Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider: Obama recess appointees face calls for resignation

Republicans in Congress are demanding that two members of the National Labor Relations Board and the head of a new consumer financial watchdog agency resign their posts in the Obama Administration, as Political Washington tries to digest a sweeping appeals court ruling that would drastically limit the power of a President to use "recess appointments." ?

"As someone who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, I ask that you resign immediately," wrote Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) on Friday to Richard Griffin, a member of the NLRB who was installed in that position by President Obama in January of 2012.

Griffin's recess appointment, as well as that of a second NLRB member, was declared unconstitutional on Friday by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., which said that President Obama had wrongly installed his picks when the Senate was not actually in recess.

That outcome was expected by some legal scholars, since the standard procedure in recent years has been that a President can install nominees through recess appointments when the Senate has left town on an official adjournment; in this case, the Senate was meeting every three days as required in the Constitution.

But this ruling, which can be read here, went one big step further, by saying that no President can make a recess appointment during a session of Congress, but only in between sessions, when the House and Senate are not in Washington, D.C.

That decision runs against a number of years of expanding Presidential use of recess appointments, which are often deployed "intrasession" - that is, during recesses which occur while the Congress is in session.

"The available evidence shows that no President attempted to make an intrasession recess appointment for 80 years after the Constitution was ratified," the three member appeals panel wrote in this decision, which would seemingly take Presidential powers in this arena back to the original years of the Founding Fathers.

"Presidents made only three documented intrasession recess appointments prior to 1947," the judges wrote in their decision, saying the first was by Andrew Johnson in 1867, "with the other two coming during the presidencies of Calvin Coolidge and Warren Harding."

Despite the decision, the two NLRB members involved in this case weren't giving up their seats, and the board rejected the idea that its actions for the past year could all be found invalid as a result.

"The Board respectfully disagrees with today?s decision and believes that the President?s position in the matter will ultimately be upheld," said NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce.

At this point, the Obama Administration could appeal the decision to the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, or go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Also in play here is President Obama's choice to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Board, Richard Cordray, who also was recess appointed to that position at the same time as the NLRB officials.

The White House rejected any assertion that any of those appointments could be called into question by this ruling, though spokesman Jay Carney stopped short of announcing an appeal of the decision.

"There have been, according to the Congressional Research Service, something like 280-plus intrasession recess appointments by, again, Democratic and Republican administrations, dating back to 1867," Carney told reporters.

"That?s a long time and quite a significant precedent," he added.

While Carney is correct, the President's timing for his recess appointments was controversial for another reason, because the Senate was not technically out of session.

Yes, no legislative business was being conducted, but the Senate was meeting every few days in "pro-forma" sessions to satisfy requirements in the Constitution, a technique that had been used by Democrats in 2007 and 2008 to prevent more recess appointments by President George W. Bush.

"Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days," is what the Constitution says.

~

Readers of my blog and listeners to my news reports are familiar with my observations from Capitol Hill that Republicans and Democrats often change their arguments on certain issues, not based upon the facts of the matter involved, but on whether their party is in power in the White House or the Congress.

The filibuster is a good example of that; the party that tries to limit the filibuster routinely is the party that is in majority control of the Senate. The minority loves the filibuster, except when they are in the majority in future years.

And so, when it comes to limits on Presidential power to make a recess appointment, the parties alternately raise hell or stay quiet depending on whether their party controls the White House as the earlier example cited above, when Democrats used pro-forma sessions in the Senate to block Bush recess picks back in 2007 and 2008.

In this case, Democrats have kept quiet about the Obama recess appointments which were ruled unconstitutional, but a few years ago, we had the exact opposite situation, when Democrats challenged?recess appointments to the circuit court of Appeals by President George W. Bush; the courts ultimately upheld the Bush appointment of William Pryor.

And round and round we go.

Where this stops - maybe the U.S. Supreme Court.

Source: http://www.krmg.com/weblogs/jamie-dupree/2013/jan/27/obama-recess-appointees-face-calls-resignation/

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Pale Blue Blobs Invade, Freeze, Then Vanish

It's a lake, yes. But it's also a bomb. Those pale blue blobs, stacked like floating pancakes down at the bottom of this photograph? They're astonishingly beautiful, yes, but they can be dangerous.

Courtesy of Emmanuel Coupe Kalomiris

They are gas bubbles, little hiccups of methane that look magical when they're trapped in winter ice, but come the spring, those bubbles will loosen, get free, and like an armada of deep-water flying saucers, they will make their way to the surface. When the ice breaks they will pop and fizz into the air ? and disappear.

Except they don't really disappear. Once they hit air, methane bubbles make trouble. How much trouble depends on how many bubbles get released all over the planet. In this one lake, there are thousands, tens of thousands of them, as you can see. But in the oceans, they are bigger ? much bigger.

Where Does Methane Come From?

Methane gas comes from leaves (and trees and grass even dead animals) dropping into the water, where they sink to the bottom and get munched on by bacteria that poop out methane, producing that familiar "marsh gas" smell. Some gas is much older, squeezed out of ancient oceans or from deep down near the Earth's mantle. When that older methane rises to the surface and bumps into freezing lake or ocean water, it fuses into a hard white substance called methane hydrate, a white, pasty rock. As long as it's frozen at the lake bottom, the gas is trapped, but when it warms, the gas fizzles out of the rock or mud, forming these lava lamp clumps that float up in six, seven, ten foot columns, like this ...

Courtesy of Emmanuel Coupe Kalomiris

When those bubbles reach the surface, what happens? Nothing you can see, but when Katey Walter Anthony, an ecology professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, takes her students to Alaskan lakes, she pours a little hot water on the ice to melt a hole, then she takes ? I think it's a butane lighter, I'm not sure, and in this video you'll see her flicking something, and then ... whoosh! Parents shouldn't look. But it's pretty crazy ...

There are thousands more lakes in Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and Siberia. Temperatures in the arctic have been warming much faster than temperatures closer to the equator, which means the permafrost below is melting and producing more methane emissions. Methane is a greenhouse gas; when it gets into the atmosphere it captures some of the sunshine bouncing off the Earth, traps that heat and warms us up. Too much methane in the sky means we get warmer, faster ? not a good thing.

But bubbly as the lakes are, they may not be our biggest problem.

Courtesy of Emmanuel Coupe Kalomiris

Look at any one of these flat little lake-trapped pancakes, and now imagine one 3,000 feet wide ? more than a half a mile across. Gargantuan methane bubbles do exist. Not in lakes, but in the Arctic Ocean. No one had ever seen them that big, or measured them until a couple of summers ago a Russian researcher Igor Semiletov and his wife Nadia, working with an American team, found more than a hundred of them in a small section of the arctic sea off Siberia.

Gargantuan Bubbles Found Off Siberia

"These are methane fields on a scale not seen before," he reported. "In a very small area, less than 10,000 square miles, we have counted more than 100 fountains, or torch-like structures, bubbling through the water column." he said.

National Oceanography Centre

Multiply these findings across the arctic and we've got an obvious problem. If all that extra methane keeps escaping, it will extra-warm the air, which will extra-warm the oceans, which will extra-melt the sea beds, which will extra-release more methane, which will warm the air even more, and then we're in a pickle. But since we've only recently found these oversized ocean plumes we don't know if they're really extra bubbles ? or ordinary. Are they a global warming phenomenon? Or have they been burping for thousands of years? Natalai Shakhova, a scientist at the University of Alaska's International Arctic Research Center, thinks they may be new, or newish.

"The concentration of atmospheric methane," she told The [London] Independent, "increased up to three times in the past two centuries from 0.7 parts per million to 1.7 ppm, and in the Arctic to 1.9 ppm. That's a huge increase, between two and three times, and this has never happened in the history of the planet," she says. Scientist Igor Dmitrenko, seconded by New York Times blogger Andy Revkin, aren't so sure. The evidence, they say, suggests these bubbles have been around for 6,000 years. Nobody really knows.

So, yes, we've got something new to worry about. Methane doesn't stay in the sky as long as CO₂, but when it up there, it's a potent greenhouse gas. (It's also a cleaner, cheaper fuel than coal, so it has its fans ? not to mention its extraordinary beauty when frozen).

Courtesy of Emmanuel Coupe Kalomiris

No pollutant has ever looked so lovely. If I were a gorgeous lump of coal, a glistening oil drop, or a classy lump of tar, one glance of Emmanuel Coupe Kalomiris' gorgeous photos and I'd hide under my pillow. Methane's scary, but when it's frozen ? it's so hot.

I asked photographer Emmanuel Coupe Kalomiris (who generously lent us his bubble pictures) what it was like to go to Lake Abraham in Alberta. He says it's very dry there, it hardly ever snows ? that's why he got such clear shots of the lake water. He used crampons to keep from falling. "It is very slippery, as you can imagine," he wrote me, and ice thickness varies. In most places the ice was 2, 4, even 10 inches thick, but there were also cracks and fissures and you don't want to get too close to those. Photographers from all over go to Lake Abraham to shoot the bubbles and a bunch of their best pictures ? Coupe's included ? are collected here.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/30/170661670/pale-blue-blobs-invade-freeze-then-vanish?ft=1&f=1007

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Focus turns to Brazil club safety after fire

SANTA MARIA, Brazil (AP) ? There was no alarm, no extinguishers, no sprinklers and almost no escape from the nightclub that became a death trap for more than 200 Brazilian college students.

As investigators began poking through the rubble and families mourned their dead, questions abounded as the university city in southern Brazil tried to understand how the Sunday morning blaze that killed 231 people could have been sparked in the first place, then rage rapidly out of control.

Why was there only one door available for exit and entry? What was the flammable material in the ceiling that allowed the conflagration to move so quickly? And, more pointedly, why was a band playing at the club allowed to use pyrotechnics inside the building?

Police were leaning toward the band's pyrotechnics as the cause of the blaze during a party at the Kiss nightclub organized by several academic departments at the Federal University of Santa Maria. Inspector Antonio Firmino, who's part of the team investigating the fire, said it appeared the club's ceiling was covered with an insulating foam made from a combustible material that ignited with the pyrotechnics.

Firmino said the number and state of the exits is under investigation but that it appeared that a second door was "inadequate," as it was small and protected by bars that wouldn't open.

The disaster, the worst fire of its kind in more than a decade, also raises questions of whether Brazilian authorities are up to the task of ensuring safety in such venues ahead of it hosting next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

Some critics have said conditions in many Brazilian bars and clubs are ripe for another deadly blaze. They say that in addition to modernizing sometimes outdated safety codes and ensuring sufficient inspectors, people must change their way of thinking and respect safety regulations.

Hundreds of people marched peacefully outside the nightclub Monday night to remember the victims, and demand justice. Some carried signs with slogans such as, "May God's justice be carried out."

"We hope that the justice system, through its competent mechanisms, succeeds in clarifying to the public what happened, and gives the people an explanation," said marcher Eglon Do Canto.

Brazilian police said they detained three people Monday in connection with the blaze, while the newspaper O Globo said on its website that a fourth person had surrendered to police. Police Inspector Ranolfo Vieira Junior said the detentions were part of the ongoing police probe and those detained can be held for up to five days.

Vieira declined to identify those detained, but local media has identified them as two co-owners of the club, and two members of the band that was using a spark machine inside the building when the fire erupted.

According to state safety codes here, clubs should have one fire extinguisher every 1,500 square feet as well as multiple emergency exits. Limits on the number of people admitted are to be strictly respected. None of that appears to have happened at the Santa Maria nightclub.

"A problem in Brazil is that there is no control of how many people are admitted in a building," said Joao Daniel Nunes, a civil engineer in nearby Porto Alegre. "They never are clearly stated, and nobody controls how many people enter these night clubs."

Rodrigo Martins, a guitarist for the group Gurizada Fandangueira, told Globo TV network in an interview Monday that the flames broke out minutes after the employment of a pyrotechnic machine that fans out colored sparks, at around 2:30 a.m. local time.

"I felt that something was falling from the roof and I looked up and I saw the fire was spreading, and I shouted 'Look, it's catching on fire, man, it's catching fire,'" Martins said. "Then the drummer tried to throw water on it, and it looked like the fire spread more then. Then the security guards came with an extinguisher, tried to use it, but it didn't work."

He added that the club was packed and estimated the crowd at about 1,200-1,300 people.

"I thought I was going to die there. There was nothing I could do, with the fire spreading and people screaming in front."

Standing next to the stage when the fire broke out, Rodrigo Rizzi, a first-year nursing student, watched the tragedy unfold.

"I was right there, so even though I was far from the door, at least I realized something was wrong," he said. "Others, who couldn't see the stage, never had a chance. They never saw it coming."

As he headed toward the door, the air turned dense and dark with smoke; there was no light, nothing pointing to the single exit. Rizzi found himself clawing through a panicked crowd that surged blindly toward the door.

"I was halfway across the floor, I could see the door, but the air turned black with this thick smoke," he said. "I couldn't breathe. People started to panic and run toward the door. They were falling, screaming, pulling at each other."

Witnesses said security guards who didn't know about the blaze initially blocked people from leaving without paying their bills. Brazilian bars routinely make patrons pay their entire tab at the end of the night before they're allowed to leave.

Inside the club, metal barriers meant to organize the lines of people entering and leaving became traps, corralling desperate patrons within yards of the exit. Bodies piled up against the grates, smothered and broken by the crushing mob.

About 50 of the victims were found in the club's two bathrooms, where the blinding smoke caused them to believe the doors were exits.

Martins confirmed that the group's accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other band members made it out safely. Martins said he thought Jacques made it out of the building and later returned to save his accordion.

The first funeral services were held Monday for the victims, including brothers Pedro and Mercello Salle. Most of the dead were college students 18 to 21 years old, but they also included some minors. Almost all died from smoke inhalation rather than burns.

National Health Minister Alexandre Padilha cautioned that the death toll could worsen dramatically, telling news media in Santa Maria on Monday that 75 of those injured were in critical condition and could die.

Santa Maria Mayor Cezar Schirmer declared a 30-day mourning period, and Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said officials were investigating the cause of the disaster.

The blaze was the deadliest in Brazil since at least 1961, when a fire that swept through a circus killed 503 people in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.

Sunday's fire also appeared to be the worst at a nightclub anywhere in the world since December 2000, when a welding accident reportedly set off a fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309 people.

___

Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja contributed to this report from Brasilia, Brazil, Stan Lehman and Bradley Brooks contributed from Sao Paulo and Jenny Barchfield contributed from Rio de Janeiro.

___

Associated Press video:

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/focus-turns-brazil-club-safety-fire-073637802.html

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Targeting Energy Metabolism in Brain Cancer

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Source: http://blog.kir.com/?p=6861

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Foursquare gives business owners their own app to manage specials, track customer visits

Foursquare just recently tweaked its privacy policy to share more user information with local businesses, and it looks like it's already putting some of that data to use in a new app now that the policy has gone into effect. Launched today for the iPhone and iPod touch, Foursquare for Business is just that -- an app designed for business owners instead of customers. In addition to letting managers upload new photos and refresh their specials regularly, it'll also give them a peek into customer activity at their business (or businesses), including information on check-ins and the ability to keep an eye on their top customers. As Foursquare notes in its privacy policy, though, you can opt out of having that check-in information visible to businesses in the app's privacy settings.

Filed under: Software, Mobile

Comments

Via: About Foursquare

Source: iTunes, Foursquare Blog

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/IcFfTA2BJpE/

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Australian PM surprises with September election call

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard set national elections for September 14, stunning voters on Wednesday with eight months notice of the vote in a bold move designed to end political uncertainty surrounding her struggling minority government.

The election date means Gillard's government will serve a full three-year term, although analysts said the early notice meant she had started an eight-month campaign and lost her ability catch opposition leader Tony Abbott by surprise with a snap early poll.

"She's going for the strategy than an incumbent can wear out a fragile, or potentially fragile, opponent with a long campaign. The idea is for them to punch themselves out," analyst Paul Williams from Griffith University told Reuters.

"In this case, Tony Abbott and the opposition are so well entrenched it will backfire."

Opinion polls show Abbott's opposition Liberal-National party is well ahead of the government and Gillard would be swept from office, losing up to 18 seats, if an election were held now. The government could lose power if it loses just one seat.

The election will decide whether Australia keeps its controversial carbon tax, and a 30 percent tax on coal and iron ore mining profits, which Abbott has promised to scrap it if he wins power.

But apart from these two policy differences, the government and opposition differ little on domestic issues, and both firmly support greater involvement with China, the country's biggest trade partner, and close defense ties with the United States.

The financial markets were unmoved by the announcement. The Australian dollar remained firm, hitting its highest level against the Japanese yen in over four years. The share market reached a fresh 21-month high and government bonds were steady.

Abbott said he was ready to fight the election, adding it would be decided on Gillard's credibility. "This election will be about trust," he said, hinting he will focus on Gillard's broken promise not to introduce a carbon tax and failure to deliver a promised budget surplus this year.

Abbott has successfully eroded government support through his constant negative attacks, but has yet to make any detailed policy announcements. He will make his first major 2013 speech on Thursday.

LITTLE IMPACT ON BUSINESS

Business said it welcomed the early announcement of the election date, but said it would not have much of an impact on certainty given the date fell within the normal election timing.

"Its real value is the knowledge that the last quarter of the year will be uninterrupted by an election," said Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson.

Gillard currently governs with support from a group of independents and the Greens, who all support the September 14 election. That means she has locked in majority support until the election, although a sudden by-election could still change the balance if a lawmaker dies.

Under Australian laws, governments serve for up to three years and the prime minister decides the election date. Gillard said she wanted to end political uncertainty by setting a date.

"It is not right for Australians to be forced into a guessing game, and it's not right for Australians to not face this year with certainty and stability," she said in a speech to the National Press club.

Her speech laid the groundwork for an election year battle focused on the economy, arguing that a strong economy is necessary to ensure fairness in education and disability services -- two key policies aimed at Labor heartland voters.

Gillard said the governor-general would dissolve the current parliament on August 12, giving the government two more sessions of parliament to pass laws and deliver its May budget.

Australia's resource economy is expected to slow this year as a stubbornly high currency crimps export earnings and a boom in mining investment plateaus. Australia's A$1.5 trillion ($1.53 trillion) economy has grown for the past 22 years and has overtaken Spain as the world's 12th largest.

Though the government has dropped its pledge to reach a budget surplus for 2012/13, any deficit is still likely to be a fraction of the economy's A$1.5 trillion in annual economic output and no worry to investors.

(Additional reporting by Janes Wardell and Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Michael Perry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/australian-pm-surprises-september-election-call-021906155--business.html

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Stock index futures point to slightly lower start

LONDON (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.1 percent.

Futures for the Dow Jones were flat, while contracts on the Nasdaq 100 shed 0.2 percent at 04.47 a.m. EST.

European shares edged up to hover near two-year highs, with strong earnings reports and a brightening economic outlook lifting sentiment, although technical factors could limit gains in the near term.

Yahoo Inc said it forecasts a modest uptick in revenue for the current year, sending shares in the Internet group 3 percent higher in after hours trade.

The second-largest U.S. automaker, Ford, is expected to report earnings per share of $0.26, up from $0.20 one year earlier, when it unveils fourth-quarter results at 1200 GMT. Ford, which is heavily reliant on its pickup trucks for profits, is bound to benefit from an uptick in construction this year.

Drugmaker Pfizer is expected to report EPS of $0.44, down from $0.50 in the previous year, on plunging U.S. sales of its Lipitor cholesterol drug - which is facing generic competition since November 2011 - and disappointing demand for its Prevnar vaccine against childhood infections.

Online retailer Amazon.com reports results for the holiday quarter. They were expected to show strong sales growth, tempered by little to no profit as the world's largest Internet retailer spent heavily on its Kindle mobile gadget platform, cloud computing service and its rapidly expanding chain of shipping warehouses.

Standard & Poor's releases its S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index for November at 1400 GMT. Prices are expected to have continued their recovery, up 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, pointing to a housing market that is mending.

The Conference Board releases January consumer confidence figures at 1500 GMT, expected to have fallen to 64 from 65.1. The market will be looking for any impact from the "fiscal cliff" debate or the payroll tax increases at the beginning of the year.

The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee begins two days of meetings on interest rates. Traders speculated more solid U.S. growth indicators might see the Fed pull back on its aggressive easing stimulus, which has played a key role in fuelling an equity market rally since the second half of last year.

Elon Musk has long considered Tesla Motors Inc the bold, nimble answer to the auto industry's cautious culture. Now the electric car maker's top executive has extended his help to another industrial giant: Boeing Co .

Pentagon and industry officials said on Monday a manufacturing problem was the most likely cause of an engine failure that led to the grounding of all 25 Marine Corps versions of the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet 10 days ago.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> closed down 14.05 points, or 0.10 percent, at 13,881.93 on Monday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 2.78 points, or 0.18 percent, at 1,500.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 4.59 points, or 0.15 percent, at 3,154.30.

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-index-futures-point-slightly-lower-start-100233662--finance.html

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New look at cell membrane reveals surprising organization

Jan. 28, 2013 ? Sight would dramatically alter a blind man's understanding of an elephant, according to the old story. Now, a look directly at a cell surface is changing our understanding of cell membrane organization.?

Using a completely new approach to imaging cell membranes, a study by researchers from the University of Illinois, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Institutes of Health revealed some surprising relationships among molecules within cell membranes.

Led by Mary Kraft, a U. of I. professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, the team published its findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cells are enveloped in semi-permeable membranes that act as a barrier between the inside and outside of the cell. The membrane is mainly composed of a class of molecules called lipids, studded with proteins that help regulate how the cell responds to its environment.

"Lipids have multiple functions serving as both membrane structure and signaling molecules, so they regulate other functions inside the cell," Kraft said. "Therefore, understanding how they're organized is important. You need to know where they are to figure out how they're doing these regulatory functions."

One widely held belief among cell biologists is that lipids in the membrane assemble into patches, called domains, that differ in composition. However, research into how lipids are organized in the membrane, and how that organization affects cell function, has been hampered by the lack of direct observation. Although the cell membrane is heavily studied, the imaging techniques used infer the locations of certain molecules based on assumed associations with other molecules.

In the new study, Kraft's team used an advanced, molecule-specific imaging method that allowed the researchers to look at the membrane itself and map a particular type of lipid on mouse cell membranes. The researchers fed lipids labeled with rare stable isotopes to the cells and then imaged the distribution of the isotopes with high-resolution imaging mass spectrometry.

Called sphingolipids (SFING-go-lih-pids), these molecules are thought to associate with cholesterol to form small domains about 200 nanometers across. The direct imaging method revealed that sphingolipids do indeed form domains, but not in the way the researchers expected.

The domains were much bigger than suggested by prior experiments. The 200-nanometer domains clustered together to form much larger, micrometer-sized patches of sphingolipids in the membrane.

"We were amazed when we saw the first images of the patches of sphingolipids across the cell surface," said Peter Weber, who directed the team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. "We weren't sure if our imaging mass spectrometry method would be sensitive enough to detect the labeled lipids, let alone what we would see."

Furthermore, when the researchers looked at cells that were low on cholesterol -- thought to play a key role in lipid aggregation -- they were surprised to find that the lipids still formed domains. On the other hand, disruption to the cell's structural scaffold seemed to dissolve the lipid clusters.

"We found that the presence of domains was somewhat affected by cholesterol but was more affected by the cytoskeleton -- the protein network underneath the membrane," Kraft said. "The central issue is that the data are suggesting that the mechanism that's responsible for these domains is much more complicated than initially expected."

In addition, the new study found that sphingolipids domains were incompletely associated with a marker protein that researchers have long assumed dwelled where sphingolipids congregated. This means that data collected with imaging techniques that target this protein are not as accurate in representing sphingolipid distribution as previously thought.

"Our data are showing that if you want to know where sphingolipids are, look at the lipid, don't infer where it is based on other molecules, and now there's a way to directly image them," said Kraft, who also is affiliated with the department of chemistry at the U. of I.

Next, the researchers plan to use the direct-imaging method in conjunction with other more conventional methods, such as fluorescence, to further determine the organization of different kinds of molecules in the membrane, their interactions and how they affect the cell's function. They plan to begin by targeting cholesterol.

"Cholesterol abundance is important," Kraft said. "You change that, you tremendously change cell function. How is it organized? Is it also in domains? That's related to the question, what's the mechanism responsible for these structures and what are they doing?"

The National Institutes of Health, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the National Science Foundation and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund supported this work. Co-author Joshua Zimmerberg directed research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Jessica F. Frisz, Kaiyan Lou, Haley A. Klitzing, William P. Hanafin, Vladimir Lizunov, Robert L. Wilson, Kevin J. Carpenter, Raehyun Kim, Ian D. Hutcheon, Joshua Zimmerberg, Peter K. Weber, and Mary L. Kraft. Direct chemical evidence for sphingolipid domains in the plasma membranes of fibroblasts. PNAS, January 28, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1216585110

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/~3/dlLKi0xDQOg/130128151924.htm

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Bank of America Shifts PR Duties to Burson-Marsteller | Agency ...

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Source: http://adage.com/article/agency-news/bank-america-shifts-pr-duties-burson-marsteller/239446/

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These Tips Are Way Better Than Googling - The Official Site Of ...

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Internet marketing can be a personal business strategy for your business. It involves particular needs of your business, along with online promotion. This vast world has so many strategies, tools, and techniques, that it can seem a bit confusing as to where you need to begin. These tips can help you make sense of the confusion.

In Internet Marketing is it important to find a way to get your visitors to leave their email addresses and build a mailing list. Add a box to your page for people to sign up, or leave a sign up page at your physical address. Use the mailing list wisely though and avoid sending out too much mail or people will stop reading it. Make sure to include a way for people to unsubscribe as well.

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Internet Marketing Involves Many Methods

To help you with internet marketing methods, keep a pen and paper handy. While it may sound counterintuitive when discussing internet marketing, keeping something nearby to jot down ideas helps. If your site focuses on unique content such as a blog, writing down those spur of the moment ideas may trigger a great post later that really drives visits to your site.

One of the best things that you can do for your site is to market your product in forums. This can increase the visibility that you have and will not cost any money towards your budget. Also, you can use forums to gauge the customer?s likes and dislikes for your services and what you need to improve.

A well-optimized website is one with flawless CSS language. This is due to search engines becoming more and more discriminating in their indexing procedures. Today search engines examine the style sheets along with all the rest of a website?s content and machinery. Up-to-date website owners will use free tools to check the validity of their CSS pages. A broken CSS page can cost a website valuable search engine ranking.

In Internet Marketing You Need a Positive Attitude

Stay positive. Things will go wrong. The search engines will change their algorithms, one of your joint venture partners will go bankrupt or any one of a long list of problems. But you?ve got to stay positive and have a good mental attitude that believes you can handle whatever is coming your way.

Be sure to keep yourself well informed before you decide to start an internet marketing plan. When you know information before starting the project it will help you to avoid many of the common problems that people fall into. This will lead to a higher chance of success and profit.

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Content is King in Internet Marketing

Get good content for your internet marketing website. Content is what people come to your site for in the first place. Offer them something relevant to their wants and needs that benefits them. Before trying to sell your product or service, give your site visitors something that will make them want to stay around.

While internet marketing can be a personal business strategy, it does have the main goal of successfully marketing your business products and services. As you have seen in these tips, there are various approaches, but they are all created around the idea of making your business much more successful online.

Start your Internet Marketing Career Here!

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Stem cells aid recovery from stroke

Public release date: 27-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Hilary Glover
hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com
44-020-319-22370
BioMed Central

Stem cells from bone marrow or fat improve recovery after stroke in rats, finds a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy. Treatment with stem cells improved the amount of brain and nerve repair and the ability of the animals to complete behavioural tasks.

Stem cell therapy holds promise for patients but there are many questions which need to be answered, regarding treatment protocols and which cell types to use. This research attempts to address some of these questions.

Rats were treated intravenously with stem cells or saline 30 minutes after a stroke. At 24 hours after stroke the stem cell treated rats showed a better functional recovery. By two weeks these animals had near normal scores in the tests. This improvement was seen even though the stem cells did not appear to migrate to the damaged area of brain. The treated rats also had higher levels of biomarkers implicated in brain repair including, the growth factor VEGF.

A positive result was seen for both fat (adipose) and bone-marrow derived stem cells. Dr Exuperio Dez-Tejedor from La Paz University Hospital, explained, "Improved recovery was seen regardless of origin of the stem cells, which may increase the usefulness of this treatment in human trials. Adipose-derived cells in particular are abundant and easy to collect without invasive surgery."

###

Media Contact

Dr Hilary Glover
Scientific Press Officer, BioMed Central
Mob: 44-778-698-1967

Notes

1. Effects of intravenous administration of allogenic bone marrow- and adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells on functional recovery and brain repair markers in experimental ischemic stroke
Mara Gutirrez-Fernndez, Berta Rodrguez-Frutos, Jaime Ramos-Cejudo, M Teresa Vallejo-Cremades, Blanca Fuentes, Sebastin Cerdn and Exuperio Dez-Tejedor
Stem Cell Research & Therapy (in press)

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

Article citation and URL available on request on the day of publication.

2. Stem Cell Research & Therapy is the major forum for translational research into stem cell therapies. An international peer-reviewed journal, it publishes high quality open access research articles with a special emphasis on basic, translational and clinical research into stem cell therapeutics and regenerative therapies, including animal models and clinical trials. The journal also provides reviews, viewpoints, commentaries and reports.

3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral

---

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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-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Hilary Glover
hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com
44-020-319-22370
BioMed Central

Stem cells from bone marrow or fat improve recovery after stroke in rats, finds a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy. Treatment with stem cells improved the amount of brain and nerve repair and the ability of the animals to complete behavioural tasks.

Stem cell therapy holds promise for patients but there are many questions which need to be answered, regarding treatment protocols and which cell types to use. This research attempts to address some of these questions.

Rats were treated intravenously with stem cells or saline 30 minutes after a stroke. At 24 hours after stroke the stem cell treated rats showed a better functional recovery. By two weeks these animals had near normal scores in the tests. This improvement was seen even though the stem cells did not appear to migrate to the damaged area of brain. The treated rats also had higher levels of biomarkers implicated in brain repair including, the growth factor VEGF.

A positive result was seen for both fat (adipose) and bone-marrow derived stem cells. Dr Exuperio Dez-Tejedor from La Paz University Hospital, explained, "Improved recovery was seen regardless of origin of the stem cells, which may increase the usefulness of this treatment in human trials. Adipose-derived cells in particular are abundant and easy to collect without invasive surgery."

###

Media Contact

Dr Hilary Glover
Scientific Press Officer, BioMed Central
Mob: 44-778-698-1967

Notes

1. Effects of intravenous administration of allogenic bone marrow- and adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells on functional recovery and brain repair markers in experimental ischemic stroke
Mara Gutirrez-Fernndez, Berta Rodrguez-Frutos, Jaime Ramos-Cejudo, M Teresa Vallejo-Cremades, Blanca Fuentes, Sebastin Cerdn and Exuperio Dez-Tejedor
Stem Cell Research & Therapy (in press)

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

Article citation and URL available on request on the day of publication.

2. Stem Cell Research & Therapy is the major forum for translational research into stem cell therapies. An international peer-reviewed journal, it publishes high quality open access research articles with a special emphasis on basic, translational and clinical research into stem cell therapeutics and regenerative therapies, including animal models and clinical trials. The journal also provides reviews, viewpoints, commentaries and reports.

3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral

---

[ | 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/2013-01/bc-sca012513.php

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GOLDMAN&#39;S JIM O&#39;NEILL: Facebook Is To Blame ... - Business Insider

Every once in a while, since the economic crisis started, the phrase "currency wars" pops up.

It just means central banks trying to weaken their currencies (to make their countries more competitive) and other countries complaining about said weakening. It's not really that weird or that war-like.

Lately Japan has been the big easer, and interestingly some of the loudest complaints have come from the Germans, in part because Germans love hard money, but probably more likely because Germany is a big export powerhouse that could lose out if the Euro gets too strong against the yen.

And in fact, EURJPY has been going bananas, as the Euro is on a huge tear, and the yen is on just the opposite.

Here's a chart of the euro against the yen. It's been a rocket ride.

EURJPY via Bloomberg

So yes, that chart is not helpful to German exporters, but that's only half the story.

In his weekend note, Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs Asset Management partially blames the currency war on the "Facebook Times" because there's ever more interest in politicians saying soundbite things about economics that can go viral, and get posted by anyone with an internet connection.

Says O'Neill:

The Return of the Phrase ?Currency Wars?. Yet Another Sign of the ?Facebook Times?.

With the sharp fall of the Yen starting to get more and more attention and comment, one aspect that is back to the forefront is the notion of so-called ?currency wars? and the accusation that this time it is Japan that is supposedly engaging in them, with publicly the German policymakers, so far, being the most vocal on the topic. Some considerable time ago, I devoted a Viewpoint to the same topic when the Brazilian finance minister accused both Washington and Beijing at various times of similar supposed currency manipulation efforts, and just like them, I am going to be dismissive of such accusations.

At times, many countries and their governments do deliberately engage in efforts to change the price of their currency. It is quite amusing to read any continental European policymaker making such accusations when ? for much of floating rate history ? their own currencies have been managed very closely in semi-formal exchange rate systems, and, of course, today a large number of them kept in a formal monetary union, which, as we all know, has required intense focus and energy to keep alive. For most of the prevailing life between the end of floating in 1971 and the start of the European Monetary Union (EMU) in 1999, the Deutschmark versus the French Franc was held in very narrow ranges, except for the occasional FFR 2 devaluation and other occasional bouts of turbulence. Was that not currency manipulation?

I don?t recall either Chancellor Merkel or the Bundesbank recently accusing the Swiss authorities of deliberately manipulating the Swiss Franc?

Of course, much of what is often said, especially by a politician, is to use populist notions to either distract or sometimes attract attention to something that suits their purpose. And of course, it is especially easy and persistently tempting in this world of instant access to the internet and blogs where anyone can offer a view about almost anything.

Basically, 'currency wars' is a silly phrase with huge viral potential.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-jim-oneill-facebook-is-to-blame-for-the-outbreak-of-global-currency-wars-2013-1

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Royal Rumble 2013 results

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2012 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2012 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble/2013/royal-rumble-2013-results

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Video: Republicans, Democrats to reduce Senate gridlock

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50585525/

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North Korea warns of 'war' over sanctions

Jung Yeon-Je / AFP - Getty Images

South Korean soldiers patrol along a fence in Paju near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas Friday.

By Jack Kim, Reuters

SEOUL ? North Korea threatened Friday to attack rival South Korea if Seoul joined a new round of tightened U.N. sanctions, saying it would regard this as "a declaration of war."

The reclusive North has this week declared a boycott of all dialogue aimed at ending its nuclear program and vowed to conduct more rocket and nuclear tests after the U.N. Security Council censured it for a December long-range missile launch.

---

On Thursday, Washington unveiled more of its own economic restrictions following Pyongyang's rocket launch last month.

Friday brought a third straight day of fiery rhetoric from the isolated communist state, this time directed against South Korea.

"'Sanctions' mean a war and a declaration of war against us," the North said.

"If the puppet group of traitors takes a direct part in the U.N. 'sanctions,' the DPRK [North Korea] will take strong physical counter-measures against it," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said, referring to the South.

The committee is the North's front for dealings with the South. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea's December rocket launch on Tuesday and expanded existing U.N. sanctions.

On Thursday, the United States slapped economic sanctions on two North Korean bank officials and a Hong Kong trading company that it accused of supporting Pyongyang's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The company, Leader (Hong Kong) International Trading Ltd, was separately blacklisted by the United Nations on Wednesday.

Seoul has said it will look at whether there are any further sanctions that it can implement alongside the United States, but said the focus for now is to follow Security Council resolutions.

The resolution said the council "deplores the violations" by North Korea of its previous resolutions, which banned Pyongyang from conducting further ballistic missile and nuclear tests and from importing materials and technology for those programs. It does not impose new sanctions on Pyongyang.

San Francisco in range?
The United States had wanted to punish North Korea for the rocket launch with a Security Council resolution that imposed entirely new sanctions against Pyongyang, but Beijing rejected that option. China agreed to U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang after North Korea's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

North Korea's rhetoric this week amounted to some of the angriest outbursts against the outside world coming under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, who took over after the death of his father Kim Jong Il in late 2011.

Elizabeth Dalziel / AP

From work to play, see pictures from inside the secretive country.

On Thursday, the North said it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test, directing its ire at the United States, a country it called its "sworn enemy."

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the comments were worrying.

"We are very concerned with North Korea's continuing provocative behavior," he said at a Pentagon news conference. "We are fully prepared ... to deal with any kind of provocation from the North Koreans. But I hope in the end that they determine that it is better to make a choice to become part of the international family."

North Korea is not believed to have the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States, although its December launch showed it had the capacity to deliver a rocket that could travel 6,200 miles, potentially putting San Francisco in range, according to an intelligence assessment by South Korea.

The foreign ministry of China, the North's sole remaining major diplomatic and economic benefactor, repeated its call for calm on the Korean peninsula at its daily briefing on Friday.

"We hope all relevant parties can see the big picture, maintain calm and restraint, further maintain contact and dialogue, and improve relations, while not taking actions to further complicate and escalate the situation,"?spokesman Hong Lei said.

Related:

North Korea: Rocket launches, nuclear tests will 'target' US

North Korea's poets of propaganda stay true to their muse despite world's laughter

ANALYSIS: 'Spoiled child' North Korea snubs key ally China with rocket test

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/25/16693367-north-korea-sanctions-by-south-would-be-declaration-of-war?lite

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Family, church struggle to understand NM slayings

Nehemiah Griego, 15, is seen in an undated photo provided by the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Deptartment. Griego is charged with killing five family members on Jan. 19, 2013, including his father, mother, and three youngest siblings in Albuquerque, N.M. Authorities in New Mexico say Griego had reloaded his guns after the attacks and planned to go to a Wal-Mart and randomly shoot people. Instead, they say he texted a picture of his dead mother to his 12-year-old girlfriend, then spent much of Saturday with her. The two went to the church where his father had been a pastor, and Griego eventually confessed to killing his parents and three younger siblings. (AP Photo/Bernalillo County Sheriff's Deptartment)

Nehemiah Griego, 15, is seen in an undated photo provided by the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Deptartment. Griego is charged with killing five family members on Jan. 19, 2013, including his father, mother, and three youngest siblings in Albuquerque, N.M. Authorities in New Mexico say Griego had reloaded his guns after the attacks and planned to go to a Wal-Mart and randomly shoot people. Instead, they say he texted a picture of his dead mother to his 12-year-old girlfriend, then spent much of Saturday with her. The two went to the church where his father had been a pastor, and Griego eventually confessed to killing his parents and three younger siblings. (AP Photo/Bernalillo County Sheriff's Deptartment)

This undated photo provided by Eric Griego shows Nehemiah Griego. Griego is charged with killing five family members, including his father, mother, and three youngest siblings in Albuquerque, N.M. Authorities in New Mexico say Griego had reloaded his guns after the attacks and planned to go to a Wal-Mart and randomly shoot people. Instead, they say he texted a picture of his dead mother to his 12-year-old girlfriend, then spent much of Saturday with her. The two went to the church where his father had been a pastor, and Griego eventually confessed to killing his parents and three younger siblings. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Eric Griego)

Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston, right, and Lt. Sid Covington answer questions about the shooting deaths of five family members during a news conference at the sheriff's headquarters in Albuquerque, N.M., on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. Authorities have charged Nehemiah Griego, 15, with murder and child abuse counts in connection with the slaying of his family. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg answers questions during a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, about the potential legal aspects in the case of a 15-year-old boy who is accused of gunning down his family. Nehemiah Griego remained in custody Tuesday on counts of murder and child abuse resulting in death. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston prepares for a news conference at the sheriff's headquarters in Albuquerque, N.M., on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, regarding the shooting deaths of five family members over the weekend. Authorities have charged Nehemiah Griego, 15, with murder and child abuse counts in connection with the slaying of his family. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) ? Fifteen-year-old murder suspect Nehemiah Griego grew up in a family deeply rooted in the Christian faith.

His father, a gang member turned pastor, helped others turn their lives around. There were missions to Mexico, prayer sessions with former jail inmates and weekly Bible study gatherings. For Griego, there were jam sessions with the Calvary Albuquerque's youth band and pickup basketball games at the church.

That all changed last Saturday when his parents and three younger siblings were slain at home and Griego was arrested and charged with the killings.

On Friday, family and friends will gather at the church to mourn the deaths ? a tragedy that just doesn't make sense to surviving family members or the church community that has watched him grow up.

Griego was just a normal teen to Vince Harrison, a former police officer who had known the family for about 10 years through his security work at the church.

"He did not fit the criteria of a kid who was crazy into guns and wanted to hurt people. That's absolutely false," Harrison said.

So how and why could something like this happen to a family like the Griegos?

The question is haunting family members and the church community as lawmakers across the country debate whether more gun control laws would keep another shooting from happening.

Public defender Jeff Buckels said Thursday that it's too early for anyone to rush to judgment about the teen's mental state, motives or plans. He said the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department has been parceling out limited bits of what he described as "the most damaging supposed 'facts.'"

"This has led directly to a multitude of sensational headlines that threaten to finish Nehemiah's case in the public mind before it has fairly begun," Buckels said.

Sheriff Dan Houston described the case as "horrific" and said Thursday that he stood by the facts as presented in the investigation.

Detectives continue to pour over evidence gathered last weekend at the Griego home. They're also reviewing text messages and calls between Griego and his 12-year-old girlfriend and security video from Calvary, where the teen apparently spent much of the day following the early morning shootings.

He is facing murder and child abuse charges in the deaths of his family. They were all found shot to death inside their rural home south of Albuquerque last Saturday.

After the killings, authorities allege that Griego reloaded his parents' two semi-automatic rifles and put them in the family van and planned to gun down Wal-Mart shoppers. Houston has said investigators have no information that Griego actually went to a Wal-Mart that day.

The defense attorney promised he will consult with mental health experts and investigate the effects of violent video games. Authorities have said Griego liked to play "Modern Warfare" and "Grand Theft Auto."

"It's far too soon to know the meaning of this tragedy and far too soon to judge," Buckels said.

Since news of the shootings first hit Calvary last Sunday, churchgoers have been praying for the teen and the victims Greg Griego, 51, his wife, Sarah Griego, 40, and three of their children ? a 9-year-old boy, Zephania Griego, and daughters Jael Griego, 5, and Angelina Griego, 2.

Friday's memorial service follows an hour-long prayer vigil that drew an estimated 2,000 people Wednesday night.

There were simply no signs, said Rick Zemke, a chaplain who knew the family and volunteered with Greg Griego at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

"They were always together. They just always seemed to click," he said. "It's hard to understand."

___

Follow Susan Montoya Bryan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/susanmbryanNM

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-25-New%20Mexico%20Shooting/id-82b42573d30c4d3e913cd1f63fafbf25

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SHEX Interviews: M1nt Cellars CEO Naran Andreyev | Shanghai Expat

At the end of 2012, m1ntcellars.com hired Naran Andreyev as CEO, a veteran in the wine logistics business. Since joining the online retail liquor market, M1nt Cellars has established itself as a powerhouse, supplying imported booze to over 350 Chinese cities.

SHEX: Tell me a bit about yourself. Where did you grow up?

Naran Andreyev: I?m from New Jersey, I was born in Philadelphia, and I?ve been in Shanghai since 2003. I come from the logistics industry, specifically the wine industy. That?s about it.

SHEX: You?ve been in China for a while now.

NA: I?m going on 10 years now believe it or not, it?s been a fabulous ride, I hope it continues. I?ve been based in Shanghai for those 10 years. It has basically changed in those 10 years that I?ve been here, I kind of find it interesting in the fact that, I?m a big history buff, I always joke around saying when I?m 95 years old, laying in my death bed, I?ll think back and say I was in Shanghai when it all happened. That?s kind of cool.

SHEX: How has the drinking culture changed since that time?

NA: Before I was in China, I spent 5 years in Taiwan so I?m quite familiar with the Chinese drinking habits, you know, I think it?s become more complex, being in the wine logistics business, we were looking at numbers and you see a trend since maybe 2007 or it had just started, the actual importation of foreign wines and than it just kinda started growing 60-70% year over year for a long time, until 2012 and 2012 it slowed down quite a bit and there are some schools of thought on why. One being the economic slowdown, people are buying less manufactured products from China, that means the factory owners have less money; that means they drink less, they cut down. Or you could look at and if you go in detail, in the numbers you can see that French imports have always been the majority and in 2012, they were still the majority but they had dropped a bit and the balance had been picked up from other countries, importations from other countries, other types of wines from other countries, so you could interpret that as the wine market in China or in Shanghai specifically, has started to mature. The taste in the palette is now going after or being attracted by different types of wines so it?s no longer the Bordeaux, Bordeaux, Bordeaux, now you are getting some Spanish wines, some Italian wines, some Australian wines, Argentinian wines, all kinds of wines. So it?s really hard to say. So is it evolving? I tend to lead towards yes. It seems like a good idea to switch over to work in a company that can deliver that wide range of wines and I?ll add, at a very good price and gauge more people in that maturity of the Chinese wine palette.

SHEX: How would you say the Chinese market differs from everywhere else in the world?

NA: It?s a good question. One of the ways you could ask that question is do you take the same business model that you would have in the United States or Europe and just transplant it to China? The answer to that is obviously no.. The wine market differs and what our approach to it in China than other places, you know, China is it?s own country, it?s got it?s own culture, it?s own hip culture or pop culture, it has it?s own habits and traditions so you can?t just take something generic and say it?s going to work automatically, you have to work it. Now there are a lot of good things about doing business in another country, a lot of good practices that you can develop and there are a lot of good practices that are being developed here, so the answer to that question is you have to be able to have your thumb on the pulse of the customers you?re selling to and be able to react to their needs, it?s very basic business right? You need to fill the need as a business. So we really think our model with m1ntcellars.com, well we don?t think, we know, we are basing our theory on having flexibly to listen to our consumers and give them what they need at a decent price.

Submitted by ShanghaiExpat Editor on Fri, 2013-01-25 08:13

Source: http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/article/shex-interviews-m1nt-cellars-ceo-naran-andreyev-25707.html

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Secretary of State fires Small Business Advocate, hires Democratic ...

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, recently elected by new Democratic majorities in the Maine Legislature, has fired Small Business Advocate Jay Martin and?hired Peggy Schaffer, a veteran of Democratic politics, for the post.

Schaffer ?who has no business experience?has worked as a partisan Democratic staffer in the State House, a public sector lobbyist and a political organizer for Maine?s teachers? union. She recently wrote an?opinion column?in the Bangor Daily News critical of private sector employers.

By all accounts, Jay Martin was a competent, knowledgeable and responsive Small Business Advocate for the Office of the Secretary of State.? The Legislature created the position in 2011 as a result of the findings of a bipartisan regulatory reform commission.

In addition to over 16 years of experience in the restaurant industry, Martin was instrumental in expanding the Bangor-based publication?Coffee News?into a national franchise and assisting United Cerebral Palsy of Maine in their acquisition of the Levinson Center.

?Jay Martin was a qualified, nonpolitical advocate for Maine?s small business community,? said Rep. Amy Volk (R-Scarborough), House Republican Lead on the Labor, Commerce, Research, and Economic Development Committee (LCRED).? LCRED is the committee of jurisdiction over the Office of the Secretary of State.

?We are very concerned about the decision to terminate Mr. Martin and bring in a replacement with no business experience,? continued Rep. Volk.? ?It appears to be political patronage or favoritism, and many in the business community have expressed concern to me.?

Rep. Larry Lockman (R-Amherst), also of the LCRED Committee, worked in small business advocacy with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) for 18 years.? ?The purpose of the small business advocate is to be a voice for small business in state government,? said Lockman.? ?How can you be a small business advocate when you?ve spent your career in the public sector?? Secretary Dunlap has a reputation for being a reasonable, bipartisan person, so this decision really surprises me.?

?It appears they have gotten rid of a qualified small business advocate and replaced him with a partisan with no small business experience,? added Rep. Volk.? ?My Republican colleagues on the committee and I feel that the Secretary should explain his decision.?

Source: http://www.themainewire.com/2013/01/secretary-state-fires-small-business-advocate-hires-democratic-partisan/

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Violence erupts at Iraq rally; 5 protesters killed

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraqi troops opened fire on stone-throwing Sunni demonstrators in the country's restive west on Friday, leading to the deaths of at least five protesters ? the first fatalities in more than a month of anti-government rallies. Two soldiers were also killed, apparently in retaliation.

The violence is likely to exacerbate tensions between the Shiite-led government and minority Sunnis angry over perceived second-class treatment and what they see as unfair policies targeting their sect.

Hours after the shooting, police said gunmen attacked an army checkpoint, killing the soldiers, in apparent payback for the earlier bloodshed. At least one army vehicle was set ablaze, and dozens of civilian gunmen were seen roaming the streets before local authorities imposed a curfew in the city.

Friday's protest was part of a wave of rallies that first erupted in Anbar province last month after the arrest of bodyguards assigned to Sunni Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi, who comes from the area. Anbar is a former al-Qaida stronghold that saw some of the fiercest fighting against U.S. forces during the war.

The protesters are demanding the release of detainees and the cancellation of a tough counterterrorism law and other policies they believe overwhelmingly target Sunnis. Many link their cause with the broader Arab Spring and are calling for the downfall of the government altogether.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government has done little to crack down on the protests and has released hundreds of detainees in a concession to the protesters' demands. But he has also criticized some in their ranks for seeking to undermine the democratic process and exacerbate the country's sectarian divisions.

In a statement issued after Friday's shooting, al-Maliki urged government security forces to show restraint and avoid the use of force. He also called on protesters not to provoke the army.

At the same time, he suggested unruly protesters were to blame for the incident.

"Today, in a deliberate act, a group of misguided people attacked one of the army's checkpoints. They started their assault using rocks and then shooting followed, and this has caused causalities and a rise in tension that al-Qaida and terrorist groups are trying to take advantage of," al-Maliki said.

Sunni Arabs, who comprise some 15 percent of Iraq's 28 million population, were dominant under Saddam Hussein and formed the backbone of the insurgency that arose after majority Shiites rose to power following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Sectarian violence that once pushed the country to the brink of civil war has ebbed significantly and most American forces withdrew in December 2011.

Sunni cooperation, particularly from tribal leaders in Anbar, was key to the drop in violence. Increasing anger on view at the protests has raised fears of a rise in bloodshed.

Friday's outbreak of violence began about a kilometer (less than a mile) from a protest area in Fallujah, the birthplace of the insurgency as well as the U.S.-backed Sunni revolt against al-Qaida that helped quell the bloodshed, some 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad, police officials said.

They said demonstrators grew angry after being held up at the army checkpoint, first shouting and then throwing rocks. The soldiers initially shot into the air in an effort to disperse the protesters, who eventually tried to storm the post, police said.

Ahmed Mahmoud, 16, a high school student who was among those delayed at the checkpoint, said the treatment protesters received this Friday was different than in the past.

"We take this road every week, and nobody used to stop us. But today, the soldiers stopped us and started to harass us," he said. "No Fallujah residents want the soldiers in our city. ... The army should get out. If they don't, these confrontations will continue."

Associated Press television footage taken at one point during the clashes showed protesters, some carrying Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi flags, pelting army Humvees with stones.

The video appears to show some soldiers aiming level with the protesters and shooting directly toward them, while others fired into the sandy ground.

At least 23 protesters were wounded in the shooting, in addition to those killed, officials said. Medics at a hospital in Fallujah confirmed Friday's casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Toby Dodge, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics and author of a recent book on postwar Iraq, said Friday's shooting was likely the result of a miscalculation by the army rather than the deliberate start of a wider crackdown.

"Middle Eastern armies are very bad at crowd control. ... The Iraqi army is really poorly disciplined. It has a real weakness with non-commissioned officers, like you'd have on those checkpoints," he said.

The clashes occurred as tens of thousands of demonstrators filled a major highway nearby, repeating a scene that has become common in areas across Anbar around midday Friday prayers.

Smaller rallies have been held in other predominantly Sunni parts of the country, and thousands of protesters have staged an ongoing sit-in along a highway connecting Baghdad to Jordan and Syria.

Sunni cleric Mohammed al-Dulaimi, who led the prayers at the Fallujah protest, urged demonstrators to show restraint and avoid further friction with the soldiers.

In his speech, he also accused al-Maliki's government of adopting policies that could divide the country.

"I tell the prime minister that he should stop neglecting our demands and stop violating our rights. ... Otherwise, the volcano will erupt," he said.

The wave of rallies in Iraq has been largely free of violence until Friday, though at least two demonstrators were wounded in Anbar last month when bodyguards and security forces protecting Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq opened fire to disperse angry crowds.

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Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed reporting.

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Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/violence-erupts-iraq-rally-5-protesters-killed-162535972.html

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