The presentation is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. PT. We'll start our live blog about an hour before Apple officially kicks off its event, along with a live video show from CNET's headquarters just a few blocks away from the venue.
You can tune in to the live blog by clicking the image below, which also includes a way to schedule an e-mail reminder:
Apple held a similar event almost exactly one year ago in San Jose, Calif., where the first iPad Mini appeared. The company has used this particular venue in downtown San Francisco several times before, including for the first iPad's introduction in 2010.
"Facebook users are reporting trouble logging in and posting updates Monday morning.
"Some users are seeing a 'temporary disruption of service' warning.
" 'Servers are down,' one user posted on Twitter.
" 'So, it's not just me,' posted another."
The site "Downrightnow" said, indeed (as of 10:40 a.m. ET) that Facebook was having some problems.
And here's an example of the sort of reaction trending on the rival Twitter under the hashtags #GetWellSoonFacebook and #RIPFacebook:
The Two-Way has reached out to Facebook for comment, but we haven't heard back yet.
Update At 11:50 a.m. ET. Facebook: 'Now Back To 100%'
"Earlier this morning, while performing some network maintenance, we experienced an issue that prevented some users from posting to Facebook for a brief period of time," a Facebook spokesman says in an email to NPR. "We resolved the issue quickly, and we are now back to 100%. We're sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused."
Firaxis is set to release their newest iOS game from legendary designer Sid Meier, a sequel to this past May's Sid Meier's Ace Patrol. Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies is the new game, and they're taking a different approach with pricing in this go-round, according to Polygon.
Ace Patrol puts you in charge of a flying squadron. It's an innovative turn-based game in which you use different pilots with different skill sets depending on the mission. Each move gives you the opportunity to move, turn, perform aerobatic maneuvers and shoot at your computer-controlled oppoonents. It was an iMore app pick of the week earlier this year.
The game is a lot of fun to play, but it was launched as a free-to-play title with limited missions. To unlock all content, players have had to make multiple purchases. And Firaxis and Meier have learned from that experience:
"A lot of feedback we got from players of the original game, especially on iOS, was, 'I just want to buy the whole game. Don't give me little pice [sic] here, a little pice [sic] there,'" he said. "And that's how we're comfortable selling games, but again we're exploring this new marketplace and trying out different things."
The new Pacific Skies game will feature new artificial intelligence and new airplane designs and new maneuvers to master, and of course a brand new setting to explore.
Do in app purchases in games turn you off? Are you more likely to pay one price up front for a title you think you might like, or are you gun-shy from spending money on apps at all? Sound off in the comments.
Egypt will spend 29.6 billion Egyptian pounds on a stimulus package to get its moribund economy going, a third more than previously planned, according to a Finance Ministry statement on Monday.
The original plan announced in August had provided for around 22.3 billion pounds in additional spending on a variety of projects, but the ministry said the increases would not push this year's budget deficit above the previous goal.
"This financial package will not increase the budget deficit of the state from the government target of 10 percent due to the success of reforms taken lately and the effects of the Arab aid packages," the statement said.
The economy of the Arab world's most populous country has been crippled by social and political turmoil since Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 but has been helped in recent months by funding from several Gulf Arab States.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates promised a combined $12 billion in loans, grants and fuel shipments after the army, prompted by mass protests, overthrew the country's first democratically elected president Mohamed Mursi on July 3.
The statement also said that the government plans to implement a minimum wage early next year which would cost the country 18 billion pounds annually.
"The government is committed to implementing the minimum wage starting from next January which will cost the public treasury around 9 billion pounds during the second half of the current financial year, rising to 18 billion pounds annually," the statement said.
Egypt's Trade and Industry Minister told Reuters earlier this month that Egypt plans a second stimulus package by early next year that will likely be equal or larger than the 22.3 billion pounds announced in August.
On both sides of the Atlantic, the 1920s saw strict gender roles bend — and break — as new kinds of relationships were tested in life and literature. Here, British actor Leslie Henson and his wife Madge Saunders show off the spirit of subversion in November 1920.
Brooke/Getty Images
On both sides of the Atlantic, the 1920s saw strict gender roles bend — and break — as new kinds of relationships were tested in life and literature. Here, British actor Leslie Henson and his wife Madge Saunders show off the spirit of subversion in November 1920.
Brooke/Getty Images
The 1920s were a time of literary liberation. In the footsteps of pioneers like May Sinclair, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, writers dabbled in new subjects and new styles, creating characters who would have been controversial — if not downright unthinkable — in the Victorian era: promiscuous women and effeminate men, businesswomen and stay-at-home fathers, atheists and revolutionaries.
There was a price for this freedom, however. It's not easy to break free from the constraints of tradition or to stand up as the lone supporter of a new and unsettling belief. For both the authors and their characters, such acts took bravery — a bravery most poignantly portrayed on the battleground of love. Whether writing about a man who loves his children and despises his work, a missionary more interested in his neighbors than his God or a girl wondering how to initiate a romance, these 1920s authors explored every variety of love.
This 1924 novel tells the story of an American couple trapped in a grim, dysfunctional marriage. Evangeline, a woman of boundless energy, is held captive by the drudgery of housework and motherhood. Lester, sensitive and poetic, is a slave to his mindless job at a department store. The first part of the novel is so depressing that it's difficult to read. But then Lester, while trying to put out a chimney fire, falls off a roof and is paralyzed from the waist down; suddenly he must stay home while Evangeline finds work. The intense emotions that these two characters experience in their reversed roles — the joy that Lester derives from taking care of his children, the triumphant fulfillment that floods Evangeline when she becomes a saleswoman, the love that flourishes because of their twin emancipations — have a tremendous impact on the reader. Few books offer this degree of satisfaction, and the novel's unexpected conclusion still seems profound, even revelatory, 90 years later.
Published in 1927, this is a short, strange and heartbreaking novel about a British priest, Timothy Fortune, who travels to a small Pacific island as a missionary. Though tasked with bringing Christianity to the islanders, Timothy is a gentle and curious man, more interested in exploring the beauties of the place and its inhabitants than in foisting his own beliefs onto the natives' already vibrant culture. Timothy's conventionality, his timidity and his dedication to God are all immense — but God is remote, and the islanders fascinate him. One in particular, a young man named Lueli, offers Timothy his full devotion, and as Timothy confronts his own growing love for Lueli, he must also face his increasing discomfort with what was once the mainspring of his life: his religious beliefs. Sylvia Townsend Warner, an eccentric and accomplished novelist, brings this story to life with unforgettable vividness.
Rosamond Lehmann's first novel, published in England in 1927, was a spectacular success. The story revolves around Judith Earle, a bookish young woman who falls in love with a whole family: the Fyfes, four boys and a girl who live next door and are unlike anyone Judith has ever met. The power of the book lies in Lehmann's dream-like, sensuous prose and in the astonishing immediacy of Judith's world. Her many and varied experiences will be familiar in some form to nearly everyone — adoration from afar, the thrill of confessing a crush, the sadness of revisiting past relationships. Lehmann has a generosity of spirit that allows her to grant equal importance to love from all over the romantic spectrum, even the passionate friendship that Judith develops with a female friend at college, and the result is an extraordinary portrayal of a woman learning to accept and control her own emotions.
In the early 20th century, there were many loves that dared not speak their names. The dramatic social shift following World War I allowed these loves some freedom, but they still faced countless obstacles. The gifted authors of the '20s played a crucial role in bringing such struggles to light — and their stories still resonate today.
The price of oil rebounded to above $101 a barrel Friday, boosted by a bounce in China's economic growth and as traders awaited the release of official figures on U.S. stockpiles of crude and gasoline.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for November delivery was up 68 cents at $101.35 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
On Thursday, the contract dropped $1.62 to close at $100.67 as investors assessed the economic impact of the 16-day government shutdown that ended after an eleventh hour budget deal late the day before.
The main support for oil prices on Friday came from figures released by the Chinese government showing that the world's second-largest economy grew by an annual 7.8 percent in the third quarter of the year, improving on the two-decade low figure of 7.5 percent posted in the second quarter.
While analysts at Sucden Financial saw the Chinese data "verifying hopes about a recovery in the oil demand from Asia," others warned that the uptick may only be temporary as it was due mainly to additional spending by the government.
With the regular supply report from the Energy Department postponed this week by the shutdown, traders took cues from the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute instead. The API said that U.S. stocks of crude oil rose by 5.9 million barrels last week, about twice the build expected by analysts and suggesting demand might have been reduced by the shutdown.
The Energy Information Administration figures, which are considered more reliable, will be released on Monday.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 93 cents at $110.04 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange in London.
In other energy futures trading on Nymex:
— Wholesale gasoline rose 2.8 cent to $2.6624 a gallon.
— Natural gas dropped 5.4 cents to $3.703 per 1,000 cubic feet.
— Heating oil added 3.33 cents to $3.0219 a gallon.
Indian policemen escort crew members of a U.S.-owned ship MV Seaman Guard Ohio outside a court in Tuticorin, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on Friday.
AP
Indian policemen escort crew members of a U.S.-owned ship MV Seaman Guard Ohio outside a court in Tuticorin, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on Friday.
AP
The crew of a U.S.-owned ship has been arrested at a port in India for allegedly trying to enter territorial waters illegally carrying what's been described as a "huge cache" of weapons.
The 35 crew members on MV Seaman Guard Ohio, owned by Washington, D.C.-based AdvanFort, were detained on Saturday by the Indian Coast Guard. The vessel is currently at anchor in the port of Tuticorin in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu.
The company's website says it offers "comprehensive maritime security solutions to the commercial shipping industry."
The BBC says Indian authorities intercepted the craft off the coast of Tamil Nadu and allegedly "found weapons and ammunition on board, which had not been properly declared. Officials say the vessel was not authorized to carry arms in Indian waters and that it never produced the necessary paperwork."
In a statement a day later, the company said the crew of British, Estonian, Ukrainian and Indian nationals had been hoping to "take on fuel and escape the effects of [cyclone] Phailin."
The ship owner thanked the Indian government for keeping the ship safe and explained that the crew "routinely provides armed counter-piracy protection" and had aboard "uniforms, protective equipment, medical kits, rifles and ammunition — all of which is properly registered and licensed to AdvanFort."
On Thursday, the ship owner issued another statement (pdf), citing "continued confusion" in the media over the incident. It said it had received a certificate from Indian maritime authorities that cleared the vessel and its crew.
The BBC says:
"On Friday, police said that 33 crew members had been taken to a local police station for questioning. Two had been allowed to remain on the vessel in port at Tuticorin.
"Six of the crew members are Britons and the British high commission in Delhi said consular officials had been in touch with them by email and with the local authorities, but they were still trying to clarify exactly what had happened and on what grounds they had been detained.
"The US embassy told the BBC it had 'no comment' to make."
Dell introduced us to its Venue 8 Pro Windows 8.1 tablet and Haswell refresh of the XPS 15 earlier this month, and starting today both products -- along with two Venue Android slates -- are available online. The Venue 8 Pro, you may recall, offers an 1,280 x 800 IPS display, an Atom processor and an optional Synaptics digitizer. That model will go for $300 and up, while the pen costs an extra $35. Meanwhile, Dell's answer to the Surface Pro 2, the Venue Pro 11, will ship in November.
The latest XPS 15, available with a 3,200 x 1,800 IPS display and up to a Core i7 Haswell CPU, starts at $1,500 for a full HD panel and $1,900 for the more pixel-dense version. Finally, the budget-priced Dell Venue 7 and 8 tablets, both of which run Android 4.2, are also available today. As previously reported, these guys will set you back $150 or $180, respectively. Head to Dell's website to view all the configuration options.
Saving the costumes for when the big day gets closer, Hilary Duff took her family to a Halloween party in Studio City, California on Saturday (October 19).
The "Lizzie McGuire" star wore a black top and black leggings with a plaid shirt tied around her waist as she held her adorable little man Luca in her arms while hubby Mike Comrie followed closely.
Though she's been concentrating on acting more lately, making appearances on "Raising Hope" and "Two and a Half Men," the 26-year-old working mama is keeping up with her music dreams.
On Saturday, Hilary posted a photo to Twitter of herself in a recording booth with the caption, "Last night."
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler go together like chocolate and peanut butter. And they'll be making more sweet moments together — on Tuesday, it was announced that they'll be co-hosting the Golden Globe Awards both in 2014 and 2015.
What can viewers expect from the comedic chemistry of the two ex-"Saturday Night Live" pals? These classic Fey-Poehler moments might give a few hints.
Golden girls at the 2013 Globes Hosts Fey and Poehler managed to get in some deft jibes without leaving the audience feeling like they'd turned into the "Mean Girls" from Fey's 2005 movie. They even poked fun at the event's sponsor, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, with Poehler pretending to confuse it with HPV, saying, "When left untreated, HFPA can lead to cervical cancer."
Channeling their inner Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton on 'SNL' Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin didn't actually say, "I can see Russia from my house," (she said: "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska"), but Fey delivered that "SNL" line so perfectly in an iconic 2008 skit that some are actually confused about who said what. Poehler was equally memorable as Sen. Hillary Clinton, eventually blowing up at the very idea that Palin was closer to the White House than she was.
Behind the Weekend Update desk In 2004, Fey and Poehler became the first all-female team to anchor fake newscast Weekend Update on "SNL." (On their first broadcast, Horatio Sanz as Elton John referred to Poehler as "the other girl.") They fell into the swing of things just as anyone would expect from two old friends, whether it was one-upping each other's Ray Charles impression or "interviewing" old clips of actor Robert Blake after his 2005 acquittal on murder charges. ("He's free, but he's still mad!" cracked Poehler.)
NBC
Fey and Poehler made history as the first all-female anchor team on Weekend Update.
Hangin' at the Jersey Floor Jimmy Fallon's show has a mysterious elevator with a button labeled "Jersey Floor" that turns elevator occupants into tanned-and-moussed "Jersey Shore" residents. And when Fey and Poehler visited in 2011, the elevator transformed them as well, hiking their hair and their hemlines and turning them into nightclub stalkers of Fallon and crew. "I wanna make babies with you!" a mega-made-up Fey shouts at Fallon on the dance floor. The ensuing bleep-filled fight was all too real for anyone who ever watched Snooki and crew.
Crying with laughter at 'Baby Mama' In 2008, Fey and Poehler co-starred in the big-screen comedy "Baby Mama," with Poehler playing an obnoxious surrogate mother carrying a child for Fey's character. Poehler is stumped by Fey's child-proofed toilet, appalled by her healthy dietary suggestions, and horrified as labor approaches. They feud, they fight, but in the end, they end up friends, just as the actors are.
What's your favorite Fey-Poehler moment? Vote in our poll.
If you read our review of Samsung's new flagship Ultrabook, the ATIV Book 9 Plus, you know we mostly adore it: it's exceptionally thin, runs cool and rocks a best-in-class display. Unfortunately for some of the nerds reading Engadget, the laptop launched in the United States with just one ...
Washington (AFP) - US banking giant JPMorgan Chase may pay a record $13 billion fine to the Justice Department to settle investigations into its residential mortgage-backed securities business, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
But the still tentative deal wouldn't resolve a criminal investigation into the bank's activities being conducted by a court in Sacramento, California, the Journal said.
Citing someone familiar with the decision, the newspaper reported in its online edition that the tentative agreement was hashed out during a phone call Friday with US Attorney General Eric Holder, his deputy Tony West and JPMorgan's top lawyer Stephen Cutler.
The New York Times also reported that the bank was nearing the huge settlement with the Justice Department over its mortgage practices.
US companies tend to avoid paying fines, and often try to make financial settlements without admitting fault.
If the amount is confirmed, it would be the largest ever paid by a US company in this type of settlement with the government. It's also significantly larger than JP Morgan's previous offer of $11 billion.
But the still tentative deal wouldn't resolve a criminal investigation into the bank's activities being conducted by a court in Sacramento, California, the Journal said.
It would, however, settle allegations by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a mortgage regulator that accuses JPMorgan of having overstated the quality of the mortgages it sold on to the government-sponsored housing finance enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
It would also resolve a separate lawsuit filed by New York's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
JPMorgan, the largest US bank by assets, has been under investigation by several US regulatory agencies. It recently agreed to pay more than $1 billion in fines over the "London whale" trading debacle.
The bank just reported its first quarterly loss in nearly 10 years, a net loss of $380 million on revenues of $23.12 billion, due in large part to a $9.15 billion charge for legal expenses.
Michael Fassbender looks like a God among insects on the cover of GQ, and never let anyone tell you differently!
We all know Fassy has a huge, long…helmet whenever he plays Magneto (always wear protection), but the metal bending actor (who can manipulate our hard objects) talked about the longest relationship he's had:
“I think the longest relationship that I’ve been in was two years. I started doing this when I was 17, so I guess in my dating, adult life, that kind of covers it.”
Wow, Michael might be in 12 Years a Slave, but he's only been 2 years a boyfriend tops! What a Shame!
We hope one day Michael share the rest of his days of future past with the love of his life! He's so mutantly charming!
It's not your imagination. There really is a tighter squeeze on many planes these days.
The big U.S. airlines are taking out old, bulky seats in favor of so-called slimline models that take up less space from front to back, allowing for five or six more seats on each plane.
The changes, covering some of the most common planes flown on domestic and international routes, give the airlines two of their favorite things: More paying passengers, and a smaller fuel bill because the seats are slightly lighter. It's part of a trend among the airlines to view seats as money-makers, not just pieces of furniture. Add a few inches of legroom and airlines can charge more for tickets. Take away a few inches and they can fit more seats on the plane.
Some passengers seem to mind the tighter squeeze more than others. The new seats generally have thinner padding. And new layouts on some planes have made the aisles slightly narrower, meaning the dreaded beverage cart bump to the shoulder happens more often.
And this is all going on in coach at a time when airlines are spending heavily to add better premium seats in the front of the plane.
Whether the new seats are really closer together depends on how you measure. By the usual measure, called "pitch," the new ones are generally an inch closer together from front to back as measured at the armrest.
Airlines say you won't notice. And the new seats are designed to minimize this problem. The seats going onto Southwest's 737s have thinner seatback magazine pockets. Passengers on Alaska Airlines will find slightly smaller tray tables. United's new seats put the magazine pocket above the tray table, getting it away from passengers' knees. And seat-makers saved some space with lighter-weight frames and padding.
This allows airlines to claim that passengers have as much above-the-knee "personal space" as they did before, even if the seats are slightly closer together below the knee.
New seats going into United Airlines' Airbus A320s are an inch closer together from front to back. The new seats Southwest has put on nearly its entire fleet are 31 inches apart, about an inch less than before. In both cases, the airlines were able to add an extra row of six seats to each plane. Southwest went from 137 seats to 143. Both airlines say the new seats are just as comfortable.
United's says the new seats make each A320 1,200 pounds lighter. Southwest says the weight savings is cutting about $10 million per year in fuel spending. In addition, the extra seats allow Southwest to expand flying capacity 4 percent without adding any planes, says spokesman Brad Hawkins, while also collecting more revenue from the additional passengers.
At 6-foot-3, Mike Lindsey of Lake Elsinore, Calif., doesn't have another inch to give back to the airlines. He has flown on Southwest several times since it installed the new seats. "You can't stretch out because of the reduced legroom," he says. "It's very uncomfortable on anything longer than an hour."
Southwest flier Joe Strader now takes his billfold out of his pocket before he sits down on a flight because of the thinner cushions. Like Lindsey, he felt that he sat lower on the new seats. "The back of the seat in front of you is a little higher and makes you feel like you're sitting down in a hole," said Strader, who lives near Nashville. Hawkins said that the seat frames are the same height but the thinner cushions might make them seem lower.
Strader did notice one good aspect: When the middle seat is empty and you want to put up the armrest and stretch out, the new seats are more comfortable, he says.
Then there are passengers like Ryan Merrill. He says he didn't really notice any difference in the new seats. "I'm used to being packed in like a sardine, I just assume that's never going to change," he says.
International passengers are feeling crowded, too.
As recently as 2010, most airlines buying Boeing's big 777 opted for nine seats across. Now it's 10 across on 70 percent of newly-built 777s, Boeing says. American's newest 777s are set up 10-across in coach, with slightly narrower seats than on its older 777s.
The extra seat has generally meant skinnier aisles, and more bumps from the beverage cart for those at the end of the row. That's the biggest complaint from travelers, says Mark Koschwitz of SeatExpert.com.
"We used to recommend the aisle seats, because you could stretch out more," he says. He tells passengers who want to sleep "to bring a jacket and prop up against the window."
Boeing's new 787 could also be a tighter squeeze in coach. The plane was originally expected to have eight seats across but United Airlines, the only U.S. carrier currently flying it, went with nine across. Those seats are just 17.3 inches wide. So, passengers will have a skinnier seat for United's 12-hour flight from Houston to Lagos on a 787 than on its one-hour flight from Denver to Omaha on a different plane.
Delta Air Lines has already added slimline seats to about one-third of its fleet.
"Increasing density is a priority for us from the perspective of maximizing revenue, but the slimline seats are great because they allow us to do that without sacrificing customers' comfort," said Michael Henny, Delta's director of customer experience.
Seats from as recently as five years ago weighed almost 29 pounds, said Mark Hiller, CEO of Recaro Aircraft Seating. Its lightest seat now weighs 20. The weight savings comes from things like using plastic armrests instead of metal with a plastic cover, or on some seats replacing the metal pan that holds a passenger's posterior with mesh netting. Also, the new seats have fewer parts, reducing weight and costs.
Airplane seats from 30 years ago looked like your grandmother's BarcaLounger, said Jami Counter, senior director at SeatGuru.com, which tracks airline seats and amenities.
"All that foam cushion and padding probably didn't add all that much comfort. All that's been taken out," he said. "You haven't really lost all that much if the airline does it right."
Some Ford Trimotors built in the 1920s had wicker seats. Vern Alg has flown in one.
Alg, a former senior manager for aircraft interiors at Continental who is now a consultant for the Aircraft Interiors Expo, said his first airline flew DC-3s built in the 1940s. Their seats "were cumbersome, they were heavy," he says. "They were very, very comfortable (but) they required a great distance between the seats to achieve that comfort."
Today's closer-together coach seats are responding to a customer demand for cheap fares despite higher fuel prices, he said.
Alaska Airlines is replacing every seat in its fleet by the end of next year. The new seats will have one thing that passengers asked for: power outlets.
Those outlets are especially important as more people bring their own hand-held devices onto the plane. The airline is spending several million dollars to install both 110-volt and USB power at every coach seat, said Alaska marketing vice president Joe Sprague.
That might give travelers an extra reason to fly on Alaska, which is locked in intensive competition with Virgin America for customers in California.
The seat "is where our customers spend the greatest amount of time with us," Sprague said.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — CSX says it delivered a 2 percent profit increase in the third quarter as the railroad operator's overall revenue rose despite disappointing coal revenue.
The results beat Wall Street expectations, and the railroad slightly increased its outlook for the year. Its shares edged up.
The Jacksonville, Fla.-based railroad said Tuesday that it earned $463 million, or 46 cents per share. That's up from $455 million, or 44 cents per share, a year ago.
CSX's revenue grew 4 percent to nearly $3 billion as it hauled 5 percent more carloads of freight and increased some shipping rates.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected CSX to report earnings of 42 cents per share on revenue of $2.95 billion.
CSX says it expects slightly higher 2013 earnings per share than in 2012. Previously, the railroad predicted relatively flat earnings.
Straightforward account of life after global news teams lost interest
Venue
Reykjavik International Film Festival, Icelandic Panorama
Director
Herbert Sveinbjornsson
REYKJAVIK — Following three agricultural families through the aftermath of 2010's devastating volcanic eruptions in Iceland, HerbertSveinbjornsson's Ash offers long-term coverage of what for Americans was a news-cycle blip most significant for its effect on global air traffic. The in-depth doc lacks a broad appeal that could justify Stateside theatrical bookings, but festivals, particularly those with an environmental slant, should take notice.
After a vivid account of what it's like to live near a volcano as it erupts, the film moves on to cleanup. We get to know three farming families whose situations are quite different: One who has worked their land for generations, one for whom farming is a new calling, and one working unrelated jobs in the city as they try to get a sheep-raising enterprise on its feet.
All have staggering clean-up jobs on their hands. One counts up 400 tons of ash they've trucked off just from around their property's houses, before moving on to the fields. More devastating is mud, which can destroy the soil beneath it. Then there's the "tourist eruption": the cigarettes and beer cans left by around 25,000 city folk and journalists who come out to watch the show.
The families cope with these and other difficulties (like a foreign-currency farm loan that turned onerous after the economic crisis) in different ways. One makes lemonade from lemons, capitalizing on tourists' curiosity by building a volcano study center that happens to be a marketing boon for local produce. When 2011 offers yet another eruption, one must marvel at anyone willing to keep living off such volatile land.
Director-Editor: Herbert Sveinbjornsson
Screenwriters: Hildur Margretadottir, Herbert Sveinbjornsson
Producers: Heather Millard, Herbert Sveinbjornsson
Directors of photography: Hildur Margretadottir, Herbert Sveinbjornsson
By this point, pretty much the entire world has seen Lady Gaga in all stages of undress, and the “Just Dance” diva just shared a new photo in which she gets back to nature.
Gaga posed in her birthday suit, covered only in grass, dirt, and twigs, for the promo art for her new collaboration with R. Kelly titled “Do What U Want.”
According to press, “Do What U Want” is slated to be released on Monday, October 21st, though there’s a sneak preview of the song on a Best Buy ad for Beats headphones.
Earlier this week, Gaga shared a note about her ARTPOP liner notes- "The booklet includes photos of the day [artist] Jeff [Koons] and I explored different poses for the sculpture. IT IS COMPLETELY AMAZING Been leafing through her allll day."
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state has approved rules for its new legal marijuana industry.
After nearly a year of research, planning and public hearings, the three-member state Liquor Control Board adopted the rules Wednesday.
The regulations cover everything from the security and size of licensed marijuana gardens, to how many pot stores can open in cities across the state.
Washington and Colorado voted last year to legalize marijuana and allow its sale for recreational use at state-licensed stores. In Washington, supporters hope the sale of taxed pot to adults over 21 might bring the state tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
The proposed rules allow up to 334 pot stores to open in Washington. The stores are expected to open by next summer.
Colorado approved its marijuana industry rules last month.
Tanning gene linked to increased risk of testicular cancer, according to NIH scientists
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
18-Oct-2013
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Contact: Robin Mackar rmackar@niehs.nih.gov 919-541-0073 NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
A gene important in skin tanning has been linked to higher risk for testicular cancer in white men, according to a study led by scientists from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the University of Oxford in England. Nearly 80 percent of white men carry a variant form of this gene, which increased risk of testicular cancer up to threefold in the study.
The research appeared online October 10, 2013 in the journal Cell, and is the result of an integrated analysis of big data supported by laboratory research. The team suspected that variations in a gene pathway controlled by the tumor suppressor gene p53 could have both positive and negative effects on human health.
"Gene variations occur naturally, and may become common in a population if they convey a health benefit," said Douglas Bell, Ph.D., author on the paper and researcher at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH. "It appears that this particular variant could help protect light-skinned individuals from UV skin damage, like burning or cancer, by promoting the tanning process, but it permits testicular stem cells to grow in the presence of DNA damage, when they are supposed to stop growing."
Bell explained that p53 stimulates skin tanning when ultraviolet light activates it in the skin. It then must bind a specific sequence of DNA located in a gene called the KIT ligand oncogene (KITLG), which stimulates melanocyte production, causing the skin to tan.
To conduct the analysis, Xuting Wang, Ph.D., of NIEHS, co-author and lead bioinformatics scientist on the paper, led a data mining expedition to sieve through many different data sets. The team selected possible leads from the intersection of more than 20,000 p53 binding sites in the human genome, 10 million inherited genetic variations genotyped in the 1000 Genomes Project, and 62,000 genetic variations associated with human cancers identified in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). These data sets were gathered through joint efforts of thousands of researchers from around the world.
"In the end, one variant in the p53 pathway was strongly associated with testicular cancer, but also, surprisingly, displayed a positive benefit that is probably related to tanning that has occurred as humans evolved," Wang noted.
The group at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Oxford, led by Gareth Bond, Ph.D., performed complex experiments to confirm the molecular mechanism that linked the variant with cancer and tanning.
"White males with a single nucleotide variation in KITLG, called the G allele, have the highest odds of having testicular cancer. In fact, the twofold to threefold increased risk is one of the highest and most significant among all cancer GWAS conducted within the past few years," said Bond. "The high frequency of this allele in light skin individuals may explain why testicular cancer is so much more frequent in people of European descent than those of African descent."
Bond said although the G allele increases testicular cancer risk, it may explain why testicular tumors are often easily cured with chemotherapy. "Most other tumors have a mutant p53, but in these testicular cell tumors, the p53 is functioning properly, and the drugs used for testicular cancer appear to work in concert with p53's tumor suppression function to kill the cancer cells."
###
NIEHS supports research to understand the effects of the environment on human health and is part of NIH. For more information on environmental health topics, visit http://www.niehs.nih.gov. Subscribe to one or more of the NIEHS news lists to stay current on NIEHS news, press releases, grant opportunities, training, events, and publications.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health
Reference: Zeron-Medina J, Wang X, Repapi E, Campbell MR, Su D, Castro-Giner F, Davies B, Peterse EFP, Sacilotto N, Walker GJ, Terzian T, Tomlinson IP, Box NF, Meinshausen N, De Val S, Bell DA, Bond GL. 2013. A polymorphic p53 response element in the KIT ligand gene influences cancer risk and has undergone natural selection. Cell; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.09.017 [Online 10 October 2013].
Grant numbers: 01ES100475, Z01ES046008
Contact:
Robin Mackar, NIEHS
(919) 541-0073
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Tanning gene linked to increased risk of testicular cancer, according to NIH scientists
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
18-Oct-2013
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Contact: Robin Mackar rmackar@niehs.nih.gov 919-541-0073 NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
A gene important in skin tanning has been linked to higher risk for testicular cancer in white men, according to a study led by scientists from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the University of Oxford in England. Nearly 80 percent of white men carry a variant form of this gene, which increased risk of testicular cancer up to threefold in the study.
The research appeared online October 10, 2013 in the journal Cell, and is the result of an integrated analysis of big data supported by laboratory research. The team suspected that variations in a gene pathway controlled by the tumor suppressor gene p53 could have both positive and negative effects on human health.
"Gene variations occur naturally, and may become common in a population if they convey a health benefit," said Douglas Bell, Ph.D., author on the paper and researcher at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH. "It appears that this particular variant could help protect light-skinned individuals from UV skin damage, like burning or cancer, by promoting the tanning process, but it permits testicular stem cells to grow in the presence of DNA damage, when they are supposed to stop growing."
Bell explained that p53 stimulates skin tanning when ultraviolet light activates it in the skin. It then must bind a specific sequence of DNA located in a gene called the KIT ligand oncogene (KITLG), which stimulates melanocyte production, causing the skin to tan.
To conduct the analysis, Xuting Wang, Ph.D., of NIEHS, co-author and lead bioinformatics scientist on the paper, led a data mining expedition to sieve through many different data sets. The team selected possible leads from the intersection of more than 20,000 p53 binding sites in the human genome, 10 million inherited genetic variations genotyped in the 1000 Genomes Project, and 62,000 genetic variations associated with human cancers identified in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). These data sets were gathered through joint efforts of thousands of researchers from around the world.
"In the end, one variant in the p53 pathway was strongly associated with testicular cancer, but also, surprisingly, displayed a positive benefit that is probably related to tanning that has occurred as humans evolved," Wang noted.
The group at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Oxford, led by Gareth Bond, Ph.D., performed complex experiments to confirm the molecular mechanism that linked the variant with cancer and tanning.
"White males with a single nucleotide variation in KITLG, called the G allele, have the highest odds of having testicular cancer. In fact, the twofold to threefold increased risk is one of the highest and most significant among all cancer GWAS conducted within the past few years," said Bond. "The high frequency of this allele in light skin individuals may explain why testicular cancer is so much more frequent in people of European descent than those of African descent."
Bond said although the G allele increases testicular cancer risk, it may explain why testicular tumors are often easily cured with chemotherapy. "Most other tumors have a mutant p53, but in these testicular cell tumors, the p53 is functioning properly, and the drugs used for testicular cancer appear to work in concert with p53's tumor suppression function to kill the cancer cells."
###
NIEHS supports research to understand the effects of the environment on human health and is part of NIH. For more information on environmental health topics, visit http://www.niehs.nih.gov. Subscribe to one or more of the NIEHS news lists to stay current on NIEHS news, press releases, grant opportunities, training, events, and publications.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health
Reference: Zeron-Medina J, Wang X, Repapi E, Campbell MR, Su D, Castro-Giner F, Davies B, Peterse EFP, Sacilotto N, Walker GJ, Terzian T, Tomlinson IP, Box NF, Meinshausen N, De Val S, Bell DA, Bond GL. 2013. A polymorphic p53 response element in the KIT ligand gene influences cancer risk and has undergone natural selection. Cell; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.09.017 [Online 10 October 2013].
Grant numbers: 01ES100475, Z01ES046008
Contact:
Robin Mackar, NIEHS
(919) 541-0073
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fox says the plum post-Super Bowl slot next February will be filled by two of its comedies.
"New Girl" and freshman series "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" will air on Fox after the game that's typically TV's most-watched program and a big promotional platform for other network fare.
Fox gave "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" another vote of confidence Friday, announcing that it's ordering nine more episodes for a full season of 22 episodes. The Tuesday night sitcom stars Andy Samberg as a footloose police detective and Andre Braugher as his precinct captain.
The sitcom is doing especially well with upscale viewers and young men, Fox said.
"New Girl," a relative veteran that debuted on Fox in 2011, stars Zooey Deschanel.
It and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" will air immediately after the Super Bowl on Feb. 2.
Complete skull from early Homo evokes a single, evolving lineage
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
The skull of an ancient human ancestor implies that all Homo species were one
This news release is available in French, Arabic, and Georgian.
What if the earliest members of our Homo genusthose classified as Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo erectus and so forthactually belonged to the same species and simply looked different from one another? That's precisely the implication of a new report, which describes the analysis of a complete, approximately 1.8-million-year-old skull that was unearthed in Dmanisi, Georgia.
Unlike other Homo fossils, this skull, known as Skull 5, combines a small braincase with a long face and large teeth. It was discovered alongside the remains of four other early human ancestors, a variety of animal fossils and some stone toolsall of them associated with the same location and time periodwhich makes the find truly unique. The site has only been partially excavated so far, but it's already providing the first opportunity for researchers to compare and contrast the physical traits of multiple human ancestors that apparently coincided in the same time and geological space.
David Lordkipanidze from the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, Georgia, along with colleagues from Switzerland, Israel and the United States, say that the differences between these Dmanisi fossils are no more pronounced than those between five modern humans or five chimpanzees.
Traditionally, researchers have used variation among Homo fossils to define different species. But in light of these new findings, Lordkipanidze and his colleagues suggest that early, diverse Homo fossils, with their origins in Africa, actually represent variation among members of a single, evolving lineagemost appropriately, Homo erectus.
Their report is published in the 18 October issue of Science.
"Had the braincase and the face of Skull 5 been found as separate fossils at different sites in Africa, they might have been attributed to different species," said Christoph Zollikofer from the Anthropological Institute and Museum in Zurich, Switzerlanda co-author of the Science report. That's because Skull 5 unites some key features, like the tiny braincase and large face, which had not been observed together in an early Homo fossil until now.
Given their diverse physical traits, the fossils associated with Skull 5 at Dmanisi can be compared to various Homo fossils, including those found in Africa, dating back to about 2.4 million years ago, as well as others unearthed in Asia and Europe, which are dated between 1.8 and 1.2 million years ago.
"[The Dmanisi finds] look quite different from one another, so it's tempting to publish them as different species," explained Zollikofer. "Yet we know that these individuals came from the same location and the same geological time, so they could, in principle, represent a single population of a single species."
The hominid fossils from Dmanisi represent ancient human ancestors from the early Pleistocene epoch, soon after early Homo diverged from Australopithecus and dispersed from Africa. The jaw associated with Skull 5 was found five years before the cranium was discovered but when the two pieces were put together, they formed the most massively built skull ever found at the Dmanisi site. For this reason, the researchers suggest that the individual to whom Skull 5 belonged was male.
The braincase of Skull 5 is only about 33.3 cubic inches (546 cubic centimeters), however, which suggests that this early Homo had a small brain despite his modern human-like limb proportions and body size.
"Thanks to the relatively large Dmanisi sample, we see a lot of variation," continued Zollikofer. "But the amount of variation does not exceed that found in modern populations of our own species, nor in chimps and bonobos."
"Furthermore, since we see a similar pattern and range of variation in the African fossil record it is sensible to assume that there was a single Homo species at that time in Africa," he concluded. "And since the Dmanisi hominids are so similar to the African ones, we further assume that they both represent the same species."
Skull 5 seemingly indicates that, rather than several ecologically specialized Homo species, a single Homo speciesable to cope with a variety of ecosystemsemerged from the African continent. And accordingly, our classification system for these early human ancestors may never be the same.
###
The report by Lordkipanidze et al. was supported by the Rustaveli Georgian National Science Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the American School for Prehistoric Research, a Rolex Award for Enterprise, BP Georgia, the Fundacin Duques de Soria, the A.H. Schultz Foundation, and the Foundation for Scientific Research at the University of Zurich.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Complete skull from early Homo evokes a single, evolving lineage
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science
The skull of an ancient human ancestor implies that all Homo species were one
This news release is available in French, Arabic, and Georgian.
What if the earliest members of our Homo genusthose classified as Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo erectus and so forthactually belonged to the same species and simply looked different from one another? That's precisely the implication of a new report, which describes the analysis of a complete, approximately 1.8-million-year-old skull that was unearthed in Dmanisi, Georgia.
Unlike other Homo fossils, this skull, known as Skull 5, combines a small braincase with a long face and large teeth. It was discovered alongside the remains of four other early human ancestors, a variety of animal fossils and some stone toolsall of them associated with the same location and time periodwhich makes the find truly unique. The site has only been partially excavated so far, but it's already providing the first opportunity for researchers to compare and contrast the physical traits of multiple human ancestors that apparently coincided in the same time and geological space.
David Lordkipanidze from the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, Georgia, along with colleagues from Switzerland, Israel and the United States, say that the differences between these Dmanisi fossils are no more pronounced than those between five modern humans or five chimpanzees.
Traditionally, researchers have used variation among Homo fossils to define different species. But in light of these new findings, Lordkipanidze and his colleagues suggest that early, diverse Homo fossils, with their origins in Africa, actually represent variation among members of a single, evolving lineagemost appropriately, Homo erectus.
Their report is published in the 18 October issue of Science.
"Had the braincase and the face of Skull 5 been found as separate fossils at different sites in Africa, they might have been attributed to different species," said Christoph Zollikofer from the Anthropological Institute and Museum in Zurich, Switzerlanda co-author of the Science report. That's because Skull 5 unites some key features, like the tiny braincase and large face, which had not been observed together in an early Homo fossil until now.
Given their diverse physical traits, the fossils associated with Skull 5 at Dmanisi can be compared to various Homo fossils, including those found in Africa, dating back to about 2.4 million years ago, as well as others unearthed in Asia and Europe, which are dated between 1.8 and 1.2 million years ago.
"[The Dmanisi finds] look quite different from one another, so it's tempting to publish them as different species," explained Zollikofer. "Yet we know that these individuals came from the same location and the same geological time, so they could, in principle, represent a single population of a single species."
The hominid fossils from Dmanisi represent ancient human ancestors from the early Pleistocene epoch, soon after early Homo diverged from Australopithecus and dispersed from Africa. The jaw associated with Skull 5 was found five years before the cranium was discovered but when the two pieces were put together, they formed the most massively built skull ever found at the Dmanisi site. For this reason, the researchers suggest that the individual to whom Skull 5 belonged was male.
The braincase of Skull 5 is only about 33.3 cubic inches (546 cubic centimeters), however, which suggests that this early Homo had a small brain despite his modern human-like limb proportions and body size.
"Thanks to the relatively large Dmanisi sample, we see a lot of variation," continued Zollikofer. "But the amount of variation does not exceed that found in modern populations of our own species, nor in chimps and bonobos."
"Furthermore, since we see a similar pattern and range of variation in the African fossil record it is sensible to assume that there was a single Homo species at that time in Africa," he concluded. "And since the Dmanisi hominids are so similar to the African ones, we further assume that they both represent the same species."
Skull 5 seemingly indicates that, rather than several ecologically specialized Homo species, a single Homo speciesable to cope with a variety of ecosystemsemerged from the African continent. And accordingly, our classification system for these early human ancestors may never be the same.
###
The report by Lordkipanidze et al. was supported by the Rustaveli Georgian National Science Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the American School for Prehistoric Research, a Rolex Award for Enterprise, BP Georgia, the Fundacin Duques de Soria, the A.H. Schultz Foundation, and the Foundation for Scientific Research at the University of Zurich.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
If you read our review of Samsung's new flagship Ultrabook, the ATIV Book 9 Plus, you know we mostly adore it: it's exceptionally thin, runs cool and rocks a best-in-class display. Unfortunately for some of the nerds reading Engadget, the laptop launched in the United States with just one ...
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