Monthly Archives: May 2012

Milbank: Before GOP clones Reagan genetic flaws must be fixed

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When news broke a vial of Ronald Reagans blood was being auctioned, the price quickly jumped to $30,000 as websites and blogs explored a tantalizing possibility: Did this mean the late president could be cloned?

Before mad scientists got the chance to perform a Dolly-the-Sheep experiment with the 40th president, the seller succumbed to criticism and decided to donate the blood to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. But this should only encourage the cloning speculation because the Gippers DNA is now in the hands of those who would most like to reproduce him: Republicans.

Party officials have been making the pilgrimage to the Reagan Library this year to express their wish to re-create the great man. I believe boldness and clarity of the kind that Ronald Reagan displayed in 1980 offer us the greatest opportunity to create a winning coalition in 2012, vice presidential aspirant Paul Ryan said at the library last week.

Also making the trip were VP hopefuls Marco Rubio and Chris Christie. Like Ronald Reagan, I believe in what this country and its citizens can accomplish, the latter declared. The America I speak of is the America Ronald Reagan challenged us to be.

The man they hope to join on the ticket, Mitt Romney, once boasted he was not trying to return to Reagan-Bush. Now he says the partys standard-bearer should be in the same mold as Ronald Reagan.

But before they go filling that mold by mapping the Reagan genome, Republicans may wish to consider some genetic flaws that party scientists should repair in the cloning process. To make the Reagan clone more compatible with todays Republican Party, a bit of genetic engineering may be in order:

AFL-1: Reagans AFL-1 gene, on the labor chromosome, has a mutation that made him susceptible to workers rights. He said of unions: There are few finer examples of participatory democracy. He said the right to join a union is one of the most elemental human rights. And he said collective bargaining played a major role in Americas economic miracle.

EPA-4: Reagans EPA-4 gene, on the regulatory chromosome, has a protein that can summon anti-industry sympathies. He signed a law establishing efficiency standards for electric appliances and an update to the Safe Drinking Water Act punishing states that didnt meet clean-water standards.

SSA-2 and MDCR-1: These related genes, on the long arm of the retirement chromosome, are problematic. Reagan expanded Social Security in 1983 and imposed taxes on wealthy recipients. He also signed what was at the time the largest expansion of Medicare in its history.

DEBT-1, DEBT-2, DEBT-3: A trio of abnormalities on the fiscal chromosome caused Reagan to increase taxes several times after his initial tax cut, to embrace much higher taxes on investments than current rates and to sign 18 increases in the federal debt limit.

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Milbank: Before GOP clones Reagan genetic flaws must be fixed

DNA origami: synthetic tiles can make over 100 shapes

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LEGO, eat your heart out. Blocks of DNA have been programmed to automatically build themselves into nanoscopic structures. Eventually the DNA programmes will be sophisticated enough to churn out minuscule therapeutic devices that work inside the body.

Single-stranded DNA has already proved itself to be a useful addition to the nanotechnologist's toolbox. A very long strand can be intricately folded into complex 3D structures through a process known, appropriately, as DNA origami. These structures could be used to ferry drugs to specific sites in the human body.

But those long strands typically come from a virus, which raises the possibility that the body will attack the structures. Now, Peng Yin and colleagues at Harvard University have designed a similar technology that relies entirely on synthetic DNA. "Our structures could be made to be highly biocompatible," he says.

Instead of folding one long strand of viral DNA, Yin's team designed short synthetic DNA strands that can fold into a small tile, just 7 by 3 nanometres in size. "Each tile acts like a Lego block," he says. Tiles automatically interlock with neighbouring tiles that carry a complementary DNA sequence. This means that with a bit of forward planning, the team could design a complete set of tiles that lock together to create more than 100 shapes - including any letter of the alphabet.

The synthetic DNA shapes could dodge the immune system, buying them more time to shuttle drugs to the right tissue (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature11075).

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DNA origami: synthetic tiles can make over 100 shapes

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DNA designs done faster, cheaper

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B. Wei et al. / Wyss Institute, Harvard

This atomic-force microscopy shows 100 shapes, each created from tiles of DNA strands. Each shape takes up a space measuring 150 by 150 nanometers, or roughly one-thousandth the width of a human hair.

By Alan Boyle

The DNA molecule serves as the code of life, but it also serves as handy building material for nanoscale structures and newly published research shows how patterns as complex as letters, numbers and smiley faces can be created far more cheaply and quickly than previously thought.

Harvard researchers demonstrate the latest twists in this week's issue of the journal Nature. The process involves laying out short segmentsof DNA in a tile-shaped pattern determined by custom-designed chemical bonds. Those single-stranded tiles, in turn, can assemble themselves into larger shapes like Lego blocks, depending on how the bonds attach to one another. Different recipes for mixing the tiles together will produce different shapes.

The researchers Bryan Wei, Mingjie Dai and Peng Yinestimate that the process yielded the desired structure 12 to 17 percent of the time. That yield is far from perfect, but it could be perfectly acceptable for a process involving thousands upon thousands of self-assembling molecules.

The technique updates a construction strategy that was first pioneered in the 1980s. Back then, it took two years to create a 7-nanometer-wide cube from 10 strands of DNA, Caltech's Paul Rothemund and Aarhus University's Ebbe Sloth Andersen observed in a Nature commentary on the research. In contrast, the newly reported results suggest that far more complex shapes, measuring more than 100 nanometers across, could be churned out at an average rate of one per hour. (A human hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers wide.)

Another attractive factor has to do with the cost: An alternate method for creating nanoscale shapes, known as DNA origami, twists one long molecular strand into a desired shape rather than using lots of smaller tiles. But for each different shape, a new set of molecular "staples" has to be synthesized at a cost of roughly $1,000, according to the Nature commentary. The Harvard researchers' method involves creating a $7,000 set of tiles that could theoretically produce 2 X 10^93 shapes. That's a 2 followed by 93 zeros.

In their Nature paper, Wei and his colleagues showed off 100 shapes including the Roman alphabet, numerical digits, punctuation marks, the peace sign, Chinese characters and 10 kinds of emoticons. They made use of a custom-designed computer program to aid in the design of the shapes and control the liquid-handling robot that mixed the DNA ingredients.

"This advance truly brings DNA nanotechnology into the rapid-prototyping age, and enables DNA shapes to be tailored for every experiment," Rothemund and Andersen wrote in their commentary.

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DNA designs done faster, cheaper

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Nanodevice manufacturing strategy using DNA 'Building blocks'

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ScienceDaily (May 30, 2012) Researchers at the Wyss Institute have developed a method for building complex nanostructures out of short synthetic strands of DNA. Called single-stranded tiles (SSTs), these interlocking DNA "building blocks," akin to Legos, can be programmed to assemble themselves into precisely designed shapes, such as letters and emoticons. Further development of the technology could enable the creation of new nanoscale devices, such as those that deliver drugs directly to disease sites.

The technology, which is described in the May 30 online issue of Nature, was developed by a research team led by Wyss core faculty member Peng Yin, Ph.D., who is also an Assistant Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. Other team members included Wyss Postdoctoral Fellow Bryan Wei, Ph.D., and graduate student Mingjie Dai.

DNA is best known as a keeper of genetic information. But in an emerging field of science known as DNA nanotechnology, it is being explored for use as a material with which to build tiny, programmable structures for diverse applications. To date, most research has focused on the use of a single long biological strand of DNA, which acts as a backbone along which smaller strands bind to its many different segments, to create shapes. This method, called DNA origami, is also being pursued at the Wyss Institute under the leadership of Core Faculty member William Shih, Ph.D. Shih is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and the Department of Cancer Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

In focusing on the use of short strands of synthetic DNA and avoiding the long scaffold strand, Yin's team developed an alternative building method. Each SST is a single, short strand of DNA. One tile will interlock with another tile, if it has a complementary sequence of DNA. If there are no complementary matches, the blocks do not connect. In this way, a collection of tiles can assemble itself into specific, predetermined shapes through a series of interlocking local connections.

In demonstrating the method, the researchers created just over one hundred different designs, including Chinese characters, numbers, and fonts, using hundreds of tiles for a single structure of 100 nanometers (billionths of a meter) in size. The approach is simple, robust, and versatile.

As synthetically based materials, the SSTs could have some important applications in medicine. SSTs could organize themselves into drug-delivery machines that maintain their structural integrity until they reach specific cell targets, and because they are synthetic, can be made highly biocompatible.

"Use of DNA nanotechnology to create programmable nanodevices is an important focus at the Wyss Institute, because we believe so strongly in its potential to produce a paradigm-shifting approach to development of new diagnostics and therapeutics," said Wyss Founding Director, Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D.

The research was supported by the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.

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Nanodevice manufacturing strategy using DNA 'Building blocks'

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DNA drawing with an old twist

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Numbers, letters and symbols are some of the 100 or so self-assembled DNA shapes designed by Harvard scientists.

B. Wei, M. Dai, P. Yin/Wyss Inst. for Biologically Inspired Engineering/Harvard University

Scientists have developed a way to carve shapes from DNA canvases, including all the letters of the Roman alphabet, emoticons and an eagles head.

Bryan Wei, a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and his colleagues make these shapes out of single strands of DNA just 42 letters long. Each strand is unique, and folds to form a rectangular tile. When mixed, neighbouring tiles stick to each other in a brick-wall pattern, and shorter boundary tiles lock the edges in place.

In their simplest configuration, the tiles produce a solid 64-by-103-nanometre rectangle, but Wei and his team can create more complex shapes by leaving out specific tiles. Using this strategy, they created 107 two-dimensional shapes, including letters, numbers, Chinese characters, geometric shapes and symbols. They also produced tubes and rectangles of different sizes, including one consisting of more than 1,000 tiles. Their work is published today in Nature1.

Weis work revitalizes a technique used by Ned Seeman a chemist at New York University and pioneer in the field of DNA nanotechnology. As early as 1991, Seeman moulded short strands of DNA into cubes, tubes and lattices. It was laborious work and limited to small and simple designs2.

In 2006, Paul Rothemund from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena created bigger structures using a technique called DNA origami. He folded a 7,000-letter strand of DNA from the genome of the M13 virus into the right shape, and used around 200 smaller staple strands to hold it in place3.

Since then, long scaffolds have featured in all such work. Wei and his colleagues depart from this tradition. They show that small strands can be combined into large structures without the need for a scaffold, and with acceptable yields (the proportion of strands that assemble into shapes) of 1217%.

This approach clashes with the traditional thinking about tile-based assembly, says Kurt Gothelf, director of the Centre for DNA Nanotechnology at Aarhus University in Denmark. Many scientists assumed that small strands would need to be mixed in very precise ratios to avoid making fused or half-finished structures. It has long been assumed that this sets a limit for the size of structures that can efficiently be assembled in this way, he says.

Peng Yin, also from Harvard Medical School and leader of the study, thinks that the technique works because the strands are slow to assemble, but grow quickly once they start. This means that the shapes have a low probability of touching one another and fusing incorrectly as they begin to take shape.

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DNA drawing with an old twist

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DNA match goal missed, woman murdered

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A murdered woman's family says a slow system cost their loved one her life.

DNA from a 2005 rape matched Christopher Wallace, but it took several weeks after initial confirmation for charges to be approved. During that time, a Muskegon-area mother of two was murdered in her home -- allegedly by Wallace.

Kalamazoo police investigating the rape pointed the finger at the slow process of getting the DNA analyzed -- a process that took place at the Michigan State Police Crime Lab in Grand Rapids.

MSP says its goal turnaround time on DNA evidence is 30 days.

That would have been enough to lock up Wallace, 34, before the murder, but it didn't happen in this case -- and the reason why boils down to a tight budget.

Police don't doubt now that Wallace should have been in prison for a 2005 rape, but they couldn't arrest him until it was too late for Jennifer Phillips.

"I believe that if they would have had him in prison where he should have been she would still be here," said Jennifer Phillips's sister Mary Phillips.

Jennifer, 37, was strangled to death in her home on Oct. 21, 2011, police say.

"I don't think she gave up until she couldn't try anymore," said Mary.

The holdup in the arrest, Kalamazoo police say, was in the confirmation process the DNA was going through to be checked for a match with the cold case rape.

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DNA match goal missed, woman murdered

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Detecting cancers — from tiny bits of tumor DNA in blood

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When cancer blooms in the body, tiny bits of tumor DNA can be found in the blood. Cancer specialists would love it if these DNA fragments could one day be used in noninvasive diagnostic tests -- liquid biopsies -- that are relatively inexpensive and sensitive. There's a lot of work going on in this area right now.

One team of researchers reported a step toward that goal in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. They used a strategy that can detect many different mutations in some key genes known to be involved in cancer even though the pieces of DNA from them were present in the blood plasma at low levels. Such a test, they say, would not have to be tailor-made for each cancer patient because it can look at a lot of different mutations at once, and that would make it cheaper and more practical.

The researchers, of Cambridge, England, showed that their strategy could track the progression of disease in advanced ovarian and breast cancer patients fairly accurately. They could see when a patient responded to treatment (plasma levels of key DNA fragments fell) and when they stopped responding to treatment (plasma levels of the DNA fragments started to rise again).

In a case that illustrates how they think their technology could be used, the scientists described a patient whod had tumors in the bowel and ovary. She had surgery, and responded well to it. Five years later, however, she developed a mass in the pelvis and the doctors werent sure which tumor it had come from. It was not biopsied because that was deemed too dangerous, so doctors proceeded with their best bet for a course of treatment and the patient did, in fact, respond to it.

The authors of the paper did an after-the-fact genetic analysis of the patients plasma and tumors. They found that the bowel and ovarian tumors had different genetic mutations in them and that the patients plasma at the time of relapse contained the mutations corresponding to the bowel tumor, not the ovarian tumor. Had these results been available, uncertainty and treatment delays may have been avoided, as well as the risk of prescribing chemotherapy for an inappropriate tumor site, wrote Tim Forshew, of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute, and his colleagues.

There are a variety of ways that such technology could be helpful one day in cancer treatment, the scientists say:

Doctors could see what mutations were behind a patients cancer and when new mutations were added as time went by and the cancer mutated further. Cancer, as its often been said, isnt a single disease: There are many different ways that cells of the body can go rogue and start growing out of control and spreading.

Whats more, analysis of plasma would offer a noninvasive whole body look at all the cancer growing in a persons body. Since cancers mutate and change over time, one tumor in the same body could contain mutations not present in another one. With a plasma screen, bits of DNA from all of them would be floating around and be detected.

Because a test like this could help cancer doctors know just which genes are responsible for Person As cancer versus Person Bs cancer, it might help them decide which drugs and therapies to give a patient. (Some drugs are helpful for some types of cancer and not others.) As new mutations arose, they could change the therapy if appropriate.

Doctors could track how well therapy was working, and test to see if the cancer was returning in patients who had been responding to treatment.

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Detecting cancers -- from tiny bits of tumor DNA in blood

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DNA Sequencing: Emerging Technologies and Applications

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NEW YORK, May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

DNA Sequencing: Emerging Technologies and Applications

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0254559/DNA-Sequencing-Emerging-Technologies-and-Applications.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=Genomics

INTRODUCTION

STUDY OBJECTIVES

BCC's goal in conducting this study is to provide an overview of the current and future characteristics of the global market for industrial enzymes. The key objective is to present a comprehensive analysis of the current market and its future direction in the enzymes market as an important tool for increasing the efficiency and specificity of the products in which the enzymes are used.

This report is an update to the previous report on industrial enzymes and explores the present and future strategies within the industrial enzymes market, which includes the detergent, technical, food and beverages, and animal feed sectors. The improvisation of the market, the setbacks and the needs of the market are discussed in this report. The comparisons, usage, and the advantages and disadvantages of types of enzymes are also portrayed in this report.

A detailed analysis of the enzymes industry structure has been conducted. Revenues are broken down by region. Sales figures are estimated for the five-year period from 2011 through 2016.

Applications for industrial enzymes are also discussed separately in the report, with emphasis of the use in technical enzymes and the food and beverages enzymes. The report also covers significant patents and their allotments in each category.

REASONS FOR DOING THIS STUDY

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DNA Sequencing: Emerging Technologies and Applications

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Researchers complete the first epigenome in Europe

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Public release date: 30-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jordi Morato comunicacio@idibell.cat IDIBELL-Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute

A study led by Manel Esteller, director of the Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Program at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona and ICREA researcher, has completed the first epigenome in Europe. The finding is published in the latest issue of the international scientific journal Epigenetics.

The genome of all cells in the human body is the same for all of them, regardless their aspect and functions. Therefore, genome cannot fully explain the activity of tissues and organs and their disorders in complex diseases like cancer. It takes a further explanation. Part of this explanation is provided by epigenetics, a field of biology that studies the heredity activity of DNA that does not involve changes in its sequence. That is, if genetics is the alphabet, epigenetics is the spelling that guides the activity of our cells.

Methylation

Epigenetics refers to chemical changes in our genetic material and proteins that regulate it. The best-known epigenetic mark is the methylation, the addition of a methyl chemical group (-CH3) in our DNA. The epigenome consists of all the epigenetic marks of a living being.

The authors of the study have completed the epigenomes for all brands of methylation of DNA from white blood cells of two girls: a healthy one and a patient suffering from a rare genetic disease called Immunodeficiency, Centromere instability and Facial anomalies syndrome (ICF). This disease is caused by a mutation in a gene that causes the addition of a methyl chemical group in its DNA.

The analysis performed by the researchers reveals that the patient has an epigenomic defect that causes fragility of chromosomes, which thus can easily be broken. In addition, the study shows that the patient has a wrong epigenetic control of many genes related to the response against infection, which causes a severe immune deficiency.

The study coordinator, Manel Esteller, emphasizes that due to this study, "we now know what happens in this type of rare diseases and we can start thinking about strategies for new treatments based on this knowledge."

Dr. Esteller is an international leader in the field of epigenetics. His work has been crucial to show that all human tumours have in common a specific chemical alteration: the hypermethylation of tumour suppressor genes. Since 2008 is the director of the Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Program at IDIBELL.

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Researchers complete the first epigenome in Europe

Travel deficit narrows

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Statistics Canada says the country's international travel deficit declined by $85 million to $4 billion during the first quarter.

The agency attributes the drop to lower spending by Canadian travellers to the United States and higher spending by overseas residents visiting Canada.

Canadian travellers spent $8.3 billion outside the country during the first quarter, down 0.2 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2011.

Receipts from all foreign travellers in Canada increased 1.6 per cent to $4.3 billion during the first quarter, the highest level since the fourth quarter of 2004.

The travel deficit with the United States fell by $91.7 million to $3.2 billion in the first quarter, mostly because of lower spending by Canadian travellers in the United States and slightly higher spending by visiting Americans.

The deficit with overseas countries rose by $6.9 million to $782 million.

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Travel deficit narrows

TripAdvisor Takes A Walk On The Wild Side With America's Top 10 Zoos

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NEWTON, Mass., May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel site*, today announced the top 10 zoos in the United States, according to the TripAdvisor Popularity Index. Animal aficionados of all ages can take in an array of scales and tails at these animated attractions.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/49267-tripadvisor-popularity-index-top-10-zoos-in-the-united-states

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120530/MM14354)

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080902/TRIPADVISORLOGO )

1. Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha's famous zoo boasts the Desert Dome the largest indoor desert in the world, which spans 84,000 square feet and is home to a variety of vegetation and a colony of critters. Travelers can also take in the Lied Jungle, a rainforest setting featuring cascading waterfalls and monkeys jumping from tree to tree. "It's a wonderful education for children and adults," commented a TripAdvisor traveler.Admission costs $13.50 for adults (ages 12 and up), $12.50 for seniors, and $9 for children (ages three to 11); children under two get in for free.

2. St. Louis Zoo, Saint Louis, Missouri

Home to more than 650 animals, this popular Midwest zoo features creatures of all kinds. Travelers can immerse themselves in the ten-acre River's Edge exhibit, a naturalistic habitat featuring roaming hyenas, hippos, elephants and more. Feathered friends-galore can be spotted at the Penguin and Puffin Coast, while Bear Bluffs boasts some less cuddly beasts, such as Grizzlies, Andeans and Sloth bears. "This is a great zoo and the fact that it's free is wonderful for families on a budget," said one TripAdvisor traveler. Admission is free, but some attractions require a small fee.

3. Cape May County Park & Zoo, Cape May Court House, New Jersey

Situated on the southern Jersey Shore, this wildlife sanctuary showcases more than 250 species of animals. Travelers can acquaint themselves with a bevy of birds, amphibians, reptiles, and furry friends and,when notgawking at quadrupeds, can wander through one of the lush nature trails, or hop on the train and carousel rides. A TripAdvisor traveler noted, "If you and your family like to see animals treated in a fair and humane way and enjoy a wonderful park setting, the Cape May County Park and Zoo is the place to go." Admission is free.

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TripAdvisor Takes A Walk On The Wild Side With America's Top 10 Zoos

Around the World in 3 Months: Travel Tips

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Traveling around the world, jet-setting from country to country, chatting about international culture with new friends -- it all sounds very glamorous. In reality, your low-cost trip around the world will probably resemble mine: trembling on a low-cost airliner over Morocco, puking in a millet field in Togo, and having your bank account frozen for "suspicious behavior" in China. It may not be glamorous, but my trip around the world was certainly memorable.

Travel Tip 1

Credit/debit cards: Call your bank and alert them of your plans. Nothing is worse than standing at an ATM with a frozen bank account.

Although my voyage started in the good ol' USA, the trip became interesting after leaving Western Europe. As the culture so closely resembles American culture, Western Europe is an easy transition for novice travelers. I probably should have known better as I boarded the half-empty jetliner headed for Morocco.

The plane shuddered as it left the runway at Charles de Gaulle. Because the long flight came with a meal, I hadn't eaten all day, awaiting my free food. As the plane rocked violently through strong turbulence, the attendants brought us our Mediterranean in-flight meal. "At least I'm not terrified AND hungry," I thought. Somehow the plane landed, and my adventure in Africa began.

Travel Tip 2

Before boarding for your trip around the world, get prepared. Check with the State Department for all required visas and medical screenings. Some countries will require a yellow fever vaccination upon entry; others may strongly encourage anti-malarial medication during your stay. Research your countries and be sure you have all necessary documentation to complete your voyage.

As I trekked through West Africa, curiosity got the best of me. I consumed street food after street food. I drank a local hibiscus drink with a group of village women. I puked repeatedly in a millet field.

Travel Tip 3 Hope for the best, but expect the worst. Check with your health insurance carrier and plan for medical coverage overseas. Traveling to new parts of the world exposes your immune system to all sorts of new parasites and bacteria. Even if you never get sick, eating food on the other side of the planet could cause some rumbling in your digestive track. Be prepared if you catch something. The last thing you want from your trip is a stack of medical bills.

I started to feel better and decided to continue my trip in Asia. Standing in Thailand, I quickly realized I needed to find a place to withdraw money. I ventured from ATM to ATM without luck. As fear and panic began to wash over me, an American spotted my troubles and directed me to a bank.

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Around the World in 3 Months: Travel Tips

Longtime Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi resuming world travel

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BANGKOK For 24 years, Aung San Suu Kyi was either under house arrest or too fearful that if she left Myanmar, the government would never let her return.

Now, in a sign of how much life there has changed, the democracy activist and longtime political prisoner is resuming world travels, arriving Tuesday night in neighboring Thailand after an 85-minute flight from her homeland.

With the installation of an elected government last year and her party's own entrance into Parliament this year, she can claim at least partial success for her long fight and feel the freedom to explore the world.

But planning her first trip abroad appears to have been an afterthought. For example, no one from her office contacted the Thai Foreign Ministry, which normally coordinates such high-profile visits.

"As far as I know, we have not been approached by her team," said Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi.

News reports said Suu Kyi would visit a Thai refugee camp in Tak province that is home to ethnic minorities from Myanmar who fled during decades of fighting. But travel to the area is restricted by the Thai government, and the officials who are responsible for granting permission for such visits said they were in the dark.

Suu Kyi is also scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia while in Thailand.

She'll return to Myanmar and head to Europe in mid-June, with stops including Oslo to formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize she won 21 years ago.

The tour marks Suu Kyi's latest step in a stunning trajectory from housewife to political prisoner to opposition leader in Parliament, as Myanmar opens to the outside world and sheds a half-century of military rule. Meetings with world leaders are planned along the way as dignitaries line up to shake Suu Kyi's hand.

The trip "signifies a strong vote of confidence on Suu Kyi's part in the seriousness of the reforms underway in the country," said Suzanne DiMaggio, the Asia Society's vice president of Global Policy Programs.

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Longtime Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi resuming world travel

Grand Velas Riviera Maya Hosts World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Americas Summit, May 16-18, 2012

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29 May 2012

For the first time in Mexico travel and tourism leaders from across the hemisphere united May 16-18th at the AAA Five Diamond Grand Velas Riviera Maya for the World Travel & Tourism Council"s Americas Summit. The first of a series of WTTC "Regional Summits," the Summit explored common challenges and identified opportunities for growth and learning from around the world.

"We are especially proud and honored to have been the first resort in Mexico to host the prestigious World Travel & Tourism Council"s Americas Summit, especially coming on the heels of our having recently hosted the World Economic Forum on Latin America," said Juan Vela, Vice President of Operations of Velas Resorts.

The Summit began with a welcome cocktail and dinner along the resort"s pristine beach, where Michael Frenzel, Chairman, WTTC, and Chairman of the Executive Board, TUI AG; Juan Vela, Vice President of Velas Resorts; Gloria Guevara Manzo, Secretary of Tourism for Mexico; and Mexican President, Felipe Caldern Hinojosa, all welcomed attendees. The following day, renowned travel journalist Peter Greenberg conducted a 35 minute panel discussion with President Caldern on the Macro global environment, forthcoming G20 meeting, importance of travel and tourism, and upcoming strategy for Mexico.

In addition to The Presidential Perspective, several meetings were held throughout the Summit, including sessions on the role of governments in driving jobs and economic growth, the promotion of connectivity within the region, infrastructure development through strategic planning and targeted investment, freedom to travel to and within the Americas, sustainability, digital technology, and more. Attendees included ZHU Shanzhong, Vice Chairman of CNTA; Thomas Nides, US Deputy Secretary of State; Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of Tourism, South Africa; Stphanie Balmir Villedrouin, Minister of Tourism, Haiti; Mari Elka Pangestu, Minister of Tourism, Indonesia; Eduardo Vela, President, Velas Resorts; Alexander Radkov, Head, Federal Agency for Tourism, Russia; Tom Klein, President, Sabre Holdings; Jim Compton, Executive VP and Chief Revenue Officer, United Airlines, Manuel Lpez Aguilar, General Director, Iberia; Wykeham McNeill, Minister of Tourism and Entertainment, Jamaica; David Scowsill, President & CEO, WTTC; celebrity actor and filmmaker Robert Redford; Chris Rodrigues, Chairman, VisitBritain; Gasto Vieira, Minister of Tourism, Brazil; Roger Dow, President & CEO, US Travel Association; Hugh Riley, Secretary General, Caribbean Tourism Organization; Rupert T Griffith, Minister of Tourism, Trinidad and Tobago; Fernando Garcia Rossette, Managing Director for the Grand Velas Resorts in Riviera Maya and Rivera Nayarit; Matthew Upchurch, CEO, Virtuoso Ltd; and, Pedro Pablo Duchez Meyer, Minister of Tourism, Guatemala; among others.

About Grand Velas Riviera Maya Recently featured in Forbes" roundup of the 10 Coolest All-Inclusive Resorts, the AAA Five Diamond Grand Velas Riviera Maya, an all-suites and spa resort located five minutes from Playa del Carmen, is the latest and most sophisticated iteration of the ultra-luxury, all-inclusive resort experience. This Leading Hotels of the World designated resort is the preeminent one of its class boasting 491 suites, each more than 1,000 square-feet, in three separate ambiances-- premium ocean-front Grand Class Suites with terrace plunge pools for families with children 12 and up, family-friendly ocean-view Ambassador Suites and Zen Grand Suites embraced by the flora and fauna of the Yucatan Peninsula"s jungle. The resort presents a gastronomic tour of the Yucatan, Europe and Asia offering seven restaurants with world-class chefs from France, Spain and Mexico; dedicated butler service for each guest, and the region"s largest spa sanctuary at over 89,000 square-feet specializing in signature treatments inspired by ancient cultures from around the world. The spa was named "Best Spa" in the world by Virtuoso and also earned a SpaFinder Readers" Choice Award. The resort was designed by lauded Mexican architecture firm Elias and Elias and features the sleek and modish interiors that fuse the serenity of the Caribbean with the vibrancy of Yucatan cultures.

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Grand Velas Riviera Maya Hosts World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Americas Summit, May 16-18, 2012

Super-virus Flame raises the cyberwar stakes

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Flame, a stealthy and complex cyberweapon, was found to be spying on Iran's government officials and computer systems.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The "Flame" virus, the most complex computer bug ever discovered, has been lurking for years inside Iranian government computers, spying on the country's officials.

Publicly unveiled this week, the bug is one of the most potent cyber weapons ever spotted in the wild. Security professionals say it marks a new milestone in the escalating digital espionage battle.

Flame's complexity and power "exceed[s] those of all other cyber menaces known to date," research firm Kaspersky Lab wrote in a dispatch about its investigation into Flame.

In a statement posted on its website on Monday, the Iranian National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) said it discovered Flame after "multiple investigations" over the past few months.

The stealthy malware has been in the wild for at least two years, the CERT team said, evading detection by security software.

It's a spy bug that's capable of, among other things, capturing what's on a user's screen, turning on a computer's microphone to record conversations, detecting who and what is on a network, collecting lists of vulnerable passwords, and transferring a user's computer files to another server.

The attack worked. Flame was likely responsible for recent incidents of "mass data loss" in the government, Iran's CERT team said in its terse announcement.

Patrik Runald, director of research at Websense Security Labs, said Flame is "potentially the most advanced malware to date, at least in terms of functionality combined with ability to stay hidden over a long period of time."

Flame is an unusually giant piece of malware: At 20 megabytes, it's about 20 to 30 times larger than typical computer bugs.

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Super-virus Flame raises the cyberwar stakes

Supermicro® X9 5x GPU SuperWorkstation Delivers Maximum Performance with NVIDIA Maximus Certification

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SAN JOSE, Calif., May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a global leader in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology and green computing, now offers NVIDIA Maximus technology in its latest high-end, enterprise-class X9 SuperWorkstation (7047GR-TRF), allowing users to simultaneously design, render and simulate on the same workstation, avoiding traditional, time-consuming and costly processing downtime. Supermicro's NVIDIA Maximus certified solution integrates an NVIDIA Quadro series graphics processing unit (GPU) dedicated for design and visualization tasks with four NVIDIA Tesla C2075 co-processors dedicated to handling compute-intensive tasks like simulationan industry-first configuration of NVIDIA Maximus technology. This powerful GPU duo delivers scientists, engineers and designers the specialized compute capacity to interact with 3D models in CAD/CAM applications, while simultaneously rendering or outputting complex CAE simulations. This ability to multitask with both compute and graphics-heavy applications together, in real time, on a single workstation dramatically accelerates productivity and allows more opportunities for creative exploration.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120530/AQ15509-INFO)

"Supermicro's NVIDIA Maximus certified 7047GR-TRF SuperWorkstation opens the door to personal supercomputing for scientific, engineering and entertainment fields, and closes the gap between design and realization," said Wally Liaw, Vice President of Sales, International at Supermicro. "Our solution allows users to free themselves from compute limitations and to challenge their creativity with an unprecedented four Tesla GPUs plus one Quadro GPU in a 4U Tower, more than any other system in this class on the market. With this incredible performance at the desktop, designers can spend more time interacting with complex models and sophisticated simulations and less time waiting, allowing them to deliver results faster to market."

"Supermicro's professional-level SuperWorkstations harness the power of NVIDIA Maximus technology to sharply improve productivity," said Jeff Brown, general manager of the Professional Solutions Group at NVIDIA. "Supermicro is outstanding at integrating NVIDIA GPU technology into their workstations, and the 7047GR-TRF marks only the start of their efforts to incorporate NVIDIA Maximus's power and flexibility."

What sets the 7047GR-TRF apart as an outstanding enterprise-class system and earns it the SuperWorkstation brand is its multitude of high-value features. Fully configured with 4 double-width NVIDIA Tesla GPUs and a Quadro graphics card, the 7047GR-TRF still has single PCI-E 3.0 x8 and PCI-E 2.0 x4 (in x8) slots available for additional high-bandwidth network and high-performance storage expansions. The 7047GR-TRF is built on Supermicro's high-end X9DRG-QF serverboard supporting dual Intel Xeon E5-2600 family processors for ultimate CPU performance. PCI-E 3.0 support offers future-proof expansion and a cost-effective upgrade path to next generation NVIDIA GPUs. For memory intensive applications, this solution accommodates up to 512GB of DDR3 1600MHz Reg. ECC memory in 16x DIMM sockets and massive internal storage capacity that supports up to 8x hot-swap 3.5" HDDs utilizing onboard 2x SATA3 and 8x SATA2 ports. Supporting this advanced technology and maintaining mission-critical uptime are redundant 1620W power supplies with the industry's highest efficiency Platinum Level (94%+) rating, along with multi-zone thermal controlled fans for optimal cooling and additional energy efficiency.

Supermicro's GPU SuperWorkstations and SuperServers are defining the future of supercomputing for intersecting fields of science, engineering and digital content creation. The 7047GR-TRF is the first of a line of SuperWorkstations to support NVIDIA Maximus technology. For a complete look at Supermicro's total line of high performance, high-efficiency server and storage solutions, visit http://www.supermicro.com or go to http://www.supermicro.com/Maximus to select a Supermicro NVIDIA Maximus powered supercomputer.

About Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Supermicro (SMCI), the leading innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology is a premier provider of advanced server Building Block Solutions for Data Center, Cloud Computing, Enterprise IT, HPC and Embedded Systems worldwide. Supermicro is committed to protecting the environment through its "We Keep IT Green" initiative and provides customers with the most energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly solutions available on the market.

Supermicro, SuperServer, Building Block Solutions and We Keep IT Green are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc.

All other brands, names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Supermicro® X9 5x GPU SuperWorkstation Delivers Maximum Performance with NVIDIA Maximus Certification

I’d like to put the boots to the notion of barefoot healing

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I like to think I'm attuned to the spiritual energies of the universe.

I may not be able to bend my body into yoga poses like the downward-facing dog, the half-frog or the buzzing-mosquito-in-my-itchy-ear. But I'm definitely open to the spiritual implications of eternal vastness, never-ending infinity and the Twilight Zone. (Especially that episode where all the machines come to life and a guy gets chased by an electric razor.) But sometimes, I have my doubts about all this one-with-the-universe stuff.

For instance I recently received a press release from Sue Kenney, a self-described author, speaker, coach and pilgrim. (I don't think she means 17th-century-funny-hat-and-turkey-at-Plymouth-Massachusetts pilgrim. I believe she means sacred-journey-to-enlightenment pilgrim.) Kenney's press release is about her "Barefoot Healing Workshops."

And though I try to be an open-minded guy, I have some problems with her key points.

Kenney's press release begins this way: "Wow. I've discovered the healing powers of going BAREFOOT. Scientific research has shown that there is a positive environmental impact from connecting with Mother Earth. Not only will you improve your balance and flexibility, you can heal your body, clear your mind, have more energy and have a spiritual experience too."

Now in my experience, walking barefoot doesn't give me more energy - it gives me splinters, cuts and dirty feet. More importantly, it prevents me from getting served a delicious, chemically-altered slab of beef in my favourite fast-food restaurant.

Kenney's press release continues: "Our bodies are electrically conducive and the influx of negative electrons received through direct contact with the Earth neutralizes free radicals and reduces inflammation. Wearing shoes has cut us off from this incredible gift the Earth has to offer."

I don't know much about negative electrons. I do, however, know a thing or two about negative emotions, which often arise when you stub your bare toe against a hard part of Mother Earth, like a tree stump, or lacerate your bare foot on a beer bottle that's lying in a naturally-occurring state of shattered chaos in the middle of a parking lot.

Kenney continues: "Eating organic, raw, nutritious meals, doing yoga/meditating, seeing holistic health practitioners and growing spiritually are all elements of a holistic approach to life."

Clearly, I don't qualify. Apart from Oreo cookies, I rarely eat anything raw. No sir, I come from a long line of meat-eaters who adhere strictly to the if-God-had-meant-us-to-eat-uncooked-stuff-He-would-never-have-created-fire credo.

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I’d like to put the boots to the notion of barefoot healing

First privately owned capsule docks at International Space Station

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Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Reuters Published Friday, May. 25, 2012 10:41AM EDT Last updated Saturday, May. 26, 2012 2:33PM EDT

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured Space Exploration Technologies Dragon cargo ship and guided it into a berth on Friday, docking the first privately owned vehicle to reach the orbital outpost.

Using the stations 17.7-metre robotic crane, NASA astronaut Don Pettit snared Dragon at 9:56 a.m. EDT as the two spacecraft zoomed 400 kilometres over northwest Australia at 28,164 kilometres per hour.

It looks like weve got us a dragon by the tail, Mr. Pettit radioed to NASA Mission Control in Houston.

The capsule, built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is the first of two new commercial freighters NASA will use to fly cargo to the $100-billion outpost following the retirement of the space shuttles last year.

The United States plans to buy commercial flight services for its astronauts as well, breaking Russias monopoly on flying crews to the station.

Dragon blasted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday. The space station crew anchored it into the stations Harmony connecting node around noon on Friday.

After a successful pass by the station on Thursday to test its navigation and communications systems, Dragon proceeded at a snails pace on Friday, stopping, starting and occasionally retreating to make sure it could be controlled.

At one point, the SpaceX ground operations team in Hawthorne, California, halted Dragon to adjust the capsules laser imaging system, which it uses to see the station. Sensors were picking up stray reflections from the stations Japanese module, said NASA mission commentator Josh Byerly.

Dragon ended up using just one of its two laser imaging systems for the final approach to the station, a bit dicey because a failure would have triggered an automatic abort.

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First privately owned capsule docks at International Space Station