Even dough police extend Kattels detention to 30 more days, the Sumfest people dem still hopeful that something can be worked out and Kartel will be able to make it to perform.

Needless to say, we will be looking out to see how it all unfolds.

Usher sang in Chinese, briefly, during his China debut concert Saturday in Beijing. The R&B superstar sang one of Asian pop sensation Wang Lihong's songs in Chinese, and the two also collaborated on Usher's number one hit OMG.

''I wanted to make a great impression, so I wanted to do something very special,'' Usher said. ''After hearing (Wang's) music, I wanted to collaborate with him.'' The American recording artist said he went to China because he knew there is an audience there for him. He arrived in Beijing from Manila. He also said he discovered that while audiences in the United States sing along as loudly as they can, a crowd in Asia can be more quiet out of respect for the singer.

Usher's is the first big foreign concert tour to perform in China this year. Next month he will be releasing eight new songs on a new disc, Versus, which will also be released on a special deluxe version of Raymond V Raymond, which was released in March.

KAMPALA, Uganda An al-Qaida -linked Somali militant group suspected in twin bombings in Uganda 's capital that hit crowds watching the World Cup final endorsed the attacks Monday but stopped short of claiming responsibility, while the death toll rose to 74.

The blasts came two days after a commander with the Somali group, al-Shabab, called for militants to attack sites in Uganda and Burundi , two nations that contribute troops to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia .

The attacks on two soft targets filled with civilians also raise concerns about the capabilities and motives of al-Shabab, which the U.S. State Department has declared a terrorist organization. If confirmed that the group carried out the attacks, it would be the first time al-Shabab has struck outside Somalia.

Sheik Yusuf Sheik Issa, an al-Shabab commander, told The Associated Press early Monday that he was happy with the attacks in Uganda but refused to confirm or deny that al-Shabab was responsible.

"Uganda is one of our enemies. Whatever makes them cry, makes us happy. May Allah's anger be upon those who are against us," Sheik said.

Two of Dancehall's finest are continuing to create pandemonium in the digital hemisphere. Wayne Marshall, with the newly released remix of his single, My Heart featuring Mavado and Vybz Kartel & Popcaan's continuous ascent with Clarks are doing not only well on charts, but have also continued to rake in sales both home and abroad.

Wayne Marshall's My Heart remix single and video were released recently, the latter on Friday night, and within hours websites and media houses were in a flurry of excitement over the new video.

21st/Hapilos Digital Distribution which is responsible for the distribution of Marshall's My Heart remix featuring Mavado produced by Baby G on the Yard Vybz/Off Limits label and the Vybz Kartel & Popcaan Clarks phenomenon are adamant about continuing to push their clients to new heights.

Johnny Wonder, executive vice-president of 21st/Hapilos says, "Wayne is a great artiste and I think it shows in the amount of love he has been getting from members of the public and media after releasing the single and video only a short while ago. The Clarks single on the Mad Collab riddim is no different. Every week the song breaks a new boundary overseas. So with that aim in mind we are continuing to push both singles on iTunes, Amazon and all digital outlets worldwide in addition to radio stations across the world."

Wonder is correct in his comment regarding the Clarks single produced by ZJ Chrome's CR2O3 label breaking international boundaries. Only a few days ago, the UK Guardian did a piece entitled "Vybz Kartel puts Clarks footprint on Jamaica", while prior to that the UK Sun also explored the Clarks prodigy. This is in addition to overseas persons further buying into the Clarks sensation and logging on to purchase the single on the digital outlets.

Wonder, very passionate about Reggae and Dancehall and whose company, 21st/Hapilos, sponsors an hour of ZJ Liquid's "Fresh To Death Wednesdays" show between 3-4 p.m., further said, "Dancehall and Reggae music are full of talented persons and as the digital age continues to expand, our local music will very much be a part of the global space and that can only serve to benefit our music as with the case of Wayne Marshall's My Heart and Vybz Kartel & Popcaan's Clarks. That's what 21st/Hapilos is about."

ISTANBUL, (AFP) A hotel in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus has threatened Jennifer Lopez with a 40 million dollar lawsuit after she cancelled a concert there for "political" reasons, press reports said yesterday.

The chief executive of the Turkish company which runs the hotel and casino complex said Lopez still had time to change her mind about the July 24 gig.

"The contract has not been terminated. If she does not show up for the concert, we will begin a procedure in the courts to claim 35-40 million dollars in damages," warned Murat Bozoglu, speaking from the company's headquarters in Istanbul.

"The cancellation....is not covered by any clause in the contract she signed with us," said Bozoglu.

Lopez drew the wrath of Greek-Cypriots in the southern half of the divided island after the new Cratos Premium hotel and casino complex announced the singer would perform there on her 41st birthday.

But the singer scrapped the plans after criticism that the appearance would make a political statement, entertainment website TMZ.com reported Thursday.

"Jennifer Lopez would never knowingly support any state, country, institution or regime that was associated with any form of human rights abuse," a representative for the American singer and actress told TMZ.

The US-based American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association claimed the concert would "lend credence to an illegal entity recognised only by Turkey".

Cyprus has been divided since Turkey occupied the north in 1974 in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the Mediterranean island with Greece.

OHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) Uruguay striker Diego Forlan has been awarded the Golden Ball as the World Cup's best player, and Germany forward Thomas Mueller won the Golden Boot as the tournament's top scorer with five goals.

Forlan was voted the most outstanding player of the tournament by accredited media after leading his team to the semi-finals.

The 20-year-old Mueller helped Germany take third place with his five goals and three assists, and also won the Best Young Player award. Forlan, Spain striker David Villa and Netherlands playmaker Wesley Sneijder also scored five times but each had one assist. Villa and Sneijder both failed to score in yesterday's final, won 1-0 by Spain.

Spain's Iker Casillas won the Golden Glove as the top goalkeeper.

 

Bwoy dem people can stop di almshouse ting man.

We hear sey Black Ryno publicist Rickardo Smith get rob in MoBay di odda day by one unknown assailant. Jah know you can go bout yuh business in peace again.

-- Edited by Konvict ( Mod ) on Sunday 11th of July 2010 05:17:05 PM

An elderly woman who attacked a woman less than half her age with stones and threaten to harm her if she did not leave her man was fined $2,000 or 10 days in the Petty Session Court at the Spanish Town RM Court on Wednesday.

Maltilda Simpson, 64, opened her mouth wide when she was found guilty of threat and assault by Lay Magistrates Kenneth Burton and Phillip Reeves.

The court was told that in early April, Simpson accosted the 30-year-old complainant, who she learnt was having sexual relations with her common-law husband whom the court learnt is call 'Brown Man'.

Simspson, the court heard, started to attack the younger woman with stones and then threatened her saying, "Mi ago du yu sinting if yu no lef mi man alone.''

The complainant went to the authorities and took out a summons which was served on Simpson.

She denied threatening the complainant when the matter got under way, but after hearing the testimony of the complainant and summing up the sequence of events, the lay magistrates found Simspon guilty.

NASSAU, Bahamas -- For two years he stayed a step ahead of the law -- stealing cars, powerboats and even airplanes, police say, while building a reputation as a 21st-century folk hero. On Sunday, Colton Harris-Moore's celebrity became his downfall.

Witnesses on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera recognized the 19-year-old dubbed the "Barefoot Bandit" and called police, who captured him after a high-speed boat chase, Bahamas Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade said at a celebratory news conference in Nassau, the capital.

Greenslade said shots were fired during the water chase but he did not say who fired them. He also said Harris-Moore was carrying a handgun that he tried to throw away.

Another senior police official, however, said police fired to disable the motor on the suspect's stolen boat, and that Harris-Moore threw his gun in the water. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case, also said that police recovered a laptop and a GPS locator from the suspect.

Police flew Harris-Moore in shackles to Nassau. True to his nickname, the teen with close-shorn hair was shoeless as he walked off the plane wearing short camouflage cargo pants, a short-sleeved shirt and a bulletproof vest.

 

For Those Who Dont know who he is

It is being reported that reggae and dancehall superstar Lincoln Sugar Minott passed away. He was 54 years of age. His brand new album was scheduled to be released a few days from now, on the 21st of July 2010. Although the cause of death is yet unknown, Sugar Minott had been suffering from a severe heart condition called Angina Pectoris. The Jamaican Reggae star Sugar Minott entered the mainstream music industry back in 1969 when he joined the African brothers. His band released many hit singles in the 1970s. In 1974 Sugar Minott and his band decided to join producer Rupie Edwards and came up with their hit song Mysterious Nature. They went on to join another production house called Studio One and give other hit songs like No Cup No Broke. Sugar Minott and his band then decided to go their separate ways and Sugar Minott then joined other production companies and continued to do some highly influential work till he died. He worked as a singer and a guitarist and recorded many singles with Clement Dodd. His ability to write new songs and create novel rhythms earned him great recognition. Among his most notable songs are Mr. DC, Vanity, Jah Jah Children and Rub-a-Dub Sound. His work gained worldwide recognition and received rave reviews. He also toured various parts of the globe. His performances were received with admiration and love by all his fans all across the world. To date he recorded more than sixty albums. He also served as a music producer. His famed song Rub-a-Dub Sound became known as the catalyst for the ragga style and inspired generations to come.

Lebron James has definitely rip the hearts out of the Cleavland Cavaliers fans, if you cheer for the Cavs don't look at these pics. Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh held a special meet and greet with the good folks in Miami at the Heat's house, the American Airlines Arena.

Wow!!!, to see Bron Bron in the uniform is unreal, this makes it official, Lebron James is a Miami Heat. Lebron and fellow All-Star teammates Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade posed for pics in front of the Miami faithful. It's crazy to see Lebron in another uniform but it's something we have to get used to. Either way this upcoming NBA season will be interesting to say the least, take a look at Lebron posing with his new crew. FYI they also got the keys to the city which doesn't make sense because when you get the keys to the city you have to do something first, they haven't done anything yet. We guess just getting Lebron is enough.

 

Now that Bron Bron is caught up with the Heat, he joined his fellow teammates in Miami to celebrate with fans. Arguably the best trio to ever play the game of basketball? Well see. The heat pressure is on.

Google quietly invested between $100 million to $200 million in FarmVille developer Zynga as part of its preparation to launch a new Google Games platform later this year, according to online reports.

Google itself -- not its investment arm Google Ventures -- closed the investment portion of its deal with the social games developer around a month ago, according to a report from TechCrunch. The company has a broader strategic partnership planned with Zynga as well, which is still in process.

Part of that partnership will entail Zynga's games serving as the cornerstone for the search giant's Google Games platform, which is rumored to launch later this year. As the developer of Facebook's most popular apps, Zynga's titles could help make the service more attractive to social gamers hesitant to venture far from their favorite social network.

Google hasn't publicly revealed any information about Google Games, but it has put up at least one job listing that seeks to hire someone who will be tasked with "developing Google's games commerce product strategy and partnering to build and manage the business with a cross-functional team."

Zynga has made several moves in recent months to extend its popular games beyond Facebook, launching standalone sites for its titles, making FarmVille available to play through Microsoft's MSN Games portal, and partnering with Yahoo to bring its titles to the Internet services company's network (e.g. main homepage, Yahoo! Games).

Several months ago, the social games developer and Facebook argued over the latter's upcoming implementation of Credits, a universal virtual currency for all apps on the social network -- an alternative to game- or publisher-specific virtual currencies, and one that would send 30 percent of revenues from virtual goods purchases to Facebook.

Zynga and Facebook eventually settled the dispute -- without revealing specifics for how exactly they resolved their differences -- and announced a five-year agreement that will allow the companies to continue to work together, keeping the developer's popular titles like Texas HoldEm Poker and Cafe World on the social network.

Google's investment in Zynga follows less than a month after the studio raised $147 million from Japanese telecommunications and media corporation Softbank in a Series D round of funding. It previously received $180 million last December, $29 million in July 2008, and $10 million in January 2008.

TechCrunch also reports that Zynga's revenues will $350 million for the first half of 2010, and that half of that amount is operating profit. It also says that Zynga predicts its 2011 revenue will hit at least $1 billion.

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=118812&p=3&topicID=37000287#lastPostAnchor

Dutch Legend Johan Cruyff Shocks Holland By Insisting: I Want Spain To Win

Dutch legend Johan Cruyff last night risked alienating his own country by insisting he wants Spain to win the World Cup Final.

Cruyff, the keystone of Rinus Michel's Total Football side of 1974, has long been a resident of Barcelona.

But while Holland is already planning a ticker-tape parade along the canals of Amsterdam on Tuesday, the former schemer backed the Spanish to out-play Bert Van Marwijk's side.

Cruyff said: "I am Dutch but I will always defend the football Spain play.

"If you play attacking football, like Spain do, you have more chances of winning. And if you try to play on the counter against a team that really wants the ball, you deserve to suffer.

"The fact is that if you try to out-play Spain, they will kill you and Holland now know they face the best team in the world.

"When you look at Spain, you see Barcelona, you see Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets and Pedro in midfield, players who want the ball but then will put pressure on high up the pitch to win it back.

"Now, deservedly, Spain are in the Final, a match that is only about winning, as I know. Spain have a great footballing generation, who may never get another chance like this.

"I know the whole of Holland wanted to play Germany in the Final, because they fear Spain will simply keep the ball for 90 minutes. Their only chance is if Spain fail to take their opportunities, like they did against Germany.

"It is Spain's game to lose but I will take intense joy if they win it."

Cruyff's latest pot-shot came despite Van Marwijk reiterating his belief that his side are lucky to be the inheritors of the same Oranje shirt as Cruyff and Co.

The coach said: "Those teams of 1974 and 1978 are an inspiration to us.

"I was thinking about the '74 and '78 teams during the game against Uruguay and at the end of the game and have talked many times about those teams.

"Now we live in another time. I will not think about the legacy we can leave at the moment. We first have to play the game and then you can ask me the same question."

Van Marwijk also defended Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie, who has come under fire after scoring just once in six outings so far.

The Dutch coach said: "Robin improved in his last game. I am full of confidence in him. He is in very good shape at the moment.

"Robin is one of 11 players and we play in a way that everyone can play a good game. We have to do with 11. Every time Robin plays well and I think he will play his best game in the final."

Source: Mirror Football

Foundation dancehall / reggae singer, Lincoln Sugar Minott is dead. He reportedly died earlier this evening, and although the cause of death has not yet been publicized, just a couple months ago Dancehall.Mobi reported that he was gravely ill and had been diagnosed as having Angina Pectoris a severe heart condition and ordered by his doctor to rest. R.I.P. to the original Godfather of Dancehall.

http://www.dancehall...minott-is-dead/

-- Edited by Major Krazy on Sunday 11th of July 2010 02:36:08 AM

Usain Bolt has stepped off the track and into the design studio to collaborate with PUMA to form the Bolt Collection. The collection will be an athletic training line of mens apparel and footwear and recently launched exclusively at Macys, Paragon, and Michael K. as well as select PUMA stores and Shop.PUMA.com.

GRAVITY AND TIME ARE BIG CHALLENGES TO WHY WE CANT DO CERTAIN THINGS HERE SO TELL MI.....IF WE FIND A WAY TO HACK THESE THINGS....FOR INSTANCE TELEKENESIS HAS BEEN PRACTICED BY SOME....CUD BE ALL IN THE MIND...THEN AGAIN I WOULD CONSIDER IT HACKING GRAVITY, WEH U THINK??




-- Edited by gamepun ( Mod ) on Thursday 8th of July 2010 10:07:17 AM

I've recently been thinking about our Brain. If you don't know what
that is.. Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain
I was amazed about the facts the Human brain can do and achieve. It's mind-blowing.
My idea was that couldn't there be a connection between each others brain
just like the internet. I am talking about a mental connection between brains.
Sometimes we can tell what someone is thinking in their head.
Sometimes we are so attached to a person, we are part of them(not physically).
If you think about it, when we talk to a person, we don't talk to the body.
We talk to their brain.(I just felt like saying that).
I can't corroborate my statements. I just want your ideas and opinions.

Ever Since I was Going High School this has been a heated and controversial topic especially for fact that it was ordered by raymoth notice to be issued in  the spanish town prison....some see it as a means of controlling the aids virus from spreading.....other see it ias wrong....luuu to the highest level.....


ZONE...TALK YUH MIND PON THIS

IS IT AN ABUSE OF AUTHORITY?
CORRUPT INDIVIDUALS
NORMAL PPL DOING THEIR JOBS AND THE PUBLIC HATES IT?

GIMMI SOME SENSIBLE ANSWERS PLEASE....NOT JUST SOME "POLICE CAN GUH SU.CK DEM MADDA THING"

SHOW PPL SEH WI MATURE

BLESS

Barack Obama and Lady GaGa were neck and neck for several weeks as for their number of fans on Facebook. But if the American President is known all over the world, on the painting(cloth) and the social networks, it is Lady GaGa who gathers(collects) most fans.

Bandages you what?

Since the surprise discovery last year of trace amounts of water on the moon, scientists have been redefining their concept of Earth's rocky neighbor. Now researchers say the water on the moon comes in three different flavors.

 

Until recently the moon was thought to be bone dry. But measurements in the last year from the Mini-SAR and Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3 or "M-cubed") instruments on India's Chandrayaan-1 moon probe and from NASA's recent LCROSS mission have proved that wrong.

 

Mini-SAR found 40 craters, each containing frozen water at least 6.6 feet (2 meters) deep on the lunar surface which adds up to 600 million tons of lunar ice stuff altogether. LCROSS slammed into the moon on Oct. 9, 2009 and found evidence of water in another crater.

 

"So far we've found three types of moon water," said Paul Spudis of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. "We have Mini-SAR's thick lenses of nearly pure crater ice, LCROSS's fluffy mix of ice crystals and dirt, and M-cube's thin layer that comes and goes all across the surface of the moon."

 

LCROSS struck moon water in a cold, permanently dark crater at the lunar south pole. Since then, the science team has been thoroughly mining the data collected from the intentional moon crash.

 

"It looks as though at least two different layers of our crater soil contain water, and they represent two different time epochs," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator. "The first layer, ejected in the first 2 seconds from the crater after impact, contains water and hydroxyl bound up in the minerals, and even tiny pieces of pure ice mixed in. This layer is a thin film and may be relatively 'fresh,' perhaps recently replenished."

 

This brand of moon water resembles the water M3 discovered last year in scant but widespread amounts, bound to the rocks and dust in the very top millimeters of lunar soil, scientists say. But the second layer is different.

 

"It contains even more water ice plus a treasure chest of other compounds we weren't even looking for," he says. "So far the tally includes sulfur dioxide (SO2), methanol (CH3OH), and the curious organic molecule diacetylene (H2C4). This layer seems to extend below at least 0.5 meters and is probably older than the ice we're finding on the surface."

 

The researchers don't yet know why some craters contain loads of pure ice while others are dominated by an ice-soil mixture. It's probably a sign that the moon water comes from more than one source.

 

"Some of the water may be made right there on the moon," Spudis said. "Protons in the solar wind can make small amounts of water continuously on the lunar surface by interacting with metal oxides in the rocks. But some of the water is probably deposited on the moon from other places in the solar system."

 

These findings are completely rewriting the book on the moon. [Moon Gallery]

 

"It's a different world up there," says Spudis, "and we've barely scratched the surface. Who knows what discoveries lie ahead?"

If you play a Russian roulette with a half loaded gun, your living changes are 50% - 50%.
That means, that in 50% of the universes(parallel universes) you will blow your head off, and in another 50% of them you will live. Since your consciousness ceases to exist in the universes in which you die, you, the experimenter/observer can only observe the experiment from the universes in which you survive it.
Having in mind that there isn't any limit of how many parallel universes could exist, no matter how many times you repeat the process, you will still end up in the universes in which you don't blow your head off, never experiencing the gun firing, making yourself an absolute winner in every Russian roulette match possible.

You could place any near death situation in the place of the above experiment. Just think about it. If the multiverse theory is true, every conscious being is immortal.

IF YOUR ABLE TO OVER COME ANY SUICIDE U HAVE TRIED TO COMMIT....U MAY HAVE OVERCOME THE FEAR OF DEATH ....weh u think??

As of now all i have is Adobe

SHOUT OUTS TO EVERYBODY WHO SUPPORT THE SHOW....BLESS UP TO KEVIN AND APPLEZ....AND EVERYBODY WHO CALL......WHATS UR FEEDBACK ON THE SHOW.???? WHAT DO U RECOMMEND? LET US KNOW

NGC 1999 is the green tinged cloud towards the top of the image. The dark spot to the right was thought to be a cloud of dense dust and gas until Herschel looked at it. It is in fact a hole that has been blown in the side of NGC 1999 by the jets and winds of gas from the young stellar objects in this region of space. 

A vast hole in space has been unexpectedly discovered in a part of the universe thought to be packed with a cloud of dense gas and dust the latest in a string of cosmic finds by the European Herschel infrared space telescope.

The surprising hole in space has provided astronomers with a new glimpse at the end of the star-forming process.

"No one has ever seen a hole like this," said study team member Tom Megeath of the University of Toledo in Ohio. "It's as surprising as knowing you  have worms tunneling under your lawn, but finding one morning that they have created a huge, yawning pit."

Stars are born in dense clouds of dust and gas, and while jets of gas have been spotted coming from young stars, the process of how a star uses this gas to disperse surrounding debris and emerge from its birth cloud has not been understood.

This latest discovery by Herschel, an infrared space telescope built by the European Space Agency, may be an unexpected step in the star-forming process.
A cloud of bright, reflective gas, known to astronomers as NGC 1999, is located next to a black patch of sky. For most of the 20th century, these black patches were understood to be dense clouds of dust and gas that block light that would normally pass through

As Herschel's infrared eye looked in the direction of NGC 1999 to study nearby young stars, the cloud continued to look black, even though the telescope's infrared technology is designed to penetrate through such dense cloud material. This meant that either the cloud was immensely dense, or Herschel had happened upon a previously unexplained phenomenon.

Astronomers continued their investigation using ground-based telescopes and found the same results when looking at the patch of gas. This led to the conclusion that the patch looks black not because it is an extremely dense pocket of gas, but because it is truly empty something had blown a hole through the cloud.

The astronomers think the hole must have been opened when the narrow jets of gas from some of the young stars in the region punctured the sheet of dust and gas that forms NGC 1999. The powerful radiation from a nearby mature star may have also helped to create the hole, researchers said.

Whatever the exact cause of the hole may be, the discovery may be an important glimpse into the way newborn stars shake off their birth clouds that helps astronomers develop a better understanding of the entire star-forming process, researchers said. 

Herschel is the largest and most powerful infrared telescope in space today. The European Space Agency launched the observatory into orbit in May 2009.

Scientists announced a bold step Thursday in the enduring quest to create artificial life. They've produced a living cell powered by manmade DNA. While such work can evoke images of Frankenstein-like scientific tinkering, it also is exciting hopes that it could eventually lead to new fuels, better ways to clean polluted water, faster vaccine production and more.

Is it really an artificial life form?

The inventors call it the world's first synthetic cell, although this initial step is more a re-creation of existing life changing one simple type of bacterium into another than a built-from-scratch kind.

Maryland genome-mapping pioneer J. Craig Venter said his team's project paves the way for the ultimate, much harder goal: designing organisms that work differently from the way nature intended for a wide range of uses. Already he's working with ExxonMobil in hopes of turning algae into fuel.

And the report, being published Friday in the journal Science, is triggering excitement in this growing field of synthetic biology.

"It's been a long time coming, and it was worth the wait," said Dr. George Church, a Harvard Medical School genetics professor. "It's a milestone that has potential practical applications."

The project has overcome some hurdles in engineering larger genomes that will help push forward the field, said biological engineer Dr. Ron Weiss, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology leader in synthetic biology.

"It's an important step," said Weiss. Even though the manmade DNA needed an already living cell to start working, eventually it reproduced and "all elements in the cells after some amount of time can be traced to this initial artificial DNA. That's a great accomplishment."

Scientists for years have moved single genes and even large chunks of DNA from one species to another. Venter aimed to go further. A few years ago, his team transplanted an entire natural genome, all of an organism's genes, one bacterium into another and watched it take over turning a goat germ into a cattle germ.

Next, the researchers built from scratch another, smaller bacterium's genome, using off-the-shelf laboratory-made DNA fragments.

Friday's report combines those two achievements to test a big question: Could synthetic DNA really take over and drive a living cell? Somehow, it did.

"This is transforming life totally from one+ species into another by changing the software," said Venter, using a computer analogy to explain the DNA's role.

The researchers picked two species of Mycoplasma, simple germs that contain a single chromosome and lack the cell walls that form barriers in other bacteria. First, they chemically synthesized the genome of M. mycoides, that goat germ, twice as large as the germ genome they'd previously built.

Then they transplanted it into a living cell from a different Mycoplasma species, albeit a fairly close cousin.

At first, nothing happened. The team scrambled to find out why, creating a genetic version of a computer proofreading program to spell-check the DNA fragments they'd pieced together. The result: They found that a typo in the genetic code, in one of the synthetic genome's million chemical base pairs, was rendering the manmade DNA inactive, delaying the project three months to find and restore that bit.

"It shows you how accurate it has to be, one letter out of a million," Venter said.

That fixed, the transplant worked. The recipient cell started out with synthetic DNA and its original cytoplasm, but the new genome "booted up" that cell to start producing only proteins that normally would be found in the copied goat germ. It reproduced into a small colony of germs in a lab dish. The researchers had tagged the synthetic DNA to be able to tell it apart, and confirmed that those new ones really looked and behaved like M. mycoides, not the recipient cell

 

The sun is about to get a lot more active, which could have ill effects on Earth. So to prepare, top sun scientists met Tuesday to discuss the best ways to protect Earth's satellites and other vital systems from the coming

solar storms.

 

 

Solar storms occur when sunspots on our star erupt and spew out flumes of charged particles that can damage power systems. The sun's activity typically follows an 11-year cycle, and it looks to be coming out of a slump and gearing up for an active period.

 

"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity," said Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division. "At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we're getting together to discuss."

 

Fisher and other experts met at the Space Weather Enterprise Forum, which took place in Washington, D.C., at the National Press Club.

 

Bad news for gizmos

 

 

People of the 21st century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. But smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and

emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity.

 

 

 

A major

solar storm could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina, warned the National Academy of Sciences in a 2008 report, "Severe Space Weather EventsSocietal and Economic Impacts." [Photos: Sun storms.]

 

 

Luckily, much of the damage can be mitigated if managers know a storm is coming. That's why better understanding of solar weather, and the ability to give advance warning, is especially important.

 

Putting satellites in 'safe mode' and disconnecting transformers can protect electronics from damaging electrical surges.

 

 

"Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we're making rapid progress," said Thomas Bogdan, director of the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo.

 

 

Eyes on the sun

 

NASA and NOAA work together to manage a fleet of satellites that monitor the sun and help to predict its changes.

 

 

A pair of spacecraft called STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations

Observatory) is stationed on opposite sides of the sun, offering a combined view of 90 percent of the solar surface. In addition, SDO (the Solar Dynamics Observatory), which just launched in February 2010, is able to photograph solar active regions with unprecedented spectral, temporal and spatial resolution. Also, an old satellite called the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), which launched in 1997, is still chugging along monitoring winds coming off the sun. And there are dozens more dedicated to solar science.

 

 

"I believe we're on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather." Fisher said. "We take this very seriously indeed."







i dont think i like the sound of the last part

For almost a decade and a half, astronomers have been finding new planets orbiting distant stars first a trickle and then, more recently, a flood of alien worlds, with the tally now well above 400, and climbing every day.

The vast majority of these so-called exoplanets have been "seen" only indirectly by observing the gravitational tug they exert on their parent stars, for example, or in silhouette as they pass between their stars and our telescopes. Ideally, astronomers would love to see the planets themselves, in order to understand what they're made of, how they formed and perhaps whether the most Earth-like of the exoplanets might harbor a primitive form of life.
(See the top 50 space moments since Sputnik.)

That sort of direct detection is finally starting to happen. In an upcoming paper in the Astrophysical Journal, three observers confirm that they've photographed a planet orbiting a sun-like star known as 1RXS 1609, about 500 light-years, or nearly three quadrillion miles, from Earth, in the constellation Scorpius.
(See an illustrated history of Planet Earth.)

The astronomers first spotted this planet back in 2008, but they weren't sure whether it was really orbiting the star or was just on the same line of sight. Two years later, they've seen the planet and star drift across the sky together, confirming the relationship. And while this one was the first, there may be others lurking in the data.

The chance there's life there, however, is essentially zero: the planet is huge, which means it's almost certain to be made mostly of gas and, therefore, have no surface for life to exist on. It's also farther from its star than any planet ever seen about 330 times as distant from its star as Earth is from the sun. (Jupiter, in comparison, is only five times farther than Earth from the sun.) That would ordinarily make the giant world far too frigid for living things. In this case, however, it's far too hot. The planet is only 5 million years old, and the lingering heat from its formation keeps it at about 2,700°F. (It's also too young to have evolved life.)
(See pictures of the sun's total eclipse in 2009.)

Its searing temperature is in fact the only reason astronomers could see the planet in the first place. It's also why they decided to point the giant Gemini telescope, located atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea, at the Upper Scorpius Association. What sounds vaguely like a British football team is actually a nursery of young stars, and the scientists concentrated on 85 of the Upper Scorpius newborns. "We knew that if they had planets, these would also be young and hot, making them relatively easy to see," says co-author David Lafreniere of the University of Montreal.

Life-harboring planets, in contrast, are likely to be old and cold like Earth and so close to the blinding glare of their stars that they are doubly hard to spot. It might only be possible to see them with an advanced telescope in space, or perhaps with the new generation of ground-based instruments that are equipped with coronagraphs, which blot out a star's light, and adaptive-optics systems, which eliminate the shimmering of Earth's atmosphere. These devices should be operating on Gemini's southern twin, Gemini South based in Chile, by next year, and also on the Chile-based European Large Telescope.

While the newly spotted planet doesn't do much for the discovery of alien life, it does hammer home a lesson that astronomers have learned over and over: planets come in a much wider variety and in a bigger range of orbits than anyone imagined. The first new exoplanet, found in 1995, was so close to its star that its "year" was only a few days long. This new planet is so far out that it takes 6,000 years to complete a single orbit and it couldn't have been found any other way but direct detection.

"As a human being, I can understand the bias in favor of finding planets where life is possible," says co-discoverer Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto. "But aside from that, it's important to see full diversity of what's out there. Direct imaging is revealing an entirely new population of planets that couldn't be detected until now."





Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2000787,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0sXoSZkeU




the link will show the pic...for some reason i cant post pics on zone no more

-- Edited by Konvict ( Mod ) on Friday 2nd of July 2010 11:52:13 AM

when you have all the internet access in the world so that you experience every part of it. when u sit right infront the computer on the net but have nothing to do...what do u do? or suggest?

unnuh ever take a notice to japanese media yet?

France striker Thierry Henry will join the New York Red Bulls, according to NBA star and friend Steve Nash.

Red Bulls general manager Erik Soler refused to confirm Henry would be signed next week, but the MLS team has said a star player will be introduced on Thursday.

Nash was more willing to talk about his friend Henry. The Phoenix Suns guard and part-owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps said Henry's move to the MLS is "fantastic."

"Thierry is still a world-class player," Nash said. "We've seen players come over before who showed how great they were, but not necessarily every night.

"He's still capable of bringing it at the highest level," Nash added. "It's amazing that he's willing to come over at this stage of his career, to be honest. It's a big coup for Red Bull and MLS as well."

For the past two years, there had been speculation that Henry might come to the States. The 32-year-old former Arsenal and Barcelona star even said about 13 months ago that he would like to live in New York and play in the MLS.

The door opened recently when Henry and Barcelona agreed to part ways, meaning the Red Bulls wouldn't have to pay a transfer fee to sign him.

Soler was coy Saturday when asked to say who the new addition would be.

"You'll never get any names from my mouth until everything is signed and it's stamped and done and we're ready to present him," Soler said.

Nash had no such problems in declaring Henry to be New York bound.

"He's had a phenomenal career, played at some of the biggest teams in the world, had a fantastic time at Arsenal and a fantastic time at Barcelona," the two-time NBA MVP said. "When you've been a professional player at the highest level with those kind of expectations since you're 17, sometimes you welcome a change.

"He's accomplished so much. I don't know how many players have won as much - he's won in England, he's won in Spain, he's won a Champions League, he's won a European cup, he's won a World Cup. He loves America, he loves New York City and is ready for a new challenge. So I'm thrilled I'll be able to see him on a daily basis."

Henry scored only four goals this past season at Barcelona, spending more time on the bench. He also had an unhappy World Cup, as France was eliminated at the group stage, and a group of players led a mutiny and refused to practice after Nicolas Anelka was sent home for an expletive-filled rant aimed at coach Raymond Domenech.

MONROE, Ohio A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said. The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati. The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m., Monroe police dispatchers said. The sculpture, 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday. The fire spread from the statue to an adjacent amphitheater but was confined to the attic area, and no one was injured, police Chief Mark Neu said. The fire department would release a monetary damage estimate Tuesday, he said. Travelers on Interstate 75 often were startled to come upon the huge statue by the roadside, but many said America needs more symbols like it. So many people stopped at the church campus that church officials had to build a walkway to accommodate them. The 4,000-member, nondenominational church was founded by former horse trader Lawrence Bishop and his wife. Bishop said in 2004 he was trying to help people, not impress them, with the statue. He said his wife proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation, and they spent about $250,000 to finance it.

ORANIA, South Africa You come because there have been stories. Because around the World Cup the talk has been about peace and togetherness and the vanquishing of old racial wounds in the hope that the worlds arrival might stimulate new solutions. And you hear of a place that wants none of that. A place where white and black cant live side-by-side in the rainbow nation. A place settled by the old South Africa who couldnt cope with the new South Africa.

And you wonder why such a place should exist at all.

So you drive early one morning from Johannesburg, long before the sun climbs into the sky. You go past the flat-topped hills of mining country, through dusty towns and then across the long, open African savannah spotted with acacia trees until five hours later, near the banks of the Orange River, you find Orania.

And yes, it is true. In a country 80 percent black, there is a town that has made itself 100 percent white. Determined to preserve the Afrikaner culture 20 years after the fall of apartheid.

On the surface, Orania seems like a normal village. It has a grocery store, a gas station and a small bookstore that sells town T-shirts. A woman at a desk in the bookstore smiles and asks you to sign a guestbook. The primary language is Afrikaans, not English. The towns public relations director, a former physician named John Strydom, comes out and shows a video. On the screen, children ride bicycles and the narrator explains that there is a place where children can still have a comfortable childhood and residents can walk without looking over their shoulder.

And it is clear that without even mentioning the words, this is all about black and white.

Driving around Orania, Strydom points out all the sights: the new houses built with bales of straw for insulation and solar panels on the roofs, the radio station, the small but lavish hotel and gleaming spa that overlook the river. He also explains the criteria for buying a house in Orania: one must submit an application, promise to uphold the Afrikaner culture and be approved by an administrative board.

We can choose who lives here, he says bluntly.

When asked if that was restricted by race he replied: Most people in South Africa wouldnt want to come here if they are black.

Once the Afrikaners controlled South Africa, often brutally; this, despite the fact they were a white minority in a country that is predominately black. In the 1940s, they invented apartheid as an official form of segregation and ran the country almost as a dictatorship until black uprisings and the worlds scorn broke that rule. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, it was only a matter of time before Afrikaner rule was over.

This is when a missionary named Carel Boshoff, the son in law of Hendrick Frensch Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, banded with a group of 40 families to buy a mostly abandoned government construction camp and turn it into Orania. From the beginning, the idea was to separate. Orania had its own flag and its own currency (the ora, the first three letters of the towns name) and set out to build something self-sustaining. Now, the 700 or so residents of Orania live as if it is their own country.

In fact, when asked who he considers to be his president, Boshoffs son Carel (IV), who is now the communitys leader rambles for a moment, talking about how all people see government in different ways. When pressed on the question he finally says, Right here, and points to the ground at his feet.

Carel (IV) is an intellectual man, with large glasses and wavy long hair. He could be a young radical in Amsterdam if he wasnt here in this small farming town explaining why he wants an Afrikaner state. He likes to talk in concepts and enjoys the show about international politics he hosts every week on the radio station.

He picks his words carefully but the communitys philosophy spills out nonetheless. Since the Afrikaner is white in heritage then the culture that is preserved must be white as well. The people of Orania dont have anything against black people, he says, they just dont share a culture. And if they dont share a culture then they shouldnt be living together.

Mostly Orania taps into white fear. Carel (IV) speaks a lot about how black rule has forced Afrikaners out of work because of Affirmative Action programs designed to get blacks jobs. An experienced white engineer could suddenly become a technical assistant to an inexperienced black employee, he says.

He also talks a lot about violence in other parts of South Africa. People in cities such as Johannesburg live behind giant walls and electric fences. In more rural areas, a panic has risen about what locals call farm killings in which young blacks have murdered a few Afrikaner farmers. The most notable was the killing of white supremacist Eugene TerreBlanche, a man who has advocated for several white republics in the country and was beaten to death by two of his black workers over a wage dispute.

Very few people coming here are not affected by crime, Carel (IV) says. They have been robbed or hijacked or something. It affects their mindsets.

South Africa is quickly becoming a failed state, Carel (IV) says. Any thought the World Cup is going to bring unity and help people confront two decades of growing pains is ridiculous, he says. The countrys future, with what he calls corruption in the mostly black African National Congress, is bleak.

Theres no reason a country as diverse as South Africa should be united and together, he says.

The best plan, he adds, is to stand out of the tension.

And yet that is the misfortune of Orania, this fact it wants to step back from the fight to build South Africa. It is a beautiful town with imaginative people, like Carel (IV)s nephew, also named Carel who is a student in Pretoria, who loves the idea of the World Cup and yet dreams of returning to Orania.

Were building something for ourselves here, he says.

But why? Why not for the country? Why hide a spectacular hotel and a spa on the edge of the river and not share it with the rest of South Africa? All around the country there is growth and building, even among the tension as Carel (IV) calls it. Just a few days ago in the black Johannesburg township of Soweto, a group of black residents gathered at a restaurant for the monthly meeting of their saving group. Together, they said, they give whatever money they want to put away to one member who deposits it in the bank. Then when enough has been saved to buy a car or a house or pay for school they can pull it out. The group serves as their support.

Imagine putting the saving group together with the Orania ingenuity that erected energy-efficient houses made with straw inside? What a country this could become.

On the drive back to Johannesburg and the World Cup that has come to be about unity, it was so easy to see.

The sadness as night fell and an autumn storm rumbled across the savannah was that Orania could not.