Blame it on editing if you like, but in just four episodes, Courtney Robertson has already cemented her place as one of the great villains in the history of The Bachelor.
She's just getting started, too.
Next week features the already-infamous scene in which Courtney takes things to new depths in her quest to claim Ben's heart (and other body parts) for her own.
Even Ellen told him he's being played, but when a model strips down and goes skinny dipping in the ocean with you, rational thoughts may be on the back burner.
Can she be stopped before it's too late?
Watch Ben Fljanik and Courtney Robertson's nude moment in the promo for Monday's episode of The Bachelor (after this week's DRAMATIC rose ceremony) below:
You can pout and you can shout, but there's no avoiding it: You'll soon be forced to use a new profile page design?? better known as the Timeline???on Facebook. It'll be alright though,?because I'm here to (virtually) hold your hand through this big life change.
Woah! Wait! What is this Timeline thing? Odds are that you've already?heard about?the Facebook Timeline, but let's have a quick review for the sake of those who might've been on a really long vacation or have a (dangerous) tendency to tune out Facebook-related news.
The Facebook Timeline is a new approach to the profile page. According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it's a way to better present "the story of your life."
When someone looks at your Timeline, he or she will be able to see summaries of the most important events in your personal history ? instead of having to scroll through years of silly status updates. You're able to feature (or hide)?"Stories" ? life?events, images, and other details ??in order to create what you feel is the best representation of your life.
Since your personal history no longer starts with the day you joined Facebook, but the date of your actual birth, you are encouraged to go back and add events which weren't previously on Facebook. Please choose what you enter with absolute care, and bear in mind that what you enter (ahem, place of birth, mother's maiden name) could be used for nefarious purposes.
While a lifelong timeline may seem convenient and logical, our own privacy-minded Helen Popkin said this may be "the ultimate Trojan horse,"?a way for Facebook to squeeze even more personal information out of you by posing as an unrequested but alluring feature.
Oh, and you can also?augment your Timeline by using apps which track books you've read, movies you've watched, music you've listened to, and so on. (Yeah, this can get a bit creepy?? so you'll probably want to fiddle with your privacy settings. More on that later.)
I don't really want this! How do I avoid it? As I said when we started our journey down the Timeline rabbit hole: You can pout and shout as much as you want, but there's no avoiding Timeline.
As?Paul McDonald, an engineering manager on the Timeline team, explained recently:
Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it. ...?
?You can also choose to publish your timeline at any time during the review period. If you decide to wait, your timeline will go live automatically after seven days. Your new timeline will replace your profile, but all your stories and photos will still be there.
A warning whistle, a seven-day head start, and ... that's it, that's all you're getting. If anyone is trying to convince you that there's a loophole or a way to outsmart Facebook on this particular issue, odds are that he or she is trying to scam you.
Facebook
Fine. I'll live with this somehow, but can I at least hold on to my privacy? As Lifehacker's Whitson Gordon points out, the?"one big downside to the Timeline layout is that you can easily see every post you've ever made or received on Facebook. All anyone needs to do is go to a certain year on your profile and click the "All Posts" button."
Yes, that particular downside could lead to quite a bit of embarrassing moments, awkward confrontations, and so on.
Thankfully there are two ways to minimize humiliation. Neither of them is particularly perfect, but they help a bit.
Facebook
As tedious as it is, you could go through your Timeline and hide (or delete) individual posts. All you have to do is click the little pencil icon on a post and you'll be presented with the different options.
Of course, this process could take forever and a day if you're a particularly active Facebook user. (I told you it wasn't perfect.)
Facebook
The other action you can take to prevent some embarrassment involves the posts which are visible to the general public or friends of friends. You can change the privacy setting for all of those posts to "friends only" with just one click.?
Live Poll
Are you properly prepared for the arrival of the Timeline?
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Wait. What? This is actually happening?
0%
174338
I've been ready for this since it was first announced. Wake me up when there's real news.
0%
174339
I ... I think so. I am, right? Did I forget about something?
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174340
Ready? I was born ready (and made myself some custom Timeline cover images later on).
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VoteTotal Votes: 0
You just have to head to the "Privacy Settings" menu, select the "Manage Past Post Visibility" button next to "Limit the Audience for Past Posts." You'll see a little popup which will confirm that you really want to limit the visibility of your old posts and you're done.
But, as?Gordon notes, this particular move "won't hide those posts from your friends, but it will at least keep everyone else on Facebook from being able to browse every post you've ever made public."
Unfortunately that's about all you can do to shelter what little bit or privacy you have left when you're forced to switch over to the Timeline layout. You can?? and should?? be vigilant about what you post in the first place and what sort of state your general privacy settings are in though, of course. (For more details on that, I recommend checking out Lifehacker's "always up-to-date guide to managing your Facebook privacy.")
Facebook
New York Times columnist Nick Bilton gets creative with his Timeline cover image.
Can I at least make this thing look pretty? One of the first things you'll notice about the Timeline is that it puts a gigantic photo front and center. This is called the "cover" photo and you're prompted to select one as soon as your profile is converted to this new design. (You can change the cover image as often as you want.)
You can use (or abuse) this feature to make your little corner of the social network look as unique as a snowflake.
Your decorating options include ready-made images ??such as the geeky or intense illustrations arist Sam Spratt made available on BuzzFeed?? or your own creations.
Facebook
Buzzfeed's Director of Creative Services Tanner Ringerud shows how a profile photo can interact with a cover image on Facebook.
If you're really itching to have a one-of-a-kind image, then the best thing to do is is to brainstorm until you find a way to make the large cover image interact with your profile photo. The only tricky part ? aside from actually coming up with a clever idea ? is that you need to keep the proportions of the images in mind to make sure that everything looks perfect.
So make note that the large cover image is 851 x 315 pixels and that the smaller profile photo is 125 x 125 pixels.
That's really all there is to it? Yes, that's all you really need to know about the Facebook Timeline??? what it is, why you can't avoid it, how to keep it from embarrassing you, and how to make it look pretty.
Not so bad after all, right?
Now go on and pass this handy-dandy guide on to your confused friends and family members so that you can enjoy your last seven Timeline-free days in peace.
Related stories:
Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.
THURSDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers who identified a new genetic signature associated with bile duct cancer say their discovery could lead to targeted treatment for the deadly cancer.
The team at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center screened samples from 287 patients with gastrointestinal tumors and found that growth-enhancing mutations in two genes (IDH1 and IDH2) may account for nearly one-fourth of bile duct tumors that develop in the liver.
Mutations in IDH1 were found in 13 percent of all bile duct tumors and in 23 percent of those within the liver itself. Mutations in IDH2 were less common.
It may be possible to develop drugs that target this mutation in order to control tumor growth, they said.
The findings were published online in The Oncologist.
Bile duct cancer occurs in a duct that carries bile from the liver to the small intestine.
"Patients with bile duct cancer have a generally poor prognosis. Most of them are diagnosed with advanced or metastatic disease, so surgical resection [removal] is not feasible," study co-senior author Dr. Andrew Zhu, director of Liver Cancer Research at the MGH Cancer Center, said in a hospital news release.
"Identifying this new and relatively common mutation in intrahepatic [within the liver] bile duct cancer may have significant implications for the diagnosis, prognosis and therapy of patients whose tumors harbor this mutation," Zhu added.
Currently, there are no drugs that target IDH mutations, but extensive efforts are underway to develop such drugs, the researchers say.
Each year in the United States, 12,000 people are diagnosed with cancers of the gallbladder and bile duct, but only 10 percent of those cancers are discovered early enough for successful surgical treatment. Average survival, even with chemotherapy, is less than a year.
More information
The American Cancer Society has more about bile duct cancer.
KUWAIT CITY ? Sheik Saud Al Nasser Al Sabah, who served as Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S. during Iraq's 1990 invasion of the oil-rich country and the American-led war to oust Saddam Hussein's forces, has died, a government-backed newspaper reported Sunday. He was 68.
Al-Qabas said the former diplomat died Saturday. It gave no cause of death.
A member of Kuwait's royal family, Sheik Nasser was a leading voice calling for international help during Iraq's occupation. But he was forced to defend his tactics when it was revealed that his then-teenage daughter, Nayirah, told U.S. lawmakers in October 1990 that she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers yank newborn babies from incubators. Several rights groups later questioned the account, which helped galvanize U.S. public opinion in favor of war.
A statement Sunday from former President George H. W. Bush called Sheik Nasser a "trusted partner" during the occupation and the U.S.-led war in 1991 that drove Saddam's military from Kuwait.
"Throughout that defining ordeal, he stood proudly with the United States as our coalition ejected Saddam's forces from Kuwaiti soil and upheld international law," said Bush's statement from Houston. "He was truly a good man, and a joy with whom to work."
Sheik Nasser served as Kuwait's envoy to Washington from 1981 to 1992. He later served in Kuwait's government as information minister and oil minister.
In the past decade, he played an elder statesmen's role with close ties to the White House and U.S. officials.
He also was a strong opponent of anti-Western views by Islamic hard-liners in Kuwait. In 2003, he joined other Kuwaiti leaders in endorsing the U.S. invasion of Iraq and called it the "beginning of the end" for Muslim extremists.
Al-Qabas newspaper said a funeral was scheduled for Sunday.
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. ? A Marine accused of killing unarmed Iraqi women and children pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty on Monday, reaching a deal that will mean a maximum of three months confinement and end the largest and longest-running criminal case against U.S. troops to emerge from the Iraq War.
Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., led the Marine squad in 2005 that killed 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha after a roadside bomb exploded near a Marine convoy, killing one Marine and wounding two others.
Wuterich's plea Monday interrupted his trial at Camp Pendleton before a jury of all combat Marines who served in Iraq.
Wuterich faces a maximum of three months confinement, two-thirds forfeiture of pay and a rank demotion to private when he's sentenced, likely on Tuesday. The plea agreement calls for manslaughter charges to be dropped.
"No one denies that the events .... were tragic, most of all Frank Wuterich," defense attorney Neal Puckett told the North County Times on Monday. "But the fact of the matter is that he has now been totally exonerated of the homicide charges brought against him by the government and the media. For the last six years, he has had his name dragged through the mud. Today, we hope, is the beginning of his redemption."
Phone messages left for Puckett and co-counsel Mark Zaid weren't immediately returned.
The issue at the court martial was whether Wuterich reacted appropriately as a Marine squad leader in protecting his troops in the midst of a chaotic war or disregarded combat rules and ordered his men to shoot and blast indiscriminately at Iraqi civilians. Wuterich was charged with nine counts of manslaughter, among other charges, and is one of eight Marines initially charged. None has been convicted.
Prosecutors said he lost control after seeing the body of his friend blown apart by the bomb and led his men on a rampage in which they stormed two nearby homes, blasting their way in with gunfire and grenades. Among the dead were women, children and elderly, including a man in a wheelchair.
Wuterich's former squad members testified that they did not take any gunfire during the 45-minute raid on the homes nor find any weapons, but several squad members testified that they do not believe they did anything wrong, fearing insurgents were inside hiding.
The prosecution was further hurt by the testimony of Wuterich's former platoon commander who said the squad was justified in its actions because house was declared "hostile," and from what he understood of the rules of combat at the time that meant any use of force could be used and Marines did not need to positively identify their targets.
Wuterich has said he regretted the loss of civilian lives but believed he was operating within military combat rules.
After Haditha, Marines commanders ordered troops to try and distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The killings in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, still fuel anger in Iraq and was the primary reason behind demands that U.S. troops not be given immunity from their court system. It is considered among the war's defining moments, further tainting America's reputation when it was already at a low point after the release of photos of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison.
The trial was delayed for years by pre-trial wrangling between the defense and prosecution, including over whether the military could use unaired outtakes from an interview Wuterich gave in 2007 to CBS "60 Minutes." Prosecutors eventually won the right to view the footage
Six squad members have had charges dropped or dismissed, including some in exchange for testifying at the trial. One was acquitted.
In recent months, there's been some hand-wringing about a "Series A Crunch" ? namely, a glut of startups raising seed and angel funding, then struggling once they need to raise a proper Series A. But in a recent interview, 500 Startups founder Dave McClure said the complaints are misguided.
FRIDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Younger women with breast cancer may experience a decrease in their health-related quality of life because of increased mental distress, weight gain and other factors, a new study finds.
Decreased physical activity, infertility and early-onset menopause were among the other problems these women faced, according to the report published Jan. 20 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The findings were based on data from 28 previous studies, conducted between 1990 and 2010, which focused on how breast cancer affects the quality of life of breast cancer patients aged 50 and younger.
The review revealed that overall quality of life was reduced in these patients, and that mental issues were more severe than physical problems, said Dr. Patricia Ganz, director of cancer prevention and control research at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues.
The investigators also found that younger breast cancer patients were more depressed than women of the same age without cancer in the general population, or breast cancer patients older than 50. Premature menopause, infertility and menopause-related symptoms were more common among patients 50 and younger and contributed to their levels of distress, the findings showed.
Even though exercise rates among younger patients generally increased after treatment, weight gain and physical inactivity were common among these women, the study authors pointed out in a university news release.
The findings suggest that personalized treatment is particularly important for younger women with breast cancer, the researchers said.
"By tailoring adjuvant therapy regimens and giving cytotoxic therapy [such as chemotherapy] only to those who may benefit, we can mitigate some of these side effects, but the long life expectancy for these younger women also provides a window of opportunity for cancer prevention and health promotion activities," the study authors concluded in their report.
More information
The American Cancer Society outlines lifestyle changes to consider during and after breast cancer treatment.
ROME ? The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said Friday as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers.
CEO Pierluigi Foschi told Italian state TV that the company spoke to the captain at 10:05 p.m. (2105 GMT; 4:05 p.m. EST), some 20 minutes after the ship ran aground on Jan. 13, but could not offer proper assistance because the captain's description "did not correspond to the truth."
Capt. Francesco Schettino said only that he had "problems" on board but did not mention hitting a reef.
Likewise, Foschi said crew members were not informed of the gravity of the situation.
Passenger video shown on Italian TV indicates crew members telling passengers to go to their cabins as late as 10:25 p.m. (2125 GMT; 4:25 p.m. EST). The abandon ship alarm sounded just before 11:00 p.m. (2200 GMT; 5:00 p.m. EST).
"That's because they also did not receive correct information on the gravity of the situation," Foschi said.
The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-charted rocks off the island of Giglio a week ago. Eleven people have been confirmed dead.
The Concordia shifted again on its rocky perch Friday, forcing the suspension of diving search operations for the 21 people still missing and raising concerns about the stability of the ship's resting place. But the search in areas above the waterline resumed in the evening after the ship was deemed stable.
The remarks by Costa CEO Foschi are the latest to indicate a lack of proper communication with authorities on land as the emergency unfolded.
An audiotape of the Concordia's first contact with maritime authorities has a Concordia office repeatedly replying that the ship had experienced a blackout, even though it had hit the reef more than half an hour earlier.
Italian media reported the officer on the call was Schettino, but that could not be independently confirmed.
Costa Crociere SpA, which offered support to the captain in the hours after the emergency, has now turned its back on the man who is under investigation for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship. Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship, is under house arrest near Naples.
Costa in recent days has suspended Schettino, announced it is no longer paying his legal fees and has signed on as a civil party in the prosecution, a move that positions it as an injured party and would allow it to seek damages in the case of a guilty verdict.
Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro said crews will evaluate the ship's stability Saturday morning to see if the diving operation can resume, focusing on an area where passengers would have sought lifeboats, Nicastro said.
It was not clear if the slight movements registered by sensors placed on board the Costa Concordia were just vibrations as the ship settles on the rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio or if the massive ocean liner is slowly slipping off the reef. Salvage experts suggest it could be because of pockets of air gradually escaping.
The sensors detected that the ship's bow was moving about 15 millimeters (half an inch) an hour and the stern about 7 millimeters (one-quarter inch) an hour, said Nicola Casagli of the University of Florence, who was called in by Italian authorities to monitor the ship's stability.
The Concordia's movements are being watched since any significant shift could be dangerous for divers trying to locate those missing since the Concordia ran aground Jan. 13. An additional fear is that movement could damage tanks holding a 500,000 gallons of fuel oil and lead to leaks.
The sea floor drops off sharply a few meters (yards) from where the ship is resting, and Italy's environment minister has warned it risks sinking.
On Friday, relatives of some of the 21 missing were at Giglio's port getting briefings from rescue teams.
Casagli told Sky TG24 that some movement in the Concordia was only natural given the immense weight of the steel-hulled ship, which is being held in place by two huge rocks at bow and stern.
But the latest movements indicate it isn't stable, he said. "These are small, regular movements that are being monitored because they're going in the same direction," he told Sky.
Late Thursday, Carnival Corp., the U.S.-based company that owns Costa, announced it was conducting a comprehensive audit of all 10 of its cruise lines to review safety and emergency response procedures in the wake of the Costa disaster. The evacuation was chaotic and the alarm to abandon the ship was sounded after the Concordia had capsized too much to get many life boats down.
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Colleen Barry reported from Milan. Andrea Foa contributed from Giglio, Italy.
The winner of this week's Android Central photo contest is Travis Detweiler with his picture of sunrise over Tampa Bay. Taken with his HTC EVO 3D while heading out into the gulf to catch a few Amberjack and Grouper. Travis says he didn't use any particular camera app or effects, just the camera as-is on his 3VO. He captured the theme and framed the perfect shot. Congrats, Travis!
We had well over a thousand entries, and while it took a while to look through them all it was quite enjoyable -- you guys and gals can take some awesome pictures. We've collected the 10 runners-up for you to enjoy as well, hit the break to see them. Don't forget, we're starting up a new round tomorrow, so keep an eye out.
LONDON (Reuters) ? Oil giant BP will likely agree to pay the U.S. Department of Justice $20-$25 billion next month to settle all civil and criminal charges around the Deepwater Horizon rig blast and Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a leading industry analyst predicted on Thursday.
Martijn Rats, head of European oil research at Morgan Stanley said in a research note that he saw a 70-80 percent chance that the two sides would agree a deal sometime between BP's full year results on February 7, and the scheduled start of legal hearings in New Orleans on February 27.
BP sources have told Reuters that talks are ongoing with the Department of Justice about a possible settlement and that the London-based company's board has shifted to weekly meetings to discuss progress.
Chief Executive Bob Dudley has previously said BP would like to settle, although not at any price. When asked about the matter by reporters on Wednesday, he declined to make any comment, saying it was a sensitive time to be discussing it.
When contacted by Reuters, BP had no comment to make over the likelihood or size of a settlement.
BP senses the U.S. administration would like to settle the matter, not least because it is a U.S. presidential election year, the sources said but any outcome is still seen as uncertain.
The estimated level of settlement in the Morgan Stanley note - the most detailed analysis Reuters has seen on the potential cost of the spill - is much higher than other analysts have predicted, and around double the amount BP has taken a provision for.
Senior company sources last year told Reuters that the company was prepared for a massive payout. One source predicted BP would offer "the mother of all settlements."
Another said the settlement would likely be the second-largest in U.S. legal history, putting it between the $206 billion the tobacco industry agreed to pay U.S. states for treating smoking-related illnesses and the $7.2 billion banks agreed to pay to settle litigation related to Enron's collapse.
SHARES LAG
BP has the money to pay a $20-25 billion settlement - it is sitting on cash pile of more than $20 billion and has billions of dollars worth of assets on the block as part of its restructuring.
Nonetheless, Morgan Stanley predicts the larger-than- expected size of the payout will weigh on BP's shares. It rates the shares "underweight" and has a target price of 435 pence, against a Wednesday close of 481 pence.
The shares traded down 0.6 percent at 0905 GMT, against a flat STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index.
BP investors are expecting the company to announce a dividend hike at its full year results, after Dudley said late last year that it had reached a turning point after the oil spill and was now returning to growth mode.
A big settlement would limit BP's ability to lift the shareholder payout.
Morgan Stanley believes the DoJ deal will cover all criminal and civil proceedings being pursued by the government against BP under the Clean Water Act, Alternative Fines Act, other laws and BP's obligation to make good any natural resources damages.
(Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters and Mike Nesbit)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ? U.S. banking regulators have filed suit against the director of a Puerto Rican bank, alleging that reckless lending and improper management led to the April 2010 collapse that cost the deposit insurance fund nearly $1.5 billion.
Officers and directors of R-G Premier Bank failed to adequately supervise the huge increase in commercial lending during the housing boom and bust in the U.S. island territory, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in San Juan.
The suit seeks at least $257 million in damages and names 19 bank officials, including founder and CEO Victor Galan Alvarez. The suit also names the spouses of 17 of the directors and officers so that it can go after their assets to recover losses from the failure.
U.S. regulators have filed dozens of similar lawsuits over the past two years to recover losses from bank failures that regulators say resulted from negligence and misconduct. FDIC attorneys have been in settlement talks with many of the executives.
The FDIC says that directors of R-G Premier Bank didn't adequately supervise the chief loan officer, ignored warnings that should have led them to tighten control of their operations and made dozens of loans to developers who were already heavily in debt and were poor credit risks.
"Between November 2004 and December 2008 alone, the bank extended over $350 million in loans that any prudent banker should have known would probably never be repaid," the suit says. "The directors and officers also exacerbated and accelerated these losses by robotically approving virtually any loan request that crossed their desks, even though such loan requests had been processed through the obviously deficient lending structure they had created at the bank."
A lawyer for Galan, Mary Gill of Atlanta, Georgia, had no immediate comment but said the CEO may issue a statement later.
Are you ready to destroy the Dragons of Skyrim with your trusty orcish arrows and shortsword? Do you wish to hop on your trusty horse and ride endlessly up steep slopes and through wooded glens? Do you have a TI-84 graphing calculator? Well you're kind of in luck.
Contact: Bill Schaller william_schaller@dfci.harvard.edu 617-632-5357 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
BOSTON--They are the Robinson Crusoes of the intracellular world -- lone chromosomes, whole and hardy, stranded outside the nucleus where their fellow chromosomes reside. Such castaways, each confined to its own "micronucleus," are often found in cancer cells, but scientists haven't known what role, if any, they play in the cancer process.
In a paper published online on Jan. 18 by the journal Nature, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have mapped out a mechanism by which micronuclei could potentially disrupt the chromosomes within them and produce cancer-causing gene mutations. The findings may point to a vulnerability in cancer cells that could be attacked by new therapies.
"The most common genetic change in cancer is the presence of an incorrect number of intact chromosomes within cancer cells -- a condition known as aneuploidy," says Dana-Farber's David Pellman, MD, the study's senior author. "The significance of aneuploidy has been hard to pin down, however, because little is known about how it might trigger tumors. In contrast, the mechanism by which DNA damage and broken chromosomes cause cancer is well established -- by altering cancer genes in a way that spurs runaway cell division.
"The new study demonstrates one possible chain of events by which aneuploidy and specifically 'exiled' chromosomes could lead to cancer-causing mutations, with potential implications for cancer prevention and treatment," says Pellman, who is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and the Margaret M. Dyson Professor of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber, Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School.
Whole chromosomes can end up outside the nucleus as a result of a glitch in cell division. In normal division, a cell duplicates its chromosomes and dispatches them to the newly forming daughter cells: the original set to one daughter, the twin set to the other. For a variety of reasons, the chromosomes sometimes aren't allocated evenly -- one daughter receives an extra one, the other is short one. Unlike the rest of the chromosomes, these stragglers sometimes don't make it to the nucleus. Instead, they're marooned elsewhere within the cell and become wrapped in their own membrane, forming a micronucleus.
"In some respects, micronuclei are similar to primary nuclei," Pellman remarks, "but much about their function and composition is unknown. Previous studies differ on whether micronuclei replicate or repair their chromosomes as normal nuclei do. The ultimate fate of these chromosomes is unclear as well: Are they passed on to daughter cells during cell division or are they somehow eliminated as division proceeds?"
One clue that odd-man-out chromosomes themselves may be subject to damage -- and therefore be involved in cancer -- emerged from Pellman's previous research into aneuploidy. "We found that cancer cells generated from cells with micronuclei also have a great deal of chromosome breakage," Pellman explains. But researchers didn't know if this was a sign of connection or of coincidence.
Another clue came from a recently discovered phenomenon called "chromothripsis," in which one chromosome of a cancer cell shows massive amounts of breakage and rearrangement, while the remainder of the genome is largely intact. "That finding leapt off the page of these studies -- that such extensive damage could be limited to a single chromosome or single arm of a chromosome," Pellman says. "We wondered if the physical isolation of chromosomes in micronuclei could explain this kind of highly localized chromosome damage."
To find out, Karen Crasta, PhD, of Pellman's lab and the study's lead author, used a confocal microscope to observe dividing cells with micronuclei. She found that while micronuclei do form duplicate copies of their chromosomes, the process is bungled in two respects. First, it is inefficient: part of the chromosome is replicated and part isn't, leading to chromosome damage. Second, it is out of sync: the micronucleus keeps trying to replicate its chromosomes long after replication of the other chromosomes was completed. For cell division to be successful, every step of the process must occur in the proper order, at the proper time. In fact, when study co-author Regina Dagher directly analyzed the structure of the late-replicating chromosomes, she found them to be smashed to bits -- exactly what was predicted as the first step in chromothripsis.
The final piece of the puzzle came when Pellman's colleague Neil Ganem, PhD, examined what happens to these pulverized fragments, using an imaging trick that marked the chromosome in the micronucleus with its own color.
"It has been theorized that micronuclei are garbage disposals for chromosomes that the cell doesn't need anymore," Pellman comments. "If that were true, the smashed pieces would be discarded or digested, but we found that, a third of the time, they're donated to one of the daughter cells and therefore cold be incorporated into that cell's genome.
Pellman says that the findings suggest that, unexpectedly, whole chromosome aneuploidy might promote cancer in a very similar way to other kinds of genomic alterations. The key event may be mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressors. This mechanism may also explain how cancer cells acquire more than one such mutation at a time.
"Although chromothripsis occurs in only a few percent of human cancers, our findings suggest that it might be an extreme instance of a kind of chromosome damage that could be much more common," says Pellman, who adds that accelerating this process in cancer cells, thus generating so many mutations that the cells die, may represent a possible strategy for new therapies against certain tumors.
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The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-farber.org) is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. It provides adult cancer care with Brigham and Women's Hospital as Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and it provides pediatric care with Children's Hospital Boston as Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center. Dana-Farber is the top ranked cancer center in New England, according to U.S. News & World Report, and one of the largest recipients among independent hospitals of National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health grant funding. Follow Dana-Farber on Twitter: @danafarber and Facebook: www.facebook.com/danafarbercancerinstitute
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Contact: Bill Schaller william_schaller@dfci.harvard.edu 617-632-5357 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
BOSTON--They are the Robinson Crusoes of the intracellular world -- lone chromosomes, whole and hardy, stranded outside the nucleus where their fellow chromosomes reside. Such castaways, each confined to its own "micronucleus," are often found in cancer cells, but scientists haven't known what role, if any, they play in the cancer process.
In a paper published online on Jan. 18 by the journal Nature, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have mapped out a mechanism by which micronuclei could potentially disrupt the chromosomes within them and produce cancer-causing gene mutations. The findings may point to a vulnerability in cancer cells that could be attacked by new therapies.
"The most common genetic change in cancer is the presence of an incorrect number of intact chromosomes within cancer cells -- a condition known as aneuploidy," says Dana-Farber's David Pellman, MD, the study's senior author. "The significance of aneuploidy has been hard to pin down, however, because little is known about how it might trigger tumors. In contrast, the mechanism by which DNA damage and broken chromosomes cause cancer is well established -- by altering cancer genes in a way that spurs runaway cell division.
"The new study demonstrates one possible chain of events by which aneuploidy and specifically 'exiled' chromosomes could lead to cancer-causing mutations, with potential implications for cancer prevention and treatment," says Pellman, who is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and the Margaret M. Dyson Professor of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber, Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School.
Whole chromosomes can end up outside the nucleus as a result of a glitch in cell division. In normal division, a cell duplicates its chromosomes and dispatches them to the newly forming daughter cells: the original set to one daughter, the twin set to the other. For a variety of reasons, the chromosomes sometimes aren't allocated evenly -- one daughter receives an extra one, the other is short one. Unlike the rest of the chromosomes, these stragglers sometimes don't make it to the nucleus. Instead, they're marooned elsewhere within the cell and become wrapped in their own membrane, forming a micronucleus.
"In some respects, micronuclei are similar to primary nuclei," Pellman remarks, "but much about their function and composition is unknown. Previous studies differ on whether micronuclei replicate or repair their chromosomes as normal nuclei do. The ultimate fate of these chromosomes is unclear as well: Are they passed on to daughter cells during cell division or are they somehow eliminated as division proceeds?"
One clue that odd-man-out chromosomes themselves may be subject to damage -- and therefore be involved in cancer -- emerged from Pellman's previous research into aneuploidy. "We found that cancer cells generated from cells with micronuclei also have a great deal of chromosome breakage," Pellman explains. But researchers didn't know if this was a sign of connection or of coincidence.
Another clue came from a recently discovered phenomenon called "chromothripsis," in which one chromosome of a cancer cell shows massive amounts of breakage and rearrangement, while the remainder of the genome is largely intact. "That finding leapt off the page of these studies -- that such extensive damage could be limited to a single chromosome or single arm of a chromosome," Pellman says. "We wondered if the physical isolation of chromosomes in micronuclei could explain this kind of highly localized chromosome damage."
To find out, Karen Crasta, PhD, of Pellman's lab and the study's lead author, used a confocal microscope to observe dividing cells with micronuclei. She found that while micronuclei do form duplicate copies of their chromosomes, the process is bungled in two respects. First, it is inefficient: part of the chromosome is replicated and part isn't, leading to chromosome damage. Second, it is out of sync: the micronucleus keeps trying to replicate its chromosomes long after replication of the other chromosomes was completed. For cell division to be successful, every step of the process must occur in the proper order, at the proper time. In fact, when study co-author Regina Dagher directly analyzed the structure of the late-replicating chromosomes, she found them to be smashed to bits -- exactly what was predicted as the first step in chromothripsis.
The final piece of the puzzle came when Pellman's colleague Neil Ganem, PhD, examined what happens to these pulverized fragments, using an imaging trick that marked the chromosome in the micronucleus with its own color.
"It has been theorized that micronuclei are garbage disposals for chromosomes that the cell doesn't need anymore," Pellman comments. "If that were true, the smashed pieces would be discarded or digested, but we found that, a third of the time, they're donated to one of the daughter cells and therefore cold be incorporated into that cell's genome.
Pellman says that the findings suggest that, unexpectedly, whole chromosome aneuploidy might promote cancer in a very similar way to other kinds of genomic alterations. The key event may be mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressors. This mechanism may also explain how cancer cells acquire more than one such mutation at a time.
"Although chromothripsis occurs in only a few percent of human cancers, our findings suggest that it might be an extreme instance of a kind of chromosome damage that could be much more common," says Pellman, who adds that accelerating this process in cancer cells, thus generating so many mutations that the cells die, may represent a possible strategy for new therapies against certain tumors.
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The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-farber.org) is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. It provides adult cancer care with Brigham and Women's Hospital as Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and it provides pediatric care with Children's Hospital Boston as Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center. Dana-Farber is the top ranked cancer center in New England, according to U.S. News & World Report, and one of the largest recipients among independent hospitals of National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health grant funding. Follow Dana-Farber on Twitter: @danafarber and Facebook: www.facebook.com/danafarbercancerinstitute
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It's always helpful when tech start-ups scheme new ways for you to burn through that bank account. Like YBUY, the membership-only site that charges a monthly fee in exchange for trying out the latest and greatest in gadgetry, like an iPad 2 or Xbox 360, sans shipping fees. The fresh-out-of-beta portal offers approved users the ability to return or purchase the pre-selected goods after a 30 day trial period, with that recurring charge going towards the full retail price if you choose to opt-in. Its co-founders claim to curate the ever-changing roster of high-end kit, taking into account the best product reviews (ahem) and even featuring certified refurbs. So, what's the catch? Well, there doesn't really appear to be any. It's simply up to you to curb that tech enthusiasm and keep your credit card balance resting peacefully at zero.
NEW YORK (AP) ? LaDainian Tomlinson says the tension between New York Jets players that fractured the locker room this season was "as bad as I've ever been around, honestly."
In an interview with Showtime's "Inside The NFL" airing Wednesday night, the running back says the turmoil started in the third or fourth week and "got out of hand toward the end of the season." Tomlinson adds that quarterback Mark Sanchez and wide receiver Santonio Holmes, in particular, had a rocky relationship.
Holmes was benched during the season finale at Miami after arguing in the huddle with teammates. Tomlinson says the tensions escalated to the point where the players couldn't do anything about it.
He adds that the problems "absolutely" can be fixed, but the Jets need "to make some tough decisions."
The National Center for Science Education is a wonderful institution dedicated to fighting junk science from entering our Nation?s schools and media. This is a tireless and often thankless job, yet there are so few ?think tank? type organizations to promote science standards out there that they really stand out. I had the fortune 2 years ago to visit their offices and was impressed by how passionate the staff were and what they could accomplish out of a tiny office and a garage to store their immense archives.
NCSE is best know for fighting creationism in schools and provided crucial assistance during the landmark Dover Trial and battles over intelligent design legislation throughout several states. Now, they are turning their attention to climate change denial ? a wholly other beast! See this brief video below.
The fight over evolution and intelligent design/creationism was essentially a legal one hinging on a loose definition of religion entering public school classrooms. Naturally, there is much more to it than that, but i want to make a point that the climate change denial fight is not necessarily a legal battle much like the the religious infiltration of ID was. This makes it a much more difficult fight! It is mostly an education campaign, not a legal campaign. Curiously, though, the tactics of climate change deniers are all too familiar! They have borrowed and mirrored many of the strategies (and in fact, people) from ID proponents.
I?ve long been a supporter of NCSE when I could afford membership. I think it?s time to make that small financial sacrifice once again to support their noble efforts at improving the standards of science education in America. If you think this is about single issues, like teaching evolution or climate change in grade school, then you are dead wrong. This is about the deceitful infiltration of an anti-science politico-cultural agenda into the most vulnerable sector of society, our nations publicly-funded schools. The country can regain its prominence as a science beacon in the world once again, but it takes organisations like NCSE to help and ordinary citizens like you and I to care.
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*Earth photo credit:?NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image by Reto St?ckli
Steve Wozniak may have helped Steve Jobs build one of the greatest consumer electronics empires in the world, but this Apple co-founder admits that he loves his Android handset. During an interview with the Daily Beast, the Woz blasts the iPhone for its limitations and highlights a number of perks that Android brings, including voice commands that are better than Siri and navigation. ?My primary phone is the iPhone, I love the beauty of it,? Wozniak says. ?But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.?
The statement was heard around the world, as Wozniak adds fuel to the bitter battle between Apple and Android. It?s a rivalry that hearkens back to the days of Apple versus Microsoft back in the 1990s, where Apple lost out to volume, pricing and accessibility. Wozniak thinks Apple?s mobile strategy may not be differentiated enough, however, saying ?there?s not as big a difference [between iOS and Android] as there was between Mac and Windows.?
Android losing control of its market?
Wozniak goes on to note Apple?s strict app approval process as a sticking point that ultimately gives Android the lead, and this has been a point of contention from day one. Apple?s been slow to give up control over its ecosystem, while Android may have given up too much control with its open app store. Some argue that Android?s openness is contributing to its detriment around fragmentation, some even saying that Google has no chance of regaining control. But it may not be total control Google?s after when it comes to Android. Its open source platform acts as a partner for manufacturers like Samsung and HTC, emboldening the Android ecosystem for rapid expansion and broad consumer appeal. It?s worked out quite well for handset makers, even enabling Samsung to compete on a more direct level with the Apple iPhone.
The dangers of Android patent infringement
But making Android phones does have its downside. Microsoft, the company that first beat out the Macintosh PC some decades ago, is looking to dominate the mobile scene any way it can. This strategy revolves around targeting Android manufacturers for licensing agreements, and Pantech could be next. South Korea?s third largest handset maker is reportedly in talks with Microsoft regarding the patent usage in its Android smartphones, and could end up paying around $5 per Android device sold. HTC and Samsung already have deals with Microsoft, which now collects fees from nearly 70 percent of Android device makers. South Korea?s second-largest handset maker, LG, just signed a deal last week.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan ? Voters cast ballots Sunday in the oil-rich Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan in elections that are expected to slightly broaden democratic representation in parliament's rubber-stamp lower house.
All seats in the former Soviet nation's parliament are currently occupied by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party. A 2009 election law gives at least two seats to the party with the second-highest number of votes even if it does not receive the 7 percent share that is the threshold for proportional allotment of seats.
However, opposition parties that were most likely to pose a robust challenge to Nur Otan have been either disqualified from competing or rendered largely powerless.
The pro-business Ak Zhol party, which avoids confrontation with the government, is seen as the most likely runner-up.
Prosperity and stability in Kazakhstan ? mainly driven by its vast reserves of oil, gas and minerals ? account for much of the support for Nur Otan and the president.
Kazakhstan is eager to boost its international image and hopes that a transition to a multiparty parliament will serve to improve its democratic credentials.
"This is a great test for us, we have more than 1,000 observers here from around the world. I am sure that the people of Kazakhstan will make the right choice for their future, for our development, and a peaceful life in our common home," Nazarbayev said after casting his ballot.
The elections are taking place in the shadow of an unusual outburst of discontent and violence.
In December, a long-term protest in the town of Zhanaozen by oil workers who had been fired after striking for better pay degenerated into clashes with police who opened fire. At least 16 people were killed, and the bloodshed set off a riot in another town where police killed one person.
In the capital, Astana, voters braved 7 degree Fahrenheit (minus 14 Celsius) weather as they started casting ballots at 7 a.m. (0100 GMT). Polls were to close at 8 p.m. (1400 GMT).
Voters at a polling station in the Kazakh Drama Theater said they were confident the elections would result in continued improvements in their living standards.
"I think that those running as candidates for parliament will protect our interests, support us and increase our pensions," said 62-year-old retiree Ajan Ospanova.
The recurring theme in the run-up to the elections, as in the polls that saw Nazarbayev reconfirmed president last year with a startling 95 percent of the vote, has been stability above all else.
Any potential for unrest in Kazakhstan is of concern to the West.
Kazakhstan is becoming increasingly important as a supplier of oil and gas, and the country is key to the northern delivery route for supplies to the U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan.
More than 9 million people are eligible to vote in Sunday's elections and turnout is expected to be high. Although popular political engagement is low, mass participation in elections is a feature that has been carried over from Soviet times.
University students are regularly pressured into voting by teaching staff and government workers also face similar coercion. Gifts, such as household electrical goods, are typically handed out to first-time voters and war veterans as an additional inducement.
Election officials said no violations had been reported by early afternoon.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) ? Online shoe seller Zappos.com says a hacker may have accessed the personal information of up to 24 million customers.
Customers' credit card and payment information was not stolen, but names, phone numbers, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, the last four digits from credit cards and more may have been accessed in the attack, according to an email that CEO Tony Hsieh sent on Sunday to employees.
Zappos is contacting customers by email and urging them to change their passwords.
Zappos said the hacker gained access to its internal network and systems through one of the company's servers in Kentucky. Zappos is based in Las Vegas. It is owned by Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc.
"We've spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand, and trust with our customers," Hsieh said in his email. "It's painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident. I suppose the one saving grace is that the database that stores our customers' critical credit card and other payment data was not affected or accessed."
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Online:
Zappos.com information on password change for customers: http://www.zappos.com/passwordchange
CEO email and statement: http://blogs.zappos.com/securityemail
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ? The parents of Natalee Holloway, the American teenager who disappeared in Aruba in 2005, say their ordeal hasn't ended with a judge declaring their daughter dead. They hope a young Dutchman seen leaving a bar with Holloway on the last day she was seen alive might ultimately be brought before a U.S. court.
Joran van der Sloot, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Peru to the 2010 slaying of a young woman he had met in a Lima casino. That plea from the Dutchman, described as the prime suspect in the Holloway case, came hours before Thursday's hearing in Birmingham where Dave and Beth Holloway watched a judge rule their daughter legally dead.
"We've been dealing with her death for the last six and a half years," Dave Holloway said after Thursday's hearing. He said the judge's order closes one chapter in the ordeal, but added: "We've still got a long way to go to get justice."
Thursday's hearing was scheduled before van der Sloot ? who had been questioned in Holloway's disappearance ? pleaded guilty to killing a 21-year-old Peruvian, Stephany Flores. She was slain five years to the day after Holloway, an 18-year-old from the wealthy Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook, disappeared.
Dave Holloway said he hopes van der Sloot, who awaits sentencing, gets a 30-year prison term sought by Peruvian prosecutors. Shortly after Flores' death on May 30, 2010, van der Sloot told police he had killed the woman in Peru in a fit of rage after she discovered on his laptop his connection to Holloway's disappearance. Police forensic experts disputed the claim.
"Everybody knows his personality. I believe he is beyond rehabilitation," Dave Holloway said.
Attorneys said both parents spoke of hopes that van der Sloot's next stop will be Birmingham, where he faces federal charges accusing him of extorting $25,000 from Beth Holloway to reveal the location of her daughter's body. Prosecutors said the money was paid, but nothing was disclosed about the missing woman's whereabouts.
Authorities said they believe the tall, garrulous Dutchman used the money to travel to Peru on May 14, 2010, where Flores was killed two weeks later. Van der Sloot is now jailed in Peru.
Natalee Holloway disappeared on May 30, 2005, during a high school graduation trip to the Dutch Caribbean island where van der Sloot grew up. Her body was never found and repeated searches turned up nothing as intense media coverage brought the case worldwide attention.
Investigators have long worked from the assumption that the young woman was dead in Aruba, where the case was classified as a homicide investigation. That investigation remains open, though there has been no recent activity, said Solicitor General Taco Stein, an official with the prosecutor's office in Aruba.
"The team that was acting in that investigation still is functioning as a team and they get together whenever there is information or things are needed in the case or a new tip arrives," Stein said.
In Birmingham, Natalee Holloway's parents, who have been divorced since 1993, shook hands and talked briefly before the hearing. During the 10-minute proceeding, they looked on somberly.
Dave Holloway told the judge in September he believed his daughter was dead and wanted to stop payments on her medical insurance and use her $2,000 college fund to help her younger brother. Beth Holloway initially objected, but her lawyer, Charlie DeBardeleben, said she later changed her mind once she understood her husband's intentions.
Beth Holloway sat in the back row in court, staring at her hands as she held them in her lap most of the time. Her attorney said it was difficult for her to witness the judge signing the death declaration.
"She's ready to move on from this," DeBardeleben said.
Mark White, an attorney for Dave Holloway, told the judge before he ruled that there was no indication Holloway was alive ? despite exhaustive searches, reward offers and blanket media coverage at times.
"Despite all that no evidence has been found Natalee Holloway is alive," he told the judge.
King had ruled in September that Dave Holloway had met the legal presumption of death for his daughter and it was up to someone to prove she didn't die on the trip. The hearing was held after several months in which no one came forward with new information.
Attorneys said they are unaware of any plans for a memorial service.
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Online:
AP interactive: http://hosted.ap.org/interactives/2012/natalee-holloway
In recent months, there's been some hand-wringing about a "Series A Crunch" ? namely, a glut of startups raising seed and angel funding, then struggling once they need to raise a proper Series A. But in a recent interview, 500 Startups founder Dave McClure said the complaints are misguided.
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Public release date: 19-Jan-2012
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The National Center for Science Education is a wonderful institution dedicated to fighting junk science from entering our Nation?s schools and media. This is a tireless and often thankless job, yet there are so few ?think tank? type organizations to promote science standards out there that they really stand out. I had the fortune 2 years ago to visit their offices and was impressed by how passionate the staff were and what they could accomplish out of a tiny office and a garage to store their immense archives.
Steve Wozniak may have helped Steve Jobs build one of the greatest consumer electronics empires in the world, but this Apple co-founder admits that he loves his Android handset. During an interview with the Daily Beast, the Woz blasts the iPhone for its limitations and highlights a number of perks that Android brings, including voice commands that are better than Siri and navigation. ?My primary phone is the iPhone, I love the beauty of it,? Wozniak says. ?But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do.?