"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." - Sir Winston Churchill
November 30th, 2012 at 11:53 AM by Creditcardfree
Today I made another principal payment towards our truck loan! I sent in a total of $291.40, with $61.35 being the amount I would expect our payroll tax to increase in January. Might as well not throw it away this last month. January 1 it is going back to the government. In our case this will first show on our January 15 paycheck.
Our new truck loan balance is $6,227.64. Hooray!!
We are waiting for $539 rewards check from Chase which as I've mentioned will go straight to...
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November 30th, 2012 at 09:08 AM by Rena November 30th, 2012 at 07:42 AM by Paulette
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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) ? Sure enough, putting was all the rage Thursday in the World Challenge.
One day after golf's governing bodies proposed a new rule that will ban the anchored stroke used for long putters, Keegan Bradley talked about someone on Twitter telling the PGA champion to send in his resume to Burger King in 2016, when the rule goes into effect. Bradley got so fed up with the teasing over his belly putter this week that he grabbed Tiger Woods' putter and made three out of four from 10 feet.
The rule doesn't affect Nick Watney, though he couldn't say enough about his putting. He made five birdies on his last 10 holes ? including his first birdie ever on the 14th hole at Sherwood ? for a 5-under 67 that gave him a two-shot lead.
Woods' putting saved his round, even though most of them were for par. That included a 12-foot putt on the 15th and an 8-footer to avoid bogey on the par-5 16th. It added up to a 70, which left him very much in the hunt at an 18-man event where he is more than just a tournament host. Without a title sponsor, Woods is underwriting most of the cost.
And yes, even Steve Stricker made news Thursday with his putter. He tried a new one.
"Mid-life crisis," he said.
The World Challenge is not a hit-and-giggle at the end of the year, even with a short field, no cut and lots of holiday cash for all involved. The field is stronger than ever, with 13 players from the Ryder Cup, and it showed in the scores. On a cool, overcast day in the Conejo Valley, only eight shots separated the top (Watney) from Brandt Snedeker, bringing up the rear with a 75.
Snedeker drilled a fairway metal into 8 feet and made eagle on the 11th hole, only for his round to fall apart. He hit two provisional tee shots on the par-3 12th, didn't have to use them but still made bogey, and then he snap-hooked his next tee shot and made double bogey.
Bradley and a pair of past champions at this tournament ? Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell ? were two shots out of the lead at 69. Woods was in the group at 70 that included Bo Van Pelt, whom Woods beat this year at Congressional, and U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson.
But the buzz remained over the belly.
Bradley was the first player to win a major using the belly putter at the 2011 PGA Championship, and then Simpson and Ernie Els followed this year. Bradley is not happy about the rule, though he has been respectful toward the U.S. Golf Association and Royal & Ancient in their right to set the rules.
But this is a guy who plays with a chip on his shoulder, and this chip could be a big one.
He described his round as awesome, aside from a bad break on the 18th that led to bogey, the only green he missed all day.
"If I could have made a few more putts, I probably could have been a lot lower," he said, pausing before he added, "I know people probably don't want to hear that."
He then revealed how much abuse he was taking on Twitter, though he knows better not to take seriously a comment from people he either doesn't know or who don't use their real names in social media. That would include one tweet telling him to send in an application to Burger King for 2016.
"I've been doing a better job lately of not reading them, but I'm going to make a switch when I feel it's best for me," Bradley said. "And whether that's tomorrow or in three years, we'll see."
The switch earlier this week to Woods' putter was only temporary, and it was a joke.
"I give him grief every day," Woods said.
Too bad Bradley didn't make Woods try a few putts with the belly.
"You don't want to see Tiger with that putter," Bradley said. 'If it was up to me, I'd film him and send that to Mike Davis. I think he would take the ban off."
Bradley did a little more experimenting after his round Thursday. He gripped his putter a little lower so that the end wasn't anchored to his belly. He ran the putter up his left arm for a few putts, the style used by Matt Kuchar that would remain legal. But as he tinkered around, he noticed a TV camera filming him and stopped.
It's still a sensitive subject for Bradley, and he wants everyone to know he's a pretty good golfer with any putter in his bag.
"I feel like the USGA has really put an 'X' on our back and really shined a light on us, and I don't know if that's exactly fair," Bradley said. "I just hope that people look at us for the type of players that we are and the accomplishments that we've had, and not because we use a belly putter, and now the USGA says it's going to be illegal. When we started putting with it, they were legal. And they still are.
"It's a sticky situation, and I hope they can see through that."
As for Stricker?
He says he got his new putter at a golf store in Madison, Wis., which begged another question: What was he doing in a golf store?
"Looking for a putter," he said.
Stricker figured it was time to mix things up, so during his long break from golf, he went looking for a putter similar to what Luke Donald and Ian Poulter use. He bought a Sabertooth made by Odyssey, the same company that made the putter he has used so long even the metal tape on the bottom looks old.
"I like the way it feels, and I putted good today, especially on the short ones," Stricker said.
Not to worry. He brought his old putter with him to Sherwood. "Just in case," he said with a smile.
Study sheds light on how pancreatic cancer beginsPublic release date: 29-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Debra Kain ddkain@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego
A diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is particularly devastating since the prognosis for recovery is usually poor, with the cancer most often not detected until late stages.
Research led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego and UC San Francisco Schools of Medicine examined the tumor-initiating events leading to pancreatic cancer (also called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma or PDA) in mice. Their work, published on line November 29 in the journal Cancer Cell, may help in the search for earlier detection methods and treatments.
"Previously, it was believed that this cancer arises from the epithelial cells in pancreatic ducts," said Maike Sander, MD, professor of pediatrics and cellular and molecular medicine and director of UC San Diego's Pediatric Diabetes Research Center, co-principal investigator of the study along with Matthias Hebrok, PhD, director of the UCSF Diabetes Center. "But in this study, we show that ducts have almost no response to oncogenic mutations mutations that give rise to cancerous tumors."
The study revealed that another pancreatic cell type, called the acinar cell, converts into a duct-like cell that initiates tumors. The researchers also showed that inflammation of the pancreas, which is a significant risk factor for pancreatic cancer, promotes the conversion of acinar cells into duct-like tumor precursors.
Kras is a gene that may cause cancer when it is mutated. It makes the Kras protein, which is involved in cell signaling pathways, cell growth and apoptosis, or cell death. Agents that block the activity of the mutated Kras gene or its protein may stop the growth of cancer.
Tracing specific cell populations in the presence and absence of tissue injury in mice, the research team demonstrated that oncogenic Kras can readily induce PDA precursor or premalignant lesions called PanIN, from adult pancreatic acinar cells, but not from ductal cells.
Accounting for the fact that acinar cells are more abundant than ductal cells in the adult pancreas of mice, the difference in the ability of the acinar cells to generate PanIN premalignant lesions remained more than a 100 times greater than the ability of ductal or so-called centroacinar cells. In addition, the study demonstrated that, when PanIN lesions originate in acinar cells, they activate the ductal transcription factor Sox9. The scientists show that activation of Sox9 is necessary to convert the acinar cells into premalignant lesions. Overexpression of the Sox9 gene enhances both abnormal, pancreatitis-associated changes in adult tissue cells and Kras-induced PanIN formation.
Ductal and centroacinar cells already expressing Sox9 are dramatically resistant to Kras-induced neoplastic transformation, which is the conversion of a tissue with a normal growth pattern into a malignant tumor. The findings demonstrate a key role for acinar cells in the beginning stages of pancreatic cancer, and point to Sox9 as a potential target for preventing early tumor-initiating events.
###
Additional contributors include co-first authors Janel L. Kopp, UC San Diego, and Guido von Figura, UCSF; Erin Mayes, Fen-Fen Liu and Claire L. Dubois, UC San Diego; John P. Morris IV, UCSF; Fong Cheng Pan and Christopher V.E. Wright, Vanderbilt University; Haruhiko Akiyama, Kyoto University; and Kristin Jensen, Veteran Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University Hospital.
This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health grants R01DK078803, R01CA112537, F32CA136124 and DFG-FI1719/1-1.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Study sheds light on how pancreatic cancer beginsPublic release date: 29-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Debra Kain ddkain@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego
A diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is particularly devastating since the prognosis for recovery is usually poor, with the cancer most often not detected until late stages.
Research led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego and UC San Francisco Schools of Medicine examined the tumor-initiating events leading to pancreatic cancer (also called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma or PDA) in mice. Their work, published on line November 29 in the journal Cancer Cell, may help in the search for earlier detection methods and treatments.
"Previously, it was believed that this cancer arises from the epithelial cells in pancreatic ducts," said Maike Sander, MD, professor of pediatrics and cellular and molecular medicine and director of UC San Diego's Pediatric Diabetes Research Center, co-principal investigator of the study along with Matthias Hebrok, PhD, director of the UCSF Diabetes Center. "But in this study, we show that ducts have almost no response to oncogenic mutations mutations that give rise to cancerous tumors."
The study revealed that another pancreatic cell type, called the acinar cell, converts into a duct-like cell that initiates tumors. The researchers also showed that inflammation of the pancreas, which is a significant risk factor for pancreatic cancer, promotes the conversion of acinar cells into duct-like tumor precursors.
Kras is a gene that may cause cancer when it is mutated. It makes the Kras protein, which is involved in cell signaling pathways, cell growth and apoptosis, or cell death. Agents that block the activity of the mutated Kras gene or its protein may stop the growth of cancer.
Tracing specific cell populations in the presence and absence of tissue injury in mice, the research team demonstrated that oncogenic Kras can readily induce PDA precursor or premalignant lesions called PanIN, from adult pancreatic acinar cells, but not from ductal cells.
Accounting for the fact that acinar cells are more abundant than ductal cells in the adult pancreas of mice, the difference in the ability of the acinar cells to generate PanIN premalignant lesions remained more than a 100 times greater than the ability of ductal or so-called centroacinar cells. In addition, the study demonstrated that, when PanIN lesions originate in acinar cells, they activate the ductal transcription factor Sox9. The scientists show that activation of Sox9 is necessary to convert the acinar cells into premalignant lesions. Overexpression of the Sox9 gene enhances both abnormal, pancreatitis-associated changes in adult tissue cells and Kras-induced PanIN formation.
Ductal and centroacinar cells already expressing Sox9 are dramatically resistant to Kras-induced neoplastic transformation, which is the conversion of a tissue with a normal growth pattern into a malignant tumor. The findings demonstrate a key role for acinar cells in the beginning stages of pancreatic cancer, and point to Sox9 as a potential target for preventing early tumor-initiating events.
###
Additional contributors include co-first authors Janel L. Kopp, UC San Diego, and Guido von Figura, UCSF; Erin Mayes, Fen-Fen Liu and Claire L. Dubois, UC San Diego; John P. Morris IV, UCSF; Fong Cheng Pan and Christopher V.E. Wright, Vanderbilt University; Haruhiko Akiyama, Kyoto University; and Kristin Jensen, Veteran Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University Hospital.
This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health grants R01DK078803, R01CA112537, F32CA136124 and DFG-FI1719/1-1.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A New Hampshire couple suspected of abusing the woman's 3-year-old son have been arrested while leaving a parade at a theme park in Orlando, Fla., after two weeks on the run, authorities say.
Jessica Linscott and her boyfriend, Roland Dow, were taken into custody on Wednesday evening at Universal Studios, where they had been watching the parade, U.S. marshals said.
Linscott, 23, and Dow, 27, were wanted in connection with injuries to Linscott's son, including burns and significant head injuries.
Police had received a call two weeks ago from Exeter Hospital, in Exeter, N.H., where the boy was being treated. The boy later was taken to Children's Hospital at Dartmouth in Lebanon, N.H., where he was recovering after surgery.
Tips helped to track down the couple, Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams said.
"We were feeling pretty confident 24 hours ago that we were going to have them soon," Reams said Wednesday.
Law enforcement officials spent "countless hours" trying to find Linscott and Dow, who are from Plaistow, N.H., a town of about 8,000 residents in Rockingham County, marshals said.
Marshals looked for the couple all day Wednesday and at the end of the day found them while a crowd was breaking up after the parade and they were headed back to the theme park's attractions area, said David Charles, deputy criminal investigator for the U.S. Marshals Service in Orlando.
"They were totally surprised," he said. "They had no clue."
U.S. Marshal David L. Cargill Jr., who thanked the public for providing tips during the search for the couple, said he found it "very sad" that they were found in an area "designed to bring joy and happiness to children."
Linscott is accused of failing to get medical attention for her son when he was suffering seizures from a head injury and of failing to protect him from harm. She's charged with multiple counts of child endangerment.
Dow is charged with assault.
Linscott and Dow were jailed on Wednesday and couldn't be reached for comment by telephone. They were scheduled to be arraigned in Florida on Thursday on fugitive from justice charges.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A Los Angeles federal judge on Thursday dismissed a Christian group's lawsuit to force suburban Santa Monica to reopen spaces in a city park to private displays, including Christmas Nativity scenes.
U.S. District Court Judge Audrey Collins issued the ruling after earlier this month denying an injunction sought by the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee.
Christmastime Nativity scenes had been erected in Palisades Park for decades. Last year, atheists overwhelmed the city's auction process for display sites, winning 18 of 21 slots and triggering a bitter dispute.
The city then banned private, unattended displays at the park.
An attorney for the group says he plans to appeal the ruling.
Collins had said the city was within its constitutional right to eliminate the exemption that had allowed the Nativity at the oceanfront Palisades Park because the change affected all comers ? from Christians to Jews to atheists ? and provided other avenues for public religious speech.
The coalition of churches that had put on the life-sized, 14-booth Nativity display for decades argued the city banned it rather than referee a religious dispute that began three years ago when atheists first set up their message alongside the Christmas diorama.
In her ruling Thursday, Collins said the coalition has other options.
"For instance, plaintiff could erect displays in some public parks around the city (excluding Palisades Park) as part of a one-day community events permit, or plaintiff could erect attended displays in all of the city's public parks," Collins wrote in her 25-page ruling. "Plaintiff raises several arguments to suggest that these alternatives are not adequate, but none is persuasive."
The trouble in Santa Monica began three years ago, when atheist Damon Vix was granted a booth in Palisades Park alongside the story of Jesus Christ's birth.
Vix hung a sign that quoted Thomas Jefferson: "Religions are all alike -- founded on fables and mythologies." The other side read "Happy Solstice." He repeated the display the following year but then upped the stakes significantly.
Vix recruited 10 others last year to inundate the city with applications for displays and the atheists used half their spaces, displaying signs such as one that showed pictures of Poseidon, Jesus, Santa Claus and the devil.
Most of the signs were vandalized and in response the city ended a tradition that began in 1953 and earned Santa Monica one of its nicknames, the City of the Christmas Story.
Polar ice melting faster than thought, scientists warn
What had been a blurry picture about polar ice ? especially how it impacts sea levels ? just got a whole lot clearer as experts on Thursday published a peer-reviewed study they say puts to rest the debate over whether the poles added to, or subtracted from, sea level rise over the last two decades.
Ever since his re-election on October 7th, Hugo Ch?vez has been uncharacteristically absent from the public eye. As if anyone had been in any doubt, we now know why.
Although he claimed to be cured from cancer in July, a letter from Ch?vez was read out in congress on Tuesday in which he said that he had been following a ?complementary treatment plan? ordered by his doctors and is now on his way to Cuba for further ?special? treatment.
Lately, Ch?vez watchers have been playing a Venezuelan version of ?Where?s Wally?, after weeks of slow news with headlines dominated by the baseball mad country?s players? achievements in the US major leagues or the shenanigans of beauty queens allegedly mixed up in Venezuela?s criminal underworld.
But with news that Ch?vez is off to Cuba again, after multiple trips over the past year for chemotherapy and radiotherapy, speculation is bound to intensify that the socialist leader is not completely cured from cancer as he has claimed.
He had sometimes appeared bloated and tired in public appearances ahead of last month?s elections, in a campaign that was markedly less energetic than his previous campaign for presidential elections in 2006.
Now, pundits who had claimed that Ch?vez was at death?s door just a few months ago are likely to smugly say they were right all along, while theories about succession plans will surely proliferate once more.
Markets reacted strongly on the news, with yields on Venezuela?s benchmark 2027 dollar bonds down 3.6 per cent to 10.058 per cent by 3.50pm in New York. As analysts at Citigroup put it in a note this afternoon:
Although [Ch?vez?s] true condition is uncertain, we recognize that news regarding the evolution of his health status will continue to be an important driver of this credit going forward.
After a quiet few weeks in Venezuela, it looks like things might start livening up again.
Related reading: Ch?vez returns to Cuba for treatment, FT Lula to Chavez: time to start preparing for succession, beyondbrics Barclays: regime change in Venezuela is coming sooner than you think, beyondbrics Chavez: back to form?, beyondbrics Ch?vez: I am not dead, beyondbrics
Microsoft will release Windows Phone 7.8 on Wednesday, according to "a little rumor" passed along this week by WMPowerUser and spotted earlier today by Mashable.
The Microsoft-centric blog cited an anonymous tip pointing to Nov. 28 as the arrival date of the software update for smartphones like Nokia's Lumia 510 and lineup of Lumia 900 devices. WMPowerUser said it wasn't able to verify the tip but noted that Microsoft and Nokia have been teasing the release of Windows Phone 7.8 for several months.
Microsoft released its next-generation handset operating system, Windows Phone 8, to great fanfare in late October. The new OS is the first handset platform from Microsoft that shares basic building blocks with the software giant's flagship PC operating system, Windows?the upshot being that WP8 and the new Windows 8 OS for PCs, tablets, and hybrids have more common features than ever, starting with the signature Windows 8 live-tile interface.
But Microsoft's decision to use the same Windows kernel across its next-gen handset and PC operating systems also means owners of older Windows Phones, most notably Nokia's recent batch of Lumia-branded devices, haven't been able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8 from Windows Phone 7 and older generations of the OS they've been running.
Back in June, when Microsoft offered its first official glimpse at Windows Phone 8, the company and its close partner Nokia also promised that there would be an updated version of WP7 sporting certain WP8 features like the start screen which would serve as a kind of consolation prize for Windows Phone 7 users.
The WP7 update rumored for release this week will bring the new start screen to older Windows Phones plus "new accent colors, Bing lock screen wallpaper, and on Nokia handsets, SMS drafts and the ability to keep WI-FI active when the device is suspended," WMPowerUser reported.
The site also tipped "the ability to send files via Bluetooth File Transfer" via the software update, which Microsoft has not officially confirmed is arriving on Wednesday.
For more from Damon, follow him on Twitter @dpoeter.
If you repeatedly exceed your monthly minutes on your mobile phone contract, it may be time for a mobile phone plan upgrade, Hamm writes.
By Trent Hamm,?Guest blogger / November 27, 2012
In this June 30, 2010 file photo, an Associated Press reporter holds the Motorola Droid X during a product review in San Francisco. Hamm offers some ways to calculating if a plan upgrade will save you money.
Jeff Chiu/AP/File
Enlarge
When Sarah and I signed our first cell phone contract, we signed up for a plan that gave us roughly 400 minutes per month, which seemed like a reasonable amount based on our estimates. After the two year contract, we found that we had only gone over that limit twice, so we signed up again for the same limit.
Skip to next paragraph Trent Hamm
The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.
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Before our next contract signing, we sat down to evaluate our situation. During the previous two years, we had only gone over our alloted minutes twice, so it seemed straightforward that we would just continue our plan.
There was a bit of a catch, though. We still had those bills from the overage months, and when we sat down and did the math,?the cost of our overage minutes from those months was far higher than the two year cost of a plan that would cover all of those minutes.
That?s right. Upgrading to a plan that covered all of that usage?and?gave us far more breathing room in every other month was cheaper than the overage costs of just two months of usage.?
Apple dismisses manager following maps fiasco on iPhone 5
The iPhone 5
Apple has reportedly dismissed the manager responsible for the troubled mapping software that accompanied the launch of iOS 6 and the iPhone 5. Apple is understood to have enlisted outside help from GPS giant TomTom to fix glaring navigation and landmark errors.
The launch of its own Maps app with an impressive 3D mapping capability and the dropping of Google Maps was supposed to be a waypoint to the future for Apple as a vendor of applications every bit as exciting as the hardware they featured on.
But its mapping software turned out to be a source of embarrassment for Apple, with glaring mistakes and poor rendering. It even gave a sleepy Dublin suburb its own airport.
Apple?s management team had to apologise to the public ? something that never would have happened in Steve Jobs? day ? and even encouraged users to try Google Maps instead.
What should have been the waypoint to an exciting new era instead became an opportunity for other maps providers to rush their products into the gap. Google came up with a rejuvenated Google Maps for iOS 6 devices and Nokia found a new sense of purpose with its Here Maps app.
According to Bloomberg, Richard Williamson, who oversaw Apple's mapping team, was pushed out by SVP Eddy Cue, who took additional responsibility for Siri and Maps as part of a management shake-up at Apple last month.
The mapping debacle hasn?t in any way hurt sales of the iPhone 5 and yesterday it emerged that the iPhone 5 propelled iOS back into the No 1 spot in the US smartphone market, according to Kantar.
With our economy finally recovering from a terrible recession and the possibility of another financial collapse in the coming months, it can be difficult to decide whether or not to invest. Is investing during a bad economy good, or bad?
Residential real estate invest has done surprisingly well for investors during the housing depression.
Large, affordable inventories of distress sales, foreclosures and short sales, have put real estate investing in reach of millions of investors who never would have considered it.? Returns of eight percent or better have encourages more than two dozen well-funded private equity investors to enter the market, creating additional demand for well-managed ?Investors saw their share of non-distressed property purchases inch higher from 11.3 percent to 12.2 percent over the past five months, according to Campbell Surveys.
While there are many bad investments that you should avoid during a down economy, there are also of plenty positive ones, too.?? In his new book The Only Three Questions That Still Count, ?Forbes ?Portfolio Strategy? columnist Ken Fisher suggests you ?begin your search or the right investment by answering three questions so you know exactly how to make good investing decisions.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2012) ? "Have you considered how easy it is for us Norwegians to learn English?" asks Jan Terje Faarlund, professor of linguistics at the University of Oslo. "Obviously there are many English words that resemble ours. But there is something more: its fundamental structure is strikingly similar to Norwegian. We avoid many of the usual mistakes because the grammar is more or less the same.
Faarlund and his colleague Joseph Emmonds, visiting professor from Palack? University in the Czech Republic, now believe they can prove that English is in reality a Scandinavian language, in other words it belongs to the Northern Germanic language group, just like Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic and Faroese. This is totally new and breaks with what other language researchers and the rest of the world believe, namely that English descends directly from Old English. Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, is a West Germanic language, which the Angles and Saxons brought with them from Northern Germany and Southern Jylland when they settled in the British Isles in the fifth century.
Old English died out
"Modern English is a direct descendant of the language of Scandinavians who settled in the British Isles in the course of many centuries, before the French-speaking Normans conquered the country in 1066," says Faarlund. He points out that Old English and Modern English are two very different languages. Why?
"We believe it is because Old English quite simply died out while Scandinavian survived, albeit strongly influenced of course by Old English," he says.
The 'cohabitation' between the British and the Scandinavians was largely hostile. Both fought for political hegemony. The descendants of the Vikings gained control of the eastern and northern parts of the country. The Danelaw was under the control of Scandinavian chiefs for half a century.
Like most colonists, the Scandinavian-speaking inhabitants found no reason to switch to the language of the country they had arrived in. "One especially important, geographic point in our study is that the East Midlands region, where the spoken language later developed into Modern English, coincides almost exactly with the densely populated, southern part of the Danelaw," says the professor.
The language changed a great deal in the period after the Normans arrived. The miserable conditions people lived in at the time resulted in a complete merger of the two previously separate groups of people -- the Old English speakers and the Scandinavian speakers -- and out of this came Middle English -- the predecessor of Modern English.
Adopted words they already had
The language adopted many words from the Danelaw's inhabitants who were of Norwegian and Danish descent. For example, all the lexical words in this sentence are Scandinavian: He took the knife and cut the steak. Only he, the and and come from Old English.
"What is particularly interesting is that Old English adopted words for day-to-day things that were already in the language. Usually one borrows words and concepts for new things. In English almost the reverse is true -- the day-to-day words are Scandinavian, and there are many of them," says Faarlund.
The researchers believe that Old English already had 90 per cent of these concepts in its own vocabulary.
Took over the grammar
But the Scandinavian element was not limited to the vocabulary, which is normal when languages come into contact with each other. Even though a massive number of new words are on their way into a language, it nevertheless retains its own grammar. This is almost a universal law.
"But in England grammatical words and morphemes -- in other words the smallest abstract, meaningful linguistic unit -- were also adopted from Scandinavian and survive in English to this day."
Scandinavian syntax
The two researchers show that the sentence structure in Middle English -- and thus also Modern English -- is Scandinavian and not Western Germanic. "It is highly irregular to borrow the syntax and structure from one language and use it in another language. In our days the Norwegians are borrowing words from English, and many people are concerned about this. However, the Norwegian word structure is totally unaffected by English. It remains the same. The same goes for the structure in English: it is virtually unaffected by Old English."
"How can you illustrate this?"
"We can show that wherever English differs syntactically from the other Western Germanic languages -- German, Dutch, Frisian -- it has the same structure as the Scandinavian languages." Here are some examples:
* Word order: In English and Scandinavian the object is placed after the verb:
I have read the book.
Eg har lese boka.
German and Dutch (and Old English) put the verb at the end.
Ich habe das Buch gelesen.
* English and Scandinavian can have a preposition at the end of the sentence.
This we have talked about.
Dette har vi snakka om.
* English and Scandinavian can have a split infinitive, i.e. we can insert a word between the infinitive marker and the verb.
I promise to never do it again.
Eg lovar ? ikkje gjera det igjen.
* Group genitive:
The Queen of England's hat.
Dronninga av Englands hatt.
"All of this is impossible in German or Dutch, and these kinds of structures are very unlikely to change within a language. The only reasonable explanation then is that English is in fact a Scandinavian language, and a continuation of the Norwegian-Danish language which was used in England during the Middle Ages."
"But why the inhabitants of the British Isles chose the Scandinavian grammar is something we can only speculate on," says Jan Terje Faarlund.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oslo. The original article was written by Trine Nickelsen, APOLLON Research Magazine.
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A swimmer stops short of a red algae bloom at Sydney's Clovelly Beach on Tuesday. Clovelly and Bondi beaches were closed to swimmers.
Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach and Clovelly Beach were closed to swimmers on Tuesday as a red algae bloom drifted close to shore, Agence France-Presse reports.
While the red algae, known as Noctiluca scintillans or sea sparkle, has no toxic effects, people are still advised to avoid swimming in areas with discolored water because the algae, which can be high in ammonia, can cause skin irritation.?
"It has got quite a fishy smell to it,"?lifeguard Bruce Hopkins told?the Australian Associated Press.?"It can irritate some people's skin but generally not much more than that."
William West / AFP - Getty Images
A boy walks along Sydney's Clovelly Beach on Tuesday.
William West / AFP - Getty Images
A seagull stands in a red algae bloom at Sydney's Clovelly Beach on Tuesday.
Doctors now use cancer-killing viruses to treat some patients with lethal, fast-growing brain tumors. Clinical trials show that these therapeutic viruses are safe but less effective than expected.
A new study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center ? Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC ? James) shows that the reason for this is in part due to the patient's own immune system, which quickly works to eliminate the anticancer virus.
The findings, published in the journalNature Medicine, show that the body responds to the anticancer virus as it does to an infection. Within hours, specialized immune cells called natural killer (NK) cells move in to eliminate the therapeutic virus in the brain.
The researchers discovered that the NK cells attack the viruses when they express specific molecules on their surface called NKp30 and NKp46. "These receptor molecules enable the NK cells to recognize and destroy the anticancer viruses before the viruses can destroy the tumor," says co-senior author Dr. Michael A. Caligiuri, director of Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center and CEO of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, and a senior author of the study.
"When we blocked those receptors, the virus has more time to work, and mice with these brain tumors live longer. The next step is to block these molecules on NK cells in glioblastoma patients and see if we can improve their outcome," says Caligiuri, who is also the John L. Marakas Nationwide Insurance Enterprise Foundation Chair in Cancer Research. This study of cancer-cell-killing, or oncolytic, viruses is an example of the value of translational research, in which a problem observed during clinical trials is studied in the laboratory to devise a solution.
"In this case, clinical trials of oncolytic viruses proved safe for use in the brain, but we noticed substantial numbers of immune cells in brain tumors after treatment," says senior author and neurosurgeon Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca, who was professor and chair of neurological surgery while at Ohio State University.
"To understand this process, we went back to the laboratory and showed that NK cells rapidly infiltrate tumors in mice that have been treated with the therapeutic virus. These NK cells also signal other inflammatory cells to come in and destroy the cancer-killing virus in the tumor."
The study used an oncolytic herpes simplex virus, human glioblastoma tumor tissue and mouse models, one of which hosted both human glioblastoma cells and human NK cells. Key technical findings include:
Replication of the therapeutic virus in tumor cells in an animal model rapidly attracted subsets of NK cells to the tumor site;
NK cells in tumors activated other immune cells (i.e., macrophages and microglia) that have both antiviral and anticancer properties;
Depletion of NK cells improves the survival of tumor-bearing mice treated with the therapeutic virus;
NK cells that destroy virus-infected tumor cells express the NKp30 and NKp46 receptors molecules that recognize the virus.
"Once we identify the molecules on glioblastoma cells that these NK cell receptors bind with, we might be able to use them to identify patients who will be sensitive to this therapy," Caligiuri says.
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Ohio State University Medical Center: http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/Pages/index.aspx
Thanks to Ohio State University Medical Center for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) ? A suburban Chicago man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for killing his wife and three school-age children as they sat buckled into the family's SUV ? allegedly so he could start a new life subsisting in the Canadian wilderness.
The sentencing of Christopher Vaughn, 37, came two months after jurors found him guilty of killing his 34-year-old wife, Kimberly, and their children on June 14, 2007. Each child was shot once in the chest and head.
The judge sentenced Vaughn to four consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole. Vaughn did not make a statement in court.
Kimberly Vaughn's twin sister, Susan Ledbetter, poignantly described her pain, telling the court how she occasionally walks by a mirror and sees her sister's image and how she hears her sister's laughter whenever she laughs.
"I silently wonder if my parents and older sister experience pain in my presence because Kim and I share not only our looks but also many of our personality traits," she said, weeping as she read her impact statement to the court.
Vaughn, who lived with his family in a spacious Oswego home, faced a mandatory life term for the killings. But the hearing in Joliet gave relatives a chance to confront him and to convey how much pain he caused.
The 2007 murders started out as a death penalty case, slowing the pace to trial. But Illinois has since abolished capital punishment, making life in prison the maximum penalty.
"There isn't a punishment that fits this crime," Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow told reporters outside the courtroom after the sentencing.
"What this guy did here was a diabolical atrocity, and he's a heartless, soulless, psychopath," Glasgow said.
Vaughn murdered his family members, prosecutors say, because he saw them as obstacles to his dream of a new life in Canada. He posted wistful Internet messages about building a cabin and settling in the Yukon cut off from the world.
According to prosecutors, Vaughn woke his family on the day of the killings promising a surprise trip to a water park. But shortly after 5 a.m., he pulled off the road, shot his wife, then killed 12-year-old Abigayle, 11-year-old Cassandra and Blake, 8.
Abigayle was found holding a stuffed animal; Blake's wounds indicated he had raised his arm to shield himself.
At trial, defense attorneys told jurors that Vaughn's wife was to blame, saying she was suicidal over marital strife. They suggested she shot her husband in the wrist and leg, then killed the children and herself.
Prosecutors balked at that theory, asking jurors whether it seems reasonable that a woman who disliked guns could have shot her husband twice, only grazing him each time, but fatally shot each of her children with a marksman's precision.
They said Vaughn shot himself to make it look like his wife carried out the attack. Prosecutors said Vaughn showed little emotion after the shootings and was more interested in his damaged clothing than the fate of his family.
Mobile Nations Network Movember Funds Raised so far: $11,330 (USD)
The MO-bile Nations crew in the 'Peg eating deep fried chicken... it's great for 'stache growth!
WE DID IT! Movember isn't quite over, but we've already surpassed our Mobile Nations Network goal of raising over $10,000 for the cause. Mo-Mazing! We have witnessed some great fundraising efforts across the team, and special props go out to Canada's Mike Whitton for raising over $1500 and Australia's Daniel Kollehn for raising over $600. Great effort. HUGE thanks to everybody that has contributed!
If you haven't donated yet, you still have time. The only thing better than meeting our goal is blowing right past it! And we'll love you forever if you donate. Donations can be made easily over the web. Simply jump over to our Mobile Nations Network page, click on the name of any of the individuals listed as part of the network, and hit the donate button. All funds donated to an individual will pass through to the network total.
This is our fourth Movember update for the month, and we have one more to come once the month is over. We'll report back with our final pledge totals and a final gallery of all the moustaches we've grown out. Keep reading for more on Movember and to see some great photos from the team!
While many people still have backordered Nexus 4 devices waiting to be shipped, deals site Daily Steals is offering the unlocked 16GB version for a cool $499. The "list price" is a severely inflated $799, although we all know they're listed for $349 on the Play Store. We're not sure if this site got their devices from LG with a bulk discount, or somehow snatched up some when they were briefly on sale from Google, but we doubt they have that many in stock.
As is usually the case with these, they're probably going to sell out quick, so be sure to jump on one of these if you just can't wait any longer to get that sweet Nexus into your hands. If it's any consolation, you'll likely save some money when compared to the prices on eBay right now.
As December draws close, go and feast yourself upon the new glorious pasta selections from Figaro! Officially launching by the last week of November, there are three pasta dishes now made available to suit your tastes.
First up would be the Figaro Meaty Lasagna,?the perfect for foodies who are looking for layers and layers of rich meaty sauce, creamy cheese, and al dente?pasta: the good 'ol lasagna as what others may say! For a finishing touch, a generous layer of golden melted cheese will be slathered on top and sure enough: this was such a joy to eat!
Figaro Meaty Lasagna (P200.00)
The second dish offered is the?Figaro Chicken Parmigiano:?this is composed of tender breaded chicken which is tossed along with the pasta and some homemade tomato and two cheese sauce. Subtle and modest, this could fill you up in a jiffy!
Figaro Chicken Parmigiano (P180.00)
Last of the series: the?Figaro Seafood Pomarola!?A pomarola?is a distinct Italian sauce which is some sort of equivalent for the ever-popular marinara and this is exactly what this dish delivers. Filled with plump shrimps, tomatoes, and spices, this is my favorite of all of the three! A definite must-try!
Figaro Seafood Pomarola (P180.00)
Each of these dishes have their own personality once served on the table and it's up for you to choose! I say, if you're looking for a hearty fulfilling meal, go for the lasagna, but if you want something rich and savory, go for the pomarola!
Other Existing Promos
Figaro also has current promos that you shouldn't miss!
For UnionBank Credit Card holders: Enjoy 10% discount for every P200 minimum single receipt purchase of food and beverage at Figaro.
For BDO Credit Card holders: When you buy 1, you get 1 free on their milk tea, brewed coffee, and bakes selections
For BPI Card holders: Get a free hot drink on your order of Figaro's specialty cakes.
Free P100 Figaro Gift Voucher: Whenever you buy P350 worth of Conzace?at Watson stores.
"Foodie from the Metro" :?Figaro | New Pasta Meals
Reading, writing and playing games may help aging brains stay healthyPublic release date: 25-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Linda Brooks lbrooks@rsna.org 630-590-7762 Radiological Society of North America
CHICAGO Mental activities like reading and writing can preserve structural integrity in the brains of older people, according to a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
While previous research has shown an association between late-life cognitive activity and better mental acuity, the new study from Konstantinos Arfanakis, Ph.D., and colleagues from Rush University Medical Center and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago studied what effect late-life cognitive activity might have on the brain's white matter, which is composed of nerve fibers, or axons, that transmit information throughout the brain.
"Reading the newspaper, writing letters, visiting a library, attending a play or playing games, such as chess or checkers, are all simple activities that can contribute to a healthier brain," Dr. Arfanakis said.
The researchers used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method known as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to generate data on diffusion anisotropy, a measure of how water molecules move through the brain. In white matter, diffusion anisotropy exploits the fact that water moves more easily in a direction parallel to the brain's axons, and less easily perpendicular to the axons, because it is impeded by structures such as axonal membranes and myelin. "This difference in the diffusion rates along different directions increases diffusion anisotropy values," Dr. Arfanakis said. "Diffusion anisotropy is higher when more diffusion is happening in one direction compared to others."
The anisotropy values in white matter drop, however, with aging, injury and disease.
"In healthy white matter tissue, water can't move as much in directions perpendicular to the nerve fibers," Dr. Arfanakis said. "But if, for example, you have lower neuronal density or less myelin, then the water has more freedom to move perpendicular to the fibers, so you would have reduced diffusion anisotropy. Lower diffusion anisotropy values are consistent with aging."
The study included 152 elderly participants, mean age 81 years, from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a large-scale study looking at risk factors for Alzheimer's disease. Participants were without dementia or mild cognitive impairment, based on a detailed clinical evaluation. Researchers asked the participants to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 the frequency with which they participated in a list of mentally engaging activities during the last year. Among the activities were reading newspapers and magazines, writing letters and playing cards and board games.
Participants underwent brain MRI using a 1.5-T scanner within one year of clinical evaluation. The researchers collected anatomical and DTI data and used it to generate diffusion anisotropy maps.
Data analysis revealed significant associations between the frequency of cognitive activity in later life and higher diffusion anisotropy values in the brain.
"Several areas throughout the brain, including regions quite important to cognition, showed higher microstructural integrity with more frequent cognitive activity in late life," said Dr. Arfanakis. "Keeping the brain occupied late in life has positive outcomes."
According to Dr. Arfanakis, diffusion anisotropy drops gradually beginning at around age 30. "Higher diffusion anisotropy in elderly patients who engage in frequent cognitive activity suggests that these people have brain properties similar to those of younger individuals," he said.
The researchers will continue to follow the study participants with an eye toward comparing the diffusion anisotropy results over time.
"In these participants, we've shown an association between late-life cognitive activity and structural integrity, but we haven't shown that one causes the other," Dr. Arfanakis said. "We want to follow the same patients over time to demonstrate a causal link."
###
Coauthors are Anil K. Vasireddi, B.S., Shengwei Zhang, B.Eng., David A. Bennett, M.D., and Debra A. Fleischman, Ph.D.
Note: Copies of RSNA 2012 news releases and electronic images will be available online at RSNA.org/press12 beginning Monday, Nov. 26.
RSNA is an association of more than 50,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists, promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill.
Editor's note: The data in these releases may differ from those in the published abstract and those actually presented at the meeting, as researchers continue to update their data right up until the meeting. To ensure you are using the most up-to-date information, please call the RSNA Newsroom at 1-312-949-3233.
For patient-friendly information on MRI of the brain, visit RadiologyInfo.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Reading, writing and playing games may help aging brains stay healthyPublic release date: 25-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Linda Brooks lbrooks@rsna.org 630-590-7762 Radiological Society of North America
CHICAGO Mental activities like reading and writing can preserve structural integrity in the brains of older people, according to a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
While previous research has shown an association between late-life cognitive activity and better mental acuity, the new study from Konstantinos Arfanakis, Ph.D., and colleagues from Rush University Medical Center and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago studied what effect late-life cognitive activity might have on the brain's white matter, which is composed of nerve fibers, or axons, that transmit information throughout the brain.
"Reading the newspaper, writing letters, visiting a library, attending a play or playing games, such as chess or checkers, are all simple activities that can contribute to a healthier brain," Dr. Arfanakis said.
The researchers used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method known as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to generate data on diffusion anisotropy, a measure of how water molecules move through the brain. In white matter, diffusion anisotropy exploits the fact that water moves more easily in a direction parallel to the brain's axons, and less easily perpendicular to the axons, because it is impeded by structures such as axonal membranes and myelin. "This difference in the diffusion rates along different directions increases diffusion anisotropy values," Dr. Arfanakis said. "Diffusion anisotropy is higher when more diffusion is happening in one direction compared to others."
The anisotropy values in white matter drop, however, with aging, injury and disease.
"In healthy white matter tissue, water can't move as much in directions perpendicular to the nerve fibers," Dr. Arfanakis said. "But if, for example, you have lower neuronal density or less myelin, then the water has more freedom to move perpendicular to the fibers, so you would have reduced diffusion anisotropy. Lower diffusion anisotropy values are consistent with aging."
The study included 152 elderly participants, mean age 81 years, from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a large-scale study looking at risk factors for Alzheimer's disease. Participants were without dementia or mild cognitive impairment, based on a detailed clinical evaluation. Researchers asked the participants to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 the frequency with which they participated in a list of mentally engaging activities during the last year. Among the activities were reading newspapers and magazines, writing letters and playing cards and board games.
Participants underwent brain MRI using a 1.5-T scanner within one year of clinical evaluation. The researchers collected anatomical and DTI data and used it to generate diffusion anisotropy maps.
Data analysis revealed significant associations between the frequency of cognitive activity in later life and higher diffusion anisotropy values in the brain.
"Several areas throughout the brain, including regions quite important to cognition, showed higher microstructural integrity with more frequent cognitive activity in late life," said Dr. Arfanakis. "Keeping the brain occupied late in life has positive outcomes."
According to Dr. Arfanakis, diffusion anisotropy drops gradually beginning at around age 30. "Higher diffusion anisotropy in elderly patients who engage in frequent cognitive activity suggests that these people have brain properties similar to those of younger individuals," he said.
The researchers will continue to follow the study participants with an eye toward comparing the diffusion anisotropy results over time.
"In these participants, we've shown an association between late-life cognitive activity and structural integrity, but we haven't shown that one causes the other," Dr. Arfanakis said. "We want to follow the same patients over time to demonstrate a causal link."
###
Coauthors are Anil K. Vasireddi, B.S., Shengwei Zhang, B.Eng., David A. Bennett, M.D., and Debra A. Fleischman, Ph.D.
Note: Copies of RSNA 2012 news releases and electronic images will be available online at RSNA.org/press12 beginning Monday, Nov. 26.
RSNA is an association of more than 50,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists, promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill.
Editor's note: The data in these releases may differ from those in the published abstract and those actually presented at the meeting, as researchers continue to update their data right up until the meeting. To ensure you are using the most up-to-date information, please call the RSNA Newsroom at 1-312-949-3233.
For patient-friendly information on MRI of the brain, visit RadiologyInfo.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend everyone! Hope you are all enjoying shopping and decorating and lots of turkey sandwiches?! I am doing all of the above. When I last updated you on my hardwood floors, they had delivered the new wood (it had to acclimate to our home for a few days before install), and were ripping out carpet and old damaged wood to prepare for the new floors. ?That was an exciting step!
So last week the installers from Nielsen Brothers?spent several days here installing our new Hickory Flooring (the flooring is by Mohawk). ?It was one of those crazy weeks where our car broke down and we got a bill for $4,000 on a car worth $4,000 (meh), I had back-to-back meetings all week long, and had people working on my house several days in a row.?I felt a bit like I was running in circles trying to juggle it all without dropping the balls. But fortunately the installers were awesome and so capable, I was able to run in and out and not worry about what was going on with the floors. Every time I?d pop back in, they?d have more done and it was all coming together beautifully.
It was fun to see the progress and how much the floors are transforming the space!
Winston wanted to nap right in the middle of where they guys were working. He slept right through it, but clearly was in the way. HA! Notice that you can see several of the holes in the subfloor behind him, showing where our old counters used to be! It is so exciting to see these new floors going in and how they are making our kitchen feel like it was meant to be, with no more holes or damage to conceal or hide after the remodel!
You can also see my still unfinished kitchen and unpainted cabinets in the photo above. That?s right. Kitchen is STILL not painted. I?ve had the worst possible luck and experience with painters. THE WORST! I had one stand me up TWICE in the past two weeks without even calling and one several months ago that turned out to be a wee bit crazy. So, my cabinets still aren?t painted.
Thanks to everyone who has been asking about the kitchen and why I wasn?t showing the after post. It?s because there is no after YET. Things go so much slower than I ever dream sometimes. But having the wood floors done was the last major element of the kitchen besides the painting, so we are THAT much closer to being done now! I promise, there WILL be an ?AFTER? post.
I?m so so pleased with the new floors. The grain and finish is absolutely beautiful, even under all the dust of remodeling! I?m really thrilled that we had the opportunity to take out the stained and smelly carpeting in the adjoining family room to connect the spaces with the new wood.?The continuous wood flooring through the main level of our home really makes the house feel so much larger too! It is amazing what a difference the Hickory makes in how bright and warm it feels!
I cannot wait for all the final reveal posts because I seriously cannot believe this is my house, I?m really thrilled with how it is coming together! Nothing like a last minute home improvement project before the holidays (right? who does that?), but having new floors makes me all the more excited for Christmas decorating!
Do you do crazy things like remodel right before or during the holidays like me??
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I?m partnering with the ?Mohawk?Floors Me, as Told by Bloggers? program and received hardwood flooring as a part of the project. As always, all opinions, experiences, home projects are my own.?
Welcome! If you enjoyed your visit, you may want to subscribe for free to The Inspired Room! You'll receive new updates via your email inbox so you'll never miss a post! Thanks so much for stopping by today!
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Public release date: 29-Nov-2012
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Ever since his re-election on October 7th, Hugo Ch?vez has been uncharacteristically absent from the public eye. As if anyone had been in any doubt, we now know why.
