
Nature’s own system, however, appears to guarantee that virtually every ovule will have exactly the right amount of healthy sperm. By employing this newly understood mechanism, flowers thereby become the most prolific moms they can be.
###
The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health Brown University Initiative to Maximize Student Development funded the work.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Indiana Pacers’ Danny Granger (33) is defended by Miami Heat’s Shane Battier, left, and Dexter Pittman (45) during the first half of Game 3 of their NBA basketball Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Indiana Pacers’ Danny Granger (33) is defended by Miami Heat’s Shane Battier, left, and Dexter Pittman (45) during the first half of Game 3 of their NBA basketball Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series, Thursday, May 17, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Indiana Pacers guard Paul George, right, celebrates with guard Darren Collison as the Miami Heat called a timeout during the second half of Game 3 of their NBA basketball Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series in Indianapolis, Thursday, May 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Referee Tony Brothers (25) rushes in to seperate Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger, left, and Miami Heat forward LeBron James after Granger fouled James during the second half of Game 3 of their NBA basketball Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series in Indianapolis, Thursday, May 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger, top, signals after making a 3-pointer on an assist from shooting guard George Hill, bottom, during the second half of Game 3 against the Miami Heat in their NBA basketball Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series in Indianapolis, Thursday, May 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? LeBron James grabbed a seat on Miami’s bench, lowered his head and stared down at the floor.
Way down.
The Heat are in a hole.
Roy Hibbert had 19 points and 18 rebounds, George Hill scored 20 and Danny Granger 17 as the Pacers, showing more balance, toughness and togetherness than favored Miami, throttled the malfunctioning Heat 94-75 on Thursday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Overlooked during the regular season and given little chance to upset the reigning East champions, the Pacers took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Game 4 is Sunday at raucous Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
James scored 22 ? 16 in the first half before wearing down ? and Mario Chalmers added 25 for Miami. However, Dwyane Wade, banged up and possibly slowed by a more serious injury, scored only 5 on 2-of-13 shooting for the Heat, already missing forward Chris Bosh because of a strained abdominal muscle and not expected to return for this series.
“It’s obvious he wasn’t himself.” James said of Wade. “Does he want to play better? Of course. He’s one of the best players in the world.”
Wade didn’t play like one and he also had an angry exchange during a timeout in the third quarter with coach Erik Spoelstra, who dismissed it as a heat-of-battle incident.
“That happens,” Spoelstra said. “Anybody that has been part of a team or has been a coach or been a player, you have no idea how often things like that happen. That was during a very emotional part of the game. We were getting our butt kicked. Those exchanges happen all the time during the course of an NBA season.
“There’s going to be a lot of times where guys say something, you don’t like it. You get over it and you move on. We’re all connected. Dwyane and I have been together for a long time, a long time. We’ve been through basically everything. A lot of different roles, a lot of different teams. That really is nothing. That is the least of our concern. That type of fire, shoot, that’s good. That’s the least of our concerns. Our concern is getting for Sunday.”
Wade wouldn’t discuss his dispute with Spoelstra.
Indiana outscored Miami 51-32 in the second half, when the Pacers could do no wrong.
They made big shots, challenged everything the Heat tossed in the air and didn’t back down from a Miami team that appeared poised to make an easy run to the NBA finals after top-seeded Chicago lost Derrick Rose and was eliminated in the first round.
The Pacers, though, have other plans.
In the second half, Indiana forward David West flung James to the floor in the lane, and Granger later got in the superstar’s face after a foul on a breakaway. After winning Game 2 in South Florida by three points, the Pacers wanted to show that win was no fluke and that they’re for real.
Believe it.
They’re two wins from tilting the balance of power in the East.
“We’re certainly happy with the win,” said Pacers coach Frank Vogel. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Vogel’s pregame message to his team: “Keep your edge, and enhance your edge.”
Enhance, they did.
Hibbert controlled the glass, roaming the lane on both ends and finishing with five blocks.
“My primary focus is defense, defense, defense,” he said. “I embrace that role and let the offense come to me. Them being one and done, that’s what we talked about in the huddle,” he said. “One shot and they’re done.”
Two more losses and the Heat are done.
With his team down 20 in the closing minutes, Spoelstra waved the white flag and pulled out first Wade, then James, who quickly removed his headband as he got to the bench and then pulled out the mouthpiece inscripted with XVI ? the Roman numeral for 16 ? or the number of wins it takes to get a championship.
When the final horn sounded, the three-time MVP quickly exited the floor.
“When you lose a game like that, all you try to take it away and move on to the next one,” James said. “They’re playing some good basketball. We’re playing pretty good defense on them. We’re not scoring the ball.”
Indiana busted open a grind-it-out game with a 17-3 run in the third quarter, doing it with an inside-outside attack that had the Heat wondering what was coming next.
Pushed by a rocking home crowd wearing “Gold Swagger” T-shirts and chanting “Beat The Heat” every chance they could, the Pacers pushed their lead to 69-55 after three and then held off one brief run by the Heat in the fourth quarter.
Behind Miami’s bench, owner Micky Arison and team president Pat Riley looked on in disbelief.
Despite playing almost 21 minutes and exerting himself on defense, James had enough energy to throw down a vicious left-handed dunk in the final minute of the first half, pulling the Heat even at 43-all. He looked back at the Miami bench as if to say, “How about a little help out here?”
He was doing it all.
Wade, on the other hand, was lost.
He missed all five field-goal attempts, made two turnovers and ran around like a first-time rookie and not a superstar playing in his 95th career postseason game.
Wade finally made his first field goal with 10:22 left in the third to put Miami up 47-45, but the Pacers went on a 10-1 run with Granger dropping a 3-pointer in front of the Heat bench to make it 55-48 and then playfully skipping down the sideline as Miami called a timeout.
With Bosh out, rehabbing in Florida and doubtful to be back at any point in this series, Spoelstra said “everything is out on the table. Everyone has to be ready.”
He wasn’t kidding.
Spoelstra made a dramatic change to his starting lineup, putting Shane Battier at power forward and using bench-riding center Dexter Pittman in place of Udonis Haslem and Ronny Turiaf in the first five along with James, Wade and Chalmers ? a group he played together for just nine minutes during the regular season.
The moves smelled of desperation and maybe Spoelstra sensed his team was in more trouble than he wanted to admit.
And when the Pacers jumped to an 11-2 lead, amping up an already frenzied Indiana crowd, it appeared Miami was indeed in danger of dropping a second straight game.
However, with James leading the charge, the Heat responded by closing the first quarter on a 24-6 tear.
James and Wade were relaxed following the Heat’s morning shootaround. There wasn’t a hint of panic in either of their voices and they exuded been-here-done-that attitudes.
James downplayed the idea that he and his teammates would need to maintain some kind of “edge” to be best prepared for a pivotal Game 3 many felt would tilt the series.
“It’s the postseason,” said James, playing in his 100th postseason game. “There’s no secrets about an edge or not having an edge. It’s the postseason. You have to be ready and approach every possession as if it’s the last. I’m always going to have an edge, so that’s not going to change.”
Well, things have changed.
Notes: The Heat are 4 for 42 on 3-pointers in the series. … Miami’s 75 points were a low in these playoffs. … Indiana outrebounded Miami 52-36. … The Heat managed just 12 points in the third quarter. … Former Pacers center Rik Smits attended the game and got a huge cheer when he was shown on the scoreboard.
CAIRO (Reuters) – Wasfy Amin’s jewelry shops in the heart of Islamic Cairo ran into trouble when a street revolt scared away tourists last year. Part of his business is growing again, but not a part that inspires optimism in Egypt‘s flailing economy.
His factory on the capital’s desert outskirts now melts bangles, rings and necklaces – heirlooms sold by impoverished families – into rough ingots of gold and silver that are sold to banks for refining in Switzerland.
“There are many people with no work now in Egypt, or with work but no salaries. This helps them out, for a while,” said Amin, the head of the gold division at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce.
The exports bring him a razor-thin 1 percent profit margin, the difference between local and international prices minus costs, hardly enough to pay the wages of roughly 200 employees, and he thinks he will run out of cash in a year.
Egypt’s economy lunged into crisis when the uprising ousted leader Hosni Mubarak in February last year as banks shut down for more than a month, a breakdown in security tarnished the investment climate and workers went on strike for better pay.
Worse, say business owners, is a litany of avoidable failures since then by an army-backed interim government that has failed to secure emergency aid from overseas donors, contain street violence or launch big new investments to spur growth.
The policy hiatus has raised the burden of expectation on the new president Egypt will elect from May 23 as the army generals now ruling the country prepare to hand power to civilians.
Candidates are competing for votes with promises to tackle corruption, boost job creation and improve living standards in a country blighted by poverty.
But with the government borrowing at perilously high interest rates and vital foreign loans conditional on curbing the deficit, the next head of state will not be able to buy his way to popularity by creating more state jobs or raising subsidies on essential goods.
Business leaders say the answer lies in the paradox of Egypt’s vast economic potential yet massive underinvestment, and the new head of state will have little option but to heed demands for a fairer, more efficient economy.
That means breaking with Mubarak’s legacy – a pervasive state that threw up obstacles to business that only large corporations with close ties to the country’s political elite could fully overcome.
“It’s tough to change after years, decades of corruption,” said Menatalla Sadek, Corporate Finance and Investments Director at automotive retailer GB Auto. “Mubarak is gone but did anyone change the whole organisation? The government workers? It’s the same business environment that we are still operating in.”
The policies of the main candidates range from a solidly free-market system espoused by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi to an old-fashioned interventionist model championed by leftist Hamdeem Sabahy. He would have the state lead the way in “strategic industries” such as steel, cement, textiles and fertilisers and a series of mega-projects.
Two other leading candidates, Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister under Mubarak, and Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, would also look to the private sector to play a leading role.
The policies of Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister and now a presidential candidate, remain unclear. His campaign officials did not respond to a request for details.
Under Mubarak a partial liberalisation of trade and investment spurred growth to over 7 percent in the 2007/8 fiscal year, slowing to 5 percent after the global financial crisis.
All the top candidates are promising to kick-start the economy with big investments in strategic industries such as energy and agriculture and push through industrial projects along the Suez Canal, in the isolated Sinai and the south.
Mursi promises to increase economic growth to 7 percent within five years and cut inflation, now running at 8.8 percent, by more than half. By most accounts the economy contracted in 2011, stricken by the country’s political turmoil.
For now, Moussa and Abol Fotouh are polling ahead of the rest. They and Mursi would reduce energy subsidies to all but the poor. These subsidies now account for 20 percent of all government spending and reducing them may be the least painful way to narrow the budget deficit.
The interim government’s budget already foresees a narrowed budget deficit of 140 billion Egyptian pounds next year, down from 144 billion in the current year to June.
The election offers only a partial answer to Egypt’s future. Voters will go to the polls not knowing their new leader’s powers – the result of delays to a new constitution.
The election of a new president, however, could help end a rivalry between government and the Islamist-dominated parliament that has discouraged the International Monetary Fund from signing off on an emergency $3.2 billion loan that would support state finances and help restore investor confidence.
HIGH BORROWING RATES
Foreign investors who fled Egypt after the uprising may stay away for months, even years, after a new president takes power, waiting to see if he has the political capital – and the constitutional powers – to put words into action.
Foreign direct investment fell to $440 million in July-September last year, the latest available data, from $1.60 billion a year earlier, sending the balance of payments to a $2.36 billion deficit from a year-earlier $14.7 million surplus.
Some local companies are already pressing ahead with investments they say are vital to meet future demand given the country’s fast-growing population.
Food company Wadi Group, expanding its vegetable oil operations, is building a port on the Nile to discharge grain more cheaply. GB Auto, which says Egypt’s car sales were a quarter of Turkey’s at best despite a larger population, launched its biggest service centre in Egypt yet last week.
Companies that lost out when major land reclamation and irrigation projects were suspended after the uprising say they see some movement again.
“In the water sector there are new public tenders being issued. The decisions are not taken yet and it takes six to nine months to do the technical and financial evaluation,” said Hossam Farid, CEO of water pump maker Allweiler Farid Pumps.
The military-backed government, anxious to maintain stability, has avoided taking measures that might be seen as unpopular during the transition period but could have stemmed the deterioration in the country’s finances.
Increased state borrowing has driven domestic borrowing rates to historic highs above 15 percent since last year’s uprising. This in turn has helped widen the budget deficit even further and crowded companies out of the credit market.
“Interest is too high and limits our ability to grow,” said Tony Freiji, Chief Executive Officer of Wadi Group. “We are competing with manufacturing companies Europe and Asia who can borrow at 3.5 percent or less.”
The slump in foreign investment in 2011 and a 30 percent drop in tourism revenue – two of Egypt’s main sources of foreign exchange – have reduced demand for the Egyptian pound.
The government has limited the currency’s fall since the uprising to around 4 percent by drawing down foreign currency reserves by more than $20 billion, leaving only about $15 billion, or less than three months of import coverage.
Some Egypt-based economists say there are signs that the government is now deliberately hampering imports of non-essential goods to slow transfers of foreign currency abroad.
Amr Moussa has signalled a shift towards a freer exchange rate – something economists have estimated would inevitably lead to a weaker currency given the current level of support.
Foreign fund managers and members of the Egyptian business community say the expectation that the pound must eventually fall in value is a brake on inward investment.
Freiji of Wadi Foods said devaluation may be imminent and it could benefit his export business but hit local consumption. GB Auto, a major importer, said it can cope with devaluation.
All the candidates promise a renewed emphasis on social justice and a crackdown on monopolies and endemic corruption.
But the next president may struggle to make the kind of impact he would like in his first 100 days in office, which coincides with the summer when many government workers take a long holiday and the Muslim Ramadan month of fasting and prayer.
“By the second half of 2012, most Egyptian firms will not be able to tolerate these conditions much longer,” said Farid, owner of the water pump manufacturer.
BEIRUT (Reuters) – At least 21 people were killed on Tuesday in an attack in northern Syria, activists said, and members of a team of U.N. monitors caught in the incident said they were in rebel hands “for their own protection.”
When Reuters asked one of the four monitors by phone if they were being held prisoner, he said: “We are safe with the (rebel) Free Army.”
A spokesman for the rebel military council said the rebels were working on a safe exit for the monitors. An internal U.N. document obtained by Reuters said that a total of six monitors were under rebel “protection” in a “friendly environment.”
“They are now with the Free Army which is protecting them. If they leave, the regime will terminate them because they have witnessed one of its crimes and it does not want them to tell the truth,” rebel Major Sami al-Kurdi told Reuters.
“We will get them out tomorrow,” he said later. The internal U.N. document confirmed the U.N. team in Syria “will conduct a patrol to pick up the mentioned UNMOs (observers)” on Wednesday.
Each side blamed the other for the attack in Khan Sheikhoun in northern Idlib province.
Some rebel and opposition sources put the death toll from the attack as high as 66.
Pro-government Addounia TV said gunmen had opened fire on the monitors, but did not mention casualties.
The monitor who spoke to Reuters said gunfire had erupted as a seven-man U.N. team toured Khan Sheikhoun, then a blast damaged one of the group’s vehicles.
Ahmad Fawzi, international mediator Kofi Annan‘s spokesman, said the convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device.
“Three U.N. vehicles were damaged but no U.N. personnel were hurt in this explosion. The mission has sent a patrol team to the area to help to extract those U.N. military observers,” he said in a statement.
Internet footage appeared to show a white vehicle, like those used by the monitors, with a damaged front. In Damascus Major General Robert Mood, the head of the U.N. monitoring mission, told reporters the team was safe, without elaborating.
A British-based opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said government troops had opened fire on a funeral procession in the town, about 220 km (140 miles) north of Damascus.
The group said a total of 46 people had been killed by government forces across the country. There was no independent confirmation, and Syria has limited journalists’ access during the uprising.
OPPOSITION KEEPS SECULAR CHIEF
The incident came hours after the Syrian National Council (SNC), an umbrella opposition group in which Islamists are influential, re-elected Burhan Ghalioun, a sociologist long resident in France, as its leader for another three months.
People involved in the vote, which took place in Rome, said the secular Ghalioun was viewed as acceptable to Syria’s array of sects and ethnic groups.
Shortly afterwards Fawaz Tello, a prominent dissident, resigned from the SNC, the latest of several senior figures to quit the body in recent months.
Tello, one of a minority of liberals in the SNC, said he was leaving because the council had been avoiding democratic reform and resisting international efforts to unify the opposition.
Meanwhile Damascus said more than half of eligible voters turned out last week for a parliamentary election, part of reforms it says show President Bashar al-Assad’s determination to resolve the uprising peacefully.
Khalaf al-Azzawi, head of the judiciary body that oversaw the election, said 51 percent of eligible voters had turned out, down slightly from an election in 2007 when the rule of Assad’s Baath party was unchallenged.
At least one independent figure was elected to the assembly, according to results Azzawi read out in a televised news conference in Damascus. No figures were given for turnout in cities and towns under siege by government forces.
“The election gave the people the broadest possible representation,” he said. “The election took place with full transparency, democracy, integrity, supervised and monitored by independent judicial councils which were not pressured by any side.”
Opposition leaders dismissed the election in advance as a ruse to buy more time for crushing dissent and said voting was not feasible in areas being besieged and shelled by the security forces.
The vote follows amendments to the constitution to allow more political parties, which Damascus has cited as evidence of its desire to move toward a political solution to the bloodshed.
A peace plan brokered by Annan in April calls for the release of detainees and for peaceful protests to be allowed.
SAUDI-IRANIAN RIVALRY
Persistent bloodshed since then has led Saudi Arabia to warn that Annan’s plan is losing credibility. Sunni Saudi Arabia would welcome Assad’s removal as a blow to his backers in Shi’ite Muslim Iran, Riyadh’s rival for influence in the Gulf.
Elsewhere, opposition activists said government forces killed two insurgents in the eastern oil town of Deir al-Zor and continued a wave of arrests in which hundreds of people have been detained in recent days.
The Annan plan also calls on Assad’s forces and rebels to allow free distribution of humanitarian aid, over which the United Nations is at loggerheads with Syria.
The United Nations has rebuffed a demand by Damascus that it manage the delivery of all humanitarian aid to a million people in areas stricken by the conflict.
“That position is a non-starter … as it should be,” said one U.N. diplomat.
“OCHA (U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) can’t allow the Syrian government to use it as a way to get people (they want to arrest) or to deliver aid only to government supporters.”
U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos said on Tuesday that talks with Syria were continuing but have been “very slow.”
On Tuesday, relief group Medecins sans Frontieres said combatants were targeting health facilities in the northern Idlib region, and called on all sides to “respect the physical integrity of wounded persons, doctors and health care facilities”.
The sectarian dimension of the uprising has given rise to fears of a spillover beyond Syria’s borders, including to neighboring Lebanon, where there have been three days of fighting between members of the Alawite sect – to which Syria’s ruling circle belongs – and Sunni Islamists.
At least eight people have been killed and more than 70 wounded since fighters in adjacent Alawite and Sunni districts of Tripoli began firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, following the arrest of a Sunni man who has been charged with membership of a “terrorist” organization.
Syria – which has influence with the Lebanese military and intelligence apparatus – has demanded that Lebanon crack down on groups moving weapons across the border to Syrian insurgents.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Oweis in Amman, Erika Solomon in Tripoli, Tom Miles in Geneva, Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Writing by Joseph Logan; Editing by Tim Pearce and Eric Walsh)
When you retire, you no longer have to go to work everyday. Most people choose to live within a reasonable distance of where they work and buy a home within commuting distance. After retirement, there is no longer a need to live within commuting distance and retirees must make a choice on whether they will keep their existing home or sell it and move somewhere that they want to live. Ignoring this choice is actually a choice to keep their existing home.
Why sell your home in anticipation of retirement?
There are a number of reasons to consider selling your home. The home may be larger than what you need or want in retirement. It could also be in a neighborhood that you no longer want to live in. Many families decide where to live based on the quality of the schools in an area. But once the children have gone through school, it?s a good time to take a fresh look at the neighborhood.
Retirees may choose to be closer to recreation or shopping facilities than an elementary school. An existing home could also be too expensive to maintain. Or, it may just be too big to maintain.
Even if you still enjoy the home and the neighborhood, children and grandchildren may have moved away and retirement presents an opportunity to move closer to them.
After making an informed decision on whether to keep a home or sell and move, the financial realities must be considered. Some homes may be difficult to sell due to market conditions. In time, a recovery should allow prices to recover but that may not be much comfort to a newly retired grandmother who wants to move closer to her grandchildren.
Reverse mortgages can help you no matter what the right decision on your home is. If you decide to keep your home and enjoy your golden years in the home you raised your family in, a reverse mortgage could provide funds for maintenance or remodeling.
If you want to sell but the market isn?t cooperating, a reverse mortgage could provide funds and help you endure the downturn while waiting for a recovery.
New homes can also be purchased with a reverse mortgage. This option could free you from a monthly payment and allow you to enjoy retirement without a large bill for housing due every month.
You worked hard to retire and now enjoy to deserve that time. Your house should be part of that enjoyment and a reverse mortgage could be a source of the funds that alleviate any worries about housing.
Leo is an avid patroller of the mortgage, reverse mortgage, and retirement industry! Leo enjoys keeping up to date and reporting on important issues that are in the news. He also likes educating people on how both the traditional and reverse mortgage industry works
Leo Franklin
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We?re exciting to be presenting Hively at WebVisions this week in the Business Innovation and Education Lab. We?ll be presenting along with several other great start up companies. The event is free and is being held this Wednesday, May 16th from 9am ? 5pm.
The Business Innovation and Education Lab is an all day event connected to the WebVisions conference that features a series of lightning presentations from startups with innovative ideas for digital, interactive and mobile apps, commerce and services. During breaks, speakers and attendees can connect and discuss opportunities to do business, create partnerships and develop new markets for goods and services.
Could the end of your marriage be the first step toward reclaiming your personal power and joyfully living the life of your dreams? If the answer is yes, this book is for you.
Divorce rocks the very foundation of our beings, leaving us feeling lonely, flawed, enraged, undesirable, hopeless, and empty. In Spiritual Divorce, New York Times bestselling author Debbie Ford reveals how this devastation can be transformed into a profoundly enlightening experience. This empowering guide shows how the collapse of a marriage is, at root, a spiritual wake-up call, an opportunity to liberate ourselves and reclaim our lives. The end of a relationship—no matter who ends it—is a damaging moment. Ford offers a clear program for turning ruin into renewal.
Whether you are the one who leaves or the one who is left, divorce is a painful, wrenching experience, explains author Debbie Ford. Since Ford is comfortable dwelling in the shadow side of life, it?s not surprising that she believes that the excruciating pain of divorce can lead to enormous spiritual growth. ?Emotional turmoil can be a powerful catalyst to reconnect us with our divine nature,? she writes. ?It propels us into a journey of self discovery and urges us to learn how to love and accept our entire being.? Herein lies the promise of a ?spiritual divorce.?
Because Ford is a highly effective workshop leader, she has a knack for breaking down spiritual matters into manageable bites. She is also willing to share the truth of her own painful divorce, allowing readers to see her initial pain and consuming resentments. Ford divides her book into seven laws, beginning with the ?The Law of Acceptance,? where readers are asked to imagine a benevolent divine order at play rather than taking a blaming stance. In the section titled ?The Law of Responsibility,? Ford encourages readers to gently begin the process of taking responsibility for their own darkest qualities. This is the thrust of Ford?s highly respected shadow work?illuminating the dark side so we can stand in divine light. Each section ends with ?Healing Action Steps,? where Ford suggests specific exercises or meditations. For example, in the final chapter Ford asks readers to make a new ?divorce vow? that is a lifelong commitment to one?s highest self. ?Gail Hudson ?This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Spiritual Divorce: Divorce as a Catalyst for an Extraordinary Life
The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse: A Breakthrough Program for Connecting with Your Soul?s Deepest Purpose
Once again, Debbie Ford offers a simple and elegant process to get you in touch with the deepest part of your being, so you can live a life of meaning and purpose. (Deepak Chopra, author of Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul )
Life coach extraordinaire, Debbie Ford, offers an inspiring program to cleanse toxic thoughts and behaviors to help everyone achieve an emotionally freer, loving, more authentic life. This book is a 21 day guide that is easy to practice and benefit from. (Judith Orloff, MD, author, Emotional Freedom )
No matter what ones spiritual beliefs may be, anyone who engages in the practices prescribed by the author cannot but benefit. The message is clear and the practice is specific and systematic. I recommend to anyone who wishes to engage in a journey of psychological healing and spiritual growth. (Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., author of Getting the Love You Want )
Living fully in the present. Discovering our true calling. These are not impractical concepts out of reach. In Debbie Fords wonderful new book, she walks you through a process of discovery. Our outer shells crumble to reveal the souls gold that has been waiting to be discovered. (Marianne Williamson, author of The Age of Miracles )
Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: HarperOne; Reprint edition Language: English ISBN-10: 0061783692 ISBN-13: 978-0061783692 Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse: A Breakthrough Program for Connecting with Your Soul?s Deepest Purpose
ScienceDaily (May 14, 2012) ? Anthropologists working in southern France have determined that a 1.5 metric ton block of engraved limestone constitutes the earliest evidence of wall art. Their research, reported in the most recent edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows the piece to be approximately 37,000 years old and offers rich evidence of the role art played in the daily lives of Early Aurignacian humans.
The research team, composed of more than a dozen scientists from American and European universities and research institutions, has been excavating at the site of the discovery — Abri Castanet — for the past 15 years. Abri Castanet and its sister site Abri Blanchard have long been recognized as being among the oldest sites in Eurasia bearing artifacts of human symbolism. Hundreds of personal ornaments have been discovered, including pierced animal teeth, pierced shells, ivory and soapstone beads, engravings, and paintings on limestone slabs.
“Early Aurignacian humans functioned, more or less, like humans today,” explained New York University anthropology professor Randall White, one of the study’s co-authors. “They had relatively complex social identities communicated through personal ornamentation, and they practiced sculpture and graphic arts.”
Aurignacian culture existed until approximately 28,000 years ago.
In 2007, the team discovered an engraved block of limestone in what had been a rock shelter occupied by a group of Aurignacian reindeer hunters. Subsequent geological analysis revealed the ceiling had been about two meters above the floor on which the Aurignacians lived — within arms’ reach.
Using carbon dating, the researchers determined that both the engraved ceiling, which includes depictions of animals and geometric forms, and the other artifacts found on the living surface below were approximately 37,000 years old.
“This art appears to be slightly older than the famous paintings from the Grotte Chauvet in southeastern France,” explained White, referring to the cave paintings discovered in 1994.
“But unlike the Chauvet paintings and engravings, which are deep underground and away from living areas, the engravings and paintings at Castanet are directly associated with everyday life, given their proximity to tools, fireplaces, bone and antler tool production, and ornament workshops.”
He added that this discovery, combined with others of approximately the same time period in southern Germany, northern Italy, and southeastern France, raises new questions about the evolutionary and adaptive significance of art and other forms of graphic representation in the lives of modern human populations.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by New York University, via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Randall White, Romain Mensan, Rapha?lle Bourrillon, Catherine Cretin, Thomas F. G. Higham, Amy E. Clark, Matthew L. Sisk, Elise Tartar, Philippe Gard?re, Paul Goldberg, Jacques Pelegrin, H?l?ne Valladas, Nadine Tisn?rat-Laborde, Jacques de Sanoit, Dominique Chambellan, and Laurent Chiotti. Context and dating of Aurignacian vulvar representations from Abri Castanet, France. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1119663109
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Kim Kardashian sure knows how to poke fun at herself. The reality star jokingly challenged "tanning mom" Patricia Krentcil for the title of tannest one of all.
Tens of thousands of stars can be seen clustered together in a new image.
A ball of some of the oldest stars in the universe looks like a swarm of bees in a new view from an observatory in Chile.?
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The photo, released today (May 9), was taken by a European Southern Observatory telescope and shows 100,000 stars crowded together in Messier 55, a globular star cluster located roughly 17,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius (The Archer). It is one of about 160 globular clusters orbiting the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy.
Scientists suspect the stars in globular clusters formed from single clouds of gas that condensed to make stars around the same time, around 10 billion years ago. That makes these stars some of the most ancient known. As such, they provide valuable archaeological evidence about what the universe was like not long after the Big Bang is thought to have given rise to it.
“As this formative period was just a few billion years after the Big Bang, nearly all of the gas on hand was the simplest, lightest and most common in the cosmos: hydrogen, along with some helium and much smaller amounts of heavier chemical elements such as oxygen and nitrogen,” scientists with the European Southern Observatory wrote in a statement.
Astronomers estimate the universe is about 13.7 billion years old. In contrast, our own star, the sun, formed only 4.6 billion years ago, and is made of more complex, heavier elements that were around at this later epoch.
The new image was taken at the 4.1-metre Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama desert.
The cluster Messier 55 (also known asNGC 6809) is easily visible through a small telescope, and stretches about two-thirds the width of the full moon across the sky. It was first observed in 1752 by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, and later added by another French astronomer, Charles Messier, into his famous catalog of bright objects.
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This guide for actors and directors develops a valid method for training performers to act from their core?whether they are cold reading, auditioning, or performing for film or television. This book teaches actors how to achieve and respond to believable and honest emotions before the camera, and it maintains that the key to a successful [...]
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Public release date: 17-May-2012
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