Power-Mad Bitch Long before she first ran for office and became the subject of her very own attack ads, Hillary Clinton was attacked in various venues as insufficiently feminine, as a lesbian, as scheming, power-hungry, and emasculating. When in 2000 she ran to represent New York in the U.S. Senate, her opponent, Rick Lazio, ran an ad saying, ?Hillary Clinton: You can always trust her to do what's right?for Hillary Clinton.'' The same year state?s GOP chairman released a fund-raising letter calling her an ?ambitious, ruthless, scheming, calculating, manipulating woman.? The letter used the word ?woman? five times. A group called the Christian Action Network even produced an ad with a male narrator saying, ?it is rumored that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian ? sometimes rumors are true,? while creepy horror-movie music played in the background.
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich leaves after speaking at a town meeting at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich leaves after speaking at a town meeting at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaks at a town meeting at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaks at a town meeting at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) ? Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich on Monday proposed allowing younger workers still decades away from retirement to bypass Social Security and instead choose private investment accounts that would be subject to stock market gyrations.
The former House speaker, who has risen in the polls, would allow younger workers to take their share of the payroll tax that funds Social Security and put it in a private account.
Employers would still pay their share of the tax, which would be used to pay benefits for current retirees. But it would create a funding shortfall that Gingrich brushed off.
"That gap is more than covered by the savings" that would come from giving states control of 185 social welfare programs, Gingrich told reporters after a speech that laid out broad concepts but lacked key details.
Gingrich's plan would cover the near-term deficits by giving to states responsibility for such programs as AmeriCorps volunteers, Section 8 public housing and Pell Grants for college students. He said states were better suited to administer those programs.
Gingrich said his retirement proposal, an idea floated by Republicans before him, would empower voters.
"Wouldn't you rather control your account?" Gingrich asked an audience of students at St. Anselm College.
His advisers couldn't say how much the plan would cost, when it would begin or who would be eligible. They did say, however, that current retirees would continue to receive benefits at promised levels.
Peter Ferrara, Gingrich's senior economic policy adviser, said federal spending as a whole would be reduced by half within the next three decades.
"It's a lot of reduction," he said.
At a business leaders' breakfast earlier in the day in Nashua, Gingrich predicted that the program "would save literally trillions over the next generation."
Under the plan, workers would be able to do one of two things: continue sending their share of Social Security taxes to the popular, safety-net program or give it to private firms that would compete for those dollars ? as much as $20,000 a year, Gingrich estimated.
"No one is ever forced into the (private account) system," he said after the speech.
Markets would determine how much money workers who chose private accounts would get each month. Gingrich guaranteed a minimum income in case Wall Street collapses like it did in 2008.
As Gingrich spoke Monday, stocks plunged several hundred points by midday as a special congressional panel in Washington appeared ready to declare failure in its attempt to agree on how to trim federal spending by $1.2 trillion over a decade.
Under Gingrich's plan, the federal government would regulate the private accounts run by private firms to ensure the portfolios were diversified enough to prevent one company or sector from taking down the entire system.
Government approved firms then would compete for consumers, who could move their money among accounts based on fund performance.
Organized labor and advocacy groups such as AARP would be allowed to collaborate with the investment firms to tailor plans to reflect the promises they make in pension plans.
Gingrich's plan also would treat the private retirement accounts as other investments, which could be passed on as part of an estate.
President George W. Bush offered some similar proposals for Social Security after he was re-elected in 2004, but faced stiff resistance from Democrats and some within his own party about any proposed changes to the popular program.
Workers pay a 6.2 percent Social Security tax on the first $106,800 in wages, which is matched by employers. This year, the tax rate for workers was reduced temporarily to 4.2 percent. The tax cut is set to expire at the end of the year, though President Barack Obama wants to expand it and extend it for another year. Congress is expected to approve.
Amitabh Bachchan has turned down the request to show the pictures of the new addition in his family as he wants to keep the baby out of the public eye. He has refused to show the world a peek at Abhishek ? Aishwarya?s baby as he says it is a personal thing. “Many asking for [...]
CAIRO (Reuters) ? Protesters demanding Egypt's ruling generals hand over power beat back a new police raid to evict them from Cairo's central Tahrir Square on Monday, witnesses said.
The police fired tear gas and attacked a makeshift field hospital, while protesters broke up pavements to hurl the chunks of concrete at police.
Black smoke billowed from a six-storey apartment building near the square and a woman screamed for help from a top-floor window. Firefighters arrived but police fired tear gas from a side street at a crowd gathered below, angering bystanders. Some residents tried to scale the building to rescue those trapped.
The clashes between government forces and protesters in Cairo and other Egyptian cities have killed at least 12 people since Saturday in some of the worst violence since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.
"There is clearly no going back as you can see this violence cannot be swept under the table," said Essam Gouda, a protester in Tahrir, who said two marches were due to converge there by mid-afternoon.
"We aim to control the entry points to the square so that security doesn't block protesters from entering," said Essam.
Tahrir Square was the rallying point for protesters in Cairo when an 18-day uprising toppled Mubarak from three decades of power in February.
With just a week before voting in the first free parliamentary election in decades, the confrontations have raised concerns about how smooth voting will be.
Egyptians elect a new parliament in a staggered vote that starts on November 28, but even when the assembly is picked, presidential powers remain with the army until a presidential poll, which may not happen until late 2012 or early 2013. Protesters want a much swifter transition.
Police backed by army officers fired salvoes of gas canisters and charged demonstrators in the square as darkness fell on Sunday, temporarily sending protesters fleeing. Demonstrators brandished spent shotgun cartridges and bullet casings, although police denied using live rounds.
Security forces burned down banners and Internet clips, which could not be independently checked, showed police beating protesters with sticks, pulling them by the hair and, in one case, dumping what appeared to be a corpse on piles of rubbish.
Demonstrators swiftly regrouped in sidestreets and returned to take control of the square overnight before police tried again to retake Tahrir after dawn.
TANTAWI THE TARGET OF PROTESTS
Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's defense minister for two decades and who leads the army council, has become a target of protests.
"I don't want Tantawi ... I am staying tonight," said Ayman Ramadan, a data entry employee, said early on Monday morning.
Outside the burning apartment building, protesters chanted: "Tantawi burned it and here are the revolutionaries!"
State television said at least 10 people were killed on Sunday, raising the death toll since Saturday, when clashes erupted, to at least 12. Hundreds have been wounded.
The demonstration that began on Friday was initially led by Islamists, angry at a bid by the army-backed cabinet to lay down principles for a new constitution that would have kept the army out of the control of a future civilian government.
But since then, the protest has largely been driven by the same youthful activists who galvanized Egyptians to bring down Mubarak, putting national pride before religion.
One of those groups, April 6 youth movement, told Egypt's state news agency it would stay in Tahrir and continue sit-ins in other cities until its demands were met, including a call for a presidential vote no later than April.
Other demands include replacing the current cabinet with a national salvation government and an immediate investigation into the clashes in Tahrir and trial of those implicated in it.
Presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an ultra-conservative Salafi Islamist, told protesters: "We are demanding as the minimum that power be handed over within six months."
The army has denied any desire to cling onto power and says it will not let any violence delay the parliamentary poll. It insists it can ensure security during the vote.
"We are all insisting on having the election on time -- the government, parties and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces," cabinet spokesman Mohamed Hegazy told Reuters.
But analysts say a surge in violence in voting, a common feature of elections in Mubarak's era of rigged polls, could undermine the assembly's legitimacy if the result is questioned and deepen public frustration at the army's handling of the transition.
Presidential hopefuls Mohamed ElBaradei and Abdallah al-Ashaal denounced violence against protesters and called for a national salvation government, state news agency MENA said.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, urged Egypt's interim authority to halt the violence.
"I urge calm and restraint and condemn the use of violence in the strongest terms," she said.
Liberal groups are dismayed by the military trials of thousands of civilians and the army's failure to scrap a hated emergency law. Islamists eyeing a strong showing in the next parliament suspect the army wants to curtail their influence.
Analysts say Islamists could win 40 percent of parliamentary seats, with a big portion going to the Muslim Brotherhood, the most organised Islamist group.
(Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
Male nursery web spiders lure mates with silk-wrapped offerings, only some of which contain tasty treats. Cynthia Graber reports
November 21, 2011
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Male nursery web spiders often woo potential lady-friends with gifts wrapped in silk. Mating may ensue, during which a female unspools the present, expecting to find a tasty treat. But the males can be unscrupulous. Some offerings contain inedible plant seeds or empty insect exoskeletons.
How do males get away with such egregious behavior?
Researchers provided males with potential gifts?either a fly or an inedible item, such as a bit of cotton. Other males had to give it a shot with no gift at all.
The empty-handed males were mostly unsuccessful at mating. Whereas those with a gift could get the girl. But if the gift was worthless, the females quickly realized the deceit and pushed the copulating males off. Which gave the males less time to transfer sperm.
The study is in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. [Maria J. Albo et al., "Worthless donations: male deception and female counter play in a nuptial gift-giving spider"]
Females clearly prefer males bearing edible presents. But some males know they can get limited action without expending the energy on a real gift. And the females laid almost the same amount of eggs fertilized by males bearing real or phony gifts. With both strategies successful, the behavior gets maintained. And the species stays stocked with deadbeat dads.
In Sunday's New York Times, David Segal's article "What They Don't Teach Law Students: Lawyering" shines some light on what many law schools don't want their students to know: they won't know how to practice law when they graduate.
Although this may come as a surprise to people outside the legal community, this is something that practicing attorneys have known for quite some time. In fact, the need for practical information about how to practice law is the reason I wrote "The New Lawyer's Handbook: 101 Things They Don't Teach You in Law School."
After graduation, it became very clear to me that while the study of law deals with statutes, cases and appeals, the practice of law deals with an intriguing cocktail of greed, substance abuse, domestic violence and basic immaturity - and that is just between you and your law partners. Your clients also experience these issues in their cases.
Introduction, "The New Lawyer's Handbook"
You may be wondering what the law schools are doing if they are not teaching students how to practice law. Law schools are teaching critical thinking. They are giving students a long view of legal history. They are showing students how to dissect an appellate case, write about it and argue it. They are providing the information that students need to pass a bar exam. They are connecting students with internships and full-time employment.
Most law schools also try to find "real-life" experiences for their students through legal clinics and mock trials. But here is the reality: you don't know what it's like to be a lawyer until you have the sole responsibility for a real-life client with a real-life problem sitting across the desk from you.
To be clear, law schools can and should do a better job of preparing students but they are only part of the solution. The state bar associations need to sponsor legal education seminars and mentorship programs. Law firm partners need to create a teaching atmosphere within their firms. Experienced lawyers need to foster an atmosphere of collegiality with new practitioners who are on the opposite side of a case. New practitioners need to admit that they don't know what they don't know and approach the practice with eagerness and also with humility.
Segal's article asks, "What do corporate clients wish associates were taught in law school?" Let's ask another question: "What do new practitioners need to know in order to both succeed in and enjoy their law practice?"
They need to learn how to survive office politics. They need to learn how to have a positive and productive relationship with their office staff. They need to understand the business of practicing law.
They need to know how to control their clients. Whether it's comforting a sobbing client or defusing an angry one, they need to understand that the practice of law is actually one-part law and one-part psychology.
But arguably, the most important thing they need is an experienced lawyer to mentor them. The mentor will answer questions without making them feel stupid. The mentor will encourage them to keep a healthy balance between their law practice and their life. When the new practitioner is lamenting that he/she is waking up at 3 a.m. worrying about a case, the mentor will offer advice and a sympathetic ear.
The most effective way to transition students from the classroom to the courtroom requires law schools and lawyers to work together. The law schools need to set aside any disdain they harbor about the value of practical advice from experienced lawyers. Experienced lawyers must accept and embrace the responsibility to mentor not only the lawyers in their firm but all of the lawyers they come into contact with.
Learning to practice takes practice. In the end, the responsibility for the theoretical and practical education of students and new practitioners belongs to the entire legal community.
UT Southwestern team identifies tumor-specific pathwayPublic release date: 22-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jeff Carlton jeffrey.carlton@utsouthwestern.edu 214-648-3404 UT Southwestern Medical Center
Finding could lead to new cancer-stopping therapies
DALLAS -- A research team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists has identified an atypical metabolic pathway unique to some tumors, possibly providing a future target for drugs that could reduce or halt the spread of cancer.
Dr. Ralph DeBerardinis, senior author of the study published Nov. 20 in Nature, likened the newly discovered pathway to traffic that is rerouted during a highway construction project.
"If we hone in on this reverse pathway, then we may be able to prevent the growth of certain types of cancer," said Dr. DeBerardinis, assistant professor of pediatrics and a physician scientist in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development. "It's long been thought that targeting tumor-specific metabolic pathways would lead to an effective way to treat cancer. This is one of the few metabolic pathways that may actually exist specifically in tumors."
The pathway involves the Krebs cycle, a series of chemical reactions that generates energy and is considered one of the most familiar and widely studied processes in biology. In the normal cycle, energy is derived by the breakdown of acetate from ingested carbohydrates, fats and proteins into carbon dioxide and water.
For more than 70 years, biology textbooks have depicted the Krebs cycle as running clockwise in normal cells. UT Southwestern researchers found that in some tumors the cycle runs in reverse.
The discovery is the latest milestone in a long line of scientific inquiry that began in the 1920s when biochemists first recognized metabolic differences between cancer cells and normal cells. Scientists since have thought they could stop the growth of cancer cells with drugs that target only tumor-specific pathways, leaving normal cells unaffected.
Researchers have identified only a few such therapeutic windows, the latest of which appears to be the reverse Krebs cycle pathway identified by Dr. DeBerardinis and colleagues in this investigation.
"There is no pathway that has been more extensively studied over the years than the Krebs cycle," Dr. DeBerardinis said. "The fact that with relatively modest manipulation, it can run in reverse is incredibly fascinating."
Dr. James K.V. Willson, director of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the findings are significant.
"We are learning that certain cancers have previously unrecognized mutations in genes controlling metabolism and these abnormalities are providing new therapeutic opportunities," he said.
###
Andrew Mullen, a graduate student in genetics and development at UT Southwestern, was first author of the paper. Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the study were Dr. Eunsook Jin, instructor in the Advanced Imaging Research Center; Pei-Hsuan Chen, graduate student in integrative biology; and Dr. Tzuling Cheng, a postdoctoral researcher in pediatrics. Scientists from Northwestern University and from the National Cancer Institute also participated.
The project was funded in part with a grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
This news release is available on our World Wide Web home page at
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/home/news/index.html
To automatically receive news releases from UT Southwestern via email,
subscribe at www.utsouthwestern.edu/receivenews
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UT Southwestern team identifies tumor-specific pathwayPublic release date: 22-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jeff Carlton jeffrey.carlton@utsouthwestern.edu 214-648-3404 UT Southwestern Medical Center
Finding could lead to new cancer-stopping therapies
DALLAS -- A research team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists has identified an atypical metabolic pathway unique to some tumors, possibly providing a future target for drugs that could reduce or halt the spread of cancer.
Dr. Ralph DeBerardinis, senior author of the study published Nov. 20 in Nature, likened the newly discovered pathway to traffic that is rerouted during a highway construction project.
"If we hone in on this reverse pathway, then we may be able to prevent the growth of certain types of cancer," said Dr. DeBerardinis, assistant professor of pediatrics and a physician scientist in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development. "It's long been thought that targeting tumor-specific metabolic pathways would lead to an effective way to treat cancer. This is one of the few metabolic pathways that may actually exist specifically in tumors."
The pathway involves the Krebs cycle, a series of chemical reactions that generates energy and is considered one of the most familiar and widely studied processes in biology. In the normal cycle, energy is derived by the breakdown of acetate from ingested carbohydrates, fats and proteins into carbon dioxide and water.
For more than 70 years, biology textbooks have depicted the Krebs cycle as running clockwise in normal cells. UT Southwestern researchers found that in some tumors the cycle runs in reverse.
The discovery is the latest milestone in a long line of scientific inquiry that began in the 1920s when biochemists first recognized metabolic differences between cancer cells and normal cells. Scientists since have thought they could stop the growth of cancer cells with drugs that target only tumor-specific pathways, leaving normal cells unaffected.
Researchers have identified only a few such therapeutic windows, the latest of which appears to be the reverse Krebs cycle pathway identified by Dr. DeBerardinis and colleagues in this investigation.
"There is no pathway that has been more extensively studied over the years than the Krebs cycle," Dr. DeBerardinis said. "The fact that with relatively modest manipulation, it can run in reverse is incredibly fascinating."
Dr. James K.V. Willson, director of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the findings are significant.
"We are learning that certain cancers have previously unrecognized mutations in genes controlling metabolism and these abnormalities are providing new therapeutic opportunities," he said.
###
Andrew Mullen, a graduate student in genetics and development at UT Southwestern, was first author of the paper. Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the study were Dr. Eunsook Jin, instructor in the Advanced Imaging Research Center; Pei-Hsuan Chen, graduate student in integrative biology; and Dr. Tzuling Cheng, a postdoctoral researcher in pediatrics. Scientists from Northwestern University and from the National Cancer Institute also participated.
The project was funded in part with a grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
This news release is available on our World Wide Web home page at
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/home/news/index.html
To automatically receive news releases from UT Southwestern via email,
subscribe at www.utsouthwestern.edu/receivenews
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
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Public release date: 22-Nov-2011
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