NASA puts Mars rover on a month-long hiatus

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NASA halts communication with Curiosity to avoid any interference during a period when the sun is blocking Earth-to-Mars transmission signals.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover -- Curiosity -- explores the surface of the red planet in this artist's concept.

For the first time since its descent onto the red planet, the Mars rover Curiosity is getting a little alone time.

The rover and NASA scientists are having a communication breakdown, of sorts. But, not to worry, no hurt feelings are involved. The issue is that the sun has got in the way.

Once every 26 months, as the Earth and Mars rotate around the sun, the two planets end up on opposite sides of the star in an event called the Mars solar conjunction. Because of the sun's massive size, any communication sent between the two planets can be easily disrupted.

"We have plenty of useful experience dealing with them, though each conjunction is a little different," Chris Potts, NASA's mission manager for the Mars Odyssey rover, said in a statement. "The biggest difference for this 2013 conjunction is having Curiosity on Mars."

To prepare for the month off, NASA scientists give the rovers directions of what to do beforehand, which keeps the rovers busy working during those weeks. According to NASA, Curiosity may have up to 12 GB of data accumulated by the time it can make contact with NASA again.

Communication with Curiosity was suspended today and is expected to be back up again around May 1.

Here's a video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab explaining the signal breakdown between NASA and the rovers during a Mars solar conjunction:

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NASA puts Mars rover on a month-long hiatus

NASA Celebrates 40th Anniversary Of Pioneer 11

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April 5, 2013

Image Caption: An artist's impression of a Pioneer spacecraft on its way to interstellar space. Image credit: NASA Ames

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

NASA is celebrating the 40th birthday of the Pioneer 11 spacecraft. For the past four decades, Pioneer has been hurtling through space, capturing satellite images of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. As its predecessor, Pioneer 10 had launched just over a year before and was the first spacecraft to not only leave the inner Solar System, but make the trip to Jupiter as well.

Pioneer 11, launched on April 5, 1973, surpassed its predecessors achievements before it was ultimately lost in 1995.

According to a NASA tribute, the Pioneer 11 was originally intended only as a backup spacecraft for the Pioneer 10. The only difference between the two crafts was the addition of a Flux-Gate Magnetometer.

Following a successful fly-by of Jupiter by Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11 was rerouted mid-flight to expand on its predecessors mission. Using Jupiters gravitational pull as a sling shot, the astronomers at NASAs Ames Research Center in California directed Pioneer 11 towards Saturn.

The NASA tribute also remembers the discussion carried on internally about the path of Pioneer 11. The Ames team wanted to send it much closer to Jupiter than the 10 had gotten. Though this decision was opposed by several team members on the Pioneer 11 team, it ultimately did pass just 26,097 miles above Jupiters atmosphere, nearly 5 times closer than its predecessor, Pioneer 10, which passed by at about 124,000 miles.

As Pioneer 11 passed by Jupiter, it was able to photograph the poles and capture some very detailed shots of the famous Red Spot.

Still reeling from the debate about which path Pioneer 11 would take past Jupiter, the Ames astronomers again began to discuss which path the spacecraft would take on its voyage to Saturn. NASAs Voyager 1 and 2 missions were launched two years prior to Pioneer 11s arrival at Saturn and were already heading towards the asteroid belt. As the Voyager duo cost much more than the Pioneers relatively simple makeup, some members of the team wanted to use 11 as a sort of a crash test dummy to ensure Voyager 1 wouldnt be destroyed on its way to Saturn.

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Senator: NASA to lasso asteroid, bring it closer

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WASHINGTON (AP) NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator said Friday.

The ship would capture the 500-ton, 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the plan would speed up by four years the existing mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing the space rock closer to Earth.

Nelson, who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said Friday that President Barack Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget that comes out next week. The money would be used to find the right small asteroid.

"It really is a clever concept," Nelson said in a press conference in Orlando. "Go find your ideal candidate for an asteroid. Go get it robotically and bring it back."

This would be the first time ever humanity has manipulated a space object in such a grand scale, like what it does on Earth, said Robert Braun, a Georgia Institute of Technology aerospace engineering professor who used to be NASA's chief technology officer.

"It's a great combination of our robotic and human capabilities to do the kind of thing that NASA should be doing in this century," Braun said.

Last year, the Keck Institute for Space Studies proposed a similar mission for NASA with a price tag of $2.6 billion. There is no cost estimate for the space agency's version. NASA's plans were first reported by Aviation Week.

While there are thousands of asteroids around 25-feet, finding the right one that comes by Earth at just the right time to be captured will not be easy, said Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA's Near Earth Object program that monitors close-by asteroids. He said once a suitable rock is found it would be captured with the space equivalent of "a baggie with a drawstring. You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it."

Yeomans said a 25-foot asteroid is no threat to Earth because it would burn up should it inadvertently enter Earth's atmosphere. These types of asteroids are closer to Earth not in the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. They're less than 10 million miles away, Braun said.

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Senator: NASA to lasso asteroid, bring it closer

NASA to Get $100 Million for Asteroid-Capture Mission, Senator Says

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NASA will likely get $100 million next year to jump-start an audacious program to drag an asteroid into orbit around the moon for research and exploration purposes, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson says.

The $100 million will probably be part of President Barack Obama's federal budget request for 2014, which is expected to be released next week, Nelson (D-FL) said. The money is intended to get the ball rolling on the asteroid-retrieval project, which also aims to send astronauts out to the captured space rock in 2021.

"This is part of what will be a much broader program," Nelson said Friday (April 5), during a visit to Orlando. "The plan combines the science of mining an asteroid, along with developing ways to deflect one, along with providing a place to develop ways we can go to Mars."

NASA's plan involves catching a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) with a robotic spacecraft, then towing the space rock to a stable lunar orbit, Nelson said. Astronauts would then be sent to the asteroid in 2021 using NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket, both of which are in development.

The idea is similar to one proposed last year by researchers based at Caltech's Keck Institute for Space Studies in Pasadena.

"Experience gained via human expeditions to the small returned NEA would transfer directly to follow-on international expeditions beyond the Earth-moon system: to other near-Earth asteroids, [the Mars moons] Phobos and Deimos, Mars and potentially someday to the main asteroid belt," the Keck team wrote in a feasibility study of their plan.

NASA will need much more than this initial $100 million to make the asteroid-retrieval mission happen. The Keck study estimated that it would cost about $2.6 billion to drag a 500-ton space rock back near the moon.

Nelson said he thinks the Obama Administration is in favor of the asteroid-retrieval plan. In 2010, the president directed NASA to work to get astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, then on to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s.

News of the potential $100 million allocation is not a complete surprise, as Aviation Week reported late last month that NASA was seeking that amount in 2014 for an asteroid-retrieval program.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwall.Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookorGoogle+. Originally published onSPACE.com.

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Children’s National Medical Center Unveils New Pain Medicine Care Complex

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Pediatric Pain Medicine Program Uses Revolutionary Distract, Measure, Treat Approach to Tackle Pain in Children

Washington, DC (PRWEB) April 03, 2013

The Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Childrens National Medical Center has opened a new Pain Medicine Care Complex, which aims to eliminate pain in children by addressing each patients pain from every angle. The Pain Medicine Care Complex combines new treatment approaches with sophisticated data collection via novel gaming technology that fully engage young patients and also objectively measures their treatment progress over time.

Through a cost-effective, continuous loop where evidence drives clinical care, and clinical care drives research, Childrens National is advancing pediatric pain medical research to improve the lives of children and reduce health care costs, said Julia Finkel, MD, Lead Principal Investigator of the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation and Vice Chief of the Division of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Childrens National. Using our unique approach Distract, Measure, Treat we can dramatically improve patient outcomes in the short term while simultaneously driving long-term research to transform how care is delivered to children in the United States and around the world.

According to data collected by Childrens National, approximately one in four parents of patients treated at the hospital has to quit their job or reduce working hours to care for a child in pain. Frequently, these patients also are misdiagnosed or treated for another disease, and pain is not acknowledged as a unique diagnosis if not linked to a specific condition. Misdiagnosis, along with uncoordinated, inefficient care and lost work productivity, can drive up the cost of treating pediatric (and adult) pain within the United States healthcare system.

Until now, it has been impossible to quantitatively measure and monitor chronic pain in children, said Sarah Rebstock, MD, PhD, Clinical Director of the Pain Medicine Program and a Principal Investigator of the Sheikh Zayed Institute. Childrens National has developed a promising solution to this problem that applies objective measurement to video gaming therapy that is uniquely designed for pediatrics. The data we collect will enable us to optimize care for each individual patient we treat at the Pain Medicine Care Complex, while also evaluating the success of various treatments over time.

Childrens Nationals pain medicine program is the first of its kind to use unique video gaming therapy, holistic therapeutic tools, and digital data collection to enable short and long-term measurement of patient progress. For the first time, physicians can quantitatively measure pain and assess treatment progress in pediatric patients all within an environment that was specially designed for children and teens. The Complex features the following elements:

A Multi-Sensory Room (MSR) in which a physical therapist uses video gaming therapy that distracts the patient, while simultaneously digitally measuring treatment progress through Kinect technology and a proprietary software application to gather patient data in real-time, which targets and tracks 24 musculoskeletal points in the body.

The Pain Medicine Care Complex is part of the Sheikh Zayed Institute , which launched in 2009. The institute, which aims to make surgery more precise, less invasive, and pain free for children, was made possible by a $150 million gift from the Government of Abu Dhabi to Childrens National Medical Center.

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Penn Medicine ‘s New Center for Personalized Diagnostics Unlocks Cancer’s Secrets

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Individualized Genomic Testing Allows for Tailored Cancer Treatment, New Drug Research

Newswise PHILADELPHIA Just like a massive iceberg jutting out of the ocean, many of cancers genetic underpinnings remain hidden under the surface, impossible to predict or map from above. The foreboding shadows and shapes that appear on CT scans and MRIs and even in the field that doctors see when they zoom in to look at cancer cells under a high-powered microscope are just the tip of the iceberg.

Penn Medicines new Center for Personalized Diagnostics, a joint initiative of the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center, is diving deeper into each patients tumor with next generation DNA sequencing. These specialized tests can refine patient diagnoses with greater precision than standard imaging tests and blood work, all with an aim to broaden treatment options and improve their efficacy.

Were using the most advanced diagnostic methods to unlock cancers secrets, says David B. Roth, MD, PhD, chairman of the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. A tumors genomic profile is the most critical piece of information for an oncologist to have when theyre deciding what therapy to recommend. The results of tests in the Center for Personalized Diagnostics reveal a genetic blueprint of each patient's tumor that is as discrete and singular as a fingerprint.

The Center for Personalized Diagnostics unites top experts in genomic analysis, bioinformatics, and cancer genetics who use the most sensitive data analysis tools available to identify the rarest of mutations with oncologists who treat patients and design clinical trials to test new therapies. Together, their efforts will provide cancer patients with cutting-edge diagnostic and therapeutic options.

The first group of patients who are undergoing testing through the CPD includes those with blood cancers and solid tumors of the brain, melanoma, and lung. Throughout 2013, the tests will be expanded for a wider range of cancer patients. Results are available within two weeks twice as fast as most commercially available testing panels. All new and relapsed Abramson Cancer Center patients will receive this testing conducted via simple blood tests and/or biopsy of tumor tissue or bone marrow as part of their evaluation and diagnostic process. Interpretation of results is communicated one-on-one to patients and their caregivers by physicians and genetic counselors.

In contrast to the CPDs offerings, individual genetic tests which now proliferate in the marketplace, even for healthy people who may be interested in going on a spelunking expedition through their DNA are time consuming and expensive to conduct, and they often yield information which is not clinically actionable. When these tests are offered for cancer patients, patients are often left with only a veritable alphabet soup detailing genetic information, with few plans for how to use those findings to conquer their cancer.

Since the CPD began operating in early 2013, however, tests in 80 percent of patients revealed genetic mutations that may be used to alter their treatment course or clarify their prognosis. The results are playing a role in:

Matching patients with existing therapies designed to target mutations previously associated only with different cancers. For instance, some lung cancer patients exhibit mutations of the BRAF gene, which is targeted by drug Vemurafenib, initially developed and approved for melanoma. Testing in the Center for Personalized Diagnostics is helping clinicians make new connections that will expand the indications for existing drugs.

Helping physicians determine which treatments a patient will respond to, or how well they will tolerate a particular treatment. Patients with the blood cancer acute myelogenous leukemia who express a mutation known as DNMT3A, for instance, are known to respond to higher doses of the drug daunorubicin. Learning this type of information prior to beginning treatment can help oncologists select and dose drugs in a way that will reduce side effects and boost patients quality of life during treatment and increase their chance of completing their prescribed regimen.

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Dr. J Sponsors Real Medicine Foundation’s Presence at the 2013 LA Marathon

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LOS ANGELES, April 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --The 2013 LA Marathon featured cheering stations scattered throughout the course to inspire thousands of runners to continue to push themselves. However, one cheering station in particular had a charitable goal in mind. In addition to providing music and live performers to the marathoners, the Real Medicine Foundation's cheering station, located at Mile 22, sought to bring awareness to its humanitarian campaign that brings relief to those in disaster and poverty stricken areas around the world. Dr. Payam Jarrah-Nejad, master of cutting-edge plastic surgeries like the Brazilian butt lift and rapid recovery breast augmentation, proudly participated in sponsoring the Real Medicine Foundation's presence at the race.

Dr. J, as his patients and staff affectionately call him, was sadly unable to make an appearance at the marathon. However, he is surely touched by the presence of a banner posted at the mile marker specially thanking him for his contribution. More than that, Dr. J can rest easy knowing he contributed to an important cause that benefits people all over the world. The Real Medicine Foundation spends 92 cents on every dollar towards charitable work that reaches those in need throughout the the United States, South America, Asia, and Africa. Bringing humanitarian support with a keen emphasis on restoring the dignity of people stricken by devastation and extreme poverty, the RMF has donated clothing and supplies around the world, educated locals about important issues like school sanitation and polio vaccinations, invested and trained leaders in many global communities, and much more. The charity's focus is on empowering communities to continue their work once the Real Medicine Foundation has addressed immediate health care needs, including launching programs with an emphasis in indigenous sustainability on subjects like malnutrition eradication, HIV/AIDS care, maternal child healthcare, and Malaria treatment and prevention.

Furthermore, the Real Medicine Foundation benefitted from a group of charitable runners called the Athletes for Real Medicine. This team successfully raised over $10,000 for the Real Medicine Foundation, with many marathoners dedicating their journey towards a personal cause or in memory of a loved one.

This isn't Dr. J's first foray into global philanthropic efforts. Dr. J frequently volunteers overseas, performing procedures to correct cleft lip, cleft palate, scarring from burns and other sources, and polydactyly. In each case, Dr. J puts forth the same skill and artistry utilized in his domestic aesthetic procedures like rhinoplasty and mommy makeover in Beverly Hills. One particularly unforgettable event happened last year; a toddler was attacked by a wild dog in Peru and the timing was just right so that Dr. J was able to reconstruct the damage done to the boy's face. It's very lucky that Dr. J was still in the hospital; procedures like these often require world-class plastic surgery skills, as the delicate configuration of the face needs a practiced touch from a surgeon well-studied in facial reconstruction.

More information about Dr. J's humanitarian endeavorsand his skill as a plastic surgeon in Los Angelescan be found online at http://www.drjplasticsurgery.com. A free consultation can also be arranged with Dr. J by calling 310-228-3151.

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Duke Students Show Keen Interest in Family Medicine

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Duke Students Show Keen Interest in Family Medicine

I am always impressed with the passion of medicalstudents and family medicine residents, and my recent trip to DukeUniversity was no exception.

Duke's Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) invited me to be a speaker at their annual awards meeting in Durham, N.C. This created an opportunity for me to meet with the school's chair of community and family medicine, Lloyd Michener, M.D., (who recently made news for his work on integrating primary care and public health) and to spend some time with family medicine residents.

This trip, however, was primarily about students. There was a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm about this years Match and what it may mean for Duke's future. The school had four students match into family medicine residencies, including one who will be staying on at Duke.

Although four may not sound like a big number, it doubled last year's total and matched the school's highest number of students matching into family medicine residencies during the past six years. (For some perspective, Duke produced zero family medicine residents out of a class of 112 students in 2009.)

The students asked good questions about ways to stimulate interest in family medicine and invigorate their FMIG. We talked extensively about leadership opportunities at the AAFP's National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students,which is scheduled for Aug. 1-3 in Kansas City, Mo., and how this can extend to students regardless of career choice. However, once students come and participate in this event, it is hard not to get excited about family medicine.

We also talked about ways of handling the usual challenges students face in family medicine. Even early in their careers, students are hearing the usual refrain of "You are too smart to go into family medicine" from their faculty and peers. This is a very real issue for our students, and it is difficult to withstand over time.

We talked about one way of reframing the situation, which is to recognize that family medicine is the largest specialty. Second, most folks who go into internal medicine, for example, subspecialize. Another way of looking at that choice would be to talk about becoming a limited practice specialist. This allows an opportunity for students interested in family medicine to say how they truly don't want to limit themselves. They want the excitement and the challenge of doing more than "just" being an orthopedist. And they could praise their peers who recognize that they need to limit their options by subspecializing. It is good to know ones boundaries.

Most important, however, is a message that we all need to hear -- not just the students. What we have been doing for many years is critical to the creation of a true health care system in this country. It has been, and continues to, be difficult at times. People don't always understand what we do. However, for the first time, people in power are talking about primary care and the patient-centered medical home. Even if they don't fully understand what those terms mean, it is a start.

Winston Churchill once said, "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing -- after they've tried everything else." We are getting to the point where our country has tried everything else to create a health care system instead of a disease-management process.

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Medical School graduate Amar Sidhu produces and stars in upcoming film

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When Amar Sidhu graduated from Tulane Medical School in 1999 at the top of his class, his focus was on medicine, and his acting aspirations were put on hold.

Film is something I wanted to do as a high school student, but I grew up in Seattle as a practical thinker, Sidhu said. I have a great love for science and I decided to pursue medicine. By the time I got into medical school, I had a goal to be the best doctor I could be.

Now, 14 years later, Sidhu balances his time between two full-time jobs, one as a doctor and one as an actor and producer.

In 2008, Sidhu founded Ancient Arrow Films, his independent production company, and in 2009, he produced and starred in Aakhari Decision, a Bollywood action film. The movie was released in India and North America in 2010.

In an autobiographical article he wrote for Filmmaker Magazine, Sidhu said he used the profits from Aakhari Decision to finance his second film, The Black Russian, which is being submitted to the Los Angeles Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival this year. His next project will be Winters Dream, a post-apocalyptic story set in 2177.

Sidhu said he did not expect his side job to be so successful.

Acting is my passion and why I jumped into the film production world in the first place, Sidhu wrote in his article. Yes, I want to make the best films possible, but I also want to create quality films I can act in. Eventually, other directors and producers will see my work and other doors will open.

In addition to pursuing his passion for film, he also practices as a prominent dermasurgeon at his private practice in southern California, Foothill Dermatology.

Ive learned to juggle my schedule, and its very rewarding, Sidhu said. It boils down to time management. You get to be really good at it in medical school.

Sidhu was the president of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, an organization that invites the top 10 percent of medical students.

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Start Saving for Medical School With a 529 Plan

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Kim Hood wondered why her granddaughter, Isabella Feinauer, drew nothing but spiked lines on dozens of sheets of paper. Isabella, then 3 or 4 years old, was mimicking something she'd seen in her little brother's hospital room: EKGs.

Isabella had watched the readouts on medical machines while her brother, who was born with a congenital heart defect, was being treated. Now 12, Isabella has no doubt she wants to be a pediatric cardiologist when she grows up.

[Find ways to pay for medical school.]

It's hard to predict what children want to be when they grow up, but parents who think their child could become a doctor need to start saving now, whether the child is 3 years old or 16, says Lisa Featherngill, managing director of planning with wealth management firm Abbot Downing.

According to a survey of student tuition and fees by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the median cost in 2012-2013 for first year students at public medical schools is $54,625 per year for out-of-state students and $32,197 for in-state students, which includes tuition, fees and health insurance. First year students at private schools had median tuition, fees and health insurance costs of $50,078 for resident and $50,768 for nonresident students the same year.

While many parents can't afford the potential $200,000 bill for medical school, they can follow these tips.

1. Start saving early: While starting to save as early as possible for college costs is always important, medical school is more expensive and parents will need the additional time for money to grow via interest and investment earnings, Featherngill says.

This often means waiting to move the money from riskier investments that have higher growth potential to safer investments like short-term bonds and money market funds until students are undergraduates, since the money won't be needed for a few more years.

[Discover how to attend med school for free.]

As soon as Isabella's parents realized their child wanted to study medicine, they opened a Utah Education Savings Plan, a tax-advantaged college savings account known as a 529 plan. "Really, at such a young age she was so passionate about being a pediatric heart doctor," says Diane Feinauer, Isabella's mother. "We knew we had to start saving."

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Liberty delays vote on zoning laws

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Published: 2:00 AM - 04/05/13

LIBERTY Liberty Town Board members are delaying a decision on whether to follow the supervisor's plan to scrap the town's 2011 zoning and revert back to "business friendly" regulations of 26 years ago.

Supervisor Charlie Barbuti polled board members during a meeting on Monday and the council decided to wait until May before voting. Barbuti said he was hoping to give direction to the town attorney as numerous revisions need to be made. He believes it will be easier to revert back to the 1987 zoning and make revisions from those documents.

"We have had a lot of complaints," Barbuti said.

The 2011 zoning was largely created by a committee of volunteers formed after the town completed a comprehensive plan in 2008. Heinrich Strauch, executive director of the Liberty Community Development Corp., who served on the committee, said the group tried to match zoning with the comprehensive plan, which called for protecting the rural character and focusing commercial growth in a few zones.

"Zoning for me is a living document," Strauch said. "If the community feels it is too restrictive and open it up, that is OK with me."

People expressed mixed options about Barbuti's plan at a public hearing in March. Councilman Dean Farrand, who also served on the committee, said he opposes scrapping the 2011 work. He believes tweaks can be made to address most people's criticisms.

"I don't think the 2011 map and ... charts need radical changes," Farrand said.

About 40 percent of the town's land is now zoned agricultural, requiring 10 acres to build a house. Barbuti also said the new zoning makes it difficult to attract restaurants and shops around Swan Lake and industrial businesses along portions of Old Route 17.

"That is fine for Montana," Barbuti said. "It is not for 90 minutes from New York City."

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Liberty University to Host Shannon Bream, Ravi Zacharias for 2013 Commencement Exercises

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Fox News reporter and Liberty University alumna Shannon Bream (93) will be the keynote speaker for Libertys 40th Commencement ceremony on May 11, making her Liberty's first female Commencement speaker. Evangelical apologist Ravi Zacharias will speak at Baccalaureate on May 10 and briefly at Commencement.

Lynchburg, VA (PRWEB) April 02, 2013

Bream will share the platform with Evangelical apologist Ravi Zacharias who will deliver a brief charge to the Commencement crowd as well. Zacharias will be the featured speaker at Libertys Baccalaureate service May 10.

The fact that Liberty University is now able to welcome one of its own alumni as its keynote speaker at Commencement is a clear indication that the university is coming of age and fulfilling its mission of Training Champions for Christ, said Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. We are proud of Shannon Bream, and it is our privilege to welcome her home and honor her achievements.

Both Zacharias and Bream are accustomed to speaking in front of thousands, whether on camera or live on stage.

A Supreme Court reporter for the Fox News Channel, Bream graduated from Liberty in 1993 before attending Florida State University College of Law to earn her Doctor of Jurisprudence degree. From there, Bream practiced law for a number of years before making her way to broadcast news.

Zacharias, who was born in India in 1946, has written or edited more than 20 books and has spoken in such venues as the CIA, the National Prayer Breakfast, and the universities of Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford. In addition, Zacharias has appeared on both CNN and Fox, hosts a weekly radio program, and is currently the senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall at Oxford University.

Bream visited Liberty in 2009, speaking in Convocation and at Liberty University School of Law. She has been featured in the Liberty Journal.

Commencement begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 11 inside Liberty Universitys Williams Stadium and Baccalaureate will take place in Libertys Vines Center Friday, May 10 at 6 p.m.

We are expecting record attendance exceeding 30,000 people for Libertys 40th commencement service in 2013 and are thrilled to be hosting Shannon Bream and Ravi Zacharias, Falwell said.

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Still Neutral on Liberty Global – Analyst Blog

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We reiterate our long-term Neutral recommendation on Liberty Global Inc. ( LBTYA ). The company's fourth quarter of 2012 financial results easily surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimates.

Why Kept at Neutral?

Liberty Global is gradually establishing a strong foothold in the European cable MSO market.We believe that the long-term business fundamental of the company is very intriguing, primarily due to strong demand for its digital cable-TV services, faster broadband and triple-play bundled offerings.

The company is systematically conducting a share buyback program. However, business integration risk persists as Liberty Global has decided to acquire several companies either partially or fully.

Moreover, Liberty Global is currently trading at significantly higher multiple with respect to several valuation metrics compared with the industry average and the S&P 500. The stock price has soared nearly 66% over the last year and is currently trading at a 52-week high end.

We believe that this high level of valuation may restrict any above market gain any time soon. Liberty Global currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Risk/Reward Almost Balanced

On Feb 2013, Liberty Global entered into an agreement to acquire 100% stake of Virgin Media Inc. ( VMED ) in a cash and equity deal. Both the companies are expecting the deal to be completed by the second quarter of 2013, subject to customary regulatory approval. If this deal gets approved, then Liberty Global will become a formidable challenger to BSkyB, the largest pay-TV operator of the U.K. and BT Group plc. ( BT ). BSkyB is partially controlled by News Corp. ( NWSA ).

On Apr 2013, Liberty Global acquired a 12.65% ownership of Ziggo, the largest cable MSO in Netherlands. At the end of 2012, Ziggo had more than 2.2 million digital TV subscribers, almost 1.8 million Internet subscribers and 1.5 million telephone subscribers. A major positive for Liberty Global is that Ziggo currently has a dividend yield of about 7.4%. Liberty Global expects Ziggo to pay about $473.5 million to investors as dividend in 2013.

Nevertheless, Liberty Global is predominantly operating in Europe, which at present is economically the most vulnerable region. Ongoing debt crisis in several European countries may significantly affect the future prospect the company. Management is gradually concentrating on western and northen Europe. However, the recessionary pressure is most severe in that region.

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