No. 6 Clemson stumbles in 31-17 loss to Ga. Tech (AP)

ATLANTA ? The Clemson players straggled off the field, trying to avoid thousands of Georgia Tech students who hopped out of the stands to celebrate.

The Tigers' unbeaten season was over.

In all likelihood, so were their national title hopes.

Tevin Washington rushed for 176 yards ? the most ever by a Georgia Tech quarterback ? and broke the two longest runs of his career, leading a 31-17 upset of No. 6 Clemson on Saturday night.

Clemson, which had scored 115 points in its two previous games, turned it over four times. Tajh Boyd threw for 295 yards, and freshman Sammy Watkins had 10 catches for 159 yards and a touchdown. But starting back Andre Ellington didn't play because of a sprained ankle, and his replacements ? freshmen D.J. Howard and Mike Bellamy ? each had a fumble.

"We kind of self-destructed," said Boyd, who had two interceptions. "We did have a shot to make a run to do something that hasn't been done here in a long time. We've got to keep building from it."

Indeed, the Tigers (8-1, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) have to adjust their goals. They still lead their division. They still have the inside track to play in the ACC championship game. No wonder coach Dabo Swinney told his players afterward, "Get your heads up. We're an 8-1 football team."

The Yellow Jackets (7-2, 4-2) raced to a 24-3 halftime lead and made it hold up. So much for Clemson's best start since 2000 (which, in an interesting twist, also ended with a loss to Georgia Tech). So much for climbing to fifth in the BCS standings. The Tigers figure to take a tumble and are unlikely to have enough games left to re-enter the national race.

"It's a very disappointed locker room. I'm disappointed in the turnovers in particular," Swinney said.

The Yellow Jackets snapped a two-game losing streak behind their junior quarterback, who had runs of 46 and 56 yards and touchdown among his 27 carries. He broke the school quarterback mark of 151 yards rushing, set by Joshua Nesbitt in 2008. Overall, Georgia Tech finished with 383 yards on the ground, compared to 95 for Clemson.

"I had some real big holes," Washington said. "Anybody could've run through 'em. I'm just lucky to have my number called."

No one could've seen this coming. These were teams headed in opposite directions.

Georgia Tech got off to a dynamic start, winning the first six games for its best start since 1966. But Washington slumped and the triple-option bogged down badly, leading to losses at Virginia and Miami.

"We know what we can do as a team," Washington said. "It's not about falling down. It's about getting back up."

Clemson got off to a sluggish start with lackluster wins against Troy and Wofford. But a victory over defending national champion Auburn seemed to ignite the Tigers, who took command of the ACC race and arrived in Atlanta having put up more than 50 points the two previous weeks in wins over Maryland and North Carolina.

More of the same on the first possession, when Clemson drove right down the field before settling for Chandler Catanzaro's 34-yard field goal.

It was all Georgia Tech the rest of the first half.

The tide swung toward the Yellow Jackets when Howard caught a pass out of the backfield, but lost the ball just before he hit the ground. The officials initially ruled him down, but changed the call after a video review. Rod Sweeting was credited with a recovery at the Clemson 19, and Orwin Smith scored the first of his two TDs on a fourth-down run from the 1.

Washington broke off the 46-yard run down the sideline ? the longest of his career, though that mark wouldn't last long ? to set up Justin Moore's 23-yard field goal for a 10-3 lead. The Yellow Jackets followed by going 80 yards in 10 plays, making it 17-3 on Smith's 3-yard TD.

Stephen Hill, who had earlier dropped a long pass that might've gone for a touchdown, made up for it ? and then some. The 6-foot-5 receiver stretched out with both arms to make a diving catch, pulling the ball into his body with the left hand before slamming into the turf. He rolled over and did a little dance with his arms, celebrating the 44-yard completion.

Two plays later, Washington ran it in from the 3 to push the lead to 24-3 with just 37 seconds left in the half.

The Tigers have been a great second-half team, and they came out of the locker room looking to pull off their biggest comeback yet. They took the kickoff and needed only four plays to reach the end zone for the first time. Boyd hooked up with Watkins on a 48-yard touchdown pass to make it 24-10.

But Georgia Tech quickly answered. Again, it was Washington with the big run. With Georgia Tech facing third-and-6 and the Clemson defense waving their arms to rev up a sizable contingent of orange-clad fans, the quarterback spotted a hole up the middle and took off for the 56-yard gain.

David Sims finished the drive with an 11-yard touchdown run, restoring Georgia Tech's 21-point lead.

After Clemson's second fumble of the game, this one by Bellamy, the Yellow Jackets were on the verge of putting the game away. They drove to a first down at the Tigers 1 and were back there on third down after a delay of game. Then, a break for the visiting team.

Defensive tackle Rennie Moore shot through a gap ahead of the snap, appearing on the replay to be clearly offsides. But the officials didn't catch it, and Moore snatched the ball away from Washington just as he was taking the snap. It was ruled a fumble, and Clemson took over at the 3.

The Tigers took advantage of their good fortune, driving 97 yards in 10 plays. Boyd tried to sneak it over, fumbled in the pile of bodies and 300-pound Brandon Thomas fell on it for the first touchdown by a Clemson offensive lineman since 1966, cutting the deficit to 31-17.

Clemson had one more chance to make a game of it. Washington made his only big mistake of the night, throwing a pass down the middle that was picked off by Rashard Hall and returned to the Georgia Tech 9 with about 10 1/2 minutes to go. But Clemson gave it right back when Boyd threw a fade route, only to have Watkins pull up short. Jemea Thomas made an uncontested pick in the corner of the end zone.

The Tigers were done.

___

Follow AP Sports Writer Paul Newberry on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111030/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/fbc_t25_clemson

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Shots near US embassy in Sarajevo

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina?? A man armed with hand grenades and an automatic weapon opened fire outside the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia Friday in what authorities called a terrorist attack. A policeman and the gunman were wounded, but the embassy said none of its employees was hurt.

Sarajevo Mayor Alija Behmen said the gunman "got off a tram with a Kalashnikov and started shooting at the American Embassy." Witnesses told Bosnian television that the man urged pedestrians to move away, saying he was targeting only the embassy.

He wore a beard and was dressed in an outfit with short pants that reveal his ankles ? typical for followers of the conservative Wahhabi branch of Islam.

One police officer guarding the building was wounded before police surrounded the gunman. After a 30-minute standoff, the sound of a single shot echoed and AP video showed the shooter slump to the ground.

Police arrested the wounded man ? who one of Bosnia's three presidents said is a foreigner ? and took him away in an ambulance as pedestrians cowered behind buildings and vehicles. Hospital spokeswoman Biljana Jandric told The Associated Press the gunman had a minor wound to his leg, and would spend the night at the hospital before being released into police custody.

State Prosecutor Dubravko Campara identified the shooter as Mevlid Jasarevic, from Novi Pazar, the administrative capital of the southern Serbian region of Sandzak, who was tried in Austria for robbery in 2005.

Campara said Jasarevic had crossed the Serbian border into Bosnia Friday morning. He said Jasarevic had two hand grenades with him when he was arrested and is also currently under investigation by Serbian police, but did not detail why.

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic confirmed his identity and said he is 23 years old. Bosnian TV said Jasarevic is a Wahhabi follower.

The Wahhabis are an extremely conservative branch which is rooted in Saudi Arabia and linked to religious militants in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Western intelligence reports have alleged that the tense, impoverished area of Sandzak, along with Muslim-dominated regions in Bosnia, are rich ground for recruiting so-called "white al-Qaida" ? Muslims with Western features who could easily blend into European or U.S. cities and carry out attacks.

The Islamic extremists joined Bosnia's 1992-95 war for independence. They were largely tolerated by the U.S. and the West because of their opposition to late Serbia's strongman Slobodan Milosevic's quest to create "Greater Serbia" out of the former Yugoslav republics.

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In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said several bullets struck the outside wall of the embassy, but that all embassy personnel were safe. She said the wounded police officer had been assigned to protect the embassy. Ambassador Patrick Moon expressed his gratitude for the swift response by the police.

"Our thoughts and prayers at this time are with those who put their lives on the line to protect the embassy," Nuland told reporters.

Bakir Izetbegovic, one of Bosnia's three presidents, issued a statement condemning "the terrorist attack on the embassy of the United States."

"The United States is a proven friend of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its government and its people supported us in the most difficult moments in our history and nobody has the right to jeopardize our relations," he said.

Zeljko Komsic, chairman of Bosnia's presidency, said told AP that authorities have not yet determined whether the attack "was the act of an individual, or something organized."

"But whatever it was, it is not just an attack on the U.S. Embassy or the U.S., it is also an attack on Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said.

Bosnian Muslims are extremely protective of their relations with the U.S. because it was the driving force behind NATO military intervention and brokered a peace agreement that ended Bosnia's war.

The head of Bosnia's Islamic Community, Mustafa Ceric, condemned the attack late Friday, and said "the attack on the U.S. Embassy is an attack on us."

"We will confront every individual or group that jeopardizes the peace and security in this city and this country," he said in a statement.

Serbian police said Jasarevic was briefly arrested a year ago for brandishing "a large knife" during a visit by the U.S. Ambassador to Serbia and other Western envoys to Novi Pazar.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45077217/ns/world_news-europe/

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Life Inc.: Miserable? You don't know history

Scott Grannis/Calafia Beach Pundit

By Allison Linn

The misery index ? a measure of inflation plus unemployment rates?? hit the highest level in nearly three decades last week.

That?s definitely bad news for our pocketbooks, but many of us have experienced much deeper misery.

It turns out we?re still quite a ways from the misery Americans suffered in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, when the index topped out at or near 20, with unemployment of nearly 8 percent and inflation of 12 percent. Last week?s reading was nearly 13, including the 9.1 percent unemployment rate and 3.9 percent year-over-year inflation.

Scott Grannis, a blogger and former chief economist for Western Asset Management, notes that our misery this time around is mostly due to high unemployment ?which is hovering around 9 percent ? although inflation has also recently been on the rise.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, we were bedeviled by both high unemployment and extremely high inflation, which anyone who tried to buy a house in those years probably remembers well (if not fondly).

Scott Grannis/Calafia Beach Pundit

Of course, that particular trip down memory lane is probably little comfort to the many of us grappling with the current weak economic conditions, and especially to the 14 million people who are unemployed.

?

Related:

Feeling pinched by higher bills, less money? You?re not alone

Older Americans? challenge: Not time to recover from recession

{"contentId":"8510395","totalVotes":"1812"}

Do you feel more miserable than you did in the 1970s and 1980s?

Source: http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/27/8510395-good-graph-friday-and-you-thought-you-were-miserable

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Robert Scheer: Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed (Huffington post)

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Craig Venter Sets X-Prize for Human Genome Sequencing

Venter: Breakthroughs wanted Image: jcvi.org

"Today we are learning the language with which God created life." President Bill Clinton made this remark on the White House lawn on June 2000 to recognize the decoding of the first human genome. As much as anything else, rapid DNA sequencing technology created in large part by geneticist Craig Venter and his colleagues galvanized the research community into finishing the project faster than originally expected. More than 11 years later, however, gene sequencing technology has failed to deliver on its promise to revolutionize preventative medicine, and Venter is not happy about it.

The idea was that gene sequencing would become so cheap?on the order of $1,000?that ordinary people could afford to have their individual genomes sequenced, which their family doctors would use to diagnose their predisposition for disease. Costs have fallen to about $4000, but the bigger problem is that results are often rife with errors. ?If [the technology] is going to achieve the level of really impacting medicine the way I?ve always envisioned that it could, it has to become far more accurate.?

To goose developers along, Venter?along with the X-Prize Foundation and Medco Health Systems, a health care firm?has put a bounty on the achievement: $10 million to the first team that can meet a standard for accuracy that Venter calls ?medical grade.? The task is to sequence the genomes of 100 centenarians, providing a baseline to which other genomes can be compared. Venter talked with Scientific American by phone about the award and his hopes for new technologies. Excerpts:

Scientific American: How did the idea for this prize come about?

Venter: This prize started out as a half million dollar prize out of the Venter Institute, in part after I sequenced the first version of the human genome. All the analysts and pundits were saying that genome sequencing was dead, there?s no use for it anymore?the human genome has been sequenced. To change that attitude, we started a prize to encourage development of new technology, to get [costs] down to a $1000 or less [per genome].

I was contacted by Larry Page and Peter Diamandis of the X Prize to see if we were interested in merging the Venter Prize with the X Prize. We did that and upped the ante to $10 million, which is significant.

Why is a prize necessary?

The technology is changing pretty rapidly, which is a good thing. But right now there?s no technology out there that meets the standards that we?ve set. If genome sequencing is going to have true medical impact, it needs to get up to [a higher] diagnostic quality level. And we?re a long way from that. So this announcement is a whole new set of guidelines and standards. We?re also working with the FDA trying to have our standards become their standards for sequencing. The fact that Medco has come in as a major sponsor shows that major medical enterprises are starting to recognize the future medical impact of this technology.

So the idea is to give the technology a little extra push?

It?s helpful to drive the technology forward. The cost is coming down, but one thing that hasn?t substantially changed is the completeness and accuracy. You can buy any two company?s machines right now, and if we sequencing a genome with two different technologies we?d get two different answers. That?s not good for diagnostic sequencing. Each technology has its own inherent errors. If [the technology] is going to achieve the level of really impacting medicine the way I?ve always envisioned that it could, it has to become far more accurate.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=7849a49a6ef991b94ca0fe4966c3d517

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Berlusconi heads to summit with minimum reform promise (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is expected to give a European summit on Wednesday only vague promises of economic reform instead of the firm undertakings demanded by European leaders.

Berlusconi has been caught between a tough ultimatum by euro zone leaders and the adamant refusal of his Northern League partners in a center-right coalition to make more than slight concessions on pensions -- a key plank of the reform program.

Both Northern League leader Umberto Bossi and analysts said it was unclear whether the Italian promises would be enough to pacify euro zone leaders or markets.

Initial signs from the latter were not encouraging, with Italy paying the highest yield in more than three years on six-month BOT bills at an auction on Wednesday.

In addition, the head of Italy's biggest retail bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, said he was disappointed by the sketchy agreement reached between Berlusconi and Bossi in late-night talks on Tuesday which provided for only a slight acceleration in increasing the retirement age from 65 to 67.

Bossi and his supporters in the northern devolutionist party refused point blank to sanction a more significant reform that would abolish a system under which workers can retire early if they have paid 40 years of pension contributions.

"In the situation we are in, I expected an economic program that would be agreed by everyone and not just unconfirmed suggestions to take to Europe. I am disappointed," Corrado Passera told reporters at the margins of a conference.

The head of Italy's banking association urged the government to stop delaying reforms that would restore confidence. "Now is the time to act and we need to act, quickly and well," Giuseppe Mussari told the same conference.

Berlusconi will take to Brussels a "letter of intent" outlining Italy's plan for reforms demanded by its EU partners as a condition for European Central Bank buying of its bonds --vital to avoid it being overwhelmed by repayments on its massive debt pile.

Media reports say the 14-page letter contains little detail on growth-boosting measures but promises to balance the budget by 2013 and lists previously agreed reforms.

Incoming ECB chief Mario Draghi said ideas outlined in Berlusconi's letter must be implemented rapidly. Draghi, who is leaving Italy's central bank to take up the new role, said the situation in Italy was "confused and dramatic."

DEBT CRISIS

The euro zone's number three economy is at the center of the debt crisis as investors fret about its sluggish growth and political instability. It needs to issue some 600 billion euros in bonds in the next three years to refinance maturing debt.

"In the end we have found a way. Now we will see what the EU says," Bossi told reporters late on Tuesday after a day of difficult talks with Berlusconi.

But Bossi said he was still pessimistic about the survival of the coalition. Berlusconi's office denied on Wednesday that he had made a secret agreement with Bossi to resign at the end of the year.

However, analysts say Berlusconi is unlikely to last beyond December or January and elections are expected next spring, a year ahead of schedule.

Berlusconi has until now repeatedly said he expects to serve out his term until 2013. But reports are circulating that, caught between demands for action on the economy and the obstinacy of the League, he may throw in the towel soon.

Analysts say neither the League -- where Bossi's leadership is also under threat from within -- nor Berlusconi's PDL party wants a government crisis before the end of the year because that might tempt President Giorgio Napolitano to appoint a stop-gap government of technocrats to pass urgent reforms.

A delay would enable the center right to keep control of the way the crisis plays out ahead of elections in the spring.

The center-left opposition is also in disarray and is thought to be reluctant to take responsibility at this point for highly unpopular austerity reforms.

Italy has a public debt of 1.9 trillion euros, equal to 120 percent of GDP, second only to Greece in the euro zone. European nations, Italian business and many other critics say Berlusconi must take urgent and real measures to cut the debt and revive the country's chronically stagnant growth.

The impatience of euro zone leaders at Berlusconi's repeated procrastination is sharpened by fears that a major debt crisis in Italy -- much bigger than Greece and too big to bail out -- would threaten the entire European project.

The three main credit ratings agencies have all downgraded Italy recently.

Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti has promised a package of reforms that would open up closed professions, cut red tape and raise revenue through steps such as privatizations and a new wealth tax, but the measures have been repeatedly delayed.

Berlusconi has reacted angrily to pressure from Germany and France to enact reforms. He issued a statement on Monday declaring that no EU country was in a position to give lessons to its partners.

Napolitano also criticized the ultimatum, which many Italians see as a humiliation, an impression strengthened by the spectacle of Berlusconi having to write a letter of promises to EU leaders before Wednesday night's summit.

(Additional reporting by James Mackenzie and Alberto Sisto, Giuseppe Fonte and Stefano Bernabei; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/wl_nm/us_italy

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Cain Leads GOP Pack in Ohio (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

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2-week old baby rescued after Turkish quake (AP)

ERCIS, Turkey ? A 2-week-old baby girl, her mother and grandmother were pulled alive from the rubble of an apartment building in a dramatic rescue Tuesday, 48 hours after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake toppled some 2,000 buildings in eastern Turkey.

Television footage showed a rescuer, Kadir Direk, in an orange jumpsuit squeezing into the hulk of crushed concrete and metal to free the baby. The infant, named Azra Karaduman, was wrapped in a blanket and handed over to a medic amid a scrum of media and applauding emergency workers.

Close to 500 aftershocks have rattled the area since Sunday, according to Turkey's Kandilli seismology center, and a moderately strong one on Tuesday, measuring 5.4, sent residents rushing into the streets.

Authorities said the death toll had jumped to 432 as rescuers in Ercis and the provincial capital, Van, raced against time to free dozens of people trapped inside mounds of concrete, twisted steel and construction debris. At least nine people were rescued on Tuesday, although many more bodies were discovered.

Authorities have warned survivors in the mainly Kurdish area not to enter damaged buildings and thousands spent a second night outdoors in cars or tents in near-freezing conditions, afraid to return to their homes. Some 1,300 people were injured.

There was still no power or running water and aid distribution was disrupted as desperate people stopped trucks even before they entered Ercis. Aid workers said they were able to find emergency housing for only about half the people who needed it.

The baby's mother, Semiha, and grandmother, Gulsaadet, were huddled together, with the baby clinging to her mother's shoulder when rescuers found them, Direk, the emergency worker, told The Associated Press. There was a bakery at the ground floor of the building, which may have kept them warm, he said.

The baby was in good health but was flown to a hospital in Ankara, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. Hours after she was freed, the two others were pulled from the large, half-flattened building and rushed to ambulances as onlookers clapped and cheered. The mother had been semiconscious, but woke up when rescuers arrived, Direk said.

"Bringing them out is such happiness. I wouldn't be happier if they gave me tons of money," said rescuer Oytun Gulpinar.

Firefighters and rescuers ordered silence while they listened for noise from other possible survivors in the large 5-story apartment block, parts of which were being supported by a crane. Workers could not find the baby's father and there were no other signs of life in the shattered building, said Direk.

Direk was chosen to rescue the three because he was thinnest in the group and was able to squeeze through the narrow corridor that they had drilled, according to NTV television.

He chatted with the woman while trying to get her out, at one point jokingly asking her to name the baby after his own son, Cagan.

"She replied that the baby was a girl, and that she wanted her named Azra," said Direk, who traveled from the western city of Izmir.

The Hurriyet newspaper reported the family live in Sivas, central Turkey, but were visiting the girl's grandmother and grandfather.

Nine-year-old Oguz Isler was rescued along with his sister and cousin, but on Tuesday he was waiting at the foot of the same pile of debris that was his aunt's apartment block for news of his parents and of other relatives who remain buried inside.

Turkish rescue workers in bright orange overalls and Azerbaijani military rescuers in camouflage uniforms searched through the debris, using excavators, picks and shovels to look for Oguz's mother and father and other relatives still inside.

Dogs sniffed for possible survivors in gaps that opened up as their work progressed.

"They should send more people," Oguz said as he and other family members watched the rescuers. An elder cousin comforted him.

Mehmet Ali Hekimoglu, a medic, said the dogs indicated that there were three or four people inside the building, but it was not known if they were alive.

The boy, his sister and a cousin were trapped in the building's third-floor stairway as they tried to escape when the quake hit. A steel door fell over him.

"I fell on the ground face down. When I tried to move my head, it hit the door," he said. "I tried to get out and was able to open a gap with my fists in the wall but could not move my body further. The wall crumbled quickly when I hit it."

"We started shouting: 'Help! We're here,'" he said. "They found us a few hours later, they took me out about 8 1/2 hours later. ... I was OK but felt very bad, lonely. ... I still have a headache, but the doctor said I was fine."

"They took me out last because I was in good shape and the door was protecting me. I was hearing stones falling on it," the boy said.

Hundreds of rescue teams from throughout Turkey rushed to the area, while Turkish Red Crescent dispatched tents and blankets and set up soup kitchens. Some residents complained that they could not get tents and stoves for their families. The Milliyet newspaper on Tuesday reported fistfights in front of some aid trucks.

"The aid is coming in but we're not getting it. We need more police, soldiers," resident Baran Gungor said.

Tents were erected in two stadiums but many preferred to stay close to their homes for news of the missing or to keep watch on damaged buildings. Some left Van to seek shelter with friends or relatives elsewhere.

Turkish Red Crescent director Omer Tasli admitted shortfalls in sheltering all the survivors.

"We couldn't cover ... all the families," he said. "Now just maybe 50 percent of them (are) under a tent."

The government said it would set up temporary homes and would begin planning to rebuild destroyed areas with better housing. Turks across the country began sending blankets and warm clothing.

The earthquake's epicenter was the village of Tabanli but damage there was minimal; No deaths were reported and its mud-brick homes were relatively unharmed.

Turkey lies in one of the world's most active seismic zones and is crossed by numerous fault lines. In 1999, two earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 7 struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.

Istanbul, the country's largest city with more than 12 million people, lies in northwestern Turkey near a major fault line, and experts say tens of thousands could be killed if a major quake struck there.

__

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, and Christopher Torchia in Istanbul, contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111025/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_quake

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Comedian Patrice O?Neal Hospitalized After Suffering Stroke

Comedian Patrice O’Neal Hospitalized After Suffering Stroke

Comedian Patrice O’Neal reportedly suffered a stroke last week, according to fellow comic Jim Norton. Norton announced the news on the Opie and Anthony Show, [...]

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New floods force displaced Thais to move again

Houses are soaked in floodwaters at Nonthaburi province north of Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra issued a dramatic warning to residents of the Thai capital to prepare for floodwaters to roll deeper into the city from suburban areas already choking under the deluge. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Houses are soaked in floodwaters at Nonthaburi province north of Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra issued a dramatic warning to residents of the Thai capital to prepare for floodwaters to roll deeper into the city from suburban areas already choking under the deluge. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Residents wade through floodwaters at their residential area in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra issued a dramatic warning to residents of the Thai capital to prepare for floodwaters to roll deeper into the city from suburban areas already choking under the deluge. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

Flood victims make their way on a platform from a relief center to a waiting bus during a relocation operation at Thammasart University on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. The governor of Bangkok issued a dramatic warning late Sunday to residents of the Thai capital to prepare for floodwaters to roll deeper into the city from suburban areas already choking under the deluge. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

Houses are submerged in floodwaters in Nonthaburi Province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra issued a dramatic warning to residents of the Thai capital to prepare for floodwaters to roll deeper into the city from suburban areas already choking under the deluge. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Factories were submerge in floodwaters at the Rojana industrial district in Ayutthaya, central Thailand, Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. Ayutthaya, a city north of Bangkok has been submerged for more than two weeks as Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra issued a dramatic warning to residents of Thai capital to prepare for floodwaters to roll deeper into the city from suburban areas already choking under the deluge. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

RANGSIT, Thailand (AP) ? Supanee Pansuwan has already picked up and moved four times since fast-rising floodwaters began swallowing her home in central Thailand a month ago. Now, as the murky waters threaten the shelter on the outskirts of Bangkok where she's lived for the past two weeks, she's being asked to flee again.

"I believe the water is chasing me," she said Monday, sitting on the floor of a dark university gymnasium that has served as one of Thailand's main evacuation centers since the worst floods in half a century swamped many people's lives. "Anywhere I go, the water will follow me. So if I make another move, I think the water will follow me again."

Supanee's fears and confusion over where to go and how bad the flooding is going to get are shared by many Thais. Since the floodwaters began inundating areas north of the capital of 9 million two weeks ago, Bangkok residents have been on edge while watching the waters creep closer to the city center each day.

Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra warned residents in a televised address late Sunday that a large volume of water is surging forward faster than expected and is threatening six districts as it moves closer to the city's more developed areas, including neighborhoods near Chatuchuk weekend market, a popular shopping stop for tourists.

Sukhumbhand said the waters also are expected to swamp the Don Muang area just north of the city proper. The area is home to Bangkok's old airport, which is now being used as the headquarters for the anti-flood effort and as a shelter for evacuees.

Facing public pressure and scrutiny from the media, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra tried to downplay any notion that her government was not being upfront with information, following a number of upbeat statements that have conflicted with Sukhumbhand's more menacing assessments. The conflict has a political tinge since Sukhumbhand is a prominent member of the opposition Democrat Party, which was ousted from power by Yingluck just a few months ago.

"This is the third month that water came into Thailand, since July, in the form of four consecutive storms," Yingluck told reporters Monday. "Normally, if one storm hits, the runoff will be drained off from the dams and there will be a break. We've never hidden anything from the people. We've informed them about every solution we've taken."

Yingluck said over the weekend that the waters may take up to six weeks to recede to manageable proportions around Bangkok, while the flood response agency said the threat that floodwaters will inundate the capital could ease by early November as record-high levels in the rivers carrying torrents of water from the country's north begin to decline.

On Monday, cars were double-parked on parts of an elevated highway near Don Muang to escape the water. The smell of raw sewage mixed with the swift currents sweeping across parts of the main highway a bit farther north in Pathum Thani province near Thammasat University, where the military was helping to evacuate hundreds of flood victims who carried their few belongings slung across their backs in garbage bags.

Of the 4,000 people who had sought refuge at the university ? now surrounded by water 5 feet (1.6 meters) deep ? 700 headed for Bangkok's National Stadium on Monday. More than 100,000 others have been left homeless nationwide since heavy monsoon rains began overpowering the country's network of rivers and canals, submerging an area roughly the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut.

More than 100 patients from hospitals in Bangkok, including Thammasat University's hospital, were moved over the weekend to regional facilities, the government said Monday.

The flooding began in August in northern Thailand and has killed 356 people and delivered an economic blow to industry and agriculture. Damage is already estimated at $6 billion, but that could double if Bangkok is badly hit.

Anxiety is high, as nervous Bangkok residents scramble to build sandbag barricades around their homes and businesses, not sure if or when the water will come. Drinking water, rice, canned food and toilet paper is hard to find in many supermarkets as shoppers race to hoard supplies.

Those like Supanee, who is from the old capital of Ayutthaya, which has been submerged for more than two weeks, are no longer worried about will come, but now fear what they will find when they finally go home. The water came fast, but Supanee's family managed to drag most of their furniture and electronics upstairs ? it still wasn't high enough. The floodwater surged chest-high on the second floor.

From there, the extended family of seven fled to a Buddhist temple until it was overrun with water, and then were forced to leave a tent at city hall. They later bounced from one gym to another at Thammasat University, and are now determined to ride it out there, despite risking food and water shortages to stay put. Electricity has already been cut.

"It's quite hard to move to another place," Supanee said, smiling, while trying to stay positive about the fact that her family will now have more room. "I'm tired of moving."

___

Associated Press writer Vee Intarakratug contributed to this report.

(This version removes incorrect reference to Supanee's car in paragraph 14)

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-24-AS-Thailand-Floods/id-5acb005543de4caea3ae7d20b79bed21

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CHEST 2011: Embargoed studies highlight new lung cancer and COPD research

Public release date: 24-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sue Roberts
sroberts@chestnet.org
847-498-8334
American College of Chest Physicians

Detroit Holds Record for Highest Lung Cancer Mortality Rates

(#1111771, Tuesday, October 25, 3:00 PM Eastern)

Compared with other cities, Detroit has one of the highest mortality rates in the United States for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Based on data from the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, researchers from the McLaren Regional Medical Center in Flint, Michigan and the Mayo Clinic, in Minneapolis, Minnesota studied cancer-specific survival between Detroit and other city registries by ethnicity. They identified a total of 105,522 cases of small cell lung cancer and 3,094,764 cases of NSCLC. In all categories among ethnicities, Detroit showed lower survival rates than anywhere else in the United States. The differences in mortality existing between registries could reflect differences in health-care access and the stage of the tumor at the time discovered.

Conflicting Standards May Lead to Overdiagnosis or Underdiagnosis of COPD

(#1118428, Sunday, October 23, 4:45 PM Eastern)

Researchers from The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York documented the diagnosis, stratification, and treatment discordance between the most widely accepted Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) standards and the American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society (ATS/ERS) standards for COPD. After reviewing the pulmonary function reports of 217 patients with the clinical diagnosis of COPD, researchers found the rate of discordance was 11%, while four patients with a median age of 41 years met the ATS standards but not the GOLD standards. The conflicting diagnostic criteria, severity classification, and treatment recommendations create a dilemma in patient care, especially in patients with borderline diagnostic criteria and overlapping classifications of severity. Without this consensus, older patients may be overdiagnosed with COPD and younger patients underdiagnosed with COPD.

Canadian Patients With COPD Exacerbations More Likely to Delay Medical Attention

(#1104875, Tuesday, October 25, 3:00 PM Eastern)

COPD is identified as the leading cause of preventable hospitalizations in Canada. To understand how Canadian patients, physicians, and researchers perceive COPD compared with those in other nations, researchers from the Asthma and Airway Centre, University Health Network, and Family Physician Airways Group of Canada in Toronto surveyed 2,000 people from an international random sample of patients with COPD, primary care physicians, and respiratory specialists recruited from 14 nations. Of the Canadian patients (mean age, 62 years), 59% reported having at least one COPD exacerbation, while the overall percentage of patients reporting exacerbations was 69%. However, while 73% of international respondents would seek professional expertise during an exacerbation, only 55% of Canadians would do so. Although 28% of patients in other countries would seek professional help after 2 days, only 20% of Canadians sought assistance during that time. The 8% of patients typically taking no action was greater than the global average of 5%. Researchers concluded that a focus on self-management plans may reduce COPD exacerbation consequences in Canada.

Patients With COPD Can Be Diagnosed Via Presurgical Screening

(#1106050, Wednesday, October 26, 3:00 PM Eastern)

A recent study by Canadian researchers from Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, QC, Canada determined that, through a simple preoperative screening program, patients with previously undetected COPD may be diagnosed and appropriately managed. In a surgical preadmission clinic of a tertiary care university hospital in Montreal, current smokers and ex-smokers were questioned using the Canadian Health Lung Test to determine any respiratory symptoms. Between July 2010 and March 2011, 127 patients with a positive screening result were referred for spirometry, the standard diagnostic tool for COPD. Of the 43 patients with abnormal spirometry results, 22 patients (51%) represented newly found cases of COPD, 17 (40%) were known and confirmed cases, and 14 patients (82%) had at least moderate obstruction. Of the newly found cases of COPD, 14 patients (64%) had mild obstruction, which suggests that they were diagnosed at an earlier stage of the disease. Results suggest that preoperative screening may help identify patients with undiagnosed COPD, which may lead to earlier disease management and control of disease progression.

Proton Pump Inhibitors May Help Prevent Common Cold, COPD Exacerbations

(#1107813, Wednesday, October 26, 3:00 PM Eastern)

To determine whether proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) reduce the frequency of the common cold and resulting exacerbations among patients with COPD, Japanese researchers studied 100 former smokers with COPD, half who had received usual COPD therapies and PPIs and half who received only standard care. Both groups were observed for 12 months, and the frequency during which they caught colds was assessed. The number of acute exacerbations per person in that year within the PPI group was significantly lower than the control group that did not use PPIs; however, there was no significant difference between the numbers of common colds per person in 1 year in the PPI group and control group. This study demonstrated the beneficial effects of adding PPIs to the usual therapies for preventing COPD exacerbations.

###

---

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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.

Public release date: 24-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sue Roberts
sroberts@chestnet.org
847-498-8334
American College of Chest Physicians

Detroit Holds Record for Highest Lung Cancer Mortality Rates

(#1111771, Tuesday, October 25, 3:00 PM Eastern)

Compared with other cities, Detroit has one of the highest mortality rates in the United States for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Based on data from the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, researchers from the McLaren Regional Medical Center in Flint, Michigan and the Mayo Clinic, in Minneapolis, Minnesota studied cancer-specific survival between Detroit and other city registries by ethnicity. They identified a total of 105,522 cases of small cell lung cancer and 3,094,764 cases of NSCLC. In all categories among ethnicities, Detroit showed lower survival rates than anywhere else in the United States. The differences in mortality existing between registries could reflect differences in health-care access and the stage of the tumor at the time discovered.

Conflicting Standards May Lead to Overdiagnosis or Underdiagnosis of COPD

(#1118428, Sunday, October 23, 4:45 PM Eastern)

Researchers from The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York documented the diagnosis, stratification, and treatment discordance between the most widely accepted Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) standards and the American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society (ATS/ERS) standards for COPD. After reviewing the pulmonary function reports of 217 patients with the clinical diagnosis of COPD, researchers found the rate of discordance was 11%, while four patients with a median age of 41 years met the ATS standards but not the GOLD standards. The conflicting diagnostic criteria, severity classification, and treatment recommendations create a dilemma in patient care, especially in patients with borderline diagnostic criteria and overlapping classifications of severity. Without this consensus, older patients may be overdiagnosed with COPD and younger patients underdiagnosed with COPD.

Canadian Patients With COPD Exacerbations More Likely to Delay Medical Attention

(#1104875, Tuesday, October 25, 3:00 PM Eastern)

COPD is identified as the leading cause of preventable hospitalizations in Canada. To understand how Canadian patients, physicians, and researchers perceive COPD compared with those in other nations, researchers from the Asthma and Airway Centre, University Health Network, and Family Physician Airways Group of Canada in Toronto surveyed 2,000 people from an international random sample of patients with COPD, primary care physicians, and respiratory specialists recruited from 14 nations. Of the Canadian patients (mean age, 62 years), 59% reported having at least one COPD exacerbation, while the overall percentage of patients reporting exacerbations was 69%. However, while 73% of international respondents would seek professional expertise during an exacerbation, only 55% of Canadians would do so. Although 28% of patients in other countries would seek professional help after 2 days, only 20% of Canadians sought assistance during that time. The 8% of patients typically taking no action was greater than the global average of 5%. Researchers concluded that a focus on self-management plans may reduce COPD exacerbation consequences in Canada.

Patients With COPD Can Be Diagnosed Via Presurgical Screening

(#1106050, Wednesday, October 26, 3:00 PM Eastern)

A recent study by Canadian researchers from Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, QC, Canada determined that, through a simple preoperative screening program, patients with previously undetected COPD may be diagnosed and appropriately managed. In a surgical preadmission clinic of a tertiary care university hospital in Montreal, current smokers and ex-smokers were questioned using the Canadian Health Lung Test to determine any respiratory symptoms. Between July 2010 and March 2011, 127 patients with a positive screening result were referred for spirometry, the standard diagnostic tool for COPD. Of the 43 patients with abnormal spirometry results, 22 patients (51%) represented newly found cases of COPD, 17 (40%) were known and confirmed cases, and 14 patients (82%) had at least moderate obstruction. Of the newly found cases of COPD, 14 patients (64%) had mild obstruction, which suggests that they were diagnosed at an earlier stage of the disease. Results suggest that preoperative screening may help identify patients with undiagnosed COPD, which may lead to earlier disease management and control of disease progression.

Proton Pump Inhibitors May Help Prevent Common Cold, COPD Exacerbations

(#1107813, Wednesday, October 26, 3:00 PM Eastern)

To determine whether proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) reduce the frequency of the common cold and resulting exacerbations among patients with COPD, Japanese researchers studied 100 former smokers with COPD, half who had received usual COPD therapies and PPIs and half who received only standard care. Both groups were observed for 12 months, and the frequency during which they caught colds was assessed. The number of acute exacerbations per person in that year within the PPI group was significantly lower than the control group that did not use PPIs; however, there was no significant difference between the numbers of common colds per person in 1 year in the PPI group and control group. This study demonstrated the beneficial effects of adding PPIs to the usual therapies for preventing COPD exacerbations.

###

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/acoc-c2e_3101411.php

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The Best Time Tracking App for Mac OS X [Mac App Directory]

There are a handful of decent time tracking applications for the Mac. While none of them are perfect, our favorite is Klok thanks to its straightforward time tracking and entry, flexibility, and easily-understood interface.

• Track any project, billable or otherwise
• Drag and drop time entry
• Provides a simple dashboard overview of how you've used your time
• Define multiple projects
• Automatic updates
• Can export time sheets to Microsoft Excel

Additional features in the pro version:

• More information in the dashboard
• Import data from Microsoft Exchange, Google Calendar, and more
• Export time sheets to CSV, HTML, and Google Docs
• Automated backups
• Additional skins/themes

What's great about Klok is that you can start using it in about a minute. You just define a project in the project section, provide a little information about the project (if you want?you can add it later, too), and start tracking your time. You can add projects as needed and track them as well. Klok will display them all in a nice calendar view. You can then export your time sheets to Microsoft Excel if you want, or just reference the information in Klok to put together an invoice in whatever application you choose.

Klok was written in Adobe Air, so if you prefer an app that feels native to OS X you may struggle a bit with its interface. It can take some getting used to if you fall into that camp, but it's mainly an issue of not using the menu bar. What's most annoying about Klok is how the free version hides little hints to upgrade. Every feature of the pro version is available to click in the interface, but when you do actually click on any of those features you'll be reminded that you need to upgrade to the pro version. You're getting a good time tracking app for free, so it's a reasonable trade-off, but it could be dialed back a bit. Klok's settings also get fairly complicated. The good news is that you can do basic time tracking without ever getting into the details, but Klok can get pretty detailed and it can be a little overwhelming.

Time Edition (Free) is the way to go if you're looking for simple and free. Even though it's a tiny little app, it can track your projects with a lot of helpful detail. It's designed to track projects for billing purposes, but like any time tracking app you could use it for other projects as well.

RescueTime (Free and Paid) will track everything you do on your computer and analyze it so you can reclaim wasted time. It's not meant for billing clients but becoming more productive, and it's really smart. Whitson wrote a guide on using RescueTime so check that out for additional details. It's free to use but you can pay yearly fees for additional features.

Time Track (Free or Pro) tracks your application usage. The pro version will track documents as well. It's a lot like a simplified version of RescueTime, but runs solely on your Mac's desktop and provides limited statistics. If you just want an overview of how long you use specific applications, it's worth a look.

Freshbooks Time Tracker (Free) is a widget you can install for OS X's Dashboard that will simply track the time you spend on a specific project and send it to the Freshbooks invoicing service. Harvest and other invoicing services generally provide time tracking widgets and apps as well for your time tracking needs. If you use one of those services already, be sure to check out their add-ons page for handy ways to track your time.

---

Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.

---

You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. ?Twitter's the best way to contact him, too.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/WGLz-n2kO8k/the-best-time-tracking-app-for-mac-os-x

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National Briefing | SOUTH: Virginia: Nuclear Reactors Expected to Reopen Soon

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The nuclear reactors shut down by the Aug. 23 earthquake on the East Coast, will probably be allowed to reopen within weeks, a senior official of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0827674a5742452c9c417b5fcbe1152d

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Video: Libya celebrates the death of Gadhafi

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44987137#44987137

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Times, Sunday Times to cut jobs (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Editorial staff at Rupert Murdoch's remaining upscale London newspapers were informed on Thursday of impending budget and staff cuts, which may include some compulsory layoffs.

A company source said that the principal objective of the move was to make a 12 percent across-the-board cut in budgets at both the weekly Sunday Times and the Monday-through-Saturday daily Times of London.

John Witherow, editor of The Sunday Times, and James Harding, editor of The Times, both announced the cuts to their staff at meetings on Thursday.

At the Sunday Times, the budget cuts were expected to result in compulsory layoffs of between 15 and 20 journalists, or about 10 percent of the newspaper's editorial staff, said two sources familiar with the company's plans.

The Sunday Times will also reduce employment of "casuals" -- non-staff journalists who work regular shifts at the papers -- by around 30 percent, the sources said.

At the daily Times, up to 100 slots will be cut from 700 full-time, part-time and casual editorial positions which currently exist at the newspaper. Unlike the Sunday Times, the daily paper will offer some staffers the opportunity to leave the paper voluntarily.

The company source said there had been some discussion of consolidating back office functions of the two papers but such plans were not going forward. The source said business staff and budgets at the papers were already being trimmed.

That source went on to say that the papers would retain their current section architecture and denied rumors circulating among some staff that pages in some sections will be reduced.

The company source added that no commensurate cuts are expected at Murdoch's remaining tabloid paper, the six-day daily The Sun.

Earlier this year, Murdoch shuttered The Sun's Sunday stablemate, the News of the World, following uproar over revelations about how its journalists had hacked into voice mails of celebrities, politicians and crime victims.

The Times historically is reputed to have lost millions of pounds sterling for its owners. But the Sunday Times until recently had reportedly been a major money maker for News International, Murdoch's London newspaper publishing company.

A company spokeswoman declined to comment. The annual general meeting of Murdoch's main corporate vehicle, New York-based News Corp, is scheduled to be held on Friday in Los Angeles.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111020/media_nm/us_murdoch_jobs

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Normal brain communication in people who lack connections between right and left hemispheres

Normal brain communication in people who lack connections between right and left hemispheres

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Like a bridge that spans a river to connect two major metropolises, the corpus callosum is the main conduit for information flowing between the left and right hemispheres of our brains. Now, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have found that people who are born without that link?a condition called agenesis of the corpus callosum, or AgCC?still show remarkably normal communication across the gap between the two halves of their brains.

Their findings are outlined in a paper published October 19 in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Our brains are never truly at rest. Even when we daydream, there is a tremendous amount of communication happening between different areas in the brain. According to J. Michael Tyszka, lead author on the Journal of Neuroscience paper and associate director of the Caltech Brain Imaging Center, many areas of the brain display slowly varying patterns of activity that are similar to one another. The fact that these areas are synchronized has led many scientists to presume that they are all part of an interconnected network called a resting-state network. Much to their surprise, Tyszka and his team found that these resting-state networks look essentially normal in people with AgCC, despite the lack of connectivity.

"This was a real surprise," says Tyszka. "We expected to see a lot less coupling between the left and right brain in this group?after all, they are missing about 200 million connections that would normally be there. How do they manage to have normal communication between the left and right sides of the brain without the corpus callosum?"

The work used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to demonstrate that synchronized activity between the left and right brain survives even this sort of radical rewiring of the nerve connections between the two hemispheres. The presence of symmetric patterns of activity in individuals born without a corpus callosum highlights the brain's remarkable plasticity and ability to compensate, says coauthor Lynn Paul, research staff member and lecturer in psychology at Caltech. "It develops these fundamental networks even when the left and right hemispheres are structurally disconnected."

The study that found the robust networks is part of an ongoing research program led by Paul, who has been studying AgCC for several decades. AgCC occurs in approximately one of every 4000 live births. The typical corpus callosum comprises almost 200 million axons?the connections between brain cells?and is the largest fiber bundle in the human brain. In AgCC, those fibers fail to cross the gap between the hemispheres during fetal development, forcing the two halves of the brain to communicate using more indirect and currently unknown means.

"In the 1960s and 1970s, Roger Sperry at Caltech studied 'split-brain' patients in whom the corpus callosum was surgically severed as a treatment for epilepsy," explains Paul. "Our research on AgCC has moved in a different direction and focuses on a naturally occurring brain malformation that occurs before birth. This allows us to examine how, and to what extent, the brain can compensate for the loss of the corpus callosum as a person grows to adulthood."

According to the team, the findings are especially valuable in light of current theories that link impaired brain connections with clinical conditions including autism and schizophrenia.

"We are now examining AgCC subjects who are also on the autism spectrum, in order to gain insights about the role of brain connectivity in autism, as well as in healthy social interactions," says Tyszka. "About a third of people with AgCC also have autism, and altered connectivity in the corpus callosum has been found in autism. The remarkable compensation in brain functional networks that we found here may thus have important implications also for understanding the function of the brains of people with autism."

###

California Institute of Technology: http://www.caltech.edu

Thanks to California Institute of Technology for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114469/Normal_brain_communication_in_people_who_lack_connections_between_right_and_left_hemispheres

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Lions and tigers shot in Ohio; owner freed them (AP)

ZANESVILLE, Ohio ? Sheriff's deputies shot nearly 50 wild animals ? including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions ? in a big-game hunt across the state's countryside Wednesday after the owner of an exotic-animal park threw their cages open and committed suicide in what may have been one last act of spite against his neighbors and police.

As homeowners nervously hid indoors, officers armed with high-powered rifles and shoot-to-kill orders fanned out through fields and woods to hunt down 56 animals that had been turned loose from the Muskingum County Animal Farm by owner Terry Thompson before he shot himself to death Tuesday.

After an all-night hunt that extended into Wednesday afternoon, 48 animals were killed. Six others ? three leopards, a grizzly bear and two monkeys ? were captured and taken to the Columbus Zoo. A wolf was later found dead, leaving a monkey as the only animal still on the loose.

Those destroyed included six black bears, two grizzlies, a baboon and three mountain lions. Dead animals were being buried on Thompson's farm, officials said.

"It's like Noah's Ark wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio," lamented Jack Hanna, TV personality and former director of the Columbus Zoo.

Hanna defended the sheriff's decision to kill the animals but said the deaths of the Bengal tigers were especially tragic. There are only about 1,400 of the endangered cats left in the world, he said.

"When I heard 18, I was still in disbelief," he said. "The most magnificent creature in the entire world, the tiger is."

As the hunt dragged on outside of Zanesville, population 25,000, schools closed in the mostly rural area of farms and widely spaced homes 55 miles east of Columbus. Parents were warned to keep children and pets indoors. And flashing signs along highways told motorists, "Caution exotic animals" and "Stay in vehicle."

Officers were ordered to kill the animals instead of trying to bring them down with tranquilizers for fear that those hit with darts would escape in the darkness before they dropped and would later regain consciousness.

"These animals were on the move, they were showing aggressive behavior," Sheriff Matt Lutz said. "Once the nightfall hit, our biggest concern was having these animals roaming."

The sheriff would not speculate why Thompson killed himself and why he left open the cages and fences at his 73-acre preserve, dooming the animals he seemed to love so much.

Thompson, 62, had had repeated run-ins with the law and his neighbors. Lutz said that the sheriff's office had received numerous complaints since 2004 about animals escaping onto neighbors' property. The sheriff's office also said that Thompson had been charged over the years with animal cruelty, animal neglect and allowing animals to roam.

He had gotten out of federal prison just last month after serving a year for possessing unregistered guns.

John Ellenberger, a neighbor, speculated that Thompson freed the animals to get back at neighbors and police. "Nobody much cared for him," Ellenberger said.

Angie McElfresh, who lives in an apartment near the farm and hunkered down with her family in fear, said "it could have been an `f-you' to everybody around him."

Thompson had rescued some of the animals at his preserve and purchased many others, said Columbus Zoo spokeswoman Patty Peters.

It was not immediately clear how Thompson managed to support the preserve and for what purpose it was operated, since it was not open to the public. But Thompson had appeared on the "Rachael Ray Show" in 2008 as an animal handler for a zoologist guest, said show spokeswoman Lauren Nowell.

The sheriff's office started getting calls Tuesday evening that wild animals were loose just west of Zanesville. Deputies went to the animal preserve and found Thompson dead and all the cages open. Several aggressive animals were near his body and had to be shot, the sheriff said.

Sheriff's Deputy Jonathan Merry was among the first to respond Tuesday. He said he shot a number of animals, including a gray wolf and a black bear. He said the bear charged him and he fired his pistol, killing it with one shot when it was about 7 feet away.

"All these animals have the ability to take a human out in the length of a second," said Merry, who called himself an animal lover but said he knew he was protecting the community.

"What a tragedy," said Barb Wolfe, a veterinarian with The Wilds, a nearby zoo-sponsored wild animal preserve. She said she managed to hit a tiger with a tranquilizer dart, but the animal charged toward her and then turned and began to flee before the drug could take effect, and deputies shot the big cat.

At an afternoon news conference, the sheriff said that the danger had passed and that people could move around freely again, but that the monkey would probably be shot because it was believed to be carrying a herpes disease.

"It was like a war zone with all the shooting and so forth with the animals," said Sam Kopchak, who was outside Tuesday afternoon when he saw Thompson's horses acting up. Kopchak said he turned and saw a male lion lying down on the other side of a fence.

"The fence is not going to be a fence that's going to hold an African lion," Kopchak said.

Danielle Berkheimer said she was nervous as she drove home Tuesday night and afraid to let her two dogs out in the yard.

"When it's 300-pound cats, that's scary," she said. She said it had been odd Tuesday night to see no one out around town, and the signs warning drivers to stay in their cars were "surreal."

Some townspeople were saddened by the deaths. At a nearby Moose Lodge, Bill Weiser said: "It's breaking my heart, them shooting those animals."

Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them. At least nine people have been injured since 2005 and one person was killed, according to Born Free USA, an animal advocacy group.

On Wednesday, the Humane Society of the United States criticized Gov. John Kasich for allowing a statewide ban on the buying and selling of exotic pets to expire in April. The organization urged the state to immediately issue emergency restrictions.

"How many incidents must we catalog before the state takes action to crack down on private ownership of dangerous exotic animals?" Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO, said in a statement.

Kasich said Wednesday during a meeting of Dix Communications editors: "Clearly, we need tougher laws. We haven't had them in this state. Nobody's dealt with this, and we will. And we'll deal with it in a comprehensive way."

Barney Long, an expert at the World Wildlife Fund, noted that tigers in general are endangered. He said there appear to be fewer of them living in the wild than there are in captivity in the U.S. alone. Over the last century, the worldwide population has plunged from about 100,000 in the wild to as few as 3,200, he said.

More than half are Bengal tigers, which live in isolated pockets across Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, India and Bangladesh, he said in a telephone interview

"The tragic shooting of 18 tigers in Ohio really highlights what is happening on a daily basis to tigers in the wild throughout Asia," Long added in an email. "Their numbers are being decimated by poaching and habitat loss, and that is the real travesty here."

___

Associated Press writers Ann Sanner and Doug Whiteman contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111020/ap_on_re_us/us_exotic_animals_loose

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