Rand Paul “50-50” on presidential run

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DETROIT, MI - DECEMBER 6: U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) delivers a speech titled, "Renewing the Opportunity for Prosperity: Economic Freedom Zones" at the Detroit Economic Club December 6, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan. As part of his plan to help save Detroit, the largest city in U.S. history to go bankrupt, and other economically depressed areas, the Senator will introduce legislation that will create so-called "economic freedom zones" by lowering taxes in those areas and change the Visa rules to help make it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to immigrate to economically depressed cities. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) Bill Pugliano, Getty Images

We are thinking about it, and sort of looking at what it would take to run, he told fourth-grader Clay W. during an interview for a project at Potter Gray Elementary School in Bowling Green. Its a big job, but we probably wont make our decision for about a year.

Pauls coy response sounds strikingly familiar, tracing the will-they-or-wont-they pattern his dad set before his third presidential run in 2012. Already the object of heightened scrutiny after some show-stopping stunts on the Senate floor, Paul mentioned that he does worry about facing grief from the media should he decide to launch a national campaign.

It is a big job to do, to run for president, he said. It would take traveling around the country, it would mean Id be home less time, get to see my kids less time. And the people in the media, they get meaner and meaner when you run for president. Because they pick you apart and say, Your clothes dont look good; your hair looks bad; you need a haircut.

Paul said last fall he believes the Republican Party could use a bit of libertarian infusion, and pundits have suggested he could be more than just a token candidate.

His mother, Carol Paul, told Vogue in an extensive profile on the political dynasty that her son will declare either way after 2014; first, she said, groundwork has to be set. His wife Kelley, though, seemed less sold on the idea.

In this day and age, it's mostly about character assassination," she said. "When I think of the tens of millions of dollars in opposition research that they'd be aiming right at us and our family that's what it's about."

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Rand Paul “50-50” on presidential run

Disputed islands are ours, Japan’s new teaching manuals claim

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Kyodo via Reuters, file

The disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China that Japan claimed are an integral part of their territory in new teaching manuals.

By Arata Yamamoto and Henry Austin, NBC News

TOKYO -- Japan risked further irking their close neighbors China and South Korea on Tuesday, when the government announced textbooks were being changed to make it clear that two sets of remote islands at the center of sovereignty disputes are integral parts of their territory.

Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura said the ministry was revising the teaching manuals so junior high and high school students learn "properly" about Japanese history and to make it clear that there is no dispute over the ownership of the rocky Senkaku islands in the South China Sea.

The island chain that China calls the Daioyus, have been a flash point between the two countries since Tokyo nationalized the group of uninhabited archipelagos in 2012.

China claims almost all the South China Sea and in November announced it was expanding its air defense identification zone to include the disputed islands.

A few days after they began to enforce this, American bombers flew over the islands on what was described as a training mission.

South Korea summoned the Japanese ambassador on Tuesday to protest claims to the Takeshima islets, known as Dokdo in South Korea. They are situated most equidistant between the two countries.

"Our government strongly condemns this and asks Japan to immediately withdraw it," Seoul, who haveadministered the islets since the end of World War II, said in a statement.

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Disputed islands are ours, Japan's new teaching manuals claim

Disputed islands are ours, Japan’s textbooks claim

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Kyodo via Reuters, file

The disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China that Japan claimed are an integral part of their territory in new teaching manuals.

By Arata Yamamoto and Henry Austin, NBC News

TOKYO -- Japan risked further irking their close neighbors China and South Korea on Tuesday, when the government announced textbooks were being changed to make it clear that two sets of remote islands at the center of sovereignty disputes are integral parts of their territory.

Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura said the ministry was revising the teaching manuals so junior high and high school students learn "properly" about Japanese history and to make it clear that there is no dispute over the ownership of the rocky Senkaku islands in the South China Sea.

The island chain that China calls the Daioyus, have been a flash point between the two countries since Tokyo nationalized the group of uninhabited archipelagos in 2012.

China claims almost all the South China Sea and in November announced it was expanding its air defense identification zone to include the disputed islands.

A few days after they began to enforce this, American bombers flew over the islands on what was described as a training mission.

South Korea summoned the Japanese ambassador on Tuesday to protest claims to the Takeshima islets, known as Dokdo in South Korea. They are situated most equidistant between the two countries.

"Our government strongly condemns this and asks Japan to immediately withdraw it," Seoul, who haveadministered the islets since the end of World War II, said in a statement.

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Disputed islands are ours, Japan's textbooks claim

We Discovered Too Late That Tortoises Are Expert Landscapers

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Countless biology students have dutifully learned to associate the Galapagos Islands with finches. Here Darwin noticed that birds on different islands had different beak shapes, and ta-da, theory of evolution. Butgalpago is Spanish for tortoise, and young Darwin also learned from watching these huge reptiles lumber across the archipelago. Today, thegalpagos are only a fraction of their former population. And as theyve disappeared, the landscape of the islands has transformedbecause although Darwin didnt know it, the tortoises were driving the evolution of an entire ecosystem.

The story starts before Darwin ever reached the Pacific island chain. So to get details from a time before naturalists were taking notes, Swansea University ecologist Cynthia Froyd and her colleagues searched a different set of records: fossilized tortoise poop.

There used to be 100,000 to 250,000 tortoises living and relieving themselves in the Galapagos. Those numbers dropped after European settlers arrived in the 16th centurythe slow-moving giants were eaten, hunted for oil, and tormented by invasive egg-eating rats. By the 1970s their numbers had dropped to 14,000 or fewer.

Now Galapagos tortoises are being reintroduced to the islands. But has the ecosystem changed in their absence? Froyd wondered specifically about the islands highest points. These areas are mostly empty of tortoises today, even though the animals are known to travel to higher ground for water during the dry season.

Froyd took sediment samples at lofty bogs on the island of Santa Cruz. (This island is also called Indefatigable, like a tortoise climbing an 800-meter volcano.) These bogs are packed with moss, surrounded by lush vegetation, and frequently covered in a cold, thick mist calledgara.

The researchers scoured the ancient mud samples for fossilized fungus spores, pollen, and plant remains. At all three of their sample sites, they found dung-affiliated fungispecies that grow on the droppings of herbivores. This was a clue that a large plant-eater used to live and poop at those spots. Judging by radiocarbon dating, the animal had lived in the bogs for thousands of years, but disappeared around 500 years ago. Dung-rich areas were also full of plant pollen, as from the gut of a grazer. All signs pointed to the Galapagos tortoise, the only large herbivore around. (Theres also an extinct giant rice rat that could have left enough dung, the authors note, but it wasnt known to hang out in swamps.)

When the researchers collected fresh tortoise dung and examined it in the lab, they saw similar patterns of fungus to those in their ancient samples. The same was true of sediment samples taken from a pond where tortoises still live today.

At the same time the dung fungi disappeared, about 500 years ago, certain plant species disappeared from the dirt samples too. The plants that vanished were those that prefer a muddy, churned-up environmentlike the home tortoises would have provided as they trampled and sloshed through a wetland. Some of these plant species are now rare or extinct in the Galapagos.

All this evidence added up to tell a story: Tortoises used to cover Santa Cruz Island, from the coasts to the highlands. At the top of the island they wallowed in wetlands with open ponds or lakes. Here they drank, grazed on plants, and kept their bodies cool. Then, around the time humans settled on the island, the turtles left the highlands. Its still not clear whytheir reduced numbers from hunting may have meant less competition from other tortoises, and thus less need to travel for water. There might also have been a shift in the islands climate that discouraged tortoises from hiking the volcano.

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We Discovered Too Late That Tortoises Are Expert Landscapers

Japan issues teachers new instructions on disputed islands

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TOKYO - Japanese education chiefs will instruct schools to teach children that islands at the center of disputes with China and South Korea belong unequivocally to Tokyo, the government said Tuesday.

The move could further inflame already-strained ties in the region, where clashes over differing interpretations of history frequently mar important economic relationships.

Revised teachers' manuals for junior and senior high schools will be issued to education boards across the nation, an education ministry official said.

"From the educational point of view, it is natural for a state to teach its children about integral parts of its own territory," Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura told a news conference.

The move comes as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has stirred controversy with his unabashed nationalism, including with a visit to a war shrine widely viewed by neighbouring countries as a symbol of Tokyo's wartime aggression.

Japan is embroiled in a row with China over the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, claimed as the Diaoyus by Beijing.

The dispute regularly sees standoffs between paramilitary ships and has also involved military vessels and planes. Some observers say the islands represent a key fault line for the region and could be the spark for an armed conflict.

Tokyo and Seoul, meanwhile, are at odds over the sovereignty of a pair of sparsely-inhabited rocks in waters between them, administered by Seoul as Dokdo, but claimed as Takeshima in Japan.

The new manuals describe both sets of islands as "integral parts of Japanese territory" for the first time, the official said.

The manuals will also note that the Takeshima islands are "illegally" occupied by South Korea, and that Japan does not even recognize the existence of a territorial dispute over the Senkaku islands, the official said.

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Japan issues teachers new instructions on disputed islands

Japan to teach of ‘undisputed’ islands

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AFP January29,2014,12:08amTWN

The announcement immediately prompted anger in Seoul, which called in the Japanese ambassador and warned of reciprocal countermeasures if the changes are not withdrawn immediately.

Revised teachers' manuals for junior and senior high schools will be issued to education boards across the nation, a Japanese education ministry official said.

From the educational point of view, it is natural for a state to teach its children about integral parts of its own territory, Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura told a news conference on Tuesday.

The move comes as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has stirred controversy with his unabashed nationalism, including a visit to a war shrine widely viewed by neighboring countries as a symbol of Tokyo's wartime aggression.

Japan is embroiled in a row with China over the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, claimed as the Diaoyus by Beijing.

The dispute regularly sees standoffs between paramilitary ships and has also involved military vessels and planes. Some observers say the islands represent a key fault line for the region and could be the spark for an armed conflict.

Beijing's reaction was muted, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying the Chinese government was severely concerned and had launched solemn representations.

We want to stress that the Diaoyu islands and their affiliated islands have been China's inherent territory since ancient times, she said.

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Japan to teach of 'undisputed' islands

Successful regeneration of human skeletal muscle in mice

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

27-Jan-2014

Contact: Jennifer Burke burkej@kennedykrieger.org 443-923-7329 Kennedy Krieger Institute

Baltimore, Md. (January 27, 2014) Researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute recently announced study findings showing the successful development of a humanized preclinical model for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), providing scientists with a much needed tool to accelerate novel therapeutic research and development.

Published in Human Molecular Genetics, the study outlines the validity of a unique model that, for the first time, mirrors the gene expression and biomarker profile of human FSHD tissue. Previously, there has been no accepted preclinical model for FSHD, a complex and rare neuromuscular disorder that affects approximately 4-7 per 100,000 individuals. As a result, therapeutic development for the disorder has been stymied.

"The inability to mimic the FSHD's genetic mechanism in preclinical models has been an ongoing challenge for the research community. Without an accurate model, making the leap to clinical research commonly fails," said Kathryn Wagner MD, PhD, director of the Center for Genetic Muscle Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, MD. "We believe this unique model will open the door to studying muscle regeneration over time and help better predict clinical response to therapeutic drugs."

Inspired by cancer preclinical models developed with human tumor tissue, Dr. Wagner and her research team leveraged both basic science and clinical research resources available at Kennedy Krieger to successfully regenerate grafted muscle within the models. Human bicep muscle biopsies transplanted into models survived for over 41 weeks and retained features of normal and diseased tissue.

"This model is not only applicable to genetic muscle diseases for which we lack appropriate research models, but for other acquired muscle conditions," said Wagner. "Now there will be more research possibilities related to the overall impact of age and disease on the regenerative and growth capacity of human skeletal muscle."

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The study was conducted by researchers at multiple institutions, including Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; University of Massachusetts Medical School; Harvard Medical School; University of Maryland School of Nursing; University of Maryland School of Medicine; and Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C.

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Successful regeneration of human skeletal muscle in mice

Cosmic Connections: Mars Meditation for Inner Guidance – Video

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Cosmic Connections: Mars Meditation for Inner Guidance
Please Subscribe for the Only Binaural Channel exclusively featuring FULL LENGTH VIDEOS Mars symbolizes focused energy, passion, endurance and competitivenes...

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Cosmic Connections: Mars Meditation for Inner Guidance - Video

Volunteer Abroad Guatemala Xela Kathryn Kerr Health Care Program www.abroaderview.org – Video

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Volunteer Abroad Guatemala Xela Kathryn Kerr Health Care Program http://www.abroaderview.org
https://www.abroaderview.org Volunteer Abroad Guatemala Xela Kathryn Kerr Health Care Program In Guatemala there are networks of public health centers offeri...

By: A Broader View Volunteers

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Volunteer Abroad Guatemala Xela Kathryn Kerr Health Care Program http://www.abroaderview.org - Video