Gingrich sketches Day 1 agenda for his presidency (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? To hear Newt Gingrich tell it, the dramatic conservative change he promises will begin even before he is sworn in as president in 2013.

"My goal would be by the end of that first day, about the time that President Obama arrives back in Chicago, that we will have dismantled about 40 percent of his government," he tells audiences.

Obama's health care bill? Repealed.

Legislation that toughened regulations on Wall Street after the economic collapse of 2008? History.

White House czars? Gone.

All this, and more, he pledges to get done before his head hits the presidential pillow for the first time.

It's characteristic Gingrich ? bold and rich with details that lend credibility and evoke applause from supporters, yet sometimes based on assumptions that strain the imagination. It's all designed to make the case to Republican primary voters that he, not GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney, is capable of envisioning and then ushering in a new conservative age.

"We need someone who is going to fight back and doesn't back down," said Harry Berntsen, a Gingrich supporter, after listening to the former House speaker on Sunday at a sun-splashed rally at The Villages, a mammoth central Florida retirement community.

"I love the conservatism in him," added Sheary Berntsen, who, like her husband, wore a small sticker showing her support for Gingrich.

As he has done elsewhere, Gingrich outlined his Day One scenario on Monday for a small audience in Jacksonville, Fla., as he embarked on a final, full day of campaigning on the eve of Florida's Republican presidential primary.

The polls make Romney a heavy favorite in the state, dampening Gingrich's hope that his upset victory in South Carolina on Jan. 21 portended a steady rise. Already, Gingrich is pointing toward caucuses in Nevada and Minnesota in early February, followed by a showdown in Arizona at the end of February and Texas in the spring.

The closest approximation that Romney has to Gingrich's opening-day narrative is a pledge to sign an executive order allowing the states to opt out of the health care law. Instead, he stresses his credentials as a businessman while campaigning as the man who knows best how to create jobs.

Yet he and a third contender, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum cast a suspicious eye on the political feats promised by Gingrich, who campaigns as the heir to the late President Ronald Reagan and who led Republicans to a House majority in 1994 for the first time in 40 years.

"Grandiosity has never been a problem with Newt Gingrich," Santorum said in a recent debate.

In television ads, Romney reminds voters of the ignominious end to Gingrich's tumultuous four-year speakership, after the House said he had violated ethics rules and he later lost the support among Republican lawmakers that was necessary to remain in power.

For boldness, Gingrich's Day One scenario trumps the Contract With America, the campaign manifesto that propelled Republicans to control over the House in 1994.

Then, Gingrich merely promised to hold votes on a 10-item conservative to-do list within the first 100 days of his speakership, without guaranteeing that any of the measures would clear Congress.

Like then, Gingrich talks of Republicans campaigning as a team, this time winning the White House as well as a majority in Congress. There was no presidential election in 1994.

The new Congress will convene on Jan. 3, 2013, he notes, while the presidential term begins at noon on Jan. 20.

"I will ask Congress to stay in session" in the meantime, he says, so that legislation is ready for his signature on Inauguration Day that repeals the health care bill that stands as Obama's top domestic accomplishment, wipes out the so-called "Dodd-Frank" legislation that imposed new regulations on Wall Street and scraps a 2002 measure that toughened accounting rules.

Gingrich doesn't say so, but more than Republican majorities would be needed to accomplish this. Senate Democrats would surely filibuster to block the measures, raising questions about the fate of the repeal efforts.

Suggesting he has the day timed to the minute, Gingrich adds that "about two hours after the inaugural address" he will sign an executive order that eliminates all the czars Obama appointed.

Often, he promises to issue between 100 and 200 executive orders before the day ends, a large number that conveys big plans, but few specifics. Approving the construction of a pipeline between Canada and Texas is one, and in Tampa during the day, he said he would "repeal every Obama attack on religion."

In an aside meant to appeal to tea party sticklers for openness in government, the orders are to be posted online well in advance of the November election "so everyone in America will know what is coming."

In a gesture to participatory democracy, Gingrich invites suggestions on what orders can be issued.

With polls showing Republicans most want a candidate who can defeat Obama, Gingrich splices in a few barbs at the president, and some at Romney.

"With all due respect to Gov. Romney, there is an enormous difference of both how to move the nation and how to actually get things done in Washington," Gingrich said at The Villages. "This is a very hard complicated business. We've had three years of an amateur and we've understood it doesn't work very well.'

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich_s_first_day

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A Year After Egypt's Uprising: One Revolution, Two Perspectives (Time.com)

Twelve months after a popular uprising erupted in Egypt, captivating the world and dislodging its authoritarian President, many in the country question whether the country is on the right path and whether the revolution has delivered on its promise. The unity of last year's revolution has given way to new realities and widening differences among Egyptians.

On the one-year anniversary marking the start of the revolution, I spent the day in Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of Egypt's struggle for change, asking people what Jan. 25 means to them. Their answers can be categorized into two groups: the anniversary was either about celebrating the revolution or trying to reinvigorate it." (PHOTOS: Police and Protesters Clash in Cairo)

The invigorators argue the revolution has not lived up to its potential. They say this Jan. 25 was all about renewing calls for sustained protests against the military to hand over power to a civilian government immediately. Last year, the people had coalesced around this once-central demand: the fall of the regime embodied by the departure of the President Hosni Mubarak. The word "regime" was commonly used but perhaps less understood than it is now. A year later, those critics contend the regime is still very much in place and that the biggest mistake was entrusting the military with the keys to the revolution after it assumed power.

History has yet to write its final chapter on what role the military played in easing Mubarak's departure. But anecdotal evidence, key decisions throughout the year and recent statements by the military, as embodied in the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), suggest it has embraced its newfound role as the country's paramount power over the past year. In a posting on its Facebook page on the eve of the Jan. 25 anniversary, the ruling military council wrote that the "military protected the revolution, stood with its objectives, embraced its demands and promises to fulfill it." The military is operating from a position of strength, observers say.

Political analysts say the military has managed to outmaneuver other forces in the country (Islamists, revolutionary youth, liberals, business elite and even foreign governments) by creating conditions on the ground whereby everybody discreetly feels the military should play a role in safeguarding the political process despite calls for its complete marginalization from political life. (WATCH: Why They Protest: Egypt, Libya and Syria)

Anti-military activists say more than 12,000 civilians have been detained by military tribunals in the past year -- more than the Mubarak era that lasted over 30 years. One year after the President's fall, not a single senior officer in any Egyptian security force has been convicted in the killing of protesters in the 18-day uprising. The trial of the former President was slow to start after the revolution. Since he left office, Mubarak has not spent time in prison, instead remaining under 24-hour medical watch at advanced medical facilities. Lawyers from his defense have been allowed to call hundreds of witnesses, a process that could delay his trial indefinitely. And while Mubarak is granted all of the protections of due process, civilians facing much lesser charges are being tried rapidly in military tribunals. Lawyers, victims and revolutionary groups have questioned the intent of the SCAF or government prosecutors to deliver true justice. Fueling their suspicion is the fact that the entire ruling military council and the country's General Prosecutor are among the handful of officials appointed by Mubarak who have remained in power.

But there are signs of hope that the country is changing for the better. Many Islamist politicians and sizable part of the middle class in Egypt say while the pace of reform has been slow, certain gains have been made that are irreversible. Change is tangible. Those celebrating the revolution look at the gains achieved in the past year with optimism that the country is moving in the right direction.

A new parliament is being established. And people are enjoying newfound freedoms of speech, of the media and of the right to protest. There has been an explosion of political parties across the entire political spectrum, from socialists to ultra-conservative Islamists. But above all, the relationship between the state and the citizens has changed. "A psychological barrier of fear has been broken," says Wael Ghonim, the young Google executive who rose from obscure activist to the global face of the Egyptian revolution after he and friends started a Facebook page that helped mobilize street protests. There is no going back to the ways of past oppression, he and others say. (MORE: Egyptians Mark Their Revolution's Anniversary with Mixed Feelings)

But among the democratic realities that have emerged in post-revolutionary Egypt is the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultra-conservative Salafist movement in mainstream politics. These two parties overwhelmingly won the majority of seats in parliament. Will their mandate from the people be seen as a direct order to challenge the military? Some argue the Islamists are content with the democratic process undertaken by the military because it has paved their way to power. Some Egyptians fear the Brotherhood and the military have cut backroom deals. One popular theory is that the military will move the democratic process at a pace and under conditions favorable to Islamist parties at the expense of the lesser and weaker secular and liberal forces and that, in return, the Islamists will not mobilize their massive street support against the military or hold it accountable for past misdoings.

So whether Egyptians are celebrating or hoping to reinvigorate the revolution, one thing is certain: a year later, the success of that revolution still remains very much in question.

Mohyeldin is a foreign correspondent for NBC News based in Cairo.

MORE: How the Islamist Group Became a Force in Egypt's Power Equation

LIST: Top 10 Pictures of the Year of 2011

View this article on Time.com

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20120129/wl_time/08599210562100

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Solar storm forces Delta, United to divert flights

Solar storm: Delta Air Lines and United Airlines diverted flights over the poles to prevent loss of communications. This is the biggest solar storm in six years, says NASA.

Delta Air Lines was diverting some flights on polar routes between Detroit and Asia to avoid disruptions to aircraft communications by a strong solar radiation storm, the airline said on Tuesday.

Skip to next paragraph

The storm, considered the strongest since 2005, has caused minor disruptions for U.S. airlines, and Delta said it altered routes for "a handful" of flights, and that the changes were adding about 15 minutes to travel times.

"We are undergoing a series of solar bursts in the sky that are impacting the northern side of the world," Delta spokesman Anthony Black said.

IN PICTURES: Northern lights from solar flares

"It can impact your ability to communicate," he said. "So, basically, the polar routes are being flown further south than normal."

United Airlines spokesman Mike Trevino said the carrier diverted one flight on Monday because of the storm, but none on Tuesday.

American Airlines reported no operational impact due to solar flares but that it is monitoring the atmosphere, spokesman Ed Martelle said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a press release on Monday that it had issued a watch on Sunday for "a geomagnetic storm associated with a bright flare on the sun."

NOAA said it was the strongest solar radiation storm in more than six years? - and it was forecast to hit Earth's magnetic field on Tuesday, and it could affect airline routes, power grids and satellites, the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center said. A coronal mass ejection - a big chunk of the Sun's atmosphere - was hurled toward Earth on Sunday, driving energized solar particles at about 5 million miles an hour (2,000 km per second), about five times faster than solar part

( Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Eric Walsh)

IN PICTURES: Northern lights from solar flares

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/SUHb38yw_qc/Solar-storm-forces-Delta-United-to-divert-flights

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Officials say Sudan oil crisis threatens peace (AP)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia ? South Sudan and Sudan could face a "major humanitarian crisis" if they fail to solve a running oil dispute, a top U.S. envoy said Sunday as African heads of state converged on Ethiopia's capital for an African Union summit.

South Sudan recently shut down oil production after it accused Sudan of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil. Related negotiations have reached an impasse.

Both sides are acting out of desperation, taking "dramatic actions" because they fail to see prospects to reach an agreement, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Princeton Lyman, told The Associated Press.

Unless the two sides reach an agreement, he said, both will "suffer and suffer in not too long a period."

Lyman said the oil crisis had pushed humanitarian issues off to the side.

"It's clear that the situation is declining very rapidly," he said. "Without access for the international community we see what could emerge as a major humanitarian crisis for the continent, and a preventable crisis that the African Union has to address."

The Sudan crisis and war and hunger in Somalia are expected to dominate this year's A.U. summit, though the gathering's official theme is trade.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the oil dispute threatens peace and security in the region. He called on African leaders to "play a more important role solving regional issues."

South Sudan fought a decades-long civil war with northern neighbor Sudan, a war that culminated in a 2005 peace deal that saw the partitioning of Sudan and the birth of South Sudan last July. The new border between the two countries remains tense, with sporadic cross-border attacks taking place.

In a separate incident, China said Sunday that militants loyal to South Sudan captured 29 Chinese workers in a volatile border region of Sudan.

Oil negotiations between the two neighbors have been in a deadlock for two years. They have never agreed on the transit fees South Sudan should pay to Sudan for using its infrastructure of port and pipelines.

Ban said he discussed the issue with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki. He urged Kiir to meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to resolve their problems.

"I am urging two leaders to demonstrate political will," he said.

Lyman said fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile has ended most communications between the two and increased distrust.

Lyman and Ban expressed concerns about a humanitarian crisis along Sudan's volatile border with the south, and said the Khartoum government was not cooperating with U.N. missions.

"I am deeply concerned about South Kordofan and Blue Nile State," Ban said. "Very worrisome because of the accessibility. There is no access for humanitarian workers."

The U.N. has also expressed humanitarian concerns in South Sudan, where more than 120,000 people need aid because of a wave of ethnic clashes in a remote and volatile region.

The two nations have been meeting in Ethiopia for oil talks. Haile Menkerios, a special U.N. representative to Sudan, said Sunday there has been no recent progress.

Also on Sunday, South Sudan's minister of petroleum and mining said the nation will not restart oil production unless Sudan accepts a list of demands.

Stephen Dhieu Dau said South Sudan was "committed to negotiations" but that Khartoum would have to accept their offer of paying $1 per barrel for using Sudan's pipelines for export and $2.4 billion dollar financial assistance package before South Sudan turns on production again.

He also said Sudan must withdraw troops from the disputed border region of Abyei and stop funding rebel groups in South Sudan. He said South Sudan wants an international treaty guaranteed by "international superpowers."

___

Michael Onyiego contributed to this report from Juba, South Sudan.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_af/af_african_union

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Quotes from Ron Paul???s Newsletters (ContributorNetwork)

The Florida primary is Tuesday, yet Rep. Ron Paul is campaigning in states like Maine and Nevada, both of which have caucuses. The Washington Post reported Paul's racially charged newsletters published in the 1990s might make it hard for him to win the overall GOP nomination. The New Republic released many of the newsletters for readers to view on their own.

Here are quotes from some issues of the "Ron Paul Survival Report" over the years when he was away from his time in Congress.

* "The rioting was led by red-flag carrying members of the Revolutionary Communist Party and the Workers World Party, both Trotskyite-Maoist. The police were allowed to intervene only when the rioters assaulted the famous Fairmont and Mark Hopkins hotels atop Nob Hill." -- A newsletter surrounding the race riots in California in June 1992. Paul asserted a friend of his, a business owner in San Francisco, claimed the riots were stoked by Communists as opposed to anger at the verdicts of the case.

* "AIDS was 'originally known as GRIDS -- gay related immune deficiency syndrome.' For political reasons it was changed to AIDS. ... The average homosexual has 1,000 or more partners in a lifetime, and the average homosexual has only one sexual encounter per partner and never sees the person again after that encounter." -- Paul's newsletter dated December 1989. The newsletter was defending Rep. Bill Dannemeyer, R-Calif., for speaking out against gays. The quotes in this particular newsletter came from Dannemeyer.

* "(Martin Luther) King, the FBI files show, was not only a world-class adulterer, he also seduced underage girls and boys. The Rev. Ralph David Abernathy revealed before his death that King had made a pass at him many years before. And we are supposed to honor this 'Christian minister' and lying socialist satyr with a holiday that puts him on par with George Washington?" -- Paul's newsletter dated December 1990. The publication railed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, then praised the state of Arizona for not observing the holiday at the time.

* "Am I glad I voted in Congress against an expensive federal holiday for this man." -- Another newsletter dated February 1991 denouncing on the King holiday. There are dozens of newsletters quoted by The New Republic. The newsletters went under various names such as "Political Report" or "Freedom Report." One even went by the moniker "The Ron Paul Investment Letter."

William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120128/pl_ac/10896159_quotes_from_ron_pauls_newsletters

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Gingrich says space exploration in US tradition (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Making memories last

Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gina Kirchweger
gxk@stowers.org
816-806-1036
Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Stowers researchers discovered that a prion-like protein plays a key role in storing long-term memories

KANSAS CITY, MO Memories in our brains are maintained by connections between neurons called "synapses". But how do these synapses stay strong and keep memories alive for decades? Neuroscientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have discovered a major clue from a study in fruit flies: Hardy, self-copying clusters or oligomers of a synapse protein are an essential ingredient for the formation of long-term memory.

The finding supports a surprising new theory about memory, and may have a profound impact on explaining other oligomer-linked functions and diseases in the brain, including Alzheimer's disease and prion diseases.

"Self-sustaining populations of oligomers located at synapses may be the key to the long-term synaptic changes that underlie memory; in fact, our finding hints that oligomers play a wider role in the brain than has been thought," says Kausik Si, Ph.D., an associate investigator at the Stowers Institute, and senior author of the new study, which is published in the January 27, 2012 online issue of the journal Cell.

Si's investigations in this area began nearly a decade ago during his doctoral research in the Columbia University laboratory of Nobel-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel. He found that in the sea slug Aplysia californica, which has long been favored by neuroscientists for memory experiments because of its large, easily-studied neurons, a synapse-maintenance protein known as CPEB (Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation Element Binding protein) has an unexpected property.

A portion of the structure is self-complementary andmuch like empty egg cartonscan easily stack up with other copies of itself. CPEB thus exists in neurons partly in the form of oligomers, which increase in number when neuronal synapses strengthen. These oligomers have a hardy resistance to ordinary solvents, and within neurons may be much more stable than single-copy "monomers" of CPEB. They also seem to actively sustain their population by serving as templates for the formation of new oligomers from free monomers in the vicinity.

CPEB-like proteins exist in all animals, and in brain cells they play a key role in maintaining the production of other synapse-strengthening proteins. Studies by Si and others in the past few years have hinted that CPEB's tendency to oligomerize is not merely incidental, but is indeed essential to its ability to stabilize longer-term memory. "What we've lacked till now are experiments showing this conclusively," Si says.

In the new study, Si and his colleagues examined a Drosophila fruit fly CPEB protein known as Orb2. Like its counterpart in Aplysia, it forms oligomers within neurons. "We found that these Orb2 oligomers become more numerous in neurons whose synapses are stimulated, and that this increase in oligomers happens near synapses," says lead author Amitabha Majumdar, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in Si's lab.

The key was to show that the disruption of Orb2 oligomerization on its own impairs Orb2's function in stabilizing memory. Majumdar was able to do this by generating an Orb2 mutant that lacks the normal ability to oligomerize yet maintains a near-normal concentration in neurons. Fruit flies carrying this mutant form of Orb2 lost their ability to form long-term memories. "For the first 24 hours after a memory-forming stimulus, the memory was there, but by 48 hours it was gone, whereas in flies with normal Orb2 the memory persisted," Majumdar says.

Si and his team are now following up with experiments to determine for how long Orb2 oligomers are needed to keep a memory alive. "We suspect that they need to be continuously present, because they are self-sustaining in a way that Orb2 monomers are not," says Si.

The team's research also suggests some intriguing possibilities for other areas of neuroscience. This study revealed that Orb2 proteins in the Drosophila nervous system come in a rare, highly oligomerization-prone form (Orb2A) and a much more common, much less oligomerization-prone form (Orb2B). "The rare form seems to be the one that is regulated, and it seems to act like a seed for the initial oligomerization, which pulls in copies of the more abundant form," Si says. "This may turn out to be a basic pattern for functional oligomers."

The findings may help scientists understand disease-causing oligomers too. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease, as well as prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, all involve the spread in the brain of apparently toxic oligomers of various proteins. One such protein, strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease, is amyloid beta; like Orb2 it comes in two forms, the highly oligomerizing amyloid-beta-42 and the relatively inert amyloid-beta-40. Si's work hints at the possibility that oligomer-linked diseases are relatively common in the brain because the brain evolved to be relatively hospitable to CPEB proteins and other functional oligomers, and thus has fewer mechanisms for keeping rogue oligomers under control.

###

Other researchers who contributed to the work include Wanda Coln Cesario, Erica White-Grindely, Huoqin Jian, Fangzhen Ren, Mohammed 'Repon' Khan, Liying Li, Edward Man-Lik Choi, Kasthuri Kannan, Feng Li, Jay Unruh and Brian Slaughter at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri.

The research was supported by the Searle Foundation, the March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Starter Award, the Klingenstein Foundation and the McKnight Foundation.

About the Stowers Institute for Medical Research

The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is a non-profit, basic biomedical research organization dedicated to improving human health by studying the fundamental processes of life. Jim Stowers, founder of American Century Investments, and his wife Virginia opened the Institute in 2000. Since then, the Institute has spent over 800 million dollars in pursuit of its mission. Currently the Institute is home to over 500 researchers and support personnel; over 20 independent research programs; and more than a dozen technology development and core facilities. Learn more about the Institute at http://www.stowers.org.

---

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

Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Gina Kirchweger
gxk@stowers.org
816-806-1036
Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Stowers researchers discovered that a prion-like protein plays a key role in storing long-term memories

KANSAS CITY, MO Memories in our brains are maintained by connections between neurons called "synapses". But how do these synapses stay strong and keep memories alive for decades? Neuroscientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have discovered a major clue from a study in fruit flies: Hardy, self-copying clusters or oligomers of a synapse protein are an essential ingredient for the formation of long-term memory.

The finding supports a surprising new theory about memory, and may have a profound impact on explaining other oligomer-linked functions and diseases in the brain, including Alzheimer's disease and prion diseases.

"Self-sustaining populations of oligomers located at synapses may be the key to the long-term synaptic changes that underlie memory; in fact, our finding hints that oligomers play a wider role in the brain than has been thought," says Kausik Si, Ph.D., an associate investigator at the Stowers Institute, and senior author of the new study, which is published in the January 27, 2012 online issue of the journal Cell.

Si's investigations in this area began nearly a decade ago during his doctoral research in the Columbia University laboratory of Nobel-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel. He found that in the sea slug Aplysia californica, which has long been favored by neuroscientists for memory experiments because of its large, easily-studied neurons, a synapse-maintenance protein known as CPEB (Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation Element Binding protein) has an unexpected property.

A portion of the structure is self-complementary andmuch like empty egg cartonscan easily stack up with other copies of itself. CPEB thus exists in neurons partly in the form of oligomers, which increase in number when neuronal synapses strengthen. These oligomers have a hardy resistance to ordinary solvents, and within neurons may be much more stable than single-copy "monomers" of CPEB. They also seem to actively sustain their population by serving as templates for the formation of new oligomers from free monomers in the vicinity.

CPEB-like proteins exist in all animals, and in brain cells they play a key role in maintaining the production of other synapse-strengthening proteins. Studies by Si and others in the past few years have hinted that CPEB's tendency to oligomerize is not merely incidental, but is indeed essential to its ability to stabilize longer-term memory. "What we've lacked till now are experiments showing this conclusively," Si says.

In the new study, Si and his colleagues examined a Drosophila fruit fly CPEB protein known as Orb2. Like its counterpart in Aplysia, it forms oligomers within neurons. "We found that these Orb2 oligomers become more numerous in neurons whose synapses are stimulated, and that this increase in oligomers happens near synapses," says lead author Amitabha Majumdar, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in Si's lab.

The key was to show that the disruption of Orb2 oligomerization on its own impairs Orb2's function in stabilizing memory. Majumdar was able to do this by generating an Orb2 mutant that lacks the normal ability to oligomerize yet maintains a near-normal concentration in neurons. Fruit flies carrying this mutant form of Orb2 lost their ability to form long-term memories. "For the first 24 hours after a memory-forming stimulus, the memory was there, but by 48 hours it was gone, whereas in flies with normal Orb2 the memory persisted," Majumdar says.

Si and his team are now following up with experiments to determine for how long Orb2 oligomers are needed to keep a memory alive. "We suspect that they need to be continuously present, because they are self-sustaining in a way that Orb2 monomers are not," says Si.

The team's research also suggests some intriguing possibilities for other areas of neuroscience. This study revealed that Orb2 proteins in the Drosophila nervous system come in a rare, highly oligomerization-prone form (Orb2A) and a much more common, much less oligomerization-prone form (Orb2B). "The rare form seems to be the one that is regulated, and it seems to act like a seed for the initial oligomerization, which pulls in copies of the more abundant form," Si says. "This may turn out to be a basic pattern for functional oligomers."

The findings may help scientists understand disease-causing oligomers too. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease, as well as prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, all involve the spread in the brain of apparently toxic oligomers of various proteins. One such protein, strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease, is amyloid beta; like Orb2 it comes in two forms, the highly oligomerizing amyloid-beta-42 and the relatively inert amyloid-beta-40. Si's work hints at the possibility that oligomer-linked diseases are relatively common in the brain because the brain evolved to be relatively hospitable to CPEB proteins and other functional oligomers, and thus has fewer mechanisms for keeping rogue oligomers under control.

###

Other researchers who contributed to the work include Wanda Coln Cesario, Erica White-Grindely, Huoqin Jian, Fangzhen Ren, Mohammed 'Repon' Khan, Liying Li, Edward Man-Lik Choi, Kasthuri Kannan, Feng Li, Jay Unruh and Brian Slaughter at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri.

The research was supported by the Searle Foundation, the March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Starter Award, the Klingenstein Foundation and the McKnight Foundation.

About the Stowers Institute for Medical Research

The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is a non-profit, basic biomedical research organization dedicated to improving human health by studying the fundamental processes of life. Jim Stowers, founder of American Century Investments, and his wife Virginia opened the Institute in 2000. Since then, the Institute has spent over 800 million dollars in pursuit of its mission. Currently the Institute is home to over 500 researchers and support personnel; over 20 independent research programs; and more than a dozen technology development and core facilities. Learn more about the Institute at http://www.stowers.org.

---

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/sifm-mml012712.php

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Report: Apple mulling second Israeli facility after Anobit purchase

It looks like Apple's acquisition of Anobit was only one part of its Israel-based plans -- business daily Calcalist is claiming that the company will open a research center there by the end of February. It's unrelated to the purchase of the flash-chip maker, since Ed Frank was apparently despatched to scope out suitable bases for a new facility in early 2011. It's reportedly going to be based in the Matam Technology District, south of Haifa, adjacent to similar facilities operated by Microsoft, Intel and Philips. It's already received hundreds of resumes for engineers: it's looking for those with specific know-how in chip development, hardware testing and verification. The new complex is to be kept separate from Anobit, with no communication allowed between the two teams. Another tidbit that emerged from yesterday's conference call was that Bob Mansfield is integrating Anobit's team into Apple's, but company founder Ehud Weinstein will depart for pastures new -- much in the same way that some of Intrinsity and PA Semi's staff departed after being swallowed by Cupertino's cash.

Report: Apple mulling second Israeli facility after Anobit purchase originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/25/report-second-apple-israeli-facility-planned/

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Keith Urban's voice in good shape after surgery (omg!)

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - Country singer Keith Urban says that during the three weeks he was ordered not to speak late last year after vocal surgery, he learned a few valuable lessons about communication including this: sometimes people talk too much.

"I was amazed at how much noise there is on television and in conversations," Urban told Reuters on Wednesday. "It's rubbish. We could strip away so much ... be more succinct ... and still make our point.

"I realized I'm as guilty as anybody. I learned that when you have to write stuff down you get real particular as to how and what you want to say."

The singer underwent surgery in November to remove polyps from a vocal chord, causing his doctor put him on vocal rest for three weeks and bar him from singing until February.

Urban, who has nothched a No. 1 single "Long Hot Summer" with co-writer Richard Marx, said that while he was unable to talk, his other senses improved, especially hearing.

He thought ahead, too, and prepared for how he would communicate with his three-year-old daughter, Sunday Rose. He recorded several of her favorite books onto a tape, and after his surgery, he would take the recorder to her room at night, press play and turn the pages of the book so he could "read."

Sunday Rose would let the tape play for a little while and then she'd hit the stop button. She would look at her dad and say, "I want you to read it," Urban said.

His wife, actress Nicole Kidman, would have to explain to Sunday Rose why daddy couldn't actually read to her.

Urban, whose hits include "You Look Good in My Shirt" "Making Memories of Us" and "Somebody Like You," is fully recovered from his surgery and plans to return to the stage on February 4, when he performs at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. He is also planning a huge benefit for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville on April 10.

(Reporting By Vernell Hackett, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_keith_urbans_voice_good_shape_surgery040557989/44309336/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/keith-urbans-voice-good-shape-surgery-040557989.html

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RIM shares bounce back after shuffle-related drop (Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) ? Shares of Research In Motion rose 8.6 percent on Wednesday, rebounding after two days of declines on disappointment over the choice of an company insider as the BlackBerry maker's new chief executive.

The jump followed a 8 percent swoon on Monday and a 3.5 percent drop on Tuesday. Over the weekend, RIM replaced co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie with Thorsten Heins, a four-year veteran of the struggling company.

RIM's rise also came a day after Apple posted blockbuster quarterly results highlighting the strong global market for smartphones.

A report in a technology blog that said RIM's next-generation BlackBerry 10 smartphones were on track for a September launch may have also given a lift to the stock, said Todd Coupland from CIBC Capital Markets.

"The market might have been reacting to some blog reports that the first BB 10 products may be coming sooner than expected," he said.

Even so, Coupland was skeptical about the posting in the Boy Genius Report, which did not specify a source.

In December, RIM delayed the phones using the same software in its PlayBook tablet until the latter part of 2012.

The blog earlier this month said RIM was in talks to sell itself to Samsung, triggering a 10 percent spike in the shares.

Samsung later denied any interest in acquiring RIM, and a source close to the BlackBerry maker said the two companies had never been in buyout talks.

RIM's Nasdaq-listed shares closed at $16.30 and its Toronto stock was at C$16.40. The stock has fallen 75 percent in the past year.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/tc_nm/us_rim

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Tim Cook: the tablet will be bigger than the PC one day

This probably shouldn't shock too many people but, Tim Cook believes the future isn't with the PC, but with the tablet. After shipping 15.4 million iPads in Q1 Cupertino is clearly comfortable with the idea that tablets are taking off and, as we begin to demand our devices become more mobile, it only makes sense that these finger-friendly slates will one day outsell less portable options like laptops and desktops. When might that day come? Well, Mr. Cook refused to speculate, but he was confident that the tablet market will be bigger, at least in terms of units sold, than traditional computers. Cook is already seeing a shift, with the iPad cannibalizing some Mac sales, but he does believe "there's more cannibalization of Windows PCs by the iPad," a trend he clearly loves. We hope, for their own sake, Dell and HP are ready for the coming revolution.

Tim Cook: the tablet will be bigger than the PC one day originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/wFSHe9UbRxE/

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