Futurity.org ? Zapped by laser, nanobubbles kill cancer

After the laser pulse, red-stained cells show evidence of massive damage from exploding nanobubbles, while blue-stained cells remained intact, but with green fluorescent dye pulled in from the outside. (Credit: Plasmonic Nanobubble Lab/Rice University)

RICE (US) ? Activated by a pulse of laser light, nanobubbles can kill diseased cells while leaving healthy cells untouched.

This unique use for tunable plasmonic nanobubbles, developed in the Rice University lab of Dmitri Lapotko, shows promise to replace several difficult processes now used to treat cancer patients, among others, with a fast, simple, multifunctional procedure.

The research is the focus of a paper published in the journal ACS Nano.

Plasmonic nanobubbles that are 10,000 times smaller than a human hair cause tiny explosions. The bubbles form around plasmonic gold nanoparticles that heat up when excited by an outside energy source?in this case, a short laser pulse?and vaporize a thin layer of liquid near the particle?s surface. The vapor bubble quickly expands and collapses.

Lapotko and colleagues had already found that plasmonic nanobubbles kill cancer cells by literally exploding them without damage to healthy neighbors, a process that showed much higher precision and selectivity compared with those mediated by gold nanoparticles alone, he adds.

The new project takes that remarkable ability a few steps further.

A series of experiments proved a single laser pulse creates large plasmonic nanobubbles around hollow gold nanoshells, and these large nanobubbles selectively destroy unwanted cells.

The same laser pulse creates smaller nanobubbles around solid gold nanospheres that punch a tiny, temporary pore in the wall of a cell and create an inbound nanojet that rapidly ?injects? drugs or genes into the other cells.

In their experiments, Lapotko and his team placed 60-nanometer-wide hollow nanoshells in model cancer cells and stained them red. In a separate batch, they put 60-nanometer-wide nanospheres into the same type of cells and stained them blue.

After suspending the cells together in a green fluorescent dye, they fired a single wide laser pulse at the combined sample, washed the green stain out and checked the cells under a microscope.

The red cells with the hollow shells were blasted apart by large plasmonic nanobubbles. The blue cells were intact, but green-stained liquid from outside had been pulled into the cells where smaller plasmonic nanobubbles around the solid spheres temporarily pried open the walls.

Because all of this happens in a fraction of a second, as many as 10 billion cells per minute could be selectively processed in a flow-through system like that under development at Rice, says Lapotko, a faculty fellow in biochemistry and cell biology and in physics and astronomy. That has potential to advance cell and gene therapy and bone marrow transplantation, he adds.

Most disease-fighting and gene therapies require ?ex vivo??outside the body?processing of human cell grafts to eliminate unwanted (like cancerous) cells and to genetically modify other cells to increase their therapeutic efficiency, explains Lapotko, the study?s lead author.

?Current cell processing is often slow, expensive and labor intensive and suffers from high cell losses and poor selectivity. Ideally both elimination and transfection (the introduction of materials into cells) should be highly efficient, selective, fast, and safe.?

Plasmonic nanobubble technology promises ?a method of doing multiple things to a cell population at the same time,? says Malcolm Brenner, a professor of medicine and of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, who collaborates with the Rice team.

?For example, if I want to put something into a stem cell to make it turn into another type of cell, and at the same time kill surrounding cells that have the potential to do harm when they go back into a patient?or into another patient?these very tunable plasmonic nanobubbles have the potential to do that,? adds Brenner.

Lapotko plans to build a prototype of the technology with an eye toward testing with human cells in the near future.

?We?d like for this to be a universal platform for cell and gene therapy and for stem cell transplantation,? he says.

The National Institutes of Health supported the work, which is a collaboration between Rice, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children?s Hospital, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Source: Rice University

Source: http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/zapped-by-laser-nanobubbles-kill-cancer/

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X-ray vision can reveal the moment of birth of violent supernovae

Monday, December 10, 2012

A team of astronomers led by the University of Leicester has uncovered new evidence that suggests that X-ray detectors in space could be the first to witness new supernovae that signal the death of massive stars.

Astronomers have measured an excess of X-ray radiation in the first few minutes of collapsing massive stars, which may be the signature of the supernova shock wave first escaping from the star.

The findings have come as a surprise to Dr Rhaana Starling, of the University of Leicester Department of Physics and Astronomy whose research is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, published by Oxford University Press.

Dr Starling said: "The most massive stars can be tens to a hundred times larger than the Sun. When one of these giants runs out of hydrogen gas it collapses catastrophically and explodes as a supernova, blowing off its outer layers which enrich the Universe. But this is no ordinary supernova; in the explosion narrowly confined streams of material are forced out of the poles of the star at almost the speed of light. These so-called relativistic jets give rise to brief flashes of energetic gamma-radiation called gamma-ray bursts, which are picked up by monitoring instruments in Space, that in turn alert astronomers."

Gamma-ray bursts are known to arise in stellar deaths because coincident supernovae are seen with ground-based optical telescopes about ten to twenty days after the high energy flash. The true moment of birth of a supernova, when the star's surface reacts to the core collapse, often termed the supernova shock breakout, is missed. Only the most energetic supernovae go hand-in-hand with gamma-ray bursts, but for this sub-class it may be possible to identify X-ray emission signatures of the supernova in its infancy. If the supernova could be detected earlier, by using the X-ray early warning system, astronomers could monitor the event as it happens and pinpoint the drivers behind one of the most violent events in our Universe.

The X-ray detectors being used for this research, built partly in the UK at the University of Leicester, are on the X-Ray Telescope on-board the Swift satellite. Swift is named after the bird because, like its namesake, it is able to swiftly turn around to catch a gamma-ray burst in action. Data from Swift of a number of gamma-ray bursts with visible supernovae have shown an excess in X-rays received compared with expectations. This excess is thermal emission, also known as blackbody radiation.

Dr Starling added: "We were surprised to find thermal X-rays coming from a gamma-ray burst, and even more surprising is that all confirmed cases so far are those with a secure supernova identification from optical data. This phenomenon is only seen during the first thousand seconds of an event, and it is challenging to distinguish it from X-ray emission solely from the gamma-ray burst jet. That is why astronomers have not routinely observed this before, and only a small subset of the 700+ bursts we detect with Swift show it."

"It all hangs on the positive identification of the extra X-ray radiation as directly emerging from the supernova shock front, rather than from the relativistic jets or central black hole. If this radiation turns out to be from the central black-hole-powered engine of the gamma-ray burst instead, it will still be a very illuminating result for gamma-ray burst physics, but the strong association with supernovae is tantalising".

The team, comprising scientists from the UK, Ireland, USA and Denmark, plan to extend their searches, and make more quantitative comparisons with theoretical models both for stellar collapse and the dynamics of fast jet-flows.

Astronomers will continue to view supernovae at their visible-light peak, when they are already tens of days old, but for the most energetic among them it may become possible to routinely witness the very moment they are born, through X-ray eyes.

###

University of Leicester: http://www.leicester.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Leicester for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125825/X_ray_vision_can_reveal_the_moment_of_birth_of_violent_supernovae

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Rory MacDonald, Alexander Gustafsson and Matt Brown big winners at UFC on Fox 5

Young fighters made some noise on UFC on Fox 5 in Seattle on Saturday night. Rory MacDonald, Mike Brown and Alexander Gustaffson all scored big wins.

The torch was passed among welterweights as B.J. Penn was beat down for three rounds by the bigger, faster and younger Rory MacDonald, who took the decision 30-26, 30-26, 30-27.

Penn, a legend in MMA whose first fight was at UFC 31 in 2001, had no answers for 23-year-old MacDonald. Penn was wobbled by a left late in the first round. He survived just to take such a beating in the second round that the fight doctor came in between the second and third to check and see if Penn could continue.

In the third round, MacDonald continued to land strikes, but added taunting to his arsenal. He dropped his hands and made faces at Penn, which the crowd in Seattle didn't appreciate. After the bout, MacDonald said he Penn was his hero, but he had to treat him like every opponent.

"Like I said to BJ after the fight, he was the one guy I really really looked up to growing up. He's a hero to me," MacDonald said to UFC commentator Joe Rogan.

MacDonald also asked to fight Carlos Condit, the one fighter who has beaten MacDonald in his 15-fight career.

Alexander Gustafsson needed a big win over Mauricio "Shogun" Rua to get the next shot at the UFC light heavyweight belt, after Chael Sonnen challenges champion Jon Jones. He did it with a dominant decision, winning 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26.

Rua was strong early, managing a leg lock attempt in the first round, but he wasn't able to do much after Gustafsson got out of the submission attempt. Gustaffson used his reach and long legs to land huge knees and kicks throughout the bout.

With the win, Gustafsson is now 15-1. He won his last six fights, with his last loss coming in April of 2010 to Phil Davis.

Matt Brown started the main card off with excitement. In the second round of his bout with Mike Swick, Brown landed a perfect right hand. It stiffened Swick, who was out before he hit the ground. The fight was stopped at 2:31 in the second round.

At one point in his career, Brown had lost three fights in a row and it wasn't clear why the UFC didn't cut him. Now, he is on a four-fight win streak, with three of the last four coming by stoppage.

Fantasy advice from Yahoo! Fantasy Minute:


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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/rory-macdonald-alexander-gustafsson-matt-brown-big-winners-030124463--mma.html

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The US Finally Admits To Sending Heavy Weapons - Business Insider

The Obama administration has decided to launch a covert operation to send heavy weapons to Syrian rebels, Christina Lamb of The Sunday Times of London reports.

But that covert operation may have already taken place.

Diplomatic sources told the Sunday Times that the U.S. "bought weapons from?the stockpiles of Libya's former dictator Muammar Gaddafi."

The heavy arms include mortars, rocket propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles and the controversial anti-aircraft heat-seeking SA-7 missiles, which are integral to countering Bashar Al-Assad's bombing campaign.

The administration has said that the?previously hidden CIA operation in Benghazi involved finding, repurchasing and destroying heavy weaponry looted from Libyan government arsenals, but in October we reported evidence indicating that U.S. agents ??particularly murdered ambassador Chris Stevens?? were at least aware of heavy weapons moving from Libya to jihadist Syrian rebels.?

From the Times report:

President Barack Obama authorized clandestine CIA support earlier this year and both the US and Britain have had special forces and intelligence officers on the ground for some time.?They have helped with logistics and communications, but until now have refused to arm the Free Syrian Army.

There have been several possible SA-7 spottings?in Syria dating as far back as early summer 2012, and there are indications that at least some of Gaddafi's 20,000 portable heat-seeking missiles were shipped before now.

On Sept. 6?a Libyan ship carrying 400 tons of weapons?for Syrian rebels?docked in southern Turkey.?The ship's captain was "a Libyan from Benghazi" who worked for the new Libyan government. The?man who?organized?that shipment,?Tripoli Military Council head?Abdelhakim Belhadj,?worked directly?with Stevens during the Libyan revolution.

Stevens' last meeting on Sept. 11 was with Turkish Consul?General Ali Sait Akin,?and?a source told Fox News?that?Stevens was in Benghazi "to?negotiate a weapons transfer in an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists."

Last month?The Wall Street Journal reported that?the State Department presence?in Benghazi "provided diplomatic cover" for the now-exposed CIA annex. It follows that the?"weapons transfer" that Stevens negotiated may have involved sending heavy weapons recovered by the CIA to the revolutionaries in Syria.

The newest report comes days before the U.S. is expected to recognize the newest Syrian coalition (and its Islamic-dominated-command) as?the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. The State Department has also indicated it will soon?name the opposition's highly effective al-Nusra Front?a?"terrorist organization" for its ties to Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

Both of these stipulations ??recognition of a unified opposition and creation of distance from extremists???are pivotal in order for the Obama administration to openly acknowledge supporting Syrian rebels with heavy weapons.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-admin-admits-to-covertly-sending-heavy-weapons-to-syrian-rebels-2012-12

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Mitt Romney Attends Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez Boxing Match

LAS VEGAS -- Defeated presidential candidate Mitt Romney was a guest ringside Saturday night at the fourth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez.

Romney also visited with Pacquiao in his dressing room before the fight, wishing him well in the bout.

"Hello Manny. I ran for president. I lost," Romney told the fighter, according to Pacquiao publicist Fred Sternburg.

Pacquiao is a congressman in the Philippines, and has said previously he might run one day for the president of his country.

Romney and his wife, Ann, were guests of Nevada State Athletic Commission chairman Bill Brady at the fight at the MGM Grand hotel arena. Brady hosted a fundraiser for Romney during the presidential campaign.

The Romneys arrived during the undercard, drawing little reaction from the crowd.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/08/romney-pacquiao_n_2265358.html

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Gamboa has winning debut for rapper 50 Cent

AAA??Dec. 9, 2012?1:00 AM ET
Gamboa has winning debut for rapper 50 Cent
AP

Yuriorkis Gamboa, from Miami, Fla., right, and Michael Farenas, from the Philippines, trade blows in close as referee Tony Weeks looks on during their WBA interim super featherweight title fight Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Yuriorkis Gamboa, from Miami, Fla., right, and Michael Farenas, from the Philippines, trade blows in close as referee Tony Weeks looks on during their WBA interim super featherweight title fight Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Yuriorkis Gamboa, from Miami, Fla., is cooled down in his corner during his WBA interim super featherweight title fight against Michael Farenas, from the Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Michael Farenas, from the Philippines, left, sends Yuriorkis Gamboa, from Miami, Fla., to the canvas in the ninth round during their WBA interim super featherweight title fight Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison)

Michael Farenas, from the Philippines, center, sends Yuriorkis Gamboa, from Miami, Fla., to the canvas in the ninth round during their WBA interim super featherweight title fight as referee Tony Weeks looks on at left, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Las Vegas.(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Yuriorkis Gamboa, from Miami, Fla., right, and Michael Farenas, from the Philippines, trade blows during their WBA interim super featherweight title fight Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison)

(AP) ? Former Cuban Olympic gold medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa won his fight Saturday night on the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez undercard, giving rapper 50 Cent a victory in his debut as a boxing promoter.

Gamboa, fighting for the first time in more than a year, survived a ninth-round knockdown to take a unanimous 12-round decision over Michael Farenas of the Philippines in the 130-pound fight.

It was the first fight for Gamboa (22-0) with 50 Cent, and it went longer than either fighter or promoter would have liked. Gamboa knocked down Farenas in the second round and again in the seventh, but every time he tried to finish him off he ended up getting tagged himself.

Gamboa, who lives in Miami, opened cuts around both eyes of Farenas early and used his quickness to land some big shots. But Farenas (34-4-4) was relentless and nearly turned the fight around when he landed a huge left hook in the ninth round as Gamboa was trying to drop him again.

Gamboa, who won an Olympic gold in 2004 before defecting from Cuba, got up and finished the round but was shaky. He fought cautiously the rest of the way, content to win the decision.

50 Cent, who got his Nevada promoter's license last month, reportedly paid $1 million for the contract to promote Gamboa.

Before the fight, 50 Cent was lowered into the ring from the rafters of the MGM Grand arena as he rapped one of his songs.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-12-09-50%20Cent%20Fighter/id-852ac1f1bbf3476c8e9b4a16f31721a8

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Steroid hormone receptor prefers working alone to shut off immune system genes

Dec. 9, 2012 ? Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have obtained a detailed molecular picture that shows how glucocorticoid hormones shut off key immune system genes.

The finding could help guide drug discovery efforts aimed at finding new anti-inflammatory drugs with fewer side effects.

The results are scheduled for publication Dec. 9 by the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

Synthetic glucocorticoid hormones -- for example, prednisone and dexamethasone -- are widely used to treat conditions such as allergies, asthma, autoimmune diseases and cancer. They mimic the action of the natural hormone cortisol, which is involved in the response to stress and in regulating metabolism and the immune system. For this reason, synthetic glucocorticoids have a variety of severe side effects such as increased blood sugar and reduced bone density.

Both cortisol and synthetic hormones act by binding the glucocorticoid receptor, a protein that binds DNA and turns some genes on and others off. The hormone is required for the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) to enter the nucleus, giving it access to DNA.

For GR-targeting therapeutics, the desired anti-inflammatory effects are thought to come mainly from turning off inflammatory and immune system genes, while the side effects result from turning on genes involved in processes such as metabolism and bone growth.

The mechanism driving GR anti-inflammatory action has been debated, since was no GR binding site identified near these anti-inflammatory genes. Thus, GRs immunosupression was thought to occur indirectly, whereby GR blocks the ability of other critical DNA-binding proteins to stimulate gene expression. Last year French scientists discovered that the GR turns some immune system genes off directly by recognizing a distinct DNA sequence used only in gene repression.

Eric Ortlund, PhD, Emory assistant professor of biochemistry, and first author William Hudson, a Molecular and Systems Pharmacology graduate student, used X-rays to probe crystals of GR bound to a stretch of DNA where it acts "repressively" to shut down the transcription of immune genes.

When the GR turns genes on, two GR molecules grasp each other while binding to DNA. However, the mode of binding to DNA at repressive sequences had remained unknown. Their analysis demonstrated that GR binds to repressive sites in pairs, but with two monomeric GR molecules located on opposite sides of the DNA helix.

"This unexpected geometry was still a surprise because GR has never been crystallized as a monomer bound to DNA, though previous studies proposed that GR monomers repress genes as opposed to GR dimers, which activate genes," says Ortlund.

In addition, the two GR molecules bind to different DNA sequences within the repressive DNA element, Hudson and Ortlund found. They also analyzed how mutations affected the ability of GR to bind repressive sites, showing that binding of the first GR molecule inhibits the binding of a second GR molecule. This "negative cooperativity" may play a role in ensuring that only GR monomers bind to DNA.

The study suggests that a drug preventing GR from interacting with other GR molecules while still allowing them to bind DNA and turn genes off may have anti-inflammatory effects with fewer side effects. One such plant-based compound, "compound A," has been under investigation by several laboratories.

"Our structural data could help scientists design synthetic hormones that separate these two aspects of GR function, potentially leading to improved steroid hormones for diseases ranging from asthma to autoimmune disorders," says Ortlund.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Emory University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. The original article was written by Quinn Eastman.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. William H Hudson, Christine Youn, Eric A Ortlund. The structural basis of direct glucocorticoid-mediated transrepression. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2456

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ImnVYyKj18I/121209152647.htm

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North Korea considers delaying rocket launch

FILE - This Dec. 4, 2012 file satellite image taken by GeoEye and annotated and distributed by North Korea Tech and 38 North shows snow covering the Sohae launching station in Tongchang-ri, North Korea, including the path where trailers would be used to move the rocket stages from the assembly building to the launch pad in preparation for a Dec. 10-22 launch. North Korea may postpone the controversial launch of a long-range rocket that had been slated for liftoff as early as Monday, Dec. 10, 2012, North Korean state media said Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/GeoEye via North Korea Tech and 38 North, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

FILE - This Dec. 4, 2012 file satellite image taken by GeoEye and annotated and distributed by North Korea Tech and 38 North shows snow covering the Sohae launching station in Tongchang-ri, North Korea, including the path where trailers would be used to move the rocket stages from the assembly building to the launch pad in preparation for a Dec. 10-22 launch. North Korea may postpone the controversial launch of a long-range rocket that had been slated for liftoff as early as Monday, Dec. 10, 2012, North Korean state media said Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/GeoEye via North Korea Tech and 38 North, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

FILE - In this April 8, 2012, file photo, a North Korean soldier salutes in front of the country's Unha-3 rocket, slated for liftoff between April 12-16, at Sohae Satellite Station in Tongchang-ri, North Korea. North Korea may postpone the controversial launch of a long-range rocket that had been slated for liftoff as early as Monday, Dec. 10, 2012, North Korean state media said Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012. North Korea announced earlier this month that it would launch a three-stage rocket mounted with a satellite from its Sohae station southeast of Sinuiju sometime between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea may postpone the controversial launch of a long-range rocket that had been slated for liftoff as early as this week, state media said Sunday, as international pressure on Pyongyang to cancel the provocative move intensified.

Scientists have been pushing forward with final preparations for the launch from a west coast site, slated to take place as early as Monday, but are considering "readjusting" the timing, an unidentified spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology told North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency.

It was unclear whether diplomatic intervention or technical glitches were behind the delay. A brief KCNA dispatch said scientists and technicians were discussing whether to set new launch dates but did not elaborate.

Word of a possible delay comes just days after satellite photos indicated that snow may have slowed launch preparations, and as officials in Washington, Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow and elsewhere urged North Korea to cancel a liftoff widely seen as a violation of bans against missile activity.

Commercial satellite imagery taken by GeoEye on Dec. 4 and shared Friday with The Associated Press by the 38 North and North Korea Tech websites showed the Sohae site northwest of Pyongyang covered with snow. The road from the main assembly building to the launch pad showed no fresh tracks, indicating that the snowfall may have stalled the preparations.

However, analysts believed rocket preparations would have been completed on time for liftoff as early as Monday.

In Seoul, officials at the Defense Ministry, Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Foreign Ministry said Sunday they were looking into what might be behind the possible delay.

North Korea announced earlier this month that it would launch a three-stage rocket mounted with a satellite from its Sohae station southeast of Sinuiju sometime between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22. Pyongyang calls it a peaceful bid to send an observational satellite into space, its second attempt this year.

The launch announcement captured global headlines because of its timing: South Korea and Japan hold key elections this month, President Barack Obama begins his second term next month and China has just formed a new leadership.

The United States, Japan, South Korea and others have urged North Korea to refrain from carrying out the launch, calling it a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions on nuclear activity because the rocket shares the same technology used for firing a long-range missile.

China, the North's main ally and aid provider, noted its "concern." It acknowledged North Korea's right to develop its space program but said that had to be harmonized with restrictions including those set by the U.N. Security Council.

Past launches have earned North Korea international condemnation and a host of sanctions.

South Korean analysts said North Korea's announcement of a possible delay suggests the country wants to resume talks with the U.S. on receiving much-needed aid, or has yielded to diplomatic pressure by China.

North Korea may not fire the rocket if the U.S. actively engages in talks with Pyongyang and promises to ship stalled food assistance to the country, said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Seoul's Dongguk University.

In February, the U.S. agreed to provide 240,000 metric tons of food aid to North Korea in exchange for a freeze in nuclear and missile activities. The deal collapsed after North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April.

Analyst Baek Seung-joo of the South Korean state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul said China must have sent a "very strong" message calling for the North to cancel the launch plans.

"North Korea won't say it would delay the launch due to foreign pressure so that's why they say scientists and technicians are considering delaying it," he said.

The unexpected launch announcement was issued Dec. 1 as North Koreans began mourning late leader Kim Jong Il, who died on Dec. 17, 2011.

An April launch from the same new launch pad was held on April 13, two days before the centennial of the birth of his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. That rocket broke up just seconds after liftoff.

The U.S. and other nations see the launches as covers for illicit tests of missile technology. North Korea has unveiled missiles designed to target U.S. soil, and has tested two atomic bombs in recent years, but has not shown yet that it has mastered the technology for mounting a nuclear warhead to a long-range missile.

Six-nation negotiations to offer North Korea much-needed aid in exchange for nuclear disarmament have been stalled since 2009.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-08-NKorea-Rocket%20Launch/id-2edf7295c8934d7999de051fbaff374c

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Party marks reopening of St. Paul's Union Depot

by Rupa Shenoy, Minnesota Public Radio

December 8, 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. ? Hundreds of people filled the newly renovated Union Depot in St. Paul on Saturday to celebrate its reopening.

The Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority bought the 33-acre Union Depot site in 2005 and spent $243 million in state, federal, and county funds to renovate it. County, state and federal leaders heralded the renovated structure as a foundation for the Twin Cities' future as a transportation hub.

MetroTransit is starting bus service to Union Depot this weekend, and Jefferson Regional Bus Lines plans to move in in January. Later in 2013, Amtrak is supposed to move in. And in 2014, officials plan for light rail service to arrive at the Union Depot.

Janice Tandler, who lives three blocks from the depot, hoped it will renew public interest in Amtrak, which she said is underused and undervalued.

"If indeed everything happens by next year, I think that is a pretty amazing turnaround time considering the magnitude of the project," Tandler said. "I'll just believe it when it happens, though, because this was talked about some years ago."

Another participant, Steve Glischinski, was 14 when he watched the last passenger train roll out of Union Depot in 1971. He said he never thought he would see trains return.

Glischinski, the author of a book about the history of Minnesota railroads, said the renovated Union Depot is much brighter and more polished now than it was before.

As he stood on a balcony above the crowd at the reopening, Glischinski predicted that Union Depot will gradually develop into the lively transportation hub officials want it to be.

"I think it's being built unlike the United States does a lot of things -- it's being built long term," Glischinski said. "So any growth that comes they can handle it here. So as long as we don't look immediate gratification, I think it will be successful in the long term. I've been waiting for 41 years, so I can wait."

? Follow Rupa Shenoy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rupashenoy

Source: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/12/08/regional/union-depot-reopening/?refid=0

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How to Safely Spend a Night in Your Car in Winter

How to Safely Spend a Night in Your Car in WinterWinter driving presents many situations where you may be forced to spend the night in your car?breaking down, getting stuck, running out of fuel, or just being the victim of unexpected bad weather. If you're ever forced to spend a cold night in your car your best chance of survival depends on having emergency supplies and knowing how to use those supplies to stay warm.

Wilderness safety weblog OutdoorSafe notes that if you're ever in this type of situation and can't contact rescuers you should stay in your car (it provides both shelter and can allow you to signal for help) and use the sleeping bag or blankets in your Winter car emergency kit to help keep you warm. You can run the engine of your car for ten minutes each hour as long as can ensure the tail pipe is clear of snow and you leave yourself a one-inch opening in the window to hopefully alleviate carbon monoxide buildup. It's probably a good idea to purchase a CO detector strip to keep in your car kit for just this type of occasion?the author claims that 60% of unintentional deaths in the US are caused by carbon monoxide poisoning and weighing that versus a four-dollar detection strip seems like a no-brainer if you live in colder areas.

See the rest of the post in the source link below for additional tips to get you through an unexpected night in your car in the dead of Winter. Photo by Martin Stoermer

Spending a Night in Your Car | OutdoorSafe

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/i_ioeoV_JqM/how-to-safely-spend-a-night-in-your-car-in-winter

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