CNN's Soledad O'Brien has an exclusive interview with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf on "Larry King Live" Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.
Washington (CNN) -- A broad coalition of Christian, Jewish and Islamic leaders denounced what they described as a rising tide of anti-Muslim bigotry across the United States Tuesday, arguing that such sentiments constitute a betrayal of traditional American values.
Various faith leaders in recent weeks have expressed concerns about hate crimes against American Muslims in the run-up to this weekend's anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, which coincide with the holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, marking the conclusion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Worry over what some observers have termed "Islamophobia" has also been heightened by a Gainesville, Florida, church's plan to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington.
Religious leaders met with Attorney General Eric Holder at the Justice Department on Tuesday to discuss their concerns.
"To quote the attorney general, he called the Gainesville planned burning of Qurans 'idiotic and dangerous,'" said Farhana Khera, president of Muslim Advocates, soon after meeting with Holder.
"While it may not be a violation of the law -- it may be an act of free speech -- it certainly violates our sense of decency," she added about the Florida event.
Separately, founders of the newly formed Interfaith Coalition on Mosques addressed the issue of religious freedom during a news conference at Washington's National Press Club.
"Freedom of religion is a hallmark of this country," said Ingrid Mattson, head of the Islamic Society of North America. It is time to decide "whether we are going to live up to our values."
The coalition released a statement decrying a "disturbing rise in discrimination against Muslims" and declaring that the current "level of hostility, fear mongering and hate speech is unacceptable and un-American."
"We believe the best way to uphold America's democratic values is to ensure that Muslims can exercise the same religious freedom enjoyed by everyone in America," the statement read.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may weigh in on the debate as well when she joins a Ramadan celebration at the State Department Tuesday night. Clinton is expected to deliver remarks around 8 p.m. ET.
Also stoking the flames of controversy is the continuing bitter debate over a Muslim community center and mosque planned near ground zero in New York.
Opponents of the plan to build the center say it is too close to the site of the terror attacks and is an affront to the memory of those who died in the al Qaeda strike. Backers cite, among other things, First Amendment rights and the need to express religious tolerance.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the religious leader behind the project -- officially known as Park51 -- has returned to the United States from an outreach trip to the Middle East, according to Daisy Khan, his wife.
He plans to talk exclusively to CNN's Soledad O'Brien on Larry King Live Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET.
The project is slated to include a variety of facilities, including a prayer room, a performing arts center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces. It is planned for a site two blocks from the World Trade Center.
A source familiar with Park51 told CNN's Allan Chernoff last week that the structure is being planned as an 11-story building. It will cover 120,000 square feet -- 10,000 feet of which would be designated for the Muslim prayer space. The developer is considering the possibility of an interfaith education/meditation/prayer space as well, the source said.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke on Tuesday about the plan and criticized politicians he claims are using the issue for political gain ahead of mid-term elections in November.
"This is a political thing that all came up in two months -- and its going to go away on November 4th," he said.
Last week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations launched a series of commercials designed to fight what it called growing Islamophobia. One in the series features a Muslim firefighter who was among the first responders on 9/11.
Opponents of the New York Islamic center are "trying to tell the world and tell Americans that Muslims do not belong here. That Muslims are the others, when we are in fact, all Americans," said Nahad Awad, executive director of the council.
"They're trying to portray Muslims as foreigners. This is a dangerous repeat of history. If it's allowed, it's going to hurt all of us," he said.
In a statement on its website, the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, said it plans to mark the anniversary of the 2001 attacks by burning Qurans this weekend "to warn about the teaching and ideology of Islam, which we do hate as it is hateful."
The pastor of the small church, Terry Jones, has written a book titled "Islam is of the Devil," and the church sells coffee mugs and shirts featuring the phrase.
The U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday criticized the church's plan, warning the demonstration "could cause significant problems" for American troops overseas.
"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan," Gen. David Petraeus said.
Asked for the president's perspective on the controversy, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday "the best best place to look for the views of this administration is to look at what Gen. Petraeus said."
"We know that this type of activity is being transmitted back to places like Afghanistan," Gibbs said. "It puts our troops at harm's way ... (and) is a concern to this administration."
Jones told CNN's "American Morning" on Tuesday that he is "taking the general's words" seriously. We are "weighing the situation" and are "praying about it," he said.
But it is "very important that America wakes up," he argued. Radical Islam "must be shown a certain amount of force (and) determination."
The planned event has drawn criticism from Muslims in the United States and overseas, with thousands of Indonesians gathering outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sunday to protest the planned Quran burning.
"Those mainly conservative Christians who respond to their Muslim brothers and sisters -- their fellow Americans -- with anti-Muslim bigotry or hatred, they are openly rejecting... the First Amendment principles of religious liberty which we as evangelical Christians benefit daily," said Rev. Richard Cizik, of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, at the National Press Club.
"And to those who would exercise derision ... bigotry (and) open rejection of our fellow Americans for their religious faith -- I say shame on you."
In an unprecedented event for astronomers, two asteroids will swing past the Earth Wednesday at a distance closer than the moon.
The two asteroids, which will not be visible to the naked eye, were only recently discovered by astronomers with the Mount Lemmon Survey in Tucson, Ariz. They are in different orbits with close passes that will come nearly 11 hours apart. While scientists say neither threatens to strike the planet, the two space rocks do provide a challenging skywatching opportunity.
Other asteroids have been known to make such close passes, but it is rare for two to be spotted zooming in at the same time. Because of the asteroids' movement, finding and tracking them across the sky will be a challenge for seasoned skywatchers.
The smaller asteroid, 2010 RF12 will have a closer pass, at almost 49,000 miles (about 79,000 km).
This is higher than communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit 22,369miles (36,000 km) above Earth. On average, the moon is about roughly 238,600 miles (384,000 km) from Earth, so 2010 RF12 will pass by at nearly 0.2 of that lunar distance.
Asteroid 2010 RF12 is a small space rock, estimated to be between 19 and 42.6 feet (5.8 to 13 meters) wide, according to NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
As the asteroid swings by our planet and gains speed, it should also brighten, but it will still be very hard to spot, astronomers have said. Its closest approach will be at 5:18 p.m. EDT (2118 GMT) on Wednesday.
"But by then it will be difficult (to see) from any location on Earth," said Richard Miles, director of the Asteroids and Remote Planets Section at the British Astronomical Association.
The larger space rock, 2010 RX30, will visit first, passing Earth at a range of about three-fifths of the Earth-moon distance, or about 154,000 miles (248,000 km). It is estimated to be between 33 and 72 feet (10 to 22 meters) wide, according to the JPL asteroid database.
This larger asteroid "should be able to be followed to within about 6 hours of closest approach," Miles said in a statement. NASA asteroid trackers said the closest approach of 2010 RX30 will be Wednesday at 5:51 a.m. EDT (0951 GMT).
In telescopes, 2010 RX30 should be visible all night between Tuesday and Wednesday but could be tricky to spot as it crosses the sky at a swift pace.
Seasoned skywatchers equipped with telescopes, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, could see 2010 RF12 reach 13th magnitude between 1600 and 1700 GMT (noon and 1 p.m. EDT), Miles said.
Magnitude is a measure of how bright an object in the sky is, with lower numbers corresponding to brighter objects. Anything magnitude 6.5 and above is not visible to the naked eye.
"As seen visually in a large telescope (30-cm aperture or more), its motion across the sky would be very apparent in real time," Miles wrote.
Using a network of telescopes on the ground and in space, NASA experts and other astronomers routinely track asteroids and comets that may fly uncomfortably near the Earth.
The space agency's Near-Earth Object Observations program is responsible for finding potentially dangerous asteroids and studying their orbits to determine if they pose a risk of hitting the Earth.
Posted by: Ray Ross tagged in categories: Untagged
An optical illusion is about to be trialed in West Vancouver, Canada, starting September 7, to try to jolt reckless drivers into slowing down.
The illusion of a young girl chasing a ball will be on 22nd Street in a school zone by the British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA) Traffic Safety Foundation, the District of West Vancouver, and safety advocacy group Preventable.
David Dunne, of BCAA, said the idea of the experiment is to remind motorists to expect the unexpected while on the road. The image is painted on the road and elongated to make it appear three-dimensional when viewed from an approaching car.
From the far distance the image will look like just a mark on the road, but the image of the girl and ball will appear to rise up from the road when the car is 30 meters away. At shorter distances, the image recedes again. If drivers are traveling at the posted speed of 30 km/h, they will be able to stop in time when they realize they are seeing an image of a child on the road.
The optical illusion campaign will cost $15,000 and will be installed close to École Pauline Johnson Elementary School, and will remain in place for a week. There will also be a sign alerting drivers to a traffic safety program in place ahead, saying “You’re probably not expecting kids to run into the road.” Police will also be patrolling the area.
Mr Dunne said September and October see the most child fatalities on the roads, and parents are often the most reckless and inattentive of drivers. Traditional safety methods have failed to get the message across, and it is hoped the 3D image experiment will surprise drivers and remind them they need to slow down and drive with caution, especially near schools. He also said pedestrians need to be alert and not assume they are safe just because they are on a marked crossing. “Everyone has to expect the unexpected,” he said.
Manager of roads and transportation, Mr Brent Dozzi, said it has always been a challenge to try to get drivers to slow down, and static signs do not work because they become part of the landscape. He said drivers should always be driving defensively, as though a child could run out onto the road at any moment.
Concerns have been raised that the image could surprise inattentive drivers too much, causing them to slam on the brakes and perhaps be rear-ended or even swerve into real children walking nearby, not realizing the girl on the road is an illusion, but Mark Jan Vrem of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) said the ICBC supports anything that slows drivers and encourages them to stay alert, and believes the project is a great idea.
David Dunne said the design is a static image, and added that “if a driver can’t respond to this appropriately, that person shouldn’t be driving." Principal of the École Pauline Johnson school, David Langmuir, also backs the plan, although he was initially skeptical, saying the image becomes clear only gradually and is most realistic at 30 meters, “but then the realism of that image declines rapidly” as the driver approaches it.
The image will be removed after a week, and feedback from police, parents and traffic engineers will be studied to determine if the experiment made any improvement to driver behavior.
Posted by: Ray Ross tagged in categories: Untagged
Chemicals found in the brain and central nervous tissues of cockroaches are able to kill 90 percent of dangerous bacteria in lab-based tests.
(Sept. 7) -- Cockroaches, the creepy critters reviled for invading kitchens the country over, might be modern medicine's best option for fending off dangerous, drug-resistant bacterial infections.
Posted by: Ray Harris tagged in categories: Untagged
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -A Christian minister vowed Tuesday to go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Quran to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite warnings from the White House and the top U.S. general in Afghanistan that doing so would endanger American troops overseas.
Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center said he understands the government's concerns, but plans to go forward with the burning this Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the attacks.
He left the door open to change his mind, saying he is still praying about his decision, which was condemned Tuesday by an interfaith coalition that met in Washington to respond to a spike in anti-Muslim bigotry.
Gen. David Petraeus warned in an e-mail to The Associated Press that "images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence."
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley echoed that, calling the plan to burn copies of the Quran "un-American" and saying it does not represent the views of most people in the U.S.
"While it may well be within someone's rights to take this action, we hope cooler heads will prevail," Crowley said.
Jones told the AP in a phone interview that he is also concerned but wonders how many times the U.S. can back down.
"We think it's time to turn the tables, and instead of possibly blaming us for what could happen, we put the blame where it belongs — on the people who would do it," he said. "And maybe instead of addressing us, we should address radical Islam and send a very clear warning that they are not to retaliate in any form."
Jones, who runs the small, evangelical Christian church with an anti-Islam philosophy, says he has received more than 100 death threats and has started wearing a .40-caliber pistol strapped to his hip.
The threats started not long after the 58-year-old minister proclaimed in July that he would stage "International Burn a Quran Day." Supporters have been mailing copies of the Islamic holy text to his Dove World Outreach Center to be incinerated in a bonfire that evening.
The fire department has denied Jones a required burn permit for Saturday, but he says he is going ahead with his event. He said lawyers have told him his right to burn the Quran is protected by the First Amendment whether he's got permission from the city or not.
Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive.
The interfaith group of evangelical, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim leaders meeting in Washington condemned Jones' plan to burn the Quran as a violation of American values and the Bible. Among the participants was Cardinal Theodore Mccarrick, retired Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C.; Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; and top officials from the Islamic Society of North America, the group that organized the gathering.
"This is not the America that we all have grown to love and care about," said Rabbi Steve Gutow of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. "We have to stand up for our Muslim brothers and sisters and say, "This is not OK.'"
In this progressive north Florida town of 125,000 anchored by the sprawling University of Florida campus, the lanky preacher with the bushy white mustache is mostly seen as a fringe character who doesn't deserve the attention he's getting.
Still, at least two dozen Christian churches, Jewish temples and Muslim organizations in Gainesville have mobilized to plan inclusive events — some will read from the Quran at their own weekend services — to counter what Jones is doing. A student group is organizing a protest across the street from the church Saturday.
The Vatican newspaper on Tuesday published an article in which Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha of Lahore, Pakistan, criticized Jones' plan.
"No one burns the Quran," read the headline in Tuesday's L'Osservatore Romano.
Jones, who has about 50 followers, gained some local notoriety last year when he posted signs in front of his small church proclaiming "Islam is of the Devil." The church is independent of any denomination but follows the Pentecostal tradition, which teaches that the Holy Spirit can manifest itself in the modern day. Pentecostals often view themselves as engaged in spiritual warfare against satanic forces.
Jones' Quran-burning scheme, after it caught fire on the Internet, brought rebukes from Muslim nations and an avalanche of media interview requests just as an emotional debate was taking shape over the proposed Islamic center near the Ground Zero site in New York.
The Quran, according to Jones, is "evil" because it espouses something other than the Christian biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims.
"It's hard for people to believe, but we actually feel this is a message that we have been called to bring forth," he said last week. "And because of that, we do not feel like we can back down."
FBI agents have visited to talk about their concerns for Jones' safety, as multiple Facebook pages with thousands of members have popped up hailing him as either a hero or a dangerous pariah.
His plan has drawn formal condemnation from the world's pre-eminent Sunni Muslim institution of learning, Al-Azhar University in Egypt, whose Supreme Council accused the church of stirring up hate and discrimination and called on other American churches speak out against it. Last month, Indonesian Muslims demonstrated outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, threatening violence if Jones goes through with it.
Associated Press Writer Kimberly Dozier in Kabul, Afghanistan, and AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll in New York contributed to this report.
Posted by: Ray Harris tagged in categories: Untagged
A small dead crab lies in hypoxic sediments off the coast of Louisiana in this photo provided by NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Undersea Research Program and the Louisiana University Marine Consortium.
(Sept. 6) -- The nation's waterways are fast becoming a wasteland.
Posted by: Ray Harris tagged in categories: Untagged
Banksy, that super-productive and ubiquitous graffiti artist, is at it again. Last week his work was popping up as a children's ride that was an anti-BP statement.
(Sept. 6) -- For patients in the advanced stages of cancer, an unlikely remedy may provide relief from the burdensome stress and fear of an imminent death: Magic mushrooms.
According to the findings of a new study published in Archives of General Psychiatry, psilocybin, the naturally occurring compound found on a variety of fungi that produces hallucinogenic effects when ingested, can greatly reduce anxiety and alleviates depression in cancer patients.
A research team made up of several medical doctors and researchers conducted "double-blind, placebo-controlled" tests on 12 cancer patients, ages 36 to 58, in which moderate doses of psilocybin was administered.
Doctors administered psilocybin to the cancer patients, and then monitored their heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature, New Scientist reported.
After receiving a one dose of psilocybin, all of the patients reported an improvement in mood that lasted longer than two weeks, the Los Angeles Times reported, and a lessening of anxiety and depression for up to six months. In addition, following treatment, most of the patients showed a decreased need for narcotic pain medication.
"We also observed no adverse psychological effects from the treatment," the study's authors wrote. "All subjects tolerated the treatment sessions well, with no indication of severe anxiety or a 'bad trip.'"
It has been 35 years since research has been conducted on the medical benefits of hallucinogenic drugs.
"Political and cultural pressures forced an end to these studies in the 1970s," said Dr. Charles Grob, the lead researcher said in a press release. "We were able to revive this research under strict federal supervision and demonstrate that this is a field of study with great promise for alleviating anxiety and other psychiatric symptoms."
Posted by: Ray Harris tagged in categories: Untagged
I woke from bed concerned, panicked, I didn't know why. Mindfulness observed the situation, observed the body, considered the biochemical cocktails pumping out such stressful emotion and laughed. Mind over matter. It was then I recalled my dream; lo and behold I had dreamed of many "expired" and "obsolete" concerns, baggage! Old homework assignments that felt like they were from years ago, like 4th grade, etc (i'm 21 now) that had piled up and felt overwhelming somewhere sometime, in the back of my mind. Haha! Simple things i'd never really imagine being "issues" until taking a "surrender" perspective, and realizing more so what Eric meant in saying "It's little work that really equates, BIG work." Time to dump old priorities, to free that energy and that part of my mind. Presence. It just blows me away, how "small" a concern that might be, and yet how trapping it was to hold onto, subconsciously, subliminally sapping energy! No longer. I looked back, deep within, taking control of my awareness more so.. realizing that some things which seem important, are just imprints, shadows of the past, and it's more important now to see them from a higher level, bringing them to light; learn, forgive, laugh, cry, grow wise... whatever. Raising tonal. Transmuting energy. Bit by bit! To just see it from that clear, true place being developed soulfully and move on, alive! Waking up this morning and going outside, it seemed I could smell the roses more intensely, life was brighter. Little things that concerned me before, I now seemed to be looking at from above. Choice grew from mindfulness. Presence. Subtle scents in the air, simple beauty everywhere...but where am I? Here and now, as deeply as possible from now on. Mindful! Aware of my body and grateful as an energy being. Observing. When I decided to meditate last night, next to a familiar tree I had the impression it was "on my team," so to speak. That as I exhale carbon dioxide and it creates oxygen, and as we grow and evolve the Force is with us! The keys of Surrender work seem to be Feeling, awareness internally, and forgiveness. Willingness to look at things inside, from a clear perspective like in meditation. Thinking like an energy being. Patience. "For my own health, when will I bring light to this dark place?" How much energy do I want to have? What do I want my soul to be? In life there's still such mystery! Made of the energy, the gases and dusts of cosmic birth, as the universe, what greater authority is there? I feel this and humble myself to the Force and feel ever so strongly the drive to Open my eyes and now more than ever I believe it's possible. Despite the weight "my psyche, social conditioning, brain," all that had once seemed so strong and overwhelming I am beginning to see from a higher level. I am identifying with something beyond all that, and realizing as sure as this living universe, this cosmic collective of energy and dimensions, I have a choice...and identifying with the Force, the breath of life, identifying with possibility, being mindful...I feel free and grateful, to know it's all growing, the Force in you me, the leaves on every tree. Something inside is more real than all of this.
Posted by: A. Live tagged in categories: Untagged
Well I’m always a little behind but it seems to all work out in the end for me. White Dragon was incredible. So many experiences I have had and I haven’t even finished the entire week yet. I did record and video it all though so I have a lot to look forward to. The first experience (well that would be the Darkscape but after that) was with the energy ball. I have felt energy before with prana pull-ups, etc. but never anything like this. As I was moving the ball right, left, front, back, around...I could feel the energy inside of me move with the ball...it was ...how can I say...euphoric (like better than a climax..can I say that here?). It continued with all the energy exercises and I finally could feel that consistent flow I had been always trying to achieve. I thought afterwards that these energy movments can be related to my hula where we just flow and let the energy do what it is supposed to and I had the best hula practice I had ever had. Everyone said oh, Jeannine I see you’ve been practicing at home (not...I was doing the White Dragon ha ha). Mahalo everyone who worked so hard and gave me so much. I guess I should save the mahalo’s cuz I have only just begin with White Dragon.....
Posted by: JEANNINE PAVO tagged in categories: Untagged
I was sitting on a folding chair watching shoes get passed around and I noticed one of my black leather shoes in someone else's hand and tried to watch it and make sure that I got it back. It disappeared and was I unable to find it as everyone cleared out.
I went for a drive with my mom in her pink champagne colored Buick Park Avenue. We drove slowly past garage/yard sales, she was looking for music or a harp, I was baffled by this, but ok mom, whatever! I was at my father's funeral and the feeling was bitter sweet. Dad had a long death and we talked about everything before he passed. I was strong and happy and interacting with the family and friends around me.
I then drove back to my mom's where she was running a business and one of the employees rode with me. He was worried he would get into trouble for being late and I told him I would vouch for him, no worries. We got into the door and I sat down in a chair just inside the door and looked over at a timer. The timer was being managed by one of the employees sitting at a desk. He was watching it intensely. It said I had to wait 1 minute and 45 more seconds. I looked over at it again and it said 45 seconds, just then as if to vomit, I jumped to my feet and ran to the bathroom, a small closet of a room and I sat on the toilet and broke down in tears, deep emotional gasping sobbing breaths for the loss of my father. I looked up at the large opened window, the sash swung all the way open to the right and the wind and light rain blowing in on me, the floor very damp. The gasping was so different to me and I felt so sorry for myself....as I gasped with each breath I slowly felt myself floating, my eyes opened and I was still gasping and sobbing, laying in my bed back here, in this dimension. My 45 seconds ended. The flow from one dimension to the other was so soft and gentle this time.
I had just experienced my fathers funeral “again” in another dimension. It was three years ago when he passed in this dimension. What I recently noticed is that every time I go into another dimension, I linger there for what seems to be a long time when I am calm and looking around and just observing. Yet as soon as some fearful, traumatic or emotional thing happens, like a circuit breaker, SNAP, I am sent back here.
The vibrational frequency of the other dimensions does not allow me to stay in certain heightened emotional states. The frequency here seems to welcome it as a default or reset back to step one. Reminds me of the kids game Shoots and Ladders. The next time I am “over there”, I will remember this and see what more is going on that I am carrying with me back here and into other dimensions.
This awakens me to a whole new concept of dimensional-preconditioning.
~Posh~
Posted by: ~Posh~ tagged in categories: Untagged
You might imagine that vast patent royalties flow into the organisation that invented the touchscreen and the World Wide Web. But the atom-smashing outfit CERN, cradle of both these technologies, doesn't make a bean from either.
The particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, has been reluctant to patent the inventions it creates in pursuit of exotic subatomic entities. But it hopes that will soon change: last week, it struck a deal with the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to ensure that it profits better from its engineers' innovations in fields like imaging, computing, particle detection and superconducting magnets, says international relations adviser Maurizio Bona.
CERN owes its historic aversion to patenting to its 20 European member states, says spokesman James Gillies. They pump millions of euros into the organisation every year to help develop new technologies – and don't want to have to pay to use the inventions in their own country. "So we have to square a circle: how do we protect the technology without double-billing member states?"
Touchscreen, anyone?
The answer for much of CERN's history has been simply to publish details of the inventions in much the same way that the organisation publishes its scientific discoveries. It was through one such publication in 1976 that CERN revealed the capacitive touchscreen – a technology that's currently taking the smartphone market by storm.
In the mid-1970s, CERN needed a way to directly select control parameters on a TV screen for one of its particle accelerators. Engineers hit on the idea of a transparent capacitive screen overlay – read the full story here. But not patenting the touchscreen technology clearly irks CERN management.
Things began to change after 30 April 1993, however. On that day CERN, and one its computer scientists, Tim Berners-Lee, placed the hypertext transfer protocol – aka the World Wide Web – in the public domain.
The web arguably owes its success to being free, says Gillies. "But after the dust had settled, some at CERN wondered if they could have made money out of it" – leading to a "changed culture" that now more proactively pursues technology transfer and intellectual property.
CERN has some success stories to boast about, particularly in the field of medical imaging. The bismuth germanate and transparent lead tungstate crystals it has developed for its detectors are key in positron emission tomography (PET) scanning and emerging combined PET/MRI systems respectively, for instance. However, it wants to do much more. The fees from these patents pay for the running of CERN's tech transfer operation – any surplus goes towards funding CERN's involvement in industrial research and development.
I did it first
"The idea of working with WIPO is that if we come up with today's equivalent of the touchscreen it doesn't just languish – we'll create mechanisms to take it further commercially," says Gillies.
WIPO is best known for allowing inventors to file a generic world patent application quickly before choosing which of 140 nations they actually want patent coverage in. This gives them a legally solid way to claim they were first to have an idea, yet delay filing a patent for 30 months.
A spokesman for WIPO in Geneva says its agreement with CERN aims to help the lab exploit its intellectual property both through smarter patenting and by transferring its technology to industry. It will also help CERN handle patent disputes.
Bona sees the arrangement as providing CERN with a intellectual property development operation set apart from its scientific output so that the organisation need not divert itself – and its funds – too much from its main role: basic science.
The MIT way
Some are sceptical that the approach will work, however. Peter Finnie, a patent attorney with intellectual property practice Gill Jennings and Every in London, says: "It isn't immediately apparent to me how WIPO can assist CERN in this way, as this is not its primary function. What CERN needs is a written intellectual property policy to encourage its scientists to identify innovations at an early stage – certainly before any valuable research is published."
Finnie thinks a trip to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – where Berners-Lee set up the World Wide Web Consortium – might help CERN's tech transfer managers. "Their US counterparts, like MIT, are well ahead of the game in this respect, generating hard income from large and valuable patent portfolios."
Posted by: Ray Ross tagged in categories: Untagged
Small conditional RNAs selectively kill cancer cells. In lab-grown human brain, prostate and bone cancer cells, small conditional RNAs (light and dark blue) bind to a targeted RNA cancer mutation (orange and green), triggering self-assembly of a long double-stranded RNA polymer that activates an innate immune response (gray turns to red) leading to cell death. No measurable reduction in numbers is observed for cells lacking targeted cancer mutations. Image courtesy of Suvir Venkataraman, William M. Clemons, Jr. and Niles A. Pierce (Caltech)
Cancer is a difficult disease to treat because it's a personal disease. Each case is unique and based on a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Conventional chemotherapy employs treatment with one or more drugs, assuming that these medicines are able to both "diagnose" and "treat" the affected cells. Many of the side effects experienced by chemotherapy patients are due to the fact that the drugs they are taking aren't selective enough. For instance, taking a drug that targets fast-growing tumor cells frequently results in hair loss, because cells in the hair follicle are among some of the fastest growing in the body. When it comes down to it, these drugs get the diagnosis wrong.
But what if we had cancer treatments that worked more like a computer program, which can perform actions based on conditional statements? Then, a treatment would kill a cell if --and only if-- the cell had been diagnosed with a mutation. Only the defective cells would be destroyed, virtually eliminating unwanted side effects.
With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), researchers at the California Institute of Technology have created conditional small RNA molecules to perform this task. Their strategy uses characteristics that are built into our DNA and RNA to separate the diagnosis and treatment steps.
"The molecules are able to detect a mutation within a cancer cell, and then change conformation to activate a therapeutic response in the cancer cell, while remaining inactive in cells that lack the cancer mutation," claims Niles Pierce, co-author of a recent study which appears in the September 6 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
This work is part of the Molecular Programming Project, funded by NSF's Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering. One of the goals of the project is to increase understanding of how information can be stored and processed by molecules, and how we might create practical applications that utilize that information.
At the heart of this approach is ribonucleic acid or RNA, and all of the normal tasks it performs each and every day to keep our cells alive and healthy. RNA is the relatively short-lived counterpart of DNA, the coding system that stores full copies of our entire genome within almost every cell of our body. If we think of DNA as information stored on the hard drive of a computer, then RNA is like information stored on a more volatile kind of memory like RAM -- which is erased when you switch off your computer.
RNAs perform all kinds of functions in a cell, acting as messengers and switches to communicate and monitor which genes are expressed in a cell at any given time. A particular class of RNAs, called small RNAs, is less than 30 base pairs in length (an average gene is thousands of base pairs long). These small bits of RNA are involved in many of the processes that maintain life. The treatment developed by Pierce and his colleagues relies on two separate small RNAs that structurally mimic those that occur naturally within our own cells. Because these molecules resemble small RNAs that are normally present, the researchers hope there will be few, if any side effects.
"By de-coupling diagnosis and treatment, we can create molecules that are both highly selective and highly effective in killing cancer cells," said Pierce. "Conceptually, small conditional RNAs have the potential to transform cancer treatment because they change what we can expect from a molecule. Many years of work remain to establish whether this conceptual promise can be realized in human patients."
Here's how it works: Treatment involves two different small RNAS. The first small RNA will open up if --and only if-- it finds the cancer mutation. A positive "diagnosis" exposes a signal that was previously hidden within the small RNA. Once this small RNA is open, a second small RNA binds to it, setting off a chain reaction in which these RNA molecules continue to combine to form a longer chain. The length of the chain is an important part of the "treatment". Longer chains trick the cell into thinking it has been invaded by a virus, tripping a self-destruct response.
In the PNAS study, researchers demonstrated that this approach effectively eliminates lab-grown human brain, prostate and bone cancer cells in a mutation-specific manner. Future experiments will determine whether the treatment is effective on a larger scale.
Posted by: Ray Ross tagged in categories: Untagged
As I listen, study and research in my kitchen, on my computer, with friends, on the phone, I catch myself gazing at the fly/flies that keep bouncing off the sliding glass door. Obviously they want out and every time I open the door to let them out, someone says, shut the door you are letting the flies in. Such small things in life that some people notice and others do not. How significant mi'nute little things are and yet some dispell them as a nuisance. Then one day I noticed my glass covered in fly guts and someone hold a fly swatter in his hand, in a heavy gaze ready for the kill.
"Geeezzz man, just open the door for the fly" "it will go out". Laughter broke out...I then spoke to the fly asking it if it wanted to go out...like a dog. It flew away from the glass, buzzed around my head a couple times and went back to the door. I opened the door and it went to the opening, buzzed a little in the wind as if to say thank you and flew outside.
Today, as people come and go, my sliding glass door is a window into their souls. They no longer swat at those flies yet engage with them and assist them back to the world they know. It is quite humbling. They no longer swat at flies, they talk to them. They open my door to allow the love to go out? When was the last time you sat and spoke to the fly pestering you, are you not listening? There may be a reason they want your attention as any other animal/energy would. Don't wait until they have to bite to get your attention.
I now tend to wonder if the flys coming in through the garage and out through the slider are the same flies. Coming and going as if to check in with me and remind me to keep my heart open.
~Posh~
Posted by: ~Posh~ tagged in categories: Untagged
Greece’s austerity measures cannot prevent default and will lead to a breakdown of the political order if continued for long, a leading German economist has warned.
“This tragedy does not have a solution,” said Hans-Werner Sinn, head of the prestigious IFO Institute in Munich.
“The policy of forced 'internal devaluation', deflation, and depression could risk driving Greece to the edge of a civil war. It is impossible to cut wages and prices by 30pc without major riots,” he said, speaking at the elite European House Ambrosetti forum at Lake Como. “Greece would have been bankrupt without the rescue measures. All the alternatives are terrible but the least terrible is for the country to get out of the eurozone, even if this kills the Greek banks,” he said.
Dr Sinn said Greece is an entirely different case from Spain and Portugal, which still have manageable public debts and can bring their public finances back into line with higher taxes.
“Greece would have defaulted in the period between April 28 and May 7, had the money not been promised by the European Union,” he said, describing the failure of the EU’s bail-out strategy to include a haircut for the banks as an invitation to moral hazard.
“There should be a quasi-insolvency procedure for countries. Creditors have to accept a haircut before any money flows for rescue plans, otherwise we’ll never have debt discipline in the eurozone,” he said.
Greek society has so far held together well, despite a wave of strikes and street violence in the early months of the crisis. However, unemployment is rising fast and political fatigue with such austerity policies typically sets in the second year.
Under the rescue deal, the eurozone pledged €80bn of new loans at 5pc interest and the International Monetary Fund offered a further €30bn.
The joint bail-out was hoped to safeguard Greece against the pressure from global capital markets for two and half years, but the relief rally proved short. Spreads on longer-term Greek government debt have surged back to crisis levels of about 800 basis points, implying a high risk of default.
“We are in the second Greek crisis right now, today,” said Dr Sinn.
Greece is undergoing what amounts to an IMF austerity package but without the IMF cure of debt restructuring or devaluation that usual for a country with a spiralling public debt and a chronic loss of competitiveness.
The IMF says Greece’s debt will rise to 150pc by 2013-2014 even if Athens complies fully, a strategy viewed as self-defeating by several ex-IMF officials. There is a strong suspicion that the real objective is to bail-out North European banks with heavy exposure to Southern Europe, rather help Greece.
Dr Sinn said the Germany is now was super-competitive after clawing back 18pc in competitiveness during its long slump. “We’re in a new phase of history. The toggle switch has turned and we are going to see a mirror image of the last 15 years. This time it is Germany that will have an internal boom,” he said.
Germans will not recyle their savings in the Club Med region. They will invest at home.
Posted by: Ray Ross tagged in categories: Untagged
