Venezuela top court OKs postponing Chavez inauguration

Miguel Gutierrez / EPA

A view of a wall depicting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Simon Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 9, 2013.

Venezuela's top court endorsed the postponement of Hugo Chavez's inauguration this week and ruled on Wednesday that the cancer-stricken president remained the South American OPEC nation's leader.

The 58-year-old socialist has not been seen in public nor heard from in almost a month following surgery in Cuba. The government says he is in a delicate condition and cannot attend Thursday's scheduled swearing-in for a new six-year term.

"Right now we cannot say when, how or where the president will be sworn in," Supreme Court Chief Judge Luisa Morales told a news conference.

"As president re-elect there is no interruption of performance of duties ... The inauguration can be carried out at a later date before the Supreme Court."

Both Chavez and his heir apparent, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, would remain in the roles after Jan. 10, she added in a judgment quashing opposition appeals for a caretaker president to be named.

Government leaders insist Chavez is fulfilling his duties as head of state, even though official medical bulletins said he suffered multiple complications after the surgery, including a severe pulmonary infection, and has had trouble breathing.

It was his fourth operation since being diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer in June 2011.

The government has called for a massive rally outside the presidential palace on Thursday, and allied presidents including Uruguay's Jose Mujica and Bolivia's Evo Morales have confirmed they will visit Venezuela that day despite Chavez's absence.

The president's resignation or death would upend politics in the oil-rich nation, where he is revered by poor supporters thankful for his social largesse.

His critics denounce him as an autocrat who has squandered billions of dollars from crude sales while dashing the independence of state institutions.

Reuters

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/09/16433875-venezuela-top-court-oks-postponing-chavez-inauguration?lite

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Experts warn that climate could be 'hijacked'

Jessica Robertson / USGS

Sea ice is critical habitat for polar bears, which use it as a platform from which to hunt seals.

By John Roach, NBC News Digital

The global climate may already be changing faster than humans are prepared to adapt to, heralding a shift in the climate change debate from who to blame to how to cope, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum.?

In turn, runaway climate change could spur an island nation doomed to drown under rising seas or a wealthy entrepreneur with do-good intentions to deliberately inject sunlight-reflecting particles high into the stratosphere in a bid to cool the planet.

?The global climate could, in effect, be hijacked by a rogue country or even a wealthy individual, with unpredictable costs to agriculture, infrastructure and global security,? the international organization writes in a special ?X Factors? section of its annual risk assessment report released Tuesday.

The special section was developed in collaboration with the journal Nature to highlight the top five risks that could sneak up largely unnoticed with unknown consequences. Highlighting them now, the thinking goes, will provide a cushion of time to proactively prepare.

X factors, the report notes, "are serious issues and grounded in the latest scientific findings, but somewhat remote from what are generally seen as more immediate concerns such as failed states, extreme weather events, macroeconomic instability or armed conflict."

In addition to the climate spinning out of control and rogue geoengineers, other X factors identified in the report include:?

  • Ethical dilemmas over new drugs and devices that could make us smarter.
  • Medical advances that could deliver a world overpopulated with ?a mass of arthritic, demented, and, above all, expensive elderly who are in need of long term care and palliative solutions."
  • The discovery of alien life, which could have profound societal impacts.

The specter of runaway climate change primarily lurks in so-called feedback loops that accelerate the pace of warming, such as melting ice sheets that expose darker land and water that absorb more of the sun?s energy, leading to more warming and ice melting.

Indeed, signs of these feedback are beginning to bubble to the surface in places such as the Arctic where summer sea ice could be gone between 2015 and 2050, and the potent greenhouse gas methane is being released from frozen deposits trapped in the seafloor.?

On the geoengineering front, scientists are beginning to float proposals for small-scale experiments, though larger experiments to test solar radiation management has stalled out due to concerns about unintended consequences.

?This leaves a gap for unregulated experimentation by ?rogue? parties,? the World Economic Forum report says.?

In July 2012, a California businessman dropped 100 tons of ore with traces of iron into the Pacific Ocean off Canada?s British Columbia, triggering a 3,800-square-mile algae bloom. The algae absorb carbon dioxide and sink to the ocean bottom, removing the carbon from the atmosphere.

?The individual hoped to net lucrative carbon credits, but his actions may have been in violation of two international agreements,? the X Factors section reads. ?Observers are concerned that this may be a sign of what is to come.?

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. To learn more about him, check out his website.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/09/16435593-a-warning-climate-could-be-hijacked

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According to some 2007 article within the Telegraph out of the United Kingdom, this extreme sport has decided to become a popular daredevil sport the same as bungee jumping and skydiving. The Shimano Di2 is built to last in fact it is also the bike that will withstand any weather condition. Road con ?

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Mechanism used by BRCA1 to suppress tumors uncovered

Dec. 17, 2012 ? A new study by Georgetown University Medical Center researchers reveals how a well-known tumor suppressor gene may be functioning to stop cancer cell growth.

The findings, published online December 17 in Oncogene, focus on the gene BRCA1, which is mutated in a majority of families who have hereditary breast and/or ovarian cancers, according to senior author Ronit I. Yarden, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Human Science at the School of Nursing & Health Studies.

"There is a debate in the scientific community about whether BRCA1 enzymatic activity is important in tumor suppressor function," Yarden said. "My lab thinks it is."

Previous research by other investigators, according to Yarden, has shown that BRCA1 is an ubiquitin E3 ligase enzyme. When added to other proteins, ubiquitin has the ability to mark them for degradation and recycling.

Her laboratory worked to discover which proteins BRCA1 is targeting with ubiquitin and how that activity might help attenuate cell division in response to DNA damage -- a function that is important for maintaining genomic integrity and suppressing tumor growth.

"Cells have surveillance mechanisms and check points that govern cell division," she said. "In order to conduct DNA repair in a timely fashion, a cell must be stopped for awhile and then repaired. Once DNA is fixed, division can then begin again."

Yarden's lab discovered that BRCA1 targets two specific proteins cyclin B and Cdc25c, which are the "keeper genes" that regulate the G2/M checkpoint -- the last checkpoint a cell has to go through before it divides.

"The paper shows that in response to DNA damage, BRCA1 is responsible for tagging these two proteins to stop the cells from dividing so repair can occur," Yarden said. "This work shows that BRCA1 enzymatic function is essential for maintaining genomic integrity and may explain BRCA1 role in tumor suppression."

"We identified a novel function," she said. "Although different substrates for BRCA1 were previously identified by other investigators, those didn't explain directly BRCA1's role in maintenance of genomic integrity. Our new targets are the first to directly link this ubiquitination function of BRCA1 to halting cell division that is important for maintenance of genomic integrity and stability, an important activity of tumor suppression."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgetown University Medical Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. S Shabbeer, D Omer, D Berneman, O Weitzman, A Alpaugh, A Pietraszkiewicz, S Metsuyanim, A Shainskaya, M Z Papa, R I Yarden. BRCA1 targets G2/M cell cycle proteins for ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. Oncogene, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/onc.2012.522

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/health_medicine/genes/~3/TED9mSZdGlY/121217091556.htm

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Is IT Outsourcing a Dying Concept? | ITOnews.eu

According to a recent survey by outsourcing analyst firm HfS Research, 63 percent of IT leaders would like to drop the term ?outsourcing? to describe the IT services provided to them by third-parties and 68 percent of IT service providers want to do away with the designation.

Some of that can be attributed to the negative connotations associated with the word ?outsourcing,? particularly on the heels of a presidential campaign that trotted out the practice as a job-destroying boogeyman.

But it could also be that the term has outlived its effectiveness. ?Like many invented terms, the process it describes has evolved considerably from what it was initially,? says Cliff Justice, partner in KPMG?s Shared Services and Outsourcing Advisory.

In his report earlier this year, ?The Death of Outsourcing,? Justice argues that as the use of third-party IT service providers has evolved from a simple ?lift-and-shift? back-office cost-cutting exercise to a complex ecosystem of smaller deals, higher expectations and more business-centric services. The way customers and providers think and talk about outsourcing must advance as well.

The low-hanging fruit has been picked. Organizations will find it difficult to rely on their low-cost, low-margin service providers to be in a position to step up with the kind of investment needed to give them additional competitive advantages.

Instead of delineating between insourcing or outsourcing or offshoring, Justice writes that IT leaders should embrace the ?extended global enterprise? not a specific model or set delivery structure, but rather a paradigm for delivering business services based on the concepts of end-to-end processes, internal and outsourced service providers, high value services and strong central governance.?

CIO.com talked to Justice about the shift taking place in IT services, the inherent inertia on the part of both customers and providers to embrace new models, and the potential winners and losers in a world beyond outsourcing.

CIO.com: When did IT outsourcing really start to shift in terms of both structures and expectations and what have been the most significant changes?

Cliff Justice, KPMG: It really started to shift around 2006 to 2007. We are seeing a transition from outsourcing as a commodity that?s very price-focused to a service that?s much more value-oriented. Companies with the most mature arrangement?the ones I call ?Extended Global Enterprises??have shifted or are shifting to integrating the use of third-parties and managing that integration in a way that promotes their business goals. The result is more innovation, more new product ideas, and more new services.

CIO.com: Who?s driving this transformation?customers or service providers?

Justice: Mainly the customers. The value that service providers can offer extends to helping a company compete more effectively in the marketplace for customers?by helping with product development or entering new markets, both of which help to drive customer growth.

CIO.com: You describe this as the ?death of outsourcing.? Why is outsourcing, in its present state, unsustainable?

Justice: Outsourcing became too reliant on labor arbitrage, which is a very short-sighted strategy. For example, wages in India have gone up from 10 to 14 percent yearly since 2009. Also, the offshore talent pool is smaller than it was five years ago, further limiting labor arbitrage as a strategy.

CIO.com: But isn?t cost-cutting still an important factor in sourcing decisions, given continued pressure on IT to do more with less?

Justice: Cutting costs is very much a driver. However, companies are demanding more value from third-party services, such as the ability of the provider to partner and move business goals forward. That?s a big change from the way it was five to 10 years ago.

CIO.com: What kinds of outcomes are customers seeking from IT service providers? More importantly, are the providers capable of delivering them today?

Justice: Clients are looking for increased agility, reduced fixed costs, availability of working capital, better insights into trends they?ll need to take advantage of, to name a few. Providers that are growing and excelling are aligning with their clients? industries and specializing in order to help their clients compete better. In so doing, they?re becoming more valuable to their client organization.

CIO.com: Describe the new outsourcing customer.

Justice: The new customer is a blend of the CIO and the business. The CIO takes on more of the governance aspects of the provider relationship and manages the overall technology impacts across the enterprise that includes a blend of sourcing models to deliver increased value.

The business side continues to mature as a technology buyer, not only to provide business requirements but also to have a strong and educated opinion on the technology that they want to use to further the goals of the business.

CIO.com: What does that mean for the service providers? Who will be the winners and losers?

Change is constant, but always difficult and often mismanaged. Ensure you have aligned the business goals with the service delivery model.

Justice: Service providers will need to develop or enhance strategies and skills that position them as ?business first? solution providers and not solely as technology or transaction companies. Those that can provide business- and industry-specific solutions that create innovation, reduce costs, reduce risk and provide competitive advantage for their clients across the entire back office will be the winners.

CIO.com: Will the vendor sales teams have to make adjustments?

Justice: They will need to become more focused on business outcome than on price alone. Key measures of success need to focus on the value-added capabilities of the organization to bring innovation and improve quality, flexibility and speed to market while integrating with all areas of the business and not just certain parts of it.

CIO.com: This next generation sourcing model has clear benefits, but change is difficult. How can customers and service providers overcome inertia?

Justice: Leadership needs to come from the top. Successful organizations set clear objectives in their sourcing strategies from their leadership. This is not a ?once and done? model. It requires a consistent, well-thought-out and ongoing communication of this strategy and the change that the organization is going through.

The service providers that will be successful are those that partner with the organization to bring the change management and communication mindset that identifies them as part of the team and supporting the change.

CIO.com: You say that such changes may be hardest for those who have been most successful at outsourcing for cost savings in the past.

Justice: The low-hanging fruit has been picked and reinvestment may be needed to get to the next level of value creation. Pressure on cost reduction continues in organizations and companies that looked solely at labor arbitrage opportunities with little concern or strategy for innovation. These organizations will find it difficult to rely on their low-cost, low-margin service providers to be in a position to step up with the kind of investment needed to give them additional competitive advantages.

Those companies that adopt a holistic approach to sourcing will need to balance the needs of the business for innovation and quality with the need to maintain the low cost structure achieved through aggressive outsourcing and offshoring in past agreements.

CIO.com: What advice do you offer IT leaders to make this shift?

Justice: Take a long-term view of the road ahead. This will be a gradual shift as the organization adapts. Change is constant, but always difficult and often mismanaged. Ensure you have aligned the business goals with the service delivery model. Plan for change. Communicate often. And reinforce the alignment of IT leadership with the business leaders.

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Source: http://itonews.eu/is-it-outsourcing-a-dying-concept/

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South Africa is not "falling apart": Zuma

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa is not "falling apart" and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) can run the continent's biggest economy, President Jacob Zuma said on Sunday, as he sought to dispel the concerns of rating agencies and investors about sluggish growth.

In his opening address to an ANC conference to choose its leadership for the next five years, Zuma said two downgrades by international ratings agencies this year did not mean South Africa was in trouble.

"We want to dismiss the perceptions that our country is falling apart because of the downgrades," he said. "We continue to do our development work, we continue to plan for a recovery."

At the conference this week held in the central city of Bloemfontein, Zuma, 70, is expected to garner enough support to head off a challenge to his party chief post from Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.

Retaining the ANC leadership puts Zuma in pole position to secure a second five-year term as South Africa's president in the next national election in 2014.

Spicing up the contest for top ANC jobs, former mineworkers' leader and anti-apartheid hero Cyril Ramaphosa, now one of South Africa's richest men, has agreed to stand for the post of ANC deputy president currently held by Motlanthe.

"He (Ramaphosa) is running," a senior party official told Reuters on Sunday.

In his speech, Zuma said the government was relying on its long-term National Development Plan as its strategy for undoing the "glaring and deep" inequalities left by decades of white-minority apartheid rule, which ended in 1994.

"Today, the ratings agencies and investors are asking whether the ANC can continue to manage this economy so that we can grow, create jobs, manage our debt and provide policy certainty," Zuma said.

"Yes, the ANC will continue to provide strong economic leadership and steer our economy boldly."

South Africa's economy is forecast to grow 2.5 percent this year, well short of the 7 percent the government says is needed to make a serious dent in 25 percent unemployment.

Zuma also called for an end to internal faction-fighting and corruption in Nelson Mandela's 100-year-old liberation movement, which faces accusations from critics that it has lost its moral compass under the scandal-hit Zuma presidency.

Party insiders said Ramaphosa's inclusion in the ANC leadership team could help to restore the party's image.

This has been undermined by growing popular disillusionment over the ANC government's failure to tackle still widespread poverty and unemployment and over persistent problems of graft, cronyism and mismanagement.

Ramaphosa, now 60, won international renown as a campaigner against apartheid when he led a mineworkers' strike in 1987, and he also helped draft South Africa's post-apartheid constitution before becoming one of the country's most successful and respected businessmen.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africa-not-falling-apart-zuma-125736907--business.html

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Shooting victims: 'Hero' teacher, principal, 20 kids

One was a first-grade teacher who reportedly threw herself in front of the gunman to shield her students. Another was a well-liked principal.

Both were among those killed when Adam Lanza, 20, stormed into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., with guns blazing Friday, killing six adults and 20 children before killing himself.

CLICK HERE for full coverage of the tragedy at the elementary school.

Lanza also killed a seventh adult in the rampage -- his mother, Nancy Lanza. She was killed in her home, shot in the face before her son's assault on the school, sources told ABC News.

Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance said the victims have been formally identified by the state medical examiner. He said a list of the victims' names and birthdates would be released later today.

Vance asked that the privacy of the victims' families be respected.

"I am pleading with you. As you know, this is an extremely heartbreaking, difficult thing to endure," he said.

CLICK HERE for photos from the shooting scene.

The names of a few victims emerged late Friday, including a hero teacher and a devoted principal.

READ: Connecticut Shooter Adam Lanza: 'Obviously Not Well'

READ: Officials Seek Motive in School Massacre

Vicki Soto, 27, one of the adult victims, loved being a teacher, her cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News' Chris Cuomo Friday. In fact, her first-grade students' safety was such a high priority that Soto reportedly lost her life protecting them.

"The family was informed that she was trying to shield, get her children into a closet and protect them from harm, and by doing that put herself between the gunman and the children," Wiltsie said. "And that's when she was tragically shot and killed.

"I'm very proud to have known Vicki," Wiltsie added. "Her life dream was to be a teacher. And her instincts kicked in when she saw there was harm coming to her students.

"It brings peace to know that Vicki was doing what she loved, protecting the children," he said. "And in our eyes, she is a hero."

The circumstances of Dawn Hochsprung's death are less clear, but those who have spoken have had nice things to say about the Sandy Hook principal.

"When we had our orientation, you could tell she loved her job," Brenda Lediski, a parent, told ABC News by phone.

Hochsprung, 47, only became principal of Sandy Hook in recent years, according to a local news report.

"She was always enthusiastic, always smiling, always game to do anything," Kristin Larson, a former PTA secretary, told the Boston Globe. "When I saw her at the beginning of the school year, she was hugging everyone."

Investigators also hope the one surviving victim, an unidentified school employee who was wounded by the gun man, will be able to help them piece together the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"She is doing fine," Vance said. "[And] she will be instrumental in this investigation."

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Dan Harris and Lauren Effron contributed to this report.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shooting-victims-hero-teacher-principal-20-kids-122309290--abc-news-topstories.html

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Can garden herbs improve your car battery?

The last place you'd expect to find garden herbs is in your car battery. But at least one, Rubia, can make car batteries more energy efficient, studies find.?

By Antony Ingram,?Guest blogger / December 15, 2012

Trey Leavenworth harvests some herbs in Cape Cod, Mass. in this 2011 file photo. Herbs are great for cooking, but studies suggest that Rubia may make car batteries run more efficiently.

Joanne Ciccarello/Staff/File

Enlarge

However you choose to enjoy herbal products, the last place you'd expect to find them is in your electric car battery.

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The website focuses on the auto industry?s future, the evolution of cars beyond fossil fuels, and the green movement's relevance to car shoppers today. For more stories on green cars, click here.

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Thanks to a new discovery though, the Madder plant, also known as Rubia, could prove useful as a natural cathode in batteries.

Madder has long been used as a source of purpurin, an organic dye used since ancient times to color fabrics.

As ScienceBlog reports, scientists at Rice University and the City College of New York have discovered that purpurin also makes a good natural cathode for lithium ion batteries.

Unlike many other future battery technologies, this one isn't aimed at improving charging time, increasing capacity or reducing weight--it's simply tasked with making batteries greener.

While the battery toxicity and rare earth metal arguments from electric car naysayers are often exaggerated, finding a renewable alternative to lithium and cobalt cathodes certainly couldn't hurt.

?Green batteries are the need of the hour, yet this topic hasn?t really been addressed properly,? suggests Arava Leela Mohana Reddy, author of the study.

"[Lithium-ion batteries aren't] environmentally friendly. They use cathodes of lithium cobalt oxide, which are very expensive. You have to mine the cobalt metal and manufacture the cathodes in a high-temperature environment. There are a lot of costs."

While current lithium-ion batteries are recycled and reused in huge numbers (and lead-acid batteries are the world's most recycled product), Reddy also explains that extracting the cobalt from batteries, during the recycling process, is quite energy-intensive.

The discovery that purpurin was a suitable alternative came during testing different organic molecules for their ability to interact with lithium ions.

Purpurin turned out to be most suitable. 20 percent carbon is added to increase conductivity, and the cathodes can even be made at room temperature. Better still, some of the purpurin used in future could be harvested from agricultural waste.

In addition to the organic cathodes, the team is working on finding organic materials suitable for anodes, and an electrolyte that doesn't break the molecules down. A working prototype of a completely organic battery could be completed in only a few years.

As with other battery technologies, we await the team's results with interest. It's good to see that, in addition to improving a battery's performance, work is still being done to make them greener, too.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best auto bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger,?click here.?To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link in the blog description box above.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/BG8EYQb9vR4/Can-garden-herbs-improve-your-car-battery

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