Monday, March 11, 2013

Earth gets a rush of weekend asteroid visitors

Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech

The passage of asteroid 2012 DA14 through the Earth-moon system, is depicted in this handout image from NASA.

By Irene Klotz, Reuters

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - An asteroid as big as a city block shot relatively close by the Earth on Saturday, the latest in a series of visiting celestial objects including an asteroid the size of a bus that exploded over Russia last month, injuring 1,500.?

Discovered just six days ago, the 460-foot long (140-meter) Asteroid 2013 ET passed about 600,000 miles from Earth at 3:30 p.m. EST. That's about 2-1/2 times as far as the moon, fairly close on a cosmic yardstick.?

"The scary part of this one is that it's something we didn't even know about," Patrick Paolucci, president of Slooh Space Camera, said during a webcast featuring live images of the asteroid from a telescope in the Canary Islands.?

Moving at a speed of about 26,000 miles per hour, the asteroid could have wiped out a large city if it had impacted the Earth, added Slooh telescope engineer Paul Cox.?

Asteroid 2013 ET is nearly eight times larger than the bus-sized asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, on February 15. The force of the explosion, equivalent to about 440 kilotons of dynamite, created a shock wave that shattered windows and damaged buildings, injuring more than 1,500 people.?

Later that day, another small asteroid, known as DA14, passed about 17,200 miles from Earth, closer than the orbiting networks of communications and weather satellites.?

"One of the reasons why we're finding more of these objects is that there are more people looking," Cox said.?

Two other small asteroids, both about the size of the Russian meteor, will also be in Earth's neighborhood this weekend. Asteroid 2013 EC 20 passed just 93,000 miles away on Saturday - "a stone's thrown," said Cox.?

On Sunday, Asteroid 2013 EN 20 will fly about 279,000 miles from Earth. Both were discovered just three days ago. "We know that the solar system is a busy place," said Cox.?

"We're not sitting here on our pale, blue dot on our own in nice safety ... This should be a wakeup call to governments."?

NASA has been tasked by the U.S. Congress to find and track all near-Earth objects 0.62 miles or larger in diameter, and estimates about 95 percent have been identified.?

However, only about 10 percent of smaller asteroids have been discovered, NASA scientists have said.?

The effort is intended to give scientists and engineers as much time as possible to learn if an asteroid or comet is on a collision course with Earth, in hopes of sending up a spacecraft or taking other measures to avert catastrophe.?

About 100 tons of material from space hit Earth every day. Astronomers currently expect an object about the size of what hit Russia to strike the planet about every 100 years.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/09/17253655-earth-gets-a-rush-of-weekend-asteroid-visitors?lite

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Sunday, March 10, 2013

Osbourne confirms seizure, tweets hospital photo

AAA??Mar. 8, 2013?2:20 PM ET
Osbourne confirms seizure, tweets hospital photo
AP

FILE - In this Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 file photo, TV personality Kelly Osbourne arrives at the 85th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Osbourne has been hospitalized after fainting on the set of E!?s ?Fashion Police.? A spokeswoman for Osbourne told the cable network Thursday, March 7, 2013, that the 28-year-old TV personality is awake, alert and in stable condition, and she will be staying overnight for observation as a precautionary measure. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 file photo, TV personality Kelly Osbourne arrives at the 85th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Osbourne has been hospitalized after fainting on the set of E!?s ?Fashion Police.? A spokeswoman for Osbourne told the cable network Thursday, March 7, 2013, that the 28-year-old TV personality is awake, alert and in stable condition, and she will be staying overnight for observation as a precautionary measure. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 file photo, TV personality Kelly Osbourne arrives at the 85th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Osbourne has been hospitalized after fainting on the set of E!?s ?Fashion Police.? A spokeswoman for Osbourne told the cable network Thursday, March 7, 2013, that the 28-year-old TV personality is awake, alert and in stable condition, and she will be staying overnight for observation as a precautionary measure. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP, File)

(AP) ? Kelly Osbourne says she had a seizure and doctors are trying to figure out why.

The 28-year-old TV personality posted a photo on Twitter late Thursday of an IV in her tattooed left arm. She thanked her fans for their "beautiful well wishes."

Osbourne was hospitalized Thursday after collapsing on the set of E! network's "Fashion Police," where she serves as a panelist alongside Joan Rivers, Giuliana Rancic and George Kotsiopoulos.

Osbourne is the daughter of rocker Ozzy Osbourne and "The Talk" co-host Sharon Osbourne. She was profiled with her family on the MTV reality series "The Osbournes" and has appeared as a contestant on "Dancing with the Stars."

Representatives for E! and Kelly Osbourne didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-08-US-People-Kelly-Osbourne/id-c675445191e5480ba0126d59956882ba

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Heavy snow blankets Rocky Mountains

Brennan Linsley / AP

A man walk struggles to walk as blizzard conditions set in at the U.S. Air Force Academy, in southern Colorado on Saturday.

By F. Brinley Bruton, Staff Writer, NBC News

A powerful storm dumped snow on the Rocky Mountains on Sunday, after having forced the?cancellation?of hundreds of flights and the?postponement?of a Major League Soccer game.?

Winter Storm Triton was moving east across the Plains into the Midwest, and blizzard conditions were possible?in parts of Nebraska and northwest Kansas,?The Weather Channel reported.

Forecasters also said that parts of the region could expect wind gusts of up to 50-miles-an-hour and white out conditions.?

Snow pounded Denver, Colo., Saturday, falling at more than an inch per hour at times. Nearly 500 flights out of Denver International Airport had to be canceled. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reports.

Triton dumped up to 10 inches of heavy, wet snow in?the Denver metropolitan area, The Weather Channel reported.

According to Reuters, more than 500 flights in and out of Denver International Airport were canceled on Saturday.?

"Many of the canceled flights are commuter flights that go to mountain towns," airport spokesman Heath Montgomery told Reuters, adding that the facility remained open.

Related:?How deep is it? Show us your snow photos #nbcnewspics

Looking ahead, passengers could expect delays of up to 30 minutes as crews de-iced departing aircraft, he said, according to Reuters.?

The Colorado Rapids postponed their Major League Soccer game against the Philadelphia Union until Sunday, the team said on its website.?

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/10/17257054-heavy-snow-blankets-colorado-prompts-flight-cancellations?lite

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX1


Sony's decision to develop the Cyber-shot DSC-RX1 ($2,799.99 direct) is a bold one. It's a seriously expensive camera that appeals to well-heeled enthusiasts, but is likely to be a constant companion for those who embrace its design. The RX1 packs a 24-megapixel full-frame image sensor and a 35mm f/2 Zeiss Sonnar lens. It can slide into a larger pocket?think jacket or cargo pants?and delivers images that would spur envy in many an SLR. It's not a perfect camera, and it's not for everyone, but despite its price, it's the best prime-lens compact we've tested, and earns and Editors' Choice award for that distinction.

Design and Features
The RX1 is one of two cameras in Sony's current R series. The other, the Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 is a smaller compact with a 1-inch sensor and a fast, zooming lens. It impressed us enough to earn our Editors' Choice for compact cameras, but it's simply not in the same class as the RX1 in terms of image quality. The RX1 sets itself apart from other cameras in its class with its image sensor. Sony was actually the first company to put an APS-C sensor in a digital camera that didn't have a removable lens. The Cyber-shot DSC-R1 debuted in 2005 and is still the only camera of this type with a zoom lens. When you measure its surface area, the full-frame image sensor is twice as big as an APS-C sensor; as a rule of thumb, a bigger image sensor translates into higher-quality photos.

Despite having a rather compact body, the 17-ounce RX1 has a big lens that adds to its depth. It measures 2.6 by 4.5 by 2.75 inches (HWD). Compare this with the Leica X2, which measures 2.7 by 4.9 by 2 inches. The Leica is noticeably slimmer while still offering the same field of view, but it uses a smaller APS-C image sensor and a slower f/2.8 lens. The camera has a leatherette covering that doubles as a grip, but it's a bit too shallow for my tastes, given the bulky lens design. Sony doesn't offer an accessory handgrip for the front of the camera?although it does sell a thumb grip ($249.99) that slides into the hot shoe in order to give you a better handle from the rear.

The lens is a Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 2/35. Because there's no crop factor, the 35mm lens delivers the same field of view as it would if the camera used film rather than a digital sensor. There's no optical zoom capability, but if you opt to shoot in JPG you can activate Clear Image Zoom, a digital zoom system that works by upscaling a cropped portion of the sensor, to capture a field of view of 50mm or 70mm. Fujifilm's X100s features a design that delivers the same field of view and f/2 aperture as the RX1, but like other cameras in this class it uses an APS-C sensor. The X100s has a built-in hybrid viewfinder?you can toggle between a fixed optical view or an electronic live view feed?something that is lacking in the RX1. Sony does sell accessory viewfinders. The OLED Electronic Viewfinder is priced at a hefty $450, and the Optical Viewfinder is even more expensive at $600.

The lens has a physical aperture ring that ranges from f/2 to f/22 in third-stop increments. Unlike an SLR lens, which is always wide open when mounted, the RX1 changes its aperture as soon as you adjust the ring. This gives you a real-time preview of your depth of your image, including depth of field, as you compose shots. The display does get dim if you stop the lens down in a dark environment, but you'll likely be shooting with a wider aperture or on a tripod in those situations.

At its standard setting focus ranges from 0.3 meter to infinity, but you can twist the macro ring, located behind the manual focus ring, to change the range from 0.2 meter to 0.35 meter. It's an innovative design that allows you to focus closer than you would normally be able to with a camera like this one. The Fujifilm X100s tackles the problem in a similar manner?it can focus from 0.5 meter to infinity in its standard mode, but has a macro setting that adjusts the range from 0.1 meter to 2 meters. The Sigma DP1 Merrill has a wider 28mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens, but its design allows it to focus from 0.2 meter to infinity at all times. Having the ability to get in a little bit closer than usual with the RX1 is a boon, but the adjustment can be a bit tricky to make as it is a very narrow ring, and there were a couple occasions where I accidentally move it away from one of its settings when squeezing the camera into or taking it out of my gear bag. Thankfully, there is a "Macro" overlay that shows up on the rear display and in the EVF to let you know that close focus mode is engaged.

The RX1 doesn't have quite the control layout of a D-SLR, but it offers enough customization to keep demanding shooters happy. Up top there's the mode dial, a dedicated control dial for Exposure Compensation?three stops in either direction in third-stop increments?and a the C button, which can be customized to perform almost any camera function via the menu system. The On/Off switch sits at the base of the shutter release, which features a threaded design so that it can accept a mechanical release cable or a screw-in soft release button.

On the front of the camera, below and to the right of the lens, is a toggle switch to change between Autofocus, Direct Manual Focus, and Manual Focus. The first and last are self-explanatory in function; Direct Manual Focus allows you to fine tune the focus of a shot after autofocus has locked on. You simply press the shutter halfway down to engage autofocus, and you can turn the focus ring on the lens in order adjust focus manually. It's a nice option for shooters who want the convenience of autofocus, but don't want to have to flip a switch in order to benefit from the control that manual focus provides.

The rear panel houses a control dial?it adjust shutter speed in Shutter Priority and Manual shooting modes. There's also an Auto Exposure Lock button (it can be reprogrammed to perform another function), and a programmable four-way controller that doubles as an additional control dial. You can program three of the four direction presses; the top always changes the amount of information displayed on rear LCD. The wheel action is used to change the selected settings in the overlay menu that opens when you press the Function button; the up, down, left, and right directions are used to navigate through the options contained within.

That menu gives you quick access to common shooting settings?Drive Mode, Flash Mode, Autofocus Area, ISO, Metering Mode, Flash Compensation, White Balance, and others. Most of these can be assigned to one of the camera's programmable buttons. If you configure the RX1 to match your shooting style, you'll seldom have to dive into a menu.

The rear display is 3 inches and features a stunning 1,229k-dot resolution. It's sharper than the 921k-dot displays found on other high-end compacts, which is helpful for confirming critical focus. There's no focus peaking aid for manual focus like there is with Sony interchangeable lens cameras like the Alpha NEX-7, but you can magnify a portion of the frame to check critical focus when in manual focus or Direct Manual Focus mode.

The flash deploys via a physical catch, located on the rear above the LCD. It's on a hinge, but you can't tilt it back like you can with the flash on the NEX-7 and some other Sony cameras. If you want to add a bounce flash, you'll have to invest in an external one that slides into the camera's hot shoe. If you already own a Sony D-SLR or NEX model you can use same strobes, but you'll have to add the Multi-Interface Shoe Adapter ($24.99) if your strobes use the older Minolta hot shoe design.

If you find the prices of the EVF, OVF, and thumb grip shocking, you're not alone. Many have knocked the RX1 for the price of its accessories, and for not including some very basic ones in the box. Sony opted not to include a battery charger; instead, you have to charge the battery in-camera using an included AC adapter. A dedicated charger adds $50 to the cost, and a spare battery is priced at $50 as well. If you opt to buy both, and you should, they are bundled together for a more reasonable $70. But at the end of the day, a $2,800 camera should ship with a dedicated charger. If you run out of juice at the end of a day shooting, you want to be able to swap in a spare battery while the drained one charges so you can keep taking pictures. The lens hood, which serves to reduce the possibility of flare and to protect the lens from damage, is another accessory you'll have to buy separately; it's priced at $180. Similar vented hoods can be found on eBay for less than $10; there's little chance that they'll offer the same build quality as the Sony version, but they'll get the job done.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/eL6uW_-1HCs/0,2817,2416311,00.asp

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New study validates longevity pathway

Friday, March 8, 2013

A new study demonstrates what researchers consider conclusive evidence that the red wine compound resveratrol directly activates a protein that promotes health and longevity in animal models. What's more, the researchers have uncovered the molecular mechanism for this interaction, and show that a class of more potent drugs currently in clinical trials act in a similar fashion. Pharmaceutical compounds similar to resveratrol may potentially treat and prevent diseases related to aging in people, the authors contend.

These findings are published in the March 8 issue of Science.

For the last decade, the science of aging has increasingly focused on sirtuins, a group of genes that are believed to protect many organisms, including mammals, against diseases of aging. Mounting evidence has demonstrated that resveratrol, a compound found in the skin of grapes as well as in peanuts and berries, increases the activity of a specific sirtuin,SIRT1, that protects the body from diseases by revving up the mitochondria, a kind of cellular battery that slowly runs down as we age. By recharging the batteries, SIRT1 can have profound effects on health.

Mice on resveratrol have twice the endurance and are relatively immune from effects of obesity and aging. In experiments with yeast, nematodes, bees, flies and mice, lifespan has been extended.

"In the history of pharmaceuticals, there has never been a drug that binds to a protein to make it run faster in the way that resveratrol activates SIRT1," said David Sinclair, Harvard Medical School professor of genetics and senior author on the paper. "Almost all drugs either slow or block them."

In 2006, Sinclair's group published a study showing that resveratrol could extend the lifespan of mice, and the company Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, which was started by HMS researchers, was founded to make drugs more potent than resveratrol. (Sinclair is a co-founder of Sirtris, a GlaxoSmithKline company, and remains a scientific advisor. Sirtris currently has a number of sirtuin-activating compounds in clinical trials.)

But while numerous studies, from Sinclair's lab and elsewhere, underscored a direct causal link between resveratrol and SIRT1, some scientists claimed the studies were flawed.

The contention lay in the way SIRT1 was studied in vitro, using a specific chemical group attached to the targets of SIRT1 that fluoresces more brightly as SIRT1 activity increases. This chemical group, however, is synthetic and does not exist in cells or in nature, and without it the experiments did not work. As a response to this, a paper published in 2010 surmised that resveratrol's activation of SIRT1 was an experimental artifact, one that existed in the lab, but not in an actual animal. SIRT1 activity in mice was, the paper claimed, at best an indirect result of resveratrol, and perhaps even a sheer coincidence.

As a result, a debate erupted over the particular pathway that resveratrol and similar compounds affected. Does resveratrol directly activate SIRT1 or is the effect indirect? "We had six years of work telling us that this was most definitely not an artifact," said Sinclair. "Still, we needed to figure out precisely how resveratrol works. The answer was extremely elegant."

Sinclair and Basil Hubbard, then a doctoral student in the lab, teamed up with a group of researchers from both the National Institutes of Health and Sirtris Pharmaceuticals to address this question.

First, the team addressed the problem of the fluorescent chemical group. Why was it required for resveratrol to rev up SIRT1 in the test tube? Instead of dismissing the result as an artifact, the researchers surmised that the chemical might be mimicking molecules found naturally in the cell. These turned out to be a specific class of amino acid, the building blocks of proteins. In nature, there are three amino acids that resemble the fluorescent chemical group, one of which is tryptophan, a molecule abundant in turkey and notable for inducing drowsiness. When researchers repeated the experiment, swapping the fluorescing chemical group on the substrate with a tryptophan residue, resveratrol and similar molecules were once again able to activate SIRT1.

"We discovered a signature for activation that is in fact found in the cell and doesn't require these other synthetic groups," said Hubbard, first author of the study. "This was a critical result, which allowed us to bridge the gap between our biochemical and physiological findings.

"Next, we needed to identify precisely how resveratrol presses on SIRT1's accelerator," said Sinclair. The team tested approximately 2,000 mutants of the SIRT1 gene, eventually identifying one mutant that completely blocked resveratrol's effect. The particular mutation resulted in the substitution of a single amino acid residue, out of the 747 that make up SIRT1. The researchers also tested hundreds of other molecules from the Sirtris library, many of which are far more powerful than resveratrol, against this mutant SIRT1. All failed to activate it.

The authors propose a model for how resveratrol works: When the molecule binds, a hinge flips, and SIRT1 becomes hyperactive.

Although these experiments occurred in a test tube, once the researchers identified the precise location of the accelerator pedal on SIRT1?and how to break it?they could test their ideas in a cell. They replaced the normal SIRT1 gene in muscle and skin cells with the accelerator-dead mutant. Now they could test precisely whether resveratrol and the drugs in development work by tweaking SIRT1 (in which case they would not work) or one of the thousands of other proteins in a cell (in which they would work). While resveratrol and the drugs tested revved up mitochondria in normal cells (an effect caused activating by SIRT1), the mutant cells were completely immune.

"This was the killer experiment," said Sinclair. "There is no rational alternative explanation other than resveratrol directly activates SIRT1 in cells. Now that we know the exact location on SIRT1 where and how resveratrol works, we can engineer even better molecules that more precisely and effectively trigger the effects of resveratrol."

###

Harvard Medical School: http://hms.harvard.edu

Thanks to Harvard Medical School for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127211/New_study_validates_longevity_pathway

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[Event] Play Expo 2013 (Manchester, 12th & 13th October ...

Event-Play-Expo-2013-Manchester-12th-13th-OctoberThe UK's biggest retro gaming event is back! Replay Events have just announced that Play Expo is once again due to take place later this year in the same spacious venue,?Manchester's Event City. If last year's exhibition was anything to go by, this is one date in your calendar you don't want to miss.

Although Replay Events have not announced anything other than the event's date and location, we're very much certain that the British retro gaming community is currently celebrating. Last year's event featured countless systems to enjoy, arcade and pinball machines on?free-play, and of course competitions hosted by yours truly.

Tickets are not on sale as of yet, however, Replay Events have suggested you sign up to their email newsletter to find out as soon as they are.

RetroCollect be attending in force and very much looking forward to meeting you all. Why not join our event page and let the retro gaming community know you'll be making an?appearance?in October at Event City.

Link: Play Expo Official Website

Link: Play Expo Event page on RetroCollect

Link: RetroCollect's Flickr Album from Play Expo 2012

Source: http://www.retrocollect.com/News/event-play-expo-2013-manchester-12th-a-13th-october.html

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