'Heart Attack' singer will stop by Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET for exclusive live stream on MTV.com and MTV Hits.
By Christina Garibaldi
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1707210/demi-lovato-go-live-from-mtv-with-lovatics-tomorrow.jhtml
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May 12, 2013 ? From microscopes to MRI scanners, imaging technology is growing ever more vital in the world's hospitals, whether for the diagnosis of illness or for research into new cures. Imaging technology requires dyes or contrast agents of some sort. Current contrast agents and dyes are expensive, difficult to work with and far from ideal. Now, Danish chemists have discovered a new dye and proved its worth against any of the dyes currently available.
Thomas Just S?rensen and Bo Wegge Laursen are chemists at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In a series of publications, they have shown that the aza-oxa-trangulenium dyes have the potential to outperform all fluorescent dyes currently used in imaging.
"Our dyes are ten times better, far cheaper and easier to use. The latter I believe, will lead to expanded opportunities and broadened use, by physicians and researchers in developing countries, for example." Says Thomas Just S?rensen.
Visual noise blocks correct diagnosis
It might seem odd, but one of the central challenges when taking pictures of cells and organs, is to avoid noise. The agents that make it possible to see microscopic biological structures are luminescent, but then, so is tissue. Consequently, the contrast agent's light risks being overpowered by "light noise." Just as the dial and hands of a watch might glow-in-the-dark, tissue becomes luminescent when exposed to light. Tissue and other organic structures luminesce, or lights up, for 10 nanoseconds after exposure to light. The light-life of an ordinary dye is the same -- 10 nanoseconds. But triangulenium dyes produce light for an entire 100 nanoseconds.
The long life of the triangulenium dyes means that an image can be produced without background noise. Furthermore, the extra 90 nanoseconds opens the possibility of filming living images of the processes occurring within cells, for example when a drug attacks an illness.
Neither expensive, nor difficult or technically demanding
Medical image analysis departments currently devote an incredible amount of time to staining samples, because all samples must be treated with two agents. The use of triangulenium dyes necessitates only one dye. And in contrast with typical dyes, no specialized equipment is needed to see the dyes in tissue samples. A lens from a pair of polarized sunglasses and an ordinary microscope are all that are required.
Open Source dye despite obvious competitiveness
When one compares the advantages of triangulenium dyes against the three million Danish kroner per gram price tag of traditional dyes,(500.000$US)(320.000?) you would expect that the new dye would immediately out-compete its predecessors. However, up to now S?rensen and Laursen have had to give their dye away. "I know that our dye is better, but biologists and physicians don't. Therefore, we are giving the dye away to anyone that wants to perform a comparison test. Someone who needs to assess the health of sick people wouldn't dare to rely on an untested substance. Only when several researchers have shown triangulenium dyes to perform just as effectively as its predecessors can we hope for our substance to become more widely adopted," concludes Thomas Just S?rensen.
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CAIRO (AP) ? In his first comments to the media since he was detained more than two years ago, Egypt's ousted leader Hosni Mubarak said he is dismayed at the country's state of affairs and particularly the plight of the poor.
The 85-year old Mubarak said in remarks published Sunday in Al-Watan newspaper that it is also too early to judge his elected successor, Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, because he has a heavy burden to deal with. He also warned against a much-negotiated loan from the International Monetary Fund, saying it would make life harder for the poor in Egypt, where over 40 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day.
The authenticity of the interview could not be immediately verified. Calls by The Associated Press to Mubarak's lawyer Farid ElDeeb went unanswered, but he was quoted as telling Ahram Online, the electronic version of the state-owned Al-Ahram, that the interview was a "fabrication."
Al-Watan's reporter, Mohammed el-Sheik, took photos of himself near and inside Mubarak's medical helicopter, without the ex-leader inside. El-Sheik said he conducted the interview after sneaking into a waiting area where Mubarak was held during his trial Saturday, apparently before the hearing began.
He also told the private ONTV station Sunday that he couldn't record the interview because he had to avoid Mubarak's tight security.
Mubarak has been a longtime nemesis of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which Morsi hails. In his comments to the privately owned Egyptian paper published Sunday, Mubarak appeared to be gloating, painting a picture of a nation that has unraveled following his 2011 ouster and portraying himself as a protector of the poor.
Mubarak stepped down in February 2011 in the face of a wave of popular protests whose main slogan was "Bread, Freedom and Social Justice." Protesters accused Mubarak of fostering a culture where power was centralized and police acted with impunity. They also believed Mubarak was grooming one of his sons to succeed him.
Mubarak's comments to Al-Watan also appeared to be addressing a growing segment of the population which has grown nostalgic for Mubarak's days amid continuing turmoil in the two years since his ouster. The country has been plagued by tenuous security and an enduring standoff between Morsi's Brotherhood and its Islamist allies and the largely secular opposition, which launched the 2011 revolt but failed to make political gains since.
Mubarak told the newspaper reporter he was "very, very sad" for impoverished Egyptians. He said he was also dismayed by the state of the economy, the industrial cities built during his nearly 30 years in office, and the country's lack of security.
The comments were Mubarak's first to be directly made to a reporter since his ouster, and his first public statements since his captivity. They came after a hearing in his retrial for his role in the killing over 800 protesters during the popular uprising. At the trial, Mubarak appeared in the dock on a hospital gurney, alongside his two sons. The trial was adjourned for June 8.
Mubarak was detained two years ago and put on trial on the same charges. He has since been hospitalized, sentenced to life in prison, had his sentence overturned and then granted a retrial.
The first Arab leader to be put on trial by his own people, Mubarak is also facing corruption charges in separate cases, where prosecutors are investigating his family wealth amid claims he amassed a massive fortune while in power. His two sons are also on trial on corruption charges.
In his comments, Mubarak also said he feared for the country's future and its poor should tough economic measures be imposed in order to acquire a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF. Egypt's economy took a hard hit over the last two years as foreign reserves dwindled, foreign investment sharply declined and tourists largely stayed away amid political turmoil.
Morsi's government would have to impose likely unpopular austerity measures as part of an economic reform program it is currently negotiating with the IMF. But talks have dragged on, while politics remain deeply polarized and consensus on managing the country's affairs is elusive.
Mubarak also said he is certain future generations will view his legacy fairly and that history will "exonerate" him.
Mubarak's last public comments were in April 2011, just before he was detained. At the time, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV station aired a prerecorded audiotape by Mubarak, in which he emotionally denied he used his position to amass wealth.
Also on Sunday, Egypt's highest appeal court granted a Mubarak-era steel magnate a retrial in one of a number of cases he is facing. Ahmed Ezz, who has been handed a combined 54 years of prison sentences and fined billions of dollars, will be retried on charges of money laundering in which he previously received a seven-year prison sentence and fined nearly $3 billion.
Ezz has received the heaviest penalties yet in the slew of trials against former regime officials. Many of Mubarak's government ministers have either been freed, or are still on trial.
Some have entered into talks with Morsi's cash-strapped government.
On Sunday, Mubarak's former Trade Minister Rachid Mohammed Rachid was taken off an arrest list and his assets unfrozen by the attorney general.
Rachid, who was in Dubai during the 2011 uprising and has not returned, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $200 million for approving production licenses to steel magnate Ezz without auctioning them publicly. In a separate case, Rachid was convicted of squandering public funds and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $800,000.
It was not immediately clear how much Rachid paid to settle with the government.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-mubarak-talks-1st-time-since-detention-082430039.html
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Astronaut helmet camera captures video of NASA engineers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn replacing a pump on International Space Station suspected of leaking ammonia.
By Tariq Malik, Space.com
Two spacewalking astronauts may have fixed an ammonia leak outside the International Space Station on Saturday, perhaps bringing the outpost's vital cooling system back up to full strength.
Clad in bulky spacesuits, NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn replaced a pump control box thought to be responsible for the?leak of ammonia, which cools down the orbiting lab's systems. It looks like this fix did the trick, as no ammonia flakes were seen streaming into space when Mission Control turned on the newly installed gear.
"We're not seeing anything," Cassidy said at around 12:35 p.m. ET, several minutes after the pump was turned on. "No snow." [Emergency Spacewalk to Fix Space Station Leak in Photos]
NASA officials stopped short of declaring total victory, however, saying that time will tell if the fix holds.
"It will take some diagnostics, still, over the course of the next several days by the thermal systems specialists to fully determine that we have solved the problem of the?ammonia leak,"?NASA spokesperson Rob Navias?said during live mission commentary. "But so far, so good."?
An emergency spacewalk?
Cassidy and Marshburn floated outside the space station at 8:44 a.m. ET Saturday, beginning what officials described as a six-hour detective's investigation to find ? and hopefully fix ? the ammonia leak.
Cassidy, who led the spacewalk, reported seeing "no smoking gun" as he and Marshburn began their inspection of the old ammonia pump control box, one of several on the space station's far left segment, known as the Port 6 truss. It is part of the cooling system for the two wing-like solar arrays extending from the Port 6 segment.
Upon removing the box, the spacewalkers still saw no signs of ammonia flakes.
"It looks really, really clean, surprisingly so," Cassidy said while peering deep inside the box using what looked like a dentist's mirror.
NASA TV
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy (striped spacesuit) holds an ammonia pump control box during a spacewalk to hunt for an ammonia leak outside the International Space Station on May 13, 2013. The spacesuit of astronaut Tom Marshburn can be seen behind him.
Flakes of ammonia were discovered leaking out of the cooling system on International Space Station, and two astronauts are taking a spacewalk to repair it. NBC's Tom Costello reports.
The ammonia leak was first spotted by space station astronauts last Thursday, when the crew reported seeing flakes of frozen coolant floating outside. They recorded video of the ammonia leak and sent it down to Mission Control for analysis.
While the leak posed no danger to the space station's crew, it could have impacted the amount of power available for daily operations on the orbiting laboratory if left unchecked, NASA officials said. So Cassidy and Marshburn were sent out on an emergency spacewalk to attempt a fix.
The roughly 48-hour turnaround made this the?fastest spacewalk plan of its kind?ever devised for a space station crew, mission managers have said.
By about 1:00 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT), a little more than four hours into the spacewalk, Cassidy and Marshburn were getting ready to head back to a space station airlock, where they must clean their spacesuits to make sure they don't bring any toxic ammonia into the orbiting lab.
A history of ammonia leaks
This is not the first time astronauts have had to tackle ammonia leaks in the?space station's cooling system?during a spacewalk.
Last year, astronauts Sunita Williams of NASA and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan performed a spacewalk to fix a leak that was also found on the Port 6 truss. That ammonia leak was in the same coolant loop as the current leak, but engineers do not yet know if the two leaks are related.
The station's Port 6 truss is the oldest piece of the space station's scaffolding-like backbone and carries two of the outpost's eight wing-like solar arrays. It launched in November 2000 and was originally installed on the station's roof, towering over the orbiting lap. In 2007, visiting shuttle astronauts relocated the P6 truss to its final location on the station's far left side.
This was the fourth spacewalk for both Marshburn and Cassidy, and the 168th total to support space station assembly and maintenance. Inside the?International Space Station, commander Chris Hadfield of Canada and Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko, Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov followed the spacewalkers' progress.
Today's spacewalk comes just two days before Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko are due to return to Earth to end their five-month mission in space.
The three men are due to leave the space station on Monday and land on the steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. Those plans are still going forward, space station mission managers said.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him?@tariqjmalik??and?Google+.?Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook??and?Google+. Original article on?Space.com.
This story was originally published on Sat May 11, 2013 3:00 PM EDT
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People carry a woman injured in a blast in Reyhanli, near Turkey's border with Syria, Saturday, May 11, 2013. Two car bombs exploded in a Turkish town near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing and injuring scores of people officials and media reports said. (AP Photo/Anadolu Agency, Lale Koklu) TURKEY OUT
People carry a woman injured in a blast in Reyhanli, near Turkey's border with Syria, Saturday, May 11, 2013. Two car bombs exploded in a Turkish town near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing and injuring scores of people officials and media reports said. (AP Photo/Anadolu Agency, Lale Koklu) TURKEY OUT
People gather at the site of a blast which killed and injured a number of people in Reyhanli, near Turkey's border with Syria, Saturday, May 11, 2013. Two car bombs exploded in a Turkish town near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing at least four people and injuring 22 others, officials and media reports said. (AP Photo/IHA) TURKEY OUT
People gather at the site of a blast which killed and injured a number of people in Reyhanli, near Turkey's border with Syria, Saturday, May 11, 2013. Two car bombs exploded in a Turkish town near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing at least four people and injuring 22 others, officials and media reports said. (AP Photo/IHA) TURKEY OUT
A woman cries at the scene of one of the explosion sites, after several explosions killed at least 18 people and injured dozens in Reyhanli, near Turkey's border with Syria, Saturday, May 11, 2013, Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said.(AP Photo/Anadolu Agency, Cem Genco) TURKEY OUT
People help injured people from the area of an explosion site, after several explosions killed at least 18 people and injured dozens in Reyhanli, near Turkey's border with Syria, Saturday, May 11, 2013, Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said Saturday.(AP Photo/Anadolu Agency, Cem Genco) TURKEY OUT
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) ? Two car bombs exploded in a Turkish town near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing around 40 people and wounding 100 others, officials said. Turkey's deputy prime minister said Syria's intelligence and military were "the usual suspects" behind the bombings, but said authorities were still investigating the attacks.
The blasts, which were 15 minutes apart, raised fears that Syria's brutal civil war violence was crossing into its neighbor.
One of the car bombs exploded outside the city hall while the other went off outside the post office in the town of Reyhanli, a main hub for Syrian refugees and rebel activity in Turkey's Hatay province, just across the border. Images showed people frantically carrying victims through the rubble-strewn streets to safety.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said about 40 people were killed and 100 others wounded in the blasts and linked them to Syria. There was no immediate information on the identities or nationalities of the victims.
"We know that the Syrian refugees have become a target of the Syrian regime," he said. "Reyhanli was not chosen by coincidence."
"Our thoughts are that their mukhabarat (Syrian intelligence agency) and armed organizations are the usual suspects in planning and the carrying out of such devilish plans," he said.
Arinc said Turkey would "do whatever is necessary" if proven that Syria is behind the attack.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier also raised the possibility that the bombings may be related to Turkey's peace talks with Kurdish rebels meant to end a nearly 30-year-old conflict.
Syrian mortar rounds have fallen over the border before, but if the explosion turns out to be linked to Syria it would be by far the biggest death toll in Turkey related to its neighbor's civil war.
Syria shares a more than 500-mile border with Turkey, which has been a crucial supporter of the Syrian rebel cause. Ankara has allowed its territory to be used as a logistics base and staging center for Syrian insurgents.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed from Berlin that Turkey would act.
"Those who for whatever reason attempt to bring the external chaos into our country will get a response," he said.
The main Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned the "terrorist attacks" in Reyhanli, saying it stands together with the "Turkish government and the friendly Turkish people."
The coalition sees "these heinous terrorist acts as an attempt to take revenge on the Turkish people and punish them for their honorable support for the Syrian people," it said.
Reyhanli is a center for aid and alleged weapon trafficking between Turkey and Syria, as well as for Syrian rebel activity. Apart from refugees living in camps, many Syrians escaping the civil war have also rented houses in the town.
The explosions came days before Erdogan is scheduled to travel to the U.S. for talks, which are expected to be dominated by the situation in Syria.
"This ... will increase the pressure on the U.S. president next week to do something to show support to Turkey when Erdogan visits him in Washington," said Soner Cagaptay, an expert on Turkey at the Washington Institute. "Washington will be forced to take a more pro-active position on Syria, at least in rhetoric, whether or not there is appetite for such a position here."
Abdullah, a Reyhanli resident, told The Associated Press he heard two strong explosions at about 1 p.m. "The bombs were very powerful," he said by telephone.
The frontier area has seen heavy fighting between rebels and the Syrian regime. In February, a car bomb exploded at a border crossing with Turkey in Syria's Idlib province, killing 14. Turkey's interior minister has blamed Syria's intelligence agencies and its army for involvement.
Four Syrians and a Turk are in custody in connection with the Feb. 11 attack at the Bab al-Hawa frontier post. No one has claimed responsibility, but a Syrian opposition faction accused the Syrian government of the bombing, saying it narrowly missed 13 leaders of the group.
In that bombing, most of the victims were Syrians who had been waiting in an area straddling the frontier for processing to enter Turkey.
Tensions flared between the Syrian regime and Turkey after shells fired from Syria landed on the Turkish side, prompting Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. to send two batteries of Patriot air defense missiles each to protect their NATO ally.
___
Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
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Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain sprays Champagne after winning the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix at the Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo, near Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain sprays Champagne after winning the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix at the Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo, near Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain pours Champagne on Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali, as second place Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen of Finland watches on the podium after winning the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix, at the Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo, near Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain steers his car during the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix, at the Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo, near Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
From left, second place Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen of Finland, winner Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali and third place Ferrari driver Felipe Massa of Brazil celebrate on the podium after winning the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix, at the Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo, near Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain, right, overtakes Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany during the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix, at the Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo, near Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Fernando Alonso gave the home fans exactly the kind of daring and dominant drive they came to see. Keeping them celebrating at the end of the season might be a bit more difficult.
Alonso won the Spanish Grand Prix with a commanding performance Sunday, but then said Ferrari still needs a more pace to beat three-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel in the race for the Formula One title.
Alonso was fifth on the grid but used an aggressive start to take control and beat Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus by nearly 10 seconds, with teammate Felipe Massa 26 seconds behind. More importantly, Vettel was a distant 38.2 seconds back in fourth, meaning Alonso cut the gap to 17 points in the overall standings after five races.
With two Ferrari drivers on the podium and none from Red Bull, Alonso still cautioned that the Italian team hasn't caught up to its main rival.
"Last year we didn't win (the championship). We were one second off (the pace), but we managed to fight until the Brazil race," said Alonso, a two-time former champion. "This year we have a package that is still not the fastest but we are working on it."
Alonso lost out to Vettel by three points last year, but will head to Monaco in two weeks with high hopes.
"We are not the quickest over one lap, we maybe do not set the fastest time in the race, but we have fantastic pit stops, starts, (limited) tire degradation," said Alonso. "Many ingredients to have a competitive car to fight for the championship ... In the four years with Ferrari this is the best (car) we've had."
Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali dedicated the day to those working behind the scenes to make Ferrari faster.
"For sure, very, very happy. It was a good day for the team," Domenicali said. "The win was for the people who are working hard at the factory."
The race was once again heavily affected by Pirelli's fast-degrading tires, which forced teams into four-stop strategies when they had planned for three.
"Our aim is to have between two and three stops at every race, so it's clear that four is too many," Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said. "In fact, it's only happened once before, in Turkey during our first year in the sport."
There is no time for Pirelli to make changes in time for Monaco.
"We'll be looking to make some changes, in time for Silverstone," Hembery said. "To make sure that we maintain our target and solve any issues rapidly."
Red Bull struggled a lot more than Ferrari with the tires, and the mood in the team's camp was subdued after the race.
"The first three cars were a little bit too fast for us and regarding looking after the tires, they did a better job," said Vettel, who finished ahead of teammate Mark Webber. "We need to catch up; we're not going the pace of the car, we're going the pace of the tires and obviously we do something to make the tires wear more. The start was good, we then tried to hold on with a three-stop strategy, but had to change to four stops."
Raikkonen finished second for the third straight race.
It was Alonso's second win in Barcelona ? the first coming in 2006 ? and his seventh career podium on the Circuit de Catalunya.
"It's very special winning at home and it doesn't matter how many times you repeat it," said Alonso, who moved up to third overall, while Raikkonen is only four points behind Vettel.
Massa's performance was arguably even better than Alonso's, as he started from ninth due to a grid penalty in qualifying.
"I think we are in the right direction so I hope from now on we are fighting for the podium in every race," Massa said.
Mercedes had a disappointing day after Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton started on the front grid. As has been the case this season, the Mercedes cars ? which are fast in qualifying ? again lacked race pace and durability as Rosberg finished sixth and Hamilton drifted way back to 12th.
"There's a growing gap to three teams ahead of us which we need to get on top of," Rosberg said. "We have a very quick car but we have to make it work for us in the race."
Lotus driver Romain Grosjean's back wheels locked up early on and he had to pull out due to mechanical failure.
Caterham driver Giedo van der Garde's left rear wheel came off entirely and he also had to retire.
It was a busy afternoon in the pits as Sauber released Nico Hulkenberg too early and he bumped into the back of a Toro Rosso and with Pastor Maldonado ? last year's surprise winner ? pitting in the wrong place.
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Many of the famous pianists of the 20th century have dabbled in jazz and have made great memorable music with it. It has a quaint quality about it and triggers a lot of nostalgia even during the 21st century when frivolous cacophony has taken over in many music forms. This genre of music has influenced both the music maker and the listener. In this context, one must also throw light on the great work done by pianists of African-American origin. Many of them pioneered the trend in the early part of the 20th century. Their legacy has been carried forward in today's times by the contemporary musicians. In an era when many songs are pretty bland and banal, jazz has a powerful quality to it. It has survived the test of the time and is still considered one of the best genres of music.
Contemporary jazz has cut across all ages and generations to have an impact on people of all types. Regardless of the culture of the people, they have all appreciated this music and have savored its delights for years. Today, most of the night clubs all over the world have compulsorily included this music form as a part of their program. Professional jazz players can be hired for a reasonable fee even by people who like to throw private parties.
Contemporary jazz of the 21st century has brought forward the original charm. The current music albums of many artists incorporate this genre since it has a special charm to it. It has also had an influence in folk music. One can even say that it has had a role in formal music as well. The instrument which has been most deeply associated with jazz is a piano. However, the role of trumpet and saxophone should also be highlighted since they have always found their presence felt wherever jazz has been belted out.
The contemporary form of jazz has undergone innovation and musicians of today have improvised over it to fuse vintage with current tastes. Such an endeavor ensures that even lovers of modern music find it irresistible. Be it in a wedding or a funeral, jazz has and will always rule the roost.
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VALLEY SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) ? Authorities have arrested the 12-year-old brother of an 8-year-old girl who was mysteriously stabbed at her home in a rural Northern California community last month.
The boy, who was not identified, will be charged with homicide, Calaveras County Sheriff Gary Kuntz told reporters Saturday night.
The April 27 attack on Leila Fowler shook the tightknit Valley Springs community of about 7,400 people and set off a massive manhunt.
The boy had told police he found his sister's body and encountered an intruder in the home while their parents were at a Little League game. He described the man as being tall with long gray hair.
Police have said there was no sign of a burglary or robbery at the house.
Investigators did a door-to-door sweep of homes, storage sheds and horse stables scattered across the oak-studded hills foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Divers also searched two nearby reservoirs in search of clues.
As part of the investigation, authorities seized several knives from the home Leila shared with her father, stepmother and siblings to determine if one could have inflicted the fatal wounds. A neighbor who told detectives she saw a man flee the Fowler home later recanted the story and was discredited by police.
Leila's brother was taken into custody at 5:10 p.m. Saturday and police hastily called a news conference to announce the arrest.
"Citizens of Calaveras County, you can sleep a little better tonight," Kuntz said.
Authorities spent over 2,000 hours on the investigation "to provide Leila Fowler's family answers to her death," the sheriff said.
Kuntz said the investigation was ongoing. He declined to provide further details.
Several days after the killing, hundreds of people gathered at Jenny Lind Elementary School where Leila was a popular 3rd grader. Her mother, Krystal Walters, tearfully thanked the crowd for the support.
"I just want to thank the entire community and all of our family and friends for all the overwhelming amount of support you've given our family," Walters said at the time. "It will never be forgotten. Thank you."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brother-arrested-fatal-calif-stabbing-girl-024336654.html
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By Sam Forgione and Ross Kerber
NEW YORK/BOSTON (Reuters) - Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc have mounted an aggressive challenge to Michael Dell's controversial $24.4 billion offer to take Dell Inc private, offering $21 billion in cash to shareholders while vying to wrest control of the company from its co-founder.
Michael Dell, major shareholders such as Southeastern and billionaire activist investor Icahn are waging a battle over the future of the world's third largest personal computer maker, once a tech-industry high flyer, but now struggling to evolve as people embrace smartphones and tablet computers.
Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake want to take the company private for $13.65 per share, making it the largest buyout since the 2008 financial crisis. But many shareholders, including Southeastern and T. Rowe Price, complain that offer severely undervalues the company.
Instead, Icahn and Southeastern, two of Dell's biggest shareholders, proposed a deal that gives shareholders $12 of cash for every share they own, as well as allow them to keep their stock. Given that they retain their stake in the company and that the rival offer is for $13.65 a share, every stock owned takes on a value of $1.65, Icahn and Southeastern argue. (http://r.reuters.com/tug97t)
At $12 apiece, the cash portion of Icahn's and Southeastern' s offer will come to $21 billion.
Should Dell's board rebuff them and put the go-private offer to a shareholder vote, the pair will nominate a slate of 12 directors to challenge the current board. In an interview with CNBC on Friday, the activist investor said Michael Dell will no longer run the company should his slate of candidates be elected.
The initial reaction from shareholders was favorable, though some investors hoped the latest offer would prompt Michael Dell to offer a counter. David Moon, Chairman of Moon Capital Management in Knoxville, Tennessee, said his firm sold its Dell shares weeks ago and warned that failure to secure any sort of deal might send Dell's shares back to $10 a share, before Michael Dell's takeover offer.
Mario Gabelli, chief executive of Gamco Investors Inc, said via e-mail he would vote in favor of the latest proposal. On Twitter, he wrote it was a "good alternative" to a leveraged buy-out. Gabelli investment funds own about 5.2 million Dell shares, latest filings show.
"It's improvement. It gives people a choice. The other (proposal) comes across like a ramrod," said Donald Yacktman, founder and CEO of Yacktman Asset Management which holds 14.8 million shares, according to Thomson Reuters data. "Whichever way things evolve, what this is doing is forcing better capital allocation than we have seen in the last five years."
On Friday, Icahn again suggested Michael Dell would be the biggest beneficiary of his own proposed buyout, which would exclude current shareholders from participating in the fruits of his restructuring effort.
Icahn's offer "gives us the opportunity to continue our participation in Dell's operating business and thus we believe it to be superior," said Tim Piechowski, associate portfolio manager, Alpine Capital Research, St Louis, Missouri, which owned 2.5 million shares as of May 10.
Dell shares were up 0.7 percent at $13.42 in late trade.
VISION
Icahn argued in a letter sent to Dell's board and made public in a filing on Friday that Dell operates a large enterprise-focused computing business in addition to its ailing PC division, with strong ties Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp. Without specifying details, he also said cost savings could be had from merging assembly plants across the world, while there remained opportunities to spin off non-core businesses.
That echoed Michael Dell's own strategic vision for a company he hopes to transform from a purveyor of low-margin PCs into a global provider of high-margin services for enterprises.
As for Southeastern, past filings show the fund management firm run by Mason Hawkins bought into Dell's shares at about $16.88, meaning a huge loss were they to accept a buyout.
Icahn told Reuters on Friday he will personally contribute a couple of billion dollars to finance a $5.2 billion bridge loan needed to effect his deal. He added that he had already reached out to several investment bankers. Later, he told CNBC in a TV interview that one of those investment banks included Jefferies, which would contribute $1.6 billion to the loan.
Jefferies & Co declined to comment.
The Icahn and Southeastern challenge comes after Blackstone LP ended its pursuit of Dell in April, and pulled out a month after it teamed up with Icahn to challenge the take-private attempt.
It was "insulting to shareholders' intelligence for the board to tell them that this board only has the best interests of shareholders at heart," Icahn and Southeastern said in the letter. "We are often cynical about corporate boards, but this Board has brought that cynicism to new heights."
Dell said in a statement on Friday that its special committee is reviewing the Southeastern Asset materials and will provide comment in "due course." A representative for Silver Lake declined to comment.
"I don't think Icahn and Southeastern have enough sway over the shareholders," Raymond James analyst Brian Alexander said. "As Dell has a lot of cash, (the latest deal) is basically like a leveraged private equity deal, without the company going private."
Both Icahn and Southeastern said they would take shares rather than cash. They would finance the proposal from existing cash and about $5.2 billion in new debt.
Icahn and Southeastern together hold about 13 percent of Dell stock. The billionaire investor previously proposed paying $15 per share for 58 percent of Dell.
"As a shareholder, what I'm most pleased about is that the pot continues to be stirred," said Robert Willis, president and CEO of Willis Investment Counsel in Gainesville, Georgia, which owns about 350,000 shares of Dell. "I like the fact that those who oppose this aren't going to lie down."
(Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York, Aaron Pressman in Boston, and Sakthi Prasad and Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; writing by Edwin Chan, editing by Edwina Gibbs, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Jeffrey Benkoe and Andre Grenon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/icahn-southeastern-propose-alternative-dell-buyout-deal-wsj-044842529.html
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The Colorado state legislature passed two historic bills this week that could officially regulate the sale of marijuana.
If signed by the governor, these bills will take major steps toward completing the legalization process within Colorado. In November, voters there passed an amendment to the state constitution that essentially legalized the personal use of marijuana, making it one of the first states in the nation to do so.
"The adoption of these bills is a truly historic milestone and brings Colorado one step closer to establishing the world's first legal, regulated and taxed marijuana market for adults," Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, told Huffington Post.
One measure, the House Bill 1317, proposes the regulatory framework for legal marijuana. This would provide the first retail sales licenses to private dispensaries that have so far distributed marijuana for medical reasons. It would also set a marijuana blood content driving limit, allowing drivers to be stoned with no more than 5 nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood. HB-1317 also requires stores to keep the drug behind the counter,and bans cities from operating pot shops that operate tax-free or against the new regulatory laws.
The other measure, House Bill 1318, establishes a tax on the commercial sale of marijuana for recreational use. The legislation would impose a 15 percent excise tax and a 10 percent statewide sales tax on retail marijuana purchases ? a high rate that some Coloradoans have starkly opposed, but which nevertheless takes a major step in the implementation of legalization.
Both bills have passed the State House and Senate, and will now land on Gov. John Hickenlooper?s desk for approval. But before HB-1318 is signed into law, Coloradoans will need to vote on the tax increases.
If voters reject the hefty excise and sales taxes, the state will likely be stuck with the regulatory framework for marijuana sales but not the funds to pay for it.
Some lawmakers have expressed concern that the 25 percent tax rate could turn some marijuana proponents against the measure, but Amendment 64 mandates that the first $40 million raised from the excise tax would go to the state?s construction of schools. In a recent survey, Public Policy Polling found that 77 percent of Colorado voters who support marijuana legalization also support the tax, while only 18 percent oppose it.
If Hickenlooper signs the tax bill, it will be subject to a ballot referendum and voted upon later this year.
Under Colorado?s marijuana law, Amendment 64, people over the age of 21 are legally allowed to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and cultivate up to six plants.
Lawmakers passed the two comprehensive marijuana bills on Wednesday ? the final day of the legislative session ? thereby making Colorado the first US state to take such extensive steps toward implementing the legal sale, regulation and tax of marijuana for recreational use.
"Facilitating the shift from failed policy of prohibition to a more sensible system of regulation has been a huge undertaking and we applaud the many task force members, legislators, and others who have helped effect this change,? Tvert said. ?We are confident that this legislation will allow state and local officials to implement a comprehensive, robust and sufficiently funded regulatory system that will effectively control marijuana in Colorado."
Source: http://rt.com/usa/colorado-legal-marijuana-bill-068/
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May 9, 2013 ? The adult brain continues to grow with the challenges that it faces; its changes are linked to the development of personality and behavior. But what is the link between individual experience and brain structure? Why do identical twins not resemble each other perfectly even when they grew up together? To shed light on these questions, the scientists observed forty genetically identical mice that were kept in an enclosure offering a large variety of activity and exploration options.
"The animals were not only genetically identical, they were also living in the same environment," explains principal investigator Gerd Kempermann, Professor for Genomics of Regeneration, CRTD, and Site Speaker of the DZNE in Dresden. "However, this environment was so rich that each mouse gathered its own individual experiences in it. Over time, the animals therefore increasingly differed in their realm of experience and behavior."
The DFG-Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden -- Cluster of Excellence at the TU Dresden (CRTD), the Dresden site of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin played a pivotal role in the study.
New neurons for individualized brains
Each of the mice was equipped with a special micro-chip emitting electromagnetic signals. This allowed the scientists to construct the mice's movement profiles and to quantify their exploratory behavior. The result: Despite a common environment and identical genes the mice showed highly individualized behavioral patterns. They reacted to their environment differently. In the course of the three-month experiment these differences increased in size.
"Though the animals shared the same life space, they increasingly differed in their activity levels. These differences were associated with differences in the generation of new neurons in the hippocampus, a region of the brain that supports learning and memory," says Kempermann. "Animals that explored the environment to a greater degree also grew more new neurons than animals that were more passive."
Adult neurogenesis, that is, the generation of new neurons in the hippocampus, allows the brain to react to new information flexibly. With this study, the authors show for the first time that personal experiences and ensuing behavior contribute to the ?individualization of the brain." The individualization they observed cannot be reduced to differences in environment or genetic makeup.
?Adult neurogenesis also occurs in the hippocampus of humans," says Kempermann. "Hence we assume that we have tracked down a neurobiological foundation for individuality that also applies to humans."
Impulses for discussion across disciplines
?The finding that behavior and experience contribute to differences between individuals has implications for debates in psychology, education science, biology, and medicine," states Prof. Ulman Lindenberger, Director of the Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPIB) in Berlin. "Our findings show that development itself contributes to differences in adult behavior. This is what many have assumed, but now there is direct neurobiological evidence in support of this claim. Our results suggest that experience influences the aging of the human mind."
In the study, a control group of animals housed in a relatively unattractive enclosure was also examined; on average, neurogenesis in these animals was lower than in the experimental mice. ?When viewed from educational and psychological perspectives, the results of our experiment suggest that an enriched environment fosters the development of individuality," comments Lindenberger.
Interdisciplinary teamwork
The study is also an example of multidisciplinary cooperation -- it was made possible because neuroscientists, ethologists, computer scientists, and developmental psychologists collaborated closely in designing the experimental set-up and applying new data analysis methods. Biologist Julia Freund from the CRTD Dresden and computer scientist Dr. Andreas Brandmaier from the MPIB in Berlin share first authorship on the article. In addition to the DZNE, CRTD, and the MPIB, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence in Saarbr?cken and the Institute for Geoinformatics and the Department of Behavioural Biology at the University of M?nster were also involved in this project.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/1qlU0Ar5Pr8/130509142050.htm
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity firm Warburg Pincus
The New York-based firm said on Friday that investors in the new fund, Warburg Pincus Private Equity XI LP, include public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and wealthy individuals, with a significant number of the new investors coming from outside the United States.
Warburg Pincus reached a final close of the fund within one year of closing the fund's first part, in line with its initial plan. The amount raised is slightly shy of the original target of as much as $12 billion. It is the firm's 11th global buyout fund.
"This successful fundraise, in a challenging environment, was driven by strong support from both existing and new investors," Warburg Pincus co-President Charles Kaye said in the statement.
Big buyout funds have struggled in a tough fundraising environment as their returns have been hit by tighter financing conditions. But Warburg markets its offerings differently, focused on growth investing rather than the usual financial engineering by leveraged buyouts.
Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has more than $40 billion in assets under management and has an active portfolio of more than 125 companies.
(Reporting by Soyoung Kim in New York; editing by John Wallace)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/warburg-pincus-raises-11-2-billion-buyout-fund-130143138.html
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A conservationist is screwing a dye connector into a white rhino?s horn using an ordinary wrench.
What do gold, platinum and rhino horn have in common? They are among the most expensive materials in the world ? with rhino horn being the leader of this group. In late 2011, according to National Geographic Magazine, its Vietnam street price was between $33 and $133 per gram. In South Africa, it currently costs around $65 per gram ? this is three times as much as a whole South African white rhino. No wonder rhino horn poaching is continuously increasing, with 333 poached South African rhino in 2010, 448 in 2011 and a total of 668 in 2012. The South African government?s latest statistics show that alone this year until March 15, 158 white rhinos have already been poached.
This high demand for rhino horns does not come out of the blue: In many Asian countries, especially in Vietnam, rhino horn powder is used to cure diseases like cancer or used to treat hangovers, improve concentration, and also as an aphrodisiac. However, there is absolutely no scientific evidence this actually works. According to the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, more than 50% of Asians caught in South Africa in 2012 were Vietnamese citizens. As a matter of fact, there even exists a Youtube video from 2008 where Vietnamese diplomat Vu Moc Anh accepts a poached rhino horn delivered right to the Vietnamese embassy in South Africa.
In order to prevent poaching preemptively, the Rhino Rescue Project (RRP) was born. Its founders Ed and Lorinda Hern of the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve in Krugersdorp developed together with veterinarian Charles van Niekerk a device that injects red dye into rhino horns. Yes, it is exactly the kind of indelible dye that is used for ruining bank robbers? prey and tagging the thieves. RRP?s spokeswoman Lorinda Hern didn?t want to share the exact name of the product due to security reasons, but it is known that it works similar as industry products like Disperse Red 9, which also goes under the name of 1-methylamino anthraquinone.
Disperse Red 9 is a red powder that, when combined with water, will turn into a highly visible purple liquid. That liquid can usually not be washed off with water, soap or alcohol. The infusion device soaks a rhino?s horn under high pressure. Unlike other horns, rhino horns do not have a bony core but consist entirely of keratin. These fibrous scleroproteins are bundled up like very tightly pressed hair, and they form a very tough horn. Thanks to this fibrous anatomy, they can be soaked with the dye from inside without being noticeable from outside.
Before the treatment begins, a veterinarian who supervises the whole procedure must immobilize the rhino. Hence, one member of the otherwise changing RRP task force is always a veterinarian. South African veterinaries use etorphine, which is better known as ?M99?. Etorphine is an opioid that is between 1,000 and 3,000 times as potent an analgesic as morphine. According to a paper by Markus Hofmeyr, the head of Veterinary Wildlife Services at South African National Parks, M99 is routinely used for immobilizations on white rhinos. Regarding the negative effects of general anesthesia induced by M99, Hofmeyr writes: ?White rhino are very sensitive to the respiratory depressive effects of the opioid drug (M99) and the animal is partially reversed soon after immobilization to counter this negative effect.?
In 2012, a male white rhino named Spencer didn?t survive RRP?s treatment. It didn?t wake up from general anesthesia. Brett Gardner, a veterinarian of the Johannesburg Zoo, was present as an independent observer, as he is not directly involved in the project. He wanted to see the treatment to determine the viability of the procedure for the zoo?s rhinos, he told me. The veterinarian adds: ?I tried to assist but unfortunately Spencer had underlying medical conditions and was unable to respond to the CPR treatment.? Gardner still wants to use the procedure to treat the zoo?s rhinos. He is sure ?that the rhinos in the zoo are at risk.?
Drilling Holes and Infusing Anti-Bank Robbery Dye
Dye-soaked horn material, originating from drilling holes for microchip insertion.
After a white rhino has been anaesthetized, van Niekerk and his team start the actual treatment by first drilling a hole into both of the rhino?s horns. They use an ordinary driller from a DIY market for that. Before that, they pour the dissolved red dye into a 2-foot high metallic cylinder with a diameter of about 4 inches. They then close it firmly with a metal cap and put it under hydraulic pressure. The conservationists, led by Lorinda Hern, then plug metal connectors with valves into the holes, screw them in tightly and link them ? using rubber hoses ? to valves attached to the metal cylinder. Finally, they open the valves and pump the red dye hydraulically into the horn until its fibrous structure is completely soaked from the inside. From the outside, the horn looks exactly like before. The general anesthesia lasts for about 45 minutes, and the actual infusion procedure usually takes no longer than 20 minutes.
White rhinos are the heaviest of the five extant rhino species, with males weighing around 5,000 lbs on the average and females around 3,700 lbs. Therefore, during the treatment, the conservationists need to roll over the immobilized animal every 7 minutes ? otherwise its organs would be squeezed by its own body weight. Furthermore, they block the rhino?s ears with cotton wool in order to reduce its stress level during the drilling.
Purposely Poisoning Horn Consumers
Aesthetically speaking, Van Niekerk?s device is reminiscent of typical exterminators? pest control spray systems. In fact, there is a connection between the two types of devices: The liquid dye is not just dye. It is actually a mixture between the bright pink dye and an ectoparasiticide, which normally is used for protecting rhino against ticks. In this case, however, the purpose is not to protect the rhino against ticks but to poison rhino horn consumers. The purpose: Discouraging the (typically) Asian clients to buy the horn and to prevent poaching in the first place. If they consume RRP-treated horn powder, they will heavily suffer from nausea, stomach-ache and diarrhea. The effects are non-lethal but harmful to humans, which sparked off a debate on the ethical correctness of the procedure. Is it ethically correct to poison already-ill people who have been tricked by rhino horn traders?
To ox-peckers that feed on rhino ticks, the mixture is absolutely harmless, claims Susan Walley, spokeswoman of RRP.
Unlike dye packs, a treated rhino horn doesn?t react chemically ? the dye will never explode. It does, however, show up on x-ray airport security scanners, even after a horn has been ground to powder. Combine this with the ill-making effects of the ectoparasiticide and voil?: the horn is practically useless to poachers, because it cannot be sold anymore.
The Herns and Dr. van Niekerk sell their services to nearby, privately run wildlife reserves, such as ?The Savannah Africa?. Its owner, Renee de Jong Hartslief, has two white rhinos, a 10-year-old male and an 11-year-old, pregnant female. Earlier this year, she has had both rhinos be treated by the RRP team, for a cost of around $900 each. She feels vulnerable to poachers although her property is rather secluded. But she already had a frightening experience in the past: ?We have had an incident 3 years ago, where a helicopter landed where the rhinos were grazing at the time, but the lodge manager arrived and the helicopter took off.? South African rhino and elephant poachers typically attack from helicopters, because it is a quick and relatively silent way. De Jong Hartslief managed to track the helicopter pilot but was not able to prove his intentions.
Fighting the Poachers with Patrols, GPS, Dehorning and Drones
There are other anti-poaching techniques, but most of them are reactive and cannot prevent the poaching in the first place. Typically, private reserve owners like de Jong Hartslief and the Herns rely on anti poaching units (APUs), i.e. armed troops that comb their reserves on foot or using helicopters or quads. Their patrols sometimes end in violent encounters with the poachers, like at the end of March this year, when three alleged poachers were killed by Kruger National Park?s game rangers.
Another controversially discussed option is dehorning the rhinos. During that procedure, the animals are sedated, and their horns are cut off using chainsaws, without being hurt. The treatment costs between $620 and $1,000. London-based charity ?Save the Rhino International? (SRI) reports only between 90 and 93 percent of a rhino?s horn is cut off during the procedure. What is left behind is a stub that is still of interest to the poachers. According to SRI, two years ago in Zimbabwe six rhinos have been killed for their stubs shortly after they had been dehorned.
As drones are making their way into civil use, some game reserve owners are now also using them for game surveillance. Earlier this year, The Huffington Post reported that India is deploying drones over the Kaziranga National Park, which has between 15 and 20 rhinos poached per year. It is known that at the end of 2012 the WWF received a $5 million grant from Google for buying and developing state-of-the-art surveillance systems, including drones. Currently, the WWF is testing the drones in Namibia and Nepal. It will use human-piloted drones and not their fully autonomous counterparts.
According to The Guardian, a South African farmer, Clive Vivier, is currently trying to get an allowance to deploy 30 surveillance drones over SA skies ? 10 for the Kruger National Park and another 20 for spying upon other wildlife reserves. The 65-year-old farmer already received the permission by the US state department to buy Arcturus T-20 drones. The T-20 drone is silent and carries an infrared camera with HD resolution that enables the farmers to spot poachers at night. Now he awaits the civil aviation authorities? approval. ?We can see the poacher but he can?t see us. We?re good at arresting them when we know where they are,? he told the Guardian.
Since 2010, there exist also GPS-based solutions to track rhinos: South African company ProTagTor produces RF-Tags that are implanted into rhino horns using a similar procedure as van Nierkerk?s. Every 60 seconds, an implanted device reports its host?s position and an analysis of its movement data. Did the rhino run fast? Did it sleep more than six hours in a row? The ProTagTor device would interpret this as unusual behavior and send it as an SMS report to a central receiving station ? which in turn would automatically alert nearby game rangers, so they could have a look at the rhino. Upon the owner?s request, the RRP team also implements GPS chips to track the rhinos. Unlike as it was reported by Popular Science, RRP does not always insert GPS chips but rather three microchips that help to identify each rhino.
A Fight Against Poachers, Veterinarians and Even Games Rangers
Susan Walley, RRP?s spokeswoman, pointed out to me another problem: Some South African veterinarians are corrupt and sell M99 to poachers. According to South African news outlet Independent Online (IOL), among them are former Kruger National Park?s veterinarians Douw Grobler and Johannes Gerhardus Kruger. M99 is strictly controlled and not sold to everybody. This is where the corrupt veterinarians come into play: they buy the M99 and sell it to the poachers. But why would poachers prefer anesthetics to bullets? Because darting the rhinos is more silent. And because shooting from a helicopter is not easy ? a shot with the dart gun does not have to be as precise as one with live bullets. M99 is strong enough to completely immobilize a fully-grown white rhino within five minutes.
It seems that besides the actual poachers and the veterinarians providing them with M99, even some game rangers are involved. In the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in Mozambique, game rangers have been involved in killing a total of 300 rhinos between 2002 and today. The South African Times reports that 30 game rangers of the Limpopo are being charged for taking part in the killings.
So, what can be done to fight the rhino slaughter in South Africa? The RRP project is certainly an important step, because it is proactive instead of reactive. Today, as I am writing this, (statistically speaking) poachers killed two white rhinos in South Africa. Tomorrow another two will die, or even more. RRP-treated rhinos are currently not likely to be among them, as Walley told me: ?Spencer is the only rhino we have lost to date, and we have already treated almost 150.? By the numbers, During my research for this piece, I have found no other technology as effective as this one.
Anyway, no matter the anti-poaching technologies used: 2013 is on the way to hit a new poaching record high. Van Niekerk?s anti-poaching treatment is simple yet impressive, but: in order to become fully effective, awareness must be raised among horn consumers. In late April, TRAFFIC launched a marketing campaign to sensitize cancer patients in Vietnam, claiming rhino horn powder is useless as medicine. I wonder what the next poaching statistics will look like.
Images: Paint Dog Films, via Rhino Rescue Project.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=269c40d624d3d05f8154df63d05f8c3c
Apex can honestly claim to be one of the more popular launchers on Android, with over a million installs and 44,000 ratings over at Google Play. The stock-like skin has just been updated to version 2.0, with the biggest addition being support for Apex Notifier. This feature enables iOS-style notifications on individual app icons, but you'll have to fork over $3.99 for Apex Launcher Pro to make it work. In the proper spirit of Android, however, you'll also get to pick which apps get notifications and which don't. If you're getting bored with the stock launcher or just want to hide the cartoonish visage of TouchWiz, hit up the source link to download Apex for yourself.
Via: Android Police
Source: Apex Launcher (Google Play)
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