Boxing legend and pop culture icon ?Iron? Mike Tyson will be inducted into the WWE's 2012 Hall of Fame class on March 31 in Miami, WWE announced to major media markets throughout the nation Monday. Among the most decorated pugilists in history, Tyson established his place in WWE lore in 1998 when he served as a special ?outside enforcer? for the WWE Championship main event of WrestleMania XIV between Shawn Michaels and ?Stone Cold? Steve Austin. (TYSON HALL OF FAME BIO)
Long before his appearance on The Grandest Stage of Them All, however, Tyson made his name in boxing, initially taking the sport by storm in the 1980s. Within the first two years of his professional career, Tyson amassed a 22-0 record, winning 21 of those contests by knockout.
In 1986, at age 20, ?The Baddest Man on the Planet? captured the World Boxing Council title to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history ? a distinction that stands today. The very next year he became the sport?s first Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion, winning the top prizes in both the World Boxing Association and the International Boxing Federation.
Tyson?s first foray into sports-entertainment ? a memorable appearance on Raw in January 1998 ? produced one of the most indelibly chaotic scenes in WWE's history, as an icy staredown with ?Stone Cold? Steve Austin dissolved into a wild pull-apart brawl (WATCH). Often credited with ushering in WWE?s Attitude Era, that incident led to Tyson?s involvement in the WrestleMania XIV main event between Austin and then-champion Shawn Michaels.
Although all signs heading into the championship bout suggested Tyson would align with Michaels (WATCH), the boxing great defied expectations, counting the pinfall that made Austin a WWE Champion for the first time. When Michaels disputed the decision, ?Iron Mike? floored The Showstopper with a knockout right. (PHOTOS | WATCH)
Upon his return to WWE in January 2010 as a special guest on Raw, Tyson officially competed for the first time in a WWE ring. Teaming with Chris Jericho against Michaels and his D-Generation X cohort, Triple H, Tyson surprised his teammate and revealed himself as an honorary member of DX. That night, it was Jericho who wound up on the wrong end of Tyson?s staggering punching power. (PHOTOS | WATCH)
In recent years, ?The Baddest Man on the Planet? has emerged as a looming figure away from the squared circle, performing scene-stealing cameos in The Hangover series in addition to running a clothing line and starring in a gaming app.
The WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on March 31, the eve of WrestleMania XXVIII, at the American Airlines Arena. Alongside Tyson, WWE legends Edge, The Four Horsemen and Mil Mascaras have already been announced as inductees. (INDUCTION CEREMONY TICKETS NOW ON SALE)
For more on ?Iron Mike,? visit his website and be sure to follow him on Twitter (@MikeTyson). Also, don?t forget to check out his clothing line, as well as his new app, Mike Tyson: Main Event, which is currently available on iTunes.
Octavia Spencer accepts the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role for "The Help" at the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday Jan. 29, 2012 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Octavia Spencer accepts the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role for "The Help" at the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday Jan. 29, 2012 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Christopher Plummer poses backstage with the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role for "Beginners" at the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday Jan. 29, 2012 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Christopher Plummer of the father-son tale "Beginners" and Octavia Spencer of the Deep South drama "The Help" won supporting-acting honors at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, firming up their Academy Awards prospects next month.
Plummer, who won for his role as an elderly dad who comes out as gay after his wife's death, would become the oldest actor ever to win an Oscar at age 82, two years older than Jessica Tandy when she won best actress for "Driving Miss Daisy."
Backstage, Plummer joked about whether he would like to win an Oscar, an honor so elusive during his esteemed 60-year career that he did not even receive his first Academy Award nomination until two years ago, for "The Last Station."
"No, I think it's frightfully boring," Plummer said. "That's an awful question. Listen, we don't go into this business preoccupied by awards. If we did, we wouldn't last five minutes."
Spencer, a veteran actress who had toiled in small TV and movie parts previously, had a breakout role in "The Help" as a brassy maid joining other black housekeepers to reveal uneasy truths about their white employers in 1960s Mississippi.
"I'm going to dedicate this to the downtrodden, the under-served, the underprivileged, overtaxed ? whether emotionally, physically or financially," Spencer said.
On the television side, comedy series awards went to "Modern Family" for best ensemble; Alec Baldwin as best actor for "30 Rock"; and Betty White as best actress for "Hot in Cleveland."
"You can't name me, without naming those other wonderful women on 'Hot in Cleveland,'" White said. "This nomination belongs to four of us. Please, please know that I'm dealing them right in with this. I'm not going to let them keep this, but I'll let them see it."
For TV movie or miniseries, Kate Winslet won as best actress for "Mildred Pierce," while Paul Giamatti was named best actor for "Too Big to Fail."
Before the official ceremony, the Screen Actors Guild presented its honor for best film stunt ensemble to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." The TV stunt award went to "Game of Thrones."
Nominees for the lead-acting honors, which were to come toward the end of the ceremony, include Globe winners George Clooney for the family drama "The Descendants," Meryl Streep for the Margaret Thatcher tale "The Iron Lady," Michelle Williams for the Marilyn Monroe story "My Week with Marilyn" and Jean Dujardin for the silent film "The Artist."
Spencer's "The Help" co-star Viola Davis also is in the running, along with Leonardo DiCaprio for the J. Edgar Hoover biography "J. Edgar," Brad Pitt for the baseball story "Moneyball" and Glenn Close for the Irish drama "Albert Nobbs."
The winners at the SAG ceremony typically go on to earn Oscars, whose ceremony is Feb. 26. All four acting recipients at SAG last year later took home Oscars ? Colin Firth for "The King's Speech," Natalie Portman for "Black Swan" and Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for "The Fighter."
The same generally holds true for the weekend's other big Hollywood honors, the Directors Guild of America Awards, where Michel Hazanavicius won the feature-film prize Saturday for "The Artist." The Directors Guild winner has gone on to earn the best-director Oscar 57 times in the 63-year history of the union's awards show.
SAG also presents an award for overall cast performance, a prize that's loosely considered the ceremony's equivalent of a best-picture honor. However, the cast award has a spotty record at predicting what will win best picture at the Oscars.
While "The King's Speech" won both honors a year ago, the SAG cast recipient has gone on to claim the top Oscar only eight times in the 16 years since the guild added the category.
Mary Tyler Moore received the guild's lifetime-achievement award, an honor presented to her by Dick Van Dyke, her co-star on the 1960s sit-com "The Dick Van Dyke Show."
SAG President Ken Howard put in a plug during the show for the guild's planned merger with another Hollywood union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The boards of both groups have approved the merger, and ballots will be sent to members of each union.
"As one union, SAG-AFTRA will support a future of great entertainment for all of us," Howard said.
___
Associated Press Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
MELBOURNE, Australia ? Novak Djokovic wore down Rafael Nadal in the longest Grand Slam singles final in the history of professional tennis Sunday, winning 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 after 5 hours, 53 minutes to claim his third Australian Open title.
Djokovic sealed victory at 1:37 a.m. local time and became the fifth man since the Open Era began in 1968 to win three straight Grand Slam finals.
The 24-year-old Djokovic tore off his shirt in celebration after one of the most dramatic finals in the history of the game. He went to his support camp and repeatedly thumped the side of the arena in delight and relief.
Djokovic's win maintained his mastery of Nadal, who has lost seven straight finals against the Serb since March.
Nadal became the first man in the Open Era to drop three straight major finals after losing to Djokovic at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year.
After coming from 5-3 down to win the fourth-set tiebreaker, Nadal was up a break at 4-2 in the fifth set while Djokovic appeared to be tiring.
But the top-ranked Djokovic, who needed almost five hours to win his semifinal against Andy Murray, somehow responded. He broke for a 6-5 lead and saved a break point before finally claiming the win.
The previous longest major singles final was Mats Wilander's win over Ivan Lendl at the U.S. Open in 1988, which lasted 4 hours, 54 minutes.
The longest Australian Open final also involved Wilander in 1988, when the Swede beat Pat Cash in 4:27.
Florida Highway Patrolmen inspect the damage from a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
Florida Highway Patrolmen inspect the damage from a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
Debris and wreckage lie along the highway after a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
Firemen hose down a commercial carrier truck on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., after it was involved in a multi-vehicle wreck which killed at least nine people in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
A fireman sprays the interior of a burned vehicle that was involved in a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
A small passenger vehicle sits lodged beneath a semitrailer after a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) ? Fog and brushfire smoke cleared enough Monday to reopen all lanes of a Florida interstate where 10 people died in a mass pileup that tossed wreckage across the asphalt and left rescuers to search for survivors in the dark by listening for their screams.
Another 18 people were hospitalized after a long line of cars and trucks collided early Sunday on a stretch of Interstate 75 south of Gainesville.
Steven R. Camps and some friends were driving home hours before dawn Sunday when they were drawn into the massive wreck.
"You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy," the Gainesville man said hours later. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of the world."
The interstate had been closed for a time before the accidents because of a mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire that may have been intentionally set. The decision to reopen it early Sunday will certainly be a focus of investigators, as will the question of how the fire may have started.
The National Transportation Safety Board is among the agencies that have sent investigators to the scene. The NTSB said it is assessing whether it wants to formally join the probe, which is being led by the Florida Highway Patrol.
The pileups happened around 3:45 a.m. Sunday on both sides of I-75. When rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans because the poor visibility made it difficult to find victims in wreckage that was strewn for nearly a mile.
At least a dozen cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flames.
Hours later, twisted, burned-out vehicles were scattered across the pavement, with smoke still rising from the wreckage. Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks.
Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw bodies still inside a burned-out Grand Prix. One tractor-trailer was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. And the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.
Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and urged Camps to be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area, just south of Gainesville.
A short time later, Camps said, traffic stopped along the northbound lanes.
"You couldn't see anything. People were pulling off the road," he said.
Camps said he began talking about the road conditions to a man in the car stopped next to him when another vehicle hit that man's car.
The man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and another friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road.
All around them, cars and trucks were on fire, and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.
"It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said, explaining that the scene "looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."
Authorities had not released the names of victims Sunday evening, but said one passenger car had four fatalities. A "tour bus-like" vehicle also was involved in the pileup, police said.
All six lanes of the interstate were closed most of Sunday as investigators surveyed the site and firefighters put out the last of the flames. Some traffic was being diverted onto U.S. 301 and State Road 27, said Lt. Patrick Riordan, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman. The northbound lanes were reopened at about 5:30 p.m.
At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of fog and smoke. The road was reopened when visibility improved, police said. Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.
On Monday, FHP released an accident report showing there was three-way crash at 11:55 p.m. Saturday, involving a tractor-trailer and two SUVs. One person was seriously injured in the crash. Trooper M.J. Todd noted in his report that "there was heavy smoke in the area, causing low visibility." The highway was closed to traffic a short time later.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service, Ludie Bond, said the fire began Saturday, and investigators were trying to determine whether the blaze had been intentionally set. She said there were no controlled burns in the area and no lightning.
Bond also said the fire had burned 62 acres and was contained but still burning Sunday. A similar fire nearby has been burning since mid-November because the dried vegetation is so thick and deep. No homes are threatened.
Four years ago, heavy fog and smoke were blamed for another serious crash.
In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured in a series of similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes, including one pileup that involved 40 vehicles.
___
Associated Press writer Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.
Personal recommendations have always been a part of ecommerce, but there has been little innovation since Amazon introduced retail and product personalization 10 years ago. But with the increasing mountains of data at digital retailers' fingertips, ecommerce is about to get even more personal. The fact is that right now there is little iteration from personalized ecommerce beyond what is taking place on Amazon. So you'll see suggestions of what other shoppers who bought a certain item also purchased, or recommendations to similar items to what you have purchased, but there is a whole world of social data, and even more-in-depth purchase data that can be mined by retailers to help increase sales.
Contact: Rachel Champeau rchampeau@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2270 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
UCLA findings point to new treatment pathways for infectious diseases
A team of UCLA scientists has found that the pathogen that causes leprosy has a remarkable ability to avoid the human immune system by inhibiting the antimicrobial responses important to our defenses.
In one of the first laboratory studies of its kind, researchers discovered that the leprosy pathogen Mycobacterium leprae was able to reduce and evade immune activity that is dependent on vitamin D, a natural hormone that plays an essential role in the body's fight against infections.
The pathogen manipulated micro-RNAs, tiny molecules made of ribonucleic acids that carry information and that help regulate genes to direct cell activity, including immune system defenses. Micro-RNAs are short RNAs that do not code information for proteins, which carry out all cell activity; rather, they bind to the RNAs that do code for proteins and block them.
Published in the Jan. 29 online edition of the journal Nature Medicine, the findings demonstrate how an infectious disease pathogen like M. leprae can use micro-RNAs to impact the immune system's fight response.
"We may find that these tiny micro-RNAs can be exploited by pathogens to weaken our immune response," said the study's first author, Dr. Philip T. Liu, an assistant professor of medicine at the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center and in the department of dermatology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "By better understanding how pathogens can escape our immune cells, we can design more effective therapies to boost our immune responses to these difficult to treat infections like leprosy."
Leprosy, one of the world's oldest known diseases, is a chronic infectious disease that affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, the upper respiratory tract and the eyes and can lead to disfigurement of the hands, face and feet. In 2008, approximately 249,000 new cases of leprosy were reported worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
For the study, researchers compared the micro-RNAs in human skin lesions from two types of leprosy: tuberloid leprosy, a milder infection that is more easily contained, and lepromatous leprosy, which is more serious and causes widespread infection throughout the body.
In the lab, the scientists identified 13 micro-RNAs that differed between the two types of leprosy. The micro-RNAs that were found to be more common in lepromatous leprosy seemed to target the genes important for directing key immune system cells, including macrophages and T cells.
The team found that a particular micro-RNA, hsa-mir-21, inhibited the gene activity of the vitamin Ddependent immune pathway used to help fight infection. When researchers neutralized the activity of hsa-mir-21 in macrophages, the cells were able to kill the bacteria again.
"The leprosy pathogen was able to effectively evade the host's immune response by regulating critical immune system genes," said senior investigator Dr. Robert Modlin, UCLA's Klein Professor of Dermatology and chief of dermatology at the Geffen School of Medicine. "It's like having the enemy sending a decoy message to your combat troops and telling them to lower their weapons."
To test the significance of this micro-RNA with other infectious diseases, the researchers also introduced hsa-mir-21 to human macrophages that were then infected with tuberculosis in the lab. Researchers found that the micro-RNA similarly blocked the ability of the macrophages to kill the bacteria.
Researchers also demonstrated that immune activation of the leprosy-infected immune cells decreased the leprosy bacteria's viability four-fold but only when hsa-mir-21 activity was silenced. In fact, an over-expression of this micro-RNA blocked immune activity, resulting in a five-fold increase in bacterial viability.
"We were surprised at the devastating effects that even a single micro-RNA had on the ability of immune cells to fight the infections," Liu said.
In addition, the team showed that this micro-RNA was found in human immune cells only 18 hours after the onset of leprosy infection. The presence of the micro-RNA so early in the infection suggests it might play a role in actual disease development, the researchers said.
Further investigation of this single micro-RNA in leprosy may provide a framework for analyzing other micro-RNAs to help determine their cumulative role in regulating the immune response.
The micro-RNAs are small, and therefore it is possible to develop treatments which neutralize them, the researchers said.
"We may find that a combination of vitamin D supplementation with a genetically targeted therapy could provide an optimal treatment approach to leprosy and possibly other chronic infectious diseases," said Modlin, who also serves as vice chair for cutaneous medicine and dermatological research at UCLA and is a distinguished professor of medicine and of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics.
"Vitamin D insufficiency has been associated with a number of infectious and autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease and cancers," Modlin added. "Our study indicates that micro-RNAs can alter human vitamin D responses and contribute to disease pathology."
Dr. Barry Bloom of Harvard University, who was not an author of this study but is part of the research team studying this field, agreed.
"Such a novel approach may be especially worth exploring in treatment of drug-resistant pathogens such as some forms of tuberculosis, where antimicrobial therapy is becoming increasingly problematic," Bloom said.
###
Bloom, the former dean of the faculty at Harvard's School of Public Health, is Harvard's Distinguished University Service Professor and the Jack and Joan Jacobson Professor of Public Health in the School of Public Health's department of immunology and infectious diseases and department of global health and population.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of Arthritis, Skin and Musculoskeletal Diseases, both parts of the National Institutes of Health.
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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.
Contact: Rachel Champeau rchampeau@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2270 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
UCLA findings point to new treatment pathways for infectious diseases
A team of UCLA scientists has found that the pathogen that causes leprosy has a remarkable ability to avoid the human immune system by inhibiting the antimicrobial responses important to our defenses.
In one of the first laboratory studies of its kind, researchers discovered that the leprosy pathogen Mycobacterium leprae was able to reduce and evade immune activity that is dependent on vitamin D, a natural hormone that plays an essential role in the body's fight against infections.
The pathogen manipulated micro-RNAs, tiny molecules made of ribonucleic acids that carry information and that help regulate genes to direct cell activity, including immune system defenses. Micro-RNAs are short RNAs that do not code information for proteins, which carry out all cell activity; rather, they bind to the RNAs that do code for proteins and block them.
Published in the Jan. 29 online edition of the journal Nature Medicine, the findings demonstrate how an infectious disease pathogen like M. leprae can use micro-RNAs to impact the immune system's fight response.
"We may find that these tiny micro-RNAs can be exploited by pathogens to weaken our immune response," said the study's first author, Dr. Philip T. Liu, an assistant professor of medicine at the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center and in the department of dermatology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "By better understanding how pathogens can escape our immune cells, we can design more effective therapies to boost our immune responses to these difficult to treat infections like leprosy."
Leprosy, one of the world's oldest known diseases, is a chronic infectious disease that affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, the upper respiratory tract and the eyes and can lead to disfigurement of the hands, face and feet. In 2008, approximately 249,000 new cases of leprosy were reported worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
For the study, researchers compared the micro-RNAs in human skin lesions from two types of leprosy: tuberloid leprosy, a milder infection that is more easily contained, and lepromatous leprosy, which is more serious and causes widespread infection throughout the body.
In the lab, the scientists identified 13 micro-RNAs that differed between the two types of leprosy. The micro-RNAs that were found to be more common in lepromatous leprosy seemed to target the genes important for directing key immune system cells, including macrophages and T cells.
The team found that a particular micro-RNA, hsa-mir-21, inhibited the gene activity of the vitamin Ddependent immune pathway used to help fight infection. When researchers neutralized the activity of hsa-mir-21 in macrophages, the cells were able to kill the bacteria again.
"The leprosy pathogen was able to effectively evade the host's immune response by regulating critical immune system genes," said senior investigator Dr. Robert Modlin, UCLA's Klein Professor of Dermatology and chief of dermatology at the Geffen School of Medicine. "It's like having the enemy sending a decoy message to your combat troops and telling them to lower their weapons."
To test the significance of this micro-RNA with other infectious diseases, the researchers also introduced hsa-mir-21 to human macrophages that were then infected with tuberculosis in the lab. Researchers found that the micro-RNA similarly blocked the ability of the macrophages to kill the bacteria.
Researchers also demonstrated that immune activation of the leprosy-infected immune cells decreased the leprosy bacteria's viability four-fold but only when hsa-mir-21 activity was silenced. In fact, an over-expression of this micro-RNA blocked immune activity, resulting in a five-fold increase in bacterial viability.
"We were surprised at the devastating effects that even a single micro-RNA had on the ability of immune cells to fight the infections," Liu said.
In addition, the team showed that this micro-RNA was found in human immune cells only 18 hours after the onset of leprosy infection. The presence of the micro-RNA so early in the infection suggests it might play a role in actual disease development, the researchers said.
Further investigation of this single micro-RNA in leprosy may provide a framework for analyzing other micro-RNAs to help determine their cumulative role in regulating the immune response.
The micro-RNAs are small, and therefore it is possible to develop treatments which neutralize them, the researchers said.
"We may find that a combination of vitamin D supplementation with a genetically targeted therapy could provide an optimal treatment approach to leprosy and possibly other chronic infectious diseases," said Modlin, who also serves as vice chair for cutaneous medicine and dermatological research at UCLA and is a distinguished professor of medicine and of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics.
"Vitamin D insufficiency has been associated with a number of infectious and autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease and cancers," Modlin added. "Our study indicates that micro-RNAs can alter human vitamin D responses and contribute to disease pathology."
Dr. Barry Bloom of Harvard University, who was not an author of this study but is part of the research team studying this field, agreed.
"Such a novel approach may be especially worth exploring in treatment of drug-resistant pathogens such as some forms of tuberculosis, where antimicrobial therapy is becoming increasingly problematic," Bloom said.
###
Bloom, the former dean of the faculty at Harvard's School of Public Health, is Harvard's Distinguished University Service Professor and the Jack and Joan Jacobson Professor of Public Health in the School of Public Health's department of immunology and infectious diseases and department of global health and population.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of Arthritis, Skin and Musculoskeletal Diseases, both parts of the National Institutes of Health.
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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.
American taxpayers have contributed more than $183 billion to bailout mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in the years following the housing collapse, according to CNN. Given this considerable burden, the Republican presidential candidates were asked if they played any role in aiding these two firms and how they plan on helping distressed homeowners.
Here is what they said, according to the Florida GOP debate transcript provided by the Council on Foreign Relations:
* Rick Santorum: "There were several of us in the United States Senate back in 2005 and 2006 who saw the problem with Freddie and Fannie, and tried to move forth with a bill. We voted a bill out of committee to try ? to constrain Fannie and Freddie, and there were a lot of people out there fighting that, including Harry Reid and his minions. I signed a letter ? that said ? if we don`t constrain these two behemoths from continuing to underwrite this subprime mortgage problem, then we`re going to have a collapse. The problem now is, what are you going to do about it? And what I've said is ? let capitalism work. Allow these banks to realize their losses. And create an opportunity for folks who have houses to realize their losses and at least help them out."
* Ron Paul: "Everybody now admits in Washington interest rates were kept too low, too long. ? They kept interest rates especially low with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and there was a line of credit there, and it was a guarantee. As a matter of fact, I had introduced legislation 10 years before the bubble burst to eliminate that line of credit. But then the Community Reinvestment Act added more fuel to it, forcing banks to make loans that are risky loans. ? The consequences were anticipated. It was all government manufactured. ? The best thing you can do is get out of the way, because you want the prices to come down so that people will start buying them again, but politicians can't allow that to happen. Our policies in Washington still has been to try to stimulate houses and keep prices up."
* Mitt Romney: "Mr. Speaker ? you said you were paid $300,000 by Freddie Mac as an historian. They don`t pay people $25,000 a month for six years as historians. ? This contract proves that you were not an historian. You were a consultant. ? And you were hired by the chief lobbyist of Freddie Mac, not the CEO, not the head of public affairs. You also spoke publicly in favor of these government-sponsored entities at a very time when Freddie Mac was getting America in a position where we would have had a massive housing collapse. ? You could have spoken out in a way to say these guys are wrong, this needs to end. But instead, you were being paid by them. You were making over $1 million at the same time people in Florida were being hurt by millions of dollars."
* Newt Gingrich: "I have never done any lobbying. Congressman J.C. Watts, who for seven years was the head of the Freddie Mac Watch Committee, said flatly he has never been approached by me. The fact is that Congressman Rick Lazio, who is chairman of the Housing Subcommittee, said he has never been approached by me. And the only report in the newspaper was "The New York Times" in July of 2008, which said I told the House Republicans they should vote no, not give Freddie Mac any money, because it needed to be reformed."
CANBERRA, Australia ? Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stumbled and was caught by a security guard as riot police helped her force a path through a crowd of rowdy protesters following a ceremony to mark Australia's national day Thursday.
She appeared distressed as she was pulled away from the protesters but was unharmed. She later remarked that she was made of "pretty tough stuff" and commended police for their actions.
Some 200 supporters of indigenous rights had surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged its windows while Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were inside officiating at an award ceremony.
Around 50 police escorted the political leaders from a side door to a car. Gillard stumbled, losing a shoe. Her personal security guard wrapped his arms around her and supported her to the waiting car, shielding her from the angry crowd.
The protesters had been demonstrating for indigenous rights nearby at the so-called Aboriginal Tent Embassy, a ramshackle collection of tents and temporary shelters in the national capital that is a center point of protests against Australia Day.
Australia Day marks the arrival of the first fleet of British colonists in Sydney on Jan. 26, 1788. Many Aborigines call it Invasion Day because the land was settled without a treaty with traditional owners.
Abbott appeared to be the target of protesters, who chanted "shame" and "racist" outside the restaurant.
The Tent Embassy celebrated its 40th anniversary on Thursday. Abbott had earlier angered indigenous activists by saying it was time the embassy "moved on."
Gillard was unharmed and later hosted another Australia Day function for foreign ambassadors at her official residence.
"The only thing that angers me is that it distracted from such a wonderful event," Gillard told reporters.
"I am made of pretty tough stuff and the police did a great job," she added.
Apple?s share price soared to record levels Wednesday after the high-tech giant posted results that blew past expectations.
Apple was up more than $28 a share or nearly 7 percent to?$448.57, a?record high, after it reported?results late Tuesday that were far higher than forecasts as consumers snapped up near-unprecedented numbers of iPhones and iPads, sending its shares into record territory.
Apple said its quarterly revenue and earnings were the highest ever.
iPhone sales accounted for more than half of Apple's revenue for the first time, as 37 million handsets were sold in the quarter, generating more than $24 billion in revenue. That was 53 percent of the total of $46 billion, which?handily beat the average Wall Street analyst estimate of $39 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Apple posted overall profits of $13 billion --?$1 billion a week -- for the holiday quarter, more than double the $6 billion posted a?year ago. Apple earnings of a $13.87 per share were far beyond the $10.04 per share forecast on average?by analysts, according to FactSet.
?We?re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,? Apple CEO?Tim Cook said in a statement.??Apple?s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.?
The tech giant was a standout in what has otherwise been a fairly lackluster earnings season. So far, 58 percent of companies have beaten forecasts, while at this stage in past earnings seasons 70 percent had topped estimates.
"Apple's results were tremendous and the company continues to distance itself from industry peers," said Bill Kreher, an analyst at Edward Jones. "Just the magnitude of the iPhone beat is very impressive."
Apple shares, already trading near record levels, jumped 9 percent in after-hours trading on the earnings news.
"It's a monster quarter," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial. "Their guidance is strong too, it's a holiday quarter. There's just a worldwide demand for Apple products."
"Going into 2012 I expect strength of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad should carry on into the year,"?said Hendi Susanto of Gabelli & Co. "Apple still has some tailwind including opening up new retail stores and expanding its distribution channels."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON ? Addressing a divided nation amid a determined GOP campaign to take his job, President Barack Obama is preparing to issue a populist cry for economic fairness as he aims to corral the sympathies of middle-class voters 10 months before Election Day.
Obama delivers his third State of the Union address Tuesday in a capital and country shot through with politics, with his re-election campaign well under way and his potential GOP opponents lobbing attacks against him daily as they scrap for the right to take him on.
Obama's 9 p.m. EST address to a joint session of Congress and millions of television viewers will be as much as anything an argument for his re-election, the president's biggest, best chance so far to offer a vision for a second term.
Senior political adviser David Plouffe said Tuesday morning the president is "happy to have a debate" about his performance.
Bill Galston, a former Clinton administration domestic policy adviser now at the Brookings Institution, said, "Almost by definition it's going to be at least as much a political speech as a governing speech."
"The president must run on his record," Galston said, "and that means talking candidly and persuasively with the country about the very distinctive nature of the challenges the American economy faced when he took office and what has gone right for the past three years, and what needs to be done in addition."
With economic anxiety showing through everywhere, the speech will focus on a vision for restoring the middle class, with Obama facing the tricky task of persuading voters to stick with him even as joblessness remains high at 8.5 percent. Obama can point to positive signs, including continued if sluggish growth; his argument will be that he is the one to restore economic equality for middle-class voters.
Implicit in the argument, even if he never names frontrunners Gingrich and Mitt Romney, is that they are on the other side.
Obama's speech will come as Gingrich and Romney have transformed the Republican campaign into a real contest ahead of Florida's crucial primary next week. And he'll be speaking on the same day that Romney, a multimillionaire, released his tax returns, offering a vivid illustration of wealth that could play into Obama's argument about the growing divide between rich and poor.
Asked in an interview Tuesday about Romney's relatively modest tax rate in the range of 15 percent, given that he's a multi-millionaire, Plouffe said, "We need to change our tax system. We need to change our tax code so that everybody is doing their fair share."
Obama will frame the campaign to come as a fight for fairness for those who are struggling to keep a job, a home or college savings and losing faith in how the country works.
The speech will feature the themes of manufacturing, clean energy, education and American values. The president is expected to urge higher taxes on the wealthy, propose ways to make college more affordable, offer new steps to tackle a debilitating housing crisis and push to help U.S. manufacturers expand hiring.
Aides said the president would also outline more specifics about the so-called "Buffett Rule", which Obama has previously said would establish a minimum tax on people making $1 million or more in income. The rule was named after billionaire Warren Buffett, who has said it is unfair that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does.
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said on Twitter Tuesday that Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, would attend the State of the Union in the first lady's box.
For three days following his speech, Obama will promote his ideas in five states key to his re-election bid. On Wednesday he'll visit Iowa and Arizona to promote ideas to boost American manufacturing; on Thursday in Nevada and Colorado he'll discuss energy; and in Michigan Friday he'll talk about college affordability, education and training. Polling shows Americans are divided about Obama's overall job performance but unsatisfied with his handling of the economy.
The lines of argument between Obama and his rivals are already stark, with America's economic insecurity and the role of government at the center.
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Budget Committee, said that Obama "can't run on his record."
The president has offered signals about his speech, telling campaign supporters he wants an economy "that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few." Gingrich, on the other hand, calls Obama "the most effective food stamp president in history." Romney says Obama "wants to turn America into a European-style entitlement society."
Obama will make bipartisan overtures to lawmakers but will leave little doubt he will act without their help when it's necessary and possible, an approach his aides say has let him stay on offense.
The public is more concerned about domestic troubles over foreign policy than at any other time in the past 15 years, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Some 81 percent want Obama to focus his speech on domestic affairs, not foreign ones; just five years ago, the view was evenly split.
On the day before Obama's speech, his campaign released a short Web ad showing monthly job losses during the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration, with positive job growth for nearly two Obama years. Republicans assail him for failing to achieve a lot more.
House Speaker John Boehner, responding to reports of Obama's speech themes, said it was a rehash of unhelpful policies. "It's pathetic," he said.
Presidential spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that Obama is not conceding the next 10 months to "campaigning alone" when people need economic help. On the goals of helping people get a fair shot, Carney said, "There's ample room within those boundaries for bipartisan cooperation and for getting this done."
Plouffe appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" with Ryan and Plouffe also was interviewed on NBC's "Today" show and "CBS This Morning."
___
AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller contributed to this report.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. ? An ex-CIA officer who helped track down and capture a top al-Qaida figure was charged Monday with disclosing classified secrets, including the role of one of his associates on that covert mission, in the latest of a series of prosecutions by the Obama administration against suspected leakers.
John Kiriakou, 47, of Arlington, is charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and the Espionage Act. A federal judge ordered Kiriakou to be released on a $250,000 unsecured bond. Kiriakou declined to comment as he left the courthouse Monday.
According to authorities, Kiriakou divulged to three journalists, including a New York Times reporter, the role of "Officer B," who worked with Kiriakou on the capture of suspected al-Qaida financier Abu Zubaydah in the months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times, and his case has been made an example by those who believe the interrogation technique should be outlawed. And Kiriakou's public discussions of Zubaydah's waterboarding were a key part of the debate.
In a separate accusation, Kiriakou is alleged to have disclosed the identity of a covert operator to an unidentified journalist. Authorities say that journalist then gave the officer's name to a team of defense lawyers representing a suspect the U.S. held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. When the lawyers included information about the officer in a sealed legal brief in 2009, the CIA became suspicious and the government began to investigate.
The affidavit states that the defense lawyers were found to have done nothing wrong.
According to the affidavit, FBI agents interviewed Kiriakou last week, and he denied leaking the information. When specifically asked whether he had provided the Zubaydah interrogator's name to the Times for a 2008 article, he replied "Heavens, no." A New York Times spokeswoman declined to comment.
Kiriakou's attorney, Plato Cacheris, told reporters after the hearing that his client will plead not guilty. He also said a potential defense argument could be that the charges criminalize conduct that has been common between reporters and government sources for decades.
If convicted, Kiriakou could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
The case was secretly investigated by a top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of the Northern District of Illinois. Fitzgerald is best known for his successful prosecutions of Scooter Libby, former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, for perjury and of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for corruption.
Kiriakou has worked as a consultant to ABC News, although he hasn't appeared on the network since early 2009. ABC declined to comment on his arrest. In a 2007 interview with the network, Kiriakou said that waterboarding was used ? effectively ? to break down Zubaydah. But he expressed ambivalence about pouring water into a suspect's breathing passages to simulate drowning to try to get them to talk.
"(W)e were really trying to do anything that we could to stop another major attack from happening," Kiriakou said, describing the months after the Sept. 11 attacks. "I don't think we're in that mindset right now. ... And, as a result, waterboarding, at least right now, is unnecessary."
The attorney who represents Zubaydah in the prisoner's civil petition for release said he is not involved in the Kiriakou prosecution and has never met him. However, Brent Mickum said he had wanted to interview Kiriakou for information that might help the case, but the ex-CIA man refused, by email, to speak with him.
"He was basically out there talking to the whole world about our client and his involvement . I would have loved to hear what he had to say, but he refused to talk to me," Mickum said.
Mickum said he has come to believe Kiriakou has overstated his knowledge and involvement in the case against Zubaydah, who has been held without charges at Guantanamo since 2006.
Mickum said he and other attorneys who work at Guantanamo take security restrictions seriously and know not to reveal classified information such as the names of covert investigators. But he also said the government abuses the classification system, selectively leaking information and keeping secret anything that could embarrass U.S. officials.
The charges also accuse Kiriakou of lying about his actions in an effort to convince the CIA to let him publish a book, "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror," in 2010. The book explores "the inner workings of the U.S. intelligence apparatus," according to its description on Amazon.com, and "chillingly describes what it was like inside the CIA headquarters on the morning of 9/11."
Since leaving the agency, Kiriakou has also worked as a consultant and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to his LinkedIn profile. He earned a bachelor's degree in Middle Eastern studies in 1986 and a master's degree in legislative affairs in 1988, both from George Washington University in Washington.
The Justice Department's campaign to prosecute leakers has been particularly aggressive under Obama. This is the sixth criminal leak case opened under the administration and the second involving a former CIA officer and the Times. Federal prosecutors in Alexandria claim Jeffrey Sterling divulged classified information to Times reporter James Risen about CIA efforts to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Sterling's trial has been delayed while prosecutors appeal several pre-trial rulings, including the judge's decision to effectively quash a government subpoena demanding that Risen testify. His attorneys argued that unless his testimony is absolutely critical to a government's case then prosecutors should not be able to subpoena a reporter and require him to testify about anonymous sources.
The Sterling case is not the only leak prosecution to run into trouble. In a case against former National Security Agency executive Thomas Drake, a judge sentenced him only to probation and scolded prosecutors for how they pursued the case.
Prosecutions under the Espionage Act have been particularly contentious. Opponents say the law can be used to unfairly target those who expose government misdeeds. The law was used, for instance, to charge Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers case, and a grand jury has been investigating whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be prosecuted for the mass of disclosures by WikiLeaks that were allegedly fostered by leaks from Army Pfc. Bradley Manning.
"Safeguarding classified information, including the identities of CIA officers involved in sensitive operations, is critical to keeping our intelligence officers safe and protecting our national security," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "Today's charges reinforce the Justice Department's commitment to hold accountable anyone who would violate the solemn duty not to disclose such sensitive information."
In light of the indictment, CIA Director David Petraeus reminded his agency's employees of the essential need for secrecy in their work.
"When we joined this organization, we swore to safeguard classified information; those oaths stay with us for life," he said "Unauthorized disclosures of any sort ? including information concerning the identities of other agency officers ? betray the public trust, our country, and our colleagues."
___
Associated Press writers Ben Fox in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Brett Zongker in Washington contributed to this story.
WASHINGTON ? Negotiations to renew a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for millions more kicked off on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with both sides optimistic of an agreement despite last year's bitter battles over President Barack Obama's jobs proposals.
The House-Senate talks will focus chiefly on finding ways to finance the $10 billion a month cost of a 2 percentage point cut in Social Security payroll taxes that awards a worker making a typical $50,000 salary a tax cut of about $20 a week. Lawmakers also need to pay for the $45 billion or so cost of renewing jobless benefits for people out of work for more than half a year and the $20 billion a year cost of making sure doctors aren't hit with massive cuts to their Medicare payments.
Negotiators face a Feb. 29 deadline under a temporary measure enacted amid great acrimony just before Christmas.
The daunting challenge facing the negotiators is a cost of roughly $160 billion to extend the tax cut, jobless benefits and Medicare payments through the end of the year.
"We should be able to get it done," said top Senate GOP negotiator Jon Kyl of Arizona, who says last year's failed effort by a congressional deficit panel produced lots of proposals that can be used "offset" the cost of the payroll tax measure. "The Joint Select Committee identified a lot of good offsets and so the opportunity for us to get it done is there."
"It's our job to work together here to make sure this tax cut doesn't expire," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the lead Senate negotiator. "We need to show we can rise above politics for the good of the country."
But given the remarkable dysfunction and acrimony surrounding virtually anything Congress does, there's no reason to assume the talks will go smoothly.
"It's not going to be easy finding these offsets," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a veteran of the deficit supercommittee.
Senate defenders of federal workers ? whose pension benefits and pay increases have been targeted by House Republicans for more than $60 billion in savings over the coming decade ? are signaling they won't go along.
"I don't think it's the forum to take up these on federal workers," said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., whose state is home to many federal workers.
As the same time, Hispanic groups, a key Democratic-leaning voting bloc are battling against a House proposal to raise $9 billion by blocking illegal immigrants from claiming the refundable child tax credit. Key Democrats like Baucus have signaled they could accept the idea, however.
Another question is whether to shorten the eligibility period for extended unemployment benefits down from the current 99 weeks or allow states to test unemployment benefit applicants for drugs, as House Republicans would like. The House measure would shorten the jobless benefits eligibility period to 79 weeks, though the improving job market in most states means that the actual duration of benefits would be 13 or 20 weeks less than that under current law.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the negotiators should also take on dozens of tax breaks for businesses and individuals that expired last year, including a tax credit for business research and development, a deduction for state and local sales taxes and several breaks important to the energy industry. This $30 billion-plus package is a top priority of the capital's powerful lobbying community.
Trying to keep the points off your record, but just can't resist the urge to tweet, text and talk behind the wheel? Maybe it's time you gave up on that whole "self-restraint" schtick and leaned on technology to keep your cellular inhibitions in check. Scosche's cellControl might do the trick, it pairs bit of bluetooth-enabled automotive hardware with a feature-blocking smartphone app to keep your handset under lockdown when you're on the go. It even rats you out if you deactivate or uninstall the system -- automatically sending a text message or email to a "designated administrator," just in case you fall off the wagon. The system boasts compatibility with over 1200 devices across Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile 5 and 6. Artificial restraint will set you back $130, you know, in case self-control and other distracted driving apps aren't doing the trick. Hit the break for the system's official press release.
Offshore drilling activity in UK waters fell by a third last year to its lowest level since 2003, a report has found.
Deloitte said 49 new wells were drilled in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) in 2011, compared with 74 in 2010.
The firm's Petroleum Services Group said the figures were unexpected in a year when the average oil price had remained high.
The current economic climate and delays in rig availability were said to be among possible reasons.
However, it is claimed there has been a continued appetite for investment in the UK with a larger number of significant development projects granted approval during 2011.
Graham Sadler, managing director of Deloitte's Petroleum Services Group, said: "The low activity on the UKCS is not what we would normally expect in a year when the average monthly Brent oil price has remained well above $100 USD per barrel, however, the downward trend is the result of a number of factors rather than any one single issue.
"While the Supplementary Charge Tax imposed early in 2011, and further alterations to the fiscal regime, may have affected business confidence, given the lead time required for planning and drilling of exploration and appraisal wells, the full effect of this tax change may not be evident until the end of 2012 and beyond.
"It is more likely that a delayed reaction to the 2008 recession, current economic and market factors, delays affecting rig availability and the maturity of the UKCS are the key contributing factors."
Imagine that, as you sit at your desk or in your living room reading this story, your entire city suddenly snaps a foot to the south.
That's what happened to the city of Kohat, Pakistan, in 1992. A magnitude-6.0 earthquake moved a 30-square-mile (80-square-kilometer) swath of land one foot (30 centimeters) horizontally in a split second, leveling buildings and killing more than 200 people.
The area hadn't experienced many temblors before, making the earthquake an unusual occurrence. Now, 20 years later, geologists have used satellite and seismic data to track down the cause of that rare quake ? an equally rare type of fault.
"The pattern we saw was absolutely a dead ringer for a horizontal fault," said Roger Bilham, a geophysicist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "But here's the problem: How do you get a horizontal earthquake?"
Perfectly horizontal
Most earthquakes occur at near-vertical faults, such as the strike-slip San Andreas Fault or the thrust fault that caused the 2011 Japan earthquake. The Kohat Plateau earthquake occurred on a horizontal fault ? something that scientists have rarely, if ever, seen before.
"The fault is like the contact layer between a carpet and the floor beneath it ? perfectly horizontal," Bilham told OurAmazingPlanet.
To understand what happened at Kohat, you need to picture a waterbed, Bilham explained. If the waterbed is sitting on concrete, it's nearly impossible to push. But if you put the waterbed on a slippery surface ? say, an ice rink ? it becomes a little easier to move. It may crumple up at one end, and some patches may get a little stuck, but if you push slowly and surely, you can move the waterbed.
Now imagine that waterbed is the Kohat Plateau, a 3,800-square-mile (10,000-square-km) slab of earth that lies just southwest of the Himalayas. As the Eurasian plate pushes the plateau southward, it slides along (or creeps) on its own sort of ice rink, a lubricating layer of salt separating the plateau from the underlying layer of rock.
Every once in a while, though, a patch of the plateau sticks against the bedrock below. And while the rest of the plateau slides southward, "the surrounding creep loads up around the one stuck patch, then boom! Earthquake," Bilham said.
Because this type of earthquake is so unusual, Bilham and colleagues used interferometric synthetic aperture radar, a type of satellite data, to confirm their suspicions. This type of radar uses microwaves to map a section of the Earth's surface at different times (in this case, the images were taken nearly 20 years apart), and then compares the two maps to very accurately measure seismic deformation and movement in the area.
"That sewed it up very nicely," Bilham said. His team's findings will appear in the February issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.
A caterpillar's crawl
The Kohat Plateau is creeping south at a speed of about 1 to 2 millimeters per year, Bilham said. Over the course of about 200 years, patches of the plateau can build up enough stress to cause localized earthquakes, like the one in 1992.
Over time, the plateau's movement is much like a caterpillar's crawl ? a combination of slow gliding and sudden jerks.
This type of earthquake will likely become more frequent in the region, Bilham said, as the plateau slowly squeezes out its underlying layer of lubricant. Although Bilham thinks this layer is likely salt, he says no one will know for sure until scientists drill below the plateau to take samples. But whatever it turns out to be, residents of the Kohat Plateau should hold on tight.
This story was provided by OurAmazingPlanet, a sister site to LiveScience.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Porn stars in Los Angeles will be legally required to wear condoms during film shoots after the city council voted on Tuesday to mandate their use, despite a threat by skin flick producers to leave town over the requirement.
The move comes amid persistent questions about how to enforce the health measure, which backers say will protect performers in the multibillion-dollar porn industry from contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Producers complain the sight of a condom in a sex scene turns off consumers of their videos.
The Los Angeles City Council voted 9-1 on Tuesday to give final approval to the measure, proposed after the AIDS Healthcare Foundation qualified an initiative for the ballot that would have asked voters in June to mandate condoms at porn shoots as a condition of obtaining film permits.
The city would have had to spend over $4 million to hold the election, and city officials said a decision to simply adopt the condom requirement allowed them to dodge that costly poll.
Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz, who brought the measure, said he expected residents at the ballot box would have overwhelmingly approved the condom requirement, so it was a "no-brainer" to adopt it now.
"For us right now, our only real policy issue is do we spend $4 million and have this become law? Or do we not spend $4 million and have this become law?" Koretz said.
The council gave preliminary approval to the measure last week, and its passage made the city the first in the nation to impose such a requirement. Most of the U.S. porn industry is based in Los Angeles.
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) already requires porn performers to wear barriers, such as condoms, when they are in contact with bodily fluids.
But enforcement has been a challenge for the state. For one, the Cal-OSHA requirement is not specifically aimed at adult films, and it is openly violated within the industry, said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare. He has clashed with porn producers for years over the issue.
"I don't know of any other industry where people go out in public and say they're not going to follow the law," Weinstein, whose group provides care to AIDS patients, said last week.
'FILM RECORD'
The language of the newly adopted condom measure does not state how it will be enforced. But Koretz said that violations would be "awful tough to hide" because they would be caught on camera.
He said that was especially true for large production companies based in porn hub the San Fernando Valley, which is part of the city. But he said some smaller companies, which are less likely to get film permits, were more difficult to track.
"If you're hiding in the weeds, that will continue to be the case," he said.
Paul Audley, president of FilmL.A., a nonprofit hired by the city to oversee television and film productions, said his office normally has Los Angeles police handle enforcement when problems arise with permitted shoots.
But Audley said last week that he told city leaders he believes workers with health licenses would be best able to make sure adult film performers use condoms. He said his office and representatives from Cal-OSHA would soon meet to discuss how the new city mandate should be enforced.
FilmL.A. hands out under 500 permits a year for adult movie shoots, Audley said. But some estimates put the number of adult films shot in the Los Angeles region at 50,000 a year, he said.
Now that it has succeeded in having the City Council adopt the condom measure, AIDS Healthcare is widening its campaign by pushing for a November ballot initiative that would force porn producers to obtain a public health permit from Los Angeles County officials. The permit is similar to what barber shops must receive, said Ged Kenslea, a spokesman for AIDS Healthcare.
If that county measure passes, it would stop producers within Los Angeles city limits from moving shop to neighboring communities to avoid using condoms, Weinstein said.
Porn producers have been critical of the condom mandate.
Steven Hirsch, the co-chairman and founder of adult film company Vivid Entertainment, said last week his company has a "condom-optional" policy and leaves it up to performers.
While over 80 percent of the U.S. porn industry is based in Los Angeles, where performers are regularly tested for sexually transmitted diseases, productions could move to other states or countries due to the condom mandate, he said.
(Reporting By Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
Tyson?s first foray into sports-entertainment ? a memorable appearance on Raw in January 1998 ? produced one of the most indelibly chaotic scenes in WWE's history, as an icy staredown with ?Stone Cold? Steve Austin dissolved into a wild pull-apart brawl (WATCH). Often credited with ushering in WWE?s Attitude Era, that incident led to Tyson?s involvement in the WrestleMania XIV main event between Austin and then-champion Shawn Michaels. 
Personal recommendations have always been a part of ecommerce, but there has been little innovation since Amazon introduced retail and product personalization 10 years ago. But with the increasing mountains of data at digital retailers' fingertips, ecommerce is about to get even more personal. The fact is that right now there is little iteration from personalized ecommerce beyond what is taking place on Amazon. So you'll see suggestions of what other shoppers who bought a certain item also purchased, or recommendations to similar items to what you have purchased, but there is a whole world of social data, and even more-in-depth purchase data that can be mined by retailers to help increase sales.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-Jan-2012
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