30-03-2013, 01:46 PM
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Getty ImagesCollin Klein, the Kansas State quarterback who was a star in a spread-option offense in college but whose abilities as a passer leave much to be desired in the eyes of NFL scouts, remains committed to playing quarterback at the next level. And he thinks NFL teams are starting to come around to the idea that he can do it.
Klein told the Topeka Capital-Journal that he believes he has impressed scouts at the Combine and at Kansas State?s Pro Day.
?I felt like I had two good days,? Klein said. ?I made progress and really improved, before the Combine first and then in the time between the Combine and Pro Day we made some strides, too. We?re moving in the right direction. It?s different not being in school, but it gives me a little extra time to focus and work on little things here and there. It?s a pretty all-inclusive process, but we?re enjoying it. I just love the game. We?re getting better and having fun with it.?
Klein said his workouts with former NFL quarterback Jake Plummer have helped get him ready to play the game at the next level.
?We did everything,? Klein said. ?We worked on footwork, core strength, flexibility with the shoulder . . . lots of different things. It was pretty all-inclusive and he taught me a lot. He gave great insight from him having been there [the NFL] and doing that for a very long time. I really appreciated his time and his effort working with me.?
Although Klein still believes he is going to get drafted, he acknowledged that it?s possible he?ll have to settle for being an undrafted free agent.
?I think we?ll definitely get a chance and it?s just being ready and making the most of it,? Klein said. ?We?ll see where the best fit is going to be. Teams are out there trying to figure out who?s the best fit for them, too. It will all settle out. If that doesn?t happen, we?ll try to get picked up as a free agent on some level. We?ll cross that bridge when we get there.?
So just a few months after the Heisman Trophy voters considered Klein the third-best player in college football, Klein is just hoping NFL teams consider him one of the 254 best players available in the draft.
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JANE WALSH,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Saturday, March 30, 2013, 10:58 AM
Updated Saturday, March 30, 2013, 10:58 AM
?
Leg of Lamb
Photo by Google Images
Here are some very special Easter recipes from the folks at Irishcultureandcustoms.com.
As they explain, in old Ireland, Easter Sunday was a day of great celebration, not the least of which was the blessed relief from the abstinence of meat for nearly two months.
Here, you can take your pick from lamb or ham. Following the main dish recipes is a perfect vegetable accompaniment to any spring-time dinner menu. And for "afters" - the Irish word for dessert? their resident Irish recipe collectors and contributors offer a delightful suggestion.
Garlic-ginger Roast Leg of Lamb
Preparation Time: 35 minutes
Roasting Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cooking Tip: The crust mixture can be made and spread on the lamb up to 1 day ahead. Cover loosely with foil and refrigerate.
Ingredients:
8-pound bone-in leg of lamb, trimmed of excess fat.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint (optional)
1/2 teaspoons each salt and pepper
2 teaspoons each minced garlic and fresh ginger
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup beef broth
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Method:
1. Heat oven to 450 degree F. Have ready a large roasting pan with a rack. Place lamb on rack.
2. Mix oil, mint, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add flour and stir until blended. Spread over top and sides of the lamb.
3. Roast 30 minutes, and then reduce temperature to 325 degrees F. and roast 45 to 60 minutes longer until done as desired. {Rare: 130 F. on a meat thermometer inserted in thickest part not touching fat or bone; 140 F for medium and 150 degrees F. for medium-well}.
4. Remove to a serving platter, cover loosely with foil to keep warm and let stand 15 minutes. {As meat rests, juices redistribute and internal temperatures should rise about 10 degrees}.
5. Meanwhile spoon off and discard fat from the roasting pan. Place pan over high heat, (see note below is using a disposable foil pan), add beef broth and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Boil 2 minutes to reduce liquid slightly. Pour into a sauceboat and stir in lemon juice and pepper, This will make 2/3 cup to drizzle over sliced lamb. Serves 12 with leftovers.
Note: If using a foil roasting pan, bring the broth to a boil in a saucepan, pour into foil pan (do not place on burner) and stir to scrape up brown bits on bottom. Pour broth back into saucepan and boil and season as directed above.
GLAZED HAM with HORSERADISH-MUSTARD SAUCE
Preparation Time: 22 minutes
Baking Time: 2 Hours
Cooking Tip: The sauce and the Glace can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated.
Ingredients:
7-pound shank or rump-end, fully cooked bone-in smoked ham.
GLAZE:
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
SAUCE:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons snipped chives or green part of scallions
1 teaspoon prepared white horseradish
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Method
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a shallow roasting pan rack with foil. Set a sturdy, flat metal rack in pan.
2. Cut rind off ham and trim off excess fat, if any. Place ham on rack, sut end down. Cover loosely with foil and bake 1 1/4 hours.
3. Meanwhile whisk Glaze ingredients in one small bowl and Sauce ingredients in another small bowl until blended.
4. Remove foil from ham and spread evenly with Glaze. Bake uncovered 40 to 45 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part {not touching the bone} registers 140 degrees F. Let ham rest 15 minutes before slicing. Serve with the Sauce.
Serves 12 with leftovers.
Glazed Asparagus & Carrots with Pecans
A lemon glaze tops a springtime combination of fresh asparagus and carrots.
Ingredients:
1 cup water
3 large (2 cups) carrots, sliced diagonally 1/4-inch
1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed
1/4 cup Butter
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons chopped pecans, toasted
Method
1. Place 1 cup water in 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Bring to a full boil; add carrots and asparagus. Cover; continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until carrots and asparagus are crisply tender (7 to 9 minutes). Drain. Set aside; keep warm.
2. Melt butter in same skillet. Stir together cornstarch, 3 tablespoons water and lemon juice in small bowl; stir into butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens (2 to 3 minutes). Stir in lemon peel.
To serve, spoon sauce over warm carrots and asparagus. Sprinkle with pecans. Yield: 6 servings
EASTER BASKET CAKE
Ingredients:
Cake:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 & cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Butter Icing:
1 cup softened butter
5 cups icing sugar alternately with 1/3 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
Fluffy Icing:
1 cup white corn syrup
2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Method:
1. Grease sides of three 9-inch round cake pans; line bottoms with parchment or waxed paper. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla extract.
3. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir into butter mixture alternately with the buttermilk, making 3 additions of flour mixture and 2 additions of buttermilk.
4. Divide among the three prepared cake pans, smoothing the tops. Bake in the center of the oven at 350 degrees F. (180 C) oven for 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in the pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
5. Run knife around edges and turn the cake out onto the rack and peel off the paper. Turn right side up, let cool on racks. While cakes are cooling, mix up the frostings.
Butter Icing
This easy all purpose icing covers the cake with delicious flavors. In a bowl, beat 1 cup softened butter till fluffy; then beat in 5 cups icing sugar alternately with 1/3 cup of milk; making 3 additions of sugar and 2 of milk. Then beat in 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract.
Fluffy Icing
This light-textured, not too sweet icing is ideal for matching feather-light angel food cake. It works well on cupcakes as well. Freeze any leftovers in an air-tight container for up to 2 weeks.
In a saucepan, bring corn syrup to boil over high heat. Meanwhile, in a bowl set over simmering water, beat egg whites with cream of tarter until frothy. Beat in corn syrup in a thin steady stream; beat for about 4 minutes or until stiff peaks form.? Remove from heat; beat in vanilla.
Cake Assembly
For the basket handle, we painted one we removed from an inexpensive Easter basket.
1. Spread Butter Icing over top of two cake layers.? Place 1 of the layers on a flat serving plate and stack remaining layers on top. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until icing is firm.
2. Remove 1 cup of Fluffy Icing, set aside.
3. Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake. While the icing is still soft, make a "basket weave" on the sides of the cake. Pull a skewer vertically from the bottom to the top at ?-inch intervals. Pull the skewer horizontally at ?-inch intervals from 1 line to the next, stopping at each line and lifting at end of the stroke.
4. Using a piping bag fitted with a ?-inch plain tip, pipe the reserved icing into beads around the top and bottom edges.
5. Decorate with cookies (if you wish) propping them up with small marshmallows. Or "fill the top of the basket" with assorted Easter candies. Makes 12 servings.
Variation: One year we made Easter "grass" with shredded coconut and placed it on top of the basket cake and then placed colored eggs on top of it.? Combine 3 drops of green food coloring with a teaspoons of water. Stir it into 1 1/2 cups of sweetened coconut flakes until evenly tinted, but you must use it immediately.
Read more: Gilligan's Gourmet: Traditional Easter treat Hot Crossed Buns
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By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) ? Although some parents worry about the sheer number of vaccines babies typically receive, a new U.S. government study finds no evidence that more vaccinations increase the risk of autism.
Looking at about 1,000 U.S. children with or without autism, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no connection between early childhood vaccinations and autism risk.
Children with autism and those without had the same total exposure to vaccine antigens ? the substances in vaccines that trigger the immune system to develop infection-fighting antibodies.
?This should give more reassurance to parents,? said lead researcher Dr. Frank DeStefano, director of the CDC?s Immunization Safety Office.
The findings, which appear online March 29 in the Journal of Pediatrics, cast further doubt on a link between vaccines and autism spectrum disorders ? a group of developmental brain disorders that impair a child?s ability to communicate and socialize.
The first worries came from a small British study in 1998 that proposed a connection between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. A spate of research since has found no link, and the original study was eventually retracted by the Lancet, the journal that published it.
Then came concerns about thimerosal, a preservative once used in certain childhood vaccines (but never MMR) that contains small amounts of ethyl mercury. Again, international studies failed to show a link to autism.
More recently, worries have shifted to the notion that children are getting ?too many vaccinations, too soon.? In the United States, children can be immunized against 14 different diseases by the time they are 2.
DeStefano said his team focused on antigen exposure, rather than just the number of vaccinations, because that gives a more precise idea of the ?immune system stimulation? kids received through vaccines.
A recent survey found that about one-third of parents thought children receive too many vaccinations in their first two years of life, and that the shots could contribute to autism.
But there?s no scientific evidence of that, said Dr. Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at the Children?s Hospital of Philadelphia.
He said it?s understandable that parents might worry. ?You see your baby receiving all these vaccines. It looks like too much. It feels like too much,? Offit said.
But, he said, there?s no biological basis for the idea that vaccines ?overstimulate? the immune system, and that somehow leads to autism.
Every day, babies? immune systems battle many more antigens than are present in vaccines, DeStefano explained. ?Most infants can handle exposure to many antigens,? he said.
The findings are based on 256 children with an autism spectrum disorder and 752 autism-free kids who were matched to them based on age, sex and health insurance plan.
The CDC team found that kids? total antigen exposure in the first two years of life was unrelated to their risk of developing an autism disorder.
That was also true when they considered babies? antigen exposure in the first three months of life, and the first seven months. Nor was there any connection between autism risk and the amount of vaccine antigens children received on any single day.
?This provides evidence that concerns about immune system overstimulation are unfounded,? DeStefano said.
Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said the study ?adds to the existing literature showing no connection between vaccines and autism in large epidemiological studies.?
She added, though, that further research is needed ?to explore whether, in rare cases, a genetic vulnerability might increase susceptibility to vaccine-related side effects, including the triggering of autism symptoms in a genetically and medically susceptible child.?
Both Offit and DeStefano stressed that there is no reason for parents to delay vaccinating their child.
?This is one more piece of evidence to help reassure parents,? Offit said.
More information
The American Academy of Pediatrics has information on vaccine safety.
Source: http://news.health.com/2013/03/29/another-study-sees-no-vaccine-autism-link-2/
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It was getting dark, and the sheriff of Nelson County, N.D., was in a standoff with a family of suspected cattle rustlers. They were armed, and the last thing anybody wanted was a shoot out.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which monitors police radio chatter, offered to help. Their Predator was flying back to its roost at the Grand Forks Air Force base and could provide aerial support. Did the sheriff want the assist?
Yep.
"We were able to detect that one of the sons was sitting at the end of the driveway with a gun. We also knew that there were small children involved," Sheriff Kelly Janke told NBC News, remembering that tricky encounter in the early summer of 2011. "Someone would have gotten seriously injured if we had gone in on the farm that night." He decided to wait.
The next day, the drone gave them an edge again by helping them choose the safest moment to make a move. "We were able to surprise them ? took them into custody," Janke said. They also collected six stolen cows.
Rodney Brossart, the arrested farmer, sued the state, in part because of the cop's use of a drone. But a district judge ruled that the Predator's service was not untoward.
When advocates express concern about government drones threatening people's privacy, the Brossart case is one they bring up. It's one of the first instances of a flying robot doing a cop's dirty work, and this kind of intervention is likely to be more and more commonplace, as the FAA fulfills a congressional mandate to increase its granting of drone permits ? certificates of authorization, or COAs.
Cops and flying robots
At the moment, there are only 327 active COAs, all held by these organizations, and all for unarmed crafts, of course. A tiny sliver of these permits are in the hands of law enforcement agencies, and from them, we're seeing the first glimpses of drone use in policing and emergency response.
"The FAA has approved us to cover a 16-county area," Sheriff Bob Rost of Grand Forks County, N.D., said of their COA. "To look for missing children, to look for escaped criminals and in the case of emergencies." In the spring, they will use two mini-copter drones ? a trusty DraganFlyer X6 and an AeroVironment Qube ? to check on flooded farms.
The police department in Arlington, Texas, also recently got FAA clearance to fly their drones after two years of testing. The two battery-powered Leptron Avenger helicopter drones won't be used for high-speed chases or routine patrol, the department explains. In fact, the crafts will be driven in a truck to where they're needed, and when they're launched to scope out incidents, local air traffic control will be informed.
In Mesa County, Colo., the police department has used drones to find missing people, do an aerial landfill survey and help out firefighters at a burning church. For them, it's seen as a cost-cutting technology.
"It's the Wal-Mart version of what we'd normally get at Saks Fifth Avenue," said Benjamin Miller, who leads the drones program in Mesa County, comparing drones to manned helicopters that would otherwise give police officers help from the sky.
In Seattle, the police department received an FAA permit ? but had to give back its drones when the mayor banned their use, following protests in October 2012.
Protests and red tape
"Hasn't anyone heard of George Orwell's '1984'?" the Seattle Times quoted a protester as saying. "This is the militarization of our streets and now the air above us."
Protesters, not just in Seattle, seek more legal definition of what a drone can or can't do, and debate whether or not current laws sufficiently protect citizens from unauthorized surveillance and other abuses.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks of police drones as an inevitability ? "We're going to have them," he recently said in a radio interview ? while those on the police (and drone) side say the fears are unfounded.
"This hysteria of [a drone] hovering outside your backyard taking a video of you smoking a joint, it's just that ? hysteria," said Al Frazier, an ex-cop from Los Angeles who is now an assistant professor of aeronautics at the University of North Dakota, and a deputy at the Grand Forks sheriff's office.
The reason the sky isn't lousy with drones already mostly has to do with red tape. The FAA's highly restricted drone application for government agencies is supposed to take about 60 days, though unofficially, we're told it's much longer. COAs are also very strict about where, when and by whom a drone is flown.
"I think there are many agencies who would like to use [drones] for public good, but they're stymied by the process," Frazier said.
That's likely to change ? and soon. Last February, Obama signed a mandate that encourages the FAA to let civil and commercial drones join the airspace by 2015. This will take new regulations from the FAA for safe commercial drone flight, and it may take some convincing of local anti-drone activists (who sometimes don't differentiate between drones great and small). It may even require the passing of a few new privacy laws.
Folks like Frazier and Miller don't see the permit process getting easier any time soon but eventually ? inevitably ? and for better or worse, your local police department will get its drone.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.
Related:
The drones are coming ... but our laws aren't ready
Anticipating domestic boom, colleges rev up drone piloting programs
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After facing election-year delays, the Obama administration on Friday announced a controversial rule that requires cleaner gasoline.
The environmental regulation, which seeks to reduce toxic air pollution by requiring lower levels of sulfur in gasoline, had all but disappeared from the regulatory process for most of last year as President Obama sought reelection: He didn?t want to be perceived as imposing regulations that could raise prices at the pump--one of the most potent political risks a campaign can face.
The administration finally found a political sweet spot to release the rule. It?s the Friday before Easter weekend, a time when few people are paying attention to the news. Gasoline prices have fallen over the last few weeks. A month ago, the average was $3.79 per gallon, according to AAA. Today it is $3.64. And perhaps most important, the administration is releasing the rule before the 2014 midterm election season (where 20 Democratic seats are up) gets under way.
Congressional Republicans and industry groups are blasting Obama for the rule nonetheless.
?With $4 dollar a gallon gas the norm in many parts of the country, we cannot afford policies that knowingly raises gas prices,? House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in a statement.
Industry groups such as the American Petroleum Institute have charged that the rule could increase gas prices about 25 cents per gallon. The Environmental Protection Agency maintains that the increase will be no more than 1 cent.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/epa-finds-sweet-spot-release-controversial-gas-rule-122857363--politics.html
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Mar. 29, 2013 ? Baseball season has arrived, but no matter how eager young players are to get on the diamond they have to keep from overdoing it -- especially if they're pitchers.
Overhand pitching creates great forces, stresses and strains at both the elbow and shoulder. In most children up to age 16, bones, muscles and connective tissues are not fully developed, so it should come as no surprise that the pitching motion can lead to injury if it is performed too frequently.
"Parents may find it difficult to put limits on any activity that a child is good at and enjoys performing," said Michael T. Freehill, M.D., assistant professor of orthopedics at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. "But when it comes to pitching, the surest way to ruin a young athlete's chances of success is to allow him or her to overdo it."
Fortunately, overuse injuries are preventable. Following some basic guidelines can help young baseball pitchers stay healthy.
? Young pitchers should always warm up properly by stretching and running before throwing. Throwing should begin with easy tosses, with gradual increases in distance, then intensity.
? Youngsters should concentrate on age-appropriate pitching skills. The emphasis should be on control, accuracy and good mechanics, not curveballs and velocity.
? Tracking the number of pitches thrown is important. Staying within age-specific pitch-count limits, such as those established by Little League Baseball, is recommended.
? Proper rest periods between pitching sessions should be observed. Youngsters can still play during these rest periods, but only at positions other than pitcher and catcher.
? Children should not pitch for multiple teams with overlapping schedules or play baseball year-round.
? Children should never pitch when it hurts. They must understand that telling a parent or coach is the right thing to do if they experience discomfort while throwing.
"Following these guidelines may force a young pitcher to sit out a few innings or miss a few pitching opportunities during the season," said Freehill, who pitched in the minor leagues before attending medical school, reaching the AAA level with two different organizations and making it onto the 40-man roster of the Anaheim (now Los Angeles) Angels. "However, that's a small price to pay for keeping our kids healthy and giving them their best shot at success over the long run."
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, via Newswise.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/3ytTP7OKhU4/130329161137.htm
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Hidden inside the massive federal budget that President Obama signed on Thursday is a small paragraph that has infuriated opponents of genetically-engineered crops. The provision is designed to protect those crops from court challenges. Audie Cornish talks to Dan Charles for more.
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Mar. 28, 2013 ? When Charles Babbage prototyped the first computing machine in the 19th century, he imagined using mechanical gears and latches to control information. ENIAC, the first modern computer developed in the 1940s, used vacuum tubes and electricity. Today, computers use transistors made from highly engineered semiconducting materials to carry out their logical operations.
And now a team of Stanford University bioengineers has taken computing beyond mechanics and electronics into the living realm of biology. In a paper to be published March 28 in Science, the team details a biological transistor made from genetic material -- DNA and RNA -- in place of gears or electrons. The team calls its biological transistor the "transcriptor."
"Transcriptors are the key component behind amplifying genetic logic -- akin to the transistor and electronics," said Jerome Bonnet, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in bioengineering and the paper's lead author.
The creation of the transcriptor allows engineers to compute inside living cells to record, for instance, when cells have been exposed to certain external stimuli or environmental factors, or even to turn on and off cell reproduction as needed.
"Biological computers can be used to study and reprogram living systems, monitor environments and improve cellular therapeutics," said Drew Endy, PhD, assistant professor of bioengineering and the paper's senior author.
The biological computer
In electronics, a transistor controls the flow of electrons along a circuit. Similarly, in biologics, a transcriptor controls the flow of a specific protein, RNA polymerase, as it travels along a strand of DNA.
"We have repurposed a group of natural proteins, called integrases, to realize digital control over the flow of RNA polymerase along DNA, which in turn allowed us to engineer amplifying genetic logic," said Endy.
Using transcriptors, the team has created what are known in electrical engineering as logic gates that can derive true-false answers to virtually any biochemical question that might be posed within a cell.
They refer to their transcriptor-based logic gates as "Boolean Integrase Logic," or "BIL gates" for short.
Transcriptor-based gates alone do not constitute a computer, but they are the third and final component of a biological computer that could operate within individual living cells.
Despite their outward differences, all modern computers, from ENIAC to Apple, share three basic functions: storing, transmitting and performing logical operations on information.
Last year, Endy and his team made news in delivering the other two core components of a fully functional genetic computer. The first was a type of rewritable digital data storage within DNA. They also developed a mechanism for transmitting genetic information from cell to cell, a sort of biological Internet.
It all adds up to creating a computer inside a living cell.
Boole's gold
Digital logic is often referred to as "Boolean logic," after George Boole, the mathematician who proposed the system in 1854. Today, Boolean logic typically takes the form of 1s and 0s within a computer. Answer true, gate open; answer false, gate closed. Open. Closed. On. Off. 1. 0. It's that basic. But it turns out that with just these simple tools and ways of thinking you can accomplish quite a lot.
"AND" and "OR" are just two of the most basic Boolean logic gates. An "AND" gate, for instance, is "true" when both of its inputs are true -- when "a" and "b" are true. An "OR" gate, on the other hand, is true when either or both of its inputs are true.
In a biological setting, the possibilities for logic are as limitless as in electronics, Bonnet explained. "You could test whether a given cell had been exposed to any number of external stimuli -- the presence of glucose and caffeine, for instance. BIL gates would allow you to make that determination and to store that information so you could easily identify those which had been exposed and which had not," he said.
By the same token, you could tell the cell to start or stop reproducing if certain factors were present. And, by coupling BIL gates with the team's biological Internet, it is possible to communicate genetic information from cell to cell to orchestrate the behavior of a group of cells.
"The potential applications are limited only by the imagination of the researcher," said co-author Monica Ortiz, a PhD candidate in bioengineering who demonstrated autonomous cell-to-cell communication of DNA encoding various BIL gates.
Building a transcriptor
To create transcriptors and logic gates, the team used carefully calibrated combinations of enzymes -- the integrases mentioned earlier -- that control the flow of RNA polymerase along strands of DNA. If this were electronics, DNA is the wire and RNA polymerase is the electron.
"The choice of enzymes is important," Bonnet said. "We have been careful to select enzymes that function in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, so that bio-computers can be engineered within a variety of organisms."
On the technical side, the transcriptor achieves a key similarity between the biological transistor and its semiconducting cousin: signal amplification.
With transcriptors, a very small change in the expression of an integrase can create a very large change in the expression of any two other genes.
To understand the importance of amplification, consider that the transistor was first conceived as a way to replace expensive, inefficient and unreliable vacuum tubes in the amplification of telephone signals for transcontinental phone calls. Electrical signals traveling along wires get weaker the farther they travel, but if you put an amplifier every so often along the way, you can relay the signal across a great distance. The same would hold in biological systems as signals get transmitted among a group of cells.
"It is a concept similar to transistor radios," said Pakpoom Subsoontorn, a PhD candidate in bioengineering and co-author of the study who developed theoretical models to predict the behavior of BIL gates. "Relatively weak radio waves traveling through the air can get amplified into sound."
Public-domain biotechnology
To bring the age of the biological computer to a much speedier reality, Endy and his team have contributed all of BIL gates to the public domain so that others can immediately harness and improve upon the tools.
"Most of biotechnology has not yet been imagined, let alone made true. By freely sharing important basic tools everyone can work better together," Bonnet said.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center. The original article was written by Andrew Myers.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/ED1fLVQ-WsM/130328142400.htm
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By Jim Christie
SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - A verbal ruling on whether Stockton, California, is eligible for bankruptcy protection will likely come next Monday, a federal judge said on the third and final day of a trial that the U.S. municipal debt market is closely watching.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein said he would need more time than anticipated to make a ruling over whether Stockton should be allowed to press on with its bankruptcy case, which could result in bondholders and bond insurers of the city swallowing losses while leaving pensions of city workers and retirees intact.
"I'm pretty confident I will not be in a position to make my findings by Friday," Klein told attorneys for Stockton and its so-called capital markets creditors at the third hearing of the trial that started on Monday.
Stockton aims to aggressively impair its bond debt if found eligible for bankruptcy court protection, a strategy other cash-strapped municipalities could follow, breaking a tradition in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market, which provides financing for various public capital projects, from school construction to sidewalk repairs.
Since at least the 1930s, bondholders in major municipal bankruptcies have consistently repaid their entire principal. If Stockton establishes it is eligible for bankruptcy protection, other financially troubled municipalities could follow its example and try to adjust debts through bankruptcy.
A city of nearly 300,000 in California's Central Valley, Stockton filed for bankruptcy last year, becoming the biggest U.S. city to declare bankruptcy.
Bond insurers Assured Guaranty Corp, Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp and National Public Finance Guarantee Corp have been joined by Wells Fargo Bank, the Franklin California High Yield Municipal Fund and Franklin High Yield Tax-Free Income Fund in contesting Stockton's bid for bankruptcy eligibility.
The insurers have more than $300 million of exposure to the city's debt and have said that Stockton's decision to keep making payments to its largest creditor, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, showed lack of good faith during the initial stages of the city's bankruptcy plan.
The $254 billion pension fund manages pension accounts for Stockton's current and retired employees.
A lawyer for the capital markets creditors during the trial's closing arguments said Stockton officials gave the creditors a "take-it-or-leave-it" offer instead of negotiating in good faith, adding that the city's decision to exempt Calpers from impairment was "tainted" because city officials involved in the decision had a conflict of interest due to having retirement accounts with the pension fund.
"The process was hopelessly flawed," attorney Matthew Walsh told Klein.
Norman Hile, a lawyer for Stockton, characterized the capital markets creditors as resisting negotiations, adding that most of the city's creditors have already agreed to concessions.
Hile added that Calpers should be viewed as a trustee for Stockton's employees and retirees rather than as a creditor, adding that the city has met the requirements in federal law for eligibility for bankruptcy court protection.
Guy Neal, another lawyer for the capital markets creditors, said Stockton's financial future is bleak unless it tackles its pension obligations and brings the state pension fund into negotiations.
"The evidence demonstrates that Stockton cannot afford these liabilities," Neal said.
If Klein finds Stockton eligible for protection from creditors under Chapter 9 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, the city could begin drafting a so-called plan of adjustment for its debts.
The process could take some time and creditors can object. Any plan of adjustment would eventually require a court finding it is fair and equitable to all creditors.
Stockton's capital markets creditors will also be able to appeal a finding of eligibility to U.S. District Court or a bankruptcy appellate panel.
If Klein finds Stockton is not eligible for bankruptcy protection, the city could operate under its current spending plan while negotiating concessions with creditors, who could at the same time press their claims against the city in state or federal court.
(Editing by Paul Simao, Tiziana Barghini, Bob Burgdorfer and Philip Barbara)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ruling-stockton-bankruptcy-eligibility-likely-monday-004548108--sector.html
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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Panasonic Corp said it will spend 250 billion yen ($2.7 billion) over the next two years on a fresh round of restructuring to revive the sprawling electronics giant, but did not indicate if that spending would cover any possible job cuts.
At Thursday's news conference in Tokyo, President Kazuhiro Tsuga said he wants to expand the firm's automotive and housing development businesses as it pulls back from consumer electronics under the company's mid-term business plan.
Like Sony Corp and Sharp Corp, Panasonic's TV unit has been battered by lower-cost Korean rivals able grab market share with cheaper high-quality products. Japan's biggest commercial employer - set to report its second straight annual net loss - is under pressure to dump weak businesses and trim its payroll that even after more than 40,000 job losses in the past two years still comprises more than 300,000 people.
"Panasonic has talked about selling assets, but without cutting workers too, it will come across as a restructuring plan that lacks teeth," said Makoto Kikuchi, the CEO of Myojo Asset Management in Tokyo. "Panasonic does not have the sort of corporate culture which you would expect to see serious layoffs."
Since peaking at $97 billion in 2007, sales have contracted by a fifth. Over the past decade, Panasonic's cumulative net loss adds up to about $13 billion.
Panasonic will also seek external investment in its healthcare business, which Tsuga said he will personally oversee. Panasonic will also sell its majority stake in a logistics business to Nippon Express Co Ltd.
For the next business year, Panasonic expects its net income to reach 50 billion yen, and targets an annual operating profit of 350 billion yen and a margin of 5 percent by March 2016. ($1 = 94.3700 Japanese yen)
(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Ryan Woo)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/panasonic-plans-2-7-billion-fresh-restructuring-093607070--finance.html
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Google Glass, the advanced head-mounted computing project the company is gearing up for a possible launch later this year, will be assembled in the U.S., according to a new report from the Financial Times today. The assembly will take place in a facility located in Santa Clara and managed by partner Hon Hai Precision, also known as Foxconn.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/u0Ka9cOPMco/
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Mar. 26, 2013 ? When the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission begins its journey to the Red Planet in 2013, it will carry a sensitive magnetic-field instrument built and tested by a team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Scheduled for launch in late 2013, MAVEN will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.
The goal of MAVEN is to determine the history of the loss of atmospheric gases to space through time, providing answers about Mars' climate evolution.
By measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes, scientists will be able to infer how the planet's atmosphere evolved.
The trip to Mars takes 10 months, and MAVEN will go into orbit around the planet in September 2014.
The Goddard-built MAVEN magnetometer will be a sensitive tool investigating what remains of the Red Planet's magnetic "shield." It will play a key role in studying the planet's atmosphere and interactions with solar wind, helping answer the question of why a planet once thought to have an abundance of liquid water became a frozen desert.
"The MAVEN magnetometer is key to unraveling the nature of the interactions between the solar wind and the planet," said MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky from University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP).
The magnetometer will measure the planet's magnetic field through a series of coils, each containing a magnetic ring wrapped around a metal core. The sensors, known as "flux gates," are driven in and out of saturation by applied magnetic fields.
If there is no ambient magnetic field, the sensors remain balanced. If there is an ambient field present, the sensors will go into saturation more quickly in one direction than the other. It's the imbalance that reveals the presence of an ambient field.
"A magnetometer is like an electronic compass," said Jack Connerney, mission co-investigator at Goddard. "But we measure the strength, as well as the direction, of the magnetic field."
The importance of studying the planet's magnetic field is rooted in the theory that Mars lost its global magnetic field billions of years ago, allowing the solar wind to strip the atmosphere and dry out the planet.
Unlike Earth's global magnetic field, which surrounds the entire planet, Mars only has patches of magnetic field left in its crust. This can create pockets of atmosphere that are protected against solar wind and others that are left vulnerable.
By measuring sections of the planet's magnetic field, the magnetometer could help scientists create a bigger picture of the planet's overall atmosphere.
"The magnetometer helps us see where the atmosphere is protected by mini-magnetospheres and where it's open to solar wind," Connerney said. "We can study the solar wind impact and how efficient it is at stripping the atmosphere."
The magnetometer is one of six instruments that make up the Particles and Fields Package, being assembled by team members at the University of California, Berkeley. The magnetometer works with the other instruments from this package to gather data throughout the course of the projected yearlong orbit around the planet.
The spacecraft will go into orbit and pass closely over the planet's surface and then move further away to study solar wind beyond the planet's influence.
The magnetometer is a very sensitive instrument, so engineers have to work to ensure the instrument doesn't accidentally measure the spacecraft's magnetic field instead of the one the planet produces.
"We have to go to great extremes to be sure that we have minimized any magnetic fields from the spacecraft," Jakosky said. "We are working hard to build a very 'magnetically clean' spacecraft that will meet our needs with regard to the magnetometer."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/-d1eHzN8wVQ/130326194115.htm
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?Florida State's Chasity Clayton (00) and Chelsea Davis (34) watch as Baylor center Brittney Griner (42) dunks in the first half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Florida State's Chasity Clayton (00) and Chelsea Davis (34) watch as Baylor center Brittney Griner (42) dunks in the first half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Baylor center Brittney Griner (42) celebrates after dunking against Florida State in the first half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Baylor guard Odyssey Sims (0) celebrates after sinking a 3-pointer in the first half of a second-round game against Florida State in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Baylor center Brittney Griner (42) blocks a shot attempt by Florida State's Leonor Rodriguez (10) in the first half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Florida State forward Natasha Howard (33) has her shot blocked by Baylor's Brittney Griner, right rear, as Alexis Prince, bottom, watches in the first half of a second-round game in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
WACO, Texas (AP) ? Brittney Griner had 33 points and 22 rebounds to go along with three impressive slam dunks in her final home game for Baylor, and the defending national champion Lady Bears beat Florida State 84-47 in the second round of the NCAA tournament Tuesday night.
The Lady Bears (34-1) are in the NCAA round of 16 for the fourth year in a row. They play Louisville (26-8) on Sunday in Oklahoma City.
With former President George W. Bush part of the crowd packed into the Ferrell Center for the final home game of her impressive career, Griner delivered in a big way.
The 6-foot-8 Griner had her second dunk in this NCAA tournament, with a one-handed slam late in the first half. She added two more in a 79-second span in the second half soon before coming out of the game.
Leonor Rodriguez had 11 points to lead Florida State (23-10).
Associated Press
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Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
Share ] Contact: Dwight Angell
dwight.angell@hfhs.org
313-850-3471
Henry Ford Health System
DETROIT While the number of people especially women who have a minimally invasive procedure to remove kidney stones has risen in recent years, so has the rate of complications related to the surgery, according to a published study by Henry Ford Hospital.
The research, from Khurshid R. Ghani, M.D., of Henry Ford Hospital's Vattikuti Urology Institute, appears in the current issue of Journal of Urology.
The focus of the investigation was the procedure, percutaneous nephrolithotomy, or PCNL, in which a surgeon removes medium to large kidney stones through a small incision in the back using a hollow scope.
Minimally invasive procedures used for treating a wide range of medical conditions have increased in recent years, and the Henry Ford researchers set out to find how much and to what effect this is true for this specific procedure.
"What we found is that the use of PCNL in this country has increased," Dr. Ghani said, "and more women than men have the procedure.
"We also discovered that while the rate of PCNL-related death is low and has remained so, incidence of blood infection and overall complications has increased."
The population-based study looked at data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of inpatient hospital stays used by researchers to find, track and analyze national health care trends. The database catalogs some 8 million cases from more than 1,000 hospitals in 44 states.
It was used in this study to identify patients who underwent PCNL between 1999 and 2009. A weighted sample was then formulated to estimate utilization rates across the country.
In addition, Henry Ford researchers tracked and analyzed trends in patient age; complications before, during and after the procedure; other disorders or diseases that existed at the time of the surgery; and in-hospital deaths.
A total of 80,097 patients over the age of 18 and with a median age of 53 were found to have undergone PCNL during the study period, during which the number of times the procedure was performed climbed by 47 percent.
The results showed:
Dr. Ghani and his associates concluded that patients were at higher risk of developing complications if they were older, sicker and treated in more recent years. And though the rate of deaths associated with the procedure remained statistically flat, those cases that did occur were found with older patients.
"We believe the broad use of this procedure, especially in older and sicker patients, may be the reason for these changes," Dr. Ghani said.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
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-Mar-2013 Share ] Contact: Dwight Angell
dwight.angell@hfhs.org
313-850-3471
Henry Ford Health System
DETROIT While the number of people especially women who have a minimally invasive procedure to remove kidney stones has risen in recent years, so has the rate of complications related to the surgery, according to a published study by Henry Ford Hospital.
The research, from Khurshid R. Ghani, M.D., of Henry Ford Hospital's Vattikuti Urology Institute, appears in the current issue of Journal of Urology.
The focus of the investigation was the procedure, percutaneous nephrolithotomy, or PCNL, in which a surgeon removes medium to large kidney stones through a small incision in the back using a hollow scope.
Minimally invasive procedures used for treating a wide range of medical conditions have increased in recent years, and the Henry Ford researchers set out to find how much and to what effect this is true for this specific procedure.
"What we found is that the use of PCNL in this country has increased," Dr. Ghani said, "and more women than men have the procedure.
"We also discovered that while the rate of PCNL-related death is low and has remained so, incidence of blood infection and overall complications has increased."
The population-based study looked at data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of inpatient hospital stays used by researchers to find, track and analyze national health care trends. The database catalogs some 8 million cases from more than 1,000 hospitals in 44 states.
It was used in this study to identify patients who underwent PCNL between 1999 and 2009. A weighted sample was then formulated to estimate utilization rates across the country.
In addition, Henry Ford researchers tracked and analyzed trends in patient age; complications before, during and after the procedure; other disorders or diseases that existed at the time of the surgery; and in-hospital deaths.
A total of 80,097 patients over the age of 18 and with a median age of 53 were found to have undergone PCNL during the study period, during which the number of times the procedure was performed climbed by 47 percent.
The results showed:
Dr. Ghani and his associates concluded that patients were at higher risk of developing complications if they were older, sicker and treated in more recent years. And though the rate of deaths associated with the procedure remained statistically flat, those cases that did occur were found with older patients.
"We believe the broad use of this procedure, especially in older and sicker patients, may be the reason for these changes," Dr. Ghani said.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/hfhs-kss032613.php
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By Jim Christie
SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - Lawyers for Stockton and its creditors kicked off a courtroom battle on Monday over whether the California city is eligible for bankruptcy protection to force its bondholders to swallow losses while leaving pensions intact.
The closely-watched case has broad implications for other local governments seeking protection in bankruptcy court from creditors and for struggling municipalities that may pursue a similar path.
The outcome in the case of Stockton, the biggest U.S. city to declare bankruptcy, also is an important test case for the $3.7 trillion U.S. municipal debt market, which provides financing for various public capital projects, from school construction to sidewalk repairs.
Unlike in corporate bankruptcies when all debt holders absorb some losses, bondholders in major municipal bankruptcies consistently have been repaid all of their principal since at least the 1930s.
Now Stockton and at least two others municipalities are challenging that premise: Jefferson County in Alabama and San Bernardino, California, also expect to ask bondholders to take losses in their bankruptcies.
The Stockton hearing is expected to last most of this week.
Bondholders and insurers, which will have to repay investors for any capital losses, argue the decision by Stockton to keep paying its largest creditor, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, shows a lack of good faith and should block Stockton's request for bankruptcy protection under federal bankruptcy law.
Stockton pays a yearly contribution of about $30 million to the $254 billion retirement system. The largest U.S. pension fund, known as Calpers, manages pension accounts for the city's employees and retired employees.
"The city ignores the 800-pound pension gorilla in the room," Guy Neal, one of the lawyers for the capital markets creditors, said in his opening remarks.
Bond insurers contesting Stockton's eligibility for bankruptcy protection have more than $300 million of exposure to the city's debt. Assured Guaranty Corp, Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp and National Public Finance Guarantee Corp were joined by Wells Fargo Bank, the Franklin California High Yield Municipal Fund and Franklin High Yield Tax-Free Income Fund.
Marc Levinson, a lawyer for Stockton, defended the city's right to go bankrupt. He argued Stockton had attempted to negotiate in good faith with its creditors as required by California law before demanding protection from creditors.
The city of 300,000 in California's Central Valley, which filed for bankruptcy last year, fell on hard times when its revenue plunged after its once-torrid housing market went bust. Two decades of generous employee benefits, poor fiscal management and too much debt also caught up with the city, which is 85 miles east of San Francisco.
Stockton's general fund-supported payroll has dropped to 972 positions from 1,360 in 2008-2009. The city has about 2,400 retirees, 1,100 of them affected by the city scrapping its retiree medical program. Savings from shedding retiree medical spending is helping bolster Stockton's finances while it presses its bankruptcy case, city manager Bob Deis said.
"These guys aren't giving us credit for that," Deis told Reuters after his testimony at the hearing.
Deis defended Stockton's pension contributions, saying they are "inextricably" tied to the crime-plagued city's ability to retain and recruit police officers.
Stockton's budget provides for 340 sworn police officers, compared with 401 in 2008-2009. If Stockton had done differently impairing its pensions after wiping out its retiree medical program police officers would have simply quitted.
"If it appears we'll impair retirement benefits, we'll have a mass exodus of police officers," Deis said.
By contrast, San Bernardino, which also filed for bankruptcy protection last year, is not making contributions to the state's pension fund as it contends with its financial troubles.
In other municipal bankruptcy cases, bondholders have been protected.
Central Falls, a tiny, poor Rhode Island city, had its bankruptcy plan approved by a judge in September. It slashed retirees pension payments in half and raised taxes, but left bondholders unscathed.
A Rhode Island law, passed as Central Falls' insolvency reached a crisis point, gave bondholders a lien on property tax revenue.
The Central Falls case, along with sweeping public pension changes at the state level, prompted labor unions and retirees in other struggling Rhode Island cities - including Providence, the state capital - to renegotiate retirement benefits and collective bargaining agreements.
Though Central Falls has exited bankruptcy, its case will remain open for several years so the court can step in if elected officials veer from the restructuring plan. Officials must give quarterly statements about the city's finances.
Because of the Central Falls case, "I don't think we're ever going to need a Chapter 9 again" in Rhode Island, said Theodore Orson at a distressed municipalities conference this month in Providence. Orson was the attorney for the state-appointed receiver who oversaw Central Falls' return from insolvency.
(Reporting by Jim Christie; Additional reporting by Michael Connor in Miami and Hilary Russ in New York; Editing by Tiziana Barghini, Mary Milliken and Chizu Nomiyama)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stockton-california-bankruptcy-eligibility-trial-starts-204927219.html
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L. Calcada / N. Risinger / ESO
An artist's conception shows the planet Alpha Centauri Bb, orbiting one of the stars in a nearby triple-star system. A commercial venture known as Uwingu says it will use proceeds from a contest to give Alpha Centauri Bb a new name to support endangered educational and public outreach efforts.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
NASA's plan to suspend educational and public outreach activities due to budget sequestration?has sparked protests from some of the space agency's biggest fans, and a commercial venture known as Uwingu wants to help fill the gap. Uwingu says it will?direct proceeds from its contest to name the closest exoplanet toward projects that are facing budget cuts.
The venture was set up last year to offer space-themed entertainment that would raise money for education and space science. Just last week, Uwingu kicked off an effort to come up with a "people's choice" name for Alpha Centauri Bb, an Earth-sized planet that was detected last year just 4.3 light-years away.
It takes $4.99 to nominate a name, and 99 cents to cast a vote. The contest closes on April 15, and the winner will be announced the next day. Some of the proceeds will go toward paying the company's expenses, but the target is to put at least half of the money into a fund to support research and education.?
Rough patch for NASA
When the company made its public debut, the founders said the Uwingu Fund could serve as a lifeline for scientists and educators if NASA's budget ran into a rough patch. Sequestration certainly qualifies as a rough patch: The automatic spending cuts will force NASA to scale back its budget by roughly $900 million for the fiscal year.
As part of its plan to comply with sequestration, NASA officials on Friday ordered the suspension of?educational and public outreach activities, also known as EPO. Planetary scientist Alan Stern, Uwingu's CEO and a former NASA associate administrator, said the suspension has put educational and public outreach programs "under severe and sudden stress."
"At Uwingu, we believe that private and commercial funding of space-based initiatives ? including research and EPO ? is more important now than ever," Stern said in a statement Monday. "That's the purpose of The Uwingu Fund, which is fueled from people participating in the naming contest for Alpha Centauri's planet. Today we're announcing that Uwingu is taking action to combat the severe, adverse impact of sequestration on NASA EPO by directing all Uwingu Funds proceeds raised through this contest to grants to EPO professionals and projects."
In the grand scheme of things, education and public outreach aren't the most expensive things that NASA does. The continuing resolution that governed spending for the current fiscal year set aside $137 million for the agency's education account, and sequestration would trim that figure by $7 million. NASA budgets additional funds for public outreach on a mission-by-mission basis, but the expense is still a small proportion of NASA's $17.8 billion budget.
Outcry over outreach
Friday's move nevertheless sparked an outcry from many who rank education and public outreach among NASA's strongest suits. Over the weekend, more than 4,500 people signed onto an?online?petition urging the White House to "repeal" the EPO spending cuts.
"This is something that hits extremely close to home, and not just because I may not have a position this summer as a result of this," Scott Lewis, an astronomer at Citrus College in California, said in a Google+ posting. "NASA's education and public outreach?is something that opens the eyes of thousands, if not millions of people, to the magnificence of science, technology, engineering and mathematics."
One of the ventures that could be affected by the budget cuts is?CosmoQuest, an online educational project that sponsors virtual star parties, citizen-science projects and similar activities with NASA support. Pamela Gay, a professor at Southern Illinois University who is CosmoQuest's project director, said the effect on funding is not yet clear?? but she's already preparing for cutbacks.
"I'm looking at multiple fundraisers," Gay, who is on Uwingu's board of advisers, said in a?Google+ posting?on Sunday. "While I'm less worried about CosmoQuest than I was yesterday, it is clear that many good people in the NASA EPO community are deeply in jeopardy. I continue to encourage you to help us seek donations so that I can recover as needed from any cuts we incur, and, as additional funding allows, work to contract people who do lose their jobs to help us build new and amazing things for CQX. I'm hoping you will help me build a safety net for our community."
More about sequestration's effects:?
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the?Cosmic Log?community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space,?sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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