Yesterday, I wondered if Manchester City really had the ?stuff,? that intangible spirit that champions require to get on top and then, even more difficult, to stay atop against the pressure and expectations that come with the position.
So far we just haven?t seen much evidence of that ?something extra? from Roberto Mancini?s club, which is barely hanging into the pursuit of first-place Manchester United.
Did we see one of those wins Saturday?
City went into Carrow Road and emerged with a memorable 4-3 win. (Interesting: That was the very same score by which Alex Ferguson?s Manchester United prevailed over Newcastle just days before, that in a match I had identified as one of those special wins.)
It took a lot Saturday as City had been reduced to 10 men for more than a half thanks to Samir Nasri?s hotheadedness.
It also took special performances, one from Sergio Aguero (pictured), who was indefatigable in his work. Yaya Toure was his usual do-all self; has there been a more useful all-around man in the Premier League this year?
Edin Dzeko, with two early goals and then a second-half winner (although not officially), proved that there may be renewed life in the City crop of strikers that simply has not found net enough this year.
As City held the lead, the character and championship spirit finally began coming through. The effort and defending was resolute.
Then City was absolutely wonderful in killing off the match ? and not just with those slow-go tactics, either. The ability to hold the ball and limit the home team?s attempts to throw balls forward and make something from nothing really was quite skillful in its execution.
Something special from City? Something to inspire the effort going forward? We?ll find out, because it?s only special if it does, actually, coax a little more belief and scrappiness in the matches ahead.
As investors gaze across the "fiscal cliff," some see a better economy on the far side, making stocks and risk assets more appealing and bonds less so in the year ahead.
But there are many caveats to that scenario and some of them will be decided in the next few days as politicians struggle to strike a deal that would avert a fall off the "fiscal cliff." The cliff is the double-barreled blow to the economy from the reversal of dozens of tax breaks and the onset of automatic spending cuts, agreed as a solution to the contentious 2011 debt- ceiling debate.
Congress meets Sunday evening and may consider the latest proposals.
Stocks were spooked in the past week by the lack of movement in discussions between Congress and President Barack Obama. As the market closed Friday, the absence of new developments during talks underway at the White House provided a void for selling. The Dow fell 1.2 percent to 12,938, giving it a loss of 1.9 percent for the week. The S&P 500 fell 1.1 percent to 1402, for a one week loss of 1.9 percent. The Nasdaq lost 2 percent for the week to 2960.
Congressional leaders late Friday left the White House without a deal, setting the stage for a weekend of raw nerves. Obama said he was still optimistic the Senate leadership could come up with a deal that would?pass both houses, but he also laid out a second plan for a straight up-or-down?vote on middle class tax cuts if they can't reach an agreement.
The president repeated that strategy in an exclusive interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday in which he scolded House Republicans for not having come to an agreement sooner.
"They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected," Obama said. "That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme."
Obama said if Congress failed to agree on a deal and if the straight up-or-down vote was blocked, the first bill introduced in the new year would propose a cut in taxes for the?middle class.?
"Now I think that over the next 48 hours, my hope is that people recognize that, regardless of partisan differences, our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle-class families do not go up. That would hurt our economy badly," Obama said.?
He warned that if there was?no deal by Jan. 1, it could hurt financial markets.?
"What's been holding us back is the dysfunction here in Washington," he said. "And if people start seeing that on January 1st this problem still hasn't been solved, that we haven't seen the kind of deficit reduction that we could have had had the Republicans been willing to take the deal that I gave them, if they say that people's taxes have gone up, which means consumer spending is going to be depressed, then obviously that's going to have an adverse reaction in the markets."
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed the president's criticism, and pointed the finger of blame at Obama.
"Republicans made every effort to reach the 'balanced' deficit agreement that the president promised the American people, while the president has continued to insist on a package skewed dramatically in favor of higher taxes that would destroy jobs," Boehner said in a statement reacting to the 'Meet the Press' interview.
"We've been reasonable and responsible. The president is the one who has never been able to get to 'yes,'" Boehner said.?
Obama: GOP's insistence on halting tax hikes for the wealthy is blocking 'cliff' deal
Stock futures fell sharply after the market closed Friday.?
"You could tell a lot of people were very skittish about their trades," said Patrick Kernan of Cardinal Capital. "Everybody is fearful of what exposure they have right now. Right now, we're thinking if they reach a deal we go back to around where we were a week ago, right around 1440" on the S&P 500. If there's no deal, "we think it goes down 30 to 50 points."
Kernan, who trades S&P 500 options, said the market was swarmed by investors seeking portfolio protection Friday.?
"The other side of this thing from an investment standpoint, is if there's a deal, I don't know what the number is but is it a five-percent rally from here? Is it a three-percent rally?" said?said James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management.? "There's risk on both sides of the trade, and I think that's been helping keep this reaction more muted than it otherwise might be."
"The cliff isn't December 31. The real cliff is somewhere down the line when the tax bite and spending cuts start to hurt," he said. "The most optimistic agreement was not that we got this done before the deadline.The most optimistic was we get it done right on deadline, and I think it was fully expected it would get really ugly right before that?the other reality is if it doesn't get done until mid-January it's not going to hurt anything."
Paulsen said the market's anxiety will increase the longer it goes on. "If we go over, the market reaction will start to build?I don't think it will fall apart if we go over. I think if we start to get to the second half of January, I think they'll get way more concerned."
Wait, There's More Besides the action on Capitol Hill, there is the December employment report Friday and some other key data to look forward to in the week ahead. That includes Thursday's December car sales and chain-store sales and Wednesday's ISM manufacturing data. The minutes of the Fed's last meeting are also expected Wednesday afternoon.
But the outcome of the cliff discussion and congressional votes will be what drives markets in the week and months ahead, and what will ultimately decide whether the U.S. can be a driver of the global economy or a drag on it in 2013.
"I don't think the story is over yet," said Citigroup economist Steven Wieting. "We all expected agony . It just seems we keep adding to it."
"There's compromise that's needed and now seemed like a good time, but they already let the window substantially pass. The opportunity to have a really big framework has passed," Wieting added.
He?described a another possible scenario. "They're going to completely leave the debt ceiling out of this, and they're going to leave any signs of structural reform out of this. Then we have a deal that includes future cliff dates. That would leave uncertainty in play."
Yet, analysts and economists also see a possible optimistic outcome, where the cliff is fixed, at least in part, either by New Year's or several days later, and the debt ceiling and remaining issues are dealt with in the first part of the year. If that's the case, it might unleash economic growth, as consumer and business confidence improve.
"I think the global economy is going to surprise on the upside," said Ed Keon, portfolio manager with Quantitative Management Associates. Keon believes Congress will make a deal to avoid the cliff, and he sees gains in the U.S. economy as well as improvement in the European debt crisis and a pickup in the emerging world. "I think in the European situation, time is on our side and everyday things look a little better."
He also sees the U.S. ending the year with stronger growth. "It's hard to believe Washington would want to hurt the economy with malice of foresight," he said. "Doing a small deal will be viewed that they might be able to do a bigger deal."
Kind of a Small Deal "We'll get a deal," said Steven Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities. "It will be a small deal that will address some of the more onerous aspects of the cliff. Tax rates, they're going to have to address the AMT, and they're going to have to do something with sequestration cuts,?either delay them or rejigger them. I think they'll probably do something on state and dividend tax rates, the Medicare doc fix and they'll probably extend the unemployment benefits."
It's the bigger deal, on the debt ceiling, that will be most difficult and most important in terms of the longer term strength of the economy. Treasury secretary Tim Geithner warned this past week that the U.S. will reach the debt ceiling limit Monday, but that the Treasury can make some adjustments to keep the government funded for a couple months while Congress works out a deal. The hope is that Congress would find a way to deal with bigger tax reform and entitlement spending issues as part of that debate.
Forget the 'fiscal cliff," the debt ceiling is much scarier
Avoiding the cliff, even with scaled back tax increases,?will not leave the economy unscathed but it should not trigger the recession expected if the cliff were hit. "Basically if we let the payroll tax expire it's going to blunt consumer spending in the beginning of the year, even if we know about it," Stanley said. "The upper income tax increases are not a free lunch either. It's substantially lower than the full cliff."
One of the most public points of contention is at what income level, Bush-era tax cuts are reversed. Both Republicans and Democrats agree tax rates should remain the same for 98 percent of taxpayers, but the disagreement is over taxing the rich and that's what the Senate leadership will have to tackle this weekend.
Obama did not specify on "Meet the Press" which income level he would accept. He has consistently promoted $250,000 as the dividing line between those who would continue to benefit from Bush-era tax cuts and those who would see their taxes increase. But the figure has been a bargaining chip in the negotiations.
The economy could handle that and move on, Wieting said. "If it's a fiscal tightening between 1 and 1.5 percent of GDP, the economy would absorb that in a discrete way and probably move on to stronger growth in the second half of the year. It could be better. It could be clearer. It could be sooner," he said.?
Wieting said, however, the more unresolved issues and pushed-out deadlines there are, the worse it will be for the economy because business spending would remain constrained.
Here's what happens to you if we go over the fiscal cliff
Wieting expects growth in the beginning of the year of about 1 percent, and assuming a resolution of the cliff and debt ceiling issues,?growth could accelerate to 3 percent by the end of the year.
The economic data this week should continue to show the same slow growth in employment, but possibly stronger auto sales and improved manufacturing. Economic data, particularly housing-related data, has been largely better than expected.
Stanley expects the December nonfarm payrolls to be about the same as November's 146,000. "I have 150,000 but that includes a couple of special factors that I think will push the number up a little bit," said Stanley. One of those factors is the addition of couriers, temporarily hired to deliver holiday gifts. Last year, that category gained 40,000 in December, and lost the same amount in January, he said.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni: India captain finished 113 not out
Junaid Khan: Pakistan left-arm seamer struck four times with the new ball
Nasir Jamshed: opening batsman paced Pakistan's run chase
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Opening batsman Nasir Jamshed's century guided Pakistan to a six-wicket win over India in the opening match of the ODI series in Chennai.
Jamshed's 101 not out ensured India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's rescue act earlier in the day went unrewarded.
Dhoni came to the crease with his side on 29-5 after they had been sent in to bat and struck 113 not out to guide them to a final total of 227-6.
Pakistan's run chase also got off to a poor start, India debutant Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled Mohammad Hafeez - who offered no shot - for a golden duck with the first delivery of his ODI career.
Kumar also removed Azhar Ali (9) to leave Pakistan on 21-2 but Younus Khan counter-attacked to the tune of 58 off 60 balls to ensure the required-rate was always under control.
Jamshed went to his second ODI hundred from 127 balls in the 47th over and finished off the job alongside Shoaib Malik (34no) with 11 balls to spare.
A bad day for India got worse when Virat Kohli left the field injured. Kohli slipped in his delivery stride while bowling the 41st over and appeared to twist his right knee. He was able to walk off the field but did not return.
Left-arm seamer Junaid Khan (4-43) had earlier done the damage for Pakistan with the new ball; bowling Virender Sehwag (4), Kohli (0) and Yuvraj Singh (2), and having Rohit Sharma (4) caught at third slip in his opening spell.
Suresh Raina helped his skipper repair the innings with a 79-run stand spanning 33.4 overs, Dhoni enjoyed a life on 17 when Misbah-ul-Haq put down a catch at midwicket off Hafeez's bowling.
Off-spinner Hafeez (1-26) did eventually pick up a wicket, bowling Raina for 43 with the second delivery of the 34th over - the first of the batting powerplay - before Ravichandran Ashwin (31no) helped Dhoni up the tempo.
Dhoni brought up his eighth ODI century from 118 deliveries - the second 50 of which came from 32 balls - and finished with seven fours and three sixes in his undefeated 125-ball contribution.
The three-match series continues at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on January 3.
The Geneva-based company, which has offices in London, is thought to have operated an ?employee benefit trust? (EBT) for more than a decade.
Such schemes, which were used by more than 2,000 companies, allowed employees to avoid paying income tax and companies to avoid national insurance contributions.
HMRC is chasing taxes which were avoided through the schemes before they were categorically outlawed in 2011, and has said it believes a ?large number of EBT schemes didn?t work under the previous legislation?.
Vitol is understood to have closed its scheme in 2011 when the law changed.
Ian Taylor, chief executive of Vitol, told The Sunday Times: ?We will have to pay something. We will work hard to do what is best for our employees, but we must abide by the legislation - and we will.?
Other companies affected include bank JP Morgan, which is said to be close to a ?500m settlement over its scheme.
Mr Taylor told the newspaper he believed that settlement may ?become a template? for others.
A spokesman for HMRC said: ?For legal reasons, we cannot discuss our management of the tax affairs of named businesses.?
Here are some travel tips for Stanford fans heading to the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade in Pasadena:
1. Do a dry run. Drive the route to your Rose Parade seats and/or the Rose Bowl stadium on Dec. 31. Identify the best route from your hotel -- as well as an alternative route. Your best bet may be to overshoot your destination to avoid gridlock, then back-track. If you're going to the parade, it will help you to figure out on which side of Colorado Boulevard your assigned parking space is situated.
2. Plan for comfort. Trust me on this: Every sporting goods store within 10 miles of Pasadena will be sold out of seat cushions and snap-on stadium seats, as will every souvenir stand you pass. So bring yours from home or buy one the first opportunity you get. Also, don't forget to dress in layers and to bring sunscreen.
3. Plot your celebration. If you want to ring in the new year in festive Old Town Pasadena -- which will be slammed with Stanford and Wisconsin fans -- make dinner reservations now. (If you get shut out of Old Town, head for nearby Glendale's Brand Boulevard.) Find restaurants at www.oldpasadena.org; New Year's Eve events at http://events.pasadenastarnews.com; tourism advice at www.pasadenacal.com; and parade/game info at www.tournamentofroses.com.
Shockingly, the world didn?t end last week, meaning that whole 2012 Social Media Year-in-Review bit was a little off.
On the other hand, it also means I get to bring you the countdown of our 15 most popular social media posts of 2012. We had a ton of social content on our blog throughout the year, so without further ado, here?s the list.
Best Practices: New Twitter Headers and Mobile Updates Twitter abruptly released profile ?header? images in September ? a huge change to user profiles. Our post includes instructions on uploading a header image and tips for optimization.
Facebook?s Timeline ?Like Gate? Bug Solution (For Now): This bug has since been fixed, but you can still use our template for better ?like gate? design.
Optimize Your New LinkedIn Company Page in 7 Steps: LinkedIn made plenty of design changes this year, including October?s redesign of company pages. This guide has everything you need to know.
How to Use Hootsuite and Twitter Lists to Engage Your Audience: Want to become a more engaged Twitter user? Here?s your introduction to Hootsuite and Twitter lists.
Google Plus Box Ranking Factors Report: The launch of Google+ in 2011 has also had an impact on search. But how does Google decide which Google+ profiles get a spot in the ?Plus Box??
44 Ways ?The Hunger Games? Social Media Campaign Increased the Movie?s Odds of Success: Setting box office records when it was released in March, The Hunger Games popularity was also boosted by its wide-reaching social media campaign.
The 10 Dumbest Tweets of All Time & the Idiots Who Wrote Them: There have been plenty of moronic tweets, yet these brands and people set the bar pretty high (or low). We could easily add to this list after what we?ve seen this year.
6 Reasons to Ignore Facebook Search (For Now): Mark Zuckerberg mentions a Facebook search engine and the Internet freaks out. This is why everyone needs to settle down.
Facebook Is Watching You: Is Facebook recording your every move on the social network? After seeing a Reddit post, we posted this walkthrough so you could see the evidence for yourself.
Introducing the Facebook Custom Tab Generator: Need to create a custom tab for a Facebook page? Just use this handy generator.
Claim Your New Pinterest Business Page Today: Pinterest finally released business accounts last month. This post explains the process of claiming yours.
How to Tweet Like You?re Not a Business: Humans want to interact with humans on Twitter. So if you have a business account, here?s a crash course in tweeting like a human.
How to Optimize Your Google+ Local Business Page: If you own a business, you need must be on Google+ Local. That, or you run the risk of not being seen.
You?ll ?Like? Our Facebook Timeline Guide: Introducing our Timeline Dimensions page on Facebook, a living infographic of (what was then) the new Facebook Timeline.
Why Your Twitter Profile Picture Is More Important Than You Thought: Why?s it important to make your Twitter profile picture standout? More eyeballs means the more likely your content will be seen.
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What kind of posts would you like to see more of in 2013? Let us know in the comments, and check back for more content in the New Year.
When you finally commit to renovating your outdated bathroom, you might be feeling a mixture of emotions. You are excited to see the finished design, but you are worried about how long the project will take and what factors may cause delays during the process. While everyone hopes that their renovation projects go as smoothly as possible, it is very important to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The best way to prepare is to know what mistakes you should specifically avoid making. Here are three ?do not?s? for bathroom renovation that you should keep in the front of your mind when you are planning and completing the project.
Starting the Demolition Before You Purchase or Choose All of the Products
It is common to want to get a jump start on the project by starting the demolition stage early,after all, if you have more than one bathroom you might be thinking that you can live without your master bath until the project is done. This is a major mistake that should be avoided until you select, purchase, and assure the delivery date of all of the new elements that will be installed in your updated bathroom. If you start to demolish things that do not need to be demolished, it will cost you time and money.
Failing to Install Updated Piping
If your home was built prior to 1975, you need to make sure that your pipes have been updated while they are accessible. A bathroom remodel is the perfect excuse to check your existing water supply piping and to replace all of the galvanized pipes that have not been updated. Failing to do this can cost you money and can turn a simple remodel into a major disaster later down the line.
Failing to Set Aside Extra Money
You set a budget before you even start to design what your new bathroom will look like. The budget will include the cost of new fixtures, piping, toilets, a shower, a bath, materials, and labor. But failing to set aside money to account for hidden damage is a mistake. It is very common for outdated bathrooms to have mold damage and dry rot around the tub and sink, so once they are removed, you may be in for a big surprise that you were not prepared to deal with.
If you want your remodel project to be done quickly, you need to take control of the project before it takes control of you. Consider the common mistakes that homeowners make, and avoid them at all costs.
Author Bio
Andre has been freelance writing for several years, and loves writing? home improvement, parenting, health, and self-help articles. He is currently promoting Fitzall Blades
Tags: advice, bathroom, home, home improvement, tools
We recently had the chance to spend time with David Greaves and Vesa-Matti Hartikainen of Jolla and take Sailfish OS for a spin. As you might recall, this open source mobile OS builds upon Mer (a fork of MeeGo that includes Qt) and uses the Nemo framework with a custom UI. Like any decent Linux-based OS, it supports both ARM and x86 devices. The company is also behind the Sailfish SDK which is in the process of being finalized but is still open to developer feedback (the source code is available). After seeing Jolla's various demo videos and noting some UI similarities with MeeGo (swipes) and, strangely, with BB10 (peek gestures), we were eager to experience Sailfish OS for ourselves.
If you're wondering why the mobile OS is usually shown running on Nokia's N950 developer handset, that's because Jolla employs many ex-MeeGo engineers, so the OMAP-based phone was a natural fit. We were first given a walkthrough of Sailfish OS, then allowed to play with it. Many apps are still being worked on and some are still off-limits (we got in trouble for launching the camera), but what we saw was pretty solid. Take a look at the gallery below, then hit the break for our hands-on video and first impressions.
H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the retired general credited with leading U.S.-allied forces to a victory in the first Gulf War, has died at age 78, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.
He died today in Tampa, Fla., a U.S. official told the Associated Press.
Schwarzkopf, sometimes called "Stormin' Norman" because of his temper, actually led Republican administrations to two military victories: a small one in Grenada in the 1980s and a big one as de facto commander of allied forces in the Gulf War in 1991.
"'Stormin' Norman' led the coalition forces to victory, ejecting the Iraqi Army from Kuwait and restoring the rightful government," read a statement by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. "His leadership not only inspired his troops, but also inspired the nation."
Schwarzkopf's success during what was known as Operation Desert Storm came under President George H.W. Bush, who said today through his office that he mourned "the loss of a true American patriot and one of the great military leaders of his generation."
"Gen. Norm Schwarzkopf, to me, epitomized the 'duty, service, country' creed that has defended our freedom and seen this great nation through our most trying international crises," Bush said. "More than that, he was a good and decent man -- and a dear friend."
Bush's office released the statement though Bush, himself, was ill, hospitalized in Texas with a stubborn fever and on a liquids-only diet.
Schwarzkopf, the future four-star general, was born Aug. 24, 1934, in Trenton, N.J. He was raised as an army brat in Iran, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, following in his father's footsteps to West Point and being commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1956.
Schwarzkopf's father, who shared his name, directed the investigation of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping as head of the New Jersey State Police, later becoming a bridgadier general in the U.S. Army.
The younger Schwarzkopf earned three Silver Stars for bravery during two tours in Vietnam, gaining a reputation as an opinionated, plain-spoken commander with a sharp temper who would risk his own life for his soldiers.
"He had volunteered to go to Vietnam early just so he could get there before the war ended," said former Army Col. William McKinney, who knew Schwarzkopf from their days at West Point, according to ABC News Radio.
In 1983, as a newly-minted general, Schwarzkopf once again led troops into battle in President Reagan's invasion of Granada, a tiny Caribbean island where the White House saw American influence threatened by a Cuban-backed coup.
But he gained most of his fame in Iraq, where he used his 6-foot-3, 240-pound frame and fearsome temper to drive his troops to victory. Gruff and direct, his goal was to win the war as quickly as possible and with a focused objective: getting Iraq out of Kuwait.
"If it had been our intention to take Iraq, if it had been our intention to destroy the country, if it had been our intention to overrun the country, we could have done it unopposed," he said at a military briefing in 1991.
He spoke French and German to coalition partners, showed awareness of Arab sensitivities and served as Powell's operative man on the ground.
Powell today recalled Schwarzkopf as "a great patriot and a great soldier," who "served his country with courage and distinction for over 35 years."
"He was a good friend of mine, a close buddy," Powell added. "I will miss him."
Schwarzkopf retired from the Army after Desert Storm in 1991, writing an autobiography, becoming an advocate for prostate cancer awareness, serving on the boards of various charities and lecturing. He and his wife, Brenda, had three children.
Schwarzkopf spent his retirement in Tampa, home base for his last military assignment as commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command.
ABC News' Dana Hughes, Gina Sunseri and Polson Kanneth contributed to this report.
Dec. 27, 2012 ? One approach to understanding components in living organisms is to attempt to create them artificially, using principles of chemistry, engineering and genetics. A suite of powerful techniques -- collectively referred to as synthetic biology -- have been used to produce self-replicating molecules, artificial pathways in living systems and organisms bearing synthetic genomes.
In a new twist, John Chaput, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute and colleagues at the Department of Pharmacology, Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ have fabricated an artificial protein in the laboratory and examined the surprising ways living cells respond to it.
"If you take a protein that was created in a test tube and put it inside a cell, does it still function," Chaput asks. "Does the cell recognize it? Does the cell just chew it up and spit it out?" This unexplored area represents a new domain for synthetic biology and may ultimately lead to the development of novel therapeutic agents.
The research results, reported in the advanced online edition of the journal ACS Chemical Biology, describe a peculiar set of adaptations exhibited by Escherichia coli bacterial cells exposed to a synthetic protein, dubbed DX. Inside the cell, DX proteins bind with molecules of ATP, the energy source required by all biological entities.
"ATP is the energy currency of life," Chaput says. The phosphodiester bonds of ATP contain the energy necessary to drive reactions in living systems, giving up their stored energy when these bonds are chemically cleaved. The depletion of available intracellular ATP by DX binding disrupts normal metabolic activity in the cells, preventing them from dividing, (though they continue to grow).
After exposure to DX, the normally spherical E. coli bacteria develop into elongated filaments. Within the filamentous bacteria, dense intracellular lipid structures act to partition the cell at regular intervals along its length. These unusual structures, which the authors call endoliposomes, are an unprecedented phenomenon in such cells.
"Somewhere along the line of this filamentation, other processes begin to happen that we haven't fully understood at the genetic level, but we can see the results phenotypically," Chaput says. "These dense lipid structures are forming at very regular regions along the filamented cell and it looks like it could be a defense mechanism, allowing the cell to compartmentalize itself." This peculiar adaptation has never been observed in bacterial cells and appears unique for a single-celled organism.
Producing a synthetic protein like DX, which can mimic the elaborate folding characteristics of naturally occurring proteins and bind with a key metabolite like ATP is no easy task. As Chaput explains, a clever strategy known as mRNA display was used to produce, fine-tune and amplify synthetic proteins capable of binding ATP with high affinity and specificity, much as a naturally occurring ATP-binding protein would.
First, large libraries of random sequence peptides are formed from the four nucleic acids making up DNA, with each strand measuring around 80 nucleotides in length. These sequences are then transcribed into RNA with the help of an enzyme -- RNA polymerase. If a natural ribosome is then introduced, it attaches to the strand and reads the random sequence RNA as though it was a naturally-occurring RNA, generating a synthetic protein as it migrates along the strand. In this way, synthetic proteins based on random RNA sequences can be generated.
Exposing the batch of synthetic proteins to the target molecule and extracting those that bind can then select for ATP-binding proteins. But as Chaput explains, there's a problem: "The big question is how do you recover that genetic information? You can't reverse transcribe a protein back into DNA. You can't PCR amplify a protein. So we have to do all these molecular biology tricks."
The main trick involves an earlier step in the process. A molecular linker is chemically attached to the RNA templates, such that each RNA strand forms a bond with its newly translated protein. The mRNA-protein hybrids are exposed to selection targets (like ATP) over consecutive rounds of increasing stringency. After each round of selection, those library members that remain bound to the target are reverse-transcribed into cDNA (using their conveniently attached RNA messages), and then PCR amplified.
In the current study, E. coli cells exposed to DX transitioned into a filamentous form, which can occur naturally when such cells are subject to conditions of stress. The cells display low metabolic activity and limited cell division, presumably owing to their ATP-starved condition.
The study also examined the ability of E. coli to recover following DX exposure. The cells were found to enter a quiescent state known as viable but non-culturable (VBNC), meaning that they survived ATP sequestration and returned to their non-filamentous state after 48 hours, but lost their reproductive capacity. Further, this condition was difficult to reverse and seems to involve a fundamental reprogramming of the cell.
In an additional response to DX, the filamentous cells form previously undocumented structures, which the authors refer to as endoliposomes. These dense lipid concentrations, spanning the full width of the filamented E. coli, segment the cells into distinct compartments, giving the cells a stringbean-like appearance under the microscope.
The authors speculate that this adaptation may be an effort to maintain homeostasis in regions of the filamentous cell, which have essentially been walled off from the intrusion of ATP-depleting DX. They liken endoliposomes to the series of water-tight compartments found in submarines which are used to isolate damaged sections of the ship and speculate that DX-exposed cells are partitioning their genetic information into regions where it can be safely quarantined. Such self-compartmentalization is known to occur in some eukaryotic cells, but has not been previously observed in prokaryotes like E. coli.
The research indicates that there is still a great deal to learn about bacterial behavior and the repertoire of responses available when such cells encounter novel situations, such as an unfamiliar, synthetic protein. The study also notes that many infectious agents rely on a dormant state, (similar to the VBNC condition observed in the DX-exposed E. coli), to elude detection by antibiotics. A better understanding of the mechanisms driving this behavior could provide a new approach to targeting such pathogens.
The relative safety of E. coli as a model organism for study may provide a fruitful tool for more in-depth investigation of VBNC states in pathogenic organisms. Further, given ATP's central importance for living organisms, its suppression may provide another avenue for combating disease. One example would be an engineered bacteriophage capable of delivering DX genes to pathogenic organisms.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Arizona State University. The original article was written by Richard Harth.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Shaleen B. Korch, Joshua M. Stomel, Megan A. Le?n, Matt A. Hamada, Christine R. Stevenson, Brent W. Simpson, Sunil K. Gujulla, John C. Chaput. ATP Sequestration by a Synthetic ATP-Binding Protein Leads to Novel Phenotypic Changes inEscherichia coli. ACS Chemical Biology, 2012; : 121203123002005 DOI: 10.1021/cb3004786
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Gaming prowess rarely comes cheap, but that doesn't mean it can't at least be affordable. The Asus G75VW-DH72 gaming laptop may offer pricing and performance well below what tricked out systems like the Eurocom Scorpius can offer, but when stacked against mid-range gaming systems like the Alienware M17x R4, it still holds its own, getting you on the gaming grid for under two grand.
Design and Features While previous incarnations of Asus' Republic of Gamers line have emulated stealth fighter jets and naval vessels, the G75VW's design is a little more conservative, especially for a gaming machine. It's not as slim as the Razer Blade (2012), by any means. The laptop is still large, measuring 2.0 by 16.3 by 12.6 inches (HWD), but has changed up the look a bit, adding metal accents around the keyboard and across the speaker grille, which break up the imposing all-matte-black look seen in designs past. The result is a gaming rig that looks almost professional. Now, don't misunderstand, at 8.7 pounds (10.9 with the power brick) you won't be lugging this laptop to and from work, but it wouldn't look completely out of place in an office environment.
Despite the conservative look, the gaming DNA is still there. The back end of the G75VW is dominated by large cooling vents, and Asus' designs are tweaked to keep the system cool but quiet, grouping the heat generating components toward the back of the system. The chiclet keyboard sits at a slight slope, but is otherwise competent, providing a shallow but firm key movement. The touchpad is the same high-quality touchpad found on the Asus G75VW-DS71, but with the shift to Windows 8, Asus has also added some gesture support for Windows 8-specific controls. A swipe from the right edge of the touchpad pulls up the Charms Bar, while a three-fingered swipe down cycles through open apps. Pinch and zoom and two-finger scrolling aren't new additions, but they take on new importance in the absence of a touchscreen.
You may not be touching the screen, but the 17.3-inch display is still bright and sharp, with 1920-by-1080 resolution providing 1080p whether you're playing Skyrim or watching The Dark Knight on Blu-ray. The sound is also pretty good (as tested with the new trailer for The Man of Steel), staying clear at high volumes and providing a fair amount of bass thanks to an integrated subwoofer.
In addition to a Blu-ray/DVD combo drive, the Asus G75VW is outfitted with four USB 3.0 ports (one with power for charging devices), Gigabit Ethernet, a 3-in-1 card reader (SDHC, MMC, MS), and jacks for headphone and microphone. You also get several options for video connectivity, with HDMI, VGA, and mini DisplayPort outputs. Wireless connections provide 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
The G75VW-DH72 pairs a 750GB spinning hard drive with a separate 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), letting you shift bulk data storage to the hard drive while keeping programs on the SSD for optimum performance. Included on the drive are Microsoft Office Starter 2010, a 60-day trial of Trend Micro Antivirus, Adobe Reader X, and Asus' Application Suite, which includes 3GB of free cloud backup with Asus WebStorage. Asus covers the G75VW-DH72 with a two-year warranty, but also includes a full-year of additional accidental damage coverage, 24/7 tech support, and 30-day "Zero Bright Dot" warranty on the display panel.
Performance The Asus G75VW-DH72 is outfitted with a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-3630QM processor with 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M with 3GB of dedicated VRAM. The combination is potent?in Cinebench R11.5, the processor scored 6.44 points, outperforming both the Alienware M17x R4 (6.19 points) and the MSI GT70 0NE-276US (6.23 points), but falling behind both the Razer Blade (6.86) and the Eurocom Scorpius (7.29). The Asus G75VW-DH72 also made short work of our multimedia tests, completing our Handbrake video encoding test in 36 seconds, and Photoshop CS6 in 3 minutes 32 seconds.
Perhaps more important than general performance is how the G75VW-DH72 does with games. In Aliens vs. Predator, it racked up a respectable 55 frames per second (fps) at medium detail settings and 1,366-by-768 resolution, but dropped to a less than playable 18 fps when resolution was dialed up to 1,920-by-1,080. When tested with Heaven, however, it scored 70 fps at medium settings and a nearly playable 28 fps at 1080p. While you won't be able to go all out with the detail settings on high-end games, you will still see excellent performance on even the most demanding games, provided you back off on the eye-candy a bit.
The Asus G75VW-DH72 also did well in battery tests, lasting 3 hours and two minutes in our battery rundown test. While not even long enough to make it through a screening of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, it's still pretty decent performance for a gaming laptop. Few laptops pass the three hour mark, with one of the few exceptions being the portability minded Razer Blade, which still only lasted 3 hours 53 minutes when tested with MobileMark 2006, our previous battery test.
As a decently priced mid-range gaming laptop, the Asus G75VW-DH72 offers great performance at an affordable price, letting you enjoy top of the line games (albeit with middle of the road graphics performance) for far less than a tricked out high-end system. It's an affordable option to the Alienware M17X R4, and as such, replaces it for our Editors' Choice mid-range gaming laptop.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE Compare the Asus G75VW-DH72 with several other laptops side by side.
More laptop reviews: ??? Asus G75VW-DH72 ??? Toshiba Satellite U845W-S430 ??? Panasonic Toughbook CF-53 ??? Lenovo ThinkPad Twist (3347-4HU) ??? Acer Iconia W700-6465 ?? more
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#1 ? Daft Cunt?
Group:Normal Members
Posts:75
Joined:28-May 07
Posted Today, 11:17 AM
Any chance of seeing such a functionality implemented in the sample editor ? I tried It-alien's Morpher tool but it won't work with single-cycle waveforms for instance. Anybody else interested in this ?
0
#2 ? Gooze?
Group:Normal Members
Posts:146
Joined:21-September 09
Gender:Male
Location:Bangkok
Posted Today, 01:42 PM
I'd love to mix different samples beyond just layering two sounds. But how does the sample morphing work? Is it a spectral analysis the gives a timbral mix like vocoding, an envelope analysis that matches attack and sustain from one sample to another or a signal convolution?
BUFFALO, N.Y. --?Samantha Grossman wasn't always thrilled with the impression that emerged when people Googled her name.
"It wasn't anything too horrible," she said. "I just have a common name. There would be pictures, college partying pictures, that weren't of me, things I wouldn't want associated with me."
So before she graduated from Syracuse University last spring, the school provided her with an online tool that allowed her to put her best Web foot forward. Now when people Google her, they go straight to a positive image ? professional photo, cum laude degree and credentials ? that she credits with helping her land a digital advertising job in New York.
"I wanted to make sure people would find the actual me and not these other people," she said.
Syracuse, Rochester, and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore are among the universities that offer such online tools to their students free of charge, realizing ill-considered Web profiles of drunken frat parties, prank videos and worse can doom graduates to a lifetime of unemployment ? even if the pages are somebody else's with the same name.
It's a growing trend based on studies showing that most employers Google prospective hires and nearly all of them won't bother to go past the first page of results. The online tools don't eliminate the embarrassing material, they just put the graduate's most flattering, professional profile front and center.
"These students have been comfortable with the intimate details of their lives on display since birth," said Lisa Severy, president-elect of the National Career Development Association and director of career services at the University of Colorado-Boulder, which does not offer the service.
"The first item on our 'five things to do before you graduate' list is 'clean up your online profile,'" she said. "We call it the grandma test ? if you don't want her to see it, you probably don't want an employer to, either."
Managing your online presence After initially supplying BrandYourself accounts to graduating seniors, Syracuse University this year struck a deal with the company ? begun by a trio of alumni ? to offer accounts to all of its undergraduate and graduate students and alumni at no additional charge. About 25,000 people have access to it so far.
"It's becoming more and more important for students to be aware of and able to manage their online presence, to be able to have strong, positive things come up on the Internet when someone seeks them out," said Mike Cahill, Syracuse's career services director.
Online reputation repair companies have been around for at least a couple of years, often charging hundreds or thousands of dollars a year to arrange for good results on search engine result pages. BrandYourself, which normally charges $10 a month for an account, launched two years ago as a less expensive, do-it-yourself alternative after co-founder Pete Kistler ran into a problem with his own name.
"He couldn't get an internship because he was getting mistaken for a drug dealer with the same name," said co-founder Patrick Ambron. "He couldn't even get calls back and found out that was the problem."
An April survey of 2,000 hiring managers from CareerBuilder found nearly two in five companies use social networking sites to research job candidates and 11 percent said they planned to start. A third of the hiring managers who said they research candidates reported finding something like a provocative photo or evidence of drinking or drug use that cost the candidate a job.
"We want our students and alumni actively involved in shaping their online presence," said Johns Hopkins Career Center Director Mark Presnell. Students are encouraged to promote positive, professional content that's easily found by employers, he said.
BrandYourself works by analyzing search terms in a user's online profile to determine, for example, that a LinkedIn account might rank 25th on Google searches of the user's name. The program then suggests ways to boost that ranking. The software also provides alerts when an unidentified result appears on a user's first page or if any links rise or fall significantly in rank.
A professional image Nati Katz, a public relations strategist, views his presence online as a kind of virtual storefront that he began carefully tending while in graduate school at Syracuse.
Google his name and up pops his LinkedIn page with a listing of the jobs he's held in digital media and the "500+ connections" badge of honor. His Facebook account is adorned with Katz smiling over an elegant Thanksgiving dinner table. There are a couple of professional profiles and his Tumblr link, one after another on the first page of results and all highlighting his professional experience.
Before his 2011 graduation, he took the university up on its offer of the BrandYourself account and said it gave him a leg up with potential employers and internship supervisors.
"Fortunately, I didn't have to deal with anything negative under my profile," said Katz, who used the reputation website BrandYourself.com while pursuing dual degrees in public relations and international affairs. "What I was trying to form was really a nice, clean, neat page, very professional."?
Since many of our Christian brothers and sisters are offline for the Christmas holiday, I thought this would be a good time for the pro-Obama Jews to caucus.
What do we want the next four years to be like? Do we want to spend the next four years under the jackboot of the neocons, even though we beat them in the last three presidential elections, starting with the 2008 Democratic primary?
If we don't want to spend the next four years under the jackboot of the neocons, then we have to stop the neocons from blocking the nomination of diplomacy advocate, war skeptic and decorated Vietnam combat veteran Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense.
I'm not saying that we're necessarily going to win this. But at least we can have a real fight. This is like the Warsaw Uprising: the odds against us may be daunting, but we'll never have a better venue to make our stand. If we have to go down on some hill for a democratic Israel, the two-state solution and real Iran diplomacy, we won't find a better hill to go down on than this one. We have allies right now that we may not have in the future.
Look who's on our side right now. Former military officials. Former diplomats, including five U.S. Ambassadors to Israel. J Street. Americans for Peace Now. Former Israeli consul general in New York Alon Pinkas. Israeli-born Nebraska Rabbi Aryeh Azriel. Former U.S. Senator and decorated Vietnam combat veteran Max Cleland. Jon Soltz, head of VoteVets. Paul Rieckoff, head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Jan Scruggs, president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Robert Bergdahl, father of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American POW in Taliban custody. Peter Beinart, author of The Crisis of Zionism. Foreign policy expert Steve Clemons.
More than fifteen thousand people have signed this petition at MoveOn, this petition at VoteVets, or this petition at the White House website.
With all these allies on our side, if we can't beat the neocons on the Hagel nomination, how are we going to beat the neocons on supporting real U.S. diplomatic engagement with Iran? With all these allies on our side, if we can't beat the neocons on the Hagel nomination, how are we going to beat the neocons on stopping Bibi from ringing East Jerusalem with settlements to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state?
As Rabbi Hillel said: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?"
Here's what you can do right now.
First: sign this petition at MoveOn, this petition at VoteVets, and this petition at the White House website. That will take you three minutes.
Second: call Washington on Wednesday -- or as soon as you can -- demanding that diplomacy advocate, war skeptic, and decorated Vietnam combat veteran Chuck Hagel be the next Secretary of Defense.
You think if fifteen thousand people call Washington, demanding that Chuck Hagel be the next Secretary of Defense, Washington's not going to notice?
You can call the White House here: (202) 456-1111. Here's your script: "President Obama, we have your back. I support your choice of Senator Chuck Hagel to serve as the next Secretary of Defense. I will urge my Senators to support his confirmation." You can report your call to the White House to MoveOn here.
You can find the phone numbers for your two U.S. Senators here. Here's your script: "I support President Obama's choice of Chuck Hagel to serve as our next Secretary of Defense. I urge you to speak out on Senator Hagel's behalf and to support his confirmation as our next Secretary of Defense." You can report your phone calls to your Senators to MoveOn here.
A miracle can happen here. Let's not let this go down without a real fight.
?
Follow Robert Naiman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/naiman
Searching for a job is a full time job in itself. It involves a lot of patience, research and relentless efforts. With the Internet becoming a mainstay in our lives, Online Job Search has become the norm today. Online Job Search has largely given way to the traditional means of job search like ? responding to newspaper ads, through recruitment consultancies, etc. There are many reasons that can be attributed to this gradual shift, some of the relevant ones are enumerated below:-
The Many Advantages Of Online Job Search
Speed And Convenience - Online Job Search is a speedier way to find suitable vacancies and applying for jobs is also easier. Rather than going through the recruitment advertisements in different newspapers, you can find a lot about different jobs available with different companies on the Internet. Also in many cases, you can get instant alert services as soon as a new vacancy is posted on the online job portals.
Lesser Costs -All it requires for an Online Job Search is a PC and an Internet Connection at your home (or within reach). You only need to apply online for any jobs matching your experience and skills. There is no need to post resumes, cover letters & other documents to every random company offering a job. Yet another benefit of Online Job Search is that with advanced technology available, you can have a video conference with recruiters sitting in another country or some distant location. So, candidates do not have to spend anything on travelling and related expenses.
Accessibility - When you post a resume online via job portals & other such tools, more number of employers are able to view it. Since a lot of companies have a presence online, the scope for getting into a company of your choice increases, every time a recruiter checks your resume.
With more & more people becoming tech-savvy, Online Job Search is a simpler and more effective way of getting a good job in today?s world.
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Filed under: Career Planning, Job Search Tips Tagged: | Career Tips, Online Job Search
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http://www/naturalhealthcommunity.org/davidchurch/ David Church is the president and founder of the Smart for Love relationship enhancement program. David created Smart for Love because he wanted to help couples experience greater happiness and success in their love relationships.
When you finally commit to renovating your outdated bathroom, you might be feeling a mixture of emotions. You are excited to see the finished design, but you are worried about how long the project will take and what factors may cause delays during the process. While everyone hopes that their renovation projects go as smoothly as possible, it is very important to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The best way to prepare is to know what mistakes you should specifically avoid making. Here are three ?do not?s? for bathroom renovation that you should keep in the front of your mind when you are planning and completing the project.
The Asus G75VW-DH72 is outfitted with a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-3630QM processor with 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M with 3GB of dedicated VRAM. The combination is potent?in Cinebench R11.5, the processor scored 6.44 points, outperforming both the Alienware M17x R4 (6.19 points) and the MSI GT70 0NE-276US (6.23 points), but falling behind both the Razer Blade (6.86) and the Eurocom Scorpius (7.29). The Asus G75VW-DH72 also made short work of our multimedia tests, completing our Handbrake video encoding test in 36 seconds, and Photoshop CS6 in 3 minutes 32 seconds.
? 