Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/298127700?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, April 11, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Suspect arrested in Texas stabbing rampage
A stabbing victim is loaded into a helicopter on the Lone Star College CyFair campus. (Reuters)
At least 14 people were wounded in an apparent mass stabbing at Lone Star College's CyFair campus in Cypress, Texas, on Tuesday morning.
The suspect, a white male armed with what one witness described as an X-Acto knife, was detained, police said. The suspect, believed to be 21, was enrolled at the school.
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said police received a 911 call at 11:12 a.m. local time reporting a white male "on the loose stabbing people."
The school was placed on lockdown.
"Seek shelter now," Lone Star College's Twitter feed warned Tuesday afternoon. "If away, stay away."
The incident occurred near and around the school's Health Science Center and remains an active crime scene, Garcia said.
"Buildings are still being searched," he added.
Four victims were transported by helicopter with serious injuries "consistent with laceration," a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office said. Two others were taken by ambulance to a local trauma center.
Two of those victims are in critical condition, he said. Four are in fair condition. Others victims were treated for minor injuries, and two refused treatment, Garcia said.
One witness told CNN that the stabber was hearing impaired.
An announcement was made over loudspeakers warning students to seek shelter. "This is an emergency," the announcement said, according to KHOU-TV. "Everybody stay inside of your rooms. Do not leave your rooms."
An alert issued on the school's website indicated that "another suspect may possibly be at large." But Garcia said surveillance video reviewed by police indicated there was one "and only one" suspect.
An Instagram user who said he helped apprehend the stabber posted a photo of a man face down on the ground with a backpack. He said the man had stabbed five people, including two girls in the cheek. "Everyone ran the other way ... ," he said. "Me and this kid got em." #copsaretooslow
Police would not confirm the exact weapon used, but said no firearms were found at the scene.
The campus was evacuated, Vice Chancellor Randy Key told reporters, and the college will remain closed for the remainder of the day.
In January, three people were wounded in a shooting at Lone Star College's North Harris campus near Houston. More than 90,000 students attend classes across the Lone Star College system's six campuses.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/lone-star-stabbing-184840929.html
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Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Newly discovered blood protein solves 60-year-old riddle
Apr. 8, 2013 ? Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered a new protein that controls the presence of the Vel blood group antigen on our red blood cells. The discovery makes it possible to use simple DNA testing to find blood donors for patients who lack the Vel antigen and need a blood transfusion.
Because there has not previously been any simple way to find these rare donors, there is a global shortage of Vel-negative blood. The largest known accumulation of this type of blood donor is found in the Swedish county of V?sterbotten, which exports Vel-negative blood all over the world.
The Vel blood group was first described in 1952, when American doctors discovered a patient who developed serious complications from blood transfusions from normal donors. The patient lacked a previously unknown blood group antigen, which was named Vel. It has long been known that around one in 1,000 people lack the Vel antigen, but the molecule that carries it has been a mystery.
Lund University researchers Jill Storry, Magnus J?ud, Bj?rn Nilsson and Martin L. Olsson and their colleagues have now discovered that the presence of the Vel antigen on our red blood cells is controlled by a previously unknown protein (SMIM1) that is not carried by those who lack the Vel antigen. The discovery has been published in the renowned journal Nature Genetics.
The findings have major clinical significance, according to Professor Martin L. Olsson, a consultant in transfusion medicine.
?Until now there has not been a simple way to find these blood donors and there is therefore a major shortage of Vel-negative blood. Now we can identify these donors with simple DNA tests. From having previously only had access to one such donor in our region, there are now three and further screening is being carried out?, says Professor Olsson.
Two research groups with completely different focuses have collaborated to solve the 60-year-old riddle, explains Reader Bj?rn Nilsson, who has led the work together with Reader Jill Storry and Professor Olsson.
?Many researchers have tried to find the Vel molecule. We realised that it might be possible to find it using advanced DNA analysis techniques. Our idea proved to be correct and we found that the Vel blood group is inactivated in exactly the same way for all Vel-negative individuals?, says Bj?rn Nilsson.
Another interesting aspect is that the new protein is unlike any previously known protein and appears to be present on the red blood cells of other species as well.
?Interestingly, the new protein, SMIM1, is reminiscent of other molecules used by malaria parasites to infect humans. It is therefore possible that SMIM1 could be a long-sought malaria receptor on the red blood cells?, says Jill Storry.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Lund University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Jill R Storry, Magnus J?ud, Mikael Kronborg Christophersen, Britt Thuresson, Bo ?kerstr?m, Birgitta Nilsson Sojka, Bj?rn Nilsson, Martin L Olsson. Homozygosity for a null allele of SMIM1 defines the Vel-negative blood group phenotype. Nature Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2600
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/JadEVxGEcR0/130408122806.htm
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Engineered T cells kill tumors but spare normal tissue in an animal model
Monday, April 8, 2013
The need to distinguish between normal cells and tumor cells is a feature that has been long sought for most types of cancer drugs. Tumor antigens, unique proteins on the surface of a tumor, are potential targets for a normal immune response against cancer. Identifying which antigens a patient's tumor cells express is the cornerstone of designing cancer therapy for that individual. But some of these tumor antigens are also expressed on normal cells, inching personalized therapy back to the original problem.
T cells made to express a protein called CAR, for chimeric antigen receptor, are engineered by grafting a portion of a tumor-specific antibody onto an immune cell, allowing them to recognize antigens on the cell surface. Early first-generation CARs had one signaling domain for T-cell activation. Second-generation CARs are more commonly used and have two signaling domains within the immune cell, one for T-cell activation and another for T- cell costimulation to boost the T cell's function.
Importantly, CARs allow patients' T cells to recognize tumor antigens and kill certain tumor cells. A large number of tumor-specific, cancer-fighting CAR T cells can be generated in a specialized lab using patients' own T cells, which are then infused back into them for therapy. Despite promising clinical results, it is now recognized that some CAR-based therapies may involve toxicity against normal tissues that express low amounts of the targeted tumor-associated antigen.
To address this issue, Daniel J. Powell Jr., PhD, research assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Cellular Therapy Tissue Facility, developed an innovative dual CAR approach in which the activation signal for T cells is physically dissociated from a second costimulatory signal for immune cells. The two CARs carry different antigen specificity -- mesothelin and a-folate receptor. Mesothelin is primarily associated with mesothelioma and ovarian cancer, and a-folate receptor with ovarian cancer.
Powell likens this dual CAR approach to having two different gas pedals, one for starting the immune system and a second for revving it up. Dual CAR T cells are more selective for tumor cells since their full activity requires interaction with both antigens, which are only co-expressed on tumor cells, not normal tissue.
Dual CAR T cells showed weak cytokine production against target cells expressing only one tumor-associated antigen in lab assays, similar to first-generation CAR T cells bearing the CD3 activation domain only, but demonstrated enhanced cytokine production upon encountering natural or engineered tumor cells expressing both antigens, equivalent to second-generation CAR T cells with dual, but unseparated signaling.
In a mouse model of human ovarian cancer, T cells with the dual-signaling CARs persisted at high numbers in the blood, accumulated in tumors, and showed potent anti-cancer activity against human tumors. Dual CAR T cells were equivalent to second-generation CAR T cells in activity against tumors bearing two antigens. However, the dual-signaling CAR T cells did not react vigorously with normal tissue expressing one antigen while second- generation CAR T cells did.
"This new dual-specificity CAR approach can enhance the therapeutic efficacy of CAR T cells against cancer while minimizing reactivity against normal tissues," says Powell.
Their findings have been published in the inaugural issue of Cancer Immunology Research, the newest journal from the American Association for Cancer Research.
###
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/
Thanks to University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine 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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Monday, April 8, 2013
China reports 2 more cases of new bird flu virus
BEIJING (AP) ? Shanghai has reported two more cases of human infection of a new strain of bird flu, raising the number of cases in eastern China to 20. The death toll among those who contracted the virus remains at six.
Health officials believe people are contracting the H7N9 virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there's no evidence the virus is spreading easily between people.
China's official Xinhua News Agency reported the two new Shanghai cases Sunday, citing local authorities.
Shanghai has been ordered by the agriculture ministry to halt its live poultry trade and slaughter all fowl in markets where the virus has been found.
The capital cities of the neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu also have suspended sales of live poultry. Both provinces have reported H7N9 cases.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-reports-2-more-cases-bird-flu-virus-123620810.html
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Sudan officers get jail terms for alleged coup attempt
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudanese court sentenced nine army officers to prison terms of up to five years on Sunday for their role in an alleged coup attempt against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, a lawyer said.
In November, Sudan arrested its former spy chief Salah Gosh and other senior military and security officials after foiling what the government says was a coup plot.
In the first verdict since the arrests, a military court in the capital Khartoum handed down jail terms of between two and five years to nine army officers, said Hisham al-Ja'ali, a lawyer for the defendants.
"They were also dismissed from the armed forces," he told Reuters, adding that another officer had been acquitted of all charges due to a lack of evidence and set free.
Among the convicted is Wad Ibrahim, a senior officer and prominent Islamist in the army, who got a five-year jail term. The trial of Gosh and the accused security officers has yet to start, the lawyer said.
There was no immediate comment from the government, which has refused to provide details of the coup attempt or the investigation.
Bashir has ruled Sudan for 23 years, weathering multiple armed rebellions, years of U.S. trade sanctions, an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court and the loss of most of the country's oil with South Sudan's 2011 secession.
The alleged coup attempt amplified a debate about Bashir's future and about who might one day replace him.
High food prices in Sudan caused by the loss of the oil - and with it the source of foreign currency used to import wheat and other staples - has stoked some protests against Bashir since the South seceded in July 2011.
Some Islamists inside the army and the ruling National Congress Party have also complained that Bashir and other senior leaders have abandoned the Muslim values of the 1989 coup and concentrated decision-making in the hands of a few people.
But Sudan has avoided the sort of mass unrest and political turmoil that unseated rulers in neighboring Egypt and Libya.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Ulf Laessing in Cairo; Editing by Stephen Powell)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sudan-officers-jail-terms-alleged-coup-attempt-164918101.html
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Sunday, April 7, 2013
Get more tax mileage from your car ? Business Management Daily ...
Q. A recent article ("Put business car deductions in gear") about using a vehicle for business said a taxpayer will likely do better deducting actual expenses. But isn?t this misleading? J.A.M., E.A., Clarksville, Tenn.
A. Not for a short answer. Of course, the exact outcome for any given situation will vary, depending on the circumstances, including the business miles traveled and the amount of expenses.
However, in a year when 50% or 100% bonus depreciation is available, the actual expense method will often generate a much larger deduction than the standard rate (56.5 cents per mile in 2013; 55.5 for 2012), taking all the applicable expenses into account.
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Saturday, April 6, 2013
Reference and Education: Why Teach Abstinence-Only Education?
As a society, we're slowly progressing. We're molting, leaving the Age of Capricorn and entering the Age of Aquarius.
We are in a new age. And now that we've entered it, we need to rid ourselves of antiquated healthcare practices perpetuated by atavistic superstition and dogma.
We need to base our healthcare practices off of science, statistics, and common sense, not ideology.
In short, we need to eradicate abstinence-only education.
I'm wearing my cerebral Kevlar, locked and loaded, and ready for battle.
My commentary isn't meant to inspire ire or jubilance, but rather provide a logical argument against abstinence-only education.
It's time that we, healthcare professionals, hash this out.
Our job is to prevent disease, save lives, and 'do no harm.'
And statistics show, overwhelmingly, that abstinence-only education is positively correlated with teen-age pregnancies and the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.
Yep, teens exposed to abstinence-only education are more likely to have sex than kids who don't!
Yet, for whatever reason, many high school nurses keep on teaching abstinence-only education, some because they want to, and others because they must.
However, as nurses, we must advocate for our children, as their lives depend on it.
I, personally, couldn't teach abstinence-only education, just like I couldn't teach that the world is flat or that the sun revolves around the Earth. I'm not trying to be an ass, but come on.
Okay, now I'll give you two good reasons why abstinence-only education doesn't work.
Firstly, we're human. We're sexual creatures, and we begin experimenting sexually sometime after puberty -some of us earlier than others.
Secondly, sex is fun. Yep, I said it, we enjoy having sex. And the more we tell teens they shouldn't have sex, the more likely they will.
Why? Well, because they're teenagers and teenagers rebel.
Alright, alright, some of you're probably thinking: "It's against the Bible, my child needs to wait till marriage, and if you teach them comprehensive sexual education they'll be more promiscuous." Well, that argument is absurd. It just isn't true.
Once again, we're human, and we're all sinners.
Go ahead, just ask St. Augustine.
If you would like to read more of my articles like this, please visit http://www.mightynurse.com.
Source: http://13pisos.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-teach-abstinence-only-education.html
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One dead, dozens injured in Illinois school bus crash
(Reuters) - A school bus taking children to an elementary school in northeastern Illinois overturned in a crash at an intersection on Friday, killing an adult and injuring three dozen people, most of them young students, authorities said.
The bus was headed to Newport Elementary School in Wadsworth when witnesses say it ran a red light and hit a Jeep Wrangler, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran said.
"The bus windows all crashed out. It's a bad scene," Curran told a news conference.
Wadsworth is about 45 miles north of Chicago near the Illinois-Wisconsin border in Lake County.
Twelve students were taken by ambulance to area hospitals and 23 others considered to be in at least good condition were taken on another bus to a hospital, John Kavanaugh, deputy chief of the Gurnee Fire Department, told reporters.
Two people from an SUV also involved in the crash were taken to a hospital, said Kavanaugh.
A helicopter video on the WGN-TV website showed the school bus resting on its side near an intersection, partly on the road and partly on the shoulder. An SUV with heavy front-end damage was next to the bus and the Jeep, extensively damaged, was nearby.
The bus did not have seat belts but high seat backs provided some protection for the students, officials said.
(Reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Tom Brown, Gary Hill)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/one-dead-illinois-crash-involving-school-bus-two-150948205.html
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Friday, April 5, 2013
Soldier charged with murder in Fort Knox shooting
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) ? A soldier apprehended Thursday in Tennessee was charged with murder in the shooting death of a civilian employee at Kentucky's Fort Knox a day earlier.
The FBI said in a court filing that Marquinta E. Jacobs fired a .45-caliber handgun at the victim, "striking him several times." Jacobs is charged with murder, according to the criminal complaint.
Jacobs is the soldier whom Army investigators said was apprehended Thursday in Portland, Tenn., FBI spokeswoman Mary Trotman said.
Army investigators had said a soldier wanted for questioning in the killing was apprehended in Portland, where Jacobs' mother lives. But the Army declined to identify the soldier, except to say he is a member of Fort Knox's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.
The shooting occurred around 5:40 p.m. Wednesday in the parking lot at the Army Human Resources Command building, prompting a brief lockdown at the Army post in central Kentucky, about an hour southwest of Louisville.
The victim was an employee of the command, which handles personnel actions for soldiers.
A witness saw the Wednesday shooting after Jacobs and the victim had a verbal exchange in the parking lot, according to the federal criminal complaint, which gave the following account:
The witness reported seeing Jacobs shoot the victim, identified as "L.G.," several times and then flee in a Dodge pickup truck. Investigators found eight shell casings at the scene.
Investigators interviewed Jacobs' wife, who said he owned a .45-caliber Glock pistol, and they found ammunition at the home that matches the kind used at the crime scene. Jacobs' wife told police that Jacobs had left the home on a black motorcycle.
The motorcycle was found at the home of Jacobs' mother in Portland. His mother told police he had left around 9 p.m. Wednesday driving a Kia Rondo.
Police in Portland referred questions to the Army Criminal Investigation Command on Thursday. A message left for a spokesman at Army CID was not immediately returned Thursday night. Fort Knox has said in a statement that the soldier was a man believed to be traveling on a motorcycle.
After the shooting, the victim was transported to the Ireland Army Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead Wednesday.
Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command, said the shooting was a personal incident.
"Special Agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command are continuing the investigation and as previously released the shooting appears to be a domestic issue and not a random act of violence," Grey said in a statement.
The identity of the victim was being withheld pending notification of family.
___
AP writer Beth Campbell contributed to this report from Louisville
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/soldier-charged-murder-fort-knox-shooting-010403099.html
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Mozilla Moves Ahead With Its Plans For A Common Web API For Payments
Mozilla is working with payment vendors and the W3C standards body to create a common API to make online payments, both on desktop and mobile, easier and more secure. To get this process going, Mozilla has implemented a new and experimental JavaScript API into its new Firefox OS for smartphones that will eventually allow web apps to accept payments. Mozilla argues that having a common API for handling payments that can be integrated with multiple payment vendors will open up new business models for developers and publishers. This new API, navigator.mozPay(), Mozilla says, was inspired by Google’s Wallet for Digital Goods API and will ship in Firefox OS first and then be added to Firefox for Android and desktop Firefox later. While it’s currently a very experimental API (and still incomplete), Mozilla expects that it will be usable enough to “process live payments on the first Firefox OS phones and evolve quickly from real world usage.” The question to ask here, of course, is why bother, given that online payments don’t seem to be a major issue for users and developers, thanks to services like PayPal and Stripe. Mozilla, however, argues that users should have more choice when it comes to how they want to pay for goods online (be they virtual or physical). Users, the organization also notes, still have to type in their credit card numbers, which “is like giving someone the keys to your expensive car, letting them drive it around the block in a potentially dangerous neighborhood (the web) and saying please don?t get carjacked!” With navigator.mozPay(), developers will be able to grant permission to each payment provider they want to work with and use a very straightforward process for handling these payments that’s more about exchanging tokens than exchanging credit card information. You can find more details about how to implement and test the current version of this API here.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/B-Aoh4h0Dnw/
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Thursday, April 4, 2013
Study: Record Number Of People Are Cohabitating
 
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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/04/04/176203263/study-record-number-of-people-are-cohabitating?ft=1&f=1007
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Looking for day when Mexico's underworld is violence-free? Try looking back.
Since the 1980s Mexico's criminal organizations have become increasingly globalized and sophisticated, but almost a century ago they were largely family organizations shipping bootleg liquor to the US.
? InSight Crime researches, analyzes, and investigates organized crime in the Americas. Find all of Patrick Corcoran's research here.
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[This article is adapted from a longer research paper appearing in a recent edition of the journal?Trends in Organized Crime.]
Mexico?s battles with drug trafficking have been a constant in the country?s modern history, but the activities and organization of the criminal groups operating in the clandestine industry have been in a state of constant flux. That flux, which continues today, lies at the heart of Mexico's violence.
During the 20th century and into the 21st, Mexico?s criminal organizations have grown increasingly sophisticated, globalized, and diversified. Whereas 90 years ago they were largely family organizations shipping marijuana and bootleg liquor to the US, today they traffic any number of products to and from nations in all four corners of the globe.
Over the course of the same period, Mexico?s criminal gangs also underwent a related process of consolidation and growth that peaked in the 1980s. The family operations gave way to steadily larger, wealthier criminal organizations, culminating in the Guadalajara Cartel, run by Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, that controlled drug trafficking in most of Mexico during the presidency of Miguel de la Madrid. Since then, the trend has been the opposite: a breakup of the larger organizations, and the rise of regional local challengers to their supremacy. The chaos that followed has engulfed a nation.
Premodern groups
Mexico?s smuggling networks have emerged as an unfortunate emblem of the nation only relatively recently, but they have existed for more than a century. Initially, they were not dedicated to methamphetamine and cocaine, two of the drugs that currently offer the highest profit margins, but rather opium, and later marijuana. These groups, which first began to emerge toward the end of the 19th century, were initially not seen as a major public security threat. Indeed, newspaper reports at the time detail the concern for opium users, not bloodshed attached to feeding the market.
These groups were largely family-based. In the case of the opium traffickers, these groups were originally concentrated among the Chinese immigrants populated across Mexico?s northern region, especially northwestern states like Sinaloa. Reports from the era indicate that the marijuana production, on the other hand, was not especially associated with Chinese immigrants, and marijuana traffickers remained largely small-time operations that continued to be built around local family ties. One example of such an organization was that of Maria Dolores Estevez, or Lola la Chata, as she was more commonly known. Lola and her clan trafficked in vice (especially marijuana) in Juarez for some 30 years in the middle of the 20th century, though without ever achieving the wealth or international notoriety of today?s groups.
But if the early groups had a lesser impact on the state of the nation than today?s do, they were still instrumental in setting the stage for the future development of Mexico?s trafficking organizations. The groups that emerged in that period, while far different from their future iteration, spawned certain characteristics that would be vital to their coming growth.
First, they created smuggling networks in and out of the remote Sierra Madre Occidental, which lies along the convergence of drug-producing states Chihuahua, Durango, and Sinaloa. These states have remained home to the most powerful organizations ever since, and have birthed the nation?s most notorious traffickers. The tendency toward familial link in drug trafficking also remains very common today -- see, for instance, the Beltran Leyva Organization -- although the complexity of trafficking today requires any criminal group to branch out beyond blood ties.
The early groups also developed a capacity to slip past the US border, feeding the market for bootleg alcohol (during prohibition), marijuana, and opium. Since the US market for illegal drugs was later to become the most lucrative in the world, this gave Mexican traffickers the most sought-after job skills in the industry.
Furthermore, these early 20th century groups began to develop links to the political system, especially under the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which emerged from the embers of the Mexican Revolution and dominated the nation?s governance until 2000. For instance, a major Chinese-Mexican trafficker in the 1930s was Antonio Wong Yin, a close friend of the mayor of Torreon (where he was based), the governor of Coahuila (which houses Torreon), and the army general charged with controlling the region. Such political support for traffickers, which are eerily similar to the stories of corruption that periodically emerge in the Mexican media today, was not uncommon.
Because Mexican groups thrive in large part with the support or tolerance of government agents, these early inroads from the forerunners of the political system were priceless, both at the time and as the industry grew.
The internationalization of Mexican crime
The introduction of cocaine to the US drug market in the 1970s and 1980s changed the circumstances dramatically for Mexico?s drug traffickers. Most important, the profit margins exploded; a recent report from the International Crisis Group referred to a 50-fold price discrepancy for a kilo of cocaine in Colombia compared with the same kilo in the US, from $2,400 to $120,000. Today?s substantial divergences were presumably even more yawning four decades ago, as US prices for cocaine have spent most of the meantime in decline.
Nothing like those profits was available from marijuana trafficking. As a consequence, successful Mexican cocaine smugglers were able to accumulate far more wealth than their criminal ancestors. The tendency was furthered as Mexican gangs, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, began to insist on payment not in cash but in product from their South American partners; at that point they were no longer subcontractors but rather wholesalers, with exploding revenues to match. This shift upended the power equilibrium between the traffickers and their government sponsors; the political system had an increasingly difficult time administering unruly gangsters.
The government, however, remained intimately involved, even as it lost some degree of control. Traffickers had deep relations with the political and security apparatus in Mexico; many of the most notorious capos, such as Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, and Juan Jose Esparragoza, alias "El Azul," were former police officers. A parade of high-ranking government officials, from former Federal Police Commander Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni, who was reportedly a favorite of President Carlos Salinas in the 1980s and 1990s, to General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, the new drug czar who was found to be on the Juarez Cartel payroll in 1997 (and made famous in the movie "Traffic"), have been discovered working for the groups that they are meant to attack. Such arrests, to say nothing of the rumors surrounding officials who are never formally accused, continue to the present day.
Another important shift was toward a more international system. With cocaine the most important substance in the industry, the Mexicans could no longer rely only on their connections within their country and at the border to do business. Ties to cocaine producers in South American nations like Peru, Bolivia, and especially Colombia became essential. This added another several steps to the supply chain, and made feeding the US market a more complex endeavor. A globalized approach became a necessity.
Largely in response to this new environment, Mexican groups themselves grew more sophisticated and more complex, pioneering new methods of airborne and maritime smuggling. They also shifted toward a more hegemonic operational model; the model of a small family firm directing their operation from a marginal Mexico City suburb or barrio in Juarez was no longer viable. Such smaller groups were absorbed or pushed out by new hegemons, which controlled entire regions and coopted public officials on a growing scale. Thus, control of the proverbial "plaza," or trafficking corridor, became a requisite.?
The best example of the new hegemonic model was the Guadalajara Cartel of the aforementioned Felix Gallardo. Originally a police officer and governor?s bodyguard from Sinaloa, Felix Gallardo and his crew moved south to Guadalajara in the 1970s in response to Operation Condor, in which the Mexican army launched a ferocious eradication campaign in the Sierra Madre mountain range. From Guadalajara, he was partnered with Colombian traffickers like Pablo Escobar, and became Escobar's most important Mexico associate. He also came to dominate the underworld in much of his country; Felix Gallardo and his subordinates controlled contraband within most of Mexico?s Pacific Coast and its US border.
The groups of today
The Mexican criminal organizations of today differ from those of Felix Gallardo?s era, and even more so from their predecessors a century ago. The most important factor is that the trend toward consolidation ended with Felix Gallardo. Following his arrest in 1989, the boss reportedly divided up most of Mexico and handed out parcels to his underlings, so as to prevent a breakup of the organization he had built. However, the gambit ? which may be apocryphal; Felix Gallardo has told reporters that he had nothing to do with it ? essentially failed. What had been the Guadalajara Cartel devolved, broadly speaking, into the Tijuana and Juarez Cartels, which were mortal enemies through the 1990s, despite their shared roots. These groups in turn, spawned a handful of further competing organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel, the Beltran Leyva Organization, and, in recent years, the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation.
That is, the splinter groups have given birth to splinter groups. The weakness of the remaining groups have encouraged other upstarts to rise up and challenge the existing bosses, turning the process of atomization, as it is often called, into a vicious cycle. Consequently, no recent group has ever matched Felix Gallardo?s territorial control, nor does it appear likely that any one ever will.
This cycle has been a significant driver of violence. The rivalries between the new gangs are in and of themselves violent contests. Tens of thousands have died thanks to disputes between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, for example, and between the Juarez Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel. The problem is worsened because the fallen capos are often replaced not by businessmen but rather hit men, whose natural inclination is toward violence. Today?s groups also suffer from a greater degree of internal instability; as InSight Crime has reported about the Zetas in recent years, amid a context of constant criminal warfare and uneven cash flows, violent subordinates are often tempted to ignore or challenge their bosses.
Today?s gangs are far more reliant on alternative sources of income, beyond drug trafficking. These include oil theft, extortion, kidnapping, human smuggling, robbery, and pirate merchandising. In all likelihood, the revenues of these crimes collectively amount to no more than a few billion dollars a year, but they impose a greater cost on the society as a whole. A successful international drug deal imposes no direct cost on the community at large, but a kidnapper nearly always targets the most vulnerable. This is also true for extortion, which, if common enough, amounts to a disincentive against success for entrepreneurs.
Finally, the groups today no longer unquestionably subordinate the state. For all his power, Felix Gallardo ultimately answered to the political system. When the federal government decided to bring him down, it had no problem in finding him and incarcerating him for life. (According to accounts of his arrest, when he saw the Police Commander Gonzalez Calderoni just before his arrest, Felix Gallardo greeted him as a friend coming to visit.)
Today, this is no longer the case. The increased revenues from cocaine trafficking, discussed above, has contributed to this, and is an important part of the story, but developments within Mexico?s political system are just as important. Mexico?s criminal organizations are weaker in certain respects, but so is the state. The PRI, the political party that dominated from the 1930s onward, lost power for the first time in 2000, and the federal government has never recovered the near-omnipotence it once enjoyed.
As a consequence, the traffickers no longer exist within a system administered by the federal government. Rather, both the state and organized crime are in a constant power struggle. Given that the PRI was an authoritarian entity, this loss of power is, on balance, a good thing, but one of the unfortunate side effects was the state?s growing incapacity to impose itself on organized crime.
? Insight Crime?researches, analyzes, and investigates organized crime in the Americas. Find all of Patrick Corcoran's research?here.
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of Latin America bloggers. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.
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Wednesday, April 3, 2013
The Daily Roundup for 04.01.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/01/the-daily-roundup-for-04-01-2013/
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Make The 'Conjuring' Trailer Go Away Please
A full trailer for James Wan's "The Conjuring" has appeared online, fleshing out the story more and scaring the ever-loving poop out of us once again. Also, Justing Long is "iSteve" in today's Dailies! » Is the trailer for "iSteve" supposed to be funny? [Funny or Die] » Full trailer for "The Conjuring" [Warner Bros] [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/04/02/the-conjuring-trailer-2/
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Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Apple Brazil makes substantial price cuts on iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S
It might not have the trademark, but that hasn't stopped Apple shaving the cost of its entry-level iPhone 4 and 4S' to something closer to its price tag in North America. The 16GB iPhone 4S is now R$1,699 ($840), down from R$1,999, while the 8GB flavor of the iPhone 4 now rings in at R$1,099 ($544), reduced from R$1,499. According to O Globo, if you're willing to pay upfront in full (and by phone) you can even snatch an extra 10 percent off both. Otherwise, Brazilians will need to visit the online store to lay claim to the heavily-discounted handsets.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple
Via: Mac Rumors, O Globo (Portuguese)
Source: Apple Store (Brazil)
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/2gi93D0vqNs/
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Finally Home, a Veteran Enjoys a Special Easter | WNEP.com
Posted on: 6:17 pm, March 31, 2013, by Suzanne Goldklang, updated on: 08:16pm, March 31, 2013
MAYFIELD? For 2-year-old Anabelle Brummett and her 6-year-old sister Makayla, 2013 may be the best Easter ever
Their aunt Jenn Woznick is home after being away for 8 years in the army, and supper is at her place.
Woznick says ?My family, they were so excited when they knew I was coming home for good. It?s really nice. I feel very loved.?
It was a big day of firsts.
The first Easter together as a family, and Jenn?s first time hosting the holiday. Typically, sister Lisa Brady is the family?s ?top chef.?
?She is doin good pickin out the food. We?ll see how everybody likes it,? Brady says with a wink and a laugh.
This season of new beginnings has been a long time coming. Jenn?s military career started when she went to basic training as a high school junior. She travelled the world with stops in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Woznick recalls, ?In Iraq we decorated our office. I was sad because I wasn?t home with my family.?
She wasn?t the only one who felt like something was missing
Little Makayla says,?I really missed her.?
By noon on Sunday the ham was baking in the oven, the marshmellows on the sweet potatoes were ready to melt, but most of all Jenn was finally having Easter at home with her family.
Source: http://wnep.com/2013/03/31/finally-home-a-veteran-enjoys-a-special-easter/
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Monday, April 1, 2013
Stock market bull is feeding on corporate profits
Four years after pushing investors into one of the deepest financial holes in a century, the U.S. stock market is now powering ahead in one of the strongest bull markets in a half century.
So it?s no surprise many investors are wondering how much longer it can last.
Fueled by growing signs that the U.S. economy is finally repairing lingering damage from the Great Recession, stock prices have been making new highs for weeks.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 index closed at its highest level in history, after rising for 11 of the past 13 weeks. The Dow Jones industrial average, which tracks just 30 stocks, broke into record territory March 5 and has been setting new highs since. (Neither index, however, has reached a new high after adjusting for inflation.)
In the last 10 months, stocks have risen nearly 25 percent, as measured by the S&P 500 index. Since August, 2010, the broader Wilshire 5000 index has powered ahead by 50 percent ? a rally that?s created more than $6 trillion in wealth for U.S. households, corporations, pension funds and other institutional investors.
To some investors still shell-shocked from the 2008 financial collapse, it?s beginning to feel like October 2007 ? just before the bottom fell out. Or 2000, when the dot-com bubble popped.
Take a deep breath. Those worries are simply misplaced, according to none other than former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who coined the now-famous phrase for the telltale sign that a stock market party is getting out of hand.
"'Irrational exuberance' is the last term I'd use to characterize what?s going on at the moment,? the retired central banker recently told CNBC. ?It's got a ways to go as far as I can see.?
To be sure, bull markets inevitably include sharp pullbacks, as some investors take profits or others have second thoughts about the rally's staying power.
But for now, the millions of investors who are pouring billions of dollars into the stock market every week seem to agree with The Maestro. Here?s why:
So what got this party started?
Much like most market recoveries, the initial stage represented a snap back from one of the worst financial collapses since the Great Depression. Markets often act like a rubber band: If they get pulled too far in one direction, they tend to want to snap back to more ?normal? levels. The 2008 crash left stocks at deeply-depressed, bargain prices. But until the recovery was solidly in place, buyers had to be willing to bear the risk that the down cycle hadn't run its course.
In the last six months, the stock market rally has entered a new phase, driven largely by good news about the economy. The housing market has now bounced back sharply from the deepest recession in generations. Rising home prices have helped rebuild much of the multi-trillion dollar loss in household wealth that was obliterated by the collapse of 2008.
To be sure, it?s not all good news. The economy remains sluggish. Europe is struggling through a recession. The unemployment rate ? through steadily declining ? remains painfully high. Not all companies are taking part in the market rally.
Sorry: What makes stock prices go up and down again?
In the short term, supply and demand ? just like a pair of Red Sox tickets on Stubhub. When there are more buyers than sellers, the price goes up. And vice versa.
Over the longer run, demand for a given company?s stock is driven largely by its prospects for becoming more profitable. As any Red Sox season ticket holder knows, there?s a lot more demand for unused Fenway seats when the team is on a roll than when they?re losing.
As profits go up, so do stock prices. But to make money, you?ve got to own the stock before the company announces higher earnings.
That?s why investors are buying now ? based on the belief that the recent improvement in the economy will continue this year and next.
?I don't think it's all that surprising that the stock market would rise, given that there has been increased optimism about the economy,? the current Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, told reporters earlier this month. ?Profit increases have been substantial. And the relationship between stock prices and earnings is not particularly unusual at this point.?
But didn'tBernanke create this bubble by pumping trillions of dollars cash into the system?
The Fed?s unprecedented, ongoing easy-money policy has certainty had a lot to do with the surge in stock prices.
Ultra-low interest rates have helped two ways. Cheap credit helps boost economic growth; the housing recovery would have taken a lot longer without record low mortgage rates. Ultra-low rates on safer investments like bonds also force investors looking for higher returns by turning to riskier investments like stocks.
It?s a premature to call this rally a bubble. The late-90s Internet craze ?went bubble? when investors began paying Gold Rush prices for companies with no profits whatsoever. They were betting ? based on wildly optimistic forecasts about future growth ? that profits would eventually kick in. But in the end, it turned out that launching the fourth-largest online shopping site targeting left-handed golfers wasn?t a winning business model after all.
Ironically, some of the trends underlying those 1990s forecasts - of a millennial boom in entirely new online products and services ? are now helping boost corporate profits today. In many cases the predictions were right. They were just 20 years too early.
OK.Butif the economy is still weak, where are all these profits coming from?
One big source is workers? wages ? which have been falling, after adjusting for inflation. As business improves, more of that cash is heading straight to the corporate bottom line.
It?s not hard to see why. With unemployment still at 7.7 percent, few workers have leverage to demand a raise. Many companies have also been able to meet increased demand by asking their existing workers to put in more hours and check their email on weekends. Globalization continues to offer opportunities to outsource work to low-wage, overseas markets.
As the job market improves, and companies continue adding more full-time workers, that added profit may begin to slow. Higher health care costs could also take a bite. But for now, much of the revenue from new orders is flowing to the bottom line with little increase in labor costs.
Falling wages are only one of the tailwinds pushing profits ahead. Just as ultra-low interest rates have helped homeowners cut their monthly mortgage payments, companies have gotten a big break on borrowing costs. Those savings have helped boost the bottom lines of the companies in the S&P 500 index by some 4.5 percent, according to financial analyst Stephen Moore.
Moore figures lower corporate taxes ? which have fallen from about 30 percent of overall profits in the 1980s to around 20 percent today ? have added another 1 percent to profits.
We?d add to the list the ongoing savings from lower natural gas and electricity costs thanks to a boom in U.S. energy production.
So how long can all this last?
The only honest answer: No one knows. Including your investment adviser.
The recent recovery from a period of deep, financial malaise, though, is reminiscent of the 1980s emergence from the Great Inflation that destroyed thousands of businesses, trillions of dollars in financial assets and shredded consumer and investor confidence.
Then, for a variety of reasons, the economic storm subsided. In what seemed like a matter of months, it was Morning in America. The resulting stock market rally, which began in August 1982, was one of the longest on record.
To be sure, the over-caffeinated bull briefly passed out when a heart-stopping crash lopped 23 percent off stock prices in a single session on October 19, 1987. Four months later, though, the bull was back on his feet for another 12-year stampede that lifted stocks nearly seven-fold before the tech bubble burst in March 2000.
This bull faces formidable hurdles in the months and years ahead. The ongoing debt crisis in Europe and, worse, the bumbling response of its leaders, could easily spoil the party. So could the inevitable day, probably not until next year, when the Fed starts raising interest rates back to more normal levels. The Washington budget battle over reforming unsustainable federal spending (a problem with no shortage of viable solutions) could also knock the bull off its feet.
And if the gains in corporate profits stall out, investors could quickly lose their appetite for stocks. Until that happens, though, this rally looks like the real thing.
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Cowon D20 launches in Japan, keeps MP3 players alive 90 hours at a time
There's no denying it: the MP3 player market is in free fall, and competitors often have to either go big or go home if they want to justify their work over the many smartphone alternatives. Cowon is still kicking, and the extreme battery life of its new D20 player may be a good explanation as to why. Along with 13 hours of video, it can play 90 hours of music on a charge -- enough that the tunes could blast non-stop through a long weekend. Not that the player will otherwise rock the boat, as it's still carrying a 2.5-inch, 320 x 240 resistive touchscreen, 8GB to 32GB of built-in storage, an SD card slot and Cowon's familiar (if hyper-stylized) interface. The company is partly counting on a low cost to get its foot in the door. Following a tease earlier this month in Russia, the D20 is launching in Japan at prices between ¥11,800 ($125) and ¥16,800 ($178) -- not a bad deal, so long as endurance rules your world.
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video
Via: Akihabara News
Source: Cowon
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/5bCXl6C8V8c/
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Monday, March 18, 2013
Life after Higgs boson: What's next for the world's largest atom smasher?
It's a Higgs boson!! Now what? After confirming that the particle discovered last July really is a Higgs boson, the Large Hadron Collider is ready to look for other universes, figure out dark matter, recreate the Big Bang, or find something totally unexpected.
The Large Hadron Collider, in its underground tunnel beneath France and Switzerland, found the data that confirms what LHC scientists suspected last July: They found a Higgs boson.
Martial Trezzini / Keystone / AP / File
EnlargeLess than five years after it went live, the Large Hadron Collider has confirmed the existence of a Higgs boson, the particle which may explain how other particles get their mass.
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The confirmation comes today (March 14), after a July 2012 announcement of the elementary particle's discovery. At the time, researchers strongly suspected they'd found a Higgs, but needed to collect more data. Since then, they've more than doubled the amount of data they have on the particle using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 17-mille-long (27 kilometers) underground ring on the French-Swiss border where protons zing around at near the speed of light.
With a Higgs boson discovered, what more is there for this enormous and unusual piece of machinery to do? Lots, according to physicists.
For one thing, scientists are still working out whether the Higgs boson they've discovered fits the Standard Model of physics or if it better fits another theory. (So far, the Standard Model appears to be the winning candidate.)
And the hunt for the Higgs boson is just one of the ongoing projects at the particle accelerator. Other projects have such humble goals as explaining dark matter, revealing the symmetries of the universe and even looking for new dimensions of space, according to the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.?
"It really is a machine that's capable of going to higher energies, maybe ultimately to a factor of seven times higher energy," said Peter Woit, a physicist at Columbia University. "Which means going to distances seven times smaller and basically looking for anything you can find."
Here are the major projects ongoing at the LHC:
ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment @ CERN): By smashing particles together, scientists can recreate the first few milliseconds after the Big Bang, illuminating the early history of the universe. A detector 52 feet (16 meters) high and 85 feet (261 m) long enables scientists to study what's known as quark-gluon plasma. The researchers collide heavy ions, liberating their quarks and gluons (quarks are the constituent part of protons, which are held together by gluons). It takes a machine like the LHC to separate these atomic particles and study them individually.
ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus): This is the experiment that observed a Higgs in July. But ATLAS's work isn't done. The LHC, and the ATLAS detector, are currently in shutdown mode, preparing for an energy increase. When LHC starts up again after 2013, the atom smasher will be able to fling protons at each other at 14 teraelectronvolts (TeV), double its previous 7 TeV.
ATLAS has a broad mission. It's a tool that can search for extra dimensions of space and supersymmetry, the idea that every known particle has a "superpartner particle," an important component of string theory. Supersymmetry would, in turn, help elucidate dark energy, which may exist in the vacuum of space and be responsible for the acceleration of the universe's expansion. ATLAS is also part of the search for dark matter, a mysterious form of matter that may make up more than 95 percent of the universe's total matter density, but which is virtually unknown. [Whoa! The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]
CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid): Like ATLAS, CMS is a jack-of-all trades. The detector is meant to explore the same questions about the origins of the universe and the fundamentals of matter.
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Sunday, March 17, 2013
China, US: Stop hacking accusations, says official
BEIJING ? China and the United States should avoid "groundless accusations" against each other about cyber security and hacking into each other's computer systems, newly installed Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday.
Li's comments, at the close of China's annual meeting of parliament and a day after he assumed the premiership, come amid a war of words between Beijing and Washington over cyber attacks and national security.
A U.S. computer security company said last month that a secretive Chinese military unit was likely behind a series of hacking attacks mostly targeting the United States.
Responding to a reporter at a news conference, Li said he "sensed the presumption of guilt" in the question.
"I think we should not make groundless accusations against each other, and spend more time doing practical things that will contribute to cyber security," Li said.
"This is a worldwide problem. In fact, China itself is a main target of such attacks," he said. "China does not support, indeed we are opposed to, such activities."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will press China to investigate and stop cyber attacks on U.S. companies and other entities when he visit China this week, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
President Barack Obama also raised U.S. concerns about computer hacking in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, the same day Xi took office.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
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