JOSHUA NELSON & the Kosher Gospel Choir return for a Rockin' Night of Gospel Music; Kosher Style at the Osher Marin …

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San Rafael, CA (PRWEB) February 26, 2015

The Prince of Kosher Gospel returns to the Osher Marin JCC for a high-energy captivating performance.

Joshua Nelson brings his extraordinary message of hope, unity and spirituality through kosher gospel; a marriage of Jewish religious lyrics and meanings, with the soulful sounds of American gospel music.

When Joshua was eight he discovered an album by Mahalia Jackson, the Queen of Gospel, in his grandparents record collection, and he fell in love with her singing. During his teens and early twenties, he became widely celebrated as a gospel singer continuing Jacksons legacy.

For his audiences, whatever their faith or heritage, kosher gospel has been a revelation. Now in his early thirties, Nelson has performed around the world, for Presidents, major music festivalsand for Oprah, who named him a Next Big Thing. He has produced a stellar album, Mi Chamocha, sung with stars from Aretha Franklin to the Klezmatics, and has served as the subject of the acclaimed documentary film Keep on Walking.

Whatever the venue, Joshua Nelson, the Prince of Kosher Gospel, brings peopleand culturestogether in joyous song. A great uplifting performance for all audiences, whatever their age, faith or heritage.

"Cultural traditions typically change slowly, over the long arc of history. But occasionally a folk cultural innovation emerges that is startlingly fresh in its outward manifestation, although it remains deeplyeven reverentlytraditional at its core. You may have never heard of kosher gospel music before, but the inspirational performances of Joshua Nelson, the creator of this style, will surely call out to your soul."

WHAT: Rockin inspiring American Gospel, with Jewish meaning. WHO: All are invited. No membership or affiliation necessary. TICKETS: $10 - $35 with VIP, Reserved & General Admission choices WHEN: Thurs. April 23@ 7:30pm ~ Doors @ 7:00. WHERE: The Osher Marin JCC, 200 N San Pedro Rd, San Rafael, 1/2 mile E off 101 PARKING:Ample FREE parking. TICKETS: Available at http://www.marinjcc.org/Joshua WATCH VIDEO

This event is made possible by support from: Dr. Martin & Farron Brotman & Family, Brandeis Hillel Day School, Congregation Rodef Sholom, Congregation Kol Shofar and the Jewish Community Federation & Endowment Fund.

THE KANBAR CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS is the Performing Arts Department within the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center in San Rafael, California. For close to 25 years they have spread the power of music, voice, humor, taste, culture, movement and words throughout the community by presenting classical music, comedy, musical concerts, jazz, theater and performance in the grand Hoytt Theater, lectures, chats and demonstrations in the Kurland lounge and great world music & dancing for all ages outdoors under summer skies on Swig Field. All are welcome; no membership is required to attend.

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JOSHUA NELSON & the Kosher Gospel Choir return for a Rockin' Night of Gospel Music; Kosher Style at the Osher Marin ...

Russell Brand laments 'icebergs of filth' facing teens

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COMEDIAN Russel Brand says teenagers are being exposed to 'icebergs of filth' while he describes the 50 Shades of Grey movie as corrupting, cultural smog.

In a YouTube video, already viewed more than 300,000 times, Brand admits that pornography has affected his own ability to relate to women, himself, his own sexuality and spirituality.

The video is part of Fight the New Drug campaign "dedicated to educating and raising awareness on the harmful effects of pornography using only science, facts, and personal accounts''.

"Pornography is not something that I like,'' the former husband of singing sensation Katy Perry admits.

"It's something that I have not been able to make a long term commitment to not look at and it's affected my ability to relate to women, to relate to myself, my own sexuality, my own spirituality.

" Soft cultural smog like 'Fifty Shades of Grey' is making it impossible for us to relate to our own sexuality, our own psychology and our own spirituality, because this powerful primal resource, whenever it's plugged in, it's jarring and distracting," he continued.

"if you're constantly bombarded with great waves of filth. It's really difficult to remain connected to truth," he says. Brand argues that sex should be for procreation and enjoyment - an expression of love.

Instead, he said teenagers were being bombarded by highly sexualised images which changed the way they saw the opposite sex, relationships, and the act of sex itself.

"I was obsessed with porn when I was a teenager and it was nostalgic mad stuff that makes me sound old,'' he says. "We had to find magazine places and steal things from under beds.

"Living in the culture now where there's just icebergs of filth floating through every house on Wi-Fi, it's inconceivable what it must be like to be a young adolescent boy now with this kind of access to porn.

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Russell Brand laments 'icebergs of filth' facing teens

Russia to use International Space Station until 2024

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Roscosmos finalizes a plan for its activities up to 2030 which 'provides for the use of the ISS until 2024,' the space agency says

This March 7, 2011 NASA handout image shows a close-up view of the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-133 crew member on space shuttle Discovery. NASA/AFP

MOSCOW, Russia Russia will continue using the International Space Station (ISS) in partnership with NASA until 2024, its space agency said, after Moscow had threatened to pull out and stop financing it by 2020.

Roscosmos has finalized a plan for its activities up to 2030 which "provides for the use of the ISS until 2024," the space agency said in a statement late Tuesday, February 24.

It also announced plans to begin manned missions to the moon by 2030 but said its objectives would be adjusted according to financing.

"We are taking into account possible changes in financing and the program will get updated," Yury Koptev, the head of the agency's scientific and technical committee, said.

NASA had already said the aging ISS will remain operational until 2024, but Russia's participation had been in question.

Russia had said it wanted to wind up its role in 2020 and in December delayed a final decision, while deputy defense minster Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the space industry, threatened to "use those resources on other promising space projects."

Russia's decision to postpone its departure from the ISS to 2024 is dictated by the current economic crisis, sparked by low oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine, said independent space analyst Vadim Lukashevich.

"All these hopes and dreams have been cancelled by the crisis. There's no money for a new station," Lukashevich told Agence France-Presse.

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Russia to use International Space Station until 2024

Astronaut 'mechanics' grease gear at space station

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Miami (AFP) - An American astronaut found water pooling inside his helmet after he finished a six-plus hour spacewalk on Wednesday, raising new concerns about the safety of NASA's spacesuits.

Terry Virts was not harmed during the incident, which the US space agency described as "minor" compared to the near-drowning of an Italian astronaut when a similar problem occurred in 2013.

But mission managers will be poring over the data at a meeting on Friday to decide whether another spacewalk can go ahead as planned on Sunday, a NASA spokesman said.

Even before this series of three spacewalks began on Saturday, NASA voiced concern about a recurring problem with the American spacesuits in a part of the temperature control system known as the fan pump separator.

Virts did not notice any water during the spacewalk, as he toiled for hours to lubricate the latching mechanisms on a robotic arm and helped his colleague Barry Wilmore get the space station's exterior ready for the arrival of commercial spaceships carrying astronauts in the coming years.

Their spacewalk lasted six hours and 43 minutes.

It was only after Virts was done, and had re-entered the Quest airlock, that he began to feel dampness on the back of his head and saw water pooling near the front of his headpiece.

The water inside Virts' helmet was "kind of pooling on the front side of his helmet above the eye level," European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti told mission control in Houston.

The water was "about three inches in diameter," she said, noting that the amount of water had increased in the moments since he first noticed it.

NASA television showed live images of Virts smiling inside his helmet and blowing on the water to make it ripple, before eventually removing the headpiece with Cristoforetti's help.

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Astronaut 'mechanics' grease gear at space station

Red-light camera ban up for another vote

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Winter Weather Advisoryissued February 25 at 2:57PM MST expiring February 26 at 11:00PM MST in effect for: Custer, El Paso, Fremont, Pueblo, Teller

Winter Weather Advisoryissued February 25 at 4:11AM MST expiring February 27 at 5:00AM MST in effect for: Las Animas

Winter Weather Advisoryissued February 25 at 4:11AM MST expiring February 26 at 11:00PM MST in effect for: El Paso, Fremont, Teller

Winter Storm Warningissued February 25 at 4:11AM MST expiring February 27 at 5:00AM MST in effect for: Alamosa, Chaffee, Costilla, Custer, Fremont, Huerfano, Las Animas, Pueblo, Saguache

Winter Storm Warningissued February 25 at 6:03PM MST expiring February 26 at 6:00AM MST in effect for: Boulder, Clear Creek, Douglas, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer, Park

Winter Weather Advisoryissued February 25 at 6:03PM MST expiring February 26 at 6:00AM MST in effect for: Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Weld

Winter Storm Warningissued February 25 at 6:03PM MST expiring February 26 at 6:00AM MST in effect for: Boulder, Broomfield, Jefferson

Winter Weather Advisoryissued February 25 at 4:18AM MST expiring February 26 at 6:00AM MST in effect for: Boulder, Clear Creek, Gilpin, Grand, Jackson, Jefferson, Larimer, Park, Summit

Winter Weather Advisoryissued February 25 at 6:15PM MST expiring February 26 at 11:00PM MST in effect for: El Paso, Fremont, Teller

Winter Weather Advisoryissued February 25 at 4:18AM MST expiring February 26 at 6:00AM MST in effect for: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Jefferson

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Red-light camera ban up for another vote

Red-Light Camera Ban Passes 1st Test In Colorado

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DENVER (AP) A ban on red-light cameras and speed-van enforcement passed its first test Wednesday in the Colorado Legislature.

But a long afternoon of testimony showed the topic is as divisive as ever. In Colorado, 12 cities use the traffic-enforcement cameras.

State lawmakers have been debating red-light cameras for years, and the question pits lawmakers against police agencies that insist the cameras improve public safety.

(credit: CBS)

What are we targeting here, public safety or another revenue source? asked Rep. Dan Coram, R-Montrose.

The question came after hours of testimony from police and pedestrian advocates asking lawmakers not to ban the cameras.

You cant tell us to do something and then take away the tools to do it, said Greenwood Village Police Cmdr. Dustin Varney.

The cameras have been in question in the wake of recent audits questioning the value of red-light cameras. A 2011 Denver audit found the cameras of use mostly to raise tax money for the city.

Public officials have chafed at the suggestion that the cameras are just there to make money. Public dislike of the cameras doesnt make them wrong, said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.

Shoplifters dont like being caught either, but were not banning cameras in 7-Elevens, Morrissey said.

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Red-Light Camera Ban Passes 1st Test In Colorado

Almouj partners with SQU on use of nanotechnology to prevent biofouling

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(MENAFN - Muscat Daily) An experimental project that uses nanotechnology is being implemented at The Wave Muscat in association with the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) to prevent biofouling.

The project is aimed at developing technologically enhanced non-toxic coatings to be used on boats submerged structures and industry equipment.

A nanocoated net submerged in water at The Wave Muscat

Centered on nanotechnology the study aims to identify environment-friendly methods that can reduce the impact of biofouling on waterways marine life maintenance costs and fuel consumption. Khalil Abujaber marina manager of Almouj Marina said 'We are delighted to be part of this eco-project.

The value of the data acquired will potentially have a profound impact not only on our marine environment but on the lives of our boaters. As one of Oman's premier marinas we seek to lead by example in reducing the pollution in our waters to benefit the local community and the boating industry.'

Professor Joydeep Dutta chair at SQU's Nanotechnology in the Water Research Centre said 'This is a unique experiment where state-of-the-art nanotechnology is being applied toward the development of environment-friendly solutions to biofouling.'

In the experiment nanostructures are grown on fishing nets (test surfaces) to prevent biofouling. The metal oxide nanostructures absorb sunlight to provide a shield of highly reactive oxygen and hydroxyl radicals in the vicinity of the coated surfaces thereby hindering the accumulation of biofouling species through a process called photocatalysis.

'The results of this field trial could potentially reduce biofouling in local marine environments an issue that is responsible for over US10bn in damages worldwide' said Dr Sergey Dobretsov head of the Marine Science and Fisheries Department at SQU.

'Marinas are of particular interest to marine biologists as they possess a variety of structures that attract a diversity of marine organisms; the marina therefore virtually guarantees the availability of samples for the duration of our experiment.' This project is being supported by The Research Council.

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Almouj partners with SQU on use of nanotechnology to prevent biofouling

QIAGEN Collaborates With Allele Frequency Community To Advance Translational Medicine And Clinical Diagnostics

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Allele Frequency Community formed to significantly address need to improve the interpretation of DNA findings on disease-causing gene variants and rare diseases

A coalition of 13 leading life science and diagnostics organizations recently announced the formation of the Allele Frequency Community, a landmark initiative that is creating an extensive, high-quality and ethnically diverse collection of human genomes to address a key challenge in interpreting sequencing data for research and clinical applications. The announcement coincides with the start of the 16th annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) scientific meeting in Marco Island, Florida.

The Allele Frequency Community was recently formed after the 13 organizations agreed to pool their extensive human exome- and genome-wide variant call datasets in a secure, anonymized, pooled fashion to create the most ethnically diverse, freely-accessible, hosted community database of allele frequencies available. Until now, labs often collected their own, private allele frequency libraries, but did not have the infrastructure and incentives to integrate their resources into a freely-available community asset.

Increasing participation in this community-based resource is expected to create greater value over time. In particular, the Allele Frequency Community has the potential to create increasing value for life sciences and clinical research since information on observed allele frequencies can create important benchmarks that significantly increase the accuracy of findings from data generated by molecular analyses, such as Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS).

To enable this resource to grow, users have the opportunity to opt-in to join the Allele Frequency Community and benefit from the extensive database, agreeing in return to contribute statistics from their sequences to the database. Only anonymous, pooled allele frequencies are provided, protecting patient privacy.

The Allele Frequency Community database already holds more than 70,000 variant call datasets including 8,000 whole genomes and has been shown in internal benchmarking studies to generate a 43% average reduction in false positive rates in causal variant identification.

The founding collaborators of the Allele Frequency Community are:

QIAGEN N.V. is one of the founding collaborators of the Allele Frequency Community, and is providing bioinformatics infrastructure and software for the development of this community-based resource.

Over the last few years, access to allele frequency data from large populations has been the most useful resource for the interpretation of human variation, said Dr. Heidi Rehm, Ph.D., Director of the Laboratory for Molecular Medicine at Partners Healthcare Personalized Medicine. The Allele Frequency Community is a really valuable project. I am happy to share data through this new resource and excited that many other people have agreed to do so as well.

An allele is an alternative form of a gene found in a persons DNA. Scientists need diverse, large-scale data on allele frequencies to accurately identify potential disease-causing DNA changes in a population. Information on allele frequency also tells clinicians how common certain changes are within the population, helping to distinguish rare, disease-causing DNA changes from more common variations. A key challenge has been the lack of extensive collections of human genomes as a reference set. A prospective disease-causing variant that appears to be rare based on publicly available data may in fact be more prevalent in an ethnic population under-represented in public databases.

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QIAGEN Collaborates With Allele Frequency Community To Advance Translational Medicine And Clinical Diagnostics

New Superheros Are Being Customized by Pic the Gift

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St. Louis, Missouri (PRWEB) February 26, 2015

Pic the Gift is now customizing and personalizing new superhero capes to create one-of-a-kind superheros. It is a great gift to give any child to spark their imagination during play time or those who love to pretend to be their favorite superhero saving the day.

The cape is made from poplin, a strong fabric, and measures to about 35 inches long. It will fit most children from ages 3 and up. The cape uses a Velcro closure for an easy use and quick release.

Use the online designer provided by Pic the Gift to invent the next superhero. Upload pictures from Facebook or Instagram, upload personal files, or use the massive library from Pic the Gifts stock clip art. The cape can be either personalized or have some text embroidered. When designing, mind if placing any text that it is centered from the neck hole to the bottom and keep images away from the sides to avoid being lost during production.

Create a creative superhero cape to provide a child with hours of imaginative play and empower them to build their self esteem, develop self confidence. Let them become their own superhero to the save the day by purchasing them a new personalized superhero cape.

About Pic the Gift

At Pic the Gift they strive to WOW their customers for 50 years by creating quality products right here in the USA. Pic the Gift offers personalizing one gift for the special person or to fill a wholesale of personalized gifts. Pic the Gift is green and offers free shipping on all orders. Check out Pic the Gifts full line of products at http://www.picthegift.com/.

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New Superheros Are Being Customized by Pic the Gift

Revenge porn could soon become a federal crime in the United States

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If Congresswoman Jackie Speier has her way, the United States could finally be on the verge of creating a federal law banning revenge porn, reports Gizmodo.

Representative Speier told the publication that the bill will be introduced sometime this spring. Today, its possible to ruin someones life with the click of a button, by publishing another persons private images without their consent, said Rep. Speier. Our laws havent yet caught up with this crime.

As with all federal laws,Speiers national revenge porn bill is designed to deter people from committing the crime, by making revenge porn a federal offense. Not only would individuals who upload and share content without someone elses consent be liable, but so would people who run revenge porn sites. These criminal penalties will be doled out depending on the severity of the issue, because there is no one punishment that fits every crime possible within the confines of the bill.

Related:A California man was just convicted for posting revenge porn of an ex on Facebook

There will be no minimum penalty for revenge porn, though the bill does set a maximum penalty that includes jail sentences.

Ultimately, the bill is designed to help those who dont have the means to defend themselves. If youre Jennifer Lawrence, you can pay a high-priced lawyer to demand that websites take your picture down, but for an average person, the current system offers almost no recourse, said Rep. Speier.

Gizmodo does point out several issues with the bill, one of which being that even sites that might unwittingly host links to the content, such as Facebook and Google, could face penalties under the bill for enabling distribution. In addition, the bill could violate existing laws meant toprotect free speech. One example is the American Civil Liberties Unions challenge of an Arizona law that criminalizes revenge porn, arguing it goes against the First Amendment.

Even so, the push for revenge porn laws has been loud and clear. Back in December of last year, Noe Iniguez was the first person to be sentenced under Californias revenge porn law for publishing naked imagesof his ex-girlfriend on her employers Facebook page.Last August, Meryem Ali sued Facebook and a man named Adeel Shah Khan, after Khan posted manufactured, sexually explicit images of her and Facebook did not react in a timely manner. Earlier this month, 28-year-old Kevin Bollaert became the first person convictedin the U.S. under state law for running a revenge porn site, while also running another revenge porn site that would charge victims $350 to have nude pictures of them taken down.

Currently, 16 states have passed legislation, effectively banning revenge porn. Redditrecentlyissued a ban to nude images and videos on its site, unless the content has the consent of the people in the footage. Google, meanwhile,will block any sort of sexually explicit content,regardless of whether the people in the videos expressed their consent or not.

With that in mind, while the national revenge porn bill will likely be a contentious topic of debate on Capitol Hill, there seems to be a solidchance the bill will becomea law.

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Revenge porn could soon become a federal crime in the United States

Google mixes business with pleasure, updates Flights shopping service

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Connect the dots, la la la la, go to Miami, la la la la.

On Wednesday, Google announced the final version of itsflight-shopping siteclearly designedto compete withthe travel industry's currentdeal-sorting titans. Dubbed Google Flights, the site shares a lot in common with Kayak and Hipmunk, meaning that if you know your destination and ideal travel dates, you can sort available flights and tweakyour schedule to easily save a few bucks.

But Google Flights'key usability difference, and the newest feature since its beta launch a few years ago, is an interesting one: helping travelers make decisions when theydon't have a specific destination in mind.

"Our research shows more than half of searchers dont know where theyre going to travel when they sit down to plan," Google's Eric Zimmerman wrote in the product's announcement page, and he linked to a data-rich study about how Google users work out their typical travel arrangements.

As such, Google Flights' default interface isn't a list of cheap flights but a worldwide map covered in red airport dotseach of which has a price tag based on the calendar dates you entered in the first place. Budge those dates and the red dot prices change almost immediately. Or youcan type something as simple as "Europe" in the destination bar, at which point the site will offer refined searches like "Northern Europe" and "Western Europe" for quicker multi-airport searches.

In smaller Google news, the company also increased its cloud-storage song limit today. With no press release or fanfare, it bumped the limit that users can upload and privately enjoy from 20,000 songs to 50,000 this morning, thus surpassing the 25,000 limit that iTunes Match currently offers its users. (Amazon Cloud offers amuchlarger tally, but its 250,000-song storage comes with a price tag, unlike Google's and Apple's offerings.)

Post updated to reflect the service's original beta launch in 2011.

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Google mixes business with pleasure, updates Flights shopping service

Medicine vs. Homeopathic / Alternative Medicine & Herbal Treatments: Rhyme & Reason – Video

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Medicine vs. Homeopathic / Alternative Medicine Herbal Treatments: Rhyme Reason
Mr. Rhyme Mr. Reason discuss the difference between Medicine and Homeopathic / Complementary / Traditional / Alternative Medicine Herbal Treatments. What is a randomized controlled trial?

By: Rhyme Reason

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Medicine vs. Homeopathic / Alternative Medicine & Herbal Treatments: Rhyme & Reason - Video