Smith Optics: Prospecting Idaho Teaser

Posted by: Evan Litsios / added: 10.30.2013 / Back to What Up

Smith Optics decided to base their 2013 film project by stepping out their back door into the mountains of Idaho. Watch Sammy Luebke, Wyatt Caldwell, Mark Carter, Shayne Pospisil, Kyle Clancy, Yancy Caldwell, Spencer Cordovano, Nate Farrell, Jeremy Black, Pat Lee, and friends as they hike and snowmobile in the Idaho backcountry. 

2013 Prospecting Idaho Teaser from smith optics on Vimeo.

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Jon Gosselin on Kate Gosselin: There's "No Cooperation," No Relationship

The happy, goofy days of Jon and Kate Plus 8 -- when the overwhelmed but cheerful spouses Jon and Kate Gosselin seemed bonded for life as they minded their brood of eight small children -- feels like a lifetime ago. In the latest update with Jon three years after their marriage ended, the former TLC star confirms in a new Oprah Winfrey interview that he and Kate are virtual strangers.

PHOTOS: Gosselin family's drama-filled scrapbook

"I don't really have a relationship with Kate. It's more texting, custodial stuff. I wish her the best in all that she does," Jon, 36, says. Now making ends meet as a waiter at a restaurant in rural Pennsylvania, Jon and Kate, 38, now share custody of twins Cara and Mady, 13, and 9-year-old sextuplets Alexis, Hannah, Aaden, Collin, Leah and Joel -- but it sounds like the former spouses are quietly at odds.

PHOTOS: Kate's beauty blunder

"We're just moving in totally different directions, just totally not on the same page at all about anything," Jon says quietly in the video.

"I don't really know what goes on in Kate's house, and she really doesn't know what goes on in my house. There is no cooperation," Jon adds.

PHOTOS: Kate's meanest faces

For her part, Kate told Bethenny Frankel last month that she felt "sadness and empathy and pity" for her ex, and hinted that co-parenting remains something of a strain. "Without going into to much detail, we are making the best of it," she said. "I definitely want them to know that I did not want to hinder or stand in the way of that relationship with him."

Add Jon in the OWN interview: "[We have] two different totally parenting styles, two different totally everythings. Which is a shame. Because it affects me. But it really affects my children."

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/jon-gosselin-on-kate-gosselin-theres-no-cooperation-no-relationship-20133110
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Jewell: Congress must fight for more park funds

FILE - This Sept. 3, 2013 file photo shows Interior Secretary Sally Jewell speaking in Anchorage, Alaska. Jewell says Congress needs to do more than talk when it comes to national parks, forests and other public lands. In her first major address since taking office this spring, Jewell called on Congress to fight for parks and other public lands in the federal budget. (AP Photo/Dan Joling, File)

FILE - This Sept. 3, 2013 file photo shows Interior Secretary Sally Jewell speaking in Anchorage, Alaska. Jewell says Congress needs to do more than talk when it comes to national parks, forests and other public lands. In her first major address since taking office this spring, Jewell called on Congress to fight for parks and other public lands in the federal budget. (AP Photo/Dan Joling, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Interior Secretary Sally Jewell says Congress needs to do more than talk when it comes to national parks, forests and other public lands.

In her first major address since taking office this spring, Jewell called on Congress to push for full funding for parks and other public lands in the federal budget.

"The real test of whether you support conservation is not what you say in a press conference when the cameras are rolling, but whether you fight for it in the budget conference," Jewell said Thursday.

Jewell, the former head of outdoor retailer REI, took over in April as the nation's chief natural resources steward. Interior manages more than 500 million acres in national parks and other public lands — 20 percent of the nation's total lands. The department oversees development of about 20 percent of U.S energy supplies, as well as recreation and hunting and other services.

Still reeling from what she called an "absurd, wasteful" government shutdown, Jewell said lawmakers should consider what conservation legacy they will leave for the next 50 or 100 years.

"We owe it to future generations to act," she said, adding that "short-sighted funding and partisan gridlock" were unacceptable.

If Congress does not act to protect mountains, rivers and forests from development, President Barack Obama will use his executive authority to do so, Jewell said. Obama designated five new national monuments earlier this year and will not hesitate to protect historic or ecologically significant sites, she said.

"There's no question that if Congress doesn't act, we will act," Jewell said.

During the 16-day government shutdown, national parks became a political symbol as lawmakers bickered over who was to blame for closing the Grand Canyon and other national landmarks.

Republicans criticized the Obama administration for closing access to the open-air World War II Memorial on the National Mall after the government closed on Oct. 1. A crowd that included Republican lawmakers converged on the memorial at one point, pushing past barriers to protest the site's closure.

Jewell defended placement of barricades at the World War II Memorial and other sites, saying that all but a dozen National Park Service employees who work at the National Mall had been furloughed. The Park Service allowed veterans and their families to visit the memorial, she said.

Jewell said there was "absolutely no political motive" in the shutdown of the 401 national park units, adding that Park Service workers and others in the Interior Department followed federal law requiring that employees limit their actions to those that protect life and property.

"We did the best we could," she said.

Jewell said the Interior Department is working to strengthen landscape-level planning efforts to ensure balanced development on public lands. She announced a strategy aimed at ensuring that energy projects include steps to mitigate a range of environmental impacts, from endangered species to climate change. The policy will use science and technology to advance conservation while allowing development to continue, she said.

"We know it doesn't have to be an either-or," Jewell said. The department has set a goal of 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy on public lands by 2020. That's enough to power more than 5 million homes or businesses.

With about a third of Interior's 70,000 workers eligible to retire within five years, the department faces an urgent need for new generation of wildlife biologists, park rangers, scientists and other professionals, Jewell said.

"What happens when a generation who has little connection to our nation's public lands is suddenly in charge of taking care of them?" she asked.

Jewell laid out what she called ambitious goals to provide outdoor recreation opportunities for more than 10 million young people and 100,000 work and training opportunities in the next four years.

The department will work with businesses and non-profit organizations to raise up to $20 million in private funds to support those goals, Jewell said.

___

Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-31-Jewell-Conservation/id-170f2a09c1ff4c70a9715ca243627145
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Biochemists find incomplete protein digestion is a useful thing for some bacteria

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Janet Lathrop
jlathrop@admin.umass.edu
413-545-0444
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

To the authors' surprise, 1 specialized replication factor was partially digested or trimmed, physically cut into shorter fragments, by an energy-dependent protease known as ClpXP, which generates specific-sized fragments essential for normal growth

AMHERST, Mass. Usually indigestion is a bad thing, but experiments by researcher Peter Chien and graduate student Robert Vass at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently showed that for the bacteria Caulobacter crescentus, partial degradation of a DNA replication protein is required to keep it alive.

DNA replication is one of the most highly controlled biological processes in all organisms, says Chien, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UMass Amherst. From humans all the way back to bacteria, all cells must faithfully duplicate their genomes in order to survive. To coordinate the start, ensure the completion and repair damages during DNA replication, specialized proteins play a key role by regulating processes.

In work published this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Chien and Vass report that one of these specialized replication factors, DnaX, is, to their surprise, partially digested or trimmed, physically cut into shorter fragments, by an energy-dependent protease known as ClpXP, which generates specific-sized fragments that are essential for Caulobacter's normal growth.

The phenomenon isn't entirely unknown, Chien explains. Short as well as long versions of DnaX had been observed 20 years ago in another bacteria, E. coli. But in E. coli, the short form was produced by changes in translation due to an early ribosome stop at a specific RNA sequence. That RNA sequence is absent in many bacteria DnaX genes including in Caulobacter, so scientists long thought that short DnaX only existed in bacteria like E. coli.

Based on previous studies in his lab, Chien and Vass moved on to investigate, by purifying these proteins and testing their activity in Caulobacter in vivo, whether the protein DnaX could be degraded by the protease ClpXP. To their surprise, ClpXP did recognize DnaX, but only partially degraded it, generating stable shorter fragments both in vitro and in vivo.

Further, they found that both long and short forms were essential for normal growth and that the short form was particularly important for DNA damage tolerance, suggesting that these fragments are not accidental but are made in a programmed manner.

Vass and Chien's new work shows that in some bacteria, short forms of DnaX are made instead by another method, proteolysis, with dramatic consequences for the cell, the biochemist says. "This type of convergent evolution results in similar protein outcomes, that is the generation of two forms through radically different mechanisms. This suggests that both long and short forms are crucial for all bacteria," he adds.

Protein degradation by energy-dependent proteases normally results in the complete destruction of target proteins, Chien notes. However, under particularly harsh artificial conditions in the test tube, these proteases can stall on certain targets. But until the recent UMass Amherst experiments, such an effect had never been seen inside a living bacterial cell, he adds.

Chien feels this mode of partial digestion could be useful in other bacteria to generate new functions from existing proteins and increasing the ability of a single gene to encode for multiple protein functions. This work was supported by NIH's National Institute for General Medical Sciences and by UMass Amherst.

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Janet Lathrop
jlathrop@admin.umass.edu
413-545-0444
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

To the authors' surprise, 1 specialized replication factor was partially digested or trimmed, physically cut into shorter fragments, by an energy-dependent protease known as ClpXP, which generates specific-sized fragments essential for normal growth

AMHERST, Mass. Usually indigestion is a bad thing, but experiments by researcher Peter Chien and graduate student Robert Vass at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently showed that for the bacteria Caulobacter crescentus, partial degradation of a DNA replication protein is required to keep it alive.

DNA replication is one of the most highly controlled biological processes in all organisms, says Chien, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UMass Amherst. From humans all the way back to bacteria, all cells must faithfully duplicate their genomes in order to survive. To coordinate the start, ensure the completion and repair damages during DNA replication, specialized proteins play a key role by regulating processes.

In work published this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Chien and Vass report that one of these specialized replication factors, DnaX, is, to their surprise, partially digested or trimmed, physically cut into shorter fragments, by an energy-dependent protease known as ClpXP, which generates specific-sized fragments that are essential for Caulobacter's normal growth.

The phenomenon isn't entirely unknown, Chien explains. Short as well as long versions of DnaX had been observed 20 years ago in another bacteria, E. coli. But in E. coli, the short form was produced by changes in translation due to an early ribosome stop at a specific RNA sequence. That RNA sequence is absent in many bacteria DnaX genes including in Caulobacter, so scientists long thought that short DnaX only existed in bacteria like E. coli.

Based on previous studies in his lab, Chien and Vass moved on to investigate, by purifying these proteins and testing their activity in Caulobacter in vivo, whether the protein DnaX could be degraded by the protease ClpXP. To their surprise, ClpXP did recognize DnaX, but only partially degraded it, generating stable shorter fragments both in vitro and in vivo.

Further, they found that both long and short forms were essential for normal growth and that the short form was particularly important for DNA damage tolerance, suggesting that these fragments are not accidental but are made in a programmed manner.

Vass and Chien's new work shows that in some bacteria, short forms of DnaX are made instead by another method, proteolysis, with dramatic consequences for the cell, the biochemist says. "This type of convergent evolution results in similar protein outcomes, that is the generation of two forms through radically different mechanisms. This suggests that both long and short forms are crucial for all bacteria," he adds.

Protein degradation by energy-dependent proteases normally results in the complete destruction of target proteins, Chien notes. However, under particularly harsh artificial conditions in the test tube, these proteases can stall on certain targets. But until the recent UMass Amherst experiments, such an effect had never been seen inside a living bacterial cell, he adds.

Chien feels this mode of partial digestion could be useful in other bacteria to generate new functions from existing proteins and increasing the ability of a single gene to encode for multiple protein functions. This work was supported by NIH's National Institute for General Medical Sciences and by UMass Amherst.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/uoma-bfi103113.php
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NASA sees Halloween Typhoon Krosa lashing Luzon, Philippines

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Contact: Rob Gutro
robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

There's nothing more scary for Halloween than a typhoon, and the residents in Luzon, in the northern Philippines are being lashed by Typhoon Krosa today, Oct. 31.

On Oct. 30 at 0525 UTC/1:25 a.m. EDT NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite captured a good daytime view of Typhoon Krosa. A rainfall analysis derived from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data was combined into a visible and infrared image from TRMM's Visible and InfraRed Scanner (VIRS). TRMM PR data found precipitation falling at a rate of about 81mm/~3.2 inches per hour in strong convective storms near Krosa's center.

On Oct.31 at 0255 UTC, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument known as MODIS that flies aboard NASA"s Terra satellite captured a picture of Tropical Storm Krosa. The MODIS image showed Krosa's western edge over Luzon in the northern Philippines

At 1500 UTC/11 a.m. EDT, Krosa's center was over land in extreme northern Luzon, and headed for the South China Sea. At that time, Krosa's maximum sustained winds were near 90 knots/103.6 mph/ 166.7 kph. The center of Krosa was located near 18.4 north and 121.2 east, about 227 nautical miles/261 miles/420 km north-northeast of Manila, Philippines. It was headed to the west-northwest at 12 knots/13.8 mph/22.22 kph.

Satellite imagery on Oct. 31 showed that Krosa had an eye 25 nautical miles/28.7 km/46.3 km in diameter at landfall in northern Luzon.

Krosa is expected to re-intensify in the South China Sea and affect Hainan Island, China before making a final landfall in northern Vietnam.

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Contact: Rob Gutro
robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

There's nothing more scary for Halloween than a typhoon, and the residents in Luzon, in the northern Philippines are being lashed by Typhoon Krosa today, Oct. 31.

On Oct. 30 at 0525 UTC/1:25 a.m. EDT NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite captured a good daytime view of Typhoon Krosa. A rainfall analysis derived from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data was combined into a visible and infrared image from TRMM's Visible and InfraRed Scanner (VIRS). TRMM PR data found precipitation falling at a rate of about 81mm/~3.2 inches per hour in strong convective storms near Krosa's center.

On Oct.31 at 0255 UTC, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument known as MODIS that flies aboard NASA"s Terra satellite captured a picture of Tropical Storm Krosa. The MODIS image showed Krosa's western edge over Luzon in the northern Philippines

At 1500 UTC/11 a.m. EDT, Krosa's center was over land in extreme northern Luzon, and headed for the South China Sea. At that time, Krosa's maximum sustained winds were near 90 knots/103.6 mph/ 166.7 kph. The center of Krosa was located near 18.4 north and 121.2 east, about 227 nautical miles/261 miles/420 km north-northeast of Manila, Philippines. It was headed to the west-northwest at 12 knots/13.8 mph/22.22 kph.

Satellite imagery on Oct. 31 showed that Krosa had an eye 25 nautical miles/28.7 km/46.3 km in diameter at landfall in northern Luzon.

Krosa is expected to re-intensify in the South China Sea and affect Hainan Island, China before making a final landfall in northern Vietnam.

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/nsfc-nsh103113.php
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Driver expects to fight Google Glass ticket

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Southern California woman cited for wearing Internet-connected eyeglasses while driving says she expects to contest the citation.

Cecilia Abadie was pulled over for speeding Tuesday evening in San Diego, when a California Highway Patrol officer noticed she was wearing Google Glass and tacked on a citation usually given to drivers who may be distracted by a video or TV screen.

Abadie tells The Associated Press that she was not using her Google Glass when she was pulled over.

She says she is surprised that wearing the glasses would be illegal and that she's "pretty sure" she will fight the ticket.

Legislators in several states have introduced bills that would specifically ban driving with the glasses, which are still not widely available to the public.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-31-US-Google-Glass-Ticket/id-5ce8b9109c7d422fbac53a1d85dae72c
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How Ben Cooper Changed Halloween Forever

The author (far left) in his Chewbacca costume.

Photo courtesy of the author

When I was 7 years old, I was Chewbacca for Halloween.

The body of the costume was made out of a sheet of plastic, the kind that went “whoosh, whoosh” when you walked. It looked like a garbage bag. On it was a picture of Chewie’s head with “Star Wars” emblazoned above it, in case you didn’t recognize the Wookiee and what movie he was from. The mask—a thin, brittle piece of plastic—had two eyehole cutouts, two small nose-holes and a slight mouth slit for easy breathing. Only, it wasn’t easy to breathe when wearing that mask. And I had a hard time fitting it over my thick, plastic-framed glasses because the thin white elastic that held it in place would break every other time I put it on. And once I did, my glasses would steam up from the massive amount of sweat my body was producing from the costume. And don’t get me started about the lack of sleeves. Chewbacca didn’t have to wear a flannel shirt to keep his arms warm in cold weather. But I did. 

I hated that costume. But it was a cheap and easy way for me to become my favorite Wookiee. It was a Ben Cooper.

Ben Cooper, the son of a restaurant owner who became a costume impresario, didn’t invent the Halloween costume. But he and his company awakened generations of kids to the potential of what Halloween could be. No longer were we limited to the question, “So, are you going to be a ghost, a goblin, or a witch?” The question became, “So, what are you going to be for Halloween?” Thanks in large part to Ben Cooper, costume choices became unlimited—and Hollywood-inflected—helping  Halloween become the pop culture phenomenon it is today.

Ben Cooper wasn’t the first company to manufacture Halloween costumes, nor was it the first to license Hollywood creations for the costume-buying public. Collegeville Flag and Manufacturing Company, one of Ben Cooper’s chief competitors, had been doing it since the early 1920s, and H. Halpern Company, otherwise known as Halco, was manufacturing Popeye, Olive Oil and Wimpy costumes during the same period. But Ben Cooper had an advantage: The company excelled at getting licenses to characters before they became popular and, in a lot of cases, before anyone else. Consider one of its first purchases, in 1937: Snow White, from a little company called Walt Disney.

It wasn’t until after World War II, however, that Halloween costume manufacturing became big business. With the rise of television in the 1950s and the popularity of TV shows such as The Adventures of Superman, Zorro, and Davy Crockett, Ben Cooper obtained the licenses to many of these live-action shows and began mass producing inexpensive representations of them in costume form for less than $3 each, which amounts to about 12 bucks these days. The company distinguished itself with speed: It would rapidly buy rights, produce costumes and get them onto store shelves, which opened a whole new world of costuming to children.

By 1979, Ben Cooper was the largest Halloween costume company in the United States. Above, some of the masks they sold.

Photo courtesy Devlin Thompson/Flickr via Creative Commons

By the 1960s, Ben Cooper owned between 70 and 80 percent of the Halloween costume market, offering pretty much any pop culture reference in costume form. There were Frankenstein costumes. Dennis the Menace costumes. Beatles costumes. Even Magilla Gorilla costumes.  

Ben Cooper also found fodder in comic books. In 1963, Spider-Man was a relatively unknown character. The company had been selling a costume called “Spiderman” in the 1950s that had nothing to do with the comic book hero, but when Marvel Comics introduced Spidey in Amazing Fantasy No. 15 in 1962, it trademarked the name. Ben Cooper then licensed the Marvel character, remodeled its old costume and helped make Peter Parker’s superhero identity a household name. It was Marvel’s first merchandising deal.

In the 1970s and early ’80s, Ben Cooper sold costumes based on shows such as Joanie Loves Chachi, Welcome Back, Kotter, and Laverne &Shirley, which seems odd, since those shows weren’t targeted to kids. But it’s a clear example of the company’s mission to touch all aspects of pop culture. Nothing was off limits as far as costumes went. Not even the Fonz. Not even the Rubik’s Cube or Flipper. And remember those Richard Nixon masks long favored by cinematic bank robbers? Ben Cooper made those, too.

By 1979, Ben Cooper was the largest Halloween costume company in the United States, despite the rise of other businesses in the market. And though companies like Collegeville (still in business) won licenses to films like Jaws and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Ben Cooper won the most lucrative license of all: Star Wars. But controversy brewed among concerned parents when the company issued the first costume based on an R-rated movie, the creature from Alien.

Ben Cooper’s heyday didn’t last forever. The company filed for bankruptcy twice due to lagging sales, relocation expenses, and the early 1990s recession. But it was new rivals that probably did the most damage to Ben Cooper ’s business, selling high-quality latex masks and more realistic costumes. One of those competitors was Rubie’s Costume Company, which eventually bought Ben Cooper and dissolved it.

Ben Cooper’s business model of making cheap, affordable costumes quickly, based on almost any pop culture character a child could imagine, was wildly successful. But it also proved to be the company’s downfall. Quality eventually won over quantity. Looking back on those costumes now, it’s easy to see why; case in point, my old Chewbacca outfit. Still, if you Google “Miley Cyrus Halloween costume,” you’ll find plenty of options, ranging in price from $39.99 to $185. For that, we have Ben Cooper to thank. 

My wife and I recently bought our 3-year-old son a Spider-Man costume. It has foamy, built-in muscles, a form-fitting suit and a mask that fits completely over his head. And it has sleeves. Sleeves! There’s no mistaking he’s Spider-Man. And to say he’s excited for Halloween is an understatement. Of course, it’s completely my fault. Halloween is my favorite holiday. And it always has been. No matter how much I hated that Chewbacca costume, I have happy memories of trick-or-treating because of it.

Correction, Oct. 31, 2013: This article originally misspelled Wookiee, the species of the Star Wars character Chewbacca. 

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/10/ben_cooper_costumes_how_the_popular_plastic_outfits_reinvented_halloween.html
Category: Doug Martin   Geno Smith   broncos   survivor   Kendrick Lamar Verse  

Ellen DeGeneres Dresses as Nicki Minaj for Halloween, Shows Major Cleavage

Ellen DeGeneres' Halloween costume this year earns her the booby prize! The 55-year-old talk show host kicked off her special Halloween episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday, Oct. 31, dressed as a scantily-clad Nicki Minaj.

"Let me start by saying my eyes are up here," DeGeneres joked. "This year I decided to go as something really scary -- half naked."

"Of course, I'm Nicki Minaj," she explained. "Nicki was on the show a few weeks ago and her shirt was not. She took our show from PG to double D." 

PHOTOS: Celebs' 2013 Halloween costumes

For her costume, DeGeneres copied the exact outfit the 30-year-old rapper wore on her show last month. Minaj wore black leather pants and a black cardigan that was only buttoned at the top and exposed her massive cleavage underneath. The talk show host also wore a long blonde wig to match Minaj's hairstyle, and bright pink lipstick.

PHOTOS: Nicki Minaj's most outrageous Twitter photos

"I got the whole look down. I even have the same shoes on. I think I do -- I can't see my feet -- but I think I do," DeGeneres joked. "I normally don't wear things this sexy, but when you dress as Nicki Minaj you have to. So here are my boom booms and my super bass," she quipped, referring to Minaj's "Super Bass" song while showing off her curves.

"And in case you're wondering these are real," she added, flaunting her cleavage. "It's all real." To top off the look, DeGeneres turned around and twerked in front of the audience.

PHOTOS: Celebs in matching costumes

What did Minaj think of DeGeneres dressing up like her? The "Starships" singer tweeted, "I didn't know Ellen could get any sexier."

Tell Us: What do you think of DeGeneres' Halloween costume?

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-style/news/ellen-degeneres-dresses-as-nicki-minaj-for-halloween-shows-major-cleavage-20133110
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Silent Circle, Lavabit unite for 'Dark Mail' encrypted email project

Two privacy-focused email providers have launched the Dark Mail Alliance, a project to engineer an email system with robust defenses against spying.

Silent Circle and Lavabit abruptly halted their encrypted email services in August, saying they could no longer guarantee email would remain private after court actions against Lavabit, reportedly an email provider for NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

[ Also on InfoWorld: Meet Lavabit's founder: An American hero hiding in plain sight. | Discover what's new in business applications with InfoWorld's Technology: Applications newsletter. | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]

Their idea, presented at the Inbox Love email conference in Mountain View on Wednesday, is for an open system that could be widely implemented and which offers much stronger security and privacy. As envisioned, Dark Mail would shield both the content of an email and its "metadata," including "to" and "from" data, IP addresses and headers. The email providers hope a version will be ready by next year.

"The issue we are trying to deal with is that email was created 40 years ago," Jon Callas, CTO and founder of Silent Circle, in a phone interview. "It wasn't created to handle any of the security problems we have today."

Silent Circle, Lavabit and at least one VPN provider, CryptoSeal, shut down their services fearing a court order forcing the turnover of a private SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) key, which could be used to decrypt communications.

Lavabit was held in contempt of court for resisting an order to turn over its SSL key, which in theory allowed the government to decrypt not only Snowden's communications but also those of its 400,000 users. Ladar Levison, Lavabit's founder, is appealing.

Callas said Dark Mail is a collaboration with Levison. Rather than create a closed email service, they decided to design Dark Mail with open-source software components that could be used by any email provider.

"We need 1,000 Lavabits all around the world," he said.

Microsoft's David Dennis, lead principal program manager for the company's Outlook.com webmail portal, said Dark Mail is an "interesting proposal."

"We pay attention to any new innovations, protocols, standards and proposals impacting online communications," Dennis wrote in an email. "And we're always open to discussions with potential partners."

Representatives of Google and Yahoo who attended Inbox Love did not have an immediate comment.

Dark Mail will be crafted around XMPP, a Web messaging protocol known by its nickname Jabber, along with another encryption protocol created by Silent Circle called SCIMP (Silent Circle Instant Message Protocol), Callas said.

An adapter will be built that will enable Dark Mail within different email clients. "There's no reason why you couldn't modify Outlook and Exchange to do this," he said.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/silent-circle-lavabit-unite-dark-mail-encrypted-email-project-229906?source=rss_applications
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Windows 8.1's 'Hero' ads -- brought to you by stealthy snooping

Microsoft yesterday unveiled more details about its new search-based advertising for Windows 8.1. Microsoft calls the technology behind the ads "Smart Search," and it's certainly smart -- for advertisers, that is, not for you. For Windows 8.1 customers like you and me, Smart Search is the worst privacy-busting feature to ever slither its way into Windows.

I've talked about Smart Search before, but if you use Windows 8.1, it would behoove you to double-check right now and make sure you aren't being MicScroogled. And if you know somebody who's actually fallen for this bit of marketing muck, show them what's going on behind the scenes.

At this moment, I count 40 different tech publications that are parroting Stephen Sirich's official A View Into Tomorrow at Bing Ads Next blog post. (According to LinkedIn, Sirich is a general manager in Microsoft's Online Services Division.) Sirich is speaking to advertisers when he says:

We are currently running the pilot of Hero ads, which can appear when users are searching for certain brand-specific information in Bing Smart Search. The goal of Hero ads is to enable searchers to quickly find the most relevant information and complete the most popular tasks for the brand they are specifically searching for via a beautiful visual and interactive experience created in partnership with our brand partners.

Those 40-odd tech blog posts pick up on the fact that the Hero ad pilot comes a week after Google started testing banner ads, but that's a coincidence. In fact, Hero ads have been part and parcel of Windows 8.1's Smart Search since early beta versions.  Search Engine Watch says this:

Bing Ads has announced a brand new ad experience today at its Bing Ads Next event, called Hero Ads. The new ads are a very visual ad unit within Windows 8.1 Bing Smart Search and are a great integration between Windows and Bing Ads.

The goal of the new Hero ads is to combine user intent, branding and task completion for consumers. From an advertiser perspective, it enables advertisers to get all the most important and relevant information before consumers, with plenty of call to action.

Hero Ads are very visual ad formats and essentially the ads look to be like a landing page, rather than an advertisement by Bing. Hero ads are currently part of the Windows 8.1 user experience with Bing Smart Search...

Hero ads are currently being run as free of cost during the consumer testing phase. During the limited pilot, Bing Ads will be scrutinizing metrics for consumer experience and get feedback from both advertisers and consumers. Specifically, they want to test how consumer satisfaction changes with hero ads. They also want to determine whether it should it be a total ad experience or a hybrid of ad and search when serving Hero ads.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/windows-81s-hero-ads-brought-you-stealthy-snooping-229907?source=rss_infoworld_blogs
Tags: daylight savings time   Bad Grandpa   kris jenner   dexter   Cameron Bay  

Microsoft needs your help to nail the Windows 8.1 update 0xc1900101 Blue Screens

October 31, 2013

If you've been having trouble upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, and are encountering Blue Screens marked 0xc1900101 - 0x40017 or  0xC1900101-0x20017, 0xC1900101-0x40019 or 0xc1900101 - 0x30018, there may be a fix for your problems. But if none of the remedies offered here get you upgraded, please head to the Microsoft Answers forum and post details about your configuration. Because after two weeks of trying, Microsoft still hasn't figured out what's causing the problem, and your input may help.

On Oct. 18 I wrote about the show-stopper bug for many people upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1. Martin Dixon posted the original description on the Microsoft Answers forum, shortly after the Windows 8.1 upgrade rolled out:

I have downloaded the Windows 8.1 update from the store but cannot get it to install. Each time I try, I get to the point where it is "getting my devices ready", then the PC restarts to a blue screen with error message. It then tries to recover the installation, fails, then restores Windows 8. When the system boots up after this, I get a message saying:

"Couldn't update to Windows 8.1

Sorry, we couldn't complete the update to Windows 8.1. We've restored your previous version of Windows to this PC.

0xC1900101 - 0x40017"

There is no explanation as to why the update couldn't be completed. Any ideas how to resolve this?

To date, almost 400 posts on that thread -- plus hundreds more on several additional, similar threads -- have led to a small handful of customer-discovered solutions, but no definitive workaround that everyone can apply.

Here are the approaches that seem to work for some people:

• If you have SteelSeries peripherals, running the SteelSeries Engine driver, uninstall it before re-trying the upgrade.


• If you have an Asus N53 dual-band PCI-e wireless adapter, pull it. If necessary, find another way to download the upgrade.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/microsoft-needs-your-help-nail-the-windows-81-update-0xc1900101-blue-screens-229915?source=rss_infoworld_blogs
Category: boston red sox   tim tebow   Janet Yellen   nadal   princess diana  

A look at opening night in the NBA

Miami Heat's LeBron James watches a replay during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls in Miami, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Miami Heat's LeBron James watches a replay during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls in Miami, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Orlando Magic guard Victor Oladipo (5) puts up a shot while defended by Indiana Pacers guard George Hill in the first half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/R Brent Smith)

Orlando Magic forward Andrew Nicholson, left, releases a shot next to Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert in the first half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/R Brent Smith)

Miami Heat's Chris Bosh (1) tries to drive between Chicago Bulls' Joakim Noah (13) and Jimmy Butler (22) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Miami, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

The NBA begins another season with three matchups on opening night. Some highlights from around the courts:

NO KOBE: The Lakers opened a season without Kobe Bryant on the floor for the first time since 2006.

Bryant is still recovering from surgery on his torn Achilles tendon last April. Coach Mike D'Antoni doesn't know whether Kobe will be tweeting during games, as he did occasionally last year, but is confident he's doing everything possible to return.

"We want to get him back as soon as we can, so he's really concentrating on that," D'Antoni said. "He talks to the guys on the side. He'll take Nick (Young) to the side, and I'll see him talking to different guys. He'll be there. We touch base all the time, and I'll get his opinion."

__

DOC'S DEBUT: Doc Rivers' first regular-season appearance on the Los Angeles Clippers' bench was a road game, only not really.

The Lakers were the designated home team at Staples Center on Tuesday night, and Rivers is still getting used to the quirk of sharing a building with a rival.

"I've never had one of these where the road game is where you play your home games," Rivers said. "Actually it's really cool, but it's different."

__

LET THE BANNERS FLY: Doc Rivers made preseason headlines when he directed the Clippers to cover up the Lakers' championship banners with larger-than-life portraits of his players during Clippers home games.

Since the Lakers were the home team in Tuesday's opener, the banners were hanging unobstructed on the Staples Center wall. Rivers took the opportunity to make it clear he meant no disrespect to the 16-time champions down the hallway.

"I didn't do that because, 'Man, I don't like the Lakers,'" Rivers said. "That was no intent at all, and I've said that 100 times. That was about, 'We're the Clippers, and when we play in our arena, it should be our arena.' It's just like thousands of other arenas around the country where two teams share."

But the longtime Celtics coach slightly wavered from that description a moment later.

"That 2010 banner, I've got to say I don't like seeing," Rivers said of the banner celebrating the Lakers' last win over Boston in the NBA finals. "I can 'fess up to that part."

__

QUESTIONS, ANYONE?: Coach Mike D'Antoni is just as eager as the Lakers' fans to see what his team looks like this season.

"We've got about, I would say, seven or eight question marks," D'Antoni said. "You hit on five of them, you'll have a really good season."

__

SHAWNE'S TURN: Forward Shawne Williams was the Lakers' starting power forward for the season opener.

The well-traveled former first-round pick is on his fifth NBA team after playing in China last season. D'Antoni is excited about Williams' potential — and the Lakers don't have anybody better to take the starting spots vacated by Dwight Howard and Metta World Peace.

"He fits in exactly with what we want to try to do, in the sense of spacing the floor, giving Steve Nash and Pau a lot more room to operate," D'Antoni said. "He makes 3's. I've coached him for a year (in New York). I can trust him. I know what he's going to do defensively. He's going to battle."

__

HOME COOKING: Paul George and Roy Hibbert picked up where they left off last season leading Indiana to a 97-87 win over Orlando. The two-man tandem looked every bit as dominant in the season opener as they did leading the Pacers to the Eastern Conference finals last season.

George's buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter gave Indiana a 69-64 lead and sparked the decisive 17-4 run to open the fourth.

Hibbert nearly matched his career-high for rebounds (17) in the first half. He had eight points but left the game midway through the fourth quarter after injuring his knee in a spill underneath his own basket. Team officials said it was not serious and he could have returned.

But it was George's 3 that provided the spark Indiana needed to seize control.

__

NO MORE DELAYS: LeBron James knew it was coming.

He threw an alley-oop lob to Chris Andersen with 20.7 seconds left in the first half, and the ball sort of caromed back to him after the play. As decades of instinct told him to do, he grabbed it.

That's a no-no this season.

James was whistled for delay of game, a point of emphasis for the league this season in an effort to speed up play. James had a resigned look on his face, knowing the call was coming.

A look at the scoreboard probably put him in a better mood: The Heat led 54-33 at halftime.

__

GETTING IT GOING: Miami got rolling in the second quarter using a 17-0 run to open up a 21-point lead. Chicago struggled from the field with Derrick Rose, who was playing his first real game — not counting preseason exhibitions — since a knee injury derailed him in April 2012, looking rusty. He missed six of his first eight shots.

__

ROUGH START: Maybe they were blinded by the rings which weighed nearly 5 ounces each and included 242 round-cut diamonds, 1½ carats of custom baguette-cut diamonds, and three black onyx stones totaling 10.3 carats, but Miami and Chicago got off to a slow start. The Heat lead 17-15 after one quarter as neither team could find much rhythm on offense.

__

PRESIDENTIAL TWEET: Pat Riley, the President of the Miami Heat, received his ninth NBA championship ring on Tuesday night.

Barack Obama, the President of the United States, was rooting for the other guys.

At 7:07 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, about an hour before tipoff, the following message — "Welcome back, @drose. (hashtag)BullsNation" — was posted to Obama's Twitter account.

Probably a good chance it'll get brought up when the Heat visit the White House sometime later this season in recognition of their 2013 NBA title. Obama makes no secret of the fact that he's a Bulls fan.

__

CELEBRATION: Tuesday was a day for Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade to celebrate. There was a new banner for his team to raise, a third NBA championship team for his finger, and an 11th pro season for him to begin.

Oh, and there was birthday cake as well.

Wade's longtime girlfriend, actress Gabrielle Union, turned 41 on Tuesday night. And a few months ago, when Wade saw the schedule for the first time, his first thought was that "we can't lose on my lady's birthday."

How did he do on the birthday-present shopping front?

"Solid," Wade said. "What can you do? There really isn't much you can do. A couple nice gifts."

For the record, Wade will be working on his birthday this year as well. He turns 32 on Jan. 17, a night the Heat play in Philadelphia.

__

RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR: Everybody got a ring in Miami on Tuesday night. Well, just about everybody.

While the Heat staff, coaches and players were getting their baubles to commemorate last season's NBA championship, even fans got a ring of sorts to go home with. One of the giveaway items for fans in Miami was a T-shirt with a ring emblazoned on the front, accompanied by the words "Strive for Greatness."

The shirts were presented by Nike, and the "Strive for Greatness" theme is one that LeBron James is using to coincide with his latest ad campaign for the shoe company.

__

BIG BIRD: Larry Bird has been a larger-than-life personality in his home state.

On Tuesday night, fans got to see just how big. A statue of Bird, which will be dedicated at his alma mater, Indiana State, next weekend was on display inside the Bankers Life Fieldhouse for the Pacers' season opener.

The statue, which shows Bird in a shooting motion and an Indiana State uniform, stands 15-feet tall, and though Bird said he was "sort of embarrassed" by it, he was happy that it the statue is taller than Magic Johnson's on the Michigan State campus.

"It should be, c'mon," Bird said with a chuckle.

Pacers fans won't get to see it for long. The dedication of the statue is scheduled for Nov. 9, before the Sycamores face Ball State at Terre Haute, Ind.

Bankers Life Fieldhouse is one of the few newer NBA arenas that does not have any permanent statues, so when Bird, a former Pacers coach and the current president of basketball operations, was asked whether he would support putting one in for Reggie Miller, Bird was in favor.

"My feeling was always more along the lines of get your number retired and those sorts of things," Bird said. "But if they put one in, I would be the first one to see it."

__

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-10-29-BKN-NBA-Opening-Night/id-e60ed35d5b3b4a56b1587d5ab6513bfe
Category: Wrecking Ball   cbs sports   Shana Tova   syria   will smith  

50 Cent: Domestic Violence Charge Dropped in Exchange for Vandalism Plea

Though he faced some serious charges, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson got out of the courtroom today with just misdemeanor vandalism on his record (October 28).

Charged with domestic violence against ex-girlfriend Daphne Narvaez in June, the "Candy Shop" rapper will still be under the scrutiny of the court for awhile.

According to his attorney Scott Leemon, "The agreement called for Mr. Jackson to plead no contest to a single count of misdemeanor vandalism, which deals with the door of the apartment that was damaged and owned by the landlord. All remaining counts, including, the domestic violence charge will be dismissed. He has agreed to perform community service, attend counseling sessions and will be on unsupervised probation for a period of three years."

This is far from his first brush with Johnny law, nor is it his first time on probation. Back in 2005, 50 was placed on two years' probation from an incident where he jumped into the audience after being hit with a water bottle.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/50-cent/50-cent-domestic-violence-charge-dropped-exchange-vandalism-plea-951194
Tags: silk road   cnn   Nothing Was The Same Leak   Delbert Belton   Jamaal Charles  

World’s Tallest Man Marries His Bride, One and a Half Feet Up

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma

FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011, AT 3:07 PM
Obama Gets Firsthand Look at a Tornado Damage

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long. Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long.

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2010, AT 6:19 PM
Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long. Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2013/10/world_s_tallest_man_sultan_kosen_turkish_farmer_gets_married.html
Similar Articles: tim tebow   broncos   nfl   college football   olinguito  

Amazon Wants To Do Good With Its Goods, Launches ‘AmazonSmile' Charity Donation Program

At the beginning of the year, just after Amazon reported a big profit dip for Q4 2012, Slate business correspondent Matthew Yglesias posited (with tongue planted in cheek) that Amazon was “a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers.”

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pointedly dismissed that observation in his following shareholder letter, but today one has to wonder if the charity implication didn’t have some sort of lasting impact on the company. That’s because Amazon has just rolled out a new initiative called AmazonSmile, which will see the e-commerce titan automatically donate 0.5 percent of all eligible purchases to a U.S. charity of the buyer’s choosing. And to top it all off, there’s no upper limit to the amount Amazon will give away.

The high-level message is clear: Amazon wants people to know it cares about people and communities. But there’s an underlying message that seems just as apparent: we’ll keep giving as long as you keep buying.

Let’s consider the brass tacks. Starting today, interested users can mosey on over to smile.amazon.com, at which point they’re prompted to select a charity for the proceeds of each transaction to go to (naturally, you can change your mind at any time). Amazon says there are nearly a million charities available to choose from, with recipients ranging from prominent projects like charity:water to much more local, grassroots affairs. A quick search for my hometown for instance revealed that I could indirectly donate to the Bahais Of Cherry Hill Township, the local fire department, or (my personal favorite) the Friends of the Cherry Hill Free Public Library.

Once all that’s done, it’s essentially the exact same shopping experience, complete with Prime shipping if you’ve already shelled out for it. AmazonSmile GM Ian McAllister said that “tens of millions of items” are eligible for the program but there are some notable exceptions. Auto-renewed subscription purchases don’t fall under the AmazonSmile umbrella, and neither do digital products like mp3s, video content, and Kindle books (“for now,” anyway). And this isn’t just a temporary move meant to reflect the spirit of the upcoming holiday season either — McAllister confirmed that the company intends for the program to be around for the long haul.

To hear him tell it, there was no specific moment of inspiration or event that prompted Amazon’s brass to venture down this charitable road, just a desire to build things the company thinks its customers will “love”. Love, suffice it to say, is a curious thing in business. Apple aficionados love their Apple products to the point of waiting in line for days, and BlackBerry fans are among the most ardent and vocal I’ve ever seen in spite of waning fortunes. And if Amazon can entice a larger swath of people to love it because of this new charitable angle, the company won’t be seeing hearts as much as it sees dollar signs.

The upsides here are obvious. With only a fraction of a fraction of each transaction being passed along to charities, Amazon still stands to make gobs of money, especially if this program manages to lift sales volumes in any appreciable way. And you can bet that Amazon is going to play up this charitable angle over time, a move that should only endear users to the process of buying their, well, everythings from the massive e-tailer.

After all, the very thrust of this initiative is to make sure that end users like you and I won’t see any functional difference between plain ol’ Amazon and AmazonSmile — why wouldn’t we donate to charity if doing so didn’t impact us in any appreciable way? What are we, a bunch of jerks? And then there are the potential tax implications to consider too. You as a user won’t be able to claim these donations the next time you fill out your taxes, as they’re all being made on behalf of a foundation established by Amazon. In short, if Amazon plays its cards right, it stands to make plenty of money by giving a ton of it away.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/MSGkbHdYppg/
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Kessler Foundation MS study correlates fMR with negative effect of warmer weather on cognitive status

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

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Contact: Carolann Murphy
cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org
973-324-8382
Kessler Foundation

MS researchers link fMRI findings with cognitive declines during warmer outdoor temperatures; Results have implications for patients and researchers, according to Leavitt et al

WEST ORANGE, N.J. October 30, 2013. Kessler Foundation scientists correlated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings with the negative impact of outdoor temperature on cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis (MS). This study, "Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with task-related increased BOLD activation in patients with multiple sclerosis," released by Brain Imaging & Behavior as epub ahead of print, corroborates the group's previous study that established that people with MS performed worse on processing speed and memory tasks during warmer outdoor temperatures versus during cooler outdoor temperatures. "Increased MS disease activity during warmer months is a recent discovery. Now, this work is the first report of brain activation associated with outdoor temperature in MS. This finding is novel and important for persons with MS who are shown to have worse cognition during warmer weather," said Victoria M. Leavitt, Ph.D., research scientist at Kessler Foundation and principal investigator for the study, funded by the National MS Society.

Kessler Foundation researchers previously demonstrated that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) demonstrate worse cognition on warmer days. (Leavitt VM, Sumowski JF, Chiaravalloti N, DeLuca J. Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with worse cognitive status in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2012 Mar 27;78(13):964-8). The purpose of the current study was to identify the neurophysiological basis for worse cognition. "Here, we examined the neurophysiology underlying this temperature-cognition relationship, said Dr. Leavitt. "The association between task-related BOLD fMRI activation and outdoor temperature was investigated in 28 MS patients who demonstrated worse cognitive function on warmer days. In MS patients, warmer outdoor temperature was associated with greater BOLD activation during performance of a simple sustained attention task. The brain areas that showed greater activation on warmer days were regions typically activated by MS patients during task performance: the frontal, dorsolateral, prefrontal and parietal cortex. The relationship between outdoor temperature and cerebral activation was absent in healthy controls. Increased brain activation required by MS patients on warmer days to perform a simple task may signify neural inefficiency."

Kessler Foundation co-investigators are Glenn Wylie, D.Phil., associate director of Neuroscience Research and the Center for Neuroimaging Research @ Kessler Foundation, Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., Director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, John DeLuca, Ph.D., Vice President for Research & Training, and James F. Sumowski, Ph.D., research scientist. All also have faculty appointments at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

According to Dr. Sumowski, "The significant effect of warmer weather on cognition should be considered when designing and conducting clinical trials. This information might assist clinicians in choosing clinical treatment, and help researchers develop effective strategies for coping with the negative effects of weather-related effects on cognition that impact independence, education, employment and activities of daily living."

###

About MS Research at Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation's cognitive rehabilitation research in MS is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National MS Society, NJ Commission of Brain Injury Research, Consortium of MS Centers, and Kessler Foundation. Under the leadership of Dr. DeLuca and Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, scientists have made important contributions to the knowledge of cognitive decline in MS. Clinical studies span new learning, memory, executive function, attention and processing speed, emotional processing and cognitive fatigue. Research tools include innovative applications of neuroimaging, iPADs, and virtual reality. Among recent findings are the benefits of cognitive reserve; correlation between cognitive performance and outdoor temperatures; the efficacy of short-term cognitive rehabilitation using modified story technique; and the correlation between memory improvement and cerebral activation on fMRI.

About Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation is the largest public charity in the field of disability. Kessler Foundation Research Center advances care through rehabilitation research conducted in six specialized laboratories.. Research focuses on improving function and quality of life for persons with injuries of the spinal cord and brain, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic neurological conditions. Kessler Foundation Program Center fosters new approaches to the persistently high rates of unemployment among people disabled by injury or disease. Targeted grant making funds promising programs across the nation.

KesslerFoundation.org

facebook.com/KesslerFoundation

http://twitter.com/#!/KesslerFdn

Carolann Murphy, PA
973.324.8382
CMurphy@KesslerFoundation.org

Lauren Scrivo
973.324.8384/973.768.6583 (cell)
LScrivo@KesslerFoundation.org

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

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]


Share

Contact: Carolann Murphy
cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org
973-324-8382
Kessler Foundation

MS researchers link fMRI findings with cognitive declines during warmer outdoor temperatures; Results have implications for patients and researchers, according to Leavitt et al

WEST ORANGE, N.J. October 30, 2013. Kessler Foundation scientists correlated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings with the negative impact of outdoor temperature on cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis (MS). This study, "Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with task-related increased BOLD activation in patients with multiple sclerosis," released by Brain Imaging & Behavior as epub ahead of print, corroborates the group's previous study that established that people with MS performed worse on processing speed and memory tasks during warmer outdoor temperatures versus during cooler outdoor temperatures. "Increased MS disease activity during warmer months is a recent discovery. Now, this work is the first report of brain activation associated with outdoor temperature in MS. This finding is novel and important for persons with MS who are shown to have worse cognition during warmer weather," said Victoria M. Leavitt, Ph.D., research scientist at Kessler Foundation and principal investigator for the study, funded by the National MS Society.

Kessler Foundation researchers previously demonstrated that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) demonstrate worse cognition on warmer days. (Leavitt VM, Sumowski JF, Chiaravalloti N, DeLuca J. Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with worse cognitive status in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2012 Mar 27;78(13):964-8). The purpose of the current study was to identify the neurophysiological basis for worse cognition. "Here, we examined the neurophysiology underlying this temperature-cognition relationship, said Dr. Leavitt. "The association between task-related BOLD fMRI activation and outdoor temperature was investigated in 28 MS patients who demonstrated worse cognitive function on warmer days. In MS patients, warmer outdoor temperature was associated with greater BOLD activation during performance of a simple sustained attention task. The brain areas that showed greater activation on warmer days were regions typically activated by MS patients during task performance: the frontal, dorsolateral, prefrontal and parietal cortex. The relationship between outdoor temperature and cerebral activation was absent in healthy controls. Increased brain activation required by MS patients on warmer days to perform a simple task may signify neural inefficiency."

Kessler Foundation co-investigators are Glenn Wylie, D.Phil., associate director of Neuroscience Research and the Center for Neuroimaging Research @ Kessler Foundation, Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., Director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, John DeLuca, Ph.D., Vice President for Research & Training, and James F. Sumowski, Ph.D., research scientist. All also have faculty appointments at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

According to Dr. Sumowski, "The significant effect of warmer weather on cognition should be considered when designing and conducting clinical trials. This information might assist clinicians in choosing clinical treatment, and help researchers develop effective strategies for coping with the negative effects of weather-related effects on cognition that impact independence, education, employment and activities of daily living."

###

About MS Research at Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation's cognitive rehabilitation research in MS is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National MS Society, NJ Commission of Brain Injury Research, Consortium of MS Centers, and Kessler Foundation. Under the leadership of Dr. DeLuca and Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, scientists have made important contributions to the knowledge of cognitive decline in MS. Clinical studies span new learning, memory, executive function, attention and processing speed, emotional processing and cognitive fatigue. Research tools include innovative applications of neuroimaging, iPADs, and virtual reality. Among recent findings are the benefits of cognitive reserve; correlation between cognitive performance and outdoor temperatures; the efficacy of short-term cognitive rehabilitation using modified story technique; and the correlation between memory improvement and cerebral activation on fMRI.

About Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation is the largest public charity in the field of disability. Kessler Foundation Research Center advances care through rehabilitation research conducted in six specialized laboratories.. Research focuses on improving function and quality of life for persons with injuries of the spinal cord and brain, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic neurological conditions. Kessler Foundation Program Center fosters new approaches to the persistently high rates of unemployment among people disabled by injury or disease. Targeted grant making funds promising programs across the nation.

KesslerFoundation.org

facebook.com/KesslerFoundation

http://twitter.com/#!/KesslerFdn

Carolann Murphy, PA
973.324.8382
CMurphy@KesslerFoundation.org

Lauren Scrivo
973.324.8384/973.768.6583 (cell)
LScrivo@KesslerFoundation.org

---

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Share

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/kf-kfm103013.php
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