Retrial of Egypt's Mubarak set for April 13

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's state news agency says the retrial of ousted President Hosni Mubarak on charges related to the killings of protesters during the uprising against him will begin April 13.

Mubarak and his former interior minister were sentenced to life in prison in June for failing to prevent the killing of protesters during the 18-day revolution in 2011 that ended his 29-year rule. In January, an appeals court overturned the sentences and ordered a retrial.

The ruling raised public anger over what was seen as a shoddy prosecution case. Critics believed Mubarak should have been convicted for directly ordering the deadly crackdown and sentenced to death.

MENA said Sunday six security officials will also be tried. Mubarak's two sons and a business associate will be retried on corruption charges.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-03-ML-Egypt-/id-cd42167bf51a46aea8d217d0154341e4

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ITT Exelis Receives $11 M to Provide Communications Equipment ...

ITT Exelis (NYSE: XLS) has been awarded a direct commercial contract valued at $11.6 million to provide a wide range of communications equipment to an undisclosed international customer.

This sale includes SpearNet UHF radios in both vehicular-mounted and soldier-wearable configurations as well as ancillaries and spare parts for the SpearNet radio systems. SpearNet is a high-throughput, portable radio that provides large amounts of voice, data and video communications over a self-forming and self-healing ad hoc network.

The SpearNet has undergone recent enhancements, including improved call reliability, resulting in continuous communications, without network reconfiguration. This enables a reliable, cellular-like experience for operators as they move around the battlefield.

Exelis has also improved SpearNet?s capability to transmit large amounts of data by greatly increasing its data transfer rate. When compared with other fielded, dismounted technology, SpearNet?s use of wideband direct sequence spread spectrum provides users with two- to eight times more voice, data and video transmission capability from dismounted soldier to commander. This is more throughput than any other military radio used by dismounted forces today.

?The addition of SpearNet to our customer?s already robust capabilities provides an overwhelming communications advantage in the ability to move large amounts of data across the battlefield,? said Nick Bobay, the president and general manager of ITT Exelis Night Vision and Tactical Communications Systems.

Source : ITT Exelis

Published on ASDNews: Mar 1, 2013
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Source: http://www.asdnews.com/news-47918/ITT_Exelis_Receives_$11_M_to_Provide_Communications_Equipment_for_International_Customer.htm

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Mechanisms regulating inflammation associated with type 2 diabetes, cancer identified

Mar. 1, 2013 ? A study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) has identified epigenetic mechanisms that connect a variety of diseases associated with inflammation. Utilizing molecular analyses of gene expression in macrophages, which are cells largely responsible for inflammation, researchers have shown that inhibiting a defined group of proteins could help decrease the inflammatory response associated with diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer and sepsis.

The study, which is published online in the Journal of Immunology, was led by first author Anna C. Belkina, MD, PhD, a researcher in the department of microbiology at BUSM, and senior author Gerald V. Denis, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology and medicine at BUSM.

Epigenetics is an emerging field of study exploring how genetically identical cells express their genes differently, resulting in different phenotypes, due to mechanisms other than DNA sequence changes.

Previous studies have shown that a gene, called Brd2, is associated with high insulin production and excessive adipose (fat) tissue expansion that drives obesity when Brd2 levels are low and cancer when Brd2 levels are high. The Brd2 gene is a member of the Bromodomain Extra Terminal (BET) family of proteins and is closely related to Brd4, which is important in highly lethal carcinomas in young people, as well as in the replication of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The BET family proteins control gene expression epigenetically by acting on chromatin, the packaging material for genes, rather than on DNA directly. This mechanism of action is being explored because the interactions are not reflected in genome sequencing information or captured through DNA-based genetic analysis. In addition, this layer of gene regulation has recently been shown to be a potential target in the development of novel epigenetic drugs that could target several diseases at once.

The study results show that proteins in the BET family have a strong influence on the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in macrophages. This indicates that the defined family of proteins govern many aspects of acute inflammatory diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, sepsis and cardiovascular disease, among others, and that they should be explored as a potential target to treat a wide variety of diseases.

"Our study suggests that it is not a coincidence that patients with diabetes experience higher risk of death from cancer, or that patients with chronic inflammatory diseases, such as atherosclerosis and insulin resistance, also are more likely to be obese or suffer from inflammatory complications," said Belkina. "This requires us to think of diverse diseases of different organs as much more closely related than our current division of medical specialties allows."

Future research should explore how to successfully and safely target and inhibit these proteins in order to stop the inflammatory response associated with a variety of diseases.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Boston University Medical Center.

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. A. C. Belkina, B. S. Nikolajczyk, G. V. Denis. BET Protein Function Is Required for Inflammation: Brd2 Genetic Disruption and BET Inhibitor JQ1 Impair Mouse Macrophage Inflammatory Responses. The Journal of Immunology, 2013; DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1202838

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/iogZ9cLkfe0/130301123302.htm

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Sequester's first victim: The Blue Angels

MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) - Blue Angels pilot Dave Tickle said he is focused on practicing maneuvers for an upcoming show in California instead of worrying about how federal spending cuts will threaten performances this year by the U.S. Navy's renowned flight demonstration squadron.

With $85 billion in automatic cuts due to take effect on Friday, millions of fans across the country will likely miss out on the precision flying team's thrilling shows this year.

Blue Angels shows scheduled in more than two dozen cities between April and September are expected to be canceled as part of the cuts, said the team's spokeswoman, Lieutenant Katie Kelly. Some shows featuring the Blue Angels already have been called off in the face of budget uncertainties.

The grounding would be a sentimental loss for fans but not as serious as other reductions to defense spending, which President Barack Obama said could threaten Navy readiness. The Defense Department said the cuts would slash ship and aircraft maintenance, curtail training and result in 22 days' unpaid leave for most of the Pentagon's 800,000 civilian employees.

Programs such as the Blue Angels would take a back seat to "making sure ships are seaworthy and planes are airworthy for the war fighters who are operating overseas," said Lieutenant John Supple, spokesman for the Chief of Naval Air Training in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The news has saddened longtime fans, disappointed city leaders and sparked an online petition to the White House to save the Blue Angels' season. About 1,200 people had signed as of Thursday.

"They're an American icon, and they really resonate in a military town," said Ashton Hayward, mayor of Pensacola, Florida, home to the naval air station where the Blue Angels are based.

Pensacola's Blue Angels beach show each July pumps an additional $2.5 million into the local economy, according to a 2012 study.

"People plan their annual family trips around the shows and the impact on business is phenomenal," Hayward said. "If the Blue Angels end, it's going to be a sad, sad day for not just us, but for millions of people all over the country."

SHOWS CALLED OFF

Air shows scheduled for May at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, and for June in Indianapolis, already have been canceled, organizers and U.S. Air Force officials announced in recent weeks.

The Air Force said its Thunderbirds exhibition flying team also is expected to be grounded if the so-called sequestration cuts happen.

The budget cuts will affect cities from Seattle to North Kingstown, Rhode Island, where the Rhode Island National Guard Air Show draws thousands of visitors to the small town each year.

The city's Quonset Air Base closed in the 1970s, but a sense of military pride still runs deep. Losing the Blue Angels would deal a huge blow for the show in late June, said Elizabeth Dolan, North Kingstown's town council president.

"Everybody looks forward to when they come," she said. "They fly right up over my house, and it's amazing and emotional to watch."

The Blue Angels program began in 1946 and costs about $40 million a year. Cancelling the bulk of the performing season would save about $28 million, according to Navy officials.

Because of the timing of the cuts, the Angels will still perform in March at the El Centro Air Show in southern California and the Southernmost Air Spectacular show in Key West, Florida.

The 130-person team, which includes seven pilots, consists of members who have served in high-level tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Should the budget cuts go into effect, the team would be reassigned until there is enough money for them to take to the skies again, Supple said.

Tickle, a 32-year-old from Birmingham, Alabama, said he was inspired to become an expert naval pilot after watching Blue Angels performances during family vacations to Pensacola when he was a child. He is now a lieutenant commander in the Navy and the Blue Angels' lead solo pilot.

"I remember looking up at these shining blue and gold precision aircraft and thinking, 'I want to do that.' It gave me a feeling of amazement and pride," he said.

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Nick Zieminski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spending-cuts-due-ground-navys-blue-angels-flying-122828653.html

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Gay Marriage and Proposition 8, Part 1 | Real Intent

Next month, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about the constitutionality of California?s Proposition 8. Today was the deadline for outside groups to file briefs with the court offering their perspective on the case.

To mark the day, I?ve been asked by the editors of Real Intent to revise and expand a series of posts I wrote in March 2012 about same-sex couples, marriage, and Proposition 8. I am neither a lawyer nor a sociologist, but do my best to give some depth to an issue that deserves more detailed consideration from all parties than it typically gets. I hope you?ll join us for the ride and get some new perspectives in the process as the six-part series unfolds throughout the day.

Part One: Let Me Take a Step Back

My grandpa, Gurcharan Singh Gill, taught college math for decades. We used to joke that you should only ask him for homework help, though, if you were ready to get the history of mathematics clear back to Pythagoras on your way to an answer.

Like grandpa, I suppose, like grandson. Before I get to California in 2008, I?m going to wander through the Bible, Shakespeare, ancient Greece, and the Disco Era to show that our current way of thinking about same-sex relationships ? sexual or not ? is hardly the only way to think about them.

Let?s start in the Bible. Sociologist Rodney Stark describes ancient Jewish culture as radically ?pro-natal,? which is a scientific way of saying ?baby crazy.? This is hardly a shocking revelation for anyone who knows the Bible well: the book is obsessed with intergenerational relationships. Examples: God?s promise to Abraham isn?t a harp in heaven, it?s descendants like stars in the sky or grains of sand in the sea. The Israelites aren?t even out of Egypt yet when the Lord tells them how to teach their children about the Exodus. A prophet says the hearts of the children will turn to their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children ??or the whole earth is cursed. Etc.

Given beliefs that put such emphasis on children and future generations, it?s no surprise that Jewish thought was for sexual bonding in the context of male-female marriages and against any other kind of sexual activity or relationship.

But if we were to take a time machine back, most modern Americans would probably think the majority of Biblical-era men they?d see were totally gay. Read the Bible: men don?t just give awkward half-hugs, the phrasing is often more like ?fell on his neck? to describe an embrace. They don?t give quick Latin-style air kisses to each other?in 2 Sam 20:9, it seems to be standard practice when Joab takes Amasa?s face in his hand before a kiss. And men in the Bible are not afraid of deep same-sex emotional attachments: it?s beautiful to them when ?the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.?

And it?s not just the Bible. From a historical perspective, current American expectations about the limits of appropriate levels and expressions of affection between men are extremely rigid. Most cultures have valued close, deep emotional bonds between men far more than Americans do today.

Take Shakespeare?s plays as a second example. In the climax of Two Gentleman of Verona, Valentine offers his girlfriend to his best friend as a token of reconciliation in their friendship. That?s pretty offensive to modern audiences (especially given the circumstances!), but was probably moving to many men in Shakespeare?s time ??who took their own closest friendships more seriously than their marriages. In Twelfth Night, the pirate captain Antonio takes huge risks for Sebastian because of an admiration or affection which sounds downright passionate in its intensity ??and no other characters seem to think this is particularly strange or queer. For them, seeing one man deeply drawn to another probably seemed perfectly normal and did not raise questions about sexual identity or corresponding minority status.

I put sexual identity in italics there because the idea that an individual?s attractions defined his/her identity or belonging to a group is fairly recent in Western cultures. Ancient Greek culture did not distinguish between gay and straight people the way we do today, and Plato seems to have felt that a love between men which combined intellectual engagement and sexual energy was far superior to the merely procreative sexual relationships that took place between men and women. According to Plutarch, the generals of the Greek city-state Thebes successfully channeled the power of sexual bonds into military might by forming a unit known as the Sacred Band made up entirely of male couples. Soldiers might desert their comrades, the generals? reasoning went, but would fight to the death for their lovers. And it seems to have worked: no one defeated the Sacred Band until they all fought to what the Greeks considered deeply noble deaths in a desperate last stand against Philip of Macedon.

Philip?s son Alexander had a famously close relationship with his friend and comrade Hephaestion. Though each later married a daughter of the deposed Persian emperor, their relationship with each other was likely sexual in their youth and may have remained sexual throughout their lives. And though Alexander had conquered most of the known world and seen plenty of suffering, he was still inconsolable when Hephaestion died. Ancient sources say that Alexander mourned over Hephaestion?s body all day long, at which point he had to be physically dragged away by his remaining companions.

Though we rarely talk about it, stories like Alexander?s are probably not confined to the ancient world. I?ve read convincing arguments that in upper-class Victorian single-gender boarding schools, strong same-sex attraction was fairly common: sometimes leading to intense friendships, other times to relationships that were also sexual. I?ve also read and heard that in a context like a naval ship mission, where an almost exclusively male population is isolated for an extended period of time, men who would otherwise consider themselves heterosexual find themselves drawn to members of the same gender.

There are two main lessons I think we can learn from all this:

1) Gay and straight isn?t an on/off switch. A few people may be exclusively attracted to members of the same gender regardless of culture and context. A few people may be exclusively attracted to members of the opposite gender regardless of culture and context. But the vast majority of us are somewhere on a spectrum in-between, at least theoretically capable of feeling a variety of levels of attraction, admiration, and emotional investment in members of the same sex. It is historically strange, to say the least, that we view so many manifestations of male connection and affection as signaling membership in a separate gay minority group. We stigmatize feelings and ways of relating today that are probably normal components of human nature for almost everyone.

2) The 1960s and ?70s gay rights movement used language of sexual liberation and personal freedom from social accountability, which created a common public association between homosexuality and casual sex or promiscuity???but that?s not necessarily representative of same-sex relationships now or throughout history. There have been and are many same-sex couples who are deeply committed and faithful to one another. And I think we do ourselves a collective disservice if we treat the emotional reality of those bonds lightly as we decide which legal framework to use for same-sex relationships in a democratic society where subjective experience should carry weight.

The second in this series will publish shortly.

James Goldberg's family is Jewish on one side, Sikh on the other, and Mormon in the middle. Goldberg co-edits the Everyday Mormon Writer literary website, teaches composition and creative writing courses at BYU, and blogs at Mormon Midrashim. His debut novel, The Five Books of Jesus, was published in September 2012.

Source: http://realintent.org/gay-marriage-and-proposition-8-part-1/

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Quib.ly Is a Q&A Site for Your Burning Parenting Tech Questions

How can you teach your child electronics? How effective are kid-friendly web browsers? What effects do violent video games have on young minds? If you have children, you might have questions like these. Quib.ly is a site geared towards answering them.

Although there are tons of parenting forums for moms and other general Q&A sites around, Quib.ly is focused on parenting issues for both moms and dads. The community encourages parenting experts (such as educators) to answer questions, as well as general tech-savvy parents.

Like other Q&A sites, members can vote answers up and down. Questions range from the practical (e.g., what apps can prepare a student for the SATs?) to merely interesting or social (e.g., Why is Pokemon still around?).

Whether your child is seven or seventeen, the site could come in handy for your family.

Quib.ly | via TechCrunch

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/FkSNIU-rG_Y/quibly-is-a-qa-site-for-your-burning-parenting-tech-questions

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Tobacco cuisine on display at Cuba Cigar Festival

A man eats a dessert as he smokes a cigar during a cooking event at the 15th Cigar Festival in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. A team of Croatian chefs whipped up a pungent meal Thursday, infusing the flavor of the tobacco leaf synonymous with Cuba into baked stone bass filets, bread and butter, a rich demi-glace sauce, even ice cream. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A man eats a dessert as he smokes a cigar during a cooking event at the 15th Cigar Festival in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. A team of Croatian chefs whipped up a pungent meal Thursday, infusing the flavor of the tobacco leaf synonymous with Cuba into baked stone bass filets, bread and butter, a rich demi-glace sauce, even ice cream. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A chef smokes a cigar during a cooking event at the 15th Cigar Festival in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. A team of Croatian chefs whipped up a pungent meal Thursday, infusing the flavor of the tobacco leaf synonymous with Cuba into baked stone bass filets, bread and butter, a rich demi-glace sauce, even ice cream. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A chef breaks cigar leaves into a measuring instrument as he prepares a dessert seasoning during a cooking event at the 15th Cigar Festival in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. A team of Croatian chefs whipped up a pungent meal Thursday, infusing the flavor of the tobacco leaf synonymous with Cuba into baked stone bass filets, bread and butter, a rich demi-glace sauce, even ice cream. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

HAVANA (AP) ? Tobacco: It's what's for dinner.

A team of Croatian chefs whipped up a pungent meal Thursday, infusing the flavor of the tobacco leaf synonymous with Cuba into baked stone bass filets, bread and butter, a rich demi-glace sauce, even ice cream.

The result was a tangy heat that one taster likened to ancho chili powder, and a powerful finish with all the nicotine kick of a chubby Montecristo cigar.

"Wow, buzz city!" said Gary Heathcott, a public relations worker from Little Rock, Arkansas, who also writes for Smoke magazine. "The first buzz I ever received from biting into fish."

Grgur Baksic, owner and executive chef of the Gastronomadi dinner club in Zagreb, led the demonstration before a standing-room-only crowd of aficionados at a Havana convention center as part of Cuba's 15th annual Cigar Festival.

It's a six-day bash that brings together hundreds of cigar sophisticates from around the world, and culminates Saturday night with a gala and auction of humidors worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A dozen cameras following their every move, Baksic and two other chefs carefully wrapped the bass filets in tobacco and banana leaves, with a sprinkling of garlic and honey to draw out the smoky flavor.

As the mild white fish baked for about a half hour, they demonstrated how stirring tobacco sauces into butter can create a sharp spread for bread and crackers, and used a torch to dry out liquid-infused tobacco salt that can be employed in just about any dish.

"It's like how you can put chili on a sweet or a sour, you can put honey on a fish and on a fruit and on a meat," Baksic said. "Something that is good is always good. You cannot make a mistake."

Baksic said Thursday's demonstration was the result of two years of trial and error. He said they unsuccessfully tried American, European and African tobacco varieties before settling on Cuban tobacco, which he called the finest in the world. The chefs warned tasters not to eat the leaves themselves, which would be hard on the stomach.

Why tobacco?

"Why rosemary? Why chili? It's about variety," Baksic said. "We are a little bit crazy. Our company are gastro-explorers, so we are always looking for what ... is not normal for other people."

Some at the demonstration found the ice cream, a creation by Italian chef Bruno Luciani, overwhelming. What started out as a smooth, milky sweetness soon set throats on fire.

"I think they (nonsmokers) might find it a bit strong, and also they might actually get high," said James Suckling, an American food, wine and cigar critic living in Hong Kong. "So probably in small doses they might find it amusing."

Suckling, like other cigar aficionados sitting on a 16-member tasting panel, gave the meal good reviews, however.

"At first I didn't really get much flavor and I thought it wasn't up to much," he said. "But then I started tasting the fish ... and it has a very spicy, almost intense black-pepper taste. And then you get the nicotine and it's like you've been chewing tobacco."

Heathcott put it more succinctly: "It grabs you by the throat."

___

Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-28-Cuba-Cooking%20With%20Tobacco/id-67c4ad10863a40bc9657f3bee3ac7f55

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